President Trump threatens a government shut down if dems don't agree to the wall.  I say he should have allowed it to stay shut down last time for want of a budget that was nothing but more of the same old tax and spend crap that either and both parties have been engaging in for ever. But, Trump wanted all that money for the military budget plus we got dumped with a bunch of other stuff that is either needless or could be trimmed way back.  I'm seriously concerned about the nation's debt, fiat system be damned, the interest payments on that debt is the THIRD highest budget item on the list.  Where do we draw the line?  Apparently never, just keep throwing money away on worthless social programs and increased payments for social security, medicaid and the almighty military.

I agree we need a strong and vibrant military.  No questioning that from my perspective.  But do we need to literally foot the build for most of the world and having these bases all over the place? If we are protecting any given nation, shouldn't they finance it as much as they possibly can within their own budgets?  There are strategic bases that we should pay for if those countries don't, but not all of them.  The one thing I don't have a problem with is spending 20 or 30 billion on an advanced wall that will aid in helping keep illegals from stepping foot into our nation.  I'ts not an end all, but with increased Border Patrol agents and using technology, we could seriously cut down the numbers. 

But it's baffling to me a nation that takes in that much money in revenues from taxes every single year and yet we can't even balance our budget, much less pay down the debt? Instead, we are in deficit spending, increasing the debt and increasing the interest payments while we're at it.  Tho honestly, I never really saw Trump as a president that would do anything about the debt.  If we don't fix Sociial Security, it is going to go bust eventually.  The system needs to be shut down, give a grandfather clause to those of us paying into it all our lives, opt Millenials and whatever the name of the next generation is after that out of it and instead simply have savings accounts if we are even going to force them to save at all.  I'm dumping at least $400 per paycheck and often times more into 401k every single paycheck. In 10 years, it still won't be enough.  But it's better than not saving at all.  If I go into retirement with 200 grand I'll be lucky.  That's not much but coupled with SS I will be able to survive on a limited income.  Probably still rent out rooms and do all of that stuff that makes owning a house much easier to deal with.

Whatever the case, I'd be happy if the next president we get after Trump is actually one that will sit down at the table and start to discuss real reform of the way we spend money in this nation as a whole and how we are going to address SS, medicaid and the growing debt.



Moving on to other things.  Cheniere is not a day trip.  I have distinctly come to that conclusion.  It happens once in a blue moon, but mostly it does not.  Yesterday was no different.  If anything goes wrong at either end, it's toast.  The toast occurred at the loading plant.  A hot truck came in and it took 4 hours to deal with.  It had been in the shop and oxygen had gotten into the tank. That's what's referred to a hot truck: oxygen in the tank. They apparently don't want any oxygen in there at all and won't load it until they purge it out of there.

Well I knew it was going to be time to take a nap when I got to the loading rack and 4 iso trailers and one regular trailer ahead of me.  I figured 5 to 6 hours and I wasn't let down. 6 hours later I was out of there and completely gave up on any notion of getting home that night.  I was up to 1:45 am last night unloading the truck and then spent 10 hours in their parking lot - I had about 45 minutes left on the clock when I was done which wasn't enough time to get anywhere.

So  I didn't get home until a bit ago which was around 4:00 pm.  Now? I asked for Sunday off to go to church.  So, tomorrow is a preload for another driver - was hoping to have 2 full days off but a preload isn't tooooo terribly bad, not great but not bad either.  Unless some crap happens again and I'm stuck there half a day.  But THEN, I have to go back to Cheniere Monday! I very much hate that place because it pays nothing like other runs and as quite involved.  It's just a waste of time, really.

Now I find out that the new Cheneire plant near Corpus Cristi isn't opening up in a few years as workers at the existing facility claimed. Instead, they're firing up next month and it will take dozens and dozens and dozens of runs down there to fill up their bullets.  That's what they call them. Giant tanks mounted sideways so I guess they look like giant bullets. Bullets that hold over a million gallon a piece.  Meaning constant running. Because that's going to be dumped on us on top of everything else. If we can't cover it, they'll siphon it off to another company that hauls ethylene and that's something our company desperately doesn't want to have happen, meaning we are going to be very busy.

I just looked up the actual address, they're calling it Corpus Cristi but it's actually in Portland, Texas.  Not much of a difference lol, just across a bay it looks like from Corpus Cristi.  It's 418 miles from my house, probably not much different from the plant since it's both due south of here.  That's better than the 232 of the other Cheniere - but not that much better.  It makes it a 2 day run and that isn't really all that good for 2 days, not like Brownsville which is a 562 mile trip one way.  They really need to up the pay for short trips to make it worth the trouble.

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Saturday evening.  Stayed up way too late last night playing a game with everyone here, like I didn't get to bed until almost 1:30 am.  Yeah, that's just too late. I didn't have to get up early this morning but I've been paying for it all day long.  I got the trailer preloaded at the plant and after taking it back to the yard, I decided to crash in the truck for a couple of hours before even going back home lol. Note to self: midnight is the latest I can stay up before it has very negative effects on me the next day, regardless of how late I can sleep in.

I am  becoming more of a night owl with this job tho, getting used to staying up later and still feeling good the next day as long as I can get enough sleep.

Anyway, we are going to church tomorrow.  That is a good thing, I haven't been in a while.  11:00, the only thing I don't care for is the drive 2 towns over.  There are churches here but they want to go to one over there.  Which is fine as I said we can take my ride but I won't be driving : ) I am very happy to be a passenger for once. 

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3 day post here lol.  Today came, we went to church. Very nice,  good worship, good message, very good message.  Loved it.  It's a giant church, the only issue I had with it.  Not really into them, but it's better than not going at all. I have work tomorrow and yes that Cheniere run, but I don't have to be at the loading rack until 1:30.  That really isn't all that great, tho, because it means I have to be out very late just to get the truck unloaded.  After that, it will mean sitting in their dirt parking lot again for 10 hours and then driving home.  It's just too late a start time to be able to finish it in 14 hours.  I won't get out of there until 4 at the earliest, I won't get to Cheniere until 8:15 to 8:30, it's at least 3 hours in there unloading, by the time that's done it's close to midnight and then I'm going to drive home? Heck no!!  I voiced my dissent this time in getting two of them in a row tho.  That run doesn't pay well enough to get it all the time. 

Anyway, today is clean day.  I vacuumed my floor, got laundry fixing to do the dusting and straightening up stuff.  It's already 1:35 pm but that's kind of what church does. It eats up your morning and usually part of your afternoon.  But it's worth it.  Just I think we need to find a church around here to go to, at least save 35 miles each way of driving.  There are plenty of churches here, just keeping going to different ones until one of them resonates. 

Other than that, status quo.  My bank account continues to grow.  I get through all the bills and there's always still more in there than last paycheck.  It's very encouraging.  That's beyond 401k, totally separate accounts with my bank savings account and my checking account.  I'm tempted to double the amount being automatically directed into savings to be able to save for a significant down payment on property.  They're going to want it with my credit where it's at.  I figure I'd probably have to save around 20 grand to do that.  Only 16-1/2 grand to go! lol

Still if I could find property at a grand an acre, I could really get a nice chunk of property with that much down.  I want at least 50 acres, 100 would be optimal.  Wouldn't mind that part of it could be zoned commercial rental and put in a small mobile home park for extra income.  Out in the county, that shouldn't be impossible to do.  Devote 10 acres to it and slowly build it up.  I'm always dreaming lol.  I look at some properties around here and wonder how they can ask that much per acre. $11,000 per acre for undeveloped property? It's not all like that just saying that's a bit ridiculous.  I have seen it at a grand an acre, more common is around 2 grand per acre for undeveloped property out in the country.  Horses, cattle and maybe some pigs.  No chickens, thanks. Dirty creatures, worse than any of those others mentioned. 

Well whatever.  I'm setting myself a goal to watch less news.  I ;think 90% of the so-called news is Trump bashing and I've seen more than enough of it. Every single week, a fresh new narrative comes out to find a way to impeach Trump.  I mean, the stuff that happened say 3 weeks ago is already forgotten.  It's quite amazing - and outrageous at the same time.  Trump comes out with solid numbers that any president would swoon for and all the press can do is dismiss it and tell us it isn't sustainable instead of simply saying great job Trump!

I don't need that as a daily mental diet.  Not that I venture over to the likes of CNN, Huffpost, CBS, MSNBC and the like - I don't want anything to do with increasing their ratings. 

Well, enough. Off to get some stuff done.