Arizona, Heat, Summer And Death

All of them go together here. Every year, people come here without a clue as to how to survive living in the AZ sun and heat, have heat strokes and die. Every year, kids are left unattended by swimming pools or find their way into the back yard, fall into the pool and drown. The massacre has begun.
A 2 year old was left in the back of a car after a family coming home in 2 separate vehicles from church on Sunday. One thought the other had the baby. Dad went out to go to the store, put the car in reverse and yes, saw his 2 year old baby slumped over in the back seat. Dead. Man is going to be charged with - I think they said involuntary homicide.

Today, the owner of a large chain of movie theatres in these parts left his dog in his car, outside of course, while he went in to watch a movie. Okay, the dog didn't die. He left the windows open and allegedly came out several times to make sure the dog was okay. But, somebody flagged down police and he was cited anyway. Sometime sooner or later, somebody is going to see either a child left in a car at supermarket, bar or casino and somebody's going to see a dog left in a car at same said places and they are going to bust a window out of the car to save the child or dog's life.

It happens EVERY single year. A car can get up to 140 degrees inside with windows closed. I have only left my dogs in the car unattended a couple of times. In those cases, the car was left running, the emergeny brake was applied (heavily in case a dog accidently hit the shift lever) and the AC was cranking away. I was always within 50 feet of the car. Sounds crazy, well, the other folks around me at the time were commenting on the large dogs, not on me leaving them in the car unattended.

I won't do that now that my car's AC is not working. I won't even take them with me anywhere right now because they are large dogs and they get hot quickly. They are not left outside during the day now, either. I put them out in the morning before anyone gets up, but after that I call here and ask that they be let in. IF by some chance they were not to be let in, I have shade and a LOT of cool water for them to drink. They will survive - uncomfortably - and it's not against the law. Still, I do not like leaving giant dogs out in this heat.

The point is that this is all common sense, and the further point is that these people that engage in such must not have very much common sense. The family that just lost the 2 year old? An unimaginable price they are now paying for that man's forgetfulness, I don't wonder if that is sentence enough - he will never forget it, it will haunt him, he is probably having thoughts of suicide, he is in a hell that none of us can understand and none of us ever want to experience. The fires that are licking at his feet and coursing through his very being are more than any prison sentence will ever be able to attain in terms of punishment given.

Don't get me wrong from above statement: I am not saying the man is going to hell, rather, the man is already IN hell, an earthly version of it. These people LOVED that baby, this is apparent from the news stories. I don't wonder when the man gets to court if a jury wouldn't find against any prison time. He is already sentenced to a life of regret, hate towards himself, misery, grief - a list of adjectives combined together to make this man's life a walking hell, that's all there is to it.

But, how can you forget your own baby in the back seat of your car? To me, this unfathomable. It happened last year here, but - after hospital care and stay, the baby survived and is healthy. It happens EVERY year here, that's my point: where do these people come from? Still, instead of punishing him with prison time, the judge could make him serve thousands of hours of community time with the theme of going around talking to groups about the "importance" of making sure all of your kids are accounted for.

Well, whatever. I grieve in my own small way with this family. The throes of anguish right now in that family and extended family members is unimaginable.

The dog, however, survived. Is the dog as important as a human life? NO WAY. In fact, I thought about that baby's last - 30 minutes, hour. Can you imagine sitting in what is the same as an oven, roasting to death? No, I can't - I can't imagine the suffering that baby went through. But, is a dog's life important? Well, I love dogs, I can easily answer that: yes, to me, a dog's life is important, if nothing else, to the owners of that dog. It just doesn't equate to the life of a human being. You can easily get over the death of a dog compared to human death. There IS no easy way to get over the death of a loved one - human loved one - and especially in a circumstance such as this.

Moving on. Heat related. I had returned from doing a delivery early this afternoon and decided to go ahead and continue work on sweeping the asphalt. It was hot at the time - 105. When you are standing on asphalt, the sun bakes you from above. The asphalt is absorbing the heat and radiating it back up. After some 45 minutes of this, I started feeling funny. I had plenty of water, yes, but I was in the full sunlight.

I got out of the sunlight - got a lot done but I wasn't about to cook myself for the sake of keeping busy and having something to do. It became evident that I am still not quite acclimated to the heat yet. I CAN take that kind of abuse - but it takes a while.

Moving on. 6 of the 10 koi are dead. Since I have living goldfish in that pond that are in excellent condition, I am going to contact the seller and tell him these fish have died, please replace them. I had aquariums for years and years as a kid, I am accustomed to the care of fish. No, the trip those Koi had from NC to here, the water getting hot, that is what killed them. I do expect the man to replace them - if not - live and learn. I am not even sure any of the rest of them are still alive, only that their bodies aren't floating on the top of the water.

That's it for this one.

ben

Monday

There are times when Monday comes rolling around - Monday morning that is - and I absolutely do not feel like getting out of bed, much less going to work. Today is definitely one of those mornings. I dunno if it is just because I have been doing it for decades, but something automatic within turns on and forces me to go through the motions without thinking about it. In my situation, not going to work is not an option. Calling in sick when you're not sick? I don't think I've ever done that once in my entire life. Not about to start now.

News: North Korea is going to bolster nuke capacity. Just what, exactly, are they going to do with nuclear weapons? Bomb South Korea? Won't that destroy the environment on both sides of the "border" between them? Just curious. They spout off rhetoric to anyone that will listen, which apparently is enough for the news to report about it.

Funny that the BP oil disaster is falling off the main headlines - yet, the last time I heard anything, there is still a LOT of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Oh, it's still there, it just isn't main headlines anyomre for some reason. The virtual destruction of pristine shorelines is guaranteed at this point. How do you clean that junk out of the sand? Perhaps they can - but - they will be doing it for a long, long time. No, this is a catastrophe at best.

Our Governor Brewer definitely made a gaffe this time in her statements that most illegals coming over here are drug runners. Gonnnnnnnnng!!! Remember the Gong Show? I used to love that show! They're coming over here to find jobs, earn money and either send it back to families in Mexico or bring them all up here and live. I was reading a story yesterday - it was the story of a family of illegals that decided to move to Pennsylvania after this new immigration bill was past.

Amazing that the story tried to invoke sentiment for people that don't belong here. I read the entire story, some reporter had followed their plight from the beginning where they were throwing all their belongings away excepting what they could carry with them in their vehicle - to the trip to the ending in Pennsylvania. It was a "heartbreaking" type of story - I felt nothing. I didn't feel sorry for them, their words didn't evoke any anguish in my soul. If they don't want to feel like they are always on the run or that they may get caught at any time, all the time, I have 2 words for them: GO HOME.

These people continue to stay in the states and apparently feel they have some sort of right to stay here. It's truly amazing not only how these illegals think, but also the bleeding hearts that want to just allow all 11 million of them complete, free amnesty. Just let them have citizenship, notwithstanding the fact that there are a LOT of people from all over the world that would love to move to our country - legally - and are trying to do just that.

Whatever. When this week is over, I have a full week off. I haven't done that in ages. I am looking forward to getting up late. Doing nothing. Or doing something, who cares, it's staycation. I think I'll spend the week getting the house really clean - dun't want a dirty house for vacation, not that it is dirty now, but I want it sparkling and smelling nice just. Yes, that's the ticket, mind now filling with "wonderful" cleaning projects that I can start doing after work every day. Lol.

Work day is here, g'day.
ben

Sunday

Stepped outside and started to cook. More like melt. Decided to no stick around out there too long and came back inside. Curiosity - I had to go back out and see if any more of the little Koi had died. I couldn't find any bodies, I saw about 4 of them moving around. The lone Koi I have in the other pond? Well, I can't just leave him in there alone so I'm going to try and catch one of the others and put one in there with him. I also had to run down to the store and get some stuff that helps with stress - those Koi were flown in 2 days ago from North Carolina.

The man said the water was hot when he got them and that over 100 of them were dead. Transported home and into his tank, then transported to my house and into my pond. Yeah, I'd say that calls for a bit of shock treatment, I should have thought of that yesterday, perhaps I wouldn't have lost the one Koi. I'm already preferring Koi over Goldfish because of the longevity of Koi - up to 75 years. Goldfish, this guy claims, good for about 6 or 7 years and they're dead.

Hugely long interval. I mean, half the day and a trip with my manager to a person's house who is selling everything. He does not trust people and was apparently fearful of going alone - it was a Craigslist deal - with CL, who knows what's going to happen.

And now? I am going to bed early, I am tired and just want to go to sleep.

G'nite.

ben

Saturday

A person in Carefree is giving away his Koi and Goldfish today. I wish I had the desire to drive 40 miles one way to get them, free is always good.
No biggies, I just wanted to add some Koi with the goldfish I have in there already.

I haven't eaten since sometime yesterday afternoon, about 17 hours ago. No way do I want to get off track the weight that keeps falling off of me, I tend to kick it into high gear by not eating for a while and then eating very small portions. It has been working so far, see if it does any good by the time the weekend is over. I will not be able to weigh myself again until work Monday morning.

Female tenant left for 2 weeks. She is watching her mother's house while they are away on vacation. Gotta love the people that rent out a room in your house, then tell you they're going to be gone for 2 weeks and then hint at not paying rent since they won't be there. Not the first time, probably not the last. I refuse them every time. The room is rented whether you are staying here or not, that isn't my problem. I'm sorry you're having finanial difficulties, tell me about it, I have plenty and consistent, on-time payments are the only thing that are going to do anything for me right now.

Great sales on food at various supermarkets right now. This is when I wish I had a freezer, I would fill the thing up with cheap - but good - chicken breast and other goodies that are on huge sale. I will buy some, of course, but not that much.

There isn't much more I can do right now to save additional money on electricity. Only if everyone leaves - then I can turn the thermostat up 4 or 5 degrees. I do have a standing, posted rule at this point that no laundry is to be done between the hours of 10:00 pm and 6:00 pm to help keep the indoor heating down.

Well, the first month of hell heat is almost over - and from the records, June is the highest use of electricity, it tapers down a bit in July and August. Still, 2 more months of excessive energy use - this is going to be a struggle to make it through this unless, by some miracle, my company decides to give us our hours back. From the looks of it, that is one of those things you might all a pipe dream.

For the news, although it is going to be hell for many people, I am in full agreement with this money train running out and not extending unemployment benefits. Is anyone in the Federal government even the slightest bit afraid of the consequences of unbridled, runaway spending? Obviously not - excepting those Republicans that stood up against the unemployment free for all. Look, I have great sympathy for those people, but you're talking people that have been on unemployment for a long, long time now. Sooner or later, the gravy train has to end. I hope I don't ever have to face such, even gave some consideration to that before even writing this - I have contingency plans if it ever happened. Very unpleasant contingency plants, yes, but I do have a nuclear fallout plan that includes living in my own back yard and renting every room in the house.

Preposterous, maybe. If you have no money, you can't stay anywhere. You live on the streets. Well, I would rather live in my back yard than on the streets. Renting all 5 rooms would pay the mortgage, electricity and water. I don't know about anything else - keeping on internet and satellite might be a difficult road to ho.

However, in the industry I am in, junk, cheap jobs are available if nothing else. OTR is always there as well. Yup, life would suck, but it would be better than the alternatives. I can't imagine driving a big rig for $10 per hour, but there are those that are doing it.

Enough of that - though I expect the desperate people posting on Craigslist here, locally, to multiply exponentially. As for me, I am still considering paying off one of the 401k loans and getting another one. I owe around $800 on one and $1,200 on another. I have enough money in my 401k account that I could turn around and take out around $2,500 or so. You can only take out a percentage of what you have and that percentage drops every time you get a loan. Minus the $800 to pay it off to get another one, that's $1,700 left over. I have absolutely nothing for an emergency - which really, I'm in the middle of one right now. Financially, that is. I will be doing a new budget - again - haven't done one since the beginning of this year - and see what I need to do to stay afloat. Food is always a thing that can be "adjusted". Mac and cheese; cheap tuna fish; peanut butter that's on sale. Ramen noodles and hot dogs. Most of that junk is high sodium, fat calories and pure garbage, not so good for your health, but it is food. I am not saying I am there yet, I am going to do a realistic budget as soon as I'm done with this entry.

Temp tenants are headed to Walmart to cash a check and give me money. They are outta here today or tomorrow morning, apparently they found an apartment. It's $75 I didn't have, they have only been here 4 or 5 days and they haven't been here that much. Straight to electricity is where that money plus the money the female tenant gave me last weekend will go. I hate living like this, but, I know that I am most certainly not in this boat alone.

And, I'm very glad not to be an occupant of another boat: unemployed and benefits running out this month. That would TRULY suck is all I can say about that. I truly feel for those people. I wish I had some extra funds that I could start up the feeding thing again, it's going to happen - people that at one time were bringing in 5 and 6 figures will be so desperate they will literally beg on Craigslist for food help. I can't currently justify spending the money it takes to have a large group of people over eating, I can't afford it right now.

Anyway, the bug is in, I must get to scribbling out my budget, what I am getting and what I need to do to float.

G'day.

ben

Weekend

Seeds.
I have been wanting to get some Australian Bottle Tree seeds for a while now. Well, actually I rather wanted a sapling, but - I just can't spend money right now. I am dumping money into electricity like a incinerator burning trash, it just disappears. It totally sucks, but right now, there is nothing I can do about it. If there are no tenants around, I turn the AC to a higher temp - like 5 degrees higher. I'll bring a fan out and aim it at my if I get warm, I don't really care that much. Take a cold shower. Whatever. But, there is pretty much always tenants around here. The ex Marine lost his job (due to his own lifestyle) and has no plans to work. Umm, lost the thought here - I bought some Australian Bottle Tree seeds on eBay for $4.99 today with free shipping. That came out of the refund from the bio-filter that eBay decided in my favor for the dispute I opened through eBay with the seller. Cheap and I am totally into this kind of thing. Plant some seeds and hope they grow!

He gave me this news several days ago with a grimmace on his face. I hope he doesn't think he's going to - get away with not paying the rent like he did last time this happened because I will tell him that it is unacceptable. He gets money from the military at the beginning of every month, he is leaving at the end of next month, there is no good reason that I can see to give leniency. A freebie month is out of the question. He didn't SAY that, I just got that feeling. A BAD feeling at that. Wait and see.

Hard day for dieting. Resistance is futile, what came to mind, anyway, but - I didn't give in, at least to the donuts. I absolutely LOVE cream filled donuts. The Bavarian cream stuff, not that white junk that tastes like your pouring sugar down your throat.

I was at the main branch - fully 3 dozen donuts including several of the cream filled style sitting there for whosoever. I envision myself drooling. I haven't had one in a long, long time. I had to make several trips into the area where those donuts were - I resisted.

Before that, I had eaten a Subway ham sandwich - no cheese, no heavy dressings. I wasn't hungry, but - I had plenty of room for one of those donuts. I got out of there. Later on, I was back at my branch. MORE donuts. Inventory today, several people there, they brought all kinds of goodies. It was pure heck to resist eating one of those things. They were buying lunch, did I want any? Yes, I could only say. I had a low fat/calorie fare but - I thought at the time and still thinking now - this is the extent of my eating for today. I can't eat anything else and still think I had a good day.

So, 3 more hours of awakedness. I cannot get my mind off of food. I look at the gains that I have made and THAT is what is keeping me on track. I will NOT eat again today. I last ate at 1:00 pm - but I have HAD my calorie limit for the day, I can't afford to eat anymore. BTW, it's almost 7:00pm and it is also past my 6:00 pm limit for eating. Yes, I have several restrictions on my eating - not TOO many but the restrictions I have simply cannot be crossed. Eye on the prize: get lean again. 6 or 8 pack belly. Obesity related medical problems - negated. I am not obese, I have no intentions on letting myself get anywhere near that. I was close, I guess, at 212 pounds - a full 30 pounds over my life-long adult weight before I started gaining. I hit that weight on the scale and reality set in: either do something NOW or turn into - something you don't want to look like, be or have to deal with.

I came home today and saw a large river rock propped up next to the trailer outside my house. Entertaining, lol. It has professionally scribed numbers on it: my street address plus "1/4" next to it. They're saying another 2 months before they leave. They also told me the other day that "I saved them". They were headed for the streets and literally had nowhere to go when I bought that trailer for them to live in. I'm glad things are turning around for them. I bid them well. No hard feelings them leaving, I would do the same thing in their situation. Yes, I am considering helping someone else that would want the thing.

The situation is not going to be given to the first taker. I don't want a lazy-ass person wanting to mooch. It was months before I got these current folks this trailer. I had 25 conversations with them plus a coupl days of him working over here before they EVER got the nod to move onto the property. Work ethic is mandatory. Whether they are working or not, not the point, they must have that attitude and lifestyle. There are still VERY few jobs to be had in this area - one of the worst hit in the nation.

Ponds. I have 4 large goldfish. One of them is much larger than the rest. When it comes feeding time, he/she is a bully. They all go FAR away from this character while he's going crazy going all over the place looking for the food. He is, in fact, a total pig. I have compensated for it - I put food at both ends of the pond when feeding them. He cannot be at both places at the same time. It's fun to watch, regardless. Pond was cool enough to not have to worry about floating, fried fish when getting home from work.

Heat. I am slowly getting re-accustomed to extreme heat. It was 113 today. I both worked in it and sat out in it when I got home from work. I have to "reorganize" my mind. Heat is a good thing, I tell myself. Driving home in a hell-hot car, I imagined how nice it was. I was lightly sweating and the air moving over my flesh from the open windows kept me cool. I thought that and believed it, that's all I needed. Tunes turned up, drown out any negativity in the thought realm. Enjoy the ride, who cares how hot it is. It's ALL in the mind, really. Car AC may not even get fixed this summer - my finances are that bad - might as well get used to it. I'm not complaining or whining - just writing in my diary. It is what it is. The house is cool, the electricity is on, the water is on, there is food in the refrigerator, for that, I am grateful.

A week away from my 1 week vacation. Mom said her property is available if I wanted to get out of Phoenix. If she's up there, I will take a day trip to visit her. Maybe stay overnight. Not necessarily desirable as I no longer have tents. Yes, I would rather tent out than stay in a small trailer with mother. Nothing against mother, but - it would just be more "comfortable" that way.

It's Friday evening and I'm done with this entry.

ben

Friday

Friday! Not only is it Friday, it is also our company's bi-annual inventory. Meaning everything is counted, all of it. I am exempt. All drivers in our company - for whatever reason - are exempt as well.

"Singapore sentenced a Swiss man to three strokes of a cane and five months in prison on Friday for spray-painting graffiti on a subway car."

I wonder what would happen to the crime rate in America in general if we did such things here? Remember the teenaged kid that was over there and got hit with the cane for vandalism?

Interesting stuff. The Obama administration, however and which is plastered all over the news every single day, is not interesting stuff to me. Maddening at times, yes, interesting, definitely not. How much damage to the economy, deficit and national debt will this guy inflict before he finally leaves office?

The weekend: dunno. I got off work yesterday, drove home in a hot car and I felt sick. I still haven't adjusted to the heat yet. It was, allegedly, 114 degrees yesterday. I was working in it most of the day. I did nothing outside yesterday after I got home excepting to water plants that needed watering. Some of my tomatoes are starting to turn red. Dunno when to pick them. Maybe leave them on the vine until they are ripe, not sure. I just don't want bugs getting into them and such.

I have plenty to do outside, that's a fact, just don't know if I will gain muster to actually do any of it, especially the D word - digging out that hole.

Some dude sent me an email through Craigslist yesterday saying he has an 8x11 pond kit for sale for $800. R U serious? This guy is out of his mind. I must have left an ad up because I haven't run any lately, that just came out of the blue. What I found amusing is that you can get the same, exact thing on eBay for less than $200. Lol. I mean, it's the EXACT same thing - it's pic and manufacturer on eBay are identical to the pic the guy sent me. Funny the scams people attempt to put on others. I neither have $800 OR $200 to spend on such, so it was a moot point to me anyway.

Well, work day approaches. Haven't looked in truck routing system, dunno what, if anything is in there but I'm about to find out.

Have a great day!

ben

A Mexican, an Arab,and an Arizona girl are in the same bar.

When the Mexican finishes his beer, he throws his glass in the air, pulls out his pistol, and shoots the glass to pieces.

He says, 'In Mexico , our glasses are so cheap we don't need to drink with the same one twice.'

The Arab, obviously impressed by this, drinks non-alcohol beer (cuz he's a Muslim!), throws it into the air, pulls out his AK-47, and shoots the glass to pieces.

He says, 'In the Arab World, we have so much sand to make glasses that we don't need to drink with the same one twice either.'

The Arizona girl, cool as a cucumber, picks up her beer, downs it in one gulp, throws the glass into the air, whips out her 45, and shoots the Mexican and the Arab. Catching her glass, setting it on the bar, and calling for a refill, she says, 'In Arizona , we have so many illegal aliens that we don't have to drink with the same ones twice.'

God Bless Arizona!!

Thursday

Grinning and bearing it.  The heat, that is.  I'm in it on and off all day long.  Yesterday after getting home, I went outside to water stuff - like walking from the inside of a refrigerator into a blast furnace.  I caught myself again leaving the water on - this time 20 minutes past the necessary time instead of 10 hours. 

Anyway, newest temp tenants are interesting individuals.  To say the least.  Young, too. Like late teens or early 20's, didn't ask, don't really care that much.  The trailer tenants gave an approximately 2 month move-out date.  So, no bother to run an ad, I did once to see what kind of response I would get - quite a lot actually for a junky old trailer (and it was described exactly as it is, which is why a surprising response).  Well, it's not total trash, not at this point, but there still isn't any carpet in there.  I have passed by a few ads in Craigslist to get some for free - just didn't feel like and all of those people's stuff is in there, it would be a major ordeal to get all of their belongings out of there and to put carpet in it.  Might as well wait until they move out.

I am not even sure I am floating in the financial sense right now.  Sorta of a below water and come up for air type of deal.  Not a pretty place to be in , really.  I still have not heard from the army reservist - which will, definitely, start eating at me because I need the income from that room.  Sure, these temporary people are going to hand me some money on Saturday (allegedly, anyway) but I need a long-term person in there, especially facing the fact that the ex-Marine is moving out at the end of next month. 

The electric bill is what's totally killing my finances right now. I can't just not have electricity and I ain't turning off the AC, though it isn't exactly winter in there it IS cool enough.  I figure eventually I am going to get a Mastercool evap cooler and think about using that when it will cool the place enough to do so. 

Anyway, I got started late today - meaning I'm ending this early : )

G'day.

ben

So, Mexico is going to sue Arizona, aye?


Good, let the lawsuits being. First, let’s sue Mexico for not stopping the flows of illegals coming from their borders over into ours. The suit will be for the money it is costing us to deal with it – if ever so ineffectively as it currently stands. It’s just a ridiculous notion that another country is suing a neighboring country for that neighboring country’s, state’s, laws. They have absolutely ZERO iota business sticking their nose into our own internal affairs and I hope whatever documentation that are attempting to pass through the courts is simply thrown out.

However, in today's news, a real concern to me is Iran's plan to send a "blockade busting ship" to the Gaza strip.  Does Iran believe Israel is simply going to roll over and play dead when that ship attempts to go through there?  Is this going to be the official end to the word war and beginning of a real war between Israel and Iran?   There is NO way Israel can let that ship go through there, period.  It would give Iran all that much more the belief that they can simply roll over Israel.  It's guaranteed that if Iran really does send a ship through there, the entire world is going to be watching.  I imagine U.S. ships being not too terribly afar off, either.  Far enough to not be involved in the engagement, close enough to - be ready for whatever.  No, this is troubling news at best. 
 
Diet.  I'm stuck around 195 pounds.  This has happened 2 or 3 times now on this diet - get to a plateau and then figure out how to bust through it. Usually a few days of starvation are involved.  Today I will try eating half a sub sandwich instead of the full sized thing and probably having a light, chicken based meal late this afternoon.  The goal will be to shed another 7 pounds and get my body back into the 180 range.  If I do that, I will throw myself a little party.  Lol.  189 - that's the next goal, get it to 189.  I definitely have the motivation.  Plus, it's hot and I lose my appetite when I'm outside working.
 
"Good Samaritan".  That's what the ad said on Craigslist.  2 people came into town, one of them is going to sign up with the Navy, they need a place until Saturday when they are getting their own apartment and will be able to pay whoever for the days they spent at their house.  I bit.  Why not? If they pay, great, I got 5 or 6 more days worth of room rental out of it, if they don't, then I lose a bit of water and electric use.  Gruesome as it sounds, I like to give a sidebar to these temporary people: there are guns in the house, if you intend on being the next Craigslist killer, intend on dying while attempting it.  I say it sort of jokingly, but I do say something to that effect.  The ex-Marine has a gun that will do the Dirty Harry "blow your head clean off" style.  I have a much smaller gun - but - a gun is a gun.  The only problem with these people is the fact that they showed up so late.  I was ready to go to bed, and actually did.  Had to show them the whole rigarmoroo and get full names and ID and all that junk.. .....yes, I want ID in case they do something I have at least something to give to police besides video surveillance footage. 
 
My weeklong vacation is starting to appear on the horizon.  The end of work next Friday will be the beginning of it, the end of it will be returning to work 10 days later.  I have no plans, it's definitely a staycation considering my financial situation - doesn't bother me.  I haven't taken serious time off in several years now.  A couple here, 3 there, yes, but a good, week's worth of no work?  I need it.  I mean, I might take Caleb and some friends to Big Surf - both Caleb and I love that place.  Ride the waves all day long on rafts and crash over top of people, it's great fun.  The only bad part is at the end of the day and your skin is all chafed and bruised because of the collisions.  I do wear a t-shirt, though, to keep from getting sunburned.  Of course, Caleb should be starting his new job anytime now, I have no idea what his schedule is going to be.
 
Well, the work day approaches and I have plenty to do today including a trip to Casa Grande  - haven't been there in a while.
 
G'day.
 
ben

Tuesday

Driving to work this morning.  Pass through an intersection.  Gas station coming up on right.  Pickup truck is driving down the center lane.  Pickup truck starts heading towards the gas station - on his left, my right.  I now have a pickup truck in my lane, coming directly at me.  This freak apparently thought he could somehow "beat" me.  Instead, I am slamming on my brakes and making evasive manuevers.  This pickup starts fishtailing and sliding all over the place.  I had no idea which way to go - to the left or right of him.  Experts say always head right, but he was going right and left.  I opted for the center lane - he guns it into the gas station, we BARELY miss each other. 

What a way to start a day.  News and my take.  The Times Square Bomber - the idiot that was going to blow up Times Square admitted his guilt "100 times over" and declares that we are going to be attacked - America that is - if we don't leave muslim nations alone.  The man is a traitor and should be treated as such.  I am quite serious when I say he should either be shot or hanged to death.  Anyone that can stand that brazenly in a court room and speak about our nation that way while at the same time having had attempted to end who knows how many lives through a bomb - yes, I believe that person to be a traitor, let him come to a traitor's death.

Fremont, Nebraska votes to make it illegal to rent to illegals or hiring them.  Of course, the ACLU has piped up, vowing to sue.  Okay, I expect that. But what happens if 100 communities do the same thing?  Does the ACLU have the resources to go suing 100 different communities?  Meanwhile, there are actual travel advisories in the southern portion of our state - Arizona - warning people that it is dangerous to be anywhere in that vicinity and you are probably going to save your life if you leave and leave now (my version of it).  Why are we fighting in Afghanistan, someone please explain this to me?  I know the original idea was to go in and find Osama bin Laden, but a war?  We have a war starting on our border.  The violence is escalating.  Now a local police force has been threatened by Mexican drug cartels.  That's AMERICAN police, not Mexican.  I ask the question again: WHAT is it going to take for this worthless Obama administration to get off their asses, make some decisions and get some HELP down here?

Call me a racist, I could care less.  This has nothing to do with bigotry or racism.  It is now, more and more, having to do with VIOLENCE enacted by these people WHO DON'T BELONG HERE. 

My diet is working.  I continue to say that because it is true.  It is sometimes VERY hard to keep driving by Wendy's, Burger King, McDonald's, Jack In The Box - all of them - and keep on driving on by.  When I'm hungry, well I used to stop wherever and try to find something that didn't have too much fat calories and junk in it.  Well, at all of those places listed above, none of them have anything actually good for you.  Even their salads are heaped with fat calories in the meat they put into it.  Heck, sometimes I just WANT a good ole' burger. Can't do it, not now anyway.  I now simply starve myself until I either find a Subway or I am going home from work for the day.  To date, Subway is the only place I know of where I can have the sandwich built to my specs.  I have been opting for oven roasted chicken for  a sandwich or tuna for the salad.  The tuna does home some calories in it, I'm not going to say it doesn't.  They are using mayo in the mix for it.

However, even with that, I have found that it is not negatively effecting my diet.  I just don't put any dressings on it and I don't have any cheese.  Yes, I am still on the no-cheese kick.  It was the single-most important thing that I eliminated from my diet that started to cause the turn-around in weight loss to occur.  I was looking at calorie content of mustard yesterday - zero calories.  If you can't have a thing you like on your sandwich, try something different, so I've been having them put mustard on it.  It's good, nothing great, but good.  That and red wine vinegar.

At home, I have discovered the virtues of using balsamic vinegar.  That stuff is really good on a lot of cooking ventures!!  I bought the cheap stuff, when I'm through with the current bottle I'm going to buy the good stuff. 
And, of course, I am giong to continue to search out tasty recipes - trying to get away from beef a bit more than I have.  Red meat - heart - not the greatest combo apparently.  I love chicken anyway.

Work day approaches.  Appalling - to me anyway - and on a final note - that the IRS is "considering" taxing money given to those that are being financially harmed by the BP oil spill. 

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

G'day.
ben

Cafe World Tip 19: Cafe Slow - Updated: Windows Registry

G'day to all the chefs.
This is going to be a much shorter entry about Cafe World - and the 3rd (at least) posting I have made about the Cafe running very slowly. 
First off, a recap on my other tips to speed up your computer and what might help:
1.  Defrag
2. Clear the Cache (frequently)
3. CHKDSK (check the disk)
4.  Reboot.
None of that worked today.  My cafe was running SO slowly, it was almost torturous.  I have competition in having a lot of neighbors and I want to keep ahead of all of them, having my cafe running so freakin' slow that I really can't play the game.
So, I tried restoring the registry to an earlier point a few days ago.  It worked magnificently - but didn't last.  Today, I did it again.  After doing all the rest of that stuff listed above, this was like a miracle.  My cafe was running at normal (awesome) speeds again!!
The following is how to do the operation - this is for Windows only, copied and pasted right off of Microsoft Support site (very easy to do, not time consuming, yes the computer will reboot, but definitely worth the effort if you are having problems and have tried everything else):
_____________________________________________________
Manual steps to restore the registry in Windows XP


Use System Restore to undo registry changes in in Windows XP

Click Start, click Run, type %SystemRoot%\System32\Restore\Rstrui.exe, and then click OK.

On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Restore my computer to an earlier time (if it is not already selected), and then click Next .

On the Select a Restore Point page, click the system checkpoint. In the On this list select the restore point area, click an entry that is named "Guided Help (Registry Backup)," and then click Next. If a System Restore message appears that lists configuration changes that System Restore will make, click OK.

On the Confirm Restore Point Selection page, click Next. System Restore restores the previous Windows XP configuration and then restarts the computer.

Log on to the computer. When the System Restore confirmation page appears, click OK..
_____________________________________________________

The question, of course, is - WHAT date to restore it to?  I went to the furthest date back that was available - and will do that everytime now.  Yes, I will restore the thing as often as I need to, it only takes a few minutes and makes the game SO much funner to play!
I have also considered reinstalling Windows and then creating a restore point right there, at the installation date.  This would renew registry to pristine conditions.  For now, I am not going to do that - the results of restoring the registry have been so freakin' wonderful, I don't need to do that. 

I have seen all over the internet sites that want you to pay them for their software to clean up the registry for you - why bother?  Just do it yourself, restore!!

Monday

It was a strange (or more like: miraculous)  thing to wake up this morning and find absolutely NO kids in the house whatsoever.  The female tenant had her bedroom door open.  Dunno about you, but I find that to be very odd behavior at best.  Another female tenant used to leave her bedroom door open as well - and that turned into a very BAD situation.  The only thing I can say is that if a person complains about noise while leaving their bedroom door open, perhaps it's time to go find a new place to live. 

Whatever.  Tenant issues - as long as I have tenants, there will be issues.  The ex-Marine is leaving (stated anyway) at the end of next month.  Still no word on whether the Army reservist is coming back or not (however, she continues to have her mail sent to my house, I assume she is coming considering she also has a tax refund check sitting there waiting for her).  If she does not show, I'm returning all of that mail - a rather large stack of it - to sender. 

Regardless of tenants, the kid situation started to get way out of line.  School's out, apparently my house was going to be the local kid hangout.  Although that doesn't bother me, the noise levels DID.  I went out once last night and informed them if the noise levels did not die down considerably, all electronics would be shut off and they would all be leaving, my son would be going to his bedroom, thanks for playing, have a great day.

THAT shut them up.  They know that not only will I do it, I will LEAVE it that way for several days. 

Whatever. I slept very well last night - first time in quite a while - meaning I'm even more tired this morning.  That should pass as the day moves on and I get to working, which starts in just a few minutes. 

Oh, I did smoke a cigar and eat my wonderful steak with mushrooms, pearl onions and tomatoes slathered in balsamic vinegar with spices thrown in. I did marinate the steak in a mixture of the vinegar with beer and other things to soften it up a little.  Absolutely delicious if I do say so myself, and yes, I do say so, lol.

G'day.

ben

Sunday

Let's see here, concerning KCL - a place I rarely visit - I never said I was NEVER going back, I just stopped posting there.  I replied to a "bible thumping" whatever post on Blackbird's blog about gays and this and that - if gays want to be gay, how am I going to stop them?  Throw a bunch of religious words at them and hope that kind of attack is going to do anything?  The hate and vitriol coming from 1 particular person was palpable.  Another person piped up - a person that comes regularly to this blog for what reason I have no idea since he's involved in that grouping of people that, apparently despise me.  Is he looking for tidbits to pump into the message system at KCL and tell everyone that I am trashing KCL again?  This is the kind of words that come to mind from illogical, irrational people that are acting like 2 years throwing a temper tantrum on a grocery store floor. 

Let me just say to KCL - since I know you people come by here - again for what reason I have no idea - that I will NOT stop visiting the site whenever I want to until, of course, you lock me out.  Then I will have no access to it - and really couldn't care less. I go for weeks at a time without shadowing the cyber doorstep of my blog on that site or anyone else's.  There are still a few people there that I like, which is why I was there in the first place.  When I saw the Bible Thumper post, I imagined that reading it would be good for entertainment purposes if nothing else - Bible and God haters are usually good for some entertaining reading - though, I suppose, you would have to have a different kind of sense of humor to see the humor in it.

I have been exposed to Chrisitian, Jesus, God and Bible haters for almost 3 decades now since becoming a Christian, there isn't anything anyone can say that I haven't already heard in terms of the hatred for God, the despising of those that love Him and the mockery that is generally prevalent with people that either don't believe in His existence or don't care (at least NOW they don't care, I'm sure that perspective will change, either in this lifetime or the next) one way or the other.  I've been in many situations in my missionary adventures where my life was threatened and there was no way out excepting divine intervention, a thing that I have seen many, many times over.  You see, whatever you believe, that's your business I suppose and all well and fine for you.  When you come to me and tell me God doesn't exist, or that he hates us, or whatever, I can only stand back and recite a passage of Scripture that has been evident in my life, over and over:  I can only speak of the things that I have heard and seen. 

That is concerning the things that God has done that I saw - or heard - mostly saw - that could not be explained away by some "magical force" or scientific theorem.  I can no more prove to you that He exists anymore than you can prove to me that He does not exist.  I can tell you my stories, but skepticism is a powerful, inner deterrent.  Only the Lord can break through a person that doubts or refutes His existence, I have nothing but to pray for such people. 

So, regardless of what anyone KCL thinks of me, I have no such ill feelings back towards them, including EF.  I am a very forgiving person, which obviously doesn't go both ways in this particular situation.  I'm okay with that, I am washed clean of holding grudges or hatred, she is not.  Carrying around that kind of baggage against a person - or perhaps a lot of people - will only drag you down and eventually, you are going to have to deal with it.  Bitterness is like cancer - it eats away at you slowly, little by little, it gets into the very core of your being.  To not deal with it - well - the results are pretty obvious. 

One of the keys to the Christian walk is forgiveness - if you don't forgive others their "trespasses and sins", neither will your Father in Heaven forgive you yours.  That portion of scripture enters my mind anytime I feel like I might be harboring something against someone.  Again, I won't be stopping my visits - here and there - to KCL anytime soon unless, as I already said, I am blocked from the site, which I have already invited them to do if they are so inclined. 

As for today, I am feeling much better and probably will delve into some sort of cleaning project around the house.  I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to go outside and do anything today - but I'm sure a trip out there to access the situation currently at hand will be made.  And anyway, the fish need to be fed.  I feed them twice a day.  It's not like I feel forced to go sit by my ponds and take in the sounds.  I have a couple of lilly blooms coming up, nice looking flowers.  My water hyacinth is slowly dying, I have asked a lot of people what I can do to save them, no-one had a good answer.  Many people said that it dies in their ponds too, others said it thrives in theirs.  I have looked on the net and saw something about nutrients and such.  I also found out they are not legal to bring into the State of Arizona.  Apparently, when they get into a waterway, they grow and grow and grow.  They are a floating plant with a very thick, long and dense root system.  When enough of them congretate in one place, they apparently disrupt the flow of water and choke out anything living in the water.  There are pictures in other countries of that stuff literally taking over entire waterways for miles and miles worth.

So, they are almost dead and since I found out that info - not being legal here - I don't really care if they die out anyway.  There are plenty of other water plants to take their place.  In fact, I have enough lillies and other plants in there that the "loss" of such is not going to make a difference anyway.  The point of having the Hyacinth is that those roots allegedly keep your water clear and clean.  No worries, the UV sterilizer is working it's magic on that pond that was solid green water and now I can see to the bottom again.  There is a film of algae down there, I don't know if it will get rid of that or not, but, I don't really care that much.  It's the water I wanted clear.  I don't think the fish do so well in putrid green water. 

Father's Day today.  I am going to make that dinner I was talking in my blog about yesterday - early afternoon I'm thinking.  I doubt I will go anywhere.  The end of the month is drawing nigh and I am quite curious about this Army reservist - is she coming back or not?  I have absolutely no idea.  I am going to run an ad - after I get done with this entry actually - to see if I can rent that room out for a couple more days or however long until she "gets back". 

In fact, I want to go do that right now.

G'day.  Happy Father's Day to those that are dads around the world!

ben

Saturday

I am feeling a bit better today, but not enough to actually want to do anything of any great energy output.
I did go out and start cutting back this ground crawling plant - whatever it is - that was growing over the top of other plants.  It will snuff out the life of other plants if you don't keep it in check, it simply keeps growing away from the center of the plant without limits, apparently. 

The Mobile Mexican Dinnermobile - what I call it anyway, happened to be coming by while I was out there. This is a person pushing a cart on wheels with all kinds of different Mexican delicacies on it - well,l just plain stuff that you would find anywhere in Mexico.  Yes, I've been to Mexico - hundreds of times actually, all over the nation, I am not speaking out of guessing or ignorance. 

Well, they have this stuff called elote.  Spanish for corn on the cob, basically.  They slather some kind of sauce on it, cover it with paremsan cheese and cover that with chili powder.  Oh, I have developed a taste for both the American version AND the real Mexican version of Mexican food over the last 3 decades.  Well, aging myself, getting closer to 4 decades now.  REAL Mexican food as served by those living in shacks, huts and what-not over there is very plain yet very delicious. 

Whatever.  I couldn't resist.  My appetite is almost non-existent - being sick and the heat are appetite killers.  I bought 2 of them anyway.  It was $3 for 2 very large ears of corn.  Normally, I could scarf 2 of them down and think nothing of it. I was struggling after the first one - attempting to save it in the refrig wouldn't work too well, so I downed the other as well.  Stuffed off of 2 ears of corn.  Interesting.  My diet is also to blame.  I am not eating much.  I am sick of being overweight, even if it isn't that far overweight.  I hate it and I don't want to be at this point, I am going to the OB in getting my weight down into the 180's range. 

I have serious doubts I will eat anything else today, which is also interesting, because I bought all the ingredients to make an "interesting" dish that I haven't tried. Nothing far out, pretty basic, really, but it looked good.  Take chunks of beef (whatever you can get - I got the manager's special, almost half price since the meat will expire in 2 days), cut them into small pieces; pearl onions; cherry tomatoes and portabello mushrooms.

Pearl onions are frozen - and cheap.  Mushrooms? I caught by a fluke several packages that were also manager specials.  I rarely catch mushrooms at that steep of a discount (so I don't buy them very often).  Marinate everything in balsamic vinegar.  This recipe calls to have some sort of basket that goes over a BBQ grill - wish I had one, the basket that is, cause' I definitely have the grill and yes, it has propane in it.  Well, it will work over the stove and it will taste good, so whatever. 

You put the steak; onions and mushrooms in the basket and fry - well I"m frying cause' I ain't got no basket (although I don't wonder if the $1 store might have something that would work).  After it's about half done or so, you put the tomatoes in.  Well, probably more like 3/4's done - tomatoes don't take long to "cook" - heat them and they soften nicely.  Toss and serve with whatever else you like.  In my case - probably just plain ole' french fries, and that for the boys.  I haven't checked the fat, sodium or caloric content of french fries lately - I did a while back and I don't remember the stats.  If it's not too bad, then I'll eat a small portion as well.

However, it won't happen until tomorrow.  I'm stuff off of ear corn!!  It will be too late to eat again when I get hungry again. And it dawned on me as I was sitting outside, in whatever hell heat it was, sitting next to my ponds, that tomorrow is father's day!!  Hey, dudes, I'm going to treat myself to that stuff tomorrow, not today!!  I am also going to go buy a cigar and smoke one of them suckers as well.  Total Wine actually has a HUGE walk-in humidor in it, and their cigar prices are WAY better than anything I've found anywhere else.  I have cut back cigar smoking substantially - it's been a couple of months since my last stogie.  But, I think, a nice cigar on dad's day is cool.

Anyway, the pic of the recipe mentioned above look totally scrumptious, it couldn't possibly be BAD, I like ALL of those ingredients so what's the problem?  None.  None. 

The green pond? Is turning clear.  The UV sterilizer is working magnificently.  It is working WELL beyond my expectations.  I had NO expectation that it would clear the green out of it as much as it has.  I'm very satisfied with my purchase on eBay of such.  The water in the big pond is COOL, still, as well. It is subjected to direct sunlight 2/3rd's of daylight hours, that is a pretty good deal to have cool water in 107 degree heat - where the direct sunlight is shining make it MUCH warmer.  The direct sunlight also creates massive algae conditions, again, the algae is being checked by the sterilizer.

Look, these things are exactly the reason I went for small, preformed ponds before getting into a much larger pond.  200 gallons versus 2,000.  Learn about the first - get some experience, find out the pros and cons, learn how to deal with problems on a small scale and then, only then after much research, THEN think about moving up to a much larger setup.  I do not have the money for a larger setup now.  Even if I did, I would have still started small at first to try and figure this stuff out.  When I get to the point where I have a very good grasp of what's going on, I will be writing up my complete version of ponds and ponding. 

The detailed information I have scoured for all over the net is not there.  I have read site after site about pond information.  None of it is complete.  Bits and pieces.  You get tired of looking and you just do whatever and try stuff out until you find something that works.  I will do the same as I am doing with Cafe World on here.  In fact, I am definitely going to put up a post about my success with a UV sterilizer here today or in the next few days.   I'm a newbie to the world of ponding, who cares. 

So, it's a nice indoor Saturday.  I was outside for about an hour.  I can't STAND being indoors even if sick.  If MORBIDLY sick, that means I am in bed and in such bad conditiion that getting out of bed is a sickening event in itself.  Obviously, I am not that bad.  I sat by the pond for the most part, I love listening to the sounds of the water gushing over the rocks and out of the waterfall and I just like to look and stare.  The fish are fun to watch as well.  They are very active - which is always a relieving sign for me, means they are healthy enough that they are moving all over the place versus sitting still and ---- dying. 

BTW, today's sitting next to the pond was a "learning" experience in itself.  I was thinking about how it is so nice to have the thing sitting above ground so that I could sit in a chair and see up close without straining - which made me think that an "upper" pond in my eventual pond setup will be sitting around half out of the water.  I am not sold on the construction of it yet, but brick looks nice.  That pond could feed into a bog, into another stream, into the large pond.  I have a lot of time to ponder how I would like to build the thing - there is no money for such and just paying bills right now is enough.  I'm very happy, in reality, to have what I currently have and will be content with it. 

Of course, my outing today was followed by dogs.  3 of them at first, 2 of them for the long run.  Coco - the Catahoula/Dane mix will follow me anywhere and everywhere, she doesn't CARE how hot it is out there. Prince, the black Dane, will mostly do the same.  So, I have the blankets I acquired 2 years ago for my plants during any freeze that might harm them.  I lay a couple of them over the landscaping rock so they can lay next to me.  Yes, in some ways, you could say I spoil them, but really, what animal is going to want to lay on sharp, hard rocks?  Not many, not any that I can think of.  The fish are apparently becoming less fearful of me - they come right up and wait for the food.  Fortunately, a $6 can of food has lasted as long as I have had them and there is still enough in there to last a couple of weeks anyway. 

That's it for this one.

ben

Cafe World Tips - 18: Zynga Is FINALLY Stopping The Cheating!!!

Hiya fellow chefs!  Some time ago, I started reporting cheaters on Cafe World.  These are people that are using bots and programs to hack into the game and "modify" it to allow them to do all kinds of things to increase gold coins, cafe points and food without having to DO anything.

My biggest complaint were some of my neighbors that are using Cheat Engine 5.5 to hack into the Cafe World program and create a setup where your dishes automatically prepare and cook themselves.  Known as a Cafe Clicker, the program is the ultimate in gaining HUGE Cafe points in a very short period of time. Of course it can do that, it's a computer software system, far more effective than any human can ever even think of playing the game.

I removed several neighbors that were using this cheat.  One of them went from level 44 to level 173 in about 2 months.  Just go ahead and try to do that on that game without cheating, GOOD LUCK.  I started searching the net for answers to how this guy could possibly be gaining that many points without cheating and ran into the Cheat Engine program.  I filled out a complaint form 4 separate times to Zynga - this cheating was making the game not much fun.  I don't like to cheat to beat other players, why should these people be allowed to engage in such?

Well, here's Zynga's statement concerning this - they FINALLY are effectively addressing the problem:

Cafe World Unfair Play Deterrent!




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Hiya chefs,



In an effort to clean up some issues affecting the performance of our game servers we detected several programs or sources trying to access the application to change the normal game play experience. These programs, modifiers, bots, cheats, hacks, etc. are a violation to Zynga’s Terms of Service, see Usage Rules, and have been affecting all users ability to connect to our servers.



We have implemented code to detect users enhancing their game experience by using programs of this type. Once an account has been detected it will be disabled until the end user contacts our Customer Support team. Accounts disabled may be reset to “normal” game play conditions and be noted for potential suspension if other violations occur.



Our intention is to keep our game world clean of modifiers and enhancement programs as well as optimize the performance for all of our café owners. If you experience any trouble with your Café World account and need assistance please contact our Customer Support team.



Our desire is that everyone that plays Café World have an enjoyable experience and we thank you for your continued support.



The Café World Team
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __  _ __ _ _ __ _ _

Okay, well I just stumbled upon that, however, I then looked at the date on that statement.  It was made January 6th of this year.  That was 6 months ago!!  So what's the answer here?  People are still cheating, obviously.  I can confidently say that because all of these cheaters I have removed as neighbors were ALL AFTER that statement was made by Cafe World/Zynga.  Either their detection software isn't working too welll - or more likely - there are TOO many people cheating for them to keep up with it. 

I simply advise you that if you see a neighbor cheating, turn them in!!  Complain loudly and often to Zynga.  The guy that went up to level 173?  His account has been removed from Cafe World entirely.  The others?  I haven't checked on them recently - they are still Facebook neighbors so I can still look at their cafe points and see what is going on with them. 

Look, any of us can engage in cheating.  It's easy.  It's the easy way to win, right?  What's the point?  It only serves to make the people that are haivng some fun playing the game to make them/me mad.  I hate cheating.  How can you tell if a neighbor is heating?  One obvious sign is that they were way behind you and all of the sudden in a week's time they have not only caught up to you, but passed you waving bye-bye in terms of Cafe points.  Go to their restaurant.  Do you see hamburgers cookings, but no hamburgers on their counters?  Good sign there.  One guy had NO dishes on his counters, yet he was racking up huge Cafe points every day! How do you cook massive amounts of food but have no food on the counters?  By cheating, of course!

That guy had all of his stoves set up to cheat, not everyone does that, so they will still have food on their counters.  They might set up 4 or 5 or however many stoves to do the cheat and still play the game normally on the rest of their stoves.  One woman was doing that - a former neighbor I should say - I just took her off of my neighbors but occasionally look to see how far ahead she is.  I reported her, so perhaps today I will go see if all that nonsense has stopped. 

Anyway, to all the honest chefs out there, happy cooking!

Friday

Yes, folks, it's Friday, that magical day of the work week where you know in a few hours, it's all done, you're going home (or wherever you may like to go after Friday work) and you get 2 days off.  The miracle of the weekend. 

Meanwhile, the eBay seller that attempted to give me the shaft continues to have negative feedbacks pouring in.  No surprise there. Some poor soul bought 2, separate items from this seller who found that both items were not as described OR pictured in the seller's auction.  Surprising that, either.  That's what he attempted to get away with with me.  He's a freaking scammer and I hope eBay continues to monitor that guy's activities and eventually put him out of business.  Anyway, the person that bought the items got their money refunded, yes, but that person had to pay to send the stuff back!! BS!!! 

Plans for the weekend:  Not sure yet. I have these ponds to deal with, I just haven't had any motivation to do much of anything outside in the last almost week now.  It's the heat.  I will adjust eventually and then head back out there, but right now, it's not very appealing.  It may be a clean the windows and sills and get on hands and knees and clean floor crevices and such weekend instead. 

I was happy to see that Greene was kept as the nominee for the democratic party in SC.  Not because I think anything of Greene - I wouldn't vote for the man in a pall's stonebearer's step, but, the people voted and that's what they came up with.  You can't just come along and say, "Weeeeeellllll, I don't like the guy and he has no chance of winning, so let's oust him and get someone else in here".  I guess they can, but it can be challenged in the state's Supreme court - I have doubts that a panel of those judges are going to look favorably on an institution that "didn't get it's way, so they're going to make sure they force their way upon the situation".  But who knows.  The man apparently can't speak his mind very well, doesn't want to speak to reporters and basically keeps to himself.  It's a very strange situation if you ask me. 

Well, the work day approaches.  There is nothing in there to do.  There WAS going to be something, but it has been put off until Wednesday.  Which means I will probably be out back pushing a broom again - there are a lot of rocks all over the asphalt and it really doesn't look very good.  I got a lot of it the other day, maybe I'll finish that little project this morning.

Anyway, have a great day!
ben

eBay: I Won, Seller Lost!

Okay, so this morning, eBay asks me through the dispute forum after the seller FINALLY replied (and totally lied) if I want to escalate this.  Meaning, eBay decides for us what's going to happen.  Again, I wrote out, quite thoroughly, my "case" against this seller.  It was all provable - easily - eBay had only to verify the facts which are already there for them to see.

I get back on my eBay account about 3 hours later and they had already resolved the dispute and closed the case!!  They deposited the entire amount for the bio-filter back into my paypal account and didn't even ask me to send the filter back to the seller!!  This seller now has 32 negatives and I think it was 30 neutrals from buyers - for the last 30 days.  That's BAD stuff, right there, I don't care if he's selling thousands of items per month, a seller should never have that many negatives in that short of a period of time. 

I have myself partially to blame for this situation, even if it ended well.  I looked at his feedback rating - it was 98. something and figured that was good enough.  I didn't pay attention to the numbers of negatives or what they had to say.  I could just have easily used another seller selling the same exact thing for only a couple bucks more.  I haven't used eBay in quite a long time - but the buyer protection program that they are doing now is totally awesome, you are covered for a purchase if you don't receive if or if it's wrong - but - you must make sure that whatever you're buying has that buyer protection logo and statement on the item before entering a bid or buying it now. 

Well, whatever, I am now $48.95 richer because of this situation and the outcome of the case, yes, that makes me happy!  I can ask for Paypal to send me a check and use it for bills around here. 

Onto other things.  Temporary tenant is gone.  He told me last night something of his situation and why he was staying here.  Seems he was driven out of his own house that was being occupied by friends that are also tenants.  The story wasn't quite detailed enough to understand how that happened, but he was a good guy here, I had no problems with him whatsoever.  That money gone, I will try to re-rent the room for another week or so before the - military reservist allegedly returns.  That woman drives me nuts, she doesn't communicate at all.  I have NO idea whether she's actually returning or not.

Diet:
I weighed myself this morning.  I know, you aren't supposed to weigh yourself every day, but I did anyway.  Down to 195.  I ate a subway chicken breast sandwich today - no mayo, no cheese,just the chicken, veggies, a thin line of mustard and some vinegar.  Weighed myself again, it was about 4 hours later.  My weight had risen 3 pounds.  How?  Well, the sandwich, of course, but also because I drink a lot of water during the day.  That subway sandwich definitely weighed nowhere NEAR 3 pounds.  It's very encouraging to see the weight loss continue, but I will try to stay away from the scale for the next several days and focus fully on keeping my caloric intake down.  WELL down, thank you.  That was the jist of my eating today.  I will maybe have some steamed veggies with a small portion of fish later on, around 5:30-ish.

I'm done.  Totally tired and going to go take nap.

ben

Thursday

eBay seller - who sent me something other than what the sale was for - finally reponded.  After what, almost 3 weeks?  He TOTALLY lies - saying that "we have no communication with this buyer".  Well, eBay can and will retrieve all FIVE messages I sent this idiot through eBay's system.  What a total ass this person is. I am going to write on the feedback for him a link to my ebay description of me and put the whole story on there.  But, not until eBay makes a decision.  If I end up stuck with the filter, at least it's a brand name one, it just isn't what the ad said it was, which is a bio filter WITH a UV light, not a bio filter WITHOUT a UV light. 

I escalated the thing to let eBay decide what to do.  What will they do? I have no idea, they give themselves 72 hours to come up with a solution.  I asked they cancel the guy's account, he has almost 30 negatives in the last month, that's a staggering amount of negatives for one, single seller.  Hey, you take a risk buying on eBay, I have never thought or said you don't.  I probably would not, however, ever buy a big ticket item through it, too much risk of losing your money. 

I received the UV sterilizer yesterday.  The review I had read says the connectors are cheap plastic - and they are.  However, I found out I don't NEED those connectors/reducers.  My hose is big enough to fit over the outlet on the sterilizer itself, eliminating the need for reducers.  This seller also sent me the wrong sterilizer, I paid for a 9 watt version, he sent me an 18 watt version.  Yes, I got a better product, but I am going to alert this seller what they did.  I have no money right now to spend on anything but the bare essentials.  There will BE no more money spent on ponds and such at this point.  What I have I am going to have to make work, period. 

Meanwhile, an 80 MILE stretch of area along the border on the U.S. side has been closed due to an "uptick in violence".  80 miles of border that apparently aren't being patrolled at all.  This is pure insanity.  4 years of this president will not pass quickly enough, hopefully there is no permanent or undoable damage in the interim. 

Well, I spent my pre-work time going over this eBay thing, so, didn't have much time to write here.  No biggies.

C'yall later.
ben

How To Get Rid Of White Flies

My Lantanna's are FULL of those freaking things.  I spray water on them and hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of the things come up into my face and fill the air.  I figured the next time the exterminator comes out, I'm going to have him spray those plants to get rid of them.

Well, he - the exterminator dude - just called.  I asked him about white flies.  He said his spray won't do anything to them........but......(I'm waiting for something about high dollars to get rid of them to come up, but then again, knowing this guy, maybe not, wasn't really sure) Dawn dishwashing liquid will. 

Fancy that.  I product you can buy for $2 at the grocery store.  Mix it with water, spray the plants.  I doesn't hurt the plants. 

Now, hear me out here. This guy could have just said: "Yes, we can deal with that, we have a special chemical that we can add to the mix.  Of course, it is expensive stuff and will cost you an extra $30 for the treatment".  He could have TOTALLY taken advantage of me, as I have never heard that Dawn dishwashing liquid gets rid of white flies. 

Instead, he tells me he will have his guy add the stuff to the mixture when he comes out next week - for no extra charge!  In 2 ways, he has totally "wowed" me as a customer: gave away an industry secret and is charging me nothing extra to use it in his next application!  THIS company and this guy that is running is a true example of excellent, quality, unbelievably GOOD customer service.  It has been that way since I started using his services.  He has ALWAYS given me great pricing on regular treatments and any special treatments that go above and beyond.  Were that every company that I deal with - Walmart comest to mind - would do the same. 

Oh, how does Dawn kill them?  It doesn't have any special "poison" in it, he tells me.  Instead, when it dries, it encapsulates them.  They suffocate and die!! 

Hey, if you happen to have this problem, you can simply put a solution of Dawn into a spray can or even a spray bottle with water and do it yourself.  Since my exterminator is doing it for no extra charge, I'm not going to bother.

Lesson Learned: I Won't Be Forgetting............

.......to shut off the irrigation drip system ever again.  I did it several times last month - sometimes up to 10 hours, just totally forgetting I had turned it on.  My water bill was almost $100 higher than normal.  I KNEW it was going to affect my bill, I didn't know it was going to be that much.  Perhaps there is merit to installing an automatic controller after all.
Regardless, I will be setting a timer whenever I turn it on and that will remind me, if I forget (which I get the feeling I won't be having much of a problem with now that it's biting my wallet) to turn it off. 

I stepped on the scale today at both branches of my work - same reading: 196 pounds.  I haven't seen it this low in a long time now.  Not that that's "low" by skinny standards, but I am definitely making progress, albeit ever-so-loving-slowly.  I don't care how slow the progress is, as long as there is progress.  If I ever break into the 180's range, that will set something off in my brain to simply finish this thing off and get it over with.  I'm trying not to get overly excited about today's readings - in my quest to lost weight, I have noticed that it will go up and down around a particular weight before it finally goes down to a lower "setting".  I'm not taking drugs, eating fancy diet foods or doing much of anything different except watching what I eat.  Even then, if I eat something "bad", I just don't eat much of it.  A bagel today?  Probably not the greatest thing for a diet, but it was the only thing I ate until I got off of work.  I then had a chicken sandwich - small sandwich and it had no mayonaisse or cheese on it (good thing). 

Mostly, and again, I have been finding that just cutting out the cheese in my diet has ramped this thing up quite a lot.  Non-fat dressings also are the only thing I am using, not reduced or half -fat - I want NO fat and LOW calories.  My Subway salads are now done without any cheese or sauces.  Just red wine vinegar.  There are times when I just have to have some cheese on something - I infrquently indulge.  I ate a LOT of cheese up until the point not long ago that I realized that that stuff is loaded with fat calories.  LOTS of them.  It was tough to stop eating that stuff, but I have managed to mostly stay away from it.  I have not had any mayonaisse on anything and I have not digressed into using ranch fat filled dressings like I used to. 

As I say, the only way to effectively diet if you just want to cut back on calories and change nothing else is to be anal about it.  Inspect every nutrition label.  If you have something without one, look it up online.  I get plenty of exercise at work, btw, and also my yard doings, so - I figured if I could just get the eating part down right, walaah. And, walaah it is.

As for now?  My UV Sterilizer came in the mail today and I already have it hooked up.  Thought I'd go outside, in the shade over by the ponds and sit there with a cold drink and listen to the sounds of the water and watch the fishies eating.

Later.
ben