Police excitement!

My next door neighbor is a cop. I'm sure I've stated that on here at least a few times.  Well, he was out on his front porch so I mozied on over and sat down to have a chat.  Well, he's got his police radio on and listening to this chase going on over in Louisiana.  It had caught his attention because they were headed to the Texas border and potentially, that chase could come all the way through our town.

So we're listening to this thing go on for quite a while.  The dude was driving a stolen SUV and a cop had tried to pull him over in Shreveport, I think.  Anyway, they tried putting out the stop strips that flatten your tires, he got around them. They tried again on I-20 near the weigh station - somehow he managed to get around them again.  Well, this guy gets into Texas.  Now we're listening to this insanity with this guy driving the wrong way going 100 mph - presumably to avoid any more spike strips, but also putting a lot of people in harm's way. 

As we're listening, he starts talking about getting his 12 gauge shotgun, going out on the interstate and blowing the tires off - I can assure he was dead serious and he's been doing this for 30 years.  This person is getting closer and closer to the main highway that runs through our town.  Let's go!  Let's take your SUV!  Okay! YOU drive, not me, lmao.  So, we get into my ride, he starts driving 80-90 mph to get into position in time on the Interstate to be able to get that shot off.  Well, this dude turns onto the highway going through our town and starts driving northbound in the southbound lanes. 

I dunno how fast he was going, but my cop friend flipped a uey and guessed the guy would head down highway 80 once he got there - so, we got to 80 and were going to wait.  Sure enough, the guy turned onto 80 - but - he crashed into a vehicle in the intersection while turning, totaling that other person's vehicle and having a dozen various agency police vehicles on his tail, they had him and the passenger arrested and hauled out of there in no time.  I was going to get my video rolling and video him shooting out the tires on that vehicle, it almost happened lol.  Well, went down to the scene of the accident and parked in a Walgreens right there at the corner and watched for a while. 

He knows all of those cops from all of those agencies out there, save the 3 Louisiana State Troopers that stayed on that guy's tail.  Turns out both occupants of the vehicle had felony warrants on them - in Texas. 

It was a bit of excitement.  I don't know why people think they can out run the cops.  They made their situation worse by putting other motoring public lives in danger. 

He did not get the bank vice president job.  He was being seriously considered - besides being a cop he's also a banker - but they chose someone else.  So, he's definitely running for Sheriff next year, campaign starting early next year.  He has a lot of support from a lot of rich people that want to get rid of the current Sheriff.  I dunno how that's going to pan out, but it will be exciting, I think, to see small town antics going on around here.  He was talking about having me run around with him going to scenes and getting in on some of the excitement.  I do think that would be fascinating, especially hanging out with the actual sheriff of the county? lol. 

Other than that, I have done absolutely nothing today and I don't feel bad about it.  Well, i did go to Walmart and pick up an order Taylor made.  You can order everything on line, pay for it and then they get it ready for you, you just come pick it up. 

Well, tomorrow off. That's a granted cause I haven't received anything and it's 10:00 pm.  I suspect I'l be back at it Monday. But a good 2 full days off is nice after a full week's work.  Tomorrow, I'm smoking a whole chicken fryer.  It's brining right now. 

It was 4-1/2 hours to get up to the delivery plant today.  Eastman - the plant where I load - had a frozen pump. When I arrived at the plant and got to the loading rack, the first load was still sitting there.  Upon observing the lines hooked up the truck, there wasn't any frost on them at all. That was a very bad sign.  If the product is going through those lines, it looks like it's covered with snow.  The temperature of this stuff is well below anything nature provides us, it could be 150 degrees outside and it would still frost those lines.

Anyway, that screwed up the rest of this trip.  Not to mention a bad accident in Little Rock that had traffic backed up for miles and miles on both side of the Interstate.  Anything that happens, affects that time I will arrive at the delivery location.

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Lol, that trip is over, I'm home, dogs in bed, a cat that loves to hang out with me -not my cat but this one makes me rethink cats.  It actually likes me. It lets me pet it like I pet my dogs.  It refuses to be picked up, but that's okay, I don't pick my dogs up normally either. 

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Try this again!  It's now Saturday morning, at least today off, maybe tomorrow as well.  Not sure about that tho. I knew I'd have today off because I only have 10 hours left on my 70 hour clock which isn't good for any trip, even a short one.  I could pre-load a trailer I guess, but that's it.  But, they could technically send me out Sunday since the 34 hour reset will be done by Sunday at 4:00 am.  I'd rather stay home a couple days, but I am not going to ask for it. The yard was almost empty of trucks - a thing I hardly ever see anymore, so I'm guessing they're going to have me back at it quickly. 

For some reason, we are getting the Morris run again. They were giving that to another company - losing that account is part of why we started sitting around alot.  It's the run I just got done with and it's a very good paying one.  With 1,700 miles round trip, plus stop pay, plus around 7 hours of detention pay, yea, that's a profitable 3 days, at least in my world it is. There were 3 of those runs this week, plus a bunch of Mapleton runs, some Stryker runs and a couple west virginias. All of those are excellent paying runs, some better than others but I wouldn't complain about getting any of them. 

And in a new turn of events, one of the household cats has decided it likes me and now jumps up in my lap.  That cat's been around at least a year or longer and has pretty much avoided me until lately when it decided it would rub up against my legs and seeking attention.  I'm not sure what to think of it.  I used to be a cat person when I was young, but I kind of got away from cats altogether and just have dogs.  Addler is extremely jealous of the limited amount of attention I have given the cat lol. 

No great plans today. Taylor wants to go to a movie - hubby is at work all day long today.  He's been working Saturdays a lot and bringing in some pretty healthy paychecks to show for it.  Which is good, they are going to need some extra cash for our upcoming vacation.  I will too, for that matter, but I already have that covered.  Taylor has an agenda including going to some giant aquarium and some thing on a pier.  I decided we should go on a boat tour - no whales but they claim a lot of dolphins out there. Just a 2 hour tour and you're back. That way if I get seasick at least I'm not stuck out there for the entire day.  If the waves are choppy and the boat starts rocking sharply from side to side, that will make me quite sick.  Even with the pills, the patches, all of it, I've tried all of it and the only thing that works is to drink copious amounts of alcohol - I'm not a fan of getting drunk but I did drink quite a lot on one of those sport fishing trips in San Diego.  I was getting sea sick and there wasn't any remedies.  I actually felt fine after about 4 beers lol. 

My legs are white as sheets so I'm going to start wearing shorts around the house and get some sun on them.  I should have started doing that last month but it just never crossed my mind until I thought about being out on the beach - and have these glaring white legs.  Lol.  Not that I will be self-conscious about it if I didn't do anything, but I thought I'd like to look at least half decent.  My weight is still below 200 pounds, I'm going to do a bicep work out today, an intensive one and get my arms pumped up again.  It only takes about 30 minutes and then don't work out again on those muscle groups for at least 3 days. 

Oh, anyway, we're taking the kids to Maria's for her to babysit and then to the local theater.  matinee price is $5.00 lol.  After that probably go get a bite to eat - she likes to go out away from the kids.  They're still very young and they clamor to her all the time,  crying, making demands, wanting attention - you know, the normal stuff kids do at that age.  I'm being very quiet this morning - if I'm home on Saturday or Sunday I always make it a point to tip toe around the house in the morning, those kids can sleep as long as they want to, no one will be bothered by that lol. 

I had thoughts of smoking a chicken today, but I forgot to get one when I was at kroger's yesterday, and I'm not smoking any birds again without brining them overnight.  Just doesn't turn out as juicy if you don't brine them.  I won't smoke another turkey, anyway, until I get at least smoking a chicken down first. Turkeys are flat too expensive to waste on experimenting on how to smoke one.  I am still shocked that Taylor at almost all the blackened skin off of that thing. I had no clue she would eat anything like that - but admittedly, that was the best thing about that turkey.  But it turned out dry and I knew I should have brined it first.  Oh well, live and learn. 

Oh, and I applied for my first real bank credit card.  Well I guess Capital One is a bank - they have locations over in Louisiana all over the place - but it was "suggested" by Credit Karma to apply for a Bank of America card with "excellent" approval odds.  Well, every time it's said excellent odds, I've scored.  Not this time!  Bank of America came back with a "we need to further review" and that almost always means they are not going to give you the card.  Meanwhile, Wyndham rewards sent m an offer for a card in the mail.  I'm looking for a card that gives travel rewards, specifically.  Wyndham is the mother company of all kinds of hotel chains including La Quinta, Ramada, Microtel and a bunch of others.  La Quinta is my favorite of their chains, kind of pricey tho.  You never see it lower than in the $90 range regardless of what day or time of year it is. 

I've also been pre-screened for Wells Fargo, but I kind of hate to try again and not get the card.  My ongoing credit issue - even tho I have a much improved score now - is the late mortgage payments in 2016.  They are still counting that against me and unfortunately, I found out they can use it against you for up to 7 years.  Lol. 

Now then, a boat.  2 of them I've been looking at for a month now.  Obviously they aren't selling. One of them has a 3.0 mercruiser, inboard motor that needs no work.  The other is a 28 footer with a 150 horsepower outboard motor - but the floor needs replaced and apparently they tore it down to replace it and never finished the project.  They wanted 5 grand for it - and have over the span of having the thing up for sale time brought it down to 4 grand.  I offered them 2 grand cause I don't want to replace the floor, I'd just take it to a shop and have someone do it for me.  I'm not exactly a "boat person", tho it's probably not that difficult.  Regardless, I won't give them 4 grand for a boat in the middle of a project.  I might go 3 grand, but that's tops.  The people selling the first boat aren't exactly that motivated.  I asked them how fast it would go on the lake - kind of boring if it's too slow - she said she would find out 2 days ago and has yet to get back to me. 

It doesn't need any work and she's come down to $3,850 - from original asking price of 5 grand. Still in the "thinking about it" stage.  And with that, I'm done here.