Sunday - The Eternal Day

Today was the beginning of the second Ennis trip. I left out of the yard with the truck at 7:20 am, I just now got home. It's 8:10 PM. 

What happened? Well, this is what happened. I showed up in Crossett, called the control room, they said the loader was out doing tests but he'd get right back to me.  

An hour and 10 minutes passed and then another one of our trucks came in, of whom they took in right away. He was in the loading bay for hours.  I don't know what took them so long to load him, but I was already fuming.  

I figured out what was happening before i found out officially. The dude delivered this morning, came all the way back, loading and going back in the morning.  This guy is brand new to the system, like most all of the new drivers, they give these people special privilege for a while until they get sick of me making comments that go from please to why the hell do I have to tolerate this shit from this company? 

Oh yes, I've got into pissing matches with the manager in the past.  He started it, I was already irritated at the time so I dished it right back to him.  There is one thing that is true of me at this point in time: I don't give two rat's asses whether I continue to work there or not.  If they want to start stuff with me, they are going to get an earful.  

And then tomorrow! They had me unloading at 4:00 pm!  No. I contacted dispatch and they said I could "show up earlier" if I wanted to.  How much earlier? Didn't get a reply for awhile but finally got: What time do you want to be there? EARLY.  Well, you can show up at 10:00 am and that should work. 

I can be home by 2 if I'm there at 10. 2ish I should say. Nothing like getting home at 8:00 pm. 

And then the 11 year old. I pulled into the driveway and he was teary eyed and quite emotional.  He informed me that he had just been informed that his parents are getting divorced.  He didn't know how to handle it. I just said let it all out, there is nothing wrong with getting your emotions out and starting that process, for to him, it's likely a grief process.

I'll try my best to help him through it but in the end he's just going to have to go through that process and eventually get better.  

_________

Got busy with things and now it's already time to go to bed.  It feels like I just got home from work.  Well whatever, tomorrow shouldn't be near as long of a day and after tomorrow, I fully expect to be back on Gurdon runs and if not, there is going to be a conversation about it.  

I could go into the divorce stuff, but it's pretty personal stuff on their part and I won't go there for their sake.  I don't know when they are going to do it, that hasn't been announced yet.  I don't think they're in a big hurry, I have no idea if there are going to be custody issues, who pays who what issues, whatever.  Divorce can get pretty ugly, we all know. Let's hope and pray that at least it can be a smoother transition than the ones I have seen and experienced.  

 Friday - afternoon

The Ennis run is 2 parts just like the Gurdon run. You go to Crossett on day one, load and come back to the park, the second day you go to the town south of  Dallas - well the name of the town is Ennis lol but for context - unload.  Going to Crossett, there is a probably 40 mile stretch of highway where there is limited or no cellphone coverage at all. 

I dunno, but as I said in this morning's post, I was tired and I certainly didn't feel like dealing with this health insurance crap.  But, they told me I can't use Christus even tho it shows it on the portal.  So, I did that.  I went to the portal while passing time at the plant, found an okay plan with Blue Shield - around $236 more expensive I think - and got it.  IT was the only one that looked decent and none of the offerings stood a candle to Christus at all.  

Whatever.  So I get a call from my manager, no 2 calls. I haven't heard from him in 3 weeks. He says he just split the load I am doing so I could get some kind of paycheck and he also said he was going to be calling me next week after he gets a hold of payroll and find ways to give me some pay.  I've gone almost all of this pay period without working.  He does look out for me, but he has limited authority/juice in the company, he's a terminal manager. 

He calls again awhile later while I'm driving back to the park but still in that dead zone where you get little or not reception and says that people from corporate have been trying to call me. They wanted a 3 way call with me, the lady from our company and that piece of work from Bavvy.  I didn't know it was that piece of work from Bavvy until I started looking into it a little more.  I tried calling that number twice and twice to voicemail.  So, I emailed the rep from my company.  I chose Blue Cross Blue Shield, it's more expensive but since it's guaranteed they will pay for it, I'm good to go! 

I knew that would stir the hornet's nest.  They know I'm in no mood to put up with bs.  I'm ready to quit, frankly, if they don't stop the bullshit and get this nonsense done.  In fact, my temporary insurance is done tomorrow, I wrote them to tell them that I have new insurance  - but that was before I found out that my choice for Christus was rejected.  Bavvy has agreed to pay my portion of the insurance bill for the rest of the year.  

I get an email back, blah blah blah. It said exactly what I expected it to say.  Well they (Bavvy) agreed to pay the $400 (and change however much) the didn't agree to anything else, I can't guarantee you I can get that through. How much more is it? Without getting insanely in her face, I just copied and pasted the new amount, as I said, I think it's $238 per month more.

More of the same, bavvy agreed to this,  I will see what I can get done.  She was wording in such a way as to expand beyond the idea that if Bavvy doesn't agree to it, I will be stuck with the extra. Nope.  I wrote here again: Well if Bavvy doesn't pay for it, the company will, thanks.  

Yup. I didn't ask, I told her to pay for it, I don't give two shits at this point.  I don't think they understand the trouble and the extent of research and how to make them pay for not doing it  that I am willing to do.  I did tell my manager a while back that I took a huge mobile home park and the Chinese bank that owned it to court and I won without a lawyer.  They keep toying with me, they will find out. I really only reported it to the ESBA which was a dead end, but there are several Texas agencies I can file complaints with and those don't cost me any money. 

A lawyer obviously would, but I would have to weigh whether it's worth spending that kind of money on this.  

I have been wronged.  Probably everyone has been wronged in their lifetimes.  Probably on several occasions.  It's fine, I can deal with it.  But they need to make it right without me having to drag the government or the courts into this.  

Anyway, fatigue.  I"m going to take a nap before it gets too late in the day.  

 Friday - early

I don't feel like going to work today. Mostly because they dumped me with an Ennis run.  I always get payback coming back from a vacation, tho in this case it's half vacation, half nothing because of a truck in the shop.  I greatly dislike doing Ennis run for the amount of time it eats up.  It will be 5 pm before I get back today or somewhere around there whereas the gurdon run gets me back anywhere from noon to 2 pm.

Yes, the money is better for ennis for there is a lot more driving but who cares.  I don't.  

Anyway, to finish off yesterday's drama, the oldest kid - the one that lives here, the oldest oldest isn't here now - was very concerned when he found out we were in an accident.  I sent him a message when it happened but I heard nothing back - typical for him.  He doesn't pay much attention to such things. But when he did finally see it? He called and asked if we were ok, then kept asking if we were ok.  Yes, we are fine. In fact, everyone is going to be fine.  A little bit of injuries but nothing major.  

I can't really attest to the lady in the blue pickup tho, they had her in an ambulance but I think they were doing tests on here or whatever to determine whether she needed to go to the hospital.  

Later on, when he got home from the people that were babysitting them, he came running into my room.  Are you ok?!!  He had tears in his eyes. Now mind you, in  no way did I try to make it sound like we were in some deadly vehicular accident with bodies laying on the road and people crushed in their cars.  But, as the kid that was IN the accident and was sobbing profusely for quite a while, you just have to let them express themselves.  Give  them time to process it all, calm down and realize we are fine and besides damaged and trashed vehicles - and there definitely were some trashed vehicles in that one - everyone is going to be just fine, we all get to go home, deal with the shock, yes, but life goes on.

That accident drained me for some reason.  And even tho I wasn't driving, I had a bit of confidence issues driving back home.  This is normal, I do believe, for people that go through such things, but it was strange.  Not only that, but they actually put a brand new clutch in the truck and it isn't shifting the same it all, I don't like it, it's much tighter than it used to be and I guess it will just take time for it to loosen back up.

I knew something was wrong with the clutch or the clutch brake or whatever.  

The kid wouldn't let it go, getting back to that.  He wanted to pray with me so we held hands and he prayed.  Beautiful prayer, actually, I was amazed, I don't often hear him praying.  

After that? Back to normal.  For him, me I just had to reflect on the whole thing.  It was so hot out there that even just standing there we were all sweating profusely.  The cops that showed up were cool about everything except one demanding my ID.  I wasn't driving.  I need your ID. Why?  You're part of this situation.  And?  But I thought better about it, not a good place or situation to be refusing ID, I just handed it over to him but I informed him I didn't really have to do it.  

Cameras caught everything anyway. My friend's truck has them on the front and 2 on the rear. The semi had them, the SUV had a front facing one.  The lady driving the SUV with the kids looked at me funny. She was surprised about us having rear facing cameras.  Yeah, you usually have to have them installed after market.  

I didn't sleep well.  I kept thinking about everything going on and I couldn't dismiss it.  I tried.  The accident, going back to work, the health insurance fiasco which still continues. Even tho the insurance company I was using was listed in their offerings, Bavvy has informed my company that I can't use them. I don't want to use anyone else.  Too bad. Ok.  I'll go up several tiers that will cost you more and you can eat it. 

I chose the one I did for the coverage it provided. It's like just short of $1,300 per month.  After that, if you want decent coverage, you're going WAY  up in the monthly price with other companies.  CHRISTUS isn't even listed in the higher premiums, they have it covered in the mid tier premiums.  They have a heavy presence in East Texas and they can do that.      

So today, I will have to figure out what I want and they can pay for it. It's probably going to be closer to 2k per month.   Whatever.

Anyway, it's time to get out of here and start driving, gag. 

G'day

 Thursday - evening

Welllll....

So my work wanted to get me an uber and do all kinds of driving today - we're talking it was already after 11 am.  I was looking at getting back by what, 10 pm at the earliest? No thanks.  But, she tried and tried to get Uber over here and we don't have Uber here, tho they do work in Shreveport.  Figured they could come from there over to here, but apparently none of them wanted to do that.  

I finally put my foot down. There is no way I'm going to be out that late doing this stuff. Long story short, the lady of the house eventually came home and I went over to get the truck only, not go get loaded in Crossett.  Ridiculous nonsense.  

We're toodolooohing through Shreveport on I-20 eastbound, up on the bridge that goes over the Red River and the divider between Shreveport and Bossier City.  I don't really pay a lot of attention when I'm not driving. I'm just not behind the wheel. I don't want to be s side chair driver, that gets annoying.  I was looking down at my phone but something told me to look up.

We're going 60 or so mph, and traffic literally shut down right in front of us.  I thought for sure we were going to crash into the vehicle in front of us, but she was on top of it, slammed on the brakes and very narrowly avoided a rear end collision.

The people behind us? Not so lucky.  The car immediately behind us also slammed on their brakes, she managed to avoid hitting us, but the semi truck behind her? Yeah, no.  He slammed into that car.  The semi was trying to move over while slamming into that car and the SUV next to the truck moved over and then a speeding pickup literally smashed into that SUV, a sort of T Bone crash but at more of an angle. 

The SUV hit my friend's truck in that maneuver directly after we had avoided a rear end collision.  We just looked at each other in stunned silence, it was rather shocking.  She pulled over to the right side of the bridge - there is no shoulder there. The truck pulled up behind us, the SUV and the pickup were deep into each other. So deep, the front wheel of the pickup were off the ground and just sitting there like that. 

Well I didn't know what happened to anyone but looking at the front of the truck I immediately knew the truck driver would be alright.  We went back to the SUV - there was no one getting out of these vehicles folks, no visible movement at all.  We didn't know what was going on.  A lady gets out of the SUV but she goes to the rear door and pulls out two young kids, I'd estimate 7 and 9 years old, young boy and girl.  The boy was in tears, the mom was swelling up, the girl was shocked.  

My friend started talking to them but we brought them to our vehicle, theirs was totaled and it was very hot outside today.  Put them in the back of the truck and I was trying to console them while walking to the truck and eventually after I got in the front seat and really tried to calm them down.  The boy couldn't stop crying, I don't blame him, if you saw where that truck hit that SUV and how heavy that collision was?

It was buried into that SUV's rear door.  I guess I didn't post the pics of that on my Facebook page, I'll have to add them, those are the worst pics of all of it.  

The lady that was rammed into by the semi eventually walked up to where we were at.  She was sobbing, I mean it was worse than that little boy.  She was just in shock. I think everyone there was shocked by what happened.  That lady was in her late 40's/early 50's and she cried for a long time. The mother was teared up for a bit but she calmed down and left her kids with us while she went and started getting her stuff ready to move out of that SUV, she also handed her phone to me to tell the dad where we were.  

It was taking so long for first responders to get there, I wondered if anyone had called 911, so I called them.  5 vehicle crash on the bridge over the Red River, minor injuries, a little girl smashed her head on the window and she needs attention.  You see, I didn't even know about that pickup until a little later. I couldn't see it from where I was at, the SUV was crashed into the side wall to keep people from - falling off the side of the bridge and into the river.  Amazing job it did, that concrete didn't budge.  It's all lined with a huge amount of rebar and it's is very strong. 

It was around 20 minutes before Bossier police arrived.  It was another 10 after that before fire and ambulance got there. Just amazed at how long it took them. I made sure the cops knew that this little girl needs to be looked at. 

But then, a woman appeared from behind the SUV.  I looked, who is that? Oh I think that's the lady from the pickup. There's a pickup behind there? Yes, it crashed into the SUV.  She was dazed and confused.  This is the reason I wear seatbelts.  You hear a handful of stories of how people died because their seatbelt wouldn't release, but most of the time, in such situations, they save lives, way more than any deaths they may cause.  

Anyway, the lady brought her tiny little dog to our truck and deposited it in the back seat with the kids. She didn't want it running out into the highway and getting run over.  This did it for the little boy.  He got all happy pretty quickly, the tears dried up and the whole atmosphere changed.  I spoke at length with the truck driver. Bad day for him, they would have cited him for following too closely.  Half his bumper was destroyed but beyond that, it was perfectly drivable from all appearances.  

The father was working at an oil rig an hour away.  When I talked to him, he said "I'm hauling ass, where exactly are you?" It took him a while to get there.  The mom - who is a nurse it turns out - thanked us profusely for our help.  The man also thanked us at the end of it.  I don't know how long we were there, but we were sweating profusely by the time it was all over with.  

Eventually went and finished the job of getting the truck. Walaah! They actually fixed the ac!

I've got to get off of here. I have a long day ahead and stuff to do.  

 Thursday - mid morning

I feel like my life is on hold with this job and waiting eternally for a truck to be fixed, over and done with.  And then the health care crap that I finally figured out why it wasn't going through.  Turns out you have to click on a field to make selections. 

It doesn't say you have to do that and the rest of the process it has a field to proceed.  You have no idea that that is a mandatory input that you have to click on and deal with the questions. None at all.  It's par for their course, Bavvy that is, it's ridiculous and brutal. Brutal because of all of the time and effort I have dumped into trying to get it fixed through endless emails, text messages and phone calls.

It's also very draining.  I don't take any pleasure whatsoever in having to deal with stupid people who don't know how to do their jobs and corporations who could care less. 

And then there's the computer issue.  I'm wondering now if the culprit isn't the sound card.  I've got a bypass coming that costs $5.  You plug the speaker jack into an adaptor that goes from 3.5mm receptable to USB port.  I don't know what else could  be causing this issue, but of course I'm no computer genius so there might be something staring at me directly in my face and I wouldn't know it.  

For $5, I'll take the risk.   The last resort is take it to a repair shop and let them fool with it.  I know a place and I've taken other devices there and they do a good job.  They are experts, they'll figure it out, I'm just wondering if I somehow fried the card. This computer isn't that old.  Who knows, I'll find out soon enough. 

So, anyway, it's 9:30 am and I'm still sitting here waiting for the call or text telling me the truck is finally done. But since they had to take out the dashboard and still trying to find a short circuit somewhere, that may take forever or it they may find it and get it over with - and then have to put all of that mess back together.  

And, the lady of the house ended up having to take the kids to daycare for I don't know if I'm leaving or not.  

I don't know what else, I have enough with all of that going on that I don't really need to have to deal with other things, but there is always the RV park.  It's kind of self sufficient for the most part.  It's an ideal setup for my situation without having too many amenities to deal with. I don't really like not having them but for a 16 lot park, a huge amount of that stuff isn't  really warranted. The ROI wouldn't be worth it.  

 Late night Wednesday

Not a long post here.  Just thought about when the last time I was at work, without the trip up to El Dorado and back for nothing (I will get paid for that but I'm not really counting that as work).  \

My last day was the 14th and today is the 29th. 15 days off.  Unbelievable.  

I asked for any available vacation hours and I got nothing in reply.  The manager is still sick and this is getting old fast.  

And then the idea that I will have to pay out of pocket if I go through the normal government healthcare portal to get insurance.  This was from this lady that I was talking about the last post.  I gave her a polite but to-the-point earful.  I ended it with: "I am not in the mood for threats".  I was going to say a LOT more, but I bit my tongue and boy was it bleeding. 

Metaphorically anyway.  It is a threat.  You are telling me that if I get healthcare through some other means than what you want it done - that isn't working - I will have to pay all of that myself.  No.  No. And no.  These people are begging for a lawsuit. And I'm still tempted to try the wage theft route.  There are still 3 Texas government agencies I could go through to make life miserable for them.

Why not? They certainly haven't done me any favors.  At all.  

It's going to be hard to get back into the groove of trucking but I have been oh so tempted to quit this job altogether after another day of this bullshit with the insurance crap.  What is the point of working like this if I don't have health care insurance?  It's fully half the reason I have a job at all at this point. 

I really, really wanted to tell that lady that if she wants to threaten me with that, you can just have that truck, I will go over in the morning and get my stuff out of it.                       

I didn't do it mostly because I don't have another job lined up. I'm one of those people that wants to have another job first before just outright quitting, but with this company? They keep pushing it and I may just say screw it, goodbye.  Permanently. Keep your pile of shit truck, your mismanagement and your bullshit and dump it on to someone that hasn't been exposed to your version of what amounts to employee abuse.  

It's just one of those things where I may not care if I don't have a job lined up, just do it and then find a new job.  But, it doesn't look too good on your resume even tho most trucking companies won't care anyway. They really don't. They are more interested in your driving history, tickets, accidents, is your medical current, is your CDL current, ok, get that truck over there and start driving it. Please. 

 Wednesday - afternoon

Yep, I'm still sitting at home waiting for this truck that was supposed to be done "around noon".  These people wanted me to go over there and wait, apparently.  No thank you.  It's a repair shop, they said they had to tear the entire dashboard out to find a short somewhere.  That in itself is a huge job.  There are a lot of things connected to that dash and taking and I can't even imaging taking that whole thing out of there and then attempting to find a short somewhere.  Good luck!

Hey, they may get it done "around noon" yet!  It's 12:30 pm, that's "around noon". But I have ample experience with truck repair shops giving estimates - and that's all it is, an estimate - to have something done only to have them take many hours or even days beyond what they thought they would accomplish.  They must be sick of working on that thing by now lmao.  I still wonder what the bill is going to be for that thing, very very high, I can only imagine. 

But, our repair shop didn't fix things when they should have and had the opportunity to and that guy quit anyway.  He always was taking shortcuts to get things done fast, but they wouldn't be done right.  Any shorts were ignored, he would find a work-around that might work but also would leave some systems non-operational. If they ever get done with this thing, I'm definitely asking for a print out of everything they did to it, I want to see just how much time spent and money in parts that it took to get all of that huge list of things I turned in done and over with.  

Now, if this thing isn't done soon, just how long do they expect me to be out trying to do a run today?  From there, it's going to be 8 hours total.  Get the truck, go over to Haughton, pick up a trailer and get down to Lufkin.  Right now, I'm looking at probably 9 or 10 o'clock tonight getting home if I left right now.  It's 45 minutes to an hour over there, get the truck, pre trip it, then over to Haughton, get the trailer, pre-trip that and then over to Lufkin - provided the trailer is actually washed out. Nope, adding that all up it's around 9 hours.  Yes, it's 10:00 pm leaving right now. 

I don't like to do night driving anymore and I don't see any reason to be getting loaded today if this wait goes on for even a few more hours.  However, I would like to get the truck today at least and not have to deal with that tomorrow.  

Anyway, it's 1:00 pm now and in my book, way too late to just get started on a run.  It's the loading time for the second run, I would be somewhere around 5 hours away from that - at least. 

______

Something happened to the speakers on my computer overnight - I think there was an auto update. Whatever it did, I spent hours attempting to fix it with the help from AI which had endless - literally, seemingly endless - prompts to try this and that. I have no idea what happened.  The speakers work, the audio is being sent - somewhere - but it isn't playing.  I always try to fix this stuff myself before getting help - help is expensive and I really don't want strangers going through my PC.  

In this case? I guess I have no choice. 

There's a couple of places in town that are good at working on them and I'm sure an expert could figure it out quickly, I would like to hope anyway. I certainly am not an expert and don't claim to be one.  

______________

Several hours later.  I'm now wrapped up in this Bavvy catastrophe shit again.  UNBELIEVABLE. I have someone from corporate in OUR company who is completely incensed about this entire situation and actually called BAVVY "obnoxious".  Yes, that is the polite way to say it.  I can't go into all that just occurred, it infuriates me too much.  I don't need to be getting that pissed off.  I can say that  this lady from our company says "I WILL take care of  this, I'll call them when I get done driving and I WILL deal with this" and that she will call me back after she gets confirmation.  

Also? The truck isn't even going to be done today.  They have had to trace wiring through all kinds of nastiness to find out what is shorted. I don't even know what system it is applying to, but I'll guess the engine brake and the cruise control, those both went out at the same time. 

Oh, the lady at our company, sorry to backtrack here, but she said they hadn't even contacted her about this email I got from BAVVY and that she is even further pissed off. She's a professional, you can tell by her demeaner, it doesn't sound like a person normally acquiesced to losing it.  "Trust me, you have been heard corporate wide about this situation, we have taken them off of our "preferred vendor list".  They've heard from me because I haven't held any punches about my feelings about this once I understood the depth of the incompetence and arrogance that is going on with this Bavvy company.

That's it for now. I just have to put that Bavvy nonsense out of mind. I had been doing that until I got this notice yesterday of a window of time that is almost out to shop and select for a healthcare premium.  Like an open wound that is bleeding profusely and hasn't been treated at all, it just started all of that all over again.  

I am not working today and tomorrow - well who knows? That's in God's hands as far as I'm concerned, He tells us not to worry about what will happen tomorrow, there is enough for today.  

 Tuesday - late

Tired and sleepy.

But who cares I guess, the truck still isn't done and it's starting to irritate me the way the company is dealing with it.  The fact that it isn't done isn't the issue, the fact that they leave me hanging ... is.  I don't get information and I have to prod and pry to get it, we aren't talking intra-company info that is nunya for me, we're talking when is the truck going to be done because you know I need to coordinate a ride over there. 

Earlier today was just one of many examples.  They kept telling me that they would have the "part" late afternoon. Ok? So are they going to have it done today? You want me to work tomorrow but the truck isn't done, what are you thinking here?  My manager still isn't back from sick leave so everything is left up to this person who really just doesn't have the caliber of wisdom to be able to handle the job effectively. 

There is too much thrown at her at once, such is the job description, and I guess she just has a hard time dealing with it.  Well we'll find out this afternoon. Well please let me know when you find out anything. Oh I definitely will!

She definitely did not. Supposedly we could go get thing at 5:30.  At - 5:30, which is way too late to head over there, it's 45-60 minute drive over there depending on traffic, I texted her and basically gave a mild rebuke. I can't leave this person that is going to give me the ride over there hanging like this.  I NEED TO KNOW THE INFO WHEN YOU FIND IT OUT, NOT ME H AVING TO PROD YOU FOR IT. 

It turns out the truck isn't going to be done until noon.  Yeah, who knows when it will be done? I surely don't.  I will probably just call the Peterbilt dealership tomorrow morning and ask them myself, I'm tired of these half-assed answers that basically tell me nothing.  If I have to start at noon, meaning being over there and leaving right then, I might be done by 7:00 pm tomorrow evening.  Maybe it will be done at noon, maybe it won't be done tomorrow at all? I am wondering what the humanoid freakosis it is that they are working on on that thing that is taking them so long?

I'll take a stab at it. Either the ac system was so messed up with the wiring that it's taking them forever to figure out that night mare - or - they had to remove the transmission to fix the shifting issue.  Or a combination of both. I can't imagine any of the rest of my list taking more than a few hours at most to fix.  But those issues? Yeah, could be a nightmare.  

After the lawn mowing man came over last night and helped install the new ac unit?  My room is as cold as I want it to be. I think I had it too cold last night and hence I didn't sleep well. Turning it up to warmer temp a few degrees tonight.  Just take some tweaking to get it right.  Just glad. It's not near as noisy as the old one and probably will suck down much less electricity. 

Well, this is a short one. I'm tired and I need to go to bed.  I know, I don't have to get up early but I'm trying to keep some kind of hours that aren't too late because when i start working again, it's going to be 10:00 pm bedtime every night. 

Oh, and finally....I did the test strip thing again this morning and there was light purple on it, meaning ketones are in the system. Didn't really need it tho, I am back down almost to where I left off when I started the vacation. I was at 215 this morning, I left on vacation at 213.  25 pounds is the minimum amount of weight I need to still lose.  I'm not necessarily saying I'll get there - I want to yes but who knows? I'll try my best.  The diet gets easier as time goes on and you get used to it.  Getting down to 200 would be a wonderful milestone, going to give it my best shot to hopefully, eventually, get there. 

G'nite. 

 Monday - morning

Last night, signs of ketosis were evident on the test strips.  Not much, but enough to motivate me.  This morning? Gone, lol. How do I lose ketosis overnight? Not sure about that one ..... but....my weight is back down to 217 and counting.  I was up at 223 after I got back.  So, whether it shows it on the test strips or not, it's definitely showing on the scale.  Perhaps today it will start showing again.  Otherwise, I might be forced to go ahead and do a shorter version of a water-only fast.

I haven't done one since I returned from vacation because I simply haven't felt like it.  

I'm going to have to start working out again as well.  Yep, haven't felt like it. Vacation took it all out of me.  I was wiped out by the time we got back and the older you get, the slower the recovery.  

I've still got quite a bit of flab/fat on my gut and thighs, hence I am going to continue on with keto hopefully for as long as it takes. I say hopefully because after a while being on the severely restricted diet, you want to eat your potatoes, pastas, rice, beans, etc. You want to take a break from it even tho you know what's going to happen: weight piles on quickly.

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It's now Tuesday  night. Not a peep from work, don't care really, I've lost this much money in non-working why not some more?!! The truck isn't done. I have no clue what is taking those people so long to fix a truck that has been sitting there what, 10 days? What is the repair bill going to be on that thing?  I want to know just for the fun of it. 10k? 15? At what point do they decide the old junk isn't worth repairing and let's move on to newer equipment?  I didn't say brand new, just something within, say, the past decade anyway? 

I mean, driving up there Sunday for nothing really got me going and not in a good way.  At least I slept QUITE well last night. I'd love to hope for more. 

But you know what's keeping me awake more than anything, now that my room is cool again? Yes, that!

My room ac quit working some time ago and tho it isn't hot in here, it isn't sleeping cool either.  Yes, they replaced the central ac a while back and while they did it, they also replaced the old ductwork. Doesn't matter.  They either didn't put insulation in the walls when they build this carport into a room or they obviously put ineffective stuff in it, because it gets warm in here in the summer. Well, at least if the room ac isn't working. I have it down to 68 degrees in here.

The funny part? I've had a brand new AC sitting in the living room for what, 2 years now? I bought it when the one I had was making funny noises. I dunno why I didn't replace it, but the fan motor was making a HUGE amount of noise and hasn't been pumping out cold air at all.    It feels so good in here.

Oh, the funny part, well not funny, just out of the ordinary.  You see, it got so bad in here today that I had to open the door all the way and put a box fan in the door to blow the heat out. When the didn't work, I tried it the other way. Yeah, neither worked - at all. I'm like, I have that new ac sitting out there, why not put it in? Oh,  yes, because it's very heavy. 

Just so happens we have that lawn mowing dude and he is a totally upright guy, a very hard worker and doesn't play games. He'll help with anything if it means money in  his pocket.  I sent him a message saying I need help installing an AC  unit, but I didn't intone I needed help right now. It was 9 pm!  I didn't see his messages back or the phone call, I must have had the ringer off, I do that after I get so many spam calls, I don't want to hear the phone ringing anymore.  I must have had 15 of them in a row tonight. 

The next thing I know, the 9 year comes running into my room: Jeremy is here! Huh?  Jeremy! Ohh, well tell him to come in. Surprising, yes. He just showed up lmao. I didn't want to do this tonight, I just wanted to see if he could come tomorrow - well today now, lol, it's a little past midnight. Don't normally stay up this late but that's what a good night's sleep does for/to me. 

I said oh, didn't expect you to come so soon! He apologized, thought I wanted it in tonight, he could come back tomorrow. NO NO NO! You're here, let's get this done!  We got that thing installed in 30 minutes, including taking out the old one, putting in the new one and putting in the insulation.  Turning it on - took a minute before that compressor kicked in but when it did, ice cold air started pumping out.

I was fretting that one.  After sitting so long, was it going to work? Or would I be out a substantial amount of money on a defective product? Or  product that might need to be used before so and so time? I don't think the latter is true tho. As long as the manufacturer had it right before shipping and no freon is leaking out anywhere, it will work. And work the new baby did and is doing now. 

It's much quieter and the compressor kicks in and out.  It's a work of beauty. It feels so nice in here now, it's amazing!

And it's late. Need to get offa here.

Good night. 

 Sunday - late afternoon

What it boiled down to was, yes, I went to work today.  I slept like HELL last night, it was going to be a long miserable day.  But that only came partially to pass.  

Why?

Remember when I said the dispatcher wanted me to go up there, to El Dorado, pick up a tractor, then head over to a town near Shreveport, pick up a trailer and then go down and load in Lufkin? Yea, all of that.  

So, I got up early, 5 am, not uber-early but that's early enough, especially after having been on vacation a total of 10 days and not sleeping well - at all - the night before.  Umm, it was still night when I left lol.

I drove up there in my pickup, got in the truck fired it up, started my log book, did a pretrip, transferred my drinks and stuff from the pickup  to the truck and then.....sat there doing my log book. I noticed the air coming out of the vents was not cold.  

I proceeded to take off - this leg of the trip was no trailer attached. I got a few miles down the road and still no air. Contacted dispatch.  Did you know the AC isn't working in this truck?  It was going to be in the high 90's today with real feel in the 100's, no thanks.  She replied, oh just give it a minute, we just had the ac fixed in it. 

She's a kind soul and very nice person, but half the time she doesn't know what she's talking about. If the AC is working, it starts working right away. It might take a minute for cold air to come out? Yes. But 20 minutes? NO. 

I kept driving just to make her happy, after another 10 minutes I pulled over to the side of the road and texted her again.  "It's not working I wouldn't have agreed to this if I knew this in advance"

She replied she wouldn't have asked me if she had known. She went on to how it was JUST in the shop and it was working fine after they were through with it.  Yes, well if it's leaking freon that badly, I thought, they should have at least looked for it, found the problem and fixed it. 

"It's going to be mid 90 heat, index in the 100's.  I really don't want to do this."

"I'll call the customer".  "I'm bring it back.".  I didn't ask permission. It was already hot and sitting in that hot truck literally all day long was a non-happening event.  Are any of the other drivers driving without ac? No.  Would  they? Probably only if it broke while they were on their way somewhere and would be demanding to get it fixed immediately. 

IT'S FLAT ASS HOT OUTSIDE.  IT GETS MUCH HOTTER INSIDE OF THE CAB OF A TRUCK THAT HAS NO AC. 

I wasn't wasting any more words, I drove straight back to the yard, did a post trip inspection, noted the ac isn't working, got my stuff out and drove home.  I actually was so tired I had to stop and take a nap for 15 minutes - which made me feel fine and the rest of the drive home went without any issue.

Well, except: The AC in my pickup isn't working correctly either! I'm taking it into a shop probably tomorrow. I'm guessing the semi will be done tomorrow as well and I will try to get a ride over there to pick it up.  I'll guess beyond that that I have to work on Tuesday - but who knows? They often times get the beginning days of the week covered in advance. 

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Many hours later.  I kind of think that truck having broken ac was a gift from God. It would have been an incredibly miserable day trying to drive that long and get all of that done with so little sleep.  I am not working tomorrow - they have Mondays covered by the previous Friday because they don't like to work weekends doing scheduling stuff.  Allegedly the truck will be done sometime tomorrow.  I dunno, but if I drive down the road and the ac quits working, I'm turning that truck around and taking it right back to the shop.  

BTW, the truck they wanted me to drive was a very junky truck, older than the hills and had a 10 speed in it. I'm used to a 13 speed which can handle the loads much better.  

There are other things to discuss, but I have to keep my mouth zipped on some of it for now.  A revelation came out about a situation going on here that really was incredible. Incredibly bad, maybe incredulous is a better term for it's amazing this has now happened the second time. I wish I could go into details. 

I don't really know what I'm doing tomorrow. It's so hot I abhor going outdoors.  I've been keeping up with politics to some degree but I haven't really been discussing it too much.  The hate and anger coming from the left is something I just don't want to deal with.  I don't remember Republicans being so filled with rage and anger over Obama and some of the things he did, such as Obamacare - which he later admitted was designed to fail, so that they could initiate single payor healthcare system, otherwise known as full blown socialism.  

Trump is Trump and he makes me laugh the way he handles the press.  They treated him very poorly during the Russian collusion hoax - I don't really think many of those people actually thought it was real, they just didn't like Trump so they didn't care if they printed outright lies.

Oh, I got a 2 hour nap this afternoon lol. That's what I did now that I'm thinking about it. I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open, I just passed out.  That's what needs to happen - AT NIGHT TIME!

So I'm forcing myself to stay up a bit later than I should because of that and not wanting to set the conditions for waking up yet again and not being able to go back to sleep - too long of naps will do that.  

With that, however, I'm outta here.