Fading Summer

August kinda snuck up on me this year. Usually we take a little vacation in July and get out of town. But this year we are having to cut back – like most everybody I know. So we stayed around here all through July and just went to the pool when we needed to take a break.

I’m calling ADT Home Security

I couldn’t believe it when my landlord told me that there have been 4 break-ins this past week in 4 houses on these two city blocks that I consider my neighborhood.  This is a good neighborhood too – upscale, nice cars, yards kept mowed and clean.  That’s the last thing I expected to hear from them.

I asked them if they would mind if I called ADT and has them come out to my house.  They asked me what ADT was.  I thought everyone knew them but I guess older people don’t pay much attention to things like that.  I explained that ADT Home Security was the best home security company in the country.  It’s all over the United States.

Not only do they monitor your home 24 hours a day but they do it 7 days a week so you don’t have to worry if your home or not.  You know your home will be protected.  The best part is they’re not expensive like some companies.  The price starts at just $35.99 and that’s not bad for an ADT Alarm system.  The whole system is wireless and very easy to use too.  They were afraid it would be so complicated that they might trip the alarm themselves.  Once I finished talking to them about it, they said they would have the security system put in both of our houses and pay the bill for the monthly monitoring themselves.  They are great people.

I sent Mom a gift card

I talked with Breanna a lot about my mother and my whole family in all reality and she helped me to understand a bit more.  I decided to send my mother a gift card.  I wrote her a note to go with it telling her that I wanted her to use the money on this gift card to do something special for herself like having her nails done or getting a new hairdo.  I wanted her to feel special for a change because my father was the one that kept her down in all reality.  It wasn’t that she wasn’t a good mother, it was that he wanted to control everything and she didn’t have the chance to be herself.  I don’t really want to talk about it anymore.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO YOU!!!!

Mothers Day is Sunday and I have mixed feelings

I read a poem someone wrote about being a Mom and it was really good but the only problem is, it didn’t sound like my mother at all.  My mother was not what you would call a ‘good mother’ but she is my mother.  Without her, I would not be here and for that, I do thank her but do you know how hard it is to find a Mothers Day card for a mother like that?

They really need to have Mothers Day cards that say something along the lines of “I know you think you did your best but maybe you should have tried harder.”  I bet they would sell a bunch of cards like that.  I don’t now.  I can’t find a card that says what I feel so maybe I should just write her a nice little note telling her thank you for having me or something like that.  I do love my mother but I’m not so sure about how I love her.  Does that make any sense to anyone else?

Needed a plumber………bad!!!

I got up this morning to find that my bathroom was flooded.  I called my landlord and they told me to call a plumber.  I thought they would do that since they know more about stuff like that than I do but they told me to do it.  Well the only thing I knew to do was to look on the Internet for a plumber in this area.  They have a lot more information about plumbers online than they offer in the yellow pages.

Luckily I found a plumber that was in good standings with the Better Business Bureau, gave them a call and they were here in about 20 minutes.  I had them give my landlord the estimate on what it would cost to repair the leak in the pipes under my sink and they had him to go ahead and fix the problem.  Luckily there wasn’t much water damage to the floors since I had put in ceramic tile but I might have to take the dry wall out and replace some of that but I can do that myself now.

Breanna makes want to be a better person

Just knowing her and seeing how warm and gentle she is with everyone makes me want to be a better person.  A friend of mine sent me an email that really hit home with me.  It really made me stop and think and try to see who others see me as and if I see myself the same way.  Here’s what she sent:

We judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions.

Yes, you meant to help someone with a project, you intended to give charity, you were planning on inviting your friends over for dinner, but if you didn’t do it, in their minds you had no intention, and you are judged as such. So start correcting this error. If you intend to do something – DO IT. Don’t procrastinate, don’t delay. Stop making excuses. You want to improve yourself, get out of your own way.

Now find someone you completely trust, who has your interest at heart and who can give you constructive criticism. It is often better for a friend to be this person than a spouse. And tell the person to try to remove personal bias (of how you may have hurt them or been inconsiderate). It has to be coming from a place of true concern for you. Ask them to let you know how they see you. Start with one area. Don’t take on your whole life at one time.

What you may realize is that you may not be perceived the way you perceive yourself. So work on correcting the balance and you will immediately feel more content and balanced inside. You can start changing your life for the better by starting to Think, Act and Speak differently!

It’s funny how my friend sent me this when I had already been thinking about the person I am verses the person I want to be.  It’s something each and everyone of us should do from time to time.  Take a good long hard look in the mirror and really try and see who you are and not just who you think you are.  It’s not easy either but I’m trying to be a better ‘Me’.

Work is slowing down

The economy is starting to affect the company I work for now.  Work is really slowing down.  There aren’t as many new home constructions or commercial construction going on either.  Housing prices are dropping every day it seems where people are trying to sell their houses instead of losing them to foreclosures.  I feel so sorry for those people that have worked so hard to have something to watch it all crumble away.

They have been talking about maybe having to start laying some people off at work.  I’m not the last guy hired but I’m not on top either.  I think there are just three other guys that were hired under me that do basically what I do so hopefully none of us will get laid off but if there is a lay off, I just hope and pray one of them is not me!

Breanna brought me a house warming gift

Since I didn’t have anything but mini-blinds on my windows, Breanna went out and bought some curtain toppers (I think is what she called them) to top the windows off with.  Man did that really make the rooms look great too.  They’re a hunter green color and they really make the room look better.  I don’t know anything about stuff like that but I’m glad she does.

When I lived at home, we were lucky to have mini-blinds on our windows.  In fact, there were blankets or sheets on most of our windows.  I have never lived in as nice a place as this before.  It feels good too.  Especially when I can sit back and see what I have done to make it look the way it does.  I’m rather proud of what I have done.  Now I just have to get the nasty carpet out of the bedroom and put down the wood floors in it too.  If I can find a big enough piece of carpet that’s a decent color, I might put carpet in it.  I don’t know.  I kind of like the wood floors.  They look cleaner and I have found out I like a clean house since I never had one before.

The floors look great if I do say so myself

What a difference the laminate wood floors have made in the living room and dining area.  The floors look great if I do say so myself.  The whole area looks twice as big and smells ten times better too.  It’s really starting to look like someone actually lives here instead of just staying here.  Do you know what I mean?

I just need to go to some of the thrift shops and find some pictures to put on the walls and it will look nice.  Breanna came over and helped me to finish the floors.  She’s a hard worker too.  She was a lot of help I must say.  She even fixed us dinner while I was putting down the quarter round around the baseboards.  That just topped everything off.  After we ate, she helped me to get the furniture back in and helped me place it better than I had it.  Leave it to a woman to know how to make things look better.

Almost finished with the floor

The worst part of this job was getting the old carpet out.  What a mess.  There had obviously been a dog in here that had used the carpet as it’s potty.  I had to scrub the floor really good and make sure there was no odor from the dog before I put the other flooring down.  Have you ever tried OdoBan?  That stuff works great.  It smells good too.  Go to cleancontrol.com if you haven’t heard of it or are interested in where to get it.

My landlord took the old carpet away for me.  I had no idea what to do with it other than to take it to work with me and put it in one of the dumpsters but luckily, they took care of it.  The rest of the day was spent putting down the under pad and the laminate floor.  They even let me borrow some of the tools I would need from work to do the job.  That sure helped a great deal.  I didn’t have the right kind of saw.  I needed one that would sort of lay down on the wood when it cut it and would also be able to cut angles.  It made the job go a lot quicker to have the right tools.  They even let me borrow a small air compressor (I have got to get one for myself because they sure are handy) and an air hammer to put down the molding.

I started at the end where the ceramic tile is in the kitchen.  It matched height wise perfectly.  I was afraid it wouldn’t but it does and now there’s no lip going into the kitchen.  The color of the wood is perfect too.  It’s a light color and really makes the room look a lot bigger.  The carpet was a dark green.  I didn’t like it at all.  It was stained, and now I know what some of the stains were, it was ripped in one corner and it was ugly.  Well it won’t be ugly much longer.  I’ll have it totally finished tomorrow.

Oh, this is what a gallon bottle of OdoBan looks like and you can get it at Wal-Mart.  Trust me, it really works at getting rid of any odor you have. I haven’t found one it won’t get rid of yet anyway.