She's Dead, Jim

That's how I look at a retirement "plan" that includes retiring at the age of 80.

80?

I was reading a news article about this, how tough it is for Americans to save and how more and more are upping their retirement age.  Well I don't even know if I'll be alive at the age of 80 and if I am, will I even be able to work at that age? Further, WHO is going to hire an 80 year old man?  I doubt my company will have me around that long if I happened to be there at the same place until retirement age.

I can tell you right  now, at the LATEST, I plan on retiring at the age of 68.  I would rather retire earlier than that, but who knows.  I do know that I recently upped the percentage taken out of my paychecks to 7%.  After the election, I will decide whether to up it to 9% or take a different route.  I do have automatic deduction taken out of my paycheck going into a savings account, but it's too easy to get a hold of it.  In fact, if I'm down too low on money?  Just transfer it to my checking account, online, with the push of a button and it's done.

Not exactly an effective savings plan, going to have to come up with something different.

Changing about statement:  after the New Year I will decide whether to up 401k or not.  I am waiting to see if these "experts" predictions are going to come true.  If they are, no sense in putting more money in there to have it disappear.

I dunno.  Seems to be that having a good retirement?  I would have to be in my 20's at the place I am at now, not my late 40's.

An interesting adventure to figure out how to pump the RV antifreeze through the water system's lines. This trailer isn't set up like that, I found out after going through the entire system and trying to actually find the water pump to see if it has a tube coming off of it to use as an intake to stick into the gallon jugs of antifreeze.

No.  Instead, it has lines dropping down underneath the trailer with caps on them.  When the water pump is turned on (or if there is a water hose connected to the system), those lines dropping down are pressurized.  That's cause they are tee'd off the lines going to the various faucets inside. You need simply remove the caps on those lines sticking down and walaah.  All water inside the lines drains out, from the faucets on down simply through gravity.

So, I removed the caps from all of them and am leaving them open until I leave to make sure it's nicely drained.  Did I mention that 2 of the caps broke clean off the lines and now I am going to have to replace them? Oh, no, I skipped that little diddy, but there it is. Dry rotted from exposure, I am assuming.

From the looks of it, the fittings simply stick inside the tubing and then you crimp a clamp over it to seal it.  So, a couple of fittings, clamps and I am sure a specialty crimping tool that probably costs $25.  Oh well.

I sent the Great Danes out this morning and Duke's mouth starting chattering incessantly from the cold.  It was, actually, quite humorous, though I am sure he didn't think so, lol.

Mother has projects for me, 2 of which I have completed, another of which I have to go look at.  The door on the tool shed is sticking.  I dunno if the door needs replaced or if I can just possible remove some of the wood off the side if it's not too bad.  However, the main reason I came up here for has been accomplished.

Well, anyway, I'm spending another night up here and then come back in the morning. I have lots to do  down there - at home that is - plus there is the outreach on Saturday.  Well, I actually may go back today cause' there is so much to do.  My point in coming up here has been accomplished and the only other reason I would stay another night is cause' I slept sooooo wonderfully well last night here, well, maybe it's a trend that would go on for 2 nights!

ben

I was not feeling like driving up to the mountain property after work today - at all.  Tired, I have not slept well this week and it's wearing on me.  I decided after getting off of work - at the normal time BTW, leaving plenty of time to go up there - to go through the "process" in case I decided to go.  The would be stopping at Walmart and getting a space heater (going to be in the mid 40's up there tonight); get disposable dishware and silverware; frozen food (I will figure this out as I go, but the fresh water holding tank is empty and I have no plans of refilling it since I am going to winterize the thing) and other things.

Having done that, I stopped at the gas station and put enough fuel in to get up there and back to Payson, I was hoping perhaps the price of fuel might be cheaper up there as it sometimes is.  I get home, sit down at the computer and basically felt like I was in collapse mode.  Still plodding along, do limited watering, feed the fish, get everything out and ready to go.

It isn't necessarily point of no return stage, but after getting out the shotgun; the small shop vac; packing a bag; etc etc - I decided to go through with it.  The drive didn't actually seem to take that long, even though it was close to 2 hours and it was almost dark when I got up here.  JUST enough light left to be able to see the numbers on the combination lock and open it, get the electrical cord plugged into the electrical pedestal and get set up for shop.

I was pleasantly surprised to find no mouse droppings anyway.  The mouse traps had not been snapped and the bait food was uneaten.  It also smelled very nice in here - I put a Renuzit odor eater gel thing in here when I left last and opened it just a bit.  It's about 80% gone but boy, did it smell really nice in here when I got in here.

So there it is.  No need to vacuum out the entire trailer, just have to put on the bed linens and that's it.  I am going to bed early and hope to sleep somewhat well.  It's going to be quite cool up here tonight, but I am prepared for that and am actually looking forward to it.

I turned on the TV and it was a nice experience to have the Direct TV actually come on instead of having to call them and have them re-whatever the system to make it work.  I was wondering why all of the creep shows and horror flicks until it dawned on me: today is Halloween.  Not a "holiday" I celebrate anymore, so I am not missing out on anything and most of these horror flicks are low-budget garbage that I have no interest in watching.

Onto a different topic.  My son has had a deep, ugly cough for a month now.  He is completely broke.  He wants to get a part time job along with going to college, but he has no energy to do so.
The hospital visit apparently didn't help him all the much and now, I have decided to foot the bill and get him into a doctor's office and have them figure out what's going and how to get rid of it.  I will be asking them to give him a steroid shot the same as they did to me the last time I had an ugly cough that wouldn't go away.  I have had this same problem all of my life, I guess my son might have got that from me.  If he did, it's a pretty ugly thing.  Coughing colds can last up to 3 months.

Yes, you read that correctly 3 MONTHS, not weeks.  I have to do what I can to get him better, hard to go to college and study and all that while being in that state and then even thinking about getting a job is out of the question.

There are other things, but I am not getting into it now.  Too tired.

ben

Question:  Will I get off of work early enough to be able to make the trip up north?
Answer:  I'll find out in about 9-1/2 hours from now.

I don't really have any choice.  I could put it off for another week - maybe - and hope the temps don't dip down below 32 up there - which they probably won't at least according to the forecasts - but I would really like to get it done and not have to worry about.  It being winterizing the trailer up there, that is.

According to forecasts, I don't have to worry about freezing temps until midway through next month and not have to worry about hard freezing temps until apparently in to December.  I'm going to keep track of this this year - perhaps winterizing the trailer doesn't really need to take place until sometime in November which gives me more time to go up and enjoy the trailer with running water (versus not).

Whatever the case, in terms of work, it is my Friday and I will have 3 days off : )

It was a simple question.
I had contacted CenturyLink to ask them how I might be able to get a discount on my internet service.  I can only get the 7mbps that I am currently getting, I cannot get faster in my neighborhood.  I guess I don't really think it's worth $45 per month and have been weighing whether to dump the service altogether and get Cox Cable internet, which is, allegedly, MUCH faster.

So, I was using their online chat.  I clearly stated my question.  It was unambiguous.  The lady?  Either was acting like she didn't understand what I was asking or just didn't want to deal with someone that is an existing customer asking for a lower rate. Whatever the case, she dumped me onto a manager without my asking for one.  He stated over and over: "You were asking about new customer, promotional rates and why you don't get them?"c Yes, I repeated but he wouldn't go any further than that with it and then, disconnected the chat.

This irritated me.  If there are no discounts, just SAY so, it will help my decision making easier in regards to whether to switch or not.  Switching won't be cheap.  I will have to foot the bill for both a modem and a router. Yet, I suspect, my internet experience will be vastly superior in terms of download and upload times.

I then decided to call CL and got a Filipino incoming call center.  I didn't have to ask multiple times about wanting to speak to a U.S. agent IN the US, they just switched me.  Now, I have a lady on the phone who also - does not want to answer my question.  I wasn't being rude or had any tones, I just wanted an answer. It took 3 phone calls to this company to finally get to a real manager.  Not a supervisor, either.

I won't go into it, but that conversation did not go well.  To the point that I informed him that I would be calling corporate headquarters tomorrow to ask them to review the conversation.

This morning, I call corporate.  I won't go into the operator whose attitude stunk to high heaven.  I asked for her name, she informed me that she didn't have to give it to me.  Wow!!  Whatever.  She hung up on me, but I called back, this time I was going to attempt to use their prompt system to find someone to discuss the situation with.  The first person I tried did not answer the phone.  I called again, this time this same operator answered immediately.  YOU again, I was going to use your automated system to get through to "someone". She put me into the system with the regular incoming calls going to an 800 call center.  NOT.  I called back, this time I asked for the CEO.  He doesn't take phone calls and dumped me again.  I called again, had found yet another person, the COO.  I didn't even WANT to talk to this operator, I just wanted to try getting a hold of the person, or more likely, that person's personal secretary.

Operator answers again.  Note that the first two times, the phone rang for about 12 times before I got an answer.  I ask for the COO.  Amazingly, I find myself on the line with a lady who works for that individual.  I ask to speak to him.  Who are you, what do you want.  My name is Ben B, I want to talk to him about your company's "customer service" and a few other things.  I can take a message, she replies. By all means, please do.  When will he return my call (not actually expecting him to return my call, but perhaps it would be handed over to someone who would deal with it).  She didn't know but she would get him the message.

A few hours later I get a phone call on my cell from "unknown" caller.  I guessed it might be them, it was.  It was some sort of "specialist" that deals with this kind of problem, she had been handed my request.  We discuss at great length the manager in particular but I also brought up the operator.  She stated she would review the call and would also look into some sort of discount for me - we eventually got to the why did I call in the first place - part - and I said great.

A few hours after that?  What I got out of this lady was that that manager was going to receive "some coaching" and that she had already put an order in for me to receive the internet for 12 months at 50% off.

Done deal, thank you very much.  That's about $250 over the span of a year.  I am still not sure that I am actually going to stay with this company considering the lack of speed options, but while I am still with them, at least for the next 12 months if it goes on that long, I will have internet for a lot less than I am currently paying.

Let the rhetoric fly.  Thank God Almighty this current Presidential campaign is almost over.  Allegedly, Trump has some "big" information that he has going to allegedly release today that "may" change the election.  I would just like to ask who, exactly, at this late point in the game, is still actually undecided? Are there actually people out there that are going to show up at the polls and finally will have to make their decision IN the polling booth?  If there are, I can't believe there are that many of them.

I found quite amusing Chris Matthews statement that - just as the first election - basically - if you aren't an Obama supporter, you must be a racist.  This kind of inflammatory statement and idea was projected around during the first Obama election.  The idea that because Obama is black and I am white but didn't want to vote for Obama the first time around or this time around therefore, somehow, makes me a racist is - absurd at best.  Just a bunch of ninnies making statements out of desperation considering the polls show a flat tie at this point between the 2 candidates.  This election is a toss-up and everyone knows it, whether they are admitting it or not.

It will be interesting to see how many voters turn out this time around.  I think this election may just have record numbers of voters showing up at the polls.

Whatever the case, today and tomorrow and work is done for the week.  It's been really slow this week at work, which can make for a loooooong day when there isn't much to do.  When I went home yesterday, there was only one thing to do for today in the truck routing system and that delivery is being put off until a part comes in via truck motor freight.

There is a small group get together tonight at someone's house somewhere in tempe for a potluck type of dinner.  It mostly depends on how long I have to work and how I feel as to whether I will go or not. I have mostly put off the night meetings since I go to bed so early and get up so early for work.  The small group I have been going to has swelled in size - greatly - to the point that it's really not longer a small group.  Why so many people dumped the Monday and Wednesday night group, I have no idea.  Once a group gets too big, it becomes unmanageable, IMO, at least in the context of what the group was originally designed to do: start building relationships.
Whatever the case, it's time to go to work!

G'day.

ben

I finally got word today - after asking yet again - about whether I can get Friday off.  A go.  I am planning on leaving Thursday after work and either leaving late Friday or more likely early Saturday.
Actually, I have no guarantee that I am going to get off early enough on Thursday to get up there in time to have enough time to deal with any mouse problems, though my mother informed me that there were no sign of them in there and that the mouse traps had not been sprung.

I would rather not, obviously, have to deal with mice and their droppings.

Junior is all over the place.  He's feeding on Lantanna's; Honeysuckles and I believe it's called Rubella.  Purple flowering plant.  Junior is my name for the hummingbird that was born in one of my Sissoo trees earlier this year.  His mother took a hike, he never left.  Well, I mean he always comes back, multiple times a day, looking for nourishment.  He drained out a feeder's full of fluid in a very short period of time. But my Honeysuckles have hundreds and hundreds of flowers on them, lots of nourishment there, but I just refilled the feeder to keep him happy.

I was having a crazy dream last night.  It started  - somewhere, lots of people around, not exactly sure where.  Someone snagged my laptop with mobile router and gun and the entire dream was about finding this person and getting my stuff back. This dream went ALL over the place, including meeting a police officer who was engaged in killing a large number of people.  He had an excuse for all the killings, of which I witnessed, him gunning them down. He continued to promise to help me find the thieves but declared that he had a much grittier calling to deal with the bad guys.  He thought nothing of killing people, even if criminals, whether they were armed or unarmed and mostly unarmed.

This dream seemed like it went on all night long when I awakened out of it.  We were driving all over the state trying to find this person, meanwhile I remember fretting about trying to replace the computer and the gun with limited finances. In the last few scenes of my "movie", I was with my wife? - not my ex either - and we had tracked the thief down to a run-down old house or hotel or whatever, I can't really say, and went in to find him.  Well, the misses stayed outside in a vehicle that looked to be a moving van.  Lol.  I fished the man out and he ran to his car and took off.  I ran to the van and I was about to take off when my missus said it was time for her to go work.  ???!!!! What do you mean it's time to go to work?  That's when I woke up, looked at the clock and yes, it was time to get up for work.  It was a really strange dream, but I have been having those lately and I have no clue.

I mean, do you attempt to attach some meaning to such dreams and if you do, what, precisely, are you focusing in on?

While walking around my property today, inspecting my trees and plants (I do that regularly, like almost daily), I noticed a large number of Chinese Elms saplings growing in places where the nearest Chinese Elm is at least 50 feet away.  I noticed another one of my plants also growing next to it. Next to that, a desert tree that I forget the name of but is not growing anywhere on my property. These are "good" plants, not weeds and I pointed them out to Mark in case he might be inclined to remove them.

No, let them grow.  See if they flourish. If they get big enough, I will attempt to transplant them. If not, then Nature has taken it's course.  I will blame this phenomenon on birds eating seeds off of a tree and "transplanting" those seeds elsewhere through a natural process known as defecation, lol.

Sophie's hind leg is getting better - much better.  She is still limping but getting around much easier now.  Sigh of relief. I was "informed" by someone yesterday that it is probably hip dysplacia.  I had to inform this person that the dog had had an accident, had somehow twisted her entire hind end and it has nothing to do with an ailment that  pretty much reserved for much larger dogs.  Yes, it can and does occur in smaller dogs, but it doesn't just come out of the blue and cripple a dog in a matter of 60 seconds.  You would not expect that a dog that has normal hip function suddenly, out of the blue, is crippled and cannot walk and has to be carried back into the house, especially a dog that is only 2-1/2 years old.

Well enough of that.  The final, Presidential Debate en-queue in a couple of hours from now.  I will, of course, watch the entire thing.  I didn't much care for the Ryan/Biden debate, but the 2 Presidential debates thus far have been entertaining and I expect that the vitriolic mix of attitude, interruption and to some extent, lack of civility will occur to a greater degree than what we have seen thus far.  As far as I'm concerned and have stated long before these debates occurred, these debates are going to determine who is going to be our next President.  

I'm still, actually, waiting to hear confirmation of my day off this Friday.  I NEED that day off. I don't just want it at this point.  I want to get the trailer ready for winter and I want to be able to come home in time to participate in the outreach that will take place starting at 5:00 pm on Saturday.  If I don't get Friday off, then winterizing my trailer will have to take precedence. Well, I guess I don't have to have it off, since the participation in Saturday's event isn't something I really have to do, but I would like to.  

Beautiful day.
Decided to not spend it indoors.
I have had enough of indoors when I am at home - though the stifling heat is certainly a good enough excuse, at least for me.
Got out in the dirt and start digging, watering, getting dirty and muddy.
I feel good, too.
But that's not because of the weather, that's just that my spiritual life is slowly coming back to order, to the place where it is supposed to be and the direction it is supposed to be going on.
I do have regrets for the last years that I have wasted, but there is nothing that anyone can do to get back lost time, you can only resolve to use the time you have now and move forward in that mind frame.

I'll have my property nicely trimmed and looking up to snuff in the next week, as I don't have a problem going out there after work when the weather is so beautiful outside.

That's not to say that my property looks shabby, but it definitely needs the attention I like to give to it to make is "sparkle", I guess I could call it.  And in this kind of weather, I like doing it.

We may be in Sierra Vista on Black Friday, but they DO have a Walmart down there!  I don't really "need" anything, but I want a much larger TV for that trailer up north.  I saw a 32" flat screen on sale today for $232.  Good price, but if that's a sign of what is to come, then I fully expect Black Friday to be an awesome opportunity to get the TV I want for that thing.  I was thinking about that because I didn't want to miss out if there really IS a good deal to be had. Some consumer sites have already stated that electronics and specifically TV's are going to be the big time buys at any given Black Friday sale.  Too bad Black Friday sales now seem to start at Midnight.

Prince, my black Great Dane, was brought up in church today during the sermon, lol.  I took Prince specifically as a conversation starter, and that is something he does very well without even trying, heck, without even knowing about it. The pastor was talking about using "lures" of whatever to get opportunities to talk to people and that's where Prince was invoked.

My oldest brother winterized my mother's trailer this week.  So, she is done for the season. She won't be back up there until some time late May.  I will be going up here and there as time permits, even without running water.  I already have several cases of bottled water up there - though I guess that stuff will freeze in a very cold trailer, I will have to bring up water on each trip.

Next Saturday brings a Halloween event at the same park we were at yesterday.  The city of Tempe organizes it, apparently, and are allowing our church to set up - several -booths.  4 hour event. They are asking for as much help as possible.  I am hoping for Friday off as I have asked so that I can go up on Thursday and stay through Saturday morning. The event doesn't start until 5:00 pm.

Well, I will just take things as it happens.  If I get back in time, I will go and help out, if not, oh well.  But, I have desired to get more involved with church and these opportunities are coming at a rapid pace now.

That's it.  I came home from church, going a very long way about it going to the shop to get my phone that I had forgotten and left there and to Fry's to get fixin's for spaghetti.  When I got home, I realized I had forgotten to buy the meatballs!  What is spaghetti without meatballs?  Still good, actually, but I didn't want to go to all the trouble and not have it the way I wanted it for a Sunday dinner.

G'day.

ben

The Park

Kiwanis Park, to be precise, located in Tempe, it's a full mile in depth from Baseline road to Guadalupe road.  They intentionally the front part of the park that goes around the lake quite hilly.  It's covered with nice grass and a lot of mature trees.  It's a great park that I hadn't been to in ages.

Until this morning.  I decided to take only one dog: Prince, the black Great Dane. Sophie, the Catahoula, did something serious to her hind end this morning - what I have no idea.  I heard her howling in pain outside shortly after they went out early to do their thing.  I went out to find this dog laying in the rocks, continuing to howl in pain and unable to stand up.

I could only guess that she must have lost her footing while running and twisted a leg and did perhaps some joint damage, tendon damage or muscle damage - or a combination of all three.  I picked her up, brought her inside and laid her down on the carpet.  She stopped the howling and just laid there, looking at me, trying to drag herself across the floor with her 2 front legs.

Do I now have to put another dog down?  My first thought.  I don't have the money to dump on that dog like I attempted to do with Coco when she was going down. If I had to spend any money?  It would be to have her put down, not to fix her.  I decided to simply leave her and hope that when I come back from the park with Prince, maybe I would see some kind of improvement after the initial pain wore off and she might be dealing with it.

At the park.  Prince, of course, loved it.  I got out of the car and hadn't been walking for 60 seconds when a couple of older ladies stopped me and we conversed about Prince and then about their dogs.  I then continued to walk, looking for the church people.  I got to a hill and was walking up it when some people alerted me to the fact that Prince was pooping while we were walking.  Prince does that.  Instead of stopping and stooping, he basically acts like a horse.  Cleaned up that mess and then thought I heard my name called, but I didn't see anyone - trees and buildings in the way.  I continued on and then clearly heard my name called and saw the Pastor's son running up after me.

So, I went back down the hill, turns out they had just shown up and were walking behind me.  Prince, of course, attracted a lot of attention and we were able to get into some good conversations with people.  I eventually decided that Prince should be exercised, so I took off with him. I ran as much as I could before getting winded and then did a fast walking gait and then running.  Did that until I had had enough and Prince was panting heavily.

Back to the group.  It was probably one of the best interactions I have had with church members since I have started going to that church.  Some people that would never talk to me opened up quite a bit and got into some rather deep conversations, actually.  Well, after 2 hours they said that was it, pack up the bags and leave.  I went home, but not dreading what I might find with Sophie. She either is going to survive this or she isn't.  I would rather she did, of course, but I am not near as attached to that dog - yet anyway - as I was to Coco or am to my Danes.  I got home and she came hobbling up to me.  Obviously not feeling too well, but she was moving on her own and that's a very good sign. It will, undoubtedly, take a long time for whatever happened back there to heal.  Whatever it is, I am not taking her to the vet.  I can't afford it.  Summer pretty much left me broke and I am trying to get my financial reserves back up.  I am not spending money on anything that I don't have to - bills, food, gas for the car, stuff like that.

So, I hold out hope that over time, it will heal and she'll be back to her normal self.  A dog that cannot walk, however, is a dog that can't live.  It can't go to the bathroom and that's enough right there. But she's getting around enough to convince me that if she will stay down and not move around too much, she can get past this.  Which reminds me, I totally forgot: give her an ibuprofen to help with the pain.  There we go, a little while from now and hopefully that will make her feel a little better.

That's it.  That was the jist of my day.  I am heading outside soon enough to do some more work out front.  The temps are going to come down after today.  Highs in the 80's instead of the 90's.  Meaning my electric usage will go down even further.

Keep that in mind, though - that park is a really nice place to walk the dogs.  I changed the dog walking modus from walking all 3 to either only walking 1 or 2 at a time. But not the 2 Danes at the same time.  I have to keep Duke on a short leash and I can't have him going after other dogs.  I don't know that he will do that, I am not going to find out.

I asked for coming Friday off.  I need to get up to the property and get that trailer winterized.  I am not getting off work early enough to leave on a Friday afternoon.  I didn't get home until almost 5:00 pm yesterday, way too late to even think about it.  I want to good, solid nights up there and that's what I am after.  The day hasn't been approved yet, but I am hopeful.  If it isn't, I will have no choice but to go up there next weekend regardless of what day I leave and get that little project done.
___________________________________________________

Plant inspection.  Just got through with along with other junk out front.  The Sissoo that just up and died - is dead.  It's showing no signs of life and I have watered it well for the last 2 weeks.  The other huge plant (8 feet tall) that I cut back significantly after it was dying is - up in the air.  The weather is much better and I am spending much more time out there dealing with the things that I have put off because of summer heat.

Well, it should be interesting to read both sides of the story in the next coming days about who won last night's presidential debate. There is already a bunch of muck and mire all over the place. As expected, Crowly - the so-called moderator - took up Obama's defense at least a couple of times.  I'm sure in the next several days there will be the almighty "POLL" that will come out and define who won and who lost and will be even more polls that will show who is winning the race.  Though, the most recent Gallup poll was quite interesting, lol.

Today, as was yesterday and the day before, will be quite busy at work.  Drive back to the jobsite in the middle of the desert and deliver those machines.  Then drive clear to our main branch in downtown Phoenix. Back to the branch in Chandler and then out for more deliveries.  That should eat up most of the day if not all of it.

Well, I was going to write more, but time to leave for work already.  I was reading a lot of news blips on the debate, sorta got caught up in it.

G'day.

ben

The work day starts off with what I already knew: take some material to a contractor at the Intel plant.  But, then I am informed that I will have to make a trip to Tucson for a fusion machine and it's generator.  These 2 machines will take up about 2'3rd's of the truck and by the time you get your chains on, you're limited on space.

The drive down there was interesting in the fact of seeing so many Highway Patrol vehicles sitting off the side of the road, yet not having anyone pulled over.  I was followed by a Mini Cooper the entire trip down to Tucson.  I have no idea what that was about.  I really don't.  It appeared out of the blue and mimicked my every move.  At times it was right on my bumper, other times it backed off a bit. I did not cut that car off, I observe my mirrors quite frequently.  I don't make lane changes until it is safe to do so and then, only after my signal light is on.  Heck, I indicate I am changing a lane with my signal lights even if there isn't anyone behind or in front of me to see it.  Just a habit.

After loading the machines and getting them chained down, I am looking for a place to eat.  I decided that I would stop at a Dairy Queen at Picacho Peak.  It has truck parking and well, probably not the greatest food for a dietary minded person, but oh well, give in and eat the good stuff.  After that stop, I got off of I-10 westbound and got onto SR 87 north bound. It's a 2 lane highway with a speed limit of 65 mph until you get to a blip-the-road-town called Randolph, where it goes down to 50mph and then Coolidge - 35mph.

I am going the speed limit. There are MANY side roads that connect with this highway.  I come up to another highway that ends at the highway I am on.  It has a stop sign, I have open road with no speed limitations because of the road that ends.  Why should it?  If a car is coming, you don't just decide to pull out in front of it.

But that's exactly what happened. I'm going 65mph and this woman driving this little tin can car decides to pull away from the stop sign, cross  the highway and make a left hand turn which puts her vehicle directly in front of me. I did not know if I would be able to slow the truck down in time to avoid a collision, but avoiding collisions is part of the life in day of a local truck driver.

Moving on - I don't want to experience those feelings again - I get to the jobsite which is out in the middle of the desert.  The only thing around is a dilapidated old house.  Whether anyone lives there is hard to tell, no vehicles.  I get out of the truck and speak with the foreman, who thinks it's hilarious that I just came out there with a machine that he will need, but doesn't need today. His attitude sucked.  From this morning until the time I had arrived, the situation had changed and the man stated that he could not take that machine off of the truck.  Not because he didn't have equipment.  Well I'm not going to go into it, between that guy and that woman in the car I will become extremely irritated.

I watched the debate tonight. Obama looked better than the last debate, but I definitely think that if you want to call one or the other a winner, Romney took it away.

But I won't go into that, as my bedtime is here.

ben

So here it is, the second Presidential debate is today.  Both candidates holed up, though the Obama campaign seems happy to churn out to the press the sticking points they are going to bring up with Romney, while Romney is pretty much keeping quiet (I would think a better strategy, don't tip your hand).  I would expect Obama to put out a better performance this time, but in reality, I hope he doesn't, lol.

After finding out yesterday that our branch is not going to be open on the day after Thanksgiving, I wrote my dad and told him both Caleb and I would be down for Thanksgiving.  He wrote back with elated tones and basically informed me he would be paying for our hotel room while we are down there.  I won't refuse the offer.  My finances are slowly starting to improve now that summer is - almost - over (still getting up into the mid 90's here!) and high electric usage and high water usage will be reduced substantially, thus lowering my expenses quite a lot.

I'm trying my best to stay out of the way of ADOT/Highway Patrol as well.  If I can make it to the end of the year without any warnings or tickets, I get 2 week's worth of pay for getting the Safe Driver Award.  Look, I just try to avoid their hot spots.  Places where they are sitting on the side of the highway and waiting to pull over trucks and do inspections.  I drove by several of them on I-10 the other day, holding my breath.  None of them had anyone pulled over and they were looking.  I also had one on the opposing side of the freeway yesterday who was using his radar gun to try and catch speeders on my side of the freeway!  The problem with that?  There is a cement divider there.  I don't know who he thought he got - there was a whole slew of us together - but he got on his motorcycle and he was GONE to the next exit, presumable to turn around and come back.

I was taking no chances, I got off at the next exit that takes to a different freeway.  It's not just the safe driver award, it's all the crap that goes into getting even a warning nowadays.  But I don't have time to go into all of that.

Anyway, time to be off to work.

ben

My oldest brother is not telling my mother an exact day of when he's going up to the property to winterize her trailer.  I am not going to rely on his help at this point, it wasn't offered anyway.  I just figured he knows what to do, but now that I have visited enough internet sites, my memory of how to do it has come back to me.

Therefore, I do not think I am going up there this coming weekend to do that.  Instead, I am going to go to a big park not far from my house, join up with other people from the church and hand out bottles of water, lol. Okay, I have my own, refined methods of talking with people about church, God and Christ and after talking to at least 10,000 people in my missionary days, I do believe I can fish out things from a person that otherwise ain't telling no-one anything.  I'm taking Prince with me as a lure as well, lol.  I might even take both of them.  Nahhh, one is enough.  People love to walk up and ask: "Is that a Great Dane?" or "What kind of dog IS that?"  Or "That dog is a horse!" and other lovely facts that are imparted to me without my asking.

Which is fine and don't really mind it, though I think people stopping cars in the middle of the street to take pics of my dogs is a bit much - it opens the door for me to ask questions to them as well : ) I will probably keep it refined to "hey, we are out here handing out bottles of water and yes, I am invited you to come to our church - which by happenstance, happens to be only a block away from here".  If I really feel compelled, I bypass the church stuff and go straight to the Christ stuff. That can be a bit - interesting - to say the least.

That's it.  Starting to get tired, bedtime looms.
ben

The Day At Hand

Sometimes it just drives me crazy.  Especially on a Sunday afternoon.  IN and OUT and IN and OUT.  It goes on all day long.  Back and forth, back and forth.  Sometimes I can tune it out, other times I just have to get up and go to my bedroom.  I am not referring to my dogs, either.  A particular tenant that seems to not be able to decide what, exactly, he is going to do.

As I pulled out of my driveway this morning to go to church, I noticed the next door - not-neighbors (people that act like that are hardly neighborly) - had one of their vehicles parked well beyond their property line and in front of my house.  If it were anyone else, I couldn't care less, but these are the people that called the cops because one of my tenants was 6 inches beyond the property line.  Note that Phoenix does not have some ordinance that states that you MUST have your vehicles parked in front of your house.

I was driving by when I saw this and stopped and backed up to get a double-take.  I then noticed 2 of their junk vehicles parked in the street are WELL out of current registration.  When I came home from church almost 3 hours later, that vehicle was gone.

I haven't done anything yet.  They were looking at me out the window.  If they didn't know what the issue was, then they are very stupid people considering the amount of trouble they have caused.

I cut down the rest of the large plant a while ago, pulled all the grass out underneath.  Well, I didn't cut down all of it.  It still had several "trunks" (this is a large plant, but not a tree, it has multiple trunks that were almost 2 inches in diameter, pretty big for a plant) that had green on it. I am not the type to give up on a plant that isn't totally dead.  I have a slow water going on it right now out of the garden hose - I do that instead of the drip system when I want to give a plant or tree extra water but don't want to have to water everything else along with it.  I will be getting out there this week after work - providing this coming week doesn't supply me with more 11 and 12 hour work days - and finishing the job I started and then planting the plants.

Meanwhile, Romney V Obama coming Tuesday in the second round of fights.  Romney will be as polished as he was in the first debate, I expect Obama to come out swinging.  Not that I want Obama to win. but he looked almost disheveled in the first debate.  Has he succumbed to loss?  The Obama campaign gives Romney lots of "credit" in his ability as an accomplished "salesman".  In context, it was a denigrating response.  But who cares, Obama and his campaign administrators don't care what they say or what level they bow to in order to try to win the next election.

My sons tells me - not 20 minutes ago - about a situation at his mom's house.  Someone was banging on her door.  She called Caleb and then called police?!!  I'll call the police first before I call anyone else in a situation where I feel threatened.  Apparently they have put graffitti on her door before.  Well, Caleb is a mile away, apparently.  He comes rushing home in "Sebastion" as he lovingly calls my old Buick.  He gets out of the car and confronts all 4 of them.  They were all sitting on a wall 10 feet away from his mom's front door.

Caleb's a big boy and we're not talking all fat.  When he gets angry, look out.  A mild-mannered kid but when the switch is turned to the on position, you'd better look out.  He is telling me how bad he feels about how angry he got.  Really?  I couldn't empathize with him.  If someone messes with my mother, look out.  Especially if they come banging on her door and then camp out 10 feet away from it and I just happen to be around to "deal" with the situation.  If the cops make it there first, best.  If they don't, again, look out.  There are a few things still sacred, at least in my mind - your property and your family.  Especially people messing with your own mother.  Or anyone else's mother for that matter.  Or with ladies in general.

Again, I just couldn't empathize with him, I know what my reaction would be and it wouldn't be nice.  Is there not a righteous anger?  Yes, I believe that firmly.

Here comes Caleb's next statement:  He would like me to take him up there and drop him off for 2 days at the trailer up on the property when my mom's not going to be there.  He wants to be secluded, alone, with his Bible and get alone with God.  I can't think of a better place to do it in.  My mother does not go up there in the winter.  Too cold for her.  Fibromyalgia, she says it gets worse in the cold.  Whatever the case, there's a full 6 months she's not up there by her own choice.  I intend on going up there this winter.  I don't care about the cold - well I do but it's something I can deal with.  No running water, but I can deal with that, too. Just get a couple of 5 gallon jugs and take tap water up there to clean with and use plastic forks and paper plates to eat off of, or just take frozen dinners and there is no cooking to deal with, just trash which I always have to deal with, anyway.

Whatever the case, I can take him there and the cruise up to Snowflake.  Small town up in the mountains. A couple of nice places to stay at very reasonable rates.  It's another 80 miles or so northeast of my mom's property, probably another 1,500 to 2,000 feet higher in elevation, up on the Rim. It's beautiful country and I can think of a lot of ways to spend time up there, including getting alone with the Lord and hiking in the snow if it's up there, going out into the woods alone, all the things I used to do when I was much younger.

I am definitely going to plan for it. Well, not really plan, his schedule is a bit skewed with school, I'll just go with the flow. But I would rather do it when it's snowing, freezing cold outside and holed up with nothing to do but seek the Lord and enjoy the beauty of nature.  I love snow.

Weekend is over.  They come and go - go much faster than they come - and I wonder what this work week will be like.  Last week was intense and a lot of hours.  More than I care for.  I like OT, but not that much.  My paycheck will look nice, but at what cost.  I would have gone up to the property if I hadn't gotten off so late on Friday.  I have no choice BUT to go up there this coming weekend.  Regardless of whether I can go on Friday or leave early Saturday, it's time to winterize the trailer and it can't wait. Not going to let it go and come back to burst pipes in the Spring. I read a few sites on the net on how to do it and now that I remember how to do it, it shouldn't be a problem.  The fresh water tank is almost empty.  I will empty the waste tank and the grey water tank I already emptied last time I was up.  The only thing really left is to close off the valves to the water heater and drain it and pump the pink antifreeze through the pipes.  The problem? I don't know if there is anything there to connect to the pump to siphon off the gallon jugs of antifreeze.

If there isn't, well, I can't do anything but go to Payson and buy whatever fittings I need.  I can't buy them in advance, I have no idea what size or thread.  I "assume" that such is included with the trailer. I should have looked into this long before now and had it ready to go, but, hindsight and 20/20.

Umm, well I think it's this coming weekend. Sometime this month, my oldest brother is going up there to winterize mother's trailer, I intend on being up there as well.  I am looking at the forecast and freezing temps aren't forecast for the upcoming month, actually, but who knows and that can change. There is something, frankly, I would rather do this coming weekend:  go to the park with some of the other church members, hang out and offer water to whoever comes by and tell them about our church.  I can facilitate that, too: take Prince, my giant, black Great Dane.  He attracts more attention than anything I have ever encountered.  People will stop to chat just about that dog.  Looking at Accuweather, freezing temps aren't forecast at all, even into the middle of next month.

It would just truly suck, greatly, to have a freeze come along and have busted water lines and then have to replace/repair all of it.  

More? Ummm, okay.  I heard noise outside and went out to check it out - yes, it put  a stop to writing this entry.  5 neighborhood kids playing with Randy's golf cart next door (it doesn't work, they were rolling it down the driveway and then pushing it back up).  350 man out there.  I observed.  What was 350 man going to do.  Nothing.  Randy and 350 man have a war going over 24 linear inches of property.  350 man isn't going to call Randy, the cops or anyone else.  If anyone else, 350 man would have dealt with it "differently".  But he didn't.  He went inside as soon as he saw me out there - Injunction is still in force.  I went out after what I thought 350 man addressing them but couldn't be sure and asked them what he said to them. Nothing, they replied. 350 man was on the phone, I guess, talking with someone.  This went on for quite a while, actually, talking to these kids about messing with other people's property; the fact that 350 man is a total @SS**** and then into whatever else, random junk that I finally had had enough of and bid them adoo and went back into my house.

Enough. I looked at the forecast and decided that if at all possible, fore-go the trip up North next weekend and do the winterization the weekend after and go to the park on Saturday with my black, giant Great Dane : )  I love that dog.  I guess I love all my dogs.  He's always wanting to follow me everywhere.  He wants to lay next to me here, while I'm on the computer, even though a hard, tile floor.  He doesn't care about that, he's a people person.  The only time I have seen him aggressive was at the doggy park, 3 times now, when other dogs attacked him for no reason.  He turned around once when a Doberman was biting him and yes, bit him right back.  I wasn't close enough to stop any of it, but I did get over there quick enough to stop anything further. That is when the idiot owner of the dog accused my dog of attacking his first.  It doesn't matter, really, nothing would happen anyway, but there were like 25 witnesses that defied the man's statement.  He's big and he's a black dog, that makes him the culprit according to many people's thinking.

In reality, he is the most docile creature you could ever meet.  He is good around kids, strangers/adults, other dogs.  Yes, if another dog bites him, he's going to do what he needs to do, but that's it.  My other Great  Dane? I don't trust him anymore. He's good around people but he is not good around other dogs.  Not all dogs, but enough that I can't take him around other animals besides the ones he is living with here, which apparently don't interest him in an aggressive way.

That's it.  Time to prepare for bed - and possibly another week of what has been going on for several weeks now at work, a grueling, endless, non-stop, day-long rigor of work that I find drains me to the point that I would rather not have to engage in such.  I'm sure my next paycheck will be nice, but, at what cost.  The cost of getting much of anything done in my personal life.  Double-edged sword, I supposed.  Take advantage of it while it lasts.

G'nite.

ben

Sitting at a jobsite, looking at overcast skies and the mountains off in the distance.  Cool breeze, even with the sun shining brightly in a speck of the sky that isn't covered with clouds, it's very nice out.  The thought of going up to the mountains this weekend seems so much more appealing than it did at 2 o'clock this morning as I laid in bed, awake, musing of such.
The low in Payson is 39, the high today, the high will be 60.  That's coat and sweater weather - at least for me. I know my dogs don't hate the cold, but they have to have sweatshirts put on them to help keep them warm.

The trailer itself has 3 different heat sources, though the one I like the most is the electric heat coming out of the roof AC - but - that blaster by the door that uses propane is pretty awesome.  Which reminds me, I was going to get a small portable unit for it and it totally escaped me.

It is amazing the difference in attitudes out at these construction sites once the stifling heat is gone. It's about 70 or so degrees out right now, a month ago it would have been over 100 by this time of day.

Well, just pondering - to go or not go to, that is the question.  That is a question that is usually answered by what time I get off of work.  if no later than 3, I can do it, if later than that, questionable, especially with the unknown factor of the mice.  Well, my truck is unloaded and time for another round.

Later.

ben

Biden.  The man looked like a clown with a suit on.  Laughing and mocking Ryan, interrupting him and treating him as if he was some kid in a school yard that had just done something naughty instead of the vice-presidential contender that he is.  I expected the kind of "performance" that Biden put on, I did not expect the obnoxious, rude and haughty behavior that he exhibited.  The host, whatever her name is, did a terrible job.  I mean, horrific job, as in: she had absolutely no control whatsoever.  They need someone with some balls and the ability to shut the candidates down when they are going on too long or starting to interrupt and taking over the conversation.  The stupid laughing that Biden did continuously when Ryan was speaking made Biden look like a complete idiot.  The "debate" degraded from the get-go.

Whatever.  My bonus came through tonight.  It was exactly what I thought it was going to be with the government taking 40% of it.  What, exactly, gives the government the right to take something that is given to me for hard work and effort put into a job?

11-1/2 hours put in yesterday, today looks to be no different.  I'm a very tired person these days with putting all these hours in.  Weekends can't get here soon enough. At least it's Friday, but the thought of driving up north?  Highly unlikely. I don't have the energy or the motivation to go through the process of getting everything ready, in the car and driving up there and then, potentially, having to clean out the entire trailer again if I find more mouse droppings.  That entails vacuuming out the entire thing including lifting up everything that is movable to clean underneath plus scrubbing everything down.

It's starting to look suspicious.  Another tree out front has died.  I mean, within a couple of days it went from a very healthy tree to a very dead tree.  One of my Sissoos.  It was not a huge tree, but there is no plausible explanation for a tree that has been in the ground for 3 years to suddenly up and die out of the blue besides - malfeasance.  I have to give it a much higher percentage of credibility that someone is, for unknown reasons, poisoning my plants.  I'm going to have to figure out what's wrong with the software on my video surveillance system and get it running again.  I want to see what's going on out there.

Well, just woke up in the middle of the night and decided to write an entry.

ben

Caught Em'!!!

What did I catch?  Ummmmm - since early last year, I have been trying to find the home of the wasps or whatever they are that are consuming various plants on my property.  They look like some variant of wasp.  Well, as I stated here a couple of entries ago, I was on a mission to spray all the plants on my property with Miracle Gro.  Stage 1 completed 2/3rd's of the property, Stage 2 finished it.  

I was spraying my Chinese Elm directly behind my house and lo and behold, dozens of them things came flying out of that tree.  I wasn't trying to find their home.  It never even crossed my mind, my mission at the time was to spray the leaves and the ground with the stuff and get it all covered.  

So, it was quite surprising to see all of them things come flying out of there all at once!  I mean, you aren't thinking in those terms at all and suddenly you have several of them coming at you.  Whatever. I haven't had time yet, but a trip to Home Depot and I am going to get poison and spray that tree and RUN RUN RUN!~

Then spray it again - same thing - RUN!! My back door is about 10 feet away from the tree. I'm going to cause' them as much misery as they have been causing me for loooooooong time now.

I'm getting tired of my profession - truck driver.  At least, in the city.  City driving in a big truck totally sucks. People aren't paying attention.  They are too busy with phone conversations; texting; hair-do's; reading the newspaper to care about traffic.  They look up and realize that they are about to miss their exit or their turn and the next thing you know, there is a car planted in front of your truck no more than a car's length in front of you, hitting it's brakes hard to make that turn or grab that exit. 

I'm not quitting trucking, but really.  

I'm looking at a news story that calls a kid being punched in the head by a much larger dude "bullying".  Well, if we are going to be politcally correct, then let's just call it an assault. Let's get the police involved.  Let's have the bully-er charged. 

Really?  I remember the first bully I encountered in grade school.  He hit me and I proceeded to beat the crap out of him. The second bully was the next year at the same school. He had dominated every kid on the playground except me.  He finally approached me one day, on the play ground with a large number of goons, I will call them, and attempted to intimidate me.  We did not fight, but he never bothered me again.  I think bullying is a part of growing up and how you deal with it.  The current system states that if you defend yourself, you are as guilty as the person that hit you.

BULL****.  

Whatever.  I'm not going into it again.  I just get pissed off when I read this junk.  

I'm done, cause'..........it's almost my bedtime.

ben

Caleb is slowly getting better.  The prognosis, in case I forgot to write it in one of these entries, was a severe upper respiratory infection that was allegedly close to becoming pneumonia.  The docs gave him 2 prescriptions and sent him on his way.  I gave him the humidifier yesterday and loaded it with liquid medicine and that helped with the coughing tremendously. He'll get better, just going to take time.

High temp today slated to be 94.  I'll be happier when the high is slated somewhere in the 80's and turn off the ac at night and open the windows type of weather.

I'm still amused that NBC News still doesn't have a single blip on their front page - online that is - about the latest polling that shows Romney ahead.

Well, a potential trip into one of the big mines today.  Potential because the pipe has to be there no later than Wednesday. So, if a bunch of stuff is in the system this morning to do, it will be put off.  Mine trips are a nice drive, but they take up half the day because mines are notoriously slow about doing anything and everything. They are not in a big hurry and if you are?  Better bring an extra dose of patience with ya, cause' you are going to go out of your mind otherwise.  Earlier this year, I spent 3 hours in a mine waiting for a safety supervisor to show up.  Yup, they wouldn't unload that truck until that dude showed up.

G'day.

ben

Not surprisingly, MSNBC has the newest poll that shows Romney now beating Obama percentage-wise, buried in a story about half way down.  This is the first poll that shows full results from after the debate had taken place.  Now, if Obama was winning, guess what might be showing top and center on their site? It's amazing how many "news" organizations are using their "power" to attempt to sway public sentiment by only or mostly only showing stories that make Obama look good and always quick to make sure they show stories that make Romney look "bad".

One would like to dream of them all simply reporting the news without a skew.  "Romney ahead in latest poll", but you don't see that.  I haven't checked out other liberal leaning news sites yet.  ABC has a story entitled: "Fundamentals Still Favor Obama", with no mention whatsoever of the newest poll nor did I see it anywhere on the front "page".  I don't really trust polls, but since these sites DO, isn't it amazing that that newest poll isn't up there in huge letters on the front page?

CBS news.  Not a SINGLE reference I could find anyone on the front page.  CNN, nothing, even on their "election center" postings on the left side on the front page.  Reuters, nilch, nada.  USA Today.  Nein, nilch, nada.  I'm not going to look at any more sites.  If any of them DO end up posting it, it will undoubtedly still find some way to tell the tale in Obama's favor.

Well, anyway, I handed Caleb the humidifier this morning, replete with water and medicine you put into the water, told him to plug it in.  He comes out 4 hours later feeling much better.  Of course, they may wear off now that he has left to go to his mother's house.  He will be back, apparently he is going over there to loan her some money for food.  ???  She has a job and she is still getting monthly checks from me.  I don't know, not really my concern, just a bit surprising considering she is working and still receiving a fairly nice sum of cash from me every month as court-ordered.

Back outside. I got about 2/3rd's of the property covered with Miraclo Gro.  I am going to finish and then probably do another round next week to ensure I got it all nicely covered.

Let The War Resume

My next door neighbor is back from Michigan. This is the guy that started building a new house earlier this year and then - left the property in a shambles and it has been that way for some 8 months now.  For whatever reason as yet to be acquired, the City of Phoenix did nothing about it, even though people filed formal complaints against the property.

Whatever the case, I don't speak to him anymore because of the cat blowup of last year.  He thinks it's stupid and ridiculous that I should demand him keep his cats off my property or pay up for the damages incurred.  Someone's grey cat basically lives on the front of my property and that cat is going to get caught and be relocated to a new home - at least 15 miles away.

However, Mark was out there talking to him and found out that 350 man is still encroaching some 24 inches into Randy's property (the next door neighbor from Michigan).  350 man built a fence - he was forced to finish it I do believe, I don't really know as I don't much look over there anymore as his property is also a piece of s***.  So, Randy is suing 350 man and of course if it's true that the property lines have been crossed, there IS no defense for that.  350 man will have to remove that fence.  Randy refuses to accept a cash payout for the property that is encroached.

I wouldn't accept, either.  First because Randy's property is so small.  MUCH smaller than mine.  Second because it's 350 man involved, the guy is a moron. I wouldn't give him a cut piece of grass from my property, much less a portion of my property.

Now it also comes to light that Randy hasn't been paying his property taxes.  This is a big problem.  There are companies that do nothing but pay up property taxes on delinquent parcels and after 3 years of making payments?  They can take the property away from it's owner. I personally think it's heinous that this is allowable, for a few thousand dollars you can get a property worth whatever- hundreds of thousands. I understand the city needs the revenues from the property taxes, but to take away someone's property and give it to someone else at a very minuscule fraction of it's worth is a travesty of justice as far as I'm concerned.

I am a proponent of doing away with property taxes altogether and making up for it in sales taxes.  Or at the very least reform the law so that a person isn't going to lose their home because for whatever reason they couldn't afford to pay the property taxes.

Whatever the case, apparently 350 man had intentions of going down and paying up Randy's taxes and attempting to acquire the property for himself.  That would make 3 properties this pig would own - all of them in a shambles, none of them having any kind of landscaping on them to make them look good.  Just what I need, 350 man owning the property right next door to me. What does he want with all of these properties, anyway?  Hey, if the guy wants to pay off my mortgage I'll be happy to get the bleep out of this sh**** neighborhood and wash my hands of it forever.

If his mother is that rich, let him buy up the entire street and he can live here all alone.

On another note, I found out what my yearly bonus is going to be.  Highly disappointing, to say the least.  A 2 man crew that has worked our @$$es off for an entire year.  A store that has done so much sales with such high gross profit that it gained national attention from upper management.  A year of some fairly unpleasant moments because the workload was so great and the 2 of us trying to keep up with all of it, we sometimes got on each other's nerves.  We eventually worked that out, but the point is: we fully expected a bonus that reflected that hard, intense work. What I am getting I consider almost insulting considering the above mentioned facts.  I know what the bonus pool is for our region and the amount of people that are eligible for a portion of that pool. If I divide the pool by the number of people eligible, I am not even getting a equal amount.  Not that that ever happens anyway.  One assumes management will get a much larger share than anyone else.  But that's the point.  Our efforts should have been reflected in the amount of the bonus, it definitely was not.

I have no recourse. It is what it is.  My pay for last fiscal year was up a large chunk of change, but that was because of having my 8 hours restored and doing overtime on top of that.  Come to find out that more hours worked and amount of money made - the more you get during the work year, apparently, the less you qualify for in the bonus pool. That really makes a lot of sense, work twice as hard and get less percentage of pool money because of it?

I will eventually get over it, I am sure, as again, what am I supposed to do?  I could complain and I am sure that will get me nowhere.  It just makes me wonder why they did not consider our efforts worth a much healthier take of the pool than what we got.

Well, I am headed outside.  It's somewhere in the 80's out there right now.  I am doing the Miracle Gro application on the entire property.  I intend on soaking the plants with the stuff as well as getting it into the ground.

With that, I bid you......
G'day.

ben

My son came banging on my bedroom door about an hour ago now - around 4 am.  He doesn't look good, his eyes are glassy and the expression on his face.  I'm going to the hospital, he informs me, and wanted to make sure I knew about it.  He has had severe/migraine headaches going on for days and days now.

Okay.  Thoughts start running through my head, had to quelch that stuff quickly.

Hmmm, well it's Friday but not necessarily a happy start to it.

ben

According to an instant poll, Romney won the debate, 46 to 22 percent.
I watched the entire thing.  There were a few occasions were Obama was stuttering.  He also was looking down at the podium frequently when Romney would be looking at him in the eye.  He made numerous facial expressions and he looked rather - feeble - at some points. He appeared to be well out of his comfort zone.

As far as the specifics goes, though, I didn't think either of them did a very good job of it.

Whatever. I am still paying for Tuesday's extremely heavy work load and working near 14 hours.  I draaaaaagged through work yesterday and felt very fortunate to get off at 2:00 pm, instead of a couple of hours later, which it would have been if the delivery I was going to leave to go do at around 1:45 pm hadn't been cancelled.

Besides that, I don't know what else might be in there - the truck routing system that is - for today.  Doesn't matter, I'll get through it, just hope I don't get another extremely long day either today or tomorrow.  We have already posted over 140k for the first 3 days of the week!

The weather is also still an issue. It is still quite warm out there during the day and it is a bit much.  It's October, for crying out loud, not July.  Let's get this heat over with.  I hope a cold front moves through here and just knocks it all out.  I can't wait any longer to put those new plants in the ground, I'm going to have to do it regardless of the heat.  That pretty much precludes going up to the mountains this weekend - but I may just wait until I can take a day off anyway.  Well who knows, but I am pretty much decided to stay home for this coming weekend.

Well, time to be off to work!!

G'day.

ben

75 minutes into the Presidential debate and I declare both candidates losers.
This is a politically-correct debate that lacks the - debate factor.  Neither candidate came out with anything new, they aren't getting into it with each to the degree I had expected and if there are undecideds, will this debate do anything to change their views?

Hope and Change have changed nothing for the better is my perspective and I thought of so many thing Romney could have come back against Obama in every single topic, yet he mostly did not do that.  I guess I hoped that this would be a defining moment for Romney, perhaps it is and I am missing it, but I don't see it.  Perhaps the people that campaign is targeting sees things I don't see - most of us have already made up our minds long ago who we are voting for - and perhaps that's why this debate is taking the tone it is.

Whatever the case, I think this is over soon and I am heading to the bedroom.  I was paying for yesterday's 13-1/2 hour day of work all day long today.  I was tired and worn out and it was like that all day long.  I was lucky to get off at 8 hours - a contractor leaving early was the culprit otherwise I would have been out at least 9 maybe 10 hours.  Overtime is great, but I have plenty for this week already.  You get too much OT and what happens.  You get into a higher tax bracket and the next thing you know, you barely get any extra money as it all goes to the federal government.  I'm still baffled at why, exactly, it is, that the federal government should get even more of my money simply because I'm breaking my back working my @$$ off and happen to work more hours?  I'm going to have to research when and why this extra tax came into existence.

Whatever the case, I'm done for today.  When Friday gets here, then I will decide whether I am going back up north or not.  I'm leaning that way, but I have been waiting for a bit cooler temps here to go ahead and plant some more replacement plants and if it comes this weekend? I'll be playing the dirt and mud out front of my house : )

ben

Wednesday

Yesterday. Wow.  Went up to the mines in Globe, well, closer to Miami, distinction without much of a difference.
Three drops there, ridiculous amount of time spent.  By the time I got out of there and started heading to west Phoenix for pickups for delivery tomorrow (today), it was already almost 11:00pm.  So, I'm running around all over the place picking all kinds of stuff up and end up with a fully loaded trailer.

Back to the yard. My manager's looking at me like: Ready to get this done?  Order after order after order to be pulled and loaded on the truck and out of the yard no later than ...... 6:30 this morning.  I'm looking at him like, dude, do you know that we are going to be here until 8:00 pm doing all of this?  I am going to have to unload the entire truck and reload everything, not to mention pulling all of those orders, wrapping them and all the rest of it.

He's doing all the paperwork and I'm out there pulling orders.  I'm not complaining about him doing the paperwork, btw, it has to be done and you can't just let it pile up.  The afternoon drags on.  4 pm; 5 pm; 6 pm, the sun goes down.  Working at a feverish pace attempting to get it all done, get it all on the truck and have it ready for this morning.  We actually get all the stuff done and then find out that - they threw another order in the system that is huge and also "must" be delivered early.  I"m starting to feel it - the longest day of work I have put in in a long, long time and not only just a day of work, but a very HARD day's work.

My boss has a conniption - they throw these orders in and they don't even bother to tell us about it.  He calls the salesman, they get into it on the phone.  I didn't want to hear all of that, that would just piss me off considering some of what I was hearing coming from that salesman, I went back outside.  It was around 7:40 pm by the time we got done - and yet there is still a pallet to be wrapped, loaded and then all of that material has to be strapped down.

I ended up calling home and asking someone to please feed the dogs, they would have been ravenously hungry by that point and I didn't want them to go hungry.  By the time I got home, it was almost time to go to bed.  I thought about church on the way home and realized I had not only missed the small group meeting, I hadn't even thought about it until I had gotten in the car.  Oh well, I hadn't thought much about anything else, either, considering the workload and just trying to get every thing done.

Fast forward to this morning. The alarm goes off, I wake up out of a deep sleep and ................ it didn't even feel like I had ever gone to bed. I'm still tired, I'm sore and yes, I'm a bit cranky.  Just in case, I have put the Presidential debate on record.  But I have no intention of working that late today, I doubt I would last as long today as I did yesterday.  The biggest problem with working long hours like that - I used to do it daily for years - is that you don't have time for anything else.  The stuff you need to get done around the house doesn't get done, you don't really have time for much of anything but work, the drive there and back and a few basic things that you must get done.

I don't miss those days.  I don't mind doing it once in a while, but I would definitely NOT want to have to do that kind of routine again on any regular basis.  In fact, there's only one real advantage to having to work like that: you don't have time to eat and you are working hard, so if you have any weight issues, you won't have them for long.

Well, my pre-work rituals are already over, it doesn't even feel like I started them. It's time to be off to work for a very busy morning. There's even MORE to do after all of this is delivered.

G'day.

ben

After coming home yesterday, my son comes walking in.  Sick again!  You can't really just keep up an unending pace, while sick, and expect that you are going to have a rapid recovery.  I can see keeping up with school, the rest of it, however, the social stuff, should be put into a little basket and kept there on hold until he gets better.  But, it's his life and he has to figure these things out on his own.

Meanwhile, the first Presidential debate en-queue for Wednesday.  Apparently, because of the time zone difference, that debate is going to be seen here at 4:00 pm!!  I don't know who the brilliants are that made up the schedule for this stuff, but a lot of folks are still at work at 4:00 pm.  Sure, you can record it if you have the capability, but I think this is a major gaffe in itself in at least making an attempt to ensure that as many people as possible can see it live, while it's happening.  It should be entertaining if nothing else.

I continue to change the wording on my ad and bring the price down on the trailer out in my driveway that I am trying to sell, not a single response.  I'm only going to go down so far in price and then throw my hands up in the air with it.  I am not going to give it away.  Or take half of what I paid for it.  It's a nice unit in good condition, no roof leaks, new refrigerator, etc etc.  I would have thought perhaps someone might take me up on the trade offer if nothing else.

I am going to have to force myself into work mode this morning, I am dragging and that's a fact.  I was going to ask for a day off either this week or next, but one of the drivers downtown left on vacation for 2 weeks going to Italy and other places in Europe.  Bon voyage!  But I can't take any time off until he gets back. Although our store's numbers - gross profit - were great for September, many of the other stores in our region did not do so well, meaning they would rather have another driver come and take my place for the day or two that I am off versus having to hire a temp driver.

But, since other drivers take 2 weeks in a row off, I am considering doing the same thing next year - providing there is a next year for me (I simply mean: Lord willing).  That would be cool, even if I didn't take a major vacation anywhere.  Though I do have a standing invitation to come visit some folks in Texas - I actually know quite a number of people that live in Texas from my missionary days.  I would love to go back to Pittsburgh and re-visit the place of my childhood. It's changed so much since I was a little kid.  Of course, I have always wanted to go to Italy myself, not to mention London and a few other places in Europe. But, that costs money - a lot of it - and even saving up in advance?  It would take a couple of years of saving to come up with that kind of money.

Whatever.  Musing about things.  A missionary trip would be another option - there's a place in Africa that takes in short term missionaries.  But I also know people in the Philippines; Romania; India; Italy; etc etc etc.

Well, for right now, however, there is another trip that must be taken: the drive to work!

Lol.

ben

I finally got my act together this morning - got up late and knew I wasn't going to make it in time for church - and got the process moving towards leaving the property.  Shut off the gas; close the roof vents; put out the mouse traps and the mouse bait (D-Con); clean up the dog poop; empty out the grey water holding tank; etc.  I finally got to the dog part and getting them in the car.  Amazingly easy this time, they are finally learning.  Pull the power cord to the trailer, roll it up, pull out to the dirt road, close the gate, lock it and I'm outta there.

Travelling along the forest road I come along many campsites.  Slow down, I think, I am going too fast meaning putting up a lot of dust and choking them out. No reason to do that on purpose. so I slowed down to around 20 mph whenever I came up on one of them.  Popular weekend to go camping, lots of them out there with their RV's and tents and a lot of 4-wheelers.   Came up to Tonto Village, I think to myself that might be a nice place to retire. Or not.  The lot I was looking at listed for 35k is in that little town.  But unless I were able to get a hold of that lot within the next few years, I wouldn't want it.  It hardly has any trees on it and to get it tree inhabited by the time retirement comes would mean to plant them now.

Passed by the convenience store/bar/restaurant. One building, same owners, been there forever.  Of course, groceries in the convenience store are highly inflated, but hence the word convenience.  I have only stopped in twice in the 20 years I have been going up there.  No need for the groceries, I bring enough to last 3 times the amount of time I am up there - just in case - who knows.  I don't remember about the restaurant, whether it was good or not.  I continue on.  Mostly nice properties with a few trashy ones thrown in for yuck's sake.  When I say trashy, I mean hoarders.  Piles of junk heaped up.  I guess that stuff exists everywhere?

On to the main highway.  It was solidified in my mind that I had gotten out there too late when I saw the large amount of traffic on it coming from the Rim country and potentially Kohl's Ranch and Christopher Creek.  I waited for several minutes, actually, to turn out onto the highway.  I drove into Payson after getting trapped behind a long line of slow moving traffic on a 55mph highway.  Just the way it is on a  2-lane highway and everyone going home at the same time.  On the way into Payson, a large contingency of the new-style Cameros came up to a side street and started turning onto  the now 2-lane highway.  Cool looking cars, there were at least 20 of them.

Well, I had no interest in following that pack as I was bound and determined to follow my ritual: Pull into the Payson McDonald's and get a large coffee with 4 creams.  It's amazingly funny to see the look of surprise on the faces of the personnel working at the windows when they look down into your car and see 2 giant dogs sitting there, looking back up at them.  Lol.  After that, a mile down the road to the best fuel station in town: that because of the best prices.  I had hoped perhaps a re-run of lower prices up there than in the valley, but not to be found.  In fact, a bit higher.  Bought just enough fuel to get home since it's cheaper in the valley.

The amazing - read: ridiculous: stuff starts after I get out of Payson.   4 lane highway, 2 lanes going in either direction. Signs periodically seen that state: SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT. I grew up reading those signs and I grew up to live by that motto.  If someone is coming up behind you and you are in the passing lane, move out of the way as soon as practical.  It's not my concern if they are speeding or not.  I don't consider myself a rolling road block for speeding cars as some do, though I am usually going faster than most vehicles anyway.  I am not racing anyone, I just want to get the driving portion over with.

Well, the rolling roadblocks were plentiful today.  I would see 2 cars side-by-side off in the distance with a large number of cars blocked behind them.  It would go on for miles.  I would catch up to them and pass them.  How?  Wait until a lapse.  Everyone would be in the passing lane, obviously hoping the driver that is holding up traffic would get a clue and get out of the way.  But in the last decade or so, I have come to realize that these people don't care one way or the other whether they are blocking traffic and I suspect many of them do it on purpose.  I'm not going to wait for them to move, they won't do it.  Something else has to happen - usually the car in the right lane either speeding up or slowing down so faster traffic can pass on the right.

I sat behind one such set of vehicles for a short time.  I had seen the blockage for quite a while coming up on it.  When I got up to it - I  purposely took a seat in the slow lane, right behind the car that was part of the rolling road block - I waited.  The 2 vehicles side-by-side gave way, just enough for me to squeeze in and take off.  I didn't flip them off, I didn't even look at them, not going to give them the satisfaction.  Just ignore them and move on to the - next - rolling roadblock. It happened several times on the way back.  I am always amazed at how drivers can be so selfish and - even arrogant - as to just sit there next to another car on an open highway out in the middle of nowhere and treat others that are stuck behind them in such a fashion.

Some of these people are blocking that lane for miles and miles and miles and then have the audacity to flash their headlights at you when you finally are able to take advantage of a lapse in their purposeful blockage and get by them.  You wonder why they are doing it and what is going through their minds.  Or when you are climbing a steep grade and have a good speed going.  You are about to pass a driver and then baaam, they pull out in front of you, no indicator light, just blink and they are there.  Wow!!  Yup, that happened twice today as well.  You lose all your momentum, the person is going way slower than you are and again, you are left wondering what is going through these people's minds.

Never-the-less, finally got home and got busy. I wanted to get all of the linens, blankets, wash cloths washed today, dried, folded and packed and ready to go for the next time.  Next time could be next weekend or a month from now, who knows, but have it ready while it was still fresh in my mind.  I only left a fitted sheet for the queen mattress on it up there, the rest I brought home to wash.  I saw that the mice weren't going under the fitted sheet on the mattress so I figured to leave it on there and bring the rest back. I am actually hoping the mouse problem is resolved, but who knows about that.  That trailer is spotless at the moment, I thoroughly cleaned it from end to end.  I don't "cohabit" with mouse droppings, thanks.  I vacuumed, scrubbed and otherwise wiped everything down.  Bathtub, sinks, counters, everything.  Pulled everything up to find the mouse droppings to get them out of there.

So, if I have to go through that again, so beit.  I will take the mini-wet vac with me again next time just in case.  With everything I had to bring back - more than I took up there with all the linens and such - I barely got everything crammed into that car!!  I figure between me, the dogs and everything else at least a 750 pound load on that car, lol.

Well, fresh work week starts tomorrow, as well as beginning of a new month.   Our 2-man crew did around 470k worth of sales this month.  Close to 100k of gross profit.  There is already a large amount of work to be done tomorrow - which is great, I hate a slow work day and rarely see those anymore.  Don't know if that's going to last.  But most importantly, for right now? It's my bed time, lol.

G'nite.

ben

Mountains

Yes, up in the mountains once again, enjoying fresh, cool mountain air and a distinctive lack of big city noise pollution.  So, mom said she wasn't going to be up here this weekend or next, turns out after I left and called her to tell her I was coming up - yup, she's here.  I didn't know whether we were going to have a problem or not - I pretty much am not going to come up here without my dogs in tow. They absolutely love it up here, as much as I do or more, perhaps, I just wouldn't feel right leaving them at home.  I can think of a couple of circumstances where I might leave them at home to come up here to deal with things.

Of course, I was fully prepared for the fact that there would be mouse droppings all over the place, so no surprise to see it everywhere.  Brought my mini-shop vac with me and I went to town.  Took me about an hour, actually, to vacuum out the entire place, including my bed which had droppings all over it.  I have it done, but there is more cleaning to do tomorrow.  Mostly wiping everything down with antibacterial stuff and getting it spic and span.

So, the only real irritant was the Direct TV.  The card had been deactivated.  No choice but to call them - which I really hate to have to do considering my history with them.  One phone call, talking to a Filipino (I don't care for the idea of America farming everything out overseas, it is just one piece of the puzzle of why our country's economy is sucking so badly) but I bit the bullet and just dealt with the lady and she had it going - after 3 full tries.

Oh, fortunately I thought perhaps the bed might have had some mouse damage so I brought clean sheets.  If I hadn't?  Leave the dogs here in the pen and go to the Payson Walmart and buy a new set of sheets.  I have decided that if I am to come up here in the winter, I am going to have to buy another set of sheets.  But, mom left out traps and poison and decided that the mice hadn't been in here in at least a week.  Okay, but they had obviously been in here, lol.  I know where the mice are getting in and I will be dealing with that tomorrow.  I am also going to bomb this place with foggers when we leave.  Set them off and then stick around for a while  - I dunno, I just don't trust the things unattended until they are done and have filled the place up with their fog.

Something tells me that a mouse in here while we are here with that Catahoula dog around isn't going to work out too well for the mouse.  She's not a fan of cats or other smaller critters.  Which, in this case is a good thing.

Then there's Mark and Lynnette.  I am confident they are happy when I leave.  Not because they hate me or something, but because they pretty much have free reign of the living room - meaning one of them can come out and watch whatever they want. Though Lynnette does that sometimes on the weekends anyway.  Which, fyi, doesn't bother me, I watch a limited amount of television anyway.

So, to come up here in the winter means to remind myself that I am going to need a space heater. I have heat in the AC unit and I have propane heat, but I think a small space heater will be nice as well.  In fact, I'm not sure I am going to want to use the propane heater.  Rather just keep the propane for cooking and in the summer heating the water tank.  In the winter, the water system has to be winterized or - else - busted plumbing with freezing conditions.  No shower, lol.  Bring disposable cups/paper plates.  I'm cool with that, I don't normally stay up here long enough to get to smelling bad by missing one day's worth of a shower and besides, the dogs could care less what I smell like!  lol

And, finally, it also means I am going to have to consider getting a bit larger TV with a much better sound quality.  I thought this thing I bought on Black Friday was going to be a better unit than it is.  It will do the job for now. but I want something larger.

Speaking of trailers, I have had the one in my driveway up for sale on Craigslist for a couple of weeks now.  Not a single bite.  I brought the price down a bit with OBO.  I also put trades accepted.  I further put I would be willing to trade both trailers for a single bumper-pull trailer - with  slide-outs.  I may have to list the other trailer in the RV Trader and see if I can get any bites. I even put in there I would consider whatever trade a person might have.  Just keep at it until something happens or find a place to park it at an RV park and then sublet it.

Oh, can I just throw in here that it's going to get down to 54 degrees tonight?  It feels nothing that cool, yet, and this property is a higher elevation than Payson - where I am getting the closest temp reading - about 1,000 feet higher.  Nothing like having to use blankets to keep warm at night : )

Our 2 man store did $458,000.00 this month.  The month isn't officially over, but for business purposes it is, at least for our company and our division in the company.

I guess I'm done for now.  I want to read some news and see what's going on.  Though, there was a high speed chase in Phoenix today with a man that hijacked a car and ended up killing himself out near Tonopah - it's on the way to California off of I-10, basically.  They apparently got this on tape, the man offing himself.  I heard this on the news shortly after he had killed himself and thought about his fate, going before the Lord.  I can't judge the man, that's God's realm.  It just kinda hit me a bit heavy - even if there are those that feel the planet is better off without him.  Yes, and the planet is probably better off without any of us considering the condition of mankind, but that's a different story altogether.

I was heading back to the shop and was a half mile away from the shop to come upon a gruesome accident scene. It is by FAR the aftermath of the worst motorcycle meets car accident I have ever seen. The impact of the motorcycle hitting the mini-van was so severe, the front end of the mini-van was trashed, that thing was totaled and the frame of the motorcycle was bent in the middle.  I would be surprised to find out the rider of that motorcycle is still alive.  From the position of the bike and the mini-van, it was clear the mini-van had made a left-hand turn in front of the on-coming bike.

After that, I was in the semi to make another delivery, in the left-hand turn lane.  The light turned yellow and I was starting to make my turn when I noticed the SUV coming from the opposite direction was not slowing down.  Guessing it was going 60 in a 45 zone, I just stopped.  She was busy looking at her cellphone - texting - and not paying  damned bit of attention to the road.  She looked up, saw a  now-red-light and slammed on her brakes.  She was in the intersection by the time she stopped, but not enough to impede traffic.

Strange day in traffic.

Leave it to Fox News to report a poll that actually states that most Republicans AND Democrats believe that EVERYONE should pay at least SOME amount of income tax! Of course!!  But it smacks Obama in the face in his rhetorical, retaliatory attacks on Romney's declaration of the 47% percent that do not pay any taxes.  Lol.  I just love Obama stating that he is going to create jobs for "Americans".  Really? Let's discuss that with facts in the last 4 years.  Thanks for playing.

Thursday.  It's after 9:00 pm and I am wide awake.  I am attempting to wind down from an interesting day and I am having trouble doing it, but my reading and writing should take effect anytime now.  Well, I was thinking of going up North tomorrow after work, but if I don't sleep well tonight, that idea is slap bag dog done out the window. But we'll see.  I'm good on 6 hours of sleep, maybe a bit less, so still time.

Umm, well anyway.  Nothing new around here, excepting the view blocker that the "neighbors" behind me put up.  They have, as Mark has been telling me, working out there late at night.  He's asking me how I can sleep through all of that noise.  Well, I wear ear plugs at night and I run a box fan.  I have been doing that for decades now.  I CAN sleep in dead silence, pretty cool actually if such occurs, but around here?  No such thing exists.  The only way you gonna get dead silence around here is to be DEAD and not capable of hearing anything.  Other than that, I have tenants, dogs, neighbors, airplanes, cars/stereos/ and whatever else going on.

But, I started using ear plugs on the mission field in the 80's.  I couldn't sleep because of the noise all night long and a 20 plus year missionary handed me a pair of ear plugs and informed me that this is what SHE had been doing for decades.  Yup, I used them, nope, I never stopped using them.  Even up at mother's property and sleeping in a very quiet area I use them - but only because of the dogs.  They move around at night and make noise and that would wake me up without them.

"Talking" about the mountains is getting me to consider driving up there whether I am tired or not tomorrow. But we'll see and no guarantees.

Anyway, I am finally getting tired.  I think I can go to sleep now.  Which is a good thing, I can still get plenty if I can get to sleep anytime soon.

G'nite.

ben