Sophie - the new doggy - was supposed to have her coat trimmed today for summer heat purposes.  

At 7:30 am, the woman promised yesterday, she would be over here. Okay.  7:30?  Came and went.  9:00 am this person calls me and tells me she overslept.

Typical Craigslist junk.  I contacted a company off of Craiglist and they are coming on Wednesday to do the job.  

I did not go to church today.  For whatever reason that I cannot explain, it was not in me to go to church.  The whole thought of doing so had completely vanished.  I instead focused my energies on getting the carpet installed in that trailer. I am hardly an expert, but I am doing the best I can.  I have the bath/toilet area - small area but lots of turns - left to go and some trimming to go.  I will also probably get some wood trim.  I knew it would take a lot of time to install that carpet and I was not wrong.   It really is a good thing that the move doesn't take place until 2 weekends from now. 

I set the cat trap out last night replete with tuna fish.  No takers.  It's still out there.  I don't know how frequently cats are out there at night.  I just know the aftermath when they do show up.

4 day work week en-queue.  

Friday off.  I took it off because I was going to lose even more hours in vacation accrual.  But on Friday, I was looking at the new plan.  I am getting 100 hours per year of vacation time.  It was at 80 hours but I have no clue when they upped it by 20 hours.  I'm going to take 4 days off next month and probably a couple in July.  If Caleb and I go to San Diego again this year - he really wants to go, he brought up the subject - then I am definitely going to have at least a 4 day weekend for that.  So, maybe use my floating holidays, though I should still have 40 hours of vacation time at that point.  

So, yeah, I"m ready for some time off.  3 day weekend is nice, but I'm looking forward to 6 days off in a row. I haven't even asked for it - yet - but I will be. Starting on the 12th.  Well there is also Memorial Day weekend, which is another 3 day weekend this month.  The point is that weekends just fly by.  Not that vacations don't either, but there is a good chunk of difference between a 2-day weekend and 6 days off. Or if I just go for it, I'll take the entire week off and that will equal 9 days off in a row.  

Ummm, well I haven't really made my mind up yet.  

What I do know?

It's close to my bedtime and I am retiring to the bedroom for the evening.

ben

Saturday 5/5/2012 Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo.  Another excuse for people to get drunk, akin to St. Patrick's Day.

Started on the carpet in the trailer today.
As I thought, it's going to take a lot of time to do a small area - because of all the corners and turns.  I'm going to try to finish the "living room" area tomorrow.  The bathroom area, though much smaller?  Will take twice as much time.

The trailer is being moved on the 19th.  Which is a good thing. I had wanted it moved on the 12th, but I am certain now that I am going to need next weekend to finish this up and get it ready to go. I have Friday off as well, so a 4 day work week for me this coming week.

I went to Discount Tire today and bought a new tire for the spare.  I didn't want to, but they didn't have any used ones and the idea of running from place to place to find one was not appealing. further, the idea of having a used tire that might not work if it is needed was also not appealing.  Worth the money, thank you very much.    I also bought a Direct TV receiver for it - still new and in the box - for $25.  I don't need anything else for the satellite, I have acquired everything I need for it as this point concerning satellite TV.  I'm not even sure I am going to watch TV up there, but if I want to?  For the intended time I am going to spend up there?  Yeah.  My mother only spends summers up there. I want to go up there throughout the year.  Sure, it gets freezing cold up there in the winter - and snow!......but I don't care about that.  Freeze and enjoy, that trailer has 3 sources of heating in it, I am not going to freeze in the trailer and of course I want to tromp through the snow outside and have some fun with the dogs playing in it.

I was at Walmart today and bought some electrical wiring so I can run a lead from a car battery to the trailer pigtail and find out what's wrong with the exterior lighting system.  I assume the pigtail itself, I have dealt with this stuff on trailers for 26 years and always, when NO lights work on the entire trailer, it's a problem with messed-up connections on the pigtail connector.  I also got Mark - who is celebrating his 65th birthday today - a Walmart gift card, he loves that place, he gets on his bicycle and goes there every day.  No, I'm not kidding, he goes there every single day.  It wasn't a skimpy amount, either. The guy does so much work around here - but also - just wanted to bless him.  I think birthdays are very important.  I have gone through many birthdays without anyone knowing and it really sucked.

So yeah, the date is set for the 19th and the man will do it.  I trust that.  But, I think I am going to have to go up there and make sure of what he is getting himself into.  I told him about the steep driveway and the dirt road getting there. It's all county maintained and in very good condition, but surprises like that without foreknowledge can make a person a bit grumpy about it.  You know, why didn't you tell me?

Unpopular subject with some readers coming up.  Like right now.  I went out earlier to find my bird bath flipped onto the ground with a huge crack in it.  I put huge rocks in the thing a while back because cats are jumping up onto it. I'm not sorry.  The trap is going out tonight.  I will begin catching cats again and moving them to wherever - somewhere else.  I will not harm them, but they are not going to continue to destroy my property.  In the last 2 weeks, my ground covering plants have been trampled on a nightly basis.  Come out and find them in such condition.  Today was the camel's back breaker.  I have had enough. I let it go for a long time because of the extreme controversy it caused in this neighborhood, but I REFUSE to allow OTHER people's animals to continue to destroy my personal property, repeatedly, over and over again.  Yup, I will be armed.  350 man has cameras and high dollar sound capturing equipment.  He has his flood lights shined onto my property at night.  He was standing out there a few days ago - the first time I had seen him in quite a while - when I was leaving for work this week.

Yes, he has flood lights shined onto the front of my property.  The man is a piece of work.  Injunction Against Harassment order is still in effect.  He cannot do anything and if he does, he will go straight to jail.  Again, I have attempted to talk to the people around here that own all these cats and they mock me when I attempt to have a rational discussion with them.  Enough is enough.

I sent an email to my oldest brother a while ago.  He has a cabin not far from my mother's property.  I asked him to come up and lend his expertise to the situation of moving the trailer onto the property and setting it up.  I don't necessarily need his help, to be honest, I am just trying to find a way to reconnect with him.  We are complete strangers by any definition of the word even though we are brothers.  But, also, he moved my mother's trailer up onto that property some years ago, so he should remember what he had to do  to get the trailer up that steep driveway.

I am having a dog groomer come over tomorrow.  The new doggy needs it, bad.  She has a thick coat and it needs to be trimmed for summer.  I am told that a good dog groomer can do a job that lasts up to 6 months. Okay, obviously that doesn't apply to people that want doggy's that look perfect all the time and have money to burn.  I am concerned about the heat - she needs it trimmed down.  She'll like it, I'm sure, whether she does or not, lol.  She's a gentle spirit at least, the groomer will have no trouble with her.

Lord willing.  Say that first and then say I hope this summer is a bit nicer with the ability to get out of this heat and go to a place with all the comforts of home that is out of the heat and into a beautiful wilderness.  The only doubt to be dealt with left is the situation with internet up there.  Will  I get it or not? Assume 3G network, 4G undoubtedly doesn't exist there.  But that's okay with me, as long as it works and the Verizon map says it does. If it does NOT work, then I am going to be talking to Verizon.  A new company for me that I have yet to deal with on "touchy" subjects.

Speaking of that.  Direct TV. I went online today and ordered a pay-per-view movie that Mark wanted to see.  Look, let's try and make a person's birthday as special as it can be.  Especially for a person getting up there in years.  I paid for it with my debit card and then?  It didn't come up on the screen.  My extensive dealings with Direct TV had me immediately going to my bank account online to see whether the transaction had gone through.  Yup, it did.

Do you want to read all of it?  Have you read all of it before?  I know at least some readers have.  4 phone calls.  Well over an hour.  To get a freaking movie that I PAID for to show up on the TV!!!  Oh yes,  I got freebies out of it, when do I not get freebies when I have to spend that much time with them? The movie? Amount paid was credited to my account.  2 months worth of Showtime and that's what I got - so far.  That doesn't include my phone call to corporate headquarters that will occur - Lord willing - on Monday, demanding 6 months free of Starz or whatever.  I don't care.  If their system isn't going to work - which it never does - and I have to spend inordinate amounts of time for something as simple as a freaking pay-per-view movie, then they are going to give me compensation for the time spent.

I know.  EVERY single time I order a pay-per-view online, it does NOT work.  I have to call them up.  I always get freebies out of it because I demand it.  I don't care what their excuses are.  After 10 plus years of it, they should have fixed it LONG ago.   I expect a 6 month freebie on whatever movie channel to come my way on Monday.

Long entry? Yup.  But, I didn't post yesterday and there are things going on needed to cover.  Like coming home from work Friday afternoon.

I sat down at my computer.  A white something caught the corner of my eye on top of my computer tower. There is nothing on top of that tower, one of the computer  fans is up there and I don't want stuff up there. Let's keep the computer cool so it stays happy.  So, that triggered something in the brain and that told me to full-blown look at it.  A piece of paper with 3 folds.  Money. The kid tenant.  Uhhh, a pretty good chunk of change sitting in that folded piece of paper, too.  Umm, yeah, next time?  Slip it under my bedroom door, don't put it up there for anyone to see.  Not that I have a theft problem now, but, who knows.  He hasn't seen what has gone on in this house in the past and I do not have people living here like that at this point and - frankly - will not tolerate that kind of crap from the past ever again.

Well, thankfully, it was all there.

This entry waxes long.

More? Yup, but need not be said here, can wait.

G'nite.

ben

Thursday 5/4/2012

So, the 5th person that was going to give me a quote kept putting me off. "I'll call you back in an hour" - and never called back.  Then it was: "I'll call you this evening", which also didn't materialize.  I called him yet again and he gave me the put-off for the last time.  I told him he could keep his services and that I would be finding someone else to do it, NO THANKS.  The problem is, even if he were to give me a good quote, do I trust that the person is actually going to show up at the appointed time considering the short history I already have with him?

The 3rd person who said he could do it on the 19th also has not written back to confirm, even though I sent him emails asking him to do so.  So I blew him off as well.  Back to the drawing board.

I'm at the office this morning talking to my manager about it and he brings up one of the salesmen's names.  Ohhh? I didn't know he had a 5th wheel on his pickup.  Never saw one on it, though I know you can get those detachable versions.  Yup, my manager states, he has a 5th wheel trailer parked up at the lake. Nice.  Well, I emailed him this morning and offered him what the lowest bidder I had already had was asking.

He writes back and asks when, instead of confirming he has the ability to do it. Back and forth, I finally have someone to move the trailer that yes, I can count on to get it done.  He has to check with family and schedule to see whether he can do it on the 12th or the 19th.  That is a big burden taken care of.  It has been quite the ordeal to actually find someone to do this job.

I still have stuff to get done on it, but it's nothing that can't be done before the 12th, so no biggies.

Anyway, I was sitting here at a contractor's waiting for them to arrive, they are here, I'm offa here.

ben

Wednesday 5/2/2012

Bowling last night was fun.  Of course, it was made funner by the fact that I was getting the highest scores, lol.  It didn't take long to start hitting the spare and some strikes to ratchet the score up enough to win.

Allegedly a trip to Globe today.  Globe is in the mountains - been there many times with this job, but haven't been anytime recently.  My manager doesn't want me to have to do it because there is no profit in it for our store.  Understandable, but I have been grinding in the valley every day at this job for months and months now, a nice trip out of town, even if only half a day's worth - will be nice.

But, I always throw in the "alleged" part because things often change.  There was nothing in our truck routing system as of yesterday when I left the premises to do other than that run.  We'll see.  The delivery is of a giant fusion machine - it is a heat welder.  It welds large diameter pipe together.  This particular type of pipe is widely used in mining operations since it's plastic and does not corrode.  More pointedly, that you can pump sulphuric acid through it and it will do nothing to the plastic.

So, I am hopeful : )

No more time for this entry, gotta get to work.

ben

There is not much going on in my life that is more disconcerting as having people pointing fingers at you for situations that you (I) did not cause.  This morning is one of them.  2 orders to be pulled, loaded and had to be at the job site by no later than 7:00am.  Okay.  Pulled the orders, loaded them onto the truck and yes, was here (I am currently sitting at this job site) right at 7:00am.

When I pulled up to the unloading area, the foreman was visibly upset.  No pipe on the truck.  What pipe?  The orders showed nothing about pipe.  I read and re-read orders over and over because I do not want to be the source of a problem that - in this company - ends up going into everyone's ears.  There are some things about the company that I work for that I definitely do not like, this is one of them.  Every company has it's set of problems, obviously, but I am not a big fan of people going around talking trash about other employees behind their back.

Regardless, the pipe was not on the order.  Yet, my manager and I are being blamed for not bringing out the pipe.  Why?  Because allegedly, it was in a "memo" on the order itself.  Well, I checked the memo's this morning.  I looked at my company email account - a memo in the order will send it to whoever the intended recipient's email address is.  Nothing.  So, how does one get blamed for not delivering a product that one did not know needed to be delivered?  Yes, indeed.  But, that's what happens in our company - there are numerous individuals who will never take responsibility for their actions and always blame everyone else for mistakes.

Whatever.  Bowling tonight.  haven't been in a long time.  Our church group decided that we are going bowling this week for our meeting.  Bowling isn't cheap and when it was decided that we were going to do that, I had the distinct feeling that someone in that group was not going to come because they could not afford it.  I offered to pay for that individual - I had an inkling of who the person was, too.  Yes, well after my offer, the group leaders wrote back and told me that a mom and her kid would like to take up that offer.  Okay.  Anonymous, please, keep it anonymous.  They said they would "try their best".

My son texts my ex wife yesterday telling her that he's going in for surgery. Surgery? For what? I get the call after he texts her from her asking if I knew anything about this (as if I had I had known but intentionally was keeping the information from her).  I decided to take the "high road" and simply not engage her as she had started to engage me.  No, sorry, I know nothing about it but I would guess he's referring to that in-grown toenail that they should have dealt with the second time he went in there.  She had not been able to get him on the phone to ask him what was going on, which is why we were guessing.  Yup, that's what it turned out to be. They numbed it up and cut half of his toenail off, end of story.  They should have done that the first time he went in, but if not, definitely the second.  This was his third visit.

Meanwhile, I am hot on the search for someone or some company to tow the trailer.  I think I may have found one.  The ad says up to $350 for up to 350 miles.  Well, that sounds very promising, the guy is going to give me a quote later on today.

That's it.  Still haven't installed the carpet - procrastinating I guess, lol. Ain't gonna happen today.  When I get off of work I am going to go home, take a nap and try to refresh myself for this evening's bowling adventure.  There are a few other issues with the trailer, but I am probably not going to do anything about it.

Tuesday 5/1/2012

The people that were going to move my trailer up to the mountains?  Are leaving for Colorado on Monday and won't be back until September.  Uggggh.  I contacted the other individual that said they would do it - no reply yet and that was almost 24 hours ago.

Well isn't that wonderful.  I posted another ad on Craigslist.  To use a company to have it hauled up there will cost around $600 to $700.  Yup.  A lot of money.  I have no choice but to start the search all over again and hope that either someone responds to my Craigslist ad or I can find someone - somehow - to do it.  Hmmm.  Maybe I'll stop in at RV World and see if there might be anyone that has left a card or a service that has their service posted somewhere.

Well, that ended my time for writing, lol, as I got involved in searching the internet for any kind of service that hauls RV's.  Found a local one and submitted a quote request.

Anyway, off to work.

G'day.

ben

I called my mother today.
God continues to astound and amaze me.
I don't know what to say.

She is going to church, today, probably leaving anytime soon now.

I could not possibly devote the amount of words and time it would take to go
into all of what that means here.  That my mother is going to any church is a
true miracle in itself.

I am elated, concerned and ecstatic - I am hopeful and believe the best outcome
here.  That she will go - and that whatever needs to happen, God will make that
come to pass and that she will go again and again.

Until.  Need I say the rest?

Until Him.  Until the Lord.  Until our Savior.

This situation will envelop me for some time to come.
It will take up my energy and thought.  My mother - oh my Lord and God, to come
and REALLY know the love of our Lord.

Sunday 4/29/2012

The thought occurs to me - just about every Sunday morning at this time - that I really don't need or want to go church.  I know the source of those thoughts and this morning I simply and utterly reject them.

As for the trailer AC, the temp inside the unit came down to around 75 degrees in there yesterday - that was cooling the entire unit with the front air outlets aimed toward the back room.  I believe it got up to 95 degrees yesterday, so, good enough.  It doesn't get hotter than that up in the mountains - or if it ever does, it certainly doesn't stay up there that long. I am going to get up on the trailer roof one more time and give the coil another good bathing in water to make sure all or as much of the dirt that I can get out of there - is out and call it good.

I don't get much peace around here on Sunday mornings any more, a thing that greatly irritates me.  I don't want to sound petty, but Mark and Lynnette walk in and out and in and out, continuously.  Well, mostly Mark with Lynnette going in and out of the bathroom repeatedly.  It's just one day of the week and just a few hous of the day, I guess that's too much to ask.  I don't get the constant in and out stuff, though.

I wrote up yet another ad for giving away some fish and plants.  I have far too many fish in the ponds - they have been multiplying and it's getting to be too much.  The filters are clogging up too fast and I want to thin out the amount of fish in there. Well there we go, a couple of replies already, hopefully one of them will pan out.

Well I'm not going to drag this one out.  Church in an hour.

G'day.

ben

Saturday 4/28/2012

Snag.
I figured it wouldn't be cheap, but now my suspicions have been verified.  To add freon to my travel trailer's roof ac unit, they will have to install a port.  Well, installing the port means all the freon will leak out while they're doing it.  Meaning they will have to evacuate the system and then completely recharge it.  Price tag? $250.

Now, I am sitting here wondering whether I should think about dumping another $250 into that AC system or not.  It puts out cool air, but not cold air.  Not cold enough to keep the unit cool, anyway, when it's hot outside.    The problem with dumping that kind of money into it is that it is an old AC unit and I have no clue how much longer it will last.  A month, a year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years?  If I knew I could get at least a couple of years out of it, then yes, it would be worth it.

Of course that's figuring that I even have $250 to spend on it right now.  I have the money to move that thing up north stashed away.  I have another $300 in savings on top of that.  Humph.  I am going to have to make up my mind soon about this one because it's getting close to the time to get that thing hauled up there, less than a month away and I do not want to put it off.

________________________________________

I called them back, the service company that is.  The woman stated that it isn't always a freon issue, that the condenser can get clogged up over time and limit the amount of air flowing through it.  Ummmm, okay, thanks for the info, I am going to try cleaning it out before I call you folks to come over.  I'll spend 10 cents on water to flush the thing out before spending a grand total of $316 to have freon pumped into it.

And hootinnannyholler.  After I thoroughly sprayed the condenser out with water, the temperature of the air coming out of the unit is MUCH colder!!!  So, I am going to run it for a few hours and we'll see what happens.  It would be VERY nice if I didn't have to spend anymore money on that unit.  It was also very nice of that lady to give away that information for free, lol.  I did thank her quite nicely for the information.

That was the concern of the day, really.  I have other things to do, but that was the priority.  If it does, indeed, cool it down nicely in there, then I will install the new padding/carpet - to the best of my ability anyway.  It's ready to be installed.  After that?  Well, not that much.  Not anything costly, anyway.  I have my new microwave, coffee pot, nice used queen mattress, the roof is all but done, just a few touch up areas, it has a new refrigerator and the propane system is now working in it (hot water/cooking).

It's been a long, drawn-out project but will be worth the effort once I get it up there.  I'm looking at either the 12th or 19th of May - a Saturday - to have it dragged up there.  Not sure yet.  Mom has already given her stamp of approval to have it towed onto her property whether she is up there or not.  But, waiting until she goes up might be better.

Once it's up there, then the work has just begun.  Will have to install a fence around it to be able to let the dogs out without having to supervise them all the time.  Will have to work out the situation with the satellite dish and running a cable. Thanks for reminding myself: I still need to get a satellite box for it.  Totally forgot about that, going to start searching Craigslist as soon as I am done with this entry.

Anyway, Memorial Day is near the end of May and it would be cool to have that 3 day weekend to spend much of it up there if I can get it up there by then and get everything situated.  Of course, another test is whether I will be able to get on the internet up there or not - no clue yet.  Deal breaker?  No, but I know I will want to be able to get online.  The only other alternative is satellite internet which is both costly and I've heard doesn't really work that well, so probably would pass on that as well.

Whoops!  The price of satellite internet has come down substantially.  New customer offer of $39.00 per month.  But the equipment for $199 or lease it for nothing.  That is a FAR cry different than the last time I looked at the pricing - substantially higher!  But it's a monthly expense I would rather not incur and use that money in savings instead.  I don't want to have to pay for 3 different sources of internet service, I am already pay for 2.  Home service and mobile broadband.

Well whatever, before this entry drags into the everlasting one, better close it down.  Just checked the temp in there, down to 80 degrees.   I have Mark fixing the heavy cover that goes over a big window in it - close that and I am sure the temp will come down substantially considering the sun is shining right through that window, heating everything up.

Later.

ben

Thursday 4/26/2012

When one sets out to get off the road that leads to destruction and back onto the path that leads to eternal life - through the narrow gate - one is then, I am finding out, attacked in so many different ways from the enemy that it becomes glaringly obvious that the enemy is behind all of it and that he isn't exactly happy that - God is greater, thank you Lord.

After much reflection, I realize that I had completely given up even attempting to walk with the Lord, just do my own thing and keep to myself.   The carnal nature of man is not in love with the Word of God - you know, the words written in the Bible.  It loves to do whatever it wants to - those things that are evil; worldly, anything that is not of God.  Raising my hand: guilty.  

I started reading through the book of James.  If you want to find printed words, from God, that will rile your flesh, simply start reading in that book.  Faith without works is dead.  Count it all joy when you are confronted with trials and tribulation.  It's a lot of admonishment, to be honest about it.  These are the parts of the Bible that are oft times ignored by those that just want the gooey-good feeling and not all the idea of "taking up your cross daily and following after Christ" that leads to a disciplined life in the Lord.

I have a long ways to go, that's what I can say about it.  But, continuing reading in the Word is the answer, at least for me.  It is a habit I am attempting to form to simply turn on the computer and pull up the BibleGateway site every morning and start reading.  And yes, I am in the book of James and it may take a while to work my way through it.  I don't want to just glaze over all the "hard" stuff, I want to absorb it and let it become a part of my every day life.

Well, anyway.  At some point, I will find it within myself to volunteer in the church.  Whatever that may mean, even if it's vacuuming carpets.

Rain. That was the forecast for today.  Yet, looking at the radar, it is raining - well north of Phoenix.  Whether it makes it's way here?  Who knows. God causes it to rain on the just and unjust alike, so, please Lord!!!    lol

There isn't much else going on, really.  I am going to attempt to find someone to come over that has the necessary equipment to recharge the trailer ac's freon system.  If I do find someone to do it and it still doesn't put out the necessary temp of air to keep it cool in there, it may be a losing battle to spend any more money on it.  I don't want a gawky looking window ac unit mounted on the thing, but to buy a new roof air unit for it is pretty expensive stuff.  The thing IS pumping out cool air, just not cold ENOUGH.  Which hints to me a need for increased amount of freon.

Well, whatever the case, it's time to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

Tuesday 4/24/2012

We took a video this weekend of Duke eating a loaf of bread.  It's hilarious.  The dog doesn't chew bread, he simply swallows it whole.  Completely spaced out loading that up to YouTube, gonna have to do that today after work.

A change is coming into my life - more like a reversion to the ways and the walk with the Lord I once had and shook off.  Bad thing to do, I can tell you, leaving your walk with the Lord, that is.  Not that I consciously told the Lord one day that I want nothing more to do with Him, more like allowing the world and it's ways to creep in and become a way of living.  There is, in reality, nothing good in this World, at least those things that are void of Christ, which are most things.

I don't have anyone to blame but myself.  The divorce was a nightmare, yes.  The church shunning me was the icing on a rotten cake, definitely.  Old friends moving on to other churches and never seeing them again? I brushed that one off.  I learned long ago that if that's the way a "friend" acts towards you when the going gets rough, then they were never your friends to begin with.  I never treated them that way, I can assure you, and I was always there for them.

But I was not guiltless.  But as I start to get back into the Word much more than anything I have been doing in the last 7 years, well, it's certainly enlightening - if you believe, of course.  If you read the Word and don't believe, then it may not do any good - though God says His word shall not return unto him void.  Well, I believe.  God is good.  I can finally say I believe I am coming out of it.  Whatever I have gone through with the church is the past.  The current church I am in is a very good one, I just haven't seen it that way because I have been viewing it through tainted eyes, ie: the church that shunned me.

Whatever the case, this walk with the Lord is good.  I have missed it so much.  God is so good to us.  I am hungry for the Word again, a thing I haven't really had in a long, long time now.  I am hungry to fulfill my purpose and destiny - whatever that may be - on this earth and then, finally, move onto to be with Him.

G'day.

ben

A short one.  It got to 105 yesterday.  That's 105 degrees in APRIL.  What, are we going to have a 130 degree summer? I mean, seriously.  Running the AC in April, what fun.  I have no idea if this is a pre-cursor to things to come, but I sincerely hope it is not.

Regardless, it's Monday morning, early and I have to leave for work.  Mind swimming with things all over the board.  A little restless at this point, I am really seeking the Lord and attempting to get beyond some issues in my personal life.  Changing things in your personal life that you have lived with for - a long time - is not necessarily the easiest thing to accomplish, but certainly it's not impossible.

G'day.

ben

I may start scaling back my entries a bit.  Not quitting, but I didn't write one yesterday. Seems like I am pretty much saying the same things over and over and that makes for some boring reading.

But, today was a bit different day for me. I went to church Friday night - and was up so late that I was pretty tired on Saturday - but definitely worth going.  Today, the same prophets were in the church.  I sat there and listened to the message and then they started calling out people.  I didn't realize that these prophets know many of the people in the church.  I have only seen one of them attending the church - once, the other couple I had never seen before.

Well, anyway, the went through all of that and then called up everyone who hadn't been prayed for on either of the 2 days, which I had not.  I had already prayed and asked the Lord for one specific thing to happen if I were to get prayed over.  Not that I am dictating terms to the Lord, but certainly, what I was asking was definitely not out of line with anything found in the Word of God.

So, when I went up there and stood in line, I contemplated the scenario.  Kind of getting into mind games, I guess, while listening to them ministering to other people near me.  When the prophet got to me, he didn't ask me anything.   Instead, he put his hand on my chest and began praying and speaking forth exactly what I had prayed and asked the Lord earlier.  I know people have a hard time with the idea of current-day prophets, but they certainly exist and there aren't just a handful of them out there, either.

I am not going to go into the details of what I had asked the Lord for and/or what the man prayed over me, really, quite personal stuff to be honest and even I am not divulging that kind of thing on the World Wide Web. But, a great fog lifted off of me this morning.  The joy of the Lord filled my inner man and I found myself laughing heartily.  I went and sat back down on my chair and felt as if I had taken some drugs.  I sat there until they were all ready to leave, the ministers that is, as I couldn't find it in myself to get up and go.  Not because I wanted to hang out with ministers, but because the presence of the Lord was so unbelievably powerful there today.

That has been, for the most part, my weekend.  Yesterday I did much of nothing, too tired.  Though I did find out that the AC unit on my trailer - is working - but not putting out cold enough air to bring the temp down that much.  The air coming out of it is cold, but not cold enough.  It needs freon, I am guessing.  They don't have ports on those older units - well I don't know if they have them on newer ones, either - to add more.  You actually have to cut into the copper tubing and install a port, I guess, to be able to add it.  If I had access to a torch and brazing rods, I could probably install my own port - but I do not have access to such.

I don't have the money right now to pay someone to come out and do that for me, so that's kind of up in the air at this point.  I dunno.  If I am determined to have it fixed, that's going to put off moving it for a while.  Push comes to shove? Might take it up there, anyway.  We'll see.

Well whatever.  I'm going to bed early tonight - which is really early for most people, lol.

Nite.

ben

Friday 4/20/2012

Just got home from church - it's 11:20 pm, hours past my bedtime.  But I am awake and need to wind down a bit.
I took Caleb with me who got a very concise word from the Lord through one of the ministers that was there.  It was a great service, haven't spent that much time in a service since I was - shunned some years ago now.

Well, at work, they didn't want me to go over 40, but ended up with almost 45 anyway.  A 2 man operation with a lot of work and very high GP?  It really shouldn't bother them that much, it is what it is.

Mark removed the carpet out of the trailer 2 days ago, which made me very happy.  I need only to buy some carpet glue and some staples and away we go.  When I get that done, it will be the home stretch, baby.

It's warming up.  Near 100 degrees today.  AC on most of the day.  Not much fun, but what are you going to do?

Nothing much here.  Just throwing things out there.  I'm tired - but I am REALLY tired of these stupid polls that keep coming out daily of the "race" between Obama and Romney.  The election isn't until when, 7 months from now? Do they keep putting these polls out to try and sway people's vote?  I don't trust polls that much, anyway.  They can word a poll in such a way to get whatever results they want out of if, from what I have seen.

I am having a person over tomorrow - if they show up that is - to take some more pond plants.  I really need to weed out some of it.  That particular pond is a bit overgrown with plants and some thinning is definitely in the plans.

Nothing more to see here.

G'nite.

ben

Thursday 4/19/2012

I don't particularly care for checks floating around that aren't cashed.  So it is every time I send these people a check to make payment on the trailer.  They've had it for 2 weeks and finally it went through last night.  ONE more payment on that and it frees up $200 a month.  Which is good, cause' summer is almost here and that money will be needed for electricity.

I'm definitely leaning more and more towards selling it if I can get what I paid for it out of it.  It's in good condition but who knows what the market for such things is right now.  I won't take less than I paid for it, that's a fact.  So it might sit there for a while if that's the case.

You see the corruption going on with that Federal agency with the lavish parties and then you come online in the morning and find a woman that has allegedly stolen 30 million from a small town, apparently over the course of a long period of time and then you wonder: how much MORE of this is going on?

Pay taxes so thieves can live a lavish lifestyle and wave it in our faces?

Whatever the case, the work day is here, must be leaving now.

G'day.

ben

Wednesday 4/18/2012

Tired.
Just not sleeping well.  Considering trying the newest sleep aid that supposedly helps you sleep through the night.  I hate waking up at midnight/1:am/2:am/whatever.  I don't lay there trying to go back to sleep anymore, I get up or get the laptop and sit up in bed and try to tire/bore myself back to sleep - which works far better than tossing and turning.

Onto other things.  Caleb.  He was given the green light: they are definitely having him up there at that kid's camp in the mountains again this year.  He called and told me the good news this afternoon.  He also asked if I could take him up there again.  Sure, why not?  What day?  The 12th of June.  Falls on a Tuesday.  I will simply ask for the time off I wanted anyway - which in this case would be 4 days off.

I am, of course, hoping/assuming that trailer will already be up there by then. Unfortunately, taking Caleb up to his place and taking the dogs along with us so I can just go back to the trailer instead of all the way back to the valley?  Lol.  Caleb's mountain "resort" is about - I don't know, maybe another 40 or 50 miles beyond where my mother has her property.

I don't know, really.  Driving all the way up there, back to the valley and back up again sounds quite tedious and expensive, fuel-wise.  Gonna have to think about that one.

Caleb continues to remind me of our fishing expedition date after he gets back.  I had NO idea that he loved going on the ocean that much.  He doesn't let on much about what it is going on inside of him.  He insists we are going this year and that this time, he will have money to help out with it. I do hope so, cause' right now? It ain't happening if the tab is all on me as it was last year.  Though, the one trailer will be paid off next month and the other trailer is almost finished in terms of spending money on it.  I am hoping to sell the trailer I am not using.  Who knows.  He says he is going to save most of his earnings up at the kid camp and that is going to pay for the trip.  I want to go, no doubting - San Diego in the summertime?  Wonderful : )

I dunno.  Secret service agents getting fired; the GSA continuous news about the unbelievable amounts of wasted, taxpayer money; this that and the other thing.

I do know one thing, God willing: I am going to to church on Friday night and I am dragging my son with me. They are having prophets come in and I definitely want to be there.  No current-day prophets, you say?  Well, you are certainly welcomed to believe whatever you want.

That's only 2 nights from now.

Other things on the mind.  No need to go into that here.

G'nite.

ben

Tuesday 4/17/2012

I was AT work at 5:00 am this morning.
Contractor at Intel wanted me out  there with their stuff that early.
I don't know, I just do whatever they want.
But it's 8:00 pm and I'm exhausted and going to bed after I write this.
Which won't take long, cause' I'm SO tired I am easily irritated and there
are so many people walking through here making "comments" right now?
I'm outta here shortly.  Finish what I was doing and get gone.\

Friday night at church?  Prophets are going to be there.   I am going. I asked
my son via Facebook to go, too, I would be VERY interested in what
the Lord might have to say to him through them.

Ahhh, blahh. I would love to write out an entry like I normally do, but I am too
tired for it.

Hope you all are doing well.

ben

Monday 4/16/2012

What I would like to do is take a trip up to mother's property this weekend and check out whether the internet is going to work up there plus walk around the property.

It's how I work, folks.  I need sustained motivation in some things to keep on moving forward.  Going up to the property; getting a fresh taste of fresh air; hiking through deep woods? Yup, that will get me going.  Or keep me going.

I don't have much time here.  Since I left work, I have received numerous phone calls about tomorrow morning. The contractor at Intel wants their stuff there at 6:30 am.  Most of the material has NOT been pulled yet.  Do you know what it takes to pull and order, shrink wrap it, load it on the truck and strap it down plus get paperwork done not to mention opening up the building/gate/bay doors plus closing them again after you are done?

Yeah, thanks. I'ts almost 8:00 pm and it's time for bed already!

No time to go into things today.

G'nite.

ben

Sunday 4/15/2012

Getting ominously close to May, unfortunately.
May means distinctive increase in temps leading up to hell in June.
Well whatever. I am attempting to mentally prepare myself for another hot summer.  It isn't exactly working out too well and I am not going to like the adjustment period.

Well anyway.  Went to the shooting range yesterday and opted to leave the shotgun at home. Once there, I wished I had brought it, though.  I like to shoot off a few rounds out of it every here and there to get and stay used to the feel of it.  But no biggies.  Ran about 100 rounds through the .40 caliber  and even more through the rifle plus even more through mom's guns.  She has a brand new .38 which is surprisingly more powerful than I thought it would be.  Nice, small gun too, easily concealable.

Not in the market for guns right now, however, I have other fish to fry.  Namely, starting on getting money built up on the M-Power/electricity reader for the hot summer to come.  It costs at least $100 per week to keep the AC on around here in the summer.

Long interlude. I wrote the rest of this entry and it disappeared as soon as I tried to post it.  I forgot that I had logged onto another Google account which automatically logs you out of the one you are currently on. I am not writing that all over again.

But, I will encapsulate it.  I was taking the 3 dogs out for a walk.  Sophie was going crazy and I was attempting to calm her down.  We go out of the gate. She jumps all over the place again, the stupid collar the lady that insisted I use when I got her came right off. No more.  I HATE those collars.  I should have ditched when I got home with her. I took Prince and Duke for a walk anyway and did not chase after that dog, it is futile. She is way too fast.  When I got their walk done, I got in my car, found her and amazingly, she jumped right into my door after I opened it. She now has Coco's old chain collar on her neck and that situation won't be happening again.

As for tonight? It's time for bed. Work week looms.

G'nite.

ben

Saturday 4/14/2012

So, we're going to mom's this morning and hopefully get home early afternoon.  I have a lot of things I need to get done around here, kinda precludes spending the entire day over there at her place.

I bought a cleaning kit a few days ago and took the .40 Sigma apart (it's basically a Glock wannabe) - which isn't terribly difficult to do. In fact, you can have thing in 4 pieces in less than 30 seconds.  I watched a video on YouTube - well a couple of them - to make sure I wasn't going to do something wrong and maybe have a gun exploding in my face next time I attempt to fire it, which would be this morning.  I still haven't cleaned the shotgun, but it is a new gun and has had only 5 rounds shot through it, so no biggies.  I don't think I am going to shoot that thing this morning anyway.  There isn't much to shooting a shotgun: aim in the general direction of your attacker and pull the trigger.

So, cleaning out the bore and oiling everything and then wiping off the excess, I was happy enough that I had done a thorough and correct job of the cleaning and oiling and reassembling.

So, in about 15 minutes, we're taking off - gotta stop at Walmart first though, I only have one set of ear muffs and eye glasses and I need 2 if Caleb and I and mom are going to be in there shooting.  Last time, mom didn't shoot, she just waited for us, but I am hoping this time she will go in and fire off a few rounds.  I have never seen my mother shoot anything but a small caliber handgun that had snake shot in it, she was attempting to kill a rattlesnake with it and it was doing absolutely nothing to the snake.  I was laughing at her while I took a shovel and cut the snake's head off and that was the end of that problem.

There are all kinds of snakes up at her property - Garter snakes being most populous. Sounds bad, but they keep the rodent population down which is a good thing, because rats or mice like to find ways into trailers and do some damage.  I'm hoping that with all the doors locked shut and everything closed I won't have to deal with that problem, I guess I'll find out.

Yesterday, after work, I decided to stop at a "new" place to get my hair cut. This time I decided I would be having it cut well down for the summer.  I sometimes let it grow a wee bit long during the winter, but it becomes a hassle and a chore to deal with it.  Anyway, walking into this somewhat dilapidated place-  the floor was not exactly appealing in it's coloration and there was a huge crack all the way down to the other end of the structure in the concrete foundation - I was greeted to the sight of 5 ladies.  3 of them hair stylists and 2 of them customers.  Well, there was a guy in there as well getting his hair cut, but who cares about that, right? lol.

I got my hair cut down and looked into the mirror, rather shocked.  My hair is going from grey to white now. I am only 48 years old, thank you.  I thanked her for the nice cut but started grumbling about the lack of color in my hair.  Suddenly, I have 2 ladies in my face attempting to talk me into getting my hair dyed with this "great" product for only ten bucks the first time.  I hesitated.  I have given it consideration but it seems such a drastic thing to do - going from grey and white to brown hair in the matter of 20 minutes time.  However, I got over it, especially for that price and decided to give it a try.  If I didn't like it, I figured I would get a military cut and have practically no hair on my head to get rid of the new look.

It actually looks pretty good, but it isn't dark enough.  My brown hair - or what used to be brown anyway - was much darker than this color and I think it would look better with a deeper shade of brown, but I am happy enough with it.  I have certainly been getting some double takes from people and I am sure that Monday at work will be no different.

It was supposed to rain today, but the sun is shining and I don't see any clouds from where I am sitting.  So blah to the weather man who usually doesn't get it right, anyway.  Of course, I was just looking at the radar: it's all out east, nothing over where I am at right now.  Blah again.

So, Caleb starts asking me some questions last night about a presentation he had gone to.  A man had invited a small group of him and his friends to show them how they could make a lot of money very quickly.  Yup, that sent alarm bells off instantly.  He then said the man wanted "just" $500 from each person to start their own "business".  More alarm bells.  I listened to the whole thing and then educated my son about scams, scammers, smooth talkers who can make a piece of dog dung sound likes it's a precious gem and gee, doesn't seem a bit odd that you are going to have to pay him to start working for him?

He then gave me the name of the company, which I looked up on the internet. Of course, multi-level marketing, they pyramid scheme.  What else could it have been.  I asked him if he had given that man $500? No, but his friend had.  I informed him that his friend basically just threw away 500 bucks and if you - Caleb - are smart, you won't follow suit.  Just watch what happens with your friend and you will see for yourself. He will do a lot of work and make very little money.  The complaints about that particular company online are numerous and not few.  Well, you know the old saying: if it sounds too good to be true, IT PROBABLY IS!!

I fell for one of those scams when I was much younger, but I had given the guy so much money - almost 3 grand - that I became infuriated when I found out 1: how stupid I had been giving him that much money for nothing in exchange and 2: the man laughing at me on the phone and telling me he wouldn't be giving me my money back.

I guess he thought that since he was in Las Vegas and I was in Phoenix, nothing could happen.

Yes, well it's only 3 or 400  miles to Las Vegas, and yes, I stormed into that man's office and I pretty much told him - well I won't say what I told him here, even though I am sure the statute of limitations is long since over with - I didn't actually DO anything to the man, but at that time in my life?  I would have knocked the guy silly if he hadn't given me my money back.  He got that impression quickly and I was handed a check.

I went straight to the bank and cashed it.

Well, anyway, I have to be outta here.

Later.

ben