I'm not necessarily giving up on my company, but that manager will not return my phone calls and I'm getting the idea that he doesn't necessarily want me working over there.  I've left him two messages in the last couple of days plus called the branch and was informed that even though he's out on the road, he is answering his phone. Yeah, well he ain't answering it for me.  He told me he would have an answer for me this week, instead of giving me an answer, he's not even bothering to communicate with me at all.

I just don't see that as a good sign so time to start looking elsewhere.  Which so far has turned up a lot of garbage. $15 an hour jobs or higher paying jobs but on the road a lot.  I could take  reduction in pay but not that much.  That kind of money doesn't motivate me, at all.  There are LOTS of jobs in that area, but gotta have medical and gotta pay at least half decent.  Maybe it's too tall an order to fill, I dunno, but I am in no hurry to get a nothing job.  I'm not actually giving up on the Shreveport thing, I just have to start looking.  I mean, what is with a manager that won't even return a phone call?

Meanwhile, the aftermath of my fired manager. Turns out lots of people had been on the receiving end of some pretty crazy communications from my manager but - no-one said anything to management about it.  Of course not.  I was informed that if something like this ever happens again to contact them and let them know.  Yeah, right.  Number one, the likelihood of something that severe and dramatic happening again anytime soon in a co-worker is probably pretty low.  Number two when it's a member of management, what do they think, just go say something to them and the  n what?  They think YOU are the lunatic for even saying anything.  Just very unrealistic for them to expect people to approach them about something like this.

Well I finally found a half decent looking job - but - just remembered that Federal regulatons require 10 years of employment history.  Gag.  I can't remember the dates before I started working at my current company! That was a long time ago!

Well anyway. The weekend.  I am trashed.  There is stuff I am going to do but nothing too intensive.  Just gonna relax more than anything. Free HBO on Direct TV this weekend so hopefully a couple of good movies anyway.  I mean, I could start moving into Caleb's bedroom and start getting out of my room so I can get it all cleaned up and ready for George and Susan to move in there - but -  naw.

Well whatever.  I got motivated since I started writing this entry and decided to go out and get some stuff and then when I get home I am going to do something.  Not sure what yet but I think moving out of my room is a thing where I start on a weekend to do it and get it done - that same weekend.

Meanwhile, she is - not home alone, she is sitting at a driver's training thing cause she got a ticket for speeding and wanted out of it. 6 hours of that stuff!  I can't do that anymore, haven't been able to in years cause' of CDL license, but I haven't had a ticket in seventeen years anyway, hope to stay out of them.

I dunno. Guess I'm stressing over this job situation.  It would be SO much easier to transfer out there intra-company and then if the drive there everyday gets too long or if I find something better, great, but finding a job from a far is a bit difficult.  Though as of now I have found some interesting prospects that have at least decent pay.

Whatever. I just wanna get out there and once I find a job the clock will start ticking!

G'day.

ben

Well here we go on this roller coaster ride of work.
2 managers down.  One quit, the other fired.
So everything is in disarray.
They tried to lord the main warehouse manager over me,
I told them I don't need his help, I've been doing this for
8 years, thanks.
They rekeyed the entire place and I am getting my own
password into the new truck routing system so I don't have
to rely on main warehouse manager.  I dunno how they think
that guy has the time to add another entire warehouse onto his
plate.

He tried contacting me yesterday morning and I simply told
him I have it under control.  This isn't that difficult.
Maybe for a truck driver that has never been interested
in the operations of the company he is working for, yes,
that would pose a challenge but I have learned Trilogy, Descartes and
other programs simply because I want to be able to do this
stuff by myself and if just such things occur as what has happened
in the last few days.  They are going to have to bring in new
people or transfer them from somewhere else around the country.

Well whatever.  Just biding my time, waiting for that phone call.....

G'day.

ben

Home

Flight from Dallas to Phoenix last night.  One gate number on my ticket; another gate number announced by one crew member on the plane before the flight departed; yet another gate given when I got out of the plane and then when I finally got into DFW?  Loud broadcasts of yet another gate change!  Crazy! But it turned out to be my good fortune.  They had to bring in a second plane/crew to handle the load going to Phoenix and I had been reassigned to second aircraft and that plane was maybe 2/3rd's full. I got to my seat, only 1 dude sitting there, no one in middle seat, I had window - I only get window seat.  The guy 2 seats over is my age, nice enough person, we exchanged a few niceties and that was that, I went to sleep.

I was in and out of sleep with the rather loud, pre-recorded sounds of directions broadcast over the plane's speaker system. But finally, got to sleep and didn't wake up for quite awhile.  When I woke up out of that one, I looked around wondering where I was at - had gone into deep sleep, came out a bit dazed.  Looked to my left and there was Josiah sitting there.

????  I thought I must be dreaming, what on earth. That woke me up and I saw the man that had been sitting there was now a kid that looked very much like Josiah - the 16 year old - had on gym shorts and track shoes to boot.  I'm sitting there staring at this kid.  I feel eyes on me.  I look over and there is the man that was sitting next to me. Finally come out of this daze and understand that the man is with family, the boy must have wanted out of that cramped 3 person situation, the dad is staring at me. I just smiled at him - the dad that is - the boy was totally oblivious of it - and yes, I went back to sleep.

It was just very strange that I had this reminder of what I had just left sitting there on the aircraft.

Well regardless. Yesterday, sitting in her house in Texas, my company phone started ringing.  I am looking at the phone and it showing the ops manager.  I instantly had a bad feeling about this, my mind raced through numerous possibilities of why he would be calling me when he knew I was on vacation - and I was not wrong. My manager had been fired and he wanted me to know about it before I came back in.  I found out today the extent of what had happened - my manager had a screw come loose and I have no clue.  I am not going to go into that, but just to say that he fired himself.

I dunno, I don't want to go into all of that I just know that between getting in late last night and coming into that this morning plus having a security guard there - manager had to be escorted off property by police - and the chaos of no-one not knowing what is going on and with orders, I had my hands full.  The main warehouse manager was attempting to tell me what to do, please. He knows full well I do all of this stuff on a daily basis without anyone's help, I don't need this kind of crap being forced upon me.  I just im'ed him back: I have this covered, thanks.

Amazingly, I was left to myself for the rest of the day, driving all over the place.  The ops manager is running our store, he didn't call me a single time.  I know what they were thinking but I quickly assuaged those fears.  I am not going to go off the deep end because of this and they might have to deal with me, too.  Not a happening event.  I am leaving town, I don't need this.  I want to transfer over to another location within our company, not get canned and lose my job. I just won't go into the details of what happened with manager because yes, it was that bad and no, I don't feel it's a good thing to spread that out on the internet even if it may never leave the folds of this blog's corners.

I have not heard back from Shreveport.  I am not necessarily worried, but they said they would give me an answer this week and dangit, I need that answer either for good or bad.  I need to be able to move on one way or the other.  Haven't heard back from American, either.  I am asking for a voucher for free round trip flight for the bs. Okay, long shot I am sure but still, worth a try.

There is more, a lot more actually.  But my second wind has faded and I am drifting out.  It's only a quarter after six but I am coming back from a place that's a quarter after 8.  This whole business of traveling back and forth really messes with my internal clock.  Yeah, I am pretty much exhausted and hope to get something of a decent night's sleep tonight.

ben

The disgust of it.
Oh and my disclaimer: this keyboard not working all that great and often inserts more than one e!

I walked into the boy's bathroom - this is a HUGE house and it has four bathrooms, one of which is between 2 bedrooms and not accessible by the hallway.  It's between the 2 boy's bedrooms.  2 sleep in one, 2 sleep in the other.  The girls sleep in a bedroom across the hallway.

That bathroom? Disgusting.  I mean absolutely disgusting.  Words fail to describe the repulsion that came into me when looking at that gross bathroom, especially the shower room that has the shower/tub and the toilet.  It was worse than gross.  I mean, personally? I would refuse to take a shower in that bathroom much less do much of anything else in there.

You don't understand. There were cut pubic hairs in the sink.  I mean, I about threw up on that one.  Not just a few, I mean the sink was full of it.  The floor was abominable.  But it was the bathtub and the walls around the toilet that made me want to puke.  If that bathtub had been cleaned in the last 2 years I would be shocked.  It was soooooo gross.  Vile. Repulsive. Sickening. Disgusting. Revolting.

I decided to do an experiment.  I would scrub that entire bathroom down - walls, floors, toilet, bathtub/shower wall, clean it up to the point that I would even take a shower in there and then not only see what their reaction was to having a clean bathroom - but also impose some pretty stiff penalties if they decided that they were going to let it slide again.  Penalties not yet decided except for Josiah - he is the oldest in the house and he should be setting an example.  \

It took me an hour an a half to clean just the small side room to the bathroom that has the shower tub and toilet in it. I am not making that up.  I scrubbed that entire tub and wall set up FOUR separate, complete times before it was finally gleaming and looking good.

The ten year old boy was with me the entire time.  He made no fuss.  3 plus hours of it and he was working his ass off.  I was impressed.  But in his case it became apparent that there was much more to this than just wanting to help.  He was clinging to me like flies on a stick strip.  Everywhere I went. I cooked up 2 huge racks of ribs on their grill today. Slow cooking, this was after we were done with the bathroom and I was not going to start anything else, there would be no time to finish it and I didn't want to leave things half done.  So after I got them on there and got it going, I decided to take a nap on the couch in the HUGE living room.  I laid down on the couch, he got on the other end facing me and that was that.

Amazing what a little attention can and will do for a person that gets none of it, whatsoever, from his own dad.  He slipped twice today calling me dad instead of Ben.

Well, there was much more that happened today, MUCH more but I am so tired.  It's late and I think i am going to go to bed instead of writing out a much longer entry.  Try to finish this tomorrow. Flying out of here tomorrow evening, no fun.  Getting home late and then having to get up and go to work the next morning.  Don't mind but I am guessing I am going to be very tired.

Anyways, g'nite.

ben

Disclaimer: using faulted keyboard. Sometimes it works peerfectly other times it does double and triple e's and other such nonsense.

Anyway, went to job interview, store manageer wasn't there.  However, an inside sales manageer that apparently is thee gm's right hand man was there and we got into a discussion about not only business, but then family and life in general.  After about forty minutes of this,  the gm showed up and we headed to his office.  Not sure how we got into a discussion about the Lord/God and miracles, but we did.  Pretty much hit it right off with the two people I did talk to there.

I got a tour of the place, goodness.  It's a total disaster.  I didn't know our company allowed placees to look like that.  Dirty, filthy, unorganized.  I think the manager wants someone to help with that, but appareently no-onee there has such intentions.  Makes him look bad, frankly.  I know how corporate feels about such things.

Long story short, theey have 3 drivers. 2 of them have been there forever.  They have been with the company much longer than I have and they get even more paid vacation days off.  So they are always asking for time off - no big deal excepting that the third is a temp driver and he is not working out.  Our company uses temp agencies mostly to find new drivers to fill positions. /Sometimes you get great drivers other times?  lol.  This particular person has a CDL but.....he can't drive eeither a semi tractor or a bobtail but made himself sound like he was proficient in driving a tractor trailer rig.  I think they have other issues with him as well, they alluded to that but didn't go into it.  Well, yes, I am guessing because he won't pull orders.\ Many truck drivers get that idea in their heads because they are OTR and mostly what's expected of OTR drivers is to - drive. Not load or unload or pull orders or much of anything else.

The only issue is my pay, really. They will get rid of that temp driver but I am making more than your average driver in this company, or even above average driver.  I earned it, I certainliy don't feel bad about it.  I offered that I would be willing to take a pay cut, but not a huge one.  I left there shaking his hand, him telling me he would talk to the Ops manager and that he would try to keep my pay, actually.  It's a forty-five minute drive from Val's house, or somewhere around that. I could deal with that, at least for the here and now in order to be able to get myself out here.

So let's fast forward to the bonfire last night with the guests and kids and all of that. Well, started out with me coming over, getting everyone except Josiah .... well it started 2 nights about ago actually.  He was having a freaking cow that he was going to stay home and we were going to go get his gf without him. Just ridiculous, spiraling way out of proportion. Calm down boy, this isn't worth blowing up over. Spent time with Val after sending the kids upstairs - I started taking a much more authoritative role on this visit, telling kids what to do and not tolerating the bs - and decided we would take the kids to the pinewood derby without Josiah or the fourteen yeaer old brother = they willingly stayed home to clean up  - and then we would come back and I would get into pickup with him, go get the girl, get some diesel fuel for the fire and go to Walmart for the food and drinks for this affair.

Well, Joisah and I get along pretty well and kinda mess around a lot when we are actually in person, together, our personalities are far different but we don't clash.  So went and got the girl, met her mom, went to Walmart.  This was quite the adventure in itself, but anyways got everything and then went to Whataburger and got some burgers, ate them while driving to the gas station, got the fuel, got back and I......took a nap.  Takes me days sometimes to get back to normal after having had been up more than half the night such as occurred at that airport and missed connecting flight.

Got up from that, had Josiah dump a bunch of diesel around the edges of the huge pile of wood and junk, then had to listen to him complaining about how he wouldn't be able to get it started cause it wasn't gasoline.  Gag, dude, just light the cardboard on fire, this thing will take off. Yup, it did, sending up 15 foot flames and black, sooty smoke and got so hot that standing 25 feet away from it was too close. Guests showed up including a lot of teenagers.  Gf's dad came and I hit it off with him right off.  I'm pretty good about that anyway. A person has to be a real jerkoff for me to not hit it off with them pretty good.

Well a couple of hours of this - ladies talking with ladies, teens with teens and the dad and I talking and then? Suddeenly realized the teens had all disappeared. I mean, we looked all over the place, they were nowhere to be found and had not asked for permission to leave.  Actually, they were all looking at me - Josiah should have asked me permission to go wherever, and with that crew I would have said no, unless I go with you. Sorry, but I am not knowingly going to let a bunch of teen boys and girls go off into the woods by themselves doing God knows what and some of them being over there without their parents present.  So, everyone is calling and texting their kids, I was calling and texting Josiah without any response.  Not a good sign.  Started calling him. No reply.  I had a pretty good idea where they were headed, the big lake on the property next store.

5 minutes later, Josiah's reading my texts and going haywire, yeah we're coming back right now! Be there in 5 minutes.  Gf's mom going ballistic.  They get back and she approaches the whole lot of them, completely blows up. When I say blow up,I mean it was really, really bad. So farrrrr out of proportion for the "crime" that had been committed.  I couldn't believe it.  Unbelievable, really.  Kids were all white-faced.  Josiah started shaking. His gf was getting visibly angry at her mom.  After 5 full minutes of this, she commanded the whole lot of them to come over and apologize to me.  So they did ..... but I just blew it off. It's no big deal, you guys are all good.  Which they weren't Josiah was angry and sad and humiliated.  She took him to task in front of all of those people.

It took an hour plus for Josiah and gf to cool down, the mom to realize what an ass she had made of herself and go around apologizing to everyone and Josiah's older sister getting into the mom's face plus making comments to Val about me.  She is very disrespectful to me even though I have said nothing to her.  I thought the party was ruined.  This was really Josiah's party and all of his friends and he was so upset.  I dunno, but maybe an hour later, I took him aside, talked to him for a few minutes and then we threw some more wood on the fire.  A few minutes later, he appeared out of the house with his guitar and away we went.  Whole atmosphere changed and the party got good after that.

Went to bed, totally exhausted, never did get caught up from the first night's fiasco.  Forced myself out of bed this morning, came over, we went to church.  Good service.  Josiah playing with texting phone - put the damned thing away. At the end the pastor had these cards up at the altar.  If you feel compelled, come up, write someone's name on it and drop it at the foot of the cross and pray over that person.  I wrote the 3 names that came to mind - Josiah, Jacob and Nathan.  3 boys, 3 different sets of problems, 3 people to pray for.  Not that I haven't already prayed for all of them.

Unbeknownst to me, Jacob followed me up to the altar and I didn't realize he was behind me until I got back to the seat we were at and he was right behind me.  Got into the van, took the kids over to ex's house, dropped all 6 of them off there and then headed to Chinese restaurant, ate some food, came home, took a nap and here we are.  I gotta good feeling about the job, I think they want me just don't know about the money. They are going to call me this coming week with whatever offer they may have.

Val and I are spending time alone without the kids this afternoon and then go pick them up at eight, they have school tomorrow, no great plans tomorrow but probably i will do some work around here, no lack of that.  This place needs serious attention but the things I would like to see if I can fix are clogged up drains.

That's it and until next time....

G'day.

ben

Strandeed in Dallas, Tx.  This is no fun.  Plane took off late in Phoenix. Why?  Because the freaking jetway was STUCK to the airplane.  They couldn't dislodge and ordered all passengers off of the airplane.  I am not going to try and fix the errors that this keyboard is giving me so that's my excuse in advance.  Anyway, a third of the plane FULL of people got off and then they said get back on! Well, you know how people are, some anyway, well a lot, oblivious to the world.  Take your sweet old time, take 2 minutes to put a bag into an overhead bin that should take you 5 seconds at most.  It cost us in time, we were forty five minutes late leaving.

When we finally landed, I had thirty minutes to get off that plane, get on a tram and get over to the correct gate.  Nothing was working.  People who didn't have connecting flights were instructed to stay in their seats to let those that didn't have connecting flights off first.  No-one cared, of course so since I was near the back of the plane, I was screwed.  Got out of that and to the tram and realized my gate was clear on the other side of the airport.  Those trams at DFW move fast, but not fast enough.  I got to the exit, got off, ran to the gate to find they had just shut it, pulled the jetway away and the plane was sitting there.

They couldn't have cared less. Even if it was their airline's fault that I was late.  Nope, we can't do anytihng for you and the next available flight isn't available until twelve thirty today!  NO WAY.  Valerie was like, nuh-uh, I am coming to get you and she did.  Meanwhile I was making endless calls.  They gave me the boarding passes and free food voucher and a free night's stay at a Marriot and I got the bleep out of there and got to the hotel .  Even if a short stay, FAR better than sitting at that airport for hours.  Got my free dinner, got in my room and almost fell asleep.  .

Val showed up and we drove back, almost 3 hours drive.  Didn't get into town until three am, I knew I would feel like shit today and I wasn't let down.  But no way am I missing that job interview, I don't care how I, I am going and that's that.  She's all over it too, she knows that getting a job determines when I can move out there.

So, I am \sitting at Denny's in Longview, drinking massive amoiunts of coffee and she is heading over with the 3 little ones, should be here pretty quick.  I haven't seen those kids in four months and they like me and I like them, little kids are fun to be around - well no always but usually they can be quite entertaining. The older ones are all at school.  We have nothing planned for after the interview so I am guessing I am going to want to take a nap this afternoon. In fact, I may just break down and do a hotel for one night to ensure a good night's sleep cause' tomorrow? It's going to be quite the day starting with  pinewood derby in the morning and cruising the rest of the day with activities and getting ready for the bonfire tomorrow night.  I just need a good night's sleep for that.  Though I don't doubt that I will get on after last night.  Just that going to bed at 3 am? It doesn't matter what time you get up, at least me, not going to feel one hundred percent, maybe later on and catch a second wind or something.

Actually, the airline did offer to fly me out to Shreveport last night, which is where the interview is, but she wanted to see me so strike that.  Probably would have worked out better for all of us though.  I would be there right now and she could come and get me at the appointed time, take her and the kids to that science place and then head over to the store to meet up with the store's manager.

But oh well.  The airline wouldn't concede anything, either, until i got a supervisor on the line with whatever department I was on with.  She offered me a one hundred buck voucher which I took, better than nothing.  Actually, if they would have kept the gate open until they said it would close, I would have been on that plane and none of this would have happened. They did not and now all this garbage.

Well, make the best of this situation and move on.

Gotta get my mind in the right place so I can have a good visit with that manager.

G'day.

ben

So, at 10:05 tonight, that little jet will be landing in Tyler, TX and I will finally get to see my lady again!  And I haven't seen the kids since New Year's and there is a lot of stuff going to go on packed in these next 5 days, so hold on to my hat and git along with it!

So am I forgetting anything?  The quintessential question that pokes itself up in the minds of most people when they are about to leave on a trip.  Well, there are a couple of things I wanted to take that I can't fit into the little suitcase.

Oh well, just about to get this ball rolling.  Off to work, home, to the airport and then to never-never land!

G'day.

ben

One thing that  a person living in Maricopa County should never do: get on Sheriff Joe's s*** list for "deadbeat dads".  I am not a deadbeat dad and never have been, but if you forget to pay child support, well, you know.  I'm about to take off out of town and realized I hadn't sent that out yet, oops! Well not an oops if I get it sent out in time, but still.  Okay, probably wouldn't happen having one late payment, but still.  Pretty much coming up to the end of the line on the child support payment train and I am gong to research it and try to get a court date before I move to get this resolved once and for all.

Susan comes out 20 minutes ago demanding to know how to reset the wireless router.

I'm not sorry to say that first thing in the morning?  You do not come out with an attitude with me and start cranking about the internet.  I said something to her and then proceeded to unplug the thing and leave the cord laying there - plug it back in in 15 seconds (if you plug it right back it, it won't reset it).

Yesterday.  Was trying to get this third and final song down. I'm a good way there and have enough time to get it by the time we are going to do our little performance.

I also got mad at Josiah, a thing I have been trying to avoid which ended up in a long, drawn out conversation  He was acting like an ass with his mother, but telling me he wasn't doing anything.  I'm sitting there thinking, have I lost it? She is telling me one thing and he is telling me something completely different.  I re-read all of it and said no, I am siding with her, he plays people against each other if it will benefit him.

So I stuck it to him and after he continued to say he wasn't doing anything, that's when I started getting irritated and probably went overboard with it.  To the point I ended up having to apologize to him for over-reacting, though at least he finally admitted at some point that he was being stupid and then apologized to both me and his mom. She was in a very bad mood yesterday, kids were fighting and cranking all day long and apparently that set (well, the little ones that stay home with her) her off with Josiah and the rest of the older ones and then discussions about what he was going to do tonight for church.  They got into it and took it completely out of my hands.  The whole point of giving him over to me was to eliminate that junk between them, well one of the points of it anyway.

Whatever.  New day.  Gotta get my clothes packed and things ready to go.  Taking a carry on piece only, they want $25 for checked in luggage and I refuse to do that, not this time or last time either, it;s a waste of money and I am only there 5 days.  I can pack enough clothes into that small suitcase to last me.

Anyway, I'll be busy after work that's for sure, I was yesterday too trying to get stuff done.

G'day.

ben

I'll tell you what.  I get all caught up in everything that's going on and then suddenly realize that this is Tuesday and I'm flying out to Texas on Thursday.

What significance does that have? Cause I have to be ready to go by tomorrow night and there are numerous things that I need to get done.  When I get home from work on Thursday it will be to turn around and leave for the airport.  Wish I could just drive straight there but geeze, the cost of airport parking is outrageous.  I'm not even that far, about 6 miles - too far to walk but far enough to get dumped with an outrageous fee for a taxi as well.

Oh well. I'll get it all done. Wanna take all that change in and see how much I have.  That's a portion of my spending money, gotta be at least 150 there if not more.  I don't really need a whole lot of money - help pay for gas, a round of bowling and some food and drinks for the bonfire.  Oh, an donuts.  The little girls love the donuts and ask her every day if I am going to be bringing them. lol.

Oh, and it's the girl's birthday on Friday! Well one of them the other a week before or something. Having a birthday party for them as well.  Yikes.  THis is going to be one busy trip!

HUGE day at work today, lots of stuff to do, thankfully.

G'day.

ben

Have you ever tried to learn a song in a music genre that you have mostly ignored and not listened to your entire life? And then try to learn 3 of them in a month? So you can sing them at a huge, giant bonfire in front of a bunch of people you don't know to your fiancee? With a 16 year old boy, to boot who is going to sing it to his girl at the same time?

I didn't think so.

I just started trying to learn the 3rd song yesterday and have spent today listening to it over and over and trying to get the lyrics down - but for me and on this particular song?  Yeah, difficult.  They sing that music in a much different fashion than rock and ti's just plain hard.
But I don't want to sound like I am complaining, to the contrary, it's a huge challenge that I am attempting to rise to and "conquer".

Is that all I did today? Absolutely not, it's what I did today while working; working out with weights; this that and the other thing and 2 final attempts just before going to bed. I did sing the other 2 songs today to make sure I still had them down and I nailed them on all 4 attempts.  But it took a week on each one of them,I admittedly took a week off from this and I might end up regretting not being able to do the third song because I don't have an entire week to learn it.

Which doesn't mean in the next 4 days I won't try!  lol

G'nite.

ben

Talked with Lynnette yesterday.
About my moving and them dealing with this house.
I have a little more confidence now after talking to her that they can, in fact, deal with this place and more importantly the people living within it.
But they are going to have to be able to keep people living here, not run them off.
There is a fine balance I have learned to dealing with individuals and going overboard with it.
We'll see what happens, there is a minimum amount of money this place needs to bring in in order to be able to pay for everything

Then there's the 12 year old.
He's got a pretty good mouth going, calling her a slut and a whore.
The kid is lucky I wasn't there, actually I think I am lucky I wasn't there because hearing a son saying that to his mother?

Gag.

Monday morning.  Weekends just disappear like they never existed.  Amazing how that happens.
You get up and wonder???? Yeah, I know I got a lot of stuff done this weekend, but still.

3-1/2 days til' I leave for Texas.

G'day.

ben

Finally.
Got everything out of the closet, vacuumed it and threw away 3 very large trash bags full of stuff - junk - papers - things I will never use. Putting what's left back in, with stuff that needs a round 2 - like couldn't decide on round one but round 2 stuff is stuff I could sell at a yard sale or on Craigslist, not stuff I would just trash.  Still, I have whittled that down quite a bit and by the time I have everything ready to move, I do not expect it to be a huge amount of things. My computers; guitar; clothes; pics and trinkets; just nothing that is going to take up a huge amount of space.

Which is why I am gawking at the cost of moving stuff long distance.  It's called being reamed and since I have time to try and figure this out, I figure I am going to see about my options.  $250 to have a hitch installed on the car and $150 for a trailer, got $400 going there instead of a grand and we are all done with that.  Maybe, anyway.  I dunno. Still got some stuff to sort through but my gosh this was terrible.  I am not completely done yet just on the downside and probably another hour and I can wrap it up. A couple of boxes of books that I need to go through, but that's just plain not going to happen today.

Meanwhile, m'lady and the situation over there. Josiah was acting like an ass this morning and I'm tired of it.  He goes to his girlfriend's house and acts like an angel and then comes home and acts like a demon.  It's really that bad.  He has replaced his mom with his gf's mom and it's just intolerable, I've had enough of it and I am calling him later on today after I get a chance to think about it and get what I need to get said to him in my mind.  That boy can out talk anyone. I mean in terms of words being spewed out and the rapid-fire pace he can shoot them out with, I am not including any amount of appreciable intelligence to go with that.  One of those people that speaks before they think.  I refuse to get dragged into a competition with him, I'll just let him wear himself out saying what he has to say and then I'll start in on him.

So, Lynnette informed me that when I leave, she is taking my mattress out of my bedroom.
Ummm, okay. No, I am not taking any of that with me. Won't have room for it.  Hopefully finding a place to live temporarily, presuming I am out there before we are married, that already has a bed.  She is checking at church, I will find something if not.

______________________________________________________________________

Very long interlude.  I worked on that closet all day long today.  It's done.  I have a few small boxes of stuff to go through but nothing major.  I am going to shift my attention to other things now that I need to go through and continue on until I am pretty much sure I have most if not all of it covered and getting ready to actually move will not be a big ordeal. Find boxes, pack stuff up, go.

So today.  Wow.  I mean, I was texting on and off with her and with Josiah all day long while I was getting all of this stuff done. Thanks to Fin for the advice on using the microphone to speak your message on text, it works pretty good as long as you speak clearly into it.It messes up sometimes but the benefits far outweigh the cons in this case, at least for me.   I can actually text on that new phone pretty darn fast but not near as fast as just talking into it!

So the 12 year old.  I bought him a bike almost 2 weeks ago and had it sent to Walmart.  Not an expensive bike but his bike fell apart.  But this kid! Has such a whiny, grating attitude. He was saying al kinds of sh** to his mom today and she actually went out of her way to go pick that bike up for him.  NO. I suggested this: silent treatment.  Yeah, she actually went through with it, and yeah, as I expected, the kid ran through the gamut of bs and talking trash about both me and her and I just said keep quiet. Talk to anyone else, treat him as if he doesn't even exist.

Not over yet.  Nope.  He declared he was going outside to put the bike together, I texted Josiah who was working in the garage cleaning it up: get that bike and bring it in with you and don't let him touch it.  He texted back: yeah, no problem! and he didn't let that kid do anything with it. M'lady, however and expected, was having a hard time giving the boy the silent treatment.  I understand though it would be much easier for me to do if I were there. Put up my right hand: talk to the hand, cause' nothing else wants to hear it!  I stuck with her on this one until she went to bed - 2 hour time difference.

Then :I called Josiah.  I am getting tired of the texting only relationship, especially when there are issues.  I told him earlier today I wanted to call and talk to him about something.  But later on, he asked about the new workout routine I gave him - he finally found his dumb bells so now we up this thing considerably.  So that conversation went on about the new routine, didn't even get into the issue I wanted to deal with.

Later, I asked him in text if he was available? Well,I'm done working out going to bed soon. Yeah right. 9 o'clock there,highly doubtful,he is still showing online on his facebook account and it's nearly 11 there. But he was like no,I want to know!  Well we got into a long texting situation and I regretted it.  I should have just called him, much easier.  But it was a good discussion - even though he got very defensive - and we are at least on the way to trying to resolve the problem.

Back to home, I am very happy with myself that I actually got that closet cleaned out.

And with that? It's Sunday night, bedtime and I need to get to sleep.

G'nite.

ben

I have nothing going on over at my house that even comes close to the amount of stuff that goes on over at m'lady's house!

Today?  I get text from her: water heater is leaking, how do I drain it out?  Spigot on the bottom dear, hook up a hose and drain it out that way.  She and 16 year old - I think I'll just start listing his name since he's basically my stepson at this point, well not officially but since he's my responsibility - his name is Josiah - He has a Facebook page if you know m'lady's last name which at least some readers do you can simply type in Josiah and his last name and it will come up - are trying to get the thing to drain out.  Easier for me to deal with if I'm there, but basically the valve wouldn't open to drain it.

Yes well that's what happens when you don't open it up at least once a year and drain as much of the sediment out of there as possible so that it doesn't rust out the tank and also cost less to heat - so I made numerous suggestions and the finally got the thing to drain.

But while that was happening, her 8 year old daughter was in the kitchen, cooking eggs and set off the smoke detector, which alerted the monitoring company who tried to call her - with no answer because she was stressing over the water leaking out of the heater.  So guess what happened next? Yup, 2 fire trucks showed up.

Now she also wants to find out what is leaking through the upstairs floor and into the celing below.  Old house, pretty much it needs new plumbing I am guessing.  Stuff I could do but to get at it would mean tearing up walls and ceiling and all kinds of stuff - big project.  But if it needs to be done, it will get on the list.

Meanwhile, dealing with Josiah this morning.  No real issues, just that he is going over to girlfriend's house today and he has to text me when he leaves, when he stops at store, when he leaves from the store, when he arrives at the house and then every 2 hours while there and also if he leaves to go somewhere text when leaving, etc, so forth, ad-nauseum.  I am getting him trained.  Mom wanted all this texting before but he would "forget" with her and start trouble.  Yeah, that isn't going to work with me.  He is with her parents pretty much the whole so that's why he was fussing.  Well, son, because you are going to have a driver's license very soon and you need to get used to the idea that you are going to have to report to me - and frequently.

"Well are you EVER going to trust me?!!"  This is not about trust (well okay, so it is but I have to answer the question differently so he gets a different picture in his mind), this is about accountability and the fact that we all get tempted to do things we shouldn't and so, call it your Mentor looking over your shoulder just helping you stay on the straight and narrow.  Mom would give him a completely different answer that just doesn't work in the mind of a teenager wanting his freedom. He'll get his  freedom, with strings, lots of them, attached at first.  As he shows himself faithful and he earns my trust, then yes, some of the strings will be detached, but not all of them, not until he's 18 anyway.  After that, he is responsible for his own actions and that's that.  Whether he liked that reply from me or not, I don't know or care, he accepted it and that's all I wanted or needed.

So that's that - for now.  He's 15 minutes late on a text but since he texted me an hour ago about a change of location, I will give that one a pass but if he doesn't text my in the next 45 minutes, he's going to receive a text that says "strike one".  Lol.

And Josiah is the boy that I am going to sit next to and we are going to sing to our girls sitting in front of us together.  It was my idea but he's the kind of kid that is all over that kind of thing, he plays guitar and loves to sing.  The catch for me was I have to learn country songs of his choosing to do it.  So I've got 2 of them down - and I do mean down now after much trying.  "Hard To Love" and "It Goes Like This". The second song tripped me up for days, especially certain parts but I finally got it memorized and can sing it good.  Country music is WAY different than the music I like and grew up with, hard to get it in my mind.  The third song which I just started listening to last night is called Rewind by Rascal Flatts and  I dunno if I will be able to get it memorized before next Saturday, though I should if I spend enough time with it.  I think we are going to sing at the bonfire Saturday night!  I will definitely get a video of that bonfire, their pile of stuff is HUGE!!

That's Josiah and those are 3 medals he won in track last night, one of them a gold in the 400meter run.  And he just texted me a few minutes ago while I was trying to figure out how to save an Instagram pic, which it won't let you do so, fortunately for me, I learned how to use the print screen and use paint program a long time ago!

Enough about that.  I have spent a good deal of time in that closet this morning, but I HAD to get out of there. I can only deal with that stuff for so long before I have to go do something else.  Going back to it in a few as I have taken and hour off from it.  Have frozen ribs I bought at last sale thawing, hopefully I can start cooking them in an hour or 2 and have them done no later than 5.  I just still cannot believe how much useless paper I have saved up in there. But I am finding a lot of gems as well, especially pics from the past of family.  And more money, lol, all of which I am using on the next trip.  Oh and some cool wall pics, I'll be taking them to Texas with me.

And that is the next headache once I finally figure out when I am moving there, which is still up in the air at this point.  HOW am I going to move my stuff there? I have not found a single option yet that is even remotely in what I would consider to be "affordable".  Even renting a U-Haul truck, the smallest one they have is ridiculous.  If only I owned a pickup truck! I could just haul my stuff out there on a trailer.  I have no clue yet.  I may end up installing a hitch on my car and buying a $200 Harbor Freight utility trailer, about $400 for all of that, which is at least a $500 savings over ANYTHING else I have found so far.  It's at least viable solution since I am not taking a house full of furniture with me. But I have 3 dogs to haul as well! Gag! That's going to be one LONG trip is all I can say.  And with those dogs, I won't be able to stay at any motels, they might let me have one dog in a room but not 3 and definitely not 2 of them that are that large!

Yeah, moving is going to be a huge pain in the ass.  I guess I am going to have to resolve in my mind to basically drive straight there with food stops and dog relief stops on the way and then just sleep a day when I get there.  I haven't done that kind of driving in a long, long time, but I used to do it regularly.  Don't much care for it but I think I can do it with a few nap stops here and there. Dogs will just have to suffer.  My record is driving out almost 1,000 miles without stopping once.

Well, in my mind, whatever I have to go through to get out there is going to be totally worth it.  I might complain and whine a bit on the way, but I will stop once I'm there!

Back to the grind.

G'day.

ben

A week away from my departure date to go back out there for 5 days.  I wish it could be longer but that's not possible.  Main objective: get a job. Second: spend time with m'lady and third would be to simply have fun with the kids.  Considering there will be a trip to some science museum; a bonfire with a lot of guests; bowling; a pine derby at their church; going to church on Sunday and whatever else?

Well it should be fun, yes, but I may come back from this next trip a bit tired!  Especially since I won't be walking in the door until almost midnight and then have to get up for work the next morning!

My slow progress almost has come to a stop this week with trying to get ready to move.  Not that I have a date yet but I want to be ready. The reason is a bunch of kids and their mom, lol.  Though yesterday was more consumed by the 16 year old than anything.  He first got himself into trouble for not texting me once he arrived at church.  After he got home, we talked for quite a while.  I mean, the situation with the texting  was dealt with quickly.  It then turned in to serious stuff.  I don't really have any friends. Why not? Because I'm weird.  Why do you think that?  Because  don't smoke, do drugs, drink and I am a virgin.

This conversation went on for quite a long time - but - though he feels strange because everyone else apparently is doing all that - especially losing their virginity at a young age - he doesn't seem to care what they think about him, he found a girlfriend that is like minded and they do not want to do that.

Well anyway, 2 hours of that and then off to bed for me, got nothing done on that closet and I just have to shut the phone off for a day or two and get that thing done or else put the phone on speakerphone and talk to her like that while working, cause' I need to get that project done and behind me.

So darnit, I want to get that done after work today! Except I found out I am supposed to go to a hockey game with family tonight! Yikes!

G'day

ben

16 year old hasn't quite figured this out yet.
Which is okay, I am a patient person - though I don't like to be played, pushed and otherwise toyed with.
Especially by teenagers. Hmm, well maybe adults are worse, they mosty are cognitive of the bs they are committing when they are committing is, many teenagers are oblivious to such but still, they know they are playing people just not exactly the effect it has on such.

But, I expect that from a person that thinks he can run around a person that isn't actually there.  Unfortunately for him, I am in communication with mom pretty much all day long and definitely when I need to find out if something is going on - such as the boy playing games.

______________________________

Started that this morning. Situation changes rapidly as time progresses and not even that much time!  He contacted me today: "so, I have to ask about going over to her house and everything now?".  Yes, you do.  We had a long discussion, very long, about that and other things  I then called m'lady and ended up talking to a 6, 8 10 and 12 year old.  Plus the 16 year old and the 17 year old that moved out.  Yes, this is fairly time consuming but I really want to establish a relationship with these kids as much as possible before I even get out there.

Well anyway.  Work and then talking on the phone all day and then texting some more and now the 16 year old's girlfriend's mom is messaging me.  She thinks we hate her.  We don't but she's done some things that were out of line, things that she should have contacted m'lady about and asked permission to do before doing it - granted given m'lady would have told her no.  I am letting this lady know in a nice way but still down to brass tacks about what we expect of the 16 year old when he's over there.

So, life it taking more and more interesting twists and turns......and I would love to write more about it.....but for now? It's time to go to bed!

G'nite.

ben

It's been a gritty weekend.
The first started by the 14 year old on Friday night with the fire he started in the bathroom in the house and all that ensued with that chaos and drama and then last night huge issue with the 16 year old that was doing pretty well but broke down and went haywire last night.  I had to talk to that boy for almost 2 hours to get him to calm down and refocus himself.  The problem here is that he has his first real girl friend.  Yeah, I know he's young and doesn't really know what that's all about but in this case, this is the first one he's been able to stay with. The rest lasted a week and it was done and over with.  He didn't have a clue how to treat girls so I helped him out with that too some months ago.

Regardless, when he's over at their house, life is grand and wonderful. They treat him like  a prince.  There isn't any of the "family stuff" and though that's all nice, find and wonderful, it's la-la land.  He comes home and has to deal with all that there is to deal with in having 5 younger brothers and sisters living there as well, plus a mom that demands he does his chores and plenty of it.  The situation further exacerbated because her parents are in love with him, they think he's just the greatest kid on earth and they buy him stuff and just do everything for him.  God knows if I were there I would be having sit down with these folks because what they are doing isn't really good.  They don't understand how that affects his outlook on things at home and from my limited conversations with them in the past, I don't really think they care.  It's all good for them, who cares what he has to deal with at home and in reality, if it's really that bad, then why not make him feel all googly and wonderful while at their home?

Why not? Because that doesn't help him learn how to deal with life, that's why.  Everyone has some rotten family member or ugly situation at home or whatever, I just about guarantee there isn't a person alive that when they think of family, some negative thing comes popping up and takes over everything else.  Or something close to that.

Whatever the case, I am going to start invoking those thoughts in his tiny little brain starting this week.

And further whatever the case, mom just said here you deal with him.  Not exactly like that, she loves him and all her kids but she is having way too much trouble dealing with them, just doesn't understand how the teenage boy's mind works and all the little intricacies that go along with it and how to effectively navigate through all that junk and get to a solution to things without the kid blowing up and having a conniption fit. I suppose that isn't always an attainable ending but if you throw out enough logic and reasoning and real life situations that they can look it, it does work most of the time.  At least for me it does, but then again I have been dealing with that gender and age group for over 20 years now.

So I said fine but I'm going to work a compromise here and you'll pretty much have to be happy with it.  She didn't want him gone today which is understandable but at the same time I'm trying to work this from 1,200 miles away and so for the here-and-now, it's compromise land for me.   It's one thing to try and sit here and deal with this, it will be completely another when I can be right there, in front of them, talking directly to them and no more of this phone and texting business. So,the boy is at church right now with mom and family and then gf's parents pick him up and bring him back by 7.  He cannot call mom to try and talk her into more time, either.  In fact, he cannot call her for any reason unless it's a real emergency.  He tries to play the game and get more time by having his gf's mother text m'lady and ask.  That won't work with me, in fact it will piss me off because that simply means that they are undermining her God-given authority and responsibility in that boy's life to have the final say and not have it questioned, especially by someone else's parents.

And yes, I am going to  text him while he's with that girl.  That's what I do.  That's what I did with my own son.  IMO, that's being a responsible parent.  Some have told me that is helicopter parenting and to that I say bulls***.  Helicopter parenting is a style of parenting that restricts the child from doing much of anything and constantly bombarding them with control and authority.  I let my son live his life and figure things out, but I was THERE for him and I made it known to him that I was going to be watching him. From afar, yes, but still.  Well not always from afar, lol, I showed up on his doorstep - wherever he was - several times out of the blue, unannounced, uninvited and I didn't care!

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Long interlude.  Just got home from church, awesome!  While there I received a text: Jacob, the 14 year old,wants to talk to me.  I put the feelers out through the 16 year that I would like to talk to him on the phone and discuss these issues with him and try to drag out of him why he is acting out like he is (such as setting portions of the house on fire twice now) and what can we do to change that?  So......yeah.......that's today.  Like in a few minutes.  Gotta get my mind and spirit man ready for that because this kid has got serious problems and I am not even sure I can help him but I am going to try and since he told his mom he wants to talk to me, definitely.

I think this phone call is going to take it out of me.

Soooooo, off to the races!

G'day.

ben

Lighting Fires In The House

What more fun thing could you think of to do on a Friday night than be talking with your fiancee' and then the next thing you know, all hell is breaking loose at her house? 14 year old boy piled some kind of material in one of the upstairs bathroom sinks and then set it on fire.

Yup, right inside the house.  This after he told her she was fu****** stupid and other not-so-nice expletives and adjectives that more likely describe a monster, not one's own mom.  She sends me a pic and then asks me if she should call the police.  I'm thinking what I might be inclined to do in such a situation - probably kick the kid in the ass and other such manhandling events and then shove his ass down the stairs, out the door, throw some blankets out there and bid him a good night.

He set his mattress on fire last month.  Yes, his mattress, in his bedroom. She called the police, Sheriff's came out, 4 of them apparently, decided they couldn't take him but advised her to "wear his ass out".  ???  What, are you going to make him work all night long?  I never heard that phrase used in the context of what they were saying it so I had no clue that they actually meant to whip his ass until it really, really, reallllllly hurts.  They were saying all of this in front of the boy.  They further advised that if she does decide to spank him and if he offered any  resistance at all, they would be happy to come back and beat his ass for her.

I'm not sure they can legally do that, I think they were pretty much reading him the riot act and trying to put the fear of God - or man - into him.

I can only say that if I were there now, much of this s*** wouldn't be happening.  He simply needs a man in his face to help him deal with all the junk that is going on inside of him that no-one will help with and she doesn't really have a clue how to deal with teenage boys.  She freely admits that. Girls, yes, boys, no.  Her options were to go ahead and whip his ass or dump him on ex's doorstep. Who would do nothing.  He might not even take him.  Never-the-less, she opted for the ass whipping. I simply said make sure someone else is in there with you with a cell phone to call police again in case he goes crazy on her.

I will not say how many times she whipped him, I will say that he was pretty much - in a lot of pain.  But, he let her do it.  I say let because he is much bigger than her and in the realm of size, he could easily beat the snot out of her if he wanted to.  The police saying what they said is the reason he didn't put up a fight.  Otherwise, I am sure this would be a completely different story being printed on this page right now.

I have not talked to her yet today to find out how things are going over there, I need my coffee first!  I'm assuming the boy is either going to come into alignment with her demands  - which is simply to do basic chores around the house - or perhaps he will run away, as she has threatened that she will beat his ass again.  I'm not really all for spanking a 14 year old, but in her case, the only alternative is to dump him.  She doesn't really want to do that.

As for me, my slow preparations to move - not in a big hurry it's not going to happen tomorrow afternoon - continue on. Plodding along in my closet, which is easily the biggest thing I have to go through since it's where  keep anything and everything of value to me.  And, as I have been finding out and a bit embarrassing, also en-massing piles of papers from the past covering a huge vortex of issues and things that - vortex the wrong word but seems to fit anyway - I have had to go through, piece by piece and discarding most of it.  Much of it important at the time I was going through it or otherwise using it, now it's just history that I have no need to keep a collection of.  Still, it is amazingly boring, tedious and monotonous work that I would rather not have to do.  I will be spending even more quality time in there today.

I also have to get Caleb's car ready to sell, meaning going to Auto Zone and trading the bad battery in for a good one and cleaning out the car - of which he left rather messy.  I should be able to fetch around $800 for it. It's ugly, it's got dings on the door and such but, it runs great.  A good running car is the only thing I need to get some kind of money out of it.  Oh, yes, I dd ask him if he wanted the thing, he does not.  He won't be back here that long when he returns from Hawaii and then purportedly off to Japan.

Regardless,the closet and continuing on with it is on today's agenda.  Work on it until I can take it no longer, leave it and come back to it type of thing  Just not something I can sit there and do alllll day long without stopping though if I were to do that, I could have it done today. I am not that motivated.

At work, the rumors may still be flying about, I have no idea, but at least the endless stream of people approaching me and asking if they are true has stopped. Not that I mind replying, because some of the rumors are completely hilarious as people recirculate things they hear and then add and detract things from the story until it has morphed into something completely and totally different than what is actually happening.  I had the same thing occur many years ago when a transmission - a very large and heavy one out of a semi tractor - fell onto my knee.  As the rumors spread, over the days after the accident, I had people coming up to me looking at me in shock.  "Oh, I heard that you had to have your leg amputated!" and other such nonsense.

I have finally decided in my mind that leaving the house under the care of Mark and Lynnette will probably work out - with frequent phone calls making sure they are covering everything - and that eventually the house will go well beyond what I owe on it and I can sell it and be done with it.  Or whatever, who knows.  If I get the job offer in Shreveport and she can continue on with her programming work and also continue receiving a rather substantial amount of money in child support, money will not be an issue with us - at all.  In fact, there should be plenty left over.  I want some toys is my deal.  Lol.  A dirt bike and a quad and a truck to pull a trailer with all of it loaded on it.

I suppose this entry has one on long enough.  12 days until I fly out of here and go for another visit. 13 days until I find out whether I have a job offer or not.  13 days as well until I get in front of that 14 year old and start having a man-to-man with him or maybe I should call that a man-to-child since that's really how he is living his life.  Well, maybe let that go until that Saturday or even Sunday.  Never-the-less, I want an opportunity to try and drag out of that kid what it is, exactly, that is going on inside of him that makes him want to act out in such bizarre and even dangerous ways - lighting things on fire inside of the house is hardly an act that most people would call safe........

G'day.

ben

My arms are aching.
I have intensified my workouts to the point that some of them are up to a full hour of doing nothing but free weights. I totally trashed my triceps almost 4 days ago now and they are still sore!  Growing old you can't do nothing about, growing old and fat you can.

I'm sorta in a holding pattern at this point until I get down there, get the interview and find out if I have a job or not. Some of the kids are virtually begging me to pleeeeease get my stuff and move asap.  Yes well that can't happen til I have a job.  They understand this but patience is not necessarily a virtue with juveniles and young kids.  One thing is for certain, long distance relationships are not for the faint of heart, especially if you really fall in love and can't see each other that often.  Facebook, text messaging, Facetime, phone calls simply do not take place of personal contact.  If I were a rich man, I'd just fly out there on weekends and have a couple of days of contact over nothing, but I am not and it is what it is.  It's basically $300 give or take depending on what you end up with to fly to Tyler and back.

That's pretty good chunk of change for me.

Whatever the case, a new experiment landed on my doorstep 2 days ago when we were discussing the 16 year and his infatuation/love/whatever you want to call it for his recently found 14-year old girlfriend.  He wanted to spend yesterday with his gf - they are on Spring Break.  She told him no.  We got to discussing it - she is kinda afraid if she puts the brakes on too much he'll bolt and run.  But I talk to the boy every day, that's not really his mind frame though if she were to shut it down completely he probably would take off to his dad's.  So he is asking her while I am on the phone with her and she told him flat out no.  He texts me all dejected, well she said no.

Then we are talking about it and she just says: You make the decision.  Okay.  Her problem is she (admittedly) has no clue how to deal with teenage boys.  So I asked her what she wants out of it.  Might as well milk the cow.  Work.  Okay.  Back to the boy, 3 days of work, at least 4 hours.  Well what about church on Wednesday, he asks.  No.  Puuuulllllleeeeeeeeaaaaaaassssssseeeeeeee bro?  He asks me. Back to momma.  You make the decision dear. Yes hon, but you are the one that is going to have to drive over there and get the girl, take her to church with you and then drive her home.

Back to boy.  Okay, this time.  But 4 hours of work 3 days in a row no excuses.  Starting today,btw, so I am going to be checking on him on that one.  So yesterday I was texting him, what are you doing over there?  ??? Yes, it's meeeeee. I was given the task of making the decision and checking up on you. Ohhhh.  Yup, and get used to it and more, cause' I know what goes through teenage boys' minds.

So after dragging out the conversation, on purpose, with him, for over an hour, lol, I finally said yes.  But today he gets to pay. Not only does he have to do his work that is already posted on paper, he has to take before and after pics and prove to me that he got it done.

Then it was talking to the 12 year old boy, then it was talking to the 10 year old boy - the 12 year old is pretty much a whiner and that's gonna have to be addressed head on.

Anyway, that's life at the ranch that I'm not even living at yet!

And I'm outta time!

G'day.

ben

Standing down on that one.
She was upset with herself about something that occurred between us.
I just brushed it off, said I am all good with it and then continued on like nothing had happened.
Well, you know, after a pretty good discussion that she wanted to have about it, lol.
She calmed down, was all good and now we are ... all good!

Gotta date to interview with manager of Shreveport store on the 28th of this month at 1:00pm.  I was glad that he wanted to see me on Friday, I can get that behind me - for better or worse - and move on to doing other things. The 16 year wants to have a bonfire but mom said no, wait until I'm there.  I dunno why but whatever, it's cool.  They have a HUGE pile of junk to be burned.  It is sitting out in the middle of a huge field with nothing around it thankfully, no chance of catching anything else on fire.  I mean, I am going to get pics and video of this and post it here and on FB, it should be cool to watch it go up!

And then I decided we are all going to go bowling, all 6 of the kids plus his girlfriend and obviously my future wife and I.  That should be a hoot, those kids don't get to get out much and do anything like that.  It's kinda expensive to take that many kids - much of anywhere to do much of anything - but I do believe that when we are married, with her income from programming plus my income plus child support we should be doing very well.

Meanwhile, at the home front, I decided to tackle my walk in closet yesterday.  Major disaster. I spent 2 hours plus and got maybe 2 feet into it.  I have no idea why I let it get so bad in there, but now? I gotta get it cleaned out, chuck what needs to be chucked, keep what I will move out there with  me and give away whatever I don't want that is still good to use.  One thing that was very nice: I found a gold mine in change in there.  I haven't even unearthed all of it yet and there is at least $200 in change in a large plastic container that I brought in just for that purpose.  I am pretty good at guessing close to what I have in change, I did a coin op candy business for quite a while, you get a feel for what you have.  I have at least $100 in my other contained that I have been dumping change into for quite a while so I have some spending money for the trip, woohooooo!

That closet is the last major thing I have to get done.  When it comes time to move it won't take terribly long to get stuff boxed up and get out of there.  I may move into one of the other bedrooms before moving happens so I can get that rented out, need the income to break even on the house.  So yeah, I will be feeling good about that once I get it done and I am going to work on it every day until it's accomplished.

I have also decided to take all my large Koi fish with me.  They can be put into a very large plastic container, get a couple of air pumps going in it for the drive and then put them in the large upper pond once I arrive.  They will love it!  And they are too big for those ducks to do anything with plus most of them are smart enough to stay away from such. I am guessing at least a couple of my favorites will still come up to me if I come up with Koi pellets and start feeding them.

And with that, I am hopeful that this is my last "visit" out there.  I am hoping for a job offer, get my stuff in order and get OUT of Phoenix.  There will be very little that I miss about this place, some things/people yes, but not that much.  I will definitely not miss the intense heat.  Yes, I know the area I am going to has higher humidity but they don't get anything even close to as hot as Phoenix is and I am guessing they do believe in AC over there, if they don't guess I'm in for a warm ride!  But Shreveport average temps in the summer are going from low 90's to mid 90's  I suppose that could be hell if they have high humidity. Well, I don't have a job offer yet so no use going too much into that, excepting to say that they are using a temporary driver right now and they are happy to wait until I come out and see if it's a good fit.  Corporate probably gets a little pushy about it, too, though. They are all for keeping people within the company, especially someone that has been there for a while.

I may get higher pay but it is a proven fact that it is much cheaper and easier in the long run to keep a good employee than it is to start fresh with someone new.  So, I got in on that one just in time.  The one in Longview, not so lucky, they had just hired their one and only driver. Who knows though, from what I am hearing they have a hard time with employee retention over there. I did not hear why that's the case, but if I'm being paid well I can pretty much overlook a lot of crud, keeping that in context with what goes on at the branch I am at now and also with our main branch downtown.

Time to go take a shower and get ready for church!

G'day.

ben

She has been pretty down for the last - week anyway.
But this morning she hit me with a bomb: We need to talk.
About what? Us.
I don't even know.  First thing Saturday morning, 7 am, sorry, I can't do that that early.  Gotta wake up.  If she's got some kind of bad news for me definitely not a good time.
Who knows.
I won't sit here and dwell on the what if's,  I will call her later and find out what's going on.

No great plans this weekend, just need to get some projects done that I have been putting off for quite a while.  Stuff I have to get done in order to move - if that's even going to happen now.   I dunno.  Situation up in the air as far as I'm concerned.

Well whatever, bad time to start trying to write an entry, I think I'll try again later after I talk to her.