Wednesday 11/10/2010

Wednesday

I'm going to write another Cafe World entry today or soon - the final word on slow running cafe or low buzz rating. It's very simply this: If you have a slow cafe, can't get in, yada yada yada, look at your computer and stop blaming Zynga. Period. I don't have any isses getting into Cafe World anymore and zinging right through everything with my new computer - and that using only half the RAM I have in it.

But let's not go there now, as I said, that would be a DIFFERENT entry and here I go sounding off on THIS entry. I think I'm still a bit peeved at that car, at least I have mine back to get back and forth to work until something is figured out with that old thing.

The most entertaining news of the day (for me anyway): 4,500 people stranded on what amounts to a dead ship. Lol. I wonder what kind of putrid smells and air must be floating around in that thing without AC and certainly no hot water gotta be fun. The only thing they have said is that there was an engine room fire - well that must have been QUITE the fire to knock out the engines completely!! And not be able to get them up and running again?!!!

Wow, this story gets sweeter by the line of type. Refrigerators went out - can you imagine? I mean, feeding that many people? There must be a lot of rotten food in there!! No internet service, no cell phones - what an unbelievably MISERABLE ordeal that would be.

Well, I feel for those people, but they are being taken care of so not the end of the world. Maybe for THEM it is, especially spoiled people - you know the kind - want everything and want it now. Poor little babies. Maybe the rich people can have a helicopter fly in and take them out of there, lol.

I was actually attempting to talk myself into getting Windows 7 - until the car broke down. Everything on hold. No idea what is wrong with it. Funny that that mechanic couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, either. He brought out 3 different computers and was walking back and forth retrieving wire harnesses for those computers over and over. I know cause' I sat there for almost 4 hours. I won't be sitting there today - I have my car and whenever they do figure the thing out, I am NOT taking a freakin' taxi. What a total ripoff. I don't take taxi's often. We had gone all of a mile and the thing was sitting at almost $9. I HAD to ask the guy about THAT. I know there is a flag drop fee then the fee is $1.99 per mile.

They freaking have "traffic delay" on those things. Meaning, when you are sitting at stop light, you are paying MORE for it. You call that a traffic delay? That's part of NORMAL TRAFFIC, not a traffic jam!!! It's rated at $28 per HOUR, on TOP of the mileage fee. That's pure insanity.

Whatever. Just another thing to get my goat I guess.

Apparently the Dems have somewhat woken up. GOP wants ALL Bush tax cuts - including those earnin over $250,000 per year - to be extended, Obama said no. Now the Dems have a new idea - too long to go into - but it does include at least a temporary extension of the tax cuts for everyone.

I do hope the people voted in under the Tea Party guise stick to their guns and aren't talked or bullied down because of people in there with "tenure". Who CARES about tenure? It hasn't gotten us anywhere good anytime recently that I can see. Let them raise heck and heterdyne and let the whole process be sent into chaos, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm feeling fiesty this morning, I have a LOT of driving to do today. East Valley; West Valley; going down south, back up to the FAR east valley and then back here (here being work). Which is okay, it makes the day go by faster and today? I do NOT intend sitting for hours at a repair shop. I'm not even going to call them, they have my number, when it's done, they can call me. My son will just have to go without a car for a couple of days (hopefully that's all it is).

As for me, I'm outta here, time to geeeeeet to work.

G'day.

ben

Tuesday Late 11/9/2010

Take a guess what happens on my way to work this morning.

Yup, I'm two miles from work and that blasted car dies.  Again.

It's 49 degrees outside, I have no jacked with me and I am facing walking the rest of the way to work.  Exactly what I did, too, except I was walking at a very brisk pace mixed with running to get the internal heat pump going so I wouldn't freeze to death getting there.  Sure enough, after about 1/2  a mile I was feeling no cold.

Get to work - drive all day long in the semi - get off of work.   I am there from 1:35 until 5:35.  They didn't get started on it until after 3:00 - and that mechanic?  Could not figure out what was wrong with it.  I would not have spent the entire afternoon there if I had known I would have to go - get my other car.  But I did and I didn't complain about it.  I ended up calling a taxi.  I had no presumption that my son would have ever been able to find that place to come get me.  $21 later, I get my car, head to Fry's.

Why?  M-Power was almost out and I HAD to replenish it today.  A freakin' line to get to the machines.  That wasn't the worst part, though, there was one lady who didn't know how to use the first machine and a lady on the other one kept inserting her card, getting information, getting the card back and reinserting it.

Well, whatever.  Am I having second thoughts about that car? Oh YES.  This is the 4th time in a little over a month that car has been in the shop.  If I would have known the problems I was going to have with that machine in getting it running, I would have told my son it better to save his money to buy a good, used one.  Now? I've got too much into it.  To stop - at least at this point - would be a HUGE waste.  To continue without an end to this nonsense - also ridiculous but right now, I have no choice.  I do have a choice, it just isn't going to happen.  They need to find out what's wrong with that thing and put this issue to rest.

For what it's worth, internally I might have had  a few issues, externally I kept a good attitude.  This included complaining customers at work for one of the deliveries I made (they are making this particular company pay in advance for materials ordered versus C.O.D. as they have done for years now and this is not setting well with them) and other things that occured during work today.  It also included my pondering that I have had this vehicle in that shop - which is widely acclaimed as one of the best in the entire Phoenix area - 3 times before today - within 35 days of each visit and now the 4th time.  My questioning to myself was: are all these problems related?  Is there some deeper problem that was the source of all of this and the rest of what I had done a complete waste of money?

I answered the question to some degree that - no - not all of this is inter-related.  The car needed a major tune-up to pass emissions, that was the first visit.  The second visit, though, they said it was the crank sensor.  That's a toss-up.  That guy that put in the harmonic balancer might have damaged that sensor when he did it - or the computer was bad all along.  The 3rd visit was the computer.  The car was running swimmingly after that.  Now?  It just quits.

Here's the deal: I left at 5:05 am and got home at almost  6:30 pm.  Nice, long day.

Whatever the case, I have my newer car - sorry Caleb - had to take it from him.  I'm not paying the kind of price tag it would cost to get to work tomorrow in a friggin' taxi.

That's my day in a nutshell.

And now?  I'm tired.  What else is there to say.

Nothing.

Good evening.

ben

Monday 11/8/2010

20 Killed Over Weekend In Mexican Border City
That was the headline and the story I just got through reading. Juarez, Mexico, directly across the border from El Paso, Texas. Unbelievable. When is the Mexican government going to get off of it's ass and do something about this? I used to spend a LOT of time in Juarez: you couldn't PAY me to go over there or anywhere in Mexico right now. 

That president over there condemning Arizona for the immigration bill, while at the same time they have mass murders and drug cartels wreaking havoc all over the countryside, give me a freakin' break. 

"I am constantly reminded that we have been through worse times than these, and we've always come out on top," he said. That was Obama reflecting on the economy. The ONLY worse time I can think of is the Great Depression. There has BEEN nothing worse since then in terms of the economy. The guy literally has his head stuck in the sand. He continues to blame the economy for the political losses, yet clearly, at least if polls give you any clarity, it wasn't just that, it was also the health care bill. 

GOP has admitted that they cannot do anything about repealing that bill with the current president. Well duhhhhhh. All of these people need to get over themselves, thinking they know everything and the rest of us are know-nothings.

I kinda woke up cranky this morning, must be the reason for all this - crankiness. I actually went to bed at 7:00 something last night and then, of course, woke up at 1:00 am, fell back asleep for another hour and then woke up again. The second time waking up? I should have just gotten out of bed even if it was 3:00 am. I already had 7 hours of sleep at that point. If it happens again, I am definitely just going to get up. There is no point laying there for an hour and a half, half awake, half asleep. 

Well, at least there is something to do today. 2 fire hydrants going to the Indian reservation and a pickup at a manufacturer in west Phoenix. It isn't a lot, but it's better than nothing at all. 

Oh, and I have 2 heaters going in the ponds. 1 in each. I decided to see if the circuit could take all of that and apparently it can. I have it set at 75 degrees on each one. I am also checking the power usage for such. Plus, I have a person that wants to get some of the goldfish. I don't want that many fish in a pond that small, I think it's not real healthy for them. I DO have large filtering systems, but, still, I just think it would be better to think it out by about 10 fish.

I also finally saw the Koi that I bought from Petsmart. I had put one in the big pond and he flat out disappeared for over a week. Yesterday, something got him moving because he was darting all over that pond. In the smaller pond, though not that much smaller, I also found one of the new fish I had put in there hiding. Well, you never know if those things are a live, dead, what in those ponds, they hide so well. The smaller pond is full of plants, plenty of places for smaller fish to hide.

Anyway, enough of this, work day approaches and I have a few more news items I want to read through before starting.

G'day.

ben

Sunday

Umm, I think there must be a post for Sunday on my Blogger dashboard, as I definitely set out to write one and got quite a bit of it done.

However, I am in a totally different mind frame and don't care to publish it.  Not that it isn't accurate, true - whatever, just not where I am at right now.  Do we not, as humans, have things come at us on a daily basis that give us different moods, mindsets, perspectives, all of it?  Yes, I think it true. I know it's true for me.

It has been a full day.  One particular tenant and her kids were the morning part of it.  The little girl with the very loud mouth was the irritating portion.  I'm not sorry to say that I raised my son as well as helping others raise their's while my son was whatever age their's was - I am pretty much done with youngins.  Talking under - 7 or 8 anyway.  Kids that need constant attention and constant supervision.  I am not there, don't want to be there, went through that for years and years, done and done.

It could have been more bearable if the parent in "control" would actually HAVE control, ie: supervision.  No-one has to tell me what it takes to raise kids or keep them under control, I have been there, done that, bought the farm, grown the cotton, took it to the cotton gin, bought the manufacturing plant with under-paid workers to produce the t-shirts, got the t-shirts and sold them, thank you VERY much.  I have compassion, definitely, but not for a person that simply refuses to do what it takes to keep those kids - civilized.

Let's move on.  They left.  I cleaned up after all of it - oh yes, there is aftermath as well.  I won't go into it because I will become irritated if I do.  That was this morning and it's history.  If this was every weekend, well, I would put a stop to it. I installed a regular electrical outlet versus a GFCI outlet for my fish ponds.  I have had those things popping out - outside - too many times.  They destroy themselves when they do that and I am tired of paying $15 for an electrical outlet.  The replacement was $4 and that outlet has a plastic cover over it, even hard rain won't get into that thing.

BTW, I did not get out of bed until 8:00 am.  I do not get up that late on any given day.  I was shocked when I woke up and saw the clock showing the time.  The dogs?  Sitting there.  I mean, it's hours past their timeto get out and relieve themselves.  Fortunately, that did not include doing that in my bedroom.

Time has ended.  The weekend draws to a close.

G'nite.

ben

That Was A Lot Of Work To Find Out That..............

..............this version of XP Windows doesn't allow more than 4 gigs of ram anymore than the original version.
However, I have FAR more stuff on here.  All kinds of graphics software - well it's a huge list of things.

It is, however, unacceptable. I must have an operating system that works with as much RAM as I have installed on this computer.  So, I will have to consider when I will buy Windows 7.  It's not if, it's when.  For now?  Not. I can live without it. I wanted to be sure that the new RAM I put in works - and, amazingly, there is a tester with all of this stuff I got with this Last XP that makes sure it does work.

Still, rather of a letdown.  I was hoping this OS would use all 8 gigs of RAM.  I have 4 gigs of ram sitting in this machine, idle, useless and doing nothing.

Motivation

I'm jumping on Bobby's and Dorrie's bandwagon and adding my perspective of motivation. 

For me, it comes and goes.  I can be sitting around, being lazy and fully subscribed to that theorem and then bam, something clicks on inside of me and says: "You need to get started on that right NOW".

Oh yes, I usually get right up from whatever I am doing or not doing and get to work. 

For an example, this morning, I have been lulling around in my mind the idea of finishing the cleaning in my bedroom.  Just one of those things, it sort of floats around a while and then the next thing I know I'm doing it.  Right now I'm waiting for this new computer to reformat - another hour to go judging it. 

So, after this entry, I'm 90% sure that while I'm waiting, I'm going to get something done and that something would be my bedroom.

On a different scale, my motivation has totally ceased.  I want to go to church but I don't go.  I want to get involved in the community again as I have spent so much of my adult life doing, but, I just don't have it.  The ideas are sitting on shelves in my mind.  I occasionally take them off, dust them and put them back on - the shelf.

I think the problem with that, for me, is the stuff I went through to get to the point where I don't want to star something fresh up again.  Shunned by a pastor, leaving a church and losing 10 year's worth of freindships and relationships.  Going through being a president of a homeowner's associated and having my reputation ground through the meat grinder, being talked about by God only knows how many people in very negative ways. 

It's funny, those people certainly didn't mind when I found grant for them to fix up their homes.  Up to $7,500 FREE money.  A lot of them used it, I never heard one single word of thanks.  All I ever heard was constant, non-stop complaining and whining.  People would actually complain that they had received an eviction notice because - they hadn't paid their lot rent.  Well, sir or madam, what the bleep am I supposed to do about it?  If you don't pay the rent, you're history, that's just life's little facts and stark, blunt reality that are thrown at you, I can't help you.  The pettiness of some of the people's complaints were too much.

There WAS icing on that cake,though.  I took that MH park to court and I won.  I won again in appeals court.  I was ready for the next appeals court, but they bought me out, I saw my opportunity and I got the bleep out of there. 

I'm kinda tapped out on the motivation department to start up a new homeowner's association or, more likely, a neighborhood assocation where I am living now.  This place is full of trailer trash.  That's the jist of it  People living in slum-like homes with unkempt properties overgrown with weeds.  I ran into too much opposition in even starting a Neighborhood association - that kind of association has no legal authority over anyone, it's just volunteers trying to make a community better - it was unbelievable the "in-fighting" that went on.  Little cliques all over the place.  Reminded me of my experience as the president in that MH park, I really thought about it and decided that at least for now, I am not going to do anything. 

Again, it comes to motivation.  What am I going to do?  For now, nothing.  If I really ever get motivated, it's going to be to go out and find a woman and get a relationship going.  I do miss certain aspects of that and no, it isn't all about sex.  I hate the idea of going into old age single and alone.  That really isn't a very nice thought at all.  I have tried a few times in going out on dates, but nothing ever clicked. 

So, I AM motivated in cleaning and home projects,I am not motivated in the arenas of life that used to be the core of my existence.  I DO love my job - albeit I ain't loving only getting 35 hours per week - I have no problem on 99% of any given work day in jumping out of bed and getting to work, even if I didn't sleep well that night, I'm still all over it.  I do love driving trucks, I just don't like doing that stuff in the city, which is, unfortunately, about 90% of my driving.

For me, there is no rhyme or reason to what motivates me to do any given thing.  It's never the same source.  Sometimes I just want to get something going.  Other times I have been wanting to do something for quite a while and  one day, the key goes into the ignition and it fires up and there I am, doing whatever it is I intended to do. 

Whatever the case, just writing this has motivated me to get up and go to the bedroom - I have cleaning to do!

ben

Saturday

I had heard that a lot of people do not like Compass Bank for a variety of reasons.  I have been with them for - almost 4 years now. 
I'm not going to go into the entire story of what happened starting Thursday and ending yesterday, I am going to say that I am going to close my account with them and move on.  I was going to do that before when I had another "interaction" with a certain manager, but this situation is a cake-taker in customer service horror stories.  It's just that it would take far too long to write all of it out from beginning to end and right now?  I simply don't feel like it. 

I might do it later today or just save it for another day when I DO feel like it, especially after reading countless stories of horrible customer service coming from that place.  But, I have to say, that other banks I have dealt with, especially Bank of America, can dole out the same kind of junk from people that don't give a damn about their customers and let you know their feelings about it in no uncertain terms. 

The fact of the matter is, I already have a checking account with Chase Bank, debit card and all.  I don't have any checks, but I rarely use them anymore anyway.  In situations like this, this is one of several reasons I don't have automatic deposit from work.  If I decide I don't like a bank, I can just take my money out and be done with it.  The ONLY thing I have linked to that account is my ING savings, it will take all of a few minutes to stop all those automatic withdrawals and - yes - set it up with Chase bank.

No, no sense in ruining a perfectly pleasant, wonderful morning with the writing of that situation.  Instead, I am happy to have that car purring like a kitten. I'm serious, fires right up, drives down the freeway 80mph, not a hitch.  Just has an exhaust leak and valve cover oil leak left to deal with.  I'm going to see if I can find a Taller Mecanico - Spanish for auto repair shop - that will seal up that exhaust system.  I have a sneaking feeling that taking it into a muffler shop is going to have them telling me I need a new this, that and the other thing and that will be four hundred dollars, please. 

I'm stuck in it now, I've dumped too much money into it to stop.  It is going to be finished.  I was told about a couple of Mexican junk yards in phoenix that have a lot of those old cars sitting in them and have doors up the ying yang that they will sell for cheap.  The problem?  I have dumped as much money into it as I am willing to do for now.  Unless something else happens that HAS to be addressed, I am only looking to get the exhaust and oil leak fixed and it's going to have to be good until - well I'm thinking after Christmas.  I have a week long vacation coming up the week of Thanksgiving and I would prefer to not be broke for it. 

So, what is my goal for this weekend?  I am trying to motivate myself to get with installing that OP system on my new computer.  I know how much "work" it is, or more like, time consumed, I have done it 20 times anyway on this old computer and it needs it yet again.  One that makes it a little easier to deal with is that I will still have a running computer while doing that.  This old computer needs a new fan installed  -  cheap enough, yes - but just another pain.  Especially considering the amount of wires I have attached to this thing.  A bit ridiculous, really. 

My Walgreens gift card finally came in the mail.  A local radio station recently held and event where they were trying to raise 1 million for a kid's hospital here.  They weren't getting any calls so they offered a gift card to the first 40 callers.  Okay, I gave $20 and got a $25 card, lol.  I'm guessing Walgreens supplied them to the radio station for free to hand out, so no loss to the kid's hospital.  I rarely go to Walgreens, but something just popped into my mind that I really want: another cordless shaver.  I haven't had one in ages.  I really hate dragging a razor blade across my face every morning and I know Walgreens has a pretty good selection of them. 

Yes, that's it and I have made up my mind : )

Ummm, formatting the hard drive as I am typing this.  I should have done quick, this looks like it's going to take an hour.  Took me 30 minutes to figure out how to even GET to this part of it!  Totally different setup than regular Windows XP.  Yup, 5 minutes and it's only 5% done.  Oh well, live and learn. 

I just went out to visit the fish.  They are not moving.  I guess it's cold in there for them.  Dunno, around 60 degrees.  I was actually able to touch one of the Koi before he/she decided they didn't want any part of it and then, suddenly, the whole pond came alive.  Well, I figured it was a good time to throw in some food. 

I have that electrical project I need to do out there - and I'm going to have to get it done sooner than later.  I'm afraid to put any more load on the circuit that I am running pumps and aerators off of.  I figure a couple of 300 watt heaters might blow the circuit breaker and it simply won't work.  Next week the temps are supposed to come down - though I don't believe the low temps are low enough to require heaters yet. 

Hmmm.  Well I guess I should already be heating the pond.  2 ponds - not at unlivable temps but at the temp it is at now, they will simply sit there and do nothing.  Not the end of the world, but those ponds will heat up considerably during the day at this point in time. 

Well, I've got my work cut out this weekend, but I am now full fledged into - waiting.  Lol.  20% done - formatting the computer that is.  I really hope that this OS will allow for all 8 gigs of RAM to work, I simply am not going to go out and buy another OS right now, I have other priorities.  But, this OS takes the best parts of Windows XP; Windows Vista and Windows 7, combines them together to make some sort of super OS. 

I'll find out soon  enough. 

With that, I bid you a good day.

ben

Friday - Hoarding

Hoarding.  I watch the show - sometimes.  It's purely gross.  The show is called: Hoarding: Buried Alive.

The reason I am so fascinated with this show is because I have been in numerous homes that look JUST like any and all of those homes.

I have walked into more than one home whose floors are littered with cat feces.  I don't mean 1 or 2 piles, I mean it's EVERYWHERE.  That and the smell of cat piss.  I had gone into these homes as a leader of a church on a mission that was, actually, requested by the person: please help me clean up my house.

To walk into a house that is filled with animal droppings and urine - well, it's indescribable.  I simply can't describe the repulsiveness of it.  You want to turn around and run out of that house.  To walk into a house with all of that plus MOUNDS of trash and junk laying around everywhere to the point there are "paths" going through it?  No way to describe the horror.  You can see it on those shows, but those shows do NOT give the  
incredible sick feeling that comes to mind, soul and body.  The nostrils are reeling, even breathing can become labored.

I did not, however, have the sympathies that those experts/psychologists on that show have.  I mean, I didn't diss the person, but I didn't play games.  Like, gee, let's wait around for days and weeks for this person to go through every single thing.  No.  We went in and took out the garbage.  Get the cat crap out.  Throw the piles of  junk - out.  Carry out the furniture.

We didn't have a company showing up with giant trash containers.  We took the stuff away if we had to.  It's just nasty.  We would bring in donated furniture, even replace carpeting and that would be it.  I knew that these people had a problem that THEY would have to deal with and I figured if I came back at a later date, I would find the place in the same condition as when we first showed up.  I did that, too.  One place?  Piles of trash were "freshly placed".

I will not go into a place a second time to help someone out.  I consider it the same as addictive behavior: you are either really ready to get out of it or you are not.  If you are not, then putting a band aid on it doesn't work.

Really, not pleasant thoughts.  The effort it takes to keep a clean home is WELL worth it.  Well beyond hoarding, just doing daily cleaning makes it FEEL better in the house.

Ahh, whatever.  Just commenting about my experiences with such people.  I don't consider them BAD people per se, just people that need help - but usually - the help needed is in the mind. "Fix" that and you can go in, clean house and probably?  You will come back a month later and it will still be - relatively - clean.

Onto other things.  One tenant told me last month that on the 2cd of this month, I would receive an entire month's rent from that individual.  The 2cd, 3rd, 4th and almost 5th passed.  5th would be today.  I was just now handed that full month's rent, cash.

I figured I would be going out on a limb to build this new computer and I didn't let myself down.  However, the light at the end of the tunnel is almost here already.  It was do it or never do it, that was my feeling about it and I do NOT regret doing it. It's just that that old Buick kept having problems - that were costing money to fix.  More to go? Yes, but nothing I have to have done TODAY.  The point?  I spent all the money.  The money from insurance, the bonus money, tenant money, paycheck money.  I spent it down to as low as I have seen it in a while.  A bit scary, really.  You don't think about it until you lose that cushion.

I have lived without the cushion most of my adult life.  The loss of that cushion got me to thinking about my benefits at work - it's open enrollment right now until Monday.  I'm increasing a few things and starting a few others. If something happens?  I have as much as I can get through it.  60% of my salary short and long term.  It WAS at 50%, I'm guessing it might go up as you gain tenure.

Well, anyway, a paycheck today, a full month's rent and a week's worth of rent times 2 in the next coming days from the other tenants means bills paid and the stops are in place.  I have a week off during Thanksgiving week, I want to have a little money to spend for Black Friday - IF I feel like getting up that early and waiting in the cold - I haven't done it in years now.  That, also, being if there is anything that I need that is worth that kind of time and duress.

Umm, btw, cold hasn't arrived here yet.  In fact, it's still low-level summer heat.  High was 92 today.  It was hot in my car going home.  That old Buick? Just needs some freon pumped into it.  The AC will work.  I'm looking at the forecast and telling myself it isn't worth it.  The high next week, starting Tuesday, will be 79 degrees. That's what I'm looking for, any day that the high is lower than 80 degrees.

I digress.  The eternal summer is, hopefully, almost over.  My plans for the weekend are not clear yet.  I haven't made up my mind.  Projects, yes.  Around the house.  I need to get out.   I want to get out.  Out of here, work and do something different.  Dunno what.  Lack of a significant other makes it kinda - lame - but, I still want to go somewhere new, different and just do something - different.  I have revisited the thought of joining one of the clubs around here that put together activities for singles - you show up - you do whatever it is - maybe you connect with someone.  Hiking, camping, movies, all kinds of stuff they offer.  Free?  Absolutely not.  But, I think I'm the kind of person that needs to have in-person stuff versus totally internet interaction.  It works for some, I don't think it's going to work for me.

Regardless, I am typed out and soon, I am going to bed for early rise.

G'day/nite.

ben

The Car - Part (How many parts have there been to this car story, now?)

So, I took the car in yet again today.  Yesterday, they simply didn't have time to get to it.  Today?  I just said I would wait after getting there at 2:30 and they still hadn't had a chance to look at it.  To their credit, they were down 2 technicians to illness. 

I think I was there about 3-1/2 hours.  Well, I wasn't going to try to drive that thing home again the way it was acting up.  In fact, it was doing some really strange things.  The worst of which, however, is dying out at lights, dying while driving on the freeway, lights coming on  and off, fuel gauge jumping around all over the place.

So, we get into all kinds of discussions - just like the last 2 times, we sort of think alike and look at things pretty much the same way.  I waited quite a while before they even got to my car, but, this shop has one of the best reputations around the valley, in fact, their reputation spreads to all parts of Arizona and beyond.  In other words, no sense in getting cranky about it, I had resolved to spend the rest of the afternoon when I got there and saw they hadn't done anything to it, anyway. 

This story goes on with us bantering back and forth, but, the deciding moment came.  I knew what that tech was checking and I started feeling sick.  He was banging on the computer.  I have come to learn that - as primordial as it may sound - this is how they figure out of the computer is bad.  Have the car running, diagnostic computer hooked up and start banging on the thing.  He banged, the car started coughing and choking.  Back and forth, on and on. 

The owner - the guy I was chatting with - came to the verdict before the tech - his son - could say it: bad computer.  I knew what that meant: a LOT of money.  At least, I thought so.  I had a car 10 or more years ago whose computer went out - it was priced out at $500.  I told him my thoughts, he shook his head, no.  I thought, even MORE than that?  No, he said, they don't cost that much. 

He made a phone call, got off, told me his price was $179 and that he normally would have charged $300, but he would give it to me at cost plus labor.  Labor at $80, which included the diagnostics AND the installation.  He gave me the cost - easily less than half of what any other shop would have charged me.  I don't know why he was being so generous, maybe cause I had the car in there twice already in the past month, maybe because we get along so well, dunno, but I jumped all over it: yes, get that thing and put it in there.

Here's the embarassing and bad part, for me anyway.  I deposited a check in the bank this afternoon.  They always give me $100 credit instantly on a check, they have never not done that.  I have never deposited a bad check or money order, either.  With that credit plus what I had in there already that would cover it.  If not, I had cash on me as well.  I told him to put $220 on the card and the rest I would pay in cash.  He goes to do that and it comes back - declined. 

Under the "old" bank rules, the card would have gone through and then, if I didn't have the money in the account before bank closure that day, that night I would be assessed an overdraft fee and owe the money left.  New rules?  Well, this is the first time I have been subjected to it.  No go, Joe.

Well, I said, put less on it, I should have that covered.  Otherwise, I guess I'll leave the car and will be taking a taxi home.  I hated to say that, but I felt pretty - lame - having a card declined.  He looked at me and said: "well why don't you do that".  I thought he meant take a taxi - I wouldn't expect any repair shop to just let me take the car home without paying for it and I didn't expect it here, either.  I said, okay, I'll take a taxi and tomorrow afternoon I'll pay for the car.

No, no, he said, just take the car, I know where you live.  You want to talk about genuine shock, I was there.  Here's the owner of a shop telling me I can take my car without paying for it.  He didn't just start in this business yesterday, I'm sure he's had more than his share of deadbeats,  and that's exactly what I felt like: a deadbeat.  Yet, he smiled, we shook hands and yes, I left with my car.  And yes, I will be over there first thing in the morning, cause that check will definitely clear by then and I can pay that bill. 

I haven't heard of anything like that in a long, long, long, long time, much less be on the receiving end of it. 

I must say here that I did not expect this car to get into the price range it has in getting it operational.  New tires (2); harmonic balancer; crank sensor; new battery; new computer; major tune-up; emissions testing; registration.  My son definitely got the ball rolling with the initial $435 he gave me to get it fixed, I figured it would go a little over, I will admit here it went well over that.  There is still a leaking valve cover gasket that needs to be replaced and it sounds like it has an exhaust leak. 

If I am lucky, that will be the end of it. 

Whatever the case, this is the end of this one.

ben

Thursday 11/4/2010

Thursday


Didn't sleep well last night. Another one of those wake up at midnight and get back to sleep - whenever it was - hours later - deals. Plus, my car wasn't fixed yesterday, they didn't have time to get to it so, driving to work was a barrel of fun. I think I might be just a wee bit cranky this morning.

I have a huge delivery to make first thing, fortunately it isn't far away and I hope they get it unloaded quickly because I want my car in that shop first thing this morning.

Pretty much throws off the day when I haven't slept well enough to feel good in the morning. Get the work day over with, go home and take a nap. Or, more likely, get the work day over with, go to the mechanics shop and wait. Actually, if I don't get out of here until around 7:00 am this morning, the gates will be opened to that shop and I can just leave it there.

Whatever. Just that once that delivery is over, I am supposed to go pick up some clay pipe and then return the stuff. That's in west Phoenix. I have a pretty good driving day now that I think about it.

I was listening to Obama's speech yesterday, pretty pukish stuff. Now, suddenly, he's willing to talk to the "other side". His campaign promise included that CNN would be allowed to see the open door meetings that would transpire with the health care bill, we all know NONE of that EVER happened. It was a partisan thing all the way down the line. There was no "reaching out to the other side of the aisle" as Obama said he would do - over and over he continued to say that - now what? The Senate minorty leader - whatever his name is Mitchell I think - is saying they should vote to repeal the bill and do it over and over and over if necessary.

Obama's free ride is over, that's what I can say about it. He also refused to admit yesterday that the voting was just about the economy, it was also specifically about the health care bill. There was some exit poll that asked that question and a large percentage of Americans had shown up to vote against the Dems and that bill, not for Republicans. The GOP has it's opportunity. They can act on behalf of the majority of American voters or they can blow it again. If they blow it again, the next election will undoubtedly have even more dramatic and vast changes being doled out.

My staycation looms nearer and nearer. No, I don't plan on going anywhere unless I go to my dad's for Thanksgiving. I would rather, for once, just stay home and cook a big turkey. The trailer tenants can help cook it and we can have a big feast. They're pretty good cooks, those people, both of them actually. I suppose I could call it disconcerting, but neither of them go out hunting for jobs at this point.

Perhaps it just seems futile to even look, I don't know. The guy is 62 and has some health issues, but the lady is 49 I think she said and probably could start thinking about getting a job somewhere. I am not saying I don't want them there, but are they seriously considering living in that old thing for - ever? I guess that's up to them. They were asking me about finishing the project we started before they moved in there - cutting out the rest of the wall panelling and installing it.

I'm attempting to motivate myself to do such as I really don't want to. It's a lot of work. But, I did buy the materials and it's just sitting out there in my shed, a nice project to get over with. They did install the carpet that I secured - for free- in it and it made a huge difference in there. Really, a simple thing such as carpet on the floor - instead of bare, playwood floors - really makes it far more livable.

Well, anyway, work day approaches and today? Plenty to do. I think I've read enough political "news" this morning, the political forecast, at least from my viewpoint, for the next 2 years: gridlock. Nothing will get done. At least, nothing of any major importance. I don't know how they are going to repeal the health care bill unless they get some folks on the Dem side of things in the house to vote against it. But, since the President would block it, it would need a majority of both houses and I don't see that happening, certainly not in the Senate. Still, it's the best route for GOP if they want to look good 2 years from now. They will be able to say: "See, we tried to get rid of this thing, "they" said no". If the same majority of Americans are still opposed to it 2 years from now as they are now, voting could be very interesting, especially in the Presidential race.

Well, have a great day.

ben

Wednesday 11/3/2010

Wednesday


Lost an entire entry : (

Ummm, anyway, I'll just put it this way: I'm VERY glad to see that Pelosi is going by the wayside, I wish Reid were going with her.

IF the GOP does what it says it will do, then if nothing else, the bloodlet of outrageous spending in Washington should be stemmed. I don't see how the GOP is going to be able to DO anything without a president to back them and the Senate controlled by Dems.

However, they CAN make proposals, send them through to the Senate and if the Senate rejects it, make themselves look good if it's something the American people want. We, the voters, tend to remember, not forget as many of these arrogant, obnoxious politicians seem to think we do.

I did vote for one Democrat in this election: South Phoenix Justice of the Peace Cody Williams. I have been in his court room several times with tenant issues, he's always there, always doing his thing, always following the law. He hasn't always been so "nice" to me, but that doesn't matter to me. I don't know if he won or not.

Brewer won - pretty much figured that, McCain won, pretty much figured that too. Brewer's opponent - Terry Goddard, well, I remember when he was the Mayor of Phoenix. A blithering.......let's say that my view of him and how he acted in public was that of a circus clown. I'm totally serious. It was a long time ago, I can't remember the issue he took a stand against as Mayor which made him look very, VERY bad, but whatever it was, it's still sitting there in my fading memory banks, telling me this guy was a nutcase.

I actually would have rather seen the Independent candidate go into McCain's position, but I voted for McCain because I'll take him over the Dem opponent that was running against him ANY day. Regardless of what anyone thinks of McCain, he did serve our nation in war, he was a prisoner of war, he has paid for it with skin cancers for the exposure of being left outside and I have great respect for the man for that if nothing else.

Oh, and they wanted to pass the Medical Marijuana law. Gimme a break. I've seen what happens in other states - docs give a prescription for it if you claim to have a freaking headache. I smoked massive quantities of marijuana when I was a teenager - the stuff isn't any worse than drinking. That's my take on it, not that it's a GOOD thing, just that if you are going to allow people to get drunk/high legally, you might as well allow them to get pot/high and get the tax revenues while you're at it. Too many people of all ages think pot smoking is just aye okay. I hate the stuff, personally.

Anyway, work day approaches. Car is dying again. I mean, how many times am I going to have to take it into that shop before they get this right? One more time. If they don't get it right this time, I'm going to have to find somewhere else to take it. There isn't much to do in the truck routing system, just a pickup for a delivery tomorrow. The delivery tomorrow is a pretty good sized order, so I will have a couple hours of work to get that pulled, palletized, shrink wrapped and ready to go.

Whatever the case, c'ya later and have a great day!

ben

Monday 11/1/2010

Monday


Well, I couldn't resist this morning to take another test drive on the new machine - so - I sorta ended up getting here, work that is, late. Not late is in clocking in late, just later than normal for my pre-work rituals, which are, btw, quite important to me.

I also can't seem to wake up. I slept a straight 6 hours, woke up at 3:00am in shock that I had even slept that long without waking up, then fell right back asleep. I'm just plain out of it right now, like I'm half awake and half asleep.

I hadn't driven the old car all weekend long so it was a nice development to find that the car's battery wasn't dead and it fired right up. Plus, with the new tires I can cruise on the freeway at the same speed everyone else is going.

The computer was the project of the weekend and it is - not done but it's up and running. I have to open it up and install the video graphics card today - no big deal. In fact, now that I have tried building a computer once, I can say that it is a pretty easy thing to do. The hardest part of building a computer is decided what to put into it - which is usually dictated by how much money you have to spend on it. Mine has 4 gigs of ram but this weekend I will be upping that to 8. I don't have any speakers for it yet, either. It also needs a computer table. Point? I have a few things left to go with it. I have a table that will work for it for now.

A new face of political - more junk undoubtedly - will be upon the horizon after tomorrow. This Reid v Angle thing is quite entertaining if nothing else. If Angle doesn't win it, you can't say it's because she didn't put forth one helluva effort.

Ummm, well I'm just sort of moving all over the place here. There is a giant fusion machine with accompanying generator that has to be delivered to a site way out east today. That will consume most of the morning if not all of it. The machine is downtown, takes an hour to load it and chain it down, it's at last an hour's drive out there, plus another 45 minutes to get it off the truck and an hour back - at least.

It's better than having nothing to do, let me tell ya. They are installing some HUGE pipe that will feed into the CAP - Central Arizona Project - canal. That's the giant canal that goes from the Colorado River all the way into the metro Phoenix area to supply this area with water. It doesn't supply all the water here, but it's quite a chunk of it, supposedly anyway. I haven't quite gotten the story as to WHY they are installing this pipe and where the water is either going to or coming from, but I'll try to get that information again today.

As for now? Read some more of the democrats and their finger-pointing back and forth as to who is to blame for what appears to be their power to do anything - anything that is except turn the economy around.

Lol.

G'day.

ben

New Computer

This entry is being written on my new computer.

I did not have extra funds to buy Windows 7, so, I am still using Windows XP. 
The thing is moving around the internet so much faster than my other computer, it is unbelievable. 

Using an "unbranded" machine is a whole new world for me.  I couldn't figure out why I couldn't access the internet - Qwest gave me a clue: ethernet driver isn't working, isn't installed, isn't.
They couldn't help me, but the did suggest it is the ethernet driver.

Great, please tell me where to find this driver and I'll be quite happy.

My thoughts turned to the motherboard.  If it's already in there, then the motherboard has to be responsible for it, could it be that the disc that came with the motherboard would help me along?

Ahhh, but yes, it could. Plugged that sucker into the DVD drive and there is was - the entire computer lit up with internet this, that and the other thing.  It took quite a while.  I will be playing with this computer for a while before I call it "done".  In fact, I am going to reformat this thing and try installing "The Last XP" version 17 tomorrow.  

BTW, I now SEE why I have such troubles whenever I have to buy a new keyboard.  This one is giving me heck.  My keyboard on the old computer is perfect for me, this new one is ridiculous.  There is an extra key on the ASDF line making the Enter key further  to the left.  A completely different design and I am having trouble with it because it's setup is so much different than the other keyboard.  I had no idea these companies were doing this stuff and I wouldn't have unless I were able to have 2 live keyboards sitting next to each other.

Well, anyway, I am running on "late" and frankly, the kids can have this keyboard and I will switch the other one over to this computer - when I have this thing dialed in, that is. 

G'nite.

ben

$60 To Fix A Computer That Shouldn't Be Broken

I put that machine together and it wouldn't bring up anything.  I mean, I followed the instructions plus watched some videos on YouTube on how to put these things together.  It's not that hard. I toyed with it last night and then played with it again this morning. Nothing.

Loaded that sucker up into the car, took it to Fry's Electronics. The guy hooked it up, tried to turn it on, nothing.  He took the panels off the casing, checked my work, said it looks like it's set up properly.  Great, I said, I bought all of this stuff here, please fix it.

Of course it isn't going to be free.  The guy tells me I need to have them do a System Build.  It's already built.  Yes, but we take it apart and install on component at a time until we find the problem.  Right.  $59.95 plus tax.  What am I going to do?  Say no?  Have a bunch of parts that don't work?  The manager I was dealing with yesterday who told me to bring it in isn't in today and won't be back in until Tuesday.  I agreed to it very reluctantly, no choice in the matter.  I'll take a guess: defective motherboard.  They do get damaged sometimes in transit or otherwise simply refuse to work.  Who knows, who cares, I have a 3 year warranty on the thing, that's all I need to know. 

So, I go pay the fee and then come back with the receipt.  It's pay in advance, apparently.  The guy that was dealing with me had to go on a delivery call, so another dude took over.  He wants me to sign a paper and explains that if they have to do diagnostics, it would be another $69.99.  NOW I had something to say.  WHAT did I JUST pay for?  "You are paying for a system build".  NO, sir, that's NOT what that other guy said.  Why on earth would I pay you to build the thing?  It's already built!  I want to find out what's wrong with the blooming thing!!  I flatly refused.  The guy went to the copier and got another paper, apparently he didn't want to deal with it.  The first person told me they would check each component as they put it back together to find out what's wrong with it, there was no mention of even MORE money.  Ridiculous.  He removed the "potential" fee from the paper.

Thank you and left.

Good grief.  One thing's for sure, I am definitely glad I didn't buy all this stuff on line.   It has certainly been a learning experience and I haven't even got the thing running yet.  They wanted to charge even more money to install the OP system.  No thanks, I have ample experience in that - find out what's wrong with it, get it booted and get the bios info on the screen, I will deal with it from there.  I have Windows XP and The Last XP version 17 on discs, I don't need to pay them to do that stuff. 

That's it.  2 days was their quoted time.  Whatever.  All I know is I better not get hosed for replacing some defective part. 

And that's that for right now.  I have pond stuff to tend to and I want to get it done while it's still early.

ben

My 2 Trips To Fry's Electronics in Tempe, Arizona - Piss Poor Customer Service

So, I sat here for a couple of hours playing around on the computer - putting up with the thing shutting itself off, coming up with repeated "serious error recover" messages and other stuf - trying to talk myself into get the components to put the new computer together. 

When I finally got that past me, I took off for Fry's Electronics.  Walked in, got a cart, walked to the appropriate portion of the store.  The salesman - of whom I had discussed this with last week when I bought the 1 tg hard drive - was busy.  I stood next to him and patiently waited. About 20 minutes he was dealing with this guy.  No biggies - not yet anyway.  He takes off to get the guy some paperwork, comes back, then they go to get something else.  He knows I'm there.

He finally gets done with that guy and comes walking towards me, I was about get this thing going - when another customer asked for help.  Instead of helping me, he goes and helps that customer.  That other customer had JUST showed up, he didn't have to wait as I did.  This is a BIG no-no in my "how to treat customers" book.  I mean, I had waited a LONG time already.  Well, this other guy is taking him back and forth between motherboards and processors.  I decided to leave.  I didn't get far until I thought, hmmm, maybe I'll just buy all of this stuff online - I'm going to need the make and models of all of this stuff here.  I went back and started jotting all of that down. 

The salesman was with yet another customer, but at that point, I wanted nothing to do with him.  I spent some time looking at the stuff and decided to leave yet again.  This time, though, I stopped at the deli counter and got a sandwich - their deli has great sandwiches, I'll say that much.  I decided to go back after I had waited for the sandwich for a while and try again.  I had already committed to myself to getting the thing today, that's really what I wanted to do.  So, I go back.  He's at the center where all the associates congregate to deal with customers and print out order requests for the cage up front.

I stood next to him again, just waiting.  He got done with that guy and walks off again!! He turns around, goes back to the counter on the other side, looks at me and leaves.  I'm scratching my head, WHAT did I do to get this guy all riled up?  The last time I had spoken to him was last week and we left on good terms.  Today, I didn't even HAVE a chance to speak to him, I was just waiting.  He had acknowledged seeing me there waiting, so I knew he knew I wanted to get some help.

I didn't know, but this time I DID leave, went to Home Depot instead.  Needed another electrical outlet for outside - the other one broke.  Those GFCI outlets are worthless for outside use.  Get a drop of water on them and this spring thing pops out of it, breaks the button and you now have a useless, $15 to $20 part that has to be replaced.  I did not get GFCI this time, it's the 4th time I've had to replace it.  The whole setup has a plastic cover on it to keep it from getting wet in the rain. 

Back home.  I decided not to let this go, I just never do.  A fault, whatever you want to call it, I don't take well being treated poorly by associates who have whatever cranked up their rear.  Maybe he was just having a bad day, I don't know, but when I have a bad day at work, I don't take it out on customers.  I bite my tongue and grin and bear it. 

I called, the store's general manager was on the floor, leave my name and number.  Okay, I did.  30 minutes later, the manager for the computer components portion of the store returns my call instead of the general manager.  Oh well, who cares, maybe this guy is more appropriate to talk to, anyway.  Told him the story.  Don't have a clue what was up in his crawl, but there must be something in there.  This manager offers me $50 off if I come back in today and buy what I originally was going to buy - I had told him I was going to drop 4 to 5 hundred today getting a new computer setup. 

Too good a deal to pass up.  I go back.  The sales associate that had ignored me earlier was REALLY ignoring me now - he took off and was out of sight.  I waited for quite a while for this guy to show up.  But, I was being patient, I figured $50 off was a good deal.  I ended up with more than that off, in reality. 

We went around to all the components, he suggested a few different setups than the guy had last week.  He fully explained why and I was good with that.  A little more money, but a better setup.  He said a 500 watt power supply probably was not going to be enough, I would need a bit larger, so I ended up with a 700 watt power supply, a nice case, the motherboard I was originally looking at and the processor I was looking at.  He suggested a graphics card, I got 4 gigs of memory to start out with - would have loved to get 8, but, 4 would be a good start and double what my current machine is.

We get to the computer to checkout.  He throws in a 3 year warranty on the motherboard and processor for free - normally $40.  He takes off another $50 on the purchase price of the system.  I've got $90 worth of stuff, free.  Yes, I would have bought the extended warranty on the board, it was only a 15 day warranty otherwise.  He comes up with a total price, less than what I had expected, we shook hands, I said thank you very much, have a great day.  I go up to pay for the stuff.  I wanted to put $100 of it on a credit card and $50 on another to make sure I have enough in my bank account after paying for the rest of it to be able to deal with any emergencies that might come up.  The first card worked,the second did not. 

He couldn't get it to take the swipe.  I said, well, just enter the numbers manually.  Can't do that.  Why not?  Company policy.  Why?  Didn't understand it, I've never had a place tell me they wouldn't enter numbers manually off of a card - OUR company does it and so does every other company I have ever encountered where I needed it done or saw other people have it done for them.  He said, well, you can ask the manager.  It was the general manager, I asked him some questions about why they wouldn't do that - calm, cool, collected, not hyper at all, just wanting to understand why and also if he could bypass this policy that the employee could not.

His reply?  Sir, we aren't getting anywhere with this, I don't want to argue with you, is there anything else I can help you with?   I replied that I wasn't arguing, I had only asked questions, what's the big deal?   I then said no thank, there is nothing else I want to do with you, thanks.  Curt and short, I didn't appreciate that man's attitude, either.  I pay for the rest of it, I'm not going through all of that trouble and getting those discounts to end up with nothing, plus spending all that time in there.  I leave.  I have bypassed the "checkers" at the stand at the door many times who want to check your items many times before, even have refused to allow them to look. This time, a woman jumps in front of my cart demanding to see my receipt. 

Note that I was not trying to leave without them checking it, in fact, I hadn't even got past those stands.  I've already had enough problems in this store today, I just handed her the paperwork.  She goes through it, again, and again.  Says I didn't pay for an item.  Excuse me, are you calling me a thief?  Now I was getting hyper.  I didn't print up that paperwork, I didn't check myself out, it was all done for me.  She took a few steps back.  I had had enough of the attitudes at this place.  WHAT, exactly, ARE you saying to me?  You didn't pay for the computer case.  Well WHOSE problem is that?  I didn't fill out this paperwork  - YOUR employees did.

She asks me to step to the side, I wasn't budging.  MORE trouble?  I told her I want to speak to the store's general manager, again.  She goes and gets a manager, but not the general manager.  She demands that I step to the side.  I wasn't blocking anything and I refused to move.  She said she would take care of me.  No thanks, get the general manager, I'll wait HERE.  She insists that SHE will take care of me, I crossed my arms at that point and said nothing.  A few minutes later, the general manager comes out.  He is just as curt and short with me as he was before.  This time, I wasn't taking it.  HOW can YOUR management forget to write up this case on here?  I have already been treated very rudely by one of your store's associates, had the card issue with YOU, now I am being detained at the exit and veritably accused of attempting to STEAL this computer case. 

His apology was worthless, he obviously didn't mean it (his name, for those looking for junk on this store, is David Keith).  He didn't offer anything.  I said that I couldn't afford this case, it was out of budget, I had the understanding that I was paying for EVERYTHING here, by one of YOUR managers who wrote up this contract.  His only offer was to void the whole sale!  After all of this, his offer was of no value to me.  We stared each other in the eyes for several seconds, I was starting to get mad.  He said he could get the manager that did this, but "I don't know what good that is going to do".  I said if your company is going to waste as much of my time as it already has, then I'm going to waste your time as well.  He started laughing, we WORK here, getting paid, what difference does it make to us? 

The callousness of this man?  Well, you begin to understand why the associates take the stance they do when you understand what kind of stance the store's highest level manager takes against his own customers.  The trickle down effect.  However, the manager that is over the computer components section is a totally different kind of person.  He comes up, says, oh, I guess I forgot to put this on the ticket.  I said yes, and it's out of my budget.  I had thought I had this deal done at what we had discussed.  He said, no worries, I can cut a deal with you.  Well, I replied, this case is $70, I mean, I can't afford much more here.  He offered it to me for half off.  $35 for a $70 case.  I took the deal.  I won't get a bargain like that again - anywhere - I had spent a total of at least 2 hours on this deal, more really, but who's keeping count.  Started at 9:00 am, ended at 1:00 pm between the 2 trips.

I'm not saying I didn't get a great deal today.  Not at all.  Definitely got a huge discount on all of this stuff.  But, I did pay for it.  I know, I could just eat the rude service like most people do, they say nothing, leave and either never come back or - they come back anyway and avoid the people that treated them like s***.  

Will I go back to Fry's Electronics?  Probably, definitely if there is a problem with any of this, I have warranties and I intend on getting this thing running as fast as I can - though - I am going to have to read some material online about how to put it together.  There is one tutorial that takes you step by step through the whole process. 

Apparently, however, Mr. David Keith lied to me.  He is NOT that store's general manager, even though I asked him twice about that considering his attitude, the manager's name is Dave Birt, at least according to the BBB - and yes, Keith's name is on there is a manager, but not the store's manager.  I'll have to look into that, perhaps info has changed and BBB doesn't have it current. 

You know, I never did get a  good reason WHY they wouldn't input the numbers manually off of the credit card?!!

Well, that's over.  For now, anyway.  I have a mess to put together here and I am going to start reading that tutorial. I also changed my mind, I wasn't going to have a cigar this weekend, but after this?  Yes, I think I'll go get me a nice cigar, sit out next to my ponds, enjoy my water plants, Koi and goldfish and put this junk out of my mind.

Tires

I started calling around today, looking for good, used tires - 2 of them - for the old Buick.

I gave up on it.  I called a Discount Tire company - several of them actually - but one of them had a guy who said he could help me out with 2 new ones.  I told him I already tried that route, your company wanted $185 for 2 tires out the door.  I said I might be comfortable with $120, but no way am I spending that much money on tires for an old car. 

He "did the math".  Came back and told me $135 out the door.  Well, that's $50 better than the first time around.  I just decided to bite the bullet, get the tires and hope to high heaven that that takes care of the vibration problem.  I am going to be driving this thing for a while longer while I'm whittling down the problems, I don't want a blowout on the way to work.  I don't have a spare - yet. 

Got out of there and headed directly for the freeway.  I did break some speed laws, yes I did.  I pushed her up to 80mph with no problems whatsoever.  No vibration, just smooth gliding down the freeway.  I remember what I did as a teenager -  my parents couldn't possibly know I was driving the old Ford Galaxy 500 to the maximum speed on the speedometer - which was 130 mph.  Lucky I didn't kill myself.  Regardless,  I don't really get that my son wants to come anywhere near 130mph, he doesn't even like getting ON the freeways, but in case he "tries"something that I don't approve of, at least having good rubber on it can make all the difference.

That - the lack of vibration - made me very happy.  Seeing that money go bye-bye did not.  I still have left an exhaust leak and it idles rough.  The idling?  One of my roommates has a car identical to mine, only it's 1 year newer.  She has a friend that knows how to get those babies purring.  He has already offered to help me - not free obviously but certainly nothing as expensive as taking it into a shop, so I have asked her to ask him to come back over and take a look.  The exhaust problem - well, unfortunately that's going to have to be dealt with at a muffler shop.  UNLESS, of course, they tell me some unbelievable price to fix it, then I'm going to find some other way to get it done.  After those 2 things left to go, then there's a bit of body work and a cheap paint job.  I'm figuring another month - at least - before I call it done.  My son's money ran out for repairs on it quite a while back, I'm eating the rest of it, though, he is paying his own insurance and I am going to require extra on top of that for some time to come to help pay some of this back. 

I pretty much intend on giving him the car - if I see that he will treat it well and take care of it.  However, that isn't going to happen right now.  I intend on keeping that car as my own until we are out of this recession nonsense, I know (or at least hope) that I'm not going to lose my job and my ability to make the car payments on my newer car.  That's the point: I own this old thing outright and no financing company is going to be taking it away from me.  It's so old, no-one would ever want to steal it, I'm pretty safe.  I AM feeling better about it now that I have dumped the money into it and it IS working out pretty well, albeit the little detour when it broke down and I had to have it towed and have it fixed. 

So, does that mean the new computer is down the drain?  Not at all.  I still have enough to do that and pay my bills.  So, cool.  This weekend - I don't know.  Next weekend, probably unless I decide to wait for Black Friday and see if there any great deals on components to build it with. 
I will say this: this machine is getting worse.  I keep getting "This system has recovered from a serious error" messages; I keep getting the thing shutting itself off and it keeps putting up yet another message: "Internet Explorer has experienced and problem and needs to shut down".  This is happening quite frequently, which may be the motivating factor that I go out and buy the rest of the stuff tomorrow, versus a week or two weeks from now. 

The weekend - is here.  I am glad this work week is done.  Normally I don't care about work weeks - working is good for you - just this week for whatever reason is a good one to get behind me.  I have the entire week of Thanksgiving off, thankfully - haven't decided what to do with it yet.

Anyway, I'm off to go visit my ponds and enjoy.

G'day.

ben

Friday 10/29/2010

Friday


Ugliness this morning. A return. I hate doing returns. The salesman just dump this stuff on drivers and leave it to us to figure it all out. They take a list over the phone, print it out and then give it to us. It's never that simple. Go to the jobsite and start trying to find all the stuff on the list that the salesman never actually went out and verified whether it's there or not.

Then, start writing in by hand a bunch of other stuff that wasn't on the list but the contractor wants to send back. Then, deal with whatever crew is available to help load the stuff - they are in a hurry, always and don't care if it's safely loaded or not. I DO care and I almost always have to tell them to STOP what they are doing. I've taken over crews whose boss's weren't even paying attention to what was going on - they're sitting in their pickup truck doing whatever.

Not really looking forward to that, not at all. On the flip side, I am 2 hours over my allotted time and I am either getting off early today or I am getting 2 extra hours on my paycheck. I'll gladly take the 2 extra hours, of course, but I somehow suspect that won't happen.

How would you like to be a police officer in Mexico right now, in one of these towns with all the drug violence going on? And now Chandler police are investigating whether the beheading of a mexican national (illegal) was the work of a drug cartel as well. How far is this going to have to go before the federal government/Obama says, oh, gee, we have a problem down there on the border, maybe we should do something about it.

It is widely recognized that the amount of National Guard they recently deployed is not near enough. November 2 is almost here, I'll be in one of those lines to vote, oh, yes I will. I am going to spend this weekend going over the local propositions as well to make an informed vote on those.

Yup, that's my self-induced "thing" to do this weekend. Pore through all the material on these propositions, I determined who I was going to vote for in the bigger races long ago. Why these parties are dumping so much money into a "last minute" effort, I'll never know. It's a huge WASTE of money if you ask me, I rather suspect that most people make up their minds on specific candidates and the offices they are running for well before the election day actually arrives.

Propositions? Don't know. Oh gee and gads, the DC truck is here. 17 minutes early. I almost always forget to lock that front door on Fridays - they always think I am going to start work early and get them taken care of. NOT. We have let them know many many times over that we start at 6:00, but they don't care. Neither do it, I won't do anything until 6:00 and that is the way it is. I WILL take care of a customer early, that's a fact, but not truck drivers and their impatience. Being and impatient truck driver? Sorry, Charlie, you're in the WRONG business cause you have to wait just about everywhere you go.

Anyway, I have several news tidbits I want to read with my last 15 minutes before work, c'yall

later.

ben

CDL A Licences Versus CDL B

Do you know what delineates a CDL A driver from a CDL B driver? 
It is the source of much confusion, opinion and a lot of misinformation. 
Our local Ops Manager was at our store today - he has been sick and didn't want to be far from home, I guess, in case he needed to leave. 
We're all busy about our duties - though I wasn't driving, stuck at the store with no deliveries but plenty to do there anyway - when he asks me about the difference.  A manager at one of our stores in New Mexico had hired a driver for an International 7600 series, 10 wheel-dual drive axle truck mounted with flatbed. 

He had not checked whether this driver was actually qualified to drive that truck.  This driver has a CDL B license.   Ummmm, I'm sorry, hiring drivers without checking whether they are qualified to drive the vehicle they will be driving?  Especially in the world of trucking?  Are you crazy?!!!  What kind liability would the put the company under in case of any accident.  If an unqualified driver was caught - well - he would definitely not be driving that vehicle from the point of being stopped by the law enforcement officer. 

Back to my store, well, I knew the answer but I told him I needed to check.  Why?  They change stuff with CDL regulations so much, you never know if your information is good or not.  I got on the FMCSA site and found the information in very short order.   The difference is a tractor-trailer rig, basically, versus a single vehicle with no trailer attached - or is it?  No, it isn't that.  A Class A CDL (Commercial Driver's License) is required for combination vehicles. 

Ahhh, it's easier just to copy and paste, the info is readily available:

Classes of License:


The Federal standard requires States to issue a CDL to drivers according to the following license classifications:

Class A -- Any combination of vehicles with a GCWR of 26,001 or more pounds provided the GVWR of the vehicle(s) being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.

Class B -- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing a vehicle not in excess of 10,000 pounds GVWR.

Pretty simple, yes?  Clearly understood, yes?  Then why all the confusion?  I had a manager tell me today at the main warehouse that I was wrong, if a truck has 2 axles on the rear, it also needs a CDL A .  Not right.  Sorry, thanks for playing, please go home now.  The number of axles is irrelevant.  I explained it to the Ops manager - but yes - I also printed out a sheet and gave it to him.  Well why not?  Management SHOULD know the requirements of what amounts to federally licensed drivers that is GREATLY regulated. 
 
The difference?  The vehicle being towed, if there is such.  Mostly, 10 wheelers aren't towing trailers.  I'm just saying that in general terms, there are plenty of dump trucks out there towing heavy trailers and many other scenarios as well. 
 
The manager also argued that a DOT officer had told one of our drivers that the setup he had required a CDL-A license.  I simply replied that if it was that trailer out there with tandems on it (two axles), it's probably rated WELL above 10,000 pounds and that's why that officer said that.  It took a while, but this manager finally let up. 
 
So, after reading that, can you tell me what the difference is?  It's really only about trailers, to get to brass tacks.  If the vehicle is pulling a trailer that has a gross vehicle weight under 10,000 pounds, you only need a CDL B license.  If the vehicle is pulling a trailer that has a gross vehicle weight over 10,000 pounds, need a Class A license.  ANY semi trailer out there is going to be WELL over 10,000 pounds.  If it's a single vehicle rated at over 26,001 pounds, then it's a Class B.  If it's under that, it's not a commercial license - unless it has air brakes. 
 
You want to talk regulations, just go to the government's site - FMSCA - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration - you're going to read a long, long, long, long time if you want to go through ALL of that. 
 
Good luck with that. 

FaceBook Friends/Discount Tire

So, whoever wants to be Facebook friends - as was talked about in a previous post - that would be cool.  I am not giving out my personal info on here, but I'm sure there's some way to identify who is who through other means so that Facebook friend requests can be sent.

Okay, so, the old Buick has a pretty bad vibration.  I figure tires, what else could it be?  It could be a lot of things, but that car sat for what - 1-1/2 years?  I take it to Discount Tire.  The guy points at both front tires and says they are sun rotted and is probably the issue. Yes, I have driven semis with rotted tires, the tires come apart, actually, they blow up. 

Case in point:  JB Hunt.  I was doing that local job for them here in Phoenix.  They had just started a new contract so all of us drivers were new to the company.  They gave us OLD tractors.  I mean, they were 8 or 10 years old.  The tractor I ended up with had severely dry-rotted tires.  I pointed it out to several individuals that could do anything about it within the company - nothing.  I informed them that driving that truck on the freeway, fully loaded at 40 tons in 115 degree heat?  They are going to come apart.

They didn't want to listen.  I'm driving down the Superstition 60 at 65 MPH - the speed limit.  One of those tires literally exploded. took out the quarter panel.  It didn't cause any steering problems, but the cars around me were sliding SIDEWAYS on the freeway.  The explosion sounded like a bomb going off, these people were not expecting that and it caught them by surprise.  Fortunately, no crashes.  This occured 3 times before - yes - they replaced the tires on the truck.  It cost them far more money to not put on new tires than it did to hold out.

However, Discount Tire quoted me $185 for 2 tires.  My gosh!!! What is THAT all about?  The cheapest tire they had was $65. That means $55 for taxes, fees and whatever else.  Unbelievable.  No thanks.  I asked if they had any used tires, no.  Okay, well sorry to waste your time, I am not spending that much more money on this car. 

Tomorrow I will call every Discount Tire within 15 miles and see if any of them have a couple of good, used versions.  I have gotten some very nice used tires from Discount in the past. 

So, whatever.  Tomorrow is Friday. I was not able to leave work early today (I am 2 hours over my allotted amount per week) so, maybe tomorrow.  But, tomorrow is month end, I think.  Month end as in business days left in the month, not actually the 31st.  They are pretty rigid about the hours, only if it is completely unavoidable will I ever get any "OT", which it really isn't because it still wouldn't go over 40 hours. 

So, that's it.  I have nothing more.  Computer is on hold - til' I decide that I can really unload the much money and be comfortable with it.  Or, of course, this computer shuts down permanently.  This machine actually turns itself off now without warning.  I mean, I will be doing something on the internet and kabaam, it's done.  It turns itself back on, but, it isn't a good sign and yes, that's a new one on me. 

G'day.

ben

Thursday October 28, 2010

Thursday


The Beggar Bashers. That's what I'm calling them. They are people who go on certain Craigslist boards and just REAM - ANYONE - that goes on there asking for help, even if it's only asking for food. I decided to take a stand against these "people" and got reamed for doing so. Lol. But now, the beggar bashers branding is taking hold and others are catching onto it. If people want to ask for help, let them! If no-one helps them, oh well!

Just thought I'd throw that in there. I occasionally help people with food - not money - but haven't really been doing it in the last several months as my electric bills soared and water usage also went through the roof.

I had thoughts of doing something for Thanksgiving, undecided on that one. Some years I have cooked a couple of turkeys and all the fixings and given it out to the poor people who are living in my own community - there are PLENTY of poor folks around there. I'm as of yet undecided about tripping down to dad's place for Thanksgiving or going down there for Christmas. Caleb is the key factor here- I would rather he go with, he doesn't get to see his grandpa much, he's growing up and soon, he simply won't have time for it. Get out of high school and go into college, plus working? Free time will be very limited.

I've pretty much given in to the fact that I won't even be seeing him that much, let alone anyone else. He's growing up, he's a good kid, his life seems to be taking a good course, that's all I can ask, the rest I have to pray and ask God for.

Umm, well I got off track there, now didn't I? I tend to do that, lol. Anyway, get closer to Thanksgiving and I will be forced to make a decision.

Which also poses another "problem". I have been hearing that Black Friday might just net some crazy deals on computer components. That's quite a ways off, though, like almost a month. I'm not sure I want to wait that long, number one and number two, even if I do, will they have what I want on sale?

That kind of threw my plans into chaos as I started wondering if I was going to miss some incredible deals.

Whatever the case, the work day approaches and I must be offa here.

G'day.

ben

Wednesday 10/27/2010

Wednesday


I went to bed last night at 7:08.

Unusual even for me to go to bed THAT early. Fortunately, I slept better than the 2 nights preceding it and I think I got at least 7 hours of sleep out of it.

I don't have a lot this morning. I mean, politics is something that has captured my attention as we wind down to voting day. Reid is looking worse and worse, I'm guessing he's losing his "job" and if he does, good riddance to him. Pelosi as well. Too bad it isn't a presidential vote, I seriously doubt Obama will get a second chance at the White House, but, who knows what will happen in the 2 years that he has left to - attempt to wreck our economy even further.

More on my mind is the computer situation. In 6 days, the Army reservist has promised to pay up an entire month's rent in advance. I'm sorta juggling whether to wait and see if that actually comes to pass or not. I'm not screwed if it doesn't happen and she pays as she normally does, I just have less padding if she doesn't and I do go ahead with this computer purchase. I've already committed myself to it in buying the 1 TB hard drive yesterday. It was on sale and it was going off sale in a few days, I figured I wouldn't be as happy with a 500 Gig hard drive as I would be with a hard drive that has twice that capacity.

Halloween. I usually do nothing on Halloween, it doesn't really excite me. I have no plans on this one, either. I don't even give out candy. The lights are darkened and I just stay home. I figure I do enough for people and spending $50 on stuff to make kids even fatter than they already are doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. Plus, I'm not a big fan of witches, witchcraft, sorcery and the like. No, Christmas is the holiday I look forward to.

Anyway, work day approaches, there is nothing to do in the truck routing system, I sincerely hope that something comes up to do before work day's end.

ben

The Trailer Tenants

I'll just lay it on the line, up front, all out:  If I could keep these people here forever, I would.

If I could pay them a salary for the work that is done around here, I would.

If I could not charge them anything, at the very least, I would do that, too.

Call me selfish, call me whatever you want, but these people are jewels in human form. 

Excellent cooks.  Clean.  Moved from doing things outside to doing things inside - well both is what I'm saying.

If I could get a nice travel trailer for them, yup, I would do it.

If I could put them in one of the rooms without feeling the punch of the loss of income, yup, I would do that, too.

I can only say that what they are living in is far better than a tin shed in the back of someone's house with a bunch of pot smokers inside. 

Onto other things.  I was back at Fry's Electronics again today.  I'm nudging myself to make the "investment".  Investment - in a computer?  Well, yes, I would call it an investment.  Not that I could get the money back out of the thing I want to build that I am going to dump into it, no. 

But making money off of it isn't even in the equation.  Nope.  It's mostly enterainment.  News, Cafe World, Ebay, Craigslist, my blogs, all kinds of stuff.  The investment is in my entertainment.  I rarely go to movies, I rarely - do much of anything anymore.  Not that I don't want to, but, I'm watching the pennies. 

My bonus money went to more fixes on the old Buick and trying to get caught up on bills.  The insurance payoff?  That's what I'm using here plus some on top of that. 

They had the 1 Terabyte harddrive in stock that they didn't have they other day.  I got that while it was on sale.  The minimum you get nowadays for a new computer setup - at least IMO - is a 1 TB.  I bought nothing else.  I was very tempted, but, I keep putting on the stops.  I can't say for sure why, just this thing - been there done that.  In, spending money on something and then some "thing" comes up and you are left scrambling.  But, I imagine that by this weekend, I will dive into it, buy all the components and get this done.  I do reserve the right to not buy a new monitor.  People are selling those things on Craigslist all the time for cheap. 

I was questioning yet another salesman - what is this slot for, what is the purpose of that.  I didn't understand the 2 slots for PCI Express, so I kept asking until I got it.  While that was happening, ANOTHER older gentleman, just like the other day at Fry's, stepped in.  In fact, he cut us off to ask a question because he was intrigued by our conversation.  I can't say why I didn't find his intrusion offensive, so I can't explain it, but I just stood silent and listened to another conversation unfold.  I have a lot to learn about computers, that's all I can say about it.

I got the paperwork to get my new harddrive and headed to the line.  That gentleman was, by chance, in front of me.  He profusely apologized for interrupting our conversation but he had found it so intriguing that he was compelled to get in on it.  I told him he was a jerkoff, shove it up his @$$ - that's what most of the world around me does.  I did no such thing, actually.  Instead, it was no problem, have a great day.

So, how does my spending money on a new computer and these trailer tenants equate to what I started this entry with?  I can't tell you that I'm going to end my life and keep a hold on doing ANYTHING in order to help other people out.  I have given consideration to giving them next month's rent free.  After the extreme amount of water money shelled out a few days ago and the fact that electric usage is WAY down now, I can probably afford it.  But I am not telling them that.  I won't make that decision until we're there.

I would love to build a garage with loft on top of it.  If it were built the way I wanted it, I would move out of this house, they could have my master bedroom and I would move up there.  I have seen layouts - a totally open design - that are awesome.  It's sort of a giant kitchenette - but MUCH nicer.  One can always dream : )

I was also thinking that, if I found a way to afford it, to take their monthly payment and dump it into a savings account.  For a couple thousand bucks, I could buy a much nicer travel trailer than that thing out there. 

They told me the other day that my ponds are my "pondering" place.  Lol, isn't that true?  I ponder these things and much more while watching all of these fish go crazy when I throw the Koi pellets in.  Well, that and that flakes - the smaller fish have to have ground up flakes or they ain't eating, at least not the pellets. 

Hmmm, I have lots of pondering to do.  A great lack in my life rears it's ugly head here and there. 

Ain't going into that here.

G'nite.

ben

Tuesday


Tenant issues. Always. Lol. I had to leave a notice for the newest member of the household to not make so much freaking noise in the morning. This at the request of the Army reservist. The guy gets on a conference call with a company he is working for and talks VERY loudly and has that speaker turned up JUST as loudly.

That is done. Whatever the results are, I have no clue. All I know is that it tends to get complicated when there are 3 renters living in the house. I could probably live off of two, but the third gets me caught up plus helps to get to fixing things, replacing things, whatever needs to be done around the house.

Onto the Koi. I bought I think it was 10 small ones from a seller a while back. They all died in short order - they had been subjected to high heat in transit from NC to here. I had lost his email address but then found another one of his ads. I wrote him about the dead fish - no great loss at only $20 but I wanted to see if the dude would make good on bad fish.

Nothing at all the response I received from him. Bug off. Get a life. Go F yourself. This was from a simple statement about the dead fish. I didn't even ask him to do anything about it, ie: replace them, I just told him they had all died. This guy has a freakin' COW. I mean, talk about person who needs to get a life.........I wrote him back and told him if he's going to be that pathetic about this situation that I was going to start flagging his ads. The cows turned into whales - didn't know humans could put out anything that big, but this guy did. Told me he would SUE me if I flagged his ads!! ROFL!!!

Well, I will take it further than that. His business ethics being questionable at best (if it were me selling the fish, I would have simply offered replacements), I wrote up an "re:" ad telling everyone my misadventure with this individual. I also told the guy that I doubted he had a business license or was paying taxes on the proceeds from the fish.

I haven't heard back from that one, though, I am not holding my breath, I don't really care WHAT kind of threats this guy comes up with. Sometimes, this is what you have to deal with on CL. Not for the feint of heart, I'll tell you that right now. The fish are a loss, they were $20, not like I lost hundreds, but still, I did want to see if he would offer anything.

I am trying to get the bravery up to go into Fry's electronics and buy everything I need to put together that computer system. The problem is this: I go, spend the money and then some emergency comes up and I don't have the money to deal with it. Been around the block a few times now, it seems things like to happen that way. I was also considering taking this money and paying off the 401k loan and then getting another. Why? Then I would have a couple of thousand for backup emergency funds instead of - almost nothing.

Let's say the AC went out again right now and I had to replace another $800 compressor. I could come up with the money, but it would put bills and such into "jeopardy".

I dunno. Making these decisions sometimes is very difficult. To pay off the 401k loan, I would have to wait 30 days to get another one.

Well, whatever. I'm sorta sitting on this deal until I get some peace about it one way or the other.

Work day approaches, albeit there is nothing in the truck routing system to do......

G'day.

ben