Gunny Walker

  What is exactly the expiration date on a jar of Mt Olive sweet gherkins? I wonder this as I rummage through the fridge. There is no evident expiration date. I had better finish it off before it's much later. So as I finish off a package of post mortem pickles, I leave you with a quote from the The Simpsons which I am currently enjoying. It's the prayer from the episode titled "Bart Gets An F." Bart has one last chance to pass the fourth grade. Having squandered all his previous chances to pull himself out of his predicament, he turns to what Lisa dubs the last refuge of a scoundrel, prayer.

  Well, old-timer, I guess this is the end of the road. I know I haven't always been a good kid, but if I have to go to school tomorrow, I'll fail the test and be held back. I just need one more day to study, Lord. I need Your help...
  A teacher's strike, a power failure, a blizzard. Anything that'll cancel school tomorrow. I know it's asking a lot, but if anyone can do it, You can.
  Thanking You in advance, Your pal, Bart Simpson

  I love that scene. That's what prayer should be like in my opinion. It should be a close and personal one on one with God. You should be able to talk in prayer like you do outside of prayer. Even if that means cussing from time to time.
  There are those that would say that's wrong. There are those that say I should humble myself before God, but in my opinion, just asking for help is humble. If I weren't being humble, I'd claim that I could do it all myself.
  There are those that would claim that views like that are wrong, but they can just keep their opinions to themselves. After all, sometimes I need to remind the old man that I am "trying to get my crap together" even though I do make some major blunders almost on a weekly basis.

  All right just in case you were curious, here's what took place in court the other day. I went to court to evict the folks living in the house that I bought at the tax auction last year. The previous owner's one year chance at redemption expired at the end of February.
  So I appeared in court Wednesday and they performed the roll call at 8:45 am. My lawyer and their lawyer answered for us. Then the judge called a recess. This gives the lawyers a chance to talk to each other and possibly reach a settlement. Well, it also gave us a chance to meet in the lawyer's quarters.
  So it turns out that the previous owners have a date in federal bankruptcy court. It's going to be June 13th. The judge delayed our court date to June 14th. So now I have two court dates to attend.
  The judge kept saying in her chambers that she can't believe that finally decided to protest the sale a year and a half after it happened. She can't figure out why it took so long.
  Their lawyer claims that they knew nothing about it. Their lawyer also claims that the county had no right to sell the property. Of course, my lawyer has yet to see any evidence for their side. I don't understand it. I would gladly send any documents to the other side that would make winning a case a slam dunk. They might back out. Then I don't have to wake up early to go to court. It just seems obvious to me. (Mainly because that's what the other side tried to do the last time I went to court on a different property.)
  So I guess I have two more court dates to attend now. I guess I have a couple more weeks to wait. This was the sort of thing I expected when I got into these tax auctions. They will be a lot of headache, but if I can pull them off, they will be worth it.

  Who says George Lucas can't write anymore? I went to see Revenge of The Sith Sunday and greatly enjoyed it. It was pretty exciting. Not so much for the saber play, but more for the drama.
  Of course, I am having fun with one of the guys that I work with that have not seen it yet.
  My favorite scene? It's the one where Windu, Yoda, and Kenobi try to arrest palpatine. Then Anakin sneeks up behind them and stabs Windu in the back. Then it's a fight between Palpatine/Anakin and Yoda/Kenobi. Padme picks Windu's light saber to attack Anakin. Anakin uses "forces" C-3PO to attack Padme and blows his circuits. (That's why he doesn't recognize Vader in episode 4.) Padme is killed and Anakin and Palpatine get away. Yoda is forced to do a post mortem C-section and deliver the twins.
  Also, I really liked the scene where Dooku gets his.
  I hope that I didn't spoil the plot for you. I look forward to getting it on DVD.

  So I went to the auction yesterday. I didn't get anything though. One of the properties never made it. So that only left two. The one on Miller Street in Christiana went for four thousand dollars. Too bad that they are going to find out that they bought a house that a on which a tree has fallen. It's not even an acre of land.
  The property on Ventura Court went for 7200 dollars. That's more money than I had to spend. I have to save my money for my current property as well.
  My friend Ken showed up. We went and had some pizza and talked about what was going on at Wal-Mart. I told him what I was doing in the new job and what was going on with the house in Nashville.
  The lawyer called me while I was away. He left a message which I didn't notice. I then went to work. He called back and left another message. It turns out that my court date has been moved to Wednesday at the request of the other side. I guess it's the same time and place. I'll have to call on Monday and find out.

  I just got done watching Soylent Green. The movie has not held up well. Or maybe it's the fact that the whole plot has been ruined. In case you didn't know, Soylent Green is people! This movie strikes me as a movie that stands to be remade. Of course, if it were remade today, the whole "furniture" aspect would be removed. It seems that in the future, if you are rich enough to have an apartment, it comes with a girl. (I'm sure that it could come with guy if you wanted one.) In return, the "furniture" gets a place to place to stay and a pretty easy life instead of fighting it's way on the streets.
  It's actually a pretty revolutionary thing to show during the period of women's liberation.
  I was talking with a co-worker the other day about all the movies that I have been renting. I said that I had never seen a lot of those movies like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He said that he didn't get into political films. Of course, they hadn't heard about Super Size Me until last night and if you like comedies then they recommend you will love Dodgeball and Waterboy.
  I just wish that more people watched more movies that made you think instead of dumbing you down. Don't get wrong. I like Holy Grail as much as the next guy, but you've got to think every once in a while.
  Anyway, later folks. I'm going to look at the properties in Friday's auction.

Did you ever have questions that you couldn't get answers for? That's why I look forward to the cool, sweet embrace of death. (So that God can answer them. Not that I actually want to hurry death in any way.)

• If cleanliness is next Godliness why did God make the Earth out of dirt? Wouldn't an easy to clean surface such as linoleum be better?
  
• What's up with the platypus?
  
• And flightless birds?
  
• Why are bodily functions so funny?
  
• Why do babies have such big heads?
  
• If gravity works so well, why do trees need so many roots?
  
• Why can't we seem to domesticate cats?
  
• Why is homosexuality still an abomination, but usury is good now?
  
• Why did it take us so long to discover zeros? Or inertia?

  I just rented Star Wars - Clone Wars, Vol. 1 from Netflix and am very confused.
  Who is Sifo-Dyas?
  Why can the Jedi not tell who the sith master is? Even though they see him all the time.
  Why do half of the Jedi not understand that "bring balance to the force" means their own death?
  Why does C-3PO never seem to make the connection that Vader and Ani Skywalker are the same person? Why does Vader never seem recognize C-3PO or R2-D2?
  If the banking clan backs the rebels, why are they all broke by episode four?
  How do you build a ship the size of the Death Star and not have any one know about it?
  When Vader tells Luke that together they can beat Palpatine, does he see his own destruction?
  What the heck happens when Obi Wan disappears? Is he dead?
  Why in episode one do the Jedi say that they can not fight a war, but by episode two, they are doing just that?
  I hope that when episode three comes out, they answer these questions and tie up all the loose ends. When will Lucas learn that people want every nuance of the film explained. We want everything to be explained to us, repeatedly. It's what you must do to make your movie a hit. It's the only way to be sure.
  Also I don't understand why when transmitting a message from Kamino, Obi Wan said, "R4, Scramble code five to Coruscant care of the old folks' home!"
  What's the bit about the old folk's home mean? (Seriously, the rest of this post is just sarcasm.)

  I went to go see a new lawyer yesterday. I was half asleep since I actually only got four hours of sleep before I went. I just got a couple of vids from Netflix and foolishly stayed up to watch one of them. Anyway, he thinks that I should be able to get a court date set up to evict these folks in a couple of weeks.
  This weekend's big project is to get my suit cleaned.
  Anyway, we were talking and then he kept bringing up the cost. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I even said, "Oh, guess you want some money then! Let me get my checkbook."
  I'm watching the account to watch it clear, then I'll give him a couple of days to hear back from him.
  I was waiting for something to do at work day before yesterday, when I heard the boss talking to one of the bosses at the other warehouse. He said something about us all being on one shift. When he got off the phone, I asked him what he was talking about. The plan is that we go to first shift in August. That's no good. I want to work second shift so that I can buy properties.
  Then they started talking about buying properties at tax auctions. I told my boss when we were alone that is what I am doing. (When I discussed it at the time, I didn't mention how I had bought my property.) Of course, the upsetting thing is that my boss said that he knows a guy who does the same thing. He makes several hundreds of thousands a year. The thing that annoys me is, that if you know it works, and you know it works well, why doesn't he do it?
  I can understand people watching me not doing it. I've not been overly successful. I've had a lot of bumps in the road, but if I could pull it off and make an extremely good living at it, then why would people not want to do it with me?

Went to work the new job last night. I got as dirty as home-made sin, but still enjoyed myself. It's a warehouse that holds stuff for new stores, fixtures, displays, shopping carts. I got to drive a pallet rider and will eventually get to drive a reach truck. We finished work in the first half of the night and then pretty much goofed off the second half. I guess that's why this job doesn't pay as well.
  Of course, I'm getting skills. I could do this for six months and then go get a job that's willing to pay me better for those skills.
  I'm still kind of sore this morning though. There was some manual labor. Of course, I haven't really done any manual labor in six months.
  The craziest thing was stacking shopping carts. When we ran out of trucks to load, our boss said that me and another guy were to stack shopping carts. We take six CVS carts and then stand them up on end. Two stacks per pallet. We band them. (Banding is new to me as well.) We shrink wrap them. It took a couple of hours to do ten pallets.
  The guy that I was working with asked me how Wal-mart did it. I said that we just pushed them on the truck, put a board on top of those, and then pushed a second layer onto the truck. He said that while a Wal-Mart will use that many carts, A CVS is more likely to have 12. I guess he has a point there. Of course, compared to the Wal-Mart carts, CVS carts are just so darned cute.
  If you are at CVS and need a cart something is wrong. I will allow a basket. Unless you are one of those people that need something to lean on when they go around. Of course, in that case you should probably quit being so cheap and get a walker. If you need it at CVS, then you probably need it at other places as well.
  I learned something new today. It's called "Rule 2520." It states that if you are going to day trade in stocks then you need to have $25,000 in your account. I tried day trading for a couple of days, and today I was notified of "Rule 2520." If I can not meet the minimum requirements of $25,000 then I will lose my margin privileges and may even not be allowed to make any trades at all. Oh well, I'll have to see what happens. Until then, I think that I might buy Dell.

  I'm getting really tired of this. I called the lawyer again today. He was in meetings until noon. His secretary said he would call me back after lunch. I sat and waited. No answer came. I'm tired of this crap. I'm calling around to some Nashville lawyers tomorrow. Well, tomorrow afternoon. I've got stuff to do in the morning. I'm going to take a leak in a cup.
  Woods Personnel called today with a job. It doesn't pay what I want, but it is a second shift job. It starts at three in the afternoon. That's good enough for me to take care of my property and watch the market.
  Speaking of the stock market, I tried day trading Southwest. Of course, right before a really good move came to me, AOL decides that it's going to kick me off. I don't manage to get online for about 25 minutes. It could be my computer causing the problem but I doubt it. It booted me off just as some really big news came across TV, I thought, "Crap, I need to switch sides." I laid down my cards with which I was playing solitaire. I heard my modem click and then I knew that I had lost connection.
  May be it's time that I get off of this crappy dial-up.
  I don't know if you noticed today's date. It's one of those once in a lifetime events. (Well, other than one of my favorite holidays.)

  Was talking to Kelly yesterday. Kelly's worked at Sam's Club for years. He says that he works with a guy that invests in the stock market. He makes a lot of money. Of course, he's pretty excited about it. He says that he would love to be able to do what that guy does. Of course, Kelly has never tried to figure out what the guy is doing.
  Then Kelly says that he is wanting to build himself a barn and go to the cattle auction and buy some more horses and expand his Nascar room. Of course, the thing is that Kelly knows this guy. This guy makes pretty good money. Kelly should be picking his brain to figure out what to do next. Of course, he isn't.
  Kelly needs to get a computer first. Kelly wants to get some goats. Kelly wants to do this and that, but never winds up doing anything about it. It pisses me off.
  On a similar note, I've got to call my lawyer. He was supposed to be helping me with this house that I bought. I went to see him a month ago and didn't hear anything back. I called him last week. He said that he had forgotten about me. Okay, at least he is honest about it. He said that he would call me day before yesterday, but I have yet to hear from him. I guess that I will need to be going to get my papers from the sheriff for myself. Then I guess I can sit down and have him help me figure out what to do.
  Sorry, I'm just sitting here eating breakfast giving myself a pep talk.
  The best bit of advice I ever got was from my brother. It was October of 2001. I wish that I had thought more about what was going on around me. I had just read Rich Dad, Poor Dad or Richest Man in Babylon (They are both pretty much the same book.) and was telling him how I was going to open an account with a brokerage company. I was going to do it, but first I was wanting to change banks and then read some more books and find a good company to invest in.
  My brother then said to me. "Stop. Right now. What are you waiting on? You'll always have something to wait on. Do it now. Right now."
  And then it hit me that he was right. I did it. I drove to Scottrade on my next day off an deposited my first 500 bucks. One day, I'll go into further detail about the first stock I ever bought.
  Anyway, I'm just sitting here eating my breakfast. I'd figure that I'd put something in. I'm going to call my lawyer and tell him that I am going to the sheriff to get the paperwork myself. Forget all this waiting for them to mail it for me. Then I'll make an appointment for him to help me fill them out.
  I've waited long enough for this house to get taken care of. Now it's time to take care of business. I should have been planning to sell this place by now.

  Interviews suck.
  "Have you ever had problems working with others? And if so, how did you deal with it?"
  "Well, generally if I have a problem with some one, then I try to stay away from them."
  That's not a good answer. I should not ever have a problem with others, but folks, I worked at Wal-Mart for ten years. I've seen a lot. I mean a lot. I've seen fist fights where nobody was fired. I've seen people walk out where they were welcomed back with open arms. I've seen people that should have been fired in a moments notice that got away with it. Let me give you the choicest phrase I have ever heard at Wal-Mart.
  "Red on the noodle like a doodle on a poodle."
  It was used to describe a redhead that I worked with. It was used quite frequently even though it annoyed her. Now if comparing your hair to a dog's dick, isn't enough to get you fired, I'm not sure what is. Of course, they never got fired.
  How about intentional damage of company property? How about showing up to work drunk? How about hundreds of other incidents that I can't list here.
  Of course, I got upset during the interview. I may have blown it, but I guess that's just the way that I am. If you see some one being an asshole and you do nothing about it, even if it's just speak out against it, then you become an asshole.
  I'm sorry for the strong language here, but I feel pretty strongly about this stuff. (And in case you want to know. I've seen all these incidents at Wal-mart and no one was fired for them.)