The die is cast, the ball is rolling, the momentum is up and barreling ahead full steam now. I am fully committed.  I sent out mass email to all individuals that need to know at my company this morning my intended leave and arrive dates and that was the end of this.  The manager in Shreveport said he was good with it, my GM here said yes, it will work and forwarded the information to the corporate lady that does the actual transfer of my info from one logon to another, it is finished. They already have my position up for grabs on the company intranet site.  Could I turn this back now? Yes, I could say this thing went to hell in a handbasket and I need to stay.

And they would let me, since no-one has actually taken my position yet.  But boy, would that be uncomfortable after all of this!  Yes.  But I'm set in my mind anyway.  I want this to happen.  Just some things that must occur before at most a few weeks is up.  Namely, selling that car.  It's my finances out there.  Yes I could borrow/figure something out, but I don't want to go into debt on this.  And I'd like to get that hitch sooner than later and get it installed on that car and also find  a trailer for it - but can't find a trailer until I get the hitch!  I just posted another ad, this time with pics of the car.  And lowered the price 50 bucks to take it out of the range it was in.  It's a good running car and it's less than a grand, someone's gotta want it!

I'm so wrapped up now not just in her life but the kids it would be pretty devastating for me if this didn't work out for whatever reason.  Yet, at the same time, I know how life can work. Still, I have prayed over this and had others praying and talking to my pastor, gotta believe this isn't a dead end here at this point.

Anyway, I have found a receiver hitch online for $140. It's bolt on so no welding necessary.  I might be able to do that myself.  Still would have to get the slide-in part and the ball.  Looking at about $200 total. Then a trailer, have found several on Craigslist that would do, highest at $150. $350 the most I would pay. Would have to drive the car out there anyway, so fuel was already going to be a part of this - though we all know that it will cost more in fuel economy to pull a trailer. No biggies, that's how I was going to get my dogs out there, in my car so I have to drive it, not have it shipped and fly out there.  The only real hassle is that I will definitely want to spend a night at a hotel and I know there are places that allow dogs, I don't know which ones. I guess a search online will hopefully give me a clue about that.

Well, anyway, it doesn't help that I don't feel well and the clock is ticking plus I want to get to court and try to figure out how much I have left owing on child support before I head out to texas.

Whatever the case, the work day almost here, g'day.

ben

It is done.
It kinda is not so great the paycut I am going to have to take to get out there, but they are going to have me do overtime so it will make up for it. The point is that I now finally have the ball rolling, I can start figuring out dates and trying to get my stuff ready to move.  Lots to deal with, as anyone can imagine uprooting yourself and moving twelve hundred miles away, but I think I am up for the challenge.  I think, lol.

I almost told that guy no, though.  I was like, why do I want to take a pay cut? Especially that much.  But heck, I want to get out there, I'll have a job to go to, if it doesn't work, I will find something else!  But dang they have such good health care coverage and the cost is extremely low compared to many other plans I have seen, that helps make up for it in itself. At the same time, driving one hundred miles a day and the fuel costs incurred with that will take a biet out of my income.  Oh well, I committed, I'm done with this, I need to move on with this.

She didn't like the idea of OT but i was going to end up with that regardless of the pay.  I mean, do you want me out there?  That's what this boils down to.  If I'm going, I'm going as soon as I get ANYTHING that works, and I can definitely make this work, at least until I figure out what kind of expenses she really has and what we really need for income on a monthly basis.  So yeah.

The boys had a much more elated reaction. "Dude sooner like start packing your shit!!!! Lets go!! Hurry please.." That was after I had just told him - Josiah - that I had gotten a job transfer and he said Awesome!!!!! and asked when i was coming, to which I replied a month or so! The ten year old has been missing me since I left and the fourteen year old with the problems said he can't wait til I get there. The twelve year old could care less, but hey, three out of four ain't bad!

So now?  sell the car, do something with the fish, open up a bank account for Mark and Lynnette to deposit tenant payments into, etc etc etc.  Selling the car is a big one.  I need that money to move.  I hope it sells and at least within the next few weeks.  I have decided the only thing to do is put a trailer hitch on my car, get a small trailer and that's it.  Someone online said the best option if you are going to try shipping something and as long as tihngs are too large is through Greyhound!  Really? I would have never even thought of that one.  maybe I could ship some stuff in advance and that would leaev more room on the trailer.  I don't have a LOT of stuff to take out there, but there are \some things I don't want to leave behind.  Tools, clothing, guitar, computers, etc.  I am thinking of taking some of my larger Koi, too. I've had several of them for what, four or five years now? I would like to keep a half dozen of them and I can ship them with an air pump that can run off my power converter.  Run a small extension cord to the back of the car.

She wants me to sell fish and start over here.  I could for the extra money, I guess, but I would rather not have to sell all of them. Maybe a few, I could get a couple hundred bucks out of selling three or four of them.  If they would even sell,. Well they would, but people would try to talk me down on price.

Dunno, lots to think about! I need to give my management a definitive quit date and that's hard!  I'm trying to figure this all out and not get bogged down in attempting to decide what's going to happen when, i guess if I give a date that's going to do it! Git'er done!  Woohoooooo!

Speaking of Mark, he is ALL messed up.  He got hit by yet another car yesterday.  He came into the house limping badly.  I mean, BAD His hand looks like it's broken. His ankle is all swollen up.  He has lacerations, road burn and cuts all over his body. He refused to go to the hospital last night, even after I said I would take him. I don't get that guy.  I would be like, yes, take me, now, thank you!  Whatever, he went to urgent care this morning but I'm guessing they will just tell him to head on the emergency room at the hospital.

Whatever.  Fish will be hard to decide on but I'll get that figured out, heading back to Auto zone, the battery should be recharged by now and then get Caleb's car going and put it up for sale. He doesn't want it.  I said fine, but are you sure? I'll keep it if you don't. Didn't say anything about using it for moving money, if he needs the car i will figure something else out.  But he was decided on it: no, just get rid of it.  Okay.  Bought a thermostat for my car and will be installing that today or soon, before i take Caleb back up to the mountain camp anyway.  I know it's bad just because of the way the temp goes up and down at various intervals while on long trips.

Okay, I'm stoked.  just gotta get the momentum going and keep it going until I'm ready to get out of there.  I gotta get out of my room and get it rented.  New guy already stated he wants it at the price I want to rent it for if George and Susan don't.  Wow! That's pretty cool!  Don't even have to go outside of the house to get that done!  he has a ten year old daughter that comes over to visit.  Good girl, not rebellious, loud, stupid and and whatever, so I'm okay with that.

Well, time to get out of this place, I am sitting at a restaurant, was eating lunch, attempting to take all of this in. What have I gotten myself into?!!!  But dang, it's time for a change of life!

G'day.

ben

Hmmm, I wrote this post but didn't post it, it ain't finished but I wrote too much to just let it sit as a draft.


So far, the corporate lady has contacted the Longview branch and found out they are just dragging their feet on it.  The branch manager made a submittal to the GM some time ago and it's just lagging.  She has not spoken to the waterworks manager in Shreveport. I expect she will be able to get that done in short order and I expect to hear some kind of answer - good or bad - in the next day or two.  So it would be nice, at least concerning Shreveport, to get a definitive answer so I can make plans - yes I am moving to Longview, or yes I am going to start submitting applications all over the place.  Simple as that.

I did not get drawn for cow elk.  I submitted my application in time, it just didn't happen.  Probably just as well, I most likely won't be living in Phoenix by the time the hunt begins.

As for her/kids.  Well today, she's all happy, lol.  So I was taking advantage of that!  Yesterday, however, I had a showdown with Josiah.  I just had had enough.  Between this obsession with this girl and not doing anything around the house even after promising? No.  I laid down the law and the teeth to it are simple: he doesn't start complying, this weekend to start with he won't be seeing his gf - at all.  That's all the compulsion I need with him.  He doesn't need any other reason though if that for some reason doesn't work, I can also take his phone away from him.  He doesn't pay for it, mom does, he can't work until he gets his license.

When he does get his license, he is not guaranteed to be able to drive yet.  If he is allowed to drive, that privilege can be immediately revoked for a variety of reasons of which will be spelled out to him at the git-go and also a disclaimer that his driving privileges can also be revoked for other reasons that were unknown beforehand.  Then there's the tracker. And then there is an app, I think, you can install on an iphone that tells a person where that person is at any time.  Oh yes, I Google, therefore I am and there are all kinds of them on there.  Some of them look better than others, the point is they are available.  I dunno if I will demand that on his phone, though.  I don't need the kid getting resentful and feeling like he can never be trusted.  I mean, there is an app that logs in all incoming cell phone calls and displays all texts.

No, I don't want to read his personal texts between him and his gf.  That is territory I am not prepared to travel into and it is none of my business, I don't really care what they are saying to each other, they are going to say what they are going to say.

Anyway, the issue came down to the fact that for almost 3 weeks now, he has done little of nothing around the house.  Virtually zero chores have been done. Okay, he moved a roll of hay out there for the cows, whoopie and big deal, it took him 10 minutes.  I know cause I watched.  Back the tractor up with this piece of machinery attached to it that folds up, has a giant hook that comes flailing down on the hay and grasps it, push the contraption under it and then pull forward, it rolls the giant roll of hay onto the thing and you can move it wherever you want.

Other than that?  When I was there a few weekends ago, his bathroom was - disgusting.  I don't mean bad, I mean DISGUSTING.  Granted he is one of four boys that uses that bathroom, but I pretty much got all over his case yesterday for living like a total slob.  His bedroom the same thing.  Well not as bad as that bathroom, it had been a long time since I had seen anything so gross and repulsive.

There were other issues as well. But the end result:  Do 6 hours of work tomorrow and Friday or you aren't going to see her.  Period.  He knew better than to start getting testy with me, so after a long pause, he replied "yes" and then "got it".  Good boy.  But there's nothing like pushing it to the limits, he texted me earlier today asking if he could go with her to her church today after the track meet, if it gets done in time?  He does track and he's pretty darn good at it too.  No, I replied, it's her turn to come to your church with mom.  But but but, she won't get her!  Not true, cause' I asked and yes, she will go get her and take her to church.

Well then he did start getting testy. I put an end to that quickly.  You don't have to see her today........Okay, okay! It's cool!  He wanted to go there to get some guitar instructions.  He didn't even know that was available until I called his gf's church to chat with the youth minister, who told me he would love to show him some stuff on the guitar.  I said cool and later on told Josiah that.  Josiah was like, huh?  I don't even know the youth pastor over there, you must have called the wrong church.  Uhhh, no, I definitely talked to the right person at the right church, you don't remember him but he remembers you distinctly.  So now, weeks later, he wants the help.  What the boy doesn't know is, that if he does go there for the instruction, I am going to call that pastor again to make sure Josiah isn't making up stories.  Josiah never needs to know that unless, of course, he's - not telling the truth!

However.......that app with the text readout would be good for the 14 year old boy who - has issues and is currently not even allowed to have a phone.

Disappointing.
I contacted the corporate lady today - I decided to ask her if she had heard anything because now my management is wanting dates and I can't give that to them without getting a job first.
She got on it, called the man, who apologized for not getting back to either of us and told her he would "reach out to him" today.
Well it's past 5:00 pm and that's their closing time so going on 2 weeks of this now.

___________________

Friday morning. Even though he told her he would call me, he did not, even though he told her he would.  I'm going to try to call him today and then if he doesn't answer, I'm washing my hands of it.  I will let my GM know - who just happens to know this man's GM - not to get me a job but perhaps that management over there would like to know how this guy is operating.  Definitely NOT the way our company expects it's management to deal with people, this I know for a fact.

Our company's big competitor is alive and well over there, all over the place so starting next week - I'ma give this one more day/today to see if there is any glimmer of hope - I'm going to start filling out applications, if I can get a hold of my original application I gave to my company anyway.

That's it. That's life on the ranch.  Dealing with Josiah as well.  Goodness.  That's an entire entry of it's own considering the events that took place yesterday and the night before......

G'day.

ben

So.  Will this corporate lady be able to get anything accomplished today?  I dunno, but I'ma rootin' for her! lol.  I don't know if she can force them to take me in, but they have to at least listen to her and talk with her.  But even more-so, she is going to call the one in Longview and find out what's going on with that place and did they ever decide if a position would ever open up.  It would be nice to not have to drive 50 minutes to and from work.  But as an inside salesman I was discussing this with said yesterday - most of the people at our main branch drive over an hour each way to and from work!

So not exactly uncommon, still, not preferable. Spent basically two hours of your day driving. I spend 40 minutes total getting to and from work.  Well, I'll deal with whatever if I get an offer that is at least close to what I am making now, they apparently are scoffing at my current pay.  Whatever. I'm not getting rich, I'll tell you that much.

As for work, just crazy.  Today the main warehouse manager is over at our branch.  A total of 4 different people will be at our branch on any given week until they figure this mess out.  At least he will get that kid doing something, like cleaning up all that pipe that was brought in and subsequently dumped all over the back of the lot.  I mean, really.  The kid sits at a computer all day long and does - much of nothing.  I have no control over that, but I can make suggestions to management about what needs to be done : )

G'day.

ben

So, sitting at a pipe company notorious for making drivers wait for an eternity.

Called the corporate lady this morning.  This is basically my last shot at getting the position in
Shreveport. If they don't want to listen to corporate then they ain't gonna listen to nobody.  That's good English right there, btw.  No, I didn't call her, sorry I emailed her.  Good thing I did too cause' she wouldn't have answered the phone, she isn't in today due to sickness.  Neither is the manager in Shreveport due to the same thing.

Regardless, she said she would get right on it the first thing as top priority as soon as she gets back into work.  Imagine that, she's answering emails when she's sick and not even at work!  Now that's the kind of response I expect to get from our company, not this situation where the manager doesn't even bother to return a phone call.  If she can't get it done then I give up.  I also asked her to contact the location in Longview, they never contacted me about a position and I would at least like to know what is available and what pay they might be able to offer.

So, with all that, I am not getting my mind into moving out of my bedroom and into my son's old room.  I actually don't have a ton of stuff to move because I am leaving most of the furniture in there.  That only leaves clothes, guns, etc.  I don't really want to do that though until I have a job offer out there, cause I like my big bedroom and private bathroom!  So really no rush to do that.  I mean, yes I will have to take everything out of that bedroom to get the carpet professionally cleaned, but it won't really take that long.

Still a lot ot figure out here as well.  Like how to get my stuff over there without spending a fortune on it.  Not that many options besides putting a hitch on my car and buying a small trailer to haul everything over there.  Not sure about that yet.  I figure if/when I get a job over there that will put a sense of urgency on all of this and I will then go into high gear and get all of this figured out and done.  Until then, I see no reason to do much of any of that.  Just gonna bide my time.  Hopefully corporate lady can get the ball rolling and get me some kind of answer - hopefully a positive one.

That's all I can do now, except ask my management for my application.  Which I think I will wait on until I hear back from corporate lady and see if there is any hope.

That's it.  Just another Monday.  No deliveries but lots of pickups so at least I am busy.

K so I changed the appearance of my blog.  I don't think this one looks so good so going to try a different one later on.
Regardless, start of another work week.  I have decided I am going to call that store manager once a day until he picks up the phone. If he tells me to go bug off then whatever, but I am going to get some kind of reply out of him. Kind of childish/immature for a branch manager to be blowing off a person that he invited to come talk to him and who went well of my way to get over there and get it done.

As it stands, he wasn't even there when I arrived, which ain't the end of the world but perhaps it's also something to do with the culture over there.  Who knows.  One way or another, he IS going to give me an answer.  Doesn't matter, I have found other interesting job prospects over there including hauling oil off of rigs and hauling some of material off of flatbed trucks, just need to get my application from my work so I can have correct date of employment, which for CDL drivers is mandated by federal law.

That's it.  This week starts the beginning of a fairly crazy situation with different people coming in every single day of the week to manage the store.  I can't do it because I am the store's driver and can't deal with whatever comes up at the store itself if I'm on the road, otherwise this wouldn't even be an issue.  I'm guessing they are going to have to recruit someone from somewhere else.  Regardless, I was finally given my own password to the new truck routing system so I don't have to have the main warehouse manager lording himself over me.  He isn't my manager, he doesn't work at my store and his input is completely unnecessary and I don't want to have to wait on him to get stuff done.

Another thing on my agenda: get a court hearing and get this child support junk figured out.  I should be either done or close to done with it, I need a court to give a clear definer to that. I am tired of paying it and I believe I have actually overpaid what I owe at this point.

Well whatever, the start of another work day looms, must be outta here.

G'day.

ben

I'm not necessarily giving up on my company, but that manager will not return my phone calls and I'm getting the idea that he doesn't necessarily want me working over there.  I've left him two messages in the last couple of days plus called the branch and was informed that even though he's out on the road, he is answering his phone. Yeah, well he ain't answering it for me.  He told me he would have an answer for me this week, instead of giving me an answer, he's not even bothering to communicate with me at all.

I just don't see that as a good sign so time to start looking elsewhere.  Which so far has turned up a lot of garbage. $15 an hour jobs or higher paying jobs but on the road a lot.  I could take  reduction in pay but not that much.  That kind of money doesn't motivate me, at all.  There are LOTS of jobs in that area, but gotta have medical and gotta pay at least half decent.  Maybe it's too tall an order to fill, I dunno, but I am in no hurry to get a nothing job.  I'm not actually giving up on the Shreveport thing, I just have to start looking.  I mean, what is with a manager that won't even return a phone call?

Meanwhile, the aftermath of my fired manager. Turns out lots of people had been on the receiving end of some pretty crazy communications from my manager but - no-one said anything to management about it.  Of course not.  I was informed that if something like this ever happens again to contact them and let them know.  Yeah, right.  Number one, the likelihood of something that severe and dramatic happening again anytime soon in a co-worker is probably pretty low.  Number two when it's a member of management, what do they think, just go say something to them and the  n what?  They think YOU are the lunatic for even saying anything.  Just very unrealistic for them to expect people to approach them about something like this.

Well I finally found a half decent looking job - but - just remembered that Federal regulatons require 10 years of employment history.  Gag.  I can't remember the dates before I started working at my current company! That was a long time ago!

Well anyway. The weekend.  I am trashed.  There is stuff I am going to do but nothing too intensive.  Just gonna relax more than anything. Free HBO on Direct TV this weekend so hopefully a couple of good movies anyway.  I mean, I could start moving into Caleb's bedroom and start getting out of my room so I can get it all cleaned up and ready for George and Susan to move in there - but -  naw.

Well whatever.  I got motivated since I started writing this entry and decided to go out and get some stuff and then when I get home I am going to do something.  Not sure what yet but I think moving out of my room is a thing where I start on a weekend to do it and get it done - that same weekend.

Meanwhile, she is - not home alone, she is sitting at a driver's training thing cause she got a ticket for speeding and wanted out of it. 6 hours of that stuff!  I can't do that anymore, haven't been able to in years cause' of CDL license, but I haven't had a ticket in seventeen years anyway, hope to stay out of them.

I dunno. Guess I'm stressing over this job situation.  It would be SO much easier to transfer out there intra-company and then if the drive there everyday gets too long or if I find something better, great, but finding a job from a far is a bit difficult.  Though as of now I have found some interesting prospects that have at least decent pay.

Whatever. I just wanna get out there and once I find a job the clock will start ticking!

G'day.

ben

Well here we go on this roller coaster ride of work.
2 managers down.  One quit, the other fired.
So everything is in disarray.
They tried to lord the main warehouse manager over me,
I told them I don't need his help, I've been doing this for
8 years, thanks.
They rekeyed the entire place and I am getting my own
password into the new truck routing system so I don't have
to rely on main warehouse manager.  I dunno how they think
that guy has the time to add another entire warehouse onto his
plate.

He tried contacting me yesterday morning and I simply told
him I have it under control.  This isn't that difficult.
Maybe for a truck driver that has never been interested
in the operations of the company he is working for, yes,
that would pose a challenge but I have learned Trilogy, Descartes and
other programs simply because I want to be able to do this
stuff by myself and if just such things occur as what has happened
in the last few days.  They are going to have to bring in new
people or transfer them from somewhere else around the country.

Well whatever.  Just biding my time, waiting for that phone call.....

G'day.

ben

Home

Flight from Dallas to Phoenix last night.  One gate number on my ticket; another gate number announced by one crew member on the plane before the flight departed; yet another gate given when I got out of the plane and then when I finally got into DFW?  Loud broadcasts of yet another gate change!  Crazy! But it turned out to be my good fortune.  They had to bring in a second plane/crew to handle the load going to Phoenix and I had been reassigned to second aircraft and that plane was maybe 2/3rd's full. I got to my seat, only 1 dude sitting there, no one in middle seat, I had window - I only get window seat.  The guy 2 seats over is my age, nice enough person, we exchanged a few niceties and that was that, I went to sleep.

I was in and out of sleep with the rather loud, pre-recorded sounds of directions broadcast over the plane's speaker system. But finally, got to sleep and didn't wake up for quite awhile.  When I woke up out of that one, I looked around wondering where I was at - had gone into deep sleep, came out a bit dazed.  Looked to my left and there was Josiah sitting there.

????  I thought I must be dreaming, what on earth. That woke me up and I saw the man that had been sitting there was now a kid that looked very much like Josiah - the 16 year old - had on gym shorts and track shoes to boot.  I'm sitting there staring at this kid.  I feel eyes on me.  I look over and there is the man that was sitting next to me. Finally come out of this daze and understand that the man is with family, the boy must have wanted out of that cramped 3 person situation, the dad is staring at me. I just smiled at him - the dad that is - the boy was totally oblivious of it - and yes, I went back to sleep.

It was just very strange that I had this reminder of what I had just left sitting there on the aircraft.

Well regardless. Yesterday, sitting in her house in Texas, my company phone started ringing.  I am looking at the phone and it showing the ops manager.  I instantly had a bad feeling about this, my mind raced through numerous possibilities of why he would be calling me when he knew I was on vacation - and I was not wrong. My manager had been fired and he wanted me to know about it before I came back in.  I found out today the extent of what had happened - my manager had a screw come loose and I have no clue.  I am not going to go into that, but just to say that he fired himself.

I dunno, I don't want to go into all of that I just know that between getting in late last night and coming into that this morning plus having a security guard there - manager had to be escorted off property by police - and the chaos of no-one not knowing what is going on and with orders, I had my hands full.  The main warehouse manager was attempting to tell me what to do, please. He knows full well I do all of this stuff on a daily basis without anyone's help, I don't need this kind of crap being forced upon me.  I just im'ed him back: I have this covered, thanks.

Amazingly, I was left to myself for the rest of the day, driving all over the place.  The ops manager is running our store, he didn't call me a single time.  I know what they were thinking but I quickly assuaged those fears.  I am not going to go off the deep end because of this and they might have to deal with me, too.  Not a happening event.  I am leaving town, I don't need this.  I want to transfer over to another location within our company, not get canned and lose my job. I just won't go into the details of what happened with manager because yes, it was that bad and no, I don't feel it's a good thing to spread that out on the internet even if it may never leave the folds of this blog's corners.

I have not heard back from Shreveport.  I am not necessarily worried, but they said they would give me an answer this week and dangit, I need that answer either for good or bad.  I need to be able to move on one way or the other.  Haven't heard back from American, either.  I am asking for a voucher for free round trip flight for the bs. Okay, long shot I am sure but still, worth a try.

There is more, a lot more actually.  But my second wind has faded and I am drifting out.  It's only a quarter after six but I am coming back from a place that's a quarter after 8.  This whole business of traveling back and forth really messes with my internal clock.  Yeah, I am pretty much exhausted and hope to get something of a decent night's sleep tonight.

ben

The disgust of it.
Oh and my disclaimer: this keyboard not working all that great and often inserts more than one e!

I walked into the boy's bathroom - this is a HUGE house and it has four bathrooms, one of which is between 2 bedrooms and not accessible by the hallway.  It's between the 2 boy's bedrooms.  2 sleep in one, 2 sleep in the other.  The girls sleep in a bedroom across the hallway.

That bathroom? Disgusting.  I mean absolutely disgusting.  Words fail to describe the repulsion that came into me when looking at that gross bathroom, especially the shower room that has the shower/tub and the toilet.  It was worse than gross.  I mean, personally? I would refuse to take a shower in that bathroom much less do much of anything else in there.

You don't understand. There were cut pubic hairs in the sink.  I mean, I about threw up on that one.  Not just a few, I mean the sink was full of it.  The floor was abominable.  But it was the bathtub and the walls around the toilet that made me want to puke.  If that bathtub had been cleaned in the last 2 years I would be shocked.  It was soooooo gross.  Vile. Repulsive. Sickening. Disgusting. Revolting.

I decided to do an experiment.  I would scrub that entire bathroom down - walls, floors, toilet, bathtub/shower wall, clean it up to the point that I would even take a shower in there and then not only see what their reaction was to having a clean bathroom - but also impose some pretty stiff penalties if they decided that they were going to let it slide again.  Penalties not yet decided except for Josiah - he is the oldest in the house and he should be setting an example.  \

It took me an hour an a half to clean just the small side room to the bathroom that has the shower tub and toilet in it. I am not making that up.  I scrubbed that entire tub and wall set up FOUR separate, complete times before it was finally gleaming and looking good.

The ten year old boy was with me the entire time.  He made no fuss.  3 plus hours of it and he was working his ass off.  I was impressed.  But in his case it became apparent that there was much more to this than just wanting to help.  He was clinging to me like flies on a stick strip.  Everywhere I went. I cooked up 2 huge racks of ribs on their grill today. Slow cooking, this was after we were done with the bathroom and I was not going to start anything else, there would be no time to finish it and I didn't want to leave things half done.  So after I got them on there and got it going, I decided to take a nap on the couch in the HUGE living room.  I laid down on the couch, he got on the other end facing me and that was that.

Amazing what a little attention can and will do for a person that gets none of it, whatsoever, from his own dad.  He slipped twice today calling me dad instead of Ben.

Well, there was much more that happened today, MUCH more but I am so tired.  It's late and I think i am going to go to bed instead of writing out a much longer entry.  Try to finish this tomorrow. Flying out of here tomorrow evening, no fun.  Getting home late and then having to get up and go to work the next morning.  Don't mind but I am guessing I am going to be very tired.

Anyways, g'nite.

ben

Disclaimer: using faulted keyboard. Sometimes it works peerfectly other times it does double and triple e's and other such nonsense.

Anyway, went to job interview, store manageer wasn't there.  However, an inside sales manageer that apparently is thee gm's right hand man was there and we got into a discussion about not only business, but then family and life in general.  After about forty minutes of this,  the gm showed up and we headed to his office.  Not sure how we got into a discussion about the Lord/God and miracles, but we did.  Pretty much hit it right off with the two people I did talk to there.

I got a tour of the place, goodness.  It's a total disaster.  I didn't know our company allowed placees to look like that.  Dirty, filthy, unorganized.  I think the manager wants someone to help with that, but appareently no-onee there has such intentions.  Makes him look bad, frankly.  I know how corporate feels about such things.

Long story short, theey have 3 drivers. 2 of them have been there forever.  They have been with the company much longer than I have and they get even more paid vacation days off.  So they are always asking for time off - no big deal excepting that the third is a temp driver and he is not working out.  Our company uses temp agencies mostly to find new drivers to fill positions. /Sometimes you get great drivers other times?  lol.  This particular person has a CDL but.....he can't drive eeither a semi tractor or a bobtail but made himself sound like he was proficient in driving a tractor trailer rig.  I think they have other issues with him as well, they alluded to that but didn't go into it.  Well, yes, I am guessing because he won't pull orders.\ Many truck drivers get that idea in their heads because they are OTR and mostly what's expected of OTR drivers is to - drive. Not load or unload or pull orders or much of anything else.

The only issue is my pay, really. They will get rid of that temp driver but I am making more than your average driver in this company, or even above average driver.  I earned it, I certainliy don't feel bad about it.  I offered that I would be willing to take a pay cut, but not a huge one.  I left there shaking his hand, him telling me he would talk to the Ops manager and that he would try to keep my pay, actually.  It's a forty-five minute drive from Val's house, or somewhere around that. I could deal with that, at least for the here and now in order to be able to get myself out here.

So let's fast forward to the bonfire last night with the guests and kids and all of that. Well, started out with me coming over, getting everyone except Josiah .... well it started 2 nights about ago actually.  He was having a freaking cow that he was going to stay home and we were going to go get his gf without him. Just ridiculous, spiraling way out of proportion. Calm down boy, this isn't worth blowing up over. Spent time with Val after sending the kids upstairs - I started taking a much more authoritative role on this visit, telling kids what to do and not tolerating the bs - and decided we would take the kids to the pinewood derby without Josiah or the fourteen yeaer old brother = they willingly stayed home to clean up  - and then we would come back and I would get into pickup with him, go get the girl, get some diesel fuel for the fire and go to Walmart for the food and drinks for this affair.

Well, Joisah and I get along pretty well and kinda mess around a lot when we are actually in person, together, our personalities are far different but we don't clash.  So went and got the girl, met her mom, went to Walmart.  This was quite the adventure in itself, but anyways got everything and then went to Whataburger and got some burgers, ate them while driving to the gas station, got the fuel, got back and I......took a nap.  Takes me days sometimes to get back to normal after having had been up more than half the night such as occurred at that airport and missed connecting flight.

Got up from that, had Josiah dump a bunch of diesel around the edges of the huge pile of wood and junk, then had to listen to him complaining about how he wouldn't be able to get it started cause it wasn't gasoline.  Gag, dude, just light the cardboard on fire, this thing will take off. Yup, it did, sending up 15 foot flames and black, sooty smoke and got so hot that standing 25 feet away from it was too close. Guests showed up including a lot of teenagers.  Gf's dad came and I hit it off with him right off.  I'm pretty good about that anyway. A person has to be a real jerkoff for me to not hit it off with them pretty good.

Well a couple of hours of this - ladies talking with ladies, teens with teens and the dad and I talking and then? Suddeenly realized the teens had all disappeared. I mean, we looked all over the place, they were nowhere to be found and had not asked for permission to leave.  Actually, they were all looking at me - Josiah should have asked me permission to go wherever, and with that crew I would have said no, unless I go with you. Sorry, but I am not knowingly going to let a bunch of teen boys and girls go off into the woods by themselves doing God knows what and some of them being over there without their parents present.  So, everyone is calling and texting their kids, I was calling and texting Josiah without any response.  Not a good sign.  Started calling him. No reply.  I had a pretty good idea where they were headed, the big lake on the property next store.

5 minutes later, Josiah's reading my texts and going haywire, yeah we're coming back right now! Be there in 5 minutes.  Gf's mom going ballistic.  They get back and she approaches the whole lot of them, completely blows up. When I say blow up,I mean it was really, really bad. So farrrrr out of proportion for the "crime" that had been committed.  I couldn't believe it.  Unbelievable, really.  Kids were all white-faced.  Josiah started shaking. His gf was getting visibly angry at her mom.  After 5 full minutes of this, she commanded the whole lot of them to come over and apologize to me.  So they did ..... but I just blew it off. It's no big deal, you guys are all good.  Which they weren't Josiah was angry and sad and humiliated.  She took him to task in front of all of those people.

It took an hour plus for Josiah and gf to cool down, the mom to realize what an ass she had made of herself and go around apologizing to everyone and Josiah's older sister getting into the mom's face plus making comments to Val about me.  She is very disrespectful to me even though I have said nothing to her.  I thought the party was ruined.  This was really Josiah's party and all of his friends and he was so upset.  I dunno, but maybe an hour later, I took him aside, talked to him for a few minutes and then we threw some more wood on the fire.  A few minutes later, he appeared out of the house with his guitar and away we went.  Whole atmosphere changed and the party got good after that.

Went to bed, totally exhausted, never did get caught up from the first night's fiasco.  Forced myself out of bed this morning, came over, we went to church.  Good service.  Josiah playing with texting phone - put the damned thing away. At the end the pastor had these cards up at the altar.  If you feel compelled, come up, write someone's name on it and drop it at the foot of the cross and pray over that person.  I wrote the 3 names that came to mind - Josiah, Jacob and Nathan.  3 boys, 3 different sets of problems, 3 people to pray for.  Not that I haven't already prayed for all of them.

Unbeknownst to me, Jacob followed me up to the altar and I didn't realize he was behind me until I got back to the seat we were at and he was right behind me.  Got into the van, took the kids over to ex's house, dropped all 6 of them off there and then headed to Chinese restaurant, ate some food, came home, took a nap and here we are.  I gotta good feeling about the job, I think they want me just don't know about the money. They are going to call me this coming week with whatever offer they may have.

Val and I are spending time alone without the kids this afternoon and then go pick them up at eight, they have school tomorrow, no great plans tomorrow but probably i will do some work around here, no lack of that.  This place needs serious attention but the things I would like to see if I can fix are clogged up drains.

That's it and until next time....

G'day.

ben

Strandeed in Dallas, Tx.  This is no fun.  Plane took off late in Phoenix. Why?  Because the freaking jetway was STUCK to the airplane.  They couldn't dislodge and ordered all passengers off of the airplane.  I am not going to try and fix the errors that this keyboard is giving me so that's my excuse in advance.  Anyway, a third of the plane FULL of people got off and then they said get back on! Well, you know how people are, some anyway, well a lot, oblivious to the world.  Take your sweet old time, take 2 minutes to put a bag into an overhead bin that should take you 5 seconds at most.  It cost us in time, we were forty five minutes late leaving.

When we finally landed, I had thirty minutes to get off that plane, get on a tram and get over to the correct gate.  Nothing was working.  People who didn't have connecting flights were instructed to stay in their seats to let those that didn't have connecting flights off first.  No-one cared, of course so since I was near the back of the plane, I was screwed.  Got out of that and to the tram and realized my gate was clear on the other side of the airport.  Those trams at DFW move fast, but not fast enough.  I got to the exit, got off, ran to the gate to find they had just shut it, pulled the jetway away and the plane was sitting there.

They couldn't have cared less. Even if it was their airline's fault that I was late.  Nope, we can't do anytihng for you and the next available flight isn't available until twelve thirty today!  NO WAY.  Valerie was like, nuh-uh, I am coming to get you and she did.  Meanwhile I was making endless calls.  They gave me the boarding passes and free food voucher and a free night's stay at a Marriot and I got the bleep out of there and got to the hotel .  Even if a short stay, FAR better than sitting at that airport for hours.  Got my free dinner, got in my room and almost fell asleep.  .

Val showed up and we drove back, almost 3 hours drive.  Didn't get into town until three am, I knew I would feel like shit today and I wasn't let down.  But no way am I missing that job interview, I don't care how I, I am going and that's that.  She's all over it too, she knows that getting a job determines when I can move out there.

So, I am \sitting at Denny's in Longview, drinking massive amoiunts of coffee and she is heading over with the 3 little ones, should be here pretty quick.  I haven't seen those kids in four months and they like me and I like them, little kids are fun to be around - well no always but usually they can be quite entertaining. The older ones are all at school.  We have nothing planned for after the interview so I am guessing I am going to want to take a nap this afternoon. In fact, I may just break down and do a hotel for one night to ensure a good night's sleep cause' tomorrow? It's going to be quite the day starting with  pinewood derby in the morning and cruising the rest of the day with activities and getting ready for the bonfire tomorrow night.  I just need a good night's sleep for that.  Though I don't doubt that I will get on after last night.  Just that going to bed at 3 am? It doesn't matter what time you get up, at least me, not going to feel one hundred percent, maybe later on and catch a second wind or something.

Actually, the airline did offer to fly me out to Shreveport last night, which is where the interview is, but she wanted to see me so strike that.  Probably would have worked out better for all of us though.  I would be there right now and she could come and get me at the appointed time, take her and the kids to that science place and then head over to the store to meet up with the store's manager.

But oh well.  The airline wouldn't concede anything, either, until i got a supervisor on the line with whatever department I was on with.  She offered me a one hundred buck voucher which I took, better than nothing.  Actually, if they would have kept the gate open until they said it would close, I would have been on that plane and none of this would have happened. They did not and now all this garbage.

Well, make the best of this situation and move on.

Gotta get my mind in the right place so I can have a good visit with that manager.

G'day.

ben

So, at 10:05 tonight, that little jet will be landing in Tyler, TX and I will finally get to see my lady again!  And I haven't seen the kids since New Year's and there is a lot of stuff going to go on packed in these next 5 days, so hold on to my hat and git along with it!

So am I forgetting anything?  The quintessential question that pokes itself up in the minds of most people when they are about to leave on a trip.  Well, there are a couple of things I wanted to take that I can't fit into the little suitcase.

Oh well, just about to get this ball rolling.  Off to work, home, to the airport and then to never-never land!

G'day.

ben

One thing that  a person living in Maricopa County should never do: get on Sheriff Joe's s*** list for "deadbeat dads".  I am not a deadbeat dad and never have been, but if you forget to pay child support, well, you know.  I'm about to take off out of town and realized I hadn't sent that out yet, oops! Well not an oops if I get it sent out in time, but still.  Okay, probably wouldn't happen having one late payment, but still.  Pretty much coming up to the end of the line on the child support payment train and I am gong to research it and try to get a court date before I move to get this resolved once and for all.

Susan comes out 20 minutes ago demanding to know how to reset the wireless router.

I'm not sorry to say that first thing in the morning?  You do not come out with an attitude with me and start cranking about the internet.  I said something to her and then proceeded to unplug the thing and leave the cord laying there - plug it back in in 15 seconds (if you plug it right back it, it won't reset it).

Yesterday.  Was trying to get this third and final song down. I'm a good way there and have enough time to get it by the time we are going to do our little performance.

I also got mad at Josiah, a thing I have been trying to avoid which ended up in a long, drawn out conversation  He was acting like an ass with his mother, but telling me he wasn't doing anything.  I'm sitting there thinking, have I lost it? She is telling me one thing and he is telling me something completely different.  I re-read all of it and said no, I am siding with her, he plays people against each other if it will benefit him.

So I stuck it to him and after he continued to say he wasn't doing anything, that's when I started getting irritated and probably went overboard with it.  To the point I ended up having to apologize to him for over-reacting, though at least he finally admitted at some point that he was being stupid and then apologized to both me and his mom. She was in a very bad mood yesterday, kids were fighting and cranking all day long and apparently that set (well, the little ones that stay home with her) her off with Josiah and the rest of the older ones and then discussions about what he was going to do tonight for church.  They got into it and took it completely out of my hands.  The whole point of giving him over to me was to eliminate that junk between them, well one of the points of it anyway.

Whatever.  New day.  Gotta get my clothes packed and things ready to go.  Taking a carry on piece only, they want $25 for checked in luggage and I refuse to do that, not this time or last time either, it;s a waste of money and I am only there 5 days.  I can pack enough clothes into that small suitcase to last me.

Anyway, I'll be busy after work that's for sure, I was yesterday too trying to get stuff done.

G'day.

ben

I'll tell you what.  I get all caught up in everything that's going on and then suddenly realize that this is Tuesday and I'm flying out to Texas on Thursday.

What significance does that have? Cause I have to be ready to go by tomorrow night and there are numerous things that I need to get done.  When I get home from work on Thursday it will be to turn around and leave for the airport.  Wish I could just drive straight there but geeze, the cost of airport parking is outrageous.  I'm not even that far, about 6 miles - too far to walk but far enough to get dumped with an outrageous fee for a taxi as well.

Oh well. I'll get it all done. Wanna take all that change in and see how much I have.  That's a portion of my spending money, gotta be at least 150 there if not more.  I don't really need a whole lot of money - help pay for gas, a round of bowling and some food and drinks for the bonfire.  Oh, an donuts.  The little girls love the donuts and ask her every day if I am going to be bringing them. lol.

Oh, and it's the girl's birthday on Friday! Well one of them the other a week before or something. Having a birthday party for them as well.  Yikes.  THis is going to be one busy trip!

HUGE day at work today, lots of stuff to do, thankfully.

G'day.

ben

Have you ever tried to learn a song in a music genre that you have mostly ignored and not listened to your entire life? And then try to learn 3 of them in a month? So you can sing them at a huge, giant bonfire in front of a bunch of people you don't know to your fiancee? With a 16 year old boy, to boot who is going to sing it to his girl at the same time?

I didn't think so.

I just started trying to learn the 3rd song yesterday and have spent today listening to it over and over and trying to get the lyrics down - but for me and on this particular song?  Yeah, difficult.  They sing that music in a much different fashion than rock and ti's just plain hard.
But I don't want to sound like I am complaining, to the contrary, it's a huge challenge that I am attempting to rise to and "conquer".

Is that all I did today? Absolutely not, it's what I did today while working; working out with weights; this that and the other thing and 2 final attempts just before going to bed. I did sing the other 2 songs today to make sure I still had them down and I nailed them on all 4 attempts.  But it took a week on each one of them,I admittedly took a week off from this and I might end up regretting not being able to do the third song because I don't have an entire week to learn it.

Which doesn't mean in the next 4 days I won't try!  lol

G'nite.

ben

Talked with Lynnette yesterday.
About my moving and them dealing with this house.
I have a little more confidence now after talking to her that they can, in fact, deal with this place and more importantly the people living within it.
But they are going to have to be able to keep people living here, not run them off.
There is a fine balance I have learned to dealing with individuals and going overboard with it.
We'll see what happens, there is a minimum amount of money this place needs to bring in in order to be able to pay for everything

Then there's the 12 year old.
He's got a pretty good mouth going, calling her a slut and a whore.
The kid is lucky I wasn't there, actually I think I am lucky I wasn't there because hearing a son saying that to his mother?

Gag.

Monday morning.  Weekends just disappear like they never existed.  Amazing how that happens.
You get up and wonder???? Yeah, I know I got a lot of stuff done this weekend, but still.

3-1/2 days til' I leave for Texas.

G'day.

ben

Finally.
Got everything out of the closet, vacuumed it and threw away 3 very large trash bags full of stuff - junk - papers - things I will never use. Putting what's left back in, with stuff that needs a round 2 - like couldn't decide on round one but round 2 stuff is stuff I could sell at a yard sale or on Craigslist, not stuff I would just trash.  Still, I have whittled that down quite a bit and by the time I have everything ready to move, I do not expect it to be a huge amount of things. My computers; guitar; clothes; pics and trinkets; just nothing that is going to take up a huge amount of space.

Which is why I am gawking at the cost of moving stuff long distance.  It's called being reamed and since I have time to try and figure this out, I figure I am going to see about my options.  $250 to have a hitch installed on the car and $150 for a trailer, got $400 going there instead of a grand and we are all done with that.  Maybe, anyway.  I dunno. Still got some stuff to sort through but my gosh this was terrible.  I am not completely done yet just on the downside and probably another hour and I can wrap it up. A couple of boxes of books that I need to go through, but that's just plain not going to happen today.

Meanwhile, m'lady and the situation over there. Josiah was acting like an ass this morning and I'm tired of it.  He goes to his girlfriend's house and acts like an angel and then comes home and acts like a demon.  It's really that bad.  He has replaced his mom with his gf's mom and it's just intolerable, I've had enough of it and I am calling him later on today after I get a chance to think about it and get what I need to get said to him in my mind.  That boy can out talk anyone. I mean in terms of words being spewed out and the rapid-fire pace he can shoot them out with, I am not including any amount of appreciable intelligence to go with that.  One of those people that speaks before they think.  I refuse to get dragged into a competition with him, I'll just let him wear himself out saying what he has to say and then I'll start in on him.

So, Lynnette informed me that when I leave, she is taking my mattress out of my bedroom.
Ummm, okay. No, I am not taking any of that with me. Won't have room for it.  Hopefully finding a place to live temporarily, presuming I am out there before we are married, that already has a bed.  She is checking at church, I will find something if not.

______________________________________________________________________

Very long interlude.  I worked on that closet all day long today.  It's done.  I have a few small boxes of stuff to go through but nothing major.  I am going to shift my attention to other things now that I need to go through and continue on until I am pretty much sure I have most if not all of it covered and getting ready to actually move will not be a big ordeal. Find boxes, pack stuff up, go.

So today.  Wow.  I mean, I was texting on and off with her and with Josiah all day long while I was getting all of this stuff done. Thanks to Fin for the advice on using the microphone to speak your message on text, it works pretty good as long as you speak clearly into it.It messes up sometimes but the benefits far outweigh the cons in this case, at least for me.   I can actually text on that new phone pretty darn fast but not near as fast as just talking into it!

So the 12 year old.  I bought him a bike almost 2 weeks ago and had it sent to Walmart.  Not an expensive bike but his bike fell apart.  But this kid! Has such a whiny, grating attitude. He was saying al kinds of sh** to his mom today and she actually went out of her way to go pick that bike up for him.  NO. I suggested this: silent treatment.  Yeah, she actually went through with it, and yeah, as I expected, the kid ran through the gamut of bs and talking trash about both me and her and I just said keep quiet. Talk to anyone else, treat him as if he doesn't even exist.

Not over yet.  Nope.  He declared he was going outside to put the bike together, I texted Josiah who was working in the garage cleaning it up: get that bike and bring it in with you and don't let him touch it.  He texted back: yeah, no problem! and he didn't let that kid do anything with it. M'lady, however and expected, was having a hard time giving the boy the silent treatment.  I understand though it would be much easier for me to do if I were there. Put up my right hand: talk to the hand, cause' nothing else wants to hear it!  I stuck with her on this one until she went to bed - 2 hour time difference.

Then :I called Josiah.  I am getting tired of the texting only relationship, especially when there are issues.  I told him earlier today I wanted to call and talk to him about something.  But later on, he asked about the new workout routine I gave him - he finally found his dumb bells so now we up this thing considerably.  So that conversation went on about the new routine, didn't even get into the issue I wanted to deal with.

Later, I asked him in text if he was available? Well,I'm done working out going to bed soon. Yeah right. 9 o'clock there,highly doubtful,he is still showing online on his facebook account and it's nearly 11 there. But he was like no,I want to know!  Well we got into a long texting situation and I regretted it.  I should have just called him, much easier.  But it was a good discussion - even though he got very defensive - and we are at least on the way to trying to resolve the problem.

Back to home, I am very happy with myself that I actually got that closet cleaned out.

And with that? It's Sunday night, bedtime and I need to get to sleep.

G'nite.

ben

I have nothing going on over at my house that even comes close to the amount of stuff that goes on over at m'lady's house!

Today?  I get text from her: water heater is leaking, how do I drain it out?  Spigot on the bottom dear, hook up a hose and drain it out that way.  She and 16 year old - I think I'll just start listing his name since he's basically my stepson at this point, well not officially but since he's my responsibility - his name is Josiah - He has a Facebook page if you know m'lady's last name which at least some readers do you can simply type in Josiah and his last name and it will come up - are trying to get the thing to drain out.  Easier for me to deal with if I'm there, but basically the valve wouldn't open to drain it.

Yes well that's what happens when you don't open it up at least once a year and drain as much of the sediment out of there as possible so that it doesn't rust out the tank and also cost less to heat - so I made numerous suggestions and the finally got the thing to drain.

But while that was happening, her 8 year old daughter was in the kitchen, cooking eggs and set off the smoke detector, which alerted the monitoring company who tried to call her - with no answer because she was stressing over the water leaking out of the heater.  So guess what happened next? Yup, 2 fire trucks showed up.

Now she also wants to find out what is leaking through the upstairs floor and into the celing below.  Old house, pretty much it needs new plumbing I am guessing.  Stuff I could do but to get at it would mean tearing up walls and ceiling and all kinds of stuff - big project.  But if it needs to be done, it will get on the list.

Meanwhile, dealing with Josiah this morning.  No real issues, just that he is going over to girlfriend's house today and he has to text me when he leaves, when he stops at store, when he leaves from the store, when he arrives at the house and then every 2 hours while there and also if he leaves to go somewhere text when leaving, etc, so forth, ad-nauseum.  I am getting him trained.  Mom wanted all this texting before but he would "forget" with her and start trouble.  Yeah, that isn't going to work with me.  He is with her parents pretty much the whole so that's why he was fussing.  Well, son, because you are going to have a driver's license very soon and you need to get used to the idea that you are going to have to report to me - and frequently.

"Well are you EVER going to trust me?!!"  This is not about trust (well okay, so it is but I have to answer the question differently so he gets a different picture in his mind), this is about accountability and the fact that we all get tempted to do things we shouldn't and so, call it your Mentor looking over your shoulder just helping you stay on the straight and narrow.  Mom would give him a completely different answer that just doesn't work in the mind of a teenager wanting his freedom. He'll get his  freedom, with strings, lots of them, attached at first.  As he shows himself faithful and he earns my trust, then yes, some of the strings will be detached, but not all of them, not until he's 18 anyway.  After that, he is responsible for his own actions and that's that.  Whether he liked that reply from me or not, I don't know or care, he accepted it and that's all I wanted or needed.

So that's that - for now.  He's 15 minutes late on a text but since he texted me an hour ago about a change of location, I will give that one a pass but if he doesn't text my in the next 45 minutes, he's going to receive a text that says "strike one".  Lol.

And Josiah is the boy that I am going to sit next to and we are going to sing to our girls sitting in front of us together.  It was my idea but he's the kind of kid that is all over that kind of thing, he plays guitar and loves to sing.  The catch for me was I have to learn country songs of his choosing to do it.  So I've got 2 of them down - and I do mean down now after much trying.  "Hard To Love" and "It Goes Like This". The second song tripped me up for days, especially certain parts but I finally got it memorized and can sing it good.  Country music is WAY different than the music I like and grew up with, hard to get it in my mind.  The third song which I just started listening to last night is called Rewind by Rascal Flatts and  I dunno if I will be able to get it memorized before next Saturday, though I should if I spend enough time with it.  I think we are going to sing at the bonfire Saturday night!  I will definitely get a video of that bonfire, their pile of stuff is HUGE!!

That's Josiah and those are 3 medals he won in track last night, one of them a gold in the 400meter run.  And he just texted me a few minutes ago while I was trying to figure out how to save an Instagram pic, which it won't let you do so, fortunately for me, I learned how to use the print screen and use paint program a long time ago!

Enough about that.  I have spent a good deal of time in that closet this morning, but I HAD to get out of there. I can only deal with that stuff for so long before I have to go do something else.  Going back to it in a few as I have taken and hour off from it.  Have frozen ribs I bought at last sale thawing, hopefully I can start cooking them in an hour or 2 and have them done no later than 5.  I just still cannot believe how much useless paper I have saved up in there. But I am finding a lot of gems as well, especially pics from the past of family.  And more money, lol, all of which I am using on the next trip.  Oh and some cool wall pics, I'll be taking them to Texas with me.

And that is the next headache once I finally figure out when I am moving there, which is still up in the air at this point.  HOW am I going to move my stuff there? I have not found a single option yet that is even remotely in what I would consider to be "affordable".  Even renting a U-Haul truck, the smallest one they have is ridiculous.  If only I owned a pickup truck! I could just haul my stuff out there on a trailer.  I have no clue yet.  I may end up installing a hitch on my car and buying a $200 Harbor Freight utility trailer, about $400 for all of that, which is at least a $500 savings over ANYTHING else I have found so far.  It's at least viable solution since I am not taking a house full of furniture with me. But I have 3 dogs to haul as well! Gag! That's going to be one LONG trip is all I can say.  And with those dogs, I won't be able to stay at any motels, they might let me have one dog in a room but not 3 and definitely not 2 of them that are that large!

Yeah, moving is going to be a huge pain in the ass.  I guess I am going to have to resolve in my mind to basically drive straight there with food stops and dog relief stops on the way and then just sleep a day when I get there.  I haven't done that kind of driving in a long, long time, but I used to do it regularly.  Don't much care for it but I think I can do it with a few nap stops here and there. Dogs will just have to suffer.  My record is driving out almost 1,000 miles without stopping once.

Well, in my mind, whatever I have to go through to get out there is going to be totally worth it.  I might complain and whine a bit on the way, but I will stop once I'm there!

Back to the grind.

G'day.

ben