Friday into Saturday - midnight

Today was an uneventful day, at least trucking-wise, besides one surprise, tho it had nothing to do any driving nightmares such as yesterday. 

You see, yesterday, there was this load I was working on finishing today and then another load for Monday, they were giving me Sunday off and I didn't have to ask for it. If I ask for any day off, even if it's owed me, I end up getting a trash schedule after that for at least 1 or 2 runs worth of afternoon delivery garbage. If I can keep my mouth shut, I hardly get any afternoon runs at all.  

They make you pay for asking for time off.  If I need it off, I'm taking it regardless.  I won't tolerate them giving me 2 afternoon deliveries in a row and they very well know that.  

Well, I get up this morning all groggy. 2 nights in a row I've slept well, but that means feeling icky in the morning for I haven't slept well previous to that so -- they say you never catch up on your sleep, I dunno what happens but whatever it is, it takes a long time to actually feel fully awake.  

Anyway, I look at the tablet and lo and behold, the Monday run is gone.  They don't bother to tell you about it, they just do it and I guess hope you end up seeing it.

Upon arriving at the plant, I went looking for a manager to sign off on the paperwork, there was this dude I hadn't seen in a long time in the office. He's a veteran and really chill (cool) guy.  He's talking to his help and asking whether another load is coming in today, the other guy says yes, there's a 2 o'clock load. 

Oh, well that's it for a week then.  I looked at him, probably funny and interjected, what do you mean?  We are shutting down for a week. It is a scheduled maintenance thing we normally do in November but for whatever reason they are doing it next week.  I know my manager didn't know anything about it for he was handing out loads for Sunday and Monday!

I texted the other driver I'm basically friends with and told him what's going on for they probably didn't tell anyone we are off for a week. He said that makes sense, my load for Sunday (tomorrow) was cancelled.  

Communication is not a thing with this company and also with the plant we deliver to.  They make decisions that directly affect us but don't tell us until the last minute.

Of course, the guy that likes to try and cut me showed up 30 minutes after I did, 4-1/2 hours before his delivery time. I didn't know if he was trying to cut me or not, I don't really care, as long as I'm ahead of him. I have never talked to this person for in my view, he's a total @$$.  I've gone into the details of this driver enough times in this blog, I'm not doing it here. It's getting late.  

Tomorrow is nothing but church, finish laundry in the morning, go to Applebee's, then off to Walmart and then back home to laze around the rest of the afternoon.  Providing I actually have Monday off, I'm going to be working at the park.  I say this because the company will inevitably call me and ask me if I went an Ennis load? I'll say no unless you need me to. They'll say no, we already have a crew that works that load plus other drivers from this division, if you're ok not working, we won't send you anything.

I doubt they'll need me. The truck needs some work so I may go up to Eldo this coming week - get up super early so I can be there close to when the shop opens up and get it done in one day.  It shouldn't take a full day, even, I just know that our shop typically - not always  but typically does a far better job of repairs then regular shops and much faster.  The thing is, it's 2 hours and 45 minutes up there so it's 5-1/2 hours of driving.  I guess I could ask them if I can take it to a local shop. 

The guy at the local shop has working on my truck several times now.  He's not the greatest mechanic on earth, made a huge mistake on one what-should-have-been simple repair but everything else he's done has turned out ok.  That's 10 minutes away.  I could get a ride home if it had to sit there for quite a while. 

Actually hoping they can do without me for a week.  I can get a lot done over at the property.  I had a load of gravel brought out the other day, I need another one. It's $800 per load, btw, it's not cheap.  But, the driveway is mostly dirt covered now, the gravel is buried.  I need to get the portion of it that is next to the park covered up again so there is no more dust flying up every time someone drives up and down it. 

There's a lot of mowing that needs to be done and of course, the project. I'd like to at least get the sewer line done. That's probably a couple days worth of work.  

Ugh, it's 12:15 am, I'm going to sleep. 

Saturday - early

There is one thing that saved me: There was no oncoming traffic in the opposite heading lanes. 

Approaching a certain intersection that is usually never that busy and is a interchange between the Interstate and a state highway is something you take cautiously. There are a lot of accidents there for a few reasons. People in a hurry is one of them.

Turns some distance approaching the bridge makes it necessary for traffic coming off of the interstate to stop and really look both ways - which people apparently don't do often-time.

The bridge is also perched up high and you really can't see the other side of it until  you are up on it. 

The speed limit is 60 mph, there are no lights there, just stop signs for the Interstate traffic getting off of the Interstate.  

I am approaching this thing yesterday morning.  I'm watching - rather intently.  It's dark, good visibility tho, there's those lights on those very tall poles - like 150 feet high? on both sides.  

A vehicle pulls out as I'm approaching, I'm in the right lane, they get into the passing lane.  This happens alot, I don't like it but it's not inherently dangerous so long as that other driver STAYS in that lane.  

Then a Penske truck pulls up. I'm too close for it to pull out so, tho I'm watching it, I'm thinking: surely this person isn't that stupid as to pull out of there now. 

I thought wrong. This driver not only pulled out - the other side of the freeway turning left into my lanes - but he didn't turn, he was going straight across.

All I see was a big box, this was a 28 footer - with the words Penske on it. There's a lot of thoughts that go through your head when you think you're going to die.  

It goes through your head quickly, almost instantaneously.  Like a computer type of speed.  What a way to go out of this life. Can I somehow get out of this? What can I do?  The only option to salvage this was to dive that tractor trailer rig into oncoming traffic lanes and hope beyond all hope that he clears it fast enough.  

Yup, I was clear over the other side of the highway, this dumb@$$ realizes his stupidity and guns it and fortunately, that truck had enough get up and go to get  out of my way just in the nick of time. If there had been any traffic coming, I wouldn't be sitting here right now typing this. I would either be in a hospital or I would be dead.  I wouldn't have smashed head on into oncoming traffic, that's not fair to those people who have nothing to do with this and also, a T bone is bad but not as bad as a head on collision.

Although nothing that bad happened after that yesterday, driving was insanity.  I don't know if it's a Friday type of mentality or what, but there was so much risk tasking and ridiculous moves people were engaging in, I just wanted to go back to the yard park the truck and go home. 

I didn't, of course.  I loaded the truck and went back to the yard and right now, about to leave for work.

G'day

Pilot/Flying J

 Just a short blog entry about  the truck stops - which are owned by the same company - listed in the title of this post.

First off, I have never liked either one, even before they combined together.  Pilots are trashy and cheapskates.  Flying J's have Dennys a lot of times but that's the only redeeming factor.  

Our company recently forged some sort of contract with them for purchasing all of our fuel from them exclusively.  I despised the idea of being forced to either of them. 

IN my route, there is only one of each, Flying J on exit 7 off of I-30, which has a very bad reputation for a variety of things and Lufkin off of 59 for the Pilot. 

I don't care how much fuel you buy, you aren't getting a free coffee from them. You can use your points to get it, yes, but the extra free coffee on top of that if you buy enough gallons of fuel the previous month? Nope.  Truckers from the golden age of trucking don't call these places truck stops. The era of free meals, drinks and perk  are over for the most part. 

Anyway, I go into the Pilot in Lufkin.  It's easier than going into the Flying J on 30 - that place is always busy and you can expect to wait for a while to even get to the pumps.  

I've been getting water refills since I was forced to go back in there.  Free, of course, most of these travel centers give free tap water regardless of fuel purchase. 

Imagine my surprise when I took an over-priced salad - $7.99 for this little thing - and a refill cup of water to the checkout and the dude charges me $2.08 for the water.  When I saw the total of over $10 I was like, what? He told me the price of each and I just said no.   We went back and forth, I told him I've been getting free water here.  Nope, he says, they are wrong and should have been charging for it.

At this point, I asked for a manager and told the guy behind me he could go ahead of me.  He just shook his head and stood there, apparently interested in seeing what was going to happen next.  If they were going to charge me for water, I would have just left my cup there and the salad, they can keep it, I'll forego the water.  

It took a minute, but the manager finally comes out.  She smiles at me and asks me how she can help me?  Yes, this guy is trying to charge me $2.08 for this cup of water. I brought this cup in with me, it only has ice and water in it.  The man interjects, yes, it's a fountain drink. The manager gives him a pretty interesting look and then back to me: did you tell him there is only ice water in here? YES, SEVERAL TIMES.  

She looks back at him: You KNOW this, we don't charge for water?!  He objects and she corrects him again!  What an @$$!  He finally threw his hands up in there, declared "WHATEVER!" and took the drink charge off of there. No apology, no I'm sorry sir, just pure attitude. Just another reason to despise this horrible chain of travel centers.  

 Wednesday - late night

I look at the pile of junk tablet  frequently to ensure things are right. It malfunctions frequently, they won't do anything about it, I'm tired of dealing with it. This morning, headquarters in Oregon sent out a statement that literally no one had done their DVIR's - Driver Vehicle Inspection Report - and chastised all of us, quite stupidly I might add.  The idea that over 100 drivers wouldn't do what the feds require you to do is ridiculous and asinine.  OBVIOUSLY SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH THEIR TABLET SOFTWARE, AGAIN.  

Anyway, as of this morning, I was working tomorrow.  As of this afternoon? I am not working tomorrow, I am working Friday and Saturday. I do hope that is setting me up for Sunday off, for if it's not, I"m taking Sunday off anyway;  Don't really care, have worked 2 weekends in a row, I'ma get a day of rest.  Anyway, I'll take tomorrow off with no complaints whatsoever, stay up a bit late and get up late.  

I am going to continue work tomorrow on the driveway. I'd like to get it as good as I can with that tractor and then have some fresh - expensive - gravel brought out.  Just for next to the RV lots, not the rest of the driveway to keep the dust down. The price of gravel delivered nowadays is absolutely ridiculous.  $850 per load. I can remember it being $200 per load.  Don't have much choice, have to keep the peeps happy. A bunch of dust flying up every time someone drives through there is unacceptable.  About 300 feet of driveway covered with 2 truckloads of gravel should do it and keep it good for a while to come.  

Wish I had a trackhoe to dig out the side of the driveway and create a fresh path for rain runoff to flow through. I don't and I'm not doing that tomorrow - renting a machine and spending all day working on that.  There is a monopoly on gravel in this town. I can get gravel from out of town but the distance is too far and even with reduced gravel rates, the trucking costs go way up and you save nothing and actually lose.  

The kid wanted to mow the grass today, I told him to have at it.  He got back to me later and said the mower battery is dead. Not surprising, it hasn't been run in a while. I'll charge that tomorrow as well if I have any extension cords left over there - the thievery from "guests" is amazing. 

 Monday - night

I'm still riding my bike almost every day - I can't say daily, some days I just can't get myself to do it.  But, I'm slowly getting better at being able to make it around the entire block - we're talking about a half a mile with steep hills - without having to stop to rest, breathing heavily and feeling like I best stop before something happens internally.  I don't overdo it, too much risk I have seen in heart failures with people pushing it too hard at an older age.  But, I can beat  my 11 year old nephew in a race now!  He gets mad lol, I guess I should let him win a few for the "participation trophy" effect.. 

Back to the grind tomorrow morning, I can only hope and pray that this week will go better than last. Way too much stuff happened at both plants and I was not appreciative of all of it coming at me in one fell swoop.  It actually felt good to focus on the park today instead of having to drive a truck for 6 - 7 or more hours including loading or unloading. I could do that full time - the park that is - never drive a truck again and be very, very happy.  

I need more days off - at the same time, there's been a lot of unwanted days off in the past few months so I guess you can call all of this current work catch-up. But, I haven't been to church in a month and I really want church on Sunday.  They could work me the next 4 days and get the weekend off or work the next 2 days, have Thursday off and then work Friday and Saturday and get Sunday off. Any way about it, I'm going to say something to them about it if they have me working Sunday again.  Something like: NO, thank you. 

So, changing the subject, I have been posting in the local gossip group quite a bit about this water main break lately, one of the posts has more views than we have population in the city or the county. It was intentionally controversial, but in a good way. We have a crisis here even if the line was - temporarily - fixed with a water distribution system that was installed anywhere from 60 to 75 YEARS ago.  It's falling apart and they keep patching it. We keep demanding they replace the system and do the necessary work of attempting to gain grants and funding to get it done.  

But, today I put up a post about the local Starbucks which has so far reached over 71,000 people lol. Starbucks brings up passionate like and hate from people.  People hate it because it's expensive. Yes and so is everything else and everything in moderation. I don't go to Starbucks daily because I don't want to but there is a person in the house that definitely goes every .. single..day. 

I frankly don't care what other people think about Starbucks.  A 7 Brews coffee house opened up literally across the street from it last year and all of these people posted their love for that brand. All well and fine, I didn't feel the need to throw a wet blanket on their party but if you post anything about Starbucks? People come out of the woodwork to disparage that company and talk down to you. So much so that today, there was a person calling it "racist" and white people's coffee or whatever she said specifically, it was unbelievable and also unacceptable. I am an admin in the group and I immediately banned her. 

The race card doesn't work on my anymore, the meaning of it has been so watered down that people don't really even know what a real racist is.  If you like Trump? You're a racist! Whatever.  

But, the comments piled up and some people addressed me by name so I got right back in their faces. I wasn't looking for trouble but if they are going to have a meltdown over a brand of coffee, they need help.  

 Monday - afternoon

Stayed up a wee bit late last night, but that's because after 8 straight days of working, I finally got a day off.  That doesn't mean I didn't do anything, I just didn't have to get behind the wheel of a truck.  Anyway, I did eventually get out of bed, got up, coffee'd up, over to the park.  Figured out how to get that box blade attachment on there - it wasn't easy I can tell ya that - and got busy for about 3 hours of dragging the driveway. It was in bad shape and I had put it off too long. 

I could probably spend a couple more hours on it, but my friend contacted me and we decided to eat lunch and have a Starbucks. Starbucks has been closed all the way up until today because of the burst water main pipe and the requisite boil water advisory.  I think all of there stuff is just directly hooked to the water system and dumping bottled water into their machines was either not possible or just too much.  

So, the driveway is good enough until I get back on the tractor. I may carry on with it tomorrow for I'd like to finish it while the gravel and dirt are still pliable. You have to drive back and forth over it many, many times before it starts really getting into the subsurface and doing the repair work necessary. 

Work. Well, yesterday started off ridiculous. I got up there to deliver and some anal retentive dude said "you aren't supposed to be here until 10 am".  These people are clueless of how the trucking industry works.  It was 9:15, that's WELL within a window of acceptability to show up for either delivery or loading.  I was trying to bite my tongue, this guy was not being nice yet I wasn't starting any trouble with him at all. Just another person in love with the taste of limited power.  

Well, we have a 1/2 to 1 hour window for arriving.  Not good enough for him, I just said: Your tank is almost empty.  He didn't believe me. He got up without saying a word and went to the glue pit room.  He looked at the gauge and said, wow, you're right!  What, would I lie about it?  Please.  I didn't say that to him but I definitely had those thoughts.  He begrudgingly unlocked the valve, opened it and locked it up again.  I said thank you! Appreciate it! 

Beyond trucking and it's variables - traffic, truck breakdowns, etc - the only reason they came up with this new rule is to accommodate for the single tank in use.  They didn't want the second load run to show up early.  I was first load, I wasn't hours early and they were in NEED of the product.  In fact, there was room in that lone tank for THREE more truckloads - AFTER I WAS FINISHED UNLOADING. 

Anyway, the day before that loading? Well, after 2 loading events taking a total of 12 hours combined plus a tire blowout that added 3 more hours, I was really hoping to get in and out of there. Quickly.  

I got on the scale, they said Come on down! and so I went to that driveway to back in and...saw our loading bay completely blocked by a truck and equipment and men doing - whatever they were doing.  I backed down the driveway and stopped about 100 feet before the bay.  Obviously the loader guy didn't know that stuff was in there. When he came out, he went up, had some words with them and that entire crew proceeded to move all of that stuff out of my way.

Thank you! I thought.  I was in and out of there so fast it was amazing. 

Anyway, I am done with the park for today, just don't want to go back now.  I am going to throw in a load of clothes in the washer and get some cleaning done.  Oh, we had lunch a Taco Hell. Don't judge me! I LOVE their Mexican Pizza! and they have also been closed because of the water main break.  

My heart goes out to the family and friends of the now-deceased pilots of the Air Canada flight.  Horrible.  Whoever is responsible for that fire truck being out on an active runway, the pilots had zero culpability, imo, in any of it.  They were unwilling victims of someone's screw up.  I listened to the ATC conversation, it sounds as if the ATC controller  made the mistake and owned up to it.  It's just unthinkable that they could miss the fact that a commercial jet liner is landing AND they had a fire truck ON the runway at the same time.

The controller tries to get the fire truck to stop, which it obviously doesn't or doesn't in time and tries to get the pilots to initiate a go-around, obviously a command too late. A passenger stated that the instant they got the wheels down the pilots slammed on the brakes. An unimaginable set of circumstances they were faced with and instant decisions to do whatever they could to save lives. They are heroes in my book, they sacrificed themselves to save passenger lives.  

The bigger problem is the number of near collisions and controller errors that have been made in the last few years. I was watching Hoover - he's on Youtube, a pilot that does debriefs on air events - he showed one where a jetliner was lined up on the runway ready to take off - as they had been given clearance  - and another aircraft landing.  It was jumble of wrong  moves by both the ATC and the landing aircraft who simply should have gone around, but instead chose to land over the top of the aircraft on the runway? BAD DECISION.

But there have been lots of other close calls and crashed, such as the helicopter smashing into the landing jetliner.  I dunno what's going on with ATC nationwide, but it gives me pause to consider flying anytime soon. I don't want to be the subject of some human error and another statistic for the books. 

Then you have Iran allegedly wanting to make a deal and allegedly saying they will no longer pursue nukes. How many times have lied about that particular subject in the past? Too many to count, thanks.  I don't believe anything they say. It's a regime desperately trying to stay in power, as the continued executions of it's own citizens portrays and the big one that just happened with the Olympic wrestler being publicly executed for speaking out against the regime.  We've already gone this far with this operation, let's finish the job.  Because once we're gone, it isn't likely we'll be back there again any time soon. Israel may do that, but doubtful we will.  

There's a lot going on right now, but God is still on the Throne and Jesus is still the Prince of Peace, Lord of lords and King of kings! 

 Thursday - night

 Just got home 30 minutes ago. It's 8:30 pm btw. 

The last 3 days of work have been rather hellish.  

Today was over 5 hours at  the plant. They are having issues with one of their tanks and delivering it through the lines.  "Something" is wrong but they allegedly don't know what.  Considering I spent 7 hours in that plant 2 days ago, I started asking questions. Not in a harsh or critical way, I just wanted to know when I was going home? T he mom needs the help with me there to watch the kids while she goes and does her stuff.  

Today, however, the loader didn't like me asking him about it so he got on his phone and called for a supervisor.  Or whatever the guy's title is, I don't know, but he walked up to the truck and said "you called for a supervisor?".

No.  He started talking about me asking and I said yes, I asked when I would be getting out of here?  We went back and forth, I kept my composure, he did not. He started getting angry, I guess because I wasn't  backing down to him. Is there something wrong with asking questions? No, he replied, but you have an attitude.  Uh, no, I'm simply asking questions since I'm spending so much time in here lately.  You, however, appear to be getting angry. 

No, I'm not angry, you have an attitude! No, I don't, I just  want to get a glimpse of why it's taking so long for me to get loaded and get out  of this place.  Back and forth, I'm not going to back down to a power tripper tho I remained polite and respectful,, I just wasn't going to be intimidated by him, let  the chips fall where they m ay, I am not in love with this job as it  stands as long  time readers will already understand. 

Well, I heard you say God da** the other day when they told you it was going to be awhile.  NO, sir, I  do not EVER say that, ever.         I think I said damn because I needed to get home and help with the kids. I don't really like to cuss at all but sometimes it slips out.  He replied he has 8 kids and he has been here today for 12 hours.  Well you work here... but it gave a glimpse into a man's mind who is probably unhappy with his job having to be there so many hours and taking it out on someone he figured was easy prey.  i

Well you work here too, right? No, I come here to load. This dude had something up his crawl;, he couldn't accept  anything I said. I do not  work for that plant, I work for a trucking company. They pay my paychecks.....more back and forth and I said, look I'm hungry.  I want to get this done.  Oh, well we have food here. Yes and I was in there getting water right next to the food and I wasn't offered any even tho I was acknowledged being in there.  

The conversation was petty and the man finally said, well no offense, but  you don't have to come in here ever again if you don't like it in here. So, you are getting so angry now that you are inviting me to leave here?  No, I'm "just" saying you don't have to come back here.  Pettiness, complete and total petty, childish behavior  at this point.  OH and btw, you shouldn't be outside of the truck at all!  First time I've ever heard that at the plant but I decided that was my queue to end this, I got  back in the truck, shut the door and stared at him.  He walked off in a huff and a puff and I could have cared less.  

5 minutes later, this giant black dude - this guy is 6 feet 6 I'm guessing and a bundle of muscle - comes walking up to the truck with a bag in his hand.  Now what? I'm  thinking. He said he heard I was hungry and he was bringing me some food. Oh, well thank you!  but I was just invited out of this plant.  Oh, we're all grown @$$ men, just ignore him.  He handed me the food, I shook his hand and began eating some very wonderful smoked brisket and sausage with mashed potatoes, beans and rolls.        

I actually felt much better after eating.  ;The power tripper never came back, I was in there until mid afternoon and finally left. 

After fueling I started driving up the road. Got 30 miles and kablaaam!  A tire blew and blew loudly on the trailer. I succumbed to the fact  that this entire weeks? sucks and just accept it.  That was a 3 hour ordeal to get a tire truck out there.

Let's go into yesterday. I was at the delivery plant.           They have become anal about delivery times, which doesn't bother me, I show up 30 to 60 minutes early, completely acceptable in t he trucking industry.  But..;. it took 15 minutes just t o get on the scale to weight the truck in and then it took 45 minutes to find a manager to sign off on the paperwork and unload the lock on the valve on the pipe we hook up to. 

I finally got some guy to sign off on the paperwork that  I didn't even know had that authority.   The issue is that t hey are still down to 1 tank and they want us showing up  at our appointed times, not 7 hours early.  Yup, it's ONE driver that is causing all of this nonsense and yup, it's the dude that keeps trying to get ahead of me all the time. I won't go into my thoughts a manager who can't control his drivers and puts up with the contempt this driver is giving him.....

And then there's the day before that which was 7 hours and not even going into that. 

My days are being consumed by this job. For the slowness that it took them to load that stuff today, I expect it to take 2 or more hours to unload it tomorrow.  Whatever.  I'm not going to sit around crying like a baby, I'm just printing out my days and just how much of this I am willing to tolerate before I draw a line and say nope, it's time to quit.  

I'm tired. It was a 13-1/2 hour day. Reminder of days gone by when I'd spend that much and more on the road constantly. I don't want that life again.                                                                                                                                                               

Oh, did I say they are still having water issues?  They "fixed" it, but it's  a clamp and they dumped concrete all around it.  Many are saying it won't hold. I'm saying let's hope it does!  The kids are allegedly, finally going back to school tomorrow - can't  have a school without functioning toilets.  And then there's the  huge debate going on in the local gossip group. Much of that conversation was started by yours truly.

Anyway, I'm getting off of here, watch a little tv and going to sleep.                                                 

 

 Tuesday - evening

Went to the washout today, no issues and left quickly. Got to the plant, they told me to watch for people because there are a lot of external contractors there but go ahead and back in.

A few hours later, I wandered into the control room. When are you going to get to loading my truck? They had said nothing to me about any issues at all. 

The man replied he was going to get to it "in about 45 minutes" I knew that was a lie. If they say 45 minutes, figure a couple of hours. I contacted my management, who contacted the factory rep and after quite a while, I got the story that there is a malfunctioning valve and they can't transfer the product to the outlet for our product. 

Why on earth wouldn't the workers tell me that? It was near 5 hours before they even started loading the truck and 7 hours before i got out of there. Yes, it took them 2 hours to load it.  Ridiculous.   

I didn't get home until 6:00 pm and I was the first load. You  know, the latest loading time should be 1000 am?  

Things weren't any better around here. A 24 inch water transmission line ruptured in town today effectively shutting down water for the entire city.  They shut the water treatment plant down, which shuts down the pumps which of course means no water supply.  They very quickly declared our town a "local disaster area" which apparently frees up money from the state and other entities to help considering there is no water to flush toilets, take showers, clean clothes - you know, the basics in life?  

The city immediately got bottled water over to the civics center and started handing that out until it  was gone. They said 8:00 pm, they were out before 5.  There are more truckloads coming. Bottled water isn't that expensive at  the stores, but  that isn't the point. People will panic buy and clear out the shelves quickly.  

Most business shut down quickly and kids were sent home from school before the morning was out. Well, yup, you can't have a school full of people without working toilets.  That would get nasty pretty quickly. 

The REAL problem here is our  water infrastructure and the fact that officials have known for YEARS that it's old, rusted, worn out, valves failing, pipes bursting, needs completely replaced.  In the last 3 weeks, we've had 3 major pipe bursts, but this one by far is the worst. 24 inch line is huge and a lot of water going  through it. 

________

It wasn't until 8:30 pm tonight that the school district finally made up it's mind about kids going to class tomorrow morning.  The city had to call out an out - of - town contractor to come in and do the repair, they are estimating that the repair will be completed mid morning. So, the school district said they are going to have class starting at 10:00 am.  I get that they need their money - the school district that is - from the state but at the same time, how on earth do you leave 1,000's of parents up in the air about whether they need to find someone to watch their kids the next day or not?  

But, that's what this town does and has done quite well since I moved here 11 years  ago.  Uh, make that 12 years and wow,  it doesn't seem like I've been here that long! 

Time to go to bed. 

 Saturday - morning

Day off, doing laundry and cleaning whatnot.  

I've never been charged to go to a person's birthday party in my entire life that I can remember, so it's a bit  disconcerting to have to go to one for the first time. Well, I don't have to go but I was asked so I'm going. It's $11 person. It's  not a great deal of money, it's the principle of the thing.  I would never dream of charging guests to come to a party, even if it's being held at a restaurant, which this one is.  We will gladly pay for our own dining experience, but I doubt anything but cake is involved in this offering. 

Why not just have it at your house like everyone else? Then again, these folks used to be a part of our group of families and bowed out after meeting other people that they apparently like more.  I don't hold that against them for the most part, but it's not like they are an integral part of any of our lives.  At all. 

That's at 2.  I asked if we are staying long and I got a "no" reply so I'm good with it.  Money aside, I don't tend to spend much time at b-day parties, as most people don't. Show up with your kids, sing happy birthday, slice cake, hand out presents and then go home.  It's a day off and I have cleaning to do plus the kids are coming home today. They've been gone since Sunday morning and the house has been magnificently quiet without them around, especially the younger one who is constantly screaming - and yes, I do mean screaming - about something. Usually something minor/petty as well.  

We are bracing ourselves for that, they will be back in about an hour and a half.  I love those kids but I definitely like it when we get a break from them. Grandma always wants to take them, sure!  They'll be gone for 2 weeks coming the beginning of summer.  Make that almost 3 with the church camp.