My texting with the manager today resulted in no work tomorrow.

The first text series was that her computer was down, she'd have to get back to me later.

She didn't get back to me later, as expected, so I got back to her. Did your computer system ever come back up?  No loads until Wednesday.  That's 4 days off.  I informed her I had already been off 2 days and she said she knew. No explanations, just that's the way it is.  

4....more....days.....off.  And this person is hiring more drivers?  So I checked this competitor's site i was referring to the other day that is taking some of our business.  Their current job list doesn't have any Ethylene positions.  So I wrote them an email instead asking if they think they might have any positions open in the near future.  

No idea on that one.  But worth checking out. Two major haulers that go into the plant I go into - Groendyke and Martin - simply do not have a good reputation and they don't pay that well.  So I'm not even going to bother checking with them, but I have heard some good things about GenX haulers, so that is next.  

I can deal with 2 days off in between runs, I cannot deal with 4, 5 and 6 days off on a continuing basis. That's just not something I can sustain for any length of time.  I'm also going to apply with Gemini - they haul fuel for all the Love's Truck Stops around the nation.  The driver I spoke with says he has good off time, never out overnight and makes around 75k per year.  That would work for me, tho they'd have to be interested in teaching fuel delivery. 

Okay, their application appears to be quite long and involved.  Most of them are, unfortunately.  Anyway, after hearing that from her earlier, I have decided it's time to go full tilt looking for a new job.  Learn my lesson from Ferguson and not wait around - while going broke -forever.  I'll be doing that tomorrow.  I just came to this conclusion a little while ago and then started looking at openings available in my area.  

Well well well. The dogs and I were sitting in here minding our own business earlier when I heard a crunching noise. Sounded like one of the dogs eating dog food.  Looking across the room? There was a mouse in Addler's food bowl, right there, in front of us, chowing away!  I have all kinds of glue traps left over from when this house was infested with rats.  We got rid of them long ago. I had seen a mouse running into my room a few weeks ago, but it seemed like the cats had dealt with that issue.  Funny there are mice in here anywhere with 2 cats lurking around.  I let them come into my room at will to look around and establish their presence.

Anyway, I put out a huge rat trap - that's what I have lol, the glue kind, those giant ones are the only ones that will keep a big rat on it without letting it go - and now? I have an itty bitty mouse in it.  But where there's one mouse there's more, so I'm letting it sit there and make it's noise. I'm curious if it's calling its friends for help. They can most certainly come and save him!  He's sitting smack dab in that glue, no way he's getting out of there tho.  

Well, anyway, the news about not working until Wednesday was disconcerting.  But motivating.  I absolutely hate the idea of quitting yet another job and starting up again somewhere else, but what am I supposed to do? I will ask, tho, about getting transferred over to fuel delivery.  It's worth a shot, I just don't think they pay as much.  

Well, my manager just told me "it's fixing to get better".  That would be very nice.  She is short on specifics tho.  Why does she believe it's going to get better? Does she have information she could pass on? Why keep everyone in the dark? It makes no sense.  So how long should I hold out? A week? A month?  Months? Just weird that this job gave me more work than I wanted at one time and now - every single driver - is experiencing the fact that we are sitting around - a lot.  2 34 hour resets in a week is not normal in the driving field but that's what's happening with everyone.  

Okay, I'm going to hold out a little longer.  The worst that could happen is resorting to credit cards again - bad idea but it's available if it got that bad - and deal with it.  That's a worst case scenario.  I have lots of savings right now, but that can get eaten up quickly if the paychecks aren't cutting it....

and with that, I have a mouse to deal with. I was going to let it sit there calling it's friends but the racket is getting ridiculous.

......edited - the racket worked and now two of them in the same trap - itty bitty things, there's probably a whole family of those suckers.