More

I've accomplished quite a lot around here today.
I'm slow watering every single plant out front. That's been going on for about 7 hours now, and it's half done. Just want those plants to get a good watering and not have to think about it again for at least another week - maybe even 2 weeks.

I got rambunctious and decided that I was going to get the old Buick started. I ran it out of gas - sitting in the driveway - months ago and never did anything about getting it going again. Today - I tried to start it and the batter was dead. Borrowed my neighbor's battery charger - charged it for several hours.

It took an hour's worth of trying, here and there (so not to burn up the starter) in cranking the engine before it finally started, that after dumping 2 gallons of fresh fuel into it. Okay, I was glad to get it running. Took it down the street and back. Again - leaving a car just sitting there and not at least running it and maybe driving it a little once in a while is not good for the car.

Umm, so I'm over there talking with my neighbor. He's "heard" that Mary is leaving. No surprise to me, I want her to get out of Dodge - or Ben Towers. But his information didn't come from Mary or me. He also stated that Mary has fully 7 evictions on her record. Uhh, I didn't see that many - there's some on there but there's several Mary Cox's on there that aren't this particular Mary Cox - many of them give the middle initial, and yes, I know Mary's middle initial. Actually, her entire middle name.

I pressed him, just a little, for the source of his information. Just wouldn't tell me. No clue. I don't know who else he would be talking to that would have that kind of information, but he adamently stated that the info did not come from Mary. Interesting.

It would be far easier if she would move out on her own. However, she tried to give me February rent. Serious. Didn't make a lot of sense. She's now cleaning the door in my kitchen that divides the utility room from the kitchen. I don't know about this woman, but my neighbor had some interesting statements. To be brutally blunt: He likes her boobs. He likes a LOT of women's boobs. He goes on and on and on about boobs - ever since I moved here some 5 years ago now. He takes her to the store - on his custom motorcycle. She has to hold onto his waist - and - of course - press her boobs into his back.

I know, it's just guy stuff. Lol. This is the guy that asks complete strangers - women strangers - to show their boobs to him - in full public view.

Mary is a complicated matter. I'm sure there is something wrong upstairs. First, the fact that she's on some kind of drug to stabilize her moods; second because she definitely has mood swings and third; just some terribly erratic behavior. When she's nice, she's sweet as pie. When she's not nice - the gates of hell just opened.

Anyway, I then tried to get the weedeater that my friend at work gave me started. I ended up having to go to the gas station and get some fuel and mix it with 2-cycle oil. Put that in, the thing fired right up, ran for 15 seconds and died. The carburetor is flooded and keeps flooding. Next is to go to the store and get some carb cleaner and spray that in there. If that doesn't work, take the thing apart. If that doesn't work, find someone who is good with 2-cycle engines and try to get it running. It's been sitting - though the gas tank was totally emptied out. Still, 2-cycle engines sitting usually means carburetor work. It just does. I've had enough experience with it.

Stopped writing this entry for quite a while. Mary came in here and started sweeping the floors. Didn't take her long to figure out that I had completely cleaned the floors earlier today - just haven't waxed them because I don't have any wax. Haven't been anywhere today. Don't want to go anywhere. She then mopped the floor. That preceded by the cleaning of the door. There is nothing else to clean in here - I spent hours scrubbing this place down. Literally. My kitchen will be and stay clean. I will not be entertaining cockroaches, thank you very much.

She then went out front, took the hose that I had on trickle and started watering plants on full blast. Not what I was doing, and tomorrow, I will just continue where I left off. Still a number of plants out there that I want to deep water.

And with that, I'm done - watching the NFL channel going crazy over the Cardinals and how they are going to blow the Steelers away. Oh really? I mean, 2 hours of this and only a short blurb on the Steelers defense. To watch this show, you'd think the Steelers were a peewee football team that are full of know-nothings and have no skills.

Gag.

Saturday/Morning

Ummm, BenB reminds himself to not wait so long to post copies of my journal to the other 2 - it takes too long to get caught up.

Mary - nothing. Which is good. No more emails, no handwritten notes, nothing. She walks through here with her friends - the ones that say "Hi Ben" I say hi back to - still going to be nice to the people who have nothing to do with this. Mary has a lot friends - most of them are guys.

First round of cleaning finished. I scrubbed everything in the kitchen - have the floors left to go. I continue to forget to buy regular floor wax when I go to Fry's. I have this other stuff I got from the dollar store - it's some different kind of stuff that doesn't leave the beautiful shine on your floors. So, a trip to Fry's will have to take place before I start that little project. Recent rains have left my windows looking pretty bad as well, gonna do some of them this weekend - but definitely not all of them.

Transience. Room rentals is all about transience. People come and go. This particular mode of thinking got me wondering if I should think about a third tenant for a couple of 3/4 months to get caught up and get ahead, especially with summer looming and high electric bills not too far in the horizon. Nope, don't want 3 strangers living with me - yup - what choice do I have? None. I have looked for a second job and it ain't happening. Not a decent job, anyway. The aggravation of working at or near minimum wage would be far worse for me than having a 3rd person in here. Giving it some consideration, anyway. Regardless, my rental contract I have now for people to sign is laden with extra stuff I put on there. I am protecting myself to the extremes.

How often do you have to replace toilet seats? I've noticed over the years that they simply do not last that long before they start cracking and showing the innards. Not a particularly pleasant look when entering a bathroom, I'm going to have to replace the main seat here pretty soon.

Probably do some things around here with some of that award money. Bills, yes, but there are things I need to do.

Anyway, I don't really feel like writing too terribly much this morning as I have a head full of pondering and thoughts that are distracting me.

Have a great Saturday!
ben

Latest Rounds Of Job Layoffs

Caterpillar: 21,200 jobs

Eastman Kodak: 3,500 to 4,500 jobs

Cessna Aircraft: 2,000 more jobs for a total of 4,600 jobs

StarBucks: 7,000 more jobs (Jan. 28th)

Boeing: 10,000 jobs (Jan. 28th)

Target: 9 percent of its headquarters staff, shut a distribution center in Little Rock, Ark, impose a salary freeze for senior management and reduce planned store openings. (Jan 27th)

Corning: 3,500 jobs (Jan 27th)

Texas Instruments: 3,600 jobs (Jan 26th)

General Motors: Cutting shifts at 2 factories for roughly 2,000 job cuts.

Home Depot: 7,000 jobs and closing Expo Design chain.

Sprint-Nextel: 8,000 jobs

Pfizer: Pfizer announced Jan. 26 it will lay off 8,000 workers now, and as many as 12,000 more later, as it buys competitor Wyeth for $68 billion.

Harley-Davidson: Scaling back 1,100 jobs over 2 years.

Microsoft: 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months (Jan 23rd)

Huntsman Corp: (Chemical company) 1,175 job cuts by the end of this year (Jan 22)

United Airlines: 1,000 more jobs (Jan 22)

Williams-Sonoma: Williams-Sonoma announced Jan. 21 that it would cut 1,400 jobs, close a call center in Camp Hill, Penn., and a distribution facility in Memphis, Tenn.

Intel: As many as 6,000 job cuts (Jan 21)

bhpbilliton: (Mining) 6,000 jobs (Jan 21)

Yankee Candle: 330 jobs (Jan 21)

Ericsson: 5,000 jobs (Jan 21)

Eaton Corp.: 5,200 jobs (Jan 20)

Clear Channel Communications: 1,850 jobs (Jan 20th)

Warner Brothers: 800 jobs (Jan 20th)

Bose: 1,000 jobs (Jan 20th)

General Electric: Announcement to employees of intended layoffs, no public disclosure of how many, employs 75,000 people

Advanced Micro Devices: 1,100 workers (Jan 16th) - 9% of workforce

Hertz: 4,000 jobs (Jan 16th)

Wellpoint: (Health Insurer) 1,500 jobs (Jan 16th)

Saks Fifth Avenue: 1,100 Jobs (Jan 15th)

Google: 100 recruiting jobs (Jan 15th)

Delta Air Lines: 2,000 jobs (Jan. 15th)

Motorola: 4,000 more jobs (Jan 15th)

Neiman Marcus: 375 jobs (Jan 13th)

Seagate Technology: (Manufacturer of hard drives) 10% of workforce (no actual numbers given) (Jan 12th)

Walgreens: 1,000 corporate management jobs

EMC Corp: (World's largest manufacturer of external disc drives) 2,400 (Jan 7)

Alcoa: 13,500 jobs (Jan 6th)

That was the list for this year. There were more for the end of last year, but you get the picture. This is billions of dollars of lost employment wages - at least. All of these people are being or will be sent out into the cold - and then what? What is going to happen to those people? What is already happening to those that have already lost their jobs?

Where is this all going to end? I was thinking maybe I better go buy myself another large tent and camping equipment - might have to live in it someday. Our company continues to lay off people in smaller numbers, freeze on hiring and not replacing those that quit for whatever reason.

Just a little look at the reality going on in our little world.

Friday

Left work at 2:30 - but there were a lot of people there - doing a full inventory. I didn't feel sorry for them and I left quite happily. Corporate HQ says that drivers cannot participate in the inventory. I have never heard a reason WHY we can't - but inventory is quite tedious, dull and boring work. You count everything, write the count next to each item on a sheet, then take it back to the office. Somebody there checks the physical count against what's in the computer system. When the 2 clash, someone else is sent out there to do a second count. A third count. After enough repetitive counts are made, and it's still bad, then they cost off whatever it is, or if there are too many, bring them into the system. As I said, I don't particularly care for it. They will be doing it into the night today and tomorrow as well. Usually takes til' Saturday afternoon to finish.

Mary got paid today - which totally escaped me as I don't really care at this point. See her in court on Tuesday is all I can say about that.

Superbowl Sunday - bring it on! I'm not necessarily the most well-received individual in Phoenix when I hear people talking about the Cardinals and I say "Go STEELERS!!" Especially in the bank today - they were like, huh? People have less of a problem if you're a Steelers fan in this town when you tell them you were born and raised there, versus the people that are Steelers fans that never stepped a foot in the city of Pittsburgh, or the entire state of Pennsylvania for that matter. I don't quite understand that, either. If I were from here, I would undoubtedly be a Cardinals fan. It won't kill me if the Cardinals won it, but - I would love to see Sixburgh happen. That's the latest craze, I've heard, it's no longer Pittsburgh, it's Sixburgh. lol.

Oh, and Mary - has totally stopped working/doing anything around here. Not even watering the plants out front. I don't really care to be honest - but, it just dawned on me that I was going to go out there the other day and water all that stuff out front and - I didn't do it. Fortunately this time of year plants don't need near as much water. A thing on my list of things to get done around here is to install a drip watering system. Of course, that's WAY down the line. Actually, I haven't looked into see how much it would cost to install Much more effective way of watering plants - a deep watering - and much easier as you can put the thing on a timer and it will come on whenever you want it to.

Hooray for me!! I DID get the Safe Driver Award for 2008! A full week's pay coming on next paycheck. If ONLY it were NEXT year I would get getting TWO week's pay! What am I going to do with the money? Pay bills - hooray again!!! Yayyyy, I get to spend all of my money on bills, isn't it wonderful?

Oh, and what would I LIKE to do with that award money? Buy a big screen TV. Not a fancy HD thing, just a nice, 50 inch rear projection or something that is cheaper than all this newfangled expensive stuff. I was offered one - a rear projection version - for $200 - the catch is the TV is in a cabin in Pinetop, AZ. Look that up on the map. I doubt the boss is going to want me using the company truck to drive clear up there for a TV, even if it is a steal of a bargain.
What else would I like to do with it? Buy landscaping rock for my back yard. Fix the windows, buy some trees, put ceramic tile in the living room - umm, - lots of things, really.

Done for now.
ben

Thursday

What was going to be an eternity of a day - nothing to do basically - turned out pretty darn good - excepting a little incident this morning. Semi was loaded with ductile iron pipe.
This is VERY heavy pipe. Each stick of 8 inch diamter pipe I was hauling weighs approximately 500 pounds. That's only 20 feet of pipe - get the idea.

I was on the Loop 101 - a newer freeway they built to try and alieve some of the congestion problems in the metro Phoenix area. That particular freeway is just as congested as all the rest of them. In fact, they are already in an expansion project on it - which is slowing traffic down considerably.

Anyway - I was cruising about 20 mph in the slow lane, following behind traffic. Heavy traffic, it was one of the rush hours. To the point of the matter - a car cuts in, slams on it's brakes. I had no choice and my mind raced at the same time - I knew I had to slam on my brakes to avoid running this nitwit over, and I also knew that kind of force would cause some or all of the pipe to slide forward on the boards they are on.

Prophecy come true. Fortunately I wasn't going that fast or I wouldn't be here, writing to tell you about this right now. If I were going 55 and had to do that, I would probably either be dead or definitely seriously injured. Even with a Headache Rack - heavy pipe with enough force can ram a hole right through that diamond plate - and right into my head - hence the terminology: headache rack.

Oh, and mind you, I had PLENTY of strapping on that pipe. More than legally required. The straps, as always, were cranked down to the point that you can play harp music on them by simply pulling the edge of the strap with your finger. I learned about strapping loads when I worked for J.B. Hunt. They show you videos of tragic, horrific accidents that have occured with understrapping. One such video? Titled: "If Only One More Strap....". They had graphic photos of it. It wasn't a video that time, it was photos.

The photos were of a load that had come off the side of a truck, smashed onto the top of a State Trooper's cruiser and instantly killed him. The scientists involved came to the conclusion that if that driver had only put one more strap on that load, that Trooper would still be alive today. In other words, the driver did not put sufficient straps on the load and it caused someone their life.

5 sticks of 500 pound pipes came shooting out of their "resting" places and into my Headache Rack. As I said, I wasn't going more than 20 MPH - the rack stopped the pipe and slightly dented the rack. It was sitting RIGHT there - no turns to be made without more damage to the rack/truck. I didn't even get mad at the driver, who undoubtedly has no clue that their life could have ended today - because of the seriousness of the issue at hand. I pulled instantly off the freeway - I was beside an entrance/exit ramp, got off the highway enough and then pulled over on the gravel on the side of the road.

Damage - almost non-existent. I will tell you right now that I would rather TRASH a truck than kill someone in a car, regardless of the fact that the car's driver is totally at fault for causing the damage. I have no desire to live my life with the thought of someone's death due to something I was doing, even IF it was definitely NOT my fault. If an accident had occured, I would undoubtedly have recieved a ticket. You have to be able to prove that the car's driver made an unsafe lane change. Today's incident makes me want to bring my camera with me at all times and simply run video constantly while I'm driving to protect myself.

I get out of the truck - and stand there looking at this ridiculously heavy pipe, thinking I'm going to have to call some people to come and help me move it.
I'm not a weak man - my life and lifestyle has had me with sufficient strength to life very heavy objects. Especially this job - 70% of the things I have to deal with, or even more than that, are extremely heavy. It's something I love about my work - keeps me moving, keeps me exerting energy to extremes, keeps me at least somewhat fit.

I got up on that truck and gave all of my strength, with good footing, to picking up the end of that pipe and sliding it back. To my surprise, it actually moved. Note that this pipe is sitting on boards, not on something that is easily give to making something on it slide like butter. It took maybe 10 minutes and I got all of it back to where it should be. Cranked the straps down again, and took off.

I've been in a couple of serious accidents - not my fault - but I can tell you from experience that any kind of situation like that can cause you to lose confidence in what you are doing. You lose confidence in driving a semi, the road is a very dangerous place for everyone else around you. This morning, I deleted any thought of that and just continued on driving like nothing had happened. There are no lessons learned here that I haven't already learned. People driving cars do stupid things in front of semi's - and seasoned truck drivers learn to interpret clues and signals of what is going to happen in front of you. I did start slowing down as soon as I saw what was going on, but the action of this driver was too much: I had to hit the brakes hard enough to avoid a SERIOUS collision.

That was the closest I have come to running into or even over a car in a long, long time. Yes, I told my boss - Federal Regulations require me to do so, but I would have told me regardless of that. He's like - did it go through the cab? No, just a couple of very minor dents in the headache rack. No reports to fill out - the other semi's in our fleet have all kinds of dented racks from the same kind of thing happening to other drivers.

See? It's not just me. This stuff happens in inner-city driving to all truck drivers. People in cars, SUV's and whatever else simply don't realize the intensity of focus we have to give to keep from killing them every day because of THEIR actions that cause such things to happen. This hardly happens out on the open road. Just the way it is. An OTR driver has to go through cities, yes, but most of his/her time is spent on the open road. You may or may not see them experiencing such. A city-driver is going to have, actually, a much better sense of how to drive in-city than an OTR driver. Trust me - city driving is much more dangerous and full of perils than any OTR driver will ever experience. It's one of the reasons why many "local" driving positions require several years of driving experience to get a job with them. In smaller outfits, the owner of the company will actually get in the passenger seat and take you on a driving test before they will ever commit to giving you a job.

That was enough for one entry. The rest of the day was going downtown, delivering that pipe, then unexpected deliveries came up which I took out. Then a pickup in Tempe which came up at the last minute and I wasn't back to our yard until 12:30pm. That's an hour and a half from closing.

Tomorrow I have some stuff to do, too, which is good. Go to a pipe company, pick up a load of pipe and deliver it as well as delivering another order to another jobsite. This will consume most or all of the morning. Tomorrow is also "INVENTORY". Lol. Every 6 months, our company - by corporate mandate - requires each location to do an entire inventory count of all product. For the reason of overtime, I will not be participating in any of it. Well, my boss may have me helping count - more eyes on one product when there's a lot of it hopefully means an accurate count.

There is no Mary report today. When she came through the gate, I left the kitchen. I didn't want to hear it, I didn't want to talk to her.

Ken is in love. With a married woman. Ken is my other roommate. Geeeeeeeze.
I've seen this before and don't wonder - again - if I don't need to arm myself for any potential confrontations with that woman's husband if he finds out and comes over HERE looking for trouble. Sometimes I wonder why I have tenants - then I kick myself and remember that I don't have any choice - at the moment.
ben

Feedjit/Boeing

I was over at Fin's journal and saw the Feedjit thing he put on there - seems to me the next best thing to what JS used to have in being able to see all of your visitors for that day, and on your blog, the last 10. Well, whatever. I just put that up.

I just read this rather long article about Boeing's intention of ridding itself of fully 10,000 employees. I remember when those machinists went on strike - and even made an entry on my JS journal about it - that they shoud be THANKFUL they even have jobs and can the BS with pay and all that jive.

They shot themselves in the foot and stuck a toilet plunger up their rear. Nice going, Boeing Machinists Union - you are mostly responsible for the reason that 10,000 of you folks are going to lose your jobs.

BenB is NOT clapping. I thought they were idiots then, I think that now. Boeing is a good company - my brother works for that company over in Mesa (AZ of course) building those crazy helicopters for the military. I have NO clue whether his division will be affected by this, and if so, whether he faces a job loss as well.

He has survived several layoff bouts in the past when it was McDonnel Douglas - I hope he gets through it this time as well, if it even hits there.
I'm still reeling at the staggering loss of jobs: 10,000. That's a LOT of jobs and a LOT of people that are going to lose good paying jobs for - what? There ain't nothing out there, Jack. You wanna work at Burger King, great, otherwise, good luck with that.

I feel a little more trepidation every single day when I see this continuing parade of job cuts coming from all kinds of different companies that exist in all different trades/services/whatever. My company continues to either lay people off or simply not rehire for those that leave on their own. You think I'm not sitting here fretting along with everyone else? I am not consumed by it, no way - I won't go that far with it - but I definitely think about it and often.

How many hundreds of millions of dollars worth of yearly pay does 10,000 jobs equal? Or is that in the billions? We don't wonder why the economy is totally trashed right now, we see how it's only going to get worse when news like this is unleashed upon an already tense, nervous and hurting society and economy.

And with that, I continue on with my campaign to store up food stuffs. I am now putting it in another location besides my kitchen for fact of certain tenant eating my food. Okay, eat my food - but only that which I have for the week at hand, not the stuff I am using to store up for a potential catastrophe in the near or not-so-near future. I dunno - but I don't want to starve finding out.

Fry's is having yet another awesome sale on things I will be dumping into that little storehouse. They got this deal where you buy 10 items and the price varies - but the Hormel chili goes down to 50 cents per can, a LARGE box of Captain Crunch goes from almost 4 per box down to $1.50 and a lot of other things. Hey, cereal lasts a long time in storage, it's one of those things recommended to buy for such an endeavor. You have to buy 10 - and it can be mixed - anything that's on the 10-for sale you can buy as long as there's 10 of them. Not 9 and not 11, I found out the hard way. You can buy 20, 30 whatever, that's how they're doing it. They've never done a sale like this before, but the savings are QUITE substantial.

Well, anyway, I hate to see Boeing going through the same crap as everyone else. It doesn't make sense - it does but geeze. I have never been in a union, so maybe I'm just ignorant. I just don't see unions going on strike when one of the worst economic environments ever is occuring. What, they don't need the income? I have strong opinion about people who are making googles of money yet act like babies cause' they don't think they're getting a big enough piece of the pie - while the rest of the world around them is falling into the hell-hole of financial disaster.

I think I'll stop that at this point, because the more I think about it, the more outrageous their actions become - my view of it anyway.

Sighhhhh. I'm just glad to still be employed.
No Mary report today, either, I haven't seen her as she hasn't been home. Ken - left who knows where before I got home, Wednesday and Thursday are his version of a weekend. I did speak to Ken today on the phone as he had left me several messages last night wanting to know what happened in court. I missed the calls cause' I had the ringer turned off when I was in court yesterday and forgot to turn it back on until this morning.

ben

Wednesday/It Dawned On Me........

............today that I could blow Mary's work for reduced rent and the "fact" - according to her - that I haven't given her sufficient credit right out of the water. Not that I don't have ample proof of her saying 2 completely different things already, but - let's just say the judge sees things her way in this deal and wants to give her January for free - rent that is.

It occured to me today that Mary actually took over that family room a long time ago, like within weeks after moving in - by filling it up with her stuff. All kinds of stuff - 2 chairs; an antique dresser with mirror; 3 tables and various this and that. She was using it to store her stuff. She also brought in 4 barstools at one point and had those sitting in the middle of the room. I never actually gave her permission to put that stuff in here - but regardless of whether I had or hadn't, there is certainly a huge rent concession right there: the use of a second room, rent free. That room is at least about 245 square feet - the room she was in is about 160 square feet of living space. 6 months times $500 = $3,000. She also used my car for a month. What's the going rate to rent a 4 door, full sized sedan? $30 a day anyway. Times 30 = $900. I am going to use that to show what I've actually done for this woman in terms of use of my house and even my car.

Mary intends on paying me - so she says - for February. I am not going to accept it. How can I accept rent for the next month when I am filing for an eviction against her? I desperately need the money - yes, but - I need her out of here worse.

Well, anyway - nice day today. Weather is beautiful. Oh, speaking of Mary, she has stopped working out front altogether. Which means I need to go out there and water some plants. I watered everything in the back yesterday, but some of the stuff out front looks to be getting a bit dry, want to make sure to keep up with that. I don't think they need too much watering in the winter, but still. It's warm enough that all the plants are growing anyway - the only thing that stopped was the tree I planted. It's a deciduous tree, it dropped it's leaves and I guess it's waiting until it believes winter is over before putting out new leaves.

Actually, it was cold this morning. Cold by my standards, anyway. Anytime I can see my breath floating through the air, it's cold.

4 days until the Superbowl. I had thought about throwing a Superbowl party over here, but - people don't do parties like that in these days unless you have a big-screen TV. The biggest screen around here is 32 inches, hardly a big-screen TV. Oh, how I miss that TV I paid for and then burned up in that house fire. It's one of the things I REALLY miss. Ken has a friend that's selling one just like that one I had for $200. That's a bargain - too bad I don't have $200 to spare right now.

Well, I have things to get done before the sun sets, c'yall later or tomorrow.
ben

Court

As usual, you get into the court room and the lawyers get to go first. They're there with stacks of forcible detainers in reprensenting a single apartment community.
Of the 5, only 1 single tenant showed up to dispute the rents owed. It was the same thing as my situation: a person had done work for the apartment community and were told they were going to get a free month's rent in exchange.

Let me tell you right here: I will never be offering "work for reduced rent" ever again. I mean, I pulled that ad the day after I posted it because I knew there was too much left open for problems. I would have made it a part of the rental agreement - but again - Mary said at the get-go that she would just pay the full rent.

The judge set that case for hearing on Thursday. I figured right there that because of the dispute between us, the judge would also set ours for hearing as well.

Our names are called, we get up before the judge, Mary makes her claims, I make mine. The judge says hearing will also be on Thursday, does that work for you? For me - sure, my boss will give me the time off I need. For Mary? Nope. She has a "lot of clients" she has to deal with on Thursday, so the Judge says that Tuesday of next week is the only other day available. Mary asks for an extension to Tuesday.

The Judge looks at me. Now, Mary at least said that she believed all of January should be free, according to her. I said that Tuesday is in next month. The Judge spoke to Mary - another month's worth of rent. Mary says yes, she intends on paying me next month. I have that, sworn in oath, in front of a judge. I said at least concerning January because she isn't trying to take this into eternity in terms of free rent.

Now - the judge wants all applicable documents to back our case. Okay. I'm going to get pics of her door made up into nice sized photos because Mary is claiming that the reason she doesn't have to pay for the month of January. So - if the judge finds for her - I am also going to add an extra defense: We agreed long before that work was ever done that the door she put up there would have to match the rest of the interior doors of the house, and that she or her worker doing the work would have to contact Cavco Homes in order to get another door. Obvious saying that means, no, she did not put up a matching door and it's rather ridiculous, to say the least.

I'm camping on this until the weekend. I have no need to go all crazy about getting my own pics made up, I'll do it, but I'm taking a breather from this stuff. We'll see whether Mary actually pays anything before next month. If she doesn't, this will be brought up to the judge - the whole conversation was recorded.

So that's that. Set for Tuesday at 2:00 pm. I actually liked Tuesday better after the judge stated the time, because the Thursday hearing would have been at 9:45 am, meaning missing an entire day of work. Tuesday at 2:00 pm means missing a couple of hours of work.

As for the "rest" of this day? Nothing I want to do. I just made a huge plate of the ham I cooked the other day and wolfed down a can of lima beans and some mashed potatoes with gravy alongside. That ham is so delicious. I put a pineapple chunk/pineapple juice/brown sugar glaze on it that just tastes marvelous.

Anyway, done for now.

ben

Court/Mary

Wish me luck. Or pray if you do that - whatever you do.
I found a written statement from Mary that I had not even seen that she sent to me this month: she fully admits that she owes me rent and was going to pay me on the 15th. In that, she said she didn't pay me because I announced doubled rent - she was occupy 2 rooms without my permission. I don't really need much more than that, frankly. I'm going to be very interested to see how the judge deals with all of this.
She was just here with the same friend that showed up with her when she first moved in. Guessing that woman is going to court with her. Nice - but - I clearly remember what I said at that first meeting. My seal on this thing, however, are Mary's written statements, I need not go further than that.

Now, I'm going to take about 15 minutes to review AZ landlord/tenant law, get dressed up, and take off.
C'ya later.
ben

LOL

Mary - piece of work.
Remember when she put up the door, put a lock on it and then wouldn't give me a key?
Didn't understand why I should have a key to the room? Yada yada yada?
She comes home tonight - standing out in front of the locked gate. Calls me from her cellphone.
She left her keys in her room and can't get in.
So, I go out there and open up the gate.
She comes in the house - gives me a NASTY look and says "Well I left my keys in the room and it's locked, too".
She goes to the back of the hall, turns on the hall light and just stands there, waiting for me to get my key to her room.
LOL!!
The more I think about tomorrow and all the stuff she said to me, the more fuel for the fire I have.
She wrote me an email today, going into her ridiculous rhetoric again - a friggin' HUGE email. I wrote her back a 2 line sentence telling her to give it a rest and that tomorrow the judge would decide this for us.
Didn't respond to a single thing she said - mostly because nothing has changed. I assume she is not exactly comfortable going to court tomorrow, so she's trying to put some sort of fear into ME. I have nothing to fear - the worst that can happen here would be that the judge would find for her, she gets to stay this month for free and that's the end of that. The worst that can happen to her is a monetary judgement found against her, she's now got another forcible detainer with judgement on her record and she faces forcible removal from the house if she doesn't leave peacably.
Just saying - it should be an interesting day tomorrow.

ben

Monday/Yaaaawn

Just plain tired. That dog I have been watching has more energy than 10 humans combined. It gets up and walks around in the middle of the night and then lays down - but not after it's already done it's damage of waking me up - like at least 5 times last night. Lord knows I'm ready for a nap.

I did a V-log while driving the truck today, but I don't even feel like going through the motions of uploading it, so I'm just writing the entry.

Basically, Ken - the newer tenant - told me that on Saturday, he went into the bathroom, got dizzy and fell on the floor. Woke up however long later.
Most people - I would assume - would be calling the paramedics when something like that happens and you haven't got a clue what is wrong with you, and then a trip to the hospital. He isn't even going to see a doctor about it. Crazy. I asked him to please go - he does have health care coverage through the Great State of Arizona AHCCCS - called access, and yes they would treat a problem like this. I told him I would rather NOT find his dead carcass laying in my house, please take care of yourself.

Also, last night, I had a potential - male - tenant over. I got him settled at the kitchen table and we talked for at least an hour. My goal - as always - is to find out as much about this person as I possibly can in the limited time frame that I have to hear them out. I'm looking for anything hidden, slips of the tongue, oddities. I want to hear this person's view of things and I want to see if this person really can get along with other people living in the same house. I have no set way of getting that info out - the conversation just lends itself to it.

The only thing that is a little unsettling about the guy is that he's a diabetic - the type that has to take insulin shots. I've seen diabetics going into seizures, it ain't a pretty sight. He claims he takes care of himself and watched his glucose and all of that and hasn't had a seizure in years. Now, a seizure isn't going to hurt anyone but the person having it, for the most part, but again, I like to see that people stay alive and kicking in my house, not coming here to die. You know what I mean? lol He works in a warehouse not far from here - 40 hours a week - and then claims to be a freelance writer just trying to get a foot into the door of that realm.

Well, good luck with that, but don't quit your day job until you really have something going. He offered references, I said I would like to see them.

Show-down with Mary in court tomorrow. Printed out most of the stuff I needed, but I have more emails to dig out of the system and get them printed up as well. Which means sitting here for an hour at least going through all of it to find the relevant ones. Came up with a list of things that throw HUGE holes into her story, the biggest one is her own hand-written letter where she says she knows she owes rent, that she "made a mistake" and whatever else it said. Gotta get that one back out and scrutinize it. Meaning I'm going to have to take a nap soon so I can be refreshed enough to get this stuff in my head and also marked so I can find it if I need it in a hurry. I'm not fretting or uneasy about going into this particular court room anymore, as I have had enough dealings with this judge to know that - even if I get screwed, the screwing can't be that bad because the only thing Mary is claiming is that she doesn't have to pay rent this month.

Temps cooled down considerably today. It was cool even this afternoon - but that's also the help of wind. Still, it was in the high 70's and now it's down in the 60's.
I was wondering what was going on here - I ain't ready for summer and those incredibly high electric bills. I'm still wondering HOW I'm going to pay for that, and my time for figuring is going to come to a close. I'm seriously considering installing a piggy-back evap cooler onto the ac system. We don't need AC when no-one's here. Turn on a cooler and run that during the day - it will let it get no higher than 90 in the house, but probably cooler than that during the summer months. It would save me a huge chunk of change and - well - the money for that could be funded by another 401k loan after the current one is paid off in July. Yeah, July's in the middle of hot-hell summer, but at least that alternative will come around.

The problem with it is that it allegedly cancels the warranty on the ac unit if I install one. But - only for the ducting and that with the house manufacturer, not the AC manufacturer. Okay, in 30 years, the ducting will start to rust a little and that's the deal with it. I won't be here in 30 years. It's the only alternative I have been able to come up with to deal with these excessive cooling bills for the months of June, July and August. The months preceding and after are also high, but not near as high as the temps are cooler - in the low 100's instead of the 110's.

Actually, I was thinking if I get that safe driver award - and the full week's pay that comes with it - I could pay off the 401k loan with it and then get another loan within a few days of it. A couple thousand dollars would deal with that and a few other issues I would like to get deal with around here, including those broken windows. I'm just considering it right now. The real answer is to get awnings up - but they cost so much money. Money, money, money. At least I ain't the only one in that particular, giant ship filled with millions of people - many of which are far worse off than I right now.

Umm, well I have had a second wind hit me and I'm going to go right now and start digging through that email and find the rest of what I need, plus go re-read that 3-page, handwritten letter that Mary wrote that is going to kill her in court.

C'yall later.
ben

Sunday/Morning

I've already made my trips to the stores I needed to make them to today.
Walmart - the place I love to hate - for several items including flea/tick treatment for the dogs and some fixin's for the ham I intend on cooking today.

Fry's had ham on super-sale - bought that a couple of weeks ago, just getting to cooking it today. Put a pineapple/brown sugar glaze on it, cook it, serve with vegetables and maybe potatoes, done.

Oh, and key rings and one tag for the dogs. Duke had somehow gotten his identification tag off and destroyed the ring that was holding it - tag was intact. Got a new ring for him. Coco both got the tag off and managed to lose the tag and ring completely. It's around here somewhere, I'm sure of that - WHERE - I have no clue.

My chores for today are limited - clean the living room, tidy up my bedroom, mop the kitchen floor. Already cleaned most of my bathroom and ended up leaving a notice on the tenant's bathroom. I mean, it was pretty bad in there. The toilet was - gross. I cleaned that just to get it to acceptable conditions. The notice was for the tenants to clean the rest of it. As far as I know, Mary cleaned the bathtub and counter, I don't know if Ken did anything or not. Pretty sad that I have to leave a notice to clean up the bathroom to 40-year olds - but I do what I have to around here to keep this place acceptable.

Oh, and laundry. Such a fun and wonderful CHORE. It's the worst part of any cleaning for me around here. I HATE doing laundry.

The biggest thing I'm doing today is getting all the emails Mary has sent me forwarded to my work email address so I can print them out, read over her handwritten junk, go over the numbers she claims versus the real numbers, and get semi-prepared for court. The judge will not be interested in a lot of other stuff - as Mary thinks she intends to bring up - as this is solely about rent, not any lawsuits she may think to bring. I know this for a fact - anything that isn't covered in my complaint or her potential reply to the complaint will not be addressed, he won't even listen. Mary claims she is writing an answer and filing it tomorrow. I don't know if there's a time limit on such answers in this kind of situation, but I do know she has to give me a copy of it.

Anyway, I was going to take the dogs for a walk this morning and instead got caught up in all the running around, and now the more important things in life: a pot of coffee. After this little reprieve, it's off to the laundry/cleaning races - have to take the dogs for a walk later on. Probably trot on by the newest molestor's house and take a gander at that setup. The guy knows his face is being plastered all over the neighborhood - I have a hard time understanding how anyone could live in a place like this with that kind of rap. He has to know that there is at least the potential for parents that have little boys - apparently the dish of his flavor - are going to be watching him and their kids. I have a clear image of this guy in my head and intend on seeing what this freak looks like in person. Not a confrontation, just a gander at this "dude".

Umm, that was unpleasant. The notion of having fully 2 child molestors - 1 across the street and now the other 10 houses away - is rather unsettling. Further that the "new" guy has a taste for young boys. That's just sick.

Anyway, no football today - meaning I can focus on the court case. Very glad Superbowl Sunday is not today, I would be totally distracted and not get that info clear in my mind.

I've seen some of the hype about Obama, but so far, all I've seen actually done is an order to close Guantanamo prison and releasing funds so that little babies around the world can be killed in a procedure known as an abortion. Have you ever actually seen what they do to these babies in some of these procedures? In one procedure, a saline solution is injected into the sac and basically burns the flesh off the baby. In another, it's something akin to a vacuum cleaner cutting off and disposing of the baby's limbs and head. It's pretty sick, as far as I'm concerned. Well, I don't want to get into that, I'm just definitely NOT impressed by anything he's done yet. He isn't the Savior that he's been touted to be, time will prove and reveal that little factor.

Whatever. I have to try to call the mortgage company again this coming week and see about getting a renegotiation of the loan. Calling that company always gets the same message: We are experiencing an usually high volume of calls, wait times will be long.
I'm not into waiting long periods of time to speak to someone on the phone who can't do anything for me, anyway, and will have to get connected to Lord knows how many people before finally getting to the right person. I emailed them a detailed letter of what I need - no reply and that was weeks ago.

Done with this one, it seems to be full of negativity and I figure to get out of that mode shortly.

Happy Sunday.
ben

Another One Moving Into The Neighborhood.........

..........and JUST down the street from me. There are a LOT of young boys running around the streets around here - this kind of stuff terrifies me.
You don't have a clue what I'm talking about, so here it is, typed on here just as it is on the flyer I just received in the mail.

:On March 17, 1995, Offender Burns pled guilty to two counts of Attempted Child Molest in Maricopa County Superior Court. During this incident, Offender Burns molested two boys, ages 11 and 9, who were known to him.

On September 19, 2000, Offender Burns pled guilty to Attempted Sexual Conduct with a Minor in Maricopa County Superior Court. During this incident, which was reported ten years after the occurence, Offender Burns molested the 8-year-old male victim who was known to him."

So, this guy, who is 50 years old and they even have a pic of him in this flyer, has just moved into my neighborhood. He's a block away. Not even that. His house is 3 houses down from all those black kids - ages 11 through 15 - four brothers. Though, their father is a nutcase and is in and out of jail all the time. Messing with those boys might cost that man his life..........

The guy is a Level 3 offender, meaning he's high risk of molesting again. Now, there's 2 of them. One across the street from me and this guy all of the equivalent of 10 houses away from me.

Unbelievable.

That Didn't Take Very Long

My search for the relevant documents - most notably the signed lease agreement with $400.00 per month on it and the agreement further stating it is a "month-to-month" agreement - did not take long.

I had forgotten that I have been keeping that stuff in my car. Kind of a secure place to keep it, but - probably better off keeping it in my locked master bedroom closet.

I have all of these handwritten notes from her and the only thing left to do is print out the forcible detainer actions she has been forced through by rental companies - where she lost and has huge judgments against her - and all of the email exchanges between us. A quick review of all of it and I will be ready for court.

She can bring up all the nonsense she wants - she signed a legal document stating that she agrees to pay $400.00 per month, not $200 or $250 as she so assertively claims. There is no way she is confused on this issue - I have stated this over and over and over from the beginning that IF she wanted to work, I would only be able to give her a $100 per month credit on the rent, as that's the least I can afford along with another full-paying tenant to be able to stay afloat.

Anyway, I was glad to find all of that stuff, intact, and yes - it will be locked away shortly as now that I have found it, I'm not going to go over any of it until tomorrow sometime. I don't really need to review it today. All of this stuff is in my head, anyway, I just have to be able to find where she makes certain states in writing if the judge wants to see it.

Plants.
I don't really want to devote my entire blog to tenancy issues, so I'm parting with that subject on this entry, anyway.
I do have a semi-green thumb. Sort of. It's just that I got all of those plants at auction and I knew nothing about them. Do they like shade? How much water do they want/need? It's taken me a while, but I have learned the needs of each particular plant that I have, and most notably those "barren" sticks with leaves on them that looked quite - bad to me. I gave about 10 or more of those particular plants away, but I did end up planting some of them.

Amazingly - to me anyway - the ones that I planted in full sunlight started putting all kinds of absolutely beautiful flowers of all different shades of colors on one single plant. I planted 4 of them in a row and they are doing just magnificently.

But - I couldn't figure out whether these plants wanted a lot of water or a little. I tried both and didn't see much results. I decided to basically drown them in water just about every day or every other day - and they loved it! That's when they started blooming in full force.

They don't like shade, I have found - the ones I planted that is mostly shaded are not blooming. They aren't dying, but - it's obvious they like full sunlight. I still have at least 5 of those particular plants - whatever they are called as I have no clue - in planters and am trying to decide where to put them. I would like to put them on the west side of the house up against the wall, but I'm afraid the dogs will just piss them to literal death. I really don't want to put up more fencing, but I had thoughts that maybe I could just circle each plant with some fencing and see if that will do the trick. That wall gets full sunlight for at least 1/2 of the day. The area where theey are really thriving get full sunlight almost all day long.

The honeysuckles that were trampled by Not-So-Great-Danes are making a REMARKABLE comeback. I truly thought they were just going to stay barren sticks, but the watering paid off. They now have large leaves and several new branches shooting out. Hooray for them! Eventually - of course keeping that the dogs don't get back there again - they will grow back into full plants, and really, at the amazingly fast rate of growth they are producing, I don't think it long - a couple of months maybe and they will at least be full plants even if they aren't that big yet.

Really, all of the plants are doing extremely well. Which is a big sigh of relief for me. They don't really need as much watering as when I first planted them, either. Which is nice because it equates to a lower water bill, though I suspect in the hot summer I will basically have to be watering them everyday to keep them healthy and growing well. I think the root stimulant I gave all of them must have helped as well.

I'm kinda checking email periodically to see if there are any bites on my room rental ad. Nothing - yet. My guess is that tomorrow I will get some hits - Sunday is a day where people seem to tend to start looking at stuff like that if they are in need of such.

An interesting development in the main bathroom - I put rolls of toilet paper in there here and there, but I expect the tenants to pitch in and buy some as well. So - I haven't put any in there in a while now. I went in there today to find nothing - no a single sheet of toilet paper in there.

Which makes me wonder how - anyone is cleaning themselves. The thought is enough to make me want to go up to the store in a while and buy some paper, even if I don't necessarily feel that I should have to keep it completely stocked all of the time. The boys use that bathroom here and there - though I tell them to use mine so there is no animosity in terms of cleanliness of the bathroom and also the TP issue. But - the newer tenant simply doesn't have a lot of money and so I don't really mind at this point just keeping it well stocked, for a while anyway. He eats very poorly which is also why I have decided for the time being to help him out with food whenever I have extra and - not really say anything about his visits to my food pantry and my refrigerator, as long as it does not get excessive. I get along with the guy quite well, so I'm just going to leave it alone for a while.

Maybe he'll get a raise or something and possibly a little more income will come his way. Who knows, apparently the taxi business is quite alive and thriving, even in this wicked economic atmosphere that is present. The Cardinals game that was in town for the conference championship brought a LOT of business to that particular industry, as well as a lot of other industries including hotels and restaurants. We also have "world-class" golf resorts that people come here in the winter to play golf and get away from bitterly cold temps. That's probably more retired folks that have money regardless of the economic situation.

Anyway, I think I will take that trip up to Fry's and get some TP and other items I need for the house.

Have a great Saturday!
ben

Well, I got involved in watching a movie online last night and stayed up WAY too late. This online movie business may be addictive, will have to watch myself here.

It was also a very nice, quiet morning until the next store neighbor started messing with his Harley Davidson - a bit annoying.

Oh, and I am dog-sitting again - this weekend for this dog and then I think it's about a week and a half from now I'll be watching Roscoe the German Shepherd for about 10 days if I recall the email correctly. Not a lot of money - I'll take whatever I can get at this point. I haven't run the dog-sitting ad in months - I sorta decided I really didn't want to do it because of the potential liability if the dog is hurt or if my dogs inflict pain/wounds on someone else's dogs. Be that as it may, I am still sitting the dogs that I have already had here before - these people keep calling me and they keep bringing them over, and even if it's not that much money, it's certainly hard to turn anything down right now considering my circumstances. Half tempted to run the ad again. Only half. One thing I have going now that I didn't before is the option of separating the dogs if I have to. My yard is now divided by a chain link fence and the dogs cannot get to the other side.

So, it is a possibility in just putting a dog that I am sitting outside on the east side of the house and keeping it over there while I'm at work. During the winter and spring, anyway, couldn't do that in the summer. Too hot - there is shade but I just wouldn't do that to a dog.

Yes, this is a rather rambling post admittedly as I have a lot of junk going through my head right now, especially this situation with Mary. I am having trouble finding what I did with the rental agreement. Rest assured I will go through every single piece of paper in the house to find it, but I'm 99% sure it's in my master bedroom closet. I started going through it last night and will attack that situation again today. That rental agreement she signed says $400.00 per month and nothing about working for reduced rent. Now, don't take me wrong on that. I'm not claiming she hasn't done any work - I have freely admitted that but also have included that she has received quite a lot off of rent monies she's paid.

Mary sent me her version of what she has paid me since she moved in here. A cacophony of lies, she has her having had paid $800 during the 2-month period where she paid NOTHING and I actually went and filed forcible detainer action against her THAT time. I'll be bringing a copy of that paperwork for the judge to see.

Basically, what I'm understand Mary is saying, is that she feels she should just get the entire month of January for free. Lol. Her claims are numerous, the biggest is that she put up that door and it's worth $500.00 and therefore she shouldn't have to pay anything. Oh, Mary DID hand me the key last night! I was amazed at that little action - and it's on video surveillance cause I was sitting here when she handed it to me. She actually tried to duck down and make herself not seen on it, but - quite sure it's on there.

Anyway, the whole thing is actually starting to become entertaining because she says one thing, and then comes along and says another thing - totally contradicting herself. I have it all in writing, to - both her email and her hand-written statements.

Whatever. I'm going to start getting all that paperwork together in a little while - I'm just sitting here drinking my coffee - and thankfully, the motorcycle noise has stopped. Meanwhile, I wrote up another ad and posted it to Craigslist. No replies yet - but sometimes it has to sit there for a couple of days before any series responses come flowing in. Getting close to the end of the month, so there are going to be people out there looking for a new place to live. Yes, I have to consider another tenant in here immediately. I'm actually - sort of - okay on finances - sort of. There are a couple of bills that are lurking that need paid and I won't be able to do anything about it until I either get money from Mary - which I haven't really been asking for anyway - or 2 paydays from now. Yikes!!!

Ummmmm - nothing I can do about it but hope that what I have will carry me through. One of those situations where I will dump a lot of money onto the card reader to make sure there is power for the next 3 weeks, fill up the gas tank in the car (already done), buy enough food to last that time period and then whatever else happens? Deal with it.

So I just went and inspected Mary's "old" room. She cleaned the carpet and it smells good in there, but the walls are going to have to be repainted. Fortunately I have plenty of paint to be able to do that without having to spend a single dime on it.

A couple of days ago - totally changing subjects again, told you this was a rambling post - I was driving the truck up in North Phoenix near some mountains. I was driving through a wash - it's paved road but it obviously turns into a small river when it rains - when I see a coyote dart out from some bushes in the wash, grab what must have been a freshly killed bird off of the road itself, and then trot off back into the bushes! There were at least 3 of them standing there - with all the traffic coming by, acting as if we, the traffic, were nothing! That was a rather amazing sight.

I'm done. I want to go outside and look at my plants before I start the task of finding all that paperwork, reading through all of it and putting it together in some semblance of order.

C'yall later.
ben

Friday/More

Just got back from a long hike in the mountains with the dogs. There's always people up in there - miles and miles of trails - run into hikers and mountain bikes. They all just stop what they're doing when those Danes come trotting by. Those dogs were huffing and puffing hard going up and down those steep hills - it was a good workout today as I ventured further in and forced them up and down more steep hills. My goal: get the energy totally out and have them knocked out for the evening.

The Mary Report:
Just a series of emails, a lot of trash talking from her. As she progresses with her make-believe, the story gets more and more rife. The whole thing at this point is a fabricated, out-right lie. Seriously. I wrote her back and asked her to calm down, get out of the emotional state of being, sit back and take a rational look at this situation.

She wrote back and said she couldn't deal with my email anymore and that she would delete every one I sent and not to write her anymore. THEN, she writes me AGAIN - does this sound like the doings of a rational person? - more jive. She tells me the room is empty, cleaned out and the door is unlocked.

I write back: Not good enough. I need for you to actually give me the key to the room. That signals that you are giving up ownership of it. I'm not going to get into court and have some technicality thrown at me that yes, she emptied the room, but no, she didn't give me the key, therefore, she didn't lawfully give up the room. It says it in state law - that's what she must do. If she doesn't, I ain't bitin'. I did write up another Craigslist ad, though, in case she does hand me the key, I could use some rent money, even though I totally do not want 3 tenants in here.

Plus the fact it might not be such a good idea to try to get anyone else in here before I get her out. Still.....

I've been informed by Michael that a certain relative of his that owes me $300.00 from 14 months ago is going to pay me back when they get their tax refund.

I had totally blown it off. In fact, I had totally blown off the entire family sans Michael and getting anything back. This is not, BTW, the monies owed me to replace the broken - still broken - windows. That is Anthony's deal - though parents are held responsible. I could go after the mother - she has been working for quite a while now, no small miracle in itself - but I am not at this point. That judgment apparently sticks with Anthony all the way up until he's 18, and then you apparently have to file something to keep that judgment on him afterwards.

Oh, and though I don't know this for a fact, it's QUITE obvious they are now living on free rent subsidies. There is NO WAY they could be paying for that townhouse AND buying all the junk they buy on her income alone. Which is one reason I have given thought to going after that $600 plus or minus to get those windows replaced. If you are new here, well it's too much of a story, but I have 3 broken windows thanks to Michael's older brother. The kid went to jail, went to court, agreement to pay was made. I have not had the windows fixed because they are double-paned windows and only the out panes are broken. If both panes were broken on any or all of them? I dunno - I would have figured out something. THAT might be a situation where I could sell the old car to get them fixed, or even try a trade.

Right now, I'm just trying to stay afloat, those windows are FAR down the list of priorities. Like, at or near last place. Ken just paid me today his bi-monthly rent. That's $200 and $150 in the bank. I get paid next week - all of it goes to the mortgage. I have $350 to last 3 weeks unless I either am able to rent out the now vacated room - providing Mary legally gives it up - or she actually pays me the rent. We'll be going to 2 months behind in rent shortly. It's the 23rd - the end of the month draweth nigh.

I'm saying that $350 is not a lot of money to last that much time. I have resisted applying for a second job after I finally just gave up on the idea. Fry's still looms in my mind as a very-real possibility. I just don't savor the idea of working 2 jobs again - I hated it last time I did it, I hated the time before, I doubt I'll like it this time around. IF I can even GET a second, part-time job. What chaos it is out there - 2 million people were dumped last year, more every month. Giant labor cuts are announced daily or at least a couple of times per week. The gurus of finances are finally admitting this year is probably going to be FAR worse in terms of the housing chaos than last year.

I'm cutting back on lots of things that can be cut back on. Unfortunately for the doggies, I have cut out the Iams. The store I was buying it at raised their price - out of my range. I am now buying 50 pound bags at $16.00 per bag and then supplementing it with scrap meat that I have after cooking. Just want to make sure they are getting sufficient protein in their diet. Scrap meat - equals the junk you don't want to eat that dogs eat with gusto. They don't CARE what part of the meat it is, they'll consume it hungrily. They don't get the bones, though. Well, if it's LARGE bones they get those, but chickens don't have large bones. Plus, those kind of bones splinter easily and can do damage to the innards of the dog - stomach lining and intestines.

God knows that dog eats. I just fed them - Duke is a giant PIG. He eats and eats and eats. It's amazing he isn't fat as a whale.

Ummmm, anyway. I'll just sit here and mull these series of problems that are facing me and go and enjoy everyone else's entries.
G'nite.
ben

Friday

I'm at work taking my break.
I just had to add to this Mary drama that she spent all last night (remember, she's an insomniac on top of everything else) moving all of her stuff out of one bedroom and into "her" family room bedroom. It does nothing for me until she hands me the key to that room. That's the law - I can't take possession of it until she either voluntarily hands over the key or she is forcibly removed by constables.

So, it's useless to me at this point. Now, if she leaves the door open and it's obviously vacated, I can post an abandonment note on that door and after however many days - I think 5 - I can retake possession legally. I know, it's all BS, but I am not going to do this stuff any way but the legal way.

What I would like to do is get the room rented out while I'm waiting to get her evicted. I need the money. I've got more bills on hold while this stuff is going on. Plus I'm going to need another $104 for the Writ of Restitution if I have to go that far with it. Ken - the other tenant - can't wait until she's GONE.

Anyway, I gotta get offa here.
C'yall later!
ben

Thursday

So, I got to work early this morning. I keep doing that - not on purpose, I just haven't changed the alarm back.
The situation was that Prince's tail needed tending to every single morning as it had open wounds in a couple of places. I had to get up early for weeks, take the old dressing off, clean the wounds, and then put fresh dressing back on it. It was time consuming so I started getting up earlier.

Well, I don't clock in right away. I sit down and persue the internet, mostly, besides making a fresh pot of coffee. This morning, it dawned on me that I have never done a Justice Court background check on Mary. I was curious to see if there was anything in there.

I was astounded to find numerous Forcible Detainers had been entered against her, and that there was at least half a dozen monetary judgements against her totalling over $10,000.00. Yes, that's ten thousand dollars - more than that. Quite a large number of tickets as well. Several Orders of Protection she had acquired against whoever those poor souls were. I never checked her when she came in here - I don't think I did anyway - because she had and has a great paying job and the rent really isn't that much.

I'll never take anything as appearances again. I didn't do that with the newer tenant - but he has no credit history and he doesn't want one. He has stated he doesn't even want to own his own home. Well, whatever, one would think he might want to at least have his own apartment eventually. But that's neither here nor there. I really was amazed at the amounts of some of the judgments, one of them almost 4k.

Okay, well, I'll be printing all of that out for the judge to see if it comes to that.

The other thing that happened today? Well, I noticed my kitchen camera was pointing way off. There is no way that anything like that can happen accidentally. So much so, I immediately accessed the files for my video surveillance.

What did I find? Mary - came out JUST after I left for work this morning, walked straight up to the camera, unplugged the power supply by pulling on the cord which caused the camera to aim upwards.

It was very dark in here - she had turned out the lights and apparently thought that since it is dark, the camera can't make anything out. Au Contrairie, monsieurre (speeeeeling). The cameras have these little red "lights" that shoot out all around the circumference of the camera. You can't see that there is light coming out from it, but it's MORE than ample enough light to clearly make out her face.

She then hooked the power supply back up much later on, leaving the camera angled up towards the ceiling so you can't see who reconnected it.

I have already left her a notice to NEVER touch my surveillance equipment again. And why would she do that? She's taking my coffee and helping herself. How do I know this? Because I have her on previous surveillance making coffee.

Uhhh, well, whatever. Her threats yesterday in email sealed her fate with me. I will not tolerate a person living in my house talking to me in that manner. Icing on the cake was finding the numerous Forcible Detainers (evictions) and her tampering with my surveillance equipment.

Whatever. Tuesday ain't far off.

Oh, here we go - she just sent me another email - I'm a liar, evil and all kinds of other crap.

STICKS

To get my mind off of that subject - which I have all but mastered the art of simply tuning things out and switching gears as effortlessly as I shift gears in the semi - I went out and inspected the plants. Last night, we got a good, soaking rain. The ground is nicely saturated.

The sticks I am referring to are what was left of the honeysuckles after the Danes trampled them to death. AMAZING how something that looked totally dead has put out all KINDS of leaves and branches on just stubs/stick sticking out of the ground.

I love it. I just love watching things grow. Even more watching something come back from the dead. 3 plants like that - coming back and geeze, at the rate they're growing, maybe it won't be that long before the start looking like full plants again! Yowsa!

And, yayyyy, tomorrow is Friday already! No football this weekend - which gives me a chance to get out there and do some weeding. I would do some other things as well, but money is very tight right now. I have money - but I have to make it stretch. Only bills, gasoline, electricity and food are on-tap. I think I'm going to blow off the roller blades - it's a great deal and I saw the pic of them - but I simply don't have the leeway right now, even at 30 bucks.

Oh, and my dad is writing back and forth to his brothers and such about a reunion at his place in March. I will be there. At least, I will be there for a day. I don't want to impose upon my dad to pay for a hotel room - unless I have some funds by then by some miracle, I just won't be able to do a hotel room. Well, maybe one night - hopefully.

That's it for now.

Have a great evening.
ben

Wednesday

Note: I wrote this entry yesterday, but posted another entry instead on here, and this one on my other blog. I have even more stuff on Mary that is priceless - will be working on that entry after posting this one.

Another busy day. All the way up until time to leave. I like work like that.

Now, onto the juicy stuff. Not really much. I called the process server this morning because they didn’t come last night - before I went to bed anyway. Which was 9:00 pm. He told me she had been served. But not directly. He came to the gate, said there was a lock on it and though he could have undone the lock (I left the lock on but not locked) - that apparently wouldn’t be legal, or “peaceable” so he folded up the complaint and set it in the gate itself.

Now, somebody got it. It wasn’t there when I went to bed last night - I checked the gate in case that was what they were going to do. Plus, I left the lock unlocked on purpose. This morning, the lock was locked and there was definitely no papers laying around anywhere, so either Ken or Mary took them. Since Ken already knows what I’m doing, if he saw them there, he wouldn’t have taken them. They aren’t laying on the counter. Therefore, I assume Mary got the papers.

Regardless, they are sending her a letter which probably will get here tomorrow - a certified letter.

There isn’t anything juicy because I haven’t seen Mary since this occured. I really don’t believe she thought I would file the papers because she knows my financial situation. It costs money to do all of this. She knows I have limited finances. I believe she figured I just couldn’t afford to do it. Oh, Contraire, my zeppelooondon. Lol. I couldn’t write in French anymore than I can write in Chinese.

The point? I can’t afford NOT to! So, she probably will be coming back later on - we’ll see what plays out. My guess: nothing. She’ll say nothing and I’m definitely not talking to her unless she has past-due rent money plus late charges plus court fees plus the server cost. Where will I get the other $104 to get the Writ of Restitution if I get a judgment against her? Dunno, but you can’t even apply for it until 5 days have passed from the day of the judgement. The 6th day, you can file. That would be, assuming I win in court. That’s 12 days from now. Hmph. It will be close to mid February before she’s forced out of here.

Look, I’m bracing for the worse-case scenario: she shows up to court with a lawyer. I’m getting all of her handwritten statements about how she knows she owes me the money - yada yada yada - to prove my stance and point. I have enough statements from her - written by her own hand - to prove that she owes me the money. I have pics of the door of the room she has taken over, but I am giving her a 2 day notice and am going into both rooms to take pics of the fact that she is occupying fully 2 rooms in my house. I don’t CARE if she likes it or not. I have the legal right to inspect any tenant’s room if I give the required notices - I will put a notice on each door.

BTW, if anyone has any thoughts that jump to mind like a light-bulb going on - please feel free to share.

Right now, I just finished a post about the other tenant and posted it on Blogspot. Gonna give that post a while - like maybe til’ tomorrow - to get some views and potential responses.

Right now? I’m done with the Mary report because I don’t want - NEWS ALERT - I just remembered that a little while ago, I was in my email and saw one from Mary. It was excoriating, riddled with more lies than blades of grass in a lawn, full of threats. I wrote her back and said “see you in court”.

I decided that, if she presents these emails in court, I would write up another reply. This one basically stated that I do not want her living here anymore, if she just hands over the keys to the place I will forgive the debt, she can go her merry way. I even offered her up to a month to get her things out of here - providing she moves all of it to one room. I then spoke that going to court is a pain, that we could part ways amenably.

I’m going to say right now that if, somehow, I lose in court, I will be giving her the 30-day notice to move out. I don’t need a reason - it says so right in the AZ statutes. You can get rid of a person by simply giving them enough time to find a new place. It has to be a full month, and has to be so that the person has 30 full days before the beginning of the next month. If not, then you give the 30 day notice and they have until the beginning of the next month beyond that.

I’ve had enough. I’m still ignoring the news as the stuff on Obama and locally the Cardinals is more than I am willing to bear.

Have a great evening!

ben

Wednesday/What Would YOU Do?

I was busily writing up my daily entry when I got sidetracked by an email that Mary sent to me. Putting that entry and the situation with Mary aside, I have yet another thing going on in my home.
Lol.
I've been checking my video surveillance - particularly the one in here, for any sign that Mary might be trying to access my computer. It takes a while to go through that much footage, I don't relish the chore.
Well, an interesting scenario is being played out on a daily basis, really, with the newer tenant.

The guy is helping himself to my food.
Nothing extravagant - a $1.00 can of chili I bought when it was on sale here, a LOT of bread there. I see him going through my refrigerator - don't know what he's looking for. He'll get out my tub of margarine, make numerous slices of toast. He'll look up at the camera - guess he's wondering if I'm going to catch him or if the thing is really on.
He goes into my cupboard with the coffee and helps himself to a pot of coffee as well.

I had noticed that it seemed food was disappearing. A normal event when Michael or/and Caleb are around, but certainly shouldn't be happening when neither of the 2 are here.

Now, to put it into perspective, we're talking $1.00 loaves of bread, $1.00 cans of chili, cheap stuff.

Then I saw him doing laundry. Video surveillance saw, that is. He grabs MY laundry detergent and helps himself! I buy the cheap stuff - but - I don't need to buy detergent very often as I only do laundry once a week. Sometimes 4 loads, sometimes more, but a bottle of detergent can last up to 2 months, if not more.

Not now. That was what was starting to get me wondering - I simply don't use that much of the stuff and though I buy the cheaper stuff, it's still not "cheap".

What else is he doing? I dunno. He came out of a homeless shelter when he moved in here, I have learned. He came back from Florida and was starting his life over. He knows a "higher-up" at the cab company he works for and that person got him a job right away. As soon as he got his first paycheck, he started looking for rooms to get out of that place. He moved in with another person - but it was too far away and started looking again. He's all of 3 miles from work now.

Examining his spending habits.
He takes a taxi to and from work every day. He gets a discount, yes, but it's still very expensive for someone who really isn't making a great deal of money. That particular habit - if lost - would save him a lot of money.

He's been buying things for his room. Nothing major or grand.

He pays the full rent, on time, every time. No questions or guffaws, he always pays his rent.

He doesn't really appear to do much beyond going to work and coming home.

I started getting very irritated watching him going through my cupboards and taking things, but I got out of my skin for a moment and decided to take a view from the biblical perspective. He's got $50 to go on his security deposit. His next paycheck he intends on paying it off. After that, he'll have another $50 per paycheck - every 2 weeks - to work with. Not alot - but if one spends it on food, perhaps one can not take things that aren't ones to take.

Anyways, the Bible says if any man asks of you.....give. Problem here is, he didn't ask and isn't telling me he's taken anything. I know from much personal experience and watching a lot of others going through the same thing that the lack of money even for eating purposes takes it's toll on a person. No food equals hunger equals desperation.

I've decided that it isn't really bothering me that bad - mostly because I have severe issues with Mary that take priority right now and more because he pays his rent on time. The logical mind will say that paying rent does not equal taking one's things.
True.
Mercy may say something different.
I have an idea what some people will say about this - but I would love to hear your take on this situation. I have not spoken a word to him about this yet.

What would you do? Why?

Back to finishing the Mary post.
ben