The Dentist's Office

There are 2 places that I absolutely ABHOR going to.
1 is the doctor's office, the 2cd is the dentist's office.
They are both equally calloused in their treatment of clientele - whether you've been a long-term patient or a new one, it doesn't matter to these people. You're a number on a clipboard, a grouping of numbers on a computer screen.

So, I took Caleb - my son of course - to the dentist to have this chipped tooth checked out. I filled out all the paperwork - name, date of birth, on....and on.......and on............................and on...........................I was wondering where the "blood count" or even "sperm count" portion was. Maybe they should ask you about your sex life while they're at it. The amount of info they want is intrusive as far as I'm concerned.

I arrived early - I always do so that I can get paperwork filled out and have it done by the time the intended appointment time arrives. I have my own personal mandate that I inflict on doctors and dentists alike: I will NOT wait any longer than half an hour after the actual time of appointment. That's MAXIMUM, more often, if it goes beyond 15 minutes, I want to know what's going on, what happened to my appointment.

A man sitting next to me told me they were 48 minutes behind on his daughter's appointment. Wonderful. I told Caleb that if it went past half and hour, I would be demanding the paperwork back and I would find a different dentist for him - this was his first time at this dentist, no big deal.

25 minutes past the appointment time they came out and called him in. I'm sure they heard me talking to my son - the woman behind the desk was definitely listening to me tell my son the half hour deal.

It wasn't 15 minutes later - maybe 20 - and he and a nurse came out. I thought that pretty fast for doing a cleaning and an X-ray. Turns out they don't do cleanings on the first visit, they did do an X-Ray. I was apalled. I haven't been to a dentist in a long, long time - but every dentist I have EVER been to, they automatically do a cleaning on the first visit. The nurse takes us to the checkout counter. She says: Well, he has no cavities but his teeth need cleaning and he needs to have his wisdom teeth pulled.

I'm scratching my head: what about the chipped tooth? She tells me to wait, they're going to give me a "referral" to get the wisdom teeth pulled - that it should be done within the next year. Continuing to ignore the entire reason we came there in the first place, and waiting for an eternity for the lady behind the counter to deal with the lady that was in front of us - the lady finally leaves and we're up next. THIS lady starts talking about wisdom teeth. Wonderful.
"We came in to find out about my son's chipped tooth, what needed to be done. I haven't heard a single word about that yet. We can go ahead and make an appointment to have his wisdom teeth jerked, but first - I would love to hear about the reason why we came here in the first place". Something like that. I was respectful, but getting rather blunt.

This lady calls yet another lady and tells us to "wait over there". Lol. Turning into a circus now. Now this lady comes out. "The tooth is only slight chipped and there's really nothing wrong with it." Caleb responds that it feels very sharp and tears flesh easily. Yada yada yada more - nothing needs to be done about it.

I made another appointment for tomorrow - for both him and I. His teeth cleaning and have them check out my teeth - which haven't been checked since before that hour-long wait some years - and years - ago when I finally got disgusted with dentists and just - quit.

Umm, - whatever. They thanked me at the end for being so patient for having to wait so long. As I said, I was never rude to them, but - I can be very, very blunt about things at times - depending on the situation. I'll see what happens tomorrow. PERHAPS tonight was just a fluke.

So, I'm getting checked out and Ken calls. Mary locked herself out of her room - again. Yup, I have a key, nope, they can't get at it. It's locked in my closet and I will be home in - maybe 20 minutes. Mary was outside, watering plants when I got home. Found my copy of the key - the one she gave me and wondering why it so important I have a key to her room - and now I'm here. But not for long, this dentist visit has cashed me day out, and I have to get thinking about bed soon.

The ex is going in for her second hernia surgery tomorrow - and undoubtedly will be out of commission for a while. Michael just showed up - for living with his family he certainly spends a LOT of time over here.......not a problem with me, but he is always making excuses during the week why he is here and not over there. I really don't care - he doesn't have to make excuses, I only care that he gets his self in school every day.

Anyway, have a great evening.
ben

Wednesday

Today's deliveries? ONE single sewer cap. It is what it sounds like - a cap that goes on the end of a stick of sewer pipe. Around a $20 piece. I'm definitely not liking what's going on right now. As far as I can see in the system - there is not much of anything going on at any of our Waterworks branches. A continued, prolonged cycle like this can only mean one thing: more layoffs. I'm a realist, not being negative. I will hold out hope for my job regardless of what the economy is doing.

I will also do whatever I have to to stay in my house. The worst case scenario? Hasn't hit and I'm not going there unless it does. No point in it. I would rather keep my outlook optimistic - as optimistic as possible anyway - and keep my eyes on the rather dim light at the end of the tunnel. It's there - we all know it's there, but when will we start seeing it? I dunno. I have more backup plans if the worst happens. Oh, I would hate the situation, definitely. As I said, there is no point in going into it unless that happens.

Roscoe is coming for a week. Roscoe gets into things - outside. I am going to put a temporary stash of stuff in front of the dog-free zone fence to keep him OUT of there. I can't tell the owner of Roscoe no - whatever money it is - it's money I can use. There are far too many projects I want to get done around here that I will not turn down money for something as benign such as watching someone else's dog.
Actually, I just need to get a come-along and pull that fencing tight. Karen - the tenant that just moved out - wants me to put up a chain link fence for her.

I have finally acquired a handgun. I'm not the kind of person that is opposed to normal, law-abiding citizens owning guns. I won't be carrying it around anywhere - it's home protection only. Karen came over last night - she offered me this gun after we somehow got onto the subject of guns when she was living here. She is going out and buying herself a 45 magnum - this is a Colt 38 long barrel revolver. It looks like something right out of the wild west. I "paid" her a dollar for it. I printed up a bill-of-sale which she signed. That's all I need. Something that gives proof of where I got it just in case someone might have used the thing for "something". In Arizona, you do NOT have to register guns - whether shotguns or handguns. Now, if you want to carry one around concealed, you can do so on your property without any permits, you cannot do so off your property. I am not going for concealed carry right now - I don't feel comfortable with that, and the primary purpose was simply to get some kind of home protection. The only way I would even pull the thing out of it's locked hiding place is if my life or my son's life or anyone else living here's life was in obvious and imminent danger of someone breaking in.

I don't really want to hear opposition comments on this, I have been wanting a handgun and a shotgun for some time now. Nothing fancy, just the same thing that Americans have been doing for 200 plus years now: giving themselves the ability to defend their lives.

I bought some trellises for the southern wall of my house. Just 2 for now. With those, I also bought 4 4X3X8 studs to put into the ground to hold them up. After thinking about it, though, I have decided that the best thing to keep the sun off the house is to have 2 of those trellises on one set of studs: 1 on above the other. That equals 8 feet tall by 8 feet wide. Which means I will have to get at least 4 more to cover at least most of the southern side of the house, plus another one and cut it up to cover the rest. There is a door on the back of the house, can't cover that up so I have to stop short at that point.

The ex is going in for surgery prep today - my son's dentist appointment is today as well. Meaning I have to go get me son at around 5:30 and take him to the dentist this evening. I have never heard of a dentist's office staying open past 5:00 pm. I tried to get them to also clean/x-ray/look at my teeth, but they didn't have availibility. So, just my son today.

It's heating up again. It's around 90 degrees right now and into the 90's tomorrow. But it's supposed to cool down this weekend - perfect for doing some of these projects. I am going to buy 5 tons of gravel and hopefully I can get them to deliver it early Saturday morning.

Anyway, enough for now, I have plenty to do this afternoon and must get to doing it.
ben

Tuesday

Rather odd day. The boss didn't show up for work - and really "we" ran the store all day long until around 2:00 pm, when the sales manager from downtown showed up. He's really cool - though extremely busy nowadays putting in bids for contracts all over the place. I had a transfer run to downtown and then a small run to Casa Grande and that was about it.

The more sales slump, the more I figure more changes are headed our way. Another flash of news hit today - though I don't really think I can say it on here so I won't. Doesn't affect me, personally, it does affect an entire grouping of particular associates within our company, at least in our region. I'm bracing myself for the eventuality of whatever may come - but definitely, something will happen. I can feel it - it's in the air.

Anyway, got home from work, took my "powernap" - 20 minutes of actual sleep - forced myself up, got the dogs and forced myself out in the rather warm air and up into the mountains. 45 minutes of increasingly intensifying walking combined now with light jogging up and down the hills and mountainsides. Duke is getting more and more behind, instead of more and more in shape, at least from what I can see. These walks MUST be doing him good, I just don't see the fruit of it, yet.

I then decided to keep on moving, so I watered the weeds - yes, I water them, let the water sink in - it makes it much easier to pull the weeds out WITH the roots instead of wasting a lot of time pulling at weeds at surface levels with roots still in the ground. They just grow back.

Now? I'm wasted. I push myself on purpose - I have gained as much weight as I can tolerate myself having - and THAT'S too much as it is. And anyway, I am hoping on having some decorative granite 1/2 inch rock delivered on Saturday morning - the ground needs to be prepped for it. I was going to put plastic down - but I'm afraid the only good that's going to do is keep dog pee from draining out. On the dog free side, I will definitely put plastic, but I am not doing the dog free side right now.

There isn't really a lot of prep work, I just want to pull all the weeds - which is a constant battle ALL around the house - spray weed killer wherever I can that doesn't get close to any of my plants - have the dump truck bring 6 tons of the gravel, dump it and that should do the entire western side and half the southern side of my house - all the way up to the fence I installed. The eastern side of my house can and will have to wait.

I have NOT seen any weeds being cut down on my neighbor's side that I complained about. It's been long enough and I am going to simply file yet another complaint. I will continue to complain until the city of Phoenix actually either forces them to do it, or they go in there themselves, clean it up and file a lien against their property. You think that being an ass? Great - you try to keep a nice, tidy, clean property without weeds and see how you feel having to CONTINUOUSLY go out - especially on THAT side of the house next to THEIR property - and have to pull weeds because THEY ARE TOO DAMNED LAZY TO PULL THE ALMOST 6 FOOT TALL WEEDS THAT THEY HAVE GROWING OUT THERE. That's right - almost SIX FEET TALL. A weedeater won't even tough those things, they will have to hack them with a blade to bring them down. Mary suggests using salt water - I'm just afraid that it might get into MY plants and kill all of them. Not a fun idea.

Yes, I am ranting and it feels good, frankly. I am so sick and tired of seeing their SHIT all over their back yard along with the tree-like weeds. My next move is to call the fire department and ask for them to visit the property and see if they conclude there is a fire safety hazard out there - which there most CERTAINLY is. Heck, if the guy wasn't such a friggin' ASS****, I would go over there and help them take those weeds down, or even DO IT MYSELF.

Enough of that. I was going to buy weed poison last time I was at Home Depot - I got sidetracked by looking at other things. If I won a 10k shopping spree at that place, I would have it spent in short order. My back yard would be the envy of - the entire community, lol. I have so many ideas of things I could do out there - give it time, give it time. One project here, one there. First thing's first: get the dirt covered up.

I'm sitting here in a pool of sweat. Gross, aye? Lol. Just trying to cool off. I won't wear shorts out there - lots of people do, but there are too many plants with jagged "thing" sticking off of them and there are also rattlesnakes and other undesirables out there as well. I haven't run into any rattlesnakes out there, but I have run into plenty in the past in various places throughout the state of AZ, especially up in the mountains near any water. Several times, some LARGE rattlesnakes at that. If I have a weapon that I can kill them with, I don't worry about it. If I don't, I keep my distance.

So, I just saw the new tenant for the first time since Sunday - she seems to be a very sweet gal. My suspicions were true: she leaves her dog in the bedroom all day long. Apparently - the dog doesn't do his thing in there and waits for her to come home. She takes him out immediately when she gets home - and disappears. I don't know where she goes, but she takes off in her car somewhere. She has family in the valley somewhere, perhaps she has friends around as well?...dunno. Not my business, don't stick my nose into tenant's business unless they want to make it my business.

Well, that's enough. Tomorrow work doesn't look pretty: nothing in the truck routing system meaning no deliveries, at least as of yet. Have to remind myself to take some dish detergent so I can wash one of the trucks tomorrow if there is nothing to do. That usually burns several hours - and they both need washing.

Have a great evening.
ben

More

Took - well an hour and a half anyway - nap/log sleeping and was awakened by Ken - the roomie. He was asking for a ride to work which is about 3 and a half miles away. If he doesn't get a ride from someone, he ends paying a taxi from his company at $8 to get there.
Well, as it turned out, my check came in as well. It's the check for the money I had saved through the stock option at work. I opted out of it after they sent me the end of year statement. I was having the minimum put in - so the check was only $253.00 - but that's money that can go for one of these projects I want to get done around here.
So, I took him to work and headed over to the rock store. Landscaping rock. Besides the awnings and window coverings, there is also another project I have been wanting to get done forever: landscaping rock in the back yard.
A much greater reason than just appearances, too - there is a TON of dust getting in this house because the entire back yard - besides all of the cement - is nothing but dirt. I dust the house once a week - after a week is gone, it looks like it hasn't been dusted in half a year. Herman Munsterish in proportions, the air filter in the AC system is constantly getting clogged up. Vacuuming? The canister fills up quickly. I can suck out 3 or 4 full canisters of dust/dirt in one vacuuming in the living room, my bedroom and the hallway.

A nice layer of half inch washed landscaping rock would take care of a lot of that problem. Turns out I only need maybe 5 tons to do the west and south side of the house. I was sitting there for over an hour, looking at the various colorings of the rock that is being sold.

I couldn't decide and decided to leave. Do you have ANY idea how much work it is to try and get tons and tons of rock up after you have laid it down? Yes - you MUST be sure that you are getting the color you like before you buy it. I need about $150 worth of rock plus tax plus delivery. Not really that bad, actually. I am going to drive around and take a look at people's yards and see what looks good.

This place has all the different rock laid out in small patches - you simply can't get an idea of what a large amount of it is going to look like.

Speaking of Ken, he is talking about moving. Someone has told him they could get him a much better paying job - but that job is in North Scottsdale, a long ways away from here. He would have to move. I think his pay would go up almost $4 per hour - I actually encouraged him to take the job. He's a good tenant, but - I think that company he is working for is ripping him off by the pay they are giving him considering the demands that are placed on him at the workplace. I can find another tenant - though it's always nice to keep the "good" ones as long as you possibly can hold onto them.

The newest tenant - ie: the one that moved in yesterday? She moved in and I haven't seen her since. She stayed the night - her car was parked out front this mornig - but that's as much as I knew. I have no clue where her dog is. She was talking about leaving it in the room all day long - apparently something that dog is accustomed to. I don't really care as long as it isn't going crazy in there and isn't tearing the place up. I don't hear a sound coming from there, so I really don't know.

Back to the projects - the money I got today can get enough rock plus buy the trellises I want for the back wall. Or not. I really haven't made any firm decisions, I just went looking since I was already out and the rock place is only a few miles from my house.

Now? I'm going to go and lay back down again - I am feeling very groggy now that I slept that long and - I'm just going to nod out again.
ben

Monday

How To Build A Wood House Awning

No clue, but I'm going to start looking into it. They look as good or even better than the aluminum versions and if I can find something online that has something akin to a "step-by-step" - I would be more than happy to attempt the challenge.

Oh - btw - I'm home from work early. I am not feeling well - at all. There was very little to do at work - of which I accomplished and then sorta asked about going home early. I am going to go to bed in a few minutes and stay there for awhile.

Anyway, I mean - really - what does it take to build a solid porch awning? Assuming 4X4's or maybe 4x6's for the frame, 4X8 sheets of plywood, shingles, various nails and screws and hardware. Special bit to drill into concrete to attach the bottoms of the wood beams to the concrete floor. I have constructed small buildings before and remodeled my house mostly by myself, with a little help from a neighborhood guy - I WANT an awning on the western side of this house before the blistering sun starts burning the house up and raising my electricity use through the roof.

This will be the newest idea popping into my head in terms of a project around here.

Turns out that one kind of plant I have planted from that nursery auction isn't a "plant" at all, it's a tree and grows about 20 feet tall with at least a 20 foot canopy on it. I was a bit surprised to find that out, really. I saw those things today growing in the middle of the divider of a street - rather large trees. One of them is growing behind my house. Fortunately I planted it far enough from the house itself that it won't be an issue in later years when the trunk grows much larger.

That's all, for now anyway. As I said, I'm heading to bed.
ben

Sunday

I got most of the carpet done yesterday - the living room was a pain. The hallway had to be gone over several times as well. I have my bedroom left to go - I have all day to get it done. That will take about half hour/45 minutes and the project is finished.

I will say that the effort was well worth it. I don't know how often others clean their carpets - I figure every 6 months or sooner. I have always been a fan of the Rug Doctor - for what it is, it works very well. It may not be as good as one of those giant machines professionals use that are mounted in vans with giant, long hoses, but for the price, I'll take it.

Some of my complaints to the city have produced results. The guy with the trailer that has been in his front yard forever? Trailer is gone.
The people across the street with all the weeds? Gone.
The people next door with weeds almost as tall as I am? NOT gone. Yet, anyway. I intend on writing the city back and asking what is being done about their s***hole over there, as there are numerous code violations. I am QUITE tired of pulling weeds that are coming from next door. It's a continuous, never-ending battle. There has been nothing going on about the residential landfill behind me, either.

Regardless, I took it upon myself to start turning in everyone around here. I've had enough of people who are not motivated in life and make it glaringly obvious by having yards FULL of weeds. Some of these places have entire yards filled with nothing but weeds that are at least 4 feet high - some are as tall as I am. This is the kind of crap living that keeps property values down and makes it unattractive for buyers with actual money to come in and buy up properties, tear down the junk mobiles and put something nice on them. There are at least 15 houses that are in that condition around here - weeds all over the place. One house has piles and piles of JUNK against the side of the house - in full view from the street.

Anyway, I'm at least a little happy that I have most of what I intended on getting done around here - and most of it accomplished yesterday. I was thinking of getting out the paint stuff today and repainting the hallway - but I may wait until next weekend. There are still several projects outside that I must get working on and get done before summer. Actually, need to get them done long before summer. It's going to start heating up again this week - in the low 90's - meaning AC on and heat coming through the windows. If I could get styrofoam sheets home on the roof of my car, I would, but - that stuff just breaks apart if it gets to flailing around in the wind too much.

As for today, there is allegedly the new tenant moving in. I haven't heard from her in a few days, but she did say she wanted to move in today. I wrote her an email yesterday that I haven't received a reply to. If it's a no-go. I'll just repost the ad and continue the search for another tenant.

Enough for one entry.
Have a great Sunday!
ben

Saturday

The dog-walk this morning was not a pleasant one. The Danes were acting up and I don't take kindly to dogs in my pack doing whatever they want. So, I pushed them and pushed them hard on this particular walk. Really, though, it was for me, not them. I had to relieve some stress in a big way, and it seems to have worked. I have a slew of things I want to get done this weekend - haven't started on any of it, but then again, it's only 9:00am.

I was thinking of renting a Rug Doctor and cleaning the carpet in that bedroom, plus doing the living room and the hallway plus my bedroom. Haven't decided on that one yet. I am going to Home Depot shortly to pick up 3 or 4 rolls of sod, put it down in my back yard and see what happens in the next - well however long it takes to see if the dogs "using" it on a daily basis is going to ruin it. I am going to do that for sure. I just need to go into the bedroom and see if it's acceptable or not. It definitely needs some airing out if nothing else.

I now have a premium membership to Costco. Karen gave me the free portion of her membership - for free. I did not ask for it, but she had been offering it to me since she moved in here. She just renewed it last month, so that card is good for quite a while to come. I have wanted a membership to that place for some time now, I just didn't want to spend the bucks. There are things in that place that you can buy in bulk that are definitely a good deal. I am going to check out dog food prices. I seem to remember they have giant bags of dog food, if that's still true, just a matter of the price.

I am also going to have to re-paint the hallway. I did some touch-up in there with what I thought was the same paint as was used on it before - turns out it is semi gloss and the paint is eggshell - the flat stuff. I have a gallon of paint and will be getting to that sometime today or tomorrow as well.

I have a lot on my mind. The ex wants me to give her Caleb for 2008 taxes. It's my year to get the deduction for him.

Anyway, I'm going to keep this one short as I still am "going" from the walk which was more like a jog at full paces of my legs - and my legs are quite long - I was walking very fast and was sweating profusely by the time I got back here. The dogs are already passed out on the floor.

Hope you have a good Saturday.......
ben

New tenant

............is gone. She moved her stuff out of the room today, unbeknownst to me, until she called. Like 10 seconds ago. She is coming over to give me the keys to the house/room.

There are other things, but I'm just not going to go there on this journal.

My stupid, moronic decision to bring another woman into this house is predicated by the fact that I need money. It's really the end of it. I'm a dumbass, oh well. I'm stupid, retarded, and a freak of nature. I must be.

Regardless of my ignorance, and the laughability of it, I will be writing her and announcing the fact that the room will be available - Sunday. I will go in there tomorrow, look around and see if the carpet needs cleaning.

Oh, the fact that I lost all my overtime hours at work - a substantial chunk of change shouldn't mean anything to particular readers, I'm bringing in another woman. You know what?

I won't say it.

I will say that this person has a nice doggy. She is very quiet, I spent an hour with her in this kitchen of mine. She is very moral, this came out quickly, not because she SAID she was moral, just the way she was talking.

Now? I'm going to go bath in a tub full of ignorance bath salts, because, I am quite stupid, didn't you know that?
ben

Friday

Dang, I missed another entry.
Things got a little heated up around here - I washed my hands of it and disappeared into my bedroom.
Basically, the tenant that is leaving got into it with Mary last night, and was yelling at her some things that - I won't repeat here.
However, it turns out, the newer tenant isn't exactly a barrel full of truth and honesty.
I only say that because after it was all done - including Mary banging on my door asking for me to "do something about this" (I referred her to the police) - I went back out because I heard some banging noises outside. It was 9:30 so I thought it a little late for the neighbors to be making that much noise - but that's exactly what it was.

However, I heard some people talking out in front of the house, so I walked up to the gate and looked through a crack in the slats of the gate. There was the new tenant and Ken - my other roommate - smoking a joint, in front of the house, on the street, in open view! Mind you that this woman told me that she "used" to smoke pot in Oregon, where she came from, but stopped when she came here. I say THAT because my ads are VERY clear about drug and pot use: NOT. Now that I know she has lied to me, this mixes the pot quite a lot. Who is telling the truth about what? IS Mary smoking meth in my house, or is she not? And all the rest of the stuff.

I am not going to confront the new tenant about smoking pot because she will be gone shortly. She can smoke all the reefer she wants in her new house. She can blow the smoke in her little Pomeranian's face and get them high along with her, I really don't care, she won't be HERE.

What it does for me, however, is that I must take her statements with a huge grain of salt. Why would she say the things about Mary that she has? Maybe some of it is the truth. There ARE people on this planet - lots of them - that take pleasure in making life difficult for other people. I simply don't know. I probably never will. I caught her in a lie - that means she is capable of lying, therefore, I can't take her word for anything. BTW, she doesn't know that I saw her and Ken out there smoking dope, and unless she knows where this journal is (possible) she won't know cause' I ain't saying nothing, unless yet another situation arises that warrants it.

So, anyway, Mary calls me while I'm at work this morning. She started right in. I started right out - I don't have time for this, I told her, I am at work, and I am NOT dealing with this now. I ended up hanging up on here. She called again. Same thing. Half hour later, she calls again. This time, she's sobbing and crying and saying she didn't do any of the things that this woman claims, on and on and on. This conversation went on for a while. I laid out my known issues with her, since we were going there. Besides the meth issue, there is the electric issue. I know from seeing it for myself that she cares not one iota about the electric consumption in this house. I went on that line for a while.

Anyway, long story short - I did not confer anything one way or the other. I have another tenant coming in here either this weekend or next week, and I flatly warned Mary to LEAVE HER ALONE. Don't even TALK to the woman, excepting hi, how ya doing, etc. No asking for rides, no asking for ANYTHING, thank you.

Onto other things. I have been toying with the idea of this next party to also invite the neighborhood and see about starting a Neighborhood Association. Get a Board of Directors together if there are those that are willing, get it registered and start writing requests for money. Not for me, of course, for things for this particular neighborhood. Is there money available right now? Dunno, but it would be the perfect opportunity to get this thing started and at least get a foundation going. I currently have about 50 people lined up for the next party, which doesn't include neighborhood people because - I haven't gone there yet. Half the people coming have said they are bringing food. One person has sent me money PayPal towards costs for the party. More have said they would donate money as well. I have started a blog just for party, actually, and - it's had a LOT of visits.

Now? I actually got some overtime this week. Yesterday, I went out to the middle of Nowhere, Africa - literally - having to pick up some pipe that had been delivered there a long, long time ago. Seems that the company that bought it from us suffered the problem of the developer pulling out. Meaning the contractor was stuck with thousands and thousands of feet worth of pipe, along with a lot of fittings and alot of other stuff. All of it was sitting in the desert. It was all messed up, as one co-worker that drove another semi out there said: This is a Cluster****. In my line of work, foul language is heard constantly.

Umm, I left in the morning on that run and didn't get back until 4:30pm. That's because it took 5 hours to load the trucks, then instead of heading back to my yard, I had to take the pipe to our yard Buckeye - which is out west. WAY out west. Coming back? LONG trip.

Interesting rumors concerning my company. I am not going to divulge anything because - well just not prudent to say that here. Other things, though. More talk of combining a plumbing branch with our branch. A building we occupied has now been closed - plumbing was operating out of it. More people out of work? No necessarily. They are offered to go to work at the huge, downtown branch. My company cares about it's employees, even if it has to downsize to stay alive. Yes, people are being let go - I'm just holding my breath here, hoping I am not going to be one of those people.

I'm just trying to catch up on my journal - there's a lot on my plate and I'm hoping to dump some of that this weekend. I want to spend some time doing things outside. I will be buying 3 or 4 rolls of sod tomorrow and putting it over an area in my back "yard". Grass definitely grows on the other side of the house - wild grass that I didn't plant, so I have some confidence that it should take over on the west side. The only problem is, will the dogs, peeing and pooping on it, kill it? You know, if it can survive the summer - for the most part anyway - I won't care. I would rather have them doing it there than all over the friggin' place.

I'm done with this one, as I haven't watered the plants in several days - they are getting thirsty.

Hope you all are doing well.
ben

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