addendum to story below about Mike

A friend brought to my attention that my little joke backfired the way  I explained how much I paid Mike.  I edited the story today so if you read the story prior to editing, I paid Mike a lot more than we had agreed to.  And he was happy at that moment.

Mike the Landscaper

Just a short story about a landscaper who made me sad.  A number of months ago a guy, Mike, plastered a poster on our community mailbox advertising himself as the tree man.  His last name is I'll say Jones.   I thought it would be a good idea to talk to someone who clearly speaks and understands English.  I've had wonderful people work for me who didn't speak well and I loved them, but sometimes the work didn't get done as I asked due to a language barrier.  So I called Mike.  He and his wife drove up in a beat up car.  They toured the property and he gave me a great price.  They both spoke intelligently, fankly they looked a little like, well I don't know how to say it so I won't .  Being the good guy that I am (hmmmm?), I hired them on the spot only to find out that they had to come back later, after I gave him a deposit for half of the job.  I figured they had to go out and resupply themselves with some minor tools, etc.  They gave me scare for a couple of hours but did return to both work hard as dogs.  As the months passed I realized they did a very professional job, followed my requests for which the results were as time went by exactly what I asked for and I thought about them many times because of their good work. Time passed and I needed them again.  They couldn't trim my apple tree during the earlier season.  I called, complimented them and invited them to give me an estimate for the new work and hired them again.  This time they arrived, looking  a step above street people, in an old car only this time with a 2 yr old little girl that they were eager to tell me that they nabbed from their daughter because the boyfriend had beat up the little one.  I guess they are raising her.  Once again Mike asked for an advance, I gave it to him and asked to please come back in time so as not to work in the dark otherwise we'd have to start early AM next day.   Needless to say the next day arrived and no Mike at the agreed 8AM.  After many calls and excuses, can't find the car keys, etc.  will have to take a bus, and I said, "Mike how can you take a ladder and stuff on the bus?"  and he said," Well, do you want to come and pick me up?"   Do I have to tell you how nervous I got with that question?  Around 12:30 I went to get the mail and there is Mike, no truck, the beat up car and he's trimming my front yard tree.  No advance notice.  What a surprise.  Mike worked his tail off.  In addition to my asking for a little extra work, he had to clean up a billion pieces of splintered glass from my garden table that he helped me move to an upright position only for it to explode.  It was shocking.  The point is he worked, alone this time, like a dog once again, never stopping till  the job was complete.  I paid him more than he asked for the work he did, after asking him how much I owed him.  He said to give him whatever I wanted.  Kiddingly, I asked if $10 was enough for the day.  He didn't blink an eye to my joke.  He left and I felt good.  Kind of like a win-win situation.  About an hour later the doorbell rings.  I looked out and it was Mike.  His tee shirt above his belly, a frantic sad look in his eyes and still dirty from the job.  I came to the gate. Sheepishly he asked me to loan him $100, told me he left my the check (behind) at the Inn Zone, a local bar and they all have gambling.  So don't know what part of the check was used for what.  He told me he was supposed to take his little grandbaby somewhere the next day, that he had a big job tomorrow and would pay me $150 the next day.  I said no and he walked away slowly and very sad.  Mike got to me in a way I didn't expect.  I was agitated over the circumstances.  The funny part is that I feel in my heart that Mike would repay me somehow, but I couldn't bring myself to be a party to what I imagined would happen to the new money.  Better he should go home and face the music whatever tune that is.   I remained sad for the rest of the day.  

Politics is in the air in Nevada

 I attended a Mockus (mock caucus) today.  It was preceded by a visit from Governor Bill Richardson who was introduced by his wife.  They appear to be a nice couple that is down to earth.  He is for the working man in a big way and is concerned about the water situation for the entire West as well as other more common issues.  There was no time for Q & A’s,  I had hoped to ask a question that my friend Sally would have asked.  She is a fan of Richardson.  I didn’t know where I was headed nor did I know about the treat that was in store for me.  The school in which it was held is in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood.  I didn’t know that Bill Richardson is Hispanic, at least on his mother’s side.   While folks here do like him, there was equal enthusiasm for the other leading candidates.  The surprise for most of us was the entertainment.  The school put on a program that was wonderful.  Although they were all students, the entertainers were so professional.  They had Spanish dancing girls, and girls with guys who used swords in the dance and then a complete Mariachi band entertained who were superb The finale was a group of tiny children who wore masks with faces of old men.  They all had canes and acted like a bunch of old men, it was so adorable.  And all the kids had the most beautiful costumes from head to foot.  I was really taken with all of them.  I caught a couple of photos.  My purpose for going was to have a live experience with the caucus since I am a facilitator (Temporary Chair) and will be running the caucus in my precinct.  I wish I could see all the candidates up close like I did today.  I am still rather undecided regarding my vote.   I think they’ll all be coming here as soon as Iowa it out of the way for them.  My understanding is that Nevada is becoming a key component to the western vote.  So much for my Saturday today.  The event lasted much longer than I expected.  It was a long day that started with my Tenya class, another joy for me.  

 

 

Complaining

 I live under the constellations that cause disruption, difficulties and frustration for the simplest things in life.  Needless to say automation has trebled my troubles. 

 

Today is an excellent example of uselessness of the time and the space I occupy.  I attended a business meeting where everyone but me received an invitation and news bulletin via email.  At the meeting I made a few appointments with an associate.  I wrote down the info only to get a message that the dates and times were incorrect.  At the same meeting I discovered that the call center that solicits appointments for us has outsourced some of its business to India and potential clients are complaining that they didn’t understand more than a few words from the call that transpired.  Of course I was devastated because hot leads was one of the salient features of this company, leads. Hello, is anyone there?

 

On my way home I got two calls.  One call was from the heating company that just made (another) repair at the condo.  What else is new?  Besides refusing to bill me and wanting a credit card, I took exception because of two reasons, the first is obvious and the second being that the repair was to an item that was replaced by them a little over a year ago.  The last piece of equipment lasted 12 years.  So, of course, there were calls back and forth.  Now I have to come up with the bill that provided that service because they have no record of it.  As long as I’m on the subject, my home heating was inspected for winter about a month ago and when I turned on the heat for the first time a couple of weeks ago, one of the heaters didn’t work.  They are both just about one year old.

 

The second call was from a banker insisting that they needed a document that was not requested of me at a sit down meeting  in order to open a special account.   I finally replied to the urgency of her tone by telling the banker to close the paperwork and we’ll start over when I produce the document.  She said, “oh no, I couldn’t do that to you, there is a charge for closing an account before three months passes.”  I don’t know whose going to suffer more on this one.

 

I went to the post office to mail a book in a box that I reused, made out their label, etc. and the official at the desk insisted I use one of their boxes so I had to redo the package after standing in line for twenty minutes.  Not so terrible, frustrating though. 

 

I came home to a garage door that won’t close properly.  This is the 3d time for the same issue.  The repair is so minor that I never get charged for the service call.  You would think they could explain it to me so that I could take care of it.  Have to call again.  Tonight I was interrupted during a phone call by a call from the cleaning people that they can’t come tomorrow.  The phone call I was on was to a rebate center that sent me half of what was due me.  I finally got a live person who put me on hold, the phone went dead and it took a minimum of one half hour of redialing to get back to a live person.  I have to return to the store and have the salesperson call and verify the purchase.  Simple solution but what about the above the wasted time and effort (twice by the way).  My submission wasn’t  good enough the first time. 

 

I’m going to retire  to bed soon, not because I have to but rather because I think I should say good-bye to this day.  And so I bid you ado.  

POLITICS

I’M AN ACTIVE DEMOCRAT AGAIN.  My last plunge into working in politics was during Adlai Stevenson’s campaign at the l952 Convention.  I was so utterly devastated by his loss in the Presidential race that I never did it again until now.  I was inspired from two sources.  Living in Nevada affords opportunities I never expected.  Las Vegas is like a small town.  Important people, places and events are easily accessible.  I’ve made an effort to be at public events where I know interesting people will be in attendance.  It’s been fun.  My first season in NV I went to a Democratic rally to see Senator Kerry.  It kind of infused a lost interest.  More recently, my childhood friend, Phyllis, who moved to northern Nevada, has become active in the Democratic Party.  Through Phyllis I learned about what’s going on politically.  Everyone in Nevada is excited about becoming an early Caucus State. We’ve come to be in the national spotlight.   The Democratic Convention is going to be in Reno.  Lucky her!!  When I moved here I registered as a Democrat and have since received a lot of solicitation mail and more recently a call to see if I’d like to volunteer as a Caucus Temporary Chair.  I accepted the offer.  To my surprise it opened doors to meet some interesting people and an opportunity to go to the CNN Democratic Debate.  It was last Thursday.  Just standing in line I met interesting people who are movers and shakers in their field of endeavor.  And got to sit next to a young woman who spent a number of years in DC working in the White House during the Clinton years and for others.  She was like a tour guide for the faces that paraded before us.  How lucky for me.  Unfortunately, my short memory prevents me from telling so many details.  But I remember that she was working in the same department as Monica Lewinski.  She said that she believed the President’s story ‘till the very end, but also that Monica probably had her own agenda in all of this.  Needless to say she was devastated to learn the truth.  She was also with the Richardson entourage at some point in her career.  She had lunch with Mrs. Richardson earlier in the day.  The woman behind me, a worker at the local Democratic headquarters was interviewed for two and a half hours by the Japanese CNN.  They came to her home, etc.   I’m beginning to sound like a groupie, but since I know so few people here, it’s good to get out and talk to folks who have something interesting to talk about.

 

Yesterday, I went to the Democratic Caucus Training session.  I will facilitate my precinct caucus.  It too was interesting and a new learning experience.  Caucus is an interesting process.  I guess it can get quite noisy during the  “candidate grouping” process where folks are urging each other to come to their group.  The numbers of supporters in each group determine the number of delegates for that candidate.   Someone did the math some time back that makes the process work fairly.  Not necessary to give details here.  It will be work buta lotof fun also.  Delegates go to another level and do the same thing, in the county, and then state and then to the Convention.  During each caucus, new delegates are chosen from their groups.  The end result should be a consensus for one or two candidates.

 

Between my art, Tenya teachings, getting back into insurance and now politics, I’m busy. 

Most important I’m going to be in Chicago for the Thanksgiving Holiday with my family and that will be the full circle I yearn for. 

Some new interests

Hello friends,  I haven't made an entry in a while.  I have a few balls in the air and I really don't know where they are going to land.  Besides making art and attempting to meet people involved in the arts, I am an alternate delegate for the coming Democratic Caucus (there, I declared myself) here in Nevada.  I haven't been involved in politics since I ran myself ragged at the Democratic convention in Chicago when Adlai Stevenson was running for President.  I was so devasted at that time that I said to myself, you know public, you deserve everything you're gonna get.  And boy have we.  Good and bad.

I'm also getting my feet wet in insurance sales again.  It's an opportunity I've been looking for.  But only time will tell with this one.  I really don't care like I used to and that may be the key to success.  And just the last couple of days presented an accidental possible opportunity.  A friend sent me an email and at her address site was this other site for shopping.  So curious that I am, I went there and if you know me, you probably got a note from me to visit that web site.  It will be very interesting to see where this ends up.  More about this later.  I'm heading out but thought I'd stay in touch.

 

More on Mold Damage

The end is near for completion of the kitchen.  Today the cabinets were installed.  I had an appointment with the counter people also.  I learned that I need a new sink because the old one was installed to go under tile while the new one has to be attached over the counter with a lip.  I ordered a spice rack to be attached to the door of a cabinet.  Installation included altering the shelves, so I abandoned that project. Today revealed another plaster job when all is complete.  New things don't always fit where old things are removed, yada yada, yada....

Prior to this awaited day, I had to have lots of work done.  See "Mold" in prior story.  I left the last job in the trusted hands of the person I hired to plaster and prepare walls for the painter.  I went out of town during the job.  I paid the man in advance, then he went out of town and I haven't heard from him.  I'm looking for a partial refund because he didn't finish his work.  My painter had to do sanding before painting.  So now I need that plasterer back.  Do you think he'll show up????

 

A Day to Remember Sept. 17, 2007

September is one of the busiest birthday months in my little circle. I just did the math and it seems that as soon as a baby is born someone in the family starts on another because June is the next busiest birthday month.  There is no truth to what I’m saying even if there is some logic to it.  It just seems that way.

 

In any event, I just returned from what will become a lasting memory for me and for those I love.  My sister, who shall remain nameless for the world because she can’t believe her age yet,  (her name begins with  J) is turning 70 this month and I couldn’t stand the idea that I wasn’t going to share and honor our seventy years together.  There are a number of legitimate reasons that I couldn’t go to Chicago.  Laura, her daughter, was cajoling me into using a buddy pass that she could obtain through her airline job.   I managed to rush to completion a major issue of  the construction process I’m dealing with. A window of time evolved when the family was going to be together for the holiday from which I could  escape from the workmen.

 

I told Laura.  She got right on it and checked all the possible flights out of Las Vegas.  She promised not to breathe a word to anyone about our plans.  Using a buddy pass means your travel standby, which doesn’t always get you to your destination in a timely manner. That could have botched our plans.   In fact I had to wait for the third, actually fourth, flight out to get to Chicago on time for the dinner. I arrived at the airport early enough to get on the flight that was scheduled before my scheduled ticket, but they had already rolled over about a dozen people.  Needless to say the hope of getting to Chicago was diminished by each departure that left without me. To make matters worse, I had the witch of the north to deal with at the counter.  She had the nerve, when I had a legitimate question, to put her closed sign up when I appeared in front of her after standing in line. From that insult I had the sense to go to another counter for information and advice.  It must be clear from the start that I arrived in good time and I’ll state here that the flight back to Las Vegas went flawlessly, first flight out.

 

By the time I deplaned we were sure to be a little late for dinner.  Laura picked me up.  While driving I suggested that she call to give some excuse for her tardiness.  She thought that would upset my sister more than the wait, finishing her reason with” she’ll call me if she’s worried”.  We were about two blocks from the house when Laura’s phone rang.  By then it was easy to say  “ almost at the door “.

 

For the entire preceding month the family was asking me to come in for the holiday and to be with my sister. I just couldn’t commit. They all gave up on me.  That helped to keep the surprise alive.  I had planned my entrance before I got to Chicago.  As we approached the house Laura gave me a sweater to put over my head and I slumped down so it didn’t look like another passenger was in the car just in case someone was looking out the window.  She went ahead which caused the focus of attention to be on her arrival.  After a minute I got out of the car and called my sister from my cell phone.  Because her attention was on getting everyone seated and served she was somewhat anxious to get off the phone.  I was relentless.  While talking I had already entered the house, luckily most everyone was on another level of the house and didn’t see me, I said to my sister, “well, I’m sorry you don’t have time for me” and by this time I’m right behind her and needless to say she almost passed out to see me there;  and as each person came up from the lower level, one at a time, they had the same surprise for themselves.  I never had so much fun or joy to see everyone’s face.  A day to remember. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sopranos Last Supper

If this text is written without a photo, it’s because I failed to figure out how to insert them.  In any event, the journal today is about the weekend.  How lucky to get a phone call from my friend, Elena inviting Jacques and I to The Sopranos’ Last Supper, an interactive dinner theatre.  I have photos of Tony and the gang, all of whom sat at our table from time to time.  It was lots of fun, with music, jokes, competition for a new inductee to the mob and interactive dancing.  Some of the characters behaved “out of character” or I should say “in character” in circumstances that were out of character.   Elena and I like to dance. There were several opportunities to dance without our non-dancing partners.  I danced with the Man himself, Tony, and Elena had a wonderful dance with Junior, the guy with the big black glasses, remember him.When in Vegas, especially if you are a Sopranos fan, you might enjoy taking in the show. .  It would have been an expensive evening if we had to pay for the tickets that Elena won at a convention gathering for travel agents.  So, you might want to check it out if it’s playing in your town.  They cut the dinner down to an anti pasta here in town.  It was good but I heard they originally offered a nice meal.  A fun night out. 

 

 

 

 

Prescription Drugs

 such ironies occur in my life that I can’t help write about them:

 

This was a headline this AM  and the story that follows was sent by a friend.

 

Prescription drug abuse grows in U.S.
September 06, 2007 07:12 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More young U.S. adults are abusing prescription medications, particularly painkillers, according to the government’s annual report on substance abuse released on Thursday. Full Article   > A lady walks into a drug store and tells the pharmacist she needs some cyanide.  > >   The pharmacist said, “Why in the world do you need Cyanide?” > >   The lady then explained she needed it to poison her husband.> >   The pharmacist’s eyes got big and he said, “Lord, have mercy—I can’t give you cyanide to kill your husband! That’s against the law! I’ll lose my license, they’ll throw both of us in jail and all kinds of bad things will happen! Absolutely not, you can NOT have any Cyanide?” > >   The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist’s wife. > >   The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, “You didn’t tell me you had a prescription

 

MOLD MADNESS

Mold Madness

 

If you're thinking of moving to Las Vegas, bring your electrician, plumber, carpenter and painter.  You never know when you’ll need them.  Surely nobody here wants to take responsibility to recommend one.  I’ve had so many no shows since I moved here that my plans now include making a second appt. for the same time slot.  I feel like an airline that double books.

 

Next to Death Valley and Phoenix, this has been the hottest place in the country this summer and it’s been relentless.  I don’t think we had a day under 100 for almost 40 days.  Very unusual.  But I’m off the subject.  Since the average humidity hovers somewhere between 5& 15 degrees one would think that mold could not be an issue in the Southwest.  If it could happen, it will happen to me.  And it did happen to me.  My condo was damaged by mold from the abandoned apartment next door that got flooded.  Months later my place is still torn apart, with a tenant living there.  I need an entire new kitchen due to someone else’s neglect.

 

Why, you must be thinking is she talking about this?  It’s a reminder to see if you have mold insurance.  If mold is ever found in property you want to sell, forget it!  This is in addition to the dangerous health hazard that is claimed to exist by all experts involved.  Understand your home owners insurance policy.  Floods, water and mold are all different.  But really, I just have to get it off my chest. 

 

It’s facinating, the reporting, demolition and clean-up process that precedes rebuilding.  The first line of defense is these guys in space suits.  They are followed by a team of real suited guys with clipboards, cameras and measuring tapes.  They all file detailed reports including photos of the meters that they bring showing the reading on the dials before and after the clean-up.  The affected area is sealed off with heavy duty plastic where they can create a vacuum with this huge machine to keep the mold contained and for the final mold test.  The doorway is formed by a floor to ceiling zipper.  The good thing is that they leave it for the reconstruction that creates an inordinate amount of dust due to new dry wall and sanding.

 

Did I mention the cost?  You don’t want to know.

 

The apatment next door was completely gutted so my poor tenant was living with openings to both places until I hired a carpenter to put up wall board to at least seal off the two places. I am now ready for the following steps.  Not one of these people was my original line of defense, so you can take it from there.

1.      Getting a cabinet guy (oye vey)!!!  Ended up at Lowes and are they wonderful.  Who knew it could be so easy.  The guy I was going to hire was supposed to get back to me a week ago so that I could give him a deposit.  I took it as a bad sign when he didn’t. After a few days I went to Lowes. I also interviewed a carpenter who was going to use the old stuff and put things back to its original shape.  The cost was so high it was better to start  with all new cabinets. 

2.      Need more demolition, remove all top cabinets before final repairs. Need a demolition and hauling crew.

3.      Hired a Taper, he tapes the wallboard that the carpenter I hired earlier installed. He also has to texturize the walls that have to be repainted.

4.      I hired a painter who will follow these guys and get the place ready for cabinets.

5.      Cabinets get delivered one day and installed another.

6.      Then the estimator comes to measure for the new counter top.

7.      New counter gets installed

8.      Hire a plumber to hook up all the utilities in the kitchen.

 

And there you have it folks, as easy as pie...and did I tell you this costs a lot, a lot of money. (I know I did)  This all started mid-April.  And did I tell you I’m fighting with the condo board because of their negligence that caused all this in the first place.  And did I tell you I’m being committed in a few days??? Huh, did I tell you??

 

LABOR DAY

 

LABOR DAY CELEBRATION

Today was celebrated in the usual fashion.  I  prepared a dish to bring to the barbque party being held at a friends’ home.  Not to make you jealous for those of you who love my cole slaw, but that’s what I brought to the party.  The crowd was diversified between relatives, friends and their children. There were teachers, musicians who work at various careers, a woman from New York who has my former career in financial services and a couple of us retirees who were able to bring our pasts up to date for the crowd.  As the party dwindled I found myself in the midst of the musicians.  They  think so much like those of us in the visual arts. The very work that brings so much satisfaction to our lives is such a struggle to hold onto while earning a living at something else.   I was thinking about the day now that I’m home and how the conversations wandered.  I came to the conclusion that we actually honored the very reason we were together today, Labor day.  We talked a lot about work.  While we talked about music a little, someone brought up the subject of a film that was made about Wal Mart.  It seems a great number of people who are regular shoppers are troubled by the reputation being portrayed of Wal Mart.  Their plan is to boycott Wal Mart for their evil and greedy practices as was portryed in the film.  As the conversation deepened we discussed how the company behavior affects workers on every level.  We talked about the people who work for pennies in foreign lands and about how the low paid workers here in this country struggle to survive and how many people will loose jobs if the company looses money.  While I don’t pay a lot of attention to corporate news, I’m aware of a number of stories regarding changes in Wal Mart’s practices and found myself defending some the accusations, which, after questioning, discovered the film is a couple of years old by now.  We all agreed on one thing.  Sam Walton probably had his heart in the right place when he dreamed up and started Wal Martbut somehow since his death the corporate entity took a turn to the greedy side.  Personally, I think Wal Mart is trying to make amends but it sounds like the dyke is leaking in too many places to placate the new rebels. Today we talked about our work as well as concerns  for low paidwage earners here and abroad.  We even discussed unions.  As far as I’m concerned Labor Day was honored at our party.

 

Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL.com.

 

God Is

Saturday, September 1, 2007

GOD IS

 

My experience learning from Tenya:  (A personal view of my understanding)

 

 Hashem (God) Is...(Quite a unique thought from me, wouldn’t you say?).

 

In the few weeks of Chabad teachings for me to date has been the  reality of the  awesomness of Hashem and minuteness of our reality compared to that of  Hashem (God).  Today we approached the essence of faith.  Now explain this.  Last night, the night before my Sat. AM session today,  I watched a TV special about Atheism.

  A portion of the show took place with a scientist’s explantion of evolution.  He was asked about how and why birds got feathers.  After explaning his bottom up theory of evolution (it didn’t take thousands of years for birds to get feathers), which means there weren’t bumps that over time grew into feathers after many

conversations between the cells, he said ‘YOU HAVE TO HAVE FAITH’ (in the theory).  That was the most surprising answer I’ve heard from a scientist.  From what I understand, with my limited knowledge of these things, all of theoretic science is based on the faith that the theorist is correct.  And what I’m learning is that there is no language for "what is God".

Language is the diminished reality (given by God) that we possess in order to express our reality and/or the esoteric thought(s) that we describe as intelligence.

This is exhauting.  I need to rest.

 

 

The Titanic

As an adendum:  Only one piece is my work, there were three prizes, I won second prize and the eight pieces will be on display in the lobby of the exhibition for a couple of months.  So, anyone coming to Vegas may want to pay it a visit. 

The Art Competition sponsored by The Titanic Artifact Exhibition, (use slider to view show)