Monday

Almost 13 hours on duty/driving.  I mean, I knew today was going to be very long and drawn out and I wasn't disappointed in that respect.  Up to Gurdon, thankfully the glue came out quickly today, the temperature was much warmer than the last load.

Then, off to Nacogdoches.  3-1/2 hours to there, no trucks ahead of me at the washout, they got that done in about 50 minutes, over to the plant, 40 minute wait before they could get to me. There was hardly any workers there, I didn't bother to ask why the plant was shut down, but whatever the reason was, the workers were not there.  I saw all of 2 people.  Normally see dozens at least. 

Out of there, over to the Love's for fuel and then back to the yard.  The foul weather hit about 10 miles outside of my town, on highway 43 south of Interstate 20.  The wind was blowing so hard, the trees were going over, well not quite sideways but tilting well over.  Loaded truck, it didn't push me around quite as bad as it would if it were empty.  Lots of water. I mean, these recent rains have been downpours.  Lots of flooding all over the place already from the previous rains, this is just going to make it worse.

Anyway, I hadn't done a full route in one day until today. I knew it was possible even tho the other driver said you can barely do it.  Nah, I had over an hour of drive/on-duty time left.  I mean, yes if you run into a problem at any of the 3 places you have to go, then you might end up staying in the truck overnight, otherwise it is definitely doable.  In other words, if I really wanted to, I could do a trip a day and literally double my paychecks.

No thank you.  Of course, they now know I can do it but I made the comment that "I can do it once in a while to help out when it's needed", not "I'll do this every week and so just dump me with this stuff".  But really, all it means is I don't have to do tomorrow what I got done today, meaning tomorrow is a day off.  It's not really a day off, it's just that I did the work already, they don't want me to deliver that load of blue until Wednesday.  I'm good with that. 

It's already 8:00 pm.  This is one of the biggest reasons I wouldn't want to do this every day.  Get up for work at 5:30 am and get home at just before 8.  

Well, let's back up here. I completely forgot about all the junk this morning.  I got to the park, pulled up to the mailbox as is my want before going into the park on any given morning, reached out to open the lid to the mailbox and lo and behold? Someone had run into it, bending it over and at about a 35 degree angle.  Of course, whoever did it didn't call me - the phone number is right there on a billboard at the entrance to the park, left no note, just: screw you.  At least an apology?  It was $125 for that setup, I'm guessing it's much more now with inflation crap.

Into the park, I pulled my SUV up to my parking space and got out. I heard a noisy generator, looked over and saw it was the new people. Why on earth are they running a generator? There is power right there! My mind wasn't working quite right this morning if you can't tell.  The power had gone out last night at 8:30 pm, no one called or texted me about it as they usually do so I knew nothing about it. 

Into the shed, there was a card from the septic system company. They come every month to inspect the system.  Fire ants - completely forgot about that and then a note that the entire system wasn't even working and another note: "I fixed a short in the system and got it working again".  I wondered how long it had been down and also why the alarms didn't go off? Well, probably because the short must have cut out power to everything, including the alarms. The final message?  "the tanks are full of grease and need to be pumped out".  

WTH.  Lovely. I think they charge $450 to pump the tanks out, it isn't cheap and that is more than just a bit annoying to find out people are just dumping grease down their drains.  What a bunch of idiots, whoever is doing it. They are not only screwing up my system, but they are going to have some problems in their pipes and their holding tanks if they keep up that nonsense.  There is no way to know who is doing it.  The only good thing, I guess, is it was 9 months ago it needed pumped out last.  

3 things hitting me within 10 minutes time.  I just wanted to get out of there, which I was doing anyway, getting the truck started, getting the pre trip inspection done and leaving.  Turning out onto the street, it's a steep hill.  A loaded truck, it's going to take some time to get the thing moving.  No biggies, but a man came out quickly at the top of the hill, waved some sort of stick or something at me, hit the ground with it and apparently wanted me to stop and talk to him.  He had a nasty look on his face.  

I'm like, why do I want to get into some kind of altercation with some dude I have never seen before and want nothing to do with?  Not after all of that junk hitting me.  Oh, and coming back into the yard today, I closed the lids to the dumpster this morning. So what did some wonderful person do? Filled the entire damned thing up with trash and left the lids open.  Who is doing this? I am ordering a hunting camera tonight.  I am tired of this s***.  I've tried the hunting camera thing before but the cameras, 2 of them, were old and didn't work.  I'll get a brand new one and I'm going to find out who is doing this stuff and if it's someone from the park, I am going to get right into their face.  If it's someone that doesn't live there, I dunno.  No way to identify someone I don't know.  Unless there's some way to get license plate numbers and report it to the Sheriff.  I have a sign out there that says the dumpster is for RV park guests only, all others will be prosecuted.  

So, I passed by the dude and just looked back at him.  Whatever he wants, I'll deal with it at some later date.  If his issue is the truck, I don't care.  There are a large number of trucks going up and down that street what with the logging operation going on and a small trucking company further down the street.  It's the county, the county doesn't care what anyone does either.  So, who knows.

Back to the tractor subject.  I am going to go to the town tomorrow if I get my @$$ out of bed early enough to see what they are offering and the package price and what I qualify for.  If it doesn't include a tractor with a bucket, a back hoe and a box blade, I don't want it.  I need all of those things and frankly a bush hog attachment would be good as well.  I am very good at getting up and walking out of dealerships, I've done it dozens and dozens of times when searching for my next vehicle.  I don't do it rudely - unless they start talking trash to me which some of them have done - I just say I'll go home and think about it, but unless you can come up with what I want at the price I want, I'm 90% no on this deal.  

I was going to take a pass on a backhoe and just do without it, but what is the point? It is a necessary tool that I greatly need and I don't want to have to go rent a mini-ex every time I need the use of a excavation unit.  I'm ready to get this machinery and get moving on at least getting the dirt work done on creating new pads.  It would take quite some time on a smaller tractor to get that done, but no rush.  Work on it here and there, I don't have the money to do any of it yet anyway.  

So that's where I am at with that.  I need it, I want it, I want to do a deal, but the deal has to be right.  I've noticed that all of the tractor dealers are taking desperation moves to get units sold and off their properties.  Zero percent financing on numerous units, longer term financing, zero down.  

What else? No clue, I'm listening to the endless sound of rain hitting my window AC unit.  The town is beginning to flood, pics being sent out of parking lots you could float a canoe on.  

And I think that's it.  It's after 9 and I want to get into bed and vegetate.