Church

I went to church tonight for a New Year's celebration, though admittedly it's still 3 hours before New Year's actually hits and I don't think anyone's staying there THAT long.  I was there for 2 hours.  I haven't felt so much freedom in such a long time - and yet I also freely admit there is a ways yet to go.  But it was a great service and the presence of the Lord was so very much palpable.  I am encouraged about the year 2013, not because of the things going on in this world -  what is new about that.  The world always has garbage going on all over, it is a never-ending story.

No, I am simply talking about my walk with the Lord.  I have a number of people now standing in faith with me to overcome, put behind me and move on.  This is where the Lord has been leading me in the last year and a half anyway, but now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's growing brighter and brighter as I get beyond obstacles in my life from the past or even the present.  

Anyway, I have a temporary tenant in the trailer.  I had talked with him at length on the phone and in emails - he is from Georgia and came in on a Greyhound bus earlier today.  I went down there and picked him up.  I think that, for however long he is here, it will probably work out well just from judging our conversations and his attitude which seems to be very good and - seemingly - has a very strong work ethic.  It's so hard to really judge character when attempting to discern if a person is going to make a good fit in the household and  what sort of person it is when considering morals and ethics (I would prefer a person with a strong set of those, or at least in the mid-section of it versus somewhat morally obtuse and ethically discerned).  Time will tell.

He has a cousin here of which he has already left and gone to spend the night with to bring in the New Year. It may very well happen that he may move in with that cousin.  I have no clue and he certainly didn't say anything about that, but I either had a feeling about that or my mind just went down that path along with numerous other in determining what the outcome of this will be.  When you start driving your mind through all the potential endings of a situation, it can certainly take you down some interesting paths and vivid places.  It won't offend me if he leaves to go live with his cousin, he needed a place to call "home" before coming here and perhaps my place was that pretense - yes I have a place to live so if that doesn't work out then I won't be stranded.  Again, I have no knowledge at all that this may be what's happening, but I now recognize that I have that "feeling".  

Well, I don't think I'll be staying up another 3 hours until the New Year comes in.  Well, I will probably be awakened.  If I am up, I will do the age-old car honking thing.  The fire station 1 block directly south of me will have it's fire truck horns blaring.  People in this neighborhood will be shouting very loudly Happy New Year! and maybe a few other car horns honking.  The real noise maker, though, are those fire engine horns and the vast amount of fireworks - done by local residents - that will be going off.  No, lol, I don't have a problem with it, just saying that's what happens in my neighborhood.

So, Happy New Year to everyone. 

ben

Another Morning at the Dentist's office

I got rather irritated sitting at the dentist's office, waiting this morning. I showed up early - which I always do in case there are paperwork issues.  The appointment was at 8am, I sat in that office for 41 minutes before the dentist finally showed up, no apology and just got right down to business.

I have a habit of leaving doctor's or any other such office if I don't get seen within 30 minutes of the appointed time unless they come along and tell me they are going to be delayed. They offered me no such amenities, which is why I got irritated.  It brought back memories of other dentist's offices I have been in the far past - which is the last time I went to one - and them making you wait up to an hour without even giving an explanation, much less an apology.

Well, I was already there, I just swallowed that and then was examined by the dentist, who started reading off the problems in techno lingo to his assistant to write down on a pad.  I didn't understand any of it, it was letters and numbers he was using as identifiers.

But he eventually got down to plain, simple talk to me and I was listening with - well I didn't figure I was going to get out of this easy, but it was far more work needing to be done that I had anticipated.  I need a total of 6 crowns, 1 root canal and some other procedure.  That does not include my front teeth, which are chipped, crowded together and basically a mess.  He informed me that if I just let my front teeth go, they will eventually all fall out.  Yikes.

I only have myself to blame.  I have had dentist insurance for over 7 years and haven't used it.  Haven't gone into the dentist because of my disdain for them and their apparent idea that only their time is worth money, yours isn't worth anything and yes, you will wait for that dentist to come into your room, it doesn't matter how long he/she makes you wait and you will like it.

The dentist started telling me that he can't really come to a conclusion on my front teeth until I have casts made of them and then he can look at them, compare them to the x-rays and come up with a plan.  Well that's all fine and dandy, I am thinking, but I am not rich.  I can only imagine the cost of all of this.  Thousands and untold thousands of dollars to get all this stuff fixed, regardless of dental insurance that doesn't usually cover very much, anyway.

But, I've gone this far with it.  So, they left the room, telling me they would get me a price and be back shortly.  Well at least the insurance covered all of that, no charge to me this morning.  They did the casts, filling my mouth with extremely cold gooey substance that gells after a few minutes and then made an appointment for Wednesday - next week. The dentist flatly stated he would have to do his homework.  I'm glad he's at least acknowledging he will take the time to come up with a plan, but me? There is NO way I can afford all of this.  Maybe spread out over the next several years but it is a foregone conclusion that, at least with the finances I have available currently, it's simply not going to happen anytime soon.  It will have to be do one thing here, one thing there as I am able to save up for it and pay for it.  It will be do the worst thing first and work backwards down the list.

I'm wondering if it's possible to sign up for another dental insurance plan on my own.  My insurance will run out quickly with all of this. If they even cover 50% I would be happy.  What do crowns cost nowadays? $800? $1,000?  I have no idea.  They're not cheap, I know that.  So, I shook off the pall that tried to over come me in starting to go through the thought processes of how much this is going to all cost and where I would come up with the money.  I will do what I can do and that's that.  If I have to have teeth pulled, then pull them. I don't have any pain currently, at least I have that much going for me and they stated there is no bone loss, so that's a good thing as well. But, I am guessing to fix my front lower teeth, one of them will have to be pulled and the rest realigned, if that's possible, to make room and then several crowns.

Well, Happy New Year, lol.

Hmmm.  Well, if work stays steady and I continue to get the hours I have been, I should be able to start saving up a good emergency fund.  But who knows what's going to happen in 2013 with this fiscal cliff crap and the fact that "lawmakers" - if you can call them that - can't agree on even a stripped down version of a consensus to get something done.

But, I also do not agree that Obama should have unlimited authority to raise the debt ceiling all by himself.  That's simply preposterous.

Meanwhile, the gun control argument rages on like never before.  Well maybe not like never before, but certainly with as much intensity as it's ever had.  I have involved myself in numerous online conversations about that particular issue and I do hear some rather uneducated (in the realm of guns, that is) individuals talking about things they nothing about.  I am absolutely no expert in the field of guns, either, but I am learning.  It's just one of those things where people decide a thing is bad and so get rid of all of it.

I don't mean these people just want to be rid of large magazines that can hold 30 rounds of ammo, I mean  people talking about banning private gun ownership altogether.  I think, fortunately, there are too many gun owners in America for that idea to ever catch on to the phase of enacting a change to the Constitution of our land, since that's what that kind of nonsense idea would take.

New tenant is coming on Saturday instead of tomorrow.  Which is good, need to prepare for that.

We'll see how that goes. Always a gamble, always a roll of the dice when talking about a new person coming in.

Whatever the case, my 5 days off are officially over and guess what?

It's time to go to work!

ben

I decided to get in as much as I could by the end of this year at the dentist - way past overdue (by 10 years anyway) to get my mouth x-rayed and find out what might be going on in there.  The good news was nothing major.  Not even a root canal (I for whatever reason thought I would have at least one of those necessary).

I have been here for 2 hours and 15 minutes (yes, I am keeping track) and now I am waiting for another appointment that they just happened to have opened up by cancellation for some special kind of  cleaning.  I am just biting the bullet in the patience department and keeping a good attitude - though I admittedly despise waiting in offices and having spent this much time here already, well, I am starving! I haven't eaten anything today and it's already 12:30pm.  Prime rib sitting in my refrigerator at home, I can't wait to get out of here and have some french dip style sandwiches with the Au Jus I have left over as well.

Umm, so an incident with a neighborhood kid on my Facebook wall yesterday.  He decided to interject himself in a conversation I  was having on my wall 2 days ago and started mouthing off to the friend I was talking with (I have known this lady for almost 25 years now).  Well, she wasn't taking it and gave him a dose of his own medicine, which he didn't discover on my wall until last night.  At that point, I found him publishing extremely foul language in both English and Spanish going against her.  I informed him to stop, which he didn't do and I unfriended him.

He then came over to my house with another of his friends and started mouthing off about the woman again. It got worse and worse to the point I told him to leave.  He went home (after apparently dumping a soda or something on my car), got on Facebook and posted an entire new post on my wall saying extremely foul things about both her and I.  After blocking him, he then went on his brother's account and got on started again.  Blocked that  as well.

I don't get it.  I have treated that kid very nicely for as long as I have lived in that neighborhood, and what do I get in return?  He can stay away from my house as far as I'm concerned unless he gives both that lady and I a heartfelt apology (which, from gauging his attitude yesterday, isn't likely to occur anytime soon).  His friend was sitting their listening and seeing all of this and was aghast.  At least there was someone his age who thought his actions and reactions to be totally off-the-wall.  It's just unbelievable to me the way kids act nowadays.

Whatever.  Christmas was good.  Final day off and then work 2 days and then the weekend.  But, I am spending 4 hours of this day off at the dentist.  Making the best of it, glad I brought my computer with me.

Nothing much else going on beside potentially a temporary tenant for the trailer, of whom I have had  a lot of communication with before deciding to allow him to come and stay for a few months.  He may stay longer - but only if he makes a good fit around my place.

Well, hope everyone had a great holiday and some time off!

G'day.

ben

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish what few readers I have left a very warm, merry and wonderful Christmas!  I wish you all the best!

More Fry's Food Stores Nonsense

I have been subjected to it several times in the past.  I was to be subjected to it no more.  It's ridiculous, IMO, for a person to stand there, realize they don't have enough money to pay for their food (or forgot their wallet/purse in the car) and then expect the customers behind that person to wait while they take their sweet old time walking out to their car, getting their money and then coming back in.

I have waited as long as 10 minutes for this phenomenon to play itself out and I decided today that it is total BS.  When the woman had walked away, I politely asked the cashier if she was going to go ahead and start checking out the next in line, which was me.  Note that they had fully 3 lanes of 15 items or less open that had very little traffic and the line I was in, full service, had a large number of people waiting with full baskets and it was the only full service lane available.  

The cashier replied no, she was going to wait.  Manager, please.  I'm sorry, are you asking for a manager?  Yes, I am, thank you.  The front end manager shows up and gives me a look after finding out what's going on.  What are we supposed to do? - while shrugging his shoulders and getting an attitude, an attitude that I didn't have until that kind of treatment started coming my way.  You are supposed to move this customer's things out of the way and start checking other customers, that's what.  He said nothing to me and went to the cash register, closed out that other customer's ticket and then the cashier, who obviously wasn't happy about what I had asked - reasonably - to do checked me out.

When we were done, I was walking away and felt eyes on my back.  I turned my head to see the cashier scowling at me, who quickly turned her head back to the line in front of her.  That was enough.  I went to the  Customer Service desk and asked for the store's GM, who just happened to be there and who showed up rather quickly, I might add.  This is a "secondary" Fry's, I only use it when I have other business needing to be taken care of at the part of town - which is 3 miles away from the normal Fry's I go to.  He immediately apologized, asked what he could do - of which I said nothing, just deal with this - and we parted ways after he assured me he would be having a conversation with those individuals.

The problem here is that most people won't say anything, so when the "odd one out" does speak up, they give you an attitude both in their tones and their stance/look.  When I got home, I decided to call corporate and ask them if they have a policy on such things, they do on most every thing else.  The lady I was speaking with said no, no official policy but at the same time, that cashier should not have made everyone wait, especially considering it was the only full service lane available.  Thank you.  I'm not an unreasonable person, but I think a person who forgets their money should realize that they are going to have to go through the waiting process again, it's not going to be a 30 second wait, it has taken as long as 10 minutes for people to go get their money and that's just plain unacceptable.

That was the store at 24th Street & Baseline, now moving on to my experience at the store at 48th Street and Baseline, which occurred yesterday.

I wanted to buy a bottle of liquor for someone for Christmas.  Crown Royale to be precise.  They did not have it on the shelf, instead they have a sign saying it's available at the Customer Service desk.  Upon going to the Customer Service desk and finding a lot of people in line there to do money orders and such, well, I wasn't going to wait that long and then have to go wait in line again to check out with the thing I was buying.  So, I walked up to the front end manager and asked him about getting a bottle for me.  I didn't think it unreasonable to ask for someone to go get it versus having to wait 15 to 20 minutes (customer service at that Fry's takes a long time, especially if there's a long line there) at that line and then having to wait in yet another line to check out.

He was having nothing to do with it.  He told me I could get in line and that the cashier could go get it for me. ????  This guy was standing there, doing absolutely nothing.  I just walked off and got into line, screw the whiskey, I'll find something else.  But, the man kept staring at me - that feeling of having eyes on you again.  So, after a while of this, I finally said "thanks for all the help you gave me!".  But, that was also enough. I simply don't put up with attitudes from people working at grocery stores where I have spent unbelievable amounts of money over the past 8 or 9 years at that specific store.

When I got my items checked out, I called for the store's general manager.  It took her a while to get up there, but upon hearing my statement, she immediately apologized, went to the customer service desk, got the bottle and had me check out at an unopened lane. I didn't ask her to get the bottle, I didn't want it at that point, but she insisted.   I simply informed her that that man - the manager - is completely and totally useless.  Why couldn't HE have done the same thing you just did?  She was all over that, yes, I completely agree, was her reply and a statement that she was going to have a conversation with him about it.

I could see if that manager had been busy or something, but seriously, that man was standing there, doing absolutely NOTHING at all.  Unbelievable. The state of customer service in this day and age at many places is absolutely abysmal.  I do not believe my requests were out of line, unreasonable or otherwise undo-able.

Well whatever.  I bought a lot of that food today for a family of 8 that was going to go without a Christmas dinner.  I do this every year, buy a holiday meal for a family to cook.  They are coming over right now to pick up the food.  No, the bottle of Crown Royale is not for them, lol.  I also got gift cards for tenants since they have posted cards on the tree addressed to me and others in the house - couldn't be a Scrooge and not give something back, lol.

It's a cool 59 degrees outside right now - that at noon thirty.  It finally feels like winter : )  I was concerned to find a very large Plecostomus in my pond.  I had thought they had all died out last winter and I didn't buy anymore because they can't handle the cold and up and die.  How that one survived, I have no idea.  He's about 11 inches long.  Which reminds me that I am going to place an ad on Craigslist and see if anyone wants him. I would rather give him away, free, than see his dead body floating around the top of the pond.

I decided to go ahead and make a dentist appointment before the end of the year so I could get the free x-rays/exam done and find out how bad the damage is.  I have pain coming from one tooth, dunno.  It's been a loooooong time since I've been to a dentist.  Stories that go along with the reason why I don't go to dentists would take too long/too much writing.  But I can't let it go forever, especially when low level pain starts coming here and there. Next thing you know, you have a full fledged toothache and there is no point in procrastinating.  If I get in there now, at least I can take advantage of this year's worth of limit on my insurance then pick it up again in January if necessary (I'm guessing 90% chance it will definitely have to be picked up in January).  This doesn't include 2 chipped teeth and a tooth with the crown missing - it came off 3 months after I paid a good deal of money to have it put on there.  Hmm, might have been 6 months.  Whatever it was, definitely not long enough to say, gee, I got my money's worth out of THAT little deal.

That's it.  As much as I don't want to, I am going to have to go out there and clean out one of the pond filters today.  I don't much care to deal with the ponds when it's cold outside, but, it has to be done.

Merry Christmas Eve Day!

ben

Well, I'll call the family Christmas party a success even if short-lived.  Arrived at 1:10 pm, shook hands/hugged and then began conversing with my sister-in-law's son-in-law (strange, yes?) and we hit it off right away.  My mom shows up early and leaves early - she doesn't want to drive in the dark and I don't blame her.  But she called me off into a hallway and told me she wanted to give me my Christmas present early.  She handed me a card. Strange, I thought, she usually gets me what I ask for, which in this case is a battery operated hedge trimmer so I don't have to go around with a pair of cutters spending a lot of time trimming plants that could be knocked out in a few minutes with the trimmer.

That's what I had asked her for.  Instead, I opened up the envelope, read the note and looked at a check sitting in there.  Not a small check, either.  I was stunned. My mother giving out cash and a lot of it at Christmas?  The thought has never even crossed my mind that she would do such a thing, it's simply not in her DNA.  I looked at her with a curious look, I guess, because she simply stated she was "distributing her wealth".  Lol.

Later on when presents were being handed out?  Yup, there was my brand new hedge trimmer, battery operated (I have a large enough property that dragging an extension cord around all over the place would not have been too fun).

I think it odd, though: a family that can't seem to pull it together enough to spend more than a very small portion of one day together out of an entire year.  I saw my middle brother for a couple of hours and that will be it for another 365 days.  Well, I gave him and his son some gift cards that I thought they would appreciate - and they did and they gave me a game which I intend on trying out.

Regardless, weekend not over yet and still have 3 more full days left on vacation : )

Ummm, okay.  I just realized that tenants are buying Christmas presents for others in the house.  I had no idea, really.  Meaning?  I better go out and get something for everyone tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

I had no idea what to expect when both the operations manager and the general manager showed up today.  But, when we finally got into the position to where we could chat - there was still a lot going on when they showed up that needed to be dealt with - we were all in my manager's office and the pronouncement was made: we were the best Expressnet store in the entire country!  A 2 man crew bested a LOT of other stores and we got a huge plaque for the store in honor of it.

I mean, yes, I think that's a pretty cool honor in view of the fact of the amount of work we put in the last fiscal year.  We are also getting a little something out of it: an extra paid day off, compliments of our GM.

So, coolness.  Well, I got us into the subject of old equipment.  Not a fan of driving an old truck.  Well, we have an International and I completely despise International trucks for a myriad of reasons, the biggest being they are pieces of junk from the day they drive off the manufacturer's assembly floor.  Our truck is several YEARS past the replacement stage for our company.  We "own" the truck- meaning we haven't had to make payments on it in quite a while.  A good thing, but as trucks get older, more things start going wrong.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, the best thing that happened today was the operations manager, at the behest of the GM, got on one of the computers and ordered a brand new truck : )  It is a Freightliner, not and International.  I'll take a Freight Shaker over an Itisapieceofs**ternational any day of the week.

Excuse the French, please.  Thank you.  It is, really, though, a very prestigious award at least internally within the company so we can ride on that cloud for a while and place the plaque prominently on the wall somewhere where everyone can see it.

So, after leaving work today and going to the bank to deposit 30, worth of checks and cash (company money, not mine), I went out the door of Bank of America and across the street to Fresh and Easy.  Their sale on hams has had the restrictions taken off of it.  I was looking online today at their site and it showed that the $30 minimum purchase had been removed and the limit of 1 was also removed.  49 cents per pound.  You aren't going to find that kind of price on ham anywhere else.  I bought 5 of them.  Yes, I bought 5 of them.  You can't buy meat that cheap anymore.  I have a freezer, 4 of them fit in there easily and a couple more would also fit in there so - try to get 2 more before the sale goes off.

Basha's and Albertson's both have the Standing Rib Roast - it's not cheap meat but it's FAR more expensive in a restaurant and this is the only time of year that I even see prime rib roasts being sold at the supermarkets.  It's my once a year prime rib meal and I am doing that on Christmas unless I happen to be doing something else, which I don't foresee.  Stay at home, make a nice roast and fixin's, whatever tenants are around can have some and that's that.

3 more presents to buy and that's the end of it.  Not.  Lol, I want to actually show up with something for the family even though 3 of them will have or already have received their presents shipped to their homes.  So, nothing fancy stuff just something to hand to everyone type of present.  I don't even know what to buy in that department, I hope to find something.

That's it.  Time to go to bed.

ben

Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in attempting to get ornaments packaged, labeled and out in the mail. Amazingly, the post office wasn't overcrowded - that due to the fact that they had all stations manned and were whizzing through everyone in a very expedient manner. 

The general manager is coming over to our branch this afternoon. He rarely comes over and I would assume some sort of agenda as he is constantly busy with the tasks that occupy his position in the company.  What the reason is for that visit, we don't know.  But, as most days, plenty of work to do and who knows what time I will be back at the yard.  I would prefer to get off "early" again today as I did yesterday, 9-1/2 hours instead of 11 or 12, cause' I still have Christmas shopping to do and time is growing short.  3 days until the family party and I still have several presents yet to buy.

I read and listen to the news about politics - daily in fact - but I tend not to occupy myself in my thoughts with it as I simply believe they are all playing games.  I don't really think they care about the American public as much as they care about their titles, positions and clamoring to get media attention.  I have no idea what low this nation will have to reach before they really start to deal with the problems - I'm simply speaking about money and government waste and the deficit, not even touching the topic of the violence since I don't believe the government has the answers to that dilemma anyway.  Certainly the whole slew of them that are currently in there are worth as much as a speck of dust in my backyard. 

In fact, unless there is some sort of revolution, I don't think it's going to be dealt with at all until the hand is forced upon them.  By that time, it will be too late.  

Whatever.  I'll leave that in the hands of a capable God who isn't broke and can take care of my needs according to His riches in glory, that according to His word. 

My ex-pastor who shunned me contacted me on Facebook yesterday asking if we could meet up for a coffee.  I almost declined, still not sure I am ready for that, though I did get the "load" of unforgiveness off my back a while back with that whole situation.  No sense in wrecking my life over other people's selfish actions.  But I accepted the offer though a firm date hasn't been made yet.

Well, almost time to leave for work.

G'day.

ben

I continue to watch all the gun-banning craze.  And now, the craze for people to go buy the same kind of gun that was used at the murder scene since - they are now talking of banning such weapons.  Knee-jerk reactions? I doubt it, it's being used as an excuse to say see, look what happens when Americans own guns, now let's get rid of them.

Whatever the case, the pics of the tiny faces and the stories behind their lives - and the funerals - are all coming out.

On another note: Christmas is almost here.  I have bought all of 2 presents so far, but I finally found out what 3 other people want and it will be easy to get those items.  Plus my mom's, which I couldn't find in a store so I finally ended up buying online yesterday and having shipped to her house hopefully getting there by Friday - so she can see her present before our family's get together at my oldest bro's house on Saturday.

So make that 3 presents I bought, sorta slipped my mind that I had bought mom's last night on line.

I finally got to see the Boeing plant yesterday.  I've passed by it countless times in my lifetime in living in Arizona, but just from the outside.  Just so happens they are replacing a bunch of underground valves which got me in there.  But, I didn't get to see the inside of the facilities, which is what would have really been fascinating to see.  Just a bunch of buildings and a lot of suits walking around.  That would be expected, of course, that place employs a lot of people.  Oh well.  I half-hoped to see my brother there, but only half, no reason for him to be walking outside, but you never know.

Well, I am just getting started on this entry and looked up at the clock: time to leave for work!

G'day

ben

Of course, here comes the gun control advocates saying we should all hand in all of our firearms because that will stop the kind of senseless shooting that occurred yesterday in an elementary school in Connecticut.

Good luck.  If there are 300 million guns in America, that means there is a large number of Americans that own guns for whatever purpose they own them. I would guess it makes up a majority, not a minority, but I haven't seen any analysis on that - yet.

There are so many arguments both pro and con gun ownership.  The shooter took his mother's 3 guns, apparently, to commit the horrific crime that occurred yesterday morning.  So, it was easy for him to obtain the guns without having to go through much of anything.  But the plain fact of the matter is, if guns are completely outlawed in the United States, no-one can own them at all, not even hunters, then who is going to have the guns besides law enforcement?  Of course, easily obtainable on the black market, just like any kind of drug you want.  Or any kind of merchandise you would like to buy.   It's an age-old argument, but there is truth to it: if guns are outlawed in America, then the only people that are going to have them are police and criminals.

You simply cannot tell me that a person that has ill-will such as the person that killed all those kids yesterday will not find SOME way to carry out his intentions. Look at the guy in China who injured 22 kids at a school.  He didn't even use a gun, he was using a knife. Are we also going to ban knives?  If you do that, then what? Ban  baseball bats?  Stones?  This person was set on carrying out his act of ill - evil - will and he had probably planned it in advance.  Planning in advance means determining how you are going to enact your crime and with what tools/weapons you are going to do it with.

There are so many studies out there, too much to read, much less comment here on.  If you want to ask me my real opinion on why so many of these horrific crimes are occurring much more frequently, I'll tell you this: a lack of spirituality in this nation; godlessness; a lack of "need" of a god; a small but frequently cited group of people that are atheists; a generation of kids being brought up to fend for themselves, to figure out morality on their own and come to their own conclusions about religion without any or much input from parents.  We're all victims and we should sit in pools of self-pity and stay that way long enough for the evil thoughts to come in, take root and expand over time to the breaking point of - what we saw occur yesterday.

Enough.

ben

I was busy with work this morning, but finally got into the truck to do a run for pickups, deliveries and get 4 new tires installed on the rear drive-axle on the tractor.  I turned on the radio and started hearing about an elementary school in Connecticut where a "man" had killed 18 children and 8 adults.  Shock.  I have been reading and watching the news on this all day long now as time permits.

Shocking.  I don't get shocked about much of anything anymore, but this? .....is absolutely shocking.  How can anyone go into a school and just start killing kids?  I understand that this guy was out for blood in his family lines as the news has reported it, which is bad enough in itself, but why taking the lives of innocent children?  This situation must be world news by now.  I mean, in every language and every nation, the news must be reporting this everywhere.  The question is: why?  Why is all of this happening? You read about it more and more frequently where a man or men go into a college or some institution and just start mindlessly shooting people.  I just can't and won't ever understand this one.  Elementary school aged kids, shot down in school.

It was hard to concentrate on much of anything else today.  Just short of a 50 hour work week.  Paycheck today from the 2 previous weeks was quite large by my normal pay standards.  The week passed quickly, to be honest, the days just seemed to blaze by at work and when I'm off work, well, time REALLY flies by.  Weekends used to seem to "last" longer.  It's the same amount of time now as it was 25 years ago, but I have to say it seems like Friday gets here and 2 hours later I'm waking up for work on Monday.

It's an existence that I would like to do away with.  I don't mind working, but what I am doing has no eternal value to it.  I guess the line of work I am in gives you and I the ability to go to our faucets, turn them on and have water coming out and be able to go to the toilet, use it, flush it and know that it's being whisked away in giant pipes to a treatment facility, so perhaps some earthly good coming out of it, but that doesn't really cut it for me.  I have spent too much time working in the church and working on the mission field to have myself limited to just going to work 5 days a week and dreaming of the weekends to get here because the work load is so great, I don't feel like doing much of anything by the time I am done.

But, I do like getting paychecks.

Well I'm done.  It's Friday night, but I'm tired even though it's early and I have a lot to get done this weekend.

G'nite.

ben

Manager not at work today.
I show up and there's lots - too much - to do.
I get started on pulling what I call a "technical" load.  That's either one that has to have some thought in how to try to get all of it onto the truck or one that has a lot of "special" material that we don't stock and is sitting in various tag and hold areas.  This one was the latter.

The material was all over the place and I had to check each piece by numbers.  It was dark, hard to see anything and time consuming.  When the inside salesman showed up - taking the manager's place - he offered no assistance whatsoever. When you have a day ahead of you that is full of deliveries with orders that have not been pulled, that is not helpful at all.

I was pulling the material and kept getting interrupted phone calls, contractors and people asking questions.  I finally got the truck loaded and headed out - on down to Coolidge.  When I got there, I found out they had no equipment to unload the truck.  Hardly exciting.  2 sticks of pipe at 500 pounds a  piece; 3 valves at 250 pounds a piece and a much larger valve at almost 600 pounds.  Various fittings ranging from 75 pounds to 300 pounds and other, heavy material.

They wanted to unload it by hand.  When faced with taking an entire truck loaded with material back to the yard and having to unload it and then - reload it for future delivery? I'll take unloading by hand any day of the week if the contractor is down for it.  We got it all off of there, including that giant, heavy valve.  I simply pulled the truck next to and then straddled the trailer over a large pile of dirt and we dumped it off of it.

Back to the yard to find out that the next delivery was "supposed" to go out first. It really wasn't, but the salesman acted that way.  The contractor had been calling and calling him, where's the material.  Well, the inside salesman running the show today was supposed to pull the order - excepting the pipe - and have it ready.  He had pulled half of it and had told them that the load would be out there by 1:00 pm. It was 12:15 when I got started on it.  I informed him that 1:00 pm was a non-happening event.  He started to walk off and  I asked him if he could help out to get it done quicker.

Nope.  My manager will hear about this tomorrow.  When it comes to deliveries, they take precedence over everything.  That inside salesman should have dropped what he was doing and helped me get the rest of the order pulled. Instead, he went back inside and was doing his thing.  I understand he has a full workload already, but if they are going to send someone to run the shop when my manager is gone and that person is not going to help out, they need to find someone else to come out.

My manager will drop whatever he's doing to pull orders.  The only thing that really takes precedence is if a customer comes into the store.  I could have gotten a lot more done today if he had helped out instead of pushing a lot of it off until tomorrow.

Whatever the case, it's time to go to bed.

ben

Christmas party.
Pretty serious conversations for being a Christmas party, is what I can say about that.

I don't want to get the guy fired.  He - the dude I have been having issues with - came up to me, put out his hand and we started to talk.

He was very serious.  I mean, too serious, where was this going?  We got into the issues we've had, the attitudes, all of it and then he dropped the bombshell: If anything happens between us again, management has threatened to fire him. I just want the s*** to stop.  I have to talk to this guy on the phone frequently, we have to get along for as much communication that we have with each other.  Many times a day, I have to call various salesmen and inside salesmen to get information or ask questions about an order that is incomplete or whatever.

I spoke my mind, blunt and to the point.  When I call you, you have attitude all over your voice. You act like you are completely disinterested.  We went back and forth -civilly of course - and we came to an agreement at the end of all of it.  I really don't want to see the guy lose his job, he would have a tough time finding another one in this economy and having had been fired.  He's got a newborn  - or near newborn, wife, all that good stuff.

That conversation went on for quite a while.

Then, another conversation started with an outside salesman. Just a clearing of that air on that instance, but it was good to get it all out.

Then yet another conversation.  A counter salesman comes up and tells me how some of his customers tell him that I should be moved up in the company.  Are you serious?  First I've heard of that.  He then goes on to tell me how they take notice of my busting my ass every time I have to go to the main branch - which is quite frequently - picking up material for orders.

Well whatever.  So I'm talking with the operations manager's wife.  She's a complete opposite of him.. I mean north and south poles difference.  She doesn't want anything to do with the company, she was offered a job and flatly rejected the offer, lol.  The took my hand, put her arm around me and took me inside the house, right in front of her husband!! Yikes!!! I was very uncomfortable with that scene, of which her husband followed us in maybe a minute later.

Okay.  Awesome food. Barbeque everything and delicious.

Whatta week.  Manager having issues with associates and I as well.
My situation with the inside salesman has been dealt with.  At least, as far as management goes it has been.
After my manager wrote out - whatever he wrote - to the inside salesman manager, well, both he and the operations manager showed up at our shop this morning.

I wasn't there.  Out on the road.  In fact, out on the road for 11 hours today.

The information that came my way when I finally got back to the shop though, was interesting.  "We know that when Ben gets upset, it's because it's for the good of the company". In other words, it was a compliment, even though they pretty much made it clear on both sides - the inside salesman and I - that there would be no more talking to anyone outside the company about internal affairs.  Well, issues, I should say, with other individuals within the company who seem to have a calling - to do something else in life, cause' what they are doing now?  Ain't workin'.

Meanwhile, we are potentially going to get a part-time person to help out at our branch.  We are always asked if we need more help, we always say yes and it is always put on a backburner somewhere.  All well and good - I don't really care at this point, I will just work the unbelievable hours and whatever.  But, things that need to get don't - won't.  It consumes a large amount of time just doing pickups for deliveries.  That's because the companies we buy from are spread out all over the place.  Not to mention the fact that some of those places are not exactly in a big hurry and at least one place will tell us a time when we can pick it up - and more-often-than-not, it isn't ready.  Such as yesterday at that place, I waited for almost 2 hours.

It also doesn't help when our customers - contractors - have issues getting the truck unloaded.  This morning?  I just ended up unloading all 86 sticks of pipe by hand.  The bantering was getting ridiculous, the workout was good.  Later on, I was at a jobsite waiting to get 5 megalugs unloaded.  About 1,000 pounds, I couldn't unload those things by hand.  Not without risking dropping them and having them break.  After calling the contractor several times, I finally called the inside salesman on the account and informed him that I would be leaving and we can bring this stuff back on Monday, since they don't seem too interested in unloading it today.

The contractor - this dude is the site superintendent. He is above almost everyone else out there.  He told me repeatedly he was going to call whoever and get them to unload the truck.  Either he didn't call them - or more likely - they just didn't listen.  After calling my company's salesman for that account and asking about leaving - and that salesman getting instantly pissed "They told me they needed those things today" and telling me he would call me right back - that got the ball rolling.  A few minutes after that phone call and a pickup truck came flying up to their yard, a man got out, walked over to a group of workers and started getting nasty with them. It became obvious that he HAD, indeed, called them and that they had ignored his request to get the truck unloaded.

You see, I told the salesman that I had a LOT of other things left to get done in the day, that I had been sitting there for 40 minutes and if they can't get to unloading the truck, fine, we'll bring it back on Monday.  I like OT, but I am also cognizant of our company's need to keep costs down and keep it's current head-count intact.  Well, whatever works.

Company party tomorrow afternoon with the 3rd annual Corn hole competition.  I'm pretty good at it.  If I'm coupled with a person that is also pretty good at it, good chance to win. Last year the pot was over $200 to the winners.  I won't be driving out there.  I am going to my manager's apartment to get a ride.  It's probably 60 miles from his place to the manager's house (Phoenix metro area: VERY spread out).  I absolutely LOVE just riding in a car and not having to worry about driving.  I just ignore the road completely.  I can't hardly EVER do that.  I have to focus on traffic all day long in the semi and let me tell you, driving that thing in city traffic takes a great deal of concentration.

I think the next time my son and I go on a trip somewhere, I'm a gonna make him do at least some of the driving.

It's late.

Tit For Tat

Today, I had enough.
A certain inside salesman's BS.
He cannot do his job, to start off with.
His mistakes are daily and numerous.
They range from minor to extreme.
It's gone on so long, there is some talk
of having a "discussion" with him about it.

Whatever the case, he complained about me
to the operations manager, the general manager
and the inside sales manager.  I was at a plant
attempting to pick up material and he had - messed
up on something again.  I looked at the paperwork
and made a comment about this particular person
always messing up.

Well, it got to that plant's manager - who is married
to this inside salesman - who then complained to the
whole world about it.

I probably should not have said that about him, but -
the man needs to find a new profession, IMO and
several other people's IMO's as well.

Let's get to the history.  He called me a fu**ing idiot
a few years ago about a delivery I had made up on the
Indian Reservation because I had not left any lube for
the pipe.  Well, the standing policy at the time was
to not give lube for less-than-lift quantities - an amount
of pipe that does not equal an entire lift's worth - unless
asked.  At the time, I had gone over the entire order
with the foreman up there.  He saw that there was no
lube but said nothing about it.  He complained to this
guy who became livid with anger and shouted the
aforementioned statement about me.  I was following
policy.

Fast forward to last week. I don't care at this point
how much lube they want, the policy was changed
and that's fine with me.  I was at a jobsite and had left
far more lube than was necessary only because I knew
this contractor would make a fuss if I didn't.

This contractor - a man I get along with very well, btw -
called the inside salesman and said there was only one
quart of lube with the pipe.  This inside salesman makes some very
negative statements about me, gets off the phone and
then calls my manager, who inadvertently had the conversation
on speaker-phone.  He made some very disparaging
remarks about me because I had not left enough lube.

He didn't bother to ask if I had left enough, he just
assumed a contractor had gone through pallets worth
of material.  I had, of course, left
AMPLE amounts of lube.  Hypocrite.  I got into an instant
message with him - and that didn't go very well.

But, now that he has opened Pandora's Box, he can
get the same measure with which he has meted.  I have
had enough of people in my company that are just plain
wimps. Some petty thing happens and they are complaining
to management.

So, I got back to the yard and told my manager that I wanted
to file a formal complaint and that I would be going through
the chain-of-command - which means through him.  I am NOT
going to have a person sitting there complaining about me to
every level of management in the company at the local level after
he has done the EXACT same thing to me and not have him pay
the same consequences.

I informed George that I couldn't have him along with his girlfriend.
That coming from the GM.  Oh well. Today, my manager said he
decided he was going to go and that I could go with him to the party.
I would have to drive to his place to get the ride.  Okay.  I get to
take a ride clear to the GM's house without  - having to actually
drive the vehicle there or back.  Woo-hoooooo!

Off to bed.  Have to be at work at 5:00 am.  Yikes!! But it will
be Friday : )

ben

You see, I don't really care about overtime.  I don't really want to work 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, but I did that for a long, long time in the past and yes, I could eventually get used to it again - and the larger paychecks.

I came back to the yard today to find a - lot - of stuff to do.  It was already past 3 o'clock.  That's 9 hours already on the clock with more to do.  So, I get on the computer to see what's in there for tomorrow, then go discuss it with the salesman - he comes to our place a lot to get some work done - and about to go outside to start working on orders.

A contractor pulls into the yard.  This takes a while, not a huge order but enough to have to divert my time to  getting it done.  Back to work? Not quite.  Another contractor comes up to the now-locked front door.  I go and let him in.  Get done with him and then something else - I don't remember what - comes up.  I finally get to pulling the material off the truck and check all of the quantities and then print orders to pull for tomorrow morning.

So, this has been a typical day for a while now.

Rumors surfacing about sending drivers home after reaching 40 hours and bringing in temps (good luck with that - numerous reasons that wouldn't work out but too much to go into right now, almost my bedtime).  Management calling my manager to ask about why the OT hours.  On and on. I won't go into some of it considering this is the world wide web, needless to say if they want to cut our OT, they're going to have to bring in another worker into our store.

I was supposed to go to church tonight but getting home at just before 6 and the thing starting at 6:30? Nope.  I really wanted to go, but just not happening.  It's a bit after 8 and I am going to bed in a few minutes.

Company Christmas party on Saturday.  GM returned my email: I would prefer if you only brought 1 person with you.  That shot down having George and his girlfriend coming.  They're nice people, good conversationalists, they would have been fun to bring along.  It's his house, though.

Prince's haunches getting visibly worse.  I get sick at the thought of having to put him down.  He doesn't wince and is in no visible pain, but about the time that starts happening.....a trip to the vet will be in order.  He's not sick, like with cancer or something such as Coco had, he's just having trouble with his hind end and walking.  I am giving him glucosamine daily and am going to buy a bottle of the other stuff - the name of which escapes me right now - but that's about all you can do.  Unless a vet has some other ideas.  It's just a problem that large dogs can get.  Duke, on the other hand, a much larger dog, has no joint problems going at all.  I am also giving him the supplements.

I"m done.

G'nite.

ben

The operations manager finally forced the issue to allow a worker to come over to our branch yesterday and help get things in order.  The place was getting pretty chaotic.  We simply don't have the time for it.  That guy spent the entire day organizing things, putting stuff away and cleaning up.  It is, actually, a part of my job to do all of that.  No time for it.  Pulling orders and driving, that's what I do all day and "down-time" days are far and few between.  I am driving a very dirty truck - a thing I hate - but I don't have time to wash that, either and there are no truck wash outlets anywhere near our store's location and when I do go by one, well, that's all I have time to do: look over and wish I could stop and get it washed.

Oh well.  Company Christmas party on Saturday.  Not sure that I am going.  It's a very long drive and if I wanted to have a few drinks?  Not a happening event.  Driving home is the issue with that, even if I only have a few I am not comfortable driving and certainly not that far.  George - one of my tenants - and his girlfriend offered to drive me out there and enjoy the party with me.  The general manager said no.  Great.  People bring all kinds of people with them to these parties that do not work for the company and in many cases aren't even related to the person that brought them.

I'm leaning towards not going, but I won't really make that decision until Saturday.  If I feel like it, I will, if I don't, no biggies.

Switched insurance companies.  It was time to renew my insurance and a bigger payment. I decided to find out if I could find anything cheaper.  Yes, indeed, I did.  Up until 3 or 4 months ago, the rate had gone up to an all-time high of $249 per month. Then, out of the blue without my asking, they lowered the bill to $189 per month.  Then the renewal came and they informed me that my rate was going to go back up. Bunk.  My new rate is $152 per month. That's for 2 cars, full coverage on one of them and 2 drivers.  Caleb has done well to stay out of accidents and not get any tickets, though he was pulled over a while back for - what I don't know.  He got out of it, whatever it was.

Well, anyway, just a quick update.

Off to work.

G'day.

ben

I woke up this morning (Sunday) around 4:30am.  I didn't want to wake up that early, I just did.

I am going to have to find a way to come to terms with these long work weeks with weekends filled with activities if this is going to continue.  The problem is fatigue.  I was so tired at church this morning I could barely stay awake.

I know for a fact that tomorrow at work is a full day's worth of work.  There are 5 truckloads of pipe to be hauled plus everything else.

I felt like doing nothing today.  I got outside and watered plants and thought about putting up Christmas
lights, but quickly dismissed that idea.  Sunday - going to take it easy.

One of the elders of the church "chased" me down today when I was leaving church.  They are having a special ministry training seminar on Wednesday - teach people how to do altar ministry, he wanted to let me know that the church would like me to come to it.

I'm not opposed to it - but it's a weekday and I miss most of the small groups at this point because of late work days.  I have also been involved in a great deal of altar ministry in my lifetime, but I guess a refresher course wouldn't hurt since I've been out of it so long.  I explained to him my work situation and promised I would come if I wasn't held too long at work.

Church will, inevitably, begin to take up more and more of my time.  By choice, of course.  It won't supersede work of course, but it will supersede many other things if this path that I am on continues to go in the direction that it has been.

Well, it's time to go to sleep just before I start musing about the things of God and the wonder I have about where He will lead me to go and what to do with the rest of my life. Working a full time job may not be in that particular deck of cards.

G'nite.

ben

Unbeknownst to me, the Yerba Mensa had totally discarded the pot it was in and was free-growing along the side of the top of the pond.  Five feet long, an extensive root system simply growing in the water.  I knew that they could do that, I didn't know the thing had somehow removed itself out of the pot.

It was a simple matter, therefore, to lift the entire thing up and over the side of the pond and just let it hang there while I thoroughly sprayed it with ant and roach killer.  Near-invisible caterpillars became extremely visible while they were wiggling and croaking to death.  Good riddance. I waited for a while and then I started spraying the leaves and stems with fresh water.  Doused the entire top of it where any poison might get into the pond water from dripping down the leaves until I felt I had done enough of it - which was a good while.  I then let it drip dry for a bit longer and then - put it back into place.  I resprayed the entire system that is outside of the water with poison and below the top of the pond so that this will not be a reoccurring situation.

It will take time, but that plant will grow new leaves and eventually get rid of the eaten ones.  A month or two, I am guessing and it will start looking healthy again.  Very resilient plant, even with a large percentage of leaves eaten up,  it will send out new leaves and the ones that are eaten up? What little is left of them is still green.
_________________________
Long interlude.  Got the dog outside and started to go to town. She didn't like it.  Not my problem.  She stayed obediently in place for the most part while I shaved that long hair away.  I was informed this was a short to medium haired dog, this is definitely a LONG haired dog, only made short by shaving it regularly.  Well, I have an electric shaver now and I will be doing this once a month, I am guessing.    After spending nearly an hour trying to get all of that off of her, I then bathed her in oatmeal shampoo - she has a problem with dandruff but oatmeal shampoo deals with it quite well - and then took the scissors that came with the package and started cutting away at the hair the machine just wouldn't take off.

I am done with that for today.  There is still some hair left to go on her belly and legs, but for my first time ever attempting to do that, she looks pretty good.
________________________________________

Long day.  Week.  Christmas will bring a 4 day vacation.  Umm, no, I forgot, I put in for an extra day or 2.  4 days off, though, without that.  2 weekend days and 2 paid days from the company and then if I get the other 1 or 2, well there you go.  I could use some time off before then - too much to do and too little time to do it - but I am not going to ask.  I need to save my vacation hours for some time off next summer.
______________________________________

Randy's house is coming together. He's slowly getting the framing done and started installing windows.  However, there is MAJOR problem with that house: the foundation has a crack in it.  He filled it in with cement or something, but that does not repair a crack, just covers it up.  Whatever.  He also used 2 inch diameter pipe for the toilet. ?!!!  LOL!!! Ummmm, okay.  That's not going to work too well, is all I can say about that.

Well that's enough for now.  I have been cranking all day long and I am ready to take a break  - like for the rest of the day, lol.

ben

Saturday 12/1/2012

So, the wasps went away - where who knows - and now caterpillars have taken their place.
I was looking at my Yerba Mensa the other day and thinking how badly those wasps had ravaged that plant.

Well I was looking at it again just now thinking, wait a minute, something else MUST be going on here, the leaves on this plant are completely ravaged.  First thought: caterpillars.  Started looking underneath leaves and sure enough.

How do you get rid of them?  I can't spray poison on the plant, it will kill the fish.

I guess I'm going to have to take that giant plant that is entangled in everything (which was the intended effect) and try to get it out of the pond so I can thoroughly spray it with poison.  It's going to have to be out of the pond for several days to do that and then when I figure I've gotten all those nasty creatures, wash the whole plant with water and then put it back in.

One plant, right, how hard can that be?  This plant has grown all over the pond, down the sides and onto the ground.  It has shooters going all over place. It's a beautiful plant - or was until all those leaves got eaten up.

I can't put it off, those caterpillars are going to kill that plant if I leave it go too much longer.

57 hours, I believe it was, for the work week. Long week.  Plus 5 hours put in at church this morning doing the rummage sale.  The end of the sale was the hard part cause' had to take down all the tables, put them in a trailer and then put all the seats back into place plus fold up all the clothes and everything that wasn't sold and put it in the prayer room until they can figure out what they want to do with it - though I think they were talking about donating it to Goodwill.

Well, anyway. Trip to Walmart was in order.  I am not going to pay $60 or more everytime that dog's hair needs trimmed.  And trimmed it needs, badly. I went and got a pet trimmer for $29 and I bought 2 cans of ant and roach killer spray.  That should take care of caterpillars, too, I am guessing/hoping.  I have sprayed it on plants before and it didn't do anything to the plant, another good thing.

Umm, so, busy week, busy day already,  more to go.

Later.

ben

35-1/2 hours of work in 3 days.
I used to do this, daily, 6 days a week.   For years.
I hated it.  You have no time to live your life.
I don't mind doing it here and there, but when it gets into
the consecutive day type of thing - with things left undone -
the it starts to become an issue.

I ended up going out there and watering plants in the dark today.
Can't let it go too long.
I want to hang up Christmas lights out there as well.
I'm not sure WHEN that's going to happen. I was asked and
subsequently volunteered to work a 5 hour shift at church on
Saturday.

I'm not unhappy with work.  Work is a good thing.
But some things going on at work with individuals - well, anyway.
In some cases, arrogance. In at least one other case, not liking
the type of work they are doing and - not taking pride in their
work, subsequently.

I'm definitely expecting that at some point, things are going to come
to a head.  It's going to escalate to the point that the GM is going
to end up getting involved with this.  I only know that we are
going to hit at least the 400k mark this month.  I'm working my @$$
off, my manager is definitely working his @$$ off, we keep a great
attitude with our customers.

But, the situation with others in our company is at the intolerable point.
People with no clue attempting to tell us how to "expedite" our store and
make it more "efficient", notwithstanding the fact that they have NO input
as to HOW that is going to happen.  I can tell you the only way it's
going to happen: more personnel.

Without another set of hands to pull orders or drive a vehicle, not a
happening event.

Whatever the case, at 4:00 pm, I started petering out.  I had eaten 2
bananas and a very small sandwich early morning and nothing after that.
I didn't want to keep working and I flatly stated such.  Go get something
to eat then.

That's it.  Another day of non-stop grinding.  I DID go up to the mountains,
btw, in the midst of all of this.

To end this one, I need to find a woman.  Seriously.  This single junk has
going on long enough.

G'day.

ben

DO NOT ADD ANYTHING WITHOUT CONTACTING US FIRST!!

That was what I put in our truck routing system yesterday, after seeing that the salesmen had just kept dumping more and more deliveries and pickups in there to do.

Ridiculous.  I already informed 2 salesmen that there is no WAY I can do everything that has been put in there in one day.  Too much to do, too many orders to pull, too much driving.  It's not that I don't want to, it's just physically impossible.

What cracks me up is that some of these people will just put stuff in there without checking with us first and without looking at what they are adding to.  They just assume it will get done.

23-1/2 hours in 2 days.  I'm looking at another long day today unless something changes.  We have been informed that our branch does not warrant a 3rd person.  Great, we are just going to work lots of OT and then perhaps the message will get across.  Or not.  I love OT - up to a point.  At some point, you cross over to another tax bracket or status and then you see more taxes being taken out to the point that  all those extra hours don't add up to a hill of beans.

Oh, wait a minute, I think beans are expensive nowadays, that old saying might not mean that much anymore, could actually be contradictory from it's intended meaning, lol.

Time to get on the road and get to the daily grind.

G'day.

ben

I bought a salad this morning - fat free dressing of course - with an apple and sugar-free white peach tea.
That was around 8 am.  9 hours later, still grinding away but now in the yard, pulling orders and doing all that it entails to get a truck loaded including loading the truck - I ran out of energy.

"Go get something to eat then!".  I was ready to go HOME.  I had a frozen dinner in the refrigerator, heated that up, wolfed it down and went back to work.  An hour later - the truck was loaded, it was all done, only a  few things left to do in the morning. After THAT, then there's MUCH more.  I am supposed to do a couple of other deliveries and then go up into the mines up in the mountains.

Well whatever.  I just do what I can get done.  I work at a very efficient, brisk pace.  Today I slowed down after 11 straight hours of it.

Did I say it's 15 minutes til' my bedtime?

G'nite.
ben

What happens when you are informed by a manager that your work is not up too part and that you need to "step it up" some in terms of productivity?
My manager wasn't too happy when I returned to the yard yesterday - which was at around 6:00 pm, btw.  I was grinding all day long, one place to the next to the next.
Apparently, we need to "find" ways to expedite the process.
All two of  us, that is, running a branch that did 4 and a half million in sales last year.  That includes shipping; receiving; pulling orders; palletizing and wrapping those orders; loading the truck and delivering those orders.  It includes all the elements one could possibly conceive that go into running a store.

All 2 of us did that.

The numbers, fortunately, are on our side.  Not just the 4 and a half million, which is an impressive number by itself.

But also some other numbers that the company uses to measure a branch's efficiency.  I don't know what numbers they use to come to such a conclusion, but an outside salesman informed us yesterday that our numbers are "kicking ass" over all the other branches.  This includes much larger branches with 4, 5 and more personnel that are doing LESS in sales than we are.  We are informed that the numbers at our branch to do not warrant a 3rd worker, yet when compared to every other branch that is within our region, well, the numbers tell a  completely different story.

That outside salesman is on our side, btw.  He SEES what we go through on a day to day basis, it's not like we have to "act" like we're busy, we ARE busy.  Another outside salesman attests to the same thing.

Yet, some higher level managers still think we are sitting around, jacking off, having women over and drinking kegs of beer while watch porn when on the clock.

Okay, a bit of an exaggeration and possibly offensive in nature, but the whole situation is beginning to piss me off.  Mouthy, heady, arrogant people walking around spouting off things coming from lips that are completely and totally clueless.

And then......................

Another story.  Apparently, I am "not going to like" having satellite installed in my truck.  I wasn't there for the conversation - on the road of course at the time - but my manager had to ask: WHY do you think he won't like it?  Do you think he's just goofing off all day long?  What is the point of satellite in a company that hasn't used it and doesn't need it?  Obvious: to monitor it's drivers.  What are we doing all day long?  Screw the satellite, if they think I'm some sort of sloucher - which I can guarantee you 100% I am not - let them install a CAMERA on the dash of the truck.

I dunno.  When a person's work is unappreciated, then what do you do next?

G'day.

ben

4 day holiday comes to a close and back to the grind.
Tomorrow will be very busy, if I recall our truck routing system correctly when last seen on Wednesday.
Manager will be back from Chicago.
Ummmm, I'm going to bed early tonight is all I can say about that.

I dodged a bullet on Wednesday, btw.  I don't remember if I wrote about it, but it's - maybe the third time this year that I came upon a "commercial vehicle inspection station" - portable/mobile, they put them up wherever they can find space to pull over lots of trucks.  I was like, wow.  It's getting near the end of November, I made it this far without running into one and here we go.

Well it turns out they were just putting up the signs.  They hadn't finished putting them up at the intersection and quite honestly?  Who KNOWS where they were going to do the inspections.  I have no legal obligation to follow signs that - aren't there.  So, since they hadn't finished posting them? I continued right one, thanks.

But, it's another place now that I know where they may potentially do them, mark that in the "don't go this route" shelf in my mind.  I intentionally take alternate routes to avoid such areas, especially a couple of places where they have these portable inspection stations put up frequently.  I could name the roads - but why bother? Just in case.................

Fry's Food Stores/Shopping

I did end up going out today.
First to Home Depot.  I didn't find anything there that I was looking for so - just left.  Across the street to the AutoZone to have them plug in their computer and maybe find out why the Service Engine Soon light is on.  They determined "most likely" the cause is a bad fuel cap.  Oh.  I had,  a couple of times, a warning light come up stating that the gas cap was loose, even though it wasn't.  So, I spent the $10 and hope that will take care of the problem.  The car is running fine.

Over to Whitfill's Nursery.  Looking for the ground covering plants that the cats have destroyed to some degree - still plenty out there, but there is now a barren spot where their defecating and urinating has completely destroyed it.  They are no longer doing that there, for reasons I have no explanation for, so I am going to try replanting.

They did not have the fresh-cut Christmas trees, yet, but they did have some amazing looking live trees.  As in almost 8 feet tall live trees that looked very nice.  I didn't get one, but I am considering it.  A very good price for a tree that large and after Christmas is done, just plant it somewhere.  Maybe out front and have a permanent Christmas tree out there, lol.

Over to Fry's food stores.  I got a roast and vegetables.  In checkout, the price came up wrong.  It was not showing the sale price of 89 cents for the cut carrots, it came out to $1.69, the regular price.  Well, their policy: scanning error is free up to $5, over $5 they give you a $5 gift card.  I did not get the item for free and the lady had a bagger go check the price.  We're talking 80 cents here, not 10 dollars.  I was a bit put off by them checking the price, which, when he came back, said yes, there IS a sign there that says the sale price of 89 cents.

Well, now I have to go to the Customer Service desk to get this taken care of.  There are 7 people in line.  No way am I going to wait that long for an error on their part - the customer service desk takes forever just to get up to it.  So, I had the assistant manager paged (I prefer the GM, but not there today).  Not my regular store, either.  Individual never showed up after  2 pages in a couple of minute's time.  No call to say why he isn't coming, nothing.  Finally, she says she's going to page him again. Don't bother, I am not going to wait another second for this individual.

Instead, I simply called the store.  Yup, I headed to my car and called the store from the number on the receipt.  The man finally got on as I was driving home, actually.  He gave his excuse - which I didn't find to be a valid one (if he isn't available but knew he was being paged, why not just call up and tell them that?) - Mr. Torrence was his name.  Oh, he states, I would have taken care of this situation.  Really? Do you think I have all day long to wait for something like this, or perhaps should have to wait 20 minutes in a line at the customer service desk?  He had no reply to that.

I just informed him I would be calling corporate headquarters on Monday and yes, I would be asking for a gift card to be sent to my home.  Again.  Not the first time.  I did wish him a nice day and then ended the call.

Is it worth it?  At least one person I know that reads my blog would say no and then proceed to tell me about myself. Yes, it is worth it. First, to get the lady that had an 80 cent error on the ticket "retrained".  For that low amount of money, they just let you have it.  My "story" about it being on sale was verified, but my interaction with Fry's Food Stores in the past has been for something where the discrepancy is that low, just give it to the customer.  Follow your own GM's guidelines. Second, because I didn't get the store's policy of getting the item free for incorrect scanning.

I usually come out well ahead in such things when the store acts in such a way to cause' far more problems than 80 cents is worth.

Whatever, that's long since over, I will have a 5 or 10 minute conversation on the phone with Fry's headquarters on Monday and then we'll see what happens.  Meanwhile? I have plants to put in the ground and need to decide on that tree.  I don't know how long they are going to have those nice, full looking trees around before people come and zap them up.

G'day.

ben

Umm, Black Friday was a bust for me.  The only thing I scored was a huge - cheap quality I am sure but around here no problem - screwdriver set from Home Depot for $9.95.  I did end up going to Sears to try and score one of those TV's, but unbeknownst to me (and apparently everyone else in line), you needed a "voucher" to get one.  No explanation of who got the vouchers or how those that had them, got them, was given.  I just walked out.  I am not going to buy "something else" in the store when they start playing games like that.  They are lucky they didn't start a riot, numerous people that were at the front of the line were told no more TV's.  The FRONT of the line!  Before a single TV was even sold?!!

Sears can go piss off.

Walmart was a jungle.  I finally found the TV's they had on sale only to find yet another line and more tickets being given out.  SCREW those freaking tickets.  Not only that, but they weren't going to even start selling them until 10:00 pm.  It would have been an hour and a half wait, I just left there, too, wasn't about to go attempt to find other bargains with all of those people in there pushing and shoving each other.  Ridiculous.

No biggies to me.  I really didn't need to spend money anyway.  I wouldn't have minded finding a good coffee maker on sale, though, someone has broken mine and I want to replace it.  I might meander up to Walmart today to see if they might have any on sale, allegedly their Black Friday sales go through the weekend. Emphasis on allegedly.  Their ad states they are, but who knows what's left, probably not much of anything.

The drive home from Sierra 'Vista to here?  I'm afraid that I was speeding even worse than I thought.  I must get that speedometer fixed on that car.  247 miles in ..............well I'm not going to say it on here.  Just am not.  Let's just say that it didn't take near as long as it should have.  But, when you have a 75 mph speed limit and find at least half the distance is on a 6 lane interstate - meaning finding ways around the clog ups where everyone is all congregated together - you can cruise pretty nicely.

It's now the weekend.  The rest of their family in Sierra Vista is leaving today.  One couple has been there since last Saturday.  They were talking about doing Thanksgiving at their house next year.  Yeah, well if I happen to be in or around San Antonio next year, I'll certainly hit them up for it.

Our company is giving us Monday as a "special gift" for this year.  Meaning they have decided to keep the stores closed on that Monday (Christmas is on Tuesday this year) and also give it as a paid day off - versus having to use vacation or other hours.  Well, it is a gift, we don't normally have the day before a holiday off if the holiday falls during the week, you either have ask for a vacation day or you show up for work for half a day and will be very bored, cause' no contractors will be working so it's senseless to have any of our stores open.  All of our contractors have our salesmen's cell phone numbers and they know that if there is an emergency, they can call them at any time.  They can call me, lol, it's a $150 charge for showing up after hours.  That charge goes to the employee that showed up.  Plus double-overtime.  Yes, they could definitely call me in an emergency, I have nothing going on now that couldn't be interrupted.

I have enough money saved up now to cover Christmas.  I don't think I'm doing the dinner so that will save a  lot of money in not having to buy roasts and do all that there is to putting something like that together.

Must be offa here.  Plenty to do today.

ben

Actually much warmer day here than expected.  I'm sitting out back of my dad's house which sits right next to a golf course, and yes, there are a few people out golfing, have been off an on all day long. After eating a huge Turkey dinner, I couldn't sit around watching football games all afternoon long, especially since the teams playing were not my favorites, though I still ended up watching a lot of the game anyway. But - I went on an almost 6,000 step walk around a portion of the course on the golf cart path.

I dunno, but I am enjoying myself much more than I did the last time.  Just decided that the dude wasn't going to bother me and because of that decision, well, there you go.

Called mother this morning - she isn't actually having any family over.  My oldest brother won't go over there for Thanksgiving anymore, been 4 or 5 years since he's done that but my middle brother is going over there on Saturday.  I didn't bother to tell her we could come on that day too, I don't really want to be there for another Thanksgiving with him around.  No biggies.  I saw mother more this summer up at her property than I had, cumulatively, seen her in years.

I have decided to hit Sears up at 8 today if the line isn't too terribly long.  They have a 32 inch flat screen for sale for $97.  Yes, that's 97 bucks. That's cheap.  Walmart's version is $138.  I am guessing if there are people waiting out there, it's going to be for that if nothing else.  but, it's only 4:22 and I refuse to go sit around at a store entrance for hours  on end.  I will walk over there from the hotel and see if I can score. If not, maybe I will go to the Walmart.  But really, if I don't score anything today, it wouldn't bother me.  Home Depot's sale is at 5:00 am.  I may or may not be up that early. It would be nice to score a couple of their deals on pliers and adjustable wrenches.

The sun is finally going down and it's starting to cool right back down : )

Whatever.  Just throwing this in there.  I'm still at my dad's house and there are a lot of family here, but a lot of them went took naps when I decided to - get the blood pumping and get a good long walk in.

Later.

ben

Got up this morning, had a small breakfast and went for a long walk in the brisk, cool\- FRESH - air to be found down here. This area is surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges.  Everything was closed, our hotel is in the same parcel of land as a giant shopping mall.  I decided to walk the circumference of the mall.  Best Buy had no-one waiting out in front of it but Sears had to people sitting in lawn chairs that had just shown up at the same time I was walking by.  So, spend your entire Thanksgiving sitting in a lawn chair in front of a store for 12 hours.

Whatever.  I walked off the property and was looking at a fenced off area across the street.  Upon closer inspection, it is an old, abandoned goofy-golf place.  Covered with weeds, but when it was open, it must have been a fun one cause' had all kinds of weird devices and things to apparently try and hit your ball into.  The driving range also shut down and also completely covered with weeds.

My dad's wife bought Thanksgiving dinner in advance.  IE: prepared by Fry's Food Stores.  I didn't know Fry's did such a thing.  I'm sure it will be good regardless.  Whether the man with the tude' is going to change the direction of his obvious disdain for both my son and I, I have no idea and if it continues I am going to smile, say hi to him and then completely ignore him.  I will not have a man's glaring attitude ruin my Thanksgiving, a person I don't know, have only met once and had the same reaction from.

Well anyway, since Thanks giving dinner is going to be at 1:00 pm today, that certainly allows for me to visit the Walmart tonight if I so desire, or even the Best Buy if there aren't 10,000 people there - who knows what kind of turn-out they get in a small town such as this? - and see about getting a few deals.  Home Depot is 300 yards away as well. They are having a great sale on hand tools - tools that I use frequently at home and could definitely stand replacing.

Undoubtedly, Mark had to spend the night on the couch in the living room.  The dogs.  Apparently, when I leave, they grumble, growl and bark all night long.  I was told the other day that when I leave for work, Prince will start barking at one side of the property, then run to the other side and then back. They contend separation anxiety and looking for me to come back.  Well, can't be bound down forever by dogs, gotta have a life beyond the house.

9:00 am.  My walk over, I think we're going to go over to dad's house in about an hour and spend the day over there.

ben

Late start for the journey to Sierra Vista.
We paid for it, too.  2 accidents south of town out in the middle of nowhere on the Interstate.  Bumper to bumper traffic that went on for miles, when I got stuck in it I was thinking, gee, this isn't downtown Phoenix, what is going on here?  I get out the phone and dial 511.  2 separate accidents in 2 locations adding up to chaos on the Interstate.  I worked my way over to the far right lane, got off the freeway and took an alternate route.

I've been down the alternate route in the semi 50 times if not more.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that hardly any other traffic was moving down there as well - they were not giving detour routes on the news on the radio, they were simply saying 6 mile backup. Great.  The detour led us by a Subway and I was hungry so decided to stop and get a couple of sandwiches to go.  I walked up to the order line and a gentleman in front of me pulled out a stack of coupons and handed me one.  Another nice surprise, it was a couple for 2 subs for the price of one!  Nice folks they were - he and his wife - we got into a short conversation, I thanked him and we left with our score.

We finally got back to I-10 some 45 miles later on the alternate route and I made up for lost time.  I actually remembered how to get there - haven't been here in a couple of years now.

Walk up to the door and see my dad playing the piano and a young girl watching him.  He is a very accomplished pianist, actually. Upon walking in and after greeting him, I look around to see a man giving me a stare that I remembered from the last time we met.  I decided to greet him warmly regardless of his obvious attitude and blow him off, I wasn't there for him and neither was Caleb.

Caleb later asked, after we were alone, if that guy was the one I was referring to about the tude' from our previous visit.  Yes, indeed he is, I replied, why?  I hadn't brought the subject up to him, why give the man a moment's worth of time.  Kill him with kindness will be my motto, I suddenly decided after I saw the ego, arrogance and condescension.  If he wants to get into a discussion about whatever it is that he has issue with, I will certainly take him up on that.  Anyway, Caleb replied he saw what I was talking about.  You saw the way that guy looked at me?  Oh yeah, he replied, pretty hard not to take notice of it.

Well, we spent a good deal of time talking to dad and that is why we came down here, so no biggies.  Amazingly, that guy's wife is very nice, very gracious and very talkative to me. I don't get it.

Whatever, I am now in the hotel.  They have GREAT wi-fi here, not using the mobile broadband since wi-fi is included and is much faster than my hotspot device.

Well whatever, On a completely different note, I was at our company's main branch today, standing in the warehouse dealing with paperwork.  I hear this extremely upbeat greeting coming from down the way, it's the inside sales manager, the individual that will determine whether I get to switch to inside sales or not.  I greeted him with the same enthusiasm. He had brought his smoker with him and apparently was doing a smoked BBQ beef brisket for everyone.  I had further opportunity to speak with  him in the office, whether I get the position or not, we certainly seem to be clicking.

Walmart is just 2 miles down the road from here - if we can get over here in time to hit the 8:00pm sale.  If not, no biggies.

Well whatever, it's getting late.  We arrived late and it's now way past my bedtime - 11:00 pm, lol.

ben

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