Monday - evening

Another almost 3 hour offload.  Temp of product was at 50 degrees. Anything under 60 is going to take a long, long time to get out of the tanker.  The other driver was talking to the people at the production plant, they are going to try to see if they can start keeping the temp around 65 degrees.  This would be fantastic. At 65 degrees, I can unload that thing in less than an hour, maybe even 45 minutes.  

I dunno, but I just ended up going to sleep for quite a while after I was sure the pressure was good.  

I was in a fog this morning when I woke up and I could have slept for several more hours.  It's this habit I got into during the year off where as if I didn't sleep well that night, ie: awake for hours in the middle of the night, I would just sleep in until I was rested.  I tend to sleep much better in the mornings than at night, amazingly enough.  

So, being forced up at 5:30 am every day regardless? Well, you'd think after enough sleepless night your body would force you to sleep well at least once in a while. Yes, true but too many nights where I'm awake for 2 hours and nothing I can do about it.  

Anyway, I have the late load tomorrow morning and this time? I'm glad.  I won't have to get out of bed until 8:00 am, leave the house by 8:30, leave the yard by 8:50.  Hmm, that isn't early enough, strike that. 

8:00.  Leave the yard by 8.  Umm, no.  Let me think here, lol.  Yes, I think if I leave by 8 that should work out okay.  Or if I am sleepy just sleep in. I'm just trying to to end up getting home too terribly late.  The appointment time isn't until noon, but the other driver said he'd be at the plant loading by around 9:00 am.  I am working off of that.  Give that an hour load time, if I leave here by 8, I'm in nacogodches by 9:30, half an hour at the washout, 35 minutes over to the plant and I'm at the plant by around 10:40 am-ish.  

That's good enough. If I'm out of there by the latest noon I'm home before 2 pm.  So, if I were home by 3 that wouldn't hurt my feelings either.  It's the idea of getting up later and perhaps getting better sleep that is appealing after all of these days in a row getting up at 5:30 am.  

The dispatcher asked me today via text message: Hey Ben, are you working this weekend?  I thought, are you kidding? I'll have been working 14 days in a row and you want me to just continue on with working?  I flatly but nicely said no thanks, I will have been working 2 straight weeks, have missed church twice, I need a couple days  of down time.  Oh forget it, I was just reminded that this weekend you should have off. Yes, the manager knows what I want in terms of time off. At least every other weekend.  The other driver won't be working either, I guess their local drivers or OTR drivers will be taking care of it. 

I'm not sure I plan on doing anything this coming weekend. I just want the time off.  She loaded my table up with 3 more loads for next weekend beyond the 2 loads that were already in there for this week.  4 more days and I get a couple of days off.  

I just got a call from someone needing to stay for 3 weeks.  I offered him the monthly deal and he took it. Weekly rate he would have paid $50 more for 3 weeks over the monthly rate for 4.  The nature of the business, people coming and going and trying to stay on top of it and keep the lots filled up.  I've got the pull through lot loaded up for 11 days out of the next 23 days, I'd like to get some more in there, tho just 4 more days and it takes care of an entire month of lot rent for a month.  

Well, I'm beat.  I did see in the news today that an appeals court lowered Trump's bond money to 175m.  That's also ridiculous but not near as unbelievable as $450m.  They say he defrauded businesses by overvaluing his properties.  I listened to the real estate experts - lots of them - explaining the erroneous factors the judge used to come to his conclusions and the judge heard this stuff in his court room.  This judge cannot seriously be doing what he thinks is the "right thing" here.  I just think he's another Trump hater and using the bench to exact pain from a political opponent.  Yes, I do think these people are pawns for the Democrat party.  Especially this Leticia whatever her name is person.  

They must be terribly afraid that Trump is going to win the next election, they absurd declarations and accusations about another Trump presidency coming from them are surreal.  It's like living on a different planet, where do these people come up with this stuff?  

April 8th draws near. We will have a partial eclipse here, I am informed, to see the full eclipse we would have to drive about 60 miles down the road. No thank you.  Partial is fine, I am more interested in the 2 tailed comet that will be flying by.  No, it's not 2 tailed, apparently 2 horned. Well whatever, that would interest me far more than an eclipse.

The coach. Well, the glue traps are catching massive amounts of.....cockroaches.  So not only were they living with rats in their filth, they also invited in a cockroach infestation.  I'll be bombing the thing yet again soon.  I keep forgetting to do it for it's just not a priority right now. It's going to need work and money dumped into it.  In fact, I'm considering ripping the kitchen counter out with the sink and installing a regular house version that would look much nicer than the thing in there plus give me access to clean out the infestation underneath it and generally have a nicer unit.   

That wouldn't cost that much money, I see those things listed all the time on the cheap.  Same with the shower, would like to tear that out and put in a nicer thing, that one is old and ugly.  Basically, redo some of it, not all of it and have a nice unit I could rent out.  I might just save up the money and pay James to do it for me.  He does good work.  He gives attention to detail and doesn't try to bypass necessary steps to make sure the finished product is not only going to look good but is also going to work correctly.  He'll do stuff like that for pay and I don't mind paying him if I have the money to do so.  The thing has a brand new ac unit on it, I'm kinda stuck with it now.  

Well, besides just taking that ac off of there and getting rid of the thing, but who is going to want a rat infested, cockroach filled thing? Well, if I can get all of that out of there, no one need know.  Just clean it all up and start over.  New carpet, a good used sofa couch, maybe re-do the kitchen and bathroom, nothing terribly major.  

It's going to be a project and since funds are tight, that isn't a project I am going to start right now, hence no hurry.  Well, I want that bug infestation and rats out of there now, not later. Rats can chew up wiring, tear things apart, they are very destructive little ugly creatures.  Throw out the mattress she undoubtedly destroyed, I'm not going to bother keeping things that people that live like that were using.  It's probably disgusting, I wouldn't sleep on it and I don't want to think about having others  sleep on it either.  

Look, if my next paycheck is as good as it should be per the mananger's statement about my pay-per-load, I will no long have financial issues. Well, maybe at first I will trying to get caught up but after that I will be good to go.  Money will be saved to invest in this business.  I do not have stocks or 401k anymore, I got out of that to pay for the RV park.  

Oh, the tractor.  Haven't gotten into that yet.  Just depends on monthly payments, really. Need, yes, getting one? No idea yet.  I did qualify for a small, $6,000 business loan but the payback is a grand a month.  Yup, they take $250 or something near that every week for 6 months.  That's a really short payback scenario and I don't know if I can do that.  But, I could get a used tractor and hopefully some attachments with that kind of loan and the good news is the payments don't go on forever.  

Who knows, but the driveway is quickly getting back into horrid condition yet again, it's been raining all over again and no, I didn't put a drain pipe across the driveway. I haven't had time for it and frankly, it's likely going to take a mini-ex to do it. Mini-ex rental is ..... near $500 per day : )

Now, I could do the driveway crossovers and I could dig the trench from lot 1 to the shed with it, thereby getting some use out of it other than just a 25 foot wide crossover.  In fact, I could do a couple of places on the driveway with drainage and get it draining from where the trench on the side of the driveway ends and where it really needs a good sized pipe to drain into a culvert, through the pipe and over to the other side.  The only good thing about a rental like that, is, it would be a lot cheaper for me to do it that way than to pay someone to do it for me. Trust me, that would probably cost a couple of grand at least to pay a contractor to come in and do it for me.  

Let me just say here that I will be needing to do that trench from lot 1 to the shed pretty soon.  By the end of April anyway, before the heat starts hitting. That or do away with "alternate sites".  Nope.  They make me money, I have a long term back there now and he says he's going to be there awhile and no, he doesn't want a regular lot now that he's back there.  I know because I offered it to him.  This is all in reference to the lack of sufficient power getting pumped back there from current setup to provide for both the shed and 2 trailers. I would put the 2 trailers on it's on panel and take it off of the shed power.  

This would eliminate the problem back there when ac units are pumping away all day long in the summer heat.  I already have everything...but...the....trench.  It's about 175 feet of digging, I can tell ya that isn't happening with a shovel.  Not me, no way and no thank you.  I can use a ditch witch, but if I need a mini-ex for the driveway? I'll just get it all prepped and get it all done in one day with the mini instead of a trenching machine.  There are other things I could do with the mini ex as well if I had time left over after doing all of that - tho I doubt there will be time.  I'm pretty good at digging trenches with those things.  I could probably dig out all of what I need in a couple of hours.  But, you have to lay the pipe and back fill it and lay the electrical line and backfill all of that so you add more hours to the process.

Well, I'm done here.  I'm going to go to be around 10:00 pm and set the alarm for 7:30 am  instead of 5:30 am : )

G'nite.  

 Sunday - early

AS the continued work load continues on, I find myself getting into the "I don't want to go to work" rut.  A person needs time off here and there.  14 straight days of working, which is what this will be if it goes all the way through Friday, is too much. Not that I don't need the money, but I'm at an age where I just don't have it in me.  Especially the getting up early part, I got quite used to sleeping in on nights when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.

I did that for a year and I was well enough rested.  Now? there are time I feel like a walking zombie.  Besides taking sleeping pills, what does one do to get their sleep back? This started a long time ago after the first divorce and the church split.  I went through depression, sleeplessness and then finally got some sleep back and over time, it improved but never actually returned to normal, where you sleep 7 or 8 straight hours without waking up.  

I just don't want to take sleeping pills, I don't feel like drugs are always the answer to all of life's problems.  I'm not against medicinal drugs, don't get me wrong, but taking something for every last thing I don't think is helpful.  

Anyway, my doggy bags on the second order came in. The other box of "bags" is going to be sent back to them and they are refunding my money.  Or if they don't refund my money, I will dispute it with Ebay and they will take care of it.  I don't know how those people thought a person isn't going to notice that you ordered and paid for 10 boxes of bags and you only receive 1.  

The family decided to take it upon themselves to mow 3 lawns plus the doggy park and edging.  I didn't ask them to do that, the rain has caused grass to grow at a crazy rate.  I still don't see any of the seed I put down coming up, but then again, it may be that those smaller blades of grass are actually Bermuda grass that sprang up quickly.  

The AC on the truck is still screwed and they finally admitted that it will have to be brought in and half the panels on dashboard area will have to be taken off to get at the evaporator to find out what's going on.  I can tell ya what's going on.  Either the coils are full of dirt and just need cleaned out or there is something clogging the system up and again, needs cleaned out. There's plenty of freon in the system, that isn't the cause of this problem.  

So, I have to "look forward" to taking that thing up there and switching out trucks. You don't do all of that work in a few hours, that's at least a day right there and if they have to order parts, that may drag it on for several days.  The plus side to that is when I do it, I'm going to ask for another trailer as well.

The one I now have takes hours to unload.  One of the problems is it isn't rated to pressure up more than 30 pounds. You go over that and the pop off valve lifts and just lets the air right back out.  I'm used to previous trailers and pumping them up to 36, 37 pounds which makes a huge difference.  The other problem isn't trailer related, the product is cold and it gets thick and just doesn't move that fast.  Regardless, I was up there 3-1/2 hours offloading that truck yesterday.  That's just too long.  A long offload is 2 hours, anything over that is ridiculous.  

Tomorrow, Monday, I will be going up there and paying this ridiculous property tax.  Just kiss that money goodbye I guess.  

I'm watching this Trump drama with this bigoted DA or whatever her title is.  He has until tomorrow to secure a $454m bond. He has stated he has come up with the money.  Is this whole situation that has occurred with Judge Ergeron making his decision before the trial even started just?  Is this how we want to see citizens being treated?  When you look at the case and you see the banks that did business with Trump saying they are happy and would lend again and real estate experts saying Ergeron greatly unvalued his properties using flawed basis for coming up with that decision, do you think that this decision for almost half a billion dollars was a good one? 

I know Trump haters will say yesss!  Be careful what you wish for.  

Meanwhile, the IRS sent me a large package yesterday.  I was really not liking to see that, I wondered what was in it while I was opening it up.  Am I being audited?  See, I woke up at 3:30 am today and that stuff came into my head and that's why I couldn't go back to sleep and finally just got up out of bed super early and sitting here drinking coffee and pondering things.  

But, it wasn't anything terrible.  It is a packet of papers with envelopes to send in quarterly payments for this year - 2024 - with estimated taxes.  I was thinking about the fact that last year? I did take some money out of the business account, no doubt, but it was somewhere around 12k.  That and trucking income was it.  I actually will probably be in poverty rate with the income I had.  It was surviving off of loans that kept me going.  My tax burden will not be very high.  I don't know what taxation is on "poverty" rate, probably not much.  

Now, if this raise is what I think it will be in terms of paychecks, I won't be taking any money out of the business account or certainly very little and I won't be paying any income taxes on it. That's the goal anyway.  We'll see next paycheck, this is when the promised pay increase will start showing on my checks, at least according to the manager. That will be April 7th.  

Since Intuit has all of my business info, I am going to use Turbo Tax to do my taxes for 2023.  I haven't quite gotten that far with it yet....

Oh well.  Let's get Sunday work over with.  It's no use leaving early, I can't get there before 8:00 am, if I do, I just wait for they won't show up until 8. And on Sunday, you have to call them and they will tell you, yes, we'll come - at 8, lol.  

G'day

 Friday - night

I wish I could tell everyone that calls that I have a spot for them. Especially the lady that called today asking if I have 3 spots available for long term? Business looking for space for employees.  I wish I could have told her yes, for those are the types of people you really want for long term. They stay a long time and no issues. 

No, I can't take 3 right now. 2?  Well, I might be able to in a week.  Ok, well they aren't coming until the 28th.  I can get back to you in a few hours? I was driving, no access to a computer. Sure!  Well, 30 minutes later I get a text: we found a spot.  The RV industry. Get them in when they call or lose them. I couldn't take them in I knew that. You know, people come and go, maybe some are leaving in the next week? I couldn't tell ya.  Maybe on lot is, for they were only staying 2 weeks. But as it happens often, people say they are leaving and then end up staying much longer.

The park is full.  But it's not going to stay that way.  I've also had to turn away lots of overnighters.  If I'm full, I'm full.  One asked, well do you have anything that has 30 amp hookup? I did but it's that motorcoach and I don't know what she did with the keys to it.  I could move it out of the way and have a spot there.  Anyway, I didn't tell them that, they asked if I had any recommendations so I gave them the name of a competitor across town.  

I've come to the determination that I absolutely need a tractor with several different attachments.  It's just a necessity with land.  It's that or endlessly rent one at near $400 per pop.  I don't know about getting into payments right now, but the driveway is messed up again with all this fresh rain.  I wouldn't rent their tractor again, their box doesn't have teeth and I won't waste my time and money with another stint without those teeth on there to tear up the soil.  I don't know what I'm going to do about this need, if anything, but it's been raised up to a "top priority" situation.  

Work again tomorrow.  This is going to continue on for another week, when i will - tell them - I am taking 2 days off for that weekend.  I'll have missed 2 weeks straight of church, the kids going on 4 weeks.  And time off.  I don't mind this job that much, it's light on hours at anywhere from 6-1/2 to 8-1/2 on a typical day, but it's still work and I get up at 5:30 am for it.  

This paycheck was absolutely pathetic.  I mean, so small it was a kick in the teeth type of thing.  The work I am doing now is allegedly going on the new pay scale.  We'll see.  I've been patient waiting on this, but my patience is wearing thin. I have a couple leads on new jobs.  I wasn't really looking, they just come through either social media, text message or my inbox.  One of them claims a local job and yes, I am researching that one.  

Well it's getting late. I am tired and I want to go to bed early. Gurdon in the am, hopefully a uneventful day, meaning nothing weird, wild and highly time consuming occurs. 

 Thursday - mid afternoon

Pretty typical day going to Gurdon and back. Product was a bit warmer so it came out faster, I was done about 35 minutes earlier than what it has taken for the last 3 loads up there.  

The only thing of note was when the other driver contacted me.  The company hired a new driver and my driver trainer - who is the "other" driver - said he's an early bird the other day.  When I hear that, I think: this dude is going to play games trying to get there earlier than the first load  - when he's been given the second load.  My guess was correct.

He already delivered before the trainer the other day, but since it didn't affect him, he didn't say anything about it. However, today?  The driver trainer pulls into the trailer washout facility and lo and behold, there is this new driver in the office, getting his paperwork so he can go get the trailer washed out.  The driver trainer just drove straight to the washout area and bypassed the office. You don't have to do the paperwork first, lmao. 

This new driver became infuriated.  He immediately called the manager to complain about what the driver trainer had done.  He apparently was raising his voice with the manager over the phone, so the manager just said "we can talk later when you cool down a bit".  Then, the driver trainer called the manager to inform him of what happened, the manager said yup, he already called. The early load goes to the senior drivers. Lol, I've bee there since September and I'm already a "senior driver".  That's because people don't stay at this company for very long and if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you will understand why people quit and I don't feel like going into all of that right now.

In fact, the last guy that was pulling this stunt frequently, cutting in front of other drivers on appointment times, he also quit.  I'm not shocked at all if/when people quit.  

I thought it was hilarious the newbie was getting all kinds of angry because of circumstances created by his own selfishness.  I'm guessing he won't last long, either.  I don't know how the company keeps up with the schedule from the plant with people coming and going like that. 

The lady texted me yet again - 3 piles of poop she said she found at the doggy park today.  It makes me just want to shut the damn thing down, take down the fencing and be done with it. It's really annoying that people just don't give a damn and let their dogs s*** all over the place and they can't be bothered to clean it up.  Unbelievable. 

The new people that moved in yesterday didn't stay in the trailer last night. I know this because there were no vehicles parked in front of the thing either early this morning or this afternoon when I got home. Was trying to collect rent.  I'm not worried about it tho,

________

Night time. It's been raining on and off since I got home.  The new people called back. You can tell they are well up there in age.  Nice sounding, hopefully that pans out.  The man is ex-military, Marines.  

Anyway, it's time to relax, take in some show - I think I'm going to start watching Shogun, it looks interesting and the Japanese are of a great curiosity to me (not in a bad way) - just really interesting culture.  

G'nite. 

 Wednesday - night

Mostly won't write entries in the morning if I'm off to work on any given day, there's just too much to do and usually don't have enough time to write anything.  I'm not saying that is going to be a strict rule I'm putting myself to. 

It's 8:24 pm and we just got home maybe 15 minutes ago.  Baseball for the youngest alternating with soccer with the older child, that's 3 days a week right there plus a guitar practice plus games on the weekends.  This is what they are just now plunging themselves into.  An hour long practice went over 1-1/2 hours.  Too long for those kids, they lose interest quickly.  

I'd like to give the coach some advice, but that probably wouldn't go over too well so I'll keep it zipped.  He should be doing stations and keep all the kids active continuously instead of having a batter at the plate with a bunch of kids in the field standing around picking their noses doing nothing and getting bored.  I spent a lot of time perfecting that craft, keeping kids involved and focused.  You have 3 or 4 stations depending on how many coaches you have - or just parents willing to volunteer - and you move them around.  An intense hour of that non-stop and they are good to go.  

I spent 10 years doing that and much of it I still remember, what I've forgotten I would quickly get back.  

As for today, it started early as most of them do.  I have 1 run I'm currently on and 4 more in the tablet.  There is only one run that starts late, I don't remember which day, not really interested in late starts but since all the rest of them are early, I won't complain too much.  

I ordered off of Ebay a 10 box set of dog poop bags for the doggy park.  The ad says 10 boxes, the boxes are 200 count, it should have said 2,000 bags.  Instead, it says 6,000.  Honest error there, no biggies. However, they shipped me one single box of 200. I paid $47, I want all of it.  However,  Ebay didn't have a return tab available yet since they just arrived, I started a return. They can have their single box back, I want my money back.  

We'll see how that goes, meanwhile I can't keep waiting, the doggy park ran out of bags yesterday.  So, Chewy it was.  Better price than anything on Ebay anyway, excepting this set of bags.

I finally got to the front yard today. It was just too much.  You know, pushing a lawn mower is good exercise.  

I'm tired, therefore not terribly chatty right now.  A person called today saying that they were at the park, can we move in?  I was driving, I didn't have my laptop with me and I had no idea if I could accept a full timer in today or not.  Long conversation - they wanted to chat, I didn't feel like it but I obliged.  A few hours later, they are at the park again, they want in! Lol, I told her I was at Kroger's, I'd be at my computer in 20 minutes.

Well, they are still sitting at the park.  Haven't seen anyone so determined to move in like that before.  I got home, checked, saw that I could get them in, I have a 2 week stay leaving before I'll need a second lot available and I really hate turning long term away, I try to "figure it out" if it's at all possible.  I call her back, she says great, where do we pay? I'll get the money later, I'm busy atm, you can just go ahead and move in. 

It wasn't 15 minutes? later and there was a travel trailer being pulled in and they were backing it into lot 9.  

Yesterday.  Up to Gurdon, 2 hours to unload - it's this trailer, I can't do anything about it, it's going to take at least an hour and 45 minutes every time and there's nothing I can do about it.  Hope I get into a different trailer sooner or later. 

Down to El Dorado.  The lead mechanic is like, well we'll take a look and see how long it's going to take.  Oh? The manager said he just wanted me to switch trucks.  But, if you think you can get it done today....2 of them jumped right on it while basically telling me to go somewhere and come back in an hour.  They have a driver's lounge, I went in there, no one else around thankfully, and took a nap.  

They did a lot more than what I had asked for.  The oil leak was from a plug that had come out of the side of the fuel pump. The plug was wedged on top of something up against the engine block, the mechanic found it and just put it back in.  He said if he hadn't been able to find it, they wouldn't have been able to fix that yesterday.  Anyway, oil change, oil leak, AC, giant pin that hold the front end assembly together, light, hood cable, annual inspection, new windshield wiper blades and more and they were done.  

2 of them had jumped all over it and got it done pretty quickly considering the amount of work they had done.  I was happy to not have to switch trucks, especially after they told me "yes, that truck can go, but it's pretty bad inside, it hasn't been cleaned out".  The mechanics are cool people, we hit it right off.  Once I came back from my hour respite, we talked for quite a bit longer than that while they were working on the truck.  It was after 6:00 pm when I got back and even tho it was late and I started early, I was happy to get it over with and not have to go up there again, at least not for now.

They also recommended using an ozone generator to get rid of cigarette smoke smell inside of the camper.  We got onto that discussion somehow. They said they use them all the time and the work miracles, especially on cigarette smoke smell.  They were surprised I even knew what it was, I just said well I've been researching the best way to get the smell out and I read about it on an RV group Facebook forum.

Well, it's getting late and I want to head off to bed.  I made lunch for tomorrow, definitely don't want to deal with that at 6:00 am.  

Oh, and Medieval Times is set for next month.  It's a field trip for the school.  I already have the day scheduled off for it.  The 9 year old is going on a school bus, I have to drive over there, the only drawback to it.  But still, it's highly rated and people say it's a lot of fun.  Mom and dad couldn't go, they are both busy and asked if I wanted to? 154 miles, 2 hours and 15 minute drive.  

It's in Dallas.  I don't miss big cities anymore, but they do have offerings you don't find elsewhere.  Like, once in a while, a big city is fine.  Living in them? I doubt I'll ever go back to that unless I am somehow forced to do so.  Of course, if I had started an RV park 35 years ago when I first started thinking about it, in Phoenix metro area, I'd be a very rich man right now.  

I'm seeing more and more RV park construction all over the place.  Sorry, I don't really think there is that big of a demand for it. There IS demand, but not THAT much.  I still marvel at how I ended up with the property I have now that I initially rejected.  

Uhh, yeah, I was going to bed.

G'nite. 

 Monday - afternoon

The oldest was in a very bad mood this morning.  Out of character and amazingly, the roles were reversed. The youngest was as happy as a bug in a rug, of which he normally is difficult to wake up, slow to get out of bed and often times moody. 

So much for a total of 9 days off for them.  

The alarm went off this morning and I was in a very deep sleep.  I could have slept for several more hours.  Took a while to get into the swing of things, but I was good to go by the time I got to the washout.  

The plant, however, a different story.  There was a crane service there that had blocked the loading bay with a bunch of scaffolding stuff and they had parked their vehicles in such a way that made it difficult to back in there while avoiding their trucks and trailer.  It took a while for them to get a forklift out there and and move that scaffolding stuff, why they would put that junk in an active loading bay? No idea.

The loader was in a bad mood, very visibly scowling and not having a good day. I said a quick prayer for him instead of condemning him.  I was sitting there an hour and 10 minutes before he even started loading the truck.  But, I was out of there in about 2 hours, nothing to really complain about, I just go in there with the hope that I might have a quick load and get out.  It was 2:00 by the time I got home, not terribly late.

I texted the dispatcher about the truck needing repaired after I looked at how much work they dumped in there.  12 consecutive days worth of work, I am not going to drive that long without getting the thing fixed.  My manager called 2 minutes later after that text.  We have 25 something or another and you can just get into that truck while they fix yours.

These people have no clue how much trouble it is to switch trucks.  Or the huge inconvenience it is to do so. MOST drivers in the trucking industry despise slip-seating, which is the practice of a trucking company to not have assigned trucks for the drivers and they are constantly moving from one truck to another.  This is a little different, switching temporarily to get my truck fixed, so much for sitting around and waiting for them to do it. 

As much as I hate the sound of that, I hate the sound of switching trucks even more.  So I'm supposed to drive over there after delivery tomorrow, it will add hours to  the trip. It adds another hour and forty-five minutes to the drive time, plus switching stuff out between trucks, plus discussing with the lead mechanic what's wrong with it and please fix it all and fix it correctly this time.  The AC, specifically, was given what amounts to a band-aid last time and called it good.  

But I can't keep driving this truck like this, so I just have to suck-it-up-buttercup and take it over there.  

____________

Many hours later.  I am considering getting up even earlier than normal to get up to Gurdon early enough to get out of there - earlier than normal - and get moving towards El Dorado. I really would like not to have tomorrow drag on literally ALL day long concerning work factor.  

 Sunday - early

20 minutes until departure time.  I don't much care for delivery on Sundays for it takes a while to get security to the scale to open up the scale, print my weight and then I can go offload - and then come back and wait again.  

It has rained so much that when I got back to the park yesterday, I drove through the park instead of down the main driveway, turned around and backed into my spot versus driving to the end of the driveway and potentially getting stuck.  

I've got 2 more runs scheduled after this and then on Friday, if they are available, I need them to fix this truck.  

The latest report on the many ways the government went wrong with their approach to Covid 19 is out and the governments from Feds to local governments basically blasted for their approach.  We all knew this.  No, we didn't all know this.  The government is always right!.. people blasted anyone that spoke a differing opinion, qualified doctors with a different view of it were silenced and we were all silenced on social medial, most notably Facebook, for saying anything different than what Lord Fauci had to say about it. 

It was an unprecedented and outrageous period of time where the spectacle of governments with unfettered "emergency powers" told everyone to stay home, shut down business, wear masks, shut down schools, etc. We were called conspiracy theorists and lunatics at the time for saying something different.  Well here we are, and now they predict that the effect on school children will have impact on society for decades to come. 

Meanwhile, we have an illegal "immigrant",  more properly titled illegal alien, who was the cause of a Sheriff deputy death was let go because "no speaka" and didn't understand what they were trying to tell him to do.  If you went to Guatemala, where this man is from and the police were trying to arrest you and you resisted, do you think you'd be walking a free man out of the jail house after causing an officer's death?

Yeah, I think not. And here comes the conspiracy theories again, at least what leftists say: WHO, exactly is coming across the border that has escaped capture and roaming free on the streets of America?  We already know some crazy Venezuelan gang is running loose in our nation.  But talk of terrorists cell groups isn't exactly conspiracy theories when you start looking at the startling amount of "gotaways", they call them.

Back to reality. The kids came home, the grandparents with them, of course.  The kids wouldn't leave me alone but I knew that would happen. 

Well, time to go. I can hear the rain dripping off the roof onto the window ac unit in my room.  

G'day.  

 Saturday - early

Got up, took a shower and then realized - check the damn tablet.  Did they pull another cancellation on me? The answer is, no, I just looked for I just got out of the bathroom. 

Apparently it's St. Patrick's day, the news just informed me. I rarely turn on the tv in these early morning hours before work, but wanted to see the headlines.  It's just another excuse for people to get rip-roaring drunk on green beer.  No thank you.  

So, I should be going for the next - 6 days? I think is what's in there.  After that, I want to take the truck up there and have them fix everything.  It will be a get-up-early day, get up there early and hope they can get it done quickly.  But I figure several hours at least, so I will take my laptop for entertainment and online work purposes.  

It's supposed to rain again today around 1ish-2ish.  Good for the grass seed? Sure if it isn't already washed out lol. 

I dunno, my head is a bit foggy this morning, I'll move on with this one and do some more later.  

Time to go anyway.

G'day 

 Friday - late morning

It rained half the night last night and we're talking a major downpour.  My pond was at least 5 inches below the top and now it's completely full and obviously was running over the sides of it.  Nice, fresh rainwater for the fish and the dogs! Yes, the dogs drink out of it.  In fact, they like it so much I don't even put a bucket of fresh water out there anymore, they just drink straight from the pond.  

Anyway, I slept in.  Til about 9:00 am. 2 days off that I didn't expect, rainy days are good days to sleep in and just enjoy the luxury of not being forced to do something that you probably didn't want to do anyway. I will be back to trucking tomorrow morning- unless they pull another trick on me.  I just checked the tablet, it's all still the same after they changed it to drop the last load.

With the check from the AG loan company, I can go pay the rest of the property taxes.  I might do that today just to get it over with.  I was expecting to have to pay myself a grand or so out of it, it appears I won't have to do that and I will get another paycheck before I run out of money in the personal account.  Now, that paycheck probably won't be so much, but hopefully it will be enough to hold me over until the new pay scale is put into place and I can start making some decent money and not living paycheck-to-paycheck.  

I guess that's not an absolute, I always have money in the business checking account to pay myself with when it becomes absolutely necessary.

Today? Well, I got the monitor and I hooked it up here, at my desk at the house to make sure it works. It's bigger than the old one so I'm just going to keep the new one here and take the old one over to use for the surveillance system.  I still don't get why I must have a monitor. The system has an app for my phone, which I installed but it wouldn't let me get past a certain point in the setup stage without being able to take a pic of a QR code.  I guess it's a safeguard to keep anyone else from accessing it, just think it's more than needed. I already had to verify the account by confirming the email account was mine.  

Then there's that pole that I just left there to - rot, lol.  I stopped because the people that came in for a couple of weeks need relative quiet to do their work-from-home job and I was going to be making a lot of noise cutting the board and putting in the screws. The workaround is to move the posts to the shed, get the setup completed there and then install the post into the ground.  

Yeah, that means hooking up the trailer to move it over there or carrying those posts all the way to the shed.  

 I'm afraid it rained too hard and too long last night for the grass seed. Meaning flowing water probably carried a lot of it away.  I "wanted" a light rain to get everything wet but no flooding.  Rest assured there was a lot of water flowing through both sides and that isn't good. However, I do expect the seed that ended up in the existing grass to be able to do something other than flow away and seed the area behind the west side trailers.  I guess I'll have bermuda grass out there!  Lol.  

Nope, I'm not going to sit around watering the stuff. It's too much time and work involved. If it grows, it grows, if it doesn't, it doesn't and another summer of mostly barren lots with no grass and a lot of dirt.  Not idea, not even close, I'm just not that motivated to be walking around all day long watering everything.  It's going to rain again later on today and tomorrow forecast even more.  Give it 7 days or so and see if anything comes of it and make a decision then.

I've got a 2 night stay coming in today sometime, I will have 2 lots open tho even with that 2 night stay.  I've run the Facebook boost ad and it only netted a couple of calls from people saying they were interested and even 2 of them showing up at the park, but didn't convert into anyone moving in. Disappointing at best.  I'm undecided as to whether I should run another ad.  Google is actually the best resource for new customers, but running ads through them is expensive.  I can say throwing away $20 for a Facebook ad, I can't see throwing away $100 or more on Google and potentially getting nothing out of it.

It may just be a dry season for people moving into the area.  It may be that I'm being undercut by someone, somewhere, potentially that new park.  I haven't check other's rates in about a month so i guess it's about time to go through all of that and see who is doing what.  I will not lower my rates any lower than they already are, I don't care if I don't get anyone new at all.  It's not worth being in business to just barely be scrape by.  People will have those AC's cranking  - they already are actually but the temps aren't that high - and summer is coming.  I'll face up to $2,500 per month electric bills. I'd rather have less people in the park than more who aren't paying enough to make a decent profit.  It's just my thinking for right now.  I know I'm one of the cheapest in the area.  

I'll probably keep it there for a while, brand recognition is what I am shooting for. In other words, I need to be around for a couple of years or even longer to get that recognition.  Word of mouth helps and I am getting a much larger share of the overnighters than I was getting last year.  It just takes time and now - hopefully - that I am set to get more money for the trucking job - I can deal with that.  

My goal at this point is to save up 20 grand in the business account for a down payment on a loan. Or more, maybe, depending on how much of a loan I want to get.  The other option I have discussed endlessly: just start building out as the money is saved up for each phase of the expansion.  I have no idea about that right now, I'm just trying to get this ship on the right financial track.  

And it's raining again.  The forecast? Showed no rain until much later on today, lol.  Now it's showing a medium to heavy rainfall going on until around 1.

So, that gives me the excuse to not deal with that pole today. I really don't want to do that right now and I certainly won't do it out in the rain.

As for right now? I guess I'll start working on bookkeeping. 

 Wait, one more thing today! 

I gave that giant dog a bath!  

It is 80 degrees outside, that dog smells HORRIBLE.  It was FAR past due time, I just haven't done it because it's been too cold.  NOT TODAY!! 

It is actually the first bath I've ever given him.

I give him an A+ for his participation.

Instead of fighting me about it, he just stood there the entire time while I soaked him nicely with water all over and then scrubbed him down with shampoo.  Washed it all off and the let him run free as the driven wind to shake it all off. 

Of course, the animal immediately started rolling in the grass, which I made him stop doing.  

He will be getting bathed once a week now that better weather, or at warmer weather I should say, is finally here.  We have thunder storms coming tonight so I dunno if that's "better" by any standard. 

 I'm being entirely too wordy today, but I just had to mention this.  I was trying to put the surveillance system together, right? And I needed a monitor for the system. So I found one on Marketplace and the guy is bringing it over and selling me the cord as well (those are never included unless you're buying brand new then they have one in the box) for $5 which is cheap. 

Okay, so I have to go to the bank to get cash out. I pulled out the mail from the mailbox on the way to my vehicle and lo and behold:  A letter from the AG lender for my property.  It's a non-profit, once a year they send out checks to everyone for whatever is "left over"  after all expenses are paid. It was $614!  This couldn't have come at a better time!  

I took that check up there, deposited it, got out the cash and now I'm sitting pretty enough with enough cash in the personal account to last until my next paycheck. I won't need to take any money out of the business account this month for personal paycheck! yayyy!  That turns this property tax nonsense into a completely doable situation. I'm still going to wait until my next paycheck anyway, just to ensure I have money laying around in case "something" happens, but I'm not sweating this now.  The entire bill will be paid by the end of the month and that will be that. Over with until the beginning of next year....

IF I can save $300 per month out of business account for this junk, I won't be caught red handed the beginning of next year.  I KNEW this was going to happen this time around, there was not a lot I could do about it - well I could have started working a job sooner I guess.  What's done is done, let's move on.  In fact, I knew I was going to be screwed for money quite a while before I actually ran out.  I mentioned in this blog that I expected to run out of money in September of last year and that's why I went looking for a job.  It's exactly what happened. That first paycheck I got was quite healthy for it included a 2,500 mile drive and weeks worth of work. 

It came at the exact time I absolutely needed it.  Just like this check today, I knew it was coming sooner or later, they do this every year.  I just didn't know when. Today was THE day I needed that check, even tho I wasn't exactly expecting that blessing to be sitting in our mailbox, it was indeed there, and I think it's a good time to thank the Good Lord for taking care of my needs.  Thank you Jesus!  Amen and amen.  

I'm just sitting here waiting on this guy to show up, I need to run over to the park and collect some money from overnighters.  These seniors - like much older than me in their late 70's and 80's - like to pay for everything in cash.  The generation they grew up with, I have no problem with that except it makes me have to drive over there after I was already there today.  I guess I could finish setting up the surveillance system if/when this dude shows up. 

What else...well, we've been enjoying a quiet house since Sunday.  It will continue on until sometime Saturday, but probably mid to late afternoon.  Unless they change it yet again, I will be going down to Lufkin to load on Saturday. So, tomorrow is off.  The dude just texted me he's on his way over, I think I will just finish up that project tomorrow instead of today.  Don't really feel like it at this point.  I don't hate going to the park, per se, at the same time I'm not a fan of multiple trips per day.  Sometimes it's necessary, if I don't go get that money from these overnighters, their stay will be free.  I saw the rig they drove in with their new 4 door pickup and a very nice bumper pull trailer, they have money lol.  

Ok enough for now.  I'm just a little bit excited about this pay raise.  Things will start to get much better in the financial department.  

Well that was fun. Not.

I know there are 2 separate places to pay taxes, one at the ISD and the other at the County.....I thought they had the entire amount owed on one site.  I thought wrong. The $1,900? That's what I owe the ISD, that doesn't include the $722 I just paid to the county. Now, that includes a late fee and 3 other properties, but the other properties only amounted to $32 worth, they're undeveloped and not worth that much.  

So, that was a blow.  I paid the county, I did not pay the ISD yet. Entirely outrageous tax rate for a county whose seat is only 23,000 people and not that much of anything out here, really.  I have decided to wait until my next paycheck and then I will probably pay around $1,200 of it out of the business account and the rest? I"m going to have to put on a credit card. There is no way I am going to go into next month where they will add $175 to the bill for a penalty fee.  

After my pay raise, I will be able to just keep the money in the account for any profit and that will fund the property taxes and insurance at the end of the year.   

It's basically making me rethink my overnight prices.  I might raise them at least a couple of dollars per per night.  I already did that once and it didn't affect occupancy, people are using the lots I have available right now.  I have 4 available and 3 of them have temp people in them.  One is coming tonight for overnight.  

My monthly prices are also low, I just can't charge higher, I won't get anyone in.  I had a guy call me 2 days ago complaining about other parks in the area and how "high" their prices were.  He thought $450 was outrageous.  Might be a bit high if electricity weren't included, but, electricity IS included in their price, I know because we talk occasionally.  I didn't want to waste time with him, he's likely found out by now that everyone charges at least that much and some much higher.  I mean, you are giving them the spot to park on, electricity, water, sewer, trash and WiFi.  

The lady contacted me again today - this is the one with the German Shepherd puppy - and said she found 3 piles of dog poop in the park.  I looked last night before I left, there was nothing in there.  The tent lady is gone, so it's not her dog as they continued to allege.  This is why I couldn't do anything about it, I had no proof.  And now I'm glad I didn't. I didn't throw those people out, they left on their own volition and left me hanging.

So, I am pretty sure whose dogs are doing it and I am going to have a discussion with them about it.  

However.....I just went and started hooking up the new surveillance system. Just one camera for now with an extension cord instead of going through the trouble of installing outlets.  It is aimed directly at the park and it's kind of hidden on the shed.  I don't want to tell anyone it's up there, hopefully they won't see it.  

Unfortunately, it needs a monitor, I didn't know that I figured I could just use my phone, but it requires a monitor to set it up.  Already found a used one on Marketplace, I can just keep it over there.  

Anyway, that's today doings so far. I'm not done yet, I just came home to get some lunch.  

 So. 

The manager calls me. At 8:30 am.  Now, on the first part of this run, I would already be at the washout getting the tanker washed out by that time.  Oh, we had 2 load cancellations, he tells me.  Yea, I went and got everything ready to go this morning, then go into the tablet and found the load gone.

This happened last night, they didn't bother to give me a head's up.  By the way Mr. Trucker?  Yes, you don't need to get up at 5:30 am. I do have an inkling of an idea of why.  The other driver said yesterday that when he arrived up there to offload, they told him they were having a glue problem and wouldn't be able to get to him right away.  

Yeah, well one tank was completely full when I was up there and after I was done offloading, there was probably enough for one more load in the other tank.  

There was good news, tho, in that phone call, I won't lie.  He told me he was finally able to get to the pay raise and that he was going to give me X amount per load (just not gonna say what I'm getting paid on here for a variety of reasons) and that would be a substantial raise by going per load instead of per mile.

I did a little quick math in my head and figured it would be anywhere from $1,200 to $1,500 more per month. This is exactly what I have been needing from them.  Actual pay, not some pauper's pittance.  Ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but you get the picture.  It isn't a done deal yet, he - my manager - has to get permission from the CEO, but the parameters of pay for the drivers falls in my manager's lap for the drivers he is over.

In other words, he is given X amount of money to pay everyone, out of that pool he has to figure out who gets what and who might get a raise and who won't.  He strictly forbade me to discuss my pay with anyone else.  Rightfully so, I suspect I will be making a lot more than my trainer driver, tho I have encouraged him to ask for a raise as well.  He doesn't know I'm getting more money and I'm not telling him. I have no desire to mess up what very well may turn into a lucrative and very good setup for me, finally, after all the hell I've been through with this company. 

IF the amount of the raise equals to about another $1,000 give or take per month in net pay, I will no longer have to take pay from the business account.  And therefore, no longer pay taxes on those self-written checks.  Remember, I am an LLC and I don't pay Federal taxes if I'm not paying anyone including myself.  If it just sits in there and grows, that's not taxable.  It's business money and it will be used for business purposes.  This is what I have been wanting to happen for several months now.   This is entirely good news, regardless of the bad start today had.  

He said the new pay would start in April.  So, one more check of these low wages and then the new pay structure begins.   There will be no more detention pay - which doesn't bother me because with detention pay I wasn't making much.  It helps a little, but nothing like an actual pay raise that is substantial such as this is going to be.  

On to other things.  A man made a reservation through HipCamp for the tenting area and then 15 minutes later, cancelled it saying "inaccurate description".  Huh?  Inaccurate description of what, exactly? So I wrote him and asked what the alleged deception is?  He writes back and says that I have the town name correct, but in the wrong state. Arkansas instead of Texas.  Huh?  No way.  I didn't believe that for even a millisecond and went straight to the HipCamp software to check it out.  And I was correct: it doesn't say anything  about Arkansas.  To further cement my conclusion, I went into incognito browser on Google - meaning I would be visiting my HipCamp site like anyone else and not showing all the "host" stuff on there. Plain as day, it has the entire address including TEXAS. 

I wrote him back and informed him he was incorrect.  I don't care if he cancels a reservation, but making a claim like that? Please.  

6 rats so far.  I thought they were mice but upon closer observation, those aren't mice in those glue traps inside of that coach. Those are baby rats.  Rats have disgusting tails that are really cringeworthy, at least to me.  I put in 4 more glue traps and left those traps be, still room for more on those other ones, come join your brothers and sisters! By the way, mama, you are invited too!  I haven't caught the mama yet.  I'm going to blast that thing with fumigant again today.  It wasn't just rats, honey, there were cockroaches in there as well.  They came crawling out when I set off those bombs and many of them are on the glue traps as well. 

I am not going to bother doing anything to that coach until I am sure that all of the infestation of rats and roaches and whatever else is out of there.  Just a waste of time to do anything with it until that is completed.  The carpet - new carpet - will have to be thrown in the dumpster and I'll probably chuck the fridge as well. It's disgusting.  It works, but it's totally puke-worthy.  I mean, how could those people live in such squalor? The beds are getting thrown out as well.  Then it will be scrubbed with a soapy bleach mixture as well as vacuuming everything and throwing all their junk out.  Ridiculous.

I think the family of 5 should be pleased today.  They are in town for their daughter's acrobat tournament. They thought it was going to rain today - we ALL thought it was going to rain today. You know, those things called forecasts?  Yea, that completely changed. Now it's showing rain after midnight tonight. 

The family thought it was going to rain all day long today, they are outdoorsy type people, very active the entire lot of them.  The kids love going into the woods on the trails and have named some of the spots, lol.  They are leaving tomorrow, but at least they won't all be cramped up inside that little trailer all day long.  They had a bunch of people over yesterday evening.  I was leaving the park and there was a group of them out there and yes, they did ask for permission first. 

If I would have thought about it, I probably would have taken the truck up to El Dorado today to get it fixed.  Actually, I did think about it and thought, well, I can't go up there without them telling me if they can get to it today. The man told me he can't tomorrow/Friday, he has a day off. And they don't work weekends.  So It's going to have to be next week.  I dread having to sit up there for untold hours waiting on them to fix everything, but that's what they say they intend to do.

That will be a long day. 

The power bill cleared the bank and upon looking at my finances, yes, I am pretty sure I can pay the property tax this month.  Waiting for the trucking paycheck to come in on the 22cd before I make that move.  I have to take a paycheck out of the business account today - I have no choice in the matter. Take the money or bounce auto-pays.  Otherwise I would just go up and pay it today.  If I do that, that only leaves $600 in that account after taking a paycheck.  

Hmm. Going over my prior activity, I don't actually have any more payments this month for the business account.  I could go ahead and get this over with today. $600 is enough to cover any emergencies.  

Wait what?  It's showing I only owe $1,900 and that is with the penalty incurred for late pay.  Huh?  The last time I check, and yes I scrutinized it, it showed I owe $2,400. Now THAT is doable today. That leaves me over $1,200 in the business account even after paying myself, I'm good to go, that is today's "project", tho it usually doesn't take very long.  I just didn't want to leave myself too short on available finances in case something comes up.  There is nothing I can think of that would cost me more than $1,200 or even anything close to it.  Frees up money to get more grass seed, but again, I'm waiting on the results of what I just spread before I spend more money on that stuff. It's just too expensive to take that kind of gamble on it working or not.  I could buy stuff for the coach, but again, we aren't anywhere near that yet.  I don't know how long it's going to take to get all of those rats out of there, just going to buy more glue traps if these new ones get filled up and bomb the starlit Jupiter out of that thing. 

What is really amazing about this, is that my house in AZ is valued more than my property yet the taxes are something like $800 less per year.  My property is in the county, outside of city limits, the city itself is only like 23,000 population, but they feel the need to tax citizens this high?  What are they doing with all of this money? Because rest assured, it's not being used to fix any roads.  

 Lovely.

Just absolutely wonderful.

These people.  

They change runs frequently on me and usually say nothing about it.  Exactly what happened apparently last night.  I get to the park, turn on the truck, lights, etc, do a pre trip, get logged in, go the loads on the table and there it was.

No run today or tomorrow, working the weekend.  I was originally scheduled for 10 days in a row, trust me, I check this stuff all the time now that I know they are just going to change things up. 

I guess I should have checked this morning before leaving here and no, they didn't give me any notice that they had changed it yet again.

Irritating? Oh yes.  Ridiculous, actually.  

Because of daylight savings, it's still dark outside so I just decided to go home and now, this entry and then? I'm just going to plop my butt back in bed for a few hours.  Might as well.  I've got plenty to do over there but I wouldn't dare start making that kind of noise in the dark and this early. Talk about a good way to piss people off. 

Maybe I'll write some more later. 

Thursday - early

Well, I guess the rain today isn't going to happen, but it allegedly is going to start later tonight at around 2 am.  That will likely change as well, I need a nice, light but steady rain to come down and get the grass seed nicely saturated, for yes, I did put that 15 pound bag down yesterday.

It covered most of 14 lots.  I'd need another bag to cover everything.  I'm not doing that, yet, I'll see what happens with this $83 15 pound bag.  If it works, I will probably get another one but that's too much money to gamble  getting another bag before seeing what kinds of results I am going to get.  

IF everything stays the same, I should be able to make that property tax payment before the end of this month.  I think there is one more payment coming out of that business account this month, the rest I can spend on the property tax and, unfortunately, having to pay myself.  I'm wanting to my trucking pay to the point I don't need to pay myself out of the business account and just save that money for expansion or loan down payment, either-or. 

They don't seem too keen on collateral loans in this current lending atmosphere.  I'm not keen on high interest rates and wouldn't do it right now anyway.  I'm trying to pay down debt as it stands, not get into more of it.  

Anyway, I have no choice but to take a check out of the business account in order to stay afloat.  I'm gonig to dump Verizon here pretty quick as soon as I can afford to pay off the phone - it's down to $239 owed on it - and then I won't be spending any more on phone service for I already have it covered under the T Mobile plan for almost nothing more than what I am already paying for the other services.  

Well, I got started late today, it's time to go - Nacogdoches and Lufkin that is.

G'day. 

 Wednesday - early\

The motorcycle was fired up and woke up up out of a dead sleep.  Sleeping tracker showed it was a light sleep, I begged to differ with it.  I looked at the clock: 5:27 am.  I was so out of it, I set the alarm to go off at 5:45 instead of the 5:30 I had it at.  It was a waste of time, I knew I couldn't get back to sleep just got my @$$ out of bed, took a shower, got my coffee and that was and is that.

On the docket today, up to Gurdon, deliver the glue and back.  I'm not sure what I will do at the park, it really depends on how I feel once I pull back into the driveway.  I've had an amazing amount of energy the last several days and the only thing I can think of is the multi-vitamins I started taking.  I haven't taken those in quite a while..I think Keto might have left me deficient on some vitamins/minerals is the reason I started taking them again.  

Who knows, but on the way out of the park yesterday, the lady of the family that has been staying there quite a while approached me.  It looked like she was doing spring cleaning, but that wasn't the case at all.  Her toilet had overflowed unbeknownst to them and flooded the entire trailer. This is a newer trailer, btw, not old junk. Newer trailers tend to have poor craftsmanship and cheap parts installed nowadays. I have read enough material about it to understand that if you want to buy a good trailer, you are better off buying a used one that the person has taken care of, they went through the problems that the trailer had and got them fixed.

Oh, well yesterday I also mowed the doggy park. It had clumps of grass that had grown very tall and there was dog poop hidden in some of that.  The old man approached me about the dog poop over by his trailer and didn't try to argue about it.  He simply stated he's old and it's hard for him to pick it up, they are getting a pooper scooper.  I sympathize getting old, I do not sympathize leaving piles and piles of dog poop laying all over the place.  If you can't pick it up, DON'T HAVE A DOG!    Sorry if that sounds uncaring, but they have 2 dogs and one of them is a husky puppy. It's going to grow much bigger and so is it's waste.  

I really don't know what this guy was thinking, like I would never see it?  Or that I would somehow give it a pass? Or worse, that I would clean it up for them? 

Looks like my morning coffee time is already almost over.  Not really feeling it today, just don't feel like going anywhere much less driving a truck to Arkansas and back.

Oh well.

G'day. 

 Tuesday - early

You know, some nights sleep is so poor and you wake up yet once again, you might as well just get out of bed.  So, instead of getting out of bed at 5:30, I got up at 5. 

I think it was all the physical exertion yesterday.  It took a long time to get to sleep and I kept waking up.  Digging out that post hole was no small effort, topped with mowing almost everything along with a trip to Lowe's and later on, a trip to Walmart, dealing with people, lots of people, it just went on and on yesterday.  

Also included texting a person about their dogs pooping and them not cleaning it up.  I was push mowing that giant yard next to lot 1 and saw pile after pile of dog poop. Small dogs, not obvious from a distance, but amazingly ridiculous to think that man can bring those dogs out, let them shit everywhere and not clean it up. 

My text was pretty direct,, for this is a pet peeve of mine.  "I do not clean up other people's dog poop.  When you take your dog out to let it do it's duty, it is fully expected that you will immediately clean it up." etc.  

The couple staying for 2 weeks said something in gentle terms about the guy next door, who plays his music and/or video games obnoxiously loud. So, I texted him as well.  Please turn it down a couple notches.  He was cool with it, I haven't heard anything - yet - from these people so we'll see.

Then there was the ant hills.  I was mowing and noticed them on one of the pads itself.  So I was going to get to it before the next people came in, but, they showed up before I got the grass mowed.  It's a family of 5 in a rather small trailer, lol. With a dog.  They also asked for a picnic table. They were here last year for the same thing: their daughter is an acrobat and is competing in a tournament at one of the local universities.  I dealt with that -that was the trip to Walmart in fact.  I am not going to concern myself with every ant hill out there, that's too much, but I will deal with it ON the pads themselves or possible in the lots next to the pads.  

I did, indeed, buy a bag of Bermuda grass seed yesterday. This was a bag big enough to cover 15,000 square feet, or so it says.  It is not a 50 pound bag, it's much smaller.  I guess that seed has a lot more coverage than the same amount of rye grass seed.

I'll put that out tomorrow.  I am still working on that pole for the router.  The 4x4's are out there, I just need to connect them together and put it in the hole. Yeah, that couple that came in? They work out of their rather large 5th wheel and I will accommodate the man in not making too much noise next to his rig, that's where this setup is.  I actually wanted them in the available pull through lot tho. Too late!

So today? Just truck down to Nacogdoches, wash out the trailer, over to Lufkin, fill the trailer and come back. IF the schedule holds out, it will go on like that the next 10 days.  Every time they try to load me up with this much work? It always fails. Something happens along the line and that is the end of that.  I don't wish it, working this job is necessary for now.  

I can tell ya that when I get back today? It will be up in the air if I actually do anything else. Not with the sleep I had tonight.  The lack of it, I should say.  I get naptime in Lufkin tho. The driver's seat is pretty comfortable and it reclines as far back as I want it to go. I usually sit there a while before they even start loading it and then 50 minutes to an hour or longer to load.  It makes no sense, the same product taking 50 minutes 1 day and then an hour and 15 minutes the next time.  Cold has something to do with it, the product thickens up considerably in colder weather and obviously makes it slower to move.

Anyway, it's time to get the thermos filled with hot coffee, get a lunch together and get out of here.

G'day

 Monday not-so-early

Woke up in the middle of the night and it was hours before I could get back to sleep.

I was lucky I didn't have to work today, that would have been miserable.  Instead, I did eventually get back to sleep and I didn't bother getting out of bed until almost 9:00 am.

A text awaiting me: Are you working this weekend?  They at least ask me now.  I'll do what originally was agreed upon: work one weekend, off the next.  So I said yes and they have already loaded my tablet up into next week.  Working every day.  I'm going to find out about this idea of getting paid more this next check, allegedly.  

We'll see.  I thought it was going to be the last check I got on the 7th.  

It was "supposed" to rain this morning, at least what it showed while I was unwittingly awake last night, now it's completely changed to maybe a little rain at noon.  I only say that because I still plan to go get that post and cement, take it over to the park and attempt to dig the hole.  I do have a post hole digger.  

The hard part, of course, is digging out that hole, otherwise it's a fairly simple process.  I've dug enough post holes in that ground to understand it's both digging into roots and digging into the clay that makes it difficult.  

Anyway, I'll look at grass seed prices while I'm there. Maybe I can get a smaller bag and cover some of the park instead of leaving the entire place barren.  

There is nothing else, really. The kids are gone, there is peace and quiet in the house, in fact it was so quiet last night, everyone was commenting on it.  Not that anyone misses it and that was also verbalized.  Like, the youngest especially getting mad at everything. An aunt bought him a headset with microphone for playing his online games, it's very likely going to get much worse with him getting mad at other players.

Personally, I won't stand it, if he's yelling loudly and disrupting the entire house I'll go out there and tell him to zip it if the parents haven't already done that.  Which they normally do, but sometimes it goes on for a while and then I just go out and make him stop.  It's a game, it's not life and death.  They're not allowed to play games that much, thankfully.  Never during the week and limited on the weekends.  

If my business account doesn't go down too much besides paying the electric bill, I should be able to afford the property taxes later on this month after i get a paycheck.  We'll see, but this month it's getting paid regardless, I will find a way to pay them and that will be that.  More debt isn't desirable, losing the property is far less desirable.  I'm trying to not have to do that, that's all I can say about it.  

On top of that is tax day coming up soon enough.  I haven't even started on that but I do expect to get a start this week with the kids gone.  Just a lot better environment to do such work in a quiet house where  you can concentrate without disruptions.  

I hooked the trailer up yesterday when I went to the park after going to church.  I'm ready to just drive straight up to Lowe's and hopefully, they do, indeed, have a 20 foot post.  That would really be optimal in getting well above the nearest trailers and broadcasting the signal to everything in the park.  If it works well, I may do it with the other router in the shed as well.  I wouldn't mind having better coverage behind the shed.  I do get hipcamp stuff in there here and there. 

A lot of Hipcamp lately, however, has been reserving regular lots.  This is why I jacked up my prices on Hipcamp, it's way too much of a loss to have cut throat prices on there even lower than what I'm normally charging through my campground reservation software.  I may up it a little more to get the profit where it needs to be considering people are using my electricity/hookups. 

I think that's about it and daylight hours are burning up. It's only 10:00 am, lol, but I'd like to get this project started and hopefully over with. I would like not to have to rent an auger machine to drill a hole, that's almost $200.  I will definitely try my bests to get that hole dug out without machinery, but it does, indeed, need to go down around 4 feet and that may be difficult.  

Oh, yesterday I was contemplating going to church early and attending one of the adult groups.  But I started thinking about it and continued on thinking about it after I went to church at the normal time, skipping that meeting.  

I know a lot of people who don't go to church because the church burned them.  We're talking about the treatment they received from people in the church, not because they thought the sermons were awful. This is a common theme and it's a wonder that people call themselves Christians and then turn around and treat their so-called brothers and sisters in Christ like that or even worse, the lost in such a mannger. Judgment and gossip.  Knives stuck in your back. I've had all of that and it's the main reason (there are other reasons as well) that I don't get involved with church at all.  Which in turn means why I haven't made a single friend there, I haven't tried and I haven't wanted to.

I have found that worldly people are much more genuine and down to earth AND treat you better than people in church, who are mostly putting on a show and attempting to make themselves look "better" than they really are. I make no such attempts, I am who I am and I don't try to hide my problems.  I don't necessarily discuss them all the time, that's my personal stuff, I just don't go around making myself to look like Saint Paul or Peter or one of the other disciples or claiming I'm the male version of Mother Theresa.  

I am not attempting to say every person in any given church is a pile of mayhem and chaos in fancy clothing, but there are enough people like that to sour the bunch for pretty much everyone that has left the church and declared they would never go back.  I wouldn't recommend my church to anyone, only for the fact that I have no idea how they treat people for I have not gotten involved - at all - with that church because yes, I have been burned by more than one church and I just am having trouble attempting to cross that bridge to go back into some sort of involvement.  

I may go to one of those meetings sooner or later, it will probably be a bit uncomfortable and if they ask me questions I am not going to sugar coat anything.  

Well, I got sidetracked and I need to get about the business of this day.  Tomorrow and the next many days after it is trucking, I'd like to get some stuff done today at the park beyond just that post. 

G'day.

 

 Sunday - morning

Time change.  I looked at the clock last night and realized I was losing an hour and it might as well be midnight versus the 11:00 pm it showed. So, I went to bed, waking up twice, but only for a few minutes and going right back to sleep.  9 hours of sleep.  

Kids are leaving today, I will relish the lack of bickering, fighting, screaming, crying and all the rest of it.  That isn't all they do, of course, but it's what stands out, especially when discussing having a whole week off from school, which basically started after school Friday and will continue on until next Monday morning.  Instead of being here, doing that nonsense all day long, they are going to grandmas and grandpas, where they will be endlessly spoiled, but they will start their s*** anyway, lol.

I intend on doing nothing today, tho I will go to church, I mean nothing in terms of work. Tomorrow, I will go hook up the trailer, go to Lowe's, get the 20 foot 4x4 and post hole cement and then I will have to try and dig out a 4 foot deep post hole. It's a challenge in digging out such a hole in this kind of dirt with all those old roots from trees that are gone, but the roots are definitely still there.

The movies.  Well, we went to see a movie 2 nights ago, we being the kids and I.  We sat down in our usual place, the very top row.  There were 2 large groups of teenagers, 1 on our right and 1 on the left.  I figured there would be a problem once the movie started, I was not wrong.

They continue right on with loud talking, completely ignoring the movie and making everyone mad, after the movie started. To the point another group of people lower down yelled at them, "Y'ALL NEED TO CHILL OUT!"  Who needs to chill out? the group of mouthy teens yelled back.  YOU! Well, that was ignored, of course and they kept on disrupting the movie.  I was tempted to tell them the same thing, but thought better of it. They would just mouth off to me as they had the others.

Instead, I went to the lobby, found a group of employees, asked for the manager. The lady said yes, can I help you? Yes, these teens in the theater are talking, making all kinds of noise, using their phones to do a strobe light type of thing, it's ridiculous. 

I went back into the theater and several minutes later, an employee came in and said something to both groups in such low tones I couldn't hear what they said. Yea, that didn't work either.  There was a surprise coming, tho, once that I did not expect at all.  A couple of minutes after that, a cop came in there, stood against the wall in plain view and - just stood there.  

All of the noise, flashing lights and mouthiness completely stopped.  That officer stood there the entire movie and not a further peep out of those kids.  I dunno, but I kind of think if they are going to let teens in without adult supervision, they need to have an employee monitoring them.  Whatever the case, I thanked the officer who had moved to the lobby after the movie was over - we just waited until everyone left before we got up - and he just nodded his head and said anything to help!

Sort of recapping Friday night, Saturday and now into Sunday.  My empty long term spots are, amazingly, being kept relatively filled up with overnighters, 2 nighters, etc.  If it could only stay that way, I wouldn't bother with long term at all.  Far more money to be made with short term stays if you can keep them coming.  I did have a person call me yesterday - she called from her car sitting in front of my amenities shed - asking about a lot? After the conversation was done, she said she'd be "calling you back". 

She never did.  I'm having trouble getting long term in there right now, no idea why but whatever.  They'll come eventually, just hopefully not too long.  The railroad guy said in a month he'd be coming back after his vacation, but I need a couple of long term, well at least one, now. 

Well, looks like almost time to get ready for church. No kids this week, they didn't go last week cause I was working and they probably won't be going next week either for I will likely be working as well.  I kind of don't like getting them started on something like that and then they are not being able to go for weeks' stretch at a time.  But, whatever, life dictates how things work out, schedules are nice but they are often times interrupted with reality.

 So, I want to pay off Verizon - it's still a little up there but I think I can manage it - the phone and then I can switch to T Mobile.  Get rid of Verizon - high priced nonsense I don't need.  T Mobile has good enough coverage and Verizon doesn't have any coverage up in Gurdon or the washout. It does have decent coverage in Lufkin.  Still, I want to give T Mobile a chance since I already have them and it's only going to add a little more every month to what I am already paying for the wifi and the cameras.  Literally, 2 phones added is only $60 more, I think it was.  My verizon bill is ridiculous and I want to get rid of it. 

I am looking for ways to decrease my monthly expenses and this is the most obvious one.

I have tried to find a service to bring down dumpster rental, especially after they jacked the price up, but now that they agreed to bring it down for 1 year under contract, I'm ok with it.  I can't get by without a dumpster there, it gets filled up every week or close to full. Usually full tho.  

I think my house in Phoenix should be able to use T Mobile gateway for internet as well. I am spending $200 a month for internet there.  Bringing it down to $50 a month would be wonderful.  

And I just saw that the shed will be paid off later on this year!  All of this will free up a good deal of money to - have actually.  Save or pay off debt, mostly I want to be able to pay my bills with paychecks and just leave the park money in the business account without taking any paychecks from it.  That way, I not only save up money for expansion or down payment on a loan, I also don't have to pay taxes on it.  

I wish I could do something about the water bill from the city of Phoenix, it's ridiculous.  Like, anywhere between $150 and $200 per month.  

Another thing that would be nice is if Texas would do away with property taxes. It was on the ballot for Republicans in the state that I voted in on Monday.  IT doesn't actually do anything, but it gives the Texas legislature the signal that we do, indeed, want to get rid of property taxes. I don't know if anything is going to come of that, there must be a reason they had it on the ballot.  Over 70% signaled yes, please get rid of it!  

I have not understood why property owners have to bear the brunt of paying for schools on the local level for some time now.  Property taxes and apparently the state throws money into it. Why doesn't everyone have to chip in? 

Anyway, the boys were begging to go see a movie that just came out, so we are leaving in 10 minutes to go see it. I figure a good way to see them off, they are leaving for an entire week on Sunday with their grandma.  I do enjoy the time without kids asking endless questions, fighting with each other, stomping around the house, etc ad-infinitum. It allows me to have some peace and quiet to get some business work done as well. '

Monday, if my day off stands, well 2 days off actually, Sunday as well but I won't work on Sunday unless something has to be done, I am going to get a 20 foot tall 4X4 and stick it into the ground vertically and hook the Gateway wifi device up at the top of it.  This will give much better coverage to everyone and should eliminate the guy at the end who says he doesn't have enough reception to get it.  He is retired, he is sticking around and I want to make him happy.  He seems to like the place but he is definitely not happy about the wifi situation.

I texted him earlier and told him my plan to get the 4X4, dig a 4 foot deep hole, put it in there, put some post mix in there, let it dry up - that will take several days, get a long ladder, install the thing up there and see what happens. May have to get another extension cord, I'm just running an extension cord to the current one now. I see no need to run an actual line with outlet to it.  It's a lot of work to do that, tapping into a pedestal, digging a trench over to the pole.  I don't know that it's a permanent set up anyway and I don't know if it's going to work or not.  

We will see.  So, actually, he still won't be able to get a signal on Monday cause' I ain't climbing up 16 feet - how high it will be after sinking 4 feet into the ground - on a pole with concrete that hasn't yet set. 

I just mowed everything not long ago but you couldn't tell by looking. It's all popped up again.  Oh, this project won't cost much, maybe $35 for everything.  I already have extra extension cords if one is needed beyond what I already am using. 

A simple fix to make a person happy? Yes, hopefully they stay but it should up the reception for everyone that is using that router.  

Well, that's that.  I have the movie to go to and then go to bed, for I have work and I am getting up at 5:30 am tomorrow.  Get up there around 9:00 am and hopefully be out of there by 11. This time, I am going to get up on the tanker before I go into the plant and make sure all of those lugs are secured tightly.