Ok, I knew we needed a new grill, I didn't know we needed one that bad haha. That's the one my mom bought for me 3 or 4 years ago, we've used the heck out of that thing. I mean, it's gotten a lot of use, so as much as I hate to say goodbye to it, it's time to part ways. I was looking at an Oklahoma Joe grill at Lowe's yesterday. Kind of expensive but heavy duty thing. It's a barrel smoker on one side and a propane grill on the other. It's pretty cool.
I resisted the impulse to buy it tho. $400 is a tad high just to be able to grill meats. It is an important part of our lives, tho, I'm just looking around. I could just get another propane grill with out the smoker combo for half that price and be all good. It's getting to the time of year where they should be having some sales on grills coming up any time now.
Anyway, the plant the other day took 5 full hours to unload that trailer. They make you drop the trailer and leave the facility. You can hang out out front or go to town - I opted to go to town and get an amazingly wonderful breakfast. The ladies at the counter said the skirt steak was the best of the 3 breakfast steaks they have on their breakfast menu, I took their word for it and was not let down at all. When I got back to the plant, I started getting nervous about how long it was taking. I mean, the dude said it only takes 45 minutes to unload, it's taking the pressure on the tank back down that takes so long. I could easily dump that pressure in 20 to 30 minutes and get it over with, but their policy is to have it down below 20 before it can leave the plant.
Limited hours when I finally got out of there to drive, I hoofed it back down to below St Louis and at least got myself positioned to be able to make it back the next day - Easter Sunday - which I did. I was so sick of driving after I got back from this last trip that I specifically asked my manager for another day off after yesterday - Monday. I could really use a vacation at this point. Our trip to Galveston beach is still 3 months off, that's a bit too long. I'd like to just go hole up somewhere away from people and enjoy some time off. A nice run with a couple days detention would work, lol, but that's wishful thinking.
As it stands, the boys are back from Arkansas and the lady and her 2 girls are living in this house right now. That's 8 people in here total. Tomorrow, 2 more people coming - her dad and his girlfriend - to be here 5 days. So today, I'm finishing up detailing my room and making it nice as they will be staying in here and it will work out nicely that I'll be out of here. Just about guaranteed I'll be sent out somewhere tomorrow, for the sake of not having to give them hotel expenses, I do hope whatever I get is a 3 day run.
And...after all this time, like 5 weeks, the room at the other house is finally rented. I'm definitely eating some expenses over there for this month. 2cd time that's happened I think. There was another month last year where one of the rooms was empty and I ate over $400 in costs - but - the rest of the time the house almost paid for itself, with only $30 or $40 per month that I had to pay. Which I'm fine with since the trade off is a place to take my dogs when I'm on the road. That's not much to pay to have your dogs well looked after. Anyway, hopefully this new lady will stick around awhile. She said she is here for management training and will be given a store to run after she's done. She's thinking she will get the store in my town, which would work out nicely.
It's funny tho, that people who run stores - I know another one - in this area aren't making that much money. Like, 30k per year? To put up with all of that nonsense? I dunno, but making any rash decisions about changing jobs isn't on my horizon at the moment. As much as I despise some of the s*** going on with this company, there are far worse scenarios out there. The truck situation was insufferable tho, just ridiculous that a big company like that has trucks driving down the road with 700k miles on it and endless problems. The flip side, of course, was if a breakdown occurred on the road, I got breakdown pay - but that didn't always happen and I was sitting home sometimes up to 6 days.
Now that I'm in a much nicer truck, it's a bit better. I still don't like being out on the road more than 2 days, just gets old.
:Yesterday, I got up early and finished putting all those grass plugs in the ground. Not anything I wanted to do first thing in the morning after being out on the road that long. Remember, I finished a run, came back at 3am and then the next day went right back out again. And the run before that, I was only home a day. I keep telling myself I'm going to buy a boat or another ATV and I keep looking at them and then I keep saying no, save for land. This kind of thought process goes back and forth in my mind, but I suspect eventually? The boat will win. I saw a nice flat bottomed boat with a 350 chevy inboard motor in it for $3,500 the other day. Another other, cheaper fishing boats. The issue - not really an issue, just a determining factor - is that my friends want to be able to go fishing too - and that would be nice as well. But a boat big enough for 3 or 4 people doesn't really have to be that big.
So whatever. Today is finish my room day, a bit of laundry, mow the back yard and anything else that I may or may not want to get done around here, but I'm spending at least half of relaxing and doing nothing. Actually, I'll be watching movies and kicking back with my doggies.
Well, off to Waffle House for keto breakfast, to the store for a roast and veggies for whatever road trip tomorrow, get the laundry started and get today's chores done and over with.
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