Friday

Not a bad day at work. I had to load the semi this morning with 1180 feet of storm drainage pipe and some fittings to go with it and then deliver it to a jobsite in Casa Grande.

This is a new startup, so I hadn't been to this site before.

There was a HUGE problem with the entrance to this place. I got to the site and stopped in the right lane of the street with flashers blinking - very low traffic so no big deal. I look at the entrance - there is NO WAY - ANY vehicle is getting through there besides earth-moving equipment.

A loader operation looks at me and waves me down the street. Oh, okay, there's another entrance. Blaaaaaaahhhhh. The entrance? A friggin' dirt driving with barriers on either side and only wide enough for the truck. I had to swing into oncoming traffic lanes to make that turn. I go down 100 feet and am greeted by a fence with gate.

Problem? Yes. The gate is on the right side of the "road". The road is only barely wide enough for the truck. There IS no room to swing to get the trailer in there. I'm always game for a new challenge, I love that stuff. I got the truck and trailer angled in such a way that I got the truck in there - with less than an inch of space on one side and maybe an inch on the other, it was that tight.

Managers and big bosses were all in a meeting at the main branch today. I could guess what was being discussed and I'm 95% sure my guesses would be correct. I heard a bit of news, but - there is confidentiality in what is being discussed in those meetings, it's not being let out. "Stuff" is coming down the pike, that's a given. I'm bracing myself for whatever is to come. It's just granted that there are going to be more layoffs. I don't wish that on any of my co-workers - or myself - but - it's going to happen. I don't know who, I didn't hear this from anyone, I just feel it. Just like I felt it the last 2 times.

I'm also guessing they're going to be closing down the store in Buckeye. Purely a guess - but unless they get their numbers up out there, it's a given. As I said, I'm bracing myself. Plan B - would be move out of my bedroom, leave the furniture in there and rent out a furnished room for $500 a month. Plan B would include unemployment benefits if it came to that. Plan B would probably work for a while, anyway. Yes, I would be moving into my son's room, and I would be leaving it up to him whether he wanted to continue to come over or not. I will not lose my property without a serious battle first. To lose this property would mean losing the ideal of owning property - probably forever. My entire lifestyle would change dramatically. I would also have to lose the dogs, or at least the Danes and maybe the Dane mix.

I'm not scared - I have been in these places before. But I am apprehensive. There was obviously stuff talked about today in that meeting that is going to affect all of us, somehow. I can't get information that can't be given, so I'm just going to go to work on Monday and hope - I still have a job. As I said, I have been preparing my mind and being for whatever comes my way. Whatever is doled out, I will take it in, and if it's extremely negative - absorb it, dwell it on for a short time - and dump it. I simply can't afford emotion in such an economic atmosphere - certainly when it comes to finances, emotion is on hold. A clear thinking head is the only way through such things, emotion can so greatly taint the way a person thinks. I have been guilty of it in the past, but right now, not.

I will undoubtedly spend my weekend thinking about this. There is not getting around it. The news that another 600 hundred plus thousand jobs were shed last month was hardly anything to get joyous about. It just means the economy is nowhere near coming back to life, regardless of what Bernanke says. My company is no different - they're in survival mode. I am in survival mode. I am putting certain projects on hold and am going to dump at least a couple more hundred bucks into my savings account. The rainy day is coming - I feel it - I want to be at least somewhat prepared for it.

But, I already have those trellises and everything I need to put that stuff together, so I'm definitely going to do that. And the cheapest thing to do for blocking out the sun's hot rays on the west side of the house is the styrofoam, so I'm also going there as well. That wont' cost more than $40 or $50 total, money WELL spent to SAVE money on electricity.

There are other things, but I am rather consumed by what's going on at work right now. Then again, so are alot of you/us. Money is so tight, that I am going to switch semi-trailers on Monday instead of them buying new tires for it. They have a trailer sitting there that is not being used and it has very good tires on it. The trailer I'm dragging all over creation right now has tires down to the wear bars. Wear bars are simply a piece of raised rubber stuck in the grooves of the tire. When you get to that bump, your tires are out of DOT specs and if you are caught, your truck will be put out-of-service and you will have to have that vehicle either towed out of there or have the tires replaced right there on the side of the road. I don't really care which trailer I pull, so no big deal to me. As long as it has slider rails for the winches on both sides of the trailer. If it does not (I don't remember on that trailer), it's a huge pain in the @$$ to work with. Maybe see if they could just take the tires off of that trailer and put them on the one I am using now.

Anyway, my son called, it's time to go pick him up and Michael just called wanting to be picked up at the Jack In The Box just down the street from where Caleb is.

Hasta la vista!
ben