Hellhole

That was my description to the supervisor that finally called me back today.  The property behind me.  We went back and forth for over half an hour, but the man was adamant that he WOULD take care of this problem.  I am not going into all of that, but I can finally say that I think I have FINALLY talked to the right person to get this situation dealt with. 

Adding here that while we were talking, he pulled up an "aerial view" he called it, more like and probably a satellite picture - of the property and agreed that this property didn't look very good and totally understood why I might have a problem with it.

Meanwhile, all movie channels fell off of Direct TV today.  I by-passed all of the normal routes and went directly to the disconnection department.  You tell the computer that is talking to you who you want to speak to and walaah.  They don't identify them as the disconnection department and you don't have to tell them you want your service cancelled, instead, they ask you what the problem is and you identify it.  

That's "aggressive panhandling" at it's best.  Yup, I have NO qualms, whatsoever, asking for free movie channels. They, actually, don't have a problem with it and go through their system to see what free channels are available.  That's right, there are always free movie channels available with Direct TV, you just have to know that information and understand there is nothing wrong with asking for it.  

But if there WAS something wrong with asking for it, they could easily tell you so! No panhandling, no begging, it's a business transaction.  I have no problem - continuing on with the same thing against the individual that described me as an "aggressive panhandler" in asking for more than what their predetermined price says I should get.  Haggling.  Since when is haggling any portion of begging?  The person that wrote that on my blog can go piss off, and yes, I have a good idea who wrote it.  

Productive day.  Indeed.

ben

I'm reverting it back to a day trip only.
If we even go, the trip to San Diego and Sportfishing.
I was talking with an individual yesterday at the pastor's house git-together who had been on several
of those trips and was commenting on the overnight trips.

The bunks you sleep on are down below, below water level.
That isn't the part that bothered me, I don't care about being below water level, the next part is what got me going:
It gets very hot down there.  The air is stifled.  There is no air movement and it's hot and humid.

Oh.  I'm glad I ran into her.  The pastor chimed in and asked if it's possible to just sleep on the deck?

She didn't know but I thought it probably would be, they don't really care WHAT you do on the deck as long as it isn't dangerous.  But, no thanks. A whole day on the ocean fishing is enough, anyway. Maybe if we can swing it, we can get into SeaWorld and spend a day there as well. Or go for 2 1-day fishing expeditions.

Nahhh, one is enough, lol.

I'm a bit cranky today, which is why I never left for the mountains.  The reason is that the power went out last night around 3:00am.  I wake up instantly when the power goes out because I run a box fan all night long to help me sleep. It was very dark, no moonlight.  I couldn't see anything.  I got my laptop and pulled out the mobile broadband - which at least, usually, works at my house - and got online to find SRP's number.

Upon calling them, they wanted me to check the breakers.  Checked, duhhhhh.  I have a 200 amp board, it would take QUITE a lot to flip the main breaker on that thing.  The woman then instructed me to go outside and read some numbers on the pedestal. ??????????  What are you talking about?  What difference does that make?  I called to report an outage, it's pitch black, I can't find my flashlight, I can't READ numbers in the DARK.

"Well, sir, we will not send out a crew unless we confirm that there is an outage". I have just confirmed that there is an outage,  what do you want me to do? Read in the dark?  She stood her ground, I demanded her supervisor.  I got the same rhetoric.  Are you serious?

I just got off the phone with SRP.  I never want to experience that kind of "customer service" again.  If the power is out, the power is OUT.  It isn't subjective to my will, it either works or it doesn't.  As with Verizon, I did not call for freebies, though I was offered $10.  I said great, I'll take it, but that is not what I want done: I want to be assured, sir, that if there is a next time, this is NOT going to happen AGAIN!!!  BTW, it turns out there was some main breaker somewhere that had failed.  Not on my property, like a breaker that serves  numerous houses.  The man assured me that he would listen to the phone call!!

Yes!!! Must be catching on: record all phone calls.  I didn't know SRP did that. PLEASE DO listen to and review that phone call, I insist!!  So that's that.  The power did not come back on for over 2 hours.  I was awake the entire time.  It finally came on and I fell asleep for a short time but - woke back up and decided to hang it up: I'm up for the day and probably am going to be tired by the afternoon, which it is and I am.

Ohh, and walking out into the kitchen last night?  No noise in the house, ie: ac or other things on to make noise.  I could hear someone snoring LOUDLY in their bedroom.  Lol.  Glad I am not anywhere near THAT at night. I'm afraid going up to the property, at least today, is out of the question.  No desire in this frame of mind to do anything but sit here and watch a movie, which is exactly what I am doing.  It's vacation, if I want to go tomorrow, I can do that instead.  

Ummm, warpath day, I guess. I have now contacted 3 different divisions in the City of Phoenix concerning the property behind me.  That's because with all the issues that property has, I was directed off to differing divisions that deal with it.  The animal feces situation is dealt with by the waste division and they have their own inspectors.  The non-permitted structures and the electrical cord providing those structures with power is through zoning and the rest of it is through neighborhood services division.  There will be 3 different divisions worth of inspectors going out to that property in the next week.  Rather exasperating but the phone calls are done on that situation. 


So, I have had numerous conversations with Verizon and with the City of Phoenix, I might as well go for gusto and call Direct TV and dispute a charge that they have on my bill.  Oh, remember, I am a "aggressive panhandler", ROFL!!!.  


Editing:  I called DirectTV and it's the shortest conversation I have ever had with them concerning my bill.  I told the incoming call center lady at the billing department about the situation - very nicely I should add - and she simply agreed to eliminate the entire service charge.  Nice.

Well isn't that wonderful.  A complaint I filed against the neighbors behind me - junk, filth, cat feces - hasn't even been investigated yet.  I filed that complaint almost 3 WEEKS ago.  I called just now - to the City of Phoenix that is - because I haven't seen anything going on over there in terms of cleaning up the property.

My next move is to call the City's Zoning department and find out how to file a complaint on property encroachment.  The dirt from their property is pushing the wood fence out - into my property - and the fence is beginning to break apart.

Just got off the phone with them.  The first lady told me I needed to speak to a supervisor, fine by me.  Upon giving this second person the address of the violators with the unpermitted structures, she was perplexed. She asked me if it was the correct address?  Yes, I am QUITE sure of the address, thanks, I have already reported this address to your Neighborhood Services Department in the past and I found that address on the Maricopa County Tax Assessor's website.

Continued perplexity.  Well, normally, when I put in an address, it comes up - but there is nothing coming up here.

Ahaaa.  So there we have the problem. They don't even KNOW about this property.  Well they do now and this person is going to do some "research" and will be calling me tomorrow about it.  I believe the situation over there is going to change immensely after I get this rolling with the Zoning department.  There is NO way those structures over there meet ANY city code requirements.

I called the City Neighborhood Services department back and this time asked for management.  I was directed to the manager over the inspectors that are over my area of town.  This individual did not answer his phone.

That's where I have left it, for now.  I am pressing on with this war against them because - they started it with me and they have continued filing false claims with the City against me.  Not to mention the cat feces, which is piling up against my fence and is a huge health hazard.    In fact, the entire situation over there has been more than just an annoyance for quite some time now and it's time to see it change.

I have been battling in my mind for some time now as to what to do about this house/property.  Short-sell or stay.  I wouldn't actually have any problem, whatsoever, in short-selling excepting that I would end up having to rent.

Well, I found out some interesting information yesterday while at the pastor's house.  With Intel building it's new microprocessor plant, there will be 5,000 new jobs come along with it.  Intel is, of course, actively hiring.  Their qualifications are high.  You have to have a college degree AND your grade point average has to have been at least 3.7.  I know this because an individual at church tried to get in - he had a 3.5 grade point average and that isn't enough for Intel, even though he has 2 family members that already work there.

Amazing.  But, that's Intel.  On it's construction site for the new building, they demand a high level of excellence/quality/attentiveness to safety. Companies have, I have heard from personnel working on the site, been kicked off the site for failure in any of those or other categories.  Even with all the safety they have in place, a large number of accidents have occurred on that site anyway.

But, that brings us to the point:  with all of these people being employed, they are moving here and looking for homes.  The East Valley and more specifically Tempe and Chandler - and probably Gilbert - are experiencing a high demand for homes for sale and the prices are going through the roof.  That's because - yes - all of those people have to have places to live.  I am guessing many people are moving here from out -of-state, a job such as that would be worth moving here for.  High paying, lots of perks and undoubtedly great benefits.

This coming from the pastors as they were working with realtors to try and get a home in Tempe.  Every house the put an offer on had many other offers as well, many of them higher than their offer, even though their offer was for the asking price on the house.  This, obviously, does not bode well for a person like me that was thinking about short-selling and finding a rental unit until I can come up with the down payment for another house plus have my credit score recover after the short-sell does a 100 to 200 point hit on your score.

Rentals have also gone through the roof.  It's amazing the turn-around.  Had no clue this was going on in the East Valley, though I did know some time back that the new plant was going to create 5,000 new jobs.  I just didn't correlate in my mind all of those jobs and all of those people needing a new place to live.  The East Valley is the only place I want to live in the Phoenix Metro area.  I have absolutely no desire to live in the West Valley, a place I love to hate, I also do not want to live in Phoenix proper, and housing/rental prices in the northeast valley - Scottsdale - are way too high for my income.

The only real alternative I would have at this point, if I really thought I could handle it, which I am not sure I can, but that would be to move into an RV park, park the trailer that is currently in my driveway there and set up camp for an indefinite period of time.  My monthly costs would be greatly reduced. I could downgrade Direct  TV to a  much lower priced plan; electric usage would go down to less than $100 per month; water usage is sometimes given in the price of the monthly rental fee at some RV parks; the monthly rental I could get around $300.  Car insurance rate would also go down - they do it by zip code and I happen to live in a zip code that is greatly inflated per rates.

It's a non-starter.  For one, the dogs.  Would any of those places take 3 dogs?  2, the size of the trailer.  It does not have slide-outs and it would be pretty cramped living.  3, the fear of never being able to get into a home again.  Could I save enough money to come up with a significant down payment or would I be stuck forever?  But here's the real kicker: I watch a couple of online sites for estimates of what my house is worth, it has come back up over 10k in the last 2 months.  I'm now "only" around 60k underwater compared to the almost 80k it was at the beginning of the year.  Is this due to the Intel situation as well? I don't know.  I am right on the border of the East Valley.  If I thought that in the next couple of years, the value of my house would actually come back up to what I owe on it, at least, this idea of short-selling would vanish out of my mind.  Why short sell when I can wait, sell the house for what I owe and not take any kind of negative hit on my credit score?

But I don't know that that's going to happen. Back to the Intel situation, however, I'm pretty much screwed. I mean, if I could somehow acquire a LARGE travel or 5th wheel trailer with at least 2 slide-outs, then I would give it serious consideration.  Those offer quite a lot of interior room and lots of storage.  I could deal with that, but those things are much more expensive than these 2, older units I bought and I simply don't have the money for anything like that right now (and making payments on a larger unit isn't exactly appealing to me right now, either).

I am slowly winding down, in my mind, the idea of short-selling.  The con's are out-weighing the pro's by a large margin at this point.  I don't necessarily like having all of these tenants in here, at the same time, the crew I have now are very easy-going people and I get along with all of them.  The biggest pro to leaving this place is this ridiculous neighborhood with all the BS that goes on around here.

Dunno.  I'm just going to sit back and stay here a spell and see what continues to happen with housing prices.

Apparently the Verizon Wireless supervisor I tried to speak to, who wouldn't listen to a thing I had to say, interrupted me numerous times as well as talking right over the top of me and then hanging up on me - thought that nothing would come of it.

The issue was the first mobile broadband device I had returned. They had informed me that they hadn't received it yet and my bill was going to stay the same - almost $300 because they tacked onto the bill the full amount for that device plus taxes.

I informed the first lady I was speaking with that I had no intention of paying that inflated bill...........who cut me off.  I stopped talking, listened to her rhetoric and then asked for a supervisor.  She refused.  I simply sat on the line waiting for her manager, who finally agreed to put her supervisor on the line.  She also dished up the same regurgitated substance as the first person, excepting this person was extremely rude and almost arrogant. She informed me that after they do receive it, it will take up to 30 days to "process it" and have the amount removed from my bill.  Unacceptable, was my firm response, if you think I am going to shell out $300 for this service that doesn't work half the time anyway, you are out of your mind.

That is when she went into a litany of everything that must have either been written on her computer screen in front of her, or more likely memorized since she has probably spewed it out to countless individuals.  When I tried to get a word in edgewise, like in a pause in her speech, she would simply talk right over the top of me. When she finally did stop talking, I started asking about making a partial payment - the regular monthly payment, which is when she interrupted me again, told me how things were going to be and then hung up on me.

Big no-no in my book.  I will go to great extremes to have that conversation reviewed by the appropriate individuals. I do not know if Verizon records all of their calls or not, but if they do, that woman is going to have some answering to do.  That's because I found the Verizon Wireless corporate headquarters phone number.  It sends you directly to a voice messaging system - but I kept calling and calling and finally, someone actually answered the phone.  That individual transferred me to their executive offices and the gentleman that I was talking with certainly had the air  and demeanor of higher level management.  When I told him the story, he was appalled, asked for my contact information and told me that someone would be contacting me either later on today or tomorrow at the latest.

I'm not looking for freebies out of this, just that that lady's rude, unbelievable attitude towards her company's customers was too much.  I never said anything to that woman to justify the treatment she gave me and I assume this is her standard, modus-operandi in dealing with customers.

I have since been looking at other wireless broadband plans. I have doubts that any of them work any better, but perhaps one of them at least has some semblance of customer service.

The device itself is a piece of junk.  It will show you have 4G access but no internet access.  Or, you will have internet access and then suddenly it drops out, even though you are sitting stationary, not moving.  It won't show, however, that it has dropped out, instead, the internet stops working. Then, you have to disconnect the connection manually and also shut the device off and restart it.  This is a continual process.  Sometimes I will get 5 or 10 minutes of uninterrupted service, mostly I don't.   The device does not show you how much of a charge it has left in the battery, either.  It's more work than it's worth to use the thing and they really need to come up with a better working device with more options on it.  The only thing it has on it is an on and off button and lights to show whether you are on 3G or 4G network, there is nothing else and you cannot manually switch over to 3G if you wanted to make sure you had uninterrupted access.

The laptop computer becomes a bit useless without internet access. I have my own wifi at home and I sometimes use the laptop in my bedroom, but usually I am sitting at my desktop in the kitchen since it's a far better machine and is directly connected to wired internet access.  At least one company allegedly offers unlimited data, I forget which one but I can find it again, I think the price was the same or near the same as Verizon.

Although, I do wonder if I just get a plug-in for my laptop instead of this router device if that might make a difference. Who knows.

Today?  Not sure yet.  Was thinking of going up to the mountains, but I am feeling particularly unmotivated to do much of anything, much less driving the 109 miles to get there.  Not that that's a long drive, but, I just don't much feel like driving right now.  I have time today to change my mind, it's only 10:00 am.  I guess I'll have to decide by no later than 2:00pm, that gives me time to get up there, get situated and settle the dogs down.

ben

Well, what a pleasant diversion it was to go to the pastor's house for their 4th BBQ.  A nice amount of people showed up, I sat down at a table in the middle of the yard.  We were all in complete awe at the temperature - the middle of the afternoon in July and it was in the high 70's.

I was fortunate enough to sit and chat with some very amiable ladies, one of which we must have chatted for at least 3 hours.  Gotta love that.  I got there after they had already cooked the hamburgers, so I put the steaks in the refrigerator and told the Pastor he could have them later on or tomorrow or whenever.  It was truly amazing to be sitting out in the middle of a lawn in Phoenix, in July, and not burning up.  There was a cool breeze, the sky was completely overcast and wow!  Just unbelievable, really.

Tomorrow, of course, the temp goes back up to 101, then the rest of the week well into the 100's.  It was a reprieve from the heat today that likely won't see again for at least a couple of months - but one never knows what's going to happen in the monsoon season.  It IS possible this kind of weather could occur again, but what a perfect day to have such!  On a Holiday day, the event was already planned, we weren't all stuck inside the house because of what normally would have broiling high temps.

Yes, I could go on and on about it, point made.

Well, when I was leaving, the pastor asked me when I was coming back to eat the steaks with them?  No, man, you can just have them, eat them at your pleasure.  No, he insisted, please come back and help us eat them, when are you available this week? Ummm, well, whenever you want, I guess, though I am seriously considering heading up to the mountains again tomorrow.  Not sure yet.  I will make that decision tomorrow at my leisure, I am on vacation and not feeling pushed to do anything.

In fact, I was feeling particularly non-motivated to do anything but sit around and chat.  I only left because I was starting to get sleepy, just one of those days.  It was raining on and off while I was sitting out there, I thought nothing of getting a bit wet to be honest.

Nothing more to see here : )

Happy Independence Day.

Sky is overcast here and the temps are way down.  Down enough that I was just out front attempting to fix and re-line the rest of the drip irrigation system.  I had torn much of it out to re-do the landscaping - but - hand watering that situation everyday is getting old, very old.

Further, if I want to take off for more than a couple of days, I need that system up and working so I can have Mark just flip the lever on the water valve to water all of that versus attempting to ask him to hand water that entire group of trees and plants out there.  So, almost done.  Unfortunately, I do not have enough laser soaker hose and will have to buy more.  It's a hose with precision holes in it all the way down.  It works much better than the drippers when using it on ground covering plants.  I don't need that much more of it, though, and pretty much that entire system is done out there.

No great plans today.  Going to stop by the pastor's house with those steaks and visit for a while, but probably not too terribly long.  I'm kind of tired, didn't get to bed until my version of late last night and, inevitably, woke up with the sun this morning.  I'm on vacation and intend on doing whatever, whenever.  It's been a while since I've had this many days off, today being the first day and I just want to do a lot of nothing.

Well the rain finally came. I mean, the ground is getting wet, not drenched, but that's gonna have to be good enough for me.

Ummm, long delay.

Off to BBQ.

Supposed to be a short work day. Our company - in all 50 states actually - is shutting down at noon to get  a jump start on the holiday.  I am guessing most if not all of the contractors we service are also taking the 4th of July off - as well they should as far as I'm concerned - so there shouldn't be any last minute deliveries for a contractor who would need stuff for tomorrow.

Moving on, I bought a 4 pack of New York Strip steak and intend on taking it over to the pastor's house tomorrow.  They just moved into another house - swimming pool included - and invited whosoever to come over tomorrow and celebrate the 4th with them.

As for right now, the sky is overcast - which doesn't happen much in these parts so it's a real treat in reality - but I don't know if there's rain in the forecast............: potential for a thunderstorm tonight and rain tomorrow.  Rain?  That won't spoil my 4th of July, I can guarantee you that, to the contrary, it would make it awesome!  I do hope it actually DOES rain, rather than the forecasts that tell  us is going to and then? You get enough drops from the sky to make your windshield dirty.

Whatever the case, I must be outta here, time to be off to work and hopefully off early.

G'day.

ben

Still gotta love being called an "aggressive panhandler" for my efforts to get more bang for my buck.  Isn't that the American way?  It isn't begging; it isn't even bartering - it's just simply trying to get as much out of it as I can.  Period.  PLEASE spare me the judgments.

I'm about ready to shut this blog down and stop blogging altogether.  What a piece of utter shit a person is to come along and say all the bullshit that this particular person has labelled me as in recent times.  The last one was my "pride", in not wanting to ask my uncles for money to come to their family reunion.  Hey, Uncle Bob, could you spare me a couple thousand bucks to come and be a part of your reunion"

Freaking BULLSHIT.  You don't like my blog or my view of things, DON'T READ IT!!!  Or if you are going to come on here and leave BULLSHIT responses, be a MAN about it and NAME yourself.  Otherwise, SHUT THE HELL UP.

Rant over.

Sorry to anyone else that may actually be left that might read this blog.  It is mostly an outlet to write my mind and then read it over and see what adjustments might be made.  In this case, however, I am not the one needing the adjustment, thank you very much.

I'm an "Aggressive Panhandler"

This is hilarious!~if the person posting it weren't serious I would have thought just a joke.
Whatever.  You are welcome to NOT read my journal if your disagreement with my actions is to the point that you apparently find me sub-human.  I must be an "aggressive-panhandler" because I try to get as much out of the company I am doing business with as I can.

I don't remember panhandlers giving out money.  Do you? I pay Direct TV $83 per month, that's hardly chump change just to watch TV, my actions in attempting to get more than they are offering for that amount of money is so far removed from pan-handling, that I am amazed this person, who is normally a lucid, coherent person with some amount of reason, would even say such a thing.  If the company doesn't want to give what I am asking for, then they don't have to.  A panhandler stands on the streets and gives  you a look. I give Direct TV money - there isn't anyone that can RATIONALLY tell me that negotiating with the company I am dealing with - for the money I am paying - even REMOTELY resembles being a panhandler.  I DEFY you, in logical, realistic and rational terms, to spell out your reasoning.

You cannot, thank you.  But you are welcomed to give it a try.  Bargaining and panhandling are on 2 completely different levels.

Off of that subject - though laughable at best and ridiculous to think that someone would equate the 2 in the same sentence - I forgot to close the roof vents on the trailer.  Bad on me.  If it rains up there, the inside of my trailer is going to get wet.  Notably, my bed and my bathroom. Bathroom, okay. Bed, not.  I was 30 miles away from the property before I realized it and - too late.  Not driving back that far, losing that much time and wasting that much gas for it.  If it rains, the bed will dry.  Rain is scarce in these parts, including the mountains which are dried out to the point that severe fire restrictions remain on all national forest grounds throughout the state.

The pastors invited whoever to come to their newly rented house on the 4th for a BBQ - bring your own food.  So, I am going, I think. I wasn't really planning on leaving on the 4th for the property, anyway, I was thinking of leaving on Thursday morning and coming back on Saturday late morning.  I wanted to spend the 4th with humans, not with dogs only on a property out in the middle of nowhere - which I love, yes, but I like human company as well.  That gives me 2 nights up on the property, which is enough for me for anyone trip.

For the future, I will be thinking about how I can get a trailer with pop-outs - it creates FAR more room and much nicer.  A 2 pop-out trailer would be nice.

That's it for now.  Hoping for a 2 day work week and then 5 days off, not really sure on that yet.

Up at the property again.
Came up yesterday after work, get here around 5:30pm, said hi to mom, talked about and then disappeared into the trailer.
This morning, while still cool, I took the dogs for a nice, long walk. They loved it and I totally wore them out.
It's warm out now, in the 90's.  It's going to be 113 in the valley today, so take the 90's and anyway, the AC in this trailer works very well, keeps it as cool as I want it to be.
I absolutely love it up here.  No constant interruptions and people asking for this, that and the other thing.  They all have my phone number - tenants that is - if some emergency comes up, I am definitely available by phone.

Since I am waiting for a card for my receiver from Direct TV, I brought up my bedroom receiver instead.  It was VERY easy to find the satellite this time - with one that works lol - and I have had DTV since shortly after I started setting it up.

I am going to have to ask, I guess, as to whether I am getting Thursday and Friday off this coming week. If I do, I will probably come up here on Wednesday and leave sometime Saturday.  Probably - I pretty much never say my plans are set in concrete and stone.

But...........the fire danger is so incredibly high up here, they have signs at the entrance to the forest service road that gets you here saying "Entry by permit only".  I did not have a permit, but then again, there was no-one stopping anyone to ask for one.  Mom says they simply ask you for the address of where you are going and your picture I.D. at that entrance - if - they are manning it.  A very popular place to camp, all the campgrounds along the road are not only closed, but they have the yellow caution tape prohibiting entrance into any of them.  Obviously, Forest Service personnel must be cruising by periodically to ensure no-one has taken down the tape and decided to camp anyway.

However, it's really too warm up here right now to be camping outside.  Sure, it cools down at night but it was getting warm enough to be uncomfortable by around 10:00 am.  Anyway, these forests are so dry that it wouldn't take much to start up another half million acre blaze that would take out not only a lot of trees, but a LOT of homes/cabins.  I applaud the Forest Service to be on top of all of this in attempt to keep - stupid people - from starting up another major forest fire.  I call them stupid because if people were responsible and knowledgeable, you could camp just not have the camp fires.  Cook on propane stove instead.  But, the city dwellers - some of them don't know, many of them don't care.  These are the same people that throw trash everywhere and could care less.

At the same time, there are many that pull trailers up to camp out in - but they still want to have that campfire.  Just can't do it.  An errant spark floating around from the flames could easily start a fire.

Well, I took Caleb's laptop up to him this morning.  He was in very good spirits and VERY focused on the reason he wanted to go there. It has nothing to do with money, either.  He wanted to be able to minister to kids and that's exactly what he's doing.  So, we talked for a bit, but I didn't want to eat too much into his free time so I left after maybe 20 minutes.  He wanted to watch some movies - he has a Netflix account and can watch them on line and apparently the camp has high speed internet and the staffers are allowed to use their computers on the weekends when the kids aren't there.

I also skated a speeding ticket.  I wasn't paying attention to my speed coming off a hill going into heber and realized - after seeing the DPS officer going the other direction who spotted me and immediately pulled over to, I am guessing, turn around and chase me down - I was going 20 mph over the limit. Well, a guess, anyway, my speedometer doesn't work.  Fortunately for me, there was a line of cars behind me, a couple of turns in the road and then? The turn-off down a dirt road to get to the camp.

Umm,, so I was paying much more attention to speed coming back.  I saw that officer on the way back, too, he had another vehicle pulled over and was eyeballing me as I passed by.

I'm still amazed that a trailer this old can look this good inside.  I mean, yes, we did replace the wall paper, but the wood work in this trailer is in amazingly good condition.  I do believe I will be coming up here in the winter.  I won't be able to use the water system in the trailer since it will have to be winterized before the first freeze, but, I can handle a day without a shower. Bring paper plates and cups instead of using the "real" thing and just "tough" it out.  Plenty of heat in this trailer : )

Had a candid conversation with my manager yesterday - the likes of which I really cannot go into here - but it was a good discussion.  The ops manager - well he used to be our ops manager, now promoted to ops manager of the entire western United States - had a road rage incident yesterday.  Not going into all of it, but amazing how frequently that goes on around the Phoenix area.  Is it the heat that gets people so incredibly angry in traffic?  I dunno.  He said the same thing that I did when I had my episode a few weeks ago:  People are CRAZY to go after someone else around here. There are a LOT of people in these parts that carry guns with them in their cars, some person getting all enraged in traffic and threatening physical "revenge" against someone is really, potentially, taking their life in their own hands.

Oh, and finally: this TV I bought on Black Friday last year? No thanks. Screen is way too small, but I thought when I bought it I wouldn't have room for anything else. Not true at all.  I will eventually be getting something like a 27 inch screen instead of the 19 I have here.

Well, time for a lazy Saturday afternoon nap.

G'day.

ben

I went to the research study last night.  We talked for 2 hours about water conservation in Arizona.  Some interesting statistics were brought up, such as at the rate we are going now, sometime down the road, fully 7 rivers will be completely dried up and several more will be almost dry in places where extreme water pumping is going on.

The whole point, apparently, is that there are individuals, corporations and whatever else using a LOT of water, which in turn affects the water supply statewide.  I don't know who was paying for this  research, but they certainly were looking for feedback on a proposed law that would be introduced.  It was interesting, at least, 2 hours and then?  $85 cash.  Yup, cash, not a debit card, which was even more surprising.

So, neighbors, what's next?  Yup, there was a guy out there last night banging away on an old shed structure.  I went out there to see what was going on, it was my bedtime and I am not going to be kept awake by such noise.  Never saw that guy before.  He stood there, staring at me, so I just started right back.  I didn't say anything, went inside the house, the noise went on for another 10 minutes and that was that.

Apparently, however, they are being forced to clean up the animal droppings on both properties.  Stay tuned for more "Animal Wars".  The woman lied yesterday to the Humane Society, telling them that I was out there beating my dog with a belt and she also lied in court.  What other levels is she capable of stooping to?  I have several more things I am going to do - legally of course - in calling the city.   But that's not today, I have no such desire at this point.  It comes and goes.  Sometimes, I think about what those people did in court and I get mad enough that I start making the phone calls and filling out the forms.  That, in turn, sends unwanted scrutiny to both of their properties.

Meanwhile, Direct TV.  I bought a receiver a while back, had Direct TV come out and check it, it works but needs an access card.  Great, I have a couple of extras.  So, I proceeded to call Direct TV yesterday to get one of the cards activated.  The woman on the phone said great, that was an "owned" receiver, meaning it was not leased from Direct TV.  I'm told if it was leased from Direct TV, I would not have been able to get it activated.  The woman goes on how it's great news that I can definitely use the receiver, but, I cannot use the access card that came with it since it belonged to someone else.  ???  Okay, well I have a couple of them here..........she cut me off.

Do not cut me off in the middle of a sentence.  Especially ANYONE at Direct TV.  She went on to say how they won't activate a card I already have, they have to "build" one and send it to me, at a cost of $20 of course.

This is where the disconnect comes in a big way. Maybe a year and a half ago, I bought a receiver off of Craigslist, came home, called Direct TV, they activated the card in it over the phone and that was that.  She didn't want to hear that and began reciting to me company policy, which is when I had had more than enough of this woman's rudeness and asked for a manager.   Something like 15 requests later for a manager, she finally gets one.  Yes, she absolutely refused to get a manager and I informed her that I would be calling corporate and having the conversation reviewed - since they can do that because all phone calls are recorded - and have fun with that.

The manager was as useless as that woman, mainly because it wasn't a real manager, just a supervisor.  Sometimes they can help you, usually they cannot.  I asked to speak to his manager, who, of course, isn't available but I can set it up to have him call me within 48 hours.  Yes, why don't you do that.

I then called corporate, who shuffed me back into the main phone system. NOT.  Called again, the woman  did it again.  I then went into the main phone system, gave it my information and when prompted, I said: disconnect.

Get to the dude on the other end of the phone.  I explained to him the situation but figured I knew what his offer was going to be before he offered it:  a $20 credit to my account to pay for the card.  Yup, but he threw in $5 extra in case there were shipping charges or any other BS that might be dumped on it.  Thank you, thank you very much and was connected then to the card center.  Look, Direct TV simply does not have employees, for the most part, that know how to treat it's customers.  The lady in the card center was full of all kinds of facts about cards that I did not want to hear.  "It's been this way for the 4 years I have worked here", referring to not being allowed to activate cards over the phone.  I had already recited the situation with the receiver I had bought last time.

Are you going to send me a card or not?  I then told her that, on 2 accounts, I have been with that company since the late 90's, so please don't tell me what your company has and has not done in the past, I already KNOW full well.

After that conversation and card promised within 2 to 5 business days - meaning sometime next week of course - I called corporate again. This time, the same lady answered and I simply told her if she dumped me off in the main system again, I would make sure that, when I do get through to someone, that your actions will also be reported.  She gave me an actual manager.  I demanded that the first person I talked to in this conversation, that that conversation be reviewed and whatever action deemed appropriate be meted out to that individual.

This is pretty much a standard conversation with Direct TV.  If you don't agree with them, they get nasty, rude and sometimes condescending.  There was NO way I was going to pay $20 for a card, the likes of what you see them using at a hotel for a door key - that probably costs them 20 cents.  It's just another sham.

Well whatever.  If I get off of work early enough today, I will definitely be heading up to the mountains.  Just depends when I get off of work, I don't want to be arriving up there in the dark is the point.  It's not going to be worth it to me to drive up there tomorrow morning and just stay one night and leave again Sunday morning. If I can't spend 2 nights up there I mostly will not want to go.

Well, time to leave for work.

ben

Lol.
So, I get home and find a notice that was hanging out front.
It's from the mortgage company.  I call them an deal with it.  I sent out a payment and a half last month but they have the half payment sitting there as a "credit:" to my account.  When they sent me the bill a few days ago, it didn't even show that that money had been received, that it was sitting there as a credit, etc etc etc.

Of course, Midland Mortgage Company usually has very rude associates that answer the phone and today was no different.  I completely cut her off after she started in with the tones and asked for management.  The guy that got on the phone told me about the "credit" - I asked, where's my $500?  -  and then I proceeded to tell him what I thought of that, not applying money to an account after they told me I could send in a payment and a half; about the rep that had been on the line before him and then into my current status, which is when he cut me off.  I had not done that to him, yet, but he started talking over me in very loud tones.  Fine, I demanded to speak to his manager.  Unavailable, but I can leave a message, which I did.

Next.  I turned the people behind me in to the Humane Society a few days ago about the cat crap.  Mark comes out and hands me a card from the Arizona Humane Society, they had been here today saying that someone complained that I had been beating on one of my dogs this morning - Duke to be precise - with a belt.  Of course, I hadn't beaten any dogs this morning, this was those people behind me attempting to retaliate.  Apparently Lynnette dealt with the woman to the point that she already closed the case and said she wouldn't be coming back, lol.

I am not through with those idiots behind me, however.  Since they LIED about a situation, which I did not - I can take pics of the massive amount of cat crap in that yard - I am now going to move on with a complaint to the city prosecutor's office.  They actually take complaints about animal droppings that are not cleaned up!

It's become at least fairly obvious to me that that heron has been back.
Those fish in that particular pond are not coming out of hiding, only the smaller fish are showing up. I see the bigger ones lurking under the giant plant, but they are definitely not even coming out for feeding.
I do have a few more things I am going to try.  Well, actually, I am going to cover the pond up with nursery-grade screen and unless that bird can go through heavy duty material - which I am guessing it cannot - that will put an end to that.

The only question that would leave, however, is will it then find the other pond only 15 feet away?  No telling, but I have to do something.

Meanwhile, the cat crap piling up in my neighbor's yard behind me was enough.  There must be a hundred pounds of it laying out there.  I called the Humane Society - they have their own fleet of personnel that goes and checks on animal abuse cases.

I had Direct TV come out yesterday and figure out why that receiver I bought isn't working. I actually had guessed it right, I just didn't know how to change the setting and that was the problem.  It was on the wrong satellite setting and that was all that was needed to get it working.  The lady on the phone I had called to try and get it figured out?  Useless.  Not only that, she claimed, after I asked, that if she connected me to anyone else - I asked if there was a "second tier" or next level of trouble shooter I could talk to  cause' I KNEW this could be figured out over the phone - wouldn't be able to tell me anything else.

This will be my defense when they - probably - try to bill me for the service call.  Sorry, Charlie, but your agent told me there was "nothing else" that could be done over the phone, which obviously, a person that knows what they are doing could have figured it out.  I will NOT be paying a service fee, period.  That may take some fighting if it comes to that.  Regardless, I now have a unit that I can use up in the mountains.

Which is nice.

Nothing much else, at least not going into here.  I am back to considering taking a course or 2 at the local community college - providing I can somehow come up with the money so it may have to wait until after summer and high electric bills become a thing of the past, but there are courses I was reading about that they offer that sound very interesting.  Indeed.
I'm not really talking about anything that would educate me to start a new career - though I have also considered that, the cost is far too high.  I am not going to be holden to student loans - more like a slave to them - for the rest of my life.  Just not worth it.

Well, gotta get offa here, just a short entry.

ben

Well, I found a huge tuft of cat hair - chunk of skin with it - in my front yard.  There aren't too many cat predators around here that I know of, I certainly had nothing to do with it, so, it leaves me to wondering about that coyote I saw trotting down the street the other day.  Once they find food, from what I have read, they will be back if they think there's more.  That thing wasn't trotting around in this neighborhood for a morning exercise run.

I got into work this morning, the dealer had the tractor brought back and I fully expected the AC to be fixed, over and done with.  Instead, the driver comes walking in, hands me a sheet of paper with an estimate of how much it's going to cost to fix the AC.  I thanked him and called the shop supervisor.  "We did not have authorization to repair the truck because we could not get a hold of anyone".

Call to the service department general manager.  He's being a - as my manager likes to call it - douche bag.  I had enough of his BS, forked tongue, double-talking, fancy two-step and backtracking in a quick hurry.  I called his boss.  We had a curt conversation.  This truck has been into your shop 3 times now for the SAME, exact problem.  I am not going into the entire length of conversations that I had with several individuals in that organization.  Not worth rehashing it and would take and hour of writing.

At the end of it, I got their total bill down $615, but, management at my place hasn't authorized the repair yet.  The estimate was to replace the compressor after they have replaced almost everything else in the system.  I smell a tone of incompetence going on here, possibly a complaint to the manufacturer.  I asked the Vice President how much, exactly, should it cost to fix an AC system?  Adding up what we have already spent and the amount they want us to spend, that total 5 thousand dollars.

I dunno.  I pulled 3 orders, loaded them on the truck, got my paperwork ready and then took off.  I turned on the AC that they said they hadn't fixed: blowing out ice-cold air.

The question begs itself: how does an AC compressor need to be replaced that is obviously working?

I have not asked the dealer that as the people running that organization are mouth-breathers and do not want to take responsibility for the promises they gave but then reneged on.  Which isn't shocking.  Certainly not the first time I have run into this kind of nonsense and undoubtedly won't be the last.

My guess is that the shop dumped some freon into the system which is what got the thing blasting out cold air.  My further guess is that they must have found a leak and apparently in the compressor.  Or not.  Who knows?

I'm tired, it's my bedtime and I'm outta here.

ben

The Fatification of America

Do we wonder why America is becoming obese?  Burger King's newest burger boasts 1,000 calories of pure junk and a LOT of fat calories.  I mostly don't eat stuff like that.  Well, hardly ever, really.  I'm still a bit overweight - about 10 pounds or so, but nothing like a couple of people living here.  One of which is somewhere around the 400 pound mark.

How do I know? Unlike my great lack of skill in being able to estimate people's age, I am usually pretty close on guessing a person's weight.  I have learned that having extremely heavy people living here is not the same as having normal weight people, either.  I would go into it in detail, but, I  really am not looking to hurt anyone's feelings.  If you are obese, I can't help you - but you can help yourself.  I know, I know, there are some that have medical conditions that make them heavy.  Don't doubt that, what about the rest?  I'm actually shifting in to the camp of agreeing with a fat tax.  I'm really not trying to be insensitive, but at the same time, I don't really want to have to pay for someone else's obesity in the form of extremely high health care coverage costs.

There has to be, at some point, an extreme "penalty", some sort of incentive - probably a negative one - that will induce people to to start losing the fat and weight.  Just like some places that are considering a $5 tax on every pack of cigarettes to discourage smoking, so, perhaps, some sort of disincentive, I guess I should really call it, for people to stay at a weight level that is WAY overboard.

But, as long as places like Wendy's; McDonald's; Jack-In-The-Box; Carl's Jr (especially that place!); Burger King and all the rest of it both exist and thrive, that is a great sign that the weight problem is going to only get worse, not better.  Around these parts, exacerbate the problem with a huge number of Mexican food restaurants.  Refried beans and lard.  Just take a glimpse at the fat content of refried beans or a flour tortilla, main staples in the Mexican diet.

I love all of that food, I really do.  Yet, at work, I mostly buy salads and use non-fat dressing.  I sometimes spring for the Santa Fe salad - which has a package of guacamole in it and that also has fat calories - but I still use the non-fat dressing.  It's always chicken, so no encounters with beef or pork.

The only way I can see to break America of the fat habit is to hit them where it always hurts the most: in the wallet.  Just like some life insurance companies make you do a swab inside of your mouth to determine whether you smoke or not, so should a fat test be included in any health care coverage plan.  Make them pay an extra 20% or whatever figure deemed sufficient for health care coverage and see the gyms start filling up.

But, we pander.  We are a nation of panderers.  Senseless condoning of things that are bad or bad for us because we want to all be politically correct.  Because if we say something like what I have stated here, it might be offensive to some.  Their feelings might be hurt.  Well, my feelings have been hurt many times in my lifetime and I am still here, still plodding along and I am sure everyone on the face of this planet has had their feelings hurt as well.

Perhaps the government should look at helping people lose the fat instead of taking over the health care industry in the United States.  It will be interesting to see how the Supreme Court rules on Obamacare.  If we were a nation of mostly fit, healthy-level-weight people, well, figure it out.

So, a 14 year old kid in Laveen - about 10 miles west of me - is watching his younger siblings in their home. Parents are wherever.  Doors locked.  Woman comes up to the door - various accounts on the net so far - but she knocks on the door, the kid doesn't open it.  Kid goes up to dad's room, grabs a pistol in time to find a man breaking down the door and aiming a rifle at him.  Kid shoots the man, who is now in serious condition.

Now, where would this situation be at right now if that kid didn't have access to that gun?  Would those kids in that house be alive?  You can be rest assured that whatever the conclusion, it would not be good.

And you want to take away gun rights from the citizens?  Well, that's just one story.  Yes, that's true, one story in a sea of stories of people defending themselves against would-be thieves, robbers and killers.  Mine's sitting within arm's reach.  It's loaded and another clip in the case with it.  Every time I read something like this, just solidifies in me all the more the declaration of  what I believe to be a God-given right to defend yourself and to use deadly force to do so if necessary.

I do hope they get that kid some counselling, yes, he's going to need it, maybe the whole family considering what I read about the dad being beside himself and definitely not quite all here at this point in time.  Can you blame him?  Imagine coming home to find a legion of police cars in front of your house and then finding out your oldest son just shot a would-be intruder. The thoughts that would go through your head - what if?  The what-if's.  What if he hadn't shot that man?  Boy, I can imagine a lot of potential scenarios going through those parent's minds.

Someone told me the other day to "never say never" when it comes to the government - especially this current White House administration - in the desire to take away gun rights.  I wouldn't go quite so far as to never say it isn't going to happen. but I have my doubts.  There may be a gradual erosion of those rights over time if people don't stand up to it - but a total elimination of the right to bear arms?  There would have to be a change to the nation's Constitution to do that.

Well, changing the subject, Caleb just called.  He asked me to bring up his laptop computer next time I'm at mom's property.  It's a little bit of a drive - maybe another 40 miles - to the camp.  But it's a beautiful, lovely drive up there on the Rim and I don't mind doing it.  I told him this coming Saturday, as long as everything goes right, I would be up at mom's place in my trailer - was going to do that anyway - so I figured go visit him, visit with camp management, prolly not spend too much time there but will be nice to see him. They have weekends off.  Kids come up on Mondays and leave on Fridays. Camp staff is not allowed to use electronic devices excepting maybe cellphones during the week when the kids are there - which is a good thing, a real-life, current example that you don't have to have computers everywhere you go.

But I don't want to speak as a hypocrite, since I have come to love the internet and the vast wealth of information to be found on it, far above and beyond news sources and Facebook and all the rest of the entertainment stuff.   We used to live without computers and the net, remember? No, I didn't think so, lol.

ben

I've been following this Sandusky thing - you can't really avoid it if you read or watch the news, it's everywhere - and I have just one question for McCreary, the man who basically got this whole thing started.

If you saw a man raping a child, why didn't you do anything to stop it?  I read his excuses and none of it clicked with me.  Is it a stretch to say that most people would attempt to intervene and stop the man?

Well whatever.  It's over, well, okay, they are talking about an appeal and of course the sentencing, but somehow, I doubt an appeal is going to go anywhere and probably, Sandusky is going to end up dying of old age in a prison cell somewhere.  The various photos of him leaving the courthouse and the look on his face spoke volumes.

Well, whatever.  I ate  a small meal yesterday evening and paid for it last night.  I got maybe 4 hours of sleep.  My stomach still doesn't feel right, I finally broke down and went and got some Canada Dry ginger ale and am drinking a couple of glasses of it.

I am doing basically nothing this weekend attempting to get over whatever is ailing me.  I really wanted to go to the mountains yesterday after work, I got off at noon and could have been up there around 3 - but not to be.  I went to the store to buy food for the trip, but by the time I got home - well a run for the bathroom was indicated.

Try again to go to the mountains next weekend.

That's it.  No more here, I have things to write about but it's going to be shelved for now.

ben

Yesterday morning, upon arriving at work, I went to roll the driver's side front window up. Nothing but noises when I hit the switch. Insanity.  I took the car in some time ago to have both windows fixed.  The cost about floored me when the auto repair service presented the bill: almost $900.

Well, that's because the entire unit inside the window has to be replaced when something on it breaks.  It used to be that you could replace parts on the track and motor assembly, apparently not anymore, which makes that assembly cost over $300 a piece.  Fortunately for me, the auto repair shop I took it to is a very reputable service facility and they took care of it under warranty.  They were sending the replaced one back to the auto parts store they got it from for credit.

Today, I suffered some sort of heat related illness.  Heat exhaustion I guess.  I was down in a mine up in the mountains. You would think it would be much cooler up there, but, not so here.  Same temps in that mine as it is down in the valley. It was hot and the truck's AC is still not working properly.   By the time I got everything done and back to the yard, I was ill, felt like throwing up and ready to go home.  My manager was hardly sympathetic to my cause but I wasn't going to do anything else, I had no energy and I was feeling worse by the minute.  My manager exclaimed he had been in the heat all day long as well, telling me that from his office which is cooled to 72 degrees.

Whatever, I was in no mood and simply said I am going home.  Okay, but you'll have to be here at 4:00 am. Whatever again.  We ended putting off a contractor today to make that trip to the mine, so now, they want that stuff at the job site at 6:00 am.  Hope I feel better by tomorrow morning is all I can say, but right now? I am laying in bed writing this on my laptop, attempting to pass some time so I can go to sleep.  It's only a quarter after 6:00.   I have no appetite; I am extremely fatigued; my eyes are burning and it's all I can do to stay awake right now.

Oh, the mine.  Another trek down Forest Service Road 287.  You wouldn't think it a public road with all the mining activity, but it is.  There are continual signs referring to this place called Haunted Canyon.  This is now my second time back this road, but this time they took me MUCH further. Steep grades - guessing around 12% anyway - dirt roads, extreme switchbacks.  When we got to the entrance to the operation that I was delivering the pipe to, the guide truck opened a gate with a remote, we went in and then we went UP.

I sat there for over 2 hours waiting for them to unload the truck.  They apparently had to bring in some sort of safety person to oversee the operation and that  - took quite  a while.  I went to sleep.  It was after that and the truck was unloaded that I started not feeling right. The truck wasn't cool, it was warm. It was hot outside.

Well I can't write anymore.

Down to 2 candidates.  Let the s*** fly, obviously.  Although, it was a pretty dumb remark on Obama's part to say that the "private sector is doing just fine" and his apparent idea that to fix the economy, we must hire more government workers.  This is the problem. We don't need a bigger government, we need a smaller one.  I shell out about $800 or more per month to the various levels of government, the Federal government taking the largest portion of it.

I don't mind paying taxes, I do mind paying that much in taxes.  I would be happy if they took maybe half of that figure out.  I am beginning to feel like we are into this "taxation without representation" scenario simply because our representatives do whatever they please once they get into office.  They do not listen to their constituents.  They get to Washington and fall into the same old routine that's been going on for at least decades.

Whatever.  Hump day.  After spending all that money on the trailer and getting it moved, my savings account is going back up faster than I anticipated.  If I don't touch it before August and continue having the automatic withdrawals, there will be at least close in there to cover an entire trip to San Diego.  Well close anyway, lol, now that I just looked at a calendar.

As much as I hate to do it, I also paid off the second 401k loan.  It isn't paying it off that is bad, it's tapping into it that is bad.  It won't be "tappable" until this time next month.  But, I am not going to leave myself exposed, if something happens and I don't have any other resources available to cover whatever - it would have to be an emergency to get into that money such as a broken AC unit on the house which better not happen since I already paid for that thing to be repaired once in replacing the compressor - but just saying if there was an emergency, I have to be able to cover it somehow.  The loan was down to $59.  There is a 30-day waiting period before you can take out another one.  I do not need, at this point, to take out another loan and I really don't want to do it, so I just hope that nothing goes extremely foul anytime soon.

Well, work day here. Slated to be - 109 today.  Lovely.  NOT.

G'day.

ben

I had no more finished a blog entry this morning, walked out the door and headed for my car when I saw a dog running down the street.

Upon closer observation, it became immediately apparent this was no dog.  A coyote.  I took it by surprise - though definitely not intentionally - upon exiting the gate and closing it.  That thing stopped and gave me a look.  I made the same noise to it that I make to my dogs when I am not happy with them.  Can't really describe the noise........but it was enough to get that thing moving again.  Fortunately, it was not traveling in a pack as they are known to do.

I know the mountains are only 2 blocks away from my house, but there is a major surface street between them and my house.  However, not really all that surprising.  Probably looking for food - whatever kind it can find.  I have heard coyotes will definitely take small dogs, I don't know about cats.  Plenty of both in this neighborhood.  I don't really have to worry about that.  My dogs are too large for one thing and for the other, they are in my bedroom at night.  Coyotes come down from the mountains at night and return in the morning.

This one must have been late, lol.  I got in my car and took off down the street to see where it was going.  Back to the mountains. Yup, it found it's way to a bypass between houses that goes to the street - but - that street at that time of day? VERY busy.  I'm not sure what became of it.  It was a very healthy looking specimen, not the raggedy looking things that I have seen up in those mountains.

However, they are considered varmint and if I knew it was legal, I would have simply shot the thing.  Probably is legal in certain areas,  but I am in a residential neighborhood and there is no way I am going to shoot a gun unless my life is threatened.

Back To The Truck AC Issue

Today? I had had enough.  Anyone that reads this blog may remember my trials and tribulations with the semi truck I drive at work whose AC was not working properly.  We had taken it in last year to fix it and then took it in again several weeks ago.

Well, it still isn't working properly.  That's 2 visits to the dealership, a total of 8 days in their shop and 8 days of renting another truck to take it's place plus a total of 3 grand - yes, $3,000 to fix it.  For that much money,  I better need a coat to wear if I leave that thing on high, which is what is USED to do before it broke. That cab would get icy cold regardless of the outside temperature.

When I got the truck back, it felt okay at first, but later on that day it didn't feel all the great.  Fast forward to now-extreme temperatures and it's simply not good enough.  It's "lukewarm" in that truck and that is NOT what we paid for.

As usual for me, I decided that twice in the shop was enough.  I called - the owner of that company actually. Of course, I did not get to speak to the owner, the owner forwarded me to the general manager over the service division.  I believe this is a 24 hour operation, 7 days a week.  They always have a backlog of trucks to fix, so when you take your truck in there, it may be 3 or 4 days before they even START on it.

The general manager called and started his spiel.  I was having nothing to do with it.  Our total cost for a non-functioning system was around $4,600 if you count the rental truck, which I do.  He wanted us to bring the truck in on an afternoon and then come for it the next morning NO, sir, we are not going to do that. Well, he replied, I am just trying to eliminate any further expenses we are both incurring.

Sir, YOUR company has incurred NO additional expenses.  WE have paid the tab for everything and WE had to pay for 8 days of a rental truck. Your statement that you have incurred "additional" expenses is outrageous at best.  He again asked if there was no way to just bring the truck in, they would work on it - all night if they had to - and it would be ready in the morning.  No sir, we have gone this route, as far as I'm concerned, this is YOUR problem and you are going to have to  deal with it on MY terms.

I further explained to this gem that we are a 2 man operation.  We start at 6:00 am. Deliveries that are in the system are expected to be on the road no later that 7:00am and contractors want their material. We do not have time to be driving 50 miles round trip to get that truck in the morning, which is WHY we have to rent a truck anytime we have to take it into the shop, which is, fortunately, not that frequently.

He went on and on about making an overnight deal work.  I finally stated to him that I would be happy to speak to the President of the corporation again if I  need to and he could make the final decision.  Mr. Gem (not his real name) backtracked considerably on that one and said no, we will get your a rental truck if it comes to that.

After 3 phones calls, to of them with this guy, I FINALLY get an apology for the truck having had been in their shop twice for the same issue.  I am still guessing this problem is simply a matter of adding additional freon, but I decided against doing that myself.  If, per-chance, it isn't a freon problem, then over-charging them system can blow the compressor and then you have a REALLY expensive repair when it comes to trucks, even though the AC system in a truck is no different than a car AC system, it's all the same thing.

I got back to the yard and discussed the situation with my manager.  We can take it in on Friday afternoon and they can have it ready by Monday morning.  Okay.  But, I played this guy, since he was attempting to play games with me, Mr. Gem that is.  I called him back and gave him my terms.  I can bring it in Friday afternoon, I can pick it up Friday morning, but.......you are going to have to have someone take me back to the shop and pick me up.  If you are not going to get us a rental truck, that is the LEAST you are going to do.

He didn't like that idea and decided that he would just come and get the truck himself and then bring it back in time for deliveries Monday morning.  Perfect.  Please do.........and I have your WORD on that, yes?  Oh yes, Mr. B, it shall be done.

What do you think?  Twice in the shop for the same problem. The first time, they gave us the  truck back and told us it wasn't completely fixed.  Surprised, I asked him why they had called us to tell us it was ready. "We didn't have authorization to do the additional repair".  "Do you not have telephones here?  Did we not leave a cellphone number contact?"  "Y, y, yeeees, but........" But what?  It was too late, I had already dropped of the rental truck because they had called us, telling the repair was completed and ready to pick up.

The second time, I informed them of what happened the first time and - yada yada yada. I specifically told them it wasn't blowing enough volume of air AND the air was not cold enough to keep the cab cool.  They fixed the first thing, they did not even ADDRESS the second item, even though I saw the man write it on the service ticket.

Oh, did I say another part of the terms of this situation is that we are not going to pay another DIME for this "fix"?  Yeah,  darn straight.  How much money should be expected to fix a freaking AC system?

Tuesday 6/19/2012

What a miserably hot day yesterday.  I looked at the temp outside at 8:30 and it was still 105 degrees.  And, of course, it's not going to get any better, any time soon.  Triple digit temps going above 110 slated for many days in the near future.

Good reason to try and get up to the mountains for a couple of night's stay this coming weekend, if at all possible.

Neighbors to the east of me were forced - for the dozenth time at least - to clean up their property.  The city finally acknowledged my complaint about the property behind me as of yesterday.  They will have to go out there - again - and determine what, if anything, they can do.

My dad and uncles are talking about another reunion.  They wanted us young-in's to deal with it, but many of us young'in's are in no financial position to be able to even think about doing anything like that. And I'm definitely not asking them for handouts.  Instead, I am attempting to find ways to save money for when Caleb comes back because a trip to San Diego again this year would be very nice.  I'm afraid I will not see my uncles in my adult lifetime.  I haven't seen any of them since I was very young and just a few years ago, one of them passed away.  Another has MLS, apparently some unbelievably horrific disease.  They apparently all did well in life as far as money goes, I am happy for them.  I am currently not on that ship, I wish I were, but I am certainly not going to get into a pity-party about it.  It is what it is and I deal with it.

I have seen no sign of Heron coming back.  We put up that mannequin head on a pole with a t-shirt, lol.  Funny looking thing, especially considering the pole is 8 feet tall.  What tells me they haven't been around is that the fish are no longer hiding.  I mean, they are still a bit skittish when I come around, but they freely come out now whenever food time is there. Speaking of food, thanks for reminding myself: dog food and fish pellets, gotta get both at Walmart today.

The dying tree? Jury still out.  Still a very few, healthy leaves on it.  As long as it shows any sign of life, I am going to continue to water it - heavily.  The heat isn't helping anything, more frequent waterings having to occur. I have some plants I am hand watering now - I do that when the rest of the plants don't need the water but these certain sets of plants do.  Saves on water usage is all, which helps keep the monthly bill down a bit.

I have not been forcing the dogs to stay outside when I am at work this year.  I have in the past, but this heat is too much.  They have a doggy door and they know how to use it.  I just don't feel comfortable putting very large dogs outside in 113 degree heat even if they have plenty of water and shade.   So, unless they start doing things in the house that are going to - extremely - irritate me, it will probably stay that way for a while.

That's it. Time to face another hot day at work.

G'day.

ben

Nope, definitely not in the mountains this weekend.  On a normal weekend, I have decided that if I am going to go up there, it's leave asap after work on Friday and get up there so I can spend 2 nights up there and leave on Sunday morning early enough to hit church at 10:00am.

I haven't actually tried that yet, but soon enough I will.  I've also asked for 5th and 6th of July off making it a 5 day off "weekend" starting on the 4th of July.

I was called yesterday by a survey company that I have participated in before, they are paying $85 to participate in a 2 hour, small group.  That's $42.50 per hour. The location is about a mile and a half away.  Yup, convenient enough and I"ve done it several times in the past.  This time, they said it would be more writing than anything and that it was going to be a very small group and that attendance was highly critical.

The issue?  Water conservation, as far as I could tell.  I thought I had answered some of their questions "wrong", but apparently not.  Apparently, they want people that do know about what's going on with the state's water supply but do not want people that would consider themselves environmentalists.  Anyway, I'm good on that one, that pays for 2 trips up to the mountains in fuel, thanks.

Gilbert - the 22 year old tenant - comes home about an hour ago.  He did not look well.  He had one of his girlfriends with him.  He looked at me and informed me that his day was not going as planned. Oh? What's going on?

He was driving down the road, swung his car one direction to avoid hitting a dog, steered back the other direction but over-corrected and ended up in a ditch.  He had the car towed here and it's sitting in front of my house.  I sympathized with him - whatta drag - he went into his bedroom and I went out front.  Front end of that car is totally trashed.  The wheels are smashed up against the fender-wells, that's thousands of dollars worth of damage right there, at least.

This must be dog day.  My dog picks up a toy dog at Petsmart and treats it like it's a stuffed doll, biting into it and here is Gilbert trying not to kill a dog and trashing his car in the process.  I love dogs, oh yes I do, but if I knew that the end of the line in attempting to not hit a dog was going to be a totally trashed car?  The dog would lose.  Okay, I have to admit, if it was one of MY dogs I was about to hit? I would run the car into a tree first.

I haven't had a chance to ask Gilbert yet if he has full coverage insurance on it.  Mark started arguing that "minor" damage is covered by minimum liability insurance. No, sir, it does not.  Minimum liability insurance only covers damage to the other driver's car if you are at fault, it usually covers nothing on your car.  Well, it doesn't matter who is at fault, it doesn't cover it.  It just keeps you out of debtor's prison if you happen to run into a car and totally trash it.  Of course, modern cars?  Doesn't take much to trash them nowadays.

It's not like they're built out of any amount of metal anymore.

Weekends.  They disappear quickly.  I know it's only Saturday but it's already 5:00 pm and it seems like the day has vanished.  Perhaps it's just getting stuff done around here all day long, but it goes way too fast.

Later.

ben

I don't think that kid knows what kind of serious trouble he could get into.
When you starting acting out road rage and if you get caught, you are likely going to be hauled off to jail.

I am referring to an incident that occurred not 15 minutes ago.

I was getting into the middle lane. The kid in the white, Nissan pickup truck was in his lane at the time.  I was  2/3 rd's of the way into the center lane when he decided he was going to come over.  I already have legal entitlement to that lane.  I moved back over a bit, he got back into his lane and I then finished my lane change.

Trust me, he was NOT coming over when I started my lane change.  I am a truck driver, that's all I do is drive in mostly heavy traffic all day long.  The name of the game is to stay out of accidents, regardless of who may be at fault.

Well, whatever.  This kid is stuck in his lane now and I move on.  After the traffic behind me clears - not enough for him to fit in, he cut off another pickup up to get in the lane I was in because my lane was moving faster.  Now I am watching him because he is driving erratically.  I get over to the next lane - when it safe to do so, he is now stuck in the lane I was in.  I put on my turn signal - I was turning into my neighborhood.  He  not only cuts off another vehicle to get into my lane, he also has to hit his brakes, hard, to slow down to make the same turn.

Now?  I am pulling out my gun.  Not so he could see it, I don't know if you can get into trouble for an alleged charge of "brandishing a pistol", who knows.  The case it was in was on the floorboard and I simply opened up the case.  I am not going to be the victim of road rage and Arizona's castle doctrine applies to inside your vehicle as well as inside your home. This kid is right on my bumper.  I am guessing he's between 17 and 19 years old.  I turn.  He turns.  I turn again - onto my street.

I stopped several houses down from my driveway.  I thought it a bad idea to pull into my driveway and have that kid know where I live.  He pulls up beside me and then in front.  I am completely stopped and waiting for whatever's next.  He flips me off out the window of his vehicle but has not stopped, driving very slowly - I did not flip him off back. I take very seriously this kind of issue: people get killed, end up in hospitals and prison I then move behind him.  Apparently he thought he could scare me, as it became obvious he wasn't really game for getting into some kind of physical altercation.  I had no fear, whatsoever.  Now I am following him out of my neighborhood.  My street exits out onto a main artery and there is no way I am pulling into my driveway at this point, BAD idea.  I can just see this kid coming back at night and damaging my car or house or who KNOWS what.

He left the neighborhood -with me behind him.  This went on for a mile before he tried to ditch me.  Which was fine, I was well away from my place and I made a left turn heading a completely opposite direction from my neighborhood, but went right through a parking lot and headed back home.  He had run a red light at that point and I wasn't chasing him anyway.

Here's the real problem with people in this state that get mad in traffic, angry enough to start following a person, flipping that person off and basically making it known you have ill-intent towards that person.  The problem, is that many of us carry guns.  Law abiding citizens, that is.  Don't want to use them, but will if back is against proverbial wall.

I know at least a couple of readers that will have a problem with that.  I can't help you.  It wouldn't bother me in the least to take the life of a person that is attempting to take my life.  Period, end of story.  There is nothing more to say about it.  If they are going to kill attempt to seriously harm you, a person has a right to defend him/herself and that's that.

Completely changing the subject: some days I like watering my plants, other days I just want to get it over with. Today was the latter and just got done with it.  It's hot outside - 109 - and I just didn't feel like it.

With that, I'll end this one.

G'day.

ben

I did end up going to Globe yesterday, both to the customer and then the customer's customer.  He buys stuff from us and the sells it.

I ended up going into a mine I haven't been into before.  I think it's the 5th one I've been into up there.  I had to watch yet another, 20-minute safety video.  I have never encountered any other industry that has as much safety regulations as mining operations.  They are REQUIRED by law to educate anyone that isn't a recognized miner, regardless of who you are or what you do.

So, I got done with that and was instructed to go back to my truck and wait.  I couldn't just walk straight back to my truck, either.  I had to walk west to a parking lot, then through a designated (and extremely visibly marked) walkway between rows of cars, up to another walk way, head back east and out of the parking lot and back to my truck.  I guessing I wouldn't have got run over if I would have just been able to walk - straight back to my truck.  Lol.  But, I am used to this kind of thing, you do whatever they tell you, if you don't, they simply won't let you in.

Well, I waited there for 20 minutes before a pickup from the entrance highway - yes, they have their own, private highway - came up and told me he would be back in a few minutes.  Yup, I've heard that before, I was already on my laptop reading news stories on the internet.  3G connection, but that didn't bother me.  Another 20 minutes later he came back and we - did not even go into the actual mining operation.

Instead, I was taken down a winding, curvy dirt road laden with signs about a place called "Haunted Canyon".  It rang a bell, but didn't quite remember it.  Well, this guy was in a big hurry and pulled way ahead of me.  Sorry, dude, I am driving a tractor-trailer rig on a winding, narrow, dirt road, not going that fast.  Gotta have time to react to the unknown - the thing that probably isn't there but you have to be ready for just around another blind, tight curve.

I saw half a dozen of these Haunted Canyon signs which REALLY piqued my curiosity.   It must be a popular place to go, as this was actually a forest service road, as designated by the signs, not a total mining road. There were MANY small signs advising the traveler that yes, this is a public road, anyone can use it.  How do you even hear about a place like this, much less find it?

Well, got the pipe off the truck and then started heading back.  The inevitable call came - go somewhere else instead of back to the yard, something else has come up and we need you to do this, that and the other thing.

But a nice drive.  I don't get very many of those in the semi anymore, I relish each little tidbit that's thrown at me.  It's MUCH different driving on open highways than driving in the city.

Well, I just checked on the internet for Haunted Canyon.  Lots of pics and lots of info, apparently a popular hiker's destination and the pics looked very nice.  I wouldn't mind making a trip up there and taking a half day hike. Maybe take a dog with me for the fun of it.  NO, not all 3 of them, JUST one.  Those Great Danes are not good for long hikes, they simply won't last.  Sophie? I think she could go forever.

So, fast forwarding to the end of the work day today.  No sense in going into all of that, just another day driving in heavy, city traffic with a high percentage of extremely stupid drivers.  I get very tired of it.

I am slowing down to turn into the driveway into the yard and see .......... a Chandler police SUV parked in front of our store.  Okay, that isn't what got me, what got me going was the "Commercial Vehicle Enforcement" words on the side of it.  What was this person here for? Although I can't say I didn't have any close calls today - that happens every day - nothing out of the ordinary.  Well, whatever.  I know I didn't do anything wrong and I did my normal thing and then entered the shop.

Turns out the guy is a customer, wanting to buy some gas fittings (natural gas line) from us.  Though, we immediately went into a conversation about enforcement - he was eager to go there so I went there with him.  He was extremely interested in the new regulation (I have read on numerous sites over several year's span that the trucking industry is the most highly regulated industry in the U.S.) about DOT certification.  Otherwise known as the medical card.  If you are pulled over and you can't show one, you, the driver, are put out of service, the same as they do with a truck that isn't fit to be on a highway.  Lol.  I already knew this rule, but thought it funny he was alllllll over that.

I was more interested in the new texting regulation.  Had he caught anyone doing that?  Nope, he said, but he is ALWAYS looking, spoken quite adamantly.  Yup, already knew that.  Don't take that wrong, I don't think ANYONE should be texting and driving, period.  I have seen enough of it.

Well, the day is over, it's my bedtime and.....yes.........I am going to bed.

G'nite.

ben

I was looking online yesterday for some ideas of how I could build a much larger pond without having to dig up all of that rocky, dense soil.  Why of course, an above ground pond.  But - a nice one.  Can be built with bricks; blocks or even wood.  Most of the ones I saw they had inset it into the ground about a foot and a half, though.  Still would be somewhat costly since it would involved buying and underlayment and a liner.  Not to mention the pump and filter assembly.

Just floating things around in my head.  What's next, really.  Stay here or move.  Never have quite answered that question to myself, it's just something I haven't figured out whether I really want to go through with all of that or not.

Well, anyway, back to work today.  3 days off is nice.  I would like to do that more often and considering the amount of hours I have saved up at work for vacation, not improbable.  I haven't heard back about my 2 day vacation request for the 4th of July, the 2 days after it to be precise.

Caleb returns from the mountains on - the 30th I believe of July and starts school the 3rd week in August, so if we were going to go on a fishing trip, it would have to be in that 3 week period in between.  I'm not sure I can come up with even half the money for such a trip by then, but we'll see.

No tenants moving out on the horizon, though that can, of course, change quickly.  The young dude considers this "home" if only temporarily.  He went home to California this weekend but when he got back here he simply stated it "is nice to be home again".

Interesting mix I have now.  No major issues, either.  Nothing I can't tolerate or deal with anyway.

Might get a run up into the mountains in the semi today, not sure yet but there was talk about it last week and I put in my bid to the salesman to hold off on it until Tuesday if he can, which is today.  I would really like that, but not going to be terribly disappointed if it doesn't happen.  Just would be nice : )

G'day.

ben

Close to 300 miles round trip.  That was my drive up to Heber and back today.  A little over 5 hours.  I could have done it in 4, but I stopped in Payson for cheap fuel and a salad and stopped again on the way back down to refill the tank with fuel since it's about 18 cents per gallon cheaper up there, plus about a half an hour at the camp.

Funny.  That fuel they have up there? Is shipped from a yard in west Phoenix.  It's farther away, so more mileage for shipping expenses, yet the fuel is cheaper.  

We got up there and there was - no-one there.  A bit of a knot formed in my stomach: I had asked Caleb several times to confirm that today was the day to show up.  Apparently he confirmed today was the day to show up but did not confirm what time.  Between 6:00 and 8:00 pm.  6:00 pm is still a bit over 2 hours from now.  Then, after sitting under the awning at a picnic table, some grounds keepers showed up.  I asked them if it was going to be okay to leave him there since no staff was present.  Caleb didn't want to do anything else, he was good with staying.

Well, one of the dudes piped up and said: "Yes, but he will have to go sit out in behind the gate", pointing to the entrance gate 100 feet away.  Well, whatever, that's their decision.  But, this man got a big smile on his face, looked at me and informed me that he remembered Caleb from last year and he was welcomed to sit there until these people show up.  A few minutes later he came back and said: "Or he can come work with us!"

If it were me?  I would have either cruised around with those dudes all day long or - more probable - I would have taken off to the woods and gone hiking.  Regardless, he hadn't eaten, even though I offered to buy him lunch in Payson.  I then insisted he get SOMETHING to eat and I would take him to the Circle K about a mile and a quarter away.  We went, he got a half gallon of water and a very small thing with a piece of jerky and some cheese and crackers in it.  I offered to buy him whatever. Nope, that's all he wanted.

Okay.  Back to the camp, bid our ado's and away I went.  Always love the drive up on the Rim.  At the highest point there is an elevation sign: 7,700 feet.  I think Phoenix is around 1,200 feet.

I did not have the emotion this time of leaving him there that I did last year.  He's a man now, 19 years old, lots to learn, yes, but he's an adult.  He can take care of himself.  It's just kind of a phase there where you, the parent, are figuring out whether he's really ready for the world and being dumped off for 2 months up in the mountains and just the idea that he's all grown up now and going off on his own.

I was thrown out of my house at the age of 19 and I can tell you I was definitely not ready for what was to come and survival and life in general was not very pleasant during that time.

I had thought about stopping at mom's property on the way back, but I decided against it.  It would have taken too long and I wanted to come home.  Not anything grand going on here besides normal stuff, but tomorrow is work and I don't much care for being away too terribly long during the work week.   I did not take any dogs with me on today's trip, I didn't want the hassle and frankly, I was glad I didn't.  

The above is a Google image of the camp.  It's huge.  If you look at it, there are quite a large number of structures on the property.  

Well anyway.  My Butterfly Koi.  I was at that pond looking in there.  He came right up to me and starting opening and closing his mouth.  "I'm hungry, feed me".   None of the other fish in any of the ponds is even remotely close to that fearless of me.  I'll assume some of that has to do with a Heron showing up and wanting to eat them for breakfast, but even before that nasty little situation, it was pretty much the same.  That particular Koi will let me touch it.  Yup, a fish allowing a human to touch it without fear.  Amazing.  Absolutely amazing, IMO.

Caleb brought up the subject of San Diego and fishing again.  So, I proposed a half and half scenario.  I'll come up with the money for these expenses if you want to come up with the money for those expenses.  Yup, he's all down for that.  We'll see what happens in 2 months, of course.  

One of my tenants just brought me a Post Office money order and told me that a company in California is paying for him to go to Walmart as a secret shopper.  I was quite skeptical.  They had sent him a money order for $975.  No way.  Don't believe it.  I am guessing a real company would probably issue you a Walmart gift card only usable at Walmart, but I really don't know how the secret shopper financial part plays out.

I flatly asked him if the letter he received with the money order had issued instructions to send money to someone else.  Yup. FLAT OUT SCAM. That's it.  I am 99.999999999% sure that even though that money order looks like a real one?  It will prove to be useless in the end. I gave him my tidbit of advice: Deposit the money order into your account but do NOT spend any of the money until it clears the bank. If it does NOT clear the bank, you ARE going to be held responsible and that bank IS going to take YOUR money of our YOUR account and there won't be a damned thing you can do about it.  

I tried, that's all I can say.  If he is intent on going through with it, fine.  I didn't have to learn the lesson the hard way, I read all about this stuff for a long time before playing a guy that contacted me via email. He sent me a real money order that would have passed - at first - at the bank.  You send your money to whoever they say to and then a week, 2 weeks later?  You are screwed, thanks for playing, you lost.

G'day.

ben