Monday 5/30/2011

Final day of 6 days off vacation. Also final less than 2 hours. I have been busy today with the new pond setup.
Okay, okay, okay: the real truth. Syfy channel showed every Star Trek movie that exists, I think, over this Memorial Day weekend. Instead of getting caught up in war movies, I have been totally engrossed in these Star Trek movies, some of which are my all time favorites. I recorded almost all of them.
Well, let me say that I was working on the horse trough yesterday and today, getting it ready to put the liner in. This morning, after the finishing touches, I pulled out the liner and put it in there, unfolded it and left. I wanted it to get warmed up by the sun and help it to be more flexible and get situation into it's final resting spot.

Came back in and yes, watched more of Star Trek.
Around noon, I remembered my 2 slabs of ribs, bought on sale from Fry's, needed to be put on the grill. I seasoned them and put them on there on low heat - about 220 degrees.
A bit less than 2 hours later?

I couldn't take it. I went out there and got SERIOUSLY busy on the pond setup. I had to empty the old pond, catch all the fish, put them in a very small, temporary home, plus pull out all those plants. This was NO small amount of work in itself, especially catching those fish. I knew this was going to take time and energy, I pretty much got in over my head, time and energy wise- today with this. Started too late on it.

But, too late it too late, once I got started, it was a no-return situation. There is more to doing this than I care to even get into here. It would go on forever, needless to say this was far more work than I even expected. I got all of that done, removed the pond, dragged the horse trough into place, put 2 hoses into it and started filling away.

The poor fish - 17 large fish cramped into a small tub - were at the surface gasping for air. I didn't waste much time - as soon as there was a minimum level of water in the new pond, I put them all in there. One of them couldn't even swim there wasn't enough water, but the water was fresh, had been treated with shock treatment and 2 very large air stones were pumping away.

I forgot to say that this morning I went to the 99 cent store and picked up some plastic, square "things". Filled with large holes, exactly what I was looking for. Prop up my plants and have water flowing through there at the same time, versus the previous setup. I cut out openings on either end of each square so that fish could swim through them.

So, those plastic things that I spend considerable time cutting out this morning were placed in the pond and the plants on top of them. I bought them out, they had no more of them. I could use another 10 or so.

3-1/2 solid hours of non-stop work to get the situation done? I'm done. I haven't gone to work in 6 days, I am taking it easy the last 2 hours before bed and then hopefully wake up - uggh. I haven't gotten up that early, either. I've been sleeping in, every day. Sleeping in as in getting up at 6 or 6:30 am instead of 4:30 am.

Caleb finally got the information I was looking for: they want him to show up between 2:00 and 4:00 pm (this coming Sunday afernoon). Sooooo, be up there at that time on a Sunday, an almost 3 hour drive? I don't think so. Can we show up earlier? Noon would be better. Get a lunch, say goodbye and get home at a reasonable hour. He said they just needed advance notice if we are going to show up early. Great, noon it is, then. Not too much earlier, but not too late to get home before 5 or 6 pm.

I don't care, though, I will do it regardless of the imposition. I'm still thinking getting up there Saturday late afternoon, spend the night in a local hotel, get up, have a breakfast, take him over there at noon and that's it. Goodbye for the summer? Hardly. If he wants a daddy visit, I'll be up there. It's absolutely beautiful, forested area. I mean, a camper's delight.

Ummm, this is going to get long, so I will quit. The 6 days have been good, but busy. Not exactly a vacation, but then again, I haven't had one of those in about 3 years now. If I get the tax refund, I am considering a trip to the Pacific ocean and a trip out on a fishing expedition. Sounds expensive? Not exactly. Drive over there, book the thing in advance at reduced rates, probably be alone so do things the cheap way without worrying about people who want "the best" and totally overlook the whole reason you are going: for the adventure, not to spend as much money as you can. I can go up to the mountains and spend nothing more than the fuel to get up there and food and such and have a total blast.

Just don't have camping equipment anymore to facilitate that.

Oh well.

C'you tomorrow.

ben

Saturday 5/28/2011

Day 4 of 6 days off.
Although it was a good time, I am glad to have the graduation stuff behind me. A bit draining when you have to chauffeur company around for 3 days - just me I guess.
I'm trying to get the motivation up to get that horse trough pond going today, or at least get a good start on it.
I have to do some metal patch work on the interior of the trough before I do anything. Cover up some holes with small sheets of aluminum I bought at the store and then put duct tape around the edges of the aluminum so there aren't any sharp surfaces to puncture the liner with.

Then, line the walls and floor of the trough with some plastic I got from work that was going to be thrown away. I figure a good double layer. I just don't want anything puncturing that liner and causing it to leak. Finally, of course, put the liner in. Move it close to the pond I am replacing and pump the water from that pond into the trough - while catching the fish and moving them into the trough as well along with all the plants I have in it.

Empty out the pond I am replacing, move it out of the way. Okay, pump the horse trough water back into the now moved pond and all the fish and plants yet again. Move the trough to where the old pond was. Yes, then pump the water back out of the old pond into the horse trough plus move the fish and plants again. The fish undoubtedly won't like it, but I have a bottle of fish stress relief to help them with the move.

I am also thinking of just catching the fish and putting them into a 40 gallon plastic container I have so they won't have to be moved around quite so much. I would just pump the pond water in the old pond out into trees and plants and just put fresh water in the horse trough, saving a lot of moving, but the water in the pond is conditioned - it's better for the fish than an entire new fill of fresh water. That's the only reason, otherwise I wouldn't care as the old pond only holds 160 gallons of water and I could simply water plants and trees with it.

I don't know yet, I'll make those decisions when I get there.

I am assuming there will be some good war movies on this weekend, I intend on watching some.

As for the house - the problem in the main bathroom persists. In fact, has grown worse. The trailer tenants informed me that they are sick of cleaning up after everyone in there. I didnt know they WERE cleaning up after everyone, which really makes me mad. I don't LIKE slobs living in my house. I thought about it - what action to take, but, my thoughts were interrupted: we will deal with this. Ohhhh? Yes, Lynnette states: I have already confronted one of them that isn't doing anything and I am going to post a schedule in there.

Very doubtful that it's going to do any good. Summer is upon us. High electric bills. A bit of a hard time to be kicking people out - but - I will do it if it comes down to that. I have almost $300 on the electricity card reader. I am at least somewhat set for June - which is forecast to turn hot starting the very first day and getting much hotter after that. What joy.

I figure close to $500 for electricity in June, the same in July and a bit less in August.

Anyway, they will try their method, if it works, great, if it doesn't, then I will have to have individual conversations with everyone and put them on the spot: clean the freaking bathroom or get out of my house. It's not like I haven't already sent out notices about this same issue a couple of times now. Let them move where there are a bunch of slobs - their bathroom can be covered in human piss and the toilet filled with both blood stains (you know where those come from) and crap particles. Get some mold and junk growing in the shower/tub. Unbelievable.

Oh well. I wash my hands of it - temporarily - since they want to try to deal with it and are putting me out of the picture. They have my full backing, of course, I hope they are successful.

As for this entry? Getting long.

Later.

ben

Done

Just got back from taking my dad to the bus stop. I stood in line with him while waiting for them to open the door and allow the boarding process to begin. It was a good 3 days with him. He spent part of the morning and all afternoon over here and we visited most of the time.

It was good to be with him again. It was also good to see that his health is doing much better than I had anticipated. Another comfort is that soon, he will be living in Tucson - it's not a long drive down there. I am 2 miles from I-10 which is a straight shot down to Tucson. I can drive there in about an hour and a half. Sierra Vista is much further away. I think a day trip here and there will be in order - whenever they are up to it of course, which won't be anytime soon. They are still getting their house ready to sell in Sierra Vista - but they already have most of their stuff at the assisted living center in Tucson.

Anyway, another chapter in life is over, the page is turning and who knows what's next. Something, that's for sure. Preferably something good, btw. Is there ever a time in life when there is nothing? If there is, it's only the prelude to what's coming next.............

Friday

Just short of halfway through my 6 days off. However, the first 2 days did not really feel like vacation with everything that has been going on.

The graduation yesterday was excellent in every sense of the thought. It did NOT go on for 3 hours, which was a blessing in itself. More like about 70 minutes. There were various student speakers, some of which had some rather corny things to say, but the final student speaker spoke something the silenced the crowd. He got up there and started talking about the future, what it means to him and the fact that he has learned to see each day as a priceless commodity. You might think that odd for an 18 year old until he got to the part about having cancer and doing chemotherapy treatments.

I felt heart-sick for that kid. Graduating High School, just getting into the mode of thinking of starting a life for yourself and then bammm, hit with something like that.

My dad is doing much better than what I thought, to be honest. Yes, he has arthritis, yes, he has slowed down but he climbed up and down those bleacher stairs pretty well considering. It was an awkward moment at the end when we all met up - my middle brother, my mother, dad and even a gentleman I used to know from church years ago. THAT was a shocker! We used to spend hours in prayer together when meeting together in prayer groups. Even more shocking, he is in his early 50's and he retired 2 years ago. Wow. Well, he is a brainiac and was part of some sort of team of people at Intel that would be sent around the world doing research for possible plant locations. I never knew how much he made in terms of salary, but, to retire that young he obviously did quite well for himself.

Anyway, my middle brother actually spoke with my dad. As is par for the course with my family, acted as if nothing was wrong and nothing had ever happened. Remember that my brother hasn't spoken to my dad in almost 6 years: would not respond to his emails; telephone calls or snail mails. Get the picture? My mother shook hands with him - those 2 hadn't seen each other in about 28 years. My mother was looking very good, too, she dressed very nicely for the occasion and had had her hair done.

Off to my ex-pastor's house for the reception, undoubtedly this would be the most uncomfortable spot of the evening, and certainly it held true. Caleb hadn't shown up yet - he had my newer car and was helping his grandmother to her truck after the event was over which took awhile, not to mention that she gave him his new computer. Oh, gotta throw this in here: I just found out my oldest brother and his wife actually showed up for the graduation. They had to leave early because of early rise for work. Neither I nor anyone else from the family saw them there, but they had pics to prove it, I guess.

So, dad and I went into the house. I waited in the foyer for him to use the restroom, I figured if I was going to walk into a "hornet's nest", might as well take company. Lol. I knew everyone there. Although I expected them to show a bit more hospitality than they did, it wasn't surprising that the men were rude about it. I had to go to them to shake hands, they were not interested in talking to me and they only stopped their conversations long enough to shake hands and - that was it. Remember, I have known these people for about 2 decades.

I can read into it, however, that they were as uncomfortable with me being there as I was going into a man's house that used to be my pastor and one of my best friends. My ex-pastor came and gave me a half hug, spoke a few words and then disappeared. Only the other halfs - the wives - of these men excepting one made me feel at home. My ex-wife was definitely attempting to try and make us feel welcome, I'll give her kudos for that I guess.

Well, Caleb eventually showed up, which changed the atmosphere dramatically since he was the man of the day. He is a man, but he'll always be my kid, lol. After he made the rounds, he came back into where dad and I were and sat down with a huge plate of food and we started talking. You see, I love my son and he knows it, we get along well, I'm not a stranger to him and I do not go out of my way to try to make his life difficult. I have given him as much leeway as I thought appropriate for his age, which expanded more and more as he grew older. Now, he's an adult and has a lot to learn in life - as we all did at that age - I am stepping pretty much completely out of the way. The only thing I am going to push on him is my rules around the house, which aren't many and are mostly restrained to noise levels at night and cleaning up after oneself in whatever part of the house a person might make a mess in.

Anyway, that forced all of those people to have to come into the room we were at because the pastor's wife wanted to do a presentation. I was impressed. My son is like a 3rd son to them. Caleb is very comfortable over there as he has spent as much time there as he has at either mine or my ex wife's house. She explicitly stated that as well. Then, one of the guys that was - quite cold to me when I shook his hand - came in with a poem that my ex had written when Caleb was born. I had completely forgotten about it. It's framed and has a picture of him shortly after he was pulled out of her womb (C-section, late birther, too big to come through the birth canal).

I hadn't read or heard that poem in many years, it was touching. It was about Kim, the pastor's wife. Because my ex and her are good friends, well, Kim was around alot while Caleb was in the womb, growing. The poem basically stated that when he came out, he was looking around for the faces of the familiar voices. My ex's, me and then Kim's.

It was cool. I was put on the spot to say something - so I did. Nothing grandiose, just how proud I am of my son, the direction his life seems to be going in and the fact that he has grown a lot in terms of discipline and taking responsibility in the last year.

That was it. It was a good night despite the coldness from a few individuals. I pretty much expected it. We didn't stay long - maybe half and hour or 45 minutes. I was informed when we were leaving that I was a part of the family and always will be, that coming from Kim. Coming from her, I might believe it, but her husband? Not in the slightest. But I don't want to go there.

Took dad back to his hotel and came home. It was about 10:30, late for me. It's over. The excitement and the apprehension of the "what-if's". It's all done. I discussed with the ex last night about who is going to take Caleb up to Heber. Heber is up on the Mogollon Rim. It's forested, beautiful country up there. This is in reference to his 2 month stint to be a youth counselor for "troubled" youth going to the Salvation Army camp in Heber. Do a Google image search for Heber, AZ, you'll get what I am talking about. It's the type of place I would love to retire in. Unfortunately, alot of it burned up in early 2,000 due to 2 man-made fires.

The first fire set by a firefighter who wasn't getting enough work, so he decided to set the forest on fire. The second fire set by a woman who was lost in the woods and started a fire to get smoke up so that she would be rescued. The firefighter is in prison. I think they eventually let the woman off the hook, even though it was an extremely stupid act. She hadn't been lost for days, it was like an hour and instead of trying to find her way out of it or do ANYTHING a normal person would do, she lights a fire in bone-dry forest that hadn't seen enough rain to keep a huge fire that eventually met up with the firefighter's fire from starting and burning around 500,000 acres. I haven't been up there since that fire, but I do know that at least part of the Heber area was hit by that fire.

Anyway, Caleb has to be up there on a Sunday - 2 Sundays from now. I am thinking of going up the day before, getting a cabin and spending the night there. I'm going to throw that out to my son because if he wants to do it, I need to make the reservations soon. Like today, lol. I feel like he is going to be very busy from this point forth and probably isn't going to have a lot of time for his parents. When he comes back from that adventure, he is going straight back to work and will be going to a community college as well. I am feeling a bit of "separation anxiety" I guess you would call it. It's very possible that if he gets promoted as they say they are going to do when he gets back - he will be making more money and he might consider doing an apartment share with other guys. I don't know that for a fact, it's just the natural progression of things.

Well, that's it. I got the AC in my newer car fixed yesterday, it's blowing 40 degree air out of the vents. It cost as much as I thought it would, a bit over $400. I will be taking my car back after he leaves for the mountains and he will have the option of driving the older Buick if he wants it when he comes back. If he doesn't want it, I am going to sell it cheap and just get rid of it. I've gotten my use out of that car, it's served well, the engine is strong and has lots of miles left in it. If I ever get my tax return back, I am going to have a cheap paint job thrown on it, fix whatever issues are left in it and it's done. A couple more tires and the power steering pump is whining - yes it's full of fluid - pretty much tells me it's going to go out soon.

I took some pics and a video of the Graduation, maybe post that later today or tomorrow when I get around to it. I have to get my dad from the hotel in a few hours and bring him back here - he will be spending the afternoon here before I have to take him to the bus station. My last chance to visit with him. Pretty much make the most of it, this life has no guarantees given, he is getting old and...well....you know.....life can end at anytime without forewarning.

I'm looking forward to doing much of nothing today, to be honest, relax and take it easy. Tomorrow I intend on starting on that horse trough to get it ready for ponding.

G'day.

ben

Pics from trips

A few pics. First 3 are of my son getting some awards at the end of year JROTC awards ceremonies. Not the greatest pics, unfortunately, the entire center row of seats from front to back were reserved for the cadets.

Pic below is of the silver van owned by the neighbors that like to call the police more than NFL fans call for pizza delivery. While they make up stories to try and get me into trouble, notice the van is parked the wrong direction. The police made the guy move it but didn't issue a ticket.

Some of the pics below are from my cell phone. You can tell because I had to first send the pics from my cellphone to my email, then "print screen" on the pic in email, then use paint processer to convert them into a Jpeg pic. The reason you can tell is because all of the tabs from the internet sites I was on are showing at the top of the pic. I haven't quite figured out how to crop pics yet without losing the entire pic.

So, pic below is also from the mine I was in on Monday. This mine was abandoned and not used for at least 2 decades. Many of the old structures are still up. This is one of them. I have no idea what it was used for. Interestingly, they have found the largest vein of copper in existence underneath this land, 7,000 feet down.

Pic below is of Fry's food store with camera phone. Poor pic, yes, but you can see the trash can is overflowing, there is trash on the sidewalk and there is trash in several carts. You can't see from this pic, but right next to the trash can on the other side are hundreds of cigarette butts lying on the ground. Just what you want to see when you enter a grocery store!

Pretty quaint old towns up in these mountains. Started decades ago, these towns popped up into existence solely because of the mining operations.

This is from the mine, also. It's a train sort of set up that goes into the mine. I have no idea whether this is a "current" set up or if this is also from the past. I took a pic of an old locomotive housed inside of a shed, too, but the pic is gone. I wish I had it, it's REALLY old and the tracks leading to the shed are long gone!

A maze of HDPE pipe in a different mine I was in a while back. We sell and deliver this pipe. It's thick, hard, plastic pipe. It can handle chemicals such as sulphuric acid being pumped through it, which is what mines use, apparently, to extract the copper element from the ore.

Thursday 5/26/2011

28 dead. That's the death toll in the latest shootout between drug cartels in Mexico, bodies found littered on the highway. The State Department issued advisories before Spring Break for college kids advising them to stay away from several, specific states in Mexico. You couldn't pay me enough money to go down there right now. I wouldn't even want to go into a border town, much less the interior of that nation. I'm wondering why the Mexican government cannot get this chaos under control. I have no idea what American authorities would do if such killings were happening here, but I doubt it would last as long as it has down there.

I don't necessarily believe the recounting of the story, either. Police arriving long after the showdown is done and over with. I have heard of and personally encountered enough corrupt Mexican police "officers" to know that there is at least the possibility that they intentionally do not get involved with any of this junk until it's done. You got money they definitely take bribes. You get pulled over for a traffic violation - whether real or usually imagined/made up - they will sit there and tell you how you are going to have to go to jail for 2 or 3 days unless you pay them upfront. They aren't giving that money to the local town government, rest assured. I have paid them off because the prospect of sitting in a small, town jail with a dirt floor and a pit in the middle as a toilet, spending that quality time in the presence of a bunch of other people with unknown intentions? Here's $20, have a nice day.

They always want more, but I never gave them that much. The last time I had to pay one of them off, I had just enough gas money to get back home on me plus a bit of eating money. The guy wanted $80. I said I couldn't afford it, I would run out of gas. $60. $50. $40. I then offered the $20 and he let me go. Yes, the $20 was eating money, I just didn't eat until I got home, which was half a day later. They used to stop me when I was doing missionary work down there and take whatever they wanted from the donations out of the back of the pickup I was driving. The best winter coats and blankets and whatever else appealed to them.

What were you going to say? You are in another man's land and they can basically do with you as they please. They can make up stories about what you have allegedly "done" if you resist them and then you are in a heap of trouble in a foreign land. It wasn't worth the risk, to me anyway, I just let them have what they wanted and moved on. You wanna spend even 10 minutes in a Mexican jail, be my guest. I had to go down there to a border town - Juarez - and practically beg a judge to let a co-missionary go. I have no idea if the judge was corrupt or not, I am not willing to go that far with it. He wanted a fine paid for the man's "infraction". I had like $10 on me, that was it. I pleaded with this guy for half an hour before he finally agreed to take my $10 and let the man go.

I've had the Federales threated to imprison me on countless occasions. I have had the Mexican army pointing their assault weapons at my head, also talking about incarceration. This while I was a MISSIONARY.

I have no intentions of going back down to Mexico ANYTIME soon. Maybe never again.

Anyway, spent a good deal of time with my dad yesterday. He seems to be doing well. Okay, well enough as one can expect for a man his age. He has arthritis in a bad way, I guess that's the biggest malady that hinders him. Today is Caleb's graduation. I have the day off work (I hope, anyway, unless I get a phone call), I am going to spend more time with my dad and then tonight is the festivities. I DO hope it doesn't last 3 hours as some are claiming it might. A good hour, hour and a half is enough for me.

After today? Well, my dad is going to be around most of the day Friday. He planned it so that he would be here a day early and of course leave the next day, but later, at 5:00 pm I think he said the bus leaves. He is not living in Tucson yet, they moved most of their stuff their but I guess they are still in Sierra Vista dealing with the house and trying to get it painted, cleaned up professionally and ready to sell.

Anyway, I don't know what I am going to actually do on Friday, but since my dad will be over here, a bit more conversation is in order. I may go out and get started on that horse trough and getting it ready to fill up with water. Otherwise, I will wait until Saturday.

It's going to start getting very warm here and I would like to get that project done and over with before June, when on the first day of June it's slated to be 103, the next day 107 and then after that 111 and 110. Yep, dive right into the thick of gross heat right at the beginning of the month when it always starts getting like that.

Well enough. I have some store visits to do and phone calls to make.

G'day.

ben

Wednesday 5/25/2011

Not gonna be a long one here.
My dad showed up at the bus station this morning, contrary to my mother's ever-standing resolve to make him look and sound bad. She stated that "some family members have said they are going to show up to things like this before, but at the last minute they bow out of it and don't do anything". She was stating that my dad might not show up, even though he said he was going to.

This is the kind of talk that is directed towards my dad that I am very, very sick of hearing. I was going to say something to her about her constant negativity about my father, but I put a lid on it considering the event tomorrow with my son's graduation.

Anyway, took him to his hotel room, sat down and chatted with him for about an hour. We went to the mall - a block away - he forgot a pair of pants he was to bring and needed to buy another. A good thing, I guess, cause' I needed to buy a a pair of semi dress pants and shirt for the occasion as well.

Now? Well, I took a lazy Tuesday afternoon nap (things you can do on vacation: take naps when you normally wouldn't) and will be going to get my dad in about half an hour to go to Claim Jumper's. He loves that place and I can hardly put it down: it is a great steakhouse. That will be it for the evening with him, afterward take him back to his hotel room and then prepare for tomorrow's gala event. I hope it is, anyway.

The only monkey wrench that can be thrown into any of this is work. I was called this morning by my manager, who was pissed because the temp driver who was supposed to show up? Did not. The temp agency had talked to the guy the day before to ensure he was showing up, my manager called him this morning. The guy claimed that he had been told it was cancelled. The temp agency stated something completely opposite. In other words, full of BS. I offered to take out the load after I was done with my dad - gotta make concessions obviously - he said he would call me later if he needed me, he did not. So, I hope I don't get a call tomorrow cause' I expect to spend some time with my dad of whom I rarely ever see.

Anyway, that's the update. A bit of tension in the air, I think, as people who haven't been together in almost 30 years will be at least in close proximity to one another tomorrow. I have no idea how that's going to go, I fully expect, however, my family to behave, whoever shows up needs to keep emotion checked since this is about my son, not about any of us.

I can only hope that that will actually happen.

In the meantime?

G'day.

ben

Tuesday 5/24/2011

Tuesday
Harold Camping is making a mockery of Christianity. His "Judgment Day" prediction obviously fell flat on it's face. NOW he's saying that it was a "spiritual" judgment day and that the earth will be obliterated in 5 months. The worst part of what he is saying, though, is that "God's judgment and salvation were completed on Saturday" - meaning whoever is going to be with the Lord in 5 month is going and whoever isn't, isn't and there isn't going to BE anyone else saved from this point forth.

Look, you and I probably don't believe this bahooey. Who is this man to declare what God is and isn't doing? Worse, to tell the world that no-one else can be saved? And where does he come up with this 200 million number? There are what, over 6 billion people on this planet and only 200 million are going to be saved? The problem is the scores of people who WILL undoubtedly believe him.

I find this man's statement reprehensible at best. His prediction utterly failed, he should simply shut his stupid mouth at this point. He is leading people astray.

Doomsday preachers never accept the reality that they are false prophets when their predictions come and go and that is exactly what this man is: a FALSE PROPHET.

Okay, enough. I am not falling for his junk and neither are a vast majority of people and those that do, some would say, make their bed and lay in it. All well and good, but some people are simply vulnerable to fear and scare tactics, which is exactly what this man is using.

Anyway, last day of the work week for me and then off until Tuesday. Good luck to the temporary driver that is coming to replace me - he has to make a trip up to the mountains on Friday, hope he is a decent driver.

My dad called late last night and left a message - yes, he is coming, he'll be here at 10:35 am at the bus station, booked a room at the Best Western. Yes, I'll be there at the bus station and take him to the hotel and then whatever he wants to do. I don't think he's all that much into doing a lot of anything these days, do something and then go back and rest. I wish I had the time to get my newer car fixed, I would have the AC fixed and wouldn't have to tote my dad around in an old, beat-up clunker. But, since the AC works in that old beater and the temps are starting to warm up, well, best to do that I guess.

Hmmm, well I think my son is off from school. Maybe I should force him to take the thing in somewhere, since he's the one that's been driving it, and get it done. I don't even know where I am going to take the thing to have it fixed. Probably not the shop down the street from my work, they are good but they would charge me a small fortune to fix it. I can get it done cheaper elsewhere.

Umm, I have already run out of time.

G'day.

ben

Taxes

I was reading yesterday that the IRS has some sort of glitch going on in their system in getting tax return payments back to people that have filed their returns. Some people they are saying up to 4 months. GAG. I turned mine in a week before the deadline, so I'm only 5 weeks into this. Of course, when I filed the federal return, I also filed the state return.

Today, I go to the mailbox and see a letter from the Arizona State Department of Revenue. I start trembling, what are THEY doing sending me a letter before the Feds even have gotten to me?!! Then I started thinking: they don't do anything until the Feds figure out what's going on, at least from previous experience, which is, admittedly, a long time ago.

So, the shock of seeing an almost $1,500 check inside was a precious commodity. I mean, you don't get "shocked" that way every day. I need to get some things repaired around here, while still trying to keep a few pennies left over for emergency. The biggest need is to get the AC on my newer car fixed. I am not a glutten for punishment: driving around Phoenix, Arizona, in the summer without AC? You might as well be swimming in fire and brimstone. A car can get as hot as 150 degrees inside of it.

Oh, yes, I have my old car and it's AC works. Correct. It does, but now that I have this return, I am going to spend the $300 or $400 it's going to cost to get the AC fixed and then park the older car. Caleb will be gone for almost 2 months, when he returns home, he will get the old car and I will be back in my newer car, AC fixed and yes, I am also going to get the windows fixed as well.

I will be doing the rest of my tax returns after the Feds send me the 5 grand return and I will be sitting in a pretty pool of money, at least by my standards. Yes, I know, don't count your chickens before they hatch. Well, the State has hatched and unless they have changed it - ie: basing a return on whether the feds give it or not, I do expect the feds to be sending it out. I will have enough money then to cover using a regular accountant, I want someone to find every last penny that I can get. With carry overs I should be able to rake in over 15 grand. MY money, btw, not some grant or hand-out, money I have already paid into the system.

Well enough. Just happy to have some cash!

ben

Monday 5/23/2011

Monday
Heard on the radio on the way to work today:
"Were you one of the people who believe that Judgment Day was going to be on Saturday? Don't be discouraged, it isn't the end of the world". A dumb joke, yes, but oddly humorous, guess it must be the time of day, lol.

2 day work week this week and then off - from Tuesday afternoon until Tuesday morning next week. Not a lazy 6 days off, either, at least not Wednesday through Friday. I figure the weekend and the holiday on Monday are good time to recuperate from what may turn out to be an ordeal with the family, who knows.

I still haven't figured out what to get my son for both a birthday present (tomorrow) and a graduation present (Thursday). I think he's off of school for the summer. Of course, he is going to the Salvation Army thing for almost 2 months and then his employer has not only told him he will have a job when he comes back, but that they are going to promote him to cashier's position, which makes more money and probably a bit "funner" to do than pushing around shopping carts all over the place.

Which reminds me, Fry's Food Stores, the location at 48th Street and Baseline in Tempe, Arizona. Threw all that in there cause' I know those people have some sort of search going on to find comments about their stores. Lol. I went there yesterday and saw what out front of the store? Trash. Lots and lots of trash. Papers, bags and the trash receptacle overflowing with trash. Junk in the carts and on the ground? Hundreds of cigarette butts. I took pics of it with my camera phone and was going to send them to corporate - but - I couldn't insert pics into the communication thing they use to send them comments.
May 23, 2011 6:01 AM
Anonymous said...
Just what you want to see when you are about to walk into a store - a semi-landfill on the sidewalk in front of the store. I guess I think they would take a bit more pride and show a bit more respect towards their customers in making sure they have a clean environment. Certainly, I don't see that kind of junk laying around at other Fry's Food Stores locations.

Just throwing that out there. I have given that grocery chain a bad rap in this particular blog, deservedly so. Between the meat dude that wanted to get into a fist fight; the store advertising loss leaders that they didn't have in stock when you went to buy it (especially meats); and the unbelievably BAD "service" you get at the self-checkouts, yes, I have written a few negative things about that store. Now? They have yet ANOTHER general manager in that store. Is that the fourth one now?

Oh, when you do a search: Fry's Food Stores Piss Poor - you will find my blog entry right at the top : ) Yes, that makes me smile, since I have gone through years of crappy service at that particular store. It has gotten a bit better. For example, the other day I was in there and the stupid self-serve checkout made me wait for an attendant, again, even though I didn't ask for an attendant and didn't NEED an attendant.

A kid was up there at the screen, not doing anything. I mean kid as in something like a 17 year old with the customer service garb on, obviously an employee of the store. I just stood there, waiting for him to do something. He did NOTHING. Finally, another employee - one that knows me at this point - came up to the screen, brushed the kid out of the way saying "excuuuuse me, we need to get this moving here", and got right to dealing with the stalled process on my checking myself out.

I could say it was a good experience, but - why was that kid just standing there, doing nothing? He was - totally clueless.

Whatever. As I have said a few times now, I do MUCH less shopping at Fry's than what I used to and go to Walmart or other grocery chains that are having sales. That's my way of "protesting", even though I know Fry's couldn't care less where I shop. It's okay, I save more money that way by going to stores with sales on things I need. Still, it would be far easier just to do all of it at one place.......

Time to get on the clock - going up into yet another mine today, one I haven't been in yet. Might click a few photos if there are any worth clicking, this mine is in Superior, AZ.

G'day.

ben

Saturday 5/21/2011

There has been more hype about this "Judgment Day" thing than anything else going on! Radio talk show hosts have been mocking that guy for days (Camp, the dude that came up with this thing), people are proclaiming party time today and tomorrow, sort of a mockery.

Regardless, I am starting to feel an inkling better. Apparently takes a while for a drug that is giving you a bad time in your system to move on out.

Now I wish the pond liner were here, I could probably find enough energy to get it all done this weekend. Instead, I have several plants that have outgrown their pots. When I say that, I mean the roots are outside the bottom of the pots and growing all over the sides of them as well. They started falling over this week with the weight of extremely large leaves basically causing it to fall over. Didn't really want to get into repotting things this weekend, but I have no choice. It's that or they die off. I really don't want to lose my Taro, so, I'll go to the trouble.

Caleb had his final exams this week and from the report he gave, he passed with flying colors. So there you go. Good job and this coming week is going to be a hailstorm of activity related to such.

Well, I started writing this 10 hours ago and set it aside.

The day is done for me, I am getting sleepy and I am heading to the bedroom.

G'nite.

God bless you.

ben

Friday 2/20/2011

Friday

I guess I don't think we have any more business telling Israel what their borders should be as they would if they were to tell us something like, gee, shouldn't you give some of that land back to Mexico? This is a situation I do not believe we should be meddling and I do believe we should be giving full support to the Israeli's. I think Obama is pretty much a non-sequeter in the Middle East. He words are hollow because, up until bin Laden, he has done much of nothing.

As far as leadership, the man doesn't have it. He doesn't get it, either.

Whatever. Next week is going to be rather busy. But, 6 days off starting on Wednesday. Only 2 day work week. I'm going to have to figure out what to get my son for both a birthday and a graduation present. I think I'll find something that will serve for both. He leaves for the mountains on June 5th, according to him and his company has offered to let him take an extended leave of absence, meaning he will have a job when he comes back.

I guess that was my biggest concern. He was quitting one job to take a temporary gig with the Salvation Army up in the mountains. It is a paying job, yes, but it's temporary. Summer only and then it's over and - back to square one when he comes back. His first and only job - the one he is working at now, he has managed to keep and not get fired. So, he's already starting to build a work history, not bad for a 17 year old.

I did throw him a curve ball not too long ago: When you go to college, where are you going to live? He got a look on his face that was priceless. Welcome to the real world, it can be rough at first. In fact, it can be rough a lot. Just a matter of perspective, but I don't think you get that perspective til' you've been through the wringer a few times. After a few moments of some uneasiness, I declared he was welcome to stay with me and probably his mother would say the same thing, but. The but? You have to be going to school. If you aren't going to school, then probably it's time to head out on your own. I have a good kid, he has aspirations and he is working towards them, I don't think I will HAVE to kick him out, that progression will happen "naturally" - what kid wants to live with his parents forever? Ummm, the 30 something year old down the street. A glaring view of something that is completely unnatural.

Ummm, one drive in the semi to the south valley and that's it - so far - for today. Monday has a trip up to Globe, I always love those drives. I love driving in the mountains, which is opposed to many truck drivers who don't like it because of steep grades. Perhaps, but engine brakes work pretty well nowadays and I haven't had a close call on a mountain grade in over 2 decades.

Time's a runnin' out. Work day almost here. My 240 calorie breakfast is ready to eat. I am still eating Weight Watcher's frozen dininers at work instead of eating at - fill in the blank here - with high caloric intake and sodium content as well. Those low calorie dinners aren't the greatest, but they aren't NEAR as bad as they were a decade ago. Or remember when frozen dinners first came out? I thought they were the most disgusting crap to ever be put in to a dinner type of plate.

G'day.

ben

Thursday 5/19/2011

Thursday

Slept like a log last night.
Which was at least a bit surprising considering how I was feeling before going to bed last night. NOT good, thank you. It came to pass that I found out that probably, from the bumps and stuff going on with my throat, I am allergic to the antibiotics that they gave me to get rid of strep throat.

So now what? I dunno. Find a doctor - not just an urgent care doctor, a regular doctor and get on board. I'm at least half considering going to the doc that several people at work go to which is on the way home from work. A nice plus.

Dunno if they are taking anyone new, but I think I will find out today.

I don't really have a lot of time left. I was reading a post on Craigslist Phoenix in general community from a person asking for help , when I realized that I KNOW this person. Her son has been burned and has serious medical problems and she lost her job. In other words, she's broke. Dunno that I can help her - maybe a few bucks - but I can back up her statements by posting an ad giving some kind of validity to her statements. People love to scoff people asking for help on Craigslist.

SOME of those people asking for help ARE just lifelong beggars, people who don't want to do anything, especially don't want to have anything to do with the dreaded W word: WORK.

I guess it is all too easy to let the government "work" for you, giving you all kinds of benefits such as free rent subsidies, food stamps and even cash allowances, not to mention free medical care.

I shun such ideas and even moreso that it's any way to "live" your life. That isn't living. I understand there are people that are physically incapable of working, we should help those people, but the masses of people I see at the grocery stores using the quest cards - food stamps via debit card - do not appear to have any problems at all.

You can easily spot these people without seeing their card first, either. They are pushing a shopping card around LOADED with groceries. Sometimes there are two shopping cards loaded with stuff. You figure hundreds of dollars worth. Then you see the card. It's a free life, I guess. It makes me mad, really. I know in the end, the money automatically removed from my paychecks twice or three times a month depending on the month is paying for that. If there were ever a case for reform, food stamps and HUD housing with free rent subsidies are at the top of my list. Free medical up there as well - at least for illegal aliens.

Well whatever, it's too early to be getting this fired up. Saturday is only 2 days away and it will be the end of the world. I really am not making the belief that Christ is going to return, I firmly believe that. I just think it humorous that these people allow themselves to be deceived to the point that one man's numerical system has firmly identified, at least in his view, the date of His return and further, that this person apparently must be charismatic because he has a lot of people duped into believing it.

In reality? This stuff comes and goes all the time. People think they know "The Date" and they attempt to get a rallying effort going with it. I don't know what sets off one person's notion over another's in this arena, but this guy has definitely put his money where his mouth is, he has spent his life savings, if the stories in the news are true, in attempting to let the world know.

The fact of the matter is, mainstream Christianity has flatly rejected his statements and I mostly tend to side with the mainstream on issues such as this. NOT always, but usually.

And, of course, my son's big week coming up. I have a total of 6 consecutive days off coming up. The scuffle at work about the main branch not being able to send a driver over here has been eliminated. They are going to simply hire a temp driver to take my place while I am gone.

Well, I'm offa here, time is up.

G'day.

ben

Wednesday 5/18/2011

Wednesday

"Former Sen. Rick Santorum said Tuesday that Sen. John McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years enduring brutal treatment at the hands of his North Vietnamese captors, doesn't know how effective waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques can be. "

ROFL!!! I about spit out my coffee when I read this statement earlier. The humor of the statement should be self explanatory, if it is not, I can't help you.

The news of the day - and many days before it - is the mess going on along the Mississippi river. Just read a story about people that are evactuating their homes - stating they don't have flood insurance and the now-opened Mongonzola floodway is going to submerge their homes.

I don't know what to say about that, I can only pray for the situation.

I was awakened this morning at about 3:45 am by a very grotesque smell: dog crap on my floor. One of them had diarhea and apparently decided to not wake me up. I have been awake ever since then. You can't just say: gee, I'll clean that up when I get out of bed; or, gee, I'll just wait until I get home.

I spent well over an hour cleaning it off the walls - Duke stepped in it on his way out, splashing it all over the place and making the problem 50 times worse than what it originally would have been - and using the carpet cleaning machine to get it out of the carpet. The carpet in my bedroom needs replaced, is all I can say about that.

Between the dogs and the kids that used to live with me, well, it's pretty much a done deal.

Nice way to wake up, or the: the best part of waking up is dogs*** in your cup!! Oh, that's a modified Folgers song, well anyway.......

Busy day at work yesterday and the day before, today? Nothing in the system, at all.

The kid tenant comes up to me yesterday and informs me he has been laid off. He asserts he has already started looking for a new job. That's good, because he still owes me $200 for this month's rent. The female Army reservist has paid me nothing this month. She will be getting a notice today, it's what, the 18th? In fact, the couple are the only ones paid up.

I'm not in a very giving mood at this point: pay your rent or find a new home. I can't afford it. Summer is almost here and so are the electric bills that go along with it. Without tenants paying - on or close to on-time - we are all going to be living in a warm house, is all I can say about that.

Well, whatever. I'm just looking at photo after photo of the water flooding out homes and businesses along the Mississippi. I hope the federal government, that seems to have "endless" money to throw away at stupid nonsense, might find some of that money to help the people who are now going to be homeless. Or better yet, the American public pulls together once again and starts making donations to the organizations that can and will make a difference. I'm guessing the Red Cross is already in the middle of all of it, helping as much as they can. And yes, I would definitely make a donation, in fact, I would have to guess they already have an account set up for this.
The Red Cross came to my aid when my house burned down and I will never forget that and the generosity and help they gave during a very difficult time.

What, 8 days away. My son graduates in 8 days. Life without my son being around, that will be different. I don't know if he's planning on living with his parents when he goes off to college or - will he be able to find a job that will support him enough to be able to go out on his own?

I have no idea. I do know that the work day is almost here and I must be offa here.

G'day.

ben

Tuesday 5/17/2011

I got to work this morning, started a pot of coffee brewing, sat down at the work computer and the phone rang. It was my manager. He had forgotten to call me the day before. He was coming in early to get me out on the road early. Lots of orders, lots of deliveries, lots of pickups. Got it all done and then some.

So, that's why there wasn't an "entry" in my comments line from yesterday's posting. No biggies.


"Passengers were finally towed back to Sweden by tug boats Monday."
That line was posted on an article about a cruise ship whose electricity went out, causing the engines to fail. In fact, causing everything to fail, apparently. I had visions of passengers in the water with ropes around them being pulled by tugboats. Must be some pretty BIG passengers to need an entire tugboat to tow them back to shore!

Okay, I'm not really in much of a mood to write a blog entry. Drove all day long, no breaks, got off work, went straight home. The only thing I have tended to today is the ponds. Someone cleaned the entire public areas of the house, very nice indeed. Don't have to worry about that. Dogs are fed.

I think I'll go to my bedroom and watch some TV, maybe doze off. I have one more pill left of the antibiotics, definitely taking that and considering whether to go back to the doc again tomorrow.

G'day.

ben

Monday 5/16/2011

Monday

I can safely say that I am not even close to being over this strep throat junk. Not that I called into work sick, but I felt like it.

So, I got a call Friday afternoon after I got home - and that was late because I had been to 2 different Urgent Care centers, got checked up, plus went to the pharmacy after work.

A contractor - this particular individual is the most sour-attituded man I have ever encountered in my life - called and said a part was missing.

I was being blamed for the "f...up" they were calling it. This guy called the salesman downtown, who must have gotten every form of management on earth to call my manager who in turn, called me.

On our delivery tickets - that we also pull the orders from - it shows the quantity ordered and the quantity we are actually going to ship. Often times, we don't have enough of any given product and so even though the contractor orders a X amount, we can only give what we have. The rest shows as being on backorder.

Well, fortunately, the pull ticket I was using to pull this order was sitting here this morning when I got into work. I went straight to the line item where this "f-up" occured. There it was. Backordered. Quantity ordered, 2, quantity on-hand, according to our system: 0, quantity on backorder - 2. There was also a PO attached to it. When I see a P.O. (purchase order) attached, that tells me we are getting the product from somewhere else.

On this ticket, there are a LARGE number of backordered materials with P.O.'s attached. This isn't abnormal. So what's the problem? The problem is that we had one here that should have shipped. The system, for whatever reason, showed both of them being backordered instead of showing 1 shipping and 1 on backorder, as it should have.

I am not in control nor am I in charge of the "system". Whatever it says, that's what we go off of. Why it showed them both on backorder when it shouldn't have - no clue. But, for my part, this is NOT anything that I screwed up on, thank you very much. If the powers that be want to find out why this is happening, that will be great, but I will take umbrage to any statements by anyone that I screwed up.

Well, now that I have that out of my system....an Airbus A330 engine on fire. I think that would probably scare the bleep out of me, too, especially if you happen to be sitting in a row where you can see the flames shooting out the back of the engine. Houston, we have a problem. Here's what I thought cool about it: the story says many of the passengers began praying and shouting to God for his protection.

Yeaaaaaah! I wouldn't even think about it, pray pray pray, ask for divine intervention. At least no-one was hurt, the plane landed safely, alls well that ends well, at least in this case.

Countdown to the end of the world, lol: 5 days. I read an article about the man spending his entire life's savings to put up the warnings. The end of the world, I suppose, could happen any day - but, I have serious doubts about this. He claims it will happen before 6:00am. The 21st is this coming Saturday, so, go to bed Friday night and be awakened by a giant, world-wide earthquake, at least according to the dude that came up with all of this.

Dogs. I am tired this morning. Prince - the black Great Dane - kept waking me up last night. I finally just left him out. He was having internal problems coming out the back end in the form of liquid. Fortunately, that stuff ended up outside, not in my bedroom or anywhere else in the house. I'll give him credit for waking me up instead of doing what they used to do: go into my bathroom and dump all over the floor in there when they have diarhea. I still got upset for being awakened so many times and yes, he was banished to the outside of my bedroom door after the third time.

My new pond liner should be here later this week. I paid for it from the proceeds of selling off 2 of the ponds that I wasn't using. I will be selling another pond as well, the one I am shutting down.

I'm sorta kicking myself right now, though. I will have to move the pond I am shutting down out of the way to put the horse trough there. Well, where am I going to put the fish and the plants while I'm doing that? I should have kept one pond so I could fill it up with water and temporarily put the fish and plants in there, pumping the water out of the pond being shut down into the temporary pond.

So, it means pumping the water into the horse trough. Moving the other pond, pumping the water back into the other pond, putting the horse trough where that pond was and pumping the water yet again into the horse trough. I have a 1,000 gallon per hour pump, I guess it won't take that long, but it's still going to be a pain.

However, I consider it will be worth the trouble as this horse trough is 400 gallons and holds a lot more water than the pond it is replacing, which only holds 165 gallons. More room for the fish to move around in, once I get the pond established I will move some of the bigger Koi from the other pond into it as well.

Once I sell the 3rd pond, I will use that money and get a small container that can be used for fish displacement instead of having to go through all of this trouble.

Umm, anyway, work day is here, I must be offa here.

G'day.

ben

Sunday 5/15/2011

I am feeling worse than before I started taking the antibiotics. My head is aching and I am starting to get some chest congestion. I'm not even sure the strep throat and what else is going on in my body are even related. There is all kinds of junk floating around right now in terms of sickness, I suppose it's possible I have more than one going on at the same time.

Meaning I am not going to get a lot done today. I did manage to clean out 2 of the pond filters yesterday, trying to sum up the energy to clean out the 3rd.

Dunno. Anyway, one of my tenants that paid most of the rent for this month - but was short - bought me a 2 for 1, $40 pot roast. So, I have one of them in the slow cooker right now. Slices of bacon on the bottom of the cooker, topped by potatoes and carrots, roast on top of that. A bag of pearl onions and large mushrooms, sliced in half on top of that. I wanted to cut up a white onion and put that in there as well, but the cooker is full. Made a mixture of beef broth and tomato paste, poured that on top of everything. I also seared the roast in a frying pan with some oil to darken the meat and of course rubbed various seasons onto the surface of it.

I am going to slow fry the onion later on when the roast is nearing completion. I'll actually like them cooked that way better than in the cooker, anyway.

Uhhh, one of my tenants walked by a few minutes ago, all dressed up. What's up? Going to pick up a dead body. Gag. Have fun with that. I'll think of you when we are picking it up. I'm not sorry to say that I don't think I would much care for that type of job.

I found the cheapest pond liner on the net I could find - and trust me, I went to a lot of site - and ordered it. An Amazon provider, it was cheaper with shipping than anything I could find on Ebay. I can do nothing with my new setup until the liner arrives and I get it installed into the horse trough.

Another bicyclist killed by being struck by a car. This happens frequently around here. I would offer cyclists some advice, but I am sure they won't heed it. I'll give it anyway: when you are riding a bicycle on a major surface street and there is bicycle lane, stay in it. Don't veer out of it and into harm's way. I don't get why they have their own lane and many times refuse to stay in it. If I were riding a cycle, I am pretty sure I wouldn't want to risk my life out in open traffic. Then, there are the cyclists that are on a street with no bicycle lane. This isn't against the law, obviously, but attempting to take up an entire lane is. Not only that, it isn't very smart. I see them all the time, riding in the middle of a lane on a very busy street. It's a wonder there aren't even more of them killed out there.

I'm so ready to not only move out of this neighborhood, but move out of the city of Phoenix as well. The city government doesn't want to deal with it's budget mess by finding ways to do it from within, instead, they just want to continue to raise taxes and fees. Most notably is the water rate. They seem to want to raise it every single year. I'm half inclined to run for City council myself. Not that I would win, but who knows.

Jumping around - my roast is cooking very nicely. Another 5 or 6 hours and it's done, lol. Huge roast, longer cooking time in a slow cooker.

G'day.

ben

Saturday

As with most pills I take, these antibiotics are giving me strange sensations. But, I can't not take them - strep throat isn't anything to play around with. And anyway, it was only 2 pills yesterday and then 1 pill a day for the next 4 days. I am not going to do much of anything this weekend, rest/relax and try to get over this.

But, the ponds need some maintenance, more specifically, the filtration systems. All 3 of them need cleaned out and I can't just let it go. To do that means risking the health of the fish, so, I am going to get out there and get the big one done, come back later do the next one and then the third one will be easy. It's small and only takes a few minutes to clean out.

I upped the war in the diet realm. I quit eating Subway altogether and am buying the Weight Watchers frozen meals for lunch at work. The meals are no higher than 300 calories a piece with relatively low fat content. Yesterday, I ate around 1,000 calories - which ain't a lot, folks.

I ate a WW meal at about 6:00 am, the ate again around 4:30 pm - 10-1/2 hours later - and then had another small meal a couple hours after that and that was it. Today, I have eaten a small meal already and then don't plan to eat again until mid afternoon. Then, have another small meal at around 6:00 pm and that will be it, again.

My mother just called me and told me my sister-in-law's birthday is today. I have no relationship with my oldest brother, I haven't seen him in over a year, I think. No love lost there. I might call and wish a happy birthday, anyway, just because. I am not holding anything against them, it's them that want nothing to do with the family. They have their own world and their friends apparently are their family. They also have a cabin up in the mountains. I don't get it and I never will, but I have come to terms with it and have resolved myself to the fact that having any kind of relationship with either of my brothers is out of the question. In other words, I gave up trying. This isn't a pity party and I'm not feeling sorry for myself - at all. Just cold facts.

Anyway, I am headed up to the store. Need some clamps for my new UV sterilizer to install it on the big pond. If I had the energy, I would start the process of getting the pond liner, installing it into the horse trough I bought and then removing everything from the medium sized pond, including the fish, pumping that water into the horse trough - the water is "conditioned" and "cycled" - it's better for the fish and why waste the water? - and then going and catching all those fish out of the big pond and putting them in the trough. It will take a weekend - a full weekend - to do all of that. I don't have the liner yet, I just found it today on Craigslist. I am spending the cash I got when I sold the 2 pre-formed liners earlier this week to buy the flexible liner for the trough.

So, another project coming my way, sometime soon.

Well, just before I run completely out of motivation, I better get up and get this stuff done.

G'day.

ben

Friday (The Thirteenth) 5/13/2011

Apparently Blogger magically decided to come back up. I mean, did anyone else have this trouble? I didn't search the internet to find out if it was a system wide failure, no clue. This is what I hate about these sites. You can lose everything you have posted in the blink of an eye. JS - all of us former users of that site know that all too well.

I don't know if anything is lost, I guess I don't care that much anymore. If it is, it is.

Today. Driving all over the place in the semi. Down south, up in the mountains. I was already 4 and something minutes over my hours starting today, I didn't lose much in getting off a bit early. That's cause' though I got off early by an hour, I didn't take a break and now? The computer asks you if you took a break or not. No, in fact, I did not. I was working from the time I got to work til' the time I left.

Nice drive in the mountains, even if I wasn't feeling well.

That's the next thing. My neck has been sore for about a week and a half now. That's how I am describing it - soreness. Hard to move my head around. Hard to swallow. Lots and lots of mucous being produced. Today - was much worse than any day before, which is why I decided to go to an urgent care place and have myself checked out.

The first place I went to? The woman behind the counter was cold, calculated and acted as if the customer were an imposition. Not that she was busy - there wasn't anyone else there. There was a sign that had a legal notice: if there isn't a doctor in, this sign must be posted, yada yada yada. The person doing the work is a "physician's assistant". This, I find out, after filling out 4 pages worth of paperwork.

Guess what? I'm not interested. I have gone to several of these places in the past that don't have doctors attending and I have not gotten any kind of diagnosis. I waste my time, energy and money going in there. They aren't giving you your $50 co-pay back if they can't figure out what's wrong. I asked the lady about the assistant status: what does THAT mean? She brushed it off and didn't even answer my question. I asked her again: I want to know what qualifications this person has - or more importantly - does NOT have since it isn't a real doctor? I am not paying anything less, I want to know.

She refused to answer the question. She wanted my co-pay. I asked her if I would get my money back if this person couldn't figure out what was wrong? She went into a two-step - pretty good one too for anyone that wanted to listen: I did not. It would have been helpful if she would have at least been friendly and congenial. Who wants to go into a doctor's office (with not doctor present to boot) and have some sour puss at the front desk?

NOT me. She offered my card back, I reached to get it, she then went into another discussion, I just said thanks, but no thanks, please give me my card back, delete my information and I'll be leaving. I have my doubts the information was deleted, to be honest. I didn't complain to management, I just left to go to another one of these places.

I never even looked back. In fact, I didn't care. I don't do business at any other establishment that treats you in such a way, why should I tolerate it at a medical care facility? I will not.

Next place? Very nice people. Makes it easier to hand over the $50 co-pay and yes, I asked right up front: is there an actual DOCTOR here? Yes, they said, a doctor and a PPA (or something, I didn't pay that much attention). I was fine with that, even if the non-doctor saw me, if that person couldn't figure out what's going on, please send in the doc. Oh, and they didn't get offended by my asking if there was a doctor. Fully 3 people had big smiles and great attitudes. If I have to go back to an urgent care center again, I will be going back to that one.

I tell the guy what's going on. I have no fever - or if I do I don't know it - I'm not feeling well; my neck hurts and I showed him the places where soreness was concentrated; I am having some difficulty swallowing; producing a lot of mucous. He started feeling everything, of course and said he thought my thyroid glands were enlarged. He stated, though, that a nurse was going to come in and take a swab off my throat to see if I have strep throat. Okay.

Well, this nurse certainly got the better on me: I had NO clue she was going to stick that thing THAT far down my throat!! Open your mouth, say ahhhh: AHHHHHH - GURGGGGLE GAG!!

10 minutes later the doctor comes in and says I have strep throat. He said probably lymph nodes or something that he was feeling and that he was going to prescribe me an antibiotic and it should take care of the problem. If not, then I should have my thyroid looked at again, but, don't bother doing that until you take all the antibiotics and see if that doesn't solve the problem.

I guess I have walked around the planet for 2 weeks with strep throat. I asked and they told me: highly contagious. Great, guess I should stay away from people and warn whoever's around me. I don't like going to the doctor, I never have. They want to probe you in places that shouldn't be probed. They ask you personal questions that I don't want to answer. You are a machine to them that needs to be fixed. If you want to be fixed, you really have to be completely open to them, much like the computer on your car will transmit codes to tell a mechanic what is wrong.

I'm not saying doctors aren't compassionate - well some aren't - they are usually very caring people. It's just the whole scenario. A cold place. Put on this "gown". Hold out your arm. Bend over, we gonna check your prostrate. Gag.

Thanks doc, as I'm getting off the lift and walking out of the mechanic's shop and into the shop office. Lol, I know, a bit overkill, but that's the way I think they look at it. I open the door and hear a voice behind me but I didn't hear what she said. I walked back in, did I need to do anything else? Oh no, she said very sweetly, you're good, just said goodbye. Oh, well thank you and have a great day!

Off to CVS pharmacy. That's the pharmacy that is "ordained" by our company's medical and that's what I am going to use - lower price. In this case? I was amazed: 4 bucks and change for the antibiotics. I ended up walking around the store and found some deals. I don't normally shop at CVS - the last time I went was several years ago and I thought their prices were way high. However, the deals were things I needed and yes, I think I'm a fairly savvy shopper, I am very price conscious and I watch the prices on EVERYTHING that I buy, store those prices in my head and look through all the ads to see if any deals are available. I don't get a flyer from CVS, hence, I have no idea what their deals are.

Anyway, that was $50 well spent - though - I need to find a primary care doctor and get the option for $25 co-pays instead of $50 at urgent care centers.

Took my first pill 6 plus hours ago, taking another now and then one per day for 4 days after today. Do I feel better? After only 6 hours and walking around with this for almost 2 weeks - no - and I wasn't offered pain medication. Would have turned it down. I don't like the stuff, it is usually way too powerful and knocks me out. If I'm REALLY bad then I will ask for it. I decided a couple of drinks would do the trick and yes, they did. I am still feeling the effects, but not near as bad.

I just read a site on it. The stuff I was given is not always effective, but I can't take Penicillin, apparently that's what they normally give for this stuff. I am allergic to penicillin and have been warned that I may have have anaphylaxis as a result. My first and only time with penicillin I was covered with huge hives and was sick for almost 2 weeks.

So, I hope this stuff works. Some stuff that starts with an A. Arithsomethingoranother.

I will say that one of the symptoms I am having is quite prevalent: white patches surrounded by red. VERY visible and quite ugly, to say the least, on my neck.

I am going to bed.

Hope you all had a good week.

ben

ING Savings

I've been using them for a while. I'll save up what money I can - and then boom - something happens and I have to use it.

I recently closed my Compass checking account but already had a Chase checking account opened to replace it. The problem? Of course, you have to change all the information on all of your online accounts and in this case, my account with ING Savings.

Well, inputting the information was easy enough. But then, we got to the "verification" stage. You could do it instantly online or some other option that would take a while to get done. Well, I want to start saving right away, I don't want to wait. So, I opted for the instant verification.

It apparently has access to your credit file and gives you multiple choice questions about things like an auto loan, where you are or have lived, things like that. On 2 of them, none of the answers on there were correct, so I clicked none of the above. I had a bad feeling about doing that, but I carefully scrutinized the question and the answers, none of them were correct.

I clicked the field to verify and what comes back? We're sorry, we could not verify your information, we are going to do whatever it is they are going to do and you will not be able to do anything with this link - they call them links, the banking accounts you have connected to the savings account you have with ING - for 15 days. FIFTEEN days? The other option was to snail mail the information in for the verification.

SCREW both of those options. I called them up, there was nothing they could do, so they said. I said fine, cancel the account, there are a lot of savings institutions online nowadays, one of them will be happy to take money from my checking account and deposit into their account. The funny thing is, they didn't even TRY to keep me as a customer. I found that unusual, but I didn't care, either. Perhaps lots of people close their accounts with them every day, who knows.

I opened one up with another bank of which I now cannot access my account. Are you serious? It's asking me verification questions because I am a new customer. The problem with THESE questions are they are questions that you would answer when you open the account, not taken off your credit file. No such option was given when I opened it, it just took me through the process and that was that. Do I close this account, too? Not if they will fix it over the phone. I have an internet account for a reason, so I cannot access my money immediately, making it difficult to get to my savings so that it really has to be something needed now to get it. But also, if I have a problem, I can call them up and have them deal with it.

We'll see what happens, is all I can say about that. I found numerous more online savings banks. If all else fails, I'll open up a savings account with a bank offering the incentive to do so at their place of business and make sure that that bank has the ability to transfer funds from my Chase savings account to their savings account. Why not do it with Chase and just have 2 accounts there?

Cause', they only incentive they are giving is a cash offer if you open up a savings account with $5,000 in it. Heck, I'd take a free toaster like they used to give out in the old days over nothing! Do you remember those days? It was a big deal to get that free toaster!

ben