Well. Lots of driving today, been a long time.  

I went up to Arkansas with the hopes of snagging a nice trailer.  Umm....I got the idea this wasn't going to turn out too well.  The address was a very old, trashy, singlewide mobile home.  The house was falling apart at the seams and there was junk laying all over the place.  They had already informed me the trailer wasn't there but close by.

So, they loaded the entire family up in a mini van - there was a host of them I can tell ya - I followed them up the road about 500 feet to an ever worse situation.  The lady comes running out of the car: Don't get out, the dogs will bite you!  Little scraggly things, albeit a lot of them, I wasn't concerned.  The mobile home on this land was in even worse shape than the first place. 

There were 3 junky looking trailers out there, surely none of these are it? I thought.  I think back now with the pics they posted and what I saw in front of my eyes. They had carefully taken angled shots to conceal the shittiness of this trailer.  It was disgusting just looking at it from the outside.  I decided I would force myself to walk inside the thing since I had driven so far. 

It was far worse disgusting inside. The pics they had taken - I'm looking back now - were high up. The ceiling, the cabinets on the wall. The ceiling looked good - the portion of it they showed.  It was sooo bad in there. You step inside the damn thing and put your foot down on a raised hump, the toilet 20 feet away - lifted up!  Wait, what?  The remnants of furniture was gross.  I did a quick inspection, but it was obvious before I even entered the relic that I wasn't going to give them anything for it. 

If anything, they would pay me to haul that pile of useless junk out of there. 

What a waste of time! Not exactly.

You see, there has been this thing in me. It has been nagging at me.  If I have to go back to trucking, can I even deal with it?  How am I going to handle driving all day long? You know, if you' read this blog before I got out of trucking even if temporarily, that I now despise that occupation. There's FAR more to it than just driving, but even the driving part had become loathsome.  

It was actually a nice drive. Close to 300 miles round trip, up there over to Shreveport and then back to the house. It's actually this reason that I wanted to go on this trip, honestly.  I had no idea if the pics would equate into a trailer that is as nice as what they showed.  I did care, yes, but I learned something about me in my current state of mind. 

I will despise going back to trucking, but yes, I can deal with it. It was helpful.  

I wasn't particularly happy that these people had misrepresented this trailer. They had it listed at $3,500, I deem it worth $0.  You would spend that much money fixing it.  You would literally have to gut the entire thing, put in new flooring, bathroom, furniture - it isn't worth fixing, it's a pile of s***. 

I can tell you 2 things about any future trips to see trailers. 1: they will show me pictures of the entire thing from floor to ceiling on the inside.  If they won't, I will move on. 2: I won't drive more than 50, maybe 60 miles to see anything listed.  

Down to Shreveport, I wanted to see the inside of this trailer.  This dude showed me the receipts, the bill of sale and the title.  He paid a lot of money for that thing. Amazing he knew he had just let it go and didn't really care. It served it's purpose at the time and saved him money on hotels. I guess. 

It's a 2016 trailer, the cabinetry in it is beautiful, still in great condition. However.  The bedroom ceiling has a leak, the flooring is soft the entire walk through the trailer from the entrance door to the rear of the bedroom. It is likely just a leak around a roof vent, that appears to be where it comes in.  The roof damage - at least visibly - isn't that bad.  But the entire floor would have to be replaced. 

The refrigerator doesn't work - beautiful wood work on the doors - but who cares if the damn thing doesn't work?  The AC unit doesn't work either.  Blows hot air. Well, at least it blows! LMAO

He came down to 2 grand, he'd have to come down another $500.  He definitely won't sell it for $3,500.  He likely won't sell it for 2 grand, but who knows. He has had only 2 people show up and they didn't want it. I get that - walk in the thing and your feet start sinking.  But the cabinetry! Beautiful! The sink and counters are also in great condition. It would be worth fixing if I could get him to come down another $500. I could fix the roof myself, I'd ask James to replace the flooring and I'd look at the ac unit. Sometimes you can figure out what is wrong with it without paying a pro  I've done it. 

The refrigerator? That same pro would have to look at that, I have limited knowledge of refrigerators.  

Whatever. I'll contact him tomorrow. Unless he comes down on the price, I won't take it.  Someone could spend 3 grand on it and come out with a trailer they could resell for 10k or more. I don't have the time or the resources for it and I have to draw a line.  If I can pay people to fix it and I do minimal work, then fine, I'll take it.  k

Otherwise, I'll just keep looking. 

,Well, got home late. Stopped for dinner after leaving Shreveport. Nothing fancy or expensive but I was hungry for I hadn't eaten since this morning.  It's almost 10:00 pm.  I'll ask the dude if he'll drop his price even more, if he will I'll go get it and park it behind the shed.  If not, well, I have other things to do.

Yes, the tent lady finally texted me back. Today, this afternoon actually, long after I texted her. She said she'd put the dog in the dog park and tell her brother to stop parking in front of the shed.  She told me to talk to her brother and gave his number. No thank you, I want to talk to him in person.  Well, he's "always there".  She's a nice lady, don't get me wrong, but there are a lot of nice people that will trample over the top of you and take you for everything they can get. That isn't going to happen here and I do believe she got that message today. 

I will hopefully be able to go meet with him and give him an agenda of things to do that start - immediately.  Screw the walking trails, get with that tiller machine and start churning up the soil.  Let's plant grass, you can do the work!  I'll find out how motivated they are. She certainly doesn't seem to be, maybe the brother is different.  

The family is leaving sometime next month to go to Missouri. The Florida trip was cancelled so they decided to go visit a different grandma.  I didn't actually know this until tonight being asked to deal with their dog and cats.  Yea, I don't mind. I'll have the place to myself.  It could get a bit strange being in a house that is normally loaded with all kinds of noises, but yes.  

That's the thing about driving trucks. It starts to get lonely.  You start craving human interaction - whatever you can find.  I don't mean sexual stuff, but even communicating with odd people becomes something better than nothing. Phones, texting, email are ok but don't replace the in-person interaction.  

No idea about tomorrow until I hear back from this guy about the trailer. Except - I wasn't even over at the property today.  I'll be over in the morning and checking out their tent site. Do they even have a tent?  Are they trashing the place or do they keep clean? Is this dude really willing to work? What kind of attitude does he have? It'll be an adventure, lol.

Enough. Getting late. 

 Tuesday

Another trailer popped up on the Marketplace which is quite clearly in excellent condition. Listed price: $3,500.  They immediately went down to $2,700.  I agreed to buy the thing for $2,700, however...

It's 112 miles away and it was already 7:00 pm.  I can't come right now, without stating that little fact but I can come tomorrow morning.  Well I have to work, she replies, are you here in ****ville?  No, I'm a little bit away from you but I really want that trailer.  I get off at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon.

Now, did they sell it between the time I spoke with them and now?  No idea.  I will be trying to contact her soon.....just messaged her.  Not going to let the day escape and have her change her mind with someone else.  She confirmed the time but said she would give the address after she gets of work.  That makes it a bit sketchy.  You know other people will be contacting here. She might tell them there is a pending offer, they might offer more, she might take it even tho she has promised it to me.

I think I will drive up to Linden and be ready to move up north by the time she gets off.  There is a meat distributor in Linden that sells all kinds of meats at excellent prices, I've been wanting to go up there anyway. If it turns out to be a dud - them selling me the trailer that is - I can at least justify it with going somewhere I already wanted to go which is right on the way up to where the trailer is.

I will not, however, drive all the way up to the location without her confirming her address first.  Her not giving it to me now could mean a lot of things. Perhaps she's afraid I'll go and try to steal it or something.  Perhaps she wants to ensure someone is there with her before a stranger comes to their house. Or, perhaps, she is holding off to see if she can get a better price. That thing had just popped on there and I immediately contacted her. 

These trailers that are in good condition for a great price move fast.  One minute they're on there, the next, poof, it's gone "SOLD" on the post.  

Been feeling sluggish in the mornings.  Maybe because I got fat all over again, lol.  I stayed off the diet far longer than I was going to and a lot of fat piled right back on.  I'm going heavy duty into Keto right now to get some of it off. I need to get my medical card renewed before July 12th and I don't want my weight to be anywhere near the obesity level.  

The federal government has reached it's tentacles well into truck driver's lives, a thing I don't want to go into right now, just to say they basically dictate when you drive, when you pee, when you stop.  And they dictate your health and if it's not good enough in their estimation, you lose your CDL.  It is converted back to a regular driver license.  

They even know that I am not driving now.  It was in the verbiage on the letters they have sent me telling me to get it renewed or lose the privilege.  Maybe people new to the industry can deal with all of this, they haven't been in the game. I've been in the game when they gave out chauffeur's licenses that simply gave you permission to drive a truck even if you didn't know how to drive one.  The driving test wasn't any different for those tests, the written exam had more questions. CDL's came along and eventually, over the years, the Federal Government has become truck driver dictators.  There is no exaggeration there and there is no other way to adequately put it.  

Now, will I go back to trucking? At some point I think I will have no choice.  If I do get back into it and at least find a semi-decent company, I will probably stay in it for quite a while. Get debt down, get a pool built on the property, etc.  At least the shed will be done.  

Speaking of the shed.....

These people......

I don't know if they don't like to listen or if they have comprehension problems, but I'm already at the verge of telling them to leave.  Try to help people and what happens... These people are parking their car directly in front of the shed, in front of the door.  I told her yesterday to please stop doing that and she agreed. Last night? They were out there parked the same way.  I also told them before they moved in that they weren't going to be making the shed their home.  How many hours did they spend in there yesterday? Over 5.  Further, they were either to pay $5 per day - I was giving it cheap to help them out - or do work. 

They opted for work, yet haven't lifted a finger.  In fact, she was sitting in the shed yesterday, half blocking the door, using my electricity to charge 2 phones and a battery and had turned the ac down to 72. I turned it back up from afar.  Her dog got up and started growling at me when I walked.  

Ok. I was annoyed enough by their behavior that I just sent them a text.  In a nice way, it was shape up or ship out.  No speeding, no hanging out at the shed, pay for your stay, keep the dog out of the shed, etc.