Monday

I had 5 deliveries to make spread out all over the place today. Mesa; Queen Creek; Florence; Casa Grande. I was very surprised that it didn't take much longer than it did for me to do all of that.

My boss is leaving Wednesday ona week long vacation. So - he's missing at least 5 days of work - possibly more. He had mega-hours saved up of vacation time. Me? I have enough to take off 132 hours. That's what, 14 days? - or in terms of weeks - almost 3 full weeks of time that I can and want to take off.

Since I highly doubt I will be able to afford even a mini-vacation this year - opting instead to spend whatever monies I may run into on house projects - I am going to put in my bid for a vacation in June. June is, in Arizona and historically - the hottest month of the year. Last year's electric bill for that month proves it, too. June was a $410 total amount of electricity used, July and August were at least $50 per month less. I don't mind taking a vacation where I just stay home. Get up late, do some work around the house, take a lot of siestas, maybe rent several pay-per-view movies as my treat to myself.

I have thoughts running around in my head as to how to gain more income on a monthly basis. I would love to create another opportunity for another rental. Not in this house - well anyway, it's only in the "think about it" stages so I'm not really going to go into it right now.

So, coming home today, I see Duke limping. He did something to he left front leg and it definitely is not because of a dog fight. He go into something and it's hurting him - to the point that I gave him a couple of ibuprofen to relieve the pain. His face is starting to bloat up as well. I have managed, however, to keep the wound open so I can press the fluids out of it. Antibiotics should be here Wednesday. Now that I've found a place to buy it from, I'm going to keep a 100 count bottle on-hand for any occasion that warrants antibiotics. I have not even yet determined that Duke needs it - it just depends if his face continues to bloat or not.

Oh, hooray/kudos/awesome job! to the U.S. Navy that took out those pirates. The report I read said that Navy personnel on the warship saw a pirate lift an AK-47 to the back of the captured captain, and that's when the commander gave the order for the snipers to take them out. I'm going to tell you right now that I have absolutely NO problem with the deaths of those pirates. Going around acting like nothing can or will stop them - they need a dose of their own medicine. I don't know what they expected, playing cat and mouse games with the U.S. Navy and Navy Seals. Now the pirates are making brash statements that Americans are going to "pay for it". That's only going to cause the end of their subsistence. They start killing people - and especially Americans - do you think we're just going to sit around and take it? HIGHLY doubtful. I was elated to see the captain freed without harm! This was a MUCH better ending to this BS than I anticipated.

So, onto the negative crap. I have to write about it - it gives me some sort of outlet. I know, I bring this upon myself. Some people will think or even say that. So beit. I am a landlord with people living in rooms in my house that I don't really know or are related to me (though honestly, after 9 months of having Mary living here, I can pretty much read her like a book). The male tenant is causing me problems that I will not tolerate. Mainly, taking food out of my refrigerator and my pantry without asking, without permission, without even a thank you for the food he just stole from me. He took my mother's Easter ham that she gave me - a lot of it - and ate so much that my plans for having ham yesterday were quashed. I was going to feed myself and the boys with that and some potatoes and such. I ended up BBQ'ing chicken - which was quite delicious, but still.

I was going to just get in his face - I found the portion of video surveillance which shows him in the utility room, at night, with the utility room door closed and no lights on. My newest tenant - fortunately because it fully identified without doubt who did it - walked into the kitchen with a pile of clothes in her hands, she was going to the utility room to do some laundry.

Now, all the interior doors in my house have about a 2 inch gap at the bottom. This is for the AC - the AC system draws the air out of the rooms and back into the system to recool and then redistribute throughout the house. Well, my surveillance camera shows if there is a light on in there or not at night. Actually, that door is always open - it was closed earlier that day because we were watching a movie in here and didn't want to be disturbed by the noise of the washing machine.

There was no light on in there when she opened the door. When she DID open the door - surprise, surprise - there was the male tenant, standing there in the dark, eating my friggin' ham. Instead of getting in his face, I tried the "diplomatic" way. I left an extremely hostile message - inside of my refrigerator. Tenants have absolutely NO business being in that refrigerator, so if they see that message - well - they have no defense.

But, the situation is even worse. I was quite sure today I smelled cigarette smoke in my house. The new tenant has the phone in his room - that's my excuse to go in there - I use my home phone and not my company cell phone when I'm home. Sure enough, the room reeks of cigarette smoke.

Enough. I won't tolerate people smoking in my house, period. It's spelled out on my Craigslist ads that smoking is OUTSIDE ONLY - yes, in capital letters to exaggerate and make it stand out that I do not want anyone smoking in my house. I will be leaving him a written notice under his door. If it doesn't stop, I will evict him.

And enough of that. Just had to dump that somewhere, my blog is usually better than getting mad at someone and saying things I may later regret. Mary is gung-ho to do the tile project I want to have done in the living room, kitchen and utility room. I am hoping the stock market keeps going up - it will further increase the amount of money in my 401k, which is what I will use to fund the project. I have definitely decided that this is NOT my lifelong home. At the same time, to make it as appealing as possible, I want to do the things around here - inside as well - that make it very desirable to potential buyers. I'm going to have to change the oven and the refrigerator in here eventually as well. I imagine right now would be an awesome time to find very good, used versions of it - but - I only have so much.

Duke is already passed out - so to speak - on the floor after giving him 500 milligrams of ibuprofen. I will give him more tonight before we go to sleep and in the morning before I go to work and will buy another bottle tomorrow afternoon.

As for now? I'm done. With this entry anyway. I have thoughts of going outside and getting some work done - but those thoughts are fleeting, lol.

Hope you all had a great day!
ben

Easter

I think of all the holidays there are, Easter is the most important to me. Maybe not to everyone else, but - because Christ was resurrected, we have the hope of eternal life through Him.
Well, of course, the death and shed blood are obviously highly relevant to that factor as well - but the awesome thing is that Christ is not dead, laying in a tomb, nothing more than bones and hair somewhere. He is arisen and He is Lord!

Yes, that does excite me. The Lord has treated me very well in this short span of life that I have lived and I owe him my life, literally.
So, I just want to bid everyone a happy Easter and hope that folks that are so inclined, will take a moment to reflect on what Christ has done for us.

I have no great plans for today. I don't feel like doing anything. For some reason, the motivation levels have tapered off. Maybe I'll get some energy up later on to do some things that I want to get started on. I want to start jumping rope to add to the mix of things I am already doing. It sounds juvenile, but jump roping is GREAT cardio exercise and yes, it will burn fat if you are doing enough of them, continuously, for at least half and hour a day - 5 days a week.

I STILL have another trellis to put in the ground. Lol - just like I said, I'm really not at all motivated. However, that's a project I want to get done before the hot summer gets here - then I REALLY won't want to do it! Yesterday it rained a good portion of the day here and the ground is nicely saturated. I shouldn't have to water my plants for several days at least.

We all sat here last night and watched the movie: Knowing. Rather strange movie - very intense. I don't know how that website gets movies that are still in the theatres, but as long as it isn't illegal it doesn't bother me in the least.

Anyway, I'm done with this one as I have several things I want to check online and start the housecleaning rituals.

Happy Easter!
ben

Iran: We've Mastered Nuke Fuel Production

Here comes Armageddon.
The Bible speaks about 1/3rd of the earth being burned in the great Tribulation.
I often wonder if that will happen in my lifetime.

I mean, is anyone else concerned about Iran making this statement? They continuously make statements about the "need" for destroying Israel and America.

Israel, undoubtedly, is taking this as a serious threat to their national safety.

I wonder what the Obama administration is doing or going to do about this? A nation such as Iran would not just give up this capability - and frankly - I have no doubts they are seriously considering the use of warhead armed with a nuke to send over to Israel. One imagines Israel already having nukes aimed at various points across Iran already.

If it happens, it will be World War III and undoubtedly the end of life as we know it - if it's the Biblical future of a Great Tribulation.

Of course, I'm a religious nutcase. Well and fine. But if Iran sent nukes over to Israel, do you think Israel isn't already going to be sending nukes right back to them? And how will the world respond? Parts of the world will back Iran, other parts will back Israel.

I'm not going to get in fear - life will end for all of us in one way or another. It's just that it seems that this threat is only - really - being seriously considered by Israel, the nation that has the most threat of being on the receiving end of Iran's threats.

Ummmmm, whatever. Been reading this stuff for a while now, and now Iran comes out and makes this statement.

A nice time at mother's today. My middle brother showed up - and talked the entire time. I don't go to family get-togethers to get into fights, so I mostly keep my mouth shut at this point. My middle brother looks at me as some sort of inferior being. In fact, he looks at everyone that way, including my mother. I have no problem speaking my mind - but - in this case - it's pointless. Anyway, the food was quite good and my mother is always an excellent host. I wish she would consider moving this way - not that it's THAT far away, but - I have a hate for driving that cannot be fully explained in words. How can you be a truck driver and hate driving? Exactly. The idiot drivers in this town surpass all of America. There are deaths and horrific accidents on our freeways on a daily or almost daily basis. The callousness of people cutting off other drivers is nothing short of incredulous. I don't mind driving outside of the metropolitan area - but I absolutely HATE driving on Phoenix freeways.

I came home, unfortunately, to Duke having a couple of slices in his flesh on his face. I reviewed video surveillance to see if it was the 2 dogs fighting - I did not see any of that. I couldn't see, exactly, what caused it. Whatever the case, I used a garden hose and cleaned out the wound with running water for quite a while. If it is a bite wound, though, it's going to need antibiotics. I cannot afford $100 vet visits - I found an online site for antibiotics and immediately ordered a 100 count bottle. I want to keep antibiotics around here at this point. The dogs get into things and get cuts - and though I definitely do very good cleanings and keep cleaning the wounds, they sometimes get infected and then - you must have antibiotics for it.

Well, I'm not doing anything else today. It rained all night long and half the day today and is still raining periodically. Meaning the ground is saturated and I won't need to water plants for several days - 4 or 5 at least - excepting the plants I still have in pots from the nursery auction.

Anyway, I'm going to watch a movie - thusly ending this entry.
ben