Please vote for Duke or Prince!!!!

http://www.mix969.com/pages/arizonas-top-pet/vote-entrants.php?gid=2&id=98

http://www.mix969.com/pages/arizonas-top-pet/vote-entrants.php?gid=5&id=89

Okay, I put Duke and Prince in a contest. It's called Arizona's Top Pet and it's hosted by a local radio station. The winner - animal that gets the most votes - gets $1,500!!

I'm unabashedly asking everyone to vote for one or the other, though it would be better if everyone votes for just one instead of the votes getting spread out between the 2.

The first URL posted at the beginning of the entry is the URL to duke's pic. Copy and paste that into your web browser, go there. At the bottom of Duke's pic is a button "vote for me". Clicking on that takes you to a page that asks you for your email address - obviously so one person can't just vote over and over for their own pet. That's it, you're done! Thanks to everyone that helps me out!
ben

4th of July

I smashed my right pinkie yesterday - bad. Dumb mistake and I will be paying for it for a long time. I had plans of BBQ'ing steaks and such today, no such thing is going to happen, I feel like crap. It also is slowing down my typing considerably.

The fingernail is definitely going to come off - the whole thing is black. I HATE when I do stupid things like that. I was out back on my little step ladder pounding in a stake for holding up one of the Sissoo's. When I was done, I was folding it back up - not realizing my pinkie was sitting the way of the "folding zone". Lord - it was a painful event and has been ever since.

About and hour and a half ago, I had just laid down to take a nap - when my cellphone rang. I didn't recognize the number and had half a mind to not answer - but I did anyway. It was Glen. Glen is one of the homeless guys I have been feeding and handing a few dollars to for a couple of months now. They show up out of the blue - I cook them dinner. They eat - and eat - and eat.

His buddy is a paraplegic - he cannot walk. I have attempted to persuade them every time they come here to get some government help - there's plenty of it out there, ESPECIALLY for disabled people. They were living in a park near the airport - take the light rail all over the place and basically panhandle their way through life. BUT - Glen - the guy that is not disabled - is very intelligent and very motivated. He HATES living on the streets but he has been taking care of his disabled buddy and hasn't been able to work.

Glen informs me they have acquired their own place. I mean, they actually rented out a house looking thing - it's a small house that has to rental units. He was asking if I had some extra nails and a hammer - he wanted to build a ramp to get his buddy up and down out of the house over the stairs. I was already half zonked in my nap-zone, I didn't feel like doing anything.

But - they were desperate. Not for nails and a hammer - for food. I have never in my life refused anyone food - and I have given out a LOT of it since 1984 when I became a Christian - and I never will if I have anything that I can give. Driving over to 11th avenue and Adams - where they live - wasn't a pleasant prospect - but I just forced myself to say yes, got up, and got out of here. Stopped and picked up both cooked food and sandwich meats and some bread on my way over there and some beverages.

I have had a LOT of dealings with the homes in the last 2 plus decades. My observations - I have only seen a couple of people that REALLY wanted off the streets, the rest had acclimated their mindset to the point that they were just going to beg for the rest of their lives. I was quite amazed that Glen actually pulled it off - he wanted off the streets badly. His buddy cannot do much of anything for himself, so he's basically bound to taking care of him. I have no idea how these guys met or why Glen is so intent on taking care of him - but it is something incredible to me.

Glen is a very respectful - but very determined person. I was also as determined - there is plenty of government money out there for disabled people - you have to go and fill out the forms/seek the assistance, but his disabled buddy would qualify for all kinds of assistance. I will be going over there again next week - and I will again be insisting Glen take his friend to a place that is right down the road from them and start asking for help. The guy can't walk, can't talk very well, has suffered a life-altering stroke. This is a person, in my opinion, that should get government/community assistance. Glen should be pinned with a medal for forsaking his life to take care of this guy.

BTW, Glen paid for the place out of panhandling. I wonder how fast people will judge the man. I wonder when we make such judgements if we have ANY clue the circumstances that lead certain people to that point. Glen unabashedly stated that he was going to a 4th fireworks show to - work the crowd with his buddy. Maybe - just maybe - there ARE times when you get hit up for money from a street bum that that person is someone that can't work, can't get a job, can't because of whatever.

I went over there with fried chicken and bought some ham slices on sale with some bread and some drinks. Nothing fancy or expensive - but tasty food none-the-less. They consumed the entire bag of chicken in a short period of time. Gary was getting sick when I showed up - he hadn't eaten and it was hot. There is evap cooling in the place - I have spent many summers with evap cooling only and no AC - I know how it feels. It's actually cooler to go outside in the shade when the humidity and the dew point is high enough - and the dew point is WAY high right now, which renders evap cooling almost useless. Glen got Gary up off the floor - there is no furniture - into his wheelchair, brought him outside. Gary ate a piece of chicken slowly. Glen offered him more, he said no. But, after a few minutes, he did want more. Meanwhile, Glen had been stuffing himself.

Glen confided after Gary went back inside that he has not been able to work or do anything because his time is spent taking care of Gary. Gary's brother, Rit - this guy has some problems in the mental department - is there as well. Glen figures it's good enough, he can leave Gary there and go look for work.

Again, the whole situation is amazing to me. I went and saw the situation with my own eyes - I need not guess. I didn't give them any money - I just gave them food and drink. But, I did place an ad on Craigslist for help. You'd be surprised - people will help if they can. One lady wrote me and asked for the address, said she would stop by and drop off some food. It hasn't been that long since I posted that ad, I'm hoping for some offers for a couple of beds and maybe some furniture.

This morning. I couldn't resist. I took a "country" drive to the nursery that's going out of business and bought 10 more of buck per 3 gallon pot ficus trees. I also took all 3 Danes with me. They "told" me they wanted to go. Prince was sticking his head out of the rear side window almost the entire trip there and back. He has a very large head and it was attracting a lot attention. It was really a drive to determine for sure whether the Discount Tire fix had worked. It had not. I am thinking at this point that maybe there is a mechanical problem, or maybe one of the rims is messed up. I'm not sure what to do - don't exactly have money to start spending on diagnostics. I don't have to go out of town if I don't want to and the thing only acts up at high speeds.

So, I think for now, just leave it and if/when finances get better, then deal with it. I had to put off my lady friend up north, I had full intentions of going up there for a 4th of July visit.

As it stands, I held my pinkie off away from the rest of my hand and dug several holes today, planted several plants. Mimi suggested it may be broken - certainly the force of the impact was enough for breakage. She further suggested I put it in a splint, I refused. A splinted finger will cost my my job, basically. You can't drive with an "inoperable hand". My right hand, the damaged pinkie hand, is my shifting hand. I can shift gears without a pinkie, just have to focus on it as I pay no attention to shifting, it's quite an automatic function for me.

Umm, well it's late enough, I will be going to bed soon.

Hope you all had a nice 4th of July celebration.
ben

Running Around

I finally broke down and took the car back to Discount Tire. Hour and a half wait, they tell me. Just about every time I go there it's an hour and a half wait, so I end up just putting air in the tire and leaving. This time I decided to bite the bullet and do the wait. Fortunately there is a Walmart across the parking lot - something to do and I had business there anyway.

So, I go to Walmart. No, nothing happened there with customer service - I was taking my time walking through the entire place. The store is so massive, that took quite a while, like almost an hour. I got a napkin holder and some napkins (have been wanting to do that for quite a while now, I just keep forgetting); another garden hose - so I don't have to keep moving one of the houses from one outlet to another; and the new glassware that was the reason I wanted to go there in the first place. These glasses are much larger - it's summer time and a small glass of ice water or whatever drink does - nothing really.

After returning, the man approaches me and tells me one of the tires is bad. I inform him that buying new tires right now is totally out of the question, do you have anything used? He does - and it's identical to the new ones I bought a while back that are on the rear of the car. He informs me of such and says the tire has a lot of tread on it, that I only need buy one more new tire and it's done. Okay, well - no new tires today, thank you. I had all 4 tires rebalanced - free of course - but have not gotten on the freeway to find out whether there is still a vibration.

If there is, I will take the car to a different shop and have the wheels balanced and checked out there. If it isn't - which is my extreme hope - the problem is solved and I need not deal with it anymore.

Trip to the post office - they are only opened 3 hours today and were closed when I got there. But - they have this automatic thing now that uses a debit or credit card, I wanted to send my mortgage payment via a faster delivery mode anyway. Trip to the bank - deposit tenant's checks and money orders, over to pick up Caleb and finally home.

I'm still grappling with whether to get another 401k loan. I just can't seem to decide one way or the other - but it's something I need to get resolved in my mind for my own peace' sake if nothing else. I'm thinking hold off a couple of weeks and see what happens. Now that I have 3 paying tenants I'm sorta hoping I can pull out of this personal mortgage "crisis" and eventually get caught up. I'm fully a month and a few days behind on the mortgage payment.

DANG. I forgot to go to the DMV and get my driving history. Heck, I don't even know if they're opened today. Seems to be a day of shortened open hours. I think I'll call over there after this and see if they are - there's an office about 5 miles down the road from me. If I go, I will take the extremely long way home, get on the freeway and cruise 75mph or so and see what happens. I KNEW there was something I forgot, darnit. I hate making all kinds of trips, I tend to plan them in advance and get it all over with.

Anyway, I'm going to get out pen and paper and start looking at what I can do to try and get caught up on the mortgage without loans and things. The thing that is slammning me right now is the electric use - knew it was coming, and here it is - it's at $10 and change per day, which really isn't that bad - but that's because we haven't gotten up to the 110 or higher mark. Today's high is 103, tomorrow is allegedly 103 and then Sunday we zoom up to 109. Weekends are always more expensive - for whatever reason. Laundry is a factor, yes, but most of us are doing the drying outside which helps mitigate the use. Price of fuel has gone up - another $15 to fill up the tank from what it went down to before.

Well, I guess I better find out of the DMV is open - I haven't made any decision about a daytrip up north tomorrow because of the car. I hate to put the lady on hold like that, but I already told her what is going on with my car.

Have a great day!
ben

My Trip To Home Depot

Mark this as another freebie day due to extremely poor customer service.

I went to Home Depot to buy some cheap 8 foot strips of wood to hold my Sissoo’s up straight. Sissoo trees that is. They need the help - they are drooping over, just not mature trees yet. I also wanted to get a big economy box of Miracle Gro; poison that kills the bees or whatever that are eating leaves off of various plants around the property and some of that green tie-off stuff to hold the trees to the posts - much easier on the bark than rope or whatever else may be laying around.

I spent considerable time in the store looking for all of this stuff. That, in and of itself alone meant nothing to me at the time - huge store and I didn’t know where some of the stuff was at.

I go to the garden checkout. The teenager that is running the register has already shut it down. The garden checkout was NOT closed, but she had closed it anyway. Now, she was trying to get it up and going again. Well, it was ABOUT to close in like 10 minutes. I waited at least 5 minutes for her to get this register going again, she finally shut the thing off and moved to the register on the other side. I wasn’t particularly amused but I said nothing about it and kept my “good graces”.

She rung everything up, I paid the bill, walaah. Done.

Not.

I ALWAYS go over register receipts. I don’t care how long it takes - such as going over a grocery receipt - I am not going to get ripped off by a computer that scans something wrong or has wrong information input into the system. I spotted a glaring mistake. The poison - which I remember clearly read at $6.79 run up at $13.99. I said in low tones to the cashier that I was going to go check the price on the poison as I was pretty sure it wasn’t anything near that price.

Sure enough, I was right, computer was wrong. So I go back. “Well, sir, you’re going to have to go back inside to the customer service counter, I can’t give refunds here”. At this point? I’m still in a congenial mood, stuff happens. I get to the counter, there is one lady running it, but there is no-one else there. I show her the receipt, the bottle of poison and then tell her about the error. She takes the receipt and the bottle. Another employee comes up - she goes across the way to show her something, totally putting me off.

I’m starting to have some time invested into this, and when I lose time to incompetency, I usually end up on the winning side - just have to be patient. She comes back to me - we start walking to the aisle where the poison is. She stops to help another customer. We start moving again. She stops to help yet another customer. I’m starting to get annoyed. We finally arrive at the poison center - bug killing stuff - and she sees the problem. There are 2 sizes of the same stuff. The stuff I bought was a quart size, the stuff that it rung up as is almost a gallon size. Problem was, BOTH of them were QUART containers. The stuff I bought was above the $6.79 price, the other containers were at the $13.99 price, even though they had no more quantity than the 32 ounce stuff. In other words, there were 2 problems going on here.

Regardless. We go back to the counter. Another individual is waiting at the counter. Instead of taking care of my situation first - my money back for the error, she starts taking care of this guy!! Now I’m getting to the “get management” phase, in my mind if nothing else. She spends a couple of minutes dealing with this guy and then comes back to me. At this point? I have already determined that a conversation with whatever highest level of management is available the store will occur before I leave.

But, I play the game. She tells me she is going to give me back the difference. I ask about whether there’s a scanning error policy. Nope, she says, there is not. Somewhere around that point, I asked to see a manager. She decisively tells me that she is a supervisor and can take care of whatever I need dealt with. “No, ma’am, you can NOT, you have put me off 4 times now in dealing with other customers while you were supposed to be dealing with me, I do not like your particular brand of customer service and I want to speak to the store manager.” “Well, I can call her, but she won’t be coming up here right away, it’s going to be quite a while before she gets here”.

I didn’t quite understand THAT statement, but I was firm - I will wait. I waited all of about 3 minutes. A lady shows up. I tell this lady what this other lady had done - all of it. “Is this your idea of customer service?” NO, it is NOT, she flatly stated. I then asked her about the scanning policy - same thing. I then asked for the name of the general manager, I have dealt with that person before at the store. “Well, he’s away on vacation, how can I help you?’” We go back and forth. I’m not being rude, but I am being firm.

I finally said - after her repeated asking and my repeated statement that I just wanted the name of the GM and the date this individual was going to be back - that I wanted a discount for all the time I have wasted in trying to get anything done here. She said fine and walked behind the counter. She scanned everything in my cart, proceeded to the cash register and proceeded to hand me cash - $34.04 - for the entire order.

I looked at her and stated that I still wanted to purchase these items - the money I was looking for was concerning the product that scanned wrong. No, she says, this is what I’m doing for you. I said thank you - heartily - have a great day and tried to leave. I say try because when I went to go out through the garden center - it WAS closed at this point. I turn around and go back - and see the manager giving both the cashier that spent forever and the supervisor that told me “she won’t be here for a lonnnnnnng time” absolute HELL. The kid cashier started mouthing off to her - she put an end to that in a lightning’s flash of time.

I got FAR more than I expected out of the “deal”.

Will I go back? Of course! You can’t ban EVERY store for poor/piss poor/abhorrent customer service, if you did, there wouldn’t be many places left to shop!

ben

Wednesday

1 day left to go in the work week! Yayyyyyy!
I can't believe I have 305 posts on this blog already (if I copy and paste this to KCL, I am referring to my other blog, not my KCL blog).
Like, didn't I just start on this site a little while back? Seems so anyway.

Work? I took out a huge order this morning, the flatbed was fully loaded from front to back. Pretty heavy stuff, too. They always make these jobsites a test of your truck driving skills. This one was no different. Oh, and this is a new customer for our company. Anyway, get the truck unloaded, get turned around and head out to the exit gate - to find a truck blocking the exit and quite apparent it was going anywhere anytime soon.

The foreman comes up to me and informs me there is another exit - just go "back there" and "down that road" and you'll see it. Too bad a semi truck isn't like a Tonka toy, just pick it up, turn it around and off you go. Instead, I'm backing down a narrow lane and having to back around a very tight corner. It's amazing how many sets of eyes are on your truck when you're maneuvering like that. It was lunch time and they were all watching this. Figured because of that - gloating in stupid pride - I would nail it the first time and not have to do a pull up. Well, I did nail it the first time, but the pride stuff is fodder for for the trash can, so is gloating.

Mr. DOT was following behind me on the freeway. That would be a Department of Transportation Commercial Vehicle Enforcement pickup truck. They do not have to have "probable cause" or whatever to pull over a commercial vehicle, or so I've been told, and so it's happened many, many times to me. I have been pulled over by this particular individual several times. He followed behind me for a while - kind of unnerving - you're waiting for the lights to start flashing as he had quickly gotten onto the freeway and pulled up to me from sitting still on the side of the road.

I was relatively sure the truck and trailer would pass a full inspection, so no worries there, and my paperwork is ALWAYS good, no worries there - still, it ain't no fun gettin' pulled over. I was quite surprised when, after some time had passed, he got into the next lane and apparently changed his mind. Must have been lunch time for him, too.

My newest tenant paid me today - well it IS the first of the month - but there was a surprise. He paid me for the full month, not just 2 weeks. I don't mind getting paid bi-monthly, but right now, that extra money is going to do some great damage to my bill-paying efforts. I haven't had a tenant pay for the entire month in quite a long time. I make the bi-monthly payment option available - because it's just another thing to help get tenants in here when I need one. I FAR prefer the full month in advance, but as I say, it's not that big of a deal.

Ken - the drunk tenant story from the other day - I have only seen once, I think, since the ordeal. That was yesterday as I came home early, but only for a second, to drop something off. I was in the area - there are several vendors just down the street from my house that I go to frequently. I rarely stop at my house - I used to all the time and eat lunch here (with the blessing of my-then manager), but I discontinued that practice as I didn't think it sets quite well with my current manager. He told me a story of a guy that used to work for him a long time ago that would go home and stay there for up to THREE hours. Now obviously that is not only abusive, but that is stealing time from the clock. He eventually fired the guy - don't blame him there, either. I have no ill feeling about stopping by my house for a couple of minutes to drop something off. In this case, I had bought a monitor for dirt cheap from the City of Mesa - they have a surplus sale every Tuesday and Thursday, I happened to be there during the sale hours making a delivery of some fire hydrants.

Umm, I got way off subject. That's because I LOVE this new monitor, it's a flat screen and the resolution and the appearance looks a hundred times better than the old monitor which was also a huge electric hog. I bartered with them to get the price cut in half of what they were asking. Umm, it's not a NEW monitor, it's a used one - they automatically get rid of stuff after X amount of years of service. They usually are asking FAR too much for everything. I just suggest "my" prices to the lady in charge, if she accepts it, great if not, oh well. They also had a Brothers printer/copier/fax/probably a robot that makes dinner for you/all-in-one thing at only $35. But - I didn't know if it worked and I didn't the time to spend to find out - the lady in charge said she would be glad to hook it up and show me if it works or not - again, I don't have all day. A few minutes is one thing, half an hour is another.

So - the lady is asking whether I'm coming up this weekend. I had to say I dunno. The vibration on that car is still there. I really don't want to drive clear up to Flagstaff with that kind of nonsense going on. I'm going to give another try at Discount Tire - where I bought the tires - a freebie of course - to see if they can actually show some level of proficiency with their equipment.

Overcast most of the day, humid and nasty outside. I WILL take dry heat over humidity any day of the year. Actually, I'll just take this summer being over with and bid it adios, thanks. Yeah, I know - IN YOUR DREAMS@!

I'm done.
ben

Tuesday

The work week well - this particular one anyway - is half over. It is also the last day of the month of June. There are just a little over 6 hours left in this month, meaning that I got away with one - if not only for this year.

What I got away with was about $130 less in electric usage than June of last year. SRP - my power supply company - faithfully sends me out a readout of the entire year's worth of electric usage. June stood out from last year - historically it is the hottest month of the year - and certainly from that readout - it was at least $50higher than any months worth of usage last year.

But - this year's June has been amazingly low in temps until - last week I guess. The AC is running off the hook now - not unexpectedly - in keeping it cool in here.

Okay, enough about electricity. It's of particular interest to me - probably not to anyone else. Then again, this IS my blog! Lol.

Of even greater interest is the second Airbus accident. Fin graciously hooked me up with a website that is frequented by commercial jet pilots and other experts in varying fields related to it - I was reading with great interest today the provisions made by such concerning the newest/fresh crash of yet another Airbus - this time an Airbus A310. I think the AF crash was a 330 model?
I may go ahead and register with that site, undoubtedly will never post anything since I am your basic know-nothing compared to those that are posting there. Still, it's all quite fascinating to me.

In all the fascination, however, I do not forget that a lot of people have lost their lives in both crashes over the Indian Ocean and for that, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of the deceased. I have not seen much about the Air France flight - guess there's not much to report.

Entire torso area is burning. I have just been standing out in the hot sun for a couple of hours watering plants and taking stock of the entire situation on my property. What are my next moves. Well, I have the buck a piece plants left to plant - I'm waiting until this coming 3-day weekend. I have also decided to transplant at least one of the Norfolk Pines. Although they are where I want them, they are not doing well there. When Mary was here, we had discussed transplanting one to the front of the house where it would get a lot more shade and less direct exposure to the sun.

This because I had read on numerous websites that it really doesn't like arid climates, it wants a more humid climate instead. I figured at least getting it out of the hot AZ sunshine would help - we are in the midst of some humid days right now. THAT one is doing QUITE well. The branches are not burned as the other ones are. Well, excepting one. there is one where a couple of the branches greenery is only slightly burned, the rest of that tree is growing like crazy.

There is another that is seriously burned and doesn't seem to be growing at all. And then yet another which is in between the 2 aformentioned.

Anyway, I SOOOOOO want to get an "automatic" drip watering system in. I'm spending some serious time out there now that summer and high heat has arrived in watering that stuff.

On a different note, I was watching the - "loser" - walking down the street past my house a little while ago. He used to say hi to me or I used to say hi to him - either/or first. Some months ago, I was greeting him and he was totally ignoring me. The man is known as a "loser" because he is 30 something years old and still lives with his parents. He doesn't work - and doesn't want to. It has nothing to do with the economy - he has been living his entire life like that LONG before this recession started. He's about 6'6" tall. Lanky, not especially strong looking. Face is aged well beyond his years - he's a meth user.

I was out front watering all the menagerie of plants out there and he comes walking by. I said nothing - I discontinued since he decided he was not going to respond with anything. I think the silent treatment is the greatest diss of all of mankind. There is no positive OR negative response, there is just nothing. It is response in itself - it most assuredly is. He was walking along, had his fists clenched, had a look of hate on his face and was walking with some determination. Where he was going and why he was posturing like that - no clue.

But I have observed many people over the years with same such look and posturing. Not a one-time event, but a stance that is repeated over and over and over again. I have always wondered what, exactly, is going through that person's mind. In my case - well - this is the guy that was screwing the former tenant named Justine - in my house. I did not want this man coming into my home at all. If an adult cannot find it within him or herself to go out and get something going for themselves in life, I really don't want anything to do with them.

Even the people that I have given food or meals to are people that are driven to do whatever it takes to keep themselves floating - but - the times being what they are and the circumstances that they are facing proved to be too much. People that would never have taken a hand-out from anyone have come to my door - with my CL invitation of course - wanting the help that I was providing. I am not handing out food now. I am still having people over here and there for meals. Not that I don't want to hand out food - my situation with doubled hourly cuts have forced that upon me. I have no reservations at all in having a person or persons over for a meal that I was already preparing - just having to make more for the extra mouths.

As life moves on - and it always does - I always come to points where I have to face not only my mortality - if only in my thinking at the moment - but also WHAT is my contiued purpose here. There is more to life than what I am doing with it. At least, from the perspective of the Bible and the life I have lead before I started journaling. No, journaling is not a hindrance or my setback, it has nothing to do with it.

I have to be content that what I am doing now is what I am supposed to be doing now. If it is not, then opportunity will open up to do something else.

There is something in me that would like to earn massive amounts of money and finance the many missionary contacts I have around the world. Old contacts - old friends - people I have served with on the field. Many of them are still out there. I didn't quite make it - due to a devastating divorce and the shunning of a church. Which may not be VALID reasons in the eyes of God, but - the effect on my soul, heart, and mind was enough. Even my Dad asked yesterday about whre I am going to church. I said I am not going and referred to the shunning. I also made quite clear the fact that I have not turned my back on God and that I still love the Lord.

Well, I'm just rambling I guess. I have a lot on my mind right now. There are many distractions that life has to offer. I'm not convinced that many of them are worth the time of day or the thought in mind that they absorb.

ben

ANOTHER Airbus has crashed?!!!

Do you remember the "notoriety" the McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 received after numerous crashes all over the place and people getting killed on that particular brand and model of aircraft? Is Airbus going to have the same tainted recognition with all of their product?
Heck, if I were flying anywhere, I don't think I would want to board anything made by Airbus at this point - I don't wonder if actual air travellers are thinking the same thing, the world over?
It becomes a thing where people's minds don't think in terms of where the fault might lie - weather; malfunction; pilot error - it just becomes more like "gee, this airplane crashes a lot, I don't want to be a part of that".

Unbelievable.

I'm at work - before signing in of course and before the work day has begun.
I slept very well last night - that's 4 nights in a row now that I have slept either well or decent enough.

The CEO of our company is coming through today and there is word he may actually come to this store. That would be amazing in itself. Whenever stuff like that happens, I am usually not even here - out on the road somewhere. Another thing that I just found out this morning is the CEO of our mother organization has resigned. I didn't read any particular reason for it, the guy seemed to be steering the entire ship in the right direction, so I'm kind of at a loss on that one.

That's it. I am just in automatic mode for the time being. I forgot yesterday to go get a copy of my 5-year driving history to present to the taxi company for their consideration of my becoming a "weekend warrior" - if only temporarily. Actually, I only plan on doing one full day of it on a Saturday to see if it makes any money or is just a waste of my time. I was already offered a job - at $7.25 per hour lol - the other day. I can imagine myself standing in a "production line" at a Subway restaurant in the workings of a "sandwich artist". I figure the lowest I will go on a part-time job is half my wages at my full-time job. Anything lower than that would just seem a waste of time to me.

Regardless, it's gettin' close to time to sign in and I want to check out a couple more news stories before that happens.
Have a great day!
ben

Monday Revisited

Work went well enough - a full day of running all over portions of southern Arizona making deliveries and a pickup. I could be more specific, but who cares. The CEO/President of our company is coming to town - tomorrow. I have talked to this man via email in the past - a very nice person, actually.

Anyway. My daily waterings of certain plants is not enough. These plants are withering by the time I get home from work and only another good dose of water brings them back. I will have to start watering these plants twice daily during the summer. Kind of a pain - I enjoy, no love - spending time out there with "them", but this is a little excessive. If I had any thought that anytime soon my "ship would come in", I would definitely go out and buy a drip watering system, which would take care of this problem.

Now, I could "drip" water them with a hose - but there are too many of them, it would take too long. I can just about guarantee that next week, I will be applying for another 401k loan. I hate to do it, but there is too much going out and not enough coming in. A couple thousand dollars right now would take care of all of it and then some.

Customer Service. It is not an unfrequent event that I complain about poor customer service, and in recent months, Fry's Food Stores. Today was yet another adventure into that realm. I will admit here that during the summer and when I'm outside baking away - and after work - I do like to drink a few ice cold beers. Why? Because I want to, what else is there to it? I acquired a taste for beer in my early teens that has never gone away. It tastes better to me, frankly, than a glass of coke. The only thing I like better - and I like it much better - is ice cold water. Moderation of course concerning the beer.

But still. I buy it when it's on sale in 30 pack to save money. It lasts a long time, thank you. You can buy a 6 pack at 6 or 7 dollars per six pack - or you can buy 30 packs on sale for $19.99 or less and - the savings is significant. I am NOT a drunkard for those that want to know - I just like to drink a few beers.

Anyway. Fry's has the 10-for sale. Buy ten of the things that are on sale and you get $3.00 off the total bill, not to mention the stuff you are buying has already been marked down significantly from what it's normal price is. The 10 sale is mix and match, you don't have to buy 10 of any one thing. I got various items that I needed and then a few other things on sale but not the 10 sale, got a 30 pack and headed to the self-service lanes to check out. The full service lane - only one was open if I recall correctly at the time - was loaded with people. So was the self service section, but with 8 checkouts, it was bound to free up quickly.

Well, I get a checkout station quickly. First thing I do is scan the 30 pack. It's going to stop the scanning process for the attendant to verify my age. I'm standing there watching this attendant scanning an entire basket full of stuff for people who - apparently - couldn't figure out how to scan the stuff for themselves.

This woman is totally ignoring everyone - and there are other people besides me that have "frozen" scanning screens - "Please wait for an attendant". This goes on for several minutes. Now, mind you, I have scanned the 30 pack, I am just waiting for the lady to approve the sale so I can continue scanning everything else. She finally goes back to her station and then DELETES my 30 pack off the screen. If you have ever done self service, you know that everything that you scan has to go onto the table area they have next to it. It is a giant scale - every item in the store has been input into their software for it's weight. You put the item on the table, the system checks the weight and allows you to move on with scanning if the weight is correct.

Well, the 30 pack is sitting there, it's been deleted off the ticket, but the system allows me to scan on. So, scan I do. Eventually, I hear this voice: "WHO HAS THE ALCOHOL?" I couldn't believe my ears. Perhaps not as bad as hearing over the speaker system an announcement that someone needs to go over to the condom display to unlock the booth for whoever is waiting there, but still - bad enough. I have never had that happen to me - but I have both heard it done and have read about people's experience in the feeling they get when such an announcement is made and they - are the unlucky soul waiting there to get a package of condoms.

She comes over to my station where I am busily scanning away and declares that the beer didn't scan and I will have to rescan it. I looked up at her. Ma'am, I not only scanned the beer, but I sat there and waited for several minutes while you were scanning all of another customer's things. YOU deleted the beer off the ticket. At first she tried to backtrack - but that will go nowhere with me, ESPECIALLY with a person that is lying through their teeth. "Well, I had to delete your problem because I needed to take care of their problem first, and the only way I could do that was to get yours off the screen".

How long would it have taken to simply bypass the age restriction? 2 seconds? She was so intent on doing EVERYTHING for these other people that she completely ignored EVERYONE else that needed help.

The fact that she lied to me was enough to ask for store management. After several minutes, a lady walks up. No thanks. I wanted the GM, not a person that I have dealt with before that does nothing about the situation. The GM just happened to be walking by at that particular moment, so I just walked away from both of them, saying I would rather speak to this gentleman.

What happened next was interesting if nothing else. I told him about this attendant scanning every single item of a customer's purchases - at a SELF checkout station - while totally ignoring everyone else. We communicated for a short time and then he called the attendant over. I stood there and listened to this woman lying, I mean, it was too much for me to stand there and just listen to it.

What I totally forgot during this exchange was what got me going in the first place: This attendant speaking out loudly who has the alcohol and her 3 visits to my checkout station demanding that I rescan the beer.

I do trust that the GM has taken care of this woman's problem with honesty - I have seen him in action before, but - I will be contacting them again about this situation with her speaking up loud enough to make it known to everyone about the alcohol that allegedly didn't scan.

My problem with customer service in these modern times is just that: modern times has turned customer service more into a pile of s*** than anything remotely considered service. This does not apply to all companies, of course. In this case, it doesn't apply to everyone in the store, but - it applies to at least a handful of them working at the same store.

Well, whatever. I write about the things that happen in a day - this was one of them. Good things happened today too.

Regardless, I am done with this post.

ben

Monday

I just wrote an entire entry to KCL - it disappeared into cyberspace.
So much for that. I couldn't find the place that might have it saved, so, I gave up on the thing and came back over here.

I never like re-writing things that I have already written. The only version of that that might happen is copying it and pasting it on another blogsite.

So, since I wrote about everything, I haven't much to say today.
G'day
ben

111 Degrees

I have spent most of the afternoon in the heat.
It's amazing what the human body can get used to.
It actually started feeling cool with so much sweat seeping out of my body.
Gross? Maybe, but it was a solitude I needed. The dogs couldn't handle it - they went inside and left me alone. lol.
I got a lot accomplished out there, so I'm happy about that.
It took me back to my teenaged years when I would sit and bake in the sun during extreme heat days and think nothing of it.

My head is really screwed up today. I can only refer back to Ken's interference with my sleep last night. Sleep is almost a sacred thing - don't mess with it unless there is an emergency. Leave people alone, respect the fact that they are sleeping. I have tried to teach that to my son and all the kids that have stayed over here over the years. I do not allow one kid to wake up another when they are here. I have done that for a long, long time. I may have a different view of sleep and people sleeping than others, I don't know as I have no context for it. I just feel that if someone is sleeping - but others are awake - and that person is sleeping in their own bed - then everyone should stay away from that person and if they find "some" reason to go into their sleeping "space", they should be as quiet as possible.

My apparent obsession with it is simply due to the fact that I have sleep issues. I go to sleep easily, I do not stay asleep easily. I do not want anyone bothering me when I am sleeping, because there are many nights when I get precious little of it. I know, over and over and over, the feeling of going to work after getting only 4 or 5 hours of sleep. It's not a pleasant thing to have to face in the morning. I have to force myself to put on a smile and have a good attitude. When the work day is over, and on a night like that, I come home and take a nap.

And then I go outside and work. I will not succumb to making excuses for not doing anything around the house because I am tired from the night before. Oh yes, I have Ambien. It works, too. I can take it and sleep through the night. I HATE taking pills. Absolutely hate it. I have a bottle of it - almost full - that I haven't touched in months. I found an alternative that is still taking pills, but it isn't a sleeping pill: ibuprofen. It has a profound effect of making me sleepy. It doesn't always work, and I only take one 200 milligram pill, but it works more often than not.

I came in here for a reason - yes - a glass of ice water.
It's STILL 110 degrees out there at almost 6:00 pm.
C'ya later.
ben

Moving On..............

............from that rather dire last post, I have finally figured out what happened to my printer. Canon printers - at least this one - give out a blinking light code to tell you what is wrong with it.

Mine was blinking an orange light 7 times and then green.

Upon searching the internet, I found a forum where someone had posted the same problem with the 7 blinking lights. An individual who apparently knows all about this stuff came back and said it's a "carriage" problem and that something is not aligning right inside of the carriage.

Nice. I started to inspect the printer. It was cracked in several places and some fo the plastic was broken. It has obviously been dropped on the floor. Because it happened several weeks ago, I can't go back to video surveillance to find out exactly who did this little deal. A simple apology goes a long way with me......

So, I consider the printer trashed. Which sucks because I just had all the cartridges refilled on it. I found another one of the same brand and model on Craigslist and have made an offer on it. A cheap offer, yes, it's an old printer. You can buy a new one for $40 - a cheap printer no doubt, but I don't need anything fancy. So, I figure a printer that old isn't worth more than maybe $15 at most. I just want to try to find another one because of the ink factor. The printer actually does a great job - even color pics turn out pretty good.

Anyway, I'm trying to get some things done before my dad gets "here" - he's going to call me at the restaurant when they arrive, it's only 2 miles from my house. Laundry was first on the list, of course.

Anyway, now that I know what's wrong with the thing - printer that is - I can at least move in some direction with trying to do something about getting another one in here.

Not a great priority - excepting when I need to print out notices. Which I would like to do - right now actually.
Guess I'll write one up and print it out at work.
C'ya later.
ben

Fuming Freakin' MAD

I went to bed at the same time I pretty much always go to bed last night: at 9:00pm. I get tired, it's my normal routine. I have no reason to want to stay up late - though sometimes I'm watching what I consider to be a good movie, I might stay up to watch that.

Sleeping pretty good. 2:00am. Something causes me to wake up. My bedroom door has been opened and there's someone there, I can make out in the darkness (I like to slee in as dark a room as possible) someone moving their hand along the wall trying to find the light switch.

Brain matter finally kicks in, what the bleep is THIS? I bolted upright, yelled out WHO IS IT!!! fiddle with my nightstand lamp. It's Ken. I'm yelling at this point, I have no clue what he's doing in my room, but the fact that I have just been awakened like that and the fact that he's IN my room has me ready to defend myself, whatever may come. WHY ARE YOU IN MY ROOM? I'm getting up, I'm ready to throw blows. That's the only thing that was going throw my mind - whatever this guy is doing in my bedroom, he shouldn't be in here.

Then I get to looking at him. He's plastered, falling down drunk, can't talk straight. This time I told him to get the F*** out of my room. I HATE that word, I'm telling you, I do, but at that point in time, it was the word that came out with force.

I start hearing this sob story. He went to a bar with karoake. He says he got a taxi home, says "I know I still have money, but I can't find it, can I borrow $20 - the taxi guy is getting mad at me".
I was already FUMING mad at him. I'm STILL mad and ti's 5 and a half hours later. Some level of normalcy kicked into my head, I'm thinking: "Get this guy out of my room, get up, get money, pay the taxi guy, I'll deal with this tomorrow". In the state of mind I was in last night, dealing with him would have gotten very ugly. It won't be much prettier today, but at least the element of physical violence won't be in the mix.

I tell him to get out. Got up, did exactly what I thought to do. Went outside, paid the dude, Ken starts in on his sob story. I flat told him to shut the bleep up, I don't want to hear it, walked into my bedroom - and actually fell right back to sleep!

That's what REALLY amazed me. I spent maybe 2 minutes thinking about the s*** that just unfolded, I must have been really tired, because my lights blinked right back out and I was in dreamland again as if nothing had ever happened.

But, the anger washed over me again this morning directly after I woke up, took care of the dogs and started thinking about what happened last night. The anger is mostly a man who thinks he can just waltz right into my room at 2 o'clock in the morning and wake up a man that is literally dead asleep. I'm telling you, I came very, very close to just landing a blow right in the center of his nose last night.

You simply do NOT wake a person up like that. Throughout my life, on the few occasions when someone has done that, for whatever reason, I get violently angry. I have no logical explanation for it - but there is something about being clicked out of a deep sleep in that manner that arouses the fury within. On the other occasions when someone has woken me up - but did it in a normal way, I might still be a little irritated - my brain must just like sleep mode and apparently doesn't like being messed with while it's in it.

The rest of the anger is the fact that he JUST got paid and now he's broke for almost 2 full weeks? Yes, he paid the rent, thankfully. And yes, I went and looked, he did buy some food. But, the man is living like he's still 16 in high school. He drank one of those mini kegs of Heineken in less than 24 hours time plus a bunch of cans of Budweiser. Yesterday afternoon, he was so drunk, he was singing in his bedroom at the top of his voice. I was pounding on his bedroom door - I will not tolerate that kind of disruption in my house regardless of what time of day it is. He didn't answer. He had his headphones on and was blasting the music. I went to the circuit breaker board, flipped the switch - THAT got his attention.

Today is ultimatum time. I can ill afford to get rid of yet another tenant - but - I will NOT tolerate a person living in my home like this. He will be on notice. If his behavior does not change - and I doubt it will but I will give the benefit of a doubt anyway - I will evict him. Actually, I may just go ahead and issue the 30-day notice - THAT will definitely put him on notice. He behavior will either change or he will just plain go, why bother waiting? Get the notice period done and over with, 30 days is long enough to determine whether he will listen or not. The man has a serious drinking problem and probably needs to check himself into a rehab center somewhere.

It's pretty much soured my day and it's only just started. I am meeting up with dad and Millie - his wife - at noon at the Claim Jumper's Steakhouse. They are driving through afer spending a week at an annual minister's conference. I'm hoping to get my head out of this funk and into a better mood and atmosphere by then. I figure to go outside here pretty quick and start doing some yard work - get some energy out. The only problem is that I still have to deal with this guy, which will just set me off again. Chances are pretty good that he's going to sleep a good portion if not all of the morning after getting home so late and being so friggin' drunk, but who knows. One thing's for certain, this thing is not just going to "slide".
ben

The Prices Went Down

...........and so I will be going over there this morning.
It's the nursery that is going out of business. Of course - figure if you wait long enough, they will just start dumping the stuff. Wait TOO long and there won't be anything good left.
Anyway, they changed their CL ad and it is showing plants for $1 and $2 a piece. They open at 7:00 am, I expect to be there at - 7:00am. Lol.

It dawned on me this morning why I am having trouble getting the feel for KCL as "home". I won't be commenting on the reason on this or any other blog so as not to start trouble - as I apparently did when I posted my first post over there. I'll keep it to myself, but definitely, I have identified the problem I have with it. Nothing terribly bad, but - enough to make me feel uncomfortable. I will continue to post over there, but - this is still my home here.

It's 6:00am and it's 89 degrees out. The high today? Supposed to get up to 109. That's not a typo, One Hundred and Nine Degrees. I imagine this afternoon I will be spending quality time - indoors. Tomorrow's high is expected to be 104, which is a little more tolerable.

Michael threw Duke out yesterday and left him out there by putting the doggy door block in place. I rebuked him sternly for such stupidity. It was 106 outside and it was humid (by our standards). It was HOT. Large dogs simply cannot handle the heat well. He was mad because Duke ate his sandwich off the counter. Find some other way to discipline him, throwing him out in this kind of heat and leaving him out there for hours is TOTALLY unacceptable. I got mad, to say the least, for his lack of concern for the dog's well being. Duke's head, while standing up, is above counter level, btw, making food on counters easy target. I do not allow the dogs in the kitchen when there is food being prepared. It's a simple matter of telling them to get out.

Anyway. I'm going to do some very slow watering on several plants today that simply don't get enough water, apparently, when I am filling up their basin and fill it up again. Namely, the Honeysuckles and the vines. Every day I come home and they are drooping. 15 minutes after watering them they are standing straight up again. Today is going to be too hot to have that happening, so - I'm going out there in a few minutes just before I leave for east Mesa to the nursery and start that process.

North Korea is continuing to spurt out rhetoric like Old Faithful in a spouting session. Now it's accusing Japan of spying with surveillance planes. Duhhhhhh. Is this some sort of secret? Of course there is satellite imagery - which is probably as good as is needed really, but - I have never had any doubts that there are drone planes flying over all kinds of regions across the world taking snapshots or even video of whatever they want it to look at. N Korea appears to be intent on starting a war with - whoever - for - what reason? It doesn't appear that even China is backing them up on this round of bs. I've also been eyeing the news for any reports on the Airbus and it's black boxes - I guess they haven't found them yet and I think the window of opportunity is almost up. However, investigators are now looking into reports of problems with other Airbus's that may be the same problem that the doomed Air France plane encountered with the plane's speed sensors failing, auto pilot and auto-thrust failing and basically - a lame duck flying through the air.

If any of that is true, well, I do believe there are a LOT of Airbuses flying around all over the place, the implications are far-reaching and quite serious. What if they determine to ground the planes until the problem is resolved? I haven't read that they are considering any such thing, just speculation on my part. The financial implications would be huge.

Anyway, I have to get out of here.
C'yall later!
ben

Friday

Morning
Caleb was returned safely home yesterday by my mother from his mountain trip.
I thought it good for him to spend some time with grandma.
He said they went for hikes, checked out local views, and worked.
Grandma's treat for all the hard work was a trip to a "killer"/local steakhouse.
My son is a big fan of a nice, thick juicy steak.
I just happen to have some left from those that I bought the other day.

The unknown element of just exactly how long you are or are not going to live was certainly demonstrated well by the death of MJ. There are numerous days I start out thinking that exact thing: this could be the last day of my life. It isn't a morbid though, or something to engage fear, just simply a message to myself to live life to it's fullest - whatever that capacity may be for that given day. MJ certainly wasn't old by my standards.

Last night, I was having nightmares and woke up in the midst of it an identified what most Christians will understand as an attack from the enemy. I immediately began praying and seeking the Lord - God is greater than the enemy and I find I need not toil in some sort of warfare when I realize - at least as much as my puny little brain can fathom it - who God IS and who satan is NOT. These kinds of words normally invoke the thoughts of "fanatical religious person" in the minds of certain readers who think such talk is jibberish.

Think it as it may, I have lived most of my adult life with such beliefs and I have SEEN such with my own eyes, which really is all I need for any evidence to support such. After all, I only need to prove to myself the existence of God and the idea that the Bible IS the truth, whether anyone wants to believe that or not - and certainly there are PLENTY of naysayers out there. A person's lack of belief does not affect my firm belief in many precepts and thoughts that are to be found in the Christian realm of faith.

Now, my life has not exactly exuberated the life of Christ in recent years - my doings in making excuses because of the aftermath of divorce. Certainly some extreme aftermath, but life eventually goes on (or not, such as evidenced by MJ's extreme departure from this earthly existence). In the end, my excuses fall to the floor and became useless wastes of thought and word that produce nothing good.

Regardless, this morning has not started out well for me, so I took a few minutes to stop and get my mind in some sort of synch. I also cannot continue with this entry as things have started popping and I must get moving.
Have a great day!
ben

Wednesday - More

More? Yes, I posted on KCL already.
But - I went outside after writing that and noticed plants that I had just watered yesterday -- wilting.
I MUST get a drip system in. I WISH I could afford to do so. Even at the cheap amount of money it would cost to do such a thing - just out of the question. Or not. I haven't really decided yet - but probably, you will read an entry soon that says something about my buying the parts of the system and then going on to install it.

It's not just about saving the plants, it's also about effective watering. Lots of water can be wasted in trying to water as much as I am trying to do in a short period of time. A drip system is simply turned on, the emitters place the water wherever you have predetermined it to drip at - the water goes to the root system instead of all over the place.

Fry's is having an awesome sale this week on all kinds of stuff - the 10 for thing. You buy 10 of any single item and the price is GREATLY reduced. BUT - for those that carefully read the ad - you can MIX and MATCH. You can buy 10 of anything that is on that particular sale. If you go over 10? You'd better go from 10 to 20, because it only works in 10's. Kudos to Fry's today as well - my visit there was nice and I had no complaints. In fact, I'll just copy and paste a portion of the entry from KCL over here.

""""""""OH, and I made a trip to Fry’s today. Exuberant? Yes, actually! I think every single employee in that place knows me now (not personally of course, I just go in there quite frequently). They always wave at me - a lot of them anyway - and say hi. I’m totally serious. The store manager - really he’s a pretty cool guy - saw me and said hello, how ya doing? I’m good, thanks, how are you? I moved on as I wasn’t finished shopping, but I was amazed at the pleasantries being offered all over the place by fully half a dozen different employees. It’s amazing because of the complaints I’ve made against the place. BUT, they have all been legitimate complaints - I don’t complain against companies until/if/unless/when they do something that isn’t right.

I have not complained about the store manager, though. He is very pro-active and I do believe he demands extremely good customer service out of all of his employees - which would be everyone working the store of course. As a regular customer - and one who spends a lot of money at that particular store - I WANT good service. Well, I want good service anywhere, whether it’s my first visit or my 1,000th. Anyway, he magically appeared at the checkout I was at and actually initiated a conversation. He even remembered what we were talking about the last time I axed him a question (sorry, I hear that word pronounced that way in my house all the time, I just HAD to type it that way! LOL!) - which was -umm this weekend? about the ribeye on sale. Anyway, I was determined today to make a good trip out of it regardless of what happened, and it was so.

Now, when I checked out, paid for everything, and looked at my receipt - and proceeded to head to the back of the store to the meat department, well, he also magically appeared near there. But I wasn’t complaining - I just picked up the wrong package of brats - the brand that was not on sale.

I know, sounds corny - a good trip to a grocery store, but - I have had a lot of bad trips to grocery stores compliments to poor customer service and most certainly not only at Fry’s. But I won’t go into my trip to Safeway the other day and the people behind the counter ignoring me standing there and when I finally asked, they tell me I would have to wait (NO other customers were at the counter!) and that I got the store’s general manager to serve me - oh, well I sorta went into that, didn’t I? - cause I don’t stand for pissy customer service. """""""""""

It's still quite hot outside right now and I'm going to wait to do anything else out there. The vulnerable plants are watered, I planted another plant - I just want to haul more rocks out front. Good exercise and I love working around my house - I just don't love the feeling that my brains are frying and my skin is turning into cooked bacon.

Have a great evening!
ben

Tuesday

In terms of deliveries, very slow day at work.
I kept myself busy by shuffling C-900 water pipe around. It has been sitting there a while and is starting to burn. The AZ sun will burn pipe quickly. Covering it up doesn't help much, either, heat accumulates even worse. The only thing I can do to try and save it is to keep turning it around - let it get tan all over instead of black on one side. I had a few pickups to do as well.



That's Prince. He lays like this all the time - or in even stranger positions. I posted that particular picture to the Arizona's Top Pet contest just a few minutes ago. Duke is also in the contest, but I think this pic of Prince might have a better chance. I'm in it for the money, no doubting it at all. Why not? The only thing lost if I don't win is a few minutes taking some photos, uploading them to my computer and then uploading them to the radio station's site for everyone to see. Voting starts next month, of course I will be posting the link to vote and hope everyone will go and vote for Prince or Duke!! Lol. The winner of the competition gets $1,500.

They think tomorrow will get up to 108. I hope they're wrong. They weren't wrong today, though - at 106 it didn't feel too terribly bad.

Anyway, I have numerous things I need to get done outside - what else is new - and before I start whithering away and don't feel like doing anything, I'm going to hop to it.
ben

Blogs

I'm having trouble, for whatever reason I really can't quite pinpoint, warming up to KCL. It's not the people - I really just can't pinpoint it. I really feel like THIS is my home, to be honest. I've stated it several times: I'm sick of moving around blog to blog, just find one and stay with it. If people come, great, if they don't, the purpose of the daily journal stands. Maybe with time I'll start to getting a feel for KCL and start feeling like it's a home?

I was out working in the rather hot sun this afternoon digging yet more holes. These plants either need to get planted or I need to get rid of them. Leaving them in plastic pots indefinitely isn't doing anything. I have 3 or 4 more plants left to go and it's done. It will cost no more in water to water them in the ground than it has been watering them in the pots - I just had to dig so many holes in that rock-filled soil, I got tired of it and stopped. Not anymore - I had 3 boys out there digging holes today. The funny part about it is - none of them are MY kid! lol. He's up in the mountains with his grandmother.

I'm also filling up the empty pots with rocks and carrying them out front. Figure pretty soon I will have most of the bare surfaces covered. The situation in front of the front wall next to the sidewalk has me a little perplexed. Mary wanted to get pavers and fill that area up with those after finding out that plants simply do not grow, for whatever reason, in that patch of soil. So, I bought the pavers from a friend of the next door neighbor. They told me they would be sand-colored, instead, they are an ugly reddish color. Mary started on that project and then I picked up on it - but - I do not like the look of it.

What I had wondered is why we just didn't do the same thing there that we did with the whole front yard - just haul rocks from the back to the front and have the same theme there? Perhaps put some lawn style ornaments in there to spruce it up and it's done? Well, I discontinued that project. I was going to buy more sand to put in there for the pavers, but I do not believe I will like the end result. No, I think I will sell those pavers on Craigslist and just start hauling rocks out there as well. Okay, the drawback is that I will have to start digging in the dirt to unearth more of the rocks, though there are still quite a few laying around that can be picked up and get a very good start on that project - but only after I finish the front yard first.

Ummmm - well anyway. Just a particular person around here helping himself to various people's things --......---
G'nite!
ben

Monday/Morning

Caleb left early this morning, even earlier than I get out of bed.
Where was he going?
With my mother up to her property for the week.
I was all for it - she needs some help up there and undoubtedly, she will put him to work. I do hope, however, if it gets carried away, that she gives him a little something for the effort. I know she has fencing to repair and a lot of cleanup since last year's pine needles and weeds and whatever have popped up.

As for what the boys do while I'm working away all over the place around my house - whatever I tell them to. Really. Michael used to get pissy about it, but now he just does whatever I ask him to. Caleb never says a word. I have them cleaning up the dog dung frequently at this point. I also get them vacuuming the entire house, taking out the trash, just various "mundane"/daily chores like that.

However, I gave Caleb a break this weekend because I know his grandma's gonna make him slave away up there - again I think it's a good thing. Michael has not been around this entire weekend. He left before I got home on Friday and came back last night after I went to bed. The "extreme" motivator in getting them to do anything is a simple threat: buh-bye to the Playstation III. I haven't actually had to DO that yet, though I have pulled the plug on my computer several times.

I have 5 plants left to plant that I acquired from the auction last year. I have 2 more holes started and filled them again this morning with water. By the time I get home from work today, they should be good to dig the rest of the way out. However, digging holes in 106 degree temp doesn't exactly sound alluring.

And with that decree - high temps - comes high electric usage and I am fretting this one big-time. Financial things aren't exactly rosy right now and facing $400 plus per month electric bills is hardly a thing I am looking forward to. The lady tenant is drying all of her laundry on the clotheslines - as am I - Ken waits until today - Monday mornings usually - when I am gone at work - to do his laundry and dry it in the dryer. The newest addition I have no clue - yet. I'll be checking video surveillance to see what he does. He's a pretty good guy - and clean too - but hanging clothes on a laundry line is not on some people's list of priorities to do.

All fine and well, but if I find they are doing laundry in the middle of the day during the hottest part of the day, the dryer is going to mysteriously stop working during the week. Actually, it ISN'T all fine and well, but I can't force anyone to do anything. Only getting rid of them and getting new tenants that will comply will take care of that problem. Won't be doing that, either.

Well, I'm at work and the work day is about to begin - have a great day!
ben

Sunday/Father's Day

Well, I've spent more time working around here today than not- which was not really on the agenda. Considering it's Father's Day, I figured to laze around watching movies.
So, yes, I've watched one movie and am into the second one, but - I've pulled out a tree; dug 2 more holes for plants; finished another hole and planted another plant; watered everything; done several loads of laundry; almost finished cleaning my room and my bathroom plus vacuumed the living room and hallway. Oh, and I didn't cheat: all laundry has been hung outside to dry, and considering the temps out there, it hasn't taken long for anything to turn as hot as it might if you turn the dryer off before the cool-down cycle.

I haven't decided whether I'm done for the day or not - but I definitely have to at least take down the last load of laundry on the lines and finish cleaning my room.

So, it's been this father's day to do the same things around here and more that I normally do on any given weekend.

I'm not complaining. Well, cep't removing that tree. It was the pine tree I got from Karen's place. It didn't survive and only when the whole tree started turning brown did I believe it was totally dead, beyond resuscitation. The needles on it were stuff and stuck into my skin/pants and skin/shirt and skin/also leaving small fragments in my flesh. No, that wasn't very much fun at all.

My problem is simple: When I get up to get something done, I get that done and then "remember" something else that has been put on hold that I would like to move along or finish, so I go work on that.

Well that's it. 4th of July weekend looms - what - 2 weeks away? It's not set in stone yet, but we are definitely wanting to meet - the lady and I, that is.

I sent her a photo of myself today.

ben

Saturday

I was sitting here dreaming of going to that nursery that is going out of business to get a few more plants - but - pretty much out of the question. Well, I dunno, maybe a couple at the $5 price wouldn't kill the budget - but what budget is there?
I've done the numbers over and over. Really? I'm still floating. I'm not going to say everything is hunky dory, but with 3 tenants and if my job holds out and they don't cut any more hours - I will survive this. Lots of if's there.

At this point, when a tenant leaves, they leave in their wake this precious element called "time". The time it takes to get a new tenant to take their place is the time that I am not getting that income for the empty room. I would have never thought that I would have to resort to having to have 3 tenants in here. I figured 2 at most. Well, at least - pretty much anyway - most everyone either keeps to themselves or are nice enough people that it doesn't really matter. Of course, I have also even thought about FOUR tenants - but I think that's just out of the question. Take that back - nothing is out of the question if it's the difference between saving the home from foreclosure or not.

Anyway, my next plan is to simply call the mortgage company - and keep calling them, as I do when I have a problem with some service with any company and hope I eventually get the right set of ears listening. I have also entertained the idea of simply applying for my own loan mod. I have been acquiring this data from all of these companies I have been talking to - it sounds to me as if all they are doing is compiling a complete bundle of information about you, your finances, what has happened to your finances, a letter from the homeowner about the hardship - and offering it to the mortgage company.

My doubts about these modification companies is that, though they guarantee you your money back - is the question of whether you actually WILL get your money back if they fail. I don't trust any of them. It isn't going to hurt me to put together my own package. If it fails, it fails - it only cost me time, not 2 grand like all these places want. Besides, mortgage rates are going back up - I could probably still see at least a point and a half or more reduction in the interest rate.

Well, whatever. I'm behind on the mortgage, yes, but not foreclosure amount of time behind is all I can say about that.

I noticed this morning that these Sissoo trees put out pods. Assuming those pods have seeds in them, I will take some of them and see if I can start growing some from seed. I'm expecting that tomorrow, I will basically be taking the day off for Father's day and eating a large, thick juicy steak - of which every single grocery store around here has a huge sale on. Though - Safeway I found has the best deal and I am going to visit them in a little while to get some of that deal. Oh, and don't forget the baked potato and sour cream with that! And a vegetable - and whatever else!

Have a great Saturday!
ben