Well. I'm going up to Mapleton, IL tomorrow. That place almost always causes some form of detention pay.  But now, detention pay is up in the air.  Are we getting paid for it or not?  Why was my paycheck cut to 13.5 hours of it after what i believe was 36 hours if I recall correctly?  What are the parameters?

I'm not sitting around for free, I can assure them of that.  If I have to sit for a day waiting on a plant to unload or a trailer in Brownsville, I want paid for it. If they are changing that, I want the damn policy in writing.  Why aren't they paying it and if I even want anything further to do with this.  There are plenty of trucking companies that will not pay detention pay even tho they say they will, if this is one of them they can go stick it where the sun doesn't shine. I sure as hell am not going to sit up in Mapleton for a day or two and have them think that I'm doing it for free or that they can somehow just randomly subtract hours because they say so.

I'm basing this on the conversation with the other driver yesterday who said that they are taking out 10 hours every day for motel stay that the company pays for. I didn't have the company pay for a hotel, the policy is or was that if you don't, you are paid the entire time for waiting.  I am waiting for a reply, I contacted my manager again awhile ago and she hadn't even asked about it yet.  But, if they are going to take out 10 hours whether you use them to pay for a motel or not, then I'll take the company paid motel and meanwhile start looking for a job.  Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and the plant will unload the product then and there when I arrive and I can immediately turn around and head back.

Cause' right now? I have questions with no answers.  If this new company has different policies, I want all of it in writing.  I'm not going to work for a company in the dark  concerning specific policy that addresses drivers.  I'm going to Mapleton. Only one time I have gone up there that I didn't have to wait, the rest of it was a nice generous amount of detention pay and I was happy.

Okay, that was irritating.

More irritations: the kitchen sink is clogged again. I called a plumber out this time, this happens too frequently and takes too much time to try to figure out what's going on.  I want a plumber with a guarantee to come out, find out why this drain is always clogging up, fix it, let us know how to deal with it and be done with this problem.  Very much tired of it.  I didn't ask my friends, I just called them. My friends can't afford a plumber but we can't clean dishes or run the dishwasher at the moment.  As it stands, they are getting into a contract for a new washer and dryer set. I just know their finances aren't too great and they are having trouble dealing with all of this.  But you have to have your plumbing working and I have no idea why this drain keeps backing up.

We don't dump grease into it, but we also don't have a garbage disposal. I'm wondering if the food going down in there is doing it.  It's an old house, I just think there is something maybe going on down there we don't know about.  The rest of the plumbing in the house is working fine, I'm doing laundry while writing this.

That's the other thing. The washing machines is leaking water and it's making a lot of noises.  It's dying. They went and bought a new set on payments but it won't be here til next friday.  The place they got it from has to order those specific machines. They are giving them the financing to get them, so my friends were willing to wait.  But if this set continues to fall apart, I'll be spending quality time at a laundromat.

And that is my day. Cleaning my room, tried to clean the kitchen but kinda difficult without the sink working.  And now that I know I have to get up at 3 am, my motivation just ran clean out of my bones.  I know what tomorrow is going to be like, I might as well enjoy the rest of my day.  Cause I don't see tomorrow as being any barrel of fun. Up at 3, out the door at 3:30, at the plant at 5:00, get out of there by around 7, on the road.  It's about 560 miles to the area I normally stop in, another 40 if I go to the Flying J I made it to last time.  Depends on how I sleep.  I'll probably just stop at the gravel parking lot I've stayed at before - the truck stops in that area fill up and there's no room to park at them.  The Flying J has spots, but I have to be able to make it there.  It's better to get to the Flying J because that is most of the way around Saint Louis and avoiding rush hour traffic in the morning.

Well, I was going to take the dogs out to Caddo Lake today, but this early rise thing nixed that.  I might take them for a short walk but that's about it.  They'll end up over at the crack house tomorrow.  Okay, it's not a lab or anything, just that "dude" living there going on his crack binges. If Rene didn't love my dogs so much, I wouldn't even think of taking them over there.
______________________

Long interruption and life.
I was given another trip to the place in Illinois that is notorious for sending you off to a hotel.  I want answers to detention pay. If they hold me up, I want to know what is being pad and what is not. Pretty reasonable request?

Meanwhile, I have a dumb bell with enough weight to not overload me while driving but still keep me busy at times to do some bicep work.  There is no reason I can see why I can't work out with one hand while driving down the highway on open road with little traffic.  I've done mock versions of it without anything, I can do an effect bicep work out with both hands while driving, just the left hand limited to one kind of workout.  I'm not sure it's so great to have biceps bigger on one side than the other, but I'm not interested in losing any more muscle definition because I'm not doing anything to keep it up.