But not without it’s prices. The boss today was edgy. I can deal with stuff from managment, but he’s going to have to figure out how to get his stuff in line. He is at least temporarily separated from his wife - she asked him to leave last week and he did. The story is much more involved than that, but you get the gist of it - anything like this is something that’s going to affect every aspect of your life, whether you want it to or not.
His grandfather is apparently on his last leg and he’s flying up there to visit him before he - goes over to the other side.
The point? Today was supposed to be a half day of work. Our company does it on Thanksgiving; Christmas and New Year’s Eve Day. It was 15 minutes before noon - which is actually more than a half day but that’s when everyone goes home - and he had a small cow about me asking about leaving at noon. There were several, very large deliveries dumped into the system for Monday. These salesmen gave us no advance notice - we ask for it, trust me we do - and no, those orders are not pulled. When I saw his reaction to my asking about the noon shut-down, I just went outside and started pulling the largest order.
I’m not going to get into a pissing match with a manager, but if a manager repeatedly engages in the same, negative and unacceptable activity - I will ask for a transfer. I’m no-where near that point, but that’s my ultimate request. It forces the issue, really. WHY do you want a transfer? By that point, I would have emassed a notebook or computer log with the activities, the date and what happened. I hope this doesn’t last long. I went through some troubling times when I got divorced - I know what he’s going through, but you simply can’t take it out on your co-workers. The point here is that this half-day deal is company-sanctioned - it’s what our company does on those 3 days already listed. We get off early but get paid for a full day.
Besides, it is highly doubtful all of those deliveries are going to be done on Monday. There are too many locations that are distanced from each other by a lot of miles. The orders aren’t pulled. They aren’t on the truck. There is a fusion machine and a generator for that machine on the truck right now. Very large machines, they are taking up half the length of the trailer.
Long break. Newest tenant showed up, paid half a month’s rent, handed oover a bottle of very fine wine he got from a customer, offered to buy pizza. I offered to split it since the boys were eating. I have to tell you that good wine - goes straight to my head. I don’t have to drink a whole bottle, a good sized glass and it’s done. Not that I drink whole bottles of wine, perhaps THAT’S the reason.
It’s nice to have paying tenants - like the $375 I received yesterday and the $200 I received today and the $100 I am pretty sure I will receive anytime this weekend. The second job I don’t have to work : _) - or try to FIND.
Well, a bittle bit better today. I called them once today, the woman started asking me endless questions. I answered all the normal questions until she started asking even MORE - who is your employer. I ended the questionning - “I am not going to tell you that. I would like to speak to a manager, please”. She started in on what was the problem, yada yada yada. “Manager, please, I have already gone through all of this for hours on end yesterday, I will not be doing that today”.
Apparently that was enough for her - a few minutes later, Charlie was on the phone. I recounted to him the situation with the first person I had talked to yesterday who had acted in a very unprofessional manner in interrupting me when I was replying to HER questions, and after that refusing to get me a manager and hanging up on me. His response was rather unexpected. “This deeply troubles me. In the 19 years I have worked for this company, I have never had an employee simply hand up on a customer just because they were asking for a manager”.
I invited him to listen to the recording of the enounter if it was, indeed, recorded. He read all the notes and further gave out that all these people I had talked to didn’t tell me anything of what was readily available to them.
I spent the entire morning on the phone with my lender attempting to find out just, exactly, WHY they wouldn’t take my payment over the phone - the means I have been doing it for some time now. I was given extremely long, unbelievably lame reasons why. Well, I thought they were lame reasons anyway.
One woman hung up on me. I asked - read: asked, and very politely - to speak to a manager. She had asked me questions to which I started to give an answer - and then, should would cut me off half a sentence into it and ask me another question. On the 3rd interruption, I went silent. After she was through admiring the sound of her own voice, I asked her if she was done yet.
That didn’t go over too well, but - it NEVER goes over well with me when an @$$ - aka: Customer Service Representative - wants to do ALL the talking and listen to NOTHING you have to see, EVEN when they asked YOU a question! Her very boisterous and loud response - very abrasive at best - got me to asking for a manager. She absolutely refused. I got her name and teller number and informed her that I would be finding a way to make sure that she heard about her attitude on the phone.
These people never believe. I bet the insurance adjuster that was God in human flesh had listened to me. THAT conversation was taped and yes, her management listened to that recording.
Regardless, their unending statement that the pay-by-phone service would not be available until my loan modification documents arrived and updated into the system, hence the system can’t see that I owe less than what it says I do - was also unendingly responded to by my question.
The question, simply, was: if the system doesn’t recognize a phone payment, WHY will it recognize a payment sent in the mail? If the system has to be “tweaked” to accept one from of payment, why can’t it be for another? WHAT - IS - the BIG DEAL - about me paying by phone, a thing I have done MANY times in the past, INCLUDING LAST MONTH?
NO FRIGGIN’ ANSWER to that question. Not a single person - I talked to 6 of them I think - could answer that. I have 3 phone messages in for managers to call me back, nothing. When I am sleighted by a company such as this, I have unending motivation. I have found the name of the CEO and that individual will be receiving a letter via fax. If that ends up with nothing, I have noted that this company is affiliated with the BBB. I also noted that the BBB has a LOT of complaints on file with this company, and a large number of them are customer complaints about customer service. It appears this company attempts to reconcile the problem when such a complaint is filed. I will do that if I don’t get a response from corporate.
Regardless, I decided that whatever may come - with no definitive answers to my questions, frankly - I am going to get the payment sent there before month’s end. I had the option of Priority Mail or Express Mail. I opted for Express Mail. It’s guaranteed to be there tomorrow. Priority Mail really isn’t guaranteed for anything. My concern is that I have 3 months running in on-time payments, I want 4 months to appear as well. $17.50 for that priviledge to have my check sent via air - it must be sent air, that or their system runs REALLY fast on the ground. I also had to get the second copy of the mod agreement notarized and sent with that mail as well. THAT was THEIR fault in giving out misinformation. A manager informed me that the person that had told me that was new and probably didn’t know.
Is that any kind of excuse? Especially something this important? It is already done. I am not playing games with my house and the potential of keeping it - or losing it. It’s far too important to me.
Ummmm - huge time lapse as I got busy with stuff. I am headed outside to water the Sissoo trees on the west side of house.
Why do Mondays always have to be - like a………Monday?
First thing that happened - network wouldn’t load. Dump an extra, last-minute delivery into the system, get countless phone calls from salesmen asking for this than and everything else - spend an hour at the plumbing department waiting for them to pull and order that should have taken 10 minutes- and more junk - and then get to a job site where the site foreman is always in a bad mood - and what do you end up with?
A person that is extremely grateful to be employed. People can get all the attitudes they want, I just stay focused on the fact that I wasn’t one of the 469,000 or whatever that number was last month that were laid off and now looking for work. I really can’t say anything else about it, I come to work every day and wonder - will I still have a job at the end of the day? I can’t answer that question until I actually log out, walk out the door and get into my car. I went 2 hours over my allotted hours today - nothing I could do about that.
Since I could not get on the network this morning, I got there early for nothing. Turns out it was a system-wide glitch. BUT - it kinda throws me off. I like to come to work and sit down and read the news on the internet. I would rather read it than listen to someone attempting to convince me of something that has obvious political overtones. Yes, they write that stuff out, too, obviously. But - for me - it’s different.
Anyway, I’m still riding on the high that is to be had when your favorite NFL team that you thought was done for the season and NOT going to the playoffs, actually pull something off -regardless of the fact that the other team lost the game for themselves in errors and stupidity - and might actually have a chance at the wildcard.
Caleb - tried to get his driver’s permit today. He failed the written test. Bummer dude. Lots of people fail those tests - though if you bother to spend the time necessary to read the manual and memorize most of it, you will NOT fail that test. A class C license is VERY easy to get, yet people fail it all the time. Try getting a CDL A license. I think that test is FAR too easy, yet MANY people fail the written portion of the test and have to retake over and over. My only encouragement to him today was that yes, many people fail that test on their first try. I did not mention the fact that when I was his age, I aced the test and was driving that day. Well, I was driving 2 years before I had a permit, but that’s a different story. I truly wonder about people out there driving vehicles that have difficulty passing any portion of the test. Do they really deserve a driver’s license?
Monday is over for me. A few more hours and bedtime is here. Short work week and 3-day weekend.
Very nice. Middle Bro wrote and thanked me again for the candle, which was cool. I wrote him back and said I would get him another one - he spent a lot of money on Caleb and I.
Anyway, that’s if for today. Kids are off school - Christmas break goes on for 2 weeks - I have several neighborhood kids over here. Why is it they ALWAYS want to eat my food? You get that many kids and even a big pot of food disappears.
Hmmm, well I won’t complain. Poor families. These kids got NOTHING for Christmas. Not that it’s the end of the world, but I figure I can at least venture them the capacity of eating something good.
I had thought the Steelers were ALREADY out of playoff contention, I was wrong. They had to win last week and this week and next week - at least. Well, the Ravens killed themselves today in errors - such as the final one that basically cost them the game.
I was sorta half watching it, half trying to get stuff done around here. I’ll be watching the next game with much more interest! Yes, the Steelers are my team, yes, I said they suck several weeks ago, but that doesn’t mean I ain’t a life-long, die-hard fan. Always will be a Steelers fan,the only way that will change is if the NFL goes out of business (not likely, but you never know I guess).
Back to the normally scheduled programming, on with it already!
My 5-day staycation/Christmas break is almost over. It’s been good to take the time off. I only have 4 days to work this week and then a 3-day weekend for New Year’s. Plus Thursday is always a half day cause’ no customers come in, most of the companies we deal with give 2 days off. We stay open cause’ corporate wants as much availibility for people to spend money as possible. I don’t blame them and I don’t hold it against them. I get time off when I want it and I get plenty of vacation time so I’m happy. Of course, if I could get my hours back, I would be happier, but I have adjusted and am riding this train out to the next station.
I sent my Loan Modification documents in earlier this week and then yesterday, received a letter from the lender. They bid me congratulations on fulfilling the 3-month payment on time requirement and then detailed what will happen next. This seems like the never-ending process, really. I mean, I started this stuff, what, 4 or 5 months ago and it’s still being hashed out? Well, as long as they hold up their end of the deal, no worries.
Anyway, I’m reading this letter and it says I must send in TWO notarized copies of the agreement. Yikes. I CALLED them before I sent in only ONE copy of the agreement, the lady on the phone answered in the positive: yes, you only need to send in one notarized copy. Well, I have til’ the 29th to get the other sent in. Yes, I know, that’s Tuesday. I will be calling them tomorrow, if they REALLY are not going to be lenient - I DID go to the trouble of calling first to make sure I was doing this correctly - I will pay the price to have next day air get it there in time. Yes I will, it’s EASILY worth thousands and thousands of dollars in lowered interest payments for the life of the loan. Of course, I have absolutely NO desire to live here for 28 more years, the point is that my monthly payments are also lowered.
It just would be nice if once, just once, you could call any large corporation that you do business with and the person that you are talking with on the phone would actually be competent and knowledgable about what they are doing for their own company in their own line of work/profession and give you GOOD - read: ACCURATE answers. Okay, it happens, but very infrequently. You usually have to talk to several people if you have a “tough” question to get a “correct” answer. Obviously, this time, I did NOT get a good answer and I hope I don’t end up having to pay for it.
I could go through a rather long list of the companies I deal with and the wrong answers they have given me and having to spend countless hours in making phone calls to get things straight. I won’t waste my time with that, however, I have ALREADY wasted those hours, no sense in wasting even more time complaining about it. But something as important as the loan on your house? Come on, they SHOULD be getting that straight. It’s a freakin’ mortgage on your home - worth a lot of money and easily can become one of the most stressful issues in your life if things start going sour with it. I don’t know, but I will be headed to the bank tomorrow morning and get the other copy notarized. I will have to do that in between deliveries or something - I don’t even know if there are deliveries to be had since I will not have been there in 5 days, but I’m pretty sure the new boss will be understand that I take a few minutes out of the work day and get this very important issue dealt with. It’s not like they don’t owe me 100 1/2 break times anyway.
As for today? Nope, not taking it easy. I have given myself a long list of things to do inside and out of the house and I am going to get started on it shortly. Figure to spend 6 hours on that stuff today, anyway. I’ve had my time off - though I spent considerable time cleaning bathrooms and such inside the house yesterday. That main/renters bathroom was absolutely DISGUSTING. It took 45 minutes just to get the grunge out of the bathtub/shower walls. I had let it go on purpose to see if ANYONE would lift a finger, just one finger (preferrably not the middle one, lol) to help out.
I have determined that to keep tenants, I’ll just do the s*** myself, bite my tongue and let it go. It’s much easier to keep tenants than to have to find new ones all the time. The main bathroom is really the only area of dispute for me - taking out the trash I make the boys do it most of the time - cleaning up dog dung, well the tenants don’t own those dogs so I wouldn’t expect them to. Cleaning up the kitchen? Well, they ALL use it, but - they don’t make big messes. Yes, they all walk through there, would just be nice to get some help cleaning floors once in a while. What IS nice - currently anyway - is that these people either pay their rent on time or within a reasonable distance of time. This is refreshing and why I am willing to simply do it all myself rather than fight with people about it. I have slowly allowed myself to distance my feelings about people who refuse to help do anything in this situation just for the fact of keeping the money flowing in.
So, that’s about it. I’m going to be looking up flower arrangements today - we are splitting the cost 3-ways for the funeral. My brother’s wife’s mother passed away - she lived in the burbs of Chicago. We want to send a really nice flower bouquet to the viewing. I can’t imagine the grief of losing your own mother, something I will have to face some day, something I hope doesn’t happen anytime soon. Anyway, I got up late today - forced myself to sleep in 3 extra hours. In recent times I have been using whatever days off to try and get caught up on sleep. I always wake up early, if I am able to lure myself back to sleep, I will get those 2 or 3 hours of “extra” and feel much better that day. It’s already 10:30 am and I haven’t done much of anything, but that’s because I had a lot of email and other stuff to get caught up when I did finally get out here.
4 of 5 days off - almost gone. Holiday - gone. Time to go to work - I just feel like this 5-day off-time has literally flown by me. It doesn’t seem like yesterday that it started. I think sometimes we all get FAR too busy in life - well I do anyway. I find I have to force myself to slow down, take a breather, relax, not be so pushed to get “things” done.
However, that is not today. I have gone full-blown in scrubbing every crook and nanny in both of the bathrooms. The main/tenant bathroom was absolutely DISGUSTING. I let it go on purpose. It’s always - entertainment if nothing else - to watch people using a facility such as that, day in and day out - and literally not lift a finger to help keep it clean. The tub was full of sludge. The waste basket was over-flowing on the floor. The toilet? I clean it 3 times a week - but you wouldn’t know it - a visitor to my house might think it hadn’t been cleaned in weeks. If I cleaned it daily, it would probably be good, but I am not that motivated to clean up after human pigs.
I’ve spent 2 and a half hours just working on bathrooms - and I still have half an hour’s worth left to go. I am determined to get it done today so I can focus on other things in the cleaning world tomorrow. So, why don’t I demand tenants to help clean up after themselves? To grab a bottle of the cleaner and a sponge and start scrubbing? My back’s against the wall, simply put. Losing tenants is losing money - could equal losing the house. I’m VERY motivated to keep this house for the present time. My interest rate has now been reduced and - look, if you walk away from a house and it’s accompanying loan, when do you think you will EVER be able to qualify to get into one again? Your credit score will have to be near-perfect and you will have to have a large down payment as lenders are reverting back to the “old ways” - the ways that seemed to work very well for a hundred years.
However, if I had had to have perfect credit, I wouldn’t BE in a house right now. Anyway, demanding people that obviously do not want to do that kind of stuff - do it - well, it’s not worth trying. I have 3 paying tenants right now. They are all paying either on time or very close to on time. I know at least one of them is leaving - though his date has yet to be set. He has guaranteed income at the beginning of every month. The pizza delivery dude says nothing about leaving - yet he’s hardly ever here- excepting the last 2 days. Yes, he has actually spent 2 days in a row in his bedroom. I don’t hear anything coming out of there, I imagine him sleeping to be honest.
Umm, well, I’m busy trying to get a 12X16 “shed”. They want $800 for it, I wrote them an email about it. I didn’t make an offer, but I intend on offering half of that. It’s a wood structure with a door and a window. It’s not complete - but the lumber alone probably cost them more than that to put it together. It needs siding installed - a thing I can do easily and it appears to need shingles on the roof - I have never done it but I have watched them doing it and it looks relatively easy. If I could get it, I have a place for it on the property and I will convert it to a living quarters and - yes - rent it out at $400 per month. I assure you I can rent out a detached building that has no-one listening to anything a person or person’s might be doing inside of it. THAT structure I would require utilities extra. It’s very alluring to people that are renting to have a separate structure. I have read those requests untold times on Craigslist.
I don’t have it yet, I don’t even know if it’s available, it might be gone for all I know - but I have my doubts.
I am also going to start looking for a front loader washer, my electric bill would come down considerably if I could find a set of those types of washers and dryers. I’m on 2 quests right now, the first one is iffy and if I don’t get it, no big deal. It’s just that the work is almost totally done on that structure and really - it’s dimensions are perfect. Getting it over here - might be a chore, dunno about that, don’t have any idea what they propose about moving it - but I’m sure I could get the semi to move it. Umm, I just don’t know how tall it is - the semi trailer deck is at about 5 feet, allowing 8 and a half feet worth of heighth.
Anyway, that’s my Saturday. Today that would be. That doesn’t include a few things I want to get done outisde, either.
I also heard from my mom today - she said the my brother’s wife’s mother passed away this morning. She lives - well lived - in Chicago burbs. Whatta time of year for something like to happen. I mean, anytime is bad, but we spent yesterday over there enjoying Christmas - it was a good time really - and then come to hear this the next morning.
Life. I’ve never quite understood why it has to be so terribly difficult. I mean, I have read what the Bible has to say about it - God never promised a rose garden, not at all, actually. He only promises to help us through it. Going through all kinds of stuff throughout your life span supposedly makes you a stronger, wiser person - of this I will agree - but - does it have to be a CONTINUAL stream of it? Are there no lapses to be found? I’m not complaining to God, I’m basically just lamenting.
So I better stop.
And I better stop writing, too, cause I need to get back to work.
Wishing KCL’ers everywhere a wonderful, happy, joyous and Merry Christmas!
I finally opened my gift from Secret Santa - who happens to be Doanli - it’s an “As Seen On TV” Windshield Wonder! I’m hopeful the thing will work on the semi cause’ that windshield is a pain to clean and this thing looks totally cool! Thanks, Doanli!
Also included was a bag of doggie treats - the bacon kind - the Danes sat there and I broke off little pieces until - yes - the whole bag was gone! Lol
Well, I’m enjoying the day, anyway.
Last night, the lady called me back that I was going to give the ham to. It was getting late and I told her I would come this morning and deliver it to her. She asked if she could come over and get it. Sure, why not? So, she showed up with a 1 1/2 year old little boy and we spoke for a few minutes. She’s attempting to get custody of her daughter’s 4 kids - they were all going to be scattered all over the place in foster homes and she wanted to try and keep them together. The woman is obviously disabled, I don’t know what’s wrong with her but she had great trouble moving around. Well, I threw in a couple cans of corn and some fresh potatoes for baking, but that was it. We hugged, she left.
The thing that got me was that this lady had placed an ad on Craigslist asking for anyone who could help her. She was totally bashed by several people for “begging” on Craigslist. I was pretty put off by that - who cares if someone asks for help on there? If someone doesn’t like it, move on to the next ad!! Craigslist is one of those forums that is totally scoured by Trolls. People who have nothing better to do than to flag ads and try to get them removed because they are “offended” by them somehow. Whatever.
Anyway, I have this about 10-pound Standing Rib Roast - I haven’t started it yet because I think I remember last year it only took like 3 or 4 hours to cook it. Well, it’s not even 10:00 am yet and I would like to partake of it somewhere around mid-afternoon. I figure to start it around 11 and it should be done by 3, 4 at the latest. Strike that, I was reading a couple of sites - doesn’t even take that long. It’s not like pork or chicken that has to be thoroughly cooked - who wants a well done prime rib? NOT ME. I want that sucker RARE in the middle and various shades of cooked to the outside. It will be that with baked potatoes with sour cream and butter; corn of course-my boy loves corn; and bread. That will destroy any hopes of keeping a lid on calories for today, oh well.
I’m not doing anything today. I’m not going anywhere, light cleaning perhaps - always cleaning, always always - but other than that I’m good for sitting around doing nothing today. I had thoughts of taking that $100 my dad gave me with the instructions to do something for my own entertainment - but I think I will can that idea until tomorrow or the next day. I like the idea of Christmas at home and since I’ve already done my Christmas with family yesterday, I’m good with just being here and no great plans. Visit with my brothers and mom yesterday went over amazingly well. It was a good Christmas for Caleb - who got an iPod nano 5th generation at 88 gigs and a .22 caliper shotgun, amongst other things. Mom gave out her usual goofy stuff - lol.
Oldest bro’s wife said that the Omaha steaks were sitting on their doorstep the other day, but they had no idea how long it had been sitting there. The dry ice was gone and she said it was still “cool”. Hmmm. Well, I called Omaha Steaks and they had a delivery time of 12:00pm - the day before! No clue. I asked them to note the account that delivery had been made without the phone call, number one (I clicked on the box for notification of day of delivery, which they did not do); and number 2 that the styrofoam cooler had arrived with the dry ice package - spent. It’s left at my brother and his wife cooking something and seeing if it’s good. If it is, no big deal - but if I do this next year I’m going to rag about the freakin’ phone call.
I received - well my mom paid for the carpet cleaning machine several months ago. My middle bro gave me a coffee thermos which happened to have $40 stuffed into the cap, lol. Oldest bro and his wife gave this cool - huge - cooking set with ladels and peelers and ALL kinds of stuff in it.
So that’s it. As far as gifts go, I’m done. I have to take Caleb to his mom’s house here pretty soon - he’s sleeping. I believe he stayed up all night long downloading music onto the computer to upload to his new iPod toy. I decided to take the chance of using Limewire - lots of risk of virus infection with that junk - but it’s free and we have successfully downloaded hundreds of songs for free in the past. Also have successfully downloaded numerous viruses of which I could not get off of the computer, so I ended up reformatting the harddrive. Well, iTunes wants - what, a buck a piece? - for each song. I told Caleb he had one day to use Limewire and then I would uninstall that junk off of my computer. If there is a virus after getting the music - I’ll be spending quality time reformatting the hard-drive, loading Windows back onto, all my software and all the junk you have to do such as Adobe Flash and Java and Microsoft browser with tabs - you know, the stuff that takes forever to load? Half of those programs require you to turn it off and back on again.
Still, the savings will be worth the trouble if it does happen.
Well, just an update. Christ is Lord and that’s the real deal for me here. I love the Lord, what He has done and I am definitely not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it IS the power of God unto Salvation.
Another part of my life where I have a love-hate relationship.
I love the deals I have been able to get through CL, I abhor the process. ENDLESS emails, people who are playing games, no-shows, people who ask for more money than what their original ad said, if you’re selling - people who agree to one price and then try to talk you down when they arrive.
Mostly it’s the email games and the no-shows.
My latest quest, however, has been conquered. After days and days and days of sending email after email after email, getting weird replies - some of these people are kooks at best - and having extended discussions with people who say they want to sell a thing but aren’t really acting like it since all they want to do is have 100 emails sent back and forth - I finally scored an iPod at my price for Caleb.
This particular quest has been one of the most exasperrating. I am a day and a half from Christmas - well really just over a day, and I am just now getting my son’s present? Well, I’ve been trying for quite a while now to get him what he wants without paying a king’s ransom.
There are a lot of desperate people selling things on Craigslist. Even more who are desperate to get a present for their kid/s - they say they can’t afford anything. I don’t necessarily believe all of them, but we are in tough times so I am assuming that at least some of them are true. Not that I’m helping any of them, I”ve already done my Christmas acts of kindness and that’s history. One family is having a half-ham for Christmas dinner. I have helped these people before. The ham actually only cost me a little over 8 bucks. That’s all I’m giving them, nothing fancy, just something to help them have a little “cheerier” time together.
I’ve overspent on presents - by my standards, lol - but I can at least say I’m not going into debt to pay for it, it’s all cash and it’s almost done. I have a Gold Canyon Candle to get for my brother tomorrow morning and I’m done with Christmas shopping. Our family’s get-together is tomorrow - so I’m REALLY hopeful this lady wasn’t bs-ing me and I end up showing up empty handed. I wouldn’t do that, though, I’ll give a gift card before I show up with NOTHING in hand. I didn’t really spend that much - excepting Caleb’s present.
Now, the dude that sold it to me - well I was surprised. I thought it was a young kid - turns out to be an older gent who no longer needed it - he went out and bought the iTouch - this thing has been REALLY well taken care of, he sold it to me for less than HALF of what everyone else is asking for for the same thing. I know this because I have been searching the ads for quite a while now. I got it for $80 - the same thing on CL was starting at $160 but going well up from there. I figured if I was patient enough, I would snag one -but I was starting to get a bit ancy getting this close to Christmas day and still empty-handed.
I’m very happy that I could get this for my son as both his mother and I have been up against financial barriers - for a long time now, I won’t go broke - I will have to skimp a little on my own personal things but not the end of the world type of stuff - and that’s that. My brother bought his son a 22 caliper rifle and decided to get Caleb one, too. That’s pretty cool, actually. Caleb has had extensive training now in safe handling of firearms, I am not worried about it.
Today - 2 walls painted; more progress on the drip system; toilet seat installed (the old was getting gross with urine stains - and no, they are not MY urine stains, thank you very much, it was the seat in the main bathroom that I rarely ever use); and general cleaning duties. The 2 walls that were painted were looking very shabby. Dogs and humans left their marks and on flat paint, it doesn’t clean easily. In fact, it really doesn’t clean at all. Try cleaning a smudge mark off of flat type paint - the paint comes off the wall, literally. Those walls are now proud displayers of Pure Brilliant White Semi-Gloss. Thank you, ohhh, yes, thank you, thank you very much, ummm, you can stop clapping now.
Oh, you WEREN’T clapping?
Tomorrow will be a nothing day. Days with parties are always like that with me. It’s enough to get ready to go to the party, be at the party, leave the party, get home. I have no idea whether to look forward to this party or - dread it. Never know with family, it always depends on my oldest brother’s mood. I intend on having a good time regardless - unless it really gets raunchy.
Umm, so that’s that. I’m on holiday vacation and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. 4 more days off after today.
This will be the story of how that accident - the major one that shut down I-10 in both directions, created absolute chaos for my trucking day.
The morning started out normally enough - a couple of deliveries and I figured I would be done for the day, go home early and get my vacation started. Funny how things don’t quite work out the way you would like them to. First jobsite -easy and done quickly. Second jobsite- a man comes up to me and starts reading me the riot act because I did not have safety goggles on. I shrugged him off, he was totally disrespectful and I decided to play his game but at the same time, give it back to him - but professionally of course.
After that, I find out that I am supposed to go downtown, swap trailers - one was already loaded - take it to 2 stops in Tucson, then head back to Casa Grande, pick up some pipe, go back to the main branch, swap trailers again and then head back to my branch. Even WITHOUT that accident, the day would have been long. But I kept a good attitude, why not? I have 5 days off starting - well now actually!
I’m passing by Casa Grande on I-10. The wind is blowing heavily. I’m still gating along at 75mph - my truck is not nearly as affected by heavy winds as van trailers - a flatbed doesn’t get pushed around as much. Well, I’m coming around this long, sweeping turn, in the fast lane, and see literally a wall of dust ahead and lots of brake lights. I immediately start shutting the truck down - get it slowed long before I get there. I put on my emergency flashers as well. This wall of dust is about 100 feet high and hundreds of feet wide.
It didn’t look that bad from a distance, but when I got into it, visibility was reduced to 10 feet. Yes, 10 feet. It was like a white out, except everything was brown. In the middle of this nonsense there is a minor accident and vehicles on the side, traffic STOPS. There is nothing like the feeling of being stopped in the high speed lane of a major trucking corridor - I-10, knowing how many idiots are out there driving and how many people are texting and doing other things besides paying any attention to the driving that is in their face.
I literally braced myself for a crash. Thoughts of semi’s colliding, fire and brimstone, people getting killed filled my mind. I’ve seen it ALL too many times when drivers approach something they can’t see through - fog/dust/blizzard/whatever, keep on cranking and ram into stopped vehicles. Fortunately, no such thing happened and I cruised on through it, out the other side and floored it. The truck can go 79 MPH before the governor kicks in, the crosswinds were keeping me at 70 to 73 MPH - the winds were that strong.
A few miles down the road, I get off to stop and get something to eat. I’m already 5 and a half hours into this day, I know I’m not going to have a chance to eat - take a mini break - unless I force the issue. I got a steaming hot cup off coffee and a salad with light dressing and left, eat on the road. Been doing it for decades. I saw this wall - more like a corridor - of dust. It started from the southwest and was headed northeast. It was crossing through Casa Grande at a diagonal. It went straight for I-10 and kept on going. It was picking up enormous amounts of dirt off the desert floor. This corridor - and when I drove through it - the wind speed was far greater than the winds outside of it. They said the winds today were anywhere from 35 to 50 mph, inside that corridor add at least 20mph if not more. While stopped on the freeway in that dust wall, my truck was swaying side to side from the force of it.
I continue on. I meet yet another wall of dust another 20 miles down the road. It wasn’t quite as dense but the winds were just as strong. I arrive at the our Industrial Plastics plant later on - and that’s when my mother called. She was VERY concerned about me because of the accident. I said yes, I drove by that accident, no big deal, it looked minor.
“Minor?, how can exploding semi’s and dead people be minor?” I thought she was making things up - she is not known for exaggeration so - I listened to her talking about the news and how she had seen images on the news and I started to wonder what she was talking about. I had encountered an accident on the east bound lanes, she was talking about an accident - that had happened shortly after I went through there - on the westbound side. http://www.kpho.com/video/22039582/index.html and http://www.kpho.com/video/22038671/index.html to see raw footage of this chaos.
I, of course, had no such luxury of seeing on TV what was going on. I thanked her for the call, informed her I was in Tucson, had no idea how I was going to get back, but I figured I could take SR 87 and get by it. Well, the guy that is going to take the machinery off my truck had heard more info and said good luck with 87. I get done there and head over to our branch that is also in Tucson. The warehouse manager there is laughing, you’ll be home at midnight. He informs me that 87 is a FUBAR - it is impassable. There aren’t that many ways to get around I-10 in those parts. Those routes are going to be FILLED with vehicles as there is major traffic running through there constantly.
I’m thinking of taking the back route - which would add significant amount of time to my drive back - the pickup at Casa Grande was crossed of my list, NO WAY was I going to try to get to Casa Grande. I called both managers and told them what was going on, find me an alternate route while I’m doing all this pick up and delivering.
I KNEW when I heard all of this and heard WHERE it had happened that it must have happened inside of that wall of dust. I have seen that wall a couple of times before - there are large, yellow “Blowing Dust Area” signs on the sides of the interstate announcing that fact - I have no clue why winds decide to pick up there and blow in a straight but diagonal line through there, but it happens enough that they actually put those signs up. If you look at the first raw footage, you are going to see a column of dust moving through there. It isn’t as thick as when I went through, that or from the air you get a different look at it I don’t know, but there is a colum of dust running right through where that accident is at.
I get to the other branch, get loaded, decide to take the back route. I figured the back route was going to be FUBAR as well, but not near as bad as heading in ANY direction towards Casa Grande. I came nowhere near Casa Grande on my way back, but half the entire state of Arizona seemed to have decided on this route as well - both headed south and north. Of course, it’s the only viable route at this point. I was disinterested in being stuck behind and Atlas Van Lines truck going between 50 and 55 in a 65 zone - which this entire road is set at - the whole way, so I passed it. Left that way behind and then passed even more vehicles. People apparently aren’t used to driving in this kind of stuff, that or they’re just afraid.
Well, I’m 15 miles on this road and everything turns BROWN. It was eerie. There was so much dust blowing along this desert road out in the middle of literally nothing, the sun was blocked out and there was a brown glow to everything. Reminded me of my days tripping on LSD. I was thinking to enjoy this, what the heck, I’m stuck in it, enjoy the ride. This brownout went on for miles and miles. I looked at the desert and just took it all in. I would have gotten a video of it but my camera’s battery is totally dead. I took video yesterday and I was regretting that today. I had the camera with me - got a short video of the dust in Casa Grande from a long way off and also a couple of pics, but that was it. TODAY was the day to have a functioning camera, not yesterday. My bad.
I am watching the “lead” vehicle - whoever is driving it is speeding up, slowing down, no clue as to why. I have never understood people doing that. A 20 MPH span. We get to Florence where this road leads - that person takes the road heading towards Coolidge and the 87. Bad idea, I had already thought about that route, NO WAY. THAT route runs along I-10 - albeit 10 miles east of it - it would be PACKED with vehicles. In normal circumstances, that would definitely be the route to take back to Chandler, in these, nadamente.
Well, I had forgotten about the bridge ahead. They are doing repairs to it so it’s down to one lane. You have to wait for the light at the bridge to turn green and then a whole line of vehicles from one direction goes, and then the other direction. Backed up a mile. Took forever. Raining harder. People driving even slower. Get back to the Superstition - started hydroplaning so I slowed down. My truck was blasting water out the sides into the lanes beside me.
Finally got back to the yard. Decided that I was going to take at least part of my break time and not just lose a half hour to computer software that says I didn’t work a half hour today. I looked at video and pics of the crash site. I remembered the thoughts that had entered my mind when I was in that dust. You look at that video, you will see the smoke from burning vehicles, but it is overshadowed by the torrent of dust blowing through there. I remembered looking at my windshield and wondering if I was going to be sent sailing through it from being rear-ended by someone not paying attention. I had no premonitions that some horrific accident was going to happen to someone else - or a whole bunch of them, I had thought that maybe this was going to be MY day to meet my Creator. I did have thoughts that probably some accidents would happen - after seeing the one I saw while driving through it.
I am not just glad to be alive today. I marvel at the frailty of life. You can be dead a minute from now and you might not - or probably not - even know it was coming. You live your life and bam, you’re dead. At a young age, a middle age, an old age - it doesn’t matter. I am constantly reminded of the sacrifice that Christ made at the Cross of Calvary. This isn’t intended to be preachy - I’m just relaying what’s going through my mind and my heart. It very easily could have been me in that pileup. I rejoice all the more that I am alive to see another Christmas, to watch my son grow another year older - to live. Not just exist, to LIVE. I thought and think that I have been handed a Christmas present today in that I didn’t die in some horrific accident out on a cold, lonely stretch of asphalt in the middle of the desert. I soooo feel for the families of the loved ones that passed away today.
But, I rejoice. It’s Christmas and I celebrate life. If I want to bring it down to a more normal level, I got home today and found several envelopes in my mailbox, 2 of which to me, only 1 of which I have opened. It was from dad. This is the contents of what he wrote:
Dec 21, ‘2009
Ben:
Grace and peace. This my little Christmas contributor to Benjamin-having-a-good-time!
I Love you, Son
Dad
There was a check enclosed. The message brought tears to my eyes after what I had seen and encountered today. I’m not making it up, the fluids flowing down my face. A rare event for me. I wondered whose dad wouldn’t be coming home today. Whose son or daughter might be going through the agony of sudden departure of one of your parents, the intense grief. But - I also focus on the time of year it is. I’m not going to sit here and say that the entire contents of today’s experience hasn’t had a very profound effect on me, it most certainly has.
ben
Then it started raining. I was behind a line of cars at this point and there was a continual flow of traffic coming the other direction - there would be no further passing.
Ben B