Friday, May 25, 2018

So my pork ribs have now been requested outside of the house.  Lol.  I don't fancy myself a famous smoker in the future, but it's cool to have your food liked by people you don't even know.  `I actually have the weekend off and then on the road for 4 days going up to northern Ohio.  That's the place where the Ethylene was leaking out of a tube, into the cabinet and made me high as a kite lolol.  It's a nice trip and a bit of a different scene than the West Virginia and other runs I have been going on pretty much non stop.  There's even more places we go that I have yet to get sent out on .  I don't question it, not at the moment anyway.  Ann has a job of trying to keep long time drivers happy.  They "could" go work elsewhere, but at their ages, that would be a very unwise move considering their tenure and accrued benefits. 

Some of them threaten it anyway.  I get it, going through that myself, but this place isn't even in the same realm as that place I quit.  There is a good, decent, nice manager at the very least.  They get the cream of the crop runs. They don't even go to the undesirable places such as Cheniere, Pasadena or El Dorado.  Many of them live on the road. Great for them, not for me.  I'll take some of the crappy runs to get home more often. My paychecks are great, maybe not as great as theirs but I'm not spending months at a time out on the road.

Again, they like that stuff, they live it. That's their choice. My manager called me earlier: would you rather go out on Sunday or Monday?  I immediately said Monday, but if you have stuff that needs to be covered, I'll do whatever needs to be done.  She sent me a run going to Ohio for Monday, I don't have to be at the plant until 11:00 am.  That's a little late, I'd rather get in there earlier considering the amount of miles I need to cover before Wednesday morning, but I'll make it work.  If I get my own truck, I'd have to do a bit more running than what I'm doing now to make it work.

You know what?  I am making more money than I ever have, excepting a 6 month stint years ago.  I mean, I don't have to make $125k to be happy. It'd be nice to do that a couple of years, at a younger age.  I'm just not what I used to be. Things are slowly - slowing down.  I guess if I started working out again on a regular basis this wouldn't really be that much of an issue. 

Anyway, I have to sit here and think what I want to do with this weekend.  We have decided that Rene and Donny are coming over for a feast on Sunday.  Rene asked if we wanted to do one and she would do all the cooking.  Sure, why not.  Well, I didn't exactly say that, I had to float that by Taylor and James, Taylor had already had her asking her about it.

Tomorrow. Do I have a to do list or do I take it easy? I'm just coming off this sickness.  I mean, just starting to feel better.  I'm not necessarily interested in getting all huffy and puffy and doing stuff but at the same time, there is plenty that needs to get done.  I'll have to decide that tomorrow. I would rather take a 4 wheeler out and spin some wheels but the thing isn't working and I haven't had time to figure it out. 

Lol I dunno.  Just going to play it out tomorrow when it gets here.  I'm thinking I would rather go see a movie, if there are any worth watching, at the theater.  I mean, at the local theater, a matinee is $6 so if I got caught up in a lame movie, walking out wouldn't be much of a loss.  Funny that I used to movies fairly regularly until I moved out here.  Whatever the case, spending money isn't on my agenda, tho buying a pickup truck has also been swirling around in my head.  One in particular has my attention, but they would have to bring the price down for me to actually buy it.


















I spent 3 hours at the dentist.  We are going for all of it. The dentist said we are putting in one crown today.  Statement of fact, yes that was the original thing and then it spread to everything else on the first visit.  I said, well, let's go for as much of it as you have time for today. He looked at the info and said we could do the 2 cracked teeth and all 4 front teeth.  Yes, let's do that please.  I'm ready to get this over with, even if payments are going to last a day and a half next and half of forever.

3 hours of 4 sets of hands.  Mouth wide open.  Uppers deaded to the point there was no feeling in them for hours.  I haven't had dental work done - since my 20's actually.  I mean, I've been to the dentist but I haven't had any work done.  Just given costs for what they want to do and me thinking, I don't have that kind of money right now. I didn't have any credit then, either.

I truly hate going further into debt, but it was either get these teeth fixed or eventually have to have them pulled and implants.  So, 2 weeks into June I have an appointment to finish the 6 crowns, get fitted for the last crown and have all the rest of the work down.  "You are going to have to be prepared to be here for 3 or 4 hours again". That's fine, I said, I want to get this done.  He lines his pockets, I get the work done, capitalism at it's finest.  I could have probably found a place to get it done cheaper, but this guy knows what he's doing.  I've had enough dentists that don't know what they are doing or hand your off to apprentices/aides that have no clue and not enough oversight.  You pay full price for half assed work.  I'll just pay this time, thanks.

I'm going to have a sit down with my manager next time I'm in there.  What does it take to switch over to Owner Operator, is ti feasible in my case and can I do it whenever I want to?  Does the company have any trucks for sale, btw?  Just curious, lol.

I am going back to Cheneire tomorrow. I was given a choice of that or another undesirable place, so I took the one that has a "chance" of getting back the same day.  Unlikely, of course, but perhaps after the last fiasco and the man that runs that place raising hell over there, it might go a lot faster.  That doesn't change the attitudes of 2 particular punks kids working there, but I'm prepared to deal with that as well now.  And yes, I'm taking food this time.  Enough to carry me over a night if need be.  Just enough, but enough.

 Sunday - early 20 minutes until departure time.  I don't much care for delivery on Sundays for it takes a while to get security to the ...