Made a visit to Denny's.  I go there once in a great while to have the wonderful breakfast that they are so good at making.  Plain, simple, delicious.

But first, I replaced the battery in the old Buick.  The previous one was about 2-1/2 years old with a 5 year warranty.  So, I got the new battery for half price after pro-rating it.  They wanted to sell me a battery that costs $115 to replace it, I said bunk.  Old car, not worth putting that much money into it.  I've already dumped more than I have wanted to but fortunately it's gone a pretty good, long spell without having to do anything but change the brake rotors and pads on it, and that turned out to be pretty cheap.

Of course, that means NOT taking it to a brake shop!! I have no idea what they would charge to do that, but I am guessing a pretty good price tag plus they always tell you something else is wrong with your brake system and then try to instill fear into you that you might be on the verge of a catastrophic brake failure if you don't replace - whatever they are telling you.  Brakes and fear work well together for those that don't know about brake systems or how to fix that stuff yourself.

_____________________

Long interlude.  I ended up on Ebay looking for tickets to Seaworld.  I watched throughout the day as the auction had 2 people bidding against each other.  You want to get an awesome price on Ebay, you don't bid until the end, period.  You don't sit there with days or hours left to go bidding against each other.  But they were still WELL below half price on those tickets when the time was almost up on the auction.  I waited until 45 seconds left in the auction and made my bid.  I can't tell you how many times I have played that game and won with only seconds left to spare, but it gives no or little time for anyone else to make a counter-bid unless they have already had an automatic bid set up.  So, after the sport fishing is done, we are going to SeaWorld.  I hope I have some energy left to enjoy that, lol.

Yup, it's late - 11:00 pm for me, I only stayed up to try and win this auction and get the tickets here before we leave.

G'nite.

ben

So, Caleb is home.
I got a call this afternoon: "Can you come pick me up around 7:15?"
Uhhh, sure thing.  I wanted to go to the pastor's get-together at his house, I decided I would do both.
But before that happened, I took a nap.  I fell into a deep sleep and woke up a quarter after 6, 15 minutes before the party was supposed to start.
Bolted upright, but was definitely a bit out of it after coming out of a sleep like that.
Hit up the party for about 50 minutes and then and went to near downtown Phoenix - actually, the notorious intersection of Van Buren and 24th street.  Notorious - for decades now - because of the mental hospital right there on the corner and also because of the large number of hookers/prostitutes/whores (pick the word the best suits you for the kind of descriptor).  I had no idea that the Salvation Army also has a HUGE facility a block down the street from there.

I can only say that Caleb is a well-loved and like person.  He seems to have the Midas touch when it comes to affecting other people's lives and the impact he has on them.  He looked really good - healthy and in very good spirits.  It was good to see him and good to get my arms around him and get a big hug. He was having trouble getting out of there with the number of people that kept stopping him.

But no biggies.  We got home and visited a while, but it was obvious he wanted to get to his bedroom and - do whatever - I think he wants to sleep, lol.  Likely on the internet since apparently, internet access up there kept going out most of the time he was up there.

Meanwhile, I confirmed the dates to go to San Diego - he doesn't care, after he gets back from CA with the SA, he will go whenever I want to, he's all over it.  This frees me up to make the hotel reservations and book the spots on the boat.  I just haven't quite decided which day, exactly, during the week, we are going to go.

I dunno, but I'm not going to obsess over this too much.  I decided on San Diego (versus other cities with same-said sport fishing ports); use the same company; found what I hope will turn out to be a decent enough hotel and that's all I really need.

Whatever the case, I am very tired and it's time to go to bed.

G'nite.

ben

I think I found the hotel we are going to stay at.  I actually decided to just get a map up of the Mission Valley area (in San Diego) and sure enough, the names of hotels were all over it.  I thought about Howard Johnson's, but that place had some pretty bad reviews.  I just want a place that I can sleep at - without a lot of noise from everyone else around us.  I don't care that much about amenities, as long as the bed is at least semi-comfortable, I am good with it.

And so it is how I find the place.  It is listed as old and needing renovations, but most everyone that reviewed still gave it a good review.  Okay, there are always bad reviews - actually of any hotel property - and so this one has some too, but I was impressed enough with all the good reviews that I have decided this is the place.  It's much cheaper than anything else around there - save probably that hell-hole-of-a-place called Motel 6 Mission Valley.  I would rather sleep in my CAR than sleep in that rat s***-hole.

Okay, I'll just give the name and the website address: Kings Inn San Diego - http://kingsinnsandiego.com/

I went to their site and they state that they have recently renovated the rooms and I read at least one review that also confirmed this, so I'm good with it.  Give it a try. The worst that can happen? The same as happened in 2011 at that s***hole of a "hotel" - Motel 6.  I just cannot believe that Motel 6 would allow their brand name on a place as rank as that place is.  Not that Motel 6's are floating-on-the-clouds motels, but pleeeeeeeaaaaaaasssssssseeeeeeee..  I've been at a LOT of Motel 6's all over the place, all over the country in fact, this was the WORST one I have ever experienced.  I have left reviews all over the internet of that place to warn would-be guests to steer far clear of the place.

Anyway, Kings Inn price is the allure for me, that and the many good reviews.  If I could afford to stay at the Marriot down the road, I would, but that's not a happening event and I don't care about that stuff right now, my son definitely doesn't care.  In fact, at that Motel 6, the night where I didn't get ANY sleep at all, maybe an hour's worth, he slept right through all of that noise.  I still marvel to this day how anyone could sleep with all that racket going on.  That is truly the word I can use to define his ability to sleep through that: marvel.  I can only dream of being able to sleep through such racket.

Though I do remember a trip to California on a Greyhound bus with screaming kids and a LOT of racket going on, where somehow, I was able to tune out all of that noise and drift in and out of sleep.  I would sleep for 45 minutes, wake up in wonder - wondering whether the noise was still going on - and yes it was - and just go back to sleep again.  I'm one of those people that at bedtime, it has to be dark in the room and either very quiet or white noise.  I opt for white noise - all the time.  A box fan supplies that sound and ear plugs tames that sound so it is a "constant" sound.  I'm waiting to book the hotel to speak with Caleb to determine what will be the best days to go.  Leave around noon on whatever day, get there around 4:30 to 5 pm - I think - get in the room, hang out, swim, eat, whatever, prepare ourselves for the fishing adventure of the next morning.

Well, that takes the strain out of this. We will go with the same company we went with before.  I caught enough fish on that trip to make it enjoyable and worth bring home all of that.  I ate Sea Bass and whatever the name of the other fish was for several weeks.  What's left? Boat reservations.  The company's prices have gone up - by $15 per person since we went with them 2 years ago, but that's okay.

So how to pay for this.  Cashed out my healthmiles - it's only $150, but that comes close to paying for hotel.  I have at least $250 worth of change in my change bins.  That's $400.  I will put the fuel on the fuel card and pay for that next month.  $300 out of savings and that pays for this trip.  It would be cool to go to Seaworld the next day - but I don't know if I can afford another couple hundred bucks on top of everything else.  I wish I could - I won't see him for a year after he leaves - but I can't leave myself screwed for money, either.
I've been saving my change for quite a while now, though.  Like a year.  There may be more in that pile than I know.  I will find out after I task Caleb to either take it to the coin counting machine or - get penny; nickle; dime and quarter rolls and take them to the bank.  Of course there is credit on credit cards - I will have to weigh whether this is worth going into debt for.

Ahhhh, Ebay. Seaworld tickets.

G'nite.

ben

It finally came to a head last night.
I am referring to George's surround sound.
I was sitting out here attempting to watch a show on TV.
I don't watch much TV, when I do have it on, it's usually something that interests me.
George was watching a movie in his bedroom with that thing on.
He had it turned up so loud, I had to turn the volume up on my TV to
it's highest level just to be able to hear the show.
Mark came out of his room and was disgusted - he said even with headphones
on he couldn't even hear his TV.
That was it.  I went to his bedroom with the intention of politely asking him to turn
it down, substantially.
I knocked on his door.  No answer.  Second time, louder.  No answer.
3rd time I was banging on his door and he still couldn't hear it because of the volume
level of that surround sound.
THAT'S how loud it was.
I gave up, came back into the kitchen, wrote up a notice and figured to give it to him tomorrow since it
was my bed time.

I went into my bedroom, shut the door and unbelievably, could hear that freaking TV of his in MY bedroom. We are at least 50 feet apart, plus 2 closed doors.  That was enough.  I went and about beat the door down to get his attention.  I was mad, too, he finally opened the door and I said something I will have to repent of now.  "Turn that F****** thing down!".  I just walked away from him after that, I didn't want to turn a bad situation worse, though I did leave the notice.

I have no idea how this is going to play out, but I refuse to be subjected to those noise levels ever again from his surround sound system. Whether he decides to stay or leave because of it is up to him.  I have tried to give him hints and have even said something about it in the past, but it doesn't get through to him.  Well, last night was definitive, the point was succinctly made and so now we see where it goes.

Work is still slow.  TOO slow.  Like BORING slow.  Today, however, I expect to see about finding a hotel room in the San Diego area - there is a huge grouping of them not far from the dock where the sport fishing place is.  I will NOT do that Motel 6 again, not after last time and the noise levels that were in that place that kept me awake all night long.  I will find something else, probably more expensive but so beit.

Oops, time to be off to work!

G'day.

ben

Lost posts.  Posted them, they didn't come up on here. I could just go into the dashboard and find them, but what the hey, might as well just start fresh.  I think the reason why the didn't show up is that I have been doing a set of goals on Cafe World - something I haven't done in almost 8 months - and it kinda messes with the computer.  Have to clean it regularly and delete files and such. I probably won't be doing another set of goals for a while, I remembered why I quit doing them: extremely time-consuming.  Okay to do once in a while, not every freaking day.  

Anyway, Caleb is returning on the 2cd.  So mom is going all hog crazy buying food and stuff for him for his return.  She is obviously having a problem with him leaving for a full year.  I understand that, I'm having a bit of trouble with it as well.  But I wouldn't expect her to see too much of him, his friends are already Jonesing for his time when he gets back.  They all know he's going to be gone for a long time, he is a well-liked and loved person.

In fact, the month of August will be very busy for him.  I can only hope to catch some time with him as it permits.  But he is, at least, a family oriented person and likes to spend time with both mom and dad, so that's cool.  I think the rubber will meet the road at the airport, when he's leaving and it is going to hit us.  He's been gone almost 2 months now as it is, but an entire year is another thing entirely.

Regardless, I am taking the second week off in August in hopes of either going to California with him or at least being able to spend some "quality" time with him.

Work.  New kid has pushed me right up to the line.  One more little push and it's all over.  He has no clue, whatsoever.  No social skills, no social graces, doesn't understand that you can't go around talking to people just anyway you please at work.  Lacking any kind of work ethic, finding new places to hide all the time.  Yet the manager and I are both onto it.  But Friday was enough.  Besides the fact that he spent much of the day finding ways to stay out of work and not do anything, he also challenged me.  I was lifting a heavy, steel coupler and whenever I lift anything heavy, I do the weight-lifting "grunting" noise, I guess you call it.  I started doing that in high school when weight-lifting, something they teach you to do, or at least exhale forcefully, and something I just do when lifting heavier objects.  It helps.  So I did that lifting up that coupling which is when this kid proclaimed loudly: Oh come on now, that thing isn't THAT heavy, I can throw it half way across the yard!!  I dropped the thing right at his fit and told him to go ahead and throw it.

Snotty, obnoxious 23 year old b****.  I wanted to smack him upside the head.  Warned my manager if that guy continues with his s***, don't expect me to just put up with it.  I'm not looking for trouble, but this kid definitely is.  Just tired of it. After almost 3 months of watching him leave messes laying all over the place, cigarette butts on the warehouse floor, not wanting to sweep up anywhere, doing only what the manager asks and then going and hiding, plus mouthing off, I've had enough.

Whatever. It just makes going to work a task, a thing you aren't necessarily looking forward to when such bs is going on.  Management thought they had transferred over a good worker from another branch out east, but this is definitely not the case.  You don't always, really, know what kind of worker you have until they are there, working and doing their thing.  It's just unbelievable to me that this guy thinks it's cool to spend hours every day smoking cigarettes - and doing nothing while he's doing it - or attempting to hide on the forklift on various parts of the property.

K, enough of that.  It's Sunday afternoon and I have done much of nothing today besides going to church.  I haven't felt like doing anything. I didn't do much of anything yesterday, either.  In fact, now that I think of it, I have only eaten a small oatmeal cookie at church this morning today, nothing else.  Yikes.  I've been gaining weight/fat and have decided to cut back on eating/drinking altogether, but yes, I must at least eat something. 

I dunno what else.  Nothing else really.  Well lots of stuff, but I don't feel like going into it.

G'day.

ben

Thursday.  Humid and hot.  Went through yesterday attempting to keep myself from saying anything "negative" to or about anyone.  Was very difficult in the semi, though.  Getting cut off and having people then braking in front of you is maddening when you can't even let out the steam~!

New kid worker - 23 years old I think - is turning into a person that we don't even want to talk to.  If we need to find him now, we just go to the warehouse bathroom where he hangs out, doing nothing.  I don't know how such people can survive in this world.  Maybe just surviving?  Like, no motivation in life to do anything, it shows at work if that's your mindset.  But he doesn't even do the bare minimum.  He just disappears.  We are going to start firing up the furnace when he goes in there and blast him out of that room.

The manager doesn't feel it's his job to have to go finding this dude every 5 minutes to find out what he's doing and he's too busy doing his work to have time for that.

Well fun time here again, time to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

Fry's Food Stores 48th Street & Baseline/Camping Trip

Decided early yesterday morning to go up to the mountains and go to the camp party.

So, I went to Fry's.  This is the same Fry's that I have had endless problems with, mostly very, very poor customer service.

So, I went around and got everything I wanted, about 20 minutes of going from one end of the store to the other and then got in line at the checkout.  I was informed that self-checkout was available.  

No thanks, I'll just wait. I pretty much gave up on self service several months back, too many problems and too many inattentive employees who aren't manning the main station to monitor the activity going on.  

Then the cashier tells me that she will call someone up and points to the register behind her.  Okay.  But I didn't mind waiting, the line wasn't that long. She insisted, so I went over there, put all my stuff on the conveyor belt and waited.  She calls a cashier which never shows up.  Finally, yet another new manager, apparently front-end manager, shows up.  This place goes through managers like a smoke shop goes through packs of cigarettes, it's a bit ridiculous the high turnover. 

She informs me that that register is closed and that I will need to move my stuff to the next one over.  I simply stated that the cashier - right behind me - is the one that told me to come to this line.  She stares at me, shakes her head in disbelief and then informs me that she isn't logged into this register.  Just an unbelievable attitude from a person that I was not giving an attitude to.  I just stared right back.  I had just wasted almost 30 minutes of my time now in walking around the entire store getting my stuff, being invited over to another aisle that I didn't ask for nor did I really want since there was no cashier there, then given an attitude by a new manager that apparently decided that I am a 5 year old to be bossed around.

I contemplated it for a few seconds and then did it.  I just left all that stuff sitting there and I walked out.  I drove 2 miles down the road to another, much larger Fry's and got the same stuff all over again.  I have only had one problem in the past at that Fry's and it wasn't that big of a deal.  

I don't know if I am going to back to this other Fry's that I have been shopping at for almost 8 years now.  It's pretty amazing the attitude of the current general manager there, Christine, who basically doesn't give a rat's @$$ whether customers are happy or not.  That particular Fry's is used as a launching point for GM's to move on to bigger/better stores.  IMO, Christine is the worst excuse for a GM I have ever experienced at any Fry's, she doesn't deserve anything but a demotion.  But whatever.  The sooner they move her out of there, the sooner there will be yet another new GM to take her place and perhaps a bit more customer service oriented.

________________________________________

That's the end of the Fry's story, the rest of this is about other things, you are welcomed to read it if  you so desire, but if you came here on a Google search looking for the Fry's stuff, that was it.

Relatively short drive up there. Something like 130 miles to the campsite.  Spartan showing for a company party/camping adventure, but I suspect it's because it was raining on and off the entire time we were up there.  Especially last night.  I made the mistake of not pumping up the air bed to sleep on, I didn't even try to put up the tent, I just decided to sleep under one of those ramada covers that they had set up on the ground with a sleeping bag.  Bad idea.  Hard ground, lots of rocks, didn't sleep too well. Prince was with me, he didn't sleep well, either.  

But I did have fun and a good time talking with people, especially the widow of the man that was killed earlier this year in a vehicle accident up on I-40 on a company related trip.  She showed me the pics of the pickup he was driving.  Unbelievable. That pickup was totally trashed.  The entire cab was sheered off and the steering wheel was flipped over and is what did him in: it went into his skull and they say he was killed instantly.  For being a woman that just lost her husband 6 or so months ago, she was remarkably well-composed.  She had a lit up box with a pic of her husband in it on a table with a beer next to it.  

Apparently they do these camping trips frequently and they bring George, the deceased man, along with them. 

Well, anyway, I got up early this morning, got my stuff packed, got Prince in the car and headed home, totally exhausted.  I got home in time to take a nap for an hour but couldn't get to sleep, so I took a shower, called Mary who was going to be there as well, and then went to church.  When I got there, it began to rain.  Before I could get out of the car, a downpour of the likes I haven't seen in years around here came out of the sky and I ended up sitting there in the parking lot for 5 minutes waiting for it to subside.  It never did and I ended up getting out of the car in the driving rain and getting wet before I made it to the church door entrance.

It was a good service, but I was yawning all the way through it.  Drove home and saw that aftermath of the storm on the streets in my neighborhood.  The streets are filled with mud, up to 6 inches deep in places!! I guess I won't need to water my plants for a couple of days!

Well, anyway, I took a 2 hour nap this afternoon and woke up feeling better after that.  I then got online and started looking for whale and dolphin watching boating trips out of either LA or San Diego.  My son he wanted to go, he doesn't really like the fishing but he loves being on the boat, I am thinking this time to go on a sightseeing tour instead of fishing.  I don't know though. I have this issue of getting seasick on those small boats and the ONLY thing that I have found that makes me feel better is alcohol.  If I drink enough vodkas and cranberry juices, that feeling goes away and I am right as rain - but also a tad inebriated.  

So I dunno about that, but it's the only thing that works.  I even tried those doctor-prescribed patches last year that you put behind your ear - no effect.  

Umm well whatever.  Another work week looming.  Plenty to do tomorrow, at least and the truck is already loaded, that makes it a bit easier to deal with Monday morning.  I have asked for the second week off of August.  I am pretty sure I will get it.  It's really the only week where I can take Caleb. 

Well, enough.  Just a lazy Sunday afternoon. The drenching downpour means I don't have to go out and water anything.

ben

I was asked yesterday if I was going to go to the camp party up north, in Heber, right near where my son is at the SA camp.  No, I replied, I don't know anything about it.  In fact, no-one at our branch was invited.  As if we somehow intrinsically know everything that is being circulated at the main branch, where this idea came up.  If they don't tell us - phone call; PM; email; face-to-face - we don't know.

I'll come back to that.  Fast forward to this morning.  Woke up with a raging headache.  It happens when I don't get enough sleep for several days in a row.  I was awakened last night by a sneezing Great Dane. He was going at it and let me tell you, that much noise is going to wake just about anyone up.  I couldn't hold it against the dog, but I never really got back to sleep.  So, today at work, I had the headache; I was irritable and cranky and the situation with the new employee?  It doesn't get any better.  Now, he sits in the back of the warehouse, sitting on the forklift, rolling and smoking his cigarettes.

I caught him today.  I pulled into the yard with the semi, he apparently thought I was a freight truck coming in with goods to deliver as he didn't even look up.  I was up on that last warehouse bay before he looked up and saw that it was me.  I just looked away.  I can't stand it.  I can't stand people who want a paycheck but don't want to work for it.  I don't care if he's getting paid lower wages, I was there at one point in my life and I gave it my all.  Always have.  You earn your pay, you don't sit around on your @$$ with whatever is going on in your mind to somehow justify it.

And there is plenty to do around there.  The driveway is covered with rocks again.  I have swept them up or blown them out with a blower several times over.  I don't care about the "work" aspect of it or even if it's hot and humid out there.  Yes, we have humidity here, the monsoons come and so does the humidity, coupled with the high heat.  But whatever, I went inside and figured the manager knew all about it. He doesn't let much get past him.

He asked me what that guy was doing.  Ummmm, sitting on the forklift, rolling a cigarette and smoking it.  Yup, he states, he does that all the time now.  We had a discussion about his lack of desire to do anything.  When I came in this morning, I was met by the operations manager who was there to get his RV trailer.  He came out to the parking lot from the side entrance and asked me if I had just got there or had I been there earlier?  Ummm, no, I just got here, it's my regular start time.  Are you sure? Well, yes, of course I'm sure, why would I come here and then leave?

He then states the alarm hadn't been set.  Oh really?  Well, it's happened before.  It isn't the end of the world, just good that no-one happened to break in during that time.  He says, well that isn't the worst of it.  I had no clue.  We walk around to the side and to the back and he points at the first bay door, which is half way opened.  You see that?  ..........  It was like that when I got here! I immediately took defense of my manager, NO WAY he would EVER leave that door opened before going home.  I intoned that it must have been a salesman.  I ask him where he is going with the trailer.  Oh, just up to the mountains, not bothering  to tell me he's going to the camp thing where allegedly, everyone is invited, everyone but us at this store anyway.

Getting beyond that, and yes it was an inside salesman who had come earlier and left it open "because we were going to be there soon anyway", a contractor comes in and is there for a rather large amount of material.  I printed the order and started pulling it.  I had already been on the forklift attempting to load the truck for the day's deliveries when he had shown up.

So, this new guy comes in at his regular time.  I am inside just getting done with the paperwork, he comes in, signs in and goes outside.  I go outside to start pulling the order and hopefully have this guy help me.  He just stands there.  I am not his boss, I can't and won't bother to try to force him to do anything.  I have tolerance for such people and I would rather just willingly do all the work myself than have someone else helping that is doing it begrudgingly.  I'm working way when the manager shows up.  He goes inside and finds the new guy sitting on the computer, perusing the internet, reading the news.

Why is Ben out there pulling orders and loading the truck and you are in here doing nothing?  He had no reply.

The guy is going to be history.  That's just the way it's going to be.

Remember, I have a raging headache during all of this.  It isn't subsiding and I am attempting to put on a good face while feeling like s*** the entire time.  The next thing I know, this new guy is "going to town" after the manager shows up, of course.  I'm not the manager and my manager doesn't understand why I won't just tell the guy off. It's NOT my place to do that.  It's HIS place to deal with this stuff, that's how it works.  That's why you have management, to deal with everything including the negatives.  I CAN tell this guy what to do, but I would rather just do my thing and let this guy dig his own hole.  The hole is pretty much dug and soon, if he doesn't change his work attitude, his days at our company are numbered.

I get back from a rather elongated run and then start discussing with my manager about going up there. He's going with is girlfriend, asking me if I'm going.  I thought not at first, but that's because I don't really like half the people (at least) that are going.  There is only on God that I know of, and it doesn't include any of them though several of them certainly act like they are sitting on the Throne.

But tonight, I have had a change of heart.  The Lord.  Perhaps you should get over yourself, I think I hear being said or something to that matter, and just go up there and enjoy the beauty of my creation?

You can argue with God if you want, but realistically, you aren't going to win.  If you choose to ignore Him, then I guess, but other than that, you are done and toast, might as well just do it and go with a good attitude.
But I had no plans to go up north this weekend.  Mary's son can't go because of Mary's situation, though that has really been sort of resolved, it is too late to do anything about getting gates and going up there to install them.  So I had completely put that out of my mind and had just decided to stay home, go to church on Sunday, get some stuff done around here and that's it.  Besides the fact that all these other people going have had this idea - on their table - for a while now and have had time to prepare. So tomorrow morning, I will decide one way or the other whether I am going to drive all the way up there.

Meanwhile, I talked to Caleb via Facebook.  We talk on the phone sometimes, other times he writes me messages.  I caught him today after he had just sent me a message and we got into a conversation.  He was telling me the dates of his California trip - he will be gone from the 2cd until the 10th. So, apparently, the day he gets back from camp he is also leaving for California.

It also conflicts with mom's attempt to have a party with the family for him up at her property, of which I promptly notified her.  We'll try for the next weekend. Which is cool, I hope he can see his extended family before he leaves for Hawaii, but I had something pressing on my mind to ask him while I had him on the line.  Do you want to go on our annual boat trip?  If you have time and you want to, great, if you don't it's cool.  I don't want to pressure him, but at the same time, he loves going out on a boat on the ocean.  He was all over that.  No, he replies, I don't have anything going on during that week and I would love to go!

I have already asked for that entire week off.  I am going to get some quality time in with my son if at all possible before he is gone for an entire year.

I don't know, but it's starting to get late - my version of it anyway.  I am staying up a bit to get nice and sleep and hopefully get some shuteye tonight.  I won't drive up there tomorrow if I wake up feeling the way I did today.  I forced myself out of bed, into the shower and out of the bedroom this morning, a sheer act of will that defied everything that was raging within me to simply stay in bed and go back to sleep.

G'nite.

ben

I wrote this on my Facebook wall this morning - it came to me through the Spirit and I felt compelled to write it and so, I am going to post it here as well:

Forgiveness. It's something that mankind finds so hard to do. Holding grudges and unforgiveness in the heart is so much easier. You can dwell in it every day, let it stew within your spirit and let it rot at your very inner being. You can let it take over your entire life to the point that it is mostly all that you think about. You can become so embroiled in it that nothing else in life matters and people start to steer clear of you because it's written all over you. It is that obvious to others when it consumes you. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is freedom from prison. It releases you and that person or all of those people from the bars that bind you. To not forgive is to simply continue to hold you in a prison of your own making, an internal hell that never goes away.

 What was amazing about this, to me anyway, is that people were copying and pasting it to their own Facebook wall.  I'm not talking Facebook "share" function, though 2 people did that as well, it was going down Facebook wall among and seeing this thing had been copied and pasted so many times over.  I started wondering if this paragraph of words had spoken to them or if they were posting it in the hopes a friend of theirs might see it.  

I purposely left out Scripture in this particular instance.  The concept of forgiveness is obvious in Christianity, but I have so many FB "friends" that do not profess Christ as Savior and the thought came to me to leave that out.  So I did.  If someone else brings it up, so beit.  I freely admit that I almost never unfriend Facebook people because as far as I see it, many of them are an open mission field.  There are less than a handful of instances that I have unfriended people and that for very extreme circumstances.  

And to the opposite end of thing, I have been unfriended at least 8 times in the last 2 weeks, lol, for my "religious" or political posts.

_______________________________

My dad is blowing off coming up here to see Caleb.
But there's a good reason for it.
One of my uncles/his brother is dying and is only expected to have a few more months to live.  Multiple Sclerosis.

Detroit has filed for bankruptcy. Sounds bad, but in reality?  Best thing that could have happened to that city as long as they can also dump all that debt to pension funds along with it.  Union leaders refused to negotiate with the state appointed manager that was sent to try to bail out the city, now those unions may end up getting screwed altogether.  Unions, don't get it. They never seem to care about the fact that their unrelenting stance can end up hurting them as well as everyone else.  That city is in a shambles, hope they can "fix" it.

Friday.  Long work week.  Just long.  Hot, I guess is the operative word here.  Middle of July, so about halfway through the worst of it.  About the end of August the temps start coming down, though September is still usually quite warm, not as hot as June, July and August.  Long ways off from that, though.

Anyway, time to get offa here and get to work!

G'day.

ben