Friday!

Strange stuff on the way to work.
The entire surface street I was driving one was shut down - couldn't see what was going on police were blocking the view.
Then, a mile down the road, there are dozens of police cars parked on both the street and in a shopping center.
There was a car in the middle of this center that had a huge, yellow tarp draped over one side of it and officials were peering in there.  On the other side of the car - it was totally TRASHED.  Someone died, that's what that means.  A bunch of people were standing around gaping.  It does tend to get the curiosity factor in a person going to see the carnage, but to stand around and hover for a view of the deceased?  Rather pathetic.  Wanna see a good dead shot?  They have a close up of that boy that was killed on the border. 

He basically had his head blown off, alright, from the look, his brains were scrambled and bled out the back of his skull.  They never used to show such graphic carnage in the past.  When you see a "warning: graphic" anymore, it probably IS very graphic.  It can also be very disturbing.  I remember when my brother got into a bad car accident when he was like 16 - an old lady pulled right out in front him.  His car rolled, the grandma, front bench seat and all went sailing right through where the windshield used to be.  She was, obviously, dead.  She had had her license suspended because she couldn't see and lack of judgment. 

Stuff like that sorta sticks with you.  Or like when a missionary friend was run over by a car out in the middle of nowhere.  By the time I  got there, they had his body draped with a sheet.  Didn't want to see it.  Saw it in the viewing - of course they attempt to fix the body up to make it presentable enough to be viewed.  Or the kid from church - 12 years old - stepped out in front of a car going 50mph - he died 3 days later.  I saw him at the viewing as well - they tried to fix all that damage but he clearly was wasted in that accident, it was amazing he even lived for 3 days. 

I dunno why, but seeing that car this morning brought up all kinds of images from the past.  We tend to not want to think about death, yet it is all around us, and one day, will visit each or our little doorsteps.  Knock, knock, I'm coming in whether you like it or not.  I suppose the circumstances of how you are dying will dictate whether you welcome it or wish it would go away. 

Well, whatever.  Get my head out of that mode.  Yesterday, I gave Michael a bit of a hard time because he had left a bag with some pork chops and bacon in the back of my car the day before.  I found them yesterday - $10 worth of meat down the drain.  He got an attitude with me.  I kindly informed him that if he doesn't like living here, he can LEAVE.  More attitude a few minutes later and then I did invite him to leave.  I don't mean to sound mean, but I don't need someone else's kid giving me an attitude in my own home.  "It's the age" does not excuse it with me.  He didn't leave, but we didn't speak the rest of the evening. 

Caleb got a job!!!!  Woohooooooo! Albertson's gave him the job, he goes in for drug testing Monday and training starts sometime next week as well.  In other good news, the ex-wife landed a job, apparently with a lawyer. Doing what, I don't know, but - I have never wished ill against her and I am glad that things might take a turn for the better for her.  In fact, maybe she'll be making more money than me and then she can pay me child support!  That's the way it works in AZ.  However, that was a joke.  I will be paying her the rest of the year that is left before Caleb turns 18 and then it will be history.  She forgave the house money and the 401k, it would be kind of lame to come along and throw some sort of technicality into the mix.  It's only another year.

I know several people - and I do mean several people - who are getting divorced with young children.  I can't even imagine facing 10 or 15 or more years of paying child support right now.  Those people don't even think about the future - you start paying out the nose every month and you will find that after time goes on, it starts getting really old.  If I have more kids, it's likely because I adopted them.  I have given serious consideration to that possibility for some time now.  There are plenty of throw away kids out there.  Families that don't want them, can't take care of them or the parents are in prison.  Many of them are problem children - will duhhh, because they are the product of abusive upbringing.  You have to go through a lot of background checks and interviews and home inspections and all that sort of stuff - that will have to wait until I get rid of tenants cause' they will want to ask about tenants - that may not go over so well with the authorities. 

One thing for certain, my days of taking care of other people's kids will be over soon enough.  I have no inclination whatsoever of taking care of Michael indefinitely, especially with his growing attitude.  In fact, I assume that he will leave on his own and probably that will happen sooner than later.  The neighborhood kids will have no reason to come over to my place once Caleb is up, out of the house and on his own, doing his thing.  Well, I don't really know what his plans are - college first, military second?  If so, is he going to stay at one of his parent's houses while doing so or will he attempt to be out on his own?  I know I can't afford to pay for an apartment for him, he'd have to do that on his own.  

Strange mindset I have this morning, going into all of that.

Must get my head into work mode.

G'day.
ben

Thursday

Weeklong vacation was approved yesterday.
Meaning the 4th of July week I will not have to show up to work : )
I am having a problem with a seller on eBay.
I haven't had problems with sellers, for the most part, in a long, long time, so this sort of is getting to me.
I paid for a bio filter on eBay some 2 weeks ago now and haven't received the product.  I have sent the person 5 messages with absolutely no response whatsoever.
Fortunately, my purchase is protected - meaning I can get my money back - all of it - through eBay's protection program.
I just sent him a final message: if you don't reply to me by the end of today or if the product doesn't arrive, I will be initiating a resolution complaint through eBay and will be leaving extremely negative feedback.  This kind of thing irks me, especially considering this seller has a high feedback rating and has 72,000 plus transactions under their belt.  I NEED that filter  - there are others for sale on eBay for slightly more - but my money's tied up with this jerk.  This particular filter us a UV light in it that basically does away with algae problems.  Low wattage and very effective. There is another seller that is actually selling the same exact thing for $2 more. 

I'm still amazed that there hasn't been more press than there has about this situation on the border with Mexican soliders - or Federales - pointing guns at both the U.S. Border patrol AND the FBI.  Our nation's leader appears to have a nuzzle on his mouth.  I'm sorry, but I do believe a response from the U.S. is definitely in order, especially after listening to this Mexican president mouthing off for some time now about AZ's new immigration bill, how we should do away with certain guns and dressing down our nation's leadership in their own hall.  I can imagine other president's from the past would have already redressed both Mexico AND it's president by now.

Whatever.  I have a delivery this morning that's about 50 miles from the branch.  This delivery is worth all of $358, lol.  You figure the costs of paying me and running the semi for that distance?  This delivery is a loss.  Hey, I'll deliver to Maryland if they want me to, doesn't bother me, I just hate seeing the company losing money on such deliveries that are, in this case, with a contractor that is always ordering small amounts of material and having us deliver it that far away.

Well, at least it will be a nice drive : )

With that, I must be offa here!
G'day.
ben

Walmart's Piss-Poor Customer Service

Yes, another - lame - adventure at Walmart today.
I was in there today looking for an oscillating fan  a cheap one thank you - for the female tenant's room who was wanting one. 
I was distracted by the deli counter -got some ham, Pet center, got some more dog food.  The fans are in the far back corner of the store. 
I look at every fan there and decide on a metal fan, it was listed at $18.00. 

Take my stuff up front, buy it, thought the total was too high, I was charged $36.00 for this fan. 
I go back to the back.  There are no other fans like this one any where in that area.  The place I took that fan from? It was the only fan there.  I didn't know what to think.  I look very carefully for another of these fans somewhere else - I KNOW how Walmart functions, I don't want to look like an idiot.

No, no other fans like this one.  I call for a manager.  He comes up - didn't look like a manager, wasn't dressed much like one, either.  I show him the situation.  He says to go up front with him, he'll take care of it.
Okay, cool.  We're halfway up to the front when he stops me and says he needs to go check on something, he'll be right back.

In a pig's eye he was right back.  I think I waited there 5 minutes before I got disgusted and went up to the front, asking for the store manager.  While I'm waiting, this first manager finally shows up. I want nothing to do with him at this point and tell him directly to his face that I wasn't going to be dealing with him.  He didn't much care for my stance, but I have received such utterly abysmal customer service at Walmarts on so many occasions in the past, I just don't take it anymore. 

The store manager comes up - but he's a co manager.  I didn't want a co-manager, I wanted the general manager.  General manager isn't there today.  Great.  I look him directly in the eye and tell him that I think that being told to wait for a second and here it is 10 minutes later are 2 different things and that I wasn't happy about that, at all.  He explained that the manager I was originally was dealing with had come to him to ask for guidance.  I replied that this man had told me we were going up front and that he was dealing with it, not that he had to take a detour to go take a break somewhere.  He replies he wasn't taking a break, they had gone to the back to - whatever.  I found out whatever in his next statement:  The fan you got belongs with the fans that are right next to where you got yours.

No, sir, it does not.  Yes sir, this fan is identical to the fans that are next to it at the higher price.  I replied again, no sir, it is NOT the same fans as ANY other fan that is on any of those shelves.  He continues to argue with me.  I pointed at the picture, it showed a metal fan, the rest of those fans had PLASTIC blades and housing.  He gulped, stepped back, said "Oh".  "I KNOW what I'm talking about, I looked at every box there" was my immediate reply.  He did not apologize for arguing with a customer and in the end, being WRONG about his stauch assessment.  THIS is a store's co-manager? 

"Well, what do you want me to do about this?".  What kind of question is that to a customer? Isn't he supposed to offer whatever he's going to offer, or refuse to offer anything, or what?  I asked him if he WANTED to do anything about this?  Yes, he said, what do you want?  I want the price that the damned sticker on the shelf SAYS it is - $18.00, not $36.00.  He doesn't want to deal with me, I was totally unimpressed with this guy.  HOW a man with that kind of attitude gets to be a store's high level manager, I have no clue.

He takes me up front to the customer service desk.  There is a VERY long line there.  It takes them forever to deal with customers at that place, I know this from experience.  I couldn't believe that this guy was going to make me wait even LONGER - in this huge line - to deal with this after I have already spent CONSIDERABLE time on this issue already.  But that's exactly what happened. He went up to the counter, spoke to an associate, turned to me, said she would deal with me.  Yes, she would deal with me after I waited another freakin' 20 minutes.

Screw that.  I called the number on the sign - customer service always has phone numbers listed up there. I have encountered in the past associates telling me that the general manager isn't there and then finding out that yes, the general manager IS there.  I called and asked for the name of the manager that was on the sign.  I get 3 different people - I ask each one if they are the general manager.  No.  On the 3rd person, I informed her that I have asked now 3 times for the general manager, she informed me she was not there.  I asked for the district manager's number.  "He's on vacation".  You've got to be kidding me.  Is there anything I can help you with? NO.  I asked for the district manager's number again, I don't care if he's on vacation, I"ll leave a blooming message. 

She persists, what's the problem, can I help?  I decided to give it a try, although she isn't on the same level as the co-manager, perhaps she is empowered anyway.  I explain the entire situation to her, including the fact that this store's manager left me waiting in this long line.  She said she would be right up, and she was.  There's a lady standing in front of me in line.  She is alllllll ears.  She listened to my phone call and my conversation with this woman, plus had heard the short interaction there with the co-manager.  She was totally agreeing with me.  I simply said to her another example of Walmart's great customer service.  She went right off: she's had a bookful of bad situations with customer service at Walmarts as well.  This is, of course, nothing surprising to me - AT ALL.  I imagine millions of people being treated in various shades of horrible service, probably a very low percentage of them actually do anything about it. 

The lady manager goes up to the counter, a man working behind the counter says in a very terse voice that "we already KNOW what to do", speaking with a scowl on his face.  Are you serious?  How does an associate talk to a manager like THAT?  Don't know, don't care, if he would have addressed me like that, all bets are off.  She's walking back and forth between me and the counter, she finally decides that I should be the next person to deal with.  No thanks, I said, these people have been waiting.  I'm thinking no way am I going to have those glares and stares aimed at my back while I pass them by to get this now-getting-exhaustively-long situation dealt with.  She offers me a $10 gift card for my trouble.  I immediately said yes and thank you.  Not turning anything down at this point. 

I get my $18.00 plus the adjusted tax, but no gift card.  The lady had gone off to yet another manager and I could hear her discussing this manager leaving me standing in an aisle, waiting for an eternity.  I was about to walk off, if they aren't going to give me the card, I'm leaving.  She turns and comes up to me - dunno what set that off, asks if I received my gift card.  No.  She gets it for me.

It turns out that it IS a $36 fan, but no, there were no others like it in the store.  It WAS in an $18 shelf - all by itself.  I invited them all to look at video surveillance to verify that this is where I found the fan, I didn't move it from somewhere else.  In reality, there WAS nowhere else to move it from, all the other shelves with fans were totally full and they were totally different than this fan.  After the gift card, the $36 fan cost me $10.

Doesn't really matter, though, the service is the same: crappy.

Take the deal, yes, take the nonsense, no thanks.

Wednesday

First off, the goldfish were getting it on last night.  Lol.  These are big goldfish, well big enough anway.  Almost 7 inches long, thick and just large critters.  They are totally enjoying the bigger pond, that much is for sure.  I have no idea the time between the act and actually something coming out of the female - have to look that one up, don't wannt upset the enivronment by draining the pond, taking them all out of there and putting them back into the smaller ponds to be able to fit the large pond into the ground.  That's exactly what I have going to have to do - sooner or later here.  One thing, though, the water is staying cool - well cool enough - even though the temps have turned up the heat.  So, there is no great hurry to move the pond if this little fishy is going to have more little fishies - I would rather wait and see what happens than to potentially upset the possibility of more free fishies.

Next, I'm reading about a stowaway on a privately owned jet!  These people are insane.  At 35,000 feet, well, you are going to die of asphyxia or hypothermia - or probably both.  This dude was very lucky there was bad weather and the flight did not go up that high.  Still, do these people that do this not know there is no oxygen way up there?  Like committing suicide.

Mexico is outraged over a teen's death on the border.  It doesn't make me happy, but where was Mexico's outrage over their illegal alien coming over and shooting the rancher to death?  Or the recent fire-fight in the middle of the desert where several illegals were shooting at a Border Patrol agent?  Hmmmm?  There was no press about any great emotion being shown over either of those 2 little deals.  What business does a president of another country have in condemning the laws of their neighbors?  I could speak of the corruption in the government of that nation forever, I have been on the receiving end of it many times over.  Or that fact that the oil industry is owned by the government, one huge reason their economy sucks, the people are broke and poor and living in shacks, huts and stealing electricity with extension cords.   In fact, Mexico has so many problems created by the action or inaction of it's own government, that president should shut his stupid mouth and fix HIS nation before condemning OURS.  The details of the incident where the 15 year old was killed is rather sketchy at this point, but allegedly the boy and others were hurling rocks at  Border Patrol agents.

If that's true, well, I hate to wake everyone up, but a well thrown rock can KILL a person easily.  I'll wait to see what the investigations come up with, allegedly the incident or part of it is on video.

My heart goes out to the family and relatives of the missing boy  - Kyron Hormon - in Oregon.  The circumstnaces around his disappearance are suspicious at best considering he was last seen walking down a hallway IN the school.  I can't imagine what the parents of that kid are going through right now.  God knows I hope they find that boy alive.

Back to my own reality, Caleb got a call from Albertson's - a grocery chain which has a store all of a block away from where his mother lives - for an interview.  I told him to be himself, not be nervous and hopefully he will land his first job.  He has been trying for some time now.  He is a very respectful kid that doesn't go around mouthing off and acting stupid like a punk, I believe he has a very good chance at landing the job. Whether he realizes what it's like to actually WORK a job, be there every day they have him scheduled and is he really ready for one, well, only time will tell if he lands it.  I personally wish he would have started working long ago - but there are very limited opportunities in these parts for minors under the age of 16 to find work anywhere.  Not quite the same when I was growing up, where by the time I was my son's age, I had already been working for 7 years. 

Summer is here and kids are out of school.  I came out of my bedroom today, yesterday and Monday to find one of the black kids sleeping on my couch.  Something has gotten a hold of one of them - the brothers that is - because he has changed his attitude and punk garbage to something totally different in recent times.  Dunno what's going on with that, but it's a vast improvement over what he was acting like before - I had banned him from my house because of it.  The trailer tenant is - dunno yet.  He didn't look to good yesterday.  They apparently didn't quite follow the nurses instructions too well and have been giving him too much of the liquid anti biotics that are being pumped directly into his veins.  Just don't want anyone dying on my property, that wouldn't go over too well with me.  On another note, when he opened the door, the flow of cold air coming out of there was nice.  That evap cooler is working very well - at least for now.

Work day approaches.  I am getting off early today since I worked an hour and a half late yesterday.  Honestly?  Would rather stay late every day and get the pay!!!

Lol.

G'day.

ben

Tuesday

Alarm clock woke me up in a DEEP sleep this morning.  That's cause' I woke up, again, in the middle of the night and have no idea how long it took me to get back to sleep.  Another strange dream I was in, too.  I was with a group of people at a huge apartment complex.  We were broken up into small groups and given apartment numbers to find.  The complex was set up strange in terms of number - they were not congruous and were thrown all over the place.  A map was given with only a few of the entire complex's numbers on it. 
An older gentleman and I spent over an hour looking for one, single apartment that we never found - cause' I woke up.  When I did wake up, I was apparently angry for whatever was happening in that dream.

That is some STRANGE stuff.  Who goes on apartment complex door number searches for a contest?  I have never heard of such a thing.  I doubt it exists anywhere.  But dreams are like that.  I most certainly do not like to wake up angry, upset or otherwise because of some stupid dream. 

Regardless, a cold shower and a few cups of coffee have helped wake me up some, but I am still in a semi-fog right now.  Nothing I can do about that excepting that the work day approaches and soon I will be moving around - alot - getting the blood pumping which usually helps. 

The days are hot here now - obviously - the female tenant and the ex-Marine were complaining loudly about it yesterday.  Yes, well when you step outside from a cool house into 111 degree heat, dunno what they are expecting, a cool sheen of moist air flowing over their faces? I haven't even looked at the forecast, to me, it's a done deal: 100 plus degree days for the next 3 months at least.  I was out there yesterday, sweating profusely while applying a coat of mortar to the pond at the top of the falls and also setting some rocks into place to keep the water contained while the water flows down the falls.  I should be able to run water through it today and see if I have effectively leak proofed it and have it to the point to where it can actually be used. 

I have this fear that the AC is going to quit again this season.  It's a 2 and a half year old system, yet the compressor already died once.  Should not have problems with AC for at least 3 or 4 years if you service it.  No idea.  The fear is that I don't have the money to replace that thing again, $800.  If it happened, what, exactly, would I do?  No idea.  I hope that is not a bridge I will have to cross.

Anyway, I must get offa here.
Have a great day!
ben

Monday

I was a little amazed this morning to see that we "only" used $14.50 worth of electricity yesterday.  I say that because previous days were not near as hot as yesterday, yet the amount used went up only marginally for the additional cooling.  SRP raised it's rates - again - I expected the amount to go up.  I am pretty much just dumping cash onto the power card to keep the meter running.  Which is putting a strain on paying everything else.  Last year, June was the highest month use for electricity - I was looking at a readout of previous 1-year's worth of electric consumption. 

SRP wrote me back after I requested to be put on the payment plan where you pay an equalized amount every month and told me I was better off waiting until October, that to start in June would have a "very high amount assessed per month because of the increased usage and not having" whatever, data apparently to forecast what I will be using in any given year's time.  Whooptdy doo.  Guess I'll wait. 

I'm hoping, changing the subject, that the temporary guy stays one more week.  Another little bit of money dumped directly onto the power reader would be extremely helpful.  If/when miss Army Reservist gets back, I will be informing her that I won't be doing that again - attempting to help her out while she's on some active military training exercise.  It's too hard and right now, the money coming in is of utmost importance.  I do hope she comes back - I don't have to try to find another tenant.

"Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist."
Those are some pretty dire words right there.  Pretty much a lot of the Islamic word apparently thinks that way as well.  Of course, the U.S. is the "great satan" so we're right in line for death and destruction as well.  I was simply reading the on-going plight with Israel and the situation on the Gaza strip.  I have no real opinion on the matter excepting that Israel definitely has the right to defend itself but at the same time, those people that are hungry on the strip need food.  I would like to hope that Israel takes that ship full of humanatarian aid they just captured and send all of it over there - starving people do not need to be on the receiving end of a nation's campaign to keep weapons and missiles out of a place that wants to do them harm.  Keep whatever weapons they find, all well and good, but send the food on it's way over there, however they want to do that.

As for me, the work day approaches and there is, thankfully, a pretty full day's worth of stuff in there to do .

G'day.

ben

Sunday

It was 110 degrees outside today.
I was out in it.
Hiding from it - by staying inside - serves me no purpose as my job keeps me outdoors quite a lot and also a lot of stuff I have to get done around here is also out doors.
Both ponds are out of the ground. 
The lower pond has been thoroughly cleaned and yes, there is a leak. 
I have neither cleaned nor checked the upper pond for leaks yet.
Tomorrow - probably.  All fish and plants are in the large pond which is doing nicely in it's current position.
I continued work with the waterfall - though - mixing cement in that kind of heat is really not the greatest idea.  It dries quickly and is hard to work with.
Regardless, I have only to coat the entire inside of the pool with mortar and it will be just about done. 
Since there was nothing but an open hole below the falls, I filled the pool up with water and watched the water flowing over the rocks. 

The trailer tenants came back today.  My phone was ringing with people from the hospital, a delivery service and a nurse.  Hospital asking if Mark had made it back; delivery service showing up with a huge supply of syringes and medication; nurse wanting me to have them call her after they arrive.  He has 2 tubes with valves sticking out of his arm.  They are pumping anitibiotics into him.  With the large amount of medication and syringes, I'm guessing they are going to have him on that stuff for quite a while - and then - he has to go back for yet ANOTHER surgery.

Crazy stuff.

Trip to Walmart on Friday, forgot to report about this one.  I went into the Walmart by my work to get a new pair of jeans and miscellaneous.  I always go to the deli counter - Walmart probably has the best prices around on deli meats, however, actually GETTING the stuff is usually a chore.  I ask for a pound and a half of turkey breast sliced for sandwiches.  The man says great, yes.  Okay.  He gets done slicing the turkey and then gives me an odd look.  I have started no trouble, have been very congenial, what's up?  He explains to me that they "ran out of plastic baggies" and will wrapping it up in saran wrap be okay?

I must have given him an odd look as well. Walmart sells plastic baggies, if they run out, they could just use their own product until they get more, not try to churn out some chincey results.  I did not reply with what was going through my mind, I had no desire to start trouble and just said yes.  Wrapping and wrapping turkey?  Not a happening event, it is in a baggie that I have now supplied myself.  I was wondering if perhaps these people are not allowed to think for themselves and do what needs to be done instead of coming up with half-@$$ed solutions.  I imagine they are not empowered to do such and make such decisions.  Yes, I could have called for a manager and forced the issue, again, wasn't really desiring such.

Well, this entry is done, because I am going to bed to - go to work in the morning, of course.  It will the the first really hot day at work with expected temps around 110. Fun fun.

G'nite.

ben

Saturday

This will be a short entry.
The heat is here.  107 today, 110 tomorrow.
I didn't get moving outside of the house until well after noon today.
I did get the lower pond drained.  Only 2 of the mosquito fish found.  The Plecostomus?  His body - dead or alive - nowhere to be found.  The rest of the mosquito fish bodies?  Again, nowhere.  Strange stuff.
I found 2 of them alive, caught them and transferred them to the large pond.

Did NOT get started on the second pond and did nothing with the waterfall today. I simply did not feel like it. I am not acclimated to the heat  yet - I have to do that every year and it is usually a 2 week or near process.
I will get more done on the waterfalls tomorrow, yes, but now the other pond has to be drained and I want to do that first, even if I get nothing done on the falls. 

Mark, the trailer tenant, is still in the hospital.  Coming home tomorrow. He was given options:  Nursing home or in-home treatment.  I have no idea why, they decided for in-home treatment. Well, I have been in nursing homes - MANY times over - some of them are miserable places.   He is eliglible for Social Security payments and they were, ironically, headed for that office - planned anyway - the day his health went back down.  I suspect when he starts getting that money they will disappear. No problem, I was only trying to keep them off the streets.

That's it.  I have more, but it's getting late for me and I don't really want to go into all of it right now.

G'nite.

ben

Various Things

I finally ended up filing a complaint against my next door neighbor.  He has a 40 foot long, behemoth travel trailer that is sitting from the front of his property to the side of his house to into his backyard.  I didn't care much when it was IN his back yard, but this thing has been totally blocking my view of the street and anything west for months now.  He left town and left it that way.  I can't possibly imagine why he thinks his neighbors want to be subjected to such s***.  Again, if he would have left the thing in the BACK yard, I wouldn't have cared.

The older lady across the street?  I had a conversation with her yesterday.  She frankly stated her health is going down, she can't take care of the house or live alone anymore, she is trying to sell her property and get out of town - literally - moving up to where her family lives in Utah.  I feel bad for her, the only thing I can do is pray.  She has cancer, she is taking medications that are dragging her down.

Neighbors on the OTHER side of my house are just NOW getting their evaporative cooler going.  It was 103 degrees today, it has been warm for a couple of weeks now.  I can understand why I am hearing frequent screamings from kids yelling at each other coming from that house. 

Came home today to find the lower pond down 7 inches - it was full this morning.  The leak - apparently is turning into a gusher.  I immediately went to work setting up the new, big pond on the concrete.  I shored up the pond's shelves with pavers under neath so they wouldn't collapse.  The pond is filled with water, I have the waterfall filter going on it and I have put 9 plants in there so far.  Water has been treated.  I will probably put the fish in there tomorrow - although catching those mosquito eaters may be a chore.  I will probably have to  mostly drain out the ponds in order to do that, and hopefully find the 2 plecostomus - alive preferrably.  I haven't seen them since I put them in the ponds.  Easy for them to disappear. I haven't done anything on the waterfall project because - obviously - the pond situation suddenly became a much larger priority with the advent of whatever the leak is growing MUCH larger, apparently.

Weekend here.  Ponds will undoubtedly consume a good portion of this weekend since now, I am suddenly faced with pulling out fish, plants, ponds, digging out the hole for the larger pond, fixing wherever the leak is on whichever smaller pond, filling back up the smaller ponds, putting the fish and plants back into those ponds - above ground, putting the new, big pond into it's new hole, transferring the fish yet again.  If that sounds like work, I'm glad, because - IT IS.  Oh well, not the end of the world.

California owned companies have ramped up their advertising here in a BIG way in the last week.  California dairies; California wine; Seaword San Diego; and more.  Apparently, not ALL of California is opposed to doing business with Arizona in this ridiculous boycott that has gone to new depths of stupidity:  LA schools now want to teach how Arizona's Immigration bill is bad for America?  LOL! ROFL!!!  These people are only making themselves look like total morons!  Still, enough entities, businesses and people in California are spewing forth their bile that I am still on the boycott California bandwagon.  Why not?  A slew of states are now considering bills just like Arizona.  Is California also going to boycott every other state that comes along with the SAME bill, if such happens?

Highly doubtful. I know that us Arizonans consume a LOT of product that is manufactured/originates in California, besides having business ties that we have over there, not just the other way around as they would like everyone to believe, and the HUGE tourism business we give them in the estimated 2 BILLION dollars per year.  We could do SERIOUS damage to them if we stopped consuming their products, cut business ties and stopped going over there altogether.  In fact, I think it would be a devastating proposition.  How many Californians come HERE during the summer, spending tourism dollars?  I have no idea, but I would guess NOT TOO MANY, the reverse effect - them not coming here, would not be near as big as us not going there.

Several hours have passed since starting this entry.  A fire was lit under my feet when I saw the pond level go down 4 inches in 2 hours.  Plants have been transferred.  Goldfish?  Freaking crazy.  They did NOT want to be caught.  Took me an hour to get those 4.  2 of them ended up flipping out of the pond and onto the rocks when I was trying to net them.  One of them slipped down beside the pond into the ground!  Lol.  Grabbed that sucker by the tail fin, dumped him into the net and then dumped him into the pond.  I treated the pond for fish acclimation, they seem to be doing fine.  Catching those mosquito fish?  They dart around like bolts of lightning.  I figure the only way to catch them is to almost totally drain the ponds.

Anyway, it's almost my bedtime and I'm outta here.

G'nite.

ben

Friday

I dunno, but from my angle, after they cut that pipe under the ocean, it looks like a LOT more oil is gushing out of there now.  This will be an unparalled ecological disaster by the time this is done.  BP will end up going bankrupt if this goes on much longer, it will cost too much money to clean all of that junk up all over the place.  Okay, I don't know that they're going bankrupt, but even a company that large has finite resources.

So,  how do you form the top of a man-made waterfall to make it look a little like it wasn't - man-made?  Any way you please, apparently.  I have looked at pic after pic after pic, the most common method is to simply put a giant, flat rock over wher the water line is going to pump water into it.  Not exactly what I want to do, but I may end up doing it for lack of a better idea.  Regardless, phase 2 of the pool of water at the top is done, the final phase should occur today. 

Which doesn't mean the falls itself will be done, just the pool.  Or not. Who knows, I'm taking this one step at a time considering I have never done anything like this before.  I started running the pump I got off of CL yesterday, that thing must be at least 1,000 gallons per hour - meaning both ponds full of water are moving through that pump probably 7 times per hour.  Lol.  Everyone says that same thing: You can't pump TOO much water, you CAN pump too little.  Well, I am not running that big pump 24 hours. 

This guy comes in here every Friday morning, before our store opens, to deliver a freight shipment from one of our DC's.  I tell him every Friday morning that we open at 6:00 am.  He still comes in here, like he just did, handing me paperwork and obviously wanting me to go to work.  Sorry, Charlie, I sign in at 6:00, not 5:45AM, I come to work early for a reason: stimulate the mind with reading news and such, drink some coffee, wake up.  He was lamenting how he has 5 more stops after this.  I'm not sorry, that's his job - I did OTR for years, I had to wait and wait and wait at many of the places I was delivering to, too.  That's a trucker's life, if you can't get used to it, you probably need to find a new line of work.  I go to job sites and wait sometimes for 2 hours to get unloaded.  For a local delivery setup, that's a long time. 

Now, if a customer showed up early, I would have no choice but to service the contractor and get them whatever they need.  It happens, but infrequently. 

Anyway, just before I forget, I am printing out the vacation form: I am definitely taking a full week off during Independence Day week unless, for some reason, I am told no.  No reason that I know of, but, you never know.

BTW, I'll chime in my 2 cents on the Perfect Game that didn't happen.  I officiated games for 10 years, nothing like the level of MLB, but the concept is still quite the same.  Actually, it's far worse for a Little League umpire because of all the parents, spectators and coaches attempting to give you a hard time on every call that they don't like.  They are sitting RIGHT there, in MLB, the umpires are much further away from the crowd.  Anyway, umpires make mistakes, it's part of the game.  It IS part of the game.  Did the umpire blow it?  His own words, yup.  Is the commissioner going to turn that game over? I would hope not.  That would set a precedent for reviewing umpire's calls that - would not be good for the game, to put it mildly.  Live with it, that's what umpires have to do when they make a bad call and realize it afterwards: an umpire cannot change his own call.  Judgment calls are final.  A runner being called out at a base is a judgment call.  The best umpires in the world are found in the MLB and yes, they make mistakes and sometimes they are real doozies. 

Anyway, the work day approaches, there is a freight truck outside and I need to get offa here and get signed in.

G'day.

ben

Thursday

So, will North Korea also fire a torpedo at the giant carrier that the U.S. is considering sending to the same waters where the South Korean ship was hit, sank and killed 40 plus seamen?

One would hope not. 

Brewer is in Washington to meet with Obama, I hope she keeps her wits and guts with her and is not intimidated by a smooth-talking man that knows how to manipulate very well.  I think she has a lot of muster within, I hope it continues. 

As for me, well, my daily workings on the waterfall have not stopped in over a week running now.  At least.  I poured the first portion of the small pool at the top of the falls. That was the bottom of it.  Today I am thinking of putting up forms to pour sides for it for leak containment.  It's getting closer to being done is all I can say about it.  I was looking at a website where some folks were building a huge waterfall for their giant pond - they simply put a liner on the ground and stacked the rocks up from the bottom of the falls upward. 

I can't really do that with a small pond, the thing would just fall apart and - well - I am liking what I am seeing so far anyway. 

I think I have landed another temp tenant coming into town for a week.  Won't be sure about that until this person shows up. I have had 3 people call about the room in the last 24 hours.  Hopefully one of them is a show.

Lots of work in today's truck routing system, in fact, the last 2 days were very busy and today looks to be no different.  Which is good - I like being busy, not having lull times and staying busy until it's time to go home.

Which is the end of this short entry (for me, anyway), as the work day is almost here and there are a few more news stories I want to read.

G'day.

ben

Wednesday

I'm walking out the door, down the driveway beside my house - as I am want to do every morning - Great Danes in tow - actually beside me.  It's rather humorous to be able to walk and pet your dogs at the same time.  Lol.  The guy comes out of the trailer, I thought he was drunk at first, then I remembered he doesn't drink.
No, definitely not drunk, more like agonizing pain.  He looked BAD.  I asked him what's wrong with him, he said he was going back to the hospital.  I asked him how he was getting there - bus.  He's going to take a bus to a hospital that is 20 miles away like that?  I informed him that as bad as looked and sounded, he might want to consider calling an ambulance.  I do not have the time to drive that far out of my way in the morning, or I would have taken him there myself.  For some reason, they tell him to go to the Banner hospital in far east Mesa instead of the nearest hospital.

Those people live a rough life, that's all I can say about it.  Especially considering his age, in his mid 60's I believe. 

Well, anyway, it's already Wednesday and I am planning on turning in paperwork to ask for the entire week of the Independence Day holiday off.  Perfect time of year to not work: in the middle of the hot summer.  I don't care if it's another staycation, I have the hours, I want the time off. Also concerning, work, I was hoping for at least some consideration in filling the now-vacated inside salesman position - the guy moved to Pennsylvania I think  - they are not going to fill the position, instead they are simply going to dump his work off on to others. 

I'm looking at pics of waterfalls attempting to determine how to build the top of the thing.  I have yet to decide.  I am just going to go home today after work, make a form for a small pool at the top, mix and pour the cement and see what I end up with.  The cost?  A bag and a half of cement lost if it isn't what I want.

Well, anyway, the work day approacheth.   A man showed up shortly after I arrived at work this morning and sort of ate up my pre-work, off the clock time for a part he needed - which means 6:00am is almost here.

G'day.

ben

Yes, The Waterfall

I am working on the waterfall every day.  It is beginning to come into shape.  I have the 3rd tier cemented into place - the cement poured this afternoon.

That is the  final tier - I think.  I am at the top of the waterfall now and I was scratching my head, trying to figure out how I wanted it to look. I was thinking a small pool of water at the top flowing out and over the falls.  I then thought maybe just a flat surface with rocks piled up one the sides and back and a large rock on the top of the back of it where the water can shoot up and be dispersed back down again. 

I've thought of a lot of things, and frankly, I haven't made a decision yet.    There are still several days worth of work on it, at least.  Cement and mortar do not harden in 2 minutes, it's an over night thing. It's basically 24 hours of drying and setting before I come back for the next round.  I have overnight to figure out what I want to do, I do not want to put this off - make up my mind and do it. 

If I don't like it in the end, I can take  everything back off the top and redo it.  I am thinking of doing the small pool of water - if I don't like it, I can just fill it in and have a flat surface top.  That is probably what I will end up doing since it is non-binding in it's permanency.    Just a waterfall update.

The ex called today.  I wasn't going to answer it because I was in the middle of this fall project and wanted to get this phase of it done.  I felt strangely compelled to answer, so I did.  It was not a short conversation, but it as certainly an interesting one.  She was conferring to me different things about my son, her life and what's going on.  She is currently unemployed yet has found the Lord providing her sustenenance in seeing that all bills are getting paid.  Yes, in case you're wondering, I do believe in the Lord's provision, I have seen it countless times, I could tell hundreds of stories.  You could call some of them just happenstance, but some of my stories you would be very hard pressed to confer that fate or happenstance was what happened.                                                                                   

Then came the axe.  Well, this wasn't a killing type of axe in terms of denigration, it was much the opposite.  She stated that she felt compelled by the Lord to forgive the debt.  The debt is the amount of money awarded to her by the court at the divorce proceedings for half of the 401k I had in my account and half of the house.  It was stunning to hear those words coming from her.  She further informed me that she had been praying for me and that at 3:00 am on Thursday night, she was awakened by the Lord to interceed for me.  I am trying to remember if I was awake on Thursday at that hour - I do not sleep well and I am frequently awake at varying hours of the night.  I cannot, however, specifically remember being awake at that point in time or remember anything going on.  Which doesn't nullify the specificness of the time of day or the importance of what God would have been doing, I really don't know for sure.

She went even further asking me to forgive her for anything that might stand in the way of my relationship with the Lord.  Even further said that in recent days, people from all over the place, literally all over the world, had been inquring about me.  I have not been all over the world but my missionary endeavors had me meeting and in many instances, getting to know numerous missionaries from all over the place - Italy; Portugal; Spain; Romania; India; Pakistan; China; several places in South America and other locations on this huge- yet small - earth as well. 

It's definitely got me to thinking.  I have had this "urge" in the last few months to get involved with  a church somewhere, get established and get back in communion with fellow believers.  I have not necessarily resisted, but I have this stuff from church past that really puts up  a roadblock when I think about going.  I should be over this by now, but I find that I am not.  Small steps?  Well, the first step would simply be to shadow the doors of a church this coming Sunday.  Nothing grand, just go in, worship the Lord, receive the sermon, leave.  The second step would be to do it again the next Sunday, and the next and the next.  The third step would be to get involved in whatever meetings might be available.  A place to meet new people and get support and encouragement.  After that, well, that's so far off, it's not of a concern to me right now. 

Not going to go too far into that, I must take the first step and then I can give myself permission to dig into that a little further.

Meanwhile, the BP live feed of the robots at the ocean floor is of an overhead view of one of the robots cutting into what appears to be the main pipe. They have been cutting smaller pipes around it for a couple of days now, I think this is the big one that they are cutting and it appears there is oil coming out from the opening it's creating, further giving me reason to believe that they are coming to the point soon where they can try this giant capping operation that they have proposed.  That blade is a diamond studded blade - we sell them though infrequently, VERY expensive, but pretty much the most durable, rugged, long-lifed blade available in the industry.  Pretty much, you wouldn't expect them to use anything else.  Yes, I just went back to look: oil is now gushing out of the cut to the point you cannot see the blade that is doing the cutting.  Definitely the main pipe they have been talking about.

Back to the ponds, I am probably going to change my plan.  The leak in the pond is apparently growing, as the water level was 2 day's worth of leaking that it was only  a few days ago.  Meaning that I am planning on filling the new pond tomorrow - on the concrete slab - getting some water moving around in it and in a few days, move the fish into it.  All plants can be moved to the lower pond.  The upper pond will come out, be filled with water above ground and observed for leaks. If none detectable, let it set for 24 hours to ensure there are no leaks in it anywhere.  In either case - the pond will either be determined to be leak free or the leak will be found and fixed.  It will be filled with pond water from the big pond and the fish transferred yet again.  I will have shock treatment to help them cope with all the moving around. 

Once back in the upper pond - but above ground now - the lower pond will come out and will be set aside.  I will not need it for my new setup.  The hole will be dug out for the larger pond.  I must have the larger pond emptied before I start digging so I can trace an outline for digging out the hole.   Well, I might be able to trace it over the existing setup and save some of the fish tranferences. 

Regardless, I started this entry 3 hours ago and have been repeatedly interrupted - this is the end of it.

G'nite.
Ben

Tuesday's Monday

So the U.N. has condemned the actions of Israel in killing 9 people on those boats.
I'm not yet convinced.  Israel adamently claims that those ships were "hardly on a humanitarian mission".  It's a little unbelievable that the U.N. can come out with an official statement before an investigation is done.  But, the U.N. is nothing put a puppet, it has no real teeth and that can be seen in sanctions against North Korea and Iran that have basically not worked at all.  I'll wait for the outcome of an investigation before I go around publicly condemning Israel.  What if the U.N. is wrong, are they going to apologize?

I have avidly been watching the robots undersea.  Not GREAT viewing pleasure, but fascinating none-the-less.  It's hard to determine how many different robots they have down there, I have identified at least 3 from view the live feed.  Yesterday they had a saw blade attached to one of the robot's arms and were cutting through the damaged pipe.  Dunno if they finished that operation or not. 

As for today's work, a moderate amount of stuff in there to do.  Not quite the bang I like to see a new month starting out on - can you believe it's June already?  At the beginning of many months, we see a lot of new contracts beginning with some big money orders.  Not today.

I filled out an online form yesterday with SRP - it's their plan to equalize the amount you pay every month.  Pay $225 per month every month instead of having these months where it's $450 or $400 and then other months where it's $150.  They also have a time of use plan that I want to get involved with - basically certain hours of peak use during the day where you don't use heavy draw appliances and yes you save money.  But I already knew that.  Running a dryer in 110 degree heat in the afternoon is hardly a "good" idea.  Heating up the house while you're trying to cool it?  No thanks.  My tenants never figure this stuff out, I have to put up notices.  Well, I don't think they care is more the point. I'm responsible for the electricity, let "him" deal with it.

Not.  I'm considering for future tenants to charge for each use of the machines.  People always ask me if laundry is included, I always say yes - but - it gets me to wondering if they have been in rental situations where laundry was not included. Laundry, when considering the amount of it being done in my household, adds up to a lot of money.  If I could even get a washing machine on payments, I would do it.  Those new front loaders are very energy efficient.  If I could qualify for solar water heating, I would do that to - but - my housing payment issues from last year?  Killed my credit score.

I will be looking into financing on solar water heater regardless.  If they don't want to finance me, oh well.  Worth the try anyway.  I imagine significant savings on just hot water heating alone.  When you think of 10 people taking hot showers every day, plus laundry and warm or even hot water - there you go.

Work day approaches.  My manager is off for the week, I think.  The normal replacement manager is on vacation in Hawaii.  I have NO idea who is coming in here this morning to take control, I'll guess, however, it's the ops manager.  Very beautiful morning out, cool, you would not think that later on this week, the high temp is predicted to be 107 degrees - but that's what they're calling for on Saturday. I would ask "them" to cancel that call and order and please order highs in the 80's.  I don't think "they" are going to respond, though.  : )

G'day.

ben

Monday

3-day weekends are always nice.
I either mis-heard the temporary tenant or his speech was abiguous - he left yesterday, not next week. 
When I realized he was leaving, I immediately placed an ad in Craigslist - with no response.  So I wrote another one today.  I will write yet another one this evening.  He did enjoy his stay here - I asked a few times if everything was okay. 
I never did learn his story - what was going on with him or what - he didn't offer and it was obvious he didn't want people poking into his personal affairs, so I left it alone.  But, he did say he would keep my number when the need arose again. 

I was playing with mud today.  Mortar mud, that is.  Oh how I wish I could just build the thing - waterfall that is - and get it over with.  It doesn't work that way, at least not how I see it. I have no idea how professionals do it - or if they even do do such a thing in one day. I can't see how without possibly compromising the structural integrity of the project.  Yesterday, I cemented the second tier into place.  Today, I was using mortar mix to smooth over the top of the cement and leak-proof it.  I also put rocks on the sides of the falls and am building it up as I go.  I'm thinking a third tier and that's as high as it goes or NEEDS to go.  It was fun, actually, to mud the thing up. 

My pond acquisitions are over.  Electric use in my house is eating me up.  SRP has had 2 rate increases since last summer, I believe, I think anyway.  I know they just raised it again - 5% increase.  Must be nice to be able to raise rates while the rest of the business world is scrambling to stay alive. That's what happens with semi-monopolies.  There is another power company in town - but - you cannot choose between the 2.  Whatever power company is designated for the area you live in, that's what you get, so in effect, it really is a monopoly. 

The corporation commission regulates the power companies and both of them must go through that governmental agency to get rate increase approval.  The corporation commission just gives it to them without respect for what kind of financial, economic impact and chaos it's going to have on all of us that are struggling.  I will be writing the corporation commission and demand answers, I will also remember what they are doing and have been doing the next election.  I will also be present at any future meetings they will have when SRP will ask for yet another increase. 

Israel.  Israel is being criticized and condemned for the raid on the boats.  We don't have the facts yet, there has not been an investigation, but the world is condemning it.  I wish to high heaven that Obama and his administration would get off the high horse of rebuking Israel and treat them as the steadfast ally that they are.  I don't CARE if they have nuclear weapons, I do not consider Israel a rogue nation that will just set off nukes at their earliest inconvenience with some other nation.  If that were true, Iran would already be history.  To ask them to "come out" and fess up on the fact that they have nuclear warheads and then, sign a treaty to get rid of them while Iran is obviously rushing to get their own nukes - a nation that has a president who has stated repeatedly that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth - is outrageous.  I find it fortunate that Israel has leadership that isn't going to stand down to the BS dished out to them from every side.

The ponds.  I got off that subject without realizing it. I have been scouring Craigslist and eBay every day for deals.  On Craigslist, if there is a knockout deal on there for pond stuff, you better get it and get it fast, cause' it will disappear in a stone's throw.  This guy - probably desperate for money.  He was practically giving away his stuff.  I mean, I know what this stuff is worth - I have been looking at prices for 2 months now.  He told me $60 for a waterfall. 

This is a big, plastic thing that has a biofilter built into it.  It has a huge lip off the stop.  You bury it in the ground, I'm guessing to the lip point being placed over the edge of the pond.  Water flows into the bottom of the waterfall, goes through the filter, fills up the container and pours out the wide and large lip.  It provides filtering and aeration and probably some amount of cooling in the hot summer.  He wanted $50 for it.  The lowest I have seen them on eBay is $225. I was asking about all kinds of stuff he had out there.  He had, basically, the rest of the stuff I need to have 2 separate pond setups going.  One out front and one on the side of my house.  I ended up getting a pre-filter, bio-filter, waterfall with built-in filter, 2 pumps for $60.  One of the pumps doesn't work.  The other one is a gusher.  That thing must be 1,000 gallons per hour.  Work great for the waterfall I am building.  I shrugged the other pump off, the pump that is working is worth $100 new - at least - by itself. 

I acquired around $600 worth of pond stuff for $60.  I could neither afford it nor afford to pass it up.  As I said, I am done with pond acquisition stuff, I am done, pretty much at this point, with anything other than payings bills and buying food. I have acquired or acquring (still waiting on eBay stuff to arrive) everything through patience, persistence and just plain waiting for deals.  The economy's bad, someone is going to dump their stuff and that's that.  The advent of electric use going WAY up foregoes any further spending on the property.  That coupled with an empty room. 

I have no prospects for the room, but,that stuff always changes at some point or another.  Someone in between housing need a temp place, someone coming into town for an event or visiting relatives - and not wanting to stay with them or pay for a hotel - lots of that stuff comes through this town.  I just hope to be able to capitalize on it.  Ex-marine is paid in full for next month, female tenant is paid up  - almost for this coming week, just short the 3rd room income. 

The robot expedition undersea continues with the BP attempts to shut off the oil.  Now, there is a robot down cutting the pipe.  You can watch it - it's a live feed and I've been watching it for many days now. 
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html
For me? Fascinating stuff.  Wonder how a person gets a job moving a robot around under the ocean. 

Anyway, I just checked the latest mud work on the falls - not even close.  I simply can't do anything out there until tomorrow.

G'day.

ben

Sunday/The Plan

First off, Suns were not playing championship basketball last night.  Stoudemire was out of it, dogged by double teaming which effectively shut him down, took out the point totals he might have scored and that was the end of that game before it ever started.  Hats off to the Suns, anyway, for a great season.   Rumors abound that Stoudemire will not be back as he will be an open free agent and apparently looking to move onto greener pastures.

Second, the oil gusher in the GoM.  It's amazing that these people/that company have been unsuccessful in stopping that oil from pumping.  They have tried one thing after another with no success.  The only thing that worked - a litte- was attaching that mile long pipe to the opening of the gusher and using it to pump some of the oil into a waiting tanker. 

Now, to the ponds.  I have finally come up with a plan.  I mean, I had a plan before, but once I acquired that much larger pond, that threw those plans out the window.  1st is to get the waterfall operational.  That is going to take some time, apparently.  Second, the new pond will be placed on the cement slab next to my side door, filled with water, a pump and filter attached to it.  All fish and plants will be transferred to that pond.  Then I will remove the 2 smaller ponds, fill them up with water out of ground and find out where the leak or leaks is/are.  Fix it, refill with water and this time make sure I have no more leaks.  They will be set in a temporary location and all fish and plants will be moved back to those 2 ponds which, at that point, will also be sitting above ground.

Drain the larger pond, use it to make an outline and commence digging operations.  It should not take as long to dig out the hole for the larger pond since I already have 2 holes and at least partial use of both to fit the pond in there.  Get the large pond set in the ground, under the waterfall, back fill around the sides, get the thing filled with water and get the falls going again.  Move all fish and most plants into that pond.  After that, pressure'soff to get anything else done.  Likely, however, that the upper pond I now have will be a feeder into the large pond as I currently have set up - as long as I'm sure the leaks are done with and I'm not going to encounter any more of them.  If I continue to have leak problems with the smaller ponds after this next, coming round of repairs, I will chuck them in the trash can and consider it lesson learned. 

IF I am successful at repairing the leaks, the other small pond will go in the ground out front.  It will be a plant garden type of thing.  It will have mosquito eating fish in it but that's it for fish.  Yes, we're talking a lot of work here to execute all of this, no doubt.  Heck, the waterfall itself is a chore to say the least.  Itwill be worth the effort once I am done, yes, but that is a ways off.  I am headed out therein a bit to continue with mixing mud and putting the thing together.  2cd tier coming up. 

Meanwhile, Memorial Day weekend. 3 days off.  into the 2cd day of it.  Time flies when you are taking time off of work - it just vanishes like it was never here.  I have a lot of cleaning chores I would like to get done around the house today as well as get the next step of the falls cemented into place. 

I was reading this morning about debt stress.  They did polls or questionnaires of people around the country to rate their level of stress.  Lots of people reporting high or moderate.  I don't really like to look at it as stress.  If I did, well, I would probably have been dead long ago as I have had financial issues for along, long time.  Life got better when I went back into trucking, yes, but it did not eliminate the problems.  If I were still living  in the old house paying $450 per month mortgage, then I wouldn't have debt issues at all.  Well, that house burned down and frankly, it was an old piece of junk that I wouldn't have been happy living in  anyway.  I am still working on paying down credit cards.  One is like $35 off from being done.  Another $100 or so and the third is around $250.

I willowe onthe car for another 3 years.  My son will go off to college in a year and a half or so.  Whether he stays in AZ or not, I dunno.  I'm simply looking at the things in the future that will drop off of the debt load and will free up some finances. I'm assuming that eventually my hours at work will be reinstated adding "additional" income, which really isn't additional, just going back to what it was before. House payments?  Unfortunately, a fact of life for me that I don't foresee ever going away. 

As long as I have tenants, I will have to go satellite or cable tv and I will have to have high speed internet available for them.  That monthly billisn't going anywhere anytime soon, either. I am working on reduing it some, however.  Water bill is pretty much a constant.  Around $95 per month - not bad considering that's water; sewer and trash pickup.  Really not bad considering all of the plants and trees around here.  I'm having to dump 3 or 4 gallons a day into the ponds because of the leak.  I bought a bio filter with UV light and a pump on eBay for a steal - again - I cannot do anyof the pond removal and switching around stuff until I receive those 2 items via UPS. 

I'm also going to contact SRP - if I ever remember to do so during their operating hours - and see about getting on one of their plans to reduce the amount of money being thrown at the AC system. 

I am always tring to think of ways to either reduce monthly expenses or increase monthly income - or both.  Getting rid of the dogs has been suggested more than once.  In a pig's eye I will.  If I have to get rid of the dogs, then that also means I'm at the point where I simply can't afford this place anymore and I am moving.  I switched dog food back to Purina.  It isn't near as good as the stuff I was feeding them before - Nutro which has beef as it's first ingredient instead of third down the line - but it made them affordable.  The store I love to hate - Walmart - is my source.  45 pound bag for $21.95 versus the 35 pound bag of Nutro I was getting for $23.95.  I feed them "good" scraps when I have them available from cooking chicken or a roast or something. 

I have my budget, to end this, in my head at all times.  I don't need to write it down, I have gone over and over and over it.  I don't do overdrafts at my bank, I know approximately what's in there.  If I get near zero, I simply don't spend money.  Overdraft fees are $39.99 for each.  No thanks.  The ex-Marine got his money early for next month and yes, he handedme a money order last night.  He hasn't been around - one of his friend's parents left town for 2 weeks and he has been hanging out over there.  He does not play around with giving me rent like he did a while back and got way behind.  I was not happy about that situation, but he DID get caught back up and now it's his first priority with his disability check every month - pay the rent first before hitting the bars or whatever.  Yes, the guy loves barhopping.  I don't really care, as long as it doesn't come home with him, which it never does. 

The temporary tenant said he's staying another week and maybe a day - when a place apparently is becoming available.  He is a no-drama person and pays his rent every Sunday - for a temp renter, he has been a dream, really.  I have another guy that has been calling for a room for 2 months now.  I have no idea.  He calls andcalls - do you have a room available?  Not yet.  I live very close to his work, but, there are other places that advertise with rooms for rent around here, I'm really not sure why he wants to come in HERE so badly.  He SOUNDS okay on the phone, but who knows?  If the Army reservist doesn't come back, the room is his, that's whatI have to say about that. 

The other female tenant?  No clue.  I'm guessing she is struggling with staying off the meth.  I think coming off of that stuff is a very hard road to go - I sincerely hope she doesn't fall back.  She has a lot of support and goes to meetings.  She hasn't seemed happy about much of anything for several days, again, I'm guessing getting off the drugs and financial dilemnas are taking their toll.  That's an on-going story, stay tuned for further developments.  One thing I definitely cannot afford right now is a non-paying tenant or empty rooms.  When the temp guy leaves - which would be 8 days from now, I really must find another temp person to take the room for a few weeks or I am going to be having some trouble making ends meet.  My dad's money - hopefully he will continue to send it - will go directly to electricity.

I write this stuff out occasionally in full detail to refresh my perspective of what's going on with my finances, what I need to do and where it's going.  I still have 2% going into a retirement account - my company automatically reinstates it for anyone that has zeroed it out at the beginning of each year, you can opt back out of it, but I am taking my own advice that I give anyone: you MUST have money going into a retirement account, a small amount is better than nothing.  I wish I could afford the full 15% every month, I'm nowhere even close to being able to afford that right now. 

Those are my debt struggles as they currently exist.  Money going to child support every month, forgot about that one.  that isn't going away anytime soon,either.  When I get freed of that payment, well, I will be in a much better standing financially.  When that goes away and the car payment goes away, I will have a LOT more money to work with.  In 3 years, when that car is paid off, it will have around 85,000 miles on the odometer - I am simply calculating that by the use I currently put it through - which isn't much.  Idont really GO anywhere except to work, the store and sometimes some outings for things off of Craigslist.  I fully intend on keeping that car and not getting into another car payment.  Fix it as itneeds fixed, yes, another car payment? No thanks. 

I am still toying with the idea of renting on my master bedroom setup and moving into one of the smaller bedrooms.  I toy with it and then let it go, mostly.  I could probably get around $600 per month - everything included - by doing that.  I let it go, usually, cause' it's my only place I can go to get away from everything if everything starts going haywire or I just want to be let alone.  I could do that in another bedroom, but - it's just not the same.  The tenant bedroom at one end of the house, my bedroom on the other.  I like it that way.

Anyway, time to get shoes on and go outside and continue on with the waterfall project.

Happy Sunday.

ben

Toilets And Things

It is a truly disgusting, almost vile experience to walk into a bathroom and see a toilet where someone - or more than one someone - has clearly missed the toilet.  I wonder how people can just go in there, the main bathroom in my house and use the facility, ignoring this junk?  I have cleaned that toilet 3 times this week. I have asked everyone to pitch in and help keep it clean - nothing. 

I have my own bathroom.  I don't have urine all over the toilet. If these people want to live like that, so beit.  I will post another message up in there anyway.  Cleaning up someone else's urine is hardly my idea of fun an entertainment.  I have considered on and off the idea of charging everyone for their lack of helping out.  My Craigslist ads make it exceedingly, crystal clear that any potential tenant IS to help clean up, especially in the bathroom. 

I have definitely decided on moving the ponds around.  This will require a lot of work - most notably more digging.  I have to pull those ponds back out anyway to find out which one is leaking and where.  The much larger pond will back in place of those 2 small ponds and then I will decide how I want it set up after that.

However, the waterfall takes priority. It must be finished before I start anything else.  So, in a little while, I am headed out there to start on the waterfall assembly itself.  Take it back, it doesn't have to be totally finished, it just has to be up and operational.  The aesthetics of the falls concerning the block can be dealt with when I have the materials to make it into what I want it to look like. 

It is starting to get warm late mornings to late afternoons.  Expected and dreaded. 

Temporary tenant?  No clue.  I have no idea if he's leaving tomorrow or not.  He isn't here - I would like to ask him so I can know whether to write up another Craigslist ad or not. 

He gave me 4 sheets that were filled out with stamps from Starbucks the other day.  One of his clients gave them to him, he doesn't drink coffee.  Yes, I went to Starbucks and got the coffee and yes, I have been sitting here this morning enjoying some exceptionally fine cups of coffee - I would not normally buy this stuff for myself, too expensive.  It was a nice guessture - 4 pounds of that coffee?  Dunno what Starbucks charges for it, again, I'm sure it's more than I would normally be willing to pay for a pound of ground up coffee beans.

Trailer tenants took the queen sized mattress, scrubbed it with a light bleach solution, spent their first night sleeping on it.  I'm imagining a far greater sleeping experience on a regular, pillow-top mattress versus sleeping on an air mattress that continues to pop leaks all over it.  Basically, sleeping on a hard, wood floor.

The trailer itself is far from done, but I lost interest.  Meaning I have other things I want to do around here besides spending all my free time working on that thing.  However, I am now going to focus on getting some carpet for it - just plain, wood floors in there right now.  Free carpet, that is.  I am not spending money on that thing at this point and don't have any plans to. I ALREADY shelled out some dough on that thing, it's out of budget at this point and for them, apparently it is livable enough.  In fact, electricity takes precedence over most things on the lower end of the budget.  Though I would hardly call $400 - $450 per month "low" in terms of shelling out the bucks to keep the AC on and keeping it cool in here. May's use is going to be around $330, June's use can add at least $100 more. 

It doesn't help that SRP continually seems to be able to crank through rate increases on it's customers by making appeals to the corporation commission who seem to just give them carte blanch on rate increases.  I will remember that at the voting polls.  They are making ENOUGH money and we are in a recession, point made and enough said.

It's still somewhat early - 8:35AM - would like to get out there and get some of the rocks into position and cemented into place before it starts getting warm.

G'day.

ben

Short saling. It's the next wave of financial chaos being forced down the American economy's throat. I hear story after story of both people I know and perfect strangers choosing the short-sale route - even though many of these people are making their payments and are capable of continuing to do so.


Who benefits from a short sale? The homeowner. That, from my perspective, is the only grouping in the mix that benefits. Everyone else is screwed. A co-worker confided to me this week that he is going to go the short-sale way. He is current on his payments but - WAY upside down on the loan. In other words, he owes far more on the house than the house is worth or will even think of being worth in any near - or possibly even distant - future.

I have struggled with the thought of doing the same thing here, since I am also upside down on the mortgage and I have been seeing that my lender is no willing to do a principle reduction. They are not, of course, constrained to do so. But, it seems to me, they stand to lose a lot more in a short sale or a homeowner simply walking than by doing a principle reduction.

I go back and forth in my mind on the pro's and con's of staying here or leaving it behind. There ARE many pro's, actually, there is also the big con: owing more on the house than the house and property are actually worth. I have gone over both sides of this coin concerning my individual situation at least a few times on this blog. It isn't all peaches for the short-saler, either. It does, from what I have heard, screw up your credit. You will not, undoubtedly, be going out and buying another house anytime soon. You will be forced into renting someone else's property for, probably, an extended period of time: years at least.

When you are renting, you are throwing money into the trash can. There is no return on that money, it's simply the fact of having to pay for a place to live with no foreseeable return in the future. My thinking is going on a line, here, bear with me. How many years will it be before that individual that short-saled is going to be able to buy their own property again? Yes, they say they will go out and rent a property at a far less rate than their current mortgage and many say they will save the difference in savings to eventually come up with the - substantial down-payment - they are going to need to get into another house.

I question, however, the ability of the person that says they are going to save the difference every month. They may be sincere in their statement at the time, but when the rubber meets the road, the American way is to spend, spend, spend, not save, save, save. This is mostly what has gotten us into this trouble to begin with: a slew of people - a HUGE pot full of people - getting loans on homes that they KNOW, when the rate adjusts, they would not be able to afford those payments.

I have a couple of questions for myself - yes, pointing this at me - when thinking of walking from my house and property. 1: can I live with it? Will I sleep at night knowing that I probably could continue making the payments, but because of the fact that I owe more than the house is worth, I didn't want to take that kind of loss, as MANY people are doing: walking.

2. If I stay, how long will it be before I pay this place down to the point it IS worth as much as I owe? I have no idea how to answer that question, really.

3. Am I ready to live on a rental property - somewhere - again? Is it easier to rent TO tenants or BE the tenant?

4. If I DID walk, DID find a house somewhere for rent that would allow all of these dogs and my lifestyle, how much would I really save?

1. I don't know. I have not answered that question to myself yet, therefore, I have not even looked into short-saling. Ethics and morals are of major concern to me in my own life.

2. Again, no idea, will have to look into finding whatever formula that may exist to answer the question.

3. NO. I do NOT want to rent a property anywhere. I HATE renting. A MYRIAD of reasons why, not going to go into all of that here, just answering my question.

4. A lot. $600 per month savings anyway. I have seen 3 bedroom houses going for $600 per month. Not GREAT houses but nice and in good condition. Fenced yard, allows dogs, etc etc etc. That's $600 - or closer $550 - off the monthly mortgage payment. I would be able to afford my own property at that rate and would not have to sublet to other tenants, or if I did, only one.

I've been through bankruptcy, bad credit, high interest loans. My home loan is at 5.25% - down from 6.75% it was at before the loan modification.

It is very tempting, in some ways, to consider walking. Far less responsibility and a weight taken off of my shoulders: trying to keep a room rented to keep the tenant money flowing in. It is a pain in the @$$, frankly, to have to keep getting new people in here. It's part of the deal, yes, I understand that, but it's no fun. Talking on the phone with one after another after another person until you get someone OVER here and committing to the room: ie: handing me cash.

Look , I love to do improvements on whatever place I am living in - but - that motivation lessons considerably on someone else's property. You think I want to spend countless hours on landscaping another person's house? Only if they give me some credit on my rent payment. You do NOT own the place, why bother? Well, cause' you live there and it makes it a nicer place to live.

Honestly, I vascillate back and forth with this issue in my mind - I don't talk about this at all with anyone but yes, I am putting it in writing - as to whether I should stay or go. Every time I see someone I know going the short-sale route even though they CAN afford the payments, it sends me into all of this thinking all over again. My house payment is current. I have enough coming in - now anyway - to continue to make the payment. That seems to change month-to-month. I can't answer my own question to myself with any definitiviness: stay or go?

BTW, short-saling screws everyone else in the neighborhood. Property values go down because you are selling the house, usually, FAR below the comps in the neighborhood for any house of same size and amenities. Of course the lender is screwed - they are taking a huge loss. It only helps the homeowner and I suppose the buyer who is literally getting a steal of a buy.

Onto other things. I finally was offered a queen sized mattress on Craiglist through one of many ads I have run to get one - for free. I simply put the story out there, got some responses but no replies to my response to their initial offering. Well, a homeowner that also - rents rooms - had a tenant leave and left behind the mattress. Had soda spills on it. She told me that before I went and got it. I figured the trailer tenants would be able to overlook some soda stains to have a comfortable bed versus continually having to repair and blow up an air mattress. I didn't ask them, I just went and got it. Brought it home, told the guy if he didn't like it, I would just get rid of it.

The next time I came home, he was out there with a small bucket and some bleach. He was using a light bleach mixture to sterilize the mattress and try to scrub out the stains. He spent hours on it. The mattress is now inside the trailer, and yes, he thanked me for getting it for him. I didn't pay a penny for it, though I definitely went out of my way to acquire the thing. It's a NICE mattress, btw, besides the stains. Very comfortable. He got much of the stains out. I take no responsibility for those people or taking care of them, they are on their own. I do try to get things for them if I can find them on CL on free section. They are required to feed themselves, clothe themselves and pay for their use of electricity and water. I have provided many things, yes. The trailer itself for starters. They're decent people and I don't mind having them around, I just don't think I want that trailer out there forever.

Instead of working on the waterfall today, I took the homemade filter apart and cleaned it out. One of the ponds has a leak. I don't know which since one feeds into the other. I had thought I had narrowed that down to nothing, but the water level goes down on the lower pond every day. About an inch. Refilling it is nothing, they are small ponds and refilling it is not that much water.

However. 

I do NOT want a leaking pond.  The only way to find out which one is leaking is to pull both of them out, fill them up with water above ground and find the leak or leaks.  Live and learn: never buy used, preformed ponds from a family that has had kids playing in the empty ponds  like they are playing on a slide in a playground.

My idea?  I have this brand new, much larger pond.  Put it on the cement slab near the ponds that are in the ground, fill it with water, treat the water, put the fish and the plants in there.  Take out both ponds, dig out the ground and put that big one in where those 2 formerly occupied the ground.  The waterfall will go into a larger pond and it will look much more proportionate - size of the waterfall to the size of the pond.  Take upper pond and feed it into the large pond.  Take the lower pond and install it out front as a water feature with plants only, no fish.  Well, mosquito eating fish, yes, but other than that, just a nice plant feature for my front yard. 

I have fairly well convinced myself to do this - lots of work, yes, but I truly feel that the outcome will be a much better setup than what I currently have.  The waterfall will not be connected to the pond in any way, shape or form.  The rock that dumps the water into the falls will over hang it, yes, but touch it or connect to it? No.   The waterfall will not hinder me in removing a pond excepting that it over hangs.

I was totally "wasted" when I got home from work - tired that is, not drunk or high - I ended up taking a very long nap and also bypassed work on the falls. I ended up taking the filter apart instead and cleaning that all out.   Quite the pain, actually, but necessary. 

And.......I have things I need to get to, so........this entry is history.

G'evening.

ben

Friday

BP has spent nearly 1 billion so far on this oil disaster.  Tip of the iceberg, they will end up spending much more than that before this operation is over, even if/when they get that gusher stopped.

Suns got beat last night.  Tie game going at 3 seconds left - Lakers give the ball to Kobe, misses but is picked up and shoved into the basket.  Suns are now do or die next game and if they win, next game after that. 

Whatever the case, my waterfall project marches on.  Today, I will hopefully cement in the first large rock that over hangs the pond.  Built dirt up behind it and get it read for the second tier.  Which would have to be tomorrow to give it time for the cement to set on the first rock.  Then on Sunday, 3rd tier and probably the creation of the pool of water at the top  Or not.  Haven't really determined that part yet and won't be able to until I get to that point. 

Someone from my ex wife's church is paying for Caleb - my son - to get driver's ed.  $150.  I was asked to fork over that much money, I did not have it.  The someone is my ex-pastor who shunned me some 6 years ago from the church.  Not going to go intot that here, too much and too long a story. 

3 day weekend - 7-1/2 hours away from the beginning of it - unless - of course - work takes me over today. 
Which I doubt it will, bit it IS end of month, never know.
Anyway, just a short entry.
Take care.
ben

Waterfall Part 4

Or is it part 5? Well whatever it is, it is at the point - tomorrow anyway - where I can actually start building the falls and not have to continue working on the prestructure.

This is the revised version of my initial plan.  To make a small pool at the top necessitates the need for the block.  I could have used rock - but for that much rock for sides and back?  No.  I am not going to wait forever to get the falls flowing.  Eventually, I will stack rock on all sides of this setup.  That is not a happening event right now.  I am hopeful for trips up north in the semi, eventually, where I can take my break time and gather up rock and fill the side box with them. 

I may remove the 2cd level of block on the tier closest to the front.  Unsure.  That second level may not be necessary.  If it isn't, it's definitely going to go away. 

Notice on the last pic - I used the remaining mortar mix to "stucco" the sides of the block - a better look than plan ole' block for now.  What's missing?  I didn't have a sponge handy - you can take a wet sponge and smooth over the still-wet mortar to give it a very good outcome in looks.  No worries, that was my first attempt - ever - at that.  The right application tool would be helpful.  I have been wanting to try that for a while now - there is still a good portion of fencing on the west side that needs finished.  I'm sure I can do it now, just a matter of time and - yes - money.

I will be working on it every day, one stage at a time, until it's done.

It looks like junk now, I envision the finished product.  May be a long way off, no biggies.  Plastic is the fail-safe - if there is a leak, the water will end back up in the pond regardless.  I am going to triple it for - failsafe on the failsafe. 

I have been watching, totally changing the subject, the live video stream of  British Petroleum's now gushing oil well.  I assume BP is still an acronym for British Petroleum.  Yesterday, I was watching the end of a broken pipe spewing out raw crude.  Today, I was quite surprised to see a cake of - I'm assuming the "heavy mud" that had totally circumferenced the pipe, apparently, and the oil spewing through cracks in the cake.  BP may not be saying it, but it appears to me that the flow has been slowed.  Not stopped, not even close - but slowed.  I may be wrong, but the caking of the heavy mud is all around the pipe and it's outlet. 

More interesting, I left that and came back a few hours later.  They had switched the cameras to a robot that was - doing whatever.  Appeared to be a gauge that was installed.  It was showing 2100 range.  2100 what? Not barrels, maybe gallons per minute? Per hour?  I am totally fascinated by such things, however, I am also extremely alarmed at the environmental impact as probably millions of others like me are as well.  I don't wonder if BP files chapter 11 or other bankruptcy in the end.  Or, is that company THAT rich? 

Regardless, I wished for a narrative to explain what I was seeing.  It then moved to a view of 2, bolted flanges with what appeared to be bearing housings in the middle and a shaft in the middle of that.  Could be totally wrong, but those were definitely flanges I was looking at, bolted to - whatever - couldn't tell.  I dream of such a job - operating robots 5,000 feet below you.  I imagine the operators having a lot of pressure on them to not screw up - there is far too much riding on what happens next.  Which, apparently, is pumping more heavy mud and then the concrete.  Fascinating.

Suns V Lakers game starts in 10 minutes.  I'm - excited and nervous.  Lakers have home court advantage and definitely, that IS an advantage. 

So, I'm outta here.  Gonna watch a few minutes of the pre-game narrative.

G'day.
ben

Thursday

Thursday already!
3-day weekend in queue.
Found what I was looking for for my homemade bio filter on ebay. It's filter media - coarse on one side and fine on the other for filter the water as it passes through my setup - which I am going to change when I get this filter media. Undoubtedly, I also built that thing far too large. I mean, it works and that's not a problem, I just should have bought a much smaller container to build that setup. Oh, the filter media? $2. lol - shipping was more than the product itself.

I didn't know until yesterday that BP has live footage of the oil gushing out of the pipe at the bottom of the ocean. Amazing. Amazing the damage all that oil is causing and unknown problems for years to come.

Don't really have a lot to say this morning, more in the reflective tones today than anything.

Have a great day.

ben