Friday

Not a bad day at work. I had to load the semi this morning with 1180 feet of storm drainage pipe and some fittings to go with it and then deliver it to a jobsite in Casa Grande.

This is a new startup, so I hadn't been to this site before.

There was a HUGE problem with the entrance to this place. I got to the site and stopped in the right lane of the street with flashers blinking - very low traffic so no big deal. I look at the entrance - there is NO WAY - ANY vehicle is getting through there besides earth-moving equipment.

A loader operation looks at me and waves me down the street. Oh, okay, there's another entrance. Blaaaaaaahhhhh. The entrance? A friggin' dirt driving with barriers on either side and only wide enough for the truck. I had to swing into oncoming traffic lanes to make that turn. I go down 100 feet and am greeted by a fence with gate.

Problem? Yes. The gate is on the right side of the "road". The road is only barely wide enough for the truck. There IS no room to swing to get the trailer in there. I'm always game for a new challenge, I love that stuff. I got the truck and trailer angled in such a way that I got the truck in there - with less than an inch of space on one side and maybe an inch on the other, it was that tight.

Managers and big bosses were all in a meeting at the main branch today. I could guess what was being discussed and I'm 95% sure my guesses would be correct. I heard a bit of news, but - there is confidentiality in what is being discussed in those meetings, it's not being let out. "Stuff" is coming down the pike, that's a given. I'm bracing myself for whatever is to come. It's just granted that there are going to be more layoffs. I don't wish that on any of my co-workers - or myself - but - it's going to happen. I don't know who, I didn't hear this from anyone, I just feel it. Just like I felt it the last 2 times.

I'm also guessing they're going to be closing down the store in Buckeye. Purely a guess - but unless they get their numbers up out there, it's a given. As I said, I'm bracing myself. Plan B - would be move out of my bedroom, leave the furniture in there and rent out a furnished room for $500 a month. Plan B would include unemployment benefits if it came to that. Plan B would probably work for a while, anyway. Yes, I would be moving into my son's room, and I would be leaving it up to him whether he wanted to continue to come over or not. I will not lose my property without a serious battle first. To lose this property would mean losing the ideal of owning property - probably forever. My entire lifestyle would change dramatically. I would also have to lose the dogs, or at least the Danes and maybe the Dane mix.

I'm not scared - I have been in these places before. But I am apprehensive. There was obviously stuff talked about today in that meeting that is going to affect all of us, somehow. I can't get information that can't be given, so I'm just going to go to work on Monday and hope - I still have a job. As I said, I have been preparing my mind and being for whatever comes my way. Whatever is doled out, I will take it in, and if it's extremely negative - absorb it, dwell it on for a short time - and dump it. I simply can't afford emotion in such an economic atmosphere - certainly when it comes to finances, emotion is on hold. A clear thinking head is the only way through such things, emotion can so greatly taint the way a person thinks. I have been guilty of it in the past, but right now, not.

I will undoubtedly spend my weekend thinking about this. There is not getting around it. The news that another 600 hundred plus thousand jobs were shed last month was hardly anything to get joyous about. It just means the economy is nowhere near coming back to life, regardless of what Bernanke says. My company is no different - they're in survival mode. I am in survival mode. I am putting certain projects on hold and am going to dump at least a couple more hundred bucks into my savings account. The rainy day is coming - I feel it - I want to be at least somewhat prepared for it.

But, I already have those trellises and everything I need to put that stuff together, so I'm definitely going to do that. And the cheapest thing to do for blocking out the sun's hot rays on the west side of the house is the styrofoam, so I'm also going there as well. That wont' cost more than $40 or $50 total, money WELL spent to SAVE money on electricity.

There are other things, but I am rather consumed by what's going on at work right now. Then again, so are alot of you/us. Money is so tight, that I am going to switch semi-trailers on Monday instead of them buying new tires for it. They have a trailer sitting there that is not being used and it has very good tires on it. The trailer I'm dragging all over creation right now has tires down to the wear bars. Wear bars are simply a piece of raised rubber stuck in the grooves of the tire. When you get to that bump, your tires are out of DOT specs and if you are caught, your truck will be put out-of-service and you will have to have that vehicle either towed out of there or have the tires replaced right there on the side of the road. I don't really care which trailer I pull, so no big deal to me. As long as it has slider rails for the winches on both sides of the trailer. If it does not (I don't remember on that trailer), it's a huge pain in the @$$ to work with. Maybe see if they could just take the tires off of that trailer and put them on the one I am using now.

Anyway, my son called, it's time to go pick him up and Michael just called wanting to be picked up at the Jack In The Box just down the street from where Caleb is.

Hasta la vista!
ben

Thursday

Today was my kind of day - at work that is.
Driving all over the place, delivering this, picking up that - driving the semi.
Of course, not all is rosy out there. The number of idiots driving on the roads in the Phoenix area undoubtedly surpasses the number of sane people behind the wheel. I couldn't tell you how many times I was cut off - extremely cut off - by morons that just HAD to get around the truck - slam on their brakes and then make a right hand turn directly in front of me........or making sudden lane changes in traffic without warning and stuffing their vehicle DIRECTLY in front of the truck.

If those people had any clue how dangerous that is - maybe they wouldn't do it. I would love to see states force people to go through driver training which includes videos and pictures of what happens to vehicles when they cut off trucks ..........and it doesn't turn out too well. I've seen the videos and the pics: trucks that have run clean over the car; trucks whose front axles are buried in the back seat of the car; cars that have been turned literally into a pancake. They don't live through those sorts of things.

Indeed. Tomorrow is Friday and I fully expect rental payments from 2 tenants. Mary already paid hers. Mary also planted the flowers she bought yesterday and they are nice. I offered to pay her back for them - to preclude any future junk - and when that was rejected, I offered to pay half. It's a donation. All well and fine - as long as it doesn't become an issue somewhere down the road. Everyone here is on the bi-weekly payment plan.

I expect problems, however, from one particular tenant who has allegedly been sent home early from work - like every day this week. Today? He's home and offered no explanation. Not that I need one - until it's time to pay the rent, which would be tomorrow. I have become somewhat calloused in the arena of paying rent and paying it on-time - especially considering I collect security deposits from everyone. Don't pay your rent? Homeless shelter is in downtown Phoenix. I don't mean to sound cruel, but I have had enough with people playing games with rental payments.

However, this guy has yet to miss a beat. However again - even if he covers the rent, he will have little left over, I am imagining, to eat with. There is much information I am leaving out here - but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going to start unfolding......and what's already been happening. It's one of the reasons I have 3 tenants in here - when one starts having "financial issues" - I don't have to go into a panic and start wondering how I am going to pay bills. Or get behind on the mortgage. Or whatever.

On another note, my dad sent me yet another $100.00. He sent me an email and told me he would send me money on a regular basis (no, I didn't ask for it, but I certainly won't be turning it down) to help me through this economic crisis. I'm guessing now that I will be receiving a $100.00 check from him every month, since it was a month ago that I received the first one. He has a pension and some other thing that gives him money every month and assuming social security. Again - I'm very happy both my parents are well-off enough that I don't have to worry about them in that aspect.

Now? Daily routine - clean up dog crap. I watered plants yesterday but I am going to go out there and water certain plants again. Oh, and the other arguments put in my brain concerning my dad's money: 1. Transfer it to my ING savings account. 2. More Palomino Gold granite. I don't have enough coverage. 3. Dump it onto the power card reader.

I'll be thinking about that for a while before I make a decision - but not a long while. Like - today and possibly into tomorrow. Too many things need done around here.

As for now, I'm signing off of this one and bidding you a good evening.
ben

Dear Self...........

..........do you remember the trellises you bought weeks ago now and are sitting out there, waiting for you to install?
Dear Brain:
Oh, yes, I remember that now!
Self: Well, when are you going to GET to DOING that project?
Brain: Ummm, I had totally forgotten about it.
Self: List of things to do this weekend: Trellis installation.
Brain: Well you don't have to be PUSHY about!

Yes - it just totally eluded me - that project I bought the parts for and did nothing with.
I'll be working on that this weekend.
I have other things on the backburner: Have done nothing with this list of names from last weekend - however - I didn't expect to do anything until this weekend.
Anyway - have a great day!
ben