Trump wins the election!

 Wednesday - semi early

I stayed up until around 11 last night, wherever the election was it, there was still no declared winner.  What I had noticed, however, was where several states including the battleground states had shown Harris winning, that had all been erased and Trump was pulling out ahead.  

I woke up around 4:00 AM,   maybe earlier, and there it was. "Trump projected to win".  

Now? I am watching even leftist news media declare it was a "red wave" and a landslide.  Pointing out states where it is usually a vast win for leftist and showing this election where it was actually close, such as New Jersey.  

It is time to bring some semblance of sanity back to governance and how we deal with citizens.  It is time to close the border if only temporarily to stop these caravans of illegals coming up here, being invited in, flooding our border towns and then moving on and flooding small towns all over the US.  

It is time to get rid of these illegals involved in criminal activities.  

It is time to open up the drilling permits for oil and gas.  I don't know about the Keystone pipeline, if that's been permanently abandoned or if it's just sitting in limbo?

And finally, we will be back on the world stage.  Russia and China will stop taunting us, Iran will stop provoking us.  We will be definitively back on Israel's side, backing them at every turn and doing whatever we can to help them win the war. 

We will not hear the end of endless leftist whining and calling Trump and his supporters racist, Hitler, Nazi's, etc.  it didn't work for this election, even though they were hammering that message.

It is time to end identity politics, DEI and wokeness, especially in this nation's military.  I would be shocked if you didn't see an immediate end to people being given free trans surgeries.  Promotions based on merit, not on a person's declared sexuality, minority status, pronouns, or other agenda that promotes or accepts people into positions that they are not qualified to be in. 

Will we stop spending beyond our means, ie: the federal government being given trillions more than the IRS is taking in?  I don't know about that.  

I for one am exceedingly happy that this election and all of the vitriol is finally over.  I am even happier that Trump won.  Harris would have been an unmitigated disaster.  

It's the dawn of a new day. 

OH would it be wonderful if along with this the country would turn back to the Lord our God!  

 Tuesday - evening

It was raining heavy this morning when I left to go to the truck and it stayed that way down to Nacogdoches, where the washout operator had to work out in the pouring rain. Left there still raining and down to Lufkin. It stopped shortly after I got there.  I also got a phone call after leaving the washout:  They don't want the load I am getting tomorrow, they'll take it Thursday.  

Don't really care one way or the other having 46,000 pounds of glue sitting around, it's not hot so it won't start drying up right away - but if it did, not my problem. 

I got back and went straight the voting center.  It took me maybe 3 minutes, voted Republican straight down the ticket and that was that.  

Besides taking the boys to get their hair cut and eating dinner when we got back, I did nothing else with the rest of the day. 

Now? We sort of wait for election results, tho I really don't believe we are going to see the winner until tomorrow at the earliest. Late tonight at best.  Unless someone is going to walk away with it in a landslide and that certainly doesn't seem possible what with the polls showing a dead heat.  

2024 Election Eve Night

 I find it a bit disheartening so many people fighting with each other over this election. I don't mean complete strangers, I'm talking people who know each other.  Whether it's "real" friends or Facebook friends, or other internet social media connections where people have known each other for years or even over a decade. 

What is going to happen tomorrow, or actually, whenever they determine who the winner is? One FB friend posted on her timeline: "In case anyone needs a reason to delete me, F*** TRUMP!".  Another tells everyone you shouldn't own TV's and they don't like either candidate (which is fair enough).  Then Christians bickering with each other. 

I've done my share of debating about this, but not really with people I know, excepting making a statement to a particular person who got on my FB after I made a post about this upcoming election. I consider her a friend. We may not be best buddies but we've certainly known each other since JS (Journalspace) days.  

The thing about this whole situation is, is that all of this hatred, anger and vitriol has been created - and I believe intentionally - by think tanks and media elitists and politicians who want civil unrest, who want the citizenry to be at odds with each other.  This kind of thing is straight out of the pages of Marxist Communist Manifesto.  

I don't think the outcome of this election is going to change any of the hostility that is being goaded by those who have the ears of the media outlets.  I think it will worsen 100 fold regardless of who wins.  

I just shrug my shoulders. God is in control. There is plenty of scripture to back up the idea that whoever is in a position of governing, and usually referring to kings but it applies to whoever is in control of any given nation, that person is installed there by God.  That none of what is going on in any particular place with whoever is ruling or governing isn't there by accident.  

Simply because one candidate represents evil, or appears to anyway, doesn't mean that person isn't the choosing of the Lord. He sees the end from the beginning, the entire thing is all laid out before Him.  We don't see that and we cannot understand that. That is where trust comes into play, you trust the Lord to do whatever is in accordance with His word and for the ending He is looking for and has already decreed.  

Not some mere mortal man or woman.  

So, if Harris does indeed win, I have to trust God that that is His will and it will somehow bring glory to His holy name and expand His eternal Kingdom.  I'm not voting for Harris, I will say that here and now.  Unless I get something from the Lord that tells me to do so - vote for her that is - I am voting for Trump. Not because he is a saint, he clearly is not, but then again, neither is Harris.  I'm voting for Trump because he will take back the rightful position this nation has in this world, including standing up for our ally Israel.  Harris has proclaimed her sides.  She may say she's anti-Hamas, but she also stands for this idea that Israel is somehow committing genocide against the Palestinians.  The war over there is not targeting innocent civilians by choice. 

But, even if the US didn't stand with Israel at all, a thing I hope never happens, God is still sitting on His throne and He will have His way regardless of what any nation or group of nations standing together in defiance have to say or do about it.  

That's it.  It is election even night, literally night time.  I will vote after work tomorrow.  I'm not going to lose my mind if Harris wins and I am not going to be gloating if Trump wins.  This is not a time for that.  It's going to rain and there is going to be thunder much of the night if the forecast is even remotely close to being accurate.  

So, I'm going to go to bed soon and not worry about what tomorrow brings, the Lord specifically tells us not to do that anyway, certainly with things that are completely out of our control.

G'nite

 Monday - semi-early

I woke up in the middle of the night last night. This is not at all unusual for me, but this was different.  Something was bugging me and I couldn't figure out what it was.  Then something hit me: jury duty?  Wasn't it this week?  I couldn't just lay there wondering, so I got up and started looking for the envelope with that info in it, couldn't find it.

Then remembered I had snapped a photo of the paperwork, found it in my photo library on my phone and sure enough: this morning at 8:30 am I am supposed to show up at the county courthouse and do whatever. Probably be released from what I've heard endlessly, not that many people actually end up on a jury.  It hit me that it was jury duty today because I thought, this is why the manager gave me today off and other drivers are going back to work today.  

So, in an hour I'm leaving here for the courthouse. It's maybe 5 minutes away.  I'm very close to downtown, fortunately.  

I got quite a bit done on my room the last several days and happy. It feels clean in here again. I was getting pretty lazy about cleaning and now that I have it back up to snuff, I'm going to keep it that way.  What started me on it was the dog smell in here. That dog gets down into the soil and rolls around and gets all kinds of dirty.  I can't stop him from doing it and he sometimes comes in here smelling like a sweaty horse.  

I have more to go - papers will take quite a while and I need to go through the closet and clean it out.  The bathroom has been scrubbed completely excepting the shower stall. I will get to that today.  

Anyway, we are sitting in election day eve.  All of thise horse-hockey will be over with at least temporarily.  I don't wonder if there will be lawsuits filed by either side concerning outcomes in certain states and asking judges to overthrow whatever, wherever.  I don't actually expect to see a winner declared tomorrow night. I'd love to see that of course, I just don't think it's realistic.  

Meanwhile, I posted a somewhat lengthy dissertation about what's going on right now with the election and such on my Facebook feed and an old internet friend from JS days got on there and blasted me for watching Fox news.  She then posted something that stated she's sorry she got so emotional...but...

People put buts in their apologies they aren't apologies at all.  My FB feed is purely friends only, btw, I don't allow random strangers on there at all, too many trolls and too many people with ill will.  So when a friend on Facebook blasts me and comes out swinging from the gates instead of attempting to have a civil, adult conversation about it, I tend to get a bit annoyed.  I started a reply but it got wiped out because I accidentally clicked off of Facebook. I will get to it later.  I can write 50 paragraphs out of memory concerning all kinds of issues regarding this election, the major players and the events that have occurred and what led up to them.  I don't fall for propaganda, I research things out.  Or, more often, just wait things out until the truth of any given situation comes out.  While people blast Fox News for being their own version of propaganda, I don't hear these same people blasting CNN and the rest of the alphabet outlets for the Russian collusion hoax - and it was clearly identified as a hoax once all of the facts came out.

The problem is, those facts didn't come out until well after the aftermath of it was already done.  The Clinton Foundation, GPS Fusion and Christopher Steele. Or burying the Hunter laptop story and censoring republicans on social media for "misinformation".  This is the communist utopia the left wants and if it weren't for a SCOTUS controlled by the right, they would have gone to hell and back with their intentions to control the narrative.

Look at what the left has tried to do to stop Trump this election season.....

I was going to do the early voting thing but it's too late now.  The polls will open tomorrow morning, I will get to it in the afternoon after work.  I suspect work will take longer than normal for the tanker has been sitting 4 days and will be 5 by the time I get to the washout.  I  am going to move the truck today close to the hose at the park and do a preliminary washout to get the stuff watered down at least and hopefully come off of there tomorrow relatively easy. 

Realistically, it will cost around grand to buy a Yurt tent, build a platform, fill the tent up with higher quality stuff, get the electricity over to it and likely going to have to install an outdoor bathroom as well.  I dunno what I'm going to do, I'm just sitting here wondering about this loan situation and whether I should even go that route....I decided I would at least try since the contractor went to the trouble of producing a quote for all the materials and labor involved.  

I have 2 people that "for sure" are going to move in and another that is staying a month starting a couple of weeks from now.  If those 2 move in, they are super long term. This isn't a month or 2 thing, it's a "permanent" setup.  

I think I made the right decision about holding off on the rye grass.  I need a good week of cool weather and abundant rain. We have had some rain, yes, but it's been spotty and not regular enough to keep grass seed moist. There is a chance of rain today but there is a slim chance tomorrow.  I don't want to wait forever but I do need to see a 7 day period where at least 5 of the days have a solid chance of rain in the forecast.  

______________

Many hours later.  Went to the court house - there was no parking within a few blocks of the building.  They brought in literally hundreds of people for selection.  I got in there, fast forwarding, judge says these things are disqualifying, one of them applied to me, I got up, went before the judge, explained the situation from 42 years ago, he said it doesn't matter but asked if it happened in Texas? No, he immediately dismissed me.  He said better safe than sorry.  Left the court room, got my $20 for showing up and went to IHOP for breakfast.  

I sort of wanted to be on a jury, but at the same time, I didn't want some "thing" to pop up and have a judge asking me why I didn't disclose it.  So whatever. Had an egg-white veggie omelette, it was quite delicious actually.  No cheese, no yellows, no meat, trying to keep the fat and cholesterol down.  Over to the park, fired up the truck, watered down the interior of the tanker then over to the bank, and then home. I was going to stop at Starbucks but decided it a waste of money.

Now? I'm sitting in my bedroom about to start clicking pics of receipts and get caught up on that and then dig into what I did wrong (very much unintentionally) last year and try to fix that.  Those errors are actually existent now, it's just that now it doesn't matter, tax time is far enough off.  I am also sort of watching news coverage of the election.  Trump is stumping in PA, MI and NC today, Harris is doing it at 4 locations in Pennsylvania.  

No one has no idea who is going to win this thing because it's such a tight race that all polls are showing within margin of error. I am still predicting Trump wins the electoral college but may not win the popular vote. If that occurs again, the left will call it an illegitimate election and engage in the same s*** that they accused the right of doing.  They've done it many times over in the last several decades, they just don't like admitting it.  Hypocrites. 

_____________

A person called and we got into a long conversation.  People have dogs and they want a place to stay that allows them.  Fine. Are they vicious? Aggressive? No and no.  I can bring them by if you like and you can meet them. They are looking for a place to stay for "2 to 3 years".  I dunno if that will pan out or not but I'd put them at the back in end lot away from people as much as possible.  Then there's the nurse moving in in "2 weeks".  And then some other person called plus a person putting in a 3-1/2 week reservation in the system.  

Anyway, this one has gone on long enough.

 Saturday mid-morning

Completely forgot about a new bible study they are doing on Saturday mornings - I probably wouldn't have gone anyway.  I'll hit church up tomorrow but I doubt I'll go to any adult meetings either.  Just not there yet. How long before you do go to one of those meetings?  I don't know, couldn't possibly tell you that. 

I'm in the middle of a lot of thought processes going on and kind of distracted from everything else as it stands.  Do I try to get the SBA loan? Do I go for 25 more lots or is that pushing it too far? Do I have the covered sites installed with them?  I"m done with that question, if I'm building new sites they are going to be covered.  I don't care how much money it costs, this is a no-brainer at this point to me. If people don't want covered lots, I have plenty already that aren't. I also told them I want meters on every new site - electrical meters that is.

It would necessarily need the money for an above ground pool setup and a hot tub.  Add 30k to that bid.  I'll need another laundry room, another 10k for the facility and probably another 10k on top of that to build out the interior.  I can get a 16X40 structure for 9k, actually.  Built on-site.  I'm thinking of going down on the number of new lots to 15 or 20 to reduce that cost and add this other stuff onto it. And I want a glamping site.  

I've been reading the forecast for glamping it's steadily rising and will continue to do so for several projected forecasts going to 2030.  I've got the Interstate that will start being built next year, that will take some of the pressure off of all the competition around here and hopefully fill up my existing spots.  Workers come in from all over the place and I've seen it repeatedly that they bring their trailers and stay in them during the week and go home during the weekends.  

I'm definitely going to fill out the paperwork and at least give this a try.  With my current credit stuff going on, they may very well deny the loan request even with a ton of collateral. I'm prepared for rejection, if it doesn't work out, there must be some other direction I need to think about going with it.  That's what I get into my mind anyway.  

I'm still stuck on this glamping thing tho.  I need to either clear that thing out of my mind or actively work on getting one set up. I've seen some pics of the nearest glamping setups and they are not pretty.  Just a plain Jane setup inside with a couple of beds,  a couple of stands and nothing else.  I don't see how that is appealing.  Didn't appear to have electricity, heating or cooling either.  You're not going to get people in the younger generations in without WiFi, cooling/heating, cool decor, set it up on a platform, microwave, snacks, ability to order doordash or Uber eats (both available here now) and other things that make it a pleasant stay for the market that wants all of that stuff and more.

I already knew this, reading the reports only further strengthened that belief. Roughing - it camping is not near as popular as it once was.  People want a resort like experience which can be provided in the confines of a glamping tent for no major amount of money.  

Regardless, I saw the boy over there showing a person around yesterday.  It was an older lady asking about all kinds of stuff, I don't know what possessed that boy to do that, but I'm not going to tell him not to do it.  It was on a recording on the inside camera, he was very respectful to the lady and that was that. I've still heard nothing, tho.  I also met an older couple at Applebee's yesterday - yes I "cheated" by eating out but it was the $11.99 lunch menu and it was only me. We had gotten into a long conversation and they asked about the price at my Park. 

Their son is moving to the area to go to school and they are going to put him up in their trailer.  happenstance works sometimes. I've had other inquiries as well, tho nothing solid yet. 

Still have those 3 back-in lots that I have been having trouble getting filled.  Interestingly, someone reserved a space for 4-1/2 weeks starting at the beginning of next month. Unfortunately, the system only took a $2 deposit? I've got paperwork to do and I might get more of that done today.  It's snapping pics of receipts and then they automatically get entered into the expense column on quick books.  

I have nothing major planned today. The boy isn't done fixing that tractor to my dismay, I'd like to get more done with it. I'm going to push him to get that thing fixed this weekend so I can at least spend Monday on it.  Although I don't really want to, I may have to build another shower stall in the amenities shed. The existing stall is getting major use and apparent conflicts with people showing up at the same time.  

The problem is that it won't result in any new customers, it's probably a grand to build such a room - a small setup, perhaps I could do it cheaper and it will be tied into existing plumbing and hot water, so no bid deal there.  Still, it's money that could be used for some new venture.  I'm going to price out glamping setup and see what the overall cost will be.

And I just saw that I have quickbooks set up wrong and am going to have to spend significant time attempting to get that ship righted.  I never said I knew what I was doing, apparently my inputs when I set it up were completely wrong.  It's showing expenses out of my personal checking account - no, lol, that's not correct. It should be showing gross receipts out of the business checking.  Well, I caught it with enough time to correct it before tax time anyway.  

I may have to go through the bank account and search out all transactions to correlate them with the quick books set up. Good thing my current setup is small, this will take some time to accomplish but think if I had 100 spots, lol.  Oh, well I would have an accountant anyway, I guess that wouldn't be an issue. 

Oh, and Dish Network. Contacted them yesterday for the account here in Texas.  Yup, I want to cancel it.  The amount of pleading they were doing  was crazy, lol. At least it was an American citizen or if not, they certainly fooled me with having no accent whatsoever and ability to speak fluent English.   I said I might consider it if you give me the channels I want and ditch the rest, I am no longer going to be paying for this setup at the rate you are charging me.  So, in the end, $100 per month was taken off, the channels I want were given and I'm much happier.  By doing it the way I did, I won't have to add Paramount to my smart tv and can probably ditch Hulu as well. That only leaves Netflix, which is cheap and I have been thoroughly enjoying the vast selection of movies they have on there.  

I can't do that with the house in AZ, they just need to reduce it back down. It's that or I switch to Directv.  It's that simple.  They don't give what you want, you just switch to the other satellite company. Its a major appeal for people living in the house, I can't disconnect it but I can demand they bring the price back down to acceptable levels.  I'm ever so happy to have dumped Cox communications over there for internet. My internet bill is is over $160 less per month now.  Besides getting the satellite bill back down, there isn't anything else I can think of to get costs down over there, it is what it is.  

Apparently the name of my park leads people to believe that I am some sort of park designer. I get these calls from people wanting to build rv parks and they tell these fantastic stories of the hell they are going through trying to find information about the permits they will need and how to get started.  I do give them a general overview, it's not like I don't have an idea of how to go about doing this regardless of the size of park a person is wanting to build.  Big, small, in-between, your first step is going to the county (or if you're building in city limits, the city) and asking for specific information about building the park, the sites, the water, septic and electric, what permits if any will be needed.  You have to identify where your source of water and power are coming from and if you will need a septic system, then call a local installer, have them come out and they will usually have a wealth of information that you can pick out of their brains of how to go about doing it.  

Before you even design the park, you have to identify if it's even feasible  with all of aforementioned things and costs. 

The man was clueless and just wanted to pay someone to do it for him.  I'm nowhere near him otherwise I would have offered my services for the first thing I'm doing is going to the county building and asking questions and staying there until those questions are sufficiently answered.  Then I'm calling the power company, looking up all the septic installers in the area and not only asking them for bids but also asking for info on other contractors in the area who can handle the rest of the project. That's how I did it and ended up with one contractor who did everything.  

You ask enough questions and sooner or later you are going to run into someone that is knowledgeable and is willing to share some of that knowledge.

Today.  Have no clue.  It's after 11:00 am already, lol. I started cleaning the bathroom, that's what I'm doing atm.  But, I'm going to have to fix this banking stuff to be able to get gross receipts for last year.  My tax return is wrong, apparently, tho I know I won't owe them anything it isn't correct either. I may have to fix everything and offer an amended tax return.  I had far too many expenses last year that outweigh the income. This year, much different. Lots of expenses but nothing like the first year in operation.  

Anyway, they are likely going to want to see this stuff and I want it correct before I go there with them on that.  So, that's my current mission alongside going through paperwork and also cleaning up the room to less cluttered levels.  I'm really bad about throwing things away, I won't do it because I think I'll need that info later on down the road or I'll need that "thing" for future use.  Lol, yeah it lends to a collections of things.  I only have one room, I have been getting better about throwing things out tho.  Taylor is my role model in that department. If it has no immediate use and she is in the "let's get rid of stuff" mood, it's going into the trash can.  

I think that's enough contemplation for now.  

This was yesterday - Friday forgot to post it. 

 

It's clean-out-the-bedroom-so-it-doesn't-smell-like-a-Great-Dane-Day. 

Yes, indeed, it is. In fact, I'm going to town with this.  His old bed is ridiculous and need to be replaced.  I will be heading to Ollie's later on plus getting a throw rug for underneath where he feeds and replacing his bed. I guess I could feed him outside, unlike Addler who would eat, step away, eat, etc.  Then the raccoons would come and eat his food. 

Obie? Not at all. He inhales his food.  So much so - now that I think of it - not a good idea outside feeding. He needs to lay down after he eats to let his food digest.  I don't need stomach bloat otherwise known as a twisted stomach. 

Anyway, I just went over all the main travel areas of the carpet. The water coming back out was dark brown for quite a while.  It's actually something I should probably get a pro out here to do with a van, but I think I got it clean enough.  I had to refill the water container many times over just to do what amounts to a small area of carpeting.  

I am not going to do anything about the loan today. I need to sit on that a while and think about it, pray about it, ponder, meditate, whatever, all of it.  The question is: is an additional 30 years worth of debt going to be worth it?  The answer? I don't know yet. I don't have all the variables and won't until I see if I can get the project financed and what the terms will be.  Only then will I be able to say yes, I can make this work or no, I not only can't, it doesn't make sense.  If the profitability doesn't end up with me being able to either quit my trucking job completely - or - work my trucking job until debt is paid off - it simply makes no sense and back to the drawing board. 

Well lookit there. It isn't even noon yet.  I've gotten a lot done this morning, thankfully. Not outside of the house, I have only wandered out on the back porch today, haven't gone anywhere and wasn't thinking about it until now. Ollie's has a 15% off coupon that I will be taking advantage of today.  Their dog beds are low priced as it stands and I might get some area rugs for where the kids walk back and forth.  

Oh, I said I wasn't doing anything about the loan, that doesn't mean my mind will be going down all the rabbit trails, the paths of what if's, the analytics, the hmm, if I do this, what will be the end result? Hmm, if I tweak that, what will be the end result?

You know what I can't determine? If 76k worth of covered parking sites will be worth the money. I think it will based on observations of other rv parks that have full parks.  But those are other areas. What if that doesn't pan out here? How does one conduct a feasibility study? I will be researching that today.  Well, I don't really need to do research, I need to do a survey.  Who do I survey? That's easy, RV'ers. But when venue do I use to survey them? And how do I go about doing that on a local level? I can easily access giant RV forums, but those are people from all over the world. 

I need a survey pinpointed to my town/region. I also don't want any competitors to see this survey, if they do, they may start thinking about upping their ante to match me with an amenity that is, as far as I have seen it, highly desirable.  Trees are good too, but they don't actually protect your roof. They give shade, but they don't actually elminate sun damage and they don't stop water from coming down on it during rainy season. And we have a pretty vibrant rainy season here.  

So, do I gamble not do a survey or do I do the survey and hope they don't see it? Or, if they do see it, hope they don't want to put that kind of money out?  And/or do I just do a survey in a group of hundreds of thousands of rv'ers to get a pulse of what I might expect? The last one is a good place to start, I think.  You can pay a marketing agency to do such analysis, but that costs a lot of money. I don't want to spend my cash on this. 

Meanwhile, this lady got me sold on the idea of getting a Go-Pro, mounting it on the dash and post the stupid things people do in traffic. Oh trust me, I could post at least a couple things every day I drive.  I could post more than that, but I would probably only post the outrageous nonsense.  Put up a video, put some stupid statement on it in letters over top of it, get the subscribers and make money? I have no idea but it's worth a shot. I see a lot of other truckers doing it and many of them have no clue what they are talking about or what they are doing.  

Oh, yes, I would boost it.  Pay the money initially to get it out there.  

 Friday mid-morning

I got my trailer ready to go and headed over to a church where we were all going to meet.  There was a bunch of people, that 16 foot trailer was full.  And it was a blessing because otherwise? There would have been a lot of walking.  It's just what it is in this area where you will find several houses together giving out candy and then have to drive a pretty good distance to find another one . 

But we found plenty and the kids were having a blast.  It was much better than last year where we went to a different neighborhood and for whatever reason, most of the houses weren't giving out anything.  Previous years most of the houses on certain streets were all participating.  I think a lot of people weren't doing it this year because the cost of candy is ridiculous and people aren't exactly prospering right now.  

Some friends spent $150 on candy and by the time we got to their house? It was all gone.  I did my part by offering the services of giving everyone a ride.  Slow ride of course, 5 mph or less excepting at the end where it was obvious that everyone was out of candy or weren't doing it at all and the houses were all dark. Then it was 10 mph to get back to the church.  

We also went to another person's house that was with us - her dad - who gave the kids candy and handed out free pizza to everyone.  He had a 10 foot tall - monster I guess? lol - on his front yard.  Looked like some version of a Frankenstein mixed with an Undertaker.  I have Christian friends who are vehemently against the idea of Halloween, which is fine, I don't celebrate demons, witches and the like.  Churches give it a different name and have fun activities while still promoting Christ above all things.  In this regard, I believe my heart is right. Just like people opposed to Christmas because Christmas trees are evil and a bunch of other stuff. Or Easter Egg hunting.  

That was last night.  Now? I have been cleaning my room.  Between dog odors and just a general sense of clutter, it was time to clean.  In fact, I think I may get out the carpet cleaning machine and clean the main travel areas.  It doesn't look particularly good, needs a good cleaning.

But it was time for a break.  Papers papers papers.  Ridiculous amounts of papers, throwing lots of it in the trash can.  

The bid finally came in. Bids actually.  When I saw 140k, I wasn't particularly surprised.  It's 25 lots and it's a lot of materials.  But, scrutinizing it, it became evident that none of the electrical was included in that price. So, I searched for another email from them, couldn't find anything.  

The contractor texted it to me, not shocking either, tho a lot more than I'd like to pay for this entire setup. 

The highest cost item? I knew what it would be before seeing it: gravel.  80 truckloads of gravel.  346k

1,200 tons of gravel or 1,200,000 pounds of gravel. Why? Because there are 25 lots worth of new gravel, an entire new driveway and covering the entire 1,400 feet of existing driveway.  Yup, I knew that would be high and I knew electrical would come in second place at $42,500. Oh, the gravel was $67,000.

So, we add up the first and second bid, then add the cost of covered parking (separate contractor) and the balance left on the land itself and we come up with $319,850. At 10% rate (that is what I found for SBA business loans, not sure if that's correct) on a 20 year note, the monthly payments would be $3,086.62.  I pay $441 now for the property so deduct that and the added amount to my monthly expenses would be $2,645.62.

Let's continue down this road of math.  Take the lot rent I charge and multiply it by 40 and you come up with 16,000 gross revenues for a completely full park.  You really don't calculate for that, that is optimal, I have had it this year for quite a while but currently I'm 3 lots empty.  Take out the $3,086.62 and come up with 12,913.38.  I'm going to be tripling my electric bill so take a realistic average and still have $8,413.38 left. Add around $300 per month water - people don't really use that much water I have found out, plus another trash dumpster, that would be an additional $170, plus another $300 for wifi and we come up with a total of all those items at $770.  That leaves 7,643.38 left.  

Now, let's say I can keep it 85% filled.  Take off an additional amount and my net revenue to put in my pocket before taxes is 5,242.38.  Unfortunately, you have to figure that you are going to need some help.  I ain't doing all that work myself, but if I could find workampers  I don't pay them anything and fill up one of those unused spots that I took out at 85% occupancy rate and not adding any electric or anything else since I calculated all of that at a full park using it and I still have...$5,242.38.  

That is around what I was taking home with my previous job - working 14 hours a day, 5 to 7 days a week, hardly ever home, etc.  

But, let's be realistic and take out the taxes and health care coverage.  

Yup, I'm not sure this is a workable deal after you do the nuts and bolts of the math and come down to where the rubber meets the road.  

My current electric bill is around $1,100. This is where I could make something back. Because I had meters priced on all of that installation.  Have a couple of tiers of rates. One full price with electric and one lower priced without electric, separate bill the guest has to pay all by themselves.  Electricity is by far and away my biggest monthly expense, nothing else even comes close.  

Oh, I could keep working, the thought just entered my mind.  Work until my credit card debt is paid off and get rid of that burden and then living on rv park only income becomes more feasible.  I'm not paying health care out of my pocket if I do that and work until I'm 65 (Lord willing that I live that long of course) and then it makes more sense to take a deal like this and get it done. 

There are things that could bring more money to my pocket. First is the interest rate.  Obviously, the lower the rate the better the monthly payment. Second is the loan length. 30 years would bring the monthly payment down by over $500.  Third is simply keeping the park full.  That adds over 2 grand per month - but that is hardly guaranteed, just a thought with those covered parking spaces and different pay options, I might be able to get it to capacity and keep it "relatively" full.  If I could get people to pay their own electric, even reducing the monthly rate still results in increased revenues.  The other thing is to just have the ability to know how much electricity people are using. If I know that, I can approach people that are using excessive amounts of "free" electric and ask them to ante up - or they can find greener pastures elsewhere. 

Mitigating the electricity department would really be key to success or failure, IMO.  And the ability to "steal" long term guests from other parks.  This would include amenities that aren't calculated into any of that.  Those are risky beyond the covered parking which I truly believe would bring people in for they want their units covered.  They no longer have to worry about roofing issues, it's worth extra money and yes, now that I just remembered it, I would be charging extra for covered parking. If it's going to cost me 76k, you can be rest assured that some of that is going to get spread to the guests and I believe guests are willing to pay extra for that kind of amenity. 

Pools and hot tubs? who knows.  

Oops, forgot that my insurance will go up with added spaces. Don't know how much.  And if I add amenities, that jacks up the insurance rate as well.  Property taxes would probably also go up, but at that point I would likely hire a lawyer to go in and attempt to litigate any excessive raise.  That or figure out how to get exemptions.  I don't have enough room for cattle, I own too much property for ...

Wait!!  If I cut the property in half, that would definitely have a net overall reduction in rate.  Why? Because 7 plus acres would be the RV park and the rest of the 25 would be undeveloped land.  Less acreage on the rv park will result in less property tax even if they increase the value for the fact of the RV park alone. 

I have a lot to think about, obviously and I haven't made any decisions and I don't even know if I will qualify for a loan.  It may be that they want me to get rid of a lot of credit card debt before they will entertain a loan. On the other hand, I have a lot of collateral to put up. If they factor in what it will be worth after the upgrade, it is going to be in the 800k to 1 million range.  You give a lendee 350k and have that much to back it up?  I dunno how bankers think, tho, not my expertise.  I'm definitely not factoring in a down payment and will not do it. Not with the property itself as collateral.  

I'd actually like to get more than the amount I listed above for the loan to cover things that I didn't think of when I built out the park. There are a lot of expenses you don't understand you will come up against when building a brand new park. I'm not talking about pools, if I do that you add at least 25k if  doing an above ground setup - that is sunk partially into the ground and decking, fencing, gate, etc.  If adding an above ground hot tub - that's whatever the tub costs and they are all over the place plus a concrete slab and some sort of gazebo to cover it plus fencing and gate.  Or, if you have a pool and a tub, you put them all in the same area and then you are only doing one fence. 

Again, I have a lot to ponder here and I still haven't filled out all of the paperwork to start the SBA loan process. It's going to be hellish if they feel like they can get it through, I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the onslaught of explanations and details they will endlessly ask.  Why are you in so much credit card debt? Because I didn't have enough cash to finish out the project, can that be added to the loan?  Lol, I will ask that even if I have the feeling they will tell me no.  They'll ask about my house, my trucking job, my debt, what I have done with the property, want to look at all the financials - which is basically log into my quickbooks account and look for yourself.  If you want receipts, I have piles of them, look away! lmao.

I'm done here. I'm going to get out the carpet cleaning machine and do the main travel areas of my bedroom carpet. 

G'day.  

 Thursday - mid morning

I'm fully admitting it here: I blew my plans up and just stayed in bed.  After 8 days of working, many of them very long days, not just work but everything else going on, I had had enough. Might as well sleep in, laze around, do whatever I please.  

I was going to do the grass seed today and it is going to rain in a couple of hours - but - it's still getting too warm day time highs for rye grass.  And tomorrow there is a low chance of rain, meaning the seed could get wet today and then dry out tomorrow. $250? down the drain.

No, the only plans I have today is go to the Park, put the outside camera on the charger, get the SUV and bring it home. And probably get a couple hay bales if I can find them in town and not too expensive.  Well apparently the local feed and seed has "quarter bales" and from what I'm seeing on the internet, they aren't very big.  I'm gonna have to go over there and lay eyeballs on them - but I'm waiting to see if anyone responds to my post in the local gossip group.  

I just need a couple of "regular sized" bales, whatever that is.  

It's raining again, on and off here, but the forecast says it's going to stop before we are going out on the streets. Of course, the forecasts have been wrong so many times around here, it gets a bit ridiculous.  

It's also a perfect day to go to IHOP and have breakfast, so..I'll stay home and make a sandwich lmao.  I'm trying to behave in the going-out-to-eat department and I have done pretty well so far with one exception going to Applebee's with the boys.  I looked up what I was spending on eating out and it's a bit on the ridiculous side.  Like wow, I didn't know I was spending that much money on that stuff.  I can buy a lot of food for that much money!  Fill up freezers.  

5 days off including today.  I dunno, but I can tell you I am perfectly content just sitting in my bedroom. But, I need to get some stuff done including a haircut, a trip to the bank and other "things" that take time that I don't want to do but need to get done.  Oh, the court house for sure.  Not today tho, I need to switch the title to Texas on the truck and I am just waiting that one out for as long as I can.  Why switch now when I can wait another couple weeks? The longer I wait, the longer it will be next year to re-register.  

I bet there aren't too many people at Great Clips right now and my hair? Yikes! It's growing all directions, I look like a white-headed freak show right now. Even putting that glue-like stuff in my hair isn't taming it.  

When I arrived at the plant today, it became obvious why they are shutting down for several days.  They have a huge number of people that showed up to install a new roof on that giant facility.  

The thing that really got me, however, after being there 30 minutes offloading, is another one of our trucks pulling up behind me.  Huh? I was told yesterday that I was the only one loading today, why is there another truck there? And what is it doing there so early?  The real kicker is this: there wasn't enough room for another truckload in that tank after I was done.  So, if I had shown up just a half hour later, that person would have been in my way and would have cost me untold hours waiting until the tank was low enough to drain a truckload into it. 

 

Yeah, not real happy about that, these other drivers just don't care and that's that.  

Another thing of amazement is what's going on right now: It's raining!  Today was supposed to be a very low chance of rain, but late this morning I noticed that they had it raining between 3:30 and 5:00 pm. All nice fine and dandy, but it's only 2:00 pm and it's supposed to go on through 5:00 pm. 

Well I hope it ends then for the church is doing it's annual fall fest - it's an alternative to trick or treating/halloween stuff - which allegedly starts at 5:30 pm.  

I'm so tired. I have been all day long. I thought I would wake up after a good night's sleep, apparently not.  It does seem to work out this way that after many days of hardly any sleep, I'll go into a deep sleep and then the next morning, I'll wake up in a fog and that fog will either take quite a while to go away - or it won't go away at all.  

Yeah, it hasn't gone away at all and I'm going to take a nap and get back at this blog later. 

________________________

It has been confirmed that Allen - the former park host - was drinking as much as 3 6-packs of beer per day, had liver problems and had a hernia before he died on Monday. Yes, you read that right: 3 6 packs of beer per day.  I am in no wise judging the man, to each his own.  You want to drink that much beer, that is your choice.  I don't believe the outcome of it is going to be very good if you do it for a long time such as he was.  I knew he was drinking beer daily, I didn't understand the scope of it until today.  

I really don't know how the family is taking it, Renee didn't sound good or bad on the phone, rather neutral. The son, no clue, the daughter is  in prison.  Like, for years.  

The boy - 18 year old at the park - is finally working on his tractor.  The blades are very dull and I basically demanded he get it fixed. I have stuff to do on that thing and I can't do it with blades that aren't cutting anything. They are so dull they just go over the weeds and beat them down to the ground, they don't cut them.  It's probably my doings but whatever.  This is a rent-for-use-of-the-tractor arrangement tho I think I'm going to use the thing a while longer and then dissolve myself of that arrangement. I need the money from the lot.   

Fall Fest in a few hours.  It's been raining and now they have upped it to raining up until 7:00 pm. Light rain, I dunno if they're going to have their outdoors activities or not. It was supposed to be bouncy house, hayrides, etc.  We're going, if nothing else they'll do it indoors.  I guess?  

___________

Many hours later. Keeping up with kids is quite the exercise in futility, or so it seems.  I took them to church - there were a lot of people there. These were people that don't even go to the church, the church made the advertisement to the entire community.  It was packed, the entire place and it's a big church.  One booth to another to another, we did all 27 booths.  Yes, there were 27 of them, plus a bounce house.  Had a small dinner of a hot dog and chips, things on the no list for me but oh well, I've cut back so much on fat and red meats and cholesterol laden foods that I am not going to feel bad eating something here and there.  

Anyway, I am worn out. That after working all day and getting other stuff done.  It is not likely that I will be getting up early in the morning, but who knows? Tomorrow is going to be more of the same - at least in the evening for it's Halloween and everyone is going trick or treating. I am going to pull my trailer around neighborhoods so there isn't so much walking to do.  I've done this a couple years now.  Just put along a few miles an hour.  There is going to be a large number of people going together.  I was thinking of getting some hay bales for people to sit on, but only if they don't cost too much.  

Oh, yeah, they're cheap but they're 30 miles away lol.  There is a store selling them, the same store that sells the grass seed, I might stop in and see how much they want for them.  

I'm done. Getting late, time to go to bed. No work tomorrow, don't have to get up early tho : )

 Wednesday - early

One thing is for certain: I slept like a baby last night.  Much needed sleep. I woke up a couple of times but I fell right back asleep.  You give me 7-1/2 hours of good sleep and yes, it will take a while to wake up out of that, but once I do wake up? Oh myyy the things that I can get done.  

Headline news: "Biden calls Trump supporters garbage...".  Senile old man, losing his mind, was always given over to bouts of anger.  They have plenty of clips of him getting testy with people who are standing around him at any of his "rallies" or visiting plants and such.  I'm not trying to judge the man, maybe I just did, he needs Jesus.  He can claim his Catholicism all he wants, it's just religion.  Not saying there aren't saved Catholics, not at all, but in his case?

I'm not God and I don't make those determinations, but out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.  You'll know them by their fruit.  And other scripture that helps determine where people's minds and hearts are at.  Biden is angry, I am supposing, because he gave up his nomination for another 4 years - which he clearly would not be able to handle if he even lives that long - and Harris is edging him out of the campaign.  Harris is, in my estimation, as useless as Biden but she is the presidential nominee for the Democrat party.  

In fact, I consider them to be evil people.  I also know that God loves them and wants them to come to Him, through Christ, the Mediator between man and God.  They have made their choices, however and they are glaringly obvious.  Especially abortion.  If you want to find out why people do the things they do, follow the money trail.  The love of money is the root of all evil.  You'll find the abortion industry is extremely lucrative, they make billions upon billions of dollars every year in killing innocent babies.  

I don't care who it is, tho.  If they are off, follow the money trail.  

Anyway, it's Wednesday, it's still early, I'll be getting out of here soon and heading up to Gurdon for the last time until next week when I am scheduled to go back to work on Tuesday morning.  I haven't quite decided what to do with the time.  I'll figure it out, but there is probably going to be some time spent seeking the Lord.  I spent some time studying that HOA overview for this and previous years since Covid and came to the conclusion that one of the ways to get more customers in? Get them from other parks.

I need to offer something that other parks don't have.  Well, the price is one thing of course, but that's not everything. Some people are willing to pay more for more amenities or whatever they perceive as a "better" place to live.  It's just a thing that will be floating around in my mind,, I have other thoughts after reading that report as well, but I don't have time for that right now.

G'day

 Tuesday - 7:45 pm

Washout - 23 minutes in and out of there. I thought, wow, this is great hope the rest of the day goes like this!  It did not.  I got to the plant and waited over an hour and a half before they even got to me, then they were doing "something" back there and disappeared for another 25 minutes and then finally got to me.  It was almost 3 hours in there where I am normally in there an hour or less.

Oh well, it happens.  I get fuel and am driving back and see a call from Allen - Park Host, you know, the one that left to go work near Austin and his family came to take over?  Hey Allen, how's it going? I said into the phone when I answered - yes I was using bluetooth, perfectly legal to use while driving.  

The female voice that replied was obviously not Allen. Hi Ben, this is Renee (Allen's wife), I wanted to call and let you know that Allen died yesterday morning.  

I mean....huh....what?!!  There was a bit of silence on my part after she said that for I had to digest that for a few seconds.  He wasn't on his death bed the last time I spoke with him, I wondered why he hadn't returned my text message.  Well, we are going down to Austin, his body has already been transported there, do funeral arrangements and take care of things.  I offered my apologies, condolences, sincere respect and said do whatever you need, take all the time that you need.

I then asked what happened to him, considering he was - well not perfectly healthy but certainly not dying the last time I saw him a few weeks ago and talking to him on the phone here and there.   She said he had actually come up to the park on Sunday - which I didn't know, his whole body was swelling up and his family told him he needs to go to the hospital.  He refused but they persisted.  

So, they took him.  His body was shutting down.  He had sepsis - from what I still don't know I didn't want to get too carried away with personal questions - his condition got worse overnight, his kidneys failed and he died Monday morning, yesterday.  Completely shocking, didn't see that one coming. I knew he wasn't in good health, you could tell that by looking at him.  He also had a severe hernia which he was going to get an operation on I think next month. 

We weren't best friends, we had hung out quite a lot tho before he left to go to work.  I'm only saying that because this is the third person this year that I know that has passed away.  I'm seriously hoping I am not on that list as well.  I mean, to the point I was asking God today if He could find it to give me at least another 20 years of good life and preferably without Alzheimer's - which runs in my dad's family lines.  I even asked Him for a sign, I didn't specify what or even that he "has" to do so, just a respectful request.  God is real and I have seen Him in operation many times over, especially when I was serving Him on the mission field in my 20's. 

They then contacted me and asked if I could help out with funeral expenses, so I sent some money. Not a huge amount but I felt like it was the least I could do.  He had no life insurance and he was broke besides the money he was bringing in from his job.  As far as I know, that trailer in my park is the only thing he actually owned, he didn't even have his own vehicle.  His wife has an older Ram pickup, it's in decent shape.  

I have no idea what this means for them in my park, I didn't ask or even think about it at the time but I'm thinking about it now.  Are they going to stay? If so, who is the son going to be accountable to since he's gone?  I know it sounds dreadful to even be pondering such things, but they don't know about this blog and therefore I have no problem discussing it in my mind out in writing, so to speak.  She said they'd be gone 5 or 6 days and I reassured her again that I completely understand (which I really do) and take as much time as you need.  

If I want that grass seed scattered, I'll have to do it myself tho I was planning on it anyway but was going to ask for a little help from the kid.  I want to do it myself for I want it done right, or at least done the way I want it done so I know that it's going to have a good outcome.  

As it stands, I have work tomorrow and then I'll have to decide whether I am going to go have the tanker washed out or take it back to the park and spray the inside walls of the thing down myself with a garden hose.  I'd do that at the plant but they don't allow you to get up on top of the tanker.  They won't even allow flatbed haulers up on the deck of their trailer to deal with tying down the load and putting the tarps over it if it's a load requiring tarps.  Well, you can tie it down on the property, you can't tarp it.  It's impossible to tarp a load on a flatbed without getting up on the flatbed. 

BTW, I don't make demands of God. I just ask very humbly and if it's within His will, great, if not, then there's something else He has in mind and I'm ok with that too.  I just feel like I have a purpose still being here on this earth in this human body and I'd love to stick around a while longer.   Any of us can click off at any time and this is a direct reminder, at least to me, of that fact.  

Politics. It's gross now.  Just repulsive. I don't get how these politicians believe that lashing out like some of them are to the point of even using vulgarity and extremely hostile speech is going to motivate voters to vote for them. It's a huge turn-off to me.  Democrats are desperate, they have been for a while. The polls have shifted in favor of Trump so now it's no holds barred, apparently.  Blacks and latinos are starting to turn on them, the unions have been turning on them, some democrat politicians have also turned their backs on Kamala/communism/extremism.  People are finally waking up, I think anyway, to the fact that their policies are not good for the common man/woman.  It is self serving to them and the elitists that are on the receiving end of their generosities.  

Anyway, if my sleep is good tonight, I'll go deliver the glue, come back, get in the Ford with the trailer already hooked up to it, go get 5 50 pound bags of grass seed and then go ahead and put it down.  I need that park nice and green again.  The seed is only $40 per bag.  That's still and amazing price. 2 years ago it was $35 per bag, only $5 increase in this inflation oppressed economy is not bad at all. It's a local feed and seed, everyone else is charging much more for it.  In my view it's a necessary thing to do to keep the place looking nice.

But, I was reading today on an RV manager's forum about the slow down that I have personally witnessed in my park.  I had no idea this was an industry wide thing going on.  It's the economy, stupid, I told myself.  That's why people aren't traveling as much. The stats showed that a majority of people are not traveling more than a gas tank's worth of fuel away from their homes.  He - this is an expert in the field of RV parks - noted a few other things and then said to reference the KOA ND camping report. I haven't done that yet, but I am going to. He specifically stated that a "new" style of ads needs to be directed to the new "audience", he called these new RV'ers that came about during the COVID crises.  

It is all very fascinating and I will be reading that report tonight or definitely tomorrow.  I have far  less travelers coming through this year than at this time last year.  I didn't know what to think of it. I really didn't know.  I sort of thought it was the new guy - but he's so far away from the Interstate that he's not likely to get a lot of overnight people coming in there.  I thought maybe someone has lowered their prices, but I am clearly the lowest price in the area for overnight stays.  Overnight stays are not my primary target grouping, but they can be profitable during this time of the year - I thought anyway if it was going to be the same as last year.

My target is long term/permanent.  Much less money.  The problem as I have already stated previously is there are only so many of them to go around to a pretty good amount of RV parks around here. The point? I have to get people to leave other parks and come to mine.  How do you do that? I really feel that covered parking is a good starting point, beyond pools and hot tubs.  

I don't want to go too much into that tonight.  I'm tired.  I slept maybe 5 hours last night - just another night of poor sleep - and then when I got home today I passed out on my bed and went into a very deep sleep, too deep. James came home on his motorcycle and woke me up - probably a good thing.  I might have slept for hours and then not be able to get to sleep tonight.  The thing is, during daytime and falling asleep like that? You are in a fog when you wake up.  

Finally out of that fog I will be able to go to sleep in an hour or so.  I have no drivers to contend with tomorrow, I am the last load as far as I know and I know for certain I was the only one loading today.  I believe after I deliver my load, there aren't any more going up there until Monday.  I am not loading until Tuesday.  I got lucky, actually, in having to do a full turn in one day, that's 2 days pay in one day's work.  

Time to get offa here.