Sitting at a Freightliner - mega whatever place - it's huge.  They delivered us a truck that was not DOT fit for the road and I demanded that they install the items that would make it so.  Whoever heard of getting a brand new semi-truck delivered to your yard and the thing not being DOT compliant?  Ridiculous.  They tried to give me trouble on it at first, but I was having none of it and told them if they didn't fix it, for free, I would be contacting ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) and filing a complaint against them for having a tech that would certify a truck as road ready - that isn't road ready.

That changed their tune in a quick hurry, as it should.  Actually, I shouldn't have even had to say that, an outrageous "oversight" that should have been just, yes,sir, we will take care of it.  I even had to demand that it done be free of charge, they were going to charge us for work that should have already been completed!

Here's the point: If I get pulled over for a road-side inspection with a truck that has issues, such as the fire extinguisher not being mounted to the floor (one of the issues here), the DOT inspector can issue any of 3 things: a ticket, a warning or a fix-it ticket.  This is why I get excited about things like this.   Anyway, they are doing it right now as I type this, so hopefully good to go soon enough.

My son turns 20 tomorrow! UNBELIEVABLE!  Just amazing.  Time flies, but this is a bit much.  Your offspring hits the 20 ticker and you might as well classify your self as in grandpa stage, lol.  But it's very cool, actually, and he's a very, very good kid.  I'm very proud that he survived his High School years without getting into all the sex and drugs that are so prevalent now.  But, they were even more prevalent when I was in High School - and I can hardly say I came out of that era unscathed.

On the cusp of a 3-day weekend.  A few more hours of work today and then a full day tomorrow and then - 3 days off.  Because it's my son's birthday I am not going to go out of town.  He stated he wants to go see Star Trek on Saturday and by golly, I'm gonna be here to do that with him.  I can go out of town the beginning of next month.

Mark was in an accident on his motorized bicycle that basically destroyed the thing.  A woman driving a car cut him off and from his description of it, it was clearly her fault but it was also a hit-and-run type of thing.  What are you going to do. I fronted him the money to buy a new bike and he's busy taking the motor off the old one and attempting to install it on the new one.  He has cuts, bruises and scratches all over the place, not a pleasant experience.

But I already hate driving in the Phoenix area with all the distracted drivers who are paying literally no attention to the road, at all, for spurts of time while they peruse their stupid Smart Phones.  He's lucky he wasn't killed.  Car against bicycle? We all know how that turns out.

After everything that I am doing, I am only going to have around $2,500 left from the loan.  But, these were all things that needed to be done, excepting the car.  I spent $100 yesterday in a pay-in-advance thing to have it detailed at a car wash.  It's pretty dirty inside with all the dogs in and out of it over time.  I'm hoping they can get it nice and clean and smelling good in there again. They are also going to wash and buff out the paint on the exterior.  I thought it a fitting way to walk into an era - however long it lasts - without having to make a car payment every month.  Since the car is 9 years old, I am seriously considering reducing to minimum liability coverage.  It's worth about 4 and a half grand now if I were to sell it privately, I don't remember what the blue book said about trading it in.  I usually do not trade in vehicles as they usually find ways to rip you off.  Whatever they "give" you, they take back somewhere else.   To me, it's like you're just giving your car to them for nothing.

Anyway, I intend on keeping that money set aside for any emergencies.  The worst thing (hopefully the worst anyway) that could happen right now is the AC going out with that going-bad fan motor that I have not had time to deal with yet.  If it came down to it, yes, I would spend the $800 to have it fixed as we are heading into one of the hottest months of the year. I'm just hopeful it won't go out until I can get a new motor and get it over there and then probably find someone to install it for me.  If my neighbor behind me weren't warring with me, I would ask him to do it since that's his line of business, but I'll have to revert to Craigslist  to find someone doing that kind of job on the side.

Anyway, battery running low on my laptop, gotta get this input and get offa here.
ben