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 ahead of me again and he shows up late again, I'm saying something.  To the manager, it's going to be: this guy says he doesn't want to show up early, what's the point of giving him the first load?  I get pretty direct while attempting to remain respectful.  There is no point in giving this guy an early load when he refuses to show up early.  I don't mind doing my share of late loads - well I do but I just swallow it and deal with it, just no sense in giving it to a person that doesn't appreciate it.

We did, indeed, go get a tree yesterday.  We being me and the 2 kids. I didn't tell them what we were going to do, I just left it up to them if they wanted to go. The oldest was like, Lowe's? I don't want to go to Lowe's.  The youngest was all over it. Yesss!  The oldest begrudgingly changed his tune and went with us. We looked at a lot of trees and narrowed it down to 2.  I let them make the decision, with a wee bit of persuasion.  It's a beautiful tree if I do say so myself.  

And trees? Well inflation didn't leave them sitting in the shadows. I've never seen trees so expensive.  I remember the days when they were less than $20.  

Trump.  I'm telling ya, this guy has no filters, at all. Many people love him for it, many hate him for it.  It's been reported that when Trudeau - the PM of Canada - talked with Trump and told him their economy would be devastated with a 25% tariff, Trump suggested they become the 51st state! LMAO.  

On the flip side, Biden pardoned his son.  Now, no one is going to gaslight me about this.  I distinctly remember Biden being asked if he would pardon his son if found guilty at the time and he said no, definitively, without hesitation.  Kareem Jean whatever her name is, the soon-to-be non-existent White House correspondent also relayed that Biden wouldn't pardon his son.  I knew better.  I knew it at the time and it was no surprise to me that in his final days, he did it.

He originally denied he would do it, obviously, to save his presidency.  People would find it pretty hard to swallow that the dude was convicted of several felonies and now is just going to get away with it.  And they are, even leftists/democrats are pushing back on this one.  Biden played the harassment game saying his son was unjustly singled out because he's the president's son.  Yeah, a bit ironic, isn't it?  Actually, it was some dude in a computer repair shop that outed him by seeing the files in his computer.  

But with Trump? Political hit jobs all the way around, IMO and nothing you are going to say to me is going to change my mind about it.  I've watched the news - all kinds of different sources for it btw - endlessly about this situation for years now.  

If you haven't noticed, basically the entire world is gearing up for a Trump presidency.  He isn't a Biden, he isn't a pushover.  He's already threatened "hell" to Hamas if those prisoners aren't released when he is officially sworn into office.  China and Russia will stop mocking us, or if they continue, they are going to get a lot of pushback and not just from Trump.  Homan or whatever his name is, is already telling it like it's going to be. They're going to get the illegal criminals picked up and deported (or imprisoned I guess) and then everyone else that has gaily walked illegally across the Rio Grande, got a court date and then? Most of them never show up for that court date for they know they will lose their case and be deported.

And I can tell you from ample experience, a lot of illegals are already leaving.  I saw this repeatedly at construction sites when I was driving a truck in the Phoenix metro area.  Whenever a president would even hint at cracking down on illegal crossing and especially if they started going after them already in the US, they would leave in droves.  They weren't going elsewhere in the country, they were going back to Mexico.  They might show back up 6 or 8 or however many months later.  I remember an entire chain of fast food mexican restaurants - Filiberto's - being shut down because ICE went in and found so many employees who were illegal and arrested them, they didn't have enough personnel to keep the business running. I think all of their restaurants shut down for many months because of it.

Well, we are still awaiting the arrival of the new refrigerator.  They didn't deliver it the first day they promised to - they being Lowe's - because they "forgot to load it on the truck" and then yesterday, I don't know what the excuse was but they didn't deliver it then, either.  Today is the day, allegedly.  No ice maker for days now because the old refrigerator was moved to make room for the new one. It's plugged in but there is no water line going to it.  And someone took the last bit of ice in the thing out this morning, leaving me nothing.  I mean, they could have left at least a little bit in there.

I fill a cup up with ice every morning before work and then fill it with water. I drink a lot of water while driving.  

I have to go to the store today anyway, I'm getting a bag of ice. Even if the new fridge shows up, it takes quite a while for a fridge to fill up a tray full of ice.  

Well whatever.  Life goes on. Another one showed up 2 days ago for a month stay, yesterday the people wanting the cheap spot also showed up.  Speaking of that, I need to check my records, they owe me money....yup, $398. And another that showed up yesterday owing $100. They pay an amount to make the registration but I have to collect the rest after they show up. I could make them pay the entire amount if I so desired, but most of the industry charges one night up front. 

I have lots of people interested in moving in, none have shown up. It's first come, first served as far as long term goes, they get the spot if they show up.  If someone else comes before them, unless they have definitively reserved the spot with cash down, they will just have to go somewhere else.  The next overnighters aren't coming until the 6th.  But, you never know, people show up out of the blue as well.

Anyway, it's time to get ready to leave.

G'day

 Monday - late morning

I got up at 7:30 am to let the dog out and went straight back to bed and to sleep. I eventually got out of bed at 10:00 am.  It doesn't happen often when there are no kids around and the only other adult in the house is not making any noise, either. I now have the entire house to myself.  The only thing I've done today is thoroughly clean the kitchen. A special green chili dish was made in the crockpot for last night's Friendsgiving, it was delicious, but then again, so was everything else.  Lots of good food, good company, what more can you ask for in life? 

Well, Jesus of course, He's on the top of any list.  

And so it is, we are in the Christmas season, I have bought nothing for gifts yet but I am thinking about the Lord.  He has been so wonderful to me during my lifetime, even through times where I haven't exactly been so great back to Him.  He loves us through the good and the hard times and helps lift us up when we fall.  We all fall, btw, if you say you never do, I would have some interesting words back for you.  Flesh and blood, we all are tempted by one thing or another.  Sometimes, we give into those temptations and then we have to ask Christ for forgiveness, but the good news is: He does forgive us!

Over a month ago, I quit smoking cigars.  At least for a while.  They aren't particularly good for you and i was smoking too many of them, too frequently.  I find going cold turkey works well for me.  It's also an expensive habit but the reason I quit is my health.  Smoking is not particularly heart friendly and cigars in that department are probably worse for you than cigarettes even if you don't inhale the smoke.  I cut way back on fats and cholesterol laden foods as well, attempting to get a bit better in the healthy living arena. Still a ways to go but I have a really good start on it.  

The folks decided this year we would finally get a real tree! I was the only one in this house that wants a real tree every year, they always get an artificial tree so I just either bought a small real tree for the porch or just shrugged it off.  I don't really try to get my way about things in life excepting in specific situations that demand it.  Trees are not in that category.  So, after the kids get home from school today, we are going up to Lowe's and see if we  can pick out a decent tree for the whole family to enjoy, including the cats which seem to have unusual interest in Christmas trees.