My neighbors are GREAT!

I'm just kidding, I wouldn't know, I've barely met any. Honestly, I've talked more to Jesús, the guy that cuts the grass across the street, than I have almost ALL my neighbors. There's always exceptions, the neighbor facing our backyard came over last night and tried to sell me on some travel agency pyramid/multi-level marketing crap. That killed 20 minutes.

It's made me start to wonder, is this normal? You know how you have some friends that always want to kiss on the cheek and it's just not you and feels awkward? The guy that always, ALWAYS shakes your hand? Maybe it's the thing here, maybe everyone around us is wondering why WE haven't come over, had an open house, whipped out the Welcome Mat. We must be cold-clammy-keep-to-ourselves weirdoes.

My gripe about mortgage companies

When I was "a kid", on my first house, I was annoyed that my mortgage was sold 3 or 4 times willy-nilly, but I wrote it off as me not having great credit at the time and being a first time mortgage owner. And I got over it and went on with life. When I bought my 2nd house, I went with local Cap Fed and had it set up with my accounts for autopay, never even considered that they'd sell it and they didn't. I like Cap Fed. Still do. Too bad it's only in the Midwest.

When you are looking, mortgage companies act like they're your best friend. What a crock. Just like a lot of industries, they just want your money, and the salespeople just want their commissions. We went with CTX, for no real good reason except on the advice of our realtor, but I won't use them again, and won't recommend them. Why? It's all "standard practices" and crap like that, but it gets so IMPERSONAL about something so important. Within a month or two, they sold off our 2nd mortgage to Countrywide. Did I have a say in this? No. Did someone call me up and go "Mr Svec? Get your wife on the phone will ya, we want to see if it's OK if we sell off your mortgage. No? Not OK. Oh, I understand, we won't do it then". Hell no. Not even close, just a letter saying it's been done. It happens all the time, your letter says so. Matter of fact it's "common practice". Well thanks a lot asswipes, now I have to:

1. Send in a 2nd payment in another envelope (that'll be about $50 in postage over the term of the 8 year loan)
2. Monitor a 2nd companies terms & timelines
3. Simply DEAL with TWO now. Now I'm on TWO mailing lists too, and already gotten tons of junk mail from both stupid companies wanting me to buy insurance and refinance.

And another gripe. Don't they want my money? Fricking CTX charges $20 to make an autopayment on their site. $20!!!! I'm doing all the damn work, why do they get MORE for it?!?!? So we send in a check.

But back to the transferring. They did it again. We're barely 6 months in to our loans and now CTX has sold the main one off to Chase. You know that's just great. Do *I* have a choice in this? Hell no. Can I do ANYTHING without paying a fee? Nope!! If I wanted to go with my local bank, I'd have to pay all sorts of costs, appraisal, closing, blah blah. Absolutely not fair. The letter says "This is a common practice in the mortgage industry and has no effects on the terms & conditions". Yeah, while that may be true, it's impersonal and aggravating. This is October 17th and it's affective with my Nov 1st payment. What if I was out of town? What if I had it auto-paid through MY bank (not CTX)? What if I had already sent it? HUH? HUH?

It's common practice to spit your used gum out the window, but that doesn't make it right.

It's common practice to leave a Mexican restaurant as quickly as possible if you've overflown the toilet, but that doesn't make it right.

Frankly, it just pisses me off. They do it for one reason, and one reason only, so they can make money.

Just feelin' GOOD!

I probably have a thousand mini movies of my pups. Finding old ones brings back memories. Almost to the day, this was 5 years ago just months before Roscoe went to the world of endless treats and tennis balls, our October 2002 trip to take him to the ocean. OK, OK, we went and saw my aunt & uncle in PA for the first time in 10 years too, and saw another aunt & uncle in Annapolis, and went to DC, and picked up a pinball machine along the way, and stayed at some B&Bs, and visited Tracy's brother. But the main IDEA of the trip was to take my boy to see the ocean. Amber liked the water better, but he was happy, and that was my goal in life at the time. Good boy.

How do I run in to the weirdoes?

I'm an eBay Trading Assistant. All that means is I flagged myself on eBay and wrote up a little paragraph on how I can help YOU (you computer illiterate weasel) sell your stuff. For a fee. I always thought it was a bit ironic, first off, to find me, you have to have a computer. Second, you have to be smart enough to look on eBay for a TA. I guess there are plenty of people still that just can't handle it, as evident by some of the people that contact me.

About three weeks ago, I got an email: "i have equestrian equipment, 1st ed signed books and custom clothes. please contact", and so I did. I first checked to make sure I had changed my locale to NV, and I had but didn't want to waste anyone's time if they thought I was still in KC. I asked where they were located, again not wanting to drive 45 minutes south for junk, and got a reply: "4th street near 395. can you do this?". Sure I can, and I let them know I'd like to meet, see what they have, etc and go from there.

I had done this a few times in KC and from experience, know that the majority of STUFF they want to sell is not worth much. One guy brought me about 10 things to "try out", half did not sell, the other half only got $10-$20. Another guy had a lot of decent books, videos and CDs, which are easy to list and sell on Amazon, so I take those when I get them. Again we're talking small dollars here, but the books & vids take very little time to list and ship, and once in awhile you get a gold nugget. I also worked my butt off on taking pics, wording and and prepping to list a pop-up camper, but the dude thought it was worth way more then I researched, and realized that if I sold it, I'd be taking a cut (which I lowered from my other stuff, but still money he wouldn't see). He changed his mind after the work I did and sold it on his own. Think he'll get his old crappy books back I never listed? Nah.

Anyway! Asking for a phone number and address for this new guy got some strange replies: "I really do not have a phone number right now. In all actuality, the sooner this could happen - the better...so if Sunday might work? I know these things take time (and no... lol this stuff isnt hot) still, I'm at the Sandman Motel at 1755 E. 4th"

Hot? Who said anything about being hot? Why would you bring THAT up? And Hotel? OK, getting a little weird. Without replying, I get another email: "I vacated my last apt due to an illness and now Im selling the last of my stuff before I head out to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota next week. That simple. Its not weird or stolen and if you want, I can have this verified by the Reno PD."

Now I'm curious, but also a heckuva lot more hesitant on doing anything. To see how serious this dude is, I ask for pictures. Response? "im not giving out anymore inventory lists or pics due to three other ebay sellers jerking me around and then asking wayyyyyyy too many questions. i know what i need and as an ebay seller, i respect your business process. a visit to see this stuff would be worth your time. say tuesday afternoon? sorry about it, but ive been burned too many times in reno already. if no, i appreciate your time in advance. peace "

Uh huh. I'm not sure how sending pics could transpire in to jerking him around, and not sure what business processes of mine he respects, but I kindly told him I didn't' want to waste my time on junk, and if he had pics and could send them, I'd consider a visit. I also made it very clear that anything I was going to sell, I'd take with me, and I'd bring a simple contract so he would feel more comfortable about me taking his stuff. And then he DID send pictures (has a digital camera too eh?). It was horse stuff for sure, and looked like some of it would sell OK.

One of the last two emails I got from him increased my uneasiness: "i dont know if this will work but Sir.. i you knew what was going on in my lie then you would understand. it's not weird... sounds sketchy i know; but if you fear this transaction ask a police officer to accompany you. i'm doing my best with the tools i have... God has done this for me for a reason; and yes with a receipt of you taking the items then i would trust you. otheriwse the items get thrown away and destroyed and thats money gone for you and i. please... work with me. "

I don't know what ever happened, because I never heard from him again. We set a date for Tuesday, but having no way to contact him, I sent one email asking how and didn't bother following up when I didn't hear back. I'm sure he truly has issues and if serious, I feel for him.

Snow?

(Totally forgot to post this and now it's been a coupla weeks.)

A coupla days after we had snow in the mountains, it was a late Friday night, chilly and about 11PM I walked out to....

SNOW!

OK, not a lot of snow, and not even sticking anywhere on the ground, but still SNOW! It was just 90 degrees out, and I JUST mowed the front yard that same day. What kinda weird-ass whacky place is this!

My Favorite COPS quotes

I have never been able to pinpoint exactly why I like watching shows like COPS, America's Most Wanted, Most Amazing, Judge Judy, Jerry, etc etc. It has something to do with observing how STUPID people are I think. COPS plays quite often on Court TV, so much so that in a few days, I better watch my TIVO or I'm gonna run out of space. It's good background noise too, if I'm in there cooking, it's an easy show to listen too while I work. I know she won't admit it, but Tracy likes it a bit too, especially the 1 minute clips of the truly memorable moments, such as:

• Put it in da paper! Put it in da paper!!
• What did I did?

I love the blank, dumb, I'm So Innocent look on some perps faces, very bad actors in most cases. More of my favorite quotes & moments:

• I wuz scared (always in response to "Why were you running?"
• That's not mine! (Mary Jane in the wallet, crack pipe, gun, etc)
• I'm not gonna lie to you (or) Why would I lie?
• I don't have nuthin' on me. (it's in the bushes where I threw it)
• "So you haven't been smoking any weed?"... "No, why would you say that?" (Guy has a joint behind his ear in plain sight. Whoops! Forgot! Silly me!
• And one of my favorite action adventures was when this idiot had about 20 police cars behind him, as if he's going to get away! Happens to be in Kansas City:

More weather talk....

It's as weird as KC, but different. Yesterday it hit mid 70s, today 80 and this is what I can see from my back yard, best to enlarge it:

Yeah, that's snow in the mountains. SNOW! Officially it was there on the last day of summer, can you believe it? The pups love snow about as much as they love the water, and I can't wait for true winter weather to arrive. Biggest bummer is I don't have a wood burning fireplace, but I'll survive. The gas one puts out a nice ambiance, and maybe as I get older I'll realize what I was doing was a LOT of work. Satisfying work though.

Weird weather

All of a sudden the weather here is reminding me of Kansas.

Don't like it? Wait a minute!

A week or so ago it was in the 90s near every day and it had been hot since the day I got here. The other day about 9PM I opened the door and WTF? It's RAINING? Tracy gets a little excited and tells me to grab the cooler and put it under the eave to catch the water. Sure enough, it filled it half way full (water for the garden, filthy too. All that dirt running off the roof). The next day it's still cloudy and I hear something about chains required at elevations above 7000 feet, that's Lake Tahoe. Already??? We went from 90 to snow in a week? Sheesh. And I guess it's true, while it reached mid 70s yesterday and is already 60 here and it's still mid morning, I've heard of 6" to a foot of snow in the "Sierras". Absolutely weird. The lows every day for the next week are upper 30s, highs in the mid 70s. Great sleeping weather, but doubt we'll be taking the dogs swimming soon.


Last weekend:
Oh look! A Chicken!

Throw the ball, will ya dad?

Drying out:

My helicoptor is bigger than your helicopter, NYAH NYAH

I wasn't going to bitch about this, cause I've been accused of being fairly negative and bitchy, but I am what I am so I'm GONNA! Let me start by saying I've found that overall the people here in Reno/Sparks are pretty friendly and helpful. I've got more than one story about people going out of their way to help, suggest, advise or just discuss something with me unexpectedly. The earliest example is when I was still in KC and Tracy was wanting to hire someone to do our yardwork cause she was working so much. I emailed a friendly person that had come to look at our playground, asking if she knew of any neighborhood dudes that cut lawns. Guess what? She did it for us! She hauled over her mower MORE than once and cut our lawn, fer nuthin'!! And after that, allowed Tracy to come borrow her lawn mower too! What a nice gesture. (I still need to meet her.)

But not this dude. A few weekend's ago we were exploring, going up & down the Truckee River looking for dog swimming areas. Out by Verdi (Ver DIE) we came across a little subdivision right along the river, which happened to be having a neighborhood garage sale too. It was Sunday, so not many participating, but we still managed to hit a few. On the way out, an old GEEZER was at the end of his driveway and had a large gas powered helicopter on a stand that he was about to put away. Could he be selling? Could he be closing up his garage sale? Nah, I doubt it. Those things are expensive and this looked like a big one. But what the heck, it's a neighborhood garage sale, right? Beautiful day, sunny, blue skies, nice driving weather.... I roll up and roll down the window and:

That thing for sale??
(Grumpy look on his face) You couldn't afford it sonny.
(Me, a bit smart alecky) Now, how do you know how much money I have in my pocket?
(Almost angry look!) Do you know how much this costs? This is over $20,000 and is worth more than your car. To give you an example (of what I don't know) I own a Boeing Bell Blah T-206, costs me 1.5 million.

Goodie for you scooter. Take some of your money and buy a personality. I'm not even sure how the conversation ended, but we didn't talk much more and I drove away. What an ass. It struck a little nerve, and probably always will when people PRESUME things about you, your lifestyle and your financial situation. I've lived with that a lot, especially since I've gone self employed, which to many means "doesn't work". For all he knew, I was a bulti-zillionaire. It's the same thing to hear how "lucky" you are, let's ignore the hard work we've done, we're "lucky"!!

Lucky I tell you!

I want to (HIC!) ride my bicycle (HIC!)

I simply HAD to do it. Had to!!!

Butta, WHAT ARE THEY THINKING!???!!?

I'm sorry, but WHAT THE HELL?!?!

They changed the size of BUTTER?

Or is this a West coast thing? Did they get Bill Gates in on it? You know, make a change that EVERYONE will have to conform to even though it doesn't make it better? Did they take a survey? Do studies? Testing? Gave a rats ass about all the BUTTER DISHES out there? IT DON'T FIT my DISH MAN!!!!! You know, they still sell hot dogs in a 10 pack, and buns in an 8. They can't fix that but some f-ing genius has convinced the butter patrol to revamp the size of sticks. Help me man, what am I missing?!?!?!?!?!

I **HATE** People Who Steal! YA THIEF!!!!

Or people that thing they have a "right", or think they are better than others and show it. Talk about balls!! I finally got this little situation resolved thanks to my buddy Pete. I found out about it about three weeks ago, and being 1500 miles away, it's tough to be DO anything about it:

Here is my garden in 2005. Nice huh? Blow up the picture, look at that sunflower, those luscious tom plants, the windmill. Nice huh?

Now two years later, after I've left but before I've sold my house. Here's another pic. Blow it up, whatta ya see? To clue you in, that's my NEIGHBOR'S yard, with *MY* WINDMILL!!!

Look closer, oh I'll do it for you, look below. That's my wagon. Home made for the most part and I forgot it, and Suzie was supposed to go get it out of my garden but had forgotten.

So yeah, my lovely next door neighbor BRENDA figured since I was gone, she'd help herself! Windmill, wagon, and I've also heard of a few other things that frankly were trash to me, but she JUST HELPED HERSELF! No call, no email, no nothing. Just went over and STOLE them. That's stealing, and trespassing, but mostly FRICKING RUDE! Thanks to Pete, they are in my garage now, I've got a home for the windmill, and the wagon will somehow find it's way home.

SHEESH!

Labor Day River plunge

Man my pups sure love the water. We scouted around a little bit and found a nice access area to the Truckee River just West of downtown Reno. Sure does tire them out too!

Ready?

Cruise Dog Missile
Three very happy dogs

Action movie!

Boo tired

Stones tired

Abbytail queen of the bed

Better than Tampax

That special time of the month deserves a special outfit. This actually worked VERY well. What else could you do? She's about a year old, I think.

Rain?

Wow, all my griping must have pissed off the rain gods, we got sprinkled on today

QUICK, GRAB THE CAMERA BEFORE IT DRIES UP! <<>>

No wine cellar, so whatta ya do?

Well, we bought this wine rack. Now honestly, whatta ya do in a house that has no cool basement? From the picture, it looks kinda white trash to have it in the hallway (off the kitchen), but it really kinda works well! The garage was off cause of heat, and the laundry room suspect. Tracy didn't want it in the living room, and where else can you put it? Bathroom?

Also reality hit me as I'm unpacking my third huge box of wine & box: I'm a Pack Rat!!! I've still got a full case + 1 of a 1983 McDowell Valley Cab Sav that I first had at Houston's in KC, I wonder if it's any good. I also ran across a nice Turley, some T-Vine and a flurry of other good ones. Probably a lot of BAD ones in there too. (Aside from the obvious of throwing it away, what can you do with old vine? How about making your own balsamic? That would be interesting). Back to being a pack rat, I counted. I've got exactly 100 bottles of wine. ONE HUNDRED! 93 on the shelf, 3 opened and 4 in the fridge. I'm half thinking I've got another box somewhere too, that's scary. And there I am at Trader Joe's today looking new ones over. BAD TODD!

Note to Butch: Your row is to the right of Keystone, we've still not sampled, it's coming.

Siren Day!!

Looks like Blogger is allowing movies now, this could be dangerous. This is one of my favorites. Every month in Kansas they tested the tornado sirens. They actually liked it!

OMG, Call out the National Guard!

Sirens wailing, people running for cover, small children hiding under desks!!!

IT LOOKS LIKE RAIN!

For the record, not a drop. I wuz really really a-skard though...

Weather: A BORING experience

Today the news said we hit day 80 of not having any measurable precipitation, and even that was 500ths of an inch. They said the last significant amount was in May, in the form of snow. Every day seems the same, with slight fluctuations on the temp, but nearly always sunny and hot. It most bore the bejeesuz out of the weathermen, can you tell? They gotta get creative. These is my actual EXCITING forecast:

F: Record breaking temperatures
S: Record breaking temperatures
S: Sunshine
M: A full day of sunshine
T: Plenty of sunshine
W: Sunny (guess SOMEONE wasn't in the SPIRIT NOW!)
T: Plenty of sunshine
F: Record breaking temperatures
S: Record breaking temperatures (Can you tell the weekend guy is working?)
S: Record breaking temperatures
M: Record breaking temperatures
T: Hot with sunshine
W: Sunny and very warm
T: Hot in the morning, sunshine (or sunshine in the morning, hot)
F: Sunny and hot (please kill me!)

A few weeks ago there was a 30% chance of maybe getting a brief downpour. *MUCH* excitement!! They so happened to have finally caught Bin Laden that day, dressed like Al Gore working at a Taco Bell, but this was BIG NEWS! Needless to say, we got nothing.

Weeds: A different experience

Some things you just don't think will be different when you move. Sure, the weather and cost of living come to mind, but did you ever give a thought about weeds? SURE! In KC, MOST of the yard was weeds (were weeds?), but here, it's different. The front lawn is pretty nice, but there's been about 3 types of little bastards that pop up and Mama, ya gotta use the gloves. I don't know what they are called but they got stickers. And they hurt. They are a pain in the ass. I've picked a name and am calling them "Bernies". They stick ya and they're a pain in the ass. Yeah. (See Note)

I'm not sure you can see the little barbs in this pic:

Secondly, what's a tumbleweed? Well, I'll tell ya. It's this large prickly weed that grows quick, dries up quick and get more brittle and more spiky. And they blow around and scratch cars, never thought of THAT have ya? Here's one I yanked up from the back yard (with gloves) and a dried one blowing around.



Guess how else they annoy ya? Well, last night unknown to us, one had stuck to Keystone's tail and leg, and as he walked around the house and laid down, pieces of it broke off, AND THE GREAT NEWS? THE GREAT NEWS?

They're the SAME COLOR AS THE CARPET!!!

So how do you find them, well, you STEP on them. Oh yeah, it was a fun evening. Peachy. Vaccuummiinngg them up helps, but it isn't perfect, they stick in the carpet too.

Sample piece:

Did I mention they get large? Think typical tumbleweed in a movie, you got the picture. And for a real picture, here's the neighbor's trash can today, one big weed:

(Note) To be accurate the Bernie weed would have to lie, drink all your beer and owe you money.