I'm toasted. Fried to a fine crisp. The last 3 days of work have been completely exhausting. I have muscle aches in places I haven't had those kinds of aches in years. I'm definitely dragging this morning - a couple more hours of sleep would have helped. I think an ibuprofen would help as well. Today looks to be - perhaps - a bit less excoriating. Okay, my flesh hasn't been ripped off my body, but the feeling is there. I will be quite happy when this move is completely done and over with and we are back on a regular schedule.
Our branch - manned by all of 2 people, my manager and I - did almost 600k worth of sales last month/November. Found that out when leaving work last night. That is a lot of product being sent out by 2 people, trust me, it is. This month actually looks to be going in the same direction - which is odd for being a December. One of the inside salesmen came out of the main branch yesterday while I was loading the truck outside and apologized in advance. "I'm sorry, Ben, but in the next coming days, there is going to be a LOT of material going out to (name of construction company here) and you are going to be going there a lot). Yes, there is half a yard's worth of materials sitting there just for that project alone. But I can say it is the new Intel plant being built. That giant crane is amazing to watch. It is lifting 500,000 pound trusses to set them in to place. The crane is operating at 92% of it's capacity. Which is a scary thought in itself. Meaning what, that the thing could topple over if those trusses weighed only a bit more?
Well anyway, I hope to get off a bit earlier today so I can go visit the new trailer setup at the RV park. But first, I will have to stop by and get those satellite dishes before that guy sells them to someone else.
Then there's all the stuff in the news - but I just can't seem to wrap my brain around that situation right now. But, there are some truly evil people wandering around out there - right now - looking to do harm for no more reason than to steal your money or jealousy or just because they like to hurt people. The stories are endless, seemingly. I just read another one that just left me in a state of bewilderment. How do these people turn out this way to end up doing the things that they are doing?
I'm not going to sit here and say that I think it was a waste of money to go to a firearms store and arm myself is all I can say about that.
G'day.
ben
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Crazy Days
We are still in the middle of this move - at work that is. Everything has been moved out of the old building as of today, but there is a huge mess at the new place. There is material all over the place, none of it has been "located" and very difficult to find anything.
Regardless, I worked 11 hours and 15 minutes today, straight through, non-stop, grinding all day long. Drive here, deliver that, pick this up, downtown to main branch and pull all kinds of transfers for orders. When I finally got back to the new building, there were 2 orders to pull that had to be pulled today and put on the truck today for early delivery tomorrow. I mean, I went to work this morning in the dark and it was dark when I left work!
Lol.
The trailer was moved today, though I missed the whole episode. I did not have time to go over and see the setup, it was simply too late and I am already past my bedtime as it is. I also got a call from Caleb, he is leaving for Florida with his mom for a 9-day vacation, I was a bit unhappy that I didn't get to give him a big hug before he left. Oh well.
Whatever. I'm exhausted and I'm going to bed.
G'nite.
ben
Regardless, I worked 11 hours and 15 minutes today, straight through, non-stop, grinding all day long. Drive here, deliver that, pick this up, downtown to main branch and pull all kinds of transfers for orders. When I finally got back to the new building, there were 2 orders to pull that had to be pulled today and put on the truck today for early delivery tomorrow. I mean, I went to work this morning in the dark and it was dark when I left work!
Lol.
The trailer was moved today, though I missed the whole episode. I did not have time to go over and see the setup, it was simply too late and I am already past my bedtime as it is. I also got a call from Caleb, he is leaving for Florida with his mom for a 9-day vacation, I was a bit unhappy that I didn't get to give him a big hug before he left. Oh well.
Whatever. I'm exhausted and I'm going to bed.
G'nite.
ben
11/30/2011
Almost into December. Crazy.
The "Big Day" is here. Moving Mark and Lynnette off the property. Guy with 5th wheel truck supposed to show up between 3 and 4 pm. I still have a couple of things to do after work and before the move - but unless I get off really late, I should be able to get those things done in time.
Namely, a person with not 1, not 2, but 5 Direct TV dishes for sale, selling all of them for $30. I need 2, will try to sell the other 3 and lose nothing in that deal.
And duplicate keys. Back door: door handle and deadbolt. 5 sets of keys for that.
Considering replacing the surveillance system since the current one is non-functional.
This little situation with them moving out - well I just don't know what's going to happen. The theft around here stopped when they moved in and I told them they have full authority to stop anyone and ask them what they are doing - people that don't live there, that is and what the bleep are they doing on the property. It all stopped at that point. Them moving out? I dunno. There isn't going to always be someone here, though pretty much most of the time there will be.
But, if those tenants that are here don't pay attention to what's going on outside of their room - which they do not - a thief could walk right in here and help himself. So, the new rule
Well, I remembered I needed to write up a notice - and that took up most of the time left before needing to leave for work. Another long day in store for me, I am pretty sure of that.
G'day.
ben
The "Big Day" is here. Moving Mark and Lynnette off the property. Guy with 5th wheel truck supposed to show up between 3 and 4 pm. I still have a couple of things to do after work and before the move - but unless I get off really late, I should be able to get those things done in time.
Namely, a person with not 1, not 2, but 5 Direct TV dishes for sale, selling all of them for $30. I need 2, will try to sell the other 3 and lose nothing in that deal.
And duplicate keys. Back door: door handle and deadbolt. 5 sets of keys for that.
Considering replacing the surveillance system since the current one is non-functional.
This little situation with them moving out - well I just don't know what's going to happen. The theft around here stopped when they moved in and I told them they have full authority to stop anyone and ask them what they are doing - people that don't live there, that is and what the bleep are they doing on the property. It all stopped at that point. Them moving out? I dunno. There isn't going to always be someone here, though pretty much most of the time there will be.
But, if those tenants that are here don't pay attention to what's going on outside of their room - which they do not - a thief could walk right in here and help himself. So, the new rule
Well, I remembered I needed to write up a notice - and that took up most of the time left before needing to leave for work. Another long day in store for me, I am pretty sure of that.
G'day.
ben
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
The 5th Wheel Travel Trailer Move
Coming soon, to a theatre near you. Ummm, try tomorrow and coming to my property, a pick up truck with a 5th wheel to move the trailer from here to the RV park. This little deal has put me back some what with having to pay the lot rent up front, an electric deposit, moving the trailer and fixing some things on the trailer.
However, Lynnette has promised to pay me back - which I don't doubt that she desires to do so but seriously doubt she will ever be able to pay all that back plus afford her monthly expenses so if I get, say, half of it back I will be happy. She says she landed a job today and that it starts sometime next week. I hope that's true, that would definitely help her a long ways towards her immediate issue: a serious lack of sufficient finances to pay for the basics in life. We're not talking satellite and internet and a home phone, we're talking a place to live and food to put in your mouth and eat. Whatever the case, the expenses are all but over on my part of it. Which is a good thing because I really don't want this to tap me out. I still have to pay - eventually - $300 to have my trailer moved up north plus the rest of what I need to buy for it.
But, I am in no great hurry to do that, my finances will inch back up there. I have a couple of Christmas presents to buy and regular monthly expenses, but if tenants continue to pay me on time or close to it, I will be in the black on monthly expenses, not the red and that will help me get ahead. Not to mention the fact that my monthly electric bill has gone from around $400 and change to less than $200 - well, probably around $150 per month and should stay that way until the AC will need to be turned on again next year. The subsequent lack of intense, external heat also has reduced my water usage on the plants signficantly and that bill has been cut more then in half. So, less monthly expenses and all tenants paying equals more money coming in than going out - excepting in this situation with this trailer.
I am also thinking of switching to Cox cable version of internet. They have deals going an the price is right. If I can get 12 months of lower price on a 2 year contract and at least reduced amount on a modem/router setup, I am going to do it. It will save me money in the long run. I could, of course, lower the amount of bandwidth I get from my current provider - but that isn't going to work.
I was driving - in the pickup truck not the semi - today the back roads through the Indian Reservation to get to Casa Grande. This route facilitated by the fact that I had made a delivery out east and the fastest way there were the 2 lane highways I took to get there. I pulled out the computer and the router to see what kind of coverage I would get in the middle of Nothing, Nowhere and found that I had coverage the ENTIRE route. The only sticking point is this issue of 4G and 3G network. I was on 3G network during most of the Indian Reservation and all of Casa Grande, too, which I thought surprising, I would have thought Verizon to have 4G network there. 3G network is slower, that's all.
The switch from 4G to 3G is not seamless. Meaning loss of internet connection while it's transitioning, but, the computer picks up where it left off, reconnects itself and if I simply wait it out, there is nothing that I actually have to do. Overall and so far, I am happy with the coverage and the service. I am not happy that the computer battery runs out in less than 2 hours instead of the 4-1/2 it claimed on the box, so I will be looking to find a car charger for it and the router as well - though I have no idea how long the router battery lasts, it hasn't run out yet while using it, the computer runs out first.
As for the new fan motor for the roof AC unit on my trailer, what a load of garbage. The guy calls a couple of days after I pay for it and tells me there is an "issue" they have with the vendor and won't be able to do it that way. He magically found the part at another Camping World location somewhere else in the country and since it's so far away and this that and that other thing, I will still have to pay the shipping fee which I already prepaid. The man allegedly talked to his manager about this. All of this information was offered by him, I asked nothing, he called me actually and went into this spiel.
Well I happen to work for a company that has inter-company shipments. "Full Freight Allowed" is the name of that game, that Camping World location where I am getting this part from isn't paying ANYTHING for that shipping if it's anywhere near the same setup my company has. I was paying for UPS to ship it from a vendor. I said nothing to him, just please get the part here whenever you can, thank you. That's all I said, honestly. What I didn't say is that I will be taking up this shipping charge when the item arrives and I come in to pick it up. They are GOING to give me that shipping money back or they are going to give me a very good percentage off of something else I need or they are going to issue me an in-store credit - anyway about it, I am going to get something out of this, especially since they are the ones that screwed up with vendor of theirs.
I am well aware of what goes on with shipping and receiving problems, I have to deal with that stuff quite frequently at my company. Either I have to deal with it or I see everything that is going on with problems that I am not directly dealing with. Why they suddenly could not deal with that particular vendor, I have no idea. I could guess, though. The point is that they are dumping this all on me. In BenB's world, that simply doesn't happen. I will get something out of it, especially since the price of that motor was quite inflated to begin with.
Well, anyways, that's it for now. More going on, but, this entry will go on forever if I delve into everything. Tomorrow is going to be an unbelievably long day with work and getting that trailer moved and making sure that everything is good to go.
The only thing to do?
Go to bed early, yet again. And that's my version of early, we're talking 7:30, maybe 8:00.
G'nite.
ben
However, Lynnette has promised to pay me back - which I don't doubt that she desires to do so but seriously doubt she will ever be able to pay all that back plus afford her monthly expenses so if I get, say, half of it back I will be happy. She says she landed a job today and that it starts sometime next week. I hope that's true, that would definitely help her a long ways towards her immediate issue: a serious lack of sufficient finances to pay for the basics in life. We're not talking satellite and internet and a home phone, we're talking a place to live and food to put in your mouth and eat. Whatever the case, the expenses are all but over on my part of it. Which is a good thing because I really don't want this to tap me out. I still have to pay - eventually - $300 to have my trailer moved up north plus the rest of what I need to buy for it.
But, I am in no great hurry to do that, my finances will inch back up there. I have a couple of Christmas presents to buy and regular monthly expenses, but if tenants continue to pay me on time or close to it, I will be in the black on monthly expenses, not the red and that will help me get ahead. Not to mention the fact that my monthly electric bill has gone from around $400 and change to less than $200 - well, probably around $150 per month and should stay that way until the AC will need to be turned on again next year. The subsequent lack of intense, external heat also has reduced my water usage on the plants signficantly and that bill has been cut more then in half. So, less monthly expenses and all tenants paying equals more money coming in than going out - excepting in this situation with this trailer.
I am also thinking of switching to Cox cable version of internet. They have deals going an the price is right. If I can get 12 months of lower price on a 2 year contract and at least reduced amount on a modem/router setup, I am going to do it. It will save me money in the long run. I could, of course, lower the amount of bandwidth I get from my current provider - but that isn't going to work.
I was driving - in the pickup truck not the semi - today the back roads through the Indian Reservation to get to Casa Grande. This route facilitated by the fact that I had made a delivery out east and the fastest way there were the 2 lane highways I took to get there. I pulled out the computer and the router to see what kind of coverage I would get in the middle of Nothing, Nowhere and found that I had coverage the ENTIRE route. The only sticking point is this issue of 4G and 3G network. I was on 3G network during most of the Indian Reservation and all of Casa Grande, too, which I thought surprising, I would have thought Verizon to have 4G network there. 3G network is slower, that's all.
The switch from 4G to 3G is not seamless. Meaning loss of internet connection while it's transitioning, but, the computer picks up where it left off, reconnects itself and if I simply wait it out, there is nothing that I actually have to do. Overall and so far, I am happy with the coverage and the service. I am not happy that the computer battery runs out in less than 2 hours instead of the 4-1/2 it claimed on the box, so I will be looking to find a car charger for it and the router as well - though I have no idea how long the router battery lasts, it hasn't run out yet while using it, the computer runs out first.
As for the new fan motor for the roof AC unit on my trailer, what a load of garbage. The guy calls a couple of days after I pay for it and tells me there is an "issue" they have with the vendor and won't be able to do it that way. He magically found the part at another Camping World location somewhere else in the country and since it's so far away and this that and that other thing, I will still have to pay the shipping fee which I already prepaid. The man allegedly talked to his manager about this. All of this information was offered by him, I asked nothing, he called me actually and went into this spiel.
Well I happen to work for a company that has inter-company shipments. "Full Freight Allowed" is the name of that game, that Camping World location where I am getting this part from isn't paying ANYTHING for that shipping if it's anywhere near the same setup my company has. I was paying for UPS to ship it from a vendor. I said nothing to him, just please get the part here whenever you can, thank you. That's all I said, honestly. What I didn't say is that I will be taking up this shipping charge when the item arrives and I come in to pick it up. They are GOING to give me that shipping money back or they are going to give me a very good percentage off of something else I need or they are going to issue me an in-store credit - anyway about it, I am going to get something out of this, especially since they are the ones that screwed up with vendor of theirs.
I am well aware of what goes on with shipping and receiving problems, I have to deal with that stuff quite frequently at my company. Either I have to deal with it or I see everything that is going on with problems that I am not directly dealing with. Why they suddenly could not deal with that particular vendor, I have no idea. I could guess, though. The point is that they are dumping this all on me. In BenB's world, that simply doesn't happen. I will get something out of it, especially since the price of that motor was quite inflated to begin with.
Well, anyways, that's it for now. More going on, but, this entry will go on forever if I delve into everything. Tomorrow is going to be an unbelievably long day with work and getting that trailer moved and making sure that everything is good to go.
The only thing to do?
Go to bed early, yet again. And that's my version of early, we're talking 7:30, maybe 8:00.
G'nite.
ben
Tuesday 11/29/2011
Just got an email from dad. I mentioned I had some time off at Christmas and that I could come down for a visit on the days of the week before. He's hoping Caleb can come, too - which I can't guarantee but I'm gonna try.
Cyber Monday. I was going to get online and start going through the stores yesterday - I did go to a few sites, but I was so tired a very long, grinding day at work that I didn't have the energy for it. In fact, around 7 last night I fell asleep sitting here on the computer chair. I need a microwave for that trailer, no big rush on it and I'm sure more good deals will come before Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, almost time to set up Christmas lights. A bit busy this week, though, with all that's going on at work and tomorrow moving that trailer to the trailer park. Plus the projects going on around the house. Plus this that and the other thing. Caleb wants a computer desk for Christmas, a small one for his room plus a chair like I have for my computer - it's very comfortable, I scored it for $20, it's about a $150 chair. He isn't getting one as good as mine unless he would be okay with a used one.
Umm, but I just remembered I need a sat dish for both trailers, so I just put out a bunch of offers on Craigslist for them. They all want $40 and $50 for a regular dish, not an HD dish. Bunk. I offered half that and hope one of them bites. I don't need the second one right away, but I need the one for the trailer being moved to the park by - tomorrow actually. Lol.
Gag. I hope not to got off so late from work today, I really have plenty on my plate. Gotta get a lot done before they are gone tomorrow. Well, not a lot lot, but enough to consume an afternoon.
Anyway, almost time to leave for work.
G'day.
ben
Cyber Monday. I was going to get online and start going through the stores yesterday - I did go to a few sites, but I was so tired a very long, grinding day at work that I didn't have the energy for it. In fact, around 7 last night I fell asleep sitting here on the computer chair. I need a microwave for that trailer, no big rush on it and I'm sure more good deals will come before Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, almost time to set up Christmas lights. A bit busy this week, though, with all that's going on at work and tomorrow moving that trailer to the trailer park. Plus the projects going on around the house. Plus this that and the other thing. Caleb wants a computer desk for Christmas, a small one for his room plus a chair like I have for my computer - it's very comfortable, I scored it for $20, it's about a $150 chair. He isn't getting one as good as mine unless he would be okay with a used one.
Umm, but I just remembered I need a sat dish for both trailers, so I just put out a bunch of offers on Craigslist for them. They all want $40 and $50 for a regular dish, not an HD dish. Bunk. I offered half that and hope one of them bites. I don't need the second one right away, but I need the one for the trailer being moved to the park by - tomorrow actually. Lol.
Gag. I hope not to got off so late from work today, I really have plenty on my plate. Gotta get a lot done before they are gone tomorrow. Well, not a lot lot, but enough to consume an afternoon.
Anyway, almost time to leave for work.
G'day.
ben
Monday, November 28, 2011
Network
I was down in AZ City today. I had to wait for a while for the contractor to even think about stopping what they were doing and get to my truck to unload it - so - I pulled out the Verizon router/modem and the computer and fired it all up. I could not get 4G network in Arizona City, AZ, but no great surprise considering it's a hole in the earth out in the middle of nowhere. I was able to get 3G on the router and able to get on the internet. Slower than the 4G network, apparently and considerably slower speed, the internet was still function anyway.
I was happy to have any coverage and tried several of the things I normally do on line and it all worked, just took longer to download the pages and get on the sites. I'm sorta half expecting 3G coverage up on my mom's property. I would rather have 4G, of course, but I do wonder if that will be available up there and my gut feeling is: no. Not the end of the world, as long as I have coverage, it might be a wee bit irritating at times on longer loading times, but I will be happy to have any kind of coverage that works well enough to do what I want to do.
LONG day at work. Almost 11 hours. Management is moving our store today; They were trying to move the store, I should say. They rented a semi and - it broke down after the first load, lol. So, I get a call at - 1:00pm or so, get back there as fast as I can. Yup, but I am waiting for these people to unload the truck. I got back and - found a trailer loaded on the street. That was the beginning of hours of unending, unstopping work.
Which means I got absolutely nothing else done today that I was expecting to get done after work. Gag.
It also means I am worn out. I have no energy, ending this one and going to go to bed early tonight.
ben
I was happy to have any coverage and tried several of the things I normally do on line and it all worked, just took longer to download the pages and get on the sites. I'm sorta half expecting 3G coverage up on my mom's property. I would rather have 4G, of course, but I do wonder if that will be available up there and my gut feeling is: no. Not the end of the world, as long as I have coverage, it might be a wee bit irritating at times on longer loading times, but I will be happy to have any kind of coverage that works well enough to do what I want to do.
LONG day at work. Almost 11 hours. Management is moving our store today; They were trying to move the store, I should say. They rented a semi and - it broke down after the first load, lol. So, I get a call at - 1:00pm or so, get back there as fast as I can. Yup, but I am waiting for these people to unload the truck. I got back and - found a trailer loaded on the street. That was the beginning of hours of unending, unstopping work.
Which means I got absolutely nothing else done today that I was expecting to get done after work. Gag.
It also means I am worn out. I have no energy, ending this one and going to go to bed early tonight.
ben
Monday 11/28/2011
Today starts the day that management is going to move our branch from the old/current location to the new one. It will be nice to get into a nice building with new fixtures and everything fresh. The building we're in now has old, stained and smelly carpet. It has all kinds of problems and the walls aren't even tight. I have to work out of the main branch downtown is the only drawback, at least for me. No biggies, it will be worth the trouble in the end.
Mentally preparing myself for the departure of the trailer tenants on Wednesday. The idea of my home security protection plan - them - being gone is a bit unsettling, especially in this neighborhood. It will be good if one of the rooms in my house opens up - like soon as far as I'm concerned, but I am not dropping any hints with any of the current tenants. I have the feeling that one particular person is going to be leaving soon enough, anyway. No guarantees on that, you just start to get a feel for it over time, non-verbal clues that simply add up over time and you wonder, hmmm, is that person thinking about leaving?
Nothing else new. The Michigan neighbor has brought even more junk and piled it up on his property. What is WITH these people and all that junk? Is it going to magically come to life and help them in some way? It just sits there collecting dust; scorpions and black widows, junkifying the neighborhood. I have decided that, since they started all of this trouble with me, I am going to make it especially difficult for them to continue living in trashy conditions in this neighborhood. But, someone else is beating me to it and turned a bunch of junk on his property is a code violation. Again, lol. It was done anonymously so I assume he figures I did it since I did not do it anonymously on the other properties. I haven't had to turn anything in on his, someone is continually calling the City and reporting his violations. If he keeps it up, he is going to be getting a ticket as well.
Well enough of that. I don't see these people at this point that much. I have the trailers on the side of my property that blots the view out of the 2 to the west of me. I only have a fence that tries to blot out the view of the junk in the yards behind me, but it doesn't quite do it that well.
Whatever the case, I must be off to work.
G'day.
ben
Mentally preparing myself for the departure of the trailer tenants on Wednesday. The idea of my home security protection plan - them - being gone is a bit unsettling, especially in this neighborhood. It will be good if one of the rooms in my house opens up - like soon as far as I'm concerned, but I am not dropping any hints with any of the current tenants. I have the feeling that one particular person is going to be leaving soon enough, anyway. No guarantees on that, you just start to get a feel for it over time, non-verbal clues that simply add up over time and you wonder, hmmm, is that person thinking about leaving?
Nothing else new. The Michigan neighbor has brought even more junk and piled it up on his property. What is WITH these people and all that junk? Is it going to magically come to life and help them in some way? It just sits there collecting dust; scorpions and black widows, junkifying the neighborhood. I have decided that, since they started all of this trouble with me, I am going to make it especially difficult for them to continue living in trashy conditions in this neighborhood. But, someone else is beating me to it and turned a bunch of junk on his property is a code violation. Again, lol. It was done anonymously so I assume he figures I did it since I did not do it anonymously on the other properties. I haven't had to turn anything in on his, someone is continually calling the City and reporting his violations. If he keeps it up, he is going to be getting a ticket as well.
Well enough of that. I don't see these people at this point that much. I have the trailers on the side of my property that blots the view out of the 2 to the west of me. I only have a fence that tries to blot out the view of the junk in the yards behind me, but it doesn't quite do it that well.
Whatever the case, I must be off to work.
G'day.
ben
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Sunday 11/27/2011 Let's Go Shooting
I have never been to an indoor shooting range.
Having said that, there was a bit of trepidation about going in there -you could hear
the muffled sounds of guns going off from outside the building when someone opened the
front door.
Well, they asked what kind of guns we had: S&W 40 cal; a .22 rifle; a Beretta and a 12
gauge shotgun. They gave me a bit of a look when I mentioned the 12 gauge shotgun.
The guy had to go ask the Range Officer, they call him, if that was allowable. Yes - but
only certain kind of shells allowable, namely buckshot. I had 4 boxes of shells, one of them
was buckshot so that was good enough. I had no intention of firing off too many rounds out
of it, just wanted to get a feel for what a 12 gauge shotgun is like firing it off.
Got in there and Caleb started first, firing off the .22 rifle. It's an old, antique looking thing but
in excellent condition. It made a plip sound coming out of the barrel, not very loud, almost like a
glorified pellet rifle going off.
With some apprehension, I got the .40 cal ready to fire after Caleb did a couple of 5 round clips
on the .22. I had only shot the .40 off once, very loud and very powerful handgun. I shot off a
clip full and got past the jittery stage on it. I fired about 50 rounds through it altogether and just
before we were about to leave, I talked Caleb into firing it.
We tried to shoot the Beretta, but it didn't work correctly. Well, I put that gun down, that can wait.
I pulled out the 12 gauge - mean looking thing - loaded it with 5 shells, did the infamous "click-click"
sound it makes when you are pulling the handle back to load a shell into the chamber, put the stock
up to my shoulder .........and stood there for a second. This is a very powerful weapon and I had some
trepidation about pulling the trigger.
I finally just did it. Aimed it in the "general" direction of the paper target and pulled the trigger. KABLAAAAAAAAAAM!!!!! I had always wanted to do the "general direction" thing with a 12 gauge and see what comes of it.
Caleb was standing at the back wall and started cracking up. I was shocked. I had ear plugs in and ear muffs over that and it was still VERY loud. I had no idea that the firing of that gun had also shocked everyone else in the other booths and that the sound of it going off was much louder than anything they are normally accustomed to hearing inside the store itself. Hey, they gave me permission, I had never fired it and I wanted to give her a go. I fired the rest of the shells in it and loaded another 5 into it.
Fired those off and then the Range Officer stopped by and helped us with the Beretta. He said the clip in it wasn't working correctly. He pulled that one out and put the other one in and it fired off just fine.
I then shot off the other 5 of those shotgun shells, reloaded the magazines for the .40 cal again and shot all that off and yes, there is a lot of smoke going out in that place!
We decided we had had enough of it. I hadn't shot off guns like that in - literally - decades. We used to go out target practicing in the desert when I was much younger. But I never owned a gun and never had the time or the desire to own one in the years following - not to mention the money to buy them - and only in the last year or two had I considered buying a couple of firearms.
We got into mom's pickup and that's when Caleb told me that the guy in the booth to the right of us had jumped back when that 12 gauge went off the first time. You can't see what others are doing in the booths next to you unless you step out of the one you are in. I dunno, was I supposed to warn everyone that a very loud shotgun was about to be fired? The Range Officer didn't care, he's the boss in there, so that was all that mattered to me. I gathered when we went out of the shooting range and back into the store that people don't normally bring 12 gauge shotguns to that range to shoot off. I was also warned when I went in there to "make sure you hit the target". Yes, I hit the target on the first shot and blew a huge hole right in the middle of it. I hit the target every time, in fact, and tore that sheet up! We brought the 2 sheets that we were firing at home as memento's of basically the first time I have fired a gun off in about - 28 years or so besides the one round I let off at mom's property not too long ago. I didn't do too bad with the .40 cal after I got the hang of it. I was either hitting center mass or just below and to the right of it, but I was hitting the target.
Well, Caleb was still laughing at the reaction to that guy, which must have been a Kodak moment that I completely missed and honestly never thought about the reactions of anyone else in there when I pulled the trigger on that thing. I was more interested in making sure the thing wasn't going to harm me in some way with some terrible kick-back. It did not have that much of one, I mean yes it was there, but nothing like I had imagined before firing it. I figured at the time it wasn't making that much more noise than some of the very high powered guns that were being shot off in there, but Caleb thought much differently, having a different perspective in standing back at the wall and listening to all of them going off. He decided that the 12-gauge as much louder than any weapon that had been fired in there the entire time we were in there.
I'll take his word for it. I tried to talk him into shooting it at least once, but he decided it was too much power for him and he didn't want anything to do with it. Yes, well the kick back on that shotgun wasn't near as bad as the kick back on the .40 cal gun which he did shoot.
Anyway, while we were driving from mom's house to the shooting range, I was sitting in the back seat of her pickup with my new Verizon router on and seeing how well the internet worked while driving around - way out west. Not a hiccup. I was able to do whatever I normally do on any computer, on the internet. We got back to mom's house and I fired it up again. Worked perfectly. I'm getting much more comfortable now with the decision to sign a contract on that service than I was at the beginning in not knowing anything about how well it was going to work. I am curious if they make car cigarette power hookups for both the computer and the router - I would have to believe they do since they are both running on batteries. In looking at Verizon's coverage map, most areas I normally go to - and sometimes have to wait for extended periods - are covered. Even though the map shows my mom's property up north having coverage, I won't really know until I go up there. The nagging question is going to mess with me and probably cause me to want to take a trip up there just for the purpose of going onto her property, sitting where the trailer will be parked and seeing what happens.
Meanwhile, I am on the hunt for a Direct TV satellite dish and a receiver. Used, that is, and cheap, preferrably. Mother used to have Direct TV but then claimed it was too expensive and switched to Dish Network. Dish Network simply doesn't have what Direct TV has and it's an inferior service. So, I will have a dish and a receiver up there, only need have to take a card from one of the receivers at home when I am going up there, don't feel the need to pay yet another $6 per month for and additional receiver, which is what each additional card beyond the first one costs. Nice money making scam. They all do it. Oops - and need yet another dish for the trailer at the RV park. Guess I better get on Craigslist and get to dish hunting.
Hmm, the trailer is being moved on Wednesday afternoon. I need to get the doors and key situation nailed down here as well before then. This place is going to be locked up when I am not at home and I am going to write up a notice about it and give it to the tenants. Even if they ARE here I want the doors locked. They do not pay attention to anything going on in the main portions of the house, a thief could easily just walk in and help himself. It is hardly an inconvenience to lock doors, it's a bit more of a pain to have to use a key to open them, but that's pretty much normal, every-day life in the big city.
Well enough. I took a Sunday afternoon nap and now headed outside to do a bit more landscaping work.
Happy Sunday.
ben
Having said that, there was a bit of trepidation about going in there -you could hear
the muffled sounds of guns going off from outside the building when someone opened the
front door.
Well, they asked what kind of guns we had: S&W 40 cal; a .22 rifle; a Beretta and a 12
gauge shotgun. They gave me a bit of a look when I mentioned the 12 gauge shotgun.
The guy had to go ask the Range Officer, they call him, if that was allowable. Yes - but
only certain kind of shells allowable, namely buckshot. I had 4 boxes of shells, one of them
was buckshot so that was good enough. I had no intention of firing off too many rounds out
of it, just wanted to get a feel for what a 12 gauge shotgun is like firing it off.
Got in there and Caleb started first, firing off the .22 rifle. It's an old, antique looking thing but
in excellent condition. It made a plip sound coming out of the barrel, not very loud, almost like a
glorified pellet rifle going off.
With some apprehension, I got the .40 cal ready to fire after Caleb did a couple of 5 round clips
on the .22. I had only shot the .40 off once, very loud and very powerful handgun. I shot off a
clip full and got past the jittery stage on it. I fired about 50 rounds through it altogether and just
before we were about to leave, I talked Caleb into firing it.
We tried to shoot the Beretta, but it didn't work correctly. Well, I put that gun down, that can wait.
I pulled out the 12 gauge - mean looking thing - loaded it with 5 shells, did the infamous "click-click"
sound it makes when you are pulling the handle back to load a shell into the chamber, put the stock
up to my shoulder .........and stood there for a second. This is a very powerful weapon and I had some
trepidation about pulling the trigger.
I finally just did it. Aimed it in the "general" direction of the paper target and pulled the trigger. KABLAAAAAAAAAAM!!!!! I had always wanted to do the "general direction" thing with a 12 gauge and see what comes of it.
Caleb was standing at the back wall and started cracking up. I was shocked. I had ear plugs in and ear muffs over that and it was still VERY loud. I had no idea that the firing of that gun had also shocked everyone else in the other booths and that the sound of it going off was much louder than anything they are normally accustomed to hearing inside the store itself. Hey, they gave me permission, I had never fired it and I wanted to give her a go. I fired the rest of the shells in it and loaded another 5 into it.
Fired those off and then the Range Officer stopped by and helped us with the Beretta. He said the clip in it wasn't working correctly. He pulled that one out and put the other one in and it fired off just fine.
I then shot off the other 5 of those shotgun shells, reloaded the magazines for the .40 cal again and shot all that off and yes, there is a lot of smoke going out in that place!
We decided we had had enough of it. I hadn't shot off guns like that in - literally - decades. We used to go out target practicing in the desert when I was much younger. But I never owned a gun and never had the time or the desire to own one in the years following - not to mention the money to buy them - and only in the last year or two had I considered buying a couple of firearms.
We got into mom's pickup and that's when Caleb told me that the guy in the booth to the right of us had jumped back when that 12 gauge went off the first time. You can't see what others are doing in the booths next to you unless you step out of the one you are in. I dunno, was I supposed to warn everyone that a very loud shotgun was about to be fired? The Range Officer didn't care, he's the boss in there, so that was all that mattered to me. I gathered when we went out of the shooting range and back into the store that people don't normally bring 12 gauge shotguns to that range to shoot off. I was also warned when I went in there to "make sure you hit the target". Yes, I hit the target on the first shot and blew a huge hole right in the middle of it. I hit the target every time, in fact, and tore that sheet up! We brought the 2 sheets that we were firing at home as memento's of basically the first time I have fired a gun off in about - 28 years or so besides the one round I let off at mom's property not too long ago. I didn't do too bad with the .40 cal after I got the hang of it. I was either hitting center mass or just below and to the right of it, but I was hitting the target.
Well, Caleb was still laughing at the reaction to that guy, which must have been a Kodak moment that I completely missed and honestly never thought about the reactions of anyone else in there when I pulled the trigger on that thing. I was more interested in making sure the thing wasn't going to harm me in some way with some terrible kick-back. It did not have that much of one, I mean yes it was there, but nothing like I had imagined before firing it. I figured at the time it wasn't making that much more noise than some of the very high powered guns that were being shot off in there, but Caleb thought much differently, having a different perspective in standing back at the wall and listening to all of them going off. He decided that the 12-gauge as much louder than any weapon that had been fired in there the entire time we were in there.
I'll take his word for it. I tried to talk him into shooting it at least once, but he decided it was too much power for him and he didn't want anything to do with it. Yes, well the kick back on that shotgun wasn't near as bad as the kick back on the .40 cal gun which he did shoot.
Anyway, while we were driving from mom's house to the shooting range, I was sitting in the back seat of her pickup with my new Verizon router on and seeing how well the internet worked while driving around - way out west. Not a hiccup. I was able to do whatever I normally do on any computer, on the internet. We got back to mom's house and I fired it up again. Worked perfectly. I'm getting much more comfortable now with the decision to sign a contract on that service than I was at the beginning in not knowing anything about how well it was going to work. I am curious if they make car cigarette power hookups for both the computer and the router - I would have to believe they do since they are both running on batteries. In looking at Verizon's coverage map, most areas I normally go to - and sometimes have to wait for extended periods - are covered. Even though the map shows my mom's property up north having coverage, I won't really know until I go up there. The nagging question is going to mess with me and probably cause me to want to take a trip up there just for the purpose of going onto her property, sitting where the trailer will be parked and seeing what happens.
Meanwhile, I am on the hunt for a Direct TV satellite dish and a receiver. Used, that is, and cheap, preferrably. Mother used to have Direct TV but then claimed it was too expensive and switched to Dish Network. Dish Network simply doesn't have what Direct TV has and it's an inferior service. So, I will have a dish and a receiver up there, only need have to take a card from one of the receivers at home when I am going up there, don't feel the need to pay yet another $6 per month for and additional receiver, which is what each additional card beyond the first one costs. Nice money making scam. They all do it. Oops - and need yet another dish for the trailer at the RV park. Guess I better get on Craigslist and get to dish hunting.
Hmm, the trailer is being moved on Wednesday afternoon. I need to get the doors and key situation nailed down here as well before then. This place is going to be locked up when I am not at home and I am going to write up a notice about it and give it to the tenants. Even if they ARE here I want the doors locked. They do not pay attention to anything going on in the main portions of the house, a thief could easily just walk in and help himself. It is hardly an inconvenience to lock doors, it's a bit more of a pain to have to use a key to open them, but that's pretty much normal, every-day life in the big city.
Well enough. I took a Sunday afternoon nap and now headed outside to do a bit more landscaping work.
Happy Sunday.
ben
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Confession
Not a grand confession, but one that I must air out.
I have done so about this issue a few times here, gonna go there again.
I sometimes get extremely irritated, annoyed and aggravated with people in my home.
This has nothing to do with whatever they are doing, either. That is another issue
entirely.
No, there are times when I just want to be alone. I don't want people walking through
here, even if they aren't saying a word to me at all. I don't actually tell them my
annoyance, I just am, internally, fuming greatly.
Yes, this is my choice to have all these people in here - it's that or leave the house
and have to find a new place to live. Yet another mind battle that has consumed me
for some time now.
But there are times when I am, at least internally, extremey agitated with the amount of
traffic going through here. If I'm in the house, I want to be on my computer, which is
located in the kitchen. It is hard-wired to the modem and I am not going to change that.
The situation will change a bit now. I am typing this off of my new laptop and this keyboard
is much easier to use than other laptops I have used in the past. I am getting used to it and
could do this indefinitely off of here versus having to do it off of the "main" computer.
Meaning, when this irritation hits me, I can just head to my bedroom. If I want on a
computer, the laptop is connected to my wifi. I think a major source of internal agitation
in my life may very well be abated. I like the internet - many people do - it has become
the norm for a large percentage of the population. Not that I don't get up and go do something
else, I am not going to become beholden to these things, but it's the way things get done in
these days and anyone that doesn't want to accept that - well - good luck. I grew up without
computers and didn't get a real taste of them until in my late 20's. You?
No, nothing will take the place of the great outdoors in my life, even if it's only here, at
my house, working on my landscaping. I am hopeful next year will bring a new chapter in
making trips up north to mom's property. But then again, I will not be spending ALL of
my time hiking in the mountains, I will still want to get on the internet.
To that cause, I will be making a trip up there soon. I will get up to my mom's property and
I will have this computer and the router and I will see what, if any, kind of access I have to
the internet up there. There have been many things that have confronted me with this idea of
going up there on weekends and getting away from the Phoenix area, which, admittedly, I
do not like. I quite dislike living here. "Why would you live in an area you don't like?".
Great question, but it would take a small book to write about, at least for me, so I am not
going there right now.
But let me tell you something: the idea of going up to the mountains, taking all the dogs with me and
traipsing about in the woods is extremely appealing to me. The dogs will love it and so will I.
There is a connection with God, amongst other benefits up there, in the wilderness, away from
people that is not to be found "down here".
Umm, well anyway. It's time to go to bed. The shooting range tomorrow morning should be
fun.
G'nite.
ben
I have done so about this issue a few times here, gonna go there again.
I sometimes get extremely irritated, annoyed and aggravated with people in my home.
This has nothing to do with whatever they are doing, either. That is another issue
entirely.
No, there are times when I just want to be alone. I don't want people walking through
here, even if they aren't saying a word to me at all. I don't actually tell them my
annoyance, I just am, internally, fuming greatly.
Yes, this is my choice to have all these people in here - it's that or leave the house
and have to find a new place to live. Yet another mind battle that has consumed me
for some time now.
But there are times when I am, at least internally, extremey agitated with the amount of
traffic going through here. If I'm in the house, I want to be on my computer, which is
located in the kitchen. It is hard-wired to the modem and I am not going to change that.
The situation will change a bit now. I am typing this off of my new laptop and this keyboard
is much easier to use than other laptops I have used in the past. I am getting used to it and
could do this indefinitely off of here versus having to do it off of the "main" computer.
Meaning, when this irritation hits me, I can just head to my bedroom. If I want on a
computer, the laptop is connected to my wifi. I think a major source of internal agitation
in my life may very well be abated. I like the internet - many people do - it has become
the norm for a large percentage of the population. Not that I don't get up and go do something
else, I am not going to become beholden to these things, but it's the way things get done in
these days and anyone that doesn't want to accept that - well - good luck. I grew up without
computers and didn't get a real taste of them until in my late 20's. You?
No, nothing will take the place of the great outdoors in my life, even if it's only here, at
my house, working on my landscaping. I am hopeful next year will bring a new chapter in
making trips up north to mom's property. But then again, I will not be spending ALL of
my time hiking in the mountains, I will still want to get on the internet.
To that cause, I will be making a trip up there soon. I will get up to my mom's property and
I will have this computer and the router and I will see what, if any, kind of access I have to
the internet up there. There have been many things that have confronted me with this idea of
going up there on weekends and getting away from the Phoenix area, which, admittedly, I
do not like. I quite dislike living here. "Why would you live in an area you don't like?".
Great question, but it would take a small book to write about, at least for me, so I am not
going there right now.
But let me tell you something: the idea of going up to the mountains, taking all the dogs with me and
traipsing about in the woods is extremely appealing to me. The dogs will love it and so will I.
There is a connection with God, amongst other benefits up there, in the wilderness, away from
people that is not to be found "down here".
Umm, well anyway. It's time to go to bed. The shooting range tomorrow morning should be
fun.
G'nite.
ben
Saturday 11/26/2011
Now it's going to eat at me until I drive up there and find out whether it works or not.
I'm referring to Verizon Wirless, the mobile broadband service I just signed up for with them and
whether that mobile broadband is going to work at my mother's property. I looked again at another
coverage map and it has the entire area covered in red, meaning it does, allegedly, have coverage
up there.
Well I ain't going up there this weekend. I am going back to mom's again tomorrow - her Sun City
property, not her mountain property. A trip up there will have to wait. If it works around town -
which it better - that will at least be something. Instead, I am heading to Tempe Firearms and getting a case for my 12 gauge shotgun, something I should have a while back.
__________________________________
Another long interlude. Lynnette came in and I told her it's time to go and get this taken care of. That being getting the space locked down for the trailer. I don't want to do it, she doesn't want to leave, I can't help that right now. Again, I think it would be extremely lame and pathetic to give someone else a 30 day notice to move out for this reason. I can think of many OTHER reasons I would give such a notice, but not for this and I couldn't, in good conscience, do that.
Besides, the lot rent over there is not that much more than what they are paying to live here. I was charging them enough cover utilities, but they decided they would pay more, apparently to make me happy, though I never complained. I actually didn't want to take the money from them, but they insisted and for a while now, they have been paying more than what the electricity and water usage costs to have them here. The problem is that the lot rent does not include electricity over there. It probably won't be the much, but every penny counts when you are in the position that they are.
The place? Illegal alien town. The man that owns and runs the place is an older, very nice gentleman, we talked for about 45 minutes. There were no back ground checks -how could there be with all the illegals living there - and the only thing he required was the lot rent and a deposit for electricity. Very, very old trailers in there. I mean, we're talking 40 years old. Small. Mostly dirt lots. Some had them nicely landscaped, though. Obviously the man doesn't require landscaping, but some took enough pride to really have a nice looking place - most did not. My 5th wheel will be one of the newest units in there, considering it's a 1987 model, that isn't really saying much. Lynnette doesn't want to leave, Mark is all gung-ho, let's get this over with and get moved.
I'm with Mark. I can't afford nor do I want a lawsuit from the City of Phoenix or even worse, some sort of criminal charges. They can levy a huge fine and create a low level misdemeanor for not dealing with this issue by the date they say I have to "fix" the problem. I'm not willing to push the limits here, the potential outcomes are not appealing in any way, shape or form. They understand this, at the least. So, I paid the lot rent and the deposit and got that over with. She will repay me by the week, as is the case currently. She started crying this morning, telling me: "I have something to tell you". I won't go into the details, just to say it was extreme thankfulness for helping them out. Yes, well, they are good people in a bad situation. They have problems, but don't we all. The Bible tells us to do good whenever we can.
This is my operations manual for life: the Bible. I am not saying I am adept at following it to the nth degree, but I am trying my best. They have a place to live and that trailer is actually pretty nice inside. It needs new wallpaper, also, but other than that, it's not in bad condition and almost everything works in it. It has no leaks in the roof, either, it hasn't since I bought it. Unlike the one I am going to put up on mom's property, gag. I don't much care being told something about a thing I am buying and come to find out it isn't quite what the person claims it is. But, the fixes aren't all that bad, I am waiting for the new parts for the AC to arrive - another thing that allegedly worked - and then I will get up there and go to town on that roof. What's more important, at least to me, is that they LIKE living in that thing. They can get away from each other as well. She goes up in the loft and reads a book in bed and he stays at the rear of the thing and watches TV when they need separation time. We ALL need that from time to time, I don't care how much you are in love with a mate, if you are living with one!
So that's done. I took them to my newly found and favorite Chinese buffet restaurant and we all 3 got take out. I went to the gun store next door - they don't sell cases for guns. Bunk. I stopped at another gun store on the way home, they sell the case I needed and it was pretty cheap price but looked good at $17. Bought some .22 ammo for that old rifle my brother bought for Caleb a long time ago. I will be taking an old .22 rifle; a 12-gauge shotgun and a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber SW40VE Sigma to the range tomorrow morning. Mom will be taking her Beretta and some other gun, a 9mm I believe. I have 150 target rounds for the .40 cal, so I will be doing some shooting with that thing to get a feel for it. The first and only time I shot it - without hearing protection - was literally a shocking experience with the noise level SO high, that won't be happening again. Well, if it does, that means I am firing it off for self-protection in my home, a thing I hope never has to happen.
Changing the subject, I am running my new laptop off of my Verizon mobile broadband right now. Not on this application, I am using my desktop writing this, I have it running on the kitchen table next to me, though I set the router up high so it could get a better reception. It is running Cafe World - an online game that uses a LOT of bandwidth, I believe, it certainly taps it out, but it is running the game. I just wanted to see if it would run the game is all. It does, though it takes a while for it to load it. Once it's going, though, it's running as well as my home computer. The game's use of computer resources sucks the battery dry pretty quickly, though. Both on the laptop and the router. No biggies, my intended use will be near electrical outlets where both can be plugged in.
Not wanting to get into another Michael/Anthony situation, I had to lay down the law today. There is a neighborhood kid - 14 years old - that comes over here frequently to walk 1 or more of my dogs for a few bucks. I don't mind give a couple of dollars if a kid doesn't mind doing it that cheap. What can I say, I just don't want to fork out "real" money to have the dogs walked. Anyway, him and one of his younger brothers are sitting there, outside on the pond side of my house, playing with each other and I go out there to make sure they aren't destroying anything. At least they are respectful kids if nothing else. They're sitting there, looking at me asking if they can move in! ROFL!! No, was the immediate reply, you cannot, you have a home, you have a room, be happy with what you got. I understand - they are living in an impoverished house-hold. They have next-to-nothing. But, they have a roof over their heads and they have parents that love them and feed them. If you have nothing else as a kid, you have plenty with just that.
I should know, I grew up in just such conditions. My parents were very poor when I was a kid in Pittsburgh and we lived in what would be considered to be the ghetto. My parents struggled to get food on the table and they struggled to pay bills - just regular electric and water. Cable/satellite didn't even exist then. Funny what we consider "necessities" now that weren't even invented back in the day, such as cell phones. I never thought for one second, however, that I should want to move in with the "richer" people on the block. On my street, I am considered rich by the kids. 20 miles north of me, I would be considered a street bum when comparing finances (Paradise Valley; Scottsdale areas).
So, I don't really get when kids start talking like that. I do get that I will never allow that to happen again, I went through enough hell with that other family, I need not force myself through that again. Instead, I send food home with the kid here and there. He gets money for walking the dogs- not much but I believe he hands that over to his parents. I have more sympathy for a person - whether a kid or an adult - if they are not doing drugs, not stealing and not giving into the rather evil ways of this world. Or attempting to make excuses to engage in such simply because they are poor. There are a lot of poor people in this world that still have morals and values, as good as anyone's regardless of economic status.
In the eyes of God, we are all equals, which is nice to know. God is "no respector of persons", the Bible says. We are all just men and women and children, He loves us all equally. The next question then, was: "Well can we hang out over here whenever we want?", pleading eyes and all. Again, I am not getting involved in another family's problems such as I did with that last group of people. I can help them, yes, but I don't have to go beyond that. Okay, there is a qualifier here: the father is a drunk. He loves his kids, but when he's drunk, he's violent. I don't know if he beats on those kids or what. They are always talking about their drunk father and his mal intentions.
Whatever. Life never stops, I'll say that much. You get past one thing and something else pops up. I don't think that ever goes away, to be honest. I think this is what life IS about, going through all this stuff and becoming the person you are - more importantly, the choices you make and how they will be judged at the end. No clue. Deal with this situation as it evolves. I have yet to actually meet the parents - though they don't speak English. I see them and wave here and there, they live all of 3 houses down from me. A single-wide, old mobile-home with a lot of people living in it.
Here's what's really getting to me right now: Mark and Lynnette leaving. Not that I will miss them greatly, I can stop by on the way home whenever and visit with them. No, that they won't be here when I'm at work to basically protect my property. This is what most people would consider a bad neighborhood in terms of thieves. Lots and lots of thieves. Young and old alike. So, I am going to have to go get duplicates made for the back door lock and get those in the hands of the tenants and insist that they lock the door behind them every time they leave unless I am home. Well, it's certainly not abnormal to lock your doors when you leave, yes?
Life is going to change a bit around here, I do believe.
G'day.
ben
I'm referring to Verizon Wirless, the mobile broadband service I just signed up for with them and
whether that mobile broadband is going to work at my mother's property. I looked again at another
coverage map and it has the entire area covered in red, meaning it does, allegedly, have coverage
up there.
Well I ain't going up there this weekend. I am going back to mom's again tomorrow - her Sun City
property, not her mountain property. A trip up there will have to wait. If it works around town -
which it better - that will at least be something. Instead, I am heading to Tempe Firearms and getting a case for my 12 gauge shotgun, something I should have a while back.
__________________________________
Another long interlude. Lynnette came in and I told her it's time to go and get this taken care of. That being getting the space locked down for the trailer. I don't want to do it, she doesn't want to leave, I can't help that right now. Again, I think it would be extremely lame and pathetic to give someone else a 30 day notice to move out for this reason. I can think of many OTHER reasons I would give such a notice, but not for this and I couldn't, in good conscience, do that.
Besides, the lot rent over there is not that much more than what they are paying to live here. I was charging them enough cover utilities, but they decided they would pay more, apparently to make me happy, though I never complained. I actually didn't want to take the money from them, but they insisted and for a while now, they have been paying more than what the electricity and water usage costs to have them here. The problem is that the lot rent does not include electricity over there. It probably won't be the much, but every penny counts when you are in the position that they are.
The place? Illegal alien town. The man that owns and runs the place is an older, very nice gentleman, we talked for about 45 minutes. There were no back ground checks -how could there be with all the illegals living there - and the only thing he required was the lot rent and a deposit for electricity. Very, very old trailers in there. I mean, we're talking 40 years old. Small. Mostly dirt lots. Some had them nicely landscaped, though. Obviously the man doesn't require landscaping, but some took enough pride to really have a nice looking place - most did not. My 5th wheel will be one of the newest units in there, considering it's a 1987 model, that isn't really saying much. Lynnette doesn't want to leave, Mark is all gung-ho, let's get this over with and get moved.
I'm with Mark. I can't afford nor do I want a lawsuit from the City of Phoenix or even worse, some sort of criminal charges. They can levy a huge fine and create a low level misdemeanor for not dealing with this issue by the date they say I have to "fix" the problem. I'm not willing to push the limits here, the potential outcomes are not appealing in any way, shape or form. They understand this, at the least. So, I paid the lot rent and the deposit and got that over with. She will repay me by the week, as is the case currently. She started crying this morning, telling me: "I have something to tell you". I won't go into the details, just to say it was extreme thankfulness for helping them out. Yes, well, they are good people in a bad situation. They have problems, but don't we all. The Bible tells us to do good whenever we can.
This is my operations manual for life: the Bible. I am not saying I am adept at following it to the nth degree, but I am trying my best. They have a place to live and that trailer is actually pretty nice inside. It needs new wallpaper, also, but other than that, it's not in bad condition and almost everything works in it. It has no leaks in the roof, either, it hasn't since I bought it. Unlike the one I am going to put up on mom's property, gag. I don't much care being told something about a thing I am buying and come to find out it isn't quite what the person claims it is. But, the fixes aren't all that bad, I am waiting for the new parts for the AC to arrive - another thing that allegedly worked - and then I will get up there and go to town on that roof. What's more important, at least to me, is that they LIKE living in that thing. They can get away from each other as well. She goes up in the loft and reads a book in bed and he stays at the rear of the thing and watches TV when they need separation time. We ALL need that from time to time, I don't care how much you are in love with a mate, if you are living with one!
So that's done. I took them to my newly found and favorite Chinese buffet restaurant and we all 3 got take out. I went to the gun store next door - they don't sell cases for guns. Bunk. I stopped at another gun store on the way home, they sell the case I needed and it was pretty cheap price but looked good at $17. Bought some .22 ammo for that old rifle my brother bought for Caleb a long time ago. I will be taking an old .22 rifle; a 12-gauge shotgun and a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber SW40VE Sigma to the range tomorrow morning. Mom will be taking her Beretta and some other gun, a 9mm I believe. I have 150 target rounds for the .40 cal, so I will be doing some shooting with that thing to get a feel for it. The first and only time I shot it - without hearing protection - was literally a shocking experience with the noise level SO high, that won't be happening again. Well, if it does, that means I am firing it off for self-protection in my home, a thing I hope never has to happen.
Changing the subject, I am running my new laptop off of my Verizon mobile broadband right now. Not on this application, I am using my desktop writing this, I have it running on the kitchen table next to me, though I set the router up high so it could get a better reception. It is running Cafe World - an online game that uses a LOT of bandwidth, I believe, it certainly taps it out, but it is running the game. I just wanted to see if it would run the game is all. It does, though it takes a while for it to load it. Once it's going, though, it's running as well as my home computer. The game's use of computer resources sucks the battery dry pretty quickly, though. Both on the laptop and the router. No biggies, my intended use will be near electrical outlets where both can be plugged in.
Not wanting to get into another Michael/Anthony situation, I had to lay down the law today. There is a neighborhood kid - 14 years old - that comes over here frequently to walk 1 or more of my dogs for a few bucks. I don't mind give a couple of dollars if a kid doesn't mind doing it that cheap. What can I say, I just don't want to fork out "real" money to have the dogs walked. Anyway, him and one of his younger brothers are sitting there, outside on the pond side of my house, playing with each other and I go out there to make sure they aren't destroying anything. At least they are respectful kids if nothing else. They're sitting there, looking at me asking if they can move in! ROFL!! No, was the immediate reply, you cannot, you have a home, you have a room, be happy with what you got. I understand - they are living in an impoverished house-hold. They have next-to-nothing. But, they have a roof over their heads and they have parents that love them and feed them. If you have nothing else as a kid, you have plenty with just that.
I should know, I grew up in just such conditions. My parents were very poor when I was a kid in Pittsburgh and we lived in what would be considered to be the ghetto. My parents struggled to get food on the table and they struggled to pay bills - just regular electric and water. Cable/satellite didn't even exist then. Funny what we consider "necessities" now that weren't even invented back in the day, such as cell phones. I never thought for one second, however, that I should want to move in with the "richer" people on the block. On my street, I am considered rich by the kids. 20 miles north of me, I would be considered a street bum when comparing finances (Paradise Valley; Scottsdale areas).
So, I don't really get when kids start talking like that. I do get that I will never allow that to happen again, I went through enough hell with that other family, I need not force myself through that again. Instead, I send food home with the kid here and there. He gets money for walking the dogs- not much but I believe he hands that over to his parents. I have more sympathy for a person - whether a kid or an adult - if they are not doing drugs, not stealing and not giving into the rather evil ways of this world. Or attempting to make excuses to engage in such simply because they are poor. There are a lot of poor people in this world that still have morals and values, as good as anyone's regardless of economic status.
In the eyes of God, we are all equals, which is nice to know. God is "no respector of persons", the Bible says. We are all just men and women and children, He loves us all equally. The next question then, was: "Well can we hang out over here whenever we want?", pleading eyes and all. Again, I am not getting involved in another family's problems such as I did with that last group of people. I can help them, yes, but I don't have to go beyond that. Okay, there is a qualifier here: the father is a drunk. He loves his kids, but when he's drunk, he's violent. I don't know if he beats on those kids or what. They are always talking about their drunk father and his mal intentions.
Whatever. Life never stops, I'll say that much. You get past one thing and something else pops up. I don't think that ever goes away, to be honest. I think this is what life IS about, going through all this stuff and becoming the person you are - more importantly, the choices you make and how they will be judged at the end. No clue. Deal with this situation as it evolves. I have yet to actually meet the parents - though they don't speak English. I see them and wave here and there, they live all of 3 houses down from me. A single-wide, old mobile-home with a lot of people living in it.
Here's what's really getting to me right now: Mark and Lynnette leaving. Not that I will miss them greatly, I can stop by on the way home whenever and visit with them. No, that they won't be here when I'm at work to basically protect my property. This is what most people would consider a bad neighborhood in terms of thieves. Lots and lots of thieves. Young and old alike. So, I am going to have to go get duplicates made for the back door lock and get those in the hands of the tenants and insist that they lock the door behind them every time they leave unless I am home. Well, it's certainly not abnormal to lock your doors when you leave, yes?
Life is going to change a bit around here, I do believe.
G'day.
ben
Friday, November 25, 2011
Black Friday 2
Umm, the trip to Walmart this morning for a case for my new laptop came up with nothing. They only had them big enough to carry up to 16 inches, mine is 17.3 inches. I did buy a large pack of 40S&W practice ammo, though, for Sunday's adventure to Shooter's World and doing some target practice. Like 100 rounds worth.
The place wasn't empty, but the good deals were basically gone. Which I expected, especially those 42 inch TV's that you probably won't find at that kind of price - ever again, but who knows. I didn't buy one last night, I have enough TV's and I have other things I need to do such as finishing the trailer and the $300 it's going to cost to have it moved up north. Though I can say the most expensive part of the trailer is paid for, albeit I don't have the parts yet: those needed to fix the AC unit on the roof. Well anyway, Walmart this morning was basically as full as it normally would be.
Fry's Electronics. I went back there for the carrying case. I can't not have one for a brand new laptop and I wasn't going to wait. They had a whole row of the things, found one at a price I liked and............happened to walk past the Verizon Wireless display. I was looking and wondering, hmmmm, should I go ahead and do this now? I hardly use the Cricket phone at all, that can go bye-bye and that monthly money go to mobile broadband. Of course, handy-dandy broadband man shows up immediately and asks if he could help me Well, yes you can. What is the cost? Same as advertised everywhere: 5 g's for $50 monthly. Is there a contract? Yes. Why? For the service. That doesn't really help me, I can pay for service on other companies without any contracts. If it's just the service, then there is no motivation to do anything. Oh, but you get this nice router.
$299 listed price. Of course, that price is h ighly inflated of this I have no doubts. But it is a remarkable little thing. It's slightly larger than a credit card and maybe half a dime thick if that. It picks up the signal and sends it to your laptop - and anyone else around you that you are willing to "give" it to - but it has a built in password, which is a good thing. No-one can just steal the signal. In other words, this little contraption can serve internet access to multiple devices.
How much if I go over 5 g's in one month? $10 per g. Same as everywhere, just wanted to be sure I wasn't going to get slapped with some higher fee. What about credit? Are you going to run a credit check? Yes, but it's a "soft" hit and won't affect your credit score. I'm thinking, my credit isn't all that great. Well what kind of deposit am I going to have to give if my credit isn't good enough? Anywhere from $50 to $300. Well, this isn't a phone and I am not about to slap down $300 for a deposit, but I came to the conclusion that I was willing to try and see what happens.
Well, my credit apparently has risen up even higher than I had remembered the last time I looked because it "passed" and I didn't have to put anything down. It's a done deal. When the Cricket service runs out, it will not be renewed - but I will call them and cancel it anyway to make sure they aren't going to try and hit me with surprise charges.
Done with that, I came home and was about to go take a nap. Caleb comes out and asks if I can drop the car insurance for him. I'm not surprised - work isn't giving him much hours. Plus having to put fuel in the car, I imagine if I went and checked that car right now, it would be on empty. I had half a mind yesterday to go fill it up for him knowing his predicament, but I got busy with other stuff and spaced it out. Short interlude, went up and filled the car up. Also decided to let it go on the rest of the insurance he owes for this month. He's thinking he will be able to buy a bicycle and get around like that. All well and fine, but I have news for him and anyone else that thinks that living in the sprawling expanse that is known as the Phoenix Metro area: good luck.
I'm going to have to re-think my stance on this issue with the car and who is going to make the insurance payments on it. I'm a parent who wants his kid around as much as possible. He's my only kid. I think it would be good for him to go look for a new job. He's been working for over a year now and he has good references, I'm thinking maybe another grocery chain might give him more hours if he can get his foot through the door. That's my thinking, not necessarily his. But if he's going off to college and attempting to work and doing his Muay Thai thing, he's going to need wheels to get around and bicycle wheels are all well and fine, but the distances are too far and the time consumed is also going to be too much. I don't think he's quite figured that out yet. He's trying to lose weight, definitely riding a bike is an excellent way to do that, perhaps he could consider riding a bicycle and mixing in the car with it to be able to get to places he needs to be on time.
It is also the first time I have driven the car in quite a while and it is purring like a kitten. It should be, I have dumped enough money into the thing. But, I think I will get him a bike for Christmas - he hasn't asked me for one but I am going to offer to get him one anyway - and then we'll sit down and discuss finances. It's hard to make a budget when your hours are being jacked around like his is. 30 something hours one week, 6 the next. I don't get that grocery chain doing that to their employees. It goes back and forth like that. He's got 6 hours this week, then off 9 days for this trip to Florida. I have my thoughts about that, but I'll keep that to myself at this point.
So another interlude. Decided to go out and play in the dirt, doing more of the landscaping project and getting more of that done. Huge construction project going on just down the street. A very large, vacant lot that has never been developed? Is now being developed. No idea what they are building there. It's facing a major street so no biggies - but I am not a fan of the constant beeping noise of heavy machinery when it is put into reverse. Or in the case of many trackhoes/excavators, the beeping goes off no matter what direction it is going in.
Whatever. Unexpected 4-day weekend about half over. Monday? Allegedly working out of the main branch - but the semi is at my branch and is partially loaded. Lol. Whatever the case, it will be an interesting week at work. Which is nice that - it's over 2 days away from now, lol.
G'nite.
ben
The place wasn't empty, but the good deals were basically gone. Which I expected, especially those 42 inch TV's that you probably won't find at that kind of price - ever again, but who knows. I didn't buy one last night, I have enough TV's and I have other things I need to do such as finishing the trailer and the $300 it's going to cost to have it moved up north. Though I can say the most expensive part of the trailer is paid for, albeit I don't have the parts yet: those needed to fix the AC unit on the roof. Well anyway, Walmart this morning was basically as full as it normally would be.
Fry's Electronics. I went back there for the carrying case. I can't not have one for a brand new laptop and I wasn't going to wait. They had a whole row of the things, found one at a price I liked and............happened to walk past the Verizon Wireless display. I was looking and wondering, hmmmm, should I go ahead and do this now? I hardly use the Cricket phone at all, that can go bye-bye and that monthly money go to mobile broadband. Of course, handy-dandy broadband man shows up immediately and asks if he could help me Well, yes you can. What is the cost? Same as advertised everywhere: 5 g's for $50 monthly. Is there a contract? Yes. Why? For the service. That doesn't really help me, I can pay for service on other companies without any contracts. If it's just the service, then there is no motivation to do anything. Oh, but you get this nice router.
$299 listed price. Of course, that price is h ighly inflated of this I have no doubts. But it is a remarkable little thing. It's slightly larger than a credit card and maybe half a dime thick if that. It picks up the signal and sends it to your laptop - and anyone else around you that you are willing to "give" it to - but it has a built in password, which is a good thing. No-one can just steal the signal. In other words, this little contraption can serve internet access to multiple devices.
How much if I go over 5 g's in one month? $10 per g. Same as everywhere, just wanted to be sure I wasn't going to get slapped with some higher fee. What about credit? Are you going to run a credit check? Yes, but it's a "soft" hit and won't affect your credit score. I'm thinking, my credit isn't all that great. Well what kind of deposit am I going to have to give if my credit isn't good enough? Anywhere from $50 to $300. Well, this isn't a phone and I am not about to slap down $300 for a deposit, but I came to the conclusion that I was willing to try and see what happens.
Well, my credit apparently has risen up even higher than I had remembered the last time I looked because it "passed" and I didn't have to put anything down. It's a done deal. When the Cricket service runs out, it will not be renewed - but I will call them and cancel it anyway to make sure they aren't going to try and hit me with surprise charges.
Done with that, I came home and was about to go take a nap. Caleb comes out and asks if I can drop the car insurance for him. I'm not surprised - work isn't giving him much hours. Plus having to put fuel in the car, I imagine if I went and checked that car right now, it would be on empty. I had half a mind yesterday to go fill it up for him knowing his predicament, but I got busy with other stuff and spaced it out. Short interlude, went up and filled the car up. Also decided to let it go on the rest of the insurance he owes for this month. He's thinking he will be able to buy a bicycle and get around like that. All well and fine, but I have news for him and anyone else that thinks that living in the sprawling expanse that is known as the Phoenix Metro area: good luck.
I'm going to have to re-think my stance on this issue with the car and who is going to make the insurance payments on it. I'm a parent who wants his kid around as much as possible. He's my only kid. I think it would be good for him to go look for a new job. He's been working for over a year now and he has good references, I'm thinking maybe another grocery chain might give him more hours if he can get his foot through the door. That's my thinking, not necessarily his. But if he's going off to college and attempting to work and doing his Muay Thai thing, he's going to need wheels to get around and bicycle wheels are all well and fine, but the distances are too far and the time consumed is also going to be too much. I don't think he's quite figured that out yet. He's trying to lose weight, definitely riding a bike is an excellent way to do that, perhaps he could consider riding a bicycle and mixing in the car with it to be able to get to places he needs to be on time.
It is also the first time I have driven the car in quite a while and it is purring like a kitten. It should be, I have dumped enough money into the thing. But, I think I will get him a bike for Christmas - he hasn't asked me for one but I am going to offer to get him one anyway - and then we'll sit down and discuss finances. It's hard to make a budget when your hours are being jacked around like his is. 30 something hours one week, 6 the next. I don't get that grocery chain doing that to their employees. It goes back and forth like that. He's got 6 hours this week, then off 9 days for this trip to Florida. I have my thoughts about that, but I'll keep that to myself at this point.
So another interlude. Decided to go out and play in the dirt, doing more of the landscaping project and getting more of that done. Huge construction project going on just down the street. A very large, vacant lot that has never been developed? Is now being developed. No idea what they are building there. It's facing a major street so no biggies - but I am not a fan of the constant beeping noise of heavy machinery when it is put into reverse. Or in the case of many trackhoes/excavators, the beeping goes off no matter what direction it is going in.
Whatever. Unexpected 4-day weekend about half over. Monday? Allegedly working out of the main branch - but the semi is at my branch and is partially loaded. Lol. Whatever the case, it will be an interesting week at work. Which is nice that - it's over 2 days away from now, lol.
G'nite.
ben
11/25/2011 Black Friday
So here it is, typing off of my new laptop computer.
Actually, I think it's a notebook.
Unbelievable last night and very thankful for the Plan, without it, this would not have worked.
That's because I opted to go to Fry's Electronics and to send Caleb to Walmart.
Well, the line at Fry's was at least 1,000 people long and stretched all the way around the huge building that it occupies. Caleb, on the other hand, got in line for the
TV I wanted at Walmart and told me he would go to the computers afterward.
Well he was number 6 in line for the TV's which virtually guaranteed he was getting one of those, then he saw the $19 HP printers sitting almost right next to the TV's, so he hopped in that line, grabbed one of those and then headed for the computer line.
He called and said the computer line was too long and he might not be able to get one. I asked him the price, he was in the line for the $200 plus computer, a computer I most definitely did NOT want. I saw that thing on th ads and it is a piece of junk. I told him he was in the wrong line and see if he could find the computers that were in the $300 range.
He calls back several minutes later and said he found the $388 computer and there was no line at all. I figured as much, people were there for the cheap junk as usual,not wanting to spend a bit more for a killer machine.
Well, I was in another line at Fry's by that point and was undecided. I could wait in the 300 plus people line for the laptops there and hope for the best or go with the one Caleb had. I asked Caleb to read off the things his computer had on it.
What he read off indicated to me that he had the wrong computer again. The computer he had was the one that was listed at almost $500 on the ad. Caleb insisted that he had asked several times to be sure that it was the right price. I couldn't believe it but wasn't there, yet I didn't need to be there. The one I had wanted was a 15'6" machine, the 17" version was more than I wanted to shell out.
I asked him to read off the specs again. No way. I told him to put the thing into his cart and I got out of the laptop line at Fry's. I don't know if Walmart screwed up or what, but I would gladly take a better machine at a lower price! I was elated but still - a bit suspicious actually. Well, I bought a "monster" cable from Fry's, hooks the computer up to a TV or other things, those things sold out in 10 minutes at the price they were selling them at and got out of there, headed over to Walmart since Caleb was in a long line to check out. I got there and my elation did not go away. It was the almost $500 machine, so I wondered what was going to happen at checkout?
We got up there and the lady rang it up at ............$388! Oh my gosh! Sold!! I got everything I wanted, well almost, there is another sale this morning and I think I am going to run up there, they had a gun case that I need for my 12 gauge on sale this morning and I doubt those are going to disappear too quickly. I might walk around the store and see if there are any remnants of anything else good. I got out of there much cheaper than I had expected and that was a huge plus as well. I knew that Black Friday was my biggest opportunity to try and score a good laptop, otherwise I was going to have to elect for something much lessor in terms of quality. Now if I could only get used to this keyboard...........I am running the thing off of battery power. It claims 4-1/2 hours of use on one charge.
I'm also going to have to get a carrying case for it, like today, I am not waiting to protect this baby from getting all scratched up and junk, I want to treat it like the machine that it is. If I get enough energy banged up, I will also go and see if Verizon is going to give me the mobile broadband - without a contract? I don't want cell service from them, just mobile broadband. In other words, I am not getting a free phone from them so why should I have to sign a 2 year contract? I'll find out, I guess.
I got my $98 flat screen TV for the trailer as well. Haven't even gotten it out of the box yet. I went to bed at 3am and getting this computer out of the box and getting it up and running was enough for me last night. This thing came equipped with a DVD burner!
Well, I am getting up and out of bed and off to the races again, though I expect fewer people there this morning - the great deals were last night - I really don't know. I am going target shooting with my mom and Caleb on Sunday morning so I need some more .40 cal ammo and that carrying case for the 40 cal Sigma.
I will be writing another entry later on, I am pretty sure of that. I wanted to tak my new computer with me and check out wifi spots - but I don't have my carrying case yet so I will put that on hold.
Happy - Black Friday!
ben
Actually, I think it's a notebook.
Unbelievable last night and very thankful for the Plan, without it, this would not have worked.
That's because I opted to go to Fry's Electronics and to send Caleb to Walmart.
Well, the line at Fry's was at least 1,000 people long and stretched all the way around the huge building that it occupies. Caleb, on the other hand, got in line for the
TV I wanted at Walmart and told me he would go to the computers afterward.
Well he was number 6 in line for the TV's which virtually guaranteed he was getting one of those, then he saw the $19 HP printers sitting almost right next to the TV's, so he hopped in that line, grabbed one of those and then headed for the computer line.
He called and said the computer line was too long and he might not be able to get one. I asked him the price, he was in the line for the $200 plus computer, a computer I most definitely did NOT want. I saw that thing on th ads and it is a piece of junk. I told him he was in the wrong line and see if he could find the computers that were in the $300 range.
He calls back several minutes later and said he found the $388 computer and there was no line at all. I figured as much, people were there for the cheap junk as usual,not wanting to spend a bit more for a killer machine.
Well, I was in another line at Fry's by that point and was undecided. I could wait in the 300 plus people line for the laptops there and hope for the best or go with the one Caleb had. I asked Caleb to read off the things his computer had on it.
What he read off indicated to me that he had the wrong computer again. The computer he had was the one that was listed at almost $500 on the ad. Caleb insisted that he had asked several times to be sure that it was the right price. I couldn't believe it but wasn't there, yet I didn't need to be there. The one I had wanted was a 15'6" machine, the 17" version was more than I wanted to shell out.
I asked him to read off the specs again. No way. I told him to put the thing into his cart and I got out of the laptop line at Fry's. I don't know if Walmart screwed up or what, but I would gladly take a better machine at a lower price! I was elated but still - a bit suspicious actually. Well, I bought a "monster" cable from Fry's, hooks the computer up to a TV or other things, those things sold out in 10 minutes at the price they were selling them at and got out of there, headed over to Walmart since Caleb was in a long line to check out. I got there and my elation did not go away. It was the almost $500 machine, so I wondered what was going to happen at checkout?
We got up there and the lady rang it up at ............$388! Oh my gosh! Sold!! I got everything I wanted, well almost, there is another sale this morning and I think I am going to run up there, they had a gun case that I need for my 12 gauge on sale this morning and I doubt those are going to disappear too quickly. I might walk around the store and see if there are any remnants of anything else good. I got out of there much cheaper than I had expected and that was a huge plus as well. I knew that Black Friday was my biggest opportunity to try and score a good laptop, otherwise I was going to have to elect for something much lessor in terms of quality. Now if I could only get used to this keyboard...........I am running the thing off of battery power. It claims 4-1/2 hours of use on one charge.
I'm also going to have to get a carrying case for it, like today, I am not waiting to protect this baby from getting all scratched up and junk, I want to treat it like the machine that it is. If I get enough energy banged up, I will also go and see if Verizon is going to give me the mobile broadband - without a contract? I don't want cell service from them, just mobile broadband. In other words, I am not getting a free phone from them so why should I have to sign a 2 year contract? I'll find out, I guess.
I got my $98 flat screen TV for the trailer as well. Haven't even gotten it out of the box yet. I went to bed at 3am and getting this computer out of the box and getting it up and running was enough for me last night. This thing came equipped with a DVD burner!
Well, I am getting up and out of bed and off to the races again, though I expect fewer people there this morning - the great deals were last night - I really don't know. I am going target shooting with my mom and Caleb on Sunday morning so I need some more .40 cal ammo and that carrying case for the 40 cal Sigma.
I will be writing another entry later on, I am pretty sure of that. I wanted to tak my new computer with me and check out wifi spots - but I don't have my carrying case yet so I will put that on hold.
Happy - Black Friday!
ben
Thursday, November 24, 2011
The Plan
The Plan:
I am going to Fry's electronics just before midnight, Caleb is going to WalMart whenever - he wants to go wait in line so he can get what I want him to get. No, I didn't even ask him to do this and certainly did not insist that he go wait for several hours in a line. Well I just called Walmart and they are starting the line for electronics stuff at 10:00pm, with everything going on sale at midnight.
I would like to get 2 items: laptop computer and a small flatscreen TV for the trailer. This is the time of year to get those things.
I am not going to wait in a line for 2 hours. I will show up at Fry's Electronics half hour to 15 minutes early. I will brave the wait for everyone that is in front of me - which I suspect will be a large crowd but who knows - to go in an hope that I find what I am looking for at the price that is advertised for the laptop I want. If not, Caleb is instructed to first try to get the 19 inch flatscreen and then head over to a particular computer I was looking at that is on sale. He will call me and let me know whatever he finds.
If neither produce anything, oh well. A loss - yes because those laptops aren't going to be that cheap again anytime soon. I mean, perhaps Cyber Monday will produce some good sales, but I would rather get one from a retailer that I can take the unit back to if there is a problem. In that department, I would rather deal with Walmart than Fry's Electronics.
So, we'll see. I am going to bed early, set my alarm for around 11:30 or so, get up and head to Fry's Electronics.
Hmmm, well if I get a wild hair I will show up earlier, but it's going to be quite cool out there tonight and there is the hint of rain in the air. If it would just pour rain, that would be wonderful. Arizonans are rain-shy and would rather stay home than tough the elements to get a deal. The other factor is the economy. People are broke - which isn't a good thing at all - but in this endeavor may be helpful in nabbing the things I want to get. This is also the first year that stores are doing this midnight open deal, so who knows? I don't WANT to get up at 11:30pm, that is the middle of the night for me! But I won't have to stay in there for too terribly long, they either have what I want or they don't.
Dinner at mom's very nice. She is a great cook. She also had all of this stuff for my plants - bark and mulch and stuff. She got it free and I took it home. Will add it to my landscaping project. I took Coco with me - she pretty much gets along with any dog but my mom's Golden Retriever is as dumb as my Great Danes. That dog bothered her until she snapped at him a couple of times and that was the end of that! She doesn't put up with jack from ANY other dog.
Well, it's kinda early, even for more, but the double turkey dinner has kicked in and I am tired. Which is a good thing, I can go to bed and get some shut eye before midnight, maybe 4-1/2 hours worth before I have to get up.
So yes, I am going to bed. I don't want to be all jacked up/sleep/tired/rotten tomorrow because of a "bad" night's sleep. There are things I want to get done tomorrow since I have it off and that precludes being tired all day long.
G'nite.
ben
I am going to Fry's electronics just before midnight, Caleb is going to WalMart whenever - he wants to go wait in line so he can get what I want him to get. No, I didn't even ask him to do this and certainly did not insist that he go wait for several hours in a line. Well I just called Walmart and they are starting the line for electronics stuff at 10:00pm, with everything going on sale at midnight.
I would like to get 2 items: laptop computer and a small flatscreen TV for the trailer. This is the time of year to get those things.
I am not going to wait in a line for 2 hours. I will show up at Fry's Electronics half hour to 15 minutes early. I will brave the wait for everyone that is in front of me - which I suspect will be a large crowd but who knows - to go in an hope that I find what I am looking for at the price that is advertised for the laptop I want. If not, Caleb is instructed to first try to get the 19 inch flatscreen and then head over to a particular computer I was looking at that is on sale. He will call me and let me know whatever he finds.
If neither produce anything, oh well. A loss - yes because those laptops aren't going to be that cheap again anytime soon. I mean, perhaps Cyber Monday will produce some good sales, but I would rather get one from a retailer that I can take the unit back to if there is a problem. In that department, I would rather deal with Walmart than Fry's Electronics.
So, we'll see. I am going to bed early, set my alarm for around 11:30 or so, get up and head to Fry's Electronics.
Hmmm, well if I get a wild hair I will show up earlier, but it's going to be quite cool out there tonight and there is the hint of rain in the air. If it would just pour rain, that would be wonderful. Arizonans are rain-shy and would rather stay home than tough the elements to get a deal. The other factor is the economy. People are broke - which isn't a good thing at all - but in this endeavor may be helpful in nabbing the things I want to get. This is also the first year that stores are doing this midnight open deal, so who knows? I don't WANT to get up at 11:30pm, that is the middle of the night for me! But I won't have to stay in there for too terribly long, they either have what I want or they don't.
Dinner at mom's very nice. She is a great cook. She also had all of this stuff for my plants - bark and mulch and stuff. She got it free and I took it home. Will add it to my landscaping project. I took Coco with me - she pretty much gets along with any dog but my mom's Golden Retriever is as dumb as my Great Danes. That dog bothered her until she snapped at him a couple of times and that was the end of that! She doesn't put up with jack from ANY other dog.
Well, it's kinda early, even for more, but the double turkey dinner has kicked in and I am tired. Which is a good thing, I can go to bed and get some shut eye before midnight, maybe 4-1/2 hours worth before I have to get up.
So yes, I am going to bed. I don't want to be all jacked up/sleep/tired/rotten tomorrow because of a "bad" night's sleep. There are things I want to get done tomorrow since I have it off and that precludes being tired all day long.
G'nite.
ben
11/24/2011 Happy Thanksgiving
So this is it. The day before Black Friday. But you know what? The laptops that are going to be available in the stores aren't really - all that great. You would have to upgrade them and by the time you spend that money, you might as well have bought the more expensive units that will give you more for less money when you add up all the costs.
However, Best Buy's 42 inch flat screen HD TV for $199 is a deal that you aren't going to find every day of the week or even every month of the year. The problem? People are CAMPING in front of those stores! That's pure insanity. Yes, it's a great deal, but worth sitting out there for days and days or being out there straight through Thanksgiving?
Not hardly.
Here's what I'd rather do, since getting one of those TV's is going to be next to impossible. Get a smaller - say 19 inch - flat screen for my 5th Wheel. I will need a TV up there and a flat screen, obviously, takes up much less room. Plenty of those are on Black Friday sale at great prices. I really want to score a laptop or similar computer is my main objective. The computer that is one of the things people are waiting for outside the store at Best Buy? Is available online at midnight. Lol. It DOES have 4 gigs of memory but the guru's are stating it is lacking other "essentials" that make it less desirable. Yes, for $299 you can't expect the world.
Whatever. I am going out to my mom's today, be there around noon. Thanksgiving dinner, of course. I will be the only one of my brothers that will be there. My oldest brother doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving with family anymore - he quit doing that several years ago. My middle brother has a weird schedule with being a paramedic and has to work today.
Oh, I have tomorrow off. I was told we were working Friday and that was my assumption all the way through yesterday at work. An email was sent out by the OPs manager about our particular branch being closed on Friday - but that email was only sent to managers, not everyone. I had no knowledge of our branch being closed down until I started commenting about what we are going to do on Friday. My manager is giving me a blank look. ??? He didn't bother to inform me that we are closed on Friday and if I hadn't said something, I would have gotten up and gone to the branch on Friday morning - for nothing. He had assumed that email had been sent out to everyone, which it had not. Well, that gives me the opportunity - if I really want to - to go to one of these sales that start at midnight tonight. I have not decided yet.
Well, I am going outside to enjoy some beautiful weather.
G'day and Happy Thanksgiving!
ben
However, Best Buy's 42 inch flat screen HD TV for $199 is a deal that you aren't going to find every day of the week or even every month of the year. The problem? People are CAMPING in front of those stores! That's pure insanity. Yes, it's a great deal, but worth sitting out there for days and days or being out there straight through Thanksgiving?
Not hardly.
Here's what I'd rather do, since getting one of those TV's is going to be next to impossible. Get a smaller - say 19 inch - flat screen for my 5th Wheel. I will need a TV up there and a flat screen, obviously, takes up much less room. Plenty of those are on Black Friday sale at great prices. I really want to score a laptop or similar computer is my main objective. The computer that is one of the things people are waiting for outside the store at Best Buy? Is available online at midnight. Lol. It DOES have 4 gigs of memory but the guru's are stating it is lacking other "essentials" that make it less desirable. Yes, for $299 you can't expect the world.
Whatever. I am going out to my mom's today, be there around noon. Thanksgiving dinner, of course. I will be the only one of my brothers that will be there. My oldest brother doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving with family anymore - he quit doing that several years ago. My middle brother has a weird schedule with being a paramedic and has to work today.
Oh, I have tomorrow off. I was told we were working Friday and that was my assumption all the way through yesterday at work. An email was sent out by the OPs manager about our particular branch being closed on Friday - but that email was only sent to managers, not everyone. I had no knowledge of our branch being closed down until I started commenting about what we are going to do on Friday. My manager is giving me a blank look. ??? He didn't bother to inform me that we are closed on Friday and if I hadn't said something, I would have gotten up and gone to the branch on Friday morning - for nothing. He had assumed that email had been sent out to everyone, which it had not. Well, that gives me the opportunity - if I really want to - to go to one of these sales that start at midnight tonight. I have not decided yet.
Well, I am going outside to enjoy some beautiful weather.
G'day and Happy Thanksgiving!
ben
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
11/22/2011
Early morning rise and early to work. Still off at just before 2:00 pm.
Off to the races. Well, more like off to wait at the DMV forever. I
wanted to get the title transferred into my name. I would have done it
yesterday but I got off work too late. I don't like having a title that isn't
in my name for something I have paid for. Even with a bill of sale, I am
not a very trusting person, I want that title in my name so the owner can't come
along and give some jacked up story that it was lost or stolen or something. Do
I really think that would happen? I don't know, not worth waiting to find out.
Was there around an hour and a half - 95% of the time spent waiting.
After that to Camping World, which is like half a block away from the DMV. I
really didn't feel like going there, but since I was so close to the place, I gave in.
The lady who was supposed to call me back that never did was there again. She
looked up the number again and told me that they don't make that fan motor anymore,
but they do make the fan blade. ??? Why would they make a fan blade for a motor
that is obsolete?....I was asking myself. I'm standing there contemplating my next move:
get the motor rewound and new brushes installed, do you know of any place? She didn't
but the other guy behind the counter started asking other associates.
Well, this went on for a while. They then suggested an RV salvage yard. Okay, I'll give
it a try. At that point, another guy came up behind the counter and this guy asked him if
he knew anyplace that rewinds motors? He got the look on his face and said no and why
bother? Uhh, cause' I don't want to buy a whole new AC unit, that's why. Well why not just
buy a new motor? Cause' this one is obsolete.
He just shook his head, no way, he replies, is this an obsolete part. It took them another 10
minutes of searching through a database, but they did eventually find it. Well, it's in North
Carolina, as if that were some kind of deterrent to me. I don't care where it is, let's order the
thing and get this going. The guy is looking at me: It's kinda cool outside nowadays for needing
an AC unit working. Yup, but I am taking this thing up to the mountains and I want everything
working before I have it moved up there. I joined their President's Club on Saturday which gives
you 10% off all purchases, amongst other things, which has already paid for itself and then some.
The motor is $139 - I knew it was going to be expensive, but a new AC unit is like $800-$1,000.
So I got that done and just came home. Other things to do, but 2-1/2 hours spent on getting just 2 things
done plus work was enough for me. My manager just called: have to be at work early again tomorrow.
Which is fine, get off of work early and look forward to Thursday off.
In an hour and a half is the church's Community Dinner. Their version of Thanksgiving dinner - done today instead of on Thanksgiving, I will guess so that everyone can spend time with family at home on Thursday. I am going, but I am not going to stay long unless they need help with something. Devour some food, say hi and leave. I am very tired and I will be wanting to go to bed early tonight.
A mother is or is going to be accused of killing her 5 year old daughter. They arrested her and have arraigned her already. This is happening in Phoenix. I started to think how a parent could ever intentionally kill their own child. I mean, for an insurance payout? But they said the girl had been abused. I dunno. It seems to be happening frequently. I mean, could you kill your own kid? I would rather die first. I'm not saying that flippantly or casually, I really mean it: I would definitely rather die first than harm my own son to the point that he died at my own hand. Of course, I wouldn't do that anyway, so it's a moot point. I just don't get it, though: it's a totally unnatural act, at least in the human race, to kill one's own offspring.
Well whatever. I have my hands full lately, which is a good thing, but also zaps my energy. I think I am going to take a 30 minute nap before going to this church dinner, I am really quite exhausted.
G'day.
ben
Off to the races. Well, more like off to wait at the DMV forever. I
wanted to get the title transferred into my name. I would have done it
yesterday but I got off work too late. I don't like having a title that isn't
in my name for something I have paid for. Even with a bill of sale, I am
not a very trusting person, I want that title in my name so the owner can't come
along and give some jacked up story that it was lost or stolen or something. Do
I really think that would happen? I don't know, not worth waiting to find out.
Was there around an hour and a half - 95% of the time spent waiting.
After that to Camping World, which is like half a block away from the DMV. I
really didn't feel like going there, but since I was so close to the place, I gave in.
The lady who was supposed to call me back that never did was there again. She
looked up the number again and told me that they don't make that fan motor anymore,
but they do make the fan blade. ??? Why would they make a fan blade for a motor
that is obsolete?....I was asking myself. I'm standing there contemplating my next move:
get the motor rewound and new brushes installed, do you know of any place? She didn't
but the other guy behind the counter started asking other associates.
Well, this went on for a while. They then suggested an RV salvage yard. Okay, I'll give
it a try. At that point, another guy came up behind the counter and this guy asked him if
he knew anyplace that rewinds motors? He got the look on his face and said no and why
bother? Uhh, cause' I don't want to buy a whole new AC unit, that's why. Well why not just
buy a new motor? Cause' this one is obsolete.
He just shook his head, no way, he replies, is this an obsolete part. It took them another 10
minutes of searching through a database, but they did eventually find it. Well, it's in North
Carolina, as if that were some kind of deterrent to me. I don't care where it is, let's order the
thing and get this going. The guy is looking at me: It's kinda cool outside nowadays for needing
an AC unit working. Yup, but I am taking this thing up to the mountains and I want everything
working before I have it moved up there. I joined their President's Club on Saturday which gives
you 10% off all purchases, amongst other things, which has already paid for itself and then some.
The motor is $139 - I knew it was going to be expensive, but a new AC unit is like $800-$1,000.
So I got that done and just came home. Other things to do, but 2-1/2 hours spent on getting just 2 things
done plus work was enough for me. My manager just called: have to be at work early again tomorrow.
Which is fine, get off of work early and look forward to Thursday off.
In an hour and a half is the church's Community Dinner. Their version of Thanksgiving dinner - done today instead of on Thanksgiving, I will guess so that everyone can spend time with family at home on Thursday. I am going, but I am not going to stay long unless they need help with something. Devour some food, say hi and leave. I am very tired and I will be wanting to go to bed early tonight.
A mother is or is going to be accused of killing her 5 year old daughter. They arrested her and have arraigned her already. This is happening in Phoenix. I started to think how a parent could ever intentionally kill their own child. I mean, for an insurance payout? But they said the girl had been abused. I dunno. It seems to be happening frequently. I mean, could you kill your own kid? I would rather die first. I'm not saying that flippantly or casually, I really mean it: I would definitely rather die first than harm my own son to the point that he died at my own hand. Of course, I wouldn't do that anyway, so it's a moot point. I just don't get it, though: it's a totally unnatural act, at least in the human race, to kill one's own offspring.
Well whatever. I have my hands full lately, which is a good thing, but also zaps my energy. I think I am going to take a 30 minute nap before going to this church dinner, I am really quite exhausted.
G'day.
ben
Monday, November 21, 2011
Monday Part II
I have to be at work at 5:30 am tomorrow, that completely precludes me from writing in this blog in the morning.
Not the end of the world, but I will throw something in here now.
I got sent to Arizona City - don't worry, it's nothing but a desert hell-hole in the middle of - the desert - to deliver 3 giant fittings early this afternoon, meaning I didn't get off of work until almost 4:00pm.
When I got back to the branch, I saw all kinds of emails coming from management. One of which was an announcement about our new branch: the move will occur this coming Monday through Wednesday. In reading the email, I am to work out of our main branch doing our area's deliveries during this time. That should prove interesting in itself, I haven't worked out of that branch in at least 4 years. But, I know the warehouse manager well enough, he's cool and we get along quite well, though I also would have to believe that even though my manager won't be there, he will still be directing what is going on with our deliveries (versus the main warehouse manager).
I am very excited, actually, about moving into the new building. It is SO incredibly MUCH nicer than that old pile of junk building we are in now. Plus, everything will be new in there, it will be, for all intents and purposes, a brand new store. The new building is on a major street with LOTS of traffic all day long. Not sure how that might affect the daily operation of things, plus there are a lot of beggars in the area, but oh well. I am not dissing beggars, I help them from time to time though I prefer to buy them the food they say they are starving for versus giving them money so they can go buy booze or drugs.
No biggies on not having to help with the move since it's not going to be on a weekend and therefore, just normal work hours = no overtime. They will be moving ALL of that stuff, apparently, with a 24 foot 10 wheel truck instead of using one of the semi's. Ordinarily, that would sound like a very foolish idea - there is a lot of material to move - but since the new building is literally a block away, that will work out in the end.
I received my check today. I have said nothing about this until now, I don't think. I figure if another economic collapse occurs in 2012, this will create 2 things. 1, the fact that I get to keep some of that money that will undoubtedly be lost in more stock crashes and 2, money in the bank for extreme emergencies. I did spend a chunk of change on those trailers, though I do not regret it, it also depleted my reserves. I have been having these 401k loans going for quite a while now, it's not going to phase me, to be honest, to keep another one going, especially considering I pay the money back to myself, not to someone else, with interest.
I am definitely looking forward to having a PLACE to go to in the mountains - versus tent camping. I used to love tent camping but, the realization struck me: I just don't like sleeping on the hard, cold ground anymore.
So, I am going out to my mother's on Thursday for a Thanksgiving meal. Sunday, I am going out again with Caleb. Caleb needs to see his grandmother is all I can say about that. Mom called today and asked if perhaps we might like to go to the shooting range on Sunday as well. I believe it's the Ben Avery Shooting Range that is like only 15 minutes away from her house. I immediately accepted the offer. I want to shoot off both the SW40VE Sigma and the 12 gauge shotgun. I have plenty of ammo and I know Caleb will get into it as well.
Oh, forgot the company Christmas party - November 10th and the Annual Cornhole championship - I won one year, got $200 out of it, too, lol.
Umm, that's all. Time for bed.
Later.
ben
Not the end of the world, but I will throw something in here now.
I got sent to Arizona City - don't worry, it's nothing but a desert hell-hole in the middle of - the desert - to deliver 3 giant fittings early this afternoon, meaning I didn't get off of work until almost 4:00pm.
When I got back to the branch, I saw all kinds of emails coming from management. One of which was an announcement about our new branch: the move will occur this coming Monday through Wednesday. In reading the email, I am to work out of our main branch doing our area's deliveries during this time. That should prove interesting in itself, I haven't worked out of that branch in at least 4 years. But, I know the warehouse manager well enough, he's cool and we get along quite well, though I also would have to believe that even though my manager won't be there, he will still be directing what is going on with our deliveries (versus the main warehouse manager).
I am very excited, actually, about moving into the new building. It is SO incredibly MUCH nicer than that old pile of junk building we are in now. Plus, everything will be new in there, it will be, for all intents and purposes, a brand new store. The new building is on a major street with LOTS of traffic all day long. Not sure how that might affect the daily operation of things, plus there are a lot of beggars in the area, but oh well. I am not dissing beggars, I help them from time to time though I prefer to buy them the food they say they are starving for versus giving them money so they can go buy booze or drugs.
No biggies on not having to help with the move since it's not going to be on a weekend and therefore, just normal work hours = no overtime. They will be moving ALL of that stuff, apparently, with a 24 foot 10 wheel truck instead of using one of the semi's. Ordinarily, that would sound like a very foolish idea - there is a lot of material to move - but since the new building is literally a block away, that will work out in the end.
I received my check today. I have said nothing about this until now, I don't think. I figure if another economic collapse occurs in 2012, this will create 2 things. 1, the fact that I get to keep some of that money that will undoubtedly be lost in more stock crashes and 2, money in the bank for extreme emergencies. I did spend a chunk of change on those trailers, though I do not regret it, it also depleted my reserves. I have been having these 401k loans going for quite a while now, it's not going to phase me, to be honest, to keep another one going, especially considering I pay the money back to myself, not to someone else, with interest.
I am definitely looking forward to having a PLACE to go to in the mountains - versus tent camping. I used to love tent camping but, the realization struck me: I just don't like sleeping on the hard, cold ground anymore.
So, I am going out to my mother's on Thursday for a Thanksgiving meal. Sunday, I am going out again with Caleb. Caleb needs to see his grandmother is all I can say about that. Mom called today and asked if perhaps we might like to go to the shooting range on Sunday as well. I believe it's the Ben Avery Shooting Range that is like only 15 minutes away from her house. I immediately accepted the offer. I want to shoot off both the SW40VE Sigma and the 12 gauge shotgun. I have plenty of ammo and I know Caleb will get into it as well.
Oh, forgot the company Christmas party - November 10th and the Annual Cornhole championship - I won one year, got $200 out of it, too, lol.
Umm, that's all. Time for bed.
Later.
ben
Monday 11/21/2011
Weird, strange dreams last night. I was on a military base, I guess it was, getting up for a day's work. The bed I was sleeping on was outside, next to a building, no cover, just under the stars. I was drinking a beer. A military guard came over to me and said I was going to be arrested for drug violations. He left to do something and I ran out of there, up a street and onto a golf course, where I plopped down into a deep hole and - woke up.
The other dream I was walking one of my dogs in a rough wilderness area. One moment she was there, the next she was gone. I couldn't find her anywhere and started calling her name - and woke up again to some strange noises in the house. No idea, couldn't find the source of it.
The ex gave me the dates yesterday for her departure and return. I had to ask, the information was not voluntarily given to me, which was kind of rude, I thought, since she is taking our son with her. Leaving December 1st and returning December 9th.
Must be nice jetting across America - wish I could take a flight across the nation to some east coast town, see the sights and return a few days later! I wouldn't mind going on a train tour of the country, either. I had to ask Caleb if he was going to get that much time off of work, or was he planning on losing his job? He has things he is doing that don't exactly mesh with taking that much time off of work - the Muay Thai classes for one that he is paying for and the fuel in the car to get there plus the insurance to drive the car. She isn't working and her family is paying their way, I can see that, but I think my son has a bit to learn about financial responsibility. I figure that will come whenever he goes out on his own and becomes responsible for a place to live and all that goes along with it. His work is giving him the time off -unpaid of course - so I dunno how that's going to work out with him paying his bills.
Ummm, busy week en-queue. I plan on going to the DMV office after work today and if the line isn't abysmally long I will get the title to that trailer transferred over into my name. Feels good to have complete ownership of the thing versus making payments. I guess this week I am going to have to have that other trailer moved and placed on an RV lot somewhere. Well, no, this is only the 20th, I am going to milk that cow all the way until the 30th.
The strange thing is, none of my tenants are showing any signs of wanting to leave. The rodeo kid has paid up this entire month and paid some of next. The older guy pays the month in advance. The other kid is behind, but he just paid a good chunk of change to get it closer to even. But, you never know what's going on through a person's mind. I'm just saying that whenever the next person moves out, Mark and Lynnette will move in. Unless, of course, they decide they like living in the RV park in that RV, but then, they will have to buy that RV from me and make payments on it. I'll leave that one up to them, I'm just starting to get the wheels in motion.
Lol, just got done reading the list of the worst passwords that are the easiest for a hacker to figure out. I can guarantee that my passwords will never make the easy list. Non-existent words with odd numbering sequences, to sit there and try to guess my password? Might as well move on, it ain't gonna happen.
Well, it's time to leave for work. I didn't sleep well last night so I'm sorta dragging my feet this morning. At least there is some stuff to do today in the routing system which makes a day go by quickly.
G'day.
ben
The other dream I was walking one of my dogs in a rough wilderness area. One moment she was there, the next she was gone. I couldn't find her anywhere and started calling her name - and woke up again to some strange noises in the house. No idea, couldn't find the source of it.
The ex gave me the dates yesterday for her departure and return. I had to ask, the information was not voluntarily given to me, which was kind of rude, I thought, since she is taking our son with her. Leaving December 1st and returning December 9th.
Must be nice jetting across America - wish I could take a flight across the nation to some east coast town, see the sights and return a few days later! I wouldn't mind going on a train tour of the country, either. I had to ask Caleb if he was going to get that much time off of work, or was he planning on losing his job? He has things he is doing that don't exactly mesh with taking that much time off of work - the Muay Thai classes for one that he is paying for and the fuel in the car to get there plus the insurance to drive the car. She isn't working and her family is paying their way, I can see that, but I think my son has a bit to learn about financial responsibility. I figure that will come whenever he goes out on his own and becomes responsible for a place to live and all that goes along with it. His work is giving him the time off -unpaid of course - so I dunno how that's going to work out with him paying his bills.
Ummm, busy week en-queue. I plan on going to the DMV office after work today and if the line isn't abysmally long I will get the title to that trailer transferred over into my name. Feels good to have complete ownership of the thing versus making payments. I guess this week I am going to have to have that other trailer moved and placed on an RV lot somewhere. Well, no, this is only the 20th, I am going to milk that cow all the way until the 30th.
The strange thing is, none of my tenants are showing any signs of wanting to leave. The rodeo kid has paid up this entire month and paid some of next. The older guy pays the month in advance. The other kid is behind, but he just paid a good chunk of change to get it closer to even. But, you never know what's going on through a person's mind. I'm just saying that whenever the next person moves out, Mark and Lynnette will move in. Unless, of course, they decide they like living in the RV park in that RV, but then, they will have to buy that RV from me and make payments on it. I'll leave that one up to them, I'm just starting to get the wheels in motion.
Lol, just got done reading the list of the worst passwords that are the easiest for a hacker to figure out. I can guarantee that my passwords will never make the easy list. Non-existent words with odd numbering sequences, to sit there and try to guess my password? Might as well move on, it ain't gonna happen.
Well, it's time to leave for work. I didn't sleep well last night so I'm sorta dragging my feet this morning. At least there is some stuff to do today in the routing system which makes a day go by quickly.
G'day.
ben
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Life
I couldn't decide whether to get up on that roof and start on one of those issues up there or start hauling rock and deal with that stuff out front - so - so far anyway - I've done neither. I don't necessarily expect an extremely busy week at work, have Thursday off for Thanksgiving, but next weekend I may have to work in helping move from one building to another. Someone has to drive that semi truck and I would be at least somewhat offended if it were another hourly worker. If it's a salaried worker - as they are attempting to use for all of it - different story, but I don't know of any salaried workers in our local conundrum of people that have a CDL A license.
_________________
Ahhhh, working in the rocks out front isn't hardly work at all. It's so incredibly beautiful outside, yes, I went out there and finished an area I had been working on and then figured on another area where I would like to put more of the landscaping rock. Well, I didn't get started on that part of it, but at least I got something done out there today.
Getting on the roof of the trailer and using a scraper and a machine to get junk off the roof? That will be work, but even that will have it's rewards.
One of the next door neighbor's dogs was barking. Dogs bark, right? This one will start barking and will go on for hours, non-stop. I had half a mind to go out there and start up my old routine with them - I haven't don't that in quite a while. That dog is now tied up over on the other side of their house but that barking is still pretty annoying. I did nothing. Eventually, they must have done something as the dog stopped. The dog? Bored. Lonely. Etc. What is the point of having dogs if you are going to show them absolutely no attention at all? Security, I guess, but there is absolutely nothing on that property of any interest to any thief within a 1,000 miles.
BTW, what do you do with neighbors that won't change their ways? Ways that are - out of control. Living in filth and squalor. Piling up junk on their properties and continually bringing in even more junk. Having animals to the point it would probably qualify as animal hoarding.
I figured it out. Well, I didn't actually figure anything out, I just came up with my own answer: pray for them. Many people will scoff at that idea and laugh. That's okay. I'm not here to please anyone. I don't really care if anyone agrees with my ways of doing things or not, to be honest. Some do, some don't. The point is to seek the Lord on this issue and see what He might do.
Changing the subject completely. I am exposed to some pretty wicked stuff in traffic on a daily basis while driving the semi. I was sitting at a red light the other day in the truck, waiting to make a left hand turn. It's an unbelievably long light for the side street I am on getting out onto the major road that turns into a 55 mph highway to the left of the light and a 45 mph surface street to the right of it. To the left of this light is Indian reservation and in that area, nothing but farm fields. To the right of it is the city of Chandler and spreads into a 6 lane surface street.
I'm a pretty observant driver, but I don't always catch everything. When I don't, something else kicks in. Whatever it is, it tells me to do something, usually to stop. The light turns green for me. A tractor-trailer rig has pulled up and stopped on the street I am turning on, right there in the "slow" lane going towards Chandler. I am making a left turn going the opposite direction. 2 cars come flying through the intersection after the light had turned red for them. I then begin to move out in front of this truck. I was about to go in front of the other lane when that something said stop. It's not a calm, cool collected thing, there is something in my mind that shouts stop the vehicle, now. I stopped.
I just shook my head in wonder as a woman came flying by the stopped semi truck at at least 60 mph not even slowing down for the light that had been red for that direction for at least several seconds at that point. It was a no-brainer that if I had continued, there would have been a horrific accident, that lady would be dead, probably and I have no idea what would have become of me. That SUV would have slammed into the full fuel tank sitting right there, underneath to the side of me, and into my driver's side door.
I wonder what is so important that people have to be in such a huge hurry that they risk their own and other people's lives to get ahead in traffic. I wonder what is so important about a text message that a driver feels compelled to respond to it to the point that they are paying no attention to the traffic in front of them while they are moving down the road. I wonder about drivers that are so engrossed in their cell phone calls, they make erratic and "drunken" type of moves on the roadway, completely cutting people off to the point that you wonder how contact between 2 vehicles wasn't made.
I don't wonder why I get stressed out in heavy and rush hour traffic. It's a constant dealing with people cutting you off. Diving their cars into the cushion zone you have in front of you so if the vehicle in front of you does something abrupt, you have time to react and deal with it. Note that I did not say that it's a place for cars to cut in and cut off the truck. But people obviously don't see that as such. It's a truck going too slow, taking too much time and look at all that room. The worst thing though is when they dive in there and then slam on their brakes. I hate driving in the city, to be honest, I absolutely hate it. I would far rather drive on the highways, biways and interstates. The down side to that, of course, is that you are never home. There is no happy medium here. The benefit of dealing with city traffic in a semi truck is that I get to go home every day - that makes it worth it. But I'm always wondering if "it" is ever going to happen. Where I can't get the truck stopped or moved out of the way fast enough because of someone else's moves that - mostly - endanger their own lives. The attention concentrate that is needed to drive a big truck in city traffic is more than most people will ever realize. If you don't want to kill people, run them clean over and create chaotic destruction - even if not your fault - you are going to have to devote so much mental energy to the job at hand that by the end of the day? You are mentally exhausted. If it's an OT, even that much the more worse.
I still vividly remember the situation earlier this year when I was also at stopped at a red light, waiting to make a left hand turn. The light turned green. I remember hesitating for unknown reasons and then slowly starting out into the intersection. The car in the turn lane beside me also slowly started out. Out of the corner of my eye - that light has been red for the other direction for a long time now considering traffic standards - seeing something. My automatic reaction was to slam on the brakes. It would have been another disaster. My fault? Not at all. The driver of that car that ran that red light never slowed down. I was within a couple of feet of that car when it went by me. Had I continued on, that car would have slammed into my truck - again, right into the diesel fuel tank and right below the door where I am sitting.
Well whatever. The weekend comes to a close. As it always does, lol, but this coming week is a bit different. Thanksgiving on Thursday. Going to mom's house. Black Friday and hopefully sending someone to stand in line and maybe score something for me. Our store moving on the weekend, but no word yet as to whether I will be involved with that or not. Tuesday is our church's first annual "Community Dinner" - Thanksgiving dinner 2 days early.
Hmmm, I think I'll go to bed early. Which for most people is like going to bed before dinnertime, lol. Well whatever. We all live our lives the way we want to? No, not really. If you lived the life of your dreams, would you be doing what you are doing right now with it? I'm definitely having some life altering thoughts again after getting back into the church...........
G'nite.
ben
_________________
Ahhhh, working in the rocks out front isn't hardly work at all. It's so incredibly beautiful outside, yes, I went out there and finished an area I had been working on and then figured on another area where I would like to put more of the landscaping rock. Well, I didn't get started on that part of it, but at least I got something done out there today.
Getting on the roof of the trailer and using a scraper and a machine to get junk off the roof? That will be work, but even that will have it's rewards.
One of the next door neighbor's dogs was barking. Dogs bark, right? This one will start barking and will go on for hours, non-stop. I had half a mind to go out there and start up my old routine with them - I haven't don't that in quite a while. That dog is now tied up over on the other side of their house but that barking is still pretty annoying. I did nothing. Eventually, they must have done something as the dog stopped. The dog? Bored. Lonely. Etc. What is the point of having dogs if you are going to show them absolutely no attention at all? Security, I guess, but there is absolutely nothing on that property of any interest to any thief within a 1,000 miles.
BTW, what do you do with neighbors that won't change their ways? Ways that are - out of control. Living in filth and squalor. Piling up junk on their properties and continually bringing in even more junk. Having animals to the point it would probably qualify as animal hoarding.
I figured it out. Well, I didn't actually figure anything out, I just came up with my own answer: pray for them. Many people will scoff at that idea and laugh. That's okay. I'm not here to please anyone. I don't really care if anyone agrees with my ways of doing things or not, to be honest. Some do, some don't. The point is to seek the Lord on this issue and see what He might do.
Changing the subject completely. I am exposed to some pretty wicked stuff in traffic on a daily basis while driving the semi. I was sitting at a red light the other day in the truck, waiting to make a left hand turn. It's an unbelievably long light for the side street I am on getting out onto the major road that turns into a 55 mph highway to the left of the light and a 45 mph surface street to the right of it. To the left of this light is Indian reservation and in that area, nothing but farm fields. To the right of it is the city of Chandler and spreads into a 6 lane surface street.
I'm a pretty observant driver, but I don't always catch everything. When I don't, something else kicks in. Whatever it is, it tells me to do something, usually to stop. The light turns green for me. A tractor-trailer rig has pulled up and stopped on the street I am turning on, right there in the "slow" lane going towards Chandler. I am making a left turn going the opposite direction. 2 cars come flying through the intersection after the light had turned red for them. I then begin to move out in front of this truck. I was about to go in front of the other lane when that something said stop. It's not a calm, cool collected thing, there is something in my mind that shouts stop the vehicle, now. I stopped.
I just shook my head in wonder as a woman came flying by the stopped semi truck at at least 60 mph not even slowing down for the light that had been red for that direction for at least several seconds at that point. It was a no-brainer that if I had continued, there would have been a horrific accident, that lady would be dead, probably and I have no idea what would have become of me. That SUV would have slammed into the full fuel tank sitting right there, underneath to the side of me, and into my driver's side door.
I wonder what is so important that people have to be in such a huge hurry that they risk their own and other people's lives to get ahead in traffic. I wonder what is so important about a text message that a driver feels compelled to respond to it to the point that they are paying no attention to the traffic in front of them while they are moving down the road. I wonder about drivers that are so engrossed in their cell phone calls, they make erratic and "drunken" type of moves on the roadway, completely cutting people off to the point that you wonder how contact between 2 vehicles wasn't made.
I don't wonder why I get stressed out in heavy and rush hour traffic. It's a constant dealing with people cutting you off. Diving their cars into the cushion zone you have in front of you so if the vehicle in front of you does something abrupt, you have time to react and deal with it. Note that I did not say that it's a place for cars to cut in and cut off the truck. But people obviously don't see that as such. It's a truck going too slow, taking too much time and look at all that room. The worst thing though is when they dive in there and then slam on their brakes. I hate driving in the city, to be honest, I absolutely hate it. I would far rather drive on the highways, biways and interstates. The down side to that, of course, is that you are never home. There is no happy medium here. The benefit of dealing with city traffic in a semi truck is that I get to go home every day - that makes it worth it. But I'm always wondering if "it" is ever going to happen. Where I can't get the truck stopped or moved out of the way fast enough because of someone else's moves that - mostly - endanger their own lives. The attention concentrate that is needed to drive a big truck in city traffic is more than most people will ever realize. If you don't want to kill people, run them clean over and create chaotic destruction - even if not your fault - you are going to have to devote so much mental energy to the job at hand that by the end of the day? You are mentally exhausted. If it's an OT, even that much the more worse.
I still vividly remember the situation earlier this year when I was also at stopped at a red light, waiting to make a left hand turn. The light turned green. I remember hesitating for unknown reasons and then slowly starting out into the intersection. The car in the turn lane beside me also slowly started out. Out of the corner of my eye - that light has been red for the other direction for a long time now considering traffic standards - seeing something. My automatic reaction was to slam on the brakes. It would have been another disaster. My fault? Not at all. The driver of that car that ran that red light never slowed down. I was within a couple of feet of that car when it went by me. Had I continued on, that car would have slammed into my truck - again, right into the diesel fuel tank and right below the door where I am sitting.
Well whatever. The weekend comes to a close. As it always does, lol, but this coming week is a bit different. Thanksgiving on Thursday. Going to mom's house. Black Friday and hopefully sending someone to stand in line and maybe score something for me. Our store moving on the weekend, but no word yet as to whether I will be involved with that or not. Tuesday is our church's first annual "Community Dinner" - Thanksgiving dinner 2 days early.
Hmmm, I think I'll go to bed early. Which for most people is like going to bed before dinnertime, lol. Well whatever. We all live our lives the way we want to? No, not really. If you lived the life of your dreams, would you be doing what you are doing right now with it? I'm definitely having some life altering thoughts again after getting back into the church...........
G'nite.
ben
Sunday 11/20/2011
I have definitely come to the firm decision that no matter how much of a pain in the @$$ it is going to be to do it, I am going to replace most of the plastic "fixtures" on the roof of that trailer and the other things up there I am going to scrape off all the old sealant down to the bare metal including using a wire wheel and get it all freshly sealed, new plastic and not have to worry about leaks.
I mean, it's going to be parked on a piece of property up in the mountains, it wouldn't be very smart or rational to take the thing up there with some leap of faith hoping it won't leak. The problem is simple. There are giant cracks in the sealant where whoever has had this thing before has attempted to put fresh sealant on top of old sealant. It doesn't work. You HAVE top take the old sealant down to the metal if you want any kind of permanent fix. That is my experience with it, anyway. I'm going to have to stop at Harbor Tools today and see if they have an electric thing to put a wire wheel on there. Fortunately, the roof on that trailer is a solid piece of metal from front to back. The only places that it can leak are where the vents are. It eliminates the guess work of what older trailers are made up of - sections of metal with seams. The seams, of course, can leak.
I have my work cut out for me, but there is plenty of time. I do intend on getting with it, though, I am not going to put it off any longer. Getting up there yesterday and getting a good start on it motivated me to just keep right on going with it until it's done so I can focus on putting new carpet on the interior.
Church in a bit. Should be interesting today for a variety of reasons that - I am not going to go into in full detail here and don't really have time right now to do that anyway.
Whatever the case, I am hopeful things will start going a bit better in the church department and perhaps even start building some relationships within the church - though that is certainly not a guaranteed event and I am just taking this one step at a time.
Whatever the case, I have some things to get done before church and therefore?
I bid you a happy Sunday.
ben
I mean, it's going to be parked on a piece of property up in the mountains, it wouldn't be very smart or rational to take the thing up there with some leap of faith hoping it won't leak. The problem is simple. There are giant cracks in the sealant where whoever has had this thing before has attempted to put fresh sealant on top of old sealant. It doesn't work. You HAVE top take the old sealant down to the metal if you want any kind of permanent fix. That is my experience with it, anyway. I'm going to have to stop at Harbor Tools today and see if they have an electric thing to put a wire wheel on there. Fortunately, the roof on that trailer is a solid piece of metal from front to back. The only places that it can leak are where the vents are. It eliminates the guess work of what older trailers are made up of - sections of metal with seams. The seams, of course, can leak.
I have my work cut out for me, but there is plenty of time. I do intend on getting with it, though, I am not going to put it off any longer. Getting up there yesterday and getting a good start on it motivated me to just keep right on going with it until it's done so I can focus on putting new carpet on the interior.
Church in a bit. Should be interesting today for a variety of reasons that - I am not going to go into in full detail here and don't really have time right now to do that anyway.
Whatever the case, I am hopeful things will start going a bit better in the church department and perhaps even start building some relationships within the church - though that is certainly not a guaranteed event and I am just taking this one step at a time.
Whatever the case, I have some things to get done before church and therefore?
I bid you a happy Sunday.
ben
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Saturday 11/19/2011
So, the 12 year old admits he dropped a shopping cart from 4 stories up and now they are "looking to get him back into the community"?!!
Why, so he can drop more shopping carts on innocent people's heads?!! That woman him and his friend dropped that thing on is STILL messed up and probably will be for life.
Whatever. I am headed out to go pay the rest of the trailer off today and get the title. Lynnette is close to being finished with the wall papering project in that thing and it's looking good. Still quite a lot to do to that thing, though. I wish the AC would work and wouldn't have to deal with it. I'm not, like, an AC repairman. I know the fan motor is bad but how that equates into me being able to fix it, not sure yet. I would hate to have to haul the thing to a repair facility.
So, here I was about to leave. Called the dude - he didn't get the title notarized as I asked him to. I ain't driving all the way up there for nothing. Banks are opened on Saturdays now, he can get it notarized and then I will go get it - but not until this afternoon at the earliest since I have another appointment at noon.
_____________________
Extremely long intermission. Uhhhhh, like 8 hours worth. I got busy. Before I left for the meeting with pastor and an elder in the church, I ended up getting up on the roof of that trailer. I was annoyed by myself for not getting up there sooner - even IF there is plenty of time - so I just did it. Well it was obvious where the leakage was occurring from. The entire bathroom roof vent is an old, rotted piece of garbage. In fact, all plastic on that roof is going to have to be replaced. The one over the bathroom has a handle crank and lifts up a plastic cover that allows steam - and smells, lol - to go out and fresh air to come in. It also has a small fan to help that along.
I spent an hour trying to get the screws out - and yes, persistence and sheer determination paid off. I got that thing off of there.
So, I just spent some time getting that thing to that point, I eyeballed the AC unit. Ohhhhh, I just caved in. I took the plastic cover off - which is dry rotted, brittle and will have to be replaced if I don't want to have an ugly looking AC unit sitting up there without it's nice, plastic cover over it. Fiasco times two. Old screws that have been in there - forever a day and a half. Good grief, what have I gotten myself into.
But, if I can fix it myself, I will save a fortune over paying someone else to do it, so I proceeded to deal with it. First, I had Mark go in the trailer and turn the unit on - see if can get the fan to moving by hand and see if it will work. Yup, it came on, yes, turning it got the thing to humming right along. But, after a few minutes? The fan motor died. This is a non-happening event, I am not going to have a trailer up there on that property without knowing, without a doubt, that that AC unit is going to work. It might be up in the mountains, but in the summer it gets up to 90 degrees in the daytime - though admittedly at night the temps drop WELL down to where you don't need cooling.
I took the whole mess apart, got that motor out of there and then? Headed to my appointment at church. They were both there - the pastor and the elder he had decided would be a good person to join the group and get this rolling. I am not going into specific details of what we discussed - that is my personal business and again, even for me, I am not willing to share all of that all over the world/internet. But it was a very good discussion and it was exactly what I had hoped I would hear coming from a church. It ended in prayer and I still have to wonder how, exactly, I found this place? They have treated me very well there, is what I can say about that. You always wonder how it's going to be where the rubber meets the road - are they still going to be that "nice" and "giving"? Yes, is what I can say, they have a true heart for the Lord.
Left there and went to Camping World. They had a brand new - the entire setup - vent for 70 bucks. Not going to dicker with it, git-er-dun. They also had a brand new vent cap and base for 7 bucks for another situation and I decided I would buy that and replace the entire thing. They found the motor in their parts catalog and quoted me a price of $150. Yup, that was my guess when I saw that motor on the roof of the trailer. Mark was up on the ladder looking and I said: "I'm guessing $150 to replace this motor". He's looking at it saying it couldn't be more than $50. Uh huh. All things RV cost more. You can substitute some things for much cheaper, but for specific applications you are screwed if you think you are going to do something on the "cheap". This motor is only a 1/4 horsepower, but the shafts coming out of either end of it are of a specific length to accommodate for the fan housing on one end and fan blade on the other, plus a specific design for it to sit in it's cradle.
Well they didn't have that motor in stock and would have to order it. I am not in a big hurry, I have gotten a start, now to find a better deal? Perhaps. I might be able to get the motor rewound and have new brushes installed for cheaper. Several places in this area that do that, I am going to check into it. I can also type the part number off the motor into a couple of online parts sites and see if that comes up with anything. But in the end, I am going to have that unit working and I will pay whatever to get it going and be done with it.
So, I can't do the carpet in the trailer until I get the roof leaking issues finished.
Call me worried. I am, a bit. My ex is taking my son to Florida for a visit with relatives. The ex is saying she is going to move back to Florida, so why the need for a flight there for a visit? When you were married to a person for 16 years, you get to know a few things about how that person thinks. Whatever. I am sure they - they being her family and her - are going to fill his head (my son) about how wonderful Florida is and how when she moves down there, if she does indeed do so, he should move down there with him. They will undoubtedly show him a nice room to live in and the benefits of the area and this, that and the other thing.
It will be a very compelling argument, story and enticement, I am sure of that. I have no response. My son is going to learn about life in whatever form it comes to him. I have already told him he can stay here if he wants to, that I will always have a room for him if he needs it and that's that. I will say something about that before he leaves, yes, but not to keep him here, only to give him choices. If he moves to Florida, I will not be standing in his way. I will be sad, definitely. I might shed a few tears, no doubt. But, it's his choice and his life.
I got side-tracked. Back to the story. Done with Camping World and onto the next mission: call the dude and tell him I am on my way over there to get the title. Got there, forked out the $400 I had left owing on the thing and then got into a discussion. He said he had paid $3,500 for it and that he dumped it at the $2,400 I paid for it. I brought up the leaking roof and broken AC anyway. Why? Because if it were me, I would have said okay, give me $200 instead of $400 and this deal is done. It was ADVERTISED as leak free and AC working, that's why. Now, I'm spending $200 on materials to get that stuff fixed.
But that's the world and that's the way people do things. I choose not to live my life that way, if something isn't right then I try to make it right however I can - within moral/ethical boundaries of course. I don't hold it against him, I have encountered so many people with the same kind of mindset. Overall, I am happy with that trailer so no biggies. I will continue to work on it until I am satisfied that everything is working and at the same time that it looks good. Then I will have it hauled up to the mountains.
Oh, if could convince my work to let me use the tractor to haul that thing up there - I would only have to pay the fuel costs. About $120 in fuel. Well, actually, probably less than that. That trailer would be like pulling air to a semi tractor. Coming back would be dead-heading. More like $80 to $90 in fuel. I'm not even going to ask my manager about it, my old manager would let me do it - yes - but I don't think my current manager would and I have no desire to even bother to ask with that kind of thought running through my head.
Well whatever. I spoke with my mother today about Thanksgiving. Caleb has Sunday off, we can come then. Well what about you? Are you going to be okay being alone?, she asks. I didn't tell her I am never alone on holidays, there are always tenants around if nothing else. I figured she would be alone on Thanksgiving since my brothers aren't going to be there so yes, I said yeah, it would be cool to come over for a meal and spend some time with you plus go over there on Sunday with Caleb. I didn't really offer this, she was asking it. Not specifically, but I am not going to have my mother spending Thanksgiving alone so that's that. And I want Caleb to spend some time with his grandmother so that's that, as well.
_________________
I have been doing this more and more. Start an entry and write in it at various points throughout the day. This entry started early this morning. It is now 8:30pm and I am going to end it. I have plenty to do tomorrow and as usual, going to bed early by most people's standards. Normal for me at this point. I accomplished plenty today, though I was not able to get out there and continue on with my landscaping project - it's okay. It is something I want to do. Meaning when I have time, I get to it.
But, the meeting with the pastor and the elder today? That is what stands out to me for this particular day in Benb's life. It's running through my mind. My mind is full of all kinds of different thoughts - this that and the other thing. Mark and Lynnette are preparing the trailer for the move. It's coming and there's nothing I can do about it. I don't have an empty room - yet - and I have no idea when that might happen. They like living in that trailer, actually, but Lynnette especially does not want to leave. I mean, what are they going to do, move into my storage shed like they were at the last property they were at? No. I hope the day to come that they come back. But, Lynnette also spoke about buying that trailer on payments. You can never really fully read a person.
You can try, but only God knows ALL of that about each of us.
After today's meeting with the pastor, I am just going to say that I am switching tracks. The train has been heading one direction, the track I am switching on takes a turn and leads a totally different direction. I have this life and that's it. I want it to count.
ben
Why, so he can drop more shopping carts on innocent people's heads?!! That woman him and his friend dropped that thing on is STILL messed up and probably will be for life.
Whatever. I am headed out to go pay the rest of the trailer off today and get the title. Lynnette is close to being finished with the wall papering project in that thing and it's looking good. Still quite a lot to do to that thing, though. I wish the AC would work and wouldn't have to deal with it. I'm not, like, an AC repairman. I know the fan motor is bad but how that equates into me being able to fix it, not sure yet. I would hate to have to haul the thing to a repair facility.
So, here I was about to leave. Called the dude - he didn't get the title notarized as I asked him to. I ain't driving all the way up there for nothing. Banks are opened on Saturdays now, he can get it notarized and then I will go get it - but not until this afternoon at the earliest since I have another appointment at noon.
_____________________
Extremely long intermission. Uhhhhh, like 8 hours worth. I got busy. Before I left for the meeting with pastor and an elder in the church, I ended up getting up on the roof of that trailer. I was annoyed by myself for not getting up there sooner - even IF there is plenty of time - so I just did it. Well it was obvious where the leakage was occurring from. The entire bathroom roof vent is an old, rotted piece of garbage. In fact, all plastic on that roof is going to have to be replaced. The one over the bathroom has a handle crank and lifts up a plastic cover that allows steam - and smells, lol - to go out and fresh air to come in. It also has a small fan to help that along.
I spent an hour trying to get the screws out - and yes, persistence and sheer determination paid off. I got that thing off of there.
So, I just spent some time getting that thing to that point, I eyeballed the AC unit. Ohhhhh, I just caved in. I took the plastic cover off - which is dry rotted, brittle and will have to be replaced if I don't want to have an ugly looking AC unit sitting up there without it's nice, plastic cover over it. Fiasco times two. Old screws that have been in there - forever a day and a half. Good grief, what have I gotten myself into.
But, if I can fix it myself, I will save a fortune over paying someone else to do it, so I proceeded to deal with it. First, I had Mark go in the trailer and turn the unit on - see if can get the fan to moving by hand and see if it will work. Yup, it came on, yes, turning it got the thing to humming right along. But, after a few minutes? The fan motor died. This is a non-happening event, I am not going to have a trailer up there on that property without knowing, without a doubt, that that AC unit is going to work. It might be up in the mountains, but in the summer it gets up to 90 degrees in the daytime - though admittedly at night the temps drop WELL down to where you don't need cooling.
I took the whole mess apart, got that motor out of there and then? Headed to my appointment at church. They were both there - the pastor and the elder he had decided would be a good person to join the group and get this rolling. I am not going into specific details of what we discussed - that is my personal business and again, even for me, I am not willing to share all of that all over the world/internet. But it was a very good discussion and it was exactly what I had hoped I would hear coming from a church. It ended in prayer and I still have to wonder how, exactly, I found this place? They have treated me very well there, is what I can say about that. You always wonder how it's going to be where the rubber meets the road - are they still going to be that "nice" and "giving"? Yes, is what I can say, they have a true heart for the Lord.
Left there and went to Camping World. They had a brand new - the entire setup - vent for 70 bucks. Not going to dicker with it, git-er-dun. They also had a brand new vent cap and base for 7 bucks for another situation and I decided I would buy that and replace the entire thing. They found the motor in their parts catalog and quoted me a price of $150. Yup, that was my guess when I saw that motor on the roof of the trailer. Mark was up on the ladder looking and I said: "I'm guessing $150 to replace this motor". He's looking at it saying it couldn't be more than $50. Uh huh. All things RV cost more. You can substitute some things for much cheaper, but for specific applications you are screwed if you think you are going to do something on the "cheap". This motor is only a 1/4 horsepower, but the shafts coming out of either end of it are of a specific length to accommodate for the fan housing on one end and fan blade on the other, plus a specific design for it to sit in it's cradle.
Well they didn't have that motor in stock and would have to order it. I am not in a big hurry, I have gotten a start, now to find a better deal? Perhaps. I might be able to get the motor rewound and have new brushes installed for cheaper. Several places in this area that do that, I am going to check into it. I can also type the part number off the motor into a couple of online parts sites and see if that comes up with anything. But in the end, I am going to have that unit working and I will pay whatever to get it going and be done with it.
So, I can't do the carpet in the trailer until I get the roof leaking issues finished.
Call me worried. I am, a bit. My ex is taking my son to Florida for a visit with relatives. The ex is saying she is going to move back to Florida, so why the need for a flight there for a visit? When you were married to a person for 16 years, you get to know a few things about how that person thinks. Whatever. I am sure they - they being her family and her - are going to fill his head (my son) about how wonderful Florida is and how when she moves down there, if she does indeed do so, he should move down there with him. They will undoubtedly show him a nice room to live in and the benefits of the area and this, that and the other thing.
It will be a very compelling argument, story and enticement, I am sure of that. I have no response. My son is going to learn about life in whatever form it comes to him. I have already told him he can stay here if he wants to, that I will always have a room for him if he needs it and that's that. I will say something about that before he leaves, yes, but not to keep him here, only to give him choices. If he moves to Florida, I will not be standing in his way. I will be sad, definitely. I might shed a few tears, no doubt. But, it's his choice and his life.
I got side-tracked. Back to the story. Done with Camping World and onto the next mission: call the dude and tell him I am on my way over there to get the title. Got there, forked out the $400 I had left owing on the thing and then got into a discussion. He said he had paid $3,500 for it and that he dumped it at the $2,400 I paid for it. I brought up the leaking roof and broken AC anyway. Why? Because if it were me, I would have said okay, give me $200 instead of $400 and this deal is done. It was ADVERTISED as leak free and AC working, that's why. Now, I'm spending $200 on materials to get that stuff fixed.
But that's the world and that's the way people do things. I choose not to live my life that way, if something isn't right then I try to make it right however I can - within moral/ethical boundaries of course. I don't hold it against him, I have encountered so many people with the same kind of mindset. Overall, I am happy with that trailer so no biggies. I will continue to work on it until I am satisfied that everything is working and at the same time that it looks good. Then I will have it hauled up to the mountains.
Oh, if could convince my work to let me use the tractor to haul that thing up there - I would only have to pay the fuel costs. About $120 in fuel. Well, actually, probably less than that. That trailer would be like pulling air to a semi tractor. Coming back would be dead-heading. More like $80 to $90 in fuel. I'm not even going to ask my manager about it, my old manager would let me do it - yes - but I don't think my current manager would and I have no desire to even bother to ask with that kind of thought running through my head.
Well whatever. I spoke with my mother today about Thanksgiving. Caleb has Sunday off, we can come then. Well what about you? Are you going to be okay being alone?, she asks. I didn't tell her I am never alone on holidays, there are always tenants around if nothing else. I figured she would be alone on Thanksgiving since my brothers aren't going to be there so yes, I said yeah, it would be cool to come over for a meal and spend some time with you plus go over there on Sunday with Caleb. I didn't really offer this, she was asking it. Not specifically, but I am not going to have my mother spending Thanksgiving alone so that's that. And I want Caleb to spend some time with his grandmother so that's that, as well.
_________________
I have been doing this more and more. Start an entry and write in it at various points throughout the day. This entry started early this morning. It is now 8:30pm and I am going to end it. I have plenty to do tomorrow and as usual, going to bed early by most people's standards. Normal for me at this point. I accomplished plenty today, though I was not able to get out there and continue on with my landscaping project - it's okay. It is something I want to do. Meaning when I have time, I get to it.
But, the meeting with the pastor and the elder today? That is what stands out to me for this particular day in Benb's life. It's running through my mind. My mind is full of all kinds of different thoughts - this that and the other thing. Mark and Lynnette are preparing the trailer for the move. It's coming and there's nothing I can do about it. I don't have an empty room - yet - and I have no idea when that might happen. They like living in that trailer, actually, but Lynnette especially does not want to leave. I mean, what are they going to do, move into my storage shed like they were at the last property they were at? No. I hope the day to come that they come back. But, Lynnette also spoke about buying that trailer on payments. You can never really fully read a person.
You can try, but only God knows ALL of that about each of us.
After today's meeting with the pastor, I am just going to say that I am switching tracks. The train has been heading one direction, the track I am switching on takes a turn and leads a totally different direction. I have this life and that's it. I want it to count.
ben
Friday, November 18, 2011
Friday 11/19/2011
As of the end of yesterday, I had worked the full week's allotted hours. Today? However long I am on the clock is how many OT hours I will be getting. Last I saw, there were 3 deliveries. Those 3 deliveries are 3 separate truckloads. The truck is already loaded and ready to go for the first run, but since it's going to the Intel plant, I will be there a while getting it off loaded. Then to west Phoenix to pick up another load and back to Intel and then to the yard to pick up another load and off to the airport. And that is just what was in there yesterday, who knows what might have been added since then. Those 3 deliveries alone will take me into the afternoon.
The point is at this rate, I will see a much larger paycheck. I just got paid last night - direct deposit - and that check was $180 more than what I "normally" get. Another interesting effect of all of this work is the amount of fuel I am burning through in the semi. Usually 2 fill ups a month? I will need to fill up early next week if not today for the 3rd fill up of this month and we are only 2/3rds through it.
City of Phoenix has sent me a letter giving me the deadline for getting the violation removed. The end of the month, basically. Well howdy doody. I could appeal it - but I would lose, though it would give me more time. The department that issued the violation actually has an appeal process. Not a court thing, either, apparently, they decide whether your appeal has any merit or standing. Again, it would buy some more time.
I dunno about you, but it's hard to imagine that the holidays are almost upon us, at least Thanksgiving. I have NOT heard a lot of Christmas music blaring all over the place and for that I am very thankful. I love Christmas music, I do not, however, want to be subjected to it 3 months before Christmas ever arrives. Black Friday approaches, but apparently the deals are going to start earlier and also the deals are going to supposedly be sweet online as well. I am looking for a portable computer of some sort, haven't even determined which kind with what stuff on it I want. Pretty sure good deals on laptops and such will be popping up shortly.
Friday. Week has flown by. I have had no interactions with any of the hoarding neighbors. Randy is completely ignoring me now, which is fine by me, I was giving him the same cold shoulder back after his stupid statements about no leash laws for cats and therefore, they will go wherever they please. Yes and they can go right into an animal trap and be transported somewhere ELSE if I decide to start trapping cats again.
Umm, time to get out of here, work starts in 30 minutes!
G'day.
ben
The point is at this rate, I will see a much larger paycheck. I just got paid last night - direct deposit - and that check was $180 more than what I "normally" get. Another interesting effect of all of this work is the amount of fuel I am burning through in the semi. Usually 2 fill ups a month? I will need to fill up early next week if not today for the 3rd fill up of this month and we are only 2/3rds through it.
City of Phoenix has sent me a letter giving me the deadline for getting the violation removed. The end of the month, basically. Well howdy doody. I could appeal it - but I would lose, though it would give me more time. The department that issued the violation actually has an appeal process. Not a court thing, either, apparently, they decide whether your appeal has any merit or standing. Again, it would buy some more time.
I dunno about you, but it's hard to imagine that the holidays are almost upon us, at least Thanksgiving. I have NOT heard a lot of Christmas music blaring all over the place and for that I am very thankful. I love Christmas music, I do not, however, want to be subjected to it 3 months before Christmas ever arrives. Black Friday approaches, but apparently the deals are going to start earlier and also the deals are going to supposedly be sweet online as well. I am looking for a portable computer of some sort, haven't even determined which kind with what stuff on it I want. Pretty sure good deals on laptops and such will be popping up shortly.
Friday. Week has flown by. I have had no interactions with any of the hoarding neighbors. Randy is completely ignoring me now, which is fine by me, I was giving him the same cold shoulder back after his stupid statements about no leash laws for cats and therefore, they will go wherever they please. Yes and they can go right into an animal trap and be transported somewhere ELSE if I decide to start trapping cats again.
Umm, time to get out of here, work starts in 30 minutes!
G'day.
ben
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)