Trip to Cheneire was - eventful.  After spending over 3 hours in the plant due to a mistake by the plant operator, I drove down there.  I got within 12 miles of the plant, coming up to an interchange I needed to get on. Police blocking it/  They tried to wave me on, not happening. I asked them how long? Bad accident, fatalities, road blocked for a 5 mile stretch, accident investigation team just showed up, you're looking at a minimum 2 hours, probably longer than that.  They were nice about it. I asked them how to get around?  They said well you can wait at the truck stop but yes, it's going to be hours or, you can go - such and such a route and that will take you there. 

So I started this route and then started looking at maps. Because of where Cheneire is, there is only 2 ways in there. One from the Texas side and one from the Louisiana side.  It turned out to be a 105 mile drive to get there.  Yes, you read that right: a 105 mile detour.  It was the only other way there.  Well, I got out onto I-10 and decided I would get some fuel just to be safe.  I can say you with great assurance that that was a very good decision after what happened later on.  I got a hot dog, figured it might be a while before eating again and I hadn't stocked my fridge for this run, it was only supposed to be a day run, go down, come back up, ,go back to the plant in the morning and head up to Illinois.

Yea, didn't quite work that way.  The drive along the beach was great tho.  All these beautiful houses up on stilts, the beach right there next to the road way with the waves lapping up in some places almost all the way to the road itself.  Pretty cool.  Anyway, I got there, got checked in, got into Gate A, they told me to wait at the hill. I waited at that hill for almost 2 hours for them to show up.  When I got to the rack to unload, I was told to hook everything up, but - don't start building pressure. This all turned into a nightmare.  Their plant pressure was too high, they were trying to bring it down.

I finally got word they had it "down" to 50, which is still high.  I got the truck pressure up to 90, turned off the pressure coil. It was still slowly building pressure after that, but I figured it would stop since no fluid was running through there. I was wrong.  We opened the valves and - all kinds of ethylene pouring out their faulty hookup.  Long day growing longer, we tried several times to get the hookup to not leak.  This went on forever.  I mean, I had 4-1/2 hours of on duty time left on the clock when I got there, plenty of time to get unloaded.  When I finally left, I had to drive to their parking lot and spend the night there, I was totally out of hours and couldn't drive anywhere legally.  Not to mention my company would flag me for driving over hours.  I had no food with me. My mistake.  I just figured this would be an overnight trip, or at worst, I'd find a place to stop and eat.  But, as I stated, this plant is out in the middle of nowhere. There aren't any stores out there. I think the nearest one is 8 miles away on that Gulf Beach Highway. 

I spent a fitful night's sleep, got up early this morning, drove back to the yard.  I had already given up the load to Illinois, foregone conclusion I wasn't making it back in time and there was another driver who wanted the load, I gave it up to him freely.  I visited with Donny and Rene at Applebee's, went home to find a houseful of people. I knew they were there, tho. The older kid - 3 year old - was brought home by grandma.  Grandma made dinner - pretty good stuff - and they left earlier this evening. 

So, I'm sitting here watching the final season episode of the Walking Dead when I get a text from my manager: Joe has to go to the doctor tomorrow, can you take his spot?  OK, I didn't want to work tomorrow. I didn't say that to anyone, just in my mind. Once it gets into my mind, it's hard to dismiss it.  I "should" be off until Tuesday since all load are doled out for Saturday, Sunday and Monday on Friday.  It wasn't totally shocking tho.  I've come to expect that my life can be interrupted by this job at just about any time.  I've also come to expect that the truck can break down at any time and I may have to spend time in hotels. Or, the plant will reject the load until they are able to take it. Or the plant has problems and it's going to take forever to get the product off of the truck.  Or whatever. 

There is no set schedule is the point. It has it's pros and it's cons.  I'm dealing with it for now.  Probably not a forever job, but it's doing what i needed it to do.  I've had years and years worth of getting home every day and not working weekends, those thought processes haven't left my mind.  I'm slowly getting accustomed to this job, but I can't say that I'm just fine with it yet.  If I'm out on the road too long, I start getting antsy.  My thoughts go towards home and it's hard to shake.  But as I said, it's getting easier over time. 

I told Ann sure, I'll take it, having no idea where it's going on how long I'll be out.  Turns out it's going to Barnsdall, which I actually like. It's the place where I get up there the day before - usually pretty early, sometimes get a hotel, park next to the bowling alley, eat at that fabulous Mexican food place, maybe throw a few games on the bowling alley, enjoy myself.  I haven't taken a hotel in a while, if I get up there early enough, I might just do it.  Oh, wait, let me check the price of that place. Last time I was up there it was almost $100 and I won't do that. 

Well the Candlewood Suites is at $76, but I forgot about the Days Inn on the other side. It's going at $57.  I dunno, I'll make that decision tomorrow. I can't book in advance because you never know if you're going to even make it up there.  I've had too many breakdowns.  Anyway the run isn't worth as much as some other overnight runs - unless of course they have problems at the plant and I get detention pay, but I've already had several good runs, 3 consecutive, so no biggies.  Next paycheck should be awesome, especially considering that this run should also be on that paycheck since I should be back in time to get it posted. 

There is plethora of other things I wanted to discuss, but it's getting late and I am very tired. 

I'm back from Illinois.  I checked in at the office after unhooking the truck and getting my paperwork done.  There were two other drivers in there talking with Ann.  I was too busy to stop, at that moment anyway, trying to get my stuff done, get in my car and go meet Taylor and James for dinner at Applebee's.  Their treat : ). 

But, after I got it all done, Ann comes up and says, well, I've got two runs for you this weekend.  I mean, I just got back, I'm thinking, I'm ready for a day off at least.  But I didn't say that.  No point in it.  But I was still a bit incredulous, considering how these runs work: 2 runs?  You're joking. She started laughing so I thought, yes, she's joking.

Uhh, no, I'm not.  Cheniere tomorrow and Mapleton, Illinois, on Sunday.  She knows I won't say no t any runs she wants to give me.  I just won't. I might as well just work and get the paychecks. I had extended time off and it showed on today's check, but I expected it.  Anyway, tomorrow will be a full 14 hours. There is no guarantee I get it done in time to be back at the yard before the clock runs out. 

I could tell she was giving leeway for that.  Meaning, even if I had to take a 10 hour break to get back, load time isn't til later in the morning.  I would basically be getting to the yard the next morning, dropping a trailer, hooking up to  another and heading straight back to the plant.  That's not ideal, tho, cause' that means you don't have the full 14 hours for that next trip. You ate up some of it on the first one and the way she has this planned, it's gonna have to work perfectly for it to work.

So, that's my last several days.  The trip wasn't bad.  I found a new app that give MUCH more options for truck parking, not just truck stop parking lots.  It's any known places where trucks can park.  This is much more advantageous for those of us truck drivers that don't want to live in freaking truck stops.  I mean, it even includes hotel where trucks can park - albeit the driver isn't staying at the hotel.  In this case, it was a restaurant that has enough space out back for maybe 4 or 5 trucks.  And I have to tell ya, the truck stop a few miles down the road was crammed full of trucks the day I passed through and this morning, coming back, same thing. 

I spent two nights at that restaurant, had some very nice food and didn't have to deal with all the bs at truck stops. There are only 2 advantages staying at a truck stop: fuel and showers.  Fuel no biggies, can stop anytime for that, showers a bit more difficult because can be time consuming just getting into a shower.  Many times there is a wait. If I'm stopped for fuel and want to get a shower, it's just a matter of whether I'm lucky enough that there is an immediate opening.  If not, I'm out of there and down the road. 

Well tomorrow is going to be a long day. I"ve only been home a few hours - went and got the dogs tho.  I won't make apologies for bringing them home even if only for one night and taking them back again tomorrow, early.  And tomorrow evening, same thing, if I get home. 

Anyway, I'm bushed. Time to go to sleep. 

I didn't figure it would take her long to find a job. She started looking 2 days ago, she's off to work this morning, already.  That would be Taylor.  The job she found is right up here alley: quality control. That was the type of job she had here when they left for Georgia.  The pay isn't the greatest but she's getting a foot in the door. They will find out quickly that she's smart, even keeled and is really management material.  I predict she will move up quickly, if there is room to move up at that place.  If not, it's a job that will bring income.  They're kinda broke- neither of them is working. James is waiting on his license which could be another week and a half.

You can only live on borrowed money for so long.  She hasn't worked since she left almost 2 years ago, she said she was nervous this morning.  I figured she'll get over that quickly and fit right in there.  I'm just happy that at least one of them is going to have an income.  I kinda had this feeling I would end up having to cover the mortgage here - and that would break my bank quickly.  I'd have to beg Ann to stay out on the road continuously, something I don't want to do.  Anyway, good on her, maybe a tough decision considering they just got back here and not everything is even put up yet.

The talk of the day is this situation in Syria and the Chinese leader apparently caving to the pressure that Trump has applied on trade equalization.  Note that there hasn't been the dire trade war the left has been predicting would happen. It's as if they want America to fail just so they can see Trump go down in flames? While we all go down with him?  That doesn't even make any sense.  Not to mention these liberals and democrats are praising this Chinese leader for "taking the first step and making himself look like the better man".  What the hell is wrong with these people? We are talking communist China, not Sweden or Switzerland or something.

Well anyway, I went to pay my cell service bill, had totally forgotten about the $300 credit I managed to get.  I owe nothing and still have substantial credit left over : )  Kinda nice considering I took all that time off. This is pay week, but I am not expecting much of a paycheck.

Well, I've been doing quite a bit of driving in the last 4 days. 2 round trips to Brownsville. it was  my favorite run until they apparently figured out how to keep the yard down there having at least one of our empty trailers in it. Well it's still a good run, just not as good as when you have to wait and get paid for it.  Actually, I could just do that run all the time and I wouldn't mind it.  I have the route memorized, tho I got lost yesterday trying to find my way through Houston.

Houston has hazmat routes.  You have to go 610 east or west to go around downtown. That or the tollway which takes you even further out of the way.  I can't drive 59 through the center of town and I can't drive I49 either.  Well, I went east on 610 yesterday only to find it shut down. I got off and ended up on an unfamiliar freeway, which took me to either 49 north or 49 south.  49 north had no hazmat sign on it, so I had to go south. I really don't remember how many different freeways I was on until I eventually ended up back on 610 east - beyond the construction that had it shut down.

Anyway, if Ann sent me down there again tomorrow, I certainly wouldn't complain.  But, I'm pretty sure my next run is either going to be a short one or a very long one.  Brownsville is in between - but for a 2 day run it's really excellent pay. I make around $700 each trip - 3 of those a week, well that's pay I wouldn't balk at, lol. The cool part about the Brownsville trip is it's just an overnighter. Unless there is a delay, then I get paid to wait and I get to go to a hotel, which I very much like as well.

Well I got the rent paid back for the new house and I got the money lent to James and Taylor paid back today.  That was a sigh of relief.  $1,300 of money.  I'm seriously glad to have this moving behind me, but it's really burnt me out. I'm trying not to do much of anything for a while and just recover from all of this.  I had to find a house - a feat in itself in this market, get the house secured, contact a lot of companies for services for the house, buy a refrigerator, move them, move me, move my friends back in, deal with the aftermath.  Plus work.  Plus other things I need to deal with.

Funny how much life costs.  I'm responsible for utilities, satellite and internet for 3 houses now.  Fortunately I am not actually paying all of that on my own.    I'm paying this house I'm living in, I'm giving Rene and Donny $200 per month towards costs for watching my dogs - which they have already spent quite a bit of time over there.

And, I might add, they are absolutely LOVING that place. The back yard is HUGE.  Addler can gallop like a horse and not have to slow down, making long, sweeping turns - or - coming to abrupt stops.  Aspyn is playing a game with him by hiding in  a stand of thickets that Addler won't go into. She comes barreling out of it only to have Addler chasing her all over the place.  Then she either high-tails it back to the thickets or comes crawling up under a human chair, lol.  Not as if Addler would do anything to her, tho, he loves to play.

Now, they need a lot of stuff over there, no doubt.  But I covered the basics and they can get by with it. I'll pick up stuff over time, but hopefully they can charm someone's heart and maybe some people will give them stuff.  Still, I have my own bedroom in the house - Addler and Aspyn sleep in it.  I'm not sleeping there, that bed is wayyyyy too soft for me, I wouldn't sleep at all. I am still helping both parties out with food.  They're all basically broke. I'm the only one at the moment bringing in an income outside of government sources.  But that changes tomorrow, at 5am.  Taylor is going to start working with a friend at a Taco Cabana in a nearby town.  They are going to go broke quickly if one of them doesn't start bringing in an income, she saw that and she is leading the way in that department.  I'm paying more than my fair share of costs here, which I don't mind but they definitely need to be able to at least make the mortgage payment.

Oh, anyway, Rene did score a table - but no chairs.  So I'm gonna see if i can find some cheap to go with it.  There are some affluent people in that neighborhood. Also some people that are retired but obviously well off.  I don't want to be the sole source of charity is all I'm saying. Rene is good at reaching out,  I hope she finds more stuff.


































                                                       

I'm kind of slacking on posting because I have been too busy.  Yesterday - April's fools day and Easter - basically did me in.  It started with me getting up early and finishing moving my stuff out of the now-old bedroom and into my new one.  Then, the cleaning people showed up and did their thing.  Not long after, Taylor arrived and shortly after that James in the U-Haul.  They had far more stuff than I had remembered. They had obviously picked up quite a bit of stuff since they had moved to Atlanta. The U-Haul James arrived in was much larger than the Uhaul they left here in 2 years ago.  The thing was packed from front to back, floor to ceiling.

But, we had to wait for them to finish cleaning.  I was busy trying to fix a clogged up drain. Of which, on and off, I worked on the entire day.  I snaked that thing out 3 times, the last time going about 15 feet into it.  There is not way, I thought, that this drain could still be clogged.  None of the rest of the house was clogged up and 15 feet? I must have gotten to a tee, because I couldn't go any further.  I almost panicked when the snake wouldn't pull out of the drain for the fact it was in there so far and around so many turns.

We tried Drano after that to no avail and then this stuff that's basically sulfuric acid after that.  I was stumped.  I threw in the towel, declaring that I had given up after fooling with it all day long.  Then, a friend of Taylor and James came over and we were discussing guns - the favorite topic of everyone around here, and no, not on a political basis, these people just love guns.  It came up about the sink and I offered everything I had done.  This guy said, well just the vent stack, it might be clogged up.  It never even crossed my mind to see if the vent was clogged up.  We decided to do that the next morning since it was already late at night.

Meanwhile, there were a large number of people that had shown up to help move and so, Rene cooked a huge dinner.  A whole ham and a whole turkey that I had bought earlier in the year on sale.  I figured we needed to eat that stuff before it started to get the freezer burn taste.  I made a big pot of home made mashed potatoes - turned out really good actually.
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Well, after an excellent night's sleep, I'm feeling much better.  That stuff really took a toll on my body.  I'm not 20 years old anymore, lol.  I have clothing to go through, kind of let that build up in my closet, no point in keeping clothes I don't wear anymore.  Anything in good shape I'll take to Goodwill, the rest is getting chucked. 

Oh, finish the story I started above, I got distracted yesterday.  I'm not really the big eater I used to be and Rene and Donny don't eat a whole lot either.  But I knew these people are all younger and would likely have huge appetites, hence the reason I wanted both a ham and a turkey for Easter celebration. I wasn't wrong, either.  They devoured that entire turkey.  I mean, I spent 30 minutes cleaning off the tidbits and came up with a nice amount of leftovers, but the "real" meat of it was entirely gone. They went through 2/3rd's of that ham.  And half of a huge pot of mashed potatoes. It was amazing seeing them eating all that food. 

Besides that irritating drain clog, the day was a success. We got all their stuff moved into the house.  I got all my stuff moved into my room, laundry done.  We had a couple beers that night - well they wre doing shots but whatever.

Then yesterday, after discovering that the vents were clogged and that fixed the problem, a huge monkey off of our backs.  Plumbers aren't exactly cheap. Even the "cheap" ones are charging a $60 fee just to walk through your front door and at least $100 to clear out the drain.  I'm not complaining about plumber fees, they have to earn a living, just right now, spending money is not on my list of things to do.  As it stands, I'll get my $800 back for front the rent money today and the $500 I loaned James and Taylor to get over here. They borrowed money from a relative but the check didn't actually clear until today.  They wouldn't have been able to make it back here without the funds I loaned them. 

I've been off work far too long, that's gonna hurt in a few weeks, but it is what it is. I needed the time off, just not getting paid for it.  That will eventually change and I will get $24 hourly wage for comp time.  Right now, I'm gonna hit the road tomorrow morning and ask her to keep me as busy as she can for a while to get back ahead. I would really like a run to Brownsville and spend 2 days waiting for  a trailer and get all that detention pay.  But, I have no control over where I'm going unless I happen to be sitting in her office and she asks me where I would like to go, throwing out available options.

Yesterday was leftover day, but I can see that cooking is no longer optional. Rene change her stance on it, she says now "she'll cook sometimes".  I'm just blowing that off and treating it like she isn't going to cook at all.  That way I won't think, gee, she's coming to cook today.  Instead, I'll have to pull out the cooking hat again and starting thinking in those terms. James and Taylor are good cooks too, but they just don't like to do it  I remember now that I would clean up if they did the cooking lol. 

But, James is getting his Texas license and then, he'll be applying at a place he's already talked to and then off to trucking school. He'll be gone a long time.  At least two weeks to start with, maybe a short home visit and then out on the road.  But probably longer.  However long the school is at the compound, that's how long he's going to be gone. I think it's a month and then you get paired up with a trainer and sent out on the road for a while to learn the ropes.

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I got my wish. A run to Brownsville. I can only hope there won't be any trailers waiting and that I'll have at least a 24 hour wait for one to show up. That would be dreamy like, the pay for waiting is substantial and worth it.  I've been off work for a while now, I will need the cash once I get a full paycheck again. 

Anyway, it's a lazy day today.  Thundershowers, rain pouring, dogs wanted inside. I was enjoying the rain but I decided to come in and watch a movie. I haven't had a TV in my room in almost 2 years. I could have had it installed in that other room, but I just said no to it an hanged out in the living room instead if I wanted to watch the news or a movie.  Not into much else on TV, but it's a nice diversion for today. 

Took yet another chance on an internet find for a person to come help today.  I was starting to get nervous when 9am came around and had heard nothing from him.  I texted him at 9:05 am and received no word, but then.....he came up in his car. We got straight to work.  Carrying out beds, furniture, kitchen stuff, personal items.  This guy was working his tail off, very happy I happened on one that actually has a work ethic.

This went on for 3 hours straight and we finally got it all over there. I think Rene has a few items left but they can come back for that stuff in Donny's pickup.

So, the dude has now switched to his cleaning service - which is why I called him over here in the first place.  The moving part was an unexpected bonus, I was planning on finding someone else to help me.  Much easier to just transition straight into cleaning - of which I'm doing none of.  At least not right now.  I'm taking a short break and then prepare my room for the move over there.  I need him to help me move my bed, a computer table and a futon over there.  The rest I can do myself while he continues on with his cleaning project, which is the entire house.

Now, this house isn't filthy or anything.  It's got some dust here and there and the windows need cleaned. But I wanted the couches and my futon shampooed and cleaned, the carpets cleaned and just spiffy up the rest of the house, get it smelling good in here for their return.  I was going to have the living room floor redone - stripped sanded and rewaxed but I couldn't find anyone to do it under a thousand dollars so I passed on that one.  It really is a do it yourself project if you have the time.

Time being the operative word.  I don't have the time for it.  You have to rent a special machine to sand the floor down - in this case the floor is definitely going to have to be sanded.  It's a lot of work, at least from what I read describing how to do the job.  I suppose I could have done it with time I've had off, but really, just wasn't in the cards.  I was busy running around getting stuff done and I was attempting to get all of the services turned on over there.  Plus attempting to get my own stuff ready to move.  I didn't get as far along with that as I wanted to, but it's not really that much stuff, it won't take me too terrible long to get all my stuff moved over there and frankly, I don't have to have it done today, I can also finish up tomorrow morning.
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Went off to Applebee's, met up with Donny. Rene going off on him again.  She's being doing this for a while, the move not being especially helpful to her mood, apparently.  Basically being handed a gift on a platter but acting like the world owes her everything.  Mood swings. Wouldn't surprise me if she's bi-polar.  She is in constant pain, tho, I have some sympathy for her.  But she takes it out on the people that care for her.  Bad chemistry.  Donny is in a peculiar situation.  He could, of course, go off on his own. He doesn't really have enough to have his own place, not with his love of satellite tv and unlimited internet.  Rather costly, the Directv set up he likes. He pays for it - but that's only because he's paying room rent, not paying for an entire house.

He's also in bad health.  I'm not putting the man down, I'm just saying it like it is. He's a cool dude, no doubt about that. But his health is ailing.  He doesn't have hopes of being alive until he can start collecting SS.  I don't wish it upon him, but I do wonder the same.  He declared that this house - the one he just moved into - is the house he wants to die in. Moving is hard on anyone, but certainly a person getting up there and in poor health. I had to politely ask him today to please slow down, stop moving around, take a breather.  I understand he wants to put in his fair share, but that's what I hired a younger guy to do, do half the heavy lifting, I did the other half.  And even the light lifting, just take it easy.  Donny can stand to get some exercise, but not under this kind of duress.

It's just a person in that condition finding another place on their own, well, I'm sure it can be done but how much of a toll on that person while doing it?

And update: Rene, once again, apologized to both him and me for running her mouth.

Whatever the case, I'm 2/3rd's done with my room move.  I worked on getting them moved all day and then, took a short nap, then went back to work.  I've got the big stuff moved into my room. My computer desk and got my computer all set up again in here. That was mandatory, lol.

I woke up at around 2:45 am, well before I needed to.  I also knew that I would never get back to sleep simply because the work day loomed in m mind, instantly and so, get up early.  I didn't feel bad then, but I knew later on I would be paying for it.

Same thing as always: get to the yard, hook up to the appointed trailer, pre-trip inspection, check pressure, fill out paperwork, head to plant.  Showed up at plant early, like 4:40 am.  But, the guy working the Ethylene rack was already at the scale house, waiting on me. 

I mean, he got right to work and tit was over fast enough, faster than normal really, but then< i had to wait for an extended period at the scalehoue because we had switched drivers.  I was supposed to be subbing for the second driver, I ended up subbing for both, which threw the plant paperwork off, they had the BOL ready for the first load, not the second. 

By the time I was leaving that plant, tho, I was starting to feel it. It always hits me on that early load time, which is why I hate it and will defer from it any time I can.  My head started aching, I was feeling very poor and I just wanted to go home. thank God that's exactly what I did after I got back to the yard.  I never saw the other driver, but he wasn't  able to fire up a truck and leave with it until later anyway.  Which was the whole point, he was schedule for X loading time, he couldn't do it because he was on reset. 

Got home, slept for 3 hours, got up from that and still felt miserable. Went out to Kroger's, bought a bunch of meat that was on sale, probably 70 pounds worth.  They are moving back, they have much bigger appetites than any of us, they are not in a position yet to be able to afford better meals, I'm in a position where I don't mind helping out for a while until they get back on their feet and can contribute. 

That's what I do in life, that's what I've always done my entire adult life.  I know these people, they are worth the investment.  She will get a job, he will get his training and go OTR.  Not a move I would pick, but he's got to live his life.  I just say that because of his kids.  But, there are other reasons that really do make more sense for a person like that to go that route for a career.  He's a great person, I'm not saying anything bad about him at all.  The other concern I have is that eventually ... and ti may be years or even decades down the road - the industry is going to switch to autonomous trucks - no human drivers. 

I think especially for someone just going into the business. In my case, I'm fairly confident I have enough time left to finish out my career and be done with it before they figure out how to deal with driverless trucks doing hazmat.  And for now, they are only designed these trucks to be aids to a human driver, not to replace them. But it's coming.  Robotics are going to take over a lot of jobs and I have to wonder about the future of this nation.  Will robots do more damage to the economy by eradicating so many jobs that they companies using the robotics end up losing business because  too much of their clientele have been put out of work? 

This is the first Sunday in quite a long time that I have been able to be home.  And since I made a couple hundred dollars today, I don't mind this at all.  Tomorrow, I wasn't given a run so I assume Tuesday I'm out of town.  I hope a 4 day run, get back on Friday and then 3 days off.

As for the rest of this day?  I doubt I'm going to be doing much of anything.  Unless I get a call to go somewhere tomorrow, I intend on getting some stuff done tomorrow but relax today. 

So the situation has changed for tomorrow morning. I was to get up, get to the yard get my truck, hook up to trailer and get to the plant by 6 am.  Now, I am doing 2 favors for 2 different drivers.  These people best remember this stuff.  I like whatever precious time I have off and to have to get up at 3:30 am to do a favor for someone is really pushing it for me.  I don't like the first slot and that's that.

But, Marie called me from somewhere in Alabama and asked I could - well it first it sounded like she was asking me to get her trailer loaded too.  I don't think so, I won't be able to get to the yard with the full trailer and back in time for the second appointment.  No, that's not it.  Well what is it? I won't be able to make it in time for the first appointment that I was scheduled for, can you take the first slot for me and get Troy's trailer filled and then I will be there in time for the second slot.

I agreed.  I didn't want to, I hate that first slot.  But after thinking about it, I hate it because it's so freaking early and then you have to drive all day long.  Tomorrow won't be like that. I'll get the trailer filled up, take it back to the yard and then go home and sleep. Or if I'm too tired, I'll sleep in the sleeper for a few hours and then go home. Either way, I don't have to spend the entire day driving.

So, it still sucks but not near as bad as the normal scenario.  I'm a fan of the 3rd slot, but the 2cd slot is better for having a lot of day hours to drive after getting out of the plant.

Anyway, I got quite a bit done today.  And realized that my trailer is out of current registration. So Monday morning, I'll do deal with that. It went out at the end of February.  Cops around these parts are sticklers for getting people on expired plates on trailers.  I could probably get away with it on this move on having to go 2 miles, but why risk it.  The courthouse is a mile away, lol. It's where you pay the taxes for registration.

I have a few other aspirations for today, but that early thing is going to get me, so I may just resign to the idea that I've gotten done what I'm going to get done and that's that.

The logistics of moving 3 separate entities on a couple days time in and out of the same house is rather interesting.

Alarm went off at 6 am.  I shut if off and went back to sleep. I was sluggish and didn't want to get up. 45 minutes later my brain said, hey, you wanna get home today?
Get out of bed!
It was a comfortable hotel room bed, the room didn't stink and I could have stayed there sleeping for several more hours.

I took a long, hot shower.  I just couldn't motivate myself this morning.  The hot water felt good.  I was in there at least 20 minutes.  I finally got out of there, got dressed, got all my stuff, headed to the truck.  Then went to try anything they might have that might seem appetizing at their breakfast bar. A couple of sausage links and a bowl of cereal with a cup of coffee.

After I had settled in for the night, last night, a couple of other cars showed up at some of the rooms.  But other than that, the place was still deserted.  If i were the dude that purchased the place, which I'm not, but if so and with that bad of a reputation, I would be all over the trucks with special truck rates. There is nothing there locally, it's a ghost town, it's totally an Interstate driven business and thousands upon thousands of trucks pass it on a daily basis.

I'll do my part.  Several trucking apps that show hotels and their customer ratings.

Anyway, I got out of there, started driving. Dog tired.
I climbed out of that phase, drove 400 miles before stopping again, and that only because I needed fuel. And the need to stop for fuel drove me past the point of being able to stop with a 30 minute rest period. So, I fueled, made lunch out of my refrigerator, threw away garbage, did paperwork, checked the truck and trailer and was out of there. I only had 76 miles to go.

I got back to the yard and spent quality time with my manager. We went out to the trailer and I showed her the various problems with it - the main one being the manual vent valve that wasn't closing fully and letting liquid Ethylene pass through it and - onto the floor of the cabinet where the valves are located. I figured she wouldn't like the pressure - especially leaving it over the weekend, so I opened up the valve and blew off 31 pounds of pressure.  Then she said there was another trailer that needed vented but she couldn't get the valve open. Got that vented off too and then? Home. For the weekend.

I got home, dogs went crazy. Gone 4 days, that's too much for Addler, he can't deal with that. I'm gone overnight or a couple of nights, that's fine, but beyond that he gets grumpy.

After that - lots of talking.  What went on here when I was gone and my buddy and his parents showed up.  Sounded like it all went well, though. The parents slept in my bed, which is fine, but my sheets are " dirty".  Lol, I don't like to sleep on sheets that someone else has slept on.  Just doesn't work for me. I didn't get them washed tonight, so I will be putting other sheets on there over top of them. They don't fit the bed or I would just change it out.  I'm going to go out and buy 2 sets of sheets for that bed because this is going to happen enough while I'm gone after they move back  in that I don't want to have to deal with it.

And then? My manager calls me.  I dreaded that, she told me I could have the weekend off to recuperate.  I'm dead tired. I mean, I am only staying awake long enough to ensure I will either sleep through the night, or if I do wake up, I will be able to go back to sleep. And I fully intend on sleeping in in the morning. But, she has a driver that is coming back on Saturday night. He won't be able to get the trailer loaded because he will still be out of hours.  Could I please load the trailer for him?  Or, if you want the load, you can have it as well. Brownsville. Tempting, but I'm exhausted. I got sick on this trip and I never had time off to get well.  I don't really want to take time off, per se, but that dude can have the Brownsville trip on Sunday and I will hope that she gives me a nice, long run on Tuesday. I had expected a trip on Monday, but that didn't happen.  \

She's out of enough trailers right now, I guess it works out that I haven't been feeling well - but still driving - and taking a couple days off isn't that bad for me.  Trailers are a constant issue. The one I brought back will have to be taken into the facility that built it down in Houston. There are 4 other trailers already out of commission. Remember, these are specialty trailers, there aren't thousands of them floating around.

So if Monday IS off, I will spend it getting other stuff done.  But, then I have 3 days coming up off on the next weekend.  I'm concerned about paychecks is all. After living with pathetic paychecks from 12 year employer, though, I can deal with it. I'm trying to get ahead, is all, even a nominal paycheck at this place is twice and  a half more than I made a the old place.

____________________

Now Saturday morning - late Saturday morning.  I slept in today.  I won't be able to do that tomorrow so I figured to take advantage of it today.  My manager didn't give me anything for Monday, so I'm assuming I won't be at work again until Tuesday.  I reminded her of the 3 days off I need next weekend - Saturday Sunday and Monday.  She had that down.  Just making sure.  I can't now have those days off.  It will not be any fun stuff, at all, excepting to see everyone moving back in again. And a bunch of their friends are going to show up to help them get moved back into the house, so that's a big plus right there.  It means I can focus on getting my old room set up again while they are busy getting their stuff back and and starting to unpack. 

Going to get out there today and offload the stuff that is on my trailer and get that ready to move my friends out of here.  It's only a mile and a half away, so not a long distance move, it's more just getting the stuff onto and off the trailer than it is the time spent traveling.  I'm really not looking forward to any of this, lol. 

Meanwhile, at work.  The other 2 drivers - that have yet to learn how to unload these trailers - are finally going to be thrust into it. Their days of ease are going to be over.  I didn't say anything to anyone about it, but I thought it extremely unfair that I was sent up to PA to battle it out with blizzards and sub zero temps and thrust into this world of unloading cryogenics while all this time, they have had to do none of that.  The point is that they get a lot of the gravy runs because of it. 

Well, one of them is going down to  Cheniere with another driver - tomorrow I think it is - and is going to be forced to learn how to unload this stuff.  It's only fair that they get the junk run along with the good ones.  I'm guessing tenured drivers have been complaining about it.  You get these short runs - they're good for a day's work, I guess, but you have to run hard, all 14 hours, all day long, to get it done and get back.  And then, the next day you don't get another run, so you've lost 2 days on a crappy run, basically.  Cheniere is worth close to $400 when you add up everything, which if you could do it every day of the week, great.  But you can't, the only way any of that is fair is if it's evenly handed out to everyone.  The El Dorado run is another example of a short run that doesn't really pay that much considering it winds up going into 2 days to finish it. 

And then, there's all this fun stuff like 2 days ago having Ethylene blasting out of a tube and haven't a freaking clue what to do about it.  It's not like I was trained on any of this stuff.  Even after calling an experienced driver and figuring out what was happening, he had no clue what to do either. The situation corrected itself. The product is so cold it must have froze up wherever it was escaping through that valve.  At least they did end up putting that trailer out of service.  It's being sent back down to the manufacturer in Houston to address the numerous problems.  The fact that these trailer are less than a year old and already having all of these problems is not a good sign. 

But, I"m getting tanker experience.  I need to stick there at least a year if possible before thinking about moving on to anything else.  I need to have that on my resume - that I have hauled the hazardous materials, the stuff that is extremely flammable, can blow up, freeze you or suffocate you and show that I am competent with it.  I feel like I handled myself pretty well a few days ago considering the gravity of the situation.  Fortunately, in those plants, there is no smoking allowed and sources of ignition are no where present the unloading site.  Well, they do allow smoking, but only in designated areas and nowhere in the vicinity where this product is being handled. 

Anyway, once this other driver is trained - and they will considered him trained after this trip whether he knows everything or not - he will be dumped into this system as well. There are a lot of nuances to learn, as I am finding out on each of these adventures, such as keeping the pressure up on a pump system versus keeping the pressure up on a pressure unload system. Vastly different. No one bothered to tell me that, either.  I guess they've been doing it so long, they don't realize that a brand new person isn't going to know any of this stuff, a lot is taken for granted.  And for all 48 hours of training I went through, literally none of it was hands on training.  None of it taught anything about how to unload the trucks or taught anything about the potential problems you might encounter.  So, I still get a little nervous every time I have to unload just for the problems I have already experienced and what unknowns might occur next. 

I'll tell ya one thing.  All that safety gear they issued me when I first started? I have all of that stuff on, every single time unless it's a drop and hook. Fire proof jump suit, solid leather shoes with steel toes, a hard hat with a plastic shield to protect your face and safety goggles under neath that, Welder style gloves that protection your hands from the freezing cold running through those lines.  I'm now leaving the face shield down the entire time.  I don't trust any of that equipment, if that stuff blows into your face, your face is basically going to come off.  I know various ways to shut off the flow of the Ethylene if there is an emergency. 

It still seems insane to me that this company has people operating equipment like this that they haven't fully trained anyone on.  In fact, I was given a "Class B" card when I started saying I can haul it but not authorized to unload it.  That never changed.  Not that I'm going to take any flak from the safety department over it, that wasn't my doings. When they sent me up to PA, I didn't learn until I got there that I would have to offload the LNG.  I was pretty well shocked, scared and terrified all at the same time when that manager started talking about that.  I flatly told him I have never unloaded any of this stuff.  He just gave me a look. Well I"m sure you'll do just fine.

WTH?!! I'm sure I'll do just fine, what?  Screwing up and dying? Those were thoughts coursing through my mind at the time.  I ate those words and thought, ok, it's come to Jesus time, deal with it Ben, get through it and after it's all over, you'll have learned a lot of stuff that you probably weren't going to learn any other way.  And boy did that prediction come true on that trip.  And ever since then.  It all unloads pretty much the same, all of these cryogenics.  Once you've learned on, you've learned a lot about all of it. There is a product they haul that ignites paper and wood and such on fire if it comes into contact with it - I"m really NOT interested in hauling that stuff.  And now I'm learning from drivers for other companies that hauling acid is a much more lucrative, well paying gig.  And, owning your own truck your profits triple. Not expenses, profits. These are people that have been in the business for decades, I'll take it they know what they're talking about. 

I even brought that up yesterday in the manager's office. Maybe I should just get my own truck.  The Safety Officer immediately chimed in, yes you should!  I don't know why he responded like that, but Ann just looked at me funny. Lol. It's a thought I will entertain for a while, tho not seriously until after I get a good amount of time doing this stuff under my belt.  I'm not really interested in being responsible for the maintenance on a truck just yet.  It costs a lot more of your personal time and tho the money may be awesome - $160 k per year - it's really quite the sacrifice, especially if you end up having problems with it.  And, I can foresee myself driving for another company somewhere down the line because I really cannot get used to this idea of 65 mph.  I'm sitting there with 90%  - actually more than that - of everything other vehicle on the Interstate passing me.  I've driven minimum 70 mph all my trucking life.  I thought by now I would be used to this 65 stuff, but it annoys me.  I could get much farther down the road in the same amount of time.  You drive 10 hours, that's another 50 miles.  There are many occasions where that 50 miles would have made the difference in getting a much nicer place to park or a better hotel room at a better price. 

Oh, forgot to say, I see other tankers cranking on down the road at minimum 70 every day, all day.  The solace I take in 65 mph is that even at that speed, I'm making far more money than a large percentage of other company drivers cranking down the road like that.  They have to go as fast as that truck will let them because those trucking companies put them on impossible time sensitive assignments with appointments that are near impossible to keep on-time.  If one thing goes wrong - accident that holds up traffic, rush hour traffic - whatever - you are not going to make that appointment and you are going to be shuffled to the end of the line and you are likely going to sit there waiting for hours and hours until they get enough free time to get to you. 

Well, I am rambling.  On and on, lol. Just the thoughts going through my head.  I probably ought to get busy.  I have a lot of prep work to do for next weekend, I guess these days off I probably should be happy with. I was just so tired last night, I went to bed - well I fell asleep in my computer chair, woke up a couple hours later, went to bed and then didn't get up to almost 10 this morning. 

Off to the races.

So, fresh story. First off, whatever I got hit with, it wasn't fun. Stopping at rest areas all the way down the line to take care of business.  I was thinking about just calling my manager and telling her these people at this plant are going to have to wait.  I am sick and I don't feel good. But, I thought twice about that - let's get this over with, hell or high water - and get going home. 

So I go up to a truck stop near the place. Actually, I tried to get into a hotel just down the road - I would have rather had a bathroom handy - but there was no place to park the truck, contrary to the manager's belief.  I sure as heck wasn't pulling it into his parking lot and the next nearest parking lot was full of cars.  Back to the truckstop - only a few miles away and spent the night there.  I was supposed to be at the plant at 6 am, but darn if I couldn't get myself up this morning;

That alarm went off and I felt like a ton of bricks had just been dumped on me.  I turned the thing off and went back to sleep for another half hour. So, yes, I was late, but only by 15 minutes and they didn't car.  But ohhh my, was I still feeling it. 

It only got worse.  I got the truck in there, got it backed up, got every thing set up.  We're standing there, opened up the pressure builder and started building pressure in the tank. But we all heard it: a hissing sound. I was like, where is that coming from?  It took awhile, but there is a 3 way valve that feeds the bladders that raise up when you push in a handle on the outside of the trailer.  It's an emergency shut off.  If there is a problem, you push that handle at the rear of the trailer or the handle at the front of the trailer - no, you pull it out - and it shuts off the valves allowing the product to be released from the tank. 

I had NO idea what to do, I am still new to this unloading business.  Most of the places we go to, we don't do any unloading.  Just some of them.  They went back inside, I stood there fooling with things til I figured it out - but had texted my manager about it.  Well, I figured out what to do about keeping air pressure up on that, which really was much more figuring out than it should have had to have been for something that seemingly simple. 

But then...I smelled Ethylene.  I've smelled it before, several times now actually, it has a distinct odor.  Neither pleasant nor bad, just an odor.  I started looking around and here it was, a tube was spilling it out the bottom of it.  I mean, you don't want to see any of this stuff coming out anywhere. In fact, you really don't ever want to see it at all.  It was pouring out that tube.  I shut everything down on my end, all the vales and the emergency shut off - it was still coming out of there at a high rate.  

I ran over and banged on the door to the facility, they needed to shut down there end of it. Not that it was going to affect the truck in any way.  Well, 2 of them come out, one of them starting sh******* his pants and having a literal panic attack.  I just looked at him.  I'm thinking, I can't afford to get panicky, I have to figure out what's going on here and figure out how to get it stopped. By then, my manager and this other driver had already called, but I had missed both calls. I'm not going to say I didn't get scared seeing that stuff coming out of there, but I fell far short of having a panic attack. I forced myself to keep at cool and collected as possible and work through this. 

Well, they left again. Which was fine by me, that dude needed to chill out.  I mean, f*** this and f*** that - every other word was an f  bomb and s*** and this and that and the other thing.  I ain't doing Ethylene.  I had my thoughts, I kept them to myself.  About that time, I called the dude back.  He knows his stuff.  I told him what was going on and he thought about it for a second and said, hold on, let me go back and look, I'm at they yard right now.  He says, well if there's product coming out of that tube, it means the manual blow vent valve isn't seated all the way. 

But, by then, I had already followed this tube's course and figured it out - the product is getting past that vent valve and it shouldn't be opened at all. But, I had already checked that before I even got started with anything. I go through and make sure all 13 valves are completely shut. No surprises, please.  Well, that vent valve was shut, tight.  I wasn't even able to move it when I tried to tighten it down. 

We're discussing this on the phone, and he says, well, try opening it up - quickly and shut it right back off - and see if you can get the valve to reseat.  I sat there with him on speakerphone and put all my might into that thing and couldn't get it to budge.  Now mind you, there is liquid in this system right now, not just vapor, opening that thing up would mean liquid shooting out of the top of the blow stack.  I wasn't really enjoying this experience, at all. It was much to much reminding me of the trip up to PA and all the problems I had had with the trailer they assigned to me while I was up there. Anyway, like magic, the flow stopped.  I figured that it had frozen up and wasn't allowing anything through there. 

But, I kept trying to open that valve and finally got that thing to budge, opened up up and shut it back off immediately, but even that had liquid shooting out the blow stack.  I firmly shut that valve, still nothing coming out of that tube.  There was still vapor coming out of the stack, but we figured that there was fluid on the exit side of the valve and it's going to sit there and boil until it all evaporates. 

I get these people back out there, let's do this.  It ain't leaking, I'll just keep recharging the air system for the bladders to stay up.  Started building pressure again.  They turned on the pump and away we went.  And away I went. Mother Nature wasn't telling me anything but go to the bathroom, and go right now or you are going to have an accident.  I left, just said I've got to go.  Just in time, got there.

Back outside.  Stood there for over 2 hours.  Got higher than a kite, btw.  I didn't know Ethylene willl get you high. I had read somewhere where it will be you feeling dizzy and such, but this was more like smoking pot.  I was standing there, leaning in the cabinet in that pool of Ethylene that was building up on the bottom of it - and immediately vaporizing and I was breathing in.  I didn't even give that a second's worth of thought at the time, was only focused on trying to get it to stop coming out. 

I can't lie here, I actually felt pretty darn good after that stuff hit my system lol.  Nothing I would ever do intentionally, but dang.  I ended up Googling it later on, it isn't extremely harmful to humans (tho there description leaves out the flammable part and the fact it's 125 below zero boiling point), has a list:    Ethylene is of low toxicity to humans and exposure to ethylene is unlikely to have any adverse health effects. However, inhalation of air containing extremely high levels of ethylene may lead to effects including headache, drowsiness, dizziness, nausea,weakness and unconsciousness.  

Okay, when it started wearing off I got a bit of a headache, but nothing serious or stopping  me from doing anything.  

I finally got out of that place hours later.  And I wasn't feeling none to good.  I didn't know what I was going to do. Drive? Or go find a place to park and sleep this crap off. The delivery is made, I can do either.  I decided to drive.  I actually started feeling better a few hours into the drive.  That's when I made my plan to drive at least 500 miles today.  I had already blown at least 4 hours at the plant, plus I knew I would have to stop for fuel and take a 30 minute break, so getting much over 500 probably wasn't going to happen.  \

I stopped driving about 20 minutes before I had to stop anyway.  I did not get my hotel last night, so I got one tonight.  It's a hotel that was just bought out by new management.  The new place is a Travelodge and it is nothing near as bad as the reviews said it was, but that's because the reviews are under the old hotel and it was, apparently, a total dump. They have remodeled the room I am in, fresh, carpet, nice furniture, comfy bed, nice bathroom. $50.  There are cheaper places around here, but not that much cheaper and not with it's own restaurant.  But, it's kind of eerie.  It's deserted. If there is anyone else staying at this motel, you can't tell it. There are no other cars parked anywhere excepting in front of the office and restaurant.  There aren't any people walking around.  The restaurant was empty, the hotel lobby was empty.  Looking at the reviews, this place has a bad reputation.  I am going to help change that.  It's not perfect but it's nowhere near as bad as some of these reviews are claiming - and those reviews may have very well been honest when old owners had this place.

I'm going to go to sleep in about an hour, get up at 6 am, get free breakfast and coffee, get out of here.  GPS tells me I have 6 hours and 54 minutes of drive time.  But it's never right. It's basing it off of you going the speed limit, which my truck can't do. It's set at 65 mph and most of these roads are 70mph. So you add at least 5 minutes per hour.  If you hit any traffic, it goes up.  Not to mention stopping for fuel. And then, if I go over 8 hours, I am forced to take a 30 minute break. So, I'm going to call it 8 and a half hours and I'm thinking that's pretty close to accurate.  I over estimate on my numbers with travel time, so I'm calling it 3 pm and I'll be back at the yard.  Home by 4:30 at the latest. I'm going to have to show the manager the stuff that went wrong, tho they know about it already, still.  I mean, they can't keep using these trailers that are always broken. 

Of course, the problem is the mechanic quit and we're left to fix as much of it as we can, otherwise, you might end up on a trip to Amarillo to get a valve replaced. Which is ridiculous but that' how they do it.  But then, you have both a driver and a trailer out of commission. 

Ugh, anyway. I"m starting to get tired.  It's been a long day. I never thought I would make it as far as I did today. I am happy to be in this hotel room.  I'm thinking I'm going to bed in a few minutes, not an hour, lol. 

A day from hell.  Started out okay, I guess.  Woke up before the alarm went off, saw my hours reset and decided fire up the truck, drive around the parking lot, refuel and head out.  I parked there last night on purpose: get into a place where I can refuel without going anywhere.  Get it done with my pretrip inspection logged the same.  And, not have to stop all day long after leaving.  I thought, anyway.

The day...didn't go as I wanted it.  My stomach started getting queasy. What did I eat? stuff in the fride, it's cold, it's fresh, there is nothing wrong with it ... and .... I hadn't had any since the night before. The only thing I got at truck stop was a hot cup of coffee. Next thing I know?  TMI - too much info.  Got off the Interstate quickly is what I will say, and too late.

After that.  I stopped 4 times to deal with "this".  I was feeling very crappy too,l I figured a bug, not just bad food.

So, I drove 517 miles dealing with all of that.  But that wasn't the supreme deal of this day.  Ohhh, noooooooooooooooooooo. I was driving through Indianapolis on the hazmat required alt route.  I don't remember, it's Interstate designated but it's a loop around it.  I'm driving along, whoopdee do - and suddenly?  The freaking truck starts slowing down - rapidly - as if I had slammed on the brakes. I was in heavy traffic, in the center lane.  My instant thought was get the thing off the highway or I'm going to be stopped in the center lane. I glanced to my right side and saw traffic was far enough behind, I cranked that truck over to the shoulder where it stopped just after I had gotten it over there.

I had an idea what happened, but I had to go back and look. Sure enough. This trailer - is not like any other trailers that are out there.  They put in all these safety mechanisms, but this particular one, I have been afraid of since I started working for this company. The rear of the trailer has a cabinet with doors on it.  There are 2 plungers that the door pushes in when you close it on the left side.  When those plungers are in, the air system is all fired up/full.  When you open those doors? It releases all the air to that system including the brakes.  The brakes lock up.

And sure enough. One of those plungers? The nut that holds the plunger screw into place was loose. They have no jam nut on it to keep it there.  The roads I was on were brutal, rough, extremely bumpy, the road basically knocked that sucker loose. But note: there are ways to prevent this from happening and I'm shocked the manufacturers of this thing didn't see that or implement it.  Especially with something that can just shut the whole damned truck down. I had noted that this setup didn't have any jam nuts on it from the get go, I didn't do anything about it because - I'm the newbie here.  But, these are brand new trailers and a radically different style than their old ones - and when I say old, I"m talking 30 to 50 years old.

Whatever. I get to 9 miles off from my destination.  I am not  going to sit in front of a plant for 11 hours with no access to a bathroom with this stuff going on.  I'm at a small truck stop, I hope it's open all night, cause I might need it - allll night.  Tho my system seems to be at least stopping all of that if nothing else

An actual full day off.
Moving time for everyone is coming up soon, I decided to get all of this utility and perks stuff over and done with.
Water department - yes sir, you will have to come down here, provide us a check and give a deposit.  Well, they are only a mile away so I went down there and did that.

I did, of course, spent at least an hour on the phone with Direct TV.  They are paying for it, but it's going in my name.  I got a much better deal because I had accounts with them for years and years - and years......and years...........

But, they weren't offering any internet service, so, off to that website and found a local provider at a good price.  That really didn't take long to set up at all.

Off to the power company site, that took much longer.  Mostly because they don't take payments themselves, they send it off, on the phone, to a 3rd party company.  After setting up the account, I got transferred to this 3rd party. The 3rd party had no clue how much I owed the power company for a deposit.  I hadn't really paid attention, $300 and something.

So, they run me back to the electric company which is when I had had enough. Manager, please and thank you.  The manager was as useless as the rest of these people, but I had an account number so i decided to see if I could set up my account online and just pay it - online.  Sure enough, all done.  So, I got power, water, satellite and internet service set up. The only thing left is gas and I went through their online process.  They sent me an email saying they are "reviewing the history" of whatever. Great, don't spend a week reviewing, somebody contact me, because they didn't even ask for payment.

Meanwhile, cleaning everything in my room.  We're not that far off from the end of the month.  I have to move out of this room and I want the thing spic and span so there's nothing left to do but move my stuff from one end of the house to another.  The guy I'm hiring to clean the house and move everything I will expect to help me move my bed over there as well.

I went food shopping for the truck as well while I was out today.  I have no idea how long I'm going to be out, I asked my manager but she usually doesn't have those details until the end of the day.  However, after scrutinizing my paystub they send in the mail, it became evident that the mileage pay I was promised is not the mileage pay I am getting. It's good, but not as good as .51 cents per mile.  I also contacted her about that. This was clearly promised to me and I am not going to stand for anything different. It was most of the reason I went up to Pennsylvania and endured hell for 2 weeks.  That mileage pay was contingent on being willing to go out of town for a couple of weeks here and there if necessary to help other divisions out.  I'm fine with that, I did that, and I'm getting 6 cents per mile less?

It doesn't sound like much, but in tens of thousands of miles of driving, it is quite the nice chunk of change. I fully expect to be compensated for that.  \

Okay.  I'm headed to Stryker, Ohio tomorrow. It's almost thousand miles.  Tomorrow, I'll load, drive as far as I can - hopefully around 600 miles but it really depends on time at the plant, then drive the rest out on Wednesday.  Likely get to the area early, such as I did last time and spend the night at that same hotel I was at last time. It was cheap, it had direct tv, it had a comfortable bed, there is a nice restaurant across the street.
++++++++++++++++++
That day is gone. Today, is here and almost gone. Sitting at a TA truck stop in Matthews, Missouri.  I prefer Loves but the company is cracking down on the usage of truckstops outside of their preferred list if there is one of their preferred ones available.  I figured I might want to fuel up in the morning before heading out and not have to worry about fuel for the entire day, arrive at a truck stop down the road from the delivery point and spend the night there.  I think I will drop the plan for a hotel tomorrow unless I get there way too early to be sitting around in a truck for 15 plus hours.   But they have me slated for 6 am delivery and the nearest hotel is 20 miles away. This is another nothing out here in the middle of nowhere delivery.  I was shocked last time I was up here that there was a truckstop - literally out in the middle of nowhere. 

Really, it's a decision I'll have to make once I get close tomorrow.

Meanwhile, my friend showed up at his house - my place called home - today and his mother and dad showed up as well.  The mother and dad are sleeping in my new bed tonight.  Naw, I don't mind.  I just want clean sheets when I get home, tho.  I'm going to have to buy a second set of sheets for that bed.  I kinda offered the bedroom for when I"m gone because they have overnight company at times.  If I'm out on the road anyway, it doesn't bother me to let someone stay in there. My dogs will be over at the new place - for the most part anyway - when I"m gone.  If I happen to leave them at the house, well, whoever is staying in there will be in the same room sleeping with a Great Dane and a German Shepherd.  They are both sound sleepers, they don't get up in the middle of the night and start doing irritating stuff that wakes me up. I've had a few dogs like that.

I take that back, sometimes Addler starts licking himself in the middle of the night.  A tongue that big and a mouth with that large a cavity?  Nahhh, it doesn't wake me up, lol, I have ear plugs in that cut that noise out. But I wake up every night regardless and sometimes he's smack dab in the middle of doing that stuff.  It sounds like there is a horse in my bedroom lololol. 

I would have liked to have visited with the whole lot of them, but, work calls. I had 2 short runs in a row, I knew yesterday that i would be getting sent out on a long run today. If I don't take the long runs, I won't make near as much money as I am now.  Oh, and I got word back on my mileage pay.  It seems I signed off on something when I was hired that allocates a percentage of my pay as "per diem", even tho it really isn't, and it isn't taxes.  So, that amount of my paycheck shows up at per diem pay.  And yes, I saw that in there, but at the time I saw it, I had no idea what they were referring to.  It's a way to have a portion of your check non-taxed and per diem isn't taxed at the end of the year either, as far as I remember it, so it's a win situation for me.  My manager had called corporate to sort all of that out.  I'm actually making .53 per mile, which for a company worker is awesome money.

I was thinking about all of this today. In light of the mileage pay, the stop pay, the hourly wage for detention pay, it would seem extremely foolish for me to quit this job anytime soon. I don't like these longer runs and spending 3 nights in a truck, but seriously, if I really get hat sick of it, a hotel isn't out of the question.  I still make a ton of money regardless of the hotel expense and I keep my sanity.  I'm thinking I will take a hotel stay the 3rd/final night out and then cruise back into town the next day.  That should be on Friday, everything going right. 

Okay, the reason I had thought of finding greener pastures is this truck situation.  For now, this truck is working.  The engine light went out and all the other warning lights as well.  I mean, doesn't mean it's fixed but at least it's not affecting my driving, currently.  I was getting a lot of conflicting advice from friends when I was considering taking this job and dumping that last "thing" I had for what, 2 months?  I am SOOOO glad I got the HELL out of that place and over here.  This trip here will pay around $1,300 - for 4 days.  Figure that math up.

Well, there is much more I had in mind for this entry tonight, but I looked at the clock. My 10 hour break is  over around 6 am. I'd like to get up at 6, do my pretrip and get the fuel if I want or just save that for later and get on down the road, get the last 500 miles of this trip going up over with and have the rest of the day to do whatever.  Which is nothing because out there? There is nothing to do, haha. 

Looooooooooong daaaaaaaay.  I'm not a fan of working on Sundays to begin with.  I got up at 5 am, got my shower, got out of here.  Over to the yard, get the truck, over to the plant.  Loaded, headed out. Pretty much settled in myself that I wouldn't be home tonight, even tho, if everything works perfectly, you can actually do this trip in one day.  The first thing was a boo-boo error on my part.  Got to Lufkin, was going to fill up the truck - no go. I left the fuel card at home!

I was at 1/3rd tanks.  I knew I could make it down there so I left the truckstop and kept on driving.  God down there, wasn't dreading it this time.  This is the 2cd time at this port, but I knew what to do this time as far as getting in and I wasn't at all uncomfortable with unloading the truck.  We have 2 sets of trailers: really, reeeeaaaaalllly old one, like over 30 years old and then these new ones. I had a new one today and that thing popped the pressure up to 95 in no time. 

I kept that pressure up, too, even after they opened the plant valve to let the liquid flow into their system. The higher the pressure, the faster you get out of there. Well, you can't let it get too high or the safety relief valve pops off and then  I"m in for an ordeal with the company.  The point is, the trailer has a pressure building coil on it and if you tend to it and if it's working properly, you can keep the pressure up high and it pushes the liquid out of the tank.

Got done with all of that and got out of there, only to look at the available hours left and how much time my GPS said it was going to take to get back to the yard and I thought, well maybe I will make it home today.  But, I didn't hold my breath.  I made one stop: at a small truck stop to pump $40 cash worth of my own money in diesel fuel into the tank. Just enough to get it back to the yard and to a filling station the next time I'm out - there is one a mile away from the plant where we load the trailers.  Lol, I was looking at that GPS a lot. How many minutes left to drive versus how many minutes I had left before my 14 were cashed.

Yes, I did make it back to the yard and this marks the first trip that I have accomplished in a single day.  Considering all that had to be done, I am pretty happy with myself that my level of knowledge about this stuff is starting to grow.  Lots more to learn, I'm sure, but I have the base stuff down at least.  The time spent at the plant was what was going to determine whether I made it home today or not. 

Anyway, it gives me another full day at home unless, out of the blue, Ann calls me in the morning needing help with something.  Tho, I intentionally leave my phone off at night, lol. 

I've been on 2 short trips in a row now, I fully expect to be sent on a 2 to 3 day trip next.  I would prefer a Brownsville trip. 

Tomorrow? I want to take Addler back to the doggy bath place - he is smelling again.  If they have a slot to get him in there, he IS going, lol. In fact, I'll take both dogs if there is room.  I have numerous phone calls to make trying to get some of this move stuff wrapped up.  And right now? I'm really tired, so I'm getting offa here.

My laptop dogged out on me.  The keyboard needs replaced.  I'm going to get a new laptop and get this one repaired, have it cleaned and give it away to a friend that needs one.  After they fix the keyboard, it should work just fine. But it's 3 years old, time to replace it.  Really not much fun in the sleeper of a truck to not at least have the fun of getting on the internet.  Definitely not the same, getting on an Iphone versus getting on a real computer.  I get paid in 2 days, gonna see what that looks like and see if a new laptop is in the works.  I have this new notebook that I bought at Black Friday in November.

The screen is too small and it's not got enough memory nor the capability of increasing the memory. But even if I could, the screen size is unacceptable. Okay, so I got this little thing out of it's storage and am trying it.  I can plug an external keyboard into it, so this one will work until I decide what to buy or even when to buy it. Black Friday is the best time to get the deals, but that's a loooong ways off.
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Okay. I'm in the truck, on the small little thing I bought on Black Friday.  It will suffice until I can find a good laptop that I want at a good price.  At least I can use an external keyboard and mouse with it.  I'm sitting next to the bowling alley again, up in Bartlesville. They don't say anything to me about parking here, it's completely out of the way of anyone needing to park. Or even seeing the truck for that matter. It's kind of hard to get in here tho.  It would be impossible if I got in here at night, the parking lot gets full enough the truck wouldn't be maneuvarable. No, I can't get out either, but it's  10 hour break, the place closes at 10, everyone leaves, the parking lot empties out.
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Well, next day. Friday. Payday.  Healthy paycheck but the 4 day trip I wanted on there isn't there, meaning next payday. So, next payday will be huge. So I can deal with that.  Sitting at the plant in Barnsdall just playing the waiting game.  It takes even longer than it used to now because instead of flaring off the vapor after they unload the truck, they are pumping it back into the system.  They have to build up the pressure in the trailer's tank to push the fluid out of the trailer.  After they are done, a lot of that vapor has to be removed. I could get it done in 5 minutes if they'd let me, lol, just open the manual valve and let it out!

They used to send it to a flare to burn it off, why they changed it I have no idea but now they are pumping it back into their system, making it take much longer to accomplish. Which is fine, I will be getting several hours of detention time here. 

But, I have to say, I want another Brownsville trip. Preferably with at least an overnight wait for a trailer to show up. Those trips with a day plus detention pay are what makes for some awesome paychecks.  I haven't had on in a couple of weeks.  I mean, West Virginia was a 2,000 mile trip, but it takes 3-1/2 days.  I can make as much money in less time going to Brownsville as long as there is a wait for a trailer.   But it's whatever.  I'll take what she gives me, which is a mix of long trips, short trips and usually an in between one. 

Well, the move date is drawing closer.  Still lots of logistics to work out. Going to have a pow wow when I get back and get this stuff nailed down.  I want to get this behind me and get on with my life.  There are things I want to do which cost me time off work but I want to do them anyway, mostly traveling.  My finances are in better condition than they have been in in years.  I also want to pay down debt, as soon as I get this move monkey off my back I'm going to focus on that as well.  I want to dump 3 grand into paying down debt so I can get it down somewhere in the low 20% high teen percentage which will vastly improve my credit score - and reduce the size of my credit card payments. \

As far as money issues go, other things I want to do.  Perhaps sell both the car and the Jeep and get a nice truck.  Well, money towards a nice truck, neither of them are worth much of anything.  I really need to get back to AZ and visit.  It's been too long. And I put my hopes of going over seas on hold when my old job starting going really south with that manager and cutting back all OT hours.  But, meanwhile, I already should be building up vacation hours, I have no idea how to access the company portal to find out.  I have access to another portal, but it's just training.  I'd call them now but I don't feel like it. As it stands I called them this morning to fix Quaalcomm malfunction yesterday. It switched - by itself - to off duty driving.  Meaning I"m driving a commerical vehicle but not for pay, but for personal use. That, I knew, would throw red flags at them and sure enough, the lady I talked to at corporate had already looked at it. 

Well whatever. I'm expecting the to be done unloading this truck soon, I'm getting offa here.

Today - turned out much long of a day than I even expected it to be.  It started before midnight, when I awoke out of a bad dream.  I don't hardly ever have that happen, it was odd. The dream was odd too, I remember, but I can even remember what the dream was about now. I got over that quickly and fell back asleep. Maybe an hour later, loud thunder, woke me up out of a dead sleep. And, that thunder went on for the rest of the night....and no I did not get any sleep.
I have ear plugs and a box fan to drown out noise, but they didn't do anything with that noise. About 3 am I realized I wasn't going to be getting any sleep.  I still tried, doze off and baaam! loud thunder.  4:45 am came around, I got up dreading today. Just absolutely dreading it.  3 hours total - at best - of sleep - coupled with having to drive all day long after spending hours at the plant

I drove to work. It started raining heavily about a mile away.  By the time I got the car unpacked and into the truck and the truck hooked up to the trailer and did my pre trip inspection? I was literally soaking wet. From head to toe.  Embrace the misery, I thought to myself, it likely isn't going to get any better. And it didn't. The air line hose and electrical power line setup the mechanic had fixed on the side of the road? Doesn't work with this old trailer I was hooked to. The lines were literally laying on the catwalk.  But, I was wet and I was running out of time.  They don't like you being late over there.

So I drove over there, confident nothing would happen in that short of a period of time to anything, got all the junk you have to do to get into that plant, get weighed and get to the loading rack and then, the dude kindly offered me some tools to fix the setup. It took 30 minutes of standing out - yet again - in the pouring rain.  Freshly drenched, I got that set up taken care of.

My Monday was today.  I fought sleep for hours.  When I finally got to 6-1/2 hours of driving, I pulled into a rest area, set the alarm and fell directly asleep for 30 minutes.  I couldn't stay there long, the plant eats up your available hours, the only way you're going to get 600 miles in and is to push yourself all day long.  Subsequent days usually are easier.  This particular trip is drop and hook, no layovers just get it done and leave.  So tomorrow will be a rather long day as well, in trying to get as much done as possible.

So, off again. Rain, rain, rain.  Figured out where I was going to stop before my hours ran out and headed that way.  Unfortunately, I somehow missed the exit.  Probably because of driving rain and a bunch of cars hitting their brakes for unknown reasons and distracting me from getting off the highway.  I looked and saw another "truckstop" a few miles up the road.  I have an app. I was running out of time.  At that exit, I had 12 minutes left before I was in violation.  Well, the truckstop was nothing more than a regular gas station with 2 diesel pumps.  There isn't any way on earth a big truck with a 53 foot trailer could pull through there.  I got through because I have a much shorter trailer.  But there was nowhere to park.

No worries, I thought to myself, I'll park in that huge, empty parking lot where I saw another truck parked.  I got to the entrance, "absolutely no truck parking, Big Daddy J's towing" will be there to pull your truck out of there.  Lovely.  9  minutes left on the clock. I put it in on duty mode instead of drive mode, so it would at least show I had time to do a post trip inspection.  Gas station there with a big side lot, truck fit easily in there, out of the way.  But, I went in an asked. Sure, you can stay there a few minutes. But if you stay there too long, the cops will fool with you and make you move.

I was out of time, I hit off duty on the thing a minute before I was in violation.  I didn't want to do this tonight, but I ended up driving across the street, pulling into the Red Roof hotel parking lot and getting a room. The reason I didn't want to do it is because it's just 10 hours.  I mean, I can stay longer and I might just do it.  My 14 hour clock doesn't start until I hit the "on duty" field and hit enter.  Just that I wanted to get this trip over with as quickly as possible. Meaning I was hoping to get it done in 3 days instead of bleeding over into the 4th.

But I'm wasted tired and the only reason I'm on here writing this is because my head is buzzing from all of this sleeplessness. A lifetime of experience with driving like this and this head buzzing? Don't even try to go to sleep until it fades away.  I have to do things that require thought and will eventually make me sleepy.  I guess writing in my blog about my day isn't especially thoughtful, but it engages me at least.

So, I'll probably not get up until 7, when I should be getting up at 5am.  The delivery isn't actually until Tuesday morning, but at this place, they'll take it whenever you show up.  I've got to get some sleep tonight.

Ahh, well, that's that.  I am finally starting to get a bit sleepy.  I've been here about an hour and 15 minutes now.  the other nights I'll have to spend out here will be in the truck.

Oh, I did go and buy stuff for the refrigerator in the truck. Various lunchmeats, a half gallon milk, orange juice, coffee drinks, a gatorade, a couple of waters, cheese and condiments for sandwiches. The fridge is packed.  It's also a very good refrigertor.  I initially turned it all the way up the first time I used it and it froze the leftovers I had in there.  Today, I started it at 3 setting - halfway up. Everything in there is very cold.  Not freezing, but not far from it.  There is a small freezer, now that I understand this thing is chilly, lol, I can actually get a couple of ice cube trays and make ice in there.

The only thing I am not sure about is if I can just leave it on even when the truck is off and I go home.  Cause I would rather leave the stuff  in there than have to unload it every time.  The concern are the batteries. But, the thing stays so cold and with it packed, I don't really think it has to run that much. As it stands, it's going to spend the night in the parking lot without the truck running.  But it's cold out, my version of it anyway, it's 41 degrees and likely going down from there tonight.  So definitely not really going to have to run that much.

Anyway, my focus at the moment is on getting these moves over with.  My room to other side of house, current people to new house, old friends back into house.  It isn't just getting physical items moved - tho that's a big part of it- it's also calling all these different companies to get all of this different stuff turned on, preferably the last day of this month.

And there is the cleaning I want to have done in the house before they come back.  I was intent on getting the flooring refinished in the living room, but that is turning into an ordeal just finding someone to do it that I'm letting that one go for now.  It would have been nice, yes, but just no.  I could do that myself but I have very little free time nowadays and by the time I get to free time, I'm worn our from running around all over the place. This is a 2 thousand mile run.

I haven't actually heard from my manager yet, but it's still early. I'd love Saturday/tomorrow off too, but that may be wishful thinking. There were a lot of trucks sitting in the yard yesterday, perhaps I can sneak past another day off.  Cause right now? I don't feel like doing anything.  I've been out on the road and I'm kinda drained.

Nice to be out of that truck and off the road for a day at least.  I'm not asking my manager if she has anything for me tomorrow. If she does, she'll send it to me, but  otherwise, I'd gladly take the day off and recuperate a bit.  There were lots of trucks parked there with drivers in the yard yesterday, they would all get sent out before me, but I have a feeling I"m either going out tomorrow or Sunday.

Anyway, Donny cut the yard yesterday - both yards actually - and it looks great. I've contacted a cleaning service who is going to come out the week of the move and clean this place from top to bottom.  Start out with a fresh, clean slate they can come back to, what they do with it from there is up to them. He's apparently going straight to truck driver training school, I'm guessing she's going to set up house before she goes out looking for a new job.  I could be wrong tho.  They will be living on borrow money, the sooner they get jobs going the better. They borrowed a large chunk of change for the move and I don't envy them having to pay all of that back.  But, that's how desperate they are to get back home into their own house.

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Okay, day has passed.  I only accomplished getting some laundry done. I'm just totally out of it. Old age, being out on the road too much, I dunno but I had to have today off.  God knows my needs better than I do.  The fantastic part for me is I have tomorrow off as well  which is 2 full days off.  I don't want more than 2 days, though.  That's enough.  I really need to continue to get on down the road and get these bigger paychecks. I think next paycheck is going to suck, basically, because this last 4 days out likely isn't going to make it on there.  But I can deal with it, it just means the paycheck at the end of the month will likely be around 6 grand and I can deal with that.

I'll be headed back to West Virginia again, the same place I went to - was it last week? It's drop and hook.  Take a trailer up, pull an empty back, no unloading. Figure up to 4 days, figure I'm going to splurge at least one night on a hotel.  I did that last time and certainly didn't regret it. It was a decent Super 8, unlike the one that I walked out of and got into an ordeal with the police and such the other night. That is a long story. And, long story short, the property manager of the hotel called me begging for forgiveness for his counter clerk's outrageous behavior towards me and offered my money back and please, if you come through here again (Amarillo), I will give you a free night's stay on me.

Oh, yes, I threatened to sue him, the clerk and Wyndham hotels for that clerk's actions, including asking a very large black man to "deal with him" when he came walking in.  I had the presence of mind to record the entire thing, 25 minutes worth.  She claimed I was cussing her out (never dropped an f bomb or any other cuss word against her), I was "harassing" her, yelling at her, etc etc etc.  I actually started laughing at her after she when into hysterics over a minor situation that she could have easily rectified.

In fact, now that I'm going into this, I was on the phone with Wyndham filing a complaint. I at least wanted my money back.  I was heading out of Amarillo. Phone service cut out, literally a minute later this property manager called me. But, it wasn't Wyndham that had called him about that, it was way too quick and this guy had already reviewed their video surveillance from the night before.  The clerk had already told him about the interaction and lied through her teeth about it. He didn't necessarily believe it tho.  I told him I would be happy to send him copy of the video I took. No, that won't be necessary.  That was all I needed to hear. She was off her rocker, whatever was going on with her that night, I just happened to be on the receiving end of it.

Oh, yes, what started this? I called the front desk. I can put up with a lot of stuff at a cheaper rate, but the bathroom sink had 6 HUGE cracks in it and full of BLACK MOLD.  No thanks. Please give me a different room. That wasn't all that was wrong with that place, but that in and of itself was enough for me to call for a new room. She didn't offer me a new room, she flew off the handle  and said I could come get my money refunded..

Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to go buy some stuff  to stock truck refrigerator up with. Milk, cold coffee drinks, sandwich meat, things to eat to take place of the junk food you mostly only get on the road.
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Enjoying my final day of freedom before 4 - well probably 3-1/2 days out, call it 3 nights at least anyway.  If I pushed it really hard, if it doesn't take too long tomorrow to get loaded at the plant, I could get this run done in 3 days.  Oh, and avoid that traffic trap where there is an hour plus of just getting through it.  I'll listen to my phone this time and take the route it's suggesting.  If all doesn't work out, it's fine.  Just means another night and a few hours of driving the next morning.

On such trips, I almost always take a hotel night at least once.  It just depends on how it works out. For example, if I'm on the 3rd day and I run out of driving hours ... and.... it's still early in the day.....I'll get that hotel room.  Because I don't want to drive at night anyway.  Well, not too much driving.  So, you get to your destination at around 4 or 5 pm, stay in the hotel overnight, get up at 5 or 6 am and finish out the trip, you had at least 12 hours in that room, a welcome respite from living in a truck.

However, I am going out in a bit and buying all kinds of stuff to stock that refrigerator with.  Milk, coffee drinks, snacks, sandwich meat, whatever I can find.  It's a fairly good sized refrigerator. It will save me a lot of money buying food on the road.  I can even skip a dinner night somewhere and just eat sandwiches.  It's really tough trying to find a decent place to eat because you are in a truck and many places are not truck friendly. So you can't go parking in the portion of the parking lot behind a restaurant or such that isn't used.  If you take the risk and they come tell you to move, you are screwed.  You just started driving on your mandatory 10 off and that will ding you with the company you are driving for.

However, over time, I will learn the places where I can stop - away from truck stops - and get a decent meal.  Some of the plants I'm going to I'm repeating the drive over and over. This will be the second trip to the plant in West Virginia.  I found a great Super 8 hotel on the trip back.  If it were to work out to stop there again, I would definitely do so.  Someone could probably make a great app for places for trucks to stop that are not truck stops.  I get sick of truck stops. They are cash cows. They over charge for everything because we are basically a captive audience. A small bottle of water is $1.59, just for an example.  The restaurants they have at them are of the Wendy's, McDonald's, Arby's/high fat, high grease, high calorie content.  You can find cups of fruits and such, but you mostly aren't going to find a dinner that is both tasty and calorie conscious.
 Ok, well this post has been days in the making, posting it and starting a new one.