So, a 14 year old kid in Laveen - about 10 miles west of me - is watching his younger siblings in their home. Parents are wherever.  Doors locked.  Woman comes up to the door - various accounts on the net so far - but she knocks on the door, the kid doesn't open it.  Kid goes up to dad's room, grabs a pistol in time to find a man breaking down the door and aiming a rifle at him.  Kid shoots the man, who is now in serious condition.

Now, where would this situation be at right now if that kid didn't have access to that gun?  Would those kids in that house be alive?  You can be rest assured that whatever the conclusion, it would not be good.

And you want to take away gun rights from the citizens?  Well, that's just one story.  Yes, that's true, one story in a sea of stories of people defending themselves against would-be thieves, robbers and killers.  Mine's sitting within arm's reach.  It's loaded and another clip in the case with it.  Every time I read something like this, just solidifies in me all the more the declaration of  what I believe to be a God-given right to defend yourself and to use deadly force to do so if necessary.

I do hope they get that kid some counselling, yes, he's going to need it, maybe the whole family considering what I read about the dad being beside himself and definitely not quite all here at this point in time.  Can you blame him?  Imagine coming home to find a legion of police cars in front of your house and then finding out your oldest son just shot a would-be intruder. The thoughts that would go through your head - what if?  The what-if's.  What if he hadn't shot that man?  Boy, I can imagine a lot of potential scenarios going through those parent's minds.

Someone told me the other day to "never say never" when it comes to the government - especially this current White House administration - in the desire to take away gun rights.  I wouldn't go quite so far as to never say it isn't going to happen. but I have my doubts.  There may be a gradual erosion of those rights over time if people don't stand up to it - but a total elimination of the right to bear arms?  There would have to be a change to the nation's Constitution to do that.

Well, changing the subject, Caleb just called.  He asked me to bring up his laptop computer next time I'm at mom's property.  It's a little bit of a drive - maybe another 40 miles - to the camp.  But it's a beautiful, lovely drive up there on the Rim and I don't mind doing it.  I told him this coming Saturday, as long as everything goes right, I would be up at mom's place in my trailer - was going to do that anyway - so I figured go visit him, visit with camp management, prolly not spend too much time there but will be nice to see him. They have weekends off.  Kids come up on Mondays and leave on Fridays. Camp staff is not allowed to use electronic devices excepting maybe cellphones during the week when the kids are there - which is a good thing, a real-life, current example that you don't have to have computers everywhere you go.

But I don't want to speak as a hypocrite, since I have come to love the internet and the vast wealth of information to be found on it, far above and beyond news sources and Facebook and all the rest of the entertainment stuff.   We used to live without computers and the net, remember? No, I didn't think so, lol.

ben

I've been following this Sandusky thing - you can't really avoid it if you read or watch the news, it's everywhere - and I have just one question for McCreary, the man who basically got this whole thing started.

If you saw a man raping a child, why didn't you do anything to stop it?  I read his excuses and none of it clicked with me.  Is it a stretch to say that most people would attempt to intervene and stop the man?

Well whatever.  It's over, well, okay, they are talking about an appeal and of course the sentencing, but somehow, I doubt an appeal is going to go anywhere and probably, Sandusky is going to end up dying of old age in a prison cell somewhere.  The various photos of him leaving the courthouse and the look on his face spoke volumes.

Well, whatever.  I ate  a small meal yesterday evening and paid for it last night.  I got maybe 4 hours of sleep.  My stomach still doesn't feel right, I finally broke down and went and got some Canada Dry ginger ale and am drinking a couple of glasses of it.

I am doing basically nothing this weekend attempting to get over whatever is ailing me.  I really wanted to go to the mountains yesterday after work, I got off at noon and could have been up there around 3 - but not to be.  I went to the store to buy food for the trip, but by the time I got home - well a run for the bathroom was indicated.

Try again to go to the mountains next weekend.

That's it.  No more here, I have things to write about but it's going to be shelved for now.

ben

Yesterday morning, upon arriving at work, I went to roll the driver's side front window up. Nothing but noises when I hit the switch. Insanity.  I took the car in some time ago to have both windows fixed.  The cost about floored me when the auto repair service presented the bill: almost $900.

Well, that's because the entire unit inside the window has to be replaced when something on it breaks.  It used to be that you could replace parts on the track and motor assembly, apparently not anymore, which makes that assembly cost over $300 a piece.  Fortunately for me, the auto repair shop I took it to is a very reputable service facility and they took care of it under warranty.  They were sending the replaced one back to the auto parts store they got it from for credit.

Today, I suffered some sort of heat related illness.  Heat exhaustion I guess.  I was down in a mine up in the mountains. You would think it would be much cooler up there, but, not so here.  Same temps in that mine as it is down in the valley. It was hot and the truck's AC is still not working properly.   By the time I got everything done and back to the yard, I was ill, felt like throwing up and ready to go home.  My manager was hardly sympathetic to my cause but I wasn't going to do anything else, I had no energy and I was feeling worse by the minute.  My manager exclaimed he had been in the heat all day long as well, telling me that from his office which is cooled to 72 degrees.

Whatever, I was in no mood and simply said I am going home.  Okay, but you'll have to be here at 4:00 am. Whatever again.  We ended putting off a contractor today to make that trip to the mine, so now, they want that stuff at the job site at 6:00 am.  Hope I feel better by tomorrow morning is all I can say, but right now? I am laying in bed writing this on my laptop, attempting to pass some time so I can go to sleep.  It's only a quarter after 6:00.   I have no appetite; I am extremely fatigued; my eyes are burning and it's all I can do to stay awake right now.

Oh, the mine.  Another trek down Forest Service Road 287.  You wouldn't think it a public road with all the mining activity, but it is.  There are continual signs referring to this place called Haunted Canyon.  This is now my second time back this road, but this time they took me MUCH further. Steep grades - guessing around 12% anyway - dirt roads, extreme switchbacks.  When we got to the entrance to the operation that I was delivering the pipe to, the guide truck opened a gate with a remote, we went in and then we went UP.

I sat there for over 2 hours waiting for them to unload the truck.  They apparently had to bring in some sort of safety person to oversee the operation and that  - took quite  a while.  I went to sleep.  It was after that and the truck was unloaded that I started not feeling right. The truck wasn't cool, it was warm. It was hot outside.

Well I can't write anymore.

Down to 2 candidates.  Let the s*** fly, obviously.  Although, it was a pretty dumb remark on Obama's part to say that the "private sector is doing just fine" and his apparent idea that to fix the economy, we must hire more government workers.  This is the problem. We don't need a bigger government, we need a smaller one.  I shell out about $800 or more per month to the various levels of government, the Federal government taking the largest portion of it.

I don't mind paying taxes, I do mind paying that much in taxes.  I would be happy if they took maybe half of that figure out.  I am beginning to feel like we are into this "taxation without representation" scenario simply because our representatives do whatever they please once they get into office.  They do not listen to their constituents.  They get to Washington and fall into the same old routine that's been going on for at least decades.

Whatever.  Hump day.  After spending all that money on the trailer and getting it moved, my savings account is going back up faster than I anticipated.  If I don't touch it before August and continue having the automatic withdrawals, there will be at least close in there to cover an entire trip to San Diego.  Well close anyway, lol, now that I just looked at a calendar.

As much as I hate to do it, I also paid off the second 401k loan.  It isn't paying it off that is bad, it's tapping into it that is bad.  It won't be "tappable" until this time next month.  But, I am not going to leave myself exposed, if something happens and I don't have any other resources available to cover whatever - it would have to be an emergency to get into that money such as a broken AC unit on the house which better not happen since I already paid for that thing to be repaired once in replacing the compressor - but just saying if there was an emergency, I have to be able to cover it somehow.  The loan was down to $59.  There is a 30-day waiting period before you can take out another one.  I do not need, at this point, to take out another loan and I really don't want to do it, so I just hope that nothing goes extremely foul anytime soon.

Well, work day here. Slated to be - 109 today.  Lovely.  NOT.

G'day.

ben

I had no more finished a blog entry this morning, walked out the door and headed for my car when I saw a dog running down the street.

Upon closer observation, it became immediately apparent this was no dog.  A coyote.  I took it by surprise - though definitely not intentionally - upon exiting the gate and closing it.  That thing stopped and gave me a look.  I made the same noise to it that I make to my dogs when I am not happy with them.  Can't really describe the noise........but it was enough to get that thing moving again.  Fortunately, it was not traveling in a pack as they are known to do.

I know the mountains are only 2 blocks away from my house, but there is a major surface street between them and my house.  However, not really all that surprising.  Probably looking for food - whatever kind it can find.  I have heard coyotes will definitely take small dogs, I don't know about cats.  Plenty of both in this neighborhood.  I don't really have to worry about that.  My dogs are too large for one thing and for the other, they are in my bedroom at night.  Coyotes come down from the mountains at night and return in the morning.

This one must have been late, lol.  I got in my car and took off down the street to see where it was going.  Back to the mountains. Yup, it found it's way to a bypass between houses that goes to the street - but - that street at that time of day? VERY busy.  I'm not sure what became of it.  It was a very healthy looking specimen, not the raggedy looking things that I have seen up in those mountains.

However, they are considered varmint and if I knew it was legal, I would have simply shot the thing.  Probably is legal in certain areas,  but I am in a residential neighborhood and there is no way I am going to shoot a gun unless my life is threatened.

Back To The Truck AC Issue

Today? I had had enough.  Anyone that reads this blog may remember my trials and tribulations with the semi truck I drive at work whose AC was not working properly.  We had taken it in last year to fix it and then took it in again several weeks ago.

Well, it still isn't working properly.  That's 2 visits to the dealership, a total of 8 days in their shop and 8 days of renting another truck to take it's place plus a total of 3 grand - yes, $3,000 to fix it.  For that much money,  I better need a coat to wear if I leave that thing on high, which is what is USED to do before it broke. That cab would get icy cold regardless of the outside temperature.

When I got the truck back, it felt okay at first, but later on that day it didn't feel all the great.  Fast forward to now-extreme temperatures and it's simply not good enough.  It's "lukewarm" in that truck and that is NOT what we paid for.

As usual for me, I decided that twice in the shop was enough.  I called - the owner of that company actually. Of course, I did not get to speak to the owner, the owner forwarded me to the general manager over the service division.  I believe this is a 24 hour operation, 7 days a week.  They always have a backlog of trucks to fix, so when you take your truck in there, it may be 3 or 4 days before they even START on it.

The general manager called and started his spiel.  I was having nothing to do with it.  Our total cost for a non-functioning system was around $4,600 if you count the rental truck, which I do.  He wanted us to bring the truck in on an afternoon and then come for it the next morning NO, sir, we are not going to do that. Well, he replied, I am just trying to eliminate any further expenses we are both incurring.

Sir, YOUR company has incurred NO additional expenses.  WE have paid the tab for everything and WE had to pay for 8 days of a rental truck. Your statement that you have incurred "additional" expenses is outrageous at best.  He again asked if there was no way to just bring the truck in, they would work on it - all night if they had to - and it would be ready in the morning.  No sir, we have gone this route, as far as I'm concerned, this is YOUR problem and you are going to have to  deal with it on MY terms.

I further explained to this gem that we are a 2 man operation.  We start at 6:00 am. Deliveries that are in the system are expected to be on the road no later that 7:00am and contractors want their material. We do not have time to be driving 50 miles round trip to get that truck in the morning, which is WHY we have to rent a truck anytime we have to take it into the shop, which is, fortunately, not that frequently.

He went on and on about making an overnight deal work.  I finally stated to him that I would be happy to speak to the President of the corporation again if I  need to and he could make the final decision.  Mr. Gem (not his real name) backtracked considerably on that one and said no, we will get your a rental truck if it comes to that.

After 3 phones calls, to of them with this guy, I FINALLY get an apology for the truck having had been in their shop twice for the same issue.  I am still guessing this problem is simply a matter of adding additional freon, but I decided against doing that myself.  If, per-chance, it isn't a freon problem, then over-charging them system can blow the compressor and then you have a REALLY expensive repair when it comes to trucks, even though the AC system in a truck is no different than a car AC system, it's all the same thing.

I got back to the yard and discussed the situation with my manager.  We can take it in on Friday afternoon and they can have it ready by Monday morning.  Okay.  But, I played this guy, since he was attempting to play games with me, Mr. Gem that is.  I called him back and gave him my terms.  I can bring it in Friday afternoon, I can pick it up Friday morning, but.......you are going to have to have someone take me back to the shop and pick me up.  If you are not going to get us a rental truck, that is the LEAST you are going to do.

He didn't like that idea and decided that he would just come and get the truck himself and then bring it back in time for deliveries Monday morning.  Perfect.  Please do.........and I have your WORD on that, yes?  Oh yes, Mr. B, it shall be done.

What do you think?  Twice in the shop for the same problem. The first time, they gave us the  truck back and told us it wasn't completely fixed.  Surprised, I asked him why they had called us to tell us it was ready. "We didn't have authorization to do the additional repair".  "Do you not have telephones here?  Did we not leave a cellphone number contact?"  "Y, y, yeeees, but........" But what?  It was too late, I had already dropped of the rental truck because they had called us, telling the repair was completed and ready to pick up.

The second time, I informed them of what happened the first time and - yada yada yada. I specifically told them it wasn't blowing enough volume of air AND the air was not cold enough to keep the cab cool.  They fixed the first thing, they did not even ADDRESS the second item, even though I saw the man write it on the service ticket.

Oh, did I say another part of the terms of this situation is that we are not going to pay another DIME for this "fix"?  Yeah,  darn straight.  How much money should be expected to fix a freaking AC system?

Tuesday 6/19/2012

What a miserably hot day yesterday.  I looked at the temp outside at 8:30 and it was still 105 degrees.  And, of course, it's not going to get any better, any time soon.  Triple digit temps going above 110 slated for many days in the near future.

Good reason to try and get up to the mountains for a couple of night's stay this coming weekend, if at all possible.

Neighbors to the east of me were forced - for the dozenth time at least - to clean up their property.  The city finally acknowledged my complaint about the property behind me as of yesterday.  They will have to go out there - again - and determine what, if anything, they can do.

My dad and uncles are talking about another reunion.  They wanted us young-in's to deal with it, but many of us young'in's are in no financial position to be able to even think about doing anything like that. And I'm definitely not asking them for handouts.  Instead, I am attempting to find ways to save money for when Caleb comes back because a trip to San Diego again this year would be very nice.  I'm afraid I will not see my uncles in my adult lifetime.  I haven't seen any of them since I was very young and just a few years ago, one of them passed away.  Another has MLS, apparently some unbelievably horrific disease.  They apparently all did well in life as far as money goes, I am happy for them.  I am currently not on that ship, I wish I were, but I am certainly not going to get into a pity-party about it.  It is what it is and I deal with it.

I have seen no sign of Heron coming back.  We put up that mannequin head on a pole with a t-shirt, lol.  Funny looking thing, especially considering the pole is 8 feet tall.  What tells me they haven't been around is that the fish are no longer hiding.  I mean, they are still a bit skittish when I come around, but they freely come out now whenever food time is there. Speaking of food, thanks for reminding myself: dog food and fish pellets, gotta get both at Walmart today.

The dying tree? Jury still out.  Still a very few, healthy leaves on it.  As long as it shows any sign of life, I am going to continue to water it - heavily.  The heat isn't helping anything, more frequent waterings having to occur. I have some plants I am hand watering now - I do that when the rest of the plants don't need the water but these certain sets of plants do.  Saves on water usage is all, which helps keep the monthly bill down a bit.

I have not been forcing the dogs to stay outside when I am at work this year.  I have in the past, but this heat is too much.  They have a doggy door and they know how to use it.  I just don't feel comfortable putting very large dogs outside in 113 degree heat even if they have plenty of water and shade.   So, unless they start doing things in the house that are going to - extremely - irritate me, it will probably stay that way for a while.

That's it. Time to face another hot day at work.

G'day.

ben

Nope, definitely not in the mountains this weekend.  On a normal weekend, I have decided that if I am going to go up there, it's leave asap after work on Friday and get up there so I can spend 2 nights up there and leave on Sunday morning early enough to hit church at 10:00am.

I haven't actually tried that yet, but soon enough I will.  I've also asked for 5th and 6th of July off making it a 5 day off "weekend" starting on the 4th of July.

I was called yesterday by a survey company that I have participated in before, they are paying $85 to participate in a 2 hour, small group.  That's $42.50 per hour. The location is about a mile and a half away.  Yup, convenient enough and I"ve done it several times in the past.  This time, they said it would be more writing than anything and that it was going to be a very small group and that attendance was highly critical.

The issue?  Water conservation, as far as I could tell.  I thought I had answered some of their questions "wrong", but apparently not.  Apparently, they want people that do know about what's going on with the state's water supply but do not want people that would consider themselves environmentalists.  Anyway, I'm good on that one, that pays for 2 trips up to the mountains in fuel, thanks.

Gilbert - the 22 year old tenant - comes home about an hour ago.  He did not look well.  He had one of his girlfriends with him.  He looked at me and informed me that his day was not going as planned. Oh? What's going on?

He was driving down the road, swung his car one direction to avoid hitting a dog, steered back the other direction but over-corrected and ended up in a ditch.  He had the car towed here and it's sitting in front of my house.  I sympathized with him - whatta drag - he went into his bedroom and I went out front.  Front end of that car is totally trashed.  The wheels are smashed up against the fender-wells, that's thousands of dollars worth of damage right there, at least.

This must be dog day.  My dog picks up a toy dog at Petsmart and treats it like it's a stuffed doll, biting into it and here is Gilbert trying not to kill a dog and trashing his car in the process.  I love dogs, oh yes I do, but if I knew that the end of the line in attempting to not hit a dog was going to be a totally trashed car?  The dog would lose.  Okay, I have to admit, if it was one of MY dogs I was about to hit? I would run the car into a tree first.

I haven't had a chance to ask Gilbert yet if he has full coverage insurance on it.  Mark started arguing that "minor" damage is covered by minimum liability insurance. No, sir, it does not.  Minimum liability insurance only covers damage to the other driver's car if you are at fault, it usually covers nothing on your car.  Well, it doesn't matter who is at fault, it doesn't cover it.  It just keeps you out of debtor's prison if you happen to run into a car and totally trash it.  Of course, modern cars?  Doesn't take much to trash them nowadays.

It's not like they're built out of any amount of metal anymore.

Weekends.  They disappear quickly.  I know it's only Saturday but it's already 5:00 pm and it seems like the day has vanished.  Perhaps it's just getting stuff done around here all day long, but it goes way too fast.

Later.

ben

I don't think that kid knows what kind of serious trouble he could get into.
When you starting acting out road rage and if you get caught, you are likely going to be hauled off to jail.

I am referring to an incident that occurred not 15 minutes ago.

I was getting into the middle lane. The kid in the white, Nissan pickup truck was in his lane at the time.  I was  2/3 rd's of the way into the center lane when he decided he was going to come over.  I already have legal entitlement to that lane.  I moved back over a bit, he got back into his lane and I then finished my lane change.

Trust me, he was NOT coming over when I started my lane change.  I am a truck driver, that's all I do is drive in mostly heavy traffic all day long.  The name of the game is to stay out of accidents, regardless of who may be at fault.

Well, whatever.  This kid is stuck in his lane now and I move on.  After the traffic behind me clears - not enough for him to fit in, he cut off another pickup up to get in the lane I was in because my lane was moving faster.  Now I am watching him because he is driving erratically.  I get over to the next lane - when it safe to do so, he is now stuck in the lane I was in.  I put on my turn signal - I was turning into my neighborhood.  He  not only cuts off another vehicle to get into my lane, he also has to hit his brakes, hard, to slow down to make the same turn.

Now?  I am pulling out my gun.  Not so he could see it, I don't know if you can get into trouble for an alleged charge of "brandishing a pistol", who knows.  The case it was in was on the floorboard and I simply opened up the case.  I am not going to be the victim of road rage and Arizona's castle doctrine applies to inside your vehicle as well as inside your home. This kid is right on my bumper.  I am guessing he's between 17 and 19 years old.  I turn.  He turns.  I turn again - onto my street.

I stopped several houses down from my driveway.  I thought it a bad idea to pull into my driveway and have that kid know where I live.  He pulls up beside me and then in front.  I am completely stopped and waiting for whatever's next.  He flips me off out the window of his vehicle but has not stopped, driving very slowly - I did not flip him off back. I take very seriously this kind of issue: people get killed, end up in hospitals and prison I then move behind him.  Apparently he thought he could scare me, as it became obvious he wasn't really game for getting into some kind of physical altercation.  I had no fear, whatsoever.  Now I am following him out of my neighborhood.  My street exits out onto a main artery and there is no way I am pulling into my driveway at this point, BAD idea.  I can just see this kid coming back at night and damaging my car or house or who KNOWS what.

He left the neighborhood -with me behind him.  This went on for a mile before he tried to ditch me.  Which was fine, I was well away from my place and I made a left turn heading a completely opposite direction from my neighborhood, but went right through a parking lot and headed back home.  He had run a red light at that point and I wasn't chasing him anyway.

Here's the real problem with people in this state that get mad in traffic, angry enough to start following a person, flipping that person off and basically making it known you have ill-intent towards that person.  The problem, is that many of us carry guns.  Law abiding citizens, that is.  Don't want to use them, but will if back is against proverbial wall.

I know at least a couple of readers that will have a problem with that.  I can't help you.  It wouldn't bother me in the least to take the life of a person that is attempting to take my life.  Period, end of story.  There is nothing more to say about it.  If they are going to kill attempt to seriously harm you, a person has a right to defend him/herself and that's that.

Completely changing the subject: some days I like watering my plants, other days I just want to get it over with. Today was the latter and just got done with it.  It's hot outside - 109 - and I just didn't feel like it.

With that, I'll end this one.

G'day.

ben