Hoping for a new house mate

I interviewed a woman this evening who said she was coming at 6 pm and showed up. She also took an application and I gave her the address for the land lady. She and I got along better than the last half dozen people who have been by or called here. She has a dog. I love dogs. She seems like she is going to ask to move in. That's the feeling I got. She is 32, but to me she doesn't look a year over 25. Of course, I don't have to worry about other peoples ages since I am not selling them liquor any more.

I went out today, late, purchased a new futon twin size for my futon frame. I've been using two 3 inch foam pads and they suck. I'm sure that some of my aches and pains are because of the foam pads being only really good for occasional duty. I will be able to fold the bed up into it's other intended purpose now, a chair to sit back and lounge in. Yea! Along with that, new rotor and distributor cap for the tune up I plan on giving the old van Sat. afternoon and Sunday morning. And I purchased a fine used chair with a woven black fabric and chrome metal legs with little plastic scuff buttons on the bottom. I have been using a light duty folding chair I purchased at least 2 years ago. I plan on selling the foam on Craig's List and the chairs too at a considerable discount from new. They are all in great shape, just not made for the continuous duty I have demanded of them. The chairs cost $20 each new and I till take $8 each or 2 for $15 and the foam pads were $18 each and I am going to ask $20 for both or $10 each. No discounts with those unless of course a person offers to take both. Who knows, maybe I will just have to give them away, but not without first trying to sell them. Money is tight and I believe if someone pays at least a little they will find more value than if they get it for free.

I too wish that the present Obama in the White House was the same one I voted for last year! It just drives me further from the politics and the fact that those people are so out of touch with the society I live in....

the more I find out the less I know

Wow! I put an ad on craig's list describing what I am looking for in a living situation, thinking I might have to leave this place and got a response from someone who asked if we might be compatible and look for a place together. I wrote back with my phone number included in the text and the person called back. She was pretty high energy and almost sounded as if she hadn't really had a conversation with anyone for some time. She talked about what she was looking for, what she did for a living etc. Then she got off on a tangent and was telling me to much information. I said Whoa, to much information, let's get together tomorrow and talk some more. I told her I would call. I spaced it out and just got off the phone with her. She told me that she thought that anyone that would tell her to shut up was not compatible to her. Her perception is much different than mine, but I was still willing to meet in person. She hung up the phone on me, wow! She was so abrupt and rude that it left me spinning and I had to write about it somewhere and thought this would be a good place because I may get some sympathy and understanding and some kind words to balance out that reponse. I'm glad that came out right away, that we incompatible. It would have been a horror/drama story if she had chosen to put up a false front to get in the front door.

On anther note, Thanks Giving Feast and Friendship was awesome. I went to my former neighbors apartment and we had a huge feast. We also watched the movie directed by Peter Jackson called Living Dead. It has to be one of the bloodiest movies ever produced, but there was so much slap stick and sublime humor that we weren't grossed out. It was a fun time, laughing and eating and being entertained.

Just sold a too I posted to craigs list

I'm selling off items at basement prices because I don't use them or I am trying to get better control of my material objects. I sold a 4 ton hydraulic body tool and but before doing so one of the persons contacting me was so pushy I had trouble dealing with him. He called me on the phone like 4 times almost to the point of pestering me and when I said come over at 9 he came over at 0845 and parked in my driveway which is short and like he owned the house that I rent. I could tell he wanted it and I showed him it worked. It was just the way he was, pushy. I am not so pushy, however I am opinionated according to some fellow workers and I am loud according to even I. So, I gave up at 0855 and sold it to him. I am trying not to be such a stubborn person. The guy is buying something and paid better than 1/2 the new price. I'm happy about it, but I just hate to deal with people on that basis and I still must because I have a bunch of music CD's that I am going to post today. Don't need them, music is everywhere and I am really just interested in listening, not collecting!

Busy, high energy knocked down and getting back up to resist again

The school bus company I work for has recently installed Zonar Systems GMS/GPS system in its buses in this part of Portland, Oregon. They have been installing the systems world wide in all their buses and here is what they told us essentially it would be used for electronic data input to get away from the paper reports we have to make to comply with DOT regulations. However, it goes much further. Here is a quote from a transportation system magazine article.

"(According to Brian McLaughlin, COO for PeopleNet, about half of their new customers are previous users of competing systems while the other half have never used a telematics system before and have a few key reasons for considering one, such as the desire to automate driver logs. “We usually have to pull new customers back,” McLaughlin says. “You can't successfully do everything at once, so we tell customers to begin by focusing on the areas with the greatest ROI first.”

For most fleets, that has meant beginning with the operational basics, for example, by optimizing routes and improving driver performance to reduce fuel usage by managing deadheading, idling, out-of-route miles and fuel-robbing driving habits like speeding and improper shifting. “Just the fuel savings and automating driver logs pays for the system,” says Lemke. “The rest is all gravy.”)" And the way our local manager has of informing us of what we are doing is putting the reports of our speed out on tables in our dispatch area and leaving a note on her white board telling us if we don't start toeing the line we are going get disciplined. Oh boy, not only that, the middle managers of the company seem to have software that scans our drivers daily reports and the time we log onto the bus system and it is paying us the most favorable to the company. That means when we report to work to pick up our paperwork everyday at our assigned time, we don't get paid. I suspect it is a change in policy, except they conveniently forgot to explain the procedure to us. We are getting shorted time. Of course, all this goes along with their standard operating procedure. Someone in the company, an employee has asked the company to repair and bring up to safe standards equipment in the yard and provide rain gear for some of the drivers who fuel buses the response to our question of rain gear was "what did you use last year?" When we replied whatever we brought from home, we were told "use that, it worked last year didn't it?" I told the manager who were having the conversation with that most companies I'd worked for in the past supplied rain gear or any other safety equipment as part of their obligation to keep their employees safe. That response was met with a dirty look. So, that was a meeting with the fuelers and I have been one for over a year. Usually the companies I worked for purchased several rain suits of varying quality and often we had to mix and match, but at least we had protection. It is obvious that this company is taking away or refusing to treat the employees who bring in the revenue as respected human beings instead insisting that safety is their number on priority in public, but what they do at their bus yard is none of anyone's business including their employees. I've been busy. I've made time to take every third Thursday off from fueling and attend union meetings to keep informed and to add whatever I can to question what our elected union representatives are doing to help us remedy our working conditions. And then, someone file a complaint with OSHA. I know this because I know the person. The person exhausted all requests for the company to bring the fueling equipment up to industry standards. It is propane and although it is not as flammable as gasoline or perhaps Jet A or diesel it has several safety related issues for the workers who fuel the buses. The first being training. The training to transfer the propane has been inadequate and the facilities maintenance is non existent and there is no evidence of any regulatory inspections. We have over 200 drivers in our yard and our contract is with Portland Public Schools. And of course, we are driving buses that are old for industry standards and since this company has purchased our contract and buses they have implemented different ways of doing things. They did upgrade the equipment in the shop, but eliminated the overtime. They also instituted a new policy on ordering parts much like our heath care system where an administrator has to approve the parts order according to some budget plan if they deem it excessive, no part is ordered. They did however, bring us a bunch of wrecked buses and leave them in our yard and apparently the manager has instructed perhaps the mechanics to strip these buses of needed parts. Hell of a way to keep the children of the city safe. Plus, these wrecked buses are robbing our operating buses of parking stalls. We don't have enough stalls now and that is an issue. We have lots of issues now with this big multi national corporation that have been sucking up my time.

This has been a very different than usual day

I did little most of the morning. First of all, I stayed in bed until 0550 and got up shortly after 0600. My normal day during the week starts at 0430. I did little until I called my friend after taking a shower this morning by about 1000 and got dressed. We grocery shopping about 1200 and were done with that by 1300. I had a large mid afternoon lunch dinner at about 1500 hours. I did figure out what and how I was going to approach Blogger and Face Book and deleted some FB "friends". I will likely continue to whittle away at that. One person whom I haven't had any contact with for more than 10 years contacted me for friendship and I wrote back Why? in the subject line of the message I sent and then said something to the affect of "I've become quite anti-social, tell me why we should be friends on FB". The response was short and possibly misunderstood. She said I thought you were somebody else, obviously I was wrong, good luck or sorry or some other thing. I just wanted an explanation as to why a person would want to hook up on FB that I had no contact with for 10+ years. Apparently, asking for an explanation was to much for that person. At least that's the way I see it. Of course, I do see things in a different light, such as the lens of the land fill.

Thanks Goodness, I'm not the only confused person in the world!

Wow! Someone was really confused when they decided on the heating in this house. I'd never run across this type of heating in all my life's experience's. It is radiating from the ceiling. That's right, radiant heat from the ceiling! The thought occurred to me that someone was confused when they installed it. That someone misunderstood the instructions and instead of putting it in the floor, put it on the ceiling. That is not the case. I talked to a friend, an electrician who told me that this type of heating idea came out in those mixed up days of the 1970's. So, we have radiant heat from the ceiling which goes against the very nature of what heat does. It rises when produced, it goes up! I have now turned on my fan at low power, pointed it at an upward angle, hoping to blow the heat hugging my ceiling down little more and against the wall and down towards the flow. So far the air on the floor is moving, but is still relatively cool. I think ceiling fan would be the best I could do. This heat system is installed in each bedroom and in the kitchen and living room. The living room unit doesn't work. I purchased a space heater for that room and the house mate moving out doesn't have the same understanding of what the function of a space heater is since I came home twice and found it blasting away on full power, highest thermostat setting and he wasn't even in the room! This was the final straw that contributed to my telling his sister I was looking for a place to live. He has little understanding of what the costs of everything are since his sister handles all his finances.

another update.

Oh, I moved in Portland from my apartment single person dwelling into a house with others further outward towards the East, about 70 block numbers. It is a big change to go from living alone to living with others, especially people who are complete strangers. I wrote plenty about them on my Face book account, a mistake for sure. One of them had a melt down in Aug. and is now no longer even coming by for anything. I think he is perhaps a narcissist. There was nothing one could do that didn't provoke a negative response from him. Bye, Bye! Now the other is the brother of the land lord, but alas he has been asked to move as well. He is disabled and likes being a patient, hence his attention is very limited to sports, all about TV and his various maladies. My feeling was that he was playing the disabled pain card every time a chore was required by him. He has selective chore process. He can't do anything below his knees but sweep and even sweeping causes to much pain. He is unable for instance to do any cleaning in the bathroom it seems, which puts undue responsibility on me. He is not able to perform anything in the kitchen either and he can not do very much outside. He struggles with those tasks all mostly when there is someone around who will notice. He does go out and to places, gets up early 0600 on Sat. and Sun. to attend some 12 step meetings South of Portland which he walks and rides the bus to. He is leaving. Now I am looking for two new house mates. Wow and my rent has remained the same. I am actually looking for another place to live and that is what instigated my land lord to ask her brother to move. I am taking my time to find the right situation, perhaps a house with a large or small separate room, a garage or shop and perhaps a front porch with large shade trees in the yard. This place is small, with large yards, no shade trees, no house mates, and no garage or shop. I have projects and a couple of tool boxes that don't need to live in my bedroom!