Hmm, well I started this yesterday and forgot about it, so post it in incomplete form, lol.

And just like that, my credit score takes a 31 point nose dive on 2 of the reporting agencies.  I opened up an account a few months ago that had zero fees to move from one card to another, so I maxed the thing out.  It's 18 months interest free, which I fully intend on paying off long before 18 months is up.  That is, if my income starts flowing in the right direction.

So, I guess if I pay a few thousand dollars off of debt, the score should bot back up.  Right? Maybe, credit scores and what affects them are a netherland to me.  You do something you think will help and it does, but then it hurts you.  In this case, it appears to the credit reporting agencies that I just used $1,500 of credit card limit and therefore, I think if I am assessing this right and all the reading I have done, I must be desperate for money. So, double whammy - I opened a new account and I used $1,500 instantaneously on it.

I didn't figure getting my credit score to go back up would be an overnight proposal, tho.  once I pay my debt down to below 30%, that will raise my score significantly.  I'm at 37% right now, so that really shouldn't take too long once I get a good flow of income in.

My previous employer sent my final vacation payout.  The company "lost" the hours and that is why i didn't get paid.  Well ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!  If I hadn't of said anything to former GM, it would never have been resolved.  Seriously.  They just switched over from one format to another for signing in and employee information, my vacation hours were left on the old format and hadn't transferred over.  Yet, the Regional manager got a bit testy with me.  I wrote him a nice letter back, telling him if he has issues with me, that's fine, but my stance is, why is this taking so long? It''s company policy, it's in writing.  I bid him a nice day and never heard back from him.

Anyway, my first full paycheck was more than 2 paychecks at the previous employer, as expected. Still, you never know, so I kinda held back any optimism until I actually saw the thing deposited into my bank account.

I have my doubts about this company, tho. As I reported yesterday, the truck is having issues - some serious issues - and after bringing it up to both my dispatcher  in texting and the head mechanic in person - and getting nowhere with it - well. that's a big red flag on my list.  You don't make money broke down on the side of the road.  Or even if it's in the company shop, you aren't making money sitting there waiting for days for them to fix it. If the transmission is having the trouble I think it is, it will definitely take a couple days to fix.

Then there is the issue of who is going to get blamed for that damage.  I can honestly say that in all the years I have driven trucks, I have never trashed a motor or a tranny, or a differential for that matter. Never burned up a clutch, either.  In the first years of driving, without engine brakes, I smoked the brakes a couple of times coming down off of very long, steep grades.  I was a rookie, some things are going to happen. But nothing ill became of those instances.  So, I will not accept and declaration that "you did this" unless I actually, really did do it, but since there is no way of proving that and I know that I haven't done anything to cause it, it's a moot point in my book. The truck has half a million miles on it, that alone is enough to simply be a wear and tear issue.

Well who knows, I'm not going to fret about the blame game, but I will have an issue if this thing breaks down out on the road. Not after I warned them about the issues and actually told them this truck needs fixed to 2 different people, now 3.  I asked the recruiter who I am supposed to report this stuff to since the head mechanic didn't do or even say anything.

Meanwhile, tomorrow morning at 9 am I have a road test with the first company I had wanted to go with.  At this point, it seems very prudent that I go ahead with that and play this thing out. Because, I have quit companies in the past that wouldn't maintain or even repair their equipment and get pissy about it breaking down for no fault of my own.  One such time was a bad fuel pump.  I told them it has a bad fuel pump.  They said how would you know, we are sending someone to get it started. I said fine, but it isn't going to fix the problem.  It's a long story, I won't go into it here, but the end result was the service guy got it running (not a mechanic) by spraying starting fluid into the intake.  I drove the truck half a mile and it stopped, on the highway, at a light.  All hell broke loose after that and I ended up quitting the company.  I didn't even tell them - til the end.  I drove the load back to Phoenix (where it was going anyway) after they fixed the truck, delivered the load, took the truck back to their yard.  Got all my stuff out of it, handed it back to them and quit.

Same thing would happen here.  Take the truck back, get my stuff out of it, take a bus back home, c'ya.  That's it.  I haven't heard back from the recruiter, maybe I won't.  Dunno, but if I don't, I am definitely going to take it up with the owner of the company who contacted me about this job in the first place.  Whatever he determines, that is what I will base my decisions off of.  I'm sure these are all nice, good people, but, they have to deal with the negative elements of the trucking industry and includes broken trucks.

Finally home.
Truck is having issues.
The fuel filters were the top of the list, now it's secondary.
The air leveler valve - a 99% solid guess - is bad on the truck and needs replaced.
The transmission is making grinding, chunking noises that sound like the thing is going
to fall apart. 
That's 3 issues. All of them need immediate attention.
Yet, when I brought it up to the dispatcher, he asked a few questions and then, disappeared.

I actually saw the head of the mechanic division today and mentioned all of it, he said nothing and did nothing.

I shrugged my shoulders. Who is it going to hurt in the end? Me and the company. Me, because the truck is going to break down on the side of the road and I will be stuck. I'm not making money if I'm not driving the truck. The company because it will cost them 3 times as much to fix it somewhere other than their own shop AND they won't be making money off of the truck. 

It's whatever.  If the thing happens to make it back from Oklahoma this coming week, I'm simply going to tell them the thing needs to go to the shop and get fixed.  If they refuse, I'll  call the owner of the company - whose cell phone number is printed in very large letters with the orientation packet and you can call him anytime type of thing - and ask him how he would like to handle this.

I've got a road test on Sunday morning.  Guaranteed that company takes care of their equipment.  When you're hauling a chemical that can kill a lot of people in a nano second if there was a serious crash, they aren't going to fool around with bad equipment.  They have newer Peterbilts and replacing all of them with brand new Peterbilts.  So hey, it's whatever to me. 

______________________________________

So, Saturday evening.  Looking forward to this road test.  Just because - providing I pass it of course - I have an out here. An out that I had originally planned as the first choice. 

Whatever the case, I have spent the day getting mundane stuff done, going around town getting chores taken care of and basically relaxing for the most part. 

I did get a chance to talk with my son today. For an hour, lol.  But hey, our conversations are far and few between.  Texting here and there, but not the same as talking on the phone. He's busy, he's got a new wife, they are adjusting to the lifestyle of living with one another, I totally understand. So, it makes the gems of talking to him at whatever occasion even more precious to me. 

There's one thing that my dad did for me that I feel inclined to carry on.  He sent me checks at random intervals.  Hi son, just wanted to help you out a bit.  I miss my dad.  I look back and wish I had visited him much more often than I did.  He really was a great influence on my life.  We used to email a lot, tho, before the Alzheimer's set in, I have that to feel that at least I connected with him  - rather often at that.  Thousands of emails over a span of a great many year's time, still in my AOL email account.  I read some of them here and there.  He was a man of God.  Always had a positive outlook - well mostly, sometimes his relationship with his wife got the better of him, but al most always he was upbeat and encouraging. 

Anyway, that's it for today.  Tomorrow will be a new adventure.  I guess I will be a little bit nervous. It'a always that way when you have someone scrutinizing your performance even if it's something you are totally comfortable doing, have been doing it for decades and do it well.