I wrote all of this up at the trailer in the mountains, so posting regardless if the next day:


Well, here I am up in the mountains again.  Took care of a problem with being able to winterize the unit - it has tubes hanging down below the trailer and you simply remove the end caps on the tubes to let the water drain out.  The problem? Those caps must not have been off of there for a long time and 2 of them busted off the lines without much effort in trying to remove them.  I had to replace them  - but I put valves on them instead of replacing them with end caps.

I was then going to fix the deadbolt on the shed door on my mom's property, but after looking at it, it's simply the striker plate.  It is too small to adjust it to a new position, so I will be bringing up a new one next time I am up here.  She is very concerned about it because she won't be able to lock the door - I had to lift up on the door handle, hard, while turning the key at the same time to get it to lock.

It is absolutely gorgeous up here.  The wind is blowing a bit hard, but it's nice and cool, it is quiet, there aren't many other people up here right now.  My mom's neighbors aren't up here at all, which is very nice to have a place like this all to yourself.  Nice place to take a couple days off. Came up yesterday and will be leaving tomorrow morning.

I have needs to get back to the valley and get some situations dealt with.  Namely, the college kid that has been slow paying on rent and the situation with the trailer tenant that reached a head last night in communicating with him via texting.  He told me he was going to pay me on Monday, then it changed to Wednesday and then it changed to Friday.  So last night I texted him stating I fully expected to get money from him tomorrow (today).  He asked me if he could just stay until the end of the month - for free apparently - and then he would be moving.

Knowing full well this guy got paid, I declined.  No, I texted back, and if you aren't going to pay, you need to get your stuff and get off of my property by morning.  That's when it turned sour and he started cussing me out.  I didn't bother to tell him I am not in town, I replied to him that if he wanted to come in and talk to me face to face, we can have a conversation about his tones towards me. He did not reply to that text and he has since removed his possessions. I had Mark lock the thing up, if there is something in there he missed, someone will have to get it out of there for him as he is not going to be going back into that trailer.

As for the college kid, he has also changed his payment story a couple of times.  I left him a note under his door before I left informing him that I fully expect him to pay up what he stated he was going to and also about his laundry habits.  He does 8 to 10 loads of laundry per WEEK.  This is one, single individual.  He runs the washer on double extra rinse cycles.  He uses hot water on every load. He sometimes does the same load twice.  Need I say that this is beyond excessive use of a freebie thrown into the rent?  What single person needs to do 8 to 10 loads of laundry per week?  I get by with 2, sometimes 3, cold water, no extra rinse cycles and certainly not washing the same load of clothing twice.  I'm just dealing with stuff that is beyond the scope of what a normal tenancy/rental normally is.  If he wants to continue to use my machines like that, he is going to have to pay $1.50 per load after the 3rd load (giving him 3 for free).  Washing clothes twice counts as 2 loads.  Hot water is .50 cents extra.

I left at the end of the note for him to contact me as to whether he wants to agree to these terms and also about the rent.

Truck Driver Disrespect

It so happened last week that I was in one of our competitor's store, a very large facility, getting some material.  I find it unfortunate that we frequent a competitor for parts, but we do. They don't have the same rules that our company has in inventory - they will carry whatever and leave it out there for however long. Our company ranks inventory and when it gets to D rank, it's toast.

So, they carry parts we don't and sometimes if we don't have something we normally carry, we go to them if they have it. They mark us up 10% on parts, we mark them up 10% on parts, a mutual agreement.

I have been in there 50 times at least over the last 7 years.

Random interjection: I am up in the mountains, the wind is howling and it's starting to rain heavily.  The wind is blowing so hard the trailer is shaking, the trees are dancing and my Direct TV dish on it's stand just blew over. I am not watching TV right now anyway, so no biggies.

Back to the story.  The place has very little driveway space. To go in there with a semi means a rather involved ordeal of backing around a lot of objects to get turned around and then pull up to the place next to the dispatch building - blocking much of everything but there is no choice.  They are moving soon to alleviate that problem.

I went in there last week to find the place filled with trucks. I stayed out front, but my truck was parked directly in front of the will-call (store) entrance.  People had to walk around my truck to get into the store.  I left the truck running - it was warm that day and the truck gets hot inside even if only warm outside - and started to walk into the store.  I heard a noise behind me, someone yelling.  I ignored it and continued walked.  But then the yelling occurred again: HEY, FERGUSON, YOU NEED TO MOVE YOUR TRUCK!!! This wasn't a "nice" request to a customer, this was a verbal command being yelled at me such as I used to hear schoolyard teachers yelling at us kids as 5 year olds in elementary school.

I ignored it again and continued walking.  I do not respond to people yelling at me.  Ask me nicely and with respect, the same as I will give to you.  His voice got as loud as it could go, apparently, as he yelled a 3rd time, I looked around, told him I don't respond to yelling and walked into the store.  I had never seen this guy before, to add to this story.

This guy followed me right into the store - where many employees were working behind the counter - and he started to raise his voice to me again.  I interrupted him loud enough that everyone could hear it: Are you going to start yelling at me again?!!  YOU NEED TO MOVE YOUR TRUCK!!! I was at the counter, I turned my back to him and completely ignored him.  He just stood there, staring at me at that point.

I was outwardly keeping my cool, inwardly I wanted to deck this guy.  The counter manager for the waterworks side wasn't there.  I waited a while, there were plenty of plumbing associates but they don't deal with the waterworks material or tickets.  Finally, a salesman came out.  We shook hands and I told him what I was there for.  He knew the ticket and headed to the doors to the warehouse, but not before this dude stopped him and informed him that I "won't move his truck".  The salesman said nothing to me, disappeared behind the doors along with this fellow and came back several minutes later.

I informed the man that I hadn't moved my truck because of this individual's attitude.  If he had asked me nicely, I would have gladly moved (but to where, I have no idea, their yard was full of vehicles).  This guy, the yeller, is standing there with this icy glare, arms crossed and attitude written all over his face.  Is Vito here? I asked, because I know Vito will not tolerate this kind of shi*** behavior from workers.  No, he's somewhere out back.

Well, some words were exchanged as I had had enough of this guy's BS, I had my material in hand and walked out to the truck, half expecting this moron to follow me out there.  He did not and I had to back out of that place because, again, there was too much traffic back there to do anything.

I was back in that store again several days later.  Several individuals started smiling - back for more, huh? - referring to the dude's attitude of several days earlier. I got into a discussion with them about that guy, he did not get out of that mess scott-free.  In fact, he got into quite a bit of trouble.  Vito was sitting there and profusely apologized for the man's behavior and demeanor and informed me that man shouldn't even have been up here at the store, he is a yard worked and belongs - in the yard.  Vito then stated that he had forgotten to discuss with the general manager this guy's attitude.  Well, we talked about that for a while, but got lost in the discussion of a P.O. (purchase order) that was skewed. I had to call our salesman a couple of times to clarify things that  - our salesman had not made clear and I wanted clear before getting stuff from this company. They have a no-return policy with us.  We buy something, we own it forever.

When I was leaving, Vito got up and went in and started discussing - rather loudly and door opened - the event that had transpired earlier in the week.

This isn't just something I am writing about concerning a particular thing that happened - though I frequently do that.  This is also to describe how truck drivers are treated at many places.  At many warehouses and DC's and such where drivers have to deliver, you are treated as nothing more than a number.  You are a piece of dirt, in umpire's terminology.  Many of the people running these places have no respect for drivers and could care less how disrespectfully they speak to drivers.  It's quite amazing to stand there and listen to some of it.

I am not "just" a truck driver.  I am a representative of our company and I am involved with just about every detail of running a store, when I go into a place such as the place I was at in this story, I am a customer and I demand to be treated like one.  When I see long haul drivers coming into places like this and being treated rudely, I almost always speak up.  I have gotten into altercations with arrogant, obnoxious, self-aggrandizing idiots that have a title in these places and have gone to their management to complain about how they are treating drivers.

Eventually, reform to the trucking industry will be forced upon it.  The hours; the wages; the disrespect.  All of it.  As I have stated several times in the past: the newer generation is generally not interested in the trucking industry.  They do not want to spend their lives out on the road and they do not like the pay.   If they knew how they were going to be treated out there, that would only add to the list. The over-regulation of this industry is so grand, it is amazing any of us drivers can actually drive without getting into trouble at every turn, it is not possible for humans to meet the over-bearing amount of regulation without violating some of it at any given time.  We aren't walking computers or robots.  It will eventually come to a head.  There will be, at some point in time that I cannot predict but I can tell you it's definitely coming, a shortage so severe in the trucking industry that at some point, news media coverage will become much more intense about it and the public outcry will emanate so loudly that Congress will have to force the FMCSA to reduce it's extremely severe restrictions on drivers.

They are enacting even MORE HOS crap on drivers (hours of service) to the point that the trucking industry outcry was enough for a petition to halt the implementation of it for at least 3 months while they decide whether this new regulation, on top of new HOS regulations ALREADY put into place, is really going to do any good - at all.

But the sticking point? When the public has to pay so much at the furniture store; the grocery store; the whatever store because the costs of transporting the goods  there have skyrocketed because of the extreme shortage of "qualified" drivers, THEN and only then will this issue be crammed down Congress throats.  Well, if truck drivers could ever truly unite and simply stop driving for a week, oh myyyy.  What would happen then?  But drivers are hugely divided group of people and coming together even on something that would benefit the entire industry?  Probably not going to happen.  So, I leave it to the statistics that show the younger generation is generally disinterested in trucking as a career and the ensuing chaos it will have on the transportation of nearly everything that is grown, produced/manufacture or shipped into this country in getting goods from point A to point B.  When the older generation that is the current majority of drivers all retire?  Yeah, good luck!

Dorrie

I just found out today on visiting her Facebook page that she was involved in an airplane crash.  Her last entry was how excited she was to go back to CA to see her folks.  Someone posted a short news blip of the crash - it shows the plane.  How anyone survived through that I don't know, the nose end of the thing is totally trashed.

Dorrie is such a sweet, energetic, personable, caring and loving person, the things that happen to good people in life just are confounding sometimes.  She just entered retirement, what, a few years ago at most?

Dear Father God in Heaven: I life Dorrie up to you.  You know her intimately.  You know the condition her body is in right now.  You are the giver of life and you are the Creator.  You are the Healer and you are able to fix those things that happen to your creation.  I pray your healing hand washes over her brain and all those things that have been damaged in that accident.  I ask that you restore her fully back to the life she knew before this accident.

Your will be done.

Thank you Lord, in Jesus name.

Amen.

ben

Saturday

As a certain tenant promised last week, he (did not) delivered on his promise of $100 to be paid weekly until it's all caught up.
No, he didn't pay a dime actually but he did, at least, communicate with me that he had a sit down with the director of whatever at where he works who reinstated his hours.  They had done a department-wide cut of hours after a new director came in to take the old director's place.

This is what I was told anyway.

Apparently feeling my angst about this situation, he came out of his room a while later and informed me he was going to go out front and continue where I left off in pulling weeds and grass.  I have most of the weeds pulled, some small ones left.  The grass is an on-going problem of which I have devised a solution to.  It will mean a trip to Whitfill's to get even more of the ground covering plants that I already have out there.  Those plants grow thick and will drown out any grass systems/roots that are in place.  The plant puts out a lovely yellow or white flower and looks pretty good.  Much better than a bunch of unwanted grass, that's for sure.

Thanks to my neighbors and their refusal to deal with their grass problem which eventually spread to my property.  I pulled it and pulled it and pulled it but it finally won out.  The only thing to do is plant something else that will drown all of it out.

I will give the tenant his due: he did quite a lot of work out there.  However, that does not take the place of money: I made no concessions for partial rent for work, I already have that with Mark and Lynnette and cannot afford that kind of situation with anyone else.

Whatever.

My dead-looking ficus trees - I have several small ones and 2 that are about 9 feet tall - are showing signs of life.  Well, there are 6 of them that look completely dead. But I have been watering them and finally, today, saw some very tiny, green buds coming out of what would otherwise be described as a small, dead tree with dead leaves still on it.  Come Christmas?  I am going to buy enough C-9 Christmas lights - well C-7's work and they are a bit cheaper - anyway - to cover all the plants that I now know will suffer dramatically in a freeze/frost situation.  Wrap lights around the plants that won't survive and cover them with sheets and they  will do nicely.  The lights give off heat is the point and covered up they apparently do enough to keep the frost from setting in as I have tried that in the past and it has worked.

So, the property is coming back to life, Spring is basically here for all intents and purposes (was 89 for a high here today) - though it is possible that another cold front could come back through before Spring officially here.  The eloquent weather forecasters declared a few days ago that we are 20 degrees higher than what our normal temps should be for this time of year.

Well, my version of a short entry.  I am going to bed.  Yup, even on a Saturday night?  I go to bed early.  Just a good habit to stay in if one wants to be able to get up on Monday without feeling - very out of it.  OH, and speaking of work, I am getting my 2 days off this coming week. My plan is to go up north for a couple of days - well 2 nights so 3 days - but I never put that in "concrete/stone".  Plans can always change : )

ben

Well, amazingly enough, this lady that came over with my tenant and his girlfriend last night?  Used to go to a church called Gospel Echoes and knew about a church I used to go to.  It was an interesting visit and if nothing else, everyone loved my slow-cooked pork ribs : )

However, during all of this last night, I had "opportunity" to see 350 man standing out in front of his house, gabbing with his lady neighbor on the west side of him.  The man has "power of persuasion" and has people in this neighborhood fooled into thinking what wonderful person he is.  I could really care less, to be honest, what other neighbors think of him or me, but I am not going to tolerate this guy just walking into my backyard for whatever reason.

So I went down there, stood on the sidewalk right in front of his house and let him know how I felt about him entering my property.  He denied it, threatened to kick my @$$, and I invited him to do so.  He was trying to lure me onto his property, which obviously I was not going to do.  I simply stood there, informed him that I was not afraid of him and if he wanted to follow through on his threat, there I was.

Instead, he told his lady friend to call the police, which she did.  No worries to me, I went home, got out the copy of the restraining order - expired but enough regardless - went back outside when I saw the police down there.  They were not, as it turned out, even going to come talk to me.  I don't know if that's because there are "notes" about this situation in their system or what, I didn't ask that question.  The officer was disinterested - but told me I should probably get another one of those orders against this guy.

That didn't take long at all, amazingly enough.  Whatever the case, came back inside, finished the dinner with everyone and that was that.  They all left, George, the tenant, was going over to his girlfriend's house and the lady I was visiting with also lives there temporarily.

Friday.  Yesterday was a rather long day at work, but only because things have slowed down considerably.  It has been the same across the board for all of our region's branches - I can tell that looking by their sales numbers for the month, not to mention when I go downtown, at least one driver is there begging for something to do.

Which invokes the "time to leave for work" excuse.  It is, literally, time to go to work!

G'day.

ben

350 Man

A couple of days ago, I came home from work only to be informed by Mark that I had left the east gate open the night before and the dogs got out the next morning.

I flatly denied that possibility, even though I am the only one that uses that gate.  I make quite sure that gate is closed when going through it every single time.  Mark was all shaking his head and saying no, you must have done it.

No, I did not.

Fast forward to last night.  4 loud bangs on my door at around 10:30 pm.  Woke me right up out of a nice dream. Whatever it was, I was never to return to it, that's for sure.  Went out and heard a conversation going on between Lynnette and someone else about 350 man and then informed me Mark was outside, the person that had banged on my door.  JD was also out there.

Turns out that 350 man had entered my back yard through the west gate.  WHAT he was doing there, I have no idea, Mark had gone out to find out who was there and apparently 350 man had walked around the other side of the house, through the east gate, through my front yard and then was finally seen by Mark walking back to his house.

Mark started arguing with Lynnette about him actually having had been in the back yard, he must have only been out front.  No, she stated because she heard someone walking along the side of the house where the east gate is.  Pretty easy to hear, makes a crunching sound walking on the decorative landscaping rock and their window is right there.  Since their window was opened, she heard him walking through there.

I admittedly became enraged and marched down to this freak's house. His blinds were drawn on the sides of the house, but you could see right through the front window.  I did not, however, go on his property.  But I did yell loud enough to get the attention - of the entire neighborhood I am guessing.  The "man" did not come out of his house.  This is the answer to the gate dilemma.  What befuddles me is that fact that this guy is walking into my back yard with seeming impunity.

He knows I am armed and since he has threatened to have me killed in the past and since this guy is so big, I would have no other choice but to shoot him if he decided to go after me in my own back yard.  Further the complication that I have already had a restraining order against him. What is this guy doing back there and  does he not even have a tinge of fear of the homeowner, me, who already does not like him?

   I didn't call the police.  They aren't going to do anything, as I have found before when I have called them concerning this man's lunacy.  If you want to protect yourself and your property, you are pretty much charged with the "do-it-yourself" method.  If that guy thinks he's going to come into my house.  Well, no point in going there with this.  Of course, if I catch the man in my backyard, the police will have no choice but to do something about it as I will hold him there until police arrive.

As for my vacation days, completely changing the subject, I found out that I am not getting today and tomorrow off, instead it will be next week.  I was, frankly, looking forward to this weekend being the 4 day weekend that I had asked for.  The problem is I asked for this time off and didn't know I didn't have it off until a few days ago.  Everything I had heard told me that I would have Thursday and Friday off this week.

Whatever.  Blind date tonight.  Not really a date, more like a sit down at my kitchen table and eat dinner with this lady and my tenant and his girlfriend.  Sort of a date I guess - but not going out anywhere.  I have no expectations and if I don't like what I see or if she doesn't like what she sees, oh well, no biggies.  In fact, I haven't really been looking except for Christian Mingle site online.

More, yes, but no time to go into things now.  Have to leave for work in a few minutes.

I have been weaning myself of my son's presence for quite some time now.
Not because I don't love or like my son, but it's only natural that sooner or later, he is going to depart on some adventure in life.  He is going to go out and find his own way.

So, the news that he is going to spend a year in Hawaii didn't come as a shock to me.  It's a Salvation Army training place, I think, and it raises up young men in discipleship in the Lord.  I know, you think they are going to be on the beach and catching waves and I am sure on their off time they probably do do some of that, but that's not what it's about at all.

Regardless, this is what he has chosen to do and in whatever he does, I will support him.  Well, if he was a drug addict and selling meth I would support him in finding help, lol.  But, he's leaving in September as long as he is approved by the administration and he will be gone for an entire year.  I will definitely miss him, but I do not need to "brace" myself, I have been mentally preparing myself for this time for some time to come.

His mother?  Dunno. Probably ain't gonna like it.  At least not the separation.  She's used to having him around half the week.

But whatever.

I came home from work today to find 3 items of furniture from my son's room out on the driveway.  No idea.  He is, after asking, transforming his room to a more adult theme.  Not sexual, lol, but just away from the "kid" type of stuff to an organized, nice looking room. We were having a discussion when offered this: "then after I leave, if you want to, you can rent the room to someone".

It took me tenth of a second of thinking, if that and I replied: no, I won't be doing that.  Even if he never comes back, I would like to have some sort of guest room.  Not a rental room, but a place for any guest that might come to visit.  And of course, a place for him if/when he comes back.

The end.  Gotta git to bed!

ben

Hummingbirds!

There be HUMMINGBIRDS, Captain!  Star Trek, Engineer Scott on a Klingon ship that has traveled back in time to acquire 2 Humpback Whales to save the Earth from a giant probe in orbit that is wreaking havoc upon the earth.

Of course, I changed it from whales to hummingbirds.

There are still 2 of them in that little nest!
And they have outgrown that nest!
The only good thing about the situation is that it is pretty cool out there, those 2 bodies smashed against each other should be helping to keep them warm.
I'll take a video of them today or tomorrow.

College tenant just came and handed me $100.
That was definitely not what I expected.
I expected at least $300, considering how far behind he's gotten.
His "plan" is go give me $100 per week until caught up.

That will take a while.

I intend on keeping after him about it.

He might be able to find cheaper rent somewhere else - but - he won't get internet for free and he will have to pay a percentage of the monthly electric bill. That's what most if not all of the cheaper rent rates are doing.  It sounds like a good deal until you add up the extra expenses and then - you have a total bill that exceeds what I am charging and is usually not as large of a room.  Many of the rooms I see posted on Craigslist at cheap rates are 10x10 or 10x9, the room he is in is 11x13.

And then you see the following, as copied and pasted from various ads:
No overnight guests preferably, no drugs, confidentiality.

 Rent is $375.00 a month plus 1/4 of utilities. Utilities include electric, city water, bottled water, gas, trash, Cox tv, and Internet

Asking $550 rent plus $200 deposit and we split utilities

Just a sampling from 3 different ads.

Well whatever.  

Rainy Friday

So it rained all day long.  I was all over the place in the semi, too - Phoenix; Casa Grande; Coolidge; various other places. I-10 northbound (I-10 runs north and south through an at least 120 mile stretch through Arizona) which officially would be westbound was a parking lot for miles and miles and miles.  I was headed southbound looking at this stuff on my way to Casa Grande thinking: "Gee, I don't think I'll be coming back this way".  What a miserable thing it is to get stuck on a highway like that with no place to exit for miles and no end in sight to the crawling pace.

Today was the first day for Big Brother to be watching me via the new "phone".  This is no ordinary phone, smart phones have nothing on this thing that costs almost 2 grand per unit.  It has EVERYTHING  on it.  Including GPS and the ability for managers in the company - any manager - to access the web-based software and see where I am; how fast I am going; what direction; even if I am driving faster than the speed limit.  It has a LOT of other stuff on it including a running truck route that has me clicking it at every stop when I get there; having people sign the thing to acknowledge receipt of delivery and then when I leave I have to indicate that I am "en-route".

  My only real objection to this thing is the potential for phone calls and managers asking me whatever about where I am and what I am doing.  My immediate manager - great.  The rest of them? NUNYA (for those not educated in current day colloquialisms that means none of your business).  I am quite certain the operations manager was watching all of it and I know for a fact the main warehouse manager was watching me as well because he suggested such today when I was downtown picking up yet more material.

Whatever.  Hopefully the hooplah of seeing every driver and what they are doing and where they are at will wear off and they will get bored with it. If you can't tell, I am definitely NOT into being micro-managed.  To the point that if it gets to be too much for me, I WILL find another job.  I don't need people imposing themselves on me all day long simply because they have the label of manager.  Micro-managing is counter-productive and instills the idea that you, the person being micro-managed, must apparently not be doing your job well enough that they think they need to see and evaluate your every move.  In this day an age of technology, that is completely possible.

I am 1 mile away from the yard when I get a call from my manager.  He asks me where I'm at and then informs me that that roof blew off.  I laughed.  I thought he was joking.  2 minutes later, from the street and looking at the building, I was startled.  The entire roof had come off, including the 4x8 sheets of plywood underneath it!  That portion of the building is about 30 feet wide and 100 feet long.  Wow!! Today's storm the culprit.  The roof ended up draped over the side of the add-on building next to it and much of south side of the bowling alley parking lot next to us. HUGE roof, a LOT of money worth of damage. Funny thing? The owner of the building was just lamenting last week how the roof needs to be repaired and how he doesn't have the money to fix it right now.  Problem solved.  Insurance will pay for a new roof, I am guessing, without him having to shell out a single dime.

________________________________

Long interlude.  Trailer tenant came in with tude' all over his face- door locked on the trailer, forcing him to "talk" to me about this situation.  At the pace he came walking up to me in the kitchen, I decided to stand up and make sure I was prepared in case he was going to try anything, somewhat vulnerable in the sitting position.  Nothing so bad happened, thankfully and we had a rather long discussion about his living here, avoiding me, attempting to fill my ears with BS and basically I want him out.  He started discussing his new job and other things.  Okay, prove it to me and get me some money.

In the middle of this conversation, the college tenant - who used to be very reliable with rent and if he was going to be late, he would tell me - was taking off somewhere.  He had what appeared to be all of his rodeo equipment in hand and also appeared to be leaving for a while.  So, I cut off the conversation with the trailer dude and asked someone if he was leaving for the weekend?  College dude was already out the door and to the street by that point, but when someone said yes, I ran out there.  I confronted him on the rent.  He said yes, his hours had been cut back but that he was off to get some money and bring it back to me before leaving town.

He never returned.  Which really pissed me off.  He's going to find a 5-Day Eviction notice on his door when he returns.  He's going to play games with me, he can leave.  The trailer tenant situation is up in the air.  I'm giving him until Monday.  If I don't hear back from him by then, the door will again be locked on the trailer and  he will have no choice but to deal with me.

_________________________________________

Enough of all of that.  It's Saturday, it's cloud/dark cover outside, it's been raining overnight, I wish it would start raining again!  However, I have work to do outside so rain prolly not going to help anyway.  Like, I won't do anything, lol, if it starts raining, just sit around and listen to it.  Next week, hopefully, I am getting 2 days off and if I do (not been confirmed yet, dispute between my manager and his manager as to when I should be given the days off, my manager saying it's a done deal while his manager saying it would be "better from an operations viewpoint to take it off the next week after) I intend on going up to the mountain abode for at least a couple of nights.  Whatever the case, this entry waxes long and I am ending it.

G'day.

ben

No clue.
I went through the entire day today thinking it was Wednesday.
It wasn't until I got home from work and someone said tomorrow is Friday that the "news" came to me.
Wow!

Neighbor's dog.  Same story, different dog.  Driving me crazy.  They don't care.  I don't get how they can stand listening to that dog all night long.  They live in an old mobile home, single-wide.  I have seen the insulation in those homes - maybe a couple of inches thick.  Sound travels right through the old windows.

_______________________________

That was yesterday.  This morning, I was awakened to a loud crashing noise.  Like around 3 am.  No clue and too out of it to get up, figured a tenant was doing something and I would address it later on this afternoon.  30 minutes later another loud crashing/boom noise.  Went back to sleep and then at 4:30 am, a LOT of those noises.  Finally figured it out, lol.  Thunder.  Pouring rain this morning.  One of those days I'd like to stay home, open the windows and listen to the sound of the rain beating upon the roof and pouring off the side of the house and onto the ground below.

Which usually doesn't bode well for work. I don't know how much rain or how long it's been raining or how long it's going to rain.  If it's a good soaker, most job sites will shut down and that will make for a long, boring day at work.

A few things happening today on the home front.  The dude in the trailer? He comes in after midnight and leaves after I leave for work.  He has been avoiding me for 2 weeks now.  Today is his final day to either come up with money or get out.  If he's not even going to talk to me, he can go blow.  I haven't seen him literally for at least 2 weeks.  Avoiding the issue doesn't make it go away.  If he were to talk to me, I might have some leniency, but he's been BS'ing me anyway, so, he can just leave the property.  On that note, after he leaves today, Mark is going to lock the trailer and that will leave the man no option but to talk to me if he wants his stuff out of there.

The college tenant is also in arrears and has been avoiding the subject.  Today will be the last time the subject is avoided.  If he doesn't cough up money, he will also be getting an eviction notice.  If he does give me money, we are going to have a discussion.  The subject will the fact that he has lost hours at work and hasn't bothered to let me know about it, telling other tenants instead.  Is that any of my business? YES, when  it causes him to get behind in the rent payments, definitely it does.  He should have let me known that and then we might discuss how he is going to get caught up.

BUT, he has hardly any expenses.  No payments that I know of, he owns his pickup outright and he hasn't been driving it - so I wonder if he has insurance on it.  He has a buddy that's been hanging around quite a bit that has his own car and that's how he has been getting to school. But even without a car, his school is only 2 miles away and he has both roller blades and a bicycle.  He probably gets food stamps, guessing considering the amount of food he is buying.  He also smokes pot.

I have mixed feelings on pot smoking at this point.  I used to inhale quite regularly as a teenager.  I quit because I gave my life to the Lord and also because of respiratory problems that have plagued me my entire life.  I have zero desire to start smoking it again, I have never had the urge since I quit 30 years ago.  But, it's popularity has gone through  the roof, nationwide, and not just with young people.  It makes you quite high, I know that for a fact and allegedly, the quality of it is far superior to the stuff we were smoking as teenagers.

Smoke pot if you must, but I don't want to be around it.  However, that stuff probably isn't cheap or even if it is low-priced, if you are doing it daily, that's going to add up.  My point?  People get their priorities so completely messed up in life.  The payment to the roof over their heads usually is the first thing to go when financial hardship hits.  Other things such as cell phone payments and - recreational crap - usually take precedence.  I have no sympathy.

Anyway, a conversation will be taking place either way about it. Probably tomorrow if I don't get any money, today if he hands me money.

As for work?  The new truck routing system is just - stupid.  The new device isn't working because the software that operates it is full of glitches.  I don't know how DesCartes, the company that sold our company all of  this junk, can stay in business with this kind of nonsense going on.  I am sure they will eventually work out the bugs, but until then, I am glad not to have to use the blooming thing.

And speaking of work...............time to go!

G'day.

ben

The Neighbor's Dog

Once again, I am confronted by the neighbor's incessant barking dog.
After a several year "war" about this situation, they got rid of the dogs - big ones with loud voices.
I had quite a long reprieve of not having to listen to these people's dogs barking all day and all night long.
Recently, they got a much smaller dog.  I haven't seen it, but I can tell because it has a yip yip voice and it barks, incessantly, ALL night long.  At a time of year when I can have the windows opened and have cool (though not necessarily fresh) air coming in, I have to have them closed to keep the noise out.

The logical answer to this problem is simple: Get rid of the dog.  They do not ever let it in the house.  They don't give it hardly any attention at all.  It is chained up, outside.  It is lonely, it wants attention and it will get that attention however it can.  This is how these people treat their dogs and though there is nothing illegal about it, the dog barking all night long is a legal issue.

So, my window open tonight and hearing this incessant barking, I call the police.  They simply won't do anything about it and refer me to the city prosecutor's office.  This city does have a barking dog ordinance, but to get anything done about it? Please.  3 months to get a court date.  Have to proffer all kinds of evidence, namely: recordings of the dog barking at various hours of the night. Jump through hoops to get anything done about it.

I went through 4 people at the police department before finally getting to a sergeant.
When we got through the idea that the dog can bark all night long and the police can't do anything about it, I asked her a simple question:  How is it just and fair that an owner of a dog can have that dog barking out there, all night long, yet, to get the owner to do anything about it (after doing all kinds of things in civil fashion that I just don't want to go into again here) I set up a stereo out there and blast music towards their house and then the police can come out and fine me and threaten to throw me in jail if I don't turn the music off, how is that fair? THAT is UNJUST.

She not only didn't try to explain it away, she absolutely agreed with me.  That was a surprise.

I am not going to wait for 3 months to get a court date and I am not going to play music.  My stereo I used to have out there is history, it bit the dust.  I am going to find another cheap one on Craigslist and then I am going to order a dog barking CD from Ebay and then blast a dog barking back at them, right at their windows, until we get a resolution about this BS.

If I put my Great Danes out there and left them out there all night long - a thing I never do excepting when they are having diarrhea problem which is, thankfully, rare and few between - they will not stand out there barking all night long.  Not even back at that dog.  Instead, they will lay down on the mattress I  have for them out there and go to sleep.  Now, if they WERE to bark all night long, they would keep more than my neighbor's house awake, that is guaranteed.  But I love my dogs and they want to sleep on their beds that I have for them in my bedroom and they show me much love - their version of it which is very cool - and that's that.  What is the point of owning dogs that are left outside, on a chain, 24 hours a day?  It isn't for protection or hunting or any such thing.

It's the only legal thing I can do: have a dog barking back at them.  The ordinance doesn't say that it has to be a "real" dog.  I don't know that they thought about the possibility of someone attempting to get the dog's owner to deal with the situation by giving them a taste of their own medicine: a barking dog CD on a very loud stereo system, set on full volume and left out there.  The police will NOT come, they will not send them out, period.

Whatever.  I could have my bedroom window opened right now letting in nice, cool air.  Instead, it is shut.  I can't open my bathroom window, another 25 feet away from where my bedroom window is and facing another direction, because? The dog's voice carries right through it and into my ears.

Good night.

ben

Saturday Night Live's Mockery of Christ Backfires

In a Fox news article, there is a story of how SNL (Saturday Night Live) airs a skit called DJesus which shows "Jesus rising from the dead, pushing aside the boulder that blocked his burial tomb. With a devious smile, he utters the words, “Guess who’s back.” What follows is a vengeful killing spree against the Nazarene’s enemies, including his Roman executioners and the traitor, Judas Iscariot."


  I don't care what anyone says, this kind of mockery crosses the line.  Outrageous doesn't being to adequately describe my feelings for SNL, which I stopped watching long because of their appetite to mock Christianity yet let all other religions, for some strange reason, have a complete and total pass.  

This week and next chance I get, I am going to go buy something at Sears and I am going to tell them I specifically came in to support their company for the stand they are making against the show by pulling their advertising dollars.  Allegedly, JC Penny is also following suit and pulling it's advertising dollars for the show.  

I think it fitting that anyone that claims to be a Christian and is able to do so, goes to one of their stores and tells them why they are there: to support them and thank them for taking a stand!

It's always helpful to grab the right keyboard to start writing - just sayin' - I grabbed the keyboard for the other computer before finally realizing that - uhhh - wrong one.

Anyway, church is starting - right now actually - but my son has my car.  I wrote to the pastor and one of the leaders earlier this morning in case they might figure a ride for me over there, but the pastor simply wrote back and said "we'll miss you".  I was wanting to go this morning, I guess I'll have to have my own service at home!

I finally found the muster yesterday to start pulling the weeds up from the recent rains.  Some of them had grown HUGE in a very short period of time.  Even though many of my neighbors are pigs and hoarders, I don't want to stoop to that level in not maintaining my property.  The idea of pulling weeds isn't very much fun, hence the non-fun-factor in not starting before yesterday and since I am not going to church, going to go out there in a few minutes and resume that activity.  I am, however, still waiting until spring to do much of the pruning on the trees and plants that were frost damaged.

The Sissoo trees, however, have already started putting out fresh buds so I am going to water them like crazy and maybe even do some fertilization.  Plenty to do out there!

Discipleship training at church starts this week.  I am slated for Tuesday.  I have gone through extensive discipleship training in the past, most notably being a missionary and being full flung immersed into it without any real knowledge or experience of what I was doing, but a good refresher course isn't unwarranted.  The only problem I have with such on a Tuesday is that it probably will go on later than I can really handle being out on a work night.  I will have to go to one or two of the meetings and determine for myself whether I will be able to make it on an on-going basis.

As for the sequester, the Democratic party and their continual finger-pointing at the GOP can go blow.  Lies and exaggerations, extreme exaggerations at that.  What about holding Obama and his ilk accountable for the doomsday scenario that - as I figured it would end up being - is not going to happen in any such fashion?  He even went so far as to state that the janitors that clean up the Capitol building would have their hours cut.  The superintendent of that building issued a memo to his workers that no such thing was going to happen! Or all the statements that firefighters and police were going to immediately lose their jobs.

Outrageous.  But you don't see the ilk of MSNBC making anything out of that.  If it were the GOP that had made such ludicrous, outrageous and completely false statements, the lambasting would have gone on for at least WEEKS.  Hypocrisy at it's finest.  Obama has done nothing but completely divide this nation, contrary to his stated "desire" to the opposite.  He talks about the GOP as if it is only a handful of people and that it is completely at fault for everything that happens that goes against Obama's goals - one of which is to continue to raise taxes.  You know, take from the rich and give to the poor? The statement that a fellow college student made last week was revealing as well.  He stated that Obama had stated to him back in the day that he did not feel that ANY private citizens should be allowed to own guns.

I realize Obama doesn't have to face another election so, obviously, no holds barred, but this is turning into a circus act and not a very good one.

I'm an anxiously awaiting the return of my son, though I doubt he'll be back until later on today.  I'm just concerned. He's never taken a road trip like on his own - well he has 2 of his friends with him, but that doesn't really count.  I mean, without someone with a bit more experience at least observing what he's doing out on the highway and offering some pointers if need be.  Though, I did notice the last road trip we went on together he was intently watching my driving habits. The only thing that I can say that wasn't good for him to be watching in that trip was that I was speeding, and I might add excessively.  I wanted the road portion of that trip to be over and I made it home in far less time than it should have taken.

I'm really not much for driving anymore, at least not in these parts.  I have seen enough desert to last several lifetimes and much of the driving in this area is in a completely distracted manner.  Cellphones and other gadgets take priority over paying attention to the road and the aftermath shows every day.  Horrible and completely avoidable accidents.  If I were living up in the mountains and had a 4 wheeler, I would undoubtedly be driving back trails through the woods and finding spots to stop, get out and go hiking.  Top that with the fact that price of gasoline has skyrocketed in the last few months, unbelievable.  Who wants to drive with that kind of price tag attached to it?

Well whatever.  Time to get busy.

ben

Today, I decided that I was going to have to go down to the police station, get the police report and then go file a civil suit in the Justice court.
I was planning on doing that tomorrow after work providing I could get off work early enough and get down there in time to get all of that done, cause' honey, I want to do ALL of it and get it over with, not just get the police report and then have to go down there again to file the complaint.

They are 2 separate buildings a few streets apart, but it's the time factor in trying to do all of that that is the consideration here, not the distance from my work to get there or the distance those 2 buildings are apart (though helpful that they aren't too terribly far from each other so no long driving time).

Anyway, thinking about that today while attempting to navigate around Phoenix - this the second straight day of a serious semi accident on I-10 that shut down the freeway and caused traffic mayhem all over the place and subsequently, my having to take lessor known back roads/routes to try to get around all of it - I thought what a bummer.  Why do people have to be forced to make things right?  If my dogs mauled someone else's dog, I would have talked with the owner the same day and then had follow up communication about paying for the damages.  First off, it's the right thing to do. Second off, if you need a motivator, if the other party is forced to take you to court, you have potential lawyer fees; court costs and whatever else they can get you for on top of the vet bill.

Well, I get home today and talking with whoever here - no lack of people to talk with around my house at any given time - my phone rings.  It's the lady that owns the dogs!  A bit of an awkward start to the conversation, but I was glad she called and hopeful to get my money back out of all of this without having to go to court.  We start talking - I knew her name is Crystal cause of the police card I got from the cops that night - but that was all I knew.

She says: "I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Brent's mom".  Brent used to play video games with my son a long time ago.  It's been many years since I've seen him and his sister, they were taken away from Crystal due to circumstances not worth going into here.  OH.  Yes, I remember you!  We talked for quite a long time and not just about the dog issue - though I did make it clear that I wanted my money back and payments would be okay.  She went into her life and how she works at Denny's and how Denny's has, actually, cut hours back so that they aren't forced to pay for Obamacare health coverage.  If you work over X amount of hours (she told me but I don't remember, I'm sure I can look it up but I don't feel like it right now) then companies are forced to pay for health care coverage.  I had heard of some companies cutting back hours, I didn't know that it was widespread already.  Apparently as of January 1st.

Well anyway, I didn't expect to hear from her that her financial situation was too good in looking at the place she's living in, but who knows.  And it isn't.  Including an IRS garnishment.  Well, whatever.  I still expect her to pay me whatever she can come up with - even if it's $25 I would okay with as long as it keeps coming in until it's all paid up.

So that's that.  Uncle Bill writes emails to his brothers frequently.  I sometimes get them.  He has a terrible, painful, debilitating disease - I don't remember the name of it - and it is slowly consuming his life.  I wonder why people have to go through such terrible things at the end of life.  There is no answer to that question, but I do wonder why.

Tomorrow is Friday.  No great plans for the weekend.  I think this is the weekend Caleb wants to take the car up the hill to the Salvation Army camp on the Rim.  I would, otherwise, be thinking - at least seriously thinking - about going up to the trailer.  Weather is good so roads should be clear, I think I can trust him with the car.  He hasn't gotten into any accidents and besides that photo radar ticket in the mail that didn't go anywhere, he hasn't received any tickets either.  I still reel at the view of those photos that were taken of him that show him clearly entering an intersection after the light had turned red.  I see this stuff every single day on the roads and I also see the aftermath of a t-bone collision in some cases.

I tried to get across the importance to him of NOT engaging in such activity in traffic - that it is not only dangerous but it could also get him and/or other people killed.  There was yet another horrific accident today involving a semi, no details I have found yet on what happened, but the driver of the truck was killed.  I hope instantly, because if not, that means that person burned up in the subsequent fire and other than a person being tortured to death, I can't think of much worse way to go than burning up in a fire.  Above pic is what was in the local online news of today's accident.  That mess over the concrete divider is what is left of a semi tractor.  The only good thing I can say about this accident it it's a damn good thing there is a rebar reinforced concrete divider there or a lot more people could have been killed in thinking about a semi going head on into oncoming traffic.

This is the crash I saw yesterday.  I was stuck in the "high speed" lane on the other side of the freeway. Too much traffic I just waited it out until it broke free right after the crash.  2 serious truck crashes in 2 consecutive days.  Crazy stuff.  I don't think the driver of that one died, though.

I haven't checked the hummingbird nest in a few days.  Just don't want to scare momma off, so just taking a peek here and there.  Maybe tomorrow or if not, then definitely this weekend I'll take another look and perhaps another short video if there is any significant change.  I know momma isn't scared off cause' that nest is about 15 feet from where I am sitting right now and I can hear her chirping frequently.  Hummingbirds have a distinctive sound they make.

And then there's Obama. Who was emphatically stating how police, fire and teachers would all be fired as of Friday if Republicans wouldn't (bow to the king) agree with him and do something about the sequester.  Now? He knows he isn't getting his way so he has completely changed his story.  The man is a bald-faced liar. Which isn't surprising, but it would be nice if all news media outlets - including all of the liberal leaning ones - would call him out on it.  But of course, they aren't.  The most liberal - MSNBC - doesn't even have it as a top headline anymore.  In fact, I had to scroll well down the page to find the story.  Of course they don't, they would have to potentially tell the truth in Obama's story changing crap!  LOL!!!

ben

I arrived home from work at around 5:30 PM.
Walking through the door a scene greeted me: the young tenant, his friend and Lynnette sitting at the kitchen table, laughing it up about whatever.

When I finally got everything done and sat down at the table to engage myself in whatever was going on, well, at first it was quite entertaining.  2 college dudes - one of them fairly smart and the other a blooming idiot - going at it with each other about Obama's policies and this, that and the other thing.

I was dragged into this discussion.

I did so with a good heart.  Let's talk about this.  Let's put our opinions, perspectives and the facts that we think we know on the table an compare notes.  I don't go into political discussions with the intent of it getting heated up and almost always, if it does get heated, I turn it off.  It is, to me, a senseless waste of time to argue with  a person in a heated fashion that will accomplish nothing for either party.

But I will get into a political discussion with someone of opposing viewpoints, as long as it remains civil.  Well, these 2 were going at it, I was interjecting here and there but then?  Another tenant came out. George, who is in his 50's.  He wanted to find out what I was laughing about - at that point I was finding it humorous to see these guys bantering back and forth.

But then, the young tenant's friend wanted to engage me personally. Okay. I listened to him and then would try to speak, only to have this guy interrupt me before I could even get a complete sentence out.  He didn't want to hear anything I had to say to the point of being extremely rude.  EXTREMELY RUDE.

I put up with this for a while, though I didn't want to, but after he said something that crossed my line and then interrupted me again when I attempted to calmly give him my view of it?  Enough was enough.

I ended the conversation and told the man flat to his face that he was rude, condescending, arrogant and self-aggrandizing.  That I had listened to EVERYTHING he had to say, but that EVERY single time I tried to say anything, he had cut me off and interrupted me.  It was the end of it for me.  The younger tenant went ape.  In a good way.  I apparently told this man what he had wanted to say to him for a long time.  I don't know.  I can't and won't take an argumentative person that won't listen to anything the other side of the argument has to say.

Well that's over and so is this night for  me.  I have more I would like to delve into, but I am tired and am going to go to sleep.

G'nite.

ben

Little Hummingbirds

Every year, she builds a rather intricate, detailed and almost perfect looking next.  Every year, she lays 2, tiny eggs in the nest. Every year, both eggs hatch and there are 2 little Hummingbirds in there and yes, every year, one of them dies and the other survives.

There is nothing I can do for the little one that doesn't survive.  It's the way of nature.  I don't know if momma just doesn't feed one of them or how that happens, but it does.

And so it is.
There are 2 tiny, and I do mean tiny, birds in that nest and they are both alive.  But I suspect in short order one of them will perish.  The nest is so small, as in other years, that it isn't large enough for 2 of them.  This year, I intend on taking a number of short videos and posting them to show the progress - or death of one if that's what happens.

Meanwhile, has anyone noticed the price of gas basically sky rocketing?  I mean, jumping in price on a weekly basis to the point that it is almost a buck more expensive than it was, say something like 2 months ago.  Freaking ridiculous.  I mean, wow!  Their pathetic excuses as to why they can just raise the prices - they have a long list of them as most readers know - just go to further flame the consuming public.

On a completely different note, I was toying with one of the estimators downtown about his hunting activities (searching on the net) while he's supposed to be working.  We sort of have a 2-way thing going where he tells me I don't do any work and that he gets twice as much work done in an hour than I do in an entire day while I badger him about Googling on the internet and doing his hunting activities instead of getting anything done.

It is all done in good humor, we aren't getting angry or upset with each other, in fact, it usually ends with quite a lot of laughter.

But he is a hunter and I have always wanted to learn how to hunt.  I am not about to just go out in the woods and start shooting at everything that moves in a pathetic and probably dangerous attempt to teach myself.  If I were starving, the economy was screwed and there was no food available, different story altogether.  So, in completely serious tones after we were done messing with each other, I simply stated to him that he is going to have to take me along on one of his hunting trips and teach me how to hunt.

I don't know anyone that hunts, that's all there is to it.  No-one in church hunts, none of my friends are hunters, they're not even out doors type of people.  Camping is out of the question for many people I know, some of them do it because they have kids but that's the only reason they go.  I am ready to try some new things in life and I have always wanted to learn how to hunt since I was a young kid - and my parents were gun haters though they definitely loved the outdoors and camping (so I at least got half of the picture).  Well, my mother still is very much in love with the mountains and now she owns several guns but not for hunting purposes (and if I were her age and living alone, I would definitely own an assortment of handguns and at least one shotgun, maybe a 20 caliber for home/self defense purposes).

He looks at me after I say that to him and asks: "You really don't know anyone that hunts?"  Nope, I replied, not a single person.  Most of my friends and acquaintances don't even own guns, much less being avid hunters.  We didn't go much further with the conversation as he had to get back to work and so did I, but I did plant the seed.  He goes hunting throughout the year for whatever is available.  Elk, deer, bear, whatever.  He doesn't just stay in AZ, either, he travels to New Mexico and other bordering states, wherever the hunting is and whoever is able to win the lottery for whatever is being allowed in whichever season.

I missed the first draw for big game, it was due by Tuesday of last week.  There are, however, 2 more draws for Elk and other big game and I intend on attempting to win.  AZ has a process that gives returning applicants more favor over new ones.  A lot of people apply so winning is definitely not guaranteed.

Anyway, I blew off my plans to go up to the mountains this weekend as I figured to ask for a day off in the near future and spend a couple of days up there.  It's a bit easier to spend 2 or even 3 nights when you have an extra day off.

I have plenty of stuff that needs to get done around the house both inside and out and that's what I am doing with this weekend.

ben

Driving down the Superstition 60 on the way home from work today (so in my personal vehicle).  Coming up to an on ramp with vehicles getting on the freeway, so I get over into the next lane to let them get on.  I'm going significantly faster than they are, at least 20 MPH worth, they aren't up to speed yet.

So, when I get up to this on ramp, but 2 lanes over, a driver gets into the "slow" lane, indicator light on.  He gets in that lane, indicator light still on.  I'm almost up on this vehicle when he decides to come over into my lane.  He sees me and quickly jacks it back into his own lane.  This is another blooming idiot that 1: doesn't appreciate the fact that I moved over to let him and other vehicles on and 2: believes by virtue of the fact that you have your indicator light on, you are therefore given right and license to cut prevailing traffic that is legally occupying a lane off, regardless of what may happen.

Passing by this freak?  He honks his horn at me!  LOL!!!  What else to do but laugh.  There was no good reason for him to "have" to get into the lane I was in but he thought he had the right of way.

Whatever.  I have half a mind to go up north again this weekend, but only if I can leave tomorrow afternoon. I don't just want a single overnighter, gotta be 2 nights.  Just a lot of fuel and like to make it worth the trip up there with a bit longer stay than what occurred last weekend. Though, it had been so long since I had been up there last weekend, even a one night stay was nice and relieving to find that nothing had been tampered with up there.

It would actually be cool to put the other trailer up there as well and then be able to invite people up for weekends.  Lol, dreaming.  My mother's property not mine and pretty much guaranteed she wouldn't go for that - at all.

Well I have other things, but I think I'll post that on the other place.

G'day.
ben

6 lane street.  Goes through Mesa and Chandler.  Turns back into 2 lane highway on either end, going into Indian Reservation on either end.  Highway 87, otherwise known as Country Club Drive in Mesa or Arizona Avenue in Chandler.
Northbound, center lane.  Nothing in front of me, car to the right of me. A van comes flying up to the car to the right of me, what's he going to do, smash into that car?  No, the fleeting thought came to me, he's going to cut you off.
I look to my left, see the lane is clear just in time to have this jackass, who had to slow down considerably to avoid rear-ending the car in front of him, cuts directly in front of me.  If there was 5 feet between he rear bumper and my front bumper, that would be over-exaggerating the distance.  He is going 10 miles an hour slower than I am as well since he had to slam on his brakes to avoid contact with car in front of him, so now, I am forced to jack the truck over into the other lane.

This guy has the audacity to call my company and tell them I am driving aggressively, in and out of traffic, speeding, etc etc etc.  When my manager called me and told me this idiot had told our operations manager that and that the ops manager had come unglued, I blew a fuse.  I drive for the company for 7 years and all of a sudden one ass**** calls my company and they think I am doing what this idiot says I am?!!!

If I were driving like that every day, there would be a few outcomes: first it's illegal, at least in a semi.  Cops can write you up a ticket for "bobbing and weaving", as the action is coined. Second, probably get a speeding ticket and third: probably would have rear-ended someone by now.  Good thing the ops manager didn't talk to me directly about it, cause' I wouldn't have held back my ire for a company that gives me a safe driver award and then wants to question how I am driving out there.

Whatever.  That stuff happens all day long - but this one was a very close call and could have easily ended in a rear-end collision if I hadn't been prepared for it.

But I gotta say, the thing that really irritates me in all of this is the Ops Manager who instantly believes every word this idiot is speaking to him on the phone, doesn't give me a slice worth of the benefit of a doubt, comes to our branch and starts cranking to my immediate manager about it.  Doesn't even want to hear my side of the issue before making judgments and conclusions.  That's just plain bull****.  If people were calling in every day complaining about my driving then I could see it.  The last time anyone called in was a woman that claimed I had cut her off.  That alleged incident "took place" immediately before I got back to the shop and as much as I strained my head, since it had just allegedly occurred, I couldn't remember cutting anyone off or even seeing the vehicle that my manager said I had done it to.

And here's the jist of the story: a person can call a trucking company and report a truck - it's got it's name, DOT number and truck number on it - and make whatever kinds of statements they want to.  They can make up fairy tales and people often do.  I have talked to people that say they have called a trucking company and made a bogus claim about a driver just for the "fun" of it.  It's done with impunity, there is nothing I as a driver can do to "retaliate", such as in the case of this freak yesterday.  I can't call his company and complain that he almost caused an accident, was jibbering on the cellphone and gave me a s*** eating smile when I passed by him, obviously knowing what he had done and could have cared less.

So, live with it?  Perhaps the driver that made the bogus comments, yes. But not the Ops manager jumping to conclusions without even giving me a chance to say anything.  That causes me to lose all respect for that man.

I don't think that I have made better time on the drive back from the mountains than today.  Traffic was very light on the highway and going through town.

Regardless, when I arrived up there yesterday - ummm - I think before noon - it was a pleasant surprise to find everything just as I had left it, sans the Direct TV dish had fallen over.  The ground was wet and the giant nails I had used to hold the pedestal in place had simply given way to the moisture and the whole thing had come cascading down.

There were no signs of any mice having had made it into my trailer and the trailer was clean and smelled good.  There was snow patches all over the place.  The normally dry creek was running heavily with snow run-off.  That creek used to flow year round, but the combination of a lack of rain and a rancher up the way that diverts the creek onto his property - caused it to become bone dry during the summer.  There have, apparently, been lawsuits over the rancher's actions.

It wouldn't be so bad if he re-diverted it back into the creek bed, but unfortunately, at least half the water gets dumped out the other side and down into a canyon.  Some of it comes back to the stream it's supposed to be in but it's such a small trickle of water it ends up going underground.  I have heard there are lawsuits concerning this situation.  I wouldn't know.  If I lived on that creek and had the water taken, I probably wouldn't be too happy about it either.  The fact is, there used to be enough water flowing in there that a person could have installed a hydroelectric generator.  But, my mother's property is on top of the hill.  The properties along the creek are, of course, at the bottom of the hill and on the other side of a dirt road down there.

There IS electricity up there, but the fact is, a person could run electric for free and get all the water they need, for free, with that stream.  Of course, there is enough water flowing through there right now that if you installed a couple of large water tanks you could have enough water to last you through a summer.  I'm only thinking of the situation I would like to find myself in if I can ever afford to buy property somewhere up in the mountains - I would definitely want something next to a creek.  A couple of 5,000 gallon water tanks and using water sparingly enough and you could simply fill them up during the winter and have enough water to last until the next winter.  My mother has a 1,000 gallon tank and we used probably a few hundred gallons of that water between us this summer.

Whatever the case, my mother was sighing big sigh of relief.  She had thoughts of whoever that has been stealing electricity also breaking into the shed and trailers and helping themselves.  Someone has been using electricity up there during 2 months time when none of us had been on the property.  I dunno what anyone could do with it.  It's on private property, surrounded by fence, locked gate and since no-one broke into the trailers - and presumably helping themselves to such things as watching TV and running heat in the cold - I can't really think what anyone would be doing with it.  Camping in a tent on forest land which is right next to her property and running and extension cord to use for heat and whatever else?

The dogs?  Love being  up there, but hate the ride going up there and returning.  The Catahoula just sits there on the front sit with her head against the side of the seat staring at me, panting the whole way.  Duke chokes and near-vomits the entire trip (and yes, I have tried giving him dramamine, it only made it worse).  Prince just sits there in the back sit with a very pathetic look on his face.  I could leave the dogs here, if I really thought they didn't want to go.  If I had a pickup, I could put the Danes in Kennels and tie them down to the bed and probably be a bit more comfortable ride for them - albeit much colder considering outside.

Whatever the case, I had been wanting to go up for quite a while now, just a lot of things that had been getting in the way.  It got down into the low 30's last night, but my space heater did the trick in keeping the entire trailer warm enough to feel comfortable in there.  I'm not sure what the electric use of that will be, lol, but I am sure my mother will let me know when the bill arrives!

Oh, and I did have a fire in the fire pit!  The wood was wet so it took a while to get the coals hot enough to burn logs - but there is ample pine needles around and that stuff burns like gas.  I sat out there for hours with this nice blaze going.  There are no fire restrictions right now because of all the snow and rain, the ground is saturated and trees are definitely nicely watered.  Which is good, because that wet wood was creating a lot of smoke.  It was drifting over the valley and undoubtedly the Forest Service saw it.  I say that because a helicopter came flying over after about an hour of it.  They take forest fires seriously up there.  There have been several major fires and they do extensive damage.  I have been camping for decades and I know how to put a fire out and make sure there are no live coals left burning underneath.

But it was easy in this case: a bucket of water and it was completely drenched and out.  Checked it again this morning before I left to make sure of that fact.  People have been thrown in jail for starting massive forest firest - some intentionally and some not intentionally.  The latest was a couple of guys that had a fire and then just left it.  They put the fire out, yes, but they didn't make sure the coals underneath were also extinguished. I think that fire burned up near half a million acres.

I dunno.  It seems to me it's only common sense to make sure your fire is completely out and it's not that difficult to simply take a shovel and extinguish the entire thing with dirt if you have no water available.

It's great that my mother lets me use her property, free of charge excepting to reimburse her for electric use - I am thankful for the opportunity to have some place to go to, out-of-town, better than a hotel stay somewhere, home-away-from-home - but in reality?  Her property is not the kind of property I would want for a retirement home.  I just think it important to have access to water on the land itself - via a well or stream - or if a lot of rain, water collection barrels.  In her case, you have to either drag a trailer to the nearest place which is about 12 miles away or have a truck deliver it at no small expense.

Speaking of hotel stays.  I have been playing an online casino game - not for money, you get free chips daily - but this particular site gives you "gold coins" for credit to acquire all kinds of things in Las Vegas.  The most intriguing is the free hotel stays.  I almost have 100,000 gold coins and can already get a 2 night stay for 35,000 of them.  But there are MUCH nicer rooms available but for a lot more gold coins. One of my tenants is planning a trip in August and we have discussed going together, pooling 3 people's worth of coins and getting a lot of freebies out of it.

I don't really want to go to Las Vegas for gambling, but rather for some of the shows you can see up there.  I  do like Blackjack, though!  I think it's a 4 hour trip up there?  Drive up, stay free for 2 nights in a very nice room, get free food and other perks and then go home.  An almost free vacation besides the gas up there and whatever expenses I might incur.

Well, August is a long time from now, just musing.  I still am weighing the idea of a cruise somewhere.  I don't care about the Carnival fiasco.  That is not enough to stop me from wanting to go on a cruise.  The odds of something like that happening are pretty slim, I am guessing, you don't read about that happening on a weekly or even monthly basis, so take my chances.  And anyway, those people are all being comped.  I understand it was gross with vile and putrid conditions on that ship.  From my perch, though, make the best of a bad situation and know that you are going to get a free ride on another ship.  If it happens twice to you, then you probably ought to stay away from boats, lol.  I don't wish anyone suing that company luck, either.  You assume a risk potential on anything you do in life and perhaps they should just be happy the boat didn't sink or run into something while it was floating listlessly without power.  I know I wouldn't be happy about the situation, but I doubt that I would sue the company.

Enough for one entry.  I missed church today but I knew I would.  I haven't missed a day in a long time now, so no biggies.  The rest of the day I am just doing some cleaning and watering, see if there is anything worth watching on TV and that's about it.  Another work week en-queue and my goodness am I ready for some more time off!  Lol.

ben