So, what fun. I'm stuck home for probably 3 days.  It's a filter for the DEF exhaust system. Apparently they clog up over time and they have to be baked.  Literally baked in a super hot oven.  It takes up to 2 days.  Well 2 full days from tonight - when they are starting on it - is Wednesday evening.  Just what I don't need, 3 or 4 days off.  Anyway, it is what it is. My manager said she'd give me the extra truck to use - but it's in the shop, too.

The funny part about all of this? She also told me last truck has been in the shop 3 times since I got out of it! lolololol I should have just stayed in the thing and collect the easy break down pay.  I just wish they would have let me do this out on the road and collect some money while waiting.  I'm not going to literally sit around and do nothing while home, I just don't want to be home that much, getting caught up on my checking account and getting ahead are more important to me right now.

And the worst part for me, is if I stay home too long, it takes a while to get back in the groove of being on the road. It sucks but it's best for me if I"m just home a day and right back out.  Or last year, I'd be home one day and out the next morning.

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Wednesday. Finally, one of my credit scores has jumped into the Very Good range.  I have never had it in that category and only recently have had it in the Good range.  I've been working on this - literally for years now.  I have no current aspirations for the Excellent range - I don't even know how one gets to that point.  I really don't. Credit scores are so fickle. One little thing and they drop you 50 or more points.  The companies give you very broad and general outlines of how to increase it.  I suppose if I had 0% of my credit being used, it might boost it up into the excellent range. 

But that isn't going to happen this year. Care Credit is in the high 3 grand range - that was all the work done on my teeth. And I have more that needs to be done this year.  Actually, my Care Credit promotional offer is expiring at the end of May.  It's a no interest loan on that card. If you pay it off before a year is up, they don't charge you any interest.  If you don't, they dump all of that interest from the beginning back on it.  It only behooves me to dump all of that onto one of my other credit cards and save the year's worth of not having to pay interest.  But I'll wait until May to do that.  Might as well enjoy as much interest free payments as possible.

Actually,  a low interest loan would serve that better.  It would take all of that off of credit cards, the interest rate will be much better than transferring it to say, Capital One and my credit score would undoubtedly go even higher. Tho the point of it would be to save money on interest.  And, my credit score would tumble for 2 months. Just the way that it works.  I'm trying to put myself into a position where getting a land loan will be doable.  That 72 acre property is still on the market. But there is a 50 acre property that is cheaper, has lots of forest percentage on the land and is still in this area.  50 acres would suffice and would be smaller monthly payment.  Just that that 72 acres property I could sell off 25% of the trees and get enough to put a house on the property. 

Dreams. Won't get there without continue this credit score battle.  The reality: I ain't getting any younger. Needs to happen in the next few years or I'll likely end up giving up on it.  Saving money is tough when I have so much going into 401k and have loans Im paying off.  They want significant down payments for property.  I have 5 grand available out of the new 401k account to borrow.  But I'm really trying to avoid doing any more of that.  The whole situation would have to be quickly moving from having had purchased the property to having a home placed on it within 2 months and moving out of here and into the house. 

Yes, we've actually discussed this and they actually brought up the idea of a large manufactured home.  Not my first choice but the new ones are like real houses excepting for a few things, such as the plumbing.  I know because I still have the house in Phoenix.  That situation has been going on for years now.  I have no idea how long that will hold out until I have to do something about the place, but as long as the couple running it are content to stay there, I will not doing anything about selling it.  I get requests all the freaking time from people texting me - how they got my cell phone number remains unknown as these people won't reply - to buy the house.  No thanks.  I'll wait until some developer comes along and eye balls that entire community as land ripe for development. 

It's built up now all the way along that major road to our manufactured community. It's not a park, we all own our own property there.  They would have to offer me market value to sell that house, right now, I know they just want to low ball it.  It's mostly old, junky mobile homes.  They're not worth much but the land is.  They've been putting in huge apartment complexes all the way down the road until 2 miles down, where they developed large strip malls on both side of the road.  It used to be, long ago, a 2 lane dirt road and only flower farms were operating along there.  We're the last holdouts.  But it's cheap living for people in that community considering those old homes, it may never change, who knows.  I just know that every year I have more and more equity in that house. 

Yet, at the same time, the thing needs repainted and that is going to cost me thousands of dollars.  Mark - the guy helping running the place - is set for a class action payout eventually and wants to do all kinds of stuff to the property.  But those class action suits are dragged out for years, on purpose, in the hopes more people will get on board and more of an overall payout.  It's been in the courts for a couple of years now.  I can't wait forever to paint the place. I've been looking at licensed contractors to do it.  If I still lived there I would definitely do it myself, I have painted houses before.  It's not that hard but there is prep work you must do. And there are bushes growing up next to the house that would have to be pinned down, away from the house, to be able to paint behind them.  I think some of them might have to be cut down entirely.  I planted them at least a foot from the house, but some of them have grown rather large now.

I'm on my 3rd day off and it's time to go back on the road.  I am hopeful the truck is finished today.  3 days is too much, 2 days is really too much, 1 day I can deal with.

As for now? Well, I am going to clean up the front porch and I'm going to get a fire going on the open pit out back and burn a bunch of boxes and stuff that we don't need.