Let the diet begin.

I didn't eat until 3:30 this afternoon - which is a few minutes ago - because I wasn't hungry until I got home.  It consisted of 1/4 cup of protein mix, which has nuts and raisins and things in it,  a plain slice of toast, an apple and a few berries.  It was actually filling, I do not feel hungry at all right now.

If I were to stay on a diet like this consisting of this kind of food, I would definitely lose weight over time.  I think.  

Dinner will be wild rice with some fruit.  No eating 4 hours before bedtime.  It's about as plain jane of a diet as you can get? I think so.  Calories severely limited, that in and of itself should cause weight loss.  

If you can imagine calling about the septic permit and finding out they haven't even sent it into the state yet, the surprise and near shock to find this out after somewhere around 40 days time passed.  In other words, they just filed it somewhere and forgot about it.  I had to stop myself from getting angry.  

I informed the man on the phone that if they don't have time for it, I will find someone else to do the install.  He said no, he'll contact his boss to contact you. Well I know his boss and he hasn't contacted me so I just texted him.  

Then, I find out Swepco engineer was given the ticket for my project 35 days ago. He was supposed to call me to set up a time to meet out there - which he didn't do. The lady apologized and said she'd send him an email to please expedite. 

Incredible nonsense, both of them? The power company and the septic place?  I'll be calling them every day now until I get the results I need.  If they don't want me calling them, get the s*** done like you said you would.  Just ridiculous.

I also called Dish Network. I absolutely abhor calling them, I know what kind of runaround I'll get and I was not let down in the department today.  I simply asked them to send out a tech, we've done all the troubleshooting that can be done without tech support actually coming out here.  3 different people and the last one wasn't that helpful. She insisted I had to pay for it unless I get their insurance program.

I don't want your insurance program.  We haven't had tv for 3 weeks now, I want a tech to come out, fix this problem and I want it for free.  We went back and forth on that one for probably 30 minutes before I had had enough. "Either get me a tech out here for free or cancel the account right now".  I was dead serious about it too, I don't even care that much about satellite anymore.  She hemmed and hawed and I just shot back that I want this situation resolved either way, I've wasted enough time on the phone with you.

Tomorrow, they are sending out a tech for free and no, I didn't sign up for their insurance scam.  She asked me how it could be a scam? Because most people will not even have to use it, meaning your company is making money off of this insurance, I replied to which she agreed but thought that absolutely normal.

No, thank you. I remember the days before insurance and they sent out techs - for free. I pay enough money for their service, I'm not paying for an insurance program for THEIR equipment.  She apparently hadn't run into too many people like me. I just wanted it over with and she couldn't understand why I didn't want to listen to her endlessly droning on about insurance and blah blah blaaaahhhhhhh.  

Now for today's other doings, namely: going to get a trailer.  I was informed a dude that was on our detail delivering glue is being reassigned so I am to go to a washout facility in Haughton and pick up an empty trailer.  

Skipping straight to the point: The trailer air pressure gauge was broken.  No way to know how much pressure is in there while delivering.  The tank was pressurized with air - big no no.  It should be bled off immediately after offloading.  The driver dropped the tanker in the washout yard but didn't tell them about it.  In other words, it didn't get washed out and it would have never gotten washed out, it would have just sat their indefinitely.  And, this driver had put clear tape over a marker light on the rear of the trailer to hold it in place - versus buying the rubber grommet that is supposed to be there.  I told my manager all of this, yes I did.

I don't care if the driver gets mad that I snitched, this is absolute incompetence. 

I had to stop in Bossier on the way back to pick up a new air pressure gauge, which I will install tomorrow.  I don't deliver until Wednesday, which is when I'll need it to know how much pressure is in the tanker at any given time.

Enough for now. 

 Monday - mid morning

I have heard nothing from the manager about a trailer.  Not sure I expected to.  I'll wait for him to call me, but I won't be waiting all day long. I have stuff to do at the property - lots of stuff to do - work can wait until they get it figured out.

"It" being a trailer. As noted in previous entry, my trailer is broken down, another trailer is out of inspection, the inspection facility it's parked at lost their accreditation to do such inspections and another trailer is waiting on license plates to arrive. 

I will guess that either the trailer I've been pulling or the one with missing plates will be the one I end up taking.  When? I: have no idea.  When are the plates expected to arrive? I would like to think very soon?  I don't run that company, if I did, some of this wouldn't have happened. Especially the facility that they own losing it's accreditation simply because the "due date" for them to reregister came and went? I don't have the full story though, pretty sure there's more to it.

Meanwhile. today marks the first day of a new diet that I didn't even know I was going to be doing until yesterday evening. I heard a remark about James starting a new diet and I was all over that - I'll do it with you!  They went to Walmart for weekly shopping and when they got back, he gave me the run down.

Lots of fruits, some nuts, salads, salmon and tuna are the only things on his meat list.  2 meals a day at most.  He doesn't actually need to lose weight, he is experimenting with the diet for the purpose of trying to get a clearer mind.  I do think the junk we Americans shove down our throats isn't exactly good for us, but it sure does taste good!  l'm especially suspicious of all the chemicals they dump into the everyday foods we eat.  It's hard to find stuff without them. I think organic vegetables are pesticide and everything else free?  

I'm already only eating 2 meals a day, but the dinner meal is usually pretty heavy with meat and pastas and such.  That will be a drastic change -but one that's definitely needed.  I need to dump some serious weight and get my cholesterol count down. 

Unbelievable.  I paid that fee - $650 -  what, 35/40 days ago? for that septic system. I just got off the phone with them.  "We still have to do the design for the system". WHAT?!!!  I became a little agitated right off the bat. "It's been at least 35 days since I was in there, filled out the paperwork, I would have thought you would have had this done long before now".  He acknowledged the frustration, but I took it further: "If you all are too busy to do this job, I'll go find someone else'. 

That's not a threat, it's reality.  I can't believe I've been waiting this long on this permit only to find out they've done literally nothing.   

I'm calling SWEPCO as well - but I know they take forever.  They are in no hurry, they'll get to it when they get to it.  Nothing I can do about that.  Well, except call and light a fire under their feet. 

The septic people are allegedly going to call me back, if I don't get a call today I will be calling them and asking for my money back. There are other players in the region that install new systems...

My credit score for Equifax has  jumped 76 points since I paid down the credit cards.  I haven't paid everything down yet that I want to, but I'm ahead of what I would normally be paying if it's just paying the credit card monthly payments and the 2 loans. Those loans are gone and that was almost $700 a month right there.  Another $900 for the credit cards I've already paid down, so yes, I'm already "saving" money.  Actually am, the interest rates are so high right now it's ridiciulous.

As it stands, with the new credit scores, I am being offered much better rates.  The catch 22 is I couldn't get the better rates without getting the loan with higher interest rate than what I got.  I need to read the fine print on it and see if I can pay it off early without any attached fees.  

Not much else.  I have been moving that dirt pile, I've spent a couple days on it.  Still plenty to go. That tractor isn't huge and it has a smallish bucket, so it's a lot of moving back and forth between piles.  I intend on doing at least a couple more hours of it today if I am not going to get a trailer. I am only home this late because I was having trouble waking up this morning.

Like, I woke up rather early but I was totally groggy.  I went back to sleep, woke up again later on, still groggy. Went back to sleep again - groggy and finally ended up forcing myself out of bed.  I'm hoping this new diet will have the intended effect, tho apparently even if you stick with it, it will take awhile for that to happen.  I think fasting will also help with that. I have already been doing intermittent fasting - my last meal of any given day will be around 6:30ish and then I won't eat again until the next afternoon and sometime not until the next evening. 

Starting the pushups back up was harder than I thought and some days I only do 20-40 of them.  I just forget about it and go to bed, remember after I get into bed and think, well I'm not doing them now.  Too late for that.  I'm getting there and once I get back to the 100 per day on a regular basis, I will add more stuff to the regimen.  

I think that's about it. There is plenty of politics to discuss. I just am tired of the mudslinging. The anti-Semitic nonsense is only ramping up more now with an alleged terror attack?  We're no long talking a disagreement and a difference of opinions, now we're into the violence.  It won't be long before a counter group comes along to take the law into their own hands to smack down these people engaging in the violence.  I'm not advocating for that, it's just human nature. I advocate for peace, frankly. I can see Israel defending it's own borders and I know they aren't - or believe anyway - they aren't committing any acts of genocide.

That is the narrative the far left news media, politicians and other people in high places are pushing into the minds of gullible believers.  These people completely ignore the reason this war started in the first place: Hamas killing 1,500 innocent civilians.  They don't care, they firmly believe Israel wants to eradicate the Palestinians from the face of the earth.  If that were true, wouldn't Israel simply have destroyed the entirety of the strip by now? If they didn't care about who dies, they would have just started indiscriminate bombing of everything over there and this thing would already be done and over with.

Well that's enough for now.  I'm going to call Swepco and Dish - our service isn't working and it constantly says "acquiring signal" - we've checked everything, the wiring somewhere is toast and they need to come replace it. That or cancel the service.  

 Saturday - morning

Sitting in my bedroom, watching the news, they are still going on about Biden's autopen and who was in control of it, ie: who was running the country?   Well I don't believe Biden was in control of everything. That's all I will say about that, I will let this investigation pan out and see what becomes of it.  

Anyway, today I was supposed to have off, then yesterday told I was needed for work for a person that called in sick.  Then the problem with the trailer. Then the problem with the trailer I went to get.  They're down at least 3 trailers right now.  The one I was using is the only one that shows any hope of actually being able to use again, unfortunately.  I don't know where that sick driver is, but it is in the company's best interests to send  a driver to wherever that person parks their truck and take that trailer from them.  

But, I don't run that company neither do I want to.  Apparently the washout in Arkansas license expired and they haven't renewed it for unknown reasons. Meaning they can't inspect trailers and they can't enter trailers.  Well just do it like the other washout and don't enter the trailers.  Just use wands to clean them out.  I tried suggesting that to the dude yesterday and he just shrugged me off. It was after that I realized the trailer I was taking is out of inspection and the loading plant will not load a trailer that is out of Visual inspection.  

So, Monday, who knows what will happen? I am left hanging up in the air with no direction. That's pretty much what the company does and I do not like it. 

________________

10 hours later.

Went to Lowe's, got some supplies, over to the property. Replaced a bad circuit breaker on one of the pedestals and then proceeded to start spraying weed killer around the pedestals.  I did most of those but wanted to get some driveway work on the tractor in, which I did and then resumed working on removing that giant mound of dirt.  

I think I'm about half done with that, also had James over to show him how to use the tractor.  The coolant reservoir cap is missing, the reservoir is empty because it all just gets splashed out of there and consequently, it starts to over heat when you are pushing it for power.  I ended up ordering this tiny, plastic cap for $22.  

And now that I've done that, I thought, I could have just rigged something on there.  Oh well.  I don't want to burn up the engine and I don't know if that thing has any protective shut down stuff on it, probably not considering it's age.  It runs strong, just needs that cap so I can fill the thing up with coolant and work it away. 

I've got James on board with me, we looked over the land and determined approximate places for lot sites, I got 7 of them identified and that was that.  I need to measure it all out and paint mark it. 

So, there is a decent start on that project.  I have a person moving in tonight or tomorrow, probably tomorrow since he said he might not make it until 9 pm and probably will stop somewhere along the way, the other is just coming to make a deposit. I'm no longer holding lots for long term without a non-refundable deposit.  You want it, you can have it, but you're going to pay a portion of the lot rent in advance. If you decide you don't want it and I've turned a dozen people away? Yeah - no.

 The lots that will be created along the drive way will be 90 degree back ins.  I was going to make them angled ... it won't work with the trees I want to keep up.  I haven't gotten to the other 7, that's a ways off and a lot more money.  It will mean creating a whole new driveway.