Monday

More rain.
It was overcast all day long, and then finally started raining again not half an hour ago.
It wasn't very surprising to hear the rumors of reduced hours, shut down stores and employee layoffs to start surfacing again at work today.
Though - it is pure speculation based on a little bit of fact. The fact was that management was definitely considering cutting everyone's hours back to 35 per week.
Speculation is that it will now happen. Further speculation that one of the outposts - a store that isn't doing very well - will be shut down and the 2 employees running it will be shipped back to the main branch.

More fact that salary-plus employees have had a new work shcedule introduced,they are no longer salary plus and I really haven't got an idea of WHAT they are on now.

Even further, the general manager of our division in AZ outwardly shows hope that we are going to ride out the storm, rumor that he is definitely wondering what's going to happen next. Corporate will make whatever decisions they decide to make - if any - and then we'll see what happens.

Reality? If the economy continues to go the way it does, I'm guessing a nationwide percentage layoff at our company. I'm also guessing they may just do away with both stores in the valley, the one I already spoke of an our store and go back to servicing all accounts out of the main branch. The cost savings would be substantial. We have the drivers and the trucks to be able to do so. Further speculation of local layoffs, meaning our division.

So, I sit here wondering what's coming next. I mean, the company isn't going to just continue on with their plans of expansion, instead, it's going to do whatever it has to to survive. This is only natural and for me - well - I will just go to work everyday and hope that I will have continued employment there.

I talked to 3 different drivers of 3 different trucking companies that come into our yard today. One driver rattled off a dozen companies that are laying off drivers, another said his company is doing well, the third the same as the first.

Of course this is cause for concern. I sit here and wonder what I am going to do if I get the axe. My brother - every time I talk to him - asks me what my backup plan is. WHAT backup plan? How do you make a backup plan in this kind of economy? I have none. Hit the streets and start pounding the doors for a job, that's all I can say. I hope it doesn't come to that. I know there are millions of other people that are wondering the same thing: will there be a job to go to tomorrow. Millions more have already lost their jobs. I also ponder what the American landscape is going to be after this collapse is over and done with.

The signs of inevitable restructuring/layoffs/whatever are the dismal numbers that are being posted. Or the days that there are no deliveries to make. 2 years ago this time we were going full-steam and the company was making plans for further expansion. I was working full days, non-stop go, go, go. Today? I did a return of some storm drainage pipe and did transfers. Tomorrow - not a single delivery for our branch unless something changed since I left work today - which it often does.

So, that's what my mind has been filled up with lately. It transcends everything else, even the situation with Mary. Without a job, I sink, period. I join the huge list of people losing their homes.

I have a backup plan, yes I do. It's a gruesome plan at best. It would suck, undoubtedly. But it exists. It might save my house. You might already guess what it would entail. I'd pitch a tent in my back yard and rent out every single room in the house if I had to - if it were possible - to keep from getting thrown on the street. My son would just have to stay with his mother. Oh yes, I have thought about worst-case scenarios. Food stamps, unemployment, a house full of tenants - a house FULL of tenants.

Whatever. I'm a survivalist. I always have been. I dream up answers where there are none. I wouldn't care about losing the car, but if I lost the house - it would be a LONG time before I would EVER qualify to get into another house again, and at the age of 45, that is a VERY unpalatable thought. I'm VERY glad I did not sell the old car. It's sitting there, and it runs. It needs a new battery now - but I got it running last weekend and had it running for quite a while to ensure lubrication of internal engine parts - and a new harmonic balancer. Oh, and it has a leaking wheel cylinder. Relatively cheap fixes.

On a lighter note - I have Friday off. Providing nothing big comes up - if work comes up that precludes me taking the day off, so beit - I get my birthday day off. So, a 3-day weekend. I came home this afternoon and slept for an hour and a half. I didn't sleep well last night - woke up at 1:30 am and didn't get back to sleep until 4:00 am, meaning I had about 5 hours of sleep last night. I'm thinking of taking a couple Ambien tonight.

I'm loving the 24 TV series and it comes on in half an hour. Watch that and go to sleep after it's over. Get whatever sleep I can and go to work tomorrow. When the rain lets up, I'm going to start working out hard. Not for the benefits of weight loss or whatever, but for the benefits of sleeping at night, releasing anxiety. I have my son's weight set here and I have the mountains behind me. That's all I need and neither costs anything. I intend on working out until I am so drained that I can't and don't care about thinking about such things as the economony. I've done it many times before - I have been working out since I was 10 years old - it's nothing new to me. It's an unbelievable high in itself without drugs or alcohol.

I've also thought about going on the 10-day Master Cleanse. Not sure if I can handle that or not - basically fasting, no solid food. I am also thinking of just pure fasting. Water only. But not for 10 days - probably like 5 to 7 days. I've done that before, the rejuvenating effects are crazy. Your body purges itself. You become mentally "crisp". You don't die in 5 or 7 days of fasting, trust me, you don't. You feel weak the first 3 days - that's a hurdle - after that, you start getting this "high". Whatever it is, it keeps you on it. You sleep well - quite well - after several days of eating nothing. I've done it many times, I speak from experience, at least for my own body.

So, then there's Mary, the other room I intend on renting out, and all kinds of OTHER things beyond what I have already written.

My dogs are currently living on $16.00 per 50 pound bag of cheap dog food compared to $26.00 per 44 pound bag of better dog food. I throw in cheap meats here and there. The stuff I bought at Fry's a while back - 10 pounds of chicken for $3.37 or whatever it was - feeding them that. Put a little chicken and some juice in it. They'll survive this with me, I hope anyway.

I'm going through this stuff because our world is being turned upside down. If it doesn't affect you - you must be in a good place. I'm not going to say I envy you, but I certainly don't hold it against you.

As for this entry, enough.
ben

Sunday

I stayed up WAY late last night - quite unusual for me - therefore didn't get up until late this morning.
As I have seen on many other blogs, it's been raining here as well. Started yesterday evening and was going continuously until late this morning. Now it's coming and going.
Plants are getting well-watered for free, thanks to Mother Nature (otherwise known as God)!
I have accomplished almost nothing today.
I haven't had the desire to do much of anything but a little light housecleaning and haven't even started laundry yet.
I was hoping to take my birthday day off tomorrow - but the boss never got back to me about whether I could or not and he left early on Friday to go to an appointment with a tax preparer.

Basically, he wants to avoid having me take that particular day off if there's a workload that requires both drivers. Understandable - but I want to get it in before I lose the priviledge, as corporate only allows it during the month of your birthday. So, I'll ask for this coming Friday off since the other driver left early on Friday - otherwise I would have taken that off instead.

Frankly, if it's going to keep raining, there isn't going to be much work to do. Any job sites will shut down when they get too wet and muddy - the general contractors don't want the site messed up by the mud and they don't want all that stuff tracking out onto the street.

Anyway, I don't really have much to say - kind of in this thinking mode right now about numerous things going on.

C'yall later.
ben

Saturday

Arizona's a funny place to live in terms of weather. You can have a cloudless sky in the morning and by afternoon have a full sky of clouds and rain. Allegedly, that's what's going to happen today. I'm looking out my windows and seeing only a few small cloud wisps floating up there, yet the forecasters insist that it's going to rain later on today.
I actually believe them, having had lived here most of my life.

I have been trying to keep up with backing up my blog entries by posting the same entry on 3 sites. I kinda didn't want to do it this week cause' I posted a V-Log on here, Blogspot, and I don't remember trying to do that on either LiveJournal or Wordpress. Wordpress took a minute for me to figure out - but I got it and LiveJournal was easy. So, now that I know how to do that on all 3 formats, not such an arduous thought of trying to back everything up.

So Ken - my roomate or one of them anyway - paid me yesterday. This guy doesn't play games with the rent. He's $25 off from having his security deposit paid - the money is in my ING savings account. Whenever he decides to move out, I only have to transfer the money out of that account and into my checking account and then I can withdraw it. This will be my standard modus-operandi for any new tenants coming in here from now on. What surprised me is that he also gave me an extra $10 for the food he has been eating out of my cupboards. I have said absolutely nothing to him about it. He also borrowed $20 earlier this week from me and paid that back as well.

Anyone that does all of those things is a good tenant from my viewpoint. Mary is busily attempting to win us both back over. In fact, Ken offered without asking yesterday that his reservations about Mary have disappeared and that he actually LIKES Mary at this point. He did, however, also offer that that should not affect my decision of what to do with her.

Umm, anyway, I was hoping to get a response to a Craigslist ad I placed for galvanized posts for the fence I want to install. No responses. I'm definitely serious about wanting to get that fence permanently installed AND have a nice gate - which I have already acquired - so that I can access both "sides" of my yard without hinder. Meanwhile, I'm looking at pricing on energy efficient doggy doors. Some of there are EXTREMELY expensive. I decided that since I am putting it in the utility room, and the utility room doesn't have an AC outlet, and it gets fairly warm in there in the summer, I don't need an extra-heavy duty door in there. A good one, yes, but a $300 version, not.

Yes, I'm busily formulating whatever I have to to come up with ways to save energy in here, and that is one HUGE way to do so. I know I'm losing cool air out of that doggy door I have in here now, I just didn't have any choice but to install one. I couldn't have them - the dogs - outside all day long baking in 110 degree heat (well, I won't do that to them, anyway, I COULD set up an evaporative cooler out there under a ramada and that would do just as well) but no way was I having them just stay in here all day long without access to the outside. Pooping and peeing on my floors is a BIG no-no in my book.

So, I'll fork out around $100 for an in-the-wall doggy door, I hope anyway, with this bonus I'm getting next week. The money spent will be the money saved. I'll take this sliding glass door one out and resell it on Craigslist for what I paid for it (try, anyway) and that will be that. I have a little trepidation about cutting a hole in the side of my house - but I've installed these before and it's really not rocket science.

It has cooled down considerably overnight - it's in the low 60's I think right now and isn't supposed to get much warmer than this - up to the mid 60's today. I figure I have it very good considering what others are going through in snow and ice right now : )

Enough for now, have a great Saturday!
ben