Monday, March 21, 2022

 3 days worth of grueling driving over with as of last night.  Uneventful trip - that's the way I want them to go.  Just drive drive drive. 

Well I take that back. One accident after another after another after another yesterday.  2 of them huge traffic backups that took quite a while to get through.  I had extra minutes because I drove as far as I could before running out of time the night before.  That extra 50 minutes saved me, otherwise I would not have been coming home today.

But after thinking about it, coming home today would have been better.  It would have given me half of today off and all of tomorrow.  I'm on a 34 hour reset, but it will be done by 6 am tomorrow morning.  The other thing that may happen is that Mondays are usually doled out on Fridays, so there may not be any work Monday. All I need is an Oklahoma or Brownsville trip to go with the WV trip and my paycheck is set for the next pay period 2 weeks from now.  

Anyway, besides the two major accidents there were at least a dozen smaller ones.  Don't normally see that many accidents in one day's worth of driving.

I had replied to a local wrecker operator about a potential job with them. Are you local, regional or what?  I could learn the trade and be home after every shift.  I never heard back from them, instead, their competitor saw my comment and got into my Facebook inbox. We have been talking ever since. He is willing to train me - which is quite the undertaking, there is a lot to the business of towing large trucks. I have watched them endlessly while they have hooked mine up and hauled them off.

It's something I have always wanted to learn.  I'm getting a bit old to start something new, but this is trucking and I know how to unhook U-Joints and such.  You have to remove the drive shaft before towing a big truck.  There's a lot I don't know, but when he said the weekly paychecks are between $1,500 and $3,000 he definitely got my interest.  I flat out informed him I am building my own business and what kind it is, but it won't allow for me to quit working a regular job and just do that for probably years to come.  I haven't made up my mind, yet, I need a minute to think about it.

This coming week, the contractor is allegedly coming back to do the bulldozer work. Actually a bulldozer, a trackhoe and at least one dump truck.  The track hoe will be used to dig out a hole near the rear of the property.

I have also had a new thought about the design.  Instead of a pond way in the back, why not have one in the RV section?  It doesn't need to be huge and it would be a water feature right there for them to see and enjoy.  Yes, it would be much smaller, but I could still stock it with certain fish.  

I could literally have a small lake built in the rear later on when my ship comes in and I have "unlimited" money.  Lmao.  If I have a pond installed, I am also having a well dug for water. I will not pay the city the amount of money it would cost to fill up a pond or a lake.  A couple of thousand dollars for a well and a pump.  The water table is high here, they don't have to go down maybe one hundred feet if that to hit water. 

I dunno, but I just thought it a better idea to start with a pond in the front - I have plenty of room for a small version of one and it would be a neat attraction.  Nature's Design is the them, that is definitely something you find in nature. 

Today? My final piece of furniture arrived to finish my room project.  It's a wall console, they call it, I just call it a wall table. It's like 12 inches deep, 3 feet tall and 42 inches wide. It's for the stuff I need to have directly under my TV - the gaming console and the satellite receiver - and other things.  It has 2 nice, glass paned doors on the small cupboards and some drawers.  It's a project, yes, I have to put it together.  So I'm sitting here thinking about it, lol. Been putting stuff away all morning long, trying to get everything over and done with.  After that is done, I move my bed and finally, the end.  

Anyway, I sit here in hope that the contactor is actually going to show up this coming week and that he will show up earlier in the week versus later. It's a 3 day project at most and then I can stake out my lots and then - get the utilities installed. This is all holding me up from moving forward.  

The building I was wanting to buy? I saw the thing by chance driving through a town going down to Brownsville. I had known it was in that town but I didn't know where. Very small. Too small. It would only be big enough to maybe put a couple of showers in or laundry, but certainly not both.  It looked much bigger from the pictures.  For 15k, no thanks.  I can get a 12X32 for 12k - but then it needs all the interior.  

I'm actually looking for a used one, still in good condition, that has had a good, decent interior job done on it, not needing anything but perhaps additional electrical outlets and 2, small bathrooms built.  In other words, the walls and the flooring have already been installed. That would save a lot of time and money.  I found one a week ago, but the person selling it wouldn't send me interior pics of it and I wasn't going to drive 40 miles to see it without at least seeing pics of everything first. The price was right, the exterior looked good, but still.  

No huge rush. I suspect it will be months before they get the utilities installed and I don't even know if they have the pedestals yet.  They should have them, I really need to call that electrician and find out this coming week. There is a huge demand for them, we are still under supply chain issues and it's 2 to 3 months out to get them. I want them to buy them now, as I have already authorized and they said they would. Never heard any word back.  

Anyway, once they finish the dirt work I'm going to design a small pond and see what he'll charge to dig it out.  Preferably before they move the equipment, they'll need all of it to haul off the extra dirt.  I'll need a place to dump it.  

++++++++++++++++++++

Standing down. The cracked screen turned out to be nothing more than a damaged screen saver. It truly looked like a cracked screen. Taylor was looking at it today and said, umm, no, it looks like it's just the screen saver.  Huh? And sure enough, she took the screen saver off and walaah. My brand new phone still intact.  Went to Verizon after a Chili's visit and they put a new one on it.  

No work tomorrow. No work sent, no work taken.  Research into RV parks ongoing. As always. I take a break here and there and then I fire it back up.  


Talks with the wrecker service company owner ongoing.  Not sure if that's going to actually lead to a job.  He wanted to know if I live in Shreveport - no, I live 40 miles away.  I can stay in Shreveport tho for any shift. I mean, I'm out on the road for days, I work 12 to 16 hour shifts, this isn't going to be anything new to me. It's the only job that actually pays anything that I have had come along since I started looking.  The pay would be equivalent to, perhaps a bit less or even more than I am making now.

Winding down. Hoping to see something going on at the property tomorrow.  This contractor is doing his best to give me the lowest pricing he can give. He works my stuff in.  I could get someone else out there to do this stuff and it would cost significantly more.  As long as he doesn't blow me off perpetually, I'm going to stick with it.  






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