I finally started weight training again this week.
The temps have come down enough that there are no more excuses.
What happens when you let a lot of time pass and then start over again?
You can't lift near as much as you used to!
No wonder my chest was getting flabby!
Give it a few months, that should begin to reverse itself.

Actually, you begin to see results relatively quickly, but anything noticeable takes more time than that.

The misses has worse sleeping issues than I do, which is amazing in itself.
She is also a light sleeper, but apparently doesn't embrace the idea of white noise, such as having a fan running or using ear plugs.  Well I am going to start talking her into it.

Anyway, I am going to pay tomorrow for the workout today, I can already tell that!  My chest and arm muscles will probably be sore!

As for today: I really do NOT want to spend 2 more hours walking around handing out flyers today, but the time to leave to go do it is fast approaching and I will have to make up my mind within the next half hour.  Arrrrgh.  Not that there's anything worthy staying home for.......

G'day.

ben

This is all uncharted territory for me.
Regardless, I found my hotel accommodations for cheap in a newer hotel.
I do hope the place isn't a dive, but the pics at least make it look like it's a decent place.
I'll find that out in a little over 3 weeks.
They give extended stay pricing when staying 7 or more days, which brings the price WAY down.

So, it's Friday.
Bonus showed up in my bank account.
As expected, the Federal Government took out a whopping $600 of it.  Pretty good for an entity that is shutting itself down.  It's a bit disappointing to see them take that much out of it, did they work for that money? How did it come about that the Feds get to take a whopping 40% of a bonus that I worked my @$$ off to get?

I want to find out when that particular piece of s*** was instituted, who did it and what excuse they came up with to take that large of a chunk of a person's check.

Weekend is almost here, I only had planned to go out and hand out flyers with the rest of everyone else tomorrow, but if pink eye is still an issue, I won't go.  Yes, I have pink eye and everyone knows it's highly contagious and I don't want to be around other people and their kids and potentially pass it on.  Not sure about that one yet.

I am going to go to a few garage sales and see if I can find a larger suitcase.  I don't travel much anymore and I do not have a large suitcase.  I don't want to spend a small fortune on a piece of luggage that may or may not get much use, who knows.  What I do know is that the small suitcase I have is not large enough for a week's worth of clothing!

Today and by now already started or they are heading that way, is the trucker shut down of the D.C. loop.  It's an interesting idea, but the reality of it is - truckers, stay home for a week.  All of us.  Call in sick, do whatever, just stay home.  Turn off the trucks, that will do more than just get attention.

Whatever, enough.
The lady isn't feeling well this morning, she only got 3 hours of sleep last night, so she's not too talkative, at least this early, lol.

G'day

ben

I never understood people that were "hopelessly" lost in love.  Not that I didn't think it was cool, or wonderful, I just couldn't relate.

I am hopelessly lost in a land of love that I have never known before.  I don't even understand it, it is beyond the mind.  Analytic thinking serves no purpose.  I can only think of her. She consumes my mind all day long.  When I wake up at night - which I always do - she is the first thing that comes to my mind. When I wake up in the morning. On the way to work. At work.  When people are talking to me.

I can never remember a time loving anyone like this.  Only when I found the Lord and still love Him, but that is a different love and on a much different level - though greater, yes.  God first.  

She is so beautiful and lovely.  Intelligent and motivated.

I am lost.

So, my next-door-neighbor returned yesterday from Michigan.
One of my tenants was out there showing him the video I took of his neighbor on the other side installing the fence parts on the already installed posts that have been sitting there like that for - a couple of years now I think.
I went over and visited with him for quite a while.  I will not go into specifics of that conversation since this blog is not limited to anyone finding it and if that creep that lives next door to him has found it, well, you won't get any information here.  But the conversation eventually steered off of that situation and onto other things, such his property up north of which he has plenty of photos of, pretty remarkable and beautiful place.

Time will tell what will become of the situation with that war and the fence and the stolen property.  Even the Bible, in the Old Testament, has some pretty strong language about neighbors moving property lines and/or attempting to take land from their neighbors.  I'll have to find the specific scripture to refresh my memory.

14 “You must not move the stones that mark your neighbor’s property. People put them there in the past to mark each person’s property. These stones mark the land that the Lord your God gave you.

That's one of the scriptures but not the one I was thinking of.  Maybe look it up later.  

As for the lady, well, we haven't backed off from each other one iota.  It only continues to intensify as the days pass.  But I still have this "guard" up until I meet her in person.  I don't want a huge letdown if that is even possible, but it is possible and anything can happen.  

I am not going to go too far with this entry today, my keyboard is messing up for some reason.  Time to replace it. It stops working, then starts, then stops, gotta get a new one.

G'day.

ben

Sunday.
We talked via FB messages all day long yesterday.
Excepting the 1-1/2 hour time with my pastor at Smashburger.
I do love Smashburger!!
But I wanted to submit all of this going on to him for prayer and godly counsel.
Because the lady and I are both Christians, we had already set some pretty distinct
boundaries in terms of where conversations can go and such, so everything I told pastor
didn't raise any alarm bells with him.
It was a good meeting and in the end - bypassing a lot of conversation going back and forth -
he said he would discuss with his wife and they would "bathe this in prayer".

That's a good thing.  It's amazing how busy pastors stay all week long!  I think his day off is Monday.

Anyway, pastor asked if we were planning on meeting - encouraging it actually - because you don't really know if 2 people have that spark until they actually meet in person.  So yes, I have purchased the airfare.  I spent days looking around for the cheapest I could find and finally found a flight that goes through Houston instead of Dallas and saves a lot of money in doing so.  Almost 3 hour layover in Houston, though.  Oh well.  Then a short flight to a small airfield one town away from where she lives.  I was going to catch a bus for the rest of the trip but she said she would come get me since it isn't that far away.

I should have bought the insurance, but it forces me to go, lol.  The date for the days off are on the work calendar and so it's a go.  I asked her somewhat pointedly yesterday if she really was ready for me to come out, cause' honey, I'm buying the tickets and there's no turning back after that.

Onto other things.  Such as Safe Driver Award bonus.  I have to make it until January to get it.  That means no tickets, no warnings from ADOT or other police agencies and that also means attempting to make it just short of 3 more months to get it.  Never any guarantees.  I have been eye-balled in the semi numerous times by ADOT officers sitting on the side of the freeways, looking for their next victim.  You see them looking at you and then you start to get nervous.  The thing that might save me is that I am driving a brand new tractor and yes, it looks brand new.  It's clean, it's shiny and it is obviously not 10 years old.  The mal factor in this is that our company has a bad rating in the CSA system so ADOT officers are inclined to pull over any of our trucks that they see.

Well whatever.  I'm not stressing over it.  Haven't been pulled over in the semi in 3 years as of November.

My current dilemma:  I gotta get back into the habit of using cologne!  Ha.  I don't smell bad, take showers every day and all that, don't get me wrong, but I am going to want to put on something that smells good when I go to see her.  I haven't used cologne in so long, I don't even know where to begin!  I, uhhhh, go to a store somewhere I guess that sells it and ask for opinions on what smells good on a man.

I haven't comment on the politics of the day because it's absurd, outrageous and a carnival-like atmosphere, as far as I'm concerned, concerning what's going on in Washington.  The continual blame-shifting game coming from all of them is juvenile at best.  But some of the specific verbiage coming from Reid and his ilk is just unbelievable.  Jihad? Terrorists? Arsonists? Blackmailers? Running around with bombs strapped to their chests? Reid calling them anarchists and monkey-wrenchers and even much more.  The Democratic Senate and Obama and the democrats in the HOR apparently believe that the GOP is somehow constrained and obliged to bow to their demands.  There is a reason that the government is broken up in to 3 branches and there is a reason there are 2 parts to Congress with each part having it's own leadership and who is in control  being totally dependent on what party has the majority.

That's it.  Grow up.  If these people want to go around talking that kind of trash, let them do so from a different position in life because even in politics, that kind of crap talk is completely unacceptable as sitting Senators and Representatives who are allegedly "running" this nation.

And with that, I will end this one cause' I have to take a shower and myself ready for church.

Happy Sunday.

ben

You didn't think you'd read anything different today, did you?
LOL
It's the same scenario being played out every day now!
Thursday.  Already.  And a lot to do at work this morning, which for me is a really good thing.  We have been so slow.
Finally found out yesterday that yes, indeed, we will be allowed to crank up the speed on the new truck.  About time.  Not only that, but when we have the speed settings changed, I am also going to have the power settings upped. That truck has a sticker on it saying up to 500 horsepower on the engine, there is no WAY that engine's settings are anything close to that.

I am thinking about going up north this weekend, I haven't been up there in a while, but only thinking about it.  I'll be making a trip up there soon enough.

Time to be off to work!

G'day
ben

So, we graduated Facebook school and moved on to the first phone call yesterday.
I haven't talked that long with anyone on the planet in at least 10, maybe 15 years.
We were steaming full steam ahead until we got to this issue she has was passive men.
She likes and assertive man and is not into passivity at all.
No-one that knows me would call any portion of my existence to be passive, at all.
But who knows?
She wasn't saying I am passive she was simply telling it like it is as far as her preference.
I - don't know.  I simply do not consider myself  a passive person, I know what she is talking about
and that simply does not describe me, at all.
But, who knows.
Well, I got up late this morning cause I stayed up late talking to her, so, cut this one short.

G'day

ben

Going through the complexities in my mind of what it would take to up and haul off, leave Phoenix, Arizona behind and start a life in a different place.
That's called a lot of stuff to do if it gets that far.
So much so, in fact, that I stopped my mind from going there.  House, dogs, ponds, car, job, houseful of stuff to get rid of or just continue to rent out rooms with the older couple in charge - I have started down that road in the thought processes, but had to put the brakes on.

What if this wasn't meant to be?  Lots of questions swirling around in my mind about all of this.  The confirmation from the Lord is what I really seek and until I get that, well, I will let this relationship go where it will, but any plans to actually move there or re-marry will be sitting there, waiting for the arrival of that confirmation.  I don't really know the Lord's will in any of this and that I must know.  Confirmation can come in many forms.  Usually it is more than one "thing" or "event" or words spoken by someone.  I'm praying towards that end.

However, I am still going to pursue this until it either bears fruit - which in the end would be marriage - or the train runs out of diesel and stops in it's tracks.  To that end, I have found some pretty cheap airfare to DFW and then a Greyhound bus for the 3 hour ride or however long it is to her place in eastern Texas, not far from the state line.  In fact, Spirit Airlines runs out of AZA, is probably something like Southwest Airlines in otherwise being known as the cattle carrier airline - herd em' in there and pack em' in like sardines - but it's less than 3 hour flight, I can deal with that to get a $196 round trip ticket!  That's right, 200 bucks round trip to DFW and the Greyhound is $52 round trip as well.  I was knocking my brains out trying to find a cheap flight into her town or one near it, including SHV, and though I found lower priced bookings, nothing in the range that I was looking for.

I truly hate and despise Greyhound buses.  Not because it's a bad busline or something, but because of all the noise and usually kids screaming and making all kinds of noise. But I learned a long time ago how to deal with it - I have taken a LOT of Greyhound bus trips my lifetime: get out the earplugs and go to sleep.  Wake up every 30 to 60 minutes, look around, note that the nightmare continues on, and go back to sleep.  If I don't do that, I tend to start feeling like I am going to go insane.  Heck, some flights I have taken haven't been all that great, either, especially the time sitting next to a man that was somewhere between 350 and 400 pounds.  This was before they started charging extra heavy people 2 seats worth of airfare.  This guy's blubber was all over my left arm and he was also sweating.

It was pretty gross.

Well, I'm going to have to finish this one later, looking up at the clock? It's time to leave for work!

G'day.
ben

I haven't felt like this in decades.
How do you turn this off?
Not that I want to!
We did "20 questions" last night - no sexual questions posed or allowed in this particular set - to "get to know each other better".
This went on, literally, for hours.  In fact, 5 hours had passed and it was all-of-a-sudden time to get ready for bed last night.
I was looking at round-trip airfare to potentially spend a week out there and see if this is really meant to be.  It's one thing to talk over the net, it's another to meet in person and find if there is physical attraction.

The only problem is that I have already taken 2, 1 week off vacations this year.  Not that I "can't" get a third but if I were to spend the $400 to go there and back, I would want a full week off.  Even if the situation turned to, oh well, this wasn't meant to be, we are still friends and have been for a very long time.  I intend on going out there to help her with all the mess that has resulted after her getting divorced.

That is, of course, my only real reservation in this scenario, the divorce is fresh.  But to hear it from her and a friend of her's that has known her for a long time, she has been divorced for 10 years, just the breakup never happened and the papers not signed by the court.  The man apparently has Asperger's syndrome, a thing I have been around in the past.  I can attest to a person with a mostly blank look on their face all the time, completely disconnected to most things and very interested in only a few things.  How that works out in a relationship, well I don't have any personal knowledge of it, but from what she describes, it makes marriage pretty much a living nightmare with no intimacy and in this case, very little connection even with his own kids.

I dunno, but the more we talk the more heated it is getting.  I'm pretty sure I'm ready for this, it's been 8 years.  I have had this thought in the back of my mind that if I find the right person, I will move out of town if that's what it takes to be with that person.  That would have to be the scenario in this case.  But, we haven't quite gotten that far yet.  This whole thing started out when she confided in me she was getting divorced - she didn't want anyone to know about it for whatever reason and then we started discussing what, exactly, was going on and the toll the situation has been taking on her for quite a long time now.  I started praying for her, her kids and even the man in question.

Anyway, it's sort of a giddy feeling.  Like being a teenager in love for the first time or something.  Hard to explain.  I sit and wonder if this could actually happen.  I would be taking on a role that includes 9 children - though one of them is in the military.  Some of the kids head's are messed up because of the lack of connection with their father.  Or really, the father's lack of showing any love or involvement in their lives.  She was telling me last night that the young ones have been asking her to find them a real daddy.  That's a pretty stark and telling statement coming from kids under the age of 10.  You really wouldn't expect to hear that and apparently they don't miss him at all. He begrudgingly takes them for an after noon on weekends, but not all of them.  I don't know and didn't ask if they really wanted to go with him or not.

It's kind of a messed-up situation, actually, but still.

Time to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

Okay.
Well, last night and again, no sounds from the partying neighbors.  A good thing - yes.

I woke up this morning early - before 5am.  I try not to do that on weekends and if I do, I usually try to get back to sleep for at least another hour and do my version of sleeping in.  Alas, that wasn't to be.  I got up, got coffee, got on the computer and contemplated the morning's musings.

Most notably, going to church, praying for a few minutes and then going out and handing out flyers in the neighborhood.  I thought of reasons I could give as excuses to not go, who wants to do THAT on a Saturday?  I came to the conclusion: ME.  So after looking at all the rubbish in the news - Obamacare this and that - I am keeping up with all of that but it's getting pretty old at this point, wearing on the nerves - I got in my car, drove to church and there it was.

I have to say that I ended up in a group with older people in it.  Not surprising.  But everyone detracted from the "base", we all just went 2 by 2 and got the work done.  We didn't pound on doors, we just left flyers.  If a house said "No Solicitors", I respected their wishes and didn't even leave the flyer (though I suspect much of that aimed at people banging on doors). I don't like people coming and trying to sell stuff, either, though I am always polite to them.  I politely tell them I am not interested, have a great day, goodbye.  If I just leave a flyer, well, no biggies.  I get them on my gate all the time.  I read them, 99% of it I am not interested in and throw in the trash can, but it's not like I get mad that they left the flyer there.

I ended up with a very spiritually minded woman, she is the type of person that a church really needs.  Very  much attuned to the Spirit and part of everything that goes on. She is 15 years older than me but kept up with it. She wanted to get the job done and so did I, get the flyers out and get it done.  So we did.  Covered a lot of territory/streets, talked about spiritual things and then that was it, headed back to the church. I'm just saying that I like her as a person, it was cool to be able to go up and down streets with someone I respect and admire in terms of her relationship with the Lord and her openness to the heavens.  If you don't understand that and want clarification, I am happily wiling to give it, but for the carnal minded, it has absolutely nothing to do with sex.

But along the lines of the opposite sex, oh yes, I have been talking with someone.  And it is turning - serious.  I am already planning a trip to Texas, if that gives you any clue.  The full details I won't go into, I don't know yet if we are really going anywhere with this but the conversations have become much more intense and the frankness of feelings also going that direction.  I'm at the age where I am not going to pass up a good woman if one comes along.  I will jump all over it if I feel inclined to and in this case, I definitely feel inclined!  I knew her (not in the "biblical" sense, lol) from the mission field.  I was attracted to her then but I was too busy with missionary work. I put those kinds of thoughts and feelings as much as I could on the shelf in the mind.

It all started out when I posted something on my FB wall about how I was open to anyone and that I don't care what religion you are and this that and the other thing, the exact verbiage I don't remember. She PM'ed me not long after that and confided to me some things that were going on in her life that she didn't want to talk about publicly  I prayed with her and have been talking with her ever sense, trying to build her up - she has been totally torn down by her now-ex husband and view of herself has degraded along with it.  But both outwardly and inwardly, she is a very beautiful woman.  I could easily fall in love with her.  She has 9 kids and though that's a lot, I could learn to deal with that as well.

If we really clicked, then yes, I would have to move to a place in eastern Texas, that wouldn't bother me excepting being away from my mom.  But I don't want to get too far into this discussion here, this is only something in the most preliminary of stages. At the same time, the conversations are going deeper, much more so than just normal conversation with a person.  I feel the spark : ) If it leads to a dead end, it won't bother me that much, I am seeking a lady, have been for a while now, just looking for the right person.

What scares me in life?  The thought of growing old - alone.  No thanks.

Long interlude.  Took a nap.  Between going to bed late last night, getting up early this morning, this morning's activities and then keeping busy with stuff around the house today - well, nap time was calling, lol.  The only problem with nap time is if it comes too late in the day!  Oh well, don't have to go to work in the morning - if that's going to be an issue.

Wow! All I can say about current conversation with above-mentioned lady.

G'nite.

:)

ben

So, while the company was bashing me almost 3 years ago now for getting pulled over twice in the same month, nothing is said to 2 drivers at the main branch who have racked up a LOT of points against the company this year in tickets and warnings.  This is the new method that the FMCSA is using to track down companies with fleets of trucks that are considering a threat to public safety if enough drivers tally up too many points.

Points are received for tickets AND warnings.  In the old days, warnings counted nothing against the driver or the company.  A warning is warning, don't do it again, or in the case of what I received, fix-it tickets.  Mine was a strap that had a nick in it - but the pallet it was covering I had thrown another strap onto it so it was legal.  I received a warning for following too closely but after questioning the officer about where, exactly, this alleged incident had happened, I was going less than 10 MPH and when I questioned him on my speed, he threw up his hands and said he didn't know how fast I was going.  That was one stop.  The other stop was where I was going 70 in a 55 mph zone and not having enough straps on a bundle of pipe.  However, when I passed the officer, I looked down and noted I was going 68mph.  Mostly, going 3MPH over the limit isn't going to get you a ticket.  It was a construction zone, was supposed to be marked at 55MPH, but it wasn't, the officer assumed it was and wrote me a warning for it anyway.  I went back later and saw the stands where the speed limit was supposed to be posted, but there were no signs there.

The pipe was 20 feet long.  I had 4 straps over it.  The officer asked how long the pipe is, I said 20 feet.  He measured it, it was 20 feet and 7 inches, so I get a warning for not having the extra strap since it was over 20 feet.  This is how they treat us out there, like dirt.  I'm quite serious, highway patrol officers and municipal commercial enforcement officers and around these parts: ADOT Enforcement officers treat truck drivers like we are a bunch of dumb, stupid morons and they try to find as much wrong with a truck as they can.

I have gone WELL out of my way to avoid known traps, places where they have set up mobile inspection stations.  Now I find out one of the rest areas out south of Phoenix has had a scale installed and they apparently are going to start using it to weigh trucks and do inspections.  I will be avoiding the stretch of roadway like the plague.  The only way to beat them at their own game is to find out where they are at in advance and go around no matter how far out of the way it takes you.  That and try to avoid known locations where they set up portable scales and do inspections.  I don't care about the scales, I am never over-weight, it's the inspections that are the killers.

Well, anyway, our company has so many points against it, it's trucks are targeted for inspections.  That's the jist of it.  I have driven by numerous ADOT and other officers recently - you can't avoid all of them, they are everywhere - and saw them eyeing the truck.  Obviously, at least to me, contemplating pulling me over (they don't need a reason, it's implied consent all over the US if you are driving a commercial vehicle).  I think the only thing that saves me is that I am driving a brand new truck and I have been keeping it very clean to make it continue to look brand new.  Sure, they could pull me over but I have been lucky so far that they haven't.  If I can make it another 3 months and a week or so without getting pulled over and getting warnings, I will get another 2 week's pay for the Safe Driver Award.

No guarantees there as evidenced by our drivers downtown, neither of which will get that award. |The company disqualifies you for any warnings - doesn't have to be a ticket.  You are also disqualified if you get a ticket while driving your own, personal vehicle.

Because of the vast amount of regulation that are imposed against trucks and their drivers, the trucking business is a tough business to be in right now or be a commercial driver.  And when you get points against you - one driver got a total of 29 points, which is a lot, for one time being pulled over - companies are getting upset because it also counts against them.  It is, frankly, a stupid rule, one of many the FMCSA has put out that are senseless, don't help the industry and cause the industry to incur even more setbacks and more financial output.

Frankly, I drive the pickup truck as often as I can if everything will fit into it instead of hopping into the semi, which reduces the number of miles I have to be on the road in the big truck.  I am really going to be interested to see how many trucks show up in DC next month, the 11th through the 13th, they are going to attempt to shut DC down.

Well whatever.  It's Thursday, getting close to the end of the week now.  Temps outside are dropping considerably overnight but still warming up - too much - during the day.   The new worker is now not liking me - which I really don't care about - because I mostly ignore him.  He has an attitude and he has a quick-trigger temper.  Which is why I ignore him. I don't talk to him unless I have to about something going on, the rest of the time I zip it and just keep to myself or talk with the manager.  The new worker gets these glares and stares going and I just don't even validate it.  He is a lazy @$$ who has no concept of a work ethic and has no problem sitting around on company time doing nothing and surfing the internet.  If there was truly nothing to do, then I could see it, but there is ALWAYS a cleaning project to do.

Whatever again.  Off to work.

G'day.

ben

The weekend noise-makers behind me the next street over?  Have quit.  I dunno why, but ever since the 3rd visit to their house in the same night by Phoenix police a couple of weeks ago, there hasn't been a peep from them.  

Ummm, so I have been talking with a lady that I have known since the mission field.  No great details going on here, but some intense conversations about things going on with her kids - really not so great things - and her divorce situation.  But also some very pleasant conversations.  

I don't want to go on with that too much, it may lead nowhere but at the very least, we have been connecting on FB for a while now and talking.

I'm tired of being single, lol.

I was going to write up a "full" entry but it's my bedtime, so I bed you a good night : )

ben

Neglect of my journal.
I have several unfinished drafts, just keep getting interrupted/distracted every time I start writing an entry.

Anyway, I was just checking Zillow for the value of my home.  Some people say it's not a good reflection of actual home value, but I figure it's gotta be somewhere in the ballpark.  Home values in the Phoenix area have risen dramatically this year - and mine is definitely on that list.  According to Zillow, it is almost valued at the amount I owe on the property.  Note that 3 months ago, it was around 50 grand in the hole.  Will it stay there or even go up?  Well, I have no choice but to stay here and see what happens.  I need to get my credit score up higher to be able to get into another home anyway.

I really, really, really want out of the city of Phoenix.  The water rates and the taxes they are dumping on everyone is nothing short of outrageous and finding out the pension spiking with the unions that are working for the city - taking these tax increases and using that money for absurdly high pay increases and bonuses - is also nothing short of outrageous.

But I will have to stick it out here for - who knows how long, I am really in no position to be able to view into the crystal ball and give that kind projection.

As for the new tenant, he is already gone.  Moved to Boston to move into what is nothing short of a mansion in a very ritzy area of town.  He will be a nanny/personal assistant type of thing and will be making very good money plus all expenses paid.  I have seen a picture of the house, it's unbelievable.  Good for him is all I can say, I wouldn't have turned down such an offer, either.  The lady that owns the house is a successful dentist who owns her own dental clinic.

There isn't a whole lot new going on around here anyway, in terms of writing in this journal.  My next door neighbor will be back soon enough and who knows what's going to happen between him and his neighbor on the other side, time will tell if he really intends to follow through with a lawsuit to get his land back.

As for the neighbor behind me, I saw him last weekend and told him if he didn't clean up all that cat s*** which piles up against my fence on his side, I would be calling the city to come out and write him a ticket.  "Oh, is it that time again?", acting as if it's normal to let that kind of substance pile up for months and months at a time and is exactly what I said to him in reply.  Are you serious?  You think it's normal to let animal feces just pile up until someone has to threaten civil action to get you to do anything?  While we were at it, I informed him he didn't deal with the dirt that has also been building up against that fence - I am on mountain base, his lot is higher than mine, whenever it rains or just time, more dirt piles up against that wood fence - I would simply take him to court and have a judge force him to repair the damage it's doing to my fence.  "I'll see you in court" was his reply, I said fine, see you in court and walked off.

So, it wasn't amazing that he cleaned up the cat crap - I called the city last time and they definitely came out and told him if he didn't have it cleaned up within 24 hours they were going to cite him for it.  But what did amaze me was when I looked over the fence to ensure he had cleaned all of that up, he had also dug out all the dirt that was pushing my fence in!

Regardless of his sour, grating attitude, I will still thank him for doing all of that next time I see him, which is quite infrequently.  I don't really go out of my way to see him or any of the other - people - that are living like hoarders in this neighborhood.  Besides the city taxes, this neighborhood and the people who live in it and the WAY they live in it the other reason I really want out of here.

I want to move back to Tempe - the next city over.  I want to move into a regular, site-built house and in a neighborhood where people take care of their properties but at the same time I do not want to be in a neighborhood that has a homeowner's association.  People should not have to be forced to take care of their properties, pride-of-ownership should be the motivating factor for that.  There are a lot of very nice, older neighborhoods in Tempe with block-built homes (versus the stucco junk they want to build everything out of nowadays, it's cheap and it doesn't last long before you have to have someone come fix the cracks that form in it over time) that do not have associations lording themselves over everyone.  Many of these homeowner's associations get filled with board members who seem to have serious control issues.  They want to tell you where you can have your satellite dish mounted, what color to paint your home, what kinds of plants and trees you can have, etc.  I don't want that kind of control over my life, thanks.

It's Sunday morning, getting my mind/heart into church mode.  Another hour before I leave for that.  I have no great agendas today for after church, just want to kick back and relax, maybe do some outdoor chores but nothing too serious.  It's still getting quite warm in the afternoons, I can't wait until the middle of October or so when it cools down to the point that it's cool all day long and you can actually air out the house!

That's enough for now, maybe continue later.

ben

3:00 am this morning or thereabouts. Sleeping soundly.  I'm suddenly jarred awake by the sound of what else: obnoxious music.  This time, they started this nonsense at that hour of the night.  Unbelievable.  But it wasn't the people on the next street behind me.  They have been eerily quiet ever since the third police visit in the same night that occurred 8 days ago.

This time, it was a pickup truck parked in front of their house 5 houses down from me.  They were out in the STREET, drinking and having no cares that they were both blaring the music so loud that I could hear it in my bedroom some 300 feet away and also that they were drinking in public, not even thinking that police might come.  Well, I had the decision to either call the police or go down there and deal with it - I opted for the police.  My methods of dealing with people who don't give a damn about anyone else are not the best, so I figured to let professionals do it.

But after 30 minutes police hadn't shown up.  Called again, police are busy.  I thought it strange at that hour of the night, that late you would think even the worst trouble-makers are sleeping or passed out.  But I guess not, especially in a city this big.

It was 71 minutes after I made the phone call and the sun was starting to show faint rays of light that they finally showed up and shut them down.  What they actually did about it, I dunno.

So, I was very tired this morning and I was supposed to show up early at church to finish the membership training class.  But I had missed the last 2 times to finish this up - for valid reasons - but I decided to go regardless of extreme fatigue.  This s*** going on in my neighborhood is wearing thin on me, though, I  really don't know how much more of this I can take.  It's ridiculous that I have to call the police multiple times in a single night to come out and tell the same party to quiet down.  It's unbelievable that some freaks could just park on the street and have a  party - in the middle of the street at 3 am.

So I'm finally a member of the church and now opportunity to serve has arisen.  I learned some things in these classes about church liability that I didn't know before and some of it is concerning the fact that liability insurance usually only covers people serving in the church that are members, not non-members.  The situation that they had approached me about some months ago - security in the church during services - resurfaced.  I hadn't even thought about the fact that I would have to be an official member of the church to be in such a position, especially considering what security can detail.  I did security during services in the big tent while on the mission field - I was tall, muscular and not easily intimidated.  I'm still tall, not as muscular as I used to be.  Being intimidated isn't an issue, but dealing with people with wisdom and in a professional manner is something that I will have to take up again from my missionary experience.

You would be surprised the amount of trouble that will come at a big tent with an evangelist preaching and the amount of trouble-makers that are - looking for trouble.  There were a few occasions where I had to inform the individual/s that if they continued, they would be forcibly removed from the property, but mostly it was just talk calmly to them and that would take care of most situations.

Well, anyway, they are going to fire it up soon - no date given yet, probably get one Sunday per month.  That was the hold up, having enough people that they felt "qualified" to deal with such.  Or even wanting to deal with such.

The weekend over, I took a nap this afternoon but I'm tired and it's directly related to these people running these stereos late at night. Someone posted a link on my FB wall about how to build some sort of transmitter that kills electronics.  No thanks.  If it kills their electronics, it's going to kill everything else around.  But I did read on blurp about CB radios. I had totally forgotten about that.  I don't even know if CB's are still capable of the mayhem they can cause' on TV's and stereos.  I remember as a teenager, we would stop in front of a house that had it's front window open and you could see the TV on.  Key down the mic on the CB and the screen on the TV would blank out completely.  When we spoke into the mic, you could see these huge lines moving up and down on the screen.

The same was with car stereos - though I think that was radios, I don't know if it would have the same effect on a CD player.  I'll have to look all of this up, though I already have a CB radio, I don't have a linear amplifier - it cranks up the output and you really need one to make it work well.

Wait and see thing for me.  The people the next street over did nothing over there this weekend and the deal on the street down from my house had never happened before or if it did, they didn't have the music turned up that loud.

And with that? The weekend is - ended.  6 pm, winding down and thinking about work tomorrow.  Mostly in terms of taking my Christianity with me and fending off the enemy.

G'day

ben

It was refreshing, last night, to be able to go outside and not hear any  of the loud music and yelling people that I have had to listen to for quite a while now on Fridays and Saturdays.  Today remains to be seen.  But at first hint of it, I will immediately call the police to get the ball rolling.

Cleaned out one fish filter today - it was so full of fish filth it was pretty nasty.  No wonder that water was turning black.  Now I am going to have to clean it out everyday for a while until the water clears up, yikes!  The other one I haven't done yet, but it should be much better shape and not so much fish junk to deal with.

Work yesterday - nothing.  Nothing at all.  I decided to wash and detail the semi tractor, including waxing it.  I spent about 6 hours sweating like a pig in the heat and humidity.  Whenever I walked into the building it was like walking into the Antarctica, it was cold and I would quickly head back outside after getting water.  What I found laughable was that the new guy did much of nothing yesterday.  He sat in the manager's office cumulatively for at least 2 hours, playing on his I-phone.

Meanwhile, there was and is all sorts of cleanup projects he could be doing.  It really irked me.  Like gee, maybe I should just sit around on my @$$ and see what happens - nothing apparently.  Just pull out the ole' laptop and screw around on the internet all day long.

But I am not a person inclined to do such things, if I'm working I'm going to work for my pay and anyway, sitting around doing nothing is pretty boring stuff.  Makes me want to fall asleep.

_______________

Got the other pond filter done and over with - wanted to take a shower and that would be a waste of time if I didn't do the second pond filter first.

I'm off to do - nothing actually.  Pond filters were the big thing of the day on the agenda list, nothing else is that urgent at this moment.

G'day
ben

It has become evident that my manager is not liking the way the huge driveway - at least 125 feet long and 30 feet wide - is looking after I stopped cleaning up the rocks that the new guy is constantly dumping all over the place. That, after the new guy attempted to dress-me-down and tell me that appearance is irrelevant, rocks on the driveway to not impede the operation of the business and that he doesn't care and then demanded to know how, exactly, he was supposed to keep the rocks from dumping onto the ground.

I did tell him how that would be done - this isn't even common sense, it's just plain knowledge, which he scoffed and then told me I could go f*** myself.  It was at that point it took everything I had within me to stop myself from hauling off and knocking his teeth out of his head.  I was pissed.

So, my manager has asked me once to sweep up the rocks and then today, use the air blower.  Yeah, right.  I'm going to do all the cleanup so this guy can come along and dump s*** all over the place.  I have the perfect solution for this the next time he asks: Yes, I will clean up the rocks as long as you force HIM to clean them up along side me.  Otherwise, it's meaningless to him and his attitude of "I don't care" - which is what he said when this situation above occurred - will prevail.  I refuse to be this guy's personal maid.  Further, my manager used to say when I was out there cleaning up the yard; "I can hire a dude for 12 bucks an hour to do that, I need you doing other stuff".  Whatever.  He's got that guy there now and he refuses to force him to clean up.  Instead, that new guy was sitting in my manager's office for over an hour this morning - playing on his smart phone, my manager doing nothing about it.  He spent much of the rest of the day sitting behind a computer reading the BBC among other websites.

There was nothing in the system at work to do today - NOTHING AT ALL - so I decided to detail the semi-tractor. Namely, washing it and then waxing it.  I wanted to get a solid coating of wax on the truck so it would be easier to rinse off and keep clean, versus un-waxed/polished paint.

Ummm, long delay.  Saw my neighbors behind me spying on me for whatever reason, I'm starting to get very unhappy with these people.

ben

There is so much to write about, but goodness, do I write a 10,000 word blog entry?  I think not.

We all know it's 9/11 and what that intones.  The murder of over 3,000 people in the World Trade Center towers in Manhatton. Yes, I am home from work for the day and yes, I am definitely watching some shows. For me, I think it important to remember this day and honor it, respect it and give it the reverence it's due.  Terrorists be damned.

But today is a very special day for me: it's my mom's birthday.  She's getting up there in years, but she is still doing very well.  I have wished her a happy birthday a dozen times on her and my facebook wall and other venues, at least, lol. If you want to call me a momma's boy, so beit, I unabashedly love my mother dearly.  I talk to her on the phone about once a week and shoot pm's on FB and talk on either of our walls almost daily.  To have both of my parents still alive at the age that I am at is a blessing itself.

Just got off the phone with her.  It's important to try to make people feel special on their birthdays, I don't care how old or young you are.

Court yesterday.

I came home after getting off of work early, Eddie came over, we drove downtown. Eddie is an easily distracted 16 year old teenager. He has an I-Phone with which he plays games on when bored.  This day, I figured, would be especially trying for him since court can be long and very drawn out.  Can be,  my @$$, it almost ALWAYS is.  I find court proceedings fascinating but I am probably not in the majority with that observation.

It was about a 2 hour ordeal.  Our showing up threw a fork into the defendant's lawyers plans.  His surprise to find us there and the fact his client was NOT there spoke volumes.  He was going to do the same thing the first 2 cases had happen: no witnesses, dismiss the case, which the judge did without reservation. She was going to get off the hook, there was going to be nothing, even paying me back for vet bills and that would be that.

I am not, however, vindictive and I still did not want 6 charges against her showing up on her record, so I still agreed to 1 class 1 misdemeanor, plus probation, plus paying me the debt owed.  I thought it shitty that she had started crap with me and that she couldn't face me in the courtroom.  But she had stopped coming over and giving me money to pay it back - even 5 bucks would have satisfied me and her lowest payment was 8.  She had lost her job - working at Dennys, the only way you're going to lose your job there is that you are the problem I am guessing - but still, I wanted to do the merciful thing.

Eddie was poking me, playing his game, making stupid comments, on and on while we were sitting in that court room with nothing going on.  The other side of the aisle was full of law enforcement.  Uniformed cops and obviously detectives in dress clothes.  The lead cop in the investigation about the dog situation was there, they were ALL on smart phones, doing whatever.  Well anyway.  She was given a year's probation, remain a "law abiding" citizen, pay restitution.  If she fails on any of those counts, including any of those dogs getting out again, she's toast. Not that I want that, but.........if you are going to own dogs that are not trained and are vicious, well.

So that's that.  I'm going to finish watching a show on 9/11 and then head off to bed.

G'day.

And thank God that nothing happened today in that realm.

ben

I found "it".
Yes sir, this is what I was looking for, copied and pasted as follows.  It's called the Loud Party Ordinance and it comes into play with 5 or more people.  There are usually anywhere from 15 to 30 people at these parties.

Ordinance G-5444, Chapter 2, Article 1, Division 5, Section 2-22, was amended to increase neighborhood safety and reduce threats to the public peace, health, safety and general welfare. The ordinance addresses parties, social gatherings or events which result in disturbing the peace, quiet and enjoyment of our community. These occurrences often lead to excessive noise and traffic, obstruction of public streets, public drunkenness, underage drinking, fights and littering, among other problems.
Some factors which may determine a violation of the ordinance are:

• Loud music, Band or Disc Jockey
• Numerous vehicles causing traffic hazards or blocking driveways, streets and alleys
• Underage Drinking
• Making excessive noise
• Fights / public drunkenness
• Gun shots / fireworks
• Littering
• Illegal drug use
• Squealing tires and speeding through neighborhood streets

• There are no “allowable” times during the day or night. If the party, gathering, or event is considered a threat to the peace, health, safety and general welfare of the public, anytime during the night or day, the responsible party will be assessed a fee of up to $1,000.00.

  
  

http://phoenix.gov/police/loud_party_eng.html


 This is exactly the kind of ammo I need against these people behind me that blared their obnoxious music both Friday and Saturday night. If this nonsense happens again this weekend - or any weekend in the coming months, this is what I am going to ask the Phoenix Police to impose upon the owner of that house.  

The 1st, 2cd, and 4th apply to these people.  This will be my call next weekend - actually they are also doing it sometimes during the week now - and my request, impose the fee and these people will start thinking twice about being so obnoxious in their demeanor towards everyone else in the neighborhood.  Now, whether the police will actually do this to them or not remains to be seen, but I will be asking them to contact me the next time this happens versus that rest of the times I did not want police contact - mostly because I wanted to try and go back to sleep.

Okay, plan of action now available without much more than looking on the internet and looking up city codes.

Rained all day today - until just shortly before I got off of work.  For much of the day, it rained hard.  It was very nice and I was fully expecting an enjoyable afternoon listening to the rain on the roof and looking at it coming down out the windows and possibly even getting wet in doing some landscaping.

Instead, it's all of sudden bright, clear skies (this is normal for Arizona, you can go from clear blue skies to driving rain and back to clear blue skies all  in the same day and usually occurs very quickly).

Tomorrow: court.  Although I have no choice but to show up, the lady has stopped paying or communicating with me.  I don't care if it's $20 per month, if she isn't going to communicate then I want the money no matter how long it takes for her to pay it off.

Enough.  Have stuff to do outside.

ben

It's not that I forgot, I just didn't pay too close attention to the date.
This regarding the affidavit I was sent in the mail last month and looking at it again this morning.
The hearing is for tomorrow.
I don't just want to be there, I have to be there.
Fortunately, the hearing isn't too early and hopefully I will be able to leave work early.

Whatever.  Too much on the brain lately, some things getting shuffled into corners and not brought out until - almost too late in this case.

It was yesterday's second theft of money out of my bank account by someone using my debit card number - how they got it I have no idea - making a $200.69 purchase through Amazon - that got me going.

But I don't want to get all riled up again so not going there.  Have to leave for work in a few minutes, anyway.  This weekend has been strange, well actually sucked because of my neighbor's parties and loud music going into the wee hours of the morning.  I was so tired at church yesterday I got up halfway through the service and left.  I pretty much figured about the time the sermon was going to be preached, I would be falling asleep and that wouldn't go over too well.

I'm sure people were giving me looks as I was leaving, oh well and too bad, so sad.

Then there was the call to Direct TV to negotiate my payment.  That turned out fairly well, though I am considering either dumping channels to lower the bill or switching to Dish Network.  I am thinking dump channels as I don't particularly care for Dish Network.

G'day.


ben

I made the dreaded call to direct tv.
I bypassed the Philippine Islands and the people they have over there that are manning the incoming call centers.
I got connected to - a particular department that I now call or ask for not naming it here, thanks - and then got into a conversation with a man who eventually said no, he couldn't help me..

Thanks, your manager, please?  You can always tell they don't like that question, but when I ask, it's not going to be anything else, I have determined that only management can help me - if they can or will - so let's get on with it.

Manager gets on the phone and we get into an extended - very, very long - conversation.  But by the end of it, we were talking fishing, this that and the other thing.  The man was very generous, is all I can say, well, all I will say.  He helped me out and that's that.

I still think Direct TV is over priced and at some point, I will probably switch to either Cox or Dish Network - or some other new thing called Prism TV, just heard about it on a radio ad.  Probably won't go with the new one if it's originated by who I think it is.  Oh, yes, just looked it up: Century Link. I equate Century Link's customer service right "up" there with Direct TV, possibly even worse.  I just dumped Century Link and won't be going back anytime soon.

G'nite, it's my bedtime : )

ben

The people who live the next street over.
In recent times, they have gone on an unlimited free-for-all in turning up their music so loud, I can hear it in my living room and bedroom with the doors closed, windows shut, tv on, etc etc, etc.

Apparently everyone else that is subjected to this unbelievably BAD music- it's not just extremely loud, it horrible music to begin with - doesn't care.  I was hoping someone else would finally get sick of it and call the police.  When I call the police, yes they will come out - eventually, sometimes it's hours before they are free to even show up - but then they will just tell them to turn it down and leave.  There is no punitive action for the ordinance violation, so as soon as the police leave, they turn it right back up.

My first call to police was around 6 pm.  I was amazed that police made it so fast, it wasn't even 20 minutes and suddenly the music was turned down.  About half an hour later, music turned right back up.  I waited about an hour and called the police again.  "Did you send the police out to such and such location?".  Why yes we did, Mr. B, do they have it loud again?. YES, they DO.  We'll send someone right out.  Okay, thanks.

A little long for the police to get there the second time, but the music eventually goes down.  It's my bedtime, I go so sleep. I have ear plugs in and my box fan on - always do to help mask outside noises.  But it doesn't matter, it was somewhere around midnight or 1 am, I would have to look at my phone for when I made the third call, but the obnoxious noise that they call music was blaring now.  Like a mariachi band sitting in my bedroom.

I laid there for a while, hoping the noise would be lowered, but it wasn't. I was extremely cranky at this point.  I was going to call the police for the third time, if they weren't going to do anything about it then I was going to go over there myself.  I'm sure the consequences of that action probably would not have turned out too well, but I am SICK of these people who could care freaking less about anyone else in the entire neighborhood.

So I'm on the phone with this sweet sounding lady at police so I am trying to be nice.  We talk back and forth and I finally say: they don't CARE about the cops, they will just turn the music back up as soon as they leave.  Since the city of Phoenix doesn't seem to care to follow their own noise ordinances, I am just going to keep calling back all night long until you finally decide to DO something about this problem.  Of course that isn't really a threat to a person that is paid by the hour to answer the phone, but I wanted to make my point clear enough that perhaps should would relay it to the next officer/s that go out there.

My next course of action would be to talk to the Sergeant and find out why they refuse to do anything about this, ie: start writing citations.  The police must not have been that busy last night, because it wasn't 10 minutes and suddenly the noise was shut off.  I don't mean turned down, I mean turned all the way OFF.  Since their normal, modus-operandi is to play that s*** all night long, I have to assume that the police actually did - something about it this time instead of merely telling them to turn it down.

But I had to call them 3 times over a 6 hour span of time to get anything done about it. I have half a mind to go to Walmart right now and buy one of those obnoxiously loud air horns like they use at foot ball games, go stand out in front of their house and let 'er rip until the thing is empty.  It's 7:30 am, they've been partying all night long, see how THEY like it.

But I"ll refrain.  Instead, I am going to go on a police-calling campaign.  Every time they blast the music, I am immediately going to call the police.  Repeatedly, over and over.  This will generate a "file" against this house - though at this point there must already be one because this has been going on a long time.  But after enough of it for several weeks in a row, then I am going to call either the sergeant in this district or the city prosecutor's office and ask them to review the file on that particular address and also ask why they haven't done anything more than what they have - which up until now has been basically nothing more than a verbal command to tell them to turn it down.

It's raining and not just a little bit.  This is really good news for me.  The ground is getting completely saturated and it will be easy to pull weeds and whatever I want to pull out.

Oh my.  Stink bombs.  Never thought of that.  Harmless but effective. Hmmm.

Well, anyway, it's not getting any earlier and I plan on going to church today, so better get a move on.  Unfortunately, the rain has topped - but - not before it got the ground nicely soaked.  The sky is dark and "ominous", there is thunder and hopefully it will start raining again.

G'day.

ben

Friday here.  Work to be done - at work that is - which is a good thing.  I spent the day yesterday running around as well.
The operations manager almost ran me over yesterday in his pickup truck - literally - he was going 30 mph through our yard, I had just gotten out of the semi headed across the yard but caught his truck coming out of the corner of my eye.

No-one drives that fast through our yard.  Whatever the case, if I hadn't jerked myself to a stop he would have run clean over the top of me.  Well he stopped, terrified look on his face, I hoped incident would help him think about slowing down in the yard, lol.

When asked about the meeting yesterday - this was in the morning, before it had occurred - he was giving out no clues.  I was unabashedly pimping for info, the only thing I really got out of him was that Casa Grande should be in our territory, not 3083's.  I have been trying to get my manager to ask him about this for a while now, but since the opportunity came up, what the heck.  He smiled and said he would take care of it.

It means, if we get it back, more business and bottom line numbers for our store.  The main warehouse manager simply decided to take it away from us at one point and that was that.  We are much closer to Casa Grande, there is a road from our store that is almost a straight shot down there and it used to be ours.  I dunno why he thought he could just steal it from us, but we are, apparently going to get it back.

It is also a bit of a drive - I am getting so sick of being stuck in the east valley and not really getting OUT of it excepting to head west into Phoenix to pick up material for deliveries.  A truck driver being stuck in the same, small area, all the time?  Yikes!

Well, time to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

Changes at work. Undoubtedly, something coming down the pike and probably, that news will be given out today to branch managers.  That's cause' they are having their yearly end of year get together for the managers.  They go to a fancy resort place and eat some fine food.   Talk of bonuses should arise but also talk of what they are going to do at the main branch will undoubtedly also be covered.

Our branch is doing so poorly now, I can't imagine they won't enact some kind of changes there as well. What those changes are, I don't know yet.  They have thrown out a few things but in the end, you can never really guess.  You just go with the flow and hope the changes aren't so radical that it is upsetting or otherwise disarming in nature.

Well, time caught me and I have to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

Driving through Fry's parking lot today.  Going 5 mph or less.  Prolly less, I am no hurry with a bunch of humans around.  A guy gets out of his car, babbling on his cellphone, he walks towards the store, along and next to a line of cars.  I am up to him when he starts to walk in front of me, but I'm already there, just slowly keep cruising.

I must have an anger problem.  This guy goes livid.  I don't even know what's going on excepting the person that works for Fry's is looking up with a discerned face over the top of my car. I couldn't hear anything, I was looking over at her to make sure we weren't going to - connect in an very unfortunate way - since she was in the driveway but on the side, dealing with shopping carts.

I look the other way and here is this black dude, glaring at me and mouthing off.  I stopped the car and opened the door. What's going on?  You need to slow down, blah blah blah.  Trash talk.  I don't get into that crap and I won't tolerate it.  Something around a 20 year old punk going on and on. I frankly told him if he hadn't been so consumed by his phone call, he might have actually LOOKED to see if a car was coming.  MUCH more trash talk.   I finally told him where he could stick it and I would be happy to stick something up there if he continued.  His verbiage was getting really bad, to the point I wanted to get out of my car and knock his teeth out of his head.

Not much the words of a Christian, much less the thoughts of one.  I forced myself to not say another word after the line that told him a baseball bat could be forced up his @$$. This isn't worth it.  I have to get over this stuff.  The enemy pushing my buttons, using people to do it.  I really wanted to just shut him up and then, I stopped.  I just closed the door to the car and drove off.  These kids thinking they are bad, my gosh, starting crap with people they don't know, don't know what those people are capable of.  I was waiting for him to kick or hit my car, though, and the car would have stopped immediately and the situation would have been dealt with post-haste.

When such things happen, my teenage years leap into my mind and things that I shouldn't even be entertaining go into my head.  I HAVE to find a way to tame all of this.  This guy was looking for trouble, I most definitely was NOT.  But it takes an instasecond for me get into the mode, which is unacceptable.  Sometimes the things from the past that come into my head to do to people that are starting s*** with me are unbelievable after the event is over and I start backtracking after away from the situation. WHAT was I THINKING?  I wasn't thinking, just letting raw emotion take over.

I didn't care in my teenage years and most of the people I hung out with didn't care, either.  Someone gonna start trouble, they BETTER be ready to back it up, because we were all over it. I could tell stories, but - well anyway.  My fighting days started the first day of Kindergarten in the slums of Pittsburgh and "grew" from there.  This is something that I have, actually, gotten much better at, but obviously still have a ways to go.

I can only say that at least I drove off.

Gag. Sticking point in my life, gotta just find it within myself to bless those people, let it go and move on.

This I know: These situations are going to keep occurring until I am fully over it, released from it, have it dealt with in my life and I can just smile and say sorry, even if I didn't DO anything wrong.  That's the hard part! People starting trouble with other people about something the other person didn't do!  Yet, I understand the enemy and how he works, I still, so far, fall for it every time.

Done with that.  Tomorrow, my manager is going to be gone after a few hours there in the morning and they aren't sending anyone to take over the branch.  Which is not that big of a deal - but I will be out on the road and that new kid - the one with the mouth and attitude - will be "running" it.  He is still doing more of nothing than working. I am ignoring him at this point, instead of speaking my mind.  I don't much care for people that "work" at a place for an hourly wage yet screw off at least half the day and apparently are getting away with it.  It's obvious he won't be doing ANYTHING while everyone is out of the building.

Lol, but I AM getting over that.  They want to let him sit around screwing off, then let them and him.

Enough.

ben

No business, whatsoever, being in my neighbor's back yard.  This referring to 350 man.
I promised my next door neighbor I would keep a watch out for him - 350 man - doing anything to my neighbor's fence.  350 started to erect a fence that is well into my neighbor's yard quite some time ago.  He got the posts up and that's where it ended.

So when I saw him IN my neighbor's back yard, poking through Randy's (my neighbor) stuff, I called Randy, who is currently in Michigan at his summer home.  Randy, I said, 350 man and Sam are in your back yard.  They took down your fence and are welding on 350 man's fence.

Randy went into a conniption, I would have too considering the circumstances, I asked him if he were going to call the police? Yes.  I call him back about 10 minutes later, Randy informs me the police tell him that it's a civil matter and to take it up in the courts.  How is trespassing on private property a civil matter and how can the police interpret it like that?

Randy pleads with me, telling me he gives me his full authority to go onto his property.  Though I neither like Sam nor 350 man, I was not inclined to get involved with this, but I relented. I got my camera, turned on  the video portion of it and started videoing my walk over to Randy's house/property.  350 man disappears, as I thought he would.  Catching him on video both trespassing on private property and attempting to finish a fence that he KNOWS is OFF of HIS property could be used in the courts against him.  But Sam could have cared less.  "You're tresspassing on private property", he tells me.  This is Randy's property, I replied, of which I have his permission to be here.

I asked him if he thought it was okay to be standing on Randy's property and basically helping 350 man steal a portion of it by helping him erect this fence? Was it okay to take down Randy's fence?  Well, he didn't tell me I couldn't be on his property.  Well maybe you should call him and ask him - Sam and Randy have known each other for a LONG time, they have each other's phone numbers.  Sam made a comment about if Randy wants to talk to him, he can call him.  I said fine, I'll have Randy call you right now, do you have your phone?  Sam goes to get his phone - none too happy that I am recording all of this - and I leave.  There was no way I was going to leave myself exposed to lies or potentially even police action by having them making a false accusation against me - it wouldn't be the first time - I had my eye witness with me and I already have it posted on Youtube so that it can't "disappear".

That was it for my part.  I did what I could.  Had it been my property the whole situation, of course, would have never started in the first place, I would have already taken 350 man to court on the property issue and a judge would have already made a ruling on it.  But that's me.  I was going to do nothing more except call Randy, inform him I have a video of Sam doing the fence (and unknown to 350 man, I may not have gotten a video of him back there, but I DID snap several pics of him working on the fence on Randy's side of it).

Well, 3-day holiday weekend over, back to the  wonderful prospect of going to work.  But this morning should be okay, I have a load to pick up downtown and take to north Phoenix.  Not part of my normal territory, but the main branch is swamped and couldn't do it - we are not swamped and we can pretty much do whatever at this point.  We will ever get busy again?  I dunno, I can only wish.

G'day.

ben

Halfway through the holiday weekend.
A man at work that was let go (fired) a week or so ago was found dead in his apartment bedroom by his young son 2 days ago.
Although I have an idea as to why he was fired, I don't have the actual specifics.
What I do know is that he takes rejection type of things very hard, well took them very hard now.

Here's the part that's hard for me.  Whether you believe in prophecy and the gift of prophecy in the church isn't really relevant to me, because I have been operating in that gift for quite some time now.  Not that that makes me anything, it just happens.  So it was in this man's case, but I completely ignored the signs and did nothing about it.  Every time I saw him, the thought "he is suicidal" or something along those lines would pop up in my mind.  I would even see a sign saying " suicidal" before my eyes.

To look at the man, you would not have recognized that.  He was walking around all happy and life was grand, at least on the outward appearance.

I have no idea whether this man was right with the Lord, though many will say that a person committing suicide is hell-bound just by that action alone.  I am not God, I don't know how the Lord sees such things and I do not make such brash conclusions.  I sincerely hope that that is not the case.  I sometimes hear Christians making some pretty - vile - judgments against people, groups, things they don't like and wonder.  Yes, I believe there is a hell but also yes, I don't believe the Lord really wants any humans to end up there.  It wasn't made for people, it was made for satan and the fallen angels that were kicked out of heaven with him.  Perhaps I have made such judgments myself in the past but I am coming to the view that hell is such a BAD place, that one really shouldn't desire that anyone end up there.

I dunno, but I am going to go to church this morning and seek some relief from this.  It weighs heavily on me - the fact that I did nothing about it.  I don't know what I could have said to that man, at work, without getting into some hot water if it blew up in my face, but that's not an excuse, really.

Welcome to my holiday weekend.

Well it's nice having an extended weekend off, anyway.

ben

Gag.
Take a day off in the middle of the week and it messes your head all up. Remind me to make SURE I either get the 2 days off before Christmas or 2 days off after, preferably after.  You just get into your head that it's
Saturday and that you have the next day off, too.

That's okay, I get my revenge: 3 day holiday weekend en-queue.  It wouldn't be so bad going back to work if there was actually something to do!  If it stays this way for too much longer, I have to wonder what is going to happen to our store.  They won't just leave it open forever if it's not producing enough on the bottom line.

I have no idea whether there is anything in the truck routing system, just have to find out when I get work in a little while from now.

Well we got Caleb out and off, that's behind me now, moving on.  To what, I don't know, but moving on.   But I was kind of appalled when I went into his room yesterday after I got back from the airport.  Dirty clothes laying all over the floor and some trash, bed not made.  He just left it like this?  Kinda got me a bit upset that he would leave his room in a shambles.  He apparently forgot his necklaces, too.  One is a cross and I think the other is SA's version of dog tags.

Whatever.  I started to clean the mess up, got well into it but decided to let it go until today.  I was too blooming tired.  I'm telling you, when I stay up past my bedtime, I just pay for it the next day.

Well, enough.  Off to work.

G'day.

ben

I stayed up late last night with Caleb. Like past midnight late - that's really late for me - and then woke up tired and groggy this morning.  Glad I took the day off work.
He was dealing with last minute stuff this morning and then we headed over to my ex's house to pick her up and then headed off to the airport.
U.S. Airways, charges for each checked bag. We got away with only paying for the large bag at $25 and then his smaller bag he was allowed to take on board the plane, so didn't have to shell out another $35, which was really good cause' I am counting my pennies right now.

Off the subject for one line of sentence, we should be getting our end-of-fiscal-year bonus within the next month or two, that will help immensely.

Well, we got his bags checked in, his boarding pass, all that stuff and then off to sit down and spend our last hour plus talking. At close to an hour before the flight leaves, Caleb was picking up his stuff and heading down the aisle.  Mom was like, already?  Yes, we had sat there talking for a long time, Caleb  was obviously ready to be done with us and Phoenix and all of it - not in a bad way, he's a very respectful kid but he's totally psyched about going over there - so I said yes, it's time.  He should be going through that security checkpoint at least an hour before the flight leaves, at least, that's how I do it.  Make sure there are no issues and if there are, you have time to deal with it.

Remember the days when you could just go with the person all the way to the waiting area to board the plane?  I wish it was still that way.  If a person wants to bomb or blow up a plane or use a plane as a bomb and if they are motivated enough to do whatever it takes - such as 9/11 - they they are probably going to be able to do it regardless of security checkpoints.  It might make it harder for them, but not impossible.  Whatever, I'm sure that will never change now that it's implemented so deal with it.

Watched him go through security and then he walked right off without looking back, he was gone.
Took the ex home, we had a conversation about some things going on in people's lives - pretty serious stuff actually, nothing I am going to go into here - got her home and me?  Got back here and sat down.  I'm am exhausted from staying up too late last night.  I have nothing pressing to do today, which is a good thing.

Still, I happened to look up at the clock a while ago and realized I could go outside and watch his plane taking off!  I can't see the runway but you can definitely see planes leaving the airport and heading up into the sky.  At 1:59, a US Airways jet took off, it looked like a 757 and it was at the exact time it should be there. Another plane on an adjacent runway had taken off a minute or so earlier, but it was a Southwest plane - you can pretty much easily identify the brand even from 4 miles away.  I watched that plane flying up and up - then level off a bit - and then it disappeared into the clouds.  There goes my son!

Momma cried, I had a light misting in my eyes. I realized I had gotten all - or most of it anyway - out of my system at church on Sunday.  God really dealt with me about some things after I had started thinking him leaving, so the tears were on Sunday, today it was just cool to see my boy heading off into a new life, an unknown adventure, what does God have in store for him?  Took me back to my missionary days when there were many times you didn't know what was going to happen next or how God was going to provide.

Lately, Africa has been put on my heart.  I don't really know anyone in Africa, I know of some missions over there but don't know the people running them personally. My gosh, though, there has got to be more to life than clocking in 5 days a week at 6 am and doing the same thing, day after day after day.  I know I shouldn't worry about such things because the Lord is our provider, but I think about going back to the mission field but then I think about my golden years and how it will be to be totally broke, no money, just getting social security checks to live off of, which aren't even a guaranteed thing anyway.

Well whatever.  2 more days of work and then a 3 day holiday weekend.  I don't think I will do much of anything, I'm ready to just stay home and mess around the house and yard.  Just checked, it's almost 3,000 miles to Hawaii.  I was curious because it's a 6 hour flight, much of it over open water.  I'm envious!! I want to fly overseas, too!

G'day.

ben

Less than 24 hours now.
Will I get past this?
Of course.
Will my son be okay?
I trust in the Lord to watch over him.
Will I shed some tears at the airport?
You better believe it.
I don't care what other people think about
men crying, there are situations where it is
not only appropriate, it is warranted.  I am
most certainly not a wimp/pussy-whipped,\
lemonade-bleeding, yellow-bellied sissy.
I don't mean that in a violent type of way, I
am a man and I am a man that cries when it
happens - which is infrequently but yes, it happens.

I love my son dearly.  There are a handful of people
I love on this earth - no offense to long time readers,
many of you I really like : ) - but nothing even in the same
realm as a father and son.  I know it may be more unusual
in this day and age of fatherless (well, they have fathers but
they are nowhere to be found) offspring to actually be
a man and a father that will openly state that I really 
love my son, but so it is.  He means the world to me. I
 would gladly sacrifice my life for him if such were to ever
occur.

For me, this is a monumental step in my son's life.  This is
parting of ways, so to speak, but in a good sense obviously.
It's the natural course of things, your offspring, at least in this
culture (other cultures a bit different I have read, heard and
experienced first hand).  It is what should happen, I do not
believe your offspring should be living with you well into
their 20's, much less 30's or the rest of your life.  They should
find their own way and they should go for it.

I can say that I instilled this into my son since he was a single
digit aged human.  I always told him that if he wanted to live
with me after he got out of high school, he BETTER be going
to college or doing something that will lead to a career.

I think someday he will thank me for putting that into his head
and his heart.  How can you venture out in life and experience it
for yourself if you keep yourself chained to your parents house
and their rules?  I see all this nonsense going on with the younger
generation and I find it totally unbelievable.

My son has a good head on his shoulders and I am confident that he
will do well in life.  That doesn't necessarily mean he will make a
lot of money, I don't measure success in life as being rich and owning
a lot of things, I would rather measure life in the sense of what you
did in obedience to the Lord's calling on your life and how you applied
it to your life.

This is the way I look at some things in life.

I am happy my son is going, in case anyone is getting the wrong idea.
It's just that my heart and my inner man has to get used to the idea
that he won't be at my house and us having long talks about the Lord
and the things going on in both our lives.

Ben

Shake up at work today.
Got in and found an email from the ops manager: So and So is no longer with the company.
He was an inside salesman.  They have recently hired people to take inside sales positions, but they have no clue what they are doing yet, it's a pretty long learning process to learn the business and learn everything that goes into being and inside salesman.

So, this morning we find out the GM is coming to our branch - he doesn't do that often, maybe once every 6 months.  We have no clue.  I leave before he gets there, not a lot to do but we tend to get stuff done when it is in the system to get done.  By the time I get back, he is already gone and the situation is that he is asking my manager if he will at least temporarily move back downtown and take over an inside sales position so that they aren't short-handed while these other guys get the training and get up to speed.

Ummm, well, that didn't sound very good.  Especially finding out the main warehouse manager would come over to our place.  I get along with him, I guess, but I find my current manager much better than him.  When I find out who would take over the main warehouse, well that's even worse.  That guy is - not very good.  He thinks he knows everything and has that kind of attitude.  He is not a good manager in terms of how to treat employees.  But the biggest drawback to this dude is that he tells everyone no when they ask him if they can squeeze in a delivery.  He doesn't even consider it, he just blankly tells them he can't do it.  In a business like ours, we find ways to make things happen.  The main branch has several vehicles, not just semis, that can be used for pickups and deliveries.  There are numerous people that are authorized to use regular, company vehicles.  It's a joke to just flatly say no, we won't do it.

But whatever, that's not my decision.  My manager told the GM he would rather not move downtown but if they need the help, he will both run the store AND do inside sales work.  He also offered that I could take a position down there - as I said I would but only if they don't lower my wages.  Apparently it's some company thing that they may not be able to transfer me to such a position without lowering my wages, I would not agree to that so if that's the case, it's a non-starter.

So that's that.  No idea what the final decision will be.  I doubt, though, that it will take them long to make those decisions, once they start on something like this, they waste no time in implementing it.  So we'll see.

Meanwhile, the countdown: 2 days.  My son is gone for a year, leaving in 2 days.  Not too much more time and right now he's hanging out with his mom at her house.  Has been since yesterday morning.  I do hope he will come back over here and spend a few last minutes with me, but that's not something I would ask him to do, just hoping.

That's it.  Took a bunch of the Hostess I got from church yesterday to work - that all disappeared.  I ate one small bag of it - too much calories in that junk, not worth eating too much of it, but there are 2 junk food junkies at work.  I don't know how or why the church got all of that stuff - no clue.  It's all the new stuff that the newly revamped Hostess is putting out.  Hostess is back, though I don't know if they have the entire line of stuff going yet.

ben

So, I have Wednesday off - to see Caleb off on at the airport - and then a 3 day holiday weekend coming up.  I'm not really looking forward to Wednesday, to be honest, just because of the significance of what is going to take place.  I had always wanted at least 3 kids, would have helped mitigate this situation if such were the case.  But it isn't and now the so-called "empty nest syndrome".  Doesn't mean I'm not happy for my son in pursuing his dream, I just know how my heart felt yesterday at church when I started pondering this whole situation.

Anyway, the party on Saturday.  I didn't go into it with the pics I posted because I didn't have the time when I posted it, lol.  I was going somewhere, don't even remember what now.  Anyway, I sat down at a table with 2 old friends and we started making jokes.  Pretty funny stuff, actually, then a 4th person and another old friend I hadn't seen in ages sat down.  After reacquainting ourselves yet more came and sat down with us.  So it went until a man came up through a side door, squinting at me and a look of recognition.

I had no idea who this person was, but he definitely recognized me.  I just sat there and said hello to him after he came up shaking my hand and spent two hours after that attempting to figure out who this person was.  It finally came back to my memory.  He used to go to the same church I went to now going on a decade ago - we weren't really close or anything so I think that why he had been put into the dark storages of the basement portion of my memory banks, lol.

But there was a completely different atmosphere there, much different than the last time I was there for a party for whatever reason, which was at least a year ago.  The old abrasiveness of what had occurred at the church had rubbed off.  The air wasn't charged with negativity and it was a cool party.  I determined myself to make the rounds and speak with everyone that I knew from the past there, whether I wanted to or not, lol.  Also met some new people that were there because of Caleb.  On attempting to leave, I got hung up with yet 2 more people and we talked for at least another 30 minutes - which is when I remember it was my dad's birthday!

So I went over by where Caleb was, made the phone call and we both wished him a happy birthday and talked for a while.

That was it for the party, 4 hours of talking was enough for me.  There was a good hour long portion of it where we took pics and then we all prayed over Caleb - and by that I mean just about every individual and couple there not only prayed over him, but gave him prophetic words.  It was good.  I recorded much of it and intend on putting it on a disc for Caleb to listen to if he so desires, there was a lot spoken over him and in such events like that, it's difficult to remember everything that was said.

And now? Monday morning, lol, another weekend cashed out and gone, there was NOTHING in the truck routing system for today as of the time I left Friday afternoon.  I surely hope that something was put in there over the weekend, because there is NOTHING to DO at the shop at this point.  We have dealt with everything, the place is clean and I have no desire to sit around on my @$$ all day, attempting to burn up 8 hours.  I can't do that, I'll figure out something to do if such is the case, but I hope it isn't the case.

With that, I bid you a g'day.

ben

Well, it was a pretty cool party last night.  All the old = edgy - stuff from the past seemed to have disappeared with most of the people there.  Meaning, all the judgementalism and finger-pointing and bad-mouthing must have gone away with the winds, because excepting for one person, I felt none of that there last night.