Setting Up A PreFormed Pond

I've learned the hard way about some of this stuff concerning setting up pre-formed ponds.
I scoured the internet and could not find the information I needed.
It's ridiculous, really.  I mean, there are some well-meaning people giving out - bad - advice, but the
majority of the advice to be found is for a flexible pond liner with much larger ponds, NOT for smaller, pre-formed ponds.

So, here it is.  If you came here wondering about filtration and and pumps, which is what dominated my
searches on this topic for quite some time, then you have come to the right place.

I am, btw, no expert.  I had to spend the money on small pumps and attempting to build my own filter and this, that and the other thing until I finally "arrived".  I have it down, I  definitely do.  I have 5 ponds, 3 of them in use, the other two pending.  Actually, one of the 2 that I am not using I am actively building a rather
elaborate setup for.  It's about 300 gallons, which is small for pond's sake, it's quite enough for me, for now anyway.  It's MUCH larger than my other, pre-formed ponds, ranging from 120 gallons to 165 gallons. 

So let's get into this.  You can probably figure out how to dig a hole for the thing.  I mean - not that difficult excepting where I live - you try to stick the shovel into the ground and literally, you will hit rock every time.  It's painstaking work to dig out endless rocks, I hope you aren't going through that as well. It IS a great workout, so, it's not a total loss.  I do recommend putting sand on the bottom as everyone else does, it's just a further help to make sure that nothing with a sharp tip, ie: a rock, doesn't end up protruding through the hard plastic of your pond.

I am taking it a step further.  I bought the large, pre-formed pond cheap - people are getting rid of this stuff in this horrid, foul, acrid economy of ours.   In fact, off the subject, but relevant: look on Craigslist in your area and keep looking.  I have been to numerous pond shut-downs with people who are buying short-saled homes with ponds that - they don't want.  They either give the fish away or they sell them very cheap.  Same scenario with a homeowner that is losing their home and want the fish to find good homes:  sell them cheap or give them away.  Back to this paragraph's subject, I went to ebay and found a flexible liner for this pond. 

Why?  Because, I have bought other preformed ponds and have had leaks. I found a good patch that will permanently seal that sucker, but why have to bother.  You have to take out the fish, plants, drain it to put in a patch.  Instead, I am going to put in a brand new flexible liner INSIDE the hard plastic preformed liner.  The hard liner is still intact with no leaks, yes, I checked.  But, I don't want to have to deal with a leaking setup, it really is a PAIN to have to remove everything.  You can find flexible liners that will fit these small, preformed liners for cheap on ebay.

Back to filtration.  I was fortunate enough that with the purchase of these pre-formed liners I bought, 3 of them came with a waterfall bio filter.  Yes, indeed, it made the bargain that much sweeter, those things aren't cheap.  I thought the things awfully large, frankly, for such a small pond, but, I put them up and used them anyway.  Water is pumped into the bottom of the plastic shell.  There is an open space down there with no filtration material.  There is a divider and then you hit the bio ball setup.  Bio balls or equivalent are a necessity for your pond.  It's that or endlessly add chemicals or, have to do huge water changes frequently to keep toxins from building up in your pond/s from fish waste. 

Here's the part I didn't have a clue, but have learned.  Pump size.  You would think a 300 gallon per hour (GPH) pump would be enough for a pond that has 120 or even 165 gallons.  NOT.  I actually started out with a 130 GPH pump - umm, a waste of money.  300 gph, waste of money, don't even go there if you are going to have fish in the pond.  No, I have a 800 gph pump on my 165 gallon pond, pumping through the waterfall filter.  I have a 750 gph pump on my 135 gallon pond, also pumping through a waterfall filter.  I have a 550 gph pump on my Fish Mate Bio Filter - the small, green, rectanguler setup.  That's right, a 550 gallon per hour pump going through that "small"filter. 

It works perfectly.  I had a 350 gph pump on that thing and it was NOT keeping the water clear, the fish were stirring up particles and it was cloudy and there was a lot of stuff floating around in there.  I'm just giving my opinion - learned the hard way.  That 550 gph pump in the first 24 hours had it's openings clogged with all kinds of debree but was STILL pumping water.  I simply pulled the housing off (no tools necessary, at least on the one I bought) - cleaned it off and cleaned out the pre-filter. This was the first pump I bought that has a course filter in it on a pump that small.  It is INVALUABLE.  That thing was full of grunge after only 24 hours. 

There IS no downside to having "too much water" flowing in your pond.  Your fish will thank you for it. 

Now, I bought the used pumps off of Craigslist, the new ones off of Ebay.  I would advise that if you are going to buy a pump off of ebay, make SURE it has a warranty on it.  This junk about having a 14 day return and nothing else or whatever policy is for the birds.  This is yet another learn-the-hard-way deal.  I found a guy selling pumps on there that is giving a 2 year warranty on all of his pumps - 1st year covered by manufacturer, second by him.  No guarantees he is going to be around forever, but, he has a great feedback rating and 1 year of a pump running continuously, 24 hours a day is good enough for me, anyway. 

He's under tinypondpumps.  I am not him, I stopped selling on ebay a long time ago and I just got into this ponding business, what, 5 or 6 months ago? No, I just like to recommend good sellers. 

Be prepared to have your pumps running 24 hours a day.  You should never shut them off for the filtration system (except to clean out the fitler, of course).  Also, buying aerators for your pre-formed ponds I highly recommend.  You can get them at WalMart for $9.90.  Yes, I have those receipts as well.  They do not use a lot of electricity and is good assurance that your water is well aerated. It is also a great back-up - if your pond pump fails, you will still have aeration from the air pump.  Aeration is MORE important than ANYTHING in a pond.  But, a good filtration system is just below it - you get too much toxins in the water and your fish are going to start getting sick.

Here's an answer to another question I had: do you HAVE to set a preformed pond into the ground? NO!! is the wonderful answer for many people.  You DO have to support the shelves that stick out from the main body of the pond, but that's easy.  I used pavers for such purpose.  Whatever you have.  If you don't, when you fill up the pond, likely the shelf will fail under the weight and yes, the water will all dump out the side.  Amazing that even apartment dwellers have ponds on their balconies.  Yes, you can have the soothing sounds of water flowing out of a waterfall into the pond, plus fish, plus water plants - it's amazing therapy - right on your apartment balcony.  You may, of course, want to discuss that option with the landlord first, but, it's a totally cool option as long as it isn't restricted. 

There is much more, really, I'm just at the end of this blog entry.  More later.

3rd Doctor Visit

1st doctor visit netted me a prescription for a drug to get rid of what was on my face.

2cd doctor visit netted me a second look from a different doctor who wasn't so sure, but I was there to get the prescription re-written because -  I could not find what I did with the first one. 

Get prescription.  Have hallucinations and other extremely undesirable side effects.

3rd visit was today.  Yet another doctor who disagreed with the first two, saying she didn't know what it was and that I would need to go see a dermatologist.  Gave me yet another prescription - itchiness.  Whatever this is, it itches like crazy - at times - and doesn't itch at all - at other times.  I wonder what kind of side effects I am in with this one?  Hopefully none besides the fact that they say it can make you drowsy, don't drive.  Don't care, only intend on taking it at night before going to bed - if it even works at all. 

Immediately after getting out of the doc's office I call the dermatologist to make an appointment. It's 2 minutes after 3:00 - or 3:02pm - they are already closed.  Sheesh, doctor's hours.  The recording says they are only open until 3:00 pm, Monday-Thursday, they aren't even open on Friday.  Again, sheesh, doc's hours.  Undoubtedly, I will have to take a day or partial day off of work to see these people.  I don't care, I'm going to get the skin test and I'm going to find out what's going wrong here,. 

Well, whatever.  Work: find out that on the 13th - 5 days from now - I get my bonus check.  Woohooo!!!  Just short of $800 after taxes.  I was given a printout of the pay I received the last 2 fiscal years - down almost 7 grand.  The previous fiscal year was down itself.  I'm down around 15k per year from what my pay was previous to the housing bubble, foreclosures, economic collapse.  Perhaps that's why they upped my pay, I dunno.  I would like to get at least my regular hours back, but there is no hinting from corporate - at all - that that is going to happen anytime soon.  It fits - there are days when there is nothing to do and it really is a LONG day when there are no delivery orders to pull, palletize, shrink wrap, load on the truck, strap the truck down, get in the truck and drive. 

Ummm, anyway.  I just put in for the entire week of Thanksgiving off.  I have 2 floating holidays I must use by year's end or lose them and I have a lot of vacation hours.  I will only be using 2 days worth of vacation hours anyway.  I'll be last in line for any Christmas or New Year's time off, no biggies.  I hope to get at least a couple days off on one or the other.  That time of the year - the time between Christmas and New Year's - is usually the slowest time of year.  I decided I wanted to take some more time off sooner rather than later, pllus Christmas is a 3-day weekend and so is New Year's. 

Also, I haven't been able to attend a Black Friday store blowout event in years.  Not that I've really wanted to, but I'm gambling that this year will be some huge deals if what I've heard in the news has any thing close to reality or truth to it.  What would be cool?  A computer system on huge sale.  Something decent that can be upgraded.  That's what I will be looking for.  My savings account should be up to close to $300 by then. Perhaps my insurance money will come through and I can get something nice.  Who knows?  Almost guaranteed I'm going to get that week off which is only a month and a half away.

Umm, that's it.  This weekend?  Pump the rain water out of the big pond that is in the way of finished digging out the hole and see if I can motivate myself to finishing that project or at least getting it enough done to get the pond in the ground, get some water in it, get a filter on it and away we go!!

ben

Friday

Friday


Mark - one of the trailer tenants - got brave yesterday and started pulled the shards of glass out of the busted windows. I didn't do it because that stuff is stuck in there - it has to be to be able to contain the argon gas between the panes. Well, you can't tell that 3 of those windows are missing panes now, the inner panes had no damage.

This was from Anthony and his rock-throwing escapade quite a while back now.

A couple of companies quoted me $75 PER WINDOW - JUST to remove the glass. Almost $250 per window to replace the glass and pump in fresh argon gas. Will I ever replace the panes? Not anytime soon is all I can say about that. I have a small savings account going right now, it's not being saved for that purpose. No, not at all.

It is being saved for one of 2 things, either a new computer or a handgun. It's at $160 right now. $300 for a "cheap" 9mm - but a computer? Well, $300 isn't really going to cut it for a good machine unless I'm buying someone's used machine off of Craigslist or something.

The best machine is one that you build yourself, that is tailored to what you use it for.

Anyway, I look at Craigslist daily for pond stuff. I really don't need anything, always looking for a pond that is shutting down. I can't believe the prices people want for Koi. I mean, they get that kind of money, it's just crazy that everyone thinks they are worth so much money. I'm estimating that my 6 Koi are worth around $500. I paid a total of $60 for them. I hope there are male and female in the mix and that they are feeling frisky, cause' I would far rather just grow my own and be done with it. There ARE a LOT of very small fish - fry - in both ponds that are established - I don't know if they are goldfish or Koi, only time will tell, and that, only if they survive the winter.

I do have heaters for the ponds now, btw, those that I got from the one pond that was being shut down.

Well, for once, I have a very busy day at work ahead of me and I must be offa here. I loaded the semi yesterday for a 7:00am delivery this morning, then downtown, then back to Queen Creek. Should consume the better part of the work day. Which is nice : )

G'day.

ben

Thursday

Thursday




Absolutely beautiful weather this morning. Just perfect.

Well, another pre-work mornin blasted by junk I was having to do on the internet. Oh well.



Have a great day!

ben

Wednesday

Another slow day at work.  I have to be busy at work to stay engaged.  If there is nothing to do, it drags me down quickly.  One small delivery and a pickup downtown - maybe 2 hours worth of that and it was done.

Took the car back into the shop again this morning.  I was trying to keep civil with the owner - he runs a shop that has raves valleywide about the quality or the service.  "Do you think you might be able to get to it today".  Yes, was his definitive answer.  Okay.  I left the car there, then drove by in the semi 3 hours later to see - the car still parked there. 

Went about my business and 2 hours later, visited again.  The mechanic that was supposed to deal with it had an emergency at home and would get to it when he got back. 

Fast forward, work is over.  I walk down there, still, nothing.  But, the employee shows up shortly after I get there.  I figure I'm in for a long haul and I wasn't wrong.  But, an older gentleman - like 80 plus - engaged me in coversation.  Interesting fellow, listened to a lot of "war" stories, I was definitely entertained.  Then, I find out, this guy used to be the owner of a shop where the owner of the shop where I have my car worked under him in  South Dakota.  Okay, well, this got interesting. 

Now, this guy leaves and more older gents start showing up.  Pretty much, I figure, if the older crowd likes this place, it's probably good.  I had several conversations while sitting in a cool breeze - yes, folks, summer, as far as I'm concerned, is officially  gone from the Sonoran desert.  It was pleasant outside, even in the mid-afternoon.  I wasn't bugging Virgil - but I was sitting there.  No complaints, just figured I would wait this out and get this over with. 

Well, I could hear a couple of conversations that Virgil had with the mechanic: I need this and this and this.  One of the parts showed up 20 minutes later - but not all of them. Virgil walks off in disgust, they have so much business that they have to park a LOT of vehicles out on the street.  On any given day, there are at least 30 of them out there.  It's not a residential area and they aren't blocking anything, so who cares about that, just the point that it is a busy shop. 

I had several conversations with Virgil today - he is very enigmatic and very open.  Pretty much like me, nothing to hide.  We got into conversations about cemetaries, cancer, cars, roads, trucking, all kinds of stuff.  People trickling in and out to get their now-repaired vehicles.  20 minutes later another car parts store delivery vehicle shows up.  That is the final goods.  I had been there for a couple of hours already.  I resolved to simply kick back and enjoy the weather.  Another man and his daughter showed up.  The man was up there in years, but definitely still lucid.  The daughter? In her 60's.  She proclaimed to Virgil and I that he is turning 90 tomorrow.  90 years old and still driving.  Amazing. 

I figured I was going to get hit with a pretty good bill, but, I have no choice.  I have no clue what to do with a car that fails vehicle emissions and trying to guess what might be wrong.  It was almost 3 hours before it was done.  I had no idea how much time had elapsed because I was either talking with people or keeping my mind engaged with the things that are going on in my life.  The bill was just short of $200.  Paid, thanked Virgil, left.  4 miles down the road, the "check engine soon" light comes back on.  Kept driving, don't care.  I'm going to take it to the emissions testing station and if it fails, I'll take it back.

Get there - a good wait, of course, always a good, long wait.  This time, however, it wasn't 107 degrees outside.  I get into the station.  The front tires are sitting on the dynos.  The man is very talkative.  He starts pointing to vehicles with their windows up and loudly complaining about people that think they should leave all their windows up when they get into the station.  My windows were ALL down, apparently struck a chord with this guy without even knowing it.  In fact, this man was talking so fast I couldn't keep up with it, I didn't understand because he was changing the subject frequently without following through with the previous theme.  No biggies, I'm not pitching a tent there, I won't be there that long. 

Well, he gets into my car, turns it on, uses a remote to start the computer and accelerates the engine to keep up with the line on the computer.  Old car - old emissions stuff.  New cars have OBD, they don't connect tubes to the exhaust, they simply plug into your computer and you are in and out of there quickly - pass or fail.  My speedometer at one point is showing over 60 mph on those dynos.  After going through almost the entire test, the computer shows an error message.

Now what?  A manager comes over with a mirror to inspect the bottom of my car - no clue.  The guy doing my test is REALLY letting verbage loose.  They shut down a computer, restart it and do something with another computer.  Test starts over. I'm worried. I just shelled out $200 for these repairs and this isn't going to work?  He goes through the whole test this time.  I pull forward.

He comes up, hands me the paper with a big thumb's up, say it passed, I thanked him profusely and left. 

I mean, I left for work at 5:00 am and got home at 6:00pm.  Reminds of the "good ole days" when work was plenteous, hours were long and pay was good.  The biggest headache of getting this car up and running is over.  What's left?  Well, I want to replace the driver's side door, get another door bondo-ed and put a cheap paint job on it.  The engine soon light? dunno.  It runs and it runs very well.  Might take it back, might not. It isn't going to be free and right now, funds are very tight.  I was fortunate that all tenants have paid and that I am not totally broke.  I also expect my son to help out with this, this was our agreement.  He's been helping his mom with bills - she is unemployed and I am glad he is doing that, but, I don't really want to foot all of this stuff myself.  He handed over, initially, $450 - it's gone a bit over $200 over that to get it into running condition.  Still another $40 in another repair that it needs - valve covers leaking and I want that stuff stopped and then registration.

For a car this old? Less than $30. 

Sent in the serial numbers from the stolen video game consoles.  $500 deductible, I still expect to get at least a $500 check.  I wasn't going to follow through with this claim, but the adjuster said it's no big deal in a smaller claim.  Dunno, not holding my breath, but the money would help me out greatly right now. 

I'm very tired.  I have not slept well in the past 3 nights.  I wake up 4 or 5 hours after going to bed and I either can't get back to sleep or do so after 3 hours of laying there awake.  Then the alarm goes off and I'm up for work.  It's almost 8:00 pm and yes, I am going to bed in about 15 minutes.  Figure to get whatever sleep I can.

G'nite.

ben

Tuesday

RAIN - but only at work.  It rained so hard, the street and parking lot in front of our building was flooded, and I do mean FLOODED, in less than 5 minutes.  It filled up water retention basins in record time.  Then it started hailing. THEN - the power went out.  So, it's time for me to go home anyway.  Street lights out at one intersection wtih cops directing traffic. 

Next intersection?  Flashing red lights for both directions.  Now, according to the law, how are flashing red lights supposed to be treated?  If you said the same as a stop sign, ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding!!  How do you think the drivers of vehicles going the opposite direction were treating it?  As a full-blown green light.  I came up to the intersection and they weren't even slowing down, they were blowing the light and there was a LOT of traffic doing it.  Drivers going the direction I was going weren't doing ANYTHING - they would have had to wait a LONG time because the flow of traffic was endless.

What, do you suppose, I did?  Well, honey, I ain't sitting there all day long, these people breaking the law weren't going to stop me.  I started inching out into traffic which is when the cars finally - slammed  - on their brakes.  Yup, they were honking at me.  Notwithstanding the fact that THEY were the ones breaking the law, I got the finger and several blaring horns.  THIS is why there are such horrific car accidents every single day, all over the nation.  People simply do not have a CLUE about how to drive. 

I have known that for a long, long time and statistics agree with me.  A study came out a while back that showed that a majorty of drivers don't know basic, simple traffic laws that you (I hope) and I learned as teenagers.  The cars stopped and I drove right in front of them.  They totally thought I was in the wrong.  Absolute craziness.  THIS is why I advocate MUCH harder written tests to get a driver's license.  The questions are too easy and even then, they give far too much leniency to be able to pass the test - 70% or greater. It should be at least 90% or greater and all drivers should have to retake the test every time they have to renew their license.

My "bravery" got everyone else moving as well.  I didn't look back to see if ANYONE was going to start treating that intersection as if it had a stop sign, I figured they would NOT.

I took the old Buick in today to have it diagnosed.  I mean, I called the shop yesterday and they told me to bring it in this morning.  Well, they hadn't even gotten to it by 1:45 pm.  That shop is 3 buildings down from our building and when I got there, their power was out, too.  So, I just took it and said I would bring it back tomorrow.  I did not appreciate them telling me, however, that they would get it done in the morning - this morning - and then not even get started on it.  I did not say anything, though, I just let it go.  No big deal to bring it back tomorrow and try again. 

Nothing much new going on here excepting the weather: AWESOME!! It was cool this morning and it stay fairly nice throughout the day.  When the rain hit, the temps dropped 10 degrees anyway.  Totally cool!

I'm outta here.  I have several things I need to get done outside and some other stuff to do on the net.

C'ya.

ben

Monday

Monday


I called the 2 numbers on the previous post again this morning. One rang endlessly, the other came back with a message: The cricket customer you are trying to reach.......

Cellphone. I was hoping to score a reverse looking up that might at least show the person's name without having to pay for it, haven't found one yet. I was willing to pay $2.00 for the cheapest I found, but it automatically signs you up for are recurring, $24.95 per month fee to join. No thanks.

Haven't given up - in fact, that Cricket customer is going to get a lot of phone calls from me.......

Uhh, well anyway, I drove the old Buick to work today. There is a repair facility 200 feet down the road that I have used before - reasonable rates and good service - I am going to have the car diagnosed as to what caused it to fail emissions. One can always hope it's not going to be something extremely expensive.

I was amused to read a news article about "Obama's health care not up to par". One statement was that premiums are too expensive. Lol. Did anyone think this was going to be free? I am always gladdened by the recurring them of repealing this health care bill.

Another news article of interest is the one about the State of Georgia wanting to put advertisements on their roadside help trucks. Like the state of Arizona, they're broke. I'll tell you right now, they could plaster advertisements all over government vehicles and it wouldn't bother me one bit. I would take that over higher taxes ANY day.

I was going to check on the new fish this morning, but it's too dark out there to see anything. I either must get rid of 10 or more of them or fire up another pond. I don't really want to start up another pond right now, getting rid of the fish is a better alternative. The turtle - is out again, lol.

Umm, work day approaches, though, there is absolutely nothing, again, in the truck routing system to do. Uhhh, this is starting to get old, very very old.

G'day.

ben

Sunday

I went to the Direct TV site to pay my bill - due in 11 days but I pay bills when I have the money available and if that's well before the date, even better.

The bill was for $115.38.

Insanity.  I thought possibly ALL of my discounts must have expired at the same time and now I would have to spend whatever time it's going to take to get them to bring it back down again.  I went to my account and found 2 pay-per-views on the same day for $14.99 plus phone fees.  My first thought was the thieves, did they sit down and watch something while stealing my stuff?  No, the date was wrong - after both break-ins.  People are WATCHING this place now. PLUS, my Michigan neighbor is back and he definitely is a good neighbor on that particular front.

The only thing to do is call Direct TV - I'm going to get it removed if at all possible.  I bypass the first person that answers, that person isn't going to be able to do anything for me in a situation like this and they will try to tell me that nothing CAN be done, you are stuck, pay the bill.  SCREW that. 

15 minute wait.  Woman on the phone attempts to tell me that "if you would have" - I cut her off.  Don't want to hear it.  Don't care, have been dealing with this company for 11 years now, I know how it operates, I know what they are required to say with a computer screen in front of their faces dictating to them that junk, please DO NOT disrespect me. 

Guy finally comes on.  It was a short conversation.  He put a password on my account - I thought I ALREADY had a password on the account.  Not THAT kind of password, apparently, for ordering pay-per-views.  He says that 2 phone calls came in from 2 different numbers at such and such a time on such and such date - both happened on the same day.  They were "Adult" programming.  I guffawed again. I don't ORDER such s***.  He then gave the phone numbers, I immediately recognized the area code: El Paso, Texas.  I lived there for 5 years in the mid 80's to early 90's as a missionary, that prefix will never leave my mind. 

This guy puts me on hold to deal with removing the 2 adult channel PPV's plus the phone charges, I pick up the MagicJack phone and start dialing these numbers.  Endless ringing, no answer.  915-472-8887 and 915-779-9463.  Why post these here on the internet for any and everyone to see? Because they committed THEFT and I don't CARE who sees those phone numbers. 

Here's the scary part:  They would have had to know my name, my listed phone number - which is NOT the Magic Number and other information.  I've had only one recent conversation with anyone in El Paso, and that was through our company's email system with a person that works in the El Paso store.  My email - which I was using as intra-departmental - has my full name, the phone number that IS listed on the account and getting my address would be easy.  You don't expect that anyone within your company is going to use your information for ill purposes and if they are found out, that person will probably be fired.

Do I know for a fact that this person did it?  NO clue.  I called both numbers several times with no answer.  I looked up both numbers - they want money to identify who it is.  Like $15 and I have no idea if that is a very inclusive amount of information.  I have another idea which I am going to follow through with at work tomorrow. 

I REALLY get pissed anymore when anyone steals from me.  I mean, to the point I want to get a hold of that person and let them know - in vivid, physical terms, what I think of them taking my things.  I have lost thousands and thousands of dollars worth of stuff to thieves, I am SICK of it. 

Let's get off of that, I got the charges removed, the account is being "watched" by DirectTV and there is now a password on it that only I know in order to be able to order anything.  Even so, I'm still QUITE unhappy that someone is doing this and apparently getting away with it.

Onto other things.  I went to get the fish.  I had to wait for the other buyers to show up because - dunno.  The owner is a nice guy, we talked for quite a while throughout almost 2 hour operation.  I helped these people carry 2, very large Koi out to their car in a large plastic container - it was heavy and they couldn't handle the weight.  They had to take it back to their house, get them in their pond and come back for the rest.  I - was asked to wait.  When it was finally my turn - well, there were FAR more fish in that pond than I wanted to deal with,  I asked the other  buyers if they would take some of them - any of them - it's too much load for my small ponds.  They took 5 of them.  I still ended up with 18 fish.  FAR too many, I have already placed an ad on Craigslist to get rid of at least 10 of them.

We got all of the fish out of the pond and that was it, I got out of there.  Just too much time spent for what should have been a fairly short operation.  I did get a discount, however, for my helping, so that was good if nothing else.  Oh, and I drove the old Buick over there.  I am going to drop that off at the auto shop down the street from my work tomorrow to have the problem/s diagnosed.  I figure to only have it diagnosed there - unless it's something simple like days of old when a fuel mixture adjustment was simply a turning of a screw or adjustment of the jets in a carburetor - probably not.  This car is old, but not THAT old, it does have fuel injection, lol. 

My neighbor, freshly arrived from Michigan.  He shows up with an old, rusted, 1928 Ford Model A attached at an angle on the TOP of his pickup truck.  The guy is crazy, but he's likable enough.  I got to inspecting the thing.  Lots of rust, yes, but........the radiator was in perfect condition.  The doors opened and closed flawlessly.  The body? No dings.  Even the wood for part of the frame was still intact.  Anyway, I had noticed after he came back that another computer magically appeared on my Qwest modem info.  Hmmm, who could THAT be?  I had given him free internet last year in exchange to use his pickup. 

Hey, uhh, Randy, are you using my internet?  He was like, ohhhh, darn, well, yes, I came home, turned on the computer and there it was, internet service!! As if he didn't know it was the same setup as before.  I haven't changed my password and that would mean automatic access.  He started telling me he would pay for it when I politely interrupted him.  No, no, I'll tell you what I want.  Use of your painting equipment.  Ohhh?  Yes, I want to paint my old Buick - cheap paint, yes, but put a fresh coat on it.  It does not look very good right now, the paint is faded to the point it's got different discolorations all over the car.  He agreed to that.

So that's it.  I forgot about my laundry I put in the wash this morning and now am paying for it.  I put it in the dryer a while ago and cannot go to bed until it's done - it has my bed sheets in it and I don't have an extra set.  I do NOT sleep on a "raw" mattress, period. 

G'nite.

ben

Saturday

So, Anthony is on Myspace challenging Caleb (my son) to a fist-fight.  This because of the situation with me throwing him out.  I had to ask: why isn't he challenging ME to a fight, since I'm the one that threw him out - Caleb had nothing to do with it.  Caleb wants to engage him  in such.  I think it a BAD idea.  I do not get that Anthony is the type of person that would engage in a fair fight, number one.  He would bring weapons or a lot of people with him or probably, both. 2, it's juvenile.  I would like my son to see that fighting over such a thing is a total waste of time besides the potential incurrment of injury.

However, there IS the theft portion of this - which he is still mad about and would like a piece of Anthony to at least somehow pay him back for taking all of that stuff.  Anthony has a lot of gall, I'll give him that.  He also has never had his @$$ kicked.  Many times in life, when a person is spouting off all over the place like Anthony is and does, if such an event does occur, that has a bit of a taming effect on the mouth. 

The very important thing that Anthony is forgetting here is that he is now 18 and Caleb is 17.  Even the threat of "kicking Caleb's @$$" coming from an "adult" - if you can call Anthony that - to a minor is a serious enough offense.  Caleb has some sort of plan that I have yet to hear since he said he would be telling me it today - I don't usually see him when he comes home on a Friday night because I still go to bed early on the weekends the same as weekdays.  I just don't want to stay up late, I start getting tired around 8/8:30ish and yes, I just plain go to bed. 

Regardless, Anthony apparently feels "entitled" to just come in here and take whatever he pleases.  The thinking that goes into that guy's head - beyond me.  It comes from his alleged upbringing - his whole family and relatives think like this: "We are poor, so we can just take whatever we need or want".  I'm totally serious, the fact that they are poor some how entitles them to steal, rob and lie their way into getting whatever.  With Michael's departure I have finally washed my hands of the entire lot of these people.   BTW, if I CATCH Anthony in here, his entitlement days will be over, at least at my house.  He would be spending quality time in a hospital before being transferred - wherever else.  This word I have let out on the streets. 

Completely changing the subject - I tend not to dwell on that stuff too long, it isn't worth the mental energy.  I have the trailer tenants watching out now for anyone entering the property and that is as good as it gets.  The man with the pond shutting down called me yesterday.  The man that wants to buy his Koi wants to come over on Sunday.  So, he wants me to come over on Sunday to get the other fish that this other buyer doesn't want - namely: up to 15 goldfish and 2, black and totally cool-looking Koi.    I don't want or need 15 more goldfish, but, he has to drain down the pond, basically til' it's almost empty, to catch the fish.  Once the fish are in containers, he's removing the filtering system and selling that to the other buyer as well. 

Well, I told him I don't really want that many more fish.  I just want the Koi and maybe a few goldfish.  He practically begged me - he wants a good home for the fish, the alternative is their death.  So, I agreed to it.  I'm going to take all of those fish, BUT, I am going to get rid of some of them and I told him as such: I will bring them home and then give them away to whoever wants them.  Even with 3 ponds running, that many fish is far too much of a load on the eco system.  Toxins from fish waste will build up and that can end up killing all of them.  I have GREAT filtering systems on all 3 ponds going right now, don't get me wrong.  I have one pond's water cycling through the filter about 4 times per HOUR.  Yup, it's moving a lot of water.  The second pond is cycling about once per hour, but that's still plenty enough.  The third one is about 3 times per hour.  Good water movement is key to keeping healthy fish.

So, that's my plan.  I'll pick and choose which fish I want to keep and then I will isolate the rest of them in another pond - so I don't have to pick and choose all over again, they will all be in the same pond.  Catching them is relatively easy in a small pond, especially considering I have 2 nets to corral them and get them scooped up.  Oh, he is also giving me his pond plants for free as well.  One of them is a huge water lily which will go great in one of the ponds that I don't hardly have any vegetation.  I am really acquiring all of this stuff for the inevitable:  the start up of the large pond.  The temps are going to be great this coming week and I will be motivated to get out there and finish the digging job to get that puppy in the ground. 

Bonus time at work.  I did not expect that I would get a bonus this year.  Our hours have been cut back and I figure if anyone does get a bonus, it's probably going to management.  To my great surprise, I found out yesterday that I WILL be getting a bonus and a pretty good chunk of change (by my standards, anyway).  That money will be a lifesaver.  This summer with high electric and water bills - and I do mean HIGH - depleted my funds to the point I was just floating.  I think we get that money on the 12th or 13th of this month.  I was thinking of paying off one of my 401k loans and then, having that money freed up to take out another loan if I ever need it.  But, probably not. 

Yesterday, after work, I also took the car to the emissions testing station.  I didn't exactly expect it to pass, but, when you get it inspected, it gives you an idea of what needs to be done.  The fuel mixture is running too rich and "spark" problems, they called it.  In other words, replace spark plugs and wires to deal with that and then - take it to a shop to diagnose the fuel  problem.  I can't just guess, I  have to have a shop do that.  Hook it up to their equipment and the electronics tell them what's wrong.  I will be taking the car to work Monday and dropping it off at a repair facility that is 100 feet down the road from my work.  It is a highly reputable shop and I would rather pay the $75 to find out what's wrong than to start shelling out money on guesses.  Guesses can be VERY costly.  My son can take my car home and drive back and forth to work and school with it.  Oh, well, I can get a 30 day permit to legally drive the thing around and get it done. 

Plus, the trailer tenant volunteered his work to sand the car down and bondo one door of it so we can paint the thing.  The paint is pretty rough on that car, lol.  Just trying to get it presentable, a cheap coat of paint will make it look good again.

Today?  Well, I was going to do some digging on the pond, but - it's going to be 104 and I'm still bucking the temps.  The pond can WAIT - just a few more days and it will be nice outside.  I'll do indoor cleaning tasks instead, plus whatever else comes to mind.

G'day.

ben

Friday


Well, my posting in this section was just blinked off by the computer, so, that is gone.

Not much time left here before work starts, either. Unfortunately, there IS no work to do in the truck routing system which always makes for a very long, drawn-out day. On work days when there is nothing to do, that is the only time that I am glad my hours are cut back, another hour of nothingness on top of nothingness is ........ well pretty hard to deal with.

Some interesting news this morning, pirates in MEXICO shooting American tourists on jet skis? This, on a lake formed by the Rio Grande. These pirates shot a man from behind in the head.
Then there's the guy that was caught with video tapes in his home of himself having sex with minors, some of them elementary aged children. When you see this stuff coming in the news, you have to wonder how much of this stuff is going on that no-one knows about and probably never will?

Well, whatever. I have a lot to do this weekend, I just wish the cool weather would have started tomorrow instead of Sunday or Monday.

Anyway, that's it, I'm outta here.
G'day.

ben

More

I got home from work today, went straight to work on the car.  Removed the battery cables, sprayed the battery cleaner on them, scrubbed them with a wire brush, washed them off - repeat, repeat repeat until corrosion was gone.  Put a gallon of fresh gas in it, fired right up.  Took it for a drive.  Quik Trip - had to remove the wheel covers to get at valve stems to air up tires.  Put more fresh fuel in it.  Drove it around.  Started running a bit rough, plus the check engine light is on.  A couple of places that will check the light for free, try that tomorrow.  Fuel injector cleaner added to the fuel probably wouldn't hurt, either.  Forgot about the oil leaking out of one of the manifold gaskets - a cheap fix, get to that soon.  A bit of hesitation from a stop.  Again, it's been sitting.  Maybe a fresh set of spark plugs and have diagnosed what the check engine light is on for. 

I have the 3-day permit, I will take it to the emissions testing station regardless - if it fails, I get a freebie second time.  Sometimes you can figure out what's wrong with their failure if it does fail.  I dunno, I figure to find out what they say needs to be done to pass before the permit runs out is all.  I also figure to get out on the freeway and haull @$$.  I was going to do it today - but 107 degrees?  What if it stops?  I'm stuck in hell heat.  Tomorrow's high is 105, Saturday's is 103.  I might wait until Saturday and do it in the morning.  Sunday marks the first day - hopefully for good this year - that the high will be under 100. 

Today, driving the semi, I was getting off of one of the freeways.  Frontage road runs along side of it, of course.  When you get off the freeway and have to turn right onto the street you were getting off for, you have to cross over the frontage road.  In these parts, the right of way is given to traffic exiting the freeway.  Yes, there are signs, big ones: "Yield To Ramp Traffic".  I don't think too many people understand what that sign means:  the drivers on the frontage road have to yield to the drivers getting off the freeway, as rights it should be. 

Whether they know what it means or not, many of them are oblivious to it.  I'm attempting to get over once the freeway ramp hits the frontage road and what happens?  Right - a lady driving an SUV comes cruising up, ignores the sign and me, I can't get over.  I honk my horn, signage is signage and it gets rather annoying that people simply don't care to obey traffic laws simply because it inconveniences them for a billionth of a second.  The lady slows down - should have just sped up and got out of the way or stopped altogether.  I'm looking at this person who is going just fast enough to keep me from getting over.  I ended up stopping the truck altogether, she wasn't letting me over. 

Where's a cop when you need one?  Today? RIGHT THERE.  There was a DPS motorcycle cop who already had someone else pulled over on the side of the frontage road.  When I honked my horn, he looked up from what he was doing - either writing up a ticket or a warning, who knows but he was doing paperwork to hand to the person in the car.  He sees what's happening and moves RIGHT out, hands up, in front of the SUV driver.  He looked MAD.  He stood right in front of that SUV and very dramatically started waving that driver over to the side of the road and behind the first car that he already had pulled over. 

The lady driving the SUV was flustered.  I slowly moved past after he got her moving over.  He was looking down the frontage road for some reason, I moved on.  I want no part of this if I don't have to be.  In fact, I wasn't trying to get her in trouble, I do hope she got off with an "education" in Yield laws and a warning.  Unfortunately, motorcycle cops are notorious for giving out tickets with fines, huge fines at that, not warnings.  Just one of those situations that does not happen very often, if ever at all.  If a cop were to ride along with me on any given day and several cruisers to pull people over, he/she could have tickets being written to drivers engaging in illegal and very dangerous activity all day long.  Excessive speeding, reckless driving, distracted driving, unsafe lane changes.  Distracted driving?  Do you know what you can see from the perch of a semi-tractor?  Everything a person is doing in their car.  Including playing with electronic gadgets and most notably engaging in the "art" of texting while driving.

That particular art, as I have noticed, entails looking at a screen on a cellphone with a keypad.  The art has you looking up at the road every 3, 4, 5 even longer seconds.  The science of texting while driving includes that driving is secondary to texting.  Whatever is going on in front of you?  Not near as important as the person you are texting with.  I thought talking on cellphones was bad, texting is 100 times worse. 

Ponds.  The 4 goldfish I transferred to the turtle pond were doing quite well when I got home today.  This is all a learning experience for me.  I have read that you need a "large" filter for turtle ponds because of the waste coming from the turtles.  First off, I had no idea whether the turtles would go after the goldfish.  Apparently, they did not.  I didn't see any chunks missing out of the goldfish and they were looking quite healthy.  The goldfish came right up and started munching down when  I threw some Koi pellets in there. 

Second, I realized that the filtering system I put on there is HUGE - I got it for almost nothing.  There is a submersible pump in the pond that pumps about 650 gallons per hour.  That pond is about 150 gallons.  That's more than 4 complete cycles of pumping that pond water through that giant waterfall filter per hour.  PLENTY of water flow and filtration.  The water is clear.  The algae is all but gone.  I had a small, useless filter and pump in there that wasn't doing the job.  The water was so green I couldn't see the bottom and it's only 18 inches deep.  There IS no disadvantage to having "too much" water flowing, there is huge disadvantage to not having enough water flowing or filtration.  I was sorta hoping that having some fish in there might, somehow, warm up the turtles to me.  They flee for the bottom of the pond, as always, everytime I approach it. 

Beyond that, having a pump that big in a pond that small virtually removes the sediments both floating in the water and at the bottom that is loose.  I had no clue what I was doing when I got into this ponding business, I am slowly gaining some level of expertise, but only with these small ponds.  However, I have seen dozens and dozens of large ponds - it's the same thing I have here only at  a much larger scale.  HUGE pumps, pool sized filters or even larger.  I have seen homemade filters for 2,000 gallon ponds that use 55 gallon barrels. 

What's holding me back from building a big pond?  Money, of course.  45 millimeter thick pond liner is expensive.  The right kind of filter - not cheap.  A huge pump, not cheap either.  Many ponds put in 2 pumps, not 1.  Digging out the hole?  NO WAY would I do that by hand here.  It would take MONTHS.  I would have to rent a small trackhoe at around $200 plus delivery and pickup.

That isn't even in the offing right now.  In fact, I am very happy with my small ponds, the ease of maintenance and the fact that replacing pumps doesn't cost an arm and a leg.  There are FAR too many other things that I need on level of priority to start attempting to expose myself to the expenses incurred in building a large pond.  Now, I could start looking for stuff that is being sold on the cheap - ponds shutting down.  If a person were selling something really cheap to get rid of it, I would take it. 

Enough. 

Time to start thinking about bed.

G'nite.

ben

Thursday


Today's high? 108 degrees. That's ridiculous. Insane.

Whatever the temps outside today, I feel MUCH better after stopping taking that medication. Gotta love medication that makes you sick!

Another crazy thing is this situation with my son's auto insurance. They quoted me $134 per month for him, now they have raised it another $25. I will be asking them about that today - and if no good answer - I will be seeking insurance somewhere else. However, I know young people that are paying far more than even the extended cost that they are dumping on me to dump onto my son. Dunno, guess it just depends on how much badly my son wants to drive.

I heard on the news this morning that AHCCCS (Arizona's free health care to people under the poverty level) is cutting costs - and people that have that health care. It sounded as though a LOT of people are suddenly going to be without. So, what are they going to do? Go to the hospital, of course, with whatever it is they have, even minor stuff. It will end up costing far more, imo, than if they were to just keep those people on the health care rolls and find other ways to cut costs.

Speaking of money, I guess the ex isn't doing too well in that arena. She called yesterday, leaving a message - I left the phone in the house and was outside fooling around with the ponds - my son isn't liking what's happening with his mother and is taking it badly. She doesn't want to lose her home and he doesn't want her to lose her home, either. She is still out there putting out applications. It's not like she's sitting around doing nothing, but then again, so many other people are looking for jobs, too, it's a bad situation. She is not, however, behind in her mortgage payment and I informed her that it would be 3 full months of being behind in payments before they would even start the foreclosure process.

I don't know that that made her feel any better, but it IS nice to know that if you are a month behind, they can't come and throw you out.

Meanwhile, the Army reservist tenant in my house is behind in her rent now. Go from one to another, gag. She is about to start receiving almost $1,400 per month from the military for school expenses on top of the money she makes working at Subway and also doing the monthly weekend thing in the Army reserve.

The ONLY problem I have with this lady is that she does not discuss these things with me unless I force her into the conversation. Why do I have to be the bad guy? Well, whatever, she is working and she should be paying, so, I will have to force the issue. I am guessing she wants to wait to pay the rent with the money that comes in from the military - it would just be nice if she would communicate that with me.

I now have 4 computers running off the same router, THAT is an interesting thing, because I have noticed that at times, the internet is running a bit slower. Nothing I can't deal with, I just wish Qwest would run fiber optics through my neighborhood and I would gladly pay the extra money per month for faster internet service.

Anyway, work day approaches, there is only one thing in the truck routing system for a delivery, but, that's better than nothing at all.

G'day.

ben

Side Effects

I was feeling - a lot of different things - after I took 2 more of those pills this morning.
High - like on LSD.  Drowsy.  Lethargic.  Muscle cramps all over my body.  Surreal - there but not there.  All kinds of sensations.  The obvious conclusion: stop taking the stuff, my body and this drug did not agree to a contract and all negotiations are off the table.  I stopped taking it.  Talk about taking a drug whose side effects are FAR worse than the thing it is trying to treat, this is one of the worst I have ever experienced, Penicillin taking the number one spot. 

Next time a doctor wants to prescribe something to me that I have never heard of before and know nothing about, I am going to ask specific questions about side effects.  If his answers are vague, I'm going to look it up on the internet.   A side effect of "Death" is not exactly something I want to venture into when considering a condition that is not going to come anywhere close to taking my life.  I left work early - 2 hours before I should have gotten off, stopped at Walmart for some dog food on the way home, got home and went to bed.  My cell phone wouldn't stop ringing, really got annoying.  Calls from people answering my ads for things I am selling for my company on Craigslist.  Normally, I wouldn't care but today - no thanks.  I answered the calls and got it over with.

After 5 hours passed after getting home, I finally started feeling these side effects to start thinning out.  I feel MUCH better now than I did this morning.  So, I went outside, removed plants off of the larger pond, caught 4 of the fish in there and relocated them to the turtle pond.  I do NOT think the turtles can catch them, they are large goldfish and very fast.  Regardless, the load in the larger pond needed to be reduced, too many fish, too much waste, too much toxins.  I did regret in catching one of them - she obviously is full with eggs.  I couldn't tell which was which when I was fishing them out, I just caught them.  She was leaning to one side when I got her in there - the move was not exactly a good thing for her.  I added shock treatment to the water and hope that she is still alive tomorrow. 

Life - at least for me - is an interesting conundrum of both good and bad things going on at the same time.  The occasions when either there are only good things going on or only bad things also occur.  I'm always dealing with tenant issues - bad - my ponds and fish - mostly good.  I'm learning about pond pumps - they are a pond's life blood.  I had one break this week and realize that I didn't keep the paperwork for it.  It's history.  I ordered another one and this time, the paperwork will go into a folder.  It has a 2 year warranty on it.  My winter neighbor arrived 2 nights ago.  He's - early.  He hates the heat and there is still 4 more days of it before the expected temps go below 100. 

Well, just an update.

G'nite.
ben

Wednesday

Wednesday
I had breathing problems in the middle of the night last night. Another potential side effect of this medication, it was a funny feeling. Like you're breathing but you're not breathing at all, so you breath harder cause' you don't feel like you're getting enough air/oxygen.

I have always had terrible side effects to most medications, which is why I HATE taking pills of any kind. Ibuprofen excluded, that stuff works for what it's supposed to do and I don't have ridiculous side effects to it. I suffer extreme allergies and take nothing for it - there is nothing on the market that doesn't give me WORSE side effects than the condition the medication is trying to treat.

I'll have to call the doc later when they open up and see what they have to say about all of this.

The work day is already here, I'm outta here.

G'day.
ben

Feeling Funny

I went to the doctor last week and then again today.
There is something growing on my face, it's ugly, it's getting bigger and it's itchy.   Mostly between my nose and mouth.  The first doc said it was a virus, much like a cold sore and some version of herpes, gave me a prescription.  I went to the pharmacy only to find that I had totally lost the prescription. 

I stopped by another Cigna facility today, these "Care Now" facilities are far and few between.  Basically, you walk in, see a doc - but it isn't Urgent Care so you don't have to pay the Urgent Care version of a co-pay, it's the same co-pay as a visit to your regular doctor - which is way cool.  On a tangent, our company is leaving Cigna to go to some other healthcare and I really wish they would NOT.  I like Cigna is all I can say about that.

Well, this doc tookalookit me and my blood pressure?  WAY down.  Where it used to be before my house burned down.  I thought that a good thing, I don't necessarily think they think it's that good to be that low.  Well, whatever, I'll take low blood pressure over high any old day.  So, I told this doc that I had already been given a prescription by another doc another Care Now facility - I hadn't had time to go there to try and get another one because it is simply WAY out of the way of anything close to what I normally do or go near. 

She got to looking online, found the original prescription, asked me if she could just sent it directly to them, I said yes and walaah.  2 pills, 4 times a day.  I took 2, 3 or so hours ago.  I have felt funny ever since.  Hard to describe.  Almost a high feeling.  Lol.  I'm not saying it feels BAD, just ODD. 

Will it work? I dunno.  I thought there were to ringworms on my face, that's what they looked like to me.  What do I know?  I've had ringworms a couple of times in my life - that's what it looks like to me, it looks nothing like a cold sore.  If these antibiotics don't work, I'm just going to make an appointment with my regular doctor - though - that can take a while to get in to see him.  Ummm, I guess I should have asked about the potential side-effects of this junk, some of which can be - pretty bad.  However, the picture of the man that I saw that was REALLY bad?  I think I wouldn't be feeling too well right now if I was going to have THAT side effect.  This is the reason I hate taking drugs, well one of them.   Many drugs make me feel naseous, terrible, icky, sick, whatever.  But - these drugs you take that can cause all kinds of stuff including DEATH?  No thanks. 

Got home today and went to work on the turtle pond.  I fixed up one of the waterfall filters I have acquired when I was buying these ponds - those things are expensive if purchased new, btw, and got that thing filtering.  I was using a small filter box on it and it simply wasn't working. 

The always-behind-in-rent tenant paid me today.  Quite a tidy sum, I might add, brings her down to only $70 in arrears.  The Army reservist also owes me, she should have paid me by now so - yes - I am going to ask her about that.  The new tenant is very motivated, just moved here a while back from Alabama, has a job with Bank of America and if things go well for him, I doubt he will be here very long.  I guess that's okay, but - I don't find great tenants every day of the week - those that I do find?  Well, they always get on their feet adn get their own place. I AM happy that people get out of the financial doldrums, just no fun having to find replacements who might not be anything near the level of "quality" a person like this might be. 

The guy with the Koi?  He found a buyer for all of his Koi, but not his goldfish.  Again, people frown on goldfish.  I don't really care.  I like Koi better than goldfish because they have a lot better markings and colorings, but in the end, it's just a fish.  Lol.  They call the "Ornamental" fish.  I wrote him today - he wrote back saying I could have the black and gold Koi, the much smaller ones, but at a price.  Not sure I'm going to do that, but I'll be happy to take his goldfish off of his hands, put them in with the turtles and hope that the turtles don't eat them for lunch.  These are LARGE fish, however, from what I have read as long as the turtles are well fed, they mostly won't bother with them. 

That's it.  I'm going outside to check up on the new filtering setup and make sure that it's going good.

Later.
ben

Tuesday


Slept VERY poorly last night. No rhyme or reason, just woke up around midnight and it took hours to get back to sleep.

The new tenant is very cool. I mean, he just has a very good attitude and nothing seems to shake him up too much - so far anyway. He has some high end electronics in his room. I got a bit on the pushy side by recommending strongly that he get renter's insurance for that stuff. For $15 to $20 per month, that's pretty cheap insurance to know that all of that isn't going to disappear.

My house may have been broken into, but - they didn't bother tenant's rooms or items. Further, that new guy is at the house all day and works at night. He leaves for work after I get home from work. It sorta would make it difficult for anyone to take anything, obviously, not to mention the trailer tenants who say they go out and look anytime they hear that gate being messed with during the day while I'm at work.

Further, the word "got out to the streets" that everyone living at my place IS watching out for each other and Mark - the male side of the trailer people - sternly stated yesterday that "it's not going to happen again". At least, not as long as they are living there. Well, I hope not.

The insurance adjuster called me yesterday and asked if I was going to follow through with the claim. I said probably not - I can't prove that I actually owned any of the stuff except the video gaming consoles because I can get serial numbers and proof from Sony and Nintendo - after the deductible, what am I going to get, a couple of hundred bucks? I mean, I've heard that if the loss isn't that great, don't bother with claims because you become a liability to insurance companies that might want to dump you as a client.

This man insisted that I turn in a claim and that he would give me credit for as much as he could without proof of EVERYTHING. Okay, I'm going to do it.

My fish are having babies. Well, they lay eggs and then babies come forth. I know this because I am seeing a lot of "fry" they call them, VERY little fishies. It appears that there are at least 50 of them in there. Umm, if all of those survive, I will be giving fish away instead of trying to get them from CL all over the place. I don't really need any more fish right now. My ponds are pretty full. I wouldn't mind a few more Koi if I could find them, otherwise, I'm hoping there is at least one female in the group I have that will get sassy with a male and they can make all the little eggs they want.

Umm, time a running out. Another hot week - 107 today with "abnormally high temperatures" according to forecasters. Well, IF their forecast is correct for next week, then the temps are going to come down quite a lot with highs in the low 100's or high 90's - which is still warm but nothing as bad as 107.

Nothing in the truck routing system for us to do today - ayyyyy yai yaiiiiiiii.

G'day.
ben

Monday

Monday:


How long will it be before Iran's president accuses the U.S. of creating this malware that has infected computers - a majority of which are in Iran? Just like his outrageous statements about the U.S. government creating 9/11 on purpose (and, thankfully, the U.S. delegation walking out), it's only a matter of time before he starts flapping his lips with some "evidence" that they have found.

One of my brothers is on Facebook - like he must LIVE there he puts up so much wall comments. Well, he came to my wall and started arguing with things concerning Obama - Obama care and all the other money "saving" ideas that the President had.

As normal for my brother, once he realizes he isn't going to win against me - he is very liberal, I am at least moderately conservative - he then starts talking down to me. He is in the health care industry - a regional manager and union president in an ambulance company - has obvious interest in wanting to continue to see Obama on the course he is on, I am totally the opposite in my views.

Not that that should be any surprise HERE, on my blog, lol. I pretty much replied after several volleys of this that he is "sitting on his high horse again", accusing me of getting my information from "talk show hosts" and blah blah blah. I wondered, out loud, how he could possibly know the source of my information? I rarely listen to any of the talk show hosts excepting a local guy who is not to be taken seriously, he is hilarious and that is the pointo of the show, politics is not his agenda though he throws it in there sometimes for laughs sake.

I took the opportunity, since he was talking down to me again and I have had more than my share of it, to ask him about his refusal to have anything to do with dad. I pointed out the time that our mother told us 3 boys to go away, that she wanted nothing to do with us ever again. A long time later, she came back, crying. They forgave her for THAT, yet the "infractions" that my father has committed aren't anything even CLOSE to that scale.

I braced myself for the reply, and it was as full of "stuff" as I expected it would be. I basically told him where to stick it. It is, to me, unconscionable to write off one's own parent for things that have happened SO long ago and in the context of modern America, petty things at best.

I asked him, my bro that is, HOW he was abused by dad? No answer, instead, he removed me from his Facebook page (his reputation is apparenlty on the line, you can't have these family secrets coming out, now can you?) then started an all out war with me in private messages, calling me evil, telling me I am just like dad,full of s*** etc etc etc. I thought, well, if I AM just like dad, I'll take that as a compliment cause' I sure don't want to be like my BROTHER.

I wrote him off. That's it. I gave up a few years ago on our family ever being normal. We don't spend time together. I see my oldest brother once a year at Christmas and that's it. He doesn't even want to be a part of that, he does it very begrudgingly. I see my middle bro 2, sometimes 3 times a year. The last time I took a step into the unknown and asked him to go out and have a beer or a coffee, he rejected me. "Some other time, bro". Don't get me wrong, my feelings weren't hurt neither did I dive into a world of depression and anguish, I am no part of my brother's lives and they are not part of mine by their design.

They are no longer a part of each other's lives, either. They used to be very close - no clue what happened there. Don't care, either. I guess it's a dangerous place to be when I can sit here and honestly say that I don't care anymore, but, I don't. I have tried and tried and have gotten nowhere with either of them. I was talking to my mom awhile back, she had brought up the same subject and I frankly told her that this attitude with my brothers will probably never change.

We are late 40's to early 50's, if we can't get over this stuff by now, highly unlikely the future holds anything different. I do believe my brother was shocked by my confrontation with him yesterday. I have been holding it in for years, holding out hope that perhaps he would come down off of his throne and visit with the gentiles such as me.

I just decided last night after reading his blasting of me and my thoughts on the subject that ......time is up. I give up. I want no part of it. It's not like I'm going to be missing out on something that was never there to begin with. My son? I told him last night he is welcomed to pursue a relationship with either or both of his uncles if he really wanted to and that I would not hold it against him.

When I spoke my oldest brother's name, he started laughing. My oldest brother has nothing to do with us, literally. Christmas, that's it. I have written off Christmas's in the past as well as Thanksgiving with them and I am going to start doing it again this year. I will miss NOTHING by not being there. I mean, we all try to act civil with each other for mother's sake, and honestly, if mother weren't around, we wouldn't even be getting together. Mother realizes that. The point is that the few hours we spend together is nothing but an act. I cannot, in good conscounce, continue to go to these play acts and stand there and act as if nothing is wrong. THEY can, apparently, I refuse. My dad's health is slowly deteriorating, my brothers apparently are willing to let this go to the day he dies.

Nice. My dad said last year in a very deflated mood that "they probably won't even show up to my funeral". His wife tried to tell him the opposite, but, she doesn't like them either. She can't possibly understand how a person's own kids can write that person off like that. If my dad was a mass-murderer or something, I could see it, but, he has been a minister of God most of his life.

Well, gotta get offa here and clear my head of this, there is large delivery going out this morning and it's to a company we are trying to re-establish a good, working relationship with. I'm guessing from what I have heard that we didn't give them the service in the past that our company takes pride with: giving outstanding customer service. Meaning, switch gears, get my head out of family mode and get it into work mode.

G'day.

ben

Cafe World Tips 20: Anniversary Catering and Catering Missions

The new Anniversary Mission for Cafe World just came out and what a cool deal it is for finishing the mission in time! There are fully 5 new dishes in there that you will get to keep permanently.  One of them is Rautatouille.  It costs 13,000 gold coins to prepare, but it gives you 19,000 plus back, plus over 600 cafe points and 1,200 servings per dish. 

I have been visiting the boards on Cafe World for some time now and the ever-recurring theme of complaint about these missions is the impossibility of getting them done in the time frame allotted, especially the BBQ catering mission.  I had that mission done in just a little over 2 days.

The problem, folks, is either not having enough neighbors or having neighbors joining your crew that are not cooking towards the mission.  The problem of not having enough neighbors is EASILY fixable.  On Cafe World's message board menu, you will find an "Add Me" forum.  It is located here: http://forums.zynga.com/forumdisplay.php?f=155
That board was solely created by Zynga for the purpose of getting new neighbors.  There are thousands of people looking for neighbors on that board. 

IF you have a problem having an absolute stranger being added to your Facebook account, I can't help you.  I have heard that you can keep your cafe world neighbors locked out of your personal information if you want to set it up that way.  Personally, I have made dozens of internet friends simply by getting new neighbors for Cafe World, it's been pretty cool.

As for neighbors that aren't cooking towards your mission but ARE on your crew: you can't, as of yet, fire them.  MANY people have complained to Zynga about putting the option in there to get rid of non-producing crew members, but, nothing yet.

Find out who your neighbors are that do the cooking and only send them crew requests.  Obviously, that doesn't help you the first time around, but if you write down their names for future reference, you will not make the same mistake twice.

The only other options for finishing these missions if you can't get good help is to either pay your way through it (I think I absolutely REFUSE to do) or buy Instant Thyme spices and spice all the dishes until you are done.  Either way, that is an expensive option.  It really isn't that difficult to add new neighbors and the rewards are certainly well worth it.

Zynga is frequently updating the game and slowly making it better.  Just gotta hang in there!
Happy cooking, Chefs!

Friday 9/24/2010

Friday


Yes, yeehawwww, it's Friday!

But dang, what a way to start out the day today in trying to connect with Cafe World to serve the dishes I had cookedo on the stoves. It's their 1st anniversary and I kept getting one popup window after another - dragged it out so long I wasn't able to leave for work until long after I normally do.

Then, I get to work and there are all these emails for people wanting to buy drip irrigation supplies, including one company that wants to buy us out : )

That would be a great thing, cause if they do, I get $250 for doing it. I could use an extra $250 right now...........

My time is already running out. A guy is shutting down yet another pond. I want to get some more goldfish. He has some Koi but he wants $50 a PIECE for them. Balk!!! Lol. I have 4, very large Koi that I paid $5 a piece for and I will continue to hunt for more at giveaway prices. Meanwhile, nobody wants the goldfish so they either give them away or sell them for $1 or $2 a piece. Goldfish are just as fun to watch as Koi, but - Koi have some different colorings and markings giving them a different "spice" added to the ponds.

Anyway, I do love the games and spin on the "Bush tax cuts" that the dems are playing. They spin the stuff so vividly and amazingly well, the truth is completely lost in a maze of smoke and mirrors. If you didn't KNOW what the Bush tax cuts really are, you would think the GOP is a bunch of a-holes only wanting to help the rich. Of course, it's widely known that the Bush tax cuts help everyone across the board, not just millionaires. I'm not saying the GOP is a group of lily-white angels, I'm just saying this stuff with Reid and all the garbage he attempts to shove down everyone's throats is - entertaining, the best way I can put it.

Ummm, work day is here, must be offa here.

G'day.
ben

Thursday

Thursday


4 hours labor. That is what was quoted to me by some freak of nature. I responded to his ad on Craigslist for a mobile mechanic. This guy claims it's going to take 4 hours to remove the harmonic balancer on my old Buick and put a new one on.

May I say here that the only thing that has to come off other than the balancer itself to GET the balancer off is the accessory belt? May I also say that there is only ONE bolt holding that harmonic balancer in place? $240 labor alone.

I was going to write him back and give him a piece of my mind, instead, I decided to let it go and not write back to him at all, instead, going with the dude that will replace both the balancer and the wheel brake cylinder for a grand total of $80.

Still, quite unbelievable. I can take the car to a shop for the money that first guy wanted.

The unbelievability of the statement that "the recession was over in June of 2009" is so incredulous, at least to me, that I can hardly believe these people really believe what they are saying. Staggering unemployment rate at almost 10% average nationwide; foreclosures still going strong; millions of Americans out of work that WANT to work; another - and allegedly the biggest yet - round of foreclosures coming as ARM's reset. Yes, that's what I have read and heard anyway, the round of Adustable Rate Mortgages that is going to reset sometime next year, I believe it was, is going to be the biggest yet.

And then what? More foreclosures, more short sales. Oh, and don't forget that "new jobless claims rise to 465,000, the first increase in 5 weeks". Who's the belly-gutter that is trying to tell us that we aren't in a recession? My first guess: The Political Machine.

Yes, I can just see it now, Obama attempting to go around telling everyone we are no longer in a recession. Good luck, I hope he DOES try to do that, American sentiment against him will only grow stronger if he does.

I'm having a heckuva time getting people to come look at the room I have available. They don't like my style of house. I actually could have had a site-built home instead of a manufactured when I was going through that process, but it would have taken MUCH longer and I was HATING living in an apartment. It's a good starter home, and at 2,000 square feet and 5 bedrooms, it's hardly small. It's also very nice inside, everyone that actually comes IN the house always is surprised. First, they didn't expect it to be that big and Second, they expected to see panelling and all that jibe they used to use in this kind of housing.

Yesterday, a lady that was supposed to stop by to take a look wrote me later saying that there were just a bunch of "trailers lined up real close to each other".

Lol. I wrote back and told her that first off, those lots those trailers are on are MUCH larger than the amount of room site built housing developers are giving. Second off, dismissing her claim that a "trailer isn't a house", I just said well, I guess it won't work out for you, good luck in your search. I can tell you right now, a 2,000 square foot abode is a house, at least from my perspective. The stigma is always going to be there, though: trailer trash. Unfortunately, there are people on my street that are just that: trailer trash. They literally throw trash out their doors and leave it to rot. They bring junk onto their property and stack it up. I have written numerous complaints to the city's neighborhood services department and they have done some good.

The only thing that would actually force people to change, however, would be to start a homeowner's association, get the CC&R's down on paper, give people whatever - 90 days or however long seems reasonable to get their properties cleaned up and landscaped and then - start handing out fines.

That will, of course, never happen. In fact, the amount of opposition I received to starting a Neighborhood Association - sort of similar to a Homeowner's Association excepting it has not teeth - can't hand out fines - was too much. I COULD start one without too much help from anyone since it's a voluntary thing and whether people want to participate is totally up to them, but, I have given much thought to it and just don't see that there is enough community support.

Too many cliques in that neighborhood and attempting to get people out of that mindset? Not worth the trouble. Or is it? A clean, good looking neighborhood raises property values, a trashy, dirty looking neighborhood helps to lower them. Some people are too poor to afford landscaping - albeit they could clean the property up if they wanted to, especially considering every 3 months the City of Phoenix comes along with a small front loader and a garbage truck and will haul WHATEVER you put out there away.

For now, I just write up the complaints.

And for right now, well, work day approaches and I do, allegedly, have a trip up to the mine.

G'day.

ben