Weekend finally here.
Has been a very humid week.  The humidity is something I likely will never get used to.

Anyway, this place that wants to hire me called my work 2 days in a row, lol.
I find it amusing because of the reactions to it.
I don't want the job, just to make that clear here. It's 14 hour days and it's night driving, no thanks.
Yes, it's a LOT more money but I would have NO life, screw that.

Anyway, on Thursday, the manager came walking up, stopping me from leaving the yard, asking me about this company.  I made a valid excuse: I am in their system.  As you remember from last year, I was looking for a new job.  Turns out, ALL of these companies keep your name in their system indefinitely and will keep hounding you to work for them - indefinitely.   I did tell him that they had offered me a job but after listening to the hours, I decided against it.

I also told him that no offense to him, but the pay here isn't enough.  Without the OT, I can't afford to work at this place.  So, he said okay, but wasn't going to give that company the information they were seeking since I wasn't agreeable to it.

Next was yesterday.  The company called again, seeking information about my employment.  Specifically, driving record with the company, any failed drug tests, things like that.  I've never failed a drug test, that's cause' I don't do drugs lol.

I get back from a long run and handed a piece of paper. Call Brian. Ohhhh goody, I thought, I know what this is about.  I was a bit gleeful cause' look at the problems they have had hiring a new driver! hahahahahahahah Very funny.  They think they can just replace people at a whim, they have found out that that isn't even remotely close to the case.  They had 30 people apply for the position and all 30 of them failed some portion of the back ground check or failed the drug screening, lol.  Every time the manager thinks he finally got someone, bam, corporate says no thanks.

On top of that, most of these are OTR drivers that will have very little interest in the physical labor required of this job. So even when they do eventually find someone, that person is likely not going to want to do anything but sit behind a steering wheel if it's a former OTR driver.

Anyway, I call Brian back. He's the GM over our region covering Louisiana and a part of Mississippi - Gulfport to be precise.  Well, the manager there is gone and I got a call from the office asking what to do about this request from this company to release your information.  But what I really want to know, is, what are your intentions?  I told him the same story and added a few things.  I'm not really looking for a job right now, but honestly, I wouldn't turn one down if it was offered to me if it was for more pay, going a little into my current financial status.  I didn't complain about my pay, I just said this is my reality, I have to deal with it.

He informed me that pay raises were coming up.  Sure, I thought, 2% increase might as well be nothing. That's all they give, a 2% "cost of living" increase which certainly doesn't cover the increases in cost of living.  It's just a slap in the face as far as I'm concerned.  But, I said none of that to him, I've had the pay arguments with him in the past, this is just a waste of my time going back into that.  So, he then went into, well, I'll see what I can do.  I told him I'd love to retire from here which is what got him saying that. Really? That's all I had to say to get him to at least think about it?  lol

In reality, I would love to retire from there. Coming up on 12 years, which will increase my paid leave hours to 200 per year.  But, this company isn't known for great pay. I just talked my way into it in Phoenix, along with a GM who believes in paying their talent well. It took 6 months of meetings with him to get that though.  Basically, the situation with GM's in this company is they're given X amount of dollars per month for pay. Out of that pool comes the pay for everyone.  So, it's a matter of how much he likes or dislikes you, or whatever mood he is in, or however he goes about thinking about how much a person gets paid.  Yes, they could replace me.  But who would they get? Now they are finally thinking in this realm with all the problems they've had hiring someone. You see, they aren't even being that picky right now since there are 2 of us that are very experienced. The new driver would just be picking up the slack.  But to lose an experienced driver? They're going to be hurting whether they admit it or not. And the other dude is looking around for a better paying job as well.

I just find it funny that this situation is even occurring, for the guy that quit wasn't even that good. He was slow, talked on the phone more than worked, took waaaaaay longer to do a run than either of us other two and complained all the time.  But you see, now that he is gone, further revelations have come to my ears. He was talking quite a lot of s*** behind my back about me, which was influencing the manager's view of me.  It wasn't a week after he quit the manager came up to me and told me that now that that guy quit, it seems our relationship has improved dramatically.

Anyway, I won't hold my breath on any substantial pay increase, but it's a nice dream.  I really didn't think it was a good time to be looking for a job what with my dad in his death bed and visiting, then him dying and going to the funeral and now my son's wedding coming up next month.  Which had to go on a credit card, unfortunately, I don't even have the cash to cover airfare over there and back, not to mention pricey hotel stay. Just the area, even lower priced chains are high in that area and there isn't a thing you can do about it.

But, I won't put a road trip out of my mind.  And now my Jeep is fixed. I need to finish up the Polaris - I never completed the project because the Jeep was taking forever and I lost all motivation.  I had thoughts about taking it somewhere for a ride today, but I would have to spend a couple hours finishing it up. Since all this traveling, this is quite a lot of house work that needs to be tended to, so save that for another day.

Well. I need to go out and mow the back lawn, replace the pond pump, do some sweeping and general cleaning out there, spray the whole yard down with bug killer - bugs are crazy thick, especially mosquitoes, clean my room, laundry, etc etc etc  This is what my Saturday and probably my Sunday look like. The tradeoff is two trips that I really had to take.