We're losing market share and we need to rectify that our we will have to address our head count.

This is something I heard at work and started pondering today.  They have hired a lot of new people - some of them completely worthless IMO I might add, no work ethic, have to be forced by their bosses to do anything and I just have no use for such people - and now I am wondering, if a head count reduction is initiated, who's going and who's staying.

Here's one thing about corporate America that is true the field over, that I have seen anyway: NO-ONE is irreplaceable.  That's from the head honcho on down to the dude pulling orders out in the yard.  One person might be harder to replace than another, but I have seen this over and over - they don't care.  When management makes up it's mind and they determine who's going out the door, the relevance of the contribution any given individual might have made and is making takes a back seat to other things, such as compensation and benefit and perks.

In other words, you have to wonder if you are going to lose your position to someone who is willing to take it for less money and benefits. They just came along and got rid of a guy who had been there for 17 years.  It was completely out of the blue - though I guess all lay-offs are, sort of - but there was no other indication within the company that they were getting rid of people.  He immediately found another job and something far less stressful, so good on him.

Well I'm not going to dwell to much on that, at least not during my vacation.  Just sitting there, though.
____________________________________________________________
UNBELIEVABLE.

I check my checking account every day.  Rarely do I miss checking it.  Too many thieves in this world, not to mention the fact of bank errors - hardly ever but it happens - and then checking to see if everything I have paid out has been deducted.  Which it hasn't - I gave my son a check over a week ago for my contribution towards his Hawaii Revolution and it hasn't been cashed yet. I do not like having checks floating around, but that has nothing to do with this and I consider it petty compared to what is going on here.

So, I am in there today, looking at a $155 Reverse Credit.  I knew exactly what this was as soon as I saw it - the dude in the Philippines that stole my money by somehow getting my debit card number and using it to send himself 2 Western Union (the preferred bank of thieves) checks in the amount of $155 each.  I immediately called the bank, as far as I knew, this situation was ended.  Heck, this happened on April 16th and it's now June 3rd?!!!  I only know the date cause' I posted my original entry with Western Union Fraud to make sure I could find it again in case I needed information from it.

I get a lady on the phone of whom I knew was going to be no use to me before I even dialed the number. Management, please.  I get connected to the claims department.    I get to talking with this man, asking him his title within the company, quickly became apparent he's just another incoming call operator for a different department.  I let him attempt to "fix" this situation - which he did not and told me that it would take at least 3 days before they hear back from Visa whether my "claim" is going to be accepted or not.

BUNK.  YOUR manager, please and right NOW.  I was on hold long enough to sit down, look up Chase Bank corporate number on Hoover's (if you ever want to find a corporate phone number, this is the place to go to!), call them, talk to someone including giving my name and what my issue is, get connected to the "executive department" or whatever they called it and have a long discussion with the lady on the phone.  This manager finally gets on the phone but I was in a discussion with this lady at this point.  I simply informed the man that he could wait 15 minutes just like I had to for him.

He started in on something, I put that phone away from my ear. I could hear him going on and on for a while while I was discussing this situation with this lady at corporate.  I put both phones up to my mouth while talking to the lady at some point - the man had no clue I was not talking to him.  Absolutely amazing.  I finally got done with the lady and then put that other phone back up to my ear.

I wasn't taking no for an answer.  This is their business and as far as I'm concerned, this is part of the risk they take, NOT me.  I have talked to several individuals that have gone through similar experiences whose banks just reimbursed them the money regardless of the outcome of any disputes with Visa or whoever. Visa must have a Pentagon sized building full of employees to deal with this kind of thing.  I did NOT give that guy my debit card number and according to the second person I talked to today, Visa stated that Western Union "confirmed" that I had given both my debit card number and my email address for verification.

Email address? THAT is a verification?  As if someone's email address is something hard to get like a social security number?!!!!  Another UNBELIEVABLE coming your way.

Okay. Well whatever.  The conversation turned a bit sour because I was already heated up: I had already been assured some month and a half ago that this situation, regardless of what happens with the bank and it's dealings with this situation, I wouldn't be losing my money. I distinctly remember the man telling me after I asked: NO.  My question? Since your bank hasn't paid Western Union yet, are you going to?

I also questioned them on why they would simply take that money out of my account without ANY kind of notification.  No email; no text; no snail mail.  Just eat it, buddy.  I don't just eat things, especially with thieves stealing from my account and banks that should just eat it. Here's another interesting factor acquired from today's conversations: Western Union was only disputing one of the charges, even though there were 2 for the exact same amount coming from the same person picked up at the same store at the same time.  The manager I was speaking to found that odd.  I didn't care, to be honest, I was just going to remain on the line until my money was refunded or he hung up on me.  Screw corporate, I have this guy now, let's get this over with.

This went on for quite a while until he gave me his "solution": he was going to resubmit a claim to Visa.  I couldn't have cared less. Submit all the claims you want, hope you win, but I want my freaking money back, right now, today! I don't care what you are going to do about it with Visa, this is NOT my problem!!
Finally, the man succumbed.  "I am going to credit that money back to your account".  Great, I replied, and then in 4 days, if Visa denies the claim, I am screwed again?  "No, he replies, this is a permanent credit to your account".

Full name, spell it out please letter by letter and a confirmation number, thanks.  That was, finally, it after a long conversation with this individual.

Welcome to vacation.  Here I was, about to go outside and deal with the pond filters I was supposed to do yesterday.  This has been a couple of hours now in terms of phone calls.  I cannot believe Western Union can just get away with all of this nonsense.  As far as I"m concerned, if legally possible, banks should just refuse to do any business with them at all.  Let them know that they will not honor any credits to anyone's account and let it be done.  But that's just me.

1 pond filter done.  Think I'll let the other go until tomorrow.

G'day

ben

Finally )(*&(&_)(*&^(%^__*(*(*)&*)&) - almost - done

The blooming thing was pissing me off yesterday.  All the things I knew to do to find the reformat the computer option were ending up with nothing.  After trying endlessly, I finally went online.  Guess I should have done that in the first place, but I didn't think they would make it so blooming difficult to find how to format the partition.  Well, turns out, Windows 7 has a program that you access IN Windows.  I've never seen or heard of that before - but will certainly remember it the next time I have to do this.

Well whatever.  After I finally figured that out, I then moved on with fresh installation.  It was after getting fresh Windows 7 on my computer that I remembered that I would need the ASUS CD - for the ASUS motherboard - to get the network adapter.  Well, I keep all my CD's in one of 2 places so they are easily findable.

I spent 2 hours looking for that blooming CD. I finally gave up and just got on my laptop to get my stuff done online and then went to bed.  Enough exasperation for one day, but I was laying there thinking gee, I'm going to spend my whole vacation without a working desktop computer.  I got up early this morning - around 5:30 and came out with fresh resolve to find that CD. I do NOT throw away software CD's, it's simply something I don't do.  I went through every freaking drawer and couldn't find it.

I sat down and thought about it for a while.  I must have put it somewhere safe so it wouldn't get scratched up and destroyed.  I saw a pile of CD's that I thought were blanks.  Picked the whole pile up and sure enough: ASUS software CD, happily packed inside one of those cases for safekeeping. Dumb me.  I did find the video driver disc, another thing I would have to have and installed that.  Well, got all that done and then started the process of installing everything else.  Lots of "everything else" that you have to do once you get online.  Avast; Spybot; Glary Utilities first up at bats.  Spy and malware protection plus a utility to easily clean up your hard drive without having to click on a bunch of stuff - that would be Glary, it's free and it works swimmingly well.

Now?  I am processing a whitelist on Spybot.   Spybot just blocked me from going to a site that I have been on before that it says has "malicious" software awaiting me.  Realllllly?  Well that's interesting.  I don't know if I had an old version of Spybot on before or what, cause' it never blocked me from going there before.  It gave me the option of continuing on, which I just clicked off.  Perhaps that is where I was getting the problems from.

Well, there it is. Problems I was having with my computer that I could not fix are now gone.  How those problems arose, I have no idea.  Some of it was very annoying, especially this thing where I would start to type and nothing would happen.  I would have to keep typing for a while before it would start to show up on the screen.  If nothing else good came out of this, THAT in ITSELF was worth all this trouble.

Mark just walked in complaining about the heat and said it's 103 degrees outside already.  I had serious doubts of that, it cooled down pretty good last night and it's only 9:40 am, probably not heating up that fast this early. It's only 93 degrees outside but looking at today's forecast? WOW!! 109 forecast high temp!! YIKES!

I was about to have several herds of cows when I went to my Photobucket account and could not find all those pics I uploaded yesterday anywhere on there.  Click click click click until I found a file named "BEN-PC".  Yes!! Safely stored on Photobucket, all the pics I really wanted to save - quite a few of them actually - very relieved.  Eveyone was telling me to just use an external hard drive. Well, if any of my files are infected, then it will just be transferred to that hard-drive and then back to my fresh copy of Windows and then back to square 1!  No thanks.

I'm taking a break from church today.  I just plain didn't feel like going, which is hardly a good excuse, I guess, but it's my excuse regardless.  And no, I'm not taking a "vacation from God".

Anyway, now that I have this thing up and running - maybe a few minor quirks to deal with but otherwise good to go - I'm going to go outside and get some stuff done just before the melting, 109 heat comes here and then?  I won't be going outside to do ANYTHING!

G'day.

ben

Uploading........uploading........uploading.............

I was going to start backing up my files - when was it last week sometime? - and got sidetracked with whatever took my attention away from the task - an arduous one at that - at hand. The task is to save whatever files and photos I want to save, cause' honey, this copy of Windows 7 is going to be ejected into cyberspace and I won't ever want to see it again.

Well, mostly what I want to save are the hundreds of pictures I have taken over the last couple of years and definitely the Christmas some 3 years ago where everyone was over at my house.  It was one of the best Christmas's that I can remember in recent times.  Not because it was at my house, just because for some odd reason, everyone was happy, no-one was fighting and there were a lot of people over here creating a noisy atmosphere and one where the "awkward silent moments" never even occurred.  It helped that I had cooked a ham and a Standing Rib Roast, of which the ham was hardly touched and the roast almost completely disappeared.  Considering it was a 16 pound roast, yes that was incredible.

Well anyway, Photobucket has this neat new option - well I don't know how new it is, I haven't been on my Photobucket account in a while - to upload entire folders at the click of a button.  Instead of the old method of having to select each photo, individually, you just upload the entire album regardless of how many photos are in it.  I also did not know Photobucket also allows to upload videos, so I am doing that as well.  I have 800 plus photos uploading right now.  Yup, it's going to be quite a while.  But I'm done, I don't have to do any more clicking, I just have to wait it out.  Once those are done, I am going to go through my files and save whichever I want to save.  Usually, that just means copying and pasting into an email.  That shouldn't take long as I don't believe I have that many files that I need to keep.

So there.  In the next couple of days, I do hope to have this all done and have formatted the computer hard drive and then re-installed Windows 7.  This file saving was the thing that was holding me back from wanting to do this "project", if you want to call it that. As many bug finders and spyware scans as I have done, I did find a Trojan Horse through the use of Glary Utilities - which I thought strange that neither Avast nor Spybot found - got rid of that but I still don't think my computer is cleared.  I have been wanting to do this for a while now, I can only say that I have finally started and hopefully soon enough I can report back on here how my new operating system is functioning.

Ummm, but this software uploading these photos? Consuming a large amount of my computer's resources, so no "heavy-lifting" online until it's done.

Well whatever.  Lynnette just walked by - in a very bad mood.  I said good morning to her and she just mumbled something unintelligible.  She goes through some serious mood swings at time.  The things she is confronted with in life are not enviable, to say the least.  But it dawned on me that it is the beginning of the month and they are probably out of food or very low on it.  In fact, I know so because George told me they were eating whatever scraps they could find out of their collection.  Ummm, yeah.  I don't know about the rest of her situation, but I will help with the food portion of it.  I'll go get some Chinese today from a place whose food they absolutely love.  Buy it by the pound, I usually get about 5 of those large, styrofoam containers of it - around $25 worth.  It's a lot of food and can last a couple of days.

I'd go right now, but it's not even 8am and that place doesn't open until 11am.  I like to get there shortly after they open because all the buffet tables are filled with food and there is no waiting for them to bring out replenishment food.  I pretty much clean them out on certain dishes when I go in there.  The guy that runs the place recognizes me now when I walk in and he immediately goes and gets his microphone and starts blaring out directives - in Chinese I am guessing since it's a Chinese food restaurant but who knows for sure, lol.  That microphone broadcasts through speakers in the kitchen.  Interesting setup they have, but it seems to work for them.

Okay, the first file is almost done, lol.  I am uploading out of something like 20 files, ha!  This computer has slowed down in recent times to the point that whatever is causing it, it must go.  I can't wait to get this all done.

Goodness gracious, this file uploading is causing this thing to not even want to access the simplest of sites to get onto, such as craigslist or Ebay.  Time to get out the laptop.
________________________________
Long interlude.  Took George up to Fry's to get groceries.  He can't drive and his girlfriend - who lives about 35 miles or more from here - is laid up in bed and has been for 3 weeks now.  Pics are still uploading.  Dogs were frying out there.  Lol.  Well, they have plenty of cool water and shade is all I can say about that, they are in the house when I'm home.  It's getting warm/hot.

The grass killer I used the other day - which seemed to have done nothing initially - is slowly working.  Apparently it takes a while.  The grass is slowly turning brown while, thankfully and so far, the plants that they are surrounding/invading are not visibly affected.  Time will tell, but if the stuff works without killing plants, I will be using a lot more of it out front.

Well enough for one entry.

ben

Okay, so I was going through a series of pics posted online and got to one with Hershey's Chocolate Syrup - you know, the stuff that is used to make chocolate milk? This particular bottle says +Calcium at the top above it's name.  A close up of the ingredients label shows 0% calcium, lol.

Whatever.  8 hours of work and then vacation.  This work week has really dragged, like sucking badly dragging.  This is the end of the month and our numbers are wayyyyy down.

Whatever.  Work will be the last thing on my mind - actually, I will let it escape my mind almost entirely - for the next 9 days after I get out of there today.  I did order some CB antennas for the new truck, found a smoking deal for them on Ebay and they should be here any day now.  I may go there on my own time after hours and install those antennas myself and save myself the installation fee.  It will mean taking apart numerous things in side that truck and probably a couple hours worth.

Received the title to my car yesterday in the mail.  That was it.  No 'thank you for being our customer" type of thing from Wells Fargo, the bank I love to hate, just the title and that was it.  Not that I minded getting the title, just an observation.  It won't be long and all kinds of offers will start pouring in from local dealerships.  I don't know how they get that information, perhaps the bank sells it, but I know that when you pay off a car, you start getting offers of "highest trade in allowance", yada yada.

I don't trade in vehicles, car dealers are thieves, you will lose that vehicle and any amount it was worth in their sneaky deals.  I have no intention of getting a new or used vehicle in the near future unless the car takes a dive.  Even if it does, cheaper to fix it even if a new tranny or something than to buy a new vehicle.  I am putting my faith and hope out there that I have a LOT more miles left on that vehicle.  Maybe some repairs here and there, well and fine, but right now, I do NOT want to get into another vehicle payment, especially during the hot summer months when my electric bill skyrockets and it's all I could do in the last 5 years to make all the payments and cover electricity bill.

So there.  For whatever unexplained reason, my auto insurance premium has come down yet another $25 per month without my asking for it.  That's 2 cars and 2 drivers, one car has full coverage and one driver is under the age of 25.  That's a pretty good rate for that kind of baggage. I'll take whatever savings I can get.  It will be the first month that I won't have to fork out a car payment in a long, looooong, looooooooooong time and that will feel pretty good.

Not to mention a little later on this year, my contract with Verizon will be toast and I am considering moving to a different company for internet service.  They can't be any worse than the trouble I"ve had with Verizon.  That device doesn't work some of the time and to call Verizon is like calling a dead horse in the middle of a desert without a phone.  I tried that once and decided I wasn't up for that challenge.  Yet.  I did get a new hotspot out of it and the service worked MUCH better after getting it, but still.

Anyway, time to head to work.

G'day.

ben

Countdown to vacation: 2 full work days, including today.
Though "full" is hardly a good description of work in the last several weeks.
More like "boring".  There is only so much cleaning and fill-in-the-gap type of work you can do before you -
have nothing left to do.
And so it has, or has been anyway.
It very well could change next month, who knows.  Contractors usually start up new projects at the beginning of a month, in terms of ordering large amounts of materials.

I have not heard back from my dad, apparently he doesn't want discuss his situation further with me. All well and fine, but the "boy who cried wolf" sympathies are going to start to disappear.  I will support him, of course, in whatever he may be going through, but reacting to the thought of "my dad's out on the streets" will not occur again unless it actually goes ON for a few days, at least.  Which I am sure it will - her kicking him out again.  I still don't understand a person that would want to remain in a relationship where the other half has asked you to leave "hundreds" of times, but again, that is not really my business.

I have no idea how much Caleb has raised - if anything beyond what I have given him - for his stint in Hawaii.  I haven't asked him yet, either.  I don't feel it my place to badger him about it, he has to have his own faith in God for the Lord to come through.  I have given 10% towards it - which is about all I could afford anyway - and that's my involvement with it besides praying and believing along with him that the entire $3,500 will, in whatever way, come through.  He has sent out a mass of letters all over the place, what the fruit of that labor is, yet to be determined.  In reality, he probably could have just gone and gotten a job somewhere and acquired that money in the next couple of months, but he is going to the Salvation Army youth camp instead.  They do pay him for that endeavor, I have no idea how much.  I also have no idea whether he is planning on saving that money or not - he doesn't really need money up there, they cover his place to sleep and all meals.  But, having the kind of discipline it takes to not spend money is another matter entirely.

Whatever the case, another work day en-queue.  I can only hope there is enough in the system to keep me busy for 8 hours - definitely no OT in these days until work picks back up again (and frankly, since vacation is 2 days off, I won't care if there IS no OT in the next 2 work periods).

G'day.

ben

Wednesday.  Can hardly say work week is "flying" by considering we have very little to do.  The days start out with deliveries but peter out by the end.  Meaning 8 hours only and that's that.

OH well - and really glad I decided to take off time when I did. 3 more work days including today and I get my week off.

Just gotta get there!

No stunning revelations in this entry, just lamenting about work and the lack of it.  Oh, well I am still doing pushups and still doing some bench pressing and stuff.  Nothing too intense, just not wanting my body to turn into a giant blob of goo.

That is something that really concerns me as I see my friends and co-workers age - people near my age - and getting considerably heavier as the years pile up behind us.  It's so easy to let your body go and just not work out.  The next thing you know, you are wearing size 40 pants or larger and having to go to those big and tall men stores to cloth yourself.

No thanks.  If at all possible, going to try to remain at least somewhat fit and the only way I know of to do that is to work out.  My work outs will continue to grow in duration and intensity as I get back into it.

Anyway, time to be off to work.

ben

So, Tuesday's Monday.
Just plain tired, woke up in the middle of the night and it took a couple of hours to get back to sleep.
Nothing new there.  Perhaps my vacation should just be to get out of Dodge and find a place to kick back, sleep, rest, do nothing.  Preferably out of the house.  Perhaps something different than the mountain retreat.  Though it is nice up there and I have the bedroom in the thing fitted with an extremely comfortable queen sized bed mattress.

This is going to be one of those decide-when-the-time-gets-here type of things.  The real point of the vacation is to simply not have to go to work for a week, what I don't or don't do are fairly irrelevant.

As for my dad's situation, he wrote back and said that during the day she kicked him out, he had gone around looking for a home to rent.  He was then eating at a grill somewhere when she - his wife - called him up and asked him to come home. She has done this literally "hundreds" of time, according to my dad.

So, he went "home".  Personally, I wouldn't call it home where a woman feels it prudent to throw her husband out on a whim's notice whenever - whatever happens - happens - and she decides she doesn't want anything to do with him anymore.  And nothing makes up for her son intervening in this situation - in a very bad way IMO - and telling my dad it's time for him to leave. That guy can go piss off.  A statement I would love to tell that man to his face.

Whatever.  Just ranting here, if my dad voluntarily continues to subject himself to this kind of treatment, there isn't anything that I can say or do that will help this situation, he's made his choices and that's that. I have no doubt, however, that some time in the future and probably near future, he will be writing once again to everyone that he's been kicked out.

Rancid sales this month.  At work that is.  I mean, really low, to the point that OT is pretty much non-existent.  2:00 - 2:30 comes around and I'm off the clock.  That is, however, better than the 3 plus years I was required to get off the clock after only 7 hours of work at 1:00 - 1:30.  Hopefully sales will pick back up and we can "go to work" again and get at least 10 hours of OT on each paycheck.  It helps immensely.

Pissed.
That's my mind at the moment.
I got into the email account that has mostly family stuff going on with it to find an email from my Uncle in Florida.
In that email were the emails previous to it.  A LONG series of emails between my dad and his brothers, sisters and whoever else that is on his list.

Reading through all of it, I find out his "wife" has told him to leave once again.  At this point, this is not shocking news.  I have heard this several times now and personally, I wonder why he has stuck around this long.  But, everyone has different ways of dealing with things.  I already went through a bad enough marriage, I would definitely not be sticking around for another one if it went that direction and it became obvious over time that nothing was going to heal it.

What got me flaming, however, is the fact that this woman brought one of her sons down for the 3 day weekend to effectively help her throw him out.  In one of my dad's emails, I read that she and her son - Rod - were having a loud discussion in the living room about "how bad and awful a husband he is".  Right there, while my dad is just in the next room.  Then this guy has the balls to come up to my dad - 86 years old - and "inform" him of what is happening here: you are being thrown out. The dude is in his early 50's.

I cannot convey the seething anger that crept into me after reading all of this.  What business does that guy have sticking his nose into that situation? What kind of woman would bring her offspring in to do her dirty work for her?  This is Arizona, she can't legally just throw him out, the house is community property.  He can agree to do so if he wants, but these people are just giving him the shaft and he will like it, apparently, at least according to them.

I wrote my dad and told him I would be more than happy to come down there and help "mitigate" this situation.  If he wants to allow himself to be trampled on, then be my guest.  If he wants help, I'm all over it.  He NEEDS to get out of there, IMO, just the way they are doing it is what is really grinding me.  I can pretty much say that a part of my vacation coming up is going to be spent down there helping my dad do whatever needs to be done.  He has some sort of realty professional driving him around to help him find a place to live.

It's probably a good idea if I don't get involved with what is going on in that house at the moment, I don't really know if I will be able to contain my emotions in such a situation.  If it were just her and him going at it and that's it, that's one thing. I just cannot believe the audacity of bringing one's own son in  to literally throw an old man out on the street.  If my parents ever asked me to do such a thing, I would absolutely refuse unless it was an extremely abusive situation and even then, I would be very hesitant.  I know my dad, he is on the complete opposite end of the "abuse" scale.  He is a lifelong Methodist minister, he is well known in the area he lives for his charity work and his giving nature.

Whatever.  He hasn't written me back and the tones I had in my email to him probably weren't of such that he would be interested in the "mitigation" help anyway.  But, after he finds a place I can help him get settled in and do whatever needs to be done to get the place livable.

And hopefully after getting some time behind me, I can get beyond my own anger and just let it go.  It's my family, my kin, that's all, I just can't stand to see such things happening to people, much more to my own dad.

_________________________________

That's it, for that.  Just needed to write it out and get it out of me.  I can't allow myself to cave into near-barbaric desires to do things that are not a part of a civilized society, not that I would anyway, but just have to deal with the turmoil that occurs within.  We are all guilty at some point in our lives of treating others in ways we probably shouldn't have, so it is in this situation.  I can only offer my dad help if he wants it and that's that.

I started this yesterday and didn't finish it, just posting it and then a new one.

No work tomorrow, then a 4 day work week, then start 9 days off of work.

That's what I'm talking about.

I have not done anything with my front pond in terms of restocking it with fish since whatever happened last summer that caused all the fish in it to die, sans the mosquito eaters which apparently can live through just about anything.  The pump died in that pond but I felt no need to replace it since there are no fish in it besides the mosquito eaters and since there ARE mosquito eaters in there, the water won't become a festering grounds for mosquitoes.

Which it hasn't.  It doesn't smell bad, either, but that's probably because I have to refill it frequently.  It goes down a couple inches, fill it back up.  But I decided it was time to get a new pump for it and then decide whether to put fish back into it - or not.  Figure to look on Craigslist and start perusing for ponds shutting down.  People either give the fish away or sell them very cheap.

What am I going to do with 9 days off?  I haven't decided.  I am still weighing a trip to LV with all the freebies I can get - or waiting until August when it is planned.  I dunno.  Tough decision.  I will undoubtedly spend a few days up north at mom's property.  She won't be there, apparently it's cold and windy up there and has been cold and windy up there since she got up there.  I called her today - wanted her to take alookit the sky - Mercury, Jupiter and Comet all aligned in a triangle formation low in the western sky, pretty cool looking and they say will be a long time before you can see that again. I dunno, it might be visible again tomorrow evening as well.

I don't mind the cold, she does.  She has to come back and get the roof on her house in Sun City replaced so I will have the place to myself  - though she is leaving me a "to-do" list while I am up there, lol.

I believe I will be going to pastor's house tomorrow where everyone has been invited to come and have Memorial Day BBQ. I have read some scathing rebukes from people who are against having BBQ's on Memorial Day, attempting to state that it defeats the purpose of the day.  Give me a break.  You can be rest assured that if I go to this BBQ, I will be bringing up the subject of past wars and the sacrifices that have been made.  There is nothing better I can think of than a group of people coming together for a celebration of the lives that our fallen-war heroes who gave it all for the freedoms we enjoy. This is not something I take lightly and for someone to pass a blanket-judgement?  Well, I can only say that I have also been guilty of such concerning other things and I was probably off on those occasions as much as these people are off on this issue.

Programmable Thermostat

Can I just say before delving into this subject, that it really sucks losing your keen eyesight to age and being forced to wear reading glasses to read any form of fine print?  I thought so.

Cause' the instructions that came with this thermostat?  About 6 point print. I couldn't read a word of it.  All a blur to me.  A year ago I could read that, now it's just a done deal.  I know, it's a part of growing older, who cares, that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Well it turns out the instruction book that I have is in Spanish. I know some Spanish, yes, but there is no way I am going to attempt to figure out something like this in a language that I don't know that well.  Fortunately for me, there are 2 pages in English easily found online from the company that manufactures it.

However, the instruction manual? Ridiculous.  Horrendous.  I don't know where they get these people from that write up these manuals.  Outer Space would be giving them too much.  Aliens from another planet would be complementing them.  Sludge from the bottom of the ocean would be giving them more credit and intelligence allowance than due.

I read, then re-read, then tried it, then sat down and re-read, until I finally just got on the thermostat panel and experimented until I got it.  Screw the manual.  The thing is set up into 4 time zones during the day: morning, day, evening and night.  I did not set them all the same.  I want it cool at night, I don't care in the morning or daytime during the work week and in the evening a mix between the night setting and the rest of them.  So, 78, 77 and 76 are my temp ranges and yes, this will save me money during the summer months.

_____________________________________________________

The people the next street over are back at it again.  Playing music so loud, you'd think I had a stereo set up in my back yard.  This time, however, I was not going to let it go.  I called the non-emergency number of the Phoenix Police department and - well anyway. I asked to speak to the sargeant in my district - whoever that is - and apparently several of them so who knows which one you are going to speak to - and got a very unbelievably rude person that continued to interrupt me several times over - and no, I did NOT interrupt her.

After enough of it, I just asked for her supervisor - yet another contentious person who was also prone to interrupting and asking why I called even though I had told her several times over - and then got the head of that department's name.  This situation is not going to continue on without some kind of input to the person that is over all of this.

Anyway, a sergeant did eventually call me and at the same time the sergeant called me, Phoenix Police showed up.  I pointed to the next street over and asked them to go over there where the source of the noise is coming from.  While on the phone with the sergeant about the last time I called - several times over an 8 or 9 hour period starting on the evening of May 4th going on until well into daylight of May 5th - I asked him why, exactly, the police didn't do more than simply ask them to turn it down after the second or third visit there?

This went on and on, but I will say that while I was on the phone, the music was either turned completely off or turned down so low that I couldn't hear it, thanks to them going over there.  We ended this call - I was being polite to the man and respectful, I mean, one of their own was just killed the other day in a hit and run situation - which doesn't mean I wouldn't be polite and respectful anyway, I understand they have a stressful job - with him promising to call me back tomorrow afternoon and if they turn the music back up after the police leave, to make sure and call again.

Of course.  If I can't sleep because of someone else's noise, I'm going to call. We don't have a HOA here - there ARE advantages to having them and this kind of situation would be one of them - so the only recourse, legally anyway, is to call the police.

Enough.

Memorial Day Weekend

So, let's not forget the reason why we have this paid holiday off on Monday: to remember our fallen war heroes that served our nation's military so that the American public can enjoy the great freedoms that we have today.  My gratitude and thanks to every one of those individuals, to those who fought and survived and are still with us and to those who are in active military status, regardless of where you are or what you are doing.

Without them, this nation could well be an annexation of Germany or the great state of Japan.  Of course there were many other wars and one that is still on-going, but those 2 were the biggest game-changers in American history, sans the Civil War.  Hats off to all of our military personnel, everywhere, whether in the grave or still with us and to those families that have had to endure such great hardship in the face of a loved one that will never come home or for those that are out somewhere in this world.  Your sacrifices will never be forgotten.

________________________________________________________

Just wanted to get that out  there.  I can't even imagine what this world would be like right now if Hitler had managed to pull it all off or if Japan would have won.

As for this weekend, I have absolutely no plans, whatsoever. I have spent all the money that I intended to spend with that loan and now am down to around what I figured I would have left over after doing all of that.  Money well spent, as far as I'm concerned and at least enough of a cushion to deal with come-what-may - hopefully nothing will come what may but who knows.

Well, when I say no plans I suppose that's not entirely true.  I just have no grand plans.  I am probably taking my son out to see Star Trek today, that if he doesn't get involved with something else.  I am definitely going to Home Depot to buy either Ornamec or Grass B Gone - 2 products that allegedly kill grass without killing everything else around it.  I am really tired of pulling grass and just having it grow back. Or even watering the areas until they are muddy and digging well down, getting roots and STILL have that stuff grow back.  This is one more trick in the arsenal to try. The other trick I am already actively pursuing, but it will be a long time before those ground covering plants will take over all the area that needs it covered. Those plants grow so dense that grass cannot grow up through it.

I am guessing some war movies on some channel on TV, might watch one or two of those.  Hopefully some of the classics will be showing.

___________________

Trip to Home Depot completed and initial application of grass killer executed.  Applied around plants that if killed, are not mature plants and be replaced without great loss.  So, come what may, we'll see what happens.  If it kills the grass and it's roots, mission accomplished.  If it doesn't kill the shrubs and flowering plants as the bottle directions say it won't, mission success.

My Queensland Bottle Tree has taken a new twist.  Instead of a straight up trunk, it has now sent out multiple stems in angled-up direction with multiple leaves on each stem.  I am watering it every day in hopes to see some increased growth this summer growing season.

That's it.  I have accomplished some, but not that much today but then again, I didn't set out to much of anything today.  I'm only 5 work days away from a full week off from work. Well, make that 9 full days counting 2 weekends.  : )

Francis And Sons Car Wash Company - Steer Clear!!

There is nothing like posting a review of a company on a blog that any Google search will find, so here it is:

"I'll just be blunt here: Francis & Sons car wash near Arizona Avenue and Ray road totally sucks.  I took a company vehicle in there to get it washed and get the interior cleaned, they wanted $30 for it.  Okay.  I specifically asked if they were going to clean the inside of the vehicle to which the supervisor said yes.  While waiting for them to get done with it, I asked them about getting the interior of my car detailed - $119 for full service interior detail, but they gave it to me for $100 pre-pay (I would not be bringing it back until the next day).  Well, when I went to get the company pickup after they said it was done, the markings they put on the windows were still on it.  I looked inside the truck and they had done NOTHING to it.  I asked the guy that was "cleaning" it and he said that would have to be an interior detail.  No, I said, they told me it was going to be cleaned at least.  He just shrugged his shoulders and walked off.

The next day, I bring my car in to leave there for the day while I am at work.  They sell me the exterior detail package for half the posted price.  Call me a sucker, but the exterior was in needing of a good buffing and wax job as well.  Just paid the car off and wanted to get it looking nice again.  I come back some 8 hours later, they pull the car up and I started looking at it.  The road tar was still all over the bottom of the bottom portions of the car on both sides of it. There were places on the paint where you could see they missed the wax or "sealant" as they called it.  I brought this to the guy's attention who started to try and clean the tar off.

At this point, I am starting to get pissed.  What kind of place charges $175 for a total interior and exterior detail and doesn't even get the freaking tar off the paint?!!  I mean, in terms of complete details, it's a good price compared with most other places, but if it doesn't look any or much different than when you took it in there, it isn't worthy ANYTHING.  These people could have cared less.  A crew of employees that are about as interested in making the customer happy as a detonated nuclear bomb is about keeping people alive.  The attitudes were outrageous.  I called for a manager.  I showed him spot after spot after spot of tar and asked him what, exactly, they had done to my vehicle - besides giving it a run through the car wash.  I point to a huge tar spot and he attempts to claim it was "scratches in the paint".  BULLSHIT!!! was my unreserved reply (sorry for the French, but this place utterly pissed me off and I at least will have my say on a forum such s this one and hope that others are spared the grief of spending money at a place that does NOT deserve to be in business). I'm sorry sir, let me take the car and we will buff it  out "again".  Yeah, right dude, as if you buffed it out the first time.

I waited another hour.  I sat down inside and an elderly couple came in and sat down next to me, we got into a conversation about this place.  The lady stated that the level of customer service and quality had gone down considerably over time. Yeah, I don't know how they did in the past, I can tell you that right now, this place has serious issues.

Well, this guy comes back in and I go out to inspect the car. The "scratches" that that idiot had pointed out before were gone.  Gee, didn't know you could buff out such huge scratches - cause' they weren't scratches at all!  There was STILL an area on the hood where it was clearly obvious they had not applied the sealant.  I gave up.  Live and learn.  The place is a rotten, the employees could care less, they are going to charge you for services that they do not perform.  The only reason I got anything done is because I got mad and got right in that "manager's" face.  All the tar was removed on the second time around, but..............

I just left.  After inspecting the interior of my vehicle - they did a great job on the carpet cleaning, they did an okay job on the leather seats but they reeked on everything else.  Spots where they had missed applying Armor All.  Places where dirt had not been removed.  Remember, I paid $100 for this interior service of theirs.  This was a treat for my car that will only happen once in a while, the rest of the time I take it to self serve car washes and use the vacuums there.

As another review stated, this place does not deserve one star.  In fact, they do not deserve to be in business at all.  I will never, ever go to a Francis & Son's car wash ANYWHERE ever again.  I will take my chances else where or better yet, I'll just go buy my own buffer and all the rest of it and do it myself."

Sitting at a Freightliner - mega whatever place - it's huge.  They delivered us a truck that was not DOT fit for the road and I demanded that they install the items that would make it so.  Whoever heard of getting a brand new semi-truck delivered to your yard and the thing not being DOT compliant?  Ridiculous.  They tried to give me trouble on it at first, but I was having none of it and told them if they didn't fix it, for free, I would be contacting ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) and filing a complaint against them for having a tech that would certify a truck as road ready - that isn't road ready.

That changed their tune in a quick hurry, as it should.  Actually, I shouldn't have even had to say that, an outrageous "oversight" that should have been just, yes,sir, we will take care of it.  I even had to demand that it done be free of charge, they were going to charge us for work that should have already been completed!

Here's the point: If I get pulled over for a road-side inspection with a truck that has issues, such as the fire extinguisher not being mounted to the floor (one of the issues here), the DOT inspector can issue any of 3 things: a ticket, a warning or a fix-it ticket.  This is why I get excited about things like this.   Anyway, they are doing it right now as I type this, so hopefully good to go soon enough.

My son turns 20 tomorrow! UNBELIEVABLE!  Just amazing.  Time flies, but this is a bit much.  Your offspring hits the 20 ticker and you might as well classify your self as in grandpa stage, lol.  But it's very cool, actually, and he's a very, very good kid.  I'm very proud that he survived his High School years without getting into all the sex and drugs that are so prevalent now.  But, they were even more prevalent when I was in High School - and I can hardly say I came out of that era unscathed.

On the cusp of a 3-day weekend.  A few more hours of work today and then a full day tomorrow and then - 3 days off.  Because it's my son's birthday I am not going to go out of town.  He stated he wants to go see Star Trek on Saturday and by golly, I'm gonna be here to do that with him.  I can go out of town the beginning of next month.

Mark was in an accident on his motorized bicycle that basically destroyed the thing.  A woman driving a car cut him off and from his description of it, it was clearly her fault but it was also a hit-and-run type of thing.  What are you going to do. I fronted him the money to buy a new bike and he's busy taking the motor off the old one and attempting to install it on the new one.  He has cuts, bruises and scratches all over the place, not a pleasant experience.

But I already hate driving in the Phoenix area with all the distracted drivers who are paying literally no attention to the road, at all, for spurts of time while they peruse their stupid Smart Phones.  He's lucky he wasn't killed.  Car against bicycle? We all know how that turns out.

After everything that I am doing, I am only going to have around $2,500 left from the loan.  But, these were all things that needed to be done, excepting the car.  I spent $100 yesterday in a pay-in-advance thing to have it detailed at a car wash.  It's pretty dirty inside with all the dogs in and out of it over time.  I'm hoping they can get it nice and clean and smelling good in there again. They are also going to wash and buff out the paint on the exterior.  I thought it a fitting way to walk into an era - however long it lasts - without having to make a car payment every month.  Since the car is 9 years old, I am seriously considering reducing to minimum liability coverage.  It's worth about 4 and a half grand now if I were to sell it privately, I don't remember what the blue book said about trading it in.  I usually do not trade in vehicles as they usually find ways to rip you off.  Whatever they "give" you, they take back somewhere else.   To me, it's like you're just giving your car to them for nothing.

Anyway, I intend on keeping that money set aside for any emergencies.  The worst thing (hopefully the worst anyway) that could happen right now is the AC going out with that going-bad fan motor that I have not had time to deal with yet.  If it came down to it, yes, I would spend the $800 to have it fixed as we are heading into one of the hottest months of the year. I'm just hopeful it won't go out until I can get a new motor and get it over there and then probably find someone to install it for me.  If my neighbor behind me weren't warring with me, I would ask him to do it since that's his line of business, but I'll have to revert to Craigslist  to find someone doing that kind of job on the side.

Anyway, battery running low on my laptop, gotta get this input and get offa here.
ben

So, I started to back up my files yesterday after I got home from work - NOT.  Instead the AC repairman was waiting there for me when I pulled up into my driveway.  I had called them a week or so ago to schedule an appointment to come and do maintenance on the central AC unit in my house.  I want to know in advance of any problems that might be arising, not find out the hard way.

So, he goes and starts inspecting everything and tells me the coil is full of dirt.  Yes, I know that, that's why I called your company to send you out here to clean it.  I can clean the outside coil - just spray water into it and dislodge the dirt, I don't know how they do the inside one.

Well, he cleans out both of them - and now I know it's just a matter of getting a pump spray bottle and spraying water into them and using  special brush to clean off the fins plus a mixture of some special acid to clean deep inside them - all of which, of course, should be readily available at my company's heating and cooling division - and then proceeded to have him install the new thermostat I had bought.

He informed me that his company said it would cost $105 for the labor to install it.  Well, I was a bit reluctant on that one but I had him do it anyway, it's programmable and I fully intend on learning how to program it and have the AC set in this house automatically to 78 degrees during the daytime whether anyone likes it or not.  If they want it cooler, they can shell out the money to pay for the incremental amount of electricity it costs to keep it exceedingly cool in a large house in the middle of the summer.  That company wanted a whopping $250 to install a new one using one of their units!

The dude found all kinds of problems of which he corrected excepting the biggest problem: the fan motor on the condensor outside is going out.  He knew this because his meter showed it was drawing 10.8 amps instead of the 10.4 it is supposed to be drawing.  He then informed me it would cost $800 to replace it.  8 HUNDRED DOLLARS TO REPLACE A FREAKING FAN MOTOR?  I didn't say that but it certainly went coursing through my mind.  I informed him that he would not be doing that service on my on that nicely warm day and he replied okay, but I have no crystal ball, it could go out in a week, a month, a year, who knows.

Well hopefully I have enough time to get the info off the side of the thing and go buy my own fan motor and install it - myself.  I just got done replacing a fan motor on the roof air on my RV last year.  That was a complicated mess that I was proud of myself for having been able to accomplish.  This unit has four bolts holding it to the fan shroud and undoubtedly a plug in wiring harness.  There is no way I am paying $800 to replace that thing unless it goes out and I have no choice because it will need to be done right away.  This will be consuming my thoughts and my activities for the next few days as I attempt to buy the right one and then figure out how to install the thing.

He also recommended installing a hard-start diode or whatever it's called.  It super charges the system to start it up almost instantaneously versus the slow start up it takes when the system is starting and, subsequently, uses more energy and also puts more strain on the system.  I considered it until he told me over $300 to install it.  Screw that.  I'll figure something else out, such as finding a person that does side work.

Whatever the case, yesterday's endeavors put me back $400.  That's right, a "tune-up" for $400.  That included replacing the thermostat, though, and cleaning the inside coil pack, which was not included in the ad price that I had read (which I did not know at the time, I thought it WAS the coil they were cleaning).  I opted to have it cleaned because it was so filled with dirt, it's a wonder the air was cooling at all.  I now know how to do it, very simple actually, but I needed to see a "pro" doing it first to make sure I wasn't going to be inadvertently killing the system.

And that was that.  He was here almost 3 hours, so at least I feel like I got some "quality time" out of the deal, lol.

I didn't even get started on the computer file backup much less getting formatting the computer and installing Windows, which I can't find anyway. I hid the discs somewhere.  I hid them so well, I have no idea what I did with them!  LOL!!!

Oh well.  I'll find them eventually.  Just have to think about what I would do with them and then start looking in those places.

Off to work.

ben

Well, now that my debit card number has been stolen I figured the end of that kind of trouble.  Instead, I go into my email this morning and find a TOS notice on not 1, but 2 different email accounts.  Someone is going out of their way to mess with me.  I am running anti-virus to find any problems and I changed my passwords, but I think it's really time to think about dumping Windows and reinstalling.  The process includes clearing EVERYTHING off of your computer, both good and bad.  You start with a fresh version of Windows with nothing on it.

It's a pain, but I have this feeling that something is on my computer that doesn't belong there and the reason I feel that is because everything has slowed down considerably.  It is not because my cache and history and all that hasn't been cleaned, either.  Yes, I have defragged, I know all the stuff to do. Windows task manager doesn't really help, especially under services with so much stuff on there, who knows what belongs and what might not.  I have but one recourse that I know will eliminate any problem and that's a fresh install.

Whatta pain.  Gotta back up files and any pics you want to save you have to back up or send to yourself in an email.  Fortunately, I don't have a lot of files that I need to keep, but still.

Yet, I have to wonder who got what from me?  What did any of it say?  Did everyone on my lists get whatever was sent out?  Of course, I have received such junk from others in the past and the only thing that was in the email was a link - who knows where it takes you, I don't click on them.  Probably malware or something.  The whole thing is very disconcerting is all I can say about it.

Interesting: Spybot told me  it found problems but couldn't fix them.  Reallllllly.  What good is the blooming thing then?  Maybe that's part of some malware program - disable the anti-virus somehow.  I wouldn't know, I don't spend my life in an attempt to invade other people's computers and steal persona information.

Whatever.  Had to go straight to my checking account to make sure that wasn't compromised again, either.

Well, anyway, can't wait til' this work week is over.  3 day weekend.  Caleb turns 20 on Friday. TWENTY?!!!  Wow!

Well, fun-time over.

Work.

ben

And so I did. Went to Denny's that is.  It was the only meal of the day, I am sure.  I won't be hungry again until this evening, but I am going with George and his girlfriend to see the new Star Trek movie at the Imax theater at 5 something.  I doubt I will eat any theater food, not a big fan of it.  I was going to go with my son, but he wants to see it next weekend, so .......  I'll go twice, lol.

Denny's was packed with people and the kitchen was having a lot of trouble. I know this because I always sit at the counter.  You get much faster service and they keep your coffee refilled as often as you wish.  I got out my computer and started reading the news, got completely lost in a world of all kinds of stuff going on, including a jetliner that had to do a belly landing.  I've actually seen that happen up close and in person.  A twin-engine Piper Comanche.  The training instructor raised the landing gear just before touch down, intending to force the student to abort the landing, but.......it didn't quite work out that way.

I was treated to a very loud, exaggerated screeching noise and looked up in time to see the thing sliding on the ground.  Extensive damage, of course, including trashed engines by virtue of props that were still spinning on touchdown (and, of course, immediately stopped spinning as soon as the blades hit tarmac and did a lot of damage to that plane!).

Anyway, left there and went and looking at some more plants.  The stuff that died out last year in my front yard has left that entire side of the yard looking quite - barren.  I planted a yellow bell a couple of months ago, but I wanted more.  I finally found out what the tree is called that is growing on my property that wasn't planted, there are now 3 of them.  They're a version of an Acacia tree, desert version.  I asked the lady that was showing me around at the nursery who found the only one that they have.  She at first stated that they don't do well in Arizona.  I didn't buy that story but said nothing to her.  These trees are growing wild on my property, I didn't plant them and the tallest one is around 25 feet tall now.  The one that they had was in a 25 gallon box, but it was a scraggly looking thing and it wasn't even 7 feet tall.  $199 for it.  

Just saying, my wild growing trees are worth something, lol  I found a yellow bell plant - they are nice looking plants with yellow flowers - and I am going to plant it on the east side of my property.  I have enough of those kinds of plants growing over there now that eventually, the view of my neighbor's trashed property will disappear in a see of green and yellow. I wouldn't mind having a tree growing at the northeast end of the property, but I have the brakes on on that until I figure out what I want there.  I would, really, like one of those Acacia's, but I am not paying 200 for a scraggly looking thing. They have other versions of Acacia there, but they don't look as good and I simply don't like them.  So there.

Meanwhile, the feeling of having that car paid off and no more monthly payments is extremely good. It runs quite well, still looks good, has low mileage for a car that's 9 years old - 79,000 - and I don't see the need to have to buy another car for quite a while.  Hopefully.  I have upped my savings quotient - I have automatic transfers from checking to savings once a week - and am also doing a once monthly transfer.  No need to think about it, just done automatically.  This is to take most of that money towards the car payment and save it instead of finding new ways to stupidly spend money.  

Well, time to take a nap.  I don't want to be falling asleep in the theater, though I suspect this movie will have enough action in it to keep me from doing so anyway.  

ben

Woke up at 5 am this morning.  Fell right back asleep.  Woke back up at 6.  Fell back asleep and then didn't wake up until 8am!!  That's like sleeping half the day away for me!  lol  I was so tired by the time I got off work yesterday that there wasn't much energy to do much of anything.  But, uhhh, my appetite is mostly back and I think I am going to go out to have a bite - well make that a lot of bites - to eat something that tastes really good, probably chock full of fat and calories and have fun doing it : )








Wrote the partial entry below yesterday, thought I had posted it!
________________________________________________________________________
Got up this morning - finally started being able to eat again yesterday late afternoon, btw, which helps energy levels immensely - thought about the reason I had taken out the loan, sat down at the computer and proceeded to pay the car off.  I had been mulling the idea as to whether to do it or not - but I decided that much less in payments per month?  Good thing.

I then paid a credit card off that had been closed for a while now.  That company simply went out of business and closed everyone's accounts.  I had it down to $150 anyway, wanted that payment gone as well.  The rest of my credit cards will stay as they are, not paying them all as part of the point of the loan was to have extra cash around for emergency use.  I get a bit nervous if, during the summer, I don't have at least enough extra funds to fix an expensive central AC problem.  I actually did have enough extra funds to cover such an expense - but then there would be absolutely nothing if something like that happened.

Yesterday I paid the mortgage up to current.  I get so sick of Midland Mortgage and the way they treat their customers on the phone.  If you are delinquent on your payment, they go through a spiel that goes on for 20 minutes.  They stop short of asking your blood type, but you get the picture.  They ask you a relentless barge-full of questions that are the same questions, every single month.  Today I stopped the lady short: If I am paying my mortgage up to current, then it is no longer delinquent and I should have to be subjected to this ridiculous tirade of information that your company has informed me about 15 times over.  Blah blah blah.

I would like to speak to your manager, please.  Sure, hang on a minute.  She comes back a few minutes later saying a manager is not available as they are currently "tied up" but she can take my payment.  I refused, saying: No, I am not going to sit here and listen to this annoying speech, I shouldn't have to and when I speak to managers, they don't do all of that nonsense.  She took my payments and that was that, lol.

Just because I am feeling better doesn't mean I am at 100% and so, when I was still out at 3pm in the truck today, going from one place to the next to the next, I was starting to get very tired and I was also, concordantly (I don't CARE if spell checker says that isn't a word, go look it up!), getting extremely irritable.  10 hours?  No thanks.  I don't care about overtime when I am not feeling good, I don't care if I don't get ANY the entire week.  I got back to the shop and I got OUT of there.  Came home and sat down in my chair, just a very rotten week as far as I'm concerned and will be easily forgotten.  Well, excepting paying off the car, a credit card and getting the mortgage paid up, lol.

I'm still not feeling that good, actually, but I am a bit better.  I am going to show up at work tomorrow and hope that I can make it through the work day.  My manager and I have been gone the first two days this week, which doesn't bode well for the state of affairs at the branch with an inside salesman running it - who has no time for it - and a driver from downtown  - who is pretty good actually but hasn't been thrust into the world of having to deal with everything.  If one manager gets sick downtown, another steps into fill their place.  In this case, my manager leaves and I make the decisions of what goes where, when.

It's a managerial role without the official title.  Stomach pain is almost gone but I have very little energy and I have been doing much of nothing since Saturday.  Carrying a bag of dog food for 30 feet wore me out yesterday.  I know, pathetic but that's what this illness has been doing to me: depriving me of my energy besides the pain and other unpleasant things that I need not go into here.  It's weeks like these where I could care less if I get any overtime.  Get the week over with and get to the weekend.  That's 3 work days from now, might as well be an eternity.

Jury's out on the transplanted tree.  I have no idea whether it's going to survive, but I should be able to tell if it's going to die by tomorrow, I would think.  I am going to dump some more root stuff on it from Miracle Gro.
___________________________________
Extended time lapse.
Ate.  My navy bean soup sat there for quite a while and the salt in the ham apparently leeched out into the liquid as the ham itself in the soup was tasty and without a lot of salt taste.  I read online today that you can leech out some of the salt of a ham before cooking it by dumping it into water; sugar water; coca cola; apple juice; anything that doesn't have added salt to it.  I'll just try water next time, lol.

I'm around 60-65% at this point.  Not really that good for work but I am going tomorrow morning anyway.  My manager will be back - who will undoubtedly give me some junk about taking free time off.  Like, I wasn't really sick.  This is what I hate about working for any company: they don't necessarily believe you are sick when you say you are.  I have sick leave carry over every year, this is a clue that I don't take a lot of time off for sick leave.

At around 3:30 yesterday, I just decided it was time to go home regardless of how I feel.  Not only did I want my own bed and a long hot shower - I can take a hot shower in the RV but only a short one - I also had work to face today.  But I figured I probably wouldn't make work.  Anyway, my mom was all over that, you can't drive can you?  I dunno, mom, but I gotta get home.  Got everything including the dogs in the car and took off. Literally.  I would waste no time stopping anywhere, even for fuel - though that was getting to the low side.

I got to the top of a long mountain pass and came up on a Forest Service/green pickup sitting right next to the road with it's lights flashing.  Wondered what that was all about.  Then I come up to a man in khaki's with a Hawaiian Luau shirt on, he was doing the slow down motion with his hands. We were at a turn, couldn't see what was going on around the turn.  Well, around the turn was a very gruesome sight.  A huge crash with 8 vehicles, 2 of them pulling boats, one of the boats VERY large.  Those vehicles were all on the roadway still, minor damage.  It was the SUV that had somehow lurched over the top of the guardrail - there was no damage to any guardrail there - and was totally destroyed that got my attention.  There were a couple of bodies laying on the ground and no-one working on them - the medics were there - whether those folks were alive or dead I couldn't tell.  I found it odd that Highway Patrol was nowhere in sight - they are the agency that works those kinds of accidents and I found it VERY odd that they had a civilian out there directing traffic.  Why wasn't that dude in the Forest Service truck out there?

Got past that and just zoomed home.  My speedometer doesn't work, but I can tell you that I was not going 65 mph.  I was hurting and feeling it and I wanted the trip over with.

Got home, got the stuff out of the car, called the ops manager at work - my manager is on vacation didn't want to bother him - told him I was out of commission and no way I could come to work tomorrow and yes, I went straight back to bed.  It's now 8 am the next morning and I am just starting to feel a little better.  I haven't eaten anything in 39 hours, my stomach is growling like crazy but I am still afraid to eat anything.  I am finally starting to feel a little better.  My strength is coming back to me even though I haven't eaten anything.  I will get the nerve up later on to get some soup and see what happens with that.

I did have an incident on the way up there that I forgot to mention.  On the Forest Service road - which is a dirt road that can fit 2 vehicles coming at each other but just barely - I came around a turn and see this vehicle coming straight at me.  On the wrong side of the road and actually heading for the ditch on my side of the road.  This is what happens when you aren't paying attention to the road and are, instead, paying attention to your electronic gadgets or whatever might have been going on inside of that vehicle.  I was almost stopped before this driver finally swerved back to their side of the road, narrowly missing an engagement with a deep ditch that would have damaged the vehicle and caused it to get stuck.  I hate to admit it, but I gave the person a certain finger gesture that was out-of-line with my Christian beliefs, but I did it and very much so in the windshield to ensure that they would see it.  I was pissed - this could have been a head-on collision and no-one wins in those kinds of crashes.  The car had realty plaques on the side of it.

I made the decision and went through with it: I am taking out another loan on 401k.  Most would advise against it, all well and fine but I am doing it anyway.  I do not have enough reserve cash around in case something happens - ie: central AC breaks down.  It's already happened once and I was fortunate that I had enough funds to cover the repairs.  I'm going to pay the car off - I am sick of car payments and the 401k payment is FAR less than that car payment and at a MUCH less amount of interest - which I pay back to myself anyway.  I will make a payment-and-a-half on the mortgage and that will bring me up to current.  My credit score has plummeted because of this house payment situation.  At some point it will come back up - probably be a while - and then I will consider about getting a pickup.  Conventional wisdom is to take the car payment that you were paying and deposit that into a savings account every month and pay for your next vehicle in cash.

Great wisdom, don't know if I can wait that long, will try doing it and see how much I can save up.  I don't want or need a brand new pickup, but I don't want a piece of trash, either.  BTW, my car loan is down to $1,840.41.  I know what's going to happen when I pay it off: all kinds of offers will start rolling in to trade in my old car to get a nice, new one.   New vehicles have huge drawbacks around these parts:  extremely high registration rates and extremely high insurance rates.  Once my car is paid off, I will no longer need comprehensive insurance on it.  It is 9 years old, dunno if I should continue it or not.  I definitely only have minimum liability on the 1994 Buick.  I told my son if he crashes the car and it's his fault and the car is destroyed, that's the end of it.  Stay out of crashes! And he has.  He has been run into in parking lots while he's not even around and no, those people that did the damage didn't bother to leave a note, they just left.  Good thing I didn't catch them doing that is all I can say.  My son didn't even notice the damage.

I am a truck driver, I have to do thorough inspections every day.  It crosses over to my vehicles and even vehicles of friends/ acquaintances.  I don't necessarily say anything to them when I see their brand new pickup with a fresh ding on it, I just notice it.

Well this is enough.  My head is starting to doing it's thing again.  Almost like I have been drinking.  Funny the stuff that sickness does to your entire body.  I think it time to go lay back down again.

ben

My mobile broadband router is going on the blink.  It works and then quits and works and quits..........I'm up in the mountains for an over night stay. Getting up early - hopefully anyway - and getting back into to town in time to get to church by 8:45 am.

I am so incredibly tired today.  This work week just wore me out.  Manager gone and I'm dealing with a much larger load than I normally would have to, just a drain on the system.

________________________________

Well the incredible tiredness turned into severe sickness.  some sort of stomach flu.  I am stuck up here in the mountains - would have been home by now - with absolutely no energy, whatsoever, to be able to make the drive back.  It's  a bit afternoonish and if this situaiton doesn't change by say 5ish or so, I am calling work and telling them that tomorrow? I most definitely will not be there.

But I do wish I were home right now!

Well, the hour and a half freaking long wait to get my tires re-balanced was worth it.  I was a bit peeved because there wasn't that many other people in the waiting room and more importantly: only 2 other vehicles in a 6 car bay.

They did not attempt to sell me a new tire to replace the used one I had bought there.  I sat there for such a long time I drained the battery down to 15% - which is when it shuts itself off - on my lap top and then put on my sunglasses and started to take a nap.  I fully expected them to come up with some sort of sales pitch - not saying Discount Tire is fraudulent or otherwise deceptive, but they are in business to sell tires and make money, not give away free tire rotations only - but they did not.

Instead, they pulled the car up front, the dude came in and told me that all 4 tires had been out of balance, 2 of them extremely much so.  I say that was good to hear because that simply means nothing else needs to be done and I didn't pay a penny to them today, the used tire is still good - and looks good btw, still lots of tread on it - so off I went.  I was going to get on the freeway when passing by a gas station that had changed names.  Sitting at a red light at the corner, I saw the sign: oil change only $15.99.  I did some turns to go back and then went in.

My "Oil Level Low" light came on the other day and did so a few months ago as well.  There is a small, slow oil leak. It's going to cost $600 to have it fixed - just replacing a bunch of gaskets but the labor is the killer because half the engine has to be taken apart.  Okay, 1/3rd of it.  Right now, I have no plans to fix it.  Only if/when it becomes a leak that I can see on the ground, then I will have to deal with it.  If I really had the motivation, I could do it myself.  I have done enough total engine rebuilds in my life, I just haven't done anything that extensive in quite a long time and a bit nervous about attempting it in my driveway.  I will wait until Caleb is gone for the summer and his/my car is parked in the driveway before attempting it. If I screw it up somehow, at least I will have something to drive, lol.

I have quite a lot of comment I would like to speak about the Obama administration and the now-labeled "Benghazi-Gate" per Fox News anyway and also this situation with the IRS admitting they targeted Tea-Party groups.  But it makes me mad, really mad to think about what this administration is doing to our nation so I have to just back off, take a breath and put it out of my mind.  Obama can't be President forever, thank God, but I wonder about the damage done before he exits office.

My mom sent me a pic of a very long snake.  It was slithering into a hole next to her porch in the back of her house.  Black and white the thing was.  I don't like snakes, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't want them around if they are eating unwanted guests such as rodents.  Well, I looked it up and this thing is a King Snake and upon further investigation, those snakes actually EAT other snakes! Including Rattlesnakes!!!  Well done, Mother Nature and God, lol, that's a good one to have around me-thinks.  My mom was of the same mind.  She hates snakes but she let this one go - otherwise she would be out there with her .22 pistol attempting to fill it full of snake shot.  Lol.  Cracks me up to think the only time I ever saw her trying to kill a rattler with that thing, it was doing nothing to that snake, or if it was, it certainly wasn't anything visible.

Oh-ohhhh. The Hummingbird that owns my property is out there whining about the feeder being empty.  It is getting drained REALLY fast.  There HAS to be more than just that one bird feeding off of it.  It sits there and chirps at me when I procrastinate on refilling it.  NO, I am dead serious, that little bird owns my property, pays all of my bills and has a robotic maid serving me meals.  It always tells me about it when that thing is emptied out.  Which I just filled it up, what a week and a half ago? That's really fast for a bird that small! Gotta figure out what else is feeding on it. If it's other Hummingbirds, oh well, if it's other kinds of birds, they can go find some other source of nutrition.  It's not leaking or, obviously, there would be a lot of red stains on the ground below.  Nothing.

My plan is to go up to the property sometime in the morning, but plans can be changed by circumstances, we all know that!

ben

Sitting at Discount Tire, waiting eternally for them to simply balance all 4 tires.  Worth the wait I guess since it's free, but I am guessing they are going to come back and tell me that the used tire I bought several months ago is going to need replaced.  I wish they would at least GET that far with this, I have been here for an hour now.

I was thinking of going up to the mountains today, but it's already 4:15 pm and I haven't even started anything about packing to go, much less the fact I haven't gotten home from work yet.

Finally getting the shifting on the new semi.  Extremely fast.  Just too fast, it really shouldn't have to shift that fast between gears.  If I don't, though: clunk.  Not good for a tranny.  The thing winds up so fast you'd think I was driving a car, not a tractor trailer rig.  I dunno, guess it's new technology or something, certainly isn't acting like ANY other semi tranny I have ever shifted and I can tell you, I have driven a lot of semi's over the last almost 30 years now.

Driving at 65mph on I-10 is also irritating.  That's what the governor is set at and that's what i was stuck at on that highway today while everyone else was zooming past me.  We are going to deal with that soon enough.  I will keep whining about it until a tech is sent out to change it.  Besides the fact of going slow, it's taking forever to get from point A to point B.  The extra time driving today cost me a delivery this afternoon - they had already gone home by the time I was ready to go over there.

Well whatever.  The weekend is here and I dunno.  I will decide when I ever get out of this place whether I am going to drive up there today or not, but probably not since it's getting so late.  i don't want to be showing up there at 9 o'clock at night or something.  I may go up tomorrow morning since mother obviously doesn't want to spend Mother's Day alone.

I am wondering when George is intending to have his girlfriend move in.  Mark informed me the George told him he was having a phone line installed to his room for work.  He is, apparently, required to have a dedicated line for working at home, which is what he has been doing for a while now, but they want to make it official.  I want to charge the guy more rent.  I don't care if he's operating a business out of his bedroom, for all intents and purposes, but at the same time, it's using more electricity and he should have to pay extra.  If I bring it up to him, though, I am sure he's going to have a conniption.  Which has never stopped me before, lol.  We'll see.  Oh, apparently his work pays for the phone line.

The dude living in the mini van in front of the next door neighbor's house must be getting pretty miserable out there by now.  It's getting warm, very warm, not "hot" yet, but it will be there soon enough.  I don't get it, though.  What is this guy doing? Why isn't he looking for a job or going to school or SOMETHING? He is ALWAYS out there.  It's just weird, I guess.

Well enough of this, I need to put this computer away and get up and find out what's taking so long.

ben

It was time to say something.
This concerning an individual that they just hired maybe 2 or so months ago at the main branch downtown.
He doesn't do much of anything unless his boss specifically directs him to.
If you ask him to do something, he tells you he is busy.  I am usually down there at least an hour, often times more - I will watch him wandering around, doing absolutely nothing.

This is not the kind of attitude my company much cares for in a worker.  Strong work ethic is pretty much a pre-requisite for our company and people who do not want to work won't last long.

I was down there 2 days ago when the guy started in on me about a small amount of pipe he had pulled for a transfer going to our branch.  It had been sitting there since a couple days before that, I simply did not have the room for it.  It is a stock transfer, meaning it is going into our inventory, it is not slated for a delivery, so I didn't absolutely need to take it.  I had loaded the 48 foot trailer from front to back with materials we needed for deliveries, no room for it.  He got mad and informed me that he would no longer be pulling pipe for us and that he was going to be putting this pipe back.  I told him  to take a look at my truck.  Where, exactly, was I going to put it?

No matter to him.  So today, I am down there again. He had put the pipe away.  I was going to tell this dude exactly what I think of him and his work ethic - but I waited a while and let myself cool down a bit. This guy has been talking to me as if he's been working there 20 years and is some sort of manager in the company.  I approached his manager and informed him of the situation - told me he was never going to pull pipe for me again and that he was putting the pipe that he pulled back, which he did and I handed him the transfer ticket that he had signed.  I then said to him that if he wasn't going to deal with it, I was going to speak my mind to that individual and that individual probably wasn't going to like it.

That was that.  The manager adamantly state he would speak to the man and that he could pull the f****** pipe himself and that was that.

Yes, what I wanted and needed to hear.

Changing the subject.  The lady whose dogs mauled Duke finally showed up - while I was writing this entry actually.  She handed me all of $8.  Yes, that's eight dollars.  Assessing her situation, she probably falls well below the poverty level and has kids.  Young kids, I was amazed she was still making babies after the last set she had.  Free rent - Hud.  Free food - Food Stamps.  Free medical - Obamacare.  Free cell phone - federal government, don't know which administration started that.  Free internet - maybe/probably.  Although not much of a life, if a person is so inclined, they can live completely off the government for free.

I flatly told her that she would have to come over at least once a week with something.  The city sent me yet another thing in the mail today that I have 7 days from the receipt of that letter to file for restitution.  I am not going to do that.  I am simply going to go after her personally for the money.  If it comes down to her not paying, I don't have to go after restitution, I can sue her in the local court. Well, I'll think about it.  Restitution is easier.  The court orders her to pay and if she doesn't then a contempt of court bench warrant is issued and she has to appear to tell the court why, exactly, she hasn't paid.  I am not totally dismissing that idea, I have 7 days to make up my mind.

Church.  So, I am going to start doing security at church once a month.  Unbeknownst to me, they had a meeting about security and what needs to be done about it, which is when the youth teachers stated they were not comfortable with the lack of anyone out there to stand guard, basically.  A few names were brought up, mine was one of them.

_________________

Interlude, long one.
I turned my mom onto Facebook and she is figuring it out, including how to start a chat with someone.  In this case - me, lol.  She was asking if I was coming up tomorrow - she's not up there but planning on either going up Saturday or Sunday. I replied that I would if I get off work early enough tomorrow.

Which was enough for her to assume I am going to be up there, lol.

I'm fairly well obligated to go up there at this point.  Ummmm, but there is a lot to do and it's time to go to bed for me - and the real kicker? - a LOT of stuff to do in our truck routing system tomorrow.  Tangle that with a disgruntled manager who is losing his vacation due to jury duty - he's coming to work tomorrow but only because the court apparently takes Fridays off - and has to be back at the court on Monday - meaning missing his flight to Chicago on Saturday morning - wow!  The workplace does offer some interesting - stuff.   It's a life unto it's own with so many different personalities, some of which grate against me in a particularly freakish way.

I don't wonder if this is part of God's way of forcing me to deal with the issues in my life.  You know, like not respond in kind to a person mouthing off and going off the cuff?  Or some freak attempting to tell me how to do my job?

Some stuff I wrote missing here.  I would re-write, but it's my bedtime.


G'nite.

ben

This woman whose dogs attacked Duke continues to blow me off.
I have a running texting conversation with her.
She is very poor is the biggest problem.
I am not being an ogre or a troll to her, but I do want her to pay for Duke's hospital visit, regardless of how long it takes her to pay it off.
As of yet, she hasn't given me a single dime.  Allegedly, she's coming over today to give whatever she can afford.
I dunno, but if you are going to have vicious dogs and they are going to get out of their confinement, then expect to have to pay whatever for the damages they cause.

That's all I can say about that.

The new truck.  Small cab, not much room inside of it for much of anything.  I have a lot of stuff I have to carry with me for the job, pretty difficult to find a place for everything when there are very few cubby holes to stick things in.  Not really happy about that.  It also shifts funny. It has the same exact transmission in it as the old truck - well obviously not exactly the same as the thing wants to be shifted from one gear to the next immediately with no hesitation and if you miss it, it lets you know about it.  In fact the shifting on it is pretty much - ridiculous.  I will get used to it, I guess, but I have never driven a truck with a transmission that doesn't have you wait a short period between gears.

It also has a stupid turn signal system. It's the same as a car.  It shuts itself off, which would be great excepting the fact that in semis, you are often turning the steering wheel in both directions to make a turn, which shuts the signal off long before you finish making the turn.  Pretty stupid set up.  The thing shuts the radio off when you start backing.  I guess they don't want "distracted backing", lol.  They had fluourescent orange seatbelts installed on it.  Apparently they want you busted if you aren't wearing it.  Kind of humiliating treatment, frankly, from a company that I have driven for for over 7 years.  As if I need this kind of treatment
because I must, somehow, be a bad driver and don't use my seatbelt?

Governor kicks in at 66 MPH.  Another ridiculous notion.  It often times happens on the freeway that the only way to get over to the next lane I need to get over to is to speed up and get in front of a vehicle.  Most drivers nowadays will not let you in, no matter how long you have had the turn signal on indicating that you want to get over.  Slowing down usually doesn't work, either, since there is usually vehicles behind them and they won't let you in, either.  I am going to ask to have it set up to at least 75MPH, which is the speed limit on the Interstates around these parts when you get out of town.

Well whatever.  I'll get used to most of it, I don't have a choice excepting to go find a new job I guess.  Not really interested in doing that right now and speaking of jobs, I must be out of here!

G'day.

ben

Back from church.

Instead of being bone tired as I was before I left, I am now wide awake.  

Ummmmm, so, here I am. 

I completely forgot that I put in for a week off at the beginning of June.

I am not sure I want to go up to the trailer, or if I do only a couple of nights.  

I would like to go spend a couple of nights at some fine hotel and just be alone.  No dogs, no people, no nothing.  This would be more rejuvenating for me than much of anything else I can think of - well I can think of other things but price tags make them too expensive to even consider.  

Las Vegas is only 280 miles away.  I have enough gold coins to get a pretty nice room for free.  I don't care about the glitter and the casinos - I could get far enough away from here to feel as though I have "escaped" and at the same time not have to spend a lot of money to do so and spend 2 nights there for free.  What about your trip there in August?  Who cares about August, I need now.  I can still build those coins back up and have enough to go up if I still want to with the tenants.  

But August may prove to be a busy month.  Caleb will be back for a short period of time and there are already 2 sending-away parties being set up for him and I want to spend as much time as I can with him before he leaves and I don't get to see him again for an entire year.  

I'm more considering taking another week off in August and possibly doing something with him before sending him off - if he has the time of course and if it would work out.  A couple days on the ocean or something.  I dunno.  They have some great sight-seeing trips from pretty much anywhere along the California coast.  Just throwing things around in my head, see if anything lands anywhere.

As for Las Vegas, the Aria had a City View room - meaning it's high up - for 2 nights at 200,000 gold coins.  Of which I happen to have.  I actually have 380,000 gold coins on the game, it would leave me 180,000 left over and now that I have found the "secret" to acquiring gold coins quickly, I could build it back up again before August arrives - but again - a trip anywhere like that in August at this point is not necessarily a probable event.  I am certain that the parental heart in me is going to want to see as much of my son as I can.

Well whatever.  I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.  I AM seriously considering using my gold coins on my slated vacation.  It's only 2 nights, I think it would be a blast, to be honest.  Maybe do a little blackjack action, but the room itself, isolating myself.  Do you know what it's like to live in a house with as many people as I have living here?  I have only myself to blame, obviously, but I am subjected to all kinds of sounds and conversations and this and that.  

Ahhh, there it is.  Fatigue creeping back in.  

Time for bed.

ben