Wednesday, December 23, 2020

 Drove to just outside of Jackson, Mississippi, looking at traffic conditions in Jackson.  I've gotten stuck many, many times in ridiculous traffic jams in that town, losing over an hour of drive time on several occasions.

Same thing - long red line followed by orange line. Probably another accident, that's what it usually is.  I pulled into a truck stop and waited for half an hour, nothing changed, I gave up and quit for the day.  

Up early, traffic good, drove straight through there, all the way back to the yard, only stopping for fuel. My manager called on the way back, my bluetooth not working well, I was going to put it on speakerphone but he said don't worry about it, we'll talk when you get back.  

Get back? I've got your going out tomorrow, sorry bud, but everyone is working on Christmas.  I thought, tomorrow isn't Christmas and I don't have any hours left. I was literally down to 45 minutes on the 70 hour clock.  So I had to smile. Dude, I am literally out of hours. I just spent the last 8 days on the road.  He looked at me funny and shook his and said, wow, what was I thinking? I thought you were on another run, you were doing Enery (I found out that's another name for the company I went to, never heard that one before).  

He is way too overworked and it shows.  I don't say who I work for on here or anywhere on the internet, I don't want the cancel culture coming after me, my boss, other drivers, anyone.  My old work is on my Facebook, I don't care about that and I don't change it on purpose. People can call that company all they want, I will never be going back there, even if I become unemployed I wouldn't even think of going back to that lame @$$ company.  

Anyway, he told me a story about a truck that was in a peterbilt shop somewhere and how he sent a driver in a rental car to go get it after the shop called and said it was done.  The driver got there - well over 1,000 miles away - to find out it isn't done.  He drover back. Days later, done again. Driver goes - not done again.  3rd time?  My manager gave them an earful. Let me tell you something, this isn't a small company, we don't have 1 truck, we have 20,000 tractors and we aren't going to tolerate you toying with us like this - going on and on like that.

Peterbilt? Called my company and complained about him! Like what?  I won't repeat the rest of it here, but there were numerous expletives and a lot of things I just won't repeat.  Just no need to.

So, we both left - he went to get lunch, I went home, I knew from that that I would be working soon and I want as much home time as possible.  Sure enough, I didn't even make it home and I got sent not one, but 2 runs.  First one is Friday - yes folks, Christmas morning, I'll be up, out of here and over to the plant to load the truck.  To Brownsville.  After returning from that?  Straight back out to Oklahoma.  Can't really catch a break here.  Getting tired of this lifestyle, I've said the recently, going to keep saying it;.

To the point that other ideas are floating through my mind.  Get the land and get the RV park built and get it going.  How? Cash out my Ferguson 401k.  Use it as collateral for a loan to buy the property, get the permits, get the legal work done, install the utilities, a small portable building to start with, get the driveways and pads built and get this thing going.  I have 2 people already willing to help run this affair while I continue to - drive trucks.  

Risky? Of course.  Everything is risky in life. I could lose that retirement money and regret it. Or, I could start getting a decent income and replace it eventually with net profits.  I'd still have my other 401k, not as big as the ferguson one but it will get there within the next year or so.  I've been having a lot taken out every paycheck and at least for now, the stock market has been mostly favorable.  

I haven't, of course, even come close to making any decision about it, but it's a course of action that would get this thing rolling and not take - years - to actually launch the business. 

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Dinner at a nice taco place with the family.  I can actually stand being alone for long periods of time, but there is a limit and then, I need to connect with people I know. It's ok talking with strangers all the time - to a point.  I'm going to let the kettle brew on thinking about my next steps on a business venture - but it won't be without action.  I can at least find out county requirements and if there are any restricted areas where they wouldn't allow such a thing.  I can start studying Texas law about people that pay, park and then don't leave - and don't pay.  Not sure how that works in such a venue.  Lots of things I need to do that don't cost money, just time.  

But after 8 days on the road? It's probably time to watch re-runs of star trek next generations or something : )

 Friday late-morning Typical morning when there is no work.  It was, I should say, until the new guy called.  "There's nothing wron...