Sunday, December 1, 2024

 Very long day.

I get up to Gurdon and the security guard said the other driver had just arrived 30 minutes ago.  It was 11:07 am, he should have been there and gone by then.  So whatever, I pull up behind him and get out and look, he's got a long way to go.  Like, it took over 2 hours to unload that thing.  

We get into a conversation since I had never met him before and he informs me that "I usually come up here early but since the product is so cold, there was no sense coming up here at that time, it will take hours to unload it.  Let the warmth of the day heat it up" - something to that effect and made no sense whatsoever.  

3 or 4 hours is not going to make any difference on the internal temp of that trailer.  It was 55 degrees inside that thing, it was probably 55 degrees at 6:00 am.  His logic was completely illogical.  I just informed him I'd like to know if you aren't going to be showing up here early, I will come up early and not spend the entire day doing this run.  

So, I was there over 3 hours.  My trailer didn't take near as long to offload, but again, I had to wait for his sorry, well anyway I had to wait on his trailer to be emptied out.  

BTW, the traffic was horrible out there today. I fully expected that, however, because it's the final day people can leave wherever they were visiting for holidays and get themselves home. But I didn't expect that much extra traffic. I-30 was a literal nightmare and on the way back it was even worse.  There was a huge traffic back up that went on for miles.  When I finally got to this "accident" it was just a cop with a vehicle pulled over. No tow trucks, no ambulance, no crews of 1st responders.  

By the time I got back, it was already 5:00 pm.  I got out of the truck, into my SUV, over to Jucy's, got the taco bar and then to the house where the Friendsgiving was being held.  

It's 8:00 pm, just got home 20 minutes ago and I'm toast.  Oh and as I was pulling out of the park this afternoon, some people were pulling in. Are you the Upchurch's? No.  Oh, well who are you then? I guess I should have identified myself for they were giving me strange looks lol.  They were the people staying for a month, I had them mixed up with the people coming in tomorrow who don't want to pay full price so they are getting the space behind the shed.  Even if I have open lots, they aren't getting them, they want the cheap stuff they are going to get the cheap stuff.  

I'm tired and I'm going to get into bed. 


Sunday - not terribly early (7:25 am)

Since I have the second load there is no sense leaving the house before 8.  Or even 8:15 actually.  I just don't want to get there and wait an hour plus for someone else to get done, especially in this cold weather when it's taking longer to offload a tanker full of product into their tanks.

Yesterday was a little strange, when I showed up at the park to get the truck fired up and get everything going, a man that's been there quite a while walked up to me and said: "You are a workaholic".  I mean, how do you respond to something like that?  I thought about that for a second and replied something to the effect of ... this is the trucking industry, I have little control over my hours, if you don't do what they want, they get rid of you and find someone who will.  

People who aren't in the trucking industry don't understand the trucking industry unless someone who is in that rat race tells you about it.  Most companies will run you the full 70 hours per week and there is little you can do about it except find a company that doesn't do that to you.  I am rather neutral about my current situation.  The run is good, I'm home every day and I don't spend over 8 hours doing it normally. The down side is junk, trash old trucks that break down frequently.  And, as most companies, there are no "sacred days".  I was originally informed when I finally got over to this side of the equation - versus the Oregon operation which is quite different - that I would have every other weekend off.

Well, the last 3 weekends I have worked at least Saturday, this weekend I am working the entire weekend.  It's obvious what's going on, people took time off take a holiday and that's fine.  I asked for the 11th of December - well this month now, it's the 1st isn't it?  - off and I pretty much informed them I am taking Christmas off.  I haven't heard back, it's the weekend, might not hear anything until tomorrow or the next day. 

The 11th is the field trip day, the youngest still insists I go.  As long as he is still in that train of thought, I'll plan on going.  Other than that, I've been going to church the last several weeks so missing one isn't going to hurt my feelings.

I also don't know if I want to go back to that adult "ministry".  It's more like a free breakfast and then they go over the last week's sermon.  Certain people have no problem constantly expressing their opinion while the rest sit in silence. It's all older people and there is very little energy going on in that place. I'm not quite ready to wind down and be an - old person.  I am  slowing down by mere force of age but that doesn't mean I need to subject myself to a mindset of slow and go.  That's just not an option right now unless, of course, life dictates otherwise. 

On the other hand, is a 60 year old even welcome in say, an empty nesters group? I'd like to be in a group of mixed, where you have young, middle and older all together.  I've thought for quite a while this church really isn't my flavor and I don't know what I want to do about it yet. The boys like it and I am quite sure they won't like other places as much.  This church's childrens ministry is pretty good, I will give them that.  I didn't like it at first, after a while I understood they were training the kids in the ways of the Lord and the oldest kid's mouth began to be filled with scripture and things that recognize the boy is really trying to learn. 

The people at church said they think he is ready to be baptized, the parents say otherwise, I'll defer to the parents.  I think if you're getting baptized, your life should be of a mindset of God always in there somewhere, putting Him first in all things and wanting to do His will.  I don't see that in the kid yet, his mind is on video games, namely: Fortnite and it's a pretty consuming game. I've played it and I can see how addictive it can be, especially for a young mind.  These kids are not allowed to play games during the school week and are often times limited on the weekends. You can do anything else, you just can't play games right now or even for the whole day.

Well anyway, the new people haven't started any trouble - yet, I'm not hoping for that of course - and they have mostly cleaned up the mess around their trailer.  It's a situation I'm monitoring, I am assuming they are planning on staying a while.  Dunno, but so far, I haven't found anyone that they have been cordial to. They just stay in their trailer when home. 

A 3 night stay - that was interesting lol.  I walked up to their brand new rig, it's a Ford version of a motorhome, and saw 2 little kids standing there.  I saw a middle aged woman and an older man.  I know I cross the line sometimes asking personal questions that are none of my business, but I know how to do it with a smile on my face, lol.  Oh, are these your grandkids?  No, these are our kids.  

I had to take stock of the man while attempting to continue on in pleasant conversation. He looks like he's at least in his mid 50's and these kids are 3 and 5 years old.  I really don't have a problem with this kind of situation excepting I don't think it's very fair to the kids.  The man is going to grow old while his kids are in the prime of their lives, he will be very old before they have even his their 30's and so, you are leaving your kids behind at a very young age, imo.

I had another one show up yesterday, he's there 6 days I think?  and then today, another one is showing up to take the space behind the shed.  Trey is being rather useless in these days, so I am taking care of all of this stuff. I am going to have to say here, however, that it's the holidays, their dad just passed away not long ago and holidays can be a bad time for people when they are missing someone who has passed on.  But in this case, I really need him available for the guy isn't going to know where to go unless someone shows him. 

Uhh, I best get offa here.  It's about 30 minutes until departure time and I want to make a lunch, I'm going to be out much later than normal and on the Gurdon portion of the run, I typically don't stop anywhere along the way either going up or back.  It's just a waste of time unless I'm forced to do so for having a mechanical issue. 

G'day













 Tuesday - semi early Second late load in a row.  I do not want a repeat of Sunday.  That just plain out sucked.  If this other driver is ah...