I no more posted the last post and the Driver License office called me where I had scheduled an appointment on May 3rd to renew my license.  We're sorry, but the courthouse will be closed on that day so we need to reschedule your appointment.  That did, of course, throw me for a loop, for the next available dates are well out into the future, 3 months at least.  It's ridiculous. The state of Texas needs to fix this.

She got pretty short with me too after she went on and on about it and I said, uhh yea I didn't cause' this problem.  She went off on me. I didn't say it nasty, I was just responding to her going on and on about the fact that I would need to reschedule and my statements about the fact that my license expires in 4 days and the extension only goes out until April - and the next nearest appointment is well into May at the earliest.  You know, most people need their licenses, mine is of utmost importance since I also rely on it for my job. 

She then stated that I would have to just show up one day as a standby.  "We'll work you in".  Okkkk.  Obviously I have no choice in this matter.  But since my appointment is cancelled, I'm going to look for a new appointment in their system anyway.

Oh, and she threw in a monkey wrench, one I didn't know: When you renew your license? You also have to renew your hazmat certification.  Yes I know that.  Well, sir, you will also have to retest.  Oh dang.  I didn't know that, it doesn't tell you that on the renewal instructions.  Yes, I've been doing hazmat for 3 plus years, yes I know what I'm doing, but yes, they ask a lot of irrelevant questions that most hazmat drivers wouldn't know the answer to without - studying.  

I have tomorrow off - and no I'm not going.  My brain is tied up in sicknessland, I am not going to sit here for hours doing what I did when I got hazmat certification the first time: spend hours and hours online, taking sample hazmat tests until I could answer the questions correctly.  I can thank them for canceling, for I didn't know that little tidbit of information and I would have shown up without having had done any studying.  Would have I passed? I have no idea, probably not.  

Well I just had to type that one out.  Took me by surprise.  Like, how do you just shut down the courthouse for a day? Did they know this when they put up the available dates for appointments?  

 The only reason I use La Quinta in town is so I can bring doggies with me.  Other hotel chains aren't so fond of dogs, or if they are, they certainly aren't allowing Great Danes in.  Having said that, the TV wasn't hooked up, they gave me a single queen instead of 2 and the wifi password didn't work. Calling up front, the lady insisted it was the right password.

So I hung up and tried on my phone - after trying unsuccessfully 10 times on my laptop - only to have it do the same exact thing.  I gave up on that, I have unlimited wifi on my iphone and it has unlimited tethering, but kind of annoying that I can't just use the hotel's wifi.  

Anyway, on my way down to Brownsville 2 days ago, about 70 miles into the trip, I developed a flaming sore throat. I mean, it came out of nowhere and it was intense.  I'm not the type to just give up, call work and say I'm coming back, so I continued on, figured it would mellow out.  Uhh, not only did it not mellow out, I also developed other "symptoms" quite rapidly.  In no time, I was feeling like I was full blown flu.  

Miserable, I decided to press on, get down there and go to bed - and hope there aren't any trailers waiting so I could rest longer.  It became apparent to me, after arriving in Brownsville and going straight to bed that if this didn't let up by the next morning, it would be time to go to urgent care.  

The next morning - I felt worse.  Looking around, I only found 2 urgent care centers open. The first one was filled with people.  I had no desire to wait. The second one, they took me in right after filling out my paperwork, there were hardly any patients there.  The copay was much higher tho, it was considering a regular hospital with everything a hospital can do - whether that includes operations who knows.  But, it was filled with real doctors, so that looked at least promising.  

They took my blood pressure, rather high for me but they proclaimed it is quite normal.  Then they said they were going to do a flu/covid test and a strep throat test.  Plus take xrays of my chest.  This assistant took a swab with a wood stick and shoved up into my nose, into the membrane/flesh inside my nose at the top and kept pushing. Quite painful, in fact I pulled back after she just kept pushing firmly up in there as if it were some sort of machinery that you can just keep bashing against.  

Anyway, some time later the doc came back in and said negative on all tests, said I had bronchitis.  Interesting, I thought.  I've been getting bronchitis one and off all my life, I never felt like I had the flu. I'm not saying they were ever cakewalks, miserable indeed, but nothing like this?  Maybe my age is playing a factor in sickness feeling worse and worse as life goes on?  I don't know.  Anyway, I left there, was going to go to the pharmacy but I was going to be passing the yard so I stopped in to see if any trailers had come in.  Sure enough, 2 empties sitting there.  

I decided to hook up and get the medications the next day.  Whether I was going to be capable of driving straight through?  I didn't know, but I was determined to try.  Halfway back up, I had to take a nap.  45 minutes worth and before getting to Houston. It was Sunday tho, Houston should have been a non-issue, as it was.  I kept on driving.  I knew there was another driver "racing" to beat me. He had shown up last night and was coming back to the yard just as I was pulling out with an empty.  When I got to Lufkin, I saw him sitting in a fuel aisle.  He was taking his 30 minute break there, a big time no-no in the trucking world.  Selfish, no concern for others, they take up fuel lanes while others are waiting to fuel. Not to mention there was plenty of room for him to pull ahead and out of the way.  

Well, I entered the store, got a water and a hot tea, got back into the truck and started taking off, he fired up and started a second after I did.  He did, however, stop after seeing me rolling out of there.  Was feeling miserable the entire way, btw.  I got on the road, 82 miles left to go.  I pushed it, got back to the yard, unhooked the truck, turned in my paperwork, moved the truck to a parking spot - and went to bed in the truck. Driving home at midnight wasn't exactly in my line of thinking.  I was glad I did. Those people came early this morning to continue on with the banging and noise making on the floors.  

After getting up, dragging myself out of bed after 11 hours of sleep, getting some coffee - in the truck - I left and went to Waffle House.  Hadn't hardly eaten anything in well over 24 hours.  Filled up, went to the pharmacy got that filled and then went home.  They were all there. Banging away.  They had put fresh cement down - the use it to even out the new flooring between pieces.  They had done around a 4 foot section right in front of my bedroom door.  I mean, there was no way to get into my bedroom without stepping into their fresh concrete or whatever the substance is, so I took that as a sign to go get a hotel.  

I grabbed Addler, he wanted to go so bad, I was going to leave him but he's outside all day so I figured he'd like the distraction.  It's kind of like when I'm on the road and occasionally get a hotel room. I always think, Addler is the only thing missing here.  Of course people were - shocked - seeing him walking into the hotel, but La Quinta doesn't discriminate against the size of the dog.  I would like to think they'd deal with aggressive dogs, but I've never seen any like that here.  

So here I am, in peace and quiet.  I took all 3 of the concoctions they gave me, haven't done anything yet and I"m not sure what one of them even does.  I thought they were going to give me prescription strength cough medicine - the stuff I like, it doesn't have opiates or whatever in it, it just stops the coughing without making you feel drowsy.  But they didn't.  They also tried to give me ampicillin, which is a derivative of penicillin, of which I am highly allergic to and noted that on the paperwork I filled out.  

Well, if the coughing doesn't slow down after all of this stuff, I will go to the local urgent care here and ask them for a prescription for it.  

Dispatcher just texted: want me to take you out of scheduling for awhile? YES.  Not that I don't want to work, but right now? I just can't do again what I did yesterday.  At least through tomorrow, maybe longer.  Hopefully these drugs will do something quickly to deal with this mess.  

Nothing else coming from the realtor.  Probably nothing in my price range left to bring to the table. There's just that one, 19 miles away, sitting right next to a golf course.  It's the 1st of February, I think another lien sale is only a month away.  So, I'm just going to wait until then unless some spectacular, magical fairy dust piece of land appears before my eyes that I must have.  If there is nothing available at the tax lien sale, then I don't know what to do.  Nothing.  Give up.  I dunno.  My interest in it will start to wane, it's been a long term goal that sort of came to fruition last week - until it was confirmed that none of those properties will work. And I"m not sure I want to drive 20 miles each way to get to the property if something comes up.  I'm expecting them to update the sale list with a new one - but it might be a few weeks before they do that.  Amazing a county out in the middle of nowhere has so many listings for properties with unpaid taxes.  

Taylor said she'd contact me when they leave.  The contractors that is.  I'm not sure I want to go home.  My version of bronchitis is contagious.  I don't want to give it to the boys - they are always up in my business when I get home.  If they get sick, they have to stay home, period.  The school system won't let them go to school and neither will the daycare allow them.  Of course, I saw them the night before I left, I didn't get it from them, I'm assuming so wherever I got it, I can only guess that everyone in the house may come down with it.  Taylor also has it, but she always has it.  The "acute" kind.  Oh wait, that's with a fever. I guess they will accept them sick, but if they have a fever they have to stay out until they are temp free for 24 hours before they come back.  Still, this stuff is nasty.  

Yup, I'm just sitting here, lazing away the day.  Doing nothing is the order of business. Either laying down or sitting back in a chair, doesn't matter, as long as I"m not exerting any energy. Been through bronchitis - many many times before.  You try to do stuff? You just prolong it. It can literally go on for months if you don't simply rest.  Oh, well I found reruns of Star Trek the Next Generation, that will suffice for now.