In my view, a bizarre situation.  I'm sitting around in Brownsville Texas over a trailer that has a problem with it that might take a mechanic 30 minutes to fix unless more serious problems are found. Add a few hours to that if they have to order the part.  Or longer if Brownsville doesn't have the parts.

Instead, there was an email bickering back and forth about fixing the thing.  What I found out today is when one of our trailers has an issue, they - the plant - demand that we fix it, show them proof that we fixed it and nothing less will do.  But, apparently, when one of their trailers is broken, who cares?!!  So my manager is forcing the issue.  They will fix that trailer and that's that.  We aren't taking it anywhere.

See, a dude at the shop in the yard I've been hanging out at came out, stuck a wrong sized bolt in the hole and put silicone on it.  Lol.  Mexicans fix things that way when they don't have the right parts, I've seen it in action for decades now.  I called my shop mechanic and explained what they did, we both laughed.  Yea, no.  So hours later I contacted my manager, what are we doing?  Just hang tight.  Okay.  Hours later after that,  I found out that this plant is going to have the trailer brought down to their facility in Mexico to have it fixed.  Lol.  I mean, talk about wasting money.

First off, that plant has to pay me the $25 per hour I'm making sitting around doing nothing. Second, they have to cover the hotel bills.  3rd, they still have to fix the blooming trailer anyway, why not just hire a mechanic to come out and fix it? I don't have the answers to that, apparently this is the way things have always been done, so beit, I don't care, I'm coming home hopefully tomorrow nad amking bank off this run with all this detention pay.  They'll take 20 hours out for the hotel stay. We have no choice in that now after the merge to the new company.  If you don't take the company provided hotel, they are still going to take out 10 hours of pay per 24, there is no reason to sit in a truck all night long when you can be basking the glory of a nice hotel. 

But even after that, I"m estimating almost a thousand dollars worth of sitting-around-doing-nothing pay plus the normal pay for this trip plus the stop pay and we're at around $1,700.  That's 4 days, that's $425 per day. Thanks, I'll take that!

It's my version of cold here.  And supposedly it is or was snowing where I live, as reported earlier.  It's going to be in the high 20's there tonight, it's going to be in the high 30's here tonight.  I'm on the Mexican border, I can only wonder if this is a clue of how winter is going to go? Lots of people are thinking this is going to be an unusually cold winter. Well unusual or not, it's already too cold for me!  Lol.  I'm glad I got my fresh cord of wood, when I get back, I'll be making a nice, hot fire and sitting around it enjoying the warmth of it's glo.  I'm thinking I need to start getting back into reading books, so I might do that while sitting out there enjoying a day off. 

The question is, what book? Lol.  Fiction? Non fiction? What topic? I used to love reading Science Fiction books when I was a kid.  I think I'd like a mature version of it now?  Maybe.  Or maybe something to expand my knowledge. Maybe there are interesting books on accounting out there. Although I can't possibly fathom how you can make accounting an interesting topic lol. 

Anyway, this trip went far beyond anything I imagined. I don't need another run to make up for "only" a 2 day run.  I have a ton of detention time on my last trip as well.  My next paycheck will be healthy at only 2 trips, but both trips having some substantial detention pay. The rumor that they were doing away with detention didn't pan out.  At least not on these 2 runs. These runs, tho, are the only runs I know of that really give you the choice sitting around pay.  None of the rest even come close. In the perfect world,  a trailer will show up around 11am tomorrow or noon and I can drive it out and be be home tomorrow night. Anything later than that? No, I'll drive but not until 2 or 3 am.  It will put me out til Thursday, but it's still in time to get this run in to payroll for next paycheck.  \

Oh! Dinner!  I told myself all day long if I was spending another night, I'm going to have a nice, thick, juicy steak at Texas Roadhouse and rest assured, I did! No dinner rolls, but the fare was excellent.  A fat filled, rare Ribeye with mushrooms and broccoli.  And then I asked for a fried Jalapeno pepper.  The pepper was so good with the steak, I had them bring me another, of which they brought 2 more : ).  I tasty, worth the extra money, didn't do anything to overload my carb intake for the day, I'm good thanks. 

Oh wait! Ok, another driver showed up at the yard down here today. Like around 5 pm. He got out and looked at me strange.  Why you've lost weight!  Well yes I have, I'm down close to 20 pounds. (actually, I probably am at 20 pounds now, I haven't been on a scale in 4 days and the weight has been steadily coming off).  That was pretty cool actually. 

Well anyway, enough for this one.

Hmm. I was looking at the mirror this morning - vain I know but I"m really hoping to actually start seeing results rather than looking on a scale or seeing pant size shrink and finally, I can see a difference.  I haven't weighed myself in days cause' I haven't been near a scale. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised when I get home and get on it, morning time before I do anything.  If I weigh myself during the day, it's going to be a false, higher reading.

I don't make that stuff up, I've been doing research about this diet, which some say 12 weeks max and then go off of it and others saying it raises your cholesterol count.  I can definitely see the cholesterol thing, considering what you are eating.  Perhaps that's why others are saying 12 weeks and then probably go on a cholesterol dumping diet.

Anyway, it's Tuesday morning, at the hotel and about to leave here. I can't sit around here all day not knowing if a trailer comes in, but since the border doesn't open until morning time, it's a safe bet a trailer isn't going to be coming in until 10 am at the earliest.  And even that is up in the air.  I may be sitting in the truck again all day long and from what I heard, there are other drivers there waiting as well.  But if a trailer comes in , I want it and I want to get home today if possible.  I've got stuff I need to get done at home that has come up since I left and I'm running out of diet food. 

Tho, this morning hotel breakfast they had sausage and eggs at least.  Throw some grated cheese on top and it was keto friendly.  Oh how I want to eat some potatoes!  When I go off this diet, that is the first thing I'm doing, eating some form of potatoes and knowing how my mind works, it will probably be french fries, a big pile of them with a heap of ketchup. I mean seriously, in the Keto FB group I'm in, a lot of those people have a cheat day every week, every other week, or every month. They claim they are still losing weight.  I haven't done that yet, but if I were, the cheat would either be a Dairy Queen blizzard or a pile of McDonald's fries. Not to mention they have their BBQ sandwich again, once a year they have it for like a month. 

Well. Rene texted me saying they have enough dog food to last through to day and then that's it.  Gag.  I must make it back. That or ask Taylor to run some dog food over there, I just dumped a bag into the container at my house.  Getting back today preferable tho.  Or tomorrow morning at the latest. Gonna have to pick this up later on, I need to get moving out of here.