As stated in previous, short post, the day turned out to be something much different than what I expected.  We drove most of the day - it was about a 12 hour day.  I got a chance to take a  nap and the dude I was with was very cool and like minded on many things.  Offloading was a breeze, I could easily handle that one.  In fact, I can pretty much do all of it now.  A few refreshers would be good, but I'm going to write it all down out of memory and keep it for future reference.

However.  There has been no word on leaving.  I was assigned to another driver tomorrow - but - the driver responded an hour after the text was sent and said TWIC card.  Meaning i have to have one to get into the plant he's going into.  Yea, I don't have a valid TWIC. It expired a few years ago and there was no need to renew it.  

I will be asking about going home tomorrow afternoon.  I'm not very much interested in another week of this and my checking accounts are bone dry. I need to collect rents. I can probably do some of it from here, but the cash paying customers...I'd have to have Taylor or James go over there collecting and then I'd have to have them deposit the money into the bank.  I may have to try to get them to do that anyway.  I'm going to be looking at the accounts in a while and see what hits when from previous months. 

Forgot. I can easily scroll through on my phone and see what's what. I'm actually good if it's all correct for now.  Plus I have a house payment coming in on the 1st.  If the 3 people don't leave, their check will be sitting in the mailbox between tomorrow and the 1st.  So I can breathe easy a little bit, I'm not spending any money out here besides the food I bought.  I mean, I did make a trip to that food truck once and spent $10 over there.  I've spent less in the last getting close to 2 weeks than has happened in a long time.  

Well, I am with the same driver as I was with today.  He has a relatively easy day tomorrow.  I will learn nothing with being with him on that trip.  He is doing bladders and I will never be doing any of that.  So, I am getting up early and can only hope that I will be able to sleep tonight as I did not last night and the last several nights before that. 

I'd take a nap right now but I'm too wired out for that.  I actually don't feel that bad right now, those naps helped me today.  So, an easy day tomorrow but that may mean I don't get to get out of here until next week? I really have no clue what they want from me.

What I do know is that my guess about yesterday was correct. We were, indeed, empty.  The catastrophe in the plant could have easily been averted if we had shut the air off and closed the valves going to the tank.  The air would have stopped pumping in and the foam would not have been created.  This was my guess yesterday afternoon while at the plant.  When I saw the weight of the trailer after we scaled after leaving the offload area, it was pretty obvious we were empty.  

So, the driver was partially at fault.  In my view anyway, not that I'm saying anything about that to them, they can draw whatever conclusions they want. But, if he had picked up the hose to see if it was heavy or light and repeated doing that during the offload, we would have known when it was empty, shut everything off, everything would have been fine.  The plant, however, is at fault for not having an operator monitoring that tank from the inside, we can't see it from the offload area and also at fault for not having the information provided that introducing air into the mixture will create excessive foaming.

The easiest thing to do is climb up the ladder and just look down into the tank to see if it's empty. That plant and many others do not allow you to climb up on the tanks. But, some of these plants instead have rolling staircases that you put up next to the plant, they have platforms on the top and you just walk up the stairs.  This is something they should consider having at any offload area where there is any caustic or hazardous chemicals.  

That guy was not in a good mood today and I'm glad I'm not with him. The reason I know the tank was empty is the office personnel had it checked at the yard.  We saw him driving the truck up to the wash station this afternoon.  We kind of laughed because he obviously didn't start his day until very late.  They instructed him to take that tank up there ASAP at 9:00 am and it was almost 3:00 pm when we saw him driving up there.  

Enough.  The boys called today so I got to talk to them for a bit on the phone.  I also got to see some very beautiful countryside today.  The plant we went to was nestled up in the mountains and it was pretty cool all of the stuff and the little towns you pass through.  Again, this day turned out nothing like I thought it would but it turned out very well.  Thankfully.   

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Many hours later. I had some wine to maybe help me sleep at the winery across the road.  Note that I didn't say drunk or anything remotely close to it. A sleep aid.  I made my lunch for tomorrow and now am out of supplies to make any further lunches.  4:30 am depart time, I will have to get up at 3:30 am again to shave, shower, coffee,etc.  

I was informed to ask the dispatchers and manager over this entire region tomorrow of when I am departing tomorrow after work.  Okay?  Why doesn't she know this information?  Not her problem, of course, but whatever.   

I'll get my ass out of bed at 3:30 am, get myself ready to go, leave and come back.  I need to be impressed, for I certainly have done my part in this matter.