Dang.
Note to self: Next time I find out I'm off for extended days off, look up airfare to Europe.
Less than $600 round trip?
There's a flight with a layover in Paris.  There's all kinds of flights, just that one had 3 layovers coming back. I like layovers in cases of trips to places you have never been before.
Only a couple hours tho, not much you can do in a couple of hours anywhere.

The point is simply that a $550 round trip flight over the ocean and going to Ireland?  I would have done that on a 3 day trip in a heartbeat. My bag is already packed, always is.  Trucker - and stuff.

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I finally, after a number of years, unfriended a Facebook friend.  A black person, openly anti-white and allowing her friends on her wall to consistently attack me, over and over and over, for years.  I had finally had enough when they all showed me the door and she did nothing about it to stop it. If people are being attacked on my wall, I'm going to do whatever to stop it. It was her anti-white stance, tho, that even tho we had some great conversations over the years - was what did it. I normally do not unfriend people like that. Note that I wouldn't unfriend a person on the basis of a political stance that is completely opposite of mine.  That's an entirely different thing. 

Anyway, final day off, I finally got the text for the run tomorrow to Brownsville. Obviously, I would love an extended detention down there to help with the time off.  I can hope, but I won't be let down if it doesn't happen. Next week's paycheck will have nothing on it.  Literally, not a single penny unless I opt to use vacation hours.  Debating that.  Maybe I'm not so broke that a missing week's paycheck doesn't matter. 

The only thing that really concerns me right now is that Caleb is now - suffering yet another setback. He's suffering from Bell Palsy.  Apparently it was caught in time before it got "wicked evil" is what I call it, for I have seen it's effects on a person's face first hand. And that person? It took well over a year to recover from it. I want to send him some money to help him out because he's been off work so long.  He's not a lazy, welfare consuming person. He has a good work either.  My dad used to help me out when I was hurting financially, I feel compelled to pay it forward. Note that my son didn't ask for money. 

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Well took care of that. 
Next on my agenda of spending even more money is getting my bottom front row of teeth fixed. This is something that should have been dealt with when I was a kid.  Should have been braces back then. But now?  One tooth is being pushed back from the 2 on either side and the 2 on either side of those 2.  My guess is the middle tooth will have to be removed and some form of braces to set the others in place.  Or something - whatever it is, it will cost thousands of dollars and I will go into even more debt. 

I went to a store called Ollie's today.  Never heard of it til' they came to this little town and opened up a shop here. My friends are all rave about it, have been rave about it since before the store actually opened. I just figured another "dollar store" type of thing, but I was quite pleasantly surprised, when, after taking Rene to Dollar General (she had no ride) and taking her back, I decided to get a bite to eat at the local Applebee's and then, there it is, right there in the same shopping center.  Went in and wow! The prices! 

I'm in this huge room with barren walls. They had canvas prints for unbelievably low prices and really nice looking stuff.  I mean, no Picassos but I'm happy.  3 of those and a small stand for my Keurig coffee maker - it currently sits on the bathroom sink - and a small heater for the bathroom - it's freeing cold in there in the morning, some new bath towels and I was happy. 

But it was this morning that threw me for a loop.  The phone rang, woke me up out of a dead sleep. It wasn't exactly early in the morning, I was sleeping in, again, on purpose. I didn't answer. It was Rene, tho I didn't answer because it was her, I wasn't fully awake and wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone.  That's the way I am in the morning. Let me wake up, take a shower, drink a cuppa then I can talk.

So I let the call go ---- only to get the same call coming in for a second time.  It rang 5 times before I finally answered it.  Long story short: the male tenant in the house over there admitted to the new female tenant that he does meth.  Oh, how wonderful!!  I mean, just so grand!  Yeah, I tell everyone before they move in there: NO DRUGS, THAT WILL GET YOU EVICTED. So, the new lady was talking about moving out to Rene. I mean, stop the manipulation, give me a chance for crying out loud.  When I say no drugs, I mean, NO DRUGS. We're not doing that shit and I won't tolerate it. If you have a prescription for a drug, wonderful. But if you're cranking on crack or meth, get the hell out of the house.  

So I just said great, let's get rid of him. I thought: I'm going to go through hell trying to find another tenant - yet again.  A month for this one that came in now - but she's a gem as far as I can tell. Not being sarcastic, she's really a sweet lady.  Now? I'll have to find another one, hopefully and potentially pay another month's worth of utilities. This is getting old, frankly.  I'm willing to ride this out for a while because otherwise, I have even more money at stake for a broken lease, but really? 

Ended that call only to get another one a few hours later: what if we worked with him to get off the drugs?  Huh.  They were all gung ho to get rid of him a phone call earlier and now they want to work with him.  Blahhhh.  I just listened. So, is Maria good with this? Maria is the new lady.  Yea, we were "just" talking about it before we called you. Okay!  This is all your choice, you have to deal with it, I don't have to live with it. I have heard nothing else back, he was cranking today and Rene didn't want to approach him until tomorrow and get past the high. 

See, if Rene can't make this work, which I have been pounding into her head - if you want this to work, you have to want to bad enough to make concessions, give and take, not make demands on other people living with you that are unreasonable - then I'm bowing out of this in April when the lease is up.  Yup, she knows this, I made this clear. Make it work. My name isn't going to be on the lease after April if you can't show that you can create an environment that causes people to want to live there.  I have zero desire to deal with this any further if this doesn't get better.

I don't want another month where I'm shelling out over $450 to pay for the utilities. 

Anyway, it's getting close to bed time, I have work in the morning. Finally.  And as always,  I at least hope I will get some detention down there. 

And, ongoing, still doing the Keto diet.  I'm down 26 pounds.  Which is only a pound down more than my last update on it - but it is  a pound down, not up.  My workouts, which haven't been that many, are resulting in extreme soreness, starting 2 days after the workout.  It will get better over time. 

But, with that, time to get offa here.