what not to wish for

[arbycoffee]

Ok, so you want to know about Ernie.
Ernie is an old guy that has lived in the motel since 2000 or 2001. His checks are even printed with his room number and the motel phone number.
Sold his farm and moved in here, use to be he never smiled and swore at everyone.
Well I entered the story and the second day we owned it, I meat Ernie (I was told he was a ball of fire and a he~ll raiser ).
After he gave me his harangue about he only pay at the end of the month, and has paid the same rent since he moved in, and no one enters his room, you don't knock on his door.

I let him unload and I said ok, but I looked at him and said the one thing he was not willing to do, YOU CAN MOVE OUT TOMORROW MORNING.
I will not have a smelly old farth telling me how the ~ell I was going to run my MOTEL!!! He stopped dead in his tracks, and said in a small voice, I don't want to leave here, it is my home.

Sir here are my rules for just you:
#1- You will pay your rent on the first of the month.
#2- You will have your rent increased by $140 dollars a month.
#3- your room will be cleaned once to twice a week, depending on how dirty you are, you rent will go up more, if twice a week.
#4- You will get a new high boy stool and hand rail to stand up after you go and Flush it!! (his stool had green fuzzy stuff growing in it, I toured every room the day I took owner ship, he was gone at that time)
#5- You will smile when you are address here, for all will address you as Sir. we are not running a flop house, it is a small clean nice motel.
#6 through #12 I will save for later.

I washed his room from head to toe and washed all his curtains and we did replace the stool, new blinds were added and lights on the Board Walk were changed to all 100 watt bulbs.
I spray each time I changed his bedding, I have to work on him to take off his clothes when he goes to bed and get between the sheets.

He has started to brag at the bar about getting his room cleaned and now smells like a french bordello (he was there in WWII), even got a new family jar!!!

So we now have a nice working relationship, He sleeps to much, so
I think I will start dropping off magazines and different NEWS papers to get his mind running again.

He has a visiting nurse that set up all his meds, I asked her if there was anything he should not do or eat. She said he can do anything he wishes to do.
I am thinking of making him Santa Claus this year, because I am so busy. Ernie as Santa reminds me of Bad Santa the movie.

[arbycoffee]

We finally slept in our house, and in my own bed to-boot! It was nice and laying there thinking the last time I laid on this bed water was at 31.4 feet.
I got up four times to look out the window to see that there was not any water. It will be a while till I feel fully safe in my bed again.
Now Sherri laid next to me and slept the sleep of a child. She only phewed four times. Maybe that is why I got up and looked out the window, it smelled like Cedar Rapids.
The cat has been running around crazily from window to window, we got a lot of squirrels here and not just people, hee hee.

Ernie called up this morning and asked to not bath this week, because it was to cold. I went down to his unit and knocked on the door, looking down at the board walk the snow was all melted around his door.
He opened it and saw me and said he was too cold to bath this week.
I looked at the thermostat gage on the wall and saw it was set on 88 degrees.
I said nice sauna here Ernie, no wonder you don't want to bath, you will just sweat it out. Instead let's put this on 72 or 74 and that way you wont get sick from the heat.
I said your sister called and said to remind you of the birthday party, so you need to bath, and now!!
I stood there till the old poop, went in the bathroom, and I hear water running.
I yelled I coming in to check Ernie and see you are in that water. Next I heard him scream that the darn water was too cool. and if he died he was going to haunt me the rest of my life.
I said sure you and the rest of the people I frozen to death in cool showers (for the record, his water and all the water here is over 135 degrees, I like hot water).

Ray from North Carolina had to hire Kenny to take up his stool to see if his teeth were cough in the pipe. It seems poor Ray had a bout of sour stomach and lost hiss cookies in the stool with his upper plate. Ray drinks that 12 proof malt liquor and chase it with a little Old Jack Danial's.
Kenny told me about it and I said not to tell him you told me. I saw Ray the next day and said I heard he was under the weather, had some of that Iowa brown flu and gave him a small bottle of Aspirin.

Oh Kenny is my transplant from Cedar Rapids, He is my contractor doing all the work here, I help some, but he is the main force here. I called him and booked him for three or four months if we bought it. Part of his deal was room and laundry room usage, ~ell I gave him the best room and Microwave and Ice box the size we got. Even a membership to the Gym of the street. The three months of his time cost about $20,000 grand. But he works 10 and 14 hours a day and can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and have the squeal left over. All he does is work and sleep, no play, just work. He is real good at rebuilding and refitting as anyone I have ever know. He is licensed to plumb, wire, rough construction and finish. Most would call him a journeyman millwright.

So any way, Ernie got his bath taken and went to the birthday party. He is 73 now. A couple of the other renter wanted to get him a madum of the night, but I said there aren't any blind one that can't smell around here.

[arbycoffee]

Well it is real nice to have not only my own bed to sleep in, but a bathroom that no ones walks in on you while you are doing your thing.
I am so glad to be living here, just Sherri and Shadow and me. I realize that there is all the rest here, but not in my bathroom.

The snow we have had is really bringing out the problems with our heating lines. someone in the past had turned the zone valves to Manual operation. This means that the thermostat does not work, and you turn the valve to adjust the heat, in the crawl space under the rooms! This is why somedays the rooms were in the 90s and cold days in the low 60s.
Well now the thermostats in each room works.

The snow is blowing some, so it is going colder here, I am still looking for someone to do snow pushing, but not tight against the ground. It would scoop up all the 30 tons of rock we spread on the road way here.

The plumber was here to straighten the valves out. He has an idea of using forced air. Use a radiator and run the hot water thru, this radiator is inside a force air tunnel system, so it would be like a furnish duct system. Hot forced air that it can also to added to, for air conditioning too!
This is the system used on grain elevators to dry or cool the grain. Under all the units is a 4 foot crawl space. So the boiler would be only used to heat the water for the hot water and the radiator in the forced air system.
It is an idea that would be cost effective and even changed over to an outside corn burner to heat the water, this would cut down on Natural Gas usage.

Tonight for supper, we had Chicken baked with Greek seasoning and Cucumbers from England and pears from South Korea and lettuce from Mexico. I asked if anything came from the USA ?
She said the raw chicken ?
No wonder the dollar is getting smaller and smaller. I wish I was getting smaller too!

Ernie told me they had his birthday at a Hooter's Restaurant in Des Moines.
I said to him, "you felt right at home back on the farm, there ?"
he said why ?

Back to work, got a late room renter.

[arbycoffee]

Well we are getting ready for a large snow and ice dump, per what the weather channel said. We are to get around 8 inches of ice and snow. I think we will hunker down and watch the car go by.
I wonder with the bad weather, will our business increase in the motel ?

Ricky is on his new job at the tile company, all bummed out that the tile company shuts down for the period between Christmas and New years, two weeks. He won't have any income for that time. He wanted to know what I wanted him to do? Move out or stay and pay it off a little at a time.
I said first stop buying the case's of beer (save the money) and I will put you to work for 2/3 of your owed rent for those two weeks. Covering windows with Bisqween to slow the cold down on the back side. I got all the stuff he will need and Kenny got an old pair of coveralls for him to wear.
It seems there is not any storm windows for the back side of the building (She said they were all here at closing. Lairs noses should have to grow when they lie!!). And Kenny has not had the time to get to it with rebuilding all the bathrooms. So Ricky, I hope does a good job or I will have to be not nice.

We been fighting the heating problems here, it is sad you can't fight them when it is warm, this accounts for the space heaters we find in the rooms.
Even OUR bed room is cold at night, 65 degrees I like it myself. I told the wife she would have to cuddle to keep warm or add more blankets to the bed, "ell we got a whole closet full of blankets.

Something very strange, My hair is turning brown, not my beard or mustache, my hair. It is a dark brown, I wonder if the blood thinners I take has anything to do with that. I was sprouting a nice head of gray hair before the flood. The wife just said "it is the river muck, I never got it all out." No respect in my own house, the cat rates higher than me.

All funning I was thinking of you, my neighbors here on PachiTalk, I pray all of you are warm and without want as the as Christ birthday comes upon us.
I have a new game I play this year, It is called "Red Kettle" of the salvation army. They were better than even the red cross in giving out food and cleaning supplies. So I don't pass one without dropping a buck, it is my way of giving back some.

To touche a point here everything that the red cross gave, it said on it "A Gift From the red cross", while the salvation army just gave you a hand, they didn't Lord it over you like the red cross.

I put one of them bowl cleaners in Ernie's Stool, now his stool water is blue. He wanted to know what is wrong with it, I said till you learn to flush, you will have training water in it.

[arbycoffee]

Well we are getting the snow today and the temp. dropped too, usually it won't snow when the temp. drops, but not here in Iowa. Iowa is an obstinate state.

Sad song at the motel, the dragon has bite. Ricky kept falling behind on his room rent. He kept asking me to work with him, but he too has to work on it.
I was sitting (hiding, the wife said) in the office when Ricky walk in. This was two weeks ago, he said the tile company is going to have a two week shut down from Christmas to the new years. As a new hire he would not get paid for those two weeks. So he asked me what I wanted him to do.
I said, Rick there would be no way you could work off a $300 dollar debt. So What I will do for you. You can cover the back windows on the boardwalk with plastic to help keep the cold out. It seems there are no storms for them and Kenny would have time to make windows for them this winter. That would be 8 units with two windows and a storage room one window. That is 17 windows, I supplied the plastic and lath and nails, ell there was everything to do the job, even loaned him gloves and carhardt bibs for working in the cold.
After three days, no Ricky, I called him up and he said "work with me Greg" I will get them done, than he stop in and got the stuff. He did two windows and called it a day.
Coming up to last week, he did two more windows and because of the turkey day was short money so he got behind even before the shut down $245 dollars.
So I told him friday afternoon to stop in and pay your room rent, I said I want on his bill $200 in my hand. Friday went and Sat. went and Sun. Went. I finally reached him Mon at about noon, he was in Iowa city on his way home. I asked about the money ? He said "work with me Greg" I am broke till Next week.

I said you don't need to hurry back, You are locked out till you pay your room rent owed, that is the only way you will get your stuff is to pay up and storage fees are $5 a day.

He said he would lose his job, I said you didn't think, so sad.
Well we found two large 55 gal. drum liners with empty beer cans in his room, butt wiser a premium beer. That is where his money has gone, for Beer.
Being in the motel biz, rent out a room is to guest, the rooms are not as one that rents an apartment or house. I hold all the cards.

I tried to work with him, because he was being set up by his grandparents for the first two weeks rent. They brought him here and stocked his refrigerator.

I was hoping for Ricky, but an old dog don't change his spots, he is 44 yrs. old.

Old Ernie called the office today and said he took a shower, he has a date tonight. I told him not to forget to clean and put in his teeth, before you leave on your date.

[arbycoffee]

Darn a lot of snow~!!

[arbycoffee]

December 23 will go down as the start of the raising from the flood waters ArBuckle's Tattooiowa.com. I hit the first hole in the wall and I heard the water pulling back. I was pumped!!
Here are the before shots of the room and what we have done so far.

[arbycoffee]

More frigging Snow, I think I am going to make the plow guy rich!!

[arbycoffee]

Got room two torn up and starting to make the new tattoo shop.
First pic is how it was and now it all gutted.

[arbycoffee]

We are working on the floor in the shop.
Here are some pictures of the crew working on the cement boards screwing them on the floor before laying the tile.
And they are finishing the tear out of the ceiling around the beam.

[arbycoffee]

drying time is like siting on your thumbs

[arbycoffee]

It looks as nothing is getting done, but in reality a lot has been done.
The tile floor is almost done and the new central air and heat vents are in. we have started to do the plaster repairing and new dry wall. See the pictures below.

On the motel front, I think old Ernie has a girl friend, she calls him up and talks for a long time to him and he is putting on cologne (a lot!! and it is lucky tiger to boot !!) I am trying to figure how to tell him a bath would do wonders for their relationship. She is 68 and Ernie is 73, if they get it going, I am sure the lights will dim in Jesup.
Ernie the other night hit a deer on the super slab on the way home from the bar he hangs out at, I think she is a waitress there (it is a old bar, Legacy, I think you got to be over 45 to get in there).
He called me up and told me about the deer and asked if I ever gutted one, I said yes, a few in my time. So you know what he asked me to do is come down to his car (thank the good Lord he didn't take it in his room) and clean the deer for him.
I put on some old clothes and got a few tools that come in handy and walked over to his car. He came out and opened the trunk and the so called dead deer came bounding out on three leg run.
I said "Oh Sh~it" than promply did it!
Ernie said grab the deer.
I said wait a second here, that 85 or 95 pound deer is very pissed off and if you or I grab it, it will do things to us that will leave marks on our bodies for life.
~ell it jumped the white fence at the I needed to change my pants!
I asked him how did he get that into his trunk after he hit the deer ?
He stopped and backed up to it and flagged down a truck and the guy in the truck throw it in the trunk for him.

He wanted me to gut it so he could take it to the Legacy bar and get them to make steaks for his buddies there, and it would impress his girl friend too. Remember we are in the small town iowa, where the boys ride their snowmobiles on the street in town to go drinking and stop other places to get things.
On the street here, you got to watch not only for other cars, but snowmobiles, Lawn tractors, Horses, goat carts, and golf carts too.

[arbycoffee]

In one week I have had 4 long term renters give me notice that they were moving on :-(.
They were construction millwrights. So we now have 6 open units to rent. If I had much hair left on my head I would be pulling it out.

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But the shop is coming along nicely, The electricans (3 of them) were here for 5 days. The Tattoo shop is totally rewired and the new 200 amp service. That set me back some jingle jingle.
Here some pictures of Kenny do some clean up getting ready for the base coat painting of Egg Shell white.

It has been so darn cold I got ice on my huckles! and that is cold!!!

[arbycoffee]

Well sorry I have been slacking on posting pictures, But it seems that nothing is getting done at times.

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[arbycoffee]

Now here is some snap!!

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Well it is getting closer and I am getting poorer, the race is on.

[arbycoffee]

Well this week has been fast, we have been here in Jesup since June 13, We have lived with the parents-I-Ls. Than Moved to the motel in middle November 2008.
Been going over the the parents-I-Ls to get stuff still in one of their garages. Had them over a few times to see the place and eat supper.
The other day I called over to talk to Vern (father-I-L) to tell him I had a new Philips SDV2510 - HDTV / TV / radio antenna. for their TV and I picked up a converter box, so they can watch what ever they want to watch, if they would.
Back to the phone call, I called and after 9 rings, my mother-I-L answered the phone (they have callers I.D. and it say the name out loud, so it said Jesup Grand Motel 8 times out loud). I said good morining mom and asked to talk to Vern.
She Said (out loud) "Vern, oh Vern, there is a strange man from the motel on the phone wants to talk to you".
She still don't have her upper teeth, after she hide them a month ago.
They are getting new uppers soon, Vern will lock them up at night or when she is not using them.
Anyway, I went over to install the new indoor antenna and converter box. I found out that they never disconnected the cable from the cable company after they had the cable service shut off, so the TV real had no antenna at all! No wonder they didn't watch TV, with the crappy picture it had I too would not watch it. (Remember they kept shutting it off when we lived there cause I would not watch it, I would listen to it).
Now that I put it on an antenna, they get 7 channels and guess what, they watch TV now. We lived there about 5 months and all it needed was an antenna to get pictures - damn.
We will get the wanes coating done today and Monday (Kenny is get good time off to go home to see his wife for the weekend, he asked what do naked women look like ? He need to go home for the weekend!).
Time to get back to work . . . . . . .

[arbycoffee]

The pictures don't show all the work getting the waines coat up and the electric boxes thru it. All waines coat left is next to the door (3).

[arbycoffee]

A nice floor, grouting the floor.

[arbycoffee]

My Sign guy got here and this is what he did.

[arbycoffee]

Hello all!

Well we have been busy working about 14 hours a day on the shop and fixing up the last two unit on our side of the building, #21 and #22.

Here are the latest shots of the shop, some different angles of the new 36 inch door, the doors here are 32 inch, kind of small. So we had to remove one door and build it all in and take out the other one and build a new header for it. the old header for the 32 inch door was only two 2 x 4s, way under code. We used two 2 x 12s and two upright two 2 x 6s on each side to support the wall and roof above.

We also got the door way done into the office. We cut the rest of the wall out and again laid a two 2 x 12s for header and four 2 x 6s, two a side. We know if this placew would fall down, these two doors will be standing.

Some outside shots at night, The second door way is gone and all filled in.
The last two shots is like a before and after.
On the home front, Mom-I-L called for Sherri and I answered it. She demanded to know who I was and wear was Sherri at! I said mom this is Greg your good son in law.
She said she didn't know how good for he has not worked in months. I said remember the flood, She said it never floods in Jesup!, I gave up and said.
"Mam I will have the lady of the house call her as soon as she gets out of the tub.
She said back, Stop your fooling around, no one is in the tub for I was just there and she hangs up.
She has good days and some not so good ones.