Thursday - evening

Typical late start day.  Get up there in 2 hours 18 minutes, scale in, drive to the shack, spend X amount of time there, drive back to scale, get out of there.  Just feels like a very long day when you don't get back until after 5:00 when I'm normally getting back from Gurdon around 2:00 ish - give or take depending on how long it takes to pump the glue out of there.

Anyway....the farmers. They had decided to leave because they were being shot at by - lasers.  Not laser pointers, but actual lasers. I sat there and listened to this story after I got back from the run today.  Well, first off, then they changed their minds and said they would stay another month.  I'll listen to anyone's story regardless, some of the things people conjure up in their minds is pretty interesting, even more so if they actually believe the stuff they are saying.

Lol.  So, a snapshot of the story goes like this:  they were farmers for 50 plus years.  I'm sure they were, why would they make that up? He said they were selling about a quarter million dollars worth of produce off of their land every quarter.  Ok? Yes, well we were taking business away from - it's a chain local to Texas, supermarket with a lot of medium sized and a few larger sized store.  People had stopped buying their produce because they were going to these farmers to buy it from them instead.  Pretty typical, people like to stop at those stands and buy fresh produce right from the farm.

Then we get to the conspiracy theory.  The corporate people decided they didn't like this and somehow enlist the government to hire people to shoot lasers at them.  He then produced a large number of pictures both showing lasers being shot and the damage they had done to their skin.  A man sitting up on a cell tower (this wasn't at my park, this was a few years ago) was one such person and he had pics of him, his pickup and the light beams that he claimed were lasers.  

I don't want to go too far with this on here, who knows who's reading this blog and I am not trying to start trouble.  Not with them or anyone.  Some of the pics were rather ghastly looking, tho, the damage from these lasers or - whatever caused it to happen to their skin.  

Take all of that for what it's worth.  He then started asking about my tractor - he's a farmer.  I don't have a tractor, I replied, but I've been looking into buying one. They want a lot of money for one and I don't want to spend that much money - or really - I don't want payments that high.  So he starts telling me about his John Deere tractor and the he might be interested in financing it for me.  How much do you want to pay? He had already told me a price of 18k including several attachments.  

Well, I want to keep my payments around $300 per month, John Deere wouldn't budge in their price or payments so I just finally said no to them.  Well, what if I were to owner-finance for you?  I had no idea he was going this direction with the conversation, so he sort of caught me by surprise.  Ok....do you  have anything for a down payment? Umm, well I do, but I'd have to look to see how much I could afford, I can get back to you on that.  

I came up with a figure in my mind but I didn't want to say anything right away.  These people are loaded with money, they sold their farm and they are set for life.  But, you know, if you have something worth something, you aren't going to just give it away. If I put 3k down on a tractor, it comes out to 4.16 years worth of payments at $300 per month, not including if they are charging interest.  You say, well, I thought you were going to sit on that money?  Yes, I was and thinking of getting another septic system.

Unfortunately, the price of the same size septic system as what I already have has gone up almost 2 grand in price.  It wasn't shocking to see the contractor texting me that price today, everything is going up, not surprising his costs are going up with it and therefore, dumping it onto potential customers. 

It put the cost of one of them out of range.  I don't have $8,500 and I really need a tractor to boot.  I need both, really.  I have no clue, but if he'd take that kind of down money, I'd probably go for it.  However, I didn't want to just blurt out: Yes! I''ll give you 3k down right off the bat.  These are financial decisions that I really just need to think about first and see where it's going to leave me after the fact.  

I also need to find out what I'm going to be getting paid on new pay scale, which I will be finding out shortly.  

Anyway, the kids? One has guitar and soccer practice, actually the soccer practice is already going, but he had guitar practice first and the other has a baseball game that starts, get this, at 7:30 pm.  That seems a little late to start a game for 7 year olds on a school night, doncha think?  He'll be getting home way past his bedtime and even later actually getting to bed.  

I'm leaving for the soccer practice in a few minutes, the field is only 3 minutes away.  He was begging me to come, the other one wasn't asking me to go to the game, thankfully, I don't want to be out that late.  It's not really late, I guess, but I have first load tomorrow, meaning get up at 5:30 am. Back to normal.

So, that's it for now.

Thursday (already?)  semi-early

I got up early this morning for no particular reason, well, I was feeling rested I guess so that was that.  I went to bed at 10 and got up at 7:15.  The sleep tracker finally, after all of this time and for the first time give me a score of 81 - which in their view has the statement of "Perfect!" and Great. Asleep time was 8 hours and 23 minutes, snore time was 8 minutes and 28 seconds.  Lol, snore time.  Is snoring a bad thing? Sleep apnea is bad, but I have no risk of that at all, at least according to this app.  A few times sleep apnea have appeared on there, but it wasn't long enough for it to do anything but say "risk is low">  

Why is all of this important? Well, when you've had sleep issues for going on 2 decades, get back to me and tell me how wonderful a ride that is.  When you get the night that you actually sleep well, you feel so wonderful the next morning. Alive, jubilant, ready to tackle whatever comes your way.  On the nights when you get 3 hours of sleep, you just wish the day was over before it started, you do the bare minimum and you struggle. 

Anyway, I was drying off after the shower this morning and had the thought: who on earth had the idea of making clothing and towels out of cotton?  When did it jump into a person's brain that this is possible and what made them think that? Just odd things that cross my mind at times.

Or, this idea that people are actually making vacations out of this upcoming eclipse and purportedly contemplating spending thousands of dollars on said vacation.  Why? I know eclipses are interesting, but I wouldn't drive a thousand miles to go see it.  In fact, I will by happenstance be in the direct line of it if I wish to wait around a couple of hours to "see" it.  I guess it's going to get dark for a few minutes and that's it, a partial eclipse before and after the darkness.  

Well, I can just wait until night time to see darkness lmao.

BTW, have you been watching this wave of crime all of these illegals coming into our nation are committing? Murder, rape, taking over people's homes (squatting), assaulting police officers, jubilant defiance and rebellion, they don't care.  

Anyway, I'm just sitting here musing about having a late day. Yesterday was quite late, much later than it should be.  I can't show up too early today, they will get upset and tell me not to show up so early for the second load.  I've seen them doing it with other drivers, I don't need to be on the receiving end of that.  I don't think they care if the tanks aren't full or close to full, but if they are close to full, they don't want you showing up until they use some of the product.  You can't offload into full tanks, obviously.

I was there 2 days ago and one of the tanks was completely full and the one I was pumping into had just enough room for another truckload.  Yes, it can change quickly, but I know for a fact there is another truck going up early today, so showing up too early without knowing the tank levels isn't a good idea. I'll just sit there for hours waiting.  I figure to get up there around 12:30, maybe even closer to 1.  

Basically, I don't like the second load in case you haven't noticed.  Just wastes the entire day.  

When I returned yesterday, however, I did get the motorcoach moved. The guy that has a trailer next to it decided he wanted to get into a rather long conversation, part of which turned to the fact that he had seen a rat underneath the coach and had jumped up inside of it.  I'm moving it to let other people use the spot but I also wanted to get it away from the shed and this other guy's trailer.  There are plenty of natural predators out there to eat those rats, let them run amok in the fields.  Feral cats and snakes to be precise.  They're welcome to munch away and gobble up all of them.  It wouldn't surprise me if there is a snake hiding out in that coach as well. 

I do have James interested in doing the work tho.  

I also found a loan with - well not great but better than anything else I've seen - that would have low monthly payments and would help me install 5 more lots - if I can get the septic installer to give me a quote.  If I can't afford the same sized system I have now, I can opt to get a smaller one. Less lots can be on it, at the same time, I can build them out as I have the time and money to do so.  It's 6 grand worth, the money I got from mom could get a septic system, I think but it couldn't do anything else.  Still need the electrical setup, pipe, pedestals, gravel, etc.  

No, I'm not taking the loan, not right now anyway.  I wouldn't do that until a septic system was actually installed and ready to hook pipe up to it.  There is the problem of how to form the lots as well.  Without  a machine with a blade, I can't do it.  I'd have to pay someone thousands of dollars to do that for me.  Not something I'm really interested in. This is going to be a lower budget operation, I won't skip on quality, I'll just skip on quantity.  I would do the same exact setup I already have, people like it and that's that.  

So, I'm sitting on that cash for now.  And also waiting to see what my next paycheck will be, I think I'll get it on Friday since we get paid on Monday.  They tend to pay early instead of waiting until the next day which would make it 16 days between checks.  I don't want to get overly optimistic about this, but there should be a pretty good check coming after taxes and deductions.  

Basically, what I would like to do is finance starting up the motor coach renovations.  I have no idea when James might get a start on it, I think he has slated Saturdays for his extra work stuff.   I could actually bring the thing over here, but it would look tacky and just out of place.  Not that our neighbors don't do that all the time, bringing all kinds of stuff and parking it both in front of their house and in their driveway and even in the front yard.  And 7 puppies, 3 dogs .... etc etc etc

Obi was out there "fence fighting" with all of them yesterday. They were making so much noise, it was easy to sneak up behind Obi and just stand there.  His barking at the other dogs through the fence went on for a couple of minutes before he turned and saw me.  The dog jumped 5 feet, let out a yelp and ran off ! lmao.  

Just one more thing and then I'm offa here. The farmers are leaving today. They said that people are using laser lights and went off into some wild conspiracy that I've never heard of, but sounded pretty sketchy.  He said they wanted to stay another month but won't because of that.  Ok?  I contacted a few people around them and asked if they had noticed anyone using laser pointers?  No.  They also talked about people being "planted" in small businesses, trying to ruin them. I'd be the first to deal with anyone like that in my park.  No one can really ruin my business unless they sued, perhaps, and got some ridiculous amount of money worth of a judgment, that's why I have insurance.  

I mean, there are ways to ruin a business, obviously, but my type of business is more immune to a lot of it.  The worst I could see happening is perhaps no one coming to the park.  Ok?  I'd change the venue of the park and turn it into mobile home lots or tiny homes, I'd figure something out.  Ok, not mobile homes, I'd have to change the underground electrical system and that would cost too much money.   

I guess people could bombard my Google reviews with negative stuff, that would definitely have an impact.  I simply told that I'm pretty proactive owner, I can't do anything about things I don't know about.  They can leave if they wish, I have someone else that wants to move in anyway.  They are friends with someone in the park and are going to buy a trailer and move in when a lot becomes available.  

Anyway, it was an odd conversation.  

And with that, I'm going to get my lunch ready to go, get another cuppa or two and fill the thermos, get my ice water and go to the park. I have rent to collect and want to set off the bombs in the coach before I leave today - oh and put up fresh, large glue traps in there. I threw most of the other ones away, there were either dead rat bodies on them or the entire edges of them were filled with cockroaches.  

G'day