I will only do OTR as a very - and I mean a far distant - last resort.  That wording should indicate how much I despise the trucking industry.  It might make you a good deal of money, but you make a lot of sacrifices in your personal life to get that money.  

It's not worth it.  I'd take a drastic pay cut to be home every night if it comes down to choosing between staying on the road weeks at a time or getting home every night or near every night.  

I only say this because this dude that has been trying to get me to switch over to his company for several years now flatly stated that "we can't get you home that often" after I indicated I'd need to be home at least 2 nights per week.  I've paid the price, I've done the "live in a truck" routine, I'm sick of it and I am ready for a change.  

He suggested some other company he is apparently affiliated with that could get me home weekly.  Now, in terms of trucking companies, getting home "weekly" usually means 1 day per week. These companies are draconian and severely outdated in their views of how people that drive trucks want to live their lives.  The entire industry needs to be restructured. There may be people that actually like being on the road endlessly - more power to them!  Me? No thank you. 

I read these companies' ads all the time, they show up on my Facebook and Google feeds daily.  "Our home time is structured so that for every 7 days you are out, you get 1 day home!"....as if that is some sort of gleeful, glorious, wondrous gift from the company to see your friends, family, bedroom and dog once a week.  

Sick. They wouldn't ever dream of living their lives in such an arrangement.  

Folks, I could get a job right now.  Just call pretty much any of the major trucking companies.  I'm ready to go back to work!  They'd schedule me for an orientation and I'd be whisked away to some other state to sit in an office building for 3 to 5 days and informed - commanded - how I am going to live my life for this company. That's literally what it is, this is what your life is going to be working for us.  

The longer I am out of trucking, the more I abhor it.  I just hope that when I need to get back to work, I can find something decent.  I will start with home every night/day jobs and see what that gets me. There is a wood chip hauling company that is local here, I think their yearly earnings are in the 60k range. That's a 30k pay cut, but you have weekends off and you are home every night.  

 Company drivers - people who drive trucks but don't own the truck they are driving - don't understand how shi*** their lives are until they get out of it.  Well, I know how crappy it was, I just did it because I had to.  Now that I am facing and hoping for at least a partial income from the business startup, a part time job somewhere sounds nicely appealing.  Not even in trucking.  

I'd still like to find a lot somewhere nearby, flat and level with a big entrance and turn it into paid trucking parking. They line the Interstate at night in this area. Actually, they do that everywhere - can't find a place to park they end up on an onramp to sleep.  It'd have to be fenced in of course and have an attendant.  Big enough for at least 100 trucks, give a cheap rate that they won't scoff at.  Every place I've been to that charges for parking starts at $12 and goes up to $26! For ONE night, to park for 10 hours! Give a discount for a 34 hour reset and make it close enough to local business that one of the companies that picks up food and delivers to you will be in their range of delivery.  

Just a simple land lease, not ownership.  Limited risk, limited exposure.  I haven't been looking lately but I do have a place in mind. It's an old, abandoned truck stop, the building is gone but there is still all that nice room. It's only used as a - truck parking area - at night, lol. Free parking, of course, they take up what space is left. The land there has been abandoned so long, it's full of trees and brush, not a lot of area to park.  Trust me, I have paid to park in dirt parking lots many, many times over.  

))))))))))))))))))))

Enough of that.  It's Monday morning and I'm fixing to go get a bag of ice and head over to the property.  I will continue to cut the trees and shrubbery along the driveway.  I was over there yesterday during the rain - I got there about an hour and a half after it started.  There was no build of water anywhere. It was a medium-rate downfall of rain, apparently not enough to cause the flooding issues I saw a few weeks ago.

Unfortunate. I wanted to see where the issues are and address them directly.  Apparently, it must have to be a deluge, a very heavy downpour of rain to cause that kind of flooding. I am "promised" that the construction crews will come this week to put in the power poles and run the lines.  If we get to Friday morning and they still haven't shown up, I'm just going to contact this engineer again. 

I've been polite and professional with him to this point. I will continue to do so, but I will definitely be turning up the heat.  I need this done.

OH. The sign!

Change of plans. I will see this morning if the ground got wet enough to dig out those post holes. I'd like to save the $90 to rent a machine, for right now, it's just 2, 3-feet deep holes.  That's it. Put the 4X10's in there, dump the quickcrete in there, level them, make sure they are situated correctly and walaah.  Sign posts.  The tree and brush thing sort of blocked out everything else.

I was looking at it yesterday. In order for longer rigs to pull out of their spaces, all of that brush will have to be cleared out of there.  No choice in the matter, not a big deal, but it is hard work.  There really isn't any "easy" work to be had out there.  I can't really think of anything that has been on the "gee, this is relaxing, pleasant and doesn't require a lot of physical output" type of work that I have engaged in out there.  Maybe operating machinery, but after hours of being cramped in those things in hot weather, that becomes a chore as well.  

I don't think I'll get into politics today. I read the news - I'm not even watching it on TV anymore - and just become disgusted with the attitudes that politicians are taking against "the other side".  A "threat to national security" - that one will never be lived down. 70 million people in this nation are a threat to national security! 

I'd laugh but these people are serious about their rhetoric.  Socialism and communism are becoming more and more popular. The demise of America before our very eyes is starting before our very eyes and the only thing, in my view, that will stop it at this point is a revolution. Yeah, I don't favor that option, I'm just saying, with the push towards and authoritarian society with an elite ruling class that "takes care of everyone" that is becoming more and more popular?  

I dunno.  

I have a lot planned today.  I need to get busy.

G'day