Thursday
Headline in the news this morning: "Home Foreclosures Jump to Highest Rate Since Crisis Began". Yes sir, Obama's plan to make it the summer of recovery is obviously working THERE, now ain't it? In the Phoenix area, there is a huge glut of empty, foreclosed homes. Almost 100,000 homes were repo'ed last month.
How many of those still had people living in them? Where did those people go? I know a lot of people leave before they are actually forced out - and where do those people go? Well, in almost all of those cases, they haven't been making payments on the home for at LEAST 6 months, if not twice or three times that length of time. If they have any smarts at all and at least one person is employed, they're saving money to go get another place to live once they have to leave the house.
I haven't seen anything like this in my short life span of 46 years and I haven't heard of any recession with this kind of impact on American lifestyle and society since the Great Depression. I am NOT saying it is as bad as the Great Depression (for those that like to come and give me heck about it), but this Recession is second ONLY to the Great Depression.
I see it at work, too. 2 months running the numbers are down - way down - for the Arizona region of our company. The numbers for the branch I am working out of are horrific. I do have the thought that if this continues to stay this way, the headcount will be reduced locally. I don't want that to happen, but if it does, the talk is that there are too many salesmen. There are only 4 full-time drivers serving the entire state of Arizona if you count the driver in Tucson, the 2 downtown and me.
September 16, 2010 5:58 AM
Anonymous said...
Whatever. I can't do anything about it, I just watch this stuff and marvel. Where is it going to end? IS it going to end? Are we going to go into double-dip recession? I still contend we never came out of it to begin with. Not with almost 10% unemployment. Not with millions of Americans being displaced from their homes. Not with people who are so desperate that they are standing in line at food banks and getting food stamps.
I'm just curious if this is going to get even worse, I guess.
Mark, one of the trailer tenants, was disclosing to me yesterday about his search for an apartment. One place had trailers older than the one I got for them to live in -that had broken out windows, evap cooling or no cooling, filthy, disgusting and the owners of that park want $250 a month for that s***. He was looking at an apartment for $450 a month, but didn't include electricity - run-down s***. He was talking with his homeless friends and they were asking him how much he pays a month to stay at my place - $25 per week. They were telling him to move out so they could move in!
I get, however, for more than that per week if you add the amount of work he does around the place into the mix. Weeding, shovelling dog crap, cleaning. Yesterday he helped me finish the painting project in the now-empty bedroom. Well, it's almost finished. I still have to deal with the corner where the water had been dripping for - 2 and a half years I guess. It's dry to the touch, but anything that has been soaked that long would be wet to the core, so I'm leaving it open until this weekend and then I will deal with fixing it up.
Point? I don't mind these people being around, they don't make a nuisance of themselves and they do whatever they can to help out around the house without my having to asking them - ever.
Well, life is as interesting as ever. I am driving all over the neighborhood where I know Drey lives - one of the thieves. Eventually I will find them. It's about a half mile area of homes so yes, I have spent no small amount of time driving up and down residential streets. However, Caleb may be a bit better at getting the info from the black kid down the street....
Speaking of that, an insurance company quoted my ex-wife the sum of almost $2,500 for SIX month of insurance for Caleb to drive! OUCH!! My insurance company quoted me $800 - I actually thought it was pretty good considering his age and the fact that he has no previous driving experience, it's $133 per month. IF he can make it through 6 months without an accident or a ticket, they say the rate will come down some. I'm afraid of what they might charge him to have his own car.
Well, anyway, work day is almost here, I have a head full of thoughts that I am churning around attempting to make heads and tails of stuff and decisions to make financially - though - most of my bills are caught up. I am only behind on the water bill right now and that's good for another month at least anyway.
G'day.
ben
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Wednesday
Wednesday
Slept fairly well last night but still tired from not sleeping the night before and driving all day long yesterday.
I am 4 hours over for this week now, meaning I should be able to get off early today. I have plenty of things I still need to get done this week, even if a setback with all this burglary s*** going on.
Hopefully the trailer tenants will see fit to spend the day in the living room again. The space case female tenant is back (she has been gone for like 4 days now) but - she wouldn't know trouble if it slapped her in the face. She is TRULY in a world unto her own.
Well, actually, the guy said he would help finish the painting in the bedroom. I was working on that on Sunday and haven't picked up a brush since.
Last night, JD (the oldest black brother) was obviously over as a note I left for him to give to his thieving, destroying brother was gone. The note simply stated that his brother, Anthony and Drey have until tonight to bring the stuff back or they are all going to jail/juvi.
Well, I have to try. I mean, I still doubt that Anthony would have gotten rid of that Playstation 3 - it is probably sitting wherever he is staying, which likely is with his family.
The price of new PS3 is $300. The price of a used one is still at $250, $225 depending on the ad. I refuse to pay $250 or even $225 for a unit that is several years old when you can buy a new one for $300. I do not have "extra" finances to be buying a new one, so that may not happen anytime soon unless my son wants to help choke up some of the money.
Even then, I still have this problem of these kids. I mean, what is safe in my house? Right now? NOTHING. The note I left for JD to give to Darnell (the younger brother that broke into my house) also included the following: If I catch them IN my house, they are going to be spending quality time in a hospital.
By now, Anthony would have received the message I left 2 nights ago. He should know that I am quite serious about that statement, too. I don't care WHO it is, if I catch someone that has broken into my house - IN my house - that person is going to suffer. This subject is going to occupy my mind until I get it dealt with.
Further, I have reason to at least be suspicious that their entire family is living the next street over now. I say this because I saw the youngest black brother last night herding several of Anthony's younger brothers and sisters down that street. If true, this would explain how they knew that the man in the trailer had left that day and they - showed up a few minutes later. I have been walking and driving around the neighborhood every day now since all this began. Specifically looking for Anthony or Drey.
They are NOT going to just walk around my neighborhood with impunity. Darnell? I walked down there last night with dark clothes on and just stood there, across the street from their house. After a couple of minutes, Darnell came walking out trying to see who it is. I said nothing to him. When his eyes adjusted enough, he turned and bolted into the house.
Point? I am not going to be intimidated in my OWN neighborhood by a bunch of punk, thieving kids that don't go to school, don't work, are high on pot all day long and spend their lives looking for their next target.
I AM looking for a handgun at this point. I haven't found any online forums for such except dealers. I was thinking of going to a pawn shop and see what they have - either a hand gun or a 12 gauge shotgun. Would have to have it with me or in my car when not home since - of course - it could get stolen.
I would prefer to get a small handgun and be able to hide it on my person without it being noticed. But, I would also like home protection and frankly, I can't think of anything more effective than a side by side 12 gauge Mossberg - whichever model. Not a hunting gun, solely protection.
Well, the news is full of a bunch of garbage that didn't have any interest to me this morning - more primaries results and tea-party "surprises". No-one should be surprised that ANY incumbent regardless of whether republican or democrat is voted out of their long-standing positions. That's the point, let's get them ALL out of there and start fresh. Reid wants to add some sort of amnesty provision in a defense policy bill. Yeah, let's just grant them all amnesty.
No need to go into all of that again and besides, work day approaches. I am hoping to get everything done early today and yes, leave early today. Go home, take a short nap and hop to some of this stuff around my house that needs to be addressed. I am not going to replace the closet door. Yet. I actually have 2 brand new doors for the house out in my storage shed. No point in it. What if they come back and decide to bust another door out? I'll say this: If they come into my house one more time and the police don't do anything about it, I WILL.
G'day.
ben
Slept fairly well last night but still tired from not sleeping the night before and driving all day long yesterday.
I am 4 hours over for this week now, meaning I should be able to get off early today. I have plenty of things I still need to get done this week, even if a setback with all this burglary s*** going on.
Hopefully the trailer tenants will see fit to spend the day in the living room again. The space case female tenant is back (she has been gone for like 4 days now) but - she wouldn't know trouble if it slapped her in the face. She is TRULY in a world unto her own.
Well, actually, the guy said he would help finish the painting in the bedroom. I was working on that on Sunday and haven't picked up a brush since.
Last night, JD (the oldest black brother) was obviously over as a note I left for him to give to his thieving, destroying brother was gone. The note simply stated that his brother, Anthony and Drey have until tonight to bring the stuff back or they are all going to jail/juvi.
Well, I have to try. I mean, I still doubt that Anthony would have gotten rid of that Playstation 3 - it is probably sitting wherever he is staying, which likely is with his family.
The price of new PS3 is $300. The price of a used one is still at $250, $225 depending on the ad. I refuse to pay $250 or even $225 for a unit that is several years old when you can buy a new one for $300. I do not have "extra" finances to be buying a new one, so that may not happen anytime soon unless my son wants to help choke up some of the money.
Even then, I still have this problem of these kids. I mean, what is safe in my house? Right now? NOTHING. The note I left for JD to give to Darnell (the younger brother that broke into my house) also included the following: If I catch them IN my house, they are going to be spending quality time in a hospital.
By now, Anthony would have received the message I left 2 nights ago. He should know that I am quite serious about that statement, too. I don't care WHO it is, if I catch someone that has broken into my house - IN my house - that person is going to suffer. This subject is going to occupy my mind until I get it dealt with.
Further, I have reason to at least be suspicious that their entire family is living the next street over now. I say this because I saw the youngest black brother last night herding several of Anthony's younger brothers and sisters down that street. If true, this would explain how they knew that the man in the trailer had left that day and they - showed up a few minutes later. I have been walking and driving around the neighborhood every day now since all this began. Specifically looking for Anthony or Drey.
They are NOT going to just walk around my neighborhood with impunity. Darnell? I walked down there last night with dark clothes on and just stood there, across the street from their house. After a couple of minutes, Darnell came walking out trying to see who it is. I said nothing to him. When his eyes adjusted enough, he turned and bolted into the house.
Point? I am not going to be intimidated in my OWN neighborhood by a bunch of punk, thieving kids that don't go to school, don't work, are high on pot all day long and spend their lives looking for their next target.
I AM looking for a handgun at this point. I haven't found any online forums for such except dealers. I was thinking of going to a pawn shop and see what they have - either a hand gun or a 12 gauge shotgun. Would have to have it with me or in my car when not home since - of course - it could get stolen.
I would prefer to get a small handgun and be able to hide it on my person without it being noticed. But, I would also like home protection and frankly, I can't think of anything more effective than a side by side 12 gauge Mossberg - whichever model. Not a hunting gun, solely protection.
Well, the news is full of a bunch of garbage that didn't have any interest to me this morning - more primaries results and tea-party "surprises". No-one should be surprised that ANY incumbent regardless of whether republican or democrat is voted out of their long-standing positions. That's the point, let's get them ALL out of there and start fresh. Reid wants to add some sort of amnesty provision in a defense policy bill. Yeah, let's just grant them all amnesty.
No need to go into all of that again and besides, work day approaches. I am hoping to get everything done early today and yes, leave early today. Go home, take a short nap and hop to some of this stuff around my house that needs to be addressed. I am not going to replace the closet door. Yet. I actually have 2 brand new doors for the house out in my storage shed. No point in it. What if they come back and decide to bust another door out? I'll say this: If they come into my house one more time and the police don't do anything about it, I WILL.
G'day.
ben
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
More
This morning, I drove to a couple of suppliers, picked stuff up, went to our main branch. I was informed by my branch manager via cell phone that there were add-ons and that I would have to go to another supplier - the place is 2 miles away from the main branch.
I get in the office there and the inside salesman is telling me about the delivery - a trip to Tucson to pick up some pipe and then up to Miami. This was NOT what my manager had stated, I was supposed to go to a vendor only 2 miles away to get an add-on. This goes back and forth and he REALLY needs this to go out. It's good GP (gross profit) PLUS a $300 drop fee. He says he called my manager and left it up to me.
Not. I CAN make such decisions, but, I am not about to create animosity with my manager if I decide to do something that he doesn't want to get involved with. I call him. He clearly does not want me doing all of this. I get why: if a delivery comes up locally, I am unavailable. I talk to the main branch manager - his CDL A drivers are out and won't be back for quite a while. This delivery has 40 foot sections of pipe, the only way that can be transported is on a semi and that requires CDL Class A drivers.
Normally, I would jump at such an opportunity. I did not sleep last night. I mean, if I got a couple of hours, that was it. This stuff with these punk kids walking into my house with impunity and walking out with my stuff did not allow for sleep. I TRIED, but it was a vain attempt. Oh, how I wish I could CATCH THEM IN THE ACT. Those boys would NEVER forget that experience, trust me. There wouldn't be anything verbal about it, they would be inflicted with pain that only a hospital could repair in terms of the damages inflicted.
Normally, I would jump at such an opportunity to drive all over the place, today was not one of those days. Yup, I ended up doing it. Drove to Tucson, my mind enveloped with what is going on at my house, MORE theft/destruction? 3rd time's a charm, if this happens a 3rd time, I am going to hunt all 3 of these people down and I will deal with this myself.
Got there, got the pipe loaded up. Started driving - 2-1/2 hours worth to get up into the mountains where the mine is to deliver the pipe. Halfway there? I was nodding out. I pulled over the side of the highway and took 10 minutes of my 30 minute break. I know, a 10 minute nap, what possible good could that do? It cleared my mind, it removed the extreme desire to go to bed and I got up to the mine. An hour and a half in the mine to deliver this stuff. No fast process there, never is.
Another hour and a half after leaving there and I was back in Chandler. I was so tired, I didn't even want to drive home. It's still quite warm and I won't be getting the AC fixed on my car anytime soon - other things are now taking precedence and I have already survived an entire summer withou AC, a few more weeks isn't going to kill me. But I did not like the drive home. Got that over with, came into my house - the female trailer tenant was sitting in my living room, watching TV. I INVITED them to do so today, don't get me wrong. Having someone in here? Well, these people now know that NO-ONE should be here unless they LIVE here during the day. Well, night too, but that's my problem at that point. I gave them my cell number, the home phone is sitting there - if there is a problem,call me, if those kids show up, CALL THE POLICE.
It was, actually, a big relief to see her in my living room watching TV. When I walked in, she gave me a "report" of the day's activities and went back to the trailer. Let me just say that sitting in my living room has GOT to be better than sitting in that cramped trailer all day long.
That's it. If I don't hear from a detective soon, I will be making as many phone calls as it takes to make sure that I DO hear from one. That isn't going to happen today - I am wasted tired. Another hour at best and I'm going to bed. I did, however, leave a note for JD, the oldest black brother (the ONLY good on in the bunch) to give to his brother that was involved in this: bring back my stuff, ALL of it or face juvi/jail. Anthony plays Playstation 3, he stole it, it's good probability that he didn't pawn/sell/trade it for drugs. They probably have it somewhere. Not for SURE, of course, but the possibility does exist. The gun? Reported to Phoenix police, but remember, in AZ, guns are NOT registered. Nope, they are not. We are in the wild, wild west and can now carry around concealed firearms without a permit.
As for the Colt 38 Long Barrel? Good luck. I have read enough reports of those things being very dangerous to actually use. I have searched ammo sites that show they don't have that ammo available. It is only a show piece, it really isn't useful as a weapon to commit a crime unless a person only intends on using the thing to "show" that you have a gun that you cannot actually use. I dunno, these kids are pretty - dumb.
I'm done.
G'nite.
ben
I get in the office there and the inside salesman is telling me about the delivery - a trip to Tucson to pick up some pipe and then up to Miami. This was NOT what my manager had stated, I was supposed to go to a vendor only 2 miles away to get an add-on. This goes back and forth and he REALLY needs this to go out. It's good GP (gross profit) PLUS a $300 drop fee. He says he called my manager and left it up to me.
Not. I CAN make such decisions, but, I am not about to create animosity with my manager if I decide to do something that he doesn't want to get involved with. I call him. He clearly does not want me doing all of this. I get why: if a delivery comes up locally, I am unavailable. I talk to the main branch manager - his CDL A drivers are out and won't be back for quite a while. This delivery has 40 foot sections of pipe, the only way that can be transported is on a semi and that requires CDL Class A drivers.
Normally, I would jump at such an opportunity. I did not sleep last night. I mean, if I got a couple of hours, that was it. This stuff with these punk kids walking into my house with impunity and walking out with my stuff did not allow for sleep. I TRIED, but it was a vain attempt. Oh, how I wish I could CATCH THEM IN THE ACT. Those boys would NEVER forget that experience, trust me. There wouldn't be anything verbal about it, they would be inflicted with pain that only a hospital could repair in terms of the damages inflicted.
Normally, I would jump at such an opportunity to drive all over the place, today was not one of those days. Yup, I ended up doing it. Drove to Tucson, my mind enveloped with what is going on at my house, MORE theft/destruction? 3rd time's a charm, if this happens a 3rd time, I am going to hunt all 3 of these people down and I will deal with this myself.
Got there, got the pipe loaded up. Started driving - 2-1/2 hours worth to get up into the mountains where the mine is to deliver the pipe. Halfway there? I was nodding out. I pulled over the side of the highway and took 10 minutes of my 30 minute break. I know, a 10 minute nap, what possible good could that do? It cleared my mind, it removed the extreme desire to go to bed and I got up to the mine. An hour and a half in the mine to deliver this stuff. No fast process there, never is.
Another hour and a half after leaving there and I was back in Chandler. I was so tired, I didn't even want to drive home. It's still quite warm and I won't be getting the AC fixed on my car anytime soon - other things are now taking precedence and I have already survived an entire summer withou AC, a few more weeks isn't going to kill me. But I did not like the drive home. Got that over with, came into my house - the female trailer tenant was sitting in my living room, watching TV. I INVITED them to do so today, don't get me wrong. Having someone in here? Well, these people now know that NO-ONE should be here unless they LIVE here during the day. Well, night too, but that's my problem at that point. I gave them my cell number, the home phone is sitting there - if there is a problem,call me, if those kids show up, CALL THE POLICE.
It was, actually, a big relief to see her in my living room watching TV. When I walked in, she gave me a "report" of the day's activities and went back to the trailer. Let me just say that sitting in my living room has GOT to be better than sitting in that cramped trailer all day long.
That's it. If I don't hear from a detective soon, I will be making as many phone calls as it takes to make sure that I DO hear from one. That isn't going to happen today - I am wasted tired. Another hour at best and I'm going to bed. I did, however, leave a note for JD, the oldest black brother (the ONLY good on in the bunch) to give to his brother that was involved in this: bring back my stuff, ALL of it or face juvi/jail. Anthony plays Playstation 3, he stole it, it's good probability that he didn't pawn/sell/trade it for drugs. They probably have it somewhere. Not for SURE, of course, but the possibility does exist. The gun? Reported to Phoenix police, but remember, in AZ, guns are NOT registered. Nope, they are not. We are in the wild, wild west and can now carry around concealed firearms without a permit.
As for the Colt 38 Long Barrel? Good luck. I have read enough reports of those things being very dangerous to actually use. I have searched ammo sites that show they don't have that ammo available. It is only a show piece, it really isn't useful as a weapon to commit a crime unless a person only intends on using the thing to "show" that you have a gun that you cannot actually use. I dunno, these kids are pretty - dumb.
I'm done.
G'nite.
ben
Tuesday
Tuesday
House broken into AGAIN. Came home from work yesterday to find the lock on the gate missing. We don't usually lock it, it' just there to remind people to make sure the gate is latched shut so the dogs won't get out.
I go to the trailer tenant's door, the woman is home, the guy is not. She starts telling me about a pickup truck that had been parked out side - on and on. I go in the house, nothing out of place. I go in my bedroom - closet door has a gaping hole in it. 38 long nose revolver missing. About $100 in change - gone.
I go back out and ask if she had seen anyone coming onto the property. No. I noticed the east door of my house - someone had tried to come through it as it was not sealed shut. No-one can go through there without busting the door down: it has a double deadbolt on it. Meaning you have to use a key to get in OR out.
I start going through video surveillance. What looks like teenagers. 3 of them. They have winter coats on (it was 103 degrees out yesterday). They are using the coats to shield their faces. They walk onto the property with impunity, into my house. These kids know where the cameras are, they know the dogs, they know everything.
I get all the points where they're seen coming in down on paper so I can show the police and proceed to call. Trailer tenant guy comes back and now we're all discussing this situation. They had thought that I was allowing these kids to be in my house while not home and didn't want to interfere. Not. Now, they are going to call the police and me if these kids show up again.
Police show up. I show him (one officer) the destroyed door, the missing gun, the video surveillance. We get into a conversation about - Great Danes actually since 2 of them were standing there in his face, another dog lover. The videos do not show the faces of these individuals, but I had a good guess on one of them: one of the black brothers from down the street.
I inform the officer that the guy down the street has video surveillance ON the street and perhaps his might have caught something. He leaves, goes down there and is there quite a while. Another long conversation with the trailer tenants, if they want to help out, great: someone shows up on the property that doesn't belong there, tell them to leave, or, call me, or call the police or call both.
I go back inside. I never had the chance to go through video AFTER these people leave. I wish I would have before police left, because I now have 3 names of 3 individuals who took both the Playstation 3 and other console and my gun and change.
ANTHONY. One of the female tenants is walking in the door while they're walking out. She had no idea what they were doing and thought it was okay that they were there since she recognized one of the boys, one of the black brothers from down the street.
I went and knocked on her door and asked who she had seen. Sure enough, it was Anthony, back to his old ways, just stealing me blind. I look at another camera, they weren't trying to hide anymore, apparently they knew they were ID'ed they were standing in front of the camera full blown view.
I called the police - they were going to have someone call me back. Yeah, well it was after I went to bed that they called me back. They informed me I would have to speak with the officer that had showed up and gave me the number for the precinct he works in. I was out of it, I couldn't do anymore of this. Well, then my son calls. I had left him a message much earlier.
He's furious. Darnell - one of the black brothers that lives 6 houses down from me - clearly identifiable - coming in and stealing the PS3. I'm going to have to calm him down before he come back over on Friday as his sole intent at this point is to go down and "visit" with Darnell.
Oh, and I forgot. I was looking for the 3rd kid - I know the general area he lives in - driving around in my car. There is Darnell on a bicycle riding around as if nothing happened. I stopped the car and started yelling at him. He starts to deny everything "YOU ARE ON MY VIDEO SURVEILLANCE". He starts fingering the blame: Anthony and Drey. Great, where does Drey live? He says he doesn't know. LIAR. We went back and forth.
I left it at this: I CATCH you guys on my property and you are going to be in a WORLD of HURT". But it isn't going to end there, it was enough to scare the pee out of him letting him know that I not only know who did this stuff but also have an eye witness PLUS surveillance.
Last night, I left a note for JD to take home to his brother. JD is the oldest black brother and he is NOTHING like either of his 3 younger brothers. He is straight as an arrow and wouldn't think of stealing from anyone. The message basically said tell me where Anthony is staying and where Drey lives, otherwise you are an accomplice to burglary, theft and willful destruction of personal property.
This kid has already been in trouble and in Juvi before, to get busted with something like will put him back in there for a much longer period of time. The threat of that should be enough.
I'm wasted tired. I basically didn't sleep last night. I feel like crap. I'd LIKE to go home, park my car somewhere else and make it appear as if I'm not there. Those kids had the gall to ask the tenant that saw them walking out of the house "what time do you get off of work?" - meaning, they apparently feel free to come back again!
How do you stop people doing this s***? 2 ways: legally or vigilante. I'm trying legally because, of course, vigilante is not legal. I will say that if I CATCH Anthony or any of them on my property, he will be spending some quality time in a hospital before getting transferred to jail. I have the legal right to defend home and property.
As for the gun, it is an old style revolver like they used to use 50 years ago - in fact, is something like 40 or 50 years old. It takes some kind of special ammo that you have to order, regular 38 ammo does NOT work in that gun. Not only that, those guns apparently can be dangerous to use and can backfire in your face (hence the fact that I never got ammo for it, just a nice collector's piece).
Work day is here, gotta get off.
House broken into AGAIN. Came home from work yesterday to find the lock on the gate missing. We don't usually lock it, it' just there to remind people to make sure the gate is latched shut so the dogs won't get out.
I go to the trailer tenant's door, the woman is home, the guy is not. She starts telling me about a pickup truck that had been parked out side - on and on. I go in the house, nothing out of place. I go in my bedroom - closet door has a gaping hole in it. 38 long nose revolver missing. About $100 in change - gone.
I go back out and ask if she had seen anyone coming onto the property. No. I noticed the east door of my house - someone had tried to come through it as it was not sealed shut. No-one can go through there without busting the door down: it has a double deadbolt on it. Meaning you have to use a key to get in OR out.
I start going through video surveillance. What looks like teenagers. 3 of them. They have winter coats on (it was 103 degrees out yesterday). They are using the coats to shield their faces. They walk onto the property with impunity, into my house. These kids know where the cameras are, they know the dogs, they know everything.
I get all the points where they're seen coming in down on paper so I can show the police and proceed to call. Trailer tenant guy comes back and now we're all discussing this situation. They had thought that I was allowing these kids to be in my house while not home and didn't want to interfere. Not. Now, they are going to call the police and me if these kids show up again.
Police show up. I show him (one officer) the destroyed door, the missing gun, the video surveillance. We get into a conversation about - Great Danes actually since 2 of them were standing there in his face, another dog lover. The videos do not show the faces of these individuals, but I had a good guess on one of them: one of the black brothers from down the street.
I inform the officer that the guy down the street has video surveillance ON the street and perhaps his might have caught something. He leaves, goes down there and is there quite a while. Another long conversation with the trailer tenants, if they want to help out, great: someone shows up on the property that doesn't belong there, tell them to leave, or, call me, or call the police or call both.
I go back inside. I never had the chance to go through video AFTER these people leave. I wish I would have before police left, because I now have 3 names of 3 individuals who took both the Playstation 3 and other console and my gun and change.
ANTHONY. One of the female tenants is walking in the door while they're walking out. She had no idea what they were doing and thought it was okay that they were there since she recognized one of the boys, one of the black brothers from down the street.
I went and knocked on her door and asked who she had seen. Sure enough, it was Anthony, back to his old ways, just stealing me blind. I look at another camera, they weren't trying to hide anymore, apparently they knew they were ID'ed they were standing in front of the camera full blown view.
I called the police - they were going to have someone call me back. Yeah, well it was after I went to bed that they called me back. They informed me I would have to speak with the officer that had showed up and gave me the number for the precinct he works in. I was out of it, I couldn't do anymore of this. Well, then my son calls. I had left him a message much earlier.
He's furious. Darnell - one of the black brothers that lives 6 houses down from me - clearly identifiable - coming in and stealing the PS3. I'm going to have to calm him down before he come back over on Friday as his sole intent at this point is to go down and "visit" with Darnell.
Oh, and I forgot. I was looking for the 3rd kid - I know the general area he lives in - driving around in my car. There is Darnell on a bicycle riding around as if nothing happened. I stopped the car and started yelling at him. He starts to deny everything "YOU ARE ON MY VIDEO SURVEILLANCE". He starts fingering the blame: Anthony and Drey. Great, where does Drey live? He says he doesn't know. LIAR. We went back and forth.
I left it at this: I CATCH you guys on my property and you are going to be in a WORLD of HURT". But it isn't going to end there, it was enough to scare the pee out of him letting him know that I not only know who did this stuff but also have an eye witness PLUS surveillance.
Last night, I left a note for JD to take home to his brother. JD is the oldest black brother and he is NOTHING like either of his 3 younger brothers. He is straight as an arrow and wouldn't think of stealing from anyone. The message basically said tell me where Anthony is staying and where Drey lives, otherwise you are an accomplice to burglary, theft and willful destruction of personal property.
This kid has already been in trouble and in Juvi before, to get busted with something like will put him back in there for a much longer period of time. The threat of that should be enough.
I'm wasted tired. I basically didn't sleep last night. I feel like crap. I'd LIKE to go home, park my car somewhere else and make it appear as if I'm not there. Those kids had the gall to ask the tenant that saw them walking out of the house "what time do you get off of work?" - meaning, they apparently feel free to come back again!
How do you stop people doing this s***? 2 ways: legally or vigilante. I'm trying legally because, of course, vigilante is not legal. I will say that if I CATCH Anthony or any of them on my property, he will be spending some quality time in a hospital before getting transferred to jail. I have the legal right to defend home and property.
As for the gun, it is an old style revolver like they used to use 50 years ago - in fact, is something like 40 or 50 years old. It takes some kind of special ammo that you have to order, regular 38 ammo does NOT work in that gun. Not only that, those guns apparently can be dangerous to use and can backfire in your face (hence the fact that I never got ammo for it, just a nice collector's piece).
Work day is here, gotta get off.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Monday
Monday
More potential information on the stolen electronics surfaced yesterday. You see, Caleb was VERY mad about that stuff being stolen - he had just spent about $150 on accessories for the Playstation. He figured one of the black brothers did it. Well, the oldest one still comes over at night and they had a little conversation.
Seems that another kid - one that I haven't seen in my neighborhood in quite a while, was seen walking down the street from my house the night that stuff disappeared. He has a warrant out for his arrest and has had for some time now - on the run as they like to call it. He is also a pure and total theif.
The oldest black brother stated to Caleb that THEIR X-Box 360 (about $300 plus accessories) was ALSO stolen the same night they saw him walking down the street from my house. They are all mad and - I don't doubt a kid's version of vigilante justice will be doled out.
I have 3 solid suspects and I am pretty sure I will never know who actually took the stuff. It's gone, it's gone. No use crying over spilt milk. I filed the police report, have to find out who is insuring my home today from the lender (I misplaced the info in my house somewhere), call them up and make a claim. They are probably going to want serial numbers so I will also have to call or write Sony.
Meanwhile, I am also going to call or write the house manufacturer and complain about this s*** I found in the walls with the water leak that is CLEARLY the fault of the person that installed the water lines onto that bathtub.
I have a very busy week with all of this going on and trying to finish that room so I can get it rented out again, plus still dealing with cockroach problems and trying to find someone to install a harmonic balancer on the old Buick plus trying to get that car running. Not to mention work. Lol.
Well, work day approaches and there is actually stuff to do in the truck routing system, plus I was looking on ebay to buy a playstation 3 that I cannot afford - however - my son is basically going to "help out" with it.
Anyway, I'm outta here.
G'day.
ben
More potential information on the stolen electronics surfaced yesterday. You see, Caleb was VERY mad about that stuff being stolen - he had just spent about $150 on accessories for the Playstation. He figured one of the black brothers did it. Well, the oldest one still comes over at night and they had a little conversation.
Seems that another kid - one that I haven't seen in my neighborhood in quite a while, was seen walking down the street from my house the night that stuff disappeared. He has a warrant out for his arrest and has had for some time now - on the run as they like to call it. He is also a pure and total theif.
The oldest black brother stated to Caleb that THEIR X-Box 360 (about $300 plus accessories) was ALSO stolen the same night they saw him walking down the street from my house. They are all mad and - I don't doubt a kid's version of vigilante justice will be doled out.
I have 3 solid suspects and I am pretty sure I will never know who actually took the stuff. It's gone, it's gone. No use crying over spilt milk. I filed the police report, have to find out who is insuring my home today from the lender (I misplaced the info in my house somewhere), call them up and make a claim. They are probably going to want serial numbers so I will also have to call or write Sony.
Meanwhile, I am also going to call or write the house manufacturer and complain about this s*** I found in the walls with the water leak that is CLEARLY the fault of the person that installed the water lines onto that bathtub.
I have a very busy week with all of this going on and trying to finish that room so I can get it rented out again, plus still dealing with cockroach problems and trying to find someone to install a harmonic balancer on the old Buick plus trying to get that car running. Not to mention work. Lol.
Well, work day approaches and there is actually stuff to do in the truck routing system, plus I was looking on ebay to buy a playstation 3 that I cannot afford - however - my son is basically going to "help out" with it.
Anyway, I'm outta here.
G'day.
ben
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Sunday
It's not nice to diss your own blog and not make entries.
Funny, I got in here this morning and it shows I have exactly 911 entries. Yesterday was 9/11. Just pure coincidence, but it was still interesting.
Anyway, I got started on the ex-Marine's room.
The first GLARING problem was the mold at one corner of the room. Upon closer inspection, I found the carpet to be wet. Pulled up the carpet, the padding also soaked and yes, mold covered. Floor was wet, portions of the drywall - wet. Okay, what the bleep is going on here?
I had thought maybe he had been spilled stuff off of the dresser that was there forever and a day, but, it was too wet to be that. The bathtub is directly on the other side of the wall from where the wetness is, THAT must be the problem.
Fun fun. This morning? I had to cut a hole in the drywall on the bedroom side to access the back of the water outlet array that fills up the tub or shoots water up to the shower head. No visible water leaks upon first examination. Turned on the shower - THERE. The fitting that holds the line going up to the shower head? Loose. A LOT of leakage. Everytime someone takes a shower in there, bam, water all over the floor under the tub and going through the walls.
Also UNBELIEVABLE. How does a house manufacturer install something like that without check to make sure it's leak free? The fitting was very loose. The application is to simply turn it by hand on these "new" plastic lines they are putting in homes nowadays. Well, it WASN'T hand tightened and I put the full responsibility for this squarely on the manufacturer's shoulders. THEY can come out here and replace drywall, a portion of the flooring and fix it right for FREE as far as I'm concerned.
I'm sure they'll have a different story, but this is total BS. There is no fault of mine or anyone else living in the home here, at all. They might try to say "time limits" are up or whatever, but when they start getting repeated phone calls from me, day after day, if it has to go that far, they might eventually decide to lubricate the squeaky wheel. So, now I have a hole in the wall, semi-rotted wood on the floor where all this was going on, wet drywall and a portion of the carpet that is ruined by mold.
I currently have a fan running in there, but everything is saturated. It will take days and days - at least - for all of that to dry out. Well, no choice in the matter. Meanwhile, I started painting the room, but the paint I bought was too cheap, it is not giving good coverage and will take forever to get it done. So, I am going to take the unopened gallon of paint back and spend the money for better paint and get it done on one coating, not 2.
I have a few people interested in renting the room, but, I can't do any of that until I get this water mess dealt with. I don't figure this to be done, frankly, until next weekend as I am not about to do anything else with that corner of the room until all of that is dried out.
First day of real NFL football. Not sure how much time I will have for any of that today, but there is a tv in the bedroom I am working on.
This isn't, btw, the half of what has been going on around here.
The day the Marine moves out, my Playstation 3 and my Nintendo Wii systems - $500 and $250 respectively, plus games, plus controllers, plus headset and whatever else - mysteriously disappeared. Going through video surveillance did not reveal him or anyone else carrying the thing out. However, that night (the night it could have disappeared), one of the female tenants had a guy over that I hadn't seen before. He was carrying a backpack. He was here, with her, all night long. In the morning, when he left, I got a good view through surveillance of his backpack, it was significantly more "filled up", in fact, crammed it appeared than when he walked in.
I called the Marine who flatly denied taking it (but then again, I wouldn't actually expect a person to admit something like that) and I called the tenant on it. She tried calling the guy - I guess she was going to make up some story about me throwing her out if my systems didn't reappear. No answer, she left and I haven't seen her since yesterday morning when I was dealing with all of this.
Meanwhile, I called the police. I know they aren't going to actually DO anything, but they will give me a police report. I am going to file a claim against my insurance. Even taking out the deductible, I will still get enough money back to buy my son another Playstation 3 - just get a used one and go it that way.
Onto another subject, my son hands me over $400 yesterday to fix the old Buick. Just handed it right over. Yup, I am going to get the issues with it fixed and he can drive that car until he doesn't want to drive it anymore. I gets decent gas mileage -22 in the city if you drive like a granny - it runs great and I figure those cars are good for 180,000 to 200,000 miles as I have seen them still cranking around the city with that much mileage on them. Mine has 130,000 on it. Just getting started : ) It needs a battery; a harmonic balancer; a rear wheel brake wheel cylinder, an oil change and that should do it. Rubber is still very good on it.
Yes, I have a lot on my plate right now, not the least of which is the fact that I have an empty room that is not bringing in money and it's not going to be done for probably another week. I don't really know, depends on how long it takes to dry all that out of there. However, the flip side is that my electric usage is going down, down, down as the high temps go down and I don't have half a dozen hungry teenaged mouths around here any more eating all of my food. Once a full month passes I can add up a month when they were here in visits to grocery stores and a month that they are not here and get a good idea of the savings - hundreds of dollars anyway. What I'm saying is that my expenses are down probably equal or close to the amount of money coming in from that room that is now vacated, so I think I can survive until I get someone else in there. That is, if the other 2 continue to pay on-time.
That's enough for one entry and I need to get moving anyway, there is just plain too much to do.
G'day.
ben
Funny, I got in here this morning and it shows I have exactly 911 entries. Yesterday was 9/11. Just pure coincidence, but it was still interesting.
Anyway, I got started on the ex-Marine's room.
The first GLARING problem was the mold at one corner of the room. Upon closer inspection, I found the carpet to be wet. Pulled up the carpet, the padding also soaked and yes, mold covered. Floor was wet, portions of the drywall - wet. Okay, what the bleep is going on here?
I had thought maybe he had been spilled stuff off of the dresser that was there forever and a day, but, it was too wet to be that. The bathtub is directly on the other side of the wall from where the wetness is, THAT must be the problem.
Fun fun. This morning? I had to cut a hole in the drywall on the bedroom side to access the back of the water outlet array that fills up the tub or shoots water up to the shower head. No visible water leaks upon first examination. Turned on the shower - THERE. The fitting that holds the line going up to the shower head? Loose. A LOT of leakage. Everytime someone takes a shower in there, bam, water all over the floor under the tub and going through the walls.
Also UNBELIEVABLE. How does a house manufacturer install something like that without check to make sure it's leak free? The fitting was very loose. The application is to simply turn it by hand on these "new" plastic lines they are putting in homes nowadays. Well, it WASN'T hand tightened and I put the full responsibility for this squarely on the manufacturer's shoulders. THEY can come out here and replace drywall, a portion of the flooring and fix it right for FREE as far as I'm concerned.
I'm sure they'll have a different story, but this is total BS. There is no fault of mine or anyone else living in the home here, at all. They might try to say "time limits" are up or whatever, but when they start getting repeated phone calls from me, day after day, if it has to go that far, they might eventually decide to lubricate the squeaky wheel. So, now I have a hole in the wall, semi-rotted wood on the floor where all this was going on, wet drywall and a portion of the carpet that is ruined by mold.
I currently have a fan running in there, but everything is saturated. It will take days and days - at least - for all of that to dry out. Well, no choice in the matter. Meanwhile, I started painting the room, but the paint I bought was too cheap, it is not giving good coverage and will take forever to get it done. So, I am going to take the unopened gallon of paint back and spend the money for better paint and get it done on one coating, not 2.
I have a few people interested in renting the room, but, I can't do any of that until I get this water mess dealt with. I don't figure this to be done, frankly, until next weekend as I am not about to do anything else with that corner of the room until all of that is dried out.
First day of real NFL football. Not sure how much time I will have for any of that today, but there is a tv in the bedroom I am working on.
This isn't, btw, the half of what has been going on around here.
The day the Marine moves out, my Playstation 3 and my Nintendo Wii systems - $500 and $250 respectively, plus games, plus controllers, plus headset and whatever else - mysteriously disappeared. Going through video surveillance did not reveal him or anyone else carrying the thing out. However, that night (the night it could have disappeared), one of the female tenants had a guy over that I hadn't seen before. He was carrying a backpack. He was here, with her, all night long. In the morning, when he left, I got a good view through surveillance of his backpack, it was significantly more "filled up", in fact, crammed it appeared than when he walked in.
I called the Marine who flatly denied taking it (but then again, I wouldn't actually expect a person to admit something like that) and I called the tenant on it. She tried calling the guy - I guess she was going to make up some story about me throwing her out if my systems didn't reappear. No answer, she left and I haven't seen her since yesterday morning when I was dealing with all of this.
Meanwhile, I called the police. I know they aren't going to actually DO anything, but they will give me a police report. I am going to file a claim against my insurance. Even taking out the deductible, I will still get enough money back to buy my son another Playstation 3 - just get a used one and go it that way.
Onto another subject, my son hands me over $400 yesterday to fix the old Buick. Just handed it right over. Yup, I am going to get the issues with it fixed and he can drive that car until he doesn't want to drive it anymore. I gets decent gas mileage -22 in the city if you drive like a granny - it runs great and I figure those cars are good for 180,000 to 200,000 miles as I have seen them still cranking around the city with that much mileage on them. Mine has 130,000 on it. Just getting started : ) It needs a battery; a harmonic balancer; a rear wheel brake wheel cylinder, an oil change and that should do it. Rubber is still very good on it.
Yes, I have a lot on my plate right now, not the least of which is the fact that I have an empty room that is not bringing in money and it's not going to be done for probably another week. I don't really know, depends on how long it takes to dry all that out of there. However, the flip side is that my electric usage is going down, down, down as the high temps go down and I don't have half a dozen hungry teenaged mouths around here any more eating all of my food. Once a full month passes I can add up a month when they were here in visits to grocery stores and a month that they are not here and get a good idea of the savings - hundreds of dollars anyway. What I'm saying is that my expenses are down probably equal or close to the amount of money coming in from that room that is now vacated, so I think I can survive until I get someone else in there. That is, if the other 2 continue to pay on-time.
That's enough for one entry and I need to get moving anyway, there is just plain too much to do.
G'day.
ben
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Thursday
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Thursday
Anonymous said...
Thursday
Crazy that it's Thursday already.
I have 2 people now intereted in the room. Unfortunately, their intended move-in date if they decided they like the place wouldn't be til' the first.
I'm sorta getting tired of people moving out at odd times during the month and am thinking about changing my move-out policy to reflect state law concerning the matter. My policy is FAR more lenient, hence no laws broken. I always just say "give me at least a week's advance notice", I'm considering saying something like move out at the end of any given month, month paid up.
Simply put, it is almost always easier to find people near the 1st of any next, given month than it is during the middle of it. Even simpler put - life would be so much easier if I didn't have to have tenants, period.
The Terrified Turtles are still - terrified. Lol. They crash into the water as soon as they see me, though the other day, one of them sat there staring at me for quite a while before he dived into the water.
There is a pond meeting (I think, gotta recheck) on Saturday. The meetings are neither interesting nor boring,I just go there for the free plants and if anyone brings some fish. I could use a serious dose of motivation in the digging department - though - I can't really do anything right now as the tire on the wheelbarrow is flat - again and this time I am not going to fix it. I will see if I can find a new tire, if not, I will have to get another wheelbarrow. I think cheap wheelbarrows aren't much more expensive, the point being, than a new tire. Ooops, I just remembered that I can probably stick a $5 inner tube in it and it will work fine. Well, I might just do that instead.
It's not as if I'm flowing with money here.
Wow. I haven't seen pirate news in a while. Way cool - U.S. marines board a ship and take control back from the pirates, subduing them without firing a single shot! Way to go, U.S. Marines!!!
Well, I was going to go into Obama, the Obamacare debacle, and the fact that now they are finally saying that this healthcare bill is NOT going to reduce costs as Obama (lied) declared, it is going to cause expenses to rise. Well no duhhhh. I mean, come on. When the government gets involved with ANYTHING, expect costs to triple. I'm still holding out hope Obamacare can be brought down, I'm not holding my breath but I still have some hope for it.
As for today, work day almost here, FINALLY something to do. Though, yesterday morning, I was up in far North Phoenix in the middle of the desert with a semi. When I turned down the "street" where they wanted me to deliver the stuff, I hesitated. It wasn't a street, more like a very narrow driveway winding around to ...... no idea. When I did turn in and got back in there, I was pretty much SOL'ed. It was going to be a LOT of back around a lot of turns. There was hardly room to unload the truck.
Well, when it finally was finished being unloaded, the non-english-speaking Hispanic worker of whom I had to use my now-dulled Spanish skills to understand what he wanted said he was going to have them build me a road, just give them a couple of minutes. ????
Sure enough, a loader and his backhoe went to work turning a huge mountain of dirt into a road that went way up and came back down again. The soil, however, was not compacted and I hesitated again about driving the rig over that stuff, but the alternative was about 1,000 feet of backing, so I went for it. Nice ride, got over it, to the end where they had rocks down to clean your tires - and the truck got stuck in the rocks. I had to sit there for half an hour digging out rocks.
But I did get it out : ) A nice old lady who saw my plight came out with a shovel. The house? Well in "good" times probably a million dollar home : )
G'day.
ben
Thursday
Anonymous said...
Thursday
Crazy that it's Thursday already.
I have 2 people now intereted in the room. Unfortunately, their intended move-in date if they decided they like the place wouldn't be til' the first.
I'm sorta getting tired of people moving out at odd times during the month and am thinking about changing my move-out policy to reflect state law concerning the matter. My policy is FAR more lenient, hence no laws broken. I always just say "give me at least a week's advance notice", I'm considering saying something like move out at the end of any given month, month paid up.
Simply put, it is almost always easier to find people near the 1st of any next, given month than it is during the middle of it. Even simpler put - life would be so much easier if I didn't have to have tenants, period.
The Terrified Turtles are still - terrified. Lol. They crash into the water as soon as they see me, though the other day, one of them sat there staring at me for quite a while before he dived into the water.
There is a pond meeting (I think, gotta recheck) on Saturday. The meetings are neither interesting nor boring,I just go there for the free plants and if anyone brings some fish. I could use a serious dose of motivation in the digging department - though - I can't really do anything right now as the tire on the wheelbarrow is flat - again and this time I am not going to fix it. I will see if I can find a new tire, if not, I will have to get another wheelbarrow. I think cheap wheelbarrows aren't much more expensive, the point being, than a new tire. Ooops, I just remembered that I can probably stick a $5 inner tube in it and it will work fine. Well, I might just do that instead.
It's not as if I'm flowing with money here.
Wow. I haven't seen pirate news in a while. Way cool - U.S. marines board a ship and take control back from the pirates, subduing them without firing a single shot! Way to go, U.S. Marines!!!
Well, I was going to go into Obama, the Obamacare debacle, and the fact that now they are finally saying that this healthcare bill is NOT going to reduce costs as Obama (lied) declared, it is going to cause expenses to rise. Well no duhhhh. I mean, come on. When the government gets involved with ANYTHING, expect costs to triple. I'm still holding out hope Obamacare can be brought down, I'm not holding my breath but I still have some hope for it.
As for today, work day almost here, FINALLY something to do. Though, yesterday morning, I was up in far North Phoenix in the middle of the desert with a semi. When I turned down the "street" where they wanted me to deliver the stuff, I hesitated. It wasn't a street, more like a very narrow driveway winding around to ...... no idea. When I did turn in and got back in there, I was pretty much SOL'ed. It was going to be a LOT of back around a lot of turns. There was hardly room to unload the truck.
Well, when it finally was finished being unloaded, the non-english-speaking Hispanic worker of whom I had to use my now-dulled Spanish skills to understand what he wanted said he was going to have them build me a road, just give them a couple of minutes. ????
Sure enough, a loader and his backhoe went to work turning a huge mountain of dirt into a road that went way up and came back down again. The soil, however, was not compacted and I hesitated again about driving the rig over that stuff, but the alternative was about 1,000 feet of backing, so I went for it. Nice ride, got over it, to the end where they had rocks down to clean your tires - and the truck got stuck in the rocks. I had to sit there for half an hour digging out rocks.
But I did get it out : ) A nice old lady who saw my plight came out with a shovel. The house? Well in "good" times probably a million dollar home : )
G'day.
ben
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Thursday
Anonymous said...
Thursday
Crazy that it's Thursday already.
I have 2 people now intereted in the room. Unfortunately, their intended move-in date if they decided they like the place wouldn't be til' the first.
I'm sorta getting tired of people moving out at odd times during the month and am thinking about changing my move-out policy to reflect state law concerning the matter. My policy is FAR more lenient, hence no laws broken. I always just say "give me at least a week's advance notice", I'm considering saying something like move out at the end of any given month, month paid up.
Simply put, it is almost always easier to find people near the 1st of any next, given month than it is during the middle of it. Even simpler put - life would be so much easier if I didn't have to have tenants, period.
The Terrified Turtles are still - terrified. Lol. They crash into the water as soon as they see me, though the other day, one of them sat there staring at me for quite a while before he dived into the water.
There is a pond meeting (I think, gotta recheck) on Saturday. The meetings are neither interesting nor boring,I just go there for the free plants and if anyone brings some fish. I could use a serious dose of motivation in the digging department - though - I can't really do anything right now as the tire on the wheelbarrow is flat - again and this time I am not going to fix it. I will see if I can find a new tire, if not, I will have to get another wheelbarrow. I think cheap wheelbarrows aren't much more expensive, the point being, than a new tire. Ooops, I just remembered that I can probably stick a $5 inner tube in it and it will work fine. Well, I might just do that instead.
It's not as if I'm flowing with money here.
Wow. I haven't seen pirate news in a while. Way cool - U.S. marines board a ship and take control back from the pirates, subduing them without firing a single shot! Way to go, U.S. Marines!!!
Well, I was going to go into Obama, the Obamacare debacle, and the fact that now they are finally saying that this healthcare bill is NOT going to reduce costs as Obama (lied) declared, it is going to cause expenses to rise. Well no duhhhh. I mean, come on. When the government gets involved with ANYTHING, expect costs to triple. I'm still holding out hope Obamacare can be brought down, I'm not holding my breath but I still have some hope for it.
As for today, work day almost here, FINALLY something to do. Though, yesterday morning, I was up in far North Phoenix in the middle of the desert with a semi. When I turned down the "street" where they wanted me to deliver the stuff, I hesitated. It wasn't a street, more like a very narrow driveway winding around to ...... no idea. When I did turn in and got back in there, I was pretty much SOL'ed. It was going to be a LOT of back around a lot of turns. There was hardly room to unload the truck.
Well, when it finally was finished being unloaded, the non-english-speaking Hispanic worker of whom I had to use my now-dulled Spanish skills to understand what he wanted said he was going to have them build me a road, just give them a couple of minutes. ????
Sure enough, a loader and his backhoe went to work turning a huge mountain of dirt into a road that went way up and came back down again. The soil, however, was not compacted and I hesitated again about driving the rig over that stuff, but the alternative was about 1,000 feet of backing, so I went for it. Nice ride, got over it, to the end where they had rocks down to clean your tires - and the truck got stuck in the rocks. I had to sit there for half an hour digging out rocks.
But I did get it out : ) A nice old lady who saw my plight came out with a shovel. The house? Well in "good" times probably a million dollar home : )
G'day.
ben
Thursday
Crazy that it's Thursday already.
I have 2 people now intereted in the room. Unfortunately, their intended move-in date if they decided they like the place wouldn't be til' the first.
I'm sorta getting tired of people moving out at odd times during the month and am thinking about changing my move-out policy to reflect state law concerning the matter. My policy is FAR more lenient, hence no laws broken. I always just say "give me at least a week's advance notice", I'm considering saying something like move out at the end of any given month, month paid up.
Simply put, it is almost always easier to find people near the 1st of any next, given month than it is during the middle of it. Even simpler put - life would be so much easier if I didn't have to have tenants, period.
The Terrified Turtles are still - terrified. Lol. They crash into the water as soon as they see me, though the other day, one of them sat there staring at me for quite a while before he dived into the water.
There is a pond meeting (I think, gotta recheck) on Saturday. The meetings are neither interesting nor boring,I just go there for the free plants and if anyone brings some fish. I could use a serious dose of motivation in the digging department - though - I can't really do anything right now as the tire on the wheelbarrow is flat - again and this time I am not going to fix it. I will see if I can find a new tire, if not, I will have to get another wheelbarrow. I think cheap wheelbarrows aren't much more expensive, the point being, than a new tire. Ooops, I just remembered that I can probably stick a $5 inner tube in it and it will work fine. Well, I might just do that instead.
It's not as if I'm flowing with money here.
Wow. I haven't seen pirate news in a while. Way cool - U.S. marines board a ship and take control back from the pirates, subduing them without firing a single shot! Way to go, U.S. Marines!!!
Well, I was going to go into Obama, the Obamacare debacle, and the fact that now they are finally saying that this healthcare bill is NOT going to reduce costs as Obama (lied) declared, it is going to cause expenses to rise. Well no duhhhh. I mean, come on. When the government gets involved with ANYTHING, expect costs to triple. I'm still holding out hope Obamacare can be brought down, I'm not holding my breath but I still have some hope for it.
As for today, work day almost here, FINALLY something to do. Though, yesterday morning, I was up in far North Phoenix in the middle of the desert with a semi. When I turned down the "street" where they wanted me to deliver the stuff, I hesitated. It wasn't a street, more like a very narrow driveway winding around to ...... no idea. When I did turn in and got back in there, I was pretty much SOL'ed. It was going to be a LOT of back around a lot of turns. There was hardly room to unload the truck.
Well, when it finally was finished being unloaded, the non-english-speaking Hispanic worker of whom I had to use my now-dulled Spanish skills to understand what he wanted said he was going to have them build me a road, just give them a couple of minutes. ????
Sure enough, a loader and his backhoe went to work turning a huge mountain of dirt into a road that went way up and came back down again. The soil, however, was not compacted and I hesitated again about driving the rig over that stuff, but the alternative was about 1,000 feet of backing, so I went for it. Nice ride, got over it, to the end where they had rocks down to clean your tires - and the truck got stuck in the rocks. I had to sit there for half an hour digging out rocks.
But I did get it out : ) A nice old lady who saw my plight came out with a shovel. The house? Well in "good" times probably a million dollar home : )
G'day.
ben
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Various Things
My computer is slowly dying. I was trying to remember exactly when we got this thing - it's either 11 or 12 years old. It has had constant, daily use for all of that time. I have done several hardware upgrades to it. The original cd's with the drivers and such that came with it were stolen several years ago now and everytime I have to reinstall windows, I have to go to Dell's site, find the drivers and reinstall them.
But it is getting harder. There are several issues with Dell's drivers and Microsoft in attempting to reinstall the drivers. I have heard I can ask Dell to send me the original drivers on CD's and I may just try that, but, it is so old I don't wonder if they'll tell me to - go blow.
I have had recurrent problems on this machine today to the point I reformatted the hard drive and reinstall Windows XP AGAIN, after just having had done that a few days ago.
I simply don't have the money to go buy a new computer. My patience is wearing very thin with this one.
No idea, really, what to do.
The non-paying tenant of whom I left a hand written notice under her door this morning and came home armed with an official 5-day notice after work today - FINALLY left me money on my computer desk. She actually got caught up to this week. I was quite amazed. I was also quite irritated this morning after coming out of my bedroom, seeing that she finally returned (her bedroom light was on) and had not left me anything. At work this morning, I was consumed by it - get rid of her.
Good thing - I have several payments either due or coming up that I cannot afford without having tenants paying me, plus the Marine moving out by the weekend and trying to get another tenant in here, it gets to be a bit much. In fact, it gets to be totally intolerable. Yet, this week, the trailer tenants should be handing me a month's rent and I get paid. On Monday - well probably Tuesday - the other female tenant should be giving me the first half of this month's rent. Yes, I am on her time concerning that, but as long as I get it every 2 weeks I don't care.
Umm, so - my biggest challenge right now is to get another tenant in here, even though the room isn't empty.
As for the computer - well - I don't know of any way to get one excepting to make payments on one, a thing I am very reluctant to get myself into right now.
Sometimes I just sit here and wonder how it is that life is going the way it is. Other times I sit here and think life is grand. I dunno where I am at right now, but it is neither of those things and probably below the former. I get tired of fighting with the issues of life sometimes. I just mean with other people and their lack of respect or sense of responsibility to take care of things that are theirs to deal with. There are "small" irritants around here as well that add up. Like one particular person that uses enough toilet paper in one day for 8 people. Seriously - how often do you see a 1,000 sheet roll of toilet paper just disappear in one day's time? Took a while to figure out who was doing that one..............
I think I'll shut my mouth and go to bed.
G'nite.
ben
But it is getting harder. There are several issues with Dell's drivers and Microsoft in attempting to reinstall the drivers. I have heard I can ask Dell to send me the original drivers on CD's and I may just try that, but, it is so old I don't wonder if they'll tell me to - go blow.
I have had recurrent problems on this machine today to the point I reformatted the hard drive and reinstall Windows XP AGAIN, after just having had done that a few days ago.
I simply don't have the money to go buy a new computer. My patience is wearing very thin with this one.
No idea, really, what to do.
The non-paying tenant of whom I left a hand written notice under her door this morning and came home armed with an official 5-day notice after work today - FINALLY left me money on my computer desk. She actually got caught up to this week. I was quite amazed. I was also quite irritated this morning after coming out of my bedroom, seeing that she finally returned (her bedroom light was on) and had not left me anything. At work this morning, I was consumed by it - get rid of her.
Good thing - I have several payments either due or coming up that I cannot afford without having tenants paying me, plus the Marine moving out by the weekend and trying to get another tenant in here, it gets to be a bit much. In fact, it gets to be totally intolerable. Yet, this week, the trailer tenants should be handing me a month's rent and I get paid. On Monday - well probably Tuesday - the other female tenant should be giving me the first half of this month's rent. Yes, I am on her time concerning that, but as long as I get it every 2 weeks I don't care.
Umm, so - my biggest challenge right now is to get another tenant in here, even though the room isn't empty.
As for the computer - well - I don't know of any way to get one excepting to make payments on one, a thing I am very reluctant to get myself into right now.
Sometimes I just sit here and wonder how it is that life is going the way it is. Other times I sit here and think life is grand. I dunno where I am at right now, but it is neither of those things and probably below the former. I get tired of fighting with the issues of life sometimes. I just mean with other people and their lack of respect or sense of responsibility to take care of things that are theirs to deal with. There are "small" irritants around here as well that add up. Like one particular person that uses enough toilet paper in one day for 8 people. Seriously - how often do you see a 1,000 sheet roll of toilet paper just disappear in one day's time? Took a while to figure out who was doing that one..............
I think I'll shut my mouth and go to bed.
G'nite.
ben
Wednesday
Wednesday
I woke up last night to go to the bathroom and heard the washing machine running at 2:00 am. The really-behind-in-rent woman returned. I had hoped that she would have left some money out as she "normally" does, she did not. I left her a rather blunt notice this morning: Pay up or vacate the premises, immediately.
I am tending to get a bit crankier and short with people whose last priority is having a roof over there head, as evidenced by their lack of paying any rent and yet going out of town with friends or boyfriends/whatever all over the place. I was going to give her the 5-day notice yesterday, but my bad, I forgot to take it home with me from work.
That WON'T be happening today. I no longer tolerate people just dragging it out for over a month or even longer while I sit there and watch them consume electricity, water and use of my room for - nothing.
My 2 cents on border security. If WHATEVER administration that is in control wanted to, the border could be secure. That's just the plain fact of it. Misses Mouth Napolitano says the border cannot "ever be completely sealed" - which means to me from what I am reading and hearing, if you can't seal it, why bother at all?
The fact of the matter is, if we dumped enough personnel down there, the tide of people coming in would be dramatically reduced. I don't see other nations having NEAR the problem we are having with it because many line their borders with military or whatever means they use to keep people OUT of their country that don't belong there.
But, then again, some of those countries, who WANTS to go there, anyway? I would FAR rather see a huge dumping of Border Patrol agents and Guard personnel down on the borders than having us stay in Afghanistan for - ever? I'll say it again: Let's get the BLEEP..... OUT....of Afghanistan. I FULLY support our troops over there, in fact, I go to the other end of the scale here, what is the point of them dying on a daily basis in this war for a bunch of people who don't WANT to change? They have lived like that over there for centuries - LET THEM STAY THAT WAY, it's their choice!
Enough. My mind is pretty full right now with this tenant that is spending her money on everything BUT rent. That just makes me mad. I have to get myself calmed down before I go home from work today, cause' if I don't, I'll probably let that person have a piece of my mind and that, probably, will be rather ugly, indeed.
I just don't get people who will pay their phone bill or go out on the town or whatever and attempt to skip paying the rent? Do you get it? I've seen enough of these people of which I have VERY little patience.
Well, work day approaches and I need a different mind-frame going here, so I'm ending this one.
G'day.
ben
I woke up last night to go to the bathroom and heard the washing machine running at 2:00 am. The really-behind-in-rent woman returned. I had hoped that she would have left some money out as she "normally" does, she did not. I left her a rather blunt notice this morning: Pay up or vacate the premises, immediately.
I am tending to get a bit crankier and short with people whose last priority is having a roof over there head, as evidenced by their lack of paying any rent and yet going out of town with friends or boyfriends/whatever all over the place. I was going to give her the 5-day notice yesterday, but my bad, I forgot to take it home with me from work.
That WON'T be happening today. I no longer tolerate people just dragging it out for over a month or even longer while I sit there and watch them consume electricity, water and use of my room for - nothing.
My 2 cents on border security. If WHATEVER administration that is in control wanted to, the border could be secure. That's just the plain fact of it. Misses Mouth Napolitano says the border cannot "ever be completely sealed" - which means to me from what I am reading and hearing, if you can't seal it, why bother at all?
The fact of the matter is, if we dumped enough personnel down there, the tide of people coming in would be dramatically reduced. I don't see other nations having NEAR the problem we are having with it because many line their borders with military or whatever means they use to keep people OUT of their country that don't belong there.
But, then again, some of those countries, who WANTS to go there, anyway? I would FAR rather see a huge dumping of Border Patrol agents and Guard personnel down on the borders than having us stay in Afghanistan for - ever? I'll say it again: Let's get the BLEEP..... OUT....of Afghanistan. I FULLY support our troops over there, in fact, I go to the other end of the scale here, what is the point of them dying on a daily basis in this war for a bunch of people who don't WANT to change? They have lived like that over there for centuries - LET THEM STAY THAT WAY, it's their choice!
Enough. My mind is pretty full right now with this tenant that is spending her money on everything BUT rent. That just makes me mad. I have to get myself calmed down before I go home from work today, cause' if I don't, I'll probably let that person have a piece of my mind and that, probably, will be rather ugly, indeed.
I just don't get people who will pay their phone bill or go out on the town or whatever and attempt to skip paying the rent? Do you get it? I've seen enough of these people of which I have VERY little patience.
Well, work day approaches and I need a different mind-frame going here, so I'm ending this one.
G'day.
ben
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Tuesday
Face it, Obama, you've HAD your chance - more than once - and you blew it - like a trillion dollars worth of blown. He's in the news again wanting to do this, that and the other thing. It's SOLELY a political move. If the polls are any good indicator, Obama's hands are going to be TIED in November and this outrageous spending spree will, hopefully, be put to a STOP.
My new pond plants. Well, I have no idea what most of them are called. I called them free when I picked them up, and sure enough, that was their new names. Seriously, though, I got 5 different varieties of plants plus I got 2 water lillies. Lillies are usually expensive, these are very small but give them time and they will grow in to mammoths.
I was busy out there planting yesterday plus starting the rather arudous process of going through every drawer and cabinet in the kitchen, cleaning out with bleach and putting roach prufe along the walls and crevices and things. I will try to get rid of these things myself just because I don't happen to have $150 sitting around for yet another exterminator routine.
But, rest assured, I will find that money somewhere and I WILL pay if I can't get rid of them with the roach prufe - I simply do NOT co-habitate with cockroaches. I will spend the next several days going through bathrooms, finishing the kitchen, pulling switch and electrical covers over the wall and dumping that stuff in there. I did get rid of an infestation once with this stuff - took about 3 weeks.
Let's face facts: a non-paying tenant and one moving out is going to cause me some serious financial dilemnas in the next coming days and I have no choice but to cut back on anything that I don't absolutely have to have.
The non paying woman GOT her money and disappeared. If I don't have money in hand today from her, she's getting the 5-day notice and I will tell her to her face to get her stuff and get out of my house. She has now gone on 2 vacations, she is not looking for a job that I can see, she gets unemployment but I am suspicious that she is using meth.
I have had confirmation of meth use from a while back from my next door neighbor - the used car dude - that called me out of the blue and declared that he is returning in a couple of weeks and is that woman still there? He likes her - he likes anything that moves that is female and human, to be more precise.
So, I have a CL ad running and will run it at the current rate for a couple of more days, if no bites then I will reduce it by about $30 and see if that gets any takers.
I HATE being interrupted in the morning before work. On Fridays it's the DC truck, on Tuesdays (today) it's the Cintas truck. The Cintas dude is cool, no doubt, but I am focused on morning rituals at this time of day.
Anyway, there is nothing, again, to do in the truck routing system. Oh how I hate days when you have to invent things to do, and in the last month there has been a LOT of that. This is why I agree with the company reducing hours on hourly employees - staying around 7 hours when there's nothing to do is bad enough, 8? Well, I would definitely do it for the money, no doubting that.
So, life in the normal-for-me lane. I will say that I am quite happy that all of these kids are gone, out of my house and not eating my food, making messes and generally wasting electricity. My son and the oldest black kid are the only ones left - the black kid comes late at night to get on the internet, they don't have it. I don't care as long as he behaves, which he always does.
Work day approaches. OPs manager says he wants to go over with me about attempting to sell all this irrigation stuff on Craigslist. Only if he's going to give cut throat discounts will that stuff sell on Craigslist, dunno yet what he proposes, but the stuff is here, has BEEN here and almost the only people that have bought any of it are employees - me being one of them for my entire system at my house - at company cost.
G'day.
ben
My new pond plants. Well, I have no idea what most of them are called. I called them free when I picked them up, and sure enough, that was their new names. Seriously, though, I got 5 different varieties of plants plus I got 2 water lillies. Lillies are usually expensive, these are very small but give them time and they will grow in to mammoths.
I was busy out there planting yesterday plus starting the rather arudous process of going through every drawer and cabinet in the kitchen, cleaning out with bleach and putting roach prufe along the walls and crevices and things. I will try to get rid of these things myself just because I don't happen to have $150 sitting around for yet another exterminator routine.
But, rest assured, I will find that money somewhere and I WILL pay if I can't get rid of them with the roach prufe - I simply do NOT co-habitate with cockroaches. I will spend the next several days going through bathrooms, finishing the kitchen, pulling switch and electrical covers over the wall and dumping that stuff in there. I did get rid of an infestation once with this stuff - took about 3 weeks.
Let's face facts: a non-paying tenant and one moving out is going to cause me some serious financial dilemnas in the next coming days and I have no choice but to cut back on anything that I don't absolutely have to have.
The non paying woman GOT her money and disappeared. If I don't have money in hand today from her, she's getting the 5-day notice and I will tell her to her face to get her stuff and get out of my house. She has now gone on 2 vacations, she is not looking for a job that I can see, she gets unemployment but I am suspicious that she is using meth.
I have had confirmation of meth use from a while back from my next door neighbor - the used car dude - that called me out of the blue and declared that he is returning in a couple of weeks and is that woman still there? He likes her - he likes anything that moves that is female and human, to be more precise.
So, I have a CL ad running and will run it at the current rate for a couple of more days, if no bites then I will reduce it by about $30 and see if that gets any takers.
I HATE being interrupted in the morning before work. On Fridays it's the DC truck, on Tuesdays (today) it's the Cintas truck. The Cintas dude is cool, no doubt, but I am focused on morning rituals at this time of day.
Anyway, there is nothing, again, to do in the truck routing system. Oh how I hate days when you have to invent things to do, and in the last month there has been a LOT of that. This is why I agree with the company reducing hours on hourly employees - staying around 7 hours when there's nothing to do is bad enough, 8? Well, I would definitely do it for the money, no doubting that.
So, life in the normal-for-me lane. I will say that I am quite happy that all of these kids are gone, out of my house and not eating my food, making messes and generally wasting electricity. My son and the oldest black kid are the only ones left - the black kid comes late at night to get on the internet, they don't have it. I don't care as long as he behaves, which he always does.
Work day approaches. OPs manager says he wants to go over with me about attempting to sell all this irrigation stuff on Craigslist. Only if he's going to give cut throat discounts will that stuff sell on Craigslist, dunno yet what he proposes, but the stuff is here, has BEEN here and almost the only people that have bought any of it are employees - me being one of them for my entire system at my house - at company cost.
G'day.
ben
Monday, September 6, 2010
Monday
Last day of the 3 day weekend.
Haven't done a heckuva lot, either.
I found an ad that must have been placed this morning on Craigslist: a person is thinning out their pond and is giving away free fish and plants starting at 10:00 am this morning. Best part is, they don't live too far away - may 7 miles max.
I scour CL daily for this stuff - too many people either give the stuff away or sell it cheap for me to even think about paying premium prices. Those 2 16 and 15 inch Koi I have in there, according to the market, are worth between $75 and $100 a piece.
Well, anyway, I will be heading over there to show up - a bit early.
The way stuff like this works: people show up early and expect to get the best stuff regardless of what the start time says it is and then when people like me show up on-time, there is nothing or very little left. I have run into this far too many times, I can play that game, too.
Speaking of ponds, I had to put the UV sterilizer on the other, smaller pond. I only used the thing once, for about 4 or 5 days, on the larger pond - what - over 2 months ago? The water has stayed clear ever since. But, the smaller pond water was turning pea soup green. Put it on there yesterday and it's almost totally cleared up now : )
I was reading an article about how many people in their alleged Golden years are hardly experiencing anything golden about it. You've seen them, go into a Walmart and look at some of the greeters. Every Walmart I walk into has at least several greeters/front end personnel that look to be in their 60's or even 70's. The Feds are talking raising the retirement age or doing away with cost of living increases.
PURE BUNK. I've been paying into that s*** for a long, long time now, I and a lot of other people who are working away are going to be VERY mad if it disappears, or if they think we should be what, 71 years old to retire? LIFE IS ALMOST OVER OR IS OVER FOR SOME FOLKS BY THAT AGE!
I don't have any choice BUT to pay into that system, it is deducted from my paycheck whether I like it or not. Well, I like it if it's going to be there when it's my turn, but my turn better not be at the age of 70. That's outrageous! If not, I would far rather see that money going into CD's or anything BUT government control of it. It's just another case of Congress and a President that are all millioinaires or multi-millionaires that have NO grasp, whatsoever, of the reality it is for MUCH of the rest of us. Make these decisions because it isn't going to affect them, whatsoever.
I am fast coming to the conclusion that retirement is going to be impossible by working an hourly job to get there. Unless I am a highly paid worker - which I am not - it's not going to happen. I would either have to "come into the money", ie: inheritance, win it somehow or start my own business. Inheritance isn't, actually, entirely out of the question, but I have no idea how much that is going to be and farnkly, to get it, a parent must die. I am NOT looking forward to either of those days. Win it? HIGHLY unlikely. People play the lottery twice a week in hopes of striking it rich. Casinos? Give me a break. Some people win big at casinos, most people lose. I win here and there at Blackjack, but I would hardly think that I could win a fortune doing it - unless - of course - I learned how to count cards. It isn't illegal, but if a casino believes you are doing it, they will throw you out - permanently. I have given thought to taking a course on it, but have done nothing about it.
Business? The only viable option. It's the only option that, if you work your butt off, fate is with you and God blesses it, you might have a chance to come out swinging, get some money saved up and get out of this daily work grind for large corporations. I have nothing against working for a large corporation, Iam working for a VERY large corporation right now, but I have no belief whatsoever that I will ever get into a position in that company where I will be making huge amounts of money. SOME people are, definitely, in higher level management and those salesmen that are successful. Working 7 hours a day, 5 days a week isn't going to get me there. The upside to working for large corporations are the health benefits - but I wonder what's going to happen to even that when this Obamacare fiasco starts kicking in. GET RID OF IT.
What kind of business could I possibly start, however, that I would like doing and would make good money off of? I have no clue. But you can be rest assured that I am going to start looking into it. I do wish my company would give me a chance to get into something different besides just driving trucks. The inside salesmen locally are hammered with work putting out bids and trying to get new contracts - one of them I know of for sure is working 12 hours per day. What I could do with an extra 25 hours per week of pay!! LIVE!!! Don't even need THAT much to help, giving me back a full 8 hour day would be a great start.
The ops manager wants me to try and sell off the irrigation stuff that we are trying to get rid of. I am going to dive into that like nobody's business. If I have something to prove here, it's that I can be of more help to this company than just being a truck driver. Obviously, truck drivers fill an important role in this society of ours - whether you want to believe that or not (just shut down the entire trucking industry for a full week and everyone would be begging us to get back to work!) - and you CAN make decent money at it, but, I am not there right now. Not with the hours I am getting. At the same time, the work load doesn't justify it - there is not enough orders coming in to even fill 7 hours on many days, much less 8.
Anyway, I'm reading Obama's new plan: SPEND MORE MONEY THAT WE DON'T HAVE!! How does that NOT surprise me? His latest plan is to rebuild the nation's infrastructure. Well that's just wonderful, honey, and how are we going to pay for it? He has as plan: Officials said the White House would consider closing a number of special tax breaks for oil and gas companies to pay for the proposal.
BUNK again. WE will end up paying for it. I don't disagree that the nation's highways and bridges are in pathetic shape, but NOW is NOT the time to even think about spending that kind of money. This is PURELY a political move to try and save face for Democrats whose political careers are facing definitive extinction. Utter fiscal stupidity. WHEN will all this spend spend spend stop? Only when we vote out these idiots and get people in there that will stop the hemoraghing.
Whatever. I'll get off my little podium now. I don't care what party you are with, what sense does it make to throw this kind of money out the door? He has ALREADY done that and look where it got us: NOWHERE!
Ummm, well anyway. Labor Day. Last day of 3-day weekend. It flew by, too, not like it seemed like an eternity. 105 for high today, then the rest of this week and hopefully for the rest of the year the temps are down to low 100's or high 90's.
I must be offa here - take a shower, get in the care and go get some free plants!
G'day.
ben
Haven't done a heckuva lot, either.
I found an ad that must have been placed this morning on Craigslist: a person is thinning out their pond and is giving away free fish and plants starting at 10:00 am this morning. Best part is, they don't live too far away - may 7 miles max.
I scour CL daily for this stuff - too many people either give the stuff away or sell it cheap for me to even think about paying premium prices. Those 2 16 and 15 inch Koi I have in there, according to the market, are worth between $75 and $100 a piece.
Well, anyway, I will be heading over there to show up - a bit early.
The way stuff like this works: people show up early and expect to get the best stuff regardless of what the start time says it is and then when people like me show up on-time, there is nothing or very little left. I have run into this far too many times, I can play that game, too.
Speaking of ponds, I had to put the UV sterilizer on the other, smaller pond. I only used the thing once, for about 4 or 5 days, on the larger pond - what - over 2 months ago? The water has stayed clear ever since. But, the smaller pond water was turning pea soup green. Put it on there yesterday and it's almost totally cleared up now : )
I was reading an article about how many people in their alleged Golden years are hardly experiencing anything golden about it. You've seen them, go into a Walmart and look at some of the greeters. Every Walmart I walk into has at least several greeters/front end personnel that look to be in their 60's or even 70's. The Feds are talking raising the retirement age or doing away with cost of living increases.
PURE BUNK. I've been paying into that s*** for a long, long time now, I and a lot of other people who are working away are going to be VERY mad if it disappears, or if they think we should be what, 71 years old to retire? LIFE IS ALMOST OVER OR IS OVER FOR SOME FOLKS BY THAT AGE!
I don't have any choice BUT to pay into that system, it is deducted from my paycheck whether I like it or not. Well, I like it if it's going to be there when it's my turn, but my turn better not be at the age of 70. That's outrageous! If not, I would far rather see that money going into CD's or anything BUT government control of it. It's just another case of Congress and a President that are all millioinaires or multi-millionaires that have NO grasp, whatsoever, of the reality it is for MUCH of the rest of us. Make these decisions because it isn't going to affect them, whatsoever.
I am fast coming to the conclusion that retirement is going to be impossible by working an hourly job to get there. Unless I am a highly paid worker - which I am not - it's not going to happen. I would either have to "come into the money", ie: inheritance, win it somehow or start my own business. Inheritance isn't, actually, entirely out of the question, but I have no idea how much that is going to be and farnkly, to get it, a parent must die. I am NOT looking forward to either of those days. Win it? HIGHLY unlikely. People play the lottery twice a week in hopes of striking it rich. Casinos? Give me a break. Some people win big at casinos, most people lose. I win here and there at Blackjack, but I would hardly think that I could win a fortune doing it - unless - of course - I learned how to count cards. It isn't illegal, but if a casino believes you are doing it, they will throw you out - permanently. I have given thought to taking a course on it, but have done nothing about it.
Business? The only viable option. It's the only option that, if you work your butt off, fate is with you and God blesses it, you might have a chance to come out swinging, get some money saved up and get out of this daily work grind for large corporations. I have nothing against working for a large corporation, Iam working for a VERY large corporation right now, but I have no belief whatsoever that I will ever get into a position in that company where I will be making huge amounts of money. SOME people are, definitely, in higher level management and those salesmen that are successful. Working 7 hours a day, 5 days a week isn't going to get me there. The upside to working for large corporations are the health benefits - but I wonder what's going to happen to even that when this Obamacare fiasco starts kicking in. GET RID OF IT.
What kind of business could I possibly start, however, that I would like doing and would make good money off of? I have no clue. But you can be rest assured that I am going to start looking into it. I do wish my company would give me a chance to get into something different besides just driving trucks. The inside salesmen locally are hammered with work putting out bids and trying to get new contracts - one of them I know of for sure is working 12 hours per day. What I could do with an extra 25 hours per week of pay!! LIVE!!! Don't even need THAT much to help, giving me back a full 8 hour day would be a great start.
The ops manager wants me to try and sell off the irrigation stuff that we are trying to get rid of. I am going to dive into that like nobody's business. If I have something to prove here, it's that I can be of more help to this company than just being a truck driver. Obviously, truck drivers fill an important role in this society of ours - whether you want to believe that or not (just shut down the entire trucking industry for a full week and everyone would be begging us to get back to work!) - and you CAN make decent money at it, but, I am not there right now. Not with the hours I am getting. At the same time, the work load doesn't justify it - there is not enough orders coming in to even fill 7 hours on many days, much less 8.
Anyway, I'm reading Obama's new plan: SPEND MORE MONEY THAT WE DON'T HAVE!! How does that NOT surprise me? His latest plan is to rebuild the nation's infrastructure. Well that's just wonderful, honey, and how are we going to pay for it? He has as plan: Officials said the White House would consider closing a number of special tax breaks for oil and gas companies to pay for the proposal.
BUNK again. WE will end up paying for it. I don't disagree that the nation's highways and bridges are in pathetic shape, but NOW is NOT the time to even think about spending that kind of money. This is PURELY a political move to try and save face for Democrats whose political careers are facing definitive extinction. Utter fiscal stupidity. WHEN will all this spend spend spend stop? Only when we vote out these idiots and get people in there that will stop the hemoraghing.
Whatever. I'll get off my little podium now. I don't care what party you are with, what sense does it make to throw this kind of money out the door? He has ALREADY done that and look where it got us: NOWHERE!
Ummm, well anyway. Labor Day. Last day of 3-day weekend. It flew by, too, not like it seemed like an eternity. 105 for high today, then the rest of this week and hopefully for the rest of the year the temps are down to low 100's or high 90's.
I must be offa here - take a shower, get in the care and go get some free plants!
G'day.
ben
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Sunday
Quoted from a news source: "59 Days to Decide: Evidence Mounts That Dems Are Facing Midterm Wipeout ".
About time to see that kind of headline. Obama continues to blame Bush for the mess we are in. I haven't heard recently specifically naming Bush, instead he recites that these problems were caused by "the previous administration". Sorry, Charlie, you've had your chance, you've spent trillions of dollars and where are we at now? Potentially a double-dip recession, unemployment is rising, millions of people that are unemployed and can't find work, foreclosures still at all time high levels.
Obama is now rolling out a plan for the following descriptor: Under the new "short refinance" program, banks and other creditors that write down mortgages to less than the value of the property can essentially hand off the reduced loan to the government. The process involves refinancing borrowers into loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration.
I will be attempting to take advantage of that one. Why not? We are throwing money down a shoot to a huge, out-of-control wildfire at the bottom that is just burning up money as fast as it comes at it. A reckless abandonment of any of the principles this country was founded on, the government is doing whatever it pleases and could care less what the majority of American public thinks about it.
They are digging their own political graves and they will be spat upon by those that are going to bury them. I will be one. Probably piss on it as well. Okay, I was going to take it further, but you get the picture.
I have had very few replies so far to my room rental ad. The Marine is moving out in 5 days or less. Dunno what to say about that. Keep trying until I find someone. I may have to bring my price down. I did that with the Army reservist - brought it down $30 and that was enough for her. But, I want to see if I can get my full price for it first.
Long break. In fact, about 12 hours worth. Got busy with other stuff and now? My bedtime.
G'nite.
ben
About time to see that kind of headline. Obama continues to blame Bush for the mess we are in. I haven't heard recently specifically naming Bush, instead he recites that these problems were caused by "the previous administration". Sorry, Charlie, you've had your chance, you've spent trillions of dollars and where are we at now? Potentially a double-dip recession, unemployment is rising, millions of people that are unemployed and can't find work, foreclosures still at all time high levels.
Obama is now rolling out a plan for the following descriptor: Under the new "short refinance" program, banks and other creditors that write down mortgages to less than the value of the property can essentially hand off the reduced loan to the government. The process involves refinancing borrowers into loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration.
I will be attempting to take advantage of that one. Why not? We are throwing money down a shoot to a huge, out-of-control wildfire at the bottom that is just burning up money as fast as it comes at it. A reckless abandonment of any of the principles this country was founded on, the government is doing whatever it pleases and could care less what the majority of American public thinks about it.
They are digging their own political graves and they will be spat upon by those that are going to bury them. I will be one. Probably piss on it as well. Okay, I was going to take it further, but you get the picture.
I have had very few replies so far to my room rental ad. The Marine is moving out in 5 days or less. Dunno what to say about that. Keep trying until I find someone. I may have to bring my price down. I did that with the Army reservist - brought it down $30 and that was enough for her. But, I want to see if I can get my full price for it first.
Long break. In fact, about 12 hours worth. Got busy with other stuff and now? My bedtime.
G'nite.
ben
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Saturday
It was time.
I have not done it in quite a long time.
I dreaded it, but, this morning the thing was running SO slow and NOTHING I did was doing anything for it.
I'm referring to my computer and further referring to reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows XP (I'm not in the least bit interested in the newest version of Windows until I start hearing better things about it).
The reason doing all of that is a pain? Well think about all the software that you have on your computer and then think about reinstalling all of it. IE-8; Adobe flash player; Avast; sound drivers; printer drivers; my video surveillance software, all KINDS of stuff. Plus, you have to keep rebooting for half of this stuff. It takes hours, literally. You forget half the software you have installed on your computer - until you run into something that you need and then there you are, installing yet more software or drivers.
I literally hate the process, but - in the end - it IS worth the effort. My computer is running MUCH faster than it has in a long time. How long it runs like that is up in the air, but this time, I created a restore point as soon as I got it up and running before any malware or whatever could distort the registry.
There IS software out there available via internet that tweaks and tunes your registry and fixes whatever is broken - but it isn't free. I'm not really looking for more payments right now, I am already hurting financially enough as it is.
Some elements of my computer that have not worked correctly for quite a while have been restored as well. I knew reinstalling Windows would fix everything, I also know from ample experience how much of a pain it is to do all of that. Perhaps, however, having revisited this issue yet again, I will remember how much more fun it is to surf the net with a machine that is actually working correct and perhaps I will reinstall Windows a bit more often.
It's going to be another hot day outside and I have absolutely no motivation whatsoever to do anything. Well I have to go to the store and get the power card reloaded with some money for electricity. I am also going to buy some of those low-fat,low sodium, low-calorie frozen dinners. I like some of those things, it's a quick, easy meal and it is good for a diet. Well, it's good for my diet, anyway. I was down to 193-1/2 pounds yesterday, the lowest I have seen it in ages. If I am making any progress at all, even small amounts, I am good with it. It means whatever I am doing is working. I don't have to lose it all in 2 weeks, I just have to have the peace of mind that it IS going down.
The owner of the pest control company came yesterday - he is going to ALL of his accounts, over time of course, as he let go 2 of his service personnel who were not doing the job very well. Well, take that back, the one that has come over here has been to some houses and hasn't done the job AT ALL. Some neighbors apparently caught him in the "act" of just walking around a house and then leaving while claiming he had done the work. He was here last time - whatever he did, he almost killed my ornamental pear tree out front, in fact I am still not sure if it's going to survive, killed half the leaves on one of my 7-1/2 foot tall ficus trees and did some lessor damage to other plants.
I showed this guy all of that which is when he started explaining what was going on. I explained that after he left last time, NONE of the ants were dead. So, go 2 months without them procreating and yes, there were literally thousands of them on my property - coming from anthills from one of the properties behind me. We came inside and I told him about the cockroach problem. He gave me the bad news: $150 to get rid of them. A 2-treatment process, but it is guaranteed.
He then saw my can of Roach-prufe and suggested before I pay him that much money that I go through the entire kitchen, take everything out of all the cabinets and drawers, take the drawers out, clean it all with bleach and apply that stuff all over. Do that in the bathrooms as well. I have had some pretty good luck with that stuff in the past, and frankly, I don't have an extra $150 laying around - though I wish I did because I will pay whatever I have to get rid of the friggin' things. He declared that the problem in my house wasn't that bad - yet. Yes, well I don't want them in here AT ALL. So, I am going to go through the extremely arduous process of pulling everything out, cleaning it and applying the roach prufe this weekend and see if that helps.
He also suggested taking off all the switch and electrical outlet covers and putting some of the stuff in all of those, too. Yes, folks, this isn't going to be any fun at all. It will, however, be INSIDE the house, it needs to be done and it is going to be very hot today and tomorrow. So - yes - get a couple of beers, put on my work hat and get started on it. But not right now - I HAVE to go to the store and get power on the card. There is like 6 bucks left on there, about enough for half a day on a hot summer's day if it doesn't get TOO hot.
Okay, my new Plecostomus (fish) have devoured a large portion of the algae that was growing in the larger pond. There are 5 of them, they are large and apparently they were hungry. The Koi - all 4 of them - are all apparently doing well and the goldfish in both ponds are still alive and kicking. All the smaller fish that I got for free from the pond being shut down? Well, yesterday I was watching "fry" they call them - new baby fishies - were all over the place in the large pond. I was a bit surprised any of them were left, some of those Koi will devour those things for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh, and strike one up for experience: dogs like Koi pellets. I left out the bag and it was opened. I had NO idea that dogs would eat that stuff, but when I came home, most of the bag had been devoured. Fortunately I had filled up 2 large containers with the stuff so it wasn't a total loss, about a half the bag was lost.
Turtles? Are finally coming out of the water. They get up on the block I set in there for them - but - as soon as they see me they dive into that water. At least they are coming out of it now and I just started today to leave some food for them up on that block. I won't put it in the water because I don't want the water getting polluted by having food in there that might not be getting eaten. I'll go back out in a while and see if they have eaten any of it.
Oh, and the little fishies! They are the funnest to watch of all of them. They are just baby fish - the current I have going with 2 pumps in that pond is so strong that they really have to fight against it to get up to the top and get some of the fish flakes I put in there for them. I take the giant flakes, crush them in my hand, put them in there and watch them go to town. They have several places where they can hide from the fish that are hundreds of times larger than them and will probably eat them if they can.
I am watching an episode of "I Shouldn't Be Alive". The family featured in this one is on a boat in some river in Zambabwe. A Rhino has decided to attack the boat and knocked everyone out. The mother is drowning, apparently - as they state "she doesn't know how to swim".
And again, I ask: how do you get into adulthood without having had learned how to swim? To me this is unfathomable. I was a sea otter when I was a kid - oceans; lakes; swimming pools; rivers; streams; I didn't care what kind of body of water it was, I was in it. Even yucky green water I would jump right in. Canal water? Didn't care, let's go!!! In my teen years, I continued with that excepting I got VERY lean - 4.9% body fat - I knew how to swim but the leaner you are, the less buouancy you have. You simply drop like a rock in water. Still, I could swim the width of a lake that was at least 1,000 feet wide. Yes, I would be tired by the time I got to the other side, but the challenge of it was too great to pass up.
Some of these shows they come up with these days.......craziness. Another one that has some pretty crazy stuff in it is "I Survived".
Long delay and done with this.
G'day.
ben
I have not done it in quite a long time.
I dreaded it, but, this morning the thing was running SO slow and NOTHING I did was doing anything for it.
I'm referring to my computer and further referring to reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows XP (I'm not in the least bit interested in the newest version of Windows until I start hearing better things about it).
The reason doing all of that is a pain? Well think about all the software that you have on your computer and then think about reinstalling all of it. IE-8; Adobe flash player; Avast; sound drivers; printer drivers; my video surveillance software, all KINDS of stuff. Plus, you have to keep rebooting for half of this stuff. It takes hours, literally. You forget half the software you have installed on your computer - until you run into something that you need and then there you are, installing yet more software or drivers.
I literally hate the process, but - in the end - it IS worth the effort. My computer is running MUCH faster than it has in a long time. How long it runs like that is up in the air, but this time, I created a restore point as soon as I got it up and running before any malware or whatever could distort the registry.
There IS software out there available via internet that tweaks and tunes your registry and fixes whatever is broken - but it isn't free. I'm not really looking for more payments right now, I am already hurting financially enough as it is.
Some elements of my computer that have not worked correctly for quite a while have been restored as well. I knew reinstalling Windows would fix everything, I also know from ample experience how much of a pain it is to do all of that. Perhaps, however, having revisited this issue yet again, I will remember how much more fun it is to surf the net with a machine that is actually working correct and perhaps I will reinstall Windows a bit more often.
It's going to be another hot day outside and I have absolutely no motivation whatsoever to do anything. Well I have to go to the store and get the power card reloaded with some money for electricity. I am also going to buy some of those low-fat,low sodium, low-calorie frozen dinners. I like some of those things, it's a quick, easy meal and it is good for a diet. Well, it's good for my diet, anyway. I was down to 193-1/2 pounds yesterday, the lowest I have seen it in ages. If I am making any progress at all, even small amounts, I am good with it. It means whatever I am doing is working. I don't have to lose it all in 2 weeks, I just have to have the peace of mind that it IS going down.
The owner of the pest control company came yesterday - he is going to ALL of his accounts, over time of course, as he let go 2 of his service personnel who were not doing the job very well. Well, take that back, the one that has come over here has been to some houses and hasn't done the job AT ALL. Some neighbors apparently caught him in the "act" of just walking around a house and then leaving while claiming he had done the work. He was here last time - whatever he did, he almost killed my ornamental pear tree out front, in fact I am still not sure if it's going to survive, killed half the leaves on one of my 7-1/2 foot tall ficus trees and did some lessor damage to other plants.
I showed this guy all of that which is when he started explaining what was going on. I explained that after he left last time, NONE of the ants were dead. So, go 2 months without them procreating and yes, there were literally thousands of them on my property - coming from anthills from one of the properties behind me. We came inside and I told him about the cockroach problem. He gave me the bad news: $150 to get rid of them. A 2-treatment process, but it is guaranteed.
He then saw my can of Roach-prufe and suggested before I pay him that much money that I go through the entire kitchen, take everything out of all the cabinets and drawers, take the drawers out, clean it all with bleach and apply that stuff all over. Do that in the bathrooms as well. I have had some pretty good luck with that stuff in the past, and frankly, I don't have an extra $150 laying around - though I wish I did because I will pay whatever I have to get rid of the friggin' things. He declared that the problem in my house wasn't that bad - yet. Yes, well I don't want them in here AT ALL. So, I am going to go through the extremely arduous process of pulling everything out, cleaning it and applying the roach prufe this weekend and see if that helps.
He also suggested taking off all the switch and electrical outlet covers and putting some of the stuff in all of those, too. Yes, folks, this isn't going to be any fun at all. It will, however, be INSIDE the house, it needs to be done and it is going to be very hot today and tomorrow. So - yes - get a couple of beers, put on my work hat and get started on it. But not right now - I HAVE to go to the store and get power on the card. There is like 6 bucks left on there, about enough for half a day on a hot summer's day if it doesn't get TOO hot.
Okay, my new Plecostomus (fish) have devoured a large portion of the algae that was growing in the larger pond. There are 5 of them, they are large and apparently they were hungry. The Koi - all 4 of them - are all apparently doing well and the goldfish in both ponds are still alive and kicking. All the smaller fish that I got for free from the pond being shut down? Well, yesterday I was watching "fry" they call them - new baby fishies - were all over the place in the large pond. I was a bit surprised any of them were left, some of those Koi will devour those things for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh, and strike one up for experience: dogs like Koi pellets. I left out the bag and it was opened. I had NO idea that dogs would eat that stuff, but when I came home, most of the bag had been devoured. Fortunately I had filled up 2 large containers with the stuff so it wasn't a total loss, about a half the bag was lost.
Turtles? Are finally coming out of the water. They get up on the block I set in there for them - but - as soon as they see me they dive into that water. At least they are coming out of it now and I just started today to leave some food for them up on that block. I won't put it in the water because I don't want the water getting polluted by having food in there that might not be getting eaten. I'll go back out in a while and see if they have eaten any of it.
Oh, and the little fishies! They are the funnest to watch of all of them. They are just baby fish - the current I have going with 2 pumps in that pond is so strong that they really have to fight against it to get up to the top and get some of the fish flakes I put in there for them. I take the giant flakes, crush them in my hand, put them in there and watch them go to town. They have several places where they can hide from the fish that are hundreds of times larger than them and will probably eat them if they can.
I am watching an episode of "I Shouldn't Be Alive". The family featured in this one is on a boat in some river in Zambabwe. A Rhino has decided to attack the boat and knocked everyone out. The mother is drowning, apparently - as they state "she doesn't know how to swim".
And again, I ask: how do you get into adulthood without having had learned how to swim? To me this is unfathomable. I was a sea otter when I was a kid - oceans; lakes; swimming pools; rivers; streams; I didn't care what kind of body of water it was, I was in it. Even yucky green water I would jump right in. Canal water? Didn't care, let's go!!! In my teen years, I continued with that excepting I got VERY lean - 4.9% body fat - I knew how to swim but the leaner you are, the less buouancy you have. You simply drop like a rock in water. Still, I could swim the width of a lake that was at least 1,000 feet wide. Yes, I would be tired by the time I got to the other side, but the challenge of it was too great to pass up.
Some of these shows they come up with these days.......craziness. Another one that has some pretty crazy stuff in it is "I Survived".
Long delay and done with this.
G'day.
ben
Friday, September 3, 2010
Resolution
First off, I freely admit I was out-of-control angry 2 days ago with the situation at work (which is detailed in previous entries, so no need to go into all of that here).
I have had an anger problem all of my life - to one degree or another.
Anger has gotten me into a lot of problems that, in hindsight, would have easily been averted if I would have just let it sit for a few hours/days/however long it takes to cool down and get back into rational thought.
We all have buttons, I'm sure of that. When someone finds mine, it's not a pretty sight. I am not making excuses for anything. I am, instead, capable of admitting my weaknesses and when I feel berated, humiliated, talked down to - to some degree authoritarian issues - I can say that there are occasions where I have not reacted well, at all. In fact, if I told some of the stories from my distant past, people that know me now simply would not believe me.
One thing I have pounded into my brain after my reaction was FAR worse than the offense that created it is: don't take action. You wanna be mad, great, sit there and stew in it for as long as it takes to get over it, but keep your damned mouth shut (me, talking to myself). If it is REALLY bad, don't do ANYTHING for several days. Just wait. Get your peace back. Pray, seek God, think where this is going to go if you really follow through what your emotions are attempting to sway you into doing.
I learned that lesson - maybe not THAT long ago, but certainly years ago. In this case, I did nothing. Well, except when my manager called me that day after hearing the Ops manager's wife telling him what is going on with me - she is not a clueless blonde - she IS blonde but very intelligent and sensitive. My manager wanted to express to me that HE had NOTHING to do with this. Okay, I had no problem with him anyway. He has enough on his plate with a divorce that is causing him to lose weight to - bad - proportions. Meaning he isn't eating and the situation is messing with his head.
So, 2 days pass. I went through the company's website and I found the section on ethics and even specific types of statements that the encourage you to report. My company has keystroke recognition - they can see whatever you have typed, including IM"s, everything that you wrote. I thought about this man's personal life - his wife, just married last year I think it was, their newborn baby. I thought about filing a formal complaint with headquarters. I'm sure that with the content of the IM, he would get into trouble. I then thought about all the shit I have done in my life span - transgressions and making life difficult for people (even IF I thought it deserved) and the foulness I did in my teenaged years that, again, most people won't even believe the half, or even fourth of it.
What do Christians do? Forgive. Try to, oh so ever-loving hard to do in some cases, but I am still a fan of the idea a person should ASK for forgiveness to GET it. I believe that is a principle that is overlooked by many. The Bible talks about ASKING for forgiveness, not assuming that you must get it "because you are Christian" and if you don't, you must, therefore, NOT be a Christian. BUNK. I will not be a doormat anymore in my life, determined that some - maybe 10 years ago, maybe a little less. I could go into all of it - but it would take days to write and no-one would bother to read all of it and I don't really want to anyway.
Okay. Well, the Ops manager's wife was at our branch again today. She likes to work at our branch because it is close to her house and the -yes - baby. She went to get lunch. She left HER computer up and open. Yup, I could have gotten on there and gotten all kinds of very sensitive information regarding the company - but at the branch I am at, there is a level of trust, I hope anyway. SHOULD she do that? In corporate terms, no, no-one SHOULD do that. It's not, however, like she left her computer at a Starbuck's with an aircard inserted and all the company's info exposed for the world to see.
She came back and I "informed" her that I had made IM"s off of her computer. Yes, I said it jokingly and it was taken as such. She then told me about a conversation she had with her husband, the he understands that I don't like such, etc etc etc. I replied: well, it really wouldn't have been a problem until we got to the gay stuff. ???? she replies. I told her what he was telling the employee.
Fast forward. I'm driving home and the phone rings. I recognize the first three digits as a work number. Ben speaking. It was the Ops manager. It was an apology and it didn't just sound like it was genuine, I felt it too. It was a good conversation. I won't go into all of that - just that it ended well.
I don't really feel like writing anything else tonight - lots going on but I am tired, didn't sleep well last night and I must get this internet stuff over with.
ben
I have had an anger problem all of my life - to one degree or another.
Anger has gotten me into a lot of problems that, in hindsight, would have easily been averted if I would have just let it sit for a few hours/days/however long it takes to cool down and get back into rational thought.
We all have buttons, I'm sure of that. When someone finds mine, it's not a pretty sight. I am not making excuses for anything. I am, instead, capable of admitting my weaknesses and when I feel berated, humiliated, talked down to - to some degree authoritarian issues - I can say that there are occasions where I have not reacted well, at all. In fact, if I told some of the stories from my distant past, people that know me now simply would not believe me.
One thing I have pounded into my brain after my reaction was FAR worse than the offense that created it is: don't take action. You wanna be mad, great, sit there and stew in it for as long as it takes to get over it, but keep your damned mouth shut (me, talking to myself). If it is REALLY bad, don't do ANYTHING for several days. Just wait. Get your peace back. Pray, seek God, think where this is going to go if you really follow through what your emotions are attempting to sway you into doing.
I learned that lesson - maybe not THAT long ago, but certainly years ago. In this case, I did nothing. Well, except when my manager called me that day after hearing the Ops manager's wife telling him what is going on with me - she is not a clueless blonde - she IS blonde but very intelligent and sensitive. My manager wanted to express to me that HE had NOTHING to do with this. Okay, I had no problem with him anyway. He has enough on his plate with a divorce that is causing him to lose weight to - bad - proportions. Meaning he isn't eating and the situation is messing with his head.
So, 2 days pass. I went through the company's website and I found the section on ethics and even specific types of statements that the encourage you to report. My company has keystroke recognition - they can see whatever you have typed, including IM"s, everything that you wrote. I thought about this man's personal life - his wife, just married last year I think it was, their newborn baby. I thought about filing a formal complaint with headquarters. I'm sure that with the content of the IM, he would get into trouble. I then thought about all the shit I have done in my life span - transgressions and making life difficult for people (even IF I thought it deserved) and the foulness I did in my teenaged years that, again, most people won't even believe the half, or even fourth of it.
What do Christians do? Forgive. Try to, oh so ever-loving hard to do in some cases, but I am still a fan of the idea a person should ASK for forgiveness to GET it. I believe that is a principle that is overlooked by many. The Bible talks about ASKING for forgiveness, not assuming that you must get it "because you are Christian" and if you don't, you must, therefore, NOT be a Christian. BUNK. I will not be a doormat anymore in my life, determined that some - maybe 10 years ago, maybe a little less. I could go into all of it - but it would take days to write and no-one would bother to read all of it and I don't really want to anyway.
Okay. Well, the Ops manager's wife was at our branch again today. She likes to work at our branch because it is close to her house and the -yes - baby. She went to get lunch. She left HER computer up and open. Yup, I could have gotten on there and gotten all kinds of very sensitive information regarding the company - but at the branch I am at, there is a level of trust, I hope anyway. SHOULD she do that? In corporate terms, no, no-one SHOULD do that. It's not, however, like she left her computer at a Starbuck's with an aircard inserted and all the company's info exposed for the world to see.
She came back and I "informed" her that I had made IM"s off of her computer. Yes, I said it jokingly and it was taken as such. She then told me about a conversation she had with her husband, the he understands that I don't like such, etc etc etc. I replied: well, it really wouldn't have been a problem until we got to the gay stuff. ???? she replies. I told her what he was telling the employee.
Fast forward. I'm driving home and the phone rings. I recognize the first three digits as a work number. Ben speaking. It was the Ops manager. It was an apology and it didn't just sound like it was genuine, I felt it too. It was a good conversation. I won't go into all of that - just that it ended well.
I don't really feel like writing anything else tonight - lots going on but I am tired, didn't sleep well last night and I must get this internet stuff over with.
ben
Friday
Friday.
Thursday's post eliminated - not by me, but by sending the thing into cyberspace. It's floating around out there, somewhere, I suppose, but getting it back? Impossible (and not a great loss, either).
My mind's in a lull right now - rough sleep last night, kept waking up for whatever reason. Plus I have been mulling over what to do about this situation with the ops manager, so far I have just sat on it. Never wise to make rush decisions especially after getting upset to that degree.
So far only one reply to my ad for the room. But then again, it isn't available until the 11th, which is still 8 days away. It is paid up until the 11th and I would love to see a seamless transaction in the payment department. It doesn't normally work out that way, but one can wish.
No, I will have to clean the carpet in there and paint whatever will have to be painted. I haven't really been in there since the Marine moved in there so, I have no idea the condition of the room. In fact, I'm pretty sure the carpet needs to be replaced in that room, but - no funds to cover that right now.
3 day weekend en-queue. Labor Day on Monday. Just going to take it easy - the temps are still high: 111 today, 108 tomorrow and 107 Sunday. After that, the temps come down to low 100's or high 90's for the next 2 weeks - I'll take that anyday over this sweltering heat junk. It's going to be hot enough today that the National Weather Service has issued yet another Excessive Heat Warning, as they like to name it........wonderful.
"Our military and people will deal a merciless blow if warmongers stage reckless provocation," North Korea's government-run website, Uriminzokkiri, said in a commentary Friday.
Lol. That's North Korea pulling out the rhetoric machine again as U.S. and South Korean troops get ready to stage yet another set of anti-submarine excercises apparently designed to "deter" North Korea from doing anything such as blowing up another sub as they allegedly did so earlier this year. I don't wonder if one of these times, NK will actually do something.
I hope not, really, but still........
Well, I have no time left even if there is nothing to do in the truck routing system for today. At work, I'm referring to.....
G'day.
ben
Thursday's post eliminated - not by me, but by sending the thing into cyberspace. It's floating around out there, somewhere, I suppose, but getting it back? Impossible (and not a great loss, either).
My mind's in a lull right now - rough sleep last night, kept waking up for whatever reason. Plus I have been mulling over what to do about this situation with the ops manager, so far I have just sat on it. Never wise to make rush decisions especially after getting upset to that degree.
So far only one reply to my ad for the room. But then again, it isn't available until the 11th, which is still 8 days away. It is paid up until the 11th and I would love to see a seamless transaction in the payment department. It doesn't normally work out that way, but one can wish.
No, I will have to clean the carpet in there and paint whatever will have to be painted. I haven't really been in there since the Marine moved in there so, I have no idea the condition of the room. In fact, I'm pretty sure the carpet needs to be replaced in that room, but - no funds to cover that right now.
3 day weekend en-queue. Labor Day on Monday. Just going to take it easy - the temps are still high: 111 today, 108 tomorrow and 107 Sunday. After that, the temps come down to low 100's or high 90's for the next 2 weeks - I'll take that anyday over this sweltering heat junk. It's going to be hot enough today that the National Weather Service has issued yet another Excessive Heat Warning, as they like to name it........wonderful.
"Our military and people will deal a merciless blow if warmongers stage reckless provocation," North Korea's government-run website, Uriminzokkiri, said in a commentary Friday.
Lol. That's North Korea pulling out the rhetoric machine again as U.S. and South Korean troops get ready to stage yet another set of anti-submarine excercises apparently designed to "deter" North Korea from doing anything such as blowing up another sub as they allegedly did so earlier this year. I don't wonder if one of these times, NK will actually do something.
I hope not, really, but still........
Well, I have no time left even if there is nothing to do in the truck routing system for today. At work, I'm referring to.....
G'day.
ben
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
MAD
That's all I can say about my state of mind right now, I am FREAKING MAD. I have been in that state all day long and I don't know that going to bed will and a "good night's sleep" will do anything but make it worse.
I WON'T SLEEP, that's the point.
What am I referring to?
Regular readers might find this unbelievable, but this has nothing to do with tenants, kids, dogs or even Herons.
I am referring to WORK.
Here's the story. I go to work early every morning. I do this that and the other thing before signing into the computer network. I pull up my work email account and put on my communicator - it's a system to communicate with other associates in the network via instant messaging - through work only.
I leave my up when I'm gone. Our store is run by fully 2 people: the manager and me. I don't have to worry about 50 or 100 people walking by an unattended computer and accessing personal information. It simply doesn't happen. If I were at the main branch, I would NEVER leave my account open. And let's clarify this here: I don't leave all that stuff up on the computer screen, it is accessible if you click on my email account of communicator (instant messaging).
Okay. I am driving around doing the parameters of my job - delivering and picking up stuff (well, a lot of other things, but my job description is listed as a truck driver). I end up at our main branch downtown. I have a load of stuff I brought from our branch to transfer to them - mainly 2,000 feet of sewer pipe that they need to fill orders.
I am sitting at a desk in the warehouse doing paperwork - always a lot of paperwork - when a guy comes out of the main store, looking at me, says to the people behind the dual, swinging doors: "He's right here!". He walks off laughing, muttering comments under his breath. What the bleep is THIS about? I get up and walk in there. "What's going on?"
One of the counter guys says he has an instant message, FROM ME, that is going on RIGHT NOW. The message is from "me" asking this guy if he wants to hang out this weekend and have some drinks. Alarms. I don't engage in this kind of childish behavior at work, I am 46 years old and this kind of shit is pure bullshit. I like to have fun in life, a person abusing their position in this capacity is total BULLSHIT. I look at the IM and read everything. I instantly came to the conclusion, in my mind, who was doing this. This counter guy thought it was my manager, I thought differently.
This person that started this IM continues on and on. Do you want to hang out?.....followed by, "I like you".......followed by........."I like you alot". The intonation is that I am going to have this guy over for drinks and then it's going to be GAY SHIT SEX. FUCK A GUY UP THE ASS.
I'm sorry to the Christian readership here, I really am, but I am PISSED OFF. I looked at this guy and wondered if he really thought it was me contacting him before I showed up and and refuted, without know it by mere act of BEING there, that it WAS NOT ME.
This man was at the computer I use at work writing this stuff from my communicator/instant messenger. The message shows that it is me, not him, writing the content of that material.
Yes, I knew who wrote it because I heard he had done such things in the past. However, those things did not include sexual BULLSHIT. He is allegedly trying to teach the person a lesson that you should not leave your account open when not present at the computer. All fine and dandy in a place that has dozens of emplooyees and even more contractors, vendors and people from other divisions walking in and out of there. BS when it's a 2-man crew and MOST of the sales generated from the store are from the deliveries I make in the semi.
Who is this person? The Operations Manager. Do you see anything such as abuse of power going on here? The use of your position to do whatever you want because of the veritable lack of any kind of responsibility to be had on his part for saying WHATEVER he pleases? Further, with the gay shit, SEXUAL HARRASMENT. Can anyone say LAWSUIT? I'm NOT gay, but if the guy is going to paint me that and there are several witnesses to it, why the bleep should I take another iota's minute's worth of this SHIT that I have endured in my life span because of some IDIOT that thinks they can do what they want, when they want to? Ohhh, yes, the economy. SCREW the economy, I determined long ago, after being ABUSED by management at various companies, that I would NOT put up with it even if it mean LEAVING THE FREAKING COMPANY or risk being FIRED.
The man could have simply approached me and said that the company does not want you to leave your account open like that - though I have NEVER read any such thing on any of the REAMS of company documents I have seen. It MAY be there somewhere, I don't know. NO, he has to start SHIT with me by IMPERSONATING me, that's what it is, impersonation. I am going to look into labor laws and such, there is NO WAY I am going to just tolerate this stuff. Yes, I am mad. I'm not just upset, I AM MAD. I HATE being treated this way by ANY management. My company does not stand ethical corruption and to me, this is ALL about ethics and morals.
Ahhh, BenB taking a deep breath. There is, actually, more to this story but I cannot go into it right now. I can feel my innards in the way that only anger brings up. It is not good for me and I would like to actually sleep tonight. I must stop now.
I WON'T SLEEP, that's the point.
What am I referring to?
Regular readers might find this unbelievable, but this has nothing to do with tenants, kids, dogs or even Herons.
I am referring to WORK.
Here's the story. I go to work early every morning. I do this that and the other thing before signing into the computer network. I pull up my work email account and put on my communicator - it's a system to communicate with other associates in the network via instant messaging - through work only.
I leave my up when I'm gone. Our store is run by fully 2 people: the manager and me. I don't have to worry about 50 or 100 people walking by an unattended computer and accessing personal information. It simply doesn't happen. If I were at the main branch, I would NEVER leave my account open. And let's clarify this here: I don't leave all that stuff up on the computer screen, it is accessible if you click on my email account of communicator (instant messaging).
Okay. I am driving around doing the parameters of my job - delivering and picking up stuff (well, a lot of other things, but my job description is listed as a truck driver). I end up at our main branch downtown. I have a load of stuff I brought from our branch to transfer to them - mainly 2,000 feet of sewer pipe that they need to fill orders.
I am sitting at a desk in the warehouse doing paperwork - always a lot of paperwork - when a guy comes out of the main store, looking at me, says to the people behind the dual, swinging doors: "He's right here!". He walks off laughing, muttering comments under his breath. What the bleep is THIS about? I get up and walk in there. "What's going on?"
One of the counter guys says he has an instant message, FROM ME, that is going on RIGHT NOW. The message is from "me" asking this guy if he wants to hang out this weekend and have some drinks. Alarms. I don't engage in this kind of childish behavior at work, I am 46 years old and this kind of shit is pure bullshit. I like to have fun in life, a person abusing their position in this capacity is total BULLSHIT. I look at the IM and read everything. I instantly came to the conclusion, in my mind, who was doing this. This counter guy thought it was my manager, I thought differently.
This person that started this IM continues on and on. Do you want to hang out?.....followed by, "I like you".......followed by........."I like you alot". The intonation is that I am going to have this guy over for drinks and then it's going to be GAY SHIT SEX. FUCK A GUY UP THE ASS.
I'm sorry to the Christian readership here, I really am, but I am PISSED OFF. I looked at this guy and wondered if he really thought it was me contacting him before I showed up and and refuted, without know it by mere act of BEING there, that it WAS NOT ME.
This man was at the computer I use at work writing this stuff from my communicator/instant messenger. The message shows that it is me, not him, writing the content of that material.
Yes, I knew who wrote it because I heard he had done such things in the past. However, those things did not include sexual BULLSHIT. He is allegedly trying to teach the person a lesson that you should not leave your account open when not present at the computer. All fine and dandy in a place that has dozens of emplooyees and even more contractors, vendors and people from other divisions walking in and out of there. BS when it's a 2-man crew and MOST of the sales generated from the store are from the deliveries I make in the semi.
Who is this person? The Operations Manager. Do you see anything such as abuse of power going on here? The use of your position to do whatever you want because of the veritable lack of any kind of responsibility to be had on his part for saying WHATEVER he pleases? Further, with the gay shit, SEXUAL HARRASMENT. Can anyone say LAWSUIT? I'm NOT gay, but if the guy is going to paint me that and there are several witnesses to it, why the bleep should I take another iota's minute's worth of this SHIT that I have endured in my life span because of some IDIOT that thinks they can do what they want, when they want to? Ohhh, yes, the economy. SCREW the economy, I determined long ago, after being ABUSED by management at various companies, that I would NOT put up with it even if it mean LEAVING THE FREAKING COMPANY or risk being FIRED.
The man could have simply approached me and said that the company does not want you to leave your account open like that - though I have NEVER read any such thing on any of the REAMS of company documents I have seen. It MAY be there somewhere, I don't know. NO, he has to start SHIT with me by IMPERSONATING me, that's what it is, impersonation. I am going to look into labor laws and such, there is NO WAY I am going to just tolerate this stuff. Yes, I am mad. I'm not just upset, I AM MAD. I HATE being treated this way by ANY management. My company does not stand ethical corruption and to me, this is ALL about ethics and morals.
Ahhh, BenB taking a deep breath. There is, actually, more to this story but I cannot go into it right now. I can feel my innards in the way that only anger brings up. It is not good for me and I would like to actually sleep tonight. I must stop now.
Wednesday
Wednesday
Came home yesterday from work to find things "out of place". Couldn't quite put my finger on it, so I checked video surveillance.
Ahhh, good ole surveillance cameras. They always give it away.
2 black boys, ditching school. I didn't throw the black kids out, they just don't come around much since Michael isn't there anymore. However, I do not believe my house should be some sort of refuge to take cover in while playing hookie and I will be addressing that post haste.
Fishies: I am pulling plants out of the water and doing head counts every day now. I SHOULD have 18 fish in there, large ones anyway, I actually have 12. If I lose any more of them, then I will be putting up fencing around the pond edge to keep birds/Herons out, as they are the only thing around that could eat a fish that big.
The experts tell you to look around your yard, sometimes they pick up a fish to fly off with it and then drop it. No fish bodies. I mean, if the bird already has the fish, he might as well eat it versus just letting it lay on the ground to rot.
I prefer them not even coming around my yard, thank you very much.
Turtles are still plain terrified. No biggies now that I have the info I needed to figure out what to do with them concerning their terror: nothing. And now I know I can simply put them in a cardboard box lined with a quilt or something and "store" them in the shed for the winter. Don't have to worry about them freezing to death in the cold water. Hey, that's what the expert told me to do, just store them on a high shelf in the shed from mid October to sometime in - March I think he said.
Whatever. I haven't done any work on that pond instllation in over a week, I simply decided to take a break from it. I will, however, be starting back up as I have noticed that this work must be part of the impetus that was causing me to lose weight which, as soon as I stopped the work, is also another point where weight loss also stopped.
Okay, folks, it's the first day of September. My "mind-frame" will begin to change as the temps and weather change along with it. That probably won't be happening today since the forecast high is 107, but still. Just the fact that the 3 hottest months are done and over with is enough to get me into a bit better - mood. Probably the extreme use of electricity is what sours things for me as I see my money going to operate a piece of machinery that cools the house.......
So, do I go for the year-long plan that equalizes the amount paid every month? Dunno yet. October is when they said to do it. I rather enjoy the 7 or 8 months of not having high electric use/bills. Just that summer always catches me and I am always struggling to get the money to pay it up - and this year was easily the high electric use in terms of money that I have ever seen being chucked out the window.
Well, anyway, work day almost here, only one thing to do in truck routing system but - it's better than nothing.
G'day.
ben
Came home yesterday from work to find things "out of place". Couldn't quite put my finger on it, so I checked video surveillance.
Ahhh, good ole surveillance cameras. They always give it away.
2 black boys, ditching school. I didn't throw the black kids out, they just don't come around much since Michael isn't there anymore. However, I do not believe my house should be some sort of refuge to take cover in while playing hookie and I will be addressing that post haste.
Fishies: I am pulling plants out of the water and doing head counts every day now. I SHOULD have 18 fish in there, large ones anyway, I actually have 12. If I lose any more of them, then I will be putting up fencing around the pond edge to keep birds/Herons out, as they are the only thing around that could eat a fish that big.
The experts tell you to look around your yard, sometimes they pick up a fish to fly off with it and then drop it. No fish bodies. I mean, if the bird already has the fish, he might as well eat it versus just letting it lay on the ground to rot.
I prefer them not even coming around my yard, thank you very much.
Turtles are still plain terrified. No biggies now that I have the info I needed to figure out what to do with them concerning their terror: nothing. And now I know I can simply put them in a cardboard box lined with a quilt or something and "store" them in the shed for the winter. Don't have to worry about them freezing to death in the cold water. Hey, that's what the expert told me to do, just store them on a high shelf in the shed from mid October to sometime in - March I think he said.
Whatever. I haven't done any work on that pond instllation in over a week, I simply decided to take a break from it. I will, however, be starting back up as I have noticed that this work must be part of the impetus that was causing me to lose weight which, as soon as I stopped the work, is also another point where weight loss also stopped.
Okay, folks, it's the first day of September. My "mind-frame" will begin to change as the temps and weather change along with it. That probably won't be happening today since the forecast high is 107, but still. Just the fact that the 3 hottest months are done and over with is enough to get me into a bit better - mood. Probably the extreme use of electricity is what sours things for me as I see my money going to operate a piece of machinery that cools the house.......
So, do I go for the year-long plan that equalizes the amount paid every month? Dunno yet. October is when they said to do it. I rather enjoy the 7 or 8 months of not having high electric use/bills. Just that summer always catches me and I am always struggling to get the money to pay it up - and this year was easily the high electric use in terms of money that I have ever seen being chucked out the window.
Well, anyway, work day almost here, only one thing to do in truck routing system but - it's better than nothing.
G'day.
ben
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Tuesday
Tuesday
The news is full of it today. Iran calls French first lady a PROSTITUTE? A giant "boot print" scar on Mars that is "baffling" scientists, Arizona being named in a state department report (going out to the world) about civil rights - yada yada yada.
Politics certainly is going to hell in a handbasket. It isn't mud-slinging anymore, it's throwing fireballs at each other. I guess it's normal, just seems like there's a LOT of it going on around the nation right now.
I suppose of concern to me is this issue of Iran wanting to stone a woman to death because she was caught committing adultery. It doesn't take a great leap, after hearing their president talking about the destruction of Israel and the U.S. on MANY occasions, to say that if they had nuclear warheads it wouldn't take much to get them to use one of them.
I do wish we had a real President in the Oval Office instead of what we have sitting in there now. I don't think he has the cahoneys to stand up to Iran. In fact, I'm not sure he even cares one way or the other, he certainly doesn't want to hear the voice of the American people when it comes to several issues and overwhelming majorities opposing him on issues such as the healthcare bill - and still doing it anyway. I heard him say the other day that he is working to "help future generations". Yeah, sure, to load them down with debt from THIS generation.
Gobbledygook I'm tired of it. Anyway, there is nothing in the truck routing system to today, but the Ops manager wrote me an email asking if I would try to sell all of our non-selling drip irrigation stuff on Craigslist.
Why, actually, I would be happy to! Lol. Give me something to do!
G'day.
ben
The news is full of it today. Iran calls French first lady a PROSTITUTE? A giant "boot print" scar on Mars that is "baffling" scientists, Arizona being named in a state department report (going out to the world) about civil rights - yada yada yada.
Politics certainly is going to hell in a handbasket. It isn't mud-slinging anymore, it's throwing fireballs at each other. I guess it's normal, just seems like there's a LOT of it going on around the nation right now.
I suppose of concern to me is this issue of Iran wanting to stone a woman to death because she was caught committing adultery. It doesn't take a great leap, after hearing their president talking about the destruction of Israel and the U.S. on MANY occasions, to say that if they had nuclear warheads it wouldn't take much to get them to use one of them.
I do wish we had a real President in the Oval Office instead of what we have sitting in there now. I don't think he has the cahoneys to stand up to Iran. In fact, I'm not sure he even cares one way or the other, he certainly doesn't want to hear the voice of the American people when it comes to several issues and overwhelming majorities opposing him on issues such as the healthcare bill - and still doing it anyway. I heard him say the other day that he is working to "help future generations". Yeah, sure, to load them down with debt from THIS generation.
Gobbledygook I'm tired of it. Anyway, there is nothing in the truck routing system to today, but the Ops manager wrote me an email asking if I would try to sell all of our non-selling drip irrigation stuff on Craigslist.
Why, actually, I would be happy to! Lol. Give me something to do!
G'day.
ben
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday
Monday
Well, here we go again - looking for a new tenant that is. There is a guy that has been calling me for months about whether I have a room available or not - I think this person might turn out to be high maintenance and I already have one of those.
The female tenant that had the kids over this weekend - definitely high maintenance. The ex-Marine had told me not 2 weeks ago that he was talking with his mother .......add a lot of words here......and that he was just going to stay at my place.
Somehow, I figured when he started getting that free money from the military for monthly expenses that he would be leaving. I also think the Army reservist lady is going to leave soon because she just registered for school and as soon as it starts, she will also start getting a good chunk of money every month.
As I said, here we go again. She has not, however, given a move-out date. Well, I have a date for the Marine: the 11th of this coming month so I am going to get moving with starting to run ads - probably on the 1st. His friend that he is moving in with wanted him to move out by the 1st - giving me all of 2 days notice.
Yes, I would have gotten pretty mad, really, for someone to do something like that. All I can say is I hope I can find someone and quickly as summer isn't quite over, yet, the high today is quoted at 97 degrees. I'm referring to electricity, the extreme use of it to keep the house cool through central AC and the fact that without 3 tenants, the house will not be very cool : ) Turn the thermostat up to about 90 and I can probably afford that.
Well, anyway, it is what it is, deal with it as it comes. The trailer tenants - dunno about them. I don't think they're going to be able to get the place they were looking at because they simply don't have the down money to get in it. They want first month's rent and I think a $200 security deposit. Sorry, I can't help ya with that, you're welcomed to stay until you figure something out.
August 30, 2010 5:55 AM
Anonymous said...
Turtles. Well, I wrote some experts on an internet site about them, the fact that they are terrified, on and on, and I got a very detailed and lengthy - and informative - response back. Don't worry about them, don't even try to feed them for a few WEEKS. Lol. Okay. I was informed that they can live for months without food if the prior owners fed them well (which they definitely did) and that it is quite normal that they go to the bottom of the pond and - pretty much be mortified. Further, those turtles were at eye level in their old habitation, now, they are on the ground. When someone like me - 6'2" walks up to them, it's more like King Kong to them.
Here comes the kicker: he states that they probably aren't going to survive a Phoenix winter, it gets too cold for them. Not cold enough to hibernate (I didn't know turtles were hibernating creatures) but too cold to survive. So, what to do with these turtles in winter? I will probably get rid of them if it's going to turn into a high-maintenance nightmare. I thought about making some turtle soup. Lol. No, really,I don't have any place in the house where I would want to put a tank, I do have a shed outside but it will just get cold in there, I think I may just start looking for a new owner for them.
As for the fish, well, I have enough fish now, thank you. I need more plants, but there is a pond club meeting coming up in a couple of weeks and usually you get free plants. This time, I will arrive earlier. There was a family at the last one that was hoarding the free plants - helping themselves to everything and not leaving much for anyone else. I was at those people's home at the pond club tour - they can use as many plants as their greedy little fingers can walk off with out of those meetings. I did end up with a nice umbrella plant which is in one of the ponds now and it does, as the owner that brought them in say, reproduce very quickly. In fact, I think I might be able to separate some of them now and repot.
Work day approaches. There is one order in the system but I have to go 4 or 5 different places to get all of the materials, including one place that is a good drive from here, so I will be busy at least for most of the morning. Which is nice. As for the home front, well, I have new things to worry about - finding more tenants. Always a hassle, always causes some amount of trepidation, always.
G'day.
ben
Well, here we go again - looking for a new tenant that is. There is a guy that has been calling me for months about whether I have a room available or not - I think this person might turn out to be high maintenance and I already have one of those.
The female tenant that had the kids over this weekend - definitely high maintenance. The ex-Marine had told me not 2 weeks ago that he was talking with his mother .......add a lot of words here......and that he was just going to stay at my place.
Somehow, I figured when he started getting that free money from the military for monthly expenses that he would be leaving. I also think the Army reservist lady is going to leave soon because she just registered for school and as soon as it starts, she will also start getting a good chunk of money every month.
As I said, here we go again. She has not, however, given a move-out date. Well, I have a date for the Marine: the 11th of this coming month so I am going to get moving with starting to run ads - probably on the 1st. His friend that he is moving in with wanted him to move out by the 1st - giving me all of 2 days notice.
Yes, I would have gotten pretty mad, really, for someone to do something like that. All I can say is I hope I can find someone and quickly as summer isn't quite over, yet, the high today is quoted at 97 degrees. I'm referring to electricity, the extreme use of it to keep the house cool through central AC and the fact that without 3 tenants, the house will not be very cool : ) Turn the thermostat up to about 90 and I can probably afford that.
Well, anyway, it is what it is, deal with it as it comes. The trailer tenants - dunno about them. I don't think they're going to be able to get the place they were looking at because they simply don't have the down money to get in it. They want first month's rent and I think a $200 security deposit. Sorry, I can't help ya with that, you're welcomed to stay until you figure something out.
August 30, 2010 5:55 AM
Anonymous said...
Turtles. Well, I wrote some experts on an internet site about them, the fact that they are terrified, on and on, and I got a very detailed and lengthy - and informative - response back. Don't worry about them, don't even try to feed them for a few WEEKS. Lol. Okay. I was informed that they can live for months without food if the prior owners fed them well (which they definitely did) and that it is quite normal that they go to the bottom of the pond and - pretty much be mortified. Further, those turtles were at eye level in their old habitation, now, they are on the ground. When someone like me - 6'2" walks up to them, it's more like King Kong to them.
Here comes the kicker: he states that they probably aren't going to survive a Phoenix winter, it gets too cold for them. Not cold enough to hibernate (I didn't know turtles were hibernating creatures) but too cold to survive. So, what to do with these turtles in winter? I will probably get rid of them if it's going to turn into a high-maintenance nightmare. I thought about making some turtle soup. Lol. No, really,I don't have any place in the house where I would want to put a tank, I do have a shed outside but it will just get cold in there, I think I may just start looking for a new owner for them.
As for the fish, well, I have enough fish now, thank you. I need more plants, but there is a pond club meeting coming up in a couple of weeks and usually you get free plants. This time, I will arrive earlier. There was a family at the last one that was hoarding the free plants - helping themselves to everything and not leaving much for anyone else. I was at those people's home at the pond club tour - they can use as many plants as their greedy little fingers can walk off with out of those meetings. I did end up with a nice umbrella plant which is in one of the ponds now and it does, as the owner that brought them in say, reproduce very quickly. In fact, I think I might be able to separate some of them now and repot.
Work day approaches. There is one order in the system but I have to go 4 or 5 different places to get all of the materials, including one place that is a good drive from here, so I will be busy at least for most of the morning. Which is nice. As for the home front, well, I have new things to worry about - finding more tenants. Always a hassle, always causes some amount of trepidation, always.
G'day.
ben
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Plecos
So, I went back. The pond owners are trying to get rid of all of the fish. I wish I could oblige - I took some, yes, but not all of them. My 2 ponds with fish cannot further handle, I don't think, any more fish. I have a huge filtering process, yes, but it can only handle so much. I just cleaned it out - a giant pile of fish poo.
Both of the ponds for fish are pretty much full. I mean, sure, you can put more in them, but is it wise? I have good filtering and great aeration on both of them - but - I have read ample material on the subject that yes, there is a point where you can have too many. It's the point of amount of toxins that accumulate in the ponds, not feeding them - feeding is cheap enough and that doesn't really do anything to turn me away from getting more fish.
Anyway, catching the Plecostomus proved to be a challenge - much more so than even the Koi yesterday. They are mud dwellers, they can hide down there. The man drained the pond down until there was very little water and we were able to get them all out of there - 5 large ones. This was the score as well as the heaters, I took 8 of them. I paid for 6. They threw in a couple extras in case one doesn't work, but they basically said they always discard the ones that aren't working. Okay, I paid $2 a piece for heaters that are normally $30 a piece. THAT'S why I went there today. Now, I am prepared for winter. I need only get floating thermostats for the ponds to make sure they are warm enough - since that's quite a while away, I am not going to concern myself with it right now.
Upon viewing the new fish in both ponds, a large white goldfish that I got today and one of the goldfish already in the pond are - doing something. I don't know if goldfish will get agressive with each other but one is chasing the other around. Another plausibility is that there are mating rituals going on. Not really sure. I'll give it some time to see if the activity dies down - other wise I will remove one or the other from the pond and put it in the other pond.
Hours long interlude as life occurs and I have to deal with things.
One of which is the ex-Marine's 5th declaration that he is moving out next month on the 11th. This turned into a long, drawn out conversation. The fact of the matter is: he has no idea what he's getting himself into. Renting an apartment with a friend. I can think of nothing that can end a friendship faster than living with friends at a young age and attempting to learn the things in life - that many readers learned decades ago.
I gave no warnings about such: most people have to learn that on their own. I can find another renter, I am not worried about that. I just watch people come and go out of here - some will make it, some will not. One was carted off on a stretcher. He is STILL in a nursing home.
Uhhh, even more interruptions and this post is over, as I have to go to bed.
G'nite.
ben
Both of the ponds for fish are pretty much full. I mean, sure, you can put more in them, but is it wise? I have good filtering and great aeration on both of them - but - I have read ample material on the subject that yes, there is a point where you can have too many. It's the point of amount of toxins that accumulate in the ponds, not feeding them - feeding is cheap enough and that doesn't really do anything to turn me away from getting more fish.
Anyway, catching the Plecostomus proved to be a challenge - much more so than even the Koi yesterday. They are mud dwellers, they can hide down there. The man drained the pond down until there was very little water and we were able to get them all out of there - 5 large ones. This was the score as well as the heaters, I took 8 of them. I paid for 6. They threw in a couple extras in case one doesn't work, but they basically said they always discard the ones that aren't working. Okay, I paid $2 a piece for heaters that are normally $30 a piece. THAT'S why I went there today. Now, I am prepared for winter. I need only get floating thermostats for the ponds to make sure they are warm enough - since that's quite a while away, I am not going to concern myself with it right now.
Upon viewing the new fish in both ponds, a large white goldfish that I got today and one of the goldfish already in the pond are - doing something. I don't know if goldfish will get agressive with each other but one is chasing the other around. Another plausibility is that there are mating rituals going on. Not really sure. I'll give it some time to see if the activity dies down - other wise I will remove one or the other from the pond and put it in the other pond.
Hours long interlude as life occurs and I have to deal with things.
One of which is the ex-Marine's 5th declaration that he is moving out next month on the 11th. This turned into a long, drawn out conversation. The fact of the matter is: he has no idea what he's getting himself into. Renting an apartment with a friend. I can think of nothing that can end a friendship faster than living with friends at a young age and attempting to learn the things in life - that many readers learned decades ago.
I gave no warnings about such: most people have to learn that on their own. I can find another renter, I am not worried about that. I just watch people come and go out of here - some will make it, some will not. One was carted off on a stretcher. He is STILL in a nursing home.
Uhhh, even more interruptions and this post is over, as I have to go to bed.
G'nite.
ben
Saturday and Sunday
Started an entry yesterday but never finished it. The unemployed tenant had her 2 kids over - a 4 year old girl and 7 year old boy. They were here ALL day long. She had little control over them and I will be having a discussion about whether I want them over here again or not considering the yelling, screaming and perpetual chaos that went on for most of the day. At around 7:00pm I had had MORE than enough when the little girl came into the hallway and started screaming at the top of her lungs - just to hear herself screaming apparently.
I, in turn, began speaking very loudly that "You need to get your kids under control, stop the screaming junk - NOW!!"
They left shortly after that - I disappeared into my bedroom. I have my computer out here - here being in the kitchen area - there simply was no peace. I can handle quite a bit of stuff, but yesterday was ridiculous. I had thought she was thinking about having them over another night the way she was talking, I would have intervened and said, no thanks, they've been here long enough, take'em home, thanks.
Anyway, I DID go and get some more fish yesterday. 2 more ponds shutting down. My mission: Koi, no more goldfish. I have lots of goldfish, I only had 2 Koi until yesterday. I was the first one there, the guy claimed that there were "hundreds" of fish in his pond - simply not true. He only had 2 Koi, but the 2 he had were huge. He wanted $10 a piece for them. A 16 inch long Koi is going to get at least $50 on the market, if not much more. I bought both of them and considered that my "fun money" for this pay period. His pond was not much larger than the pond I put those Koi into - he said he had them about 4 years - so, I guess these giant fish can do very well in smaller ponds.
Catching those suckers - as it always is with Koi - proved to be a lengthy process. The first one took about 10 minutes to snag, I got him with my small net, put him in the container where he jumped out onto dry land. Not smart, Mr. Koi, not too smart. Picked him up, dumped him in there, put a lid on it and then we proceeded to try and catch the other, larger one. HE was a pain the rear. He did NOT want to be caught. Spent a good half hour trying to catch him. I finally suggested to the guy to block him in at one of the pond and it should be easier to get him. Sure enough, 2 minutes after blocking him in, I snagged him.
He also had several large plecostumus. They are algea eaters and I want several. I dunno how hard it would have been to catch them, the water was too murky from catching the Koi to even see them so I gave up on that idea. I told him if he could catch them I would come back and get them. Haven't heard back from him so I dunno. Maybe I'll call later, he only wanted $3 for a giant pleco, that's a good price. I have seen people advertising pleco's that large for $15 and up.
Well, that guy has another ad up so I called him just now - he is selling his pond heaters for $2 each, that's a SMOKING deal and I want them. I don't need them now but I also don't want to be caught red-handed when winter FINALLY - IF EVER - gets here and the water needs to be warmed up a bit. Later on for that is all I can say.
My son is a good boy. He wants to get my old Buick running and said he had $200 to do so. I had thought he had much more money than that - yes, he did, his mom is unemployed and he gave her $200 or more to help her out a bit.
The problem with getting that car going is it's going to cost around $400 or so to do it. I don't really have "extra" funds right now. Spending $20 on fish and maybe a few more dollars later for those heaters is about the end of it.
However, the food bill has gone down considerably around here and the electric use is starting to fall as the temps have come down. I don't, however, even think about calling summer done - the extended forecasts still show some hot days ahead. The forecasters in these parts don't seem to have a clue what they are doing. I mean, it rained yesterday and there wasn't anything in the forecast for rain. Stuff like that. Anyway, my problem is that I pretty much got sucked dry in the finance department trying to keep up with huge electric bills and dealing with late paying tenants. I spent $500 last month on electricity and just hit $400 for this month - 3 more days to go til' the first I'm going to call it about a $430 month for electricity. Better than last month, still far too high.
I told Caleb he might ask his grandpa to help him out with the car if he wanted to hand write a letter to him. Grandma won't help with such things, I know that for a fact so not even worth bothering to ask. Meanwhile, I'll come up with a budget for next month and see if I can look forward to some extra funds what with much less food being eaten and hopefully shrinking electric use as the hot days start winding down to and END, thank you very much.
Well, I don't have much more. It's quiet. Caleb just left for work and tenants are either sleeping, awake and I can't hear them or not here, I haven't checked and don't care to. I have numerous things I want to get done today - I was going to go to church but once again, I didn't make it to a clothing store so, no-go. I just won't go to church in blue jean s and t-shirts, it's not my style and I wouldn't feel comfortable showing up in such "condition".
G'day.
ben
I, in turn, began speaking very loudly that "You need to get your kids under control, stop the screaming junk - NOW!!"
They left shortly after that - I disappeared into my bedroom. I have my computer out here - here being in the kitchen area - there simply was no peace. I can handle quite a bit of stuff, but yesterday was ridiculous. I had thought she was thinking about having them over another night the way she was talking, I would have intervened and said, no thanks, they've been here long enough, take'em home, thanks.
Anyway, I DID go and get some more fish yesterday. 2 more ponds shutting down. My mission: Koi, no more goldfish. I have lots of goldfish, I only had 2 Koi until yesterday. I was the first one there, the guy claimed that there were "hundreds" of fish in his pond - simply not true. He only had 2 Koi, but the 2 he had were huge. He wanted $10 a piece for them. A 16 inch long Koi is going to get at least $50 on the market, if not much more. I bought both of them and considered that my "fun money" for this pay period. His pond was not much larger than the pond I put those Koi into - he said he had them about 4 years - so, I guess these giant fish can do very well in smaller ponds.
Catching those suckers - as it always is with Koi - proved to be a lengthy process. The first one took about 10 minutes to snag, I got him with my small net, put him in the container where he jumped out onto dry land. Not smart, Mr. Koi, not too smart. Picked him up, dumped him in there, put a lid on it and then we proceeded to try and catch the other, larger one. HE was a pain the rear. He did NOT want to be caught. Spent a good half hour trying to catch him. I finally suggested to the guy to block him in at one of the pond and it should be easier to get him. Sure enough, 2 minutes after blocking him in, I snagged him.
He also had several large plecostumus. They are algea eaters and I want several. I dunno how hard it would have been to catch them, the water was too murky from catching the Koi to even see them so I gave up on that idea. I told him if he could catch them I would come back and get them. Haven't heard back from him so I dunno. Maybe I'll call later, he only wanted $3 for a giant pleco, that's a good price. I have seen people advertising pleco's that large for $15 and up.
Well, that guy has another ad up so I called him just now - he is selling his pond heaters for $2 each, that's a SMOKING deal and I want them. I don't need them now but I also don't want to be caught red-handed when winter FINALLY - IF EVER - gets here and the water needs to be warmed up a bit. Later on for that is all I can say.
My son is a good boy. He wants to get my old Buick running and said he had $200 to do so. I had thought he had much more money than that - yes, he did, his mom is unemployed and he gave her $200 or more to help her out a bit.
The problem with getting that car going is it's going to cost around $400 or so to do it. I don't really have "extra" funds right now. Spending $20 on fish and maybe a few more dollars later for those heaters is about the end of it.
However, the food bill has gone down considerably around here and the electric use is starting to fall as the temps have come down. I don't, however, even think about calling summer done - the extended forecasts still show some hot days ahead. The forecasters in these parts don't seem to have a clue what they are doing. I mean, it rained yesterday and there wasn't anything in the forecast for rain. Stuff like that. Anyway, my problem is that I pretty much got sucked dry in the finance department trying to keep up with huge electric bills and dealing with late paying tenants. I spent $500 last month on electricity and just hit $400 for this month - 3 more days to go til' the first I'm going to call it about a $430 month for electricity. Better than last month, still far too high.
I told Caleb he might ask his grandpa to help him out with the car if he wanted to hand write a letter to him. Grandma won't help with such things, I know that for a fact so not even worth bothering to ask. Meanwhile, I'll come up with a budget for next month and see if I can look forward to some extra funds what with much less food being eaten and hopefully shrinking electric use as the hot days start winding down to and END, thank you very much.
Well, I don't have much more. It's quiet. Caleb just left for work and tenants are either sleeping, awake and I can't hear them or not here, I haven't checked and don't care to. I have numerous things I want to get done today - I was going to go to church but once again, I didn't make it to a clothing store so, no-go. I just won't go to church in blue jean s and t-shirts, it's not my style and I wouldn't feel comfortable showing up in such "condition".
G'day.
ben
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)