Tuesday - late morning

Well, that was short-lived at least. The power went out 45 minutes ago and came back on maybe 10 ago.  I was dreading the thought of having to go get the generator and go through all of that stuff to get things powered up.  The power has been going out at various places around town in recent days without explanation.  There have been no storms or high winds.  

I was up most of the night with the runs.  Came out of the blue and even after taking medicine didn't stop until around 5 am.  Yes, I feel like hell.  Well actually, now that I was forced out of bed with the power outage and had a cup of black coffee, I'm feeling better.  

Because of the events yesterday with Taylor going to the hospital, I did not continue with the fast yesterday.  I made it all the way until around 7:00 pm and then we - the boys, James and I - went out to eat over there.  It was James birthday and obviously not having a fun day with his wife going through what he's going through, I decided I will forgo fasting and just start again - today.  Which I am.  I'm highly motivated to do at least 3 days.  If I can last longer, all the better.  

I just watched some footage of "No Comment Biden" over in Hawaii where the devastation occurred.  There were people that showed up to protest.  People over there are disgusted by his lack of response and apparently being inconvenienced to stop his vacation to go over and attempt to console the citizens. He left where he was vacationing, flew over there, did his stupidity and then immediately went back to vacationing!  

His empathy was when his house was partially burned and he "lost a corvette and a cat".  People have died over there, swaths of homes are completely destroyed - businesses too - people's lives are destroyed and he's talking about losing a kitchen or making a stupid joke about the heat on the ground.  I would like to venture to guess that this man will go down in history as the worst president in history, all of US history since the beginning.  

I can't go on about him and the WH too long, it's too aggravating.  They don't care about citizens, they care about their agendas. That's probably true of most politicians but this dude here goes far beyond just an agenda.  

Anyway, I've got more signs to switch from the metal stakes to the wood stakes and I might as well get some of that done today. The ground is so hard from lack of rain, it's pretty crazy trying to dig holes into it.  But it needs to be done.  I've also got a "Video Surveillance" sign I want to put up near the front of the driveway.  I installed my Texas warning sign yesterday as well. It is required to have posted in a highly visible area if you want the protection it offers, which is basically that if someone has an accident by their own doings in the park, they can't hold the park liable.

People fall, break a leg, blame the park and then try to sue for vast amounts of money.  This new law just came out in June, I found out about it several weeks ago, just now getting the sign into the ground. It doesn't protect from Park negligence, of course, but if you step out of your trailer, down the steps and fall and hurt yourself, that's on you.  I notified others in the area about the new law as well, if they want the protection, they must post the sign.  People generally don't care about such signs, they see it, mostly ignore it and move on. Or read it and brush it off and forget about it. 

People also generally don't sue other people or entities for things they did that caused harm to themselves, but there is definitely a contingency of the public that feels that anything that happens to them? Sue!  That is the type of person that I am protecting myself against, who knows if anyone in the park currently is like that. 

Ok, I just remembered I need to go to Big Lots and get that mirror. I can't please everyone, but a bathroom should have a mirror in it, so a mirror they will get.  I'm pretty much done with spending money on that place, just have spent spent spent. I'm really watching the finances closely, have been for a while.  

I've got more applications to fill out, but I guess I am going to get lucky to have anything coming my way that is decent what with a "preventable" accident on there that is still pretty fresh.  It's not the end of the world for many companies, but there are the more "premiere" companies that want a spotless record for the past 3 years.  It's not going to stop me from filling out applications, I just won't bother with the ones that spell out up front that you must have a spotless record.  

Interestingly, a lot of these big companies that are mostly OTR also have "the final mile" trucks running as well. This is getting the product to it's final destination and they run day cabs in local routes to accomplish that feat.  I've seen them around here, most of them are operating out of the DFW area, I assume those drivers live over there and are dispatched to deliver over here.  I'm not moving DFW area, but I do put in apps for those jobs as well.

I don't have to have another hazmat tanker job if I can't get one, tho the job I have lined up is tanker, I never did ask if it's hazmat.  From the sound of it, it is.  One thing is certain: I do not miss the previous job.  At all.  Maybe the paychecks, but everything else sucked about that place. I am still in a driver's group that work for that company, they are always detailing new things the company is implementing to make life even more difficult.  Besides constantly fighting with the payroll department over "lost" runs, detention pay and attempting to get it, dispatchers that have no clue about the trucking industry and a company itself that is owned by investors that have no interest in trucking, just in making a profit and cutting any benefits they can with drivers, I also despised some of the runs.  

And most of these big hazmat tanker companies now have inward facing cameras with microphones.  I know because I ask before I bother applying.  There is a company that is based out of a town about 45 miles from here that I was considering, until I found that out.  They aren't local anyway, it's all OTR stuff but I was considering it just for the fact of the money.  Sorry, but if you've never had that kind of scrutiny, you won't know what I'm talking about.  It's easy to say just eat it and make the money until you have some know-nothing sending you emails or contacting your manager about whatever behavior you are engaging in that they find unacceptable that they see or hear you doing on a damn microphone or camera. 

I never had that happen, I blocked the microphone and covered the camera up when they installed it and flat out told my manager I had done it.  But I wouldn't have taken kindly to the kind of treatment I hear other drivers getting from their companies.  They are afraid of getting fired so they just take it. I would have pushed back and likely gotten fired anyway.  Wear it as a badge of honor and move on with my life. 

I really can't do OTR and try to run a park, that's the bottom line there. I need to be home daily or at least frequently to be able to deal with park stuff.  It's why I'm willing to take a pay cut to get the privilege of being home more often.   I can take phone calls in a truck which is a lot of what I have to do, it's all bluetooth.  You don't touch the phone, you just tell Siri to do whatever you  want it to do.  Message this person, answer that call, call this person, dial that number.  You can have it hooked up to the truck speakers and most trucks have a bluetooth microphone in them you can talk without having to try to hear the phone speaker.  

When we were shooting off guns the other day, Taylor's dad commented about how nice it would be to build a house "down in here". Yes, it would, I said, it would be pricey to get electricity back here tho.  I have to say, tho, if I ever get phase 2 of the park done, that power line will be near the back of the front of the property.   They can stretch a line clear over that easement and not have power poles touching any part of it.  

I would absolutely love to have a cabin back there.  Another septic system and running water line wouldn't be that bad, just getting the power company to do it's thing.  And of course, the cost of building it.  It's sort of a goal.  Maybe.  That's something beyond adding spaces to the park.  My park has to be much larger to support me, that takes precedence over pretty much anything right now as far as spending money goes.  I need double if not triple the revenue coming in the park to live comfortably, save some money and have money for the things I want, not just need. Get me 40-50 lots in there, keep it mostly full and that is possible. 

Well, not going to get too carried away right now with that. Gotta focus on what needs to be done right now, which is go to the park, get more signs fixed up, put in more applications, start the fast again - which is started -  check the camera, make sure no-one did anything with it.  I remembered last night that some red lights come on when it's taking pics or videos.  At night, I don't know how much that's going to stand out. The tree it's on is to the right and back away from the dumpster. Someone looking at the dumpster wouldn't see those lights coming on behind them.  I'll need to go over tonight and see how much it sticks out. That camera wasn't cheap and I don't want it stolen.  

If it is stolen, I'm going to be a very unhappy camper and it will thrust me into the "now I'm going to do whatever it takes to find out who's doing this stuff" mode.  I can only imagine people are just dumping bags of trash on the ground now that the thing is overflowing, they aren't emptying it until tomorrow morning.  I may be forced to get a larger dumpster if I can get this under control.  Much more expensive.  Stuff I can't afford right now.  

It's that or move the thing to the park.  Some people think they want that.  Yea, until you get all the flies and stench that comes with rotting trash, especially in this heat.  It would solve this problem, it would create more.  It also looks bad. Dumpsters aren't exactly eye-appealing in nature.  Where would I put it? Probably by the shed.  Would the refuse company drive back there? Probably, everything is big enough to accommodate it. 

Well, time to get with it.