Day 8 of no work.

No statements yet when the plant will be back in full swing.  Or even half the output they normally put out? I was at Applebee's yesterday and discussing this same issue with several other folks who also had been off of work for quite a while now. Not because they wanted to, but because what of the Snowpocalypse - so some people are calling it - of Texas 2021.  Some name will stick to this dreadful storm that came barreling through here and messing up a lot of people's lives.  

I put up a post in the local facebook group that was started at the beginning of the COVID crap. It was to help support local businesses that were shut down but then allowed to reopen for curbside pickup or delivery only.  It evolved into all things - our town - and so it was, that the pic was of a crew of city workers and a crew of gas workers working in a ditch in the middle of our street.

A water line burst, so I was simply noting that they were doing due diligence to get all of these leaks fixed so the water pressure could come back up and the lines could be flushed out.  We are still on a water boil notice.  I accidentally drank a glass of tap water last night. It was horrible.  It was really awful.  I had already chugged it down my throat before I realized what I was doing.  I don't feel sick today, thankfully, but I won't be forgetting about that again.  The town is buying up bottled water as fast as it is put out on the shelves.  

Anyway, people started pissing all over my post.  Blaming the city for the horrible job they have done in maintaining the underground water supply and alleging that they should be somehow held responsible.  Apparently the water system is 50 years old here that hasn't been upgraded.  

Okaaaay, that IS old. I was IN the waterworks business for a dozen years, I know how this stuff works.  At the same time, other than this unending hard freeze we had with these storms that came through, I haven't seen a lot of leaks anywhere.  So I started cranking right back on those people.  The city won't let them shut the water off to the houses while they fix the lines, they're afraid of backlash. I know all of this stuff and more because I had a lengthy conversation with an older gentleman that was overseeing the repair of the line.  So the workers were working in freezing cold water. They had opened the nearby fire hydrants to help reduce the amount of water out of the pipe and had a water pump in the hole, but they were still working under pretty miserable conditions.

I just couldn't believe these snarky, cold hearted people continuing on.  I threatened one of them if he continued to piss on my post I would block him.  He shut up.  Others came on and pissed all over the place noting that the workers appeared to all be standing around doing nothing.  At some point, the cavalry arrived, including a city official, on the post and also started pushing back against these people.  This is probably nothing unique in having people in small town that have lived here all of their lives acting out like this.  But it was appalling.  

This morning I posted on the post that water pressure appeared to be back to normal - a good thing, they can get all of these leaks fixed and then we can start using tap water again.

Anyway, I'm up "early".  6:45 was wake up call with kids running around the house. I decided I best start getting back into work mode, getting up earlier and not shocking my system if I happen to get an early load appointment time whenever I finally do get a load.  Maybe tomorrow?  My checking account is going to start taking a backward slide and that annoys me.  I like to see it going up and up and up.  When I'm working full tilt, every month it goes up a thousand to 2 thousand bucks after everything is paid out, said and done.  

But I have the purpose of going and getting fingerprinted this morning and then, hopefully finding this property and seeing what it is.  It has city water and rural electric.  Those two are a must, septic can be installed but I am very hesitant about having to install a water well. They're expensive to install, expensive to run and high maintenance.  And I still find it humorous that people poo-poo a person's desire to start an RV park.  It's going to cost you 30 to 50 grand per space! they declare.  No, sir, it won't.  It won't be cheap or free, but it's not going to cost anything near that much.  And now, I have leads on actual business loans that I am at least going to take a look at. This info coming from people that have already acquired these types of loans for the purpose of building their own park.  It would be interesting to see if I could get a loan big enough to cover the land, lot installations with everything that entails, a small building for laundry and perhaps a couple of showers, a small office - one of those portable buildings to start with, get the septic installed and get it going.  

Yes, risky depending on the monthly payments.  But I think there is a time lapse between the time you get the loan and the first payment. It's a construction type loan and obviously you have to have the place built first before you are taking in any revenues to make those payments with.  Any business has inherent risk, I was just trying to take the path that offered the least risk.  But perhaps that isn't they way I'll ever get this thing going? I dunno, I would have to think and pray about that for a while.  

Anyway, it's time to get going.  Perhaps I'll report later what the property looked like and if it looks like it would work. 

G'day.