More

I've accomplished quite a lot around here today.
I'm slow watering every single plant out front. That's been going on for about 7 hours now, and it's half done. Just want those plants to get a good watering and not have to think about it again for at least another week - maybe even 2 weeks.

I got rambunctious and decided that I was going to get the old Buick started. I ran it out of gas - sitting in the driveway - months ago and never did anything about getting it going again. Today - I tried to start it and the batter was dead. Borrowed my neighbor's battery charger - charged it for several hours.

It took an hour's worth of trying, here and there (so not to burn up the starter) in cranking the engine before it finally started, that after dumping 2 gallons of fresh fuel into it. Okay, I was glad to get it running. Took it down the street and back. Again - leaving a car just sitting there and not at least running it and maybe driving it a little once in a while is not good for the car.

Umm, so I'm over there talking with my neighbor. He's "heard" that Mary is leaving. No surprise to me, I want her to get out of Dodge - or Ben Towers. But his information didn't come from Mary or me. He also stated that Mary has fully 7 evictions on her record. Uhh, I didn't see that many - there's some on there but there's several Mary Cox's on there that aren't this particular Mary Cox - many of them give the middle initial, and yes, I know Mary's middle initial. Actually, her entire middle name.

I pressed him, just a little, for the source of his information. Just wouldn't tell me. No clue. I don't know who else he would be talking to that would have that kind of information, but he adamently stated that the info did not come from Mary. Interesting.

It would be far easier if she would move out on her own. However, she tried to give me February rent. Serious. Didn't make a lot of sense. She's now cleaning the door in my kitchen that divides the utility room from the kitchen. I don't know about this woman, but my neighbor had some interesting statements. To be brutally blunt: He likes her boobs. He likes a LOT of women's boobs. He goes on and on and on about boobs - ever since I moved here some 5 years ago now. He takes her to the store - on his custom motorcycle. She has to hold onto his waist - and - of course - press her boobs into his back.

I know, it's just guy stuff. Lol. This is the guy that asks complete strangers - women strangers - to show their boobs to him - in full public view.

Mary is a complicated matter. I'm sure there is something wrong upstairs. First, the fact that she's on some kind of drug to stabilize her moods; second because she definitely has mood swings and third; just some terribly erratic behavior. When she's nice, she's sweet as pie. When she's not nice - the gates of hell just opened.

Anyway, I then tried to get the weedeater that my friend at work gave me started. I ended up having to go to the gas station and get some fuel and mix it with 2-cycle oil. Put that in, the thing fired right up, ran for 15 seconds and died. The carburetor is flooded and keeps flooding. Next is to go to the store and get some carb cleaner and spray that in there. If that doesn't work, take the thing apart. If that doesn't work, find someone who is good with 2-cycle engines and try to get it running. It's been sitting - though the gas tank was totally emptied out. Still, 2-cycle engines sitting usually means carburetor work. It just does. I've had enough experience with it.

Stopped writing this entry for quite a while. Mary came in here and started sweeping the floors. Didn't take her long to figure out that I had completely cleaned the floors earlier today - just haven't waxed them because I don't have any wax. Haven't been anywhere today. Don't want to go anywhere. She then mopped the floor. That preceded by the cleaning of the door. There is nothing else to clean in here - I spent hours scrubbing this place down. Literally. My kitchen will be and stay clean. I will not be entertaining cockroaches, thank you very much.

She then went out front, took the hose that I had on trickle and started watering plants on full blast. Not what I was doing, and tomorrow, I will just continue where I left off. Still a number of plants out there that I want to deep water.

And with that, I'm done - watching the NFL channel going crazy over the Cardinals and how they are going to blow the Steelers away. Oh really? I mean, 2 hours of this and only a short blurb on the Steelers defense. To watch this show, you'd think the Steelers were a peewee football team that are full of know-nothings and have no skills.

Gag.

Saturday/Morning

Ummm, BenB reminds himself to not wait so long to post copies of my journal to the other 2 - it takes too long to get caught up.

Mary - nothing. Which is good. No more emails, no handwritten notes, nothing. She walks through here with her friends - the ones that say "Hi Ben" I say hi back to - still going to be nice to the people who have nothing to do with this. Mary has a lot friends - most of them are guys.

First round of cleaning finished. I scrubbed everything in the kitchen - have the floors left to go. I continue to forget to buy regular floor wax when I go to Fry's. I have this other stuff I got from the dollar store - it's some different kind of stuff that doesn't leave the beautiful shine on your floors. So, a trip to Fry's will have to take place before I start that little project. Recent rains have left my windows looking pretty bad as well, gonna do some of them this weekend - but definitely not all of them.

Transience. Room rentals is all about transience. People come and go. This particular mode of thinking got me wondering if I should think about a third tenant for a couple of 3/4 months to get caught up and get ahead, especially with summer looming and high electric bills not too far in the horizon. Nope, don't want 3 strangers living with me - yup - what choice do I have? None. I have looked for a second job and it ain't happening. Not a decent job, anyway. The aggravation of working at or near minimum wage would be far worse for me than having a 3rd person in here. Giving it some consideration, anyway. Regardless, my rental contract I have now for people to sign is laden with extra stuff I put on there. I am protecting myself to the extremes.

How often do you have to replace toilet seats? I've noticed over the years that they simply do not last that long before they start cracking and showing the innards. Not a particularly pleasant look when entering a bathroom, I'm going to have to replace the main seat here pretty soon.

Probably do some things around here with some of that award money. Bills, yes, but there are things I need to do.

Anyway, I don't really feel like writing too terribly much this morning as I have a head full of pondering and thoughts that are distracting me.

Have a great Saturday!
ben

Latest Rounds Of Job Layoffs

Caterpillar: 21,200 jobs

Eastman Kodak: 3,500 to 4,500 jobs

Cessna Aircraft: 2,000 more jobs for a total of 4,600 jobs

StarBucks: 7,000 more jobs (Jan. 28th)

Boeing: 10,000 jobs (Jan. 28th)

Target: 9 percent of its headquarters staff, shut a distribution center in Little Rock, Ark, impose a salary freeze for senior management and reduce planned store openings. (Jan 27th)

Corning: 3,500 jobs (Jan 27th)

Texas Instruments: 3,600 jobs (Jan 26th)

General Motors: Cutting shifts at 2 factories for roughly 2,000 job cuts.

Home Depot: 7,000 jobs and closing Expo Design chain.

Sprint-Nextel: 8,000 jobs

Pfizer: Pfizer announced Jan. 26 it will lay off 8,000 workers now, and as many as 12,000 more later, as it buys competitor Wyeth for $68 billion.

Harley-Davidson: Scaling back 1,100 jobs over 2 years.

Microsoft: 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months (Jan 23rd)

Huntsman Corp: (Chemical company) 1,175 job cuts by the end of this year (Jan 22)

United Airlines: 1,000 more jobs (Jan 22)

Williams-Sonoma: Williams-Sonoma announced Jan. 21 that it would cut 1,400 jobs, close a call center in Camp Hill, Penn., and a distribution facility in Memphis, Tenn.

Intel: As many as 6,000 job cuts (Jan 21)

bhpbilliton: (Mining) 6,000 jobs (Jan 21)

Yankee Candle: 330 jobs (Jan 21)

Ericsson: 5,000 jobs (Jan 21)

Eaton Corp.: 5,200 jobs (Jan 20)

Clear Channel Communications: 1,850 jobs (Jan 20th)

Warner Brothers: 800 jobs (Jan 20th)

Bose: 1,000 jobs (Jan 20th)

General Electric: Announcement to employees of intended layoffs, no public disclosure of how many, employs 75,000 people

Advanced Micro Devices: 1,100 workers (Jan 16th) - 9% of workforce

Hertz: 4,000 jobs (Jan 16th)

Wellpoint: (Health Insurer) 1,500 jobs (Jan 16th)

Saks Fifth Avenue: 1,100 Jobs (Jan 15th)

Google: 100 recruiting jobs (Jan 15th)

Delta Air Lines: 2,000 jobs (Jan. 15th)

Motorola: 4,000 more jobs (Jan 15th)

Neiman Marcus: 375 jobs (Jan 13th)

Seagate Technology: (Manufacturer of hard drives) 10% of workforce (no actual numbers given) (Jan 12th)

Walgreens: 1,000 corporate management jobs

EMC Corp: (World's largest manufacturer of external disc drives) 2,400 (Jan 7)

Alcoa: 13,500 jobs (Jan 6th)

That was the list for this year. There were more for the end of last year, but you get the picture. This is billions of dollars of lost employment wages - at least. All of these people are being or will be sent out into the cold - and then what? What is going to happen to those people? What is already happening to those that have already lost their jobs?

Where is this all going to end? I was thinking maybe I better go buy myself another large tent and camping equipment - might have to live in it someday. Our company continues to lay off people in smaller numbers, freeze on hiring and not replacing those that quit for whatever reason.

Just a little look at the reality going on in our little world.