Thursday, May 23, 2024

 Thursday - evening

The vibration got worse, enough so that I got permission to replace the tire that I think is causing the problem. So, after loading, I went to Love's and they got right on it. Well, I had been sitting there an hour and the dude hadn't even jacked the trailer up?  They don't necessarily have experienced tire workers there, in many cases it appears they are brand new to it and just out of "training".

Well, it didn't get any better. The guy came in after a while asking if there was an adjustable wrench somewhere. He was informed by the manager where one was but then asked why he needs one?     A lugnut had busted in half taking it off and they couldn't get it off of there.

The manager eventually said, well, we'd take responsibility for this but look, all other lugnuts came off of there without a hitch.  Yes, I thought, the kid probably had the impact wrench set to turn the wrong direction and it snapped it. Please don't try to pull one over on me.  I said nothing, however, and just let it go.  He also said "we can't go any further with it", meaning they weren't even going to replace the tire.  Look, I've seen plenty of tire hands take tires off of rims that are still bolted to the trailer, many many times I've seen this.  Most of them prefer to do that versus taking all of those lugnuts off of there.

So, they put the mess back together, minus one lugnut and the manager said "it's perfectly legal to run with one broken lugnut". I was afraid they were going to try and tell me that they couldn't put it back together, much the same situation that happened last month in Arkansas where the lugnuts were stripped and they wouldn't put it back together without replacing them.  

I got out of there and then got pulled into a Texas CMV inspection station (Commercial Motor Vehicle). However, 2 of the troopers were standing out there chatting by one of their cruisers, looked at me, the truck and waved me on.  They couldn't see the busted lugnut, I'm pretty sure that even if it is legal, they're going to pull me in for that and probably write it up.  

The vibration was even worse after leaving there, to the point I slowed down to 65mph to keep it from getting too much, I was afraid a tire would bust apart and I can't do that right now. I needed to get home and I need to get to Gurdon, offload and get back home again.  It can be dealt with next week, drop the trailer at the yard and they can fix the damn thing.  

This whole thing irritates me because the previous driver knew there was a problem and just dumped it off onto someone else.   

The whole scenario has changed for the kids.  They will go to grandma's at some point, but it turns out they have Covid.  So, they aren't going to be around anyone for a while.  James and Taylor are leaving tomorrow after a meeting she has at work and going to Medieval Times, the venue I went to with the oldest kid last month for a school outing.  She said the tickets are non-refundable. I had mentioned after finding out grandma isn't coming, via text message I should add, that we could just bring the kids. I will hang out with them on the kiddie rides.  

Back and forth and yes, we are going to do that.  Tomorrow, they will leave for Dallas for their fun and I will go to work, get that load off the trailer, come back, go get the kids from the daycare, come home, get their stuff and also leave for Dallas. The 6 flags adventure isn't until Saturday, but I decided to get a nice hotel - Marriot Residence Inn - and stay the night in a place I really like to stay in from time to time.  That's already reserved.  They are buying the tickets tonight online, apparently they are having sale but you have to buy the tickets in advance. Anything to save a few bucks, but I am splurging on the hotel room.  

Meanwhile, the tent people.  They crossed my last line today and I told them to leave.  You are spending far too much time in the amenities shed, I have repeatedly asked you to keep your time in their limited, you have repeatedly ignored my wishes, I want you gone.  She took umbrage with that, the lady that is, and said they - the kids - were "only in there 45 minutes" today.  No, ma'am, they were in there for many hours, I have it on video.   What annoyed me was that yet again, I went in there to go use the toilet after driving and they were in there, again and had been in there for a long time. I'm talking the bathroom now.  I spoke loudly: Y'all are in that bathroom every time I come in here!

After that, she blew up my phone with basically pleading to let them stay.  The 19 year old blew up my phone with insults, I contacted the lady and told her if he doesn't stop, I'll call the sheriff out there.  If you don't think I'd do that, think again.  I will not be abused by guests mouthing off to me about things they know they are doing wrong.  I made it crystal clear to them I didn't want them hanging out in that shed when they first showed up. And then I had to ask again and again.

Just got to my limit.  It is decided to give them one last try.  They can take 15 minute showers and they can recharge their phones - OUTSIDE.  But, I required the boy to apologize, if he wasn't going to do that, no go. So, he texted and apologized. He had been telling me I had been "treating them like trash" and on and on, just wasn't interested in reading all of it, it was 5 paragraphs of bs.                      

Do I expect a different result? That depends on how bad they want to stay there.  They obviously have nowhere else to go.  I am sympathetic to a degree, but I am also running a business and I told her that: this is mostly an RV park business, not a tent campground. Also, the tent sites are primitve, meaning now water and no electricity.  How many times have I gone tent camping in my lifetime with no running water, no electricity and no toilet? Probably in the hundreds.  

So, that's the plan anyway. Oh, and I asked the other driver if it would be possible to switch delivery times.  I told him what was going on but also said "feel free to say no", not pressuring him but I really want to be home at an early hour, not at 4 or 5 in the afternoon.  He agreed to it and I told him I would gladly give up an early load next week if he wants it.  I will be leaving here even earlier than normal for he wants to be able to arrive around 11 and get done and out of there and back to the truck stop where he parks.  If he gets there too late on a friday, all the spots will be taken.  

One of the tractor dealers texted today - are you still looking or did you find something? Still looking. Told him what I need and said I really want a hoe attachment.  Yes, he replied, that will jack the price up, but I can get you that and all the other attachments you need and still keep it under 30k.  It all sounded good until he told me a 20 horsepower tractor.  That's not enough. It doesn't have the power I will need to move dirt around like I will need to.  The TMS dealer was quoting me 28 hp, which is much better. Actually, his first one was 42 HP, which sounded wonderful but the terms were too high. 

BTW, I could actually dig out a small pond in the stream out back with a machine like that.  Nothing huge, maybe 5,000 gallons.  Put some fish in it and see if they can thrive.  There is running water going through it mostly all year long with a few stints in the summer where it either is drying up or it's just going underground.  

Well enough.  I am getting up at 5:30 am tomorrow, but I'm just going straight out of here instead of sitting for a little bit to drink some coffee.  Get up there maybe half an hour earlier to accommodate for the other driver who so graciously let me step ahead of him.  

I haven't watched the news at all today, just glanced at some headlines but decided I didn't want any part of that.  News mostly sucks nowadays, negativity times negativity.  I know what the left world thinks about Trump, I know Biden has an issue telling the truth or that AOC mouths off a bunch of stuff that she doesn't even understand is false, etc.  Put something new in there that will catch my attention? There is a whole, big wide world out there, Trump, Biden and politicians in general are not the only newsworthy things going on?      

 Thursday - semi early

On the day that I could  sleep in if I wanted to, of course I wake up early and can't get back to sleep.  Tuesday and Wednesday?  Woke up in a fog, had a headache all day from getting my sleep interrupted by the alarm and having to go to work early.

Today is different. I have the late load and I'm not really unhappy about that. I've been doing early loads for many moons in a row and tho it's nice getting done early, I don't particularly like that alarm going off in my ears that early in the morning.  I have an hour and 45 minutes before I have to leave, italics for I don't really have to leave that early, I just want to get things started. You never know how long you may have to wait at the washout at that time of day.  

Paycheck came in yesterday, of which I started to write a blog entry but was too tired to finish it so it will sit in the halls of "drafts" along with a thousand other entries I either never finished or forgot to post, lmao.  It was good.  The paycheck that is.  It was around where I wanted and needed it to be.  If I could get a paycheck like that every time or most every time, I would be sitting pretty in a few months, even if there are going to be ridiculously high electric bills at the park.  I am not going to want to do this double-work-life forever, for now it's a necessary - I won't call it evil, I am thinking in different terms nowadays as I try to get myself together with the Lord and not cave to the throes of fleshful thinking in terms of worldliness and anything but heavenly thoughts.  A blessing in disguise? I'm 8 months into working for that company and it hasn't been a joy ride by any stretch of anyone's imagination, at all, nilch, nada, nein, no thank you. 

Regardless, the money is necessary to pay my bills and try to get ahead to be able to go ahead and start park expansion.  I have no idea how much fixing that truck is going to cost, but I'll assume it's not going to be more than a grand and I'm just considering it "the cost of doing business" and a write-off.  In fact, the man hasn't responded to me since I affirmed I would pay for the damage the mower caused, that doesn't mean he isn't going to do anything about getting it fixed, simply that he hasn't gotten around to even reading my reply to him yet.  I dont need the kind of negative review I would receive from "this park put a small dent in my brand new pickup and refused to fix it", there are ugly reviews I can deal with, that isn't one of them.  People see that and they see "unethical business, steer clear".  I wouldn't have considered not fixing it anyway, but my mind tends to wander down all the rabbit trails of "what ifs".  

So the train horns on the truck.  I'm afraid I take far too much pleasure in dealing it back to idiots on the highways cutting me off, slamming on their brakes and driving like jackasses for no more apparent reason than their stupidity or perhaps they are playing chicken, let's see what it feels like to get run over by a fully loaded semi? And when my truck is fully loaded, we are talking the real deal at near 80,000 pounds.  Not every truck running down the road weighs that much, they like to talk like all trucks are at capacity but in reality, much of it is not.  So yesterday, driving back from Gurdon, this person comes flying around me, gets in front of me and I just let that one go.  Then another one, then another one. It was the third one that really cut me off to the point I couldn't even see the highway in front of me. That is a big-time cutoff. 

I didn't honk the horn or do anything, a bit irritated at the ridiculousness of it, what is the point of driving like that and taking those kinds of risks? I think some drivers out there are just plain stupid.  Others are playing on their phones or otherwise distracted, yes, but that doesn't account for people who are fully aware of what they are doing.....and do it anyway.

Well, we get off that highway, onto a short loop and onto 59. I get over in the passing lane immediately, there is a light ahead and the right lane always fills up.  No, the truck wasn't loaded, don't want to mislead on this,  I can get back up to speed quite fast when empty and already moving.  So it was, I got up to the speed limit and then a few, got past an oversized load truck that was going very slow  and then got back over into the right lane. 

I had, in that action, moved past this threesome of cars that also got off on that exit. So what does this threesome do?  The lead car passes, starts to get off in the center lane, then gets back into the left lane, than cuts over in front  of me.  Yup, you guessed it: the other 2 did the same exact thing and yes, the cutoff was severe enough that I got over into the passing lane, got right up beside the 2 trailing cars and hit the train horn switch.  And these horns aren't those fake train horns they sell at auto zones and stuff, these are actual train horns and yes, they are  very loud. I mean, if my passenger side window is open when I hit the switch, the noise is deafening.  

Hands start popping out windows, lmao.  Other drivers are laughing, I'm assuming they had seen what these "drivers" had done and thought the whole thing amusing.  I felt no small sense of "there, gotcha"...until this morning, when I realized that this is extremely childish behavior on my part.  At least, that's what I'm thinking and also the Lord "Uhh, we need to have a discussion" I am sort of feeling in my inner man. Like, why don't you just let it go?  I dunno, sometimes I get angry in traffic. Not road rage or revengeful type of angry, such as wanting to do physical harm, but just mad that people take such ridiculous actions in front of my truck and cause me to have to severally smash the brake pedal in hopes I don't rear end them.  You try to predict this stuff in advance, sort of the 6th sense of things. There are times, however, there isn't any forewarning. A person pops out in front of you that you just didn't expect they would take such a risky move in traffic.

So, maybe I'll go get some more counselling. I did it in my 30's, I think it was, it was very helpful.  This isn't psycho stuff, it's just a person that helps you walk through your thought processes and takes you back as far as it needs to go in your life to help you understand why you do or think some of the things that you do.  Then they make you do exercises in your daily life, such as in traffic, when something happens, you do whatever they suggest. Take a deep breath, do something different.  I might do it, I have lots of things I would like to sort out in my mind that seem to impact my life.  I wouldn't mind a business mentor as well. Don't know where you would find such a person, don't care about their age or gender, if they are a successful business person and know what they're doing? That's what I need.  I make decisions based on my limited knowledge of how business works and some of those decisions are definitive fails.  Really, a college course for business degree would be helpful, I'm thinking I'm getting a little old to go to college.

There are plenty of them around here tho.  An ever expanding Baptist university, they are taking over downtown, so to speak, have acquired several old buildings and ramping up their sports program to become more nationally recognized.  There is another mostly black college that is also a nationally recognized college and there is a TSTC, Texas state college.  I don't think that one would teach what I need and I don't think the black college would necessarily welcome me with open arms, the baptist university, however, that might be interesting.  I would imagine they have such courses?  

Why discuss this? Because it's on my mind.  I just really have no business experience beyond what I have been learning in the last couple of years with this RV park.  I feel like I'm at a huge disadvantage.  I mean, I know about supply-demand and how it works to be competitive with the other parks in the area.  To an extent.  I am limited in my amenities and that is a real disadvantage there.  It would take a truckload of money to install what I would need to bring in local money, an event center, large building with a full kitchen and probably a mini bar (event planners bring their own alcohol and servers of course, I want nothing to do with that, just make it available) to have weddings and giant parties and such.  I have plenty of room at the front of the property for just such a thing.  

I don't have plenty of money to afford that, tho, I just keep wishing I would have been able to start this venture like even 10 years ago, if not longer.  Where would this business venture be right now if I had that much time behind me and ever thinking about expansion, plus doing it when the cost of everything wasn't so high? 10 years ago I could have built 30 spaces for the cost of what these 14 cost me now.  

Anyway, apparently grandma is sick and she isn't coming tomorrow for the kids.  The best laid plans of men....that means we are probably not going to go to 6 Flags. I am considering offering to take them and the 2 adults can still do their thing while I deal with the kids. I don't remember if 6 flags has a ride area for little kids, but I'm sure I can find out by looking it up.  

Yup, if you have read this blog for any length of time, you probably expected me to pause here and look it up. Turns out they have numerous rides for kids that age.  I don't mind taking them there, I don't really feel like getting on all of these crazy rides atm anyway. In fact, I feel like this unexpected "she's not coming" is a lifeline.  I don't have to go. I wanted to go, but i didn't want to go, if that makes any sense.  It won't be cheap, but it's only one day so spending several hundred on a very rare outing isn't really out of the question.  I haven't been on a vacation in a while...I mean, I went to mom's house last year, that was the last time I was on a "vacation" and that wasn't really vacation stuff. It was seeing mom, visiting friends, etc.  

Yes, it's going to cost me going to AZ, or is it? I will be able to get free airfare with my credit card points, I don't have to pay for hotels and the only ride I will need is from the airport to my mom's house. About a $40-$50 uber ride. It's a long way from the airport to where my mother lives, lol, the Phoenix metro area is spread out, what 100 miles from east to west?  Maybe a little less  than that, but it gives you the picture, it's a massive, sprawling affair that I sincerely do not miss. I  do miss the mountains, I don't miss the "Valley of the Sun". 

Ok, it's going to cost me fuel driving that pickup home and I will spend the night in a hotel somewhere, I won't drive 1,300 plus miles straight through.  I'm not going to get a truck, that is an after-effect of going to see mom.  And friends.  One of which I have an open invitation with.  He's still off on a land of - grief, confusion, whatever you want to call it with his wife having passed away.  That was a few years ago, she had cancer that they were going to begin treating with chemo, but then she got Covid. If you remember, people that had cancer and then got Covid were at a high level of risk of death.  Like, extremely much so.  They were married almost 3 decades and were truly in love with each other, he has given up on life to some extent and is drinking heavily on most days.   I get it, I hope he can find a path through all of that.  Like, you don't really care if you live or die, your life as you know it has been stripped of you.  He may still be in depression and obviously alcohol isn't helping with that at all.  But I can't judge him and I won't, it's a hard place he's in right now.  

Anyway, I just texted Taylor with my option of just taking the kids.  We can go separately as we were going to do anyway. They have other things they are going to do over there as a couple, nothing I need to be involved with lol.  It was just a day trip, maybe going on to 2 days.  Monday would be back to work, but that could be worked out with taking them to daycare if they were planning on spilling it over into next week.  I can take them to daycare, pick them up when I get off work which is well before daycare closing time, I have first run Monday so that makes it easier.  I dunno if they'll even want to do this at all, but it's at least an option.  Or, they can just stay home with me and we can go see movies or something while they go off to do what they had been planning to do.

I guess the point is, I'm not let down by this interruption to the plans and I have stuff I could do if we aren't going to go at all.  Like, stay home, do nothing and enjoy a staycation.  Or, if everyone leaves somehow, go find my favorite hotel, they have one in Shreveport and they have one in Tyler and spend a night enjoying nothingness in a place I love to just hang out at.  It's a bit pricey, but again, I don't do that much recreation stuff beyond a few trips to restaurants here and there.  It's because I work so much I just don't want to do anything else but come home, take care of whatever and do nothing.  

I feel like I'm going to have to do this trucking thing until at I at least turn 62, but I also have resolved in my mind that it may have to continue on to Medicare age at 65?  Retire, run the park, yes, but nothing else.  

This workamper has ideas of using the riding mower to chop down everything up front. I had similar ideas until the thing broke down. I have the parts, he was supposed to fix it but he hasn't.  I'll end up doing it at some point sooner or later.  It's just more work that needs to be done.  He was then contemplating doing it with the push mower, I'm not sure how that would even work out, however. Probably ruin the mower, but it would be a good tradeoff to getting that ugliness out of there.  There is real grass growing there now, it just needs all the junk growing up there, weeds, to be hacked down.  

My real concerns right now are, who's leaving and when?  I know the family is leaving, actually they have already left, they just haven't moved their trailer out of there .  They had gone 2 months without paying, they were supposed to leave weeks ago and wanted pro rated balance due.  I was fine with that until we hit and entire month past due and then I started pushing for my money.  I don't know what they are going to do with that trailer, but since they are leaving, I want it out of there so I can find someone else to take that spot and get it off of my mind.  I  assume the farmers are also leaving when the rent is due. I didn't tell them they had to leave, I told them they can't be going around accusing people of shooting them with government issues laser guns.

They completely stopped, of course, I wasn't playing.  I actually used the words cease and desist or get out of my park.  They will move on to another park, I am assuming, and start their laser conspiracy theory with someone else.  So, I have at least 2 spaces that will need filled and another that needs filled but i think I have a renter for that.  He is the brother of a friend that lives maybe 7 houses away.  She runs a restaurant here in town, I won't mention the name of it, but it's a national chain.  He goes to her house all the time for reasons i also won't specify here.  Anyway, he wants to move closer and my park is only 7 minutes away from her house.  Hopefully that pans out.  I just can't rent out the space until after this week, I have both open pull through lots rented for short stays.  

One thing that I am grateful for: I may not have business experience but I have ample experience dealing with renters via my house and renting out rooms.  I've had all kinds in there and this isn't any different when it comes to dealing with people on a face-to-face basis and telling them they can't do this or that. It's in my rules, you can't do this, please stop.  If they get offended and leave, shrugs shoulders. I am running a business and this particular business, people expect the rules to be abided by and if certain people don't, others want me to enforce them.  I neither like nor dislike confrontation, it's just a fact of life and especially in the rental business where people are living. 

What else? I dunno, I still have time before I need to leave here. If I end up getting to the plant to load too early, they'll just make me wait. Might as well wait at home.  

Well, the boy is up.  He's feeling better already and doesn't have a fever.  Apparently that's not the case with grandma.  I take that back, he still doesn't look very good.

And finally? The tractor.  I've all but sold myself on it.  Just finding the time to get there and look at it, discuss finances, sign on the dotted line and get this over with.  It's something I absolutely need and I get tired of renting machines every time I need one.  I could keep the driveway constantly maintained instead of having to wait for rains to pass.  It's in horrible shape, I just am not going to pay for more than one rental a month.  If I'm doing that, I might as well just buy one, right?  Fix up the driveway, get the pads started in the back and at least get them looking like, wow, I have this much done, might as well find the money and do the rest!  

See how that works? You set goals and you take whatever steps you can to fulfil them.  Once you get the ball rolling, well, there may be flat spots where the ball stops, just give it a good kick and get it started again. I just really want to get this done before I get much older.  The old bones tell me about it after a day of working over there doing physical labor.  If I get the tractor, then I'll plan the rest of the park, or at least the next 15 spaces.  I'm not sure how I want to do it, but it seems that I will have to move the doggy park somewhere else.  

It's a lot of measuring I need to do and I'm not fooling with that until I have something in hand that makes me say, well, I have this now I might as well do that.  So, I have a tractor, might as well get this planned out.  However, I don't need to plan anything out to clear that land out again.  I definitely have space for 15 more lots back there, probably more like 25.  Any more lots beyond that? Would have to go up front. Not anything I would imagine doing any time soon. It would take many truckloads of top soil being brought in to help level it out and then have to build retention walls and serious storm drainage. Talk a lot of money just in that stuff alone.  It's just too steep of a grade to consider putting in rv lots.  Now, I could do other stuff like tiny homes and just clear out space as needed, leveling it and putting up small retention walls.

I dunno, that's just not something I have the money for right now and my plan is going towards the rear of the park with more spots.  I have to get the business well established and bringing in minimum amounts of money per year before I can take out a huge loan.  A huge loan would pay for an event center, a pool, more spots, maybe some tiny home spots, etc.  They want 2 years of income that meets their minimum amount to be considered for say, half a million. And a business plan, would need an expert for that.  Property appraisal as well.  

Yeah, this is what I face when I start thinking expansion.  Or, the piece-meal, do it small bits at a time as i can afford it type of deal.  I'm thinking the latter, at least for now and get ramped up for the Interstate construction that will be starting sometime next year and the almost guaranteed business it can bring to my park - if I have the room for more trailers.

That's enough for now. Just being a bit chatty today.  Watching the news as the lunacy of what we call politics in Washington careens on.  Like a bunch of zoo animals running the show, they only know what they want and they don't care what they have to do to get it.  Power/money.  "The love of money is the root of all evil".  Yup.  Especially in Washington in the halls of Congress and the White House. We have a Trump presidency looming, if nothing  changes before November, it isn't likely Biden is going to win (and neither do I want him to).  Trump is controlling the Republican party right now and that isn't going to change until November. If he wins, 4 more years of it, if not, I would think others will have to start rising to the surface.  I don't despise Trump as all of these people calling him a Nazi, white supremecist and all the other nonsense like to call him. I do think he could do a better job with his demeanor, but, that's New York and he certainly fits that descriptor.  I'm positive leftists have more tricks up their sleeves, one wonder what an October surprise might look like.  

G'day


 Sunday - early Guess I haven't posted since Thursday .... it's just one thing after another in this lifestyle of 1 job that would b...