Tuesday, September 19, 2023

 The  end of the work day, 4:00 pm they go home.  I didn't ask for use of the vehicle for I have nothing in me to want to go anywhere but bed.  

Last night was the dude up til 3:30 am, bed bugs (I'm guessing, I have several fresh bites on me), Interstate noise and little sleep.  I won't last here like this.  I can't go 2 weeks without sleep.  I'll be one cranky person if every night goes as it did last night. 

I sat there all day long working on 63 different modules and got them all finished, only taking 1, 10 minute break after 6 hours of going at it.  The safety guy said "you got them ALL done?" Yes, isn't that what you wanted? Well yes, but what I want and what I get are 2 different things, you are ahead of the curve.  

Well I guess that's good, but there is still a plethora of things to do before I can even get to trailer training. Tomorrow they want me to learn how to adjust the brakes.  I already know how to do that, but I didn't bother to tell them since I haven't done it in so long, the whole setups might have changed.  Plus it will be far easier to learn how to adjust brakes than sitting in that hard chair all day long doing those endless modules with endless tests. 

There is a food truck across the main street about 500 feet from here.  They not only serve dinner, they also serve wine. I don't wonder if a nice glass of wine would help me at sleep better.

But, I don't even feel like walking over there. My arm skin is all dried out and flaky, desperately need some lotion.  Probably should have asked for the vehicle but driving 16 miles each way just isn't in the cards for me today.  If only I can get some decent sleep tonight, I can get tomorrow work day over with and go into town.  There is literally nothing else out here beyond that little food truck.  It's also a winery outlet. The people own a  winery and a food truck? At this exit out in the middle of nowhere. Just a little odd.

The tent lady paid today? No, not yet.  She needs to get this issue of telling me to process her card and having it declined behind her. I doubt it looks good trying to process cards with insufficient funds from the same person happening every time. I'm waiting for her reply, but I'm not running it again until she fixes it or lowers the amount.  She doesn't necessarily pay what we agreed to every time, but then again I offered that to her.  It will just push out the length of the repayment time.  Oh, yes, I ran the card and it declined.  The money would be great but no thanks to declined cards/  I only have one more payment due before the end of the month and that would be the "hunter" that wants to bag some deer. But he doesn't know if he's staying or not.

Oh and the New Jersey people. They are a needy bunch.  They're always broke. Seems like she gets her disability check and it's gone immediately, hence the reason I'm on her doorstep when she gets it.  

Yes, checking my book, the NJ people owe - they always owe and Lot 2 will owe on the 27th.  After that, there will be a large number of payments due around the 1st.  \

I'm thinking I best pay someone to go out there and mow the lots next week.  I mowed the 3 people that were talking about leaving before I left, but it'll need it mowed again.  It rained a couple of times now and that's enough to get weeds and grass flying right on up. 

Well I'm done with this. Going to lay down even tho it's only 5:15 in the afternoon, just need to rest a little. 








 Tuesday - early

Not sleeping well. Too much Interstate noise and its like the window just lets all that noise in. Its going to be a long day.

Plus there is a very strong musty smell in the room I am staying in.  Lunch time today will undoubtedly be nap time.  Don't care much what they think about it, perhaps put people in better accommodations and they won't have sleep issues. Probably not true with everyone that comes through here, but I'd bet money I'm not the first person that had trouble sleeping in this setup.

I didn't help that whoever is staying in the other room was up to 3:30 am.  TV on, bathroom visits which is near my room, etc.  

I also was bitten by whatever in multiple places on my body during the night. I have a couple of huge welts. It's a bad cocktail of things adding up to misery.  I would have been happy to have a hotel room and drive a rental vehicle to the building every day like most other trucking companies do. They are having trouble recruiting new people and I can see why.  

One of the negative reviews, however, wasn't right. It doesn't smell like dog urine in the main building and there aren't any animals in there that I could see.  But pretty much everything else was right on.  These are nice people and all, they just don't appear to have any understanding of how to make people feel like they are at home, ie: sleeping quarters that are a place that THEY would like to stay in.

It's clean in  here, but that's about it.  

There isn't much noise from the RV park, which is amazing because there are a lot of people crammed in there. Heck, there's a crew out there right  now working on electrical for the new lots they are building, don't hear them either. But what I do hear? Constant Interstate noise. I must have been extremely tired 2 nights ago to be able to sleep through all of this. 

The only change today is that I bought a can of coffee and some creamer yesterday while at the creditless-card Winn-co grocery store.  I was trying to put some of the purchase of the items on this company credit card which they alot you $15 per day to eat.  

$15 per day.  I mean, you can buy food and make your own meal for that much money, you can go out to eat once if you're lucky, but for a whole day?  These are the major disconnects I'm having with this place.  

Well, for now, I'll grin and bear it, maybe less grinning.  I have this week to do modules on the computer and next week is training.  I "get" to go home if I can complete trailer training next week. Probably one of the few things they have right: you go out with an experienced driver to do hands on training.  You can't learn that stuff in a classroom, at least I can't.  Have to go to the job site and see it, learn it and try it.  

I'm sort of getting burnt out on having to learn new stuff all the time. The shed was all of that and more, installing a new pedestal, all the stuff I had to learn from scratch and mostly You-Tube videos being done at the park.  I'd like everything to go on auto-pilot for a while and just be able to not have to stress over things.

The good thing that happened were the 2 that paid for another month and another paid via cashapp this morning.  Much needed money and I haven't checked the book yet, someone is due in the next couple of days I think.  

At least the testing junk is over with.  That wasn't much fun either.  Maybe after training today I will take that van of theirs if it's available and go to town and get a "free" bite to eat.

Or, I will be to tired to do anything and just force myself to go for a walk and then spend the rest of the day in this "house".  I do start getting paid today.  

This RV park next door. This isn't "long term", well I guess you could call it that if you want. It's permanent.  Like, this is the house, this is where we live we are here to stay type of thing.  They obviously don't care about the age or appearance of the trailers. Some are new looking, some are very trashy looking.  The thing is, it's full.  I mean, even the new spaces as they are completed fill up.  It's their business model, more power to them.

The cost of housing in this area is very high,  A one bedroom, plain Jane apartment going for $1,300?  This is why the RV parks are filled up as people who can't afford regular housing find living in RV's to be much less expensive.  The trainer said yesterday the owner of the trucking company is charging them between $400 and $500 per month, including electricity.  This is pretty much what I do, I just don't have a lot of junky trailers. I do have one, it's behind the shed and mostly out of sight.  I tired of those people.  They fight with each other all the time.  They make life difficult for the tent lady. Their car was parked in the main driveway the other day when I was leaving town, a thing I forgot to address them on.  If the car is out of gas - again - push the damn thing out of the driveway.  It's not mine, it's shared. 

Well, getting close to time to get out of here. Not much access to do anything on the internet during the day, they have signs up "no cellphones" but I don't care about that if we aren't doing anything. I'll get it out and check it anyway. They do all the time. 

Oh and finally looking out the window, I had thought I as in the rear of the house.  I'm on the side of it and it's angled towards the Interstate.  So yea, that's why I am hearing this noise all the time and likely why the other dude - who was here before me - took that other room. There is a third room but it has a sign on it saying Private. I don't see anyone coming or going out of it, no one is in there. This is a 3 bedroom "house", as it was described, perhaps someone put that up there for their own private oasis when they come into town?  

Fortunately for me, this laptop started working pretty good again. It must have been all of those endless updates.  It was updating every day for a while there.  And those updates aren't 5 minute deals, it takes this thing an hour, hours, a day to process it.  It's ridiculous and it is beyond my understanding why they think it's such a great thing to force updates all the time.  It may be security stuff, but do it once a week not every day. 

Well, the dog is doing ok, so I've heard.  James will have taken him on by now.  He likes the dog, fortunately for me. Not sure how that is going to be when I finally get home.  Or anything else for that matter. They said I might be driving a truck back from here, told me that before I came out here. Well, that is impossible if they were referring to anything in the yard. All the decent trucks are on the road. There is a grass burner, I guess, that works ok, it's old but it's clean. There is no mattress in the sleeper tho.  

And finally - if they have me doing nothing this weekend, I am not staying here. I will go to Eugene and burn up credit card rewards points on a hotel stay for 2 nights. I don't see any reason to subject myself to this hellish place when I'm doing nothing. I'd rather sit in the comfort of a Marriott Residence Inn or similar, nicer hotel establishment.  

15 minutes left, I have to get ready to go.

G'day
















 Friday late-morning Typical morning when there is no work.  It was, I should say, until the new guy called.  "There's nothing wron...