Saturday - late morning, almost noon actually, Brownsville, Texas.

Coming down here yesterday was a real chore.  Not because of fatigue, but because it was Friday, it's hot and the beaches down here are open.  It's the same thing every year.  If you come down on a Friday, you are going to run into a lot of traffic.

The problem, however, occurs in a couple of small towns where there is a stop light.  Sounds benign, I know.  However, in Refugio, traffic was backed up for miles to get through this light simply because of the sheer volume of traffic trying to get through there.  Another small town further south - the name of it escapes me, was the same thing.  And the road construction south of Houston - that's been messed up for a long time, but now they have a lane closed so everyone has to funnel into one lane - that also causes several miles of back up.  Those 3 backups plus a lot of traffic cost me a lot of time, I almost didn't make it down here. 

But, I'm very glad I did.  Cause' there was only one empty and the first driver had to take it. He asked me if I wanted it, uhhh, yeah, no thanks. It's allllll yours.  It's not just detention pay that it makes me happy I'm stuck down here til' whenever.  I also got dumped with a Houston run - the extremely low paying run that takes two days to do.  You load the first day - you take it down the second.  It's not even half a normal day's wages.  The new manager said he was trying to get the run to pay more.  He's a driver advocate, I'll grant him that. He's been turning some things around in the pay department that needed to be turned around.  Anyway, it load at 7:30 am tomorrow/Sunday morning.  Well it's almost noon. It's about a 10-1/2 hour trip back up what with fueling, traffic and half hour break.  That puts me at 8:30 the earliest I could get back, take the required 10 hour break and get to the plant.

But even better, the drivers were supposed to pull the full trailers out of here at 11:00 am, cross the border and bring empties back. They aren't even in the yard, their trucks are just sitting there.  That means a delay, probably from the plant that doesn't really care one way or the other whether they get empties up here on "our" schedule.  They're the customer, they pay through the nose for our services, they get to dictate what goes on.  Every time a manager or dispatcher first encounters this situation, they think they are going to change the world! and get them to bring them up faster.

First problem? Not gonna happen.  Second? Us sitting around makes our company a heckuva lot of money.  I told this newest dispatcher right off the bat that we like to go down and wait around, we get paid for it and it isn't any small chunk of change.  What would you rather do? Have to drive all day long to earn that money or sit around doing whatever you want getting paid to do nothing? 

Last night I was invited to partake of food with the Mexican drivers down here.  They were all drunk, lol and acting foolishly.  But, it was entertaining to watch the nonsense and hey, it was excellent food!  The dude that runs the yard said "spread the word, anytime you see us sitting here eating, come over and join us!" "You don't need an invitation". It's their culture, it's how they do things.  They are very giving people, even the most poor of them down in the interior will give you whatever scraps of food they have.  It's in their nature. 

These drivers, however, aren't poor and the dude that runs the yard just buys the stuff on company account.  He's the owner's son so he pretty much does what he wants.  He's pretty cool, too, talked for several hours last night.  They invited me for breakfast this morning, but none of them showed up, lol.  I think they are probably hungover. The owner's son just showed up a few minutes ago carrying huge bags of what appears to be food with him. But I ate so much food last night, I am not hungry this morning and have had nothing to eat yet today. 

Anyway, I may still yet have to leave today, it's totally unpredictable what will happen down here. 

I am reading a story in the news where a SWAT team in Florida has - quit. 10 members of it anyway.  They claim they are being treated worse than dogs.  Yup, this anti-cop sentiment sweeping the nation just makes me shake my head in disbelief.  I understand some cops aren't good cops,  I also understand that I don't want to have to live in an anarchist society where everyone is left to fend for themselves.  You will likely see more of this - these cops didn't leave the force, they left this special unit which is instrumental in taking down dicey situations with armed thugs and the like where a special unit is necessary. 

We have a loosely formed group of people in our neighborhood now.  One of them is a career cop, he's well versed in tactical situations where you need to know what you're doing in order to win and survive. 

Will it come to our neighborhood? I certainly hope not.  He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.  Not really interested in having to defend myself or others with lethal force, but if it comes down to my life or theirs - theirs.  But, I will pray for God's protection and that it never comes to that.  And believe He will cover all of us, even if there are non-believers in the group and neighborhood.  This situation obviously isn't going away anytime soon.  And couple that with coronavirus and the loss of jobs - people are being evicted, thrown onto the streets because they can no longer pay their rent. The amount of desperation in our society has clicked to highest levels.

I just believe in being prepared, if at all possible.  Just like with the food and electricity situation.  Both are covered at least temporarily. The prices of meat are still well up there, I dunno what plants are still shut down for meat processing, but there must be enough to keep the prices up. 

I'm still amazed this company in Mexico is still cranking out product as if nothing was going on in the economy anywhere. It literally has not slowed down at all, the numbers of orders they continue to put in for the product we deliver to them.  The only time it slows down is if their plant is having a problem.  What kind of magic wand do they have to keep up this kind of pace in the weakening global economy? I don't know but I'm sure glad they have one! 

Well, one of the loaded trailers just pulled out, meaning -  usually meaning - that in a couple of hours an empty is coming back.  Therefore, I'm going to take a nap, it will be a long night getting back to the yard and they will want the trailer back for loading tomorrow.