Sunday

I stayed up WAY late last night - quite unusual for me - therefore didn't get up until late this morning.
As I have seen on many other blogs, it's been raining here as well. Started yesterday evening and was going continuously until late this morning. Now it's coming and going.
Plants are getting well-watered for free, thanks to Mother Nature (otherwise known as God)!
I have accomplished almost nothing today.
I haven't had the desire to do much of anything but a little light housecleaning and haven't even started laundry yet.
I was hoping to take my birthday day off tomorrow - but the boss never got back to me about whether I could or not and he left early on Friday to go to an appointment with a tax preparer.

Basically, he wants to avoid having me take that particular day off if there's a workload that requires both drivers. Understandable - but I want to get it in before I lose the priviledge, as corporate only allows it during the month of your birthday. So, I'll ask for this coming Friday off since the other driver left early on Friday - otherwise I would have taken that off instead.

Frankly, if it's going to keep raining, there isn't going to be much work to do. Any job sites will shut down when they get too wet and muddy - the general contractors don't want the site messed up by the mud and they don't want all that stuff tracking out onto the street.

Anyway, I don't really have much to say - kind of in this thinking mode right now about numerous things going on.

C'yall later.
ben

Saturday

Arizona's a funny place to live in terms of weather. You can have a cloudless sky in the morning and by afternoon have a full sky of clouds and rain. Allegedly, that's what's going to happen today. I'm looking out my windows and seeing only a few small cloud wisps floating up there, yet the forecasters insist that it's going to rain later on today.
I actually believe them, having had lived here most of my life.

I have been trying to keep up with backing up my blog entries by posting the same entry on 3 sites. I kinda didn't want to do it this week cause' I posted a V-Log on here, Blogspot, and I don't remember trying to do that on either LiveJournal or Wordpress. Wordpress took a minute for me to figure out - but I got it and LiveJournal was easy. So, now that I know how to do that on all 3 formats, not such an arduous thought of trying to back everything up.

So Ken - my roomate or one of them anyway - paid me yesterday. This guy doesn't play games with the rent. He's $25 off from having his security deposit paid - the money is in my ING savings account. Whenever he decides to move out, I only have to transfer the money out of that account and into my checking account and then I can withdraw it. This will be my standard modus-operandi for any new tenants coming in here from now on. What surprised me is that he also gave me an extra $10 for the food he has been eating out of my cupboards. I have said absolutely nothing to him about it. He also borrowed $20 earlier this week from me and paid that back as well.

Anyone that does all of those things is a good tenant from my viewpoint. Mary is busily attempting to win us both back over. In fact, Ken offered without asking yesterday that his reservations about Mary have disappeared and that he actually LIKES Mary at this point. He did, however, also offer that that should not affect my decision of what to do with her.

Umm, anyway, I was hoping to get a response to a Craigslist ad I placed for galvanized posts for the fence I want to install. No responses. I'm definitely serious about wanting to get that fence permanently installed AND have a nice gate - which I have already acquired - so that I can access both "sides" of my yard without hinder. Meanwhile, I'm looking at pricing on energy efficient doggy doors. Some of there are EXTREMELY expensive. I decided that since I am putting it in the utility room, and the utility room doesn't have an AC outlet, and it gets fairly warm in there in the summer, I don't need an extra-heavy duty door in there. A good one, yes, but a $300 version, not.

Yes, I'm busily formulating whatever I have to to come up with ways to save energy in here, and that is one HUGE way to do so. I know I'm losing cool air out of that doggy door I have in here now, I just didn't have any choice but to install one. I couldn't have them - the dogs - outside all day long baking in 110 degree heat (well, I won't do that to them, anyway, I COULD set up an evaporative cooler out there under a ramada and that would do just as well) but no way was I having them just stay in here all day long without access to the outside. Pooping and peeing on my floors is a BIG no-no in my book.

So, I'll fork out around $100 for an in-the-wall doggy door, I hope anyway, with this bonus I'm getting next week. The money spent will be the money saved. I'll take this sliding glass door one out and resell it on Craigslist for what I paid for it (try, anyway) and that will be that. I have a little trepidation about cutting a hole in the side of my house - but I've installed these before and it's really not rocket science.

It has cooled down considerably overnight - it's in the low 60's I think right now and isn't supposed to get much warmer than this - up to the mid 60's today. I figure I have it very good considering what others are going through in snow and ice right now : )

Enough for now, have a great Saturday!
ben

Friday

Dumb me - I usually sit here with the keyboard in my lap and rather kicked back. Tonight, I dropped the thing, causing the wires to rip right out of it.
Yup, a trip to Fry's electronics and $14.99 less rich and I'm back in action. I was tempted by the myriad of wireless keyboards - but finances prevailed and I just bought the plain old Microsoft thing. I have had at least 5 keyboards for this computer since I got it.

Ummm - so today. Lessee - it was an absolutely gorgeous day. Temps in the low 80's, sun shining. Found myself working my rear off this morning for several hours, the energy output felt good. Was loading large pipe - 18 inches in diameter - onto the semi to return it to the manufacturer. Something we're seeing a lot of are contractors bringing back materials we have sold and delivered to them because whoever owns the project is backing out of it. In this particular case, we had delivered thousands of feet of this particular pipe and tens of thousands of feet more of other kinds of pipe. Fortunately, they got the other pipe in the ground along with all the material that goes with it before the project was shut down.

Literally dozens of projects have been shut down while in full-force. They get the underground stuff put in and then shut it down. A full fledged hospital is being built and will be done in 2 or 3 months - and then it's going to sit until at least mid 2010.

Umm, lots of stuff in the news - I just sit back and shake my head. When will all of this end?

This weekend - I had planned in installing the fence permanently, but apparently the weather is going to sour that plan. Supposedly it's going to rain all weekend. I love the rain, yes, but not when I have things to do outside! I could work in the rain, but some of what I am going to do involves pouring cement, which probably doesn't bode well with continuous watering coming from the sky.

Oh, my makeshift fix to keep the dogs out of their latest assault worked. I watched video surveillance today after getting home. All 4 of them were trying to get past it - just couldn't do it.

It's getting late - for me anyway. I started writing this entry hours ago and then the keyboard was trashed. The computer logged me off and I couldn't get back on to at least save what I had already written - sooooo - I'm done for tonight.

Have a great evening, c'ya tomorrow!
ben

More

So, I find out today when I get home that the dog I am dog-sitting has found a way underneath the chain link fence I put up. That must have hurt to force his body under that, cause there are sharp, jagged things sticking DOWN on that portion of the fence. Prince followed behind him - and yes, they trampled another plant. I - got quite angry admittedly. I threw both their asses out and they are going to stay out there for a long, long time. They do NOT do that stuff when I'm home, only when I'm gone.

I went out there and addressed the problem - as best I can. I put so much stuff and wired it to the fence itself and then put stakes behind it that I'm at least hopeful that they won't get through. I turned one of my video surveillance cameras from the west side of the house to the southeast side of the house - where they are doing the dirty work. I will be able to see when they are doing this stuff and how they are going about it. It's rather infuriating, to be honest, to find these dogs doing this stuff. The price I pay, I guess, for watching this particular dog. I CAN make a permanent fence with a concrete underlay that has hooked pins sticking out of the concrete to anchor the bottom of the fence to that will invariable keep them from doing that.

The problem is, of course, money. Money is always an issue with me in doing home improvement or doing things to save my plants in this case. I don't just need redi-mix concrete, I also need the right poles to put into the ground and be able to install one of the gates. I have top railing that will stop them from just pushing the top over as well. I don't KNOW that they are going to try to push the top over, but Roscoe - the dog I have watched over here numerous times - is very determined to get over there to mess with that dog on my neighbor's side of the fence.

Well - I dunno. I have a prospective tenant moving in, Ken is going to pay me Friday, I received $100 from my dad and I will have that bonus on my paycheck next week. I already received $60 for watching the dog - but I am spending all of that on dog food. Watching dogs to pay for the dogs, that's what I call it. The poles I need will cost almost $50, plus concrete mix. I have everything else. Call it around $80 to get the project done - not a lot of money and maybe money well spent from my bonus.

However, I have my eyes set on a new doggy door. It's ultra-energy efficient with 3 flaps to keep cool air in, hot air out in the summer. I want that done, soon. It's $200 - but it's money well-spent. I believe it will pay for itself quickly as I rid myself of this sliding glass door doggie door that undoubtedly is letting out cold air and hot air in in the summer in huge amounts. The sliding glass door doggy door has worked well and served it's purpose - but it was only temporary. I needed it when I got it - like right away.

So, anyway, I just want to enjoy the last few waking hours of my birthday. Truly, every person should enjoy and celebrate the day of their birth when that day comes around each year. Your birth/my birth - it's a good thing. There's a reason for it, there's purpose to it. Today, all kinds of co-workers wished me a happy birthday - there's a lady in our company that sends out a mass email to everyone announcing everyone's birthday when it comes around. My mom called - we talked a long, long time. My son called, too. A little surprised my dad didn't call - he usually does. Then again, he just got out of that heart surgery and I don't wonder if he isn't still feeling a bit under the weather.

That's it for today - I'm done with writing and I'm going to watch a movie before I have to go to bed and bid my special day goodbye.
ben

Thursday

Taking my break at work.
I was greeted by Mary this morning who had, somehow, found out about my birthday today and wished me a happy one. She was busily cleaning away in the kitchen. I said thank you, fed the dogs and left. Kinda got in the habit of feeding the dogs in the morning instead of the evening as I was all the way up until a few weeks ago.

This morning, I got to a jobsite with a bunch of meter boxes - they're the boxes that go in the ground in front of your house that the water meter is contained in. There was only one man that showed up and he said in very broken English that there was no equipment to unload that truck.

So, I was busy lifting these rather heavy boxes off of the pallets on the truck and down to him. I was thinking about getting old - one of those things I guess you start to do when you are getting in your mid 40's - and what that would mean for me. I read other blogs of mid 40 somethings that are out for vengeance in ensuring that as they grow older, they don't stop moving. I have the same thoughts, which is why I'm glad, actually, that I have a job that forces me to exert myself physically. Frequently, that exertion is extreme because of the sheer weight of many of things our company sells.

But, I decided that I am going to frequent more my visits to my son's Christmas weight bench and curl bar, and also an attachment for squats and pulldowns. That setup right there is enough in itself to boost my muscles back up after taking - quite a long break - from working out with freeweights.

My dog walks give me a pretty good heart/lung workout otherwise known as cardiovascular - and though I could stand to step it up a little more, I'm really just giving time for the dogs to get in a little better cardiovascular shape themselves. Duke loves the walks, but he peters out pretty quickly. Large dogs have been known to have heart attacks and die when put under excessive physical exertion. I don't want Duke to lay down and die in the South Mountain preserve.

This isn't exactly a mid-life crisis. Actually, I don't think I've really gone through any of that. Too much stuff has happened to me in my 40's to have time to be getting depressed about getting old. It's not a crisis at all, really, I am just getting a view of what condition I want to be in when/if I reach my 50's and the method of how to get there. Freeweights are, in my opinion, one of the best workouts available. I am not a big fan of the machines with the cables. When you are lifting freeweights, you not only have to lift the weight, you also have to control the weight - in other words, you can't just wildly push against the bar however you please as you can with cables, you have to control the bar going up or - the bar is going to fall on you. I have always found it a much better workout.

I am, however, a fan of those stair step machines that basically are the equivalent of climbing up and down mountains. For your heart and air intake, it's an awesome workout. However, I just happen to have a set of mountains not 3 blocks from my house, the real thing is probably no better than the artificial thing, but the views are FAR more entertaining than just sitting there on the machine, unless, of course, there happens to be a member of the opposite - well let's not go there, lol.

That's it, really. I turned 45 today. I feel pretty good. Still walking and still breathing, that's a good thing. Thank you, Lord, for life and health.

ben

House Fire Of 2007

I had - well I wrote the day the house burned down from the hotel I was staying in. I had all of that stuff on my JS journal - it's all gone - whoosh, buh-bye.

It was a Sunday morning. At the time, Anthony was living with me as well as Michael and of course my son from Friday to Monday. Things - concerning Anthony - were much better than. He hadn't copped the huge attitude and wasn't doing drugs, though I figure he was probably smoking the dope.

Anyway, I had rented a Rug Doctor the day before and was trying to get the carpets finished in my old house before the time frame for having that machine elapsed and I had to take it back to Fry's. I was busy getting the living room done, when Anthony came strolling out. Now, I may not remember everything to exact detail as I had written it that day.

Reason being because that day is basically a blur in my memory. I remember the things that happened - but it was such a mind-blowing event and the hugeness of what was going on - never thought I would ever have to go through something like that.

Anthony said to me: "Ben, there's smoke in your bedroom". I couldn't possibly fathom why there would be smoke in there. I walked back there and opened the door. The smoke was so thick, you could barely see anything in the room. I did not see any fire at that point, but it was obvious something bad was going on and I wanted everyone out of the house immediately. Told Anthony to get out, and then started banging on the bathroom door loudly and impatiently, yelling at Michael - who was in the shower, to get out, and get out NOW!! He didn't understand what was going on, I just kept banging and yelling to get out of the shower immediately - the house is on fire, get out.

The word fire got Michael moving to the point he only put on a pair of pants, burst open the bathroom door and I was basically pushing him down the hallway. This was an old mobile home, and if know the structure and composite of those things, they burn FAST when they catch on fire. You don't have time to do anything, just get out of it and save your life. Once I knew all the humans were out, I started looking for dogs. I couldn't find Comet and I couldn't find the Rottweiler I had just acquired, but I did find Coco, grabbed all 3 leashes, put her on one and then ran out of the house. Don't remember who I handed Coco to, but - I ran back in the house to see what was going on in the bedroom. Oh, I forgot, as soon as I walked in the bedroom and saw smoke, I immediately called 911 and demanded the fire department to get here NOW!!

When I got back to the bedroom, I had plans of saving a few things - things handed down from my ancestors that could not be replaced. No such thing ever happened. As soon as I started walking into the bedroom, one of the walls literally burst open with flames. The instant heat from that intense fire that had been building inside of the walls pushed me back down the hallway. If only I had had a little more time, I could have got a garden hose in there and probably have snuffed the fire before it got to that point. Everything I have written that occured up to this point happened VERY quickly.

I wasn't going to die for an old house that needed to be razed, anyway, or even the thought of losing the things that were so valuable to me, I was fortunate that even in that state of mind, reason took over and told me that trying to save things - and getting burned or killed while doing it - simply wasn't worth it.

It was the middle of July, it was over 110 degrees that day. I did another sweep for the dogs, couldn't find either of the other 2, gave up on it cause the house was filling with smoke, and went outside.

I want to note something before going on with this story. On a normal Sunday, my son and Michael were sharing a bed and would have been sleeping in that bed at that time of day. That bed was RIGHT where the fire burst out of the walls. IF my son and Michael had been sleeping, as they ALWAYS were on Sundays at that time of day, and IF they hadn't woken up in the smoke or the heat in the walls - they would have either died or had been seriously burned. It just so happened that my son left early to go with his mother to church and Michael apparently had wakened when my son left and decided to take a shower. I personally don't believe it chance, I'm a Believer and I know that God had intervened in this situation.

I went outside - had forgotten my shoes and had only a pair of pants on myself - and watched my house burn down. The fire department showed up, it took them a while (probably not very long, in my mind an eternity) to get all their gear on, get the hoses hooked up to the hydrant get in there and start putting out that fire. JUST before they went in, the Rottweiler appeared out of nowhere and started trying to bust down the big window in the living room in an attempt to get out. He was heaving his entire 130 pounds against that window - but we got in there and let him out before he could hurt himself. The smoke inside of there was deadly at that point, not to mention the intense heat, even though it was the front of the house and the fire was raging at the rear of the house.

I was standing out there, in the direct sunlight, as well as Michael and Anthony, for hours. The dogs were burning up - the water from the hoses fighting the fire was enough for them to drink.

Things started happening quickly. Phoenix Fire has their own volunteer resource of people who come out in such situations, assess the situation and figure out what needs to be done to help you out. In this case, the gave me the number for the Red Cross and told me they would help. I had no place for the dogs - the Humane Society came and took all of them away. I gave up one of the dogs - the Rottie - as I found out that he is a one-dog only type of animal. He doesn't like other dogs and will attempt to kill them. My other 2 dogs - Coco and Comet - were put up for 7 days I think it is. That is the limit they will take them. But, it's free, it takes that burden off of you and you don't have to lose your dogs if you can find a place that to live in that will take them.

The Red Cross showed up with a force of people and assessed the situation themselves. Yup, a total loss. Everything, including every piece of clothing for me, Michael and Anthony. Caleb had a few things there, but not that much. Do you need a hotel? YES. They set up a hotel for a couple of nights if I recall correctly, and then they gave me a debit card with $500 on it to buy food and buy new clothing.

They took the immediate pressure off of me - I was broke and I didn't have any money for hotels and food. I don't remember everything, to be honest. Maybe a few readers that were reading when I went through it will. I know that my dad basically saved me - he sent me 10 grand which I used for a myriad of purposes, including have the house removed from the property. My company has a fund for people going through an emergency and I received 5k from them as well. I think I stayed at hotels for at least a couple of weeks or something like that before finding an apartment and moving into it - with both dogs. No, it wasn't that long, less than 2 weeks. I found a place that would accept my dogs and lived there for 6 plus months while I was having a new house put on the property.

My co-workers - like all of them - gave me everything from gift cards - very generous gift cards at that - furniture - all kinds of stuff. I received a huge outpouring from the church I had been going to. Basically I was given a new lease on life - I was working a full time job and maybe would have been able to find a place, yes, but to replace everything without all the help I received? No.

It was both one of the worst and best times of my life. Bad - lost things that can never be replaced. Good - the huge outpouring of help from people - many people I didn't even know - restored my faith in the giving nature of the human race.

The after-effect? I can smell smoke when no-one else around can. What's that smell? I smell smoke. Everyone around me looks at me strange. Still to this day.
The month or so after the fire I had horrid nightmares. I would wake up in the middle of the night, sweating, even screaming. I remember going to the bathroom one night, opening the door and seeing flames. There were no flames there, but my eyes saw flames. I kept seeing fire everywhere. Counsellors told me this was normal and would probably last a month or so, and then would dissipate. It lasted longer than a month, but it did eventually dissipate and the horrific nightmares went away. The visions of flames everywhere also subsided and life slowly got back to normal.

Wednesday/Cut To The Chaste

Indeed.
I fully expected it.
No, really I did.
Mary left a letter on my computer desk right here.
She apologizes - profusely - admitted things got out of hand because I had "hurt my feelings" as she puts it (for what, I have no clue but I'll assess it to suing her for eviction).
Now, what kinda got to me was the little thing she put on there about her mother dying this morning.
I was unsure whether she was telling the truth - master manipulators will do anything to try and get you on their side - but she came in with tears in her eyes just a few moments ago, started talking to me about it, then she got 2 phone calls and they definitely sounded like the response a person would be giving in such a situation.
She goes further in the letter to say that she understands if I don't want to rent to her anymore - but she would like to stay - and if I wanted to rent out both rooms to her, she would give me $600 per month. When she came in, she stated she had been giving $200 per month towards her mother's assisted living.

So, that's that.
What do I do with such a letter and personal interaction? Umm, well, I tend to think of the past and what has occured all the way up to this point and put it into context. The past with her in here has both been good and horrific. It's been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. I would say that the goods and the horrifics have been equally distributed in terms of time spent in either condition. What I'm not really liking is the way she addressed me in those emails and a few other things such as her dealings with Caleb - though she also profusely apologized to him and hasn't done anything since.

Anyway.

Tomorrow is my 45th birthday. I was going to take the day off for my birthday day, but there is too much work to do, and things are NOT looking good at our company. At least in the AZ division. I am NOT going to be the one who gets canned because I was adament about taking the exact day of my birthday off. Corporate gives the birthday holiday - but conditions it with scheduling it with your manager to do it when time permits. So, I asked for Friday off - but the other driver already asked to leave early. I then asked for Monday off - he said good - but we'll check Friday what's in the system. Cool. Maybe if that doesn't work I'll ask for next Friday - as I would rather do it in a 3 consecutive day off thing than anything else.

I was talking with the boss today and he showed me the numbers so far this month for each of the 5 stores we operate in AZ. It was quite alarming. One store hasn't sold ANYTHING. The store in Tucson - which "usually" would have had at least 100k in sales by now, has NOTHING as well. It's a large store with it's own salesman. Our store has done 45k - which isn't too bad considering the economy, the size of our store and the number of employees, and the main branch has only done 245k - which is QUITE low for that store. The first thing I'm thinking is more layoffs. Who will survive? The store in the west valley - I'm predicting it will be closed by year's end, probably a lot sooner. Look, I'm just hanging onto whatever hope I have here that I will survive any rounds of layoffs and will be able to continue to have a job with this company, because it's VERY slim pickins in the job pool market right now for any industry, even trucking. I'm very concerned, I'll put it that way. But - I also expected this. The gurus have been saying all along - at least some of them - that 2009 will be worse than 2008 and don't expect any turnarounds until sometime in 2010. I see 7,000 more layoffs announced on top of all the layoffs already announced this month nationwide - it's getty scary.

When a company like Caterpillar announces over 21,000 positions will be cut - what kind of panic does that send through it's force of employees? People will start assessing their position in the company and whether it's completely expendable - and then start losing sleep. I'll bet the sleeping pill companies are loving this stuff - I can just imagine that their sales are skyrocketing as I can only imagine doctors handing out thousands - hundreds of thousands - millions of presctiptions for the stuff.

How did I get started on that subject again? It's pressing on me, that's all I can say about it. It's "warm" today - in the mid 80's. Crazy. It's almost warm enough in here to turn on the AC for a couple of hours - but I will probably just go outside and water plants instead. It's getting close to 4:00pm, so it will start cooling back down in a couple of hours or less. I have plenty of watering to do out there on the east side of the house - the stuff in the plastic pots have to be watered daily in any kind of warmer temps - they just dry out and the plants - suffer.

My dad sent me a little birthday gift - nothing much and I have come to realize that the money he gave me last year and the year before - is pretty much gone. He had sold his house and gave me a chunk of change, but also donated a bunch of it to - I don't remember what he said, but either a church or a charitable organization. I'm happy to have received anything. I have that bonus coming on next paycheck and Ken is paying me $200 at the end of this week. For now, I am staying afloat.

Anyway, I have a lot on my mind and I'm going to go visit my little plant paradise and spend some quality time out there.

C'ya later.
ben

Tuesday/Court

UN - believable.
The cacophony of lies spewing from Mary's mouth in the courtroom - just incredible. Too many to list. The thing that made my jaw drop is that she had taken pics of the work she had done - and included ALL the work I had done on the east side of the house - a thing which she had nothing to do with - as part of HER work!

Because Mary and I bantered back and forth for quite a while through email, there was a lot for the judge to take in. As Fin so aptly noted a while back, I don't envy that judge. I started from the beginning when she moved in and went all the way through until today. Mary started her lies - threw in some truth here and there - but was obviously getting emotional - erratic and confused. SHE confused the judge several times. The way she speaks and tries to explain things is VERY confusing. The judge sat back at one point, looked at Mary and said "I'm confused. I was with you all the up until" the point that she started going on a safari excursion of lies and make-belief. We travelled through Africa and probably parts of China in this incredible, made-up story of hers.

At the end of it - and darn it went on a long time - the judge found for me. My court costs and partial rent. She had was trying to convince the judge that she owed me NOTHING for the month of January, I was adament that she owes me the full amount for that month. The problem is, back in - October I think - I wrote her an email that - was ill-advised. The email was intended to show Mary how far off she was on her figures, and then I said something like, let's say that this is all true - and that I DID give you $200 for 2 months in rent concessions. The judge took that literally and gave her the extra couple of hundred in concessions.

Live and learn, is what I can say about this situation. I actually wouldn't be opposed to having someone living here doing some amount of work for a specified amount of rent off. But - it would all have to be very detailed and spelled out to the extreme on the rental agreement. Again, the reason I didn't include it on the rental agreement with Mary is because she said on the day she came over here, after I told her I had deleted that Craigslist ad with the offering, that she didn't want it anyway. Otherwise, I would have clearly spelled out on that agreement the terms of the "work for reduced rent" and there would have been no questioning it.

She denied in court - in a very animated fashion I might add - that I had said that I would only go $100 off. I told her that even though she said she didn't want it.

Now? $200 judgment and the writ of restitution can be issued in 5 days. Another $103 bucks to do that. I figure I will be forced to do so, unfortunately. The judge offered to her to pay me in court, right then and there, and that would satisify the judgement - but she said she didn't have any money.

Now, she's eventually going to come back here, undoubtedly, and then what? I have NO clue. What kind of stuff might she start? Or will she ask to stay? Or does she even understand that she has to leave? I am starting to understand now that it's the way she sees things that convalutes her thinking. I don't know what to think about her. I'm afraid things might get ugly - but that's just me. She's been acting very nice in the last few weeks. I have video surveillance on 24 hours a day, recording. If she comes in here - I will be standing right in front of it. Must find my mini-cassette recorder in case - just in case - she starts something.

Ahhh, found it. It's a small electronic gadget that gives me much comfort - the audible recording of anyone saying whatever.

I could say that I am switching gears and moving on to something else for today, but I can't. Court was intense. I had to find a lot of documents in a short period of time. I was ready, but still. Mary started speaking very fast - she was extremely agitated. The experience wasn't bad just because of the judge. He had a difficult task in attempting to sort out all of this mess and I can say that I was happy with the result. It ain't as much as I wanted, but just to get any judgement - $200.00 - was enough, especially with the check in the box near the bottom of the document we both received at the end stating that a Writ of Restitution will be issued after 5 days. That state does that to allow the person time to get their stuff and get out. I do NOT want to have to deal with Mary's stuff.

Okay, I'll try to do some gear shifting. I was over at Benita's blog yesterday and she was asking about the house fire. I understand that there are numerous new readers here and I would like to document that day and all that happened as much as memory serves. The day was more like a streak of light - it all happened fast and things came into play very quickly to help us out. The city of Phoenix definitely has a good plan for this kind of emergency.

Anyway, I bid you all well and maybe c'ya later.
ben

Monday

I just got done going over the recording of yesterday's game. Couldn't resist - I wanted to see that 100 yard return on a pass interception. The guy that ran the ball down the field fell on the ground in the end zone totally winded. It was an incredible run. Anyway, football's over for a while now - bummer, lol. I haven't been able to get into basketball too much cause' the Suns have been tanking - their own coach was giving his team a scathing report on how the players are not playing as a team.

Whatever. I just got out all of this stuff for trial tomorrow out of my car. I haven't looked at a single page of it since last week, when we were at court. I don't really need to go over too much of it. There are certain sentences that she has written that I have already highlighted, I don't have to go looking through every since paper to find it now. I'm not saying it's an open and shut case, I'm just saying I'm prepared enough. So, I'll be trying to get off work about 4 hours early tomorrow. The boss said after I get my deliveries done, take a look and make sure there isn't anything else going on, and then he'll release me.

I also get a whole day off this week for my birthday. Cool that, a company that makes your birthday your very own, personal holiday. PLUS, I saw the general manager today at the main branch, who took me into his office and presented me with an awesome looking pen - a gift for 3 years of service to the company. As much as I would have loved to sit down and ask about money - now is definitely NOT the right time. In fact, I mean, who knows about this company's existence in the near future.

My co-worked stopped what he was doing today, looked at me and asked: "What are you going to do if this company ceases to exist?". Go out and start looking for another trucking job - unfortunately. The kind of job where you run your behind off all day long and spend your life in the cab of a semi-tractor. Not particularly appealing to me. I could retire from this company and be happy. I get decent raises every year, I get bonuses, a truckload of paid days off, great people to work with and at least newer equipment even if I don't particularly care for the manufacturer. If we survive this economic collapse and come out the other side going full-steam, then I will be asking for an audience with him about getting a couple more bucks per hour.

Maybe. Just depends on the situation, the atmosphere, alot of things I take into consideration when thinking about asking for more money. Plain fact of the matter is - at least in normal times - I could be making more money than I am right now. The flip-side of that is that those companies that I could be making more money at are going to have me working 12 hours days, minimum.

Whatever, neither here nor there. I was standing out in my dog-free zone thinking about how it would look with nice landscaping rock. I dunno, but I got my W-2 yesterday in the mail and will be filing that soon - I have some other documents to come up with first. I'm not doing it myself this year - I'm using part of my bonus to pay to make sure I get everything back that I can get - if anything.

I have come to the definitive conclusion that on the list of priorities, getting a premanent, in-the-wall/high energy efficient doggy door is high on that list. I'm losing too much cooling through the one I have now during the summer. They have those doors for sale that have 3 separate flaps and have a minimum of lost cooling. Not only that, but if I put it in the utility room, that room stays warm anyway. Why they built the house that way, I'll never know. I would have demanded a cooling vent in there if I would have known that before they built it. I suppose I could have one installed - all the ducting runs underneath the house and it would be a simple matter of cutting holes to get one in there - but I'm not going to do it.

I have ideas of how to save some cooling loss due to the western sun if I am not able to get an awning before summer hits, and unless some money miracle happens, definitely the awning will be put on hold for a long time, undoubtedly. Basically, the idea is what I didn't do last summer when I had thoughts of doing it. The kitchen sliding glass door lets in a LOT of heat during the summer. It's all double-paned glass, but the western sun is beating down right on it. The only defense I can think of without an awning to fight off the sun's boiling hot rays is to simply put up thick, foam insulation. It will look gawdy, terrible, ugly. It will undoubtedly save me a lot of money. It will have to be on the OUTSIDE of the glass to do the most good. Gawdier. I was thinking maybe I could get large foam sheets and cover it with fabric to make it look better. I've GOT to find ways to bring the cooling bill down.

Another issue was that woman that was living here. I asked her to NOT open up her ac ducting all the way. It was pumping huge volumes of cooled air into her room - for some reason the volume of air going into the room is disproportionately high to the size of the room. She had that thing opened full. It was cold in that room, which took away from the cooling capacity for the rest of the house. Ken is in that room now - I don't know how long he's staying, but if he's here in the summer, he has already agree to close it as far as possible while still keeping the room cool. If he doesn't, I will go under the house, pull off the ducting, install a limiter, and then put it back up.

Yup, it's an issue big on my mind right now. Summer's coming. Today reminded me of that - it was warm out there and it's only February. I've also decided to put an extra amount of money on the card for the reader every time I go to reload it. I'd like to have a couple hundred banked on there before the beginning of June get here. That's not even a month's worth of electricity for that month, but at least I would be getting a head start.

Umm, what else? I can't remember. I dunno, but 24 is coming on in a little while, and I do want to take a refresher view of the paperwork for court tomorrow. Mary - has changed her whole demeanor towards me again. Sweet and lovable as ever, even was being nice to Ken. Okay - I want to here from those that see right through it and tell me all about the kind of person that plays those kinds of manipulative games, lol. Oh - 24 - I love that show! Really, I watched the first whole season, most of the second and I think this is the - 3rd or 4th? I think I missed a season, but - I'm back into it. I remember after the first season was over, the did a 24 hour marathon and showed every single show back to back to back. I watched all but maybe 5 hours of it - for sleeping.

Okay - enough. Gotta get to work here.
C'ya tomorrow.
Have a great evening!
ben

THE STEELERS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!/V-Log

OH MY GOSH, WHAT A GAME!!!! THE STEELERS WON!!!!! THERE WERE NO BLOWOUTS HERE, THIS WAS A NAILBITER TO THE END!!!! THE STEELERS WON!!!! THE STEELERS WON!!!!!!
(back to the normally scheduled program)

Sunday/Superbowl Sunday!!

Superbowl Sunday!!!!........and this is still the day that the LORD hath made!!!!
Well, had to throw that in there - He's a bittle more important than a football game, just keeping my priorities straight.

Decided to get some stuff done early today. The judge wants pics of all the work she's done - she's supposed to provide them. I just went to Walgreens, stuck the memory card from my camera into their machine and picked out the photos I want to show the judge, including photos that show the door she installed being a TOTALLY different design than the rest of the interior doors in the house. I also got some other shots in case she tries something - I don't know what she could possibly do, but I'm preparing myself regardless.

Well, one thing she is trying to get away with is the deal with stuccoing the walls. She's claiming it's worth $300 and that I didn't give her anything but $30 for the materials. She seems to have conveniently forgotten the truth. It was one of her boyfriends that did the work, and the payment was to be beer. I provided him as much beer as he wanted and he was actually around here for a couple of weeks. He did a great job on the stuff he did, no doubting that, but Mary's version of things and the truth are usually miles apart.

Anyway, I got most of my watering projects done yesterday excepting a few more plants with deep watering - being done now. I got the bushwhacker running - my co-worker gave it to me - and did the weeds. My trailer-trash neighbor lets weeds grow all over his property, they find their way into my yard and then I have to deal with it. The weeds don't really start growing until it rains, but when it does rain, dang there's a lot of weeds out there. Some of them starting growing RIGHT next some of my plant stems, apparently attempting to suck the life of the plants themselves. Nilched that ill-gotten plan.

Today's list is nothing grand - laundry, a little more cleaning and still some more weeds to go out there. I do like working out in the yard, I don't like having to deal with someone else's junk. All those people have to do is get out there and cut them things down and that's it.

Anyway, I got a rather surprising email from my dad this morning: he's home. That was the title of his email. Home from where? Another heart surgery. He forgot to tell me - they put some kind of balloon thing in there. The docs have proclaimed his heart healthy at this point, and if he is still feeling poorly after this, they are saying the cause will have to be something else, because they have inspected his heart. Well that's good news, anyway.

Not sure what the problem is with the old Buick. I got it running yesterday but it's having a hard time starting. When it does start, it purrrrrrrs like a kitten - sort of. It runs great is all I'm saying. The harmonic balancer still needs to be replaced. I am not doing anything with it right now, so the balancer can wait. I just want to keep it running, fire it up here and there and make sure it's moving parts get oiled up in the engine. The best way to fry an engine is to simply let it set for a long, long time, and don't do anything with it. After it's been setting for a long time, go ahead and try to fire it up. Not guaranteed, but definitely a good possibility that some of the rings will break and then you have a problem.

Well, that's it for now, I want to get outside and do some more weeding. I also want to go to the city of Phoenix site and file another complaint about that neighbor - he will only weed that yard if he's forced to by the city.

Have a great Sunday - should be a good Superbow - Go Steelers!

ben

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