Hmmm, looks like I made several drafts and posted none of them, lol.

It's the day before Thanksgiving, supposedly several people are coming over tomorrow.  At this point, I  hope so because we are going to have a lot of food to eat.  The 22 pound turkey I got for free for spending $125 at Kroger's, that wasn't intentional, I just ended up buying a lot of stuff because I hadn't been grocery shopping in a while.  So that was nice. And of course got another rib roast - this is the time of year to get one at a cheaper price.

Today - went out with taylor around town getting stuff we needed.  She is back in the unemployed column after realizing the job she took just wasn't her cup of tea.  Putting up with rude customers on the phone isn't for everyone.  

Anyway, I had asked for Thanksgiving off but got a call on the way up from Brownsville yesterday that he didn't have enough drivers to cover everything and needed me to work.  I wasn't real happy about it, but I couldn't tell him no so I just ended up taking the run.  He was going to get me a 6:30 load time, which would have me back at the house by around 9 am, so it wasn't going to be that bad and Taylor has decided she is going to cook the turkey.  I was going to smoke a ham, but after that news decided I would just play it by ear. If I get back early enough, I figured, I could still do it. Hams are already cooked, just smoking and glazing it is probably only a couple of hours worth of cooking.

But, a few hours later, he called again.  Another driver who had originally wanted Thanksgiving off had changed his mind and wanted the run I was going to get if I wanted to let it go. Yup, I let it go.  I will pay for it, I'm sure, at Christmas time.  I try to alternate each year.  Last year I was home for Christmas and out for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is really the social party thing they have here, so I kind of enjoy that more.  Christmas is just a day at home, family thing, open presents, eat a big breakfast and that's it.  I'll miss being here, of course, but I made my choices and now will live with it lol.

Nothing really "new" going on.  The front yard was looking disastrous so I decided to mow it - aiming the outlet the same direction so that the leaves would blow out towards the street - the entire mowing session.  This was considerably easier than waiting until all the leaves fall off the tree and having to spend hours raking it.  Not to mention the bottom layer of leaves start to decompose - they get wet from rain and get covered up with other leaves - making it 10 times more difficult to get the stuff out of the grass.

I hadn't really tried that method before but it worked swimmingly.  There are still a lot of leaves left to fall, I'll just do that again in a few weeks and probably a final time after they are all down.  It would be really nice if Mother Nature would just have them all fall off at once.....just sayin'.  

Other drivers yesterday at the office were complaining - again - about Chenier and about the driver who refuses to learn how to unload.  I'm pretty much staying out of those conversations now, it's the same story, old, worn out and the driver gets away with it.  That's really on management.  And, apparently, we lost the Mapleton account.  The guy that distributes the loads to our and other companies apparently was pissed off that our company fired our previous manager and this was his way of showing us his dissatisfaction. 

That's his right, I suppose, but that is one of our better runs.  I was wondering what had happened to it, I hadn't seen or heard of anyone going there in quite a while.  The only thing stopping those other companies from grabbing even more of our work is the fact that they don't have the trailers to do anymoe with.  Those trailers are around 350k a piece, it's quite the investment.  I dunno, but if we start losing more contracts, they are going to have to get rid of drivers, there will be too many of us.  How they would determine who gets the axe is unknown to me, but I am guessing they would simply offer a spot in a different division, take it or leave it.  Personally, I would leave it.

Those other divisions aren't out of my area and I would be on the road for weeks at a time.  Up to a month.  No thanks.  I'd take it temporarily, of course, until I found something that is close to home and gets me home frequently.  My aspirations of doing fuel delivery have been kind of nixed after finding out what they are paid.  Tho Gemini - the company that hauls fuel for Love's travel stops - pays around 75k per year. I could deal with that but the terminal is 60 miles away. That's a long drive every day just to get to work.  

I'm keeping my eyes out for a decent, local job is all I can say about that.  In case it comes down to that.