Western Union Fraud

You want to talk about distracted driving, that was me, coming to work this morning.
That's because I was online, looking at my checking account - I pretty much do that on a daily basis.  When I got into the account, the amount in there was waaaaaay lower than I expected to see.  I started thinking, what on earth did I do?  I fixed Caleb's car and filled it up with gas, but it wouldn't have cost that much money.

The account comes up and there it is: 2 debits in the amount of $155.02 each.  Didn't make any debits for that amount yesterday or the day before and if I had, I wouldn't have made 2 of them for the exact same amount. I didn't recognize the name of the company on there, it just had WU with an 800 number.  I called the number - Western Union.

You want to talk about a good reason to check your accounts on a daily basis, this is the biggest one I can think of: people out there are out to steal your money and if they find a way to do it, you are cooked, screwed and shafted.

I'm walking out the door of my house, spacing everything else out.  I want my money back.  I got very mad, very quickly.  I would love to get my hands on the people that steal your bank information and then steal your money.  It would not be a pleasant encounter for that person or those individuals, I can assure you of that.

Well, I'm looking up the phone number of Chase and attempting to drive - not very smart on my part but everything in the "sane" department seemed to have checked out at that point.  Just get on the phone with the bank and get the account frozen or whatever needs to be done immediately.  I finally got them on the phone and the representative connected me with their fraud department.  It didn't take him long: Someone did an over the phone or online transaction with Western Union last night using your debit card number.  Your checking account is fine, it was your card that was used. We are cancelling that card right now and will be sending you a new one which will arrive in the next 7 - 10 business days.

All well and fine, but what about my  money? - I'm thinking but didn't say anything, thought I'd heard the guy out and see what happens in such circumstances.  They are "temporarily" crediting my account with the money and it's up to a review department to determine whether I get to keep it or not.  Well what are you going to do about this fraud, the person that enacted it?  It was not very clear at that point.  Well getting my  money back even if temporarily was better than hearing so sorry, sob, you lose.  Actually, the two transactions were still showing pending, meaning the bank hasn't even cleared them yet.

Standing down now.  At least my account is safe and no more fraudulent transactions can occur, but there is still one question that I must somehow resolve: How did they get my debit card number?  The last place I used it was at Quik Trip - a gas station a mile away from my house in filling up Caleb's car.  I use cash more often than not, I use the debit card but sparingly.  I wonder if one of those things had been installed on the gas pump card reader that I have read about?  I don't remember looking at it that closely.

The other place was Auto Zone.  These are the last 2 places recently that I used the card.  My online bill paying is mostly through the checking account number, not the debit card.  So I don't know, but I am going to call or visit the gas station today to see if such electronic device might have been found on thei pumps, however, I think it would be difficult for a thief to do such a thing in a very well lit area at a place that is open 24 hours a day.  I don't know, really.

Just makes me happy that I check my accounts almost every single day.  I do it because of this potential: thieves getting in there and stealing.   I hate Western Union, btw, it is the Bank of Thieves.  They use that mode to steal more than anything.  Excepting the fact that I did not use Western Union, at all.

Edited:  I just got off the phone with Western Union who, as I figured, basically told me to go blow  - the money was taken out last night.  I was thinking someone local got a hold of my information.  I thought wrong.  Pasy, Philippines.  Some dude, at 11:57 pm last night, went to a convenience store in the Philippines and made these transactions.

Here's the real problem: HOW did this person get my debit card number?  An online transaction is my guess.  I'm going to have to go in an change the passwords on all accounts that I pay online.  The only other thing I have done is buy fish food from an eBay seller - I have been buying from this same person for a couple of years now.  I'm trying to wrap my mind as to how this person got my number and I just don't know.  That card has been cancelled, but that is no peace of mind if this person can just find out the new card number once I start using it. I pay my car payment and credit card payments online.  I also pay Direct TV; water bill; Century link internet and Verizon online as well.  Some of these use my bank account number, most of them use the debit card number now that I am thinking about it.

I'm racking my brain, 2cd edit here, attempting to figure out how, exactly this individual got a hold of my debit card number.  Is there malware installed on my computer I don't know about?  Odd occurence: a Windows update 3 or 4 days in a row now, attempting to install on my computer.  You know, those auotmatic updates that come from Microsoft?  That is not normal.  I'm going to have to back up the files I want to save on my deskto- which fortunately aren't that many - and delete and reinstall Windows 7 as a precaution.  I've been wanting to do that for a long time, anyway, I just found the motivation to do it.  I am giong to change all passwords on every online account and I am going to make sure they are all differnet passwords.  So I will have to write them all down.  I have virus protection, but is it good enough? At this point, I don't know.


And I am still worried about whether this "temporary" credit is going to remain.


Oh well.

ben

Let's bomb the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Yeah, that's a great idea!  You have to wonder what, exactly, is going through the mind or minds or the person or people the enacted this horrific event.  Why?  I don't understand people who just want to kill others.  Okay, let me say here that there are circumstances where a person can lose it and potentially get some sympathy from the public.

Revisit the dad whose 2 young sons were killed when they were attempting to push their broken down vehicle back to their house.  A drunk driver smashed those kids and the dad - shot the man in the head.  Whether it's right or wrong?  I can definitely see where the man's mind would be at under such circumstances.  That drunk driver just took his offspring from him.  I don't know that, in such circumstances, I would have killed the driver, but - I am not going to say that that driver would have walked away under their own power.

I'm going to wait on this one.  Who did this? Al Qaeda?  A nutcase?  Some other militant group?  A rogue nation?  This is the world we live in and it's full of evil.  There is no understanding such things taking place, only the fact that this world is corrupt.

Onto other things. Church was amazing on Sunday.  Absolutely incredible. The presence of the Lord was palpable.  I had a word from the Lord that was intense. I didn't give it, though I should have.  An older lady came up to me while all of this was going on - rather surprising - sat down next to me and told me that she was not going to let me go on this one.  What?  "You have a word!  You must share it with the Body of Christ!"  

I was taken aback. Not in a bad way, she was right: I had a word yet I go through so many mind-battles at church, still, that I don't want to go up front, pick up a microphone and start speaking. Not that I am afraid to - I have preached in front of a lot of people - but I don't want to give out something that is not purely from the Lord.  I never did get up there.  She came up to me after the service and apologized, asking me for my forgiveness for offending me.

NO, I replied, you definitely did not offend me! I need a good boot in the rear.  A short discussion and she asked if I would at least write it out and send it to the pastor.  I agreed to that and I did.  He wrote me back and exclaimed how powerful a word it was and could he share it with the elders?  After that, he then said he wanted to share it with the entire congregation.

I am no great man of God. I am a faulted human.  This is my hangup.  After I got divorced, ministry went by the wayside and got off track.  I have been off track for so long, it's been very hard to try and get back into the swing of things concerning church and ministry.  Yet I hear these things coming from the heavenlies and it churns within me, especially during services.

Well, anyway, onto other things.  I went outside today to feed the fish in the ponds and was startled at the site of the horse trough pond.  All the fish were at the top, gasping for air.  A fish's version of drowning.  Meaning there isn't enough oxygen in the water.  A quick check found that the aerator had quit working.  Goodness gracious.  I don't want my fish dying like that!  I quickly went to the front pond that has nothing but mosquito eating fishing in it, grabbed the aerator off of it and set it up.  I then removed the waterfall filter - it was clogged - and cleaned it out and put it back.  I then got some pavers and put underneath that filter - which pours out water over the side of it, making a waterfall - and made it a higher fall of water, meaning greater aeration.  After that, I started pumping fresh water into the pond.

I hope that is enough to get them into a better situation.  Tomorrow I am going to buy 2 aerators for that pond and get it fully oxygenated.  But, fish attempting to sip air through their mouths at the surface are fish that won't last very long.  I am going to go out there in a minute and check again, it should be getting better in there by now.  Enough that they don't have to be hanging out at the surface.

It's late, for me anyway, need to get to bed.

G'nite.

ben

It doesn't take much to make me happy, I guess, cause' that Queensland Bottle Tree is finally taking off!  It's putting out leaves like crazy!  I am helping it along with frequent waterings and fertilizer.  It likes it, lol.  It's fun to watch an "exotic" tree - certainly not native to this area and I've only seen one growing in a back yard (which is where I found out about them to begin with) - growing and liking this kind of desert environment.

But, I'm going to have to transplant it.  I picked a bad spot to put it.  I realized that after remembering how huge the trunks get.

The RV trailer is gone.  It is amazing how nice it looks out there without that big ole' thing blocking the view of everything.  I'm considering taking the money from the sale and paying off my car.  I owe about as much as I got from the trailer on it and I would like to be done with the payments on it.  The free'd up monthly payment would be very nice to have indeed.

I considered getting an above-ground swimming pool - but I decided against it.  The summers here heat up the water in those kinds of pools  to the point it becomes unusable.  You have to drain the water out and refill - which is pretty costly when talking thousands of gallons of water and having to do that semi-frequently.   An in-ground pool would be wonderful if I had an extra 15 grand or more laying around, lol.

350 man strikes again.  My newest tenant was coming home from Circle K (convenience store a block away).  He said he was listening to music and walking by 350 man's house when 350 man came rushing out his door, in the front yard and started glaring at him.  Tenant was taken aback.  He wasn't even looking at 350 man's house, much less starting any trouble.

I ended up telling him the entire story of the situation between us and also with my next-door neighbor.  He wasn't afraid or intimidated, in fact, he said if he "was like I used to be" they would have brawled already. I won't tolerate 350 man attempting to intimidate my tenants.  I will go straight back to court and get another restraining order if that s*** keeps happening.

Anyway, weekend here.  Taking Friday off - only because if I don't, I won't accrue any more vacation hours starting next month, I will be over my 140. Don't use them, don't accrue them.  I'll take the time off, thank you very much.

Ummm, gotta get movin'.  Stuff to do around the house.

G'day.

ben

Trailer sold.  Less than I wanted but enough to make me happy.

News flash: It's Furrrrrrrrrridayyyyyyy!

Next news flash: I got started late!

Off to work!

G'day!

ben

The trailer has been sold!

I think.

Lol.

An entire family was here yesterday for almost 2 hours.  They had looked at a lot of other trailers.  All old trailers need some kind of work, but mine is in very good condition and though there are things wrong with it, nothing serious or major.

These people live approximately half a mile away, lol.

Well, they are coming back today with money, hopefully.  Never call it a done deal until money is in hand of course.

With that?

Time to be off to work!

ben

I make no apologies, I am not a proponent of gun control.  I don't care what Obama and his ilk are saying or how badly he wants to lambaste Republicans in an attempt to make them look evil for taking any kind of stand against it - which is exactly what he is attempting to do - gun control is not going to work and that has been proven repeatedly, time and time again in other nations throughout the world through a vast expanse of time.

None of these measures they are proposing would have stopped the Newtown killer from obtaining the weapons he had stolen from his mother.  None of these proposals will do anything about all the existing guns in Americans' hands so what's the point?  Not only that, but gun manufacturers in anti-gun states are considering leaving those states for green pastures.  I can't blame them.  I DO like the idea of starting somewhere at a baseline to deal with mentally ill individuals, but even then I think you start on a slippery slope.

Whatever the case and completely changing the subject, my son now has to raise $4,000 to go to Hawaii for his year long missionary venture, apparently the Salvation Army pays the rest.  I can do a little, but he is going to have to reach out to all of his friends, extended family, do some fundraisers, save his money from his 2 month stint up in the mountains that he's going to do and maybe find some odd jobs to do.  I figure I'll chip in around $200 and call it good from my end.  I just can't do much more than that right now and even if I could, I probably wouldn't.  He is taking a step into a walk of faith in the Lord and if God wants him to go, then by golly, the Lord will make the way and he needs to learn how to trust in the Lord for his every need.

Is it Friday yet?  I think it was last summer that I took an extended vacation.  I'm really fighting the urge to put in for a week off here.  I want to wait until the summer to do so - better to take time off when it's boiling hot outside and not have to deal with that for a week.  I am at my maximum hours, well just short of them, for vacation so I have to take a day off here pretty quick, before the end of the month anyway so I don't start losing my vacation accrual.

But, I am ready for a longer vacation.  Only two months until June, so I am going to try to keep my cool about this and wait until at least June to take at least a week off.

Yikes!  Lost track of time, c'yall later, it's time to head in for work!

G'day.

ben

Neighbor Wars Have Escalated

It's all-out, full blown war.
My next door neighbor, who has been busy building his house - made his move yesterday.  I didn't find out about this until today, cause' I can't see that side of his house.

His neighbor - 350 man - installed metal fence posts into the ground - 23 inches into my neighbor's property - some time ago.  Ever since then, it's been all-out war.  But, it's a civil matter, not a criminal matter and my neighbor has been through the rungs in attempting to deal with this.

So yesterday?  He installed 2X4's into the ground - on 350 man's property side of the fence- but really it's my neighbor's property - to erect a fence.  My neighbor's lawyer informed him that he can't take down 350 man's fence posts, but he can install his own fence up to the real property line.  When my neighbor told me this today, I went to take a look.

Oh yes, he did.  And 350 man called the police.  The police can do nothing, a civil matter that only the court can decide.  My neighbor went into a long diatribe about how 350 man has called the city 100 times on him. This concerning the house he is building.

350 man.  A piece of work.  An under-funded, genetically defective piece of work, but a piece-of-work never-the-less.

I must admit to my tones towards him after finding out his wanderings on my property, in my back yard, after I go to sleep at night.  Not pleasant tones.  In fact, I would have to call it downright abrasive.  But who does this guy think he is, after all the trouble he has started with me, in coming into my back yard at night, after I have gone to bed?

I thought it was the water bill. A letter with City of Phoenix logo on it.
I opened it and found a note inside saying the city prosecutor has decided to press charges against the owner of the dogs that attacked Duke.
Very odd. They sent me a letter a month or two ago saying they were not going to do that.  It had talk in it about sending the woman to jail and this that and the other thing.
Well, they never asked me my opinion on the subject but the reality of it is, all I want is the money I had to spend on the vet back.  Perhaps put those dogs down.  That person is a very irresponsible dog owner seeing from the numerous times I have driven past there and seen the gate open and the door to the house open.  Those dogs could easily just run out of the house and start their junk all over again.  My dogs have gotten out before, but they don't go tearing up the first animal they see.

But I'm not a fan of Pit Bulls and anytime they attack anyone or other dog I am a fan of seeing them put down.
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Started this entry yesterday.  It is official now: Caleb is going to spend a year in Hawaii, leaving sometime in September.  He is also going to do another 2 month stint as a camp counselor at the Salvation Army's camp up in Heber.  The stint in Hawaii is also through the Salvation Army.  The winds of change have finally come for him and I am excited about what God is going to do in and through his life.  I am not exactly excited I won't be seeing him, but that's the way life is and the way God has set things up.  Normal, in other words, for your children to leave after they grow up and find their own way.  I am guessing after that year in Hawaii he will be moving on towards the things his heart is full of, which at the moment is to become a minister in Japan.

I am feeling rather tied down at this point.  I remember the days of missionary life and as hard and sometimes trying as they might have been, I wouldn't trade that experience for anything on this earth.  It's hard to break free from the "chains that bind you", which in this case is the life I am currently living in working a full time job; making house payments and all that comes with that and basically doing much of nothing else if comparing it to the life I lived some time ago.  But, until I get a clear picture of what I should be doing with the rest of my life in contrast to what the Bible says - I will do nothing but what I already do and that is to help people as much as I can.

_____________________________________

So Saturday. So far, I have done much of nothing excepting to refill the 2 Hummingbird feeders, brown a roast and put it into a crockpot and ponder some bills that are due to be paid.  I haven't been invited to go with, but I have been informed about a festival going on in downtown Tempe, starting 10 minutes ago.  A bunch of local artists will be there showing off their work. Sounds intriguing, actually, I can get lost in a good painting.

Well, just listed the RV trailer for the however manyeth time on Craigslist.  I am thinking I am going to have to break down and list it on RV Trader for at least one month or however they do it now-a-days and see if I have better luck there. I've had a couple of people come look at it, but so far nothing.

Off to work.  I have plenty to do outside and I have a person coming at 1:30 to take some of the Yerba Mensa that is growing like crazy off of my hands.  I need to get rid of some if, it consumes a large amount of water and drains my pond down quickly.  Let someone else have some water draining plants! For free at that!

G'day.

ben

Well, I am finally getting a run tomorrow morning out-of-town.  To Globe. I have been there numerous times for this company but not anytime recently.  In fact, I have been stuck on in-town trips forever.  My manager does not want me going out-of-town, he wants me here for the in-town junk.  It is junk not because of the job or the deliveries, but because of the unbelievable shit that happens in traffic with idiots every day.

Today?  Let's talk about one incident in particular.  I had finished delivering to a job-site - which was no small feat in itself and would have had to have made a video of the maneuvers I had to make to get in and more to the point: OUT of that place.  I was on the freeway bridge.  I did not pay any attention, whatsoever, as to what was going on on the freeway underneath me.

In a few seconds, I had wished I did.  I made the left-hand turn and looked ahead - nothing but a sea of stopped cars both on the freeway and the on-ramp I was on.  I got to the point where the cars were - parked - in front of me and waited.  And waited. And waited.  At some point, numerous vehicles merged onto the shoulder and started backing up the 500 feet to the freeway entrance.  At another point, they simply got to a point where they could turn around and started driving the wrong way! This wasn't a situation where traffic was moving very slowly and stopping and moving, this was a situation where NOTHING was moving AT ALL!

I called 511 on my cellphone and heard a recording tell me that the freeway "is closed at Williamsfield road".   Willaimsfield road? The next exit, 2 miles away. At the rate we weren't going, it would take hours!! Well, eventually and after calling in to let them know that I was stuck in non-moving traffic, it all started to move again, albeit very slowly.  I observed all lanes after finally getting to the point of actually entering the freeway and notice the "high speed lane" or far left lane was moving faster than all of them.  I moved over to that lane immediately and spent the next 25 minutes there moving 2 miles.

When I finally got to the accident scene, wow.  Jack-knifed big rig.  SUV that had obviously rolled at least once, crumpled like a tin can after crunching it, entire roof had been cut off by first-responders to remove the victims inside. Another car had also rolled and it was totally trashed.  I mean trashed as in crumpled and destroyed, not just minor damage.  TRASHED trashed!  Another vehicle - a pickup - but I could only see parts of it - the parts I see damaged but the rest was blocked by the wrecked semi.

OH, wait a minute, THAT wasn't the thing I wanted to talk about concerning idiots in traffic!  That just came to my mind because it took so long to get past it.

Okay, this will take less writing on my part and reading on yours:  I just got off the freeway - yes, I am drinv the semi.  48 foot flatbed (skateboard truckers call it).  I am in the "slow" right-hand lane.  There is a side-street I am approaching.  A Discount Cab car comes flying up beside me, cuts directly in front of me - less than a car's length and then SLAMS on the brakes to slow down enough to make a turn on the side-street which is now maybe 30 feet in front of me.

I'm shutting the truck down, laying on the horn, wondering if I'm going to rear-end this complete and total idiot.  Fortunately for me, I had off-loaded most everything on the truck at the prior deliveries so truck was light and easier to get slowed down. If the truck had been loaded heavy, I would have taken that car out.

 I immediately became infuriated with this moron.  It would have cost his life if any and I do not want to be responsible for taking someone else's life, regardless of the fact I would not have been at fault.  I turned onto the side street and followed him - sort of - he was driving erratically and well above the speed limit, just enough to get his license and cab number before he cranked into an apartment complex.

I called Discount Cab a while later and got a woman on the phone who "would be glad to take my complaint".  No, I said, I want to speak to driver management.  She connects me to someone else.  "Are you in management?" "Hold on, please".  Another person.  Same question.  Hold please.  Another person, same question. "Yes, I am the operations manager". Thank you.  I let loose.  You have a driver that is a complete and total liability to your company, among other statements.

I don't know what that man did about it, I can only call in and complain. A person driving like that is going to have a mishap eventually and it is going to cost the taxi company in insurance premiums.

Well enough. Time for bed.

ben

Finally!

My little Queensland Bottle Tree finally  started growing again!  I mean, the thing stopped growing near the end of fall last year and hasn't grown an inch since then. Now, Spring came and here we go!  It had a total of 9 leaves on it and that was that.  Now?  Growing up - sending out new leaves and looking very promising!

Monday.  Not a good day for me.  At sometime around midnight last night, someone slammed the back door and woke me up out of a dead sleep.  I got mad - it takes me a long time to get back to sleep usually - I ended up with about 4 hours of sleep last night.  I did not want to get out of bed this morning.  I was on my way to work and a salesman called - it was 5:45 am!  But, he just wanted to vent about a particular LTL company - Central Freight  to be exact - that had left a giant part sitting on a dock on Thursday of last week when it should have been loaded into the truck and on the dock at their Phoenix facility on Friday morning.

This part shut a whole jobsite down and Central Freight offered nothing  to compensate.  We will be suggesting to the company that shipped it - which ships out a LOT of freight on a daily basis, to reconsider using a freight company that has screwed things up on numerous occasions.

Well, I got to work and started right in.  Not 30 minutes into it and loading pallet, I threw a 120 pound solid metal fitting onto the pallet.  My right hand was in the way.  More precisely, my right hand ring finger.  I saw a split second before it happened what was going to happen and I just couldn't get my hand out of the way fast enough.  The part landed on the pallet and was instantly forced sideways up against another, heavy, metal part.

Yup, my finger was in the way.  Lots of blood and intense pain. I got the bleeding stopped quickly, but the pain? Smashed finger meat.  Pain doesn't go away very fast when you smash your meat.  It just doesn't.  I put ice on it immediately, the only thing I know of to keep the swelling down and to reduce the pain.  Well not the only thing, but ice is very effective and if you freeze it enough, it's going to help.

But, I was working and every time I started lifting or pulling on something, the bleeding started again, not to mention exponential amounts of pain ripping through the finger, into the brain, telling me this doesn't feel very good.  I don't deal with things that are light, the stresses placed on fingers, hands, arms, body are enormous at times.  A freshly smashed finger isn't really willing to deal with all of that.

Well, I get to a job site and the truck is completely loaded.  The finger started bleeding again to the point of soaking the glove on that hand with blood.  Hope you aren't eating while reading this, lol.  No, this isn't an April Fool's joke, either, the joke was on me if anything.  I just continued on with getting the truck unloaded and when finally done, took off the glove, removed the bandage and poured bottled water on it to clean it, dried it and then put a fresh bandage on it.

But, the pain didn't stop. I left work early today.  I just wanted to go home, put ice on it and deal with the pain. A drink or two wouldn't hurt, either.  And so it was, I got home before 2:00 pm, something that hasn't happened in a long time.  One of my tenants went and got ice in a paper towel and handed it to me.  I'm feeling better now and no bleeding since I got home.  Slept for 2 hours.

___________________
Ummm, got off of writing this and now the next morning, almost time to leave for work.  Finger feeling a bit better, but still painful if I rub it up against anything.  Oh well.

G'day.

ben

Happy Easter!

I am leaving in a few minutes to spend a portion of the day with my mother - and my brother and his son.  My son is also coming along with me.  I have no idea how this will turn out, but probably can turn out okay if my brother keeps politics out of the discussion.  If he starts in on it, well, I may just get up and leave.  It never turns out well when he starts in on his political views, which are at the complete opposite end of the spectrum than mine.  He can't agree to disagree agreeably - as the old saying goes - he's one of those "I'm right and you're wrong" people.  I could even stand that if he weren't so obnoxious about it.

He will make some absurd statement about Obama and all of the things he's "accomplished" and if I say anything back to the contrary, he simply can't stand it.  He will then start interrupting, raising his voice and acting as if I had just insulted him personally because I do not and won't ever agree with much of his political views.

My mother's political views and mine are almost identical.  But, she just keeps her mouth shut when my bro starts in on his ranting.  He does not visit her often and so she will put up with whatever in exchange for time spent with her son and grandson.  IF things can possibly take an amenable turn today, I will offer my brother the use of my trailer up on my mom's property to go up there for a visit.  Whether he wants to or not, I have no clue.  He used to go up there and camp, but I think camping is not his cup of tea anymore.  Fine and dandy, my trailer is home away from home.  It is very nicely decorated and has new, berber carpeting (that I installed myself and I am very pleased with it's outcome); new wallpaper that Lynnette installed last year and I have been upgrading it as money permits.

It also has AC, so no baking out there in the summer when the mid-afternoon heat hits.  It gets in the 90's in the summer in the afternoons.  It is not pleasant to be in if you are in a tent.  Been there, done that.  But, sitting in a trailer, watching TV if you are so inclined or just taking a snooze with the AC on a completely different story.  It has hot, running water (during the time of year I can keep water in the holding tank and not worry about it freezing up and freezing the lines), a microwave, etc.

Although the offer may be made, I actually do not expect him to take me up on it.  He doesn't want to go up there and visit mother, that's my take on it anyway.  Neither does my oldest brother.  The both have become very disinterested in much of anything to do with their parents.  They call her occasionally, they see her once or twice a year and that's it.  Pretty amazing considering they live - about 50 miles apart.  And when my oldest brother is up at his cabin, they are about 7 miles apart.

Well, whatever the case, I must depart for the grand feast.  Whatever may happen there, one thing is always for sure: the food will be tremendous!

Happy Easter again!\

ben

Happy Good Friday

And a Good Friday it is.  Christ died on the Cross so we can have eternal life!

Well, this weekend is already done.  Saturday is going to be continuing to work around the yard outside - the amount of work left is dwindling - especially with Gilbert's help last weekend, he went to town out front - but there is still plenty to do.

New tenant is moved in and paid in full for the month.  That's a good thing.

If I'm not too tired, I will go to tonight's celebratory church service in remembrance of what Christ did on the cross.  I will not be able to make church on Sunday because of Easter plans with mother, so prolly otter get in there tonight if at all possible - I just tend to start yawning and getting sleepy at about the time the service starts at 7:00 pm.  I know, it's ridiculous, I"m a full grown adult and getting sleepy like a 5 year old would at 7:00, but the early rise lifestyle at work, you know.

Getting close to 250,000 gold coins in the myVegas thing.  Although plans can always change, I am looking forward to getting at least twice that many gold coins if not many more than that and having a near-free vacation to Vegas in August.  What are you going to do in Vegas? Well with that many gold coins, still in very, very nice hotel and probably take in a show or two.  I love blackjack and have never played it in Vegas.  Not that it's that much different there than anywhere else, but I do believe the house rules concerning the game is probably a bit better up there.  There are things that some casinos do to give the house an even greater advantage.

Well, that's all the time I have for now, time to be off to work!

G'day.

ben

I'm tired and cranky.
Ever since Gilbert did his attempt-to-move-out-in-the-middle-of-the-night-thing-without-my-knowing thing, I have not been sleeping well.
But whatever.
The room is clean and done.  I called the man today to let him know it's ready and he stated he was moving in tomorrow.  Okay, I replied, Mark should be here all day if you show up before I get home from work.

However, I will be giving Mark a simple set of instructions: the man must pay up before he moves in.  Money or nothing.  I will give Mark a little "reward" of the money given for doing all he has done to help in this situation.

Long day at work.  Just tired.  I gotta get some sleep going here. I'm working on 4 or 5 hours per night, well short of what I need to feel good throughout the day - or if need be, take a nap and feel good again after slowing down.

Some of the things people do in traffic...............just maddening.

But I am not going to go into that.  Instead, since I have posted that ad for the room, I have had a large number of inquiries concerning it.   I have had numerous phone conversations, but in the end, it's whoever shows up and seems like a good fit is the person that is going to get it.

So, on my way home from work yesterday, I get a call from one of those individuals informing me he was at the house and can I get someone out there to let him in?  Yes, of course.  I was expecting him and had informed Mark that someone might be coming.

By the time I got home, they were in the bedroom, looking it over.  Quite the mess, actually.  But not the end of the world, either.  The disconcerting thing is the melted wax on the floor.  I wondered how close this house might have come to burning down with a person burning candles that is paying so little attention to them, large quantities of wax are oozing onto the floor?  This is the kind of risk a person takes, I guess, in renting out rooms.  I can't deal with things I don't know about.

Well, anyway, his brother and this guy had come, his brother already has a place, they were just doing this looking around thing together.  Apparently they had been to numerous houses/apartments, looking for a place but much of it was a "frat house" type of atmosphere, a living situation this guy didn't want any part of.  In other words, places filled with college aged students.  After listening to this guy talking for quite a while, I came to the determination - as much as one can make in such a short space of time - that this guy would probably work out in moving in here.  There are never any guarantees and sometimes people have quirks and/or things that they do that cause great annoyance for others.

But, we shook on it and so the race begins.  The room is - was - a mess.  I started right in on cleaning the carpet.  This guy needs the room - immediately actually - he is living with his brother but it became obvious that that was only intended to be a short-lived situation.  I got the carpet looking pretty good - excepting the wax. How does one remove wax?  The only way I could think of is with heat, but I couldn't fathom how you could use heat to extract it from the carpet.

An online search, of course, got the answer:  a piece of newspaper set on top of the wax and an iron put on low heat and let it sit there.  According to the site, the newspaper will absorb the wax.

Well I haven't gotten to that yet, it was as much as I could get done to go over that carpet numerous times with the machine in trying to get it to looking as good as possible.

Well, Mark was going to do the rest, but he has his job today so that isn't going to work out, either, when I get home from work I will continue on the cleanup and try to get it done or mostly done by the end of today.

As for now?

Time to go to work.

G'day.

ben

Finding A New Tenant/DirecTv

The search goes on.
For a new tenant.

But first: Direct TV

My favorite company to hate and they deserve it.  I stand on my evaluation of this company as continuing to have the worst customer service on the face of this planet.  They have not improved in their customer service since they made all of those announcements last year about it - after losing millions of customers because of it.

Regardless.  They came out and replaced the dish, the lines that go to the dish and the switch.  Whatever the switch thing is called, it is a block where all the lines from the house go into it and the 2 lines from the satellite dish go into it.  It needs electricity for whatever it does.

Saturday, I noticed several channels were not working and "searching for satellite signal".  I called Direct TV and made an appointment.  No biggies on hurrying, it's only some channels, not all of them, I can live without them until they come and fix it.  This morning, George (one of my tenants) called me and told me that it was all out, none of the channels are working.  Although he said he had called me to prepare before I got home and found nothing working, I knew better. I can live without TV at all.  The internet a different story, but TV I can take it or leave it.  I have some favorite shows, don't get me wrong, but nothing that makes me have to have it.

Well, when I found that out, I started making calls.  Hard to do while working, but I was able to make the calls without sacrificing work at the same time.  It's called multi-tasking and I"m pretty good at it.

I knew I would get loads and loads of  BS - and I certainly wasn't let down on that issue.  I won't go into all the details, it will take too long and I don't feel like writing that much.  On finally calling their headquarters and getting to someone who said no-one was available to come out today, I then asked for her manager.  She didn't want to but I am very persuasive, read: I'm not going away and you are going to have to deal with me on my terms.

Her manager gets on the phone and tells me the same thing.  It became quickly obvious that they weren't actually doing anything, they were just looking at the appointments available and reciting to me that the local department where I live didn't have anything available. They were not calling them and asking them - at all - if they could squeeze it in somewhere.  So I told this lady flatly, after listening to her repetitive tribe for a while - that "you are completely useless".  Yes, I insulted her. This isn't customer service.  I call it customer disservice, or more like customer dissing.  You will not question them, they are the final authority and that is that.

This went on for a while, when she finally started talking in logic instead of dictation, then we had a discussion and then she got off the line and made her phone call or email or whatever she did and yes, when I came home from work today at around 5:00 pm, there was a Direct TV van sitting in front of my house and the man had already finished the repair.  I thanked him profusely for doing that and freely admitted that I am the - person - that made life miserable for headquarters and everyone else.  He said no problem and I replied that I wouldn't do that to him, anyway, thanks for coming out.  Turns out that he had a 45 minute drive from the place he was at to my house and that he was at the end of his work day when he was called by his general manager to come out and fix the problem.

But, it took me 2 hours to get that done.  Otherwise, no TV here until tomorrow afternoon.  So, I got some money taken off my bill but I intend on reserving this latest episode with this company for when my current, free movie channels expire, which is very soon.

Back to Gilbert, the tenant that tried to leave in the middle of the night and - dunno why, really amazing that he started acting that way because I have had a good relationship with him all the way up until now.

He crawled out the window the other night in order to, apparently, not have to "deal" with anything.  But,  I wouldn't have said anything further to him at that point, anyway and I was remaining congenial with him.  But, we did have a short conversation - very short - and it was basically that he was leaving, would be out by the first.

So, I talked to other tenants about it, they said if I wanted, they would call me if he showed up to remove the rest of his things, to which I readily agreed.  Yup, I got a call from Lynnette today - he's here, wanted to let you know, do you want me to do anything?  Yup, hand the phone to him, I want to talk to him.

But, I remained cordial and "nice".  If a person is intent on moving out - even without giving any kind of notice at all and owing money - then they are going to do it and there is nothing I can do to stop it.  More importantly, nothing I should do to stop it.  They are leaving for a reason and whatever that reason is, my place doesn't work for them anymore, I am good with that and let's move on.  I told him I would like if we parted on good terms and not turn it into something - bad.  He agreed and we discussed a few things before I asked him: are you still going to give me the money you promised? Yes, he replied. Fine, you can leave it with Lynnette.

So yes, it was a pleasant surprise - surprise, yes - to find that he had left the money he had promised.  He owes more than that, but I know I am not going to get it out of him and I am going to let the rest of it go.  I won't necessarily tell him that, but I am not going to ask for any more.  He has stated he owes me a couple hundred more, which is fine, but he's hurting and getting as much as I did out of this situation today was, actually, a very good ending for me.

I'm tired.  Tenancy issues can be draining.  I have to have the income, period.  It's a non-negotiable deal for me.  I have talked to 3 people so far on the phone about the room and will keep on talking as replies come in off my Craigslist ad until someone takes the room. I had a long conversation with another truck driver who  is looking for a room and though it sounded okay, something better might come along.

And that's that.  It's a little before my bedtime but I am exhausted.

ben

Tired and irritable.
I was attempting to sleep last night and kept getting woken up by noises. What are these dogs doing, I'm thinking?  After being jolted into awake-land, I finally understood that whatever was going on, it wasn't the dogs.  People going in and out of the back door.  My first thought?  Gilbert, the college-aged tenant, moving out in the middle of the night.

Wouldn't be the first time that something like this has happened.  I gave him a notice a few days ago - though not an eviction notice, I wanted him to pay up.  He has been getting behind and he had promised to give me money on Friday - though I was up in the mountains on Friday - yesterday I had to ask him about the rent (versus him coming and discussing it with me).  He gave me a story about losing his wallet and that he will need to go to the bank to get some money.  Perhaps he actually did lose his wallet, I will never know.  Anyway, I figured the notice and his situation would be the only ones moving out like that, the other tenants are not the kind of people that would play those kinds of games.

So, I got on some clothes, came out to the kitchen to find JD on the old computer.  No surprise there, he's been doing it for years, my on restriction is that he doesn't visit porn sites. He wants to do that, go get his own computer and pay for his own internet.  Yes, I can tell, just go through the history and see what he's been up to.  I don't do that often anymore, he is a good "kid", I think he's 20 now, have known him since he was 12.

He had earphones on and didn't even know I was there, but upon observing what he was watching, I had no reason to interrupt him.  He wasn't the reason I was out there.  Just stood there and waited.  Sure enough, here comes Gilbert and 2 of his friends, arms loaded with stuff, walking through.  Gilbert didn't say a word to me, so I ventured out into the deep blue sea and said: "Moving out in the middle of the night, Gilbert?".  It was 2:00 am or thereabouts.  He fumbled for words and said that he was "just moving stuff to a  storage unit".  He then finally offered he would be moving out and would be out by the first of the month.  He further offered money on Monday and the rest of it next Friday.

Well first off, storage units aren't opened at 2:00 am.  I know this for a fact.  Any of them around these parts usually don't allow people in before 6:00am, some of them 5:00 am to accommodate for contractors keeping their trailers and materials stored there.  Second off, he has been giving me the money story a couple of times now.

Whatever.  No notice, just goodbye.  Whatever again.  This isn't the mature or respectful way to deal with such.  Just be honest, that's all I want.  I have never treated him poorly, I have only asked him to respect my rules with the washing machine and lately, asking him about rent.  He stated last week that he had had his hours reinstated so I believed that he was simply going to get caught up on his rent and that would be that.

Well, this basically kept me up the rest of the night.  A flurry of thoughts and immediately went back into my bedroom, got out my laptop and started writing up a room rental ad.  I haven't had to do that in a long time now.  I think Gilbert's been here at least a year, probably longer.  I don't really keep track.  I have no idea where he is moving to, I would guess some place cheaper, though my rent rate is cheap enough and includes utilities and all the perks such as WiFi and 231 channels of Direct TV.  I could do without the Direct TV, but, tenants won't and you can't really lure people in without it.

So now starts the rather arduous task of finding a sane, normal person (it's a gamble every time, unfortunately).  I think Gilbert has been here over a year and a half, judging from the last time I had to place an ad and still in my Craigslist account.  Fortunately, all those ads are still in there, I can simply copy and paste all of that into a new ad instead of having to sit here and write a new one up every time.   When you are running a new ad twice a day, that can add up to a lot of time spent, I am pretty thorough  in my ads in what a person can expect in moving in here and what we expect of them.  Pretty much weeds out a lot of people in advance and don't have to waste a lot of time with people who will not make a good fit in here.

Meanwhile, an entire family came out yesterday to look at the trailer.  I am trying to sell the thing and get it off my property.  Have been trying to sell it for a while now.  They looked at it for a while, said thank you and left.  Probably not, going to repost the ad since the one I have is well down there on the list on Craigslist.  In fact, I was surprised anyone found it considering it is at least a month old and a person would have to do some searching to find that trailer on there.

Life goes on.  I haven't decided yet but probably not going to church.  I'm just too tired to sit there and attempt to remain attentive and engaged in listening to a sermon and worshiping for 2 plus hours.  I am glad all this didn't happen on a work night.  Mark is out in the trailer cleaning up after the dude that I basically forced out - and continues to talk trash to me via texting.  Don't really care.  He was BS'ing me all along, I knew he was but I gave him several chances anyway to pay up.  Getting rid of that trailer is the best idea as far as I am concerned.  It just isn't getting a lot of replies, I may have it priced too high, but I paid $2,500 for it and I always start higher than what I want for it.  At this point, I would take 2 grand to get it out of here.

That's it.

Happy Sunday.

I wrote all of this up at the trailer in the mountains, so posting regardless if the next day:


Well, here I am up in the mountains again.  Took care of a problem with being able to winterize the unit - it has tubes hanging down below the trailer and you simply remove the end caps on the tubes to let the water drain out.  The problem? Those caps must not have been off of there for a long time and 2 of them busted off the lines without much effort in trying to remove them.  I had to replace them  - but I put valves on them instead of replacing them with end caps.

I was then going to fix the deadbolt on the shed door on my mom's property, but after looking at it, it's simply the striker plate.  It is too small to adjust it to a new position, so I will be bringing up a new one next time I am up here.  She is very concerned about it because she won't be able to lock the door - I had to lift up on the door handle, hard, while turning the key at the same time to get it to lock.

It is absolutely gorgeous up here.  The wind is blowing a bit hard, but it's nice and cool, it is quiet, there aren't many other people up here right now.  My mom's neighbors aren't up here at all, which is very nice to have a place like this all to yourself.  Nice place to take a couple days off. Came up yesterday and will be leaving tomorrow morning.

I have needs to get back to the valley and get some situations dealt with.  Namely, the college kid that has been slow paying on rent and the situation with the trailer tenant that reached a head last night in communicating with him via texting.  He told me he was going to pay me on Monday, then it changed to Wednesday and then it changed to Friday.  So last night I texted him stating I fully expected to get money from him tomorrow (today).  He asked me if he could just stay until the end of the month - for free apparently - and then he would be moving.

Knowing full well this guy got paid, I declined.  No, I texted back, and if you aren't going to pay, you need to get your stuff and get off of my property by morning.  That's when it turned sour and he started cussing me out.  I didn't bother to tell him I am not in town, I replied to him that if he wanted to come in and talk to me face to face, we can have a conversation about his tones towards me. He did not reply to that text and he has since removed his possessions. I had Mark lock the thing up, if there is something in there he missed, someone will have to get it out of there for him as he is not going to be going back into that trailer.

As for the college kid, he has also changed his payment story a couple of times.  I left him a note under his door before I left informing him that I fully expect him to pay up what he stated he was going to and also about his laundry habits.  He does 8 to 10 loads of laundry per WEEK.  This is one, single individual.  He runs the washer on double extra rinse cycles.  He uses hot water on every load. He sometimes does the same load twice.  Need I say that this is beyond excessive use of a freebie thrown into the rent?  What single person needs to do 8 to 10 loads of laundry per week?  I get by with 2, sometimes 3, cold water, no extra rinse cycles and certainly not washing the same load of clothing twice.  I'm just dealing with stuff that is beyond the scope of what a normal tenancy/rental normally is.  If he wants to continue to use my machines like that, he is going to have to pay $1.50 per load after the 3rd load (giving him 3 for free).  Washing clothes twice counts as 2 loads.  Hot water is .50 cents extra.

I left at the end of the note for him to contact me as to whether he wants to agree to these terms and also about the rent.

Truck Driver Disrespect

It so happened last week that I was in one of our competitor's store, a very large facility, getting some material.  I find it unfortunate that we frequent a competitor for parts, but we do. They don't have the same rules that our company has in inventory - they will carry whatever and leave it out there for however long. Our company ranks inventory and when it gets to D rank, it's toast.

So, they carry parts we don't and sometimes if we don't have something we normally carry, we go to them if they have it. They mark us up 10% on parts, we mark them up 10% on parts, a mutual agreement.

I have been in there 50 times at least over the last 7 years.

Random interjection: I am up in the mountains, the wind is howling and it's starting to rain heavily.  The wind is blowing so hard the trailer is shaking, the trees are dancing and my Direct TV dish on it's stand just blew over. I am not watching TV right now anyway, so no biggies.

Back to the story.  The place has very little driveway space. To go in there with a semi means a rather involved ordeal of backing around a lot of objects to get turned around and then pull up to the place next to the dispatch building - blocking much of everything but there is no choice.  They are moving soon to alleviate that problem.

I went in there last week to find the place filled with trucks. I stayed out front, but my truck was parked directly in front of the will-call (store) entrance.  People had to walk around my truck to get into the store.  I left the truck running - it was warm that day and the truck gets hot inside even if only warm outside - and started to walk into the store.  I heard a noise behind me, someone yelling.  I ignored it and continued walked.  But then the yelling occurred again: HEY, FERGUSON, YOU NEED TO MOVE YOUR TRUCK!!! This wasn't a "nice" request to a customer, this was a verbal command being yelled at me such as I used to hear schoolyard teachers yelling at us kids as 5 year olds in elementary school.

I ignored it again and continued walking.  I do not respond to people yelling at me.  Ask me nicely and with respect, the same as I will give to you.  His voice got as loud as it could go, apparently, as he yelled a 3rd time, I looked around, told him I don't respond to yelling and walked into the store.  I had never seen this guy before, to add to this story.

This guy followed me right into the store - where many employees were working behind the counter - and he started to raise his voice to me again.  I interrupted him loud enough that everyone could hear it: Are you going to start yelling at me again?!!  YOU NEED TO MOVE YOUR TRUCK!!! I was at the counter, I turned my back to him and completely ignored him.  He just stood there, staring at me at that point.

I was outwardly keeping my cool, inwardly I wanted to deck this guy.  The counter manager for the waterworks side wasn't there.  I waited a while, there were plenty of plumbing associates but they don't deal with the waterworks material or tickets.  Finally, a salesman came out.  We shook hands and I told him what I was there for.  He knew the ticket and headed to the doors to the warehouse, but not before this dude stopped him and informed him that I "won't move his truck".  The salesman said nothing to me, disappeared behind the doors along with this fellow and came back several minutes later.

I informed the man that I hadn't moved my truck because of this individual's attitude.  If he had asked me nicely, I would have gladly moved (but to where, I have no idea, their yard was full of vehicles).  This guy, the yeller, is standing there with this icy glare, arms crossed and attitude written all over his face.  Is Vito here? I asked, because I know Vito will not tolerate this kind of shi*** behavior from workers.  No, he's somewhere out back.

Well, some words were exchanged as I had had enough of this guy's BS, I had my material in hand and walked out to the truck, half expecting this moron to follow me out there.  He did not and I had to back out of that place because, again, there was too much traffic back there to do anything.

I was back in that store again several days later.  Several individuals started smiling - back for more, huh? - referring to the dude's attitude of several days earlier. I got into a discussion with them about that guy, he did not get out of that mess scott-free.  In fact, he got into quite a bit of trouble.  Vito was sitting there and profusely apologized for the man's behavior and demeanor and informed me that man shouldn't even have been up here at the store, he is a yard worked and belongs - in the yard.  Vito then stated that he had forgotten to discuss with the general manager this guy's attitude.  Well, we talked about that for a while, but got lost in the discussion of a P.O. (purchase order) that was skewed. I had to call our salesman a couple of times to clarify things that  - our salesman had not made clear and I wanted clear before getting stuff from this company. They have a no-return policy with us.  We buy something, we own it forever.

When I was leaving, Vito got up and went in and started discussing - rather loudly and door opened - the event that had transpired earlier in the week.

This isn't just something I am writing about concerning a particular thing that happened - though I frequently do that.  This is also to describe how truck drivers are treated at many places.  At many warehouses and DC's and such where drivers have to deliver, you are treated as nothing more than a number.  You are a piece of dirt, in umpire's terminology.  Many of the people running these places have no respect for drivers and could care less how disrespectfully they speak to drivers.  It's quite amazing to stand there and listen to some of it.

I am not "just" a truck driver.  I am a representative of our company and I am involved with just about every detail of running a store, when I go into a place such as the place I was at in this story, I am a customer and I demand to be treated like one.  When I see long haul drivers coming into places like this and being treated rudely, I almost always speak up.  I have gotten into altercations with arrogant, obnoxious, self-aggrandizing idiots that have a title in these places and have gone to their management to complain about how they are treating drivers.

Eventually, reform to the trucking industry will be forced upon it.  The hours; the wages; the disrespect.  All of it.  As I have stated several times in the past: the newer generation is generally not interested in the trucking industry.  They do not want to spend their lives out on the road and they do not like the pay.   If they knew how they were going to be treated out there, that would only add to the list. The over-regulation of this industry is so grand, it is amazing any of us drivers can actually drive without getting into trouble at every turn, it is not possible for humans to meet the over-bearing amount of regulation without violating some of it at any given time.  We aren't walking computers or robots.  It will eventually come to a head.  There will be, at some point in time that I cannot predict but I can tell you it's definitely coming, a shortage so severe in the trucking industry that at some point, news media coverage will become much more intense about it and the public outcry will emanate so loudly that Congress will have to force the FMCSA to reduce it's extremely severe restrictions on drivers.

They are enacting even MORE HOS crap on drivers (hours of service) to the point that the trucking industry outcry was enough for a petition to halt the implementation of it for at least 3 months while they decide whether this new regulation, on top of new HOS regulations ALREADY put into place, is really going to do any good - at all.

But the sticking point? When the public has to pay so much at the furniture store; the grocery store; the whatever store because the costs of transporting the goods  there have skyrocketed because of the extreme shortage of "qualified" drivers, THEN and only then will this issue be crammed down Congress throats.  Well, if truck drivers could ever truly unite and simply stop driving for a week, oh myyyy.  What would happen then?  But drivers are hugely divided group of people and coming together even on something that would benefit the entire industry?  Probably not going to happen.  So, I leave it to the statistics that show the younger generation is generally disinterested in trucking as a career and the ensuing chaos it will have on the transportation of nearly everything that is grown, produced/manufacture or shipped into this country in getting goods from point A to point B.  When the older generation that is the current majority of drivers all retire?  Yeah, good luck!

Dorrie

I just found out today on visiting her Facebook page that she was involved in an airplane crash.  Her last entry was how excited she was to go back to CA to see her folks.  Someone posted a short news blip of the crash - it shows the plane.  How anyone survived through that I don't know, the nose end of the thing is totally trashed.

Dorrie is such a sweet, energetic, personable, caring and loving person, the things that happen to good people in life just are confounding sometimes.  She just entered retirement, what, a few years ago at most?

Dear Father God in Heaven: I life Dorrie up to you.  You know her intimately.  You know the condition her body is in right now.  You are the giver of life and you are the Creator.  You are the Healer and you are able to fix those things that happen to your creation.  I pray your healing hand washes over her brain and all those things that have been damaged in that accident.  I ask that you restore her fully back to the life she knew before this accident.

Your will be done.

Thank you Lord, in Jesus name.

Amen.

ben

Saturday

As a certain tenant promised last week, he (did not) delivered on his promise of $100 to be paid weekly until it's all caught up.
No, he didn't pay a dime actually but he did, at least, communicate with me that he had a sit down with the director of whatever at where he works who reinstated his hours.  They had done a department-wide cut of hours after a new director came in to take the old director's place.

This is what I was told anyway.

Apparently feeling my angst about this situation, he came out of his room a while later and informed me he was going to go out front and continue where I left off in pulling weeds and grass.  I have most of the weeds pulled, some small ones left.  The grass is an on-going problem of which I have devised a solution to.  It will mean a trip to Whitfill's to get even more of the ground covering plants that I already have out there.  Those plants grow thick and will drown out any grass systems/roots that are in place.  The plant puts out a lovely yellow or white flower and looks pretty good.  Much better than a bunch of unwanted grass, that's for sure.

Thanks to my neighbors and their refusal to deal with their grass problem which eventually spread to my property.  I pulled it and pulled it and pulled it but it finally won out.  The only thing to do is plant something else that will drown all of it out.

I will give the tenant his due: he did quite a lot of work out there.  However, that does not take the place of money: I made no concessions for partial rent for work, I already have that with Mark and Lynnette and cannot afford that kind of situation with anyone else.

Whatever.

My dead-looking ficus trees - I have several small ones and 2 that are about 9 feet tall - are showing signs of life.  Well, there are 6 of them that look completely dead. But I have been watering them and finally, today, saw some very tiny, green buds coming out of what would otherwise be described as a small, dead tree with dead leaves still on it.  Come Christmas?  I am going to buy enough C-9 Christmas lights - well C-7's work and they are a bit cheaper - anyway - to cover all the plants that I now know will suffer dramatically in a freeze/frost situation.  Wrap lights around the plants that won't survive and cover them with sheets and they  will do nicely.  The lights give off heat is the point and covered up they apparently do enough to keep the frost from setting in as I have tried that in the past and it has worked.

So, the property is coming back to life, Spring is basically here for all intents and purposes (was 89 for a high here today) - though it is possible that another cold front could come back through before Spring officially here.  The eloquent weather forecasters declared a few days ago that we are 20 degrees higher than what our normal temps should be for this time of year.

Well, my version of a short entry.  I am going to bed.  Yup, even on a Saturday night?  I go to bed early.  Just a good habit to stay in if one wants to be able to get up on Monday without feeling - very out of it.  OH, and speaking of work, I am getting my 2 days off this coming week. My plan is to go up north for a couple of days - well 2 nights so 3 days - but I never put that in "concrete/stone".  Plans can always change : )

ben