Thursday

I haven't been writing a heckuva a lot lately, and there's a reason for it.
Unfortunately, it's not something that I want to write on an open blog for the world to see - an issue I have been dealing with since I got divorced. Nothing illegal, nothing to do with tenants, kids, dogs, whatever. Purely a personal issue. The only thing I can say is it is an unbelievable battle that I'm not even sure how I got into in the first place.

It's been consuming my thoughts.

THEN, you compound it with tenant issues and other things going on and the whole scene is right out of a horror flick. The newest tenant is closing on her home Friday - that's a good thing. I pretty much hit it off with this lady - she has a lot of work to do around her house that she asked if I would come over and do - for pay of course. Hey, it's mostly stuff that I have experience in doing, and a few extra bucks isn't going to hurt me anything right now.

There is now allegations that this newest tenant has made about Mary that have me quite unsettled. Enough that this person said I could keep the security deposit she gave me to get Mary out of my house. The problem is, I have no proof. She alleges that Mary is both smoking and selling meth in and out of my house. That Mary actually offered her a pipe and that THAT is the reason Mary can stay up all night long and still go to work all day long the next day.

I'm VERY intolerant of drug users, to the point that I wrote Mary an email yesterday while she was still at work saying that Karen - the now home-owner - has made these allegations - and yes, Karen agreed to let me use her name as the source - and what was Mary's response.

Mary wrote back and replied that she wanted to wait until she came home to talk about it. I had some instant thoughts, having been down this road with her before: she'll either not come home at all and wait until after I have gone to bed, or, she'll come home with someone and then leave with that same person. The latter turned out to be true, she didn't say a word to me except: Hi Ben.

When Mary dodges an issue, it's probably because that issue is TRUTH.

Regardless, I am at work and the 6:00 am hour has just hit - need to get working.
C'ya later.
ben

Tuesday (and Monday?)

Not sure what happened to Monday - I got home I think the new tenant wanted to celebrate that fact that the home inspection came back with only one thing wrong with the house: old ceiling fans that are falling apart. Considering the price she paid for the place, I would hardly call that a setback.

Then I got involved with cleaning the kitchen up real nice for a prospective new tenant's tour of the property - who never showed.

The guy apparently called back today to my landline and talked to Michael - the boys are on spring break. Of course, Michael is in his own little world and doesn't ask to take a message, so the guy said he would call back later.

Meanwhile, someone else wrote me 3 emails today about the room, so I wrote back on that and hope to hear something.

I just got back from the dog walk. I haven't been going every single day - but then again - that wasn't my initial goal. My initial goal is to just get started doing it and do at least 4 days a week. I failed last week by only doing 3. I intend on doing 4 this week and now have 1/4th of it over with. In the 3 or 4 weeks I have been doing this, I am already feeling a significant change. I can hike the steep mountains I have been going up much easier and getting less winded at the top.

I am only pumping iron twice a week - and though that isn't really a lot, I'm also seeing small - but visible - results with that as well. Again, the goal was simply to get started back into it. Going full tilt - I just wouldn't have lasted. I wanted to get started before summer gets here - I would never have started in the summertime. I don't know about the mountain hikes in the summer, either. Don't want to hike in there when it's dark - but it's too hot during the time of day that I can do it. Even packing water I don't wonder if the dogs wouldn't be able to handle it.

Right now, Duke is totally winded. That dog is totally out of shape. He loves the walks, but he starts lagging and I have to tug the chain and give him commands to keep up.

There is nothing new going on at work - which is a good thing. Considering the daily parade of bad news in the media - cepting Citibank's report today - it's fine by me to not hear of any more lay offs - at least for now. Our parent company is dumping an entire building supply company. Our store's sales are down - all of the stores in the division I work for in our state are down. WAY down.

I really have nothing else. I'm just working on getting another tenant in here, and at least the current respondants are not fakes/scammers/frauds.

So, with that, I must be getting on with other things as daylight is running out and I want to do some work before it gets dark.

Hasta La Vista!
ben

Final

I finished the gate portion of the fence today and have the fence actually hooked up. I removed the temporary fence and now it looks 100% better. A pain in the rear of unprecedented proportions - I just think of how bad other people have it right now and find myself glad for having to endure such "pains". I just have the line that runs along the bottom of the chain link - stretch it tight and dogs cannot simply push their way through the bottom of the fence.

I just sold the old sliding-glass-door doggy door for $25. I originally bought it for $60 if memory serves correctly. I could've gotten more out of it, but the flap is broken and those flaps are $40. So, I was happy to get rid of the thing and this guy that took it was very happy - at least by the look on his face - to have gotten it at such a cheap price. New? $140.00 One man's junk - another man's treasure.

Well not much else, I just had those things and am working on the next party. I have somewhere around 30 people confirmed coming - this time I asked for an RSVP - and many of them are bringing food. I am trying to find the email where that one person said they would give $300 "now" or $600 for "advanced notice". I have no clue what I did with it. I must have saved it somewhere and now I can't find it.
DARN. The party has sparked a lot of interest. Besides volumes of email, I put a Feedjit on the site I just gave out the URL to today - hundreds of hits locally and from all over the world, actually. Ummm, you can come from all over the world, but I ain't paying your airfare.

I felt SO uneasy about the person that was wanting to move here and rent my room, I started looking into it. That person gave their name and address. I found that person's name and address on a Dexonline.com search and called that person. I left a message - no answer.

This guy calls back 10 minutes later. The person that is replying to Craigslist room ads is a fraud. He's using this guy's physical address and then doing the certified check fraud scheme that's going around. As I said in my prior post, I felt uneasy about it for whatever reason. This man I talked to on the phone said he's received at least 15 phone calls from around the country. Okay, well, you have to actually find the guy's phone number, it isn't given to you on the reply from the scammer - of course. So, how many people actually believed the scammer's story and - got raped of funds?

Yeah, who knows. I'm very careful about this out-of-state renting business and will continue to remain so. It's a source of tenancy - yes - but even Craigslist warns everyone that people from out-of-state and out-of-country you should be very wary of. I won't even consider out-of-country and say so on my ads - yet they ALWAYS reply to my ads, and if you were to read one of these replies, you would know why I don't deal with them. It's SO obvious it's a scam, there's no reason to even respond to them.

Okay, I copied and pasted the email from out-of-country that I received to my latest ad. What do you see as the clues/obvious telling that this person is messing with you?

???????Hello,
I am a female, i am from Manchester,England .I want you to know first before anything that i am christian but i dont critisize other people's or religion .Here are little things i would like you to know about me. I'm 29 yrs and single.Never been married.I'm clean, quiet and respectful. I am a sensitive,intellectual,patient and caring person, have a good sense of amusing and am easy to get on with. I am a faithful and committed person,who is very considerate of other people's feelings. I don't drug, I don't smoke and i don't drink.. I enjoy going out with my friends to movies, plays, parks, hikes, anything to do with the ocean and horses but i'm cool living with people.... I also love to go on date but seldomly party. I swin for fun and sometimes play tennis.... I model for a clothing company here in England .i am on a programme supported by England Goverments in the states for All stars modelling comptition that will take place in united states .and I am searching for a place to stay.I will like to know more about the room and I would really want to secure the room before my arrival,I will like to know if it would be possible for me to pay for the room before my arrival,I will want to know the total amount of the room per month with the utilities included .All these vital information are very important for me to know before submision of my proposal to the Promoter . The following information will be needed to get the payment to you.
(1) Your full name as it will appear on the payment.
(2) Address.
(3) phone number.
Hope to hear from you...Bonnie????????

C'ya later.
ben

Sunday

Beautiful out.
In fact, a bit cool.
Just been sitting here looking at stories on the internet.
Apparently Obama wants to get friendly with Cuba.......

I've had a couple of replies to my latest CL ad for a roommate.
One is out of state - something didn't feel right about that one so I moved onto the next. This one? Who knows. I wrote them back and am awaiting a reply - I invited them to come over and tour the property. I've had several that had replied to the ad before this one - but too much time has passed. That ad was placed when I got the current roommate in.

I have altered my ad as well. Now, the rent is lower at $325 per month, but I am now asking for 1/3rd utilities. I think people may be wary about having to pay an unknown cost for utilities, though, so I may have to revert back to a flat fee per month. I am just trying this ad out to see if there's any kind of interest. I can always place another one. The room won't be empty until the 16th, and then I will have to see if I need to do anything in there - though that lady will have been in there less than a month and I just repainted the room, so unless the carpet is dirty, it should be good to go.

Still, there isn't a lot of replies to any kinds of ads I am placing lately. I don't know if that's because there aren't enough potential renters to go around - there were over 200 room rental ads placed in Phoenix room shares alone yesterday. I read a lot of them - there are people asking as much as $700 for a room in a house! lol. They have ritzy houses in fancy neighborhoods - I guess they can ask that much, I just wonder how much interest they get. My ads are extremely descriptive - I may be letting on too much. Then again, if someone gets in here and doesn't know the odds and quirks about this place, I don't think that fair to the potential renter. Dogs/2 other renters/teenagers. Probably doesn't appeal to a large number of people - but - if I can appeal to even just a few, that's enough for me. It's quite amazing how many ads a person is willing to go through to find the place they want. I had a person contact me last week about an ad I placed 3 weeks ago. That's thousands and thousands of ads that person had to go through to find mine.

Anyway - just enjoying the peace and quiet in here right now. I'm trying to motivate myself to go outside and finish the fencing, or at least as much of it as I can. It's just a pain, basically - but the finished result will look pretty good, I think. I also concocted an idea to keep the southern sun off my house in the summer. Instead of trying to save for a pricey awning, I can get 2x4's - 10 footers - and some lattice work. Put that right next to the house, and then stretch some material behind the lattice work to keep the direct sunlight off the house. It's one of the reasons my room gets warm in the summer - warmer than the rest of the rooms in the house - because of the summer sun baking the back of the house. I figure I can do that project for less than $100. Not only that, but I could start some vines growing on the lattice work and eventually it would look pretty good and would be a very good sunblock.

I'm just trying to think up ideas that will work that don't cost a lot of money. I'm definitely going to put at least one gazebo on the western side of the house - right in front of the sliding glass door. That will look far better than tacky, gaudy looking styrofoam isulation - though I still have this idea in the back of my head that I could wrap some fabric over the insulation and make it look good. So - I haven't totally given up on that idea yet.

Yes, at $13.00 per panel, and only needing 5 panels, the back of the house could be done for about $75.00.

Well, I have things to get done - normal Sunday stuff.
Have a great day!
ben

One of several blurps I was reading online that are coming out and saying some things that I have had in the back of my mind for some time now.

"""""Here's the problem for those who are buying gold and the safes to store it in along with guns -- in their nightmare scenario, what makes these folks think that they'll be able to get food and safety in exchange for bars of gold? You can't eat gold and it's hard to get change for a $50 gold coin if you want to buy a stick of gum.

It would probably be best for these people to learn how to hunt, fish, build campfires, and farm. I'm not sure the safes and the gold will do them much good. To be fair, the fear is real and I think the United States has an opportunity to help people deal with that fear in a more effective way."""""

Apparently, people are buying gold and safes by the droves. Stock prices in Smith & Wesson have allegedly gone WAY up. More and more talk of the D-word is surfacing everywhere on the internet. Circuit City is shutting it's doors for good this weekend and 34,000 more people are now jobless.

Fortunately for me - if it ever came to that - I already know how to hunt, I have a small game trap that can be used to simply capture rabbits and other small, edible game. I never did buy any vegetable seeds - I was going to do that but just forgot about it. My food stock continues to grow as I continue to purchase more long-shelf-life foods. I am also purchasing 50-pound bags of dog-food at least twice a week - though they ran out at Fry's, I was going to buy another one today which would put my dog food up into the 250 pounds worth range.

The question is, how far is this economy going to tank before it bottoms? What is going to happen to these people that have lost their jobs, lost their homes and sooner or later, lose their unemployment benefit? Where is all of this going to end? Do you have the answer - if you do, I would love to hear all about it. Now, they're talking two years from NOW before the economy recovers. I can't even imagine that. There is no question in my mind that my company is going to continue to shed itself of employees as the monthly numbers continue to tank lower and lower and lower.

I WISH I had money right now! There are homes all over Phoenix going for as low as $13,900.00. That particular home is a condo, the foreclosed upon owners apparently got mad and tore up the place, including TEARING THE CEILING OFF! I am hearing all of this because my new tenant just bought a home and she was presented with all of this stuff. People that are getting foreclosed upon are tearing out appliances, walls, toilets, fixtures, sinks - basically gutting the houses they are being forced out of. I don't think there is a huge market for used toilets and torn up drywall, so at least some of it is simply being done in anger and "paybacks" to the banks that are forcing these peole out.

What would the mortgage be on a 14 thousand dollar house? Lol. But something that torn up would cost a chunk of change to fix, even with used stuff. I've done it before, though. You can find good used fixtures, sinks, all of that stuff at a variety of second-hand type of stores at much less cost than new. In other words, a totally gutted house would probably be a couple of thousand dollars worth of stuff providing I had the time to search it all out, obtain it and install it.

I'm just dreaming. Even if my credit was good right now, banks are wanting large down payments - I've heard anyway - before letting people get into new mortgages.
Of more concern to me is this newly surfacing fear of not being able to get food. Fry's is having yet another 50 cent per can sale on vegetables, I intend on buying 60 cans of it tomorrow when I have to go back up there and put money on the card for power. I'm not bathing in money, but - this situation going on all over the U.S. is starting to get unnerving. People who are desperate will go to great extremes when it comes to eating.

I wasn't going to continue talking about this subject, but I have spent some time today reading more about this situation and now more dire views and forecasts are starting to surface. Much more dire than anything I've read up til' now. The unemployment rate is the highest it's been in 25 years - there's got to be a lot of desperate people out there and I really am thinking I want to get a shotgun in my house. You can call it knee-jerk reaction if you wish, but I have been thinking about doing this for some time now anyway. They aren't very expensive. I think you can pick up a decent one for around $250. I'm not into hurting or killing people, but I am definitely a firm believer in protecting my house/people living in it whatever it takes.

This is why I probably won't be driving to North Carolina for that family reunion - I have other priorities that, to me, are far greater than visiting with people. Who knows - I'm stashing away a little money here and there into my ING account, plus I have a regular, set amount being deducted every 15 days. I just think that saving money right now - even if it's just little bits here and there, is more important than vacations.

AS for today, I went to Home Depot and bought a gallon of paint and some more caulking. Stopped at Fry's and got some stuff there, did a few other things besides the dog walk this morning and that's about it. I'm feeling particularly lazy right now - think I'll just get away from the internet and reading all this horror/panic stuff and relax.
ben

Saturday

I have great relief that I have finally settled the issue with Capital One, have the account WAY back down and don't have to worry about that little gem anymore. Note that I didn't say I was dumping the card - I gave them a lump sum and they took off a bunch of fees. HIGH fees at that.

My great plans for the weekend: not much.
Buy a gallon of paint and some caulking - this is Mary's latest project, filling in the cracks in the bathroom and repainting the walls with semi-gloss.

I am going to finish that fencing project. The problem I have run into is simply that I don't have a good enough drill to drill 2 more holes in one of the posts. I'm going to figure out something else to deal with the problem, which is a gap between the pole and the wall of the house that is big enough for me Dane/Leopard dog mix to get through. I have a temp fix right now, I want a permanent solution.

My tree I bought at the auction is blooming full tilt at this point - it's covering itself with leaves and it's looking pretty darn good : ) Weeds are starting to infiltrate the front yard now - due to the neighbors who do nothing but let weeds grow and grow and grow, I'm hoping this week the city will come out and issue them a warning. Actually, I'd rather they issue them a citation - they let the weeds grow all the time.

Anyway, I'm sighing big relief that the weather has cooled back down to the point that AC should not be needed. If the forecast is correct, at least the next 7 days are looking cool enough for no AC use.

Just stopping in - I'm on my way out the door with the dogs for that hike I promised them yesterday and am forcing myself to do today (as in: I don't really feel like it, fortunately the dogs ALWAYS feel like it!).

Happy Saturday!
ben

Friday

Trying to figure out where this day went......
Nice to be busy again.
This morning's run was in the semi and was WAY out east. Highway 79 into Florence, well the outskirts of Florence, and then get on this unmaintained road called Price road.
The road was horrible. I had to drive at least 10 miles on this dirt, crappy road full of rocks, shaking the truck the entire way, even though I was only going like 10MPH. It was nice out there, though, all farmland in a small, hidden valley. It's funny to see stuff like that you never knew existed. The contractor was installing irrigation pipe. I got to go pet some horses and take in the fresh air and pleasant views - it took them quite a long time to get the truck unloaded - a LONG time.

There was only one way that I could have gotten the semi into that place - back down a steep embankment into a farm field. The entrance to the place I was delivering to has concrete barriers on either side of the entrance, and the entrance itself is only slightly wider than the semi, meaning that the ONLY way to get a truck in there is straight in. Not possible on a narrow roadway.

I thought about doing it - figured if I got stuck, they have a backhoe that would easily pull the truck out, but they said no big deal. I didn't care, either, nothing else to do when I got back, so I thought anyway, take your time. Hour and a half later and it was done.

Anyway, after work was over, picked up my son, deposited the check my dad sent me, got home, I was bound and determined to do the hike up in the mountains. I had no desire to, so I took a half hour nap, got up, corralled the dogs, leashed them and away we went. Cranked for 45 minutes - a very good walk. The only thing strange was running into a group of guys up there smoking dope. I bypassed that quickly and held my breath. They actually asked me if I wanted to smoke some weed with them - I politely declined. A few simple reasons: it's illegal; I don't do that anymore and left that life behind a LONG time ago; and I am a CDL truck driver that is exposed to random drug testing. That stuff stays in your system for up to 30 days. I haven't been drug tested for almost a year now - it's coming, trust me, I will show up to work and the boss will hand me a pile of papers and say "You've been chosen". It's a random computer pick as required by federal law.

I really do NOT like marijuana. If you've never smoked it - then trust the ads that show the people sitting like vegetables on the couch. You smoke it, get extremely high, and then mostly you just sit there and - be high. Maybe not everyone does that, but many do. It's VERY bad for your lungs. I was coughing 24 hours a day at the end of my marijuana use in my teens and then finally quit when I was 20. I would literally be coughing in my sleep. I would wake up coughing and would STILL smoke that stuff. 3 months after quitting, the coughing stopped and I never looked back.

Anyway, it was just an odd experience to find a group of men and boys up there smoking way, getting higher than a kite. One of them couldn't get over the Danes - he was yelling about the size of "those dogs" LONG after I was by them.

Got back and the new tenant who is leaving on the 16th - decided to buy steak for everyone with the caveat that I grill them. OH YEAHHHHHHH. Ribeye steak from Costco. Costco has some pretty good meat. These steaks were THICK and delicious. I hated to ruin good steaks by cooking them til' medium well, but that's what everyone wanted. My steak was still alive, kicking and bleeding.

The only problem? My grill was out of propane! My old place for getting the bottle refilled was not only out of business, they had torn the place down and built an "El Pollo Loco" restaurant there! BTW, that's Spanish for The Crazy Chicken. Lol.

I found another place, but dang that took a lot of time. Here it is 8:00 pm and I am JUST winding down after starting at 5:00am. I'll tell you what, though, it was all worth it: that steak was SO fine. I ate far too much food today and tomorrow morning? I'm going to extend my walk by half again at least what I normally do.

On, and it's cooled down considerably - yayyyyyy! It's MUCH too early for summer to start, when it started getting into the 90's - at the beginning of March - I was appalled, perplexed and stupified. I just couldn't believe that we were already going to start SUMMER. Thank goodness and God that it's in the mid 60's right now, the house is cool and I DON'T have to run the AC.

Anyway, I'm done with this one, I hope you all are doing well and surviving the storms. There's a LOT of bad news out there - I'm at the point where I don't really want to focus or even hear much about it. It is what it is and there isn't a thing I can do about it - cept' pray and seek the Lord.

G'nite.
ben

Thursday

Week's just flying by - working all day every day is just plain wonderful. Seriously, it is. I got to work this morning, left and was driving, delivering, moving all day long until I got back just in time to leave. Work owes me yet another half hour break. 30 minutes automatically deducted from my time every day when I log out - whether I take the break or not.

My last delivery? It's a retirement resort that's been around for something like 30 years. It's a square mile of houses that have limited access through 24 hour security guards. It contains two 18-hole private golf courses. I got in there - the lane to go by the security house was JUST wide enough to fit the truck without wiping out the building, taking down the gate and taking out the stop arm.

Anyway, I followed the instructions - ended up having to back out of that mess - almost 400 feet worth with retirees riding bicycles and golf carts and paying absolutely no attention to the fact that this large truck is backing up and could run clean over the top of them if they weren't careful.

But - you learn to expect people doing mindless and or stupid things. I went about 1 mile an hour, I think, in order to be on the safe side.

My dad sent me a $100.00 check today out of the blue. That was nice - a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks, I'll take it. Figure to buy 3 rolls of sod, put it in the back yard and see how it does. That won' cost more than $15. The rest will either go to pay the upcoming satellite bill or dump it onto the eletric card reader.

Writing another ad for Craigslist - another temp roommate. This one is leaving soon - has the electricity turned on in her new house and the home inspection I think is done. She said the inspector told her it has a brand new roof and the water heater is only a year old. That's good info - especially about the roof. I plain need the extra money to get things done around here. I want to get that rock in, I want to get those windows fixed and other things. The awning? Out of the question. Just plain too expensive. I will take out another 401k loan in July if there's any money left in that account. It's dropping every day. Hundreds of dollars a day just disappear out of my 401k account. I switched to a guaranteed fund - which probably isn't REALLY guaranteed, but it's the lowest risk available. I didn't have a lot in there - almost 7k - it's down to $4,600 since this s*** began in - last year sometime I guess. It almost seems to me it would be better to just cash the thing out and pay the huge fines to the government than to lose the entire amount to - this chaos we call an economy right now.

Really - I check that account almost every day, and just about every day, I see it shrink by a hundred, two hundred, whatever. I'm not putting ANY money into my 401k account right now. Well, take that back, my loan repayments go into that fund, I wish it would just go into a savings account. It's a total waste. Instead, I'm putting it into my online savings account. Anyway, I owe a little over $200 on the second loan. It's paid off in July - or I could pay it off early and get another loan. But I don't think I can take out that much, maybe $1,500 max. I'm not fully vested yet and the amount I can borrow isn't as much as I would like. PERHAPS I could get a good used awning for that much money, dunno.

What I do know is the new tenant came up with a GREAT idea: Get some of those camping/recreation canopies/gazebos and set those up in front of the western side of the house. Same effect: keep the sun off the house. Hmm, maybe that's what I should spend my dad's money on. Money spent will save a LOT in electricity.

Anyway, I don't want to go on forever - though I know I'm forgetting something here. LOTS of sick people all over the place. I'm trying my best to wash my hands often and just not touch my face in an attempt to NOT get sick. I have no scratches or cuts on my hands right now - a good thing. I was at a construction site today - a worker was sneezing and coughing all over the place, directly at people, didn't put his hand in front of his mouth, didn't care I guess. I kept FAR distance from that freak.

That's it - for now - if that "thing" pops back into my head, I'm back on here writing it up.

C'ya later.
ben

Wednesday

Wiped out.
Was sleeping like a log last night and woke up in the middle of the night and just woke up for no apparent reason - and then was awake for a while.

Work was kinda slow today - got through it, came home, conked out for an hour and literally dragged my @$$ out of bed, got the leashes and forced myself to take those dogs on the hike - get it over with.

The newer tenant informed me today that Mary said to her that she "doesn't care how much electricity she uses, she's going to have it cold in here".
That referring to when the newer tenant came home and it was freezing in here. I've had thoughts of putting a locking cover over the thermostat in the past - but - it's easy enough to prove whether she's fooling with it or not.

Simply adjust the camera. Instead of seeing what's going on in the kitchen proper - I now see the computer, the table, the living room - and yes - the thermostat. I don't wonder if they sell an electronic thermostat that can be set to have to use a password to be able to change the settings. Anyway, the lock cover costs all of $20.00 and I have been thinking about installing one for some time now.

Look, I knew allowing Mary to stay would probably have issues in the future. The issue is - how great an issue?
My other thought is something I should have done long ago. Really, I should have. Renting out rooms is a learning experience. Charging a flat rent for everything sounds wonderful - as long as the people that are in your house are conscientious about electric use.

You are not guaranteed that with all people, and probably a good percentage of people aren't going to give a hootinannyholler about their electrical consumption since they are "paying" for it. This isn't an issue limited with Mary. Ken has his computer on and running right now - he left his door wide open so it's pretty easy to see what's going on in there - but he's not here. There is absolutely no point to leaving a computer running when a person is not here to use it - unless, as for me - you are running a program on it that needs to have it on. My program is my video surveillance.

So - from this point forth, I am going to start charging percentage utilities to any new tenants. And I am going to give Mary the required notice and start charging her percentage - 33% - utilites including water/sewer and electricity. She's going to love this. Lol.

Actually, it won't be that bad. I am not trying to get rich off of tenants, just pay my bills. Meaning I will bring the rent down to where their percentage of utilities will equal the $400 I am already charging everyone. If the utilities go up and beyond that - then they have the same problem I do: paying high electric bills because of careless use of electricity. Now, I am not saying the AC shouldn't be on on warm days - I AM saying that having it "freezing" in here is careless, wasteful use of someone else's money by throwing it away for no more reason than they want to - freeze I guess.

For now - I have moved the camera to view the thermostat and this weekend I will install a locking cover over the thing. The temps are supposed to come down substantially this weekend and the use of AC should not even be warranted. Open the windows and cool your room that way, thanks. If you don't like opening your windows, hope cool air from the outside finds it's way in.

How much am I willing to take in terms of Mary? Not much. She's paying her rent now, yes, but - starting trouble with tenants - nope. Wasting electricity as if I'm a bottomless pit of money to pay for it? Nope. Speak crap behind my back? Nope.

Ummmm- well, I'm going to head to the bedroom. I just ran up to Walgreens and got some Theraflu for the temp tenant - she is still quite sick and didn't want to go anywhere. I bought some Zycam for myself - if the symptoms of anything start hitting me, I'm all over it. At least give a "valiant effort" to try and circumvent what might be hitting me. So far, so good, I've been washing my hands like crazy and I've tried to stay away from these sick people. Zycam is a last resort - take it and if nothing else, it does reduce the severity of the illness - at least it seemed to do so when I got that cold last time. I stopped taking it too soon, though - it's rather expensive for my budget.

I'm going to watch some TV - G'nite and sleep tight!
ben

Illness

Michael is here - and is coughing and hacking away.
The new tenant is sick as well.
I am staying far away from them and announced such fast as well. I have had more than enough of getting sick from people that are sick around me.

That's the way it works, of course, but I would like "the works" to stop. I HATE getting flu and cold crap. I HATE IT. I'll be coughing MONTHS after the rest of the illness has departed. Happens every time, and it's quite miserable.

Yes, tomorrow I'm getting a box of Zycam and hope it can help stave this stuff of.

A thought hit me that I could put up portable canopies in front of most of the western wall of my house and keep the sun off the house in the summer - until/if/when I can ever afford to put up an awning. I already placed the ad in Craigslist and found pricing on several sites for new. Rather find someone that has one that doesn't use it - several someones as I would need more than 1 - and get them used at next-to-nothing prices.

Yup, that was the extent of this entry and now? Going to bed!
G'nite
ben

Tuesday

Apparently Monday's entry - is lost in cyberspace somewhere.
Today, after leaving a vendor's property and coming up to a major surface street from a side-street - I saw a shoe in the middle of the road. I then noticed a backpack, a carry bag and other items all sitting in the middle of the road. Turned my head and saw a pickup truck with a trailer stopped in the street.

Then I saw the body. It was crunched up underneath the trailer along with the destroyed person's wheelchair. The body and wheelchair had been dragged for 30 feet apparently while the driver of the vehicle slammed on the brakes to stop the truck. Phoenix Fire had just arrived, went and checked for a pulse - I could see the person's head and arms sticking out the side of the trailer, the way the body had ended up after the collision.

I get some pretty stark reminders of how frail our lives are frequently - yes - but this was gruesome. I assume a lifeless body - that person wasn't moving and they weren't in any hurry after checking for a pulse to do much of anything.

Well, anyway, the mortgage company advised me to NOT do the loan modification if I could keep from doing it. Their reason is that almost always, your monthly payment goes up. My monthly payment ALREADY went up almost $100 per month - I most certainly can't afford it to go up even more. The man stated on the phone that you don't even get recommended for foreclosure until after 3 months of non-payment occur. I'm nowhere NEAR that.

I tried yet again to get through to their refi department - turns out it's only one person in that "department" because they are only doing refi's in all of 2 states: AZ and Oklahoma. Why? Who knows. I never get through, I leave a message and I never get a return phone call.

It got very warm yesterday - 90 plus degrees - but thankfully, the temps are supposed to come WAY down by this weekend. I couldn't even imagine starting into the summer in MARCH - GAG!!!! I can't take the dogs for walks anywhere without having some way to carry sufficient water to keep them hydrated - that's another thing I have to buy: a pack for one of the Danes to carry their water for them.

My new doggy door is installed. The man did a great job on the installation and I immediately removed the doggy door in the sliding glass door. The dogs didn't like it. I had to repeatedly show them the new door in the back door of the house. They are starting to get used to it - I'm just glad that I got that out of the way. Next is to put sheets of styrofoam insulation over the sliding glass doors - well - I may wait now that it's cooling back down. If it gets as cool as they say it's going to get, there will be no need for AC use at all.

Have to wait until next month to get the windows fixed - I assessed greater priority to the dog door than the windows which aren't going anywhere.

Flu. Michael has been sick for a week now - I know when he's sick because he actually sleeps and doesn't do anything versus when he's faking it and just sits around playing video games all day long - skipping school in the process. Now, the new tenant has acquired the flu - I'm just hoping I don't get any of this nonsense. I am going to go buy some Zycam and start using it at least once daily until everyone gets through this junk and hopefully - just hoping here - I don't get it, too. I'm the only driver at our store now, getting sick would entail having to go to work sick, unless they could get a driver from downtown to take my place.

The D word is starting to get thrown around more and more now. Depression, that is. At least some analysts are now saying they figure we are IN a depression, just that no-one wants to say that word and apparently, you don't really know about being in a depression until it's history and you can look back at all the statistics and data.
Another person was laid off from work. 2 people were demoted to take on jobs now vacated by demoted personnel. What's next? I just thank the good Lord for having a job and hope my employment status stays that way. I dread having to go line up in the unemployment line to get benefits. I worse dread having to go out and try to find a job in this chaos we are calling the economy.

Well, I don't want to bring anyone down, just the reality of what's going on.

I've got numerous things I want and need to get done around here before the sun goes down, so I'm gonna get at it.
Have a great day!
ben

More

Since the wall doggy door was posing so many problems in just buying one - I went back out again to the stores: Petsmart; Lowe's and Home Depot. Walmart had a cheap junk thing that looks like it will fall apart quickly, so I counted that out.

Lowe's had a super extra large door and so I opted for that. It's bigger than the one I have now, the price tag was $105 and change after taxes. I stopped by Home Depot on the way home and was looking at their extra large door. It's smaller than the super extra large, but I thought it big enough for the Danes, and is a little bigger than the door I have now.

I about-faced back to Lowe's, got my money back - though they offered to sell theirs at the same price IF I had "proof" of how much Home Depot's was going for (yes, sir, I always carry around information like that in print, just let me get that out of my back pocket here, holeonaminute) - went back to Home Depot and bought that door for fully $50 cheaper. I put the rest of the cash from the refund onto the prepaid card for eletricity.

That was, actually, quite the time-consuming ordeal. And now - I'm looking forward to at least a semi-busy day tomorrow at work. Take the semi down-town, pick up 40 foot lengths of HDPE pipe, head to Casa Grande, pick up some "spools", head to east Queen Creek, deliver the pipe, then to northeast Mesa to deliver those spools. That will consume most of the morning as that is quite a lot of driving.

The boss is taking the day off and the sales manager from downtown is taking his place for the day. In reality? We can run the branch without a manager for a day. However, this particular person likes coming to our branch and getting away from sometimes hectic atmosphere of the office where all the inside salesmen are cranking out phone calls and bids and usually at least a couple of outside salesmen are also busy, working away.

In fact, I am quite sure I could learn the paperwork and reports the management position of our store has to do on a daily basis. I have watched the reports and have seen what has to be done - it would take a little hands-on, yes, but I know I could do it. Well, if I survive the layoffs and am still with this company if/when the economy starts picking back up and construction starts taking off again, there will eventually be a position opening for a manager of a new store somewhere in AZ.

I have flat worn myself out today already. I've been all over the map in terms of getting things done - but the hiking and the weightlifting definitely took it out of me. I have gone into the mountains the last 4 out of 5 days. Not bad for an old man. Lol. Yeah, well that's what I'm referred to around HERE anyone, at least from the perspective of the boys.

Onto other things. I'm still stuffing food away here and there into my food stuff. The thing that got me just now was that - upon looking in my freezer - it is STUFFED and almost all of it is meat. 14 pounds of ground beef, a 10 pound turkey breast, chicken, pork, all kinds of stuff. The refrigerator is stuffed as well. My portion of the kitchen pantry is overloaded and I'm getting the closet - which is just a pantry in disguise - in the bathroom also filled up with canned and boxed foods.

I took a short break from that and started buying dog food. The "extra" amount acquired so far is at 150 pounds. I want at least 300 before I'm happy. 300 pounds of dog food is enough for 3 months. Dog food lasts at up to/at least a year in storage.

Speaking of the dogs, they are totally passed out on the kitchen floor in front of me. They are definitely liking this greatly increased amount of physical exertion - I am happy because they have less energy to irritate me with, when they want to irritate, that is. I have more things I want to get done today - not sure I'm gonna git'er done. Laundry is going, AC is on. Yup, AC is on. It's warm outside, and when it's warm outside, it gets HOT in here. A piggyback evaporative cooling system would work great right now and cost a fraction of the cost of AC.

This entry has gone on long enough, and I at least want to go clean up my bedroom.

ben

Sunday

Can you believe it's March already?
I'm not really wanting all the cool months to pass by so quickly - every year, I get less and less tolerant of the AZ summer heat. Pretty much at the point where I would just love to up and say buh-bye to this place - forever. If I didn't have all the ties holding me here, I guarantee you I would be gone.

Not to mention the fact that I am also employed - doing anything that would disrupt that at this moment in time would be very - stupid I think. I probably couldn't sell this house for what I owe on it, and even if I did, I definitely would not qualify for another home loan in this economic environment.

No, I've settled in. Tomorrow, if I want, I can call the mortgage company back up and ask them for the FHA thing where they stick the past due payment on the end of the loan. I will be doing that, oh yes, I will. No matter how long it takes on the phone, I will be calling them and asking them to go ahead and do this for me. I will try to get through to the refinance department as well.

Today? I've already taken the dogs for a gruesome walk in the mountains. Duke continues to lag behind when we get to about 2/3rds of the walk being over. I also threw some free-weights around - chest stuff - and have made some phone calls to Capital One. They handed my account over to a collection agency even though I have been making the payments. Albeit, I've been making minimum payments, the problem is that they feed me to death when I got behind that one month when the other female tenant wasn't paying me anything, and the fees have compounded.

I don't want to lose this credit card to collections. I arranged to pay some of the over-the-limit fees - but I refused to do it if they weren't going to erase some of it. Why they agreed to take off a large chunk of change - I don't know. I don't care, either, I just wanted to get this taken care of. That is now paid down to acceptable levels and all the other credit lines are current and the amount of money on each account is at least below the maximum of credit for each of those acounts, Capital One now included with that.

With the other payments - I'm doing pretty good. I'm a week or so late on the car payment (but I paid it yesterday online) - that is nothing and they don't even charge a late fee for only being a week late (and it doesn't show as a late payment on the credit files with Transunion and such), I am NEVER late with the child support, I paid up the DSL account to zero and the satellite is also at zero balance. The only thing left after paying the child support - which will be much earlier this month than I normally send it - is the water bill. I can't pay that until tomorrow - they simply aren't open right now and I totally forgot about it until this weekend. Don't want to let that sucker get too far behind, they will come out and shut off the water, they don't care. I don't blame them, but it ain't going that far.

Umm, the only other thing today: I decided to simply get an entrance door pet door instead of wall mount. I cannot find a wall mount that is big enough with the accessories needed. I can only get it online, and I don't want to wait that long. The door is in the utility room and after thinking about it, I thought maybe it's better to "ruin" the door than put a permanent hole in the side of the house - in terms of resellability. Plus it will be much cheaper.

I have already placed an ad for the next temporary tenant. The current one is allegedly leaving on the 16th. I won't be committing the room until I am sure about that date, but I wanted to get that ad out there. I have had one response so far.

I also committed to a date for the next party: the 28th of March. I have several confirmed coming - and bringing food. I am going through "piles" of email looking for that individual that offered $600 for the next party. I have no clue what I did with that email - I definitely would not have deleted it.

Well, I have some runs to go on - I want to get that doggy door and I need to get money for the electric card reader and - whatever else.

Have a great and happy Sunday!
ben

Saturday

Just got up - and yes I intend on taking those dogs for that walk in 15 minutes or so, currently pumping large quantities of caffeine into my blood stream via the legal, caffeine containing drink called coffee (with cream, no sugar, please).

For whatever reason, on one of my Craigslist ads, someone got hold of someone who told someone about this dinner thing - and then contacted me asking if I had anything for a certain person with 2 kids that she knows who is broke, has no transportation, the whole 9 yards of a story.

Although it may be wrong, I normally want to speak to the person myself, not go through 20,000 people - I am about as expert as it comes to figuring out whether people are telling the truth about their situation - or if - after speaking to them long enough - you find holes in their story. I've been doing the "food giveaway" stuff for 25 years now. Your gut tells you things sometimes if you listen to that particular part of your instincts.

For the naysayers - my bills are paid up excepting the mortgage, and $30 worth of food isn't going to do anything about that. I would rather listen to the word of the Bible that say "give" in what must be a thousand different scriptures. I really don't do this as often as I used to - when the "opportunity" comes, I will do it to whatever capacity I have.

Anyway, I did speak with this woman at great length and found nothing that would suggest that my instincts are wrong, therefore, after the dog walk, I am going up to Fry's, buying around $30 worth of stuff that is on sale - to obtain greater amount of food, yes, but also simply because that's how I shop for myself anyway - and take it over there. There being not too terribly far away, another condition of mine is that helping someone doesn't entail having to drive 50 miles unless it's someone I know personally which, of course, would change all of that.

When someone is truly hungry, you pick up the clues. If I say, what kind of food do you want, they should say something like: "I don't care WHAT you bring over, we're hungry!". A list of specific foods doesn't usually bode well with me - at least not if it's expensive junk. This tells me that the person may not be as hard off as they would like to come across. Unless they have an allergy to a certain type of food or PERHAPS a doc says you can't eat this and that, I'm not going to buy that story.

Anyway, today's list of things to do besides walking dogs and a short trip to Fry's and such also includes a trip to both Home Depot and Lowe's to determine who has the cheapest doggy door that I want to install. Not a cheap door, mind you, just wanting the best price. I found some doors online that were over $300 - for a doggy door! Lol. I figure I just get the $100 plus model and if it breaks, keep the receipt and take it back, exchange for a new one, try it again. If it breaks a second time, I hope the hole is compatible with another brand of doggy door, cause' I will be wanting my money back for the "old" one.

I also have tons MORE weeds to pull on the side of the house. It's getting very irritating having to deal with my neighbor's piggish lifestyle that is directly affecting me. I totally forgot to file a complaint with the city about their weeds - benb reminds himself to file complaint online this weekend.

Oh, and I want to find time to wash and wax the car this weekend. Plus one tire has a slow leak - again. Umm, I can think of more, but I will start getting a little grouchy if I start coming up with TOO big a list of things to do.

Anyway, now that I think of it, I have a lot I want to get done today and I want to get moving.
Have a grrrrrrrreat Saturday!
ben

Friday

Today was another ****buster.
Actually, I got a call from the boss this morning while I was getting ready to go to work.
My alarm didn't go off and I didn't get out of bed until 5 minutes before I am supposed to be at work and logged onto the computer system. I find out my co-worker isn't coming in so there's no-one there. A big deal? Only if someone happens to show up for supplies. Which happens, even that early.

I raced there and found - no-one waiting for supplies, which doesn't mean someone didn't come, saw the place closed and left. Oh well, stuff happens.

Anyway, it was a draining, extremely physical day. I had to do a return - an entire semi's worth. I did 75% of the physical labor - which was not light at all. Everything out on that job site was heavy stuff they were returning. Took almost 2 hours for that. I got that stuff back and then ended up cranking out to Queen Creek. Another load of heavy stuff, I had to hand unload it, no machinery there to offload. Get that done and get back to the yard and had to unload the semi that I loaded at the job site this morning.

I have no need for any further physical exercise today, I got PLENTY at work. I have no energy to go hiking up into the mountains, even though I was definitely going to do so after work today. I will get up early tomorrow morning and take the dogs for a LONG hike back in there - it will be cool and the dogs won't get winded so quickly. I will also do my chest and other muscle grouping workout tomorrow - this time a much more strenuous session by using heavier weights.

Mary paid me just a bit ago. I always have to include that event whenever it occurs. That is going to pay for the doggy door and installation.

Well, actually I already have that paid for. That, actually, is going to go into my savings account. The rest is paying bills, buying food, gas, you know the routine.

I'm totally exhausted and at least for this entry, I'm done.
ben

Thursday

Started at 5:45 am this morning and didn't stop until the work day was over - at 2:30. Doesn't sound like much? Most of the work I was doing, when I wasn't driving all over creation, was very physical. Strike that: ALL of the work I was doing was very, very physical and very draining. I did not get a break and had time to run into a store, get a small hotdog, wolf that down and move on. Hot dogs may not be so great on a "diet", but having one small one and having only had that - not a big deal.

Famished when I came home, I got out the pork chops and also a package of chicken breasts - both packages say it's past the use-by date but the chicken didn't smell - which is the only test I do or need for chicken - and the pork chops only one day. Pork chops were wonderful - with peas and gravy, chicken is still cooking. I won't be eating the chicken today, just cooking it. Might take some to work with me tomorrow - definitely have some for dinner tomorrow afternoon.

I'm totally wiped out and I'm debating on the hike today. Go take a nap after that chicken is done cooking and then see if I can handle it. If not - again - I worked hard today. I don't know if it takes the place of a sustained workout - probably not so much, but - it was definitely enough to physically drain me.

One more day.......tomorrow is not going to be easier. A huge return with all kinds of product - I saw the printout. At least one delivery and that can always change by morning.

Anyway, I have no news of anything in particular. I could go on about the usual things, but I won't. I'm going to take that nap and probably - not do the hike thing today. Won't beat myself up about it, either. I intend on doing it tomorrow afternoon and then early Saturday and maybe early Sunday. My goal is 5 days a week worth, not every single day. Mary's friend is here and I want to see if he will install that doggy door this weekend. I would like to get that behind me and move onto something else.

The chicken looks delicious - too bad I'm quite full and I don't need to be eating anything else right now.

C'ya later!
ben

Wednesday

Work is picking up. Not just because the other driver left, there's just more work coming in, and bigger, higher priced orders.
I'm totally exhausted right now. I went all day at work going from one place to another to another. I had no time to even take a break. Came home, took a 30 minute nap, got on my hiking shoes and headed to the mountains with the dogs. 50 minutes of intense, non-stop hiking up and down mountainsides. Sweating profusely, dogs in tow - I wore them out again. It was warm out there and I now have a headache. Nothing serious, it will go away after I ease down a little and relax.

Slept like a log through the night, only woke up once. I'm totally changing lifestyle habits. No meals after 6:00 pm, a light snack maybe, but nothing heavy. Walks as much as I can force myself to get out there and do it. 3 days a week weights. Plus working around the house. Plus whatever workout I get at work lifting heavy stuff.

The goal is simply to lost at least 15 pounds. Okay, take that back. I don't really care how much I weigh, as long as it is not fat weight. I could weigh as much as I do now with muscle and it would be great. The problem people get into when they start a serious regimen, besides lack of motivation, is if they're doing weight training, they don't see the results as fast. You're losing fat but you're gaining muscle, so stepping on the scale actually is lying to you. It's not telling you that you are gaining all that muscle, which is helping boost your metabolism, which is burning off fat. If those people stay at it LONG ENOUGH, they will SEE the results in the mirror. ;

The temp tenant has won the bid on the house she wanted. She figures the 16th of next month she'll have the thing and be moving out. So, this one is less than a month tenancy. I'll be reposting for temp tenants the day she leaves. Actually, I'll be posting earlier than that if there is actual confirmation that it's going to close and the house is good.

I posted the date of the next party, the end of next month. I've had 50 replies. Numerous disbelieving. Some have read the posts and replied after reading all of them: I thought you were a fruitcake at first, but after reading all of this stuff - etc etc etc. There ARE some STRANGE people on Craigslist, no doubting that. Many of the replies I've had, however, are - godly people actually. Never-the-less, there are a bunch of them that have lost their jobs, in fear of losing their homes. etc etc etc.

Anyway, I'm going to be working on that for a while. Judging from the replies, I won't be buying much of anything. Live entertainment; a full-fledged masseuse; people wanting to bake, cook, and fry all kinds of food; people bringing tables and chairs; people offering money. This will be fun - and I've given enough advance notice that should allow for a lot of people to show up. Lock away valuables in my locking closet and let the party begin!

I've had enough. This day is toasted. There is a huge delivery in the system tomorrow. I pulled the order this morning, but the pipe and all kinds of stuff have to be shifted and rearranged. The semi is loaded, yes, but that is from all kinds of pickups today. Almost all of it will have to be unloaded, more loaded and then rearrange the entire thing. I'm loving working again, it's totally nice/cool/awesome.

Hope you all have a great evening!
ben

Exercise

I flat wore those dogs out today. I went much further back into that mountain range than I have been with those dogs, then started some serious climbing. About an hour of non-stop, rigorous climbing and hiking. Got back from that and started throwing the weights around. Got done with that and did my normal outdoor chores in cleaning up dog poop and pulling even MORE weeds.

Now? I flat wore MYSELF out, too! I just ate a light meal and will not eat again until tomorrow, making it a 2-meal day at around 1,200 calories. At the rate I move around at work and hiking, I'm burning at least 3,000 calories a day. Plus I'm lifting weights now, meaning I'm going to start consuming more protein for muscle mass building. The biggest goal is to build muscle mass, increase metabolism and burn fat. I'm not an obese person, but - I've just been on a downslide to the over-weight market since my house burned down. I can explain why I started gaining weight back then, I have no such excuses now and I'm getting pretty serious about this workout regimen.

The newest tenant has already put in a bid on a condo somewhere. She went to the place she thought she wanted to live - after viewing one of them she said the place was so small, it was no bigger than the room we are in (my utility room, which is pretty small!). She's a neat lady - nice to find good tenants without all the drama queen crap. She has money which means she isn't mooching anything and actually gave me a huge bottle of joint stuff for the dogs and offered to buy a bag of Kirkland dog food from Costco. I said sure, please get me the dog food, but I won't be taking freebies - I'll pay you back.

So, she and Mary went walking out - to go eat dinner somewhere and then to Costco. If only ALL tenants could be THAT easy to live with! Apparently Mary and this lady have made instant friends. They were out here gabbing for what seemed like hours last night - I can keep up with them, but I most certainly did not feel like it. Mary seems to be pretty good at keeping friends even after the living arrangements are over.

Surprisingly, I am STILL getting calls from people out of state that want to move here and need a temporary place to stay. Apparently not too many renters are intereted in that. I wouldn't be, either, but this is "discretionary" income. It isn't, really, but it's a third tenant and the money I get from that can go to getting things done around here. The money she gave me a few days ago is going to buy a doggy door. $125 for the door and I'm going to have it installed by a professional - on the side - for $50.00. This is a "rough weather" door that has two flaps in it and is MUCH larger than the one I have in my kitchen - the Danes will fit through it easier. The biggest bonus is it's an in-the-wall style and I can put it in the utility room. It seems like a lot of money just for dogs - but it isn't really that bad. I figure I'll save at least that much money in cooling costs this summer by having that installed in a room that doesn't have cooling anyway. The AC won't have to work near as hard to keep it cool in here - that's the goal of course.

The only mistake I made with this tenant is I offered $100 off the first month's rent. I won't be doing that in the future with the 3rd room. I'm doing them a favor by giving them temporary shelter at MUCH less cost than if you were staying at a hotel. I'm also doing them a favor in taking the risk of letting them come in here, sight unseen - though I did talk to this woman at-length on the phone before committing to letting her stay, and I did get the $200 security deposit IN ADVANCE.

Well, I'm learning this stuff, is all I can say. Not a master yet, but I'm going to get there eventually. I can just about guarantee that some day in the future, I will be renting out homes. This isn't get-rich quick, but it is a second income. It's a way out of working until I'm 75. People need a place to live, many people can't get their own home. It will be a couple of years, I'm guessing, before I get my credit score up high enough to warrant a bank allowing for a second mortgage. Plus probably need a good down payment.

Anyway, don't want to get too looking too far in the future - but it IS good to set goals for oneself and get on track to doing whatever it takes to realize those goals, even if the fruition of it is years down the road. I'm pretty much a goal-driven person - I fade and whither away without them. This property is still a goal in prgress - the goal to get everything done that I want done. Landscaping, ceramic tile, the rest of the ceiling fans, some better "window treatments" they call them - appearance stuff.

Do you set goals? Do you follow through with them until you realize and experience the fulfillment of them? What drives you?
ben

Tuesday

It's starting to get warmer. 85 right now. Come home to a house that's about 95 inside. Yup, had to break down and turn on the AC. But only for a few hours until the sun goes down and then it will cool off again. It's far too early to start warming up this much. We're not even out of February. I remember years in recent history where it was cold all the way up to April, then it started warming up, May starts getting warmer until the peak of June - when literally all hell breaks loose.

I'm kinda waiting til' it cools down at least a little to take the dogs for a walk. I noticed that even with what I've been doing, I'm still putting on fat - slowly, but - I want to reverse that totally. It's obvious that I'm going to have to step it up. I'm all for it - I just wanted to ease back into heavy workouts instead of jumping right back into it. I mostly only drink water and some coffee, with a little milk here and there. I'm eating twice a day - I eat well on those two times, yes, but the first meal is a large salad with all kinds of veggies and some ham. The second meal is whatever I want, but quantities are not large as I'm not that hungry after that first meal.

Admittedly, my workouts have been fairly light. The mountain climbing is good, but the duration isn't long enough for the intended result - only because I am concerned the Danes won't be able to handle it, keel over and croak, otherwise known as a heart attack. I figure, though, that I can start going on a little longer walk at this point. I want them to be in good enough shape that by summer, they aren't going to be dying out there if I walk them. If they do, I'll be going without the dogs and they will just have to stay home. As it stands, evne if they can handle it pretty well, I'm going to have to get a dog cargo pack for one of the Danes and make him carry water for everyone.

Regardless, I will get my workouts back to where they used to be, I just don't think it a good idea to suddenly start cranking out as if you're in top condition. I've heard of people actually dying from heart attacks because they start too fast, too hard, too much, too soon. When I was younger, wouldn't think twice. Start getting a little older - will definitely think twice about it.

Now that I'm facing warm enough days to warrant the use of AC, I am going to have to install that new doggie door soon. Like this weekend soon.

Plus so many other things I would love to get done around here but for want of one thing: Money, honey.

Anyway, today at work was good. Busy enough to stay busy and not have to try and invent things to do. Tomorrow is looking pretty good as well, at least for half the day. After that, who knows. It seems that stuff comes up at the last moment quite often nowadays. Contractors wait until just at or before the time they need materials to have them delivered. Before? They'd order the whole project's worth of materials at one fell swoop, it would all be delivered out there at the beginning of the project and any subsequent visits would just be for things they didn't foresee, such as engineers or city inspectors making changes on a site's plans.

I'm a wee bit tired and want to take a short nap before I go on the walk.

C'ya later!
ben

Monday

A few things have occured since my last posting.

First, the new tenant showed up - check in hand. I already had a check from her from before, but it was for too much money so I just held it for her til' she got here. She was supposed to be moving in today - there is nothing in her room. Which didn't stop me from cashing the check. I think she's busy unloading the giant U-Haul truck that she paid someone to drive down here.

Anyway, she's here for a month or two at most, according to her. From this point forth, I intend on just getting some short-term renters in there. Off and on. If we get a little tired of 3 renters, take a month off - if I can even afford that - and then get someone else in there. Plenty of market for short-term rentals in this area.

As much as the economy is tanking, education is taking off. People are registering in droves for grant money to get through college - at least according to Mary.

Second, I got through to my mortgage company again, and only waited a few minutes! Yeehaw! Oh, well anyway, I asked about a loan modification. I am less then 30 days late, so I don't qualify for that. The lady said I will qualify on the 1st of March. The options are to have the past due balance put on the end of the loan; or, repayment of the past due amount extra on each mortgage payment (like I can afford that) - I don't remember what the other was. The only one that appealed to me was putting the past-due amount onto the end of the loan.

Anyway, I then asked about refinancing. "Midland Mortgage company is only a loan servicing center, we don't refinance loans". I started to say that I saw on your website.....OH, yes sir, we ARE refinancing mortgages in Arizona. She transferred me to that department - who never answered. I have to go through them to get to the refi department, they won't give you the direct number. Gag. Get my interest rate down 2%? Talking hundreds of dollars a month in savings. Well, it'd be $200 per month off the payment, at least. NO, it would be more than that. It's amazing how just a couple of interest points can make such a huge difference - but only on house loans, on something like a car loan - not a huge difference.

Weed battle out back is ridiculous. I lightly water them so they will more easily pull out - roots included. Seems like 3 more show up in it's place. I can't spray weed poison or my plants will die. Only recourse - file yet another complaint against my neighbors. They have 3 foot tall weeds and grass over there, and it's all coming this way. I am SO tired of the way those people live. For the purposes of keeping the yards cleaned up and at least some kind of landscaping out front, I would love to have a homeowner's association in here. For most other purposes - I would not. It would never fly. Have to have 3/4's of the neighborhood's property owners sign off on it. WAY too many people opposed to such a thing. I understand - they can become VERY abusive, reckless with power.

Anyway, I just got through doing some weightlifting, plus digging up more weeds, plus watering the plants out back. Have to ask Mary if she's been watering out front - ground looks dry, doesn't look like she has. I'm going to develop my chest, tri's, bi's, quads, lats and other muscle groups - the set up I got for Caleb for Christmas has attachments for that. I'm shooting for 3, maybe 4 days a week. Nothing too intense to start. Can't believe how much muscle mass I have lost - I can't lift half of what I used to be able to. I guess that's what happens when you stop working out for 4 years.

The house is warm - it got warm today - around 85 degrees.

Well, anyway. I'm just WISHING I had money or credit right now. There are houses less than half a mile away going for less then 50k. One is a 1,500 square foot house that has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths going for $39,000.00. 2 years ago, ALL houses in that subdivision were going for a minimum 200k. The mortgage on $39,000.00? I could rent the place for $500 and pay the mortgage and still make money off of it.

Enough. I have some other things to get done and I don't really want to sit here too long before getting it done. Just want to keep moving.

C'ya later.
ben