Thursday 2/24/2011

Thursday
I'm not a fan of blind dates, but that's exactly what's going to happen tomorrow. I like to talk to people in email or on the phone - or texting I guess - see a pic of them before I even think about going on a date. Oh well, it should be interesting if nothing else, lol.

I went into a vendor's place of business yesterday to pick up some materials. The man looked at me, asked me why I'm there. Not in a nice way, either. "Are you here for 80 of those lids?". No, not 80 of them, 25 of them, I reply.

LEAVE. GET OUT OF HERE. This was this man's words to me! I have never seen this man before in my life, I did not start trouble with him, I had only been in there less than a minute before his declaration was made. He then went into a litany of how "we" are always sending P.o.'s over to them and then showing up 10 minutes later to pick them up.

Business must be good for that company, is all I can say it, to be telling people to take a hike because we are "showing up too early". 25 plastic lids. I figure it might take 5 minutes max to box them up and have them ready, MIGHT take that long. I called the salesman on the account who took it up with our operations manager who apparently called them to ask what the problem is.

I never really heard what the outcome of it was, I was informed by the Ops manager that they told him it wouldn't be ready for at least 30 minutes and instructed me to leave. Notta problem, I had ALREADY left, no way was I going to stick around there listening to this guy's abuse. This dude actually followed me out the door with his narcissm and vitriol, barking at me as I was getting in to the truck and taking off. I tuned it out and considered the source.

February 24, 2011 5:58 AM 

Anonymous said...

I also am making it a quest to find another distributor of that material. I am told that they are the only one in town. Maybe that's true, but I will be calling the manufacturer to find out if that's fact or fiction, cause that company? Can go jump in a lake. I got back to the main branch and another driver told me he had been exposed to the same thing: told to leave. Lol. The manager downtown had less than kind words: "They're all A$$holes over there".

Okay, well, at least it wasn't just me. That was good to know.

I left a note for the tenants yesterday on the kitchen counter. I'm just not going to put up with some of the stuff going on. Either stop the behavior or go find a house full of slobs to live with, cause' my house ain't workin' out for you. My biggest gripe is the same as it always is: people not wanting to help with cleaning the bathroom. Yesterday's message was far more blunt than anything I have ever left before. Help clean the bathroom, pay $10 to opt out or go find a person's home to live in that doesn't care if you want to live like a pig.

I'm simply not going to have people like that living in my house, period. I make it well known that I expect tenants to clean the bathroom periodically, yesterday's note defined that: once per month and that room would be taken care of if each person did it. If one or all three take offense at it and want to leave, goodbye. Don't let the gate hit your @$$ on the way out.

Issues with tenants, always issues. Some things I can tolerate, some things there is a clear-cut line drawn. Now, I am seeing that the kid tenant is going to be having "financial difficulties". He got a new job, but allegedly isn't going to get paid for almost 3 weeks. It isn't just rent that comes into play with a person in that kind of situation, it usually also is disappearing food and drinks as well.

I get really tired of all of this from time to time.

Whatever.

I am still working out, to change the subject, I have made it 2 days this week, I intend on going to day for a 3rd day and hopefully a weekend day for a 4th. My minimum I have set for myself so far is 3 days per week. I am not going to say that I necessarily like going to gyms with a bunch of egomaniacs with big arms and chests, strutting around acting like they are God's gift to mankind in general, I pretty much ignore them but still. Just leave me alone, don't bother me while I'm working out and it'll all be good. I don't consider the place a social club, I just go in there, work out to the max and get out of there. Yesterday's workout was 40 minutes, 20 of it on that Stairclimbing machine. I hit the free-weights for the other 20 minutes, decided that was enough and left.

I am not going to stress over long workouts or if I go in there, do 30 minutes on the stair machine and decide that's enough for one day. I'm reintroducing myself to the world of gyms, workouts and the discipline of going a minimum number of days per week. I need an MP3 player or something to play my favorite motivation music, that would help immensely. They do crank some workout music in there, though and it's not that stupid stuff that does nothing but annoy and aggravate the olfactory senses more than anything.

Ummm, I guess that's it. I mean, there's more, I just felt like a venting session was in order. This union fight that is now spreading like wildfire all over the country is interesting to say the least.

But, I don't really feel like going into politics, so, with that, I bid you....a....
G'day.

ben

Wednesday 2/24/2011

Wednesday

I was wondering when the fury would start.

AZ is in the works to try and pass another illegal "immigrant" bill that will make the SB1070 bill put out last year look like fluff and roses in comparison.

Boycott Arizona - I'm sure that mantra will start up all over again. The democrats in the state senate are saying the senate leader should focus on the economic condition of our state. 

Yes, I think he is, would be my point. When you have hundreds of thousands or even millions of people using our healthcare system at no cost to them, that would be a GREAT place to start with getting the budget balanced. I particularly like the part of this bill that states that a child is not automatically a US citizen simply because they were born here if their parents are illegal aliens. 

You get rid of that little incentive to come over here and you will get rid of a lot of them attempting to cross the border altogether, imo.

One more thing: It makes it illegal for an illegal alien to drive a vehicle in the state with a 30 day MINIMUM jail sentence and seizure of their vehicle if convicted. Do you know how many of those people are driving around here that do not have car insurance, get into accidents and get off scott free? 

Of course, I'm sure this will all be challenged, but, it needs to be brought to the Supreme court, especially this issue of automatic citizenship if born here. 

Umm, well time is running out here. I'm going crazy trying to figure out all the options on this new phone. And then, when you understand how to do something on it, remembering how it was doing to begin with......

G'day.

ben

Tuesday 2/22/2011

Tuesday

I tipped over to the dark side yesterday.
A thing I never thought I would do.
Or, at least, anytime soon.

I bought a cellphone with a key board.

Well, I have to give it a try. No contracts, just straight up, month to month service with Cricket and the second cheapest phone they had for sale at 40% off. The first cheapest one looked like a piece of junk.

The thing should arrive today - at work no less - I didn't want a cellphone showing up at my house while I'm not there.

I printed out several pages of acronyms that are "commonly" used on cellphones, see how long THAT takes to learn. 

On to other things. I wrote up a 2 page notice to tenants yesterday and realize that, even with all of that, I had left some things out of it.

Such as? Someone is leaving the water running in the bathroom. They use the bathroom sink faucet and then leave the water on. I'll gladly get rid of any tenant I actually catch doing that. 

Just stupid stuff. I assume it's the "kid" tenant, I don't know that for a fact. I also assume he's going to find a new place to live. I am not asking him to leave, but - I am not being quite as amenable as I was before his outburst on the phone. I don't appreciate tenants yelling at me and certainly coming from a 20 something, all the less enjoyable. 

It left a bad taste in my mouth that I can't quite get rid of. It just sort of lingers.

The world. IT's as foul and bad as ever. Iranian ships passing through the Suez canal? A huge earthquake in New Zealand? The battle in Wisconsin. WalMart is tanking - who cares. The analysis is that they changed their format: take away the low prices, bring in things that their core customer doesn't want and - their customers leave for other pastures.

Perhaps that is true. However, my problem with Walmart is the utterly terrible, lousy, crappy - insert many more adjectives here - customer service attitude that they take against their own customers. It has always been that way and as far as I'm concerned, it always will be. That doesn't stop me from going in there and buying dog food. But, I don't go in there NEAR as much as I used to before encountering more than a handful of outrageous incidents of extremely poor treatment from customer service devils in the disguise of humans............

My morning rituals seem to get interrupted frequently. This time? Expected. The uniform guy comes here early since - I am here and he can deal with an account and get one thing under the belt. 

Oh, we are moving to a new building. The building this store is in now? An old piece of junk. Utter garbage. Literally. The new building? Beautiful. Right on the main drag, too - Arizona Avenue in Chandler. The catch? August. It ain't happening until August. Gag. Like, pick one of the hottest months of the year to move an entire store's worth of inventory...........

I'm outta here, work day is here.

ben

Monday 2/21/2011

Monday

I actually wrote almost an entire entry yesterday but never got around to finishing it, much less publishing it.

Oh well. I found my cellphone where I had left it on Friday: in the semi. I figured it was in there but didn't bother to drive all the way over here to get it - I have my home phone as back up.

It rained a long time yesterday, very nice ground-drenching type of rain. I was out there in between rain stop and start looking at my dead Sissoo trees. The leaves are all dead, no green anything.

But wait, something caught my eye. I started to inspect one of the smaller ones much closer. Little, tiny green buds popping out all over the thing!! I rushed around the property, inspecting all of them, large and small: same thing!! Hootin'NannyHoller! They aren't dead!

I don't know which thought was more depressing about the idea that ALL of them were dead: the time it took to acquire them and plant them or the time spent in having them grow, especially the larger ones that are upwards of 15 feet tall now.

Oh, the hummingbirds showed back up. Inexplicably, they disappeared over a week ago and now - here they are again. No clue on that one. I just keep the feeders filled with fresh liquid.

Wisconsin. Fascinating stuff going on there. Republicans are stating that if the dems don't come back, they are just going to start passing other bills that don't need anything but a simple majority present. The weather in Wisconsin - anywhere in Wisconsin - is anything but pleasant. I have been there in the winter, it's usually very cold and a lot of snow everywhere if memory serves me correct.

You will see wedges of cheese walking down the street on their owner's heads........

Again, there must be some way to either force them back or find some ancient law in the books that deals with this kind of problem - or just recall the whole lot of them - them being the democratic senators who have fled the state - and start fresh. And one more thing while we're at it, those teachers BETTER get their hineys back in school tomorrow - I'm assuming today is pretty much a nationwide school free day considering it's President's Day - and start teaching those kids again.

If they don't, they should be fired. Period. They made their statement, now it's time to get back to teaching kids.

And if those "doctors" out there are actually real doctors that were handing out notes/prescriptions/whatever they were to get teachers "legally" out of work, without even checking the person over, they should lose their right to practice medicine anywhere.

I have absolutely no sympathy for any of these people. I don't have "collective bargaining rights". I collect all my brain cells together, think of how I might go about asking for more money and do it. But not NOW, in this economic chaos. I don't have guaranteed rights to raises and I definitely don't have a pension plan that will last forever a day and a half that I barely have to pay anything into like those people do. LET THEM PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE - just like the rest of us are being FORCED to do. Government employees should not be granted an out simply because they work for the government. Why do they get a free pass and people like me get hours cut, but still have to pay into health care and 401k's at MUCH higher rates? If times were good, it might be different. I live in a right to work state, unions don't have much grip here. There are some around, but mostly, you have to push for your own self and get as much money as you can per hour.

This is the 5th stop in a series of moves I made to get to higher pay. I restarted trucking in - 2004 I think it was - got a job paying low, got another job paying more, etc etc etc to the point where I'm at now. I will be happy when I'm making another $5 per hour above what I am currently making. That will bring me up to where I should be in my level of experience. Will I ever get it? I don't know - but I have to do it on my own.

Well, whatever, work day is here. I don't know that there's going to be a lot to do, the construction sites are probably muddy and probably general contractors will shut them down if city inspectors force them to, they don't want that stuff tracked all over the streets everywhere.

G'day.

ben

Friday 2/08/2011

Lol.
Cowards.
Did you see the GOP go into "hiding" when the vote for the health care bill was coming up on the floor?
I didn't know that state police could be sent off after them to "bring them back and force them to vote". That's pretty, except they don't know where these senators are, though one report has them in a hotel in Illinois somewhere. I doubt Wisconsin state police have any jusidiction whatsoever in the state of Illinois.

This is Obama commenting on the situation after basically blasting the governor: "I think everybody's got to make some adjustments, but I think it's also important to recognize that public employees make enormous contributions to our states and our citizens," he continued.

He continued - to go jump in a lake. So, because public employees make "enormous contributions to our states and our citizens", they therefore deserve huge pensions that they hardly have to pay ANYTHING into, health care plans that are also on the cheap and salaries that are WELL above the private sector?

This is the kind of thinking that has gotten this nation to the economic point of chaos that it is in. WHAT "enormous" contributions, specifically, are being made? I'll give the police and fire credit for that, the rest of it is bunk. In other words, what THEY do is more important than what any of us working in the private sector does. If that's not what should be read into that statement, then please enlighten me: illucidate the underlying message in those words, because that's the only thing I get out of it.

So what teachers have a huge job, so does everyone else. It is not sustainable. These are the operative words. The private sector has ALREADY gotten the shaft in this economic climate, why should public employees be able to slide? They sit there, smug, raising hell at the Wisconsin capitol, demanding their rights - for what? Inflated wages, almost-free pensions and for paying WELL under what I have to pay to ensure that I have health care coverage.

I must have missed something here. Let me look it over. No, I haven't missed anything. My city's government is doing the SAME damned thing, but, there is one councilman who is speaking out about it. The average employee in the city of Phoenix, with benefits and salary/wages, earns $100,000 per YEAR. The figures included everyone from maintenance workers to garbage truck operators to city clerks to - everything. Our city's council, besides that one person, doesn't want to lose all of that, they want to continue to raise taxes.

Lopsided is an understatement when comparing a janitor's wages working for a corporation and a janitor working for the government's wages. Or any other job. It's preposterous, ridiculous and a slap in the face of Americans to think that they can just ride these storms out receiving no cut in hours, no decrease in pay, nothing. In their little world, there IS no recession. 

I'm done with that for now. It's Friday morning and I don't really want to ruin my day with thoughts about the government jobs sector and the ridiculous amounts of money people are making. Or the unions that demand collective bargaining rights. On and on.

However, those senators should all lose their jobs. Hiding. This is a juvenile activity that occurs on playgrounds while playing a game called Hide and Seek: it should NOT be the actions of grown, adult men and women who don't agree with a bill going through their state's senate, so instead of voting on it, they are going to go hide. I do hope the media blasts THEM as harshly as it would if it were Republican senators doing the SAME thing.

NO, that isn't going to happen on the same scale, is it? I'm sure they all feel it is somehow justified. Yet, they were elected to represent the people. The people in that state apparently have spoken. The governor has most definitely spoken: either take this deal or I am going to have to cut 6,000 jobs. But, union employees have this sense of entitlement. They somehow deserve more and more and more and if they can't get it, then who cares, let people lose their jobs.

Changing gears, there is, again, a lot of work today in the truck routing system. If it can all be done in one day, it will certainly be a LONG day in getting it done. Not that I mind that, that will get me some extra hours on my next paycheck, a thing I haven't seen in many, many months. In fact, if I don't get off early today, I'll have almost 6 hours worth of extra PLUS whatever hours I might go over today.

Our store's numbers quantify the hours as well. We're WELL beyond our store's budget for this month and it's only the 18th. Including today, there are 7 more business days in this month. I AM hoping, really, that I can get these hours and then some. The work today in our system pretty much details that that IS going to happen.

I worked out yesterday, btw. I lasted 15 minutes on that Stairmaster. My legs felt like there were on fire. It reminded me of my days in Junior High school, as I think I already said in another entry, when I was doing cross country running. We would run as hard as we could for as long as we could. After a while, your legs felt like lead weights.

I got off of that thing and hit the weights. 25 minutes of that and I felt good about that particular visit and left. I have a minimum goal of at least 3 days per week. So, if I feel too tired today, I will definitely go tomorrow and that will be day 3. I would have gone more, but I have been working much longer days at work than normal and it's drained me. I am tired, that's for sure.

Anyway, work day is here and I'm......outta here!

ben

Thursday 2/17/2011

Thursday

I left work yesterday thinking today would be a lighter load on the plate of things needed to get done.
Au contraire. 
Well whatever. I'm just tired. Work this week has been unbelievable in terms of the amount of work having to be put out by 2 people. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I am saying that a little more help over here wouldn't hurt anything during the rush times. 

So, I'm reading the news this morning and seeing Iran wanting to pass through the Suez canal with 2 warships.........and that those plans had been cancelled, presumably because Israel has "threatened action". Indeed. Iran's antics are laughable. What, are they going to start "patrolling" international waters on a global basis? ROFL!!

Back to AZ. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not the only outspoken sheriff in AZ. Paul Babeau has basically started a very contentious riff with - the federal government, really - in contradicting Napolitano's claims that the border is "more secure than it has ever been". 

"You have done the very thing they accuse me of doing. I do not represent you, or the citizens of your community, yet I do represent the nearly 400,000 citizens of my county and the viewpoint of the solid majority of Arizonans, who laugh at Secretary Napolitano's suggestion that our border is more secure than ever."

I love it. Just love it. This is the wild, wild west, folks and the attitudes are just a part of it. People carrying concealed weapons all over the place are another part of it. Frankly, after reading Babeau's efforts to slow down the stream of drugs/marijuana coming through "his" county not to mention illegal aliens, I applaud his efforts and I am glad there is a down-to-earth point man telling it like it is, whether it contradicts the big wigs in Washington or not. The funny part is, Washington cannot shut him up, not only that, but his statements are pretty much being re-broadcast nationwide.

Come to Arizona and visit the sheriff's of lore, lol. 

Ummm, benb coming back down to earth. You see, when I see all this stuff in the news in the morning, it wakes me right up. How about the governors of 3 states rejecting federal money to build high speed rail? They do have reason behind their decision: they feel that once it's built, the ridership projections given by the feds is going to be MUCH lower and that it will end up costing the states in subsidies - forever, basically.

I like it because Obama and his so-called budget to spend trillions of dollars is being snubbed back into his face. 

Oh, I'm glad I just remembered: more notices. Yes, some of my tenants are behaving badly and they need written correction, apparently, to put a stop to it. Just for one example, I came out this morning into the kitchen area to find 4 lights on. 4 of them. No-one out there, mind you, but 4 lights on.

Umm, this one is over, a customer just walked in (before opening time).

g'day.

ben

Wednesday 2/16/2011

Wednesday:

So, I get here at 5:30 am today. Here being work. 2 minutes later a salesman walks in. 5 minutes later a customer comes in wanting materials. 
I think I should remember to lock the front door before opening time from now on, I don't necessary like my pre-work rituals being ....ummm.....trifled with. 

I know, that doesn't sound right, but I'm a bit tired. Yesterday started at 6:00am and ended at 4:00pm. Yes, another long day. I slept well, I am just not used to 10 hours bust-@$$ days right now. I wouldn't mind getting back into that groove - and getting paid for it, mind you, but since my hours were cut back almost 2 years ago, I usually only work 7 and a half hours and that's it.

Well, whatever. I was going to go into some things but, the work day is already here.

G'day.

ben

Tuesday 2/15/2011

Tuesday

Oops, forgot to move Monday's entry to it's own spot yesterday.
I got home late. I mean, at 1:00 pm, I still had another delivery to do - in Coolidge, AZ. About 45 miles from where I was at and then back to Chandler. 

In other words, I got off way late and got home late, no time for the gym. In fact, no time for much of anything. 

I was able, however, to sell ALL of our company's drip irrigation tubing. About 24,000 feet of it to one buyer. I have been slowly selling that material off for some time now, but to get rid of all of that tubing is a big plus. My motivation is that when I get rid of all of it, I get a "spiff" - ie: money/percentage. 

Thank goodness I have plenty of that tubing left from my home project : ) Just cause, if something breaks, I don't want to have to pay Home Depot prices for it. I bought an extra 500 foot roll of it a while back. Company management should at least be slightly happy to have all of that tubing - that has been sitting around for 2 years now - sold and gone.

Which reminds me, I have to take that ad down and start up another one. Selling the tubing was a matter of changing my ad, especially the title. Instead of putting Drip Irrigation Supplies as the title, I had put 24,000' Drip Irrigation Tubing and that generated QUITE a lot of interest.

Well, work day is almost here and - there is MORE work in there than there was yesterday. I hope I can find the energy to get to the gym for at least the 30 minute workout after I get done with all of this today.

G'day.

ben

Monday 2/14/2011

Monday

I do like to be busy at work, but what I found in the truck routing system today? Not enough hours in this day to do all of that! 

2 pickups in Phoenix, deliveries spread out all over the east valley, orders haven't been pulled yet. That's a day's plus work. 

3.7 trillion dollar budget. That's 3,700,000,000,000 - if you want to look at the actual number instead of it's name. Is this anything even close to being realistic? I wonder how much of that is going towards payments and interest to China. This is Obama's budget proposal. I thought it was bad when we broke ONE trillion dollars. I dunno, I guess the government wants us to start thinking that billions of dollars is mere chump change and an "evolving" society needs to embrace this word: trillion in context to the word money and think that it's an acceptable thing to waste that kind of money on junk. I consider much of it waste and certainly not anything even remotely close to the spectrum that the Federal government was originally conceived to fill. 

Meanwhile, the other day I was reading about a new method scientists have come up with for drilling oil and that this new method is allow access to a lot of underground oil in the states - land versus attempting to do it in the ocean. They're talking a lot of oil, btw. I thought that a glimmer of good news, especially considering rising gas prices right now. Not that it's going to make any immediate difference.

Well, whatever. 

Work day is here.

I'm sorta out of it this morning, didn't sleep all that well last night, some good ole' fashioned hard labor should help wake me up. 

G'day.

ben

Sunday

So, I worked out yesterday and the day before.  I am going to give it a pass today and then try to hit the gym at least 4 times after work this coming week.  I'm only doing a half hour so far - though it is a very intense half hour of doing the stairmaster machine - it isn't creating some sort of stigma in my head that "gee, I have to spend 2 hours there".  I'm eyeing the free-weights, but Bobby was correct in his statement that at our age, the focus should really be on cardio.  That's not to say that I might not go over after the 30 minute deal and do some bench pressed, flies and tricep curls on one day this week and then maybe biceps, lats and abs another day, just want to focus on the cardio/fat burning stuff.

Amazing how the feeling of lethargy disappears once you get your heart pumping and get the blood flowing.  I am psyched already at the difference I am already feeling after just 2 workouts, great motivation to keep it going.

I cheated today on my diet.  I don't do that often, but when I do, well, might as well go for the gusto.  2 Jumbo Jacks.  600 calories each, 315 calories from fat.  Lol.  However, I had mine made without mayo, that reduces the fact content quite a lot.  If I were doing that weekly or more often, then I would feel guilty.  Monthly or less?? No biggies.  Oh, and 940 mgs of sodium.  I am definitely looking at sodium content of everything nowadays.  I will eat a salad later on and that will be it for the day.

Next month: Dairy Queen German Chocolate Blizzard, the largest one they make : )  Get a nice sugar high, crash from it, wonder why I ate something that makes me feel so BAD after the crash and then not have another one of those for at least 6 months.

Tenant issues seem to be tempering down a bit.  I don't really want to go into all of that on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, so I won't.

Welcome to the world of texting.  No, I do not text.  I haven't wanted to text, I don't care anything about texting.  Pick up the phone and CALL me if you want to talk to me.  My distaste for texting is greatly amplified with the idiots that drive down the freeways paying more attention, literally, to their phone and messages/ing than the road.  If they gave texting the same weight of law and consequences as a DUI, which I believe they should, perhaps some of the mayhem on the roads would subside.

I thought talking on cell phones while driving was bad, texting is FAR worse.  Anyway, it seems that the ladies nowadays want to text.  You wanna get a date, it appears your opportunities significantly increase if you have texting capabilities.  When it comes to cell phones and services, I am a big fan of Cricket.  Unlimited access at a pretty decent price.

I haven't quite jumped over the fence to get to the texting pastures, but I am considering it.

Well, it has been a pleasant weekend.  There was quite a lot of work in the truck routing system for Monday last time I looked - which I can only do at work through the company's system, Monday will be busy.  After work, I intend on a 30 minute workout.  I might up it to 35 minutes for the fun of it.

Football season is over, so, back to enjoying the great outdoors in this kind of unbelievably great weather.

ben

Friday 2/11/2011

Well, I didn't have a chance to do an entry this morning cause' I had to go to the main branch instead of the east valley branch to pick up a truck.  That kinda threw off the entire morning.  Not in a bad way, I got up later cause' I knew I wouldn't be able to get in to the main branch as early as I can at the other one.  I have cause to my branch, they wanted their keys back to the main branch after I was transferred, which is no biggies to me.

I just got my butt kicked.  Waylaid, left on the side of the road to die and feeling it.

No, not by any human.  By a machine.  This particular machine has steps on it and the steps revolve around on a track much like and elevator where the steps appear at the top and disappear at the bottom.  That would be called a stair stepping machine.  Yes, I joined the gym yesterday.  $28 per month.  It was going to be $24 per month, but you only get that by signing an 11 month contract.  No thanks.  The man behind the counter asked my name, he said he was ready for me.  In other words, the dude I had talked to about this on the phone previously had let everyone know that I might be coming in and this is the details of the plan.

There IS no plan.  Just pay the $28 per month.  I HATE contracts for a gym.

So, that done, I didn't have workout clothes with me yesterday. I got home from work today - I plan on stopping by the gym on the days I am going to work out on the way home from work, but today I came home from work from downtown Phoenix, not the east valley as I normally do - got my shorts and t shirt on and the ONLY goal I had was to spend 30 quality minutes on that stair step on a Super Fat Burn setting.  It's also a GREAT cardio workout.

I'm toast for the rest of the day, thank you.  I haven't been in a gym in ages, forgot what it's like in there.  I was eyeing the free weights, but as I said, that machine kicked my @$$ today.  It may do that for a while, too.  My priority is cardio and fat burn on that stairstepper.  My goal is eventually 45 minutes on that thing at the highest level, as I used to be able to do.  I really thought, for not having had been on one in over 7 years, that I did pretty well considering.  But, when you can crank that thing up and stay on it for a while, you burn fat like crazy and you really start feeling better.  Still, 2 and a half miles of climbing stairs?  Not bad for a 47 year old man that hasn't worked out like that in quite a long time.

I do, however, imagine I will start feeling better just doing this.  Small steps.  Just take small steps.  I am motivated, but, I know what going to the gym 5 days a week can eventually do to you: cause you to get burnout.

Anyway, I gave the female tenant a rent notice the other day, I got a reply from her yesterday.  She quit going to school, meaning she also stopped receiving that almost-$1,400 per month stipend from the military.  I dunno, if I were in her situation, I would go to school just to get the money if nothing else.  She IS working, just not getting that extra money.  She said she would give me "as much as she can afford" today.  Okay, I'm looking for a minimum of $250 today.  I am guessing I will get $200.  I will NOT be happy with ANYTHING less.  I like to mentally prepare myself in advance for such things so that I don't get upset and start saying things I might regret later.

I gotta tell ya, if I could go to school for free right now and get that kind of money, I would go!!  My first quest would be paralegal, after that a lawyer and the bar exam.

One can dream.  Speaking of money, I believe I am going to set a maximum low that this house can go in terms of market value.  If it hits that low, I'm outta here.  Short sale it, live with the fact that I will either have to live in a rental property for years or buy an old mobile, fix it up and live in that for years, but to sit here and continue to watch housing values plummet, month after month is getting disheartening.  At this rate, whenever the market does come back up - and I am still hearing predictions of 2015, four YEARS from now, it might be decades before the house is even worth what I paid for it.

Direct Deposit. Took the plunge.  Went to the bank that I wanted to have it done it - my account balance there was at zero.  I haven't been using it, but I have wanted to switch over and get rid of the other bank, anyway.  The other bank - Compass Bank - is the one where I have been quite abused, verbally, by management.

So, I go in there, but I didn't want to do the direct deposit thing, just deposit a check and get some money going in there.  A manager comes up to me and asks me if I like Kathy.  Well, I don't hate her, that's for sure!  I walked in there behind another guy - a man dressed to the 9's in pin-stripe suit, tie, white shirt, all that good stuff.  Well, we both stopped at the desk to fill out the info.  He was taking his time, I was done quickly.  I have been passed by people that either didn't need to fill out anything or did it faster than me in the past and I didn't think anything of them passing me in line. So, I passed him by.  He was done a couple of minutes later, but, I was still waiting.

I could feel the glares on my back.  When I was finally called up, I deferred to the man behind me, who gave me a look, passed by me and went up to the window.  Whatever, I just let it go.  15 seconds lady, a lady walks up, grabs me by the hands, asks me about Kathy and being a real gentleman.  Lol, I just told her that guy was here before me, I let him go first.  I told her I was interested in direct deposit, did she have any info on that?  Oh, yes, let's go over here.  We went to her cubicle, I sat down, gave her my ID and the check and deposit slip, she fingered a person to come over, that person was there in  a few seconds, took that stuff, made the deposit and she started in on the direct deposit.

It's done.  I figure it to start next paycheck since it's 2 weeks away, if my company really wants this stuff done that badly, they should hopefully be able to get this done quickly.

Fast forward to Compass Bank.  I was there today making my final deposit.  I haven't deposited one of my paychecks at Chase, didn't want a delay on it in case there is one.  I was at the desk to fill out the slip, a lady walks up to me and asks me to come into her office. ???? Second time in 2 days?  She was training a new employee, turns out, guess I looked like a good guinea pig.  We talked about everything under the sun while she updated my information, had the new guy take my check to the teller area and do the deposit, but I didn't tell her about my extremely negative experiences with management at a different location.  I also didn't bother to tell her that I was planning on coming in, removing all my cash and closing the account.  I didn't feel like ruining the mood of the moment.

Well, it's late for me and I'm - outta here.

Later.

ben

Thursday 2/10/2011

Thursday

Not much to say today, mainly cause' I don't have a lot of time right now. 

I was "forced" to give the remaining female tenant a notice last night. She went on vacation at Christmas, spent her rent money on that and is behind - WELL behind - in her rent. She has been avoiding me, coming home after I go to bed because she knows I will stop her on her way in and start a discussion about money.

Well, since that's the case, I left her a rent due notice. Nothing official or for the courts, just a semi-friendly notice that if she doesn't either pay the rent or discuss this situation with me, I would have no choice but to start eviction proceedings. 

I will give her 2 days to either write me something back, give me some rent money or discuss this face to face. If nothing happens, it's the 5-day pay or quit notice and onto the rest of it. I hardly have sympathy for a person that decides a vacation and blowing ALL of your money on it, leaving nothing for the necessities of life left over is something even remotely good to do.

Oh, wait a minute, she still has her truck, so she must be making THAT payment. She has her cell phone, I doubt she's let that be turned off. She's been pretty good about rent until this vacation deal. 

Whatever, it's life with tenants. The "kid" tenant took my statements which were beyond being just hints and started to deal with the dishes. Except, he's putting pans into the dishwasher. Instead of cleaning them with some dish soap and putting them away, a process that would take all of a couple of minutes, he's decided that throwing them into the dishwasher is a good idea.

NOT. I'll be having yet another discussion with him about that today. I don't PUT pots and pans into the dishwasher. They take up too much space in there and basically is a waste of energy to wash them. You hand wash those things, dry them and put them away. 

There's an old mobile up for sale a block away. It's in good condition and is being sold by owner. There IS no bank financing for such things at this point, banks aren't financing stuff like that right now. I have more than half a mind to inquire about that, what the terms are and go ahead and short-sale my house, as I am starting to get sick of dealing with people and their BS. Having to chase people down for rent, having to deal with people making noise at night, having to deal with people who don't want to do their dishes, don't want to help clean the bathroom, on and on and on. 

That or take up my quest to find a second, part time job, or find a job that gives me 40 hours plus some OT. I could get rid of 2 of these people, rent out 2 rooms to one person for a little more money, find a good tenant and not have to deal with all of this. 

I dunno, but, my time's up for today.

ben

Wednesday 2/9/2011

Wednesday

So, this kid tenant is now helping himself to my printer. How do I know this? Because one of my ink cartridges is dry. Color cartridges at that. It costs over $30 to replace those color cartrdiges.

Yup. The printer is going to be hooked to the other computer and the option to use it off of the old one will disappear, including the software installed on that computer to run the printer. I want it installed on my computer, anyway. Perhaps I should hand him the receipt after spending that money on those cartridges and see what he thinks about paying for it.


I left a rather blunt note yesterday on the kitchen counter, to which he again apologized when I got home yesterday. He left a pan sitting in the sink and this time, I absolutely refused to clean it. I feel like I have brought a young kid into my house and that I have to train this kid in basic, elemental things for living. I really don't need that kind of assignment right now.

My trip to the gym yesterday to get signed up was put off yesterday, mainly because I ended up going over-hours at work. One particular company that we supply always has an emergency. I don't like going over my part-time hours of 7 hours anymore because I know that I will simply end up getting off earlier another day during the week to lose the OT. I've been at 35 hours - part time - for over a year and a half now.

I frequently ponder whether I want to keep working as a part-time employee or go out and find full time work again. I have no idea if or when we are ever going to get our hours back. There are trucking jobs out there that are giving 50 plus hours a week. I decided at the beginning of this year to yes, go ahead and give it another 6 months. I get the feeling that if I stick this out, it will pay off in the end.

Unfortunately, the housing market may not be corrected until as late as 2015. That is, of course, 4 years from now. New housing construction was 90% of our business before the collapse. Now it's almost nothing. Seriously, I rarely deliver to a housing project. It's either road work - they are replacing pipes under the street; business or water treatment plants.

Well, I'm going to put that one back on the shelf. I do seriously doubt I would stick around for 4 more years of part time work, though. It's just something that is going to play out and I am going to either get my hours back or I am going to end up deciding to find greener - money greener - pastures.

I saw a rebuke online the other day: to get a woman, you are going to have to get off your lazy ass and get out there and find one. Literally, that's what the article said, lol. I was feeling like maybe that was being directed towards me cause' I gotta say, getting up and getting out to find a woman has it's appeals and not so appealing elements to it.

First off, where to you "go" to find a woman? A bar? Night club? Yeah, right. Those are one-night stand establishments. Run into one at the grocery store? Not very probable. Church? Maybe, if I start going to one, get into a single's group and spend a lot of time at it. It's the options available that aren't very intriguing or appealing to me, hence the lack of doing much more than internet dating sites. Perhaps the gym,hmmm, didn't think about that one. Not likely, either, but you never know. Everyone I know - they meet their ladies at the work place. There are no available options in that department at my work.

Oh well. Just musing.

As for now? Work day is almost here. I have the main branch locked out of their truck routing system. Who am I to do that? No-one, but I always do ask why they are taking our work when they KNOW it is in our territory. The excuses are usually very lame, but sometimes there is a good one. Such as the contractor wanted it first thing and we couldn't do it. I'm guessing, however, in this case, that my manager was not asked or informed about this delivery that should be ours to do. I will be getting a phone call in about 20 minutes asking to get out of the system and then I'll politely ask the question: why?!!!

G'day.

ben

Wednesday 2/9/2011

Comments Section.

Tuesday 2/8/2011

Tuesday

So, the newest tenant comes home yesterday, pulls out $100 and says here, this is towards NEXT month. He already paid for this month. Who gets AHEAD in their rent? Lol, that was a shocker to me. Okay, I'll take it!

Back to the second newest tenant of which I refer to as a kid, he has this habit of leaving dirty pans in the sink. I have this habit of not having ANY dirty dishes, pots or pans in the sink. I am pretty staunch about that position, too. Imagine all kinds of people living in one house, dumping junk into the sink. 

Yes, you are imagining my version of a nightmare. I left a rather - stern - statement in writing, on the counter, next to the sink this morning before heading off to work. Either clean up your dishes/pots/pans or don't use them. Thank you. 

I put the dude at the gym off. I didn't go in. I decided to wait until I have more available finances, I like to keep some money around in case there is some sort of emergency. It was also a tactical move. Wait and see if they call back, then tell them why you haven't gone in and see if there are any concessions. 

He calls back yesterday, I explain my situation. The last time I talked to him, it was a come in, sit down, let's talk type of thing when I asked about prices. That's car dealership tactics and I hate that kind of stuff. In other words, get you in the door and then use pressure/psychological tactics to try and get you to do something you don't want to. 

Yesterday, the offer came in at $24 per month, no start up fees. Awesome, but I forgot to ask if that also includes having to sign a contract, because if it does, no thanks, back to the negotiating table.

My uncle sent me a birthday wish the other day, so I sent back a note to him. I was amazed that he finally decided he was going to get into a discussion. I don't know the man, to be honest and he doesn't know me, either. I haven't seen him since I was 16 years old, 31 years ago. He informed me that my dad's wife doesn't like him and they don't get together because of that fact. Oh. The things my dad keeps from me, I had wondered why, the last time he went to a reunion, his wife stayed home.

Well, I'm just zooming through this as my time is short before work day gets here. I'm mostly consumed with what to do with this guy that is very high maintenance that is living in my house. I don't LIKE high maintenance people, you spend too much time dealing with their issues, and issues they have, lots of them. 

Anyway, work day is here and I must be off to the races!

G'day.

ben

Monday 2/7/2011

Monday

Well, the Steelers did not make history yesterday, the Packers won the game, congrats to the Packers. Steelers let 2 TD's occur early in the game and that pretty much set the stage. Still, they DID make a comeback, just not enough.

So, the general manager sent me an email. I just got it here on my work account this morning. The company is promoting "Direct Deposit". No, folks, I don't do direct deposit. I haven't done it since it first started coming out. The reason is simple: the first time my paycheck wasn't deposited and took a week to get it "fixed" was the last time I did that. That was........I don't know how long ago. 15, 20 years? When did direct deposit start becoming popular?

So, am I ready to try it again? I guess I'm old fashioned, I would far rather have a paper check in my hand than invisible transactions going through phone lines. Not only that, but I have to make frequent enough trips to the bank, anyway. It's not like tenants are going to be making direct deposits to me.

Of course, when your general manager comes along writing you a personal email about it, then you might come to think that there perhaps is a bit of pressure to do it. The list of people in the AZ group that do not do direct deposit? Just me and one other guy, lol.

I don't do automatic withdrawals, either. I will NEVER do automatic withdrawals on any bill. If I find myself broke for some reason and that automatic thing comes and takes what I have left out of there, or worse, the money isn't available at all, baam, you get hit with OD fees or you are left with nothing. Okay, I have automatic withdrawal into my savings account. I can turn that off at any time I want, unlike automatic withdrawals to say a credit card company or some other revolving account.

So, what to do. I'm sure the GM doesn't want to hear about my objections to direct deposit. I can pretty much make that assertion without too much thought........

Anyway, the work day is almost here and there is absolutely nothing to do in the truck routing system, big bummer : (

But, it will be a beautiful day today : )

ben

SuperBowl Sunday 2/6/2011

A couple of hours left to go.
I had half a mind to go to the Steeler's bar/hangout - but - tickets are sold out.
It's a bar, yes, but there are allegedly going to be thousands of people there cheering
on the Steelers. I sorta like getting into the kind of atmosphere for a deal like this.

As for my birthday yesterday, I was cruising along, having a great day, until the "kid"
tenant called me from work and started making demands for a written statement to be
given to the State of Arizona.  Without going into all of it, I ended up hanging up on him.
I will NOT tolerate being yelled at - over the phone or in person - from a damned tenant.
I don't yell at THEM for any reason, I expect to be treated the same.  Freaking kid, he's
never been out of the house until he moved here and apparently has gotten his way with
his mother, of whom I have heard him yelling at on the phone.

I was fuming mad after that.  When I was a young adult, I used to believe the Christian thing
to do in such circumstances would be to just let the person rant and yell and scream and just
let it go.  I have no such belief anymore. I can't find it in the Bible where it says to let someone
abuse you simply because you believe Jesus Christ is Lord and your personal Savior.  I don't
tolerate that crap from people in my life and I put an end to it immediately when it happens.

He didn't come home until much later, in fact, I was going to bed when he arrived.  He said hi, I
glared at him, got the dogs and went off into my bedroom.  I mean, not only did he start crap with me
in yelling, bad enough in itself, he did it on my birthday.  Just pure BS.  Whatever.  I was out working
on the side of the house where the ponds are earlier cleaning up and putting the sheets and blankets away
after removing them off the plants when my son comes out.  This guy had talked to my son about the
situation and I was curious as to what kind of story had been told.  He had actually owned up - to my son
anyway who had not part of this situation - that he had crossed the line and screwed up.

Great.   He comes out about an hour later.  I was out there pondering things, moving things around, attempting to decide what I am going to do next out there.  Definitely, several plants and trees have
succumbed to frost/freezing temps.  I am worried about my Sissoo trees.  Most of them look dead, even
the big ones that are 15 feet tall.  I'll be REALLY bummed if they all die and don't come back to life when
spring comes around.

He apologizes.  I really didn't know what to say.  So I just puked it out: I am not used to having TENANTS ........ YELLING at me..........in my OWN home, even IF over the phone.  That was it.  It's going to take a few days for me to come out of that one.  It's a guaranteed fact that if he does  it again, he will be looking for a new place to stay.  It wouldn't bother me at all at this point if he went and found a new place to stay, anyway.

Let him experience what it's like with OTHER hotheads his own age.  Maybe move into a college type of situation with a bunch of human pigs that don't like to clean up after themselves and take care of their living areas.

Whatever.  He left again for work, I'm just trying to cool off.  I just think it takes a LOT of gall for a person to start yelling at the owner of the home that that person is living in, especially considering that I wasn't yelling at him, or even raising my voice for that matter.

So, back to Superbowl Sunday.  It should be a really good game, regardless of who wins.  2 great quarterbacks - my opinion anyway.  Steelers defense is awesome.  Offensive protection for Roethlisberger isn't all that great, if the Burger Boy didn't have the ability that he does to shake off the tackles and move out of the pocket, we wouldn't even be here right now.

Wow, that stadium is nice!!
Still, you have 2 teams that are based in frigid cold areas.  I would FAR rather see a game in a stadium with no roof over it's head.  Snow falling would be a plus.

Umm, I have a lot to do in the next 50 minutes before the game starts, I better get offa here.

Later.

ben