Tuesday - evening

Just another day of work.  I reminded my manager today that the heater in the truck was broken by the Peterbilt repair shop in Bossier, City, LA. They fixed the AC - for the most part - and broke the heater. The reason I brought that up is because on Friday? It's slated to be down in the 40's. That's very cold weather to be driving an unheated vehicle in. Yes, I can layer up but that isn't going to cut it for me.

So, we decided to see if a local repair person could come and figure out what's wrong - or - I can take it over there. I don't want to take it over there, I'm going to call them tomorrow and see if they're even interested in trying to figure out what, exactly, Peterbilt did to it.  One thing is for certain, I will never recommend Dobbs Peterbilt to anyone, ever.  Not only did they  mess that up, but at this point I am 100% certain that they messed up something underneath the cab on the drive train that is causing the issue of the truck jerking around.

All of the bad parts on the steering and alignment have been replaced. This issue started after I got the truck back from them. I did not drive it in there in that condition. They, of course, denied everything and got upset with me when I suggested they might have done something to it and please check it out.  Wait, so you are saying that we intentionally....NO, I did NOT say that, but something is wrong and it didn't come in here in this condition.  They allegedly checked it out - I don't think they did anything and it's been screwed ever since. All of that alignment work helped a little. Just a tiny little bit.  

I'm kicking the old man out of the park. This is the dude that came in a few years ago with a dog that he refused to leash.  I asked him on multiple occasions to put the dog on a leash, he can let it run free in the woods and to stop throwing cigarette butts all over the place. He simply wouldn't listen and would start arguing. First with me and then he'd find the person that made a complaint about his dog and start getting in their face/s.

The issue came to a head the other day when his dog accosted a lady in the park and was growling at her. She was doing nothing to it and the man was going to shoot it.  I don't blame him. At the same time, another couple started complaining that his dog was coming over to their place almost every day pooping on their yard.  I got sick of it, issued him an ultimatum which he ignored, STILL gave him another chance, he ignored that and kept letting the dog off the leash. 

I let loose on him yesterday and told him to get OUT of my park. "This is a conspiracy" blah blah blah.  NO, it is NOT. I have seen this shit with my own eyes, you will leave the park.  After he realized I was dead serious, he said he'd leave at the end of the month. Oh, no you won't. You will leave within 3 days after I give you a notice.  I haven't gotten around to the yet.  I guess I need to do that tonight.  

I did nothing else on the project after work today. I was tired and simply didn't feel like it. Much cooler weather is coming, I will likely do a lot more work after that occurs.  I need to cut a bunch more blocks, get that pipe elevated to a nice slope for a good fall and then start filling it in. Then I can go around the corner and pick back up on that.  I am so glad I checked the fall on that before I got much further.  

At this point in time, I am pretty much sold on that 30X70 building. But I need to get these 4 lots done first and get an area set up for a cement pour.  This building will be just that, I think they put some electrical outlets in it, it will have 5 walk in doors, 2 roll ups and 5 windows.  It's just a starting point.  The first order of business if I can get it will be to put electrical in it and load it up with security cameras and go ahead and put my valuables in it.  

Well I guess the first order of business is to design a layout for where I will want bathrooms and laundry so I can run water and drain pipe under where the foundation will be and up through the concrete foundation.  That will be new territory for me, I have seen them doing it at construction sites but me doing it? And attempting to figure out exactly where all of that will need to go? I'll have to do some major research on that one.  I want a men's and women's bathroom and something like a 3 of each machine laundry area right next to the bathroom.  

I want a living type of room that is set up like a hotel room.  I need the storage and work areas of course and then an office combined with a C store.  Oh and a kitchen. So I have to design the layout of where all of that will go. I know the storage/work area will just go at one end of it and probably devote around 30 linear feet to it, so 600 square feet of a place to park the tractor and zero turn and have a work bench and tools lining the walls.  Nothing fancy, doesn't need to be.  Mostly just a safe place to store my stuff

The hotel style room will be at the opposite end on one corner.  I figure 15X20?  What's a standard hotel room in square footage? One moment and I'll look it up lol. It says and upscale room is 300-400 feet. So, 300 feet will work.  The room will have it's own external door and a bathroom with shower to boot. This is futuristic type stuff, I am not saying it would be done immediately. The kitchen would be next to it in the other corner, the laundry and bathrooms with showers would be next to the hotel style room and the c-store/office with whatever is left.  

I don't see 2 bathrooms taking up a lot of space, they don't have to be huge and will just have shower stalls in them, nothing fancy or huge. A toilet, a sink and a stall.  Probably have to install sound proofing type of insulation between the hotel room and those showers.  Or, figure out a different layout but I don't see how I can install those bathrooms without it butting up against the hotel room. The bathroom and adjoining laundry room will have it's own entrance door so it can be open even when everything else is "closed", replete with cameras in the hallway for monitoring would be thieves attempting to access the rest of the building. 

But I don't want to get that building until I get more revenue coming in.  I also want a swimming pool but do I really need a 110k version of one, built in?  I've seen plenty of above ground pool layouts that are functional, get the job done, ie: making guests happy to have a fun place but cost a fraction of the price. The decking costs more than the pool itself!

I have a crew of people that are happy to build one for me and are friends of the family, do quality work and won't attempt to charge me an overly high price tag. Wood is not cheap right now, that's a fact and I doubt prices will ever come down unless supply-demand dictates it, ie: people can't afford the stuff so they don't buy it.  An above ground pool is highly likely going to be my choice versus years of payments on an expensive in ground pool.  For example, there is a 22' round pool listed at around $400.  

I have to start looking ahead now that I am fully into this expansion project.  It is going to take quite a while to get those 4 lots up and running, I can tell ya that. If I get it done in two months I"ll be happy.  This sewer stuff alone is ridiculous.  Then there's water, then electricity, the pads, the gravel, yikes.  And the money! If I could get some help over there I could get a lot more done in a short amount of time but the only person I trust to actually work hasn't been answering my texts. His phone is off - he is broke apparently - but he gets access to messages through internet.  He says he'll help me and then he disappears.  

I'm paying him "well", just not as much as he wants.  They wanted $300 to clean weeds around the septic system and I totally balked at that.  A few hours work?  Bleh.

Anyway, that's some stuff lurking around in my mind, I'd like to get this thing going towards an end goal because as I frequently say, I ain't getting any younger.  At some point I won't be able to do this work and I need to get busy while I can.  Now mind you, once I get the first 4 in, the rest of it will be much easier. Well, a lot easier to some degree. The water will already be there, the sewer line will be ready to be tapped into - damnit.  

I just remembered that I want to put 2 90 curves where the future lots will be on the other side.  On the sewer line that is. Well I can still do it and I am going to.  This is to avoid having to attempt to access it when there is poop and pee flowing through there when I finally get to it, if ever.  We aren't talking a lot of money here and it's really not that big of a deal to do it now since I'm still just trying to get it all blocked up to a good fall.  I even have the fittings for it so yeah, I'm going to do that while I'm getting it all blocked up.  I will be backfilling all around the blocks, it won't be the only thing holding that pipe up, I just need it positioned where it needs to go. 

It isn't getting terribly late yet but I want to end this one and move along here.  I need to get that notice printed out and I want to get to bed a bit early. OOOOHHH and on another note, I almost ran the truck out of fuel today! I had completely forgotten to fill up in Arkansas a few days ago.  I was at the washout, got that done, left there and looked at the fuel gauge and thought, oh, I still have almost quarter tanks. 15 miles later it dropped down to just above the empty mark.  I decided I best go to the fuel station first before loading for who knows how long I"ll have to wait there and it will get uncomfortable with the truck shut off. 

Sure enough, both tanks were almost bone dry.  There was only a few gallons separating me from driving and being stuck on the side of the road.  In a semi, a few gallons ain't much folks.  Near $1,200 worth of fuel later, it was filled back up and won't have to do it again until Friday.  If I"m correct, I'll have the weekend off, I've been working a lot of weekends and basically demanded sunday off to go to church.  

With that, I bid you a good evening. 

 Monday - night

 I slept in this morning. Until around 8 am versus the 5:00, sometimes 5:30 am, I am normally getting up at. Made a huge difference. 

When I started thinking about a 1.5 inch rise per 10 feet on my septic system, I realized that I would need to end up propping up the end part where it turns to go to the lot up by at least a foot!  

I got out there this morning and started at the septic system side with the wood blocks and went up the line.  Until I got to a part where I was adding wood and nothing was happening?!!

I stood there and though about it for a minute but ahhhh yes: the pipe further up is flexing down and causing this side to rise up.  

My theory held true, long story short.  110 feet up, it's  over a foot in the "air" - on top of the blocks and I still don't' have the line right. Why? Because I ran out of blocks. Went to Lowe's to get more wood to cut up. 

It's unfortunate that Lowe's is the only player in town. It would be nice if Home Depot would move in here.  Lowe's repeatedly has bad service and today was no exception.  They rarely have cashiers running the checkout lanes, instead, you either have to go through the self checkout or the "Pro" lanes on the other side of the building. 

I was on the Pro side for I was buying stuff over there. The line was long. There are only 2 registers over there and only one of them was open. I was standing in line when an employee came up with a man in tow,  holding  a small box.  The man wanted to check out now, the employee said he would have to wait in line  - pointing to the end of the monstrosity. 

There was  some low pitched mumbling going on, so the employee took this man to the other otherwise closed register and checked him out and then proceeded to leave after he did that. 

No, no and no.      I called Lowe's. I was polite, could you please get another checkout person over here to help out with this long line? That ended up going nowhere.  Then I got up to the cashier and politely said the line is really, can y'all get another person running that other register? She giggled and did nothing about it. 

I got out into the parking lot, disgusted.  I called Lowe's from the parking lot and asked for the store's general manager. This took a while. I can't remember his exact verbiage, but he stated that they cannot man that checkout because they don't have the manpower to do it. It was a total lie and I called him out on it.

You had an employee walk over there with a person, bypass the line and go to the unopened register, check him out and then he left ... I detailed his bs for a minute and he ... hung up on me. I filed a complaint with Lowe's corporate.  

I dunno where that will go and I would write about that conversation but I am getting tired and I have work in the morning. It is amazing how fast a day or even a week off can just disappear like it never happened. 

        

 Sunday - night

 I have no idea what's going on here, the numbers of people reading this have jumped a few thousand percent.  This is just my daily blog, I don't do much of anything but discuss what's going on in my daily life?  You're welcome to read it of course, just not sure what happened here.  

The lady of the house came home - but the house is otherwise empty.  And no, we do not have any kind of "romantic" relationship, contrary to the ongoing assault of accusations that I am engaging in sinful activity outside of marriage.  We never have had that kind of relationship and we never will, we are close friends, that's the extent of it.  If you believe otherwise, you can go jump in an icy cold lake and you can also zip it.  I don't want to hear about it because I AM NOT ENGAGING IN SEXUAL SIN, thanks.  

That isn't necessarily directed at anyone reading this blog, I have no idea beyond a few people who actually reads it.  

Tomorrow off. I had my friend look at the tablet to verify it for me, that I am not seeing things.  She said yup, you work Tuesday. Thank you.  I didn't ask for Monday off but since I have it, I will be going to the property and elevating that sewer pipe with those blocks and see what I can potentially get done.  It's kind of irritating me that it is being so difficult to get even this portion of the project done. I would have like to have hoped that I would have had that done and moving on to finding the water line, which will be yet another headache.  Why or why didn't I mark it.  I know approximately where it is and I know how deep it is, 2-1/2 feet.  

But you get a shovel and start digging "approximately". Back breaking work. The alternative is to get a ditch witch but the likelihood is that I will accidentally rip the line open and here we go with yet another headache.  If I have to do that, I will.  But, I will be fully prepared with everything to fix the break immediately.  I have plenty of pipe already, I would just need to go buy the specialized fitting to slide onto it plus a T plus a shut off valve .. PLUS MARK THE DAMN THING THIS TIME.  Knowing exactly where that T is plus having a marker directly over the top of the line will erase this kind of problem with any future issues.

It's actually starting to get late and I want to go to bed. I had NO inclination this morning for getting up and out of bed.  It was a chore, I didn't sleep that well and driving 300 miles didn't seem particularly appealing.  I did it and the offload went quick at least. Stopped at the grocery store for some stuff to make my rather thick pork steaks. They came with the butchered hogs.  Seared them in a pan and slow cooked them for about 2-1/2 hours.  Made a sort of gravy with mushrooms to dump on it, it was quite delicious if I do say so myself.  

I'm actually quite glad I have tomorrow off. I will not be pushing myself too hard on this project, I'll get done what I can get done when I have the time to do it. I've got the ball rolling again, that was the important part.  

Work Tuesday through Friday and presumably the weekend off for I haven't been to church in a while now because of working.  I mean, they could have had me working the next 6 days in a row and get a decent paycheck and still get Sunday off - but they didn't. Of course, that could all change as it often times does?

Oh, yes, I'm going to go through all the notes on my phone looking for that pic of where that water line is. I am 100% sure I took a pic of it for future reference and I remembered that I had put some of the pics of the project in my notes and not anywhere else. Whether I put THAT particular pic in there, I have no clue.  And there are a LOT of notes I'll have to go through, I'll try a search first but I remember that sometimes I just threw pics in with generalized notes about the project.  At least I have a time frame for it if nothing else, I don't have to do anything but go through 2022 notes.  A lot of them, lol.

Time to crawl in to bed and go to sleep.  

G'nite.  

 Friday - afternoon

I'm just not in the shape I used to be.  I can't do that kind of work for more than 4 hours, I just run completely out of steam. I haven't really had an active lifestyle what with trucking and just operating machinery on the property so it's really hitting me pretty good.  I'm completely worn out right now and it's only 12:20 pm.  

I started early, but I was in and out of the trench and having to face a serious problem.  The entire length of pipe I installed previously is either level or just a little sloping, nothing like what it needs for raw sewage to be flowing through it.  Lifting up on 150 feet worth of pipe to try and push dirt underneath turnout out to be a ridiculous, time and energy consuming exercise in futility.  

I only checked the existing pipe this morning, I'm certainly glad I did.  But there is so much minutia involved.  Weeds - very large weeds - over hanging the trench to the point I just got out my chainsaw and ended up cutting it all down with that. Then getting all of that junk out of the ditch.  The craftsmen battery pack running out of power so I had to go clear to the shed to plug that in, then decided to take down this evil tree growing right next to the shed. It has very sharp thorns all over it and if you touch it even lightly, you are getting stuck by these things.  

I had thought about this quite a while and decided the only way to do this without breaking my back is to get pressure treated 2x4's, cut them into 6 inch sections and use it to prop up the pipe.  I also got composite shims - the pipe has to continuously go up so each piece of wood will necessarily need shims on it to keep elevating it until I get to the point it will need 2 pieces of 2x4's on top of each other.  

Yes I did research on this to ensure this is an acceptable method and it is. The caveat is pressure treated rated for in ground wood.  Otherwise, the wood rots quickly and your pipe caves where the wood pieces are.   

_________

Long rest later, feeling better but still just have to remember not to try over doing it.  High temps are still hot but slated to come down substantially a week from now.  THAT will be good. I can drive the truck and then go work a few hours on the project and then go home.  

Right now, we have high temp forecast slated in the 90's until Thursday of next week.  As long as it's staying that hot, I just can't work out in that too long before I have to stop.  Definitely let myself get out of shape and now paying for it.  Well, the up side is that I'm getting good workouts!      

I have the methodology figured out, I just need to get it done.  Once I get to the end of the pipe, I can just fill dirt in to raise up the floor instead of using the wood. Trying to keep costs down here a bit....it all adds up.

I have work in the morning, first load. Haven't heard back from my manager since he got grumpy with me and declaring "yup, the load is in the system" and I'm replying, "Nope, the load is not in my table and I checked 4 times".  What are they going to do, fire me?  Let them.  I doubt they will do that unless something serious happens, squabbles with the manager aren't in that territory.  I don't know if he got someone else to do it or not and I frankly don't care.  They have left me hanging enough times it's all on them at this point.  

The lady of the house is leaving in a few minutes, she's going on a weekend getaway with her lady friends - all of which I know - they have rented an AirBnB somewhere near Dallas, I think.  They do this once in a while.  I will be home along until Sunday evening.  My only responsibility will be to feed the cats and the dogs, letting her dogs out but bringing one in because he's an escape artist. Not sure how that will go, it's not my dog and he doesn't listen to me.  She suggested using food as a lure. The dog is continuously ravagely hungry, it's insane.  I'll try is all I can say. 

I'm tired.  More like exhausted.  I hope that after a while of doing this I will start to get some semblance of being in shape again and get some of my stamina back.  I should never have let myself go like that, but I did. Again, it was almost shocking when I got on that scale some 4 or 5 months ago and saw it sitting at 241 pounds. It was an instant decision to go back on Keto, modified version, and get the weight off. I'm currently stuck at 32 pounds, it has been going like this for some time. Lose a couple pounds and get stuck there up to a month.

But, the fact of the matter is?....I'm losing weight and not putting it back on.  And now I'm getting some crazy physical exercise.  

I think I'm going to end this one.  5 hours until bedtime, not sure what I will do with my new found freedom of Home Alone, but I'll figure it out.  

 Thursday - evening

As far as the kids go, the entire schedule changed.  Again. Now, the grandparents are here now, the oldest will be home from school in about 30 minutes and they are leaving right away.  They will be gone for a week.  Considering the fact that the grandparents brought a pickup and taking their bikes with them, I'm assuming they are not going to allow the kids to play their games at all, ie: not even allowed to take them with them.  I mean, I'm no fan of kids sitting in front of video games constantly, but a little here and there? Not going to hurt them.  It's their week off, I just don't agree with that at all.  

But, I'm not the mom or pop and I don't get to make those decisions.  I will have a week off from kids, it is always nice tbh.  

As for today's work? I couldn't find the level. It's probably buried in the weeds somewhere. No matter, I bought a 6 foot long one to ensure I get the fall good on the sewer line, got some new blades for the sawzall, a pair of work gloves and a new shovel. Cheap stuff from Harbor Freight, didn't feel like spending a fortune on these items. 

I got 4-1/2 solid hours in before the heat fired up and I got a heat headache. Time to quit.  I only got one stub-up done, 2 lengths of pipe beyond that and a lot of digging both with the tractor and by hand.  

I was trying to get that guy out there that does the mowing but he was busy today. I needed help with the hand digging.  That 40 feet of pipe needs to come up and so, I will be dumping dirt down into that trench tomorrow morning - or not, the mower guy is coming, I'll make him do that work.  I'm guessing 4 hours with help and I'll have all 4 done tomorrow and can start thinking about the water line.  

It's still getting ridiculous hot, I'm just working until early afternoon and quitting.  

Work called.  Hi, are you having trouble getting moving today? I had no idea what he was talking about at first but it immediately crossed my mind that he thinks I was supposed to work today. It's happened so many times, it's not surprising.  I steeled myself, I had an agenda and driving a truck wasn't part of it. He kept saying yes, it's in the system and I kept saying I checked 4 times and it wasn't in my tablet.  Oh, you must have removed it when you finished the last load. 

I didn't remove anything and the next time I am supposed to work according to the tablet is Saturday.  I started going on the offense, I'm not having him telling me I am going to work after I'm deep into my project, he'll have to deal with it AND deal with their constant lack of communication.  I rely on the tablet to tell me when my next load is, they never tell me.  Well, once in a great while they will call and confirm.  I mean, almost never.  We went back and forth but I guaranteed him that I am in the middle of something else and I am not driving a truck today. 

I was in the middle of doing this expansion project, it wasn't a lie by any stretch and I just wasn't mentally there to drop everything and get into the truck. I don't work tomorrow either, I don't know how he dealt with it and I frankly don't care. This has been going on forever and I will stand my ground.  If I'm not in the middle of something, I might agree to drop whatever I'm doing and go drive, I've done it before, but it's definitely no fault of mine that they can't get their act together.  

I suppose I should discuss the nonsense with one particular individual at the park.  He has been letting his dog run free forever.  Since he moved in there. On at least a half a dozen occasions, I have told him to put your damn dog on a leash, stop throwing cigarette butts all over the place and clean up your dog's shit.  

But, the straw that broke the camel's back happened yesterday. I was done with it.  One person a week ago said the dog ran up to his daughter and started growling at her.  Another person texted and said he's tired of that dog coming onto his lot and pooping every day.  I texted the man and told him to leave.  GET OFF OF MY PROPERTY.  I went into great detail.  I knew he'd try to argue with me, I didn't allow it. I've had enough of it.  That dog has caused more problems being allowed to wander all over the place over the last 3 years than I care to even begin to discuss here.

But equally as annoying is his habit of throwing cigarette butts all over the blooming place. He'll do laundry in the shed and sit there smoking and throw them on the ground.  

I was alllllllll up in his business this time. I let him stay on the condition the dog is leashed and leashed from now on.  The only place it can be let run free is back on the trails where hardly anyone goes anyway.  We went back and forth and I simply told him to get out. He changed his tune when he realized I've had enough of his total bs.  "My dog is on a leash, I'm being compliant".  

We'll see where this goes.  

Everything else at the park beside the theft of my expensive weedeater is going pretty good. All the lots are full and tho there are some things that people are doing that are annoying me, some of it comes with have long term versus overnighters. My zero turn is in the back yard and it's not going anywhere. I hate to bring the tractor home since I'm using it, I've asked people over there to keep an eye on it whenever you remember to and please, if you see anyone messing with it besides me? They don't belong there.  Most of my guests are armed, btw.  This is texas and even the frail old ladies have a firearm on their person somewhere.  A purse, concealed carry, whatever, they have them.  I'm thinking to get another one of those solar cameras and just put it on the tractor 24 hours a day.  

But, at the same time, I am also thinking after I get what I need done with the tractor on the expansion? Take it home.  I've got it hidden in a corner behind the boat atm.  And that setup is right behind a trailer of a pretty responsible person who is making 6 figures as a supervisor for the power company.  He's got his own cameras all over the place.  

Well, anyway, the kids will be gone tonight and I can have a break from the constant noise.  I have learned to tune it out - mostly. Some of the stuff they play on tv is so incredibly annoying, I tell them to change it. Especially the videos where the people are screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs. Apparently kids like that kind of stuff, I absolutely despise it, it's totally and completely annoying.  

Enough of that. I have been half-heartedly paying attention to the news. It's mostly anti-Trump shit and I"m tired of hearing it. I don't care what people think about Trump, I literally don't care and I don't want to hear about it anymore. Between that and the anti-semitism, just don't much care to watch it.  I DO watch and read some of it just to try and keep up but only the bare minimum. I"d rather play my video game or watch a movie than getting bombarded with that endless nonsense.  The parrots speak this trash over and over and over and gullible people believe it. Ask one of the "believers" what, exactly, is the problem and almost to the last person they get  a blank look on their face.

Well, I don't know, but Trump is bad! Evil! Now he's a lunatic after his statement about Los Angeles and how it could be destroyed by Iran and a small price to pay.  I know he's not being serious, he's trolling the democrats and frankly, he's earned that right after the 10 year Russian collusion bullshit story that now even has Jack Smith in front of senate hearings. 

If YOU don't like Trump, fine! Don't like him! That's how politics goes. But ...don't....eeeeeeeven...think about coming at me.  I support a lot of what he's done. He's made the world a safer place, in my opinion.  And there's the sticking point: it's only an opinion. YOUR views are YOUR opinions. I'm not speaking to anyone in particular here, I'm just tired of hearing it.  It's not going to change my mind, Trump isn't some raving lunatic wanting to start a nuclear war and I firmly believe action needed to be taken actually a long time ago about Iran.  We should have stopped North Korea from getting nukes as well, but it's too late for that now.  Is the Iran war costing us? Of course it is.  Some wars are worth fighting and tho I am sad for the families and loved ones of the people who have died in it, especially military personnel, that's the cost of war.  

Trump ran on this, this didn't come up after he got into office. There is plenty of video showing him that he's going to blow the hell out of them.  This was him on his campaign trail, he didn't infuse this after the fact.  I've even got Republican friends who are opposing this war. They fall for the left endless pointing to higher prices of everything, fuel being at all time highs.  But the extreme inflation didn't start with Trump, it started with Joe Biden.  This is an indisputable fact and I'm tired of the press and stupid people trying to gaslight all of us into believing something different. 

Fuel prices have spiked because of the war, I'll grant you that.  But, as MANY articles have pointed out the sudden uptick in diesel came after Zelensky targeted Putin's diesel refineries.  Yes, the price of oil an then gas went up before then, but the price of diesel skyrocketed overnight after those refineries in RUSSIA were blown up.  But people don't want to see facts, they want to hear more anti trump shit.  I want not part of it so yes, I have backed wayyyyyy off from watching and reading the news.  

Well, the oldest kid is home from school so I'm going to go out and bid them all a safe trip and a happy vacation.  

Thursday - early

Sun just came up. Time to face the piper and get out there and see what I can get done.  I imagine it taking quite a while just to get everything located and set up - but maybe I'll get lucky. 

Nahh, lol, I have a while of going through both vehicles to find everything and get it all into one.  Namely, the ford.  The pickup has some stuff in it for the project and it has the 5 gallon fuel cans - the tractor is getting low on fuel and you certainly don't want to run a diesel engine out of fuel.  Like to take half a miracle from God to get the things running again.

But, anyway, the sewer is the job I'm going to tackle, we'll see. I have a little trepidation just because I left that trench like that for so long.  I have to wonder if I'll have to - well I don't know what I'll do really. I'll get down in there with the level - another thing I need to locate - and see what it's going to take. Oh, good thing I just remembered I'll need a shovel.  I may have to go buy one of those, I'm pretty sure I broke the last one.

Yeah, it's been quite a while since I was working on this.  The stigma of the water line catastrophe is basically gone out of my mind and the temps are much cooler, I'm out of excuses and I want to get that income coming in.

BUT, there is a LOT to do beyond sewer line.  I have to locate the water line which will be a pain in itself.  I have gone through thousands of photos and I can't find where the one I'm looking for is.  Hmm, you know I never checked my computer.  For some reason that start at 2016 and only go to 2019. I"d have to pull out my old desktop and take a look on there. And frankly? I'll probably do that.  If there is a pic somewhere of it, it would save a lot of trouble and potentially digging into the line.  

However, if it comes down to that, I'll just have a repair setup ready to go to immediately fix it and then install a T on the line, put a 12 inch stub into it and then put a 2 inch shutoff valve on it.  That way I only have to have the water to the park off once and I can turn it on and off.  

Well, I don't have time to sit here and write forever, while I'm motivated i'm gonna get busy.

G'day. 

 Tuesday - night

"I'm ramping it back up at the property.  I spent hours out there clearing out weeds in the area where the new lots will - someday - be installed. But I motivated myself today in raking over the piles of dirt where I had put them while digging out the trench many moons ago and just about clearing the back 4 acres - still more to go but most of it is done. Got much of the front 3 acres done, scraped the driveway with the new box blade - it works 1,000% better than that pile of trash I was renting at the rental place in town.  

I mean, maybe 3 passes and it was done. I was spending an hour going up and down just one portion with the rental unit.  I should have taken pics of that rental thing, it looks as bad as it works lmao.  Old pile of shit, frankly.  And at premium prices and they don't include the rippers. They never said why, they just said no, we don't want rippers on it. These are claws that hang down off the rear of the box blade and tear into the dirt.  Absolutely necessary to tear up the hardened dirt and get down into the softer stuff.  "

Put in parenthesis for I started that post last night and simply forgot about it.  

I've got Thursday and Friday off. Weather permitting I will be out there attempting to get this sewer line stuff done and over with or at least get a big chunk of it done.  

As for today, well, I got to the loading plant and there was another truck in our bay - but not one of our trucks.  In fact, I had never seen that trucking company before.  They let the system drain almost empty up there to the point that we can't keep up with it. Had they simply kept up the orders, it would be in good shape.  But NOOOOO, they had to wait until they had ONE truckload of product in there before realizing they are going to run out. 

Well, we only have so many trucks running this route and hence, they get outside companies to help along.  I only waited maybe 10 minutes and he was out of there, no big deal, but when is this dude showing up tomorrow? Early, like earlier than me? When I show up? Make me wait an hour plus? When these other companies get involved, they don't care about appointment times, they'll just show up whenever they want to.  

Now, I have a decent relationship with management up there and if this starts happening too much, I'm going to ask them to make those drivers wait.  They have enacted such restrictions in the past on people showing up well outside of their delivery time.  

I went and got my trailer today.  It needed a new set of springs and the entire lighting system replace.  I spent almost as much as I paid for the trailer. However, I bought that trailer when they were "cheap", nothing is cheap anymore.  I get somewhat irritated when I hear the term "inflation". If you start thinking about it, someone, somewhere, got greedy.  "The love of money is the root of all evil". 

It isn't some grand thing that happened. For example, something happens in the Iran war. Oil companies INSTANTLY jack up the price of fuel even tho the oil that current fuel was made out of was not affected by it. But it's literally everything now.  And the cost of trucking now? Look at the price of fuel! Trucking companies have surcharge agreements and they aren't going to be eating that cost.  

Oh, off on tangents. I think my trailer is worth around 2-1/2 times what I paid for it. Well, this repair guy has had some major health events happen recently which is why he isn't working his actual brick and mortar shop he once owned.  He just works out of his back yard as much as he can.  

He gets dizzy and has trouble walking. How he does the work I have no idea but he's really good at wht he does.  Anyway,  he got up from looking at the connector to my suv to hook up the lights, started walking and literally fell backwards. His head almost hit a tree. Took me by surprise. He was laughing I was seriously asking him if he's ok?  He's seeing doctors and such, he's just not in good shape at all.  But, he wants more work and my Caterpillar generator needs repaired.  I'll probably drag that thing over there on Thursday before going to the park to get down in that ditch and get some work done.  

I've got to do it and I'm finally motivated.  The mower guy will help me if I need the help.  I probably do, something is wrong in my left elbow, serious pain when I go to lift something.  I'm going to have to find a new doctor,  I typically just use the urgent care but stuff like this probably needs a "specialist" to charge me the arm that I need looked at : )

So, deliver tomorrow, whatever that entails and then off until Saturday where I will have to work the weekend and I think they have me working 6 days in a row.  

__________

As typical for me, time got away from me. Just wanted to post this before going to sleep. 

 Thursday - late afternoon

I was sleeping very well last night until this creepy dream hit me.  You see, I was standing in the hallway of a house - apparently I lived there tho I have never seen this place before.  It was the middle of the night, why I was up I have no clue, but I was looking in on someone for who knows what reason.  The next thing I know, there is this loud, crashing footsteps shaking the entire house.  It was on the other end of the house and it was making all kinds of scary noises.  Like something out of an extremely frightening horror flick. 

I couldn't see anything but it was getting closer and closer, so I ran to what appears to be my room, closed the door and stood next to it.  The thing got right up to the door and stopped.  Does it not know how to open doors? I thought.  What is it doing. It then started making ghastly noises, things you'd expect to hear from the pit of hell or something and the next thing I knew? I was standing on a hill with trees in an open area.  There was some person laying on the ground, a woman with a t shirt and blue jeans. 

She wasn't moving.  This voice called out from the heavens telling me I have to come to their planet and surrender myself voluntarily or they were going to kill her.  I have no idea who this woman was, never saw her before, either but that was enough. I woke up out of that and never got back to sleep.  

I'm not saying there is any viable real-life meaning to it, but it was truly terrifying.  

Anyway, completely changing the subject,  the zero turn was finished yesterday, no the day before.  It had an oil change and the repairman said the carb was full of water, where am I getting my gas from? Cefco I replied but if their fuel has water in it, I think I'll switch gas stations.  The machine had started running foul and that was definitely the problem.  

Yesterday I had the day off. It had been a while since I could just sleep in or just laying bed awake doing nothing in particular so I did. Until like 9:45 am lol. I got up and took the trailer back over to the repair shop.  Lights not working, a ticket waiting to happen.  The repair guy texted me later on saying he'd spent way too much time on tracing wires, he's going to get a new set of trailer wires for it.  Yes, please do, I don't want to spend a fortune in labor and if it had that many shorts in it already how many more would he have to find?

He then stated something I thought was wrong with it: You know you have a broken spring on it? I replied I didn't know for sure but I figured it was something like that because the trailer is leaning.  It came back that way after loaning it to a friend of the family - not a close friend - who kept the thing for 3 months and returned it looking like that. I've never had it checked out.  Well, it's getting fixed now.  A bit costly but necessary especially what with the idea of hauling that tractor around.  I want to bring it home and park it here for awhile. No one is going to steal anything from our back yard without dealing with a very large dog who isn't in love with strangers and goes bat-shit crazy if anyone comes close to "his" domain back there. 

After leaving that there, I went to the courthouse and renewed the registration on it, expired the end of what is now last month.  Over to the park, I installed a solar powered camera that I bought off of Amazon, I think it was.  I am going to get more. These cameras don't need a service (like the ones I currently have running off of T mobile) and they aren't expensive. I'm going to ditch the T Mobile junk - it isn't all that great anyway  and at $30 each per month, not a great deal - and just have several of those. They run off of WiFi so they have to be in range of one of my routers, but that shouldn't be a problem.  

I was looking at the long stopped project considering getting it going again.  It is very likely that in the next coming days I'll be down in that ditch and attempting to revive the project and get it going once again. There's still a lot to do, unfortunately.  It is what it is, I just need to get the ball rolling again and get some momentum going on it.  I have gotten over - I think - the drudgery of the chaos I created in accidentally digging up the existing park water line AND sewer line, what a catastrophe.  

The reason I am getting motivated is because the building I want to put in needs to have all of that finished first.  

I dunno, I'm just musing at the moment, it's still warm out tho it's supposed to rain later today. Well actually after looking at the weather forecast, it is supposed to start raining in half an hour.  We'll see about that.  Perhaps it will signal a change of the seasons that has already occurred but hasn't really manifested itself? You know fall?  They have a saying around here  that we have 2 seasons: summer and winter.  Lol.

As for work, today was a bit sucky.  I got to the plant and there was an entire crew of construction workers installing some new loading apparatus on the loading platform that sits right in front of the loading bay I have to pull into to get loaded.

2-1/2 hours of waiting and they finally - went to lunch and I was informed I could back down there. Fancy that, I have to wait for them to load a truck that brings that plant their income. No notification to our company, yes we are going to be doing this from x hour to y hour, your driver can come later.  Nope, just make me sit there for hours. 

I wasn't bored tho. I pulled out my Switch 2 and got on Fortnite. They just did a new update today and it's really cool.