Payment was due today.
Payment for what, you ask?
For having all of this time off, getting up whenever I please and doing whatever I feel like doing. 
I know, I went to Oklahoma 2 days before Christmas, but that was literally nothing like how I felt today.  At 4:00 am, the alarm went off. I was in a very deep sleep - I think the kind you are better off not be awakened in the middle of.

My head hurt, my throat was sore and I was coughing. Yup, the sickness that has pervaded in the house for weeks now finally caught me.  The 2 year old and Taylor have both been hacking, wheezing and coughing for a couple of weeks now.  I had hoped it was the cold I already had not that long ago and my body was now immune to it.

But you know, there are so many strains of colds and flu going around out there, well, obviously I got hit with a different strain. 

Feeling like death warmed over - I really did not feel well at all - I went to work anyway.  I cannot afford to take any more time off.  I just can't and I've toughed out colds before - flus not so much but a few occasions.  However, the older I get, the worse impact even a simple cold has on me.  I simply feel like hell with legs. 

Getting to the plant this morning, I sat on the scale for literally 45 minutes. I normally have to wait maybe 2 or 3 minutes.  Occasionally 10-15 if they're really busy. But no-one was in there.  After getting the ok to leave the scale, I got to the rack, parked the truck and the operator went to work hooking up the truck. I thought it odd that it was taking him so long to come back to the office - they usually hook up, turn it on, let-er rip and come straight back to the office module.  When he did, finally, get back, he informed me the pump wasn't working, had contacted maintenance, we have to wait. 

Great!  Delay this day even longer! Make it stretch out forrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvveeeeeeerrrrr.  I didn't say that to him, I instead just tried to sleep a little.  That didn't last long, tho, as the second load driver came in to chat! I had texted him that the pump was broken, but he came anyway! Woohoo! Do you know what I reeeeeeaaaaaalllllllllyyyyyyyyy don't like doing when I am sick? Talking to people!  I can literally do without talking to anyone the entire time I am sick and not miss a beat! 

So, that went on the entire rest of the time I was sitting there, he only left when we both heard the operator banging the hammer on the fittings to force them to release. 

In spite of all of that, I got on the road, drove on down the highway and stopped at a favorite Mexican food restaurant.  I brought no food with me, I expected to stay off the Keto diet until January 2, but something kicked in this morning and said, nope, we are going back on the diet, 14 days off was long enough, 9 pounds gained, gut starting to come back, no thanks.  So, I ordered what I normally do there, in great detail telling them exactly what I want - if you're going to do Keto you might as well at least try to make it as enjoyable as possible - and yes, they totally screwed the order up!! Woohoo again! What a great day this is turning out to be!!!

It wasn't bad, mind you, and they didn't put any non-keto stuff in there besides a tortilla I specifically told them I didn't want - and threw in the trash can when I got into my truck - but it wasn't what I wanted darnit!  Oh well, I was in there for 26 minutes - far longer than I have ever had to wait there before, I wasn't about to wait even longer.  My 14 hour clock wasn't going to be enough to get me down to Brownsville, even with the "16 hour exception" I would be pushing it after spending all that time at the plant.  So I just rushed out the door, at the food - and was starving an hour later. 

My belly told me that it was unhappy and wanted more food!  My head told me that it didn't like what was going on in my lungs and throat!  Yeah, SCREW all of that!  I didn't eat again for 6 hours - when I stopped at Love's and they had - nothing I could eat but a hot dog.  I got a plain hot dog, no bun, didn't bring my sugar free stuff with me, so I devoured the freaking thing and at least felt better after that.   A little bittle teeny weeny better, but better is good!

So, here I am in Brownsville! And there was an empty trailer here! Gaggggg.  I need money right now, this wasn't helping.  But it's whatever, I dropped the full trailer on a concrete pad and got hooked up under this empty thing and I'm ready to go in the morning!

I can tell ya right now, I am not  setting the alarm and I don't care what time I leave!  My manager won't care either. There are 5 Mexican trailers sitting in the yard right now. Those are dedicated trailers for the Brownsville run, she doesn't need an empty right away, I will get about the driving business tomorrow when I damn well feel like it!

Can you tell I'm in a mood? : ) Woohoo!  What am I doing up? Well, it's 9:00 pm and I am just waiting til' it's around 10:00 to make sure I am good and sleepy so I can hopefully sleep through the night.  If I don't sleep through the night, and wake up in the middle of the night - happens enough - I'll just sleep in in the morning until I wake up and feel rested! I might feel like s***, but rested s***! 

Yes, it's a real drawback living with adults with kids. The kids are exposed to all the other kids at daycare and they gleefully share their germs with each other, including the sick ones!!! Woohoooo! So, they bring those sick germs home with them and fill the air with Holiday germ spirit!  And we all get sick!! Yeeeeehaaaaawwwww!!

Guess what? I am starving again!  Nope, I'm in the yard, I hooked to the empty, I am not going anywhere. I will sit here and reap the rewards of not bringing any food with me! I could have brought ham and rib roast!  And salad fixings!  But nooooooo, I was going to just go on eating whatever until the 2cd! 

No matter. I will go to sleep and it won't affect my sleep. I'm not and never have been one of those people that gets up in the middle of the night to go raid the refrigerator. Eating doesn't cross my mind if I wake up in the middle of the night. 

Ohhhhh!! And speaking of bad days!!!  Taylor texted me this afternoon and said she was really lucky she decided to go smoke a cigarette when she did. Whyyyy? I asked.  She went on to tell me about the garbage truck driver - in this case recyclables - who pulled up to our can, grabbed it with the hydraulic handles, lifted it up and - it dropped to the ground! Lmao. She then said he got out of the truck, picked the "damned thing" back up, and then proceeded to try again, this time, the entire can fell inside the truck~! 🤣

It then dawned on me that I could watch this whole scenario play out on the camera we have for security! Sure enough, I saw all of this, and then he got inside of the back of it and threw the garbage can up and out of the truck!  Hahahahaha. He was clearly pissed.  Bad day! Sorry dude, but your day isn't going any worse than mine! And I wasn't having a hissy fit! Just mind battles - keeping my mouth zipped.  Oh well. 

The day is finally over is what I can say and I am elated for that.  I'll have an entire day's drive tomorrow - when I get around to it - but I won't be near as pressured. If I have to stop, I'll have plenty of on-duty hours to take nap if I need to and try to feel better enough to get on down the road. 

I'm not saying anything to my manager about being sick.  I want another run as soon as possible when I get back. It's time to go to work, whether my body feels like it or not!  I don't know what the wait time is for another run, but tomorrow is Friday and she always hands out the runs for Saturday, Sunday and Monday in advance. No way I want to go until Tuesday without working!  I'll be texting her tomorrow early afternoon - I'll be back to the yard - tonight probably unless my body unleashes further hell upon me - please put me back in the queue for whatever comes up.  I literally don't care what - either - I need to work!!  I can be picky at other times when I have full paychecks coming in, right now? NOPE.  Let's git-er done!! 

Wait, but Christmas was great! I can't and won't complain about that!

C'yall next time!