Saturday - afternoon

Yesterday at the plant in Lufkin.  I'm told I'll have to wait when I get in there, I just shrug it off for the most part unless it's HOURS and HOURS of waiting, then I'll start saying something.  

Well, I waited 45 minutes so not the end of my world.  I'm looking at the clock and thinking, well I'm going to get back early enough anyway, no big deal.  

OHHHHH ohhhh oh OHHHHH was I wrong about that.  About half way through the load, some managers come out. I'm thinking, I didn't start anything with anyone, I didn't say anything about the wait, I just sat here in my truck and patiently waiting, playing video games the entire time.  Turns out it wasn't about me.  

The loader had put the wrong product in my trailer.  A manager comes up after they are buzzing around and looking at things and whatever and tells me the wrong product was put in the truck, please go scale out and then come back here.  A bit of a pain, but nothing I would complain about.  So I did.  My understanding was they were going to try and mix it with the right product.  

Nix.  I got back there and they said nope, we're going to have to empty your trailer and then load it again.  Mind you, there is over 20,000 pounds of the wrong product in there.  Yup, I was there a long time.  When all of that was finally over, parked the truck in the yard and walked to the control room, I found one person in there and he was at the computers doing kettle mixes. Giant kettles making truckloads of product. He can't do anything and he didn't know how to do my bills anyway. 

I sat down and said nothing.  Just waited. And waited. And waited. Finally a senior manager comes in  - what are you waiting for? A look on his face. Not a bad look, more like concerned, as if enough hadn't happened today, what is this truck driver doing standing there? I simply replied I am waiting on paperwork.  There is literally no one there that knows how to do it.

Why, you ask? Because they fired that loader on the spot.  He not only loaded my truck with the wrong product, he loaded another truck in another bay with the wrong product as well.  I take no pleasure in another man's calamities and certainly had nothing against this dude, but he IS awfully slow at what he does.  I was a bit shocked tho.  Like, they just canned this dude for real?  Oh, the senior manager had no problem telling me the entire story, I thought crazy since I didn't work there but I listened to all of it. 

After making phone calls to no avail, he finally said he would figure it out with the help of this other person over here who had come in.  Ok.  I was in there 45 minutes waiting on paperwork.  

Today?  Well, I should have known. They had managers loading my truck and they are way out of touch with loading operations, they haven't done that in years.  So, the man got the truck loaded okay, but he didn't pound the lugs on the hatch tight enough.  Really, I should have thought about it but I simply forgot.  So, when I started airing up the trailer after arriving in Gurdon today, I heard a lot of air escaping out of the hatch.  

It didn't help that I forgot my hammer.  I ended up finding a giant fitting that weighs pretty good and smashing the lugs with that thing. I didn't get the air stopped but I got it slowed down enough to build up sufficient pressure.

The rest of today....well I just got home. Apparently the children "destroyed" the house this morning while mom was in bed so she made them clean it all up.  The older one decided he was going to whine and complain about it.  Remember, both these kids are already grounded and I think we're on day 8 of it now.  No tv, no bicycles, no games, you get the picture, they have been shut down excepting for to play outside or do arts and crafts. 

Apparently the older child complained so badly that mom decided she wasn't going to give him any of his privileges back. They both have to earn them - mostly by good behavior.  He made it the entire week without any problems and then at the very last minute? Acts like a clown, blows cleaning his own messes up out of proportion and now has to wait until next weekend before he can even get one of the privileges back at all. So, he went into his bedroom having full blown meltdown, screaming, kicking the walls, acting like a baby.  I went in there when I got home and forced him out of his bed and he just went off.  I SCREWED IT UP! I only whine once! And I lost evvvvverything!  He was looking forward to either getting his bike or tv privileges back today.  

Nope.  The kicker? I warned him last night not to whine about chores and such.  I brought that up to him today, don't you remember what I told you last night? YES! BUT I ALMOST MADE IT! I AM SO BOOORRRREEEEDDDDD.  I guess you can chalk this up to a huge learning experience. Once he gets over this nonsensical meltdown s*** I'm thinking he'll be on good behavior all week long. 

Hey, at least we're going out in a while. Today is the local business taco'bout town event where a bunch of Mexcian food trucks and restaurants are showing up to have a taco competition for the best tacos in town!  I haven't eaten anything today I am so looking forward  to this. I've eaten at almost all of the businesses that are going to be there and honestly, they all have great mexican food!

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And out we went, for 3 hours worth of hanging out with friends and eating a lot of tacos from various restaurants/trucks in town that were there. No way I could eat at all of them, way too much food I would be throwing up right now. It was fun, the kids had fun, we started getting warm - afternoon sun and all - and went home where I am now parked in front of my computer, contemplating what I will do with a free night off.

Probably nothing.  I don't feel like doing anything. I got up at 5:30 am, worked 7 hours and then came home, hung out for a short period of time and went out for 3 hours downtown. Isn't that enough? I'll play a few video games and then watch some tv or a movie.