Friday - late afternoon

A few things to discuss here. First I was over at the property hacking down tall grass in the front 5 with the Big Boy.  The man I pay to help me was out there attempting to hack down tall weeds next to the ditch.  He started talking about borrowing a weed eater with solid blades on it but his friend is using it. Well, no rush, it can wait so you can get it done easier. No big deal there, people from a tree cutting service were cutting limbs back on the property along where the power lines run.  I knew they were going to be doing that but I asked anyway lol. I got a lot of mowing done today, that was good. 

The trucking job.  Now they have found even more things wrong with it, ordered the parts but they aren't in yet.  Just how much money are they going to spend on that machine?  I'd love to find out.  I'm guessing at least 20k for all of it including parts and labor.  The discussion was that there is a truck sitting up there that I could use. Yes, you mean the one that I came up for several Sundays ago and the AC wasn't working? And it was going to be real feel in the 100's so I went  home? 

That took him by surprise, he didn't know I had come up there for that for he was out sick at the time.  I am not going to come up there for that truck, we discussed yesterday about Monday and I have plans this weekend. Which I do, nothing I couldn't abandon but I seriously don't want to drive that other truck. It''s a ridiculous pile of junk. Gutless, super singles, everything I hate in a truck? It has it. 

Well then he said that even after the parts come in, it still has to be aligned.  Yup and there is an alignment shop in our town, many of the major trucking companies use it. So that was sort of settled, I can go get the truck and take it there for the alignment. How I am going to get up there is another story altogether.   They can come get me, perhaps hitch a ride with another driver, take a bus, I dunno.  

 Thursday - morning

Got up early so I could see the kids off. In fact, I woke up 15 minutes before the alarm went off which was set at 5:30 am. The youngest was in a bad mood - predictable and expected - the oldest was in an ok mood, not used to getting up that early.  They went off and here I sit contemplating the day.

There is no truck work today.  It's been 11 days this time since I've worked.  Obviously I can't continue this forever and to that end I contacted my manager yesterday evening.  I really didn't know where the truck was or what was going on with it, I only knew Peterbilt passed the buck saying they don't do that kind  of work there.  

So, what happened and where is the truck?  Well, they had it towed clear up to the yard in El Dorado.  Lol.  We have a new mechanic who is allegedly a "real", certified truck mechanic.  He's apparently the one who's been working on it and diddling around with it.  What I heard from my manager is that he continued to find things wrong with it - yes, it's got a slew of problems but nothing safety related or that DOT would write me up and I've gotten used to a half working truck. 

It's why I refuse to sleep in it at all.  It's old, it doesn't have the modern conveniences newer trucks have, it's very plain Jane. It's good enough for a day truck, it isn't anything at all I would consider driving OTR.  But then again I wouldn't consider driving OTR in any truck so there is that.  

I"m sleepy.  I haven't been getting up early and so I pretty much need to force myself back into that habit.  Oh, off topic here. Another man working in the office who is co-owner of the company got mad yesterday and told the mechanic after the mechanic came in and said "I found this and that wrong with it" that he needed to have it finished by that afternoon before he goes home.

He did not finish it.  I don't know how much is left to go or even what's been done to it this time around.  The manager was speaking in generalities.  I'm more into specifics, I want to know everything and exactly what has been fixed.  The problem is this: once that mechanic gets done with whatever he's doing, then it has to be taken to a truck alignment shop.  

There isn't a truck

Tuesday - morning

No word on the truck yet.  I will make no assumptions, the trucking industry and truck repair can and usually is unpredictable.  Especially when they have to order parts and have them UPS'ed in.  I'm afraid that when I do get back into driving mode, they are going to screw me for a while.  Or try to anyway.  The last I heard, they wanted me on Ennis runs.  Yeah, no.  I'll do a couple more if need be since I've been off another 9 days - they pay a lot more I found out - but it isn't permanent.  

In fact, the only communication I've had with them in quite a while was yesterday when one of the dispatchers texted me declaring that she assumes that I left the hard hat, gloves and gear in the truck.  Referring to the truck I was going to drive a few Sundays ago that ended up having no AC in it.  No, I needed new gear badly, I kept it.  She must have gotten mad at that for she didn't reply a single word.  I don't care at this point, their style of running a business is a little off.  

But then again I'm not your average truck driver either. I don't want OTR, I don't want to constantly run up and down the roads, I've done that for years and years and I'm sick of it.  My normal run is fine by me.  

Anyway, allegedly today is the day they take it into an alignment shop.  Since it already has the new parts, I can't imagine this taking much longer. 

I can tell you, I could get used to the idea of not working anymore. It's not like I haven't toiled under the sun for many, many decades.  How long were we meant to work like this? 

So, finally, a few minutes ago I got on the scale aaaaannnnnd:  My weight finally dropped 2 pounds! It's been weeks worth of stall/plateau.  I've been at 215.2 for what, shortly after I came back from vacation and dropped a lot of what I had gained?  It now, finally, showed 213.  I mean, there are times when a stall goes on so long you just want to quit and do something else. 

But besides the Ozempic and other current fad weight loss drugs, I've tried most everything else. I would only do those drugs if I were so overweight that it would be considered morbid obesity, the stuff that kills people. I'm determined to get below the 200 mark.  I've resisted sugar filled foods and the foods I normally like to eat such as potatoes and pasta for quite some time now.  The vacation really dug it's nails under my skin in stubbornly saying no, you aren't going to lose any more than the initial weight you lost after returning home. 

Like, was it even worth it? Yes, I had a good time on vacation lol, I'm not going to wallow in regret over spending 8 days eating and drinking whatever the hell I pleased.  I just didn't expect it to take this long to start losing again.  I have checked my ketosis rate fairly frequently, I've been in ketosis for a while now. It doesn't show a deep rate of it, but that's because your body adapts eventually and doesn't flood your system with ketones as it does at the beginning of starting this type of diet. In other words, it won't show a deep ketosis rate, at least in my experience and that's fine.  

Now if I could just get down to say, 205 before another plateau that would be highly motivational.  I can tell ya one thing: pants that weren't fitting at all are now falling off my ass and I'm back to having to use the third hole on the belt instead of the first one.  That is significant, at least for me.  If I try to use the first or second one, my pants fall off.  I can tell by looking my legs are losing fat to the point that are starting to - narrow up - for lack of better terminology coming to mind. Slimming down is what "they" call it but I'm not slim so I refrain from using such verbiage.  

Oh, so finally.  I have used the word verbiage when the need for it arises for - ever - and when I do, spell check comes up and if you click on it, it says word not found or something like that. Excuse me, but I am 100% sure that verbiage is a word and verbage is not.  Oh, and there it is as well! The word verbage has the red, wavy underscore!  Verbage is NOT a word! Look it up!

Oh the ridiculous things I get caught up on in minutia.  But it annoys me that these machines had the gall, the utter nerve, to correct me! LMAO.  I do tend to get caught up in what I call conversational English in these blogs, I gave up on the "correct" English a long time ago.  Seemed too formal and this is certainly not a formal blog.  I am not writing essays for the English class in college. Yet, if I'm using a word and getting corrected on it by some person's coding in a software system I want to talk to that person.  And AI, whoever codes that stuff, well it's cutting edge technology so I'll give them a break on that.  It is slowly getting better.

I still get a bit nervous in thinking about AI being a reality.  Oh, there will never be a terminator type of scenario with it. If you ask AI, it will outline the reasons why it will never be self-aware. I have asked on a couple of occasions, lol, having a conversation with it to see how it does.  A written conversation I might add, the Google version of it. It gets too caught up in being hyper-focused on a subject to the point it overlooks other important factors to whatever it is you are talking about.  You correct it and it actually apologizes. But the idea that it is always correct is completely false.  If you bring up contextual factors, it looks into it and agrees with you.  

I got way off topic. Weight loss.  2 pounds doesn't sound like much, but to me it's monumental.  It's the weight I was at went on vacation and represents 28 pounds dropped.  Now if I can get to 212 or 211 quickly, that's new territory and will get my momentum going.  I haven't been cheating on Keto at all.  Even when someone else in the house decides to take a break from their version of a diet, I don't.  We went to El Taco the other day and I just stood my ground.  No beans, no rice, no tortilla chips.  But yes on a little of the salsa and the guacamole dip.  I had carne asada steak on a bed of lettuce with cheese, dumped some salsa on it and called it good.

If I really thought about it, I would have brought my own zero net carb tortillas with me.  I have started taking my zero carb monk fruit sugar substitute with me if we're going out and I want to order unsweetened tea.  Seems funny, but it gives me the taste I am craving without the carbs or the insulin spike.  

I had the strangest dream last night. I have no idea where I was at, we'll start with that.  I was walking along somewhere in the desert and a lion came running up to me -  yes,  a  lion in the desert - I thought I was dead.  Instead, the thing laid down, whimpering and apparently wanted help.  Well, there is no sense trying to run from a lion, you aren't getting away from them. I remember experiencing complete terror and now wonder why I didn't wake up from that dream at that point.  I started examining the creature and found what it was: a large amount of cactus needles stuck in it's face.  I started plucking them off, the lion winced in pain but started to relax. At least that's what it appeared to be doing.  I got all the needles out and still examined closely - like right next to it's teeth - to ensure that they were all out and then looked at it.  It looked at me and I woke up, lol. I'm not sure if the next move would have been me for it's dinner, probably why I woke up.  

Well enough. I'm expecting some kind of communication from the company today. Even if it's to tell me at least another day or whatever. I don't contact them, they are the management of the company, let them call me. They've gotten along without me is all I can tell ya.  

I've got a couple of people working at the park getting rid of all of those ridiculously tall weeds.  I need to take in quite a large chunk of cash to the bank and deposit it into the business account so I can pay the rather large electric bill sitting around 2k.  It's actually far better than last year.  I've come to understand that when people bring in those junky old trailers, it's not just their appearance that is off. It's whatever is going on with those old ac units consuming huge amounts of electricity. Of course I assume that at least some of these people turn the temp setting to the lowest possible amount which in turn uses up massive amounts of electricity.

I don't have any of those currently. I have a couple of somewhat older units but nothing like the one whose owner I threw out of the park after she started all of that shit with me.  Lying about paying rent.  I have proof, she had a made up template.  She was drunk, she later informed and "I don't know what that was all about" acting out like that, but I'm glad she's gone.  Byyyyeeeee. So instead of close to 3k I'm at 2k, a significant difference and considering the park is completely full,, that speaks for itself. 

Oh, well we're getting the weeds out and dousing that entire area with weed killer so they won't come back.  You just can't work with that stuff in there - the trench that is.  I've had inklings of wanting to drop down into that ditch and get back to work but that stuff was there.  It will take them days to get all of them out of there and this is the same person I was talking about before where he actually has a work ethic and does what he says he'll do.  He has an 18 year old helper on such chores.  Basically, he contacted me yesterday and said work has been slow, do I have anything for him to do? Yup. Doubt he's liking it but he's getting some money into his pocket.  

Those weeds had to come out of there.  They were probably as much as 4 feet tall and have small thorns on them. It's part of the reason I haven't gone back into the ditch. Admittedly the excessive heat has also been a huge factor in my rejecting the idea of getting back to work as well.

And finally, at least for this blog entry? The kids are going back to school on Thursday!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Summer is going to be over, they will be in school all day and we get a break from all of that.  When you have kids constantly asking you for this and that and it goes on day in and day out, yes, you need a break from it.  The flip side is yes, they are gone from early morning until around 4:00 pm, but they have to do homework usually and then they are in bad moods about that.  And of course "what's for dinner?".  We make them food, obviously, but our dinner time habits have changed substantially since both of the adults in the house started dieting.

She is doing a different take. She started working out religiously every day with some of her lady friends and typically is only eating one meal a day. It's not keto, it's just a huge reduction in calorie intake. It works for her, she has lost a substantial amount of weight and is determined to continue on with it.  She started after I announced the shock I had in getting on the scale and I am absolutely going back on Keto, sorry if it's disruptive to dinnertime meals.  We were eating huge amounts of pasta quite frequently. That stuff will pile on the fat and weight.  

See? I barely wake up and kids.  I love them, don't get me wrong, they are like family to me, but both of us need breaks from them........if I can get my "old job" back and back on the Gurdon runs, I typically get home anywhere from 2 to 4 hours before the kids get home.  Yup, it's a nice break, peace and quiet.

With that? G'day. Not sure what I'm doing today but right now, just enjoying a nice, hot cup of coffee : )

 Sunday afternoon.

It all started yesterday afternoon. A rogue storm came through - it only hit certain portions of this little town and our street was one of them - with high winds and an extremely dense downpour. Amazing when there was only a 15% chance of rain.

It's the winds that did it.  A large branch broke off of the tree that keeps plaguing us, fell  right on top of the power line stretched between the power pole and our house, knocked it down and burning up everything in the electrical can.  Not the panel but the can.  It's just a large interface.  It was so hot that a person stopped in their car and says to the lady of the house: "Ma'am, your house is on fire".  I was in my room when it happened so I didn't know what they were discussing.  

What I did know was the power went out but I didn't think it was because of our house! Like several houses lost power because of it.  The electricity kept flowing through the weather pipe that sticks up to the point it literally burned a 6 inch long hole through it. It is made out of metal folks, this isn't a plastic piece and the metal is relatively thick.  

We called the fire department, one of the battalion chiefs was out there within minutes in his pickup.  He checked everything out and declared it safe, the fire was just the electricity burning holes through everything and fortunately it's a brick house. He went inside and checked everything too, he had some sort of high dollar heat gauge to make sure there wasn't fire in the walls - between the drywall and the brick.  

Swepco came out a short while later and informed us that they aren't replacing all of that stuff on the house, they are just responsible for the line to the house. Figured.  I immediately got on social media looking for an electrician and also AI recommendations, but I remembered one of them was extremely reputable in the area.  Nevertheless, I did have a conversation with a man who said he could "come out in the morning and by the  looks of the pics, it will cost $1,800".  

I mean, I knew this wasn't going to be cheap but that sounded excessive.  I called the reputable guy and 2 of them were literally there in 20 minutes. We're talking a Saturday.  They said the same thing: can't do this until the morning. They also opened up the panel and said this won't pass code.  Why? Because there is no 200 amp circuit breaker to shut off the power to the entire house in case something happens.  Yea, that has never set well with me. So, to replace the can that the other guy wanted $1,800 for AND the entire circuit breaker panel and everything else?

$2,000. How much would the first guy have charged for that? 3k? 4?  And these people were great.  They showed up this morning and they got the entire setup installed by 1:00 pm. We're talking Sunday, people, not a weekday.  Awesome in my book.  I wasn't exactly happy about forking out that kind of money - I don't own this house - but selfishly, I need electricity on the same as everyone else.  But it wasn't all selfishness, I want the best for everyone in this situation.  House insurance may cover a portion of it, the lady of the house is going to investigate that.  

But, we have 2 upright freezers full of food, we have a couple k worth of food in all of our cold storage appliances. So, when it became apparent that we weren't going to have power for probably 24 hours, I went into action. Tried to get one of the generators to start, it kept starting and then dying. I kept trying until the battery was dead. Generator number 2?  It's a pull start and hadn't been fired up in many months either.  It took awhile and it choked quite  bit for quite a while, but I got it going.  I got all 4 fridges/freezers plugged in and that was it.  

It was immediately decided we were going to spend the night at a hotel, separate rooms of course, but yes.  We got packed, got the animals fed and left for a hotel 5 miles away.  This morning got up, got the free breakfast, dropped the 11 year old at church - he graduated from elementary school so now he is going to the student life center which is for his age up through high school. I didn't stay, coming back for the 11:00 am service.  We went to Applebee's after church.

Lousy service twice in a row. I told them if this is permanent, I will be taking my business to Chili's.  Similar in fare, prices a little higher, but good. The man across the aisle from us ordered a beer. Some 25 minutes later? No beer, he paid and left.  THAT kind of service.  

_________

Got busy with all kinda stuff. They got the electric done while I was sitting at Applebee's so I went home and started unplugging cords and turning off the generator and such.  That's all done and now doing other stuff such as laundry. And, of course, playing a few games.  

 Wednesday - late

The Peterbilt dealership passing the buck saying it's "alignment" issues and nothing that they did.  They "suspect" that the repair caused other issues to surface.  Whatever, I smell bs. 

What I know is I am NOT driving that thing under load until it's fixed.  I don't care what anyone says, it's dangerous and not worth the risk. A truck twisting like that is NOT an alignment issue. There MAY be an alignment problem, I don't know but that is not what's causing that issue.  

I can't believe I'm still going through this with this truck. .One thing after another after another.            

My manager called today and said he didn't know what was going to happen.  I don't either.  I don't know what's going on behind the scenes at my company at all.

But I can guess.  Not worth going into here, just some suspicions that may be totally off or right on.  

I'd like some cooler weather, please, totally changing the subject. PLEASE. Lol.  Not likely anytime soon. 

I am not going to write too much. I didn't work today, obviously, tomorrow is off as well and who knows when this will end?  Probably me finding a new job?  Sucks but that reality is slowly sinking in.  How long can I take off work? Quite a while, actually, but that means burning through savings.  Not ready to retire yet, I need all debt gone.

Well house debt I don't care, at least there's equity there and you can always sell off.  Housing prices over there have dropped significantly but I'm not underwater with the mortgage. 

I have not looked for a new job.  Nope.  I should be tho, there might be a gem drop in there some day and I won't see it if I'm not looking. Putting that on my daily list: comb through job openings.  

I bought some weed killer today at Lowe's while there getting new circuit breakers and some new keys made for the house.  I am going to spray that entire line along that trench, giant weeds grew up. No, maybe I should try to somehow get the bush hog over top of them. I could back the tractor up to the trench, that bush hog sticks off the back of it, I'm sure it would reach those weeds and tear them down.

THEN spray that stuff on there. 

You know, I could have filled up those 4 spots I was trying to get done easily by now. I get enough calls for long term.  

Sooo hot. I just hate it.  I'm not a young man anymore and laboring in the heat isn't my first, second or last choice of anything I want to do.

Sitting here making excuses......I could get help.....but I'd still have to be out there doing it lol.  

Time for bed.  

 Tuesday - afternoon

Well, I delivered the glue ingredient (it's not exactly glue, it's an ingredient they use to make it and then pipeline it off 30 miles away to make the product out of it) yesterday, no big deal there. 

But. 

The truck.  You hit the accelerator and the entire truck twists sideways to the right.  Let off the accelerator and it twists to the left.  Hit the brakes and it also twists to the left.  Number 1 it was very surprising at first.  I wasn't expecting that at all and I ended up in the shoulder or the right lane or contrary, the left lane several times. Not all the way over, but enough to be a bit scary actually.  I got it handled enough to make it to Crossett but as soon as I got there?

I am not loading this truck again.  I went into what I am guessing is wrong.  It went into the shop, they replaced the clutch and all of a sudden I now have this issue?  I'm guessing bad motor mounts, bad transmission mounts or maybe a u joint or carrier bearing.  

I went into it I should say with my company.  They finally found an actual diesel mechanic up there, allegedly pretty decent. It's not my decision where they want to take it but they asked if I wanted to bring it up there? NO.  Why not take it back to Peterbilt and let them go over their work? I think they didn't get something put together correctly.  They tore something up, they crossed threaded something, they didn't get alignment right, who knows but I'm at least for now putting this on them. 

Well, I contacted my manager about it - the initial contact was with the new mechanic and then the lady that deals with this kind of thing - but he wanted me to bring it to the shop.  Ok, but I'm bringing it up tomorrow, by the time I get there today the mechanic will be going home. 

It didn't stay that way tho.  The mechanic called back after the lady and corporate made a decision and said I need to take it back to Peterbilt. This went back and forth for a while but I finally just said - you discuss this with the manager and then get back to me the official decree as to where this truck is going to be taken to.

Note that I didn't want to take it to El Dorado.  Why? I'll end up staying at a hotel and although I do like that, I am helping out with kids here since the dad is gone - like permanently gone.  They did get back to me - take it to Peterbilt. Peterbilt argued with them on the phone telling them that it is an alignment problem. I laughed out loud when I heard that. This...is NOT... an alignment problem. If that were true, it would pull to the left or the right, it wouldn't pull both ways and the truck wouldn't be twisting.

It's called torsion pull - there are other descriptions as well but this one is adequate.  I drove clear over there and then the service manager started arguing with me.  I simply said this isn't an alignment issue. "Well we didn't do anything to the front end, we just replaced the clutch".  This guy must have thought I was ignorant about such things.  Umm, no sir, bad transmission mounts can definitely cause that to happen. "Are you accusing us of ...?"  I didn't wait, I'm not accusing you of anything.

But it's possible your mechanics made a mistake in reinstalling the transmission/drive train.  He was purposefully trying to make it appear that the shop would have no culpability in this at all.  Yeah, no.  If it isn't a problem they created, so beit, but I'm at least 60% leaning to the idea that they are.  He finally relented, oh yes and motor mounts can do that too!  All of a sudden, he knew what he was talking about.  No, he knew all the time, he was just playing the "it's not our fault" game. 

That's that. I left there in a Lyft - $99! but it's almost 50 miles so not really bad.  I'm not going to eat it anyway, the company will pay for it.  

Power issues at the park.  As of now, 4 50 amp breakers have gone out.  Like what?  These things are 3 years old and they all decided to take a dump? I'll guess the heat did them in since it's happened on both circuits, not just one.  I've got a man staying there who is a retired electrician, so he's been dealing with it, i'm going to give him money off his rent.  Only fair, he didn't have to do any of that. 

Weight loss.  I hit a snag.

Still doing keto - yes. I will be for quite a while.  But my weight started going back up! Hey now, wait a minute! I'm in ketosis!  I had to think a minute, gotta be too many calories.  Not enough to just be in ketosis, you still have to watch your caloric intake.  Wings. I've been eating a lot of them lately.  Totally keto friendly, not so much calorie friendly unless you're eating like 4 of them.  I looked it up - Chili's 8 count in buffalo sauce with ranch adds up to 1,300 calories! Yikes.  

So, getting off the wings and saving that for an occasional thing only.  Too much fat anyway, not good for cholesterol levels.  I had a santa fe chicken salad instead, no croutons or tortilla strips and didn't eat much of the excessive tomatoes they put in it.  

Walaah, weight started coming back down this morning.  At 217 pounds, I should be 4 or 5 pounds lower than this like now. Just going to have to pay more attention to calorie counts along with carb counts. 

It's 1:30 and I've heard nothing about the truck.  They didn't even know if they would be able to get to it today, but whenver they do get to it, I doubt it's going to take long to fix it if it's a mount or something they screwed up.  

As for the other driver getting ahead of me getting loaded 2 days ago, my manager called me to discuss it. Yup ,I was sitting there waiting over an hour, as soon as this other driver showed up? They called him right in.  I ended up sitting at that plant 6 hours. He didn't agree with it saying it was a decision the plant must have made, he didn't ask them to do it.  I believe him, but now that I think about it, I do wonder if the driver didn't call them and ask them to do that?  He's doing a constant back and forth run, no stopping except for 10 hour required breaks.  

I forgot to ask the plant employee what happened. But that's my guess.  

Finally? I am going to make an appointment to see the ophthalmologist. I'm having weird things going on in my left eye.  I'm guessing the cataracts are getting worse and likely at some point I'm going to have to have surgery. If I thought I could handle it, I'd just do a 21 day fast and see if that works. I know, you think I'm crazy about all this fasting.  But, I have read several accounts over the decades of people who went on an extended fast - and none of them that I recall were doing it for their vision - who noted that after day 21, their vision cleared up to the point of 20/20.  

Is this imagined or real? Well, I believe in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit so I say it's definitely possible.  Jesus healed a lot of people of things that were impossible at the time to heal and even now certain things couldn't be healed by medicine.  Certainly never heard of a doctor raising a man from the dead who has been dead for some time.  

I just missed a call from the manager. As much as I could just sit around not driving trucks for another 16 days, the bills don't like it much, so I'll call him back and find out what he wants.  If he thinks I''m going up there to get a loaner truck? Yeah.  No.  Well, maybe.  I really can't see this truck taking that long to get fixed. 

 Sunday - The Eternal Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_________

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

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

 Friday - afternoon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Friday - early

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'day