Monday - evening

The seeming never-ending saga of this other driver parades on. I'm very close to quitting this job.  I went up to Gurdon yesterday and fortunately, that guy wasn't there.  I was ready to just drive the truck home, loaded and quit. They can send a driver onto my property, get the truck and KEEP the truck.  I didn't have to.

But today? That guy was there, at the washout long before I arrived at 8:00 am.  That's when it opens. They'll wash out your trailer 24  hours a day,  yes, but there is an extra fee for that.   They have to call a worker to come out to the property and that worker gets that fee.  I just show up at opening time. I do not and never have attempted to cut in front of another driver like this dude is constantly doing. 

I was pissed, instantly. I'm beyond "I've had enough of this". I sent texts to the dispatcher - which the manager had the phone anyway - he didn't reply. I waited maybe a couple of minutes and then I called him. "You need to deal with this driver".  I was short, curt and didn't care how I sounded at that point. He instantly got defensive, got pissy and whined about having some stuff in his face right now and don't have time to deal with "schoolyard bullying".  

What.  This driver gets to do whatever he pleases, this manager is totally pandering to him and I"m done.  I stood my ground, fire my @$$ if you want to, I don't care at this point.  IT turns out the manager didn't bother to read the text I sent him last night about this. I said I would be at  the WASHOUT at 8:00 am, not the plant getting loaded. We argued about that but there is no denying WRITTEN WORDS that are plain as day.  He said it was his fault, but he'd call this dude.

Why? Because even if this dude thought he could get an early start, he still wasn't supposed to show up to the plant until 10:30.  Not 8:40, about the time he would have gotten there after I had to wait for both him and another truck that had shown up after him.  Which, by the way, wouldn't have been an issue at all.  I would have only had to wait  maybe another 15 minutes for that one, a different type of trailer that doesn't take as long to clean.

But, I had to wait for the entire washout for this errant driver and then that second truck and then go to the plant.  That cost me about 45 minutes.  I assumed that the manager calling him meant he would make  this dude wait. I assumed wrong, he had backed into the bay and was loaded by the time I got there. In fact, he was pulling out when I got onto the scale - the place he needed to go.  I just started at the dude while I was getting weighed in.  Selfish, stuck up, self-serving person acting like a child and only caring about himself.  

The manager did call me back. This is what he always does. He goes off on me, I dish it right back to him and then he calls me back and apologizes.  I don't fear losing this job, they have nothing on me.  Sure, I would have to find another one but would that be that bad? I don't know.  We had a decent conversation, but we've had this conversation about this dude several times now.  His answer is to not have us loading on the same day. His answer isn't, gee, I should get this driver under control and make him do the same thing everyone else has to go through.  Yeah, who cares about THAT?

I realized later after getting loaded and leaving the plant that I would probably encounter this dude again tomorrow up there and he would undoubtedly cut in front of me AGAIN.  So I texted the dispatch number again, I did not feel like having another conversation about this:  "I intend on being at Gurdon normal 1st load time for me which is between 8:30 - 9:00 am. I don't  want to wait for this driver even 5 minutes.  I lost an hour today".  It wasn't a request.  I'm beyond that now as well.  I am fully decided that if that driver shows up early anyway, I am going to demand $150 to deliver this load. My time is worth money, they are going to pay me more to put up with this nonsense.  I STILL don't want to wait even with more money, it's not worth it to me, I just want to get up there, drop the load and LEAVE.  Not, get up there, wait for 2 hours, drop the load and leave. 

It's that or I will take that load home and they can get the truck and have someone else deliver and yes, I won't drive from them ever again. Of course, that would be the "reaction" mode of having to put up with this dude yet again and them not dealing with it.  LIke, they can see where he's at, they know if he's driving up there too early, they can call him and tell him no.  But do they? Of course not.  The logical thing to do would be to deliver the load so  I can get paid for it and then quit.  Regardless, quitting is on my mind and I have found a couple of interesting job leads that are local hauling fuel to gas stations. I've never done it before but it doesn't look any more difficult than anything else I've done including hauling cryogenics, the particular kind I was hauling more dangerous than a tanker full of gasoline. 

The problem I'm having here is that this is starting to stress me out and stress isn't good for you. I don't need a trucking job, of all things, stressing me out.  I'm just done with this. New drivers come in, do what they please, the 2 of us that have been there a while now and ARE conscientious get trampled on. The other one doesn't say anything, fine for him. I have enough experience in this industry to know if you don't say anything, nothing will change.  

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Enough of that.  I've got 3 empty lots albeit one of them is paid until next month.  I had a few missed calls about them - I forgot to turn on my ringer on my phone and once you miss a call like that, they usually just move on and find something else.  I tried contacting them and they did answer but said they had found other accommodations.  Lost business, gag.  Not too many calls right now tho, the time of year and the recent weather has a lot to do with that.  

The house in AZ has been short a tenant for 2 months. He claims that he can't get any calls. I want to see his ads, I doubt they are what he needs to be writing to get people interested in calling about them.  I need that money to pay for that place, I am not making anything off of it at all and losing some. BUT, the flip side of that is that money I used in the cashout helped pay for the building of the park.  I almost wish the guy would find some other place to live so I could sell that place and get out from underneath it, I'm kind of tired of dealing with it. It's not a lot I have to do, I just would like to get it out of my hair.  I don't know.  

The lady of the house decided to get yet another puppy. They now have 2 puppies and 3 cats. I have one dog and fish.  She doesn't want her dogs out back so if I ever wanted to get Obi a companion, I'd have to get another dog, a thing I really don't think I want to do.  

Anyway, I have gone on long enough with this one. Had to get that other driver thing off of my chest  and now think about it for awhile.  Perhaps I should just tough this ridiculous job out until I retire? That's 3 more years tho.  I qualify for SS in a few more days - but the amount I would receive wouldn't be near enough to actually live off of. If there are seniors that are living on that kind of income, I can see why they are poor and don't have enough money to even pay basic bills.  This is why I build that park, a thing I have already discussed at length in this blog.  

 Sunday-night

I was ready to quit today. At least, that was what I had prepared myself for. I have lost sleep over this issue and I'm simply ready to end it. The issue is an endless stream of new drivers who don't care about appointment times and will show up at your appointment time - or more notably: for your appointment time - effectively bumping you out of first load and into second load position and costing a lot of time.

Management knows all about this, they say they think it's bad but - what do they do about it? It took 2-1/2 hours to unload the other day and that doesn't include waiting for this dude who showed up in Gurdon, yes, before me even tho he should have been hours after me.  After all I"ve seen from this dude, I had no reason to believe that anything would be different today, albeit I had gotten up at 4:30 am and was traveling through Gurdon around 7:45 am.  

My thoughts were these.  If this guy was already there, I would call dispatch and inform them of such.  If their reply was "I'm sorry" notwithstanding the fact that they really aren't and doing nothing else, I would give them a list of options. Option 1: force the driver to unhook the trailer and move out of my way.  Option 2: pay me a flat fee of $200 extra beyond regular pay for the wait time. Option 3 if everything else failed? Drive the truck back to my rv park, still loaded and they can send a driver to take it up there and I would be permanently washing my hands of this miserable company.

The fact of the matter is, they can see every driver's truck, where it's at, whether it's parked or driving, if driving what speed it's going, the direction it's going in and the highway it's on - etc,, a lot of stuff they put into trucks to give them info about what we're doing.  Even that old thing I drive has all of that installed into it. They should be monitoring outlier people who don't care, watch what they're doing and give them a call if they're doing something they shouldn't be, ie: attempting to arrive in time to beat another driver there.

Why aren't they doing that? I was fully prepared with all kinds of info and arguments as to why they are wrong and this dude is worse than that. 

I was almost shocked when the dude I called to come up and weigh me in - the plant is "closed" on Sundays, logging trucks don't ever run on Sundays at all - told me there are no other trucks in there. I can honestly say that I didn't believe him. I figured the dude must have come in there with someone else showing up to weigh him in.  But, when I drove to the other side of the plant? No truck parked in front of the delivery shack.

So, I didn't quit, I didn't say anything at all.  I just spent the extraordinary time it's  taking to offload in this cold weather - the product is like molasses, maybe not THAT thick but you get the idea - and just doesn't want to flow well.  2-1/2 hours a few days ago, 1 hour and 50 minutes today.  That was a big reason I wouldn't wait behind him if he had shown up early - I wasn't going to wait for free when I shouldn't be waiting at all.  

I don't want to quit the place, not at all. ALL trucking companies have issues. They may be different issues, but you'll have to contend with them regardless. This place has more issues than most, but the pros are the schedule - often getting done early - and the hours - not working more than 8 hours a day and usually less than that.  

Anyway, day 5 of working tomorrow morning and after contacting dispatch earlier, they assured me they would have the guy show up at 10:30, well after I should be there and either gone or almost done loading.

Ugh, other things I wanted to go into but.....it's bedtime.  

 Thursday - night

Well, yesterday was crazy.  I start getting calls from a tenant about her ex boyfriend who is threatening to extort her to her parole officer if she doesn't give him another round of sexual favors.  Allegedly anyway, tho it gets better.  She wanted me to call the cops and I said why would I do that? He is threatening you, not me.  This goes on, back and forth for a while until she says thanks.

So, it's Wednesday, I was still off of work and the kids were still out of school due to the weather.  The roads actually, the weather had come and gone.  I dragged them with me to Ollies, Great Clips and then Walmart.  I'm buying a new keyboard for my computer - don't ask why - well ok, I spilled water on it and about 2 hours later the whole thing blew up. Not literally of course, it just started doing crazy stuff.  I verified it was the keyboard by plugging in another one I had laying around.

This other one is not a gaming keyboard and I couldn't play my game with it.  So, we're at Walmart electronics section and this ex boyfriend just happens to be there.  I see him but I really don't want to interact with him, he's out there. His speech is weird, like permanently slurred by excessive drug use or something, he's around my age.  We're standing at the check out in the electronics section, just buy the thing there and avoid the lines up front, I didn't want to stay long. 

But, he sees me.  So he comes straight up to me and says something and I say back to him that I've been hearing things about him.  If he's going to get in my face, I'm going to ask his side of the story anyway.  It got heated.  If you guy by what she says, he's threatening her not just with the parole officer but with other things.  I said that to him, that you've been calling her and harassing her on the phone.  Well, yes I have been calling her.....

Well why are you calling her? He had no good answer to that but he got right in my face.....his face was maybe 4 inches from mine. That set me off.  This isn't really any of your business, stay out of it.  She made it my business. It's none of your business...blah blah blah but he was attempting to intimidate me which is when I said a few words to him I won't repeat here and he backed off 4 feet instantly. I got riled up with his attempt to cower me into posturing before him as if I'm some sort of subservient and lessor than him.  I had the kids with me and I didn't want them subjected to this s***, after he got back from me I told him to back off, I'm not afraid of you and you are pissing me off.  

Then I walked off with the kids, this is the middle of Walmart for crying out loud, I'm not going to get into a fistfight in the middle of the store unless  I have to defend myself. I wouldn't get into a fistfight anywhere regardless but I am also not going to be bullied.  I spent enough years as a child being bullied until I got the guts to stand up to them and never looked back.  

Then he starts calling me...he used to live in the park in his own trailer before he got rid of that and moved in with the lady he is harassing and after that conversation in the store? It was 99% verified he is harassing her.  He left messages on voicemail and started texting me and then called again. Annoyed, I answered, told him to stop calling me and that now I am trespassing him from the property.  If you step a foot onto my property, I am calling the Sheriff to send out deputies and have you arrested.  I can show them the texts.  At the very least, I thought, they would force him to leave and issue a  criminal trespassing statement against him.

He wants his stuff back, but there isn't much there and she already said she would drop it off at some relative's house of his. I got on the phone with her and told her what had happened, she was ecstatic.  I said he's been trespassed, if he shows up there, call me immediately.

That never really left me yesterday, I am not in the habit of having people start that kind of trouble with me.  Later on, the manager calls me and says he has work for me tomorrow.  Good.  He then said disregard that it says first load on there, I don't want you and that new guy to be contending for the first load.  I assumed he had accidentally put my load as first load and was correcting it.  

I don't really mind doing a late load here and there, I haven't really done a lot of them lately so it's pretty much my turn. I don't like them but what are you doing to do.   But when I got home, I looked into the tablet and saw that he had given me 2 late loads in a row, the one for today that shows early but I am allegedly to be there second load time and a flat out second load after that. I sent a text: I'm trying to understand why I'm being given 2 late loads in a row?

Not just that there are two in a row, but also that the second one is the weekend, meaning I'll be wasting most of both weekend days working instead of getting it done early and have the day to spend with family. He got back to me and told me he would switch it but we need to have a discussion. Oh yes, we do. Because it became clear that this new guy was getting his way.  He can just show up whenever he wants and the manager doesn't have the balls to stand up to him. I'm not going to sit idly by and let either one of them get away with that nonsense.    The phone call never came, but I know what he did and if he tries to deny it, I WILL call him out on it, consequences be damned. This happens almost every time a new driver comes into the system, they just show up whenever they want to and they don't care if they are trampling on another driver's time slot.

For me, that's personal time they're eliminating off of my day's schedule. 

Not much else.  The roads were almost completely cleared up, only a few spots where there was actually snow and ice - places in the shade from trees towering about the roadway.  I dunno, but I was glad to get back to work even if I don't feel like it.  The truck is currently running decent tho this morning, it was cold and that thing barely choked - and I do mean choked, that's exactly what it sounded like - to life.  I warmed it up for 20 minutes before leaving.  Well longer, there was a valve that was stuck open from the freezing cold letting air pressure out.  I had to rev the engine for 10 minutes before I got full air pressure.

I did drive with it that way because I knew shortly it would reset itself and the air leak would stop. It's just a cold weather thing and yes, the leak disappeared.  

It's almost 10 pm and I'm getting up at 6 or 6:30, I don't intend on staying up late tonight. Got into a bad habit those 5 days off staying up til midnight or 1.  I'm actually more of a night owl than anything but I don't live that kind of life because of work schedule and park stuff.  Otherwise? I would stay up late and get up late every day lol.

 Tuesday - night

I fully expected to be going back to work tomorrow.  I am not. The only communication I got from them today was they want a copy of my newly minted CDL to give to corporate.  Yes, they are entitled to such information, lol, I'm driving one of their trucks.  

I have to assume that it's still bad up there. I know that a bunch of snow was dumped on the ground but other than that? I just figure unsafe driving conditions. The roads have mostly cleared up here, tho there are patches of ice here and there.  Yet, that plant is sitting in an itty bitty town and people come from all the surrounding towns to work there.  I'm guessing the plant must have fully shut down for this. They would have run out of glue long before now otherwise.  

No, after checking the roads up there, there isn't anything showing on GPS.  But then again, maybe there's no traffic to show either. One thing that is really unsettling is this ongoing situation on I-20 in Louisiana somewhere near Ruston.  The last I checked, the entire highway is shut down and hundreds or maybe thousands of vehicles are stuck sitting on the highway. People have reported from that mess saying they have been sitting there for 30 hours. 

The national guard has been sent in to help get the highway moving again, but I would suspect they need to check and see if everyone is ok or even alive, it's been very cold.  I would also like to think they would have started this process LONG before they did.  People were taking pics of where they were sitting with trucks in front of them as far as you could see. Which in some cases wasn't very far.  I looked on GPS and there is still a stretch showing dark red on it.  

I'm down 2 runs this week so far and half of one including tomorrow. The kids are also out of school for yet another day, apparently many of the roads out in the county are still bad and people are still getting stuck.  The power went out in my park today but it only lasted 45 minutes. Swepco was all over it thankfully.  They said before this storm hit that they had crews standing by to swoop in and try to get anything and everything resolved quickly.  

However.  There is something called "freezing fog" coming in I guess tonight? I'm not sure when, but a local meteorologist said that it is going to cause more severe road conditions. I had to look it up, I had never heard that term before.  It's supercooled liquid fog droplets that freeze instantly upon contacting any surfaces that are below 32 degrees.  I can see how that could make for very dangerous driving conditions.  

That's the big deal around here, it has been since basically Saturday.  

 Monday - mid morning

It's a staycation, at least that's what I'm calling it.  The only thing we've done since Friday afternoon is walk to the local Super 1.Authorities are saying the roads are worse today than they have been the entire icing event. 

I predicted this yesterday.  People driving on the roadways, the ice starts to melt and turn slushy, then the temps drop into the low teens over night and walaah!  Fresh ice for you to slip on!  Be that as it may, if Applebee's does open up today, I am going and if Starbuck's is open, there as well for the lady of the house.  I can handle only so much of being pent up in a house.  

Now would I want to be driving a truck in this s*** today? Absolutely not. We're talking 200 miles of driving not the less than 2 it is to Applebee's.  

What else is there to say about this? Nothing. It's very cold right now, at least by our standards in the mid teens, will not get up above freezing today and then it will plummet right back down into the low teens tonight. Only noon tomorrow does the temp rise about freezing and then the roads can start clearing out. It won't be surprising to me if they want us to drive tomorrow.  I dunno, maybe.  

That's not a "I don't want to work" thing, that's a "I'd like to survive this day without a jackknifed truck" day.  Or worse.  Actually, I don't think me losing control of the truck is the biggest issue although it's certainly a potential. It's what other drivers are doing who have no clue how to drive in this stuff are doing.  They drive erratically and are obviously white-knuckling the steering wheel - or - aren't paying attention to the road in front of them and slamming on brakes or making wild corrections to avoid an accident.

Or just plain driving off the road while scrolling on their phones.

As for the news, if you have even just looked at the headlines, you know that ICE is the biggest thing going and from the looks of it, it is totally a manufactured "crisis" by people who have less than good intentions to steer the people towards an anti-Trump stance BUT wanting them to believe in bigger government at the same time. They reason that the White House will be replaced in the next presidential election by a democrat - or - that the House and Senate will be controlled by dems in that next election.

They may or may not be right, who knows? But at the pace this is going? I believe the Insurrection Act will have to be invoked and yes, send actual troops onto America's streets to stop the rioting, destruction, maiming and death that is already beginning to be seen.  I'm NOT a fan of American troops patrolling city streets, but then again, I don't live in a state or a city where the officials are egging all of this crap on.  IF these politicians would actually take a stance FOR the rule of law, the tide of this wave of anti police nonsense might change.

But, you have mouth breathers like governor Walz blaming ICE and telling them to leave.  He's a bonafide puppet/parrot for the propagandist's agenda.  He may be one of them, although he seems to be a rather stupid man with a low IQ.  His motives are to stay in power at any cost.  

Let's note here that ICE is targeting CRIMINAL illegal aliens, not just people who have unlawfully crossed our borders without going through the process everyone else has to to become a citizen or work here legally.  There are CRIMINALS. People have committed murders, assaults, violent crime and thieves as well. Look at this Somali nonsense going on there. They come here to our land and defraud us of 20 BILLION dollars?  Who is in charge of handing out these funds?  Who is being held accountable in the government for even giving this money away? 

Ilhan - becomes a multi-millionaire literally overnight?  Yes she should be investigated.  If her finances are legally acquired, all well and fine, maybe people like her communistic stances and are giving her this money. Plenty of communist oriented billionaires in this country.  But you and I both understand that there is great potential for scam, fraud, cheating going on here.  She's a representative, it is appropriate in my view to find out how she got so rich for from what I have seen, they are refusing to discuss it.  Red flag.  

Now I am reading that Trump is sending Homan to Minnesota to take over the ICE operations there.  He's not going to just have his agents stand idly by while people assault them.  If more people are killed, that is a tragedy but if you come up against law enforcement armed with firearms or try to run them over? What do you expect will happen to you?  

The rest of the news is basically dwarfed by all of this stuff going on in Minnesota.  Have to wonder what the citizens who live there think of their governor, the somali ripoff or Ilhan?  Some would say they are fully behind all of them, sure, but I suspect a general census with man-on-the-street type of soliciting opinion would come up with people who are outraged at all of it.  I know I would be but that wouldn't surprise anyone who knows me.  

_______________

Many hours later. The roads were fine until we got to one of the Applebee's entrances.  Something told me "don't go in this way".  I did and it is a steep hill that was covered with ice.  Call myself stupid.  Lost traction. Tried backing up but the vehicle went side ways, over a curb and almost into a very deep ditch.  

As luck - or probably more like it, God's blessing - would have it, a park tenant was literally passing by with someone else, they were driving 2 separate trucks, both 4wd.  He comes up, do you need help? Yup.  He gets his truck into position and then the other guy positions his truck in front of the truck in front of my SUV. They chain it all up, hit the gas and here we go!  THEIR trucks were sliding sideways as well, but eventually all 3 of our vehicles made it to the top, unhooked and I creeped over the ice to Applebee's.  Parking lot full of pickups and not much else.  

We had a fine meal and were glad to be out of the house for a few hours.  Got the lady of the house a meal to go and went home.  There is no work tomorrow - this may or may not be necessary I dunno, but apparently in Arkansas they are still having serious road issues. Ours is almost gone - excepting the black ice that will undoubtedly form tonight.  

So, the Staycation continues.  But Wednesday? I wouldn't be surprised if they ask me to do a full turn in one day.  Unless they have enough OTR drivers coming in to help cover everything, we will find that out tomorrow. I'll do a full turn if needed, it would be nicer if they just gave me normal runs tho.  I expect to be working through this coming weekend. Again, it's really up to whether they have enough outside drivers coming in to help cover it, I will not be asking for the weekend off, I mostly never do unless it's well in advance for something planned. 

_________

These people are not prepared for a person like me.  I am - well I was a mod but I asked to be promoted to admin yesterday because I do most of the moderating stuff in the group - an admin in the local gossip group.  Ok, it's a selling group for business, a place for people to ask questions about things local, but there is also stuff dumped in there that is seedy or gossipy.  I just publicly push back on people trashing the group.  You will find people despising any group regardless of how good it is.  I don't really care what any of those people think of me and the mouthy ones are the keyboard warriors who go around trashing everything.  

I occasionally get some that will start mouthing off on a situation where they are clearly in the wrong. About the time they start insulting me out of the blue for no reason? BYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

______________

Late night.  It dawned on me that the plant might call for "sudden" deliveries.  We could legitimately go down to Lufkin tomorrow after any ice melts off the roadways and get loaded. It would make for a very late day and I would rather just have it off and start on Wednesday.  4 days off, not requested yet very much appreciated. 

They canceled school again tomorrow as well.  This I get: the roads will have ice on them when everyone is supposed to be driving their kids to school or buses driving around to pick them up.  I dunno, I just know that today was the last guaranteed day off, tomorrow I wonder.  It's going to be cold again tomorrow, both here and in Lufkin and the next day.  

Anyways, enough for one post.  

 Sunday - late morning

I didn't bother to roll out of bed until 10 am, there was no reason to and might as well sleep in. 

Church is closed today and so is Applebee's, so our weekly routine is disrupted - as expected.

Some "stuff" fell out of the sky last night, it looks like snow but it's more like a frozen slushees drink. It's hard and not soft or powdery at all like if it was fresh snow that had fallen.

I looked at the road conditions going south - the road I "will" be taking tomorrow to get to the plant and they are in horrid conditions if the gps is correct and it usually is. There are red lines all the way down there.

Yes, I know that's tomorrow but it will never get above freezing today.  It's 21 degrees, feels like 10 according the weather channel, will get up to 26 today and then plummet back down into the teens tonight.  

So, even if the roads are being driven on, they will not be much traveled overnight meaning any slush created by people traveling on them today will turn back into solid ice overnight. Around 6:30 am, leaving in that stuff?  It doesn't sound safe to me.  I'll check again later on today, my company probably doesn't care if I have to drive. I'm actually going to try to get into my vehicle and rive over to the park if possible. 

I don't have 4 wheel drive and I don't have any kind of winter tires on it.  This is not normal weather for around here, we don't spend money on things like winter studded tires or even chains for that matter.  My truck does have chains for both the tractor and trailer. You can't drive very fast with them on, a 1=1/2 hour trip will turn into many hours going that slow if I were to try that.  

And watching a video of chain installation since I haven't done it in a long, long time, it's a PITA.  I don't have the bungee cords needed to hold the chains tight and I don't think I have the chain tightening tool anywhere, don't remember seeing one anyway.  If you don't have those items along with the chains, the chains will not be tight and they will just fall off the tires.  -

Anyway, this is basically another nothing day. The kids are out front playing in that stuff, I have no desire to go outside at least not right now.  I was out yesterday for a few hours and had a little fun throwing ice balls, that's what they really are, but I haven't been anywhere since Friday afternoon.  I'm wondering if management will even bother to ask me if I think the roads are going to be safe to drive? Because if they called about it right now, I would inform them of the icy road conditions and then refer them to the red lines on GPS. 

______________

That was many, many hours ago. It's now 11:30 pm.  Our street never changed, it's a sheet of ice with some powdery snow on top of it - very little of the powdery snow. The lady of the house didn't have any crack so I mentioned to the boys about walking to the store? Umm, I'm not talking about crack cocaine, it's her reference to a Monster drink, perfectly legal lol.

I didn't say why we might go and I certainly wasn't forcing it on them during a real-feel of 11 degrees, but they got all excited! WALK TO THE STORE? YESSSSSS! That was totally unexpected, at the same time, they have been pent up in the house for days. Yes they have gone out front and played in the ice snow, but not the same as getting out from the house.  

So, I called the store - grocery store - to ensure they were opened. Yup, we're here til 5! 3:30 pm, we left and it was a fun adventure, albeit the youngest fell on his @$$ 5 times and the other twice. I slipped badly twice but I regained my footing before actually hitting the ground, thankfully.  We got to the store and got busy finding her crack, blueberries to make a recipe - and fresh flour and vanilla extract - saltines and a few other things. 

I made the kids bring their backpacks.  WAYYYY easier to pack that stuff home on their backs than attempting to carry stuff by hand.  

The dog was weird, he wanted out a lot.  I let him out and made him stay out for a while.  It's cold, you wanna be out there? Fine but it's not a couple of minutes.   \

The other eventful thing today is the fact that I wasn't trying to drive my vehicle out of the neighborhood. The road was literally ice.  What's the point? We have food, we just went to the store on a whim to mix things up.  The point? After that walk to the store, I contacted dispatch and informed them I was NOT going to be driving tomorrow. I didn't care what their response was going to be if it was going to negative or trying to pressure me, they can piss off if they tried that and I would have told them so directly.

But, they aren't like that thankfully. Another battle I didn't have to fight, after I sent that, I got a reply back that drivers down south aren't  going anywhere and that the dispatcher was supposed to have called you to cancel that load.  

I'm telling you right now on this blog, I would not have taken that load regardless.  

There were numerous accidents and probably more I don't know about including several involving semis.  One had a pic of the truck hanging halfway off a bridge some 20 miles from here. I recognized the bridge immediately, it's just north of Jerfferson.  

But the problem doesn't stop with tonight. The forecast is for a HIGH of 31 degrees and then back down to 15  that night. MORE ICING CONDITIONS.

I'm done. It's getting late. I don't have to get up early but I am sleepy. 

 Saturday - morning

I am ever-so-glad that I did not have to go into work today. That sleet/ice rain junk is falling from the skies and the street in front of our house is covered with it. It's below freezing so you know that gunk is going to freeze up and hellish driving conditions already exist. I would be white-knuckling trying to drive down to Lufkin.  I don't know about Monday - cross that bridge when I get to it - but for today and tomorrow? I'm good.  

The real threat of power outages will occur once all this junk starts freezing up on the power poles, tree limbs and power poles, weighing them down and potentially causing them to snap.  We are far from out of the woods, in fact, we just got lost in them.  

As normal, the people who don't heed such warnings are now asking if the roads are safe? Do your eyes not tell you what your brain must be saying inside of your skull?  Can you not see the road for the landscaping behind it? Is it not glaringly obvious that streets covered with this junk falling out of the sky coupled with below-freezing temps is going to be slippery and risky driving at best?

But you cannot reason with such people, they are free to make their own decisions.....and suffer the potential consequences thereof.  

As planned, we are not going anywhere excepting maybe the front yard today. The yard is white from this junk and the kids thought it was snow but no, sir, this is frozen junk that won't from snowballs and such, sorrrryyyyy. It IS supposed to snow, however so it might still materialize.  

The National Weather Service has local warnings in place.  Delay travel. Do not travel unless absolutely necessary.    Carry a shovel, flashlight, blankets etc.  YOU DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE STORE and even if you do, they are probably closed!  I was informed yesterday that the local Chili's will be open as is the Applebee's.  No thanks, we bought food, we're good.  Tomorrow, church has already stated they are not going to have services this week and if we go to Applebee's as per our routine? It will only be if the roads have cleared up. 

BUT, the forecast is for this junk to keep falling until Sunday 6:00 pm.  

And therein lies my dilemma for Monday.  If that stuff is falling until evening time, the temps will never come above freezing, what do you think the roads will be like?  Horrible, of course.  I wonder if the washout will even be open.  I also wonder how tenants are faring at the park. I have 3 openings there all of a sudden. 2 people left without notice, tho they were temporaries anyway, the third called and said he left because they had already relocated his assignments elsewhere and too far to drive to my place every day.  

I dunno, I put out an ad but I doubt it's going to gain much traction in weather like this.  Anyone wanting to move into a park is going to stay put where they're at and anyone unfortunate enough to be traveling in this garbage would have found a place to park it and ride it out.  I wish they would have found my place for the income, but whatever.  

____________

The internet is apparently a place where people can be rude to one another and just say stupid and crass stuff because .... nothing happens to them. Hide behind a monitor or phone screen. Face to face, most people engaging in this kind of behavior wouldn't speak such words to anyone.  This is what's happening on the local gossip group and I have had enough of it. People can be suspended or even banned and shut their mouths.  Start their own groups and get that way with people if they like.  

There's not much else besides politics, an endless stream of nonsense being hurled at President Trump, who appears to be immune to such things. He does what he does and these lefties endless tries to silence him are not working at all.  They are already planning on impeaching him if they win the House and Senate in the next election.  I doubt he'll care about that, either, for they won't have enough votes to remove him.  It just shows how petty the left has become.  He's a dictator starting wars all over the world and taking over countries! .... and endless other junk that I mostly just ignore now.  I might read it but it doesn't click anymore, it's been going on over 10 years now.  

I do think I will do some book work today and redeem the time a bit. 

With that, I'm ending this one. The power is still on, hope it stays that way.  Kids are watching tv, they probably won't get too cranky unless the youngest doesn't get his way (ie: wanting treats and not being allowed to have them), the lady of the house will probably play video games and I will play on and off.  I tend to get tired of the games and just shut it off after I've been playing for a while.  It's only one game I play because I really don't like any other games.  And anyway, I don't want to be so connected to games that you don't "touch grass" as gamers like to call it.

Which simply means shut off the game, get up and do something else, such as going outside and walking on the grass lol.