Rubber meets the road time.
They are gone, left at 2 pm.  By the time I got home, Addler was definitely an unhappy camper. No other dogs in the back yard with him, no-one in the house, not happy at all.  I am going to have to find another dog for him soon.  The Dane that was offered apparently is no longer being offered, they didn't like the fact that i couldn't drop everything I am in the middle  of and drive 150 miles to go see if that Dane and Addler are compatible and bring him home.

Found another one.  But, I am going to peruse the local Craigslist ads and see if there is another breed that might be a weeeeee bit smaller and go that route instead.  I am just a Dane lover, but I have had several other breeds of dogs as well that I really liked and loved.  I've had my share of mutts that all turned out to be great dogs.  I just don't want to start from scratch, ie: housbreaking and obedience and all of that.

There are a large number of breeds I don't want, including Beagles, Labs, Bassett Hounds and Greyhounds, but many more really.  I like other people's small dogs, I don't want one.  I want a dog that has a good temperament and not known to be aggressive by nature.  Which eliminates numerous other breeds including Pitbulls, Dobermans and Rottweilers.  I also don't want a known escape artist.  I have no patience for that and those dogs usually end up lost or dead, in a pound or someone else takes them home.

Well, the only night I'll have the house to myself.  Which matters not either way. I had no energy to move anything tonight, which is what I had given half a thought about anyway.  Meaning tomorrow is going to be gruesome getting everything out of here. I do, however, have a cleaning lady coming.  I put in an ad on Craigslist for $10 for cleaning and got probably 30 responses.  One of them was from a lady that claims she does tenant home cleaning, charges $10 per hour and has her own tools and cleaners.  Well howdy do! She'll be over at 8 am.  I would have had her come earlier but something tells me that getting up in the morning isn't going to be fun and since I don't really have to be up that early, I: won't.  It was extremely intense, 300 miles of driving in heavy downpouring rain today and that takes a lot of focus and wears me out mentally.

Whatever the case, I need to get to bed early cause' I know this is going to wear me out tomorrow.

I'm not sure what I"ve gotten myself into.  Do I really want to take care of someone else's house for 2 years?  Welp, I agreed to it though stipulated that "anything" can happen but promised to give well advance notice if anything happens that I need to skidoodle.  With that, I'm off to bed.

I was very happy to get to work this morning and have a run that was gonig to take up most of the day. Red River Army Depot was the destination in Hook, Texas.  You have to fill out an application to get into the place and they do a background check on you then and there.  The place is massive.  Lots of Army personel carrier trucks all over and all kinds of military vehicles parked alongside dirt roads on both sides all over the place.  2 hours just inside that place getting the truck in there, unloaded and back out again.

Tomorrow is going to be just as good with an even longer trip down to Corrigan.  I don't much care for the inevitable passing by the CMV inspection station which is almost always open and trucks are pulled in at random.....

Anyway, I got off work and headed to UPS store, got the documents notarized and shipped out to mom's place up in the mountains.  Hopefully the trailer will sell quickly, or even at all considering where it's parked. I'm hopeful someone will be willing to buy it and go up and get it out of there.  Otherwise, I'm going to have to pay to have the thing hauled back down to the Valley and that's about $300 bucks to do so.  Ugh.

Got home, there is a rental truck in the driveway and it's almost loaded.  This thing is growing wings and about to take off.  Helped the dude carry a king size mattress out to the truck.  Huge thing!

I'm stressing, I can tell, with everything that is going on.  And irritated with the LTC license.  I mean, even if they reject it, they must send a letter, right?  Out a good deal of money if they don't approve it. Passport, no idea what kind of parameters they use to determine who can get one and who doesn't.  They have my birth certificate and I will be happy when they send that back, it was quite a bit of doing to get that thing.

And, I'm trying my best in the spirit of Christianity if nothing else to be nice to the new manager and treat him with the Golden Rule, which he doesn't give back but there are plenty of scriptures about how you are to treat people regardless of how they treat you.  So, trying to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.  Where the rubber meets the road is also where you find out how much you are really willing to do the things that Christ and the disciples spoke and walked and lived in the New Testament. The man is rather self absorbed, putting it mildly and numerous other adjectives that would aptly describe him. But, no point in dwelling on that stuff forever.  I say that, but then he'll do something else and I'll be back on here writing about whatever it is.  My only recent complaint to him was today and that is about the semi trailer.  We trade it with the store down south and they - destroy the thing.  I mean, it's unbelievable.

Well enough. I'm going to get out of the bedroom and see if they need any more help.

Well....my bacon wrapped chicken and jalapeno poppers turned out very nice, I dunno about the pary.  The man of the house was completely stone drunk by 8 pm and was throwing up 10 minutes ago - 9:40 pm.  In fact, there was no small amount of debauchery going on which finally got me headed back to my bedroom.  It's just that it was the last weekend they are going to be here.  The lady of the house was ignoring him - she is pregnant and not drinking at all I think they were disappointed that a large number of people who were going to come - didn't, including their best friends.  I mean, they're going to be gone  for quite a while, you'd think their friends would show up, especially with that kind of advanced notice.

___________________________________________________________________________

But, that's none of my business and last night is  now Sunday morning.  A HUGE mess in the kitchen, just got done cleaning all of that up. The lady of the house would have done it, but I just can't stand seeing piles of plates and pots and pans laying all over the counters and the sink, so I cleaned all of it up, which earned me free breakfast at IHOP so I'm not going to complain.  Not that I would have complained anyway.

This is going to be a busy day and busy week, at least until after Wednesday as they are preparing to move out - almost ready and they are leaving Tuesday night.  I have to move out of my bedroom and into the one across the house, but I can't do that until Wednesday morning.  Actually, I can move some stuff over there but it's the baby's room and even though the baby went home with Grandma yesterday, all of the baby's clothing and furntiure are in there, so I don't want to move anything in there until they are out of it.

It's going to be a lot of work that will need to be done in a short period of time, I wish I could hire someone to come over and help me, but this area is lax on the amount of help you can find with people who actually want to work.  Which just now prompted me to write an ad in Craigslist anyway and see if I get any replies.  I would really like to do a thorough cleaning of the entire house, but that would take more time than I have doing it alone.  The college students are flooding the town again, school must be starting soon, perhaps one of them needs to earn some extra cash, who knows.

After Wednesday things should settle down quite a bit, but adjustment to "new" life without my landlords/friends.  Said goodbye to the baby yesterday - he's 1 going on 2.  I hope these new people are what they appear to be - normal, quiet people.  They know each other which is fine I don't care about that.  It's a large house and plenty of breathing space for everyone to have their own space when wanted.  Everyone will have their own bathroom which is a huge plus.

One of them wants to pay the extra it's going to cost for all the movie channels.  More power to him, we all get to benefit from that but I'm not paying the extra, not even a portion of it.  I'm happy enough with what we've got already and frankly, I don't watch a lot of TV. I like watching movies and I'm a big fan of the Walking Dead - but the next season of it doesn't start for a couple of months.  Other than that, I can live with out it.  I'm more of an internet junkie than anything and I've been trying to taper back on that as well.  Well excepting Bible Gateway - it's got a bunch of versions of the bible and that is one internet activity that I can justify to myself if no-one else in using.  Facebook is starting to get old.  There's too many people full of anger and hate and using far too much foul language for my tastes.  I'm not quitting FB, I have just been cutting back my time on it.

My title for the trailer came in yesterday, meaning I can get that thing sold whenever my mom gets back up there, which she said would be this week.  Well I can try to sell it anyway, it's off the beaten trail and back in the woods quite a bit, not sure how far anyone is willing to go out of their way to buy something like that. But, there are a lot of people that have those things on their property up there, perhaps someone needs one in that area.  I'm giong to advertise in all local venues as well as Craigslist. up there as well as Craigslist in Phoenix.  My mom got a guy up there to fix 2 leaks that had developed in the roof and that guy said the thing is worth $2,500, list it for 3k and come down.  It's got a few minor problems but I really put alot of work into that thing incluidng new wall paper throughout and new carpet.  A good mattress and repairing the ac plus other stuff.  Just not going to give it away.

My LTC - concealed carry - still hasn't come through and fixing to call them again this week. It's been 2 months, I've been told it can take 3, but I'm still going to find out if they've even gotten to it yet.

I also applied for a passport yesterday. I was going to wait until I got my LTC, but forget that.  They said a passport takes at most 4 to 6 weeks but many people get them sooner than that.  I actually don't need it - yet - I just want it.  Bucket list stuff, you know?  If an opportunity comes up, I'll be prepared.  I really want to visit Europe, but more importantly to me, I really want to experience flying over the ocean!  I absolutely love flying, though it's a little much nowadays with crammed full airplanes.  But, I'm happy if I can get a window seat, which always happens.  Many people seem to want the aisle seat so they can get out of there faster? I dunno, but you don't get out faster, lol, you might get a few people ahead but that's it.  I'm not one of those first class flying people - the cost of flying first class is just too much for my wallet.  Still trying to decide whether to go to Hawaii in January.

I've been offered a Great Dane for free - but - one of these new people is bringing a dog so I'm going to see whether Addler and the new dog get along first. But, I'm concernend that the owner is simply going to have the dog in the house all the time, meaning Addler outside alone all day long.  Both of these people are on disability and  they don't work.  The disability check is substantial enough to be able to live off of though.  2 grand a month.  If you spend $500 on your living place you have $1,500 for everything else, which is more than enough, the dude doesn't have  a car payment, so yeah, I know I could make that work if I was forced into such a position.  Well back to the dog, I really don't want to get another dog, but there's no way I'm leaving my big boy out there for 10 plus hours a day alone, he'll go crazy and he may try to get out of the yard.

I'm also considering some options of building a stand-alone "apartment" so to speak.  I could build it with the money from the trailer and live here for free.  It would pay for itself in 5 months.  This is something they already wanted to do anyway so it's not like I"m doing something against their wishes.  But that would be a lot of work so that is just in the consideration department at the moment.
Final payment in the trial run of the mortgage modification coming this week and then I can not only rest easy in a greatly reduced mortgage payment every month, I also will get my credit back up afrter some time of on-time payments show up.  It starts the mortgage over to 30 years, but I have paid it down quite a bit from where it was at at first.  I'm not really concerned about owning that house, I just  want it to get me a good credit score.  I don't really think my landlords are going to stay there forever, no idea. If they leave, I have to sell the place.  So I'm hoping they'll stay at least a couple more years.  I was able to bring their rent down to $175 per month.  They are doing a wonderful job of running that place and they still like the arrangement.

Oh, and I finally had the pleasure of telling Directv goodbye!  After months and months of making phone calls to them to try and get a better deal and get  new equipment in there, I finally caved in.  My landlords agreed to the switch, I had a whole new Dish Network system installed in there under a 2 year contract.  It has a full house hopper that records from any tv in the house, up to 2,000 hours and all tv's can record at once.  I also have a 2 year price lock plus free HD for life.  Directv refused to offer me anything, even told me if I wanted to upgrade they would charge me more per month! They were so rude on the phone plus now you are automatically connected to call centers in the Philippines. The funny part?  When I said I wanted it shut off immediately, THEN they made all kinds of offers.  Helllllllllo? I have been calling since last year trying to get a better deal.  The dude said he wished he could have talked to me before we made the switch, he was offering $40 per month plus upgraded equipment.  I was already done with them at that point, though, the supervisor I had spoken with a few weeks previsouly had hung up on me and that was it.  I invited him to have management review all the calls I have made in the last 10 months and find out how their customers are being treated over the phone......

Now, the best part: the landlords say they love the new system and it's only missing one channel that they were watching.  I offered to upgrade to the next package but she said no, it's the Chiller channel, she hates it but he watches movies  on it sometimes, please don't upgrade!  Good enough, try to keep them happy and they will stay and continue to very nicely maintain my house.

On the job front, still putting in applications here and there at places that look like they might be a good fit for me.  I won't quit for just any job, but a good offer I won't turn down.  My coworker is allegedly putting in his 2 week notice sometime this coming week.  HD Supply is a big company and they have all the paperwork and junk to deal with in hiring a new-hire like all the rest of them.  His final required paperwork was turned in on Friday, now he's just waiting for confirmation of employment and he can issue his notice to current employer.  I would like to think that would help my situation there and it might temporarily, but they will just go out and hire someone to take his place.  The warehouse manager is hating life there now.  He thought it would get much better when the new manager comes in, but intead, the new manager literally gives him hell every day. He's at retirement age soon, it wouldn't be shocking to see him quit.  For 25 years of working there and being a big part of why contractors come in there, they are paying him less than $18 per hour.  I know this because he left his screen up - like he always does - and his paycheck was right there with earnings and everything on it.  I made this case to my coworker who is wishy washy about quitting: there is no future here.  Unless you somehow make it into outside sales, you are wasting your time here.  2 of the outside salesmen are getting up there in age, in their mid 60's, no idea how long they intend to stick around.  There may be opportunity there, even with the new manager.  But if and when are a totally different story.

My newest goal is going to remain in place until/unless something changes it.  That is, a mobile home park.  There's some property I am extremely interested in. Zoning available for MH park.  28 acres, plenty of land. Right on the outskirts of town.  Getting the land would only be part one, though. Hvae to pay someone to disign and draw up the plans for the city to consider and approve.  That's rather expensive from what I hear.  Then the cost of "building" the park, consisting of infrastructure, pads, and road.  Office would be a mobile home or modular structuree.  Have to factor in insurance and taxes. First year would be a write off though.  Lots of trees would have to come down - though it doesn't matter where they fall so I could do that myself, but you still have to get a stump grinder in there and tractor to operate it.

Well that's enough of that for  now.  I am going to have to spend some time educating myself on the business end of it if I am really going to follow through with it.

And with that, I am done with this one.

They are cleaning house today. Party tonight but also just getting ready to leave on Tuseday.  I have spent the morning attempting to find the correct information to fill in the passport.  It hasn't been easy.  The divorce  date is what I was haivng trouble finding and yes, the marriage date.  I went through the court documents that I could find and none of them had the marriage date.  It had the divorce date, which I also needed - 12/2/15. She got a marriage license a month and a half later and is now remarried.  Now can anyone tell me that there wasn't marital unfaithfulness going on when you divorced and less than 2 months later you are remarried?  However, he - Billy Lanier - is likely going to regret that decision for her lack of mental stability so there is that.

Anyway, I finally went through my bank account, found the Expedia deal I purchased to get the room for  the honeymoon, logged onto Expedia and found the date that way.  Yeah, a little brain work.

Anyway, off to the Post Office - they make appointments I found out the other day to do passport apps on Saturday, then over to Kroger's to get some party food, namely: the ingredients to make jalapeno poppers and cream cheese stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon.

And now that I'm looking,; i have to go!  I have to fill out the passport app once again - I goofed up twice now putting in wrong info, but now I have it all good.