Saturday, October 26, 2024

Saturday - late

Very long day. 

I started early, around 5 am, got up, got my stuff and just left. No blogging, no internet, nothing, just go.  I got to the washout and there was a truck ahead of me. But, it turns out, that was planned and there were 2 people working, abnormal for a Saturday but whatever. I got out of there, drove over to Lufkin to get loaded and saw one of our trucks on the shoulder on the northbound side - I was on the southbound side and I wasn't stopping. There is nothing I can do if the truck is broke down, call a wrecker or mobile mechanic and get it fixed.

I wasn't at the plant long, they got me loaded quickly and I got out of there. The truck was gone when I came back, I dunno if it was limped up to the truck stop or what.  

However....I pulled into my driveway to park the truck and freed up for the rest of the day.  The manager called. Johnny's truck is broken down, can you take that load up there today?  Say what?  I didn't hesitate to fire right back (but politely, my manager is actually pretty cool, it takes a lot to get him angry from what I've seen):  I have plans today, namely, taking the kids to Piney Park.  This is the last day we will be able to do that before the current theme is done and over with. 

He wasted no time in asking me to take the load up tomorrow that I have and then drive back down and load tomorrow?  I wasn't going to get out of that one.  He's done me some favors I'm due to pay him back. Just on a Sunday, ugh.  It means unloading, going to the washout out and then loading in the same day.  So I agreed, which means tomorrow is going to be a very long day.  

This driver.   This is his third truck that's broken down with him in it. The first two were his fault.  This one? I don't know yet but I'll find out eventually.  Old trucks, it could have been an unpreventable situation but it could also have been him and his ...well anyway, not really any of my concern excepting he's causing quite a lot of conflict with broken down trucks. The one with trashed transmission is still sitting in the shop.  We have no spares.  

Anyway, got out of that at least for today - I was wasted tired as well, just didn't sleep well last night - and went home, took a short nap and then we went to a birthday part for a couple of hours. After that, back home and then took the kids to the Piney Park event. I didn't make that up for the manager, lol, we had planned on going. $45 worth of tickets to get in for free, they have a lot of activities for kids to do in there.  Big, giant slides.  This giant air guns that shoot tennis balls and the put targets out in a field.  These things you walk on and they change colors - lighted things.  Giant air bags that you jump up and down on much like a trampoline.  Basketball hoops and the trail.  The trail had Halloween stuff up and they had people at various places giving out candy.  In fact, the only thing we didn't do was get on the train thing. There was far too long of a line and none of us wanted to wait. 

I spent nothing until we left, I got the boys some sweatshirts. Instead of some useless, overpriced toys, I wanted to get them a souvenir they would actually use.  

Home.  Feet worn out from walking around for 3 hours, the boys are totally worn and ......wait for it....wait for it::::: IT RAINED!!!

There wasn't even any rain in the forecast.  The kids got wet while they were on those giant air bags and I sat under a canopy lol.  Hey, they wanted to get wet!  This entire region is bone dry, there are no burn orders in most (if not all) of the counties around here. It was enough rain to get the ground wet, not just cover the top of everything and then dry up immediately.

This trucking fiasco has thrown my plans into the toilet tho.  I was going to buy grass seed Monday since my manager didn't have me loading and put the seed down at the Park.  It's supposed to rain for sure starting Thursday and going on 4 or 5 days or even longer after that.  But now, I"ll be delivering the load I pick up tomorrow afternoon.  I'm loading Tuesday as well unless he changed that.  If he gives me a load on Thursday to deliver on Friday, I could take the weekend off and not sweat a small paycheck.  

It is possible that I could get the Monday or Tuesday stuff done early and still get grass seed down, I'll see how my energy levels are at by then. I'll probably be ready to do nothing beyond what I have to do. 

I do need to sleep well tonight.  Or at least mediocre.  If not, it's going to be hellish doing all of that tomorrow.  I never know how I'm going to sleep, but since last night was poor, perhaps tonight will be better.  

Getting a bid on 20 covered parking spots.  If I'm going for that SBA loan, I'm getting covered parking on a good portion of the lots.  25 more spots. 20 covered, redo the main driveway, get another building as I discussed in previous entry (Uhh, I might not have posted that one lol, not sure),  and whatever else comes to mind that I'm going to need to get the people coming in there.  Oh, yes.  I'm going to need WiFi and tho T Mobile works great, I would need 2 more of their devices, they won't let me have them. 

I got 3 devices out of them, 2 on personal account and 1 on business and that's their limit, or so I have been told by a couple of people on their side.  Not really sure what I will do for internet in the back, what I have now suffices for what it's serving.  Starlink?  Pay 8 grand for the local cable company to install the line?  Hughes sucks.

Anyway, I'm really tired and I'm getting off here.   

When I arrived at the plant today, it became obvious why they are shutting down for several days.  They have a huge number of people that sh...