GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

6ixString's Home Improvement and Mindless Ramblings Thread....

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Sunday, May 8, 2016 14:48
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/xvd0uX
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012 1:13 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I got about 7/8ths of the dirt area where bushes belong on the left side of the front door done today. Shop vacced the helicopters, pulled the weeds and tilled it even. I've got just about as much work to do tomorrow before I can start planting the Hostas tomorrow evening (HOPEFULLY!!!!). Like everything else, this is taking MUCH longer than I thought it would.

I can't believe how many neighbors you meet when you're living in a friendly neighborhood and you spend all day outside working.

One of my neighbors is moving and she's taking a lot of her shrubery before she leaves. I guess her own Hosta situation has gotten out of control as they're just taking over her back yard where she planted them. Just today, she brought over a small green and white one like I got from Grams yesterday, but she asked me if I wanted to come over and see the first of six large plain green ones she dug up. It was HUGE!!!! I could split that thing up 15 times. That one plant alone is 5 times as much as I got yesterday and there are 5 more of them. She also has quite a few other varieties of plants she is willing to part with (one of them smells like Fruity Pebbles), so between all of that, I think I can easily transform the look of the front of my house absolutely free and with only 2 or 3 days worth of work!

She says I can also take three small trees that bloom purple flowers that would go well in my back yard along the fence.

I told her that I'd happily take anything she's getting rid of.

Too bad she's taking off. Neighbors like that are keepers. I'll have to get her a gift card somewhere. I'll see if there is a nursery around where she's moving to since she's got such a green thumb.


Looking forward to showing pics of this unexpected development very soon!



Oh yeah... and for the first time since I planted the grass seed, I finally see grass popping up in the pool! The shoots I saw before were definately weeds though (likely crabgrass). The grass that just started coming up this afternoon grows in small patches and is only about 1/4" long. Yay! I didn't kill the baby grass!


I never thought yard work was fun before, and really, DOING the work still isn't, but since I'm on the verge of such amazing changes happening within the next week or so, it's really exciting.

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Thursday, April 26, 2012 12:41 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Don't mind the guy posting to himself

Got the entire front area cleared of weeds and helicopters and planted one single giant green Hosta plant yesterday. It looks a little abused after the move. I'm hoping that it gets healthier looking after the roots take hold and a little sunlight and water, but if it doesn't this year, it should look great next year when it comes back up. These tough SOBs don't die. If they didn't look so pretty, we'd call them weeds.

I saw my neighbor across the street yesterday for the first time since snow was falling too. I had to thank her for saying how nice it is to see somebody finally taking care of that house since the long time owners split about 6 years ago. I told her about all the work I'd done over the winter inside and that I can't wait until I get more of the inside presentable and she can come and see how different it looks. She says she knows a lot of people, particularly "little old ladies" that would love to have somebody they could call do to all sorts of small stuff for them. She said that most times they never get any call backs because the jobs are too small and contractors today are mostly looking for large jobs. I told her that when I get the bulk of my lawn stuff out of the way and I finish an outdoor painting project for somebody else that I'll make some business cards and they can call me for any work I'm capable of doing from gardening and mowing the lawn to refinishing floors and fixing and painting walls.

Maybe there really is a market for that sort of thing. I was thinking maybe I'd call myself "No Job2Small" or "Affordable Jack" (as in Jack of all trades, not the 6string variety).

I figure I can charge a whole lot less than most people could because I have a ton of tools already, I'd have basically ZERO overhead costs and since I don't have rent or a mortgage, I don't have basic needs to cover that many other folk do. At least until I build up my name, I'm confident I can underbid anybody else in the area for non-permit-requiring jobs within my ability. (I'd be worried that kids could underbid me on lawn mowing, gardening and snow shoveling services, but let's be honest, most suburbanite kids today are 10 times as lazy as I was back in the early 90s)


Nearly done with the Crabbage Patch too. Just a little over 1/8th left to go. It's hard to tell yet if I'll need to buy extra dirt, but here's hoping that I don't have to. I've removed at least 1 ton of rocks from the area so far, but there were definatiely some high spots that kept water pooling between my garage and my neighbors yard before (which is why there were mushrooms growing there too). It should all look pretty even when I'm done. Too bad I have to go back and remove about a billion hellicopters by hand over the tilled dirt before planting grass seed!!!! GRRRRRRRR!!!!!!



And BOY, when that baby grass starts coming up, it really starts making progress fast. After 10-12 days of no action, the first tiny patches started making headway 2 days ago. Now I have little patches like that in about 10 times the sq footage. If this keeps up, I should have little baby grass growing in every inch of that 29 foot radius crop circle within a week!

Pulling weeds, especially to this degree is not fun.... especially when my self diagnosed early onset arthritis is in overdrive. When I see the first of many future plants in the front of the house though, and grass that I grew from scratch coming up in what was a 6 inch deep crater in my backyard that required 15 tons of dirt to fill, it really starts to feel like it was all worth it.

I can't wait until my only lawn duties are mowing, fertilizing, grub-killing and raking leaves and hellicopters.




Feel free to share your own lawn and gardening stories or tips. I'm a flat out novice at this stuff, but if you put in the hours and the effort yourself, you really can make a huge improvement to the look of your property for very little money. I'd love to hear from people who have a "green thumb" and how and why they get things done.

Hope everything is going well for everyone.

~6


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Thursday, April 26, 2012 1:28 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


Good luck with your side enterprizes of people's yard and repair work.

I had this hip pain issue for about 8 months, it would come and go and I could barely walk when it was really bad, it was really scary and I thought I might have some sort of early onset arthritis. I wasn't willing to admit how scary this whole thing was, but in eight months I had gone from normal to barely able to move. Believe it or not physical therapy has basically fixed me, even though the whole thing wasn't caused by an accident or anything, it happened by nature, but doing those excercises each day really helped once we found the right ones for me. Now I'm basically cured as long as I do them once or twice a week, I think pretty soon I won't even have to do them that often. Its bizarre. It still pisses me off that no one could tell me what exactly was the problem, I like it when things have names, so I still don't know why this happened and hope to goodness it won't happen again.

I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.

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Thursday, April 26, 2012 1:45 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Hey Riona,

Funny you mentioned physical therapy. I was talking to my friend tonight about how my grandpa had several surgeries on his hands to keep them from balling up over the years and he could barely move his fingers before he died. I said that surgery has come a million miles since then and he said that more importantly the physical therapy aspect has evolved.

I'm too young to have pain like this, and you're definitely too young for it. I'm glad to hear that the exercises worked. I'll have to look into what I should do to fix this without taking pills for it.

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Thursday, April 26, 2012 5:26 PM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


11 yirz ago wen I wuz creating the Nooalf Talking Picturez CD and the website, I'd be in my office chair 14 owrz a day almost nonstop. I started getting back pain, felt like my hip joints were grinding, neez, anklz and neck often hurt.

I got up to get a drink wun day thinking 'No suprize. I'm 41 now. This iz just wut getting old iz.'

I wuz thinking like that for a week or so.

Then I thout 'waitaminit! I felt fine before I started this project!!!'

I immediately dropped and did 40 pushups, 50 situps, 20 squats. Pretty much immediately, the old geezer wuz gon!

I developed a habit uv doing a quick round uv calisthenics wenever i get up since then.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

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Friday, April 27, 2012 1:08 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Hey JO,

Yeah... I need to start doing.... something. I'm sure that's all there is too it.

I guess I just finally reached that age where I NEED to excercise regularly to keep from having those dull aches all day long. It's just weird for me because I've never had to do that before. The only reason I ever worked out before was to put on muscle mass.

I've lost nearly 50lbs since 1 1/2 years ago doing nothing but home improvement stuff on my own house and my Mom's before I moved here, but without regular cardo I don't think I'm ever going to lose the last 10-15lbs I need to lose to have my six pack back without flexing it and sucking in the gut. (It was nice to see that it was still there waiting for me to shed all that beer fat though )

I'm as strong as an Ox still, but if I get into a fight I better win in about 2 minutes or I'm going to suffer a heart attack while I get pummeled....





I've only got 1/8th of the crabbage patch left to do. I'm hoping that on Sunday I can get all the plants from my neighbor and plant them as well. It's going to be raining tomorrow, so maybe I'll finally get to changing the oil on my car and doing some minor paint touchups where the edge sander scuffed the walls finally. Hopefully by late next week I'll have all the grass seed planted where the crabbage patch used to be and I can finally take it easy and just mow the lawn when it needs it and water my new grass seed 3 times a day.

Then I can FINALLY focus exclusively on trying to get a better job than that hospital security gig coming up in June!

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Tuesday, May 1, 2012 9:39 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


HAS ANYBODY HERE HAD ANY EXPERIENCE WITH PROPERTY TAX EVALUATIONS!!!!!!!

(Ahem!... Sorry for yelling )

I have done some research and I've found out that I can request a copy of my Property Tax Card, and I have a right to dispute it if there are things included that are not there, or if things are claimed that just aren't true. (Unfortunately, if I pursue this course of action down the road, the assessor will be noting all of the improvements I've made, and will also likely make note of the fact that I will be rehabbing the basement in the future and will want to do another walk through down the road.... not good if they have the upstairs marked as "carpeted" with the refinished hardwood floors, and especially not good to let them see how illegal the previous owners wired up the outlets in the basement)

My BIGGEST question is, how would one determine what constitutes taxable "living space"? My house (for both tax and insurance purposes) is listed as 2,090 sq. ft. This is OUTRAGEOUSLY wrong. The only way I can figure such a large living space is that they include every square inch of the finished attic (even though unless a short guy like me at 5'7" is standing right in the middle of it, I have to "duck" to not hit my head), and they include the 3-season room as taxable living space. I was under the impression, from other towns that I'd done research on homes in, that you could not include a room as a bedroom when you're selling the house, nor could you rent it out as a bedroom unless it a) had at least 7' clearance in ALL dimensions, and B) it had a closet. As a side note, this house WAS listed as a 4 bedroom house. The only way I can figure that is that they included the 2 legitimate bedrooms on the 2nd floor, and the two 5'x 4' rooms in the finished crawl, and didn't include the bedroom in the basement since it had been half gutted from the floods.

Not being able to call the tiny rooms in the finished attic bedrooms is a bummer if you're looking to make your house look better on paper and is even worse if you're legally unable to rent your house out to 3 people to help pay the bills, but at the same time, rooms under 7' in diameter (except for bathrooms) are not taxed as livable space.

I know that these requirements and codes change everywhere from place to place, but I really think my township is burning my candle at both ends. I know my land is the size of both of my neighbors' properties across the street, but my neighbor who has a true 2-story BRICK house pays $400 bucks less a year than I do and I have a tri-level house with 1/3rd of it in the basement and it's got abused vinyl siding.

I really think that if I were to let the assessor into my house today without having done any more improvements I could seriously reduce my tax bill, but only if I know what I'm doing going into the fight.


Any information that anybody could give me based off of their previous fights on property tax insurance would be a BIG help. I just don't know where to look.

Thanks,
~6




To keep it not so serious.....

It's no secret I've always loved Simon and Garfunkle...

But seriously, in this economy....

Isn't this an awesome song......??????




v

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Wednesday, May 2, 2012 1:38 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yay, the site is back up!

The good news is, I can actually get money back for up to 3 years if my property was over-assessed in my county. (Unheard of, in Crook County, IL). I know for a fact from a conversation I had months ago with somebody from my township that they still had 2 A/C units listed that they're currently taxing me for those, although they're no longer taxing me for the pool that doesn't exist. I'm going to get my tax card sometime next week and try to figure where they're coming from. If all it takes to remove the sq footage of the attic is to remove the carpeting, I'll gladly do it just to reduce the taxes. It's only a glorified storage area and my smoking room. I'll put down a 20 dollar rug from Aldi in the smoking area if it means I could potentially save hundereds per year with a smaller living space.





I got all the weeds out of the crabbage patch today!!!!!! I measured it, and it's 910 sq feet. Much less than I thought, but it still took me 9 days of work to remove it! (At least I only have to buy one more bag of grass seed since it covers 1,000 sq feet) If all goes well tomorrow, I'm going to remove all the helicopters, rocks and stray weeds that have popped up and get my seeds planted there by tomorrow night. After 2 or so weeks, the grass is really starting to sprout up in the pool. Maybe by the weekend I can have all of the plants and shrubs planted in the front area as well, and I'll only be on the hook for mowing the lawn and watering the new lawn and I can focus on employment oppurtunites then.

I think it's high time I had a party here too. No stink in the basement anymore, a lawn well on its way to being better homes and garden worthy and a nearly finished 2nd floor. Not bad for 8 months of work from one guy when the house was in the piss poor shape it was in when I bought it.

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Wednesday, May 2, 2012 4:49 PM

FREMDFIRMA



I can't resist...

(Cue: hammy-smarmy announcer voice)

NEXT UP, On lifestyles of the poor and shameless, how to disqualify rooms as living space!

hehehehehe.
Still, amazingly satisfying to reclaim something, be it a forlorn house, car, even a dollhouse, innit ?

-Frem

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Thursday, May 3, 2012 1:32 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Hehe Frem...

They got no business calling this livable space anyways. There were kids using these rooms as bedrooms in the past, I've heard from neighbors, but if there were ever a fire in the house they'd burn alive since there is no windows up here.

It really is cool reclaiming this place and making it my own. It's really nice being able to make such huge changes with the outdoor work with very little cost except for the ridiculous amount of time it takes to get 'er done.


That being said..... PICS!!!!



That's what the pool looked like last year before any dirt was put in (It's a REAL shame I didn't take pictures of it before I removed a lot of stones and about 300lbs of weeds!!!). in the back, you can see the neatly trimmed crabbage patch next to the crappy privacy fence my neighbor has.





Here's what it looks like after about 20 days of watering after the seeds were put down!

Yeah... I got some damn weeds in there, but I'm not going to deal with them until the grass is mature. I don't want to go pulling weeds and ruining baby grass, and I can't put down fertilizer for at least a few months or I could kill the grass off with it too......



As for the crabbage patch.....?

Here was the before pic I posted in mid-april....





And here's a few pics of what it looks like today, after I seeded and tilled it!






I talked with my neighbor for a few minutes today. He said he noticed the grass coming up in the pool and says it will look awesome if it all takes soon. He can't believe how I can plug away at this crap day in and day out either. I said it's easy when you're not working a paying gig. I need to get as much done as possible until I'm working a real job. I'm sure I won't be so enthusiastic about the work when I'm putting in 40 a week for somebody else.

I hope to hear from Wish now that I've finally got some more pics up. I miss having her around here :(


I hope to have pics of the front of the house and the new shrubbery planted there by the end of the weekend!

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Thursday, May 3, 2012 2:37 PM

WISHIMAY


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

I hope to hear from Wish now that I've finally got some more pics up. I miss having her around here :(


Weren't avoiding you, were avoiding the topic. I had a really bad few weeks where nothing got accomplished, and didn't wanna talk about it.
Finally got halfway up to speed today. Painting the front of the house to match the siding that's going up. Hope I can stay runnin for a while, but I never know.

Gettin somewhere, just slowly

PS. Check the taglog on the side of the home screen. He he he...

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Thursday, May 3, 2012 3:32 PM

FREMDFIRMA



Well I was just lampooning anyway Jack, which you knew - Tax Assessment has to be one of the most corrupt institutions ever, in both directions, that I have ever seen, and I am not at all adverse to bending the tax man over and servicing him good and proper if the opportunity arises, sure enough he gets his turn on you often enough!

-F

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Thursday, May 3, 2012 4:27 PM

WISHIMAY


Guess that's one of the good things about living out here in the middle of nowhere in a dinky county in an old fixer-upper, my property taxes are about the same as a couple of ol' Tanks' gas fill-ups, but that's probably in part because we have ta fill up ol' Tank about a thousand times more than other folk. One or the other- it's how it always goes!

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Friday, May 4, 2012 1:04 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Glad to hear you're making progress Wish. I've been kicking some ass over here and I got all the damn grass seed planted early enough in the spring that it shouldn't rely on me watering it 3 or 4 times a day when I have to start working full time.

Damn... taxes by you are a few hundred bucks, huh? Nice :) I'm sure it's because you have to drive far for most of what you do though (that's a really simplistic view of it, but in the end, it's a good way of looking at it). I'm not really bitching about the $2,300 tax price here. I knew it was close to that before I moved in, and that's why I moved here. In Crook County, my taxes would be at least $5k, but more likely $6k a year if I owned the exact same house just over the border.

Something's wrong though when I've got the highest taxes on the block (I do have the largest land by far, but it's not brick and there are bigger houses than mine). I'm sure the assessors got in before the previous owners moved in and jacked the prices up and they never fought it. The assessors probably went back in after they got foreclosed on too, but of course they didn't reduce the price at all when they saw all that was missing and damaged since the last assessment. That will be on me to fight it now.

Oh... I haven't been in chat for days lol. I never turn my computer off. I forget to log out of things like this when I'm on my PC I know nobody else will use. BTW... I just figured out what the taglog was. What did it say????



I knew you were joking Frem

Funny thing is, I've paid WAY more in taxes this year than I've physically made in income. My income is still under $1,000 bucks for the year. After I make another withdrawal from the retirement accounts, my income tax burden for that will be nearly $1,500 bucks. I have a $1,300 property tax bill due in 30 days, and I paid 35 bucks for car registration for the year. Not to mention sales taxes and excise taxes on the booze and smokes. By the end of the month i bet I will have paid 4 times more in taxes than I've made so far this year!


Again... nothing unexpected here. Just gotta start making some cash and doing what I can to lessen the tax burden.

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Friday, May 4, 2012 2:12 PM

WISHIMAY


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:


I just figured out what the taglog was. What did it say????



You can use the scroll up/down buttin on the side of it to read the whole thing...

I just tried to go to Avengers and was only 15 minutes early and it was sold out, then a rock flew offa truck and put a cm long crack in my windshield

Why can't anything EVER go easy???

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Friday, May 4, 2012 2:55 PM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


Sorry for your bummerz, Wish. Odd how bad luck seemz to happen in clusterz.

I hav to thank you, Jack. I changed the shoks on my car yesterday & wenzday & usually that kind uv chore work bugz me, but insted I had a different attitude and didnt mind all the little obstaclez.

Hard to describe the difference, but I wuz thinking about you doing your remodelling work and everything here iz linked to Firefly, so naturally I'm picturing you az Mal overcoming every challenge.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

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Saturday, May 5, 2012 3:00 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Hey Wish, I think I saw it then... were you talking about how somebody should feed me?

Bummer about your windshield. Is it really bad? I've had a crack on my Camry since I bought it. Nasty little spiderweb. It hasn't really gotten big like I've been anticipating it to. I figure I'll ride around with it until I get pulled over. That one will be easy for me to talk my way out of a fine. Down where you're at, they probably would never bother you about it at all. If money is tight, you might consider foregoing that fix until things start getting better. (I have good feelings about next year for all of us )

Why can't anything ever go easy? Haha... preaching to the choir here... There's not a single project that I've done on this house yet that took anywhere near how long I thought it would take. Some of them, like the damn crabbage patch took 5 times as long to do than I thought going into it! At least, except for restoring the hardwood floor, the financial costs have actually been less in almost every project than I estimated going into it.




Quote:
Originally posted by JO753:I hav to thank you, Jack. I changed the shoks on my car yesterday & wenzday & usually that kind uv chore work bugz me, but insted I had a different attitude and didnt mind all the little obstaclez.

Hard to describe the difference, but I wuz thinking about you doing your remodelling work and everything here iz linked to Firefly, so naturally I'm picturing you az Mal overcoming every challenge.


Wow JO,

Thanks!

That really means more to me than you might think.

I bet it felt good after it was done and you could sit back and admire your handiwork and let it sink in just how much you saved on labor to boot.

Was that the first time you replaced shocks before? If it was, that's especially cool. I love learning how to do new things and using new tools. Once my house is in order, my dream is to be able to buy a classic car and restore it from the ground up like they do on those late-night auto-shows and really bling it out.



I'd sure love to be Mal, but I'm not nearly as "pretty" as Nathan. I always related to Mal and Book the most on the show, maybe a little bit of Jayne's crazy-ness and all around lone wolf bad-ass-ery in the mix too. I guess if the three of them had a love-child, that would be about on par with my outlook on life as well as the looks department

I'd love to say I had a bit of Wash in me, but I'm just not the happy-go-lucky fun type. My brother who co-founded the 76th Batallion is Wash through and through. If I ever had a ship in the future, he'd be my pilot/comic relief

Keep flying man.




NEW PIC!!!!!

Hastas planted, FINALLY!



I hope to get some other nice shrubbery from my neighbor, and hopefully some things that won't die off in the winter so it won't look totally bare 5 months out of the year. If not, I'll just have to figure that out down the road. I'm sure if I start trolling Craigslist I can find some mature bushes and evergreens without paying premium prices for them.







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Saturday, May 5, 2012 5:14 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


WOW!

I love documenting things with pics......

Here I am, looking at the grass in the pool today thinking that things aren't progressing along as fast as they should be, and then I check out these pics from 4 days ago.





There's at least twice as much grass growing now! Half of that pool is filled. I just hope the rest starts coming in soon. Way too many bald spots for my liking still. Nothing growing on the former crabbage patch yet but weeds still. Hopefully something starts coming up soon.


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Tuesday, May 8, 2012 1:42 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


"Job Search 101" OR "What Nobody Ever Taught You"

Or at least nobody ever taught me, anyway....

I think I may have mentioned the overnight stocking position available at the local K-Mart I'd applied to a month ago. I know I've mentioned a lot of jobs that I've applied to but never heard anything back about, and how frustrating it is to have worked such a great job for 5 years straight and then you can't even get your foot in the door at a big chain for an hourly waged position that high school kids can get.

So... I checked online for that position again, and sure enough, it's still out there. I went to KMart today to buy a jug of weed preventer for the area with the hostas before I put the anti-weed fabric down, and I asked the girl at the register who I could call to follow up on an online application if I hadn't heard anything back. She dropped the name of the hiring manager and said she'd be in later in the day. Sure enough, they had my resume. She told me to hold on a minute while she "saw how I did". When I told her I'd give up my security job instead of looking at this as a second job, she told me they probably couldn't pay as much as a security job did. I said, that might not be the case since it was un-armed security and it was a temp firm and nothing but part-time placement so far. (I then went on to tell her that my REAL job was remodeling this house and that I just needed to actively seek out a source of REAL income to subsidize my living before I burn the nest egg up).

She told me she really wanted to give me an interview and to call her on Friday morning and maybe she could squeeze me in. I just got a call from her 20 minutes ago giving me a 10:30AM slot!

I don't know how well it pays yet (don't ever ask salary on the phone before the interview!). If it pays 9 bucks an hour and is at least 39 hours a week, I'll be doing just as well as I would driving out to a hospital in an undesirable neighborhood, and this job is so close I could just walk to work and back every night. I'm hopeful that because it's overnights that it should be paying at least a buck or more than minimum wage, so here's me keeping my fingers crossed.

Better yet.... ZERO customer service interaction, I'll be one of the only people in the store while I'm working, and I'll have a billion mindless things to keep my OCD mind occupied and happy so 8 to 12 hour shifts will just fly by for me like they do when I'm playing a dungeon crawler RPG game. (I don't REALLY enjoy playing those games.... it's more of a meditative/vegitative state I'm in while playing them. I just get pissed off the next day or week when I realized how much time I mindlessly sunk into my habits.... At least here, I'll be getting paid )

The best thing yet, the manager is a woman who sounds to be over 40 years old. I've never been denied a job when the interviewer was a woman over 40 years old. I'd say, given any unexpected curve balls, that this job is in the bag if I want it.



So...... to make a long story short.....

The lesson here for anyone having trouble even getting to the interview step is, if you've applied somewhere online, and you never got an email back saying that you weren't qualified, do some light "social engineering" and get somebody to drop a name of somebody who you could talk to to get the ball rolling.

Why didn't I ever get a call back or an email from the manager after applying online (here or anywhere else)? I couldn't tell you for sure, but I'm willing to guess that in this economy my resume was probably lost in a sea of 500 or 1,000 other resumes she was never actually going to sift through. It sounds like she's a really busy woman. Had I NOT called her and made a good enough impression over the phone to secure an interview on Friday, she probably never would have seen my application and she would have just "picked them out of a hat" until she found somebody who seemed to be able to string enough words together to form a coherent sentence or two.








In home improvement news, the pool is well over 1/2 covered in grass now, and some of it is really looking robust. I'll have to get an updated picture tomorrow to show the difference 6 days can make at this stage. Still no action on the crabbage patch. All of the hostas seem to have taken hold and look healthy, and on Friday I will be getting some lillies and about 3 or 4 other perennials that I've forgotten the name of from my neighbor. She's really cool. If I was into older woman and she didn't have so much baggage (children, and children with children), I might have a date on Friday night lol.

Her brother might be able to get me into a union position though. I've heard that all before, but it can't hurt to put in an application, right?

Later,
~6

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Tuesday, May 8, 2012 11:28 PM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


The place looks good!

Yes, I've dun shoks before. I've been driving this car since 89 and had 2 other 72 New Yorkers before that, plus a dozen other cars, mostly sister modelz or similarly big Chryslerz.

I worked az a stock boy at Jupiter! (which wuz an SS Kresge spin off or subsidiery like Kmart iz, but I think its just Kmart left now)

Iz it just my computer, or iz anybody else having this problem where the verticle line that showz where the typing iz going to happen duznt follow the arrow keyz or the mouse
, goramit!?
!! makes it a hassle to type!


----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

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Wednesday, May 9, 2012 6:23 AM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


How's your current temp job going? Still going okay?

I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.

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Wednesday, May 9, 2012 3:34 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


IN HOME IMPROVEMENT NEWS:



Wow! from that angle you can't even tell a pool was ever there now!





So.... that's the pool... sure a far cry from the previous pics from the 3rd.......






Sorry... had to put that all up here for my own benefit so I could see with my own eyes how much has been done now just by watering. It's hard to tell day-to-day.




Hey JO,

I haven't worked retail for over 12 years! At least I'll be behind the scenes if it's overnight, right?





Hey Riona,

Nothing new with that temp job. That's cool though because I hate it, and at this point I don't NEED it. If this overnight K-Mart stock position pays 8.50 an hour, i'll gladly pay it before driving 20 miles to an undesirable neighborhood to work security.

Things will get better.....

I already have my own dreams of creating a jack-of-all-trades temp service that will allow the laborers to accrue stock in the company the longer they work there.

No more Labor Ready, no more BS.....

If you prove to provide a positive momentum to the company, your rewards will only grow the longer you participate!

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Friday, May 11, 2012 3:45 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


BAH!!!!!

Crappy day today.....

K-Mart would have been more than happy to have me, but even the interviewer was saying it wasn't what I was looking for. 8 bucks an hour and only 24 hours a week. (Not what they advertized online!!!) She got me an interview on the 22nd right over the boarder where minimum wage is a buck higher with a security gig that would pay more than minimum wage though, so there's still hope there.

Got some more grass popping in the pool in the bald spots today, but it looks like Homer Simpson's "hair" on his head. I'm starting to think that I boffed the whole thing and I tilled the seeds too deep. If that's really the case, that means the 900sq/ft easement I tilled will probably have the same problem. I'm new to all of this though, so I may just be overreacting. I never even owned a Chia Pet as a kid lol.



Tomorrow will be better though...

TACO FEST at my parent's church. Every year, the day before Mother's day, a beautiful day when you can indulge in all you can eat tacos and beans and Spanish Rice and Nachos..... Every piece of it authentic... nothing processed!

My only problem on TACO FEST night is to do everything I can not to prematurely hibernate on my ride home after stuffing my belly to it's limits! It's the one night of the year that I eat so much it actually hurts....... Hurts so good!!!!

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Saturday, May 12, 2012 12:22 AM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


Been a wile since I had tacoz. I make the filling either with Old Elpaso medium or Bennet's Chili Sauce. I I lay a bunch uv sharp cheddar strips over that in the taco.

I stopped eating them about 5 yirz ago wen I eliminated hydrogenated oil frum my diet. Nun uv the shellz didnt hav it. But last yir I noticed Old Elpaso finally got rid uv it, and had sum.

Your new avatar looks good. Wherez it frum?

I didnt hav much work last week, so I made a set uv antisway bar support struts. The stock werent long enuf since I added a heater to the lower radiator hoze and it wuz rubbing on the antisway bar.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.nooalf.com

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Sunday, May 13, 2012 1:52 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Hey JO,

THE TACOS WERE AWESOME!!!!

It was cool too becacuse this year a ton of my family made it and it was more of a family party. I got there early at 4:30 and didn't leave till after 9PM. I ate so much by 5:30 though that I could hardly move, and I didn't ever go back for thirds.

I load mine up with hot peppers, lettuce tomato and sharp cheddar. Lots of refried beans and my Mom's EXCELLENT Spanish rice on the side (I seriously could eat a gallon of that stuff out of a bowl if it was in front of me).

What's hydrogenated oil?????


The avitar is just me. It was one in a series of pics of myself I had recently taken for something else and for whatever reason that crazy light show obfuscated enough of my face I didn't have a problem putting it up here. I have no clue what happened to make it look that way, none of the other pictures had any problems at all.



Good to hear you're getting more done man! I don't know crap about cars, so you're speaking Chinese to me, but I think I get the main jist of it anyway. I really need to learn about cars when I get a chance. I'd love to make an old retired POS into a beautiful ride someday. I'll ask you and Frem about that when I get to that point




I broke down today and spread new grass seed over the pool area by hand. I tried to get it as far into the center as I could, but I'm sure I'll have to re-seed that again as the perimeter (hopefully) fills in now. It's hard to throw uber-light-weight seeds like a fastball 14.5 feet in the wind when you've got a hole that spans 29 feet.

I don't know if the seeds will take, since I didn't rake them in at all, and the dirt has had a lot of time to settle now, but I'm hopeful. Before the grass started growing in at all and I was worried that I did something wrong, there were LOTS of visible seeds on the surface. There were NONE today before I spread the new seed. I figure by now, any seeds on the surface and shallow enough to grow would have sprouted by now. Maybe if I keep the soil moist enough with thourough watering I'll be able to get it in full before the really hot weather starts.

I REALLY HOPE I'M NOT STILL TRYING TO FILL 1,700 SQ FEET OF DIRT WITH GRASS COME SEPTEMBER!!!!!!!

Crabbage Patch = Roughly 910 sq/ft (Likely just a conservative estimate)
Pool = Roughly 660 sq/ft (3.14 * 14.5 * 14.5, plus a walkway and a boxed area where the filtration system was)

I just mowed the lawn today. Actually, the large filled in patches are nearly as tall now as the cut grass. Obviously, there nowhere near mature yet, but I did a REALLY careful job of cutting down the edges of the mature grass without disrupting the soil for the new grass and in the areas where the edges meet up with new grass patches that have fully taken hold it looks nearly indistinguishable now. I'M SO CLOSE!!!!!!

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Monday, May 14, 2012 3:20 AM

WISHIMAY


I finally got my big kitchen window ripped out and replaced, as we bought and ordered it a year and a half ago...Sooooo nice to have a breeze, and I can open it one handed...I am very pleased with it.

Also, remember that mower I broke? After the third place I went to, which turned out to be a mostly industrial repair place, they said they'd take a look at it and he said the carburator was extremely dirty, and that he had never seen one like mine (something about a two way going into one with a float??) Anyway, I'm back ta ridin' again, yeehaw!


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Monday, May 14, 2012 10:25 AM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


You 2 woud be horrified if you saw my lawn. I havent mowed it this year! It turned to complete plants a few weeks ago, so its seeding itself!

I didnt mow most uv it frum about september last year wen a weel assembly fell off due to rust.

Hydrogenated oil iz the stuff that a group uv doctorz sued KFC about. Its basicly a cheap butter substitute. Cheap if you don't count all the bypass operationz and other health problemz cauzed by it clogging up our circulatory systemz. Its usually called transfat on packagez and in the nutrition info, but in the ingredients its called hydrogenated oil. It will almost alwayz be sum vegetable oil, soybean, canola, corn, etc., but there iz also hydrogenated lard, which you can still purchase if youre pro-level serious about clogging your arteryz.

All margerine, including the supozedly healthy butter substitutes are hydrogenated oil, at least partially.

A big scam that I'm surprized they can get away with iz stating 0 gramz tranz fats in bold letterz on the frunt uv sum chips such az Cheetoz, yet in the small print ingredients therez the hydrogenated oilz. Its probably a per serving rule that givez them an out.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.nooalf.com

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Monday, May 14, 2012 12:06 PM

WISHIMAY


I don't much care about the lawn most days, but my neighbors are anal-retentive about such things and if it gets over three inches they knock on my door and want to know if my mower is broke, seriously... The constant hum of mowers here in the summer makes me uneasy, I feel like I'm being invaded. Next house I get is gonna be farther away from people.

Jo, from what I understand, aren't there two different kinds of transfats, one is "light" and one is "heavy" and your body needs a certain amount of one of them??

I don't know if you live in a city or not, but in towns here if your grass is over nine inches you get a citation, if three citations- the city mows it and bills you... If you don't wanna or can't get a new mower auctions are the way to go! For the price of a tank of gas you can usually get a cheap functioning one...

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Monday, May 14, 2012 2:22 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I finally got my big kitchen window ripped out and replaced, as we bought and ordered it a year and a half ago...Sooooo nice to have a breeze, and I can open it one handed...I am very pleased with it.

Also, remember that mower I broke? After the third place I went to, which turned out to be a mostly industrial repair place, they said they'd take a look at it and he said the carburator was extremely dirty, and that he had never seen one like mine (something about a two way going into one with a float??) Anyway, I'm back ta ridin' again, yeehaw!



Double good on you Wish!

I after carbrator, you lost me too, but glad you found somebody who could make it work for ya!




Quote:
Originally posted by JO753:
You 2 woud be horrified if you saw my lawn. I havent mowed it this year! It turned to complete plants a few weeks ago, so its seeding itself!

I didnt mow most uv it frum about september last year wen a weel assembly fell off due to rust.

Hydrogenated oil iz the stuff that a group uv doctorz sued KFC about. Its basicly a cheap butter substitute. Cheap if you don't count all the bypass operationz and other health problemz cauzed by it clogging up our circulatory systemz. Its usually called transfat on packagez and in the nutrition info, but in the ingredients its called hydrogenated oil. It will almost alwayz be sum vegetable oil, soybean, canola, corn, etc., but there iz also hydrogenated lard, which you can still purchase if youre pro-level serious about clogging your arteryz.

All margerine, including the supozedly healthy butter substitutes are hydrogenated oil, at least partially.

A big scam that I'm surprized they can get away with iz stating 0 gramz tranz fats in bold letterz on the frunt uv sum chips such az Cheetoz, yet in the small print ingredients therez the hydrogenated oilz. Its probably a per serving rule that givez them an out.


Haha JO,

You haven't mowed it yet this year!!!! I've already had to mow it like 6 or 7 times since we never had a winter!

Ah.... Trans Fat. Heard of that before, for sure. I RARELY if ever drink any soda today because it's all corn syrup and giving people diabeties, but I probably ingest more hydroginated oil than I should be. I do make a point to avoid any soy intake (because it is in essence nothing more than estrogen), but if it's created from other places as well I'm probably eating it. I DO LOVE ME SOME CHEETOS!!!!

I've never once purchased margerine though, so that's a good thing. I rarely use butter even, but if I'm going to use it, might as well be the real thing.

hmmmmmmmm... makes me wonder how many extra poisons I'm not even aware I'm drinking per 30 pack of Icehouse rather than springing for at least MGD or something?????



Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I don't much care about the lawn most days, but my neighbors are anal-retentive about such things and if it gets over three inches they knock on my door and want to know if my mower is broke, seriously... The constant hum of mowers here in the summer makes me uneasy, I feel like I'm being invaded. Next house I get is gonna be farther away from people.

Jo, from what I understand, aren't there two different kinds of transfats, one is "light" and one is "heavy" and your body needs a certain amount of one of them??

I don't know if you live in a city or not, but in towns here if your grass is over nine inches you get a citation, if three citations- the city mows it and bills you... If you don't wanna or can't get a new mower auctions are the way to go! For the price of a tank of gas you can usually get a cheap functioning one...


Haha... I'm pretty anal about my lawn, if you couldn't guess from how I do everything else. I'd never go to your house and bitch about it though. I'd just bitch to my friends and family behind your back about how shitty your lawn always looked (Sorry!)

Then again, you're way the hell out in the boonies. I'm surprised you're even close enough to a neighbor for them to care let alone have neighbors that give a shit. It's not exactly suburbia down there, is it? (Before you answer that, here's a test..... How far do you have to drive to get White Castle?)


As for 9" grass.... I'd probably have to give you an intervention if you hadn't mowed it by then. I know in Highland, they have a 6" rule, but I don't think there is any in my town. But seriously.... when grass gets over 9" it starts becoming a weed, doesn't it??????

Anyway Wish and JO, thanks for cheering me up. I actually went about 10 days between lawn mowings here and it was the first time that my mulcher built enough clumped grass crap to look embarrassing. It was also the VERY first time that I never once had any hard times in the spots where the grass doesn't grow much to figure out where my next line actually was. It was VERY EVIDENT 100% of the mow. I was so embarrassed.......




I'm going to a job interview at Aldi for an open invite for interviews tomorrow. High School diploma and/or GED, no management experience required. $11.50/hr or $15.00/hr for management position. Normal is part time and Management is full time, but both have great benefits.

Anybody I've ever known who has worked at Aldi says that it sucks big time, but I guess that's why they pay so well, right? It may or may not be a co-incidence, but anybody I personally knew who worked there was both a woman and was either currently raising kids or had been a stay-at-home mom for 20 years before they worked there, so it might not be as bad as it sounds. My step-mom didn't make the long haul, but said the cash register wasn't bad if she could stay there the whole time. Lifting 45lbs was tough for her though because she only weighs 100lbs. Me.... I'm just the opposite. Give me ANY REASON to stay the hell off register. I'll juggle crates of cheap mac and cheese and bench press fork-lifts if it keeps me off of the register!!!!

Wish me luck!!!!!



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Tuesday, May 15, 2012 3:56 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


The job "interview" wasn't actually an interview. It was an excuse to get my happy ass up early though and finally put in a physical application at the store that pays it's employees more than any of its kind because there are no unions and they don't pay for "frills" like cart boys or internet applications. (Also, because everyone who actually works there bitches constantly about how shitty it is... but I know that I've worked WAY shittier jobs for WAY less pay and no benefits, so I think it's right up my alley)

The woman there was super attractive and dressed in a very striking business suit. I hate being old enough now to refer to a woman I'm attracted to as a woman rather than a girl... grr... but I'd guess her to be no more than 27 years old. Being a regional manager though, she's probably making 25k more a year than the best year of my life. She's the real deal......

So I filled out my app, gave it with my resume, answered a few preliminary questions and if they like what they see from my app I'll get a call on Thursday. I told her that I'm willing to work any position at any store within 20 miles, even across the border and that I'm available 24/7.

If all of that, and actual face time with a DM, and just two attractive young people having an excuse to banter outside of a bar scenario aren't enough to at least give me an interview for a job which requires only a HS Diploma or GED equivelant, I'm going to start fitting a noose out of old shoe strings....


Seriously, J/K about that... but this is really my chance to live a truly care-free existence outside of the work place. Keeping my fingers crossed.

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Tuesday, May 15, 2012 7:31 PM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


Good luck!

Wish asked
Quote:
Jo, from what I understand, aren't there two different kinds of transfats, one is "light" and one is "heavy" and your body needs a certain amount of one of them??


No. Youre thinking uv saturated and unsaturated fat. Therez polyunsaturated, but I'm not sure if thats the same az unsaturated or a different type.

Tranzfats do not occur in nature. They were invented az a way to thicken natural oilz into a paste to immitate butter. If I'm remembering correctly, hydrogen iz percolated into a heated and pressurized vat full uv wutever oil. Unfortunately, this stuff haz a tendency to stick to the surfacez uv our circulatory system under certain circumstancez. Our system haz no way to chemically unstick it. For sum sum people it happenz alot and they find themselvez riding in an ambulance before they are 30. In most people it accumulates slowly so they arent taking that ride till they are 80.

If Uncle Skam wuz working for us insted uv being a tool for any industry that can afford a lobbying team, tranzfats woud hav been totally banned 40 yirz ago. It took a group uv doctorz filing lawsuits to get sum action on this. And even so, it's a motley patchwork uv local banz, limited national restrictionz, and haf assed package label rulez.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.nooalf.com

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Wednesday, May 16, 2012 1:57 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


Best wishes on the potential new job Jack!

I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.

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Thursday, May 17, 2012 4:24 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Thanks guys,

I didn't get a call today like they said I would if I got an interview. I'm hoping maybe they got backed up and I'll get a call tomorrow.

Gorram it!

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Friday, May 18, 2012 1:20 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


No call today either... I assume it's a dead issue now.

Why the hell can't I even get a job interview at a normal company that pays decent wages and doesn't just hire anyone off the street!!!!!! I even gave them a resume when they didn't ask for one to compliment my application.

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Friday, May 18, 2012 4:47 PM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


Perhaps you shoud consider free lance cargo hauling. Get a second hand vehicle. Take on sum passengerz to help pay for fuel. Do the occasional related side job.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.nooalf.com

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Friday, May 18, 2012 5:38 PM

WISHIMAY


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:


Why the hell can't I even get a job interview at a normal company...



Jack, do you talk as fast as you type? 'Cause if I were doing an interview and you did, I'd have to stake you like a vampire, no offence... People don't wanna deal with other people's OCD or over-eagerness. If you aren't relaxed, neither are THEY.
Also, maybe they just got busy and forgot. Such things happen, and can be terribly frustrating in an employment process, I know. I would wait until Monday evening and make a polite call, what do you have to loose? We had to hound a place for a couple months before they would give hubbs a job, one time... I wouldn't get too discouraged yet. And try to have a good weekend, anyways....

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Saturday, May 19, 2012 3:55 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by JO753:
Perhaps you shoud consider free lance cargo hauling. Get a second hand vehicle. Take on sum passengerz to help pay for fuel. Do the occasional related side job.


Hey JO,

Is there a good market for that kind of thing? At this point I probably wouldn't need to put the vehicle on credit, and I'd finally have an excuse to splurge on a cargo van or truck I'd like to get for hauling tools around if I ever get a home improvement business off the ground... but without any income I'm a little concerned to be making a major purchase. If I didn't make a dime until mid November, I'd be out of money. (Actually, that's a lot longer than I projected I could go without working, so I've done good with what I had so far.... just figured I'd have a job now).

Anyway, that sounds totally awesome and very Mal-like in fashion.

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
Jack, do you talk as fast as you type? 'Cause if I were doing an interview and you did, I'd have to stake you like a vampire, no offence... People don't wanna deal with other people's OCD or over-eagerness. If you aren't relaxed, neither are THEY.
Also, maybe they just got busy and forgot. Such things happen, and can be terribly frustrating in an employment process, I know. I would wait until Monday evening and make a polite call, what do you have to loose? We had to hound a place for a couple months before they would give hubbs a job, one time... I wouldn't get too discouraged yet. And try to have a good weekend, anyways....


Haha.... Nah, Wish...

I'm actually pretty quiet in real life. Depending on the circumstances surrounding the interview, and my mood of the day, I can be a little nervous, but I don't think it's any more nervous than they'd expect to see.

The posting about the "Hiring Event" said "no calls please". I assume this to mean after the fact as well, since they did specifically say that if I were chosen for an interview I'd hear from them by Thursday. At a lot of other places I'd say it was a crap shoot, but Aldi seems to be able to run a very tight ship.

My real frustration though is that I can't even get my foot in the door for an interview. (Aldi was NOT an interview. The conversation lasted 90 seconds tops). I don't even get the opportunity to blow an interview because I never get asked to come to one. The only places I ever get called by are places that hire anyone, and/or part time work making less than 9 bucks an hour. (This also includes no experience with training truck driving jobs and $11 and hour bus cleaning jobs).

I guess I would just appreciate it if somebody would at least let me talk face to face with them before they say no. And I'd REALLY like some constructive criticism of my methods so I can learn from any mistakes I'm apparently repeatedly making.

I'm just having a bad week is all.... I've been in a very foul mood and something really crazy happened to me the other night.

Have you ever sleepwalked before? As far as I know, I never had. On Wednesday night/Thursday morning I did. I went to bed watching an episode of Chuck. Where did I wake up????? In my crawlspace in the basement. NO JOKE!!!! Had I jumped an inch higher I would have banged my head on a joist. That's not all though.... Not only did I wake up in the plastic lined crawlspace, but before choosing that as my prefered sleeping spot for the night, I methodically took the time to arrange the 15 or so unused strips of water pipe insulators to construct a makeshift bed for myself.

WTF????

I can't wrap my head around it. I don't take any prescription stuff like Ambien that is known to cause that behavior. I haven't smoked weed in 14 months. I'm not drinking any more than I usually do, which is admittedly more than I should, but with 15 or so years of drinking under my belt, that couldn't explain it.

All I got is that maybe the combination of stressing out about a job and all these hours in the hot sun are really getting to me. Here's hoping I wake up in my bed tonight. I just got finished with a 9 our day pulling weeds in my pool and putting down that blue-green lawn repair kit mulch stuff in the bald spots in 95 degree sun.

At least I got a really nice tan now and will look especially healthy at those job interviews, assuming I ever get one....







I'll show you a picture hopefully tomorrow of how bad the pool got. I don't think the job thing would be bugging me this much if all that lawn work I've done was showing good results. In seemingly just a few days, over a billion weeds started to spring up all at once. I've had to be especially careful how I pull them up since there is a lot of healthy grass surrounding them, so it's taking extra long. I should be done mid-monday hopefully.

It's just great knowing that I'll have to do this all over again to the crabbage patch in a few weeks when the grass that is growing fleshes out and the weeds are big enough to pull.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.......

That will be a combined total of about 10 extra days of labor and about 120 bucks more lawn maintanance costs than I'd anticipated after having to buy 18-20 bags of that lawn repair stuff.




Sorry to be dumping.... I'm usually so much more upbeat. Here's hoping that next week goes better. I do have a job interview for a part time security room/surveillance gig at Kmart across the border. It won't be full time like I NEED, but it will probably pay close to 10 bucks an hour since it's over the boarder where minimum wage is a buck more and it's considered a "higher tier" job than stocking or cashier. At least it will extend my time left to find a real job.



Hope things are going better for all of you :)

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Sunday, May 20, 2012 7:04 AM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


My cargo hauling suggestion wuz a kinda sorta a joke. Firefly, hauling cargo? Get it? HAHA? ha. I gess you had to be there.

I used to sleep walk wen I wuz a kid. Last wun I remember wuz wen I wuz about 20. Woke up naked in the gangway next to the house! A lame end to a plezently x-rated dream.

Now I just take callz without waking up. I've reportedly had detailed coherent haf owr conversationz and I remember NOTHING wen wake up later.

Herez a pik uv my back yard:

Tryd to get the mower running, but it woud only go for about 2 minits and konk out. Gave it back to Tony.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.nooalf.com

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Sunday, May 20, 2012 8:44 AM

WISHIMAY


I don't think that qualifies as a lawn anymore, that's officially a fluffy weed farm... Your only options are: wait until next spring and get a jump on it, pay someone with a bush hog on a tractor to have a go at it, get out a garden hose and a dozen cans of that BBQ fire starter stuff and slowly burn off a section at a time... Or borrow a horse or a goat, or both Actually, the last one isn't too bad, your local aspca or shelter might loan out something like a foster pet deal...

Oh and Jack? Hormones have a great deal to do with things like nightmares and sleepwalking. When I was a kid I used to have sleepwalking episodes about "that time o the month"...Maybe your body is telling you it's time to get laid Or at the very least, to relax a bit. Not easy to do on a job search. Have you checked out the temp places? Not great jobs I know, but a distraction from your savings going down the drain??....

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Sunday, May 20, 2012 2:41 PM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


I like that 'wait until next spring' idea! Its got serious slacker appeal!

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DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.nooalf.com

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Monday, May 21, 2012 2:48 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by JO753:
My cargo hauling suggestion wuz a kinda sorta a joke. Firefly, hauling cargo? Get it? HAHA? ha. I gess you had to be there.

I used to sleep walk wen I wuz a kid. Last wun I remember wuz wen I wuz about 20. Woke up naked in the gangway next to the house! A lame end to a plezently x-rated dream.

Now I just take callz without waking up. I've reportedly had detailed coherent haf owr conversationz and I remember NOTHING wen wake up later.

Herez a pik uv my back yard:

Tryd to get the mower running, but it woud only go for about 2 minits and konk out. Gave it back to Tony.


Heh... First thing I thought of was Mal, lol. I thought you were serious though

That sleepwalking shit is SCARY man. When you've gone 32 years and never done it before, it's like WTF????? My friend took Ambien to sleep and stopped immediately one night when he woke up and had a full fridge of grocieries he didn't remember buying and his sister called him the next day asking what the late night phone call and weird conversation was about.



There's a lawnmower in that pic man????? It's like "Where's Waldo" lolz...


Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
Oh and Jack? Hormones have a great deal to do with things like nightmares and sleepwalking. When I was a kid I used to have sleepwalking episodes about "that time o the month"...Maybe your body is telling you it's time to get laid Or at the very least, to relax a bit. Not easy to do on a job search. Have you checked out the temp places? Not great jobs I know, but a distraction from your savings going down the drain??....


Come to think of it, I've been having quite a few nightmares and otherwise VERY vivid dreams too. Some of my dreams are so real that I find myself later questioning if things that have happened recently with my friends and family really even happened or if they were in a dream. A lot of that isn't even bad stuff... it's just not real.

At least I've been waking up where I was supposed to since the incident.

I need to find a temp job that specializes in office work around here. The 2nd best job I ever had started through a temp agency. After about 10 days the boss said, how would you like a full time job kid? I got really lucky there. Temp places really stick it to you and take at least 30% off the top, but you may land a job where they really like you and make it worth your while after you are no longer on the temp dole.

Got a part time security/surveillance job interview tomorrow. Pay should be pretty decent if the hours are over 30 a week. Wish me luck :)




Oh... and here's the pictures I said I'd post of the lawn mess....



UGGGGGGGHHHHHH The WEEDS!!!!!!

The area that's discolored on the top right isn't so bad now. I removed 95% of the weeds by hand while trying to baby the new grass, the discolored stuff is the lawn repair kit (seed/mulch/grass accelerator). Actually, about 70% of the pool was done today, so it looks way better than this pic already. Just hope the new grass takes hold.


And the easement...



Wow... two days ago it really wasn't looking that bad. Not today, no ma'am....

With everything else on my plate, I've all but written off the easement this season. There is no way I'm hand picking another 910 sq feet of weeds and buying another 70 bucks of weed repair. I just don't have the time or desire to work on the lawn anymore. It's too late in the year to do anything about it now anyway. The next 10 days call for 7 out of 10 days in the 80's and only a 30% chance of rain one day. I just hope that when I put down weed and feed next week that it kills off the weeds growing now and prevents most weeds from popping up until the fall and I can try fixing it then.

I'll be damned if I let the pool go after all this work though. I'll water that bitch 8 times a day if I have to and I WILL have a nice looking back yard by mid summer!!!!!!!!!



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Tuesday, May 22, 2012 12:59 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Haha!

This was the BEST interview yet!!!!

I got there about 20 minutes early, so I bought a sprinkler while killing down time. Show up to the customer service desk and tell them that I'm here for my interview. After about 10 minutes of waiting a guy comes out to apologize to me and tell me that they already hired somebody for the job last week.

Bah... whatever. Not going to get worked up about it. Got my sprinkler and it was close to where I buy groceries and make my weekly booze cruise anyways, so I used that as an excuse to stock up on that stuff early.

Tomorrow I'll get the rest of the weeds out of the pool and the rest of the lawn patch in, and I'll go pay my property taxes. I'll probably just take that 24hr/wk job overnight stocking for now until something better comes up. I can probably make it about 2 more years here without a better job on that meager pay.

Getting back to my calm center here. I've woken up in my bed every night since the incident, and tonight won't be any different

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Wednesday, May 23, 2012 2:18 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Well... didn't get a lot of that stuff done today, but there REALLY is only one day of weed pulling left now, if I stick with it for 8 hours in the heat.

The sprinkler I bought is AWESOME. Only 7 bucks. Sure, it's made in China and it's all plastic, but you can "program" how hit spreads the water both ways with ease with two dials. Even though it hit 87 degrees here today, the mulch was still damp at 2PM after giving 3 areas a 30 minute watering. If I were spraying by hose in this weather, I'd need to give it a recoat 5 times a day.

It's been about 6 days now since I put the initial lawn patch down. Hope to see the new grass filling in the bald spots in the next coulple of days now. It will take a lot of water and a lot of dilligance over the next 3 or so weeks, but I think I can still salvage the pool and make it all green by summer time.

I'm just going to weed 'n feed the easement on Friday though. Hopefully it kills off the weeds growing now and keeps new ones from growing until the weather is cooler in fall and I'll finish her up then.

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Wednesday, May 23, 2012 6:57 PM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


Tony got the mower running & refuzed to accept payment!

I mowed the frunt lawn fairly eazily. It iznt very big and the house shadez it, so it wuz only about 18 inchez at the tallest.

The bak yard (in the pik) iz much worse. I went at it for about 45 minits and only did about 1/4 uv it. Its about 4 feet in sum areaz.

A guy on a 4 weeler stopped to laff at me.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.nooalf.com

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Wednesday, May 23, 2012 7:46 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


Joe, that would be scary, waking up naked outside.

Jack a chara, It sounds like that sleep walking incident was unsettling for you. I'm glad it hasn't happened again, here's hoping it was a total fluke. I only sleep walked once or twice when I was a little girl, a long time ago. I talked in my sleep until my early womanhood, haven't done it in a while, when Mary stays over she always says she didn't hear me, whereas Jennifer always used to tell me what I would say.

I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.

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Thursday, May 24, 2012 2:40 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by JO753:
Tony got the mower running & refuzed to accept payment!

I mowed the frunt lawn fairly eazily. It iznt very big and the house shadez it, so it wuz only about 18 inchez at the tallest.

The bak yard (in the pik) iz much worse. I went at it for about 45 minits and only did about 1/4 uv it. Its about 4 feet in sum areaz.

A guy on a 4 weeler stopped to laff at me.


18" - 4'!!!!! Yikes!!!!!

I sure hope you're bagging and not mulching. I don't envy your shoes....

Glad you got your mower fixed for free.

Good luck man!!!!



Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
Joe, that would be scary, waking up naked outside.

Jack a chara, It sounds like that sleep walking incident was unsettling for you. I'm glad it hasn't happened again, here's hoping it was a total fluke. I only sleep walked once or twice when I was a little girl, a long time ago. I talked in my sleep until my early womanhood, haven't done it in a while, when Mary stays over she always says she didn't hear me, whereas Jennifer always used to tell me what I would say.

I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.



No joke Riona, it was VERY unsettling. I don't think I've ever talked in my sleep before, but that would be scary enough to me. The only time I can think that I may have done that is when I'm on my way out of a dream and I realize that I'm talking to myself. It's been ages since I shared a bedroom with my two bros, but they never said anything to me about sleep talking.

But to wake up in my dirty crawlspace where the sump pump is, not to mention, where all the water that infested the basement with mold was drained from when the power was turned back on?????? Let's just say the first thing I did was take a scalding hot shower and I ended up burning the boxers I was wearing. I have no idea how long I was down there before I woke up. The worst part of it all is, if I'm capable of doing that without being aware of it, what else have I done in my sleep? Hell... have I gone to my computer and posted in the RWED while sleeping or called up married Ex Girlfriends?

Your imagination is the limit for what you "might have done" after a night of waking up on "bedding" you meticulously put together in a dirty crawl space.

I get shivers just thinking about it........







In home improvement news... like everything else, the last relatively small area of weeds in the pool is going to take at least 2 days to do. I knew that was the worst part and that's why I saved it for last. It was probably only 100sq/ft, but the weedage there is so insane and you have to take every precaution to not rip out healthy new grass.

In an interesting turn of events.....

Now I know why the rabbits were digging a hole in the pool and why I had the fun of witnissing them eating and chasing each other for about 3 hours yesterday just feet away from where I was working.

I thought that they dug the hole to get at the roots of a certain kind of weed I've noticed they love to eat.

Nope....

I worked the weeds around that hole and when I finally got to it I pulled out a bunch of dead grass and rabbit fur came up with it. My first thought was Gorram it!!!! Thanks for killing some of the grass I actually had growing.... but when I saw what was underneath, I was mortified......

Hairless, wriggling and writhing living creatures using each others body heat for warmth. I didn't know what the hell to do, so I just covered it back up. Knowing what I know about the human scent on a baby bird's nest, I figured I just executed these baby rabbits.

Fortunately, rabbits aren't the same. As long as the mother doesn't get run over by a car or chewed up like the two other rabbits I've had around here, she will come back every night and morning to feed her young. As a test, it was recommended that after you cover them back up, you take two small twigs and make an "X", in the morning if the X was disturbed, you know that Mommy came to feed them and keep them warm at night.

I took great care not to actually touch any of them, but on the wildlife preservation site it said that you should pick them up and inspect if they are bleeding (it assumed you ran over their hole with a lawnmower or weedwacker). Although it says that you shouldn't attempt to hold them to keep them warm because the stress could kill them, it never said anything about the mom not coming back because human hands touched them.


So..... I guess I'll just try to get everything in the pool hole filled except for the nest by summer. Maybe when the babies are growed up, I can practice my putting skills after a fresh mow with the hole until fall?????



PICS!!!!




Aren't they cute?



So, as of 5/24/12, added to the docket of things to do in the next few weeks is to make sure that these babies are being cared for.

As much as it annoys me that they made the spot to birth them in the middle of the work I was doing, I can't blame the mom. The dirt was bare where she dug, and the surrounding weeds probably gave her instincts the feeling that it was the best place available. I'm still going to remove all of the surrounding weeds and put the lawn repair stuff everywhere, but they won't be evicted until they're ready to move out on my watch.

Good luck little guys!

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Friday, May 25, 2012 2:20 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Mama rabbit came by today!

I was worried this morning when the X I made with twigs hadn't been moved....

While I was working on the weeds, about 2 feet from the nest, she was scoping out the area for about an hour. I'd look over at her occasionally and look away. I was trying to let her know that it was cool that she came by and I wouldn't hurt her.

Finally, I got to a point that was just beyond the hole from where she was waiting and I could work for 20 or so minutes with my back to her and the hole. Sure enough, she creeped in and started feeding. Without turning quickly and staring right at her, I could see in my perephrial vision that she was tending the nest. Only about 18" away from me!

I know that had to be hella-stressful for her, but mother's instinct trumps all that.


I felt bad that I had to scare her out of the easement area later though when I saw her feeding there. I had just put down fertilizer to try to kill off the weeds growing before they overtake the grass I had planted. I sure hope she just feeds in the pool area near the nest while I'm not around for the next 24 hours until I can water the easement again. The fertilizer probably won't kill her, but I can't imagine that it would be good when she's feeding the babies.

As a side, I thought it was cool that it looks as though she used my two "X" twigs to reinforce her nest. I was just going to remove them after she left now that I know she's coming back, but they're now wrapped in the dead grass and fur she's left as almost a support bridge over the hole.


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Saturday, May 26, 2012 1:21 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


The weeds in the pool are gone.... FINALLY!!!!!!

Well, a bulk of them at least. I have noticed some popping up again in the areas I started with over a week ago. Finally got that lawn patch down everywhere now... just in time for the 97 degree weather tomorrow. Yay! I'll be watering all day long probably.

The good news is, now that I'm using a sprinkler, the original grass seems much more lush and it looks as if it's really starting to fill in the bald areas in the parts I de-weeded a week ago. The worst area of the pool is the stuff I just de-weeded in the last two days, and that's a good thing. That means that even though I don't really notice new growth from day to day, The overall picture is filling in like I want.

By god, I think I might be able to save this pool yet before summer is in full swing if I remain diligent about watering for the next 3 weeks!




The babies are still healthy and kicking. I hope I didn't make them too nervous camped out right next to their hole all day pulling the last of the weeds. No sign of Mama Rabbit today. Maybe she knows that I'm cool now. If anything, I'm a deterrent for any predators getting to them while I'm there. I just hope that some stray dog or cat doesn't get to them now that the hole is out in the open. She originally picked the spot that had weeds over a foot tall to hide it. Now all that's hiding them is the dead grass she put over them.

Sorry rabbits... I can't allow those weeds to seed and spread. At least I didn't put the Lawn Patch close to your hole. I have no idea if that would be deadly or make you sick, so I will just fill that area with patch in the fall after you've grown up. Looking forward to seeing you tailing Mama around the yard in a few months.

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Sunday, May 27, 2012 2:28 PM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


Glad youre wun uv the good guyz, Jack! Too many people think nothing uv killing defensles animalz.

No, wuznt scary for me, Rionaire, just a little chilly. Then I wuz wondering if maybe I wuz on my way back frum sumwer and the cops woud be hammering on the door.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.nooalf.com

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Sunday, May 27, 2012 3:37 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yeah, thanks JO. I need to build my Karma back up for killing 4 mice in the house over the winter. If they were outside my house I wouldn't hurt them, but there's gotta be somewhere when you draw the line. I've also killed quite a few tiny ants in the last few days too. Little bastards.... why do they make me do things that make me sad?????



I gotta get some new pics up of the pool and the easement. The pool is starting to look pretty good now. I'm hoping that it really fills in before the weather gets consistently hot. Today was 98 degrees here at 2:45PM, and tomorrow is a high of 91 degrees, but thankfully there are a lot of high 60's low 70's coming in the 10 day forecast. No rain, unfortunately for the rest of my lawn. The area on the side of the garage that gets 100% of the sun all day long with no shade, and also a part I didn't fertilize yet, is damn near looking dead now since we've had nearly zero rain in a month. It's funny, because even during the very mild winter we had the lawn never got that brown.


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