Driving to work this morning. Pass through an intersection. Gas station coming up on right. Pickup truck is driving down the center lane. Pickup truck starts heading towards the gas station - on his left, my right. I now have a pickup truck in my lane, coming directly at me. This freak apparently thought he could somehow "beat" me. Instead, I am slamming on my brakes and making evasive manuevers. This pickup starts fishtailing and sliding all over the place. I had no idea which way to go - to the left or right of him. Experts say always head right, but he was going right and left. I opted for the center lane - he guns it into the gas station, we BARELY miss each other.
What a way to start a day. News and my take. The Times Square Bomber - the idiot that was going to blow up Times Square admitted his guilt "100 times over" and declares that we are going to be attacked - America that is - if we don't leave muslim nations alone. The man is a traitor and should be treated as such. I am quite serious when I say he should either be shot or hanged to death. Anyone that can stand that brazenly in a court room and speak about our nation that way while at the same time having had attempted to end who knows how many lives through a bomb - yes, I believe that person to be a traitor, let him come to a traitor's death.
Fremont, Nebraska votes to make it illegal to rent to illegals or hiring them. Of course, the ACLU has piped up, vowing to sue. Okay, I expect that. But what happens if 100 communities do the same thing? Does the ACLU have the resources to go suing 100 different communities? Meanwhile, there are actual travel advisories in the southern portion of our state - Arizona - warning people that it is dangerous to be anywhere in that vicinity and you are probably going to save your life if you leave and leave now (my version of it). Why are we fighting in Afghanistan, someone please explain this to me? I know the original idea was to go in and find Osama bin Laden, but a war? We have a war starting on our border. The violence is escalating. Now a local police force has been threatened by Mexican drug cartels. That's AMERICAN police, not Mexican. I ask the question again: WHAT is it going to take for this worthless Obama administration to get off their asses, make some decisions and get some HELP down here?
Call me a racist, I could care less. This has nothing to do with bigotry or racism. It is now, more and more, having to do with VIOLENCE enacted by these people WHO DON'T BELONG HERE.
My diet is working. I continue to say that because it is true. It is sometimes VERY hard to keep driving by Wendy's, Burger King, McDonald's, Jack In The Box - all of them - and keep on driving on by. When I'm hungry, well I used to stop wherever and try to find something that didn't have too much fat calories and junk in it. Well, at all of those places listed above, none of them have anything actually good for you. Even their salads are heaped with fat calories in the meat they put into it. Heck, sometimes I just WANT a good ole' burger. Can't do it, not now anyway. I now simply starve myself until I either find a Subway or I am going home from work for the day. To date, Subway is the only place I know of where I can have the sandwich built to my specs. I have been opting for oven roasted chicken for a sandwich or tuna for the salad. The tuna does home some calories in it, I'm not going to say it doesn't. They are using mayo in the mix for it.
However, even with that, I have found that it is not negatively effecting my diet. I just don't put any dressings on it and I don't have any cheese. Yes, I am still on the no-cheese kick. It was the single-most important thing that I eliminated from my diet that started to cause the turn-around in weight loss to occur. I was looking at calorie content of mustard yesterday - zero calories. If you can't have a thing you like on your sandwich, try something different, so I've been having them put mustard on it. It's good, nothing great, but good. That and red wine vinegar.
At home, I have discovered the virtues of using balsamic vinegar. That stuff is really good on a lot of cooking ventures!! I bought the cheap stuff, when I'm through with the current bottle I'm going to buy the good stuff.
And, of course, I am giong to continue to search out tasty recipes - trying to get away from beef a bit more than I have. Red meat - heart - not the greatest combo apparently. I love chicken anyway.
Work day approaches. Appalling - to me anyway - and on a final note - that the IRS is "considering" taxing money given to those that are being financially harmed by the BP oil spill.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
G'day.
ben
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Cafe World Tip 19: Cafe Slow - Updated: Windows Registry
G'day to all the chefs.
This is going to be a much shorter entry about Cafe World - and the 3rd (at least) posting I have made about the Cafe running very slowly.
First off, a recap on my other tips to speed up your computer and what might help:
1. Defrag
2. Clear the Cache (frequently)
3. CHKDSK (check the disk)
4. Reboot.
None of that worked today. My cafe was running SO slowly, it was almost torturous. I have competition in having a lot of neighbors and I want to keep ahead of all of them, having my cafe running so freakin' slow that I really can't play the game.
So, I tried restoring the registry to an earlier point a few days ago. It worked magnificently - but didn't last. Today, I did it again. After doing all the rest of that stuff listed above, this was like a miracle. My cafe was running at normal (awesome) speeds again!!
The following is how to do the operation - this is for Windows only, copied and pasted right off of Microsoft Support site (very easy to do, not time consuming, yes the computer will reboot, but definitely worth the effort if you are having problems and have tried everything else):
_____________________________________________________
Manual steps to restore the registry in Windows XP
Use System Restore to undo registry changes in in Windows XP
Click Start, click Run, type %SystemRoot%\System32\Restore\Rstrui.exe, and then click OK.
On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Restore my computer to an earlier time (if it is not already selected), and then click Next .
On the Select a Restore Point page, click the system checkpoint. In the On this list select the restore point area, click an entry that is named "Guided Help (Registry Backup)," and then click Next. If a System Restore message appears that lists configuration changes that System Restore will make, click OK.
On the Confirm Restore Point Selection page, click Next. System Restore restores the previous Windows XP configuration and then restarts the computer.
Log on to the computer. When the System Restore confirmation page appears, click OK..
_____________________________________________________
The question, of course, is - WHAT date to restore it to? I went to the furthest date back that was available - and will do that everytime now. Yes, I will restore the thing as often as I need to, it only takes a few minutes and makes the game SO much funner to play!
I have also considered reinstalling Windows and then creating a restore point right there, at the installation date. This would renew registry to pristine conditions. For now, I am not going to do that - the results of restoring the registry have been so freakin' wonderful, I don't need to do that.
I have seen all over the internet sites that want you to pay them for their software to clean up the registry for you - why bother? Just do it yourself, restore!!
This is going to be a much shorter entry about Cafe World - and the 3rd (at least) posting I have made about the Cafe running very slowly.
First off, a recap on my other tips to speed up your computer and what might help:
1. Defrag
2. Clear the Cache (frequently)
3. CHKDSK (check the disk)
4. Reboot.
None of that worked today. My cafe was running SO slowly, it was almost torturous. I have competition in having a lot of neighbors and I want to keep ahead of all of them, having my cafe running so freakin' slow that I really can't play the game.
So, I tried restoring the registry to an earlier point a few days ago. It worked magnificently - but didn't last. Today, I did it again. After doing all the rest of that stuff listed above, this was like a miracle. My cafe was running at normal (awesome) speeds again!!
The following is how to do the operation - this is for Windows only, copied and pasted right off of Microsoft Support site (very easy to do, not time consuming, yes the computer will reboot, but definitely worth the effort if you are having problems and have tried everything else):
_____________________________________________________
Manual steps to restore the registry in Windows XP
Use System Restore to undo registry changes in in Windows XP
Click Start, click Run, type %SystemRoot%\System32\Restore\Rstrui.exe, and then click OK.
On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Restore my computer to an earlier time (if it is not already selected), and then click Next .
On the Select a Restore Point page, click the system checkpoint. In the On this list select the restore point area, click an entry that is named "Guided Help (Registry Backup)," and then click Next. If a System Restore message appears that lists configuration changes that System Restore will make, click OK.
On the Confirm Restore Point Selection page, click Next. System Restore restores the previous Windows XP configuration and then restarts the computer.
Log on to the computer. When the System Restore confirmation page appears, click OK..
_____________________________________________________
The question, of course, is - WHAT date to restore it to? I went to the furthest date back that was available - and will do that everytime now. Yes, I will restore the thing as often as I need to, it only takes a few minutes and makes the game SO much funner to play!
I have also considered reinstalling Windows and then creating a restore point right there, at the installation date. This would renew registry to pristine conditions. For now, I am not going to do that - the results of restoring the registry have been so freakin' wonderful, I don't need to do that.
I have seen all over the internet sites that want you to pay them for their software to clean up the registry for you - why bother? Just do it yourself, restore!!
Monday
It was a strange (or more like: miraculous) thing to wake up this morning and find absolutely NO kids in the house whatsoever. The female tenant had her bedroom door open. Dunno about you, but I find that to be very odd behavior at best. Another female tenant used to leave her bedroom door open as well - and that turned into a very BAD situation. The only thing I can say is that if a person complains about noise while leaving their bedroom door open, perhaps it's time to go find a new place to live.
Whatever. Tenant issues - as long as I have tenants, there will be issues. The ex-Marine is leaving (stated anyway) at the end of next month. Still no word on whether the Army reservist is coming back or not (however, she continues to have her mail sent to my house, I assume she is coming considering she also has a tax refund check sitting there waiting for her). If she does not show, I'm returning all of that mail - a rather large stack of it - to sender.
Regardless of tenants, the kid situation started to get way out of line. School's out, apparently my house was going to be the local kid hangout. Although that doesn't bother me, the noise levels DID. I went out once last night and informed them if the noise levels did not die down considerably, all electronics would be shut off and they would all be leaving, my son would be going to his bedroom, thanks for playing, have a great day.
THAT shut them up. They know that not only will I do it, I will LEAVE it that way for several days.
Whatever. I slept very well last night - first time in quite a while - meaning I'm even more tired this morning. That should pass as the day moves on and I get to working, which starts in just a few minutes.
Oh, I did smoke a cigar and eat my wonderful steak with mushrooms, pearl onions and tomatoes slathered in balsamic vinegar with spices thrown in. I did marinate the steak in a mixture of the vinegar with beer and other things to soften it up a little. Absolutely delicious if I do say so myself, and yes, I do say so, lol.
G'day.
ben
Whatever. Tenant issues - as long as I have tenants, there will be issues. The ex-Marine is leaving (stated anyway) at the end of next month. Still no word on whether the Army reservist is coming back or not (however, she continues to have her mail sent to my house, I assume she is coming considering she also has a tax refund check sitting there waiting for her). If she does not show, I'm returning all of that mail - a rather large stack of it - to sender.
Regardless of tenants, the kid situation started to get way out of line. School's out, apparently my house was going to be the local kid hangout. Although that doesn't bother me, the noise levels DID. I went out once last night and informed them if the noise levels did not die down considerably, all electronics would be shut off and they would all be leaving, my son would be going to his bedroom, thanks for playing, have a great day.
THAT shut them up. They know that not only will I do it, I will LEAVE it that way for several days.
Whatever. I slept very well last night - first time in quite a while - meaning I'm even more tired this morning. That should pass as the day moves on and I get to working, which starts in just a few minutes.
Oh, I did smoke a cigar and eat my wonderful steak with mushrooms, pearl onions and tomatoes slathered in balsamic vinegar with spices thrown in. I did marinate the steak in a mixture of the vinegar with beer and other things to soften it up a little. Absolutely delicious if I do say so myself, and yes, I do say so, lol.
G'day.
ben
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Sunday
Let's see here, concerning KCL - a place I rarely visit - I never said I was NEVER going back, I just stopped posting there. I replied to a "bible thumping" whatever post on Blackbird's blog about gays and this and that - if gays want to be gay, how am I going to stop them? Throw a bunch of religious words at them and hope that kind of attack is going to do anything? The hate and vitriol coming from 1 particular person was palpable. Another person piped up - a person that comes regularly to this blog for what reason I have no idea since he's involved in that grouping of people that, apparently despise me. Is he looking for tidbits to pump into the message system at KCL and tell everyone that I am trashing KCL again? This is the kind of words that come to mind from illogical, irrational people that are acting like 2 years throwing a temper tantrum on a grocery store floor.
Let me just say to KCL - since I know you people come by here - again for what reason I have no idea - that I will NOT stop visiting the site whenever I want to until, of course, you lock me out. Then I will have no access to it - and really couldn't care less. I go for weeks at a time without shadowing the cyber doorstep of my blog on that site or anyone else's. There are still a few people there that I like, which is why I was there in the first place. When I saw the Bible Thumper post, I imagined that reading it would be good for entertainment purposes if nothing else - Bible and God haters are usually good for some entertaining reading - though, I suppose, you would have to have a different kind of sense of humor to see the humor in it.
I have been exposed to Chrisitian, Jesus, God and Bible haters for almost 3 decades now since becoming a Christian, there isn't anything anyone can say that I haven't already heard in terms of the hatred for God, the despising of those that love Him and the mockery that is generally prevalent with people that either don't believe in His existence or don't care (at least NOW they don't care, I'm sure that perspective will change, either in this lifetime or the next) one way or the other. I've been in many situations in my missionary adventures where my life was threatened and there was no way out excepting divine intervention, a thing that I have seen many, many times over. You see, whatever you believe, that's your business I suppose and all well and fine for you. When you come to me and tell me God doesn't exist, or that he hates us, or whatever, I can only stand back and recite a passage of Scripture that has been evident in my life, over and over: I can only speak of the things that I have heard and seen.
That is concerning the things that God has done that I saw - or heard - mostly saw - that could not be explained away by some "magical force" or scientific theorem. I can no more prove to you that He exists anymore than you can prove to me that He does not exist. I can tell you my stories, but skepticism is a powerful, inner deterrent. Only the Lord can break through a person that doubts or refutes His existence, I have nothing but to pray for such people.
So, regardless of what anyone KCL thinks of me, I have no such ill feelings back towards them, including EF. I am a very forgiving person, which obviously doesn't go both ways in this particular situation. I'm okay with that, I am washed clean of holding grudges or hatred, she is not. Carrying around that kind of baggage against a person - or perhaps a lot of people - will only drag you down and eventually, you are going to have to deal with it. Bitterness is like cancer - it eats away at you slowly, little by little, it gets into the very core of your being. To not deal with it - well - the results are pretty obvious.
One of the keys to the Christian walk is forgiveness - if you don't forgive others their "trespasses and sins", neither will your Father in Heaven forgive you yours. That portion of scripture enters my mind anytime I feel like I might be harboring something against someone. Again, I won't be stopping my visits - here and there - to KCL anytime soon unless, as I already said, I am blocked from the site, which I have already invited them to do if they are so inclined.
As for today, I am feeling much better and probably will delve into some sort of cleaning project around the house. I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to go outside and do anything today - but I'm sure a trip out there to access the situation currently at hand will be made. And anyway, the fish need to be fed. I feed them twice a day. It's not like I feel forced to go sit by my ponds and take in the sounds. I have a couple of lilly blooms coming up, nice looking flowers. My water hyacinth is slowly dying, I have asked a lot of people what I can do to save them, no-one had a good answer. Many people said that it dies in their ponds too, others said it thrives in theirs. I have looked on the net and saw something about nutrients and such. I also found out they are not legal to bring into the State of Arizona. Apparently, when they get into a waterway, they grow and grow and grow. They are a floating plant with a very thick, long and dense root system. When enough of them congretate in one place, they apparently disrupt the flow of water and choke out anything living in the water. There are pictures in other countries of that stuff literally taking over entire waterways for miles and miles worth.
So, they are almost dead and since I found out that info - not being legal here - I don't really care if they die out anyway. There are plenty of other water plants to take their place. In fact, I have enough lillies and other plants in there that the "loss" of such is not going to make a difference anyway. The point of having the Hyacinth is that those roots allegedly keep your water clear and clean. No worries, the UV sterilizer is working it's magic on that pond that was solid green water and now I can see to the bottom again. There is a film of algae down there, I don't know if it will get rid of that or not, but, I don't really care that much. It's the water I wanted clear. I don't think the fish do so well in putrid green water.
Father's Day today. I am going to make that dinner I was talking in my blog about yesterday - early afternoon I'm thinking. I doubt I will go anywhere. The end of the month is drawing nigh and I am quite curious about this Army reservist - is she coming back or not? I have absolutely no idea. I am going to run an ad - after I get done with this entry actually - to see if I can rent that room out for a couple more days or however long until she "gets back".
In fact, I want to go do that right now.
G'day. Happy Father's Day to those that are dads around the world!
ben
Let me just say to KCL - since I know you people come by here - again for what reason I have no idea - that I will NOT stop visiting the site whenever I want to until, of course, you lock me out. Then I will have no access to it - and really couldn't care less. I go for weeks at a time without shadowing the cyber doorstep of my blog on that site or anyone else's. There are still a few people there that I like, which is why I was there in the first place. When I saw the Bible Thumper post, I imagined that reading it would be good for entertainment purposes if nothing else - Bible and God haters are usually good for some entertaining reading - though, I suppose, you would have to have a different kind of sense of humor to see the humor in it.
I have been exposed to Chrisitian, Jesus, God and Bible haters for almost 3 decades now since becoming a Christian, there isn't anything anyone can say that I haven't already heard in terms of the hatred for God, the despising of those that love Him and the mockery that is generally prevalent with people that either don't believe in His existence or don't care (at least NOW they don't care, I'm sure that perspective will change, either in this lifetime or the next) one way or the other. I've been in many situations in my missionary adventures where my life was threatened and there was no way out excepting divine intervention, a thing that I have seen many, many times over. You see, whatever you believe, that's your business I suppose and all well and fine for you. When you come to me and tell me God doesn't exist, or that he hates us, or whatever, I can only stand back and recite a passage of Scripture that has been evident in my life, over and over: I can only speak of the things that I have heard and seen.
That is concerning the things that God has done that I saw - or heard - mostly saw - that could not be explained away by some "magical force" or scientific theorem. I can no more prove to you that He exists anymore than you can prove to me that He does not exist. I can tell you my stories, but skepticism is a powerful, inner deterrent. Only the Lord can break through a person that doubts or refutes His existence, I have nothing but to pray for such people.
So, regardless of what anyone KCL thinks of me, I have no such ill feelings back towards them, including EF. I am a very forgiving person, which obviously doesn't go both ways in this particular situation. I'm okay with that, I am washed clean of holding grudges or hatred, she is not. Carrying around that kind of baggage against a person - or perhaps a lot of people - will only drag you down and eventually, you are going to have to deal with it. Bitterness is like cancer - it eats away at you slowly, little by little, it gets into the very core of your being. To not deal with it - well - the results are pretty obvious.
One of the keys to the Christian walk is forgiveness - if you don't forgive others their "trespasses and sins", neither will your Father in Heaven forgive you yours. That portion of scripture enters my mind anytime I feel like I might be harboring something against someone. Again, I won't be stopping my visits - here and there - to KCL anytime soon unless, as I already said, I am blocked from the site, which I have already invited them to do if they are so inclined.
As for today, I am feeling much better and probably will delve into some sort of cleaning project around the house. I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to go outside and do anything today - but I'm sure a trip out there to access the situation currently at hand will be made. And anyway, the fish need to be fed. I feed them twice a day. It's not like I feel forced to go sit by my ponds and take in the sounds. I have a couple of lilly blooms coming up, nice looking flowers. My water hyacinth is slowly dying, I have asked a lot of people what I can do to save them, no-one had a good answer. Many people said that it dies in their ponds too, others said it thrives in theirs. I have looked on the net and saw something about nutrients and such. I also found out they are not legal to bring into the State of Arizona. Apparently, when they get into a waterway, they grow and grow and grow. They are a floating plant with a very thick, long and dense root system. When enough of them congretate in one place, they apparently disrupt the flow of water and choke out anything living in the water. There are pictures in other countries of that stuff literally taking over entire waterways for miles and miles worth.
So, they are almost dead and since I found out that info - not being legal here - I don't really care if they die out anyway. There are plenty of other water plants to take their place. In fact, I have enough lillies and other plants in there that the "loss" of such is not going to make a difference anyway. The point of having the Hyacinth is that those roots allegedly keep your water clear and clean. No worries, the UV sterilizer is working it's magic on that pond that was solid green water and now I can see to the bottom again. There is a film of algae down there, I don't know if it will get rid of that or not, but, I don't really care that much. It's the water I wanted clear. I don't think the fish do so well in putrid green water.
Father's Day today. I am going to make that dinner I was talking in my blog about yesterday - early afternoon I'm thinking. I doubt I will go anywhere. The end of the month is drawing nigh and I am quite curious about this Army reservist - is she coming back or not? I have absolutely no idea. I am going to run an ad - after I get done with this entry actually - to see if I can rent that room out for a couple more days or however long until she "gets back".
In fact, I want to go do that right now.
G'day. Happy Father's Day to those that are dads around the world!
ben
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Saturday
I am feeling a bit better today, but not enough to actually want to do anything of any great energy output.
I did go out and start cutting back this ground crawling plant - whatever it is - that was growing over the top of other plants. It will snuff out the life of other plants if you don't keep it in check, it simply keeps growing away from the center of the plant without limits, apparently.
The Mobile Mexican Dinnermobile - what I call it anyway, happened to be coming by while I was out there. This is a person pushing a cart on wheels with all kinds of different Mexican delicacies on it - well,l just plain stuff that you would find anywhere in Mexico. Yes, I've been to Mexico - hundreds of times actually, all over the nation, I am not speaking out of guessing or ignorance.
Well, they have this stuff called elote. Spanish for corn on the cob, basically. They slather some kind of sauce on it, cover it with paremsan cheese and cover that with chili powder. Oh, I have developed a taste for both the American version AND the real Mexican version of Mexican food over the last 3 decades. Well, aging myself, getting closer to 4 decades now. REAL Mexican food as served by those living in shacks, huts and what-not over there is very plain yet very delicious.
Whatever. I couldn't resist. My appetite is almost non-existent - being sick and the heat are appetite killers. I bought 2 of them anyway. It was $3 for 2 very large ears of corn. Normally, I could scarf 2 of them down and think nothing of it. I was struggling after the first one - attempting to save it in the refrig wouldn't work too well, so I downed the other as well. Stuffed off of 2 ears of corn. Interesting. My diet is also to blame. I am not eating much. I am sick of being overweight, even if it isn't that far overweight. I hate it and I don't want to be at this point, I am going to the OB in getting my weight down into the 180's range.
I have serious doubts I will eat anything else today, which is also interesting, because I bought all the ingredients to make an "interesting" dish that I haven't tried. Nothing far out, pretty basic, really, but it looked good. Take chunks of beef (whatever you can get - I got the manager's special, almost half price since the meat will expire in 2 days), cut them into small pieces; pearl onions; cherry tomatoes and portabello mushrooms.
Pearl onions are frozen - and cheap. Mushrooms? I caught by a fluke several packages that were also manager specials. I rarely catch mushrooms at that steep of a discount (so I don't buy them very often). Marinate everything in balsamic vinegar. This recipe calls to have some sort of basket that goes over a BBQ grill - wish I had one, the basket that is, cause' I definitely have the grill and yes, it has propane in it. Well, it will work over the stove and it will taste good, so whatever.
You put the steak; onions and mushrooms in the basket and fry - well I"m frying cause' I ain't got no basket (although I don't wonder if the $1 store might have something that would work). After it's about half done or so, you put the tomatoes in. Well, probably more like 3/4's done - tomatoes don't take long to "cook" - heat them and they soften nicely. Toss and serve with whatever else you like. In my case - probably just plain ole' french fries, and that for the boys. I haven't checked the fat, sodium or caloric content of french fries lately - I did a while back and I don't remember the stats. If it's not too bad, then I'll eat a small portion as well.
However, it won't happen until tomorrow. I'm stuff off of ear corn!! It will be too late to eat again when I get hungry again. And it dawned on me as I was sitting outside, in whatever hell heat it was, sitting next to my ponds, that tomorrow is father's day!! Hey, dudes, I'm going to treat myself to that stuff tomorrow, not today!! I am also going to go buy a cigar and smoke one of them suckers as well. Total Wine actually has a HUGE walk-in humidor in it, and their cigar prices are WAY better than anything I've found anywhere else. I have cut back cigar smoking substantially - it's been a couple of months since my last stogie. But, I think, a nice cigar on dad's day is cool.
Anyway, the pic of the recipe mentioned above look totally scrumptious, it couldn't possibly be BAD, I like ALL of those ingredients so what's the problem? None. None.
The green pond? Is turning clear. The UV sterilizer is working magnificently. It is working WELL beyond my expectations. I had NO expectation that it would clear the green out of it as much as it has. I'm very satisfied with my purchase on eBay of such. The water in the big pond is COOL, still, as well. It is subjected to direct sunlight 2/3rd's of daylight hours, that is a pretty good deal to have cool water in 107 degree heat - where the direct sunlight is shining make it MUCH warmer. The direct sunlight also creates massive algae conditions, again, the algae is being checked by the sterilizer.
Look, these things are exactly the reason I went for small, preformed ponds before getting into a much larger pond. 200 gallons versus 2,000. Learn about the first - get some experience, find out the pros and cons, learn how to deal with problems on a small scale and then, only then after much research, THEN think about moving up to a much larger setup. I do not have the money for a larger setup now. Even if I did, I would have still started small at first to try and figure this stuff out. When I get to the point where I have a very good grasp of what's going on, I will be writing up my complete version of ponds and ponding.
The detailed information I have scoured for all over the net is not there. I have read site after site about pond information. None of it is complete. Bits and pieces. You get tired of looking and you just do whatever and try stuff out until you find something that works. I will do the same as I am doing with Cafe World on here. In fact, I am definitely going to put up a post about my success with a UV sterilizer here today or in the next few days. I'm a newbie to the world of ponding, who cares.
So, it's a nice indoor Saturday. I was outside for about an hour. I can't STAND being indoors even if sick. If MORBIDLY sick, that means I am in bed and in such bad conditiion that getting out of bed is a sickening event in itself. Obviously, I am not that bad. I sat by the pond for the most part, I love listening to the sounds of the water gushing over the rocks and out of the waterfall and I just like to look and stare. The fish are fun to watch as well. They are very active - which is always a relieving sign for me, means they are healthy enough that they are moving all over the place versus sitting still and ---- dying.
BTW, today's sitting next to the pond was a "learning" experience in itself. I was thinking about how it is so nice to have the thing sitting above ground so that I could sit in a chair and see up close without straining - which made me think that an "upper" pond in my eventual pond setup will be sitting around half out of the water. I am not sold on the construction of it yet, but brick looks nice. That pond could feed into a bog, into another stream, into the large pond. I have a lot of time to ponder how I would like to build the thing - there is no money for such and just paying bills right now is enough. I'm very happy, in reality, to have what I currently have and will be content with it.
Of course, my outing today was followed by dogs. 3 of them at first, 2 of them for the long run. Coco - the Catahoula/Dane mix will follow me anywhere and everywhere, she doesn't CARE how hot it is out there. Prince, the black Dane, will mostly do the same. So, I have the blankets I acquired 2 years ago for my plants during any freeze that might harm them. I lay a couple of them over the landscaping rock so they can lay next to me. Yes, in some ways, you could say I spoil them, but really, what animal is going to want to lay on sharp, hard rocks? Not many, not any that I can think of. The fish are apparently becoming less fearful of me - they come right up and wait for the food. Fortunately, a $6 can of food has lasted as long as I have had them and there is still enough in there to last a couple of weeks anyway.
That's it for this one.
ben
I did go out and start cutting back this ground crawling plant - whatever it is - that was growing over the top of other plants. It will snuff out the life of other plants if you don't keep it in check, it simply keeps growing away from the center of the plant without limits, apparently.
The Mobile Mexican Dinnermobile - what I call it anyway, happened to be coming by while I was out there. This is a person pushing a cart on wheels with all kinds of different Mexican delicacies on it - well,l just plain stuff that you would find anywhere in Mexico. Yes, I've been to Mexico - hundreds of times actually, all over the nation, I am not speaking out of guessing or ignorance.
Well, they have this stuff called elote. Spanish for corn on the cob, basically. They slather some kind of sauce on it, cover it with paremsan cheese and cover that with chili powder. Oh, I have developed a taste for both the American version AND the real Mexican version of Mexican food over the last 3 decades. Well, aging myself, getting closer to 4 decades now. REAL Mexican food as served by those living in shacks, huts and what-not over there is very plain yet very delicious.
Whatever. I couldn't resist. My appetite is almost non-existent - being sick and the heat are appetite killers. I bought 2 of them anyway. It was $3 for 2 very large ears of corn. Normally, I could scarf 2 of them down and think nothing of it. I was struggling after the first one - attempting to save it in the refrig wouldn't work too well, so I downed the other as well. Stuffed off of 2 ears of corn. Interesting. My diet is also to blame. I am not eating much. I am sick of being overweight, even if it isn't that far overweight. I hate it and I don't want to be at this point, I am going to the OB in getting my weight down into the 180's range.
I have serious doubts I will eat anything else today, which is also interesting, because I bought all the ingredients to make an "interesting" dish that I haven't tried. Nothing far out, pretty basic, really, but it looked good. Take chunks of beef (whatever you can get - I got the manager's special, almost half price since the meat will expire in 2 days), cut them into small pieces; pearl onions; cherry tomatoes and portabello mushrooms.
Pearl onions are frozen - and cheap. Mushrooms? I caught by a fluke several packages that were also manager specials. I rarely catch mushrooms at that steep of a discount (so I don't buy them very often). Marinate everything in balsamic vinegar. This recipe calls to have some sort of basket that goes over a BBQ grill - wish I had one, the basket that is, cause' I definitely have the grill and yes, it has propane in it. Well, it will work over the stove and it will taste good, so whatever.
You put the steak; onions and mushrooms in the basket and fry - well I"m frying cause' I ain't got no basket (although I don't wonder if the $1 store might have something that would work). After it's about half done or so, you put the tomatoes in. Well, probably more like 3/4's done - tomatoes don't take long to "cook" - heat them and they soften nicely. Toss and serve with whatever else you like. In my case - probably just plain ole' french fries, and that for the boys. I haven't checked the fat, sodium or caloric content of french fries lately - I did a while back and I don't remember the stats. If it's not too bad, then I'll eat a small portion as well.
However, it won't happen until tomorrow. I'm stuff off of ear corn!! It will be too late to eat again when I get hungry again. And it dawned on me as I was sitting outside, in whatever hell heat it was, sitting next to my ponds, that tomorrow is father's day!! Hey, dudes, I'm going to treat myself to that stuff tomorrow, not today!! I am also going to go buy a cigar and smoke one of them suckers as well. Total Wine actually has a HUGE walk-in humidor in it, and their cigar prices are WAY better than anything I've found anywhere else. I have cut back cigar smoking substantially - it's been a couple of months since my last stogie. But, I think, a nice cigar on dad's day is cool.
Anyway, the pic of the recipe mentioned above look totally scrumptious, it couldn't possibly be BAD, I like ALL of those ingredients so what's the problem? None. None.
The green pond? Is turning clear. The UV sterilizer is working magnificently. It is working WELL beyond my expectations. I had NO expectation that it would clear the green out of it as much as it has. I'm very satisfied with my purchase on eBay of such. The water in the big pond is COOL, still, as well. It is subjected to direct sunlight 2/3rd's of daylight hours, that is a pretty good deal to have cool water in 107 degree heat - where the direct sunlight is shining make it MUCH warmer. The direct sunlight also creates massive algae conditions, again, the algae is being checked by the sterilizer.
Look, these things are exactly the reason I went for small, preformed ponds before getting into a much larger pond. 200 gallons versus 2,000. Learn about the first - get some experience, find out the pros and cons, learn how to deal with problems on a small scale and then, only then after much research, THEN think about moving up to a much larger setup. I do not have the money for a larger setup now. Even if I did, I would have still started small at first to try and figure this stuff out. When I get to the point where I have a very good grasp of what's going on, I will be writing up my complete version of ponds and ponding.
The detailed information I have scoured for all over the net is not there. I have read site after site about pond information. None of it is complete. Bits and pieces. You get tired of looking and you just do whatever and try stuff out until you find something that works. I will do the same as I am doing with Cafe World on here. In fact, I am definitely going to put up a post about my success with a UV sterilizer here today or in the next few days. I'm a newbie to the world of ponding, who cares.
So, it's a nice indoor Saturday. I was outside for about an hour. I can't STAND being indoors even if sick. If MORBIDLY sick, that means I am in bed and in such bad conditiion that getting out of bed is a sickening event in itself. Obviously, I am not that bad. I sat by the pond for the most part, I love listening to the sounds of the water gushing over the rocks and out of the waterfall and I just like to look and stare. The fish are fun to watch as well. They are very active - which is always a relieving sign for me, means they are healthy enough that they are moving all over the place versus sitting still and ---- dying.
BTW, today's sitting next to the pond was a "learning" experience in itself. I was thinking about how it is so nice to have the thing sitting above ground so that I could sit in a chair and see up close without straining - which made me think that an "upper" pond in my eventual pond setup will be sitting around half out of the water. I am not sold on the construction of it yet, but brick looks nice. That pond could feed into a bog, into another stream, into the large pond. I have a lot of time to ponder how I would like to build the thing - there is no money for such and just paying bills right now is enough. I'm very happy, in reality, to have what I currently have and will be content with it.
Of course, my outing today was followed by dogs. 3 of them at first, 2 of them for the long run. Coco - the Catahoula/Dane mix will follow me anywhere and everywhere, she doesn't CARE how hot it is out there. Prince, the black Dane, will mostly do the same. So, I have the blankets I acquired 2 years ago for my plants during any freeze that might harm them. I lay a couple of them over the landscaping rock so they can lay next to me. Yes, in some ways, you could say I spoil them, but really, what animal is going to want to lay on sharp, hard rocks? Not many, not any that I can think of. The fish are apparently becoming less fearful of me - they come right up and wait for the food. Fortunately, a $6 can of food has lasted as long as I have had them and there is still enough in there to last a couple of weeks anyway.
That's it for this one.
ben
Cafe World Tips - 18: Zynga Is FINALLY Stopping The Cheating!!!
Hiya fellow chefs! Some time ago, I started reporting cheaters on Cafe World. These are people that are using bots and programs to hack into the game and "modify" it to allow them to do all kinds of things to increase gold coins, cafe points and food without having to DO anything.
My biggest complaint were some of my neighbors that are using Cheat Engine 5.5 to hack into the Cafe World program and create a setup where your dishes automatically prepare and cook themselves. Known as a Cafe Clicker, the program is the ultimate in gaining HUGE Cafe points in a very short period of time. Of course it can do that, it's a computer software system, far more effective than any human can ever even think of playing the game.
I removed several neighbors that were using this cheat. One of them went from level 44 to level 173 in about 2 months. Just go ahead and try to do that on that game without cheating, GOOD LUCK. I started searching the net for answers to how this guy could possibly be gaining that many points without cheating and ran into the Cheat Engine program. I filled out a complaint form 4 separate times to Zynga - this cheating was making the game not much fun. I don't like to cheat to beat other players, why should these people be allowed to engage in such?
Well, here's Zynga's statement concerning this - they FINALLY are effectively addressing the problem:
Cafe World Unfair Play Deterrent!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiya chefs,
In an effort to clean up some issues affecting the performance of our game servers we detected several programs or sources trying to access the application to change the normal game play experience. These programs, modifiers, bots, cheats, hacks, etc. are a violation to Zynga’s Terms of Service, see Usage Rules, and have been affecting all users ability to connect to our servers.
We have implemented code to detect users enhancing their game experience by using programs of this type. Once an account has been detected it will be disabled until the end user contacts our Customer Support team. Accounts disabled may be reset to “normal” game play conditions and be noted for potential suspension if other violations occur.
Our intention is to keep our game world clean of modifiers and enhancement programs as well as optimize the performance for all of our café owners. If you experience any trouble with your Café World account and need assistance please contact our Customer Support team.
Our desire is that everyone that plays Café World have an enjoyable experience and we thank you for your continued support.
The Café World Team
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ __ _ _
Okay, well I just stumbled upon that, however, I then looked at the date on that statement. It was made January 6th of this year. That was 6 months ago!! So what's the answer here? People are still cheating, obviously. I can confidently say that because all of these cheaters I have removed as neighbors were ALL AFTER that statement was made by Cafe World/Zynga. Either their detection software isn't working too welll - or more likely - there are TOO many people cheating for them to keep up with it.
I simply advise you that if you see a neighbor cheating, turn them in!! Complain loudly and often to Zynga. The guy that went up to level 173? His account has been removed from Cafe World entirely. The others? I haven't checked on them recently - they are still Facebook neighbors so I can still look at their cafe points and see what is going on with them.
Look, any of us can engage in cheating. It's easy. It's the easy way to win, right? What's the point? It only serves to make the people that are haivng some fun playing the game to make them/me mad. I hate cheating. How can you tell if a neighbor is heating? One obvious sign is that they were way behind you and all of the sudden in a week's time they have not only caught up to you, but passed you waving bye-bye in terms of Cafe points. Go to their restaurant. Do you see hamburgers cookings, but no hamburgers on their counters? Good sign there. One guy had NO dishes on his counters, yet he was racking up huge Cafe points every day! How do you cook massive amounts of food but have no food on the counters? By cheating, of course!
That guy had all of his stoves set up to cheat, not everyone does that, so they will still have food on their counters. They might set up 4 or 5 or however many stoves to do the cheat and still play the game normally on the rest of their stoves. One woman was doing that - a former neighbor I should say - I just took her off of my neighbors but occasionally look to see how far ahead she is. I reported her, so perhaps today I will go see if all that nonsense has stopped.
Anyway, to all the honest chefs out there, happy cooking!
My biggest complaint were some of my neighbors that are using Cheat Engine 5.5 to hack into the Cafe World program and create a setup where your dishes automatically prepare and cook themselves. Known as a Cafe Clicker, the program is the ultimate in gaining HUGE Cafe points in a very short period of time. Of course it can do that, it's a computer software system, far more effective than any human can ever even think of playing the game.
I removed several neighbors that were using this cheat. One of them went from level 44 to level 173 in about 2 months. Just go ahead and try to do that on that game without cheating, GOOD LUCK. I started searching the net for answers to how this guy could possibly be gaining that many points without cheating and ran into the Cheat Engine program. I filled out a complaint form 4 separate times to Zynga - this cheating was making the game not much fun. I don't like to cheat to beat other players, why should these people be allowed to engage in such?
Well, here's Zynga's statement concerning this - they FINALLY are effectively addressing the problem:
Cafe World Unfair Play Deterrent!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiya chefs,
In an effort to clean up some issues affecting the performance of our game servers we detected several programs or sources trying to access the application to change the normal game play experience. These programs, modifiers, bots, cheats, hacks, etc. are a violation to Zynga’s Terms of Service, see Usage Rules, and have been affecting all users ability to connect to our servers.
We have implemented code to detect users enhancing their game experience by using programs of this type. Once an account has been detected it will be disabled until the end user contacts our Customer Support team. Accounts disabled may be reset to “normal” game play conditions and be noted for potential suspension if other violations occur.
Our intention is to keep our game world clean of modifiers and enhancement programs as well as optimize the performance for all of our café owners. If you experience any trouble with your Café World account and need assistance please contact our Customer Support team.
Our desire is that everyone that plays Café World have an enjoyable experience and we thank you for your continued support.
The Café World Team
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ __ _ _
Okay, well I just stumbled upon that, however, I then looked at the date on that statement. It was made January 6th of this year. That was 6 months ago!! So what's the answer here? People are still cheating, obviously. I can confidently say that because all of these cheaters I have removed as neighbors were ALL AFTER that statement was made by Cafe World/Zynga. Either their detection software isn't working too welll - or more likely - there are TOO many people cheating for them to keep up with it.
I simply advise you that if you see a neighbor cheating, turn them in!! Complain loudly and often to Zynga. The guy that went up to level 173? His account has been removed from Cafe World entirely. The others? I haven't checked on them recently - they are still Facebook neighbors so I can still look at their cafe points and see what is going on with them.
Look, any of us can engage in cheating. It's easy. It's the easy way to win, right? What's the point? It only serves to make the people that are haivng some fun playing the game to make them/me mad. I hate cheating. How can you tell if a neighbor is heating? One obvious sign is that they were way behind you and all of the sudden in a week's time they have not only caught up to you, but passed you waving bye-bye in terms of Cafe points. Go to their restaurant. Do you see hamburgers cookings, but no hamburgers on their counters? Good sign there. One guy had NO dishes on his counters, yet he was racking up huge Cafe points every day! How do you cook massive amounts of food but have no food on the counters? By cheating, of course!
That guy had all of his stoves set up to cheat, not everyone does that, so they will still have food on their counters. They might set up 4 or 5 or however many stoves to do the cheat and still play the game normally on the rest of their stoves. One woman was doing that - a former neighbor I should say - I just took her off of my neighbors but occasionally look to see how far ahead she is. I reported her, so perhaps today I will go see if all that nonsense has stopped.
Anyway, to all the honest chefs out there, happy cooking!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Friday
Yes, folks, it's Friday, that magical day of the work week where you know in a few hours, it's all done, you're going home (or wherever you may like to go after Friday work) and you get 2 days off. The miracle of the weekend.
Meanwhile, the eBay seller that attempted to give me the shaft continues to have negative feedbacks pouring in. No surprise there. Some poor soul bought 2, separate items from this seller who found that both items were not as described OR pictured in the seller's auction. Surprising that, either. That's what he attempted to get away with with me. He's a freaking scammer and I hope eBay continues to monitor that guy's activities and eventually put him out of business. Anyway, the person that bought the items got their money refunded, yes, but that person had to pay to send the stuff back!! BS!!!
Plans for the weekend: Not sure yet. I have these ponds to deal with, I just haven't had any motivation to do much of anything outside in the last almost week now. It's the heat. I will adjust eventually and then head back out there, but right now, it's not very appealing. It may be a clean the windows and sills and get on hands and knees and clean floor crevices and such weekend instead.
I was happy to see that Greene was kept as the nominee for the democratic party in SC. Not because I think anything of Greene - I wouldn't vote for the man in a pall's stonebearer's step, but, the people voted and that's what they came up with. You can't just come along and say, "Weeeeeellllll, I don't like the guy and he has no chance of winning, so let's oust him and get someone else in here". I guess they can, but it can be challenged in the state's Supreme court - I have doubts that a panel of those judges are going to look favorably on an institution that "didn't get it's way, so they're going to make sure they force their way upon the situation". But who knows. The man apparently can't speak his mind very well, doesn't want to speak to reporters and basically keeps to himself. It's a very strange situation if you ask me.
Well, the work day approaches. There is nothing in there to do. There WAS going to be something, but it has been put off until Wednesday. Which means I will probably be out back pushing a broom again - there are a lot of rocks all over the asphalt and it really doesn't look very good. I got a lot of it the other day, maybe I'll finish that little project this morning.
Anyway, have a great day!
ben
Meanwhile, the eBay seller that attempted to give me the shaft continues to have negative feedbacks pouring in. No surprise there. Some poor soul bought 2, separate items from this seller who found that both items were not as described OR pictured in the seller's auction. Surprising that, either. That's what he attempted to get away with with me. He's a freaking scammer and I hope eBay continues to monitor that guy's activities and eventually put him out of business. Anyway, the person that bought the items got their money refunded, yes, but that person had to pay to send the stuff back!! BS!!!
Plans for the weekend: Not sure yet. I have these ponds to deal with, I just haven't had any motivation to do much of anything outside in the last almost week now. It's the heat. I will adjust eventually and then head back out there, but right now, it's not very appealing. It may be a clean the windows and sills and get on hands and knees and clean floor crevices and such weekend instead.
I was happy to see that Greene was kept as the nominee for the democratic party in SC. Not because I think anything of Greene - I wouldn't vote for the man in a pall's stonebearer's step, but, the people voted and that's what they came up with. You can't just come along and say, "Weeeeeellllll, I don't like the guy and he has no chance of winning, so let's oust him and get someone else in here". I guess they can, but it can be challenged in the state's Supreme court - I have doubts that a panel of those judges are going to look favorably on an institution that "didn't get it's way, so they're going to make sure they force their way upon the situation". But who knows. The man apparently can't speak his mind very well, doesn't want to speak to reporters and basically keeps to himself. It's a very strange situation if you ask me.
Well, the work day approaches. There is nothing in there to do. There WAS going to be something, but it has been put off until Wednesday. Which means I will probably be out back pushing a broom again - there are a lot of rocks all over the asphalt and it really doesn't look very good. I got a lot of it the other day, maybe I'll finish that little project this morning.
Anyway, have a great day!
ben
Thursday, June 17, 2010
eBay: I Won, Seller Lost!
Okay, so this morning, eBay asks me through the dispute forum after the seller FINALLY replied (and totally lied) if I want to escalate this. Meaning, eBay decides for us what's going to happen. Again, I wrote out, quite thoroughly, my "case" against this seller. It was all provable - easily - eBay had only to verify the facts which are already there for them to see.
I get back on my eBay account about 3 hours later and they had already resolved the dispute and closed the case!! They deposited the entire amount for the bio-filter back into my paypal account and didn't even ask me to send the filter back to the seller!! This seller now has 32 negatives and I think it was 30 neutrals from buyers - for the last 30 days. That's BAD stuff, right there, I don't care if he's selling thousands of items per month, a seller should never have that many negatives in that short of a period of time.
I have myself partially to blame for this situation, even if it ended well. I looked at his feedback rating - it was 98. something and figured that was good enough. I didn't pay attention to the numbers of negatives or what they had to say. I could just have easily used another seller selling the same exact thing for only a couple bucks more. I haven't used eBay in quite a long time - but the buyer protection program that they are doing now is totally awesome, you are covered for a purchase if you don't receive if or if it's wrong - but - you must make sure that whatever you're buying has that buyer protection logo and statement on the item before entering a bid or buying it now.
Well, whatever, I am now $48.95 richer because of this situation and the outcome of the case, yes, that makes me happy! I can ask for Paypal to send me a check and use it for bills around here.
Onto other things. Temporary tenant is gone. He told me last night something of his situation and why he was staying here. Seems he was driven out of his own house that was being occupied by friends that are also tenants. The story wasn't quite detailed enough to understand how that happened, but he was a good guy here, I had no problems with him whatsoever. That money gone, I will try to re-rent the room for another week or so before the - military reservist allegedly returns. That woman drives me nuts, she doesn't communicate at all. I have NO idea whether she's actually returning or not.
Diet:
I weighed myself this morning. I know, you aren't supposed to weigh yourself every day, but I did anyway. Down to 195. I ate a subway chicken breast sandwich today - no mayo, no cheese,just the chicken, veggies, a thin line of mustard and some vinegar. Weighed myself again, it was about 4 hours later. My weight had risen 3 pounds. How? Well, the sandwich, of course, but also because I drink a lot of water during the day. That subway sandwich definitely weighed nowhere NEAR 3 pounds. It's very encouraging to see the weight loss continue, but I will try to stay away from the scale for the next several days and focus fully on keeping my caloric intake down. WELL down, thank you. That was the jist of my eating today. I will maybe have some steamed veggies with a small portion of fish later on, around 5:30-ish.
I'm done. Totally tired and going to go take nap.
ben
I get back on my eBay account about 3 hours later and they had already resolved the dispute and closed the case!! They deposited the entire amount for the bio-filter back into my paypal account and didn't even ask me to send the filter back to the seller!! This seller now has 32 negatives and I think it was 30 neutrals from buyers - for the last 30 days. That's BAD stuff, right there, I don't care if he's selling thousands of items per month, a seller should never have that many negatives in that short of a period of time.
I have myself partially to blame for this situation, even if it ended well. I looked at his feedback rating - it was 98. something and figured that was good enough. I didn't pay attention to the numbers of negatives or what they had to say. I could just have easily used another seller selling the same exact thing for only a couple bucks more. I haven't used eBay in quite a long time - but the buyer protection program that they are doing now is totally awesome, you are covered for a purchase if you don't receive if or if it's wrong - but - you must make sure that whatever you're buying has that buyer protection logo and statement on the item before entering a bid or buying it now.
Well, whatever, I am now $48.95 richer because of this situation and the outcome of the case, yes, that makes me happy! I can ask for Paypal to send me a check and use it for bills around here.
Onto other things. Temporary tenant is gone. He told me last night something of his situation and why he was staying here. Seems he was driven out of his own house that was being occupied by friends that are also tenants. The story wasn't quite detailed enough to understand how that happened, but he was a good guy here, I had no problems with him whatsoever. That money gone, I will try to re-rent the room for another week or so before the - military reservist allegedly returns. That woman drives me nuts, she doesn't communicate at all. I have NO idea whether she's actually returning or not.
Diet:
I weighed myself this morning. I know, you aren't supposed to weigh yourself every day, but I did anyway. Down to 195. I ate a subway chicken breast sandwich today - no mayo, no cheese,just the chicken, veggies, a thin line of mustard and some vinegar. Weighed myself again, it was about 4 hours later. My weight had risen 3 pounds. How? Well, the sandwich, of course, but also because I drink a lot of water during the day. That subway sandwich definitely weighed nowhere NEAR 3 pounds. It's very encouraging to see the weight loss continue, but I will try to stay away from the scale for the next several days and focus fully on keeping my caloric intake down. WELL down, thank you. That was the jist of my eating today. I will maybe have some steamed veggies with a small portion of fish later on, around 5:30-ish.
I'm done. Totally tired and going to go take nap.
ben
Thursday
eBay seller - who sent me something other than what the sale was for - finally reponded. After what, almost 3 weeks? He TOTALLY lies - saying that "we have no communication with this buyer". Well, eBay can and will retrieve all FIVE messages I sent this idiot through eBay's system. What a total ass this person is. I am going to write on the feedback for him a link to my ebay description of me and put the whole story on there. But, not until eBay makes a decision. If I end up stuck with the filter, at least it's a brand name one, it just isn't what the ad said it was, which is a bio filter WITH a UV light, not a bio filter WITHOUT a UV light.
I escalated the thing to let eBay decide what to do. What will they do? I have no idea, they give themselves 72 hours to come up with a solution. I asked they cancel the guy's account, he has almost 30 negatives in the last month, that's a staggering amount of negatives for one, single seller. Hey, you take a risk buying on eBay, I have never thought or said you don't. I probably would not, however, ever buy a big ticket item through it, too much risk of losing your money.
I received the UV sterilizer yesterday. The review I had read says the connectors are cheap plastic - and they are. However, I found out I don't NEED those connectors/reducers. My hose is big enough to fit over the outlet on the sterilizer itself, eliminating the need for reducers. This seller also sent me the wrong sterilizer, I paid for a 9 watt version, he sent me an 18 watt version. Yes, I got a better product, but I am going to alert this seller what they did. I have no money right now to spend on anything but the bare essentials. There will BE no more money spent on ponds and such at this point. What I have I am going to have to make work, period.
Meanwhile, an 80 MILE stretch of area along the border on the U.S. side has been closed due to an "uptick in violence". 80 miles of border that apparently aren't being patrolled at all. This is pure insanity. 4 years of this president will not pass quickly enough, hopefully there is no permanent or undoable damage in the interim.
Well, I spent my pre-work time going over this eBay thing, so, didn't have much time to write here. No biggies.
C'yall later.
ben
I escalated the thing to let eBay decide what to do. What will they do? I have no idea, they give themselves 72 hours to come up with a solution. I asked they cancel the guy's account, he has almost 30 negatives in the last month, that's a staggering amount of negatives for one, single seller. Hey, you take a risk buying on eBay, I have never thought or said you don't. I probably would not, however, ever buy a big ticket item through it, too much risk of losing your money.
I received the UV sterilizer yesterday. The review I had read says the connectors are cheap plastic - and they are. However, I found out I don't NEED those connectors/reducers. My hose is big enough to fit over the outlet on the sterilizer itself, eliminating the need for reducers. This seller also sent me the wrong sterilizer, I paid for a 9 watt version, he sent me an 18 watt version. Yes, I got a better product, but I am going to alert this seller what they did. I have no money right now to spend on anything but the bare essentials. There will BE no more money spent on ponds and such at this point. What I have I am going to have to make work, period.
Meanwhile, an 80 MILE stretch of area along the border on the U.S. side has been closed due to an "uptick in violence". 80 miles of border that apparently aren't being patrolled at all. This is pure insanity. 4 years of this president will not pass quickly enough, hopefully there is no permanent or undoable damage in the interim.
Well, I spent my pre-work time going over this eBay thing, so, didn't have much time to write here. No biggies.
C'yall later.
ben
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
How To Get Rid Of White Flies
My Lantanna's are FULL of those freaking things. I spray water on them and hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of the things come up into my face and fill the air. I figured the next time the exterminator comes out, I'm going to have him spray those plants to get rid of them.
Well, he - the exterminator dude - just called. I asked him about white flies. He said his spray won't do anything to them........but......(I'm waiting for something about high dollars to get rid of them to come up, but then again, knowing this guy, maybe not, wasn't really sure) Dawn dishwashing liquid will.
Fancy that. I product you can buy for $2 at the grocery store. Mix it with water, spray the plants. I doesn't hurt the plants.
Now, hear me out here. This guy could have just said: "Yes, we can deal with that, we have a special chemical that we can add to the mix. Of course, it is expensive stuff and will cost you an extra $30 for the treatment". He could have TOTALLY taken advantage of me, as I have never heard that Dawn dishwashing liquid gets rid of white flies.
Instead, he tells me he will have his guy add the stuff to the mixture when he comes out next week - for no extra charge! In 2 ways, he has totally "wowed" me as a customer: gave away an industry secret and is charging me nothing extra to use it in his next application! THIS company and this guy that is running is a true example of excellent, quality, unbelievably GOOD customer service. It has been that way since I started using his services. He has ALWAYS given me great pricing on regular treatments and any special treatments that go above and beyond. Were that every company that I deal with - Walmart comest to mind - would do the same.
Oh, how does Dawn kill them? It doesn't have any special "poison" in it, he tells me. Instead, when it dries, it encapsulates them. They suffocate and die!!
Hey, if you happen to have this problem, you can simply put a solution of Dawn into a spray can or even a spray bottle with water and do it yourself. Since my exterminator is doing it for no extra charge, I'm not going to bother.
Well, he - the exterminator dude - just called. I asked him about white flies. He said his spray won't do anything to them........but......(I'm waiting for something about high dollars to get rid of them to come up, but then again, knowing this guy, maybe not, wasn't really sure) Dawn dishwashing liquid will.
Fancy that. I product you can buy for $2 at the grocery store. Mix it with water, spray the plants. I doesn't hurt the plants.
Now, hear me out here. This guy could have just said: "Yes, we can deal with that, we have a special chemical that we can add to the mix. Of course, it is expensive stuff and will cost you an extra $30 for the treatment". He could have TOTALLY taken advantage of me, as I have never heard that Dawn dishwashing liquid gets rid of white flies.
Instead, he tells me he will have his guy add the stuff to the mixture when he comes out next week - for no extra charge! In 2 ways, he has totally "wowed" me as a customer: gave away an industry secret and is charging me nothing extra to use it in his next application! THIS company and this guy that is running is a true example of excellent, quality, unbelievably GOOD customer service. It has been that way since I started using his services. He has ALWAYS given me great pricing on regular treatments and any special treatments that go above and beyond. Were that every company that I deal with - Walmart comest to mind - would do the same.
Oh, how does Dawn kill them? It doesn't have any special "poison" in it, he tells me. Instead, when it dries, it encapsulates them. They suffocate and die!!
Hey, if you happen to have this problem, you can simply put a solution of Dawn into a spray can or even a spray bottle with water and do it yourself. Since my exterminator is doing it for no extra charge, I'm not going to bother.
Lesson Learned: I Won't Be Forgetting............
.......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
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
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.
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