A little less painful than I imagined. In fact, it took far longer for the Love's people to do the paperwork than to simply install the filters. Still, the whole thing was less than an hour and the thing fired right up without shutting itself back off, which is what happened the last time the filters were replaced.  I decided to go ahead and fuel up while there and treat myself to Denny's - I don't get to go to Denny's too often. I don't have time to stop at  one at a truckstop on the way back from Lufkin and the nearest one to my house is either the one I went to today or the one over in Longview.

Anyway, that misery over with (I'll find out next load whether it fixed the problem or not, I bobtailed the tractor over there today), I decided to get the generator, fill it with gas and take it home.  I couldn't get it to start, tho the battery was fully charged. Couldn't find my starting fluid, I'm going to have to go buy another can of it.  It's cold and that thing has been setting quite a while.  Plus it was almost completely out of gas so whatever was in there probably went bad in that length of time. It has fresh fuel, but I think just giving it a hit of ether should get it running again.  I got the hard part done, lol, if the power goes out, at least I'm not faced with having to go clear to the property, hook up the trailer, go to the rear of the property, get the generator loaded, take it to a gas station, fill it up, take it home and offload it. 

That's all done and it's sitting in the back yard.  

So yes, I'm fixing to head up to the auto parts store for some ether and probably go to Kroger's for some supplies. I will not be caught red handed without sufficient food stock and we just bought several cases of water yesterday in case (almost guaranteed) the city water lines are affected, read: sprout cracks and they have to not only shut off the water, but also give out boil water notices.  I'd rather be prepared and it turn into a nothing-burger than not be prepared and left scrambling at the last minute. We've done the latter too many times, it's not a good feeling.  

Plus Kroger's has Rao's spaghetti sauce on sale, it's $4.00 off the normal price and no limit. I'll take at least 7 of those if they have them.  It's normally very expensive stuff.  

Many people are leaving the park for the extreme cold event. Long term, they have friends or family nearby they are staying with.  Some are staying and have adequately taken care of their hoses for the most part, have contacted more of them about dealing with this situation adequately so they don't incur damage in their unit. At worst for me, a line could blow and I would just have to replace some parts.  Not a big deal at all, besides having to do it in frigid cold temps outdoors in the wind.  

Oops, I need to contact the college kids. I don't know if they're staying or going home, but I need them to deal with it either way.  It's their parent's rv, it's only a few years old, a burst line can do significant damage to the interior of an rv trailer.  Put that on the list to contact them today.  That should be just about it tho.  

I found out more about the guy that had brain surgery. He had a tumor on his brain and they had to open him up to cut it out. I have no idea the prognosis, whether he's expected to survive it or what. I justknow that the dad who also lives in my park called his neighbor tenant to shut off their water.  I am going to unhook the hose to allow the water to drain out on both of their units.  I dunno why the dad didn't contact their friend that also lives there to do that?  

The tent lady is allegedly trying to go back to work. She complained the other day that she's broke, can't afford anything and needs to get money coming back in.  Her brother - I hate to judge the man - but he's completely useless. He is able bodied, he just has no motivation.  It's amazing he can't get off of his @$$ to go get some kind of income coming in so he can help his sister.  Not to mention they are living in my motorcoach and are using my electricity to heat that thing.  This isn't a freebie for me, but at the same time I am just considering the bible and what Jesus had to say about helping the poor. Still, that man could do something to help the situation.  I dunno, sometimes people just get to the point in life where they don't care about anything anymore. I can only imagine that's where he's at.  

I guess where I'm at with it is that I am helping her, not necessarily him tho he's being helped because of it.  I don't know where they are getting their cigarette money - certainly not from me.  

I guess I'm a bit consumed with this cold weather coming up and getting it dealt with in advance.  The house will be fine, especially if my generator is there and James welder which is also a generator.  We had both running during that almost 7 day power outage last summer. 

So, to that end, I am going to get moving again.  

 Friday - 8:20 am

The storm petered out last night, went all around us. We got 5 minutes of rain and that was that. No tornadoes, no hail, no freezing rain. I'm not complaining, but for all the hype they made about it....

We still have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to go as far as bad weather is concerned.  We'll see.  I was going to go get the generator today, instead, I am forced to take the pink glory to a Love's and see if they can fix it. I'm guessing fuel filters again, our mechanic said the same.  Just strange it's doing it again so soon after replacing them.  Not that I want to go to my property, drop the trailer, drive over there, wait for probably hours and then drive back.....

The cheater wasn't there yesterday at the offload plant.  Thankfully.  Not only that, but offloading was quick, the product was warmer and flowed out much faster.  The problem with the truck started after I left there about 4 miles down the road.  I was intent on just going home, didn't really care at the time, no regrets now.  

I'm fixing on leaving here and going and dealing with this nonsense.  If I don't, I will be stuck doing it on a day when I am assigned a load and will add many hours to any given day.  I am not keen on taking the truck clear up to the yard in El Dorado, especially with it running the way it is.  Like, 10 miles to get to 65 mph and then it just chokes out.  I would just change the damn filters myself but they won't allow it.

It's fairly simple. Take off the 2 filters, get the new ones opened, fill them up with diesel fuel, install them, and then pump the primer on the fuel pump 100 plus times before even trying to start it up.  It will start up, the question is will it stay running?  The mistake these people did last time is that they tried to start it and when it died, they didn't refill the filters. They just kept standing there pushing the primer pump forever.  It took half an hour to get that truck started.  

Anyway, I don't want to fool with it. If something goes foul they'll blame me and I don't need that at all. 

If I can get this done before say 2: 00 pm - I brace myself for long waits at these places, they usually take forever, a day and a half - I can get other stuff done. It is, however, getting quite cold out there. funny that in the middle of the night last night it was almost 70 degrees and now? 

The 4 nighter showed up yesterday, despite my warnings of potential foul weather.  He replied to my email that he's coming anyway, but is it possible to stay longer if necessary?  Of course.  I wouldn't dream of trying to force someone to head out on the highways if the roads are dangerous.  I blocked that space out so that no one else can take it in case he does, indeed, need to stay. 

The forecast for Monday, however, has been consistent showing either a wintry mix or a wintry mix followed by snow.  I mean, if he headed out Sunday after he's done, he might be okay but I have no idea where he's going and how long he would have to be on the road to get there.  He's slated to leave by noon Monday.  But, if the forecast is accurate - which it often times is not - it will be too late. 

I do not own cats, but they visit me regularly, especially the dark brown one, which is currently sitting on my lap. The kitten messes with her quite a bit, sometimes she seeks out humans to shield her from the "abuse", lol.  This cat is perfectly capable of handling herself, I don't know why she allows that kitten to mess with her like that.  

The dog is the dog.  He's sitting there this morning staring at me, yes I got up late and yes, he wanted to go out.  He's a pretty good doggy, just needs a little more training in certain areas.  I'm not a fan of dogs not listening when you tell them to do something.  I have him close to being at an automatic-sit when coming in or out of the house, we're not quite there yet but almost.  I haven't been walking him that much, he runs like crazy with the other dog around the back. He's still skinny as a rail, the dog's bones are still protruding from his sides and when he eats, you'd think he hadn't eaten in a week.  I don't know what else to do about that, he gets plenty of food, trust me on that one.  Twice a day feedings in fact.  

I'm just trying to get my head into this mode of driving over there to get this nonsense taken care of, if you can't tell, I don't want to do this at all. It's just a hassle, won't pay that much but it will save me time whenever I go on my next run. Slated for Monday, the washout place said nope, if the weather forecast is right, we won't be here.  I told them that in Gurdon and they just said "we're going to play it by ear".  Well, don't expect to see any of us up here if we can't get the trailers washed out or if the highways are bad.   They will have enough glue to last them for a few days at least up there.

They have 2 huge tanks and if they are both full I suspect it's enough to keep them busy for a while.  We might have to do a lot of loads to get caught up, meaning they'll bring in people off the road to help out that don't know anything about that plant and aren't told anything.  They just show up, do whatever they're going to do and that's that.  It usually ends up in some sort of small disaster.  To the point the head honcho up there asked me yesterday if I was blowing out the lines when I'm done? Yes, every time. I don't think the problem is with me or the other normal driver, it's everyone else they bring in here.

He'll have to address them all individually.  It's become obvious those drivers don't care about flushing out the line and then pumping air through it.  

Anyway, I guess I best git.  It's almost 9 am and I don't want this dragging out all day long.

G'day