Saturday

Just a few things.
First, a guy was supposed to show up and check out the house/room. He was 10 minutes away when he had last called. It happens - people drive through the neighborhood, don't like it, leave, won't call you back and at least have the nerve to tell you so. I saw him, I believe, drive through the neighborhood, it must have been him, guessing anyway. He drove up the street, turned around and drove off.

Next? Don't really care, there are 4 other people "in-queue" showing up later. I tell them first-come, first-served. I continue to run new ads everyday, meanwhile, until I get someone in here.

Second, a Cafe World neighbor and facebook friend wrote after I asked on my wall if anyone knew anything about thyroid problems. Turns out she has had her thyroid removed, had cancer in it. That was 15 years ago. She seemed to think it was no big deal and that she knows a lot of other people with thyroid issues, again, to them anyway, no big deal. Take one pill a day and that's it. Allegedly no side effects.

Well, I hope I don't have cancer in there, number one, and number two, I'm kinda leaning towards hoping it's just an iodine deficiency and that I need to get more in my system. I do not cook with salt and I do not eat a lot of packaged foods. It never dawned on me that perhaps that lack of iodine intake could cause a problem. I have read that it's an important - mineral I guess - that you need on a daily basis. I was thinking of getting some iodized salt and seeing if there is any "change" in how I feel. I do have some of the symptoms that are recorded on sites on the net.

That's my day, really. Focusing on getting someone in here more than anything. It's a great need right now and I am hopeful that one of these people on my lure will move in tomorrow, preferrably, when the room is first available.

I still haven't called my mother about the thyroid issue - she tends to get a bit carried away in the advice department and gets mad if you don't sound all that enthusiastic about hearing it. Some of her advice, however, is pretty solid.

G'day.
ben

Friday

The tenant that is 2 and a half weeks behind comes into the house yesterday and starts telling me his story. A manager allegedly grabbed him and started squeezing him - or whatever - he called corporate, the guy was allegedly fired. Now, he has also been let go. He started talking about how he filed for unemployment and this that and the other thing.

Great, where's my rent? He has a tax refund check, of which I informed him. He starts talking about how he has to pay his car insurance. Great, where's my rent? If he gives me NONE of that tax refund check, I will be issuing him a 5-day notice. The ex-marine - well I guess I'll find out next week. He has historically paid his rent, on time excepting for one month where he got behind and doing the same thing he's doing this month, so I'm hoping he's good for it.

The empty room, I've had a number of emails and have replied to them but nothing solid yet. I will be making some phone calls after work today to see if any of these people are really interested.

Friday. Left work yesterday early - and there was nothing for today excepting a couple of pickups. Now? 4 deliveries and pickups for those deliveries all over the place. I had thought I was going to get off of work early today - I doubt that's going to happen now, meaning a couple of hours of overtime - which really isn't overtime because REAL overtime doesn't start until 40 hours is done. I'm currently getting 35 hours per week. Thinking back to the days when I was work 70, 80, even 90 hours per week, lol. Hauling in the money, too. Different job, yes. Taking home - after taxes - over $1,100 per week. Those were the good ole' days.

I have had thoughts here and there of a part-time job - get rid of one tenant at least and open up a bedroom for some other use than strangers - but, I love my weekends off. Hard to get beyond that. I am currently NOT floating financially with these non-payers - but I hope to get that other room filled by Sunday when it's going to open up and I also expect some sort of resolution to the non-payers, one way or the other, for good or bad.

Yes, it's the good life of attempting to juggle finances with - not enough. Hey, changing the subject drastically, did you see the video of that rogue wave hitting that ship? That was CRAZY! 2 people dead and more injured. I was in awe of the person taking that video - standing there while this wave comes up and comes right at the person doing the video. Me? I would have RAN for my LIFE!! SCREW the video!

Umm, nothing much else - cepting' my son's accomplishment, yesterday, of finally passing the written test to get his learner's permit. He was ecstatic. I will start this weekend with him somewhere in a parking lot and see how he does. Graduate to something - a little at a time - until I am a little comfortable that he's ready for "regular" traffic, which around these parts, is hardly normal.

Anyway, work day approaches and I must be off to the races!

G'day : )
ben

The Longest Day?

When I went into work this morning, I knew what was in the truck routing system and what deliveries had to be made where. I already had the semi loaded with a giant fusion machine and it's accompanying generator. I was to take it to a jobsite only 7 miles down the road and then go make another delivery, a pickup at a vendor and then deliver what I picked up at the vendor. I figured that would take most of the day.

I'm getting ready to leave when a salesman calls my manager - who showed up to work today after being off for 2 days extremely sick.

It's a long story - trying to completely change the game plan for 2 warehouses worth of drivers usually is going to take a while. The change was simply this: Take the machinery I have on my truck to White River, Arizona - they have an emergency and have to have it there today, the earlier the better. The 7 mile one-way drive turned into a 172 mile one-way drive through some of the most beautiful scenery to be found in Arizona.

Words cannot describe the Salt River Canyon. It gives the Grand Canyon a run for the money in terms of beauty and vastness - yes, the Grand Canyon is definitely a wonder to see, but the Salt River Canyon is amazing. I hadn't been through there in ages. It's up in the mountains - you go down must be thousands of feet from the top to the bottom with switchbacks, steep grade and some intense views. I went through there twice - going up and coming back. Never does God's creation cease to amaze me.

The place also brings back memories - my family did a white water river rafting adventure starting at the bottom of that canyon some years ago. Long story - a dude almost died - but anyway. I took a video of going down one side of the Canyon - I didn't expect to be sent anywhere today, so, even though I had my camera, the battery was more than half dead. I was able to take some pics, 2 videos and really, enjoyed the drive. 13-1/2 hour day. I am going into work late tomorrow and probably getting off early. The only thing that could change that?

I no more got home than ANOTHER salesman calls me, not half an hour ago. Hey, Ben, it's Hector. Now, Hector is a totally cool guy, even if you wanted to get mad at him you just couldn't . He was wondering whether I had left the fusion machine and generator up on the reservation. Nope, I said, it's on the semi, I spent all day taking it up there, taking it off the truck, assisting the field tech using it, loading it back on the truck. I was bracing myself.

The project I was going to take the machine to this morning was what his call was about. They are on a VERY tight schedule in getting whatever work is being done there. I think they have to shut down an entire wastewater treatment plant to do the final connection for the pipe. That pipe is welded by the machine that is on my truck. Yes, amazingly, there are types of underground piping in existence that is welded together by heat, not by gluing it together or using fittings that mechanically join the pipe together. The situation is mandated by the city: you WILL have this done by X amount of time. Usually, in such situations, if it is not done, there are huge fines involved.

The point. The contractor doing the work demanded to have a backup unit available - and close by - if the unit being used breaks down for any reason. Yes, I'm on call. But "only after 3:00am", lol, when they're starting the work. They brought another machine up from Tucson with another tech to do the work. I had to ask: Well, what's wrong with THAT machine?

Nothing. But, Hector is leaving nothing to chance. If someone's ass is going to be hung up on a line, it ain't gonna be his. I doubt I will get a phone call, but if I do, I agreed to get up, drive to work, get in the truck and drive it to the jobsite. I can't imagine what could go wrong with the machine and I don't want to try - if I do, I can imagine getting a call at 3:30 am : )

As it is, I am not expected at work until 8:00 am, which is fine by me. The company will not allow OT, I know I'm gonna lose it anyway, I might as well show up later to work - there is nothing to do tomorrow excepting some pickups from vendors.

I have one of those head frying brain buzzing things going on from driving all day along with working. Dunno how to describe it - if you've ever spent a day driving you may have experienced it. I am not even going to try to go to sleep until it subsides. I have PLENTY of experience with that. For me, anyway, I cannot sleep in such a condition until that noise fades. It's sorta like the sound of bacon frying mixed with the sound of water coming out of a faucet.

The only regret today is that I had no choice but to put off taking Caleb to the DMV office for his second attempt at getting a learner's permit. Yesterday was the doc's office and I had already told him Mondays aren't good for me after work. I wasn't in cell range today - there ARE no cell towers for 75 miles anyway of the area I was at. He had called and wondered where I was at.

Well, whatever. This day is trashed and cashed and I'm outta here.

G'nite.

ben

Monday

Just a few minutes left before I have to sign in for work.
Not feeling too terribly bad today, a good thing. Still have that cough, but from the looks of it, that stuff hangs around quite a while before it leaves your system.
Runs to Casa Grande and another part of Chandler is the fare for today's doings, at least I will have something to do to keep me busy.
Weather has turned back to clear skies - a good thing, that helps a coughing cold to go away faster than cold, overcast skies and blowing winds.

So, hopefully make it through the work day without too much trouble - or if so, the work day doesn't last forever - get home, take a nap and just continue to recover. I wonder how much of anyone's life, on-average, is spent being sick?

Lol.
G'day.
ben

Dogs 101: How To Get Dog Antibiotics WITHOUT A Prescription

This will be the first of an on-going series of how to own a dog - or several dogs - without having to shell out a fortune in keeping them healthy and taking care of them properly. It will also include an entry on whether you are "fit" to be a dog owner, what kind of dog you should consider getting and how much training you will need to get your dog into "obedience" mode versus going hog-wild crazy mode.

Now, to the subject. Antibiotics. From time to time, your dog may need antibiotics. I have 4 dogs, 2 of them are Great Danes and they are brothers. They used to fight each other endlessly when I first got them, took a while to get that bad habit removed from them, and even now I still occasionally have a problem with it. When a dog is bitten by another dog - you can pretty much expect that bite wound is going to get infected.

Clean it out as well as you can, remove the fur from around the wound, clean clean clean it - it's still 90% guaranteed to get infected. Well, I was having this problem with my dogs and taking one of them to the vet was $50 just to walk through the door. The vet looks at the dog, tells you he needs antibiotics, information you already knew before you went in there, gives you a prescrpition, walaah, you have just shelled out at least $100.

I started an intense online search. That first visit cost me $125 and I wasn't about to have to pay out that much again if I could help it. I kept looking for dog antibiotics in the search field of a Google search, I kept seeing references to Fish Flex and Fish Mox. What is that? It's antibiotics for your fish tank. You can buy those antibiotics legally without a prescription.

What I didn't understand was why I was getting to all these sites for this fish flex business and what does that have to do with my dog? More searching revealed the answer. This fish flex antibiotics comes in capsules in varying amount of milligrams per capsule. 250 and 500 milligrams being the norm. I found out through some other websites that this stuff was being packaged for aquariums, but the intended use was for your dog. NOTHING on the label or packaging can say that, if it does, then kablaam, you have to have a prescription - and pay a lot more money to get it.

I ended up buying 300 capsules of Fish Flex and Fish Mox. If you don't buy them in advance of a problem, then there IS no usefulness to having this option. Obviously, your dog can't wait for a week or however long any specific company is going to take to get them to you while your dog has this huge and growing infection on his neck or wherever. Vets don't want you to know, but the packaging tells it like it is: It lasts up to TWO years in storage. I keep them in my refrigerator to ensure they stay cool and for optimum storage life.

I just went through a round of one of my dogs with an open wound that was infected. That stuff knocked it out in a couple of days. I do, however, give them the stuff for 7 days minimum, because that's what the experts say to do. You can do it however you like and as a disclaimer, the views expressed on this blog are my opinion and my opinion only. I do not claim to be a vet or have any educational background in dog medicine. What I do claim is that I want to be able to afford to have dogs - and to do that, I have had to search out a lot of stuff online to figure out how to get things done without paying a fortune for it.

You can also buy rabies vaccinations online - at a GREATLY reduced price over going to a vet, and all the other vaccinations that your dog/s need to stay healthy. The last round of antibiotics I bought was from Revival Animal Health, you can Google that and you will find a whole line of "fish" antibiotics and drugs available at a pretty good buy, and no, I don't work for them or get anything out of it, I am just trying to help people get the stuff they need for their dogs without having to - get rid of them. There are already enough dogs being turned into shelters because of the terrible economy and people not being able to afford them and tragically, many of those animals have to be put down due to lack of sufficient people adopting pets.

BTW, for those that have trouble giving dogs pills, here is the easiest, albeit the grossest, method to do it:
Grab the dog by the snout with one hand and pull up - it will open up his jaw. Take the pill that is already in your other hand on the tips of your fingers and yes, with dogs like mine with mouths as big as they are, I have to stick my entire hand inside their mouth. Shove that pill to the very back of his throat. It must go in far enough that he can't reject it with his tongue, cause' if he can, rest-assured that pill is going to end up on the floor. Close his mouth, keep his head lifted up and massage his neck, he has no choice but to swallow it. It takes 2 seconds to do this method compared to people attempting to hide the medicine in doggie treats or whatever other nonsense that goes on out there. I know it's gross, but it can get very annoying trying to lure a dog to eat a pill as opposed to just shoving it down his throat, and no, it doesn't hurt the animal in any way and it isn't considered abusive.

Cafe World Tip 11: Automatic Cooking

This will be a short one. I have found - all over the net really, just stumbled on it and found that it might be something certain people might be interested in. It alleges that you can have food cooking for you without you having to do anything. Therefore, I am calling it Automatic Cooking.

I assume this is a glitch that probably Zynga will seek out and destroy someday, but until then, here is a few sites with people giving instructions on how to set it up:

http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic49995.html

I have not tried this and won't be - I just prefer to play the game as it is presented instead of having some software glitch doing it for me. The actual name being given this hack/glitch/whatever it is is a Cafe Clicker.
Good luck and if anyone has success in setting it up, please come back and let me know how well it works!

Thanks!

Cafe World Tips - 10: Low Buzz Rating & Slow Game

Let's explore the various reasons that you might possibly have a low buzz rating. As I peruse the message boards on Cafe World, this is one of the biggest issues that people seem to have when complaining about that game, yet, if you have everything set up correctly in your cafe, buzz rating won't be an issue and you WILL have a 105 rating all or mostly all of the time regardless.

First off, let me share something with you that I found simply by clicking on the buzz rating in my Cafe itself. It simply says that if you have a low buzz rating, try redecorating your cafe.

I found that interesting because this is coming from Zynga, not some player who is trying to sell you his guide to playing the game. Much of what I have read from players is that the deco in your cafe has nothing to do with buzz rating, yet here is Zynga themselves saying, apparently, that it DOES affect it.

Look, if a person comes into your cafe and has to wait too long - which isn't very long btw, they leave, your buzz rating goes down. If they sit down at the table and have to wait too long to get their food, they leave - buzz rating goes down. The objective is to minimize wait time and maximize the use of your waiters and waitresses.

To do this, the layout of your cafe is EVER so important. Many layouts incorporate the use of a giant square or U-shaped of tables all next to each other with the counters in the middle. This works well and is the way I have my Cafe set up. You must make sure that your servers are able to access all of the tables they are trying to serve, if they cannot, whichever tables are inaccessible are going to have customers lowering your buzz rating because, of course, they are not being served.

Try tweaking things in your cafe. If you have more than one door, get rid of them and only use 1. Some players swear that putting 2 doors side by side improve buzz rating. I didn't notice in my cafe that that accomplished anything. I have doors at opposite corners of my cafe. Try rearranging your tables. Google Cafe World Layouts and see some setups - or just get a bunch of neighbors and go to all of their cafes and see how they have theirs set up. Make sure you keep your serving counters as close to the tables as possible.

And again, try redecorating your cafe, if Zynga says that's a solution, then by golly it must have some merit to it.

Onto slow speed. Cafe World is a beta application. The more things you have in your Cafe that the beta has to "remember" and keep running, the more resources it's going to us in your computer. I currently have 12 counters and 18 ovens. When I added 4 counters and 2 ovens a few days ago, I noticed the speed slowed even more - starting up the game and getting it running. That's the simple point. If your computer doesn't have enough memory to be able to keep up with too much, take some of the counters and stoves OUT and see if that doesn't help. It's less for the beta app to have to deal with.

Tweak your computer. I'm referring to Windows XP - but the same should be true of any Windows application. Go into control panel, find System. Click on Advanced, then click on Performance settings. Under Visual Effects, click on the field that says "Adjust For Best Performance". Note that you will have to restart your computer for it to apply the new settings. Don't worry, your computer isn't going to crash because you are changing this particular thing.

Now, click on Advanced on the same window - a tab at the stop. It will take you to a screen that has on it, with other things: Virtual Memory. You want to make sure you have that set at the highest possible setting your computer will allow. My max is 2046 MB. I simply put in a large number, the computer faulted and told me to put in a value no greater than 2046 and that's where I applied it. Yours might be different. This will greatly affect the quality of your game.

You may also want to change the resolution. A little less clarity might not be such a bad tradeoff for a faster playing game.

To do this, go back into your control panel, find the Display icon and click on that. Click on the Settings tab. It will take you to a screen for resolution. Try setting it to less resolution and lower color quality. Go back to your Cafe game and see if it helps any. It did for me, but that's just me. If it doesn't do anything, you can always set it back to the higher resolution and color quality you had it at before.

The other standard tips I have already covered in another entry, but I'll go over it again here. Always clear your cache/history before starting the game. Shut off any other programs you are running when you are going to start up Cafe World. Downloading programs; having software running - anything is going to negatively effect the speed of the game, trust me, it will. Also, do a defrag on your computer frequently. It takes time but you can still use the computer while it's doing the defrag. Compress old files that are taking up space and not being used for anything. All of this can be done through the control panel.

If you try everything concerning your buzz rating and you still can't fix it, please leave a comment on here - we can become Cafe World Neighbors and I can take a look at what's going on in your cafe, how you have it set up and perhaps some tips to help you get it running smoothly.

Happy Cooking!

Free Plants

The ad on Craigslist distinctly and clearly read: NO earlybirds, starts at 9:00am.
So it was kinda crappy to get there and find out they had been letting people in since 8:00 am.
Well, I didn't make an issue out of it - at all actually - I just went in there to see if they had any freebies left, or out of the stuff they were selling, was any of it my pricing - very cheap - and anything I could us?

I am referring to an ad in Craigslist that had free plants listed, an event that would take place today, starting sharply and crisply at 9:00am.

Someone was standing there and I asked them if there were any free plants left? Yes, she said, those rows of plants right "there". Agave, I took 7 of them and then started looking around. An older lady started telling me about some plants there that I had no clue what they were. In a couple of instances, she said to just take some clippings off of some ground covering plants and they would grow. I did that.

Then I found 3 very interesting cacti - long, tall and spindly but beautiful looking things. She thought they wanted $5 a piece for those. A rubber tree, this that and the other thing.

I get out to the front with my haul. I pointed at that Agave and wanted to reinforce the idea that those were freebies. The lady out front said no, those weren't the free plants at all. Oh. Well, I was just going to take them back inside, I am not going to spend a fortune on this stuff. She said go ahead and keep them, would you give $20 for everything else. Okay. "We don't take checks". I was informed in the back that they weren't taking cards and that it was cash or check only, so I let her know that was what I was told. Well, another lady that didn't have cash told me where the nearest ATM was, so I was about to ask them to hold all those plants for me while I go get some money.

The lady said: "no, no, no, we'll just go ahead and take your check". The people running this show were all older ladies, very nice and kind people, really. I wasn't making an issue out of anything, just giving the points of what I had been told and also what I had read in the ad. The lady out front seemed to get annoyed with whoever was in the back giving out - apparently wrong information, but not enough to make her visibly angry. They were more interested in clearing it all out to start afresh, apparently. This was being held at the Community College on College property, but this organization was a Garden Club of some sort, I'm guessing volunteers helping students to do some sort of projects in growing plants - for what reason I have no clue.

So, I got some very nice plants. The ad said the freebies were in need of TLC and would come back around when you got them planted, which is why I was a bit surprised to see some very fine specimens in the alleged freebie aisle. They are not in bad shape at all, probably why the woman out front was objecting to those particular plants being for free. I'm guessing around $150 worth of plants for $20, I'm not complaining.

In a little while I'll be heading outside to put those clippings in the ground before they start dying and a useless venture as per that part of the haul.

That will be it for the day, as well, as I am trying to recuperate and get over this sickness.

There isn't much going on around here anyway. Kids are gone at some park and swap adventure, there are no tenants here right now and the only thing I have are a bunch of dog eyes staring at me. I wish I could take them for a walk, but I KNOW that physical exertion while I am in the midst of a respiratory illness is a very BAD idea, so I won't. Instead, I will force the kids to walk them in exchange for the food and drink they have been consuming around here. I make neighborhood kids do chores around here since they want to be over here so much, eating my food, using my computer (when I let them), watching my satellite tv, and using my Playstation III.

There are other things, but I am going to close this one.
ben

Sickness Part II

I intend on doing a lot of nothing for the next 3 days. I took today off at the insistence of my manager - which really is a good thing because I know that resting and doing nothing is the best way to get over a sickness, especially something that has hit me as hard and as fast as this one did.

That does not, however, stop me from employing the use of a neighborhood kid to get up on the roof of the trailer and applying a couple of coats of Henry's roof coating on there. I do not have to do anything - I already have the materials on hand. Micheal wanted to do the job, but historically, Michael does a half-@$$ed job of most everything that he touches, just wanting to get the job over with and not doing it right. I summarily rejected his pleas to do such.

Instead, there is a short, skinny, light-weight neighborhood kid that is perfectly willing to do it for a few bucks and that is my intended course of action. I say such because I don't want a big, heavy anyone up there doing it on such an old structure. The less weight up there, the less chance of any structural damage to the roof.

There is not going to be any further work on that trailer until the leaks are ALL plugged up. It is going to rain on Sunday, hopefully the stuff put on there tomorrow will be dried/set and see if the leaks have been stopped.

What is really - annoying - is the fact that I have these brand new roller blades sitting here that I've only been able to use once. After I got them and used them, it started raining. I don't do roller blading in the rain. Then I got sick. I don't do physical exertion when I'm sick, it just makes the sickness linger longer - like forever. Been there, done that. Going to work also causes sickness to stick around. In my case, breathing in that very cold morning air is another factor to making a bad situation MUCH worse. I have learned how my body reacts to all of this stuff over a lifetime of sickness here and there and the older I get,the more I am resolved that simply forcing myself to do nothing is always the best course of action in getting over this kind of thing.

I think today I will go outside and soak up some sun when it warms up a little more. Always a good thing, I think, to go sit outdoors and let the sunshine help bake it out of you. Maybe take a video of the progress made on the property thus-far, I haven't really done one in quite a while. The most current achievements are the advancement of getting 2/3rd's of the Drip Irrigation System operational. The Last Mohican is the front yard - that is coming along nicely as well. In fact, that is 2/3rd's done, too. To put it in the overall pic, I'm about 80% done with the system. Summer's coming, I keep reminding myself, don't let it go until summer hits and then I'm stuck out there watering an hour, hour and a half every day.

I have plenty of other projects to do out there when that system is done, it's not like I will EVER run out of things I want to do out there. Meanwhile, I have some money going every week into an ING savings account to eventually put ceramic floor tile in the kitchen, hallway, living room and utility room. Yes, it's a LOT of tile I will have to buy. I'm figuring around $800 worth of just the tile alone, which doesn't include everything else. I have been watching step-by-step videos of how to install such and am pondering the idea of doing it myself.

It isn't the physical labor that I'm afraid of, it's getting it right. To spend that much money on a project like that and have it turn out bad would not be good. I am watching Home Depot's class signups to get a personal training, live not on the internet, to show me how to do it. Home Depot has all kinds of classes with professionals who show how it's done correctly. It will be a while before I have the money, so, no big hurry. Probably the end of the year, to be honest, at the rate the savings account is going. I can't really afford anymore than I'm putting into it right now, and any room vacancies for tenants will subject that savings account to even slower savings - or none at all when I don't have fully 3 rooms filled with full-paying tenants.

Anyway, I'm offa here. Don't want to spend too much time doing anything but kicking back and relaxing.

ben

Misery

I have no idea how I dragged myself out of bed this morning, but I did indeed do such and here I am, at work, wanting to go home and go back to bed. I am miserably sick, my head feels like it was rolled over by a train. Unbelievably, this is a totally different illness than of that which I had only a few weeks ago.

I can thank my tenants for acquiring such. The new people in the trailer gave me the first round - those people are STILL coughing and hacking away from that same thing they've had for weeks now.

I can thank the ex-marine for giving me this miserable, pathetic, merciless piece of trash that is running around in my lungs and my head - and the rest of my body. The trip to the doc's office yesterday was short and to the point. The doc wrote out fully 3 presciptions plus gave me freebies of a 4th medicine. He threw in antibiotics because he wasn't sure that what I have is viral or bacterial - but from the way I feel and the fact that I have been on the meds since early yesterday afternoon, I'll assume it's viral.

I am actually going to ask my manager if I can go home when he shows up. There is nothing to do in the truck routing system, which is the only reason I showed up: get any work done that needs done, then leave. I can hardly fathom attempting to hang out around here all day long feeling like this.

Reading about Obama's "summit" I hope the GOP tells him to bug off. Obama was bent on getting that health care piece of trash sent though without any voice from the other side, even though one of his big campaign promises was that all of this stuff was going to be done at the bi-partisan level.

That stuff gets me riled up - how many presidents have ever kept their word between the campaign trail and actually being in office? I can't think of any, really. Yet they make such adament, impassioned campaign promises and pleas - why do they think we are just going to forget this stuff? Certainly with the news media giving him heck about it, even the most forgetful person will understand what is going on here.

Whatever. I'm in a grumpy mood - very little sleep last night and not feeling well.

Fry's Food Stores/Krogers Piss Poor Customer Service

This has gone on long enough.
Fry's Food Stores - all of them that I have visited which are more than 2 handfuls - have self-serve checkout.
Fry's does away with having more checkout lanes open by having up to 8 self-serve checkouts at the Fry's I go to - which is at 48th Street and Baseline in Tempe, Arizona.

Fry's obviously assesses they will save hoardes of money by having "fully" 2 full-serve cashiers operating while having anywhere from 4 to 8 - depending on the time of day and estimated amounts of customers coming through the self-serve checkouts.

This means that me, the consumer, is standing there at a computer screen, operating software generated so that even - well anyway, most people can use the software and successfully use the system to ring up their own goods and check themselves out.

Right?

Wrong. Period. End-of-story after being subjected to this S*** for at least a couple of years now.

The software generally will come up with a screen saying that a rep has been notified that you need help - when you didn't ask for help. You were buzzing along, putting the items on the scale, waiting the short period it takes for the computer to identify that the weight the scale shows increased by the item you put on there corresponds with the input that - whoever is responsible in the world of Fry's Food
Stores - has already pre-determined.

It is quite obvious that that software is totally FLAWED. Put an item on the scale and a hold-screen flashes up? Whose fault is that, the consumer's for flawed input?

But this isn't the worst of it. Oh nooooo, not at all. The worst of it is waiting for the one person attempting to help 8 people get to YOU. Oh, wait a minute, that's not always true, is it? In fact, MOST of the time it is not. The person responsible for making sure that hold-screens coming up are taken care of - ISN'T PAYING A DAMNED BIT OF ATTENTION TO THE FREAKING SCREENS - as evidenced yesterday by the fully FOUR Fry's employees standing at those "Command Screens" is what I call them, TOTALLY ignoring the screens, laughing and hoot-lawing it up.

I intend on taking videos of this SHIT from here on out and posting them on YouTube and let the whole world see that what I am saying is not a bunch of bahooey. I am SICK of the bullshit, and that's what it is, PURE, unadultered but totally analfied BULLSHIT.

If you are going to continue to treat your customers that way, I suggest you get RID of the self-checkout and revert back to the "old-fashioned" way of doing things. Oh, that doesn't work out too well, either, does it? I saw fully 8 people in the 2 available full-service checkout lines today. If I had been waiting in that mess, I would have walked straight to the manager's office and demanded more cashiers, even if it meant HIM getting out there and doing it.

I don't see Safeway treating their customer in such a foul manner. They don't HAVE self-checkout, instead, they keep adding more and more personel to open up more cashier lanes as needed - and yes, I have seen the GM of the store on MANY occasions checking out customers. I do MOST of my grocery shopping at Fry's, but I am doing 20% of it elsewhere. That figure has gone up since what I used to do and I will increase it to 50% if the level of "service" at their stores continues.

The real blow, however, will come when I start posting videos of this junk going on on multiple websites.

Oh, and there is the "other" problem that persists: the alarms going off when people walk out the door. Do you people at Fry's think that is some kind of joke? MOSTLY customers that aren't stealing ANYTHING are being "caught". It's offensive and I will not stop at it if it goes off, but I have learned to find those metal with plastic coating strips and just take them off, THROW THEM ON THE FLOOR, before walking out of the store.

I intend on standing in the full-service lanes from now-on. If there are more than 2 of them ahead of me, I am going to complain to management. Or, alternately, if I see 1 person attending more than 4 stations at the self-service checkout, I know for a fact from Fry's corporate that their policy is TWO attendants for both sides of the deal going on. I will post videos of it - however long or short - and post them over and over and over until Fry's - takes action.

Wednesday

I'm basically coughing and hacking away at this point. However, I am still not sure if this is a viral infection or just extremely bad allergies. It could be either. One thing I know, I have no desire whatsoever to pay $100 copay to go see a doc at a urgent clinic. They upped it from $50. Hospital visit up from $100 to $200. Moral to the story - don't get sick, right?

If it is not viral, they can give me a shot that will deal with this stuff quite effectively is the only reason to elaborate on this. I have had one before - whatever it is - it takes the punch right out of whatever is afflicting me and I feel "right as rain" for at least several weeks after that.

I suppose I could try to get in to see my doc - but that's usually a failed attempt. I have thought about getting a new doc just because it's so freakin' hard to get in to see this guy, but I think all of these Cigna docs are just as busy. They presume you go to Urgent Clinics - which are everywhere but give me a huge break here. I go to Urgent Clinics when I need stitches, not for draining in my sinuses going down my throat all night long, into my lungs and causing me to feel - not well at all - the next day. I would consider it at the $50 co-pay, I'll try OTC medicines at $100.

I went to bed last night at 8:00pm - fitful sleep. Kept waking up to cough. I don't feel particularly tired right now, but then again, the work day hasn't started yet and I ain't pullin' orders, loading a semi and driving it all over creation.

Hmm, I just went to mycigna.com and was reviewing my coverages. I know that flyer they sent out said $100 for a copay, but my page shows it still at $50, while the hospital visit definitely went up another $100 to $200. Well, I'll suffer this a few days and see what happens, if it doesn't get better then I'll make the visit.

Changing the subject, hey, why don't we spend a BILLION dollars on a new embassy? Economy? WHAT economy? Oh, and then there's Reid whose string of verbal gaffes are as predictable as the ticking of a clock. Men, if you are unemployed, then you ARE going to get violent against your spouse. This was his statement to the masses that should have jaws dropping everywhere. Where are the demands the this freak should resign? Or the incident talking about Obama as being a "light skinned negro"? There was another one that I can't seem to drum up in memory at this point in time.

Then there's these full-body scanners - do you want some guy or dude looking at your privates at an airport by simply looking at a screen that has a device that basically looks right through your clothing? I didn't think so.

Have a nice day.
ben

Tuesday

This posting will include refernences to the Almighty, The Creator - GOD. If you don't like such and that particular topic offends you, I advise you to not read this entry. I take no responsibility for the intended effect that God may place upon your heart in bringing salvation to your soul as that is always HIS work, not mine.

2 subjects regarding such.

First is my "old friend" from over 26 years ago, who showed up on my Facebook account, said hi and then wanted to get together. Something nagging at me, I had already confirmed a date with him and my son to go to a shooting range. I ended up blowing that off because Caleb got into trouble and we weren't about to be doing anything in recreational terms.

Then, he sent me his phone number and I said I would call, but failed to. I remembered what the nagging was. The last time I saw him, he had come to my door - my parent's house at the time I was in my 20's, home visiting from the mission field if I recall correctly. He had his baby in a stroller. He started complaining about his cousin, Ron, who had "inadvertently" given his life over to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, had been filled with the Holy Spirit and was speaking in tongues.

Although I don't normally go around telling people that I also had same such conversion, including speaking in tongues - I wasn't about to condemn a man for engaging in something that I had already doing for a couple of years at that point. I informed him of such. He got very mad, called it all bullshit and walked away, mumbling under his breath. I never heard from him again - until a couple of weeks ago.

I wrote him a candid letter. I didn't feel that us getting together was going to accomplish anything at all - in fact - probably pretty negative - if he was still of the same mind about such things, as I have not changed my view of it since then and won't be huddling in fear because someone on this planet - or lots of someones - doesn't like the idea and think I am a fool and an idiot to believe and engage in such. I frankly don't care what anyone thinks about it, I will state that here and I will state it to a person's face if they are getting cocky about it, which I have seen hundreds if not thousands of times in my Christian life in witnessing or talking to people about the Lord. I don't even bring that particular subject up - speaking in tongues - as I consider it a private matter that is between the Lord and I, not between the world, God and I.

He wrote back. I was surprised, he was totally apologetic. He said he was an arrogant idiot in those days, didn't know anything, that he is now a "Servant of the Lord" - his words - and that he doesn't feel that way about it at all now. I have not returned his email, I just got it today and I am not feeling well, again.

I was sitting here last night and the ex-marine was out here, coughing and hacking all over the place. I had assumed it was the sickness I had already gone through so I didn't really care. I guess I should have, because I now have a very sore throat, my lungs are not feeling right and I don't feel well. Wonderful. AGAIN? In such a short period of time?

Whatever. I'm just going to take it easy, go to work yes, but otherwise not much of anything else until this passes.

Onto the other thing concerning the Lord. The "homeless" people living in the trailer. I don't talk much about my giving nature to people at work or acquaintences because I am not inclined to hear their condemnation of such people or that they are wondering why I am helping people when I am in financial doldrums myself. Again, I don't CARE what anyone else thinks about the things I do concerning the Lord. I am not afraid to discuss such with people, but why bother? Who wants to listen to people's very negative opinion of ALL homeless people, they MUST all be lazy bums, right?

Just a small question: HOW WOULD YOU KNOW? Have you ever spent any amount of time talking to people in that situation? I have spent 25 years doing such. There ARE lazy bums out there, no doubt. Then there's the rest - all kinds of stories, all kinds of situations - all leading to one place: no shelter over their heads.

I wrote to my dad about what I am doing with these people. I had a little trepidation about such - he is sending me money every month until - whenever he decides not to I guess. I did not ask him for money or even hint at such, he sent a check at the beginning of the month some time ago and those checks have arrived near the 1st of the month ever since.

But, I know my dad. He has been helping the homeless forever. His entire ministry has been full of giving food, blankets, whatever aid he could to such people. He wrote back:
I read your EMail and it about brought tears to my eyes. In all your own troubles our Lord leads you to help a homeless couple!
"Even as you do it unto the least of
these my brothers and sisters,
you do it unto me."
I was very happy to receive this kind of response from my dad, really. Remember that some time ago, the Lord confirmed this move to me in a scripture that was printed on paper that basically fell out of an envelope that had been sent to me asking for more money for Haiti. Hogwash, right? I was searching for confirmation at that VERY point in time. I don't need to question how God speaks to us, He does it in a thousand million different ways.

God is good. He always has been, He always will be.

AS for today, since I'm writing an entry, I drove both up into the northeast mountains of AZ and down to the desert Southwest in Casa Grande. The roads in the mountains were covered with black ice, everything else was coated in snow. It was absolutely beautiful - but I am no fan of driving on icy roads. I slowed down well below the speed limit and cruised at a safe and reasonable speed considering the conditions. Everyone else was doing the same.

I am tired and again, not feeling well. This is what, the 3rd strain of virus I have acquired in 3 months time? Remind me to get up and walk away from people sneezing, hacking and coughing without even attempting to cover their mouth in the future. I am sick - of being sick.
ben

Ice

I went out to get into my car to go to work today and saw a rather amazing sight. Ice - the entire car from front to back was covered with a sheet of ice. That might be common for you people in the "cold" states, but I rarely ever see that happening. I also don't have tools such as a scraper to get that stuff off of the windshield.

My concern, however, turned immediately to my plants. I didn't watch or read the weather report last night, if I had known it was going to ice over, I would have covered my plants. I can only hope that they aren't all going to keel over and die.

I am allegedly making a trip to Miami today - the rain stopped yesterday but I have no idea what it's doing up north. This company I am delivering doesn't "do" rain, they simply shut down and go home under such conditions. I would like to make the drive up there - it's a very scenic and beautiful stretch of road that I have taken several videos of and pics as well, I'm going to have to upload all of that stuff and post at least one of them on here or KCL. I don't remember which host is easier to do such with.

The world of tenancy is staying at even keel at the moment. The newest tenant called me yesterday - I rarely ever see the guy - and asked if we were good with this month's rent or how much did he owe? I would have loved to tell him another $200 or something, but that would have been a lie, I reminded him that we had agreed that he was paid up for the month and that the $375 would start next month, which, thankfully, is almost here. My "reserves" have been drawn down a bit with buying and renovating that trailer. I pretty much put buying anything else for it on hold for a while, I am not going to go broke fixing the thing up and that guy can certainly go out and hustle up some work somewhere and buy some of this material himself.

I have bought a few more items for the sprinkler system - it want to finish that project or at least get it operable. I'm getting close to done with it. I won't buy a timer for awhile, the good ones are expensive and I don't have to have it to make the system work.

Speaking of the newest tenant, he did spend the night and I heard him snoring, loudly, out in the kitchen this morning. He warned me of such before he moved in. I shrugged my shoulders - the ex Marine is across the hall from him, he's half deaf anyway. I'm half a house away from that bedroom. I have no idea if it's bothering the other guy or not.

Anyway, work day approacheth.

G'day.
ben

Monday

Sorry about the ads, folks, but if some other site is going to "steal" the info I scour the web for or get from neighbors in Cafe World, or figure out on my own and then post it on their site with all kinds of ads, then I'm going to do the same thing - to a lessor degree. I doubt it makes much money - I'm sure it's based on the number of hits and it is probably tracked as to whether anyone actually buys something or not, I had heard that that's what happened on KCL. Google took down the ads because we were all clicking on them - but we weren't buying anything, lol.

Work day didn't start off too well. Unlocked the front door, went in and the alarm hadn't been turned on. Had an order palletized, shrink-wrapped and taped, ready to go, a salesman had come in over the weekend and had taken material off the pallet to sell to someone else. They didn't bother to leave a note saying who had done it and what they had taken - meaning I had to take the pallet apart, go through my list and make sure everything was there - which it was not, of course.

Then there is the driving stupidity - all over the place. Take, for example, the guy in the pickup ahead of me on a 2-lane highway out on the Indian Reservation. We came up to 2 vehicles going about 30mph on this 55mph highway. This driver put on his turn signal and proceeded into oncoming traffic lane - with vehicles only 400 feet away coming directly at him. Wanting no part of what was going to happen, I hit my brakes heavy to get back from his vehicle while he smashes head-on into the oncoming traffic.

The oncoming cars head off to the emergency lane, he apparently realizes his life is about to be over and he gets back into our lane. He waits for traffic to pass and then goes out again. This time, there is traffic coming, but a little further out. Same thing - he's going to get into a collision. A freaking nutcase. How do these people get driver's licenses? This time, a whole slew of cars veer off onto the emergency lane and are stopping while this nitwit passes these cars.

On down the line, I watch a car decide to put on his turn signal and then move over to the lane next to him. Problem was, there was a car RIGHT there, beside him. This driver didn't even bother to look to see if the lane was occupied. The driver that was about to get hit saw what was happening and veered off into the lane next to him.

I see this happen yet AGAIN - totally different car and driver.

It's amazing MANY more people aren't killed in traffic in this area than there already are.

My trip to Miami was cancelled. It was raining this morning and I had this feeling I better call and make sure they are working. Sure enough, they had driven up there and were about to leave - pouring rain and they don't work in the rain.

Long break. I went outside and repaired the ruptured tubing on Phase II of the drip irrigation system. That phase is all but done. Only need tweaking on the amount of water dripping onto any given plant. I did not go out front and continue with Phase III but figure to do so in a few minutes. It is very windy outside and the temp has dropped considerably. It is the Arizona Sonoran Desert version of winter and I absolutely LOVE it. I have no clue why the weather forecasters think it's so great that the temps are going up - in to the 70's last week.

What, did they forget that HELL is coming in the form of wicked high temperatures in just a few, short months? Why are they so bent on ensuring the temp goes UP? They talk about rain in a negative view - There ARE times when I need to get things done that rain interferes with, but 99% of my view of rain - BRING IT ON AND KEEP THE FAUCET OPEN!~!! We're in a DROUGHT, why would they talk about rain like that? I LOVE overcast skies!! In a few months, we won't see overcast skies probably for 3 straight months, at least.

If you have an IQ of 65 or more, you too can be a weather forecaster. I could GUESS better than they forecast.

I haven't really paid too much attention to the news today - I could guess most of it anyway. Obama's health care; Iran's nukes. That about sums it up. Lol.

Yes, I am headed outside, it's really nice regardless of what any of the other "locals" think.

G'day.
ben

White American (Brandy Drink Recipe)

I recently had "need", I guess I can say, for having some brandy. I am no a big fan of taking shots of liquor - call me a wimp, I just don't care for it. I had - and still have - a very long splinter stuffed down into my left-hang, ring-finger fingernail. It was very painful at the time - I wanted to deaden the pain versus going to a doc and paying money I didn't want to spend - and dig into my flesh to get it out.

I searched the net for brandy drinks and found nothing that fit the bill. Having had White Russians in the past, I decide to go ahead and make my own variant of it with Brandy.

It's a very simply recipe, really. A shot of Brandy, a large "2 fingerfuls" of brown sugar, milk and ice. Pour the brandy into a glass; take the large fingerful of brown sugar, dump it into the glass; pour milk until the Brandy is whitened - reallyteh same as a White Russian as you would whiten the coffee liquor - ice it up nicely and stir. You can add brown sugar to taste, really. I don't like sweet - sweet drinks - I rarely ever drink soda or anything that has sugar in it, I just put in enough to deaden the briskness of the alcohol and the milk helps with that to some degree as well.

Also, I would imagine a splash of pure Vanilla would go great with this - I didn't have any but I could bet it would make it taste all that much better. You might also get away with a pinch of cinnamon - this is almost like cooking, keep trying stuff until you have the perfect drink!

You saw it here - I have scoured the internet for a brandy drink with brown sugar and as far as I could see, it doesn't exist, but, of course, I could be wrong.

If They're Going To Do It, So Am I!!!

I am refering to sites coming to my blog, copying entire posts and posting them on their sites. They are making money off of it, I am making nothing. I did NOT give these sites permission to steal my content and display it all over the place - but - being the internet I assume it's legal to do that. Or not? I have no idea.

My Cafe World tips are being published all over the place. I no more entered the Cafe World tip today - tip 9 - and it was published on a site only a few minutes after putting it on here. I don't really care if someone is using the info for their own, personal uses, but to be making money off of it by placing it on a pay site that has dozens of ads on there, too?

Bunk. I am monetizing my blog. I doubt a person makes much money off of it, but I will feel better that anyone coming here is "subjected" to ads rather than having entities "stealing" my content and posting it elsewhere without my knowledge. I was looking for a trick/cheat/whatever to find out how one of my neighbors has acquired over 1,200,000 cafe points in about a week's time and found my blog and some of it's Cafe World contents posted on several "pay" sites in the search I was doing.

Onto other things - just kind of steams me a little that people are taking my content and reposting it elsewhere without even asking.

I remembered - not too long ago - that I have to get up even earlier than I normally do to be at work early. I have 2 deliveries tomorrow that necessitate I come in and get out of there as fast as possible. First delivery is in Miami, AZ, the second is in Casa Grande. These 2 places aren't exactly close to each other - one up in the mountains and the other in the desert southwest. Plus 2 pickups.

I said I could do it under a few conditions. 1: That I come in early and get out of the branch early. 2: That the orders are pulled and on the truck when I arrive Monday. I pulled one of the orders, the other came in late when I was going home, but the branch manager said he would pull the second order. 3: that I don't have to do a bunch of running around to get items to complete the orders.

3 was not necessarily adhered to, but the pickups are close to the 2cd delivery, so hopefully not a big deal. I always try to get the stuff done, is all I can say about that.

Uhhh, like 5 hours have passed since I started this post. Things started happening and I had to deal with it.

Also, my Catahoula will go outside, stand at the sliding glass door - next to where I sit and surf the net - and stare at me. Lol. She doesn't want me to sit inside the house, she wants me to go out there and do whatever I do in my property in tending to plants and watering and landscaping. I usually give into her "demands" and go outside to start engaging in whatever suits my fancy out there. Today it was digging a "tunnel" underneath the east gate to run a water line under it for the front. Drip system.

I did get that accomplished, ran the 1/2-inch line all the way around 3 walls of the front yard and then started installing 1/4 inch line with emitters for individual plants. All 3 dogs were out there at this point.

I have nothing more as I am going to bed early for an even earlier rise than normal in the am.

G'nite.

ben

Cafe World Spice Rack Tip 9: How To Acquire All Spice Rack Components In 5 Minutes

Too good to be true?
I clicked on the links for each piece: the shelves; jars and lids and yes, I had all of it in less than 5 minutes. When you finish the lids, you get $5 CAFE WORLD CASH, on the other items you get free gold coins.
Wanna get hold of the link?
Please send me $19.95 plus shipping and handling and I will send you the ultimate Cafe World Tips and Tricks Cheats.
OH, wait a minute, I'm not really doing that, but if you use it - please at least leave a nice little comment at the bottom of this entry, it IS a freebie, after all!

Edited: The link I had posted has been taken down. I found other links to do the same thing:

http://f372000f.linkbucks.com/

http://b3f6d12f.linkbucks.com/

http://b80a11d9.linkbucks.com/

http://fa4c03a3.linkbucks.com/

http://da0f8c88.linkbucks.com/

Copy and paste that into your browser, then click on each link on that page until you have all the items to complete your spice rack. The items go straight to your spice rack inventory, NOT your gifts section, you need only click on the links on the URL posted above and that's it!
I have no idea how long this cheat is going to last. I'm not sure if this is a hack or what - I am not a compute genious and therefore, I will let one of you readers that is a computer geek/genious please come back and tell me.
Thanks!
..........and you're welcome!

Edited: You will also get a free spice rack - just go to your inventory, click on the windows icon and you will find the spice rack in there which you can place on your Cafe World wall somewhere.

Edit 2: The spice rack isn't actually doing anything yet, Cafe World has yet to release the spices OR how it is going to be implemented/work. There is a tab in the spice rack to click on that signs you up for "advanced" information about what is coming next, but I have yet to be able to get that tab to work.
I am presuming that spices will have to be gifted to you by neighbors to actually acquire them (also and quite probably, you will have the option to buy them with actual money). I am also assuming the reason it isn't available yet is because they haven't finished building the application yet. Still, it can't hurt to get your spice rack assembled in advance and have it ready for whenever Zynga has it operational/live on-site.

Saturday

2 projects that I will continue working on this weekend. The drip watering system and the trailer. I'm actually far more interested in getting the drip system closer to finished than working on the trailer. The guy has been working on that thing pretty much daily and is getting quite a lot done with it. He will not, however, even touch that paneling - which I don't want him to anyway since he doesn't seem confident in being able to make good cuts.

Onto another subject, that concerning fin. KCL's owners state that he made some pretty hurtful comments on another person's blog on KCL - I saw one of the comments but I did not see the one/s they were talking about, apparently they removed both the comments AND blocked fin from KCL. They also called him a coward because his comments were made anonymously. I'm of the type to reserve judgement and hear it from the person's mouth as to why the comments were made and what the intent was. Dear fin, if you read this, do you care to illucidate?

I have someone coming over at 11:00 am to takealookit the house. The end of the month is getting closer and closer, I would like to "snag" someone and get them in here, paying money, as soon as possible. In other words, get that room occupied the day after it is vacated, or even the same day and attempt to keep the money flowing from it. I have no idea about the newest guy - he is only here a couple nights a week and I have seen him a few times at most. I don't even know if he's here right now.

Someone left an anonymous comment on this blog about how they have never had a bad encounter with Direct TV. Yes, all 2 times you called them they were nice to you? I have been dealing with that company for almost 10 years now and I can say with finality that they have some of THE - WORST - customer service ON EARTH. I ALWAYS balk at ANY company that is farming their incoming 800 call centers out to other nations. Direct TV's goes to India - another comment was made that they always speak to an American. Well I'm happy for you, keep calling, you will hear a voice on the other end of the line, eventually, that has a deep, thick accent and if you really get a bad one, you won't be able to understand a thing they are saying. I almost NEVER get an American on the phone, it's 95% of the time going to be an India Indian on the other end of the line.

They have nothing more to say to you than what is written on a computer screen sitting in front of them. If you have an issue, you will HAVE to talk to management and if it's a serious issue, you will HAVE to call over and over before you get an acceptable resolution to the problem. IF you never have an issue with their service, THEN you don't have to call them, all well and fine. I have to wonder if it was Direct TV employees that left those messages here? I remember one occasion where I spent several DAYS making phone calls to that company before getting a resolution that I felt was anything even close to being fair. They COULDN'T CARE LESS if your "experience" with them is satisfactory - they may say they care, but their actions definitely speak much louder than their words. I was going to cancel the service and start up with Dish Network again - I don't really like EITHER of the 2, available satellite companies, but - you can get new, free equipment if you simply shut off one service after the contract period is up - 2 years - and go to the other company.

They lengthened the term of my contract beyond 2 years after I called last year about the theft of the receiver in Mary's room - Mary stole it and never returne it, even after I called the police who also contacted her about it - Direct TV gave me a new receiver for free, I only had to pay the shipping costs. They did NOT disclose at that time that by doing such - getting the free receiver - they were going to extend the contract a full year from the date of receiving the receiver. So, instead of January, it is now July that I have to continue with their service.

Direct TV's stance is that they did me such a great service by giving that receiver to me for free. Yes, well Direct TV gives away all KINDS of free receivers to new customers, I appreciated what they did at the time, but I probably would not have taken the "deal" had I known about the little extended contract clause. Craigslist is FULL of receivers - all kinds of them on there. People are losing their jobs, they're also dumping the satellite. Their loss my gain - I am going to buy another one for the "trailer people" - they will have to pay me back for it - off of Craigslist. Another 5 months of DirectTV? I am not through with them yet. I intend on making a phone call campaign next week to top all campaigns. IF they are going to force you to stay with the service another full year after receiving that unit, they BETTER disclose that information at the time the deal is being made. I can guarantee you that they did NOT say any such thing to me on the phone when such was occuring - it would have sent alert flags up in my brain telling me to stop and think about whether I want this deal or not.

There are some GREAT deals on satellite and cable going right now - one deal is up to 6 full rooms from Dish Network, plus the satellite dish and installation for free. Probably a 2 year contract, great, where do I sign up? I'm not afraid of these contracts, I don't see it unfair that you get all that equipment and you have to be with them for X amount of time. But when that time is up, don't try playing some freakin' game to extend it even further. I do believe I could bring my monthly bill down by switching and yes, I do want the newer equipment, these receivers don't last forever.

Rant over.

So am I, I am going to do my Sunday cleaning today - in fact right now - in preparation for the potential tenant's arrival.

G'day, folks.
ben

Cat Stew

GROSS. I was reading an article online about some famous Italian chef who started going on about cat stew and how wonderful "feline flesh" is. I cannot possibly fathom eating any kind of cat meat, ever. The idea of it is totally and absolutely repulsive to me. Not because I'm a cat lover - I happen to HATE cats actually - but I just don't see cats as an edible substance.`

Of course there was a public outcry and charges of animal cruelty - which I find totally bogus. We eat cows and chickens and pigs with impunity, there is no public outcry about that. Many countries eat dog meat as if it were ground beef, it's that popular. Horse flesh and all kinds of other animals are eaten - including raw bird meat in certain Asian countries - where's the outcry about that?

I personally could care less if a person wants to eat any kind of animal, but if you happen to love dog flesh, PLEASE stay AWAY from my dogs and my property: I have video surveillance, I will see who you are and you will hope that I never find you after you've eaten my beloved Great Danes. Get your OWN dogs/cats/horses/donkeys/whatever to eat.

You see, I don't see the correlation here. If it isn't animal cruelty to shoot a cow in the head to kill it, then drain it, then use every last part of it for everything from leather jackets to dog feed, how is it different with any other kind of animal? I can see such in a case of an endangered species. Lol, cats are certainly not an endangered species. Because I don't like it doesn't mean that those that do should be stopped from "enjoying" such. I couldn't even put a thimbleful of cat meat into my mouth, the idea of eating it is THAT repulsive to me, but to each his own. What moral arguments can you produce about eating a cat? If it's someone else's property, sure, otherwise, all bets are off. In the eyes of the law, that I know of, animals are chattel and nothing more.

Onto other things. I took a delivery out to a jobsite today - that's a daily thing for me, of course, that's pretty much my job description. I pulled that order and loaded it - anymore, I am pulling most of the orders I am delivering - I am responsible for screwups. The salesman on that account calls my manager and asks to know why I hadn't delivered the bolts and gaskets that were on that order?

Manager says hole'on, lemee look at the ticket - giving me the benefit of the doubt, he wants to SEE that stuff on the delivery ticket. NOT there. I am not a big fan of taking the blame for something I haven't done, but I've done it many times over to take the pressure off of the salesman who will look stupid in the eyes of the contractor. This salesman starts drilling my manager: well, there was (this that and the other item)on the ticket - you should have known they needed this stuff with it. Lol

LolX1,000. This is the salesman for the account. He has an inside salesman assigned to him to speak with purchasing agents at contractor's offices and write up tickets. WE are NOT mind readers, we get the ticket, we pull the order. Sometimes we question things based on what the order contains, most of the time we don't have time for that, pull the order and deliver it. To try and shift blame to people who have NOTHING to do with writing up the order is very lame, imo. We KNOW they will need those other parts to be able to do the job, but we don't know if they already have the stuff. We assume since it's not on the order - and certainly any salesman would know to ask if they need those parts - they don't need it, they must already have that stuff on hand. Happens frequently - contractors have leftover parts from jobs they have already completed.

I thought, gee, if you want us to contact the contractor and ask them every time whether they need this, that and the other thing to go along with all of that, maybe they should just get rid of the in and outside salesmen and we'll just do their job for them.

NOT. If that were possible, I'm sure it would already be implemented. Instead - we all have X amount of hours in the day to get X amount of whatever our assigned duties are. It's called TEAMWORK, a very good idea that works very well when all players are on the same page.

I have, actually, no problem in making duplicate trips to a jobsite in the same day, it's my job, take out parts to contractors that need them. I do, however, have a problem being blamed for something I had nothing to do with. Not that I will ever voice that (excepting here, where I write out my thoughts freely for the world to see) - I tend to try and keep a good attitude regardless of what's going on - or what fingers or judgments are being given to a person that are unjust at best. It's the idea that a person or persons will NOT own up to taking responsibility for their actions - or in this case, lack of action. Because the salesmen missed this imputes responsiblity to me? HOW, is my question. It does NOT, is my definitive answer.

However, I have determined that since this particular salesman thinks we should double-check his work and his inside salesman's work - which is all he has to do, all day long - his total, complete job description: contact contractors, take orders and write them up - find the materials if we don't have them and order them - I will start calling the foreman at the jobsite in advance to determine that the material being delivered is correct, complete and that nothing is being left out. I did that today before taking the 4 parts - a total weight of about 2 pounds - out there.

Do I have time for that? No. I don't. I have plenty of tasks to do in a day that keep my plate full. Guess I'll have to heap that plate now.

You could call this a rant or venting, I suppose it's a little of that. Mostly, I dislike people who never own up to their own junk - they ALWAYS have to blame someone else.

Fortunately - I am also able to brush such things off after a short period of time. I can guarantee you this will not be going to bed with me tonight, in fact, it's already history -I just like to write about the things that happen in my daily life, such as the man that decided he was going to come into my lane today. Ummm, the problem with that? He was NEXT to me. What kind of moron drives a vehicle and doesn't even bother to look beside them to see a vehicle is RIGHT there? I'm a very alert driver - I saw it happening and laid on the horn to get his attention. He swerved back into his own lane and then - proceeded to flip me off. ROFL!!! I find this amusing because this guy was the driver making the error, not me in any way, shape or form, yet - he gets angry at ME? LOL!!! I was in my car, btw, not the semi. Yes, well the beautiful blonde next to him in the front seat undoubtedly was the cause of the "distraction".

I am done with this, I have things to do and I want to get them done before the sun goes down.
G'day.
ben