Charity losers

We had a garage sale last weekend, and in typical fashion, much of the leftover stuff was slated to go to a local ever-asking-with-the-hand-out-charity. My first choice was one of those places that rents in a nice strip mail (drop off only), and send postcards in the mail begging for stuff. I'm no saint here, I picked them cause they were closest, a new place so I thought they'd be thrilled to have the traffic, and yeah, I want the write off. Lots of stuff good and bad, and seriously. Who ever really takes inventory of the crap you dump off? They simply give you a blank "receipt" which you could write down anything up to the IRS legal limit and not be questioned. Scammy smelling already. Us being a little more organized (if you can believe it), take pictures and actually make a list.

So rewind to a pet peeve of mine; simply saying Hello or Thanks. If you've been in the support sector, you know what I mean. You're busy working on some stupid budget that is only going to get rejected with "We approve this project, but cut the costs in half" and someone pops their head in to your office and says "Todd! Applied is down. When I alt-click to calculate the state premiums, I get a Windows exception error that DMXFUKU dot DLL has caused an error. "

Oh, let me hop right on that. And how are you?

It's equally annoying in email or chat or at the grocery store when you hold the door open for some old bag who thinks she's still hot who don't say a word, by golly I SHOULD hold the door for her! Ever ignored the phone cause you know who's calling is going to ask you the SAME question again about their computer? Now now, you people reading that have asked my my input on something and I've given it and you've said THANKS, I'm not talking about you. You rock. Most of those people won't ever find my blog any way. Hell, as a total side line, I fixed my neighbors Internet the other day and I got not only cookies, but banana nut bread!!!

OK, back to the local charity. Here it is, Monday morning, the Clampett truck & trailer loaded with all sorts of stuff including a TV, books, computers, clothes, luggage, table & chairs, and tons of misc THINGS. All ready for my local charity to sift through like Christmas and put up for sale to support their little non-profit organization!! Cool, they've got a covered drive though (absolutely necessary in this desert climate):

Me: Hi! How ya doing!? I've uh, got all sorts of STUFF for ya.

GW: We don't take TVs

Me: (I'm fine, how are you?) Why not?

GW: We just don't take them.

Me: OK, well fine. Lots of stuff here anyway. Know who takes TVs?

GW: Fred!?! Who takes TVs?? (Fred says XXX Glendale Avenue. Thanks Fred)

I pop open the back of the truck to help unload. I'm THAT kinda helpful guy. I unload an Apple Macintosh all-in-one PC. I set it on the cart.

GW: We don't take monitors.

It's not a monitor, it's an all in one computer.

We don't take computers.

Me: (slight annoyed laugh) Listen dude, ya gotta take the good with the bad! You quickly unloaded my good table and chairs. I got three computers, if you don't want them, how about you throw them away?

GW shrugs and says "Put them over there"

Me nodding, then grabs a stack of books and puts it on the cart. Uh-Oh, GW sees me:

"FRED?!?!?!?!" Fred comes out. Looks at what I've just done and states "We don't take books"

What? Are you fucking kidding me? I lost it a little and had enough "Tell you what, how about you put all my shit back on the trailer then and I'll take it somewhere else?" And they do. I got one last comment from them about they can't afford to pay for trash haul off. It was very canned and rehearsed. Yeah right I thought, but you can take the good stuff and sell it and pay for this fancy new building and the postcards in the mail begging for garage sale leftovers.

20 minutes later another local place that takes donations for Multiple Sclerosis took it all, did most of the unloading and not only gave me receipts, but gave me a handful of coupons for 20% items in their store. And they said thanks. I'll be going back to them.

I'm fine, how are you?

Rock & Roll Wall man....

Just while THINKING about putting this blog up for Mitch to see pics, I thought of ALL of these damn yard projects that just start to overwhelm me. On the plate:

1. Raised berm area around some pre-existing trees, using rock as a border (see three pictures below). These are all rocks from my yard, the biggest that I can move is about the size of a basketball. HEAVY!
2. Turning the current cinder block pepper garden (CLICK HERE) in to a much larger tomato and pepper garden area surrounded by Pavestones and getting rid of most the block. Maybe this weekend?
3. In the background you can see the huge boxes for the gazebo.
4. Before I do that, I need to make a patio to set it on.
5. Not really a separate project, but making a flagstone pathway from the old patio to the the gazebo.
6. In a fantasy world, all around the new patio would be curbing, sprinkler system and grass.
7. The dogs are getting their own small patio that will be under the faucet (to cool it) made out of a stack of square fabricated pavers. Should be a nice little area for them, if they use it!
8. Off the gazebo I want to build an arbor like area and use the brick I brought from Kansas for a new patio area there, and remove the flat cinder blocks that are in front of the door of the shed.
9. The dry creek beds have near filled in with silt from all the rain washout we've gotten. Needs upgraded and repaired!
10. In the again fantasy world, horseshoe pit, waters/fountain features, and a flat sitting area up on the hill.

See what I mean? I'm sure I forgot 10 things too!

Rain Rain GO away

Highly unusual for us, it's been raining for near a week here. Very cool to hear thunder again, surprised at how much I've missed it. Rain is cool too, but I'm done with it. My backyard is mud, my dry creek beds are now mud beds, lots of THINGS washed away, and I've got plants to get in the ground! Thankfully unlike Kansas, I have no water problems in the house.