I will make my confessional.  My manager called me this morning and I intentionally did not answer the phone.  I sat there and thought, I'll cal him back in about 20 minutes and let him deal with his "emergency", get someone else to do it.  Hopefully by the time I call him back, I was surmising, he'll have someone else lined up to take that run. 

What run? Another Cheniere.  Suddenly, Cheniere wants all of these loads taken down there.  It's they way it goes with them, they'l order mega numbers of loads and then you don't hear from them for a long, long time.  How did I know that's what he wanted? Cause' he sent out a mass text to everyone asking for a volunteer to take the run today at 3:30 - 20 minutes from now lol.  Literally no one responded lmao.

I told him yesterday that not a single driver likes this run and everyone hates it.  He knew the reasons why - too many layers of security asking you for the same information and waiting too long to get into the plant to unload. It's like they want to run your 14 hour clock out so you can't make it back the same day.   

It was actually 35 minutes before I called him back, he was busy and said he would call me back later. I replied I was just responding to a call I missed from you. Oh, well no worries, I got that covered.  Yayyyyyyy!!!! I didn't say that of course, but I'd rather stay home and not work rather go to that hell hole.  I haven't heard back about a run tomorrow.  Not concerned, my activities today have left me needing to continue on tomorrow if possible and attempt to finish this project I started this morning.  

I don't mind getting last minute calls - for decent runs - but not this garbage after I just got done doing one.  And finding out fully 4 drivers do not go to Cheniere - or anywhere else with driver unload.  4 drivers - gravy runs, every single time. Outrageous and unbelievable.  

Anyway, I did as I said I was going to do this morning: Got started on the new pond project.  I realized I would have to drain the existing pond first, attempt to save whatever fish and get it out of the ground so I could shovel the dirt from the giant, built in planter into the pond hole.  That took quite a while, a pain in the @$$ and was cleaning up yet another 2 weeks worth of leaves from the next door neighbors, stuff was decomposing, attracting flies and mosquitoes, looked and smell bad.  I got as many fish as I could find and dumped them into a 5 gallon bucket, put an aerator in there to keep them alive.

I got stuck however, at a cement post that whoever put in this planter. It's about 16 inches diameter, solid cement and isn't budging. It's sitting right where the new pond is going to go.  I was already over 3 hours into this stuff when my legs told me it was time to take a rest.

Funny how your body tells you about yourself.  Truck driving like I do now without the physical exertion I used to have has made me rather out-of-shape.  I have myself to blame. I just need to get out there and do yard work and stuff every time I come home, even if only a couple of hours.  

The back yard is a tragedy.  Just no other way to put it.  I cleaned up the leaves around the pool area at least.  But there is so much to do back there, just to get it nice looking.  Just so much work, it seems, with little satisfaction. Now that the neighbors cleaned up their pigstye in their back yard I"m hopeful our side of the fence can stay relatively clean now without the rain washing all of that s*** onto our property every time it rains. 

Anyways, I left after hours of doing that this morning to get stuff.  Met up with Taylor at the local coffee shop, then to Harbor Freight for a sledge hammer, off to Walmart for a bunch of stuff I have been needing, especially for the truck but for the house as well, over to Chili's for lunch and then back home. Back out back, I put up 2 fly traps - the flies are unbelievable back there. They attract them all quickly, I'm guessing if I went back out there right now there would be dozens in there already.  

I did not try to bust that cement thing down. I'm toast for today, enough is enough.  No run sent to me - yet - if I don't get one I'll be back out there in the morning attempting to bust that thing down.  If I can't get it out of there with a sledgehammer, I will have no choice that I can see but to go rent a jackhammer setup and bust it out of there.  Whatever the case, it needs to go. That planter set up was ugly, I wanted ridded of it but they only agreed on it recently when Taylor was happy to be seeing the end of the inground pond and also happy to allow having the horse trough setup.  

As for now?  Out to the kitchen to make dinner.  

 Cheniere - has gotten even worse.  I didn't think that was possible, but how I was wrong.  Now, I get interrogated at the entrance by the security officer there. He demands to see your credentials and then wants credentials I don't have (and won't be getting).  You have your TWIC card? I show that to him.  You have your safety course card? Nope.  You don't have that? Nope. Do you have your LNG railroad commissioner card? Nope.  Why not? I felt like telling him to read the words on the side of the trailer: ETHYLENE. I'm NOT HAULING LNG.  I just shrugged my shoulders. Don't really care.

In reality, I could have just said okay, you aren't going to let me in? Let me in to turn around and I will leave. I really should have called his bluff on that, now that I think of it.  They aren't going to send away a load, they'd still get charged for the shipping and get nothing out of it. He frowned at me, well I have to make a phone call. Great, call the President, I thought, I don't care.  I'll gladly take this loaded trailer somewhere else in America where they actually want the product without all the bs. His posturing did not, of course, stop me from entering the plant.   After 10 minutes of his bs, then I'm to go to the canopy and wait for another security officer to do what? Search the truck. 

He shows up 5 minutes later and then spends another 5 minutes doing whatever in his pickup. Finally comes out and demands to see my TWIC card. I didn't bother to tell him I just showed it to the security officer, not trying to cause trouble here, but if I get sent down there again and they start all of that with me again? I'm just going to tell them if they are refusing to allow me in to deliver the load, I'll call my manager, let him know and he can hash that out with the plant managers who will very likely be giving you  a phone call : )

So, 20 minutes wasted at the second checkpoint with an authoritarian and then had to follow him to the next checkpoint.  Now I have several security officers at a guard shack asking me to do this, that and the other thing, including showing my TWIC card a THIRD TIME.  Then off into a small cubicle where there is a guy stationed to take your temperature. Back to the truck, they come out, we were wrong, you need to come in here to get your visitor pass. Yes, I knew that.  Again, didn't say that, just trying to get through all of this garbage.  In the shack, he looks me up, oh yes you've been here before. Yes, like 100 times.  I didn't try to blow up your plant those times, why on earth do you people make it so difficult for us to get in here?  

He just laughed.  I then sat at that place for over 2 hours waiting for the plant workers to come get me.  All kinds of excuses were offered why they didn't come sooner, I was getting annoyed by that time, lets' get this over with.  But I already knew that all of this bs I went through just to get into the plant would cost me getting home yesterday.  After I got out of there, I knew I was about 40 minutes short of enough on duty hours to make it back. So, I spent the night at a truckstop some 67 miles out for no more reason than these people causing all kinds of grief because - they can. 

Time to push back on that bs.  Likely plant managers don't have any real idea how they are treating truck drivers, I'd like to change that.  I told my manager today all of the bs they put you through to get in there, plus all the waiting.  He got a hold of the plant manager yesterday after I texted him again, saying I've been sitting here for hours.  It was maybe 10 or 15 minutes later that plant workers showed up - with all of their accompanying excuses.

I also told my manager that not a single driver likes this run, it drags out into 2 days, we aren't hardly paid anything for it, there needs to be some adjustments made here in the pay to at least make the time wasted more bearable.  

I have no idea when I'm going out again, but I want my truck fixed before that happens.  It's got a coolant leak somewhere and I'm tired of dealing with it.  

Home early at least. Got into the yard around 9:30 am.  Vacuuming floors currently and going to do some other stuff. I'm hoping to have tomorrow off so I can get that pond up and running.  Like, start early and have it done by mid afternoon.  I need to have the transition completely done in one day, I can't have it half and half.  It's noon now I just don't feel comfortable starting that project without an entire day to ensure that if there are any glitches I will have time to rectify them.

And Addler washed.  He smelled horrid. I have no idea what that dog got into, but it was repulsive in smelling it.  He smelled like it the other day, just got a chance to thoroughly wash the dog down. A dog that size is no small undertaking. He's a good boy tho, he just stood there and took it the whole time - he hates the water hose but he knows he has no choice when I'm telling him to stay, he gonna stay.  Lmao

Requested to wash the other dogs. Not today, thanks, that giant dog was enough.  The other dogs don't smell like he did,, either. However, Aspyn could use a thorough washing to get excess hair off of her.  Maybe use some conditioner for the lady dogs of course want to smell good lol.