Well, the idea that there is now another night's worth of stay at the hotel brings up an interesting prospect.  Shall we therefore do something that day, at least into early afternoon, before departing for home?

I was not asked about this, Caleb doesn't know neither does he care - he'll stay as long or short as we are staying - and I am just pondering.  A day at the beach? Wade out into the ocean and enjoy something I haven't done in decades?  I dunno.  I wonder what the water temp is like.  I get cold easily in water if it's too cold and I have found Pacific waters to be some pretty cold stuff.

We'll cross the bridge when we get there.  Caleb will be a go for it - I don't even have to ponder that.  Me?  Dunno.  My sister-in-law?  Probably.  Should I bring it up? Only when that morning arrives and if I feel like it.  I'm guessing a full day on the ocean and a full day at Seaworld is going to do me in, but then again, I have spent plenty of time on beaches laying on a sheet and sleeping with the sound of the surf tantalizing me and intriguing my imagination and generally causing me to feel very much at peace.

I just talked myself into.  I didn't remember that aspect of it until I just wrote that out.  I don't have to DO anything on the beach! I can just lay back and sleep! As long as the temp is good, well now then, we have a completely different scenario.

Okay, MOST of my beach-sleeping experiences have been wonderful. No, no-one has ever kicked sand in my face because if anyone did that, I would consider that an assault and I don't care HOW big that person is, I am going to "defend" myself.  I'm talking about the time when I was laying on the beach, a sheet under me and folded over top of me, sleeping away, when the sound of something strange hit my ears and slowly woke me up.

WHAT - is - THAT - SOUND?!!!  It was not natural and having had been asleep - and never exposed to the kind of sound before - well it took a minute or two - maybe it took longer and I just don't remember.  I didn't look over, which is what probably would have gotten me to figure it out sooner, until my curiosity piqued. Eventually, I was awake and yes, I did look over to see what was obviously 2 people going at it - sex - and then realized it was 2  guys.

I won't go into this further, as I was not happy about the situation, but whatever.  They didn't stay there forever, thankfully and then I was left to myself.  Why they had to choose THAT spot to do it, so close to me, I don't know.  They could have moved WELL down the beach, away from everyone if they are going to engage in such behavior in public.  Sheets be damned, that doesn't mute the sounds and certainly, GET A ROOM!

Regardless, I am now reminding myself to take a sheet with me on this trip.  If we do go to the beach, they can go in the water as long as they want - my son is a seal in disguise, he can stay in the water all day long and love every minute of it - I will do my thing and we can all be happy.  Which is not to say I won't get into the water, but again: Pacific water is MUCH colder than Atlantic water.  I have been in both dozens of times over, I can say that with authority.
______________________

That was yesterday.  I don't always post entries the same day I write them.  In fact, I have a large number of them that have never been posted and never will be.  Regardless, started this day - Saturday - out with a bang.  Here, there, over there, back there, down there - all over the place getting things done for the trip.  Walmart; hair cut; remove everything from the car and then the carwash and vacuum it all out and then Armor-All all of; the bank to deposit a tenant check and get quarter wraps.

And then? Applebee's.  I go there about once a month.  They have good food and there is a waitress that I connect with on some level.

After that, home and cleaning out a pond filter, a  couple loads of laundry and cleaning my bathroom? Time for a nap.  I'm on vacation, lol.  2 hours of that and then off to the airport to pick Caleb up.  Home and I've had enough for one day.  Well, I had thoughts of wrapping up more quarters, but have decided to dump that one on my son.  He can count out 40 quarters per wrap 13 times over and then I will take them to the bank.
That's it, besides numerous phone calls from my sister-in-law who hinted at changes to the schedule and which I determined were not in any interest that I had, at all and therefore just stated this is the way it's going to be.  People do vacations differently, that's fine, but she was no factor in this equation until this week when she stated she wanted to come.  Great, but it's my show, not to sound egotistical or otherwise - whatever adjective you'd like to insert - this is time to spend with my son.  I don't think she will be an intrusion on that, I just don't want to change the schedule excepting that since we are now staying another night, I figured we might as well go spend a half day at the beach and then drive home.

Whatever the case, my change I have saved up should be more than sufficient for eating money - but who knows, lol.

Well, off to other parts of the internet - namely - to pay some bills online.

G'day/nite.

ben

Well.  I went to Concentra this morning - industrial medicine type of place - to get my medical card renewed.
Nothing of great interest - a long wait as it always is - but when the put that machine operated blood pressure tester around my arm and the thing came up with the results, well it was shocking.  Showed my blood pressure at 157 over 94!! YIKES!  I tell this nurse no freaking way.  My blood pressure is definitely NOT that high!

Well, she says, we'll wait 20 minutes after you have calmed down a little and see

 what it's at.  They have terminology for it now, I think the nurse called it White Suit Syndrome or some junk like that.  Where it's now a proven fact that your blood pressure goes up when you come into a doctor's office.

I think it's those machines giving bad readings.

Well whatever.  Vision test, pee in the cup, all that wonderful stuff though they spared me the hernia test and I certainly wasn't going to ask them for it and then finally the doc comes in.  How's it going, brother?  Older gentleman, but very cool.  I get my blood pressure checked again: 112 over 82.  Okay, the bottom number still a bit high, but the top number at least was reading normal for me.  Thank you God!!

Done deal, another 2 years of certification, paid for by my company thank-you-very-much.

I get back to the yard to hear about the 23-year old wonder that works at our place.  He came into work - late - he still hadn't arrived by the time I left - and then, according to my manager, came in, got on the computer, did nothing, then went outside and got on the phone with a personal call for half an hour.  My manager shipped him downtown for the day, the manager down there needed him for something.  Apparently, they are going to try him out in another division and see how he works out there, cause honey, he ain't worth a s*** at our place.

Well whatever.  Friday is here.  I'm sitting in a huge recycling yard, waiting for them to unload the semi.  Last thing I think I will have to do today at work before leaving early.  I have OT and the company isn't giving out OT right now - though I completely understand, numbers are WAY down across the board at all branches in the southwest region.

I do hope business picks back up eventually, I do miss the extra dough on my paychecks.

Meanwhile, my sister-in-law decided she was going to get a third night for San Diego.  I was contemplating whether to do that or not.  Seaworld stays open until 10:00 at night, I don't really think I'm going to want to drive home after that.  In fact, I am quite sure I won't want to.  The hotel brought it's prices down 10 bucks per night, wish I would have known that was going to happen or I would have waited - but at the same time, I probably wouldn't have wanted to take the chance even if I had known.   So I am going to go ahead and get a third night as well.

Well whatever.  Weekend almost here and I am going to spend it getting junk done around the house, thoroughly cleaning out the car and just reminded myself to get an oil change on it before we leave, not to mention a nice hair cut help as well.


As for now?  I need to get offa here, they are almost done unloading the truck.

ben

So I'm going to a jobsite today.  I go to the intersection, listed as in Phoenix, where the jobsite is supposed to be at.  1st Street & Roosevelt.  I am there, no construction.  I call the foreman.  Oh, I come get you.  He calls back, where are you? I'm at 1st Street & Roosevelt.  Well how can you not see the construction going on?  There is NO construction going on here.  The man falls just short of calling me an idiot for not being able to see the construction going on, I must be at the wrong place.

NO, I am NOT.  If he had actually insulted me, I would have hung up on him and called my manager. I will not tolerate extreme insults from contractors, I don't care if they ARE our customers.

Where are you at now? he asks.  I just crossed Central avenue, heading west on Roosevelt, looking for this alleged jobsite.  Central?  He replies.  2 and 2 finally equals 4 in his mind.  What city are you in? Phoenix, I reply, just as the paperwork tells me.  We are in Tempe.

I get to the jobsite. The entrance? I could drive the truck in there, but I wouldn't make it very far and I would have to back out of it.  Not a problem, but I call the dude anyway.  Is THIS where you want the pipe?!!  Yes, he states, but instead of coming through that entrance, come around the one off of Rio Salado.  The Rio Salado entrance?  This is insanity.  There isn't any room for trucks in there!  He waves at me to pull in, so I do.  I can always back out the same way I came in.  He wants the pipe rolled off at a certain location - blocking EVERYTHING that is trying to move in there.

And it takes a while to get the pipe off of there and roll up the straps.  Meanwhile, a barrage of cement trucks are backed up, waiting for me to move out of the way.  Some of them get out of there trucks, staring at me.  I could care less.  I have been held up SO - MANY - times by cement truck drivers who refuse to move out of the way, even if they aren't pouring cement.  Many of them are just plain jerkoffs with serious attitudes.  I rarely get the opportunity to hold them up and when I do? I still do my job and get out of the way as quickly as possible, but in this case, it took a while.

Well whatever.  Later on, Susan calls me - my sister-in-law.  I was driving the semi, I took the call on the hands-free device, but that thing is a total piece of junk.  Management knows it is but they won't replace it.  Not my problem.  You can't understand anything anyone is saying most of the time if you are driving.  If you are stopped at a light sure, but trucks make noise and it interferes with this kind of hands-free device.

I finally get to call her back - after another near-impossible job-site delivery, won't go into it, just take too long, but she was asking me a lot of questions about the trip.  She got a ticket to Seaworld that has a second day for free.  I don't have those tickets, mine are just good for one day.  She was obviously wondering about us staying a 3rd day to go to Seaworld, but I don't have that kind of money.  Entrance tickets are not cheap and there isn't time to win another Ebay auction and get them here in time.  Not to mention another night at a hotel.  Talking almost another $300 which I simply cannot afford.  If I had a wife with a job or if I simply had a higher paying job, yes, but it's just not in the cards at least not from any resources I have.  God, on the other hand, has supplied for me in ways that were unfathomable in the past - through people of course - but still, I recognized it as the move of God.  So who knows.  Maybe $300 will sprout out of nowhere and we can do the third day, lol.

But I'm hardly feeling sorry for myself.  We are going to have a great time, the time spent with my son will be worth whatever it costs and I am going to miss him dearly.  He is coming back from CA on Saturday.

Well anyway.  I haven't been sleeping well and I don't really feel all the great.  Lack of exercise, at least any type of exercise that is continuous and goes on for at least 30 minutes, so today, after work, I went to one of the entrances to South Mountain Park, parked my car in the parking lot, grabbed my water bottle and off I went.  At first I was surprised no other cars in that lot - it always has cars parked there with hikers or bikers going up the trails.  Took me a few seconds to remember that it is an afternoon, it's August, it's hot and most people aren't going to be hiking in this kind of temps.

This is nothing that has ever deterred me.  Don't over-do it, keep hydrated and know your limits.  If you don't know your limits, keep it short and pay attention to what your body is telling you.  Heat can be a killer - frequently is for people going up on these mountain trails.  There were several signs at the trail-head with heat advisories.  I ignored them. I have been doing this since I was 10 years old, I am not immune to the effects of heat, but rather, I understand how to deal with it effectively.

One thing I do before I go on such treks is start drinking a LOT of water LONG before I even leave the house - or today - work - to get there.  When hiking, you continue to drink water regardless if you don't feel thirsty - I was sweating heavily but not thirsty simply because of all the water I drank earlier - but this isn't good enough.  The desert catches up to people who either don't know or just don't think about what they are doing out there.

So anyway, I was distracted.  Shortly after I pulled into that parking lot and headed out on the trail, another car came in and parked right next to mine.  I had my cellphone, call the police if I must if something happens.  I watched them all the way up the various grades of mountain trail and got off the trail to come back down to be able to continue to watch them.  No idea.  They were still there when I got back - drinking 40 ounce bottles of - whatever that skank beer crap is called.

The reason I was distracted is that I had got out of my car, with my computer and my gun in the computer bag and placed it in the trunk.  I wondered if they had seen me doing that and if they were thieves.

I need a holster.  I don't much care for going up into those mountains without protection.  There are lots of wild animals up there and I have seen them eyeing me in the past, just standing in the distance.  There are also some pretty scary looking people up there.  There are homeless people living in some small caves.  I just think it prudent to have protection with me.  But I have been hiking in the mountains for decades - though I have had several scary interactions and a couple situations I thought I might up dead or at least injured. One with an angry moma javelina and another time with a Mountain Lion that was stalking me.

I stopped at the right time.  When I got home, I could feel it. To stay out any longer in that heat would have had some consequences.

Friday's a coming.  That would be tomorrow.

G'nite.

ben

The 23 year old employee at our branch.
Why do I keep harping on this? Because it IRRITATES me.
This guy showed up yesterday at 4 am to go with a salesman to a jobsite who told him to bet there at 5 am.
What's the big deal? The deal is that he doesn't DO anything for the hour he is there, excepting to get on the internet and read the BBC. He should not have shown up an hour early to LEAVE.
But I wasn't there yesterday that early to confirm that, today, I WAS.
I drove into the parking lot behind a customer who was also pulling in at 6am.
I saw the 23 yo - kid's - car in the parking lot but assumed he had left with the salesman again.
Instead, I try opening the door with my key and its already opened.  I walk inside, the place is completely dark. He springs up out of nowhere -the kid that is.  Really weird.
I write up the customer's order before I do much of anything else and he goes out and gets the part - just one fitting.

He then proceeds to disappear.  I don't have time for this s***.  I look at the door to the warehouse bathroom, light on.  This is one of his hiding places.  He stayed in there 20 minutes and then came out and wrapped up a pallet - a 3 minute job - and then disappeared again. Meanwhile, I am working my @$$ off pulling and loading pipe, pallets, hydrants and everything else plus strapping down the load.

At some point, I had to go check.  Unbeknownst to him, I: can look through a warehouse window, through a crack in the door inside the room that it shows into and see him.  Yup, he was sitting there, screwing off on the internet again. I just got so mad, but I decided to not vent on him, I would just report it to my manager.  He sits in there another 20 minutes doing nothing, getting paid for it all the while there is plenty of work to do.

FREAK.

But, we complained yet again to the Operations Manager today about this guy and everything he - doesn't do - in terms of work - and everything he does do  in terms of hiding and many times not even hiding, just sitting in plain view, screwing off.  Like he is immune.  My manager asked him how to turn off the internet to the computer he uses - done deal.  No more BBC and all the rest of it on that computer.  If I find him on my computer, I am going to lock it down, but my computer is on the counter directly in front of the manager's office with a huge window.

My manager is asking me why I am not telling him to get to work.  This is not in the purview of my job function, I am not his manager.  I can ask him to do stuff, but telling him to get off his @$$ and get to work is simply not a co-worker's

Onto other things, such as the guy that called in to work today to complain about me.  Another driver on the road.
I was in Queen Creek - small town in the boonies - and was coming up on a lane reduction - right lane ends, merge left.  I have been down this road countless times, I get into the left lane long before you can even see this merger.  I pass a guy in a Ford pickup with Florida license plates.  Leave him well behind, only to get to a light, but I only had to slow down for traffic in front of me - note that everyone else had also gotten into the left lane because shortly after you pass through that intersection, that right lane ends.

You can see that that lane ends from at least a quarter mile.  There are the huge yellow signs that tell you to MERGE left.  This guy that I had passed and was going considerably slower than me?  Comes FLYING up beside me - but his lane had run out.  He was either going to drive off into the desert - slamming into trees and shrubs or crash into my truck, which would have done him no good, he still would have ended up in the desert.  I honked at him, slammed on my brakes to let him in though in reality, he shouldn't have even BEEN there, my anti-lock brakes going crazy.  I did the ethical and morally right thing: just shut it down even though I didn't HAVE to.  HE - KNEW - that lane was ending.  But this is the way people treat trucks and it's drivers.  After that happened, he put his arm out the window and flipped me off!

I'm stuck behind this guy for 2 miles because there is only one lane now.  Once the road stretches out to 3 lanes, he pulls over and then proceeds to write down my license plate number.  What a total, complete moron.  He almost causes an accident, flips me off and then has the gall to call my work and complain to the Operations Manager about ME.  I HATE the way the motoring public treats truck drivers.  I WISH we would all just shut down our trucks for a week and then the appreciation for our job would flow oh so nicely.
I put off buying that dash-camera, but no longer.  After my vacation and all expenses paid, I will look to see what I have left and hopefully be able to buy a dashcam for the truck. I don't care how expensive it is, though I think I can get one for about $50. I want it to have enough memory on it, though to be able to record an entire day's worth of driving.  So maybe more expensive.  I told the Ops manager that I was going to put an end to this nonsense - people calling in about us drivers - at least for me and get that thing and mount it to the dashboard.

And so it will be.

Next.  My tickets I won on Ebay for Seaworld showed up today : )  Should be a hoot!  That's it.  That's all I was waiting for.  I just need to get some quarter rolls from the bank, roll them up and get that cash.  The rest is just preparing the car and getting my stuff ready to go.  I will be doing that this weekend.

Enough.

ben

It rained yesterday and it was absolutely wonderful.
I got wet a couple of times - on purpose - and just took in the rather cool breeze/air considering the time of year it is in Phoenix.
My sister-in-law is definitely going with us at this point to San Diego - she made the same non-refundable reservations that I did and that pretty much seals the fate of both of us going and hopefully having a good time.
She definitely does not want to go out on the boat, citing the reason of it being out so long and her probably getting seasick.
Yes, I know that feeling.  I have done the pills and the patches to no avail, the only thing that works for me is alcohol.  I know, it's terrible, lol.  But I don't have to get drunk to get rid of the seasick feeling, just enough to make me feel "good" and get back to fishing.
I still have a patch left, I will use one again just to say that I at least tried something - those patches aren't exactly cheap and for them not to work?  Sucked.

Hump Day.  The work week will be over with soon enough and then I can get busy with getting ready for the trip.  I did buy a couple of new t-shirts yesterday - haven't bought any in quite a while and I usually like to have a couple of new shirts for just such trips.  My Virgin Healthmiles money came into my bank account overnight via direct deposit.  This was some of the money needed to be able to go on this trip.  I have the trip mostly paid for excepting they only took 50% deposit for the boat trip, that money will pay for the rest and also the bait/tackle fees, which is what I was counting on it for.

For whatever reason, the high is only slated to get up to 102 today.  The high in San Diego, however, will be 70, lol.

With that, time to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

It's a done deal.
I hope anyway.
2 adult tickets to Sea World San Diego - bought and paid for, expect to have them in the mail by no later than Thursday this week.
2 spots on the fishing boat - half paid for - that's what they wanted on the phone, a 50% deposit.  My name was still in their system from the last trip we took with them 2 years ago.
2 nights booked and paid for at the Kings Inn, San Diego.
I am comfortable that however the hotel turns out to be, there were enough very good reviews to make it appear to me that I will - a very non-picky hotel person though I don't like bedbugs, roaches and I like a clean room without a lot of noise (I don't consider any of that to be picky, that's pretty much the way a room should be regardless of where you are staying) - be happy with it.  I do hope so, because at the rate I got the room, the amount paid is non-refundable.
The Waffle Spot restaurant - on-property - has some excellent reviews on it including locals who love the place.  We won't be eating breakfast there, though and unfortunately, it doesn't open until 7 am according  the reviews.  Well, Wednesday morning we will be able to eat there in the morning since I doubt Seaworld opens too early and more importantly, I am probably going to want to sleep in from having had been on the ocean all day the previous day.

One twist to the adventure has popped up, though.  My sister-in-law has stated she would like to go along with us.  She doesn't want to go on the boat, she would rather go to the beach.  I actually get along pretty well with her considering she IS an in-law, lol, I just have to ask Caleb if he's cool with it.  I doubt he'll care one way or the other to be honest.  My only caveat is that she has to pay her own way - all of it.  I am on a budget and I don't have that much extra money floating around to pay for a 3rd ticket there.  She offered before I asked, though, that she has money and she would be paying her own way, including getting her own hotel room.  I'm good with that and I get along with her so if she was really serious about it, I'm sure she can go.

______________

Candid conversations.  My son was describing the perfect family for him: 3 daughters and 1 son.  He assumes to marry a Japanese lady since he is very intent on spending his life in Japan once he gets to that point.  He lamented that growing up as an only child was not-so-great.  I had no input to this discussion as far as that goes, it is what it is.  My mother refused to believe that my ex-wife was pregnant because she had had her ovaries removed.  Not quite, mother, she still has half an ovary left, I told her at the time.  She assumed we were mistaken about the pregnancy, no way could she be pregnant.  This went on for quite a long time until I had had enough of it.  Great, you don't want to be a part of our son's life, then DON'T (we had seen the pic of him on that machine and it clearly showed male "parts", we knew before he was born it was going to be a boy).  It was actually pretty sick the way she talked about it and treated us, as if we were lying to her about it for some reason.

Whatever the case, there is no "defense" for not having more children.  I wanted more, but it didn't happen.  He'll figure things out as he gets older - and experiences a few things in life.

Well whatever.  Another work week looms.  Business is slow and the situation with the kid that doesn't want to work is a bit much.  We are devising a plan to get rid of him - get him to some other division that perhaps he will fit into. Dunno, but he creates more work than he finishes with the amount of messes and other situations that he leaves behind.  I would rather not have him there at all.  It's just plain irritating.

With that, it's a g'nite and God bless you.

ben

Made a visit to Denny's.  I go there once in a great while to have the wonderful breakfast that they are so good at making.  Plain, simple, delicious.

But first, I replaced the battery in the old Buick.  The previous one was about 2-1/2 years old with a 5 year warranty.  So, I got the new battery for half price after pro-rating it.  They wanted to sell me a battery that costs $115 to replace it, I said bunk.  Old car, not worth putting that much money into it.  I've already dumped more than I have wanted to but fortunately it's gone a pretty good, long spell without having to do anything but change the brake rotors and pads on it, and that turned out to be pretty cheap.

Of course, that means NOT taking it to a brake shop!! I have no idea what they would charge to do that, but I am guessing a pretty good price tag plus they always tell you something else is wrong with your brake system and then try to instill fear into you that you might be on the verge of a catastrophic brake failure if you don't replace - whatever they are telling you.  Brakes and fear work well together for those that don't know about brake systems or how to fix that stuff yourself.

_____________________

Long interlude.  I ended up on Ebay looking for tickets to Seaworld.  I watched throughout the day as the auction had 2 people bidding against each other.  You want to get an awesome price on Ebay, you don't bid until the end, period.  You don't sit there with days or hours left to go bidding against each other.  But they were still WELL below half price on those tickets when the time was almost up on the auction.  I waited until 45 seconds left in the auction and made my bid.  I can't tell you how many times I have played that game and won with only seconds left to spare, but it gives no or little time for anyone else to make a counter-bid unless they have already had an automatic bid set up.  So, after the sport fishing is done, we are going to SeaWorld.  I hope I have some energy left to enjoy that, lol.

Yup, it's late - 11:00 pm for me, I only stayed up to try and win this auction and get the tickets here before we leave.

G'nite.

ben

So, Caleb is home.
I got a call this afternoon: "Can you come pick me up around 7:15?"
Uhhh, sure thing.  I wanted to go to the pastor's get-together at his house, I decided I would do both.
But before that happened, I took a nap.  I fell into a deep sleep and woke up a quarter after 6, 15 minutes before the party was supposed to start.
Bolted upright, but was definitely a bit out of it after coming out of a sleep like that.
Hit up the party for about 50 minutes and then and went to near downtown Phoenix - actually, the notorious intersection of Van Buren and 24th street.  Notorious - for decades now - because of the mental hospital right there on the corner and also because of the large number of hookers/prostitutes/whores (pick the word the best suits you for the kind of descriptor).  I had no idea that the Salvation Army also has a HUGE facility a block down the street from there.

I can only say that Caleb is a well-loved and like person.  He seems to have the Midas touch when it comes to affecting other people's lives and the impact he has on them.  He looked really good - healthy and in very good spirits.  It was good to see him and good to get my arms around him and get a big hug. He was having trouble getting out of there with the number of people that kept stopping him.

But no biggies.  We got home and visited a while, but it was obvious he wanted to get to his bedroom and - do whatever - I think he wants to sleep, lol.  Likely on the internet since apparently, internet access up there kept going out most of the time he was up there.

Meanwhile, I confirmed the dates to go to San Diego - he doesn't care, after he gets back from CA with the SA, he will go whenever I want to, he's all over it.  This frees me up to make the hotel reservations and book the spots on the boat.  I just haven't quite decided which day, exactly, during the week, we are going to go.

I dunno, but I'm not going to obsess over this too much.  I decided on San Diego (versus other cities with same-said sport fishing ports); use the same company; found what I hope will turn out to be a decent enough hotel and that's all I really need.

Whatever the case, I am very tired and it's time to go to bed.

G'nite.

ben

I think I found the hotel we are going to stay at.  I actually decided to just get a map up of the Mission Valley area (in San Diego) and sure enough, the names of hotels were all over it.  I thought about Howard Johnson's, but that place had some pretty bad reviews.  I just want a place that I can sleep at - without a lot of noise from everyone else around us.  I don't care that much about amenities, as long as the bed is at least semi-comfortable, I am good with it.

And so it is how I find the place.  It is listed as old and needing renovations, but most everyone that reviewed still gave it a good review.  Okay, there are always bad reviews - actually of any hotel property - and so this one has some too, but I was impressed enough with all the good reviews that I have decided this is the place.  It's much cheaper than anything else around there - save probably that hell-hole-of-a-place called Motel 6 Mission Valley.  I would rather sleep in my CAR than sleep in that rat s***-hole.

Okay, I'll just give the name and the website address: Kings Inn San Diego - http://kingsinnsandiego.com/

I went to their site and they state that they have recently renovated the rooms and I read at least one review that also confirmed this, so I'm good with it.  Give it a try. The worst that can happen? The same as happened in 2011 at that s***hole of a "hotel" - Motel 6.  I just cannot believe that Motel 6 would allow their brand name on a place as rank as that place is.  Not that Motel 6's are floating-on-the-clouds motels, but pleeeeeeeaaaaaaasssssssseeeeeeee..  I've been at a LOT of Motel 6's all over the place, all over the country in fact, this was the WORST one I have ever experienced.  I have left reviews all over the internet of that place to warn would-be guests to steer far clear of the place.

Anyway, Kings Inn price is the allure for me, that and the many good reviews.  If I could afford to stay at the Marriot down the road, I would, but that's not a happening event and I don't care about that stuff right now, my son definitely doesn't care.  In fact, at that Motel 6, the night where I didn't get ANY sleep at all, maybe an hour's worth, he slept right through all of that noise.  I still marvel to this day how anyone could sleep with all that racket going on.  That is truly the word I can use to define his ability to sleep through that: marvel.  I can only dream of being able to sleep through such racket.

Though I do remember a trip to California on a Greyhound bus with screaming kids and a LOT of racket going on, where somehow, I was able to tune out all of that noise and drift in and out of sleep.  I would sleep for 45 minutes, wake up in wonder - wondering whether the noise was still going on - and yes it was - and just go back to sleep again.  I'm one of those people that at bedtime, it has to be dark in the room and either very quiet or white noise.  I opt for white noise - all the time.  A box fan supplies that sound and ear plugs tames that sound so it is a "constant" sound.  I'm waiting to book the hotel to speak with Caleb to determine what will be the best days to go.  Leave around noon on whatever day, get there around 4:30 to 5 pm - I think - get in the room, hang out, swim, eat, whatever, prepare ourselves for the fishing adventure of the next morning.

Well, that takes the strain out of this. We will go with the same company we went with before.  I caught enough fish on that trip to make it enjoyable and worth bring home all of that.  I ate Sea Bass and whatever the name of the other fish was for several weeks.  What's left? Boat reservations.  The company's prices have gone up - by $15 per person since we went with them 2 years ago, but that's okay.

So how to pay for this.  Cashed out my healthmiles - it's only $150, but that comes close to paying for hotel.  I have at least $250 worth of change in my change bins.  That's $400.  I will put the fuel on the fuel card and pay for that next month.  $300 out of savings and that pays for this trip.  It would be cool to go to Seaworld the next day - but I don't know if I can afford another couple hundred bucks on top of everything else.  I wish I could - I won't see him for a year after he leaves - but I can't leave myself screwed for money, either.
I've been saving my change for quite a while now, though.  Like a year.  There may be more in that pile than I know.  I will find out after I task Caleb to either take it to the coin counting machine or - get penny; nickle; dime and quarter rolls and take them to the bank.  Of course there is credit on credit cards - I will have to weigh whether this is worth going into debt for.

Ahhhh, Ebay. Seaworld tickets.

G'nite.

ben

It finally came to a head last night.
I am referring to George's surround sound.
I was sitting out here attempting to watch a show on TV.
I don't watch much TV, when I do have it on, it's usually something that interests me.
George was watching a movie in his bedroom with that thing on.
He had it turned up so loud, I had to turn the volume up on my TV to
it's highest level just to be able to hear the show.
Mark came out of his room and was disgusted - he said even with headphones
on he couldn't even hear his TV.
That was it.  I went to his bedroom with the intention of politely asking him to turn
it down, substantially.
I knocked on his door.  No answer.  Second time, louder.  No answer.
3rd time I was banging on his door and he still couldn't hear it because of the volume
level of that surround sound.
THAT'S how loud it was.
I gave up, came back into the kitchen, wrote up a notice and figured to give it to him tomorrow since it
was my bed time.

I went into my bedroom, shut the door and unbelievably, could hear that freaking TV of his in MY bedroom. We are at least 50 feet apart, plus 2 closed doors.  That was enough.  I went and about beat the door down to get his attention.  I was mad, too, he finally opened the door and I said something I will have to repent of now.  "Turn that F****** thing down!".  I just walked away from him after that, I didn't want to turn a bad situation worse, though I did leave the notice.

I have no idea how this is going to play out, but I refuse to be subjected to those noise levels ever again from his surround sound system. Whether he decides to stay or leave because of it is up to him.  I have tried to give him hints and have even said something about it in the past, but it doesn't get through to him.  Well, last night was definitive, the point was succinctly made and so now we see where it goes.

Work is still slow.  TOO slow.  Like BORING slow.  Today, however, I expect to see about finding a hotel room in the San Diego area - there is a huge grouping of them not far from the dock where the sport fishing place is.  I will NOT do that Motel 6 again, not after last time and the noise levels that were in that place that kept me awake all night long.  I will find something else, probably more expensive but so beit.

Oops, time to be off to work!

G'day.

ben

Lost posts.  Posted them, they didn't come up on here. I could just go into the dashboard and find them, but what the hey, might as well just start fresh.  I think the reason why the didn't show up is that I have been doing a set of goals on Cafe World - something I haven't done in almost 8 months - and it kinda messes with the computer.  Have to clean it regularly and delete files and such. I probably won't be doing another set of goals for a while, I remembered why I quit doing them: extremely time-consuming.  Okay to do once in a while, not every freaking day.  

Anyway, Caleb is returning on the 2cd.  So mom is going all hog crazy buying food and stuff for him for his return.  She is obviously having a problem with him leaving for a full year.  I understand that, I'm having a bit of trouble with it as well.  But I wouldn't expect her to see too much of him, his friends are already Jonesing for his time when he gets back.  They all know he's going to be gone for a long time, he is a well-liked and loved person.

In fact, the month of August will be very busy for him.  I can only hope to catch some time with him as it permits.  But he is, at least, a family oriented person and likes to spend time with both mom and dad, so that's cool.  I think the rubber will meet the road at the airport, when he's leaving and it is going to hit us.  He's been gone almost 2 months now as it is, but an entire year is another thing entirely.

Regardless, I am taking the second week off in August in hopes of either going to California with him or at least being able to spend some "quality" time with him.

Work.  New kid has pushed me right up to the line.  One more little push and it's all over.  He has no clue, whatsoever.  No social skills, no social graces, doesn't understand that you can't go around talking to people just anyway you please at work.  Lacking any kind of work ethic, finding new places to hide all the time.  Yet the manager and I are both onto it.  But Friday was enough.  Besides the fact that he spent much of the day finding ways to stay out of work and not do anything, he also challenged me.  I was lifting a heavy, steel coupler and whenever I lift anything heavy, I do the weight-lifting "grunting" noise, I guess you call it.  I started doing that in high school when weight-lifting, something they teach you to do, or at least exhale forcefully, and something I just do when lifting heavier objects.  It helps.  So I did that lifting up that coupling which is when this kid proclaimed loudly: Oh come on now, that thing isn't THAT heavy, I can throw it half way across the yard!!  I dropped the thing right at his fit and told him to go ahead and throw it.

Snotty, obnoxious 23 year old b****.  I wanted to smack him upside the head.  Warned my manager if that guy continues with his s***, don't expect me to just put up with it.  I'm not looking for trouble, but this kid definitely is.  Just tired of it. After almost 3 months of watching him leave messes laying all over the place, cigarette butts on the warehouse floor, not wanting to sweep up anywhere, doing only what the manager asks and then going and hiding, plus mouthing off, I've had enough.

Whatever. It just makes going to work a task, a thing you aren't necessarily looking forward to when such bs is going on.  Management thought they had transferred over a good worker from another branch out east, but this is definitely not the case.  You don't always, really, know what kind of worker you have until they are there, working and doing their thing.  It's just unbelievable to me that this guy thinks it's cool to spend hours every day smoking cigarettes - and doing nothing while he's doing it - or attempting to hide on the forklift on various parts of the property.

K, enough of that.  It's Sunday afternoon and I have done much of nothing today besides going to church.  I haven't felt like doing anything. I didn't do much of anything yesterday, either.  In fact, now that I think of it, I have only eaten a small oatmeal cookie at church this morning today, nothing else.  Yikes.  I've been gaining weight/fat and have decided to cut back on eating/drinking altogether, but yes, I must at least eat something. 

I dunno what else.  Nothing else really.  Well lots of stuff, but I don't feel like going into it.

G'day.

ben

Thursday.  Humid and hot.  Went through yesterday attempting to keep myself from saying anything "negative" to or about anyone.  Was very difficult in the semi, though.  Getting cut off and having people then braking in front of you is maddening when you can't even let out the steam~!

New kid worker - 23 years old I think - is turning into a person that we don't even want to talk to.  If we need to find him now, we just go to the warehouse bathroom where he hangs out, doing nothing.  I don't know how such people can survive in this world.  Maybe just surviving?  Like, no motivation in life to do anything, it shows at work if that's your mindset.  But he doesn't even do the bare minimum.  He just disappears.  We are going to start firing up the furnace when he goes in there and blast him out of that room.

The manager doesn't feel it's his job to have to go finding this dude every 5 minutes to find out what he's doing and he's too busy doing his work to have time for that.

Well fun time here again, time to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

Fry's Food Stores 48th Street & Baseline/Camping Trip

Decided early yesterday morning to go up to the mountains and go to the camp party.

So, I went to Fry's.  This is the same Fry's that I have had endless problems with, mostly very, very poor customer service.

So, I went around and got everything I wanted, about 20 minutes of going from one end of the store to the other and then got in line at the checkout.  I was informed that self-checkout was available.  

No thanks, I'll just wait. I pretty much gave up on self service several months back, too many problems and too many inattentive employees who aren't manning the main station to monitor the activity going on.  

Then the cashier tells me that she will call someone up and points to the register behind her.  Okay.  But I didn't mind waiting, the line wasn't that long. She insisted, so I went over there, put all my stuff on the conveyor belt and waited.  She calls a cashier which never shows up.  Finally, yet another new manager, apparently front-end manager, shows up.  This place goes through managers like a smoke shop goes through packs of cigarettes, it's a bit ridiculous the high turnover. 

She informs me that that register is closed and that I will need to move my stuff to the next one over.  I simply stated that the cashier - right behind me - is the one that told me to come to this line.  She stares at me, shakes her head in disbelief and then informs me that she isn't logged into this register.  Just an unbelievable attitude from a person that I was not giving an attitude to.  I just stared right back.  I had just wasted almost 30 minutes of my time now in walking around the entire store getting my stuff, being invited over to another aisle that I didn't ask for nor did I really want since there was no cashier there, then given an attitude by a new manager that apparently decided that I am a 5 year old to be bossed around.

I contemplated it for a few seconds and then did it.  I just left all that stuff sitting there and I walked out.  I drove 2 miles down the road to another, much larger Fry's and got the same stuff all over again.  I have only had one problem in the past at that Fry's and it wasn't that big of a deal.  

I don't know if I am going to back to this other Fry's that I have been shopping at for almost 8 years now.  It's pretty amazing the attitude of the current general manager there, Christine, who basically doesn't give a rat's @$$ whether customers are happy or not.  That particular Fry's is used as a launching point for GM's to move on to bigger/better stores.  IMO, Christine is the worst excuse for a GM I have ever experienced at any Fry's, she doesn't deserve anything but a demotion.  But whatever.  The sooner they move her out of there, the sooner there will be yet another new GM to take her place and perhaps a bit more customer service oriented.

________________________________________

That's the end of the Fry's story, the rest of this is about other things, you are welcomed to read it if  you so desire, but if you came here on a Google search looking for the Fry's stuff, that was it.

Relatively short drive up there. Something like 130 miles to the campsite.  Spartan showing for a company party/camping adventure, but I suspect it's because it was raining on and off the entire time we were up there.  Especially last night.  I made the mistake of not pumping up the air bed to sleep on, I didn't even try to put up the tent, I just decided to sleep under one of those ramada covers that they had set up on the ground with a sleeping bag.  Bad idea.  Hard ground, lots of rocks, didn't sleep too well. Prince was with me, he didn't sleep well, either.  

But I did have fun and a good time talking with people, especially the widow of the man that was killed earlier this year in a vehicle accident up on I-40 on a company related trip.  She showed me the pics of the pickup he was driving.  Unbelievable. That pickup was totally trashed.  The entire cab was sheered off and the steering wheel was flipped over and is what did him in: it went into his skull and they say he was killed instantly.  For being a woman that just lost her husband 6 or so months ago, she was remarkably well-composed.  She had a lit up box with a pic of her husband in it on a table with a beer next to it.  

Apparently they do these camping trips frequently and they bring George, the deceased man, along with them. 

Well, anyway, I got up early this morning, got my stuff packed, got Prince in the car and headed home, totally exhausted.  I got home in time to take a nap for an hour but couldn't get to sleep, so I took a shower, called Mary who was going to be there as well, and then went to church.  When I got there, it began to rain.  Before I could get out of the car, a downpour of the likes I haven't seen in years around here came out of the sky and I ended up sitting there in the parking lot for 5 minutes waiting for it to subside.  It never did and I ended up getting out of the car in the driving rain and getting wet before I made it to the church door entrance.

It was a good service, but I was yawning all the way through it.  Drove home and saw that aftermath of the storm on the streets in my neighborhood.  The streets are filled with mud, up to 6 inches deep in places!! I guess I won't need to water my plants for a couple of days!

Well, anyway, I took a 2 hour nap this afternoon and woke up feeling better after that.  I then got online and started looking for whale and dolphin watching boating trips out of either LA or San Diego.  My son he wanted to go, he doesn't really like the fishing but he loves being on the boat, I am thinking this time to go on a sightseeing tour instead of fishing.  I don't know though. I have this issue of getting seasick on those small boats and the ONLY thing that I have found that makes me feel better is alcohol.  If I drink enough vodkas and cranberry juices, that feeling goes away and I am right as rain - but also a tad inebriated.  

So I dunno about that, but it's the only thing that works.  I even tried those doctor-prescribed patches last year that you put behind your ear - no effect.  

Umm well whatever.  Another work week looming.  Plenty to do tomorrow, at least and the truck is already loaded, that makes it a bit easier to deal with Monday morning.  I have asked for the second week off of August.  I am pretty sure I will get it.  It's really the only week where I can take Caleb. 

Well, enough.  Just a lazy Sunday afternoon. The drenching downpour means I don't have to go out and water anything.

ben

I was asked yesterday if I was going to go to the camp party up north, in Heber, right near where my son is at the SA camp.  No, I replied, I don't know anything about it.  In fact, no-one at our branch was invited.  As if we somehow intrinsically know everything that is being circulated at the main branch, where this idea came up.  If they don't tell us - phone call; PM; email; face-to-face - we don't know.

I'll come back to that.  Fast forward to this morning.  Woke up with a raging headache.  It happens when I don't get enough sleep for several days in a row.  I was awakened last night by a sneezing Great Dane. He was going at it and let me tell you, that much noise is going to wake just about anyone up.  I couldn't hold it against the dog, but I never really got back to sleep.  So, today at work, I had the headache; I was irritable and cranky and the situation with the new employee?  It doesn't get any better.  Now, he sits in the back of the warehouse, sitting on the forklift, rolling and smoking his cigarettes.

I caught him today.  I pulled into the yard with the semi, he apparently thought I was a freight truck coming in with goods to deliver as he didn't even look up.  I was up on that last warehouse bay before he looked up and saw that it was me.  I just looked away.  I can't stand it.  I can't stand people who want a paycheck but don't want to work for it.  I don't care if he's getting paid lower wages, I was there at one point in my life and I gave it my all.  Always have.  You earn your pay, you don't sit around on your @$$ with whatever is going on in your mind to somehow justify it.

And there is plenty to do around there.  The driveway is covered with rocks again.  I have swept them up or blown them out with a blower several times over.  I don't care about the "work" aspect of it or even if it's hot and humid out there.  Yes, we have humidity here, the monsoons come and so does the humidity, coupled with the high heat.  But whatever, I went inside and figured the manager knew all about it. He doesn't let much get past him.

He asked me what that guy was doing.  Ummmm, sitting on the forklift, rolling a cigarette and smoking it.  Yup, he states, he does that all the time now.  We had a discussion about his lack of desire to do anything.  When I came in this morning, I was met by the operations manager who was there to get his RV trailer.  He came out to the parking lot from the side entrance and asked me if I had just got there or had I been there earlier?  Ummm, no, I just got here, it's my regular start time.  Are you sure? Well, yes, of course I'm sure, why would I come here and then leave?

He then states the alarm hadn't been set.  Oh really?  Well, it's happened before.  It isn't the end of the world, just good that no-one happened to break in during that time.  He says, well that isn't the worst of it.  I had no clue.  We walk around to the side and to the back and he points at the first bay door, which is half way opened.  You see that?  ..........  It was like that when I got here! I immediately took defense of my manager, NO WAY he would EVER leave that door opened before going home.  I intoned that it must have been a salesman.  I ask him where he is going with the trailer.  Oh, just up to the mountains, not bothering  to tell me he's going to the camp thing where allegedly, everyone is invited, everyone but us at this store anyway.

Getting beyond that, and yes it was an inside salesman who had come earlier and left it open "because we were going to be there soon anyway", a contractor comes in and is there for a rather large amount of material.  I printed the order and started pulling it.  I had already been on the forklift attempting to load the truck for the day's deliveries when he had shown up.

So, this new guy comes in at his regular time.  I am inside just getting done with the paperwork, he comes in, signs in and goes outside.  I go outside to start pulling the order and hopefully have this guy help me.  He just stands there.  I am not his boss, I can't and won't bother to try to force him to do anything.  I have tolerance for such people and I would rather just willingly do all the work myself than have someone else helping that is doing it begrudgingly.  I'm working way when the manager shows up.  He goes inside and finds the new guy sitting on the computer, perusing the internet, reading the news.

Why is Ben out there pulling orders and loading the truck and you are in here doing nothing?  He had no reply.

The guy is going to be history.  That's just the way it's going to be.

Remember, I have a raging headache during all of this.  It isn't subsiding and I am attempting to put on a good face while feeling like s*** the entire time.  The next thing I know, this new guy is "going to town" after the manager shows up, of course.  I'm not the manager and my manager doesn't understand why I won't just tell the guy off. It's NOT my place to do that.  It's HIS place to deal with this stuff, that's how it works.  That's why you have management, to deal with everything including the negatives.  I CAN tell this guy what to do, but I would rather just do my thing and let this guy dig his own hole.  The hole is pretty much dug and soon, if he doesn't change his work attitude, his days at our company are numbered.

I get back from a rather elongated run and then start discussing with my manager about going up there. He's going with is girlfriend, asking me if I'm going.  I thought not at first, but that's because I don't really like half the people (at least) that are going.  There is only on God that I know of, and it doesn't include any of them though several of them certainly act like they are sitting on the Throne.

But tonight, I have had a change of heart.  The Lord.  Perhaps you should get over yourself, I think I hear being said or something to that matter, and just go up there and enjoy the beauty of my creation?

You can argue with God if you want, but realistically, you aren't going to win.  If you choose to ignore Him, then I guess, but other than that, you are done and toast, might as well just do it and go with a good attitude.
But I had no plans to go up north this weekend.  Mary's son can't go because of Mary's situation, though that has really been sort of resolved, it is too late to do anything about getting gates and going up there to install them.  So I had completely put that out of my mind and had just decided to stay home, go to church on Sunday, get some stuff done around here and that's it.  Besides the fact that all these other people going have had this idea - on their table - for a while now and have had time to prepare. So tomorrow morning, I will decide one way or the other whether I am going to drive all the way up there.

Meanwhile, I talked to Caleb via Facebook.  We talk on the phone sometimes, other times he writes me messages.  I caught him today after he had just sent me a message and we got into a conversation.  He was telling me the dates of his California trip - he will be gone from the 2cd until the 10th. So, apparently, the day he gets back from camp he is also leaving for California.

It also conflicts with mom's attempt to have a party with the family for him up at her property, of which I promptly notified her.  We'll try for the next weekend. Which is cool, I hope he can see his extended family before he leaves for Hawaii, but I had something pressing on my mind to ask him while I had him on the line.  Do you want to go on our annual boat trip?  If you have time and you want to, great, if you don't it's cool.  I don't want to pressure him, but at the same time, he loves going out on a boat on the ocean.  He was all over that.  No, he replies, I don't have anything going on during that week and I would love to go!

I have already asked for that entire week off.  I am going to get some quality time in with my son if at all possible before he is gone for an entire year.

I don't know, but it's starting to get late - my version of it anyway.  I am staying up a bit to get nice and sleep and hopefully get some shuteye tonight.  I won't drive up there tomorrow if I wake up feeling the way I did today.  I forced myself out of bed, into the shower and out of the bedroom this morning, a sheer act of will that defied everything that was raging within me to simply stay in bed and go back to sleep.

G'nite.

ben

I wrote this on my Facebook wall this morning - it came to me through the Spirit and I felt compelled to write it and so, I am going to post it here as well:

Forgiveness. It's something that mankind finds so hard to do. Holding grudges and unforgiveness in the heart is so much easier. You can dwell in it every day, let it stew within your spirit and let it rot at your very inner being. You can let it take over your entire life to the point that it is mostly all that you think about. You can become so embroiled in it that nothing else in life matters and people start to steer clear of you because it's written all over you. It is that obvious to others when it consumes you. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is freedom from prison. It releases you and that person or all of those people from the bars that bind you. To not forgive is to simply continue to hold you in a prison of your own making, an internal hell that never goes away.

 What was amazing about this, to me anyway, is that people were copying and pasting it to their own Facebook wall.  I'm not talking Facebook "share" function, though 2 people did that as well, it was going down Facebook wall among and seeing this thing had been copied and pasted so many times over.  I started wondering if this paragraph of words had spoken to them or if they were posting it in the hopes a friend of theirs might see it.  

I purposely left out Scripture in this particular instance.  The concept of forgiveness is obvious in Christianity, but I have so many FB "friends" that do not profess Christ as Savior and the thought came to me to leave that out.  So I did.  If someone else brings it up, so beit.  I freely admit that I almost never unfriend Facebook people because as far as I see it, many of them are an open mission field.  There are less than a handful of instances that I have unfriended people and that for very extreme circumstances.  

And to the opposite end of thing, I have been unfriended at least 8 times in the last 2 weeks, lol, for my "religious" or political posts.

_______________________________

My dad is blowing off coming up here to see Caleb.
But there's a good reason for it.
One of my uncles/his brother is dying and is only expected to have a few more months to live.  Multiple Sclerosis.

Detroit has filed for bankruptcy. Sounds bad, but in reality?  Best thing that could have happened to that city as long as they can also dump all that debt to pension funds along with it.  Union leaders refused to negotiate with the state appointed manager that was sent to try to bail out the city, now those unions may end up getting screwed altogether.  Unions, don't get it. They never seem to care about the fact that their unrelenting stance can end up hurting them as well as everyone else.  That city is in a shambles, hope they can "fix" it.

Friday.  Long work week.  Just long.  Hot, I guess is the operative word here.  Middle of July, so about halfway through the worst of it.  About the end of August the temps start coming down, though September is still usually quite warm, not as hot as June, July and August.  Long ways off from that, though.

Anyway, time to get offa here and get to work!

G'day.

ben

Work. Irritating.  The new kid working there - he's 23 but in terms of work ethic or follow-through, he's a juvenile in every sense of the word.

Lazy, doesn't listen and sloppy.  Sits on the internet at work half the day and smoking the rest.  At least that's what it appears like when I'm there - more on the road than anything.  But my manager kept him outside all day long, putting this kid into a "big-time penalty box".  I just have little respect for someone that doesn't want to put forth any effort unless the manager has directly tell them to do something. There is plenty to do around there, it's  just stuff he doesn't want to do, such as sweeping the rocks up off the asphalt.

But this morning was enough. He had several different types of pipe stacked up in piles, all in a line.  Well a contractor showed up this morning needing 500 feet of some of the pipe in that line of pipe.  I couldn't get at it without either having to move a LOT of pipe or attempting to slide it out sideways.  I got it out sideways, but geeze.  After finishing that project - I get there before anyone else and if there are contractors at the door, I take care of them and get them whatever they need - I go to the semi to find the cheater bar has been dumped on top of one of the fuel tanks.  Scratches all over everything,  my manager would NEVER do anything like that: New kid.

I was starting to get extremely irritable about all of this and then come to find he was also supposed to have 3 huge fittings ready to go, which he didn't .  My irritation came out to him after that, but I withheld the worst of it: Please put that thing on a pallet and load it on the truck, said in curt, short way intended to let him know that his lack of desire to do much of anything around there was getting noticed by everyone in the place and outside the place as well.

I'm going to discuss with my manager to keep that kid OUT and AWAY from the semi. He can bash things against the semi trailer all he wants, either nothing or very little will happen to hit, but the tractor? Get the freak off the thing and stay AWAY from it.  I respect the equipment whether it's mine or not, I always have and I always will treat it like it's my own.

The list goes on of the things this guy does - that he has been instructed not to do - the manager I do believe is ready to start writing him up.

Well whatever.  My friend's condition is so bad now that her son is the only way she gets around, she can't drive half the time she can't even stand up and for all the visits to the doctor, she hasn't gotten any kind of diagnosis.  I invited her to come to my church on Sunday.  I believe she is under demonic attack and I also believe that all of that can be put down.  She committed to coming regardless of how she feels.

Invite to go up to the high country for a campout this weekend.  Invite denied.  Too much going on down here and anyway, if I were going to go, it would be with that family up to mom's property.  Not that I wouldn't mind going on a regular tent-style camping trip. but it's just not in the cards this weekend - or if it were, I would have to leave on Sunday morning, early, to get back to church in time.  I might consider it now that I think of it, I won't discount it, I just don't know if I want to go through all the prep work of doing a regular camping trip for only a overnight.  Better to do that on an extended weekend on holiday, I think. Oh, this was a work invite - like a lot of people going up from work to get away from the heat and - allegedly - enjoy each other's company, lol.

August Vegas trip cancelled. My tenant's girlfriend's condition has not improved and she is still going to be on extended leave through August. Which bothers me not, I am still attempting to come up with a plan for August with my son, but some dates are unknown and I can't really do anything until he gives them to me.

Ummm, late.  Got home from work - late.  I'm done for the day, time to get ready to go to bed.

ben

It's funny the places they put water reservoir tanks.  Like, frequently, out in the middle of the desert, in the middle of nowhere.  They inform me, usually, that there is water under the ground there and hence, they install a tank and pumps and filters and all of that and walaah, fresh, clean drinking water.  Well, that's the claim, anyway and that where I am at right now.  In the middle of the desert, lol.  They've got the water tank up but they have nothing else done yet.  Lot of valves, pipe and pumps to put in.

I was talking with my friend last night and she is adamant that I take her Suburban with the gates up north and another trip with her son.  We're slating that for 2 weekends from now.  No, I guess it's 3 since I am including the weekend that starts after work today.  2 weeks, anyway.  If I don't find any used gates by then, then I guess I will just have to see about getting them at Home Depot or Lowe's. Or now that I think of it, lots of places selling those chain link gates, start checking prices.


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Long interlude.  Manager was jonesing to get me off work early today.  But it was a non-happening-event (that's a benb original right there).  I was way out east at 2 job sites and then drove clear downtown to the main branch and spent 2 hours there loading the truck up and the off to 2 different vendors, one of which took FOREVER to get the fire hydrants I was there to pick up.  They have one dude there taking care of however many customers show up at once and there were 2 ahead of me.  Not really complaining, though, it's part of the business of getting things: wait, wait, wait.

But after all that time waiting a dust storm started showing up to the east! They are now calling that Habubs, whatever, they are dust storms, that's what they were in the 70's, 80's, 90's and into the 2000's.  Not until recently they apparently wanted to give them some "name".  Well whatever the case, this one was over 3,000 feet high and visible for many miles away.  I was like, dude, get that stuff and get it on the truck!! Hurry! Lol, I didn't want to be outside in that s***.

________________________________

Sorta skipped out on this entry, coming back to it a day and a half later.  Sunday morning. Church in less than 2 hours.  Was going to get a fence gate for the property off of Craigslist, but after I realized how far the drive was to get it and the savings maybe $15 over buying new, I canned that idea.  Might as well drive 2 miles to get them new - this seller was 35 to 40 miles away.  By the time you factor in fuel and the time it would take to get there and back, no savings at all, thanks for playing.

It's simple, really.  If I don't find them used before next weekend, I will be buying them new.  I would rather find them used at a much cheaper price, but so far there hasn't been any save the one in Litchfield.

Not much else going on - currently.  I'm attempting to get some dates from my son as to when he will and will not be here so I can take a week off work next month when he will be around and spend some time with him. Getting him to get dates is like pulling teeth, however, and I have been trying for a while now.  I'm gonna give up on it and just blow it off and save my vacation for some other time if he doesn't get me some dates soon, cause' I can't take a week off work without giving a good advanced notice.  Other drivers may opt to put in for the time I might need and hence another reason to find out soon.  But if he won't do it, he won't do it.  I wrote him another FB message earlier to ask him if he can please get that date.  Not to mention my mom is wanting to throw him a party up at the property up north, which he said he wants to go to, yet we have no idea whether he will even be in town on the date she is proposing.

Zimmerman is not guilty and of course those that wanted him found guilty are up in arms, crying foul and even going as far as to say that "America has betrayed us".  I'm surprised there hasn't been any rioting yet.  Sharpton - man with the mouth - calling on the Justice Department to do it's own investigation.  Sorry, Charlie, the jury is in, the verdict has been rendered and as far as I can remember, persons charged with murder and found not guilty cannot be tried again or as it is called: Double Jeopardy (great movie, btw).  Zimmerman is not off the hook entirely.  In reality, where in this nation will he ever feel safe?  His face pic has been plastered all over the news, unendingly, for quite a long time.  Unless you don't watch or read any news at all, you likely have seen his face.  People with revenge on their minds?  You know there are.  He'll have to live with that thought in his head the rest of his life and be looking over his shoulder.

I'm far more interested in the Asiana crash but little new material has been put out in the last several days about it.  But then again, the NTSB usually take a very long time to come to a factual and final conclusion about any air crash disaster.  But, to read the experts - one would conclude that this is a case of pilot error.  Plain and simple and unfortunately, 2 people had to die because of it and a multitude more injured, some seriously, plus a what, $100 million airplane destroyed.  I take that back, just looked it up, closer to the $300 million range!! Wow!!  I was reading a 26 year pilot yesterday online who was stating that airplanes really don't have a shelf life.  Older planes may have more maintenance to do, but for all intents and purposes, they can be kept in service almost indefinitely.

Too bad they don't do that with cars.  Of course, if such a car existed, I wonder what the price tag would be for it, lol.


Enough.

ben

Bank fiasco.  Chase bank sends me a text message yesterday - and how they did that I don't know because texting is shut off on the company phones - stating that I was a "victim of possible fraudulent activity" on my account.  Long story short? Someone is still trying to use the debit card number from my old card whose number was compromised and a person sent themselves 2 Western Union checks. Well the card was deactivated months ago. I called Chase who stated that there was nothing going on with that card.  They then call me 2 hours later and ask me if I tried to use that card.

Of course not, it doesn't work!!  They read off the names of 2 websites that a person tried to purchase stuff on, no, I reply, I did not do that and I don't have automatic withdrawals.  I don't DO automatic withdrawals for a plethora of reasons.

Getting stranger by the hour, my dad calls me another hour or two after that.  I don't get calls from my dad, we pretty much just communicate via email.  He states  that "Caleb" (my son) had called him earlier in the morning saying that he had been driving around in his car with his friends last night, that they had all gotten drunk and he was pulled over, arrested for DUI and possession of drugs and that he needed 2 grand to get out of jail.

I immediately informed my dad that it must be a hoax and you did not give them any money, did you?  No, he replied, he instead asked "Caleb" if he had called his dad first.  No, was the reply, he didn't want to make me mad.  Well, my dad replies, are you still up at the camp?  The person is not Caleb, they have no clue how to respond to the ensuing questions my dad gives, who is intimately aware of what is going in Caleb's life since I update him frequently about it.  The person eventually hung up on him and I asked my dad to please send me the phone number that the call was made from.  Though, likely a pay phone or throwaway cell phone type of thing that can't be traced back to the person.

Weird.  I then proceeded to inform the rest of my family in case this person tried it on them and also tried to call Caleb - just to be sure.  He didn't answer, but not unexpected, he doesn't have time during the day to make phone calls up there at that camp, the whole thing keeps him very busy.  I then called the camp's main number and asked a simple question: Is Caleb there?  A lady replies yes, Caleb works here.  No, I reply, that's not the question, is he there?  I went on to explain who I am and why I was calling.  OH, she replied, yes, we just saw him a little under an hour ago and that SAME thing happened to MY grandmother!

Okay, sigh of relief.  He's not in jail, Caleb doesn't do drugs or alcohol - as far as I know anyway - he's pretty much sold out to the Lord Jesus Christ and gives no place for such thing in his life.

Friday.  Payday.  Weekend looming.  Waiting for it to ever rain here in our alleged "Monsoon Season".  Which has done nothing but bring high humidity along with high temps to made it feel really  miserable outside.  Whatever the case, it's time to be off to work!

ben

Fed-Ex Driver - Please Find A New Career

I don't know if it's been the same driver that has thrown deliveries all over the place over the years.  I'm assuming it is not, but in case it is? That guy or lady needs to find something else to do to earn a living.

The latest fiasco were my speakers.  I bid one penny on a set of computer speakers on Ebay - that had no reserve on it - and I won.  $7 shipping.  I come home from work and notice out of the corner of my eye a piece of paper lying on the ground next to the wall.  I pick it up, it's a notice from Fed Ex saying that my package was delivered and hand written that it was left behind the east gate.

This delivery driver put this rather large box directly on top of my central AC condenser.  Let me paint the picture for you. The condenser is the big thing outside where the hot freon comes through to be cooled off.  It returns from a gaseous state back to a liquid state.  So is my understanding of such.  On my condenser, a fan motor is attached to the top of the condenser with a fan blade.  The fan pulls the air through the lines filled with freon that go round and round it and blows it out the top of the unit.

Yup, that box was blocking 95% of the air coming out of there.  Fex Ex is lucky that there was no damage, but I am going to call my AC company anyway and ask them about it.  Overheating the system will, at the very least, eventually shut it down.  I don't know how long that box had been sitting there.

I once found a 10k check that had been thrown over the wall on that side of the house as well.  There was NO notification to be found anywhere that that is what that person had done with it. It has been sitting there for at least a day.   I found a box with Christmas cards that I had ordered in it, laying in my front yard.  It was raining.  The cardboard box was soaked, the envelopes inside the box were ruined.

At this point, I am not a big fan of Fed Ex.  Even our company mostly relies on UPS - both the small package service and the freight service - over Fed Ex.  Once in a while we have a Fed Ex freight truck come in, mostly not.

_________________________

There will be no more mention of Fex Ex in this blog entry, so if you came here to find that, you need not read more as the rest of this is concerning other venues in my life.  You are welcomed to read, of course, but just warning you.

Gates.  The 2 gates I need for the property up north.  I think I can order them online through Home Depot and have them sent up there to there store in Payson.  Same thing as the T stakes, I don't want to haul them up there hanging out the back of my car.  It's about 22 miles from the Home Depot to my mom's property, I can deal with that much easier.  I am not sure I want to go up there again this weekend, though.  Once a month, maybe twice, is plenty for me going up there.

My son is doing okay at the youth camp, but he informed me via Facebook the other day that leadership is unhappy and down about the condition of the camp.  They bring in counselors from all over the place through Salvation Army churches that recommend them - but they never really know WHAT they are getting until the people show up unless they have been there before.  I spent a while on Facebook writing him back my version of Biblical reference and response to such situation and hoped it would help him. I also posted something on my wall asking for my Christian FB friends to pray for all of them up there. The next day, my ex-wife wrote me asking me to take it down.  Apparently, the FB is very strict about things and probably won't want everyone knowing that camp isn't going as well as they would like.  I kinda thought it paranoia on my ex-wife's part - she gets that way here and there - but as a precaution I took it down.  Probably too late anyway since my posts show up on my son's wall.

Oh well.  My intentions were completely pure: to PRAY for ALL of them. Some of my FB freinds are definitely prayer warriors and I know that regardless, they have already been praying about this situation.

So, anyway, August is coming quickly.  And August is going to be busy.  Ummm, but I think I'll save that for another post.

The extreme heat is taking it's toll on certain types of my plants.  Especially the Elephant Ear plants.  They have been slowly withering away from the edges of the massive leaves inward.  The only hope for them is that they do, indeed, continue to grow out fresh leaves, but summer is still on for quite a while, I don't know if they are going to survive it or not  Some of my honeysuckle is actually just burning, the leaves are turning brown from the intensity of both the direct sunlight and the heat.

We are in Monsoon season, though I have yet to see any of it, at least in the valley. Got a nice taste of rain up in the mountains last weekend, but we need the rain HERE as well.  Nuff said, but the humidity is up, that doesn't feel too good with high heat but the Elephant Ear plants like it.

I'm no pilot, no expert, but I do want to know how it is that a plane can be going too slow and the pilots apparently didn't recognize it?  The Asian Air jet that crashed on the tarmac.  I know they are saying they had the thing on auto-throttle, but isn't there an air speed indicator right in front of their faces? Is this not something that at least one of the pilots should be watching, especially while landing? That's a big price to pay to rely completely on technology and not really - do the job you are paid well to do.  Or at least, that is how it appears.  I am sure the NTSB will eventually come out with a ruling/statement on this disaster and that will hopefully not only uncover what happened, but also cause' yet another change in that industry, if needed, for the better.

Zimmerman? Shadow of a doubt? Plenty, as far as I can see.  I don't see how a jury can convict him with the evidence that has been presented - as viewed in the news anyway.

And then there's politics, of which I am not going to go into now.  Exacerbating.  Though there was a quip about the cost of Obamacare going to be much more than previously stated. Duhhhhh. I have been saying this since they were still debating it - whatever price they stated, quadruple it or even use 8 or 10 as a multiplier.  It's the government, we all know what happens when the government gets involved with something like this - or anything, really.

Switching back, I just sent my son an FB note about everything that's coming up and good thing he's young and full of energy, because he has a very full plate coming up, as if it isn't already full as it stands.  But I also threw in that I would love to take him to Cali again and do another boat trip.  I hate those small boats because for whatever reason, I start getting sea sick, a thing that never happened when I was younger.  I do hope that doesn't translate into flying as well!!  I didn't want to pressure him, but if he wants to go, I will be down for it - even if I start getting sick.  I think I will try to find a larger boat to go on if we do go and maybe the tossing about in the sea won't have such ill effect on me.

I think that's enough for one entry.  : )

ben

The Truth Of The Matter

So here's the whole story behind the "person" I took with me up to the property in the mountains.

I have a friend.  I have known her since we were teenagers, though there was a good 20 - 25 year period we had no communication at all. Facebook actually brought us back together again.  We talked for a while on Facebook and then I went to her house several times a year or more ago and was visiting her and her kids.  She has a daughter and a son, both teenagers.

She is divorced and I guess the dad isn't exactly a good role model.  I wouldn't know, to be honest, I met him once and was only there for a few minutes and there is no way of me coming up with my own, good judgment of the character of the man without spending much more time around him - of which I have no desire to do so a non sequitur.

Well, we kinda drifted off again, though talked sporadically online through Facebook here and there.  She calls me up a week or so ago and tells me she has some medical condition that doctors so far haven't been able to diagnose.  It leaves her dizzy and having to lay down and not being able to do much of anything.  Sounded like vertigo to me, but supposedly they ruled it out.

Well, the first thing she asks me is she has a favor to ask me.  No clue.  Out of the blue. Keep an open mind, so I said, "well, okay, what do you neet?".  She goes into this situation where her son does not have any male input into his life - apparently dad isn't around much and when he is, it's not exactly a good male role model - and would I be able to take him up to the property with me to help install the fence?  I don't know how she even knew I was going to install a fence up there, I have been wanting to do it but I wanted help, actually.  I have said something about that fence here on my blog, but she doesn't know about this blog - I don't really spread this around too much to anyone.  I'm not interested in having the entire world reading it.  I feel a bit more liberty to speak freely here than I would in much other internet venues and that simply because I don't go around telling people, "hey, read my blog, it's really cool!".

In reality, it is long, drawn out and reveals a lot of me and what is going on inside of me.  But I do have some really cool readers that have been coming for a long time : )

Apprehension at first.  I don't really know this kid.  He's  17 years old and she is basically going to force him to go up there with me.  I'm wondering what kind of time I am going to have with a person that might not even want to be there and being together with a person that he doesn't know, either, for an entire weekend and on top of that, having to visit my good friend, Manual Labor, for much of it.  But I pretty much decided quickly that the help would be good, if the help was good, lol, in putting that fence up.

Let's fast forward beyond the in-between stuff and all the talk.  I show up at their house on Friday afternoon, I'm ready to go.  I had talked to him before but not at any great length and it had been a while.  We have lunch at Mary's house and then leave.  I was very quickly put at ease with this kid.  A really cool kid, in the Boy Scouts and going for the Eagle Scout ranking.  That says something in itself.  You aren't going to be doing that with a bad attitude or whatever, which is what I was afraid of.  Great personality, we hit it off, talked the entire time drive up there.  Arrived at the property and I had a lot to do.  Not putting up the fence, either, that was to wait until the next day. I'm talking all the stuff to get everything fired up and running.

He was glad to see that I have satellite TV up there, namely, Direct TV with a lot of channels. We ended up watching The Walking Dead - zombie show but realistic, much more so than much of it's predecessors, and then realized they don't have TV at their house. Basically, if you want TV anymore, you have to pay for it.

Anyway, Saturday morning comes around, I have to go to Payson to get those T stakes, they call them, those are the green stakes you will see along highways with barbed wire fence attached to them.  But, I was installing a metal version of fencing painted green. It's the same as the fencing going around my mom's trailer up there and she wants everything to look the same, which I don't blame her and didn't bother me, isn't any more expensive than chain link so no big deal.  Well, we get into town, get those stakes, get some stuff for the tire for the wheelbarrow to fix it, get some breakfast and then had back.

But we took another route back and it took quite a while, but we passed right by the entrance to one of the scout camps he goes to during the summer.

Anyway, we got the entire fence up and ready to use excepting the gates, which I don't have. We also installed a weather-proof electrical outlet cover, semi-permanently installed the satellite dish and other things. I have no idea whether I had any good "influence" on him and I'm not sure that this kid needed it anyway.  But, moms tend to see things that others won't and she thought it important for him to have some male influence beyond his regular life which is, during the summer and when away from the Boy Scouts, mostly on the computer.

Got quite a lot more done this weekend than I expected.  But, that's because I had help, lol.
And now? The weekend just about over. Brought back a steak and some salad that was leftover from last night's meal, I don't have to cook anything for dinner : )

ben

I'm finally up in the mountains with my recruit, who is going to help me install the stakes in the ground to put the fence up.  It was an interesting drive because after picking up my helper, I was far out east and ended up taking a different road to get to the main highway that gets us up here.  The road took us by a river and a lake plus the speed limit was only 45 mph for quite a ways.  I had not driven up that way in a couple of decades - at least and had forgotten how beautiful it was in that area.

It is where everyone goes to go tubing down the river.  I used to do that in a different life, lol, I'm not really into that kind of thing any more.  I do, however, still like river rafting, that's a whole different ball of wax but I haven't done that in a long time either.

Anyway, mother said there was fencing materials on the side of the outhouse. Yes, but none of it useful for this project save on stake.  I will need at least 14 more.  I am going to have to figure out the layout of where I want the fence to run and then I can determine how many posts I will need.  I'm kind of wary, though, about this whole thing because my mother is not up here now and I would hate to put this whole thing up and then have her not like the layout.  Gag.  No choice, I'm here, my helper is here and fully intend on taking full advantage of his presence here, which is solely for the use of helping me install these posts.

Whatever the case, the weather up here is absolutely beautiful.........but no rain.  Blaaaaaah.  It showed it was raining in this area earlier today on the weather radar, but that apparently has completely passed.  Still, it's a good 20 degrees cooler - at least and that's good enough in itself.

Well, it's almost 9 pm and yes, that's close enough to my weekend bedtime.  Still like to go to bed relatively early and get up - early - on weekends.  I only brought Duke with me this time, though, there wasn't enough room for 3 dogs in the car plus another person and all the rest of what I had to bring up with me.

Anyway, enough.

ben

4th of July

Happy 4th of July/Independence Day to all that celebrate it.

Upon looking at the fence posts necessary to install the wire fencing, I decided that I would have to purchase  them up in Payson.  I would not be able to load those things into the car along with everything else I take up with me, plus they will be hanging out the back of the trunk of the car.  I have no desire to haul fence posts that far with them hanging out like that.

So I asked a person at the Home Depot if they had a store in Payson.  She gave me a blank look.  I repeated: Do you have a store in Payson?  I had never seen one there, but that doesn't mean they don't have one.  Payson what?  She didn't even know Payson is a town in Arizona, in fact, she thought Payson was some sort of material that they sell.

Lol.  No worries, I said, it's a town up north in the mountains, I'll just look it up online when I get home.  Though, I thought, I would rather know now in case they don't have one up there, I will have to reassess whether I want to buy them down here and haul them up there. The woes of not having a pickup truck, is all I can say about that.

And yes, there is a Home Depot store in Payson, Arizona.  It is further up the road that takes me into Payson than I normally go, I end up turning onto the 260 going Northeast instead of heading north on the 87, hence the fact that I didn't know there was one off of the 87 further north.  Anyway, I can empty the trunk up at the property and then head back into Payson and get the stakes.  It's kind of a working weekend coming up, up there, not really a lazy affair.  But I need to get this done.  I won't be able to finish all of it, though, I still need to get a chain link gate to install and I don't want to pay store prices for one.  I would rather find one on Craigslist and take it up with me on another trip up there.

I'm not necessarily looking forward to this project, it's just something that needs to be done.   I have put it off long enough and I am going to have someone helping me with it, so I don't really have to endure all this by myself, lol.

As for today, no lazy day.  I was going to go to the pastor's house for their cookout but I have too much to do here.  Just no time for it.  I was at the last couple of them, not like I am dissing the social scene here.  But I have to say, your internal clock sure takes a beating when it think it's the weekend - today would be Saturday by it's accounting, and then find out you have to wake up early in the morning for another day of work.  And what a waste going to work tomorrow will be. Sure, we can pull the orders for Monday delivery, but that will only take a small amount of time. There are a lot of orders going to the same place, but they are small orders and all should fit in the back of the pickup truck.  Most contractors aren't working and if they do make orders, undoubtedly they will be going out on Monday, not a Friday delivery.

Oh well.  I would have taken the day off if I could have.  In such case, I would have gone up to the property today and had much more time to do most of this project, though if I get all the fence posts in, that is the brunt of it right there.  Putting up the fencing is relatively easy work compared to that and installing a gate hopefully not too terribly hard, either.

Been a while since I've heard anything from my son.  He has never been particularly good at calling parents when he has been up at that camp before, I didn't expect a big change this year, either, though it gives a taste of things to come.  When he's in Hawaii, is he ever going to call us?  Even for a 5 minute phone call?  I have always kept in contact with my parents because I have read continuously, over and over, of parents whose kids have basically "abandoned" them, rarely calling them, send a card at Christmas and oh well.

Long interlude.  Almost time for bed.  Will be a long day tomorrow what with work and then coming home and loading up the car and then going and getting the other person and then driving up north.  I hope to get off work early, but at least if I can get off by 2:00 pm that will work.  Shouldn't be a problem since there will be very little to do.

I am going to take one dog up there with me, I haven't decided which.  Well,  okay, I am not going to take the little one.  It's going to be one of the Danes.  I can't take both, I don't think, cause' the bed they usually lay on will be used by my helper going up there.  I don't have dogs sleeping on my bed with me - ever.  Well, not in decades anyway.  I have sleeping problems and dogs move around a lot at night.  That would just keep me up all night long.

Enough.

G'nite.

ben

Wednesday

Still paying for yesterday's gambit in the mine.  I went to bed with a terrible headache, at least that is gone but I still don't feel right.

Well, finish out today's work and then a day off tomorrow, back to work on Friday and then the weekend. It kinda messes with your sync to have a day off and then go right back to work and then off again.  Good chance that on Friday, there will be nothing to do as the contractors I have spoken with have stated they are having a 4 day weekend.  There is no point, IMO, in opening up a store that will have nothing in terms of customers, but our company does this a lot.

But at least there's plenty to do today and all that machinery is still on the truck - got back too late to take it downtown to have it removed.  We can't remove it at our yard, our forklift can't handle the weight and anyway, they deal with that stuff downtown.

Short one here. I was reading about the fallen firefighters, new info coming out and now a team of investigators headed to the scene to try and determine what happened and if there was anything they should have done differently.

G'day.

ben