Saturday 8/27/2011

A few things.
New tenant moved in yesterday. Seems to be a cool, easy-going person. Only time tells if a person is actually going to make a good fit.
Second room remains unrented, though I have a couple of prospects.
Third room - the dude that is already here. He says he may have to move back to Minnesota. Well it would certainly be interesting, if nothing else, to have to do a total swap-out of tenants. A pain in the @$$ is a more colorful and accurate description.

So, an old friend from missionary days flew in from Vegas to reconnect with my ex. But, she wanted to meet up with me, too - really cool lady, haven't seen her since the late 80's. So at 11:00 am, we are going out to visit at a restaurant. That should be fun - I hope anyway. Not exactly sure where we are going.

At 3, there is the company end-of-fiscal-year party. Don't really want to go just because it is so far away, but, I signed up for it so I will spend at least a couple of hours there and then leave. At least this one starts early - they have started much later in times past.

So, a busy day today, I think. But not a bad thing. What I'm really "waiting" for is the end of this miserable heat wave/hot tempatures that just keeps coming and coming. I have put off yard work at this point until it cools down considerably. I'm tired of sweating like a pig in mire out there trying to get stuff done. Of course, I have no choice but to keep up with the fish ponds - but the rest of it? Can WAIT.

I haven't heard from my dad, I have no idea how he's faring in North Carolina with this reunion they are having. I wrote him an email but haven't heard anything back yet.

Well, I gotta get ready to go. Appleebee's is the place we are going to. I like some of Appleebee's food, though they don't exactly have a calorie friendly menu - so I will have to take a look online and see what I can get away with without blowing the fat intake for the day too much.

G'day.

ben

Fry's Food Stores - Baseline and 48th Street Tempe, AZ - Response

So, the newest general manager of this store calls me today after I called their corporate headquarters yesterday. All the lady told me yesterday was that since everyone had gone home, she would forward it to the "right" individual to respond and that would be that. I pretty much expected to be reverted back to the store's manager.

This is my second "conversation" with her. The first one was through email and was questioning the deplorable condition of the parking lot with trash laying, literally, EVERYWHERE.

I explained what had happened yesterday with the old lady arguing with the customer service lady and the fact that she sent that lady to traipse around the store, finding whatever else she wanted to get and NOT taking care of any more customers during that interim.

This manager gave me an a-typical response, certainly unexpected and rather refreshing, actually. She went straight into how she had "empowered" ALL of her employees to deal with this stuff and not to let it hold up lines, that it wasn't more than $0.75 cents worth of stuff. In other words, that customer service rep should have, in that manager's mind, simply given her the sale price without having to go get the other 2 items and get the freaking line moving.

She went on about how she had had meetings with all of her staff and head trained them to simply give the customer whatever the sale price is versus holding up a line and making other customers made and potentially losing customers over 25 cents. I have NEVER heard this from ANY of the managers that have been shoved through that store in a 1 or 2 year training "program".

I then went on about how her assistant - they bring them to that store in 2's - a general manager and that person's assistant - had downplayed my statement that that customer service rep was glancing over at me, giggling and making fun of the entire situation. I simply stated that I thought it childish for that lady to be acting like that - the general manager agreed.

So, we'll see what happens.

Weekend is here. Still trying to get those rooms rented!.........though I am at least hopeful the one dude that said he was moving in today around 5ish is still a go. That's about an hour and a half from now...........

G'day.

ben

Friday 8/26/2011

Friday

This hurricane Irene situation is spelling out doom and gloom for a lot of folks. One would be my dad, who is in North Carolina right now for a reunion with his brothers and other family members.

The move-in date for the young guy was moved from yesterday to today. Whether that actually happens or not - who knows, it's Craigslist and people don't always do what they say they are going to do coming from that particular venue.

Had a guy over yesterday to look at the other room. He has too much baggage and I can't help him. Baggage as in 2 young boys and 2 dogs. Yikes!! From a business perspective, the rent would have to be high enough to cover the loss of other tenants because undoubtedly, the remaining one would be out the door and it would be terribly difficult to get any new tenants in. The guy has his own place, he can't afford it, apparently.

I am placing ads 1 or 2 times per day until the room is rented.

Friday is here, but the work week didn't seem that bad or that long.

Phoenix is going to start using a new system for voting. They are calling them voting centers. It "used" to be that you had to go to the right voting location for your address. If you didn't go to the right one, you would be directed to go to that facility, cause' you couldn't vote at any other facility.

Now, they have eliminated a lot of those facilities and opened up these voting centers throughout the city. You can go to any of these facilities and vote, you don't have to go to a certain one.

Sounds great, right? Big, big problem: the nearest facility to my house is 4-1/2 miles away. The voting facility I used to have to go to was a church only a few blocks away. The problem? How many people that don't have their own transportation are going to go that much out of their way to vote? What about people that simply think it's too far and not worth it. On and on. This will, undoubtedly, wipe out some percentage of the voting public that may have voted in the past - out of the picture.

What percentage? Who knows. The numbers will undoubtedly come out after the election is over. I have my doubts about this new system is all I can say about it. You don't want LESS people voting, you want as many people as you can get to the voting centers as possible if you want an election that has a majority of people speaking their mind through the ballot versus a small sector of the public doing it for everyone else.

Whatever. Company party tomorrow. Starts at 3:00. I'm going but won't stay long. Just show up, make the appearance and leave. I would take Caleb - I am sure he would love to play the games there and since they are free.......but he has to work. Of course and as always, the party is a 20 mile drive from my house. Only once has one of the parties been even reasonably close, even then it was still 15 miles away. The last one was some 40 miles away. lol.

G'day.

ben

Motel 6/Fry's Food Stores

Tackle Motel 6 first.
I have been using their facilities for years and years - and years. I don't recall ever having a big enough complaint to actually call their corporate and complain, but this recent fishing expedition and the first night at that hotel was definitely not something I was prepared for.

I have never had such a terrible night in a hotel. I cannot remember anything that rivals it, well, there is one experience but that was while on the mission field and that was a hotel that was only being used for showers, not sleeping in. Besides turning out to be a whore hotel, the REALLY disgusting thing were GIANT cockroaches EVERYWHERE. I went into the room at that place to take a shower. The visual and olfactory assault was unbelievable. Between the hundreds of cockroaches EVERYWHERE, even on the bed, the stains all over the bed sheets, walls and carpeting and the GROSS condition of the bathroom, I REFUSED to even SHOWER in that place!

That is another entry in itself and it is an experience I had totally forgotten about until now. But, the situation with this Motel 6 was not with cockroaches and uncleanliness, it was the sheer noise levels going on ALL night long. I basically did not sleep and I paid for it on the boat the next day. I tried as much as possible to make the best of it, but I had to keep taking naps and I was very tired the entire day.

Motel 6 San Diego - Hotel Circle - Mission Valley #14
2424 Hotel Circle North
I-8 at Hotel Circle North/Taylor Street
San Diego, CA, 92108
Phone: (619) 296-1612

I was not going to let this go, I have been a customer for WAY too long and to have to put up with this kind of nonsense was - outrageous, really. I received a "nothing" answer from them 2 days ago, I finally had an opportunity to call Accor - the parent company - today during their business hours. The lady that answered said that she would have to review what happened - I wrote a lengthy accounting of what happened on that first night as is my custom to be completely thorough on my descriptions of things when it is needed (and usually when it is not, lol). She got back on several minutes later and flatly asked me if what I was looking for was compensation.

Mind you, my letter said nothing about compensation, it was about my miserable experience, the money spent on that trip and what that stay, that night, at their hotel, did TO that trip. I flatly replied: Yes, I want compensation! Her offer? A voucher for one free night's stay and to get my money back from the property that I stayed at. I wanted 2 night's free stay and that would have done it for me, but when she said one night free stay AND my money back, well, how can I argue with that?

For my friend that was asking me if the time spent is worth it on such endeavors when the service is not right or the experience is hellish: in this case, definitely. In MOST cases, definitely, actually.

IF all of this happens, then I will be very happy with corporate, at least. If I found myself needing lodging in that area again, I might consider the Motel 6 - but only if I could get the same floor and room that I was in on the second night.

Fry's Food & Drug Stores, location at 48th Street & Baseline road in Tempe, Arizona.

Put this one in the negative column experience, which, at that particular store, has FAR more listings than positive. As of recently, I have tried to ignore some of the stuff that goes on in there with employees - I just want to buy food and get out of there - and so I have.

But today? Crossed my line. I had pulled a "Manager's Special" out of the area where they put meats that are going to expire within the next several days - this was a large package of cube steak. It was marked down to $6 and change, from $11 original price.

I got everything, went to self-checkout, paid for everything, put it all in my cart and moved out of the way for the next person to use the self-checkout and then, as usual/always, I started looking over the receipt. My cube steak had run up at $9.20. Quite odd, since the original prices was $2 more than that and the sale price was $3 less, nowhere on the package was anything about $9.

So, I headed to customer service. The dude working the self-checkout is not able to issue a refund and I didn't even ask. When I get to customer service, there is a Mexican woman with a cart in front of me and an old white lady at the counter, arguing with the employee. When I say old, I mean OLD. Then a black dude walks up (I am not racist, I am just describing what happened). But this isn't about the black dude or the old white lady, this about the woman behind the counter. Well, it IS about the old white lady, too.

The argument was about a sale price. Why are you charging me this price for something that says it's another price on sale? Because, it's a buy-10 event. You HAVE to buy 10 of that item or a combination of listed items to get the sale price, which takes $5.00 off. The old lady didn't get it. This is going on for several minutes. Finally, the lady behind the counter says: you only got 8 of the items you need for the sale price, you needed to get 10.

Oh, the old lady says, well, then I'll just go get the stuff and I'll be right back. ??? I KNEW where this was going and I was having none of it. The lady behind the counter is going to WAIT for this old lady to go traipsing about the store to find her 2 items while now, there is fully 5 people in line!! NO WAY!!! No one said anything, I do not hold my peace in such situations: "Excuse me, do you mean to tell us that we are all just supposed to wait for however long it is going to take for this woman to find what she wants and that you aren't going to help ANYONE else until she comes back?!!!" At the rate of speed that old woman was going, I figured at least 5 minutes before her return.

The lady behind the counter - a person of whom I have had run-ins with in the past - shrugged me off and didn't even respond. I said fine, then, I will go speak with management. She then muttered something - and then called for someone to come to the counter.

I wasn't waiting around, don't care, really. If she is going to act like that, then my complaint will expand. I went back to the self-checkout - Trish had walked up - she is a manager of some sort - and I asked her for the store's manager. She replied the store manager wasn't there but her second was. Okay.

Meanwhile, that old woman had finally returned. The customer service desk is - 75 feet away I am guessing, but quite visible from the self-checkout. She was - well it still looked like she was arguing with the lady behind the counter, who knows. I waited another 5 minutes for this second-in-line manager to show up. That old woman was STILL there. This is at least 15 minutes that woman has tied up customer service!

The second shows up. Not impressed, at all. This is a new set of management trainees Fry's Food Stores has brought into that store. They bring them in to that particular store to train them and then they promote them out of that store to green pastures. This woman has the personality of a rock. She talked to me in those tones, so I gave it right back to her. First I complained about the lady behind the counter and all that situation already described and then pointed over there to show her that that old lady was STILL tying up customer service and there was no-one else there, on the second register, to help the rest of the people waiting endlessly.

I then demanded - I would have asked nicely but this woman wasn't being nice to me - my money back on the cube steak PLUS the $5 gift card for scanning errors. Trish and this manager went to a checkout aisle that was not being used and they were there for quite a while. The manager came back and gave me the entire $9.20 that was charged to me on the ticket. So, I got $9.20 plus all that cube steak for free. $15.20 worth in total. I thanked her, yes I did, but it became obvious that she wasn't going to do anything or much of anything about the situation with the old woman and the cashier tying up the line that long without ANY remedy at all.

She SHOULD have called for another associate to help out at customer service. I also believe she should have cancelled that old woman's ticket and then gotten back to it when she returned, meanwhile helping other customers.

This is just one more example in a parade of examples of Fry's Food Stores at this particular location doling out unbelievably sub-standard service. I called corporate a few minutes ago. I am not asking for anything further than what I have already received as far as compensation, just going to get corporate's take on this situation and what, exactly, they are going to do about it. Further, I have never confronted them on the issue of this particular store being used as a training grounds for general managers and their right-hand person and the revolving door they have made that place - and Guinea Pigs that the customers are that frequent that place in having such a situation exist.

I was on a roll, was going to call Direct TV and ask for free ShowTime again. But, I decided against it. That can take a lot of phone calls and yes, it's worth it as I usually get 6 months of it for free, but, enough was enough. And no, I don't get nasty with them, I just politely ask for more free movie channels : )

Thursday 8/25/2011

Thursday

So, the DOT Medical exam is done - I got lucky yesterday, called Concentra and found they had a very small wait time. Well, to THEM it's a short wait time, to me it's ridiculous. The exam itself takes about 15 minutes. The rest of everything else? About an hour and a half.

The rest of the equation is in actually getting the state of Arizona to RECORD that information. 4 years ago, I actually went in there and handed the form to them. It did not, I later found out, get recorded, even going IN there and giving it to them in person available nothing.

I found it out because I had stopped at the DMV for another reason and was informed by the person at the counter that my license had been suspended and was about to be revoked. I got pretty mad at that point. How can you people be so unbelievably INCOMPETENT as to not input a person's information into your system that is HANDED TO YOU BY THE PERSON WHOSE INFORMATION IT IS TO BE INPUT?

But, that is the way the State of Arizona operates. Just like coming home from vacation last week and finding out the old car's plates had been suspended. The state claimed that they had not received the proof of insurance that they had demanded from me. I had called my insurance company who had sent the information out THE SAME DAY as I requested it of them, a MONTH before the state of Arizona suspended the plates on the car.

Freaking morons.

Whatever the case, work day almost here and plenty to do in the system.

G'day.

ben

Kidney Stones

I've been through this before.
I know what's happening. The doc said get a cat scan, I haven't done it.
I figure about the time it gets to the "extremely painful" part, I will head to a hospital and the rest of it I will get over with.

The pain started in my kidney area. It moved - ever so slowly - down. It's been in my side for a week.

Suddenly? It's moved perilously close to the "exit stage", is what I am calling it. I mean, this thing moved quite a bit - all of a sudden - maybe 5 minutes ago.

If I miss a day's worth of entries, you might be able to guess with this information what is going on. Umm, hopefully, it's not more than a day!

House

I haven't laid this out - for myself - in writing for a while. Concerning my home and whether to stay in it or walk.

What I have been watching, over an extended period of time now, is the value of my home. More specifically, the dramatic decrease in the value of it and the fact that I am in an under-water mortgage situation.

Right now, according to valuation data, my home is about 63k underwater. Amazingly, if you do your homework and search a little, you can get a very nice home in these parts for 63k. In fact, you can score REALLY nice properties for even less than that.

The home values in the Phoenix metropolitan area continue to take a dive. There are so many vacant homes right now that it's unlikely that this situation is going to reverse itself anytime soon and worse, my home's valuation is going to continue to take a nose-dive. At some point, I am telling myself, I am going to have to take a deep breath and do the short-sale route. The deep breath part is because it would mean a dramatic change in lifestyle at home unless I could, somehow, find something, somewhere, that would accomodate for some of the things going on such as have Great Danes.

What I am starting to do now is get my mindset to change about all of this. Staying in this home seems a futile waste. I will be living in a home, at some point in time that is probably not too far off, that is worth less than half the money I owe on it.

I guess I'm not really interested into going into the things that I have been reading - some of it for some time now - that may show that the economy is going to go much further south than anything we've seen yet, I am going to sit back and wait and see what happens. It won't be long, if these predictions are true.

I am also struggling with having to rent rooms to stay in this place. After these last 2 slobs moved out and left their - my - rooms in a complete and total disaster, I ask myself why I should even consider continuing on with this. I contacted the guy today that wanted to move in - he is moving in Thursday, at least that's what he says, I'll find that out for sure after Thursday comes and goes and whether he's here or not. Good people are nice to have around, the rest of them?

The reason I write this now is to force myself to face a potential situation: having to rent a property somewhere. Living under someone else's "authority". I have spent considerable time in mulling over the stay-or-go thought and up until recently had convinced myself that staying was the better alternative. But looking at the economy and continuing, falling home values, I am not quite so convinced anymore. When, if ever, will the price of my home actually rise to the amount, at the very least, that I owe on it?

I was prepared to stay in this home for a maximum of 5 years and then sell it and move on. It's been 3-1/2. I'm not going to be calling my lender tomorrow and tell them to start whatever process it is for short-sale'ing the home. They DO have such a process because I have asked them about it. My next question to them is going to be why they are so willing to short sale a home and take a loss on it rather than doing whatever to keep the homeowner in the home. They are on just as perilous an edge, looking down a cliff, as everyone else is from my perspective. But, maybe there are government guarantees or the mortgage insurance pays them back? I don't really know. I don't get straight answers about this stuff when I ask, they decidedly dodge the question and give a nothing answer, as evidence by the "answer" they recently sent to me concerning questions I had for them.

They did not answer the questions, excepting for one and that answer was a nothing answer, in reality. It's a slippery slope and not telling where solid footing might land. This is far from anything even remotely associated with a dream home and frankly, the thought of getting out of it becomes more and more viable on a daily basis. The 2 thoughts to contend with: 1. credit rating disaster and 2: renting.

I'm starting to think about it now as a real alternative, is all. Not long ago I wouldn't even give it a second thought: stay in the house regardless.

DOT Medical

Concentra Urgent Care centers is the facility my company chooses to use to get the 2 year DOT medical done for it's drivers. Before Concentra got into the urgent care business, it used to be pretty good, too. Commercial drivers were a lot of their business in getting the physical and also getting drug tested. If there were people waiting to do anything else, drivers got priority.

Not anymore. Now, you are just another patient to them. I went into the one I usually go to for my renewal and found the entire waiting area FILLED with people waiting. There was at least 30 people in there. I went to the front desk and was told it would be at least an hour until I got in. That meant to me up to 2 hours, in reality, to get a doc to see me and administer this testing. I said no thanks and left.

I went to another Concentra which is also on way home from work. It, too, was filled with people. I was told 2-1/2 to 3 hours before I would be out of there. 3 hours for a 10 minute re-certification. I asked if there were any times that were better. She wouldn't answer the question, only stated that it's an urgent care center and that wait times vary. Great. I left that one, too.

Meanwhile, the urgent care I was using when I had the infections has little wait time. They do DOT re-certs and I am going to ask my company if I can use them, instead. I have no idea if it will, but I am going to try. That or just start calling all of them in the Phoenix area. If, by the end of the week, I haven't gotten it done, I will just have to bite the bullet and play the ridiculous waiting game. Concentras are ALWAYS too full of people compared to other urgent care centers. That's because many companies still use them for the DOT and drug testing, while at the same time, you have people filing in for urgent care issues.

The ex-tenant/Army reservist left her room in a shambles as bad as that other guy that just recently left. 4 large - large as in those giant leaf bags for outdoor use - filled with nothing but TRASH. Some kind of black substance all over the queen mattress. I think it might be eyelash junk, whatever it's called. Oh, eyeliner, that's it. I just tried to friend her on Facebook - she doesn't even accept messages from strangers. If that doesn't work, I know where her family lives and I will be calling them. The idea that she could leave a room like that and think it's acceptable is totally messed up. Mark - trailer tenant - spent however much time cleaning up in there today and is now, currently vacuuming the floor. Umm, anyway, that room should be finished tomorrow and hopefully the guy that said he wanted to move in - will.

That guy had an older SUV, but it was clean and in good condition. He was dressed up in nice clothing when he came over to look. So, just hoping that if he does move in, he is what he looks like he is and is - clean or at least some semblance to it.

Heat. I have been having to water the plants every day now. That is - I unfortunately have been having to water the plants every day. Water bills are excessive, but they wouldn't be so freakin' bad if the City of Phoenix didn't keep voting to raise the water rates by 5% whenever they decide to - give their employees a pay raise. This union stuff - all around the nation - is REALLY starting to get to me. Talk about a sense of entitlement. All these unions complaining because their employees are asking them to pay SOMETHING towards their own health coverage!

Anyway, my ads on Craigslist are running dry for renting the other room. No real replies in a couple of days, at least. I do not want to lower the price, so I am going to continue running that ad at the same price and hope someone gets interested.

That's it, for now.

ben

Tuesday 8/23/2011

Tuesday

Running the AC on the trailer all day long - in the worst heat of the day - raised the electric use about $3.00. Not terribly bad, not that I'm eating that much of it anyway. It was about 85 in there according to a thermometer but it felt cooler than that in there.

It isn't really normal that it's getting as hot as it is in August. They are talking as high as 116 tomorrow.

Well, anyway, I read yesterday that Qadaffi's son stated that they let the rebels into Tripoli on purpose so that they could trap them in an - kill all of them I guess. I wonder what they're waiting for.

I don't have much this morning. I'm still trying to get that room rented and now I am going to have the trailer tenants go in there today and start cleaning up the other tenant's mess for the guy to move in - if he doesn't change his mind for whatever reason - sometime this week actually.

We'll see is all I can say about that.

G'day.

ben

The Best Time To Visit Disneyland To Avoid Huge Crowds

Just got done reading several sites and news blips about this issue. I have been to Disneyland at least 25 times since 1974. I was never able to find the right time. Sometimes I hit it, many times I did not.

I figured warm summer days would have people staying away from the place. Since I live in Phoenix, Arizona, Anaheim, California's version of a warm summer day and mine are on completely separate planes. I have been in California on many occasions where people were complaining it was hot and we were thinking how cool it is. Lol.

I have been to Disneyland SO many times when the ride waits are 2 and 3 hours!! Why would anyone wait that long for a ride that lasts 10 minutes? We were there when the "Finding Nemo" submarine ride opened, yes, I was there on opening day. However, I did not go on the ride. The line? Almost SIX hours long!! People were standing in the sun and fuming, I was laughing at them. What's the point of wasting that much time to go on one single ride, even if it IS the grand opening day? We couldn't have cared less, figured some day in the future we would come back and the line might be a bit more reasonable.

I can give you a few ride names that, even if there are a lot of people waiting, the wait times are short/er because there are so many vehicles in the ride going that it's a continuous flow. Two I can think of: The Haunted House and The Pirate of the Caribbean. Both are very cool rides, indeed, but what about getting on Splash Mountain or Space Mountain? Peter Pan? Oh, It's A Small World is usually a shorter wait, too because there is a continuous line of boats coming through seating people.

But, that doesn't do it. I have done the Fast Pass system there, 2 hours until the first available seating? How about this: the last time I was there, I got a Fast Pass for Magic Mountain that wasn't good until ELEVEN HOURS LATER!!!! And we were there, ELEVEN HOURS LATER and the ride was broken down!!

You can cheat on one ride. It is a very popular ride that has 2 and 3 hour wait times. You get a Fast Pass to it, come back later when it's valid, bypass a lot of waiting and then go on the ride. That isn't the cheating part. The cheating part is when you get off the ride, you can simply jump into the waiting line again to get back on it. I'm not talking the back of the waiting line, I'm talking inside the facility, where your wait is going to be about 15 minutes. We did that last time there 4 times in a row and no-one said a word to us about it.

No, it was a couple of years ago. I was in the middle of the desert at a construction site where they were building a new prison. I had already gotten to know the contractor that I was speaking with on that day. We always get into long conversations about things that have nothing to do with what is going on in front of us. Anyway, I have no idea how we got onto the conversation of Disneyland. This guy is in his 60's, even though he is still running a construction crew. A rather gruff man with flavored speech, I was very surprised to hear about his and his wife's absolute love for Disneyland!

This talk about our favorite rides went on for quite some time. He spoke of the fact that he doesn't bring any family with him on his frequent visits over there, just him and his wife. I got the conversation on the track of wait times and how unbelievably long they are.

He wasted no time in telling me when the REAL best time to visit Disneyland is, if you don't want to experience long wait times: weather. Not whether: weather. Disneyland never shuts down. In inclement weather, apparently some rides might shut down, but the park remains open. Well, I mean, it never shuts down during it's normal business hours, Disneyland isn't a 24 hour operation but it certainly has plenty of open hours.

He went into a rather long, drawn-out but illuminating discourse on looking at weather reports and specifically going when it is RAINING. Now, mind you, these aren't teenagers or 20-somethings, these are 60-somethings telling me that the BEST time to go if you want to avoid long lines is inclement weather. Get yourself dressed up in rain gear and go for it!! He said they wait until they see a "bad" forecast and that's when they head out.

I had never thought of such a thing. I don't know how they figured this out. Maybe they went one day and it was raining and they stuck out and obviously were happy they did. You see, if I have some nice rain gear on, it wouldn't bother me in the least to go on all of those rides in the wet weather. I haven't tried their idea out yet - I haven't been back since. I got pretty disgusted the last time I went, shelling out some money and finding myself in a literal sea of humanity. In many areas, you couldn't move without bumping into someone.

Some day, though, I am going to try it. I mean, the next time I go I want to try it. Get prepared to go and then, whenever there is a wet day forecast and it's a day I can get over there, go and see what happens.

I mean, basically, what is being said is that people coming from all over are going to stay in their hotel rooms or stay at home in terms of locals because they don't want to venture out in such weather. If a person were to get it in their mind before they ever even left their house that they were going to go in rainy conditions and prepared themselves for it mentally and physically?

For me, it would be a whole new adventure at a place I have been to dozens of times!! An adventure!!

Regular readers can disregard this entry. This was posted in response to several sites I have been reading about the "best" times to visit Disneyland.

Monday 8/22/2011

I wrote this entry this morning at work, but it wouldn't post for whatever reason.

Monday

Back at work.
Apparently my manager is taking 2 days off. No problem with that, I guess, but usually he lets me know about such things. Funny, I totally forgot to check my bank account to make sure that direct deposit had made it in there.

Qaddafi is history? I found it interesting that the rebels didn't say they were going to find him and kill him, they said they are going to find him and then try him in court. This gives the rebels a bit more credibility, I would think. Question is: who is going to run the country?

If I were to somehow come into money right now, buying another house would be on the agenda. For those with the means, now is the time, especially for someone like me who would love to get a house just for rental purposes. The amount of people looking for houses for rent in just the Craigslist ads locally is a tell-tale sign: people have lost their homes, lost their credit and can't do anything BUT rent, for now anyway.

So, what is the big news aroung these parts? The heat. 112 today. That's hot. Yes, it gets hotter around here, but after 110, it's just hot. I never expect the intense heat to go away until we get into September. I don't want to get my mind into a place where I have tricked it into thinking the high heat is over with, cause' usually, it's not. September will mark the beginning of a cooling down period - which doesn't necessarily mean it will get cool by anyone's standards or stretch of the imagination, lol.

Pastor wrote back after I threw the idea at him that perhaps I might be able to volunteer in the church in some small capacity and he agreed. I encouraged him to pray about that for a bit, though, as I haven't volunteered in a church since I was shunned by my ex-pastor some 7 years ago. I haven't WANTED to volunteer in a church because of that, to clarify the internal situation.

I don't expect an answer until perhaps the end of the week at the soonest. Meanwhile, my CL ads to rent the room? Just not getting a lot of interest yet.

The Army reservist's room remains a disaster. I posted the necessary legal notice on her door, but at this point, it is becoming obvious she is not coming back. ALL she had to do was leave the keys to her room and that would have made it legal to enter without any permission. But she kept them. The room is strewn with clothes, junk and even garbage laying around. I am going to ask the trailer tenants to go in, pick up everything and sort it into large, plastic trash bags. Any clother or personal belongings go into one bag, junk and trash in another. Get the room cleaned up and get it ready for the guy that says he wants to move in. That way, on the 24th, I don't have to wait a day or more while we're busy getting the room cleaned up: the room will BE cleaned up and ready. I just want to be sure that I don't have to also get the carpet cleaning dude back for that room as well. But that guy was really good, showed up on a Sunday, got the job done and really did a great job on the carpet in the other room.

It doesn't really take that long to pick all that up, it just makes the room look like so much trailer trash. I don't get how people can live like that. It's sort of like that Hoarders show - you see a room so filled with junk that you either can't get through it or there are little paths going through the middle of it. This isn't THAT bad, but there IS stuff laying EVERYWHERE. All over the bed, the floors, the furntire, everything.

Hopefully she didn't take anything that doesn't belong to her.

I had thought I came out REALLY good on the electric usage for that trailer over night with the AC on. Then I realized that it is pretty much normal use. They had shut it off. I wanted it to stay on all night long and determine how much extra electricity it is going to use and be able to give a definitive number on daily electric usage.

Oh well. The answer to this problem, I think, is to mount the evap cooler up on top of the thing and then they can run AC in the day and evap at night.

Anyway, work day is here.

G'day.

ben

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.