Sunday mid-afternoon

The third time's a charm!  That's what I kept telling myself this morning. I don't want or need another 10-11 hour day, please!  It was raining, it was cold and I didn't care.  I got up very early at around 4:30 am to get up there before that jackass driver who just shows up whenever he wants to got there.   It helped that my manager informed me of his normal habits when he's doing a full turn.  

Full turn simply means doing the entire route in one day or finishing one and doing half of the other in one day - a full turn in and of itself even if the route isn't completed.  `

I arrived up there a full hour ahead of my normal arrival time, which is already an hour earlier than my appointment time and thankfully, he wasn't there. In fact, the entire plant was basically deserted, at least on the outside. Place is always buzzing on the inside.  

The only glitch up there today? Walking into the main office.  A dude got up and rushed at me, saw who I was and then backed off. Huh?  Then the plant manager looked up and asked if they could have a few minutes, please.  Considering the dude sitting on the chair was going off on them when I walked in there, I figured immediately they were having an issue with an employee and yes, I will leave and wait outside.

I went to the bathroom and then stood outside the office for a few minutes, another employee showed up and stood out there as well.  She was facing the opposite direction and pointed at me.  Why is she pointing at me? I thought, turned around and there was the manager looking for me, lol.  He's cool, dunno what that situation was about but then again, none of my business : )

In fact, the jerk driver never showed up while I was there. My manager said he was coming up today, apparently he decided to wait until I leave or just take his time. I'm guessing the latter.  One hour and twelve minutes to drain out the tank, not bad in this cold weather.  No issues besides idiot drivers on the way back.  

I was back just before noon, an all time record and I thought, gee and yes, this is the "third time is a charm" situation.  2 long term people have moved into the park today since I  started writing this blog entry.  The man with my last name - which isn't really that normal and I have never actually met anyone that I can remember with my own last name and it's spelling beyond my family - moved in with a huge 5th wheel that looked very new and a pulling it with a very nice looking welder's style truck.  He's got money, no need to worry about him paying the rent. The other guy just got out of school locally for lineman (power lines) and he apparently is doing well enough. He's young and just starting out, I thought - not too shabby for just getting started.

I try to see the good things in new people until/if/when they show me that they don't need that kind of respect.  I always hope they don't show me that kind of behavior, it happens - not often thankfully. 

I'm in a good mood today. Much better than yesterday or the day before.  

Well, not a bad mood maker but the third person was a no show.  That one was allegedly coming in for extended period of time.  Still, currently down to 2 regular lots open, 1 of which is for overnighters (tho that can easily change, I'll put a long term in there if the overnight traffic doesn't pick up).  

This is where I'm at with upgrading the park:  Yes and no.  Yes, let's do it, no I don't like the current interest rates, but yes, when are we going to do this? And no, I wonder if my credit card debt will hinder a bank from lending me money?  I have no late payments, no judgment, etc.  But, in the world of credit, simply making your payments on time isn't enough.  It IS something, but there are so many more factors.  

I just have this feeling they are going to deny me a loan regardless of high collateral offering. I've wrestled with this for quite a while now....it may be just time to get the higher interest loan to pay off credit card debt and at get the score going much higher.  And then do what? I don't know.  Get a loan for a septic system and then do the rest of the work myself, in phases and add lots as I can afford them?

Anyway, the weekend is basically over and I have nothing but more work.  Tomorrow and Tuesday, Wednesdsay off and presumably picking it back up again on Thursday. No idea when the driver stranded in Africa is coming back. Until that happens, I can expect a heavy work load unless one of the plants shut down again and right now? I'd very much like that to happen for at least a few days...

The 100 day challenge. I'm trying it.  Not haphazardly, either.  Day 3 for me, it's 100 pushups per day. First day was 40, yesterday was 60, I'm up to 80 today and going to try to hit 100.  No, I can't even come close to doing 100 pushups all in one set.  If I ever get to that point, I would imagine I would have dumped a lot of fat as well.  Will I make it 100 days? Maybe. The oldest kid started doing it with me, he's highly motivated.  Short for his age, extremely skinny, he wants to bulk up. We were weightlifting until he got sick, so we need to ramp it up with the pushups and doing light weight workouts as well.  Once I get him going long enough doing this, he'll see some results. 

He once told me he isn't getting bullied and then he told me 3 boys were taunting him and threatening him.  It's hard for me to relate in this age of "tell the teachers" s***, they won't do anything anyway.  In my youth, you either stood up to them or you got bullied and beaten up until you did. It's exactly how I learned. Now? If a kid hits you, you can't hit him back! You will get the same punishment as the offender! Whatever. He has skin and bones for arms and that's going to change.  He also wants to get involved with martial arts. I don't care to do that but if his parents want to, I'm not opposed to it.  I just don't care for the eastern mysticism involved with it. Learning how to defend yourself? No problem with that at all. 

Ok. I hit 100 pushups today.  Sets of 20. If/when I get stronger I'll do more per set. Right now? I'm lucky to get 20 in, by the time I hit the 20th pushup I'm already toast. 

 Saturday - evening

The day started out not so great and got progressively worse from there. I woke up at 3:45 am and couldn't get back to sleep to save my life.  I ended up getting up at 5:30 am, got my stuff done and got out of here by 6.

I was tired, unhappy that I had to work today and basically hoping that this day would at least go by quickly.

Well, the fact that I got home 40 minutes ago and it's almost 5 o'clock should tell you that didn't happen.  

First, it was cold and raining. The entire day, actually.  Not the end of the world, but certainly didn't help anything. Then, after getting to the washout and waiting for the dude to show up, I saw him pull in. This is the dude that wants to have the thing perfectly, completely clean.  

Not only is that not necessary, at all, it's also a complete waste of time.  He was washing that thing out of an hour and a half. Not the 20-30 minutes everyone else takes, oh no, we can't have that.  It was completely unecessary.  And it threw off the rest of the day. 

Why? Because I arrived at the plant 6 minutes late because of this dude and what happened? Well, I got in there, was about to back down the driveway when I saw the only loader there today waving me off. Nope, I have to load this truck first.  This is one of THEIR trucks, nothing that HAD to be loaded right then. But because I was a few minutes late?  Nope.  It took 2 HOURS for him to load that damned thing and then?

I guess  make me pay more for being late? I didn't start any trouble with him at all when he waved me off, btw, I already know this guy is a disgruntled worker and it doesn't take much to set him off.  If you rub him the wrong way, he's going to just let you sit there and you will not got loaded any time soon. I typically don't tend to start trouble in plants anyway, they can just throw you out and you lose your situation.  

Yes, he took a truck that came in after me and loaded it over by the lake.  At 2 hours and 45 minutes, I had had enough.  I texted my manager who called the plant rep who communicated to him that they "had a truck that came back that needed some product taken off". LIARS.  That truck came back and a different person went with 2 portable storage tanks and took care of that, the loader had nothing to do with that situation. I was really getting irritable at that point. 

My manager called and we got into a very long discussion.  He could tell straight away I was irritable with this entire day, a day I shouldn't even have to be working to begin with, so he offered me a substantial amount of money not just for waiting at the plant but for even having to work today and tomorrow.  I can tell you that that did absolutely nothing to change my ever-increasing foul mood.  It just welled up inside of me and I didn't do anything to stop it.  The entire situation weighed on me and I was done with it, not to mention other things besides trucking.  

Endless phone calls.  Do you have a space available? Do you have long term available? I normally like those type of calls but today? I didn't feel like talking to anyone.  I have at least 2 people moving in soon, one tomorrow and the next sometime this coming week.  In fact, I just looked. This dude made a reservation clear until May of next year! It says balance owing is well over 3 grand, lmao.  He is planning on staying around for a while, he says anyway.  He didn't really need to make the reservation that long, but whatever. His friend also made a reservation, but only for 3 days.  

He is allegedly staying as long as the friend, so that's fine by me.  Young guys, fresh out of college, line workers, they should fit right in with some of the crowd at the park.  No money issues, it's fine by me.  Another lady wants in next week I think she said.  

Ok.  So, the 2 people that came out of the bathroom yesterday, obviously - well in my opinion anyway - having had sex in the shower - the dude got rid of his camper, took it out today and moved in with the lady.  He gave me notice today that he was moving that thing out of there.  Thanks bro, that's so great! How long did you know about this?  I couldn't keep telling people I have a place for them, I had to tell a person today I'd get back to her. I don't even know what to say?  Yes? No?  Who's leaving? Who's staying?  

So these people contacted me and said Trey was full of s*** saying that about them, yada yada yada. I didn't bother to tell them I have a video of the both of them coming out of the bathroom, the dude still putting his clothes on.....Please...