3 hours 5 minutes up there, about what GPS said it would take.  Maybe 20 minutes to drop and hook, I tried to find someone at the washout, it was a fruitless search. Trucks idling everywhere, trucks in the wash bay and never saw a soul there, including searching the office, going to the bathroom since I needed to go anyway.  Whatever.  I dropped the trailer, talked to the manager, hooked up to the disgusting looking next trailer - it was covered with the acid that they fill it with, what a bunch of slobs.

Over to the plant, a mile away.  The other driver who was supposed to be there at 7:00 am had arrived 6 minutes earlier than I did. His excuse? He just couldn't get up that early. Well, it was after 1:00 pm, what time does this dude get out of bed?  I could maybe see a few hours late, but 6 plus hours?  For nothing more than you didn't feel like it?  So, he held me up around 45 minutes - it doesn't take long to load this product. They got me in to line up behind him, which was fine by me. The loader immediately got my truck into position and started loading as well. 

3 hours back and done. Tomorrow should not take as long. The other driver is going to text me when he's leaving where his truck is parked.  I figure to leave an hour after I get that text - unless it's getting later in the day. I want to be there at noon or 1 at the latest, I do not want a repeat of today. '

I'm sitting here looking at the clock thinking, well another hour and a half and I'll have to go to bed.  Uhh, no, I could go to bed at midnight and still get plenty of sleep.  Ennis is only 2 hours and 18 minutes from here according to GPS, leave at 9:45 am and I'm good.  That means I could get up as late as 8:00 am and still have plenty of time to sit around drinking coffee.  

Taylor is sick, I found out earlier today, not feeling well at all and I'm dreading getting the same thing. She goes to people's houses with kids in doing her job duties, I suspect that's where she got it because no one here has anything like what she described she has.  I need none of that.  I've had enough with sickness hitting me much too frequently. I'd like a reprieve from it for - quite a while.  ]

Did I say my phone fell out of my jacket pocket yesterday, apparently down in between the cracks below me where I was sitting on the tractor and got dragged by the box attachment for - looked like about 30 feet?  Yeah.  My bluetooth disconnected from the phone and let me know about it, so I was like, why did it do that? No phone in my pocket to check it, no phone in sight. Got off the tractor and there it was, laying in the dirt.  The screen? Saved by the screen saver, once I pulled that off it was still perfect. The case saved it from other damage and the only thing that it had was dirt stuffed into the holes in it.

Amazing the thing still works perfectly.  I recently got that phone replacing another one I had - destroyed lol.  I need to get another screen saver on it and another case.  $30 versus the payment they require for insurance to replace it. It was only $95 or something last time, this time it will be much more since it's not been that long.  So yeah, glad I don't have to replace it.

Am I dreading tomorrow? No.  I don't like the time of day they are giving me for the delivery, but other than that, I can figure out whatever I need to figure out for offloading, it's nothing different than what I have already been doing, just a few different protocols if I remember correctly.  

I don't know what else.  It's been a long day but the real thing is I am wound up after driving. Like, just going like that all day long I have to have time to settle down. 

 

 Thursday - 8:00 am

I did, indeed get the machine yesterday.  I just forced myself to do it and once I had it, I was on the hook. Either use it or waste all of that money.  It was somewhere around 7 hours worth plus transporting the thing back and forth plus other stuff mixed in.  I went back and forth over that driveway 30 times? 50 times? I have no idea. 

I started off in the worst area and went back and forth on that probably 20 times before moving on to doing the portion in front of the RV's and then, just going up and down and up and down the entire driveway many multiple times including the hip camp area where I basically destroyed it getting the truck stuck a while back.  

It was a very long day.  When I finally got home, it was also my turn to cook, which I most assuredly did not feel like doing, but I pumped out 2 version of lasagna. One the Keto version and the other the regular version.  I found the Keto version not long ago and it is absolutely delicious, definitely far better than it's associated recipes with disgusting versions of noodles and basically very unappetizing s***.  

I have it memorized, no need to keep the recipe around.  

Now, is the driveway perfect? Absolutely not.  It really needs a big blade on a big machine.  But is is a lot better and that dreadful, huge pothole is gone.  It may come back, I'll be keeping an eye on it and this time I won't let it go, it will be fixed with whatever temporary measures I can take.  There is no budget for my contractor to come now.  Not that he bothered to show up anyway.

I also got sun burnt in the face.  Quite red, in fact, totally a surprise when I looked in the mirror yesterday evening.  We haven't had a lot of sunny days going on around here and I'd like it to stay that way for a while.

BTW, I was tempted to clear out the field with that machine, it wouldn't have taken much, but this rental company makes you sign off that you will not engage in bush clearing activities with any of their equipment.  It's a bit ridiculous for this is part of what those machines are designed to do, there are multiple companies out there that manufacture bush hogging attachments that go on the back of the tractor and hook into the PTO.  

Oh and their prices went up around $60.  Just like the gravel, there is no rhyme or reason to it.  Companies at this point, in my mind, are engaging in price gouging, getting on the "inflation train" and upping prices for no more reason than they can and they can get away with it. I did note, however, as I have been noting, that the rental lot is full of machinery that is not rented out.  I don't know the gravel company is doing, there are 2 gravel companies in town and they are both quite high in pricing.  

Gravel pricing going up as much as it has cannot be justified by increased shipping costs to get it there.  Sorry, charlie, but double the price it was less than 2 years ago?  No, I don't accept that as just "inflation" and "rising costs".  The whole system is going to come crashing down at some point with the pricing going on everything that we use daily. The cherry-picked inflation indicators the WH and lefties use are total bs and don't represent the real picture.  I don't want to see a recession or another housing crash or even worse, a depression, but what else is going to happen when everything is priced so high that people can't even afford to buy groceries?  Of course, they want you to be totally dependent on the government.  

That is the end game, Socialism and then Communism. If you think I'm joking, think again. We are well on that path.  If you talk to people about their changing views of socialism AND communism, they think it's a great idea. They don't care about the Stalins, Castros, Chinese CCP and a host of others that have killed multiple millions of people through starvation and just flat murdering people.

Whatever the case, I face a very long day again today.  3 plus hours up to the washout, drop and hook, hope the one I hook to isn't a pile of trash that needs all kinds of work, over to the plant in the same town, go through whatever stuff I have to go through there and back home.  I have forgotten half of the stuff at the plant and my notes on it have disappeared.  I'll wing it, really don't care, just pull in there, call the guard shack and they can instruct me from there.  It's been many months since I drove with the trainer, they should have had me do a solo run (by myself, no instructor) long ago while that information was still fresh in my memory.  I just know you show up, park in a designated parking area, call them and wait for your "turn" to weigh in and go into the plant.  

I'm thinking one of the turns to get in there is going to be too tight for that long wheel-based truck to make it around.  If that's true, it will be hell backing out of there.  I am not looking forward to today, if you can't tell, but I'll face it, get it over with and then face tomorrow - going to yet another plant I've only been in once and those notes are gone.  However, I think I have that fairly well memorized and there is a sign posted with the methodology they want you to go through. 

So will it be that difficult? Just do it and shrug off anything that is negative coming my way, such as scalemasters with attitudes (a lot of them have them) that want you to intrinsically know what to do. Haven't you been here before? Why yes, with a trainer, a long time ago, it's like starting out fresh, thanks.  What are they going to do, send me away because I don't have their procedures down to a science?  Lol. I've been in many, many chemical plants, I have the feel for what to expect.

Anyway, I must leave early.  One pair of reading glasses broke, another I lost yesterday and I've thrown the old pairs out.  They were covered in scratches and could barely see through them.  I can read without them, but it's pretty difficult. Walmart, unfortunately, is the place to go for such things.  And I must make a lunch, tho I can take some of that left over lasagna and take a sandwich, that will cover me for the day, I think.  If not, I'll wing it as well.

Time to go.

G'day