9/11

 It's important for me to write about what happened on 9/11 every year it comes up.  I can only explain it being because it was such a traumatic, life-altering event for all Americans that changed the way we live our lives after it occurred.

It was 7:00 am.  My best friend called me and said, "are you watching this?!!".  No, what's going on? Turn on the TV. Which channel? ANY CHANNEL!!

He was right.  I turned on the TV and it was CNN with a reporter on top of their own building with the Twin Towers behind him, one of which had been crashed into by a commercial jetliner.  Well what's going on here? He told me a jet liner had crashed into one of the Twin towers. We were listening to their reporting and discussing at the same time what we thought might be happening.

We didn't know what was happening. It seemed odd that a commercial jetliner with skilled pilots would somehow accidentally find it's way into the side of an extremely tall building.  You would see that coming from a long ways off and  you would likely rather crashing into the water nearby than just go crashing into the side of a building like that.  

The reporters were commenting the same.  How does this happen?  It was only a few minutes later, on live TV, that I saw the second jet come crashing into the second tower behind the man doing the reporting.  The man was in shock. They flatly stated that there is no guessing about it now, this is a terrorist attack, America is under attack!  

I remember being glued to the radio all day long while working, I think I was doing the telephone book delivery thing at the time.  The job afforded me the ability to simply leave the radio on all day. We heard about the other 2 crashes and "if" they were associated with these first two and then the decree that ALL aircraft flying over US airspace were to be immediately grounded. The only aircraft you saw flying for the next several months were military aircraft.  

I spent as much time on the phone with my friend as I had time for, but work duties called and I had to get going.  We all wanted to know what was going to happen because of this event and who was responsible for it?  Al Qaeda came up immediately with expert analysis.  Bush went to the site of what was left of the buildings that were now downed and made a very emotional declaration that "I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear ALL of us soon!".  

It was, of course, many years later that justice was served to Osama Bin Laden. 

The Department of Homeland Security was born out of this catastrophic event and our lives were forever changed.  An airplane crash in New York after this event happened caused wide spread panic at first, people believing we were under attack again.  It was a horrible crash that took many lives but it wasn't an attack. Airlines had to be bailed out by the federal government, the economy and stock market took a temporary nose dive but it all came back eventually.  

These were different times in America.  There may have been political division, but nothing like what we're seeing today.  They may have been moral challenges, but nothing compared to the culture rot and moral degrade we are now experiencing as social media has basically become a venue for wokeness, DEI, cancel culture, hate, anger and rage of people being spoken against one another. We are an extremely divided nation now and I have no idea - beyond God - what could possibly bring us back to what we once were.

I do believe America will have a reckoning sooner or later with the decisions that have been made concerning life and liberty.  But, as we look back upon the events of 9/11, there is still a glimmer of hope that perhaps, somehow, we can all find a way to come back together and not look at one another as our enemies. 

 Monday - morning/early

The sting of paying $2,500 in electric bills has now been concluded.  It threw me off to begin with, trying to make the payment and the site telling me to choose and amount between $1 and $1,000.  The bills were over that amount on both of them. Anyway, it took 4 payments to get it covered. Just weird.  I've made larger payments than a grand on other things with my banking account, it certainly isn't the bank making this requirement and therefore, awfully strange that they would make you go through all of that to pay them? 

My last week of "freedom".  Being chained down to some trucking corporation and living life on their schedule isn't exactly appealing to me.  Especially now.  After today, the high temps will be in the 80's.  Not the 90's and certainly not the 100's.  It will be nice to work out there.  That's what I'm saying.  Getting out in the coolness of the day and working isn't such an incredibly ridiculous chore anymore. Beautiful weather will mean more cheery people that aren't all grumpy about how hot it is.  I don't blame anyone, I've been there too.  It's been a miserable summer. Far too many days reaching over the 100 degree point with high humidity and high dew point numbers.

And here I am, at the beginning of this having to go back to work? Ugh.  Not only that, but if I can keep the park full/mostly-full and people paying, my profits will go well back up with AC units not working so hard and compressors staying on so long to keep RV's cool inside.  

Lot 3 is the only available lot right now and it's slated to have an overnighter showing up today.  I'd fill that sucker up with a long term and block out the campground software on it if I could get someone to move in there on long term basis.  

After getting some great sleep for a while, that went away.  Now, I'm back to waking up at odd hours of the night.  Yes, some of it is the dog, but he's starting to settle down during the night and not do so much moving around.  It's just me.  Probably the times that I am going through, facing this job and endless days sitting in a truck.  I'm going to need a bit of a mental adjustment towards it and find some way to find it more appealing.  Otherwise, going to work every day is just going to be a chore,  a drag, an endless repetition of something I hate doing.  

It'll make me appreciate my RV park and all that entails even more.  And it will motivate me to get that money saved so I can get the down payment and get rolling with installing double the amount of spaces.  I really want at least 20 more, but that will mean a larger septic system and the cost of those goes way up.  

I could easily live off of 36 spaces.  Where will I get the long term for it? Dunno, a challenge to face and a bridge to be crossed if/when I get there.  I think I will get a lot of the Interstate construction workers which should start rolling in around 2025.  I've been told our town is going to be a hotspot for oil/gas work next year.  Just need to keep my eye on the prize, the finish line, the ending where you say, I made it!  

BTW, 36 spaces is around $7,200 per month net revenue after everything is paid.  It is - at least - half of the gross income from that many spots.  Figure a part time employee to help with that many spaces keeping them clean, tidy and mowed.  Pay someone 2 grand a month for a part time job, plus electric and water and park expenses. Even if it was $4,500 per month coming into my personal coffers, I'd be good.

I'll have to discuss this semi-frequently to keep my eyes on the end goal.  And I am hoping beyond hope that these people aren't lying or mischaracterizing or overexaggerating the home time.  It's "mostly" home every day.  I had it clarified - twice - now.  What does home "most days" mean to you? I'm thinking and bluntly asking.  You leave no stone uncovered in the trucking industry, you flatly ask the questions that need to be asked because if you don't, you'll find a snake under one of those stones you didn't turn over at the beginning.  

The pay, home time, type of trucks, which runs from where to where have all been spelled out.  These are all older trucks and they are not automatics, thankfully. 15 and 18 speeds -- neither of which I have driven anytime in the last 6 years but they aren't that difficult to figure out.  It's just more switches on the shifter. Whereas a 10 speed has one switch, an 18 speed has 2.  One is range shifting, the other is splitting.  Since I am not going to be hauling more than 80k gross, I will be skip-shifting a lot.  You don't need 18 speed for 80k, you need it for heavier loads where you have to go through all the gears to get the thing to roll.  

So, basically, you start out in 3rd gear, skip to 5th, to 7th, etc.  Or 5th to 8th, whatever works, really. You can tell by the RPM's and the sound of the engine what is working.  Once you figure it out, it stays the same when you're loaded.  When you're empty, you can skip even more gears. I didn't ask what their trucks are set at, I guess I should have.  I don't want to be going 60 in a 70 zone.  

As with the previous job, the routes are all the same. Once you learn them, it's a done deal, just becomes automatic.  The only real difference from this one and the last one is I will have to "occasionally" load the truck - never did that with cryo, - and usually always have to offload.  As long as they train me sufficiently, I have no problems with that either way.  I'll be taking a notebook with me to write all the instructions down on paper. 

One thing I've found in life, when you are handed a set of written instructions, they are usually incomplete.  They usually gloss over something important or aren't clear on something.   The author might be thinking in terms of something he's done 1,000 times and doesn't realize that he's taking for granted steps that are left out that need to be included.  I haven't done it a 1,000 times and it's probably the most stressful part of getting a new trucking job: just learning the ropes.  

Well, I need to get over there, mow at least half the lots and see about tearing into the drywall.  I'm going to wait til' tomorrow or the next day on the ditch witch.