Church

I had absolutely no desire to go to church today. I am forcing myself to go whether I feel like it or not. I was tired - I slept in too late and over sleeping isn't really a good thing as not getting enough sleep is. But, I stayed for the 2 hours and 15 minutes the service went on for and left.

No, I did not stay for the meal after the service. 2 reasons. First, I am still struggling with the idea of starting all over again with new relationships, starting from scratch after basically being forced out of a church in which I had spent an entire decade forging relationships. In case you don't know, building relationships is time consuming and costs a lot of energy. Not that the end result isn't worth it, but I just balk at the idea of having to do this ALL over again.

Perhaps my idea of finding a church where I don't know ANYONE wasn't such a good idea after all. Whether it was or wasn't, I'm there and have been for about 2 months now, no turning back, I don't think. I'm thinking along the lines of possibly volunteering in the church - let's get real: start small - and perhaps that will get me to thinking a bit differently about this. To this end I emailed the pastor about perhaps finding some small thing in which I could volunteer. Probably won't hear back from him anytime soon, they are on their way out to Missouri. His wife's mother passed away and the Memorial is going to be there, in Missouri instead of Florida, where the mother lived.

Second, in terms of eating: I have that Sea Bass in the fridge and fish doesn't last very long unless you freeze it. I did put one bag of it in the freezer yesterday with the intention of eating the rest in the other bag today. Which is exactly what I did. Yummmm, yummmm. I've seen Sea Bass on menus at finer restaurants for years now, but for some reason I would not even try it. Now that I have eating several pounds of the stuff, well, I won't turn down an opportunity whenever it may arise again to try it from the chef's hand.

Changing the subject, Lynnette came in earlier with a look on her face. Had no clue, how can I help you? She had a $20 in her hand. I have been adamant about them paying for the cooling of that trailer with AC if that's what they wanted to do. I am not going to shell out any more money for electricity than I am already, currently doing.

What I AM willing to do is run them up a tab. They pay whatever extra they can afford and if it doesn't cover it for that week - which I am guessing is going to happen - they can put that on a "House Tab" and pay for it at a future date. I am guessing about another month and a half of AC is needed before it cools down enough that AC is not necessary. I wish/dream/hope it would be sooner than that, but I am being realistic.

Okay, actually, before then it should be cool at night and need AC during the late morning to late afternoon. Historically? The end of October is when it's 80 highs or lower and then much lower lows. Well, I turned the power onto that trailer and got the AC cranking, putting the temp setting about midway. It will take half the day for it to cool down in there enough for it to be comfortable enough to move into. Just like the house, it can take quite a lot of time for an AC unit to overcome 110/120/130 inside temps. Once it GETS it there, the compressor will work much less, it's the getting it there part that takes quite a while. When my AC broke down 2 years ago in the middle of summer, it took about 12 hours of the compressor running continuously before it finally cycled off and the house was actually cool. After that? Well,l the walls aren't boiling hot, therefore causing a lot of heat to come in, the house is cool and the system doesn't have to run as hard. I suggested to them to put styrofoam on the windows, tacky looking or not - which would help keep a lot more cool air in and the heat out.

Speaking of heat, the National Weather Service has put an "excessive heat warning" out for Monday through Thursday!! Gag!!! Nothing like ending out August in a blaze, a literal blaze at that!

There's nothing else. A long time lapse since I started this entry, things happening but not worth getting into.

ben

Saturday 8/20/2011

So the trailer tenants find a phone laying on the ground today. They bring it home and - hadn't actually done anything to find it's owner. So, I ask them to get the phone and I will start calling contacts on it to find out who the owner is and try to get it back to that person. I call several numbers - dad, mom, a couple of most recent calls, no answer.

Then the phone rings. Guy demanding the phone back, wants to come over and get it. Lynnette had answered. But she had listened to the previous messages, it wasn't a guy's phone, it at least seemingly belongs to a woman from the messages. So I just told her to hang up on him. She did and shut the phone off. Well - I get done with what I am doing which is installing an outdoor electrical panel - a story in itself - and I get the phone and turn it back on.

The guy calls again. That is MY phone!! Oops, forgot a part here: I had called a number named Nicole and this guy had called back, saying it was his phone. I didn't know WHOSE phone it was, trying to sort it out. The guy gets mad - out of the blue - and starts cussing me out!! I'm like: you want your phone back, if it IS yours, and you are cussing ME out?!!! He cussed me some more and then I got mad. I'm only human. I told him if he wanted to act that way, I would smash the phone into a million pieces and dump into the trash can.

And then I hung up on him, turned the phone off and removed the battery. But, I decided after a while to put the battery back and and turn the phone back on. Phone rings again. This time a woman speaks. She says it's his phone but the account is in her name. On and on. This is Nicole, not some dude. They are a couple, have kids, want the phone back. Great, I said, I will be taking it to the Cricket store and you can get it from there. She starts preaching to me: you sound like a "nice" person and starts going into how we should forgive each other.

Great, but this isn't about forgiveness, I respond, and please don't start preaching to me: this is about MY safety. I am NOT going to meet up with you anywhere after that guy got mad and cussing, certainly you aren't getting my address to come pick it up. It's amazing how brazen these people were. Yes, it is not my phone, but yes, if I lost my phone I wouldn't act all cocky or bitchy and start cussing people out. I would, instead, be thankful that they found and that they were willing to give it back!!

Whatever. Today's dealing was to install the outdoor panel. Which meant going to Home Depot and buying 50 amp line to go from the 200 amp panel to the outdoor panel. Plus related items. The worst part was trying to feed a line from the indoor panel down through the wall and to a rather small hole 4-1/2 feet below. I crawled under the house something like 8 times to get this done. The whole thing was an ordeal, really, but it is done now.

The need? Power up the new trailer, AC included. No AC, no problem. Could use existing outdoor plug-in that came with my house. But this thing draws more amps than that thing provides and it trips the breaker. I have no idea - yet - how much money's worth that thing is going to drain. I made it clear from the beginning that they would have to pay for the extra electricity, which could be up to $5 extra a day - or more, who knows. I will find out the draw on it tomorrow when I use the electronic gadget I got from the power company.

Enough of that. Supposed to be a meal of some sort after the service at church tomorrow. This might give me a bit more opportunity to meet more of the people there and maybe start some conversations.

My 9 days off is almost over. Sunday marks the 9th consecutive day off. I could take off another week and it wouldn't bother me in the least. But, that isn't the way life goes, at least for me anyway, so back to work it is. It's been nice, is all I can say. I have plenty more hours, I will be taking more time off later on this year. Either at Thanksgiving or at Christmas and probably a 3 day weekend or 2 in between. Labor Day weekend is coming up early next month, that will be a 3-day weekend. That's - 2 weeks I think without looking at a calendar.

Other things going on, but this is enough.

Good evening.

ben

Friday 8/19/2011

Well, hoping for the tax return to arrive in the mail was a waste of time. I checked on it through the IRS online checker - it isn't even going to be sent out until the 26th.

Meanwhile, I am getting more bites on the room. Someone is supposed to come over today to look at it, plus a couple of more who want to see it tomorrow. Hopefully I will get that room rented out soon.

Meanwhile, the other room with the Army reservist who has disappeared? Well she came in and moved a bunch of stuff out, apparently, while I was on vacation. Great, but she didn't finish the job and I need her stuff out of there as I have a person that wants to move in at or before the end of the month. I have subsequently posted a notice of abandonment on her door since her situation meets all of the legal criteria and since it's obvious she is leaving. Why she is playing games, I don't know, it would be easier if she would just get all of her stuff out of there now and be done with it.

As for the Quik Trip incidents, well, that is now being taken care of. No, I have not spent much time on this one - at all. This morning I have received a couple of phone calls from a couple of individuals from both their corporate and district office. QT's do not operate - or are not supposed to operate - in the manner in which the series of incidents occurred. I'll see what actually happens in the near future.

Just showed the room. A couple getting divorced, wanting to alternate weeks living in the room and spending the other time with their kids (they are keeping their house and alternating back and forth by the week with the kids). Interesting situation to say the least. I could tell when they left, though, that they were not interested in it. Another guy coming to look at it later. I have gotten pretty good at determining who is really interested and who is not.

At this point in today, Caleb has been at his job for 2 hours and 15 minutes. They have him down for learning how to operate/run a register. If he stays there a bit longer this time, he will undoubtedly start earning more money. But, at his age, life is about the experience and I believe the Lord has a great experience in store for him! No telling what direction it will go, but if it's in ministry, I will FULLY support him in such and that is that.

I cooked up some of that Sea Bass a while ago. I have never had Sea Bass. I put a few spices on it and cooked it on low heat with olive oil. Wow!!! I am having more in a little while is all I can say about that!! I will be trying the "orange" fish tomorrow.

This entry a work in progress. Caleb returned home, excited about his prospects. He received rave reviews from management of his first day back at work. He had done things other employees at his level wouldn't do. Okay, willingness, a good sign. They offered to train him as a cashier, he obviously accepted.

There is more, but I don't feel like it. I started this entry this morning and now? It's 9:00pm. Lol.

G'nite.

ben

Thursday 8/18/2011

We went to bed at 9:00 last night at the motel and got up at 7:00 am. That is how tired out we were. I was still thinking about going to Sea World anyway, even though my head was "swirling about", I figured get me a couple of cups of coffee and I would be good. Caleb got up and asked if we were leaving. I said no, not right away. Well, what are we doing, then?

I had asked him the day before if he wanted to go to Sea World and he definitely wanted to go. But looking at him this morning and hearing his tone of voice and "body suggestions", I figured out quickly that he was not into doing anything but going home. I brought up the subject but gave an out. He smiled and said yes, rather go home. In looking at him - I quickly assessed that going to Sea World all day long and then coming home and then - trying to go to work tomorrow probably would not be a good idea, so I said let's go - home that is!

Not much more to the trip home, I offered to let him drive and he didn't want to. No biggies, I get the trip over with much faster, lol.

A few things I didn't offer in the last entry, mostly cause' I was bone tired and didn't want to write anymore.

There is a rest area not far after you get into California. It is in the middle of the Interstate. It is desert and it is ugly. I pulled in there to go to the bathroom and another 2 vehicles worth of people also pulled in at the same time. They got out of their car and were giving me some strange looks. It was pretty weird and at least slightly uncomfortable. I went to the glorified outhouse, took care of business and came back out. They walked quickly away from my car as I came out of the restroom.

They then fixed their gaze on me. I was wondering if maybe I should have put the S&W40VE in the trunk after all. They neither looked nice or evil, it was REALLY strange. I got in the car and Caleb said they had come over and were taking pics of him and the car. ??? I sat there and looked at them. They were not from the states, I came to the conclusion after finally hearing them talking in some language I did not recognize and observing the vehicles they were in are rented. I blew it off, no aggression, just extreme curiosity. I didn't get it, but they weren't asking so we took off. That was on the way into California, not out.

The woman in the elevator. I was on my way down from the 2cd floor of the motel and got into the elevator with this black woman who was already in it. I did a triple take. This was no woman. "She" had long, black hair, painted lips, eyebrows, eyelashes, a top like a woman's and women's style jean cutoffs on - but this was no woman. This person was clearly a man by the bone structure and muscle, definitely not a woman at all. Just the curious things you see in life, I said nothing and "she" met with another - one - out in the parking lot.

People in general. There was an extremely obnoxious man on the fishing boat. I heard him talking to others - close quarters how can you not - and it was pretty disgusting talk coming from his lips. I made it a point to steer clear of him.

I did, however, get into conversations with all kinds of people on that boat. None of the people I talked to were from anywhere else, they all live in or near San Diego. Curious that there were no other vacationers there, at least I thought so. A man was smoking a cigar. I had thought about bringing one but then thought they probably don't allow smoking. Half the people there were smoking, what was I thinking? That guy came up to me and we struck a conversation. He said he had an old cigar left that was probably dry, but I was welcome to it. Yup, I even offered to pay for it, but he just handed it to me with a lighter and I enjoyed the thing. Real nice older guys on the boat, too. One of them was snagging fish left and right. They were using lures, of which I didn't have. I was using the bait on the ship. Not that I cared that much, I was there for the experience of being on a boat in the ocean, far from land. At least, far enough that you couldn't see land, besides the Coronado islands. Hardly land, but beautiful. They jut up from the ocean surface and not much a place to climb onto if the need arose, ie: sinking ship.

We were in Mexican waters at that point - and yes, you need a Mexican fishing permit. The Mexican Navy showed up. There were several other boats fishing in the same area near the islands. I thought it quite strange that a Navy was sending out rubber rafts with military, apparently, on them to ask for fishing licenses, but that they did. We saw them go to several boats, but they didn't come to us - that being the captain fired up and left. But not because of licenses, they had licenses for everyone on the ship, we paid for them in advance. It was because it was late and we HAD to get moving. It was a rather large ship that was sitting over there, still quite amazing that a Naval ship would want anything to do with checking fishing licenses.

Bird poop. I will post a couple of pics of it. The Coronado islands? Spots on them that look like snow. IN actuality, the rocks are so covered with bird droppings, they are pure white from it. A nasty thought, indeed.

Another group of young guys - 20's - started drinking at 7 (drinking beer, that is) am and did not quit the entire day. It wasn't that they were obnoxious after they got very drunk, they were still able to maintain a pleasant enough disposition. This was on the boat, fyi. I figured there would be all kinds on there and knowing in advance that beer was available, well, I knew there would be drinkers on-board. No biggies. It was what they did after they had been drinking for 11 hours straight. I saw them in the parking lot. They got into their vehicles and drove away. I wondered if they would make it to their homes okay in such a condition, behind the wheel.

In fact, a large number of people got drunk. I did not partake, neither did I want to. I take it back, my back started hurting after about 8 hours of standing at a rail that wasn't high enough to support my body, throwing my back into an awkward position and was hurting - I drank 1 beer and yes, the pain disappeared and I went back to fishing, lol. Ummm, I didn't even finish the beer now that I think about it. I got 3/4's of the way through it and that was enough.

Caleb had a problem at first - or perhaps the entire time, I don't really know, in seeing fish "die". Though, he seemed to like hauling in the 2 fish he did catch. So not sure about that. I personally have no problem gutting a fish, cutting off it's fins, filleting it and scaling it, but that's just me. As far as I'm concerned, it's meant to be consumed and by golly, I am going to consume it. I don't hold it against people who have a problem with animals dying, but I wonder what, if at anytime, goes through their head when they're eating a hamburger that a big ole' honking cow had to die for to give that person that burger? Or that Tuna fish sandwich? Or that chicken devine? Pork chops? Thanksgiving turkey? Just curious. I guess seeing the act of an animal dying, drained and gutted is a different story than seeing the end product on the supermarket shelf or the local Jack In The Box.

Driving in San Diego, I thought the drivers there to be MUCH more courteous than ANYTHING I see here. Indicator lights for changing lanes, not a lot of cutting off, no eagles. People actually moved over for faster traffic. Amazing.

What, exactly, are people doing in motel rooms all night long that they are making that much noise. The thought crossed my mind after going through that. Oh, yeah. Drug dealers, whores, all kinds of things. Perhaps just night owls. But the pounding on the floor was not that of a night owl, I wouldn't think. What, do they walk back and forth and move things around and bang things all night long, in a motel room?

Living on the beach. I thought, well, California probably not the place. The water is too cold. You wanna go in the water for any length of time, well, you are going to have to either be VERY acclimated to cold water or you are going to have to have a wet suit on. I would LOVE to retire on a beach somewhere. That's all I'm saying in musing upon things that may or may not happen in my lifetime in the future.

Well, 3 full days left of this time off. I am still thinking of going up to the mountains for a day and visiting my mom. But I ain't calling her and asking if she is going to be around until I am firmly decided on whatever morning that I am going to actually get in the car and make another drive somewhere out of town.

That's it for now. More but not necessary to go into here. I am not tired - I haven't gotten that much sleep in 1 night in quite a while, but, it's time to go to bed anyway.

ben

Wednesday

Got up at 4:15 am after a miserable night's sleep. I don't normally do expensive hotels, this time was not different. I have been in Motel 6's all over the country and never had any huge problems with them. Sometimes some minor issues, but nothing too serious.

This Motel 6 has 2 buildings: the first is the regular style Motel 6 with 2 stories, the other is a 4 story building. I have never seen a Motel 6 with 4 stories.

Anyway, there was nothing but noise all night long. I might have gotten 1 hour of sleep. I am a very light sleeper: doors slamming and people troucing on the floors above me will keep me awake. And that, they did. I could not beleive the amount of noise going on at 1, 2 and 3 am not to mention the hours preceeding it.

Well, the good thing about this hotel is that it's 10 minutes from the sportfishing company. We did all the precursory stuff, got on the boat and waited. About 25 people showed up. It was still dark as well. It was also cold out there - I forgot to bring my jacket and I paid for it. I had it out before I left for San Diego, in the kitchen with the other stuff, but I totally spaced it. With the wind chill, I was visibly shaking well into the day, but I mostly tried to ignore it.

We cruised out to a very long, floating bait hold. They loaded a LOT of fishies into the holding tanks and then away we went. Nice ride. Not a HUGE boat, but large enough for the amount of people present. Caleb and I just sat out on the starboard side of the boat, gazing at everything, taking it all in. Took an hour and a half to get to the first stop.

First stop was bass fishing. I hauled in 3, Caleb 2. By the time I had learned how to use the equipment and get those fish in, I was tired. I went down below and sat down in a chair to rest I had only had 1 hour of sleep as I stated above, I had no choice but to lay my head down and rest for a while. The boat started to move and we went to the next stop: pull squid out of the water to go use for bait for phase 3.

And pull them out we did. The captain found a spot with a lot of them suckers down there, all you had to do was stick the special hooks into the water, go down 20 feet and pull right back out. We did that for a while and then he decided we should fish there with that bait.

I didn't like that idea, there were already a kajillion of them down there, not great odds that we were going to hook anything.

The boat moved and we started moving around all over place, the captain was looking for a spot to anchor the boat and start some better fishing. After about an hour of that, he finally stopped and a lot of people started pulling in all kinds of fish. I only nailed one more and Caleb never did get anymore fish, but he was happy to be out there anyway.

It was a long ride back, I spent it talking with people and just looking at the coastline once in came back into view. The funny thing were the birds. Pelicans and gulls followed right behind the ship all the way back. Why? Cause' the crew was cutting up our fishies and throwing the fish waste into the water. Those birds were fighting each other for the food!

Got back to the dock, got our fish and left.

Got back to Motel 6 - no way was I driving home today that tired - and vowed not to spend tonight there if they weren't going to do something about the noise situation, namely, move us to another room, and more pointedly, put us on the top floor.

That was it, too, I informed the lady that I had gotten maybe 1 hour of sleep last night and either she was going to put us into a quiet room or we would be moving on. She put us on the 4th floor, said it was the quietest because no-one would be above us - indeed. She gave us 10% off, though I didn't ask. I have no clue whether it's going to pan out tonight or not, but I am going to bed early because I am wasted tired now.

That's it. There's more, but I really don't feel like writing.

ben

Tuesday 8/16/2011

I missed writing on this blog yesterday cause' I was getting caught up with SO many different things that it just totally escaped my mind to do an update. I apologize to my poor, neglected blog, I promise to do it again in the near future, lol.

So, today's doings: book the trip! Going to San Diego this afternoon, arrive early evening, stay at a Motel 6 for the night, get up early and get on a boat at 5:30 am. Went to Walmart for some white T shirts - I only had one and it was stained. I like wearing white T shirts on such trips. A new pair of sunglasses, a new pair of shoes - old ones literally had holes in the bottom; hair cut; fill up the gas tank.

I was only able to get a day trip. I wanted to do an overnight by they cancelled due to lack of people signing up. The day trip is allegedly a definite go - well they already have enough people signed up to make it a go. It's 12 hours on the ocean, half of it will be fishing, the rest is getting there and back. I haven't been on a boat since I was in my early 20's and I have NEVER been out on the open sea. Got some motion sickness pills just in case - but - I have never gotten motion sickness in my entire life except once in a car when I was a kid and I was already very ill with something else. Riding in the car made it worse.

Take it back. There WAS an airplane ride I took once that REALLY got to me. I don't even know why. Normally, I can ride in a small, medium or large aircraft and not even start to feel anything. But that time? Terrible!! I don't know how Caleb handles such, either, guess both of us are going to find out!!

In finding a map to get there? The easiest part. Interstate 8 literally ends like a mile away from this place! lol

Do we have any idea what we are getting ourselves into? Likely not. I can only say that I am taking my camera and the rest is sails to the wind! Will it be fun? It should be, unless the boat sinks 40 miles off coast and we are floating around the water in life jackets as so much shark bait..............

I dunno, but I'm excited. Taking my camera, they say you can take a bag on board so a change of clothes in case "something" happens and an extra pair of shoes, sunscreen white tee shirts with shorts and tennis shoes, I think that's enough.

I would definitely love to catch a fishie or two, but to be honest, just being on the water, out in the deep blue sea is a treat enough in itself.

I have little precious time left to get things ready, so, g'day and until next time!

ben

Sunday 8/14/2011

Unbelievable church service today.
Let me clarify that: unbelievably GOOD church service today. The worship service was incredible. The preaching was right on spot.
My son was asked to get up and give his testimony and it was the icing on the cake to a service that had the feeling of heaven on earth.
The end of the service everyone went up front and we all prayed, sought the Lord and sang together. You can't really put into words a thing like this, you can only describe it with the words available and hope it comes across at least a bit like what the experience was like.

I came home - to find the new trailer in the driveway. These people called me just before the service started while I was in church and told me they were leaving. I told them I wasn't there. I fought an internal war this morning about going to church or not. Those people were supposed to show up around 8:00 to pull one trailer out, put the other one in and then put the old one back in front of it. Instead, I am getting a call at around 9:55 am. I said go ahead and take it over there, the trailer tenants know it's coming and are ready to deal with it. And deal with it they did. I had to fight the desire to get out of there and go home and make sure this deal was done as I had instructed them to do, but in the end, I figured I would stay in church and what happens - happens.

Don't regret that decision, I can assure you. The new trailer was parked exactly where I wanted it parked - I had set out lines in the dirt where I wanted the sides and the end. The old one was parked about a foot out in front of it.

That's it. Found out the thing has a 220 plug, so I am going to have to finish the project I had started earlier this year in installing an outdoor circuit breaker board. I abandoned that project because I was going to have to buy some very expensive wire to run from the main board to it. I mean, like $250 just to get power from point A to point B. I have modified that and the breaker box will be within 10 feet of the main breaker. This will still cost me $50 in wire, but that's better than that other price tag. I can run a 220 breaker off of it, run a plug directly outside of it and plug the trailer into it.

Mark was like: I am plugging the thing in but it trips the breaker every time. Yes, because you are plugging in a 220 volt plug into a 110 volt outlet. He couldn't understand why it didn't work, since the outlets in the trailer are 110. Yup, but the plug is 220. Trust me, when we get 220 going, it won't trip the breakers! Lol.

Oh, on the way home from church. Well, I haven't been to Subway in about 4 or 5 months now. I thought on the way home to stop and get a sandwich. I asked Caleb if he wanted to stop and get something to eat, he said no, I'm good. I replied well, I'm stopping at Subway, it'll only take a minute. Subway? Oh, he replies, I'll go there!! They have a Sunday special to try and lure people in. Anyway, we go in there and I start talking to the employees - if anyone there was over the age of 16 I would have been surprised. So, Caleb starts talking to this "kid" behind the counter as if he knew him from the past.

Okay. We just got out of church. A black girl says "I wish I could have gone to church today" and recites the food prayer: God is great, God is good and we ask Him to bless this food, amen. I said amen and that got the three of them back there talking about church. The kid that Caleb had talked to rings up our sandwiches, asks if we want any drinks or chips. I automatically say no, I don't buy that stuff at a place like that. He pulls out 2 cups and gives them to us anyway, lol.

After we left, I asked Caleb if he knew the kid from school. No, he replies, actually, he had been in there last week and the kid was telling him about how his sister's baby had died. Caleb had prayer with that kid right there, in the store!!

Whatta day. I'm telling you. I'm sitting here in awe of the Lord. I am starting to feel like I used to before the divorce some 7 years ago. Life has been on auto pilot for some time now. I knew and know that, didn't want to do anything else. I feel like I can really start thinking about making some new friends in that church and starting to fellowship with other believers again. It was an extra added bonus today that I didn't have to deal with those trailers - at all - and that it was done the way I wanted it done.

The day isn't over, lol, but I am not expecting anyone over so I guess I'll just call it a day, look at the news - though I am getting very sick of the political rhetoric from both sides - see if there's anything on TV, get some things done around here.

ben

Saturday 8/13/2011

I had this wild hair of an idea to get up, get in the car and drive up to the mountains and visit my mom today out of the blue. I would call her first, of course, to make sure she was available. Then I remembered: the trailer is supposed to be moved over here today. Probably not until later this afternoon, but I can't really go anywhere until that is done, meaning a trip anywhere but to a store isn't going to happen today.

I am going to call them a little later - it's not even 7:00 am yet - and see if it's going to happen today or not. I woke up relatively early today - 4:45am, about 25 minutes later than I normally wake up for work. The flip side of that story is that I went to bed at 8:30 pm last night and I slept pretty darn well if I do say so myself. No sense laying around in bed all day long when you are as rested as you are going to get for one night's sleep.

I told Caleb last night that I am off for the next 9 days. He mentioned the trip I had thought about taking to go deep sea fishing. I'm kinda iffy on anything right now. The economy isn't looking too good and spending that kind of money on something that is only designed for an "experience of the moment" type of thing may not be advisable. I mean, a day and a half trip is about $275. It does include food and snacks, though. However, I would also have to drive to San Diego to do it, incurring the fuel costs. My car gets about 30 mpg on the highway. Probably could get better but I tend to be a lead foot when on a long drive - get it over with as fast as possible. 355 miles - less than 5 hours.

I could go on a shorter 3/4 day trip, or all day trip and it would cost less, dunno. Long drive for just a day's fun, I think. I am guessing Caleb wants to go - I had asked him quite a while back about it. I didn't know he had remembered that I had said anything about it, it was a "fleeting" comment that I didn't dwell on too long. The thing is, these trips are pretty much available at the last minute. The site I found for a company that does such shows how many open spots are left and if it is a "definite go" or not. The boats mostly leave a night - I guess leave port at night and arrive early wherever on the deep blue sea to start your fishing adventure. They also post how many fish each boat has reeled in on any given day AND what types of fish and quantities caught of each type.

Right now? Tuna. All boats going on the shorter cruises are bringing in heaps of Tuna, actually catching the limit.

Anyway, I dunno. I wouldn't mind, though going on a day expedition and then staying overnight and then checking out Sea World. Haven't been there in decades. I think I was 12 years old last time I was there. That was ......... a while back, lol.

Obama. This guy doesn't quit, does he? Now he's trying to make himself look good by standing on the side of the American public looking at Congress as if he is somehow removed from the whole situation. Sorry, Charlie, but YOU are the reason those politicians aren't getting anything done. If you could show a SPECK of leadership and actually get the sides to talking and coming together, perhaps something would get done. Obama obviously wasn't prepared for the post-November election days of no free-for-all, do-whatever-you-want because the Oval Office, The House and The Senate were all dominated by Democrats. Remember that GOP was totally snubbed when the Dems/Pelosi/Reid/Obama were forcing the health care bill through. They wouldn't even give GOP an opportunity to present their side.

Instead, it was closed-door meetings and a bunch of posturing and smirking from Pelosi. Whatta piece of work that woman is. Now, another judge has ruled a portion of Obamacare unconstitutional - forcing Americans to buy health care. That is a major setback for that bill - if everyone can't be forced into buying it, it isn't going to work. Anyway, Obama's approval ratings are quite low as well. No-one is coming out of this looking good, that's a fact.

Not getting a lot of response to my room rental ads. A few here and there, but nothing to get excited about. Going to just keep running ads until I get someone in here - hopefully sometime soon.

Anyway, I have junk to do around the house and it isn't getting any earlier, like to get it done and behind me.

G'day.

ben

Quik Trip - QT - Truckstop At 51st Avenue And I-10 In Phoenix, Arizona Piss Poor Customer Service

I tend to write in my blog about poor experiences with stores if the store or the district management or even corporate management doesn't do anything to rectify the situation. The negative stuff ends up on the top of Google searches and that doesn't usually sit well with corporate suits who don't want that kind of bad press.

I have other methods as well. For example, the Quik Trip/QT at 48th Street and Baseline. When it first opened, the service was terrible. LOTS of people waiting in line for one single cashier. I remember one time standing there with fully 15 people ahead of me. There were 2 other cash registers, why couldn't they call someone else up to help this out? I took matters into my own hands, found the manager and asked why he only had one cashier with THAT many people waiting? The situation didn't get better - until I started talking with the District Manager or whatever his title is. I made several phone calls to him about that store and another in Chandler.

I learned their policy as well. I think if it's over 2 people waiting in line, they are supposed to call for another cashier. If it's really busy, they need 3 up there. It's not maybe they should call someone else up, they HAVE to call someone else up. Who wants to go into a convenience store that isn't..............convenient?

So, standing in a long line at the QT at 51st Avenue & I-10, my thoughts were fixated upon their policy. This particular QT is also a truck stop that has numerous diesel-only fueling lanes. They have a large parking lot for truck parking as well. It isn't the biggest truck stop on earth, but it's a pretty popular one judging by the amount of trucks I always see parked there and the amount of customers in the store itself.

Anyway, there were 8 people in front of me. There was a young, latino girl running the cash register. She was paying absolutely no attention, whatsoever, to the long line that had formed. She was completely oblivious to it. There were 2 employees standing behind the partition just behind the girl at the register. They were paying no attention to the line that was growing even longer, either.

Maybe a minute later, an employee came in from outside, walked through the register area and loudly called out for help. This got the attention of the babbling employees in the back who were laughing it up and caring not in the slightest bit about whether customers were being taken care of or not. Amazing. I get annoyed at such incompetency, to be honest.

Anyway, I finally get up to one of the registers and go to the left side. The cashier was helping another lady and told me she would be with me in a second. All well and fine. Then, a dude walks in from OUTSIDE, walks right up to the counter and asks the lady for a box of Marlboro's in the red box. This woman apparently forgets that I am there and starts looking, at a snail's pace, for this guy's cigarettes. She wanders back and forth looking for them and I.........finally had enough. I left everything I was going to buy sitting there, including a large fountain drink (tea, unsweetened) and walked out. The woman sees this and calls out loudly: "SIR!!!". I didn't even slow down. I simply continued walking out.

The next day, I called the district office in Tempe. The woman on the phone took my complaint, apologized and then said someone would be calling me back. 3 days later? No call. Next stop - headquarters. Foregone conclusion I won't hear anything back this weekend. It's not the end of the world, but it IS unacceptable. First, the service at the store and second a promise to get a call back which never materializes. Now, if it was Circle K I wouldn't even bat an eye. You get people working there that don't give a rat's @$$ whether you are happy or not. I rarely go into Circle K's because of that. In fact, almost never, just occasionally go up to the one that is 2 blocks away from me for a bag of ice, but that's IT. 7-11's the same thing. Some pretty rude people working behind those counters. Not ALL of them, of course, but more than not. The other thing about those 2 chains is - what is the deal with not having public bathrooms available? Lol.

QT? I expect a better level of service because they promote that their level of service is better, which it usually is. This story is............to be continued.

Friday 8/12/2011

Friday
Yayyyy! Last day of work before getting 9 straight days off. The only thing I have determined to do is go up to my mother's property and have an overnight stay to visit with her. I talk to her once or twice a week, but I haven't seen her since early this year. She doesn't know, yet, that I am coming up there, lol, I just planned that one yesterday.

That is, providing she will be up there. But, she just left last weekend and probably is going to be up there for 3 weeks anyway.

The trailer is hopefully going to be delivered tomorrow sometime. This will be the last of any "big" expenditures - sans any kind of emergency such AC going out or something - and I am still waiting on my federal tax return, the state one came in dropping another $1,500 into my bank account.

Umm, I haven't told them about the intended delivery date yet - so I guess I better do that today, lol. But, really, all they will have to do is get it ready to be moved to the street and then back again. They won't be moving out of it until they get the other one ready, though I expect that won't take them long. The hard part is that that giant cooler will have to be moved from one roof to the other - gag.

Umm, I watched most of the debate last night between the GOP candidates. I thought the question asking Bachman if she would "submit" to her husband in making presidential decision was totally out of line and fairly demeaning as well. Fox did not do a good job of keeping the candidates under control. It was basically a circus type thing and the dude running it - whatever his name is - probably should be replaced with someone else if they are doing any of these debates again.

It was entertaining at least at some points, though, I will grant that.

Whatever the case, there is a small amount of work in the truck routing system and then? Hope to get off a bit early and start vacation - a bit early!

G'day.

ben

Thursday 8/11/2011

Thursday

The work week won't end fast enough for me, at least this one, knowing that I have a week off coming next week. At least the work load has been extremely busy and there isn't any idle time. Today is definitely going to be no different. There is a full day's work in the truck routing system.

No, I haven't heard anything more from Rey. I am going to send him another one-liner note: Please send me Juanita's phone number to verify that she tried to bring the rent money over here. Rey believes his own lies, when he makes something up, he seems to actually believe it's true.

Next week, my son "better" be going to get a job back at Albertson's, if they will even reinstate him. If not that place, then he better start hitting the streets and putting out the applications. I understand that as soon as school got out, he headed to the mountains to work for 2 months, but he's 18 now and life isn't going to get any easier. \

No real bites yet on the room. I figured this wouldn't be an easy one at this time of the year. I'm also not budging on the price, it is hardly unreasonable and I just don't want to go any lower. I have had a couple of ASU students looking for a room - but they don't want to move in for another month. I don't want to wait that long if I don't have to.

I would rather find someone within the next week and get the thing occupied and get the money flowing in.

Whatever the case, that's enough for this one.

G'day.

Title

First, I have been tired all day. I had allergies that kept me up last night and I might have gotten 3 hours of sleep. The hard part was that I was cranking all day long, non-stop plus the heat. On top of that, when I got back to the yard and thought I was done for the day, well, I find out I have another run I have to do. I delivered in excess of 100k worth of material today to 4 different locations plus pickups, so the OT is obviously warranted. I found out today that i do have next week off, so I was happy to get the final run in today, even if tired.

But you know, when you get off of work after working that many hours without a break and toiling in the hot sun, you don't really want to do anything. It normally doesn't work out that way for me when I am feeling like that, today was no different. I had forgotten to buy dog food yesterday on the way home from work - I was out - couldn't forget today. The dogs got 3 pounds of hamburger meat I had in the freezer yesterday plus 3 cups of white rice, not like they didn't eat yesterday,they ate quite well in fact. So, to Walmart to get dog food.

I was debating while at Walmart whether I wanted to go do the title for the trailer I am buying. Debating heavily, I might add. I went in to the DMV (motor vehicle office) yesterday and found fully 60 or 70 people waiting in line just to get a ticket to get - in line again. The reason I was debating it in Walmart is because I thought I might buy some groceries while in there. I ended up not buying any food, just dog food, still unconvinced that I had enough energy to go in there and deal with all of THAT - a SEA of humanity all crammed into a rather small building. We're talking screaming babies and fighting siblings, all that good stuff, every time I have ever gone in there.

I mosied on out of the parking lot and headed east instead of west - west was to go home, east to the DMV. Got there and saw the parking lot was half empty. Yahoooo. Went inside, about 15 people ahead of me, I figured I could deal with that. But it took the guy FOREVER, it seemed like anyway, to get people moving and give them the ticket to get in line - again - to wait for an available agent. Well, when I got up there, he just handed me a ticket without all the questions and time-consuming this-and-that. Well that is all well and fine, why couldn't he do that with everyone ELSE?

My number was called maybe 5 minutes after I sat down to wait again. THAT amazed me. Nice looking sweetie behind the counter too, very personable, the visit was pleasant, lol. She spent at least 10 minutes attempting to find in old books what that trailer cost when it was brand new. Apparently the state of Arizona uses some sort of calculation with that number to come up with the current title; plate; registration fee. What I was terribly afraid of was that this trailer is from out of state, out of state title. What kind of trouble am I going to get trying to get this thing titled in my name, through AZ?

Well, the ONLY hangup was her trying to find an amount for the trailer to input into her computer. The fact that it was from out of state had no bearing on anything. Didn't used to be that way. State budget cuts also cut back a lot of red tape. Before, at the very least, I would have had to bring the trailer in and had it inspected - they find the VIN plate on it and compare it to what is on the title to ensure that the 2 match. Nothing doing now.

$32 for 2 years. A steal as far as I was concerned, I paid up the full 2 years instead of 1. I then asked about the other trailer - I forgot that it is out of registration, might as well get it up and going, too. $22 for 1 year. Did that. Then I asked about my car. $140 for 2 years, but, I have to have it emissions tested. Well, the registration doesn't expire until next month and I don't have to go into that place to renew registration - THANK GOD!!!

That was it. Haven't heard anything from Phoenix or Tucson police. Don't really want to, but, be prepared for whatever. The fact that I'm completely innocent of any wrongdoing is pretty much enough for me to remain calm, cool and collected about the situation, whether they come over here - or come FOR me - or not. Although, if it was a serious as the Tucson police officer alleged it was - well, they should have made contact by now.

Whatever. My week long vacation for next week has been approved. What, if anything, I do is up in the air. I don't feel like doing ANYTHING. The summer heat is beginning to drag me down a bit. Out in it most of the day, the sun beats down and just bakes you to a fried crisp.

A bit of a time lapse in writing this, like 3 hours, lol.

I'm done.

G'nite.

ben

Wednesday 8/10/2011

Wednesday

So, I get on the computer at home this morning, check Facebook and here is another message from Rey, the ex-slob-tenant. He informs me is "god", screwed my mother all night long and that "I am coming up to Phoenix in 2 weeks, we need to put on some boxing gloves you need to be respecting me" and other BS that isn't really worth going into.

The problem Rey is having in this situation is that one of his best friends - she went to high school with him and has known him all his life - also likes me. Not in a sexual way, just that Rey brought her to my house when he was in the alleged car accident for her to help him. We hit it right off. So, Rey calls her up and she is giving him an earful, more than just one ration of stuff, telling him to pay me the rent he owes me.

Meanwhile, Rey is claiming his ex-wife came over and left the money on my table, which is a large load of donkey-dung. My continual question is: please send me her phone number so I can call her and ask her.

I have no idea what is going on with the Tucson police, whether they contacted the Phoenix police, no clue and not going to lose any sleep over it. The point, however, of all of this is that Rey is talking a big talk, but clearly he is nervous. I mentioned the fact that he is a drug addict (addicted to Percosett or anything similar drug he can get his hands on) and he sells them, apparently, to people he knows in Tucson that use them to get high with.

I did write him back this morning and ended my statements to him with that fact that he is lost, has no peace, needs God.

Meanwhile, I continue to write ads for the room and continue to get - not that much response. But, I have been through this before, it's only a matter of time before someone shows up to look at it.

I get on the news and the top story is Wisconsin - again. This time the end result of the recall efforts the dems tried against the GOP in their attempt to oust 4 of them. None of them were ousted. That would seem to put those union workers in the minority. It would also seem to speak, to me anyway, the tone of the country. The only thing the dems can regurgitate over and over is to "increase revenue", ie: more taxes. We don't WANT to be taxed more, I do believe at least some of us would like to see the tax rate go DOWN, not ever upward.

Yesterday, I checked my 401k account, my stock was down about a grand. This morning? Back up $500. Weird stuff.

Ummm, that's it for now. I pulled a HUGE order yesterday to deliver this morning. Not quite finished with it, but it's about $110,000.00 worth of material. That's a LOT of product. The semi is almost totally full and WILL be once I get through with loading the rest of it on. Nice to have a good load going out - we haven't had an order this big since the crash in 2008.

G'day.

ben

Tuesday 8/9/2011

Tuesday
So, the situation carries on. Rey calls me - on my home phone not my cell phone (he never calls me on my home phone is the point) and leaves a message that "whatever you did to that girl, I am not going to pay you what I owe you. I hope you please take me to court", blah blah, blah: yada, yada, yada.

I called him back and of course he didn't answer his phone. I left him a message: Number one, I didn't even speak to that girl, 2, YOU left the room trashed and 3, I will be happy to take you to court as you have no case to stand on, you will lose.

Left it at that. For now. Wondering if the Phoenix police are going to show up to my doorstep. Who knows.

Completely changing the subject as that man and his BS are certainly not worth the dog s*** the man's morals are made out of and definitely not worth wasting more than a few minutes of my time here and there on, it looks as if my vacation is going to occur next week.

I have been so preoccupied with other things - namely trying to get that room rented after doing a major clean up of it - I haven't let there be any space to think about what I might do on a vacation ... or.... just stay home. I've got half the camping gear acquired to go camping. So, get with the program and get the rest of the stuff this week, I guess.

Stock market. I can only say that I have been reading for quite some time now and even repeating what some of the economic gurus have been saying for quite a while: get out of stocks by summer. That we are headed for a double-dip recession or even a depression. I can't sit around worrying about it, but I did shift my 401k holdings to the lowest risk, lowest whatever thing they had available some months ago. The government can't save us, that's the end of the story for me.

......and let's NOT waste another trillion dollars trying to save the economy, thank you.

Anyway, work day almost here, plenty to do to keep me busy, which is always a good thing.

G'day

ben

Monday 8/8/2011

Monday 8/8/2011
So here's the situation.
Rey left Saturday night in the middle of the night. He had told me earlier that day that his ex-wife was going to come over on Sunday to pay me the rest of what he owes me. I didn't believe a word he was saying at the time he said it and voiced my concern about him just taking off and leaving me hanging.

But what am I supposed to do. The next morning, yesterday/Sunday, I go look in his room. An utter and total disaster. Had to have a carpet cleaning company come over and get all the goo out of the carpet.

Come last night, about 7:30 pm. I call Rey. He doesn't answer, some woman/his newest/millionth girlfriend answers. Says Rey is at work. Funny, Rey doesn't start work until this week. Funier: Rey never goes ANYWHERE without his cellphone. She hangs up on me, I call back. We do this a few times, Rey just didn't want to speak to me, I was going to force the issue.

I call back again. This time a girl answers the phone and says "oh, you like me?" and hangs up. I hadn't spoken a word to her. I call back again. This time the woman is back on the phone saying she's calling Tucson police. Go ahead, call them. She hangs up again.

Next thing I know, Tucson police is calling me on Rey's phone. They had my name, not hard to do considering Rey knows who I am but apparently trying to intimidate me with that knowledge. I again ask for Rey, is Reynaldo Rodriguez there?

The officer - or alleged officer anyway, but he sounded like one, certainly talked like one - states that I have called there "41 times and they are stating that you are harassing them". No, officer, I am not harassing them, I am calling for Rey Rodriguez. The officer then states that I had made the statement to the little girl, saying that I had stated that "I like you", apparently in some sexual intonements.

No again, officer, I did not talk to the little girl, is Rey there? Well, I am writing up a report and I am going to have Phoenix police come over there, what you have done (in saying such to a little girl) is a serious crime. Well, officer, I didn't talk to ANY little girl and as far as the phone calls, Rey owes me money and I have the right to call him. Now, he can ask me to stop calling for any given day and I will do that.

Please stop calling, the officer replies and goes on his hype about writing up this report. Whatever, I never did get an answer as to whether Rey was there or not. The officer hangs up on me and I decided to let it go - for then anyway. I also went outside waiting for the police to show up, taking his threat seriously that they were going to come over and......what......give me a hard time?

It's a worse offense to make a false report to police officers such as that woman did and coaching what is apparently her little girl to lie to officers about me saying something to her. Although lie detector tests aren't admissible as evidence in court, they certainly hold weight with police departments around the country. I didn't agree to do such, however, because Phoenix police never showed up. At least not that I know of. I was tired and went to bed after about a half hour of waiting for them.......which doesn't mean they won't show up today, lol.

Never once did I cuss that woman out, harass her, threaten her or anything else for that matter. My continual request was to speak with Rey, but not, I did not believe her when she stated that he wasn't there. Rey lived over here long enough to get to know his habits including his cell phone habits. That thing is glued to him 24 hours a day. He is talking or texting on it continually.

Regardless of whether the police do anything else, it is not going to stop me from calling him, once a day, until I either get the money or.......more likely.......he'll probably get a new phone with a new number. I did make the point to the officer that the number I was calling was Rey's personal cellphone, not some house phone somewhere where anyone, including little girls apparently, can answer it.

Whatever. I will eventually, probably, let it go. Right now, not. It isn't just that he owes me money, it's also that he totally trashed that bedroom. He also "promised" - though admittedly I didn't believe him at the time - that he was having his ex come over to pay me.

Time's up. Time to go to work.

G'day.

ben

Sunday 8/7/2011

So Rey - left the room trashed. Left in the middle of the night, now I know why. The carpet has huge stains on it, there is trash laying around all over the place and it's basically going to take some time to clean all of that up. This is easily the worst that any one has ever left a room. Only Mary comes close because of all the holes she put in the walls for hanging pictures and junk, but that really wasn't that hard to fix. I may very well have to replace the carpet in that room.

___________________________________________________

Long interlude. I decided that attempting to clean that mess up with my home carpet cleaning machine would be a waste of time and probably wouldn't get it all up AND, if that being the case, it would be permanently stained. I found a company on Craigslist who said they would be out here between 12 and 1:00 pm. That done, I started looking for a new mattress for that room, the one I had in there was trashed. Found what I was looking for on Craigslist and that is being delivered between 2 and 3.

Meanwhile, I am attempting to decide whether to go to church today or not. A lot of distraction in my mind usually means I may not get much out of church plus I wanted to be here when the guy showed up to clean the carpet. But, I decided that not going to church wasn't an alternative, making lame excuses simply wouldn't cut it. So I went. I had shut off the ringers on my phones, both of them were ringing and showing missed calls.

I tuned that out and got into the worship and then received the message that was delivered, but near the end of it, I can admit I was getting ancy, I wanted out of there and the more I wanted out of there, the long it went on. Things always seem to work out that way. I did get quite a lot out of the message today, including feeling some amount of remorse for the words that I spoke about the now ex-tenant. I can get mad and really dish out the - verbage - to say the least. Words can be powerful weapons, even IF the person you are speaking the negativity about doesn't hear what you are saying.

I got out of the service and called the carpet cleaning guy back - he was on of the messages left. He answered, I told him who I was and he said: "Oh, are you the one with the Great Danes?". If people don't remember anything else about my place, they ALWAYS remember the giant dogs! Yes. Well, he replied, I have already been to your house and the job is finished. I had left the money with the trailer tenants to pay him in case I wasn't going to get home in time. The man saved the carpet, too. It is completely clean and there is no residue or even "dying" of the carpet from whatever had been dumped. It was money well-spent in this case, new carpeting would have cost much more.

So, the only other thing is the new bed. I wasn't about to try and re-rent that room with that mattress in there.

There has been a noticeable change in the atmosphere around here with this man gone - a very GOOD change. I'm going to have to own up to the idea that when a person comes into my home and is not a good fit, even if they are paying rent on time, they need to go. It only takes one person to sour the mood of an entire household and now that he's gone........well I just didn't realize how much of a negative influence he had on this house.

___________________________________________________
Another time lapse.


New bed arrived. Very comfortable. Room is almost done. Needs a few spots painted on the walls but that's it. A couple of bites from some people looking for rooms - I have not responded yet. Just plain don't feel like it, I have done enough for a Sunday and I still have pond stuff to deal with. I don't think I want to show the room to anyone today, but it's good to get all of that mess cleaned up, the mattress replaced and the carpet cleaned and have it ready to go. I am not OCD about cleaning, but if there is a room in my house that I know that is gross, to me, it makes the whole house feel like it's nasty.

Yes, indeed, it's after 3:00 pm and it's time to take it easy. The ponds can wait, just have to feed the fish at the very least.

Had a discussion with Caleb. He said he's taking the week off. I simply replied that the longer you wait to get back to work, the harder it is to get back into it. I know this for a fact, didn't make it up. But that's up to him. I will give him another freebie week, but after that? He better start doing something - college; work; or even ministry. I don't care which, but I will not have him sitting around here idle forever. Don't get me wrong, he's a GREAT kid and I KNEW there would be some time lapse to adjust to going from what he was doing at that camp to coming back to the big city, but life isn't offered to us as "easy". I have a slew of troubles in life, the tenant issue above is just one of them. But, keep on plugging, keep on moving and now? Really seeking the Lord.

G'day.

ben

Trailer

I have been looking for a trailer for the "homeless" couple for a while now. I mean, I have one that they are living in, but it's not very nice.
My search was accelerated today in going to 2 different places to try and find one. The first was in Casa Grande, a 47 mile, one-way drive to get there and see - another old trailer that was allegedly in good condition.

The problem a lot of older trailers have is damage from a roof that has leaked from rains at some point or another. It doesn't look good and worse, it's a lot of work to properly fix the problem. A LOT of work. Upon looking at this trailer, I had hopes, but that was the outside of the thing.\
Going in? Well, I mean, really. The flooring was buckling under my weight - meaning old and will have to be replaced. The ceiling was not only buckled in 2 places, it had caved in. Obvious water leak damage. Paneling on the walls was dry rotted or peeling. The aesthetics of this trailer? Not very nice. One of the windows had several, window-length cracks in it.

The flip side: they only wanted $700 for it. I can sell the other one for at least $500 meaning that if it was any kind of decent upgrade, it would probably be worth the $200 net loss in the end. So I was seriously considering it. The plumbing works, the electrical all works, the propane works. It had a built in microwave; oven; stove top; nice sized refrigerator.

The one they are in now? None of the electrical, water or propane works. Further, the holding tanks leak. Giving it serious thought is simply because for $200 net loss to have all of that working? Probably worth it.

But I got home, uploaded the pictures and gave it much more serious thought. One piece of junk for another. In reality, that is really what it would be. It's old - 1979. I can deal with that, but I do have an ulterior motive here. I am throwing that out at no extra charge, btw. These people aren't going to be living here forever. Pretty much guarantee that. They don't WANT to live here forever, they want to find some way to get into an apartment or some kind of normal housing.

I want to put a trailer up on my mother's property up north - she has offered many, many times over. I haven't asked, she obviously would like some company up there. I wouldn't mind, and I will probably camp out up there when I get the week off from work - which hopefully is next week. I haven't seen her in a while and I would LOVE to get out of this valley for a while and get out of this horrid heat.

So, I sat here considering this other offer. It's a 5th wheel trailer. From the looks of it, in much nicer condition, though I didn't know what year/how old it is. So, I called his number. No answer, left a message. Then I wrote him an email also saying I would like to come out today if it isn't too late to take a look. I had no more sent that email than he wrote me one - having not gotten my call or listened to my message or read my email to him - getting a bit nasty because he had made an offer to help and I was snubbing him.

Hmmmph. Oh well. He calls a few minutes later, apologetic. We had a good conversation and I decided to go see it. The problem, though, is that I don't want to commit to $3,500 for a trailer. Especially an older one. He is willing to take a down payment and then monthly payments. I'm just not willing to pay that much for an older thing unless it is in excellent condition.

I get there and this thing is a good sized trailer. It is also newer than the one in Casa grand which is a 79, this one is an 88'. Awning gone, first thing I noticed though not uncommon in Arizona with the sun baking them and destroying the fabric. A bit costly to replace. Door has issues, but he told me about that in advance. The rest of the trailer, though was solid, good looking and in decent shape - on the outside that is.

I walk in. I start examining the walls, ceiling, appliances, flooring, everything. I am not new to travel trailers/RV trailers, I have an idea of what to look for. The first thing I am looking for is water damage to the ceiling from openings in the roof. I am looking at the condition of the walls. Is the papering coming off, is the wood behind it rotted. Is there a lot of damage to drawers, doors and appliances in terms of things broken, ripped, torn, whatever. Is the flooring solid. Not the carpet or tile, the wood underneath it. Walk on all of it, heavily. See if it gives.

Lots of things to look at and consider when buying an older unit. This one is in remarkably good condition. It has some minor issues, yes, but nothing that can't be easily fixed, sans the door. The window is missing and that might take bit of fooling with to get it righteous, but other than that, it just needs some minor cosmetic stuff inside and that's really it. Okay, I am guessing the roof will need a coat of the tar like substance, but still. It's in great shape.

I was listening to this man that owns the thing tell me how much it moved him the ad that I had written. I am not known for not giving out the details of things in my writings. I do sometimes leave out details that are unimportant to a story and that just take up too much space and - leave the reader rather bored - but, for me, I write the way I want to and that usually includes much minutia. There are many people that are turned off by that kind of writing - I can't help you. Thousands if not millions of other blogs you can read if you don't like this one. He went on for half an hour of how good it was going to make him feel to help someone out, and in that spirit, he lowered the price by $1,000. NOW I was feeling comfortable about buying this thing. $2,500 for a good unit that, if taken care of, will stay good for a long time to come.

Yes, very good, indeed. This is the kind of thing where I can trust the people that are living in it will take care of it, Mark and Lynnette will. I can fund projects here and there to revitalize portions of it. The only thing this thing is lacking that kind of turned me off is the generator is gone. This is pretty common in older units: people sell the trailers but remove the generators. Generators aren't cheap but it kinda sucks to see that they have been removed. Oh well. My mother's property has electricity running to it now, so no biggies.

That's it. He lowered the price, I agreed to a down payment and monthly payments thereafter until it is paid off - interest free - and that's the end of that. It will take about 8 months to pay it off.

No, I don't have it. Details of that are still under way. Title, notary public, bill of sale, moving it, moving the other trailer.

Saturday 8/6/2011

Standard and Poor can go piss off. The government did not default on it's debt, downgrading the U.S. credit rating was a dumb move, IMO. Although I don't think too highly of the circus clowns we have running the Federal Government, I highly doubted the entire time this carnival atmosphere going on over there was ever going to actually end up with the US not paying it's bills, even IF the debt ceiling wasn't raised in time.

Tenant moving out today. He owes me money and I am going to get right in his face and demand it about the time he starts moving junk out. Though, I was informed a few minutes ago he was already moving stuff out half the night. His car is parked out front, so he is at least still here so that I CAN confront him on the unpaid rent issue. Meanwhile, I got busy this morning and posted a room rental ad on Craigslist. Going to get even busier once he's gone and go in there and clean the carpet - and whatever else needs cleaned or repaired.

Today was supposed to be the start of my 9 days off. I am really ready to get some time off of work, thank you. They are looking at letting me have next week off instead. It's kind of hard to plan anything when you hear at the last minute whether you actually are getting the time off or not.

Going to a store today to get new rugs for my bathroom. I don't really shop for such, it will take longer to drive there than it will take to go in, find something, pay for it and leave, lol.

Caleb is not going to California, apparently the event is overbooked as it is. I asked him about going back to work, he said he would be doing that - next week. Oh, I replied, but didn't give my real thoughts on it. My real thoughts are: go back to the store, get reinstated and get back to work. But that's just me. If I'm not working, it's because I am unemployed and am looking for a job. That's the only reason other than perhaps if a health issue stopped me, which I hope never happens.

Speaking of work, I got what I asked for - I guess. My manager got an email from the ops manager asking him why I was hauling a stick of pipe on my truck with only 2 straps on it. We're talking a 5 pound stick of pipe. The pipe was on the deck of the trailer, butted up against dunnage that was holding up 4 fire hydrants - about 2,500 pounds worth. In other words, that stick of pipe being held down by 2, 4-inch straps and kept from moving forward in case of a "deceleration event" occured - wasn't going anywhere.

Technically, DOT could write me a warning for it, but I doubt they would. Still, with the new regulations, I COULD get a warning or even a fine for it. In the case of a warning, they are as bad as a ticket in the eyes of any company nowadays because of these new regulations.

So I wrote the ops manager an email saying that DOT probably would not do anything about it because of the way I had it on there, but that from now on I would go ahead and strap it down according to the law, which in that case would have needed 4 straps.

I did, however, take it much further than that. I expressed my angst about seeing others of our drivers hauling 20,000 pounds of pipe with only 3 straps holding it down. The pipe is 20 feet, 4 and a half inches long, meaning it requires 4 straps. But, we get a "penalty" strap because we don't have headboards on the front of our trailers, so in reality, to keep with the letter of the law and in this case, safety, we should have 5 straps on all of those loads.

The man writes back, apparently excited about that new information, new to him anyway, and declared that ALL loads with ANY pipe on it would now require 5 straps for all drivers in our division. Lol. What's the problem with that? 2 things. I don't have enough winches on my trailer to cover that many straps if I get a load with a bunch of other stuff on it and the time it takes to put on additional straps. The first is easily fixed: simply go buy more winches and straps, the ops manager approved it without asking. The second I couldn't care less about, the extra time that is. I am paid by the hour, doesn't bother me at all. I already do it, anyway.

It's the other drivers who, undoubtedly, are mad at me for bringing up such a thing. Well, the problem with their lack of sufficient strapping is that it is getting the entire company into trouble under these new regulations. Get enough warnings against drivers in any single, given company, and the DOT will step in. DOT has given itself broad, far-reaching powers with these new regulations, including the ability to shut down an entire fleet of trucks. So let them get mad.

Enough. I am just waiting until stores are opened to go out and get some things done.

G'day.

ben

Friday 8/5/2011

Friday
It was just wonderful to come in here this morning - work that is -- and have the alarm go off. Why? Because the keypad to disarm it isn't working correctly. I tried to press the first number in the passcode - I don't know, maybe 50 times?....and it would register.

So, the monitoring company calls, is everything alright? Yes, excepting this blasted alarm! I was sitting here for 15 minutes listening to this shrill, high-pitched noise going off in my ears.

Gag. Here's a good one: all of a 2 day notice for moving out. Cool, huh? This was from Rey, last night, who walks in and gives me the news. "Thanks for the advance notice, Rey". I was obviously not happy about getting such a short, abrupt notice. He is moving back to Tucson. He cannot hold a job down, anyway. Too long a story to go into right now, don't feel like it.

I just love it, though, when people play games like this. Whatever. This is like the 4th or 5th time he has announced that he is moving out over the last several months, I'm figuring it's probably time for him to go.

I was offered yet another trailer, this time a rather large looking 5th wheel RV trailer. Oh, and yet another response, this from a guy who says he has an older one that he wants to sell and will come down in price because of what I am doing with it. Not in a big hurry for any of this, really, I'm waiting to see if the IRS gives me the money back in the second round of returns or not.

Well I'm done with this one. That alarm going off was completely an unecessary intrusion into my brain this morning going off for THAT long.

ben

Caleb's Rap / Handgun

My son made a rap video with some friends.  

So, I took the gun in today to a gunsmith. This gun looks brand new, like it hasn't been fired very many times, but I still don't trust it, it belonged to someone else and who knows. I'm not going to have the thing blowing up in my face and paying a dear price for my ignorance on guns and whether they really are in good enough shape to fire and not have any problems with it.

So, I took the whole thing in there - carrying case with gun, 2 clips - one of them loaded - and all. The guy opens the case, looks at it, starts messing with it, inserts the empty clip, looks at it again: This gun is in new condition, there is nothing wrong with it. If there IS something wrong, the worst it's going to do is jam/misfire, but it's not going to blow up in your face and you don't have to worry about it. Take it to the range, run some rounds through it and make sure it runs them okay. If not, you can send it to Smith & Wesson and they will fix it for free. Oh, and I freely admitted up front that I don't know much about guns.

I have heard the comments in these gun stores from customers making derogatory comments about people who own guns but don't know how to use them or talking about people that don't own guns and how stupid they are. And they knew - what - exactly - the first time THEY picked up a gun? When I picked the gun up at the pawn shop the other day, a man was standing there checking out a gun they had for sale and making extremely derogatory remarks about people who are uneducated about such.

Well, I won't ask his forgiveness, I think it's dumb to speak about people that way who are trying to learn, but are starting from scratch. I know enough not to point the thing at anyone even if I "know" it isn't loaded. I now know how to unload the thing and clear the chamber of the round that is in it in both the shotgun and the 40 caliber. I am still stuck at the clean and lubricate part, but that's because I haven't tried yet. I don't need to clean it until after I shoot it, I am reading. Unless it hasn't been cleaned in a while. It isn't rocket science, frankly, but since it is a thing that can and is designed to kill animals or people, one much exercise extreme caution, obviously.

I also do not leave either of them loaded. The shotgun has shells in that holding tube on the bottom, but there is not a shell sitting in the chamber. Okay, so it's sort of loaded. It doesn't take much to get a shell from that tube into the chamber, we have all heard the "chink - clink" sound a shotgun makes when you pull that thing back and then move it forward again. Pulling it back both ejects the shell in the chamber and gets a shell from the tube read to put into the chamber, pushing it forward loads the fresh shell into the chamber. This may seem like basic, elementary stuff to gun enthusiasts, again, I freely admit my lack-of-knowledge. I'm in no hurry, I just take my time, examine the things and then figure out how it works without accidentally shooting it.

As for the handgun, the loaded magazine is not in the gun. It is in the carrying case. It takes all of a second to push the thing in there and get a round in the chamber, ready to fire.

Whatever. I'm happy to learn and will be happy to take the courses to learn even more. On that note, I am going to look up Shooter's World and see when I can get in the next weekend classes.

Friday is almost here and the end of the work week. I am ready for this week to be over and would really be ready for the 9 days off in a row if - it would have worked out.  As it stands, it appears I may be the next week off instead.  I need some time off right now, that's all I can say about it.

ben