This day and the 4 round trips are finally over.  I'm still looking for that hot meal.

But, it took corporate an hour and a half to set up a car rental.  Driving down there, the manager at the other end said go ahead and go over to the rental place, I'll meet you there  "in a few minutes".  So I took one of the rental cars back and waited there 40 minutes for him to show up.  Between getting the rental and waiting for the manager trying to turn it back in? That cost me any chance of going to Texas Road House or wherever and enjoying a good, hot meal.  

I'm not feeling sorry for myself, I just want to sit down and have a full course dinner instead of piece mealing meals together.  Well, I'm at the hotel, pulled that rotisserie chicken out of the refrigerator and reheated it.  

I informed my manager this morning via text that I was going to be done with this assignment tomorrow morning when I take the truck to the yard, what am I going to be doing next?

No reply. Didn't really expect one.  Later on, when I was in Newell, WV, I texted him that all rental cars had been returned, I'm on the road and will be in Toledo tonight and will wait at the hotel until I hear whatever's going to happen next.  Again, no reply.

Why? Because it's not his call. It's higher up managers that are making these decisions about wasting a lot of money to move trucks around.  I just wanted to get the info to him early - I'm going to be done.  That means, start talking to them about what's next. Home? Vermont? What? 

Just moving these trucks has costed them thousands of dollars.  The rental car today alone cost them $445.  Why so much for only 210 mile trip? Cause that was the last car they had at the airport rental place - I have wiped them out with taking cars and not bringing any back.  They can and do charge extra for one way. Sometimes a LOT more, especially if they have to send people all over the place to get some cars for their location to be able to rent out.  The Newell location? Doing a booming business.  They had rented out the 2 cars I brought back yesterday and several more.  It's just one person running the operation plus a person doing the cleaning.  

Oh, and tomorrow, I'll probably need yet another rental car.  Wherever that's going, it's also going to be one way. It's that or they're flying me wherever.  Again, I could stand a day off.  This schedule has been grueling. I have had to listen to loud music or listen to interesting documentaries - anything to keep me alert - once I"m driving back from West Virginia. It works, my mind becomes quite alert, but still, I need a break.  

Not going to ask for one tho.  They have some place for me to go tomorrow? I"m going.  If it's home, it's only 1,025 miles from here, driving that would take a day and a partial.  I like flying, but if it's over with too soon, I don't make as much money.  Now, if I got stuck in Dallas again, I wouldn't call my friends, I'd just take the hotel and get paid by the hour for waiting for the next plane to Longview.  That would pay as much as driving.  

Now what. Well I have presents to buy, a 5 year old wants an Optimus Prime toy and I have yet to get one.  Just been too busy and once I'm done with the day, I don't want to do anything but sit here and phase out.  I don't see typing on a keyboard as a bother for writing these posts, but clicking on endless links looking for a toy?  Not today.  Oh and my normal present to my oldest brother and his wife, I need to get on that. Again - not tonight lol.  Mom's present is there. My son I have no idea what he wants, guess I best call him.

My friend running the house in Phoenix called today.  He thinks he's going to get a bunch of money for this mesh they put in for his problem he had 5 years ago. They put it in there, it failed and they had to take it back out. He was in extreme pain and spent days and days in the hospital. He went with a law firm that is doing a collective claim for as many clients as they can get against the manufacturer.  But it's been dragging out for a couple of years now.  The lawyers say Covid has put a lot of these types of lawsuits on the back burner.  I dont doubt that, but this situation has been going on so long, what was the hold up before Covid?  Mark - he's a good guy but he isn't savvy to lawyers and their double speak.  

Oh, the reason he called? Some gas company person decided they were going to come into the back yard today with out ringing the doorbell or attempting to contact anyone first. He undid the gate lock - have to reach through the gate to do that and just let himself in. Mark - happened to walk out back and saw him out there. What the h*** are you doing here? Who are you?  The dude says he works for the gas company and is checking meters.  Well my house doesn't use gas, it's all electric so that was a lie.  Whatever he was checking, I would have checked him, right into the damn wall.  And then called the police.  Mark cussed him out the entire - escort - out. He walked this dude out of there and said get the f*** off the property and don't come back here again.

Okay, Mark got mad.  I would have too, but I would have found out who he really is - or what he was really trying to do. If he was from the gas company, he would have known we don't have an account with them, we don't use gas.  

The neighborhood is distressed because a family that has been living there forever is moving out. They were choked on medical bills and can't afford the house payment anymore. I can say that even tho I sometimes complain about work conditions, I am working and that is better than a lot of people I know, including even one person I live with.  

Well enough. Going to bed, not setting the alarm. Get up when I feel like it or if I get a text or phone call from the manager.  

G'nite. 

 I always get amused when I see the amount of taxes being taken out of my paychecks.  

Getting angry, frustrated and violent wouldn't really do much good, so yea.  I mean, I just see the amount of the deduction, I didn't go into it looking at everything. Probably near $350 of it is retirement deposit into 401k, and something like $79 is for health insurance but the rest of it?  That's all federal taxes baby.  And to think that Biden wants to raise everyone's taxes.

Oh yes, I know he says it's only going to affect those making over 400k, but numerous analysts have said it will hit the middle class as well. Of course it will, the middle class always takes a big hit in any tax s*** they do.  This is one reason I don't want Biden or any democrat in a position of power. Biden is also pro choice, the Catholic church has been railing on him about that.  He's surrounding himself with far left progressives. Get the picture? Bernie Sanders got socialism popular, now they're ready to start taking the next steps.  

Let me ask you something.  When they come for your AR-15's - that's Harris proposition and her disgust with semi auto weapons - and if you have one, are you going to give it up? They are pitching a "mandatory buyback".  Sorry, I don't buy my firearms from the government, there is nothing for them to buy back. I don't have an AR but a really want one.  Any time an anti-gun person gets into a position of power such as the presidency or in this case the VP, gun sales and ammo sales go off the hook.  And now people all over the place are seriously starting to talk about an insurrection.  

And I've got to tell you this situation with the Presidency right now is baffling.  Trump is stating the election was stolen, Biden is moving forward with his plans to enter office, states are now ramping up a lawsuit and/or attempting to overturn state election outcomes. Where is this all going to end? I know none of y'all have a crystal ball, the most likely scenario is Biden is the next president and we have at least 4 years of taxation and outrageous legislation. No one can predict the outcome of the Georgia senate runoff races, however and the future of America and our Republic is at stake as far as I'm concerned.  

Will the Supreme Court take up Texas' lawsuit? 

Oh, well it's almost 9:00 am Eastern time, at exactly 9:00 am I will be texting my manager that I need another rental car.  It will be 8:00 am there and I try not to bother him as much as possible after hours, tho I've had to do that several times lately to get a hotel room.  Yes, I ask for one before he gets off work, yes he says he gets it done, and no, you get to the hotel and they don't know what you're talking about.  So now? He booked this room for 2 nights, the amount of time I'm expected to stay here.  Last night and tonight coming up - and then hopefully I'm out of here.  I've had enough of this rental car business at either end, it consumes too much time and eats up the day.  

Yup, 6 minutes off from 9:00 am.  Yesterday we at least got 2 of those cars turned in, there will be 2 more today and I informed the manager down there that I won't be able to leave tomorrow (now today) once I get there until I get those other 2 cars returned for I don't expect to be coming back.  There are no more trucks to move after today and I have no desire to do any more of this. If they want to move me on to doing something else, sure thing.  But these 210 mile trips and dealing with everything on either end is getting very old.  

I hear very little from home so I dont' know what's going there, but I noted that Taylor was at a business well outside of town for several hours yesterday, I'm curious if she found a new job.  She's been looking.  The last job she just couldn't deal with - was only there a short time before quitting.  

Missed opportunities in the stock market.  Now I know at least to start looking at stock of things that are related to any news. Moderna went way up from what it was in January. I was looking at that in the news today but also a guy was talking about it a few months ago.  He had investing in several of the companies making the vaccine.  You literally could have gotten rich off of Moderna.  Well not rich if you don't have a lot to invest, but a 5 grand investment, for example would have you at around a 35k return on your money.  Rich would be investing a hundred grand and getting back over 700k.  I could retire off of that and not have to do this daily grind of trucking.  

But like everyone else, I'm in that rut. There is a way out of it, at least that's my aspiration, but so far it's remained elusive.  The other thing I could kick myself for is my GE stock. I had thought about buying more of it at a low price and now it's up over 5 bucks per share.  

Well, I'm just wading into the stock market on my own, it would be foolish for me to dump thousands of dollars into any risky proposition with no clear outcome.  I got into GE because hedge fund managers were buying it up cheap.  I'm sure they're glad they did as well. GE is a "favorite" with these hedge fund managers, that I read anyway.  I wish I knew what info these people get for day trading or even just for long term investing.  I have no idea how they figure out what to invest in.  

Alright well text in, rental car being reserved, best get out of here.