I Spy

One of the guys at the warehouse works for us part time and for his other job he works security for a chain of local convenience stores. I gave him a call tonight and told about my concerns in the neighborhood and he suggested I put a couple cameras on the exterior doors and the driveway. He has a bunch of that kind of technical stuff in his garage and he’s going to bring some of it with him tonight to let me borrow the cameras and controllers. He says they are easy to mount and are wireless, so I can have them up tomorrow in just a few minutes. They run the video feed to a regular CD or DVD player or to a personal computer. So I can record any activity and have a record of it to show the police. This is cool - I’m totally up for this little spy game.

Who Are They Really?

With my little incident of my car getting egged last night, I happened to chat with a couple of my other neighbors this afternoon and mentioned my troubles. They both have noticed little problems like mine.

My neighbor across the street says that his trash can that was put out for pick up was knocked over and the trash strewn across his yard a couple of weeks ago. He thought at the time it might have been animals that did it, but it could have been kids trying to pull a prank.

My next door neighbor says that her boyfriend’s car was left parked on the street one night and that the next morning it had been broken into and all the personal items gone through, although nothing seemed to be taken. We doubt that the CD’s with titles like “Country Hits of the 80’s” and “Best of Travis Tritt” had any value for the punks down in the ghetto.

All three of us suspect the new renters down the street or their friends. I’m going to have a little talk with the owners of the two houses down the street and suggest that they run background checks on the tenants who are renting their houses.

It is easy to order criminal background checks over the internet and they don’t cost very much money. I think it is within a landlord’s right to run credit checks and criminal checks on people with whom they are going to be trusting their houses and income. It’s for their own protection as well as peace of mind.

Rude Surprise

Saturday always means errands and today was full of them. I headed out the door around10:00 this morning to take a dog to the vet. But when we got out in the street to get into my car, I noticed a lot of yellowey stuff on the side of my car. Evidently, sometime during the night some punks came by and threw raw eggs at my car. The eggs had broken on the windows of the driver’s side and the whites and yolks had run down the glass and onto the doors and side panels of my car.

that was really annoying and if I catch the punks there will be drama. As it was, nothing was broken - except their eggs - and no real damage done. I took my dog to the vet and once we were finished there I drove through an automatic car wash and got the egg off of my car. At least this was the old beater car and not my nice truck. And like I said, there was no damage. But it is disturbing that this neighborhood is experiencing even these minor acts of vandalism. We have enjoyed a nice, quiet, respectful neighborhood until recently when a few houses down the other end of the street have been rented out to tenants with kids. If it wasn’t those kids I suspect it was some of their friends. If it happens again I’m calling the police and setting up a trap for the punks. As long as they keep getting away with it they have no reason to stop.

Phone Interviews Save Time

Got three emails from people who read my Craigslist ad for drivers and I sent them each a reply that we still have the positions available and the next step of the hiring process is to call me and we’ll do a phone interview. It doesn’t make sense to meet these candidates in person when so few of them pan out to be a good prospect. It would be a huge waste of time for me to sit around waiting on these people to show up, if they even manage to show up, and then talk to them face to face and have only 1 in maybe 30 be worth making an offer. The phone interview saves a lot of time and even when I get one to come in, only 1 in 10 can handle it. About half don’t come back for the second night and the rest might last a week. Even though I take great pains to explain how much work is involved, I really think most of them think I’m exaggerating and are shocked to find out that they actually have to work.

All of this interview and hiring aggravating might pay off, though. I found a website that is hosted by a human resources consulting company and they are asking people to take an online survey. Anyone who interviews people or has been interviewed for a job over the past 12 months can take this survey. Anyone who completes the survey is automatically entered into a drawing to win an iPod. Winning that would be sweet!

Click here to take the survey if you’ve interviewed this past year and want a chance to win an iPod.

Have Cooler - Will Travel

Most days I shop for groceries at the little neighborhood shopping centers near my house. The closest grocery store is actually walking distance, If I was willing to take a little cart on wheel to help carry them back. It’s probably a quarter mile walk, which is doable, but not so great when lugging groceries back home with you up and down the hills. There is one particular hill so steep that even riding a bicycle back would be a hard go for me. I’d probably have to dismount and walk the bike up to avoid congestive heart failure, considering how out of shape I am.

The closest full service grocery store is a Food Lion. This store is good for basics and a quick trip when I run out of something mid-preparation. They have a limited selection of produce and all I usually buy there is maybe bananas, onions or potatoes. Their meat section is not much variety and too high prices, so unless it is on sale I might pick up a pound of hamburger meat or a ham steak. Their freezer and cooler sections are good and when they put things on sale I stock up.

But today I’m heading out for a long day down in the “Land of Excess.” Their grocery store is a marvelous wonderland of all kinds of treasures shipped here from all over the world. If they have some good prices on meats and vegetables, I’m prepared to take advantage because I’m taking my cooler in the back of the truck to keep them cold while I finish my errands down there. The temps will be in the 90’s today, so leaving groceries in the truck without benefit of a cooler is not practical. But I’m prepared - let the adventure begin!