I thought it was the water bill. A letter with City of Phoenix logo on it.
I opened it and found a note inside saying the city prosecutor has decided to press charges against the owner of the dogs that attacked Duke.
Very odd. They sent me a letter a month or two ago saying they were not going to do that. It had talk in it about sending the woman to jail and this that and the other thing.
Well, they never asked me my opinion on the subject but the reality of it is, all I want is the money I had to spend on the vet back. Perhaps put those dogs down. That person is a very irresponsible dog owner seeing from the numerous times I have driven past there and seen the gate open and the door to the house open. Those dogs could easily just run out of the house and start their junk all over again. My dogs have gotten out before, but they don't go tearing up the first animal they see.
But I'm not a fan of Pit Bulls and anytime they attack anyone or other dog I am a fan of seeing them put down.
_________________________________________
Started this entry yesterday. It is official now: Caleb is going to spend a year in Hawaii, leaving sometime in September. He is also going to do another 2 month stint as a camp counselor at the Salvation Army's camp up in Heber. The stint in Hawaii is also through the Salvation Army. The winds of change have finally come for him and I am excited about what God is going to do in and through his life. I am not exactly excited I won't be seeing him, but that's the way life is and the way God has set things up. Normal, in other words, for your children to leave after they grow up and find their own way. I am guessing after that year in Hawaii he will be moving on towards the things his heart is full of, which at the moment is to become a minister in Japan.
I am feeling rather tied down at this point. I remember the days of missionary life and as hard and sometimes trying as they might have been, I wouldn't trade that experience for anything on this earth. It's hard to break free from the "chains that bind you", which in this case is the life I am currently living in working a full time job; making house payments and all that comes with that and basically doing much of nothing else if comparing it to the life I lived some time ago. But, until I get a clear picture of what I should be doing with the rest of my life in contrast to what the Bible says - I will do nothing but what I already do and that is to help people as much as I can.
_____________________________________
So Saturday. So far, I have done much of nothing excepting to refill the 2 Hummingbird feeders, brown a roast and put it into a crockpot and ponder some bills that are due to be paid. I haven't been invited to go with, but I have been informed about a festival going on in downtown Tempe, starting 10 minutes ago. A bunch of local artists will be there showing off their work. Sounds intriguing, actually, I can get lost in a good painting.
Well, just listed the RV trailer for the however manyeth time on Craigslist. I am thinking I am going to have to break down and list it on RV Trader for at least one month or however they do it now-a-days and see if I have better luck there. I've had a couple of people come look at it, but so far nothing.
Off to work. I have plenty to do outside and I have a person coming at 1:30 to take some of the Yerba Mensa that is growing like crazy off of my hands. I need to get rid of some if, it consumes a large amount of water and drains my pond down quickly. Let someone else have some water draining plants! For free at that!
G'day.
ben
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Well, I am finally getting a run tomorrow morning out-of-town. To Globe. I have been there numerous times for this company but not anytime recently. In fact, I have been stuck on in-town trips forever. My manager does not want me going out-of-town, he wants me here for the in-town junk. It is junk not because of the job or the deliveries, but because of the unbelievable shit that happens in traffic with idiots every day.
Today? Let's talk about one incident in particular. I had finished delivering to a job-site - which was no small feat in itself and would have had to have made a video of the maneuvers I had to make to get in and more to the point: OUT of that place. I was on the freeway bridge. I did not pay any attention, whatsoever, as to what was going on on the freeway underneath me.
In a few seconds, I had wished I did. I made the left-hand turn and looked ahead - nothing but a sea of stopped cars both on the freeway and the on-ramp I was on. I got to the point where the cars were - parked - in front of me and waited. And waited. And waited. At some point, numerous vehicles merged onto the shoulder and started backing up the 500 feet to the freeway entrance. At another point, they simply got to a point where they could turn around and started driving the wrong way! This wasn't a situation where traffic was moving very slowly and stopping and moving, this was a situation where NOTHING was moving AT ALL!
I called 511 on my cellphone and heard a recording tell me that the freeway "is closed at Williamsfield road". Willaimsfield road? The next exit, 2 miles away. At the rate we weren't going, it would take hours!! Well, eventually and after calling in to let them know that I was stuck in non-moving traffic, it all started to move again, albeit very slowly. I observed all lanes after finally getting to the point of actually entering the freeway and notice the "high speed lane" or far left lane was moving faster than all of them. I moved over to that lane immediately and spent the next 25 minutes there moving 2 miles.
When I finally got to the accident scene, wow. Jack-knifed big rig. SUV that had obviously rolled at least once, crumpled like a tin can after crunching it, entire roof had been cut off by first-responders to remove the victims inside. Another car had also rolled and it was totally trashed. I mean trashed as in crumpled and destroyed, not just minor damage. TRASHED trashed! Another vehicle - a pickup - but I could only see parts of it - the parts I see damaged but the rest was blocked by the wrecked semi.
OH, wait a minute, THAT wasn't the thing I wanted to talk about concerning idiots in traffic! That just came to my mind because it took so long to get past it.
Okay, this will take less writing on my part and reading on yours: I just got off the freeway - yes, I am drinv the semi. 48 foot flatbed (skateboard truckers call it). I am in the "slow" right-hand lane. There is a side-street I am approaching. A Discount Cab car comes flying up beside me, cuts directly in front of me - less than a car's length and then SLAMS on the brakes to slow down enough to make a turn on the side-street which is now maybe 30 feet in front of me.
I'm shutting the truck down, laying on the horn, wondering if I'm going to rear-end this complete and total idiot. Fortunately for me, I had off-loaded most everything on the truck at the prior deliveries so truck was light and easier to get slowed down. If the truck had been loaded heavy, I would have taken that car out.
I immediately became infuriated with this moron. It would have cost his life if any and I do not want to be responsible for taking someone else's life, regardless of the fact I would not have been at fault. I turned onto the side street and followed him - sort of - he was driving erratically and well above the speed limit, just enough to get his license and cab number before he cranked into an apartment complex.
I called Discount Cab a while later and got a woman on the phone who "would be glad to take my complaint". No, I said, I want to speak to driver management. She connects me to someone else. "Are you in management?" "Hold on, please". Another person. Same question. Hold please. Another person, same question. "Yes, I am the operations manager". Thank you. I let loose. You have a driver that is a complete and total liability to your company, among other statements.
I don't know what that man did about it, I can only call in and complain. A person driving like that is going to have a mishap eventually and it is going to cost the taxi company in insurance premiums.
Well enough. Time for bed.
ben
Today? Let's talk about one incident in particular. I had finished delivering to a job-site - which was no small feat in itself and would have had to have made a video of the maneuvers I had to make to get in and more to the point: OUT of that place. I was on the freeway bridge. I did not pay any attention, whatsoever, as to what was going on on the freeway underneath me.
In a few seconds, I had wished I did. I made the left-hand turn and looked ahead - nothing but a sea of stopped cars both on the freeway and the on-ramp I was on. I got to the point where the cars were - parked - in front of me and waited. And waited. And waited. At some point, numerous vehicles merged onto the shoulder and started backing up the 500 feet to the freeway entrance. At another point, they simply got to a point where they could turn around and started driving the wrong way! This wasn't a situation where traffic was moving very slowly and stopping and moving, this was a situation where NOTHING was moving AT ALL!
I called 511 on my cellphone and heard a recording tell me that the freeway "is closed at Williamsfield road". Willaimsfield road? The next exit, 2 miles away. At the rate we weren't going, it would take hours!! Well, eventually and after calling in to let them know that I was stuck in non-moving traffic, it all started to move again, albeit very slowly. I observed all lanes after finally getting to the point of actually entering the freeway and notice the "high speed lane" or far left lane was moving faster than all of them. I moved over to that lane immediately and spent the next 25 minutes there moving 2 miles.
When I finally got to the accident scene, wow. Jack-knifed big rig. SUV that had obviously rolled at least once, crumpled like a tin can after crunching it, entire roof had been cut off by first-responders to remove the victims inside. Another car had also rolled and it was totally trashed. I mean trashed as in crumpled and destroyed, not just minor damage. TRASHED trashed! Another vehicle - a pickup - but I could only see parts of it - the parts I see damaged but the rest was blocked by the wrecked semi.
OH, wait a minute, THAT wasn't the thing I wanted to talk about concerning idiots in traffic! That just came to my mind because it took so long to get past it.
Okay, this will take less writing on my part and reading on yours: I just got off the freeway - yes, I am drinv the semi. 48 foot flatbed (skateboard truckers call it). I am in the "slow" right-hand lane. There is a side-street I am approaching. A Discount Cab car comes flying up beside me, cuts directly in front of me - less than a car's length and then SLAMS on the brakes to slow down enough to make a turn on the side-street which is now maybe 30 feet in front of me.
I'm shutting the truck down, laying on the horn, wondering if I'm going to rear-end this complete and total idiot. Fortunately for me, I had off-loaded most everything on the truck at the prior deliveries so truck was light and easier to get slowed down. If the truck had been loaded heavy, I would have taken that car out.
I immediately became infuriated with this moron. It would have cost his life if any and I do not want to be responsible for taking someone else's life, regardless of the fact I would not have been at fault. I turned onto the side street and followed him - sort of - he was driving erratically and well above the speed limit, just enough to get his license and cab number before he cranked into an apartment complex.
I called Discount Cab a while later and got a woman on the phone who "would be glad to take my complaint". No, I said, I want to speak to driver management. She connects me to someone else. "Are you in management?" "Hold on, please". Another person. Same question. Hold please. Another person, same question. "Yes, I am the operations manager". Thank you. I let loose. You have a driver that is a complete and total liability to your company, among other statements.
I don't know what that man did about it, I can only call in and complain. A person driving like that is going to have a mishap eventually and it is going to cost the taxi company in insurance premiums.
Well enough. Time for bed.
ben
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Finally!
My little Queensland Bottle Tree finally started growing again! I mean, the thing stopped growing near the end of fall last year and hasn't grown an inch since then. Now, Spring came and here we go! It had a total of 9 leaves on it and that was that. Now? Growing up - sending out new leaves and looking very promising!
Monday. Not a good day for me. At sometime around midnight last night, someone slammed the back door and woke me up out of a dead sleep. I got mad - it takes me a long time to get back to sleep usually - I ended up with about 4 hours of sleep last night. I did not want to get out of bed this morning. I was on my way to work and a salesman called - it was 5:45 am! But, he just wanted to vent about a particular LTL company - Central Freight to be exact - that had left a giant part sitting on a dock on Thursday of last week when it should have been loaded into the truck and on the dock at their Phoenix facility on Friday morning.
This part shut a whole jobsite down and Central Freight offered nothing to compensate. We will be suggesting to the company that shipped it - which ships out a LOT of freight on a daily basis, to reconsider using a freight company that has screwed things up on numerous occasions.
Well, I got to work and started right in. Not 30 minutes into it and loading pallet, I threw a 120 pound solid metal fitting onto the pallet. My right hand was in the way. More precisely, my right hand ring finger. I saw a split second before it happened what was going to happen and I just couldn't get my hand out of the way fast enough. The part landed on the pallet and was instantly forced sideways up against another, heavy, metal part.
Yup, my finger was in the way. Lots of blood and intense pain. I got the bleeding stopped quickly, but the pain? Smashed finger meat. Pain doesn't go away very fast when you smash your meat. It just doesn't. I put ice on it immediately, the only thing I know of to keep the swelling down and to reduce the pain. Well not the only thing, but ice is very effective and if you freeze it enough, it's going to help.
But, I was working and every time I started lifting or pulling on something, the bleeding started again, not to mention exponential amounts of pain ripping through the finger, into the brain, telling me this doesn't feel very good. I don't deal with things that are light, the stresses placed on fingers, hands, arms, body are enormous at times. A freshly smashed finger isn't really willing to deal with all of that.
Well, I get to a job site and the truck is completely loaded. The finger started bleeding again to the point of soaking the glove on that hand with blood. Hope you aren't eating while reading this, lol. No, this isn't an April Fool's joke, either, the joke was on me if anything. I just continued on with getting the truck unloaded and when finally done, took off the glove, removed the bandage and poured bottled water on it to clean it, dried it and then put a fresh bandage on it.
But, the pain didn't stop. I left work early today. I just wanted to go home, put ice on it and deal with the pain. A drink or two wouldn't hurt, either. And so it was, I got home before 2:00 pm, something that hasn't happened in a long time. One of my tenants went and got ice in a paper towel and handed it to me. I'm feeling better now and no bleeding since I got home. Slept for 2 hours.
___________________
Ummm, got off of writing this and now the next morning, almost time to leave for work. Finger feeling a bit better, but still painful if I rub it up against anything. Oh well.
G'day.
ben
Monday. Not a good day for me. At sometime around midnight last night, someone slammed the back door and woke me up out of a dead sleep. I got mad - it takes me a long time to get back to sleep usually - I ended up with about 4 hours of sleep last night. I did not want to get out of bed this morning. I was on my way to work and a salesman called - it was 5:45 am! But, he just wanted to vent about a particular LTL company - Central Freight to be exact - that had left a giant part sitting on a dock on Thursday of last week when it should have been loaded into the truck and on the dock at their Phoenix facility on Friday morning.
This part shut a whole jobsite down and Central Freight offered nothing to compensate. We will be suggesting to the company that shipped it - which ships out a LOT of freight on a daily basis, to reconsider using a freight company that has screwed things up on numerous occasions.
Well, I got to work and started right in. Not 30 minutes into it and loading pallet, I threw a 120 pound solid metal fitting onto the pallet. My right hand was in the way. More precisely, my right hand ring finger. I saw a split second before it happened what was going to happen and I just couldn't get my hand out of the way fast enough. The part landed on the pallet and was instantly forced sideways up against another, heavy, metal part.
Yup, my finger was in the way. Lots of blood and intense pain. I got the bleeding stopped quickly, but the pain? Smashed finger meat. Pain doesn't go away very fast when you smash your meat. It just doesn't. I put ice on it immediately, the only thing I know of to keep the swelling down and to reduce the pain. Well not the only thing, but ice is very effective and if you freeze it enough, it's going to help.
But, I was working and every time I started lifting or pulling on something, the bleeding started again, not to mention exponential amounts of pain ripping through the finger, into the brain, telling me this doesn't feel very good. I don't deal with things that are light, the stresses placed on fingers, hands, arms, body are enormous at times. A freshly smashed finger isn't really willing to deal with all of that.
Well, I get to a job site and the truck is completely loaded. The finger started bleeding again to the point of soaking the glove on that hand with blood. Hope you aren't eating while reading this, lol. No, this isn't an April Fool's joke, either, the joke was on me if anything. I just continued on with getting the truck unloaded and when finally done, took off the glove, removed the bandage and poured bottled water on it to clean it, dried it and then put a fresh bandage on it.
But, the pain didn't stop. I left work early today. I just wanted to go home, put ice on it and deal with the pain. A drink or two wouldn't hurt, either. And so it was, I got home before 2:00 pm, something that hasn't happened in a long time. One of my tenants went and got ice in a paper towel and handed it to me. I'm feeling better now and no bleeding since I got home. Slept for 2 hours.
___________________
Ummm, got off of writing this and now the next morning, almost time to leave for work. Finger feeling a bit better, but still painful if I rub it up against anything. Oh well.
G'day.
ben
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Happy Easter!
I am leaving in a few minutes to spend a portion of the day with my mother - and my brother and his son. My son is also coming along with me. I have no idea how this will turn out, but probably can turn out okay if my brother keeps politics out of the discussion. If he starts in on it, well, I may just get up and leave. It never turns out well when he starts in on his political views, which are at the complete opposite end of the spectrum than mine. He can't agree to disagree agreeably - as the old saying goes - he's one of those "I'm right and you're wrong" people. I could even stand that if he weren't so obnoxious about it.
He will make some absurd statement about Obama and all of the things he's "accomplished" and if I say anything back to the contrary, he simply can't stand it. He will then start interrupting, raising his voice and acting as if I had just insulted him personally because I do not and won't ever agree with much of his political views.
My mother's political views and mine are almost identical. But, she just keeps her mouth shut when my bro starts in on his ranting. He does not visit her often and so she will put up with whatever in exchange for time spent with her son and grandson. IF things can possibly take an amenable turn today, I will offer my brother the use of my trailer up on my mom's property to go up there for a visit. Whether he wants to or not, I have no clue. He used to go up there and camp, but I think camping is not his cup of tea anymore. Fine and dandy, my trailer is home away from home. It is very nicely decorated and has new, berber carpeting (that I installed myself and I am very pleased with it's outcome); new wallpaper that Lynnette installed last year and I have been upgrading it as money permits.
It also has AC, so no baking out there in the summer when the mid-afternoon heat hits. It gets in the 90's in the summer in the afternoons. It is not pleasant to be in if you are in a tent. Been there, done that. But, sitting in a trailer, watching TV if you are so inclined or just taking a snooze with the AC on a completely different story. It has hot, running water (during the time of year I can keep water in the holding tank and not worry about it freezing up and freezing the lines), a microwave, etc.
Although the offer may be made, I actually do not expect him to take me up on it. He doesn't want to go up there and visit mother, that's my take on it anyway. Neither does my oldest brother. The both have become very disinterested in much of anything to do with their parents. They call her occasionally, they see her once or twice a year and that's it. Pretty amazing considering they live - about 50 miles apart. And when my oldest brother is up at his cabin, they are about 7 miles apart.
Well, whatever the case, I must depart for the grand feast. Whatever may happen there, one thing is always for sure: the food will be tremendous!
Happy Easter again!\
ben
I am leaving in a few minutes to spend a portion of the day with my mother - and my brother and his son. My son is also coming along with me. I have no idea how this will turn out, but probably can turn out okay if my brother keeps politics out of the discussion. If he starts in on it, well, I may just get up and leave. It never turns out well when he starts in on his political views, which are at the complete opposite end of the spectrum than mine. He can't agree to disagree agreeably - as the old saying goes - he's one of those "I'm right and you're wrong" people. I could even stand that if he weren't so obnoxious about it.
He will make some absurd statement about Obama and all of the things he's "accomplished" and if I say anything back to the contrary, he simply can't stand it. He will then start interrupting, raising his voice and acting as if I had just insulted him personally because I do not and won't ever agree with much of his political views.
My mother's political views and mine are almost identical. But, she just keeps her mouth shut when my bro starts in on his ranting. He does not visit her often and so she will put up with whatever in exchange for time spent with her son and grandson. IF things can possibly take an amenable turn today, I will offer my brother the use of my trailer up on my mom's property to go up there for a visit. Whether he wants to or not, I have no clue. He used to go up there and camp, but I think camping is not his cup of tea anymore. Fine and dandy, my trailer is home away from home. It is very nicely decorated and has new, berber carpeting (that I installed myself and I am very pleased with it's outcome); new wallpaper that Lynnette installed last year and I have been upgrading it as money permits.
It also has AC, so no baking out there in the summer when the mid-afternoon heat hits. It gets in the 90's in the summer in the afternoons. It is not pleasant to be in if you are in a tent. Been there, done that. But, sitting in a trailer, watching TV if you are so inclined or just taking a snooze with the AC on a completely different story. It has hot, running water (during the time of year I can keep water in the holding tank and not worry about it freezing up and freezing the lines), a microwave, etc.
Although the offer may be made, I actually do not expect him to take me up on it. He doesn't want to go up there and visit mother, that's my take on it anyway. Neither does my oldest brother. The both have become very disinterested in much of anything to do with their parents. They call her occasionally, they see her once or twice a year and that's it. Pretty amazing considering they live - about 50 miles apart. And when my oldest brother is up at his cabin, they are about 7 miles apart.
Well, whatever the case, I must depart for the grand feast. Whatever may happen there, one thing is always for sure: the food will be tremendous!
Happy Easter again!\
ben
Friday, March 29, 2013
Happy Good Friday
And a Good Friday it is. Christ died on the Cross so we can have eternal life!
Well, this weekend is already done. Saturday is going to be continuing to work around the yard outside - the amount of work left is dwindling - especially with Gilbert's help last weekend, he went to town out front - but there is still plenty to do.
New tenant is moved in and paid in full for the month. That's a good thing.
If I'm not too tired, I will go to tonight's celebratory church service in remembrance of what Christ did on the cross. I will not be able to make church on Sunday because of Easter plans with mother, so prolly otter get in there tonight if at all possible - I just tend to start yawning and getting sleepy at about the time the service starts at 7:00 pm. I know, it's ridiculous, I"m a full grown adult and getting sleepy like a 5 year old would at 7:00, but the early rise lifestyle at work, you know.
Getting close to 250,000 gold coins in the myVegas thing. Although plans can always change, I am looking forward to getting at least twice that many gold coins if not many more than that and having a near-free vacation to Vegas in August. What are you going to do in Vegas? Well with that many gold coins, still in very, very nice hotel and probably take in a show or two. I love blackjack and have never played it in Vegas. Not that it's that much different there than anywhere else, but I do believe the house rules concerning the game is probably a bit better up there. There are things that some casinos do to give the house an even greater advantage.
Well, that's all the time I have for now, time to be off to work!
G'day.
ben
Well, this weekend is already done. Saturday is going to be continuing to work around the yard outside - the amount of work left is dwindling - especially with Gilbert's help last weekend, he went to town out front - but there is still plenty to do.
New tenant is moved in and paid in full for the month. That's a good thing.
If I'm not too tired, I will go to tonight's celebratory church service in remembrance of what Christ did on the cross. I will not be able to make church on Sunday because of Easter plans with mother, so prolly otter get in there tonight if at all possible - I just tend to start yawning and getting sleepy at about the time the service starts at 7:00 pm. I know, it's ridiculous, I"m a full grown adult and getting sleepy like a 5 year old would at 7:00, but the early rise lifestyle at work, you know.
Getting close to 250,000 gold coins in the myVegas thing. Although plans can always change, I am looking forward to getting at least twice that many gold coins if not many more than that and having a near-free vacation to Vegas in August. What are you going to do in Vegas? Well with that many gold coins, still in very, very nice hotel and probably take in a show or two. I love blackjack and have never played it in Vegas. Not that it's that much different there than anywhere else, but I do believe the house rules concerning the game is probably a bit better up there. There are things that some casinos do to give the house an even greater advantage.
Well, that's all the time I have for now, time to be off to work!
G'day.
ben
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
I'm tired and cranky.
Ever since Gilbert did his attempt-to-move-out-in-the-middle-of-the-night-thing-without-my-knowing thing, I have not been sleeping well.
But whatever.
The room is clean and done. I called the man today to let him know it's ready and he stated he was moving in tomorrow. Okay, I replied, Mark should be here all day if you show up before I get home from work.
However, I will be giving Mark a simple set of instructions: the man must pay up before he moves in. Money or nothing. I will give Mark a little "reward" of the money given for doing all he has done to help in this situation.
Long day at work. Just tired. I gotta get some sleep going here. I'm working on 4 or 5 hours per night, well short of what I need to feel good throughout the day - or if need be, take a nap and feel good again after slowing down.
Ever since Gilbert did his attempt-to-move-out-in-the-middle-of-the-night-thing-without-my-knowing thing, I have not been sleeping well.
But whatever.
The room is clean and done. I called the man today to let him know it's ready and he stated he was moving in tomorrow. Okay, I replied, Mark should be here all day if you show up before I get home from work.
However, I will be giving Mark a simple set of instructions: the man must pay up before he moves in. Money or nothing. I will give Mark a little "reward" of the money given for doing all he has done to help in this situation.
Long day at work. Just tired. I gotta get some sleep going here. I'm working on 4 or 5 hours per night, well short of what I need to feel good throughout the day - or if need be, take a nap and feel good again after slowing down.
Some of the things people do in traffic...............just maddening.
But I am not going to go into that. Instead, since I have posted that ad for the room, I have had a large number of inquiries concerning it. I have had numerous phone conversations, but in the end, it's whoever shows up and seems like a good fit is the person that is going to get it.
So, on my way home from work yesterday, I get a call from one of those individuals informing me he was at the house and can I get someone out there to let him in? Yes, of course. I was expecting him and had informed Mark that someone might be coming.
By the time I got home, they were in the bedroom, looking it over. Quite the mess, actually. But not the end of the world, either. The disconcerting thing is the melted wax on the floor. I wondered how close this house might have come to burning down with a person burning candles that is paying so little attention to them, large quantities of wax are oozing onto the floor? This is the kind of risk a person takes, I guess, in renting out rooms. I can't deal with things I don't know about.
Well, anyway, his brother and this guy had come, his brother already has a place, they were just doing this looking around thing together. Apparently they had been to numerous houses/apartments, looking for a place but much of it was a "frat house" type of atmosphere, a living situation this guy didn't want any part of. In other words, places filled with college aged students. After listening to this guy talking for quite a while, I came to the determination - as much as one can make in such a short space of time - that this guy would probably work out in moving in here. There are never any guarantees and sometimes people have quirks and/or things that they do that cause great annoyance for others.
But, we shook on it and so the race begins. The room is - was - a mess. I started right in on cleaning the carpet. This guy needs the room - immediately actually - he is living with his brother but it became obvious that that was only intended to be a short-lived situation. I got the carpet looking pretty good - excepting the wax. How does one remove wax? The only way I could think of is with heat, but I couldn't fathom how you could use heat to extract it from the carpet.
An online search, of course, got the answer: a piece of newspaper set on top of the wax and an iron put on low heat and let it sit there. According to the site, the newspaper will absorb the wax.
Well I haven't gotten to that yet, it was as much as I could get done to go over that carpet numerous times with the machine in trying to get it to looking as good as possible.
Well, Mark was going to do the rest, but he has his job today so that isn't going to work out, either, when I get home from work I will continue on the cleanup and try to get it done or mostly done by the end of today.
As for now?
Time to go to work.
G'day.
ben
But I am not going to go into that. Instead, since I have posted that ad for the room, I have had a large number of inquiries concerning it. I have had numerous phone conversations, but in the end, it's whoever shows up and seems like a good fit is the person that is going to get it.
So, on my way home from work yesterday, I get a call from one of those individuals informing me he was at the house and can I get someone out there to let him in? Yes, of course. I was expecting him and had informed Mark that someone might be coming.
By the time I got home, they were in the bedroom, looking it over. Quite the mess, actually. But not the end of the world, either. The disconcerting thing is the melted wax on the floor. I wondered how close this house might have come to burning down with a person burning candles that is paying so little attention to them, large quantities of wax are oozing onto the floor? This is the kind of risk a person takes, I guess, in renting out rooms. I can't deal with things I don't know about.
Well, anyway, his brother and this guy had come, his brother already has a place, they were just doing this looking around thing together. Apparently they had been to numerous houses/apartments, looking for a place but much of it was a "frat house" type of atmosphere, a living situation this guy didn't want any part of. In other words, places filled with college aged students. After listening to this guy talking for quite a while, I came to the determination - as much as one can make in such a short space of time - that this guy would probably work out in moving in here. There are never any guarantees and sometimes people have quirks and/or things that they do that cause great annoyance for others.
But, we shook on it and so the race begins. The room is - was - a mess. I started right in on cleaning the carpet. This guy needs the room - immediately actually - he is living with his brother but it became obvious that that was only intended to be a short-lived situation. I got the carpet looking pretty good - excepting the wax. How does one remove wax? The only way I could think of is with heat, but I couldn't fathom how you could use heat to extract it from the carpet.
An online search, of course, got the answer: a piece of newspaper set on top of the wax and an iron put on low heat and let it sit there. According to the site, the newspaper will absorb the wax.
Well I haven't gotten to that yet, it was as much as I could get done to go over that carpet numerous times with the machine in trying to get it to looking as good as possible.
Well, Mark was going to do the rest, but he has his job today so that isn't going to work out, either, when I get home from work I will continue on the cleanup and try to get it done or mostly done by the end of today.
As for now?
Time to go to work.
G'day.
ben
Monday, March 25, 2013
Finding A New Tenant/DirecTv
The search goes on.
For a new tenant.
But first: Direct TV
My favorite company to hate and they deserve it. I stand on my evaluation of this company as continuing to have the worst customer service on the face of this planet. They have not improved in their customer service since they made all of those announcements last year about it - after losing millions of customers because of it.
Regardless. They came out and replaced the dish, the lines that go to the dish and the switch. Whatever the switch thing is called, it is a block where all the lines from the house go into it and the 2 lines from the satellite dish go into it. It needs electricity for whatever it does.
Saturday, I noticed several channels were not working and "searching for satellite signal". I called Direct TV and made an appointment. No biggies on hurrying, it's only some channels, not all of them, I can live without them until they come and fix it. This morning, George (one of my tenants) called me and told me that it was all out, none of the channels are working. Although he said he had called me to prepare before I got home and found nothing working, I knew better. I can live without TV at all. The internet a different story, but TV I can take it or leave it. I have some favorite shows, don't get me wrong, but nothing that makes me have to have it.
Well, when I found that out, I started making calls. Hard to do while working, but I was able to make the calls without sacrificing work at the same time. It's called multi-tasking and I"m pretty good at it.
I knew I would get loads and loads of BS - and I certainly wasn't let down on that issue. I won't go into all the details, it will take too long and I don't feel like writing that much. On finally calling their headquarters and getting to someone who said no-one was available to come out today, I then asked for her manager. She didn't want to but I am very persuasive, read: I'm not going away and you are going to have to deal with me on my terms.
Her manager gets on the phone and tells me the same thing. It became quickly obvious that they weren't actually doing anything, they were just looking at the appointments available and reciting to me that the local department where I live didn't have anything available. They were not calling them and asking them - at all - if they could squeeze it in somewhere. So I told this lady flatly, after listening to her repetitive tribe for a while - that "you are completely useless". Yes, I insulted her. This isn't customer service. I call it customer disservice, or more like customer dissing. You will not question them, they are the final authority and that is that.
This went on for a while, when she finally started talking in logic instead of dictation, then we had a discussion and then she got off the line and made her phone call or email or whatever she did and yes, when I came home from work today at around 5:00 pm, there was a Direct TV van sitting in front of my house and the man had already finished the repair. I thanked him profusely for doing that and freely admitted that I am the - person - that made life miserable for headquarters and everyone else. He said no problem and I replied that I wouldn't do that to him, anyway, thanks for coming out. Turns out that he had a 45 minute drive from the place he was at to my house and that he was at the end of his work day when he was called by his general manager to come out and fix the problem.
But, it took me 2 hours to get that done. Otherwise, no TV here until tomorrow afternoon. So, I got some money taken off my bill but I intend on reserving this latest episode with this company for when my current, free movie channels expire, which is very soon.
Back to Gilbert, the tenant that tried to leave in the middle of the night and - dunno why, really amazing that he started acting that way because I have had a good relationship with him all the way up until now.
He crawled out the window the other night in order to, apparently, not have to "deal" with anything. But, I wouldn't have said anything further to him at that point, anyway and I was remaining congenial with him. But, we did have a short conversation - very short - and it was basically that he was leaving, would be out by the first.
So, I talked to other tenants about it, they said if I wanted, they would call me if he showed up to remove the rest of his things, to which I readily agreed. Yup, I got a call from Lynnette today - he's here, wanted to let you know, do you want me to do anything? Yup, hand the phone to him, I want to talk to him.
But, I remained cordial and "nice". If a person is intent on moving out - even without giving any kind of notice at all and owing money - then they are going to do it and there is nothing I can do to stop it. More importantly, nothing I should do to stop it. They are leaving for a reason and whatever that reason is, my place doesn't work for them anymore, I am good with that and let's move on. I told him I would like if we parted on good terms and not turn it into something - bad. He agreed and we discussed a few things before I asked him: are you still going to give me the money you promised? Yes, he replied. Fine, you can leave it with Lynnette.
So yes, it was a pleasant surprise - surprise, yes - to find that he had left the money he had promised. He owes more than that, but I know I am not going to get it out of him and I am going to let the rest of it go. I won't necessarily tell him that, but I am not going to ask for any more. He has stated he owes me a couple hundred more, which is fine, but he's hurting and getting as much as I did out of this situation today was, actually, a very good ending for me.
I'm tired. Tenancy issues can be draining. I have to have the income, period. It's a non-negotiable deal for me. I have talked to 3 people so far on the phone about the room and will keep on talking as replies come in off my Craigslist ad until someone takes the room. I had a long conversation with another truck driver who is looking for a room and though it sounded okay, something better might come along.
And that's that. It's a little before my bedtime but I am exhausted.
ben
For a new tenant.
But first: Direct TV
My favorite company to hate and they deserve it. I stand on my evaluation of this company as continuing to have the worst customer service on the face of this planet. They have not improved in their customer service since they made all of those announcements last year about it - after losing millions of customers because of it.
Regardless. They came out and replaced the dish, the lines that go to the dish and the switch. Whatever the switch thing is called, it is a block where all the lines from the house go into it and the 2 lines from the satellite dish go into it. It needs electricity for whatever it does.
Saturday, I noticed several channels were not working and "searching for satellite signal". I called Direct TV and made an appointment. No biggies on hurrying, it's only some channels, not all of them, I can live without them until they come and fix it. This morning, George (one of my tenants) called me and told me that it was all out, none of the channels are working. Although he said he had called me to prepare before I got home and found nothing working, I knew better. I can live without TV at all. The internet a different story, but TV I can take it or leave it. I have some favorite shows, don't get me wrong, but nothing that makes me have to have it.
Well, when I found that out, I started making calls. Hard to do while working, but I was able to make the calls without sacrificing work at the same time. It's called multi-tasking and I"m pretty good at it.
I knew I would get loads and loads of BS - and I certainly wasn't let down on that issue. I won't go into all the details, it will take too long and I don't feel like writing that much. On finally calling their headquarters and getting to someone who said no-one was available to come out today, I then asked for her manager. She didn't want to but I am very persuasive, read: I'm not going away and you are going to have to deal with me on my terms.
Her manager gets on the phone and tells me the same thing. It became quickly obvious that they weren't actually doing anything, they were just looking at the appointments available and reciting to me that the local department where I live didn't have anything available. They were not calling them and asking them - at all - if they could squeeze it in somewhere. So I told this lady flatly, after listening to her repetitive tribe for a while - that "you are completely useless". Yes, I insulted her. This isn't customer service. I call it customer disservice, or more like customer dissing. You will not question them, they are the final authority and that is that.
This went on for a while, when she finally started talking in logic instead of dictation, then we had a discussion and then she got off the line and made her phone call or email or whatever she did and yes, when I came home from work today at around 5:00 pm, there was a Direct TV van sitting in front of my house and the man had already finished the repair. I thanked him profusely for doing that and freely admitted that I am the - person - that made life miserable for headquarters and everyone else. He said no problem and I replied that I wouldn't do that to him, anyway, thanks for coming out. Turns out that he had a 45 minute drive from the place he was at to my house and that he was at the end of his work day when he was called by his general manager to come out and fix the problem.
But, it took me 2 hours to get that done. Otherwise, no TV here until tomorrow afternoon. So, I got some money taken off my bill but I intend on reserving this latest episode with this company for when my current, free movie channels expire, which is very soon.
Back to Gilbert, the tenant that tried to leave in the middle of the night and - dunno why, really amazing that he started acting that way because I have had a good relationship with him all the way up until now.
He crawled out the window the other night in order to, apparently, not have to "deal" with anything. But, I wouldn't have said anything further to him at that point, anyway and I was remaining congenial with him. But, we did have a short conversation - very short - and it was basically that he was leaving, would be out by the first.
So, I talked to other tenants about it, they said if I wanted, they would call me if he showed up to remove the rest of his things, to which I readily agreed. Yup, I got a call from Lynnette today - he's here, wanted to let you know, do you want me to do anything? Yup, hand the phone to him, I want to talk to him.
But, I remained cordial and "nice". If a person is intent on moving out - even without giving any kind of notice at all and owing money - then they are going to do it and there is nothing I can do to stop it. More importantly, nothing I should do to stop it. They are leaving for a reason and whatever that reason is, my place doesn't work for them anymore, I am good with that and let's move on. I told him I would like if we parted on good terms and not turn it into something - bad. He agreed and we discussed a few things before I asked him: are you still going to give me the money you promised? Yes, he replied. Fine, you can leave it with Lynnette.
So yes, it was a pleasant surprise - surprise, yes - to find that he had left the money he had promised. He owes more than that, but I know I am not going to get it out of him and I am going to let the rest of it go. I won't necessarily tell him that, but I am not going to ask for any more. He has stated he owes me a couple hundred more, which is fine, but he's hurting and getting as much as I did out of this situation today was, actually, a very good ending for me.
I'm tired. Tenancy issues can be draining. I have to have the income, period. It's a non-negotiable deal for me. I have talked to 3 people so far on the phone about the room and will keep on talking as replies come in off my Craigslist ad until someone takes the room. I had a long conversation with another truck driver who is looking for a room and though it sounded okay, something better might come along.
And that's that. It's a little before my bedtime but I am exhausted.
ben
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Tired and irritable.
I was attempting to sleep last night and kept getting woken up by noises. What are these dogs doing, I'm thinking? After being jolted into awake-land, I finally understood that whatever was going on, it wasn't the dogs. People going in and out of the back door. My first thought? Gilbert, the college-aged tenant, moving out in the middle of the night.
Wouldn't be the first time that something like this has happened. I gave him a notice a few days ago - though not an eviction notice, I wanted him to pay up. He has been getting behind and he had promised to give me money on Friday - though I was up in the mountains on Friday - yesterday I had to ask him about the rent (versus him coming and discussing it with me). He gave me a story about losing his wallet and that he will need to go to the bank to get some money. Perhaps he actually did lose his wallet, I will never know. Anyway, I figured the notice and his situation would be the only ones moving out like that, the other tenants are not the kind of people that would play those kinds of games.
So, I got on some clothes, came out to the kitchen to find JD on the old computer. No surprise there, he's been doing it for years, my on restriction is that he doesn't visit porn sites. He wants to do that, go get his own computer and pay for his own internet. Yes, I can tell, just go through the history and see what he's been up to. I don't do that often anymore, he is a good "kid", I think he's 20 now, have known him since he was 12.
He had earphones on and didn't even know I was there, but upon observing what he was watching, I had no reason to interrupt him. He wasn't the reason I was out there. Just stood there and waited. Sure enough, here comes Gilbert and 2 of his friends, arms loaded with stuff, walking through. Gilbert didn't say a word to me, so I ventured out into the deep blue sea and said: "Moving out in the middle of the night, Gilbert?". It was 2:00 am or thereabouts. He fumbled for words and said that he was "just moving stuff to a storage unit". He then finally offered he would be moving out and would be out by the first of the month. He further offered money on Monday and the rest of it next Friday.
Well first off, storage units aren't opened at 2:00 am. I know this for a fact. Any of them around these parts usually don't allow people in before 6:00am, some of them 5:00 am to accommodate for contractors keeping their trailers and materials stored there. Second off, he has been giving me the money story a couple of times now.
Whatever. No notice, just goodbye. Whatever again. This isn't the mature or respectful way to deal with such. Just be honest, that's all I want. I have never treated him poorly, I have only asked him to respect my rules with the washing machine and lately, asking him about rent. He stated last week that he had had his hours reinstated so I believed that he was simply going to get caught up on his rent and that would be that.
Well, this basically kept me up the rest of the night. A flurry of thoughts and immediately went back into my bedroom, got out my laptop and started writing up a room rental ad. I haven't had to do that in a long time now. I think Gilbert's been here at least a year, probably longer. I don't really keep track. I have no idea where he is moving to, I would guess some place cheaper, though my rent rate is cheap enough and includes utilities and all the perks such as WiFi and 231 channels of Direct TV. I could do without the Direct TV, but, tenants won't and you can't really lure people in without it.
So now starts the rather arduous task of finding a sane, normal person (it's a gamble every time, unfortunately). I think Gilbert has been here over a year and a half, judging from the last time I had to place an ad and still in my Craigslist account. Fortunately, all those ads are still in there, I can simply copy and paste all of that into a new ad instead of having to sit here and write a new one up every time. When you are running a new ad twice a day, that can add up to a lot of time spent, I am pretty thorough in my ads in what a person can expect in moving in here and what we expect of them. Pretty much weeds out a lot of people in advance and don't have to waste a lot of time with people who will not make a good fit in here.
Meanwhile, an entire family came out yesterday to look at the trailer. I am trying to sell the thing and get it off my property. Have been trying to sell it for a while now. They looked at it for a while, said thank you and left. Probably not, going to repost the ad since the one I have is well down there on the list on Craigslist. In fact, I was surprised anyone found it considering it is at least a month old and a person would have to do some searching to find that trailer on there.
Life goes on. I haven't decided yet but probably not going to church. I'm just too tired to sit there and attempt to remain attentive and engaged in listening to a sermon and worshiping for 2 plus hours. I am glad all this didn't happen on a work night. Mark is out in the trailer cleaning up after the dude that I basically forced out - and continues to talk trash to me via texting. Don't really care. He was BS'ing me all along, I knew he was but I gave him several chances anyway to pay up. Getting rid of that trailer is the best idea as far as I am concerned. It just isn't getting a lot of replies, I may have it priced too high, but I paid $2,500 for it and I always start higher than what I want for it. At this point, I would take 2 grand to get it out of here.
That's it.
Happy Sunday.
I was attempting to sleep last night and kept getting woken up by noises. What are these dogs doing, I'm thinking? After being jolted into awake-land, I finally understood that whatever was going on, it wasn't the dogs. People going in and out of the back door. My first thought? Gilbert, the college-aged tenant, moving out in the middle of the night.
Wouldn't be the first time that something like this has happened. I gave him a notice a few days ago - though not an eviction notice, I wanted him to pay up. He has been getting behind and he had promised to give me money on Friday - though I was up in the mountains on Friday - yesterday I had to ask him about the rent (versus him coming and discussing it with me). He gave me a story about losing his wallet and that he will need to go to the bank to get some money. Perhaps he actually did lose his wallet, I will never know. Anyway, I figured the notice and his situation would be the only ones moving out like that, the other tenants are not the kind of people that would play those kinds of games.
So, I got on some clothes, came out to the kitchen to find JD on the old computer. No surprise there, he's been doing it for years, my on restriction is that he doesn't visit porn sites. He wants to do that, go get his own computer and pay for his own internet. Yes, I can tell, just go through the history and see what he's been up to. I don't do that often anymore, he is a good "kid", I think he's 20 now, have known him since he was 12.
He had earphones on and didn't even know I was there, but upon observing what he was watching, I had no reason to interrupt him. He wasn't the reason I was out there. Just stood there and waited. Sure enough, here comes Gilbert and 2 of his friends, arms loaded with stuff, walking through. Gilbert didn't say a word to me, so I ventured out into the deep blue sea and said: "Moving out in the middle of the night, Gilbert?". It was 2:00 am or thereabouts. He fumbled for words and said that he was "just moving stuff to a storage unit". He then finally offered he would be moving out and would be out by the first of the month. He further offered money on Monday and the rest of it next Friday.
Well first off, storage units aren't opened at 2:00 am. I know this for a fact. Any of them around these parts usually don't allow people in before 6:00am, some of them 5:00 am to accommodate for contractors keeping their trailers and materials stored there. Second off, he has been giving me the money story a couple of times now.
Whatever. No notice, just goodbye. Whatever again. This isn't the mature or respectful way to deal with such. Just be honest, that's all I want. I have never treated him poorly, I have only asked him to respect my rules with the washing machine and lately, asking him about rent. He stated last week that he had had his hours reinstated so I believed that he was simply going to get caught up on his rent and that would be that.
Well, this basically kept me up the rest of the night. A flurry of thoughts and immediately went back into my bedroom, got out my laptop and started writing up a room rental ad. I haven't had to do that in a long time now. I think Gilbert's been here at least a year, probably longer. I don't really keep track. I have no idea where he is moving to, I would guess some place cheaper, though my rent rate is cheap enough and includes utilities and all the perks such as WiFi and 231 channels of Direct TV. I could do without the Direct TV, but, tenants won't and you can't really lure people in without it.
So now starts the rather arduous task of finding a sane, normal person (it's a gamble every time, unfortunately). I think Gilbert has been here over a year and a half, judging from the last time I had to place an ad and still in my Craigslist account. Fortunately, all those ads are still in there, I can simply copy and paste all of that into a new ad instead of having to sit here and write a new one up every time. When you are running a new ad twice a day, that can add up to a lot of time spent, I am pretty thorough in my ads in what a person can expect in moving in here and what we expect of them. Pretty much weeds out a lot of people in advance and don't have to waste a lot of time with people who will not make a good fit in here.
Meanwhile, an entire family came out yesterday to look at the trailer. I am trying to sell the thing and get it off my property. Have been trying to sell it for a while now. They looked at it for a while, said thank you and left. Probably not, going to repost the ad since the one I have is well down there on the list on Craigslist. In fact, I was surprised anyone found it considering it is at least a month old and a person would have to do some searching to find that trailer on there.
Life goes on. I haven't decided yet but probably not going to church. I'm just too tired to sit there and attempt to remain attentive and engaged in listening to a sermon and worshiping for 2 plus hours. I am glad all this didn't happen on a work night. Mark is out in the trailer cleaning up after the dude that I basically forced out - and continues to talk trash to me via texting. Don't really care. He was BS'ing me all along, I knew he was but I gave him several chances anyway to pay up. Getting rid of that trailer is the best idea as far as I am concerned. It just isn't getting a lot of replies, I may have it priced too high, but I paid $2,500 for it and I always start higher than what I want for it. At this point, I would take 2 grand to get it out of here.
That's it.
Happy Sunday.
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