Guess I haven't posted in a day or 4 lol. Merry Christmas to everyone and hopefully you had a great one at that!
There isn't too much new to report anyway. I'm currently sitting in Brownsville, Texas. I was supposed to go on a run today, but someone called and said no thanks to the load and so my dispatcher had this pleading sound in her voice when she called me on Friday asking if I would take this load on Sunday instead of the Monday run.
I uhh, said yes, not really wanting to, was looking forward to a couple of full days off. As it turns out, she had contacted other drivers who had gotten an attitude with her about it and flatly told her no. Truckers.....some of us aren't really all that great of people, especially how we deal with others. And more pointedly when it's something we don't want to do. I try to stay in dispatch good graces, there is no point in pissing them off or getting rude and nasty with them, they can make you pay for it.
Well, anyway, I got down here yesterday evening and there wasn't any room at the old lot to park so I took the trailer over to the new lot. There were two drivers down here ahead of me, one of them just got a trailer and there is probably two more coming, I'm guessing anyway. It'll be a late start and if it's too late, I'm not committing to driving all night long. Just not going to do it, it messes me up for a couple of days and not worth it to me. It's already noon - they just brought one of our empties over and an empty for a different type of hauling meaning that was the only empty over there. When the others will show up? Your guess is as good as mine. If two of them get here in the next hour or so, I'll make it back today. Otherwise, I'll stop in Rosenberg - probably anyway - for the night and finish out tomorrow. Regardless, with detention pay I've already got 3 days worth of pay going for this run.
As for the property, yes I did go there on Saturday and worked on getting more trees ribbon-ed-ized-or whatever lol. I have the second row left to go. That has to be measured out - the hard part because of all of the stuff in the way - and then put a few ribbons on 2 trees on every lot and that's it. Just trying to keep some of the foliage in there until other stuff can be planted and grown. Then those trees will be cut down. The contractor had missed my texts from a week ago and texted me this morning - it probably won't be until the middle of the month before I can get to it.
Perfect. If I don't get a full day off here soon, I will request it. I'll let them get through the holidays here first, they are hard up for drivers because everyone wanted time off. I didn't ask for it so yes, they are working me pretty good lol. I got Christmas off anyway so I'm content with that. Plus getting down here and getting wait pay - that doesn't happen that much anymore so there's a Christmas gift right there.
The loan? No clue. It's the holidays, I'm not bothering them about it. If they need something they have my phone/text number and my email. I do want to get it over with soon tho, get it behind me and get it done before any new Biden mandate to force people to be vaccinated to get on domestic flights. I will drive to Arizona if I have to. I won't want to, but it's definitely on the table if need be. I'll just rent a small car with much better fuel mileage - my SUV really isn't a good long distance vehicle, I don't think so anyway. I don't drive long distances so it works for me. It runs great but I don't think I would trust it driving 2,500 miles round trip. It can take a rest for that if it comes down to that lol.
Christmas was fun. Well sort of. The 4 year old was driving mommy up the wall, the 6 year old was out of character - acting out is what I would call it - but we fairly well ignored them and did our thing.
We're pretty good at ignoring children when they need to be ignored. If they're just bored and looking for attention, yeah, they have plenty to entertain themselves with, they don't need to be constantly bugging the adults.
I just keep reading the posts on the RV park forums for more ideas. And I got one in the face today. I was reading a guy's statement about a pic of a park another guy is developing. The man indicated that he should have angled back in spots (which I will have) and they should be driver's side back in. I didn't even think about that, at all. Blind side backing is difficult, even truckers don't like doing it. In case you're wondering, yes, I had it set up with blind side backing in, totally escaped me while I was thinking of how t set it up. Duhhhhh. So that will be revised. It shouldn't cost any more money, it's just the back in spots angled the opposite direction, the pull through sites won't change. The dude that had posted the construction pic had a lot of experienced developers suggesting to him to angle the lots, straight in backing is not desirable and a lot of people who are looking for a place, when they see that, will just move on to another RV park.
He ignored all of the advice and that was that. For me it was a no brainer after all the reading I had done, most people want it angled even if they are good at backing. Just makes it that much easier and less hassle. The pic included a view of a pond he apparently had built - totally dark brown and ugly. That's what I'm afraid of happening and looking into ways to keep it from doing that. Instead of having a stream feeding it, it would be better to have a well dug and just pump clean water into it from the ground. Of course wells aren't cheap to dig and the pump and piping, but in the end, it may be necessary. I need to do more research on that. Dark water is fine, but brown, muddy looking water is not so pleasant to look at. I don't think fish care, it's just the aesthetics. Everything need to look good. Everything.
And even more reading on RV parks that actually put up fencing in between the lots - and the high desirability that RV'ers have with such a setup. It's just a chain link fence with the slats they stick through it at an angle to give privacy. I'd rather have thick, tall bushes to do that - it takes years to grow such a setup. I'm not sure about that one, just have to think about it. Everything costs money and I only have a finite amount of that. Other things will take precedence, if there's enough left over then I will probably do it - at the same time a doggy park fence is put up.
That's it, for now. I just contacted the other driver who is in the yard over there - he said he's stuck in the back they have so many trucks in the way. Okkkkk then, not going in there until a trailer arrives! lol. I'm thinking it's time to go get some tacos....
G'day
