Friday late-morning

Typical morning when there is no work.  It was, I should say, until the new guy called.  "There's nothing wrong with your park or anything." Obviously having trouble getting to the point of his call, he eventually asks if I have a jack?  Flat tire, his jack is missing out of his truck, couldn't find anyone in the park, can you help?  This guy is just starting a new job, didn't really want to have him starting out on the wrong foot so I ran over there, we got the tire off, took it to a shop, got a plug in it and he's good to go.

Then the 4 day stay called. "We're coming in today but I have a couple of questions for you". Sure. "Forecast rain the next several days, how is your drainage there?".  Obviously never been to my park before. The pads are elevated probably 6 inches off the ground.  Storm drainage is good and I only have an issue when the entrance to the pipes get clogged up. It takes 10 seconds to fix.  

In other words, no, I do not have drainage issues, well the driveway but that won't affect them or anyone else for that matter, it just makes the driveway a mess and needs attention.  Whatever.  I do what I can do, I won't fix the driveway until after all this rain is over and done with. It will stop eventually.  

After that, the next door neighbor after I got home.  Discussing a falling, dead vine. These are 2 inch thick vines and occasionally fall from the trees. After that, she was asking if I know anyone that could install electrical outlets? Sure, James can. Actually, I can, but I'm not crawling through people's roof crawl spaces running wiring, no thank you.

Now?  I dunno.  The rain stopped me from even thinking about doing the trenching for the underground line, at the same time, it's not raining!  

As for work canceling, I dunno about that either.  My plans are being delayed or even stopped by this constant work nonsense.   They give me the work, I'll do it whether I want to or not.  I don't complain about it tho I have said something about giving me late loads and now finding out they're giving those loads to the new guy. That doesn't work in my world.  The point is there are so many cancellations and I'm finding out others are not having their loads canceled. 

In other words, I'm the dude with an RV park with secondary income, my work is expendable. That's what I'm getting out of it and I'm going to have to start forcing the issue.  A pay raise is worthless if you don't have the work to turn in to be paid for.  I can't even imagine what my next check will be, abysmal I'm sure.  Like no better than what it was before the pay raise or even worse.  How does this help me? 

Constant conundrums, it seems.  Still waiting for pricing on tractors from TYM.  I dunno what to expect, I was just informed they have better pricing, more bang for your buck.  I mean, if it's the same price as everyone else but comes with more attachments, that's something to consider, attachments are expensive and I need a variety of them. 

That's it for now. I'm going to get something to eat and get some stuff done around here.

 A rep from the local TYM dealer got back to me via email, so we communicated back and forth. They are going to work up quotes for various packages and get back to me, presumably tomorrow since it's almost 8 pm already.  

5 days off work and not having worked that much the week leading up to it isn't going to play out too well on my next paycheck.  I will be forced to take an owner's draw from the business account, unfortunately. I don't want to eat into the money my mom gave me.  I haven't taken much from that account this year, however and hope to keep it down quite a bit.  

I was speaking with the new people, the man is doing all kinds of work at the park.  He was contacted by a former employer asking him when he's coming back to work? He was working a golf course in Oklahoma somewhere, they lay him and others off during the winter season.  Not much of a job if you have to go find a new one every winter, but that's just my view of it. 

They are stuck here.  They have their trailer and receive a bit of money every month from a rental house they have somewhere, or so they say.  Real nice people, the man is far from lazy, I will give them free lot rent as long as they stay if the work keeps up.  I also gave them permission to take the refrigerator out of the motorcoach if they want it.  I warned them of rats and cockroaches in the unit, but I am pretty sure it still works and yes, the inside of the thing is disgusting, sorry.  I mean, this guy is the kind of person I have been looking for and I didn't even know they were interested in working around the park until after they moved in. 

I need the help, frankly.  

___________

Interlude.  Text message informing me the washing machine won't accept quarters. That thing filled up quick!  I ran over there and emptied the bins on both machines, quite the haul.  And, finally remembered to measure the blades on the riding mower, however, I took a pic of the model number of the machine so I would get the correct parts the first time.  

Those have been ordered and here between the 28th and May 2.  It was the fastest shipping I could find for the kit, everything else was going to take even longer.  Shrugs shoulders.  It will be repaired next week providing it arrives and it's all the correct stuff.  One of the things that hooks up to the pulley on the top to make the blade turn on the bottom was broken and wasn't working at all.  The blades were completely trashed. 

I knew the blades were trashed, I didn't know why the mower wasn't cutting. Taking off that deck wasn't the easiest thing in the world but it wasn't terribly difficult either.  It's that part about laying on your side, removing the pins to drop the thing off of there.  Once you get that accomplished, it just slides right out and you can put it up on it's side to inspect the bottom.  I thought about ordering a new deck - until I saw the price tag at almost $350 and said no thanks.  We'll just hope this will do it, if there are more parts needed, then so beit.  

And another 4 night stay just booked on the second lot I am using for overnighters, coming in tomorrow.  This would be great if I could get enough business on the 2 lots to keep them overnight/short stay lots.  My daily rate is the lowest in the area.  Not by too much, but enough to attract those that are staying here for local attractions or usually, something to do with one of the 3 colleges in town. Oh. Well the second overnight lot is temporary - but if it could fill up with enough reservations I would make it permanent or at least keep it open for a few months.  

I don't like charging less, but it's the only thing that has worked to get the business in there.  My reputation is slowly growing.  I still only have 10 google reviews that, that kind of sucks.  After all of these people coming and going and a number of them saying how much they like it, it would be great if they could express that to the world and let people know it's a good overnight stop or long term location. 

I'm trying to craft a path forward here.  In regards to expanding the park. It must be done and I don't want to wait forever.  I'm 60 years old, my energy is slowly dissipating and my stamina as well.  I can still work and get stuff done on the physical labor side, but it's not the same as it was 10 years ago even.  It would have been nice to have started this endeavor 10 years ago, I would be sitting pretty right now.  

I just know that I don't have until the second of never to move along with this.  30 spots total is the next goal, maybe 45 after that.  What do I need? Money of course.  But, specifically, I need septic system.  I get another one of those in the ground and I'm going to be pushing ahead to get the rest of it done.  

I can pay cash for the septic system - if I get a tractor.  If I don't get a tractor, then it's going to be difficult but  not impossible to go ahead and get this situation rolling without getting a loan. 

I have been giving this whole thing considerable thought.  Waiting for a few years to expand is not the greatest idea.  At the rate I'm going, however, that's how long it would take to save up enough money for a sizeable down payment for the loan I would need to get this all done by a contractor versus doing it myself.  

Doing it myself means I can just do 3, 4 or 5 lots at first and then just add as I can afford it.  

It's getting late and my brain is fried right now. Far too much thinking today, lots of things came at me and it was a lot to take in.  Plus the daily grind of people wanting this and that, the new people needing a refrigerator, my mother, tractor inquiries, etc.  

 Thursday mid-morning

No point leaving here until around 10:00 am.  The load time is 1 and I can show up maybe an hour early without them getting cranky about it.  I don't need to wash out the trailer, that's already been done.  Saves me quite a bit of time, actually.  I'm hoping tomorrow they will have my truck done and I can pick it up on the way back from Gurdon.  

So, out of all the replies to my inquiry about tractors and what does anyone use for their RV park, one of them stood out after I did a little research.  I've never heard of TYM tractors and I don't really know the quality of the brand, but the pricing is definitely good.  You get far more tractor for the same price as everything else that is much smaller and limited usability comparatively speaking.  So, I put in an inquiry to the nearest dealer, which is in Carthage, some 25-30 miles away.  

The only dealer in town is John Deere and frankly, I am not hearing the greatest news about them, especially when it comes to implements and the idea you can't use aftermarket stuff on them. The guy quoted 12k for a hoe attachment which is double everything else I'm seeing online.  Double. The only upside is that they are local and any issues would be much easier to deal with in taking the thing to a local store instead of driving out of town. 

One down side to a larger tractor is that I won't be able to pull it on a trailer with my SUV. Too much weight.  I can pull the smaller ones, I know that because I have done it already with renting a tractor, a bobcat and a mini-ex at the local rental store.  It's not that I want to take the tractor anywhere, but if it needs repairs, unless TYM has mobile repair truck, I'm going to face having someone to pay someone to haul it. 

Yes, I'm still about this tractor business, it's hard to get around it.  If I had one, I could just fix the driveway right now and then come back and fix it again if the next round of rain messes it up again.  I could start dirt work on the south side of the rv park getting it leveled and cleared out.  Just before a bunch of trees grow back...

And more people are lauding the virtues of the TYM brand.  I've got my request in, they are going to call some time today.  

The lady that moved out of lot 1 and just dumped all that trash around the dumpster wants to come back for her mail.  She never sent the money she said she would for the cleanup costs. My thoughts were to send her mail back to the sender, but, I dunno. I haven't replied to her yet.  I saw her buying tacos and drinks the other day at the festival - after her claims that she's completely broke.  If you're broke, you're not going to festivals spending the money it costs on food at festivals, it's not exactly low cost eating.  It's like ballpark style pricing and it sort of set me off.  

Anyway, work called a few minutes ago and informed me my load has cancelled as well as several other loads.  I figured this would happen, I didn't figure my manager would know nothing about it.  The plant had shut down, the cleanup they were doing was extensive, the tanks were almost full when I was offloading, so yes, it's not shocking they can't take product right now.  It's just that it sort of throws my entire day off.  I would be leaving here in about 15 minutes. Now? I may just do laundry all day long, there is plenty of stuff I'd like to get washed such as bedding and dog bed and stuff like that.

Meanwhile, I called my mother after finding out my load cancelled, she had some things she wanted to tell me.  Basically, her health is starting to decline.  She's almost 90 years old.  I won't go into specific details, she wouldn't want me saying such things on the internet so I won't go there.  She's got some issues, some of them sound rather serious to me, quite serious.  She is taking it with a grain of salt. 
She's at that age, she's ready to go whenever it's time.  I understand where she's coming from but it certainly isn't easy to hear such information about your own mother. 

What's next?  I dunno.  I'm sort of sitting here taking all of this in.  I'm also listening to arguments from Trump's lawyer to the Supreme Court.  They are broadcasting it on the news, interestingly enough. This is the situation with Presidential immunity and whether it applies to Trump. Actually, the SCOTUS will have to wade into unknown waters with this hearing.  It will be interesting to see how they rule on this.  But, I don't think I've ever listened to arguments being brought before the SCOTUS.  

Trump is in New York court, where the judge there said he couldn't attend the SCOTUS hearing under threat of arrest.  Would they actually arrest a former President?  I think these leftist/activist judges would, indeed, do that.  To the point I was reading in the news yesterday that Secret Service is preparing for a potential scenario where he actually is thrown in jail and how they would handle it.  I love these leftist politicians wanting to add a bill saying that any president found guilty of a felony - or whatever the wording of it is - will lose Secret Service protection.  In other words, they want this President killed. I find no other way to interpret it, they hate Trump and if you listen to some of these people, they'd rather he be dead.  It's a pathetic view of a political opponent you don't like, kill them!  Unbelievable.  

Anyway, not to get into politics too much, but what we are witnessing now is unprecedented.  

_______

I'm off work until next week. If it wasn't slated to rain 4 out of the next 5 days, I'd be getting the tractor rental and doing the driveway.  TYM tractor called back, some person that barely speaks English wanting information and then a recorded announcement: THIS CALL IS BEING RECORDED.  No thank you. I don't know if this person is actually with TYM and why do you need to record me?  They then texted me after I told them I'm not interested in being recorded (nor was I interested in "talking" with a person whose first language is clearly not English and sounds like they are IN that other country).  I'm pretty much solidified on my views of scams being so rampant, you really have to question anyone that calls or texts you when it comes to a business soliciting you for sales/work and whether they actually represent that business or if it's something a bit on the darker side of things. 

I will call the local TYM dealer and find out about financing directly.  

I decided to start laundry, at least for now. My manager just called back, the load I was going to take tomorrow is also cancelled, I wont be working until next week.  

 Wednesday - mid morning

As I said, I have today off and I am in no hurry to do anything.  Like, sit here, drink coffee, muse about different things, decide what I'm going to do and do it.  I will probably try to get the deck off the riding mower, pull it out from underneath it, turn it upside down and find out what the problem is - and hope I can find parts locally.  I know it needs new blades, but there is something else going on underneath there. 

And, it looks like it will be a PITA to get that thing off of there, I have no choice. Either do it myself or take it somewhere and pay considerably more to have it fixed.  I'll try myself, I have fixed several other things on it, only taking it to a shop for a cable that I didn't want to fool with. 

If the forecast is right, we have a lot more rain coming.  To the point I wonder if I shouldn't be trying the grass seed again.  I don't know what happened to the last stuff. It's possible I put it down too early, ie: several days before it was going to rain and perhaps the seed got moist but then didn't stay moist.  Perhaps put the seed down the day of the rain.  This is the time of year to do it, that's all I can say about it.  Free water from the sky without the hassle of sprinklers having to be set up everywhere....

The one month stay is due to leave today before noon.  Yup, I'll be going over there to check. The dog lady that was always claiming she was cleaning up dog poop was moving her stuff out of her trailer yesterday, I am assuming she is having that thing pulled out of there. She hasn't communicated with me in probably a month now.  Don't really care, others have said she is angry with everyone and one of them thought "money has gone to her head".  She received a large settlement from the state on cash payments for disability.  Plus a decent check that has started being deposited into her account every month.

She's so disabled, she can walk all over the place, throwing toys in the doggy park for her dog and basically getting around just fine.  I don't know how some of these people get on disability and live the "high" life, so to speak, for free.  Some people should get it, for sure, I am not saying throw everyone out to the wolves, but there are many people I have observed in my lifetime getting "free" government money that don't appear to have anything wrong with them at all.  If you can walk and pick things up and move around normally, unless your disability is a mental one, I don't see how you should be getting this free money. Retired, obviously, is the other one I fully agree with.

If you are retired and you paid into the system, I do not considering it an "entitlement".  I am entitled to the money I dumped in there that funded a bunch of other people's retirements.  Very disconcerting that in 9 years, if they don't do anything which they probably won't, SS payments will be reduced to you only getting 75% of what you are owed.  Republicans have wild ideas of doing away with it altogether, all well and fine, I wouldn't be opposed to that, as long as it is graduated.  Meaning, if you are retired, you get whatever you are already getting. If you are close to retirement, same.  In fact, a whole new system would have to affect the younger generation.  I am for having personal accounts you dump your money into that isn't government controlled and doesn't have penalties for taking it out "early".  I paid a hefty chunk of change to cash out my 401k's. I don't regret it tho.  

The park is worth far more than the money I took out for retirement.  At least 3 times the amount.  I've got 400 to 500k worth of property/business.  I'm just going on what other parks are being valued at around the country and more specifically near my park.  I do wonder if the one that is being sold for almost 2 million ever sold. It's an old behemoth.  I also wonder what kind of profit margins that new park is making.  

I put an ad boost on Facebook, the ad shows on my business facebook account and then is boosted from there.  Some guy got on there saying "great price" followed by another dude who said: "no it isn't" He went off on how so many RV parks are being built and "shop around". The first guy countered that the average is around $500.  Nah, this dude says, condemning my ad and my park.  I would have found it amusing,  the guy is clueless, I have done my homework.   Instead, I didn't feel the need to have some dude sh******* on my parade, so I deleted his comments and blocked him. This is my business, not a political debate group.  Another posted a stupid meme, apparently Facebook targeted people that aren't into RV's or have any use for an ad that is irrevelant to them.  He posted the meme and then blocked me, lol.  I deleted that as well.

Still, the ad has garnered over 100 likes and several shares.  And still yet, I have only had one person come out of that ad. But, for $35, I won't complain too much.  Especially since the dude is working at a local college and hopefully will be sticking around for a while.  

Next infusion of money to come in on the 28th. 

Electric bill $900.  That's only $100 more than last month.  It'd be nice to get another month of reprieve from high electric bills.  

Well enough of this.  My lazy time is over.  Just not feeling it this morning, meaning not really wanting to do much of anything.  But, I need to get over there and at least see who's still there and what's available.  I will look at the mower and decide whether I want to get involved with that or not, lol.

And finally, there is rain slated to begin Friday and going through Tuesday.  It's why I didn't rent the tractor today, there is no reason to spend $400 and have the driveway get completely trashed all over again 2 days later.  I do hope the forecast is wrong....

G'day

 So I drive up to Gurdon, unload, leave, make the 1-1/2 hour drive to Eldo, pull in the yard.  I had already spoken with the manager a little while earlier and he had sent me the trailer and truck number I was to use while my truck is being fixed. 

Good deal.  I pull around, park the truck, get out, walk all over the place looking for this other truck, finally find the thing, fire it up, air it up, move it over next to my truck.  I open the doors and start moving stuff.  It isn't going to be a lot, I wasn't about to move everything, just everything I would need.  

Let's back up a minute. It was after 4 and everyone had gone home.  But, as usual, there was a truck in the parking lot sitting there idling with a driver sitting in the driver's seat. I thought nothing of it, it's quite normal to see drivers in there taking rest breaks or having to have come in for repair work, whatever.  

Well, I'm moving my stuff and this dude come right up to me, gets in my face and starts barking orders at me.  He wanted the trailer.  Why? I wondered, it was brought here to have an inspection.  He was taking it to the washout 45 minutes away.  Ok, well I'm moving my stuff, I'll be done in a minute and I'll drop the trailer. 

That wasn't good enough for him, he got right in my face and started telling me I need to do it right now!

I looked him square in the eye and said this isn't even going to take 5 minutes.  He started getting angry.  I just kept moving my stuff.  If he had wanted me to drop the trailer, he should have gotten my attention as soon as I stopped, not after I had parked, walked to get the other truck, pulled it up beside it and start moving things already.  If I had been that dude, I would have just said, ok, that's cool, I'll crank the landing gear down and unhook the air lines and pull the 5th wheel pin for ya.  

That is exactly what I would have done. Him? "I'm just trying to help you out".  I was highly annoyed by this "man" at this point, especially after he started calling me "boy" and talking to me like I was a child.  You can only push a person so far.  It was about the time he threatened to kick my @$$ that I dropped what I was doing and walked towards him.  What are you doing, he asks?  You're going to kick my @$$, do it right now.  He kept mouthing off like an idiot, but, he walked back to his truck and got into it.  

I went back to moving stuff and then, of course, he got back out. I was almost done at this point, it had taken maybe 5 minutes.  Where's the bills? What bills?  The BOL (bill of lading).  I have it here, what do you want it for?  You don't need a BOL for an empty trailer.  You're going to have to go over there and make a copy.  Again, this guy gets in my face, starts barking orders and telling me what to do.  I ignored him, was done moving and went around to crank the landing gear down.  He follows me over there.

I can say that at this point, I was starting to get angry.  This man starting all this s*** over nothing.  Just an a-hole, a total a-hole, looking for trouble and starting it with the wrong person, I was definitely not in the mood.  I wasn't in a bad mood before I came in there, I was just a man on a mission to get this day over with, get everything done and get home.  I had no idea that there was going to be a person waiting there for me.  Communication in this company isn't too good.  I still had a 2-1/2 hour drive home after everything I had already done.

After listening to him cussing me out even, more, enough was enough. Get the HELL out of my face, RIGHT NOW.  SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH WHILE YOU'RE AT IT.  He started walking away and I started following him. I was tempted to knock the teeth out of his mouth and didn't care the consequences, he was harassing me, not the other way around.  I stopped, however, decided that wasn't a good idea and went back to dropping the trailer and pulling the truck up to the shop.  No one was there, I just wanted it where they could easily find it in the morning, to hopefully get started on it right away.  Their trucks are all junk, I am used to this one, I don't want to start over in another pile of junk.  

He had backed his truck under the trailer, I again ignored him, got in the "new" truck, backed it under the trailer on the other side of the yard, started doing a pre-trip inspection.  Note that this truck and this trailer had been inspected by the mechanics and given a green light to go.  The trailer had a half flat tire and the truck had a broken hood latch. There are only 2 latches holding those huge hoods on there.  I ignored both, the shop was closed and I wasn't about to have to wait for someone to come over, if they would even do that, or worse, wait until the morning.  No thank you.  I just hoped the tire would hold since there was no weight on the trailer (no load/glue) and it did have some air pressure in it, but it was obviously quite low. No, there wasn't an air chuck available outside the shop, I checked for that.

NOW, this person comes back again.  I knew what he wanted and I didn't want to be around him, I was afraid I would react very badly to any further harassment and I would do whatever it took to make him get out of my face, stop the threats and stop cussing me out.  So I just said, yes, I'll go get a copy. Except, I realized that no one is in the office, it is locked and you can't access the copier, he expressed the same thing. No worries, I said, I'll deal with it and you can have this copy. 

No, we will have to call the manager. No, we won't. you can have this copy of the BOL, I don't need it.  Again, I don't need a BOL for an empty trailer, I don't know where he got his information and I don't care.  I got the tablet out, took pics and uploaded them to the system for processing, then took a pic of the BOL so I could reprint it at home. I do need a copy for records and I doubt he was going to bring it back to them.  While I was doing that, he walked back to his truck yet again, thankfully.  I got done uploading everything and walked half way over to his truck.  Waved the paper at him. I was pissed at this point and his stupid @$$ could get out of his truck and walk over and get it, or, he can leave without it, at that point I didn't care. 

What did he do? You guessed it, started mouthing off again.  I handed him the paper, he started chiding me and calling me boy and "next time I tell you to do something you better jump on it BOYYY, or I'll..." ENOUGH.  I walked at him again, this time I was angry.  I don't care what anyone else thinks, this is one of those 'you would have had to been there' type of deals where you hear the inflection and tone of his voice, the body language, his facial expressions, the vulgarity coming out of his mouth and the threats.  Especially the threats.  

What are you doing? I didn't say anything, I just started walking faster.  He ran to his truck, got in it and I turned around a walked off.  I don't know what is wrong with that person, I just know he apparently has either never had his @$$ kicked or it's been too long for him to be going around threatening people and mouthing off to them like that. I was literally minding my own damn business before he started in on me. 

He left quickly.  I still had pre trip to finish on the trailer.

The drive back was uneventful. The hood was shaking quite a bit for that broken mount, but the other one is good so I knew the hood wouldn't just fly off of there and I kept a watch on the side view mirror to ensure that tire was staying on there.  It made it back, I didn't feel like talking to anyone so I got out of that park quickly.  I noticed the man had done quite a bit more mowing, tho, it looks nice over there. 

What will I do about the hood? Probably nothing.  As long as the other one holds, it's good and I am hoping they can have my truck done in the next 3 days so I can do all of this over again and pick my truck up.  Tomorrow I have off, then late load Thursday and late offload Friday - and the hopefully get the truck.  They have me off this weekend, didn't ask for it off in fact I asked to work.  

However.... the plant was a disaster today.  I walked in to the main production floor and there was glue all over the everything.  Like some kind of disaster had occurred.  The conveyer chains that move the plywood did have sheets of plywood on them, but they had piles of sludge on each one of them. It was like a disaster zone, obviously the production line had been shut down but why? Well, that was answered: they were doing a clean up of everything.  I didn't ask for details, like why is there glue all over the floors? I mean a couple of inches thick worth.  I dunno, I guess maybe they have to disconnect glue lines to get at the machinery they were cleaning out?  

And, the new driver pulled up shortly after I had parked at the unloading bay.  I wondered what he was doing there so late? He apparently was the early load and that kind of got me going a little, they were supposed to be giving him the late loads.  I went up and introduced myself, he had gotten hung up at a Love's to get the truck inspected.  They made him wait so long that he ended up leaving, they kept putting him off and telling him it would be longer and then 4 hours.  Yup, sounds just like Love's.  

I looked at the tank levels before I left and wondered how they were going to fit another truckload in there? I guess he could offload half into one and half into the other. I dunno, not my problem and he was the late party, not me.  He wasn't complaining tho.  

And that's my day. Got home just in time for the boys to go to bed and made myself a philly cheese steak sandwich, what they had for dinner. I added peppers and onions to mine, put the thing in the oven, baked it for 10 minutes and then broiled it for several more. Delicious.  

The latest episode of Shogun is available to watch on Hulu. It's a pretty interesting show, lots of drama, Japanese themed and a lot of story line, don't feel like explaining any of that right now as I'm getting off of here, get a drink of something and then lay down and watch it.  

  

 Tuesday mid-morning

My expensive office chair that is only like 3 years old is done.  Hydraulic pressure leaks out and the seat sinks to the bottom most position.  For a person with long legs, that doesn't work.  I dunno if these chairs can be fixed, it was an almost $400 chair.  

Anyway, I decided leaving early was a waste of time and probably made the plant manager upset.  So, I intend on leaving at around 10:30 am and get to Gurdon around 12:50 pm.  It is what it is, shrugs shoulders, deal with it, move on.  It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to go to the yard after that and waste many more hours in today's ordeal. 

The Kubota dealer is bugging me about buying a tractor even tho I flatly told him his prices were worse than the John Deere store just down the road from me.  These stores are all firm on their prices and won't budge.  I'm needing a tractor, yes, Im not needing more debt slavery.  I just don't know if I want to get into those kinds of payments, therefore, I'm just sitting on it until I can make a decision.  

Swepco says may average bill is "$536", I was looking at their averaged monthly payment plan.  The problem? It goes back the previous 12 months, averages it out and then that's what your payment is.  Yeah, This time last year the park wasn't full.  However, the summer months were wild in terms of high prices so it's kind of strange it came up to that amount.  I would love to have that kind of payment every month!  In fact, the smallest bill I'll incur is during the spring months but if full, that bill is still going to be in the $800 range.  Guess I need to go through another year with the park full/nearly full to get a real averaging, until then, I'm just going to remain on whatever the current bill is.  

I'd just like to spread it out over the months and not have $2,500 in July while it's $800 in April.  

We must be slowing down for some reason for my loads are not that many.  I have today to finish this run, off tomorrow, another late run Thursday and Friday, off the weekend (which I didn't ask for, in fact, I said I would be happy to work this coming weekend) and then working Monday.  

The guys at the washout said the new guy is working his butt off, in there all the time.  I'm going to ask them again if he's still coming in there every other day, if he is, we're going to have issues.  Getting a pay raise but subsequently getting a work reduction isn't going to work for me.  Yes, I don't want to work, that's a given, I need  to work and was fully set on that idea.  Now they have this new guy and they'll just hand him the runs since he's working for lessor pay?  I could be wrong, of course, so I will wait and see what the washout people say on Thursday.  

That's only 2 runs in this week starting Monday, that doesn't pay the bills. It doesn't keep me where I can just live off the trucking money and keep the business account money IN the business account.  The best laid plans of men.....On the other hand, Thursday's run is the only run that day, according to dispatch.  So, maybe I'm actually getting more work than this new dude and these people at the washout are just saying that because he worked the weekend.  That or dispatch is lying to me.  I'll just stick with not lying, they don't seem to be that kind of people that work the office. Pretty much down to earth and honest, I do believe.

I guess the good news is that in the next 2 weeks, there will be a lot of money in that business account, if I need some of it, it's there.  

My mother is sending another 5k.  It's in the account, it's just pending. Remember, I am still sitting on the last money she sent.  With this extra money, I can easily install a septic system and get the electrical setup done.  There would still be dirt work, pad creation, trenching and installing pipe and electrical and gravel to go.  The plan would be to get 5 more spots in there.  

However.  If I just sit on this money as well and if  can save up enough money in the business account, I could just apply for a loan with the required 20% down and get all 15 lots done at once.  That doesn't pay for a pool, tho, so I guess I would have to save up 30k. I'm dead set on a pool because I am 100% sure it would not only draw people in, it would also enable me to increase my rent rates.  Or, charge a monthly fee for long term pool users and have a coded entry door to it - and a camera.  Well that's lame! I can hear the non--payers saying.  It would be open to any overnight guests and any long term guests that pay the extra fee.  It's just a gimmick to keep a park full and get more money out of the park.  

My current finances? I am getting close to half the money down I would need.  I do wonder if I put up collateral and that down money that I currently have if I could get the loan anyway?  I have the paperwork to fill out for the local bank.  Fill it out and find out.  This RV park business is going to get to where i want it, somehow, some way. This truck driving crap is for the birds, and I'm quite sure the birds don't like it either.  You get me double the income I have now and I can live off of that.  Doesn't mean I would quit my trucking job right away, just means that I would have a lot more income to then invest in amenities.  Besides a pool, a clubhouse  - not too large but big enough for small events to rent it out - would be nice as well as a pavillion.  And other things.

It's just a plain, basic park right now, hence I don't charge as much as other places to in order to get people to move in there.  

So, I have more pondering to do now.  Like, getting into a tractor loan would probably not be good for trying to get a business collateral loan with down payment.  If I really wanted to go crazy, add a house construction loan to it.  If I ever do that, it would likely be by splitting up the property into 2 - one being the 7ish acres of the RV park and the other the rest of the property in the rear.  It would take a real estate lawyer to draw that up for not only would the properties need to be legally separated into 2, the driveway easement would have to be written into it for permanent access to the rear of the property through that driveway. Otherwise, if I ever sold the RV park but wanted to keep the rear property, they could just nix my access and there would be no way in there excepting through gas line easements and that simply wouldn't work.  You aren't actually entitled to gas line easements on other people's property. 

As I always say, lots of things swirling around inside my head.

The main thing going on in there right now? 

It's time to get some coffee made, in the thermos and get out of here.  I am guessing I'll be lucky to be home by 7 or 8 tonight.

G'day

 My plans to get home at a reasonable hour tomorrow have been dashed.  We were going back and forth in texting about the schedule and then I said I'd be coming up before offloading to switch out trucks.  The dispatcher made some convoluted comment that made no sense so I had to ask for clarification. After several back and forths, I was finally able to come to the understanding that the trailer has to be empty as well for they want to do an inspection on it.  

I don't mind this at all, actually, even if it adds hours to the day. The reason is because the trailer I have now unloads painfully slow. Even on the best of days it takes it much longer than other trailers I've had to get all the glue out of it.  

This is probably the worst part of this job: anytime I have to go to the yard, it adds at least 2 hours and usually 3 to the day.  

Whatever. I knew tomorrow would be a long day.  

Then we get to Thursday load. They had sent me it last week, and it was early load. I noticed in my tablet today there was another load in there, so I clicked on it. Another load for the same day? And late loading? This is what I get when they don't communicate with me, it turns out the first load had canceled so they gave me second load.  They just aren't going through product up there as fast as we are bringing it.  They need to keep us, the dedicated drivers, busy with it and keep the OTR people out of it when it gets like that.  

Collected rent from the new guy and then got an odd call this evening from the college kid.  He had to take his truck into the shop, he claimed, so he only had $300 but could come up with the other $100 on the 6th.  He then started going off into a tangent about how he might be able to come up with the other money before then, but I cut him off: the 6th is fine, I have no problem with it. They've been at my park the entire school year, why get upset over $100 one time? He then asked if there was any work he could do? No, I have a new guy to do that, but please don't worry about the $100, pay it when you get it, it's no big deal.

Apparently this was stressing him wayyyyyy more than me, for 2 minutes later, I got the $100 payment. Lol, ok?  He texted: I didn't want to hold you up on rent and a friend loaned me the $100.  ?? Ok.  I'm not going to complain about getting my money, but I really did not have a problem with waiting and tried to convey that to him.  

Whatever the case, I collected $800 today and more to come.  

The new people - the dude was doing a lot more mowing today.  I'm fine with that, I'm fine with giving them up to $300 off on their rent. They aren't occupying a regular lot and tho the electricity will cost me this summer, it's still a good trade off in my mind.  The riding mower isn't working, something wrong with the deck, I need to take it off of there and find out what's wrong and fix it.  He's just using the new push mower on everything and doing a lot of it. 

I'm trying not to let this dude get chummy with me. Mark did that and tho I didn't want it, in fact I told him to his face I really didn't want his help with anything, he still decided to force his way into my business and then, well you know the story/ies if you were reading this blog during that time. Mark is a truly forgettable person and I don't want to dwell on him.  I don't mind being friends with people - as long as they aren't trying to take advantage of the situation.  It's trying to figure out their intent, that takes time.  Unless they blab something out that reveals their motive.  

I actually had no idea they were wanting to work for rent.  I wouldn't have agreed to it, people are lazy and just want to take advantage of you. I've been down that road enough times. However, once I saw that he is actually getting some stuff done, I'm good with it - as long as he keeps it up. 

Anyway, it's been a long day, for I had the late load and I didn't get back til late afternoon and then eat dinner and then off to the youngest' baseball game.  They were brutalized by that other team who blew them away. But, it turns out, that other team is a tournament league team that sticks together. I really have a problem with a youth baseball association allowing that to come into what is otherwise mostly a bunch of players that know nothing about the game and are just getting started.  They'll easily win the league and it's not even real competition for them.  So what's the point? Kids getting lessons in humility and losing?  I mean, yes, they should get a dose of that, but a team that way outclasses every other team doesn't really even belong in that league - or - they should split ;them up between the teams to give everyone a fighting chance.  

That's just me and take on the younger kids in baseball. Once they start getting older, sure, they can go for the throat and it becomes highly competitive. Or at this age, these kids and their parents all into it that they are basically playing ball year round.  I did youth sports - baseball - for 10 years in a Little League and I was on the board, coaching, umpiring, crowd control, you name it.  I'm pretty well versed in this stuff.  Not like it just went out of memory banks.  

The one month stay people should be leaving in 2 days.  I have one lot available right now, but I'm going to have that other one available as well and probably a couple more in a short period of time.  My Facebook ad is still running, I got this new guy in here and unless he gets unhappy with the park, he's there for a while. He took a job at TXTC (state university in town here) and I am the closest park to his job.  Much closer, in fact.  But it's not enough. I really try to keep the park full and a few bucks spent on ads is worth it to me.  

I also kind of think I'm spinning my wheels trying to fill up 15 more spots? Without the amenities to get them in there?  I dunno about that.  Namely, a swimming pool. Yes, I know I have discussed this subject at length and I'm not going to go into great depth here, but I really think if I want to get higher rates and more spots filled especially with overnighters, a pool is the way to go.  If I really want to find a loan for something, maybe a pool loan is what I really should be looking for.  I can raise my rates and pay for the pool payments, maintenance and then some.  

I just throw things around in my head, all the time, folks.  I was looking today at how I would want to create more lots. Seems like moving the doggy park is going to have to happen, that or have to create another huge entrance, wasting a lot of space where I could put more pads.  But then I thought, I sometimes struggle getting enough people in here. Not all the time, but there are instances where numerous people are all leaving at around the same time. Not because they are unhappy with my park, a lot of these people are temp workers who get moved around all over the place.  

And frankly, if I could attract more overnighters, I would make a lot more money.  That's just the nuts and bolts of it. Expenses would go down as well, namely: electricity.  You free a space up at noon and the next people don't come in until 5, 6 or later?  That's all those hot afternoon hours during the summer when no one is there and not using electricity.  It was my goal from the get-go to do mostly overnighters. My fantasies were dashed with reality, when I realized that your name has to "get out there" for awhile and you have to build a good reputation that slowly and over time gets spread out across the country.  I have people stopping in from all over the country. Not just Texas or neighboring states.  

BTW. I have 74 likes on my latest boosted ad. Amazing that has only translated into one person showing up.  I don't know who all of those people are, lol.  

Well enough of this.  My business account is going to start looking pretty nice with far more money coming in than going out - the next electric bill hasn't posted yet but I doubt it's going to be much more than the previous month. Maybe a few hundred dollars difference.  And I"ll be collecting another 4 grand before then.  It's all nice fine and dandy until you realize high electric bills are coming and then the end of the year will come once again and taxes and insurance due - once again.  

 Monday - 8:00 am

I mean, it's a 1:00 pm load and they don't like people showing up too early at the plant, so I'm just sitting here biding my time until I figure I can leave, get the trailer washed out and show up there at the plant maybe an hour early.  Or less, actually, maybe leave here at 9:30 am and then I'll only be maybe a half hour early.  They pulled that stunt a while back on the second load where they made me wait an hour and half after my appointment time, I just don't need a repeat of that.  Might as well just sit at home and drink coffee.

Tomorrow is the much longer day with not only a late load, but having to stop at the yard and switch trucks.  Since I have the late load, I will just leave here early, go to the yard first, switch out and then go to Gurdon.  It's 2-1/2 hours to El Dorado, actually more like 2 hours 45 minutes even tho it's a shorter distance than going to Gurdon.  Half hour at least at the yard switching out and then almost 2 more hours up to Gurdon? I'm just leaving here at my normal time for the early load and that should have me in Gurdon after noon.  

Meanwhile, I'm watching these anti-Israel protestors.  Their premise is absurd, their reasoning is based on propaganda.  Hamas is the target, a terrorist group that has done nothing but murder innocent people since it's inception. They have no loyalty to the Palestinians.  Israel is not targeting Palestinians but these people are calling it genocide.  They completely ignore the atrocity Hamas committed against Israel in killing innocent civilians inside Israel territory, they don't care that Hamas used and uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, they are right!  

But, we've seen such protests at universities through the decades of my existence, I just think this takes it to the next level, but on a religious perspective.  Israel is the apple of God's eye and coming against it may be setting yourself on dangerous territory. At the same time, the Bible tells us that the "beast" will rise up in Jerusalem at the holy temple itself and tells the Jews to run to the hills when they see the signs of this occurring.  It would not surprise me in the least if we were at the verge of the end times.  

And we have this sham of a trial against Trump going on today in federal court. Sorry, but I don't believe this and the rest of the charges being brought against him are anything but a political hit job.  The left fears Trump being elected into his second term as President and they are and have been willing to do anything to stop him.  There is a long list of things they have already tried, this is just the next cog in the wheel of a two-tiered justice system.  

Whatever. I just shake my head in disgust at the way politics and politicians are acting out right now, along with the DOJ and other prosecutors who have a mission to stop him from becoming President. Let the people decide at the ballot box.  I believe these trials are turning Trump into a political martyr and will have the opposite effect that these people believe it will have.  Even the polls are showing that people that are undecided on who to vote for are saying that these charges are politically motivated.

I guess I'm a bit more interested in the Middle East tho, because of the potential for what the Israel-Palestine-Hamas-Iran situation could turn into.  

My latest paycheck wasn't as good as the previous one. I expected that, however, for I was off too many days. In fact, they still haven't updated the tablet, I have no idea what days I will be working this coming week, which is a bit unusual for this company that normally loads the thing up with work going on 10 days in advance.  

I keep watching CreditKarma for they are the best source of loans that I have found - anywhere.  So far, the best offer is 17.9% on a 5 year loan for 20k.  That is actually much better than any of the other offers available.  I've got offers in there for 32k loans that have you end up paying 28k in interest.  So, yeah, no.  The feds have indicated they aren't convinced about inflation and that they aren't yet ready to start lowering interest rates again.  What a jacked up system.  Make us pay!  I wonder why the federal government should have that much control over  the monetary system to begin with.  

This nonsense all started with COVID, people getting ridiculous amounts of "free money" and spending trillions of dollars in "covid relief" stimulus.  The government spends ridiculous, unbelievable amounts of money we don't have on a crisis that didn't need that much money thrown at it, tells people to stay home while they're at it and then...we have the mess going on now.  Oh, it's the best economy in 40 years! ...they tell us, while completely ignoring the fact that interest rates have skyrocketed, the cost of groceries are forcing people to use credit cards, the cost of energy has also skyrocketed....etc....ad-infinitum.  

I'll get off of that soapbox, I am watching the news and most of it is forgettable but there are snippets of the Israel protesters are universities, cops being killed and the Trump trial going on. OH! and let's not forget giving Ukraine 6i1 BILLION dollars!  Zelensky is NO friend of the US, btw.  

Anyway, what's up now?  Meh.  Collect money from the new guy, check my book to see who owes what and see if I can find the other new guy/wife and discuss what's next for them.  The amount that is deducted from their rent relies solely on the amount of work he will do.  

I haven't seen any signs, whatsoever, that the grass seed I put down is coming up. At all and anywhere.  I will be inspected the entire area again, but it appears that $83 is down the drain.  Ahh, so yeah. 

So, I may take the John Deere tractor offer. Maybe.  I need to see when that shed is going to be paid off.  That payment being redirected towards a tractor payment would cover about 2/3rd's of the monthly payment and coming up with the rest would be relatively easy.  I'm waiting for the next statement to come in from the loan company for the shed, I throw those things in the trash as soon as I get them and didn't check what the payoff date is the last one that showed up.  I think it's getting close, like 5 or 6 months.  

The fact of the matter is: I need some kind of earth moving equipment out there.  Endless renting may work, I guess, I'm still weighing the advantages and disadvantages.  If I could get a tractor with a backhoe attachment, this would help greatly.  Trenching becomes readily available without renting a machine every time.  

Honestly, to, I'd rather get a new vehicle.  Not new new, but something a little closer to the year we are currently in. That thing is 13 years old, a gas guzzler and tho it's been pretty reliable, the the seats and the carpet is getting bad and if I'm going to keep it, I'm going to have to have it reupholstered.  The exterior is still in great condition, a few small dings from people opening their car doors against it.....

A tractor payment would come out of the business account, but a car payment would be personal finances.  It's not really in the cards right now, I'm just dreaming I guess.  

I really just need another 15 lots out there.  And a swimming pool to draw people in there.  

And with that, it's getting close to departure time.

G'day

 A fun day.

Church was good and the message really got me to thinking about my relationship with the Lord and also the end times.  He didn't specifically say or intone that we are in the last times, I have had my own thoughts about that tho.  Really, what it boils down to is, whether Christ returns in our lifetimes or not, are we prepared to meet our Maker?  Because it's going to happen regardless.  I pretty much got lost in thought and had to resurface to take in more of the message.  

After that, to Applebee's.  It took about 30 minutes to get our food. For that place and considering the place was nearly full (which is miraculous in itself), I was pretty happy about it. Our waitress was attentive and returned often enough to check on us but not too often, if you understand that.  It is actually just as irritating to have a server coming back too often as it is one that doesn't come back often enough.  This was the bartender serving us tho, even tho we were nowhere near the bar.  Either they were short handed or the GM was just making sure we were getting half decent service - yes she was there.

At the end, I did tell the waitress that I wanted the comp meal. She gave a weird look on her face, comp meal? Yes, this meal is free, just ask the GM, she knows about it.  Maybe 5 minutes later she came back with a receipt, it was $70 which is actually more than we usually spend there.  I tipped the bartender more than 20%, I'm not going to stiff her simply because this was supposed to be a free meal.  I really don't stiff servers at all unless it's really, really, reeeeaaaalllllyyyyy bad service.  And if it's that bad, the management is going to be called over, which I rarely ever do either, excepting in this case where I spent an hour and forty five minutes waiting for my food - which never arrived.  

I think most people would agree waiting almost 2 hours for food, being told 3 times during that wait that it's "done" and still not arriving, that you would probably walk out of the place and you would have a beef with whoever is responsible for it.  Or not, we are all different and we don't all have the same gearing in our reactions to things. 

After that, we went to the "Touch A Truck" festival. It's where businesses and government entities bring their trucks and rigs.  Fire trucks, ambulances, school busses, all kinds of police vehicles, hearses, other kinds of rigs and all kinds of tent booths set up giving kids free fidget toys and candy.  We stayed there for 3 plus hours going to every single booth and truck. My legs gave out on me and the boys were finally getting tired at the end as well. We had found a large area in the grass where they had wands that you dip into 5 gallon buckets filled with water and liquid dish soap to make floating bubbles.  They did that for quite a while along with dozens of other kids before they finally got tired of it and agreed, yes, it's time to go home.

Didn't matter, they were all tearing everything down and leaving anyway. 

Home.  Watched a few movies, kept getting asked to watch kids playing video games, so attention divided between the 2 and now? 9 pm, going to bed in an hour or so.  I don't have to get up particularly early since I have the late load and the plant is none too keen on people arriving there too early, they'll just make you wait.  I figure to show up there after noon, maybe around 12:30 or even a little later.  So, yes, I don't need to get up early for that. It's an hour and a half to the washout, usually around 30-40 minutes to get that done, 35 minutes to the plant from there.  

Oh, and yes, that dude did indeed show up to the park today, trailer in tow and parked at lot - 4 I think. Doesn't really matter, just didn't want him at lot 1.  I never went over there today, no need to and was too busy taking it easy. This week, I have no idea beyond Monday and Tuesday, unless they have updated the tablet, one moment please.....play some Jeopardy music.....oh my, I left the thing in the car. I guess I'll have to go out and get it, I always check it the night before and the morning of any run.  They change it too often and don't give a head's up.  I do want to work tomorrow, well, I don't want to work, I need to work, let's clarify that. 

I definitely didn't want the late load. Oh well.  

Reservations keep coming in for 1, 2, 4 day stays.  This is great. Almost tempted to leave 2 spots open for short term stuff.  We'll see.  If the demand picks up, I will leave 2 spaces empty, excepting now. If another person wants to come for long term, I'm giving the other available spot out, for I know more people are leaving soon and I will need the people in there.  

Which reminds me, I guess I need to get that tractor back over there and do the driveway yet again.  Hands are tied on that one, can't leave it like that. So, $800 about to get removed from the account for earth moving equipment rental. The tractor and the mini ex.  I'm just going to wait until they do, for unknown reasons, not give me anything for trucking for 2 or more days and get that stuff done.  I might be able to get that new guy to help me with the underground wire installation.  

Enough. Going to bed soon.  

 Sunday mid-morning, just a bit before we have to leave for church.

Well, we don't have to.

Did I say that these lunatics that talk about people shooting them with lasers all the time were at it again yesterday?

I didn't?  I get a phone call from an overnighter. He's been there before.  He says this man named Bill came over and demanded to know why he shot his wife with a laser?  The guy, of course, is dumbfounded and has no clue what he is talking about. "Well, you're the only ones that just came in here, it must have been you".   "I'm going to call the owner and he's going to have a talk with you". "I'll talk to the owner myself".

So, he calls me.  He was laughing, which was a good sign at least.  He has a sense of humor even tho these people completely serious.  He said he was leaving until late tonight and hoped they wouldn't be back. I replied if they do, call me and I'll deal with it.  

Those farmers? Are lunatics.  I'm sorry, but the government isn't just going around hiring people to shoot you with lasers.  They think everyone is poor and broke and the money is too easy to say no to, so these absolute strangers - and we're talking a lot of people at this point - are shooting them with lasers because the government wants them to.  

Yea. I don't believe the government has our best interests at hand, either.  Most of the people running our governments are selfish, greedy and power hungry. They become corrupted quickly if they aren't already.  Some go in with good intentions, but, "the love of money is the root of all evil". At the same time, I doubt the government has some covert operation against a couple of retired farmers, if it did, they would be dead by now.  It's gotten to the point I am going to have to address them and I am quite sure they will leave, if not at the time I say something, certainly when their rent is due again.  I don't know what happened to these people to believe that everyone, literally everyone, is out to get them...

I'm already facing several people leaving soon and 2 lots available already.  But, I won't trade mine and other's sanity for money.  People will come sooner or later, one is allegedly moving in today.  I did put up a Facebook ad.  It's received quite a few hits, hopefully I can get this dude and maybe at least one more person right off the bat and then run another one once a couple more lots are cleared out.  

Yesterday was quick and easy, in a relative sense to many other times going up to Gurdon and offloading.  The product was coming out quickly, at least for that trailer and I was out of there in an hour and a half.  On other trailers, I would have been out of there in an hour or less.  But, whatever, I got home early, before 1 pm, so no worries there.

Tomorrow is a late load day, unfortunately.  They know I like the early load but they give me a late load once a week or so now.  It doesn't matter, I need to go to the yard in Eldo, drop the trailer, switch trucks and then go up to Gurdon and offload.  It might be there a few days them trying to get things straightened out on that truck.  I want the AC fixed once and for all.  But, the air bag is leaking so heavily that one of the tenants was walking by it and sent me a photo of the tire next to it, telling me it is leaking heavily.  

I thanked him for his concern.  I was more interested in if his new neighbors were causing any problems? No, I've met them, he replied, they seem like nice people.  Ok, well they have little yip dogs and I asked them to ensure that the barking be nipped in the bud.  He replied that there is some barking, but it isn't bothering him.  Ok?  

So far, the new guy has mowed the doggy park, the large lot 1, lot 2 and I think lot 3. He's swept out the amenities shed and that's all I've seen so far. He has not washed his trailer, I will be asking them again to please scrub it down. It's not a huge trailer, but it's very dirty.  Spend the hour or 2 it will take to clean it up, it will be good to go for quite a while.  

Anyway, church en-queue and then Applebee's. I haven't been back since the ordeal where the boys didn't get there food for over an hour and ten minutes and I never got my food after an hour and forty-five minutes.  The GM assured me they will comp my next meal.  We'll see, but I won't be exposing myself to that kind of service again, if they can't have my food on the table within a half hour's time, we will get up and leave.  Even half an hour is too long, but I feel that's giving them enough time to get our order taken care of.  

And as it stands? My clock has run out. It's time to put on my shoes and get out of here.

Happy Sunday. 

 Friday - early

It was a good day yesterday. 

Got up early, saw the kids out, got on the road about the same time they would be leaving the school. I knew I would beat them, I didn't realize I would beat them by almost an hour.  No biggies, just sat out in the parking lot in my vehicle and then decided to mosey up to the entrance and wait for them.  I had no idea that there would be several other schools showing up from all over the place. 

Once our busses showed up, we went in side, bought a few souvenirs and then headed into the arena.  Huge affair, looked like a light, powdery sand on the floor where the performances were done, there were hundreds of people in there at least, the place was full.  There was lunch waiting at our seats which had a long, narrow strip of counter top running in front of the rows of seats for your food and drinks.  

The boy wanted a drink, so I got up and waited in line. The performance started while I was out doing that, I didn't miss much. It was some dude on a horse in the middle of the arena facing the King and Queen, the Queen seated on a large throne, the platform they were on near the ceiling at one of the ends of the arena.  

Some actors came out and there was a skit done about bullying.  But, of course, they took that portion too far and went into DEI.  Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness. These are alert words, you hear any of that you know you are being exposed to pure, unadulterated wokeness.  It was disheartening to hear all of that and wondered whether the entire show was going to be like this?  The message about bullying was ok, the rest of it was ridiculous.  I then assessed - well, this is  Dallas, a leftist bastion of socialist/communist ideologies, not surprising you are going to hear such nonsense here. Just one of the reasons I refuse to ever live in a big city again. 

They got done with that s*** and then the real show started, fortunately and thankfully.  It was pretty cool. They had actors on horses - well versed actors that had obviously taken the time to learn their parts and also hone their sword and jostling skills - and they did the entire show on different factions "fighting" each other for the championship title.  Yes, the place is divided up into 6 different groupings, wherever you are seating, you in one of those grouping and your knight in shining armor represents you in the arena.  

 There were skill sets, fighting sets, horse back agility sets.  They were using real, metal swords, by the way, these were not wood or plastic stuff. The sparks from when the swords clashed against each other proved that, which gave the whole scenario a heightened sense of reality, like: this isn't fake, they could actually do each other real harm if they mess up and accidentally hit each other. Not that I would want that to happen, but it added to the authenticity of the event.  

I was imagining what this place must be like filled with adults and getting rid of the "school" style talk, this show was definitely geared towards kids, but, it was a lot of fun regardless.  The boy had a blast, I was egging him and others on to cheer on our knight. The instructions online stated the more you shout for your knight, the better he will fight!  

I can say that 2 hours of it was about the perfect length.   By the time they had all of their skill sets/fighting scenes done, I was also done. Oh, well, during this time we ate our meal which consisted of a half chicken (small chicken, lol), half a small baked potato and a half piece of corn on the cob.  After that, they brought around some garlic toast, very delicious and after that, they brought some large, prepackaged chocolate chip cookies.  I ate one of the 2 in my package and gave the other one to the kid, who happily devoured 3 of them.  

Fortunately, my pep talk on not being able to go home with me worked, he was all happy when we left, but mostly that was because I let him take his newly acquired sword and shield and lighted cup with him.  

The drive home was uneventful even if the road is filled with idiots paying more attention to their phones than the road and acting like morons cutting people off all over the place. That's on the Interstate, driving in Dallas is the same as driving in any other big city: it sucks.  I'm well versed in it, I don't miss it at all.  I just let people do their thing and enjoyed my ride home.  I sort of pushed the speed limit a bit, will freely admit, I was following along a small group of vehicles going a wee tad faster than posted signage allowed for.  

Got home, relaxed.  I never did go to the park yesterday, but I did note on the security system that the new people were cleaning the amenities shed and mowing grass. 

I made dinner which consisted of reuben sandwiches, quite delicious if I do say so myself. Taylor agreed, we have somewhat same tastes in food, tho I love onions and she hates them, lol.

I ended up going to bed early, 8:45 pm.  And for once, I slept through the night, only waking up once and quickly getting back to sleep. The sleep monitor app said my sleep was "average", balderdash.  I slept quite well and I feel pretty good this morning.  I think it counts snoring against me.  When I'm tired like that, I will snore quite a bit.  It said I was snoring well over an hour and also a very minor amount of sleep apnea.  

The reason I got the app was to see if my problems were related to sleep apnea.  I almost never show any of it on there and if it does show some, it's because I'm wasted tired when I go to bed.  Never more than a minute, couple of minutes at most. But, I guess they think snoring isn't so great either.  

Never-the-less, I am ready to hit the ground running, so to speak, get down to Nac, get the trailer washed out, get over to Lufkin, load, come home and then see what this dude has done.  They are clearly looking for reduced or even eliminated rent rate.  My only beef so far is the trailer is dirty.  It's in good shape, but it's covered with dirt and mildew.  Please clean that.  

 
Thursday - early

They just left for the school bus. We decided that the bus would, indeed, make it to school on time and that would be that.  It is much easier for him to take the school bus instead of being dropped off, for dropping them off means going to a street near the school and sitting there and waiting in a long line.  You've seen them, I don't care where you live. If you're near an elementary or middle school, the parents line up in very long lines well in advance of picking up or dropping off and sit there...and sit there...and sit there. So, it's not a huge chance, Taylor has an app that shows where the bus is at.  As long as it makes it there by 7, we are good.  I am not leaving here until around 7:15, another hour off.  No need to, they aren't leaving until then and I will easily beat them there. 

I can safely say that unless stranded on the side of the highway, I have never been passed by a school bus lol.  Not that they drive slow, tho, just they aren't cruising at 75-80, which is the speed limit out there once you get past Longview on 80.  For some reason, all the towns along the I-20 corridor starting  at the state line and going to partially into Longview voted to agree with TDOT to lower the speed limit to 70.  

Yes, I'm sure that will force all the idiots to start paying attention to the roadway in front of them! Lower the speed limit by 5 mph!  I listened to that session of city council. The police chief made a 1 minute presentation and without any questioning, they voted for it.  But, that's the way this town operates.  They make a lot of stupid decisions that cost a lot of money for not a lot of return and ignore the glaring elephants in the room. Things such as a 70 year old water and sewer transmission system that is falling apart.  Residential streets that are in horrible condition.  

Anyway, the kid started getting extremely  pouty because we decided not to take him to school. After explaining how much easier it is to take the bus - he just gets on, they pull right up to the school and gets off versus the waiting scenario described above? Didn't matter. That is when we both said oh, well you don't have to go then.  You don't have to go to Dallas at all.  That changed his mood quickly. 

"I wish I had never said anything", he later stated.  Yes, you need to learn how to switch that s*** off and quickly.  There was literally nothing  to get upset about.  I figure him saying "I wish I hadn't said anything" is a good learning experience for him. There are times when you should just keep your mouth shut, think about what you are saying and what the implications of what you are saying might be.  There's a time to speak and there's a time to be silent.  It's a learning experience.  Anyway, he is already at school and it's well  before their departure time, so, I'm going  to sit here, relax, sip some coffee and do ---- nothing.  

He has been informed a couple of times now that he won't be able to come home with me after the event is over. Apparently I would have to go through a background check and that they didn't think it would be done in time.  Yes, I've gone through several of those types of checks for my CDL, the hazmat part of it, concealed carry and TWIC card.  It can take months for them to do that stuff.  Not because it takes particularly long for them to go through your files/history, just because they are backlogged.  The CCW took many months before they finally approved it.  I don't really understand how a person that is designated as a person that can actually pick the child up at school can't also take the child home, but whatever.  It's a better experience to ride in the bus with other kids his age and continue on learning social skills.

I was looking this place up.  It appears you dine in an arena where they have jostling events and sword fighting.  It looks like a lot of fun, actually.  According to maps, it's 155 miles, 2 hours and 33 minutes. Almost guaranteed it will take me 2 hours and 15 minutes or less.  I don't stop for anything going to Dallas and the speed limit is high almost the entire route, the only thing that would hold me up is heavy traffic/accidents.

Well enough of that.  The new people are moved in, whether they stay or not is entirely up to them and their behavior.  I am quite sure I made it crystal clear about certain things yesterday, we'll see if it pans out.  Because if it doesn't, I have no problems confronting them and even getting rid of them.  I have no problems getting rid of anyone in that park if their behavior is unacceptable. It doesn't appear like there will be problems, but you never know.  I'm just hoping that this offer to mow grass and stuff actually works out, I don't mind giving substantial cut on lot rent in exchange for a good amount of work.  Weedeater and lawnmower work would save me a lot of time wasted in engaging in such things and could focus on other projects. 

Or just being lazy at times and doing nothing at all.  It would be nice to have help with the power line project.  Or having someone hold the ladder while I'm up 20 feet installing the router at the top of the pole.  I haven't done that yet for I haven't felt like it.  It's just another thing to do in a long list.  Mostly, I was waiting for the rain to not only stop but also dry out so that that concrete would harden.  

So many things to do over there, always.

And with that, departure time draweth nigh.  I want a nice thermos full of coffee to sip on on the way over there.  

G'day