Life

I couldn't decide whether to get up on that roof and start on one of those issues up there or start hauling rock and deal with that stuff out front - so - so far anyway - I've done neither.  I don't necessarily expect an extremely busy week at work, have Thursday off for Thanksgiving, but next weekend I may have to work in helping move from one building to another.  Someone has to drive that semi truck and I would be at least somewhat offended if it were another hourly worker.  If it's a salaried worker - as they are attempting to use for all of it - different story, but I don't know of any salaried workers in our local conundrum of people that have a CDL A license.

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Ahhhh, working in the rocks out front isn't hardly work at all.  It's so incredibly beautiful outside, yes, I went out there and finished an area I had been working on and then figured on another area where I would like to put more of the landscaping rock.  Well, I didn't get started on that part of it, but at least I got something done out there today.

Getting on the roof of the trailer and using a scraper and a machine to get junk off the roof?  That will be work, but even that will have it's rewards.

One of the next door neighbor's dogs was barking.  Dogs bark, right?  This one will start barking and will go on for hours, non-stop.  I had half a mind to go out there and start up my old routine with them - I haven't don't that in quite a while.  That dog is now tied up over on the other side of their house but that barking is still pretty annoying.  I did nothing.  Eventually, they must have done something as the dog stopped.  The dog?  Bored.  Lonely. Etc.  What is the point of having dogs if you are going to show them absolutely no attention at all?  Security, I guess, but there is absolutely nothing on that property of any interest to any thief within a 1,000 miles.

BTW, what do you do with neighbors that won't change their ways? Ways that are - out of control.  Living in filth and squalor.  Piling up junk on their properties and continually bringing in even more junk.  Having animals to the point it would probably qualify as animal hoarding.

I figured it out.  Well, I didn't actually figure anything out, I just came up with my own answer: pray for them. Many people will scoff at that idea and laugh.  That's okay.  I'm not here to please anyone.  I don't really care if anyone agrees with my ways of doing things or not, to be honest.  Some do, some don't.  The point is to seek the Lord on this issue and see what He might do.

Changing the subject completely.  I am exposed to some pretty wicked stuff in traffic on a daily basis while driving the semi.  I was sitting at a red light the other day in the truck, waiting to make a left hand turn.  It's an unbelievably long light for the side street I am on getting out onto the major road that turns into a 55 mph highway to the left of the light and a 45 mph surface street to the right of it.  To the left of this light is Indian reservation and in that area, nothing but farm fields.  To the right of it is the city of Chandler and spreads into a 6 lane surface street.

I'm a pretty observant driver, but I don't always catch everything.  When I don't, something else kicks in.  Whatever it is, it tells me to do something, usually to stop.  The light turns green for me.  A tractor-trailer rig has pulled up and stopped on the street I am turning on, right there in the "slow" lane going towards Chandler.  I am making a left turn going the opposite direction.  2 cars come flying through the intersection after the light had turned red for them.  I then begin to move out in front of this truck.  I was about to go in front of the other lane when that something said stop.  It's not a calm, cool collected thing, there is something in my mind that shouts stop the vehicle, now.  I stopped.

I just shook my head in wonder as a woman came flying by the stopped semi truck at at least 60 mph not even slowing down for the light that had been red for that direction for at least several seconds at that point.  It was a no-brainer that if I had continued, there would have been a horrific accident, that lady would be dead, probably and I have no idea what would have become of me. That SUV would have slammed into the full fuel tank sitting right there, underneath to the side of me, and into my driver's side door.

I wonder what is so important that people have to be in such a huge hurry that they risk their own and other people's lives to get ahead in traffic.  I wonder what is so important about a text message that a driver feels compelled to respond to it to the point that they are paying no attention to the traffic in front of them while they are moving down the road.  I wonder about drivers that are so engrossed in their cell phone calls, they make erratic and "drunken" type of moves on the roadway, completely cutting people off to the point that you wonder how contact between 2 vehicles wasn't made.

I don't wonder why I get stressed out in heavy and rush hour traffic.  It's a constant dealing with people cutting you off.  Diving their cars into the cushion zone you have in front of you so if the vehicle in front of you does something abrupt, you have time to react and deal with it.  Note that I did not say that it's a place for cars to cut in and cut off the truck. But people obviously don't see that as such.  It's a truck going too slow, taking too much time and look at all that room.  The worst thing though is when they dive in there and then slam on their brakes.  I hate driving in the city, to be honest, I absolutely hate it.  I would far rather drive on the highways, biways and interstates.  The down side to that, of course, is that you are never home.  There is no happy medium here.  The benefit of dealing with city traffic in a semi truck is that I get to go home every day - that makes it worth it.  But I'm always wondering if "it" is ever going to happen.  Where I can't get the truck stopped or moved out of the way fast enough because of someone else's moves that - mostly - endanger their own lives.  The attention concentrate that is needed to drive a big truck in city traffic is more than most people will ever realize.  If you don't want to kill people, run them clean over and create chaotic destruction - even if not your fault - you are going to have to devote so much mental energy to the job at hand that by the end of the day?  You are mentally exhausted.  If it's an OT, even that much the more worse.

I still vividly remember the situation earlier this year when I was also at stopped at a red light, waiting to make a left hand turn.  The light turned green. I remember hesitating for unknown reasons and then slowly starting out into the intersection.  The car in the turn lane beside me also slowly started out.  Out of the corner of my eye - that light has been red for the other direction for a long time now considering traffic standards - seeing something.  My automatic reaction was to slam on the brakes.  It would have been another disaster.  My fault? Not at all.  The driver of that car that ran that red light never slowed down.  I was within a couple of feet of that car when it went by me.  Had I continued on, that car would have slammed into my truck - again, right into the diesel fuel tank and right below the door where I am sitting.

Well whatever.  The weekend comes to a close.  As it always does, lol, but this coming week is a bit different.  Thanksgiving on Thursday.  Going to mom's house.  Black Friday and hopefully sending someone to stand in line and maybe score something for me.  Our store moving on the weekend, but no word yet as to whether I will be involved with that or not.  Tuesday is our church's first annual "Community Dinner" - Thanksgiving dinner 2 days early.

Hmmm, I think I'll go to bed early.  Which for most people is like going to bed before dinnertime, lol.  Well whatever.  We all live our lives the way we want to?  No, not really.  If you lived the life of your dreams, would you be doing what you are doing right now with it?  I'm definitely having some life altering thoughts again after getting back into the church...........

G'nite.
ben

Sunday 11/20/2011

I have definitely come to the firm decision that no matter how much of a pain in the @$$ it is going to be to do it, I am going to replace most of the plastic "fixtures" on the roof of that trailer and the other things up there I am going to scrape off all the old sealant down to the bare metal including using a wire wheel and get it all freshly sealed, new plastic and not have to worry about leaks.

I mean, it's going to be parked on a piece of property up in the mountains, it wouldn't be very smart or rational to take the thing up there with some leap of faith hoping it won't leak. The problem is simple.  There are giant cracks in the sealant where whoever has had this thing before has attempted to put fresh sealant on top of old sealant.  It doesn't work.  You HAVE top take the old sealant down to the metal if you want any kind of permanent fix.  That is my experience with it, anyway.  I'm going to have to stop at Harbor Tools today and see if they have an electric thing to put a wire wheel on there.  Fortunately, the roof on that trailer is a solid piece of metal from front to back.  The only places that it can leak are where the vents are.  It eliminates the guess work of what older trailers are made up of - sections of metal with seams.  The seams, of course, can leak.

I have my work cut out for me, but there is plenty of time.  I do intend on getting with it, though, I am not going to put it off any longer.  Getting up there yesterday and getting a good start on it motivated me to just keep right on going with it until it's done so I can focus on putting new carpet on the interior.

Church in a bit.  Should be interesting today for a variety of reasons that - I am not going to go into in full detail here and don't really have time right now to do that anyway.

Whatever the case, I am hopeful things will start going a bit better in the church department and perhaps even start building some relationships within the church - though that is certainly not a guaranteed event and I am just taking this one step at a time.

Whatever the case, I have some things to get done before church and therefore?

I bid you a happy Sunday.

ben

Saturday 11/19/2011

So, the 12 year old admits he dropped a shopping cart from 4 stories up and now they are "looking to get him back into the community"?!!
Why, so he can drop more shopping carts on innocent people's heads?!!  That woman him and his friend dropped that thing on is STILL messed up and probably will be for life.

Whatever.  I am headed out to go pay the rest of the trailer off today and get the title. Lynnette is close to being finished with the wall papering project in that  thing and it's looking good.   Still quite a lot to do to that thing, though.  I wish the AC would work and wouldn't have to deal with it.  I'm not, like, an AC repairman.  I know the fan motor is bad but how that equates into me being able to fix it, not sure yet.  I would hate to have to haul the thing to a repair facility.

So, here I was about to leave. Called the dude - he didn't get the title notarized as I asked him to.  I ain't driving all the way up there for nothing.  Banks are opened on Saturdays now, he can get it notarized and then I will go get it - but not until this afternoon at the earliest since I have another appointment at noon.
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Extremely long intermission. Uhhhhh, like 8 hours worth.  I got busy.  Before I left for the meeting with pastor and an elder in the church, I ended up getting up on the roof of that trailer.  I was annoyed by myself for not getting up there sooner - even IF there is plenty of time - so I just did it.  Well it was obvious where the leakage was occurring from.  The entire bathroom roof vent is an old, rotted piece of garbage.  In fact, all plastic on that roof is going to have to be replaced.  The one over the bathroom has a handle crank and lifts up a plastic cover that allows steam - and smells, lol - to go out and fresh air to come in. It also has a small fan to help that along.

I spent an hour trying to get the screws out - and yes, persistence and sheer determination paid off. I got that thing off of there.

So, I just spent some time getting that thing to that point, I eyeballed the AC unit. Ohhhhh, I just caved in.  I took the plastic cover off - which is dry rotted, brittle and will have to be replaced if I don't want to have an ugly looking AC unit sitting up there without it's nice, plastic cover over it.  Fiasco times two.  Old screws that have been in there - forever a day and a half.  Good grief, what have I gotten myself into.

But, if I can fix it myself, I will save a fortune over paying someone else to do it, so I proceeded to deal with it.  First, I had Mark go in the trailer and turn the unit on - see if  can get the fan to moving by hand and see if it will work.  Yup, it came on, yes, turning it got the thing to humming right along.  But, after a few minutes? The fan motor died.  This is a non-happening event, I am not going to have a trailer up there on that property without knowing, without a doubt, that that AC unit is going to work.  It might be up in the mountains, but in the summer it gets up to 90 degrees in the daytime - though admittedly at night the temps drop WELL down to where you don't need cooling.

I took the whole mess apart, got that motor out of there and then?  Headed to my appointment at church.  They were both there - the pastor and the elder he had decided would be a good person to join the group and get this rolling. I am not going into specific details of what we discussed - that is my personal business and again, even for me, I am not willing to share all of that all over the world/internet.  But it was a very good discussion and it was exactly what I had hoped I would hear coming from a church. It ended in prayer and I still have to wonder how, exactly, I found this place?  They have treated me very well there, is what I can say about that.  You always wonder how it's going to be where the rubber meets the road - are they still going to be that "nice" and "giving"?  Yes, is what I can say, they have a true heart for the Lord.

Left there and went to Camping World.  They had a brand new - the entire setup - vent for 70 bucks.  Not going to dicker with it, git-er-dun.  They also had a brand new vent cap and base for 7 bucks for another situation and I decided I would buy that and replace the entire thing.  They found the motor in their parts catalog and quoted me a price of $150. Yup, that was my guess when I saw that motor on the roof of the trailer.  Mark was up on the ladder looking and I said: "I'm guessing $150 to replace this motor".  He's looking at it saying it couldn't be more than $50. Uh huh.  All things RV cost more.  You can substitute some things for much cheaper, but for specific applications you are screwed if you think you are going to do something on the "cheap".  This motor is only a 1/4 horsepower, but the shafts coming out of either end of it are of a specific length to accommodate for the fan housing on one end and fan blade on the other, plus a specific design for it to sit in it's cradle.

Well they didn't have that motor in stock and would have to order it.  I am not in a big hurry, I have gotten a start, now to find a better deal?  Perhaps.  I might be able to get the motor rewound and have new brushes installed for cheaper. Several places in this area that do that, I am going to check into it. I can also type the part number off the motor into a couple of online parts sites and see if that comes up with anything.  But in the end, I am going to have that unit working and I will pay whatever to get it going and be done with it.

So, I can't do the carpet in the trailer until I get the roof leaking issues finished.

Call me worried.  I am, a bit.  My ex is taking my son to Florida for a visit with relatives. The ex is saying she is going to move back to Florida, so why the need for a flight there for a visit?  When you were married to a person for 16 years, you get to know a few things about how that person thinks. Whatever.  I am sure they - they being her family and her - are going to fill his head (my son)  about how wonderful Florida is and how when she moves down there, if she does indeed do so, he should move down there with him. They will undoubtedly show him a nice room to live in and the benefits of the area and this, that and the other thing.

It will be a very compelling argument, story and enticement, I am sure of that.  I have no response.  My son is going to learn about life in whatever form it comes to him.  I have already told him he can stay here if he wants to, that I will always have a room for him if he needs it and that's that. I will say something about that before he leaves, yes, but not to keep him here, only to give him choices.  If he moves to Florida, I will not be standing in his way.  I will be sad, definitely.  I might shed a few tears, no doubt.  But, it's his choice and his life.

I got side-tracked.  Back to the story. Done with Camping World and onto the next mission: call the dude and tell him I am on my way over there to get the title.  Got there, forked out the $400 I had left owing on the thing and then got into a discussion.  He said he had paid $3,500 for it and that he dumped it at the $2,400 I paid for it.  I brought up the leaking roof and broken AC anyway.  Why? Because if it were me, I would have said okay, give me $200 instead of $400 and this deal is done.  It was ADVERTISED as leak free and AC working, that's why.  Now, I'm spending $200 on materials to get that stuff fixed.

But that's the world and that's the way people do things.  I choose not to live my life that way, if something isn't right then I try to make it right however I can - within moral/ethical boundaries of course.  I don't hold it against him, I have encountered so many people with the same kind of mindset.  Overall, I am happy with that trailer so no biggies.  I will continue to work on it until I am satisfied that everything is working and at the same time that it looks good.  Then I will have it hauled up to the mountains.

Oh, if  could convince my work to let me use the tractor to haul that thing up there - I would only have to pay the fuel costs.  About $120 in fuel.  Well, actually, probably less than that.  That trailer would be like pulling air to a semi tractor.  Coming back would be dead-heading.  More like $80 to $90 in fuel.  I'm not even going to ask my manager about it, my old manager would let me do it - yes - but I don't think my current manager would and I have no desire to even bother to ask with that kind of thought running through my head.

Well whatever. I spoke with my mother today about Thanksgiving.  Caleb has Sunday off, we can come then.  Well what about you? Are you going to be okay being alone?, she asks.  I didn't tell her I am never alone on holidays, there are always tenants around if nothing else. I figured she would be alone on Thanksgiving since my brothers aren't going to be there so yes, I said yeah, it would be cool to come over for a meal and spend some time with you plus go over there on Sunday with Caleb.  I didn't really offer this, she was asking it. Not specifically, but I am not going to have my mother spending Thanksgiving alone so that's that.  And I want Caleb to spend some time with his grandmother so that's that, as well.

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I have been doing this more and more.  Start an entry and write in it at various points throughout the day. This entry started early this morning.  It is now 8:30pm and I am going to end it.  I have plenty to do tomorrow and as usual, going to bed early by most people's standards.  Normal for me at this point.  I accomplished plenty today, though I was not able to get out there and continue on with my landscaping project - it's okay.  It is something I want to do.  Meaning when I have time, I get to it.

But, the meeting with the pastor and the elder today?  That is what stands out to me for this particular day in Benb's life.  It's running through my mind.  My mind is full of all kinds of different thoughts - this that and the other thing.  Mark and Lynnette are preparing the trailer for the move.  It's coming and there's nothing I can do about it.  I don't have an empty room - yet - and I have no idea when that might happen.  They like living in that trailer, actually, but Lynnette especially does not want to leave.  I mean, what are they going to do, move into my storage shed like they were at the last property they were at?  No.  I hope the day to come that they come back.  But, Lynnette also spoke about buying that trailer on payments. You can never really fully read a person.

You can try, but only God knows ALL of that about each of us.

After today's meeting with the pastor, I am just going to say that I am switching tracks.  The train has been heading one direction, the track I am switching on takes a turn and leads a totally different direction.  I have this life and that's  it.  I want it to count.

ben

Friday 11/19/2011

As of the end of yesterday, I had worked the full week's allotted hours.  Today? However long I am on the clock is how many OT hours I will be getting.  Last I saw, there were 3 deliveries.  Those 3 deliveries are 3 separate truckloads.  The truck is already loaded and ready to go for the first run, but since it's going to the Intel plant, I will be there a while getting it off loaded.  Then to west Phoenix to pick up another load and back to Intel and then to the yard to pick up another load and off to the airport.  And that is just what was in there yesterday, who knows what might have been added since then.  Those 3 deliveries alone will take me into the afternoon.

The point is at this rate, I will see a much larger paycheck.  I just got paid last night - direct deposit - and that check was $180 more than what I "normally" get.  Another interesting effect of all of this work is the amount of fuel I am burning through in the semi.  Usually 2 fill ups a month? I will need to fill up early next week if not today for the 3rd fill up of this month and we are only 2/3rds through it.

City of Phoenix has sent me a letter giving me the deadline for getting the violation removed.  The end of the month, basically.  Well howdy doody.  I could appeal it - but I would lose, though it would give me more time.  The department that issued the violation actually has an appeal process.  Not a court thing, either, apparently, they decide whether your appeal has any merit or standing.  Again, it would buy some more time.

I dunno about you, but it's hard to imagine that the holidays are almost upon us, at least Thanksgiving.  I have NOT heard a lot of Christmas music blaring all over the place and for that I am very thankful. I love Christmas music, I do not, however, want to be subjected to it 3 months before Christmas ever arrives.  Black Friday approaches, but apparently the deals are going to start earlier and also the deals are going to supposedly be sweet online as well. I am looking for a portable computer of some sort, haven't even determined which kind with what stuff on it I want.  Pretty sure good deals on laptops and such will be popping up shortly.

Friday.  Week has flown by.  I have had no interactions with any of the hoarding neighbors.  Randy is completely ignoring me now, which is fine by me, I was giving him the same cold shoulder back after his stupid statements about no leash laws for cats and therefore, they will go wherever they please.  Yes and they can go right into an animal trap and be transported somewhere ELSE if I decide to start trapping cats again.

Umm, time to get out of here, work starts in 30 minutes!

G'day.

ben

Traffic

I was caught up in several traffic jams while driving the semi today - I am telling you driving a tractor-trailer rig in the Phoenix area is the cause of the grey hair on my head, not any of the other situations going on in life.  Several times today, drivers came flying up beside me and then cut in front of me and then.............hit their brakes directly in front of me after they just cut me off!  I am NOT in the fast lane or otherwise doing ANYTHING that would cause' a driver to get mad and try to "do" something.

I'm sitting in a left hand turn lane at a major intersection.  The green arrow comes up. The driver in front of me?  Paying absolutely no attention to anything but the electronic gadget in her hand.  I honked the horn and yes, I got the Eagle.  Oh, I was in the wrong, she should be able to play with her texting phone and whatever else she was looking at in there versus driving her freaking car.

There are roll over accidents every day on Phoenix freeways, at least on the weekdays.  There are fatal accidents frequently, including today.  Pushing buttons on a cell phone to send text messages to people is, apparently, more important than driving your vehicle.  I was stuck in heavy traffic on the I-10 yesterday behind a person that was - as many drivers do nowadays - leaving anywhere from 100 to 300 feet of space between his car and the one in front of him.  Why? Because he was texting and spending more time looking at the cell phone than at the pavement in front of him.  He came close to running into vehicles in front of him several times over because he was engrossed in the texting.  When I say came close, I mean slamming on the brakes and skidding to avert a rear-end collision.

This is becoming an all-too-common scenario where drivers are in heavy traffic but don't care, they still want to play with their electronic toys.

But, the flip side is that this week, I am almost 8 hours over my allotted hours for this week and tomorrow doesn't look to get off early, or if so, not very much so. No, I am not wanting to get off early, the point is the hours, I want the extra hours, I would love to get the extra money on the paycheck, especially considering the next scenario.

Which is:  Lynnette and Mark.  The city sent me a written notice giving me until the 30th of this month to rectify the violation - which is having people living in the RV.  I can appeal it - and I might do that just to give more time.  At this point, it does not appear that anyone wants to move out.  Not that any of these people have been in here that long to begin with, but it usually happens that something occurs that a person needs or wants to move out after a couple month's stay.

We're working on that.

Finally, at least one store advertising turkeys for 37 cents per pound, versus the lowest I could find at 52 cents per pound.  Umm, well there is next week's ads, but for a turkey the new sales come out only a day before Thanksgiving.

I'm very tired.  Long week. Going to bed.

ben

Thursday 11/17/2011

For a couple of months now, I have been watching construction workers slowly putting together a massive crane that they are going to use at an Intel plant.  They are busy building more fabrication plants.  Think microchips.  Intel makes a lot of money in that business.

Anyway, they finally had the thing done and up off the ground yesterday.  This thing is so large, that hauling counterweights to the job site for it is impossible, too heavy.  They, instead, take those 20 foot long shipping containers like you see on freight trains and on large ships, fill them up with sand and use that as the counter balance.  A man working at the site told me yesterday that they had 6,400 TONS of counter balance on that thing.  I can believe it, too, they have those containers stacked up on both side of that thing.

Supposedly, this machine costs 1 million per month to "rent".  They said next week they are going to start moving the items that the thing was brought in for: giant, metal trusses to be used as the plant's roof, apparently.  They are going to "evacuate the entire premises" once they get that thing to lifting.  The booms on it equal to the height of 70 stories.

Anyway, it's pretty amazing to watch this situation progress.

National concealed permit bill. Amazing it passed the House.  I never understand the concept that carrying a concealed weapon somehow makes it more likely that more crime will occur with the use of handguns.  If a person is inclined to use a gun to commit a crime, there are no amount of laws that are going to stop that person from doing so.  And as the old saying goes, if guns were outlawed, then only outlaws would have guns.

Non-paying tenant finally slipped some money under my door yesterday, while I was at work.  Umm, dangerous thing to do, even if I keep my bedroom door locked when not here.  I had a bit of a problem watching his lifestyle while not paying me rent.  I guess I don't care as long as he gets caught up, which may take a while.  Everyone here - at least at the moment - has a job/income.

Dunno what to do about Mark and Lynnette, though Lynnette was hinting at them buying that trailer on payments.  I would consider doing that, but, I don't know how they would be able to afford paying much of anything on it.  In other words, they would be permanently leaving.  Anyway, I haven't heard from the city inspector about the situation, though that doesn't mean she isn't going to call, I'm sort of dragging this out as long as I can get away with it.  But, I pretty much had in mind that I would have to move that trailer at the end of this month, which is approaching faster than I would like to see it.  Oh well.  They have found a place they would like to have it moved to and apparently think that they can afford the lot rent at.

Whatever. Life and the problems it poses.

G'day.

ben

I had long ago gotten over the dude that left, owing money, leaving the room trashed and sending me nasty Facebook messages.  In fact, I had totally forgotten about him and his BS ........ until today.  Got home from work, got on Facebook and had a message from him.  It was a vile, nasty message that I don't find the need to repeat here.  I sent him back a message telling him exactly how I think about his life of the use of prescription narcotics; his inability to keep a job because of his drug addiction and other things.  I have gotten over ex-tenants owning me far more money than he did at the end, though the way he left really was disturbing to say the least.

Oh well.  If he contacts me again, I will block him, but not until I report him to Facebook.  Last time we had an interaction, he threatened to come up and kick my @$$.  I was amused by this, this guy is a foot shorter than me and not in very good health.  It wouldn't take much to pop him in the head a couple of times and lay him out on the ground, unconscious and needing medical help.

But then again, I don't go looking for such.  He owes me money and that was the only reason I was communicating with him after he left.  Once it became obvious he had no intention of paying the money, I abandoned the quest and also abandoned contacting him.

Umm, whatever.  Another long day today.  Not as long as the last 2 days, but long enough to get ever more OT.  Of course, that could all disappear in the next 2 days of work, who knows.  Tomorrow, though, has plenty to do in the truck routing system.  Then there is the moving of the store this coming weekend.  No word as to whether I will be needed or not, but they HAVE to have a truck to move all of that stuff meaning they have to have a truck driver to drive the truck, even if it's only a block and a half away.  Okay, really, it's only a block away.  I could use the extra money right now.  They are wanting to use salaried only people for the move since it's on a weekend.  Only one of them has a CDL that I know of and he let his go - didn't renew his medical card.  I'm guessing at least 10 truck loads to move everything.   At least.

I'm sitting here lusting after a laptop or a tablet.  Well, a laptop, ummm, a notebook, whatever.  A notebook will have more use for me in having a keyboard.  I hate notebook/laptop keyboards, but, if I were to use one long enough I would get used to it.  Tablets look nice in their portability, but I would, in the end, probably not be happy with it simply because of the keyboard issue and also not being to burn CD's or dump in DVD's or whatever.

What does having a 20 year old around that is totally into exercising and using bicycles to go everywhere even though he owns a pickup truck living in my house do for me?  Motivate me, of course.  Get out there and get some exercise.  Not that I don't get PLENTY at work, but it isn't the same as cardiovascular exercise, where you keep an elevated heart rate for an extended period of time.  Well he just took the 2 Danes out - no idea where he is going with them but he is pretty muscular and good with animals so I have no problems letting him take the 2.  He reminds me of me when I was that age, though I never did rodeo.  He stands out front of the house with a rope and turns the music on and goes at it practicing throwing the rope.  No, he doesn't crank the music up loud, just enough to annoy neighbors, in fact, I could hardly hear it when I went out there, this is a totally respectful person.

Peace? What is peace? Do you have any?  Got got it in your heart?  Mind? Soul? Being?

Umm, not finding the real deals on turkeys.  It's the week before, yes?  No, that's right, next week might be the possibility of a great deal on turkeys.  I'll wait. I haven't seen it yet.  Not like last year. You'd think we're all rich and prospering with the rise in food prices - but many "experts" have been predicting this for a while now and have said in 2012?  It's going to get FAR worse.  I dunno. I have to trust the Lord in this life, if He can't take care of me, then it's all over.  We all gonna starve?  Do it on the same boat - though I have been stocking up on shotgun shells.  Javelina is edible, if nothing else is available and there's plenty of that in the mountains behind me.

Seriously?  Dunno, just saying.  Who knows what's coming? God, that's the end of that story, at least for me.  Meanwhile, get myself into "spiritual condition" and that means getting into accountability, which should start sometime next week. No, I wasn't "told" to do that, I ASKED for it and I WANT it in my life.  That's from church, that was the discussion with the pastor yesterday and I'm all for it, even if parts of me - want nothing to do with it.

Time for bed.

ben

Wednesday 11/16/2011

Ahhhh, a bunch of rich people - multi millioinaires - whining that they don't get enough money.  The NBA. I will miss it, I like watching NBA basketball, but, one has to wonder what they are doing to themselves.  People get a bit cranky about watching a bunch of babies crying that they don't get enough money when they are, in actuality, getting filthy rich just for playing a game.  People's memories are long for such things, too.  I think it doesn't bode well for the NBA - but we'll see next season if there is one - how many people actually come back to it.  It isn't the NFL, it doesn't have the same impact as the NFL does and I think people can live without it, to be honest about it.

Whatever the case, I only have a few minutes as I have to show up to work early again today - though not near as early as yesterday.  Busy week so far.  I have no idea whether I am supposed to show up for work this weekend or not.  We are moving to a new location.  There are quite a large number of truckloads of material that is going to have to be moved from one branch to the other.  That requires a truck driver, though, the new branch is only about - well - 3 football fields, maybe 4 - in length away from our "old" branch.

I'll take the OT if they wanna give it to me, is all I can say about that.

Nothing much else.  I am getting home from work so late that I have no time to go out there and get landscaping stuff done.  I hope today to get off at my normal time, to be honest. I already have the maximum amount of OT that I am allowed to have for any given week and Wednesday work day hasn't even started!

Offa here.

Later.

ben

Tuesday 11/15/2011

Long day.
Lots of driving.
Not complaining.
Love the hours : )

Visited with the pastor of the church I am going to at Starbucks after work.
Intense conversation.  Won't go into it, but it was a good conversation and
should prove fruitful in the near future is all I can say about it.

My next door neighbor - Randy - is now saying his new house will "look better than anything on this street", including mine, after he's done building.  He didn't tell me that, he isn't talking to me and I frankly don't care one way or the other if these hoarders don't like me, I don't like the way they live and store utter garbage outside of their homes.  He told it to others on the street.  My response?  Great, I hope it is.  Randy had specifically indicated my house and my kitchen for some reason, when he made those statements.  I further stated that it would only bring our property values up, go for it! Not to Randy, but to these people.

Onto other things.  Dog food.  I admittedly buy the cheap stuff. Pedigree.  I just can't afford to buy the good, quality dog food for 3 giant dogs.  But, I am going to start buying 2 kinds of dog food.  Pedigree for the 2 Danes and a much better, much higher quality food for the Dane/Catahoula mix.  She is half the size of the Danes and will live a much longer life.  I want to facilitate that with good, quality food that will help her with that.  Not that I wish my Danes a short life - but they have about 3 years left, more or less.  My Catahoula could easily live another  7 years.  She is in the top 3 of the best dogs I have ever had.  I seriously doubt I will ever have all kinds of dogs again, once the Danes pass, I will keep it at 2 dogs.  I would keep it at 1, but I like the idea of dogs entertaining each other while pack leader is away at work or whatever he is doing. May sound pathetic, the different dog foods, but otherwise?  They would all get the same thing so oh well.

I haven't looked at the city's "lookup" thing in a week, mine now says a "notice of violation issued".  Okay, I guess that was verbal and on the phone.  I haven't received anything in writing.  Lynnette reminded me the other day that 2 weeks had come and gone and they haven't called me.  No, but rest assured they will.  I am putting it off as long as I can without them actually issuing me a ticket.  If they issue me one, I will appear before a judge and tell the whole story.  But, I have only been contacted once about this by the city.  Who knows.  I live in a messed up neighborhood and there isn't much to say beyond that.

I listened to Sandusky's statement today on the radio.  Umm, wow.  He says he's not a pedophile or is sexually attracted to young boys - yet - he admits he has taken showers with them, touched them on the leg and "horseplays" with them.  Along with other statements that really made me very uncomfortable listening to this guy speaking.  In fact, it made me sick.  I have a son.  I have NEVER taken a shower with him.  What parent would strip naked and take a shower with their 10 year old offspring? Take a leap and think of a "man" totally unrelated to the boy taking showers with him?  You don't think the prosecutors in this case haven't heard this garbage?  Or that they won't use it in court? Play a recording of that interview to a jury and it doesn't take a leap of faith what kind of verdict they are going to render based on his OWN statements.

Whatever.  I was at work at 5 am this morning and got off at 3.  I have to be at work at 6am tomorrow morning, which is okay, only a half hour earlier than my current schedule.  But I am really tired right now.  I am only staying awake because it's too early to go to bed.  I busted @$$ both today and yesterday and tomorrow is going to be no different.

But also means I don't want to do anymore typing for an entry.

Later/sleep tight/whatever makes you happy.

ben

5 am

5 am - that's when I have to be at work in the morning.  That because there weren't enough hours in today to get everything done and this contractor wants this stuff out there at - 6 am.  That precludes any pre-work rituals, including writing in this blog.  Get up, take a shower, get dressed, go to work.

Umm, then there's the little thing about driving down to Arizona City again, so beit.  Maybe another long day tomorrow, as was today.

So, the wall papering project is almost done.  The second order of wall paper showed up today and Lynnette says there isn't much left to do.  The rest of that wall paper will be used in the other trailer.

Randy, my next door neighbor, was angry all day long today, so I was informed.  Someone turned in his cars.  Umm, it wasn't me.  I am waiting to see what is going to be done about the hoarders behind me, apparently there is a court date.  I wasn't invited. This is a different kind of court.  The city shows up and the defendant.  The city will undoubtedly have pictures.  The guy isn't going to win against the city and in this case, there is no reason he SHOULD win.  He and his wife are hoarders, there is nothing else to say about it.  I used to call it trailer trash, but the term hoarding/hoarders is the appropriate verbiage to describe what's going on over there.

Meanwhile, I was at the doctor's again today.  It isn't exactly a wonderful experience to have to drop your drawers in front of another man, but in a doc's office, at least the atmosphere is a "sterile" one, meaning there is definitely nothing sexual about it.  The doc decided there was a bump on one of my  - testicles.  I know, more information than anyone wanted, but it's my blog and it's my health, so I will go there.  Now, I am to go see a urologist.  The other thing the doc decided he needed to was - well I wasn't even given the option.  "I need to do a prostate exam".  If you know what that is, then you understand.  I was there for quite a while and watched a man enter, bleeding out of his right, large toe - bleeding rather heavily I might add and all over the throw rug and vinyl flooring.

The man told the lady at the desk - who couldn't see the blood dripping everywhere - that there was no mess being made.  ???  He was led immediately to the back. Blood dripping on the floor the entire way.  The lady behind the desk is sitting there, apparently believing no blood on the floor.  "Ummm, excuse, me, but  there is blood all over the floor and the throw rug".  That sent her into a flurry of activity for the next 15 minutes rolling up the throw rug and getting disinfectant to clean up the blood.

Whatever.  Another 10 day supply of antibiotics that kicked my @$$ last time and - well ----- whatever.  Deal with it.

I don't mind telling myself to deal with it, but have you ever had anyone else telling you that?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

You deal with things because you have to, not because someone is standing there telling you you must.

Well it's bedtime.  I usually go to bed at this time of night anyway.  But now?  It's 8 hours of bed instead of 9.  I don't need 9 hours of sleep, I have to go to bed in time for 9 hours of sleep to actually get around 6.  Long story, been going on for 7 years now.

G'nite.

ben

Monday 11/14/2011

The work week clock starts afresh.

Sometimes I wish that clock could slow down a bit on the weekends.

Won't have an extra day off until Thanksgiving day and then, will have to

go to work the day after.  

But it's okay, I have 3 days off at Christmas, plus Christmas weekend and

the Monday after is a holiday, totaling 6 full days off.  

I got quite a bit more done on the front yard yesterday.  I'm at the hardest part, frankly, because I have to get underneath this giant bush/tree thing to get at the junk that's under there, clean it out and then lay both the landscaping rock and put down the other kind of rock next to it.  So I'm not really calling that particular part of it fun by any means - but it will look much nicer and therefore be worth the effort.

Meanwhile, the neighborhood kids tell me that Randy told Sam -the dude that is hoarding behind me - that when he gets into court to tell the judge that he's crazy, not all there and doesn't really know what the ticket is all about.  The guy got ticketed for the unbelievable mess over there.  Well, even if the judge buys that story, that still does not give him a pass to have that property like that over there. 

Obama saying that "all options are on the table".  What table?  I would hate to see us going into another war, but I don't see Iran as anything but a global threat.  The longer everyone sits on their hands about this, the closer Iran will get to getting nukes.  That's it.  Fire one off at Israel and there's the beginning of WWIII - or - the beginning of the end.  

Whatever.  Gotta git, work starts in half an hour.

G'day.

ben

Yikes

Worst time in church I have had since going to the one I am going to now.
I got into a particularly foul mood just before arriving at church and it never
changed. In the Christian realm, it would be called an attack of the enemy.
It came out of nowhere, too.  I was in a great mood and then baam, there I am
fighting off all kinds of mind battles.

I sat there in church wanting to leave and fighting off the feeling.  It never left the entire time
I was there.  Food fellowship after service?  I was leaving and a man who has greeted
me a few times asked if I were staying for food? No, thanks.

I came home.  Ate left over spaghetti and went outside, enjoying my property.
The Honeysuckles are in full bloom.  Both bees and a purple-headed hummingbird
were feasting on the flowers' nectar.  The hummingbird saw me and went to one of my desert
trees and sat on a low lying branch.  He/she started making noises.  I think it was
not pleased to be disturbed in the middle of his feast, but, I certainly had no ill intent.
I was only 6 feet away from that bird while it was sitting on that limb of the tree, which
was maybe 5 feet off the ground.  This is a completely different bird than any of the
other Hummingbirds I have seen here. This because of it's purple head, I have not
seen any others with a purple head, they all have green and red.

I then went out front, climbed underneath a half-shrub/half tree thing and started clearing out
the larger, natural rock that is on the ground to make way for another pathway of my
landscaping rock.  Not that landscaping rock is unnatural, it is mined off the sides of
cliffs, basically, or out of the ground and put through machinery that makes large rock into
smaller rock. It may be the final pathway that I will do on the front with the landscaping rock -
but don't quote me on that.  It is certainly a natural progression to what I have already done.

Completely enjoyable "work", though I don't call it that. If it were work by any of my standards,
I would have skipped it on a beautiful, lovely Sunday afternoon.

Calls to DirectTV.  Yeah, well I got into a lengthy conversation with a supervisor yesterday.
That after being denied any free movie channels from a "regular" incoming call center agent.
He flatly refused, saying I wasn't paying for such services and wouldn't be getting them for free.
He then offered me a series of worthless movie channels for $5 extra per month. They are the "add-on" channels that come with the channels you pay for. Are you serious?

I flatly told him they were worthless channels that I never watch.  I dunno about my tenants, but I didn't mention that.  Why bother.  This went on for a while.  I always preface my requests to corporate headquarters with numerous calls to the regular 800 number.  Oh, yes, you tried that already.  Oh, and I was on the line at that point with their disconnection "department".  Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.  He eventually hung up on me after saying there wasn't anything further for us to discuss.

I let it go yesterday, a 45 minute interaction with people I don't want to talk to was enough for me.
So, I called again. The only thing that motivated me is that all 3 sets of movie channels I had for free are
now gone. They only last so long, usually 3 months, though one set I got for 6 months after complaining to corporate.  Oh, I called again like 30 minutes ago.  I don't talk to computers, so I press 0 until I get through to a live person.

The woman that answered? Umm, without going into it, definitely the voice of attitude.  I was not going to talk to this person, I was going to talk to their supervisor or I was going to hang up and try again.  So, I asked for a supervisor.  The line went dead.  Well, there was no sound, anyway.  A few minutes later, the woman comes back on and tells me her supervisor is on the line, thanks.

This person informs me he is with the billing department.  Billing?  I didn't ask that computer to be switched to billing.  What can billing do for me?  I will admit that I thought in my mind that if I said that to this guy and played it out - I'm sorry, didn't know I was with the billing department (which I HONESTLY did not know until he said it!), I don't think you can help me - maybe that would get me what I want.  So I did.

I finally told him that my free movie channels - all of them at this point -were gone.  I didn't bother to mention that superviosr's statement yesterday about the fact that I wouldn't get anything regardless.  He looked up my account, offered me Showtime and that was that.  Thank you, thank you very much!  Didn't have to get into anything but a real discussion without all the bs about it.  Which was nice.

Umm, long interlude.  The lady that reconnected with me - Mary - got me on a Facebook conversation.  Time for bed.

G'nite.

ben

Sunday 11/13/2011

Ohhhh, noooooo, it's Sunday the 13th!  What will happen today?  Lol.  Alright, I have my own superstitions, I guess, but I just have to make a bit of fun at people that see numbers on the calendar and think: gee, this must mean something!  Or the Mayan calendar running out next year, too many people think it's the end of the world. Seriously, I have run into all kinds of individuals both online and face to face that absolutely believe that December 12, 2012 is going to be the "apocalyptic end of the world".  \

Regardless, this kid that has been walking my dogs is now giving me his entire family's "poor story".  They are, undoubtedly, extremely poor people, living just 3 houses down from me.  I can't take care of everyone, that is God's department, not mine.  I can help people, but that's only when I feel "led" to do so.  Those people have been living there almost the entire time I have lived here and they seem to be making it somehow is all I can say about that.

The interesting thing is how many people can living in a single house, especially in this case where it's a single wide mobile home and there are at least 12 people living in there.  Another interesting note is that this kid's dad is as sick of the feral cat population being propagated around  here as much as I am.  Those same cats that come into my yard are going into their yard and yes, crapping and peeing everywhere.  I have to wonder just how many other people around here are in the same train of thought: out of control cats with "owners" that only encourage even more to continue to come into this neighborhood and set up permanent shop.

Okay, I did help them out a little: I have some free coupons from Fry's - they send them to me every month or couple of months. Free salad bag; free pound of bacon and don't remember the other 2.

I'm just curious - changing the subject - as to when one of these space probes, satellites, orbiters, this that or the other thing - is going to re-enter the atmosphere and slam into a city or otherwise populated area.  They have gotten lucky so far, but this news of this Russian thing that is probably going to re-enter - with hazardous materials on board - gets the mind thinking about such.

My friend from teenaged years contacted me yesterday, distraught and not happy.  Apparently some dude dumped her.  She had asked me to come over and help her take down part of a tree whose  giant limb broke off in a recent storm.  She put that on hold.  Which is okay, I will stay home and continue on with my landscaping project - after church of course - though I didn't realize until just a minute ago that it rained last night.  That might put a damper on things, lol.

I have been attempting to figure out what, exactly, these "Occupy Wall Street" protests are trying to accomplish with these people showing up in large numbers at odd and various places around the country.  " They also repeated the main message of Occupy Wall Street movement of peaceful resistance to income inequality and what they see as corporate greed."


Okay, I get it.  They are probably broke, lost their jobs in the economic collapse of 2008 and the ensuing chaos with employers literally dumping employees by the hundreds and thousands.  Probably some or a lot of them have been on unemployment for so long they have lost their benefits or are facing the loss of them.  Maybe facing homelessness, certainly not enjoying anything close to the type of lifestyle that, probably, some or many of them had at one point in time.  


I get that part of it. I don't get what these protests are going to accomplish.  "Corporate" greed isn't going to change because they are out there protesting.  Inequality if NEVER going to change regardless.  I don't WANT to live in a socialist society, thank you very much.  I don't CARE that I am on the lower end of the economic post of wealth, to live in a nation completely controlled by the government is NOT a good trade-off, not in my view of it, anyway.


Why don't they use their energies and start running for office?  City council; mayor; state senators, even president?  There are all kinds of proactive things they could be doing with this newfound energy to go out and attempt to "change our world", I guess they think they are doing, why not do something that actually WILL create change?  


Well it's another beautiful day outside, just waiting for my clothes to finish drying so I can go shower and get ready for another morning at church.


G'day.


ben

Saturday 11/12/2011

Umm, I was about to start this entry and then decided I better get out and about and get some things done. First on the list - haircut.  I tend to let it go because I hate waiting in long lines for a haircut.  I got lucky this morning and was the only one in there, plus the lady did an excellent job.  

Then decided that a nice cafe mocha, venti size from Starbucks would be cool, I rarely go there cause' their drinks aren't exactly cheap - got one of those.  Then over to Ace Hardware looking at lawn vacuums, but their prices were higher than I wanted to pay.  Over to Fry's fueling station - you get money off gas prices by using your shopper's card - I got 20 cents off per gallon which is a pretty good deal so I filled up. Then, over to Home Depot where I found a much better vacuum and bought it along with another gallon of wallpaper paste since Lynnette has used most of the other gallon up.

Got home and got into a Facebook conversation with a lady I know from the ministry days - she lives in Texas - about making  a quilt for me and then my mom.  She has already started my quilt and will do my mom's when she's done with mine.  As a lot of people in this nation, she is unemployed and has been for quite a while now.

Then got on the phone with mom about the color patterns she might like on a quilt if she were to receive one for Christmas, lol.  Beige, blue and dark red.  She has good taste in colors and what goes together is all I can say about that.

Now?  About to go outside and get that vacuum going so I can get on with this landscaping project.  I want to get that done so I may put off the roof thing on the trailer.  The trailer isn't any big hurry project at the moment, anyway.  There is a lot to do with that trailer and I figure at least a couple of months before I have it the way I want it.  Wallpaper; AC; carpet; mattress and microwave.  Landscaping: basically the entire front yard, maybe half of it is finished at the moment and a lot of tedium left to go with it.

_________________________________

Long interlude.  My new vacuum is awesome!! I can just move the end of the thing around in the rocks and it sucks the leaves and junk right out of there!  Exactly what I hoped I would get, plus the thing has a 2 year warranty on it.

My son just came out and started complaining about the newest Playstation game: Call Of Duty MW3.  He was frankly disgusted.  Apparently, when you are killed in the game and you "spawn" - come back to life - you come back to life near or next to an opponent who immediately kills you.  This did not happen, according to him, with the other versions of this game.  I dunno.  I don't buy or play these games anymore, quit a long time ago.

All 3 dogs got walked today.  This because the neighborhood kids were bored and they like walking giant dogs that get them a lot of attention.

_______________

Yes, another very long interlude.  I tend to get caught up in things on the weekends and let entries drag out all day long if necessary.  The people with 2 properties behind me? "Cleaned" up their house/property - but only on the front.  I am still subjected to the hoarding by virtue of having to see it from my back yard.  Their other property?  The definition of hoarding should have a picture of that property as a reference. They have done absolutely nothing.   I sometimes think about these things when I am outside, working away and trying to beautify my property - while - my neighbors are not only doing nothing to beautify their property, but seem to take pride in the pig-sty type of living conditions that they are perpetuating.

But, it is getting late - for me anyway, probably not most people - and I am going to bed.

G'nite.

ben

Reaction

"What does that guy want, to be able to harass you?", spoken by a lady at work who reacted to my informing her that this guy is now appealing the Injunction case to the Superior Court.  My manager - same kind of reaction.  Yes, but there is something that goes on your record, apparently, with this kind of Injunction.  I don't know.

I handed the same lady the photo radar ticket.  "Ohhhh noooo!", was her reply until she started looking at the pictures, lol.  "Well THIS isn't YOU!".  "Look at the license plate, it's from out of state!".  On and on.  My manager's like: "If I get a photo radar ticket, I'm going to tell them it was you!", referring to the fact that I am have been named as a person driving a car that isn't mine, the owner of the car I don't know and certainly I don't live in the state that is on the plate.

The only thing I will say is if a police officer in the City of Chandler is going to falsely accuse me of this crap - there is an officer's name and badge number on the ticket - then the City of Chandler can waste their money on having me served and also on court proceedings.  I'll just add here that I hate photo radar, even if I drive legally, I don't WANT government taking pictures of me while I am driving down a freeway or on a surface street.  I don't want them having live video cameras at intersections, either, which many of them are loaded with, especially in Chandler.

I did end up driving down to Arizona City today - but not after working my @$$ off in pulling the entire order - most of it anyway - and spending a great deal of time attempting to get it loaded onto the truck.  It was a 76k order - large by our current standards - and it was a nice drive.  Well, it isn't that nice, just nice to get out of town.  I-10 between Chandler and Casa Grande is a - well I won't use that term - how about a FUBAR?  Yes, indeed.  There is a LOT of traffic on the Interstate in this area and a lot of accidents occur, plus there is a huge construction project.  It will be much better when they get it done - a 6 lane interstate highway between Chandler and Tucson.  But, it has been going on for a couple of years now and undoubtely will be at least a couple more before the entire project is finished.  I"m guessing, anyway.

Well, I'm going to throw this in here.  I have no idea what was going through McCreary's mind when he saw a man raping a boy.  No idea, whatsoever.  It, uhh, kinda gives me doubts, really, about his story.  But it's probably only because I know what my reaction would be.  If I saw  a man in the ACT of raping a young boy, I would probably kill the man.  If not, there is no doubting in my mind that my instant rage would put some serious hurt on that person.  Don't know about Pennsylvania, Arizona law states that you can use lethal force against a person caught in the act of rape.  I read that straight out the state statutes.

This guy didn't even call the police, much less DO something about the vile, incredibly sick thing that was taking place in front of his eyes.  There is no doubting in my mind that he should be fired from his coaching position along with Paterno.  I find this man's inaction FAR worse than anything Paterno has done, or didn't do.  He may very well be the whistle-blower, who cares.  He did what amounts to nothing about it.  How could you not just find something - a bat, large branch, pole, whatever is available and bash the guy committing the rape over the head with it?  I don't understand this situation at all.

I have been listening to this situation unfold over the news for the last several days, it's sickening.

Uhh, enough of it.  I can't really think about that too long.  I started to read the grand jury indictment and got to the part about this coach sodomizing a 10 year old boy in a shower and clicked off of it.  Overload.

The weekend is here.  My plans, as usual, are nothing great, grand or fancy, but it entertains me, keeps me occupied and I like the results of the fruit of my labor.  I am also very much enjoying not having 2, stupid, individuals starting trouble with me all the time.

I have also started to format plans within my mind about summer.  I never look forward to summer, but the idea of spending some or many weekends up north is certainly intriguing.  I figure to take several 3 day weekends and some 4 or even 5 day vacations.

Long interlude, like a quarter day, lol.

Time for bed.

ben

Friday 11/11/11

Times of "nothing" don't seem to last long.  Problems, that is.  Just when I thought I finally had some peace around here, baam, this guy is filing to take this to the Superior Court. The only good thing about this appeal 350 man has made is that the Harassment Injunction can NOT be stayed while the appeal is going on.  I read that online on the judiciary site yesterday. The other thing is that appeals always take forever.  It might be 2 months before this thing gets through the court, or even longer.

Dunno yet.  But, I already have several arguments running through my head.  In an appeal, the most important thing to focus on and spend as much time as necessary is the brief.  This is why, if I recall correctly, you get 30 days to file your reply brief AFTER you receive the appellant's brief.  The judge will read the brief and most  likely come up with a ruling just by reading the briefs and going over the facts of the original trial.  Oral arguments don't really count for much.  In fact, when it comes my turn to present an oral argument?  I will probably simply say that my entire argument was already outlined in my brief and that I have nothing further to add to it.  Whatever the case, the evidence at trial - mainly 350 man's own mouth belying himself - is extremely compelling and I have doubts that any judge is going to reverse the decision or, if such case, remand it back to the Justice court to have a do-over trial.  I hope not, because 350 man will undoubtedly learn to keep his mouth shut, which is what go him into this mess to begin with, he simply doesn't know when to shut up.

Meanwhile, my mother scored big time for my trailer in going to yard sales yesterday.  Just throwing it in there.  She enjoys yard saleing and trying to find the deals, now she has a "mission" and it's even more enjoyable because it isn't just looking through stuff to see if there is anything there she might want, it's now a mission to find the stuff she thinks I will need for that trailer.

Today is the "infamous" 11/11/11.  The only ominous sign is a helicopter flying around in circles above my area right now, and has been for about 20 minutes.  This usually denotes the police searching for someone and using the chopper to help them out with that.  They will shine a very powerful spotlight into everyone's back yards looking for whoever in an attempt to see if someone is hiding out.  I don't give a morsel's choice of a flash of anything in credence that today, somehow and for some reason other than the fact that the same number is the only number in today's date (though technically, it's 2011, not 11, so there) and that, therefore, must elude to the "fact" that something bad is going to happen.  It's Friday, it's a great day!

Yes, it's Friday. Supposedly a trip to Arizona City - a small town in the middle of the desert - to deliver to a new well site being built, but yesterday there were glitches with the order and I have no idea, now, whether it's going to happen or not.  I hope so - or hope something is in the system, cause' I like being busy with something to do.

The situation with Sandusky and Penn State?  I have no comment.  Well, I have plenty of comments, if it's true what McCreary is saying then - vile is all I can say about it.  I'm just reading the developments as they come out.  But, there has been no trial yet, there has been no decision of a jury, wait and see.

As for this weekend?  It says possibility of rain on Sunday, meaning tomorrow I might get up on that trailer roof, take off the vent cover and take a lookit the situation.  I dunno what else, I think just continuing on with my landscaping project, of which I have taken several days off since I have been getting home from work late.

Oh, and then there is this photo ticket.  I am half laughing/half nauseated about it.  How do they send me a ticket for someone else's vehicle that is registered in another state to a person that has the same last name as me, but for that, the ONLY similarity?  A car I have never seen before, much less driven.

Time to leave for work.

G'day.

ben

Speeding Ticket/350 Man Appeal

I pulled 2 surprises out of my mailbox today.
First was a letter from the city of Chandler, AZ.
It was a photo enforcement ticket.  Chandler
is loaded with photo radar setups at numerous
intersections, I know where all of them are.  If
I were inclined to be excessively speeding, I
certainly wouldn't be doing so through an intersection that
has photo radar doing both speeding and red light infractions.

Further, I didn't remember getting flashed except a few times
a while back while driving the semi - on a green light going 5 mph BELOW
the speed limit through the intersection.  The cameras were
malfunctioning and were flashing every vehicle going through there.

I open it up.  A black car, at night, owned by a woman in Glendale
that has the same last name as me.  Yeah, whatever.  Again, I don't own
a foreign, small black car, I don't know this woman in Glendale and I
never go into Chandler at night.  Yet, the pic of the man driving the car?
Strikingly close to me.  I'm not going to reply to this thing at all.  If I
get served, then I will go to the courthouse and deal with it.

Second thing in the mail.  Well, not completely surprising, though I hadn't
really given it consideration.  350 man wants to appeal the lower court's
ruling against him for an injunction against harassment.  He has filed with
the superior court to appeal it, but no date has been given for a court date.
That's because the notice came from the Justice Court that issued the Injunction,
which is only telling me what is going on.

The thing about an appeal? Oh I have done my research on this one, long ago.
They can't bring new evidence.  They can't "retry" the case. The only argument
is about whether the facts that were presented were valid and whether the
judge erred in considering the facts that were presented.  These kinds of appeals
are rarely over-turned, but I expect this time 350 man to show up with a lawyer.

All well and good, I won't be showing up with a lawyer, as I don't need one.
This time? He will have to prove his appeal, I don't really have to prove anything.
But I may have to pay to appear.  In this case, if it isn't exorbitant, I will do so.

If it were a normal person, I wouldn't understand why this guy is going to this much
trouble.  But this isn't a normal person. He has a felony record.  If I call the police
and file a complaint that he has violated the order, well, that record will come into
play against him. The thing that he doesn't, can't or won't realize is that I will not
call the police unless he does something that crazily violates that order.  Like cussing
me out or approaching me or anyone here - at all.  In an appeal, witnesses are irrelevant.
They aren't heard.  The judge only considers the evidence that was ALREADY brought
to the original hearing at Justice Court.

I've been through this process when I won a case against the mobile home park in 2003,
I think it was, and the park appealed it to the Superior Court.  It's just their attorney against
me.  Or 350 man against me if he chooses to attempt to do this himself, but I doubt that is
going to be the case.  After my experiences with lawyers in court, I am at the point where
I have no fear of them.  They can make all kinds of threats and statements and say that
all kinds of junk is going to happen - but in the end, only the court can and will make those
decisions.

I'm liking the peace I have now and don't want to lose it because this "man" might win in
appeals court, so, I will be doing my homework.  Refreshing my memory, more like it.

I'm already digging into this.  This will not happen overnight. Number one, he CANNOT get
a stay on a harassment order.  So, the order is in effect until/if/when the judge makes a ruling.
Well, this is usually a long, drawn-out process.  I find Superior Court appeals to be extremely
stimulating, to be honest, not scary or arduous. Though, going through all the information
necessary can definitely be time consuming.

Lots on my plate.  But, the photo radar ticket can go blast.  I don't have to do anything unless I
get served and then I need only show up in court.

__________________

Long interlude.  Spoke with my mother - she goes on Thursdays early morning to the yard sales in her area to find the good deals, of which she scored quite a few.  She has taken personal interest in attempting to secure items for my trailer once it finally gets up there - which doesn't matter, she won't be up there until next summer anyway.

I am thinking of getting up on the roof of that trailer and taking a stab at getting the leak fixed.  Except - it may rain this weekend.  I'm not going to be up there in the rain, thank you very much.

Also have read quite a bit of material on appeals already.  Pretty easy to find all kinds of sites dedicated to it - both from the courts and from attorneys.  The first thing that comes to mind in responding to 350 man's brief - whenever it is submitted - is that his reply to my filing for the injunction was that "I have NEVER (and he underlined the word never) had any contact with Mr B.".  That was IT, that is ALL he stated in it.  The judge, at hearing, tore that apart after asking him a series of questions, which, of course, totally undermine's 350 man's credibility.

No need to go into all of that now.  This thing will wind itself out over time. I have been through an appeals process, as I said earlier, it's not an overnight thing, in fact, it's not even in a few weeks.  It can take months and months to go through the full circuit of an appeals process.

With that, I bid you...........g'nite.

ben

Thursday 11/10/11

11/11/11/ approaches - like - tomorrow.  I have given the day no more credibility or thought than any other day, but an amazing amount of people I have encountered have.  So I ask them what makes it evil - or good?  No one can answer that question, they've just "heard" about it.  I did a little looking online - there is no evidence to base even a superstition on this set of numbers - but then again, this is the stuff superstitions are made of.

If anything, I would feel it a lucky number in terms of blackjack!

The guy I bought the trailer from calls yesterday.  Good.  I still owe him $400 on the thing, he's looking for his money, I agreed to pay him by the 17th of this month.  I asked him about the AC that worked so great for him.  Yup. Will, it isn't working now.  Oh.  The fan motor must be burned out.  Oh, and by the way, you certified this thing as having no leaks, but it definitely has a leak.  The point wasn't to b**** at him about false claims or claims made that he may not have known about, the point was to see if he would bring the remaining amount owed down any.  Nope.  Well, I had already figured to eat it anyway, but it didn't hurt to at least try.

I had to order more wallpaper for the trailer.  Taking a lot more than it appeared it would.

Nothing on the neighbor front.  The people behind me who were given the ticket have done nothing to even start cleaning up that property.  I mean, on the property that has no house, there hasn't been a drop of motion towards doing anything.  This kind of situation will escalate over time.  People complain long enough, the city will eventually come and give them an ultimatum: clean it up or we will clean it up for you and then charge you for the clean up, place a lien against the property and eventually?  The city will own the property which it will undoubtedly turn around and sell at auction or under the same guise they do with the tax liens that they attach to properties.

Randy isn't speaking to me after I asked him - nicely actually - to take responsibility for his cats coming over to my property and crapping.  He instead went into a ridiculous, stupid and childish rant on if I am wanting him to shoot his cats and that since there are no leash laws for cats, it isn't his problem.  No, but there IS  a law in the books about someone else's animals coming onto other's property.  I read it myself.  That doesn't matter to him, perhaps not, but if I wanted to start catching these cats and then turning them into the pound and documenting that I caught these cats,  it might be a different story.  The person that came to take ownership of the cat would also be admitting that their feline was on my property.

But, I am not really prepared to go that far with it, well I am toying with the idea just because of the calloused replies and stupid attitudes I am getting about it.  This adults are nothing but juveniles in adult bodies.

Regardless, the work day is here and I must be off to work. Plenty to do today.

G'day.

ben

Wednesday 11/9/2011

Before you know it, Christmas will be upon us.  I am taking 3 days off on the week leading up to Christmas, that  weekend and Monday a paid holiday which will give me 6 full days off in a row.  My dad wanted me to come down for Thanksgiving, but I have been taking time off at Thanksgiving for several years running now and nothing off at Christmas.  I'm much more interested some time off at Christmas this year.

I guess the idea of Christmas being here "so soon" is amazing just because summer seems to finally have ended.

I have not contacted the mortgage company again.  I get tired of the bantering.  They have their little game and I don't like playing it.  It takes forever to get through to anyone if you are calling them - which is the ONLY way to get anything done as witnessed by my recent letter and getting a pure-nothing reply.  They then ask you, every single time, a multitude of questions, the same questions.  Then you have to talk to a know-nothing that won't let you through to anyone else until you discuss it with them - or they will hang up on you.  You waste your time talking to them because they cannot answer your questions and they have ability to do anything about the situation, anyway.  This just goes on and on.  It takes me a while to get up the motivation to go through all of that to begin the process.

Meanwhile, my manager at work has a buddy that gets old laptops and re sells them after upgrading them.  I'm going to wait and see what kind of deal, if any, I might be able to get on one of those before diving into the "buy a new one" situation.  My manager has one that he paid $1,200 for a year and a half ago - but I don't have as much money as he wants for it available right now.  Not that I have to have one right now, anyway.

The wall papering is coming right along, but we are almost out of wall paper.  I was hopeful  that 3 double-rolls would take care of it - it did not and I ordered 3 more double rolls which definitely should do the job.

Ummm, I am off to work early - emergency order that has to go out as early as possible today.

G'day.

ben

Tuesday 11/8/2011

So yet another woman has stepped forward claiming sexual harassment against Cain.  Is there any truth to any of the allegations?  I guess the real question is: what really happened versus what people are claiming happened.  Whatever the case, I'm even more interested in what these allegations may do to his polling numbers.

It's gotten Phoenix' version of cold here.  We went from summer temps one day to cold temps the next, that's pretty much the way it works around here.  We aren't gradually introduced to the cooler temperatures, we are plunged smack dab into them.  It's 46 degrees out right now at just before 6:00am.  One of the kid tenants just left, came back in and left the door wide open.  Even 30 feet away from that door, I felt the cold air almost instantly - and got up and shut the d*** thing.  I don't normally have to run heat around here, the house has good insulation and since it warms up nicely during the day, it stays warm enough through the night.  But, when it gets into the 30's, then the furnace comes on.

There isn't much more to yak about.  Work was slow yesterday, hopefully there is something going on today, the job sites were shut down yesterday due to all the rain.

G'day.

ben