Sunday - Night

I just looked and realized I haven't posted since Thursday.

Uh, so I got a call on Friday while I was on the road from a new guy saying that a trailer 2 spots over from him was "leaking a massive amount of water from underneath their trailer".  Huh?  Do you want me to shut it off? YES PLEASE!!  City water isn't cheap, I was already facing a big enough bill with the motorcoach fiasco, I don't know how long this thing was dumping water, but the man described "a lake" at the site.

Gag.  Those people have disappeared, btw, I haven't seen them in a while.  No worries, I think I wrote their phone number down, the water is shut off.  They are "interesting" people and I'm not necessarily sure they make a good fit in the park.  I don't know where they went, perhaps they weren't able to deal with the cold in that thing. The outside of the trailer is in excellent condition, but it happens a lot that the inside of a trailer can be totally trashed. I don't really care about that, it's the external I concern myself with. 

As for offloading yesterday....it was 24 degrees when I arrived at 9:10 am with a real-feel of 17.  The gauge on the trailer was at the lowest point at 30 degrees.  It was obvious this was going to take a while. It became more obvious when I couldn't get the cap off of the tube that sticks out under the trailer to hook the hose up to.

It was frozen on there. A few taps of a hammer got it off to reveal ice. I had to get a screwdriver and dig that ice out of there. After attaching the hose, the valve wouldn't open all the way, the internal valve wasn't either.  I had to stand out there in that windy cold for quite a while before the valves would eventually free up and I could open both of them fully. But, it still took over 3-1/2 hours to unload that trailer.  

The good thing? I got a call while doing all of that - can you skip tomorrow and work on Monday instead? Why sure! I was scheduled to work today, I was very happy to be asked to do differently.  So today off was go to church with the kids, go to the property, turn the truck on, go hiking in the woods while the truck was idling (this was their idea), turn the truck off, check everything in the park, leave, go to Applebee's for a light lunch and then home where I just said nope, I am not doing anything else today.

Well, I was asked relentlessly and finally caved to the oldest boy's requests to help him hot glue felt onto cardboard cutouts he had made to make his own 5 Night's of Freddies costume, specifically Freddy himself.  Both of those kids have become enthralled with that movie, the characters and endless YouTube videos of different things people have made about it, including a lot of home made costumes.  Amazing the cult like following some of these movies get.  I mean, in my mind? Better doing something constructive than playing video games all day long.  

Last night was card night which was fun.  I finally got texted back from the contractor - he hadn't seen my texts, apologized and said he'd have to come look at it to give me a quote.  I said ok, but that didn't sound too good.  I don't have a lot of money for that driveway right now.  His expert operator could probably have that thing done in a couple of hours at most.  So, I will wait with some hope that it being a small project, I won't get charged terribly much.  Maybe an in-between job for something to do in down time.

Weather. The cold spell should be over as of today  At least the extreme version of it.  Tonight it's supposed to start raining around 2 am and if the forecast is correct - which it probably is not - but if it's correct, it's supposed to continue raining clear through Wednesday.  I can't imagine what the driveway is going to look like after 3 days of rain, the snow/sleet junk already messed it up nicely.  I don't know what I'm supposed to do, I don't have machinery, I can't rent a grader, I can't afford several truckloads of gravel and I'm in between a rock and a hard place. 

I think for right now, I'm going to buy 50 pound bags of gravel, enough of them to fill the pot holes and just have to wait this out.  I'm kind of getting tired of spending all my money on "things to do" at the park.  If it were upgrades, I could see that, but this isn't upgrade stuff. The bags are 5 a piece, not sure how many of them I'll need, probably 20 or so, it's just a temporary fix until I can do something about this situation. I don't expect you can grade driveways in rain, I could be wrong.

DeSantis has quit his bid for presidency which leaves Haley and Trump left. Haley hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell of winning the nomination, she never did.  She is fooling herself if she thinks she's going to win it. Her newest attack against Trump is to use the same tactic as being used against Biden: dementia.  She claims he is too old and blah blah blah.  I could agree, but if the left can pick a man who can't remember where he's at or who he's talking to, the right can pick a man that still has a grasp on things regardless of what this disaster of a "hopeful nominee" says.

The situation on the southern border is shaping up for a potential confrontation between DHS/Feds and the State of Texas, who has defied a "cease and desist" order to allow BP agents access to Shelby Park, where Texas Military has taken over, denied feds in and has begun arresting people they believe are illegal aliens under a new law recently signed by Abbott.

I can tell you, people around here are seriously wondering if we are in for a civil war.  I don't think it will go that far and it would be a needless war with needless casualties.  The federal government is tasked with protecting our borders, which it has intentionally and purposefully failed to do under the Biden administration.  I support Abbott in taking steps to ensure the safety of Texas citizens, which is what this really boils down to.  These aren't just regular people coming through there and Trump was correct when he said it years ago about the SOME of the people that are crossing.  Murderers, rapists, people on terrorist watch lists, thieves, whatever.  

I'm sick of this nonsense and it has to be stopped. I don't want to see a civil war, I want the laws that are already in place to be enforced and deal with this situation.  Biden is inviting the entire world to come cross the Rio Grande.  Just step right up, folks, we'll even cut the razor wire the state of Texas has erected to keep y'all from entering.  Jean Pierre - what a nutcase - sits there and tells you with a straight face that "razor wire doesn't work".  Ok, ma'am, we will erect a wall of that wire such as was put up along the river down south and then you can just go ahead and climb right over it.

Don't worry, we'll have paramedics and even doctors there to perform surgery if necessary in case one of your arteries is punctured.  

This current WH administration is nothing short of a global disaster on all fronts. 

Anyway, it's an hour before my bedtime, I have to get up early, go out in the rain and do my thing with the truck.  I'm hoping to work all week, even Saturday, I need the money. I just got paid and it was slim pickings, but that was expected with the holidays and now I've had 6 days off with the weather so next paycheck won't be so great either. I have seen a semi-decent check with enough working days on it, I can live with it, I just need the work load to get me there.  

I don't know what else. There's more, it's just escaped me right now, I'm thinking of bedtime, maybe watching a re-run of something I like and doze off into sleepy land.  I've been having these recurring dreams of people coming to our front door in the middle of the night, pounding on the door and demanding we let them in.  I grab either a shotgun or the AR depending on which dream it is, go to the door, tell the people if they try to break in they are going to die.

Whoever they are, they aren't police.  I know that for sure, they don't say what they want beyond they want entrance to the house.  Then James comes out from his bedroom with a pistol in his hand and we are ready for bloody war.  About the time the people try to break the door down, I wake up.  

Oh btw, the message at church was great today.  It got me thinking about things in my life and where I'm at with the Lord.  I have been considering getting involved in one of the Sunday morning adult groups.  It would mean going to church at 9:30 am instead of 11 and staying for several hours. I haven't brought it up to the boys yet, they like church for they get to play pretty rough and the service is geared towards kids in there. I just don't know if they could handle 2-1/2 hours of it. 

I have made zero attempts at making any kind of friendships or relationships at church, by choice.  I have been burned in churches, as has been so many people, I just go for the kids to get exposed to the Gospel, worship the Lord in a worship service and listen to a message and leave.  Free coffee isn't too shabby either.  I just really haven't felt the desire to get involved with it, I have a long history of giving my all to churches in volunteering for ministries of various nature and getting shafted by gossip, hateful people, people who talk behind your back, leadership that is authoritarian, etc etc etc.  I don't need that, I don't want that and yes, I have rejected making any friends whatsoever because of it. I've had more than my share of it.  

I feel like the Lord is poking me to get back into the swing of things.  I don't want to, I can tell you that. I have friends, lots of friends, but a lot of them aren't Christian at all.  ATM, that doesn't bother me at all.  I have found that non-Christians make far better friends than these fake fairies you find at churches.  They put on an act and go around acting like people that you eventually find out, if you do indeed get involved with them - aren't like that at all outside of church.  

I freely admit I am far from perfect, get mad in traffic, drink my beers here and there, have basically backed off from society in many ways for the garbage that's gone on with people and really don't miss any of it.  But, if you could find a handful or less of true Christian friends that you could fellowship with? That would be cool, I think. Motivate me to dig deeper into the Lord.  

I dunno, I'm going to bring it up to the kids tomorrow and see how they feel about going to church for that length of time. I suppose I could run home after an adult meeting, get them and bring them back if they aren't wanting to deal with it.  I want them to continue with church.  I just feel it's a good influence and the people running that children's ministry are solid as far as I have been able to tell- and yes, I have been watching.  They didn't see gee, we don't want that kid back here (the youngest) after he disrupted the entire service for not getting out of the play tubes. I told them he wouldn't be there next week, which they said ok, but we want him back!  That's the type of attitude you would expect to hear from Christians involved in a children's ministry.

I've gotten long winded and I'm getting off of here.