Tuesday, February 27, 2024

 Tuesday - afternoon

Getting up early was easy, I actually woke up 10 minutes before the alarm went off.  Heading down the highway? Amazing the amount of vehicles out there at that time of night.  Apparently gone are the good ole' days of almost no traffic at all.  At least on the 20 headed towards Dallas.  Offloading was a little easier since I'm starting to get the hang of the nuances at that plant.  Much more tedium and back and forth than at the Gurdon plant.

This time, with the delivery line, I blew air through it for about 5 minutes, then shut the valve off on the tank side, shut the air pressure off and then bled off the air from the valve on my tanker.  Did it work? I have no idea, I can just tell ya I tried, even lifting the line up in the air and holding it up there to allow gravity to help clear out that line.  I plugged both ends this time, there will be no product seeping out of either end.  

But it hit me on the way back and I stopped at a rest area for  30 minutes to take a nap and continued with that nap when I got home.  I feel better now.  

Feast or famine, I am off again for 2 days.  I don't want 2 days off, not with the current state of my financial affairs.  The Gurdon run is still down, we still don't know why but I guess that doesn't matter, it's down and is staying down whether we know the reasons or not.  I think it's maintenance and repairs at the Lufkin plant, Gurdon is still operating, they are getting the product from the Crossett plant.   Crossett and Lufkin plants are owned by the same company. 

I have a run for where else - Ennis - on Friday, takes me into Saturday and then, I have no clue.  The only good thing is that it's the first run again, so Saturday I will - hopefully - be done early again. Even if tired right now, I have nothing further I have to do today. Mowing I'm putting of til' tomorrow since I'm not working.  Actually also means I can get home on Friday at amore reasonable time, I think it was 3:00 pm I was home on the last portion of that run.  I'm wondering if they are going to make me wash out the tank, no word on that yet.  It's been 4 loads, I'm told they can do 4 or 5 loads before needing to be washed out.  

Well, anyway, 2 days off. What will I do tomorrow? The question really should be, what will I feel like doing tomorrow? Nothing of course. That's what I feel like doing, but what I will do is probably get out of bed around 9:00 am, get some coffee, eat a little breakfast and head over to the property and start mowing.  

After that, I will probably fix some signs that fell over. 

After that, I will probably go home. Or, I will start on the security system.  Or - who knows.  Plenty to do, not that much motivation atm to do it.  I have one lot that is vacant atm, I need to fill that one back up with someone and the other lot has someone coming in tonight.  Or so they said, they didn't make a reservation online, they might show, they might not.  

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So this dude pulls into my park and asks a tenant about a lot for the night? Do you have the owner's phone number?  Guy calls, I said I have a back-in site, the pull through is reserved.  Ohhh, darn.  He wanted a pull through for he thought his rig was too long for a back -in site.

How long are they?  55-60 feet.  Ohh! Ok, I'll take it!  

So I go over there a few minutes ago. This thing is over 40 feet long, a motor coach, mind you, not a travel trailer or a 5th wheel, it's huge and looks new.  It's 400k worth of machinery, he said he "had to put on all new tires today" at a cost of over 5 grand and that he was taking it to a paint shop in Shreveport to have it painted.  

He then goes on.... this dude operates his own air service, owns 3 Leers, 2 Kingairs and is a pilot himself.  "I fly billionaires".  We are constantly busy, I worked over 300 days last year.  I just built my own airport and selling lots (for homes and hangars).  

You know what I find funny? These people have all the money they will ever need and yet, they still look for the cheapest place to park their rigs, lol.  Like, they could literally stay wherever they wanted to, but this guy (and many others before him also wealthy) come to my place because it's the cheapest place around.  I even raised my prices a few months ago, but it's still less than anything else in the area except for the trailer trash places.  

It was interesting talking to him.  He said his friends ask him why he doesn't retire? I don't want to retire, I can still fly and it keeps me busy and active.  He has a point.  Some people retire but they keep busy.  Others retire, don't keep busy - and die. 

 Anyway, I wanted my money lol. He wanted to give me a hundred dollar bill, no sir, I don't have any change but I can take a credit card.  Another rig was supposed to show up as well, but they hadn't arrived by the time I was ready to leave. I intend on staying there most of the day tomorrow - no rain and lots to do, hopefully get a decent night's sleep - I don't really need to be there tonight.   

Those people said they would be leaving "early" - if they even show up - I'll be out there early enough.  

This guy said "I go through here all the time, I'll be back".  Apparently taking a liking to the place, I think the aspect many people like is that the park isn't lit up like a Christmas tree - many parks are and that often times is a turn off to these travelers that would rather have it dark. It's quiet, you will hear a few vehicles at odd times of the night, those are the workers that have weird shifts, but mostly it's pretty nice in terms of the sounds you hear, which is nature, not traffic.  

Well enough. It's 8 pm, gonna watch a bit of tv and then get some rest. 

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