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.  

 I spent nearly 3 hours this morning taking endless hazmat tests, as I reported in the last post.  I was confident that whatever trick questions they might throw at me, I could pass the test.  But when?  How could I show up at the local driver's license department when the office that canceled my appointment was 65 miles away? Take a chance driving clear over there and get - nothing out of it?

I just decided to show up there. At the local one, screw driving 2 plus hours round trip.  They will accommodate me.  Why? Because it's just what was going to happen.  No good reason to believe that, but I showed up with documents in hand, the lady at the door opened it and asked me if I had an appointment? 

But before going in there I noticed only one vehicle in the parking lot.  I knew I at least had a chance at this.  No, I don't have an appointment.  Well tell me what you need then? I proceeded to tell her how my appointment had been canceled, that this driver's license is my livelihood and that I was under the impression that I could show up on standby?  

She ushered me in.  There was only one man sitting there and he had already filled out all of his paperwork, he was waiting them to start his CDL test - a thing I wouldn't have to take, thankfully.  She handed me a literal pile of paperwork and said this is going to take you some time to go through. She then showed me the ticket she had given me - it had a caveat: this ticket number will not necessarily mean you will be seen today - because I was standby.  

I got through 3 of the papers and the lady called my number!  Now mind you, this is a small office to begin with and they were only having ONE window open.  She yelled at me through her screens asking if I was still working on paperwork? Yes, I had to unfortunately reply as other people with appointments started coming in.  "It will be several minutes before I fill all of this out" - I replied to her and thought, at least that long if not longer.  It  was really a pile of paperwork with a lot of redundancy.  

After filling out that, going up to the window - she wasn't going to take anyone else until she was done with me oddly enough but thankfully - paying the price, getting my temporary license she said, "take computer 1".  Gag. I thought I had skated the Hazmat test. I had even paid for it, she had printed it out, gave me my temporary license!  Okaaaaaayyyy.  Good luck! she said.  She knew, many people go in there and fail that test.  They don't properly prepare themselves.  You don't study that manual, that is useless. You just take sample tests over and over and over and over until you get enough right that you are pretty certain you are going to pass.

But it intimidated me, I am not going to lie.  Passing that test means job or no job. They'll let you retake it, yes, but not the same day.  By the time I had gotten to the computer, many more people had come in, many had been turned away that also wanted to be on standby and several people were waiting outside.  Stroke of luck getting there when I did? I doubt it.  I felt that feel you get when the Lord is telling you to do something.  Now, that is, don't waste time.  I was going to wait until 1 pm, when they allegedly take their second round of standbys, but something in me said differently. Now, go now! 

The test has many trick questions.  And worded differently than the tests - multiple dozens of them, if not 100 plus - that I had taken online.  I sat there on several questions and reasoned in my mind what the answer should be.  Questions that I hadn't been asked in any of the sample tests I had taken, but thing I had encountered and figured, well, that should be the answer.  I guessed I had minimum 6 answers wrong and wondered if I would get enough questions right.  I'm serious that out of all of those sample tests, there were questions on the real test that were either not asked in the samples or worded completely differently and with multiple choice answers that were very close together in their wording.  

They really don't have to make this that difficult, do they?  I got to the last question, answered it and stopped to take a breather. I went through the test quickly, it usually takes me little time to finish tests, I either know the answer or I take an educated guess or I take a wild guess, but I won't waste a lot of time on any given question. I'll give it enough time to read it through a couple of time if necessary, reason with it in my mind, but it doesn't take long.  I can tell you that I was quite surprised when I looked at the results screen: 29 out of 30 correct!  

I really felt the Lord was in this today.  That's what I can say about that.  I did prepare myself, but I know how these tests are loaded with trick questions and very tough questions that you are staring at the 4 answers that you can pick and trying to decide which one is correct.  

Hazmat. The love and hate of it.  Love the pay, hate the endless stipulations, regulations and demands of it.  It's not quite over  yet.  I have to go get finger-printed tomorrow morning.  Hazmat is serious stuff to the feds.  You will have a federal background check done - every time.  And they will freshly fingerprint you - every single time.  It doesn't matter about work, there isn't any tomorrow, I had contacted the dispatcher - Sheila - and told her that I was going in tomorrow to get my fingerprints done. I've been off this long, I might as well take the extra day off and get this s*** over with. The plant is up and running, but they are having trouble making product.  I dunno why, but I'll guess it's weather related.  

The street was torn up up the street from my house - like 100 feet at most - fixing the watermain break there. That was very fast for them.  But it was pouring out a lot of water and these main breaks are undoubtedly a large part of why the water pressure is so low in the city.  

The city's grocery stores are barren.  Super 1? Nothing.  Vegetables gone, meat - gone.  Milk - gone. Eggs - gone.  It's all - gone.  Manager said come back in the morning.  No thanks, I was just looking for a bag of potatoes and green onions.  They didn't have either.  Every town's markets in this region are like this, it's going to take time for the supply chain to catch back up.  It's quite amazing, tho, how fast 200 jugs of milk go right out the door. That's due to social media. Someone says a store has it, everyone swarms the place and it's allllll goooooooone.  

I don't need milk.  I can live without eggs - tho I scored those yesterday.  I don't eat regular bread.  This was just mostly for the house hold here and yes, I have been reporting on the local sites who has what and if you want any, you better get your @$$ in your car and get down here immediately.  

I found out at the driver's license office why the county court building wasn't answering it's phones this morning (tax sale): they have no water.  How does that work? Cause the county jail is in that building as well.  It's up on the 5th floor I think.  Somewhere up there.  

The company that does the fingerprinting has finally opened up an office here in town. Last time I had to drive 30 miles to the nearest location. So, they made me an appointment for tomorrow morning, which is fine, let's get this done and over with!  

And the realtor just sent me a listing for 33 acres.  It's 88k asking price. That's actually quite good for land around here - but it's kind of high. The payments would probably be higher than what I would like to get into.  I'm going to go look at it tomorrow.  I just finally got home after running around half the day, I don't need to go out there right now. It's been on the market since last August, it's not likely going anywhere.