Blood pressure way high today, by my standards anyway.  The last time I checked it about 2 months ago, it was much lower than what it was today. It was so high I freaked out to be honest. Even after hydrating and aspiring....I'm going to start monitoring it, if it remains that high I'm heading to a doc and get the medicine if necessary to bring it down.  

The doc? thought nothing of it. Oh, it's nothing out of the ordinary, you're good to go for another 2 years! Gag. He was listening to my heart for a while.  I mean, what's with that? How does my heart souud? Good, he said.  Man, I want the truth dammit. If there's something wrong please tell me, don't just get me through this medical without the truth.  But he insisted it sounded healthy and lungs good.  I'm pretty sure my lungs are good, I can still go hiking. I get winded easier than I used to, but that's easily explained away with being way out of shape compared to what I used to be and climbing hills does me in far faster than it used to.  

I intend on more hiking more frequently. Would have today, in fact, if it weren't the trip to get the med card dealt with and then rain. Rain, it's always raininig around here.  

Oh, well I don't know how accurate those blood pressure machines are at the pharmacies, but I'm going to start using them frequently to see.  Admittedly, I get nervous in doctors offices and my blood pressure and pulse always goes up.  

Oh, can I say also that I hate getting my blood pressure taken? It makes me feel funny when the thing starts releasing the pressure on the arm.  Like, really weird feeling.  I'm not a fan of it.  

And the speeding ticket - in my personal vehicle not in the truck? Well, that's a done deal.  Go to the court house in a few days, plead not-guilty - which I can do with a clear conscience actually - and the rest will be taken care of.  Maybe a slight fee I am told.  I was facing thousands of dollars for a lawyer. 

I've slowed way down on the Interstate, that's what I can say about that.  I won't have to report this to my employer at all and I will be watching my speed all the time now, I don't need to repeat that.  

Anyway, I have a fresh 2 year lease on driving a truck after getting the med card today.  I can only  hope that in 2 years, I will have a business fully functioning and the only reason I would want to stay in the trucking industry is for the health insurance.  

So, I was sitting in the exam room, waiting for the doctor to come in. Yes, they use assistants for all the data, but a real doctor actually has to examine you. I wanted that, actually, what do you think doc?  

My manager calls.  Hey benjamin, what are you doing?  In a very relaxed, nonchalant voice. Lol, I know that approach well.  Not just from him, but from anyone in a company that wants you to do something out of the ordinary,.  I'm just chilling in the exam room waiting for the doc.  Oh, well is there any chance you can go to Oklahoma today? It loads in an hour. 

I'm thinking, c'mon dude.  An hour? I'm not even out of here yet  I want the day off, that's what that is.  But I'm not going to get pissy with him.  I kind of thought it - shitty - that they want me to go on an Oklahoma run after almost 2 days off, but it's whatever.  Uhh, yea, I don't have anything with me, I replied. My clothes, my toiletries and my food, none of that, I just came over here to get this done. Do you have someone else that can do this?  

He was pushing it and then said, well, you can load it today and take it tonight or tomorrow morning, doesn't matter. He wasn't letting it go so I just agreed to go load the trailer and - yes I would have left tomorrow morning.  He calls me back 5 minutes later, forget it, I didn't know the dispatcher had already found someone.  So, let off the hook, the dispatcher contacts me a little later sending me a run for tomorrow: Oklahoma. 2:30 pm load time : (

Leave the plant at 4:30 or later?  I'll get up to the receiving plant, drop and hook and drive the 25 miles to the nearest place to park.  It will be a 2 day run.  It'll be Wednesday late afternoon before I get back, meaning I"ll need something else to round out the week's pay period.  

I contacted the gas company today.  The surveyors will be going out there and they aren't going to be able to access the property unless we have the gate code. Or I cut the lock.  Yes, if they weren't going to supply it, I would gladly cut the lock and cut the next lock and so on and so forth.  But, this time after asking?  The man sent me the gate code.  He obviously wasn't interested in dealing with me, he just replied with the 4 numbers an nothing else.  I sent him a thank you note anyway.  

But now I can also get my 4 wheeler over there and to the back of the property.  No, it's not running, I tried yesterday, the battery is dead. I'm going to try and recharge it but it likely is going to need a new battery in it.  They don't last long, 2 years at max.  

11 days til mini vacation. Totally looking forward to it.  I should have asked for 4 days off.  3 days is nice but it's always nice to have an extra day off after you get back home.  

Some people in the RV business gave me some sage advice today.  Just business people who are looking out for a business person's best interests. I mean, I'm open to any advice. Whether I take it or not depends on whether it's sound advice.  Anything anyone says I can cross examine against what others might have to say about the same subject.  But this dude really broke it down into segments that made a lot of sense. 

I think I can't get by without a bath house. The reasoning went well beyond anything I was thinking. People use their showers in their RV's as store rooms and don't want to have to move everything out to take a shower.  Some people want to take a long shower - I can relate to that - the water heaterss in RV's are usually 5 gallon things.  People want room to do their bathing or they want to bath with their partners, something they can't do in a tiny shower stall.  

After he said that stuff, I started remembering living in an RV. Short showers sucked.  You want a nice 20-30 minute shower?  You ain't getting one in one of those things, the hot water will run out long before you get to that amount of time.  And yes, they are small. I never thought about them being used as storage spaces, but a lot of people said the same thing over and over. The finality was - if you want people to come, you are going to alienate a bunch of them without a bath house.

But how can I afford such a thing?  I can't see less than a 4 unit bath house being worth the money to build.  It's something I'm going to need and an expense I'm going to have to figure out, somehow. 

This isn't going to make me rethink whether I want to get into this business, it's going to drive me to figure out how to pay for all of this.  I just can't see any other way around getting a large loan.  I don't know how to build a bath house?  

Complications were expected.  This isn't the biggest hindrance on earth but we're talking 20 grand at least to build something decent.  It doesn't have to be huge but it needs to be nice.  People don't want to go into shower in a trashy bathroom. It also would necessitate either me getting full time in the business - which I would love to do if the income is there - or have part time help to go in and clean the thing on a daily, maybe several times daily basis.  

I am not deterred. Maybe a bit hindered, but I'm moving on with this land deal. It's become glaringly obvious my 401k isn't going to cover the costs. I"ll need 3 time that amount at least now that I have determined this bath house is a mandatory necessity.  So, I'll just have to try to get the SBA loan and get it all done at once.  Unless something comes along to give me another avenue to get to the same destination.  

I dunno, but I'll take one step at a time.  The land is the first step. After that? Who knows.  But I remain optimistic.  

If there's nothing to report, there's nothing to write about.

Okay, there's plenty I just haven't felt like delving into other subjects.  Mostly this blog is reserved for the daily events in my life.  

It's Sunday, I'm home and will not be going back out on the road until after I get my medical card renewed.  That will happen, likely tomorrow morning.  Plenty of things I can do over in that town, including taking my AR to the store and getting a scope mounted on it and hopefully finding some ammo and maybe firing off some rounds.  

However, I'd rather do the target practice on the - 2 acres turned into a fraction of an acre.  No one goes on that property, the nearest house is - half a mile? and there is already a place set up where I can shoot off rounds without possibility of a stray bullet hitting someone, somewhere.  

The new property will be even better.  Simply hike down into the basin and there is no possibility of bullets going anywhere near humans, since it's down below the surrounding properties.  I'll be going over there as much as possible the week of the 19th and seeing if the surveyors show up and watching their progress.  

I've been doing more reading about RV park construction.  I've spent a lot of time doing that, lol.  But people keep referring to TCEQ regulations - Texas Commission on Environmental Quality - and how "hard it is" to deal with it, but I've read the portions that refer to RV parks and I don't see what they're talking about.  I won't have my own water supply, I won't have to deal with them on that.  I won't charge separately for water, that will be included in the cost of  the stay, I won't have to deal with that either.  

Wastewater I already knew about.  I won't be dealing with that, a licensed, bonded, insured company will do that for me.  In fact the storm water permit is the only thing I can see that may be an issue, and that is only during construction.  

I've discussed this here before, but unless there is something I am missing, I don't foresee that big of a deal.  

___________________

The recurring them in all of these RV forums is "if you build it, they will come".  I post about my intentions on various forums to see what people have to say about the particular type of setup I am proposing.  I haven't had a single person tell me that the layout of the park is somehow - wrong or bad.  Most of them say you really need a bath house with good water pressure and hot water.  

I dunno about that, it would cost a small fortune to have a contractor come in and build even a 2 room structure like that.  That's "I need to get a large loan" territory.  But so many people want that in a park.....I've got the room for one, that's about all I can say about that.  Maybe something for further down the road?  Or get that big loan right off the bat and get these operation rolling.  

Whatever the case, it's Monday morning and I am fixing to head over to the bigger town to the west and get my medical certificate renewed.  Do I expect any problems? No, but then again, getting older, you never know. Usually it's blood pressure that jinxes people, but I have been doing stuff the last several days to make sure I pass that at least.  

Just need to drink a few more large glasses of water and I'm out of here.

Have a great day!