Sitting at a jobsite, looking at overcast skies and the mountains off in the distance.  Cool breeze, even with the sun shining brightly in a speck of the sky that isn't covered with clouds, it's very nice out.  The thought of going up to the mountains this weekend seems so much more appealing than it did at 2 o'clock this morning as I laid in bed, awake, musing of such.
The low in Payson is 39, the high today, the high will be 60.  That's coat and sweater weather - at least for me. I know my dogs don't hate the cold, but they have to have sweatshirts put on them to help keep them warm.

The trailer itself has 3 different heat sources, though the one I like the most is the electric heat coming out of the roof AC - but - that blaster by the door that uses propane is pretty awesome.  Which reminds me, I was going to get a small portable unit for it and it totally escaped me.

It is amazing the difference in attitudes out at these construction sites once the stifling heat is gone. It's about 70 or so degrees out right now, a month ago it would have been over 100 by this time of day.

Well, just pondering - to go or not go to, that is the question.  That is a question that is usually answered by what time I get off of work.  if no later than 3, I can do it, if later than that, questionable, especially with the unknown factor of the mice.  Well, my truck is unloaded and time for another round.

Later.

ben

Biden.  The man looked like a clown with a suit on.  Laughing and mocking Ryan, interrupting him and treating him as if he was some kid in a school yard that had just done something naughty instead of the vice-presidential contender that he is.  I expected the kind of "performance" that Biden put on, I did not expect the obnoxious, rude and haughty behavior that he exhibited.  The host, whatever her name is, did a terrible job.  I mean, horrific job, as in: she had absolutely no control whatsoever.  They need someone with some balls and the ability to shut the candidates down when they are going on too long or starting to interrupt and taking over the conversation.  The stupid laughing that Biden did continuously when Ryan was speaking made Biden look like a complete idiot.  The "debate" degraded from the get-go.

Whatever.  My bonus came through tonight.  It was exactly what I thought it was going to be with the government taking 40% of it.  What, exactly, gives the government the right to take something that is given to me for hard work and effort put into a job?

11-1/2 hours put in yesterday, today looks to be no different.  I'm a very tired person these days with putting all these hours in.  Weekends can't get here soon enough. At least it's Friday, but the thought of driving up north?  Highly unlikely. I don't have the energy or the motivation to go through the process of getting everything ready, in the car and driving up there and then, potentially, having to clean out the entire trailer again if I find more mouse droppings.  That entails vacuuming out the entire thing including lifting up everything that is movable to clean underneath plus scrubbing everything down.

It's starting to look suspicious.  Another tree out front has died.  I mean, within a couple of days it went from a very healthy tree to a very dead tree.  One of my Sissoos.  It was not a huge tree, but there is no plausible explanation for a tree that has been in the ground for 3 years to suddenly up and die out of the blue besides - malfeasance.  I have to give it a much higher percentage of credibility that someone is, for unknown reasons, poisoning my plants.  I'm going to have to figure out what's wrong with the software on my video surveillance system and get it running again.  I want to see what's going on out there.

Well, just woke up in the middle of the night and decided to write an entry.

ben

Caught Em'!!!

What did I catch?  Ummmmm - since early last year, I have been trying to find the home of the wasps or whatever they are that are consuming various plants on my property.  They look like some variant of wasp.  Well, as I stated here a couple of entries ago, I was on a mission to spray all the plants on my property with Miracle Gro.  Stage 1 completed 2/3rd's of the property, Stage 2 finished it.  

I was spraying my Chinese Elm directly behind my house and lo and behold, dozens of them things came flying out of that tree.  I wasn't trying to find their home.  It never even crossed my mind, my mission at the time was to spray the leaves and the ground with the stuff and get it all covered.  

So, it was quite surprising to see all of them things come flying out of there all at once!  I mean, you aren't thinking in those terms at all and suddenly you have several of them coming at you.  Whatever. I haven't had time yet, but a trip to Home Depot and I am going to get poison and spray that tree and RUN RUN RUN!~

Then spray it again - same thing - RUN!! My back door is about 10 feet away from the tree. I'm going to cause' them as much misery as they have been causing me for loooooooong time now.

I'm getting tired of my profession - truck driver.  At least, in the city.  City driving in a big truck totally sucks. People aren't paying attention.  They are too busy with phone conversations; texting; hair-do's; reading the newspaper to care about traffic.  They look up and realize that they are about to miss their exit or their turn and the next thing you know, there is a car planted in front of your truck no more than a car's length in front of you, hitting it's brakes hard to make that turn or grab that exit. 

I'm not quitting trucking, but really.  

I'm looking at a news story that calls a kid being punched in the head by a much larger dude "bullying".  Well, if we are going to be politcally correct, then let's just call it an assault. Let's get the police involved.  Let's have the bully-er charged. 

Really?  I remember the first bully I encountered in grade school.  He hit me and I proceeded to beat the crap out of him. The second bully was the next year at the same school. He had dominated every kid on the playground except me.  He finally approached me one day, on the play ground with a large number of goons, I will call them, and attempted to intimidate me.  We did not fight, but he never bothered me again.  I think bullying is a part of growing up and how you deal with it.  The current system states that if you defend yourself, you are as guilty as the person that hit you.

BULL****.  

Whatever.  I'm not going into it again.  I just get pissed off when I read this junk.  

I'm done, cause'..........it's almost my bedtime.

ben

Caleb is slowly getting better.  The prognosis, in case I forgot to write it in one of these entries, was a severe upper respiratory infection that was allegedly close to becoming pneumonia.  The docs gave him 2 prescriptions and sent him on his way.  I gave him the humidifier yesterday and loaded it with liquid medicine and that helped with the coughing tremendously. He'll get better, just going to take time.

High temp today slated to be 94.  I'll be happier when the high is slated somewhere in the 80's and turn off the ac at night and open the windows type of weather.

I'm still amused that NBC News still doesn't have a single blip on their front page - online that is - about the latest polling that shows Romney ahead.

Well, a potential trip into one of the big mines today.  Potential because the pipe has to be there no later than Wednesday. So, if a bunch of stuff is in the system this morning to do, it will be put off.  Mine trips are a nice drive, but they take up half the day because mines are notoriously slow about doing anything and everything. They are not in a big hurry and if you are?  Better bring an extra dose of patience with ya, cause' you are going to go out of your mind otherwise.  Earlier this year, I spent 3 hours in a mine waiting for a safety supervisor to show up.  Yup, they wouldn't unload that truck until that dude showed up.

G'day.

ben

Not surprisingly, MSNBC has the newest poll that shows Romney now beating Obama percentage-wise, buried in a story about half way down.  This is the first poll that shows full results from after the debate had taken place.  Now, if Obama was winning, guess what might be showing top and center on their site? It's amazing how many "news" organizations are using their "power" to attempt to sway public sentiment by only or mostly only showing stories that make Obama look good and always quick to make sure they show stories that make Romney look "bad".

One would like to dream of them all simply reporting the news without a skew.  "Romney ahead in latest poll", but you don't see that.  I haven't checked out other liberal leaning news sites yet.  ABC has a story entitled: "Fundamentals Still Favor Obama", with no mention whatsoever of the newest poll nor did I see it anywhere on the front "page".  I don't really trust polls, but since these sites DO, isn't it amazing that that newest poll isn't up there in huge letters on the front page?

CBS news.  Not a SINGLE reference I could find anyone on the front page.  CNN, nothing, even on their "election center" postings on the left side on the front page.  Reuters, nilch, nada.  USA Today.  Nein, nilch, nada.  I'm not going to look at any more sites.  If any of them DO end up posting it, it will undoubtedly still find some way to tell the tale in Obama's favor.

Well, anyway, I handed Caleb the humidifier this morning, replete with water and medicine you put into the water, told him to plug it in.  He comes out 4 hours later feeling much better.  Of course, they may wear off now that he has left to go to his mother's house.  He will be back, apparently he is going over there to loan her some money for food.  ???  She has a job and she is still getting monthly checks from me.  I don't know, not really my concern, just a bit surprising considering she is working and still receiving a fairly nice sum of cash from me every month as court-ordered.

Back outside. I got about 2/3rd's of the property covered with Miraclo Gro.  I am going to finish and then probably do another round next week to ensure I got it all nicely covered.

Let The War Resume

My next door neighbor is back from Michigan. This is the guy that started building a new house earlier this year and then - left the property in a shambles and it has been that way for some 8 months now.  For whatever reason as yet to be acquired, the City of Phoenix did nothing about it, even though people filed formal complaints against the property.

Whatever the case, I don't speak to him anymore because of the cat blowup of last year.  He thinks it's stupid and ridiculous that I should demand him keep his cats off my property or pay up for the damages incurred.  Someone's grey cat basically lives on the front of my property and that cat is going to get caught and be relocated to a new home - at least 15 miles away.

However, Mark was out there talking to him and found out that 350 man is still encroaching some 24 inches into Randy's property (the next door neighbor from Michigan).  350 man built a fence - he was forced to finish it I do believe, I don't really know as I don't much look over there anymore as his property is also a piece of s***.  So, Randy is suing 350 man and of course if it's true that the property lines have been crossed, there IS no defense for that.  350 man will have to remove that fence.  Randy refuses to accept a cash payout for the property that is encroached.

I wouldn't accept, either.  First because Randy's property is so small.  MUCH smaller than mine.  Second because it's 350 man involved, the guy is a moron. I wouldn't give him a cut piece of grass from my property, much less a portion of my property.

Now it also comes to light that Randy hasn't been paying his property taxes.  This is a big problem.  There are companies that do nothing but pay up property taxes on delinquent parcels and after 3 years of making payments?  They can take the property away from it's owner. I personally think it's heinous that this is allowable, for a few thousand dollars you can get a property worth whatever- hundreds of thousands. I understand the city needs the revenues from the property taxes, but to take away someone's property and give it to someone else at a very minuscule fraction of it's worth is a travesty of justice as far as I'm concerned.

I am a proponent of doing away with property taxes altogether and making up for it in sales taxes.  Or at the very least reform the law so that a person isn't going to lose their home because for whatever reason they couldn't afford to pay the property taxes.

Whatever the case, apparently 350 man had intentions of going down and paying up Randy's taxes and attempting to acquire the property for himself.  That would make 3 properties this pig would own - all of them in a shambles, none of them having any kind of landscaping on them to make them look good.  Just what I need, 350 man owning the property right next door to me. What does he want with all of these properties, anyway?  Hey, if the guy wants to pay off my mortgage I'll be happy to get the bleep out of this sh**** neighborhood and wash my hands of it forever.

If his mother is that rich, let him buy up the entire street and he can live here all alone.

On another note, I found out what my yearly bonus is going to be.  Highly disappointing, to say the least.  A 2 man crew that has worked our @$$es off for an entire year.  A store that has done so much sales with such high gross profit that it gained national attention from upper management.  A year of some fairly unpleasant moments because the workload was so great and the 2 of us trying to keep up with all of it, we sometimes got on each other's nerves.  We eventually worked that out, but the point is: we fully expected a bonus that reflected that hard, intense work. What I am getting I consider almost insulting considering the above mentioned facts.  I know what the bonus pool is for our region and the amount of people that are eligible for a portion of that pool. If I divide the pool by the number of people eligible, I am not even getting a equal amount.  Not that that ever happens anyway.  One assumes management will get a much larger share than anyone else.  But that's the point.  Our efforts should have been reflected in the amount of the bonus, it definitely was not.

I have no recourse. It is what it is.  My pay for last fiscal year was up a large chunk of change, but that was because of having my 8 hours restored and doing overtime on top of that.  Come to find out that more hours worked and amount of money made - the more you get during the work year, apparently, the less you qualify for in the bonus pool. That really makes a lot of sense, work twice as hard and get less percentage of pool money because of it?

I will eventually get over it, I am sure, as again, what am I supposed to do?  I could complain and I am sure that will get me nowhere.  It just makes me wonder why they did not consider our efforts worth a much healthier take of the pool than what we got.

Well, I am headed outside.  It's somewhere in the 80's out there right now.  I am doing the Miracle Gro application on the entire property.  I intend on soaking the plants with the stuff as well as getting it into the ground.

With that, I bid you......
G'day.

ben

My son came banging on my bedroom door about an hour ago now - around 4 am.  He doesn't look good, his eyes are glassy and the expression on his face.  I'm going to the hospital, he informs me, and wanted to make sure I knew about it.  He has had severe/migraine headaches going on for days and days now.

Okay.  Thoughts start running through my head, had to quelch that stuff quickly.

Hmmm, well it's Friday but not necessarily a happy start to it.

ben

According to an instant poll, Romney won the debate, 46 to 22 percent.
I watched the entire thing.  There were a few occasions were Obama was stuttering.  He also was looking down at the podium frequently when Romney would be looking at him in the eye.  He made numerous facial expressions and he looked rather - feeble - at some points. He appeared to be well out of his comfort zone.

As far as the specifics goes, though, I didn't think either of them did a very good job of it.

Whatever. I am still paying for Tuesday's extremely heavy work load and working near 14 hours.  I draaaaaagged through work yesterday and felt very fortunate to get off at 2:00 pm, instead of a couple of hours later, which it would have been if the delivery I was going to leave to go do at around 1:45 pm hadn't been cancelled.

Besides that, I don't know what else might be in there - the truck routing system that is - for today.  Doesn't matter, I'll get through it, just hope I don't get another extremely long day either today or tomorrow.  We have already posted over 140k for the first 3 days of the week!

The weather is also still an issue. It is still quite warm out there during the day and it is a bit much.  It's October, for crying out loud, not July.  Let's get this heat over with.  I hope a cold front moves through here and just knocks it all out.  I can't wait any longer to put those new plants in the ground, I'm going to have to do it regardless of the heat.  That pretty much precludes going up to the mountains this weekend - but I may just wait until I can take a day off anyway.  Well who knows, but I am pretty much decided to stay home for this coming weekend.

Well, time to be off to work!!

G'day.

ben

75 minutes into the Presidential debate and I declare both candidates losers.
This is a politically-correct debate that lacks the - debate factor.  Neither candidate came out with anything new, they aren't getting into it with each to the degree I had expected and if there are undecideds, will this debate do anything to change their views?

Hope and Change have changed nothing for the better is my perspective and I thought of so many thing Romney could have come back against Obama in every single topic, yet he mostly did not do that.  I guess I hoped that this would be a defining moment for Romney, perhaps it is and I am missing it, but I don't see it.  Perhaps the people that campaign is targeting sees things I don't see - most of us have already made up our minds long ago who we are voting for - and perhaps that's why this debate is taking the tone it is.

Whatever the case, I think this is over soon and I am heading to the bedroom.  I was paying for yesterday's 13-1/2 hour day of work all day long today.  I was tired and worn out and it was like that all day long.  I was lucky to get off at 8 hours - a contractor leaving early was the culprit otherwise I would have been out at least 9 maybe 10 hours.  Overtime is great, but I have plenty for this week already.  You get too much OT and what happens.  You get into a higher tax bracket and the next thing you know, you barely get any extra money as it all goes to the federal government.  I'm still baffled at why, exactly, it is, that the federal government should get even more of my money simply because I'm breaking my back working my @$$ off and happen to work more hours?  I'm going to have to research when and why this extra tax came into existence.

Whatever the case, I'm done for today.  When Friday gets here, then I will decide whether I am going back up north or not.  I'm leaning that way, but I have been waiting for a bit cooler temps here to go ahead and plant some more replacement plants and if it comes this weekend? I'll be playing the dirt and mud out front of my house : )

ben

Wednesday

Yesterday. Wow.  Went up to the mines in Globe, well, closer to Miami, distinction without much of a difference.
Three drops there, ridiculous amount of time spent.  By the time I got out of there and started heading to west Phoenix for pickups for delivery tomorrow (today), it was already almost 11:00pm.  So, I'm running around all over the place picking all kinds of stuff up and end up with a fully loaded trailer.

Back to the yard. My manager's looking at me like: Ready to get this done?  Order after order after order to be pulled and loaded on the truck and out of the yard no later than ...... 6:30 this morning.  I'm looking at him like, dude, do you know that we are going to be here until 8:00 pm doing all of this?  I am going to have to unload the entire truck and reload everything, not to mention pulling all of those orders, wrapping them and all the rest of it.

He's doing all the paperwork and I'm out there pulling orders.  I'm not complaining about him doing the paperwork, btw, it has to be done and you can't just let it pile up.  The afternoon drags on.  4 pm; 5 pm; 6 pm, the sun goes down.  Working at a feverish pace attempting to get it all done, get it all on the truck and have it ready for this morning.  We actually get all the stuff done and then find out that - they threw another order in the system that is huge and also "must" be delivered early.  I"m starting to feel it - the longest day of work I have put in in a long, long time and not only just a day of work, but a very HARD day's work.

My boss has a conniption - they throw these orders in and they don't even bother to tell us about it.  He calls the salesman, they get into it on the phone.  I didn't want to hear all of that, that would just piss me off considering some of what I was hearing coming from that salesman, I went back outside.  It was around 7:40 pm by the time we got done - and yet there is still a pallet to be wrapped, loaded and then all of that material has to be strapped down.

I ended up calling home and asking someone to please feed the dogs, they would have been ravenously hungry by that point and I didn't want them to go hungry.  By the time I got home, it was almost time to go to bed.  I thought about church on the way home and realized I had not only missed the small group meeting, I hadn't even thought about it until I had gotten in the car.  Oh well, I hadn't thought much about anything else, either, considering the workload and just trying to get every thing done.

Fast forward to this morning. The alarm goes off, I wake up out of a deep sleep and ................ it didn't even feel like I had ever gone to bed. I'm still tired, I'm sore and yes, I'm a bit cranky.  Just in case, I have put the Presidential debate on record.  But I have no intention of working that late today, I doubt I would last as long today as I did yesterday.  The biggest problem with working long hours like that - I used to do it daily for years - is that you don't have time for anything else.  The stuff you need to get done around the house doesn't get done, you don't really have time for much of anything but work, the drive there and back and a few basic things that you must get done.

I don't miss those days.  I don't mind doing it once in a while, but I would definitely NOT want to have to do that kind of routine again on any regular basis.  In fact, there's only one real advantage to having to work like that: you don't have time to eat and you are working hard, so if you have any weight issues, you won't have them for long.

Well, my pre-work rituals are already over, it doesn't even feel like I started them. It's time to be off to work for a very busy morning. There's even MORE to do after all of this is delivered.

G'day.

ben

After coming home yesterday, my son comes walking in.  Sick again!  You can't really just keep up an unending pace, while sick, and expect that you are going to have a rapid recovery.  I can see keeping up with school, the rest of it, however, the social stuff, should be put into a little basket and kept there on hold until he gets better.  But, it's his life and he has to figure these things out on his own.

Meanwhile, the first Presidential debate en-queue for Wednesday.  Apparently, because of the time zone difference, that debate is going to be seen here at 4:00 pm!!  I don't know who the brilliants are that made up the schedule for this stuff, but a lot of folks are still at work at 4:00 pm.  Sure, you can record it if you have the capability, but I think this is a major gaffe in itself in at least making an attempt to ensure that as many people as possible can see it live, while it's happening.  It should be entertaining if nothing else.

I continue to change the wording on my ad and bring the price down on the trailer out in my driveway that I am trying to sell, not a single response.  I'm only going to go down so far in price and then throw my hands up in the air with it.  I am not going to give it away.  Or take half of what I paid for it.  It's a nice unit in good condition, no roof leaks, new refrigerator, etc etc.  I would have thought perhaps someone might take me up on the trade offer if nothing else.

I am going to have to force myself into work mode this morning, I am dragging and that's a fact.  I was going to ask for a day off either this week or next, but one of the drivers downtown left on vacation for 2 weeks going to Italy and other places in Europe.  Bon voyage!  But I can't take any time off until he gets back. Although our store's numbers - gross profit - were great for September, many of the other stores in our region did not do so well, meaning they would rather have another driver come and take my place for the day or two that I am off versus having to hire a temp driver.

But, since other drivers take 2 weeks in a row off, I am considering doing the same thing next year - providing there is a next year for me (I simply mean: Lord willing).  That would be cool, even if I didn't take a major vacation anywhere.  Though I do have a standing invitation to come visit some folks in Texas - I actually know quite a number of people that live in Texas from my missionary days.  I would love to go back to Pittsburgh and re-visit the place of my childhood. It's changed so much since I was a little kid.  Of course, I have always wanted to go to Italy myself, not to mention London and a few other places in Europe. But, that costs money - a lot of it - and even saving up in advance?  It would take a couple of years of saving to come up with that kind of money.

Whatever.  Musing about things.  A missionary trip would be another option - there's a place in Africa that takes in short term missionaries.  But I also know people in the Philippines; Romania; India; Italy; etc etc etc.

Well, for right now, however, there is another trip that must be taken: the drive to work!

Lol.

ben

I finally got my act together this morning - got up late and knew I wasn't going to make it in time for church - and got the process moving towards leaving the property.  Shut off the gas; close the roof vents; put out the mouse traps and the mouse bait (D-Con); clean up the dog poop; empty out the grey water holding tank; etc.  I finally got to the dog part and getting them in the car.  Amazingly easy this time, they are finally learning.  Pull the power cord to the trailer, roll it up, pull out to the dirt road, close the gate, lock it and I'm outta there.

Travelling along the forest road I come along many campsites.  Slow down, I think, I am going too fast meaning putting up a lot of dust and choking them out. No reason to do that on purpose. so I slowed down to around 20 mph whenever I came up on one of them.  Popular weekend to go camping, lots of them out there with their RV's and tents and a lot of 4-wheelers.   Came up to Tonto Village, I think to myself that might be a nice place to retire. Or not.  The lot I was looking at listed for 35k is in that little town.  But unless I were able to get a hold of that lot within the next few years, I wouldn't want it.  It hardly has any trees on it and to get it tree inhabited by the time retirement comes would mean to plant them now.

Passed by the convenience store/bar/restaurant. One building, same owners, been there forever.  Of course, groceries in the convenience store are highly inflated, but hence the word convenience.  I have only stopped in twice in the 20 years I have been going up there.  No need for the groceries, I bring enough to last 3 times the amount of time I am up there - just in case - who knows.  I don't remember about the restaurant, whether it was good or not.  I continue on.  Mostly nice properties with a few trashy ones thrown in for yuck's sake.  When I say trashy, I mean hoarders.  Piles of junk heaped up.  I guess that stuff exists everywhere?

On to the main highway.  It was solidified in my mind that I had gotten out there too late when I saw the large amount of traffic on it coming from the Rim country and potentially Kohl's Ranch and Christopher Creek.  I waited for several minutes, actually, to turn out onto the highway.  I drove into Payson after getting trapped behind a long line of slow moving traffic on a 55mph highway.  Just the way it is on a  2-lane highway and everyone going home at the same time.  On the way into Payson, a large contingency of the new-style Cameros came up to a side street and started turning onto  the now 2-lane highway.  Cool looking cars, there were at least 20 of them.

Well, I had no interest in following that pack as I was bound and determined to follow my ritual: Pull into the Payson McDonald's and get a large coffee with 4 creams.  It's amazingly funny to see the look of surprise on the faces of the personnel working at the windows when they look down into your car and see 2 giant dogs sitting there, looking back up at them.  Lol.  After that, a mile down the road to the best fuel station in town: that because of the best prices.  I had hoped perhaps a re-run of lower prices up there than in the valley, but not to be found.  In fact, a bit higher.  Bought just enough fuel to get home since it's cheaper in the valley.

The amazing - read: ridiculous: stuff starts after I get out of Payson.   4 lane highway, 2 lanes going in either direction. Signs periodically seen that state: SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT. I grew up reading those signs and I grew up to live by that motto.  If someone is coming up behind you and you are in the passing lane, move out of the way as soon as practical.  It's not my concern if they are speeding or not.  I don't consider myself a rolling road block for speeding cars as some do, though I am usually going faster than most vehicles anyway.  I am not racing anyone, I just want to get the driving portion over with.

Well, the rolling roadblocks were plentiful today.  I would see 2 cars side-by-side off in the distance with a large number of cars blocked behind them.  It would go on for miles.  I would catch up to them and pass them.  How?  Wait until a lapse.  Everyone would be in the passing lane, obviously hoping the driver that is holding up traffic would get a clue and get out of the way.  But in the last decade or so, I have come to realize that these people don't care one way or the other whether they are blocking traffic and I suspect many of them do it on purpose.  I'm not going to wait for them to move, they won't do it.  Something else has to happen - usually the car in the right lane either speeding up or slowing down so faster traffic can pass on the right.

I sat behind one such set of vehicles for a short time.  I had seen the blockage for quite a while coming up on it.  When I got up to it - I  purposely took a seat in the slow lane, right behind the car that was part of the rolling road block - I waited.  The 2 vehicles side-by-side gave way, just enough for me to squeeze in and take off.  I didn't flip them off, I didn't even look at them, not going to give them the satisfaction.  Just ignore them and move on to the - next - rolling roadblock. It happened several times on the way back.  I am always amazed at how drivers can be so selfish and - even arrogant - as to just sit there next to another car on an open highway out in the middle of nowhere and treat others that are stuck behind them in such a fashion.

Some of these people are blocking that lane for miles and miles and miles and then have the audacity to flash their headlights at you when you finally are able to take advantage of a lapse in their purposeful blockage and get by them.  You wonder why they are doing it and what is going through their minds.  Or when you are climbing a steep grade and have a good speed going.  You are about to pass a driver and then baaam, they pull out in front of you, no indicator light, just blink and they are there.  Wow!!  Yup, that happened twice today as well.  You lose all your momentum, the person is going way slower than you are and again, you are left wondering what is going through these people's minds.

Never-the-less, finally got home and got busy. I wanted to get all of the linens, blankets, wash cloths washed today, dried, folded and packed and ready to go for the next time.  Next time could be next weekend or a month from now, who knows, but have it ready while it was still fresh in my mind.  I only left a fitted sheet for the queen mattress on it up there, the rest I brought home to wash.  I saw that the mice weren't going under the fitted sheet on the mattress so I figured to leave it on there and bring the rest back. I am actually hoping the mouse problem is resolved, but who knows about that.  That trailer is spotless at the moment, I thoroughly cleaned it from end to end.  I don't "cohabit" with mouse droppings, thanks.  I vacuumed, scrubbed and otherwise wiped everything down.  Bathtub, sinks, counters, everything.  Pulled everything up to find the mouse droppings to get them out of there.

So, if I have to go through that again, so beit.  I will take the mini-wet vac with me again next time just in case.  With everything I had to bring back - more than I took up there with all the linens and such - I barely got everything crammed into that car!!  I figure between me, the dogs and everything else at least a 750 pound load on that car, lol.

Well, fresh work week starts tomorrow, as well as beginning of a new month.   Our 2-man crew did around 470k worth of sales this month.  Close to 100k of gross profit.  There is already a large amount of work to be done tomorrow - which is great, I hate a slow work day and rarely see those anymore.  Don't know if that's going to last.  But most importantly, for right now? It's my bed time, lol.

G'nite.

ben

Mountains

Yes, up in the mountains once again, enjoying fresh, cool mountain air and a distinctive lack of big city noise pollution.  So, mom said she wasn't going to be up here this weekend or next, turns out after I left and called her to tell her I was coming up - yup, she's here.  I didn't know whether we were going to have a problem or not - I pretty much am not going to come up here without my dogs in tow. They absolutely love it up here, as much as I do or more, perhaps, I just wouldn't feel right leaving them at home.  I can think of a couple of circumstances where I might leave them at home to come up here to deal with things.

Of course, I was fully prepared for the fact that there would be mouse droppings all over the place, so no surprise to see it everywhere.  Brought my mini-shop vac with me and I went to town.  Took me about an hour, actually, to vacuum out the entire place, including my bed which had droppings all over it.  I have it done, but there is more cleaning to do tomorrow.  Mostly wiping everything down with antibacterial stuff and getting it spic and span.

So, the only real irritant was the Direct TV.  The card had been deactivated.  No choice but to call them - which I really hate to have to do considering my history with them.  One phone call, talking to a Filipino (I don't care for the idea of America farming everything out overseas, it is just one piece of the puzzle of why our country's economy is sucking so badly) but I bit the bullet and just dealt with the lady and she had it going - after 3 full tries.

Oh, fortunately I thought perhaps the bed might have had some mouse damage so I brought clean sheets.  If I hadn't?  Leave the dogs here in the pen and go to the Payson Walmart and buy a new set of sheets.  I have decided that if I am to come up here in the winter, I am going to have to buy another set of sheets.  But, mom left out traps and poison and decided that the mice hadn't been in here in at least a week.  Okay, but they had obviously been in here, lol.  I know where the mice are getting in and I will be dealing with that tomorrow.  I am also going to bomb this place with foggers when we leave.  Set them off and then stick around for a while  - I dunno, I just don't trust the things unattended until they are done and have filled the place up with their fog.

Something tells me that a mouse in here while we are here with that Catahoula dog around isn't going to work out too well for the mouse.  She's not a fan of cats or other smaller critters.  Which, in this case is a good thing.

Then there's Mark and Lynnette.  I am confident they are happy when I leave.  Not because they hate me or something, but because they pretty much have free reign of the living room - meaning one of them can come out and watch whatever they want. Though Lynnette does that sometimes on the weekends anyway.  Which, fyi, doesn't bother me, I watch a limited amount of television anyway.

So, to come up here in the winter means to remind myself that I am going to need a space heater. I have heat in the AC unit and I have propane heat, but I think a small space heater will be nice as well.  In fact, I'm not sure I am going to want to use the propane heater.  Rather just keep the propane for cooking and in the summer heating the water tank.  In the winter, the water system has to be winterized or - else - busted plumbing with freezing conditions.  No shower, lol.  Bring disposable cups/paper plates.  I'm cool with that, I don't normally stay up here long enough to get to smelling bad by missing one day's worth of a shower and besides, the dogs could care less what I smell like!  lol

And, finally, it also means I am going to have to consider getting a bit larger TV with a much better sound quality.  I thought this thing I bought on Black Friday was going to be a better unit than it is.  It will do the job for now. but I want something larger.

Speaking of trailers, I have had the one in my driveway up for sale on Craigslist for a couple of weeks now.  Not a single bite.  I brought the price down a bit with OBO.  I also put trades accepted.  I further put I would be willing to trade both trailers for a single bumper-pull trailer - with  slide-outs.  I may have to list the other trailer in the RV Trader and see if I can get any bites. I even put in there I would consider whatever trade a person might have.  Just keep at it until something happens or find a place to park it at an RV park and then sublet it.

Oh, can I just throw in here that it's going to get down to 54 degrees tonight?  It feels nothing that cool, yet, and this property is a higher elevation than Payson - where I am getting the closest temp reading - about 1,000 feet higher.  Nothing like having to use blankets to keep warm at night : )

Our 2 man store did $458,000.00 this month.  The month isn't officially over, but for business purposes it is, at least for our company and our division in the company.

I guess I'm done for now.  I want to read some news and see what's going on.  Though, there was a high speed chase in Phoenix today with a man that hijacked a car and ended up killing himself out near Tonopah - it's on the way to California off of I-10, basically.  They apparently got this on tape, the man offing himself.  I heard this on the news shortly after he had killed himself and thought about his fate, going before the Lord.  I can't judge the man, that's God's realm.  It just kinda hit me a bit heavy - even if there are those that feel the planet is better off without him.  Yes, and the planet is probably better off without any of us considering the condition of mankind, but that's a different story altogether.

I was heading back to the shop and was a half mile away from the shop to come upon a gruesome accident scene. It is by FAR the aftermath of the worst motorcycle meets car accident I have ever seen. The impact of the motorcycle hitting the mini-van was so severe, the front end of the mini-van was trashed, that thing was totaled and the frame of the motorcycle was bent in the middle.  I would be surprised to find out the rider of that motorcycle is still alive.  From the position of the bike and the mini-van, it was clear the mini-van had made a left-hand turn in front of the on-coming bike.

After that, I was in the semi to make another delivery, in the left-hand turn lane.  The light turned yellow and I was starting to make my turn when I noticed the SUV coming from the opposite direction was not slowing down.  Guessing it was going 60 in a 45 zone, I just stopped.  She was busy looking at her cellphone - texting - and not paying  damned bit of attention to the road.  She looked up, saw a  now-red-light and slammed on her brakes.  She was in the intersection by the time she stopped, but not enough to impede traffic.

Strange day in traffic.

Leave it to Fox News to report a poll that actually states that most Republicans AND Democrats believe that EVERYONE should pay at least SOME amount of income tax! Of course!!  But it smacks Obama in the face in his rhetorical, retaliatory attacks on Romney's declaration of the 47% percent that do not pay any taxes.  Lol.  I just love Obama stating that he is going to create jobs for "Americans".  Really? Let's discuss that with facts in the last 4 years.  Thanks for playing.

Thursday.  It's after 9:00 pm and I am wide awake.  I am attempting to wind down from an interesting day and I am having trouble doing it, but my reading and writing should take effect anytime now.  Well, I was thinking of going up North tomorrow after work, but if I don't sleep well tonight, that idea is slap bag dog done out the window. But we'll see.  I'm good on 6 hours of sleep, maybe a bit less, so still time.

Umm, well anyway.  Nothing new around here, excepting the view blocker that the "neighbors" behind me put up.  They have, as Mark has been telling me, working out there late at night.  He's asking me how I can sleep through all of that noise.  Well, I wear ear plugs at night and I run a box fan.  I have been doing that for decades now.  I CAN sleep in dead silence, pretty cool actually if such occurs, but around here?  No such thing exists.  The only way you gonna get dead silence around here is to be DEAD and not capable of hearing anything.  Other than that, I have tenants, dogs, neighbors, airplanes, cars/stereos/ and whatever else going on.

But, I started using ear plugs on the mission field in the 80's.  I couldn't sleep because of the noise all night long and a 20 plus year missionary handed me a pair of ear plugs and informed me that this is what SHE had been doing for decades.  Yup, I used them, nope, I never stopped using them.  Even up at mother's property and sleeping in a very quiet area I use them - but only because of the dogs.  They move around at night and make noise and that would wake me up without them.

"Talking" about the mountains is getting me to consider driving up there whether I am tired or not tomorrow. But we'll see and no guarantees.

Anyway, I am finally getting tired.  I think I can go to sleep now.  Which is a good thing, I can still get plenty if I can get to sleep anytime soon.

G'nite.

ben

Went to bed at 7:00 pm last night, slept quite soundly until 11:00 pm, which is when all the lemonade I had drank just before going to bed (I had no intention of going to sleep that early, it just overtook me, shut the lights and that was that), rid myself of that and slept straight through until 3:39 am.  Almost 8 hours of sleep.  After that I could not get back to sleep and just - got up early, even earlier than normal.

I don't know, but someone else has decided to get up early today, apparently going in to work early.  This particular individual makes a LOT of noise in the morning and I find it extremely irritating.  First that they have no more consideration for their neighbors that are sleeping; second for the fact that this person almost always leaves the bathroom door open while brushing teeth (as if the whole house, apparently, wants to hear THAT noise) and thirdly because yes, it does disrupt my morning rituals.  I don't need anyone to tell me about the fact that that's what I get for renting out rooms.  That doesn't mean that people should not give the same respect that is afforded to them.

On another tenant front, I have one tenant informing me he's leaving somewhere in January, unless another tenant moves out and then he would consider renting out 2 rooms.  He is going to start doing his work at home instead of going into work.  I dunno, but that's still several months off. I never particular care for the rather arduous task of attempting to rent out another room.  Not because I don't get enough people interested, but because it's sometimes - if not always - difficult to figure out what kind of person it is that is sitting across the table from you that you are speaking with.  Yes, sir or madam, could you please keep talking? Just keep on going, I want to hear as much as I can in the short time we are together to attempt to make a decision whether you are going to make a good fit in this household.

Long time readers already know some of the nightmares I have gone through in the past with tenants from hell.

Fortunately, I have the eviction process down to a

"Israel has "no roots" in the Middle East and will be "eliminated."

  When I read those words in the news from Iran's dictator, I wonder what this world will be like when Iran actually has the nukes and is capable of carrying through such threats.  Of course,  I still firmly believe that in the case of Israel, they are going to have to deal with the Lord in destroying the land of the chosen.  I may be wrong about that, but I really don't think I am.  Of course, it could be the type of thing that is prophesied in the book of Revelations.  What would the U.S. do if Iran started an attack on Israel? Or, what will the U.S. do if Israel attacks Iran?

I dunno, I'm just about the business of getting my life right with the Lord and attempting to get back into His business, which is souls.  Whatever happens in this world, I can have peace in my Creator.  If nothing else, we are all going to go out of here in some fashion, might as well not fret about it and just do what your calling is while you're here and fulfill the destiny that God has for you, yes?    I'm definitely in the middle of that battle right now, the battle being one of flesh against spirit.

Umm, think I will leave for work a few minutes early, since I have been up for a while.

G'day.

ben









l

More conviction, more strength to fight the battles.  Inner battles, I mean and am referring to the service at church today.  I wasn't even going to go, but something inside me said, no, you can't just stay home, you must go.  I was very glad I did.  Renewed vigor to overcome, fight the good fight of faith and come out the victor against the enemy's ruthless onslaughts.  This is spiritual warfare, in case you think I'm going Postal and gonna start shooting people, it has nothing to do with earthly weapons or earthly warfare.  In Jesus' name, I am going to overcome.

The weekend "grind".  Cleaned out the in-ground pond's filtering system, which was pretty full of fish waste.  Amazing how fast it builds up in there.  The water, though, is crystal clear.  The above ground pond I can now, finally say, is also crystal clear, you can see to the bottom, there is no murk or muck to obscure the view.  It was interesting to see the bottom of that pond is also covered with a layer of a sand-like-looking substance, it gives a very nice effect, actually.  Just the sand/small rock particles carried in by the strong winds that come through here relatively frequently, I guess.  It's nice to be able to look underneath the giant plant and actually see all the fish huddled under there.  Their hiding spot - they don't like something that's where they go.  The larger fish swimming around the bottom actually helps kick up the dirt/yuck stuff on the bottom and get it into the filter.  I had too many fish in there, I now realize, so, pretty much gonna keep it at it's current numbers.  The front pond - I still have put no fish back in it.

But, those little mosquito eating fish survived where all the rest of them died. Hearty little suckers.  They have that pond all to themselves, lol.  I have half a thought to go get some .13 cents per fish goldfish and dump about 20 of them in there to see what happens. They are VERY small fish, maybe half an inch to an inch long at most.

Debates.  That's what I'm waiting for.  I feel that the Presidential debates are going to be what determines who is going to be the next President of the United States.  A lot of "undecideds" are probably going to make their choice depending on who says what and what specific problems are specifically addressed.  We're going to fix this doesn't address HOW the economy is going to be turned around.  I will be watching these debates, they should be entertaining if nothing else.  I'll be interested to see if Obama talks the same way in person to Romney as he does on-stage, speaking to whoever at a crowd.  October 3rd is the first, scheduled debate - not too far off in the future.

Well, whatever.  Nice, large glass of sugar-free lemonade, going to go outside and get a few more things done today.

ben

I'm going to have to bite the bullet and cut that large, almost dead, plant down.  It will get a proper burial, ie: the trash can.  Once I get that down, I have 6, small, Cape Cod Honeysuckles to replace them.  I wanted the 8 or 9 foot tall Indian Laurel Column, but there was no way to get it home in my car and they don't care if I live across the street from them, it's $50 to haul it.  I absolutely refuse to pay $50 for hauling something this is 2-1/2 miles away from them.  I'll have to figure something else out about that.

Apparently our 2 man team at work got some kudos at the manager's meeting.
It's nice to get some sort of recognition just ONCE in a while.  I didn't even get that to my face, but hearing about it will just have to do.  One higher level manager was telling my manager "don't think your work is going unnoticed", is the way I believe it was presented to him.  It was put across as the statement that no other store in the United States could have pulled off what us 2 did in the last fiscal year.  Yes, we worked our @$$es off.  We had a few moments of - not being so nice to each other - but we got past that and are pretty much very busy every day. I'm not sure why management in my company is so short on  giving the good ole' pat on the back.  I don't mean every day, week or even month.  But once in a great while would be nice.

Well whatever.  I guess we are supposed to be in the "be happy you have a job" realm considering all those millions of unemployed workers out there, many of which have given up looking if you believe the statistics they are putting out.  I have a question: If Obama's Hope and Change didn't work the first 4 years, what's going to be different the next 4 years?  Oh, and since Obama is so behind all the "middle-class Americans", maybe he should takealookat the report the CBO just put out: that 6 million middle class Americans are going to have to pay the penalty for Obamacare.  Gee, Mr. Obama, I thought you were all about the Middle Class?  Oh, wait a minute, you aren't in that category.  You are rich, too.  You smash Romney for being rich and having bank accounts in the Caymen Islands, yet where is your own self bashing? Aren't you worth millions of dollars yourself?  And YOU think YOU can relate to the average, common-Joe/Jane?

No.  If I have to endure another 4 years of that freak in the Oval Office, I'm sure I'm going to pull my hair out.  I haven't heard anything about what's going to be done about this "Fiscal-Cliff" we are approaching on January 1st, 2013.  It's a fore-gone conclusion that neither one of them are going to do anything about Social Security.  The Post Office is going to be insolvent very soon, they have no choice but to either deal with it or let it go under (want to talk about the ending of a LOT of jobs?)  Medicare will also be insolvent, I think they said 12 years from now.  Hey, I know what: let's just print more money!!! WooHOOOOOOO!!

I didn't go up to the property - while mother isn't there - because I didn't feel like it.  It would be drive up there today and come back tomorrow.  Not worth that much driving for only one night's stay.  I need a 2 night's stay for me to actually think it's worth that much driving and the prep going into going up there.  It's been a while since I've been up there after the conflict with mother.

Well whatever.  I have work to do.

I'll never live it down.
I'm telling you, it will never go away.
But since everyone thinks it's funny, it doesn't bother me now.
It's the situation where our company was having a "Town Hall" meeting.  If you can't attend physically, no matter, just call into an 800 number and give them the password/code/whatever.
Well, I was driving home from work one day while listening to the general manager and......arrived at home while it was still going on.

Of course, if the dogs happen to be outside when I come home, I get greeted.  By dogs. Large dogs with deep voices whose barks are very loud.  Well, these cheap cell phones from our work don't have a mute option, so the sound of those dogs barking loudly stops the meeting, actually.  The general manager can be heard saying: "is everything alright?, what's going on?" as the sound of my dogs barking can be heard over the speaker or whatever it is they have set up for those joining the meeting by phone.  I didn't hear what was said next, I had the phone behind me and I was yelling at the dogs to shut up.

Well, from what has been told me from numerous people that were there at the meeting, the entire place erupted into laughter at the sound of my yelling at my dogs to shut up.  They apparently thought I had yelled shut the F up, but I can assure you, the f word doesn't need to come out of my mouth to get my dogs to quiet down, instantly, when I tell them to.

That subject came up yet again when my manager was at an annual manager's meeting at some lavish restaurant/resort. You know, the kind of place the refills your water after every sip and replaces your silverware after each use? But, they were all laughing about it which was good enough for me.  I had thought badly of disrupting the meeting, to be honest, at the time.

Well, anyway.  I left the tire store today, got another tire at half price - it was under warranty and it's tread was below minimum tread depth.  85,000 mile tire that got 15,000 on it. Those tires are now 25,000 mile tires and cost a lot less money.  The used tire they sold me was re-balanced and away we go.  Out the door, into the car and on the freeway, cruising at my version of freeway speeds.  Very nice.  Nothing like fresh rubber on a car for great handling as well.

I'm half considering making the trip up north tomorrow with the dogs, since my mom won't be there.  But, the whole situation has caused me to step back and realize that - I would really have to have my own property to be happy.  Everyone does things differently and sometimes that grates on other people. You can't really do whatever you might normally do on someone else's property.  I don't mean anything destructive, loud or otherwise obnoxious.  Just you have to respect the owner's wishes and that can put a damper on the situation.  I thought I had thought this whole thing through before buying a trailer to take up there to have some time away from the heat at, but this particular thing totally escaped me during that thought process.

Well, whatever. My bedtime : )

Sitting at Discount Tire, waiting. The spare they sold me last week is vibrating; the "check tire pressure" light keeps coming on and I wanted the new tires on the front, as I asked them, not on the back.  I'm not dissing Discount tire, they always make things right, I just didn't want to have to come here today. But, I can't be driving a car around that has an extreme vibration coming from the front end, especially when I am at high speeds on the freeway, so, get it done. Fortunately, they aren't busy right now, I even more hate having to wait for long periods of time.

A fresh weekend starting now, regardless.  Plans include more work on the east side of the house and potentially cutting down the large, almost dead, plant that really sucks that it is dying. 90% of it is completely dead with no hope of coming back.  I am going to have replace it - but how do you replace something like that?  With a 2 foot thing that will take 3 or 4 years to get as big as this one did (and effectively cut out the view of one of the hoarding neighbor's hoards).  So, if I want something even relatively large, it's going to cost.  I did see something a few weeks ago at the tree nursery, the thing was about 10 feet tall and was $75 plus delivery.  I can't dump a 10 foot plant into the trunk of my car, unfortunately, worse, they want $50 for delivery even though it's only 3 miles away.

I'm going to go back tomorrow and take another look around.  They have a HUGE nursery covering a lot of acreage and a lot to look at and take in.  Like, to make a decision after looking at all of that will simply require me to go back and look again.

Nothing much else new on the home front. Had ideas of going up to the mountains, but I ain't driving up there today, too tired. I wanted to tackle this mouse problem, though mother apparently has been all over it anyway.  Problem is, she's not up there so any mice will have free reign of the trailer doing whatever they are doing in there.

Hooker Gate. Okay, that's a new one. If the Obama administration isn't the worst overall consortium of people of what I consider to be of bad character (in some cases, that's putting it mildly), it's gotta be in the top three.  "Hope and change", he said 4 years ago, yet the

Thursday Night Football. Quite the joke tonight.  I compare it with a Little League Baseball game where one team has been - formed - illegally - if all the best players playing against a regular team that has both great, bad and everywhere in between players. The first team is kicking the second team's @$$. So it is with New York v Carolina.  Carolina being handed a dish.  A dish of @$$-whip that is.  Maybe that's more like a charged can of whipped cream.

I don't necessarily write entries every day anymore because - I don't necessarily have anything new, or I simply don't feel like it.  Not that I'm quitting, just get the urge here and there and other times?  Don't wanna.

The newest dish on Obama is interesting.  I don't care to discuss it as I am rather sick of politics, will November please get here, let me get to the polling place and get it over with? Thank you.  My vote has not changed since it became clear that Romney was going to be the GOP candidate.  I think others would have been better, much better actually, but I'm of the "Anything But Obama" camp.  Time to make some bumper stickers.

My manager was off work sick on Monday and Tuesday, at work on Wednesday and then gone today.  It's not that his replacement was a bad person or did shitty work, but that person does not run stores and though he may understand in theory what should be done, he doesn't quite get it in reality.  Which is okay, I just take the load and deal with it.  They don't bring managers in to take manager's place.  They bring in inside salesmen, usually, who already have a full plate in front of them.  I just give them a pass.  "Do you need help with pulling this order?".  No, I'll get it.  They can get back to their computer screen and I will sweat my @$$ off and be happy as pie.  Why?  Nothing like a good workout.  Lifting parts that weigh 100, 150, 200, 300 pounds a piece? I can dead lift 300 pounds, I really can't get it up higher than that, lol.

Weekend almost here.  I would like to go up to my trailer and see what kind of - situation - it is with mice.  I will not have a problem with killing them. My mother doesn't like the traps that snap their heads off and such, she drowns them in water.  Lol.  Well what's the difference? You are killing them just the same.  It's her way of dealing with it, so be-it.  I haven't been up there in a while now since the altercation with the dogs. I still am of the mind that the trailer needs to be moved off the property and do something else until I hear something different, but I don't want mice trashing the place.  She isn't up there right now and I don't want extended periods of time going without someone being up there and tending to the problem.  I am going to have to find out where they are getting in and taking care of that.

The newest doggy has obviously been abused by it's previous owner.  Whoever that is, piece of s*** and a few other choice words.  It will literally be years before that dog is considered anything near "normal", but she is a cool doggy anyway, just has issues.  I won't be getting rid of her if that's what you're thinking.  No, most dogs I have owned are from what I gather to be abusive homes considering some of the issues.

Well isn't life grand.  It is, right?  It's what you make of it?  To some degree, I suppose that true, but to another extent, probably more reliant on what you  make of the true and living God.

Just throwing that in there.

ben