Home.
Stopped at Cherokee Pass last night. After looking at the weather radar and hitting snow, I decided I would rather finish this trip out today instead of at night when you can't see well enough to determine the road conditions well enough in advance. Not that that ever stopped me before, but I made 350 miles last night and that was far more than enough to be able to make it home today with available hours.
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Well that was yesterday. There were very few trucks in the yard, which may mean I'll be going back out soon. But I don't have a copy of the schedule so I don't know how many runs there are available for Friday through Monday. I would expect to go out again this weekend and if history is any indicator, it will be a Sunday run lol.  I pass by all sorts of churches in session on Sunday mornings after getting out of the plant and think about stopping, but the parking lots aren't exactly truck friendly and some of them even say "no trucks".  It's funny how this world hates trucks yet relies on them so heavily for its everyday functions.  We want what you've got, but we don't want you or your machinery in our - town, parking lot, street, etc etc etc

There's even one town that doesn't allow hazmat tanker parking, it literally has an ordinance against it lmao.

I'm starting to get burned out on the Senate impeachment question stuff.  I listened most of the day yesterday, but it's all getting repetitive now.  Both sides are basically saying the same stuff they've been saying all along now. It's finally over for today anyway, tomorrow they are going to argue and allegedly vote about whether to allow more witnesses. I could give my opinion on it, but I don't feel like writing that much text to adequately explain why I think they should not allow more witnesses. But in the end, I don't care either way. If they allow more witnesses, estimates say this trial could and probably will drag on for many more months.  All fine and well, let's do it.  Schiff, however, wants a "week".  Yeah, no. If we're going the witness route, we're going to here from everyone, a lot of people.  The Democrats have tried to manipulate how the Senate is going to work this trial since before the Senate trial began. Did you see senators attempting to demand that the House run it the way they wanted it run?

I'm not the biggest fan of Chief Justice Roberts - he's made some decisions that I thought were way off, including the idea that Obama's penalty for not getting Obamacare if you don't have your own private plan a tax instead of - a fee/penalty. That was an egregious error IMO.  But for Warren to pass a question to the Chief Justice tonight and ask about the legitimacy of the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court because, basically, House managers aren't getting their way in the Senate, was not only outrageous and ridiculous, but a glaring sign of the things to come if Warren or any of the rest of them win the White House in the next election.  People that aren't registered? I encourage them to get registered to vote and not allow this type of nonsense to rule the nation.

These progressive left candidates are solely aiming for Communism. Yes, I firmly believe that and you can't say anything to convince me otherwise.  Socialism is the stepping stone to Communism. But even if it were "just" socialism, how can you possibly ignore the history of Marxism and all the rest of it that ended cumulatively in the deaths of millions upon millions of people being killed or dying of starvation?  I'll tell you one thing, if any of these progressive candidates do win the election, I'm going out and getting an entire array of hunting gear from the killing end of it to the butchering and preserving end of it.

You think I'm kidding. Get out the books folks, google it folks, Socialism never ends well.  Lots of deer and pigs in this region at least.  They won't get there overnight, but once any of them gains power, they're going to attempt to take massive steps to get there.

Whatever the case, I'm not working tomorrow.  I texted Ann, she said she would know tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow is the day she hands out runs for the entire weekend including Monday. I'd just as soon go out Saturday with a good Brownsville or another 3 day run (turned into 4 days because of the 28 hour wait) like I just go through with.

Addler had a literal freaking cow when I pulled up to the other house to get him and Aspyn yesterday.  He was talking to me - loudly - as soon as he realized it was my vehicle that pulled up to the house. Aspyn is much smarter than him, lmao, she knew right away.  He was crying, yelping, making these noises - next time I'm out for several days I'll try to remember to get a video of this stuff.  Hard to "describe" it, just have to see and hear it.  He doesn't go off on me when I'm gone for 1 or 2 days, but 4 or more days? lol

Speaking of the other house - I managed to get that lady out of there without having to go to court.  She was threatening to somehow get Maria thrown out of there?!!  But, the kid decided to spite Maria and piss all over the bathroom floor, they took food and smashed it into the hardwood flooring, left gunk on the windows, etc etc.  She cleaned all of it up and I know she wasn't too happy about it, I took her to Applebee's today for a treat. Of course now we are faced with the rather formidable task of finding another renter - but - that woman needed to go.  I just don't want to get stuck with the bill of having an empty room for however long. They left early, I have 2 days until it starts costing me money.

I'm trying to make it work, but we aren't finding anyone that really works for a room rental situation. Just slim pickings here.

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I'm trying to learn how to invest in the stock market - beyond 401k that is, I have 2 of those going and they are both doing well. Well, until today anyway. The Dow Jones has tanked 525 points currently - it's going up and down - because of investor fears of the China coronavirus and the impact it may have on the economy... see it's stuff like that that perplexes me about the stock market.  I should probably find some sort of online course to learn how to effectively invest.  It's that or join one of these sites with alleged experts who give suggestions on which stocks to invest in.  I am a bit suspicious of their claims tho. 

I'm not going to get rich off of 401k's.  I'm not necessarily looking to get rich at all, I just don't want to work until I'm 70 years old in order to be able to retire with a nice nest egg.  I don't even have 100k saved up yet.  By the end of this year I should be around the 100k mark, but that falls farrrrr short of even remotely being able to retire.  I'd want minimum half a million to retire - that's not going to happen at the rate I'm going.  At the rate I"m going, I'd expect about 300k or more depending on the stock market by the time 10 more years passes.  investing in the stock market would be separate from all of that and I wouldn't decrease the amount I have being put into my 401k.  In fact,, I am considering upping the deduction to 14% from 11%.  I think it's at 11% anyway, I'd have to check.

At some point I'm going to jump in and dump a few thousand into some stocks and see what happens.  I'd just like to know what the experts sue as definers for good risk for investment, what they look at and what information they use to determine whether they invest in any particular stock or not. 

Anyway, it's now Friday, this has been a 3 day post lmao. The impeachment hearing drags on.  They are arguing now whether to call more witnesses or not.  None of them are saying anything different than what they've already been saying for quite a long time now. Repetitious, boring, circular arguments, things they've said hundreds of times they're just repeating. To the point I muted it, I can't stand to hear any more of it for now.  They should have just jumped to the vote, IMO.

And the engine light is back on  on my SUV.  Getting very disconcerting. It's running fine, I guess I"ll go back up to Auto Zone and have them plug in their computer and see if they get anything definitive as to what's wrong. I will not contend with a vehicle continuously breaking down, I will get rid of it before I have to keep fooling with it for too long.  Regular maintenance is all I want to have to do with a vehicle. Occasional repairs aren't a big deal but if they are occurring frequently, then you have a situation where you don't have a dependable vehicle and that is not something I am going to just live with. 

But I'm not quite at the point of trading this thing in.  I am not at break even yet - the point where what you owe on it is what it's worth.  My house, however, is a completely different story. I don't know how accurate Zillow predictions are, but if it's even within 10k, my house value has skyrocketed in the last 6 months.  Up around 36k.  That's quite a lot of money in a 6 month period.  But I'm not selling it - yet.  It's value is just going to go up and up and up. The location is excellent, it's 10 to 15 minutes to down town Phoenix depending on traffic conditions.  Longer if it's rush hour, of course, but that is a far cry shorter commute than all of those people living way out in the east valley.  Everything, literally everything except for a few plots of land right up against South Mountain is built up now, it's a highly desired area. Supposedly they are building a casino across the street.  I actually hope that isn't true, I don't think casinos up home values at all and probably increase criminal activity.

Well, enough of this. I'm still waiting to get whatever work I will be assigned for the weekend.  I'm hoping it's not tomorrow.  Another Sunday run - love/hate relationship with those runs - would be better.