Hmm, been a few days since I last posted.  

Well, yesterday - Friday, I was off, we have too many drivers once again - I went out to the property after seeing Taylor, James and the 7 year old off. They were going to Longview and I had the 4 year old.  Daddy and mommy day with the 7 year old is what they were calling it - well his name is Phoenix but that's neither here nor there to strangers reading this post lol.

I decided to go over to the property and test the trackhoe operator's theory that he has the piles packed so tight, that if you get a hot enough fire going, the fresh trees will burn up anyway.  Well I knew that would be true, I just wondered how hard it would be to get a fire going.  I brought one of those ez light fire logs that burn regardless. Just put a lighter to it and in a minute it's started burning without anything else. 

So I got that log going after stuffing it in the pile as far as I could get it without starving it of air and lit it.  It took quite a while to get anything else going, but eventually I had a small fire going.  I kind of wrote it off, this probably isn't going to work. The 4 year old was practically begging me to take him to Waffle House, so we went there for breakfast and came back about and hour later.  

The fire was going much better.  I started adding dried wood to it and building it up.  Yes, there is dried out wood out there as well.  I just kept adding wood and twigs to it for a while until the fire really started going good.  I was more amazed at how well and long the 4 year old was engaged with this fire activity and staying interested in it than I was at whether this fire was going to get up and go. But eventually he got bored so I put him in the vehicle, found some Minecraft kid's videos for him and that kept him heartily entertained after that.

Well the fire started to take off and so did the smoke - it was billowing out and wafting all over the place, I called the county volunteer fire department and let them know there is a controlled burn going on and if anyone calls, well, this is what it is.  They said thanks for letting them know and if it gets out of control or something happens, to please call them.  Yes of course, thank you.

After that, the heat started building up and I knew I was getting some good hot coals - this is a very large pile of wood even tho it was the smallest one of them all. There are 7 other piles to go.  Anyway, Brandon - a friend of James and really my friend now as well - heard the call since he's a volunteer fire fighter/first responder and ended up coming out.  

By the time he got out there there was no stopping this fire without dousing it with a lot of water.  Not that I wanted it out, at least not at that point, but you could feel the heat 30 feet away from it.  He asked at some point if I wanted to put it out.  Well, I thought and then responded, probably, this is going to take all night long.  Yes, the fire and heat had burned out the core/center of the pile but there was still plenty to go.

So, he got his truck into position. About that time, James and Taylor and Phoenix showed up - I had been out there for many hours.  They started dousing the flames and pretty much emptied out the tank. Brandon thought it was done and over with, I knew better but kept my mouth shut, lol.  I could tell from the smoke that there were still hot embers under there even tho they had sprayed a lot of water onto that thing.  

We all eventually left, but Brandon went back later and sent a pic to James - it was all on fire again.  But, these piles are along way off from anything, it's just dirt around them.  And it had just rained the previous night.  I wasn't concerned about it, but they - fire people - were.  In the end they decided to just let it burn out. I haven't seen what's left of the pile but since they let it burn, I'd have to guess a lot of it is gone.  

I was given "advice" later on from James who had talked to the fire chief who told James to tell me that I should let the contractor do the burning since you have no water out there.  Because if something happens and you are the one that started the fires, you will get the ticket.  I looked at James, uhh, well, that depends on this contractor. If he doesn't get out there soon and get this going I am going to do it myself.  I don't But hey, I could have the city turn on the water, I guess, tho I'd have to run 800 feet of line to get to the further back pile and a garden hose isn't exactly a real threat to a very hot fire.  

Still, the fact that the nearest trees are at least 50 feet away make this idea that something is going to happen a moot point to me.  I wondered how much this fine would be, if it's only a few hundred dollars I don't really care. In the name of progress I'll get it done. Note that I won't get a fine if nothing happens, it's only if the fire somehow spreads.  

Anyway, I am in Brownsville atm, but I am already under a trailer.  So I'm leaving relatively early in the morning, around 5:15  when I can get on the clock, it's almost 8:00 pm right now.  I have Monday off, the drive back tomorrow - should be a piece of cake.  Sunday drives are the best as far as traffic goes.  I always say that, but it's true.   

And yes I had thoughts of going out early Monday morning and setting all 7 of those piles on fire and get this part of it behind me so they can get out there and blade the soil, but there is a 46% percent chance of rain and that is in the morning. Unless that changes, I doubt I will even try.  

Now, as for the next run they wanted to send me on.......She - my dispatcher - sends me today's run, which was fine.  And then after that, sends me a run leaving Monday to West Virginia. Remember, we are leaving for vacation on Thursday.  I immediately wrote her back and said, well, you've got me leaving at noon for West Virginia, that's late for getting me back in 3 days.  And there are times when it takes 4 days.  

Of course, she wanted to be argumentative about it - I've never seen it take anyone 4 days. I doubt that's true, at all. I've had it take 4 days on many occasions when something went wrong either in traffic, or stuck at the loading plant half a day or had a break down.  I don't know who she thinks she's trying to kid, but she figured out quick I wasn't backing down. I wasn't going to argue with her. If she wasn't going to change it, I was just going to go over her head to my manager.  She then offered to see if she could switch the load with someone else.  

That's really what she should have said in the first place.  Of all the dispatchers we've gone through at this company, this one is the most rigid.  She doesn't want anyone attempting to change "her" plans.  But when it comes to my personal life and I have already received the permission to have the days off, I'm not going to have her messing around with it.  There is no guarantee I would get back the third day and it would be night time getting back even if I did.  She still doesn't understand what she's doing, they never send out a West Virginia run that late in the day.  It's always an earlier load time so the load can get delivered the next day and the customer is happy.  I told her that once, but she apparently didn't learn anything from it, perhaps the customer no longer cares, I don't know. 

I do know they've told me in the past they want it there in the afternoon the next day after it leaves the loading plant.  

Anyway, I got a run going back down here on Tuesday instead. That may, actually, jeopardize my vacation, but not that much.  Yes, we are leaving on Thursday, but not until after James gets off work.  We are driving there and have a late check-in and then have 2 full days and a third partial to enjoy whatever activities there are to do a the San Antonio Riverwalk.  Apparently there is quite a bit to see and do?  I dunno, it's just a getaway from home.  The kids aren't coming - thankfully, this is more an adult themed trip and the dogs/cats/fish have someone to come over and tend to them.  

The only thing that is distressing me right now? I now have chest congestion and a cough.  I will probably go to the doctor on Monday if it persists and get checked out. They will undoubtedly want to do a covid test - and tho I don't have to allow it, I would probably go ahead and get it done.  I don't need to be walking around San Antonio spreading the Omnicron or whatever I might have.  But, this is also the time of year for colds and flu. 

I have no fever. My sense of smell and taste are intact.  I can deal with a coughing cold on a vacation as long as I have some drugs to deal with the coughing.  Which I already have but will need more of.  But if I have Covid, I won't knowingly go around spreading it everywhere. The trip would have to be canceled and my work would make me stay home for 10 days, at least.  Oh, I also have steriods left over from last coughing cold. Those usually work pretty well, tho on the last thing I had, which I believe was Covid, it didn't work that well. And that was a shot in the butt type of steriods, not the pills I have.  If a shot doesn't work, foregone conclusion pills won't either.  

This Covid stuff is pretty strange.  Regardless, if it is just a chest cold, I will need some strong enough medicine to stop the coughing, because nowadays? If you're out in public coughing? People give you some pretty strange looks.  Like - HE MUST HAVE COVID!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!! Lmao

Just go into your local Walmart or supermarket with a cough and look around while you're coughing. You ARE going to get some people giving you some pretty interesting looks, lol.  

Well, the property is in a holding pattern right now until the cleared trees are gone.  I'm not moving forward with anything until that is done and over with and the get the dozer out there and blade the soil and then, see if we need to do some leveling, which I believe we will and wasn't included in the price.  I never-the-less want it at least somewhat level, not too much incline.  A little is okay.  It's probably going to cost far more than I anticipated and I'm just going to have to deal with it.  But I still think the best thing is to simply dig out a pond and there is all the soil they will need.  Kill 2 birds with one stone and keep costs down as much as possible.  

However, my LLC is up and going.  I can now open a checking account in the business name and do other legal stuff that I couldn't do before getting this business status.  It's a good thing I'm still working a full time job, this "small" stuff adds up.  $500 here, $1,000 there. None of it coming out of the funds I have set aside for the park, I'm paying out of my paychecks for these things that aren't too terribly expensive.  Still plenty of decisions that will have to be made, it's on step at a time. I have a solid idea of what my end decisions will be on important things, but, my mind is open and I still look for input, especially from park owners and managers that have been there, done that and understand what works and what doesn't.  

I think I'm going to start a fund and save for the coin op or credit carp op laundry machines.  Those will probably be a bit pricey and I'd like to not have to pay for that out of the park funds. Just do it out of paychecks.  This is the one of the main reasons I knew I'd have to keep working, even after the park is up and running. 

It's near my bedtime and I'm getting sleepy, getting up 4:45 am and driving all day today. Time to go to sleep.

G'nite.