Monday - morning

Day off.  No way I'm taking that truck up north to get it fixed, it can wait until Wednesday after delivery.  I had thought I was working today but I was wrong and glad I'm not.  

Finally snagged a spot to get Obi - my Great Dane - in to the vet to get him his shots and get his ears looked at.  Probably just need cleaned out and whatever they put in there, drops if I recall correctly, for whatever is ailing him. The dog is in obvious discomfort and he also shakes his head half the night and keeps me awake.  I did not sleep very well last night because of it.  

Well well well. The manager just called and asked me to plan the week.  I said sure, I'm loading tomorrow and delivering on Wednesday and then going to take the truck/trailer to the yard to get stuff fixed.  He said well what if we have you come in tomorrow and get it fixed, load Wednesday and then have 3 days off? Yes, yes and yes.  

This is actually a much better deal for me. I get paid to go up there and get the stuff fixed, get a load and then have 3 luxurious days off. Saturday we are going to a giant indoor water park, end of summer for the kids and we decided to give them a last hurrah to usher them into - the joys of school.  That starts Monday I do believe.  I'll be glad for that, on my days off I can sit in the house in peace and get stuff done without constant this and that from kids.  

Friday I'll devote to the park, Sunday is church day, get back to some sense of normalcy.  

Actually, maybe I can find a dentist to take a look at my teeth on Friday, I need 4 new crowns to replace the disastrous work the previous dentist did. That's a great idea, actually and I'm going to look around for recommendations after I finish this post. Probably just go to the gossip group.  

The other guy in the house quit his job and is waiting on 401k payout.  Then he's going to fix things around the house and end up in some trucking school in Arkansas.  He was going to do this a long time ago but things didn't work out. Now?  Well, he thinks it will make him a lot more money and I wish him success.  He tried to start his own side business but there is a lot of competition around here for the type of work he was doing, even tho it's skilled labor, just a lot of people are doing it.  

Once he leaves, things are going to change around here quit a bit.  He won't be home to help out with the kids, tho his job kept him out late every day anyway - but - he had 3 day weekends.  Not complaining just sort of allowing room in the space of my head for probably a different sort of landscape around here.  It will help they're in school, that's basically most of the day for her - the lady of the house - to get her stuff done. I am usually home in the afternoons when they get home from school so usually it's all covered.  There are friends of family that live like a block away and they are always willing to help out if they are available.

Anyway, I couldn't wait, called a highly recommended dentist office that is literally 2 blocks from my house.  They are, of course, busy so I just left a message, trying to get in on Friday.  If not, I'll make an appointment for 2 or 3 weeks from now and take the day off.  

So now that I have 3 days off, that's going to make this week go by pretty fast.  It's only 3 more days of work and one of them is just take the truck up, sit around picking my nose for 6-8 hours and then go back home. The next morning head over to the washout, to the plant and then deliver the day after that.  I'm all good with that.  

Well, let's go all out today. I've got an appointment, new patient, for a different dentist than the last one who gave me buck teeth.  I'm assuming they'll want to do x rays, cleaning and consultation about how much crowns are going to cost. Not cheap, I already know that, somewhere around a grand per tooth.  I don't like going to dentists, hence I haven't been to one since I had an emergency extraction. Oh, I guess I'll have to get something for that too, probably a bridge.  There is nothing there atm, lol.  It's costly, I'm looking at 5k to do all of that easily.  This time, however, I'll be asking about a warranty or replacement or whatever to understand that I am spending this much money and if one breaks off, then what?  

So, this afternoon is all of a sudden busy. Nothing I wanted to do, things that must be done.  

Tomorrow, I'll get up at 5 am, head up to the yard, be there around 8:30 am, spend however many hours waiting on them to repair everything - they must fix the airbag and the pop off valve and the door switch, the rest is whatever.  

You know what I feel like doing? NOTHING.

 LOL

 Saturday - evening

Up early this morning, got down to Nacogdoches, over to Lufkin and back up to here in about 6-1/2 hours.  That's about as good as it gets.  Work again tomorrow and then Monday off. Tuesday and Wednesday working, presumably Thursday and Friday working as well and then the weekend is off. The weekend is off regardless of what they say, I've already informed them I'm not working next weekend. I didn't ask, I informed them.  It's 4 weekends in a row now and I'm just not doing this. As I said in previous post, I'm not going to just sit here and eat this and not be able to go to church and let junior drivers take precedence over me.  I ate the after-vacation garbage, time to be done.  I ate it this weekend as a good-will gesture for respect but that's it.  

I've got a dozer operator in the park, I remembered, he's allegedly pretty good, so I'm just going to rent a dozer, have it delivered and have him do the work.  This is easier than finding someone and he has an operator's license for dozer work.  

_________________

Just going to do Sunday here. 

Sunday - afternoon

Got up early, went to Gurdon, unloaded, came back, texted the manager and the mechanic there are several things the truck needs done to it, I'll be bringing it in after next load.  

I won't go into the whole list - it's mostly minor stuff - but today I finally got so annoyed with the truck bouncing like a ping pong ball all over the place every time it hits even a small bump, I started doing an exhaustive search for the issue.  

The mechanics couldn't find it, hence it's been like that for a while now. I knew it HAD to be something with the suspension, I just wasn't finding it.  This time, I had an idea pop into my head.  The airbags have a stud on the bottom of the assembly that goes through a metal crossbeam and attaches underneath with a giant screw.  I started checking them and walaah.  One of them broken off.  It was after that that I said no more, let's get all of this fixed.  

I have tomorrow off and then a run on Tuesday, so I can go to the shop on Wednesday after I get done unloading.  

On another front, this person that moved in.  I won't go into all of the details, but she lied to me about having the rent after someone had already pulled the thing over there.  When I finally got her at the door after several attempts, she handed me $85.  Fast forward what, a week later?  And I'm still getting the runaround except today?  I told her to get me the money or get that trailer out of my park.  End of story.  "Oh, I'm sorry I should have been up front with you at the beginning, I don't get paid until the 5th".  

That set me off, but we were texting thankfully or I would have filled her ears with "information" that she wouldn't particularly want to hear.  I did tell her I was annoyed and how many times I've been over there and yes, I'm done with this.  I am giving her til the 5th since it's the 3rd already and I told her if she doesn't have it, be prepared to move the trailer off the lot immediately.  I didn't threaten the Sheriff, but I will if I have to.  

I'm a bit tired, got just short of 6 hours of sleep last night which isn't enough.   I can sleep in tomorrow but I was also annoyed I was working on yet another Sunday.  I don't like Sunday work and dislike it even more when you figure 3 out of the last 4 Sundays I've both worked and missed church.