Down 7 pounds since I started on Sunday.  6 days, 7 pounds.  That's not bad.  Motivation to keep going strict with carbs.  That's eating no sugar, potatoes, spaghetti, rice, beans, bread, milk, etc etc etc.  Taylor asking me what I want for dinner last night, I said how about some goulash with the ground beef I bought? Well you can't have the noodles tho.  No, I can take a portion of the sauce and put cooked cabbage in with it, it will be delicious.  So that's what we had.

I'm dreading whatever route I'll get tomorrow.  I haven't done nay serious driving since before I left for Vermont.  Vermont was a more attentive type of driving on narrow 2 lane highways, but the distances were short.  Most routes we have here are long and you're driving 600 to 700 miles a day to get them done.  That's quite the difference.  

Rained all night long and slated to rain all day today.  So my plans to start situating the pond still on hold.  

Forgot to take out the drain plug on the boat, I'll have to go do that this morning, that boat's hull fills up quickly, much faster than I ever would have expected, when it's raining.  Well I'm going to try to wait until I get tomorrow's work assignment so I can figure out if I need to make a bunch of food in advance - and subsequent visit to Kroger's or not.  I suspect I will be in limbo until this afternoon - which means I might as well bite the bullet and get over there and get that drain plug out.  Not good for the wiring being submerged in water, the hull will completely fill up, no joke. When I first got that boat and saw that after it rained I was a bit shocked, actually.  Like, how did it fill up that fast?!!

They have, apparently, fixed this week's paycheck to reflect monies left out last week. Plus all of the expenses with the receipts I turned in, if I'm reading it correctly, plus the minimum daily wage.  It's around a 4 grand paycheck - before taxes of course tho the expenses won't be taxed.  That will replenish my rather deleted checking account after spending all of that money on baggage fees and eating plus not getting paid everything that i was supposed to last week.  I'm going to have to print the last 2 weeks pay out with the itemizations  and ensure that I am being paid for all of it, for tomorrow's paycheck will - should - reflect the full amount of what I am owed for that trip.  

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Coronavirus certainly hasn't made land owners who are attempting to sell their land in this area desperate.  Land going for extremely exorbitant price per acre for undeveloped land. As much as 10k per acre.  I dunno why they think it's worth that much money, but it's nothing I'm going to get involved with.  I've been looking.  Today I spent more time perusing lots for sale, just unbelievable.  It bascically forces the issue that if i want land, I'll have to buy elsewhere, pay a very steep price for it or get it at one of the tax lien auctions.  I've been watching for the next one coming up, but since they had one at the beginning of July, I don't really expect to see another one until probably September.

I would like to hope whatever the next one is, it will have few people there.  The virus has hit enough people's personal finances, perhaps that's favorable for a tax lien sale.  I dunno but I intend on being at the next one if at all possible.  They always have at least a couple of 30 plus acre properties for sale, tho usually the amount of minimum bid is more than I have.  Whatever the case, the fund for that ventures grows monthly, but at the rate it is going, it will be a couple of years before there is enough to stand a legitimate chance at any decent amount of acreage.  But, it's a goal and I have a chunk of change going into Autosave every month. 

Whatever the case, the boat was almost full of water.  Good thing I went over there when I did.  More rain today. Plus I forgot to put the hitch lock on it. It may be a secure lot, but that doesn't make it theft proof.  I keep putting off getting insurance on it, but I guess I best do it in case I get into an accident or in case it's stolen.  

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$309 for a full year's worth of full coverage insurance on the boat if paid up front.  That's everything including towing and bringing fuel out to you up to 3 grand.  That's pretty small price to pay to have the assurance that if I wreck the thing, if someone else runs into it, if I run into anyone, if it's in a car accident being towed, if it's stolen, I will be covered or reimbursed.  I think that kind of money spent on that thing warrants having some insurance on it.  That's less than $30 per month (monthly payments ratchet it up to double that price, I'll be paying it up front).  

And I'm going to Brownsville tomorrow morning. She sent a 10:30 load time which would have been great for starting back out again. But 5 minutes later she said it was moved up to 7:30 am.  I'm not sure what to think about that. If I'm getting bumped for someone else getting the 2cd or 3rd load spot for that run, then I'm going to be unhappy.  It removes the chance - or greatly lessons it anyway - of getting any detention pay.  She said they bumped her up on it, we'll see. I've noticed a penchant for management and dispatchers to make up (false) stories in this company.  As always, if I weren't making as much money as I am on a yearly basis, I would seriously be thinking about finding a new place to work - tho that alone wouldn't do it. Just the combination of things.  

As the old saying goes, money talks, bs walks.  It's been almost 2 months since I've been to Brownsville, it will be nice to do a familiar route that I don't have to even think about how to get down there, just automatic in my brain lol.  Note that the last 3 times I've been down there I have gotten no detention pay.  And note that the story is coming out that the new manager has basically tried to get rid of it completely.  I figured that from the beginning tho it made zero since since it decreases the amount of money the company gets for that account - substantially decreases it.  

And the Dow Jones - after going to record highs, dived 810.87 points today.  I was so close to 100k in my 401k's. Yes, that isn't very much money but for me, it really is.  Couldn't retire on that but I feel like I'm really getting somewhere finally with it. I'm not concerned about a huge drop, we've seen that over and over this year and yet it keeps coming back up. 

Well enough. The mechanics left early, they seem to do that alot.  I contacted them to start up the truck, it hasn't been run in weeks that I know of and it probably is going to have dead batteries. He said he'd show up early tomorrow in case it won't. Tomorrow is Friday, that's a good excuse for him to get to work early and get off early so that works for me.  

As for the entry, I"m done.  I don't need to make too much food for the road since there are dining options on the way down to Brownsville and in Brownsville itself.  My favorite is the baked chicken at a gas station that is popular in both Refugio and Riviera.