Talked with Ollie last night. She was working on a certification for her job. She said she had a pretty good day. She was put out with her idiot sister.

Ollie is trying to work through a legal matter, and has a plan in place. Now she is trying to make it happen. She has been working with a couple of people she says are knowledgeable in these matters and are willing to help.

It seems that her probation officer has been visiting people listed as relatives and trying to see if Ollie is staying within her terms. This probation officer is the one that a year ago had a bench warrant issued for Ollie and kept her locked up for a week or so. You can imagine her idiot sisters response when the probation officer offered reward for dirt. The idiot and her shrimp would do anything for money.

Oh well, what comes around goes around. I can hardly wait.

For the past several years Krl and I have found it necessary to hire a yard man. When you are gone over seven months in a single stretch, it would become a jungle. For a number of years we used an individual, who did a good job, until we paid him in advance and he stopped showing up. Then we had a professional company who was paid, then never did the work. When I called Bruce the owner over, he told me he had lost his ass on this job. I asked how that could be and he told me he had subcontracted the work to someone else and now he was left holding the bag. Surely he could sympathize with how I felt about paying someone to do it and the work not being done. You can imagine my dismay when he had the audacity to tell me for an additional 64% of the already paid amount he would complete the work.

I told him "How about you get off my property and I won't whip your ass!"

I see the man from time to time and I still have the temptation to waylay him. I can tell he knows I feel that way too. He won't even speak.

Last year Krl had hired a young man who had left flyers on every door in the neighborhood. She asked him and at least one of his parents to come over to talk. The young man told Krl he would mow, edge and weed-eat for $10. Krl told him that was too cheap, that she would pay him what she had paid the previous people. The young and his Dad and Krl came to terms. It wasn't a good situation. He would show up without gas, or his mower was not running, and I usually spent more time working on his equipment than it would have taken for me to do the yard. On his final visit he had run his hand through a bicycle chain and his Mom was helping him.
His Mom came to the door and told Krl we were taking advantage of her baby and that the agreed price would be for the front yard mowing only, double it for mowing and weed-eating, triple it for mowing and weed-eating the front and mowing the back and quadruple it for mowing and weed-eating front and back. Krl told the lady this was the exact reason she had the boy bring a parent to make the deal.

I have wondered if this woman had PMS or if this was exactly what she wanted to teach her son.

Krl and I, along with Ellen and her boy friend then shared the yard work the rest of the summer last year.

This year we hope that I will be gone in July, August and hopefully part of September. Experience tells us it is difficult to find someone in the middle of the summer to do a short stretch, so one day last week Krl was down the street visiting with a neighbor when the neighbor's yard man arrived. Krl began visiting with him and ask him if he would be interested in taking on our yard. They agreed he would come over and give her a price. After a walk around and some discussion a deal was made and the man told Krl he would be here Tuesday morning between 8:30 and 9:00.

The man was a no show. Krl called and he said tomorrow. Again, the man was a no show. Krl tried to call him several times over the remaining part of Wednesday and even Thursday. He never answered and never returned a call.

Best part was Krl did not pay in advance.

Friday Krl hired a new yard man. He isn't fast, but he doesn't cut corners, and he treats the yard like it was his own.

I am the new yard man.

If I had done it when we had people supposed to have shown up it would have been a breeze. By the time we dealt with all the rain and the no shows, it had gotten pretty tall. I didn't get in a hurry, and five hours later the neighbors are once again talking to us.

Continuing with our theme "Some people are just no good!", I was sitting at my desk yesterday when the company cell phone which had been issued to the driver who told us he was going to jail began to ring. I wrote down the number from the display and did an reverse number look up. It wouldn't give me the name but it had a link to trucking companies in and near Odessa/Midland, Texas.

Later in the morning Trc and I were working in the office when the phone rang again. Trc answered it, using just a tinge of hispanic accent and it was a truck driver. "Hello, I am trying to get hold of Pedro", he said, "We are supposed to load together tomorrow and I wanted to run with him". Trc told the guy Pedro was not here but if she saw him she would give him the message.

Later in the day the phone rang again and Krl answered it. It was the dispatcher for the same company as the driver mentioned above. He was wanting to get hold of Pedro. The dispatcher told Krl Pedro had given him this number as his cell phone. Krl told the man this was a company issued phone and Pedro had told us he was going to jail, but evidently he had lied. If you can believe it, this same dispatcher called back twice asking for us to help him get in contact with Pedro.

I never said Pedro was the brightest bulb in the box. Obviously it might be a stretch to say he was a competitor for the dimmest bulb.

I just don't know why people can't tell the truth. I can deal with anything as long as a person is honest with me.

I downloaded the call history from the company phone. It is two months old and has been used almost 69 hours. Nine hours were used for personal use (which I will hold from the drivers pay) and remarkably the driver on Pepa's truck who quit last week and Pedro had talked 62 minutes since Monday. Probably the thing that really gets my drawers in a wad, there are five calls totalling three-quarters of an hour Pedro made when soliciting his new employer.

Wonder what I will write on a previous employment inquiry?

The truth.

Well, I felt for Colt McCoy. I agree with the analysts, he brings some intangibles to the table that can't be measured. Cleveland? Oh well. Now I am a Cleveland fan. Good luck Colt!

Ouch. I have a few mowing pains. It may take me a time or two until I am in mid-mowing form. Actually, instead of my back being the worst pain, it is my ankle I twisted about six weeks ago.

Have a day.

FATHER, I know how YOU must feel when people disappoint you. Forgive me. To YOU be the glory!