Monday - evening

Today took as long as I figured it would.  I had to drop my normal trailer at a washout in Haughton, LA and pick up a different type of trailer for this other material, which is hazmat btw, something I haven't hauled in quite a while.. Yes, I am licensed for hazmat, took the test not terribly long ago and is the reason I am hauling this stuff. The 2 drivers that normally haul it did not pass the hazmat test.  I get it, a lot of tough questions unrelated to what we do, a lot of trick questions...but....if you study, you will get enough of them correct to pass. I studied for 2 or 3 days, I can't remember now, I just remember taking endless sample tests until I felt confident enough to take the test.

Even the morning of taking the test I was sitting here taking even more of those sample tests.  Whatever the case, I had to pop out a plug and take a cap off of a delivery hose and they were stuck on there. That ate up 10 minutes alone just trying to get them off.  I had to drop the trailer and hook up to the other one and do a pretrip. I had to take the paperwork into the office to get my normal trailer washed out while it's sitting there.  It took up much more time than I allotted for that stop so I ended up being about 14 minutes late to the appointment time.

The plant said nothing about it, they just said they're ready for me to come in and get loaded. So, I went in after weighing the truck on the scale.  Lo and behold....one of the hazmat placard holding brackets? was completely gone.  Like, the rivets were broken off.  I don't normally look at those things during a pre trip. It's nothing that you really think about, they're there, right? Even the loader at the plant said he didn't know what to do, he'd never encountered that. This coming from a person that does nothing but load hazmat product all day long. 

I had an instant answer: just tape it on there.  DOT isn't going to care, they just want it on there.  He said well can you get back in your truck and I'll go discuss it with  others.  He was gone a long time, I was dreading him coming back and telling me I would have to have a new bracket installed. That would meaning driving 45 minutes one way, 15 minutes to get the thing installed and 45 minutes back.  Next thing I know? He's coming back on a golf cart with a very large man who had a roll of the wide, clear tape in his hand. Like 2 inches wide.  They taped the bazookas out of that thing and it wasn't going anywhere. 

Loaded quickly after that, thankful I arrived when I did, for when I was pulling out of the loading bay, there were 2 trucks sitting behind me.  

The yard is on the way home, sort of, it's a few miles out of the way but nothing too serious, so I stopped there and had the mechanic install a new bracket. It wasn't even 10 minutes.  3 hours later - maybe a little less I dunno didn't time it - and I was back at my park and the day was over.

Tomorrow will take less time, Ennis is only 130 miles and a lot of the driving is Interstate, not these back highways that are set at 55 mph in Arkansas. 

There is a problem here, tho.  I filled the fuel tanks on my truck up in Lufkin 2 days ago and then drove straight back to my place. It's about 99 miles.  I was looking at the fuel gauge this morning, it was between the half tank mark and 3/4's tank mark.  There is no way I used that much fuel in just 100 miles of driving. That's between 40 to 50 gallons of fuel, gone. 

There are no leaks coming out anywhere, I looked. The machine is running fine, if it were gulping fuel, it would be belching black smoke. It's not doing that at all. The only leaves theft.  And there is only 1 place that stealing that much fuel can occur: at my RV park.  The truck is not left unattended hardly at all when I am on the road and definitely not long enough to steal fuel. Besides the fact that who is going to steal fuel at the fueling aisles at a truck stop? Or in a plant yard? 

There is another truck driver in the park and that person is an OO (owner operator).  But are they thieves? I really don't think she is. She works, works hard and I just have a hard time considering she would steal fuel from me - but - I am not a very trusting person anymore after as many screwings as I have taken from people I have given some amount of trust to, so yes, she's on the "person of interest" list.  But it is just as plausible of an idea that a thief could be driving clear down that driveway to the truck in the middle of the night or something and stealing it while no one is looking.  What with people using that dumpster for so long that don't live there? It's absolutely a potential culprit. 

I dunno, but the fuel gauge is way down from where it would normally be, even after today's run. This was to Crossett, AR and yes, I've made that round trip several times.  I would still be above half tanks, of which I am not.  I'll have to fuel tomorrow. I thought about doing it today, but today was long and I know tomorrow should be easier and  at least a couple hours shorter.  Just seems better to do it tomorrow than today.  

Anyway, no I didn't mow the grass today.  I was too tired.  I didn't sleep too great last night and I spent 10 hours doing this run today. I am  hopeful I can get back earlier tomorrow and spend at least a few hours doing it. However.... one individual in the park took it upon himself to mow several of the lawns.  It  looks great! Might even give him money off his rent  for doing it. I dunno if he's looking for that, they don't come off as poor people, but I might make the gesture anyway.

Trump is playing a lot of people. I mean, he's toying with them psychologically.   Germany's chancellor Merz for one.  Trump says he's pulling out 5,000 troops from the 32,000 member  base we have over there but that's not all, he's planning on pulling "a lot more" as he stated it on a news clip a few days ago.  Germany claims they are not shocked and were "prepared" for it.  Yeah, well I haven't seen Germany inviting the US out of there.  If you get my take on it, Trump is playing a well stacked hand here.  He can pull troops but he can always bring them back.  If the Chancellor doesn't tone down his rhetoric, tho, they should be prepared for skeleton crew of military personnel at that base in the coming future.  

Trump mostly does what he says he will do and so far has done most of what he said he would do concerning foreign nations.  Now, the left are arguing that Trump said he wouldn't get us into any new wars.  Yeah, he said that on the campaign trail. Know what else he said on that same-said campaign trail? He'd "blow the hell out of them" instead of kicking the can down the road.  Trump has made it crystal clear from loooooong ago that Iran cannot have nukes, period and definitely not under his watch. 

I am not a warmonger and I don't particular care for it, but there are times it's necessary.  You can not argue that WWII wasn't a necessary war.  Well, now some dems ARE arguing against it, I guess we should just let foreign countries invade or country and we should just what, get on our knees and throw our hands up with white flags waving around? The HELL you say.  These people are stupid and I am going far off topic...and I don't have a lot of time here. 

There is NOTHING new about Iran declaring that both Israel and the US should be destroyed, annihilated, decimated, turned into sawdust - you get the picture and the regime in power over there have been saying it ever since they came into power.  It isn't a full blown war, at least not yet and not sure it's going to go there. I mean, we haven't sent in troops on the ground.  We aren't trying to take over the country.  We are, from what I read into the lines and have heard Trump and others say, giving the Iranian people some sort of chance of retaking their country from these evil tyrants.  

I don't know if that will happen, the IRGC is pretty bad-@$$, at least to civilians they would definitely come off like that and do civilians have any armament and ammo to feed those arms to even fight such a civil war? I have no idea.  I can't even guess.  Just no clue. I do think civilians are beyond tired of living lives under tyranny.  

I'll tell ya what tho. I don't believe the IRGC holds a candle to U.S. training, superiority, leadership, team work and armament.  I just don't. I don't really think any nation comes close to the expertise our military has.  That doesn't mean I think they're invincible, history shows us that even the mightiest armies can be brought down by small numbers that are outgunned/weaponized.  

And now we have the inevitable showdown in the Strait.  Yeah, I don't see Iran winning with those puny little boats against a Navy destroyer escorting ships through the region.  I could be wrong, I guess, but the Navy has already eliminated 6 of their little boats and I'm sure more to come.  

Anyway, it's almost time for bed. I can say something on a different note here.  We went to the taco event Saturday and then I went to church the next morning.  Worship was great. I was sitting next to some people I have become quasi-friends with. Mostly church, but we have talked on the phone a few times now.  He was giving me fist bumps - the worship was really awesome I must say, God's presence was there I do believe.  

But then, the service over, a man behind me said something about how many tacos I had eaten the day before. Like had been hanging out with us. I looked closely at this individual and I can honestly say I don't remember seeing him there - or anywhere ever before.  He wasn't being ugly, it was a friendly gesture so I decided not to spoil the moment and we got into a conversation about it like we were old friends. It was - different. I'm not going to say awkward, just different, I can be very social when I want to be.  I bid him a good day - he was there with his family so it wasn't just some dude by himself (like me lmao) - turned around and took 2 steps and another man stopped me.  

And he wanted to talk.  It was the guy that had gone AWOL on parking lot security.  They stand out there on the kids night services to make sure drivers are going slow and letting pedestrians cross the driveway without getting run over.  I listened to his whole story - I am also a good listener - when I want to be - he has artery problems in his legs and he can't stand up for long periods of time. I empathized with him on that one, obviously he can't do that kind of duty with that kind of condition.  He wanted an ear to hear him out so I gave it to him.  I'm not saying I'm some sort of saint, it was just quite different than the end of most services where I get up and leave without talking to anyone but perhaps the people I am sitting next to. 

I am not attention starved, I am not lonely but I wouldn't mind making some new friends. Why not?  It was just so strange that I had all of these encounters like that and these people were seeking me out like they had been waiting to talk to me for some reason.  Like, what was that all about? Other people were saying hi and generally, I felt like I had a billboard on top of my head saying "PLEASE TALK TO ME".  

Rest assured I didn't lol.

Time for bed.