Thursday morning

Late load, no sense in leaving too early when they have been making us wait on the first load so long. I don't want to sit in their parking lot forever.  

I have been turning away even more business and it leaves me uneasy to have to do so. Like, what am I waiting for? Even if the return is less than if the interest rate was lower, there's still money to be made.  I wasn't really interested before but now there are all kinds of people wanting places to stay here.

There is a giant power plant being torn down that is going to take a couple of years supposedly, then they are going to build a gas plant in it's place. And then there's the Interstate project that starts whenever, not really sure, they said this year.  On top of that, you have the energy sector here which is a booming business churning out natural gas all over the place. 

The thing that got me to wondering was having 6 spots open for a fairly long amount of time.  If I can't fil these, I was thinking, what makes me think I'll fill 25 more?  And then there's having to hire someone, a thing I have never done and really would have to use the help of an accountant to get that set up and going as cheaply as possibly on the financial side.  

I was thinking today, paying a person $15 is a good wage around here. But if you work 40 hours a week, that isn't that much money.  That's only $2,400 per month before taxes.  I can't imagine having to try and live off of that kind of wages.  

Anyway, we started dieting on Monday.  That's just cutting out alot of caloric intake for me, she is doing a low carb thing.  I just said no, I'm just going to eat a lot of salads and dinner will just be small portions for me.  I don't drink soda and I don't eat a lot of sweets as it stands, that isn't the hard part. 

The hard part is I like my pastas and potatoes and basically heavy meals.  I remember back to the days when I needed to lose weight, I would just eat mostly salads and eat nothing after 6:00 pm.  No set time when I could eat again the next day, just don't eat too late.  So that's what I've been trying to do, but admittedly sometimes dinner doesn't happen around here until 7 or so. 

I'm still doing the 100 pushups per day even tho I finally hit the 100 day mark.  No sense in stopping a good thing and soon I'll be adding on to that. Right now, it's enough to try and diet, I really need to lose some pounds here.  I've hit 30 pushups per set and last night I got as far as 40 on the first set.  I'm still trying to hit the goal of being able to do 50 pushups per set, a long way away from that, I think.  But it's a goal that I want to hit and after that I don't really think I need to feel like I need to do more than that in one set.  50 is good. 

There isn't much else going on. The 3rd kid is coming from Arkansas on Friday. They have different spring break time than here, the kids here already had there spring break, so it really makes no sense to me that the other one is coming while these kids are in school every day.  But who am I and really isn't my problem excepting that it disrupts the entire scenario here, especially with the grandma coming to stay the entire time as well. She tries to take over the entire house, change the rules, let kids get away with whatever and I have to come along and say no thank you, they aren't allowed to do that.  

The other thing coming up in a few months is they are taking off for an entire month.  When I say they, I mean the entire family. The man is going for 2 weeks I think, maybe a week, not sure, but he can't stay a month because of work.  Still, I'll be here alone 2 weeks and that's going to be interesting.  Her family is in Colorado and she wants to spend time visiting with a rather large family she grew up with. 

Right now, I'm seriously putting my mind to thinking about getting that loan, or trying to anyway.  My credit score isn't the greatest with the debt ratio, but with the collateral involved, it's worth a try at least. Plus and now-established business.  

Well that's it. I need to get ready to leave here, it's after 8:00 am and tho I don't want to get there too early, I don't want to be showing up too late, either.

G'day

 

 Sunday - morning

Heading to the zoo in a few minutes.  I'm sort of glad to have the days off, sort of not. No idea what they're paying me for break down pay and staying in a hotel overnight.  If it's like everything else, probably not that much.  I'm itching to get that loan and get out of this endless cycle of trucking nonsense.  You just really have no concrete schedule to work with, you are stuck wondering week to week or even day to day what your schedule will be.  

I often just get a couple of loads in the tablet and then they wait to see what's next.  If they are waiting, I am waiting.  Meaning, who knows what hours I will work.  

I figure i made the manager mad by not taking the other truck and also not working today.  As I said previously, I don't care.   I'm going to get some time off here and there and  if they don't like, whoopdee doo.  September of this year will mark 2 years at this miserable place and all that I committed to.  

A 20 plus year driver quit a few weeks ago.  Junk trucks being the reason for him, break downs galore.  His wasn't that bad, at least not comparatively speaking, but as soon as another certain driver got into the thing, he trashed the transmission.  This particular person has now trashed 2 transmission and 1 differential.  I know they have trouble getting help, but keeping people like this around is not helping them either.  The only reason they like him is he'll stay out and just do one load after another after another instead of going home like I do. 

This trucking work life sucks, to be more pointed about it and is driving me to reconsider yet again attempting to get a business loan and just go for it.  If I can get one, it will be a huge risk, at least as far as I'm concerned, for the only way it pays for itself and pays me is to stay mostly full.  The park that is.  People keep telling me to go for it and maybe I will, but I have huge reservations.  Yes, I have turned a couple of dozen people away, but what if that doesn't happen if/when I get a loan with 3 to 4k per month payments?  Lost my life savings and have nothing to show for it, at all, that's what. 

That's what really keeps me reserved about getting into a huge loan.  I was thinking maybe just get a smaller loan and do the work myself, only paying contractors to install a new septic system, the rest I would have to do myself.  But it's still 68k worth of gravel, 21k for the septic system, another 20k worth of electrical and 15k worth of pipe.  There's 124k right there and add 5k for good measure.  Then there's equipment rentals and whether I can even get a dozer on site without having any dozer experience. However, to pay the contractor, we're closer to 300k.  I figure add 15k for equipment rentals.  Saving over 100k doing it myself, but where do I find the time if I still have to do a trucking job?

I can tell ya, my energy ain't what it used to be.  Growing old has several disadvantages and the energy levels going down is one of them.

Meh, we are leaving.

G'day. 

 Saturday - afternoon, early

We are going to a friend's daughter's 1 year birthday party in a bit.  I've done nothing today beyond cleaing the kitchen and making lunch for kids.  Unless the schedule changes - which it easily could - I don't intend on fixing the driveway and other stuff on Monday.  Someone ran over the orange cone I have over a pothole. It is highly visible with reflective tape.  Sorry, but I call such people idiots.  Those cones aren't cheap anymore.  

After the party I am going to walmart to return electronics that don't work that I bought on Walmart site and delivered, get some other stuff I need, take the boys to get $8 haircuts at Great Clips and then who knows what.  It will probably be late afternoon by the time we are done with that.  

Currently, the tablet has Tuesday as my next scheduled day of work.  He was going to have me work "Sunday/Monday".  Sorry.  I don't do this all the time anymore and I don't care how mad he gets.  I'll quit or he can fire me, don't really care.  If he starts paying me back with late loads, same difference, I'll go find another job.  I am seriously tempted as it stands to go ahead and apply for the expansion loan, interest rates be damned.  It's just that I don't really think I will qualify for having a low credit score due to too much credit card debt.

It fell another 20 points when Flagstar sold my loan to some other company.  You'd think your score goes up when you pay off a loan right? I found out long ago that isn't the case at all. The games they play with credit scores. I used to think well, I make all of my payments on time, so I should have a good score, right? NOPE.  These so-called experts lump everyone into the same category and treat everyone the same.  If I have a lot of debt, that therefore means I must be close to defaulting or even bankruptcy.  It's higher risk in their view, which it may very well be, but if I couple it with collateral, a large amount of collateral, I should still be able to get it, right?

Who knows, but seeing how the system works, I'd venture for the "no" department. Hate to be negative about it, but the games these companies play with credit scores I find to be ridiculous.  My property is worth minimum 400k.  Probably 500k.  But we'll go with 400k.  I'm looking for probably around 300k.  I've done the business loan calculators, as long as I could eventually get the place filled up, it wouldn't be impossible to make the payments and do everything else i need to do.  In the end, I'd actually need about 75 lots to be able to afford to live off of that income, make the payments and have at least 1 employee.  I would be able to take home minimum 8k per month after taxes. 

The expansion would take me to 40 lots.  I might need an employee with that, not really affordable but I can't deal with 40 lots by myself and still work a job.  Expansions have to be done in phases.  I'd ask for enough for 60 more lots but that would cost so much more money and I don't want to take that kind of risk with my life savings that I used to build this venture.  Ok, it was about 17 years worth of savings, still quite a lot of time and effort put into saving that money over time. 

To get to 70 lots, I'd have to expand up front, which would mean bringing in many truck loads of dirt to help level it out.  

Anyway, I'm at 25 more lots right now in the works tho I haven't really worked anything.  They wanted info that I would have to go to a bit of trouble to get and after I had thought about it, I just stopped.  

We're fixing to leave and I'm sitting here racking my brains trying to think of everything I need from Walmart. My trips there are infrequent and unwanted. I go because I have to, not because I want to.  The electronics I bought is $25 and change, that alone is enough to get me to go back and have that money refunded to my debit card.  

If I really needed anything, I'd say I need a much larger bedroom or a separate office.  I'd go for a house expansion, but this isn't my house and I'm not dumping that kind of money into something that isn't mine.  We really need more space. The kids are in the same bedroom and the oldest boy is getting the independent thinking that starts to creep in the older they get.  Plus, the younger gets him into trouble all the time, if they had separate bedrooms that would eliminate a lot of it.  

My house in AZ has lost a lot of value over the last year.  It was at around 350k, now it's at 280k. At least I'm not underwater with it - yet.  I find it amazing that the value went down in that allegedly red-hot real estate market.      

 The seething hatred.  It's astonishing, amazing and unbelievable to watch. 

People who hate Trump hate him with a passion. It occupies their thoughts, or at least it appears as if it does, continuously or certainly quite frequently.  They hate him because people told them to hate him.  There is no objectivity to their thought processes, not if you just by what's coming out of their mouths or, more pointedly, what they are posting online.  

I have lots of lefty friends on Facebook and the individuals who are obsessed will post 10, 15, 20, 30 times a day memes and other nonsense telling us why we are immoral for voting for him and we don't love Jesus and all the rest of it.  

The lies that are being fed these people are astounding.  He's going to cut SS, Medicare, stopped feeding kids lunch at school and really a seemingly endless list of things they say Trump is busy doing.  Maxine Waters said that Trump is setting up the context to start a civil war.  I could go into a long list of things from memory, but I dare not.  I have grown calloused to the endless streams of denigration coming from the left.  I don't care what they think anymore, they can spout off all they want. It's why they lost, or a certainly high on the list of reasons why Trump is  now our President.

I always love the lies about Medicare and SS.  Democrats say this every single election cycle yet you never see any of that happening even when Republicans are in control. NEVER.  And leftist voters are starting to come to terms with that fact.  I have seen countless on-the-street interviews with every day citizens, people who were brought up in leftist households and were told their entire lives about how evil the right is - and all the rest of it. Just not going to go into the depths of what anyone that has ever followed politics should already know about how these people have been raised and led to believe utter lies.  

And now, you have Schumer caving to vote for the continuing resolution bill to keep the government open after going off - as the rest of them - to shut down the government. Do you remember Pelosi chastising Trump for shutting down the government?  The party of bigger government is better?  The party that has always said you should never allow the government to shut down? Literally the entire lot of them saying that?  Now there is infighting in that party the likes I don't recall ever seeing.  They have no clue what to do, none whatsoever.  The entire thing is imploding.  Their pathetic and endless name-calling didn't work.  

Anyway, one of the leftist friends did a call-out post on me that she tagged me in so it showed up on my Facebook feed.  I left it up for quite a while to let people see how these people are acting out.  Their rage clouds any reasoning or objectivity. This particular person posts endless memes and Twitter quotes and lots more about how evil Trump is and what he's doing to the nation dozens of times a day. Not just once a day, twice, 5 times, 10, whatever. It's at least dozens.  That's an unhealthy obsession.  

Welll, it's quite late, I was just reading some of her posts yet again. I will not be commenting again on her feed.  She is unhinged - I see a lot of these people online on a daily basis.  

I'm downloading a huge file to operate this fancy mouse I bought for gaming.  It's an interface for the mouse has far more switches on it than a regular mouse.  It eliminates a lot of the keys you would otherwise have to use on a keyboard.  I'm still playing Fortnite tho it's getting to be a drag talking to people.  Well, I have already reported this anyway.  The stats say that around 85% of Fortnite players are aged 18-35. That's all adults.  

Yet, you mostly just run into kids when talking on the microphone in the game.  Parents think the game is for kids only, I don't know where they got that idea and there is a myth that the game is only for kids. And I can tell ya, kids act out in that game to great extremes.  It gets ridiculous and I just start blocking them.  Or a parent gets on there. Who asked for my son's full name? No one, I replied, no one asks for names on here, it's an unwritten rule.  I do tell people my first name if they ask tho.  

I just wish more adults who are already playing the game would use the mics.  There are a large number of players that don't have or use mics at all.  

Gonna close this one.  I need to start thinking about getting taxes ready.  I did them myself last year. The IRS never contacted me back with yea or nay or hey, you owe use 2 grand or whatever.  They can always get you even years afterwards so you never really feel like you are in the clear.  I've read enough horror stories about it.  

I'm not worried about it, if they say something, it is what it is. I did my best and I'll do my best this year as well. I don't try to get away with anything and I have all the receipts and the bank statements and other documents.  

 Friday - evening

I got in the truck yesterday, went to Gurdon, unloaded and drove to El Dorado.  The mechanic clearly doesn't want to try to deal with this AC.  He got as far as getting it to work again, the same as it was before.  Which means you turn on the AC and the compressor comes on and stays on until the evaporate freezes over and then you have nothing.  It turns into a deal where you are turning the fan on and off.  

One caveat this time: the fuse sometimes blows.  So, he handed me like 15 fuses and wished me luck. Actually, they were trying to dump me into another POS truck and I said no, I'll just stay with this POS truck. The mechanic laughed but he's tired of it as well.  He was also hammered with work.  My manager was the one that decided I should get into that other truck, I just politely said no thank you. 

So, I'm home now after much discussion and possibly taking it to a shop in town here. There are at least 4 diesel shops in our little town, maybe more.  Why? I don't know.  Maybe because 2 major highways connect and lots of business.  

The manager then wanted me to work Sunday and Monday. No thank you again. I think I was pissing him off but I've had enough of this s***.  Drive junk, drive illegally sometimes because of constant nonsense with these trucks and trailers, then try to eat up every single weekend.  Whatever. We're going to the zoo on Sunday and I don't want to miss out on that. I haven't been to a zoo in forever and everyone - the entire crew of people that all hang together, is going.  

The driveway is in horrible shape. I'm going to have to go out tomorrow and deal with it.  Last on my list of things I want to do, but it absolutely needs to be done.

James fixed the mold mess in my rv park bathroom. It looks nice, he doesn't do half-@$$ed work.  He also placed the router box up on the pole.  I need a longer extension cord to make it work.  I'm going to buy a 100 foot cord and that will take care of that problem temporarily permanently, lol. 

Beyond that, grass needs mowed.  So, I have my work cut out for me.  Yes, I'd rather pay someone to do it. But if you hire a company, they want steep rates that I cannot afford.  If you hire a person to work by the hour to cut grass, they'll tell you they do it by the job.  I just tell them good luck now.  You have a 17 year old talking to me like he's some sort of contractor.  No, you aren't.  I provide the equipment and the fuel,  you provide the manpower. It's hourly work.  

But they talk to you as if they have a full fledged business replete with 40 years experience, insured and will take responsibility for any damage they might do.  Yeah - no.  It doesn't work that way. If you are an actual business, what is your LLC or business profile?  Phone number? Address?  Basically, quoting it by the job is a way to greatly increase the amount of money a person is going to make on any given project. Well and fine for pro contractors, not so much for lawn mowing. 

My manager scheduled me for Tuesday of next week lmao.  As I said, I think he got mad and shrugs from me.  They don't have an power over me. I could lose the job tomorrow and think nothing of it beyond gee, I need to go find another job. I wouldn't be thinking: Gee, that was such a great job I just lost, I'm so down and out.  This company loses drivers all the time and for good reason. I've bent over backwards to keep the manager happy, if he gets mad, I really don't care.

Day whatever of the pushup challenge. I think I'm getting close to the end of the challenge.  I've missed 2 days the entire course of this journey and made up for it the next morning on both days.  At the end of this, I will likely keep going and add another routine along with it and seriously considering starting some sort of disciplined eating regime.  Such as Keto but not keto, can't do that anymore.  I also said I was going to start doing bicep workouts, that will likely start at the end of this as well. The end will just mean the beginning of a new workout with more stuff added to it.

Wow it's day 98 of the pushup challenge!  I have almost made it.  I thought maybe high 80's or low 90's and still some time to decide what to do next.  Well, I'll bring in a couple of dumbells into my room after day 100 and continue on with pushups and add the bicep stuff. Whatever else, haven't decided yet. I have 2 days to figure it out.  All I know is that I don't want to quit. 

There are many days when I absolutely feel like just skipping the day.  The 2 days that I did is because I completely forgot about it. I have also been looking into doing 200 pushups a day.  100 in the morning and 100 in the evening.  

Anyway, I slept ok last night, the room at the Hampton was quiet and the temp was perfect.  Just that I went to bed late.  And so, time to get offa here.  

Tuesday - night

I pushed the issue with the truck, the mud flap destroyed, but I did it through the DVIR (Driver Vehicle Inspection Report).  I black-listed the mud flap - I figured if I get pulled over, I'm going to at least have it showing that the company knows all about it.  It was yesterday before corporate said no, he can't drive that truck, it must be fixed.  That was when I started hearing from people.

It came to a head yesterday.  Stop at Love's I guess? was my direction from the lead mechanic.  I knew they wouldn't do it.  This after the road crew mechanics that had shown up to fix the truck on the side of the road also refused.  Do you know anyone in your town that can do it?  I think so. I told him the name of the place.  He dismissed it, for unknown reasons. This particular outfit is widely respected in this region. They have several shops in various towns and they have a huge one in my town, replete with numerous wreckers. Their bread and butter is towing trucks or doing the removal missions of crashed trucks on highways.  But they have great mechanics and a repair shop as well.

I didn't reply. This company isn't paying me enough money to continually be having to deal with this junk.  I just let it go until this morning, when he texted me again: are you going to take it to the place we discussed yesterday? Yes, I replied, I'm leaving right now (I actually was leaving).  I took it over there, about 5 miles away, told them my story, the mechanics came out, looked and said "we'll give it a helluva try!".  

That's my kind of attitude.  I told them I don't need factory new, I just need it functional.  They figured it out, straightened out some metal, drilled holes, install the mud flap, put in a new light and tightened down the fender nuts and good to go.  

I drove up to Gurdon, offloaded the product and yes, went home. There was no point in going to the yard, but the time I would have gotten there, it would only be maybe a half an hour before the mechanics went home. I told this to my manager and he agreed.  Can you load tomorrow instead and then bring the truck and trailer to the yard on Thursday after delivering? Yes.  Let me say here that I do not want to go up there.  It's fixed enough. But the AC in the truck isn't working and it's starting to get warm enough out that while sitting and idling, it's getting warm inside of the truck.  

I informed them I wouldn't be driving another summer going through what I did last summer and they didn't try to argue with me.  I put up with enough hell from this place and I've lowered it on my priority list considerably. My Park comes before this ridiculous job.  I spent my retirement on it, I am going to make it work.  The job is supplemental income.  

A new couple moved in today.  A black couple, I should say. It's only significant because I've never had any black people in there.  Don't confuse these statements with racism.  I have no issue with any race, I rather like mixed company. I don't do DEI and all that nonsense, but there is a place for immersing yourself in different cultures and learning about different ways of thinking and living life.  

I had to ask a long term guest to please help show them where i want the trailer.  They wouldn't have found it or it would have been difficult at best to explain it over the phone, this guy knows where I was talking about and loves sticking his nose in other people's business.   

So yes, tomorrow is early rise for Nacogdoches washout/Lufkin load.  

Oh, btw, I don't really think I am addicted to Fortnite/gaming.  I put the game down and walk away from it frequently.  I did play for a couple of hours with the nephew tonight until we finally won a Victory Royal!.  We were at the end of the game - meaning there were 5 people left and 2 of them were us.  It shows you how many players are left in the game with a constant update.  

We had gotten stuck in the storm - the storm slowly kills you, it moves in intervals and if it overcomes you, you have limited time to get out of it. It slowly takes away your health until you are dead.  Well, the newest update has this bullet thing that you ride on, I was able to escape it, my nephew was not. We were talking to each other on the mics/headphones albeit we were sitting right next to each other, lol.  He said don't worry about me! Go try and win!  I couldn't have saved him anyway, I was almost dead when I got out of the storm.  The plus side is my shield health was at 100%. The storm only takes away physical health, not shield health.  

So, when you get into a fight with someone, if they shoot you, it first takes away shield health.  Anyway, if I had had med kits - they bring you back to 100% health - and 3 of them - I could have gone back and saved him, but I had none.  Had just used the last one while I was escaping the storm so I wouldn't die before getting out of it. Well, there were 2 other people left.  One of them started shooting at me immediately, but I had my Legendary Twinfire shotgun out already. I shot him dead easily. Then I started running, looking for a med kit.  

I found one and was taking it when I saw footprints.  The game gives you clues on when someone is near you or approaching you.  I"ve learned - those footprints mean someone is very near, do something!  In other words,  don't just keep taking the med kit, drop the rest of it and prepare for battle!  A shot rung out and I ran, turned, put up a build quickly.  

A build is either a metal, brick or wood wall that you can put up to stop incoming fire from hitting you. The most common are wood builds.  I ran backward and got far enough to put another build behind it. I am no great Fortnite player, I do what I can to survive.  I knew they were coming, but I think they expected me to cower and just get blown away. Not so fast, Harry.  As soon as the second build was up, I pulled out my legendary shotgun and then immediately went after that person.  You are far better off on the offensive in this game then defending yourself.  I ran around the first build I put up, the person was crouching there, took a show at me but I fired off a single round out of the shotgun I won!            

If you are a person my age, you would be very surprised how masterful an 8 year old can be at this game and easily outgun adults who have different mindsets. You see, in  a  battle like that, you wouldn't in real life just run up on people without a care in the world and just hope you would win. In this game, players just run up on each other and shoot at each other point blank range. I have watched the pro's tho, they don't always  do that. They depend alot on builds.

Enough of that. A rather complex game, at least to me, which is what makes it engaging for me.  

I must be approaching day 90 of this pushup challenge. I have 25 more to do tonight and I'm done, and yes they'll get done. I have not done it the way they wanted it done and I don't care. I'm happy to just be doing them. 25 at a time. 

I really would like another worker to help out with the park.  It just doesn't seem possible to find a decent person to do it. 

It's almost 10 pm and 5:20 am is looming, time to finish my pushups and go to bed.                 

 Saturday - evening

The ordeal started yesterday.  What is this ordeal you speak of?

Well, I got to the loading plant 20 minutes before my loading time. I was instructed to go ahead and back into the loading bay.

10 minutes later, a dude walks up, says he was told to tell me that I was there early and ;they had to load another truck first - THEIR truck.  I hear this story all the damn time from these people.  But I just complied and said ok, moved out into the parking lot and waited.  And waited.  Watched the loader take a truck into the back and load it, then come out and put a truck into our bay, load that, then honked at me to move into the bay, but then started unloading another truck that had shown up and hour and a half after I arrived.  

I was pretty much fuming at this point. I'm waiting 2-1/2 hours to load? Waiting on their trucks? 

When I got into the control room after they loaded me I let loose. Hadn't done that up until now, but enough is enough.  I sarcastically stated "I figured you'd load a third truck before getting to me". He thought I was joking, my next words confirmed that fact that I was not joking at all. I let loose.  I don't mean in anger or condescending or threatening, just facts.  It ended with "you loaded those 2 trucks ahead of me and they are still sitting in the parking lot". And why did you start unloading that other truck that came in late?!

I was there 3-1/2 hours because of it. My manager called just after I had texted him, but he hadn't seen the texts. He wanted me to lose my Monday off for "drivers are sick and broke down trucks".  I know he's lying, he does that a lot. Someone probably asked for the day off, he could just tell me that instead of making up a bunch of stories that aren't true.  So I went off on this plant and how they are constantly loading their trucks before they even think about getting to us,; what is the point of having an appointment time if you aren't going to come even remotely close to the time you are going to actually load?

I would rather sit at home and wait than sitting in that truck.  I could have left 2 HOURS after I actually left and arrived near time to start loading. MORE than 2 hours, actually.  He said he hears this alot and it's time to confront them on it.  I didn't believe a word he said, he's told me this before and nothing changes.  This time, however, I will call him up late next week and ask if they agreed to do anything about this situation?

After that; I go to Love's, fuel up and then drive another 30 minutes and Kablaaaam!!!

Another trailer tire blows out, this time the tread came almost all the way off, slapped up against the rear bumper and the light box and destroyed all of that. I pulled over onto the 'shoulder' - almost nonexistent there - mostly in the grass - got out and looked. Left side bumper - destroyed. Mud flap - destroyed.  Left side light box bent all the way back against the trailer, lights destroyed and wires hanging out the holes where the lights used to be. 

Yup, I made the phone calls and then got out my Switch game.  If I'm going to be stranded, I might as well do something I like to do while waiting endlessly.

It was close to 3 hours before i got out of there and they mechanics did not replace the mud flap.  We went back and forth on that one, they were supposed to do it.  You just need to drill holes in that flange and it will work.  No, it's too thick, look at it, it won't work.  If you have a drill, yes it will work.  They refused to do it.  It's not legal to drive around with no mud flaps back there for obvious reasons.  

I drove it back to the park, it was getting late and no one that could actually do the work would be open.  And no different this morning, no way I was going to waste many hours of my day trying to find a place to take it to to do all of that work.  The trailer is junkified nicely, it needs to go back to our yard and have the mechanics there fix all of it.  I just hoped and prayed today that I would make it past all 3 weigh stations and not get pulled over.  

40 miles out, the fender came off.  Unbelievable. Fortunately I had bought the U bolts to fix it previously and had left overs, put that back on and got back to the Park safely. I do not want to pull that thing like that any longer.  I'm not sure what to do, for they want me to bring it up there to fix it but the manager wants me to work Monday. I'm off tomorrow/Sunday.  I'm sure as all get out not dealing with this nonsense tomorrow.  I have gone through an earthly hell this week with all of this s***, I'm due a day off.  

Not to mention the AC still doesn't work and the heater is still stuck on and it's going to start warming up quite a lot this coming week.  It is likely that I will load Monday, deliver Tuesday and then back to the yard Tuesday after loading and then - probably spend another night up there while they try to figure out this wiring nightmare on the truck concerning the AC system.  

The only other thing of consequence today was that a couple called desperately looking for a place to park their travel trailer.  Park it, not stay in it. I said sure, I have plenty of room - which I do.  They showed up later, they were coming up from Houston. The issue is that the man is starting a new job in Chicago on Monday and they need to get home by tomorrow so he can get ready for it. Pulling a trailer, they said, would drag it down and take too long.  No problem, it can stay here as long as you need it to.  It's a bumper pull, if I happen to need to move it I can do that with my truck or SUV.  But I had them park it in a place where it shouldn't need to be moved at all.  

As for the rest of the evening, we are going out to eat.  The youngest birthday party was earlier, a bunch of family friends and their kids came over, cake, party, playing and they all left.  Short affair comparatively speaking to other times when they all come over and we play cards for many hours.

The newest proposal is go to the zoo next Sunday and have a group outing.  Sunday isn't a good day for outings for me, if I'm off work, I just want to go to church, go to my usual Applebee's eating and then go home.  But, I haven't been to a zoo in ages so that actually should be fun.  

I'm tired.  The next door neighbor's dogs started barking around 3:00 am and it went on for an hour and  a half or so before they finally shut up.  I  was getting irritated and was going to text the people and ask them politely to silence their dogs, I can't sleep, I have to get up early, please.  If it happens again, I'm definitely going to contact them, unacceptable.  This town has noise ordinances as most towns do....not trying to start a neighbor war but I like whatever sleep I can get.

The fall out from Democrats childish and selfish outbursts at the Trump speech is becoming brutal. Even party members are bashing the representatives that engaged in that ridiculous and heartless action especially. That senator from Pennsylvania Fetterman I think, just blasted them all and that dude is a flaming democrat. 

The party is falling apart at the seams and these politicians are completely clueless.

Anyway, I'm done.  Just wanted to write about the latest happenings.  

 

 Friday - early

Sickness rages on.  Coughing is just endless, I have to constantly take cough medicine or I just start hacking away without stopping.  However, last night was the first night in over a week that I finally got a good night's sleep.  Most nights, I've been awake most of the night, coughing or not.  I don't feel particularly good simply because I slept well, but  it's good to have gotten that sleep.

Much more info has come in about Trey now that he's gone and people feel the "freedom" to speak.  Why they didn't before is a mystery excepting one clue where a person said he didn't want to get involved.  Not only was Trey smoking pot, he was also doing crystal meth.  As far as the  consequences goes on a person's life, I consider that to be the worst drug.  People on meth almost always turn to thievery to support their habits.  They usually do not work, they have no motivation to, they just live to take that drug.

I know this after having been around such individuals. Lots of them, especially the house in Phoenix.  There were actual meth labs in our neighborhood many moons ago, a thing that normal people finally got sick of and starting making demands that the police come in and intervene.  Anyway, who knows how much stuff Trey stole from me?  I have a lot of stuff packed into boxes and have to dig everything out when I need to use it.  I don't have anywhere to put the stuff in an orderly fashion and exposed so you can see all of it, such as hanging on a wall.  Lots of tools, I can tell ya that.  

As I said in a previous entry, I am not entertaining any more workampers at the moment but I do know that if a person wants to take such a position and offers it, I will probably turn them down.  It's the people that really want it that end up being total - ________ - and I a am not interested in having any more of those people around..  In fact, if a person moves in and automatically says they want to work right after paying rent, I will likely hand the rent back to them and tell them to go find somewhere else to live.  

Yesterday, I got up for work, took a shower, etc.  Got out the tablet and then realized that I wasn't working yesterday, no load in the system, that after the manager telling me I would be working yesterday and today and then the weekend off.  I'm not even going to say anything.  I ended up taking the kids to the bus stop and then going back to bed.  I didn't get out of bed until around 11 am, when I forced myself to go so I could get some things done, such as going to the bank, Harbor Freight to exchange a non-functioning air compressor for another, Lowe's for a bag of cold asphalt patch, the park to fix the driveway pot hole - which I found out needs probably another 3 bags - and then to Applebee's. 

Yes, I know, I should not be going out to eat but I felt like it and I've been doing really well in the "don't eat out" department.  Saving a lot of money just eating at home or just not eating at all.  The only variation is buying a salad at Love's.  This is usually lunch down south after loading.  The salad isn't particularly large, IMO, for the price tag at over $7.  

Speaking of eating, it is far past time to get back on some sort of diet.  I have been contemplating that, I just don't know which diet to do since I can no longer do keto.  I weighed in at 228 pounds the other day at the doc office, that is just too much. 

So, I am going to spend some time looking at different diets and attempting to decide which one to do.  I want to get down at least below 200 pounds.  I am still doing the pushups but I can tell ya, it's been really hard during this sickness.  I know that bronchitis can take a long time to get past, I didn't want to stop doing the challenge simply because of an elongated sickness.  

We're getting close to the time of year I dread: tax season.  Only because I have a business and I have to try and account for everything spent.  I have not written myself a paycheck in a long time, but that's only because several people pay me via Paypal or Cashapp to my personal account. Yes, I report that as income, I add it all up for the year and include it as income on the sheet. I try to be honest about all of this, not because I think the government should have that money but because I think God wants us all to be honest about it.  It's a motivation to stay involved with politics and see where our money is going.

And if you have been following the DOGE news at all, you are probably disgusted by now.  Or at least, you should be.  I am not going to go into the list, I have some of it memorized for the audaciousness of it.  These people that were doing this must have thought this stuff would never be found out. There must be a reason democrats are so vehemently against Musk going through all of these departments?  And then they start lying about Musk wanting to get rid of SS and Medicare. Those are pure fabrications, but they are the same lies democrats use endlessly and people are not buying it anymore, obviously.

It was a huge percentage of Americans that say they support Trump doing this auditing, far more than just Republicans alone;

And the unbelievable outbursts of childishness at the speech Trump gave from Dems! These horrible people wouldn't even stand to clap for a 13 year old boy fighting cancer!  Most of them just sat there like the idiots they are.  And citizens actually vote for these people?  These politicians really believe that they are somehow in tune with their constituency, but the polls are telling a different story.

Well, journaling time is over, it's time to head out the door and get started about today's business.

G'day

 Tuesday - night

Almost 40 hours later and I'm home-sweet-home.  

Yesterday, I contacted my manager on the way up to Gurdon to deliver that I would be needing to bring the truck in for it has several issues that need to be addressed.  I had texted him that message, he called me back. He asked what was wrong and I started giving him a list, hesitating at the fuel leak.  I pretty much knew that as soon as I said there is a fuel leak, there would be immediate repercussions. Namely, get it fixed immediately.  

Just a little interjection here: I'm watching Trump walking into Congress to give a speech.  I have been following the news and there is talk of Democrats walking out, making noises, basically interfering with the speech. I am glad I just barely  got home in time to it on a large screen tv versus watching it on my iphone.

Anyway, when he heard the fuel thing we went back and forth - not in a bad way just discussing it - and then the mechanic got on the phone who was sitting right there. I knew I'd end up having to bring it in but I didn't really feel like it's a good idea driving a truck around with a fuel leak, even if very small.  So, I delivered the glue and then headed to El Dorado.

The list expanded. Various issues with the trailer as well and issues I didn't even know existed were found at the end of this story.  New brakes, new bearings, a new tire, lights, etc.  That's just the trailer.  I knew it would be an overnight deal and that is exactly what it ended up being.  They got me a room at Super 8 - it wasn't that bad, they tried to get me into the Hampton but it was booked - and I sat there the rest of the day, night and all the way up until checkout time this morning.  

Back at the yard, they had just finished with everything and I left.  For Nacogdoches, then Lufkin, then home. Much more driving than normal, I was still in Arkansas, not starting at my town much closer.  

Well, Trey was using meth I am finding out well after the fact, which explains a lot of things.  

I don't really have a lot of time here, wish I had more and I really wish I had had my laptop with me so I could get caught up on my journaling.  But, I have my 100 pushups to do and other minutia and then go to bed.