This'll be a shorty versus last post lol.

Brisket was a success.  The thin end I knew was going to be rather dried out - I know some find ways to deal with that while cooking it, I usually cut the large end off from the thin end and cook them separately.  It wasn't too bad on the thin end, the only reason I ended up cooking the whole thing is it was frozen last night and after thawing out beef I don't like to refreeze.  No way to cut it frozen, obviously so it is what it is.  But the big end was juicy and delicious.  

A huge amount of food was devoured because James friends saw my post on Facebook and said they wished they could have some. Well yea, come over!  They literally live 2 blocks away lol.  So they showed up, Maria, everyone was hungry, the cauliflower bake I made was almost entirely devoured - that was 2 heads of cauliflower - the 2 pounds of bacon - gone, half of the brisket, gone.   It was a huge brisket so half of it gone was quite the feat.  

I like when I make food and most of it is devoured.  I don't like a lot of leftovers, especially here, they mostly won't get eaten.  6 adults and 2 children, that makes it more likely more of the food will be gone.  Plus sending food home with people.  

The day is done, the kitchen is cleaned up, I retired to the bedroom, everyone left and boys and J/T went to bed. 

As for me, it's time to go sleepy time.  The next 3 or 4 days will be busy, long days.  

 Oklahoma run over with.  Although, not without seeing another wicked accident.  A Mercedes sitting in the median, cables - those type that stop vehicles form crossing over the median into oncoming traffic - destroyed and the entire roof of the car torn off.  Ambulance come and gone by the time I got there, I have no idea if those people lived.  But the stuff I see out on the highways all the time!

Well, okay, the plant took 4 hours to get out of . They keep getting new people in there. They get one trained and finally figure out what they are doing and then? They bring another brand new person in there and taking literally FOREVER to do the paperwork after you are done getting loaded.  It's ridiculous. Before the lady that retired left, we were in and out in 10 to 15 minutes on most days.  A room full of other drivers yesterday,  some there longer than I had waited.  

I ended up using my 16 hour exception so I could make it to the casino truckstop near the Texas border.  Got done last night at midnight, slept 7 solid hours, went into the casino this morning for free coffee and cheap breakfast - but no gamlbing, didn't feel like it  -  and left there. 

Yesterday, however, I received my work assignment for the next trip.  The pic of the paper that has all the info on it was sent. I was thinking, hmm, I"m out of hours, I don't have enough hours left to go anywhere, not even a short run.  Just get back to the yard.  I clicked on the pic, it's a run to Stryker, Ohio. Not in love with that trip, but I'll take it over an Oklahoma.  Around 2,000 miles, the issue is it takes 4 days versus the 3 I could do it in if the plant would unload us as soon as we get there.  The last time I was up there, they did, indeed, unload my truck that afternoon.   Instead of having to wait up to 18 hours to unload the next morning. I was informed by another driver that they aren't doing that "anymore", as if it had been going on forver.

What I am going to do this time? If they make me wait? List it as detention time. Sit in front of their gate and wait the entire 16 plus hours and let them pay me for it.  If they refuse, I'm going to make some arguments about this nonsense of having to leave 3 days before the unload time when it only takes a day and a quarter to get up there.  Why should I be penalized for the plant simply wanting to dictate terms? If they are going to make me wait, pay for it.  

Well, anyways, it's Saturday 4:00 pm. I got back in town around noon today and decided to go grocery shopping - something I haven't done in literally weeks - go get some fuel for the vehicle, visit the eatery and then come home. That took 4 hours lol.  Dogs were howling lol. Temps have dropped considerably, it's back to outdoor fire pit season.  Not today tho lol, I'm in the bedroom, watching the news - yes I know I said I wasn't watching much of it, but there's so much coming out so fast now, and the election literally around the corner I have been watching some of it - petting the doggies, home alone.

James and Taylor took off to Arkansas with the boy to see mom/grandma.  I invited the ladies over tomorrow for steak.  I dunno if Kim will come, Maria is coming.  My trip to the grocery store included buying new york strip steak in case they wanted to come.  It's on sale so yea.  

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Sunday morning. Weather has dropped enough that I wanted to run the furnace - James and Taylor are coming back from Arkansas today.  The thing starts up making a humming noise and then it kills itself.  I have no desire to open that thing up and see if I can figure it out.  The exhaust vent has a huge opening on it and so I wouldn't run it anyway.  Carbon monoxide poisoning isn't a very pleasant thought of how to go out of this life.  I warned them even if they do get it fired up that thing needs to be sealed up good, can't be any leaks at all.  

In reality, an AC repairman said last year it needs to be replaced, the entire unit, it's on it's last leg.  If it were my house I would have already replaced that entire system and just make payments on it - they aren't cheap.  But it doesn't seem to be a priority to them and I am not spending my own money on replacing it. I have had it fixed in the past at my expense, I had no problem with that, but I'm not spending 7 or 8 grand on this house, it isn't mine.  I have a big room heater in my room and a window ac unit.  I'll neither freeze or burn up in here. Whatever they decide to do I'm fine with, it's their house, their expense.  They are both just starting new jobs and I suspect bills are piling up, so replacing it is very likely not on their priority list.  

And, the bills that cover utilities are on my dime, so regardless of their finances - I'm only guessing - the utilities aren't getting shut off. That's my rent here, I pay all the utilities and the wifi and the satellite. Sounds like a lot but it isn't really that bad and I get a huge room with it's own bathroom in exchange.  And pretty much do whatever I want within reason, such as the smoker and the pond situation.  

Alright, well I'm not spending my day off messing with that thing, I have a 3 or 4 day trip coming up, I'm going to stay home and hang out with my doggies and smoke that brisket.  In fact I need to get out there and fire up the smoker, it takes a while for it to get heated up and then stabilize the temp. Like a half an hour at least.  But this time, I'm just smoking it for like 3 hours and then I'm finishing it off in the oven. I've read on smoking sites that lots of people do that and it doesn't change the outcome of the brisket, just the purists who think you should smoke it all the way to the finish line think that's "wrong" lol.  

Ok, smoker fired up, brisket trimmed, rubbed with a nice home made rub and in the smoker as of 2 hours ago.  Still has a ways to go to get to the smoked appearance I like before I remove it from there and put into the oven.  Absolutely giant brisket, it's going to take half the day to cook it even at a higher temp.  Brisket has to be cooked to 195 minimum to get to the tender, juicy stage. Sounds ridiculous, it did to me at first too, but cooking it to any other temp below that and it was tough and dry.  Trip to Walmart as well since I was low on charcoal, smoker logs and smoker chips.  Of course they moved all of that "elsewhere" since Christmas stuff takes over the garden center.  

Adler is following me around like a puppy dog today, sticking his head into my side constantly and refusing to do anything but be near me.  Typical dog, even more typical for Great Danes.  He certainly loves my queen sized bed! lol

And, I've been reading texts from drivers all morning long. The COA - Certification of Analysis - is coming back bad.  Amazingly, they are still loading trucks anyway.  Like, if they can't get a good COA reading, they're going to have to unload all of those trucks, get that product back into the system and purify it some more.  That would take the rest of the day and probably into tomorrow.  ATM, my trip tomorrow is up in the air.   I mean, they'll still make me do the trip, the question is when? I don't really want to be doing an afternoon load on a trip that long, it will have me driving late into the night and I'm not a big fan of that. It's 7:30 load time tomorrow - gets me done with the day no later than 9:30 pm, probably earlier than that depending on how the day goes.  But if this stuff drags into tomorrow, kiss that schedule goodbye.  

Strange how over the last several months they've been having so many issues with both product and ability to pump the product into the trucks - tho more product issues.  They "fixed" the system and it has never been right since then.  

Well, the Presidential debates are over - thankfully - and countdown to election day.  A lot of people have already voted but I assume they can't start counting any of that until the 3rd - and then it's probably going to take more than a day in some areas to count all of that.  And likely, a lot of votes are going to be disqualified because of technical issues with not signing the ballot of filling it out correctly.  I wonder how many will be disqualified and if it would actually affect the outcome of the election?  

Texas has early voting, I just need some time on a morning here to go in and get it done.  Supposedly there are long lines tho, which is kind of strange in a small town.  I'm not going to risk waiting until election day to vote and find out I'm on the road somewhere and can't vote at all.  This is one election where everyone must go out and vote. If you're a Trump supporter, you don't have the luxury of thinking that there are enough votes to cover it without yours.  The polls are shrinking - I don't necessarily trust them anyway - but if theyre anything accurate, the gap is close, but some swing states have Biden winning. There are a lot of factors that people are discussing about the "hidden" or "secret" vote of Republicans who are tired of being shamed by democrats and won't talk to the pollsters on the phone or won't tell the truth about who they're voting for.  I have no such qualms, I will gladly tell everyone everywhere that asks or is discussing it that I am voting for Trump.  They aren't going to be spitting on me or ripping the hat off my head without consequences.  I've only received strange looks so far.  

Not that I'm going out looking for trouble, but I am not going to be shamed into a corner.  The one thing I have done is ensure that my employment information is to be found nowhere on the internet.  I would be concerned about the cancel culture, I have no idea how my company would react to a smear campaign.  Right to work state, they could release me without any explanation.  So I'm cautious on that point.  I could go out and find another job, yes, pretty quickly, but I found this one after a long search and it works for me- for now.  Not going to do this forever, but until I get my land and get an RV or mobile home park going or some kind of other mass rental type thing such as a small apartment complex, I need to keep working.  I'm up to 15 grand in cash saved, still have  ways to go. Maybe double that anyway if it's going to be down payment type thing.  All of it and then some if it's going to be a tax lien auction situation.  Get the land, wait the 180 days, get the title cleared up and then use the land as collateral for a construction loan.  

Around 50 grand to have a company come in, clear a lot, install the utilities, install pads for the RV's, make the roads/driveways.  Probably put up one of those moveable instant home things as an office to begin with and improve the property over time.  Make it a destination in and of itself. Which requires a lot of land so people can bring their ATV's with them and go riding.  A swimming pool.  A clubhouse with activities.  I know how to do this, I just need the capital to get it done and some legal help to get a contract for people staying overnight and something else for people living there, etc.  Oh, and of course permits, county approval - I don't want to do this in town, cost too much and too much regulation.  Taylor said a long time ago she would love to do the business end of this deal in paperwork and keeping track of revenue and expenditures.  

It's been a long term goal - for a long, long time I've wanted to do this.  I just feel like now with greatly improved credit score, a very good paying job and getting some cash saved up I can start to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Just a glimmer of it at the moment, but it is actually becoming doable, I believe.  This is something that I have never let go of. I got the taste for rental at my house and that has never left. Whatever happens, everyone needs a place to stay.  A lot of people live in RV's around here.  Mobile home park will have to be something out in the future, if ever, it really doesn't matter to me, RV parks actually look nicer and are less prone to becoming as trashy as MHP's.  They need less land, less amount of utilities since everything is closer together.  

But, at the same time, people like them to be a destination place as well as a place for those that are traveling can pull in, set up camp and sleep for the night.  I was watching one being built over several month span of time down south.  They got the place up and running - it's bare bones park too, its nothing but crushed rock driveways and a small module at the front for an office, the utitlies and that's it.  But every time I drive by there, I see the place has at least 25-30 RV's in there.  That's a more "prime" location tho, right off the side of the highway where travelers can stop.  For what I want, I'd like more trees - not to many but some - and a nicer drive way and pad set up.  

But I have to get the property first.  That's been a major hang up.  The final auction of the year should be the best one. Where they have properties that weren't bid on so they start the bidding at a tenth of the original bid. They take a loss on not getting the tax revenue out of it, but, they have someone buying the place and start collecting current revenues on it again.  Otherwise, they have property that is absolutely useless to them and not collecting any tax revenues at all.  I'm going to start looking every day for that next auction, the last one I didn't see until just a few days before it was to take place. There was no time to do research and I ended up having to work that day.

This time, if I catch it early enough, I can ask for the day off and I can go to the courthouse and research it.  Foregone conclusion I'm not taking any of those gas well sites.  What a trick they play.  They use up the gas that can be extracted out of the ground and then they just let the property go, they don't pay the taxes and therefore they lose the property.  But that also means they don't have to dismantle all of that equipment they leave behind.  It must make them a lot of money to be able to set up something like that and then just leave it.  I'm curious if that is an EPA nightmare and if they can actually get away with doing that.  The thing is, a lot of those properties are in excellent, prime areas where you could easily set up a nice RV lot.  But not knowing what I'm getting myself into with all of that stuff they have out there, I don't want to become liable for someone else's garbage.  

The other thing I am considering is buying up small lots in town where zoning allows a mobile home and then placing a small mobile on it and rent the property.  That is easy stuff there. Get an income from it, pay off the price you paid for the house and the land and then start generative profit.  Even mobiles are going high for rent in this area.  It's really odd to me that a small town out in the middle of nowhere would have such high rent for everything.  I don't get it, but I want to cash in on it.  Anyway, the auction I went to, lots of those properties didn't sell, no one bid on them.  

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Seems counter-intuitive to cook beef to 210 degrees internal, but that's exactly what I did. I had to take it that high before it got nice and soft and juicy.  The brisket is sitting on the counter, resting.  Maria is on her way over for dinner, I think I'll just serve that instead of cooking steaks.  I didn't know if it would be done in time for dinner. James and Taylor stopped at Walmart and will be home shortly.

Taylor sent me an invite to an app called Life360.  She, James and two of their friends are on it.  It shows where anyone is at at any given time and if they're driving, how fast they are going.  You can see up to 2 days history - before you have to pay to use it if you want to see further back.  It's pretty cool albeit a bit intrusive, but it's voluntary intrusiveness. And I can shut off location services if for some reason I don't want them to see where I'm at lol.  

They'll see me all over the place, especially this next trip going through Texas, Arkansas, outskirts of Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and finally Ohio and back.  I have the route memorized. 

Okay, well the day wears long and I still have some stuff to do for the trip - but the food is all cooked, just needs to cool off. I also made some stuffed chicken breast. The stuffing is cream cheese, sharp cheddar, fresh spinach chopped up, fresh green onions also chopped, some cayenne pepper, garlic power, salt, pepper and a dash of love lol.  I'm not going to go hungry on this trip, once it cools down I'm going to drain green beans and put the meat in a container with green beans, I only need have to warm the stuff up in my truck microwave : )

I best be getting off of here.  

G'day.