So, I'm deilvering to a jobsite that is right off the freeway (I-10 at Warner Road).
I was quite fortunate, frankly, that I was in the pickup truck and not the semi.  Why?  Cause' the Feds had a commercial vehicle inspection station set up replete with portable scales.  they were not diverting the entire freeway off, they were just catching whoever mighthappen to get off there.  And boy, were there a lot o officelatoinrs standing around waiting for something to do.

I've stated this a thousand times, say it again: they can an will find something wrong with your truck.  I don't care if it's brand new, they will find something wrong with it.  And now under the newest regulations, a warning counts against a company that same as a ticket.

Oops, did I say the latest regulations?  Nix that statement, cause' they are now coming out with even MORE restrictions on commercial drivers.  They wonder why the trucking industry is experiencing a shortage of qualified drivers and not being able to recruit enough new drivers to the "profession".  They are now going to reduce the amont of hours any driver can drive in a given week, from 82 to - I  it was 70 but don't quote me on that.  I'd have to look it up again.

It's not going to affect me at all.  But it is definitely going to affect many of my fellow OTR drivers.  Do you realize how much "free" work an OTR driver does?  Most the time, loading and unloading is not paid.  Fueling is not paid.  Doing all the paperwork is not paid.  The ony thing they are paying for is the amont of miles you drive to deliver a truckload of goods from point A to point B.  Everything else is free work.

This is my pet peeve with the wages that are paid to OTR drivers that are driving for a company.  I'm a big time advocate for hour wages for all truck drivers that want it over only getting paid by the mile.   Talk about a big time change in the trucking industry, if all of the time that truckers have to spend in doing everything that driving a big rig entails had to actually be paid for!

The contractor I delivered to said this was the second time they had done it there in the last couple of weeks. Wow.  Never knew they were doing it there at all.

Well, anyway, prayer meeting tonight, not sure if I'm going or not.  Also not sure about going to church this Sunday.  If I end up in the mountains, I may just end up taking my leisurely time in leaving on Sunday to get home.  Traffic on the highway shouldn't be that bad, it's winter and not near as many people like going up north during the winter as they do during the summer.

I'm not going to decide on that trip until tomorrow night, when I can see some kind of weather report as to what might happen.  I don't give forecasters much credence around here, they can't seem to get much right.

I watched about 30, 35 minutes of Obama last night and that was all I could stomach.  The man just plain doesn't get it.  It's his way or no way at all and then blame the GOP.

Assuming the ex-LAPD cop is dead.  He went out, presumably, the way he figured he was going to go out, so that only leaves one question for me: who is going to pay for that burned-out cabin?  Pathetic statement? Perhaps.  But if I had a cabin up in the mountains and that kind of thing happened in it, I wouldn't exactly be happy about it.  There is insurance, I hope, on the thing if nothing else.

The point? The man is dead.  Well, I guess they haven't identified the body yet - might take a while to do that if it's burned up to a crisp - the state will not have to incur the expense of a trial and a lengthy prison stay while all the appeals processes are going through for 15 or 20 years while the man waits for a death sentence to be carried out.  I'm sort of wondering if there wasn't something else he could have done to have his name restored besides going around killing and injuring innocent people.

Speaking of cabins, that's pretty much what hit my mind a while back and as usual for me, I'm all over looking into what it's going to take to get some property and build one.  Not that I have anything even close to the financial resources to buy land and all the materials involved in building a cabin and all the labor that goes into building one (versus paying double or triple the price to have someone else build it for you).  I don't  even know how to build a cabin, but alas: there are courses out there that teach you how to do just that from start to finish.  One such course not only gives you the knowledge, they also have a registry on their site after you finish the class.

You find others that are building their cabins and you go help them.  Why would I want to do that? To learn how to do all of it before I start doing my own, that's why.  And find out what kind of obstacles and problems I am likely to face.

I don't really know if I ever will be able to get a cabin on some unknown mountain property, but I like to set goals for myself, however unattainable they may seem and attempt to figure out how I can reach the end point of the goal.  The obstacle here? Money, of course.  Property isn't cheap and neither are building materials.  Not to mention the plans and permits and all that to build one.  And travelling back and forth. Lol, everything that might go into it.

So, let's say I wanted to just build a regular house on a mountain property.  Distinction without a difference.  Land and materials = money.

Well, whatever.

Time to be off to work again.

ben