The work week well - this particular one anyway - is half over. It is also the last day of the month of June. There are just a little over 6 hours left in this month, meaning that I got away with one - if not only for this year.
What I got away with was about $130 less in electric usage than June of last year. SRP - my power supply company - faithfully sends me out a readout of the entire year’s worth of electric usage. June stood out from last year - historically it is the hottest month of the year - and certainly from that readout - it was at least $50higher than any months worth of usage last year.
But - this year’s June has been amazingly low in temps until - last week I guess. The AC is running off the hook now - not unexpectedly - in keeping it cool in here.
Okay, enough about electricity. It’s of particular interest to me - probably not to anyone else. Then again, this IS my blog! Lol.
Of even greater interest is the second Airbus accident. Fin graciously hooked me up with a website that is frequented by commercial jet pilots and other experts in varying fields related to it - I was reading with great interest today the provisions made by such concerning the newest/fresh crash of yet another Airbus - this time an Airbus A310. I think the AF crash was a 330 model?
I may go ahead and register with that site, undoubtedly will never post anything since I am your basic know-nothing compared to those that are posting there. Still, it’s all quite fascinating to me.
In all the fascination, however, I do not forget that a lot of people have lost their lives in both crashes over the Indian Ocean and for that, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of the deceased. I have not seen much about the Air France flight - guess there’s not much to report.
Entire torso area is burning. I have just been standing out in the hot sun for a couple of hours watering plants and taking stock of the entire situation on my property. What are my next moves. Well, I have the buck a piece plants left to plant - I’m waiting until this coming 3-day weekend. I have also decided to transplant at least one of the Norfolk Pines. Although they are where I want them, they are not doing well there. When Mary was here, we had discussed transplanting one to the front of the house where it would get a lot more shade and less direct exposure to the sun.
This because I had read on numerous websites that it really doesn’t like arid climates, it wants a more humid climate instead. I figured at least getting it out of the hot AZ sunshine would help - we are in the midst of some humid days right now. THAT one is doing QUITE well. The branches are not burned as the other ones are. Well, excepting one. there is one where a couple of the branches greenery is only slightly burned, the rest of that tree is growing like crazy.
There is another that is seriously burned and doesn’t seem to be growing at all. And then yet another which is in between the 2 aformentioned.
Anyway, I SOOOOOO want to get an “automatic” drip watering system in. I’m spending some serious time out there now that summer and high heat has arrived in watering that stuff.
On a different note, I was watching the - “loser” - walking down the street past my house a little while ago. He used to say hi to me or I used to say hi to him - either/or first. Some months ago, I was greeting him and he was totally ignoring me. The man is known as a “loser” because he is 30 something years old and still lives with his parents. He doesn’t work - and doesn’t want to. It has nothing to do with the economy - he has been living his entire life like that LONG before this recession started. He’s about 6′6″ tall. Lanky, not especially strong looking. Face is aged well beyond his years - he’s a meth user.
I was out front watering all the menagerie of plants out there and he comes walking by. I said nothing - I discontinued since he decided he was not going to respond with anything. I think the silent treatment is the greatest diss of all of mankind. There is no positive OR negative response, there is just nothing. It is response in itself - it most assuredly is. He was walking along, had his fists clenched, had a look of hate on his face and was walking with some determination. Where he was going and why he was posturing like that - no clue.
But I have observed many people over the years with same such look and posturing. Not a one-time event, but a stance that is repeated over and over and over again. I have always wondered what, exactly, is going through that person’s mind. In my case - well - this is the guy that was screwing the former tenant named Justine - in my house. I did not want this man coming into my home at all. If an adult cannot find it within him or herself to go out and get something going for themselves in life, I really don’t want anything to do with them.
Even the people that I have given food or meals to are people that are driven to do whatever it takes to keep themselves floating - but - the times being what they are and the circumstances that they are facing proved to be too much. People that would never have taken a hand-out from anyone have come to my door - with my CL invitation of course - wanting the help that I was providing. I am not handing out food now. I am still having people over here and there for meals. Not that I don’t want to hand out food - my situation with doubled hourly cuts have forced that upon me. I have no reservations at all in having a person or persons over for a meal that I was already preparing - just having to make more for the extra mouths.
As life moves on - and it always does - I always come to points where I have to face not only my mortality - if only in my thinking at the moment - but also WHAT is my contiued purpose here. There is more to life than what I am doing with it. At least, from the perspective of the Bible and the life I have lead before I started journaling. No, journaling is not a hindrance or my setback, it has nothing to do with it.
I have to be content that what I am doing now is what I am supposed to be doing now. If it is not, then opportunity will open up to do something else.
There is something in me that would like to earn massive amounts of money and finance the many missionary contacts I have around the world. Old contacts - old friends - people I have served with on the field. Many of them are still out there. I didn’t quite make it - due to a devastating divorce and the shunning of a church. Which may not be VALID reasons in the eyes of God, but - the effect on my soul, heart, and mind was enough. Even my Dad asked yesterday about whre I am going to church. I said I am not going and referred to the shunning. I also made quite clear the fact that I have not turned my back on God and that I still love the Lord.
Well, I’m just rambling I guess. I have a lot on my mind right now. There are many distractions that life has to offer. I’m not convinced that many of them are worth the time of day or the thought in mind that they absorb.
Do you remember the “notoriety” the McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 received after numerous crashes all over the place and people getting killed on that particular brand and model of aircraft? Is Airbus going to have the same tainted recognition with all of their product?
Heck, if I were flying anywhere, I don’t think I would want to board anything made by Airbus at this point - I don’t wonder if actual air travellers are thinking the same thing, the world over?
It becomes a thing where people’s minds don’t think in terms of where the fault might lie - weather; malfunction; pilot error - it just becomes more like “gee, this airplane crashes a lot, I don’t want to be a part of that”.
Unbelievable.
I’m at work - before signing in of course and before the work day has begun.
I slept very well last night - that’s 4 nights in a row now that I have slept either well or decent enough.
The CEO of our company is coming through today and there is word he may actually come to this store. That would be amazing in itself. Whenever stuff like that happens, I am usually not even here - out on the road somewhere. Another thing that I just found out this morning is the CEO of our mother organization has resigned. I didn’t read any particular reason for it, the guy seemed to be steering the entire ship in the right direction, so I’m kind of at a loss on that one.
That’s it. I am just in automatic mode for the time being. I forgot yesterday to go get a copy of my 5-year driving history to present to the taxi company for their consideration of my becoming a “weekend warrior” - if only temporarily. Actually, I only plan on doing one full day of it on a Saturday to see if it makes any money or is just a waste of my time. I was already offered a job - at $7.25 per hour lol - the other day. I can imagine myself standing in a “production line” at a Subway restaurant in the workings of a “sandwich artist”. I figure the lowest I will go on a part-time job is half my wages at my full-time job. Anything lower than that would just seem a waste of time to me.
Regardless, it’s gettin’ close to time to sign in and I want to check out a couple more news stories before that happens.
Have a great day!
ben
Work went well enough - a full day of running all over portions of southern Arizona making deliveries and a pickup. I could be more specific, but who cares. The CEO/President of our company is coming to town - tomorrow. I have talked to this man via email in the past - a very nice person, actually.
Anyway. My daily waterings of certain plants is not enough. These plants are withering by the time I get home from work and only another good dose of water brings them back. I will have to start watering these plants twice daily during the summer. Kind of a pain - I enjoy, no love - spending time out there with “them”, but this is a little excessive. If I had any thought that anytime soon my “ship would come in”, I would definitely go out and buy a drip watering system, which would take care of this problem.
Now, I could “drip” water them with a hose - but there are too many of them, it would take too long. I can just about guarantee that next week, I will be applying for another 401k loan. I hate to do it, but there is too much going out and not enough coming in. A couple thousand dollars right now would take care of all of it and then some.
Customer Service. It is not an unfrequent event that I complain about poor customer service, and in recent months, Fry’s Food Stores. Today was yet another adventure into that realm. I will admit here that during the summer and when I’m outside baking away - and after work - I do like to drink a few ice cold beers. Why? Because I want to, what else is there to it? I acquired a taste for beer in my early teens that has never gone away. It tastes better to me, frankly, than a glass of coke. The only thing I like better - and I like it much better - is ice cold water. Moderation of course concerning the beer.
But still. I buy it when it’s on sale in 30 pack to save money. It lasts a long time, thank you. You can buy a 6 pack at 6 or 7 dollars per six pack - or you can buy 30 packs on sale for $19.99 or less and - the savings is significant. I am NOT a drunkard for those that want to know - I just like to drink a few beers.
Anyway. Fry’s has the 10-for sale. Buy ten of the things that are on sale and you get $3.00 off the total bill, not to mention the stuff you are buying has already been marked down significantly from what it’s normal price is. The 10 sale is mix and match, you don’t have to buy 10 of any one thing. I got various items that I needed and then a few other things on sale but not the 10 sale, got a 30 pack and headed to the self-service lanes to check out. The full service lane - only one was open if I recall correctly at the time - was loaded with people. So was the self service section, but with 8 checkouts, it was bound to free up quickly.
Well, I get a checkout station quickly. First thing I do is scan the 30 pack. It’s going to stop the scanning process for the attendant to verify my age. I’m standing there watching this attendant scanning an entire basket full of stuff for people who - apparently - couldn’t figure out how to scan the stuff for themselves.
This woman is totally ignoring everyone - and there are other people besides me that have “frozen” scanning screens - “Please wait for an attendant”. This goes on for several minutes. Now, mind you, I have scanned the 30 pack, I am just waiting for the lady to approve the sale so I can continue scanning everything else. She finally goes back to her station and then DELETES my 30 pack off the screen. If you have ever done self service, you know that everything that you scan has to go onto the table area they have next to it. It is a giant scale - every item in the store has been input into their software for it’s weight. You put the item on the table, the system checks the weight and allows you to move on with scanning if the weight is correct.
Well, the 30 pack is sitting there, it’s been deleted off the ticket, but the system allows me to scan on. So, scan I do. Eventually, I hear this voice: “WHO HAS THE ALCOHOL?” I couldn’t believe my ears. Perhaps not as bad as hearing over the speaker system an announcement that someone needs to go over to the condom display to unlock the booth for whoever is waiting there, but still - bad enough. I have never had that happen to me - but I have both heard it done and have read about people’s experience in the feeling they get when such an announcement is made and they - are the unlucky soul waiting there to get a package of condoms.
She comes over to my station where I am busily scanning away and declares that the beer didn’t scan and I will have to rescan it. I looked up at her. Ma’am, I not only scanned the beer, but I sat there and waited for several minutes while you were scanning all of another customer’s things. YOU deleted the beer off the ticket. At first she tried to backtrack - but that will go nowhere with me, ESPECIALLY with a person that is lying through their teeth. “Well, I had to delete your problem because I needed to take care of their problem first, and the only way I could do that was to get yours off the screen”.
How long would it have taken to simply bypass the age restriction? 2 seconds? She was so intent on doing EVERYTHING for these other people that she completely ignored EVERYONE else that needed help.
The fact that she lied to me was enough to ask for store management. After several minutes, a lady walks up. No thanks. I wanted the GM, not a person that I have dealt with before that does nothing about the situation. The GM just happened to be walking by at that particular moment, so I just walked away from both of them, saying I would rather speak to this gentleman.
What happened next was interesting if nothing else. I told him about this attendant scanning every single item of a customer’s purchases - at a SELF checkout station - while totally ignoring everyone else. We communicated for a short time and then he called the attendant over. I stood there and listened to this woman lying, I mean, it was too much for me to stand there and just listen to it.
What I totally forgot during this exchange was what got me going in the first place: This attendant speaking out loudly who has the alcohol and her 3 visits to my checkout station demanding that I rescan the beer.
I do trust that the GM has taken care of this woman’s problem with honesty - I have seen him in action before, but - I will be contacting them again about this situation with her speaking up loud enough to make it known to everyone about the alcohol that allegedly didn’t scan.
My problem with customer service in these modern times is just that: modern times has turned customer service more into a pile of s*** than anything remotely considered service. This does not apply to all companies, of course. In this case, it doesn’t apply to everyone in the store, but - it applies to at least a handful of them working at the same store.
Well, whatever. I write about the things that happen in a day - this was one of them. Good things happened today too.
I just wrote an entire entry to KCL - it disappeared into cyberspace.
So much for that. I couldn’t find the place that might have it saved, so, I gave up on the thing and came back over here.
I never like re-writing things that I have already written. The only version of that that might happen is copying it and pasting it on another blogsite.
So, since I wrote about everything, I haven’t much to say today.
G’day
ben
…………..is energy best spent and used up quickly. After the middle of the night crap last night, I can say that I have more than my share. So, I just spent over an hour out in the baking hot sun at 106 temp and at least some humidity, drenched in sweat, working outside.
Which has definitely made me feel better. Ken came out earlier and apologized, but then began offering all kinds of excuses. For me, a simple apology without the excuses, the ifs, the buts, and the ands are all that I really want to hear - excuses fall on deaf ears when considering the excuses pertain to a self-made state of being: Falling-down drunkenness. Perhaps the reader can understand my state of mind about this situation, perhaps not.
Regardless, the time spent with dad and Millie at Claim Jumpers was good. I don’t get to see them often and I take whatever opportunitities that come along. The lobster tail dinner wasn’t too shabby, either. I hadn’t eaten lobster - geeze - a decade anyway. They want us to come down soon, I am going to ask for time off at work and see what happens. Take a couple of days off before or after a weekend and do it that way.
I know, get over it. Last night’s events have had an impact on my mind that I am trying to shake, but haven’t been totally able to get out of there yet. I will probably go back outside and bake myself in the hot sun for a while longer until I’m “done”.
I went to bed at the same time I pretty much always go to bed last night: at 9:00pm. I get tired, it’s my normal routine. I have no reason to want to stay up late - though sometimes I’m watching what I consider to be a good movie, I might stay up to watch that.
Sleeping pretty good. 2:00am. Something causes me to wake up. My bedroom door has been opened and there’s someone there, I can make out in the darkness (I like to slee in as dark a room as possible) someone moving their hand along the wall trying to find the light switch.
Brain matter finally kicks in, what the bleep is THIS? I bolted upright, yelled out WHO IS IT!!! fiddle with my nightstand lamp. It’s Ken. I’m yelling at this point, I have no clue what he’s doing in my room, but the fact that I have just been awakened like that and the fact that he’s IN my room has me ready to defend myself, whatever may come. WHY ARE YOU IN MY ROOM? I’m getting up, I’m ready to throw blows. That’s the only thing that was going throw my mind - whatever this guy is doing in my bedroom, he shouldn’t be in here.
Then I get to looking at him. He’s plastered, falling down drunk, can’t talk straight. This time I told him to get the F*** out of my room. I HATE that word, I’m telling you, I do, but at that point in time, it was the word that came out with force.
I start hearing this sob story. He went to a bar with karoake. He says he got a taxi home, says “I know I still have money, but I can’t find it, can I borrow $20 - the taxi guy is getting mad at me”.
I was already FUMING mad at him. I’m STILL mad and ti’s 5 and a half hours later. Some level of normalcy kicked into my head, I’m thinking: “Get this guy out of my room, get up, get money, pay the taxi guy, I’ll deal with this tomorrow”. In the state of mind I was in last night, dealing with him would have gotten very ugly. It won’t be much prettier today, but at least the element of physical violence won’t be in the mix.
I tell him to get out. Got up, did exactly what I thought to do. Went outside, paid the dude, Ken starts in on his sob story. I flat told him to shut the bleep up, I don’t want to hear it, walked into my bedroom - and actually fell right back to sleep!
That’s what REALLY amazed me. I spent maybe 2 minutes thinking about the s*** that just unfolded, I must have been really tired, because my lights blinked right back out and I was in dreamland again as if nothing had ever happened.
But, the anger washed over me again this morning directly after I woke up, took care of the dogs and started thinking about what happened last night. The anger is mostly a man who thinks he can just waltz right into my room at 2 o’clock in the morning and wake up a man that is literally dead asleep. I’m telling you, I came very, very close to just landing a blow right in the center of his nose last night.
You simply do NOT wake a person up like that. Throughout my life, on the few occasions when someone has done that, for whatever reason, I get violently angry. I have no logical explanation for it - but there is something about being clicked out of a deep sleep in that manner that arouses the fury within. On the other occasions when someone has woken me up - but did it in a normal way, I might still be a little irritated - my brain must just like sleep mode and apparently doesn’t like being messed with while it’s in it.
The rest of the anger is the fact that he JUST got paid and now he’s broke for almost 2 full weeks? Yes, he paid the rent, thankfully. And yes, I went and looked, he did buy some food. But, the man is living like he’s still 16 in high school. He drank one of those mini kegs of Heineken in less than 24 hours time plus a bunch of cans of Budweiser. Yesterday afternoon, he was so drunk, he was singing in his bedroom at the top of his voice. I was pounding on his bedroom door - I will not tolerate that kind of disruption in my house regardless of what time of day it is. He didn’t answer. He had his headphones on and was blasting the music. I went to the circuit breaker board, flipped the switch - THAT got his attention.
Today is ultimatum time. I can ill afford to get rid of yet another tenant - but - I will NOT tolerate a person living in my home like this. He will be on notice. If his behavior does not change - and I doubt it will but I will give the benefit of a doubt anyway - I will evict him. Actually, I may just go ahead and issue the 30-day notice - THAT will definitely put him on notice. He behavior will either change or he will just plain go, why bother waiting? Get the notice period done and over with, 30 days is long enough to determine whether he will listen or not. The man has a serious drinking problem and probably needs to check himself into a rehab center somewhere.
It’s pretty much soured my day and it’s only just started. I am meeting up with dad and Millie - his wife - at noon at the Claim Jumper’s Steakhouse. They are driving through afer spending a week at an annual minister’s conference. I’m hoping to get my head out of this funk and into a better mood and atmosphere by then. I figure to go outside here pretty quick and start doing some yard work - get some energy out. The only problem is that I still have to deal with this guy, which will just set me off again. Chances are pretty good that he’s going to sleep a good portion if not all of the morning after getting home so late and being so friggin’ drunk, but who knows. One thing’s for certain, this thing is not just going to “slide”.
ben
I don’t eat sugar - hardly ever. My son gave me a chocolate fudge coated cake thing last week that I - liked the look of but didn’t touch. Just not a sugar freak and definitely don’t want to turn into one.
Well, I looked at that thing in the refrigerator and decided to sit down and eat it with - 3 cups of coffee, actually.
WOW!! I haven’t eaten this much sugar like - in forever.
Some seeds arrived in the mail for me yesterday. Sapphire Dragon tree. The images I have looked at on Google Image show them to be a nice looking tree - though kinda sparse in terms of density, but putting out some cool looking purple flowers. The ad makes all kinds of claims, of course, of rapid growth and such - figured since I’ll basically never have enough money to buy anything even close to a mature tree, I would buy small trees and grow them up myself.
Then, I decided why not just try growing them from seed? Definitely all this tree buying business has me learning quite a lot about how to care for trees. Everyone always talks about pruning trees to make them canvas out to the sides, instead of growing straight up. I have never liked cutting perfectly good branches off of any plant, but I am seeing the need for such pruning, especially young trees before the get to the point where they’re just straight, not very wide trees. I suppose nothing wrong with that, but a tree with a huge canopy offering lots of shade certainly has it’s advantages as well.
There is a tree growing in my back yard - it’s a desert tree of some sort - that is growing at the rate of about 4 inches per WEEK. Last year it was 3 feet tall, it’s now almost 9 feet tall. Only in the last couple of months has it’s growth - for whatever reason - literally taken off. It has several offshoots growing around it on the ground - and they are growing at a fantasimical rate as well.
For me, it’s pretty cool to watch all of this stuff happen before your eyes. For example, the Sissoo trees I bought a few weeks ago. One of them was nothing more than a trunk with some branches at the top and leaves. For an almost 7 foot tall tree, that is a little - unhealthy looking. Well, since planting it, there are sprouts coming out the sides of the trunk all up and down the barren trunk of the tree! They started out last week and are already a couple of inches long.
My honeysuckles are also taking off like crazy. The ones that were trampled literally to nothing but some sticks showing out of the ground? Almost 4 feet tall worth of growth in the last 4 months or less! Those dogs do not have access to trample them with the fence installed. The only things that aren’t really growing at any fast rate are the evergreens. I don’t think evergreens grow fast, anyway, regardless of how much you water them. The Norfolk pines - 3 of them are doing well, 1 is doing okay, 1 is looking pretty bad. The “regular” pine tree - whatever kind it is - is growing, but ever so slowly. it was 2 feet tall when I got it, i think it’s grown maybe 3 or 4 inches in all this time. No biggie - I just would like to get some serious growth out of some kind of tree out there for shade, I pin my hopes on the Sissoos.
Oh, and the ficus i bought today? Well, i have 2 of them out there already. They do not grow at any great rate of speed, either, but they are definitely faster growing than pine trees.
It ALMOST makes me want to go out there - but it’s 105 right now and the high of 108 or 109 - whichever report you believe - is definitely a real possibility. Whatever the case, I am taking a break from the heat today and just - watching movies on satellite.
Oh, get your mind out of the gutter, I didn’t score like THAT!!
I have been following a Craigslist posting for 3 or 4 weeks now that is another nursery going out of business. I figured I’d wait and see if they REALLY dropped their prices to my levels of attaintment - which are basically nothing right now as I am scrapping to save money on every front.
When I saw they had trees in 3 gallon pots for a buck a piece, that’s when I went into action. I only need trees and maybe some ground covering plants right now. So, at 6:20 or so am this morning, I hopped into my car, drove out there and checked it out again.
They had no ground covering plants that I was intereted in - I am willing to wait for that of which will make my property look the way I want it to, not because something is so drastically marked down, you just can’t refuse it.
No, instead, I got Ficus, Chinese Elm and a couple more Sissoo trees. Yes, they are all trees. Small, of course, but never-the-less. What do you expect for a buck? I’m definitely a huge lover of those ficus. Eventually they will grow into huge trees with a deep, dark canvass that blots out the sun. They are also very easy on the eyes.
Chinese Elm are also very popular. I didn’t know what they were because they were so small and the ones I got were the last of the Mohicans - they had no more. These were the last pickin’s but i got 3 of them that looked pretty healthy, just need to bush out more.
I have a row of Sissoos on the west side of my house now. 2 of the newest acquisitions will go around the corner from them and one of them is going out front. The Ficus will go on the west side of the house near the front gate where there is nothing but landscaping rocks. This will eventually provide some GREAT shade for that portion of the house. I haven’t decided where to put the Chinese Elms, but wherever they are going to go, they will be planted in the midst of shrubbery so as not to cause the need for. In fact, all of them are going to be planted near other shrubs that are already being watered, except the Ficus on the west side where there is nothing - I will be putting 3 or 4 of them in there.
I will not, however, be doing any of that today, or if I do, it will be this evening as it’s already roasting hot outside and I have no desire to bake myself like a turkey in a deep fryer. The temps are supposed to start a downslide as of tomorrow - certainly hope the forecasters are right about that.
No, I think I will just putz around the house - inside - today and take a breather.
So - I came home to a surprise today. In saying that, in my home, that could run the entire gamut of things good OR bad. I tend to read into things - I definitely read into this one though I won’t elaborate here. The point is that the person that helps himself to numerous of my things paid most all of it back plus left me a bottle of Shiraz on my nightstand in my bedroom!
Tenants paying me right now is an absolute necessity. I’m really trying to avoid getting another 401k loan - I will be able to get one in about 2 weeks after the current one is paid off. I have my doubts that I will be able to survive what’s going on without the use of one - but - one can wish. I had no energy to go wait in line at the DMV for a 5-year driving history today - try to do that tomorrow. Yes, some of them are open on Saturdays. Turning that stuff in will get me on a list for the next orientation if I do, indeed, pass their background check. I’m referring to the taxi company and hopefully doing at least one weekend of taxi driving around the Phoenix metro area to determine whether I can make any money at it, supplement my income and get out of the financial hole - which is currently a past-due mortgage. I pay everything else up, on-time or close enough on-time that it won’t effect my credit report and won’t cause me to incur late fees.
Onto other things. I have been gaining weight in recent times simply for the fact that there has not been that much work. Work - my employer that is - when it’s going good - keeps me very active. 50% or better of the parts we deal with are very heavy items. Lifting them out of crates or off of pallets and putting them on pallets or into crates while pulling an order is very good exercise. Today, I decided that I had had enough of the weight/fat gain. I decided to not eat until I am hungry. That would be physically feeling the effects or not eating in having little energy or my stomach grumbling. I was not hungry all day today. This translates into not having had eaten in a little over 22 hours. How can a person not be hungry in that much time?
I really don’t know, to be honest. It’s also the reason I have stepped up my work around here - especially outside. Lots of physical stuff to be done out there. I cut back on the Danes walks because of a lot of material I have read from “experts”. Some of them ARE experts - those are the ones I sought out. Great Danes should have exercise, yes, but it shouldn’t be excessive, ie: taking them into the mountains behind my house on very intense cardio workouts. It simply isn’t good for their bone structure - they can get serious hip problems, and I simply don’t want to exacerbate any potential situation by over-use. So, I just take them around the neighborhood during evening hours for much shorter walks and much less stress on joints.
The weekend has arrived and I am all for it. I have several things I want to get done outside - though it has heated up out there considerably. I mean, not just hot, but heat with humidity. It doesn’t take much humidity at 106 degrees to make it feel MUCH hotter than it is. Tomorrow’s high is forecast at 108 and then next week the temps are actually supposed to come way DOWN again!! I hope they are right! Another litmus test of the temps outside is the use of AC. The thing has been cranking since I got home and has not cycled off. Simple reason: it’s the hottest part of the day right now and it’s expected to have to keep up such a pace to keep it cool in here.
Which, of course, means, excessive electric use. I have no choice, especially with tenants - I expected a max of $400 per month bills, especially for June - my June electric use this month is at $223. 4 more days of June - meaning my electric use will be WELL under what it was last June - $410. Plus, June was the highest use of electric last year during the summer. We’ll call it - so far - a temperate summer and be happy with it.
There’s more - but this entry has gone on long enough.
I must have put too much water in the cement mixture - it still hasn’t dried yet, meaning I can’t do anything with it. Maybe tomorrow. Quite okay - it’s very humid outside right now and is very nasty. I think the monsoons are supposed to be here soon or even now - it’s overcast and there is the possiblity of rain tonight.
Anyway, tomorrow is our company’s bi-annual inventory. Meaning, count everything, match it up against what the computer says we have, and then make adjustments where necessary. And as normal, drivers are not allowed to participate - which is certainly no loss to me, everyone will spend half their weekend at the stores counting all that stuff - but will end up taking a day off during the week because there IS no overtime.
Michael Jackson has died! That’s FREAKY!! I grew up watching him singing with the Jackson 5, I used to love them! Whatever the man did or didn’t do - regarding his “contact” with children and the accusations thereof - may he rest in peace and may his family find some solace in their time of grieving.
Ummm, anyway, Discount Cab has invited me into submit necessary documentation: Driver’s license; 5-year driving history and social security card. I’ll try to get into the driver’s license department tomorrow for the 5 year history - it’s $5 and they usually get you in and out of there pretty fast.
Umm, I’m really tired - didn’t sleep well last night and I’m going to go to a short nap.
Ben B