Haven't been posting because I've been on the road. And with a late load time on this last load going to West Virginia, I was up late every night - didn't feel like doing much but going to bed as soon as I was done driving.
The truck did break down again- but nothing serious. Well the truck responded by shutting itself down - while driving down the road. That wasn't much fun. A hole opened up in a radiator hose and leaked out a lot of coolant all over everything - but the temperature never went up on the gauge. So why did it shut down? Because that's the way they have it set up. There are sensors on the large coolant storage tank that feeds into the radiator. When it gets below the first sensor, a warning light comes on and start dinging. When it goes below the second, it shuts the truck down.
Strange because that's just the reservoir, not the main cooling system. Anyway, Love's came out, lied on the work ticket, charged hundreds of more dollars than they should have and apparently they just get away with this stuff. The people at work didn't care - oh that's normal. Normal to rip customers off?!!
So, shrug my shoulders. They want to overpay, that's on them. I alerted them - I won't do that again.
The rest of the trip was uneventful excepting trying to find a place to park late at night. Lots are full everywhere nowadays, good luck. You have to find places that aren't in truck stops for the most part. Except last night. I ended up at a place I know is never full. That lot is huge. By the time I got up this morning, it was 3/4's full, still lots of spots tho. And the restaurant was open - take out only but I got a nice meal.
The other thing that happened while I was away was a try that fell over on our street during a heavy thunderstorm. It fell on top of a utility work truck, destroying it and of course it took the power lines down. Enough. Taylor went up to Lowe's, found a Caterpillar 10,000 watt generator and we got it. I can't do this anymore - power goes out, food potentially spoiling in freezers. Not to mention when I'm home, I don't want to sit in a powerless house. I can run my AC, computer, tv and satellite easily with that much wattage and still be plenty left over to run the freezers and refrigerator. That power was out like 16 hours. It was about 12 before they got the generator in place and had it up and running. The freezers never got about 32 degrees tho. Not even close. They are so full, the meat in them retains the cold and it takes a lot longer for it to heat up in them, as long as you keep the doors closed and don't try to look.
Paychecks looking great for now. Checking account back up to where I normally like it. I could weather up to 4 months right now if I were frugal without getting a paycheck. It would deplete everything to zero, of course, but at least I have something.
Oh, and one of the stocks I bought a few months ago? They did some sort of thing where they - whatever. My 300 stocks turning into 1 and 1/2 stocks. I didn't know what had happened until I called the bank to find out what. They explained it to me. I would have taken some notes but I was driving at the time. But that move must have gotten investors skittish, cause that single stock went from $40 per share down to $17. Basically, that stock is a scrub, worthless, lost a few dollars on it, but it was penny stock. My GE stock initially went up a couple bucks per share - but now has dropped back down to the range of where I bought it at. That I can hold onto, I figure GE will eventually come back if we all ever get back to work and the economy - attempts to come back to normal.
401k - different story. From a high of 25k down, it's up to 7k down now. That is a bit encouraging, but if we keep this economy shut down, that's not going to stay that way.
Taylor got a week off. The entire company did. Work got one of those ppp loans and they just let everyone go home. Still paying them - yes - for doing nothing. So that's nice for her. She has had her days home alone - something she very much likes. I believe that stipulation with those loans is that if you continue to pay your employees, that loan is forgiven.
As for me today? Well it's noon. I'm home. I'm "isolating" myself in my room. Not because the government told me I had to, but because that's pretty much standard modus operandi for me after a longer road trip.
Addler was being cranky today, he bit one of Maria's dogs and got all over me when I showed up. I keep telling Maria when I am gone too long he gets irritable. Nothing necessarily you can do about it, but be alert and keep him away from other dogs when he starts acting up.
If it's going to be an issue I'll leave him home when I go on longer trips.
Maria, changing the subject, thinks they are being booted out of the house because the owner believes the dogs are tearing the house up. This belief is based on zero facts if true, but she said that Gus - the owner's brother - asked her just before being told everyone has to move out if the dogs were tearing up the house? She hadn't told me this until today. So I texted the owner's brother. He had texted me a few days ago about wanting the names of everyone in the house for the lease. A lease? We're being told to move out, what do we need a lease for? I didn't ask that and didn't reply until today after Maria texted him the names. I texted him quite simply: Maria is texting you the names and you could have come in the house and inspected it if you or your brother had thought the house is being destroyed. I told him that a long time ago as well - you can come at any time and take a look.
I don't know if that invitation will change anything, probably not. The house is old. It's in great need of renovations. If someone bought that house, they could easily expect to have to dump at least 50k into it. The entire electrical system needs to be replaced, that's about 10k. The kitchen needs to be torn out and completely redone. The flooring is bad, that needs replaced as well. Just a lot of stuff. It could use an extra, add-on bathroom. These are all things I would want to do with it if I were to buy the place - which I'm not. The central AC is too small, it doesn't keep the house cool enough during the summer. There's 6k. Yup, for about 50k I could have the renovations to that house that need to be done - done. No thanks.
So, we are looking for a new place. We have until the end of July to be out. The 2 ladies there - Kim is out of the hospital and appears to be in decent health - are sticking this out. They have nowhere to go. The third is moving out, but a former tenant wants to move back in. It would be nice if they changed their minds, I am now suspecting that they just want us out and will re-rent it to someone else. Good luck tho, that place was empty for a long time before we got into it.
My savings plan is on track to have enough of a down payment to buy land with a house already on it - in about 3 or 4 years lol. Hope deferred. But, the money is being automatically deducted from my checking account once per month. But the lien auctions aren't out of mind, just out of reach atm.
And finally? Addler is on my bed. Has taken the thing completely over. Content, starting at me. I'll be here all day long, we can reuinte lol.
