You don't see ads for Koi being given away very often, when you do and if you want them, you better drop whatever you're doing and call immediately. I've done that over and over - sometimes I score, mostly I get "they're already gone".
Well, I have been frequenting Craigslist much more often and typing in Koi as the search and yes, I have seen the offers but haven't been able to "cash-in" on any of them. There are a lot of people scouring the ads for free Koi. This afternoon, the thought crossed my mind: let's take a look. Pond being shut done, giving away my Koi and goldfish. I called immediately. No, no-one else had called and yes, he wants to give them away, but he wants to give ALL of them away to one person, including the goldfish. I did not hesitate: okay. If I couldn't take them in my pond, I have another guy who wants a lot more fish in his new pond.
I head over there. I get 3/4's of the way there and see that my fuel gauge is just above empty. No problem, stop and get some fuel before getting there. Problem? I rushed out of the door so fast, I forgot my wallet! Got to the house - it is foreclosed and already resold. I didn't know that, I was ringing on the doorbell. If someone was home, they weren't answering. Waiting - get a old of the guy, he is running late.
He finally shows up. He was in LOVE with that pond. He did not want to lose his home, but he said that Bank of America would not help him. I asked him about the HAMP program before finding out that he not only had been foreclosed on, the house was sold yesterday - for $60,000. His loan was for $250,000. This is the stark reality for a lot of folks in the Phoenix area: our homes are literally worthless compared to the amount we "paid" for them.
He had bought the Koi when they were very small and stated that he had had them for 2-1/2 years. 3 to 4 inches, some 5. I got a lot of fish. Small, fortunately, or I wouldn't have been able to deal with it in my ponds. He came just short of crying. He spoke about the pond and his fish as if he had grown up with the pond and as if the fish were family members. I could only offer my apologies and sympathy for his situation in losing the home and his lifestyle. I understand. That's why I have fought to keep my place. I don't want to go rent out a property and live on a rental forever.
I was, however, very concerned when I found out these Koi had been sitting in this small, plastic tub for over a day. No aeration. Amazing they hadn't sucked all the air out of the water and floating, dead on the surface.
Well, I left, a bit saddened by this guy's new reality and the fact that he had to leave what he fought so desperately to keep. As time moves on, he'll get over it, but it is still very fresh in his heart and mind right now. No, I don't tell people to "get over it" or even think that, mostly. Sometimes the situation warrants it, this guy was having his moment and I was not trying to deny it. We shook hands and I left. I did offer him that he could keep all of these fish in a small, plastic pond and they would adapt very well. He said he had thought about it - but apparently his future includes having to move around alot. I didn't ask, didn't think it appropriate, especially if it was going to bring up a tender/sore subject. Better to leave it alone.
I do believe, however, I will offer to give him his fish back if he gets into a position where he will get a pond going again. No-one talks about a thing with that much love in their voice, tone and words and doesn't think they aren't going to eventually get back into it again. His remorse was that he had bought the fish when they were very small and had watched them grow for almost 3 years. Wow. What can you say to a person in that situation? You can't really say anything, you just give them an ear to spill out on and give them a place to vent it out.
How will I identify these fish if that were to ever happen? Not too hard: they are the smallest fish in either pond. I have good sized fish in those ponds. Okay, they are mostly Koi and I know my Koi. Today's addition was a LOT more Koi, but the smallest Koi is much larger than any of those. Well, there are 3 Koi I haven't seen in a while - I don't know if they are still alive. I bought them at PetSmart and have no idea whether they are still in those ponds or not - there are plenty of hiding places in them.
Time for bed.
G'nite.
ben
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Tuesday 3/15/2011
Tuesday
3-day weekends are nice, but there's nothing like taking a full work-week off - thusly creating 9 day span of not having to get up and go to work. I fully intend on doing that this summer.
Allegedly, there is going to be another reunion in North Carolina again this year. Funny how the family lines in the west aren't even invited to these affairs..........
......so I probably won't be saving for a vacation to NC to spend it with a bunch of strangers I haven't seen since I was 8 years old or thereabouts..........
I'll spend my vacation doing nothing but staying home, undoubtedly, which is fine by me, it's better than no vacation at all. By the time summer hits, they are predicting $4 per gallon fuel and certainly it LOOKS like it's going to go there. The price of everything is going to go up. Including vacations.
I have a vacation on my mind, I guess, because I haven't been on one in so long. I mean, I have done the staycation thing 2 years running now, I think, or is it 3? I wouldn't mind heading to a California beach and spend several days there. Dunno if that's really in the cards or not, but one can always dream.
Oh, my pond. Well, it has a big leak. I mean, like the thing is draining out several inches per hour. I just turned the pump off and am waiting for a pond liner to arrive. Yes, I pretty much figured this thing has been moved around too much, it's probably got a crack or hole somewhere, I ordered the liner off of Ebay before I even put the thing in the ground. So, it's going to sit empty until that liner shows up. The pond itself will serve as a shield against the rocks that are so incredibly abundant in these parts.......I think I will also put an old piece of carpeting down underneath the pond for extra added protection.
I have my large pond clear as a mirror now, the water is very clean and I moved the UV sterilizer to the medium sized pond yesterday to get the algae gook out of there as well.
As for tenants, wellllll, it is what it is. I have a better understanding now why the female tenant has been having trouble with paying the rent - Subway only pays here $7.50 per hour. However, she has been working a LOT of hours so she got herself paid up quite a lot the other day - which I dumped almost all of onto the electric card reader. I am preparing for summer this year. Last year I said I was going to do it and I didn't - quite the mistake. By the time June hits, I want $400 on that reader so I will be AHEAD, not scrambling to come up from behind. At the moment, it has about $235 on it. As soon as another tenant pays up, I'm dumping another $100 on it and then next month $200 more on top of the regular usage and that should get me to where I want it.
I am also going to have the entire system checked out - by a different company than the one that both installed it and fixed the broken compressor. How does a compressor go out after only 13 months of use, half of those months not even being used at all? And THEN, paying "$800 service and labor fee" even though it was under warranty. What a complete and total ripoff.
If I had that home to do all over.........
No use complaining. It's not a bad house, it's just that I learned quite a lot after the fact. I knew in the middle of the process that there was a lot I didn't know and probably wouldn't find out until afterwards, yes, that's definitely the case here.
Well, work day is here and fortunately, there are a couple of deliveries to be made. I dunno if those orders are pulled yet or what, but, I'm just glad there's something to do.
With that, I bid you.....Good day.
ben
3-day weekends are nice, but there's nothing like taking a full work-week off - thusly creating 9 day span of not having to get up and go to work. I fully intend on doing that this summer.
Allegedly, there is going to be another reunion in North Carolina again this year. Funny how the family lines in the west aren't even invited to these affairs..........
......so I probably won't be saving for a vacation to NC to spend it with a bunch of strangers I haven't seen since I was 8 years old or thereabouts..........
I'll spend my vacation doing nothing but staying home, undoubtedly, which is fine by me, it's better than no vacation at all. By the time summer hits, they are predicting $4 per gallon fuel and certainly it LOOKS like it's going to go there. The price of everything is going to go up. Including vacations.
I have a vacation on my mind, I guess, because I haven't been on one in so long. I mean, I have done the staycation thing 2 years running now, I think, or is it 3? I wouldn't mind heading to a California beach and spend several days there. Dunno if that's really in the cards or not, but one can always dream.
Oh, my pond. Well, it has a big leak. I mean, like the thing is draining out several inches per hour. I just turned the pump off and am waiting for a pond liner to arrive. Yes, I pretty much figured this thing has been moved around too much, it's probably got a crack or hole somewhere, I ordered the liner off of Ebay before I even put the thing in the ground. So, it's going to sit empty until that liner shows up. The pond itself will serve as a shield against the rocks that are so incredibly abundant in these parts.......I think I will also put an old piece of carpeting down underneath the pond for extra added protection.
I have my large pond clear as a mirror now, the water is very clean and I moved the UV sterilizer to the medium sized pond yesterday to get the algae gook out of there as well.
As for tenants, wellllll, it is what it is. I have a better understanding now why the female tenant has been having trouble with paying the rent - Subway only pays here $7.50 per hour. However, she has been working a LOT of hours so she got herself paid up quite a lot the other day - which I dumped almost all of onto the electric card reader. I am preparing for summer this year. Last year I said I was going to do it and I didn't - quite the mistake. By the time June hits, I want $400 on that reader so I will be AHEAD, not scrambling to come up from behind. At the moment, it has about $235 on it. As soon as another tenant pays up, I'm dumping another $100 on it and then next month $200 more on top of the regular usage and that should get me to where I want it.
I am also going to have the entire system checked out - by a different company than the one that both installed it and fixed the broken compressor. How does a compressor go out after only 13 months of use, half of those months not even being used at all? And THEN, paying "$800 service and labor fee" even though it was under warranty. What a complete and total ripoff.
If I had that home to do all over.........
No use complaining. It's not a bad house, it's just that I learned quite a lot after the fact. I knew in the middle of the process that there was a lot I didn't know and probably wouldn't find out until afterwards, yes, that's definitely the case here.
Well, work day is here and fortunately, there are a couple of deliveries to be made. I dunno if those orders are pulled yet or what, but, I'm just glad there's something to do.
With that, I bid you.....Good day.
ben
Monday, March 14, 2011
My Day Off
I've wasted half the morning on the phone with both my lender and the bank I was using to pay the lender. I opened up an account with Chase bank last year - really haven't used it that much. I decided to dump Compass Bank and go ahead and have direct deposit going with Chase.
No problems with the direct deposit. Now, I don't have paper checks from Chase and I don't want any. I had to make the second of the HAMP trial payment at the beginning of this month, meaning I needed my routing number and account number to give to my lender to make over the phone payment. I went INTO the bank to get that number, of which a teller wrote it down and handed it to me.
The problem: the funds have not been withdrawn from my bank. I have called me lender several times over the past couple of weeks and the bank as well. The bank informs me that it didn't go through because it was the wrong routing number. My lender just says it didn't go through. Last week I had tried to make yet another payment on the account. The problem there was that the teller at the window who wrote the number down missed a number. Obviously, you have to have the account number right to do anything with it.
So, today, I'm calling again, why hasn't this payment gone through, why haven't the funds been withdrawn from my account? Back and forth - I ended up with the corporate headquarters of Chase bank. First guy I spoke with was rude, I hung up on him and called back. The second person I talked with went around in endless circles, saying the same thing, over and over. She hung up on me - I wasn't taking no for an answer. The third person said I had already called. Yes, I HAVE already called and I will KEEP calling until I get a resolution to this situation.
She takes my cell number and says she will call me back when she discusses with the second person what that person was able to find out. I replied that since she hung up on me, it is highly unlikely that anything has been done. I'm starting to get pissed at this point. What kind of bank has employees working a teller window that give out incorrect information?
I took a trip to the Chase location where I had been given the wrong account number. I walked in, asked for the branch manager - of course, that individual is on vacation. Never fails. Settled for second in command. We go into an office. I hand her my debit card and then I hand her the paper that the numbers had been written on by the teller and ask her to compare the two. PLEASE tell me what the problem is. Oh, she says, the routing number is wrong - completely wrong. It's a routing number for Arizona and you opened this account in Colorado.
Colorado? I haven't been in or through Colorado in years, I reply, the only thing I can think of is it is because I started the account up on the internet. I voice my extreme displeasure with Chase bank and the apparent fact that something as simple as writing down a routing number could be messed up. But I didn't stop there, because she was saying that the person didn't apparently look at the screen to see which state this account was set up in to give the correct routing number.
I then point to the account number. PLEASE match the 2 up. What kind of excuse is she going to give for that crap? None, she can't. She apologizes, great. However, I tell her, this HAMP loan modification, which is what this rejected payment was for, has strict rules. One of which states that if you miss any of your 3 trial payments to be made on time, the modification is rejected. What are you going to do about that if that's what happens? Yeah, that is why I was getting so upset. I have no idea at this point where that thing stands.
I'm not sorry to say that I will be moving my direct deposits from that bank to another, yet to be determined. I think there is a bank that is giving out $100 to sign up for a checking account. I WILL be cancelling my account there. It wasn't just giving the wrong routing number: it was giving the wrong routing number AND missing a number in the account number.
Whatever.
I fired up the third pond earlier. It's out front. It's the smallest pond. I have some fish in the biggest pond that I am going to take out of there and put in the small one - after a few days that is. I'm going to let the bio filter cycle through that fresh water for a couple of days before making the move. There is a couple of fish in the large pond that are being chased around and nipped out, they will be removed from that one and put in the small one.
Meanwhile, the medium sized pond? The fish are mating in there. I opened up the door right next to that pond earlier and they were "rubbing" away. I'm sorta curious to know whether that fish chasing that other fish in the big pond was actually trying to mate with it. No idea.
Eggs in the hummingbird nest have not hatched yet, but if the site I read is correct, it should occur sometime this week.
Next door neighbor is going crazy over there with that backhoe, making a lot of noise with thing - have been listening to that noise for 3 and a half days now. The company that rented it to him is coming or it today - I can add happily.
I think I am going to make some brats on the grill. I'm hungry and it sounds very appetizing.
Later.
ben
No problems with the direct deposit. Now, I don't have paper checks from Chase and I don't want any. I had to make the second of the HAMP trial payment at the beginning of this month, meaning I needed my routing number and account number to give to my lender to make over the phone payment. I went INTO the bank to get that number, of which a teller wrote it down and handed it to me.
The problem: the funds have not been withdrawn from my bank. I have called me lender several times over the past couple of weeks and the bank as well. The bank informs me that it didn't go through because it was the wrong routing number. My lender just says it didn't go through. Last week I had tried to make yet another payment on the account. The problem there was that the teller at the window who wrote the number down missed a number. Obviously, you have to have the account number right to do anything with it.
So, today, I'm calling again, why hasn't this payment gone through, why haven't the funds been withdrawn from my account? Back and forth - I ended up with the corporate headquarters of Chase bank. First guy I spoke with was rude, I hung up on him and called back. The second person I talked with went around in endless circles, saying the same thing, over and over. She hung up on me - I wasn't taking no for an answer. The third person said I had already called. Yes, I HAVE already called and I will KEEP calling until I get a resolution to this situation.
She takes my cell number and says she will call me back when she discusses with the second person what that person was able to find out. I replied that since she hung up on me, it is highly unlikely that anything has been done. I'm starting to get pissed at this point. What kind of bank has employees working a teller window that give out incorrect information?
I took a trip to the Chase location where I had been given the wrong account number. I walked in, asked for the branch manager - of course, that individual is on vacation. Never fails. Settled for second in command. We go into an office. I hand her my debit card and then I hand her the paper that the numbers had been written on by the teller and ask her to compare the two. PLEASE tell me what the problem is. Oh, she says, the routing number is wrong - completely wrong. It's a routing number for Arizona and you opened this account in Colorado.
Colorado? I haven't been in or through Colorado in years, I reply, the only thing I can think of is it is because I started the account up on the internet. I voice my extreme displeasure with Chase bank and the apparent fact that something as simple as writing down a routing number could be messed up. But I didn't stop there, because she was saying that the person didn't apparently look at the screen to see which state this account was set up in to give the correct routing number.
I then point to the account number. PLEASE match the 2 up. What kind of excuse is she going to give for that crap? None, she can't. She apologizes, great. However, I tell her, this HAMP loan modification, which is what this rejected payment was for, has strict rules. One of which states that if you miss any of your 3 trial payments to be made on time, the modification is rejected. What are you going to do about that if that's what happens? Yeah, that is why I was getting so upset. I have no idea at this point where that thing stands.
I'm not sorry to say that I will be moving my direct deposits from that bank to another, yet to be determined. I think there is a bank that is giving out $100 to sign up for a checking account. I WILL be cancelling my account there. It wasn't just giving the wrong routing number: it was giving the wrong routing number AND missing a number in the account number.
Whatever.
I fired up the third pond earlier. It's out front. It's the smallest pond. I have some fish in the biggest pond that I am going to take out of there and put in the small one - after a few days that is. I'm going to let the bio filter cycle through that fresh water for a couple of days before making the move. There is a couple of fish in the large pond that are being chased around and nipped out, they will be removed from that one and put in the small one.
Meanwhile, the medium sized pond? The fish are mating in there. I opened up the door right next to that pond earlier and they were "rubbing" away. I'm sorta curious to know whether that fish chasing that other fish in the big pond was actually trying to mate with it. No idea.
Eggs in the hummingbird nest have not hatched yet, but if the site I read is correct, it should occur sometime this week.
Next door neighbor is going crazy over there with that backhoe, making a lot of noise with thing - have been listening to that noise for 3 and a half days now. The company that rented it to him is coming or it today - I can add happily.
I think I am going to make some brats on the grill. I'm hungry and it sounds very appetizing.
Later.
ben
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Sunday 3/13/2011 Direct TV and other things
I'm gonna get my way with Direct TV, I do every time. I may have to spend hours to get there, but I get my way. Today? No different. I looked at my bill online - it had gone up $7 per month. No, no and double-NO. I already pay them enough money, I'm not going there with them. I braced myself for a long, drawn-out series of phone calls. I'm a pro, I guess you would call it, at this, I've been dealing with this company for over a decade now. I know how they operate, I know that you might encounter some very rude "associates" and I know that I will have to talk to several different people, make several phone calls - and probably get hung up on at least once before I get to where I want to be.
The first person I talked to a knew I wouldn't get anywhere with. That person has no authority, whatsoever, to give me what I am asking for. I just ask them for what I want without going into to much of it, and then I ask for a supervisor. No diss to that person, at all, just they haven't go the juice. I know that sometimes a supervisor can sometimes they can't - or won't - I'm not 100% sure of their authority and how far they can go with it.
The first supervisor? Hung up on me. That after I wasn't budging - give me my "old" rate or - nothing. He invited me to leave Direct TV and go with another company. I immediately asked him for his name and ID number. He hung up on me. That man isn't going to get away with it, I will be contacting corporate tomorrow and discussing with them supervisors that can't take the heat that they are dishing out.
I call back. This time I bypass the initial operator, telling them I was talking to a supervisor and that I want to speak to another one. No problem, he gets me - eventually - to a supervisor. I go the rounds - respectfully of course - with this guy. He can't help me. Offers to switch me to a "specialist". The specialist, turns out and after half an hour of listening to this person attempting to deceive me into thinking I am getting a good deal - has LESS authority than the supervisor I was talking with.
She asks me if there is anything further she can do for me. Yes, as a matter of fact, put my rate back to what it was, thank you. Can't do that. I suggest you talk to Corporate like you were talking about. Yes, I replied, but why should I HAVE to talk to them? Why can't you simply do what they WILL do after I get to them, which will be an even longer, drawn-out ordeal? Oh, and btw, why is it your company is raising your rates in the worst economic atmosphere that has existed in this country since the Great Depression? Other questions she couldn't or wouldn't answer. She then offers to connect me to the disconnect department.
I thought about that a flash and thought it worth the gamble. I'm thinking they might have some juice to be able to offer something instead of having you leave. Roll of the dice, I am gambling here, can I get what I want or am I going to have to eat it, cause' I really do not want to quit DTV. A little trepidation on this one, I think I talked to their department once, about 10 years ago, I don't remember the outcome.
So, a cool sounding person gets on the phone. How can I help you? "Well, apparently your company wants me to disconnect since the last person I was talking to transferred me here, without my asking and the first supervisor I was talking to invited me to quit the service as well". We talked back and forth - I also brought up the fact of a bad DVR and remotes that don't work.
Without going into that entire conversation - I could but why? Unless people want to learn how to deal with large corporations and getting what you want for less than what everyone else is paying for - I am getting a brand new DVR, 2 remotes and $12 per month taken off the monthly bill for the next 12 months. That reduction is MORE than what was tacked onto my service.
Look Direct TV just raised their monthly rate for each additional receiver by $1. I have 5 extra receivers. Plus he took off DVR service charge. My bill had gone up like $6, I'm off the hook for $12. Yup, I took it. Not only that, but I didn't have to get into a contract to get the DVR. I won't own the thing - it's considered a "lease" and I have to send it back when I'm through with it. Yes, well, think about it. I can't use it for anything but Direct TV, it's not like I have anything to gain by owning it anyway. He also threw in that they will send the box and pay shipping to send it back.
That's it. I won again. It took about 2 hours of phone calls, maybe 2 and a half, but, I'm there.
As for today/going into other things? Well, I like probably the rest of the world am watching the situation in Japan. What a catastrophe. Nuclear plants on the verge of melting down? My God, those people are going through hell right now. I do hope the world unites and goes to help them. \
I spent most of the day outdoors. I sprayed Miracle Gro through a garden hose attachment onto just about every plant on the property. I spent hours picking up leaves out front - not even half done with that. Pruning plants and trees. Getting the pond in. It was quite the productive Sunday. I have tomorrow off and I intend on spending at least the morning doing the same. I have the outdoor bug right now - and there is enough to keep me busy for quite a while.
Oh, and I cleaned out the larger pond's filter system. I couldn't believe how full of gunk it had gotten in just 2 weeks. I am doing the smaller one tomorrow and switching the UV sterilizer from the large pond to the small one. The large pond is free of the green water, the small one is not. I imagine this to be a problem until I get more Plecos in them.
Anyway, that's enough.
Good evening.
ben
The first person I talked to a knew I wouldn't get anywhere with. That person has no authority, whatsoever, to give me what I am asking for. I just ask them for what I want without going into to much of it, and then I ask for a supervisor. No diss to that person, at all, just they haven't go the juice. I know that sometimes a supervisor can sometimes they can't - or won't - I'm not 100% sure of their authority and how far they can go with it.
The first supervisor? Hung up on me. That after I wasn't budging - give me my "old" rate or - nothing. He invited me to leave Direct TV and go with another company. I immediately asked him for his name and ID number. He hung up on me. That man isn't going to get away with it, I will be contacting corporate tomorrow and discussing with them supervisors that can't take the heat that they are dishing out.
I call back. This time I bypass the initial operator, telling them I was talking to a supervisor and that I want to speak to another one. No problem, he gets me - eventually - to a supervisor. I go the rounds - respectfully of course - with this guy. He can't help me. Offers to switch me to a "specialist". The specialist, turns out and after half an hour of listening to this person attempting to deceive me into thinking I am getting a good deal - has LESS authority than the supervisor I was talking with.
She asks me if there is anything further she can do for me. Yes, as a matter of fact, put my rate back to what it was, thank you. Can't do that. I suggest you talk to Corporate like you were talking about. Yes, I replied, but why should I HAVE to talk to them? Why can't you simply do what they WILL do after I get to them, which will be an even longer, drawn-out ordeal? Oh, and btw, why is it your company is raising your rates in the worst economic atmosphere that has existed in this country since the Great Depression? Other questions she couldn't or wouldn't answer. She then offers to connect me to the disconnect department.
I thought about that a flash and thought it worth the gamble. I'm thinking they might have some juice to be able to offer something instead of having you leave. Roll of the dice, I am gambling here, can I get what I want or am I going to have to eat it, cause' I really do not want to quit DTV. A little trepidation on this one, I think I talked to their department once, about 10 years ago, I don't remember the outcome.
So, a cool sounding person gets on the phone. How can I help you? "Well, apparently your company wants me to disconnect since the last person I was talking to transferred me here, without my asking and the first supervisor I was talking to invited me to quit the service as well". We talked back and forth - I also brought up the fact of a bad DVR and remotes that don't work.
Without going into that entire conversation - I could but why? Unless people want to learn how to deal with large corporations and getting what you want for less than what everyone else is paying for - I am getting a brand new DVR, 2 remotes and $12 per month taken off the monthly bill for the next 12 months. That reduction is MORE than what was tacked onto my service.
Look Direct TV just raised their monthly rate for each additional receiver by $1. I have 5 extra receivers. Plus he took off DVR service charge. My bill had gone up like $6, I'm off the hook for $12. Yup, I took it. Not only that, but I didn't have to get into a contract to get the DVR. I won't own the thing - it's considered a "lease" and I have to send it back when I'm through with it. Yes, well, think about it. I can't use it for anything but Direct TV, it's not like I have anything to gain by owning it anyway. He also threw in that they will send the box and pay shipping to send it back.
That's it. I won again. It took about 2 hours of phone calls, maybe 2 and a half, but, I'm there.
As for today/going into other things? Well, I like probably the rest of the world am watching the situation in Japan. What a catastrophe. Nuclear plants on the verge of melting down? My God, those people are going through hell right now. I do hope the world unites and goes to help them. \
I spent most of the day outdoors. I sprayed Miracle Gro through a garden hose attachment onto just about every plant on the property. I spent hours picking up leaves out front - not even half done with that. Pruning plants and trees. Getting the pond in. It was quite the productive Sunday. I have tomorrow off and I intend on spending at least the morning doing the same. I have the outdoor bug right now - and there is enough to keep me busy for quite a while.
Oh, and I cleaned out the larger pond's filter system. I couldn't believe how full of gunk it had gotten in just 2 weeks. I am doing the smaller one tomorrow and switching the UV sterilizer from the large pond to the small one. The large pond is free of the green water, the small one is not. I imagine this to be a problem until I get more Plecos in them.
Anyway, that's enough.
Good evening.
ben
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Blame Me
Next door neighbor has the use of a backhoe for tearing down his house. So, I decided to go over there and ask him if he would dig out the hole for my small pond for the front of my house. No problem.
So, he brings the thing over, we start digging. On the final pull of the bucket - it was the last one, I promise, it was all I needed to get that hole dug - the thing snags the waterline that I didn't know was there and tears it out quite nicely. Hole dug, waterline destroyed. That would be the 3/4 inch line that feeds water to my house.
Water gushing all over the place, not a big problem to shut off the water, the meter is right there. Of course, that shuts off the water to the entire house. I do not have a propane torch or the accessories needed to repair a line like that. I used to have all of that stuff, but it was all stolen. I never replaced any of it, expensive and who wants to keep replacing things that.......keep getting stolen.
On a sidenote, and for readers that have been around for quite while, the elimination of Michael living at this household was also the elimination of any of the remaining theft issues.
As for me, I thought, well, time to replace all of that stuff. But, a neighborhood guy told me to call his dad - who lives behind me - he would fix it. Okay. Well, they called him for me. Yes, I can fix such things but no, I can't do it without the proper equipment, and no, replacing all of that today was not on any of my lists of things to do.
This went on all day long. It turns out the company that installed the waterline for my new house used 3/4 inch line up until they apparently ran out of that and used something else. I had no idea. Sam - that guy that lives behind me and came over to fix the thing - indicated that the fittings he had would not work. So, I sent him on his way, he had another project to fix while I ran around trying to figure out what size this particular application is. Smaller than 3/4's and bigger than 1/2 inch.
Home Depot had no clue. It dawned on me: they might have used refrigeration copper on this application, but HD apparently doesn't carry that stuff. I went to Evergreen, they were able to identify it as refrigeration copper, but no, they don't carry such stuff and probably could only find fittings for it at a heating and refrigeration type of store. All closed on Saturday. Of course, my company has it's own refrigeration store, it's huge, but yes, also closed.
Well, without going into the details of the fittings used, Sam came back, put it all together and that was that. I spent most of the day outside, out front of my house. In the interim periods, I was trimming back trees, bushes, plants and picking up leaves - a lot of dead leaves from the cold and frost this winter. LOTS left to go out there, but put a good dent into it.
Some things seem like a major catastrophe to some people, but not to others. I didn't see this as a major ordeal. Mostly because I have the knowledge and skill to repair it myself. I may have actually been better off going to HD and buying a torch set today, but, this guy came over and I figured I would get out of it cheap enough - $40 for his time including some of his fittings and copper tubing. That also includes completely bypassing having to dig out that rocky soil for the hold for the pond.
No, I did not give my neighbor with the backhoe money, neither did I offer any. I have given him free use of wireless internet for a long period of time and that was more than sufficient to me for 10 minutes of use of a backhoe, which, literally, is all it was. It would have taken me days and days to dig out that hole - the ground is FULL of rocks, it is very difficult digging. It really sucks, basically, digging into the soil around here. So, no big deal to me. The water is back on and we're all happy campers.
I am on day one of a 3 day weekend. I had to take time off - a day at least - or start "losing" vacation time starting next month. 80 hours. I would have hit it at the beginning of the month and lost anything over that that I am accruing. I have a lot of work to do on the property now that spring is - here even if not anywhere else. March 20th is the first official day of spring this year. My trees are all budding, plants are starting to grow again, temps are warming up, spring is here for me, if no-one else, lol. The point is that now, it is obvious where and what to cut off from plants and trees from the winter frost. Some plants, I believe, are a total loss. I will let them linger a while longer in case they are late bloomers, if nothing, they will be unearthed and I will do something else in those areas. Not a lot, though, nothing NEAR what I was fearing when we were hitting 20 degree weather.
Enough for one entry.
G'day.
ben
So, he brings the thing over, we start digging. On the final pull of the bucket - it was the last one, I promise, it was all I needed to get that hole dug - the thing snags the waterline that I didn't know was there and tears it out quite nicely. Hole dug, waterline destroyed. That would be the 3/4 inch line that feeds water to my house.
Water gushing all over the place, not a big problem to shut off the water, the meter is right there. Of course, that shuts off the water to the entire house. I do not have a propane torch or the accessories needed to repair a line like that. I used to have all of that stuff, but it was all stolen. I never replaced any of it, expensive and who wants to keep replacing things that.......keep getting stolen.
On a sidenote, and for readers that have been around for quite while, the elimination of Michael living at this household was also the elimination of any of the remaining theft issues.
As for me, I thought, well, time to replace all of that stuff. But, a neighborhood guy told me to call his dad - who lives behind me - he would fix it. Okay. Well, they called him for me. Yes, I can fix such things but no, I can't do it without the proper equipment, and no, replacing all of that today was not on any of my lists of things to do.
This went on all day long. It turns out the company that installed the waterline for my new house used 3/4 inch line up until they apparently ran out of that and used something else. I had no idea. Sam - that guy that lives behind me and came over to fix the thing - indicated that the fittings he had would not work. So, I sent him on his way, he had another project to fix while I ran around trying to figure out what size this particular application is. Smaller than 3/4's and bigger than 1/2 inch.
Home Depot had no clue. It dawned on me: they might have used refrigeration copper on this application, but HD apparently doesn't carry that stuff. I went to Evergreen, they were able to identify it as refrigeration copper, but no, they don't carry such stuff and probably could only find fittings for it at a heating and refrigeration type of store. All closed on Saturday. Of course, my company has it's own refrigeration store, it's huge, but yes, also closed.
Well, without going into the details of the fittings used, Sam came back, put it all together and that was that. I spent most of the day outside, out front of my house. In the interim periods, I was trimming back trees, bushes, plants and picking up leaves - a lot of dead leaves from the cold and frost this winter. LOTS left to go out there, but put a good dent into it.
Some things seem like a major catastrophe to some people, but not to others. I didn't see this as a major ordeal. Mostly because I have the knowledge and skill to repair it myself. I may have actually been better off going to HD and buying a torch set today, but, this guy came over and I figured I would get out of it cheap enough - $40 for his time including some of his fittings and copper tubing. That also includes completely bypassing having to dig out that rocky soil for the hold for the pond.
No, I did not give my neighbor with the backhoe money, neither did I offer any. I have given him free use of wireless internet for a long period of time and that was more than sufficient to me for 10 minutes of use of a backhoe, which, literally, is all it was. It would have taken me days and days to dig out that hole - the ground is FULL of rocks, it is very difficult digging. It really sucks, basically, digging into the soil around here. So, no big deal to me. The water is back on and we're all happy campers.
I am on day one of a 3 day weekend. I had to take time off - a day at least - or start "losing" vacation time starting next month. 80 hours. I would have hit it at the beginning of the month and lost anything over that that I am accruing. I have a lot of work to do on the property now that spring is - here even if not anywhere else. March 20th is the first official day of spring this year. My trees are all budding, plants are starting to grow again, temps are warming up, spring is here for me, if no-one else, lol. The point is that now, it is obvious where and what to cut off from plants and trees from the winter frost. Some plants, I believe, are a total loss. I will let them linger a while longer in case they are late bloomers, if nothing, they will be unearthed and I will do something else in those areas. Not a lot, though, nothing NEAR what I was fearing when we were hitting 20 degree weather.
Enough for one entry.
G'day.
ben
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Caring For Your Pre-Formed Fish Pond
I am writing this entry for the Googlers out there that are looking for specific information about ponds that they/you are not finding elsewhere. I went through this process earlier last year, trying to find information and not finding what I was looking for. It is not intrinsic knowledge, learning how to set up and care for a small pond is not that difficult, but if you don't know what you are doing, you will probably waste some money in that learning experience.
I am not really going to go into digging out the hole to place your pond - this is pretty simple stuff. Set your pond where you are going to place it, get a can of spray paint, spray around the bottom perimeter of the pond, start digging. Once the bottom is in the ground but the shelves are at ground level, spray paint around that, more digging of the entire hole until it is deep enough.
But let me emphasize here that you do not have to bury the pond in the ground. I have 2 ponds up and running. One is above ground, the other is in-ground. I like them both. The one above ground is on a slab of cement next to a side door on my house. Because that door leads to "nowhere", no one uses it. I have the shelves of the pond propped up with pavers so that it doesn't collapse. It has been sitting there like that for - quite a long time now with out any problems.
That's my short bit about ponds and placement. As for finding pre-formed ponds for sale, Home Depot and Lowe's carries them. However, I found all of mine on Craigslist. One of them was brand new that I got for a steal from some people that decided that pre-formed wasn't for them, they were going to build a much larger, in-ground affair. I would suggest that if you have never owned a pond before, start with the small pre-formed pond first. Get your feet wet with the small version, you will have a MUCH better idea of what you want in a bigger pond. It is prudent to do much research into in-ground, liner type ponds first before buying anything or even deciding where to put it.
Okay, you have this pond. Maybe you rented a house with a preformed pond that still has live fish in it. I am going out tomorrow to help a person that rented a house that yes, has a preformed pond, this lady has absolutely no clue, whatsoever, how to clean it or keep it functioning. I am happy to help when I can, it's a great hobby and it's peaceful to sit and watch your fish swimming around doing the things that they do.
Maybe you are going to put one on your apartment patio - some apartments DO allow this, you have to ask your landlord, obviously. The point is, preformed ponds aren't just for homeowners. It's great fun, once you get it set up there isn't much maintenance.
Now for some specifics. Namely, the pump and the filter setup. I searched the high heavens for good information on this, I only found generic stuff. I went to people's homes with ponds. I joined a pond society for info. After I got my first pond set up and wanted fish, I went to people's homes to get the fish and asked a lot of questions. To no avail, I might add. Those ponds were all HUGE, built-in ponds up to 5,000 gallons.
So, I had my first pond. I decided to buy a small pump to get water circulating, but didn't put in any fish or plants. It was a 75 GPH (gallons per hour) pump. I thought that since the pond was only 120 gallons, that size pump was adequate. I then went to a 125GPH pump, finding that the 75 thing was not even close to enough. No, that wasn't enough, either. I then went to a 300 GPH pump. I then found a waterfall type of filtering system. It's a large, plastic affair that has water pumped in from the bottom, goes through the filtering agents and then pours out into your pond like a waterfall. They are very cool, I like those kinds of filters.
So, let's mesh these two together. The waterfall filter has a bag of bio-balls that goes into the bottom. You MUST have bio-balls if you are going to have fish in the pond, period. Usually, the waterfall filters come with them, if they don't, you can buy them on eBay or you can find them at pet stores (MUCH cheaper on eBay). The more, the merrier. I don't know how anyone else does their's, I just know how I set mine up. I found filter media on eBay - I buy it a couple of rolls at a at time. And yes, that's what it's called: filter media.
I put a layer of that above the bio-balls. I then put that thick, porous filtering agent - don't remember what it's called but the waterfall filter should come with it anyway - on top of that. That's it. That's the waterfall filter. I have them on both of my ponds. Both of them are good for up to 1,000 gallon ponds. That's right, think bigger is better with these small ponds if you want lots of fish in them. My small pond is only 120 gallons and yes, I have a waterfall filter that is good up to 1,000 gallons filtering the water on it.
Now, guess what size pump I have on that filter? No, it's not a 300 GPH pump. I found the water flow to be far too low. No, the submersible (yes, you want a submersible pump) I have on that baby is 700GPH. Too much circulation isn't a problem, too little IS. It looks quite normal in the flow coming off the waterfall, it is not overkill. I would suggest you not make the mistake I did and start out buying ridiculously small pumps that you are going to find is not going to do the job.
Up until last weekend, I had 16 medium to large sized goldfish in that pond. That's 5 to 9 inches. They had been in there quite a while, too. I got rid of some of them - gave them away to a guy that has a much larger pond - because they were obviously cramped in there. I have 8 of them in there now, looks about perfect. All the small fish are gone right now but breeding season should be starting up soon enough and then there will be little fishies in there again. The point is, again, if you want fish, especially if you wanter larger fish, you must have overkill on the filtering system. If you just want plants in there, well, a much smaller filtering system will suffice. I'm gearing this piece towards those that want fish, it's much more interesting than having just a water feature with some plants and no fish.
If you don't want the larger waterfall filter, try something like the FishMate Bio Pond Filter. Make SURE that you get a bio-type of filter. However, I must point out that the waterfall filter IS a waterfall effect and has the sound of water pouring into water, it is quite the soothing effect. The FishMate filter is much smaller, though, and does a good job - BUT - I haven't tried it on my ponds with large fish, I have only used it on a pond with much smaller fish. The FishMate filter is also much easier to clean out. I don't really care how much effort it is, though, to clean out the waterfall filter since it's doing it's job swimmingly.
BTW, my smaller pond is 6 feet long at it's longest point and 4-1/2 feet wide at it's widest point. My other pond is a bit larger. It's 8 feet long by 6 feet wide and is close to 300 gallons. I have an 800 GPH pump on that one that I acquired through eBay. If you want to do this kind of thing on a budget, I STRONGLY suggest eBay. I found a dealer on there that sells a quality pump and also gives a 2 year warranty on it for MUCH less money than I could ever find it in a store. I also got my FishMate filter on eBay. I ended up getting that one for free - but that's another story entirely. Ebay is a good buying venue now that they have buyer protection on it - whereas it used to be buyer-beware: look at their feedback rating, but if you get screwed, don't come running to us.
I would definitely suggest buying the pump new, but the filter? I see them here and there, the waterfall filter, on Craigslist. Much better price, it's plastic so unless it's already broken, you shouldn't have a problem with it. The waterline from the pump to the filter can be found at Home Depot - it's specifically made for ponds and is in the Garden section. Get the 3/4 inch size, NOT the half inch size, btw.
Okay, well, the most critical components of your ponding system have been covered: the filtration/circulation system. Let's go into a bit more, shall we?
I noticed that my fish were at the surface, attempting to gulp air, apparently. Well, I had aquariums as a kid, I instantly knew that there is not enough aeration in the water. If you are doing this stuff on a budget, then I would suggest to you that WalMart and Ebay are going to become your best friends if you want to find the best prices (at least, the best prices I could find). Walmart sells aerators for less than $10.00. I bought 2 of them, plus the long aeration stones and tubing. I have one air pump for each pond - each of the pumps have 2 outlets so I have 2 air stones in each pond, problem solved and no, they don't use much electricity.
Green water. Yup, you might encounter that. When that happened on my larger pond, I went to WalMart and bought the algae removing liquid for ponds. I bought a couple of bottles and it didn't work, AT ALL. It did absolutely nothing to clear it up. I did some research and it didn't take long to come up with a UV Sterilizer. I read a lot of conflicting information. Some people think they are harmful to your fish and plants, but science, at least what I read, says otherwise. It just uses a ultraviolet light to kill off the algae. That's it, seriously. It's a tubular looking thing with a large UV light in it. It has an inlet and an outlet. You hook your pump-side hose to the inlet and you hook your filter-side hose to the outlet, clamp the hose onto it, start the pump up, plug in the sterilizer, walaah. It took about 5 days if I remember correctly to completely clear up the water.
Where did I buy mine? 3 guesses, first 2 don't count. Yes, Ebay. I found the cheapest one on there, I think it was $30 plus cheap shipping. I did a search on the net for any info about it- some dude gave it a negative review, but, he said it worked. I just bought the thing. I ran it for a month on that pond, but really only needed to run it for maybe a week. I took it off and - I am using it again, 8 months later. That's right, the water cleared up after the first time and stayed clear for a long time. It clouded up again recently, so I put it back on there. It's clear again and this weekend I'm taking it back off. I only need on of these sterilizers for my ponds since I can just move it around. It's a good investment if you want clear ponds, which I do. BTW, UV STERILIZER, not UV Clarifier. Trust me, your fish are not going to be sterilized and your plants are not going to disappear into outer-space.
Algae on pond walls. Think Plecostomus. They are fastidious algae eaters. The first one I put in the small pond had the walls cleaned off in a couple of days. The only drawback is they can't tolerate winter-cold water. Even with heaters, 3 of mine died off this winter. I am going to get another one - I don't know what I am going to do with him next winter, maybe just sell him to someone with an aquarium and then buy yet another one the next spring.
Aging and cycling water. Well, probably should do that in large ponds, yes. In small ponds? Go to Walmart, buy a bottle of "Pond Start", pour the recommended amount into the freshly poured water, walaah, your fish are ready to go in. This is what the water cycling is for, fishies, it doesn't matter otherwise. I have had NO problems with putting fish into a totally fresh pond full of water that has not aged or cycled at all as long as I used the Pond Start. In fact, the only problem I have had with fish dying, other than the Plecos this winter, is a couple that have jumped out of the pond.
Water replacement. I don't do it. That is, the practice of half emptying a pond - or even more - and putting fresh water back in. As long as you have a good filtering system, this is completely unecessary. Water evaporates out of them anyway, so a small amount of water replacement is forced because of that fact, other than that? Forget it. If your water is cloudy with other than algae, you have a filtering problem. It's dirty and needs cleaned or it's not sufficient size for the pond.
What kind of fish? I have Koi, Goldfish and other kinds of fish in my ponds. I like the Koi the best. I have several of them, but I have 2 18 inchers in there. They are all yellow and totally cool looking. I have a jet black Koi in there as well, he is very hard to see in that black pond, lol. I have smaller Koi, all sizes of goldfish, some mosquito eaters and other fish I don't know what they are that I acquired from other people.
You can also have frogs and turtles, but, I tried the turtles, they tear down my vegetation so I don't do turtles anymore.
Where to get all this? I have acquired 99% of my fish through Craigslist. People shutting down ponds. People thinning out their ponds. People who bought a short-saled home and got a pond they don't want and are getting rid of everything. I have acquired almost all of my goldfish for FREE and my Koi? Very cheap prices. I scoured Craigslist daily and called the instant I found Koi going cheap. I scored enough times that I have enough now. You can buy small Koi at places like PetSmart. There are breeders - at least in my area - that advertise on Craigslist as well. I don't use them, I haven't needed to.
Water plants. Very cool stuff here. Everyone loves the floating plants - water lilies the most popular. I'm on a budget, so I look around for stuff until I find what I'm looking for. My trips to get plants and fish have not been few, but thankfully, they are pretty much over now. I don't need any more fish OR plants. I got almost all of my plants for free. I bought some of the lilies, yes, but other than that? Again, Craigslist. Pond owners will advertise that they are going to be thinning down their plants on a certain day and on that day, the clippings will be available for free. Yes, free. You do NOT need a green thumb to be able to grow water plants, they pretty much grow like weeds.
They will just break chunks of a plant off a larger plant. They give them to you. You go to the dollar store and buy the cheap plastic containers - these plants will grow in ANY container you might have. People tell me they buy organic cat litter at Walmart to plant them. Who wants to spend money when dirt is free? Put a small layer of small rocks - available throughout the world for free, I have plenty of landscaping rock so I use that - on the bottom of the container. Put a layer of dirt over the rocks. Stick your plant and it's roots in there. Put more dirt in until the container is almost full. Cover the top layer of soil with more rocks - helps keep the dirt out of your pond, done. Water lilies should be placed at the bottom of your pond regardless of how small it might be.
I have no problem with a bit of dirt at the bottom of my pond, but there isn't any (from plant containers) or if there is, it is not noticable. There is some sand down there - where that came from I have no idea, but it doesn't look bad so I don't care.
Cleaning out your pond. Another advantage of an 800GPH pump - it draws EVERYTHING to it. I just pull the cover off here and there, clean off the junk and that's it. I would rather have the floating material drawn to the pump first instead of floating to the bottom and just laying there. I'm sure some of that happens, anyway, but the fish kick that stuff up and yes, it goes to the pump. One way of the other, at least in my ponds, that junk ends up at the pump or sucked into it and into the filtering system - and yes, mostly the filtering system.
When I open up my waterfall filters to clean them out, there is a LOT of "gunk" in there. Mostly looks like fish stuff. I clean them out by my trees and plants, that kind of stuff has GOT to be great fertilizer! I do not reuse the filter media, I wash it out onto the ground next to a tree, but otherwise it gets thrown in the trash.
Oh, feeding the fishies! Koi Pellets. Yup, Walmart sells a large bag of that stuff for - $10 I think? Lasts a long time. Smaller fish I use Goldfish Flakes - again, Walmart. I am actually not the greatest fan of Walmart, but that has to do with pissy customer service issues. The prices on much of the stuff they have for ponds, however, can't really be beat.
I'm about done here. I will add to this entry if I think of anything else. The only other thing I can think of is water temperatures. I live in a hot region - Phoenix, AZ. Temperatures in small ponds can rise pretty high if you don't do something to cool the water. In a place as hot as this, it's called evaporative cooling. You might not even have to think about that if you are in a cooler locale, instead, you might have to think about what to do in wintertime. But here? I take use nature's way to cool the water. I will take large rocks and stack them up on top of each other until they are sticking well up out of the water. I take a smaller pump - maybe 500GPH is good - take a piece of tubing and have the water shooting up into the air out of the pump. Aim the water so it comes down on top of the rocks. The water flows over the rocks and back into the pond. Walaah, evaporative cooling, and yes, it DOES work. I made that one up on my own!! lol, didn't read it anywhere, it just struck me that this method should work and it does.
In winter conditions in frigid areas? I don't think your preformed pond is going to do well with fish in them unless you are going to heat the water. It got cold here this year, but that is my version of cold, the coldest night was 24 degrees. No, fish don't like it that cold. They sell these heaters you can put into ponds. I think the guy I bought them from said they were $30 a piece, I bought mine for $2. He was shutting down his pond last summer and wanted to get rid of his heaters. I bought almost all of them thinking that when winter comes, if it gets too cold, I'm going to have an opt out. Those heaters, though, if you are running a lot of them, are going to affect your electric bill. At 300 watts a piece, I was running 4 of them, I saw more electric usage. Just saying. I did it anyway, I didn't have to run heat in the house hardly at all this year, I have a well insulated house and it stayed warm enough, meaning I didn't have a "heating bill" per se.
Okay, well that's it for now. If you have any questions that I might be able to help you with, please leave it in the comments section below. If you believe you are an expert and that I have said something wrong here, you can comment as well, as long as it isn't hostile. I can say, though, that everything I have stated here I DO and USE in my daily ponding activities. That speaks for itself.
I am not really going to go into digging out the hole to place your pond - this is pretty simple stuff. Set your pond where you are going to place it, get a can of spray paint, spray around the bottom perimeter of the pond, start digging. Once the bottom is in the ground but the shelves are at ground level, spray paint around that, more digging of the entire hole until it is deep enough.
But let me emphasize here that you do not have to bury the pond in the ground. I have 2 ponds up and running. One is above ground, the other is in-ground. I like them both. The one above ground is on a slab of cement next to a side door on my house. Because that door leads to "nowhere", no one uses it. I have the shelves of the pond propped up with pavers so that it doesn't collapse. It has been sitting there like that for - quite a long time now with out any problems.
That's my short bit about ponds and placement. As for finding pre-formed ponds for sale, Home Depot and Lowe's carries them. However, I found all of mine on Craigslist. One of them was brand new that I got for a steal from some people that decided that pre-formed wasn't for them, they were going to build a much larger, in-ground affair. I would suggest that if you have never owned a pond before, start with the small pre-formed pond first. Get your feet wet with the small version, you will have a MUCH better idea of what you want in a bigger pond. It is prudent to do much research into in-ground, liner type ponds first before buying anything or even deciding where to put it.
Okay, you have this pond. Maybe you rented a house with a preformed pond that still has live fish in it. I am going out tomorrow to help a person that rented a house that yes, has a preformed pond, this lady has absolutely no clue, whatsoever, how to clean it or keep it functioning. I am happy to help when I can, it's a great hobby and it's peaceful to sit and watch your fish swimming around doing the things that they do.
Maybe you are going to put one on your apartment patio - some apartments DO allow this, you have to ask your landlord, obviously. The point is, preformed ponds aren't just for homeowners. It's great fun, once you get it set up there isn't much maintenance.
Now for some specifics. Namely, the pump and the filter setup. I searched the high heavens for good information on this, I only found generic stuff. I went to people's homes with ponds. I joined a pond society for info. After I got my first pond set up and wanted fish, I went to people's homes to get the fish and asked a lot of questions. To no avail, I might add. Those ponds were all HUGE, built-in ponds up to 5,000 gallons.
So, I had my first pond. I decided to buy a small pump to get water circulating, but didn't put in any fish or plants. It was a 75 GPH (gallons per hour) pump. I thought that since the pond was only 120 gallons, that size pump was adequate. I then went to a 125GPH pump, finding that the 75 thing was not even close to enough. No, that wasn't enough, either. I then went to a 300 GPH pump. I then found a waterfall type of filtering system. It's a large, plastic affair that has water pumped in from the bottom, goes through the filtering agents and then pours out into your pond like a waterfall. They are very cool, I like those kinds of filters.
So, let's mesh these two together. The waterfall filter has a bag of bio-balls that goes into the bottom. You MUST have bio-balls if you are going to have fish in the pond, period. Usually, the waterfall filters come with them, if they don't, you can buy them on eBay or you can find them at pet stores (MUCH cheaper on eBay). The more, the merrier. I don't know how anyone else does their's, I just know how I set mine up. I found filter media on eBay - I buy it a couple of rolls at a at time. And yes, that's what it's called: filter media.
I put a layer of that above the bio-balls. I then put that thick, porous filtering agent - don't remember what it's called but the waterfall filter should come with it anyway - on top of that. That's it. That's the waterfall filter. I have them on both of my ponds. Both of them are good for up to 1,000 gallon ponds. That's right, think bigger is better with these small ponds if you want lots of fish in them. My small pond is only 120 gallons and yes, I have a waterfall filter that is good up to 1,000 gallons filtering the water on it.
Now, guess what size pump I have on that filter? No, it's not a 300 GPH pump. I found the water flow to be far too low. No, the submersible (yes, you want a submersible pump) I have on that baby is 700GPH. Too much circulation isn't a problem, too little IS. It looks quite normal in the flow coming off the waterfall, it is not overkill. I would suggest you not make the mistake I did and start out buying ridiculously small pumps that you are going to find is not going to do the job.
Up until last weekend, I had 16 medium to large sized goldfish in that pond. That's 5 to 9 inches. They had been in there quite a while, too. I got rid of some of them - gave them away to a guy that has a much larger pond - because they were obviously cramped in there. I have 8 of them in there now, looks about perfect. All the small fish are gone right now but breeding season should be starting up soon enough and then there will be little fishies in there again. The point is, again, if you want fish, especially if you wanter larger fish, you must have overkill on the filtering system. If you just want plants in there, well, a much smaller filtering system will suffice. I'm gearing this piece towards those that want fish, it's much more interesting than having just a water feature with some plants and no fish.
If you don't want the larger waterfall filter, try something like the FishMate Bio Pond Filter. Make SURE that you get a bio-type of filter. However, I must point out that the waterfall filter IS a waterfall effect and has the sound of water pouring into water, it is quite the soothing effect. The FishMate filter is much smaller, though, and does a good job - BUT - I haven't tried it on my ponds with large fish, I have only used it on a pond with much smaller fish. The FishMate filter is also much easier to clean out. I don't really care how much effort it is, though, to clean out the waterfall filter since it's doing it's job swimmingly.
BTW, my smaller pond is 6 feet long at it's longest point and 4-1/2 feet wide at it's widest point. My other pond is a bit larger. It's 8 feet long by 6 feet wide and is close to 300 gallons. I have an 800 GPH pump on that one that I acquired through eBay. If you want to do this kind of thing on a budget, I STRONGLY suggest eBay. I found a dealer on there that sells a quality pump and also gives a 2 year warranty on it for MUCH less money than I could ever find it in a store. I also got my FishMate filter on eBay. I ended up getting that one for free - but that's another story entirely. Ebay is a good buying venue now that they have buyer protection on it - whereas it used to be buyer-beware: look at their feedback rating, but if you get screwed, don't come running to us.
I would definitely suggest buying the pump new, but the filter? I see them here and there, the waterfall filter, on Craigslist. Much better price, it's plastic so unless it's already broken, you shouldn't have a problem with it. The waterline from the pump to the filter can be found at Home Depot - it's specifically made for ponds and is in the Garden section. Get the 3/4 inch size, NOT the half inch size, btw.
Okay, well, the most critical components of your ponding system have been covered: the filtration/circulation system. Let's go into a bit more, shall we?
I noticed that my fish were at the surface, attempting to gulp air, apparently. Well, I had aquariums as a kid, I instantly knew that there is not enough aeration in the water. If you are doing this stuff on a budget, then I would suggest to you that WalMart and Ebay are going to become your best friends if you want to find the best prices (at least, the best prices I could find). Walmart sells aerators for less than $10.00. I bought 2 of them, plus the long aeration stones and tubing. I have one air pump for each pond - each of the pumps have 2 outlets so I have 2 air stones in each pond, problem solved and no, they don't use much electricity.
Green water. Yup, you might encounter that. When that happened on my larger pond, I went to WalMart and bought the algae removing liquid for ponds. I bought a couple of bottles and it didn't work, AT ALL. It did absolutely nothing to clear it up. I did some research and it didn't take long to come up with a UV Sterilizer. I read a lot of conflicting information. Some people think they are harmful to your fish and plants, but science, at least what I read, says otherwise. It just uses a ultraviolet light to kill off the algae. That's it, seriously. It's a tubular looking thing with a large UV light in it. It has an inlet and an outlet. You hook your pump-side hose to the inlet and you hook your filter-side hose to the outlet, clamp the hose onto it, start the pump up, plug in the sterilizer, walaah. It took about 5 days if I remember correctly to completely clear up the water.
Where did I buy mine? 3 guesses, first 2 don't count. Yes, Ebay. I found the cheapest one on there, I think it was $30 plus cheap shipping. I did a search on the net for any info about it- some dude gave it a negative review, but, he said it worked. I just bought the thing. I ran it for a month on that pond, but really only needed to run it for maybe a week. I took it off and - I am using it again, 8 months later. That's right, the water cleared up after the first time and stayed clear for a long time. It clouded up again recently, so I put it back on there. It's clear again and this weekend I'm taking it back off. I only need on of these sterilizers for my ponds since I can just move it around. It's a good investment if you want clear ponds, which I do. BTW, UV STERILIZER, not UV Clarifier. Trust me, your fish are not going to be sterilized and your plants are not going to disappear into outer-space.
Algae on pond walls. Think Plecostomus. They are fastidious algae eaters. The first one I put in the small pond had the walls cleaned off in a couple of days. The only drawback is they can't tolerate winter-cold water. Even with heaters, 3 of mine died off this winter. I am going to get another one - I don't know what I am going to do with him next winter, maybe just sell him to someone with an aquarium and then buy yet another one the next spring.
Aging and cycling water. Well, probably should do that in large ponds, yes. In small ponds? Go to Walmart, buy a bottle of "Pond Start", pour the recommended amount into the freshly poured water, walaah, your fish are ready to go in. This is what the water cycling is for, fishies, it doesn't matter otherwise. I have had NO problems with putting fish into a totally fresh pond full of water that has not aged or cycled at all as long as I used the Pond Start. In fact, the only problem I have had with fish dying, other than the Plecos this winter, is a couple that have jumped out of the pond.
Water replacement. I don't do it. That is, the practice of half emptying a pond - or even more - and putting fresh water back in. As long as you have a good filtering system, this is completely unecessary. Water evaporates out of them anyway, so a small amount of water replacement is forced because of that fact, other than that? Forget it. If your water is cloudy with other than algae, you have a filtering problem. It's dirty and needs cleaned or it's not sufficient size for the pond.
What kind of fish? I have Koi, Goldfish and other kinds of fish in my ponds. I like the Koi the best. I have several of them, but I have 2 18 inchers in there. They are all yellow and totally cool looking. I have a jet black Koi in there as well, he is very hard to see in that black pond, lol. I have smaller Koi, all sizes of goldfish, some mosquito eaters and other fish I don't know what they are that I acquired from other people.
You can also have frogs and turtles, but, I tried the turtles, they tear down my vegetation so I don't do turtles anymore.
Where to get all this? I have acquired 99% of my fish through Craigslist. People shutting down ponds. People thinning out their ponds. People who bought a short-saled home and got a pond they don't want and are getting rid of everything. I have acquired almost all of my goldfish for FREE and my Koi? Very cheap prices. I scoured Craigslist daily and called the instant I found Koi going cheap. I scored enough times that I have enough now. You can buy small Koi at places like PetSmart. There are breeders - at least in my area - that advertise on Craigslist as well. I don't use them, I haven't needed to.
Water plants. Very cool stuff here. Everyone loves the floating plants - water lilies the most popular. I'm on a budget, so I look around for stuff until I find what I'm looking for. My trips to get plants and fish have not been few, but thankfully, they are pretty much over now. I don't need any more fish OR plants. I got almost all of my plants for free. I bought some of the lilies, yes, but other than that? Again, Craigslist. Pond owners will advertise that they are going to be thinning down their plants on a certain day and on that day, the clippings will be available for free. Yes, free. You do NOT need a green thumb to be able to grow water plants, they pretty much grow like weeds.
They will just break chunks of a plant off a larger plant. They give them to you. You go to the dollar store and buy the cheap plastic containers - these plants will grow in ANY container you might have. People tell me they buy organic cat litter at Walmart to plant them. Who wants to spend money when dirt is free? Put a small layer of small rocks - available throughout the world for free, I have plenty of landscaping rock so I use that - on the bottom of the container. Put a layer of dirt over the rocks. Stick your plant and it's roots in there. Put more dirt in until the container is almost full. Cover the top layer of soil with more rocks - helps keep the dirt out of your pond, done. Water lilies should be placed at the bottom of your pond regardless of how small it might be.
I have no problem with a bit of dirt at the bottom of my pond, but there isn't any (from plant containers) or if there is, it is not noticable. There is some sand down there - where that came from I have no idea, but it doesn't look bad so I don't care.
Cleaning out your pond. Another advantage of an 800GPH pump - it draws EVERYTHING to it. I just pull the cover off here and there, clean off the junk and that's it. I would rather have the floating material drawn to the pump first instead of floating to the bottom and just laying there. I'm sure some of that happens, anyway, but the fish kick that stuff up and yes, it goes to the pump. One way of the other, at least in my ponds, that junk ends up at the pump or sucked into it and into the filtering system - and yes, mostly the filtering system.
When I open up my waterfall filters to clean them out, there is a LOT of "gunk" in there. Mostly looks like fish stuff. I clean them out by my trees and plants, that kind of stuff has GOT to be great fertilizer! I do not reuse the filter media, I wash it out onto the ground next to a tree, but otherwise it gets thrown in the trash.
Oh, feeding the fishies! Koi Pellets. Yup, Walmart sells a large bag of that stuff for - $10 I think? Lasts a long time. Smaller fish I use Goldfish Flakes - again, Walmart. I am actually not the greatest fan of Walmart, but that has to do with pissy customer service issues. The prices on much of the stuff they have for ponds, however, can't really be beat.
I'm about done here. I will add to this entry if I think of anything else. The only other thing I can think of is water temperatures. I live in a hot region - Phoenix, AZ. Temperatures in small ponds can rise pretty high if you don't do something to cool the water. In a place as hot as this, it's called evaporative cooling. You might not even have to think about that if you are in a cooler locale, instead, you might have to think about what to do in wintertime. But here? I take use nature's way to cool the water. I will take large rocks and stack them up on top of each other until they are sticking well up out of the water. I take a smaller pump - maybe 500GPH is good - take a piece of tubing and have the water shooting up into the air out of the pump. Aim the water so it comes down on top of the rocks. The water flows over the rocks and back into the pond. Walaah, evaporative cooling, and yes, it DOES work. I made that one up on my own!! lol, didn't read it anywhere, it just struck me that this method should work and it does.
In winter conditions in frigid areas? I don't think your preformed pond is going to do well with fish in them unless you are going to heat the water. It got cold here this year, but that is my version of cold, the coldest night was 24 degrees. No, fish don't like it that cold. They sell these heaters you can put into ponds. I think the guy I bought them from said they were $30 a piece, I bought mine for $2. He was shutting down his pond last summer and wanted to get rid of his heaters. I bought almost all of them thinking that when winter comes, if it gets too cold, I'm going to have an opt out. Those heaters, though, if you are running a lot of them, are going to affect your electric bill. At 300 watts a piece, I was running 4 of them, I saw more electric usage. Just saying. I did it anyway, I didn't have to run heat in the house hardly at all this year, I have a well insulated house and it stayed warm enough, meaning I didn't have a "heating bill" per se.
Okay, well that's it for now. If you have any questions that I might be able to help you with, please leave it in the comments section below. If you believe you are an expert and that I have said something wrong here, you can comment as well, as long as it isn't hostile. I can say, though, that everything I have stated here I DO and USE in my daily ponding activities. That speaks for itself.
Work
My thought this morning, when I read an email from the ops manager going out to everyone of what his schedule is going to be today and the fact that he was going to spend a couple of hours at our branch this morning - was that he is coming to "deal" with the situation yesterday.
I had no clue if I was correct or not - until after I got back from the first run today. I asked my manager if the ops manager had showed up. Yes. I instantly knew the substance of the appearance with the look on his face.
The thing that clued me in that management knew about this is the apology email from the salesman to my manager (not to me, however, and I was the one he had called an idiot). He wrote that yesterday and it was WAY too gooey for ever coming from that guy. Of course, it was by force - he was forced to apologize and make it look good.
So, I guessed what the ops manager said since my manager said he really couldn't talk about it. The ops manager had actually heard that salesman cussing out my manager from within his office yesterday. I mean, he would have had to have been talking VERY loudly for his voice to carry that far. The ops manager went out to find out what was going on. What happened over there - I will find out eventually from someone done there who might have seen it. I doubt the ops manager to be too happy about a sales rep cussing and yelling into a phone so loudly that it stops the place.
So, the salesman got a reaming, that's the jist of it. My manager said he got a taste of it this morning as well, but, honestly, that dude at the main branch undoubtedly got a huge piece of humble pie.
It then dawned on me: whenever something like this happens over policy, the ops manager changes the policy. Yup, I was right after I asked. I am now to ask anyone that I am delivering pipe to if they need lube, regardless of the quantity, even if it's one stick of pipe. My manager objected to that - we have 7 quarts of the free stuff out there right now. It isn't enough to cover the LIFTS of pipe in our yard, much less a few sticks here and there. And believe me, we get these small orders all the time, which is why we don't give out the lube free to someone buying 2, 5, 10 sticks of pipe. That person can buy the lube instead.
The ops manager said fine, we are to take the "pay" lube- the stuff we sell - and give it out for free and then write it off. Confused? We get X amount of lube for free from the pipe manufacturer's when we buy pipe from them. They used to give it out liberally - until the economy tanked and now they don't give out enough to even cover the amount of pipe we get from them even if used sparingly. That forced me to severely cut back the amount that I give out at jobsites. I had brought the subject up when all of this had started: what am I supposed to do out there? Are we going to give them the pay stuff after we run out of the free stuff and just write it off?
It took an incident like this to get an answer. I don't actually think it's the right answer, though. On small orders, the salesmen should be selling the pay stuff, not forcing us to give it away. On big orders, yes, we should give as much as it takes. I mean, if you buy PVC Schedule 40 pipe that has to have cement to put it together, do you expect the store to just give you the cement?
Whatever the case, it certainly doesn't bother me to be instructed to give the pay stuff away. Especially to large contractors who buy millions of dollars worth of product from us every year. I always give them as much as they want, anyway. In fact, on small orders, I give it away if they ask for it. I'm not going to hold up a crew of people working on laying pipe in the ground if the need is there.
Hmmmmmm, well there was more. But it isn't really worth going into all of that. The point is, even if it took a man going WAY overboard on a "small" issue, the issue has now been addressed. For whatever reason, managers have not been willing to write off the lube until - now - of course. Tomorrow, I will be reminding my manager to order more pay stuff, lots of it, because when I start offering it to everyone, that free stuff? .......... will be gone in short order.
I had no clue if I was correct or not - until after I got back from the first run today. I asked my manager if the ops manager had showed up. Yes. I instantly knew the substance of the appearance with the look on his face.
The thing that clued me in that management knew about this is the apology email from the salesman to my manager (not to me, however, and I was the one he had called an idiot). He wrote that yesterday and it was WAY too gooey for ever coming from that guy. Of course, it was by force - he was forced to apologize and make it look good.
So, I guessed what the ops manager said since my manager said he really couldn't talk about it. The ops manager had actually heard that salesman cussing out my manager from within his office yesterday. I mean, he would have had to have been talking VERY loudly for his voice to carry that far. The ops manager went out to find out what was going on. What happened over there - I will find out eventually from someone done there who might have seen it. I doubt the ops manager to be too happy about a sales rep cussing and yelling into a phone so loudly that it stops the place.
So, the salesman got a reaming, that's the jist of it. My manager said he got a taste of it this morning as well, but, honestly, that dude at the main branch undoubtedly got a huge piece of humble pie.
It then dawned on me: whenever something like this happens over policy, the ops manager changes the policy. Yup, I was right after I asked. I am now to ask anyone that I am delivering pipe to if they need lube, regardless of the quantity, even if it's one stick of pipe. My manager objected to that - we have 7 quarts of the free stuff out there right now. It isn't enough to cover the LIFTS of pipe in our yard, much less a few sticks here and there. And believe me, we get these small orders all the time, which is why we don't give out the lube free to someone buying 2, 5, 10 sticks of pipe. That person can buy the lube instead.
The ops manager said fine, we are to take the "pay" lube- the stuff we sell - and give it out for free and then write it off. Confused? We get X amount of lube for free from the pipe manufacturer's when we buy pipe from them. They used to give it out liberally - until the economy tanked and now they don't give out enough to even cover the amount of pipe we get from them even if used sparingly. That forced me to severely cut back the amount that I give out at jobsites. I had brought the subject up when all of this had started: what am I supposed to do out there? Are we going to give them the pay stuff after we run out of the free stuff and just write it off?
It took an incident like this to get an answer. I don't actually think it's the right answer, though. On small orders, the salesmen should be selling the pay stuff, not forcing us to give it away. On big orders, yes, we should give as much as it takes. I mean, if you buy PVC Schedule 40 pipe that has to have cement to put it together, do you expect the store to just give you the cement?
Whatever the case, it certainly doesn't bother me to be instructed to give the pay stuff away. Especially to large contractors who buy millions of dollars worth of product from us every year. I always give them as much as they want, anyway. In fact, on small orders, I give it away if they ask for it. I'm not going to hold up a crew of people working on laying pipe in the ground if the need is there.
Hmmmmmm, well there was more. But it isn't really worth going into all of that. The point is, even if it took a man going WAY overboard on a "small" issue, the issue has now been addressed. For whatever reason, managers have not been willing to write off the lube until - now - of course. Tomorrow, I will be reminding my manager to order more pay stuff, lots of it, because when I start offering it to everyone, that free stuff? .......... will be gone in short order.
Thursday 3/10/2011
Thursday
5 hours over for this week. I am guessing I will be getting off early today and tomorrow unless, of course, business picks up yet again and I am running around all day long.
Umm, well whatever. Anyway, I find this situation in Wisconsin to be quite entertaining. Walker starts backing down, appears to be willing to talk concessions to get the Democratic lawmakers back to the table.
The next thing you know, there are headlines all over the place about the Senate passing the bill without any democratic senators present. Of course, the opposition to this bill is yelling "cowards" and other such loveliness. I'd have to say that in that kind of political landscape, the term coward hardly comes to mind as a descriptor of the action those senators took or the position that Walker is in.
If anyone is the cowards, it's the democratic senators that fled the state. They had made statements that they were willing to "stay here for 2 years, if necessary", in other words, until the next election, I presume. How does fleeing correct anything? If the people of the state of Wisconsin hate what Walker and the republicans have done enough, then a majority of them can vote them out in the next election and that will be that. If they REALLY think they have enough votes and energy, they can start a recall drive.
I have read that Walker never said anything about stripping unions of collecting bargaining rights during the election, but I heard elsewhere that he did. I dunno. Just a circus, but at least amusing and engaging, lol.
The ops manager is coming over here this morning and then over to Phoenix afterward. I'm rather curious as to whether this has anything to do with what occured with that inside salesman yesterday. Neither of us have made any complaints to management about it, it would have had to have been that salesman saying something - and knowing this guy saying it in a rather tainted light - to management to get any kind of real trouble started.
I can only say that, after having had worked for several "institutions" in my life where management and/or co-workers thought it perfectly acceptable to yell at, demean, berate, belitte and otherwise humiliate other workers, I will not tolerate it and I WILL dish it right back, regardless of the consequences. It's my past that haunts me when it comes to things like that. If a company doesn't like a particular worker, instead of playing mind games with that person and using fear tactics and anger junk, just let that person go.
I don't WANT to lose my job, that's a fact - and frankly, this company I am working for has several policies against abuse of workers.
I might go into that later, work day is here and I must be offa here.
Later.
ben
5 hours over for this week. I am guessing I will be getting off early today and tomorrow unless, of course, business picks up yet again and I am running around all day long.
Umm, well whatever. Anyway, I find this situation in Wisconsin to be quite entertaining. Walker starts backing down, appears to be willing to talk concessions to get the Democratic lawmakers back to the table.
The next thing you know, there are headlines all over the place about the Senate passing the bill without any democratic senators present. Of course, the opposition to this bill is yelling "cowards" and other such loveliness. I'd have to say that in that kind of political landscape, the term coward hardly comes to mind as a descriptor of the action those senators took or the position that Walker is in.
If anyone is the cowards, it's the democratic senators that fled the state. They had made statements that they were willing to "stay here for 2 years, if necessary", in other words, until the next election, I presume. How does fleeing correct anything? If the people of the state of Wisconsin hate what Walker and the republicans have done enough, then a majority of them can vote them out in the next election and that will be that. If they REALLY think they have enough votes and energy, they can start a recall drive.
I have read that Walker never said anything about stripping unions of collecting bargaining rights during the election, but I heard elsewhere that he did. I dunno. Just a circus, but at least amusing and engaging, lol.
The ops manager is coming over here this morning and then over to Phoenix afterward. I'm rather curious as to whether this has anything to do with what occured with that inside salesman yesterday. Neither of us have made any complaints to management about it, it would have had to have been that salesman saying something - and knowing this guy saying it in a rather tainted light - to management to get any kind of real trouble started.
I can only say that, after having had worked for several "institutions" in my life where management and/or co-workers thought it perfectly acceptable to yell at, demean, berate, belitte and otherwise humiliate other workers, I will not tolerate it and I WILL dish it right back, regardless of the consequences. It's my past that haunts me when it comes to things like that. If a company doesn't like a particular worker, instead of playing mind games with that person and using fear tactics and anger junk, just let that person go.
I don't WANT to lose my job, that's a fact - and frankly, this company I am working for has several policies against abuse of workers.
I might go into that later, work day is here and I must be offa here.
Later.
ben
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Junk At Work
Sooooo, I take the little truck up to the mountains. I get there, it's on an Indian reservation - San Carlos to be precise and the name of the town is also San Carlos. I meet up with the contractor, we unload the truck by hand. We check every single item on all 3 orders. That means going through each order, line by line and making sure it's there. I'm there over an hour.
Nice drive, but that's not what I'm writing about here.
I go to our main branch in downtown Phoenix to give them back their truck and get our semi back. Pretty much get everything done quickly and get out of there - I am 5 hours over for the week already. On my way back, I stop at a vendor to pick up some small gas fittings. That's when I get a phone call. It's my manager. He's asking about whether I left any pipe lube at the job site. No, I reply - he knows full well - at least by guessing, that I haven't done any such thing.
It was a small quantity of pipe. We have extremely limited amounts of free pipe lube that is given to us by the manufacturers. They used to give us liberal quantities, but in the current economy, they tightened the belts on that stuff and do not give enough to cover a truckload. They say it's enough, but go talk to any contractor; foreman or construction worker and you will hear a different story.
Regardless, on any amount of pipe sold that does not amount to a full lift of pipe, I do not give out the free stuff unless it is requested. It has been this way for quite a long time now. It is nothing new. Jobsite foremen know this, they usually keep lube in their work vehicles to make sure they don't encounter a problem. The salesmen all know this as well. They have been informed - over and over - that we do not have a lot of the free lube and we will not be giving it out on small quantities of pipe. In other words, sell them the pay stuff, we have plenty of it, it doesn't cost that much, there are no options unless we are just going to give them the pay stuff and write it off.
Well, back to the story, the inside salesman had gone off on him - and me - over the phone. His words for me were this: "What kind of f****** idiot would take a load of pipe all the way up to the mountains and not leave lube?" My manager called me after that phone call and warned me that this guy was going to call me and go off on me. No, I did not leave a quart of lube. It was clearly not on the tickets that we went over painstakingly well, it was not noted to leave a free quart and the tickets themselves did not have any as a line item on them. I have operated this way for quite a long time now. It's nothing new.
If they run out of lube and it's an emergency, they can go buy grease, vaseline, all kinds of stuff to put on those gaskets to cause the pipe to glide into the bells of the pipe they are fitting it into. This is NOT an emergency. Just throwing that in there.
I waited for this phone call, I was ready to ram his s*** right back down his throat. I don't call HIM when he makes mistakes - which are not far or few between. Case in point: He puts into our truck routing system a P.O. to be picked up at a vendor - in west Phoenix. I drive all the way over there to find out it has already been picked up. I get back to the main branch where this guy works and tell him that the order has been picked up already, but it's not here. Meaning, it's not at the main branch either, what's going on? Turns out HE sent the contractor to go pick up the stuff - not bothering to take it out of our TRI or let us know that it has been taken care of. 40 miles each way, in a semi truck, he doesn't even apologize.
That is one out of HUNDREDS of examples on an almost-daily basis. Do I call him up and rip him a new one? No, but if anyone had the right to be calling someone else an idiot.............
I get back to my branch. I write this guy an email - he isn't going to go around calling people idiots without being confronted, at least not with me. I wrote out a 7 point email that encapsules when and when we do not give out the free lube. I then address him on the "idiot" statement.
He writes back and says I need to "tone it down a notch" without acknowledging anything I have stated.
I write him back and inform him he is the one that had a friggin' cow about a quart of lube, not me, perhaps he should tone it down several notches.
He writes back - tells me he talked to my manager, talk to him about it, that he never called me an idiot. In other words, he is blowing me off, treating me like a dumb@$$ and not worth his time.
Hey, I can play this game. I write him back. Thank you for reading the reasons of when we do and when we don't give out free lube and the reasons why. It would be prudent for you, from this point forth, to make sure that the contractor has plenty of it on hand and offer to add it to the ticket. As for the statement you made (I inserted the same quotation here - about him calling me an f'ing idiot), I believe your statement most certainly DOES quantify calling me an idiot. I accept your apology and we can move on from here.
He write back, "Okay, Buddy".
I might have let this go a bit easier, but this guy has started more trouble with me than I care to go into here. I didn't go anywhere NEAR where I wanted to go with it, that might have gotten me into trouble.
Anyway, there are always people that are difficult to get along with at work. I try to be amenable to everyone - but this guy I've had enough of. His uncle? Is the general manager. That's not enough for me to stand by and be a doormat for some infantile's rantings because he, this salesman, is on an ego trip and mouths off, foul language and all, with extremely inciteful language, with seeming impunity, apparently because his uncle IS the general manager. Well, I have never heard his uncle talking that way about or to anyone.
Regardless, let the chips fall where they may. I will not allow myself to be verbally abused in the workplace, period.
I worked out after work, only got 5 hours of sleep last night - I am exhausted. It's 7:15 pm, in about 45 minutes?
Off to bed.
ben
Nice drive, but that's not what I'm writing about here.
I go to our main branch in downtown Phoenix to give them back their truck and get our semi back. Pretty much get everything done quickly and get out of there - I am 5 hours over for the week already. On my way back, I stop at a vendor to pick up some small gas fittings. That's when I get a phone call. It's my manager. He's asking about whether I left any pipe lube at the job site. No, I reply - he knows full well - at least by guessing, that I haven't done any such thing.
It was a small quantity of pipe. We have extremely limited amounts of free pipe lube that is given to us by the manufacturers. They used to give us liberal quantities, but in the current economy, they tightened the belts on that stuff and do not give enough to cover a truckload. They say it's enough, but go talk to any contractor; foreman or construction worker and you will hear a different story.
Regardless, on any amount of pipe sold that does not amount to a full lift of pipe, I do not give out the free stuff unless it is requested. It has been this way for quite a long time now. It is nothing new. Jobsite foremen know this, they usually keep lube in their work vehicles to make sure they don't encounter a problem. The salesmen all know this as well. They have been informed - over and over - that we do not have a lot of the free lube and we will not be giving it out on small quantities of pipe. In other words, sell them the pay stuff, we have plenty of it, it doesn't cost that much, there are no options unless we are just going to give them the pay stuff and write it off.
Well, back to the story, the inside salesman had gone off on him - and me - over the phone. His words for me were this: "What kind of f****** idiot would take a load of pipe all the way up to the mountains and not leave lube?" My manager called me after that phone call and warned me that this guy was going to call me and go off on me. No, I did not leave a quart of lube. It was clearly not on the tickets that we went over painstakingly well, it was not noted to leave a free quart and the tickets themselves did not have any as a line item on them. I have operated this way for quite a long time now. It's nothing new.
If they run out of lube and it's an emergency, they can go buy grease, vaseline, all kinds of stuff to put on those gaskets to cause the pipe to glide into the bells of the pipe they are fitting it into. This is NOT an emergency. Just throwing that in there.
I waited for this phone call, I was ready to ram his s*** right back down his throat. I don't call HIM when he makes mistakes - which are not far or few between. Case in point: He puts into our truck routing system a P.O. to be picked up at a vendor - in west Phoenix. I drive all the way over there to find out it has already been picked up. I get back to the main branch where this guy works and tell him that the order has been picked up already, but it's not here. Meaning, it's not at the main branch either, what's going on? Turns out HE sent the contractor to go pick up the stuff - not bothering to take it out of our TRI or let us know that it has been taken care of. 40 miles each way, in a semi truck, he doesn't even apologize.
That is one out of HUNDREDS of examples on an almost-daily basis. Do I call him up and rip him a new one? No, but if anyone had the right to be calling someone else an idiot.............
I get back to my branch. I write this guy an email - he isn't going to go around calling people idiots without being confronted, at least not with me. I wrote out a 7 point email that encapsules when and when we do not give out the free lube. I then address him on the "idiot" statement.
He writes back and says I need to "tone it down a notch" without acknowledging anything I have stated.
I write him back and inform him he is the one that had a friggin' cow about a quart of lube, not me, perhaps he should tone it down several notches.
He writes back - tells me he talked to my manager, talk to him about it, that he never called me an idiot. In other words, he is blowing me off, treating me like a dumb@$$ and not worth his time.
Hey, I can play this game. I write him back. Thank you for reading the reasons of when we do and when we don't give out free lube and the reasons why. It would be prudent for you, from this point forth, to make sure that the contractor has plenty of it on hand and offer to add it to the ticket. As for the statement you made (I inserted the same quotation here - about him calling me an f'ing idiot), I believe your statement most certainly DOES quantify calling me an idiot. I accept your apology and we can move on from here.
He write back, "Okay, Buddy".
I might have let this go a bit easier, but this guy has started more trouble with me than I care to go into here. I didn't go anywhere NEAR where I wanted to go with it, that might have gotten me into trouble.
Anyway, there are always people that are difficult to get along with at work. I try to be amenable to everyone - but this guy I've had enough of. His uncle? Is the general manager. That's not enough for me to stand by and be a doormat for some infantile's rantings because he, this salesman, is on an ego trip and mouths off, foul language and all, with extremely inciteful language, with seeming impunity, apparently because his uncle IS the general manager. Well, I have never heard his uncle talking that way about or to anyone.
Regardless, let the chips fall where they may. I will not allow myself to be verbally abused in the workplace, period.
I worked out after work, only got 5 hours of sleep last night - I am exhausted. It's 7:15 pm, in about 45 minutes?
Off to bed.
ben
Wednesday 3/9/2011
Wednesday
I am speechless. I mean, what do you say about something like that? How does a person live for almost 3 decades and learn absolutely nothing about life?
I am referring to the 27 year old tenant. I came home yesterday to have my ears filled with a tale of his - inability to deal with even the simplest problems in life.
The story with him stuffing too much toilet paper into the toilet bowl, flushing the toilet and the toilet over-flowing onto the floor. Now, if the story stopped there, it wouldn't really be an issue, it happens. I mean, it should become obvious that if the entire bowl is filled up with toilet paper, you probably should have flushed the thing before it got to that point.
It doesn't stop there. He continues to flush the toilet. He does nothing to unplug the toilet. I have a conveniently placed plunger that sits behind the toilet and to the right of it. This guy didn't understand that flushing the toilet was why it continued to overflow onto the floor. So, to get it to stop overflowing, what did he do?
Takes the top off the tank. Reaches down into the tank, takes off the flapper/stopper. A simple problem turned into a mini-nightmare, now the toilet isn't GOING to stop overflowing since the valve inside the tank is hissing away, dumping water into the tank which is dumping water, unabated, into the bowl since the flapper has been removed.
He has NO clue what to do here. He ends up having to go outside, get Mark and ask him what to do. Mark is like, wow. Uhhh, dude, you don't take off the flapper to get the water to stop flowing. You don't have to do ANYTHING. Stop flushing the toilet, stop everything. Get the plunger, plunge the toilet.
I am speechless. I mean, what do you say about something like that? How does a person live for almost 3 decades and learn absolutely nothing about life?
I am referring to the 27 year old tenant. I came home yesterday to have my ears filled with a tale of his - inability to deal with even the simplest problems in life.
The story with him stuffing too much toilet paper into the toilet bowl, flushing the toilet and the toilet over-flowing onto the floor. Now, if the story stopped there, it wouldn't really be an issue, it happens. I mean, it should become obvious that if the entire bowl is filled up with toilet paper, you probably should have flushed the thing before it got to that point.
It doesn't stop there. He continues to flush the toilet. He does nothing to unplug the toilet. I have a conveniently placed plunger that sits behind the toilet and to the right of it. This guy didn't understand that flushing the toilet was why it continued to overflow onto the floor. So, to get it to stop overflowing, what did he do?
Takes the top off the tank. Reaches down into the tank, takes off the flapper/stopper. A simple problem turned into a mini-nightmare, now the toilet isn't GOING to stop overflowing since the valve inside the tank is hissing away, dumping water into the tank which is dumping water, unabated, into the bowl since the flapper has been removed.
He has NO clue what to do here. He ends up having to go outside, get Mark and ask him what to do. Mark is like, wow. Uhhh, dude, you don't take off the flapper to get the water to stop flowing. You don't have to do ANYTHING. Stop flushing the toilet, stop everything. Get the plunger, plunge the toilet.
He is attempting to explain what to do here, versus what not to do. I'm sure my jaw is about on the floor at this point, listening to this story being retold yesterday afternoon, in complete awe of a person that has learned absolutely NOTHING in life in terms of how to do every day tasks, how to cook, shut off lights, this that and the other thing.
Mark puts the toilet back together, basically. The floor is a lake. Now, this kid actually has to ask: How do I get the water up off of the floor? Apparently the word MOP is not in his vocabulary.
I was amazed. You see, I had NO clue what I was getting into when I let this guy move into my house, renting out a room. He asked the other day about how to microwave a Cup O' Noodles. Do you put water in it?
Well, while the other tenants were relaying this story, a truck with food boxes shows up. They actually will bring them to your house. I didn't order them, the trailer tenants and this kid did. At the kid's expense, albeit he wasn't there, someone was foraging through the box with all the food in it, wondering HOW he will ever use any of it, since he hasn't got any idea how to cook.
The things this kid doesn't even know I had learned at the age of 5. I just don't have any idea how parents can be that bad, really is what this boils down to. If you have kids that are in their 20's and they don't know how to make Ramen noodles, I can tell you that, probably, you haven't really done a very good job raising them, training them and getting them ready for adult life. Notwithstanding the fact that by the time you are this kid's age, you are WELL into adulthood. At least by age, if nothing else. The trailer tenants have much more patience than I do, especially Lynnette and they are sort of helping him learn some of this stuff. I have thrown my two cents in here and there as the situation comes up.
Such as running the dishwasher half full. In my house, that thing better be crammed full of dishes, silverware and glasses before anyone even thinks of turning it on. It has become the property of me, and me alone. Not to empty, I threw in there, but to turn it on.
Ummm, well whatever. I have a nice trip up into the mountains today, haven't had one of those runs in quite a while.
And, the work day approaches and I have hardly even delved into the news, so........
........outta here.
Good day.
ben
Mark puts the toilet back together, basically. The floor is a lake. Now, this kid actually has to ask: How do I get the water up off of the floor? Apparently the word MOP is not in his vocabulary.
I was amazed. You see, I had NO clue what I was getting into when I let this guy move into my house, renting out a room. He asked the other day about how to microwave a Cup O' Noodles. Do you put water in it?
Well, while the other tenants were relaying this story, a truck with food boxes shows up. They actually will bring them to your house. I didn't order them, the trailer tenants and this kid did. At the kid's expense, albeit he wasn't there, someone was foraging through the box with all the food in it, wondering HOW he will ever use any of it, since he hasn't got any idea how to cook.
The things this kid doesn't even know I had learned at the age of 5. I just don't have any idea how parents can be that bad, really is what this boils down to. If you have kids that are in their 20's and they don't know how to make Ramen noodles, I can tell you that, probably, you haven't really done a very good job raising them, training them and getting them ready for adult life. Notwithstanding the fact that by the time you are this kid's age, you are WELL into adulthood. At least by age, if nothing else. The trailer tenants have much more patience than I do, especially Lynnette and they are sort of helping him learn some of this stuff. I have thrown my two cents in here and there as the situation comes up.
Such as running the dishwasher half full. In my house, that thing better be crammed full of dishes, silverware and glasses before anyone even thinks of turning it on. It has become the property of me, and me alone. Not to empty, I threw in there, but to turn it on.
Ummm, well whatever. I have a nice trip up into the mountains today, haven't had one of those runs in quite a while.
And, the work day approaches and I have hardly even delved into the news, so........
........outta here.
Good day.
ben
Tuesday 3/8/2011
Tuesday
Wow. That's all I can say about that. Some "dude" is getting out of prison - the guy killed and allegedly ate a 5 year old boy - a long time ago. The boy's father has proclaimed right to the press that if that man does, indeed, get out of prison and if he can find him, he is going to "murder" him.
After reading the accounting of his son's death, I can't say that I blame the man.
My son, changing the subject, has been asked to work at some sort of youth camp up in the White Mountains for the summer. I'm not sure all the details about this, yet, excepting that he is having a hard time deciding what to do: stay at his current job or quit and go for the experience. Well, I say nothing. From my point of view, that is, let him make up his own mind. His mother appears to be trying to make up his mind for him, which also means she bears partial blame for consequences ill if such occur. Not that I wish or foresee anything bad happening out of it, but, my boy is going to be 18 in May, a legal adult. I am backing off - he is going to have to make a LOT of decisions in life, coming soon, too, he should have the latitude to make those decisions, learn from whatever mistakes and move on.
He will be in charge of - other kids, I guess. I mean, kids he knows from High School. He is already in such position as a commander in the JROTC. I am definitely optimistic about his career, life in general and the direction it is leading. He doesn't do drugs, he doesn't drink and he has no desire to start. At least for now. I have no idea what's going to happen in the future, the rest is in God's hands and that is where I leave it.
However, I WILL be getting my car back. Lol. I have been driving the old thing for some time now - fortunately the break downs seem to have stopped. But, since he has been driving my newer car all this time, I have decided to let him finish out high school with it, after that, he can either have the old Buick or - he can go buy his own car, I guess. He doesn't really have the money to go buy his own car.
The problem with this old one is that the paint is badly faded, it is pretty much an eyesore. I am done, for now, spending money on it.
Well, I am getting offa this one. I have some other news I would like to read before the work day starts.
ben
Wow. That's all I can say about that. Some "dude" is getting out of prison - the guy killed and allegedly ate a 5 year old boy - a long time ago. The boy's father has proclaimed right to the press that if that man does, indeed, get out of prison and if he can find him, he is going to "murder" him.
After reading the accounting of his son's death, I can't say that I blame the man.
My son, changing the subject, has been asked to work at some sort of youth camp up in the White Mountains for the summer. I'm not sure all the details about this, yet, excepting that he is having a hard time deciding what to do: stay at his current job or quit and go for the experience. Well, I say nothing. From my point of view, that is, let him make up his own mind. His mother appears to be trying to make up his mind for him, which also means she bears partial blame for consequences ill if such occur. Not that I wish or foresee anything bad happening out of it, but, my boy is going to be 18 in May, a legal adult. I am backing off - he is going to have to make a LOT of decisions in life, coming soon, too, he should have the latitude to make those decisions, learn from whatever mistakes and move on.
He will be in charge of - other kids, I guess. I mean, kids he knows from High School. He is already in such position as a commander in the JROTC. I am definitely optimistic about his career, life in general and the direction it is leading. He doesn't do drugs, he doesn't drink and he has no desire to start. At least for now. I have no idea what's going to happen in the future, the rest is in God's hands and that is where I leave it.
However, I WILL be getting my car back. Lol. I have been driving the old thing for some time now - fortunately the break downs seem to have stopped. But, since he has been driving my newer car all this time, I have decided to let him finish out high school with it, after that, he can either have the old Buick or - he can go buy his own car, I guess. He doesn't really have the money to go buy his own car.
The problem with this old one is that the paint is badly faded, it is pretty much an eyesore. I am done, for now, spending money on it.
Well, I am getting offa this one. I have some other news I would like to read before the work day starts.
ben
Monday 3/7/2011
Monday
So, I'm going around a sharpish curve, a transition from one freeway to another this morning and the car dies. My instant thought: here comes Monday. After getting through the curve, the car comes back on. I instantly knew what was going on: the car is almost out of fuel. Well that's a FAR cry better than having the stupid thing break down again. I don't know why I do it, procrastination I guess, but I always wait until the tank is almost bone dry before filling it back up again.
Fortunately, I made it to work without any problems.
"In its February report, the World Bank noted “sharp increases” in the global prices of wheat, maize, sugar, and edible oils over the last six months, with an accompanying rise, albeit smaller, in the price of rice"
Now, I have heard a couple of the more or less popular - depending on what side of the aisle you stride in politics - talk show hosts predicting that the prices of food were going to go up, and up, and up, and that eventually, there will be worldwide food shortage.
I didn't know whether to believe these people or not. I have enmassed a small amount of food, enough to last about 2 months. That's not eating a lot, but, it's surviving. I am stocking up my new freezer with chicken. I intend on buying another 20 pounds of it on the way home from work today, Basha's has boneless, skinless chicken breast on sale.
Shall I panic and go out and start stuffing my pantry with all kinds of canned and dried foods? No, I am not going to panic, but, just in case these folks are correct? I am definitely going to get more. A few other things I want to add to the mix as well, but I won't go there. It's just me being me. I started eating through some of the food I started putting away last year just so the expiration dates weren't going to get too carried away.
A crisis doesn't necessarily have to even mean a shortage of food, but, rather, the cost of food going up so high that it becomes unaffordable.
Well, whatever. I intend on getting 100 pounds of chicken into that freezer and then some other meats as well, as much as I can stuff in there.
I read this morning an email from our company announcing the hiring of some new folks to work in another region, yet still under the management here. I have wondered for some time now, while they are hiring new people, why they aren't reinstating full hours. I mean, I'm not talking overtime, I'm just talking 40 hours a week. They have hired a few people, here and there. I don't get it. 35 hours per week for hourly associates yet they are hiring new people.....I'm not trying to criticize my company, I am trying to get a handle on this hour situation. Corporate put out a survey last week, asking associates to input whatever questions they might have of upper management as they prepare to put out their yearly video. It is a video they do to give us the state of the company, the direction it is going in and where they want it to be at the end of the fiscal year. Yes, I put in my question: When, do you think, hourly associates will get their full hours reinstated?
I HAD to ask and I hope they answer the question, regardless of whether it's what I want to hear or not, I would like to see some sort of light at the end of the tunnel, cause Mrs. Jones, it's all dark in there right now. I've been holding out because I like the company I am working for versus simply going out and finding a new job. In the trucking industry, finding management that treats you well isn't exactly a prevalent condition.
So, I decided at the beginning of this year to stick it out another 6 months at least and then revisit the issue. If management would give us some kind of clue when, if ever, that would certainly help me.
Anyway, work day is almost here and I'm offa this thing.
G'day.
ben
So, I'm going around a sharpish curve, a transition from one freeway to another this morning and the car dies. My instant thought: here comes Monday. After getting through the curve, the car comes back on. I instantly knew what was going on: the car is almost out of fuel. Well that's a FAR cry better than having the stupid thing break down again. I don't know why I do it, procrastination I guess, but I always wait until the tank is almost bone dry before filling it back up again.
Fortunately, I made it to work without any problems.
"In its February report, the World Bank noted “sharp increases” in the global prices of wheat, maize, sugar, and edible oils over the last six months, with an accompanying rise, albeit smaller, in the price of rice"
Now, I have heard a couple of the more or less popular - depending on what side of the aisle you stride in politics - talk show hosts predicting that the prices of food were going to go up, and up, and up, and that eventually, there will be worldwide food shortage.
I didn't know whether to believe these people or not. I have enmassed a small amount of food, enough to last about 2 months. That's not eating a lot, but, it's surviving. I am stocking up my new freezer with chicken. I intend on buying another 20 pounds of it on the way home from work today, Basha's has boneless, skinless chicken breast on sale.
Shall I panic and go out and start stuffing my pantry with all kinds of canned and dried foods? No, I am not going to panic, but, just in case these folks are correct? I am definitely going to get more. A few other things I want to add to the mix as well, but I won't go there. It's just me being me. I started eating through some of the food I started putting away last year just so the expiration dates weren't going to get too carried away.
A crisis doesn't necessarily have to even mean a shortage of food, but, rather, the cost of food going up so high that it becomes unaffordable.
Well, whatever. I intend on getting 100 pounds of chicken into that freezer and then some other meats as well, as much as I can stuff in there.
I read this morning an email from our company announcing the hiring of some new folks to work in another region, yet still under the management here. I have wondered for some time now, while they are hiring new people, why they aren't reinstating full hours. I mean, I'm not talking overtime, I'm just talking 40 hours a week. They have hired a few people, here and there. I don't get it. 35 hours per week for hourly associates yet they are hiring new people.....I'm not trying to criticize my company, I am trying to get a handle on this hour situation. Corporate put out a survey last week, asking associates to input whatever questions they might have of upper management as they prepare to put out their yearly video. It is a video they do to give us the state of the company, the direction it is going in and where they want it to be at the end of the fiscal year. Yes, I put in my question: When, do you think, hourly associates will get their full hours reinstated?
I HAD to ask and I hope they answer the question, regardless of whether it's what I want to hear or not, I would like to see some sort of light at the end of the tunnel, cause Mrs. Jones, it's all dark in there right now. I've been holding out because I like the company I am working for versus simply going out and finding a new job. In the trucking industry, finding management that treats you well isn't exactly a prevalent condition.
So, I decided at the beginning of this year to stick it out another 6 months at least and then revisit the issue. If management would give us some kind of clue when, if ever, that would certainly help me.
Anyway, work day is almost here and I'm offa this thing.
G'day.
ben
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Sunday
I put yet another ad on Craigslist to give away some of my fish. My ponds have had far too many fish in them for quite a while now. The filtering systems get saturated quickly and I find I have to clean them out and replace filtering media in them more often than I would like.
Well, a guy finally came over today and took 8 large goldfish off of my hands. I could probably let go of another 8 or 10, but we were having difficulty catching them out of the larger pond. I need a much larger, larger-gapped net to catch them. We just took them out of the pond that is above ground and thinned that out quite a lot. It's probably good at the number of fish it's at right now.
I also was able to thin my plants back considerably in breaking off plant and root systems from the main plant and giving them to him to replant. One of the Umbrella plants had grown FAR too large for even the large pot I had it in. I took that thing down by half, it looks MUCH better now. I also gave him a sampling of the other plants, just break pieces of them off an replant them. The great thing about these water plants is that you really don't have to have a green thumb. Pluck them in whatever kind of container you can find, put some dirt in it and cover with rocks, stick it in the pond, you're done.
He didn't have a clue what he was doing, I was able to help him out quite a lot in the information department. I was in the same boat some, what, 8, 10 months ago? Less? When I started out on this little pond venture and didn't have a clue and also wasn't getting very good, complete information. I think I am going to write an entry up about ponds/ponding again so that Googlers can find it and perhaps glean a bit of help from my experiences.
Time to call an AC person out to clean the coil. It is dirty and that reduces the efficiency of the AC system. The time is now to do it while the prices are low - waiting until summer? Pay double.
So, I was talking to my neighbor over the wall - he is working on his burnt property, salvaging whatever is salvagable (not much, either). I forgot that I was next to the tree that has the hummingbird, next and 2 eggs in it, grabbed the tree to balance myself and - it flew off. I could have hit myself for doing something so absent-minded. I immediately moved off and watched her. She flew to the next tree and perched on the top of it - about 15 feet off the ground. She sat there for about 5 minutes, then did her helicopter hovering trick and slowly descended back down to the nest. Relief.
Some neighborhood kids occasionally come over and walk the dogs. They think it a prestigious thing, I guess, to walk dogs that are the size of miniature horses. Well, the neighbors behind me got yet another notice from the city of Phoenix: clean up the property or get slapped with a $2,500.00 fine. About TIME, frankly, though I had nothing to do with it. They don't come out unless someone complains, I didn't do the complaining.
Well, the kids came in the house to get the leashes. One of them pulls out a can of tomato sauce and some cheese and asks if I have any chips. He proceeds to dump the can of sauce over the chips, cheese on top of that, sits down and starts eating it. Not exactly appealing to me, I declined when offered. I do like tomato sauce, even plain - just a taste I acquired as a kid and never really let go of along with eating raw hamburger meat - but that did NOT look good at all. I dunno. He gets done with that, we walk out back and there is this man, looking over my back fence, giving one of the kids a rather stern warning.
This kid's dad, hired by the neighbor whose property has looking like a landfill since the time I moved into this neighborhood. He was cool, though, that dad that is. I decided to get into whatever conversation with the man - I'm always curious as to the parenthood of kids in this neighborhood considering some of the stuff that goes on. He wasn't letting go of any information. Nice enough person, just couldn't get anywhere with it.
Oh, last night!! ROCK ON, baby! I went to the first concert I have been to since I was a teenager in high school. A roomie scored some tickets to a small venue where a band was going to be playing, his GF apparently wagged out on him at the last minute, asked if I wanted to go. I really debated that one in my head. WHAT kind of place is this going to be and what kind of people were going to be there? But, it was something different to do, the worst that could happen is that I would hate it and never go to anything like it again. Actually, the worst that could happen is someone would start crap with me and .......... then what? I won't just stand there if someone is hauling back to hit me, I can assure you of that.
I decided to go and NOT expect some s*** would happen. When we go there, it was EXACTLY what my mind envisioned it to be, a hell-hole type of place with ALL kinds of strange people talking all kinds of junk walking all over the place. I found a "place" to stand until the concert started. This place was the size of a Denny's or something. Not very big. Maybe 15 chairs in the whole place, the rest - stand up.
However, I am not ashamed to say that I still love rock. And the band that started was awesome - they played the songs I grew up with and knew the words to. I was right up there at the front, ignoring the sexual innuendo, sexual overtones and the obvious fact that this was more of a place to hook up for a one-night stand than anything else. The band - I don't even remember the name of it - was excellent. Good music, great performance. Of course, it WAS interesting to have young ladies up there rubbing more than just elbows. I'm not saying anything sexual, but they weren't being bashful. I guess I can say that in my 47 years of living, I have figured out how to go with the flow - without giving in. No, I didn't give in, even with several "requests", if you want to call them that.
I had completely forgotten the experience it is to be at a live concert. Regardless of their appearance, these are professional musicians. If they get anywhere with it, they pay the price to get there, and I am not referring to drugs and sex, I am referring to exhaustingly long, arduous hours of practicing the same thing, over and over and over, getting the music down to the point they don't even have to think about it. They put an act together to make it entertaining. I don't believe it is an "easy" life, I believe it is probably no different in some respects than me going to work every morning, Monday through Friday, clocking in and clocking out, giving my heart to whatever it is that I am engaging myself with.
It was a good show. The second band was okay, not great but not bad. I would have been happy to leave after the first band was done, but, my roomie wanted to stay so, we stayed. No biggies excepting I am not normally used to getting home at 2:00 am. The only other thing I do in that department - and rarely at this point - is going to the casino. Which is going on quite a while since my last visit, a prosperous one at that. I'm sure the bug will bite soon enough and I will be writing an entry about the latest visit I might have made.
As for today, it is over. Productive day, too. I got quite a lot done outside. I had no plans, whatsoever, this morning in doing anything because I went to bed late and got up around 9:00am, not feeling very good. Around noon, though, I was feeling better, the weather is gorgeous and isn't going to stay that way forever, I took advantage of it. I'm a creature of habit - I like to go to bed around the same time, every night whether I have to work in the morning or not, and I like to get up at the same time in the morning, again, whether I'm getting up for work or not.
Anyway, that's enough for one entry. There is plenty going on in the news - but - I don't care to go into my views on that right now. I'm sure tomorrow morning that will change : )
G'nite.
ben
Well, a guy finally came over today and took 8 large goldfish off of my hands. I could probably let go of another 8 or 10, but we were having difficulty catching them out of the larger pond. I need a much larger, larger-gapped net to catch them. We just took them out of the pond that is above ground and thinned that out quite a lot. It's probably good at the number of fish it's at right now.
I also was able to thin my plants back considerably in breaking off plant and root systems from the main plant and giving them to him to replant. One of the Umbrella plants had grown FAR too large for even the large pot I had it in. I took that thing down by half, it looks MUCH better now. I also gave him a sampling of the other plants, just break pieces of them off an replant them. The great thing about these water plants is that you really don't have to have a green thumb. Pluck them in whatever kind of container you can find, put some dirt in it and cover with rocks, stick it in the pond, you're done.
He didn't have a clue what he was doing, I was able to help him out quite a lot in the information department. I was in the same boat some, what, 8, 10 months ago? Less? When I started out on this little pond venture and didn't have a clue and also wasn't getting very good, complete information. I think I am going to write an entry up about ponds/ponding again so that Googlers can find it and perhaps glean a bit of help from my experiences.
Time to call an AC person out to clean the coil. It is dirty and that reduces the efficiency of the AC system. The time is now to do it while the prices are low - waiting until summer? Pay double.
So, I was talking to my neighbor over the wall - he is working on his burnt property, salvaging whatever is salvagable (not much, either). I forgot that I was next to the tree that has the hummingbird, next and 2 eggs in it, grabbed the tree to balance myself and - it flew off. I could have hit myself for doing something so absent-minded. I immediately moved off and watched her. She flew to the next tree and perched on the top of it - about 15 feet off the ground. She sat there for about 5 minutes, then did her helicopter hovering trick and slowly descended back down to the nest. Relief.
Some neighborhood kids occasionally come over and walk the dogs. They think it a prestigious thing, I guess, to walk dogs that are the size of miniature horses. Well, the neighbors behind me got yet another notice from the city of Phoenix: clean up the property or get slapped with a $2,500.00 fine. About TIME, frankly, though I had nothing to do with it. They don't come out unless someone complains, I didn't do the complaining.
Well, the kids came in the house to get the leashes. One of them pulls out a can of tomato sauce and some cheese and asks if I have any chips. He proceeds to dump the can of sauce over the chips, cheese on top of that, sits down and starts eating it. Not exactly appealing to me, I declined when offered. I do like tomato sauce, even plain - just a taste I acquired as a kid and never really let go of along with eating raw hamburger meat - but that did NOT look good at all. I dunno. He gets done with that, we walk out back and there is this man, looking over my back fence, giving one of the kids a rather stern warning.
This kid's dad, hired by the neighbor whose property has looking like a landfill since the time I moved into this neighborhood. He was cool, though, that dad that is. I decided to get into whatever conversation with the man - I'm always curious as to the parenthood of kids in this neighborhood considering some of the stuff that goes on. He wasn't letting go of any information. Nice enough person, just couldn't get anywhere with it.
Oh, last night!! ROCK ON, baby! I went to the first concert I have been to since I was a teenager in high school. A roomie scored some tickets to a small venue where a band was going to be playing, his GF apparently wagged out on him at the last minute, asked if I wanted to go. I really debated that one in my head. WHAT kind of place is this going to be and what kind of people were going to be there? But, it was something different to do, the worst that could happen is that I would hate it and never go to anything like it again. Actually, the worst that could happen is someone would start crap with me and .......... then what? I won't just stand there if someone is hauling back to hit me, I can assure you of that.
I decided to go and NOT expect some s*** would happen. When we go there, it was EXACTLY what my mind envisioned it to be, a hell-hole type of place with ALL kinds of strange people talking all kinds of junk walking all over the place. I found a "place" to stand until the concert started. This place was the size of a Denny's or something. Not very big. Maybe 15 chairs in the whole place, the rest - stand up.
However, I am not ashamed to say that I still love rock. And the band that started was awesome - they played the songs I grew up with and knew the words to. I was right up there at the front, ignoring the sexual innuendo, sexual overtones and the obvious fact that this was more of a place to hook up for a one-night stand than anything else. The band - I don't even remember the name of it - was excellent. Good music, great performance. Of course, it WAS interesting to have young ladies up there rubbing more than just elbows. I'm not saying anything sexual, but they weren't being bashful. I guess I can say that in my 47 years of living, I have figured out how to go with the flow - without giving in. No, I didn't give in, even with several "requests", if you want to call them that.
I had completely forgotten the experience it is to be at a live concert. Regardless of their appearance, these are professional musicians. If they get anywhere with it, they pay the price to get there, and I am not referring to drugs and sex, I am referring to exhaustingly long, arduous hours of practicing the same thing, over and over and over, getting the music down to the point they don't even have to think about it. They put an act together to make it entertaining. I don't believe it is an "easy" life, I believe it is probably no different in some respects than me going to work every morning, Monday through Friday, clocking in and clocking out, giving my heart to whatever it is that I am engaging myself with.
It was a good show. The second band was okay, not great but not bad. I would have been happy to leave after the first band was done, but, my roomie wanted to stay so, we stayed. No biggies excepting I am not normally used to getting home at 2:00 am. The only other thing I do in that department - and rarely at this point - is going to the casino. Which is going on quite a while since my last visit, a prosperous one at that. I'm sure the bug will bite soon enough and I will be writing an entry about the latest visit I might have made.
As for today, it is over. Productive day, too. I got quite a lot done outside. I had no plans, whatsoever, this morning in doing anything because I went to bed late and got up around 9:00am, not feeling very good. Around noon, though, I was feeling better, the weather is gorgeous and isn't going to stay that way forever, I took advantage of it. I'm a creature of habit - I like to go to bed around the same time, every night whether I have to work in the morning or not, and I like to get up at the same time in the morning, again, whether I'm getting up for work or not.
Anyway, that's enough for one entry. There is plenty going on in the news - but - I don't care to go into my views on that right now. I'm sure tomorrow morning that will change : )
G'nite.
ben
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