This is starting to get old.....

Parts. And more parts. And sending the wrong parts back.
The front axles on my Polaris have turned into a huge headache.
They did send the wrong ones, after all, even though the description in the header said it would fit my model.
So, not only do I have to send these things back, I have to pay the shipping for it and I"m sure that isn't cheap for something that heavy.

The thing about it is, there are several different variations of this axle that sellers on ebay and other places are saying will fit my particular model, and no, they won't. I've now become an expert and will be buying the correct set today, probably, meaning again waiting until next weekend to put the blooming thing back together.  This has been going on for a while now and yes,  I'm starting to get burnt out on it.

The Jeep should be done tomorrow or the next day.  Meaning if I had the Polaris running, I could go riding this coming weekend.  Instead, I'll be sitting around trying to put they whole mess back together.  Of course, I could pull the trigger on another ATV and just go that route.

It's whatever at this point. It will take as long as it takes and oh well.  It was, however, rather a let down to come to the understanding that I wouldn't be able to put that side back together - yesterday - and have it done and then pull the other side apart.  I think I could do this stuff with my eyes closed now I have done so much of it.  In fact, the more I get into it, the more I am convinced that I could do ATV repair on the side.  Bearings, axles, U-joints, more bearings, starters, drive belts, brakes, whatever.  Not that much different than a car.  It's just plain old mechanics and these things have carburetors on them so that makes fuel issues much easier than if they had fuel injection.  Although, getting at a carburetor on a 4 wheeler is a job in itself. You have to remove a lot of stuff on one to get at it.

But at this point, I've done all of it. Chains, sprockets, carrier bearings, between the 2 4 wheelers I've gotten my hands dirty in all of it and have had them running again in perfect order after I was done.

Just something I am considering, though it would be just one more thing to consume my time.

Other things I wish I could talk about, but, it would probably not end well for that person, so I'll keep quiet about that.

However, the kid driver at work is very unhappy there - and likewise management is very unhappy with him and giving him clues he best find greener pastures.  He said he has a job offer to operate a refueling truck that goes to jobsite and fuels up heavy machinery making almost $20 per hour and 60 hours per week.  Well why wouldn't you take it?  Anyway, Friday he said: "if you get a text from me saying it's been nice knowing you, that's the sign that I'm quitting here".  Ooookaaaayyyy.  Go right ahead.  Will give me my hours back and I will be busy all day long.

This week, as it stood, I was stuck in the yard for about 3/4's of it. They now have apparently assigned us to trucks, which is all well and fine, but the semi doesn't always stay busy and some weeks it's barely used at all.  That gets kinda boring because there isn't that much to do around the yard.  Put stuff away that comes in, cleanup, and that's about it. If this dude quit, that would leave us without a 3rd driver for a while and that would be optimal.

And, the lady tenant is apparently making breakfast without bothering to ask whether anyone wants any.  It's nice that she goes to the trouble, but I'm not a big breakfast person, I'm not hungry to be frank.  Plus, she makes pancakes - which I can eat every 6 months or so, but not every weekend. The problem is, you say something in a non-confrontational way and she still doesn't get it.  Well, she got it from the other tenant who informed her wasting a bunch of food by throwing it out all the time is ridiculous and we need to eat leftovers more often.  We had that talk while she was on vacation.  The end result is yes, we are eating leftovers much more often and the food waste has gone way down, to the point I can deal with it.

Addler - the Great Dane - is doing quite well, he's such a good doggy.  He's so very obedient and ready to please. Of course, I went to the bathroom a while ago and came back to find him occupying half the couch! lol The German Shepherd - Aspyn - is doing good excepting for her habit of jumping the fence and taking off.  That has gotten her tied up on a chain or in a kennel while I'm at work.  Oh, and speaking of that, the lady tenant has also backed way off of taking "control" of my dogs.  That was also beginning to irritate me greatly.

Other than that, just the same old stuff.  Saving up money to give to Caleb for his wedding.  Waiting to pull the trigger on airfare.  Also waiting to hear if I'll have any part of the ceremony.  No clue there.  Not that I have to, but it would be nice to have some minor role in it.  Just because I'm his dad.  I'll be happy to go and attend, watch him go off to wherever they are going to go to have their honeymoon and wait for grandbabies lol.

Well, it's Sunday. Beautiful weather. Perfect for riding.

Haven't heard anything from my dad - he doesn't write or call anymore, I have to call him and I'm told he doesn't remember the phone call shortly after calling him.  I sent cards for Christmas and heard nothing back.  I'm resolved to the fact that he is being taken care of by what are mostly just complete strangers that I have met, spent some time with, but are hostile to us offspring of my dad's.  Apparently he was in the hospital in January but nothing so much as a phone call to let me know.  I am the only one in my family that is interested in his well being, but it's discouraging that they won't keep in contact at all.

Well, besides the theater that is the world in politics as we know it today, nothing much else going on.  Still working on my credit and Fingerhut still playing games with it.  They reduced it by $600 - which dug a grave in my credit score and now have raised it up a grand.  It's hard to just get rid of a source of credit, it can ding your score as well, but perhaps time to part ways with them.  I was going to contact them about this habit of theirs of bumping up the credit and then reducing it.  What is that all about? Leave it lower if that's the case, I owe them maybe a hundred dollars, I think my credit line with them is over 3 grand.

I did open up another account - but I won't use it. It's another credit card, it bumps up the amount of available credit was the intended result.  I was going to do another but it's too many inquires on my credit score if I keep doing that, which then has a negative impact on my credit. This credit score stuff is fairly perplexing at times.  You think you're doing something to help it - and it does - but then something else happens that drops it.  I make my payments on time, I am paying it down, don't know what else to do.

Well enough of this. Going to go finish a few projects that I started last weekend.

So, yesterday at work I started feeling ill.  Dunno, just didn't feel good.  After 2 hours of it I finally decided it was time to go home and lay down. Which is exactly what I did. Figuring no point in coming back today, I tried to call the manager this morning 3 times.  He was too busy.  Oh well, left a message with the receptionist that I was still sick and was staying home, since the 2cd message he didn't return my phone call and on the 3rd call, I found out he had left.

I am going to try to endure it there until after my son's wedding in August so I can take at least a week off for that - if I'm flying to California I'm going to have a vacation above and beyond my sons's wedding.  He can go wherever he's going to go and have his honeymoon, I'll go spend some time on a beach.  And whatever else the Oakland area may have to offer.  That's my thought on it anyway.

After that, I will definitely look for a new job until I find one.  I don't see this situation getting better at work.  The "new" manager told the other good driver that since he saw him smoking a cigarette over in the shed, he is going to send him home.  The point? Nothing was told him to do.  Now look here.  Our primary job is driver.  We are the people that actually get the product out.  Most of the time it is very busy, but there are slow times. At the end of the month, the numbers play out and the money is made. Yet, this dude takes his selfish bs out on the people that actually do the footwork to make all of this happen.

I've lost sleep over this, literally.  Do I stay because of the sake of benefits or tell this stuck up, self-made-god to stick it where the sun don't shine.  Probably neither.  I'll definitely look for a new job and that will be that.  I still have 110 hours of vacation left plus 3 floating holidays and 3 personal days and 10 sick days.  Well, yesterday and today are covered under sick.  Lots left to go before August.

I can't possibly imagine, after seeing all that is going on, working for this man for another 6 years until he retires.  In fact, from what I can see, he neither appreciates our work and could care less if we leave.  But, I can't spend too much time on this particular subject for it is grievous at best.

I should have gone to college in my 40's when I thought of it.  Lots of looking back on things, looking at decisions made.  My issue was the cost and the result.  I dunno.

Onto other things.  Finally got the Jeep.  Drove it home - about 3 miles.  I ran it up to the first stop light and it was running very nicely.  But at the stop light, it was kind of idling a bit rough.  However, while driving, it runs like a champ and has a LOT of get up and go.  I was impressed with that.  I have insurance on it but still no title or registration, though it still has their plates on it.  I want to drive the heck out of the thing for a week and see what happens, basically.  That would mean, basically, just driving it to work and back.

Oh, yes, I went to get the title switched over to my name yesterday after I came home, slept for a while and decided that I needed to get this stuff done while I am off and have time for it no matter how miserably I am feeling.  They told me at the DMV I have to have a bill of sale.  What? I have a signed title here.  Not good enough, according to them.  Okayyyyyy.  In Arizona, the title is all you need, they don't ask for nor do they want a bill of sale.  So, my friends are sending me a bill of sale, but that also means having to take off work early some day next week to get it done since the DMV isn't open after 5 and definitely not on weekends.

Meanwhile, I went and bought a trailer today.  I have been looking for quite a while, this one was the best for the money I was willing to spend.  A 16 foot overall length trailer, about as big as I wanted to get without taking up too much space in the driveway.  This thing was made out of angle iron and whoever previously owned it before the guy I bought from had significantly beefed up the tongue.  I mean, far more weight capability than anything I'm going to do with it.  The story of why they got rid of it was pretty sad though. THEY had bought that trailer many years back for hauling 4 wheelers all over the place.

They were veteran riders, very skilled and knowledgeable.  However, after going out on a trip for a week, they came back home, unloaded their 4 wheelers and headed down the driveway. What they didn't know was that someone on the other side of the road where they live and access to land they ride on had dug out a ditch.  Long story short, one of them road over the ditch at 7 mph, the 4 wheeler flipped, he landed face first, the 4 wheeler hit him with the headlight and did spinal damage and resulting nerve damage.  He is relegated to only being able to move his head for the rest of his life.

Well, as sad as that is, it is not unnerving to me.  I have been riding off-road vehicles of all types for most of my adult life.  We take risks in life, I can't say that I won't be a bit affected by this tragedy in thinking about watching and being alert about where I'm riding, but it isn't going to stop me.

So anyway, it's Friday night and tomorrow I intend on spending the day working on the Polaris.  The front end is virtually torn apart, I was going to fix it last weekend but my ghost parts never came in, lol.  Well, they came in this week after re-ordering so now I have no "excuses".  I was really wanting to do this last weekend, tomorrow I'm not so enthusiastic about it for reasons I can't even explain.  Just how it goes  with me.

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Well that was Friday of last week.

This week has been busy and not as much time. The Jeep started running very poorly.  I mean, like it was missing on several cylinders.  I had gotten the thing registered and decided to drive it all over the place.  Well, when that started happening, I took it to the shop- - Addler in the vehicel lol - and the guy took the codes off of it. 5 codes showing.  I left there agreeing that they were to come get the thing out of my driveway the next day and find out what was wrong with it.

So, it's been gone since 2 days ago.  I got a call today: well the only thing wrong is bad fuel.

Did I make a bad assumption? When I took it in there I told them it had been sitting for over a year, I assumed they would deal with old fuel.  No, they had not.  They had gotten it running and it was running fine. They added some fuelboosters to it and saidit was working find now.  I would hav rather they drained the old fuel out of it.  Whatever the case, when I go to get it tomorrow, I will fill it up with however much high octane fuel I can get in there, it was just below half tank when I took it in.

Well, the good news is I already shelled out a good deal of money for this thing, they aren't going to charge me for the tow over there and are only charging me for whatever fuel additive they added to  it.  Which is what it should be.  This is something they should have caught when it was in there.

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And having trouble finding the time to finish this, so whatever I get done here today, it's going up.  I got the Jeep back, drove it 42 miles.  It ran like a champ for about 24 of those miles and then started running poorly again.   I'm guessing we still have a fuel problem.  I filled the tank up with 11 gallons of premium/92 octane but I think that bad fuel is the culprit.  I had asked them if they drained the fuel tank when they had made their assessment and they said they had not.  See, if it were me, that would have been the first thing to do. Well, I took it right back to them that same day - which was on Saturday.  Haven't heard back from them, but then again I'm not necessarily going to push them.  I would like to get the thing and get driving it, but, patience.

Meanwhile, the newest round of parts finally came in for the Polaris.  I got nothing done on it this weekend because the parts didn't arrive on time.  Oh well, couldn't take it anywhere anyway, not without the Jeep running.  Project for this coming weekend.  or, if I get wild hairs, start on it during the week after work.

My unhappiness at work is affecting my psyche at this point and I really need to make a decision.  Like, get the hell out of there.  I dunno if I can stand waiting until August - when my son gets married and hence the desire to stay there for the fact that I will have a bunch of vacation hours accrued.  Starting fresh somewhere else also means starting without any vacation hours.  As normal, I have no clear answers here.

Meanwhile, the female tenant took an 11 day vacation.  While she was out, we, the male tenant and I, had discussions about her behaviors.  She gets drunk - not all the time - but when she does this is a person that gets hostile.  Not to mention she drinks his liquor all the time  which is quite costly.  So, I suggest if  he is going to "help" her with alcohol, to buy her the cheap bourbon and he can keep his more expensive stuff in his room.

However, it's the cooking that has been carried away for some time now. Actually, since shortly after they moved in.  She LOVES to cook, which is wonderful, but - she cooks too much.  We don't need all of that much food and more importantly, she is a fan of just throwing leftovers out after they have been in the fridge for 2 days. Well since she is cooking new meals everyday, we don't get to the leftovers and a lot of food has been getting thrown out.  Mind you, she doesn't ask us if we want to eat it, she just chucks it.  I mean, she is on a fixed income.  She doesn't really supply much of the food around here.  She gets a small portion of food stamps and the rest are two checks every month. One very small, I think less than $70 and the other somewhere around $600.

I  actually have no problem helping them out with food, though the dude buys his share of food as well.  But the waste is unwarranted. So, we discussed having a sit down with her and talking about the constant food being thrown away.  However, he decided he was going to do that on his own - which is fine by me since I would rather she hear it from a friend.  So, the 2 bottles of cheap bourbon he bought for her have already disappeared, presumably into her room.

Anyway, things may work out.  I would rather they just stay until the owners move back here, which may be quite some time still.

There is more but I need to go to bed.

2002 Polaris Magnum 500 Front CV Axle Removal Out Of Differential

Yeah, I spent a couple of hours looking for this info, so just make it easier for anyone running into the same thing.
So, we're specifically referencing getting the yoke with the u-joint that has the CV axle attached to it which attaches to the hubstrut (what the parts manual calls it, the long, vertical thing that holds the strut and bearing and CV joint) oh and before I forget, here is the parts manual for this quad in case you need to look up names of parts: http://pi54.com/corp/manuals/Parts/9917019.pdf

If you need assistance with getting the hub strut detached, here is a video (but it doesn't show you how to get the yoke out of the differential).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaYCd6jiA_I&t=13s&spfreload=10 Yes, I know it says it's for doing a Sportsman, but it's the same setup in that regard, but note the spindle coming out of the hub strut - it is completely different than the one on your Magnum 500.

Now, you got the axle detached, you are ready to pull that sucker right on out of the differential. So, you pull on it and pull and - nothing.  That is when my ordeal began and I found that parts manual above and it shows that there is a C clip ON the splined end of the shaft, inside of the differential! Okay, well, a lot of research later - hours worth looking through forums and videos, and I found out that is NOT a C-Clip.  That is a spring clip.  Meaning, you simply have to exert enough force on the shaft/yoke to force that clip to compress and yes, the shaft will actually come out of there!

Several comments on the forum I finally found about this suggest using PB-Blaster on it and letting it soak - even for days. But, mine wasn't rusted in there, I just didn't know what I was doing.  I stuck a steel bar right into where the u-joint is on the yoke, pulled on that while using a huge screwdriver to exert force on the back side of the yoke and it took me all of 60 seconds to get it out.  PLEASE NOTE: There is a seal right there where the shaft goes into the differential, do NOT press against that!  If you damage it then you have more work to do in replacing that seal!

ASO PLEASE NOTE:  I started looking up pricing on complete new replacement shaft (everything on mine is shot, easier to just replace the whole thing) and saw a large number of listing that said it would work for my Magnum 500, but upon observation of the picture, the splines on the CV joint end are not the same on many of them! Almost all of them, actually.  The splines on my Magnum are at the END of the shaft, not several inches down from the end, as many of those are showing.  Just trying to save you trouble in ordering the wrong part.

ADDING: I found a new set of complete axles on eBay for $114 - under the heading of a 2002 Polaris Sportsman 700.  The axles looked the same so I clicked on the compatibility list and saw that the 2002 Magnum 500 on that list.  If you are looking to get out of this cheap, this is the type of deal for you, otherwise, you can spend hundreds of dollars on these axles.

So I'm a little upset with myself.  I fully intended to install those new ball joints on the Polaris this weekend. They never showed up.  Upon reviewing several accounts, it turns out they were never ordered.  I don't know what happened, I do remember pulling the trigger on a set.  I wanted to get most of that project DONE this weekend, instead, I have to "look forward" to it next weekend, if the set I just ordered actually show up in time (which they should).  Yes, they sell the locally at the Polaris Dealer - for FOUR times the cost.  No thanks, I'll wait.

Meanwhile, they  (house owners I am living/ friends that gave me the Jeep ) told me the title should be back here by Monday.  That means I can go to the court house, get the thing switched over to my name and get it registered.  Well, I think anyway.  Depends on if they have it done.  I haven't called them and they contacted me on Friday of last week. I have no need to put pressure on them to finish a job on something that I can't use. They can do it at their discretion as time allows for more important things - such as customers whose cars have broken down and they need it fixed immediately.

Anyway, I am going to try and get it insured today. Dunno how that works on a Sunday so it might have to wait until tomorrow.  Which is fine, I just need documentation that it is insured for it to be inspected.  Oops, forgot about that. The shop can't do an inspection without the proof of insurance, that's a Texas thing.  I've been looking for trailers for a while now.  I'd like about a 16 footer to accommodate for 3 4-wheelers. I don't have a 3rd 4 wheeler but I am thinking about it.  I've seen them going cheap - people get hard up for money, the toys are often times the first thing to go.

Once I get a trailer, though, I can expand upon projects here that have been at a stand still. Such as putting some flagstone around the pond.  Build a small waterfall for effect.  And yes, I have watched several videos on it, I have a grasp on how to effectively build one now - but I need small boulders.  You just get enough boulders, set them up and have a thin one for the portion that actually gets the water flown out on it from the water filter.  You take foaming type of sealant to the areas where the water can flow back and down onto the ground - though mine is going to have a small chunk of liner underneath it as a fail safe.  Don't need a waterfall leaking back into the ground. I intend on doing this one right, which means a bit of work but the end result will be worth it.  I have about 25 small fish in that one currently.

Upon trying to call the insurance company, I got a "we are currently closed" message so I will deal with this tomorrow.

On another front, much of the front and back yard needs to be reseeded - grass seed that is.  but I am going to look and see what is advised for doing before I pull any triggers here.  I am guessing I need to rent a machine that punches holes in the ground and makes it possible for the seed to take root.  not going to do it wrong the first time is all I'm saying.

My trip to Ireland on hold.  I have a wedding to save up for - the airfare and a generous wedding gift.  Newlyweds need money, especially this couple.  I would like to be able to give them a grand in cash and then a small gift for their home.  So let the saving begin. Though I already have an automatic withdrawal savings account that has more than enough to pay for the Jeep repairs and  at least half the cost of a trailer. I'm going to drain that account in the next could of weeks and then let it start saving up for the wedding.  By that time I should be at or close to that goal.

So I guess I need to open up another bank account with limited access for my travel desires.  Have X amount automatically removed per week.  I want out of this country. I want to experience flying over the ocean.  I want to experience new cultures.  I want to see in person what it's like, I've seen enough videos and pics, I've read enough articles.  It doesn't take the place of the experience in person.  I want to have to get a stamp for the passport and go into a place that is totally not America and see what it's like. I should've happened when I was on the mission field, it was going to happen, but they found my usefulness in the American camp too great to let me go overseas.  I have friends that went overseas from that same operation that never came back. They set up camp there and flew with it.  I am not in any kind of regret, for my American tour ended up having me all over Mexico and that was an awesome experience.  It truly was. Seeing towns with no electricity, running water or sewer systems.  People that have never seen a TV in operation or a movie. Etc etc etc.  It is truly a 3rd world nation so I know I have experienced in person what goes on anywhere where there is abstract poverty.  But, I want to experience it in person. And experience more developed nations such as Ireland or Italy just because of their rich cultural experience.

On another note, a very perplexing thing.  I have a co worker that complains about his pay all the time. He isn't making that much money and he leaves early.  I have come to the conclusion that the government assistance he is receiving allows him to live a rather lavish lifestyle.  He frequently posts his location update on Facebook and today? He was at Ralph and Kacoo's.  Well Ralph and Kacoo's is a very expensive, upscale restaurant that I wouldn't even go to but maybe once in a great while if I thought I had the need, which I don't.  He posts these updates about being at expensive places quite frequently, yet he's making $13 per hour?  This is the fallacy of welfare.  Free rent, food stamps and in some cases cash assistance.  I'm so sick of the government taking my tax money and giving it to people that don't deserve it.  Freaking bullshit, frankly.  So, this dude can drive a brand new truck and living in a nice apartment and going out all the time all over the place making far less money than I am and complain about it?  WTH.

I bust my ass to get the things I want and these people get what they want for basically no effort? And no, this guy isn't a stellar performer.  He shows up to work, talking on his phone all day long. Takes 3 times as long to load a truck, sits at jobsites after the delivery is done and just sits there - for an hour or more (contractors have complained about this), leaves early and complains about his pay>

Whatever, I think I;ll end this one before I get pissed.

Well, just when I thought my credit score was headed in the right direction, it takes a hit from unknown source.  A bit of research came up with Fingerhut.  They play games with your credit limit all time.  Up and down and up and down.  It was up to around 3 grand and then they reduced it $600 and that was the deal.

So, I"m going to contact them and ask them to either stop that practice or close the account.  I owe them maybe a hundred and something, no problem just paying it off and getting it over with.

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Started this several days ago and got distracted. Going back to work Monday was as I figured: they dump you with all kinds of junk to do just to make you pay for taking time off.  And so it has been all week up until today. I actually would like another day like that tomorrow and it will pass quickly and be over with.

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Getting no where fast with this entry.  Anyway, I had full intentions of getting the Polaris mostly done this weekend.  I got 2 projects done on it, but a part I ordered for the 3rd project was missing the ball joint.  Not that it was guaranteed to come with it, I had just thought it was going to.  So, I have to order a ball joint for it before I go tearing that entire assembly down. I don't really like pulling things apart without being able to put them right back together, too easy to lose parts or forget how it reassembles - though I am taking pics of everything I am doing now because I have run into quirks.

Such as the starter.  I realized after getting that out that the bendix also needed to be replaced. So I ordered that as well and reassembled that yesterday.  But while I was in there, I saw that the pull start assembly needs  a rebuild kit. Basically, the pull cord is a back up in case the starter motor fails.

But, it still works - not as good as it should but it would still start the thing up, so that's kind of a backurner project.

Meanwhile, ordered ball joints for both sides today so I won't be able to get to that again until next weekend.

It's getting close now though. Unless I find even more wrong in there, this should be getting to the end of the fixing line on that one.

The Jeep is also almost done.  A bit hefty price tag to get it there but as long as it runs for quite a while with no further issues I'll be good with it.

Well onto other things.  My son of course announced his engagement to his girlfriend, but now he's got a set date: August 6th, being held in a suburb of Oakland, CA. That's 6 months from now.  I was hoping to find a new job, frankly, but this kind of interferes with that.  I can't start a new job and expect to take serious time off only 6 months into it.  Just doesn't work that way unfortunately.

So, pondering time.  Things have gotten a little better since the meeting with the GM and the manager.  He didn't end up cutting our hours even more.  I'm really at a loss what direction to go in with this situation. When I am faced with something like that, I have found it's best to do nothing at all and allow the situation to answer it's own question, which it eventually will.  I'm pretty sure the warehouse "manager" wants out of there and it's highly likely that he will retire when he turns 62, which is something like a year off now.

They've hinted at the idea of taking his place, but that's about as far as it's gone, hints.  Well excepting the GM last year flat out asking if I would want such a position.


Anyway, I"m getting really sick of the games that get played with credit scores.  You go out of your way to do whatever you have to to get it back up and then something else comes along to rip it back down. I don't have the cash to buy properties, I need the credit to do that. Oh well.  Maybe save up enough down payment for owner financed options.

Uhh well it's late now, was watching  the Walking Dead and Monday comes early.

3rd day of vacation.  Decided not to go anywhere, instead, decided to fix the Jeep and fix the Polaris.  I'm kinda tired of having fun toys that I can't use because I can't take them anywhere. The man that just towed the Jeep out of here said it would cost around $700 to get it going - which isn't a bad deal for me since the jeep was free and also it allegedly has a new engine in it.  He assured me that he could get it going so I said fine, tow her away.  I've been saving to get that thing fixed so I could either use it for the purposes stated or sell/trade it for a pickup.  But if they get it running good I"d rather keep it and get a trailer for it.  That way I can haul people with me in the Jeep to go 4 wheeling - which I have several wanting to go.  Not to mention stuff around here that needs to be done that I can't deal with without being to transport materials.

The only other "issue" would be to find a good place to go riding. The nearest place I know of is about 30 miles away.  Which isn't really that bad, it's 5 per person entry fee and you can camp there overnight if you wish.

Well we're well on the path to getting things done today.  Actually been needing to get stuff done for some time now, work doesn't allow for that since I don't get off until everything closes during the week.  So now? I gotta get out there and tear the rest of that 4 wheeler down. Wasn't really looking forward to that but I am not going to let it sit like it is forever or I"m going to forget how to put the darn thing back together.

Whoops, I guess I forgot to write about what happened with the meeting with the GM and manager together in the same room. Pretty much went to hell in a hand basket.  I guess they thought they were just going to back me into a corner and shut my mouth for me, but not.  I'm not going to take any more of this man's abuse without at least speaking out about it and that I did.  The whole thing literally blew up as I spoke forth the things that he does, including calling people out and calling them stupid and idiots and mostly, his anger issue.

And of course, he got angry.  I can't say that I didn't toy with him a little after it became obvious he was getting angry. "Are we getting angry here?".  He at least didn't deny his anger issues and that was really my focus because I didn't figure from the way the GM was talking that much improvement would be gained on anything else.  It finally came down to: What do you want us to do when you are getting angry?  A carefully worded question to get him to further admit that yes he does have an anger problem and no, we shouldn't be exposed to it, what to do about it?

Amazingly, he said okay.  Next time I get angry, I give you the permission to call me out on it.  I think that was really the only thing good that happened that day.  He is still a total jerk-off.  He retaliated against me by announcing that he's cutting our hours back once again.  Of course he has that right, but it's the reason why he did it that makes him a total @$$.  Just to pay me back.  Whatever. I'm going to enjoy this vacation, and then I"m going to ask for another week off either next month or the one after and then, providing nothing changes at work, I will start carefully looking for the "perfect" position somewhere else.  I have 3 or 4 places in mind already.  But I do want to take my vacation time first.

I'm not going to say anything else now about what's going on there, I made my case, the GM is sticking up for the manager, of course, even though he heard from several people. But again, this wasn't unexpected.  So, status quo there.

Meanwhile, this lady tenant really drive's me crazy sometimes.  She just wants to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk........I'm watching a show comes barging in, starts yacking it up about the movie I'm watching. It's like one of the best parts of the movie and she's standing there going off again.  Well, I asked her to be quiet.  Yup.  This morning.  Haven't had my coffee, just woke up, sitting out here listening to the news, she wants to start yakking all over again. She knows I am not the greatest morning person until I get a cup or two of coffee in me.

But whatever. The owners of the house have stated they are coming back eventually and that once they do come back, they would love for me to stay with them, their 2 boys - she's having another one in a few months - can stay in a single bedroom. That'll work for quite a while, but at some point, kids want their own room.  I don't necessarily expect to be here forever, though I like the setup andI know them well now, we are definitely on friendship level of relationship. So who knows.  I'm getting the Jeep fixed so I can haul stuff over here.Plenty of things I want to upgrade outside here.

I have no clear cut future.  I guess no one does but sometimes this seems way too much up in the air, especially with the work situation.

I can't say much else. Dad's health continues to deteriorate, his memory getting worse and worse. The effects of age also taking a hold on my mom, though I don't think she has dementia, she did send me a birthday check this week dated with 2015 on it.  She's stressting over everything. She moved twice last year which was bad enough.  Now she is stressing over selling her extremely valuable China.  I'm like, why are you stressing over this?  Let it go til' some other time if its affecting you that bad.  I dunno.  My son announced his engagement to his girlfriend this week which was really good news because they have been going out together for quite a while now.  He seemed to have his reservations telling me, but I did nothing but support him in it It's his life, he's free to do what he wants with it.

And so there it is.  A plateful of things to do, going to go out in a little while and see about tearing the rest of that thing down.  It's an absolutely beautiful day outside considering it's February and I remember 2 February's ago here it was snowing I think.  It was cold anyway, I remember that.

Tomorrow marks the day that the GM comes up.  To do what, I don't know exactly.  I don't know what others have told him about the manager's behavior.  I don't know if they will come forth honestly and say what has actually happened or if they will try to support him through the very real fear of losing their jobs.  Can the GM offer anonymity that won't go any further than him?  He can, but it seems like stuff gets leaked out all the time.  My email to him was spun off all over the place. No-one knows what I said in it, exactly, they just know I sent it and the GM is coming up here because of it.

Which doesn't mean anything will change.  At all.  This GM really doesn't have any good idea of how to resolve these kinds of issues, as evidenced from the past.  He knows how to run the business, but employee altercations and problems with management he seems to not have the stomach to take on. There's nothing I can do about that, I can just feed him with the facts of what has occurred and hope he'll find some way of dealing with it, if he does, indeed, want to deal with it at all.

The GM comes up in the last few visits and doesn't avail himself to any of the employees. He sits in the manager's office all day long, obviously you aren't going to have a private conversation with him in there, especially if the crux of the conversation is about the manager himself.  So, when he said "I wish you would have said something sooner", I replied you haven't availed yourself.  He had no reply to that.  I would rather discuss these kinds of things in person, but he left me no choice.  Still, the email only went to him - so far.  I have neither shown it to other employees nor have I escalated it by sending it up the chain of command.

So, I have really no idea what will happen tomorrow.  I likely will  be shuttled off into a corner room and have a meeting with both of them.  They will undoubtedly try to establish a narrative that it's me having an issue with him, which if that does occur, I will come back with numerous examples of the manager coming up against all of us, in a group, called together, at once and belittling the whole lot of us at the same time, replete with threats against everyone.

I've prepared myself as much as I possibly can for likely inevitable scenarios, my only other thing is simply keeping my cool and engaging calmly but decisively. I would very much like if I could catch the manager off guard and "provoke" - in a factual way - him to becoming angry and forgetting where he is or who is present.  People that have that much of an anger problem sometimes do that.  It gets the best of them and they can't keep their mouth shut.

Enough of that.  I have a week off coming up soon.  I haven't decided whether I am going anywhere or doing a stay home thing.  My finances are a bit tight right now for flying off over the ocean.  I jsut want the time off.  A change of scenery would be nice, but not mandatory.

So. Monday morning (today) hits.
I wrote a letter to the general manager about the situation with the manager here.  I sent it off to my own company email instead of sending it to him from my personal account. I wrote the letter over the weekend, forgot to add.

I got to work this morning and pulled it up.  Read it over. Very detailed, somewhat lengthy but had to go there to make sure the full story was told.  I then thought about the potential consequences for clicking on the forward arrow, inserting the general manager's email address and hitting the send button. Loss of job?  Dunno, maybe.  Manager getting pissed at me for doing so?  Granted and expected.  Potential discord with certain other (@$$ kissing) employees?  Yup, a couple of them. One in particular the warehouse dude that throws everyone under the bus anyway.  Also, what if no one else confirms what I am saying? What if they are too in fear of losing their jobs that they will keep their mouths shut?

But the hell that this man makes work? Over-rode all of that.  The authoritarian fear-based "leadership" he doles out through threats and insults came to a head with me, I can't do this anymore without speaking up.  So, after a few minutes of consideration, I did hit the send button and come what may.

I went out on a run.  I figured when I got back, I would hear something.  And sure enough.  The first thing that happens is the manager comes into the showroom and asks me about my phone call to the GM today?  The look on his face spoke thousands of words.  Uhh, nope, I didn't speak to him.  He gives me "his" look.  I volunteered that I had sent him an email.  Though I didn't really feel the need to give him any info.  If the GM did, good for him.  So, he told me that the GM was coming up next week and we were going to have a meeting - him, the GM and me.  I said great, let's do that!  While thinking, what good is that going to do? This isn't about me, I'm not the only one thinking this way. But whatever.  He avoided me the rest of the day.  A coworker said he appears to be butt-hurt. Great, please take a dose of your own medicine.

Regardless, he was visibly upset but stayed away from me.  And when I checked my email at the end of the day,  I found an email back from the GM saying he was coming up and would do a "state of the store" meeting and have everyone there.  Well, I do hope that that is productive, but I am not confident that many people will speak up.  They are in fear for their jobs.  I don't want to lose my job, no. At the same time, I am driven by this man's illiteracy in "emotional intelligence" as the company puts it.  And yes, I am more than willing to push this up to corporate.  I didn't do that last time, this time I am resolved to see this through to the end - whatever end that may be.

So, I have no idea what is going to happen day to day now.  I've set myself up against this manager, rightfully so though - but still.  Upper management needs to see through all of this. The GM visits once in a while, goes and sits in the manager's office, you don't see him.  All is hunky dory.

I am going to write down every incident that I can remember on paper.  I have a dozen of them in mind and I am going to ask a few others if they can remember anything.  Yup. it's all going to be brought up. I'll do it alone if I have to.

Meanwhile, my birthday is on Super Bowl Sunday.  Steelers got run over yesterday by the Patriots so my team isn't going to be there. But, it got me to thinking: take some time off.  So, last week I asked for a week off and I at least didn't get an issue about that.  I have 141 hours availablle.  I haven't decided what to do. I don't feel much like doing anything, but then again, a drive to Fort Worth and a flight somewhere.  Just get me out of here.  Or get in the car and drive.  Just away from here.  I'm just thinking.

Ahh, life.  Well done with this one.

Been taking a break from blogging.  I just kinda lost the desire to do it.  Happens occasionally.  But I haven't posted in a while so I'm going to do an update.
As for today, the kid next door begging to let him borrow the 4 wheeler so I let him.  But, you can't take it out on the street.  What does he do?  Takes it on the street.  Both his mom and I put an end to that quickly, but the damage was done.  Maybe 30 minutes later, 2 police cruisers come through the neighborhood, but by that time the 4 wheeler was put up.  They just drove on by slowly.  10 minutes after that, his dad - a sheriff and on duty - pulled up first to their house but then quickly came over to me.

His first words? 6 more days......rofl.  He was referring to Trump taking power in the inauguration.  And cops apparently are very happy about Trump coming into power and legitimizing law enforcement again.  Then I saw this awesome AR rifle in his car and started talking about that which of course he was delighted to go into, but the boy - cannot ride the 4 wheeler in the neighborhood again, which I totally agree with. The uncle has a huge swath of land outside of town and that is where they normally take it.

Christmas was good if uneventful.  I can't decide whether I missed being with family for it or not.  They didn't have it on Christmas Day anyway, so no loss there, but the event usually lasts only 2 or 3 hours and that is it.  Bye bye, c'ya next Christmas.  I almost made it midnight New Year's but I fell asleep like 15 minutes before 12, lol.

Ummm, really now.  I am still a bit absorbed in the political realm.  The unending "conflicts" dems/liberals/progs are bringing up against Trump are rather amusing to me.  The "final" one, providing another one doesn't prop up between here and Friday (which it probably will so not holding my breath), is they are allegedly going to dump up to 750,000 protesters in DC to attempt to actually stop the inauguration. Seriously, when have you ever seen this kind of nonsense after a president has been elected and before he was inaugurated? I dunno if this level of fruitcakery has ever happened, I certainly don't remember it.


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Well, it's a bit hard to finish a post around here.  A lot comes up.  I was watching the Steelers game on Sunday and at 1 minute 55 seconds left in the game, Steelers up by 2, someone comes to the door.  Gag.  I was like, uhhh, yeah, one moment while standing at the door, looking at the tv. But the ending to the game nothing grand.  They just ran the clock out to win the game.  Still, that puts the Steelers in for next Sunday to play for the conference win.  Which would take them back to the Super Bowl if they actually do win.

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Well now I'm going to do some venting.  For when I came back from a run today, the warehouse manager showed me a ticket - from a month ago, and asked me what happened with a hand written in backorder.  In other words, the quantity had originally showed shipping and then I had changed it to show it had not shipped.  I don't remember, I know we shipped them though.  5 minutes later, the "new" manager, not so new now, comes out, calls everyone together and then starts in on me. And I got right back in his face.  He started cussing, calling m e out personally and telling me "You'd better think hard. You'd better be thinking hard for a looooong time until you remember".  Talking down to me, getting angry, I had had enough.

You can't even think to remember something from a month ago when someone is in your face talking like that to you.  Apparently the look on my face spoke more than my words, for I was getting angry. I've had enough of this a-hole getting angry about petty s*** and then coming up to us and talking to us like we're 5 year old in Kindergarten.  We fired back and forth at each other for at least 10 mintues.  Finally the thing came back into memory and then I got very vocal.  Yes, I remember now. I brought this ticket in there, informed those two - the warehouse manager and the inside salesman - that this ticket needed to be changed because I couldn't fit the material that was showing backordered onto the truck, pointing at the two the entire time.  Those two have NO problem throwing all of us under the bus, they can get a dose of their own medicine.

But I wasn't letting off this fake manager that gets mad over stupid stuff.  He stood there and said I'm getting angry, apparently thinking I would intimidated by it. No and no thanks (and if I would have thought about it, I would got out my phone and called his manager on the spot).  I did everything that YOU said to do.  When I got to the jobsite and saw they hadn't changed the ticket (this was a HUGE order, filled the entire truck up and much of it double stacked with pallets), I placed the non-shipping material on backorder.  When I got back, I took the ticket into them again, showed them the error and told them it needed to be changed before being billed.

I have tried and tried to just let the man have his way, keep my mouth shut but this was the straw that broke the camel's back.  I had had enough and everyone there knew I was at bursting point.  Seriously, if that man had continued on with it, I probably would not have a job right now.  But, I kept my cool enough to deliberately give him his stuff right back at him in calm tones.  Don't read this wrong. I didn't blow up.  I didn't cuss back.  I didn't mouth off, but I wasn't backing down - at all - either.  I basically kept speaking up the entire time until he finally backed off. He stopped himself, realized what kind of s*** he was pulling. Got a strange look over his face, and then actually apologized to everyone.

That wasn't enough for me though, for he had singled me out and it was completely and totally unwarranted.  So yes, I kept bringing up the pertinent points to his petty ranting that led to unwarranted anger on his part.  He finally changed his tones and said okay, okay.  Let's just work towards getting this better and offered alternatives.  Yes, let's do that. And btw, when I say something to someone about changing a ticket, it goes in one ear and out the other.  That got his ire but that's exactly what goes on.  He finally settled down after he saw I was having none of it and I was definitely not backing down.  I'm a man, not a child and I'm not going to let this person talk down to me like this anymore.  The next time this happens - and yes there will be a next time because this dude can't stop himself - I'm calling the general manager and he can hear how this guy is acting out.

There was one marked difference after this exchange.  5 minutes after it happened and everyone walked off, he came up to me an profusely apologized.  Perhaps there is hope for the man after all. Who knows.

And, after that, everyone else was commenting on me.  I'm not going to say I wasn't getting extremely agitated with his behavior, they saw it on my face.  They all thought I was going to bust.  And in fact, that what was what was happening internally.  I at one point had to look down, gather my thought quickly, calm myself down and then continue on.  They all saw that and knew what was going on.  It actually ended on a much better note than any of these interactions with this man has occurred before.

Okay. It's Thursday night, tomorrow is the Inauguration of Donald Trump.  Projected up to 750,000 protestors showing up, including talk of rioting and violence, human chains and all kinds of garbage.  I hope and pray that violence doesn't occur.

Well, haven't posted in a while. I have been absorbed in my new moderator rule in this huge political debate group I'm in.  BTW, anyone interested in joining let me know and I'll post a link to the group. It's a closed group and there are some fruitcakes in it, but there is some real debating that goes on in there too. I'm getting my feet wet at the mod role and dealing with a large variety of issues, though the most sticky ones are getting in between people that go into anger and start the stupid name calling and such. Almost every single time, I end up having to boot a person from the group.  So, that's part of what I"ve been doing.

The rest is buying Christmas gifts and getting them sent out, sending out Christmas cards, raking and burning leaves, going to work and dealing with the daily grind.  I got a wonderfully nice sized rib roast yesterday at Kroger's.  I went in there to find these small little roasts out in the cooler and I don't like getting a cut of beef like that in such a small size.  It doesn't cook right, at least not for me, it gets over-cooked too easily.  A good roast like that is going to be nice and red on the inside, not pink or medium or anything else.  Usually the small end of the cut will brown nicely for those that want more well-cooked beef.  Well I knocked on the butcher door and asked if they had any larger roasts?  Nope, but we can cut you one to size.  I said about 10 pounds.  They got it very close to 10 pounds and I was very happy.

My new credit card turned out to actually lower my credit score more than it was at before. Why? Because when I asked for a balance transfer from one of my other cards,  I asked for X amount to be transferred.  Well, they transferred the entire amount which was well above my credit limit on that card.  Meaning it's showing I'm over the limit to the credit agencies and that automatically dumped my newly found increases, at least on Experian.  So,, I have asked them to at least increase the credit limit to the amount I owe on the account.  There is no risk to them for that, it's not going to give me any ability to spend anything on it, so I am hoping they will do it.  This credit score business is turning into a real headache.

Posting this one even though unfinished. I have too many drafts in there, got to post something! lol

Okay look, I have zero experience transferring balances from one card to another.  So, it was rather shocking to see my Platinum card with Capital One at zero balance and the Barclay card acquiring the entire amount of the balance.  The reason is surprised me is because I originally put the request in with only taking out a portion of the balance.  This is about credit building first, for me anyway. Saving money is also right up there.  I wanted the amounts on both cards to be at or less than the limit experts say you should have any given card at - 30% - in account balance.  Second, because the balance on the Cap One card is more than the  credit limit Barclay card gave me to begin with.

The good news of this is that I now have 15 months of interest free payments to pay that amount off and I definitely intend on doing that much faster than I originally intended to.  A $200 payment - is worth $200 - not $120 or whatever with interest added.  In 10 months I'll have that card down to near zero.   I was charged with 2 fees to bring the balance over for some reason, they did it in two transactions of which I don't understand but will be asking them about.  However, the fees are negligible to the amount of money paid towards interest over that same 15 month period if it were still on the other card so I'm not going to complain. I just don't understand why they even bothered to do that when it went over their limit for my account.

I'm also curious if they are going to try to add over-limit fees.  We'll be having a long conversation about that since it is irrefutable that my request was for X amount, that was less than the credit limit of the card.  But I am not going there tonight. What I need now is Capital One to increase the credit limit on the now zero balance card.  Not so I can spent more money, but so that my overall credit use is lowered.  Fingerhut just gave me an increase to over 3 grand, of which I have a $200 balance on it and no plans to buy anything  from them anytime soon.

Well enough of that for now.  Just my current "fad", I guess. Get the credit back in shape, at least get it into the 700 range and then explore my options.  A few owner financed properties available, but unappealing.  Including a 10 spot mobile home park with a site built home for the owner to live in. They want far too much money for it.  I could start a 10 unit park just outside of town instead of out in the boonies for a fraction of the cost. I also found a lot of owner financed homes at really good prices.  A huge house on 5 acres for 150k.  You have to wonder about a property like that, though. Always appraisals tell the story.

Well, nothing new around here.  Rain, rain and more rain.  All day long, everywhere.  Driving in it, working in it, getting wet in it. The pond project at a stall, just have to wait until next weekend, that is, weather permitting.  Mom's Christmas present to me should be arriving some time this week. A large enough tool box on wheels.  She declared today she is the owner of 2 homes - but soon to be in her new place which she claims she really likes.  My brothers.  I don't hate them, but they are some of the most selfish people I know.  Why couldn't they lift a finger  to help her?  I almost wish I was still living there to have been around to help her through all of this.  Operative word being almost.

Well, the end of 4 days off.  I know it's barely noon Sunday, but it goes so fast.  I got  up, let the dogs out, enjoyed a large breakfast - something I really don't get into but she loves to cook and this really was tasty - then headed up to Lowe's.  I have been working on the pond project this weekend, with the wall mostly built and mortared in.  However, I forgot about rebar and though I couldn't stick it inside the blocks as you are supposed to do, I was at least able to drive them into the ground directly behind the blocks and up against them and then cement them in.  This has turned into a much more involved project than I expected.  It's because  of the proximity to the house. OtherI pwise, I would have been able to just dig a hole and no have had to put up any retaining walls and it would have already been done.

But, getting too far out into the yard would have defeated the purpose of being able to sit there and enjoy a pond while sitting on the front porch.  And my water run-off drainage pipe limited how far away from the porch I could put it. It would have been ideal at around 2 feet.  Instead, it's about 10 inches, which is good enough.

Anyway, I  got my materials and got up to the contractor's check  out. I'm not a contractor but that never stops anyway.  The young lady running the counter had a foul attitude, which was obvious before even got up to her with the way she treated the people in front of me.  I thought, well, I just have a few things, get this over with and get out of there.  However, she rang everything up and and gave me the total, which I thought was way higher than what it should be.  I decided to say nothing, if I need a refund I'll go to the customer service counter instead of dealing with her.

But, it didn't happen that way.  First off, she was complaining about the purchase itself with the rebar.  Do you know how much these are? No, I replied.  There was no prices on most of it.  She got upset at that while talking to this other young employee standing there.  I kept my cool while enduring her foulness.  She rang everything up, I paid for it, she handed me the receipt.  I stood back from the register and turned slightly to head out the door.  I was looking at the receipt, there was a $22 charge for something on there that I definitely didn't buy and was the source of the conflict.  She grabbed the receipt out of my hands without asking and said: "let me look at that".  That is where she crossed my line.  I still said nothing while she issued a refund and then demanded that I sign a paper for it.  Huh? You make a mistake and you want me to sign for it?  She just looked at me.  I then stated: You have an attitude problem.  She got a pissy look on her face, said okay and then walked away from the register.  I asked her her  name.

No reply. I asked the other employee's name.  No reply. An older guy had just walked up and I was asking for a manager.  Well what's wrong? She's getting an attitude with me  because of her mistake!  Enough.  Note that this lady never once apologized for her error.  Nothing even remotely close to it.  I walked out of there before I was going to lose my cool, loaded the stuff into the car and went into the other entrance, to the returns counter and asked for the manager.  Is there something I can help you with?  A lady with a clearly Texas drawl asked.  No, I want to speak to the general manager of this store, is that individual here?

She calls her up, meanwhile attempting to try and pry info out of me  It was more  curiosity on her part so I accommodated her with a piece of the information. I then quickly said, no, it's not you anyone standing here.  Ohhhh, she said, okay.  The manager came up, listened to my story and started trying to explain away the receipt and what happened.  I quickly stopped that line.  I don't care about that, it's that lady's attitude that I am complaining about. I didn't make this mistake, I didn't get the bad attitude, I don't expect to come to  Lowe's and get treated like this for no good reason.  This lady wouldn't give me her name, grabbed the receipt out of my hands  without asking and never apologized for her error.  She has a bad attitude and I expect you to deal with this in whatever way you find appropriate.

The manager got the hint and the clue, profusely apologized for the other lady's actions and said she would deal with it. Thank you!  And I left, wishing them all a good day.  I forgot Merry Christmas, I started doing that after Thanksgiving.  It didn't ruin my day, I just made my point and got out of there.

The block is in, the rebar pounded in, the mortar poured, now I have to wait for it to set.  Then I am going to fill in with dirt up to the level of the foundation of the house.  After that I can set the final block in place.  So, this is going to be resumed next weekend.  I get home from work now and it's almost dark already.  Yes I could run a light out there but I"m not in a huge hurry.  I would like to get this done, but it's a step by step process and it can't be rushed.

That's it for today.  The leaves are all but burned.  Once those are done I have a huge ash pile to dump over the back fence.  The next rain will wash it all away down the creek. I was informed, though, that those ashes are good for flower gardens. Hmmm, well if true, I will have plenty more.  The ash pile is over two feet high now, I need to get it back to ground level and then I can start over again.  I really need a high powered leaf blower.  But they are expensive.  I dunno if there are any Christmas specials on such, supposedly Black Friday deals are going through the weekend  - but - Cyber Monday is almost here.

I'm determined to get my own property out here.  There is very little public land anywhere.  Ie:places to go to enjoy yourself with dogs running free or firing up the 4 wheelers. It's a culture of land ownership.  I'm hopeful by sometime into next year my credit rating will be out of fair territory and into good zone.  That will be good enough to secure a low payment loan on a medium sized piece of land, I"m thinking around 50 acres.  Unless you have cash, you can't do anything without  good credit.  I'm not going to get burned by high interest/high payments.  Cattle would be in the equation as well.  I do need to save up the money for the down payment.  Which I have started.

Well, back to the Lowe's fiasco. While sitting here contemplating things, I checked my bank account.  The money was not refunded back into my account.  That required an immediate call to Lowe's, where I was informed "he" was not available, the store's manager.  Now we are going into more lies.  He? I replied. Yes, he's on the phone. I'll wait, thinking what is this? The lady that I spoke to said she was the store's manager and that after I pressed her about being the store's general manager.  I was hung up on.  I called back.  Again.  I called back.  Finally, this guy answers the phone.  I dumped all over him.  What is going on  there?

Finally,  a sensible person.  He profusely apologized for all of it.  He said there are cameras all over  the store and he would be reviewing the video of it. PLEASE do, I replied, you will see her snatching that receipt out of my hands.  He offered to refund my money in cash, but I am not going back up to that store today.

Well I'm going to put that out of my mind.  The Shepherd is getting bigger.  I wasn't really looking for another large dog, so I hope that stops soon enough.  She is finally getting accustomed to my way of doing things and is starting to blend in - excepting her penchant for jumping the fence.  Now, I've been letting her out without being chained up for the last week or so while I"m home, but I just can't do that when I'm at work. The last time she got out I caught her in the act and that was potentially a turning point.  Whatever the case, I do hope she isn't pregnant. So far, there are no signs of it.

Nothing much else around here worth going into.

I just called my dad and that was a pretty short lived call.  He actually sounded very good in health, but the effects of the dementia are becoming more and more profound.  At the same time, he's 85 years old, so it's not like his life is getting cut short.  I talked  with his wife for a few seconds and then got on the horn with her son who wanted to exchange phone numbers.  I'm, uh, going to have to figure something out here in advance.  Both my dad and her - his wife - are having their own sets of health issues and he, her son, wanted my phone number in case something happens to her and someone is going to have to come down to take care of dad if she ends up in the hospital.

If I were in Phoenix that would be possible, over here?  I dunno. I think there are services that will come in and deal with medications and all of that stuff - but at the same time can you leave a person with Alzheimer's on their own?  I know my brothers won't bother to do anything, so I guess it's all on me if something does, indeed, happen.

I talked to my mom and told her  what I wanted for Christmas and that it's on sale today for less than half price.  She was all over that.  After we got off the phone, she ordered it and that's that.
She has no idea what she wants for Christmas, her mind is on the move, coming quite soon.  The 7th of next month to be exact.  Maybe she'll need something for her new house.

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Moving on and a different day.  My agenda today was to get out of bed, find a shooting range and go fire off my new Taurus.  Which reminds me, I need to take it apart and thoroughly clean the manufacturers oil coating that they put on it - that I thought was part of "good" oil for the gun and found out much differently today.

Well anyway, the first thing that popped up was a shooting range only 12 minutes away.  Got over there to find out it's $20 to shoot. That's a bit pricey, frankly, but I was there.  They have a yearly rate that was $90 today only otherwise $120. I didn't buy the year membership,   But super nice people working the place and extremely knowledgeable including having their own gun smith. Yeah, well anyway, I got out there and I was the only one there.  It had just opened and it was in the 40's outside.  Which didn't bother me a bit, but apparently kept other shooters at home.  I dunno, but shortly after starting using the Taurus - it jammed up.  I got a bit irritated with that considering it's a brand  new gun.  I cleared it and it jammed again.

Well, this old codger opens a door in this old building and took me by surprise.  I didn't know anyone was in there. I mean, it is the building you are at, outside, to fire off your rounds.   He threw some golf balls out onto the range and proceeded to quick draw his gun and started firing at them and yes - he was hitting them!  I think he was putting on a show, but it was cool to watch.  He came walking by and turns out  he is also the gunsmith there, like a dude that knows literally everything about guns?  He takes my gun and disappears with it.  2 of them come back out.  I mean, how many people are in there? rofl

The codger - I don't mean that in a bad way, just a way to describe the look and way that he carries himself - comes out, rummages through my rather large gun handbag without my permission - though I can't say it bothered me, just was funny to see him digging in there - produces my large can of spray oil, slams it down on the table and says, There!  I looked at him funny I am sure.  What?  You need to oil this thing!  But look at it, I replied, there's oil all over it!  The other dude stepped in.  Yes, but that is that junk they put on it at the manufacturers.  It's thick oil and they only put it on there to keep the gun from rusting while it's waiting to be sold, something newer that they are doing, not knowing how long it might sit on a dealer's shelf.

You have to clean all of that sludge off of there or yes, it will jam up your gun.  Well, for a temp fix I sprayed the crap out of the sliding areas of it and yes, it worked.  This gun has a lifetime warranty, if it fails, I need only take it back to Academy and they will ship it back to Taurus to have it repaired.  So, I haven't cleaned it yet, I'll get to that tomorrow.  It was a really nice shooting gun though.  No extreme kickback, but the sights need to be aligned and honestly I am not going to say I am going to be good at doing that.

I think maybe I'll go back and leave the gun with them and have them sight it in.  I would need someone to show me how to do that.  Or perhaps there is a YouTube video. Seems nowadays there's a YouTube video for any and everything. I fired off 110 rounds in the new gun and fired off 100 rounds on my .40.  I like that .40, it's powerful and I have it down now.  I can hit the inner circle probably 50% of the time and hit the next circle out most of the rest.  That's good enough for any "situation". I'd get better if I went more often, but really, if you're hitting anywhere in center mass, you are hitting it where it counts.    

The other show today is when the dude came back out of the shack with a gun with a very long banana clip on, put the butt  end against his leg and started firing it.  Fully auto assault rife, I couldn't count how many rounds went off in a few seconds time.  It was just spraying them out.  I should have asked what kind of gun it was, it wasn't an AK 47, much smaller, just no idea.  I also found a concealed carry holster that also doubles as a open carry.  I  don't really want to open carry excepting if you are out in the wilderness.  Yup, no problem open carry there.

Besides the new gun jamming, it was an enjoyable experience that I will probably do once a month.  I think that's enough and even practice rounds aren't cheap.  I may order 500 rounds online for each gun and save some significant dough there. As it stands I need more hollow point rounds.  And, I could have brought the 12 gauge and the .22 rifle, next time I will bring all of it. It's quite the rush to do the chink-chink on a 12 gauge shotgun and then fire it off.  Really, firing off guns is entertainment in itself.  Just not cheap entertainment, lol.

Well I stopped for gas and a coffee on the way home, this time with the 9mm concealed on my side.  It's a bit large of a gun for concealed, though not that it doesn't conceal well, just a lot of metal pressing up against your side.

Well, upon getting home a guy that contacted me off of my FB yard sale post showed up to rake the lawns.  This a new one, the last one decided to stand around the fire last time he was here for an hour and ten minutes doing absolutely nothing and getting paid for it.  Not with my permission, trust me.  The dude today is just a flat out hard worker.  He thought it would be easy at first but soon realized that the yards are far more work than what it appears.  The front yard hasn't been done in quite a while and was covered in leaves, acorns and fallen, nasty smelling fruit.  It took him much longer than he initially expected.

The leaves are still smoldering out there with occasional bursts of fire.  Likely will be well into tomorrow, it was a huge pile.

I also got busy with this long stalled pond project out front and got most of the blocks cemented into place.  I can only hope it isn't going to rain tonight as the runoff fills that hole right up and that would surely knock that wall over.  I am going to put rebar in behind the wall to fortify it, but regardless I don't suppose the mortar is going to set for quite a while in this cold weather.

After that? Well the bottom of the pond was muddy and I was covered with it on my boots and pants.  I decided that was enough for today.  Day 3 of 4 days off almost over, one more day and back to the work grind. But it's been an enjoyable time off.  I can only hope for some serious OT opportunities this coming week or there will be a small paycheck en-queue.  That's the hard part about taking time off. It's flat 40 and though it isn't  insurmountable, it is a factor to be taken into consideration.

As for the political front, I took a few days off from the debate group, then got tagged back into it from the owner who wanted to show me pics of her Taurus and asking questions about  mine. A totally non-political thread that was enjoyable to be in.  I looked at a bunch of posts saying how racist Trump is and a lot of other bs and decided to not engage in any of that garbage.  Then, the owner of the group tagged me again with pics of her new doggie - of which she hasn't had one since she was in her 20's I think she said and so I obliged her request and told her the story of Adler - on that debate forum rofl - how I acquired him and life  with him since then.

In fact, this lady is tagging me all over the place, I'm only guessing that she needs another moderator for she doesn't do this kind of tagging and hinting to anyone else in the group.  And yes, she needs another moderator.  I "Report to Admin" posts that are blatant violations that also could get the group in trouble with Facebook TOS and also stupid posts that have no bearing in reality, much less a debatable topic.  The racist stuff is getting old and I am ignoring them for now.  The people posting these posts are insufferable and bigoted, some of them reverse racist blacks that hate white people with a vengeance.  I find no good reason to get involved in such threads, for I have been involved in them before.  I have been in that group for a while now and at least have as much respect as one can expect to garner in a group of 16,000 people and the regulars, most of whom I do not agree with and they do not agree with me, but, mostly, it remains civil.

Well, Black Friday is over.  I will try to get my new C-7 lights hung tomorrow.  Just the porch, 3 25 food strands which should be sufficient.

Can I just interject here that John Wayne's horse in the movie El Dorado is absolutely stunning? What a beautiful horse!  They've been showing a lot of Wayne in the last several days.  Still one of my favorite actors of all time.  He made such excellent movies. They simply come up with nothing even remotely comparable today. The trash the Hollywood comes out with now......

Well that's it.  For this one anyway.  I'm in good spirits.

Posted the last one without finishing it because it just dragged on too many days.
So here it is, Thanksgiving Day and I'm off until Monday.  I've been holding out to take any vacation days off because I am still contemplating a trip to Hawaii in January which would entail a week off and other trips I want or need to take.  I have enough hours saved up right now to take about 3-1/2 weeks off.  Likely going to take at least 3 days off during Christmas as well, even if I don't do anything or go anywhere - which I probably won't.

I have no interest in being part of a family Christmas get together that lasts 3 hours or so and sometimes ends in disaster, with at least 2 people who don't get along with anyone in the family save mother and whose interests end - at mother.  Why put myself through the hassle of flying all the way back there, spending all that money for something like that? Yet, I need to get back to Phoenix and visit mom, just not at Christmas.  She's in the middle of trying to find a new house right now so I'm going to save the trip til next month sometime.  Or not, I just don't know yet.

Meanwhile, we have full fledged Thanksgiving dinner going here today with a turkey slow cooking as we speak.  She had it in there early this morning which I thought a bit early even on a slow cook plan.  But, she's a good cook, we'll see where this goes.  Kroger's here didn't have any prime rib roasts on sale.  In Phoenix they have them on sale during Thanksgiving and Christmas week.  I know they'll have them for Christmas.  Such a fine cut of beef.

I'm still seriously interested in making the trip to Indianapolis, but how?  They want so much money for a rather short flight.  Even from Dallas.  All these trips I want to take, all the money they want.  Oh well, pick and choose.

Well, I'm going to go out and piddle with the big 4 wheeler.  Trying to set a goal to get that one done this weekend.  Or at least as much as I can do with what I've got.  If it ends up needing more parts, so beit, but I can at least get the stuff done now that I have the new parts for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm in dire need of a vacation. I just want to pack a bag, get on a plane and fly overseas somewhere.  Hawaii would be cool - but Ireland or Scotland might be cooler.  Been getting hit hard in the financial department, though. Addler's heart worms is going to cost a small fortune, not something eve on the scope of my thinking when I took him in there last week, but it is what it is. I got onto Skyscanner and found round trip tickets to Ireland for $449 - of course that's on their time table and it's a bit longer than I would want to stay, but still, the deals are out there.

Anyway, 1 more day of work and then off for 4.  I'm finally starting to feel better.  It's been a while, A head and chest cold followed by a severe chest cold with sore throat - sore throat lasting over 7 days.  Then food poisoning or whatever that was, it wasn't pleasant I can tell you that.

Anyway, I'm going to hopefully finish my 4 wheelers this coming weekend, not that I can take them anywhere yet, but I want them fixed and over and done with.  If that's possible of course.  Sometimes you take things apart and find more wrong with it than what you originally expected. Everyone here was going to be gone for this holiday but now they are forced to stay here for a couple of reasons One was his truck isn't reliable enough for a trip to Dallas and her plans to go wherever - another state - fell through, so they are both here as well.  I kinda hoped, actually, that they would be gone and have the place to myself.

They're nice people and everything I just need some alone time.  I'll have to figure something else out.  A trip to Phoenix out of the question, my mother has sold the house she just moved into - yes I know it's crazy stuff - and now in the middle of buying another house much more suited to her needs - and her needs are a low maintenance property.  If I had been there  when she was doing this the first time I would have told her that house she bought was FAR too big for her - actually it's the outside of it that was the maintenance issue.  Now, she's getting a place with a couple of trees and a few bits of vegetation here and there but nothing else.

Frankly? A night in a motel - a half decent one at least - would be nice.  I dunno.  I'll probably just stick around here and save the money.  But you can get a pretty decent place on Priceline or similar at one of the casino resorts over in Shreveport.  What's hilarious is that of all of those casinos and such over there, none of the hotels rate more than 3.5 stars.

Well, I applied for a decent credit card that gives zero percent interest on transfers from other cards and I was approved.  So, when I get the card, I will transfer the Capital One balance to that one and lose the interest payments for a year - but I hope to pay it down to zero in a year anyway.  It will also increase my credit score because that particular card I already have has a low amount of credit - like 4 grand or something and I have it half used.  Meaning it will go down to less than 30% utilization, the new card will reflect it at less than 30% utilization and here we go.

The plan to raise my credit score back up may not take as long as I had expected, but we'll see.  I continue to get loan offers for vehicles which would push it up another 50 points, but gag, you can't get into a loan for under an 8 grand vehicle, just don't want to go there unless I am forced into it. Meaning my car breaks down and I have to get another one.  The only thing that would make me stop driving that car right now and getting rid of it would be if the engine or tranny went on it.  Not worth repairing on that car, I would part it out and scrap the rest.


Anyway, here it is Saturday and I have this chest cold junk that is just killing me. Well not literally killing me but I've had a bad sore throat for 4 days now and fire in my lungs.  This lady at the Napa auto parts store gave it to me, I'm guessing since she was coughing everywhere last weekend and not even attempting to contain it, so here I am with the 2cd sickness in a row this year, after having just gotten over the last one.

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Monday mid morning.  Did not  go to work today.  Diarrhea is the culprit and kept me up allllll night long.  Still have this chest and throat thing going too.  Although the sore throat of it part seems to be dying down. I dunno about the chest stuff, I didn't do much this weekend trying to recover and so it's hard to tell until I get up and move around.  I was going to go to the doctor yesterday about the cold but I got caught up in yet another "crisis", that being the furnace quit working.

I had tried to turn it on the night before - Saturday night - and it did come on, but it was blowing cold air.  So, I spent Sunday learning about furnaces.  Watching lots of YouTube videos to figure out the problem.  I finally narrowed it down to the burners being clogged up and when I pulled them off? Yeah, parts of all of them were clogged up. I first put them in white vinegar as one expert said to do, that did help but after 3 hours it wasn't enough.  I remembered that I have a huge bottle of CLR that I had dumped into a very large plastic, sealed container some time back to clean something of which I can't remember.  It was still quite usable so I saved it.  I dumped all 5 burners in there and it cleaned up much nicer, with the aid of a toothbrush and a very small screwdriver to clean out the ports and the wings.

I then found out that the lady tenant had been turning it on without saying anything about it.  I said something to the guy tenant cause' the lady tenant is = easily offended.  I know he said something to her about it.  You don't just start operating the cooling or heating and turning it to levels that are unacceptable.  Like when I found the AC set at 70 a while back. More importantly at least to me, you simply don't go messing with stuff like that without permission.  I don't invoke myself in a lot of stuff as it stands. She took over the kitchen and I gave that up because she cooks dinner and on the weekends also brunch - and - she is an excellent cook  I mean, very good cook.

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Tuesday morning. Decided to not bother going to work.  I have plenty of sick hours available and I'm not 100% so might as well take an additional day off.  I really needed some time off anyway, though that doesn't normally come from being sick and I won't get anything done, but still, it's nice. I'll likely go back to work tomorrow and have a 3 day work week.  Next week will also be a 3 day work week since we're off for Thanksgiving and we aren't working on Friday.

My new credit card had a major impact on my credit score - for the better.  I'm now in the upper fair range. They didn't give me a very high limit, though.  I intend to transfer all of one credit card over to it and then pay it down - it will be interest free for a year according to the disclaimers I read.

Meanwhile, news that really hit me hard yesterday when I took Addler to the vet: he has heart worms.  It's hard to take because as soon as I got the dog, I took him to the vet and got him started on Pro Heart - which is medication injected into the animal that kills off heart worms for 6 months.  You just keep them on that the rest of their lives and you won't have to deal with heart worms.  Well I asked how he could have heart worms since I had him on the medication and he had been tested the first time you gave the medication to him?

They said that he must have gotten the initial infestation right before they had taken the test and that it didn't show up because of that.  Okay, well, what now?  Outlining a treatment plan that will cost around 2 grand over the next 4 or so months.  Wonderful. I got him started on the initial medication - $289 for a giant bottle - but I'm going to consult with other vets in the area.  I've heard one in particular is less expensive.  I believe the dog is worth saving, but I also believe in looking around.  I wanted to get the treatment started immediately, though so I went ahead and got on their plan.

However, is with all things that occur in my life, I tend to research on my own.  The medication I just bought for $289 I could have gotten for around $190 online, called Doxycycline.  The other medication that is going to be used in January after this medication has done it's initial work is called Immiticide and appears to actually be cheaper than the Doxy, but it's only available with a prescription.  Ivermectin is available online, which is what some vets use, but it takes longer - much longer - for it to work.

I'll just have to think about my next step, though certainly calling other vets for pricing isn't out of the question.  I'm not sure dealing with heart worms is a do it yourself project.  It's just so much money.  Is the dog worth it? That question popped into my mind when they started discussing about getting him started yesterday and the immediate answer was a resounding: yes.  The dog definitely can recover from this, it is life threatening I guess but I will remain confident and hopeful that this treatment will work and Addler will go on to live a long, healthy Dane version of a life.

Funny that the same day our 1 year anniversay together occurs we also find out some rather unsettling news.  I'm going to be watching Addler closely for any side effects, as there is a list of them that can happen:

Doxycycline Side Effects

• Nausea and vomiting are the most common side effects associated with doxycycline. This side effect can typically be overcome by providing food along with the medication. While most tetracycline-type medications are not given with food because food prevents the antibiotic from being absorbed, this does not seem to be a problem with doxycycline.
• Loss of appetite is a secondary side effect that goes hand in hand with the nausea and vomiting.
• Diarrhea is an uncommon side effect of doxycycline. It is frequently an indicator that the dosage is too high and your dog should be taken to the veterinarian to have his dosageadjusted or to determine the cause of the diarrhea.
• Doxycycline has a pH level that can cause irritation and eventual scarring in the esophagus should the pill get caught in the throat. To avoid this side effect, ask to use the liquid form of doxycycline.
• Doxycycline can also cause staining or yellowing of the teeth in young animals. Doxycycline binds to calcium, and calcium is the key component in forming teeth.
• There are some very rare side effects with doxycycline. Changes in blood cells, liver damage and sensitivity to sunlight are extremely rare, but can occur.

Well anyway, life goes on.  I don't control what happens in life, I just deal with it as it comes along.
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Okay I'm going to finally post this lol.  It's been like a week in the making.  I just get distracted with both things going on here and the news and the fact that I've been sick basically for 2 months now - finally coming out of it.  I mean really.  Is Trump going out to dinner with his family and not notifying the press corp really a scandal? I just had to throw that in here.  My "ignore" button in my brain is going to start coming into full play with all the whiners disavowing our new president and endlessly whining about the election results.

Let's see. I had the kid over for the 4th time I think it is and he blew it today.  I had him on light duty work just raking up some leaves and duping it on the fire pit.  He worked for about an hour and a half and slacked off for 2-1/2 hours.  I was out there, working on the 4 wheeler - it wasn't too heavy duty stuff and I wanted to get the thing done - and here he was, sitting there for 20 minutes, here, 25 minutes there playing on his phone.  He ended up at the fire and stood there for an hour and 15 minutes listening to whatever with his ear phones, staring down at the fire and twirling a rake in his hands.

I decided not to say anything to him, I'll let his parents deal with it - but - he isn't coming back either.  I politely and respectfully informed his mother via Facebook messaging after he left about the situation -- in detail and said I don't want him back over here. She completely agreed - she is not a progressive, left leaning, coddle-your-child - type of mother and said he will hopefully learn a lesson from this.  I agreed and that was the end of that. Sympathy doesn't cut it in the real world, he might as well learn that now.

I'm starting to come to terms with the heart worm diagnosis, though I am definitely going to get my own antibiotics. I have no need to get them from the vet when I can get them $95 cheaper online.  Addler is such a wonderful doggie, there is no way I'm going to just let this go and hope he survives it.  I still have yet to do my own research on this excepting looking up the particular antibiotic and pricing.  My own research coming very soon.

My newest credit card arrived today, I applied for the transfer from one of the other cards. 15 months of zero percent interest.  It'll be paid off before 15 months is up.  What a lot of that is is airfare and related expenses for coming out here to see Valerie before I moved out here.  It's like, whatever at this point. Pay it, eat it and move on.  I also applied for a credit increase on the card with the balance on it.  Not so I can charge more to it, it's got plenty of credit on it, but to get the percentage of use down.

After this, the rest of the equation is time.

Meanwhile, I went into the refrigerator the other day to find a half plate of food that I had put in there.  I will eat leftovers up to a week after it's cooked.  I guess that's not the norm for most people, as long as it's properly stored, it's good for me.  So, when I went searching for the plate of food and couldn't find it, she admitted she had thrown it out.  After only 2 days?  Oh I won't do that again.  Now it comes to light what is going on with excess food around here. It's getting dumped and I am NOT cool with that.  I would rather eat leftovers and keep food costs down than just keep cooking entire new meals every day and having "old" food trashed.

But instead of making an issue out of it for her - she loves  to cook - I have decided I will just start eating leftovers at work and save myself lunch money.  The food is excellent, there will be far less waste and I will be good with that.

The other thing that came to light is that she has been hitting up my food storage.  A can of this, a box of that, etc.  I was looking at it scratching my head.  These shelves were full.  But it's cool, that food can't just sit there forever, I would have to replace it anyway and certain of that food she won't touch.  I want enough canned/boxed/bagged food to last me several months at any given time, up to 6 months preferable.  Now, if I were alone, I could last at least 6 months on what I got.  But take that down to 2 months with 3 people.   Well whatever.  I guess if I had to go 2 months without being able to buy food from a grocery store then we are in some bad times and by the time 2 months is up and I'm almost out of food I would have learned to hunt by then.

But I'm not going to go into that. We may be facing another recession soon - and progressives will blame Trump - but that  isn't going to be shocking, at least not for me.

Now then.  Oh I could go into politics right now, especially the left, crying and whining.  Good God in Heaven! Baby therapy? Baby therapy in colleges! ROFL!!!!  Dog therapy, cry fests,

I'ma stop. I'm getting burnt out on all of this stuff and I have been avoiding some of it just to get a break from it.