Care And Treatment Of Small Ponds - Starting Up A New Small Pond

I am a small pond enthusiast and have been doing it for going on my third year now.

If you are just starting out with ponds and especially if you are doing small ponds, then perhaps I can help you bypass a lot of guesswork and get what you need right from the get-go.

First off, I live in the Sonoran desert in southern Arizona.  It simply means during the summer, the temperatures in my ponds go up substantially, especially my pond out front of my house that can hit 95 or even high degree water temperature.

Amazing how Koi and Goldfish can withstand such temperatures.  I do throw in ice during the summer, but it's not like it's a cool swim for those fish in there after I throw it in there, just brings the overall temperature of the pond down a couple of degrees.

Well, let's get started.  First off, the filtration system.  If you are going to have fish in your pond, you are going to need filtration.  I spent quite a while reading all kinds of information about this particular subject before I just threw my hands up in the air and started looking for a waterfall filter.  Basically, it's a plastic container maybe a foot and a half tall and a foot or so wide.  It has an inlet at the bottom for water to be pumped into it and then the water "falls" off a large lip at the top of it.  I have 2 of them.  They both have  bio balls in them - you will need those - and they both have the thick filter media.  I also buy much thinner filter media on eBay to help further filter the water.  

This and the pump that supplies the water to the filter are the most important parts of your pond.  Without them, your fish are probably not going to do very well.  BTW, you can be hard-plastic liner pre-formed ponds or you can buy a liner and dig a hole in the ground.  I have the preformed liner WITH a liner in it.  I also turned a 400 gallon galvanized metal horse trough into a pond as well.  

The waterfall filters are the best, IMO, but there is also a much smaller, compact filtering system you can buy on eBay or wherever that will also do the trick.  The point of the waterfall filters is that the water is streaming off the top of the filter into your pond and yes, you get the nice sound of water falling into a pond with them.  

The pump is the other half of the equation.  Smaller is not better, especially with fish.  More Gallons Per Hour (GPH) is always better.  In all 3 of my ponds, I have pumps that are sized large enough to cycle the entire contents of the ponds twice per hour.  That's my equation after fooling with this for quite a while.  So, if you have a 400 gallon pond, I will buy an 800 gallon per hour pump for it.  Sounds excessive, right?  Not at all.  It is, as far as I'm concerned, the perfect sized pump for the amount of water in your pond.  You can go ahead and buy, say a 150 gph pump for a 400 gallon pond and you are going to have a small trickle of water.  If that's what you want, then go for it, but it probably won't work with your filtration system too well and if you want that pleasant sound of falling water, you are not going to get much of that with such a small pump.  I WENT that route.  I started out at 75gph, then 125, 150, 200, 350, all the way up until I got to 800gph and then? I was definitely happy with the results.

That was the hardest part of this setup that I had to deal with.  How big of a pump. Well I just give you some good advice.  A larger pump will pick up all the junk that floats to the bottom of the pond as well.  There IS no buildup down there to have to fool with.  If you have enough fish, they stir up the stuff on the bottom and that pump sitting down there sucks the junk - fish poop to be precise- right out of the water.  

Next?  UV sterilizer.  Not all ponds need them. I have one pond that doesn't have an algae problem, my other 2? The water turned pea green.  You couldn't see an inch down into the water.  I bought the smallest UV sterilizer I could find and they both work great!  I don't WANT green ponds, is the point. I want to be able to see my fishies in there.

You can get new pumps and UV sterilizers at great prices on eBay.  That and sometimes Craigslist.  I bought both my waterfall filters from 2 different people who were shutting down their ponds and were practically giving the filters away.  I will never buy a used pump, though, all of them I have bought new on eBay and haven't had a problem, same with the UV sterilizer.  

Fish?  Took me quite a long time.  I wanted Koi.  I acquired a lot of pond sized goldfish for free, the Koi were a bit more elusive.  But, I kept going to Craigslist, day after day after day, looking for the deals on Koi, all of them were deals made from individuals that were shutting their ponds down permanently.  They wanted to get rid of them but wanted them to go to good homes.  Your small pond can accommodate a large number of fish.  The more fish you have, the more fish food you are going to go through and you will also find you will have to clean out that filter more frequently.  

Fish food.  I buy large bottles of Goldfish flakes at Walmart, I buy 20 pounds of Koi pellets at a time off of a supplier on eBay. 

Additives.  Well, if you have just filled your pond up with fresh city tap water and then are going to put fish in right away, I would suggest you get some liquid that is sold at Walmart amongst other places that helps remove chlorine from the water and also reduces stress in fish. I mention Walmart cause' I did my ponds on a budget. I didn't skimp, but I did buy some used stuff.  

Plants.  You don't need a green thumb to grow water plants and they do amazingly well with out ever doing anything to them.  My Taros in one pond have grown incredibly large (elephant ear plant).  My Umbrella plants are growing in all 3 ponds.  I have Yerba Mensa in one pond that grew from a tiny plant into a behemoth!! Water lillies are also good for keeping your pond a bit cooler if you have direct sunlight hitting it and the water is heating up in summer.  I have all of those and also parrot feather in one pond.  With my ponds, it was hit and miss.  Some plants grow better under shade, others grow better in direct sunlight.  I got all of my plants off of Craigslist locally from people either selling them or giving them away.  

When an owner of a large pond decides it's time to clean up the plants, many of them will write up an ad on Craigslist.  They almost always give the plants away.  90% of my plants were free, only the water lillies did I have to pay for.  You really WANT plants in your pond. Natural beauty and helps keep your pond clear.  Actually, I don't have large ponds but I occasionally have to prune back some plants, just posted an ad for freebies today and have had several inquiries.  

Once you get your pond or ponds going, they aren't much maintenance.  Clean out the filtering system once in a while and sometimes the pump gets clogged up with junk that it has accumulated.  Feed the fish and make sure the water level is good in the pond.  Fish are fun to watch and it's cool to see your plants grow over time. 

Also, one last thing about the plants.  Whatever kind of container you have, that's what you can use.  Cut a milk jug in half and there you have a pond planter.  Put the plant in it, fill it with dirt and cover the dirt with rocks.  It's as easy as that. This is not complicated stuff, but there is a bit thrown at you at the very beginning, I do hope this article will help.

Edited:  Aeration.  I found that my small ponds with lots of fish in them were not sufficiently aerated in the summer months by the act of the waterfall filters alone.  I ended up buying small air pumps either off of Craigslist or yes, at Walmart, the same you would use in an aquarium. How did I know that the ponds weren't sufficiently aerated?  The fish were up at the surface, gulping at air.  It was pretty easy to determine the problem and even easier to address it. A pump with at least 2 outlets, the air tubing and yes, air stones.  As soon as I did that, the fish were no longer sitting at the surface.

Water changing. Well there's a lot on the net about it, some say to do it once a month and some say to do it twice per month. They all vary on what percentage of water to change out.  I haven't needed to change out any water in my small ponds.  Evaporation makes the water go down enough that I have to refill it periodically with fresh water.  I do think it good to have to put in fresh water here and there, I have no scientific reasoning behind it, I just think that the fish do better if they get fresh water infused here and there.  Well, my ponds will go down a couple of inches per month in the winter and a lot more in the summer due to evaporation alone.  So, that's all I do. Just refill the ponds.  

Saturday 3/31/2012

Last day of March.
Temps are just starting to move up here.
Nothing horrendous yet, but it's definitely getting a bit warm out there.
Just spent quite a bit of time on the east side of the house pruning more trees and putting poles into the ground to help keep them standing straight up.  Rosemary was out of control, pruned those 2 bushes back quite a lot as well.
Front yard looking good.  Front yard pond doing very well.  The water lily plant I have in it is sending lots of new leaves - good thing because that is the only thing the fish have to hide under in that little pond.  I have it directly in the middle of it and it provides good coverage for them, will get even better as more leaves pop up out of the water.
Next pond needing attention is on the east side of the house.  Umbrella plant has also sprouted out of control and am going to need to cut out a lot of it.  I might run a Craigslist ad and see if anyone is interested in them.

Besides outdoor activities in working on my property, I have little interest in doing anything else this weekend.  I am still pretty much under a bit of a weight with this situation going on at work.  The conclusion? I may not know for some time. Or, I could find out Monday, who knows?  When you don't know what's going to happen with something that could dramatically up-end your little world, well, sit down, breath, relax. At the same time, brace.  Think of what I will do if the worst possible scenario happens.

If the worst happens, it won't be the end of the world but it will certainly have a dramatic effect on my life.

But, whatever.  Tough it out.

Ready made family.
My manager got a call from a lady while at work yesterday: she was bored and was coming to visit.  She brought one of her kids, a 6 or so something year old girl. My manager is like: she's pretty good looking, why don't you date her? Before she comes over.  Yeah. 6 kids?  This lady has 6 kids.

Well they show up and the lady goes into his office while the little girl is out at the counter - asking me 50 questions - at least.  Mostly it was about whether I was married, do I want to get married and finally: "Well you can marry my mom if you want to.  You don't have to if you don't want to, but if you want to, you can marry her".  Talk about a girl desperate for some fatherly/male type of attention.  This little girl sat out there for 30 minutes going on and on like this.

No, I am not going on a date with the lady.  We never got that far.  I might actually be interested, but - no kids on a date, thanks.

Next door neighbor.  You know, the one that is sort of building a house?  Well, he finally got the slab poured and started putting up the walls.  Used lumber.  All of it.  Whatever makes him happy, I guess.  It's going to be a very small house.  He already has a sign up out front: house for sale.  He's selling a house that hasn't been built yet.  Nice.

I haven't seen 350 man in over a week. Not that I want to nor do I care.  In fact, very nice. The house going up next door is now starting to block out the view of 350 man's house.  Very nice again.

I'm about to go out front again and water my plants.  I am taking Sophie out there, but, this time, she will be leashed.

Later.

ben

Friday 3/30/2012

Well, that was fun.
I had Sophie out front - have had her out there several times now - but this time? She took off.  Fast.  Fast little doggy.
She's gone, too.  I chased her in the car, caught up to her several times and got out, only to have her look at me as if I were a complete stranger and take off running (which I will admit here pretty much pissed me off that she wouldn't even give a hint of recognition).  She finally got into an area where my car wouldn't go and I can't catch that dog on foot, she is far too fast for me.  I tried driving around the area for a good hour, but, she's gone.

Good thing I don't have any great attachment to that dog yet.  She has a collar and it has a number to call if she is caught, so, maybe I will see her again some day, who knows.  She was running right out in front of cars on a busy street, not so sure she is going to last too long running around doing that.

Situation at work is in limbo.  No idea, really.  I am going to try to get my mind off of it cause' it isn't going to do me any good to worry about it perpetually.

Back to the dog, the neighborhood kid comes walking in here 15 minutes ago saying he had seen Sophie back in this neighborhood and tried to catch her.  Yeah, good luck.  She isn't listening to anyone.  I got in my car again and drove around this entire area several times, didn't find her.  Even if I did, though, I have doubts that I would have been able to get close enough to her to grab her collar.

Another extremely long interlude.  I gave up on the dog, the dog apparently did not on me.  She came back - an amazing feat in itself, a dog that can actually find it's way home. She was next door, the neighborhood kid lured her with a piece of meat and then grabbed her collar and brought her back in my gate.  I gave him a $5 reward. That kid smells to high heaven. He comes in here smelling so foul, I can hardly stand it, I have to cover my nose the smell is so strong, as if he never takes a bath.  The dog is laying there with this pathetic look.  If that isn't a dog that knows she has done something wrong, I dunno what it is.

Whatever.  I'm done with this.

ben

A Problem

It is interesting to watch people who take pleasure in other people's nightmares.  I'm not talking politics here, that's a whole different story.  To "take pleasure in another man's calamity" is something I have never quite understood. You know, a person hates another person.  The hated person has something horrific or very bad happen to them and then the hater laughs and mocks the person either behind their back, to their face or both.

I mean, okay, Osama bin Laden.  There's a guy you can say good riddance to.  Well, whatever.

All plans are on indeterminate length of time hold right now.  Situation at work and the potential to - not be employed anymore.  Can't and won't go into it on my blog.  I can only say that I still love my job at my company, there are a good share of problems but, you find that at any place of employment.  I would have liked to have been promoted by now, but, I do like the responsibilities that determine my job description.

So, if it happens, it happens.  I will remember the good things, such as all the employees that helped me out when my house burned down. Gift cards and furniture and all kinds of stuff were given to me.  The company itself helped me out with a fund they have designated for emergencies.  I have received the highest level of bonus money that my "tier" can receive every year I have been there.  I have received the Safe Driver Award 4 years out of 6.  But, I do potentially face a new reality: becoming one of the millions of Americans that are unemployed.  

I have a couple of co-workers, referencing the beginning of this entry, that talk smack about me behind my back.  I'm not the only one they talk smack about, but I recently heard from one of our VENDORS about their malicious speech.  The guy at the vendor is totally cool and I actually get emails forwarded from him here and there with comedic things he has gleaned from wherever on the internet.  It's funny how you can uplift your fellow employee - which I have done with both of these individuals numerous times in the past - and the find out they have been trash talking you.

I dunno, but I work at 2-man branch.  That's my manager and I.  We are going to hit somewhere near or maybe even over 600k - $600,000 for this month.  That will be more than the main branch's warehouse will have put out in terms of truck deliveries, where they have 2 full time drivers plus several individuals that work down there that they use to send out product as well.  I am the ONLY driver.  I take pride in my work; I strive for excellence and I try to keep a good attitude. It is, actually, the 2 full-time drivers over there that talk the crap about me behind my back and then talk a sweet and nice to me face-to-face. Don't you just despise people like that?

I am not going to go into the details that have led to this point, I am not terminated yet and it may not happen, but, I am preparing for the "worst".  I can probably find another job, but, who knows what, how much it will pay, the working conditions, etc.  I'm one of those people that will stick around for a long, long time.  I probably get too comfortable in my working conditions, but when I have an expertise of what I am doing, I tend to enjoy it as well.

It IS even more interesting, however and getting back to the main point of this entry, to find out who IS on  your side.  Quite a few people, I find out.  This includes members of management, I might add, which is refreshing to say the least.

Well, anyway, I put in a 10-1/2 hour day today and was totally burned out at the end of it.  A LOT of driving.  When I  got back to the yard, done with the truck and all paperwork in hand, I walked into the building to hear my name being mentioned. They didn't know I had pulled in with the semi.  We have a "dinger" that sounds of when anything passes through the gate on the side of the building, but they had a lunch for contractors today and they blinded the dinger so it wouldn't keep going off repeatedly, incessantly, forever.

I had no idea what was going on, but it came to light quickly: the lottery.  It's over half a billion dollars now.  22 people in our company had pitched in $5 a piece to create a pool.  A salesman came out of the kitchen - totally cool dude- after hearing, oh, Ben's here, he just came back! and asked if I wanted to be included in the pool.  Of course I do.  How would you like to be the sorry sap in your company that didn't pitch in 5 bucks and then find out everyone else has their part in 540 million dollars?  Even spread out 22 ways, that's still a LOT of money per person!  27 million? Minus taxes and in my case, 20% up front to the Lord's work. At least 20%.  What are you going to do with that much money anyway?  Buy a house and set up a fund to pay for property taxes for the rest of your life and after that, who cares.

Others would care, of course, I don't.  If I owned a property flat out, that would be the end all for me.

You know, I haven't been terminated from a job since I was 16 years old.  It would be a blow to me, frankly, to get that kind of thing handed to me now just because of that if nothing else.

Oh well.

ben

Thursday 3/29/2012

Ouch.  Large mortgage payment went through - 2 month's worth.  Coco situation sort of aggravated my financial position, but I had to pay that down to zero.  I haven't made my mind up about short selling the house and until I do, the mortgage obviously must be paid.

I got off work late yesterday - didn't get home until after 5:00.  Long days equal getting much of nothing done around the house, especially on that trailer.  My manager didn't bring in his grinder because, he stated, he couldn't find it.  I am just going to go buy another one from Harbor Freight - though this time I will buy one with a bigger motor and hopefully last a bit longer.

Regardless, I got caught up in reading the news this morning and just realized that..........it's time to be off to work.  Another full day, perhaps, dunno, but this morning is definitely going to be quite busy with all kinds of orders in there to pull, load and take out to jobsites.

Later.

ben

Wednesday 3/28/2012

Church: small groups.

Last night.

Took my chicken sticks, big hit, which was nice.

We all sat down at tables, had some conversation.

After about 30 minutes of eating and talking, the group leader brings up a subject for everyone to share their stories on.

He shared one of his and then the lady-that-never-shuts-up shared hers.  

Then someone else.  Then the lady-that-never-shuts-up. 

Then another person.  Then the lady-that-never-shuts-up.

I shared one and then the group leader hijacked my story - I could tell stories of my missionary days for hours, but I wasn't about to do any such thing.  Instead, I went on for about a minute before the leader took my conversation out of my mouth and started making it his own.

Which irritated me - well that's an understatement but since it's church I let it go.

Then this lady-that-never-shuts up started telling story, after story, after story.

I was ready to get up and walk out to be honest.  If the leader of the group can't find it within himself to take control of the situation and do whatever needs to be done to - get that woman to shut her freaking mouth - well I am questioning whether I will be going back.  I don't know WHY - ANYONE - thinks that anyone else wants to hear them speaking ALL the time. 

It was so bad in the end that she actually interrupted someone else that was trying to speak and started talking over the TOP of that person!  Unbelievably rude and selfish - MY opinion and thoughts are more important than anyone else's.  

Whatever.  

It's time to go to work.  

I am going to write the pastor about this situation at small group and find out his thoughts on it, though, it may put him in an unenviable position, so beit.

G'day.

ben

The Chinese Buffet

Their chick sticks are of heavenly origins, I am sure of it.
I had never seen chicken sticks like this before, much less tasted anything that was that good.
I am going to small group at church tonight and it's a pot luck type of thing.  Instead of cooking something, I figured I would take about 20 of them in there and everyone would get at least one of them.

Regardless, they had all of 3 left when I went in there and a lady came up and snatched them before I could get my hands on them.  So, I just stood there and waited.  The owner finally came up and asked what I was waiting for.  I pointed at a slew of empty pans, but most notable the chicken stick pan.

He was, apparently, not exactly happy that the food trays were near empty and rushed into the kitchen to take care of business.  A few minutes later, trays full of food started appearing.  A few minutes after that, they came up with the chicken sticks, but there was only twelve of them.  I took all of them and just waited some more.  Honey chicken finally came out - Mark and Lynnette love this stuff so I buy them a container full every time I come in here - Lynnette being in love with the Honey Chicken.

Done with that, they came out with more chicken sticks.  But again, only 12 or maybe 14 of them.  A lady took a couple.  I looked at the owner: "well is it okay to take more?".  He's all over that, yes yes, take as many as you want, we cook more.  I took all of the rest of those as well and decided that was enough waiting and probably enough money.  There's 10 or 12 in the group, sometimes more.  Everyone is bringing something, so if they get one of the chicken sticks each at least, then that should be good.  I can just about guarantee that someone or many someones are going to ask about where I got those chicken sticks.

"Ancient Chinese Secret, located at McClintock and Baseline" I will respond.

Long interlude.  I took an almost hour-long nap.  If I have to stay up later than my bedtime, gotta make it up somewhere.  Time to leave for church.

Tuesday 3/27/2012

Message to atheists: get over yourselves.
I don't cafe if you are offended by my Christianity or my belief in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  I don't care if you hate the Bible.  I don't care if you hate church, Easter, Christmas and a whole variety of other holidays, seasons and things that Christians like to do.

If you don't like any of that stuff, don't participate in it!  In fact, since you hate all of it so much, why not go find an island somewhere that is large enough to accommodate all of you and start a Godless society?  God is at the roots of this nation of ours - the belief in Him that is and that is all there is to it. You can sue and sue and sue all you want, but you are wasting your time- and your money.  Even if you get a few wins here and there, you aren't going to erase God from this entire society!  There are too many of us here that believe in Him!  Akin to Obama's desire to remove guns out of the hands of responsible, law-abiding citizens: It's NEVER going to happen!

Enough.  I am sick of seeing lawsuit after lawsuit being filed by atheists against all kinds of governments, churches, groups, whatever.  Frivolous at best.  Are these people really so thin-skinned that they can't stand that others are enjoying their religious freedoms to express themselves in a public forum?  Apparently.  One wonders how they make it in life if they get offended so incredibly easy.

No idea.  Onto other things.  Still looking for a mattress.  Ended the ordeal with "The Craigslister", who, I had already guessed, isn't really into Craigslist at all and had no clue how to deal with it.  I'll find a mattress eventually, but I am going to start looking on a daily basis, time is running out.  I have seen a couple of places in phoenix selling mattress on the side of the road - well they're actual shops selling new mattresses to clarify that, but the mattresses are always stacked up right next to the street.

I dunno, but I want to get PAST this particular sticking point of finding a mattress for that trailer.  It's gone on long enough.  Then it will be to find a microwave that fits into the cabinet that is made for it.  Or not.  And the carpet.  These are the three, big things left to do besides the work on the roof.  I have the major part of the roof done, it's just removing old sealant and putting on fresh is what I wanted to do with it at this point.  Hopefully by this weekend I will have this mattress ordeal done and over with - HOPEFULLY.

I also have a lot of minutia to buy for it. Some of it dollar store stuff, other stuff a bit more expensive, but just things you want to have around.  Toiletries and silverware and this and that.  Pots, pans, you know.  I have enough time to finish all of it, but man, some sticking points here that I didn't think would take this long to get past.

Whatever the case, it's time to go off to work and, undoubtedly, the Intel plant.

G'day.

ben

More of 'The Craigslister'

So, this guy writes me back after I tell him all of that - that I know his line of work, where he works, the name of his wife, his home city of Philadelphia and the idea that I would just forward this email of his to his superiors, as I put it, and see how they feel about one of their employees in such a high level job making such unbelievable statements as he did to me.

His tones were WAY down.  The cussing was gone, the only threat he had left was his lawyer.  Lol.  That he would sue me for slander and defamation of character.  First off, threats from lawyers no longer have the effect on me they once had 25 years ago.  This is because lawyers intentionally throw all kinds of legaleze at people and threats of this and that and what would happen to you if they follow through with their threats.  In most cases, it's at LEAST 90% hot air and probably more than that.  They are trying to scare you to get you to back down and not do anything at all - or stop whatever it is that is "offending" another person or entity.

Well, I wrote him back.  Sick your lawyer on me: you have defamed yourself by your own words.  It's not here-say, it's your own email.  You wrote that email after I demanded that you not write back to me.  You are the one that acted like a 5 year old getting cocky on an elementary school playground.

I was not backing down, was the point, I had no reason to back down - after he had demanded payment up front for something that I wasn't going to get for 2 weeks, I just said not.  Not happening and where you ever got the idea that anyone is going to give another person money for nothing is unknown, but in my world, it doesn't happen.

He writes me back again.  This time, the threats were entirely void of the conversation.  No lawyers, nothing. A man in his position with a person like me having enough of his personal information that I can tarnish his image at the very least?  Yeah.  I'll bet he doesn't pull that crap with people online ever again, or if he does, at least the thought of potential consequences will come back off the dusty shelves of his mind to give him thought to possibly not go that route.  He ended his much humbled tones with an apology.

That's all I was looking for.  My issue with him is over with that apology.  Let's get real, folks: whatever we say online can be found by just about anyone.  Facebook. Twitter. Blogs.  I say alot on this blog, but there are certain things I won't say or lines of thought I won't go into.  I may have in the past, but no more.  My Facebook account?  I only have it to play that Zynga game, otherwise I wouldn't even use the thing.  I have found a lot of interesting and even wonderful people that I communicate with through that game, which is the only reason I still play it.  I had thought of deleting my Facebook account until I started with that game and then started talking with people - normal people I might add - from all over the world. Well, there are the crazies, too, but I have "gelled" with a couple of dozen people at least which makes me not want to get rid of FB at this point or delete that game.

Well, got home early 2:00 pm.  That's definitely early for me currently.  There was only one delivery - which turned into 2 - in the system.  I got those done and put stuff away, cleaned up a bit and left half an hour early.  I figure that sometime this week, I will go over hours again and I will still end up with OT regardless.

Caleb called me this morning - I don't get calls from Caleb while I'm at work unless something is wrong, I was hoping that car hadn't broken down again.  Well, it WAS the car, but not a breakdown: he had locked himself out of it.  He was extremely lucky that I had JUST happened to pass by where he was at only a few minutes earlier.  Otherwise, I would not have been able to help him since I was on a run to pick up material and deliver it to a job site.

Enough.

Monday 3/26/2012

So, after I dismissed this guy that had a mattress for sale, he writes me back and goes into a tirade, cussing, shooting off at the mouth, making unbelievable statements that I won't even repeat here. My email to him was NOTHING of this nature.

The guy has his entire name written on his emails and further, he was dumb enough to tell me his line of work.  It took me all of 30 seconds to find his Linkedin and Facebook accounts, where he works, his home in Philadelphia, etc etc etc.

Anyway, I started this entry too late, I have to leave for work!

G'day.

ben

Sunday 3/25/2012

Can you believe March is close to being over already?  Wow!
May will be here before I know it.  Yes, I know I skipped April, May is when I intend on having that trailer moved up to the property when my mother goes up there.
In the meantime, I am STILL trying to nab a queen sized mattress for the thing. Craigslist is SO full of flakes, it's ridiculous.  I've offered what they are asking and they still don't get back to me, but some of it has to do with the fact that I need it delivered and many people, I am finding, can't deliver.

I opted out of church today.  One of those moods, I guess, I simply didn't feel like going and am not going to stress over it.  They always ask whenever I don't show up - my excuse this time? I will simply tell them: long work week, tired, just didn't feel like going, sorry.

I replied to an ad with a mattress for sale.  The conversation went such and such in emails and then, a few hours later, I called him.  He said he isn't leaving until 2 Fridays from now and would need the mattress.  Okay, whatever, I can wait.  So the discussion went until he got to this part: Well, we are going to have to meet up and you are going to have to pay for it in advance.  The apartments I live in will charge me such and such if I leave anything behind in there and I want to be 100% sure that you are going to take the mattress.

Yeah, in a PIG'S EYE will I give him or anyone else any money in advance for something being bought off of Craigslist and I FLATLY told him that on the phone, wished him a nice day and hung up.  Lunatic.  He called back - I did not answer, I told him I was no longer interested: I am NO LONGER INTERESTED. He then emails me.  Blah blah blah.

Craiglist is a strange world and there are some pretty strange people that you may encounter from time to time if doing business on it or even frequently.  The guy could offer me the thing for free at this point and I wouldn't take it.

In fact, after thinking about it, I am at the point where I really don't WANT to sleep on someone else's used mattress.  Well, you know, sometimes there are ads in there for a very nice mattress that was in a guest bedroom that wasn't used much.  If true, that doesn't bother me.   Whatever the case, I don't have unlimited time, but this guy's mattress?  He can sell to someone else.  Yes, he totally changed his tune after I gave him a dose of reality, but who cares.

There is no argument in my mind, whatsoever, that the Obama administration would like to do away with gun ownership, period.  It will never happen, but it's certainly one of his major agendas whether he wants to state that as such or not.  The Stand Your Ground law in Florida isn't much different than what we have here.

I do not have to retreat if someone enters my home or my car.  The fact that a person is entering your home is enough to use deadly force.  That is, of course, up to the homeowner with the gun in his/her hand.  Hands in the case of a nice, large, extremely threatening-looking thing called a 12-gauge shotgun.  I don't live in a nice area and I have no qualms with deadly force when it's called for.

But from reading numerous news accounts - which is all I have to go on and if you go on what you have read - the man that shot that kid in Florida was not standing his ground.  He was chasing after the kid.  He was told by 911 operator to stop following the person.  There isn't any good reason for a block watch captain to go around attempting to detain people, call the police if you really think there is something wrong and let them deal with it.  I mean, if the kid was breaking into a home, different story. Obviously, there are a lot of facts that we probably don't know about, but for me?  Standing your ground doesn't mean going after a person that is walking down a public street, minding his/her own business, confronting the person because you are suspicious and then ending up shooting that person.

Which is the point.  Get rid of the laws that help innocent people defend themselves, right?  This is exactly what is going to happen and is already in the beginning stages of it.  One incident that makes national headlines and stays in the national headlines for days and days is enough to being consideration retracting all such self-defense laws?

The hummingbirds are fighting out there. They have been for quite some time now.  Mama doesn't want any other hummers coming around her nest and she will get into a serious fight over that issue, as I have witnessed many times over.  Don't even think about flying over this property, is her statement to them, if you do, you are going to receive my wrath.  And her wrath? I've seen it doled out several times over.  Fierce looking fighting while zipping through the air and pecking at the other bird.  I have a lot of flowering plants right now, not to mention the red liquid feeders, pretty tempting, I am betting, for a hummingbird looking for new territory.  I don't think that's going to happen. I don't really know, only suspect, that this particular mama is the same bird that hangs out around here year round.  There are times when there are a dozen of them around here feeding off the feeder, but mostly, she takes issue with all of them and defends her territory.

It is an amazing thing to watch.

My next door neighbor has finally poured the slab for his new home.  At the rate he is going, it will be a decade before that house is actually built and lived in.

I have gotten almost nothing done today and could care less.  I got plenty done around here yesterday and worked my @$$ off at work the 5 days previous, enough for one week.

Whatever the case, enough for one entry.  A couple more hours and then off to bed.

ben

A Few Hours

Break time.

I went to Denny's and sat at the counter - usually get better service at a counter than at a booth in that particular location.  Very nice looking and sweet young lady was my server.  She made several corrections during my visit which made it particularly nice, not to mention repeatedly visiting me to make sure everything was good and drinks were filled.

Corrections being taking the hash browns back before even serving them to me - I said nothing about them and would have eaten them the way they were, but I had asked for extra crisp and they were not.  Took a cup of coffee she had just poured, looked at it and said no, this isn't good, dumped it out and actually went to the server station in the middle of the place to get a fresh cup for me!  I didn't ask for any of it and I was in a very good mood, I would have just taken whatever and been happy with it. 

I got service you would expect at a much finer restaurant with much higher prices and yes, I tipped accordingly.  It had been so long since I had down sit down service that I gave a 200% tip.  Lol.  Make that about 230% tip, but who's counting.  Made up for all the time I had not done sit-down service, but more importantly, that I recognized the quality and level of service that she was giving and that I very much appreciated it and beyond that?  I worked in restaurants in my teenaged years and there are a lot of very STINGY people out there that either do not tip at all or give very minimal percentage tip that is not on par with industry standards of at least a 15% gratuity if you have received good service.

Waiters and waitresses, as most people know but many don't seem to care anyway, get the bulk of their income from tips, not hourly wages.  

I then headed to Auto Zone. Car needs new brake pads and I decided I would either install them myself or have someone come over and give them $25 or $30 to do it for me.  Versus taking it into a shop and having them attempt to tell you that you need $800 to $1,000 or more worth of work.  I never take my car into any shop to have brake work done, it's pretty much a ripoff and I am not buying it.  Well, the gift cards I had not only paid for the brakes, but also the floor jack and also some other stuff I needed.  Well, there you go, the money spent on the tip at Denny's was made up for by the gift cards at Auto Zone.  

I then headed to Home Depot, which was the intent of my departure from home earlier anyway.  Marigolds, Tulips and other flowers, got a flat's worth of them and brought them home.  Out front, I noticed that the recent rain had given rise to - a lot of weeds.  So, instead of getting on the trailer roof, I got down and dirty and started pulling weeds.  After 45 minutes of that, well, I had to plant those flowers.  All 3 pots out there are now filled with beautiful, extremely fragrant flowers of all kinds of colors - purple; red; yellow; orange and there it is.  Instant beauty both visually and orfactoral.  I have plenty left to do out there in pulling the small weeds - much easier to get them up and out when they first show up than commit a procrastinational offense and then, you are going to have a time getting them out WITH the roots.

Next.  MAYBE up on the roof before going back to the weeds.  In fact, I need to get my vacuum out and use it on the front - leaves everywhere detracting from the beauty of my front yard, which I do consider to be looking very fine at this point if I do say so myself.  Plus, one of the Sissoo's needs an entire limb cut down - it is a 2 limb tree growing out of the ground.  If you leave it that way, eventually it's going to come back to bite you.  This is still a small tree so it should be okay doing that without anything but the tree being able to focus on it's one limb growing instead of attempting to grow 2 of them.

Dogs have my room smelling - like dogs so a very intense cleaning started on that as well, including cleaning the carpet later on.

Well, it's a beautiful day outside and I just realized that - uhhhhh - probably better to get going on that roof before it gets burning hot, ie: waiting until May or something to finish it.  Not the greatest idea, so, I am going to get up there and do that small vent and maybe start on the other thing up there that I want to do before calling it roof quits for the day.  Then, back to weeds and also cleaning out one of the pond filters for the second time this week.  It is getting clogged up quickly because of the tree debris coming down into it.  Soon, that will all be cleaned out of there and I will be able to revert back to once a month cleanings.

Have a great day : )

ben

Saturday 3/24/2012

Another Marathon work day yesterday.  About 1:00 pm, I'm sitting at the main branch, calling the salesman on the account that is working on the new Intel plant.  "I'm down here, right now, is there anything ELSE that we are doing today?". He calls all the supervisors out there and they tell him, no, they are good, don't need anything.

So, I take the load I have on the truck to, where else, the Intel plant and figure the day is over after that.  2:00 pm.  Salesman calls, I'm still sitting on the site waiting for yet another contractor that we are also delivering goods to out there.  The call is telling me that I am going to have to run all over west Phoenix, pick up all kinds of stuff, go back to the yard, pick up more stuff and then deliver it - today, being yesterday.

Balk. It will be at least 5:00 pm, if not later, I reply, and they will have gone home by then.  The plan changes, just get the stuff we have at our yard he will go to 2 of the places, the 3rd vendor - which is way over in west Phoenix, we can do on Monday, according to the supervisor on-site that the salesman talked to.

Pass 30  minutes.  Another call.  The supervisor's manager changed that.  Nope, we need that part today to install tomorrow morning.  So, after finally getting out of that place at 3:10 pm, I knew I was in for a horrid time in traffic.  Friday afternoon, everyone wants to get home.  Indeed. I didn't get home yesterday until 7:00 pm.  9 hours of overtime for this week.  Undoubtedly will get more OT next week.  I was so tired, driving home was a chore.  I got in here and collapsed on the chair.  It wasn't 12 hours of driving, it was 12 hours of loading and unloading, move this, shift that plus I hadn't eaten enough food for that much of a work load/day.

So, here it is, 9:00am Saturday morning and I have had enough work for one week.  Too bad I still need to get up on the roof of that trailer and do more work up there.  Debating whether I really want to exert the energy to do any of that today or not.  I could do the small vent in relatively short order, I do believe, as long as the grinder doesn't blow up in my face.

But, I also want to get some flowers that Home Depot has for my front planters.  I have 3, nice looking planters out there that have much of nothing in them at the moment. A few flats of flowers would fix that nicely.

Maybe I'll head that way and stop at Waffle House or Denny's.  I haven't eaten in quite a long time now, about 17 hours and then, it was only 2 very small sandwiches.  9 hours before that was a salad and 15 hours before that was dinner.  The point? I'm hungry!

Later.

ben

Friday 3/23/2012

Another work week just about past.  I have been going into that Intel plant every day, several times a day.  It's been going on this way for quite a while now and frankly, I am getting sick of it.  I haven't been on  a "long" run in a long time now and I need a bit of diversity here to mix things up.   Instead, I am going to be going back to that plant at least twice again today.  It's the new fab buildings they are putting up and the company we are servicing requires a lot of material, all the time.

The guards know me by name now.  Not just my first name, either.  When I walk up to give them my paperwork, it's "How's it going, mr. Ben B?" - full name though of which, of course, I will never post here.  Of course, there haven't BEEN any mountain or other runs in our service area - but there have been plenty in the main branch's area.  

I'm really trying to wait until summer before taking any serious time off, but I am feeling in need of a good, 9 days straight off which would include 4 weekend days.  I want to do that up in the mountains, at my mother's property, in my trailer that hopefully will be up there by then.  Mark has been working on stripping the carpet in the areas that it must be taken out, which is the bathroom.  The stuff is stuck to the floor and apparently has been quite the paint to remove.  

My paycheck - which was direct deposited at midnight - was about $300 higher than normal simply because of all of this overtime.  Too bad I don't get ALL of the overtime money, then it would have been closer to $600 over.  Thank the government for taking a good chunk of change out of that OT.  At least the weekend is here, I am just plain tired and just want to rest.  

Well, anyway, I am going to force myself to get up on that trailer again this weekend and get that small vent done and then the rest?  Dunno.  My manager told me he was going to bring in his grinder to let me borrow it, but, as usual, he hasn't brought it in and has probably totally forgotten about it.  I didn't ask him to borrow it anyway, I didn't even know he had one, I was just asking him if he knew a decent brand that won't burn up so I can go buy one.  I am not going to ask him about it, just blow it off and find one if this other piece of junk burns up, which I am sure it will because I am just going to run the thing until the motor dies on it and then it's going to go into the trash can.  Next?

I don't know why tenants think I am in a talkative mood in the mornings, especially this early, but sometimes it happens.  I don't want to talk, I just want to sit here and do my thing on the computer for the few minutes that I have with it and then get up and go to work.  I'm a bit grumpy this morning - tired is the cause, woke up several times last night - and I would rather go back to bed right now than haul my @$$ off to work, but I have no choice in the matter and so, in 10 minutes, it's off to work I go to spend another day in the Intel plant or running around all over the place picking stuff up to go.........where else............into the Intel plant.  I probably shouldn't complain about it, but it gets monotonous.  Same place, 2 or 3 times a day, every day.  Plus other sites thrown in to make sure that the schedule is pressured because everyone wants their product right now.  

I think I'll stop this entry now.  I keep writing like that and I'll get depressed or something!

G'day.

ben

Thursday 3/22/2012

I decided to give up on that junk grinder and go buy a decent one to finish this job.  My manager said no, I'll bring one in tomorrow, it's a good one.
Cool.  Didn't want to spend the money anyway.
I have identified numerous areas on the roof that need to be brought down to the metal and recoated.  Much of it will be easy enough, not a thick coating, but I don't want to get up there, use this piece of junk I have for 3 minutes and then have to wait 20 to 30 minutes for the motor to cool off.
That is hardly a motivator to even start on it, much less get the job done.

I do hope he brings it, I want to get that junk done before it starts getting warm or even hot.

As it stands, finding the rest of what I need for it is going to have to wait until next month when more tenant money comes in, cause' I'm getting too low on funds and I don't tend to spend money on anything but basics when things start getting tight.

The tenant that was in the hospital came back - his surgery was a success and the arm is healing.

There isn't really much new going on around here besides the crap yesterday. I came home from work to hear Mark telling me that the kids - 18 and 19 year olds - next door were talking about how I had just thrown a rock at them over the fence.  Meanwhile, apparently the are shooting pellet pistols at each other in their back yard.  Number 1, I didn't throw rocks at kids, I don't throw rocks at anyone.  Number 2, I don't really like the idea of pellet guns being shot off next door to me.

Turns out?  350 man threw the rock at them.  What a dumbass.

Whatever. Time to leave for work.

ben

Tuesday 3/20/2012 The Accident On I-10

I was cruising in the semi going back to the yard from our main branch.
Main branch is in downtown Phoenix, our yard is in Chandler.
I was on I-10, just about to hit the Salt River bridge - at the time of day
it was - a bit past 4:00pm, I always pull back. The bridge seems to be the starting point of a huge slowdown that turns into stop and go traffic.

There is a sea of traffic in front of me, I'm just trying to keep a good distance between me and whatever is in front of me. There is a box truck up ahead, 2 lanes over.  I'm not watching it in particular, it's just there.  It is a large, 6 wheel truck that has a box on it that is as tall as a semi trailer and about - 30 foot long truck anyway.  I am always watching as far ahead as possible, looking for brake lights - and I saw a bunch of them going on all at once.

The next thing I know, this box truck is slamming on it's brakes, slides sideways and then rams head first into the center median wall.  The truck was probably going about 70mph.  It head dead center of where a 40 or so foot tall light pole was planted in the middle of that cement median wall.  The impact of the truck was so great, the entire cab of the truck flew off of the truck and OVER the median wall, into traffic coming from the other direction.  It landed in the HOV lane and THEN, the light pole came down ON TOP of the cab!

It was surreal.  I saw smoke coming from the engine, which was the ONLY thing left on the front portion of that truck, I immediately pulled over in the center emergency lane, just ahead of the now over-turned truck, got my fire extinguisher and ran up to the truck, looking at the cab of that truck on the other side of the wall, wondering if anyone was alive.  Well, there was no fire so I didn't use the extinguisher.  All kinds of people had already stopped on the other side of the wall including a police officer in an unmarked car who was sitting there talking to one occupants of the cab.  So, at least they weren't dead.

Well, I did see a hand on the driver's side of the cab and a leg and neither were moving, it was the person on the other side of the cab that was talking - I have no clue what the injuries were on it.  If you look at the pic, you can see the overturned truck and just beyond it you can see my semi parked on the shoulder.

Well, crazy stuff.  I didn't stick around too long because I didn't witness what happened.  I only see the truck crash, not what CAUSED the truck to crash.  However, the dude I was talking with had the whole story down pat.  A car was following another car too closely.  The car being followed had to hit his brakes hard and the dude in the car behind didn't react in time, smashed into another car beside him, started sliding sideways and in front of the truck, which slammed on it's brakes.  The rest I saw with my own eyes.

However, while I'm talking with the guy, we are looking at the engine on this truck which turned from smoldering to a full fledged fire and hence my fire extinguisher came into use - one of those smothering, chemical types of extinguishers that put that fire out.  The fire department hadn't arrived and after 10 minutes of standing there still hadn't arrived.  Which I thought strange.  

The rest is history.  The entire freeway was shut down which basically threw the entire valley into a traveling nightmare.  Once you shut down a major interstate, all bets are off. Everyone is flooding surface streets trying to get past it.  It is 9:00 pm right now, 5 hours later and the residual effect of that accident and shutting down the entire freeway is STILL wreaking havoc out there.

But, I went to church anyway.  Took some side streets and avoided most of the bad traffic and got there and back.  But, it IS 9:00 pm and that's half an hour past my bedtime!

G'nite.

ben

Do you remember:
 Life before the microwave oven?
Without remote controls?
Before cellphones?
Pagers?
Internet?
Satellite or cable TV?
Color TV?
Cars with carburetors?
800 incoming call centers?
Muzak?
An endless list.
Seriously.  You could sit around and think about this stuff and keep coming up with more and more - if you are old enough, of course, lol.

When microwave ovens came out, I wanted nothing to do with them.  I was terrified of the idea of eating something that had been "nuked" - a term that didn't even exist at the time they came out  but clearly defines my fear at the time that they may, somehow, be irradiating or otherwise poisoning my food somehow.  I refused to use them for years, but eventually caved in.

I also had the same fear when cell phones came out.  What are THOSE things putting out?  Right up to your ear, right next to your brain.  It seems, however, that that fear is not completely unfounded.  I don't talk on phones much anymore and I don't miss it.  I used to talk up to 6,000 minutes per month, no more.  Most of my phone activity is at work while on-duty and they are usually short conversations to clarify from me to someone else or someone else to me what's going on.

I remember the first time I used a remote control.  Functions were extremely limited but my gosh, everyone absolutely fell in love with those thing, as did I, right from the start.

When push button phones came out, I also resisted.  I liked watching the rotary dial going around for each number.  I don't recall everyone being in such a hurry back in those days.  I had rotary phones for years and years after push button phones came out.  I don't think my Magic Jack would be able to deal with a rotary phone.

I'm still in awe of a credit card sized mobile broadband router that I can carry in my pocket and puts out a signal that will definitely get you around the internet.  Coming through the air.  All this stuff coming through the air still intrigues me.  Or carrying around a computer that can do most anything my desktop computer can do.

Where is this all headed?  I don't really care, to be honest.  I don't have a smartphone and have no intention on getting one any time soon.  I don't care about all the latest stuff.  Some things I would like to have, but can live without, such as a flat screen TV.  Don't have a single one in my house, though I did buy one on Black Friday for my travel trailer.  I only bought one of those because of limited space in a travel trailer and a flat screen seemed the best option.  It's 19 inches and that's enough.

I like fuel injection versus carburetors simply for the fact you get better fuel mileage out of it.  They run better and there aren't any jets and other minutia in fuel injection to go haywire.  Fuel injection hardy ever has the same types of problems of carburetors.

I like a lot of the stuff that has come out in the last 20, 30 years, some of it I could care less.  Some of it can go by the wayside.

I think some of the reason we look at the old days as better is simply because we were able to fix most of it. We could understand it without having to hook a computer up to it to find out what's wrong with it. We called it simpler times, but, in reality, whatever time period you are living in, it all has it's set of problems to deal you.  Yet, you can find peace in any setting.  I'm starting to come full circle, mostly because I have been seeking it for quite a while now.  No, not that I wish we would go back to the "old days", that will never happen.  But, that I can find peace in my inner man regardless of what is going on around me.  I find no peace, to be completely honest, in the constant roll-outs of the Obama administration.  I find peace that God is in control, always has been, always will be.


Whatever happens in this world, God is not shocked.  He is not taken by surprise.  Some thing didn't happen that took Him unawares.  No, He sees all of it.  He knows all of it, in advance.  My peace is found in Him, nothing else.  But, sometimes? It's nice to take a trip down memory lane.

ben

Monday 3/19/2012

Apparently, people in some parts of the U.S. are already paying 6 dollars per gallon for fuel.  Diesel fuel is inching up towards the$5 mark around these parts.  Another 4 years of Obama?  Yeah, no thanks.

If one were to believe the radar map over Arizona, then one would logically conclude that a good portion of the northern part of the state is being snowed on right now.  And that the Phoenix area still has some rain coming down.  Having a travel trailer up north, in the mountains, might have some potential for a nice snow getaway - but in the winter, you have to put antifreeze in the pipes to keep them from bursting, meaning that little getaway would not have running water.  Hmmm, but it would have heat, either propane sourced or electrical source.  I have 2 propane heaters in the thing - a furnace and a radiator type of thing and then the AC unit also has heat.  Wherever they had this thing before, it must have gotten cold there!

It will be interesting to see if anyone is working today. Contractors, that is.  When the sites get too muddy or wet, they shut them down.  It appears to still be raining in the East Valley, which is where 2 of the sites are that I have deliveries to take to this morning.   The dogs should also be happy when I kick them out for the day - a daily event that is only usurped if someone brings them in - with the condition that they are watched while they are in here.  

Well, time to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

I went into the 5th wheel trailer a bit ago to check again.  It rained a bit again, just looking for leaks.  I had all the dogs come in, too.  Duke - 150 pound Great Dane - can leap up and over the stairs and right into the trailer.  Sophie, the new doggy, easily passes right by the stairs on her way through the air.

Prince?  Tried and tried, but he wouldn't try to jump.  So I picked him up and put him in there.  The axles on the trailer are inverted - meaning the trailer sets way up off the ground.  They do that when people intend on taking a trailer into terrain that can't handle "low rider" stuff in bottoming out.  The stairs are not compatible for dogs, a much larger set with smaller increments would work.  Regardless, I had all 3 of them in there. Kinda of a small space for as much dog was in there, but we'll figure it out.

I sat there with the intrigue of going up to the mountains as much as possible and a solemness that Coco won't be there.  I know, sounds crazy, but I talk to my dogs.  Always have.  I told her a bunch of times that we would be going to the mountains this summer.  A promise that will only be kept by taking her ashes up there.  She has been to that property several times in the past, she absolutely loved it.  But, I told my other dogs the same thing.  They had no understand of what I meant.  They will start to understand it "Wanna go to the mountains?" as I say that and then we head out.  They'll get the idea that it's time to get in the car and go for a 2 plus hour drive up to a place that is MUCH different than the place they "live at".  A place where I don't have to keep them on leashes and that they can run free.  I don't have to worry that animal control is going to come along and pick them up, or that they are going to encounter other dogs or humans.  Well, there are other dogs and humans up there, but no that many and almost never do you encounter them while on walks in the woods.

I also sat there and wondered if life was going to throw me any other curve balls before then.  Then pretty much being the end of May when my mother will be going up there and I will arrange to have the thing hauled up there.

If I were to live my life in the fear of what might happen, I would never do anything or get much of anything done.  So, I put it out of my mind.  Most bridges are only meant to be crossed if and when you get to them.

It finally started raining again.  Heavy winds are blowing so the rain is coming in sideways against the sliding glass door.  Between a light and moderate rainfall.  I had hoped for this hours ago.  It would be cool if  it started pouring rain and I could hear the sound of it.  Instead, it's too light to even hear it hitting the glass or the roof.

I'll actually be glad to eventually get both of those trailers out of here. It will open up the west side of the house and will also let the trees over there start to get full sun again.

Well that's it. I am still pondering and pouring over the message at church this morning.  There is much to ponder.  I feel the winds of change coming, but I don't know what it is.

ben

Sunday 3/18/2012

So last night.  I'm sitting out here, enjoying the evening, an hour before it's time to go to bed.  Caleb comes walking out of his bedroom and hands me his phone: "someone wants to talk to you".  Okay, I answer the phone: hello?

You and Caleb are hanging out tonight?, comes a young sounding voice over the phone.  "Yes, I replied, he's my best bud".  Who is this, was my question and looking at Caleb.  My name is so and so, was just trying to find out if Caleb was hanging with you tonight.  Okay, well have a nice evening.  

He gets done with the phone call and I, obviously, am asking him WHAT, exactly, that was all about.  He had been asked by several of his friends to be a designated driver, knowing that Caleb neither drinks nor does drugs.  They wanted him to drive them to a party out in the desert where they would be doing both drugs and alcohol.  He had given his friends the excuse that he was home, hanging out with his dad.  Well, he was home, we hang out here and there, so there.  He didn't WANT to be their designated driver, he didn't want anything to do with it and so I commend him for finding a way out of it.  Though, if it were me, I would have just flat out told them: No thanks, don't want to go to the desert and be subjected to a bunch of drugged up people for an entire night and really, I don't really appreciate using me as your driver simply because I choose not to do the same kinds of things you are doing.

But that's me.  I was glad to be of help to him to get out of that situation, regardless of the fact that I had no clue what was going on while I was on the phone with his friend.

Rain. Finally.  It rained last night, for how long I have no idea, but everything was wet this morning.   It was supposed to basically rain all day long, but it's been sporadic and not that heavy.  I'll take it over nothing, thank you.  I checked the trailer on the roof vents.  One of them leaked badly every time it rained.  No a drop of water to be seen anywhere today : )  Which makes it ready to put new carpet in that area.  Also makes it ready to put the new mattress in there - the new mattress that I don't have, lol.

I am still wishing that it would just start pouring rain and go on for at least a couple of hours.  Just now looking at the radar, there is still plenty of chance to get a nice deluge of water from the sky yet to come and still some daylight hours left to enjoy it.  Hoping.

Church.  I went.  It went on for 2-1/2 hours but I was totally into it today.  Well, excepting at the end.  I wanted to get out of there and get to Walmart and get that over with - out of dog food and needed a new pair of steel toed boots for work.  I wore the current pair down to holes in the soles.

The rest of today?  Ummm, nothing much planned.  The trailer roof is wet or I would probably get up there and start on that other, small roof vent.  It's a vent for the sewer, basically.  All sewer systems in homes or trailers have vents in them.  You might have some problems with the stuff actually going down instead of up and out if you didn't have vents on them : )  Anyway, this particular vent is broken, the cap is missing and yes,  water can and probably is getting in through there.  Oh well.

Bought some nice, over-priced pork chops at Walmart and just devoured a couple.  Meat is pretty much over-priced everywhere now.  Inflation.  High inflation.  This is what some of the doom and gloomers  have been predicting would happen in 2012 for  about a year now.  The rest of their predictions I TRULY hope do not come to pass, but if it does, coming soon and in 2012.

The Obama administration and spending.  It's a farce.  Obama wants power over everything, this is his goal, it's obvious and it's determined, calculated and very probable if he gets another 4 years.  He wants to control everything and apparently he thinks he has the right to do so.  Socialism, coming to a city near you.  Maybe it's already here in some forms.

Well, I am not going to ruin my afternoon dwelling on that s***, not worth it.  How much of my taxes, though, is reasonable to give to all the different forms of government?  Well, it's FAR beyond anything I would consider reasonable already.

Anyway, despite the fact that radar shows different shades of green covering the city - meaning rain - I have sunshine.  I love sunshine, don't get me wrong, but I want the rain, darnit!

ben

Saturday 3/17/2012

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  Another excuse for people to go swimming in green beer and get extremely drunk.  I might have a couple, but won't be going anywhere near that far with it.  I am part Irish, BTW.

I got up at about the time I had planned on this morning, maybe just a wee bit earlier.  Got on the net and did my usual things and then.........headed out doors.  Lots of tree trimming needing to be done, some plants too, got a good jump on it.  But, with the threat of up to two inches of rain being dumped allegedly starting tonight and going all day tomorrow?  I had to get that vent installed.

Yes, I considered just covering it up, but it was time to get the misery over with.  I really am not a fan of standing, sitting, kneeling there - take several positions to keep comfortable - putting in 30 screws.  But it's done.  Still needs some caulking around the edges and then coat it with the special, white coating.  But the hardest part is done.  I still have one, much smaller vent to go - 6 screws on that one, but I didn't remove it yet.  So, that will stay like that until after the rain.  There is also another area where there is a huge conglomeration of that elastomeric coating is, it's all going to have to be brought back down to the metal, thoroughly cleaned and then see what I need to do about it.

So, 2 more drudgerious (made up word, have been using it for decades) things left to go on it and then I can finally say it's done.  Will be doing that soon as I do not want to be up there in the heat, at all.

Absolutely gorgeous day today.  I was going to water plants, but if it really rains like they say it is going to tomorrow, it would be a waste of water.  If it were to ever rain around here with any consistency, I would definitely build a system to collect the water into barrels and re-use that water to water my plants.  Whatever the case, I am hoping it will rain as they say it will and the ground gets really saturated.  I need to put some lodge poles in the ground to stablize some trees.  Much easier to do when the ground is wet.

While I was up on the trailer roof, I saw the hummingbird.  She definitely has a nest in there somewhere.  Their nests are so small, they are next to invisible.  The size of a small leaf.  To find it means at least finding the right tree and then trying to find a needle in a haystack scenario.  Not impossible, but you can easily glance over it even if you know where it is, much less attempting to locate it for the first time.  It was - well it was fun and strange at the same time - last year watching the little birdies grow.  Unfortunately, the nest was too small for both of them.  One of them died and ended up smashed at the bottom of the nest while the other when grew and grew.  He/she hung out around here for a long time after it got to the flying stage.  Not sure if it's still around or not, there are so many hummingbirds I can't really tell.

Long break.
Motivation running out.  I have been pruning trees for quite a while now.  It's the time of year to get them pruned and growing in the direction you want them to, which is up, not sideways.  The trees beside my house tend to want to start growing sideways instead of going up.

Anyway, that's it.

Have a great Saturday/St. Patrick's Day!

ben

Friday 3/16/2012

Friday at work did not end as planned.  But, I had a 50-50 shot at it anyway.  Get off at noon.  The earliest I can leave work under "normal" circumstances is noon, even if I am on overtime.  

I started the day off this morning at the full allotted hours for the pay period, meaning all day today is overtime.  Around 11:45 am, I get calls.  More than one yes.  About the same thing:  a huge order being put into the system to be pulled today, loaded and delivered today.  I figured 4:00pm before the day would be over - I was close, it was 4:40pm before I clocked out.  10 and a half hours of overtime and yes, I"ll take it. 

According to the forecasts - and I have looked at a lot of them - there is, depending on which site you look at - an 80-90% chance of rain on Sunday.  That usually means it's definitely going to rain.  I haven't seen real rain in about 6 months.  It if REALLY does rain like that all day long, I will be in heaven.  I will leave the east side door open and listen to the water pouring off the roof, into one of the ponds that is close enough to the house that the water pours into it.  

I won't be driving anywhere, if at all possible. People around here do not know how to drive in the rain.  In fact, most people around here don't know how to drive at all, whether clear, blue skies or watered down streets.  When it really rains here, the accident list goes WAY up.  I won't want to go anywhere, anyway, I will want to sit here and listen, watch and feel it all day long.  I truly HOPE it happens.

Which means, however, that that gaping hole I put in the trailer roof last weekend by means of removing a vent will have to be done tomorrow.  I planned on doing it anyway, but now a fire has been lit on my feet and it is going to be done.  I will be greatly hoping that the other vent I already installed will hold tight against the water - though I still have to put a bead  around the edges and cover it with elasomesoteric coating - all will be done tomorrow.  I have everything I need to finish it, just have to do it.

But, I am staying up late - for me anyway, at least 10:00 pm.  I have no need to get up early in the morning and I don't WANT to get up early.  I have been getting up early forever.  I will get up around 7 or 8 in the morning and that is an extremely late rise for me : )  I want to sleep in and then get up, take a long, hot shower, eat some breakfast with coffee and then, get on the internet, take my sweet old time and THEN, I will get up on the roof of that trailer and finish that vent thing.  Which doesn't mean that roof is finished, but it is getting there.  

Okay, I will have to get out of bed earlier than that to let the dogs out of the room so they can go outside and do their business, lol.

Well it's bedtime.

Nite'.

ben

"The First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from infringing upon the freedom of speech, the freedom of association and the freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Speech is language and other forms of expression; and association and petition connote physical presence in reasonable proximity to those of like mind and to government officials, so as to make your opinions known to them.

The Declaration of Independence recognizes all three freedoms as stemming from our humanity. So, what happens if you can speak freely, but the government officials at whom your speech is aimed refuse to hear you? And what happens if your right to associate and to petition the government is confined to areas where those of like mind and the government are not present? This is coming to a street corner near you.

Certain rights, like thought and privacy and travel, can be exercised on their own. You don’t need the government to cooperate with you; you just need to be left alone. Other rights, like those intended to influence the political process, require that the government not resist your exercise of them. 

Remember the old one-liner from Philosophy 101: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there, does it make any noise? Here’s the contemporary version of that: If you can criticize the government, but it refuses to hear you, does your exercise of the freedom of speech have any value?

When the Framers of the Constitution wrote the First Amendment, they lived in a society in which anyone could walk up to George Washington or John Adams or Thomas Jefferson on a public street and say directly to them whatever one wished. They never dreamed of a regal-like force of armed agents keeping public officials away from the public, as we have today. And they never imagined that it could be a felony for anyone to congregate in public within earshot or eyesight of certain government officials. And yet, today in America, it is.

Last week, President Obama signed into law the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. This law permits Secret Service agents to designate any place they wish as a place where free speech, association and petition of the government are prohibited. And it permits the Secret Service to make these determinations based on the content of speech.

Thus, federal agents whose work is to protect public officials and their friends may prohibit the speech and the gatherings of folks who disagree with those officials or permit the speech and the gatherings of those who would praise them, even though the First Amendment condemns content-based speech discrimination by the government. 

The new law also provides that anyone who gathers in a “restricted” area may be prosecuted. And because the statute does not require the government to prove intent, a person accidentally in a restricted area can be charged and prosecuted, as well.

Permitting people to express publicly their opinions to the president only at a time and in a place and manner such that he cannot hear them violates the First Amendment because it guarantees the right to useful speech; and unheard political speech is politically useless. The same may be said of the rights to associate and to petition. If peaceful public assembly and public expression of political demands on the government can be restricted to places where government officials cannot be confronted, then those rights, too, have been neutered.

Political speech is in the highest category of protected speech. This is not about drowning out the president in the Oval Office. This is about letting him know what we think of his work when he leaves the White House. This is speech intended to influence the political process.

This abominable legislation enjoyed overwhelming support from both political parties in Congress because the establishment loves power, fears dissent and hates inconvenience, and it doesn’t give a damn about the Constitution. It passed the Senate by unanimous consent, and only three members of the House voted against it. And the president signed it in secret. It is more typical of contemporary China than America. It is more George III than George Washington.

The whole purpose of the First Amendment is to assure open, wide, robust, uninhibited political debate, debate that can be seen and heard by those it seeks to challenge and influence, whether it is convenient for them or not. Anything short of that turns the First Amendment into a mirage."

Another Woman, Another Car

Well here we go.  I'm driving the semi on I-10, approaching the Salt River bridge - though no river anymore, we just call it the Salt River bottom.  A lady in a tin can car in front me going 65mph, the speed limit.  I'm following behind, moderate traffic.  An Arizona Highway Patrol cruiser comes up in front of us, just past the 27th Avenue on-ramp.  There is a Highway Patrol yard on 27th avenue and that is where they get on if going eastbound.

Well, suddenly, this lady slows down to 55mph.  I had no where to go, too much traffic to safely change lanes and anyway, I knew what was coming ahead: I was in the best lane for moving along and for getting off where I need to get off at, even if 5 miles away.  We get on the bridge - I can see well ahead, brake lights, a whole sea of them.  This lady is now 150 feet or more behind the nearest car in front of her.  She was maybe 30 feet before.  I'm getting annoyed, keep up with traffic.  But I gave up on the attempt to get over in the next lane, traffic too heavy and I didn't NEED to get over besides this person going to slow.

We're down to stop and go traffic.  The cop is staying either behind us or beside us 2 lanes over.  I finally got it: this lady has some sort of legal issue, that cop is seeing what she is doing - erratic driving  - and what is going to happen next.  Well, for quite a while, nothing.  Yet, the cop didn't attempt to move on like they always do if there's no prospects.  He's still just there in a sea of cars, moving very slowly.  Yes, he could have gotten into the HOV lane and taken off, so I knew SOMETHING had to be up.

Well, 10 minutes of this and finally the cop moves ahead in traffic and is beside a semi, out of the view of the lady in the car though totally in my view.  He hits his brakes.  Slows down to let the semi pass.  Gets into the lane next to me.  He's ahead of me in the next lane over.  I already knew what was going to happen, I slowed  down and let him in.  Lights flashing, behind that lady and I can tell that lady is freaking out.

I dunno what happened there today, but it was a few moments of - umm - drama? - just attempting to feel out what the cop was doing and how non-nonchalantly he was doing it, as if he wasn't paying that car or it's driver any attention at all, yet undoubtedly inputting the license plate info and the owner info into his computer's database and finding out what's going on.

People make themselves obvious.  I could see it when the cop was in FRONT of us and hadn't even seen this woman's driving behavior. If she had driven normally, that cop probably would never have spotted her in that kind of heavy, heavy traffic.

So, a few minutes ago, I am on my facebook page.  A FB friend posted a site with dog pics, so I clicked on it.  All kinds of lovable, furry critters in all kinds of different poses, then I get to this photo, here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=305442369508815&set=a.120132051373182.37467.119712771415110&type=1&theater
A picture of a man crying after being reunited with his beloved dog after his house was destroyed.  The dog's name? Coco.

Thursday 3/15/2012

I guessed, when this first came out, that Obamacare would cost at least 3 to 4 times what they are saying it is going to cost.  So, if it's going to cost 1 trillion, it's actually going to be closer to 4.  Well, guess what.  We are now half way there.  That's right, folks, the price tag has now doubled to 2 trillion dollars, but I can guarantee you it isn't over yet.  It's the government.  If there is one thing the Obama has done that all effort should be made to get rid of, it's Obamacare.

We can't afford it.  I have gone through periods of my life when I didn't have health care coverage, it sucked but I didn't go around all over the place, crying on the news about how I can't afford "my contraceptives" and all this other BS that is being espoused all over the place.

Yeah, and next: a flag with Obama's picture on it - stars removed.  How sick is that?  Seriously, I don't care WHAT party a president is from, that person's picture or anything else for that matter should never be placed on an American Flag.  PLEASE.

4 more years of Obama? And just think, all restraints will be off if he gets another 4 years.  He won't be trying to appeal to anyone because his tenure will be over after 4 more years and not worried about another election - anyone want to talk about Socialism?  I didn't think so.

I don't like Romney, but if he wins the nomination, I'll vote for him ANY day of the week over Obama.

Thanks.

Whatever.  I'm off to work.

G'day.

ben

The Woman In The Car - OH, Make That The Women In 2 Cars

First incident today.  I'm driving in the "slow" lane on a surface street in heavy traffic. Not moderate traffic, not light traffic, heavy traffic.  Truck has a partial load on it, very light, maybe 5,000 pounds worth.  Trucks don't even hardly feel that kind of weight.  I'm behind the car in front of me, not lagging behind is what I am saying.  There is a turning lane on my right.  It is obviously a turning lane and the lane obviously ends - at a block wall.

This woman in a compact car decides she is going to pass me in that lane, which is not a passing lane but more importantly, she doesn't have enough time/room to MAKE that pass. I would have had to STOP the truck entirely to let her in since by the time we were almost at that block wall, she was only at the side of my trailer.  At first I didn't know if she was turning in that turning lane or if she was playing these stupid games that everyone does around semi trucks. Well, I wasn't going to slam on my brakes for someone else's stupidity, I figured to let her do that in her own car since she was speeding - probably going 65 to 70 in a 45 zone and also attempting to pass in a turning lane.  Yup, she slams on her brakes and JUST stops short of that wall.  Amazingly, there was a motorcycle behind her that apparently also figured to pass me who was also stranded.

Now, stuff happens in traffic all day long and I was definitely driving, all day long.  But some of it is amazingly ridiculous and stupid stuff.  Like the guy stuck behind me today on the freeway on-ramp. Apparently, I was going to slow for him so he decided to pass me on the emergency lane on the right side of me.  What I am doing is going through the gears and if the truck is heavy, it takes a while to get up to speed.

Then, there was the second lady.  I am turning on a green arrow.  I was accelerating.  This woman apparently thinks I am going to slow and starts honking her horn at me!  She gets by me and flips me off.  I have done or said NOTHING to this woman, no gestures, no middle fingers, nothing.  Then, a black car following her has a finger come out of their window as well.  This is the joy of driving in a metropolis.  A daily event, though it doesn't happen so much in my car since I can keep up with every one and also - because I am cut off so frequently in the truck, so often, I don't LET people cut me off while in the car.

I can't tell you how many times on the freeway today a car comes speeding up beside me, cuts directly in front of me and then slams on the brakes to avoid - hitting the car that is in front of me that is now in front of them.  Morons.

Sooo, last night at the church group.  A lady starts sobbing as she starts talking about her doggy and how the doc has told her the dog doesn't have much time.  She knows it is going away.  That started it all over for me.  I didn't say anything but inwardly I was churning.  The dude that runs the thing looks at me and says how I had just gotten a new doggy - I replied yes, but I just put down my beloved doggy and looked at the lady and empathetically said: It's not a lot of fun, I know.  Well, anyway, he prayed for both of us which turned the faucet on yet again.  I haven't gone to get her ashes yet - and in no hurry to be honest.  I guess I better get them before something happens to them, but at the same time, I'm not sure how I will be able to handle that.

Enough of that.  I had a very long day at work, 10 hours non-stop and I don't even want to go there.  So I won't. Sophie is now learning about commands, especially the one that says "come" and she - decides to ignore me.  I don't know how anyone else trains their doggies, when a dog ignores me and actually starts walking off, I get out of my chair, grab the dog by the collar and yes, we go and we do what I told that dog to do in the first place.  I don't tolerate disobedient dogs, not that I beat the crap out of them, but I do take action to correct it and quickly. I am taking it a bit easy with her, though, I am guessing by the way she reacts that she has been subjected to some abuse in the past.  She's a sweet, gentle and loving dog, though and I don't think it's going to take too terribly long to get her adjusted to my way of doing things.

Still, it takes quite a while for a dog to be around you before it really starts understanding you, how you want it to behave and what lines can be crossed and can't be crossed.  It's a big investment in time, really, to train a dog to the point that you don't really have to say much of anything to get them to do what you want them to do, they already KNOW what you want them to do before you say it. I like getting them to the hand gesture phase, where you simply point and they understand.  I can click my fingers at Prince and he will come, I point at the floor and he lays down.  Nothing complicated or outstanding, just an example.

Well, bedtime.

G'nite.

ben