2018 was a very strange time, politically speaking. But as weird and outrageous as some of all of that was, 2019 presents itself to be far more entertaining in the political world. Or frustrating depending on how you look at it. But I find the current government shutdown to be highly entertaining. It's a poker game, who is going to fold first? Or who will ante up? Supposedly both sides have their offers out on the table, but neither side is budging and now we await the new House to be sworn in.
Beyond that, you have Pelosi promising endless investigations and Schumer acting like a petulant child in a nursery day care center. He accuses Trump of throwing a temper tantrum, but from all appeearances to me? He's the one looking pretty stupid right now. Anyway, I'm guessing this coming year, in that context? We will have never seen anything like it before. Strap yourselves in, take it in stride, the nation isn't going to collapse, fall off the earth or just "go away" because of these idiots running our nation.
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Okay, a house full of people. James mom and grandparents came own and brought a 4x4 pickup in excellent condition for him. Sitting in their garage, not doing anything. It has less than 30k miles on it and although they aren't flat out giving it to him, for 10k, that's an excellent deal. I mean, at a car lot I would imagine a truck in that good of a condition and especially a 4x4 to go for twice that, even if the thing is 10 years old. In these parts, pickups retain a lot of their value. It really isn't a good place to buy used anything, but especially trucks.
Anyway, there are 3 extra adults here, an extra child and an extra, unfriendly, non-socialized dog. I've had to keep Addler and Aspyn apart from it My dogs have no fear of it, in fact, Aspyn snapped at it pretty good when it got into Aspyn's face. That was king of the - well we're going to have to separate them - moment. Not sure why they brought that dog. But it's whatever. It's been nice talking with all of them. They have let down their guards quite a lot since the last time I saw them. I don't really mean with me, just with family fighting with family.
I think they were hoping I would be out of here when they came, but I can't say I am complaining about being home for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Hey, I worked on Christmas. My Christmas was spent in a hotel with literally nothing open - no restaurants, nothing, in the area and the hotels were ghost towns themselves. I'm not complaining, I had dinner I brought with me in suspecting that that would be the case. I made the best of it.
Tomorrow morning, early, I'm going out again. Back up to Mapleton, Illinois. That's the place where there's at least a 50% chance that I will get some detention time, which I would really love right now. I always hope for it but prepare my mind to have to turn right back around and head back home. Either way will work, but a boost in a paycheck would help. Not to mention my shorted "paycheck" which only had a $75 bonus on it, that problem I have heard nothing back about. Likely has to do with switching companies. Every driver is complaining about it. Numerous drivers are talking about switching companies. Some drivers are saying they are definitely going to find a new place to work.
mind to have to turn right back around and head back home. Either way will work, but a boost in a paycheck would help. Not to mention my shorted "paycheck" which only had a $75 bonus on it, that problem I have heard nothing back about. Likely has to do with switching companies. Every driver is complaining about it. Numerous drivers are talking about switching companies. Some drivers are saying they are definitely going to find a new place to work.
I'm just sitting this one out. Besides a shorted paycheck which I will get, one way or the other, I'm still making good money. The other drivers are complaining about the 'lowest" paychecks they have ever seen, but excepting for time off, I haven't really noticed that. Note that my manager never did put those vacation hours on the check that I wanted them on. So I have full vacation hours.
I'm just sitting this one out. Besides a shorted paycheck which I will get, one way or the other, I'm still making good money. The other drivers are complaining about the 'lowest" paychecks they have ever seen, but excepting for time off, I haven't really noticed that. Note that my manager never did put those vacation hours on the check that I wanted them on. So I have full vacation hours. And I come to find out the reason it was better to wait until I had been there a full year is how vacation hour pay is calculated. I will get much more per hour than what I would have received doing it before the full year up. As per getting my own truck, that's going to sit on a shelf for awhile til' I see what happens at work.
I finally started working out today. We have close to the full weight set and bench and everything we need, I didn't want to wait any longer. This is not a New Year's resolution. I've all but given up on that stuff and haven't made any to myself, God or anyone else. It's just not worth it. You fail, you feel bad, you resolve not to make any more resolutions, so my previous resolution fulfilled. I hope to work out at least 3 times a week, but 2 will work. Just muscle building. You don't have to do that every day to see results.
I've been going over calories on my diet, but I still remain on the Keto diet. I was down to 203 and now it's up to 205. I'll get serious about it after today. We're having a New Year's feast, tho much of what they are going to be serving I can't eat anyway. I smoked a Prime Rib roast yesterday and it turned out perfect. I kept checking the internal temperature - I hate when I miss the goal and end up going way over. Then the meat isn't rare and that's a waste of a good rib roast. I got that sucker pulled out of it at 130 degrees, let is rest for 20 minutes and it was hot, tender, juicy and nicely rare. The thing is, once the internal temperature hits the 115 range - it goes up quickly after that. It's easy to miss your target temperature. I need one of those fancy remote setups that you put a probe into the roast and it sends the temperature constantly to the remote. That way you don'e have to keep checking the temp and you don't have to keep opening the door, letting out the heat.
My travel aspirations remain unchanged. I've started yet a separate travel fund, apart from 401k, automatic bank withdrawals into a savings account. That is going to be an emergency fund. I want at least 20k in it, it will take a while to reach that goal. But I don't want to deplete from the fund for travel. As long as I can keep working like I have been for the past couple weeks, my paychecks will reflect what I need them to to be able to do all that saving and still pay the bills and such.
I'm resting today. Besides the workout, I am just going to take it easy. Get my stuff ready to go, yes, for tomorrow considering it's the first load. Check my credit cards since it's the first. A few I have balances on to pay down to zero. But I always check all of them anyway.
With that, I think I'll end this one.
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