So after my last post earlier yesterday, my manager calls me.  I'm going to be like a used car salesman, he tell me on the phone. Ok, what is it? I figured something that would put me on the road for extended period, that's the way he talks I guess when he thinks it's something drivers don't want to hear.  Summarizing - a division in New Jersey, drivers out sick and drivers on vacation, they need fill ins.  Ok, sign me up, I said without hesitation.  I didn't even have to think about it after his prior note that I probably wouldn't be working until next week. 

The Brownsville run and the Oklahoma run are both down.  That screws us for runs, totally and completely.  They are our major workload, without both of them, we have little else in terms of heavy workload to keep us busy.  The Mapleton plant was a nice shot in the arm, but certainly won't keep all of us busy or other runs that are regular but infrequent.  

So I immediately started thinking about everything that needs to be put into place to make that happen. Food, mostly.  I can't keep enough food in the truck for 10 plus days but I can at least fill it up and hope that I can get to a grocery store up there when it's depleted.  But, I also thought, hmmm, this could fall through and I'm buying a lot of stuff for nothing. Off to Kroger's I went, keeping the purchases minimal.  I already have stuff to take, just was short a few things that will keep if the run doesn't go through. 

Meanwhile, I get a call from my house in Phoenix. The dreaded call that I knew was coming sooner or later: Mark "The AC isn't working".  It's been years since it has broken down, I can be grateful that it has lasted this long.  But no one is going to live in a house when it's 109 degrees outside and heats up considerably more than that inside a house with no cooling.  I asked him about having Sam, the neighbor behind us, to come over and look at it?  Before I spend 8 grand on a new AC unit, for that is what they will tell us.  

Sam is getting old, he replied. I said well whatever, Sam knows what Hercules he  is doing and he will just fix whatever need to be fixed.  But Sam is getting old! Well I don't care about that, call him and see if he can come over and look at it!  It's gonna be out overnight at least anyway.  He then argued about some new freon that is out and you can't get without a license. Great! We don't have whatever that is in our system, CALL SAM!  It could be a compressor or it could be an electrical problem.  Sam will figure it out and give you an honest answer at least.  He finally conceded and said he'll call Sam and get back to me. Look, Mark, i replied, I'll have the system fixed, I just think it would be good to save some serious money if Sam can get it going, he wants the work, he's been over several times before, he can fix it if it's fixable.

So, Mark calls me back 10 minutes later. Sam is fixing an AC and will come over afterwards. So much for the aged theory.  If he's somewhere else fixing AC, he can also be at our house fixing AC. Good, I thought, a thousand dollars is easier to digest than 8 grand - that's about what I figure it will cost to have the entire system replaced.   A compressor is around $500 at cost, maybe less plus freon. Sam won't rape us for parts cost and he will charge whatever he thinks his time is worth.  Anyway, after this post I'm going to start looking at AC companies and see what I can come up with.  I have to be prepared if Sam says the unit needs to be replaced. He won't do that much, he'll replace a compressor or fix electrical problems, he isn't going to replace an entire system.  

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Manager texts back after hearing nothing from him and asking for details.  Umm, they haven't conacted me and I probably won't hear back from them until tomorrow. If you don't hear back from me by mid-morning, I'll get you on an ethylene run asap.  This was sent to me and another driver, I had no idea they wanted to send two of us up there. Regardless, I didn't cook anything and I didn't make any plans for leaving first thing in the morning, as I was earlier directed to do.  I don't know why I had to wait half the day and finally have to ask if it was still a go to get any info.  

Meanwhile, I texted Mark a few minutes ago.  Did Sam come over? No.  Well did he say he was going to come?  Mark then called me.  I talked to him at 2:00 pm and he said he was coming.  Well call him again, otherwise I'm doing something else.  I already found a business online, the house isn't going to go without ac forever and lose all my paying tenants.  No thanks.  I dunno why he didn't call him back sooner, but he said he would after I asked him to please do so.  

So now I have 2 issues. The trip to NJ isn't a big deal, it goes or it doesn't. The AC - big deal.  Big big deal. Mark can't just let that stuff ride, if I have to pay out the ass to fix it, so beit, I'm getting it done and over with.  

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Still in limbo/Wednesday morning.  Manager should be showing up to work around now, I expect to hear something one way or the other.  The steam was let out of my sails yesterday and now I really don't want to go.  I really don't like being left on hold when facing a very long trip. I have everything ready - excepting food. Too late now to start cooking, I wouldn't even if I did. Make all the food for nothing? No thanks.  I'll ditch the diet for a while if I have to I guess.  I don't expect to hear from Mark for a bit.  

Hours later. Manager finally contacted us - he'll be getting us the info "ASAP", they are "discussing the trip up north".  That was an hour and a half ago.  Allegedly wanting us to leave by noon.  It's beginning to annoy me.  Make up your minds, we're either going or not.  I don't care either way at this point, in fact I could just stay home and do nothing looking at this week's paycheck that is enough to cover 2 weeks.  That's a LOT of driving going up there and back and that doesn't even cover whatever they're going to have us doing, which has yet to be defined.  He must have said New Hampshire, not New Jersey, for New Jersey isn't 1,800 miles from here.  And frankly, there are a lot of divisions between here and there with drivers that don't have much to do, why they want to bring drivers from almost 2,000 miles away is unknown to me.  

That's quite a chunk of change just to have us drive up there and back.  What I'm getting annoyed with here besides it being up in the air is the fact that the day isn't getting any younger and they'll expect us to drive at least 600 miles each day to get up there-  that was already stated.  I'll be up late doing that today 

Anyway, there are 2 ladies here now that don't live here.  The lady from Maine is here for 2 entire weeks.  She seems pretty cool, the other one is very low key and is probably happy to have a place to stay until she can figure out what she wants to do. Doesn't sound like she's going to go back home.  She was talking about renting a room in a friend's or relatives house somewhere.  I believe the grandma is coming today.  I guess grandpa isn't coming, he has a job that keeps him busy. He was in retirement, he got bored lol.  

Whatever, I'm getting off of here. Take a short nap in case I'm leaving. My clothes are packed and ready to go, food is an issue but oh well, live on sandwiches I guess.