Monday - night

Still quite cold and it's going to stay that way through Friday - when there is currently showing a 71% chance of snow.  It's not going to be much warmer the days after that, just nothing like what we are experiencing now.  

Today marks the final day of Christmas/New Year's break for the kids from school. It is about time, frankly.  The youngest has been sick the entire time, only starting to break out of it a little yesterday and today.  I will be glad to see them going back to school and having that particular structure back in their lives.  The youngest hates school and clearly defined that yet again to me today.  The oldest likes it well enough. 

Today. I was on my way to the trailer washout in Nacogdoches when my manager called me.  No idea what he wanted, I answered and he told me: your load has canceled. Looks like you're halfway to the washout, might as well go and get it washed out? Yes.  At the washout, he called me again.

2 more loads cancelled, but then they changed their minds and put one back on the board for tomorrow. Can you do it?  Of course, I had planned on working.  But the discussion immediately went to - can I load it today even if it's not supposed to deliver until Wednesday? I'm already down here....let me email the rep.  By that point in time, they had finished the washout.  

I waited, hoping it would be allowed for why come all the way back down here for something I can get done today?  It would also allow me a full day off tomorrow.  The answer was yes after yet another phone call, but I paid for it. For whatever reason, the first load driver was still at the washout when I arrived.  He was already late for his loading appointment time, I wondered why he was there and my manager didn't know either.  He didn't ask, apparently.

When I arrived at the plant, he was still in the bay, I expected that tho.  What I didn't expect but probably should have considering the loader that was working today is that I had to sit there almost 2 hours before his was loaded and I could even get in there to start loading.  By that time, the first loader had gone home and the dude who kicks @$$ showed up, got me loaded quickly and then I was in the control room with him getting paperwork. 

I asked him how things are going? It was going good until I got here and all of  this bs was going on.  I guessed out loud it was the fact that there was a bunch of work left to do that that other guy didn't get done.  YES! He replied quite loudly and went off on that dude.  You 2 have been here for hours, what's the problem? It's 30 minutes and it's done.  I suggested he's the slowest loader there and not very motivated.  He went off on him again, lol.  It's like the guy tries to go as slow as he can.  

Anyway, I finally got out of there and didn't get back until around 4:30.  Still, even with 3 hours at the plant, it was worth it to get tomorrow off.  I would go up and get the truck fixed tomorrow, the thing is, the trailer is loaded and it just adds a lot of time, fuel and just slower progress getting up there and back fully loaded.  It would be like, well, I am up here, I might as well just stay up here and deliver early in the morning.  

I don't want to do that, especially in this icy cold weather.  If that truck breaks down while attempting to sleep in it somewhere, I'm going to be one very cold individual.  So it's likely I will take it up Thursday, hopefully work Friday and Saturday and then basically demand Sunday off. It will have been a month since I went to church and I just am not going to continue to have to work entire weekends all the time.  I'll do them, but not so many in a row.  If that throws them off, tough, that's on them.  I'm not their weekend warrior.  I'll risk getting "moved" to "routes you don't want" to get my church in if it comes down to that.  

I wasn't particularly happy when these people finally showed up - after dealing with them on the phone and text incessantly and then finding out they didn't like it, thought it was too small. The lot is 60X40, it's not as big as other lots I have but it's still quite large plus ample room behind the trailer for another 50 feet to do whatever.  Not to mention that wasn't going to be their permanent lot, which is much bigger. 

But whatever.  It happens I just thought I had spent far too much time dealing with these people to have it turn into a dud.  As far as I know, the lady from - Minnesota? - is coming on the 10th.  

100 pushups done for  the day. A bit late getting them done admittedly, but taking another look, my man boobs are actually slowly starting to straighten out.  I think I'm a but too critical of myself in this drama of trying to lose the gut and the boobs and actually look like some semblance of a man again. Ok, that's probably a bit much, lol, I'm just saying.  I was lean and trim from the age of around 12 to near the 50's and then the fat started piling on.  Then I got a job that was mostly driving 11 hours a day and really getting no exercise whatsoever, which really set this over the top.  

It was just that tipping point, I guess, 33 days ago? where I said enough. This is getting bad and it's not good for you to be that fat.  That's scientific study that will back that up all day long on hundreds if not thousands of articles online.  

Oh, the oldest got me started on the game Fortnite. It's a battle game where you basically just go around killing everyone - 100 people in any given match - until everyone is dead, the last person standing is the winner, Victory Royal!  I find the royal word strange. It is pronounced as royale and royale is the correct word?  Why don't they have an e on the end of it?  I dunno, but you can play alone or with teams of 2, 3 or 4.  

The only thing is, if you want to talk on there with your team mates, you find out that most of them don't have microphones and the ones that do are kids.  Acting like kids. Yeah, no. I've only encountered a few adults actually speaking. I had to look this up: LOTS of adults play the game but I guess they either just do the solo version or they just don't speak on the microphones.  I can see how people get addicted to gaming with stuff like that, you have to develop a skill set that you definitely do not have if you don't play video games.  Which I don't.  Or didn't. I only play that one and I just limit myself, but it is adventurous and entertaining.    Honestly, I am bringing the Switch with me on these runs in case I get stuck somewhere as I did today.   

Enough. It's 10:00 pm and I'm going to get into bed, watch a movie and drift off into sleep. No kids to make a bunch of noise in the morning - well they will when they are leaving for school but I hope that I can get back to sleep....