Okay then.
That took far longer than I expected.
The brakes to begin with. Driver's side was a breeze, 10 minutes or even less and I was done with it.
The other side? When the tire shop put the pretty little chrome pieces back onto the lugs last time i was over there, they used an air wrench on it.  Like, this are just for decorations, they don't need to be on there that tight. Two of them twisted trying to get them off of there.

I finally got one to budge and off, the other? Not so lucky.  I ended up having to get my torch and heat the thing up several times before destroying it and getting it off of there.  After that, it takes literally 5 minutes to get the brakes off and the new ones back on.  That's why I just laugh at the prices shops want to charge for brakes, or them coming along telling you the rest of everything is else bad and you're going to get into a bad accident if you don't replace all of it.

BS.  I've been replacing brakes since I was 16 years old. Even if the rotors are damaged from metal on metal -you can still put the pads on there if the damage isn't too bad and yes, your brakes will work. The pads will have grooves edged into them from the uneven surface on the rotor and they won't last as long, but yes, they will still work.  In this case, there was only one pad that had just started to wear metal on metal on one end of the pad, no signs of anything on the rotor.  $18 job.

So, anyway, I decided to clean out the trunk.  Lots of stuff in there, too much.  Got all of it out of there, went through all of it, threw out 2/3rds of it and only put back in tools and such for if something happens while on the road and there is a fix I can do without taking it to a shop.  Vacuumed that out, cleaned out the inside of my car, put the floor mats in the washing machine and walaah, I'm done with that.  Went to Lowe's to get more rat traps, went to Chili's for a bit of lunch, went to the liquor store for booze for the tenants. Don't judge me too harshly. They are in pain, 24 hours a day, their access to meds is limited, they are poor and alcohol does help relieve the pain.

I'm not making stories up to encourage alcoholism.  I've been watching this with them for a couple of years now.  They are truly disabled.  Anyway, came home, built a fire. Sat down and did nothing for a couple of hours.  Thinking, mostly.  Lots of thinking in these days. If I would have just done....this and that... when I was younger, I would be in a much different place right now.  Lamenting, but to myself, no one else. Well, writing about it on my blog, but it is my blog, so there is that.  Trucking is hardly the easy life. Just the hours you put in is enough in itself. 

Anyway, another load of laundry and I am done with that. Since I am taking my car, I'm taking big suitcase and loading it up.  I have no idea how long I will be gone.  I'm assuming, providing I pass whatever courses I am taught, that when I get back, I will be put in a truck and sent out.  They aren't spending this money on me to have me go home and sit and I need a paycheck so we are both in need here.  They are turning away loads to the only other company that hauls this stuff out of here locally and they want to eliminate that. In fact, they want to take over this entire portion of the industry, the only way they are doing that is to hire several more drivers. 

I'm looking forward to getting some hazmat tanker experience in, get some money saved up and eventually ask to transfer over to their local gas hauling position.  Or not.  Just don't know.  Anyway, I have to clean my room, get my suitcase packed and I'm done and ready to go.  Leaving out of here around 10:00 am tomorrow.  It's 500 miles to Amarillo here - a bit further than I first thought. But I can average 80 mph - yes I can do that and I have done that before, in fact I did it on both trips to Arizona earlier this year. That entails getting into the car and driving until you need fuel, not driving until you feel like stopping.  Monday morning will roll around and I will be at the place at around 7:30 am.  Meet whoever, get the classes rolling folks, I want to get this stuff over and behind me. 

But I really do want to learn, tho.  This isn't a milk tanker or a water tanker, this is some of the most volatile chemical that exists that is hauled in tankers.  I would rather listen and learn about all of it. And since I am getting paid $22 per hour to learn all of this, that takes the pressure off of paychecks.  Not to mention I was informed the hotel is awesome. 

Oh! I found a long lost Bible in the trunk of my car. Kind of embarrassed to say it had that much stuff in it.  It was in the very back of the trunk.  The trunk in that car is huge.  It is very much nicer now, vacuumed out and good to go.  The Bible was in it's original case I bought it, in perfect condition. 

Alright, well, that's enough I guess. I didn't get to putting the smoker together, but it's still kinda early. I might drag it out back at least and take a look at how many screws and what-not it has.  Or not.  Rene was wanting me to put it together for turkey dinner - but Thanksgiving is still 2 weeks off.  So, yeah, not big rush on that.  Well, I can see her point even tho she didn't say it.  Who knows what kind of time I might have after all of this training is over with?  They likely going to have trucks for us and get us on the road.  Cheneire is likely the first place - that is what I trained for yesterday.  It's the short run and most drivers don't like it that much.  I'm a newbie, so I'll take whatever, but please get me enough miles in to get some decent paychecks, that was the whole point of this. 

I don't know about Thanksgiving, but from what I read, Christmas Day is an off day at this place. But, before and after that? Yeah, not so much and I'm guessing new drivers will get the s*** and tenured drivers will get less.  It's cool.  I may not like it - I'm sure I won't - but I had a purpose in going with this company and I just need to try and keep my eyes on the goal. 

The last time I was making this kind of money, I was taking home $1,100 after taxes.  That's around $300 more than I was taking home for a two week paycheck at the old place  That was biweekly, this is weekly. 

I've really been just trying to get myself readjusted to life on the road. That last rat race job certainly thrust me right back into it. 

And with that, I think I'll end this one.