I walked out of my hotel room this morning to go up to front lobby and found something weird.  Zero traffic.  I thought about it for a sec, it's Monday morning, what is going on here?  Like the Twilight Zone, this area is very busy with traffic during the weekdays. Then it hit me:  Labor Day. Of course! I'll be working on yet another National Holiday! Woohoooooo!  I did the math earlier: with mileage pay, stop pay, detention pay and holiday pay it's almost $1,600, a little short of the $1,700 I claimed yesterday but still quite decent.

The plant is open 24 hours a day, 365 days per year - and the trucks taking full trailers down and empties back up also work every day, so it's a fore-gone conclusion I'll be driving back today, the question remains when?  There's a driver over a the yard right now that came in last night, I'm going to text him in a few and see if he's heard anything over there for an arrival time for a trailer to show up.  I'm really hoping this morning, that would get me back tonight.  Perhaps the amount of trucks waiting at the border slows down on holidays?  I have no clue.

The downed tree in the Phoenix back yard.  Destroyed the fence between yards - their fence at that point - and my 4 foot tall chain link fence that separates one side of the house to the other in my yard.  I had put that up years ago to keep the dogs out of that side of the house where the ponds were. Well there's still a pond there and the fish are way too big for it.  I told Mark he should put a listing out for trading fish.  Big fish for several little fish in exchange - or sell them and go buy some little fish and start over.  Poor fish, I mean some of them are pushing 14 inches long!  Anyway, I dunno what's going to happen about fixing the fencing.  The people behind us are extremely poor.

Their house has been falling apart for years now.  It needed a paint job 10 years ago. Now the paint is gone and the elements have slowly been eroding the wood on the side of the house.  I said something to this neighbor about that rotten tree years ago as well. That thing is going to come down sooner or later, you need to cut it down.  Yup, well I can only breath a sigh of relief that the house wasn't touched by that nonsense. 

The errant new tenant - he had only been there a month I found out - is moving out, a  much larger sigh of relief.  Mark said he was 90% out. I said fine, don't push him, let him get his stuff out of there without prodding and get the thing emptied out.  I won't have to waste a trip to Phoenix and the money involved in flying there, going to court  and getting him forcibly removed.  I'll take the loss in rent in exchange for the loss in rent, airfare, court costs, loss of days worked, etc. 

Well, I'll just hope they get the tree remains taken care of, if not I'll hire someone to go over there and cut it up and haul it out of there. 

And - rent. At the other house where I live.  I forgot to leave a check and Maria forgot to remind me until after I was on my way down to Brownsville. Oops~!  It's not officially late until tomorrow, I think, and then they can start charging a daily late fee.  But I'm hoping to be home either tonight or late tomorrow morning. 

Actually late tomorrow morning would work better - I could drop off the boat starter at the repair shop on the way home.  In fact, even if I do make it back tonight, I'm still going to stay at the yard so I can get that over with.  I doubt it will take them long to fix it if they'll do it. It's a starter/alternator place that sells new starters and fixes old ones. Hoping to get mine fixed. 

That starter and engine are really the things holding us back from having some boating adventures.  The other stuff isn't near as important as the engine running.  I think I should get a trolling motor not just for fishing but also in case the outboard motor ever quits.  At least have some sort of propulsion to get back to shore. 

Well, hotel time is over. 10:00 am.  They claimed they would have a trailer there by 11:00 am.  I am doubtful of that, but I can't stay here forever anyway and I'd like to be there if/when a trailer actually shows up. 

So this other driver - who was down here before me - wanted me to take the second trailer that came in today.  No thanks, I want the extra detention pay I'm going to get.  Im 3rd in line, that's your trailer : )  But it turns out the only reason he said that was because he knew he was going to need a 34 hour reset before his next load on Tuesday.   No one bothered to ask whether I wanted to do that or not.

By not taking that trailer, I get to wait another night and get that many more hours wait time - plus -  I will get holiday pay tomorrow for  Labor Day which is an extra $140 I think it is.  But I had already covered my @$$, I contacted my manager at 11:00 am - this morning - saying I wanted a hotel since it was a foregone conclusion that I wasn't going to get a trailer today.  She never responded.  I also texted her yesterday twice with no replies.  She's somewhere out in the boonies on vacation I think with spotty reception.

Nice that she replied to the other driver but not me.  Note that I don't have a load on Tuesday pre-given to me on Friday.  I didn't even know she did that that far in advance, it would be great to know well in advance what I'm doing instead of being left in the dark every load until the evening before.  But, those drivers stand to get the run on Tuesday while I stand to get nothing.  Anyway, the other driver said ok, he didn't have a problem with it, his reset is over at 8:45 tonight and he's taking off then.

My manager never replied to my text.  Whatever the case, since she didn't contact me, the other driver and I left it at he taking the trailer when his reset is up and yes, I went to a hotel.  And I fully intend on getting reimbursed for it since the 2cd night is supposed to be given a hotel at company expense. But...in case they refuse, I took a cheaper brand hotel, America's Best Value Inn. I've stayed here before, they have renovated this entire property and redone all the rooms including putting in brand new mattresses, flooring, furniture, fixtures, everything.  It's not a Marriot but it's pretty nice for $57 per night.  I had no desire to spend my entire Sunday sitting in that truck, I wanted out of that thing.

So, as it stands currently - at 4:03 pm - I'm staying and he's going in 4 plus hours and if my manager calls me, I'll refer her to the text I sent her 5 hours ago and acted on that after waiting for hours, which is the honest truth.  And then, if she still wants me to go, she can agree to pay for this hotel.  IN reality? She isn't going to care.  She just wants him back in time to go back out.  So, if I lose $62 - that was with tax - I'm still going to have a $1,700 trip for 3 days which is pretty awesome.  THIS is why I like this run, it doesn't happen every time but it certainly happens enough and even without detention pay, it's a good run for mileage pay for the time spent.

But as I said, I'm kinda burnt out on driving and was delighted to find out this morning that there wasn't going to be a 3rd trailer in there today.  Likely, from what the first driver that got there told me earlier, there won't be a trailer in there until tomorrow morning around 11:00 AM, at the earliest.  But there are no trailers in Matamoros right now, so that may not happen. I'd prefer one to come earlier cause' that means getting home same day. Gets too late and I'm not always interested in driving til 1, 2, 3 or even 4 am.  I've done it, even recently, but I hate what it does to me.  My whole sleep cycle is thrown out of whack and it takes days to get back to normal.

So that's that. It's taken half the day plus to figure this out.

Now then, a call from Mark at my house in Phoenix yesterday.  I've been blessed/lucky that the tenants they've gotten in there have either been very good tenants or left when told to leave.  I didn't figure that luck would last forever and it hasn't.

They got a new tenant in there that started out wrong and it got worse as time went on. Mark and Lynnette try to shield me from anything negative going on there, I don't know why. I've never threatened to throw them out or something if they don't do a "good enough job". They've done excellent so far,  minor issues that didn't take much to resolve, I've been very happy with them. But I think they have a different mindset in listening to them speak.  They come from the streets, they know what it's like out there. But over the years Lynnette has been living there, she has done very well for herself.  It took a while but she got a - decent paying job I guess, I have a different view of decent but she's doing well - got her legal issues taken care of, has a car and is doing good.  In fact, now she's been offered a job taking care of an invalid that they both have been helping for a couple of years now at her house.  She lives down the street. She'd make 2 grand a month take home, which ain't bad and more than she's taking home now.

Regardless, this new dude took up the driveway parking space, left the gate open - tho the only dog there now is a chihuahua, Mark still has a strong rule about closing and locking the gate, moved everyone's stuff out of the refrigerator, put his stuff in and then just crammed everyone else's stuff where ever,  had a "friend" over who got drunk with him and then passed out on the living room couch, etc etc etc, I was listening to this for a while.  That was yesterday and the first I had heard about it.  Mark had given him a 10 day notice, the man yesterday got in his face and told Mark to get out of the house!  LMAO!! That dude is very lucky I am not there right now. I'M probably lucky I'm not there now because there is no way in Hades that any person is telling me to get out of my own house. I would have called the police at that point and that's what I told Mark to do.

You get a rotten apple once in a while, but I suspect this guy is going to have to go through the court system to get him out of there. I guess it's time for a trip to Phoenix anyway.  This dude declared that he doesn't have to pay rent and he's not going anywhere. Lol, I got news for him. 5 day notice after he fails to pay his rent.  I don't have to be there to do that.  Then file for eviction  - I don't have to be there for that either, just fill out the paperwork and let them take it downtown.  I'd have to show up for the court date.  Likely that guy wouldn't show up.  So, get the judgement, go home.  3 days later, you file for forcible detainer and then a marshall comes and escorts them off the property.

A neighbor down the street approached Mark and told him this dude is selling drugs as well.  That's enough for me to want his stupid ass out of there.  No wonder he's acting like an ass.  Drug users always have ridiculous issues.  This guy also lost his job last week, Mark found out through an acquaintance that works with this guy. So, he has no income, today is the 1st and - I'm just waiting for the word.  Copy and paste a link to the proper 5 day notice, send it to them, they fill it out and hand it to him.  That's just the beginning of legal eviction for non payment of rent, but it's a process you have to go through if you want to get them forced out of there. However, if they are doing something illegal, you can call the police and have them removed.  You can also go to court and get a restraining order if they are threatening you, bring it home, call the police and have them forcibly removed on those grounds.  Been there, done that!

Drama.  Always something coming up in the drama department. Well, not so much anymore now that I'm twice divorced and out of drama filled environments. The friends I live with have very little drama between them.  We poke at each other in fun, but we all know we're just playing around. I very much like having fun at someone else's expense if I know they have a good sense of humor and they do the same with me.  We take turns with each other lol.  I may not come off that way on here, but that's just cause this is the internet and this is just words on a screen. The intonations and the inflections and how a person speaks and body language is completely lost on the internet. I have a dry sense of humor and that is lost on many ears.  Doesn't stop me, but people don't get it often times.

 Whatever.  I just received text message photos of a downed tree on the property. I'm not getting any info on it yet, but from what I can see, it's the neighbor's behind use tree that has been rotting for years that finally came down. I can't confirm that yet tho. It appears the tree was struck by lighting or somehow the top of the remaining trunk is burned.