Monday - morning

I kind of left the last post hanging. Got busy with stuff and forgot about it but eventually posted it anyway.

MORE parts for whatever ELSE is wrong with the truck were ordered and they had "no idea" when they're coming in.  After that, I will have to go get the truck and bring it back here where I live and take it to an alignment shop. Tentative plan anyway.  Things can and usually do change in this job.  

But, the biggest question is how they intend on getting me up there.  I did find that a greyhound will take you to Ruston, LA and then a taxi up to El Dorado. You can also fly up there from Longview, but that's 40 plus miles away and I'd have to find a ride over there after returning to get my vehicle back.  So I dunno.  Not my problem, they'll have to figure that one out.  Well it is my problem because I'm directly involved in it but it isn't my problem to figure out what to do.

Thankfully, the manager is back at work. He was out for a long time.  I think he was still doing limited work from home but it wasn't much and he wasn't, after all, doing any dispatching.  I did inform him I'm not his Ennis man and I want my Gurdon run back after I ever get back into a truck.  

So, who knows, I'm assuming some time this week I will be able to start working again?  Not that I want to, lmao, I could do this nothingness for awhile. But, there's bills to be paid and debt I am paying off. Personal debt, not business related. Well I take that back. I got into personal debt in order to be able to finish the business build.  

I was looking at loans to bring the rate down and they all suck. Yes, they offering much lower interest rate but the price is 72 month term.  That's ridiculous.  I have 3-1/2 years left on the current loan and tho I could cut the payment down by probably $400 per month, there would actually be no savings and even further loss.  Yes, because of the extended length of a new loan.  So screw it. Just keep making payments on the current one and eventually the light at the end of the tunnel will be visible.

Whereas, 6 years starting now would seem insufferable. I'd be approaching 70 by the time I get it paid off? No thanks.  Once I get that paid off, I will have very little debt. I have some credit card stuff, but nothing to get excited about. I actually had AI do the math on the payments, lol, I didn't feel like it but I guess I better verify with a calculator that I am indeed, going to actually save money staying in this loan versus a new one. 

Ok, my calculations show I'd save 3k on a SoFi loan that is 48 months.  All the other ones I had seen were 72 months so I dunno how they did that.  But, SoFi has a notoriously bad reputation on approving loans, changing the interest rate after they "promised" a lower one, difficult to find anyone to speak to and a list of other alleged issues.  There's so much negative reviews that I am not interested in trying to use them at all. CreditKarma only has them listed currently for loans on there, like 15 of them  but all are SoFi.  My credit score is well back into good territory. 

I had the guy out there removing the weeds next to the ditch. We're talking probably close to 400 feet total.  So yea, I'm going to go over there and check it out.  He said he was going to treat it with weed killer, I forgot to ask if he had done that.  Those particular weeds do not pull out easily. You have to cut them down.  

Anyway, I couldn't do any work on the expansion if I had wanted to with all those weeds in the way.  

The group has apparently decided that we are all going on a cruise.  Either next year or the following.  5 days I believe and I would assume leaving out of Galveston since that's the closest port. 

I started doing some research. There is a LOT of nuance to this business of finding a good room that isn't near casinos, restaurants, noisy laundromats, etc. AI was at least helpful in noting that there are only a couple of areas on a ship with balconies that are preferrable and it even gave a layout.  Aft rooms and mid ship.  Apparenty aft rooms are preferred by "pro cruise shippers" who say the scenery is spectacular.  

Also apparently the front of the ship is no good because of noise from wind and going out onto your balcony will not be fun, at all.  I dunno but I'm going to do a hefty amount of research before I pull the trigger on anything.  Carnival is apparently the low cost version but also low quality, especially the builds of the walls and cutting out noise from neighboring - whatever is next to you.  It was advised that we would need 2 rooms.  

There's all kinds of additional fees and expenses as well beyond the base fare.  I'm not going to go into all of that right now, I just did some initial research, I will go into depth at some point. Reddit probably has some good posts from travelers who know what they're talking about, not going to just rely on AI, it can be wrong.  I'm sure there are blogs and websites out there about it too.  It's going to cost a small fortune and if I'm going to do it, I want to do it right.  

I"ve been forcing myself to get up early to get used to such a schedule and I can tell ya, I'm pretty tired right now. Going to bed too late, I'm going to cut myself off at 10 pm tonight and make myself go to bed at a more reasonable hour inline with getting up early.  

Tentatively thinking about November trip to AZ.  Not sure about the particulars, I will probably stay at a hotel and use Uber/Lyft to get around.  My mom can barely see at all now and I don't want to disrupt her from being to find everything where she has it laid out in the house. I will undoubtedly spend a lot of time with her and help out with whatever she needs while I'm there, it really isn't going to be a vacation.  3 days I'm thinking.  

Or, I could go next month for her birthday.  

Anyway, I need to get some stuff done.  

G'day