Wednesday

Tired.
Smoke detector alarm went off again last night around 2:00am - no clue why they're going off, the house isn't burning down and there isn't anything hot or otherwise would cause the things to go off. Takes me a long time to get back to sleep after that much commotion.

Coming home and having to write a new ad for Craigslist every day is getting old, too, but I don't have any choice in the matter. I can use the body of some of the posts I have made previously, but it has to be "different" or CL won't let you post it, it gives you a message saying you already have a post that is very similar to the one that you are trying to post - yada yada yada.

Tired and grumpy? Not really grumpy, but I was quite irritated to come home and find Michael had not gone to school today, saying he had no clean clothes and therefore "couldn't" go to school. What I am QUITE sure it really was is that I had installed LimeWire and he just plain didn't WANT to go to school, opting to stay "home" and download music. That dilemna was quickly abated: I have uninstalled LimeWire and he now knows that staying HERE on a day off for nothing is not going to continue to happen. He can stay HOME and be a lazy ass, not here.

Regardless, he didn't touch the thermostat, so at least that was mitigated. I am setting it up to 87 while I have no tenants in here during the day while I'm at work - the substantial savings is quite appealing. It's 3 or even 4 dollars less per day in electric use. Seriously. No, even more than that. I was having up to $14 per day in electric use, the use now is in the $7 range.

It would be GREATLY helpful if I could find future tenants that have roughly the same hours as I do so this could continue to occur and save me money on electricity - but - I'll take whatever hours versus and empty room and no money coming in.

A lady claiming to be deaf and dumb wrote to my ad I placed with my company email this morning saying she wanted to know if I would deal with a person that cannot speak or hear. I don't know, I've never tried, I would think there would be many challenges to such an arrangement, but a person that can read and write could simply write out what they're trying to say. Imagine - put that person in Mimi's room, they can't hear so the kids could make all the noise they wanted and it wouldn't affect her in the slightest.

But - I wondered if the ad was real or not. It was a short, to the point statement, there was no way to tell if it was a scam or not, so I replied and said I would consider it, please write back. The writing back part is the part that helps me determine if it's scam material or not. I need only get a person talking in email to come to that conclusion.

I have a headache from not getting enough sleep last night and I'm about to go take a short nap. It's still quite early - 2:00pm, I got off early because I was over on hours and I have to do some training after regular work hours at work tomorrow.

Yeah, think I'll take that nap.
ben

Tuesday

I just tried posting to my KCL blog and it just s*** it out into cyberspace, no draft saved, I was signed in and it told me, after I wrote it, I needed to sign in. BLAHHHHH.

I'm here and whatever, I HATE when that happens !!!!!! Wanna turn me into a grouch, just crap my entry into the toilet for no apparent reason and you'll definitely get my gote.

So much to write about, so little motivation now. The blogging juices are stripped of me when the blogging hosts play games.

I'll bypass all the junk on the field today at work and focus on the homefront. You see, my tenants are GONE. ALL of them. I came home today to nothing - there are no people here.

OHHHH, but there are my ever-loving dogs. Barking, whining, growling and making noises of joy when I come home, today was no different. I unlocked the deadbolt to find - an empty house!!! Oh my gosh, I'm in heaven. My gosh, I haven't been in this atmosphere in ages. I am LOVING it! I don't have to listen to people babbling incessantly on the cellphone, hearing complaints about a drunk that is puking in the bathroom and hearing more complaints - about everything else.

Yayyyyyy! Of course, an empty house means an empty bank account. I am not deterred. A day, week, whatever of a house without all kinds of people around will help me more than vacations to a sandy beach on a deserted island. Hmmm, well maybe not quite that good, but you get the gist of what I'm saying. It's like all kinds of stress has been totally deflated from within me and I am feeling a freedom I haven't felt in a while.

Were that I could just live without tenants, but it's not a happening event, especially not now that my hours at work are cut.

I have nothing else because today has been very busy and because it's getting late.

G'nite!
ben

Sunday

What kinds of thoughts permeate your mind when you go to sleep at night?
Do you ever remember any of your dreams - or nightmares?
When you wake up in the morning, what thoughts greet - or terrify - your mind?
Do you live life to it's fullest every single day?
Are there days when you just "let is slide"?
What is your outlook on life? Is it mostly postiive and energetic...
or is it mostly the opposite - full of dread and fear, negativity in it's purest and yet most raw form.
Do you think about your mortality - ever?
Maybe once a day? A week? A month? Never?
Does life seem to you at some points that it will never end and at other points it's done today?

I was exposed to so much death in my teen years - my friends being killed or dying in so many ways: Murder; suicide; deadly illness; car accidents that it really effected the way I look at life. I couldn't really say today an exact number - it was at least 15 people I knew either personally as a close friend, maybe as a friend - not-so-close but we partied together - or a person that hung out in our crowd that I really didn't know (it was a HUGE crowd of people in the different arenas I hung out in, which was fully 3 of them).

I tend to think about any number of the items I listed above on a daily basis - maybe all of them at times. It isn't sordid, it isn't fatalistic, I've seen reality and the reality is, we all die. You can no more bypass that fact than you can that you were, on one day long ago - born into this life and onto this earth. You may not like how life is going right now - but - we all go through that.

I have been through so much adversity in my life that when I see it arise, I start wondering what message is trying to be communicated to me through the event or events that are going on.

I know, you've seen death too. I have never met anyone that has seen as much as I have in my teen years. Never. Those that are still alive are dying off like flies. They aren't very old. Sometimes I start to wonder when the call will come to my doorstep. It's a sobering thought, really.

The reason I fear it is because I would like to be around for my son for a little while. Dying young - or younger - is hardly my idea of a fulfilling life it if means your offspring growing up without you being around. It is played over and over again every day in real life, but I don't accept that it MUST be my fate.

I did bad things in my teens. I hung around bad people. One crowd was a bunch of bikers - with guns - with attitudes. They were REAL bad-@$$es, I'm not going to deny it. Will it catch up to me in the form of an early demise someday? I can't answer that question, only God can do that. He's the Judge and His word is final. I have tried to live the life I thought He wanted me to live - but I have had so many short-comings and failings, things that have permeated my life since I was a kid and that I have never been able to shake. Sometimes I look in the mirror and see a gross, pathetic, foul and vile human being in the image.

But - I don't hate myself. We all have these little "demons" in our lives that we have to deal with. How we deal with it? I don't want to know, because that is usually a very personal and intimate thing. It may not be dealt with. It might be that we have stuff that we will never be able to shed. This thing calledl life is a rough road. There are lots of potholes and sometimes we find they are giant crevass's that need a crane truck to pull you out of and get you back on your merry way.

I have gone through the myriad of these thoughts today. I think about all of those people, most of them are dead. This isn't one or 2 people, or a dozen, or dozens, this is hundreds of people. I think of the mind diversions I can do to not think about it and make it go away. We all do that. I've never met a person that I got to know that didn't have something from the past that is haunting them.

The only conclusion I can come to is that I am striving in my life to "love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul and stregth" - because, in the end, I have concluded, there is nothing else. There is family, there are friends, there are a lot of things, but - the source of life is the Lord. I cling to that as I have nothing else - been there, done that, bought the farm.
ben

First Room Rented!~!

Yayyyy! I wrote about this in the other blog - but it's enough news to write about in both - if you happen to read both blogs, not much difference in either of these posts, EXCEPT something I'm adding to this one I forgot to include on the last one.

That would be the issue of female tenants. I love the female said of the human equation, no doubting that. BUT - living with them is an entirely different matter. I have had nothing but problems with females - excepting Rosa - since I started doing this stuff. I really would far rather just rent to guys and keep it that way if at all possible. I'm not saying I WON'T rent to another female - when it comes down to the dollar bills and surviving, I'll do whatever I have to.

I can say that Mary was half nightmare-half dream. The work she did around here will have a permanent effect - the landscaping in the front and other things she did was fantastic. I'll take my hat off to her for that. Of course, smoking meth in the house didn't quite work out too well for me............

The Pole-Dancer was another - not-so-great-dream. No need to go into that, but another drug user and pot smoker.

Sheila, the first-ever tenant I had in this house and lasted all of 7 days before I had to have Phoenix Police remove her. Betsy - who just couldn't handle living with the boys in here. She was okay, though, she just couldn't bear it (not withstanding the fact that she has appeared, out of the blue, fully 3 times now looking for a place to live).

Where the rubber meets the road is money, and for that, if I have to take another female tenant, I will certainly spend a good deal of time attempting to explain EXACTLY what goes on around here to the fullest extent so that person can make an informed decision. Again, I ALWAYS say that if they don't like it, they can just up and leave, no questions asked, no trouble, just a deal that didn't work out too well.

I need to run another ad today, but I am kinda of phased at the moment. Meeting new people to move in sometimes temporarily takes it out of me. The wind comes back later on in the day, the effort needed to greet, meet and discuss whatever at great lengths is enough for one morning, plus all the cleaning I did earlier today, plus the dogs meeting each other. Oh, well the morning only has 75 minutes left in it, anyway.

The rest of the day? I thought about just taking it easy. It's going to get hot outside and I won't want to do anything with the drip system, but perhaps later on I can start putting PVC together for the manifold. I actually don't think it will take all the long to put the manifold together, to be honest. I am running 3 stations off of it to begin with, but I will probably end up with a 4th later on. It's just that that sitation is in the direct sunlight and I don't have to have one of those large umbrella type table awnings to keep it off of me - the sun that is.

That's it - and that's enough for now.

Hoping you're all have a great day (or evening depending on where you're at!)!

ben

Blabbing Away

The good mood is giving way to sleepiness - which is a good thing.

I'm just staying awake late enough to hopefully get a good night's sleep.
Pete has been lamenting all day about his desire to not leave. He dreads Boston winters.
I have to wonder if his employer - United Airlines - is going to make it through this recession. I hope it does, obviously, the more companies that go under, the harder it is going to be for people to find jobs when the recession IS over.

I didn't do so well in the diet department today. I was doing good until Pete decided to buy pizza. I rarely buy the stuff because of the unbelievable amounts of calories in it, but, I couldn't resist. I ate 4 slices of it. That's somewhere between 1,200 and 1,500 calories worth.

But - in considering dieting - I don't beat myself up for a "bad" day. I just move on with it, there are always going to be days when you pretty much failed and - so what. The point is that I probably consumed about 3,000 calories today - which is FAR more than I have been for any given day in the last several weeks now.

I'm going to bed soon. I have to get up early - which I do anyway so it's really not like it's hard - but I want the place clean when this potential renter comes over in the morning. It will be nice looking and nice smelling in here - like a freshly cleaned home smells.

And when everyone's gone, I'm going to clean the carpets in the entire house. I was going to pay someone to come do it, but that much carpet would cost a fortune to clean. I'll just get a bigger machine that can cover more ground in a shorter time and do all 5 bedrooms plus the hallway and the living room.

Ummm, okay, fatigue just sent in and I think I'm finally ready to go fall asleep.
C'yall tomorrow/Ava G'nite!
ben

Friday

The weekend is here!
I shouldn't say finally, so I won't.
I've been feeling in a very good mood all day long, which is something spectacular considering the last 2 nights I haven't slept very well, which usually makes me grouchy and irritable, especially by this hour of the day.

This week's events have been interesting. It started last weekend with finding Ken unconscious in his room and his evolved into a daily calling the hospital, finding out any progress.

It took on new twists as I have dealt with trying to cover the loss of 3 tenants all at once - well certainly 2 for sure. Tomorrow, when I call the hospital again, I am going to ask about the expected recovery time. These people do this stuff every day, they should be able to give a ball park.

I have talked with an individual that is allegedly coming over tomorrow to take a look at one of the rooms. I ALWAYS say allegedly or something similar simply because you never know if they are actually going to show up.

Now? I am going to head outside and to my copper array that I installed last weekend and think about starting out on the pvc portion of getting this drip system installed. Just takealookatit.

I just got done watching Whale Wars. In this episode, they Sea Shepherd and it's crew are exposed to a full-fledged harpooning of a whale and it's caught on camera. They see fully 3 whales killed and brought to the harvesting ship. They showed a blurp from next Friday's episode - it looks like they actually are going to ram the factory boat!! Wow!!

One ship against that many cannot possibly expect to stop the harvesting of whales. They need to come up with a new plan and from what I can see, they need to get their own water cannons and that sound thing that causes extreme discomfort at anyone you aim it at. And new strategies. I can imagine the cost of such an operation immense even if they are volunteers. I'm not totally against whaling - but I am against the harvesting of any endangered animal/mammal. I mean, I tend to look at it not unlike the slaughtering of cows, chickens and pigs. Cept' I think the whales they are harvesting ARE on the endangered species list or certainly their populations are down significantly.

Lots to do. Lots. I have to get the house cleaned up tomorrow morning for the potential new tenant's arrival. I usually start doing that on Saturdays, anymore, anyway. Not that much to do - clean the vinyl/wipe everything down/vacuum. A good hour and it's done. I'll be up early doing that as it takes priority over installing a drip system that is costing money, not bringing IN money. Mimi is out of here tomorrow. That room will be empty. Ken's room is for all intents and purposes empty and Pete's room will be empty as of Monday evening. So, in 3 days, the house is emptied of tenants.

Next? Move on. Stay strong, fear not, get on with the program. I will get new tenants and I will get the income I need.

And for that, I'm outta here, as I want to look at that situation JUST before it gets too dark to see anything.

C'ya tomorrow (Lord willing, of course) and G'nite!
ben

Thursday

I bought most of the rest of the stuff I need to install the drip system today. I figured while I have the money, get it, especially considering I have already started the project and am well into the nuts and bolts of it.
Set me back a bit, but nothing like what the price tag would have been - almost $300 list.
I could not get anything close to the money I'm paying for this stuff without employee discount at work, anywhere. Employee discount is cost with a 6% bump that corporate automatically adds to any and all orders.

Rained - lightly - most of the day today. Sky was overcast all day long. So, when I got home, took a short nap and went out front to pull some weeds........and THEN, the sun decides to come out! Pleeeeeeease. I pulled out the weeds anyway, regardless of nature's desire to cook my back with glaring sun while doing it.

Tomorrow - Friday/payday/end of work week. I'm hoping to get more done on the drip system this weekend now that I have passed the copper intallation hindrance. Temps are going to be hot - but not excessively so. I can do some stuff in the mornings if nothing else.

Ken - the tenant living here that was found unconscious - has finally underwent surgery. I called the hospital a while ago and they said he had JUST gotten out of surgery, please call back in an hour as they were busy with dealing with him and the doc was still present in the room and wanted the nurse that I was speaking with for whatever reason. Well, finally, we'll get some idea of what his long-term prognosis will be.

I'm facing some stuff right now with tenants leaving that is a little more than I want to deal with, but life goes on. I realized today Ken is actually paid up through the rest of the month, so I am doing nothing about that until his rent is past-due.

I don't have a lot of time here as there is too much to get done today, but definitely wanted to update my blog.
Have a great day/night/life!
lol
ben

Wednesday

Well, the work week is half over, though I only started it yesterday. Tomorrow is payday - and a bit of a repeat from my other blog - the tenant who is being relocated to Boston for work - paid me today for an entire month's worth of rent!

Today's trucking entry brought to you by an idiot driver.

I was driving on a 2-lane highway going 65 MPH - that is the speed limit on that highway. A mini-van came up from a side road. I watch for stuff like this because people do incredibly dangerous and stupid stuff out there. I was about 500 feet from this side road when I saw the van. I was probably 300 feet from that road when this moron pulls out. He takes his sweet old time turning left from his road - to right in front of me.

I'm involved in getting the truck slowed from 65 - to - 35. This person took their sweet old time getting moving as well. Sitting at 45mph on a 65mph road with traffic stuck behind me and I'm stuck behind this guy - not very happy either - I finally see an opportunity to pass. I get beside this guy - and he speeds up! Suddenly, he's going 65mph!! I would have EASILY passed this guy going as slow as he was going.

Well, I have to shut it down - traffic was approaching me and I hit the brakes hard and got back behind him, now I'm starting to fume. This guy did all of this on purpose, apparenlty: pulling out in front of me; going 20 mph less than the speed limit; speeding up after I got into oncoming traffic lane to pass.

Another car that had pulled out before this guy did from the same road - and now going the same direction, was going 50 mph on this highway. We - the van; my semi and a ton of traffic behind me - caught up to this car. Another opportunity arose to pass BOTH the van and the car. The van was on the car's tail. And that I did. When I got beside the van, I saw a balding man in his early 50's with a huge smirk on his face. I decided I better let this one alone, losing my job because I got mad at some damned idiot isn't worth it.

Onto other things. I got on the scale at work at the main branch for the first time since last week. I am down to 197 pounds! Well, I started this diet at 206 pounds, so in less than a month I've lost 9 pounds just by eating smaller portions, eating slower and not eating so late, plus trying to eliminate fat/junk food? Not bad.
I'm drinking a LOT of water as well. Ice water to be exact. Hardly a chore for me, I love ice water especially in the summer. That was very encouraging to see on that scale today - I got on it with a bit of trepidation, wondering after all that has happened since I last weighed on Wednesday of last week, if I hadn't gained my small losses back.

Whatever. I'm dealing with the pressure of trying to get roommates in here and it's been a bit difficult to face it, but Pete handing me a full month's rent today after we had already agreed I would just keep his security deposit and leave it at that? Gave me a lease on time. I will have no more tenant money coming in now until I find more tenants. But - Pete's was a full month's rent, that helps immensely. Ken - well, he wouldn't pay me again until next Friday. Obviously that isn't going to happen and Mimi is outta here, so she stated, on Saturday.

I'm hoping they get Ken's surgery done soon so the docs can give a good statement of how long it's going to take for him to recover and really, when I should land the bomb on the family to come get his stuff. I may be wrong, but I don't really think he's going to be self-sufficient for quite a while, much less be able to go back to work and hold down a job.

I'm treading through summer. I'm looking forward to cooler days which will cause me to want to start exercising again. I'm looking forward to a lot of things. Dunno if I'll ever get - there. Life is pretty strange stuff - the old saying always applies: enjoy it while you have it.

G'nite folks.
ben

Whoda Thought?

........that anything good would come out of this situation with my roommate Ken and his unbelievable, nightmarish condition in the brain and all of the crap he's going through.

We had to go to Facebook to find his family the day I found him passed out on the floor. I mean, we called 911 first and got him on his way to the hospital, of course, but after that, we HAD to find family so they could deal with this and make whatever decisions necessary about what was going to happen with him.

I have had a Facebook account for some time now - and have done absolutely nothing with it. I couldn't even remember my password to get on there, my other roommate ended up doing so, left my phone number as a message with one of Ken's family members that we found and she called me a little while later asking what's going on.

So, my middle brother sent me a friendship request a while back for Facebook. I ignored it, what's Facebook all about, anyway? Didn't understand the format, all looked like a bunch of gibberish to me. Well, after getting on Facebook and getting on Ken's Facebook account and leaving a message to his friends about what happened to Ken, I then found my brother on there - and - walaah, we are actually talking again! Well, I had to accept his friendship request first, of course, but now we are communicating - even though it isn't a LOT of communication - more than I ever talk to him, like in an entire year!

I wonder how many other people are on that site that I know and haven't seen in ages? Maybe none, but - who knows.

I'm just cruising along here, desperately trying to get anyone in here to look at a room to rent it out. I have had several bites, but no-one actually showing up yet. Considering I have 3 rooms to rent, this could turn into an ordeal. I thought for sure that guy would show up today that I spoke with yesterday, but - another CL no-show. Brush it off and write another ad? Already done! I'll give it a week, if I don't have someone in here within a few days after the first one is gone, I'll go to a pay service and try that as well.

I will also try different wording on my posts - sometimes it's all about how you come across to people in what you are writing. I read a lot of other people's ads - but so far haven't resorted to writing almost nothing about the place, instead, I prefer to write about the living conditions here -- nothing negative just a descriptor of the place, and anything else that is pertinent. Personally, I would rather eliminate people coming here that find out something that they don't want to deal with or don't like and then show the room for nothing.

But, since it's free, a short, non-ad (that's what I call them) is worth a try. It's all about my location, I know that, I just have to keep the ad up there for the right people to find it when they are looking.

Anyway, that's a short but sweet entry for this blog for the day.

G'nite and sleep tight (or have a great day for those of you on the other side of the world!)
ben

Final

Ken has been diagnosed, after all kinds of tests, with something different than their original diagnosis. Arteriovenous malformation is the name of the condition, it's congenital and it's a complicated explanation of what it is, I'm not even going to try. I looked it up online and that was enough for me.

I finished the copper project today on the last day of my staycation. The rest of what has to be done for the drip system - well I have never done any of it, so though I don't think it's going to be terribly difficult, it may take time to figure it all out. Getting the copper portion of this thing done was a big hurdle to cross for me and I'm just happy to have gotten beyond it.

I have a guy coming over tomorrow to takealookit a room. Will he show? Who knows, but he works in this area - a FedEx driver to be precise. It's the common theme for tenants moving in here - the location agrees with the closeness to their work. The guy is currently living some 35 miles away - a long drive to work every day and plus hitting 2 rush hours - no fun. Don't wanna go too far into it cause' - you never know if these people are actually going to show up.

I'm looking forward to going back to work - the hours at this point in time are pretty short - 7 hours a day - and all the stuff that landed on my lap during this staycation hardly made it something enviable for anyone. I was thankful, however, to have had the time off while all of this stuff kept coming at me. I did not accomplish near what I wanted to - I just couldn't do it. Too much going on, I was lucky to get done what I did. You simply can't prepare yourself for all of this stuff, just take it as it comes.

I've got a paycheck coming this week - I have to spend about half of it on bills but after that's done I will still be getting ahead regardless of tenancy situation since I have a short reprieve from paying the mortgage on this house.

I'm done for today, this was a short entry I know but I have been busy online doing different things all day long today.

C'ya tomorrow - Lord willing of course - ava' great night! (or day, depending on where you are!)
ben

It Seems To Have Worked For My Parents

The situation with Ken is pretty much in limbo - vast amounts of people are praying for him (I made sure of that by asking for emergency prayers from the prayer group I'm part of that, after the request gets forwarded on and on and on - potentially goes on to tens of thousands of people).

I started thinking about "growing old and fat". I would rather not have to grow old - but if I want to live anymore around here, that's going to have to happen - but this concept of getting fat simply because you are getting old is a club I don't want to join.

I have watched my gut grow ever since my house burned down - a little over 2 years ago now. My life was changed, apparently - but I don't have any of that after-effect (that I know of) going on in my brain now, it's about time to get the after-EFFECTS out of my system as well. Eating a lot of junk food was my mainstay for a while simply because cooking was hardly an option.

There's a REASON it's called junk food, folks. Just start looking at caloric, fat and sodium contents of fast food, especially fried fast food. I've been "dieting" for a couple of weeks now - the weight loss has been minimal, but it has occurred. It seems awfully difficult, though, when I'm hungry and out on the road to just keep passing fast food joint up after another after another, looking for a place where I might get something whose main ingredient isn't fat/garbage/vileness.

Well, skip the vile part - fast food DOES taste good! And yet - when you stop eating the stuff for a while and then go back? Get done eating and my stomach is twisting and turning in knots - the grease and garbage in it doesn't set well with my stomach.

My thoughts about this were magnified watching Ken being carted out of here. He's quite - obese actually - and when you start reading the expert opinions - he certainly racked himself up there for a disaster. Obese/chain smoker/heavy drinker/pot smoker/eating the kind of food on a regular basis that only a goat would like. I'm not dissing the man - but - I am going to use him as a model for my own purposes of what NOT to do in terms of taking things in through the orifice known as the mouth.

The events that unfolded here this weekend only redoubled my desire to get my health back on track. I also have a full-physical scheduled for October. Hey, I would get it done sooner but that was the EARLIEST date the doc had available to do one!

My parents have basically taken care of themselves and the fruit of that is that they have lived relatively healthful lives and certainly, being in their mid-70's are enjoying longer-lived lives. Not that they don't have health issues - my dad had to have stints put in recently enough and that has slowed him down some, but it most certainly hasn't stopped him and my mother has been dealing with fibro-myalgia for 30 something years now.

It ain't perfect, but they are still getting around and they are still enjoying life - albeit separately since they divorced when I was 19 years old. That was a little while back.

Well, anyway. This deal with Ken has served a useful purpose for me and that's simply to get my own health nailed back down as much as possible on the good side of the wall and get to - feeling better really.

As for Ken, I have actually been asking the Lord to speak to his mind and heart - He can do that regardless of whether a person can speak to anyone or not.

I'm outta here - got things to git going today - last day off of the 5-days I have taken off in a row.

Have a great day!
ben

Moving On

Ken will be in my thoughts and prayers, for sure, but - there is so much other stuff going on that I simly can't stop my life for this. I did stop it for a day's worth, for sure, and I hope the procedure is good, that he fully recovers and that he can go on with his life - he's only 48 years old.

As morbid as it might sound speaking about this so quickly, I have now another room that I will have to rent out - meaning shortly, all 3 rooms will be empty. Ken will not be recovering too quickly from this - I have read the stats about this kind of thing, you're lucky to recover enough to get out of a nursing home type of thing in 40 days. I can't hold his room for 40 days - the ONLY way that happens is if I can't FIND someone else to rent it.

I am not, of course, going to bring that up until they find out whether he's coming through this or not - what his prognosis is - in other words, time to deal with the shock of a family member going through such a traumatic, life-changing ordeal. I wouldn't want some landlord coming and bugging me right off the back, I do have compassion. He has a new computer in there and a few other items that are worth something - mostly his life revolved around going to work and playing an internet, pc-based game called Eve with a bunch of his friends. Just saying I'm sure they'll want to come get his stuff and store it somewhere.

At the same time, I am listing all 3 rooms up for rent. I can't "wait" until ANY of them move out - 2 of them are for-sure goners - they have to move on and I fully understand that. At the same time, prudence does not dictate waiting until they're gone to post the ads, it dictates to start right off and put up a future date - which is not that far off in the future - of a room that is available.

I am very thankful that this loan mod is going through and that I have a reprieve for paying the mortgage - the next payment isn't due until October 1st and that gives me ample time to get the rooms re-rented. I hope I can get them filled up quickly - certainly before the end of this month. I have no clue what the market is for tenants right now - I do know school is starting up and people are looking for places to live. There seems to always be people looking for rooms in this area because of the ample amounts of employers that are within a couple of miles of my home. A huge industrial park with hundreds of business is only a little over a mile away.

The tenant that is being transferred to Boston - Pete - also told me today he would pay me a full month's rent. I had called it even since he gave me $200 deposit, is leaving on the 15th I believe, and won't be here a full month, plus is giving me his queen size bed and the portable amoire for hanging up clothes. He is getting reimbursed by the insurance plan through his employer for the full month's rent, so I think that mighty big of him to offer such - I am not going to sit here and say I turned it down, I can't afford to. If he changes his mind, fine, well and good - if I get the check, very good indeed.

Ummm, I am being "forced" to start doing something with Facebook. Friends and family have added me as a friend, I decided today - after have Facebook save the day, literally in finding some family members of Ken's and being able to get the message to them about the aneurysm - that I might as well use my account there. My brother - of all people - added me as a friend a while back, I never did a thing about it or the other friend requests.

I'm done for now. I'm going to go outside and look at what it's going to take to cut that line and get the beginning of the drip system installed. IF I go through with it, wish me luck!
ben

Sunday/Ken

I guess I didn't write over here yesterday about the situation that took place here starting yesterday afternoon and going on into the night - I am realizing that I have readers both here and on KCL and that the 2 don't necessarily intermix. So, I apologize for my tardiness in getting anything written up - it was a hectic night last night to say the least.

Let's start out saying that Ken is a tenant living in one of the rooms in my house. He has been here for 4 or 5 months I guess. He hasn't really been one of the greatest tenants for multiple reasons, but, I have tolerated the stuff, though at least one of the current tenants doesn't like his methods and ways. I haven't been able to find a listing of "Perfect Tenants" anywhere, where I can pick and choose from a list. I have to post on Craigslist and hope I find someone at least halfway normal.

I would not, in looking at Ken's lifestyle, call his normal. He goes on excessive weekend binges of drinking masssive amounts of beer. A 30 pack of Budweiser will disappear in less than 24 hours. 2 weekends ago he drank an estimated 48 beers in about a day and a half. That's a lot of beer. He is obese - at least 100 pounds overweight. He eats stuff that most people would pass on in thinking of eating it every single day. Canned and boxed stuff; full of sodium: fat calories and much of it very high in cholesterol. He gets no exercise - he takes a taxi to work every day - work is all of 3 and a half miles away. He acquired a bicycle a while back, started riding it to work - didn't last very long.

Let's work this up. Several months ago, Ken was found in the main bathroom, unconscious. It did not last long - but it scared me enough to confront him on it and attempt to try and get him to go see a doctor. He would have nothing to do with it. Oh, I forgot, Ken smokes as well - he smokes a LOT. Double the whammy impact of all of that drinking (I am not JUDGING the man, I am only giving a descriptor of his lifestyle). I remember thinking at the time that I might be dealing with a dead man in my house.

We fast-forward to yesterday afternoon. I know Ken's routine on the weekend. Drink half the night, get up around 11:00 or noonish. Well, 1:30 in the afternoon came around - somewhere around that time anyway - and a phone call came in for Ken. Michael answered the phone, went into Ken's bedroom, came back out and told the caller that Ken is sleeping. I thought that curious - maybe he was just sleeping in. How do you determine what's normal and not normal for a person that drinks as heavily as this guy does? He could have drank ALL night long, went to bed later than normal and that's why he was still sleeping.

Well, around 4:30/5:00 pm, it dawned on me - I was lost in my own world of thought over various things going on in my life - that Ken hadn't been seen all day long. I knew for a fact that he hadn't been out here since 6:00 am or so because that's when I got out of bed. I asked Michael to go in there and take a peek and see if Ken was up - I can't just walk into tenant's rooms, it's basically against the law. The only thing that changes that is if there is an emergency - I had no idea yet whether that level existed yet or not. Well, Michael now offers that Ken had been laying half on and half off the bed when he had gone in there last. Now the alarms are going off, I went to the door, Michael opened it for me - I see Ken with his head on his bed and his body in a weird contortion - so much so that his legs were purple and his arm was also purple.

I immediately went in and started shaking him, calling his name, shaking him some more. I know that if someone has been REALLY drunk, it might take awhile to get them to stir and wake up. I got NOTHING from him - I only knew he was breathing but that's it. That's when I got on the phone and dialed 911. Medics came - they tried to revive him - I mean they REALLY shook him around, they got nothing out of him either. They were asking me all kinds of questions, including how long he had been like this - one of the medics was like: "You mean he's been like this all day long and you did nothing about it?". That got my ire - I didn't KNOW he had been like that all day long - if I had I would have called much sooner. I don't just go walking into tenant's bedrooms everyday asking them if they're okay, that's a little absurd. I got testy back with the man and he backed off.

They hauled him out of here and took him to the hospital. I have word that as of late last night, he was still unconscious.

I don't know anything else, but I am going to call his brother here pretty soon and find out if any information about him is available.

ben

Half-Way Through............

.........and loving it. That's my little stay-at-home vacation - or staycation as I have recently read people calling it. I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday morning. These 3 days off plus the weekend are just what the doctor that I never see ordered.
I'm liking it so much, I'm going to ask to do it again next either in September or October. I have enough hours saved up to take off a month's worth of work.

Today, I'm paying for yesterday's excursion to the water park. Sore muscles and generally not too interested in doing anything. Kyle - just showed up. He went with us yesterday and he's trashed from yesterday as well. Caleb is still in bed, lol. Kyle is a workaholic - he reminds me of myself when I was that age. I already had an extreme work ethic pounded into me by the time I was 10 years old. I worked to make money - my parents were poor and if there were even any allowances, they were extremely small. I made money doing odd jobs and newspaper routes.

Anyway, I just showed Kyle what I want done out there - ALL of what I want done. There's a lot in just digging the trenches. He wanted to make some extra money, he's here. He asked my to hurry up and get out there and show him what to do (in a polite way) because he said if he sat down, he was going to crash out all over again. Funny how much energy you can exert at a place like a water park and not even realize it until AFTER it's over.

The high temp today is going to be much lower than it has been - 105. That may sound hot, but it's nothing compared to the 114 highs we've been experiencing. It's only 81 degrees right now - last week at this time of day it was well into the 90's. This week's forecasted high are up there - but not AS high - which is good for lowering electric consumption.

Just because of the way I'm feeling, I'm debated whether to go out there and do this water pipe install. It might be a little more motivating seeing that someone else is out there working as well. Guess I'd better make up my mind before it gets too hot - that setup is sitting in the direct sunlight right now and will be for most of the day.

Hmmmph. I just checked my checking account - a thing I do daily. The little girl at the register we checked out at when buying lunch double charged my account for the lunch we had. At $31.35, that was an expensive lunch considering. This girl ran my debit card once - said it didn't go through (I watched the computer screen and had my doubts about THAT statement), said she needed to run it again. I let her do it, but - that's also why I checked my account today. Yes, I just got off the phone with them, they will be transferring the second charge back to my account.

Oh, well, I didn't say anything about our trip through the food section yesterday, did I? Well, their prices were, of course and expectedly, quite outrageous. A salad - albeit a nice salad - for $8.99. Hamburgers were $5.00 - JUST the hamburger and a slice of pepperoni pizza, also $5.00. Caleb and Kyle each got a slice of pepperoni. The slice the girl gave Caleb was MUCH smaller than the slice given to Kyle. Caleb wanted a different slice as ALL of the rest of the slices on that particular pie were all considerably larger than the one Caleb got. The girl just threw up her hands and said: "Well I HAVE to get rid of all of it".

When I say girl, I'm talking the people working at this place were 16 and 17 years old. I ignored her. When I got to the cash register, I asked for a discount on the smaller slice. This girl - again, 16 or 17 at most - said no, can't do that, but you can go back and get a different slice if you are unhappy. Well, we already TRIED to do that. I just sent Caleb back - the girl was unhappy with him I could tell from the 30 feet away I was standing. I asked for management.

This girl told me there IS no management there! LOL!!!! As always, when customer service goes south and sour, I immediately ask for management. We were not being rude and were being very polite, so that takes care of our end of the deal. She said there's a building somewhere else on the property where I would have to go to speak to a manager. Well, what was I going to do? I figured I would eat lunch, finish the day's fun festivities and visit management on the way out.

Instead, another guy - he MIGHT have been 18 - came up to the table and spoke to me about my desire to speak to a manager. Yes, I replied, that's exactly what I intend on doing. I was pretty much shrugging all of this off - we just sat down, started eating and let it go until later. Is there anything I can do to help? No, sir, I intend on going over to whatever building it is where the manager is later on and discussing this situation with that individiual.

This guy leaves. Several minutes later, the REAL manager came up. This was definitely not low-level management. I politely recounted the situation, saying that if I was going to pay $31 for this - pointing at the incredibly small amount of food on the table - I wanted full portions. That was all. The guy looks at me incredulously - WHO told you that there is no management here? I pointed at the girl at the register. His offering - without my asking - was a second slice of pizza for each of the boys. We accepted. He went and got them, handed them to us, bid our adoos. He then walked over to the girl at the register and - was obviously not being very pleasant with her. He also went over to the other girl that had refused to give a different slice of pizza - didn't hear that either, didn't really want to. The manager made it right, that's all I cared about. The boys scarfed down the second slice of pizza while I finished my - well it was a pretty good tasting salad and the pizza the boys said was good too - so no complaints about the taste or quality of the food.

I then went and got my free t-shirt. It's a daily special there - if you spend over $30 on food, you get a free t-shirt. This one, of course, says Wet 'N Wild all over it and I think it was a $15 - so I thought we got a good ending out of it.
Look, I just don't put up with bad customer service. I KNEW the prices were going to be high, THAT was not my issue. I am IN customer service and I treat my customers VERY well, even if they are angry about something - which happens more often-than-not because of salesmen making promises they knew couldn't be kept when they made them. Nothing I can do but apologize, start making phones calls if necessary to find out when a product that these people I'm with need right now - and get the ball rolling. There are also often times when I arrive at a jobsite and the people had been told I would be there - like hours and hours ago. The people making those promises didn't bother to either ask me or my boss - they were just trying to appease their customer. When you do that - you make it worse because - customers aren't stupid, they figure out that they were told one thing when that person telling them it KNEW it would be otherwise. Fortunately for me, they realize this and dump the load of anger and discontent onto THEM, well, not always, but a good portion of the time.

Anyway, it didn't ruin our day and Kyle was impressed. Lol. I wasn't trying to impress him - but he was like - wow, you handled that incredibly well. He was mainly happy for the second slice of pie - growing teenagers have bottomless pits for stomachs.

Kyle just gave up. He's wayyyyy too tired to do the job and he's complaining of the heat out there. I just said he didn't HAVE to do the job. I also offered he could do it this evening or even tonight - standing in direct sunlight is definitely going to fry your brains out while trying to dig a trench - been there done that. So, he says he'll come back later. He's going to his grandpa's house - 3 houses down from me - to crash out.

I'm amazed that I could outlast teenagers that have boundless energy. I'm feeling my oats today, too, but I'm awake and they are all asleep. I'm going to start my weekend cleaning rituals here pretty soon since everyone is either gone or sleeping - it's much easier to get things done without a lot of people around to get in the way.

Have a great day!
ben

My Friday

Hmmm, it just dawned on me that I still have 3 full days left of this time off from work. I will not be going back until Tuesday. Very nice.

I would address the waterpark first, but my amazement at the rift that I started - quite unintentionally I might add - on all sorts of blogs on KCL got my attention.

Let me say here for the record: I did NOT go all over KCL and start trash talking the place. I have NOT written to everyone I know in PM's about my disgust for it. I ONLY wrote a SMALL blip about my departure from the site, those that found out about it and talked trash about me - had to come to MY journal to find out what I said, go to their or other journals, write the trash and be done with it.

But - my feelings about KCL aren't nearly that intense. I don't HATE the place, I just don't like a good deal of what I am reading over there. Don't go to this blog, don't go to that blog. Whatever. People read into something I didn't say, made HUGE assumptions and flew with it in assaulting my character.

Big deal. I'm 45 years old, I've been around the block a dozen times ten times, been trash talked for years as president of a homeowner's association and as a prominent board member on a Little League. The people that do the trash talking - you probably don't even know who they are, they don't do it to your face but always behind your back, and you end up hearing about it from someone else who was there.

If you have something to say about me and you're going to do it on an open, public journal, then you might as well just come to my journal and have your say. BUT - don't expect me to be a doormat - I gave up that title long ago. I am usually a very open person, but I can be VERY blunt and I will speak my mind.

Oh, and you want to hear someone cussing you out? Go out on the streets and start talking about the Lord Jesus Christ - and all that entails - you will hear some stuff being puked on you that you have never heard anywhere before. I have done that for decades, I am well-acquainted with human nature and the way people seem to have to feel to vindicate themselves for something - that was never said.

And that's the point: I NEVER spoke any names - go to my blog, read the entry - take offense if you want, being offensive was not the intent. Just as YOU are free to speak your mind, so I am NOT free to speak my mind on MY OWN BLOG? The site might be owned by KCL and it's administrators - all well and fine - but the blog is MINE. If it is not, then the administrators can tell me that and I will DEFINITELY delete the thing.

Will I leave KCL? I haven't made that decision yet after reading some of the comments that people posted on that entry. It isn't against one, single person. I am just not a fan of F this and F that and all the rest of what I consider to be petty arguments, in-fighting and other things that I need not go into. If I don't like it - LEAVE, right? That's the worldly saying. I don't subscribe to worldly beliefs, as the Bible says, I am a citizen not of this earth, but of the Kingdom of Heaven. Our stay here is temporal - VERY temporal - one day you're here, the next you're gone. If you think about the average life span of a person, it is infinitesimal in comparison - to anything. We are mortals that have a purpose to be here - it is God's purpose for each individual life.

Onto other things. The trip to the waterpark - was quite nice. There are some awesome rides at that place. I had hoped that on a Friday - school has started in many places around the valley - that it wouldn't be so crowded. Wrongo, yack-breath. It was crowded. Lines and waits were long at the rides. We did the wait game and went on all of them - excepting the shorter, smaller rides that looked like they weren't worth a 30 to 60 minute wait to actually get to go down the slide.

We spent a lot of time in the wave pool. Their version of waves are pretty - small - but I was loving being at the deep end of the pool in 8 foot deep water - almost no-one ventured out that far, so I was swimming around and getting some excellent exercise. I messed with Caleb and Kyle in interims in dunking and splashing fights. Kyle actually thought he could get on top of me and dunk me - so he came up from behind, climbed up on my back. I just stood there. lol

The time there took me totally out of reality - if only for a 6-hour glimpse of a moment - I was in another world. It's one of those things where the pressures and cares of this life disappear and you can just take in the moment, enjoy the moment and have a reprieve from the prison of - stuff going on. Freedom is in the Lord, I tell myself.

We actually could still be there - but as I figured beforehand - a period of 6 to 8 hours would be plenty. I didn't leave before the boys wanted to leave - Kyle went home and crashed, Caleb is zonked out in his bedroom - I went to work watering plants.

That's it for this day. Tomorrow - I intend on getting out there and getting with this drip system install. I have sorta been a little fearful in thinking about cutting into a line with a hacksaw and not being able to get my assembly back together again - and then - the water is off to the house.

As for KCL - I will think about it - decide what I want to do with my account there - and I will voice it - over there, on my blog - when I have decided that. I mostly figured people wouldn't care one way or the other whether I stayed or left - but the replies on that entry definitely got me to re-thinking that decision.

Have a great evening.
C'ya tomorrow.
ben

Wet 'N Wild Day!

Well - I hope it's going to be as fun as I believe it is! I LOVE waterparks, especially big ones with all kinds of stuff to get all haywired out in.

The place opens at 10:00 am and doesn't close until 10:30 pm! Guaranteed a few things: won't be there at opening time and won't be there at closing. Lol. I figure a good 6 to 8 hours of it and I'll have had enough to last me a long time, really.

Totally spaced that today is a payday for Ken, one of my tenants. If nothing else, the man pays me the rent religiously. I'll be blowing a good chunk of that money today at the waterpark - the place isn't exactly cheap. Discount entrance tickets are $32 with tax; a locker is something like $12 and I'm pretty sure they'll be charging ballpark style prices of food (though I am going to encourage the boys to eat something before we leave).

Why am I blowing money right now? I'm going to have my version of a vacation, however pathetic it may be - my thoughts would have me going to Italy or London, a trip to France or some of the more exotic places (though I have to wonder how safe it is to travel in the middle east right now). I have not had a vacation in over 2 years and this year is going to be no different.

They (the so-called experts that can't seem to identify whether the sun is up or down at any given moment), at least some of them, are claiming the recession is over.
Well, friends, neighbors and folks, from my view of it - there is some recovery. I'm only talking anecdotally from the position of my employment. Last month was the best we had had in a long time. It was still dismally low, but not near as low as the 3 months running before that.

Also, housing sales here for existing houses went way up last month. Investors are picking up properties at prices they'll never see again after this recession is over. As I have said several times, if I had the money, I would be shelling out money all over the place to buy these cheap properties, fix them up and rent them out. Obviously, there are people that DO have money and doing just that. People complain that that really isn't helping anything since the properties are being sold at great loss. Well, I feel for the people that used to live there and were foreclosed upon - I really do - but at the same time, the only way a REAL recovery is going to happen is to get the glut of existing homes OFF the market so that there will begin to be a demand for new home and therefore, new home construction again.

So - maybe we're at the bottom of this? I dunno, but until new housing construction starts up again, I'm not calling it a wash. If new housing construction were to take off again, this economy would recover quickly. There are so many industries involved with supplying products for building new homes - it covers a vast amount of industry. Lumber; electrical; appliances; drywall; screws,nails,bolts, fasteners; roofing material; insulation; heating and cooling; paint; glass; doors; plumbing and waterworks (my industry); block; and then all the related expert labor needed to install all of that.

That is the only thing that irks me about that list. The "expert" labor around here comes highly from illegal aliens. Though, I have continued to read about the mass exodus of them going back to their homelands. Good riddance. Let them come over here LEGALLY or let them NOT come AT ALL.

I'll sit back and watch to see if this recession really is over - but even if it IS, it's going to be a long time before all these people that have been let go are going to find jobs again.

Now - as for KCL. I figure I have readers here that don't go to my blog over there. I wrote an entry over there yesterday bidding the place goodbye. There are some GREAT people over there, don't get me wrong. But - I read alot of crap stuff that I just can't deal with. It's all over the home page frequently. I mean, I was looking at the home page earlier and saw an avatar from a woman with very large breasts - totally exposed and a beer wedged in between them - an ode for someone named Steve (no clue who Steve is) who birthday is today. So the breasts look good, nice - freakin' post that junk on a porno site for God's sake. But - some good folks wrote comments on the bottom of that entry so now I'm weighing whether to stick around there or not. Probably - if I do - I'll just be copying and pasting posts from here over to there.

I suppose my biggest problem is that my plate is quite full right now with personal issues - which isn't anyone else's problem obviously - but I can get annoyed easily when I see stuff like that and I'm already in a not-so-great mood. I'm pretty weighted down with attempting to deal with all of this stuff going on, the latest blow being the loss of fully 2 tenants in the next week or so. I would LOVE to be able to just leave those rooms OPEN and not have anyone taking their place - but financial pressures are too great. It's fill the rooms or lose the home - losing the home is not much of an option.

The ONLY thing that has really been nice about financial junk lately is that the loan mod is approved, they are sending the paperwork and I am getting a 2 month reprieve from paying the mortgage. I had hoped to get ahead - which I will a little bit - but if I don't get those rooms filled quickly, that idea goes out the window. Mimi shorted me on the rent - albeit only $25. She gave me that check before she landed the crap on my son.

After I read and re-read her emails, I realized that she had already planned this leave and really just using my son as a scapegoat to get out of here. Well, she could have just LET ME KNOWN - AT THE TIME SHE MADE THESE PLANS - that she wanted to leave and I would have had more time to post ads and try to get someone in her place. If a person wants to leave, I'm not going to try and stand in there way and start begging them to stay - I ALWAYS make that clear: if you don't like living here, please don't hesitate to find a new place to live, I certainly won't hold it against you.

Pete's employer dropping the relocation bomb on him is far more understandable to me than a person that just doesn't want to be here, waits until what amounts to the last minute to let me know, and leaves me HANGING. By state law, I could demand a full month's rent from her - she pays bi-monthly. As it stands, I'm going to be dropping a bomb back on her: a portion of her security deposit is going to go to clean the carpets in the house where her dog has pee'd and pooped all over the place. I will have to have a service do it so that I can have a receipt for the work done in case she tries to take me to court over this issue. I don't put it past her, but - it's a place she doesn't want to go. I will countersue if I have to and demand the rest of the month's rent. As it stands, she can go without the full month's rent and I will leave it at that.

These are the things that are occupying my mind - it may stand for those that see me as being a little testy to consider the pressure I am under and why I might not be acting quite like the normal Ben. If I survive this economic disaster we call an economy at work and they don't lay me off, then I look forward to the days of getting my hours back and getting rid of at least one tenant's worth.

All of this stuff hasn't quite over-loaded me, but certainly the scale is teetering. If a day at a waterpark breaks me, then so beit. At least I'll have had some sort of fun that I haven't seen - in ages. Oh, and for me personally - after reading this jobless report - when my hours go back to a minimum of 40 per week, I'll take that as a sign on top of everything else that the recession is departing.

The day is getting late and I'm going to start getting ready to get out of here - go pick up Caleb and Kyle and start heading to the park. It's not exactly close - like a 30 plus mile drive.

Peace

ben

Airbus In The News Again

I was rather amazed to see yet another incident with an Airbus aircraft, this time an Airbus 320.
An engine caught on fire while or after - a bit unclear - it was disengaging from the boarding ramp.
An airline employee noticed liquid leaking from the engine as it was being started and made and alert - but the fire broke out before anything could be done about it, apparently.
I think Airbus's reputation is becoming extremely tarnished - again as I mentioned sometime ago - starting to take on the image of the DC-10 after numerous of those brand and model of aircraft kept having disastrous crashes.

After all the reports of incidents with these airplanes, I would not want to fly on one of them. Illogical? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I haven't flown in 4 years anyway - though - I love to fly. It's always a fun thing for me - even on Sardine Airlines.

On another note, one of J.D.'s little brothers came over here earlier, ringing the doorbell. I do not have a front door on my house - by design. There are gates, the gates are locked and there is a button to push to ring the bell. I have video surveillance, I can sit here and look on my computer as to who is out there. This kid is a pot smoker and the only reason they come over here is to get Michael to go buy their pot for them.

I pretty much - don't like it - so, I totally ignored the bell. The kid knows about surveillance and I had turned the light on out there to see who it was. I had a light switch installed in this house here - like 5 feet from where I'm sitting - that has electric line running clear to the front of the house and a light installed out front. Oh, Michael was in the bedroom and apparently didn't hear the bell I was not amused. Anyway, I turned the light back off immediately - which should have signalled to this kid that I want nothing to do with this s***. He rang the bell 4 times - I was going to get up, go out there and give him a piece of my mind about the doorbell and the reason for him coming over here, but he left.

Umm, I just noticed it's past my bedtime, no time to ramble on - and on - and on.
lol
ben

I'm Writing To Myself

Lol. Well, no big deal. My writing is because I like to write, so - even if no-one is reading this stuff, I will continue on.

On the eve of a hopefully nice, fun day tomorrow at this new waterpark. But that's tomorrow.

Yesterday, I looked at some pork - stuff - like steaks, sort of - but full of fat. Yuck. It was cheap, but I don't want to eat this kind of thing. I put the stuff into a very large frying pan and cooked it on very low for a couple of hours. I figured to cook the fat out of it - and if I couldn't, the dogs would be eating well (definitely NOT a fan of pork fat, chicken fat and most beef fats - some good steaks such as Porterhouse has VERY tasty fat, a thing I indulge in very rarely).

Well, the pork became very tender and fell off the bones with a fork, the fat has almost disappeared into grease. There was only a few small strips of fat left which I removed. Drain the grease, pull out the fat, remove the bones. Only problem left? I only had a 1/3rd of a bottle of BBQ sauce left - I wanted to turn it into something that would taste good on a sandwich. Well, I decided to dump that in there and see what happens.

I was amazed. The small amount of BBQ sauce coupled with the spices I had dumped on the meat was a very tasty combination indeed. I figured to tell the boys that it was stuff they wouldn't like and don't bother trying it - I use that ploy at times to try and keep them out of the stuff. Well, Michael just found it and ate a several sandwiches worth. If you haven't read my other post about Michael - he is allowed to visit, he just isn't living here anymore. I think it a much better setup and he's not here everyday. I don't hate Michael, I just feel that he needs to spend time at home and get a taste of what that's like and get a little more understanding, over an extended period of time, of just what my offerings to him in terms of food always available; electricity always on; water always running; cooling; quiet place to sleep; privacy are worth.

They are worth much more than he has given it credit for - basically just taking it for granted. I take nothing for granted. I work my @$$ off for the money I do get - and put up with tenants for the rest of it. Working is great - tenants? Yeah, well that depends on the particular tenant and their disposition and lifestyle.

Anyway, I got an update on their family today. The police were over there this week - Anthony and their father were in a fight that ended up with neighbors calling the police. Anthony HATES his dad. His dad is a very hostile, violent and violent tempered "man". He goes into fits of rage at the drop of a hat - and has beaten on his girfriend - the kid's mother - forever apparently since they've been together some 17 years. Anthony - has the same temperament as his father. Get 2 hotheads living together that don't like each other - look out. So - this is the beginning of their occupancy of yet another house. The police have now identified where they are living and I'm quite sure more trouble will follow.

J.D. - the black kid that's over here a lot - and no, I'm not racist - told me yesterday that the situation with their household, Michael's family that is - has not changed. The kids fight over the TV; electricity is sometimes on, sometimes not; too many people with short fuses getting into arguments; sleeping is next to impossible. They let the satellite bill go too long - no satellite. I was amazed that Michael even admitted that their bank account is overdrawn and they are in hot water with the bank as well. Well, I imagine lots of Americans may be in or near that particular situation right now - but this family is ALWAYS in these predicaments.

I almost feel sorry for Michael - but really - he brought this upon himself. I was getting sick of his attitude. Again, a dose of reality - a continued dose of reality over a good period of time - should give him a new appreciation of my house and it's offerings. And that's where it's going to be left for now.

Since my readership on my blogs is down to basically nothing, I don't mind "rambling" on and on - it's just me, writing out my thoughts. For those that don't know me - I type rather fast and these long entries don't take that long to type out. At least in terms of the actual typing - my thoughts tend to wander off into different realms and I stop writing while thinking about things - and then start back up again. I am thinking of just doing all of my writing on here and leaving KCL alone for a while - that site is a popularity contest - that's really all I see it as. It isn't really that much like JS was in those terms. I don't write for popularity, I write because I love the release and I love the ability to come back and see what I was doing at any particular point in time. My writings - because I tend to be thorough - have helped me countless times on court cases and in fact-finding missions. I only wish that JS was still there so that all of those writings were still there as well. For me - and me alone - there is a wealth of my history there that - when I used to be able to go back and read it - astonished me on certain sectors of my life in periods of want (extreme lack of finances).

I remember rather well the extended period of living without a hot water heater or a washer and dryer. Living in these hellish temps with nothing more than a swamp cooler and a couple of window AC units that really didn't keep it cool in there. Feeling like I was living in a s***hole, but not really ever admitting it to anyone. When I got more of the work done in that house, I started to get comfortable with it, but it was an ever-so-drawn-out process because of lack of funds. The point here is that I had ALL of that written out - and surely, a much clearer picture emerges when you can go back and read about it.

But - during those periods - I never thought about self-pity and how miserable life was. Life is not about money - if it were, I would have killed myself a long time ago. I've had precious little of it in my lifetime and it doesn't stick around long when I do get it. It kinda makes me fear the future - growing old and still being poor and not being able to take care of my own needs without help is hardly an appealing thought. Or working until my grave - not a great prospect either.

Speaking of that, out of the blue, my dad sent me an email yesterday about my being the executor of his estate. I didn't know he had actually DONE that with his legal counsel, but, indeed, he has. He told me that my brothers - when they were still talking to him - informed him they didn't wany ANYTHING of his when he dies. I would consider that a slap in the face, as if your life and your belongings are worthless junk. He does not, from what I read in his email, have them in his will. I found that almost shocking. Wow!!! But then again, if your kids disowned you and wouldn't even talk to you, would you not be tempted to do the same thing?

And yet, I have seen so many times when relatives, siblings and whatever other relations of the deceased had NOTHING to do with that person, come out of the woodwork and start making demands for money. I will tell you right now, that when my father dies - a day I am not looking forward to but it's the reality of life - I will follow his will to the letter. WHATEVER he wants done with that money is where it's going to go. He has already spoken that there are charities that he wants a portion of it to go to - and certainly, THAT'S where it's going to go if I have anything to do with it, and being the executor, I certainly will have plenty to do with it.

IF he REALLY left out my brothers, then they will not get a dime. I envision a court battle that I want nothing to do with - but - I will have to engage in in order to see my father's wishes fulfilled. That is, of course, presuming I actually outlive my dad. Life is not guaranteed. It's a thing that surfaces in my mind relatively often. I always think about what if I die and my son is left growing up without a father. I have had the security of having parents around even up until now - I am 45 years old and both of my parents are still in good health. I know SO many people whose parents, by the time they reach my age, are dead.

Yep, you can call this an extremely lengthy, drawn-out, rambling post. Don't really care. I've heard from people the statements behind my back about those that I "know" online trashing me because I go on and on. Again, don't really care. What's the point of reading my journal if you don't like it? Must be millions of them out there - go find the people they like and be happy. I really don't much understand this internet trashing s*** anyway. You don't have to endure people like me if you don't LIKE people like me. It's really laughable to me that there are people that expend their energies and time in engaging in useless gossip and trash-talking, especially concerning this blogging business and all the crap that goes on with people hating each other.

In fact, it envelops most of the human race - rich, poor, happy, sad. We get bored? Start thinking about ways to give someone grief - all done behind their back. Nice. What a total waste of life and time. If life has no more value than to spend it trying to make life miserable for someone else, then life isn't worth living. I do write about certain things going on in my life - but it has nothing to do with anyone that read my journals and it has everything to do with these people making life - or attempting to do so anyway - miserable.

A good example would be Mimi. I addressed her about the fact that by now, she has trashed talked me; Caleb; the other boys; the other tenants; my dogs; my house to everyone that has an ear to hear. I literally wrote that, because there is a 99.99999999999 ad-infinitum possibility that that has occured relentless numbers of times. She wrote me a letter back - her tones towards me were GREATLY diminished. That was surprising in itself. She did not say anything about that or a couple of other subjects I brought up to refute her statements she made to me in her second email to me. We are not talking at this point - communication is going through email. I will not tolerate a person trash-talking and yelling at my kid. He is hardly the perfect kid - none of us are perfect - I freely admitted that to her - but he certainly did NOT deserve the treatment she doused him with the other morning.

Onto other ramblings. Whatever his motives in the thing, I give Clinton kudos for going over to North Korea and getting those girls out of there. I'm sure there is far more than any of us know behind the scenes for political motives - but - I respect the man for going into extremely hostile territory and going through the actions it took to get them out of there. THOSE girls, as far as I have read, were nothing but political pawns, their individuals lives were meaningless to the NK's. I was not a fan of Clinton during his presidency - which goes against the flow and I don't care about being politically correct, either, because I see most of political correctedness being totally against God's desires, will and spoken Word concerning what He wants done on this earth. I most certainly held it against Clinton for the extreme lies about "I never had sexual relations with that woman" - when it became fact that she was giving him **** **** in the friggin' White House. It was even more appalling to me that the news media didn't ream him MUCH more than they did. In fact, most of what I saw made it seem like it was a minor infraction. BS. If it were a republican president, they would have roasted him over a fire pit until well done, stripped his flesh and pulled his veins out.

Again, having said that, I applaud Clinton. I personally feel that there had to have been some element of risk for him, a former president - going over to what is obviously enemy territory - for that purpose. Hidden political agendas aside, he could have been blind-sided in that trip and he could be history. I say that lightly - what nation's government is going to publicly kill an ex-president? Thought left there.

Ahhh yes, the Rambling Ben. Lol. I have been watching the dogs all day long after injecting them with the Parvo vaccination. Just want to be sure there are no reactions to the vaccine. I worry about my dogs, freely admitted - at least on occasion. Parvo is a big-time problem in this area - but I have not been taking my dogs anywhere where other dogs are. I take them here and there on short walks. I think that for $30, it's a good investment into my dog's longevity. They also need rabies shots - gotta get them to the clinic - well actually, now that I think about it - forget it. I would have to be there early and I would have to wait maybe for hours and hours. The clinic gives the shots at greatly reduced prices. I could also order the rabies vaccine online - but I'm a little hesitant, for some reason, to give them that kind of stuff without a vet administering it. I only know that going to a regular vet for those shots are VERY expensive and I will do whatever alternative necessary to keep them vaccinated against that disease.

So, on and on and on I go. My thoughts are really what I want to get to. As if this entry hasn't gone on long enough. First, Mimi. The caustic email that she wrote me? It has been eating away. Although I addressed the s*** she wrote me completely, I just don't quite understand a person totally trashing another person's kid - while living in that other person's home. My son didn't hit her; didn't steal from her; - I mean - this issue was QUITE small compared to the real issues of day to day life. I wonder how she would feel if I were to start talking about her son like that? Yes, that thing has really bothered me. We aren't talking and I don't WANT to talk to her - yelling at a juvenile for talking in low tones in the middle of the night? While she leaves her bedroom door open for whatever amounts of that noise to come in? Leave it to whatever reader may happen to make it this far.

I guess there really isn't much secondary. The situation at work has me thinking - but I have let the worrying go. It is what it is and will turn in to whatever it will turn into. I am glad to be employed, hope I stay that way and I can only deal with that one day at a time. I had thought it dangerous to take vacation time - but - I'm taking it anyway. So have a lot of other people in my company, which kinda gave me a little padding for comfort to think I can take 3 days off of work and come back - to still be employed.

Other thoughts are this drip system - it's not a concern or worry - just something I would like to get done. My brothers. I can't stand the situation with my family. Treating your parents the way they do without any reasonable cause is just - a crock of s***. I gave up trying to have a relationship with them long ago - I'm on their s*** list as well because of my religious beliefs, that mostly align with my dad's.
Finances always up there on that list.

Done.

Thursday - More

Well I already wrote an entry on my KCL journal - have to go there to see it. Anyway, today marked the beginning of 5 days off. Hootin' hooooooo! Numerous things were accomplished already - I am not going on vacation for these off days, I'm just taking a break from work - like many others in our company are doing right now.
I went to Fry's and bought 3 parvo shots for the dogs - they call them 7 in 1 shots. I don't know what the rest of it is - I think there's something in there for the flu and other junk that I have no clue what it is or what it does. Mixed all 3 doses up, injected them into the dogs. Hadn't done that in a while - none of them made a fuss about it. The price was right, too - at $9.99 per shot, that was cheaper than Walgreens and, I found out, Walmart doesn't sell those shots anymore, at least not at the one I go to.

And yes, I visited Walmart. I don't seem to be able to go into a Walmart without ending up with some kind of problem or trouble. Today was no exception. I was taking my sweet old time looking for a cheap pair of swim trunks, a cheap white T-shirt and some sunblock lotion for our visit to the waterpark tomorrow. Found a Nascar t-shirt for a buck (I'm not necessarily a Nascar fan per se, I like to watch it once in a while - it was just the only t-shirt they had that didn't have something totally tacky written on it for that price), got a pair of swim trunks for 8 bucks and then sunscreen which is - another 8 bucks. It took me quite a while to decide on a pair of swim trunks cause' I wanted a pair that has the little - very little - pocket on the inside. You rent a locker at the place and stick the key in there. I have never lost a key in that kind of setup. It might look a bit - risque in pulling your trunks away from your body in order to get at that key - but I don't care.

So, I go to self-checkout - the full-service registers were filled with people and I only had a few items. I check out - and wait for the printer to print my receipt. I could hear it making noise, but nothing came out. I have had this problem at self-checkout at Fry's before - but they can just print out another one at the main desk sitting right there. NOT so at Walmart. I want a receipt - Walmart is fussy about giving money back without receipts and if my trunks split open or something tomorrow, I want to be able to get my money back.

I notify the attendant of the problem. She can't even print a freakin' receipt. Just appalling. She had to get on the radio and call the front end manager. Freakin' manager was CLEAR at the other end of the lane of registers - about 100 feet away. I watch this lady. She is stopped half a dozen times before even getting close to where we're at. She then goes into another register, puts money into and finally gets to us. I was not particularly happy about having to wait for a receipt, but I kept a smile on my face and just tried to patiently wait.

This woman opens up the entire unit and starts pulling a BUNCH of receipts that had bunched up inside of it. Apparently people don't want their receipts. I ALWAYS get a receipt for everything except maybe at a convenience store buying a bag of ice or something. She's looking for my receipt and can't find it. Claims it didn't print and that I would have to go to customer service to get a receipt. Now this is verging on the edge of outrageous, I'm not asking for frickin' refund, I just want a RECEIPT for something I already PAID for.

I follow this woman to the customer service desk. She approaches a lady working behind the desk and tells her to look up the receipts at register 48 and print mine out. I was still trying to be amenable. We're talking over 10 minutes now, however, to get a bloomin' receipt. I stand there and this lady gets on the phone with someone. She is standing there for several minutes - talking to whoever. There's another lady behind the counter that is doing NOTHING. Why can't THAT lady take care of this? "Excuse me, I have been waiting over FIFTEEN minutes now for a RECEIPT, please get me my receipt NOW, thank you". The woman that wasn't doing anything started mouthing off to me. As the young girl that was waiting on us at Joe's Crab Shack last weekend, this one was young and ready to pounce with a foul, vitriolic demeanor.

I immediately asked for the general manager of the store. The girl gets a vicious look on her face, which only caused me to demand the manager again. A man shows up a few minutes later. I address him about the fact that I'm now well over 15 minutes into waiting for a RECEIPT for the purchases I had made, and then point at the girl and give a short accounting of her demeanor towards me.

The other lady on the phone suddenly gets off the phone as soon as that guy shows up. You can read into that whatever you please. The manager tells her to print up the receipt, JUST as the "lessor" manager had told her to do going on 5 minutes before this. Now this lady informs me it is going to take up to 10 MORE minutes to find my receipt in their system because the computer has to go through all of them to find mine - mine being found by giving her the last 4 digits of the debit card I used to pay for it.

Now I'm starting to fume. This lady made me wait for her phone call and then, have to wait even longer, after already waiting at the self-checkout? The manager comes back to find out what the wait's for. She finally finds it in the system, and then it prints. Well, on top of all this, the manager has to go into a locked room to get the receipt!!

If I were reading this about someone else, I'm sure I would be laughing about it. I'm already over it - as I have just scored a $25 gift card from Walmart for the ordeal. Yes, I called the district manager, her assistant answered, I told the story from front to end, she immediately said that was outrageous, unnaceptable and that she was issuing me a $25 gift card and would be sent out in the morning.

That just paid for all the stuff I just bought at Walmart. I have frequent endings like this - but for the record, I don't go into a store, looking for trouble so I can get freebies. It just happens that way sometimes - I'm just not the kind of person to let stuff like this go. Not when I know if I'm persistent, I can get something out of it. I was never rude with anyone. When the little girl mouthed off to me, I didn't address her directly about it rudeness, I immediately asked for management.

I also went to Great Clips. The lady the cut my hair wasn't talking to me at all. She was of a particular "persuasion" that - well I could feel "it" in the air. I broke all of that tension up. I can always chat with the ladies - even this "kind". I brought out all kinds of subjects, but finally got her going on one. The water park tomorrow. This woman went into all kinds of stuff - particularly her visit to Universal Studios and the Tower of Terror ride. She HATED it. Click - I HATED that ride, too! I'll never forget seeing the pic they take - and try to sell to you for some unbelievably high price - of the entire group of people. I was crouched down, white as a ghost, looked like death warmed over.

She had had the same experience. Then I got into a discussion about the new waterpark we intend on visiting tomorrow. I said that I had waited a while to visit it - I figure a new park like that needs - a lot of guinea pigs - to go through there and make sure the bugs are worked out before I will get my self in there. If someone's gonna die - get maimed - whatever - well, I don't want it to be me. Let them get the bugs fixed and have the place open for a while.

This got her going all over again. That set something off in her that she had never thought about before. Something that could potentially kill you - let the place be open for a while and make sure that there ain't a blip in the evening news: 25 people died today on the wet n wild wild coaster ride as the entire structure collapsed and hundreds of people fell over 75 feet to the ground, several of them getting crushed in the process - you know, something like THAT. Unintentionally, I set a fear in her that she was talking about until I left! Lol.

So, yeah, I feel good about today. I had another inquiry to one of the rooms - this one unacceptable. An 18 year old girl with a 2 year old baby. Don't get all riled up with me - I'm old school. 16 year olds should not be getting themselves impregnated. It's widely accepted in this nation - at least nowadays - for kids to have sex. To the point that condoms are handed out at schools. I have a VERY different view of that - I am totally opposed to kids having sex, and certainly schools should not be encouraging such s*** by handing out condoms or even giving free freakin' abortions WITHOUT parent consent? Unbelievable. I think they might have changed THAT one - I hope they did. They bring in different sexual orientations to give a SHOW of how to engage in such things - this is too much for me. Freakin' take a cold shower, masturbate (not the greatest answer, but better than the first choice), do something but having sex at that age - and obviously with this person - unprotected sex - I just am not in agreement with it - you can give me all the logic why I should see it differently and I won't budge, so don't bother. Call me a religious fanatic - call me what you will - I don't care. Certain issues in this world are NOT grey to me - very black and white from my perspective.

This is enough. I have other things to get done.
later
ben

Monday/Day 3

Well, I already wrote about last night's adventure - an all-night adventure at that - on my KCL blog. In short, I was called out last night at about 9:15 pm to go on an emergency run for pipe. The pipe was in Tucson, the jobsite in Chandler. The issue? A large sewer main pipe had ruptured to the point they decided they were going to have to bypass a huge section of it - almost 1,000 feet - with temporary pipe (though the pipe I took them would last 100 years if not longer) until they could address the problem.

So - naturally - I am quite tired today. I'm feeling it now - I just went outside and watered the entire property's worth of plants. I had no choice in doing that - it wasn't that bad but now I feel REALLY tired. Oh, and the loan mod went through - not what I wanted but better than nothing - I also wrote about that on the KCL blog.

Anyway, I'm going to force myself to stay awake until at least 8:00pm and then I'm going to go to bed early and hope by tomorrow morning I will feel normal again (though, it usually takes days after an all-night driving stint for me to get back to normal status, really).

The company that bought the pipe to fix it for the city - basically bought without even asking the price as far as I know. They took the deal with number sight-unseen. A weekend AND an overnight stint will cost them even more - we put surcharges on any after-hours emergencies.

Now that I know I got some kind of loan mod, that's one thing behind me - sort of. It really has only just begun - but the point is it IS going to move along now. I am still waiting to hear about the work issue - which to my knowledge has not been addressed yet.

No, neither of the tenants has addressed me on why they haven't paid the rent yet or even offered an explanation of why they haven't. Tomorrow I will be issuing "friendly" notices when I get home from work if it goes on that long. It won't be an eviction notice - but it will be JUST short of one. More like a friendly reminder along with the statement of late fees and will include a short statement about if there a problem paying the rent on time - which apparently there is - please come forth and let's discuss the options, thanks.

Certainly, I would like to think I can have a little leniency for those that normally pay the rent on time. Just I want to KNOW - WHEN - they ARE going to be able to pay it, really that's it.

Anyway, that's it for this blog for the day - too tired to go on with anything else.

Have a great evening!
ben