Well, the hour and a half freaking long wait to get my tires re-balanced was worth it.  I was a bit peeved because there wasn't that many other people in the waiting room and more importantly: only 2 other vehicles in a 6 car bay.

They did not attempt to sell me a new tire to replace the used one I had bought there.  I sat there for such a long time I drained the battery down to 15% - which is when it shuts itself off - on my lap top and then put on my sunglasses and started to take a nap.  I fully expected them to come up with some sort of sales pitch - not saying Discount Tire is fraudulent or otherwise deceptive, but they are in business to sell tires and make money, not give away free tire rotations only - but they did not.

Instead, they pulled the car up front, the dude came in and told me that all 4 tires had been out of balance, 2 of them extremely much so.  I say that was good to hear because that simply means nothing else needs to be done and I didn't pay a penny to them today, the used tire is still good - and looks good btw, still lots of tread on it - so off I went.  I was going to get on the freeway when passing by a gas station that had changed names.  Sitting at a red light at the corner, I saw the sign: oil change only $15.99.  I did some turns to go back and then went in.

My "Oil Level Low" light came on the other day and did so a few months ago as well.  There is a small, slow oil leak. It's going to cost $600 to have it fixed - just replacing a bunch of gaskets but the labor is the killer because half the engine has to be taken apart.  Okay, 1/3rd of it.  Right now, I have no plans to fix it.  Only if/when it becomes a leak that I can see on the ground, then I will have to deal with it.  If I really had the motivation, I could do it myself.  I have done enough total engine rebuilds in my life, I just haven't done anything that extensive in quite a long time and a bit nervous about attempting it in my driveway.  I will wait until Caleb is gone for the summer and his/my car is parked in the driveway before attempting it. If I screw it up somehow, at least I will have something to drive, lol.

I have quite a lot of comment I would like to speak about the Obama administration and the now-labeled "Benghazi-Gate" per Fox News anyway and also this situation with the IRS admitting they targeted Tea-Party groups.  But it makes me mad, really mad to think about what this administration is doing to our nation so I have to just back off, take a breath and put it out of my mind.  Obama can't be President forever, thank God, but I wonder about the damage done before he exits office.

My mom sent me a pic of a very long snake.  It was slithering into a hole next to her porch in the back of her house.  Black and white the thing was.  I don't like snakes, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't want them around if they are eating unwanted guests such as rodents.  Well, I looked it up and this thing is a King Snake and upon further investigation, those snakes actually EAT other snakes! Including Rattlesnakes!!!  Well done, Mother Nature and God, lol, that's a good one to have around me-thinks.  My mom was of the same mind.  She hates snakes but she let this one go - otherwise she would be out there with her .22 pistol attempting to fill it full of snake shot.  Lol.  Cracks me up to think the only time I ever saw her trying to kill a rattler with that thing, it was doing nothing to that snake, or if it was, it certainly wasn't anything visible.

Oh-ohhhh. The Hummingbird that owns my property is out there whining about the feeder being empty.  It is getting drained REALLY fast.  There HAS to be more than just that one bird feeding off of it.  It sits there and chirps at me when I procrastinate on refilling it.  NO, I am dead serious, that little bird owns my property, pays all of my bills and has a robotic maid serving me meals.  It always tells me about it when that thing is emptied out.  Which I just filled it up, what a week and a half ago? That's really fast for a bird that small! Gotta figure out what else is feeding on it. If it's other Hummingbirds, oh well, if it's other kinds of birds, they can go find some other source of nutrition.  It's not leaking or, obviously, there would be a lot of red stains on the ground below.  Nothing.

My plan is to go up to the property sometime in the morning, but plans can be changed by circumstances, we all know that!

ben

Sitting at Discount Tire, waiting eternally for them to simply balance all 4 tires.  Worth the wait I guess since it's free, but I am guessing they are going to come back and tell me that the used tire I bought several months ago is going to need replaced.  I wish they would at least GET that far with this, I have been here for an hour now.

I was thinking of going up to the mountains today, but it's already 4:15 pm and I haven't even started anything about packing to go, much less the fact I haven't gotten home from work yet.

Finally getting the shifting on the new semi.  Extremely fast.  Just too fast, it really shouldn't have to shift that fast between gears.  If I don't, though: clunk.  Not good for a tranny.  The thing winds up so fast you'd think I was driving a car, not a tractor trailer rig.  I dunno, guess it's new technology or something, certainly isn't acting like ANY other semi tranny I have ever shifted and I can tell you, I have driven a lot of semi's over the last almost 30 years now.

Driving at 65mph on I-10 is also irritating.  That's what the governor is set at and that's what i was stuck at on that highway today while everyone else was zooming past me.  We are going to deal with that soon enough.  I will keep whining about it until a tech is sent out to change it.  Besides the fact of going slow, it's taking forever to get from point A to point B.  The extra time driving today cost me a delivery this afternoon - they had already gone home by the time I was ready to go over there.

Well whatever.  The weekend is here and I dunno.  I will decide when I ever get out of this place whether I am going to drive up there today or not, but probably not since it's getting so late.  i don't want to be showing up there at 9 o'clock at night or something.  I may go up tomorrow morning since mother obviously doesn't want to spend Mother's Day alone.

I am wondering when George is intending to have his girlfriend move in.  Mark informed me the George told him he was having a phone line installed to his room for work.  He is, apparently, required to have a dedicated line for working at home, which is what he has been doing for a while now, but they want to make it official.  I want to charge the guy more rent.  I don't care if he's operating a business out of his bedroom, for all intents and purposes, but at the same time, it's using more electricity and he should have to pay extra.  If I bring it up to him, though, I am sure he's going to have a conniption.  Which has never stopped me before, lol.  We'll see.  Oh, apparently his work pays for the phone line.

The dude living in the mini van in front of the next door neighbor's house must be getting pretty miserable out there by now.  It's getting warm, very warm, not "hot" yet, but it will be there soon enough.  I don't get it, though.  What is this guy doing? Why isn't he looking for a job or going to school or SOMETHING? He is ALWAYS out there.  It's just weird, I guess.

Well enough of this, I need to put this computer away and get up and find out what's taking so long.

ben

It was time to say something.
This concerning an individual that they just hired maybe 2 or so months ago at the main branch downtown.
He doesn't do much of anything unless his boss specifically directs him to.
If you ask him to do something, he tells you he is busy.  I am usually down there at least an hour, often times more - I will watch him wandering around, doing absolutely nothing.

This is not the kind of attitude my company much cares for in a worker.  Strong work ethic is pretty much a pre-requisite for our company and people who do not want to work won't last long.

I was down there 2 days ago when the guy started in on me about a small amount of pipe he had pulled for a transfer going to our branch.  It had been sitting there since a couple days before that, I simply did not have the room for it.  It is a stock transfer, meaning it is going into our inventory, it is not slated for a delivery, so I didn't absolutely need to take it.  I had loaded the 48 foot trailer from front to back with materials we needed for deliveries, no room for it.  He got mad and informed me that he would no longer be pulling pipe for us and that he was going to be putting this pipe back.  I told him  to take a look at my truck.  Where, exactly, was I going to put it?

No matter to him.  So today, I am down there again. He had put the pipe away.  I was going to tell this dude exactly what I think of him and his work ethic - but I waited a while and let myself cool down a bit. This guy has been talking to me as if he's been working there 20 years and is some sort of manager in the company.  I approached his manager and informed him of the situation - told me he was never going to pull pipe for me again and that he was putting the pipe that he pulled back, which he did and I handed him the transfer ticket that he had signed.  I then said to him that if he wasn't going to deal with it, I was going to speak my mind to that individual and that individual probably wasn't going to like it.

That was that.  The manager adamantly state he would speak to the man and that he could pull the f****** pipe himself and that was that.

Yes, what I wanted and needed to hear.

Changing the subject.  The lady whose dogs mauled Duke finally showed up - while I was writing this entry actually.  She handed me all of $8.  Yes, that's eight dollars.  Assessing her situation, she probably falls well below the poverty level and has kids.  Young kids, I was amazed she was still making babies after the last set she had.  Free rent - Hud.  Free food - Food Stamps.  Free medical - Obamacare.  Free cell phone - federal government, don't know which administration started that.  Free internet - maybe/probably.  Although not much of a life, if a person is so inclined, they can live completely off the government for free.

I flatly told her that she would have to come over at least once a week with something.  The city sent me yet another thing in the mail today that I have 7 days from the receipt of that letter to file for restitution.  I am not going to do that.  I am simply going to go after her personally for the money.  If it comes down to her not paying, I don't have to go after restitution, I can sue her in the local court. Well, I'll think about it.  Restitution is easier.  The court orders her to pay and if she doesn't then a contempt of court bench warrant is issued and she has to appear to tell the court why, exactly, she hasn't paid.  I am not totally dismissing that idea, I have 7 days to make up my mind.

Church.  So, I am going to start doing security at church once a month.  Unbeknownst to me, they had a meeting about security and what needs to be done about it, which is when the youth teachers stated they were not comfortable with the lack of anyone out there to stand guard, basically.  A few names were brought up, mine was one of them.

_________________

Interlude, long one.
I turned my mom onto Facebook and she is figuring it out, including how to start a chat with someone.  In this case - me, lol.  She was asking if I was coming up tomorrow - she's not up there but planning on either going up Saturday or Sunday. I replied that I would if I get off work early enough tomorrow.

Which was enough for her to assume I am going to be up there, lol.

I'm fairly well obligated to go up there at this point.  Ummmm, but there is a lot to do and it's time to go to bed for me - and the real kicker? - a LOT of stuff to do in our truck routing system tomorrow.  Tangle that with a disgruntled manager who is losing his vacation due to jury duty - he's coming to work tomorrow but only because the court apparently takes Fridays off - and has to be back at the court on Monday - meaning missing his flight to Chicago on Saturday morning - wow!  The workplace does offer some interesting - stuff.   It's a life unto it's own with so many different personalities, some of which grate against me in a particularly freakish way.

I don't wonder if this is part of God's way of forcing me to deal with the issues in my life.  You know, like not respond in kind to a person mouthing off and going off the cuff?  Or some freak attempting to tell me how to do my job?

Some stuff I wrote missing here.  I would re-write, but it's my bedtime.


G'nite.

ben

This woman whose dogs attacked Duke continues to blow me off.
I have a running texting conversation with her.
She is very poor is the biggest problem.
I am not being an ogre or a troll to her, but I do want her to pay for Duke's hospital visit, regardless of how long it takes her to pay it off.
As of yet, she hasn't given me a single dime.  Allegedly, she's coming over today to give whatever she can afford.
I dunno, but if you are going to have vicious dogs and they are going to get out of their confinement, then expect to have to pay whatever for the damages they cause.

That's all I can say about that.

The new truck.  Small cab, not much room inside of it for much of anything.  I have a lot of stuff I have to carry with me for the job, pretty difficult to find a place for everything when there are very few cubby holes to stick things in.  Not really happy about that.  It also shifts funny. It has the same exact transmission in it as the old truck - well obviously not exactly the same as the thing wants to be shifted from one gear to the next immediately with no hesitation and if you miss it, it lets you know about it.  In fact the shifting on it is pretty much - ridiculous.  I will get used to it, I guess, but I have never driven a truck with a transmission that doesn't have you wait a short period between gears.

It also has a stupid turn signal system. It's the same as a car.  It shuts itself off, which would be great excepting the fact that in semis, you are often turning the steering wheel in both directions to make a turn, which shuts the signal off long before you finish making the turn.  Pretty stupid set up.  The thing shuts the radio off when you start backing.  I guess they don't want "distracted backing", lol.  They had fluourescent orange seatbelts installed on it.  Apparently they want you busted if you aren't wearing it.  Kind of humiliating treatment, frankly, from a company that I have driven for for over 7 years.  As if I need this kind of treatment
because I must, somehow, be a bad driver and don't use my seatbelt?

Governor kicks in at 66 MPH.  Another ridiculous notion.  It often times happens on the freeway that the only way to get over to the next lane I need to get over to is to speed up and get in front of a vehicle.  Most drivers nowadays will not let you in, no matter how long you have had the turn signal on indicating that you want to get over.  Slowing down usually doesn't work, either, since there is usually vehicles behind them and they won't let you in, either.  I am going to ask to have it set up to at least 75MPH, which is the speed limit on the Interstates around these parts when you get out of town.

Well whatever.  I'll get used to most of it, I don't have a choice excepting to go find a new job I guess.  Not really interested in doing that right now and speaking of jobs, I must be out of here!

G'day.

ben

Back from church.

Instead of being bone tired as I was before I left, I am now wide awake.  

Ummmmm, so, here I am. 

I completely forgot that I put in for a week off at the beginning of June.

I am not sure I want to go up to the trailer, or if I do only a couple of nights.  

I would like to go spend a couple of nights at some fine hotel and just be alone.  No dogs, no people, no nothing.  This would be more rejuvenating for me than much of anything else I can think of - well I can think of other things but price tags make them too expensive to even consider.  

Las Vegas is only 280 miles away.  I have enough gold coins to get a pretty nice room for free.  I don't care about the glitter and the casinos - I could get far enough away from here to feel as though I have "escaped" and at the same time not have to spend a lot of money to do so and spend 2 nights there for free.  What about your trip there in August?  Who cares about August, I need now.  I can still build those coins back up and have enough to go up if I still want to with the tenants.  

But August may prove to be a busy month.  Caleb will be back for a short period of time and there are already 2 sending-away parties being set up for him and I want to spend as much time as I can with him before he leaves and I don't get to see him again for an entire year.  

I'm more considering taking another week off in August and possibly doing something with him before sending him off - if he has the time of course and if it would work out.  A couple days on the ocean or something.  I dunno.  They have some great sight-seeing trips from pretty much anywhere along the California coast.  Just throwing things around in my head, see if anything lands anywhere.

As for Las Vegas, the Aria had a City View room - meaning it's high up - for 2 nights at 200,000 gold coins.  Of which I happen to have.  I actually have 380,000 gold coins on the game, it would leave me 180,000 left over and now that I have found the "secret" to acquiring gold coins quickly, I could build it back up again before August arrives - but again - a trip anywhere like that in August at this point is not necessarily a probable event.  I am certain that the parental heart in me is going to want to see as much of my son as I can.

Well whatever.  I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.  I AM seriously considering using my gold coins on my slated vacation.  It's only 2 nights, I think it would be a blast, to be honest.  Maybe do a little blackjack action, but the room itself, isolating myself.  Do you know what it's like to live in a house with as many people as I have living here?  I have only myself to blame, obviously, but I am subjected to all kinds of sounds and conversations and this and that.  

Ahhh, there it is.  Fatigue creeping back in.  

Time for bed.

ben

I am very annoyed right now.
First off a dog that shit on my bedroom floor last night.
Lack of sleep.
Manager gone at court today and when that happens I get all the phone calls and inquiries that he usually gets.  Annoyed salesman wanting to know when what is getting where and after a while I got rather curt with one of them that got an attitude with me.  Manager was selected for a jury and he is very upset - he is supposed to leave on vacation to Chicago on Saturday.

The new worker at our branch decided he was going to nothing.  When I was leaving to get in the semi and take off - for the entire day - I gave him some suggestions as to what to do with his day.  Sitting around on his ass was not one of them.  I told him if nothing else, there is plenty of clean-up he could do.  He simply stated that he was going to "wait for deliveries".  That was very annoying.  But I am not his manager.  However, his manager knows about it - I was talking with my boss after he finally got out of court today and I informed him of the new worker's decision to basically - do nothing.  Boss got mad - very mad.  We both work our asses off on a daily basis and a new person that decides that when the boss leaves, he's just going to sit around smoking cigarettes all day long?  That person will not last very long at our branch.
I asked my manager if he had a list he would like to supply to this dude - yup - and he's going to email it to me in the morning.  If the guy comes off with the same attitude again, I will simply relay that information to my manager and he can act accordingly.

And a lot of junk that happened at construction sites, making it take way longer to get the work done than it should have.  Like, getting off after 5:00pm.
The only bright spot in the day was when I got back to the yard - a brand new tractor.  Our new semi finally arrived and the thing is much better than what I envisioned.
It actually has chrome, lol
It also has an air horn, which the current tractor does not have.
Significance: I am tired of sitting behind people at stop lights that are texting and paying no attention to the fact that the light has turned green and has been green for several seconds.  An air horn will get their attention and if they flip me off, I don't care. I drive my vehicle, I don't sit around playing with electronic toys and not paying any attention to the road in front of me.
The AC works.  Yes, even after that long of a day of driving all over the place, I got in that new tractor, fired that beast up and took it for a spin around the yard.  No bad, but I suspect the governor is set too low.

NP, when it's due for an oil change, they can bring out their computer and set it up to 75 or 79 mph.
It has a CD player and really cool, it has electric mirrors - IE: adjust both sides with a switch.  It also has all wheel lock instead of the 2 wheel inter-axle lock, which it has that too.  Next time I get stuck in a pile of rocks at a construction site, I can simply flip that switch and walaah, I will drive right out of it.

The only thing I don't know about is the Detroit Diesel engine it has in it.  I haven't driven a tractor with a Detroit in it since the mid 80's.  I am a CAT fan first, then Cummins.  I am guessing Detroits have gotten better - I do hope so.

Well, whatever.  Long day. The kicker? I am leaving for church in about 10 minutes.  I do hope to sleep well tonight, lol.

I actually have plenty more to write, but, time has run out and I am pretty sure that when I get home from church, sitting down at the computer won't be any of my planned activities, IE: time to go to bed!

G'day.

ben

I was on my way to the town of Maricopa.  Not many ways in and out of there, I was on SR347.  About halfway there, I saw ADOT Enforcement pickups pulling off on the other side of the road.  Obvious their intent: a weigh station, replete portable scales and enough officers to be able to pull several trucks off the side of the road at a time to do inspections.

Whether needless to say or not, I did not come back that way. I avoid ADOT like the plague.  They don't give a damn about your trucking career and they don't care what happens to you when they issue you warnings which now count against companies the same as a ticket counts against you.  I would have to look it up, but I drove at least 15 miles out of the way to not have to encounter that crap.

Well, I was going to write a full entry but it's a few minutes past my bedtime and I am very, very tired, long day at work.

G'nite.

ben

The Phoenix Police Department.
Please.
Last night, the same house that has had extremely loud parties, ie: bring in a DJ and BLARE the music on a huge sound system all night long - had what I assume to be a Cinco De Mayo party.  It wasn't Cinco De Mayo when they started, but it certainly was when it ended.

It sounded as  if a band was standing in my bedroom with amplifiers.  That's how loud it was and that house is on the other side of the street - the next street over. I wasted no time calling the police.  4 hours later, they had not arrived and the lady on  the phone informed it was Saturday night.  Their call volume is huge on that night, they proclaimed.

Okay, so if this is a known fact, why don't they have a contingent to deal with it?  Just like a business, when it knows there is a heavy volume day, they bring in more employees.  Makes sense to me, especially when it comes to public safety.  But whatever, that's the Phoenix Police Department for you.

When the police showed up, they told them to turn down the music, which they did, and then shortly after the police left?  They turned it up again, so loud that it woke up RIGHT up out of the deep sleep that I had finally fell into.  I called the police again.

It was a waste of time.  The police show up, tell them to turn it down instead of threatening to issue citations. That's what they should have done: issued a citation after the second time there.  I didn't call the police again.  The music went on ALL night long, into the morning and well into the day.  I'll be calling the police chief's office tomorrow and asking them why their department finds it so difficult to enforce the simplest of ordinances yet they seem to find it so easy to pull their guns and shoot people.  I won't just go away, either. I will want an answer from someone higher up about it.  I made 3 calls to the department and their response to the situation was, in effect, tantamount to having done nothing at  all.

If it happens again, I will simply start calling the police and keep calling them every half an hour until they deal with it.  There is no HOA in this neighborhood and going over there to "discuss" the situation with the homeowner is also a complete and total waste of time. They don't CARE.  Completely selfish people.  I forced myself not to go over there because that ending probably would not have been too good.

Whatever.

I'll be going to bed early tonight to attempt to make up for the lost sleep last night.

Despite all of that, I went to church early today to take the 2 meeting course on becoming a member in the church. It was actually quite interesting learning about the infrastructure of the church and it's accountability.  Very interesting stuff, indeed.

The service itself was very good as well.  I was glad, regardless of fatigue, that I went.

Today is Mark's birthday, so we all wished him Happy B-Day and also I cooked a ham dinner of which they partook.  Actually, pretty much the whole house partook of.  IN reality, I was attempting to teach Caleb how to cook a ham, which with pre-cooked hams is pretty easy stuff.  After the ham was cooked, I showed him how to slice and had him have a go at it.  After a while, the ham was getting lopsided so I took over.  Yes, he needs to learn, but I wanted my ham intact in it's cuttings and so, he has the basic idea.  I had him cook some garlic flavored instant potatoes that come in a pouch.  I was going to show him how to make home-made mashed potatoes, but my potatoes? Were bad.

Yesterday, I taught him how to make spaghetti.  We will be repeating that course before he leaves for the youth camp in the mountains.  He loves spaghetti and I want him to at least have the cooking of the noodles down pat.  That's the hardest part of cooking pasta, IMO, getting it right without overcooking it.  I also told him that if he cooked a ham, he would have lots of leftover and gave him mock examples of what he could do with it in frying it up for a ham and eggs breakfast; taking the ham-bone and making a navy bean soup out of it; taking slabs of ham and putting them into sandwiches; well really, you can do a lot with him and it lasts so long.

We are done with the cooking, I am waiting for everyone to get done with what they want and then cleanup, which I would usually have done by now but - people still wanting to eat.

____________________

Done with all of that.  I have some standards around this house and even with all these tenants? I demand a clean kitchen at all times.  Clean up immediately after you are done cooking. I apply that standard to myself - but I was living that standard long before tenants. Dirty kitchens - are dirty.  They don't feel comfortable, they look bad and it's just an atmosphere I choose not to live with.  But more importantly: dirty kitchens attract bugs.  You may get bugs anyway with a clean kitchen, but with a dirty kitchen?  You're going to get cockroaches sooner or later,  a plain, solid fact and it doesn't matter where you are at on this planet.

Umm, the point: it came to me as I was cleaning up that Caleb will be subjected to random inspections.  Even though he's in his "own" apartment, that apartment is owned by the Salvation Army and they will undoubtedly have a contract that has some sort of statement in there that states that they can come into his apartment at any time, without prior notice and do inspections without any reason any more than they want to.

I don't know much about the Salvation Army excepting the pre-cursory writings they have on their main page and nothing I have found yet addresses what to expect being in a "missionary" setting, but I felt without doubt that this is what can and will be subjected to.  So, we have time to address that.  A place for everything and everything in it's place.  A bathroom that is kept immaculately clean at all times regardless of what's going on, including if he has people over, which he will be required to do (I know this much coming from him) to feed 3 or 4 or however many others on a rotating basis.  I'm not the king of clean, but I definitely have a good idea about it.

I can only prepare him so much, the rest?  He's going to learn the easy, hard or "Wally Thorpe's School Of Hard Knocks" way.  Probably some lessons will be difficult, undoubtedly.  Some things will be extremely grating, I can tell you this from experience on the mission field and having had lived with multiple, dozens and dozens of other people in a community style setting.  But, I believe the Salvation Army to be a much more structured environment and at least some of the problems I dealt with won't exist with the SA just for the fact of a solid, functioning and strong leadership chain. This is very important in such settings and without it, you find yourself fending FOR yourself in many situations that shouldn't even be an issue.

Well whatever. The weekend is over, it's time for bed and I'm outta here.

ben

For reasons I simply am not going to go into, I was awake much of the night last night - and I paid for it at work today.  10-1/2 hours on very little sleep.  I was begging for the work day to end so I could come home and just sit down.  And stay seated for a while, lol.  If it weren't still daylight, I would go to bed right now.  But, it's not even 6pm , not a happening event.

A discussion with the ex-wife last night had me committing to paying for half of Caleb's airfare to Hawaii.  I wasn't necessarily even thinking about going along that route, but she was and wanted to know if I would do so.  Well, why not.  But, Caleb is going to have to get other people involved with raising money for his journey. He is going to do that, but I fear the procrastination factor.  You can't just wait.  He only has 3 months or so to come up with the $3,500 he has to pitch in to the Salvation Army for his portion of the expenses incurred in him being over there for a year.

The airfare is going to have to be bought and soon.  I have heard nothing but the fact that the prices will go up as summer gets into full tilt.

Step of faith, frankly, as the airfare at the price we are getting it at - $303 - is non-refundable, clearly states that on U.S. Airways site and well, we certainly hope this is a go.

Whatever the case, the weekend is here.  None too soon.  Put in for a week off the first week of June.  Can't wait - though that hasn't been confirmed yet, lol.  But I am taking a week off regardless.  If not the first week in June, then sometime in June and probably another week off in August.  No plans as of yet, but probably a trek up to the mountains for at least a couple of nights and then whatever else, who knows.  Maybe nothing else, just want to take time off from work, I need a break.  It starts getting old and redundant after a while and that's when you know you need some extended time off.  I start getting cranky with certain people at the main branch that don't DO - anything.  2 new hires I have watched sitting around doing absolutely NOTHING every time I go down there, which is quite frequently.  Yesterday, I was down there and saw one of them sitting at a computer doing some kind of training.

I asked if he would help me pull the orders.  No, he replied, he needed to do his training on inventory.  Well, I said, pulling orders is far more important than taking training on inventory, you can do that anytime.  He then went into a diatribe about what good is it to pull orders if there is no inventory to pull it from? Yada yada yada.  His boss sitting right there, I frankly and bluntly told him I wasn't going to argue with him about it and would do it myself as I always do down there and walked off, rather disgusted at the whole situation.

His boss, however, knows that I will say something to my manager who will then inform the operations manager.  We spend too much time down there pulling our own orders.  They have multiple people working the warehouse and much of the time they appear to be idle, doing nothing, wandering about aimlessly.  However, when you ask them to help you, they do nothing and make excuses about how busy they are.  If I am down there for 2 hours and I see them doing nothing the entire time, that excuse doesn't wash, which is exactly what happens just about every time I go down there.

Anyway, that guy offering me the diatribe on inventory was soon busy helping pull the multiple orders that I was pulling, by virtue of his boss informing him to get up off his ass and get the job done.  It is a stark contrast to the guy that used to be in his position - the man that was killed in a vehicle accident up north on I-40.  I didn't have to ask him to help me, he would always offer.

Started this entry yesterday, it is now Saturday morning and George has his surround sound going at full tilt, which is quite annoying this early in the morning and knowing other people are probably still trying to sleep.  I am going to ask the new tenant if it is bothering him and if it is, George is going to have to refrain from using that thing early mornings or late at night.

Whatever.  Not sure what I am going to do with today.  Maybe nothing.  Probably go outside and busy myself with landscape stuff, always plenty of that to do.

ben

Well I started getting a little more particular with the responses to my room ad.  I want someone mature, has a decent job or at least something that can pay their rent, have them eating and doing whatever they like to do without going around asking other tenants for help all the time.  Ridiculous.  You try to help someone out and they simply take advantage of you, or usually, of the other people in the house.  I find out about it after the fact as no-one wants to say anything to me because they know what I will: confront the person.

That dude I kicked out I asked him nicely when he moved in to please not ask Mark for cigarettes.  He doesn't have a lot of money and can't afford to support 2 people's worth of habits.  I find out the dude was bumming cigs from him all the time and Mark has a hard time telling people no (which is why I asked the guy to please not start asking - which was started when he asked if I had a cig when he first moved in [and flared the warning signs, but it was too late, he had already moved in]).

The guy that just moved in is 42 years old.  He is a manager in a company that is attempting to expand in this area.  He has a wife and 3 kids in Georgia.  He is being relocated here to manage this region.  He expects to move his family here in - the next year actually.  He paid 2 months rent in advance, he travels alot and doesn't know if he was going to be here on the first of next month or not and decided to pay in advance (though I am not anal about the first, if someone tells me they can't pay until the 3rd or 4th, whatever within reason, it doesn't bother me).   So there it is, a done deal for now anyway.

Fresh, other battles have begun.  Nothing major or particularly bad, some of it annoying, though.  Like the new truck that never comes - at work.  Supposed to be here 2 weeks ago, and then on the 29th and now who knows.  They keep calling and apologizing for how long it's taking.  Retarded. Give me a break. This is ALL that this particular company does and they are "behind in paperwork"?!!  What, did they suddenly realize that there was a pile of paperwork to be done on this particular vehicle? I just get very annoyed with incompetence.  They are being paid to do a job that is the only job they do and they can't get it right.  Whatever.  I'm driving around a hot truck and it's only 100 degrees now.  I don't have any say in it, cause' if I did, they would be getting earfuls from me.  Give a delivery date, you better keep it and if you don't, you need to give an updated delivery date.  Instead, they just keep giving excuses and don't know when the freaking thing is going to be handed over to us.

Next annoyance: Landscapers.  They are hired to trim the trees and hedges and use those gasoline-powered air blowers to clean the parking lot.  And they don't give a DAMN whether they cover your entire car with a coat of dust, leaves, rock particles and whatever else.  I came back to the shop today to find the lady that works out of another division but actually occupying one of our offices complaining about it.  She had just washed her car. My car was CLEAN.  NOT NOW.  That s*** they covered it with was still on there even after driving 75mph on the freeway. I will be calling that company's owner and having a discussion about it.  If it does not have a satisfactory ending, I will be discussing it with the property owner next time he comes in since he is the one paying for that "service", read: BS.

Enough. It's time for bed anyway.

ben

That was one of the shortest terms I have ever had a tenant in here: just less than a month.  THE shortest was the FIRST tenant, I think she lasted 9 days before I booted her out and all the ensuing chaos.  Anyway, he was in here yesterday with his girlfriend allegedly "moving out", but he didn't have that much stuff to begin with and they weren't walking out with anything, so the mind can only wander in to the area of what they might have been doing.

He stated he would be out by 9:00 pm last night.  Whether he was or wasn't, I dunno cause' I went to bed and found his room vacated with door open this morning, good riddance, don't let the door hit you on your way out and don't call me cause' I most definitely WON'T be calling you.

That's my way of saying goodbye to a person that has caused a lot of trouble.

Now the quest to find another roommate.  I was afraid that I might have trouble find another good person.  It's always a gamble.  They can put on a good face for you at the beginning and turn into a devil after they are moved in.  If they know their rights, they can make it difficult for you to get them out.  If they don't know their rights and they are starting trouble with everyone, you can just tell them to leave and see what happens.

It's funny how rentals go. I posted an ad last time and I had 15-20 replies in a couple of days.  I have had 2 ads up for a day and a half now with only 2 replies.  Well, whatever.  I need the money but I don't need a bad tenant.

All of this junk happening this week and here it is only Wednesday/Hump day.

I did have another ex-tenant call and ask if I had a room available last week. He calls from time to time wondering if I have a room.  I would not, however, give him one.  He did not and would not help clean up the bathroom and he was pretty messy in the kitchen.  He was always on time with his rent, though.  And we got along well besides those issues - but those issues are very important to me.  I don't like a dirty kitchen and I get a bit antsy with people that won't help keep the bathroom clean.

So, just going to keep posting ads until I find someone.

As for now..............time to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

Drama

One of the worst things to happen when renting out room is when drama starts happening.
You don't want to come home to a house full of people that are not liking it.
Yesterday? Unbelievable and one tenant gone in the aftermath.
Mark was missing a throttle handle to his bike and had found his wire brush broken in half.
He claimed that he had just had the throttle handle on top of his toolbox out there and that the wire brush was intact not 10 minutes earlier.

Enter the new tenant.  Mark asks him what happened to it, jumping right to the point and getting right at the start of it.
This goes on back and forth for a while, I said nothing.  I wasn't going to get involved with this situation unless it began to get hostile.
Well, this guy goes out front and then comes storming back in, he had "found" the handle.  He also left the gate wide open and the dogs went running right on out.

I'm just shaking my head in disbelief.  I went out and called Duke and Prince back - they will listen.  But Sophie?  I called her once and she completely ignored me.  Been done this road, not even worth chasing after her.  She's going to run around the neighborhood, get it out of her system and hopefully come back.  I'm also not very happy with the dude and we get into it.  Bypassing a lot, he goes into the house where George finally heard what was going on and now THEY get into it at the kitchen table.  I was getting upset with this dude so before I did anything stupid, I walked out front and started watering my plants, just get away from it, let the thing cool off and also wait out there for Sophie to come back.

It was about 15 minutes later she comes trotting down the street, sees me, I call her and she came right up to me.  For that I rewarded her for "good" behavior and figured at least if it happens again, there won't be a negative correlation with coming home and possibly getting reprimanded.  I put her in the back yard, I was waiting for Mark to get back, it's basically a futile thing to go chasing after a dog like that that is very agile and does not want to be caught.

While waiting, this dude comes out the other gate.  He didn't see me and I watched him cross the front yard and - yes - left THAT gate wide open.  Time for him to go.  That's all I could think.  I yelled at him this time: WHAT are you DOING?

This story goes on and on, but the end result?  After cross words exchanged, he is leaving as of today.

Well, another wonderful day at work facing me, no, the new truck didn't come in yesterday (as it was scheduled to) and here we go, off to the races!

G'day.

ben

The service at the Salvation Army yesterday was pretty cool.  I missed my church's service excepting to go to the first 45 minutes of worship, but I was amazed at the worship service the SA had, very anointed.  I took a video of Caleb and another person who was also going through the ceremony to become a Soldier.  I don't really know what becoming a soldier in the SA actually means in terms of what they expect of you, though there are commitments he made yesterday that were interesting.   

I was also given a complement by one of his friends, lol.  "You're dad's pretty buff".  Oh really?  Nice to hear from the younger generation.  Vanity I guess, but I'll take it, lol.

That was it.  I didn't go to the baptismal yesterday for our church, I was plain too tired, it was a later start time and I wanted to see Caleb when he came home.   I also was still obsessing about that stupid bird that keeps eating my fish, keeping an eye on the sky and the ponds, waiting to see if I could see it come flying over.  I have only seen it once, Mark has seen it several times now. 

Start of a fresh new week.  Same old thing at work.  Oh well. I kinda get tired of it after a while which is usually a good sign that it's time to take some serious time off of work and get away from that rat race for a while, get revitalized, do something different.  Or just stay home, doesn't really matter, the point is to get away from it for a while.  The new truck is supposed to be in this week, actually, today, but I am not holding my breath on that one, they keep changing the arrival date on it.  

The truck I am driving now, the AC doesn't work well enough to keep up with the heat and this week is going to be warmer.  So, that new truck needs to get here, like, soon, very very soon.  I cannot stand driving around hot trucks and we aren't going to dump more money into it to try and get it fixed.  We have already spent almost 4 grand trying to get the AC fixed on it - and that at the International dealership - they don't seem to have a clue and it's a waste of money and time.  So, crossing my fingers that the new truck will arrive and I won't have to put up with nonsense anymore.

I am thinking of asking for a week off in June and in fact will probably put in the paperwork for it today.  

Regardless, it's time to be off to work!

G'day.

ben

So, Caleb has shown a sudden interest in learning how to cook.  This started about a month ago.  I finally heard why he is so interested in such last night:  His missionary stint to the Salvation Army will include him having to cook for himself.  He mostly has not cooked much of anything in his lifetime, relying on frozen dinners and whatever I cook or his mother cooks.

So, it's good to see that he will have to fend for himself in that arena.  Today, he will learn how to cook and glaze a ham - pretty easy stuff - and how to make mashed potatoes out of real potatoes (versus instant potatoes) and that should do it.  Well, throw in a vegetable or 2 of course.

Anyway, this will be a busy day. Start off with the worship service at my church, but then leave early to go to Caleb's church to see him promoted to a Solider within the Salvation Army, a necessary move for him to be able to go to Hawaii later this year as a missionary.  After that, our church is going to do baptisms at one of the congregant's homes in Gilbert so if there is time, I am going to travel over there and hopefully help pray in these individuals that need to get baptized.

I was baptized in lake Mead long ago so I don't feel the need to do that again.

For that, I am going to have to get off of the internet, go clean a pond filter, take a shower and get out of here.

Happy Sunday (or Monday to those living on the other side of the world, lol).

ben

It's all out war.  This war consists of having had placed an online order for a very realistic, cool-looking Great Blue Heron and also having had bought shade fabric to put around the ground installed pond to keep the Heron from wading in.

Frankly, if it were legal, I would just take the thing out with my pellet rifle.  It has a scope on it and it is very accurate.  I could take that bird out with one shot from that thing.  It isn't some play toy, it is a very powerful, air-driven rifle that looks like a real rifle.  Wood stock and almost 3 feet long.  The only way you can tell it's not a real rifle is the size of the barrel.  It is obvious after a closer look at it that it's not a large enough diameter to have any bullets going through it.

But I will have to dismiss that thought as I am sure if I did shoot the thing down, neighbors would be calling the police and I would probably get arrested.  Not worth it, especially considering there are other ways to deal with this thing.  I don't really want to go around shooting birds, anyway, it just pisses me off that this thing has taken to roosting in the pine tree directly behind my house which partially comes over my property and then feels free to eat my fish.

I went out and looked this morning, there are a LARGE number of fish missing out of that pond.  My only real luck is that the thing hasn't gotten any of my prized Koi, the ones I really like including the big butterfly Koi.  I can accept the loss of those other fish, but I would be completely infuriated right now if one of those 4 were gone.  So, in a few minutes, going to go out there and get this done.  I should take long since I already have posts cemented into the ground around the pond as I installed a shade cover over it a few years ago to keep some of the intense sun off of it and heating up the water too much.

_________________________________
Phase 1 completed.  The screening is now installed and should be enough in itself to stop any of them from entering.  I am now going to reinforce it.  I wish I had a camera to run over there!  My Heron decoy/lawn decor will be here in about a week.  Between the 2, hopefully the bird will be stopped/deterred from doing any more damage.

Further inquiry into the internet has Herons not liking big dogs - I have huge dogs but they won't like me making them stay over there.  Fishing line.  Apparently trips them up, but I have read that it has limited success. Scarecrow.  A motion activated water sprayer that some swear by and others say don't work as the Heron will get used to it and won't care about water spraying on them (and also a bit on the expensive side).

I also read that they can just stand at the side of a pond, even an elevated one (the above ground pond is about 30 inches tall) and just wait for fish to come close enough for it to stab one.  Okay.  I have an answer for that but it's going to take a while.  My Yerba Mansa has about half of the pond covered on the sides.  There is no way a Heron can fish through that mass of plant sitting there.  But the other half of the pond doesn't have any of it and so - at least start the thing towards growing over there so the bird cannot access it at all.  Not to mention it looks nice having that plant growing like that.

Both ponds now fully protected - I hope.  Stood out there until the sun went down and did not see it come back to the tree.  I don't think birds wait until after dark to be coming "home", so not sure what's going on with it.  What I do know is that the blooming thing knows where my ponds are and it will be back, especially after getting as many free - and easy pickings - meals as it has gotten.

You think I am obsessing about this.  Yep, I am.  Those fish are worth a lot of money.  Koi are not cheap fish.  I spent a lot of time going around to homes where they were shutting down the ponds and either giving the fish away or selling them cheap.  All over the Phoenix metro area and even a trip to the town of Maricopa.  Once I acquired enough fish, I stopped.  I can buy more small Koi from Petsmart, but I still  have plenty of fish in both ponds so prolly not going to do that unless I want to get another Butterfly Koi - they are selling them now and they are such beautiful Koi fish.

I am definitely going to replace the fancy goldfish - don't remember it's name - I can get a couple at Petsmart -  small ones - for like 5 a piece.  It will be years before they are as big as the one that was eaten and found on the ground the other day - which is what sent me into all of this frenzy of shoring up my ponds and keeping that thing out of there.

Heron Back In Full Force

I was pretty sure it was a Heron that had left a half a dead fish body laying on the ground, but now it's completely and totally confirmed.

In fact, the news isn't good at all.

Mark came up to me a few minutes ago and said he was outside, smoking a cigarette and saw a "giant bird" chasing after a smaller one, forcing the smaller one out of the tree.  The tree is a pine tree - 60 or 70 feet tall I guess.  This is what's happening to my Koi and goldfish.  It is NOT going to continue. This is guaranteed. I am not going to lose 2 entire ponds full of Koi and goldfish to some bird that thinks my ponds are the local Burger King or Jack In The Box.  SCREW THAT.

My first plan of attack will be to put netting or thick screen over the entire exposed pond.  It's going to be a pain, to say the least, to deal with this but deal with it I must.  I would actually love to be able to put a camera on those ponds and record whatever's happening for a couple of days and look over the recording to find out what time the bird is there.  This is important, because Herons have a routine.  They go to the same ponds, every day.  They add to that routine whenever they find a new pond or whatever body of water that has available fish in it.

Whatever the case, if I can get the above ground pond covered with netting and the in-ground pond that already has poles cemented in the ground also surrounded, this should stop the problem temporarily until I can figure something else out.  I cannot believe that freaking thing has decided to take a home in a tree that is partially over my property.  If it were on my property, I would scale that tree and deal with that thing once and for all. I was reading that there is probably a nest up there as well, something I would discard of immediately.

I'm gonna have to get off of that subject.  It's getting late - after 10 - I went to church and the prayer meeting and yes, it went on for a while.  It was great, though. The pall that was over the church on Sunday was gone tonight.  The word I sent to the pastor at the behest of a strong willed lady in the church who declared I should give the word IN the service and what kind of impact it would have instead of writing it out.

Freaking herons. Go to a public pond and eat all the stocked fish you want.

Oh, well she told me that tonight as well. Not in a haughty way or anything like that, just an exhortation.

If I get something clear at the next service, I am going to deliver it.  Whatever happens, I will get up, go the front, grab the microphone and speak it out.  I need to get my feet wet again.  I just don't want to say something that isn't from the Lord.

Time for bed.

ben

Well, more drama.  I go into one of my email accounts - I have several - and find an email from my dad that he wrote this morning.  He had sent it out to most of his extended family.  His "wife" kicked him out yet again.  He was an emotional wreck and he had to find a new place, allegedly and he was writing about all of the problems he is going to have in attempting to deal with it.  Then, I find another email he wrote this afternoon, saying that his wife was waiting for him at the door with open arms.

Look, this kind of drama I don't need.  If he wants to stay with a woman that repeatedly kicks him out and tells him to find a new place to live, then that is his problem.  If it were me, I would be a goner, buh-bye, I won't be seeing ya later; don't call me and I most certainly won't be calling you.  But, that's not the way my dad is.  I still can't understand why he wants to stay with a chick that apparently needs bi-polar medication or mood-swing therapy, I dunno.  Last time I got that same kind of email from him, I immediately wrote him and told him I would help in whatever way I could.  I guess I would have this time, but only after  waiting at least 24 hours to see if this situation had ironed itself out again.

Whatever.  I came home today to find the stove top covered with food and goo yet again.  I am assuming this is the new tenant's doings, because I haven't had this problem up until now.  Laughable at best to think this guy stated that he is cleaner than Mark - Mark is a clean freak and obsesses about cleaning things to the point of taking things apart to clean them.  No-one else in the entire house including me is "cleaner" than Mark.  I consider leaving the stop top covered with that kind of s*** to be the workings of a slob and the issue is being addressed by a notice on top of the stove.  If that doesn't work, then a face-to-face confrontation will occur because I can't stand having a dirty kitchen.  I want it clean and I want it kept clean.

Went up to Globe again today.  We sell pipe and fittings to store that sells the stuff up there.  We don't go up that often, but I like the drive.  Today, the guys wanted me to "take it up the hill". The store is already up on top of a hill - about a 15% grade to get up to it.  This other hill is behind the store and is extremely steep.  45 degree angle anyway.  Well, I got it up there but it was so tight, getting back out proved to be the biggest backing challenge I have had in a while.  So much so that I had to do a pull up after realizing I hadn't cut quite enough and the truck? Stuck on this hill. It lost traction even with inter-axle lock.  Sure, I could have kept going backwards, but I would have ended up taking out a fence and going into a ditch.

Had to have them pull me out with a chain.  But, no biggies.  Not the first time I have gotten that truck stuck - some construction sites pose problems with differing situations that can make a truck sink in mud or get stuck in deep and loose rock.  It isn't the end of the world and I consider  part of the job description.

Work week over.  I am still planning on hitting the church prayer meeting tonight, which starts in an hour and 45 minutes.  That is, of course, if I'm awake enough by then to be able to fully engage myself in such.  Well, I think I"m going to take a nap because I'm tired as it is.  If I can't wake myself up enough for the meeting, I just plain won't go.

ben

So it's Friday already, a very busy week almost behind me.

Between working 12 hour days and having to call my car insurance company - a dozen times at least - and calling Century Link to fix the freaking internet - which it is still messing up - I'll be glad when today's work day is over.  Oh and let's not forget whatever creature came and ate half of one of my fish out of one of my ponds.............

The insurance situation was simply the desire to have my windshield replaced on my car using my windshield insurance with no deductible.  It started with a lady on the phone who was asking endless questions, which I guess they all do, but after 15 minutes of this, she THEN stated that "okay, let's get started, this is going to take a while".  ???  What do you mean?  Well it's about a 30 minute "investigation".  But I just answered questions for 15 minutes.  Yes, that was the preliminary investigation.

Unbelievable.  I have had windshields replaced with insurance companies where you simply call them, tell them you want it replaced, 5 minutes later you're done, off the phone and scheduling a company to come out and replace it.  Not here.  We got "started" on this next "phase" and went on for another 10 minutes before she asked about previous accidents.  Yes, I was in one about 3-1/2 years ago with this car, minor bumper damage.

NOW, this woman wants to go into a lengthy discussion about an accident that occurred years ago and most assuredly had absolutely NOTHING to do with THIS claim. I asked to speak to her manager as I was sick of this s***.  She said no, company policy you can't speak to a manager.  That's when I knew things were going to turn ugly.  Company POLICY that I can't speak to a manager?  This went on for a while, I wasn't budging, she switched me over to a claims adjuster.  This guy was a real piece of work.  I asked this dude about the ethics of an employee that would tell me it's a "policy" not to be able to speak to a manager?  He didn't want to talk about that, told me he wasn't in customer service and eventually hung up on me.

I called back and talked to another lady who was very sweet, looked over my policy and informed me that everything was done, all I needed to do was to get a glass company and have them fax over their information.  This after the guy that hung up on me told me that I was "refusing to cooperate" and that this investigation would have to be completed  to get my windshield - and then hanging up.

Well, the glass company called them the next day and someone informed this guy that I had been "uncooperative" and that I had not completed the investigation.  He calls me to inform me of their statement.

I called back several times, getting the runaround.  I was attempting to find a way to call their corporate headquarters, but even Hoovers only had their 800 number listed.  Yesterday morning, I hunkered down, steeled myself and got on the phone.  One refusal after another.  The final adjuster I was talking to absolutely refused to connect me with a manager.  He repeatedly asked my why I needed to speak to one and I repeatedly told him why.  Apparently not good enough for him.  I finally just stated that if he did not connect me to a manager, I was going to call corporate (though I had no idea how, I guess do an extensive search on the internet) and have this phone call reviewed.  He still refused and I just started repeating "management please" after every time he repeated himself.

This finally got me connected to some other department, who connected me with another department and I finally got a lady on the phone who said, well, okay, let me get you a manager.  FINALLY!  Another woman got on the phone and yes, this was, after an hour of trying to get to that point, a manager.

I told her the entire story from front to end.  She was aghast at some of the statements some of the people had told me, including Ryan, the adjuster who had absolutely refused to get me a manager or the first lady that also refused, or the second person, or anyone after that excepting the final person.  She checked into it and said well, you are already good for the windshield.  No, ma'am, I am not.  The glass company called and someone told him that I had to call back.  This story unraveled and finally?  Yes, she was telling me how she was going to be contacting the managers over all of these people that had told me all of this BS and that they would deal with these individuals accordingly.

A certain feeling of satisfaction started creeping in.  These people all thought they were immune to any form of disciplinary action.  I asked that she ask those managers to review every single phone call.  ALL of those calls are recorded, they each explicitly state that before you even start talking to any of them.

So, relief hitting, I have a new windshield to be installed today while I am at work.

As for the internet, it comes on and off, I have no idea and neither did Century Link.

As for the pond, I don't know if this a daily, recurring theme or what, but I am going to have to figure something out.  Whatever (Heron?) ate that fish, that fish was about a $40 fish.  I got it when it was small and it had grown very large. It's a fancy type of goldfish and I saw them listed for almost $40 at Pet Smart the other day and those fish were smaller than mine.  Goldfish are cheap to replace - just buy another small one and eventually it will be a big one - but the large Koi?

Well, almost time to leave for work.  I have been neglectful of my journal but what can I say.  I have been too tired to do much of anything but come home from work, sit down, browse the internet for a while and then - go to sleep.

Church prayer meeting tonight, I am hopeful I can muster the energy to go to it, it should be good, very good.

G'day.

ben

I've read a number of articles about helicopter parents.  These are folks that would rather do everything for their child instead of letting them learn - and probably making a lot of mistakes in the process - of how to do things for themselves.  It has been interesting to finally read some articles about studies that show that this kind of parenting actually harms a child versus helping them learn much of anything on their own in life.

I must admit, with my son, that teaching him how to cook has not been high on my list of priorities in life.  I just have never had the patience.  It's easier for me to whip something up and serve it to him than to have to go through all that process to teach him how to cook.  My ex-wife, apparently, the same way.

I say that because he has finally taken it upon himself that in order to be able to make it on his own? Cooking is a big part of that.  Sure, you can do microwave junk and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; cereal with milk, but is that going to cut it for the rest of your life?  So yesterday, he determined he was going to cook his own dinner.  I was amused by that idea, but I didn't show it.  I wondered how he would do on his own without any supervision?  But I was all for it, don't get me wrong.

So, while I was outside working on the various - numerous - parts of the yard that need attention - he went to the store.  He came back some 30 minutes later with a bag of brown rice and a package of beef stew meat.  This is ground round or something similar that has been cut into small portions that are apparently the butcher's idea of pre-cut, pre-packaged stew meat.  Okay.  He didn't know any better and I didn't even try to correct him, just figured we would see where this goes.

Well I was on the phone with my mother when he came back home and he informed me he wasn't going to do this without at least my supervision on the project.  Okay, I can do that, but I am not going to do the work.  He's going to do all of it.  I had no clue what to do with stew meat? Except put it into a stew?  But he was hungry, so improvisation was the necessity of the minute.

I went inside and decided that he was going to cook that rice first.  This was NOT instant rice, this is the long cooking term stuff.  So he got that on the stove - after I corrected him a few times on not following the instructions on the package. After about 30 minutes, we got started on the stew meat.  I decided that frying it in a cast iron skillet with some olive oil would probably turn out okay if it had some kind of something on top of it - so I got out a packet of fat-free beef gravy.  I had him do the "work". This was a pretty simple dish.  Nothing too extravagant here.

He got the oil in there - put too much in so I just hinted next time about half of what he had in there would suffice - got the burner on and then we waited.  After it was nice and hot, I had him dump the stew meat in there and stir it around a bit, get it frying nicely.  I then pulled out some spices and showed him how to spice meat without going overboard.  His attempt? Definitely overboard but I stopped him before it was going to get overwhelming and then showed him my version of wrist action to get the spice out all over everything without over-spicing it.

While that was going on, I had him read the instructions on the gravy packet.  Very simple, but many people don't seem to get that you must mix it with COLD water or it's going to lump up and it's not going to turn out very well.  So I sort of re-iterated that a few times: cold water and whisk thoroughly until it's all absorbed into the water.

I kept on top of him - in a non-intrusive way - about keeping an eye on the meat.  Don't want to over cook it and need to keep it moving around since it's frying at a high temperature.  I figured the best way to show him how to see if beef is cooked to  his liking or not is to simply cut into a piece of it.  So that's what I did.  Not quite cooked enough, I said, but if you overcook it, it's going to be tough and not very appetizing.  So while he was stirring the gravy, I also had him looking at the meat.

Meat done, gravy done, off the burners. We got the rice off - it was just at the point that it was going to be overcooked - I am slowly getting the hang of cooking whole rice, I was never a big fan of it, instant rice turns out perfect every time, lol, but my son was into the idea of how cheap the bag of regular rice was.  79 cents. Instant rice is definitely not that cheap.  But it was still good.

He got the plate filled with beef and rice and poured the gravy over it?  And ate the entire plate. He proclaimed how good it was and yes, it was rather tasty.  I had never even bought this pre-cut beef before, much less attempted to make a quick dish out of it, so I was rather pleased at how well it turned out.  Of cousre, gravy can cover a multitude of sins, yet, the beef was cooked to perfection - it was not over-cooked and still red on the inside of each, small cut, the way we wanted it.  You want brown beef all the way through?  I only want that on a hamburger and even a slightly red hamburger doesn't bother me at all.  In fact, I used to eat raw hamburger meat. That was long ago before all the scare about stuff you can get out of eating it like that.  I never got sick off of it.  I loved the taste of it.  I know, gross to most people, I just loved it and can still eat it raw, but with the sickness risk factor, I don't do it anymore.

Mission accomplished.  End result - good.  My intervention - minimal.

Another thing they were saying about helicopter parenting was the amount of offspring still living at home. But they were including 18 year old kids and up.  Uhhh, really?  Many kids don't get out of high school until after they turn 18.  You can thrust them into college after that, I suppose, but that's not the only path to go and in this day and age, there are a lot of people walking around with freshly-acquired bachelor's and other degrees that cannot find a job in the field of study that they accomplished in college and are as low as minimum wage workers because that's the only jobs around.  Further, because of that, they are living at home with parents because the cannot afford to live on their own.  I didn't necessarily agree with those findings.  I don't think a 30 year old should still be living at home, prolly not, but a teenaged adult a different story.  My son is almost 20 and he is finding his own way and soon will be out of the house.  I am not forcing him out, I have only been standing behind the idea that he needs to find his own way, preferably through the Lord - and that is exactly what he is doing.  I am very proud of his course of action for life - following after the Lord - and I could care less what some worldly study's findings tell me that should be his reality.  Perhaps those people that came up with this study haven't been out looking for a job lately..............

I do tend to read a lot of stuff on the internet.  I do not tend to give all of it credence but I do like to read numerous different articles about the same subject, just to see if there is a consensus.  Even then, I still may not agree with it.  Just because several people have the same viewpoint does not, in my view, necessarily make them right.

Whatever the case, my 3 day weekend is now almost over.  Another 5 day work-week en-queue.  Not necessarily looking forward to it.  I need some extended time off and I think I am going to ask for it coming next month or if I think I can last that long, June at the latest (great month to take some time off considering the miserable heat that June provides us).  Actually I will have to take a day off next month as well because I will be at the edge of my maximum accrual hours for vacation once again,.  I have 3 and a half weeks of paid vacation leave available to me at this point.  I wanted to let it accrue until it was full for a variety of reasons, not the least of which to be able to take at least a week off during the 3 hottest summer months, but probably more like 2 weeks  off - maybe one in June and another in August.  That's 80 hours of vacation time taken while still leaves 60 plus the accruals during that period, adding up to 90 total left over.  This is what happened after I entered my 7th year of service at my company - I went from accruing 6 plus hours per month towards vacation to over 10 hours per month.  It's quite a large difference in the long run.

Enough. Time to wind down and get ready for bed.

ben

Finally got myself to go back to a casino.  Haven't been in  - a couple of years I think.  I have been playing the free, online version through MyVegas for a while now and decided to go an see what happens.

First table: 2 guys that had no clue what they were doing.  Didn't sit there long.  Second table, would have had the table to myself but a guy showed up as I was placing a bet.  I sat there for a while - it was up and down.  I decided that table wasn't working and went to another one - which wasn't working at ALL.  I ventured over to the other side of the building to their other blackjack tables.

2 guys at the table I sat down at.  One got up and left - making bad decisions on hands - and that's when I made the comeback.  Nothing grand.  But there was one hand that was very interesting.  I was dealt a pair of Aces.  I split.  I get another Ace.  Split again. I get another Ace and yes, split again! 4 hands running now.  You only get one card per hand when splitting aces.  I got a 10 on 2 of them and a 2 and a 3 on the other.  2 21's and 2 bad hands but if I win the 2 21 hands then it will offset the other 2 and it will ultimately be a push.

Didn't happen.  Instead, the dealer busted! Woohoo! I had my money back and I left shortly after that.  Just wanted to venture into it once to see if I could still hack it.

That's it.  I'm not going back to that one.  I will try a different one eventually, but - not today lol.  

I slept in this morning having had the day off - and went to bed early last night.  I got up and cleaned out the dirty pond's filter again.  It had gotten filthy in a short period of time.  Going to keep doing that until that water is clear and clean.  Probably every other day or every 2 days.

_______________________

Long interlude.  Went to Fry's.  They have almost completely relocated everything in the store.  I know (knew) where everything is.  Now I can't find anything.  I mean, they have relocated everything from one place to another, most of it to completely different aisles.  I mean, people are walking back and forth along the main aisles looking down the shelf aisles looking for the things they used to know the location of.

I asked, yes I did.  Shrugging shoulders from management and employees: Whose bright idea was THIS?!!
A new front end manager.  Dunno him, talks to me with tones of authority and as if he had been working at that store forever.  He's brand new there, I simply told him what I thought of his attitude, directly, to his face.  When I got home, I called Fry's corporate.  Blah Blah Blahhhhh.  They said they would have someone contact me.  I distinctly stated I wanted to speak to someone in corporate, not the store's general manager.  Who calls?

The store's general manager. That conversation went on for less than 60 seconds.  I called Fry's back.  Not a happening event.  Next call was from the district manager.  I decided to let it ride at that point.  A long, involved conversation.  Her pathetic points - handed down to her from Kroger's Corporate - were lame and my responses had her grasping for something to say other than you're right, or yes, or I completely agree.  Kroger's decided to do panels with people in study groups to determine what the best layout of a store was. I wondered if, during those panels, the following or something similar to it might have been brought up: If this was to be implement at YOUR favorite grocery store and it meant that, over the course of less than a week, the entire store was going to be changed around to the point that NOTHING would be anywhere CLOSE to where it was before and you had to, in effect, learn an entirely new store, would you want those kind of changes? I am guessing it was not.

The point, presumably, is to change it around for "psychological" purposes, ie: the things that if a person sees, is more likely to want to buy, according to even more group studies and testing.  None of that kind of thing does anything for me.  I completely ignore all or most of that stuff going into a store - they already had junk like that out there - and go for what I went in there for.

Do you know how long it takes to learn where everything is at in a giant grocery store?  I'm sure many people do.  Once you learn all of that, you certainly don't want to walk in there one day and find the ENTIRE store has been completely moved around.  Further, the employees can't find anything, either!
I was using logic with the District Manager, was her label.  Umm, ma'am, if your own employees can't find anything - that work there in 8 hour shifts or whatever, how long, do you suppose, it's going to take a customer coming in 3 to 5 times a week spending 20 or less minutes in there?  I don't have the time or the desire to go walking down every freaking aisle every time I go in there!

Need not go into this further.  End of story? I'll take a list in there next time, hand it to someone - anyone - if they refuse I'll just be calling this manager back.  Why?  They could have done this smarter.  If they were insistent on doing this, they could have phased this in over time instead of completely changing the entire store all at once.   But, I guess that doesn't make sense if they were combining things from several aisles into one.  Right?

Done.