My vacation

Modern-day lingo calls it a staycation.

I spent it re-organizing and re-invigorating ideas on some changes both inside and outside of the house.

I won't go into the outside things, that's something I'm still contemplating and attempting to define what I want to do with, only considering the east side of the house where the ponds are.

My concentration of energy was in my bedroom and more, in the bathroom. I have, over time, been attempting to find pictures to put up on the walls in there and as I find them, I put them up. Just going to keep looking and hoping to find a good deal on something that appeals to me - which the focus is on the Great Outdoors.

Meanwhile, I am still coming to terms with the fact that my son is going to be gone for 2 months, back for less than a month and then gone for an entire year - and after that who knows what's happening.  I thought about the trip up to the camp on Sunday to take him up there and got this feeling that I better make it a "quality-time" event with him, because after that?

Waxing sentimental and emotional. Daddy isn't losing his son forever, but he is going to have to wish him well as he goes on life's adventures, to put it in third-party terminology.  He's a great kid and God has great plans for his life and I cannot interfere with that and wouldn't even try.  It's just a final letting-go thing that I haven't gone through yet and already I'm feeling it. From the point of delivering him to the camp and after he gets back and going to the airport to leave for Hawaii, I won't be seeing him much anymore and that?  A hard thing to grapple.  It's a point in life I have no experience with and the thought of it brings tears to my eyes.

Okay, I can't really write about this anymore and it's my bedtime.

ben

Goodbye CenturyLink DSL, Hello Cox Cable High Speed Internet

I found the company on Craigslist that I was searching for in the past for hooking up to Cox Internet.  It's a 6 month offer for less than half the price of Cox's regular pricing for that tier of service, plus free, professional installation.  I have had more than enough of CenturyLink's rude, offensive and obnoxious attitudes towards customers.  The only individual that I have really connected with in that company is the local field tech supervisor who hasn't played the denigration game at all.

But after having yet another conversation with CenturyLink management this morning - with this lady repeatedly interrupting me and talking to me in condescending tones, just enough is enough. As I have stated before, it's time to find out whether the grass is any greener (and even if it's partly browned, it will be vastly better than the blackened grass on Century Link's side)  on the other side of the fence. I have been a CenturyLink customer since they started here, buying out Qwest, of whom I was a customer since - well since Ma Bell, unless there was another one before that that I am just not remember, of which I would have been a customer as well.

That's a pretty long-time relationship to be ending with a company.  But so it is.  I am getting such pathetic, low speeds on my internet now that coupled with CenturyLink never-ending attitude that's just time to cut the cord.  The service cuts out frequently, it goes down to as low as 2,500 mbps (megabytes per second) - which is really slow when you are talking "high speed internet" - I have had them out here 4 times in the last 2 weeks and this problem is obviously not going to be fixed.

So, they were going to send someone out Sunday - but I am not going to be here Sunday afternoon in taking Caleb up to the mountain youth camp with Salvation Army and I definitely want to be here for the installation.  See how much I can get away with, ie: having the cable installed underneath the house coming up through the wall.  They may not be interested in doing that, but I am going to ask anyway.  If not, I can have it installed the same way it currently is, which is from underneath the house through an existing portal going up to one of my kitchen counters.  The different would be that a hole would have to be made in the drywall and line run up to it for the outlet I would like to have.
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A LONG time passed.  Lol.  Not going into the rest of today, cause' it's now my bedtime, interesting stuff, though, at least for me : )

First off, I finally figured out the digital thermostat.  That thing has been driving me crazy.  It shows a "target" temperature of 77 - or whatever you want to set it at, really, that's what I have it at. It will not turn on until it hits 79 degrees. It will not go off until it hits 75 degrees.  Freaking ridiculous.  The manufacturer's instructions were faulty. THAT is what the problem was and that's why it took me so long to figure it out.  It has a SWING option - and it was set at a 2 degree swing.  Up to 79, down to 75.  So, the thing sits there not doing anything until it gets to 79 degrees and then has to bring the temperature all the way down to 75.  That takes quite a while.  Once I figured out how to set the swing temperature - NOTHING like what the instructions say to do - I got it down to .25 change to start up.  That's what I want: cycle on and off at a constant range, not have a 4 degree change in temperature.  Enough of that, just one more thing I finally figured out.

So, I'm outside spending quality time with Century Link employees - nice people actually once you get them to start talking - I am not an ogre with these people, especially the people that show up to my property - and my son calls.

I'm now over by the ponds.  I like my ponds.  They are a place to contemplate,  have some peace, not have to deal with "things" in the house.

Whatever the case, we get to talking.  After all that stuff, I ask him what's up.  I mean, he doesn't really call me unless he needs something.  He wants a ride up to Heber on Sunday, to be there around 4:00 pm. I had to think about that for a minute.  Sunday, the final day of my vacation, facing getting up at 4:30 am, needing to go to bed early.

I can get home in about 2 hours 15 minutes or so.  Maybe a bit longer, just coming to a guesstimate.  I can get to my mom's property in about 1 hour 45 minutes and that's about a half hour to 45 minutes away from the camp, I think anyway if I remember correctly.

Well what am I going to do, tell my son no?  Lol.  I can be home early enough to get to bed early.  So yeah, I agreed to that and unless he ends up taking another ride up there, that's going to be Sunday.

Centurylink.  They were out here for almost 2 and a half hours.  A field tech, a supervisor and the dude that dissed me this morning at a remote location.  They check the interface - for a long time.  Then they move to the pedestal and then tell me that the pair was bad and they were changing it.  Everything they were doing required long testing periods.  Which I could have cared less, test all you want and then, fix it.

They did all of that - which ate up a lot of time and then came into the house.  I fired up both computers and still showed slow speeds.  So, they wanted to replace the line from my outlet to the modem. Be my guest.  That didn't change anything.  Then, they wanted to give me yet another router, that after they changed the type of service I was on.  I mean, this was endless changes.  Okay, a new, more updated router. Wasn't that what they gave me last week?  No, was the response, I was hooked up to an older system - ATMDSL - and now I am hooked up to "pure" DSL. I could only envision an ATM machine taking money and giving nothing back.

The explanation of ATMDSL was not sufficient enough for me to envision what it was, the guy was far too generalized about it.  It goes through "more routes to get where it's going". Whatever.  No biggies.

So, we get ALL of this done and after my computers still showing slow speeds, they get their OWN computer.  Yup. Slow but it has improved enough to meet their 20% standard.  20% slower than what I am paying for.  That was good enough for them and they were gone.

I'm pretty fried about it.  It's time to start looking on Craigslist and find a cable modem/router and get switched over.

Wednesday. Halfway point in my vacation.  Nothing exciting, really, just taking it easy.  I was going to go up north today, but that plan was yet hampered again by Centurylink and their apparent inability to diagnose a problem.  After a long and rather intense discussion with a manager yesterday, I was promised a high level tech and a supervisor to come out and find out what the problem is at 11:00 am.

I am not going to go into the details of that conversation, it would just take too long and it was such a crock of crap.  No-one in that company takes responsibility for anything,.  Such as the promise that I was going to have a 2cd tier tech come out yesterday morning, which did not happen.  I was just another tech who couldn't figure out what the problem was.

This manager yesterday could have cared less what was promised.  She just blew it off, but I kept bringing it up until she was forced to at least comment on a co-manager's statement that the problem would "finally" be taken care of.

Anyway, this guy calls me - Mike is his name - telling me he is here to fix the problem.  Great.  Are you a higher level tech?  I asked this time because no use wasting my time yet again with a person that isn't going to be able to figure out what's going on.  He doesn't answer the question.  He states again he is here to fix the problem. Great, I replied, are you a higher level technician?  Uhhh, just call me that, okay?  What kind of reply is that?  I asked him again: either you are or you aren't.  I have had numerous techs out here that couldn't fix the problem, you either are or aren't.

He then started in on this spiel asking me if he wanted to start a confrontation or did I want the service fixed. Wow.  Okay, let's see where this goes.  No, I asked you if you were a higher level tech, legitimate question especially with all the problems I've had here.  Well are you going to be contentious - yada yada yada.  How do you equate my asking you a simple question with being contentious?  The tone you answered the phone with (???) and the attitude you have with me now.

Attitude? I think the person that has the attitude here is you.  I have said nothing to you to start this kind of exchange, I asked you a legitimate, simple question.  Well, he replies, I heard you abusively treated a technician that came out here and started trouble on the phone with customer service, I am here to fix your problem, either you do or you don't.

Unbelievably appalling.  I have NEVER abused any technicians that have come out here save the person yesterday from Cox that changed their story 3 times and I finally got fed up with it.  I didn't get abusive, either, I just called him out on all 3 different version of his story and informed him in a very blunt manner that they were NOT going to be drilling a hole in the front of my house since there were legitimate, viable alternatives and that was that.  Those 2 individuals were from COX, not Century Link. I have never had a negative exchange with Century Link techs coming out here, I don't want to do that, it would serve no useful purpose.

I have gotten into it with Century Link managers because of their constant interrupting me and cutting me off in the middle of a sentence, a thing I don't take too well, especially from a company I am paying my hard-earned money to for their so-called "services".  Hey, Mike, what's your supervisor's phone number?  He started back-pedaling then, but it was too late. This guy is NOT coming onto my property.  If he can start such s*** on the phone, what on earth is going to happen when he comes into my house?!!

He hangs up on me, then calls me back 5 minutes later and gives me the number.  Okay? He states, as if he is going to end the call. Umm, no, Mike, actually, you can stay on the line while I call your supervisor.  I wanted Mike to here the entire phone call.  I called his supervisor and explained, verbatim, the exchange between Mike and I and then I hung up on Mike.  I explained to his supervisor that I would be happy to sit down with all 3 of us if Mike decided to offer a different story and I would happy to look Mike square in the eye while I give my recounting of what he said to me.  His supervisor  said no, let me deal with that, thanks.  Yes, I didn't expect him to take me up on the offer, just attempting to solidify my standing on the recounting of Mike's words to me on the phone.  Mike should have just answered my question and then he would have already been in here and hopefully done.

Instead, this supervisor and another allegedly experienced tech are coming out here to find the problem in about an hour from now.  I made a lot of phone calls before I finally was given an 800 number for a customer care center in Century Link.  I'm going to post it in it's own entry on here so as to have it handy.  I can always Google it, lol.  Umnm, posted it before posting this entry : )

As for Cox - well besides everything else yesterday, they left my yard in a shambles.  I mean, dumping river rock - must have been underground when they dug out the trench - on top of my landscaping rock.  It will take some time to pick, piece by piece, those rocks out of there and they did NOT install the line inside of conduit, as not only their own company's guidelines require, but also the city of Phoenix regulations.

I may address that situation, well I probably will after the altercation yesterday between those 2 "against" George and I.  I want to get this CenturyLink crap dealt with first.

I must be offa here.  Gotta go out and check some more things with the Cox setup.

ben

CenturyLink's Customer Care 800 Number

If you have been having problems with CenturyLink's service - or usually lack of service - have been treated poorly on the phone by their incoming call associates and have not been able to get your situation resolved, then this is the department/division/whatever they call it within their company to call.  I am a CenturyLink customer, I would only ask that you try all other options before calling this number. But, I can ascribe that after months of having technicians coming out to "fix" the problem with my internet service - and it never getting fixed - and having Centurylink management promising me that they would once-and-for-all get the problem fixed - which it wasn't on any of those occasions - I can totally understand anyone else's desire to escalate the urgency of the situation and get with someone who can actually do something about it.

Here's the number:
800-238-3095

Good luck!

Between Cox Cable and Centurylink today, I became extremely agitated.

Centurylink sent out a person that is NOT the 2cd tier person they said they were going to send out.  Just another technician who couldn't figure out what was going on.  He comes in after his "investigation" and tells me that there is nothing wrong with the lines.  I sit him down at my kitchen table and do the speed tests on both my wired desktop and my non-wired laptop and show him  CenturyLink's "approved" speed test.  On both of them, they show around 5,000 mbps.  Then, the number started going up as I kept refreshing.  Then back down. And up. And down. 

He went outside to make a phone call and came back in and told me of some "division" in their company that keeps a running log of my speeds - according to their system anyway.  I said thanks, obviously, he wasn't going to be able to do anything.  I informed I would be calling CenturyLink again and discussing this with them.

Meanwhile, Cox cable comes out.  The supervisor ends up coming out and bypassing the worthless worker who obviously just wants the easy way out - drilling a hole through my front wall - and we discuss this situation.  It's for George's work and his work is paying for it, yes, but it's MY house and I don't want a hole drilled through the front wall of my house.  

So the guy walks around and suggest to run a trench along the side wall in front of my house through the block fence and then under the house, to the rear of the house and install an interface there.  Sure, I said, that sounds great.  But remember, I tell him, that you are going to have to crawl underneath the house and feed the line up through the bottom of the house through the wall. Okay, he says and that's that.

Back to Century Link.  I call them back and just go for the throat: the manager this morning tells me that they are sending out a 2cd level tech and that they WILL take care of this situation and they do not.  I go through the Philippines yet again and then to an American operator who wants to argue.  Your manager, please.  She rambles on. Manager, thanks.  I'm just not going to go into the extreme amount of talk that went back and forth, too much and after having to have had deal with 2 of the same kind of company at my property today?  I'm just done.  

I was very blunt with the manager that I got on the phone, I will say that.  Promises not kept.  The same things stated from every manager, every time: it's GOING to be fixed.  The same outcome: it ISN'T fixed.  It turned into an ugly conversation, but only because she was hedging and hawing.  Blame shifting, I told her to her ear she didn't care and it was obvious.  It was too  late to call corporate, they had already closed, but rest assured they WILL be getting a phone call first thing in the morning.  This woman claims both a high level tech and a supervisor are showing up tomorrow morning at 11:00 am.  Yes, lady, that's all I have to do in life: spend quality time with your freaking employees. I'm on VACATION.

Back to Cox.  The worker comes back several hours later.  Like about 6 hours.  He obviously does not want to get under the house to do the install.  George is telling them no, it has to be under the house.  Time passage.  Supervisor shows up, they are in his bedroom and George is speaking loudly enough for me to hear the conversation, he eventually directs them to me.  I am already peeved about this on-going, non-abating situation with Century Link and now I have to deal with THIS?  

They come out and start talking.  No, I am not going to allow you to drill a hole through the wall in front of my house, that's that.  We go through the options.  We agree that they can run a line through the side of the house where there is already a hole, but the line is still going to have to run through the floor from underneath the house.  We have this discussion for 10 minutes and then they look at me blankly.  Huh? We don't understand, we are running a hole through the front of your house, right?

I will admit that I became hostile at that point.  I have JUST discussed with them - PLAINLY - that the line is going through the side of the house.  I pointed to the side of the house when I said that and I asked them if they understood that means by the gate? Yes, we get it, over there.  I had had this SAME discussion with this supervisor 6 hours earlier, we did a walk-around the entire house.  We both saw the places where this was going to be done.  Now they are attempting to talk me into having a hole in the front of my house again!

FREAKING MORONS.  I must have told them 10 times - NO HOLES THROUGH THE FRONT WALL OF MY HOUSE.  George told them several times over as well.  Unbelievable!!!  I got up out of my chair and looked the supervisor in the eye: There are not going to be ANY holes drilled through the front wall of my house, do you UNDERSTAND this?!!  IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THE JOB, WE'LL BE HAPPY TO CALL COX CABLE AND ASK THEM TO SEND SOMEONE OUT THAT WILL!!  

That was the end of it.  Their tones changed completely.  They are subcontractors.  They work for Cox, that is their life-blood. They lose that they are screwed.  They don't want people calling Cox telling them that their subcontractors don't want to do the required work.  They want to take the easy way out and don't care what the homeowner wants. 

Yup, the worker eventually crawled under the house - it's a 65 foot crawl - drilled the hole, pushed the cable through, done.  Was it that hard?  I have been under there numerous times, all the way to the front. Fun, no, doable, yes, but miserable? No.  The guy was standing there attempting to tell George that it would be at least 130 degrees underneath my house.  I just laughed. It's WAY cooler under my house than it is outside!

It's done. Cox is anyway. I guess.  I'll have to go out front and inspect the damage and see if they screwed up any of my plants with their install. 

Century Link?  Ongoing story.

You wanna know what blew my mind? I had my Verizon Hotspot out here while they had internet shut down checking whatever.  I ran a speed test on it, the first one came back at over 16,000 mgps!! The second went  down to 12,000, the 3rd went clear up to the 17,000 range.  NO, it doesn't always work that well, but yes, I was pressing buttons and it was moving right along from one site to another.  

I just checked my credit score.  I do so about once every 6 months.  I don't figure it's going to change that fast either for good or worse.  It's up about 50 points from the last time I checked it - but it's still bad.  That because it is still showing that I am late on my mortgage payment and it also doesn't show that I paid the car off or the credit card that I paid off. It has one credit card flagged because I was late on a payment.  The late payment? July of 2008.  Are you seriously going to tell me that a late payment some 5 years ago should negatively affect my credit?

And then there's the medical thing I forgot about.  It's on there.  Less than $100, but any negative on there regardless of how much affects your score. I'm going to pay that one off and get rid of it, but I am going to try to convince them to remove it off of my files completely if I agree to pay off the full amount.

They may not do that, but I am going to ask anyway.

I don't know how long it takes for companies to update the thing to show the activity that has been made.  Paying off the car loan should be a very good thing.  Must take longer than a month, apparently, so next month I am going to check again.  To think that at one point, I had my score up to almost 700.  Oh well.  Just keep working at it and bring it back up again.
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George's company is paying to have Cox internet installed. Here's the problem with people nowadays: You can tell them facts and things that are extremely relevant to a situation and it will go over their head like they never heard it.  George told everyone - Cox, his company - that there is no Cox cable coming into the house and neither has their even been.  There is no cable running from the street.  George told them all of that, repeatedly according to George, but, of course, it falls on deaf ears.

So, they show up today.  Before they get here, I'm thinking: running conduit from the street to the house.  Blue stake will have to be called and a very long trench will have to be run.  Blue stake hasn't been out there and the dude that showed up?  NO way was he digging any trenches.  This guy was neatly dressed with a more-than-casual shirt on, tucked in, hair neatly kept: this guy is not a trench-digger.  And so it was.  I was standing there listening to him, he switched to Spanish.  He intoned the words: "no se puede".  It can't be done, I can't do it, whatever, that's what it means, non-happening event.

So, his supervisor is coming out in an hour to do - what - tell George that a trench has to be dug and conduit installed? lol  Okay, arrange for that, please, if not, I have contacts from work to get it done.  I am not doing that.  Well, I would have if I were going to have Cox installed for my own personal use - not paying a construction company some unbelievable rate to bring a Ditch-Witch out and churn out a trench.

I can rent my own Ditch-Witch if it came down to that and have it delivered to the house and picked up.  But, this is part of the reason I don't have Cox cable internet - yet.  Lol.  Cox isn't going to say they won't do it.  They're just going to say it's going to cost more money to have it installed, is my guess.  I am sure they have a company or companies they contract out to to have come over and do the trenching and conduit laid.

So, in the end, this is actually going to help me out quite a bit.  I won't have to pay for any of this, it will be done and I will be one step closer to having Cox internet in my house.

Speaking of internet.  Century Link is coming out yet again. I called them again today - the speed has been down for a week, I finally got tired of the length of time it takes to access any site - and told them I had run 7 speed tests on fully 7 different test sites.  The results were anywhere from 3.8 to 5.6 mpbs.  Yeah, unacceptable.

The first lady on the phone? Philippines.  They don't argue anymore when you ask them to be switched to America, they just do it.  As I figured, the first lady I got in the U.S. was going to argue with me about the speed.  She informed me that none of those sites were not "legitimate", of which I balked out.  She then said the only site they take as proof is their site.  Yep, I responded, I don't doubt that.  So I went to their site while on the phone and it came up as 6.5.  Closer, but still not 7.7.  Doesn't matter, the woman intoned, it's within 20% and our guarantee is within 20% of the target speed.  Bunk again. Let me speak to your manager.

The manager gets on and starts giving me the same rap.  While she is doing that, I sit back down at the computer and run the test again.  This time, 5.3.  That is NOT within 20% and I told her I just ran it again and from the verbiage of the first lady I talked to, it IS on YOUR computer screen, you can see it for yourself.

I then began running the test over and over, it came up with wildly fluctuating results varying from 3.8 to 9.6. I left the last one on the screen showing 3.490, less than half the speed I am supposed to be getting.  So, yes, a tech is coming over again.  I was assured that they would fix it this time.  I replied that that is exactly what your company told me last time.  And the time before that, and before that, look it up how many times service techs have been out here for the same, exact reason and all of them have never been able to identify what, exactly, the problem is.

I left it at that. They are coming out today to "finally" figure out what is going on by allegedly sending out a "higher tier" level technician.  I'll be asking that technician about that when he arrives.  But in reality? Once George gets this Cox thing squared away and the line - well I am going to ask them to run 2 lines while they are at it - is installed, I am definitely going to find myself a good router and modem and switch to the greener side of the fence.  Okay, who knows if it is or not, but I have endured Century Link long enough.  They have sent out over a dozen techs over the years with the same problem arising every single time.  They either fix it temporarily or nothing changes.  The last time the guy put in a new router - for free of course - which at least fixed the problem of the signal being completely dropped and having NO internet feed at all.

I'm just going to tell the guy that he is one in a line of many techs that have been out here "figuring" out the problem and that whatever the problem is, it has never identified.  Not in an abusing tone, just a simple challenge: can you please figure out what's going on here?  When I have the full 7.7 going, it's fast enough.  It's not mega speed but it does the job well enough. If they could actually figure out what's going on and fix it once and for all, I would probably stay with the company.  I have my rate reduced to $25 per month for a year and after that back to normal rate which is $45, which is $10 cheaper than Cox.  However, the $55 tier for Cox is twice the speed, I think 15 mbps.  That would be blazing fast in my world and I know Cox has even faster speeds, up to 50.  But I am not paying over $100 per month for internet, no thanks.

And finally, a huge-joke-of-an-article explaining how to protect yourself against a home invasion. Taser guns.  So, a taser gun is going to stand up against a handgun?  Home invasions around these parts have been executed by people armed with handguns.  Your taser gun is going to be worthless against such.  I was laughing at this article by the time I got through with it.  It was all about everything but the use of lethal force. I guess if you are a person that simply won't use lethal force, be my guest.  Me?  I'm going to show up with my 12 gauge shotgun or my .40 caliber S&W40VE and they are going to get it right back in their face.  My first line of defense is no front door.  Second line of defense is a completely fenced property with only the very front of the house not fenced in.  3rd line of defense: surveillance cameras.  4th line of defense: large, loud dogs.  5th line of defense: only unlocked entrance in very rear of house, I would see someone walking by before they got there.  Last line of defense listed about: lethal force.

It ends the story with the following: "Finally, and perhaps most importantly, never try to be a hero — especially if the intruder has a gun.

As the National Crime Prevention Council says, "If someone tries to rob you, give up your property — don't give up your life."

Really? What about the robbers who don't care if you are submitting to them, doing everything they say and they still shoot you anyway?  I've seen it over and over again in the news.  Trusting the police are going to get there in time?  Good luck!  When are police around when something is actually going on or arrive in time to defuse a situation?  It happens, yes, but not that often.  You could be robbed, shot and killed and those people gone before they ever show up.  My best line of defense is to be prepared.  If someone came through the back door I would be out of the line of fire in a millisecond.  It's a utility room and I'm 40 feet away from it and the first 20 feet is a narrow enough walkway with limited line of sight.  Dive into the living room, head for my bedroom and yes, get out the shotgun.

Yeah, I have replayed that scenario over in my mind just a few times considering the amount of crime in this city.

And that's the name of that tune.

ben

I had a series of discussions that went on for several days some years ago with the boyfriend of a tenant that was living here.  He was/is a computer geek type of person.  One of his biggest pet-peeves is Microsoft Automatic Updates.  SHUT THEM OFF AND LEAVE THEM OFF PERMANENTLY, was his advice, with his adamant observation that such updates load up your computer with "junk" that slows it down.  The more of it you download, the slower your computer gets.

Just make sure, he advised, that you have good anti-virus software and you won't have to worry about the updates.  I had my doubts, aren't some of those updates put on there to fix glitches within the software?  We went back and forth, but I let him turn off updates and left it at that, running both Avast and Spybot.  

I didn't have them shut off before on this newer computer, but I did shut them off this time around with fresh install, leaving it at allowing me to install them whenever I wanted, if at all.  I turned the blooming thing on this morning and what pops up?  Don't turn off your computer, installing 1 of 2 updates, yada yada yada.  I KNOW I set that thing to not do that.  Well this freaking thing did it's up date, turned off the computer, turned it on, reconfigured and off and on and off and on and off and finally on again - about 15 minutes of this nonsense.  Accessing Security under Control Panel, sure enough, it reset it self to automatically downloading and installing updates. 

I just got out of that thing 10 minutes ago.  It said it had 38 optional updates but no "important" updates.  Now? Just 10 minutes and now the thing is saying 17 important updates.  So WHAT, exactly, qualifies them as important?  I went to a list of the updates, 95% of them are "security updates", which is exactly what the geek dude was referring to.  But what if some of these updates are fixing glitches for access to thieves from outside sources?

Onto other things.  Such as the suggestion that the minimum age for receiving Social Security should be raised, according to "experts".  Unless I win the lottery, which I don't even play except rarely, I won't be able to retire until at least age 62 to start receiving those benefits on top of whatever money I have saved in my retirement account.  What kind of work, pray tell, would I be able to do at say, the age of 65?  Still drive trucks? Many do, I know that for a fact, but that's as long as your health stays good.  No guarantees there in life.  Last year, a guy driving an LTL truck came into our yard.  He was 75 years old.  Do I envision myself driving trucks at the age of 75? NO.

Whatever.  They've raided that fund over the years and now we are going to be in trouble starting in the year 2033.  Now, is anything going to be done about it before then?  It's such an unpopular subject with many constituents  that most politicians want to steer clear of the subject.  But the estimates are that it will only be able to pay 77% of the benefits you are now supposed to be able to receive.  The reason it is unpopular are myriad, but for me, it's because I have PAID INTO THAT SYSTEM FOR DECADES NOW.  It is NOT an entitlement!  If it is, it's because I am entitled to the massive amount of money I have paid into it!  

What I want them to do is make whatever changes that need to be changed and get it done NOW, not 20 years from now.  But with most other things the government does, I am miffed and have been for some time that they have raided that trust to pay for things that - they simply should have found other ways to pay for or better, just get rid of it.  

Speaking of politicians, I am very enlightened to see the recall effort going on in Colorado.  More of this, not less!  When politicians do whatever they want that goes against the majority of that person's constituency, get rid of them!  We don't need rogue politicians - of which there are many - that simply vote to do things their way and not even give any credence whatsoever to the voice of the majority.  Government knows best, that's their thinking, they are 'doing it for our own good'.  That group turned in DOUBLE the number of signatures needed.  I'm sure they did that on purpose to ensure that any disqualifications won't undo their hard work of collecting all those signatures.  This concerning senator Morse's vote for much stricter gun control in the state of Colorado.  

Whatever.  I'm keeping my views on Obama and all of the crap that is going on with that administration in wraps for now.  Some of the liberal news media is finally coming around and it may get interesting to see how much more dirt they are going to turn up.  It is, after all, their job to do so and when that's your job, well, that's all the motivation one should need to execute the parameters of that job efficiently.  Of course, there is always the political bias, but if a reporter really wants to be a real reporter, facts should over-ride political leanings.  Just my view of it. This newest revelation that senior officials are using "secret" government email accounts could get quite interesting indeed.  These people are in public office and really shouldn't enjoy any kind of privacy in terms of whatever they are doing on paper or in email as the public should - which it doesn't anyway.  I read an article yesterday of a reporter that basically uncovered, through a government officials statements, that any email you have ever written can be brought back and up.  That's kinda scary, isn't it?  Does the government have the right to have access to every email account of every person that has one and everything they have ever written in those accounts?  I most certainly do not believe so. Talk about government intrusion.

Umm, changing the subject yet again, I ordered yet another tree online yesterday.  Strike that, I just ordered a bag of seeds to try and grow one of trees on my own.  I did, with the help of a facebook friend, find a live version of one of the trees available on line for $18 something plus $14 shipping.  I didn't want to pay that much, I don't mind planting all the seeds in various pots - indoors to start with I think - and see if I can get one or more growing.    

Vacation.  Day 2 off of work.  Tuesday morning.  Still undecided about going up north.  I am content to be here and do nothing.  I didn't think I would be that happy just sitting around doing nothing besides yard work and pond stuff, but so it is.  The only thing that I find somewhat annoying is one particular person that walks in and out and in and out and in and out all day long.  

The $350 check finally went through the bank. The last of the Mohicans.  Okay, the last of the big ones that I paid out with the loan I got.  There isn't anything else pressing - well that I have to get done now  that can't wait unless that fan motor goes out on the AC unit.  I dunno.  I do know that my paychecks are down - by about $250-$300 per check because OT hours are done and gone with.  Only if the work picks back up.  No idea.  I'm not a genie and I have no idea if/when we might start getting enough work back to be able to have OT hours.  It's a significant chunk of change per month to lose that much money.  At the same time, I no longer have a car payment and one credit card payment is done, gone and that card is cancelled.  Has been for a long time.  I just was paying the minimum payments.  Which didn't account for much since this particular company charges a $6 per month fee just to have their card, plus other fees plus high interest rates.  I was glad to have that money drain gone.  

Well whatever.  I need to get busy.  One pond filter left to go and other things out there to get done plus I am considering doing a major cleaning to my bedroom.  It needs it, lol. 

G'day.

ben

We're losing market share and we need to rectify that our we will have to address our head count.

This is something I heard at work and started pondering today.  They have hired a lot of new people - some of them completely worthless IMO I might add, no work ethic, have to be forced by their bosses to do anything and I just have no use for such people - and now I am wondering, if a head count reduction is initiated, who's going and who's staying.

Here's one thing about corporate America that is true the field over, that I have seen anyway: NO-ONE is irreplaceable.  That's from the head honcho on down to the dude pulling orders out in the yard.  One person might be harder to replace than another, but I have seen this over and over - they don't care.  When management makes up it's mind and they determine who's going out the door, the relevance of the contribution any given individual might have made and is making takes a back seat to other things, such as compensation and benefit and perks.

In other words, you have to wonder if you are going to lose your position to someone who is willing to take it for less money and benefits. They just came along and got rid of a guy who had been there for 17 years.  It was completely out of the blue - though I guess all lay-offs are, sort of - but there was no other indication within the company that they were getting rid of people.  He immediately found another job and something far less stressful, so good on him.

Well I'm not going to dwell to much on that, at least not during my vacation.  Just sitting there, though.
____________________________________________________________
UNBELIEVABLE.

I check my checking account every day.  Rarely do I miss checking it.  Too many thieves in this world, not to mention the fact of bank errors - hardly ever but it happens - and then checking to see if everything I have paid out has been deducted.  Which it hasn't - I gave my son a check over a week ago for my contribution towards his Hawaii Revolution and it hasn't been cashed yet. I do not like having checks floating around, but that has nothing to do with this and I consider it petty compared to what is going on here.

So, I am in there today, looking at a $155 Reverse Credit.  I knew exactly what this was as soon as I saw it - the dude in the Philippines that stole my money by somehow getting my debit card number and using it to send himself 2 Western Union (the preferred bank of thieves) checks in the amount of $155 each.  I immediately called the bank, as far as I knew, this situation was ended.  Heck, this happened on April 16th and it's now June 3rd?!!!  I only know the date cause' I posted my original entry with Western Union Fraud to make sure I could find it again in case I needed information from it.

I get a lady on the phone of whom I knew was going to be no use to me before I even dialed the number. Management, please.  I get connected to the claims department.    I get to talking with this man, asking him his title within the company, quickly became apparent he's just another incoming call operator for a different department.  I let him attempt to "fix" this situation - which he did not and told me that it would take at least 3 days before they hear back from Visa whether my "claim" is going to be accepted or not.

BUNK.  YOUR manager, please and right NOW.  I was on hold long enough to sit down, look up Chase Bank corporate number on Hoover's (if you ever want to find a corporate phone number, this is the place to go to!), call them, talk to someone including giving my name and what my issue is, get connected to the "executive department" or whatever they called it and have a long discussion with the lady on the phone.  This manager finally gets on the phone but I was in a discussion with this lady at this point.  I simply informed the man that he could wait 15 minutes just like I had to for him.

He started in on something, I put that phone away from my ear. I could hear him going on and on for a while while I was discussing this situation with this lady at corporate.  I put both phones up to my mouth while talking to the lady at some point - the man had no clue I was not talking to him.  Absolutely amazing.  I finally got done with the lady and then put that other phone back up to my ear.

I wasn't taking no for an answer.  This is their business and as far as I'm concerned, this is part of the risk they take, NOT me.  I have talked to several individuals that have gone through similar experiences whose banks just reimbursed them the money regardless of the outcome of any disputes with Visa or whoever. Visa must have a Pentagon sized building full of employees to deal with this kind of thing.  I did NOT give that guy my debit card number and according to the second person I talked to today, Visa stated that Western Union "confirmed" that I had given both my debit card number and my email address for verification.

Email address? THAT is a verification?  As if someone's email address is something hard to get like a social security number?!!!!  Another UNBELIEVABLE coming your way.

Okay. Well whatever.  The conversation turned a bit sour because I was already heated up: I had already been assured some month and a half ago that this situation, regardless of what happens with the bank and it's dealings with this situation, I wouldn't be losing my money. I distinctly remember the man telling me after I asked: NO.  My question? Since your bank hasn't paid Western Union yet, are you going to?

I also questioned them on why they would simply take that money out of my account without ANY kind of notification.  No email; no text; no snail mail.  Just eat it, buddy.  I don't just eat things, especially with thieves stealing from my account and banks that should just eat it. Here's another interesting factor acquired from today's conversations: Western Union was only disputing one of the charges, even though there were 2 for the exact same amount coming from the same person picked up at the same store at the same time.  The manager I was speaking to found that odd.  I didn't care, to be honest, I was just going to remain on the line until my money was refunded or he hung up on me.  Screw corporate, I have this guy now, let's get this over with.

This went on for quite a while until he gave me his "solution": he was going to resubmit a claim to Visa.  I couldn't have cared less. Submit all the claims you want, hope you win, but I want my freaking money back, right now, today! I don't care what you are going to do about it with Visa, this is NOT my problem!!
Finally, the man succumbed.  "I am going to credit that money back to your account".  Great, I replied, and then in 4 days, if Visa denies the claim, I am screwed again?  "No, he replies, this is a permanent credit to your account".

Full name, spell it out please letter by letter and a confirmation number, thanks.  That was, finally, it after a long conversation with this individual.

Welcome to vacation.  Here I was, about to go outside and deal with the pond filters I was supposed to do yesterday.  This has been a couple of hours now in terms of phone calls.  I cannot believe Western Union can just get away with all of this nonsense.  As far as I"m concerned, if legally possible, banks should just refuse to do any business with them at all.  Let them know that they will not honor any credits to anyone's account and let it be done.  But that's just me.

1 pond filter done.  Think I'll let the other go until tomorrow.

G'day

ben

Finally )(*&(&_)(*&^(%^__*(*(*)&*)&) - almost - done

The blooming thing was pissing me off yesterday.  All the things I knew to do to find the reformat the computer option were ending up with nothing.  After trying endlessly, I finally went online.  Guess I should have done that in the first place, but I didn't think they would make it so blooming difficult to find how to format the partition.  Well, turns out, Windows 7 has a program that you access IN Windows.  I've never seen or heard of that before - but will certainly remember it the next time I have to do this.

Well whatever.  After I finally figured that out, I then moved on with fresh installation.  It was after getting fresh Windows 7 on my computer that I remembered that I would need the ASUS CD - for the ASUS motherboard - to get the network adapter.  Well, I keep all my CD's in one of 2 places so they are easily findable.

I spent 2 hours looking for that blooming CD. I finally gave up and just got on my laptop to get my stuff done online and then went to bed.  Enough exasperation for one day, but I was laying there thinking gee, I'm going to spend my whole vacation without a working desktop computer.  I got up early this morning - around 5:30 and came out with fresh resolve to find that CD. I do NOT throw away software CD's, it's simply something I don't do.  I went through every freaking drawer and couldn't find it.

I sat down and thought about it for a while.  I must have put it somewhere safe so it wouldn't get scratched up and destroyed.  I saw a pile of CD's that I thought were blanks.  Picked the whole pile up and sure enough: ASUS software CD, happily packed inside one of those cases for safekeeping. Dumb me.  I did find the video driver disc, another thing I would have to have and installed that.  Well, got all that done and then started the process of installing everything else.  Lots of "everything else" that you have to do once you get online.  Avast; Spybot; Glary Utilities first up at bats.  Spy and malware protection plus a utility to easily clean up your hard drive without having to click on a bunch of stuff - that would be Glary, it's free and it works swimmingly well.

Now?  I am processing a whitelist on Spybot.   Spybot just blocked me from going to a site that I have been on before that it says has "malicious" software awaiting me.  Realllllly?  Well that's interesting.  I don't know if I had an old version of Spybot on before or what, cause' it never blocked me from going there before.  It gave me the option of continuing on, which I just clicked off.  Perhaps that is where I was getting the problems from.

Well, there it is. Problems I was having with my computer that I could not fix are now gone.  How those problems arose, I have no idea.  Some of it was very annoying, especially this thing where I would start to type and nothing would happen.  I would have to keep typing for a while before it would start to show up on the screen.  If nothing else good came out of this, THAT in ITSELF was worth all this trouble.

Mark just walked in complaining about the heat and said it's 103 degrees outside already.  I had serious doubts of that, it cooled down pretty good last night and it's only 9:40 am, probably not heating up that fast this early. It's only 93 degrees outside but looking at today's forecast? WOW!! 109 forecast high temp!! YIKES!

I was about to have several herds of cows when I went to my Photobucket account and could not find all those pics I uploaded yesterday anywhere on there.  Click click click click until I found a file named "BEN-PC".  Yes!! Safely stored on Photobucket, all the pics I really wanted to save - quite a few of them actually - very relieved.  Eveyone was telling me to just use an external hard drive. Well, if any of my files are infected, then it will just be transferred to that hard-drive and then back to my fresh copy of Windows and then back to square 1!  No thanks.

I'm taking a break from church today.  I just plain didn't feel like going, which is hardly a good excuse, I guess, but it's my excuse regardless.  And no, I'm not taking a "vacation from God".

Anyway, now that I have this thing up and running - maybe a few minor quirks to deal with but otherwise good to go - I'm going to go outside and get some stuff done just before the melting, 109 heat comes here and then?  I won't be going outside to do ANYTHING!

G'day.

ben

Uploading........uploading........uploading.............

I was going to start backing up my files - when was it last week sometime? - and got sidetracked with whatever took my attention away from the task - an arduous one at that - at hand. The task is to save whatever files and photos I want to save, cause' honey, this copy of Windows 7 is going to be ejected into cyberspace and I won't ever want to see it again.

Well, mostly what I want to save are the hundreds of pictures I have taken over the last couple of years and definitely the Christmas some 3 years ago where everyone was over at my house.  It was one of the best Christmas's that I can remember in recent times.  Not because it was at my house, just because for some odd reason, everyone was happy, no-one was fighting and there were a lot of people over here creating a noisy atmosphere and one where the "awkward silent moments" never even occurred.  It helped that I had cooked a ham and a Standing Rib Roast, of which the ham was hardly touched and the roast almost completely disappeared.  Considering it was a 16 pound roast, yes that was incredible.

Well anyway, Photobucket has this neat new option - well I don't know how new it is, I haven't been on my Photobucket account in a while - to upload entire folders at the click of a button.  Instead of the old method of having to select each photo, individually, you just upload the entire album regardless of how many photos are in it.  I also did not know Photobucket also allows to upload videos, so I am doing that as well.  I have 800 plus photos uploading right now.  Yup, it's going to be quite a while.  But I'm done, I don't have to do any more clicking, I just have to wait it out.  Once those are done, I am going to go through my files and save whichever I want to save.  Usually, that just means copying and pasting into an email.  That shouldn't take long as I don't believe I have that many files that I need to keep.

So there.  In the next couple of days, I do hope to have this all done and have formatted the computer hard drive and then re-installed Windows 7.  This file saving was the thing that was holding me back from wanting to do this "project", if you want to call it that. As many bug finders and spyware scans as I have done, I did find a Trojan Horse through the use of Glary Utilities - which I thought strange that neither Avast nor Spybot found - got rid of that but I still don't think my computer is cleared.  I have been wanting to do this for a while now, I can only say that I have finally started and hopefully soon enough I can report back on here how my new operating system is functioning.

Ummm, but this software uploading these photos? Consuming a large amount of my computer's resources, so no "heavy-lifting" online until it's done.

Well whatever.  Lynnette just walked by - in a very bad mood.  I said good morning to her and she just mumbled something unintelligible.  She goes through some serious mood swings at time.  The things she is confronted with in life are not enviable, to say the least.  But it dawned on me that it is the beginning of the month and they are probably out of food or very low on it.  In fact, I know so because George told me they were eating whatever scraps they could find out of their collection.  Ummm, yeah.  I don't know about the rest of her situation, but I will help with the food portion of it.  I'll go get some Chinese today from a place whose food they absolutely love.  Buy it by the pound, I usually get about 5 of those large, styrofoam containers of it - around $25 worth.  It's a lot of food and can last a couple of days.

I'd go right now, but it's not even 8am and that place doesn't open until 11am.  I like to get there shortly after they open because all the buffet tables are filled with food and there is no waiting for them to bring out replenishment food.  I pretty much clean them out on certain dishes when I go in there.  The guy that runs the place recognizes me now when I walk in and he immediately goes and gets his microphone and starts blaring out directives - in Chinese I am guessing since it's a Chinese food restaurant but who knows for sure, lol.  That microphone broadcasts through speakers in the kitchen.  Interesting setup they have, but it seems to work for them.

Okay, the first file is almost done, lol.  I am uploading out of something like 20 files, ha!  This computer has slowed down in recent times to the point that whatever is causing it, it must go.  I can't wait to get this all done.

Goodness gracious, this file uploading is causing this thing to not even want to access the simplest of sites to get onto, such as craigslist or Ebay.  Time to get out the laptop.
________________________________
Long interlude.  Took George up to Fry's to get groceries.  He can't drive and his girlfriend - who lives about 35 miles or more from here - is laid up in bed and has been for 3 weeks now.  Pics are still uploading.  Dogs were frying out there.  Lol.  Well, they have plenty of cool water and shade is all I can say about that, they are in the house when I'm home.  It's getting warm/hot.

The grass killer I used the other day - which seemed to have done nothing initially - is slowly working.  Apparently it takes a while.  The grass is slowly turning brown while, thankfully and so far, the plants that they are surrounding/invading are not visibly affected.  Time will tell, but if the stuff works without killing plants, I will be using a lot more of it out front.

Well enough for one entry.

ben

Okay, so I was going through a series of pics posted online and got to one with Hershey's Chocolate Syrup - you know, the stuff that is used to make chocolate milk? This particular bottle says +Calcium at the top above it's name.  A close up of the ingredients label shows 0% calcium, lol.

Whatever.  8 hours of work and then vacation.  This work week has really dragged, like sucking badly dragging.  This is the end of the month and our numbers are wayyyyy down.

Whatever.  Work will be the last thing on my mind - actually, I will let it escape my mind almost entirely - for the next 9 days after I get out of there today.  I did order some CB antennas for the new truck, found a smoking deal for them on Ebay and they should be here any day now.  I may go there on my own time after hours and install those antennas myself and save myself the installation fee.  It will mean taking apart numerous things in side that truck and probably a couple hours worth.

Received the title to my car yesterday in the mail.  That was it.  No 'thank you for being our customer" type of thing from Wells Fargo, the bank I love to hate, just the title and that was it.  Not that I minded getting the title, just an observation.  It won't be long and all kinds of offers will start pouring in from local dealerships.  I don't know how they get that information, perhaps the bank sells it, but I know that when you pay off a car, you start getting offers of "highest trade in allowance", yada yada.

I don't trade in vehicles, car dealers are thieves, you will lose that vehicle and any amount it was worth in their sneaky deals.  I have no intention of getting a new or used vehicle in the near future unless the car takes a dive.  Even if it does, cheaper to fix it even if a new tranny or something than to buy a new vehicle.  I am putting my faith and hope out there that I have a LOT more miles left on that vehicle.  Maybe some repairs here and there, well and fine, but right now, I do NOT want to get into another vehicle payment, especially during the hot summer months when my electric bill skyrockets and it's all I could do in the last 5 years to make all the payments and cover electricity bill.

So there.  For whatever unexplained reason, my auto insurance premium has come down yet another $25 per month without my asking for it.  That's 2 cars and 2 drivers, one car has full coverage and one driver is under the age of 25.  That's a pretty good rate for that kind of baggage. I'll take whatever savings I can get.  It will be the first month that I won't have to fork out a car payment in a long, looooong, looooooooooong time and that will feel pretty good.

Not to mention a little later on this year, my contract with Verizon will be toast and I am considering moving to a different company for internet service.  They can't be any worse than the trouble I"ve had with Verizon.  That device doesn't work some of the time and to call Verizon is like calling a dead horse in the middle of a desert without a phone.  I tried that once and decided I wasn't up for that challenge.  Yet.  I did get a new hotspot out of it and the service worked MUCH better after getting it, but still.

Anyway, time to head to work.

G'day.

ben

Countdown to vacation: 2 full work days, including today.
Though "full" is hardly a good description of work in the last several weeks.
More like "boring".  There is only so much cleaning and fill-in-the-gap type of work you can do before you -
have nothing left to do.
And so it has, or has been anyway.
It very well could change next month, who knows.  Contractors usually start up new projects at the beginning of a month, in terms of ordering large amounts of materials.

I have not heard back from my dad, apparently he doesn't want discuss his situation further with me. All well and fine, but the "boy who cried wolf" sympathies are going to start to disappear.  I will support him, of course, in whatever he may be going through, but reacting to the thought of "my dad's out on the streets" will not occur again unless it actually goes ON for a few days, at least.  Which I am sure it will - her kicking him out again.  I still don't understand a person that would want to remain in a relationship where the other half has asked you to leave "hundreds" of times, but again, that is not really my business.

I have no idea how much Caleb has raised - if anything beyond what I have given him - for his stint in Hawaii.  I haven't asked him yet, either.  I don't feel it my place to badger him about it, he has to have his own faith in God for the Lord to come through.  I have given 10% towards it - which is about all I could afford anyway - and that's my involvement with it besides praying and believing along with him that the entire $3,500 will, in whatever way, come through.  He has sent out a mass of letters all over the place, what the fruit of that labor is, yet to be determined.  In reality, he probably could have just gone and gotten a job somewhere and acquired that money in the next couple of months, but he is going to the Salvation Army youth camp instead.  They do pay him for that endeavor, I have no idea how much.  I also have no idea whether he is planning on saving that money or not - he doesn't really need money up there, they cover his place to sleep and all meals.  But, having the kind of discipline it takes to not spend money is another matter entirely.

Whatever the case, another work day en-queue.  I can only hope there is enough in the system to keep me busy for 8 hours - definitely no OT in these days until work picks back up again (and frankly, since vacation is 2 days off, I won't care if there IS no OT in the next 2 work periods).

G'day.

ben

Wednesday.  Can hardly say work week is "flying" by considering we have very little to do.  The days start out with deliveries but peter out by the end.  Meaning 8 hours only and that's that.

OH well - and really glad I decided to take off time when I did. 3 more work days including today and I get my week off.

Just gotta get there!

No stunning revelations in this entry, just lamenting about work and the lack of it.  Oh, well I am still doing pushups and still doing some bench pressing and stuff.  Nothing too intense, just not wanting my body to turn into a giant blob of goo.

That is something that really concerns me as I see my friends and co-workers age - people near my age - and getting considerably heavier as the years pile up behind us.  It's so easy to let your body go and just not work out.  The next thing you know, you are wearing size 40 pants or larger and having to go to those big and tall men stores to cloth yourself.

No thanks.  If at all possible, going to try to remain at least somewhat fit and the only way I know of to do that is to work out.  My work outs will continue to grow in duration and intensity as I get back into it.

Anyway, time to be off to work.

ben

So, Tuesday's Monday.
Just plain tired, woke up in the middle of the night and it took a couple of hours to get back to sleep.
Nothing new there.  Perhaps my vacation should just be to get out of Dodge and find a place to kick back, sleep, rest, do nothing.  Preferably out of the house.  Perhaps something different than the mountain retreat.  Though it is nice up there and I have the bedroom in the thing fitted with an extremely comfortable queen sized bed mattress.

This is going to be one of those decide-when-the-time-gets-here type of things.  The real point of the vacation is to simply not have to go to work for a week, what I don't or don't do are fairly irrelevant.

As for my dad's situation, he wrote back and said that during the day she kicked him out, he had gone around looking for a home to rent.  He was then eating at a grill somewhere when she - his wife - called him up and asked him to come home. She has done this literally "hundreds" of time, according to my dad.

So, he went "home".  Personally, I wouldn't call it home where a woman feels it prudent to throw her husband out on a whim's notice whenever - whatever happens - happens - and she decides she doesn't want anything to do with him anymore.  And nothing makes up for her son intervening in this situation - in a very bad way IMO - and telling my dad it's time for him to leave. That guy can go piss off.  A statement I would love to tell that man to his face.

Whatever.  Just ranting here, if my dad voluntarily continues to subject himself to this kind of treatment, there isn't anything that I can say or do that will help this situation, he's made his choices and that's that. I have no doubt, however, that some time in the future and probably near future, he will be writing once again to everyone that he's been kicked out.

Rancid sales this month.  At work that is.  I mean, really low, to the point that OT is pretty much non-existent.  2:00 - 2:30 comes around and I'm off the clock.  That is, however, better than the 3 plus years I was required to get off the clock after only 7 hours of work at 1:00 - 1:30.  Hopefully sales will pick back up and we can "go to work" again and get at least 10 hours of OT on each paycheck.  It helps immensely.

Pissed.
That's my mind at the moment.
I got into the email account that has mostly family stuff going on with it to find an email from my Uncle in Florida.
In that email were the emails previous to it.  A LONG series of emails between my dad and his brothers, sisters and whoever else that is on his list.

Reading through all of it, I find out his "wife" has told him to leave once again.  At this point, this is not shocking news.  I have heard this several times now and personally, I wonder why he has stuck around this long.  But, everyone has different ways of dealing with things.  I already went through a bad enough marriage, I would definitely not be sticking around for another one if it went that direction and it became obvious over time that nothing was going to heal it.

What got me flaming, however, is the fact that this woman brought one of her sons down for the 3 day weekend to effectively help her throw him out.  In one of my dad's emails, I read that she and her son - Rod - were having a loud discussion in the living room about "how bad and awful a husband he is".  Right there, while my dad is just in the next room.  Then this guy has the balls to come up to my dad - 86 years old - and "inform" him of what is happening here: you are being thrown out. The dude is in his early 50's.

I cannot convey the seething anger that crept into me after reading all of this.  What business does that guy have sticking his nose into that situation? What kind of woman would bring her offspring in to do her dirty work for her?  This is Arizona, she can't legally just throw him out, the house is community property.  He can agree to do so if he wants, but these people are just giving him the shaft and he will like it, apparently, at least according to them.

I wrote my dad and told him I would be more than happy to come down there and help "mitigate" this situation.  If he wants to allow himself to be trampled on, then be my guest.  If he wants help, I'm all over it.  He NEEDS to get out of there, IMO, just the way they are doing it is what is really grinding me.  I can pretty much say that a part of my vacation coming up is going to be spent down there helping my dad do whatever needs to be done.  He has some sort of realty professional driving him around to help him find a place to live.

It's probably a good idea if I don't get involved with what is going on in that house at the moment, I don't really know if I will be able to contain my emotions in such a situation.  If it were just her and him going at it and that's it, that's one thing. I just cannot believe the audacity of bringing one's own son in  to literally throw an old man out on the street.  If my parents ever asked me to do such a thing, I would absolutely refuse unless it was an extremely abusive situation and even then, I would be very hesitant.  I know my dad, he is on the complete opposite end of the "abuse" scale.  He is a lifelong Methodist minister, he is well known in the area he lives for his charity work and his giving nature.

Whatever.  He hasn't written me back and the tones I had in my email to him probably weren't of such that he would be interested in the "mitigation" help anyway.  But, after he finds a place I can help him get settled in and do whatever needs to be done to get the place livable.

And hopefully after getting some time behind me, I can get beyond my own anger and just let it go.  It's my family, my kin, that's all, I just can't stand to see such things happening to people, much more to my own dad.

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That's it, for that.  Just needed to write it out and get it out of me.  I can't allow myself to cave into near-barbaric desires to do things that are not a part of a civilized society, not that I would anyway, but just have to deal with the turmoil that occurs within.  We are all guilty at some point in our lives of treating others in ways we probably shouldn't have, so it is in this situation.  I can only offer my dad help if he wants it and that's that.

I started this yesterday and didn't finish it, just posting it and then a new one.

No work tomorrow, then a 4 day work week, then start 9 days off of work.

That's what I'm talking about.

I have not done anything with my front pond in terms of restocking it with fish since whatever happened last summer that caused all the fish in it to die, sans the mosquito eaters which apparently can live through just about anything.  The pump died in that pond but I felt no need to replace it since there are no fish in it besides the mosquito eaters and since there ARE mosquito eaters in there, the water won't become a festering grounds for mosquitoes.

Which it hasn't.  It doesn't smell bad, either, but that's probably because I have to refill it frequently.  It goes down a couple inches, fill it back up.  But I decided it was time to get a new pump for it and then decide whether to put fish back into it - or not.  Figure to look on Craigslist and start perusing for ponds shutting down.  People either give the fish away or sell them very cheap.

What am I going to do with 9 days off?  I haven't decided.  I am still weighing a trip to LV with all the freebies I can get - or waiting until August when it is planned.  I dunno.  Tough decision.  I will undoubtedly spend a few days up north at mom's property.  She won't be there, apparently it's cold and windy up there and has been cold and windy up there since she got up there.  I called her today - wanted her to take alookit the sky - Mercury, Jupiter and Comet all aligned in a triangle formation low in the western sky, pretty cool looking and they say will be a long time before you can see that again. I dunno, it might be visible again tomorrow evening as well.

I don't mind the cold, she does.  She has to come back and get the roof on her house in Sun City replaced so I will have the place to myself  - though she is leaving me a "to-do" list while I am up there, lol.

I believe I will be going to pastor's house tomorrow where everyone has been invited to come and have Memorial Day BBQ. I have read some scathing rebukes from people who are against having BBQ's on Memorial Day, attempting to state that it defeats the purpose of the day.  Give me a break.  You can be rest assured that if I go to this BBQ, I will be bringing up the subject of past wars and the sacrifices that have been made.  There is nothing better I can think of than a group of people coming together for a celebration of the lives that our fallen-war heroes who gave it all for the freedoms we enjoy. This is not something I take lightly and for someone to pass a blanket-judgement?  Well, I can only say that I have also been guilty of such concerning other things and I was probably off on those occasions as much as these people are off on this issue.

Programmable Thermostat

Can I just say before delving into this subject, that it really sucks losing your keen eyesight to age and being forced to wear reading glasses to read any form of fine print?  I thought so.

Cause' the instructions that came with this thermostat?  About 6 point print. I couldn't read a word of it.  All a blur to me.  A year ago I could read that, now it's just a done deal.  I know, it's a part of growing older, who cares, that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Well it turns out the instruction book that I have is in Spanish. I know some Spanish, yes, but there is no way I am going to attempt to figure out something like this in a language that I don't know that well.  Fortunately for me, there are 2 pages in English easily found online from the company that manufactures it.

However, the instruction manual? Ridiculous.  Horrendous.  I don't know where they get these people from that write up these manuals.  Outer Space would be giving them too much.  Aliens from another planet would be complementing them.  Sludge from the bottom of the ocean would be giving them more credit and intelligence allowance than due.

I read, then re-read, then tried it, then sat down and re-read, until I finally just got on the thermostat panel and experimented until I got it.  Screw the manual.  The thing is set up into 4 time zones during the day: morning, day, evening and night.  I did not set them all the same.  I want it cool at night, I don't care in the morning or daytime during the work week and in the evening a mix between the night setting and the rest of them.  So, 78, 77 and 76 are my temp ranges and yes, this will save me money during the summer months.

_____________________________________________________

The people the next street over are back at it again.  Playing music so loud, you'd think I had a stereo set up in my back yard.  This time, however, I was not going to let it go.  I called the non-emergency number of the Phoenix Police department and - well anyway. I asked to speak to the sargeant in my district - whoever that is - and apparently several of them so who knows which one you are going to speak to - and got a very unbelievably rude person that continued to interrupt me several times over - and no, I did NOT interrupt her.

After enough of it, I just asked for her supervisor - yet another contentious person who was also prone to interrupting and asking why I called even though I had told her several times over - and then got the head of that department's name.  This situation is not going to continue on without some kind of input to the person that is over all of this.

Anyway, a sergeant did eventually call me and at the same time the sergeant called me, Phoenix Police showed up.  I pointed to the next street over and asked them to go over there where the source of the noise is coming from.  While on the phone with the sergeant about the last time I called - several times over an 8 or 9 hour period starting on the evening of May 4th going on until well into daylight of May 5th - I asked him why, exactly, the police didn't do more than simply ask them to turn it down after the second or third visit there?

This went on and on, but I will say that while I was on the phone, the music was either turned completely off or turned down so low that I couldn't hear it, thanks to them going over there.  We ended this call - I was being polite to the man and respectful, I mean, one of their own was just killed the other day in a hit and run situation - which doesn't mean I wouldn't be polite and respectful anyway, I understand they have a stressful job - with him promising to call me back tomorrow afternoon and if they turn the music back up after the police leave, to make sure and call again.

Of course.  If I can't sleep because of someone else's noise, I'm going to call. We don't have a HOA here - there ARE advantages to having them and this kind of situation would be one of them - so the only recourse, legally anyway, is to call the police.

Enough.

Memorial Day Weekend

So, let's not forget the reason why we have this paid holiday off on Monday: to remember our fallen war heroes that served our nation's military so that the American public can enjoy the great freedoms that we have today.  My gratitude and thanks to every one of those individuals, to those who fought and survived and are still with us and to those who are in active military status, regardless of where you are or what you are doing.

Without them, this nation could well be an annexation of Germany or the great state of Japan.  Of course there were many other wars and one that is still on-going, but those 2 were the biggest game-changers in American history, sans the Civil War.  Hats off to all of our military personnel, everywhere, whether in the grave or still with us and to those families that have had to endure such great hardship in the face of a loved one that will never come home or for those that are out somewhere in this world.  Your sacrifices will never be forgotten.

________________________________________________________

Just wanted to get that out  there.  I can't even imagine what this world would be like right now if Hitler had managed to pull it all off or if Japan would have won.

As for this weekend, I have absolutely no plans, whatsoever. I have spent all the money that I intended to spend with that loan and now am down to around what I figured I would have left over after doing all of that.  Money well spent, as far as I'm concerned and at least enough of a cushion to deal with come-what-may - hopefully nothing will come what may but who knows.

Well, when I say no plans I suppose that's not entirely true.  I just have no grand plans.  I am probably taking my son out to see Star Trek today, that if he doesn't get involved with something else.  I am definitely going to Home Depot to buy either Ornamec or Grass B Gone - 2 products that allegedly kill grass without killing everything else around it.  I am really tired of pulling grass and just having it grow back. Or even watering the areas until they are muddy and digging well down, getting roots and STILL have that stuff grow back.  This is one more trick in the arsenal to try. The other trick I am already actively pursuing, but it will be a long time before those ground covering plants will take over all the area that needs it covered. Those plants grow so dense that grass cannot grow up through it.

I am guessing some war movies on some channel on TV, might watch one or two of those.  Hopefully some of the classics will be showing.

___________________

Trip to Home Depot completed and initial application of grass killer executed.  Applied around plants that if killed, are not mature plants and be replaced without great loss.  So, come what may, we'll see what happens.  If it kills the grass and it's roots, mission accomplished.  If it doesn't kill the shrubs and flowering plants as the bottle directions say it won't, mission success.

My Queensland Bottle Tree has taken a new twist.  Instead of a straight up trunk, it has now sent out multiple stems in angled-up direction with multiple leaves on each stem.  I am watering it every day in hopes to see some increased growth this summer growing season.

That's it.  I have accomplished some, but not that much today but then again, I didn't set out to much of anything today.  I'm only 5 work days away from a full week off from work. Well, make that 9 full days counting 2 weekends.  : )

Francis And Sons Car Wash Company - Steer Clear!!

There is nothing like posting a review of a company on a blog that any Google search will find, so here it is:

"I'll just be blunt here: Francis & Sons car wash near Arizona Avenue and Ray road totally sucks.  I took a company vehicle in there to get it washed and get the interior cleaned, they wanted $30 for it.  Okay.  I specifically asked if they were going to clean the inside of the vehicle to which the supervisor said yes.  While waiting for them to get done with it, I asked them about getting the interior of my car detailed - $119 for full service interior detail, but they gave it to me for $100 pre-pay (I would not be bringing it back until the next day).  Well, when I went to get the company pickup after they said it was done, the markings they put on the windows were still on it.  I looked inside the truck and they had done NOTHING to it.  I asked the guy that was "cleaning" it and he said that would have to be an interior detail.  No, I said, they told me it was going to be cleaned at least.  He just shrugged his shoulders and walked off.

The next day, I bring my car in to leave there for the day while I am at work.  They sell me the exterior detail package for half the posted price.  Call me a sucker, but the exterior was in needing of a good buffing and wax job as well.  Just paid the car off and wanted to get it looking nice again.  I come back some 8 hours later, they pull the car up and I started looking at it.  The road tar was still all over the bottom of the bottom portions of the car on both sides of it. There were places on the paint where you could see they missed the wax or "sealant" as they called it.  I brought this to the guy's attention who started to try and clean the tar off.

At this point, I am starting to get pissed.  What kind of place charges $175 for a total interior and exterior detail and doesn't even get the freaking tar off the paint?!!  I mean, in terms of complete details, it's a good price compared with most other places, but if it doesn't look any or much different than when you took it in there, it isn't worthy ANYTHING.  These people could have cared less.  A crew of employees that are about as interested in making the customer happy as a detonated nuclear bomb is about keeping people alive.  The attitudes were outrageous.  I called for a manager.  I showed him spot after spot after spot of tar and asked him what, exactly, they had done to my vehicle - besides giving it a run through the car wash.  I point to a huge tar spot and he attempts to claim it was "scratches in the paint".  BULLSHIT!!! was my unreserved reply (sorry for the French, but this place utterly pissed me off and I at least will have my say on a forum such s this one and hope that others are spared the grief of spending money at a place that does NOT deserve to be in business). I'm sorry sir, let me take the car and we will buff it  out "again".  Yeah, right dude, as if you buffed it out the first time.

I waited another hour.  I sat down inside and an elderly couple came in and sat down next to me, we got into a conversation about this place.  The lady stated that the level of customer service and quality had gone down considerably over time. Yeah, I don't know how they did in the past, I can tell you that right now, this place has serious issues.

Well, this guy comes back in and I go out to inspect the car. The "scratches" that that idiot had pointed out before were gone.  Gee, didn't know you could buff out such huge scratches - cause' they weren't scratches at all!  There was STILL an area on the hood where it was clearly obvious they had not applied the sealant.  I gave up.  Live and learn.  The place is a rotten, the employees could care less, they are going to charge you for services that they do not perform.  The only reason I got anything done is because I got mad and got right in that "manager's" face.  All the tar was removed on the second time around, but..............

I just left.  After inspecting the interior of my vehicle - they did a great job on the carpet cleaning, they did an okay job on the leather seats but they reeked on everything else.  Spots where they had missed applying Armor All.  Places where dirt had not been removed.  Remember, I paid $100 for this interior service of theirs.  This was a treat for my car that will only happen once in a while, the rest of the time I take it to self serve car washes and use the vacuums there.

As another review stated, this place does not deserve one star.  In fact, they do not deserve to be in business at all.  I will never, ever go to a Francis & Son's car wash ANYWHERE ever again.  I will take my chances else where or better yet, I'll just go buy my own buffer and all the rest of it and do it myself."