.......to shut off the irrigation drip system ever again. I did it several times last month - sometimes up to 10 hours, just totally forgetting I had turned it on. My water bill was almost $100 higher than normal. I KNEW it was going to affect my bill, I didn't know it was going to be that much. Perhaps there is merit to installing an automatic controller after all.
Regardless, I will be setting a timer whenever I turn it on and that will remind me, if I forget (which I get the feeling I won't be having much of a problem with now that it's biting my wallet) to turn it off.
I stepped on the scale today at both branches of my work - same reading: 196 pounds. I haven't seen it this low in a long time now. Not that that's "low" by skinny standards, but I am definitely making progress, albeit ever-so-loving-slowly. I don't care how slow the progress is, as long as there is progress. If I ever break into the 180's range, that will set something off in my brain to simply finish this thing off and get it over with. I'm trying not to get overly excited about today's readings - in my quest to lost weight, I have noticed that it will go up and down around a particular weight before it finally goes down to a lower "setting". I'm not taking drugs, eating fancy diet foods or doing much of anything different except watching what I eat. Even then, if I eat something "bad", I just don't eat much of it. A bagel today? Probably not the greatest thing for a diet, but it was the only thing I ate until I got off of work. I then had a chicken sandwich - small sandwich and it had no mayonaisse or cheese on it (good thing).
Mostly, and again, I have been finding that just cutting out the cheese in my diet has ramped this thing up quite a lot. Non-fat dressings also are the only thing I am using, not reduced or half -fat - I want NO fat and LOW calories. My Subway salads are now done without any cheese or sauces. Just red wine vinegar. There are times when I just have to have some cheese on something - I infrquently indulge. I ate a LOT of cheese up until the point not long ago that I realized that that stuff is loaded with fat calories. LOTS of them. It was tough to stop eating that stuff, but I have managed to mostly stay away from it. I have not had any mayonaisse on anything and I have not digressed into using ranch fat filled dressings like I used to.
As I say, the only way to effectively diet if you just want to cut back on calories and change nothing else is to be anal about it. Inspect every nutrition label. If you have something without one, look it up online. I get plenty of exercise at work, btw, and also my yard doings, so - I figured if I could just get the eating part down right, walaah. And, walaah it is.
As for now? My UV Sterilizer came in the mail today and I already have it hooked up. Thought I'd go outside, in the shade over by the ponds and sit there with a cold drink and listen to the sounds of the water and watch the fishies eating.
Later.
ben
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Wednesday
Interesting times we are living in.
Lots of buzz about this being the end times referred to in various places throughout the Bible, but most specifically in the book of Revelations. If you've never read that particular book of the Bible, I heartily encourage anyone to take however long it takes and read that book straight through. There is some pretty incredible stuff in there.
Trailer tenants will be moving out - probably next month or so. He is getting his Social Security retirement benefits and they also suggested that he probably qualifies for SSI. We were discussing this yesterday and, of course, I brought up the subject of them possibly getting their own apartment or something. They already have a place in mind. I'm not trying to get rid of them, not at all. It's just that living in that trailer undoubtedly isn't the greatest thing on earth. If he were taking in around $1,400 per month in benefits if he got both of those, well, they could easily find a place that includes electric and water for less than $500 per month. They would still have money left over to get the cable and whatever else they want. It's not a LOT of money, of course, but for people that have been living in sheds and moving around from place to place, well, it's a gold mine.
I am not sure what I am going to do with that trailer once they are gone. I'm thinking get rid of it. I only got it to help them. I could use the money. Take the Mastercool evap unit off of it, sell it separately for $100 and then sell the trailer for $700. Of course, God doesn't always have me doing the things that I think I am going to do, it's possible that someone will "appear" out of the blue that needs a place to live.
"We set conditions (for talks) so that, God willing, you'll be punished a bit and sit at the negotiating table like a polite child,"
That is Iran's "president" talking about the U.S. What a piece of work this guy is. We need to be punished, this is laughable. I guess more laughable is the idea of our President doing anything concrete about this situation with Iran's nukes. The only real source of hope I have for eliminating this threat is Israel, who apparently is well into talks trying to get passage through the skies of different nations that they would have to fly over to carry out a mission to destroy the facilities. It's going to happen, one way or the other. Israel is not going to sit around waiting for Iran to get nukes, it's just not going to happen. Whether it is the beginning of WWIII, who knows. Better get your hearts and minds right with the Lord is all I can say about that, in preparing for a worst-case scenario where the entire world becomes a theatre for war. You think I'm crazy, that's fine. The Iranians and others with the same mindset think the U.S. and Israel should be destroyed. They think it's our "just" punishment.
Onto other things. I checked my savings account yesterday, up to a whopping $137. I had it up to over $300 and then ran into financial roadblock and took out some money to save me. I still have differing amounts being taken out of my checking account throughout the month and being deposited into the ING account. It's small amounts - $5 and $10 - but there are a lot of them. I don't miss the money gone and I certainly can't say that, in a bind, I abhor the idea of having had put some money aside in case I have an emergency. Frankly, I need at least $800 in there - in case AC goes out. That's what it costs to fix it under warranty, and the warranty still has a couple of years left in it.
I never did get the AC fixed in my car, I am driving around in this heat without it, and I can say that it dramatically reduces ANY desire to go ANYWHERE once I get home from work. Not a bad plan, actually - just don't drive the thing, save the gas, done. I just don't have the money to fix it - almost $400 - right now, suffer like lots of other drivers that have their windows down while driving in 107 degree heat.
I fixed the leaking pond yesterday, wanted to give the patch overnight before doing anything. I will fill that pond up, put most of the plants in it and transfer the fish to the other pond that I have had sitting there, full of water, just letting the water get "ready" for them.
BTW, my ideas that water can be cooled via evap cooling were definitely spot on. In the large pond, I have a pump that is shooting water almost straight up into the air. It comes back down on a rock structure that I layered in there - this structure is about a foot and a half or more above the water level. The water sprays all over. Even after sitting in the direct sunlight all day long, that water is cool. The other pond? I just have a filter going on it. That water gets warm. My thoughts are just that I'm glad that the water DOES cool and I don't have to worry about coming home and finding baked fish floating on the surface. The cost - running a low wattage pump all day long. Yeah, well whatever. Electric use is around $14 per day right now. It came down a buck or so with putting that sytrofoam in the kitchen sliding glass door. The difference in that room in the afternoon is palpable.
Oh, the only drawback to the evap cooled pond is that it loses several gallons a day of water - that's the way it works.
Well, work dayis almos here, I'm outta here.
ben
Lots of buzz about this being the end times referred to in various places throughout the Bible, but most specifically in the book of Revelations. If you've never read that particular book of the Bible, I heartily encourage anyone to take however long it takes and read that book straight through. There is some pretty incredible stuff in there.
Trailer tenants will be moving out - probably next month or so. He is getting his Social Security retirement benefits and they also suggested that he probably qualifies for SSI. We were discussing this yesterday and, of course, I brought up the subject of them possibly getting their own apartment or something. They already have a place in mind. I'm not trying to get rid of them, not at all. It's just that living in that trailer undoubtedly isn't the greatest thing on earth. If he were taking in around $1,400 per month in benefits if he got both of those, well, they could easily find a place that includes electric and water for less than $500 per month. They would still have money left over to get the cable and whatever else they want. It's not a LOT of money, of course, but for people that have been living in sheds and moving around from place to place, well, it's a gold mine.
I am not sure what I am going to do with that trailer once they are gone. I'm thinking get rid of it. I only got it to help them. I could use the money. Take the Mastercool evap unit off of it, sell it separately for $100 and then sell the trailer for $700. Of course, God doesn't always have me doing the things that I think I am going to do, it's possible that someone will "appear" out of the blue that needs a place to live.
"We set conditions (for talks) so that, God willing, you'll be punished a bit and sit at the negotiating table like a polite child,"
That is Iran's "president" talking about the U.S. What a piece of work this guy is. We need to be punished, this is laughable. I guess more laughable is the idea of our President doing anything concrete about this situation with Iran's nukes. The only real source of hope I have for eliminating this threat is Israel, who apparently is well into talks trying to get passage through the skies of different nations that they would have to fly over to carry out a mission to destroy the facilities. It's going to happen, one way or the other. Israel is not going to sit around waiting for Iran to get nukes, it's just not going to happen. Whether it is the beginning of WWIII, who knows. Better get your hearts and minds right with the Lord is all I can say about that, in preparing for a worst-case scenario where the entire world becomes a theatre for war. You think I'm crazy, that's fine. The Iranians and others with the same mindset think the U.S. and Israel should be destroyed. They think it's our "just" punishment.
Onto other things. I checked my savings account yesterday, up to a whopping $137. I had it up to over $300 and then ran into financial roadblock and took out some money to save me. I still have differing amounts being taken out of my checking account throughout the month and being deposited into the ING account. It's small amounts - $5 and $10 - but there are a lot of them. I don't miss the money gone and I certainly can't say that, in a bind, I abhor the idea of having had put some money aside in case I have an emergency. Frankly, I need at least $800 in there - in case AC goes out. That's what it costs to fix it under warranty, and the warranty still has a couple of years left in it.
I never did get the AC fixed in my car, I am driving around in this heat without it, and I can say that it dramatically reduces ANY desire to go ANYWHERE once I get home from work. Not a bad plan, actually - just don't drive the thing, save the gas, done. I just don't have the money to fix it - almost $400 - right now, suffer like lots of other drivers that have their windows down while driving in 107 degree heat.
I fixed the leaking pond yesterday, wanted to give the patch overnight before doing anything. I will fill that pond up, put most of the plants in it and transfer the fish to the other pond that I have had sitting there, full of water, just letting the water get "ready" for them.
BTW, my ideas that water can be cooled via evap cooling were definitely spot on. In the large pond, I have a pump that is shooting water almost straight up into the air. It comes back down on a rock structure that I layered in there - this structure is about a foot and a half or more above the water level. The water sprays all over. Even after sitting in the direct sunlight all day long, that water is cool. The other pond? I just have a filter going on it. That water gets warm. My thoughts are just that I'm glad that the water DOES cool and I don't have to worry about coming home and finding baked fish floating on the surface. The cost - running a low wattage pump all day long. Yeah, well whatever. Electric use is around $14 per day right now. It came down a buck or so with putting that sytrofoam in the kitchen sliding glass door. The difference in that room in the afternoon is palpable.
Oh, the only drawback to the evap cooled pond is that it loses several gallons a day of water - that's the way it works.
Well, work dayis almos here, I'm outta here.
ben
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Tuesday
Dogs have diarhea.
Found that out going to the bathroom last night in the middle of the night and finding it all over the floor.
Dogs were quickly banished to the great outdoors for the rest of the night.
They were looking at me as if I were mean and evil this morning when I came out to go to work.
Ex-Marine tenant has given another move-out date. He and his buddy are going to move into his buddy's parent's house after they leave for Alaska, which allegedly will be at the end of July.
The parents are letting the house go into foreclosure - they are going to live there for free.
Okay, well, I have no idea how long it is taking now to foreclose on homes, but one house I know of, there have been no payments made on it for 8 months now, I think, and it's still not been retaken by the bank.
Whatever the case, that room is going to be harder to rent out again because it is unfurnished. Yet, I don't want to have 3 full tenant rooms of furniture, so, it's probably going to stay unfurnished. Even more, I think the carpet in there needs replaced. 11X13 room, nothing too grandiose, but still a couple hundred bucks worth of carpet if I recall carpet prices correctly.
The eBay seller that sent me a product that isn't what was originally described in the auction - and had since changed the verbage in that auction AFTER I paid for the item - has not replied to eBay after I requested to open up a case. If he does not reply, eBay will make the decision for him as to what will happen next.
More "people" are trashing our new law: AZ SB1070 Immigration. This time some sort of mayor's group.
Don't care, really. Governor Brewer is apparently in this for the long haul, I'm all for it. Even with all the national hoopla this bill has made, nothing is being done that I have heard in Congress to deal with this situation on a Federal level. Oh, they can spend a trillion dollars that we don't have on healthcare, a charter that clearly does NOT fall on any governmental level as far as I'm concerned, but - they don't have 10 seconds to waste on securing our borders.
I hope they all get voted out. I'm not a tea-partier (if they had made it a coffee party, I'm all in!), but it seems that grouping of people have made a far greater impact than Obama wanted to give them early on in his presidency. He totally dismissed them, yet, here they are. I had a long, drawn out conversation with a person representing the tea party some time ago, interesting ideas I'll put it. I'm pretty much out there at this point, I don't align myself with any party.
I've cut my spending way back (yes, you can call this a rambling post if you want, I am going all over the place, but since this is my blog and my diary, regular readers should expect that I cover the universe of things as I see it or as things are going in my life at any particular point in time). Electric usage is killing my finances and the struggle is on - for the entire summer. I laid down the law on the thermostat: do NOT touch it, that means tenants. Kids won't touch that thing regardless. My styrofoam over the kitchen sliding glass door has made a vast difference in the kitchen already - it should help to keep the AC from starting up as much as the thermostat is right there, about 12 feet away from those doors, facing them.
Female tenant - made dinner last night. I wasn't even going to eat dinner, I was set on bypassing food altogether and wake up hungry this morning. Well, hard to turn down good vittles and probably rude to do so, anyway, so I consumed the brat and potato mixture she had conjured up - pretty good stuff. Probably not too good for a diet, but oh well. I have levelled out around 198/199 pounds and am going nowhere. I resolved that I better do a week or so of EXTREMELY limited caloric intake, but - it just didn't work out that way yesterday.
Well, work day almost here, gotta git offa here.
G'day.
ben
Found that out going to the bathroom last night in the middle of the night and finding it all over the floor.
Dogs were quickly banished to the great outdoors for the rest of the night.
They were looking at me as if I were mean and evil this morning when I came out to go to work.
Ex-Marine tenant has given another move-out date. He and his buddy are going to move into his buddy's parent's house after they leave for Alaska, which allegedly will be at the end of July.
The parents are letting the house go into foreclosure - they are going to live there for free.
Okay, well, I have no idea how long it is taking now to foreclose on homes, but one house I know of, there have been no payments made on it for 8 months now, I think, and it's still not been retaken by the bank.
Whatever the case, that room is going to be harder to rent out again because it is unfurnished. Yet, I don't want to have 3 full tenant rooms of furniture, so, it's probably going to stay unfurnished. Even more, I think the carpet in there needs replaced. 11X13 room, nothing too grandiose, but still a couple hundred bucks worth of carpet if I recall carpet prices correctly.
The eBay seller that sent me a product that isn't what was originally described in the auction - and had since changed the verbage in that auction AFTER I paid for the item - has not replied to eBay after I requested to open up a case. If he does not reply, eBay will make the decision for him as to what will happen next.
More "people" are trashing our new law: AZ SB1070 Immigration. This time some sort of mayor's group.
Don't care, really. Governor Brewer is apparently in this for the long haul, I'm all for it. Even with all the national hoopla this bill has made, nothing is being done that I have heard in Congress to deal with this situation on a Federal level. Oh, they can spend a trillion dollars that we don't have on healthcare, a charter that clearly does NOT fall on any governmental level as far as I'm concerned, but - they don't have 10 seconds to waste on securing our borders.
I hope they all get voted out. I'm not a tea-partier (if they had made it a coffee party, I'm all in!), but it seems that grouping of people have made a far greater impact than Obama wanted to give them early on in his presidency. He totally dismissed them, yet, here they are. I had a long, drawn out conversation with a person representing the tea party some time ago, interesting ideas I'll put it. I'm pretty much out there at this point, I don't align myself with any party.
I've cut my spending way back (yes, you can call this a rambling post if you want, I am going all over the place, but since this is my blog and my diary, regular readers should expect that I cover the universe of things as I see it or as things are going in my life at any particular point in time). Electric usage is killing my finances and the struggle is on - for the entire summer. I laid down the law on the thermostat: do NOT touch it, that means tenants. Kids won't touch that thing regardless. My styrofoam over the kitchen sliding glass door has made a vast difference in the kitchen already - it should help to keep the AC from starting up as much as the thermostat is right there, about 12 feet away from those doors, facing them.
Female tenant - made dinner last night. I wasn't even going to eat dinner, I was set on bypassing food altogether and wake up hungry this morning. Well, hard to turn down good vittles and probably rude to do so, anyway, so I consumed the brat and potato mixture she had conjured up - pretty good stuff. Probably not too good for a diet, but oh well. I have levelled out around 198/199 pounds and am going nowhere. I resolved that I better do a week or so of EXTREMELY limited caloric intake, but - it just didn't work out that way yesterday.
Well, work day almost here, gotta git offa here.
G'day.
ben
Monday, June 14, 2010
Monday
So, some dude that appears to be mentally unstable has won the democratic nomination for running for senate. Of course the dems don't like it because - this guy doesn't have a mouse's chance in a pit of vipers of coming out of the race alive - politically that is. How can a man rig the polls? I don't know that that's possible. Did people just go to the polls and pick the first name that they saw? Probably. They voted for him, now it's a done deal. They are trying to conjure up ways to disqualify him and get someone else in there in his place.
Whatever. It's just rather amusing to see such going on.
I did almost nothing outside this weekend concerning any kind of work. I needed a break from it, I've been going at it for quite a while. Instead, I went crazy on inside cleaning which needed to be done, so it's not like I feel like I just wasted an entire weekend doing nothing. I'm one of those people that I would not feel comfortable having not done anything at all. Actually, I was also dealing with kids this weekend - kids that don't want to listen and kids that were invited out, permanently, if they didn't want to change their tude'. I further locked them out of internet access via the Playstation III. You can actually surf the net through that system - go to websites, all kinds of junk. I have no idea if there are restrictions to what kinds of sites it can go to, that is my next ordeal, finding out if such is possible and then either implementing parental controls or just shutting the net off to the thing permanently.
I don't really have a lot of sympathy for kids that want to do nothing but sit around playing stupid video games all day long, literally.
Countdown to week-long vacation: 18 days until the Friday that kicks off the Independence Day weekend. I am soooo looking forward to some serious time off, verus a few days here and there. I have no great plans with it, I just want time to do - nothing/something/whatever, don't really care, actually. It will be a staycation - again - I haven't been on vacation going on 3 years now, or is it 4? Well, whatever it is, long enough. Isn't going to change anytime soon, either, unless some financial miracle comes my way. I ain't ruling that out, it's happened before. But, where would I go? I will not be going to California until they stop all this boycott nonsense. That may be a while before that happens.
Anyway, just rambling. The work day is almost here, gotta see what's in our truck routing system, hopefully there's something in there to do.
G'day.
ben
Whatever. It's just rather amusing to see such going on.
I did almost nothing outside this weekend concerning any kind of work. I needed a break from it, I've been going at it for quite a while. Instead, I went crazy on inside cleaning which needed to be done, so it's not like I feel like I just wasted an entire weekend doing nothing. I'm one of those people that I would not feel comfortable having not done anything at all. Actually, I was also dealing with kids this weekend - kids that don't want to listen and kids that were invited out, permanently, if they didn't want to change their tude'. I further locked them out of internet access via the Playstation III. You can actually surf the net through that system - go to websites, all kinds of junk. I have no idea if there are restrictions to what kinds of sites it can go to, that is my next ordeal, finding out if such is possible and then either implementing parental controls or just shutting the net off to the thing permanently.
I don't really have a lot of sympathy for kids that want to do nothing but sit around playing stupid video games all day long, literally.
Countdown to week-long vacation: 18 days until the Friday that kicks off the Independence Day weekend. I am soooo looking forward to some serious time off, verus a few days here and there. I have no great plans with it, I just want time to do - nothing/something/whatever, don't really care, actually. It will be a staycation - again - I haven't been on vacation going on 3 years now, or is it 4? Well, whatever it is, long enough. Isn't going to change anytime soon, either, unless some financial miracle comes my way. I ain't ruling that out, it's happened before. But, where would I go? I will not be going to California until they stop all this boycott nonsense. That may be a while before that happens.
Anyway, just rambling. The work day is almost here, gotta see what's in our truck routing system, hopefully there's something in there to do.
G'day.
ben
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Sunday
I intended this morning to go out and continue with the plan to move the fish and plants to the smaller ponds, get the bigger pond emptied and get to digging.
I was sidetracked by my desire to - clean, clean, clean. This cleaning business went on for almost 4 hours. I also put the styrofoam in the kitchen sliding glass door area - a noticeable improvement already as the western sun begins to hit that side of the house - but the direct heat is deflected back.
I also got the bio filter I bought through eBay - it was supposed to be a bio filter with a built in UV sterilizer - going on the small pond. No, I have no intentions on sending it back. I AM going to try to get partial money back. Actually, this seller apparently does not reply to anyone for anything. He has 7 days to reply to my demand, if he does not, the investigation will take a new twist from what I can understand out of all of it. Basically, it's a defendant that does not reply. In court, that would mean a summary judgement if requested. It will be requested.
I knew from the get-go that this ponding business would be a learn-as-you-go thing, the UV sterilizer? I was debating whether to get one or not. After seeing the pond turn green, even with the use of algae removers that have done nothing to stop the growth, and after reading countless people having the same problem and rectifying it with a UV sterilizer, well, it's the only way to go, apparently. There are drawbacks to using one, from reading differing opinions, but I have seen ponds now with my own eyes that are using those sterilizers - clear, beautiful ponds with perhaps a little bit of algae, but the water is clear, not green.
I really can't afford much more of this, I want to get my setup dialed in and done with. The large pond will wait until I can afford it. The landscape of that idea grows with thought, research and asking pond owners.
Number one, I doubt I am going to want to dig a hole that big by hand. A small trackhoe can be rented for around $200 per day. I mean, a SMALL trackhoe!! Good liners are expensive. I will require an under-liner thing as well, to protect the liner from rocks. A good pump - lots of money there, too. Talking a grand, at least, right there. Actually, more like a grand and a half, even with the way I like to do things. I have many other things I want and need to do around my property before spending that kind of money on a pond. The pond will likely be bought in segments instead of all at once. A liner here, a pump and filter there.
I have to remind myself that all these places I have been to, looking at their ponds, that these people are FAR wealthier than I. Nice people? Yes, definitely. Not holding it against them, only the stark reality that for me to get a nice pond like any of what I have seen going - will take significantly much more time to do than some of these folks who go out and hire a contractor to do it for them.
I am only in a break here. I have several more things I want to accomplish in here today in terms of cleaning. I simply could not find it within myself to go out there and start digging blindly - I probably COULD guess where to do, but why bother? I would probably be digging where I don't need to, and for as hard and rocky as the ground is around here, going out of the way a little bit is a lot of work, actually. I am going to run the bio filter for several days plus the conditioners I have already dumped in there on the smaller pond and then move the goldfish back into that pond.
I started this entry some 12 plus hours ago and got busy with Sunday. Yes, it's bedtime and now must get with getting to bed.
G'nite.
ben
I was sidetracked by my desire to - clean, clean, clean. This cleaning business went on for almost 4 hours. I also put the styrofoam in the kitchen sliding glass door area - a noticeable improvement already as the western sun begins to hit that side of the house - but the direct heat is deflected back.
I also got the bio filter I bought through eBay - it was supposed to be a bio filter with a built in UV sterilizer - going on the small pond. No, I have no intentions on sending it back. I AM going to try to get partial money back. Actually, this seller apparently does not reply to anyone for anything. He has 7 days to reply to my demand, if he does not, the investigation will take a new twist from what I can understand out of all of it. Basically, it's a defendant that does not reply. In court, that would mean a summary judgement if requested. It will be requested.
I knew from the get-go that this ponding business would be a learn-as-you-go thing, the UV sterilizer? I was debating whether to get one or not. After seeing the pond turn green, even with the use of algae removers that have done nothing to stop the growth, and after reading countless people having the same problem and rectifying it with a UV sterilizer, well, it's the only way to go, apparently. There are drawbacks to using one, from reading differing opinions, but I have seen ponds now with my own eyes that are using those sterilizers - clear, beautiful ponds with perhaps a little bit of algae, but the water is clear, not green.
I really can't afford much more of this, I want to get my setup dialed in and done with. The large pond will wait until I can afford it. The landscape of that idea grows with thought, research and asking pond owners.
Number one, I doubt I am going to want to dig a hole that big by hand. A small trackhoe can be rented for around $200 per day. I mean, a SMALL trackhoe!! Good liners are expensive. I will require an under-liner thing as well, to protect the liner from rocks. A good pump - lots of money there, too. Talking a grand, at least, right there. Actually, more like a grand and a half, even with the way I like to do things. I have many other things I want and need to do around my property before spending that kind of money on a pond. The pond will likely be bought in segments instead of all at once. A liner here, a pump and filter there.
I have to remind myself that all these places I have been to, looking at their ponds, that these people are FAR wealthier than I. Nice people? Yes, definitely. Not holding it against them, only the stark reality that for me to get a nice pond like any of what I have seen going - will take significantly much more time to do than some of these folks who go out and hire a contractor to do it for them.
I am only in a break here. I have several more things I want to accomplish in here today in terms of cleaning. I simply could not find it within myself to go out there and start digging blindly - I probably COULD guess where to do, but why bother? I would probably be digging where I don't need to, and for as hard and rocky as the ground is around here, going out of the way a little bit is a lot of work, actually. I am going to run the bio filter for several days plus the conditioners I have already dumped in there on the smaller pond and then move the goldfish back into that pond.
I started this entry some 12 plus hours ago and got busy with Sunday. Yes, it's bedtime and now must get with getting to bed.
G'nite.
ben
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Doings
First, I went to the pond society meeting. A man was there from a liner production company giving a lecture on liners and what kinds to buy and what kinds not to buy. Amazingly, he wasn't even trying to sell his own product. Why? Because his company only does very large liners dealing in commercial projects. He was very knowledgeable, however, in all kinds of liners and how they apply to small ponds and what kinds you would want to buy versus the kinds you want to avoid. I got a few free plants - I don't really need a lot more plants at this point, if any, but there were 2 types I don't have in my pond so what the heck, for free I wasn't going to turn them down.
Second, I came home, of course. But tired. I stayed up way too late last night. I have been doing that lately on weekends and it takes it's toll since I am not used to such and really - do not want to revert to such. Tonight I will be going to bed at 9:00 pm and that's that end of that.
Third, even though tired, I still went out there to start digging out the ground for the pond only to realize the only way to do that is to have the pond shell there, setting it over everything, so I can figure out how I want it. Considering how hard the ground is, it would be a waste of time to start blindly digging, guessing where it might go. So, I finished work on the other pond that was already in the ground. Cleaned it out, filled it up and checked for leaks. That pond has no leaks. One patch that I put in it still holding. I will treat the water today and get a pump running through a filter, put some of the plants in there as well, but I am not going to transfer the goldfish in there until the treatments have a chance to take effect on the water.
The large pond water is now turning green already. Even with treating it as often as I can according to directions on the treatment, the treatment is, basically, doing nothing to stop the algae. Well, there is no sense in wasting money on product that doesn't work. There is sense in getting a product that does work - a UV sterilizer. I found the cheapest one I could find on eBay - and yes, the seller has a great feedback with very few negatives - with free shipping. I checked this product out first, though. I could only find one review online from a man who claimed he was very unhappy with it.
Okay, what's up? He says the fitting on the thing are cheap junk and you will have to replace them. Okay, a couple bucks worth of fittings, what else? It doesn't come with a pump. Okay, I expected that, I don't need a pump, I now have several. Finally, after all of his whining, he says the thing works "excellent" in keeping algae out. ???? This guy is trashing a product that he ends up saying works excellent, had a problem with the fittings and had to replace them.
Whatever. When I get the thing, I will take it to Home Depot or wherever I need to go, find new fittings and then be done with it. Or, according to this guy, you can bypass the fittings if you an use 1 inch pipe. This guy's a nutcase, really. BTW, 2 fittings, that's it.
Lol. That's it for me. I was doing laundry this morning and decided I better not be a hypocrite when I came back from the pond club to finish it - after 10:00AM. I have imposed a moratorium on everyone else to not do laundry between 10 in the morning and 6 in the evening. I just wanted to get it done. Oh well.
That's about it. I'm famished, hungry that is, going to think about what I am going to make myself to eat while still staying on a diet.
Second, I came home, of course. But tired. I stayed up way too late last night. I have been doing that lately on weekends and it takes it's toll since I am not used to such and really - do not want to revert to such. Tonight I will be going to bed at 9:00 pm and that's that end of that.
Third, even though tired, I still went out there to start digging out the ground for the pond only to realize the only way to do that is to have the pond shell there, setting it over everything, so I can figure out how I want it. Considering how hard the ground is, it would be a waste of time to start blindly digging, guessing where it might go. So, I finished work on the other pond that was already in the ground. Cleaned it out, filled it up and checked for leaks. That pond has no leaks. One patch that I put in it still holding. I will treat the water today and get a pump running through a filter, put some of the plants in there as well, but I am not going to transfer the goldfish in there until the treatments have a chance to take effect on the water.
The large pond water is now turning green already. Even with treating it as often as I can according to directions on the treatment, the treatment is, basically, doing nothing to stop the algae. Well, there is no sense in wasting money on product that doesn't work. There is sense in getting a product that does work - a UV sterilizer. I found the cheapest one I could find on eBay - and yes, the seller has a great feedback with very few negatives - with free shipping. I checked this product out first, though. I could only find one review online from a man who claimed he was very unhappy with it.
Okay, what's up? He says the fitting on the thing are cheap junk and you will have to replace them. Okay, a couple bucks worth of fittings, what else? It doesn't come with a pump. Okay, I expected that, I don't need a pump, I now have several. Finally, after all of his whining, he says the thing works "excellent" in keeping algae out. ???? This guy is trashing a product that he ends up saying works excellent, had a problem with the fittings and had to replace them.
Whatever. When I get the thing, I will take it to Home Depot or wherever I need to go, find new fittings and then be done with it. Or, according to this guy, you can bypass the fittings if you an use 1 inch pipe. This guy's a nutcase, really. BTW, 2 fittings, that's it.
Lol. That's it for me. I was doing laundry this morning and decided I better not be a hypocrite when I came back from the pond club to finish it - after 10:00AM. I have imposed a moratorium on everyone else to not do laundry between 10 in the morning and 6 in the evening. I just wanted to get it done. Oh well.
That's about it. I'm famished, hungry that is, going to think about what I am going to make myself to eat while still staying on a diet.
Saturday
I woke up this morning thinking it was Sunday already. How does THAT kind of notion get into my head, skipping an entire day of the weekend? I'm not really wishing Monday morning was here right now or anything like that.
I'm contemplating whether I want to drive the distance to join up with the pond club this morning and check out what kind of people are involved with it and what kind of information I might be able to glean. It's a bit of a drive to the house where it's being held at.
I have less than 2 hours to decide.
The temp tenant showed up last night and handed me another week's worth of rent money. Which is a very good thing, the money that is, I had no idea whether this guy was staying or leaving.
In looking at and listening to the world of Mexico and Mexicans speaking from that side of the border, would you feel safe, as an American citizen, and especially if you happen to be white, in crossing the border and going over there? White Arizonans are now being called White Supremists. Anyone that stands for the Immigration bill is a racist. This is the same type of thinking that went on during the presidential campaign: if you didn't like Obama, then you most definitely were and are a racist. May I say right here that I do NOT like Obama, did NOT like Obama from the get-go, and may I also include that I am definitely NOT a racist? I have black and Mexican people both visiting here frequently and LIVING here. Most racists do not have the race that they hate - living with them in their own house.
It's just pure grand-standing. The people that are against the bill have given no logical reason for their stance. They assume racial profiling, or "let me see your papers", that's that. Well, if you get pulled over for a traffic stop, what are you going to have to show the police anyway? Your "papers".
In a different place at a different time of my life, I would be staunchly against such actions. In this day and age, and faced with illegals moving into every state in the union - or at least on the continental 48 - sucking our system dry - I have no probelm with it. Oh, and let's just do this to stop the mouths of the people who continue to say: "what does illegal look like": Just question EVERYONE that is pulled over, stopped, whatever. Am a big fan of this idea? No, not really. But if people are going to continue to shoot their mouths about this, then just make it an across the board deal. Of course, then these opposition groups will come out with some other far-out reason to oppose it: I'm sure the words Nazi Germany will be included in that equation.
I just walked outside. There is a cold front that has come through - a cold front in June in the Sonoran Desert? What's going on here? I thought we were in the middle of global warming? It's absolutely BEAUTIFUL out there. The pond water is cold - maybe too cold. Well, the fishies are moving around all over the place so I guess that isn't a big issue with them. I had thoughts of not going to the pond meeting and start digging out there instead, but, no. I am going to go to the meeting, check it out, meet new people, ask questions, see what becomes of it.
With that, I must be gittin' outta here, cause' I have a 20 mile drive to get there plus I have to bring my own folding lawn chair. You guessed it, I don't HAVE a folding lawn chair. Kids broke the last one - which made me so incredibly mad that I gave all kinds of wonderful consequences for the stupidity of the action. It wasn't on purpose, it was on "stupid".
Anyway, talk to ya later.
ben
I'm contemplating whether I want to drive the distance to join up with the pond club this morning and check out what kind of people are involved with it and what kind of information I might be able to glean. It's a bit of a drive to the house where it's being held at.
I have less than 2 hours to decide.
The temp tenant showed up last night and handed me another week's worth of rent money. Which is a very good thing, the money that is, I had no idea whether this guy was staying or leaving.
In looking at and listening to the world of Mexico and Mexicans speaking from that side of the border, would you feel safe, as an American citizen, and especially if you happen to be white, in crossing the border and going over there? White Arizonans are now being called White Supremists. Anyone that stands for the Immigration bill is a racist. This is the same type of thinking that went on during the presidential campaign: if you didn't like Obama, then you most definitely were and are a racist. May I say right here that I do NOT like Obama, did NOT like Obama from the get-go, and may I also include that I am definitely NOT a racist? I have black and Mexican people both visiting here frequently and LIVING here. Most racists do not have the race that they hate - living with them in their own house.
It's just pure grand-standing. The people that are against the bill have given no logical reason for their stance. They assume racial profiling, or "let me see your papers", that's that. Well, if you get pulled over for a traffic stop, what are you going to have to show the police anyway? Your "papers".
In a different place at a different time of my life, I would be staunchly against such actions. In this day and age, and faced with illegals moving into every state in the union - or at least on the continental 48 - sucking our system dry - I have no probelm with it. Oh, and let's just do this to stop the mouths of the people who continue to say: "what does illegal look like": Just question EVERYONE that is pulled over, stopped, whatever. Am a big fan of this idea? No, not really. But if people are going to continue to shoot their mouths about this, then just make it an across the board deal. Of course, then these opposition groups will come out with some other far-out reason to oppose it: I'm sure the words Nazi Germany will be included in that equation.
I just walked outside. There is a cold front that has come through - a cold front in June in the Sonoran Desert? What's going on here? I thought we were in the middle of global warming? It's absolutely BEAUTIFUL out there. The pond water is cold - maybe too cold. Well, the fishies are moving around all over the place so I guess that isn't a big issue with them. I had thoughts of not going to the pond meeting and start digging out there instead, but, no. I am going to go to the meeting, check it out, meet new people, ask questions, see what becomes of it.
With that, I must be gittin' outta here, cause' I have a 20 mile drive to get there plus I have to bring my own folding lawn chair. You guessed it, I don't HAVE a folding lawn chair. Kids broke the last one - which made me so incredibly mad that I gave all kinds of wonderful consequences for the stupidity of the action. It wasn't on purpose, it was on "stupid".
Anyway, talk to ya later.
ben
Friday, June 11, 2010
Friday!
Strange stuff on the way to work.
The entire surface street I was driving one was shut down - couldn't see what was going on police were blocking the view.
Then, a mile down the road, there are dozens of police cars parked on both the street and in a shopping center.
There was a car in the middle of this center that had a huge, yellow tarp draped over one side of it and officials were peering in there. On the other side of the car - it was totally TRASHED. Someone died, that's what that means. A bunch of people were standing around gaping. It does tend to get the curiosity factor in a person going to see the carnage, but to stand around and hover for a view of the deceased? Rather pathetic. Wanna see a good dead shot? They have a close up of that boy that was killed on the border.
He basically had his head blown off, alright, from the look, his brains were scrambled and bled out the back of his skull. They never used to show such graphic carnage in the past. When you see a "warning: graphic" anymore, it probably IS very graphic. It can also be very disturbing. I remember when my brother got into a bad car accident when he was like 16 - an old lady pulled right out in front him. His car rolled, the grandma, front bench seat and all went sailing right through where the windshield used to be. She was, obviously, dead. She had had her license suspended because she couldn't see and lack of judgment.
Stuff like that sorta sticks with you. Or like when a missionary friend was run over by a car out in the middle of nowhere. By the time I got there, they had his body draped with a sheet. Didn't want to see it. Saw it in the viewing - of course they attempt to fix the body up to make it presentable enough to be viewed. Or the kid from church - 12 years old - stepped out in front of a car going 50mph - he died 3 days later. I saw him at the viewing as well - they tried to fix all that damage but he clearly was wasted in that accident, it was amazing he even lived for 3 days.
I dunno why, but seeing that car this morning brought up all kinds of images from the past. We tend to not want to think about death, yet it is all around us, and one day, will visit each or our little doorsteps. Knock, knock, I'm coming in whether you like it or not. I suppose the circumstances of how you are dying will dictate whether you welcome it or wish it would go away.
Well, whatever. Get my head out of that mode. Yesterday, I gave Michael a bit of a hard time because he had left a bag with some pork chops and bacon in the back of my car the day before. I found them yesterday - $10 worth of meat down the drain. He got an attitude with me. I kindly informed him that if he doesn't like living here, he can LEAVE. More attitude a few minutes later and then I did invite him to leave. I don't mean to sound mean, but I don't need someone else's kid giving me an attitude in my own home. "It's the age" does not excuse it with me. He didn't leave, but we didn't speak the rest of the evening.
Caleb got a job!!!! Woohooooooo! Albertson's gave him the job, he goes in for drug testing Monday and training starts sometime next week as well. In other good news, the ex-wife landed a job, apparently with a lawyer. Doing what, I don't know, but - I have never wished ill against her and I am glad that things might take a turn for the better for her. In fact, maybe she'll be making more money than me and then she can pay me child support! That's the way it works in AZ. However, that was a joke. I will be paying her the rest of the year that is left before Caleb turns 18 and then it will be history. She forgave the house money and the 401k, it would be kind of lame to come along and throw some sort of technicality into the mix. It's only another year.
I know several people - and I do mean several people - who are getting divorced with young children. I can't even imagine facing 10 or 15 or more years of paying child support right now. Those people don't even think about the future - you start paying out the nose every month and you will find that after time goes on, it starts getting really old. If I have more kids, it's likely because I adopted them. I have given serious consideration to that possibility for some time now. There are plenty of throw away kids out there. Families that don't want them, can't take care of them or the parents are in prison. Many of them are problem children - will duhhh, because they are the product of abusive upbringing. You have to go through a lot of background checks and interviews and home inspections and all that sort of stuff - that will have to wait until I get rid of tenants cause' they will want to ask about tenants - that may not go over so well with the authorities.
One thing for certain, my days of taking care of other people's kids will be over soon enough. I have no inclination whatsoever of taking care of Michael indefinitely, especially with his growing attitude. In fact, I assume that he will leave on his own and probably that will happen sooner than later. The neighborhood kids will have no reason to come over to my place once Caleb is up, out of the house and on his own, doing his thing. Well, I don't really know what his plans are - college first, military second? If so, is he going to stay at one of his parent's houses while doing so or will he attempt to be out on his own? I know I can't afford to pay for an apartment for him, he'd have to do that on his own.
Strange mindset I have this morning, going into all of that.
Must get my head into work mode.
G'day.
ben
The entire surface street I was driving one was shut down - couldn't see what was going on police were blocking the view.
Then, a mile down the road, there are dozens of police cars parked on both the street and in a shopping center.
There was a car in the middle of this center that had a huge, yellow tarp draped over one side of it and officials were peering in there. On the other side of the car - it was totally TRASHED. Someone died, that's what that means. A bunch of people were standing around gaping. It does tend to get the curiosity factor in a person going to see the carnage, but to stand around and hover for a view of the deceased? Rather pathetic. Wanna see a good dead shot? They have a close up of that boy that was killed on the border.
He basically had his head blown off, alright, from the look, his brains were scrambled and bled out the back of his skull. They never used to show such graphic carnage in the past. When you see a "warning: graphic" anymore, it probably IS very graphic. It can also be very disturbing. I remember when my brother got into a bad car accident when he was like 16 - an old lady pulled right out in front him. His car rolled, the grandma, front bench seat and all went sailing right through where the windshield used to be. She was, obviously, dead. She had had her license suspended because she couldn't see and lack of judgment.
Stuff like that sorta sticks with you. Or like when a missionary friend was run over by a car out in the middle of nowhere. By the time I got there, they had his body draped with a sheet. Didn't want to see it. Saw it in the viewing - of course they attempt to fix the body up to make it presentable enough to be viewed. Or the kid from church - 12 years old - stepped out in front of a car going 50mph - he died 3 days later. I saw him at the viewing as well - they tried to fix all that damage but he clearly was wasted in that accident, it was amazing he even lived for 3 days.
I dunno why, but seeing that car this morning brought up all kinds of images from the past. We tend to not want to think about death, yet it is all around us, and one day, will visit each or our little doorsteps. Knock, knock, I'm coming in whether you like it or not. I suppose the circumstances of how you are dying will dictate whether you welcome it or wish it would go away.
Well, whatever. Get my head out of that mode. Yesterday, I gave Michael a bit of a hard time because he had left a bag with some pork chops and bacon in the back of my car the day before. I found them yesterday - $10 worth of meat down the drain. He got an attitude with me. I kindly informed him that if he doesn't like living here, he can LEAVE. More attitude a few minutes later and then I did invite him to leave. I don't mean to sound mean, but I don't need someone else's kid giving me an attitude in my own home. "It's the age" does not excuse it with me. He didn't leave, but we didn't speak the rest of the evening.
Caleb got a job!!!! Woohooooooo! Albertson's gave him the job, he goes in for drug testing Monday and training starts sometime next week as well. In other good news, the ex-wife landed a job, apparently with a lawyer. Doing what, I don't know, but - I have never wished ill against her and I am glad that things might take a turn for the better for her. In fact, maybe she'll be making more money than me and then she can pay me child support! That's the way it works in AZ. However, that was a joke. I will be paying her the rest of the year that is left before Caleb turns 18 and then it will be history. She forgave the house money and the 401k, it would be kind of lame to come along and throw some sort of technicality into the mix. It's only another year.
I know several people - and I do mean several people - who are getting divorced with young children. I can't even imagine facing 10 or 15 or more years of paying child support right now. Those people don't even think about the future - you start paying out the nose every month and you will find that after time goes on, it starts getting really old. If I have more kids, it's likely because I adopted them. I have given serious consideration to that possibility for some time now. There are plenty of throw away kids out there. Families that don't want them, can't take care of them or the parents are in prison. Many of them are problem children - will duhhh, because they are the product of abusive upbringing. You have to go through a lot of background checks and interviews and home inspections and all that sort of stuff - that will have to wait until I get rid of tenants cause' they will want to ask about tenants - that may not go over so well with the authorities.
One thing for certain, my days of taking care of other people's kids will be over soon enough. I have no inclination whatsoever of taking care of Michael indefinitely, especially with his growing attitude. In fact, I assume that he will leave on his own and probably that will happen sooner than later. The neighborhood kids will have no reason to come over to my place once Caleb is up, out of the house and on his own, doing his thing. Well, I don't really know what his plans are - college first, military second? If so, is he going to stay at one of his parent's houses while doing so or will he attempt to be out on his own? I know I can't afford to pay for an apartment for him, he'd have to do that on his own.
Strange mindset I have this morning, going into all of that.
Must get my head into work mode.
G'day.
ben
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Thursday
Weeklong vacation was approved yesterday.
Meaning the 4th of July week I will not have to show up to work : )
I am having a problem with a seller on eBay.
I haven't had problems with sellers, for the most part, in a long, long time, so this sort of is getting to me.
I paid for a bio filter on eBay some 2 weeks ago now and haven't received the product. I have sent the person 5 messages with absolutely no response whatsoever.
Fortunately, my purchase is protected - meaning I can get my money back - all of it - through eBay's protection program.
I just sent him a final message: if you don't reply to me by the end of today or if the product doesn't arrive, I will be initiating a resolution complaint through eBay and will be leaving extremely negative feedback. This kind of thing irks me, especially considering this seller has a high feedback rating and has 72,000 plus transactions under their belt. I NEED that filter - there are others for sale on eBay for slightly more - but my money's tied up with this jerk. This particular filter us a UV light in it that basically does away with algae problems. Low wattage and very effective. There is another seller that is actually selling the same exact thing for $2 more.
I'm still amazed that there hasn't been more press than there has about this situation on the border with Mexican soliders - or Federales - pointing guns at both the U.S. Border patrol AND the FBI. Our nation's leader appears to have a nuzzle on his mouth. I'm sorry, but I do believe a response from the U.S. is definitely in order, especially after listening to this Mexican president mouthing off for some time now about AZ's new immigration bill, how we should do away with certain guns and dressing down our nation's leadership in their own hall. I can imagine other president's from the past would have already redressed both Mexico AND it's president by now.
Whatever. I have a delivery this morning that's about 50 miles from the branch. This delivery is worth all of $358, lol. You figure the costs of paying me and running the semi for that distance? This delivery is a loss. Hey, I'll deliver to Maryland if they want me to, doesn't bother me, I just hate seeing the company losing money on such deliveries that are, in this case, with a contractor that is always ordering small amounts of material and having us deliver it that far away.
Well, at least it will be a nice drive : )
With that, I must be offa here!
G'day.
ben
Meaning the 4th of July week I will not have to show up to work : )
I am having a problem with a seller on eBay.
I haven't had problems with sellers, for the most part, in a long, long time, so this sort of is getting to me.
I paid for a bio filter on eBay some 2 weeks ago now and haven't received the product. I have sent the person 5 messages with absolutely no response whatsoever.
Fortunately, my purchase is protected - meaning I can get my money back - all of it - through eBay's protection program.
I just sent him a final message: if you don't reply to me by the end of today or if the product doesn't arrive, I will be initiating a resolution complaint through eBay and will be leaving extremely negative feedback. This kind of thing irks me, especially considering this seller has a high feedback rating and has 72,000 plus transactions under their belt. I NEED that filter - there are others for sale on eBay for slightly more - but my money's tied up with this jerk. This particular filter us a UV light in it that basically does away with algae problems. Low wattage and very effective. There is another seller that is actually selling the same exact thing for $2 more.
I'm still amazed that there hasn't been more press than there has about this situation on the border with Mexican soliders - or Federales - pointing guns at both the U.S. Border patrol AND the FBI. Our nation's leader appears to have a nuzzle on his mouth. I'm sorry, but I do believe a response from the U.S. is definitely in order, especially after listening to this Mexican president mouthing off for some time now about AZ's new immigration bill, how we should do away with certain guns and dressing down our nation's leadership in their own hall. I can imagine other president's from the past would have already redressed both Mexico AND it's president by now.
Whatever. I have a delivery this morning that's about 50 miles from the branch. This delivery is worth all of $358, lol. You figure the costs of paying me and running the semi for that distance? This delivery is a loss. Hey, I'll deliver to Maryland if they want me to, doesn't bother me, I just hate seeing the company losing money on such deliveries that are, in this case, with a contractor that is always ordering small amounts of material and having us deliver it that far away.
Well, at least it will be a nice drive : )
With that, I must be offa here!
G'day.
ben
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Walmart's Piss-Poor Customer Service
Yes, another - lame - adventure at Walmart today.
I was in there today looking for an oscillating fan a cheap one thank you - for the female tenant's room who was wanting one.
I was distracted by the deli counter -got some ham, Pet center, got some more dog food. The fans are in the far back corner of the store.
I look at every fan there and decide on a metal fan, it was listed at $18.00.
Take my stuff up front, buy it, thought the total was too high, I was charged $36.00 for this fan.
I go back to the back. There are no other fans like this one any where in that area. The place I took that fan from? It was the only fan there. I didn't know what to think. I look very carefully for another of these fans somewhere else - I KNOW how Walmart functions, I don't want to look like an idiot.
No, no other fans like this one. I call for a manager. He comes up - didn't look like a manager, wasn't dressed much like one, either. I show him the situation. He says to go up front with him, he'll take care of it.
Okay, cool. We're halfway up to the front when he stops me and says he needs to go check on something, he'll be right back.
In a pig's eye he was right back. I think I waited there 5 minutes before I got disgusted and went up to the front, asking for the store manager. While I'm waiting, this first manager finally shows up. I want nothing to do with him at this point and tell him directly to his face that I wasn't going to be dealing with him. He didn't much care for my stance, but I have received such utterly abysmal customer service at Walmarts on so many occasions in the past, I just don't take it anymore.
The store manager comes up - but he's a co manager. I didn't want a co-manager, I wanted the general manager. General manager isn't there today. Great. I look him directly in the eye and tell him that I think that being told to wait for a second and here it is 10 minutes later are 2 different things and that I wasn't happy about that, at all. He explained that the manager I was originally was dealing with had come to him to ask for guidance. I replied that this man had told me we were going up front and that he was dealing with it, not that he had to take a detour to go take a break somewhere. He replies he wasn't taking a break, they had gone to the back to - whatever. I found out whatever in his next statement: The fan you got belongs with the fans that are right next to where you got yours.
No, sir, it does not. Yes sir, this fan is identical to the fans that are next to it at the higher price. I replied again, no sir, it is NOT the same fans as ANY other fan that is on any of those shelves. He continues to argue with me. I pointed at the picture, it showed a metal fan, the rest of those fans had PLASTIC blades and housing. He gulped, stepped back, said "Oh". "I KNOW what I'm talking about, I looked at every box there" was my immediate reply. He did not apologize for arguing with a customer and in the end, being WRONG about his stauch assessment. THIS is a store's co-manager?
"Well, what do you want me to do about this?". What kind of question is that to a customer? Isn't he supposed to offer whatever he's going to offer, or refuse to offer anything, or what? I asked him if he WANTED to do anything about this? Yes, he said, what do you want? I want the price that the damned sticker on the shelf SAYS it is - $18.00, not $36.00. He doesn't want to deal with me, I was totally unimpressed with this guy. HOW a man with that kind of attitude gets to be a store's high level manager, I have no clue.
He takes me up front to the customer service desk. There is a VERY long line there. It takes them forever to deal with customers at that place, I know this from experience. I couldn't believe that this guy was going to make me wait even LONGER - in this huge line - to deal with this after I have already spent CONSIDERABLE time on this issue already. But that's exactly what happened. He went up to the counter, spoke to an associate, turned to me, said she would deal with me. Yes, she would deal with me after I waited another freakin' 20 minutes.
Screw that. I called the number on the sign - customer service always has phone numbers listed up there. I have encountered in the past associates telling me that the general manager isn't there and then finding out that yes, the general manager IS there. I called and asked for the name of the manager that was on the sign. I get 3 different people - I ask each one if they are the general manager. No. On the 3rd person, I informed her that I have asked now 3 times for the general manager, she informed me she was not there. I asked for the district manager's number. "He's on vacation". You've got to be kidding me. Is there anything I can help you with? NO. I asked for the district manager's number again, I don't care if he's on vacation, I"ll leave a blooming message.
She persists, what's the problem, can I help? I decided to give it a try, although she isn't on the same level as the co-manager, perhaps she is empowered anyway. I explain the entire situation to her, including the fact that this store's manager left me waiting in this long line. She said she would be right up, and she was. There's a lady standing in front of me in line. She is alllllll ears. She listened to my phone call and my conversation with this woman, plus had heard the short interaction there with the co-manager. She was totally agreeing with me. I simply said to her another example of Walmart's great customer service. She went right off: she's had a bookful of bad situations with customer service at Walmarts as well. This is, of course, nothing surprising to me - AT ALL. I imagine millions of people being treated in various shades of horrible service, probably a very low percentage of them actually do anything about it.
The lady manager goes up to the counter, a man working behind the counter says in a very terse voice that "we already KNOW what to do", speaking with a scowl on his face. Are you serious? How does an associate talk to a manager like THAT? Don't know, don't care, if he would have addressed me like that, all bets are off. She's walking back and forth between me and the counter, she finally decides that I should be the next person to deal with. No thanks, I said, these people have been waiting. I'm thinking no way am I going to have those glares and stares aimed at my back while I pass them by to get this now-getting-exhaustively-long situation dealt with. She offers me a $10 gift card for my trouble. I immediately said yes and thank you. Not turning anything down at this point.
I get my $18.00 plus the adjusted tax, but no gift card. The lady had gone off to yet another manager and I could hear her discussing this manager leaving me standing in an aisle, waiting for an eternity. I was about to walk off, if they aren't going to give me the card, I'm leaving. She turns and comes up to me - dunno what set that off, asks if I received my gift card. No. She gets it for me.
It turns out that it IS a $36 fan, but no, there were no others like it in the store. It WAS in an $18 shelf - all by itself. I invited them all to look at video surveillance to verify that this is where I found the fan, I didn't move it from somewhere else. In reality, there WAS nowhere else to move it from, all the other shelves with fans were totally full and they were totally different than this fan. After the gift card, the $36 fan cost me $10.
Doesn't really matter, though, the service is the same: crappy.
Take the deal, yes, take the nonsense, no thanks.
I was in there today looking for an oscillating fan a cheap one thank you - for the female tenant's room who was wanting one.
I was distracted by the deli counter -got some ham, Pet center, got some more dog food. The fans are in the far back corner of the store.
I look at every fan there and decide on a metal fan, it was listed at $18.00.
Take my stuff up front, buy it, thought the total was too high, I was charged $36.00 for this fan.
I go back to the back. There are no other fans like this one any where in that area. The place I took that fan from? It was the only fan there. I didn't know what to think. I look very carefully for another of these fans somewhere else - I KNOW how Walmart functions, I don't want to look like an idiot.
No, no other fans like this one. I call for a manager. He comes up - didn't look like a manager, wasn't dressed much like one, either. I show him the situation. He says to go up front with him, he'll take care of it.
Okay, cool. We're halfway up to the front when he stops me and says he needs to go check on something, he'll be right back.
In a pig's eye he was right back. I think I waited there 5 minutes before I got disgusted and went up to the front, asking for the store manager. While I'm waiting, this first manager finally shows up. I want nothing to do with him at this point and tell him directly to his face that I wasn't going to be dealing with him. He didn't much care for my stance, but I have received such utterly abysmal customer service at Walmarts on so many occasions in the past, I just don't take it anymore.
The store manager comes up - but he's a co manager. I didn't want a co-manager, I wanted the general manager. General manager isn't there today. Great. I look him directly in the eye and tell him that I think that being told to wait for a second and here it is 10 minutes later are 2 different things and that I wasn't happy about that, at all. He explained that the manager I was originally was dealing with had come to him to ask for guidance. I replied that this man had told me we were going up front and that he was dealing with it, not that he had to take a detour to go take a break somewhere. He replies he wasn't taking a break, they had gone to the back to - whatever. I found out whatever in his next statement: The fan you got belongs with the fans that are right next to where you got yours.
No, sir, it does not. Yes sir, this fan is identical to the fans that are next to it at the higher price. I replied again, no sir, it is NOT the same fans as ANY other fan that is on any of those shelves. He continues to argue with me. I pointed at the picture, it showed a metal fan, the rest of those fans had PLASTIC blades and housing. He gulped, stepped back, said "Oh". "I KNOW what I'm talking about, I looked at every box there" was my immediate reply. He did not apologize for arguing with a customer and in the end, being WRONG about his stauch assessment. THIS is a store's co-manager?
"Well, what do you want me to do about this?". What kind of question is that to a customer? Isn't he supposed to offer whatever he's going to offer, or refuse to offer anything, or what? I asked him if he WANTED to do anything about this? Yes, he said, what do you want? I want the price that the damned sticker on the shelf SAYS it is - $18.00, not $36.00. He doesn't want to deal with me, I was totally unimpressed with this guy. HOW a man with that kind of attitude gets to be a store's high level manager, I have no clue.
He takes me up front to the customer service desk. There is a VERY long line there. It takes them forever to deal with customers at that place, I know this from experience. I couldn't believe that this guy was going to make me wait even LONGER - in this huge line - to deal with this after I have already spent CONSIDERABLE time on this issue already. But that's exactly what happened. He went up to the counter, spoke to an associate, turned to me, said she would deal with me. Yes, she would deal with me after I waited another freakin' 20 minutes.
Screw that. I called the number on the sign - customer service always has phone numbers listed up there. I have encountered in the past associates telling me that the general manager isn't there and then finding out that yes, the general manager IS there. I called and asked for the name of the manager that was on the sign. I get 3 different people - I ask each one if they are the general manager. No. On the 3rd person, I informed her that I have asked now 3 times for the general manager, she informed me she was not there. I asked for the district manager's number. "He's on vacation". You've got to be kidding me. Is there anything I can help you with? NO. I asked for the district manager's number again, I don't care if he's on vacation, I"ll leave a blooming message.
She persists, what's the problem, can I help? I decided to give it a try, although she isn't on the same level as the co-manager, perhaps she is empowered anyway. I explain the entire situation to her, including the fact that this store's manager left me waiting in this long line. She said she would be right up, and she was. There's a lady standing in front of me in line. She is alllllll ears. She listened to my phone call and my conversation with this woman, plus had heard the short interaction there with the co-manager. She was totally agreeing with me. I simply said to her another example of Walmart's great customer service. She went right off: she's had a bookful of bad situations with customer service at Walmarts as well. This is, of course, nothing surprising to me - AT ALL. I imagine millions of people being treated in various shades of horrible service, probably a very low percentage of them actually do anything about it.
The lady manager goes up to the counter, a man working behind the counter says in a very terse voice that "we already KNOW what to do", speaking with a scowl on his face. Are you serious? How does an associate talk to a manager like THAT? Don't know, don't care, if he would have addressed me like that, all bets are off. She's walking back and forth between me and the counter, she finally decides that I should be the next person to deal with. No thanks, I said, these people have been waiting. I'm thinking no way am I going to have those glares and stares aimed at my back while I pass them by to get this now-getting-exhaustively-long situation dealt with. She offers me a $10 gift card for my trouble. I immediately said yes and thank you. Not turning anything down at this point.
I get my $18.00 plus the adjusted tax, but no gift card. The lady had gone off to yet another manager and I could hear her discussing this manager leaving me standing in an aisle, waiting for an eternity. I was about to walk off, if they aren't going to give me the card, I'm leaving. She turns and comes up to me - dunno what set that off, asks if I received my gift card. No. She gets it for me.
It turns out that it IS a $36 fan, but no, there were no others like it in the store. It WAS in an $18 shelf - all by itself. I invited them all to look at video surveillance to verify that this is where I found the fan, I didn't move it from somewhere else. In reality, there WAS nowhere else to move it from, all the other shelves with fans were totally full and they were totally different than this fan. After the gift card, the $36 fan cost me $10.
Doesn't really matter, though, the service is the same: crappy.
Take the deal, yes, take the nonsense, no thanks.
Wednesday
First off, the goldfish were getting it on last night. Lol. These are big goldfish, well big enough anway. Almost 7 inches long, thick and just large critters. They are totally enjoying the bigger pond, that much is for sure. I have no idea the time between the act and actually something coming out of the female - have to look that one up, don't wannt upset the enivronment by draining the pond, taking them all out of there and putting them back into the smaller ponds to be able to fit the large pond into the ground. That's exactly what I have going to have to do - sooner or later here. One thing, though, the water is staying cool - well cool enough - even though the temps have turned up the heat. So, there is no great hurry to move the pond if this little fishy is going to have more little fishies - I would rather wait and see what happens than to potentially upset the possibility of more free fishies.
Next, I'm reading about a stowaway on a privately owned jet! These people are insane. At 35,000 feet, well, you are going to die of asphyxia or hypothermia - or probably both. This dude was very lucky there was bad weather and the flight did not go up that high. Still, do these people that do this not know there is no oxygen way up there? Like committing suicide.
Mexico is outraged over a teen's death on the border. It doesn't make me happy, but where was Mexico's outrage over their illegal alien coming over and shooting the rancher to death? Or the recent fire-fight in the middle of the desert where several illegals were shooting at a Border Patrol agent? Hmmmm? There was no press about any great emotion being shown over either of those 2 little deals. What business does a president of another country have in condemning the laws of their neighbors? I could speak of the corruption in the government of that nation forever, I have been on the receiving end of it many times over. Or that fact that the oil industry is owned by the government, one huge reason their economy sucks, the people are broke and poor and living in shacks, huts and stealing electricity with extension cords. In fact, Mexico has so many problems created by the action or inaction of it's own government, that president should shut his stupid mouth and fix HIS nation before condemning OURS. The details of the incident where the 15 year old was killed is rather sketchy at this point, but allegedly the boy and others were hurling rocks at Border Patrol agents.
If that's true, well, I hate to wake everyone up, but a well thrown rock can KILL a person easily. I'll wait to see what the investigations come up with, allegedly the incident or part of it is on video.
My heart goes out to the family and relatives of the missing boy - Kyron Hormon - in Oregon. The circumstnaces around his disappearance are suspicious at best considering he was last seen walking down a hallway IN the school. I can't imagine what the parents of that kid are going through right now. God knows I hope they find that boy alive.
Back to my own reality, Caleb got a call from Albertson's - a grocery chain which has a store all of a block away from where his mother lives - for an interview. I told him to be himself, not be nervous and hopefully he will land his first job. He has been trying for some time now. He is a very respectful kid that doesn't go around mouthing off and acting stupid like a punk, I believe he has a very good chance at landing the job. Whether he realizes what it's like to actually WORK a job, be there every day they have him scheduled and is he really ready for one, well, only time will tell if he lands it. I personally wish he would have started working long ago - but there are very limited opportunities in these parts for minors under the age of 16 to find work anywhere. Not quite the same when I was growing up, where by the time I was my son's age, I had already been working for 7 years.
Summer is here and kids are out of school. I came out of my bedroom today, yesterday and Monday to find one of the black kids sleeping on my couch. Something has gotten a hold of one of them - the brothers that is - because he has changed his attitude and punk garbage to something totally different in recent times. Dunno what's going on with that, but it's a vast improvement over what he was acting like before - I had banned him from my house because of it. The trailer tenant is - dunno yet. He didn't look to good yesterday. They apparently didn't quite follow the nurses instructions too well and have been giving him too much of the liquid anti biotics that are being pumped directly into his veins. Just don't want anyone dying on my property, that wouldn't go over too well with me. On another note, when he opened the door, the flow of cold air coming out of there was nice. That evap cooler is working very well - at least for now.
Work day approaches. I am getting off early today since I worked an hour and a half late yesterday. Honestly? Would rather stay late every day and get the pay!!!
Lol.
G'day.
ben
Next, I'm reading about a stowaway on a privately owned jet! These people are insane. At 35,000 feet, well, you are going to die of asphyxia or hypothermia - or probably both. This dude was very lucky there was bad weather and the flight did not go up that high. Still, do these people that do this not know there is no oxygen way up there? Like committing suicide.
Mexico is outraged over a teen's death on the border. It doesn't make me happy, but where was Mexico's outrage over their illegal alien coming over and shooting the rancher to death? Or the recent fire-fight in the middle of the desert where several illegals were shooting at a Border Patrol agent? Hmmmm? There was no press about any great emotion being shown over either of those 2 little deals. What business does a president of another country have in condemning the laws of their neighbors? I could speak of the corruption in the government of that nation forever, I have been on the receiving end of it many times over. Or that fact that the oil industry is owned by the government, one huge reason their economy sucks, the people are broke and poor and living in shacks, huts and stealing electricity with extension cords. In fact, Mexico has so many problems created by the action or inaction of it's own government, that president should shut his stupid mouth and fix HIS nation before condemning OURS. The details of the incident where the 15 year old was killed is rather sketchy at this point, but allegedly the boy and others were hurling rocks at Border Patrol agents.
If that's true, well, I hate to wake everyone up, but a well thrown rock can KILL a person easily. I'll wait to see what the investigations come up with, allegedly the incident or part of it is on video.
My heart goes out to the family and relatives of the missing boy - Kyron Hormon - in Oregon. The circumstnaces around his disappearance are suspicious at best considering he was last seen walking down a hallway IN the school. I can't imagine what the parents of that kid are going through right now. God knows I hope they find that boy alive.
Back to my own reality, Caleb got a call from Albertson's - a grocery chain which has a store all of a block away from where his mother lives - for an interview. I told him to be himself, not be nervous and hopefully he will land his first job. He has been trying for some time now. He is a very respectful kid that doesn't go around mouthing off and acting stupid like a punk, I believe he has a very good chance at landing the job. Whether he realizes what it's like to actually WORK a job, be there every day they have him scheduled and is he really ready for one, well, only time will tell if he lands it. I personally wish he would have started working long ago - but there are very limited opportunities in these parts for minors under the age of 16 to find work anywhere. Not quite the same when I was growing up, where by the time I was my son's age, I had already been working for 7 years.
Summer is here and kids are out of school. I came out of my bedroom today, yesterday and Monday to find one of the black kids sleeping on my couch. Something has gotten a hold of one of them - the brothers that is - because he has changed his attitude and punk garbage to something totally different in recent times. Dunno what's going on with that, but it's a vast improvement over what he was acting like before - I had banned him from my house because of it. The trailer tenant is - dunno yet. He didn't look to good yesterday. They apparently didn't quite follow the nurses instructions too well and have been giving him too much of the liquid anti biotics that are being pumped directly into his veins. Just don't want anyone dying on my property, that wouldn't go over too well with me. On another note, when he opened the door, the flow of cold air coming out of there was nice. That evap cooler is working very well - at least for now.
Work day approaches. I am getting off early today since I worked an hour and a half late yesterday. Honestly? Would rather stay late every day and get the pay!!!
Lol.
G'day.
ben
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Tuesday
Alarm clock woke me up in a DEEP sleep this morning. That's cause' I woke up, again, in the middle of the night and have no idea how long it took me to get back to sleep. Another strange dream I was in, too. I was with a group of people at a huge apartment complex. We were broken up into small groups and given apartment numbers to find. The complex was set up strange in terms of number - they were not congruous and were thrown all over the place. A map was given with only a few of the entire complex's numbers on it.
An older gentleman and I spent over an hour looking for one, single apartment that we never found - cause' I woke up. When I did wake up, I was apparently angry for whatever was happening in that dream.
That is some STRANGE stuff. Who goes on apartment complex door number searches for a contest? I have never heard of such a thing. I doubt it exists anywhere. But dreams are like that. I most certainly do not like to wake up angry, upset or otherwise because of some stupid dream.
Regardless, a cold shower and a few cups of coffee have helped wake me up some, but I am still in a semi-fog right now. Nothing I can do about that excepting that the work day approaches and soon I will be moving around - alot - getting the blood pumping which usually helps.
The days are hot here now - obviously - the female tenant and the ex-Marine were complaining loudly about it yesterday. Yes, well when you step outside from a cool house into 111 degree heat, dunno what they are expecting, a cool sheen of moist air flowing over their faces? I haven't even looked at the forecast, to me, it's a done deal: 100 plus degree days for the next 3 months at least. I was out there yesterday, sweating profusely while applying a coat of mortar to the pond at the top of the falls and also setting some rocks into place to keep the water contained while the water flows down the falls. I should be able to run water through it today and see if I have effectively leak proofed it and have it to the point to where it can actually be used.
I have this fear that the AC is going to quit again this season. It's a 2 and a half year old system, yet the compressor already died once. Should not have problems with AC for at least 3 or 4 years if you service it. No idea. The fear is that I don't have the money to replace that thing again, $800. If it happened, what, exactly, would I do? No idea. I hope that is not a bridge I will have to cross.
Anyway, I must get offa here.
Have a great day!
ben
An older gentleman and I spent over an hour looking for one, single apartment that we never found - cause' I woke up. When I did wake up, I was apparently angry for whatever was happening in that dream.
That is some STRANGE stuff. Who goes on apartment complex door number searches for a contest? I have never heard of such a thing. I doubt it exists anywhere. But dreams are like that. I most certainly do not like to wake up angry, upset or otherwise because of some stupid dream.
Regardless, a cold shower and a few cups of coffee have helped wake me up some, but I am still in a semi-fog right now. Nothing I can do about that excepting that the work day approaches and soon I will be moving around - alot - getting the blood pumping which usually helps.
The days are hot here now - obviously - the female tenant and the ex-Marine were complaining loudly about it yesterday. Yes, well when you step outside from a cool house into 111 degree heat, dunno what they are expecting, a cool sheen of moist air flowing over their faces? I haven't even looked at the forecast, to me, it's a done deal: 100 plus degree days for the next 3 months at least. I was out there yesterday, sweating profusely while applying a coat of mortar to the pond at the top of the falls and also setting some rocks into place to keep the water contained while the water flows down the falls. I should be able to run water through it today and see if I have effectively leak proofed it and have it to the point to where it can actually be used.
I have this fear that the AC is going to quit again this season. It's a 2 and a half year old system, yet the compressor already died once. Should not have problems with AC for at least 3 or 4 years if you service it. No idea. The fear is that I don't have the money to replace that thing again, $800. If it happened, what, exactly, would I do? No idea. I hope that is not a bridge I will have to cross.
Anyway, I must get offa here.
Have a great day!
ben
Monday, June 7, 2010
Monday
I was a little amazed this morning to see that we "only" used $14.50 worth of electricity yesterday. I say that because previous days were not near as hot as yesterday, yet the amount used went up only marginally for the additional cooling. SRP raised it's rates - again - I expected the amount to go up. I am pretty much just dumping cash onto the power card to keep the meter running. Which is putting a strain on paying everything else. Last year, June was the highest month use for electricity - I was looking at a readout of previous 1-year's worth of electric consumption.
SRP wrote me back after I requested to be put on the payment plan where you pay an equalized amount every month and told me I was better off waiting until October, that to start in June would have a "very high amount assessed per month because of the increased usage and not having" whatever, data apparently to forecast what I will be using in any given year's time. Whooptdy doo. Guess I'll wait.
I'm hoping, changing the subject, that the temporary guy stays one more week. Another little bit of money dumped directly onto the power reader would be extremely helpful. If/when miss Army Reservist gets back, I will be informing her that I won't be doing that again - attempting to help her out while she's on some active military training exercise. It's too hard and right now, the money coming in is of utmost importance. I do hope she comes back - I don't have to try to find another tenant.
"Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist."
Those are some pretty dire words right there. Pretty much a lot of the Islamic word apparently thinks that way as well. Of course, the U.S. is the "great satan" so we're right in line for death and destruction as well. I was simply reading the on-going plight with Israel and the situation on the Gaza strip. I have no real opinion on the matter excepting that Israel definitely has the right to defend itself but at the same time, those people that are hungry on the strip need food. I would like to hope that Israel takes that ship full of humanatarian aid they just captured and send all of it over there - starving people do not need to be on the receiving end of a nation's campaign to keep weapons and missiles out of a place that wants to do them harm. Keep whatever weapons they find, all well and good, but send the food on it's way over there, however they want to do that.
As for me, the work day approaches and there is, thankfully, a pretty full day's worth of stuff in there to do .
G'day.
ben
SRP wrote me back after I requested to be put on the payment plan where you pay an equalized amount every month and told me I was better off waiting until October, that to start in June would have a "very high amount assessed per month because of the increased usage and not having" whatever, data apparently to forecast what I will be using in any given year's time. Whooptdy doo. Guess I'll wait.
I'm hoping, changing the subject, that the temporary guy stays one more week. Another little bit of money dumped directly onto the power reader would be extremely helpful. If/when miss Army Reservist gets back, I will be informing her that I won't be doing that again - attempting to help her out while she's on some active military training exercise. It's too hard and right now, the money coming in is of utmost importance. I do hope she comes back - I don't have to try to find another tenant.
"Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist."
Those are some pretty dire words right there. Pretty much a lot of the Islamic word apparently thinks that way as well. Of course, the U.S. is the "great satan" so we're right in line for death and destruction as well. I was simply reading the on-going plight with Israel and the situation on the Gaza strip. I have no real opinion on the matter excepting that Israel definitely has the right to defend itself but at the same time, those people that are hungry on the strip need food. I would like to hope that Israel takes that ship full of humanatarian aid they just captured and send all of it over there - starving people do not need to be on the receiving end of a nation's campaign to keep weapons and missiles out of a place that wants to do them harm. Keep whatever weapons they find, all well and good, but send the food on it's way over there, however they want to do that.
As for me, the work day approaches and there is, thankfully, a pretty full day's worth of stuff in there to do .
G'day.
ben
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Sunday
It was 110 degrees outside today.
I was out in it.
Hiding from it - by staying inside - serves me no purpose as my job keeps me outdoors quite a lot and also a lot of stuff I have to get done around here is also out doors.
Both ponds are out of the ground.
The lower pond has been thoroughly cleaned and yes, there is a leak.
I have neither cleaned nor checked the upper pond for leaks yet.
Tomorrow - probably. All fish and plants are in the large pond which is doing nicely in it's current position.
I continued work with the waterfall - though - mixing cement in that kind of heat is really not the greatest idea. It dries quickly and is hard to work with.
Regardless, I have only to coat the entire inside of the pool with mortar and it will be just about done.
Since there was nothing but an open hole below the falls, I filled the pool up with water and watched the water flowing over the rocks.
The trailer tenants came back today. My phone was ringing with people from the hospital, a delivery service and a nurse. Hospital asking if Mark had made it back; delivery service showing up with a huge supply of syringes and medication; nurse wanting me to have them call her after they arrive. He has 2 tubes with valves sticking out of his arm. They are pumping anitibiotics into him. With the large amount of medication and syringes, I'm guessing they are going to have him on that stuff for quite a while - and then - he has to go back for yet ANOTHER surgery.
Crazy stuff.
Trip to Walmart on Friday, forgot to report about this one. I went into the Walmart by my work to get a new pair of jeans and miscellaneous. I always go to the deli counter - Walmart probably has the best prices around on deli meats, however, actually GETTING the stuff is usually a chore. I ask for a pound and a half of turkey breast sliced for sandwiches. The man says great, yes. Okay. He gets done slicing the turkey and then gives me an odd look. I have started no trouble, have been very congenial, what's up? He explains to me that they "ran out of plastic baggies" and will wrapping it up in saran wrap be okay?
I must have given him an odd look as well. Walmart sells plastic baggies, if they run out, they could just use their own product until they get more, not try to churn out some chincey results. I did not reply with what was going through my mind, I had no desire to start trouble and just said yes. Wrapping and wrapping turkey? Not a happening event, it is in a baggie that I have now supplied myself. I was wondering if perhaps these people are not allowed to think for themselves and do what needs to be done instead of coming up with half-@$$ed solutions. I imagine they are not empowered to do such and make such decisions. Yes, I could have called for a manager and forced the issue, again, wasn't really desiring such.
Well, this entry is done, because I am going to bed to - go to work in the morning, of course. It will the the first really hot day at work with expected temps around 110. Fun fun.
G'nite.
ben
I was out in it.
Hiding from it - by staying inside - serves me no purpose as my job keeps me outdoors quite a lot and also a lot of stuff I have to get done around here is also out doors.
Both ponds are out of the ground.
The lower pond has been thoroughly cleaned and yes, there is a leak.
I have neither cleaned nor checked the upper pond for leaks yet.
Tomorrow - probably. All fish and plants are in the large pond which is doing nicely in it's current position.
I continued work with the waterfall - though - mixing cement in that kind of heat is really not the greatest idea. It dries quickly and is hard to work with.
Regardless, I have only to coat the entire inside of the pool with mortar and it will be just about done.
Since there was nothing but an open hole below the falls, I filled the pool up with water and watched the water flowing over the rocks.
The trailer tenants came back today. My phone was ringing with people from the hospital, a delivery service and a nurse. Hospital asking if Mark had made it back; delivery service showing up with a huge supply of syringes and medication; nurse wanting me to have them call her after they arrive. He has 2 tubes with valves sticking out of his arm. They are pumping anitibiotics into him. With the large amount of medication and syringes, I'm guessing they are going to have him on that stuff for quite a while - and then - he has to go back for yet ANOTHER surgery.
Crazy stuff.
Trip to Walmart on Friday, forgot to report about this one. I went into the Walmart by my work to get a new pair of jeans and miscellaneous. I always go to the deli counter - Walmart probably has the best prices around on deli meats, however, actually GETTING the stuff is usually a chore. I ask for a pound and a half of turkey breast sliced for sandwiches. The man says great, yes. Okay. He gets done slicing the turkey and then gives me an odd look. I have started no trouble, have been very congenial, what's up? He explains to me that they "ran out of plastic baggies" and will wrapping it up in saran wrap be okay?
I must have given him an odd look as well. Walmart sells plastic baggies, if they run out, they could just use their own product until they get more, not try to churn out some chincey results. I did not reply with what was going through my mind, I had no desire to start trouble and just said yes. Wrapping and wrapping turkey? Not a happening event, it is in a baggie that I have now supplied myself. I was wondering if perhaps these people are not allowed to think for themselves and do what needs to be done instead of coming up with half-@$$ed solutions. I imagine they are not empowered to do such and make such decisions. Yes, I could have called for a manager and forced the issue, again, wasn't really desiring such.
Well, this entry is done, because I am going to bed to - go to work in the morning, of course. It will the the first really hot day at work with expected temps around 110. Fun fun.
G'nite.
ben
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Saturday
This will be a short entry.
The heat is here. 107 today, 110 tomorrow.
I didn't get moving outside of the house until well after noon today.
I did get the lower pond drained. Only 2 of the mosquito fish found. The Plecostomus? His body - dead or alive - nowhere to be found. The rest of the mosquito fish bodies? Again, nowhere. Strange stuff.
I found 2 of them alive, caught them and transferred them to the large pond.
Did NOT get started on the second pond and did nothing with the waterfall today. I simply did not feel like it. I am not acclimated to the heat yet - I have to do that every year and it is usually a 2 week or near process.
I will get more done on the waterfalls tomorrow, yes, but now the other pond has to be drained and I want to do that first, even if I get nothing done on the falls.
Mark, the trailer tenant, is still in the hospital. Coming home tomorrow. He was given options: Nursing home or in-home treatment. I have no idea why, they decided for in-home treatment. Well, I have been in nursing homes - MANY times over - some of them are miserable places. He is eliglible for Social Security payments and they were, ironically, headed for that office - planned anyway - the day his health went back down. I suspect when he starts getting that money they will disappear. No problem, I was only trying to keep them off the streets.
That's it. I have more, but it's getting late for me and I don't really want to go into all of it right now.
G'nite.
ben
The heat is here. 107 today, 110 tomorrow.
I didn't get moving outside of the house until well after noon today.
I did get the lower pond drained. Only 2 of the mosquito fish found. The Plecostomus? His body - dead or alive - nowhere to be found. The rest of the mosquito fish bodies? Again, nowhere. Strange stuff.
I found 2 of them alive, caught them and transferred them to the large pond.
Did NOT get started on the second pond and did nothing with the waterfall today. I simply did not feel like it. I am not acclimated to the heat yet - I have to do that every year and it is usually a 2 week or near process.
I will get more done on the waterfalls tomorrow, yes, but now the other pond has to be drained and I want to do that first, even if I get nothing done on the falls.
Mark, the trailer tenant, is still in the hospital. Coming home tomorrow. He was given options: Nursing home or in-home treatment. I have no idea why, they decided for in-home treatment. Well, I have been in nursing homes - MANY times over - some of them are miserable places. He is eliglible for Social Security payments and they were, ironically, headed for that office - planned anyway - the day his health went back down. I suspect when he starts getting that money they will disappear. No problem, I was only trying to keep them off the streets.
That's it. I have more, but it's getting late for me and I don't really want to go into all of it right now.
G'nite.
ben
Friday, June 4, 2010
Various Things
I finally ended up filing a complaint against my next door neighbor. He has a 40 foot long, behemoth travel trailer that is sitting from the front of his property to the side of his house to into his backyard. I didn't care much when it was IN his back yard, but this thing has been totally blocking my view of the street and anything west for months now. He left town and left it that way. I can't possibly imagine why he thinks his neighbors want to be subjected to such s***. Again, if he would have left the thing in the BACK yard, I wouldn't have cared.
The older lady across the street? I had a conversation with her yesterday. She frankly stated her health is going down, she can't take care of the house or live alone anymore, she is trying to sell her property and get out of town - literally - moving up to where her family lives in Utah. I feel bad for her, the only thing I can do is pray. She has cancer, she is taking medications that are dragging her down.
Neighbors on the OTHER side of my house are just NOW getting their evaporative cooler going. It was 103 degrees today, it has been warm for a couple of weeks now. I can understand why I am hearing frequent screamings from kids yelling at each other coming from that house.
Came home today to find the lower pond down 7 inches - it was full this morning. The leak - apparently is turning into a gusher. I immediately went to work setting up the new, big pond on the concrete. I shored up the pond's shelves with pavers under neath so they wouldn't collapse. The pond is filled with water, I have the waterfall filter going on it and I have put 9 plants in there so far. Water has been treated. I will probably put the fish in there tomorrow - although catching those mosquito eaters may be a chore. I will probably have to mostly drain out the ponds in order to do that, and hopefully find the 2 plecostomus - alive preferrably. I haven't seen them since I put them in the ponds. Easy for them to disappear. I haven't done anything on the waterfall project because - obviously - the pond situation suddenly became a much larger priority with the advent of whatever the leak is growing MUCH larger, apparently.
Weekend here. Ponds will undoubtedly consume a good portion of this weekend since now, I am suddenly faced with pulling out fish, plants, ponds, digging out the hole for the larger pond, fixing wherever the leak is on whichever smaller pond, filling back up the smaller ponds, putting the fish and plants back into those ponds - above ground, putting the new, big pond into it's new hole, transferring the fish yet again. If that sounds like work, I'm glad, because - IT IS. Oh well, not the end of the world.
California owned companies have ramped up their advertising here in a BIG way in the last week. California dairies; California wine; Seaword San Diego; and more. Apparently, not ALL of California is opposed to doing business with Arizona in this ridiculous boycott that has gone to new depths of stupidity: LA schools now want to teach how Arizona's Immigration bill is bad for America? LOL! ROFL!!! These people are only making themselves look like total morons! Still, enough entities, businesses and people in California are spewing forth their bile that I am still on the boycott California bandwagon. Why not? A slew of states are now considering bills just like Arizona. Is California also going to boycott every other state that comes along with the SAME bill, if such happens?
Highly doubtful. I know that us Arizonans consume a LOT of product that is manufactured/originates in California, besides having business ties that we have over there, not just the other way around as they would like everyone to believe, and the HUGE tourism business we give them in the estimated 2 BILLION dollars per year. We could do SERIOUS damage to them if we stopped consuming their products, cut business ties and stopped going over there altogether. In fact, I think it would be a devastating proposition. How many Californians come HERE during the summer, spending tourism dollars? I have no idea, but I would guess NOT TOO MANY, the reverse effect - them not coming here, would not be near as big as us not going there.
Several hours have passed since starting this entry. A fire was lit under my feet when I saw the pond level go down 4 inches in 2 hours. Plants have been transferred. Goldfish? Freaking crazy. They did NOT want to be caught. Took me an hour to get those 4. 2 of them ended up flipping out of the pond and onto the rocks when I was trying to net them. One of them slipped down beside the pond into the ground! Lol. Grabbed that sucker by the tail fin, dumped him into the net and then dumped him into the pond. I treated the pond for fish acclimation, they seem to be doing fine. Catching those mosquito fish? They dart around like bolts of lightning. I figure the only way to catch them is to almost totally drain the ponds.
Anyway, it's almost my bedtime and I'm outta here.
G'nite.
ben
The older lady across the street? I had a conversation with her yesterday. She frankly stated her health is going down, she can't take care of the house or live alone anymore, she is trying to sell her property and get out of town - literally - moving up to where her family lives in Utah. I feel bad for her, the only thing I can do is pray. She has cancer, she is taking medications that are dragging her down.
Neighbors on the OTHER side of my house are just NOW getting their evaporative cooler going. It was 103 degrees today, it has been warm for a couple of weeks now. I can understand why I am hearing frequent screamings from kids yelling at each other coming from that house.
Came home today to find the lower pond down 7 inches - it was full this morning. The leak - apparently is turning into a gusher. I immediately went to work setting up the new, big pond on the concrete. I shored up the pond's shelves with pavers under neath so they wouldn't collapse. The pond is filled with water, I have the waterfall filter going on it and I have put 9 plants in there so far. Water has been treated. I will probably put the fish in there tomorrow - although catching those mosquito eaters may be a chore. I will probably have to mostly drain out the ponds in order to do that, and hopefully find the 2 plecostomus - alive preferrably. I haven't seen them since I put them in the ponds. Easy for them to disappear. I haven't done anything on the waterfall project because - obviously - the pond situation suddenly became a much larger priority with the advent of whatever the leak is growing MUCH larger, apparently.
Weekend here. Ponds will undoubtedly consume a good portion of this weekend since now, I am suddenly faced with pulling out fish, plants, ponds, digging out the hole for the larger pond, fixing wherever the leak is on whichever smaller pond, filling back up the smaller ponds, putting the fish and plants back into those ponds - above ground, putting the new, big pond into it's new hole, transferring the fish yet again. If that sounds like work, I'm glad, because - IT IS. Oh well, not the end of the world.
California owned companies have ramped up their advertising here in a BIG way in the last week. California dairies; California wine; Seaword San Diego; and more. Apparently, not ALL of California is opposed to doing business with Arizona in this ridiculous boycott that has gone to new depths of stupidity: LA schools now want to teach how Arizona's Immigration bill is bad for America? LOL! ROFL!!! These people are only making themselves look like total morons! Still, enough entities, businesses and people in California are spewing forth their bile that I am still on the boycott California bandwagon. Why not? A slew of states are now considering bills just like Arizona. Is California also going to boycott every other state that comes along with the SAME bill, if such happens?
Highly doubtful. I know that us Arizonans consume a LOT of product that is manufactured/originates in California, besides having business ties that we have over there, not just the other way around as they would like everyone to believe, and the HUGE tourism business we give them in the estimated 2 BILLION dollars per year. We could do SERIOUS damage to them if we stopped consuming their products, cut business ties and stopped going over there altogether. In fact, I think it would be a devastating proposition. How many Californians come HERE during the summer, spending tourism dollars? I have no idea, but I would guess NOT TOO MANY, the reverse effect - them not coming here, would not be near as big as us not going there.
Several hours have passed since starting this entry. A fire was lit under my feet when I saw the pond level go down 4 inches in 2 hours. Plants have been transferred. Goldfish? Freaking crazy. They did NOT want to be caught. Took me an hour to get those 4. 2 of them ended up flipping out of the pond and onto the rocks when I was trying to net them. One of them slipped down beside the pond into the ground! Lol. Grabbed that sucker by the tail fin, dumped him into the net and then dumped him into the pond. I treated the pond for fish acclimation, they seem to be doing fine. Catching those mosquito fish? They dart around like bolts of lightning. I figure the only way to catch them is to almost totally drain the ponds.
Anyway, it's almost my bedtime and I'm outta here.
G'nite.
ben
Friday
I dunno, but from my angle, after they cut that pipe under the ocean, it looks like a LOT more oil is gushing out of there now. This will be an unparalled ecological disaster by the time this is done. BP will end up going bankrupt if this goes on much longer, it will cost too much money to clean all of that junk up all over the place. Okay, I don't know that they're going bankrupt, but even a company that large has finite resources.
So, how do you form the top of a man-made waterfall to make it look a little like it wasn't - man-made? Any way you please, apparently. I have looked at pic after pic after pic, the most common method is to simply put a giant, flat rock over wher the water line is going to pump water into it. Not exactly what I want to do, but I may end up doing it for lack of a better idea. Regardless, phase 2 of the pool of water at the top is done, the final phase should occur today.
Which doesn't mean the falls itself will be done, just the pool. Or not. Who knows, I'm taking this one step at a time considering I have never done anything like this before. I started running the pump I got off of CL yesterday, that thing must be at least 1,000 gallons per hour - meaning both ponds full of water are moving through that pump probably 7 times per hour. Lol. Everyone says that same thing: You can't pump TOO much water, you CAN pump too little. Well, I am not running that big pump 24 hours.
This guy comes in here every Friday morning, before our store opens, to deliver a freight shipment from one of our DC's. I tell him every Friday morning that we open at 6:00 am. He still comes in here, like he just did, handing me paperwork and obviously wanting me to go to work. Sorry, Charlie, I sign in at 6:00, not 5:45AM, I come to work early for a reason: stimulate the mind with reading news and such, drink some coffee, wake up. He was lamenting how he has 5 more stops after this. I'm not sorry, that's his job - I did OTR for years, I had to wait and wait and wait at many of the places I was delivering to, too. That's a trucker's life, if you can't get used to it, you probably need to find a new line of work. I go to job sites and wait sometimes for 2 hours to get unloaded. For a local delivery setup, that's a long time.
Now, if a customer showed up early, I would have no choice but to service the contractor and get them whatever they need. It happens, but infrequently.
Anyway, just before I forget, I am printing out the vacation form: I am definitely taking a full week off during Independence Day week unless, for some reason, I am told no. No reason that I know of, but, you never know.
BTW, I'll chime in my 2 cents on the Perfect Game that didn't happen. I officiated games for 10 years, nothing like the level of MLB, but the concept is still quite the same. Actually, it's far worse for a Little League umpire because of all the parents, spectators and coaches attempting to give you a hard time on every call that they don't like. They are sitting RIGHT there, in MLB, the umpires are much further away from the crowd. Anyway, umpires make mistakes, it's part of the game. It IS part of the game. Did the umpire blow it? His own words, yup. Is the commissioner going to turn that game over? I would hope not. That would set a precedent for reviewing umpire's calls that - would not be good for the game, to put it mildly. Live with it, that's what umpires have to do when they make a bad call and realize it afterwards: an umpire cannot change his own call. Judgment calls are final. A runner being called out at a base is a judgment call. The best umpires in the world are found in the MLB and yes, they make mistakes and sometimes they are real doozies.
Anyway, the work day approaches, there is a freight truck outside and I need to get offa here and get signed in.
G'day.
ben
So, how do you form the top of a man-made waterfall to make it look a little like it wasn't - man-made? Any way you please, apparently. I have looked at pic after pic after pic, the most common method is to simply put a giant, flat rock over wher the water line is going to pump water into it. Not exactly what I want to do, but I may end up doing it for lack of a better idea. Regardless, phase 2 of the pool of water at the top is done, the final phase should occur today.
Which doesn't mean the falls itself will be done, just the pool. Or not. Who knows, I'm taking this one step at a time considering I have never done anything like this before. I started running the pump I got off of CL yesterday, that thing must be at least 1,000 gallons per hour - meaning both ponds full of water are moving through that pump probably 7 times per hour. Lol. Everyone says that same thing: You can't pump TOO much water, you CAN pump too little. Well, I am not running that big pump 24 hours.
This guy comes in here every Friday morning, before our store opens, to deliver a freight shipment from one of our DC's. I tell him every Friday morning that we open at 6:00 am. He still comes in here, like he just did, handing me paperwork and obviously wanting me to go to work. Sorry, Charlie, I sign in at 6:00, not 5:45AM, I come to work early for a reason: stimulate the mind with reading news and such, drink some coffee, wake up. He was lamenting how he has 5 more stops after this. I'm not sorry, that's his job - I did OTR for years, I had to wait and wait and wait at many of the places I was delivering to, too. That's a trucker's life, if you can't get used to it, you probably need to find a new line of work. I go to job sites and wait sometimes for 2 hours to get unloaded. For a local delivery setup, that's a long time.
Now, if a customer showed up early, I would have no choice but to service the contractor and get them whatever they need. It happens, but infrequently.
Anyway, just before I forget, I am printing out the vacation form: I am definitely taking a full week off during Independence Day week unless, for some reason, I am told no. No reason that I know of, but, you never know.
BTW, I'll chime in my 2 cents on the Perfect Game that didn't happen. I officiated games for 10 years, nothing like the level of MLB, but the concept is still quite the same. Actually, it's far worse for a Little League umpire because of all the parents, spectators and coaches attempting to give you a hard time on every call that they don't like. They are sitting RIGHT there, in MLB, the umpires are much further away from the crowd. Anyway, umpires make mistakes, it's part of the game. It IS part of the game. Did the umpire blow it? His own words, yup. Is the commissioner going to turn that game over? I would hope not. That would set a precedent for reviewing umpire's calls that - would not be good for the game, to put it mildly. Live with it, that's what umpires have to do when they make a bad call and realize it afterwards: an umpire cannot change his own call. Judgment calls are final. A runner being called out at a base is a judgment call. The best umpires in the world are found in the MLB and yes, they make mistakes and sometimes they are real doozies.
Anyway, the work day approaches, there is a freight truck outside and I need to get offa here and get signed in.
G'day.
ben
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Thursday
So, will North Korea also fire a torpedo at the giant carrier that the U.S. is considering sending to the same waters where the South Korean ship was hit, sank and killed 40 plus seamen?
One would hope not.
Brewer is in Washington to meet with Obama, I hope she keeps her wits and guts with her and is not intimidated by a smooth-talking man that knows how to manipulate very well. I think she has a lot of muster within, I hope it continues.
As for me, well, my daily workings on the waterfall have not stopped in over a week running now. At least. I poured the first portion of the small pool at the top of the falls. That was the bottom of it. Today I am thinking of putting up forms to pour sides for it for leak containment. It's getting closer to being done is all I can say about it. I was looking at a website where some folks were building a huge waterfall for their giant pond - they simply put a liner on the ground and stacked the rocks up from the bottom of the falls upward.
I can't really do that with a small pond, the thing would just fall apart and - well - I am liking what I am seeing so far anyway.
I think I have landed another temp tenant coming into town for a week. Won't be sure about that until this person shows up. I have had 3 people call about the room in the last 24 hours. Hopefully one of them is a show.
Lots of work in today's truck routing system, in fact, the last 2 days were very busy and today looks to be no different. Which is good - I like being busy, not having lull times and staying busy until it's time to go home.
Which is the end of this short entry (for me, anyway), as the work day is almost here and there are a few more news stories I want to read.
G'day.
ben
One would hope not.
Brewer is in Washington to meet with Obama, I hope she keeps her wits and guts with her and is not intimidated by a smooth-talking man that knows how to manipulate very well. I think she has a lot of muster within, I hope it continues.
As for me, well, my daily workings on the waterfall have not stopped in over a week running now. At least. I poured the first portion of the small pool at the top of the falls. That was the bottom of it. Today I am thinking of putting up forms to pour sides for it for leak containment. It's getting closer to being done is all I can say about it. I was looking at a website where some folks were building a huge waterfall for their giant pond - they simply put a liner on the ground and stacked the rocks up from the bottom of the falls upward.
I can't really do that with a small pond, the thing would just fall apart and - well - I am liking what I am seeing so far anyway.
I think I have landed another temp tenant coming into town for a week. Won't be sure about that until this person shows up. I have had 3 people call about the room in the last 24 hours. Hopefully one of them is a show.
Lots of work in today's truck routing system, in fact, the last 2 days were very busy and today looks to be no different. Which is good - I like being busy, not having lull times and staying busy until it's time to go home.
Which is the end of this short entry (for me, anyway), as the work day is almost here and there are a few more news stories I want to read.
G'day.
ben
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Wednesday
I'm walking out the door, down the driveway beside my house - as I am want to do every morning - Great Danes in tow - actually beside me. It's rather humorous to be able to walk and pet your dogs at the same time. Lol. The guy comes out of the trailer, I thought he was drunk at first, then I remembered he doesn't drink.
No, definitely not drunk, more like agonizing pain. He looked BAD. I asked him what's wrong with him, he said he was going back to the hospital. I asked him how he was getting there - bus. He's going to take a bus to a hospital that is 20 miles away like that? I informed him that as bad as looked and sounded, he might want to consider calling an ambulance. I do not have the time to drive that far out of my way in the morning, or I would have taken him there myself. For some reason, they tell him to go to the Banner hospital in far east Mesa instead of the nearest hospital.
Those people live a rough life, that's all I can say about it. Especially considering his age, in his mid 60's I believe.
Well, anyway, it's already Wednesday and I am planning on turning in paperwork to ask for the entire week of the Independence Day holiday off. Perfect time of year to not work: in the middle of the hot summer. I don't care if it's another staycation, I have the hours, I want the time off. Also concerning, work, I was hoping for at least some consideration in filling the now-vacated inside salesman position - the guy moved to Pennsylvania I think - they are not going to fill the position, instead they are simply going to dump his work off on to others.
I'm looking at pics of waterfalls attempting to determine how to build the top of the thing. I have yet to decide. I am just going to go home today after work, make a form for a small pool at the top, mix and pour the cement and see what I end up with. The cost? A bag and a half of cement lost if it isn't what I want.
Well, anyway, the work day approacheth. A man showed up shortly after I arrived at work this morning and sort of ate up my pre-work, off the clock time for a part he needed - which means 6:00am is almost here.
G'day.
ben
No, definitely not drunk, more like agonizing pain. He looked BAD. I asked him what's wrong with him, he said he was going back to the hospital. I asked him how he was getting there - bus. He's going to take a bus to a hospital that is 20 miles away like that? I informed him that as bad as looked and sounded, he might want to consider calling an ambulance. I do not have the time to drive that far out of my way in the morning, or I would have taken him there myself. For some reason, they tell him to go to the Banner hospital in far east Mesa instead of the nearest hospital.
Those people live a rough life, that's all I can say about it. Especially considering his age, in his mid 60's I believe.
Well, anyway, it's already Wednesday and I am planning on turning in paperwork to ask for the entire week of the Independence Day holiday off. Perfect time of year to not work: in the middle of the hot summer. I don't care if it's another staycation, I have the hours, I want the time off. Also concerning, work, I was hoping for at least some consideration in filling the now-vacated inside salesman position - the guy moved to Pennsylvania I think - they are not going to fill the position, instead they are simply going to dump his work off on to others.
I'm looking at pics of waterfalls attempting to determine how to build the top of the thing. I have yet to decide. I am just going to go home today after work, make a form for a small pool at the top, mix and pour the cement and see what I end up with. The cost? A bag and a half of cement lost if it isn't what I want.
Well, anyway, the work day approacheth. A man showed up shortly after I arrived at work this morning and sort of ate up my pre-work, off the clock time for a part he needed - which means 6:00am is almost here.
G'day.
ben
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Yes, The Waterfall
I am working on the waterfall every day. It is beginning to come into shape. I have the 3rd tier cemented into place - the cement poured this afternoon.
That is the final tier - I think. I am at the top of the waterfall now and I was scratching my head, trying to figure out how I wanted it to look. I was thinking a small pool of water at the top flowing out and over the falls. I then thought maybe just a flat surface with rocks piled up one the sides and back and a large rock on the top of the back of it where the water can shoot up and be dispersed back down again.
I've thought of a lot of things, and frankly, I haven't made a decision yet. There are still several days worth of work on it, at least. Cement and mortar do not harden in 2 minutes, it's an over night thing. It's basically 24 hours of drying and setting before I come back for the next round. I have overnight to figure out what I want to do, I do not want to put this off - make up my mind and do it.
If I don't like it in the end, I can take everything back off the top and redo it. I am thinking of doing the small pool of water - if I don't like it, I can just fill it in and have a flat surface top. That is probably what I will end up doing since it is non-binding in it's permanency. Just a waterfall update.
The ex called today. I wasn't going to answer it because I was in the middle of this fall project and wanted to get this phase of it done. I felt strangely compelled to answer, so I did. It was not a short conversation, but it as certainly an interesting one. She was conferring to me different things about my son, her life and what's going on. She is currently unemployed yet has found the Lord providing her sustenenance in seeing that all bills are getting paid. Yes, in case you're wondering, I do believe in the Lord's provision, I have seen it countless times, I could tell hundreds of stories. You could call some of them just happenstance, but some of my stories you would be very hard pressed to confer that fate or happenstance was what happened.
Then came the axe. Well, this wasn't a killing type of axe in terms of denigration, it was much the opposite. She stated that she felt compelled by the Lord to forgive the debt. The debt is the amount of money awarded to her by the court at the divorce proceedings for half of the 401k I had in my account and half of the house. It was stunning to hear those words coming from her. She further informed me that she had been praying for me and that at 3:00 am on Thursday night, she was awakened by the Lord to interceed for me. I am trying to remember if I was awake on Thursday at that hour - I do not sleep well and I am frequently awake at varying hours of the night. I cannot, however, specifically remember being awake at that point in time or remember anything going on. Which doesn't nullify the specificness of the time of day or the importance of what God would have been doing, I really don't know for sure.
She went even further asking me to forgive her for anything that might stand in the way of my relationship with the Lord. Even further said that in recent days, people from all over the place, literally all over the world, had been inquring about me. I have not been all over the world but my missionary endeavors had me meeting and in many instances, getting to know numerous missionaries from all over the place - Italy; Portugal; Spain; Romania; India; Pakistan; China; several places in South America and other locations on this huge- yet small - earth as well.
It's definitely got me to thinking. I have had this "urge" in the last few months to get involved with a church somewhere, get established and get back in communion with fellow believers. I have not necessarily resisted, but I have this stuff from church past that really puts up a roadblock when I think about going. I should be over this by now, but I find that I am not. Small steps? Well, the first step would simply be to shadow the doors of a church this coming Sunday. Nothing grand, just go in, worship the Lord, receive the sermon, leave. The second step would be to do it again the next Sunday, and the next and the next. The third step would be to get involved in whatever meetings might be available. A place to meet new people and get support and encouragement. After that, well, that's so far off, it's not of a concern to me right now.
Not going to go too far into that, I must take the first step and then I can give myself permission to dig into that a little further.
Meanwhile, the BP live feed of the robots at the ocean floor is of an overhead view of one of the robots cutting into what appears to be the main pipe. They have been cutting smaller pipes around it for a couple of days now, I think this is the big one that they are cutting and it appears there is oil coming out from the opening it's creating, further giving me reason to believe that they are coming to the point soon where they can try this giant capping operation that they have proposed. That blade is a diamond studded blade - we sell them though infrequently, VERY expensive, but pretty much the most durable, rugged, long-lifed blade available in the industry. Pretty much, you wouldn't expect them to use anything else. Yes, I just went back to look: oil is now gushing out of the cut to the point you cannot see the blade that is doing the cutting. Definitely the main pipe they have been talking about.
Back to the ponds, I am probably going to change my plan. The leak in the pond is apparently growing, as the water level was 2 day's worth of leaking that it was only a few days ago. Meaning that I am planning on filling the new pond tomorrow - on the concrete slab - getting some water moving around in it and in a few days, move the fish into it. All plants can be moved to the lower pond. The upper pond will come out, be filled with water above ground and observed for leaks. If none detectable, let it set for 24 hours to ensure there are no leaks in it anywhere. In either case - the pond will either be determined to be leak free or the leak will be found and fixed. It will be filled with pond water from the big pond and the fish transferred yet again. I will have shock treatment to help them cope with all the moving around.
Once back in the upper pond - but above ground now - the lower pond will come out and will be set aside. I will not need it for my new setup. The hole will be dug out for the larger pond. I must have the larger pond emptied before I start digging so I can trace an outline for digging out the hole. Well, I might be able to trace it over the existing setup and save some of the fish tranferences.
Regardless, I started this entry 3 hours ago and have been repeatedly interrupted - this is the end of it.
G'nite.
Ben
That is the final tier - I think. I am at the top of the waterfall now and I was scratching my head, trying to figure out how I wanted it to look. I was thinking a small pool of water at the top flowing out and over the falls. I then thought maybe just a flat surface with rocks piled up one the sides and back and a large rock on the top of the back of it where the water can shoot up and be dispersed back down again.
I've thought of a lot of things, and frankly, I haven't made a decision yet. There are still several days worth of work on it, at least. Cement and mortar do not harden in 2 minutes, it's an over night thing. It's basically 24 hours of drying and setting before I come back for the next round. I have overnight to figure out what I want to do, I do not want to put this off - make up my mind and do it.
If I don't like it in the end, I can take everything back off the top and redo it. I am thinking of doing the small pool of water - if I don't like it, I can just fill it in and have a flat surface top. That is probably what I will end up doing since it is non-binding in it's permanency. Just a waterfall update.
The ex called today. I wasn't going to answer it because I was in the middle of this fall project and wanted to get this phase of it done. I felt strangely compelled to answer, so I did. It was not a short conversation, but it as certainly an interesting one. She was conferring to me different things about my son, her life and what's going on. She is currently unemployed yet has found the Lord providing her sustenenance in seeing that all bills are getting paid. Yes, in case you're wondering, I do believe in the Lord's provision, I have seen it countless times, I could tell hundreds of stories. You could call some of them just happenstance, but some of my stories you would be very hard pressed to confer that fate or happenstance was what happened.
Then came the axe. Well, this wasn't a killing type of axe in terms of denigration, it was much the opposite. She stated that she felt compelled by the Lord to forgive the debt. The debt is the amount of money awarded to her by the court at the divorce proceedings for half of the 401k I had in my account and half of the house. It was stunning to hear those words coming from her. She further informed me that she had been praying for me and that at 3:00 am on Thursday night, she was awakened by the Lord to interceed for me. I am trying to remember if I was awake on Thursday at that hour - I do not sleep well and I am frequently awake at varying hours of the night. I cannot, however, specifically remember being awake at that point in time or remember anything going on. Which doesn't nullify the specificness of the time of day or the importance of what God would have been doing, I really don't know for sure.
She went even further asking me to forgive her for anything that might stand in the way of my relationship with the Lord. Even further said that in recent days, people from all over the place, literally all over the world, had been inquring about me. I have not been all over the world but my missionary endeavors had me meeting and in many instances, getting to know numerous missionaries from all over the place - Italy; Portugal; Spain; Romania; India; Pakistan; China; several places in South America and other locations on this huge- yet small - earth as well.
It's definitely got me to thinking. I have had this "urge" in the last few months to get involved with a church somewhere, get established and get back in communion with fellow believers. I have not necessarily resisted, but I have this stuff from church past that really puts up a roadblock when I think about going. I should be over this by now, but I find that I am not. Small steps? Well, the first step would simply be to shadow the doors of a church this coming Sunday. Nothing grand, just go in, worship the Lord, receive the sermon, leave. The second step would be to do it again the next Sunday, and the next and the next. The third step would be to get involved in whatever meetings might be available. A place to meet new people and get support and encouragement. After that, well, that's so far off, it's not of a concern to me right now.
Not going to go too far into that, I must take the first step and then I can give myself permission to dig into that a little further.
Meanwhile, the BP live feed of the robots at the ocean floor is of an overhead view of one of the robots cutting into what appears to be the main pipe. They have been cutting smaller pipes around it for a couple of days now, I think this is the big one that they are cutting and it appears there is oil coming out from the opening it's creating, further giving me reason to believe that they are coming to the point soon where they can try this giant capping operation that they have proposed. That blade is a diamond studded blade - we sell them though infrequently, VERY expensive, but pretty much the most durable, rugged, long-lifed blade available in the industry. Pretty much, you wouldn't expect them to use anything else. Yes, I just went back to look: oil is now gushing out of the cut to the point you cannot see the blade that is doing the cutting. Definitely the main pipe they have been talking about.
Back to the ponds, I am probably going to change my plan. The leak in the pond is apparently growing, as the water level was 2 day's worth of leaking that it was only a few days ago. Meaning that I am planning on filling the new pond tomorrow - on the concrete slab - getting some water moving around in it and in a few days, move the fish into it. All plants can be moved to the lower pond. The upper pond will come out, be filled with water above ground and observed for leaks. If none detectable, let it set for 24 hours to ensure there are no leaks in it anywhere. In either case - the pond will either be determined to be leak free or the leak will be found and fixed. It will be filled with pond water from the big pond and the fish transferred yet again. I will have shock treatment to help them cope with all the moving around.
Once back in the upper pond - but above ground now - the lower pond will come out and will be set aside. I will not need it for my new setup. The hole will be dug out for the larger pond. I must have the larger pond emptied before I start digging so I can trace an outline for digging out the hole. Well, I might be able to trace it over the existing setup and save some of the fish tranferences.
Regardless, I started this entry 3 hours ago and have been repeatedly interrupted - this is the end of it.
G'nite.
Ben
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