Welll here it is Thursday morning.  I'm home - off for two days.  Probably off forever.  The gm simply isn't going to budge in pay and trust me, it is substandard pay.  The only thing that equalized it was the large amount of OT that all the drivers were getting. I guess they believe they can just arbitrarily remove a large portion of a person's pay and that person is just to sit around and eat it.

I talked with two drivers from the main branch down south about this as well.  They were lamenting the pay but they were unwilling to do anything about their situation. That's really where you could force a decision in our favor: come together, say we want more money or we are leaving.  The company would be screwed.  This isn't a get in the truck and drive operation.  There is no way, at all, that anyone else working there that isn't a driver could cover all of that, just impossible. We pull orders, check them, palletize them, shrink wrap them and load the trucks.  Those people have absolutely no clue how to load a tractor trailer rig, none, whatsoever.

But, that isn't going to happen.  So face reality.  Live with wages that are so abysmal that I consider it poverty level - though it isn't it just seems that bad - or move on to something I really am not sure I want to do but make twice the money and do that for a while until/if/when I find a local job that I like, that pays me well and that I can spend the rest of my working days at until I retire.

My thoughts have returned to rentals and properties.  I just know I could eventually get a very good income off such a venture if I could get my foot in the door.  Need to get my credit back up.  It's a goal that I am now implementing to increase my credit rating and get a piece of land and turn it into a mobile home or RV park.  Or a mixture of both is usually what many of them do.  Not a trashy one, either, one that is well manicured and maintained.  Non-prime property out here is pretty cheap.  You don't have to be in the middle of town to have a place that is alluring to people who need lower priced housing.

I'm probably going to have buyer's remorse in quitting this job and doing something else, just like my mom had when she recently put her house up for sale and has signed on another one on the other side of Phoenix.  Her reasoning was good, but she's 80 years old and all of her friends are right there.  She did have some reservations and wondered if she had made the right choice but now she's all into it. It is a move that gets her much closer to her Payson property and also very much closer to my oldest brother.  My middle brother about 25 miles - instead of the 50 it used to be.  I am having doubts that that automatically means she is going to see them more, but perhaps.

I'll probably hate it at first but settlle into eventually.  I doubt my present company will ever want me back, so this is the point where I have to make absolutely sure that this is a good  move.

This local job that came up - I'm kinda backing off from.  It's 60 mile away. It's almost all night driving.  I'm just not really much of a night driver anymore and I think I might hate the job. At the same time, it's 3 days  off every week. Could I handle it? I just don't know.  Big gamble to take if I find I can't adapt to being up all night long and sleeping during the day.  Plus 600 miles of commute per week.  A lot of wear on the car and gas and all of that.  My current weekly commute is about 350 miles total.

If I eliminate that, then I am down to two companies.  One that comes through here frequently and one that the closest I get is Dallas.  Dallas is 150 miles, but it would only be a trip home every two weeks so I wouldn't really care that much about that.  It just sounds like a better company than the one that comes through here frequently.  I would have to find a place to park the truck to be able to come here - though I think I've found one and am going to drive over there today and see if they allow overnight parking for 2 night stays.  Definitely don't need the truck getting towed and getting stuck with a huge towing bill.

Well, I'm in the throes of decision making and right now? I'm going to drive down the road and see about parking a rig at a small, local truckstop.  There aren't any big ones here, lol.