Wednesday morning.
A much needed 2 days off has expired. I now "get" to go to Cheniere. The only nice thing about it is I will be back tomorrow. The bad thing about that is I won't be back here.  But I've already decided on one of two hotels to stay at, one in this town the other over where the truck yard at work is.  That one over there has a decent Super 8 - not the greatest in the world but far from the worst - right down the road from the yard.  A Kroger's and a restaurant directly across the street, cheap enough, it's probably what I'll opt to do, leaving the dogs at the other house and just won't bother going back to this town.

Unless, of course, I don't have a run coming on Friday.  Then that plan may change.  I'm definitely not looking forward to wasting my time at Cheniere. It's a near worthless run, it makes you stay out very late to get the product delivered and I just don't understand why this company can't force them to pay more for a run that simply doesn't pay that much.  Our time should be worth the same as our time anywhere else.  The only way this run can pay out anything is if there is extensive detention pay time going, which has happened, but far and few between.

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That run is over with.  Of course, they played games down there and kept me far longer than necessary which ate up my 14 hour clock and didn't make it home last night.  Didn't matter, tho. I slept quite soundly in that truck, for 7 hours straight.  That's very good for me.  Not to mention I"m "out of a home" until Sunday I think.  It's very odd that all of a sudden, we have slowed down at work yet once again.  To the point that another driver came back from going on-call because - we were busy.

I dunno what's going on, but my "awesome" paycheck is going to be a pile of rubble tomorrow. I checked it online today, about $1,300 less than what i was expecting. And of course, after a lot of emails, I was shorted yet once again. The disturbing part about these deals where they short my pay? They will never catch their mistakes.  If I don't catch it, I just lose it forever.

_______________________

Friday morning. Stayed at La Quinta so I could have my dogs with me. Likely will stay somewhere  cheaper tonight and leave the dogs at the other house to save on expenses.  But, the dogs liked it and I enjoyed their company.  La Quinta is a more expensive hotel - but - they likely have higher expenses. This is truly the "Dog Hotel".  Cleanup of a room is likely more involved with getting out dog hair and any dirt that a dog might track in.  So I don't really blame them.  I was going to stay at Motel 6 across the street, but when I showed up at the front desk, they informed me no dogs over 40 pounds. That eliminated both of my doggies from the mix.  Rather rude clerk at the desk anyway.

Tonight? I won't have the doggies with me. I'm leaving them over at the other house. And depending on what is going to happen tomorrow work wise, I may just stay in the truck overnight.  My manager hasn't responded to my text asking when/where I'm going next.  I'd prefer a shorter run, no more than 3 days out if possible.  Just trying to get the negativity of being in the driver's seat of a truck all the time out of my brain. Note that being in the sleeper - sleeping - really has none of that associated with it.

I'm still at the hotel - the doggies went out and did their thing earlier and now lying contently on one of the beds.  I assume la Quinta expects that to happen, I dunno, but the bed covers are all white, meaning they probably bleach them pretty good on every wash.  So, I'm not concerned about that at all.  What I did find out, however, is that I can go through my company and get corporate rates for a hotel and then just have them deduct it from my paycheck.  This hotel would have cost about $35 less if I had gone that route.  Now I know.  Very good to know for the future in case this happens again. They have great accounts at higher end hotels for prices you would expect to pay a lower end hotel for.

Anyway, what to do today?  I just filled out a loan application to pay off the Care Credit loan - and not have all the interest I would have incurred the entire previous year before it, added back to the account.  That would be a waste.  I'm guessing they would add at least hundreds of dollars back into it. That was this morning's offerings, now I'm considering going back to the house and cleaning out my SUV.  It needs a good vacuuming and treat the interior with some of the plastic/vinyl guard stuff. Or, just go hang out.  My boat dreams? I've found a couple of decent looking boats, the type I've been looking for in an excellent price range.

____________

Now then, the end of Friday.  Spent half the day over with maria, the cool neighbors came over and we hung out for quite a while. After that, I really didn't feel like going back to the house so I came for my hotel.  This one quite a bit cheaper - but far from free. I don't go out on the road again until Sunday morning, unfortunately.  That's basically me being home the entire time her dad has been here.  Running up a bill. I think tomorrow night I may just go and spend the night in the yard in the truck. It's not that bad and it will be free.

Beyond that, I'm going down to Brownsville so not that long of a trip, either.

And now even more hours later, after an elongated series of texts with a "senior" driver - who texted me out of the blue and started in on the whole deal going on there.  It's been obvious there has been favoritism going on between the manager and certain drivers.  But it's far more obvious to those that live in their trucks nad spend a lot of time in the yard.  They see what's going on. Such as a driver that just got in tonight, dropped a trailer and immediately hooked up to another trailer. 

Meanwhile, this driver I was talking to has been sitting in the yard 3 full days. And seeing firsthand - for a long time - what's been going on. He's been there 15 years and ready to quit.  You know, you get enough long term drivers quitting and perhaps upper management might eventually see a pattern? Or turn a blind eye? who knows.

I'm wishing my doggies were with me right now tho.  But it's $15 per dog to have them in here. I won't lie, I'd love to go get Adler. He was just staring at me over the fence when I was sitting there visiting with people out front at the other house today. I had him out front laying down next to me for quite a while, but I was going to leave so put him in the back yard. Then the neighbors showed up and I stuck around chatting for quite a while with them.  I mean, the alternative was going to sit in a hotel alone, I'd rather socialize for a while. 

Taylor texted me earlier about going to a catfish restaurant that is popular here - but I was finally settled in here at the hotel and I am not  a big catfish fan. She's having a blast with her dad. That's what counts to me, cause right now? I could really be in love sitting in my office chair in my bedroom watching my 65 inch screen tv and all the other amenities I've dressed my room up with : ) 

Well enough for one post.

So, that run is over.  I got back Sunday evening to the house in time for Ribeye steak dinner. Which was quite delicious if I do say so myself, tho I didn't cook it. And......the bottom of the grill fell out of the grill, onto the propane tank, on fire and scared the pee out of James! lmaoooo lololol.

Ok, I knew we needed a new grill, I didn't know we needed one that bad haha.  That's the one my mom bought for me 3 or 4 years ago, we've used the heck out of that thing. I mean, it's gotten a lot  of use, so as much as I hate to say goodbye to it, it's time to part ways.  I was looking at an Oklahoma Joe grill at Lowe's yesterday. Kind of expensive but heavy duty thing.  It's a barrel smoker on one side and a propane grill on the other.  It's pretty cool.  

I resisted the impulse to buy it tho. $400 is a tad high just to be able to grill meats.  It is an important part of our lives, tho, I'm just looking around.  I could just get another propane grill with out the smoker combo for half that price and be all good.  It's getting to the time of year where they should be having some sales on grills coming up any time now.  

Anyway, the plant the other day took 5 full hours to unload that trailer. They make you drop the trailer and leave the facility. You can hang out out front or go to town - I opted to go to town and get an amazingly wonderful breakfast.  The ladies at the counter said the skirt steak was the best of the 3 breakfast steaks they have on their breakfast menu, I took their word for it and was not let down at all.  When I got back to the plant, I started getting nervous about how long it was taking.  I mean, the dude said it only takes 45 minutes to unload, it's taking the pressure on the tank back down that takes so long.  I could easily dump that pressure in 20 to 30 minutes and get it over with, but their policy is to have it down below 20 before it can leave the plant.  

Limited hours when I finally got out of there to drive, I hoofed it back down to below St Louis and at least got myself positioned to be able to make it back the next day - Easter Sunday - which I did.  I was so sick of driving after I got back from this last trip that I specifically asked my manager for another day off after yesterday - Monday.  I could really use  a vacation at this point.  Our trip to Galveston beach is still 3 months off, that's a bit too long.  I'd like to just go hole up somewhere away from people and enjoy some time off.  A nice run with a couple days detention would work, lol, but that's wishful thinking. 

As it stands, the boys are back from Arkansas and the lady and her 2 girls are living in this house right now. That's 8 people in here total.  Tomorrow, 2 more people coming - her dad and his girlfriend - to be here 5 days.  So today, I'm finishing up detailing my room and making it nice as they will be staying in here and it will work out nicely that I'll be out of here.  Just about guaranteed I'll be sent out somewhere tomorrow, for the sake of not having to give them hotel expenses, I do hope whatever I get is a 3 day run. 

And...after all this time, like 5 weeks, the room at the other house is finally rented.  I'm definitely eating some expenses over there for this month.  2cd time that's happened I think. There was another month last year where one of the rooms was empty and I ate over $400 in costs - but - the rest of the time the house almost paid for itself, with only $30 or $40 per month that I had to pay. Which I'm fine with since the trade off is a place to take my dogs when I'm on the road.  That's not much to pay to have your dogs well looked after.  Anyway, hopefully this new lady will stick around awhile. She said she is here for management training and will be given a store to run after she's done.  She's thinking she will get the store in my town, which would work out nicely.

It's funny tho, that people who run stores - I know another one - in this area aren't making that much money. Like, 30k per year? To put up with all of that nonsense?  I dunno, but making any rash decisions about changing jobs isn't on my horizon at the moment.  As much as I despise some of the s*** going on with this company, there are far worse scenarios out there.  The truck situation was insufferable tho, just ridiculous that a big company like that has trucks driving down the road with 700k miles on it and endless problems.  The flip side, of course, was if a breakdown occurred on the road, I got breakdown pay - but that didn't always happen and I was sitting home sometimes up to 6 days.  

Now that I'm in a much nicer truck, it's a bit better.  I still don't like being out on the road more than 2 days, just gets old.  

:Yesterday, I got up early and finished putting all those grass plugs in the ground. Not anything I wanted to do first thing in the morning after being out on the road that long. Remember, I finished a run, came back at 3am and then the next day went right back out again.  And the run before that, I was only home a day. I keep telling myself I'm going to buy a boat or another ATV and I keep looking at them and then I keep saying no, save for land.  This kind of thought process goes back and forth in my mind, but I suspect eventually? The boat will win.  I saw a nice flat bottomed boat with a 350 chevy inboard motor in it for $3,500 the other day.  Another other, cheaper fishing boats.  The issue - not really an issue, just a determining factor - is that my friends want to be able to go fishing too - and that would be nice as well.  But a boat big enough for 3 or 4 people doesn't really have to be that big.  

So whatever.  Today is finish my room day, a bit of laundry, mow the back yard and anything else that I may or may not want to get done around here, but I'm spending at least half of relaxing and doing nothing.  Actually, I'll be watching movies and kicking back with my doggies.  

Well, off to Waffle House for keto breakfast, to the store for a roast and veggies for whatever road trip tomorrow, get the laundry started and get today's chores done and over with.  

Lol. The plant used another driver and I as guinea pigs this more.  See if they can load 2 trucks on the rack at the same time. It sort of worked.  Got to talk to this other driver that's been at the company for awhile about this particular run I'm on since I've never done it before.  He expressed the idea that if you "don't mess around" you can get it done in 3 days. 

I've encountered this phenomenon with other drivers in this company. Perplexing.  They stop a lot while on the road, they don't necessarily get a lot of miles done on any given day and it seems as if they aren't interested in making money.  Just the bare-bones minimum.  I dunno, but for me?  Once I get out on a run, I want to get it done as fast as I possibly can - meaning drive all day long after the truck is loaded until I either run out of hours or come to the understanding that I might have to quit a bit early to find a place to park.

The variable on this run - according to him - is that it can take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours to unload the truck.  6 hours?...geeze. I need it done tomorrow in no more than 4 hours to be able to get home on Sunday and enjoy a nice, steak, Easter Sunday dinner.  Won't be the end of my little world if  I don't get home Sunday, but it would be nice.  I'll get holiday pay, an extra $170, for driving on a national holiday. 

So, the dude whose truck I am in now - he quit the company a month ago - is already back with the company lmao.  The grass was dead on the other side of that  fence.  My manager asked me last night to leave his bag - it's got all this expensive fire-proof clothing and equipment in it - in the office.  I assured her without her saying anything about it that he was not getting his truck back.  He quit, tough, eat it, deal with it.  She agreed, lol, wasn't even going to ask.  Anyway, upon arrival at work this morning, early, she was there. 

Good morning Sunshine! What are you doing here so early?  Just behind in work. And for whatever reason, decided to go into the subject, unsolicited and frankly, not exactly wanted of colonoscopy.  You know, where they stick a camera up your @$$ and take a look at your innards?  I have resisted it because I don't want a camera up my ass, I don't want people standing around making jokes about it and I have other diseases in my family lines that I am basically in fear of, colon cancer isn't in our family lines. We have far worse shit - Alzheimer's all over the place. Which would you rather die from - losing your freaking mind to the point you can't even remember who you are much less your own family or offspring? Or some cancer eating your innards away until you - die from it's complications? I'd rather be blown up  than get Alzheimer's.  That crap has taken alot of people out in my extended and close family lines. 

I'll never understand my dad dying of that disease when the Bible says that God gives us "the power of a sound mind".  It clearly states that in the Bible.  He served the Lord his entire life and then what, go out not even remembering who his own son was?  I'd seriously rather have a bullet in my brain than go through that.  Note: I'm not suicidal, at all. But I've given a lot of thought about this devilish, nightmarish disease called Alzheimer's and there are a thousand other ways I'd rather go out than forgetting everything in my life and everyone that was important to me in my life.  That's a disease from the pit of hell.

Uhhh, yeah, moving on.  Okay I'm totally sidetracked now that I started thinking about all of that nastiness again.  Some of the stuff that goes on in life is utterly pathetic and shitty. 

Shifting gears.  I made it almost 600 miles today, I could have gone another 30 or 40 miles further, but the truckstops available in that range were listed as "some spots". At this time of day, "some spots" - that's a generality of how much truck parking is available - can disappear and be listed as "lot is full" in a matter of 10 minutes. I've seen it countless times.  I calculate - always - the next day and the rest of the trip as to whether I should risk going for it or stopping a little short at a place where I have a 90% confidence that I'll find parking.

I opted for confidence and wasn't let down. 

Now then, DirecTV. They have the worst customer service on earth, I can guarantee you that. 20 plus years of dealing with them, there isn't any other service that has consistently horrid service as ridiculous as they do.  I wasn't let down looking at $196 and change being taken out of my account this morning. $116 to $196 in one fell swoop. NO email, no notation on my account online about it, but just "Hey, we're going to screw you up your ying-yang and you're going to like it!". 

I got this guy in customer loyalty this morning who obviously knew nothing.  He had no customer relation skills and kept saying the same thing over and over: do you like your Showtime channels?  I immediately told him I wasn't going to argue with him, I wasn't going to consider having less programming and that his "offer" was to bring it "down" from $196 per month to $132.  I mean, this dude wouldn't listen to me.  His offers remained the same and I said 3 or 4 times: get the price back down to $116 or I"m going to switch to Dish Network.

I wasn't lying, either. I was fully prepared to switch over. This guy wouldn't change his offer and wouldn't shut up.  I finally hung up on the dude.  So what does he do? Calls me back! I was looking up the number for Dish Network, I didn't want to talk to him or anyone else from that company. And I flatly told him so Why are you calling me? I didn't ask you to call and yes, I hung up on you.  He went into the same stupid s*** all over again.  Get off my phone!  This time he said fine and he hung up. 

So now, I"m not considering whether to get Dish, I'm already there with that one. Get it, get a much better deal and screw DirecTV.  So, while I'm doing that, this dude calls again!! WTH  Oh, well I talked to my manager and she had listened to the conversation and said that she could give me - $110 per month and a $100 credit. He then profusely apologized for his obnoxious behavior on the phone so I caved and agreed  to it. That's on the rental house out here.  The house in Phoenix, I just remembered, Dish just upped the rate there by $20 and I forgot to deal with that.  No mood to do that tonight, I'll call them tomorrow.  They just do this stuff and they don't bother to even give you a notification about it.

But I will give ATT credit - they own DirecTV now - ATT gave me 35 gigs of "bonus" data last month - of which I never came even close to using, and they did it again this billing cycle!  I dunno how long this is going to last, but I'm streaming all kinds of stuff while on the road.  Watching movies, yes! 

I didn't sleep well last night and didn't get enough hours from the start of it to begin with. The sleep bug has hit me and I'm getting offa here. This engine vibration along with the sound of the AC fan humming makes me sleep better in this truck than the setup I have at home.  The bed vibrates all night long. That may not be for everyone, but it just amazes me, haha. 

G'nite.

Well here we go.  I figure 3 day trip, I have never been to this plant before but it's only like 50 or 60 more miles further up north than Mapleton, Illinois.  I can basically just do the same route excepting near the end staying on I-55 instead of taking 155 up to Pekin.  The point being I know where I"ll end up after today's drive is over, or at least have some idea of the region I'll be in. How far I make really depends on any given day. How long it took to load at the plant, if there were any traffic snarls, weather, etc.

I'm not really happy I didn't get those plugs all in yesterday since that box is going to be sitting there 3 or 4 days, but then again, I got quite a lot done considering the time frame I had to work with.  I wouldn't have done any of that stuff, tbh, if I had known I was going out today.  Just drench the boxes with water and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, DirecTV zapping it to me yet again.  This time, instead of adjusting the bill for one extra receiver, they for some reason decided to add $69 to the bill. Looking at the bill itself, it doesn't show anything but a higher cost for the same package.  I get so sick of the games directv plays, and it hasn't gotten any better - actually worse now - since ATT took over.

Well whatever, off to the races!

G'day. 

And enough is enough.
2 boxes of the plugs, I got through one of them and then it started pouring rain.  I bought nowhere near enough of them to cover the entire front lawn - but they aren't cheap - I am focusing on the barren areas for now.  Anyway, I was covered in mud, soaking wet and just decided I'd had enough for one day.  If I get sent out tomorrow, I'll douse the other box with water and hope the next run isn't a long one.  If it is - well - it is what it is. 

Besides, it's 5:00 pm already. I had forgotten that I had a late start on the day.  A nice, long, hot shower made me feel righteous again. 

Okay. My manager sent me a run for tomorrow. It's a 1 day trip, down and back up the same day.

Strike that, she just called and switching me over to a 3 or 4 day run to a place I haven't been to yet.  Morris, Illinois.  In all this time I've been working at this company now, and this gravy run getting around to everyone, I have never been on it.  My rest of the day of rest? Turned into a flurry of activity to try and get ready.  I wouldn't have even bothered with any of the grass if I had known I was going on a run like this. 

Now, I've got a meatloaf in the oven, cut up leftover ribs into small chunks and saturated it with keto friendly bbq sauce, and found everything else I wanted to take with me and got all of that ready.  Laundry - yup. I wasn't going to do that today, either, but I don't have enough clothes to last potentially 4 days and I always pack for 6 or  7.  Yup, if that truck breaks down or something goes wrong, I don't want to be caught without sufficient clothing to last that long.  Been there done that, bought the farm.

But - I am exhausted.  I am sooo tired.  I was really thinking with all the trucks sitting in the yard today that I would have tomorrow off.  I'm just plain worn out and ready for a break.  I'll just have to let the motivation of yet another excellent paycheck 2 weeks from now motivate me.  I may ask for a couple of days off after this trip - then again - maybe not.  Seems like I "got what I wanted" in her keeping me busy, saying anything about it might hard the future of keeping on this pace.  I didn't make 80k last year sitting at home, that's for sure. 

Lol, I'm going to drench the sod and put it out of the sun on the porch and hope for the best. 

A sailboat. My buddy Finn suggested that in my search for a boat.  My dad taught us boys how to sail when we were kids.  A small sailboat, but it was quite the learning curve.  I'm not sure I could handle a 26 footer, not at least without some instruction from someone that knows anything about them.  I don't even know how to launch a boat into the water off a ramp - yet.  I've watched a few videos. The only reason i say that is cause' there are ample videos online of people losing their vehicles going too far into the water and the water? Carrying their pickup trucks right out into the water! 

But the videos I have seen, you actually have to back the vehicle partially into the water to get the boat - larger boats anyway - far enough into the water to be able to float off of the trailer. I think if I do get a boat, I'm going to go to a boat ramp and just watch people doing it with all kinds of different boats before I even attempt that.  I can just see my SUV floating off into a lake! lolol.  I have to wonder if insurance covers that....cause' it surely is a total loss once that water gets into the electronics. 

Okay.  I'm trying to mentally shift gears from "tomorrow is a day off" to "tomorrow is the beginning of another rather long trip".  That's one of those things that takes a little time. I just wish it wasn't so late already.  Like, 7:30 and I still don't have everything ready.  I figure I'm going to start really missing my doggies after this next trip.  Adler is contently laying in my bed right now, lol. 

__________

And there it is. Ready to go, totally worn out, not rested from lack of sleep last night, not necessarily going to like tomorrow, but who knows?  Lately I've had more energy even on lack of sleep. Doesn't always work out, but I can have hope, lol.  Whatever the case, there was too much to do in too little time and now I'm totally wide awake - and it's time to go to sleep!

Outta here. 

And all of this working is paying off.
A large check tomorrow - very nice for a week's pay, but next week?  It will be like 2 weeks pay for one week's work. 
Now, if they would just keep me this busy for a while, my checking account would make significant gains again, such as it was before the slow-down that started last October.  I'm not holding my breath on that one, but one can hope. 

Not that I like being out on the road that much, tho.  I could stand a couple of days off. That's 3 runs in a row now with only a day off in between. As it stands, I got into the yard at 3:30 am - this morning not last night I guess lol. There was a huge storm, lightning flashing all over the place and pouring rain, the type of rain where you step out into it for a few seconds and you are drenched.

So, I parked the truck/trailer into a space and just decided to go to bed right there.  They didn't need the trailer today, I just decided last night I would get this trip over with. Otherwise, I would have to park somewhere, sit there for 10 hours and, yes, I would still be on the road trying to get to the yard right now if I had done that.  It saved me from sitting around for several hours longer than I needed to be sitting around and the trip goes much faster. In the wee hours of the morning, every light you come upon in small towns is green. There is little to no traffic.  Once I finally got into Houston - on the outskirts a truck had broken down and in a construction zone at that so everything stopped - I breezed through there.

Anyway, I am home now.  As soon as I pulled into the driveway, FedEx showed up with the grass plugs.  Ugh.  I did this to myself.  I'll have to put them in today to ensure that they don't die.  At least there's a guarantee on them.  If they don't survive, they will replace any plugs for free that die off.  We'll see what happens, but I'm hopeful none of them die and they all take.  It poured rain here last night as well, so the ground is freshly, nicely watered, I won't have to do any of that.  It actually should go relatively quickly.

Excepting that I'm tired and cranky, haha.  I want to go to sleep, not go out and start using an auger to make holes.  But, I'm going to force myself in a bit to get out there and get this done.  I was reading up on installation, I don't even have to put down mulch or anything. The grass is so hardy, just planting it without anything but  a well watered ground is all that is necessary. I was prepared to go buy a large amount of mulch to cover the ground, but they don't even want you using mulch. 

And, the sales at the grocery stores on steak are amazing! T-bones for $4.57 per pound, that is an awesome price! 

Well, now that I think of it, if I sit here and write and lounge around on the internet too long, I'm going to lose motivation and get nothing done.  And who knows, I might get sent out tomorrow.

I'll have to write more, later. 

The tranquility of sitting in a huge hotel room, nicely appointed, quiet, solitude and time to reflect.  It really puts me into a different state of mind, like I just left earth and went somewhere tranquil where the cares of this world have temporarily disappeared.  I have a little over 3 hours left in this little world before checkout time forces me out the door.  A trailer will not likely show up until this afternoon. The last couple times I've been down here, trailers didn't show up til afternoon, either, so there is no hurry to rush back over to that yard and then sit in my truck all day long waiting.

The Yard manager said the waiting line for trucks to get into the US has grown for unknown reasons.  Well I know why, I've seen the news reports and I've seen them taking video of trucks in a single file line, over 3 miles long, taking up to 10 hours to get across the border. It's the border crisis and taking manpower from ports of entries and relocating them elsewhere.  BP is doing whatever it has to to try and stem the tide of illegals crossing into our nation.  I mean, for me it's a bonus.  If I have to stay for detention, I want it to be good and long, not just a few hours.  I'm at 14 hours right now and will be at minimum 17 hours before it's over.  This is the icing on the cake for my next paycheck.  If I get out of here late - which I am guessing I will, I'll just drive until I get too tired and pull over for the night.

Tho, hopefully, I would get past Houston at least. Going through Houston at night time is far preferable than going through there anytime during the day. It's 5 hours from here give or take, even if I got out of here at 6:00 pm today I'd likely drive through Houston to get it over with.

Well, a phone call to the grass company settled that issue.  I placed an order with them something like 2 weeks ago. The order never processed and my credit card wasn't charged - tho it showed a pending charge for a couple of days, that fell off of there.  They shipped it yesterday and be there at latest Friday.  Be nice if it came today, waiting for me for when I get home to go ahead and plant it.  The front yard is rather abysmal - the St. Augustine grass died in certain spots over the winter and has not come back.  I planted Rye grass which came up beautifully - but that's a winter grass and the summer heat will kill it.  You have to replant that every year in Fall. Kind of a pain but produces a beautiful grass that would be awesome if it lasted year round.

I take up a few projects around the house here and there, nothing too pricey since it's not my house but I'm living there and have been living there for like 4 years now.  I like a certain standard of beauty and cleanliness, especially out on the front part of the house.  The neighbors continue to vex us in the back yard as they haven't cleaned up that yard since I moved in there. The rain comes flooding through their yard, picks up all those leaves, dirt and everything else and washes it right into our yard, every single time it rains. The efforts to clean up the previous mess are washed away with a bunch of dead, rotting twigs that have been sitting in their yard for years. 

Well, inevitably, my time is running out here.  There is another driver who was a couple hours behind me that may already be over there.  It wouldn't bother me at all if he took the next trailer to come in and leave me "stranded".  Unless 2 were coming in today then it wouldn't help.  I forgot to ask the yard manager yesterday if it was just one or 2 trailers coming. 

Other things I am musing, but I best end this one.

I was about to leave the yard this morning and realized I had left my new laptop in my SUV.
Considering what's going on now, I would have been very unhappy with myself if I had forgotten to bring it.
Well number one, I didn't sleep that well last night.  I got to work, got the truck/trailer hooked up, got to the plant, loaded it and din't make it maybe 120 miles down the road before I was forced from severe fatigue to take a 35 minute nap.  I just couldn't drive in that condition.  I felt much better after that nap, tho, and proceeded to drive the rest of the route down to Brownsville out - with the necessary stops for fuel and the wonderful baked half-chicken at Stripes.

It was 7:30 pm when I got down here and the staff was still in their offices. That is very unusual for this place.  After dropping the loaded trailer, I looked around and found - no empties! Yay!  That made me very happy.  I would get at least 10 hours of detention pay, I thought, maybe more.  Well, the dude that runs the place was in there.  When do you think you'll get another trailer in? Well, tomorrow, but throws up his hands. It's taking a looooooooooooooooong time - yes it was quite exaggerated the way he said it lmao - to get trucks across the border. Up to 10 hours!

Yup, I've seen video of it on the news.  Miles and miles of trucks backed up in a line waiting to get across the border.  Thank Democrats for dragging their asses and finally admitting that there is, indeed, a crisis at the border. DUHHHHHH - how much intel do you need and actual footage of what's going on before you come to the same conclusion everyone else is? They're diverting resources to capturing illegals.  Ports are under-manned and it shows it.

But for me? That's a very good thing.  One of our trucks was leaving the yard when I was pulling in. Like wow! He had to wait all day long for that trailer to show up.  That was enough for me.  I called my manager.  Hotel please, thanks.

I'm back at the Marriott Residence Inn. This is not a room, it's a luxury apartment as far as I'm concerned. This one has 2, separate, master bedrooms, each with it's own bathroom, a living room, a dining area and a fully equipped kitchen. I'm thoroughly enjoying this, even if alone in this giant place.

So, a lady came over to the other house today to talk to Maria about renting out one of the rooms.  Long story short: no thanks.  Bipolar, Turrets, multiple personalities, a long list. How did Maria know this? Because this lady's counselor brought the lady there.  It's a Rene on steriods situation.  As much as I need to get that room rented, I don't need to subject everyone there to another nightmarish situation with a person that literally doesn't have all their marbles together.  I'm not trying to disparage this lady at all, but living with a person like that?  Uhh, no.  We just went through Rene, I would hate to subject them to another person like that.

It's been a tough sell this time around trying to get the room rented.  There is a guy that says he'll stop by on Thursday.  But I think I'm going to delete all my ads and put fresh ones up, replete with new pics that Maria sent me today.

Tuesday morning.
Ugh.
Alarm went off in the middle of a deep sleep.
I hate when that happens.  Takes forever to wake up.

Never-the-less, today is a Brownsville run which will go perfectly with the run I just got done with and make for a nice, fat healthy paychceck next week - that's whether there's any detention pay down there or not.  I have no idea if that's still happening down there, I just know 2 trips ago down there I did, at least get about 14 hours worth.  But, as with everywhere we go, they are trying to do away with detention pay, I'm sure it's this new company we have been consumed by.  Eliminating it altogether would be a big cut out of annual earnings.

Unless, of course, my manager keeps me running, then detention pay becomes irrelevant. It's just easier to sit around getting paid to nothing than it is to be running down the road constantly. 

As for my investment intentions, I've been reading for some time now that the Motley Fool - I know, it's a weird name - has a good track record of calling stocks to invest in. They really have a good reputation. There is a subscription fee, but at least if nothing else I can get a little better knowledge of how and what to look at when considering a stock to purchase.  I haven't done that yet,  I was going to last time I was home but I got caught up hanging out with James and just chatting and having a good time, really.

I'd like to dump a couple grand into 3 or 4 different stocks initially and test the waters. 

Well, it's time to get out of here and put in a 14 hour work day. 

Well here I am, at home and on my "new" / refurbished computer. So far, so good and all the USB ports work, that is refreshing.  My old computer half of them didn't work, another reason I wanted to rebuild it. This one also has the high speed ports. I plugged my new wifi adapter in and it's working swimmingly  Much faster than what I had before.  But I have another one I'm going to try, it's got an antenna on it and may even be faster. It wouldn't work in my old computer, the ports wouldn't accommodate for the speed increase.

Anyway, that was the extent of anything I am doing today.  Besides smoking some pork ribs, which are smoking as I type and have been smoking a couple of hours now.

______________

That was yesterday.  Ended up hanging out with James outside for hours in front of a nice fire and eating the smoked goods out there.

The smoked chicken wings were amazing. Had never tried doing that with them before,  we"re going to get 3 or 4 packages of them and have a feast of them.  We weren't actually going to smoke chicken wings, I had rigs in the smoker, but the sell by date on the package showed yesterday as being the last day, so we threw them in there.

Anyway, Monday morning, the kitchen was a disaster.  I just can't live like that, so I just got done cleaning all of that up and now about to go get a much needed haircut.  No clue whether I'm going out tomorrow, don't really want to, a couple of days off would be nice after going hard for 2 longer runs - but - I wouldn't turn it down or even hint that I want another day off.  Money - takes precedence. A Brownsville run would be nice. 2 days, good money and make it on the next paycheck.

Meanwhile, I was looking at Care Credit, the promotion runs out next month.  And I was looking at loans.  Cheaper rates than dumping it on to another credit card and won't hit my credit score the same as transferring the funds. And then the phone rang, I credit company I had looked into for a loan/ Blah blah blah, what prompted you to not finish your loan application?  I guess I should expect such calls, but I don't need a stranger on the phone questioning my motives or decisions.

I just don't know how much I want to borrow atm.  I'm considering a few other things to add onto a loan, but I don't really want to pay too much more than what I am currently paying to service the monthly payments.  Tho, that would go back up once they add the interest back onto that care credit card.  It's a nice program - a year to pay it back interest free - if you can do that.  But I'm guessing they calculate that most people can't do it and therefore, they get to tack all that interest back on.  I'm not really complaining, per se, just that it's a gimmick  I doubt most people that would need to use a card like that are going to be able to pay back a large amount of debt still remaining after a year.  I'm just fortunate that some of my credit decisions have finally paid off and very well into the good range for credit score.

And dinner is ready. For all one of me. The entire house is gone  Only James will be coming home tonight. Taylor is in Kansas and the boys are in Arkansas.  The lady and her 2 kids that are coming to stay for a while aren't going to be here for a couple more weeks.

And, Brownsville tomorrow. Haven't been down there in quite a while, actually.  I prefer it over a lot of runs, but the last couple of runs were worth far more money.  Longer time out on the road the only drawback.  I'd prefer a long run, and then a shorter run and alternate like that But what I prefer and what I get? lol.

Ahh, so I was tempted on a pontoon boat.  I want to go boating, I want to go fishing.  So the small images of the boat on my Iphone had it looking good. But when I got to my 22 inch computer screen and looking? oops! Lots of cosmetic work needs to be done.

Saturday Evening, Little Rock, Arkansas.
After the pay parking on Thursday, I made it to the plant in West Virginia around 5:30 pm on Friday.  It was interesting trying to get one of our new/much longer trailers in there, but I was very happy that they were letting me go ahead and make the swap after hours.

I think I might have made it 100 miles down the road, not very far.  I didn't have much hours left.  I got into this Love's Travel Center in Grayson, Kentucky, what a crap hole.  They have this tiny truck parking area and I mean tiny. Like maybe 40 spots at most and it's in a hole, dead end.  You aren't pulling in there and flipping a U-ey.  If you want to back into a spot on the right, you will have to turn around away from the parking area and back all the way in there.

It's very difficult to back into a parking spot like that on the blind side.  Highly not recommended unless you have a spotter - a good spotter.  Anyway,  I did get the trailer into a hole and there was, by chance, a Hardee's across the street! Yes folks, another lettuce wrapped bacon burger with cheese and no condiments and this time? They did it right! Absolutely delicious! 

I got out of there early this morning. Around 5 am.  The rain began some 100 miles down the road and it got worse as the day progressed. And people driving 45 mph in the passing lane because - excuses. Get the H*** out of my way.  Just move over! Dang.  It's unnecessary and it's stupid.  If you are afraid, stay in the slow lane and let everyone else pass!  Even truck drivers were doing this nonsense. 

Whatever.  I spent a while trying to decide whether I wanted to stop at a truckstop for the night or actually get a hotel.  I spent even more time lookiing for hotels in the region where I knew I would run out of drive hours.  I got tired of it, found a place that was probably not the greatest but at least has 10 parking spots. I decided on the Petro truckstop. I had to stop for fuel anyway, it would be easier just to stay there for the night.  Fueled up the truck and drove the entire parking area.  It was only 5:30 pm and the entire place - except - the pay parking spots, was full! 

Have you seen the news stories of ELD's - Electronic Logging Devices - causing truckstop parking lots to be full and drivers finding it difficult to find places to park?  Yeah, that's my reality on a daily basis when I'm on the road.  You can plan ahead all freaking day long - as these people advise you to do - that doesn't do anything for this dilemma that was caused when this mandate went into effect. But why should the people that made this law care? They don't give a shit.  It doesn't affect them, all they know is their numbers on a computer screen tell them this is what must be done, and right now!! 

Anyway, that was it for me. Economy Inn it is. There were crappy truckstops I could have stopped at, but I had already made up my mind to come here.  Enjoy being out of the truck, $45 - get what you pay for place - but they actually have Directv here.  Not bad for a place like this.  And very good WiFi.  Again, for this place, not bad.  I would have stayed at a better place  but just didn't have it in me to keep searching. The rain and foul driving conditions with idiot drivers just took it's toll on me, I made it almost 700 miles so I'm not going to complain too much.

Now, if this was a "normal" trip - normal now in this new truck I'm in - I would be pulling into the yard instead of being 200 plus miles out.  \

Rene. I'll give her kudos for one thing, that I really miss: She would send me videos and pics of the doggies.  I don't want to ask Maria to do anything like that, tho she did send me a pic yesterday of Addler passed out on her bedroom floor, on one of the much smaller dog's beds lmao. She is far better with the dogs than Rene was.  That's a fact. But, still, Rene loved those dogs.  She's high 24 hours a day now, so she says and I believe it, eating pot brownies.

I'll be getting up early - I think - and get back to the yard before too late in the day.  Or I'll sleep in and say screw it lol.  But if I'm out of here at 6:00 am, which is my current thinking, it's 4 hours or less driving from here.  Okay, so I don't need to get up too early! Haha!!! Just I want to be home before 2:00 pm.  Why? Because on Sundays, inevitably, invariably, the sleep button hits my brain around that time and it's time to doze. It's been that way for me for decades.  I can't explain it, it is what it is.  I'll pull over into a rest area and doze off for a half an hour and try to shake it off if I'm on the road, but if I"m home? I'll sleep for at least 2 hours. 

My new desktop computer came in, thank goodness. The new grass? Not yet.

However, home will be different.  Taylor is off on a business trip for a full week. She left this morning out of Shreveport.  That should be, I would hope, a nice diversion for her to get out of there and do something different.  I mean, company paid, flight, hotel, car rental, per diem. 

The other change? They have a friend that - found a job the same city where my yard is - but she can't find a place until she gets employed. She has 2 kids that will be there as well.  My interpretation? Wherever she was living before, she didn't have the money to pay for because she was broke and she can't find a place until she has the job and gets some money flowing in.  2 weeks? Highly unlikely.  More like a month.  She asked if it was okay with me.  Taylor you know me. If a person is in need and I can help, I always help.  It's not even me helping, they aren't taking over my bedroom. But they'll be in the house and I appreciate Taylor being considerate to ask me. And I've met this lady before, she's very cool and fun to hang out with. 

Well, I have been torn between buying a boat and just continuing to save for land. Taylor asked which one I would be happier with? Uhh, the boat lol.  But for the long run? The land.  Of course the land. but I'm not getting any younger and I want to have some fun on my time off.  The middle ground for me is getting my big ATV fixed and buying another one and at least having something to take off with and go vent life into the woods somewhere blasting down a dirt trail.  Why does that do anything for a person? Why does anything do anything for anyone? Personal tastes, likes and desires. Things you grew up with. Processes in the mind you have had and have been building over time. 

Do something different. Get out of the house.  Go somewhere, meet new people.  More to life than working and going home. I like going home but it's not enough for me.  Actually, I may just attempt again to figure out what's wrong with my ATV. I think it's a fuel problem. If I can't fix it, I'll hire someone who can.  I can take the dogs, go to the river and have some time away from everything.

With that, I'm outta here.  Bedtime approaches, I'm sure I want to leave early.  4 days out is enough. 

   Thursday.
Long, long day.
Well first, yesterday's load was cancelled.  Well before that, my computer situation.  The new desktop hasn't arrived, I checked tracking, it's in Fort Worth as of 11:00 yesterday.  It may end up on the front porch tomorrow.  I had left my laptop - this one I'm using - in the truck.  I tried to find the power cord for the older laptop - it still works it's just slow.  No luck. So I pulled out the one with the bad keyboard - just amazingly annoying trying to use it so I gave up on it. 

Hence, I am on tonight, even if a long day, and am glad to have a functioning computer.  I can only do so much on a smart phone, tho James told me they actually sell and actual bluetooth keyboard for them, I may look into that. 

Anyway, the day before yesterday, my manager told me that I had a load for yesterday, but no trailers in the yard and she didn't know when to expect one to come rolling in.  The load appointment for 10:30 am.  Well, I got up yesterday morning, got my stuff done and took the dogs over to the other house.  Sat around and chatted with Maria for a while, while texting the driver down at the plant I was going to - Cheniere.  He said he was still there, meaning there are problems at the plant and I began to wonder if I was even going.  That question was shortly answered: load cancelled.

It's kind of hard to shift gears internally from "I have to work today" to "I have today off, what do I need to get done".  My mind is in work mode, not home mode.  Work mode was thinking about a 14 hour day and getting within 100  miles of the yard and spending the night at - wherever I end up.  The day was already half over anyway.  And not much later, I got my assignment for today: Charleston, West Virginia.  A much better run, I  have only had a day off in between loads, so actually a gain with a 2,000 mile round trip run versus a less than 500 mile round trip run that's a pain in the ass. 

Well I got to the yard this morning and found the trailer parked in front of the shop on the concrete.  Upon checking the gauges, the thing had 10 inches of product still in it and the pressure was high.  Ahh, the cheniere trailer. They didn't even finish emptying the thing.  I found out later why: their system was full. They shouldn't have even ordered that load, much more the one I was supposed to take down there. Well, I unloaded the vapors into the clear blue sky until I got it down to a better number.  If I take it to the plant with  high pressure, I"ll be there forever while their system deals with it..

At the plant, the newest driver had shown up late - big no-no - so I was sitting there for 40 minutes just waiting for his truck to get done loading. Then, I got in there, got into the driver/employee shack and got into a discussion with the manager.  He's saying they are loading 27,000 pounds, my manager is texting me that they are loading what was left on my trailer into a rail car and then loading me from scratch.  The manager at the plant was like, what?  He instantly called her, lol.  She was saying it was 37,000 pounds, he got out his sheet and there it was in huge numbers, with yellow marker on it: 27,000 pounds.  She then argued about just adding product to the product.  Umm, now that should be left to the purview of the plant that actually creates the product.

Wait wait wait.  I got done there, got back to the scalehouse - and waited there for almost an hour for paperwork.  I finally got out of there and got on down the road.  50 miles worth - when my manager texted me: you have to go back to Eastman.  Why?  They have to put more Ethylene on your trailer.  50 miles.  100 miles in total wasted.  And time - precious clock time.  I knew the day was screwed as far as my plan to make this a 3 day trip.  I totally gave up on that.  Back to the plant, load 10,000 more pounds - the purchasing agent of the company I am going to made an ordering mistake - well they can pay for that by paying me for the extra mileage AND the extra hours.  Over 6 hours wasted. 

I only made it another 450 miles before I ran out of HOS hours.  I was down to 15 minutes, pulled into the TA - and it was full.  Except for pay spaces and I ain't paying them $18 to park for the night, that's ridiculous. Across the street, pay parking there.  I went in for a drink and to ask them how much? $10.  I could have driven down to the rest area down the road, but I had had enough of this day and paid them the $10.  If I get up early enough in the morning, I can walk over to the TA and have a keto friendly breakfast.  I'm well behind where I would normally try to stop - which is somewhere around 50 miles north of Nashville. 

We're still trying to rent that room.  2 nights ago, this dude contacts me on Facebook Messenger off of my Facebook marketplace ad.  He'll take the room without seeing it.  Uhh, no, I thought.  That sets off alarms/red flags/something is wrong signals into my brain.  So I politely said, well we like for people to stop by and check the place out first.  Meaning: We like to get a chance to meet you and find out if your a slob, nutcase or other kind of undesirable that we don't want living there. 

I let Maria know this guy is coming - yesterday it was.  This guy shows up.  With a wife and a baby.  At no point in our conversation did he say there were 3 people.  It's just not a good setup for a family.  I have 2 mature, single adults living there, they don't want to hear a screaming baby or deal with the congestion in the bathroom with 3 more people living there. And other undesirable things that I can think of, such as bickering and fighting potential with them.  This dude was polite, all the way up until, after he left, he texted me saying he wanted the room.

And I replied that we can't have a family in there, if you would have told me that from the start I would have told you sorry, we can't do that.  So, sorry, we can't do that.  Just too many people in a small house.  I was very polite and just trying to let him know why it wouldn't work out. His reply? I'm a racist pig, don't like black people, f*** off, blah blah blah.  I am so sick of the race card.  It's more than just annoying.  I've heard this shit for over 2 years being a Trump supporter and I just won't tolerate that crap.  I gave him a reply that then sent him over the deep end, to the point I had to threaten to call the police. I was going to inform him I am armed and so is the "fat lady" - his words - at the house.  But he needn't know that until it's in his face.  This went on for a while, tho.  I wasn't a lily white angel, I can admit that.  I was pushing his buttons on purpose at that point. 

Whatever. Someone will come along sooner or later that fits in. Just hoping to find a longer term person versus short term.  A lady also asked to move in until August. She's pregnant. More alarm signals. This time I flat out asked - is anyone intending to live with you? She said well that depends. I just flatly told her we weren't interested in more than one person in the room and that ended that conversation.  Just a tough market to find them in. 

Oh, I'm in a town called Denmark, in Tennessee.  I see so many odd names for towns. Did they have a fantasy of replicating Denmark? Lol.

OH yes! My newest shipment of Keto ice cream came in - this time I ordered 4 pints of their newest flavor: Peanut butter fudge. Sooo delicious! 

Well, Taylor is leaving tomorrow or Saturday - I don't remember which - for an out of state business outing.  James parents are coming down to pick up the boys and take them back to Arkansas with them.  For  week I think. It'll be James and I in the house - when I'm home lol anyway.  The problems today extended my trip from Saturday evening to Sunday - who knows what time I'll get back. I wanted to get back Saturday so I would get sent out on Monday. That's not very likely to be given to me.  Cheniere is what caused the sudden increase of work flow. 

I guess I need to get find another loan.  Pay off the Care Credit debt so I don't lose the interest free year.  I've got all kinds of offers for loans now at low interest rates.  I could get a 50k loan right now if I wanted to without anything more than filling out an application and boom, a few days it's in my bank account.  I gave it some thought.  Take out that loan, put it up on the land I want, get the land, sell 25 to 30% of the timber, pay off the loan and have - land!  But I haven't contacted any lumber operations to find out how much timber minimum acreage they want to make it worth it for them to come in there with all of their equipment. 

Well my time is up.  I need to get up in time to get out of here as soon as the clock lets me. I'll make to the plant tomorrow - Lord willing - and then maybe make it 100 miles back this way. That will put me at over 200 miles on Sunday left to drive back. So probably somewhere near Little Rock on Saturday when I stop.  I try to figure this stuff out in advance so I can figure out where I'm going to stop. 

Off to Dreamland.

I forgot to bring my laptop home and my new desktop hasn't arrived yet.
So, back to the nightmare of this  laptop - it only needs a new keyboard lol.  I hope it will work at least to make an entry.

Anyway, I got up at 4am, but reluctantly. The alarm went off, I could have slept for a couple of more hours. Regardless, 410 miles to go, I got with it - until I got to a Love's about 130 miles down the road.  Shower, fuel and tried to get a low carb hamburger from Hardee's.  It was too early and they wanted me to get something else. No thanks. Another 150 miles and I stopped to heat up some food I had brought with me - quite delicious.

After that, I"m about 100 miles from the yard.  My manager texts me - We need that trailer back here - like now. Lol, I'm 100 miles out, it won't be "right now".  I'm not a magician, the truck doesn't have wings and I can't just magically be there, at the yard!  They had a load come up last minute - which almost never happens - and I was the only trailer within range to be able to take it.  I mean, I couldn't get it there any faster than what I did and I thought nothing of it.

During that 100 last miles, I got a call. Bethlehem PA.    I didn't answer this one, but I knew that it was probably from my company.  Sure enough! The President of the "sub-company", leaving a message.  I won, the maintenance director lost. How you have the engine brake set up, as the President described it, is a matter of driver preference.  OK! I had no idea until this truck that were is any other setup, I only knew that the way it is set up now is ridiculous and stupid.  When I'm on hills, I don't want to hit the brake pedal every single time I want the engine brake to come. It neeeeeeeeeeds to come on as soon as I let off the accelerator.  

Whatever.  I dunno when the change will occur, apparently they put our mechanic through hell doing a week's worth of research attempting to figure out how it all works.

It was a simple request, that's what I can say.  It wasn't a demand. The truck was already at Peterbilt, they should have just had it done there.  The mechanic was making it sound like, when I was discussing this with him today, that they had been considering it all along. So, I asked him: "The way you were talking about it when I first made the request, it was that the director of maintenance flatly said no"?  He just sat back in his chair and smiled, gave gesture of "no" and said yup, he wanted nothing to do with it, it wasn't happening.

I'm probably on a shit list now.  I don't care, but it's probably what it is. Tho they can't supersede the President, apparently he's more on the driver's side than on their side if it's a reasonable request. I dunno about complaints.

So, unheard of for me in a long time, I am actually going back out tomorrow.  The unusual part is that I am usually sitting at least 1 day at home, if not two, since the slowdown. The bad part is that I am going to cheniere. The only good part about that is that I will be back in time to get that run on next week's paycheck.  It's an underpaid run, worth maybe $350 - more if there's detention down there - but it goes into 2 days.

My dinner concoction - disappeared.  I was pretty proud of it, considering I just decided what I wanted in my mind and hoped to come out with a finished product that tasted like I envisioned. 50% of Keto recipes are the worst garbage I have ever tasted.  It took a while for me to come to the conclusion that I could just make up stuff in my mind, be Keto friendly - and taste far better than any of that s***.

Dinner was pre-cut beef cubes - I would have bought a roast and cut it myself, but this stuff was cheaper per pound.  And going off on tangents - the price of beef has gone out of control.  I was looking at price-per-pound, as high as $18?!!  The cheapest stuff there besides these cubes was $6.99 per pound and we're not talking high quality.  I mean, if I had been home earlier I would have defrosted some out of the freezer.  And frankly, dinner tonight? Was actually road food until I found out it I'm going to Cheneire.

There was literally nothing in beef on sale.  Unusual to say the least.  Well take that back, ground beef. Walmart was even more ridiculous in beef prices.  I can tell ya, I can live without beef at those prices. Chicken is fine by me. And that coming from a person that can afford whatever - I just don't see paying that much money for a cut of meat that isn't even on the prime side of things.

Seeing that today just further fortifies my position of buying desired cuts of beef - and other meats - when they come on sale and freezing them.  The overflow has gone into the second freezer.
__________________

Wednesday morning.  Kind of in limbo. No idea when a trailer will shop up, but under normal circumstances I'll have to leave in 45 minutes.  Realistically, who knows when a trailer will show up, but I'd like to be at the yard, waiting.  The later start I get, the later into the night I will have to go to get down there and get the trailer unloaded.  I've been up as late as 2 am doing that, very much not my cup of tea. 

And, I am going to definitely get this computer fixed. It's a pricey computer and it's only a keyboard, less than $100 fix.  I really didn't use it that much, it doesn't have a lot of miles on it. 

Anyway, I'm thinking of a "quick trip" to Phoenix in the next month or two.  I simply don't make enough trips back there and I want to change that.  3 days

Amazingly, the deals on desk top computers are significant. Significantly low.  I think I mentioned that a glass of water dropped onto my desktop computer, the water went straight into the cooling fan and into the cabinet, destroying the computer.  Well, probably destroying the motherboard, but same difference.

So, not wanting to continue to live without a desktop computer, I decided to go looking this morning.  $200 give or take the cost of a computer meeting the parameters of what I want.  Not a gaming computer, just for internet and such, you don't need anything fancy.  This is the best deal I found:

HP A Grade Desktop Computer 600 G1-SFF Intel Core i5 4th Gen 4570 (3.20 GHz) 8 GB DDR3 500 GB HDD Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit

That is a refurbished computer. That was all I was looking at. Even Walmart has them, but Walmart's deals weren't as good, as walmart wanted to include the monitor and speakers as well plus charging tax, which put it well above the price I paid for this unit.   I already have those items and I don't need to pay extra for them. So, the above computer I purchased from Newegg earlier for a cost of $209.  No tax and no shipping fee. I dunno how they got away with no tax, I thought that was mandated now by our lovely politicians making sure they get their filthy greedy fingers on everything.  

Anyway, that is a good price for a computer with 8 gigs and an i5 Intel processer.  500 gig hard drive suffices. I'm not a big fan of Windows 10, but I have Windows 7 available if I decide I can't deal with the 10.  It will suffice until/if'/when I decide to rebuild my old computer. Not a priority at this point, I have other things I need to do with my money.  

It is Saturday, I have a run set for tomorrow morning, early.  Like, getting up at 4:00 am on a Sunday.  It will have been fully 7 days since I last worked.  Unacceptable.  I would have gone to work today, but there weren't any decent loads available. The run tomorrow is a 3 day run, decent pay - tho it isn't going to make up for 7 days off.  It's what was available, oh well, on the 3rd day of this upcoming run, I'm going to ask to be sent right back out to make up for all the time off. Whether that happens or not, I have no idea.  Work is slow, one of the senior drivers went back to Colorado to haul LNG gas and wait it out for whether it will ever pick back up.  I predict that won't occur until around October or November of this year.  

And that is certainly not guaranteed. But that's when we lost partial contracts last year, we're 6 months into and work has basically been slow the entire time. IF we get those full contracts back, we will be busier than some of us want to be and then it will warrant hiring more drivers.  Or perhaps, hiring them a bit in advance.

Anyway, full tilt cleaning going on today - after spreading grass seed in the back yard and covering it up with straw.  The back yard grass is almost entirely Rye grass now, the summer grass - i think it was St Augustine grass - was all but completely gone.  Today, it's raining, tomorrow and the next day.  The straw over the top of the completely barren areas will keep it from floating away and will keep it moist.  But now was the time to start this, before the heat comes and the rye grass dies off.  It will help keep the seed from floating away in the rain - tho fortunately it isn't raining hard, just the perfect amount to moisten everything without flooding it - and hopefully get some started.

I just got through scrubbing the entire bathroom by hand, floors included.  I don't much care for a smelly bathroom, but if it is going to smell, it's going to smell like cleaning agents with perfume in them or whatever makes them smell good. 

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6 full days off - over. Sunday morning, early.  Preparing for 3 days out. 

The news nowadays is quite entertaining on specific topics. To build a wall or to tear the existing fence down, that is the question that pervades the news and the major topics of discussion with some of these lefty politicians that want to be the next President.  Some of these candidates to have any policy listed anywhere, at all. Beto is one of them.  He's cool, man, he should be your next president! lmao.  And people thought Trump had no qualifications for the office......

I've received no more replies from the president of the company. I'm not sure how long it takes to simply find out why they reached the decision that they did? I'm not the only one that questions the actions and decisions of this company, tho, that's for certain. 

Anyways, the clock doesn't stop ticking and it's time to get out of here.

Happy Sunday.  

So the mechanic texts me after 4:00:  The truck is done and can be picked up as late as 9:00 pm.  Are you serious?  So if I drive to the yard and no one is there, how do I get to Tyler to get the truck?  Who is going to take me there?  I didn't bother to ask the question, as far as I was concerned, the day was toast that late in the afternoon, next?  I texted my manager hours and hours ago about the my contacting the President of the division, she never texted me back.

I dunno what that means. I don't really care.  I did what I had to do.  Because I am not going to continue to just be trampled over and eat it without any kind of action on my part taken to alleviate it.  There is too much history, in such a short period of time.  I've eaten it long enough. Learn from my past: don't wait, confront situations head on.  Sometimes it's prudent to wait, well I've waited and I've seen where that has gotten me.

My manager needs some training.  Serious training.

I've heard nothing back from anyone about this situation, yet, after the President's email, so beit, I will wait now and see what happens. There are other things I could do, but that would be on the side of "well it's time to move on, might as well grab the bull by the horns" type of scenario.  I'm not there yet.  But I'm really tired of broken down trucks. And in the case where I'm not getting break-down pay such as now, it really sucks.  I get on the verge of starting to make up for lost time - and I lose time again.

________________

Well what fun that was. 30 plus miles the yard, wait there for an hour while the other 2 that were also going - on to Dallas after Tyler - came back - then off to drop off the first truck, then to the Peterbilt dealership before I could finally come back to the yard with the truck.  I should have just drove the truck until the filter totally clogged up and broke down. Then I would have gotten break-down pay instead of sitting home 6 days.

I'm going to Mapleton, Illinois again on Sunday. It's worth something, but certainly not an entire paycheck's worth.  Not really happy about that.  If this happens again, I'm going to specifically ask if it can just be done while on the road and actually receive some pay from this company.  The idea that I should sit around and get nothing while "working" for this company is ludicrous.

Okay, onto other things. Such as tonight.  I contacted Taylor earlier while she was at work - I didn't take anything out for dinner and I just got home from getting the truck.  Back and forth, I said I would make Keto pizza - I've been wanting to make it for days now.  But then she blurted out: Margaritaville! Unlimited crab legs!  Okay! lol, I wasn't going to argue, as long as I don't have to drive.  I fun night out without having to drive? Yes!  And maybe some time at the blackjack tables.....that would be fun. Not a huge fan of the tables in Shreveport, but maybe I'll strike it lucky, who knows.

The thing that sucks - if I know in advance how long these truck break-downs are going to take and I'm at home, I can take a trip somewhere.  I wouldn't have to sit around here, I could be flying over the ocean or just going back to AZ for a visit.

Well whatever,  a fun night may be just what the doctor ordered.

Day 4 - off work.
Not sure what I'm going to do today since it's raining. Most of my activities yesterday were focused on doing outdoor cleanup and related issues.

Plenty more I could do out there today, but it's been raining and the forecast is for more rain.  A lot more rain.  My project was going to be to take down and carefully roll up the greenhouse.  It served it's purpose for the winter over the pond, it's time to take it down.  But  I ain't doing that out in the rain.  I was going to pull out the grass - I mean literally pull it out of the ground - put some decorative flagstone over it and dress up the edges of the pond.  I'm also definitely going to put a gazebo over it this year, in no way shape or form do I want to deal with all the junk from the trees continuously falling into it.

It actually wouldn't take more than an hour to take that thing down, perhaps later on this afternoon if the rain stops I'll have a window of opportunity.
 ____________

And a reply from the president of our division.  Nice gentleman, professional and courteous.  Note that I didn't just blast him or the company, I made requests and did it in a respectful manner.  He's going to look into it and find out why the director of maintenance said no, thanked me for my thoughtful input and assured me he would at least get the information as to why the decision was made.  He wanted me to make sure I informed my manager of everything, so I did that as well. Now? more waiting.

Meanwhile, off to several stores to find various things I needed and then home.  Tomorrow is up in the air.  The mechanic texted me earlier asking me if the truck has a manual or auto tranny in it?  Manual, I replied, tho he gave me no info as to why he was asking.  That's the way this company works, keep you in the dark.  Sorry, but I don't work that way.  If it isn't up front - info that should be made readily available - it only piques my curiosity even more. WHY do they want to keep this information hidden?

Admittedly, I may be setting myself up for unwanted scrutiny in this company, but, considering the way I have been treated, that doesn't really matter to me at this point.  It was a simple request, not outrageous, not something that isn't already going on everywhere, not something that is dangerous.  The engine brake that is.  I look forward to hearing a rational statement for the decision.

As for the rest of today? Taking down the greenhouse is out of the question. Everything is wet. I don't want to roll it up - wet- and then have mildew growing on it. It must be a dry day outside for me to engage in that operation.  I did go to Lowe's to try and find some new blinds, but the only ones they had that were appealing were not the right size.  That can wait.  I also looked for Bermuda grass seed, they only had small bags of it. I asked when they were going to have a sale - they always do, every year, they put huge bags on a pallet and put a sale price on it.

The lady wanted to argue with me that they have "never" done that, to which I just shrugged my arms and said I wasn't going to argue with her about it. Pretty rude customer service, tho.  I let it go and left there, only to find a good price on the seed at Walmart. 

Now home, I'm not sure if I want to do anything. The next door neighbor commented to me a bit ago that "you were busy yesterday", referencing everything I was doing outside.  Yes, I wanted to take advantage of a dry, rainless day.  I hadn't noticed that anyone was observing my activities. Daytime in this neighborhood? You hardly see anyone outside during the weekdays.  I'm really just waiting to hear whether this truck is going to be done.  I bought food to cook for a road trip, but I'm not making it until I know for certain that I'm actually going out somewhere.

I guess I'm just a bit disconcerted about this truck situation, not really thinking about much else. I was going to have a pit fire outside, but it's not cold enough.  Low 60's, but I only like having a fire if it's cold outside and I have to wear a jacket. 

So, I think I'll just watch a movie instead, lol. 

I wasn't going to sit around all day long doing nothing.  The truck isn't finished and now it's going into Thursday.  On that note, I called work a while ago asking if it was done. No, no word from Peterbilt yet.  I'm not one of those kinds that sits around waiting for a call. I'd rather call them after the time has elapsed to fix the thing in the time they say it should take and find out what's going on. But, I didn't do that, just bite my tongue and let them deal with it.

However, the mechanic said we aren't going to be changing the parameters for the engine brake. Meaning, they aren't going to change from the odd configuration of having to hit the foot brake for th engine brake to come on and instead just having it come on when you let off the accelerator.  Why?  He said the VP of the company said no and that the maintenance director called him and gave him an earful about it.

At that point, I understood it was out of his hands and I either live with it or go up the chain.  I went up the chain, immediately actually. Wrote a letter to the "Executive VP" of our division of the company.  However, the mechanic said the decision came from the VP of the mother company. No explanation why, just take it or leave it I guess.  I'm fully prepared to write a letter to everyone - the entire chain of command and their emails are readily available on a Google search.  But, I'll see what, if anything, happens with this individual.  I'm in no hurry, I'm obviously not going to get the thing configured the way i want it - which is not unreasonable and most other trucks in the fleet are already configured that way.  That's the kicker.  The previous 6 trucks I have driven in this company, 3 of them company trucks, were configured the way I want it.

Well whatever.  I'll wait and see what becomes of it, but at the very least, I want a rational explanation of why, exactly, they won't allow this.

So, I set out to get a bunch of outdoor stuff done around the house today and I can say that I accomplished most of what i set out to do.  Just cleaning up, raking, hauling and burning leaves, cleaning up the front porch, mowing the lawns. Used the electric blower and cleaned up the entire cement areas in the back of the house, tidied it up and then fired up the smoker.

Popped in a pork loin and cooked it in there for about 2-1/2 hours and finished it off in the oven at 325 degrees for however long, I didn't really pay attention, came out very, very tasty.

Busy day, made the best of time off at home.  Taking vacation hours for the time wasted sitting here waiting on yet another broke down truck.

So, what fun. I'm stuck home for probably 3 days.  It's a filter for the DEF exhaust system. Apparently they clog up over time and they have to be baked.  Literally baked in a super hot oven.  It takes up to 2 days.  Well 2 full days from tonight - when they are starting on it - is Wednesday evening.  Just what I don't need, 3 or 4 days off.  Anyway, it is what it is. My manager said she'd give me the extra truck to use - but it's in the shop, too.

The funny part about all of this? She also told me last truck has been in the shop 3 times since I got out of it! lolololol I should have just stayed in the thing and collect the easy break down pay.  I just wish they would have let me do this out on the road and collect some money while waiting.  I'm not going to literally sit around and do nothing while home, I just don't want to be home that much, getting caught up on my checking account and getting ahead are more important to me right now.

And the worst part for me, is if I stay home too long, it takes a while to get back in the groove of being on the road. It sucks but it's best for me if I"m just home a day and right back out.  Or last year, I'd be home one day and out the next morning.

______________________

Wednesday. Finally, one of my credit scores has jumped into the Very Good range.  I have never had it in that category and only recently have had it in the Good range.  I've been working on this - literally for years now.  I have no current aspirations for the Excellent range - I don't even know how one gets to that point.  I really don't. Credit scores are so fickle. One little thing and they drop you 50 or more points.  The companies give you very broad and general outlines of how to increase it.  I suppose if I had 0% of my credit being used, it might boost it up into the excellent range. 

But that isn't going to happen this year. Care Credit is in the high 3 grand range - that was all the work done on my teeth. And I have more that needs to be done this year.  Actually, my Care Credit promotional offer is expiring at the end of May.  It's a no interest loan on that card. If you pay it off before a year is up, they don't charge you any interest.  If you don't, they dump all of that interest from the beginning back on it.  It only behooves me to dump all of that onto one of my other credit cards and save the year's worth of not having to pay interest.  But I'll wait until May to do that.  Might as well enjoy as much interest free payments as possible.

Actually,  a low interest loan would serve that better.  It would take all of that off of credit cards, the interest rate will be much better than transferring it to say, Capital One and my credit score would undoubtedly go even higher. Tho the point of it would be to save money on interest.  And, my credit score would tumble for 2 months. Just the way that it works.  I'm trying to put myself into a position where getting a land loan will be doable.  That 72 acre property is still on the market. But there is a 50 acre property that is cheaper, has lots of forest percentage on the land and is still in this area.  50 acres would suffice and would be smaller monthly payment.  Just that that 72 acres property I could sell off 25% of the trees and get enough to put a house on the property. 

Dreams. Won't get there without continue this credit score battle.  The reality: I ain't getting any younger. Needs to happen in the next few years or I'll likely end up giving up on it.  Saving money is tough when I have so much going into 401k and have loans Im paying off.  They want significant down payments for property.  I have 5 grand available out of the new 401k account to borrow.  But I'm really trying to avoid doing any more of that.  The whole situation would have to be quickly moving from having had purchased the property to having a home placed on it within 2 months and moving out of here and into the house. 

Yes, we've actually discussed this and they actually brought up the idea of a large manufactured home.  Not my first choice but the new ones are like real houses excepting for a few things, such as the plumbing.  I know because I still have the house in Phoenix.  That situation has been going on for years now.  I have no idea how long that will hold out until I have to do something about the place, but as long as the couple running it are content to stay there, I will not doing anything about selling it.  I get requests all the freaking time from people texting me - how they got my cell phone number remains unknown as these people won't reply - to buy the house.  No thanks.  I'll wait until some developer comes along and eye balls that entire community as land ripe for development. 

It's built up now all the way along that major road to our manufactured community. It's not a park, we all own our own property there.  They would have to offer me market value to sell that house, right now, I know they just want to low ball it.  It's mostly old, junky mobile homes.  They're not worth much but the land is.  They've been putting in huge apartment complexes all the way down the road until 2 miles down, where they developed large strip malls on both side of the road.  It used to be, long ago, a 2 lane dirt road and only flower farms were operating along there.  We're the last holdouts.  But it's cheap living for people in that community considering those old homes, it may never change, who knows.  I just know that every year I have more and more equity in that house. 

Yet, at the same time, the thing needs repainted and that is going to cost me thousands of dollars.  Mark - the guy helping running the place - is set for a class action payout eventually and wants to do all kinds of stuff to the property.  But those class action suits are dragged out for years, on purpose, in the hopes more people will get on board and more of an overall payout.  It's been in the courts for a couple of years now.  I can't wait forever to paint the place. I've been looking at licensed contractors to do it.  If I still lived there I would definitely do it myself, I have painted houses before.  It's not that hard but there is prep work you must do. And there are bushes growing up next to the house that would have to be pinned down, away from the house, to be able to paint behind them.  I think some of them might have to be cut down entirely.  I planted them at least a foot from the house, but some of them have grown rather large now.

I'm on my 3rd day off and it's time to go back on the road.  I am hopeful the truck is finished today.  3 days is too much, 2 days is really too much, 1 day I can deal with.

As for now? Well, I am going to clean up the front porch and I'm going to get a fire going on the open pit out back and burn a bunch of boxes and stuff that we don't need. 

Well that was an interesting trip.
I set off "Critical Event" incidents numerous times, lmao.
I don't change trucks and then some how mysteriously change my driving habits.  These "critical events" were going off going down some of the numerous hills I had to go over.  The damn thing was setting off this s*** going 3 MPH over the company set speed limit of 65.

Here's the problem.  The last truck? I could go up to 70MPH down a hill and as long as I brought the speed back down, nothing would happen.  This is all related to the QUALCOMM - electronic logging device that does much more than log your hours.  It tracks everything you are doing with the truck, basically.  MPG, MPH, fuel use, percentage of time spent in each gear, on and on and on.  Why one of them would work differently than another in the same company is beyond me, and I don't really care.

If they want to give me trouble about it, they aren't going to like my reaction.  Because I don't give two shekels about going 68 miles an hour.  It wasn't disclosed to me when I signed on to this company.  The company's speed setting is listed nowhere on the internet when searching out this particular company for considering hiring on  I know, I looked - at the time I was considering this place.

I'm beginning to take this job with a grain of salt.  It's to take a place like this seriously when they attempt to Lord themselves over you in so many different ways, it's laughable.  Oh, and I put this company's speed limit and other things truckers would want to know on various reviews of the company on job boards such as Monster and Indeed.  People should have that kind of information made available to them to make an informed decision about whether they really want to quit their current job and move over to another place.

____________________

Enough of that and the next morning.  Fixing to contact my manager about making sure to get that truck into the shop - today. There is no way I'm going to sit around for days while they sit on their asses and take their sweet time dealing with it - doing nothing at all.  I'll drive the thing to the town where the Peterbilt dealership is myself and take a very expensive Uber drive back to the yard and bill it to the company if I have to. 

Work is kind of consuming my thoughts at the moment.  I've made 21k and change in the first 3 months of this year, which is quite surprising considering I haven't had much detention pay and really don't seem to have worked enough to have made that much money.  But, that is on track to making at least as much as I did last year.  The job has become more tolerable - temporarily anyway - with the advent of driving another truck that goes 4 miles per hour faster.  Doesn't sound like much, but it is much more engaging now, driving that is.  Hence the fact that I drove almost 700 miles yesterday.  Just more motivated. 

So, pay staying on track, I'm not sure moving anywhere is a good idea. Excepting wanting to have a local job and home every night.  Dreaming and reality. I can make around 60k per year at the highest local run I've found.  That's a 20 grand reduction in pay.  This is a different situation than Ferguson.  Ferguson, I was going broke with the reduction in hours to 8 and not getting any OT at all - which was promised when I moved out here.  Now, at least I'm making money.  That's the baseline.

Onto other things. I spilled an entire glass of water onto my desktop computer and the water went straight into the fan intake and yes, fried the computer.  Reminder to self to have the thing set up where that will never happen again. My plans to rebuild the computer just went from sometime in the near future to - now lol.  I was already planning on replacing the motherboard, the processer, the hard drive, the power supply - the entire guts really. Especially the video card. The one in there goes out at random and shuts the entire computer down.  I've had the thing for something like 8 years, it isn't really a great loss.  If I had just rebuilt it and that happened? I would be kicking myself, hard.

So, it was a dumb mistake, but it is mitigated. 

Meanwhile, Taylor asked - very nicely asked and said please say no if you don't want to - to allow the use of my room later on this month by the grandma and grandpa.  She was going to put me up at a hotel if I agreed.  I like my room now, lol.  It's got a huge, 8 blade ceiling fan, a heater, it's own AC unit, a 65 inch screen tv, a Keurig coffee machine, a very nice dresser.  A brand new "convertible sofa" otherwise known as a futon but much classier than your basic futon and I am keeping it in new condition by putting a waterproof cover on it and a large blanket over it. It's still a dog bed, but a dog bed that I want kept in good condition.  It's been freshly repainted and the only thing major left to go is replacing the carpet.  I'm not doing that anytime soon, I have other things and it's good enough as it is.

But, as much as I like my room? I'm pretty giving person and help people whenever I can.  So I agreed to it and even agreed to a cheap, local hotel that I have already stayed at once.  $35 plus tax per night and actually not bad.  Dogs allowed if I want to go that far with it.  Maybe maybe not.  La Quinta is here too - but much more expensive. Usually in the high 80's or low 90's range per night.  But, to be honest, I could have just brought the truck home and slept in that, which I offered but she feels guilty I guess about even asking me to do this in the first place and that was an unacceptable offer from  me, lol.  The truck has a $1,000 mattress in it.  It's pretty darn comfortable.  I usually - not always but usually - sleep very well in it. Then again, I don't always sleep well in my own room, that's nothing new.  The vibration from the engine just lulls me to sleep.

Okay, well, I just got texted back after asking about taking the truck in. Yes, please come take it in. I now know if I don't do it, it probably won't get done or it will be days before it does get done.  And I"ll be sitting around doing nothing. Right now? I want to drive, drive, drive and get my checking account back into shape. The yard is nearly empty of tractors, there is work.  I want my full share of it. 

With that - I'm outta here. And probably looking up components for a new computer when I'm done with that.

G'day.

My day off almost over.
I've got another run - a decent run at that - going to West Virginia.  It's 3 full days and part of a 4th to complete.  There is no unloading, it's just take a full trailer up, drop it, pull the empty back.  I'm a bit tired from the last trip tho, but nothing I can't deal with.  At least there isn't as many days to have to prepare food for for this trip - 3 days worth and that's it. The 4th day I'll wing it.  Should only be like 3 or 4 hours of driving left on that last day.  I get to miss another weekend at home? Oh well. 

Okay, I'm kinda busy, just thought I'd get a post in before the night is over.  But I had to make some food, that and laundry usually take up the night before a longer trip.

However, Trump is doing a rally in Michigan and it's hilarious.  He is pushing back hard on all of this fake russian hoax trash that has dominated the news media for 2 years now.  Anyone that continues with this crap is going to get my direct ire directed back at them.  The obstruction accusation is also trash, a lie, another hoax and I won't entertain anymore of those discussions, either.  If people want to follow propaganda news sites such as CNN - the voice of the Democrat party - and a host of other fake news organizations - note they are propaganda, not news outlets - let them.  But don't shove any of that crap in my face, thanks. 

Enough of politics, tho the border situation is really starting to irritate me.  Because nothing is being done in Congress to address the loopholes that allow detained illegals to be released into the US.  And that the left wants open borders - let's just let the whole world in here!

Whatever.  My SUV drives like a dream now.  Just very wonderful.  Like a whole new vehicle.  Now if I could just get the fuel mileage up a little lol. 

And, even more revelations of how Rene was behaving over there. She was truly a dictator.  I had no idea the extent of what she was doing, if Maria would have told m I would have confronted her with it.  She told Maria she couldn't use her rotisserie oven in the house - electric oven.  She told her she couldn't bath her dogs.  She said all kinds of nonsense.

Anyway, I'm tired and I'm going to bed early.  Long day ahead tomorrow.