The Jerry Springer Show

Hello my friends - Sorry I've been away. Things have been so busy around our household and I've not been able to do any posts. I've visited a few of you, but it's been very brief.

I think I've mentioned before that I manage two self-storage facilities along with helping out in a commercial construction office.  My main office is at the storage facility, and when you come in I am sitting in my office behind my desk.  I have a window with bars in it so I can talk to my customers in a bit of safety. They may not can reach me, but they sure could shoot me. I just try not to think about that. Well, I've been there nearly 8 years now, and I'm still okay.

Picture me, working at my computer, and in comes a customer.  Now, I'm not going to make fun of this lady, but I'm just going to tell you  exactly what happened on Friday afternoon. I'm just statin' facts and descriptions and my reactions here, K?  I felt like I was on the Jerry Springer Show!

Well, this lady came in - I say lady loosely - you know the emails that go around with the pictures of the Walmart people in them?  Well, this lady had to be an escapee from the video.  Probably about my age, but with long stringy dyed dark brown hair, very strange make-up, tight britches that looked like she had two pigs in a poke, lunch spilled all down the front of her shirt and chattering away on her cell phone.  Anyway, she wanted to check on an account that her live-in boyfriend had taken up with us about 3 years ago.  It was way past due and she wanted to make sure that we hadn't sold their stuff yet. I told her no, but that she'd have to get it all paid up before the next foreclosure sale or it would go into the sale. 

Then she freaked.  She started ranting and raving and telling me that all she owned was in the storage unit. That she was now living with her uncle and renting a room from him, cuz she was on Social Security and so was her boyfriend in Kansas.  I got a long drawn out sob story about how their account had gotten so far behind.  She was having a hard time talking and she kept putting her hand up to her mouth. Going on and on about her boyfriend had moved to Kansas to be near his kids cuz his ex-wife had moved up there to live with her l*sbian l*ver and she had custody of the kids, blah, blah, blah.

She's still messin' with her mouth.  All of a sudden, she shoves several fingers with dirty nails in her mouth and whoops her bottom dentures out and slams 'em down on my window sill above my desk!!!!!  Complete with spit string from her gums!!!  On the window sill where every body and their dog puts their hands, their keys, their purses, wallets, and money is passed over that sill many times a day!!!

"I hope that don't gross you out - I just got this new teeth and they don't fit right and I cain't hardly talk with 'em in", she said.  I didn't know what to say.  I just sat there like a complete goose while she kept rattling on and on.  In my 8 years there, I cannot believe what I'm seeing.   That's the weirdest and grossest thing that's ever happened up there at my office.  I'm flabbergasted.  Gross! Yuck! EEEWWWWWW!  I just don't have the words for it.

When she quit yappin', she picked up those nasty teeth and shoved 'em back into her mouth, germs and all.  I cain't tell you what all she said - it ain't fittin', it just ain't fittin'.  As soon as her tail was out the door, I jumped up and ran to the bathroom for my Lysol bleach cleaner and scrubbed the little pool of slobber off my windowsill BUT good.  Now, aren't you glad you stopped by my blog today?

Adam will be home in a few days for a few days. I'll be so glad to see him. He's been gone since Christmas and it's been way too long for this mama not to see her boy. My husband and a friend of his are going to take my 2 boys and the other guy's son to Arkansas on a fishin' trip next week.  I know they'll have fun. I plan on working on my garden, OR I may go see my seester for a couple of days.  We need to catch up! And bug my brother in law.  He's so fun to bug and embarrass!

I'm leaving you with a couple of pictures that have absolutely nothing to do with this post. But people like to look at pictures - I know I do - so here's a couple of big fellas that live down the road from the farm. I hope to have a couple of these guys on my place sometime. They're so... so... so TEXAS!

Keep that gown down!  See ya later ---

The Lord's Prayer

 (DISCLAIMER) This picture has nothing to do at all with my post...

http://god-gives-us-strength.blogspot.com/2009/12/lords-prayer.html

If you've never heard Andrea Bocelli sing The Lord's Prayer, you have to go listen to this. He sings with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir ~~~ Pretty heavenly!

Sorry I've been MIA the last few days. My mother in law has not been feeling well, and now she's in the hospital with severe anemia. Please keep her in your prayers.

I've been working my tail off this week, too, trying to get ready for a foreclosure sale of all the tenants who are not paying their storage rents (I manage 2 self-storage facilities).  Recession even hits self-storage! We usually stay about 95-98% full, but our numbers are down and the number of foreclosures is UP.  I hate to see people lose their stuff cuz they can't pay, but I tend to be a softy, and try to work with people to help them get caught up, and I usually wind up losing money on them. 

I've learned to be tough. I've been working here for 7 1/2 years and I've heard it all.  I've always been so gullible & always believed everything people told me (still do), but I've had to become a bit cynical.  Looking back, there have actually been very few people that have had extenuating circumstances that they couldn't pay.  I've always believed the best in people and believed all the hard luck stories, but this is a business and we are not running a charity here. If you can afford nice cars, gold teeth, diamonds on your acrylic nails, designer purses, and bling-bling on your state of the art cellphones - you can afford to pay your self-storage bill.

There have been a few times that I've had a person die, or someone has gone to the hospital, or something like that and I've tried very hard to work with that person or their family and help them get caught up and move out.  Most people, unfortunately, give me the runaround and self-storage is way down on their list of priorities & bills to pay.

It seems that the people who can least afford self-storage are the ones who wind up getting it. Yes, there are good reasons for self-storage - , divorce, when you're building a house and need a place to stash your stuff, of course moving, putting a loved one in a nursing home and needing storage until you decide what to do with their things.  I've even had a couple of people go to jail and leave their things in storage while they're incarcerated. Oh yeah, I've got a couple of people in the armed services that leave their belongings here while they're being deployed. But for the most part, people think they can just get a storage unit and keep extra "stuff" in it, and they get behind ONE month, and never catch up.  And they come in here and give me some cockamamie hard-luck story that I'm supposed to believe.

I've heard EVERYTHING why people need a storage.  I've had a couple of women that came here running away from abusive situations at home with their children and they don't want their husband/boyfriend to know they've got a storage (which is against the law for me to disclose that anyway). I've had people come in here to my office crying. It's really sad.  I try to help as best as I can. I feel like I'm a counselor sometimes because people are running away or bereaved & I guess I have a friendly face.

It's been interesting to say the least. I have a huge dumpster outside on the parking lot that I check regularly to see what people are throwing away.  You wouldn't believe what I've seen. I have to make sure there are no chemicals, tires, paint, etc., in there.  But people throw away some great stuff.  I got an old antique floor lamp out of there to put in the farmhouse, had the wiring checked and found an old shade with little dingle-dangles on it at a garage sale for it.  I found an antique accordian in the trash AND an old silver plated clarinet.  I also found an old oil painting print of a big red barn and horse and buggy that I re-framed and put in  my bedroom at the farmhouse. All for free!

I'm always digging old books out and just this week somebody put a bunch of old tin plates with flowerdy designs that I've never seen before.  There were some old pitcher crocks and a beautiful old vintage green and pink cookie jar that somebody dropped in there and it was broken into about 5 pieces. Made me so MAD!!!  I wanted it bad. But it was too far gone.  I also found some pretty little green and yellow square ceramic salad plates (I guess) that were really old, too.

The funniest thing was one time when this couple got a divorce, and the wife dumped all her husband's small tools and electic tools into the trash cuz she was mad at him.  I dug an electric sander and a whole bunch of other small tools and packages of sandpaper & other carpentry stuff, etc., and took them  home to my husband.  Two decent lawn chairs, ummmm, let me see....Oh yeah - one time I had to cut a lock on a storage that we were about to foreclose on, and when I opened up the door, there was a lifesize Elvis Presley dummy in there - standing up!  Scared the pee-diddle out of me!

Oh, and you should see what goes on sale at a foreclosure sale - if you've never been to a storage foreclosure sale, you should check it out.  They're published in the newspaper usually in the public notice section.  Sometimes you can get some NICE stuff CHEAP! We sell the entire contents of a storage for one price.  They can be broken down, but it's too time consuming.  I've got my eye on one of the storages here that's got two beautiful leather couches and a nice sized generator in it.  I imagine the people will redeem their property and come pay their past due account but Man, wouldn't that be nice!  Sometimes it's just junk but you never know.  One man  said a friend of his bought a storage unit at a FC sale and when he went through everything he found an antique brooch that he sold for $10,000.  It had genuine diamonds and gemstones in it.  People will use their storages to hide stuff that they don't want anyone to find - like a few thousand dollars that somebody hid in a dresser. OR, a body that somebody hid in a plastic garbage can and duck-taped the lid on. (that wasn't at MY storage)

Ok, there you have the skinny on the self-storage industry.  I have an office that has bars across the customer window.  I guess I'm safe enough but I don't wear jewelry  cuz you just never know what kind of people are gonna come in here. Well, I guess that's all for today. I'll be scant around this weekend - I'm sure we'll be spending lots of time at the hospital. So ya'll have a good one & go check out those storage foreclosure sales - and keep your gown down!

Foreclosure Sale and Josh in Europe...

Yesterday was one of those days...

Started out great - I was able to stay focused long enough to get alot done at my office, you know, catching up on little loose ends in between a steady stream of customers. I was very efficient and felt very proud of myself. Even handled one stinker of a customer. Those are always fun - NOT. Yesterday, I locked myself out of my office not once, but TWICE. Had to call our other office and finally my friend and boss, Charlie, to come and unlock it for me. My purse, my phones, my keys were all locked in my office. I was going to make a trip to the potty before I left and as soon as I pulled the office door closed behind me and heard that "click", I knew! I went across the street and called for help, waited, waited, waited. My husband was trying to call me and showed up at my office about 6:00 p.m. looking for me. He was ready to beat the door down and see if I'd been mugged, or had a heart attack, or fallen. No, just stupid little me! Then I ran by the grocery store and forgot to get his Skoal (which he had requested that I get). I was such a doofus yesterday.

I'm very easy going and I can get along with anyone, and am able to calm a customer's fluster and make a friend. I've only had ONE instance where I had to get in somebody's face. I've worked here at the construction office/self-storage facility for the last seven years. Every so often, we have a foreclosure sale & auction off the storage units that the tenants quit paying for and run up a huge account. I generally have the sales on a Friday morning at 8:00 or so. Now, there are seasoned junkers/flea marketers/and the curious that come to the sales. Some of them are quite experienced. (As you know, these folks are a different breed of cat - myself included.) I send out flyers to my "list" of marketers and also the sale has to be put in the newspaper with the location, time & date. (In case you wonder, YES we DO have a dumpster at the storage and YES I DO take advantage of "dumpster diving" from time to time - you'd be surprised what people throw away... that's another story for another day!)

Friday morning awhile back comes and my office fills up with folks anxious to get on with the program (the sale) - you never know who will show up or how many. I have them all sign in. There is a guy that calls and asks for directions and says he's on his way. I tell him I would wait for a few minutes, but then we would have to start without him.

There's this older couple in the hallway (who've been to my sales before), the wife is mouthin' aloud that we should go ahead and get started. They've been grumbling and making comments like, "well, so-n-so storage always starts earlier...we could've already been done and gone...this girl don't know what she's doing...the fewer we have at this sale the better our chances will be of getting stuff cheap... we shouldn't have to wait for anybody... blah blah blah".

I listen to it for a good 30 minutes from the time they get there, even interjecting once that I am waiting on one person, and it's not even quite 8:00 yet. I'm trying to be nice but I've about had it up to my eyeballs with her palaverin'. They are upsetting the rest of the people, I'm afraid they're going to incite a rebellion and I'm beginning to hear a few comments from some of the others.

Grumble, grumble, grumble. Great Granny Grunt! Ok, that's it! I go out of my office to the waiting area and come face to face with the lady. She sees me approach and shuts up. In my nicest quietest angry voice I say thru clenched teeth, "Ma'am, I don't give a rat what the other storage facilities do, this is MY storage facility, and if you don't like the way I'm doing things, then I invite you to git outta here! I can refuse to let you in the sale if I want to! Shut your mouth, please, or you can leave!" High fives all around, sighs of relief, and some stifled laughter. I think I hear, "You go, girl!"

NEW TOPIC: I always have to do that for my husband - I tend to ramble and jump about on different subject matter... You may or may not remember, but my middle son, Josh, is in Europe taking some classes this summer at King's College in London. He is also doing some traveling on the weekends while over there. I thought I'd post a few pics from him in Ireland at the Cliffs of Mohor and the Clanmacnoise Monastic settlement. He loved the Cliffs- said it was the most beautiful place he'd ever been. Said it was 685' from the cliffs to the ocean. It was on a Sunday morning. He'd downloaded "I Can Only Imagine" on his IPod, so he listened to that song over and over while looking upon the cliffs and the ocean. "Mom, it gave me chills," he told me. He's loving his trip! He's broadening his horizons and expanding his world view (as my hubby puts it). I'm missin' him.

This week he's in France at Normandy, Omaha beach, and Paris. He called this a.m. to tell me he and his buddies visited Notre Dame and now are at the Eiffel Tower and tomorrow they're going to the Louvre. He says the countryside of France is beautiful & I'm hoping that he takes lots of cottage-y flower-y countryside & cute-little-shoppe photos that give me inspiration to paint! They will go to Germany and possibly Switzerland this weekend/next week. I'm so glad he's got this opportunity...

Josh says that he's seeing things and places that are

hundreds of years old. The USA is a relatively young country if you think about it. I mean, people have been here for awhile, but as a nation, we're still pretty young.

At the British Archives in London where he's doing some research for a paper he has to write, he said he has seen documents that Britain has been keeping for hundreds of years, some possibly over a thousand, since they started the Archives. - the Magna Carta sent by the US, the Doomsday Document, letters from Hitler, Churchill, all the "big meats", etc. Just fascinating...

Well, I'll close for now. Thanks for humoring me by reading this, if you made it this far... my brain is mush. Now I gotta run by the store and pick out something half-way healthy to fix for supper. See you soon!