So I wrote an email to the GM about my desire for the new position. I have to try.  Whether they think I am qualified or capable of performing the duties, I have no idea, but I am going to throw my bid for the job into the hat and see what happens.

He replies and says it's available for anyone to apply for the position.  Back and forth - I sent an email then stating a few things including trucks without air conditioning in the heat of the summer and how I would like to move to a different position in the company if at all possible.  Yeah, I spent a good deal of time in a hot truck this summer and I wasn't particularly happy about it.  My statement included a part about "since we apparently aren't doing upgrades in equipment at this point" - that truck is going on 7 years old.

Then I get the email from the inside sales manager. I send him something back, but he went on vacation, or at least he wasn't at work today, so didn't hear anything back from him.

However, the ops manager comes over to our branch just after I logged off (off the clock) and going home.  He sits down in the manager's office, and invites me to sit down as well, since "you're here".  Apparently, the GM mentioned my statement about "apparently not upgrading the equipment" to him.  We get into this discussion about what he actually said and what the options are.  Whatever, I wasn't trying to diss the ops manager, I was simply making a statement: I am not INto driving hot semi trucks around in the Arizona Sonoran Desert heat.  I don't care what UPS drivers do in those brown vans, the dudes in that company that are driving the semi's? They have AIR CONDITIONING.  Thanks for playing, now let's move on, shall we?  

I have no idea what the end of that story will be since my manager said he was going to get out all the information about how much we have spent on that truck in a full year's time and compare that to how much a truck payment will be.

Anyway, Wednesday morning. After work today - come home, get my stuff, take care of minutia around the house and take off for Sierra Vista with Caleb to go see his grandpa and step-grandmother.  I guess that's what you call her.  Dad wrote me an email yesterday asking about what time I would get there - no clue. Depends on what time I get off of work, unfortunately, which could be 2 or could be 4.  WHATEVER time I get off, I will still drive down there regardless.

But, today's workload looks pretty heavy with lots of running around to do and lots of pickups and deliveries.  So who knows.  I will attempt to get all of it done as fast as possible, but, in the end, the work has to be done and then I get to start my vacation.

Having said that, almost time to leave for work.

G'day.

ben

I was on the freeway going to work the other day.  It was still dark.  Some traffic, but no heavy.  A Highway Patrol cruiser gets onto the freeway from an on ramp.  I'm in a crowd of 10 or more vehicles spread out in 3 lanes.  He makes his " move" and gets directly behind my vehicle!

Admittedly my speedometer doesn't work - it's not high on the priority list of things to fix considering how much money they want to fix it - but I figured sticking at the same speed as everyone else around me should be good.  I have absolutely no idea what attracted that officer to get behind my car in the manner that he did.  Perhaps I was just being paranoid - I have a commercial driver's license and any kind of ticket is not something that's going to help my career out, doesn't matter if I'm driving my personal vehicle or a company's commercial vehicle, anything will count against my record.

Well, there was nothing wrong with the car, all the lights work and the registration is current along with current insurance.  So, I just waited for a while to see what was going to happen.  At some point, he finally got around from behind me and sped off.  I have no clue, but it made me really nervous.  Another month and a half - if I can just stay out of the way of commercial enforcement for another month and a half and not get any warnings or tickets, I will be given the Safe Driver Award again and it's now 2 weeks pay every time I get it.

The company is, however, not going to get us a new truck.  I dunno.  Trucks get older = more potential problems = potential warnings = trouble.

Well whatever.  Nothing I can do about it.  Whoever ordered the truck I am driving - delivered to us new almost 8 years ago - didn't apparently much care for "optional" things, things that I consider elemental to a truck and for it's driver.  The thing doesn't even have air horns.  It is missing most gauges - pyrometer; differential temp gauges; oil temp gauges; load application gauge: things I like to be able to see in a truck to make sure temps aren't heating up to critical levels.  It has idiot lights, instead, and of course, as most idiot lights go, they only come on AFTER a problem is already a done deal and nothing you can do about it.  It has a cheap, junk-plastic beverage holder that I quit using shortly after we got it - it dumps your drink onto the floor as soon as you hit a bump.  On and on.  I have put up with it for this long, but I am not really willing to continue to put up with a piece of junk forever.  We keep it maintained, but that's it.  No upgrades, nothing is ever approved except for repairs.  If I want something on it, I would have to pay for it myself.  The stereo in it is a cheap piece of junk with extremely tinny sound speakers.  You spend as much time in a truck as I spend in that one, you want at least a few things to be a bit better than cheap, tinsel-coated junk.

Well, off of that subject.  I can't do anything about Obama, but I pray that some of his agenda is stopped at the pass.  Obamacare is apparently a done deal, yet I am reading more and more news stories about companies planning on cutting back hours and now a couple of companies that are going to do flat-out layoffs.  And then restaurants that are declaring they are going to pass the expense onto the customers.

But the situation with Israel and Gaza is far more interesting and potentially even scary.  Well, if I were living in either land it would definitely be a bit scary, I would think, with the threat of bombs landing all around you at any time.  But what's interesting - wrong word - ummm - why can't I think of the right word here? lol - anyway is that what is it, Iran and Egypt being allies of Hamas? What kind of regional chaos could this escalate into?  And then the statements now coming from Iraq, of all places, backing Hamas/Gaza.  Yup, it is definitely something I am watching on a lot of different news fronts.

Caleb is still on his 7 day fast.  Monday he ends it.  I"m not worried - at all - it's a fast unto the Lord, not some thing used to lose weight.  I've done it a hundred times.  I'm more interested to find out what - if anything - he might see or hear in the spirit realm during or after going through it.

I took the dogs to Kiwanis Park early this morning.  It was cool out and we went on a brisk walk.  I tried to stay away from people but they went out of their way to stop me and ask questions about the dogs.  Duke was getting upset, too, lol.  He wanted to walk, darn-it, not stand around listening to "his" human talking.  Although I could have gone on much longer than we actually did - Prince's hip problem/bum leg/whatever you wanna call it started kicking in.  He was lightly dragging his foot and I didn't want to prolong that, so we went home.  There's not much I can do for him excepting taking him for "extended" walks as one vet suggests, though I won't go beyond what he can handle - and giving him the glucosamine pills.  He wasn't wincing in pain, though, he just couldn't keep that one hind leg from having his foot drag on the ground.  I won't be giving up on that dog until it becomes an issue to the point he can't get around or if he's in pain all the time.  I am not looking forward to having yet another dog being put down after having to have had put down 2 in the last 14 months or so.  It's not fun, Prince is a great dog and I hope I can get another year or two out of him if at all possible.  He's 8-1/2, which is into the end of the life expectancy of a Great Dane.  Yup, sucks, big dogs, shorter life span.

I'm done.  It's Saturday night, I don't really do much on weekend nights cause' - I almost always go to bed as early on these nights as I do on weeknights.  Thanksgiving week en-queue.  Meaning 4 days off.  Work through Wednesday and then take off after work with Caleb down to Sierra Vista where a hotel room is already reserved and paid for for us.  Yup, that's my dad : )  I'm trying to figure out how to enjoy being around a certain element of his wife's sons, one of which, well anyway.  I already went through this once and at Thanksgiving.  I'll just go with a good attitude and deal with it as it comes, I guess.  Or just ignore the man altogether if he really gets obnoxious.  I for some reason had the date confused in my mind about the church's Thanksgiving meal.  I thought they were doing it today, but it's actually tomorrow afternoon. So, church in the morning, come home and get some stuff done around the house and then church dinner with whosoever shows up (invites have been handed out to the community all over the place).

G'nite.

ben

One of our inside salesmen is quitting.  He is moving to the East Cost with his girlfriend (they have been together for a long time now) who has been offered a lucrative nursing job where her family lives.  He has decided to move there with her and hope to find employment there.

Well, there's an opportunity, well there is if they are open to just anyone asking about it, which I now have.  The GM sent out a note to everyone: if you are interested in doing inside sales, contact us and let's talk.  The sales manager came into our branch this morning and I was asking him questions about it, but never really got into a serious discussion about possibly being looked at for the position.

I was just toying with the idea. But after thinking about it all day, I just up and replied to the GM, yes, I'm interested. It isn't the easiest job in the world to learn, but I know something around half of it anyway.  Navigating around Trilogie is one key "issue".  I have been learning that system for some time now.

Here's the problem I have faced in other places I have worked in the past in attempting to switch to something else within a company or get promoted: Too valuable where you are at.  You have done the same job for years and you are good at it.  You don't have to have people watching over your shoulder or calling you every 5 minutes.  You develop good relationships with the contractors and you deal with problems immediately in calling salesmen and letting them know what's going on.  You have MORE interaction with the customer than ANYONE in the organization and you put on your best face everytime you see them regardless of how you might feel that day.

Now, why I would want to move to another position within the company.  Numerous reasons.  First off, I am getting to the point where I absolutely HATE summers here. It's TOO hot and it SUCKS. It's hot in the morning, it's hell in the afternoons.

Second, we worked our asses off, all 2 of us at the branch we work at and did 4 and a half million worth of sales.  We were told how no other branch in the entire country could pull of such a feat, etc etc etc.  Yet, when bonus time came? It most certainly did NOT reflect such efforts.

3rd: trucking.  It's getting pretty sucky to be a truck driver.  The regulations keep pouring in and drivers are simply not unified enough in the industry to make a stand and say no more to unbelievable regulations that cannot be found in any other industry to the degree we are subjected to them. This new point system they came out with at the end of 2010 is outrageous.  The Federal government doesn't CARE how many drivers will end up being put out of their career, eventually, however, the public WILL care.  That's because there is already a shortage of drivers and it's going to get FAR worse in coming years.  When that happens, look out, cause' American wants what it wants and gets it when it wants it.  If she can't, she throws a fit.  IT will take the news media to make an issue out of it, undoubtedly, but eventually it's going to occur.

Until then, however, I see a Highway Patrol vehicle? I'm getting all kinds of nervous.  If they pull me over and even if I just receive a minor warning about something, it goes against my company. That's right, it's points racked up against my employer and if an employer gets enough points from all of it's combined drivers, then "intervention" begins. So, companies put the onus back on the driver.

It's just getting to be too much.  And from the news reports? A lot of other "older" drivers are feeling the same way. The vast majority of truck drivers are older, not younger.

Anyway, trucking is not what it used to be and I am growing out of love with it.

4th, dealing with heavy city traffic all day long.

5th, I am just ready for something different.

6. I am not into driving older trucks.  They pose too much of a risk, IMO, in getting warnings, getting pulled over and inspected.  The truck I am driving is almost 8 years old  and I was informed this week that they are not going to upgrade, they want to keep expenses down and since that truck is now paid off, they aren't paying $3,500 per month payments on it.  Great, and it's a piece of s***.  I'm getting tired of driving it.  Just my personal preference.

But, who knows if they will want me for that position.  I may be making too much money per hour in my current position for them to want to have me in another position that is, from what I have heard anyway, lower paying.  Not going to take a pay cut, thanks. I have no clue, but I at least have to look into it.

Well, the weekend is here. I have slept pretty well all week - until last night.  I was having some pretty bad dreams and kept waking up. Weird.  48 years old and having nightmares. Is that normal?  I dunno, but I'm flat out tired.  REALLY tired.  Like, try to stay awake until at least 8 o'clock tired.

Whatever. I'm done.

ben

Strange Dreams

I have strange dreams sometimes.  When I wake up in the morning to the sound of the alarm clock, I am sometimes happy that I did, indeed, wake up and out of it.

This morning was one of those mornings.

The dream was - really strange. I don't remember the beginning of it, but I do remember that I was with my middle brother - a person of whom I have grown to greatly dislike.  We were going somewhere together, driving around here somewhere.  Suddenly, the whole scene changed and we were passing a sign that said :" You are now entering Mexico".  Out in the middle of nowhere desert, no port of entry but a small Mexican town was off in the distance.

The next thing I know, we are in a house.  It was ours, I knew from the way I was thinking, we had inherited it but from who, I don't know.  I had been there before, I could tell, my brother had not.  When we walked inside, the first thing he did was start to tear down some wall decorations and destroying them.

I started fighting with him saying NOOOOOO, don't DO that!  I walked out of there, him destroying the house and me in some state of mind I cannot describe.  Outside, I looked down on a city.  Elevated house.  I walked around a corner to a gazebo type thing on the property and was immediately accosted by 3 men that I have never seen before.  They threatened me with death for whatever reason.

They were there to kill me, I don't know if they knew about my brother.  I took all 3 of them on and the next thing I know, all 3 of them were lying on the floor.  At this point, the alarm clock went off and ended this horrid dream.

I always wonder when I have such ridiculous dreams if there is anything I can glean from it for real life, is there some reason that I had that dream and what can I get from it, learn from it, take away from it?  Nothing, in this case, at least at this point.  It did nothing to make me think the situation with my brother is ever going to change.  I have no clue what the 3 strangers were about.  They weren't there because I had ever done something to them, rather, they were there because they knew who I was and for whatever reason wanted to challenge me.

Well anyway.  Thursday almost over, Friday almost here and then after work tomorrow, the weekend starts.  Slow couple of days at work. Like, driving half the day and working around the store the other half.  Which was cool, I have been able to do a lot of clean up.  Place was looking rather - trashy - really.

Well whatever, I have to be off to bed.

G'nite.

benD

It's a week away from my departure to Sierra Vista, where my dad and his current wife resides. I love my dad, his wife is cool, too, but some of her family? I am having thoughts about how it is going to go if one of her sons starts his mouthing activity again.

I don't want to just sit there and listen to an arrogant, mouthy, crass individual go on and on and on all night long. Reminds me of my middle brother. I'm going to have to figure out how I am going to deal with this before it happens - but I have no doubts at all that it IS going to happen. Apparently, their whole family bows in awe whenever he speaks - or maybe they have gotten used to it.  I have found that my dad's wive's generally despise his sons and I don't doubt that attitude isn't conveyed to her family.  I think this is my dad's 6th wife now.  Do you wonder why my visits to my dad are extremely infrequent?

Nahh, not because of that. Other reasons I won't go into here.  I can deal with that dude. I am just trying to decide whether I want to deal with such an individual on the terms I would normally deal with such or give way to my dad and his wife and have a "nice" event.  I don't want to dwell on it further, I am going to visit my dad, that's it.  If I get accosted by her family as it occurred last time, well, we'll see.  I have sat idly by and given way ONLY because I did not want something to happen that would ruin the event. Yet, a mouthy person that is blasting off on everything under the sun, incessantly, without stop? I can't HANDLE that for hours on end. I don't WANT to have to handle it.  

Whatever.  I was looking for deals on turkeys - and couldn't find much.  47 cents a pound at Fresh'n'Easy if you buy $30 minimum. I have a $10 coupon with them.

I was delivering a large amount of materials to a jobsite this week, located right next to an elementary school. K-6 grades, I believe.  School was in session.  Kids in class.  The fenced-in area for the kid's bicycles was right there, across from where we were unloading.

There were all of 4 bicycles in there. Enough racks to hold at least 100 bikes, probably a lot more. I was in awe.  When I was a kid, the bike racks - a LOT of them - were always full.  Hundreds of bicycles.

What's the issue?  We wonder why kids are getting obese at an early age?  Moms bringing them to school, lines of cars waiting to drop them off and pick them up?

Whatever.  An obese generation? No, several generations of obesity going on now, being perpetuated on our kids in unhealthy eating habits and a lack of a lifestyle that includes lots of exercise.  When I was hanging from monkey bars and riding my bike for countless hours a day, playing basketball, football and running around all over the place as a kid, I didn't think of it as exercise.  Neither did my friends.

The age of technology may have some benefits, but the negative aspects, I believe, far outweigh them. Video games and kids playing them endlessly are only one aspect.  Texting, losing the personal touch of personal interaction.  We are so lost in technology, that life is passing us by and we don't even realize it.

Amazing.

I figured to get off work early yesterday, I figured wrong.  I was on the clock until 4:00 pm, 2 more hours of OT, a total of almost 20 hours of OT for this pay period.  Which, of course, leaves things lacking and in need of attention around the house whenever work weeks drag on forever.

But, regardless, I went and saw the Denzel Washington movie Flight this morning.  The beginning of the movie was cool, the rest of it kinda dragged.  I hadn't been to the movie theater in at least a year, so it was cool anyway.  I wouldn't recommend going to the theaters, though, to see it if you can wait until it comes out on video.

Today's high: 64.  They are calling it unseasonably cool.  They can call it whatever they want, I am LOVING it! The windows up, birds chirping, waterfalls in ponds making their noises, lovely.....gonna get out there in a bit and do some yard work.

Tenant behind on rent.  I tend to not let it go too long, this time though I let a month pass.  He usually is very good about paying, but it's the 10th and he still owes some from last month.  I hadn't heard anything from him about the rent, sooooo, yup, left him a notice. Not at eviction notice, though, he's been here for quite a while, I figured I would give him the benefit of a doubt.  The notice was simply to pay the rent or that he was going to next receive an eviction notice.

He went to the hospital last week, he finally told me a few minutes ago, and that's why he didn't pay this week (but no story about the weeks before that).  He gave me a payment plan, as long as he sticks to it, I'm good with it.

Other than that, Caleb received a job offer on Thursday so that's why I didn't take him up to the mountains yesterday after work.  I would have done it, even if too late, just would have made for a very long day, a lot of driving and probably get much of nothing done today.  Well, anyway.  I am getting 4 days off at Thanksgiving.  That should help a little, but since we are heading down to Sierra Vista to see my dad, I guess it won't be very restful for 2 of those days.  At least it's not too far off.

Actually, I"m tired anyway.  I put in a couple of 12 hours days and a couple of 11 hour days and one 10 hour day this work week.  Just not used to grinding that many hours in one week at work.  I was at 7 hours for 3 years and now I'm doing way more than that.

I am undecided what to do with the trailer.  I had a guy who said he wanted to buy it last week, came over and looked at it and everything - and then he disappeared.  I've had it up for sale on Craigslist for quite a while now.  I would love to be able to rent it out and get some more revenue in - but it's a roll of the dice regarding whether neighbors would turn it in - at this point don't know if they would even know about it.

Other things going on, not worth going into right now.

ben

Addition to earlier entry: I was just looking at the temps up in Payson for Saturday. The low is slated to be 26.  At my mother's property, it will be about 5 degrees cooler than that - higher elevation.  21 degrees.  Whether that's enough to burst pipes or not, I don't know, but I would definitely be worrying - greatly - about such temps if I hadn't already winterized the trailer.

Well, anyway, sigh relief that I got it done when I did.  Replacing water lines in travel trailers is no fun job,  a thing of which I can personally attest on other trailers I have owned that had busted lines in them when I bought them.

I am dead tired.  It's gonna be an early night for me.

ben

When one leaves for work in the dark and comes home from work in the dark, one knows that one has had a very long day.  I'm at 8 and a half hours of overtime for the pay period, tomorrow will bring it up to at least  16 and a half.

Caleb received a job offer today, so he will not be able to go up to the mountains tomorrow.  Which is fine by me, I am not sure I really want to drive all the way up there after the kind of work week I've had this week anyway.  Supposedly next weekend will be free for him.

My finger is definitely not broken. It hurts like - well it hurts.  It has red splotches and purple splotches and I forget frequently about it and boy do I pay for that forgetfulness.

Well whatever.  My plans for the weekend will now change.  I have lots of stuff left to go outside and I intend to spend at least several hours working on the property.  And who knows what else might come up : )

That's it.  No long entry here, too tired for that.

ben

So, as normal on an election day, I am off to work too early to get to the voting booth before going to work.  So, I'm thinking about this all day long while grinding away for 10-1/2 hours.  I did not want to work that long.  I am getting close to the point, in overtime for any pay period, that tax rate increases and then I get less money on a paycheck after crossing that threshold.  But, I will work however many hours I have to, that's just a part of the job.

When I finally got off work and got to the polling location, and waited - and waited - and waited - for a total of 2 people to stop arguing with the personnel (they had moved, had not re-registered, it was explained to them a dozen times but they wouldn't take no for an answer) (and yes, the lady said the same thing, over and over, clearly, succinctly and to the point, yet they still "do not understand), I finally get up there and they can't find my name in their book.

???  I AM a registered voter, I a confident of that point.  I have voted at that same location for years.  The lady takes me to a map and tells me to show her where I live.  I point to the map.  Oh, well you belong over at Nevitt School, not here.  Umm, ma'am, THIS has been my voting place for almost 8 years now.  Yes, she replies, but they changed things around about 6 months ago and yes, it has inconvenienced a lot of people, I am sorry.

I get to the school.  A very large number of cars in the parking lot, gag.  But I get inside and the wait not too long - but - no booths available to use.  A guy comes up and says I can use that "music stand with the chair in front of it" to do it if I like.  I like, don't care if anyone sees how I am voting, which no-one would have anyway.  Voted against all local petitions to increase taxes, voted against another local petition to keep a tax that is going to expire as a "permanent" tax increase - bunk to that idea, I pay enough taxes.  I voted for Flake, running for Senate - and other local issues.

That's my day.  Well, part of it, anyway, lol.

I drove the semi down to Casa Grande today and - found the job site - Frito Lay - but not the location to deliver the pipe.  Turns out it wasn't at the plant itself, but in a farm field behind the plant.  It was nice out this morning out there.  Temperature was cool, nothing at all like the normal trips to that town when it's 115 degrees and there's a lot of dust blowing and it's  really not that nice.

Tomorrow, finally, the election.  Get it over with already.

Unless something changes, I'm taking Caleb up to the property up north on Friday and leave him there through - probably Sunday morning.  I will take off from there and go up on top of the Rim.

Just wading through the days that have gone by.  My continued efforts out front of my house have started garnering some compliments.  It's getting there - but it is looking nice.

Sooo, I was out front working on the plants and trees, pulling grass and whatnot when the Mr. Goodcents delivery driver showed up.  Didn't take too terribly long.  I was on a roll and didn't want to stop to make lunch, so I ordered it delivered. Figured I would buy extra for a snack this evening and perhaps even enough to eat tomorrow.

I came back into the house, sat down with my dish of spaghetti and meatballs and got about halfway through it while on the net and at the time: check email and looking at the time I was supposed to be there, the church Harvest Festival that is.  Someone from the church had told me 3 o'clock, but the schedule said 2!  It was 14 minutes before 2 and I wasn't anywhere NEAR ready to go.

Ummm, I put the spaghetti in the fridge, changed, didn't show though I wanted to: itching all over my legs and arms from working in the dirt and stuff outside; got whatever needed to be done - done - in a quick hurry and got out of here.  Arrived at church at 2:07 to find that it was just the part to set everything up.  Oh, well okay.  It turns out taking a shower was going to be irrelevant.  I was the "operator" for the Hay Dive.  It's a small pool you fill with hay and hide balls in it.  Kids come and give you a ticket, you blindfold them and then they have to try and find a ball in the pool and then they get a prize.  But I made the older kids find all of the balls, or at least 4 of them, to "win".  It doesn't look hard, but when blindfolded? Much harder than it looks, especially since I was hiding them deep under the hay.

I, uhhh, have been around hay before, but not around a bale of it that has been broken up and getting my hands and arms into it.  The itching was far worse than anything I had experienced working out front.
But, it was fun being around little kids.  Hadn't been around that element of humanity  in quite a while.  I mean, yes, sort of near them at church, but I don't interact with them.  This was quite different.

Anyway, helped tear down, get rid of the hay and came home and yes, took a long shower.  The itching, thankfully, is completely gone but my legs?  Yikes!  I must have gotten a bit too close to the plants with thorns on them out front today, covered with scratches and even small, open wounds.  My fingers the same thing.  Lol.  Oh well.  For as much as I have done out front, there is still much to go.  Lots of trimming.

And that's my day.  Working out front and then 4-1/2 hours at church helping with the Festival.  I am burnt out.  12 hours work on Thursday and 11 hours on Friday.  Woke up this morning with an odd sense of feeling.  Like here but not really here.  It was 6:00 am, well past my wake up time, but I decided this wasn't a good way to wake up and turned over and went back to sleep for another hour.  Felt better after second wake up and decided to get up.

It must be an age thing.  The older you get, well things just change is all.  I'm not really complaining, just you notice over time small "things" that change that are related to aging.  Which really doesn't bother me as long as I can stay active and moving.

Well, I am totally bushed right now and it's time for beddy-bye lane.

Til' next time.

ben

They Told You So.........

Not to make light of a very serious situation, but long before Sandy actually hit ground and did all of it's destruction, authorities were all over the news outlets telling people to stock up on supplies/necessities including buying food that doesn't need to be cooked.  Now there is nothing on the shelves to buy, millions of people are still without power and - I am glad I am not in there position is all I can say.

One of the reasons I own camping equipment is in case something like that ever happens.  Propane fueled camp stove with plenty of bottles of propane and a white fuel driven camp stove - yes - with plenty of fuel for it as well.  And lots of canned food.  An underground storage tank with millions of gallons of water in it is only 2 blocks away.  But I digress.

Reading about people who can't even find batteries on the shelves is hard to take in.  Reading about people who are dumpster diving because they are hungry and don't have any food.  Freezing cold, homes with standing water and no electricity.

I'm sure the various levels of government are doing the best and as much as they can to get this situation back on track, but really, it's the power companies that have the biggest job ahead of them, so much so that there are workers from my state traveling over there to help get power back on.

Meanwhile, Obama was in Vegas doing an interview on the campaign trail.  I actually thought - and I am not Obama fan - that he was doing a good job of this situation with the east coast until he decided it's time to go back on the campaign trail.  It's only a few days left until the election, I have to wonder, for both sides, what more rallies are going to do to change anyone's mind, anyway?

Well, it's Friday and I'm off to work.

ben

Truck Driver Shortage

I predicted this some time ago - well it's been a couple of years anyway - and that prediction is coming to see the light of day.  The Federal Government has been increasing regulatory interference on truck drivers for decades.  But the enactment of CSA 2010 was a completely different ball field, a game that veteran drivers haven't seen before, much less participated in and MUCH less wanted ANYTHING to do with.

Truck drivers getting a warning instead of a ticket will, by the company they are driving for and because of the new regulations, be viewed as having received a ticket.  The reason being is that the more warnings or tickets that drivers receive under this new system, the more scrutiny the Feds will put on any given company.  If it gets to "intervention" phase, it could include an entire fleet being shut down by the Federal government.

So, trucking companies or companies that have their own fleets of trucks to deliver the goods they sell are now compelled to get rid of drivers that get tickets or warnings.  That's all nice and fine, but as the pool of drivers shrinks - much having to do with older drivers getting out of it after being in the profession for 2 or 3 or even 4 decades - now what?  The news stories have been the same for a couple of years now: trucking has little appeal to the younger generation.

Truck drivers are mostly despised as ignorant.  We are too stupid to find "real" employment, so we reverted to driving trucks to make a living. We are treated like dogs*** in traffic.  When you tell someone who asks you are a truck driver, \you far-more-often-than-not get a sneer, a look, conjecture that what you are doing with your life is a complete waste.

We truck drivers won't have to do a complete shutdown of trucks for a week or however long to make a point.  The time is coming or perhaps already here that you are going to start paying more at the grocery store and everywhere else because of shortage of truck drivers.  It will slowly get worse over time unless something is done about it.  99% chance that nothing will be done about it until it becomes a severe problem  - store shelves are empty and gas station holding tanks aren't being refilled.  I give it 5 more years, max, before this issue becomes a national debate.

I'm at Fry's (grocery store) getting some things.  Want to make a nice salad for dinner, they have boneless, skinless chicken on sale, figured to pick up several packs of it.  My phone rings.  I look down at it and think that I see my manager's name showing up. I answer it.  It definitely is not my manager.  It's Josie and she's still having a lot of problems in life.  She's the widow of my best friend that died last year.

She doesn't waste any time at all:  Can I rent your 5th wheel trailer?  Now THAT took me by surprise.  What's going on?  She starts crying and tells how her daughter is getting upset with her all the time and they aren't getting along and she needs to get out of there.  Now, mind you, this lady is around 70 years old and going through all of this.  She cleans her daughter's house; babysits her kids; cooks dinner, etc etc etc.

I have felt really bad ever since my friend died and watching her go through all of this nonsense with her family treating her like horse shit.  Not just her daughter, either, her son and his wife treated her FAR worse before she ended up at her daughter's.

I've got to give serious consideration to letting her into that trailer, even if there may end up being issues with the city - though that won't happen unless my neighbors find out she's in there and since I have cranked it up with them in the last several months after all the BS they have started with me, they don't look over my fence anymore.  She wasn't kidding, either, about moving over here.  She has been treated badly, disrespected by her own offspring to the point they won't even have her around.  I really do NOT get it.  I do get that it would be difficult to have your own mother living with you - yes indeed.

But I've got to tell you, if my mother ever gets to the point where she can't get around and can't live alone, my door will be open to her.  Or perhaps her door should be open to me, lol, her house is FAR nicer than mine!  Just 45 miles away from work, though.  Yikes. I would definitely set boundaries with  my mother if it ever came to that - space please, give me my space and you'll definitely get yours - and I'm sure there would be some conflict in the beginning, but I am also sure we would manage to work through the issues eventually and get on with what's left of life.

I don't know, but if my friend is in heaven and looking at all of this going on with his wife, I can't imagine.  I just can't imagine how it would feel to see all of that going on and not be able to help her in any way.  I feel very compelled to help her if she really wants to come over here.  I've known this lady since the early 90's.

She isn't broke, either.  She isn't rich, not saying that, but she get's a grand a month from my friend's disability through the military.  I don't know if she is also getting Social Security.  I would have to charge her enough to cover the extra eletricity, water and would have to install a Direct TV receiver in there plus pay - Mark I would hope - to empty out the holding tanks on a regular basis, but I wouldn't take advantage of her either.

Well, the conversation was cut short so, to-be-continued.

Meanwhile, the new receptionist at our work? Quit.  They can't keep anyone in that position. Low pay and a huge workload.  Lynnette is up for the job.  I forwarded her resume to my operations manager this morning, I hope he will give her some serious consideration.  She has ample experience in the type of work that they are looking for the position to fill. I haven't heard back whether he contacted her or not, but, it was at least worth a try.  Good benefits, no weekend work, 8 hours a day.

Well that's it.,

Still cranking here and there on the front yard.  Get it done.  Not in a huge hurry now, the worst of it is over. Still plenty to do for aesthetic's sake, but definitely looking better.

Umm, so done with this one.

ben

I had to call them out on it.
I have been through too much with church to have to live under something that is on the surface a thing that is going to be a hindering blockage.

I simply wrote the pastor a 2 sentence email: what is going on and why concerning his wife and the "looks" and all of this.

I didn't know what kind of response to expect, if any, just needed to get it off of me.  She called me on the phone, versus the pastor writing me an email back.

Surprise, indeed.  Going into a personal conversation like that on the world wide web? I don't think so.  But a lot of mis-communication was done away with and a lot of emotion for that matter.  This lady has a lot of weight in the church to carry, we'll just put it that way. From the sound of it, far too much and some kind of reprieve needs to intervene in her life to lighten the load.  I have already offered to help in the church, but not to her, I didn't even know she was the final authority over all of that stuff.

For me, it was a consortium of things that occurred over a 24 hour span.  The deal with her was simply that this has been going on for awhile.  When something like this occurs and 2 people can have an adult conversation about it and both people are willing and able to listen to each other, then you can have a good outcome and in this case, definitely, it was a good outcome.

Relief.  The mind can wander into a lot of different places in trying to conjecture what another person is thinking when they say or do something that is deemed well out of the parameters of what you might normally see them doing, especially when it is directed at you and even more-so when it goes on for a period of time.

Well anyway.  3 day weekend is over.  The come and go quickly.  No idea what is en-queue for work tomorrow since I haven't been there since Thursday and didn't get to see what was in the truck routing system on Friday - not that that bothers me, lol, I would rather take the time off.

ben

I came back early from the mountains.  That was because I was rather excited about the idea of helping the church out and being a part of the booth games that were going on last night at the park.  I had received an email asking for help to man one of the booths, I accepted the request.  I went out there last night. Thousands of people, mostly families with their kids in costumes.  Took 15 minutes to find a parking spot - which ended up being a quarter mile away.  The long walk there and saw must have been 70 or 80 tent booths set up - by the city - and occupied with representatives from all sorts of different venues.

The City required that only 501c3/non-profit organizations could participate. It was pretty easy to find the church set up - they had 5 booths in a row and they had lines formed in front of them.  They had games set up and winners of games got anything from candy to stuffed animals.  Pretty typical type of thing.  The pastor's son greeted me when I arrived and said that a change of shift had already occurred.  As it came to my realization that my help was not needed, I admittedly started to get a bit irritated.  They had contacted me via email for help 2 mornings ago and I had confirmed with them.  How hard would have it been to email me and tell me  that the slots had been filled up?  I was then "informed" that they needed help tearing everything down after 9:00 pm.

I didn't reply.  It's 7:00 pm and I'm going to hang around for 2 hours.........doing what?  I simply left.  There was nothing to do and I wasn't going to stand around looking dumb for 2 hours without anything to do waiting for it to be over and I wasn't about to drive back there after going home.  Call me selfish, call me whatever you will, but they should have had more respect for my time and emailed me or called me to let me know they wouldn't need my help instead of me going through all of that to find out.

I was asked at home by a tenant how it went and I let him know.  At least I wasn't the only one on the face of the planet that would have reacted the same way if put into a similar situation.  This morning I was debating whether to go to church or not.  I ended up going.  As soon as I walked in the front door, the pastor's wife saw me and cringed.  As if I were a walking dose of Bubonic Plague.  She has been doing this for a couple of months now.  I have NO idea what is up her crawl, I have not said anything unpleasant to her, we have not had any kind of argument or otherwise "bad" encounter, but it set me foul.  She actually pulled her hand back for a handshake.

I walked into the meeting room and the pastor's son came up to me after I had been sitting there awhile, looking at some of the people's reactions that were looking at me funny.  My leaving last night had this kind of effect?  I had waited until they were oblivious of my presence there last night before I  left, I didn't just walk away in the middle of a conversation.  I shook the pastor's son hand, but I was was getting pretty unwound in my mind with all this.  This time? I grabbed my things and walked out.

What's next? Dunno.  Let some time pass and let the abrasiveness of it all wear away a bit.  I am quite interested in finding out what the pastor's wife's beef is with me.  I've been NOTHING but nice to her, I simply have no clue.  I'm wondering about my future at this church. The church's annual Harvest Festival event is next weekend.  They will be wanting help, but I am sure mine won't be appreciated and won't be offered anyway.  If I'm asked, I will probably ask what the deal was with their last request for help.

I don't really handle being treated this way by the church too well, considering my past experiences.

Changing the subject, I have spent a lot of hours out front working on the landscaping issues.  I can say that there is a LOT left to go! Lol.  Trim this, cut that, pull this, plant that.  Just now getting the plants I bought a month go planted. That because there was a lot of clearing out and cutting that had to occur first before I could plant all 6 of them.  I can happily say they are all planted, I have no idea whether they will take considering colder weather is - allegedly - just around the corner.  I say that because it's near the end of October and it's hitting 90 degrees today!! What kind of fall is THAT? IS it officially fall yet?

Well, that's my "release" and I'm going back out there - I was out there earlier working but now I am going to get out the clippers and clip down some things that need some serious trimming.

G'day.

ben

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.
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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