I spent 3 hours at the dentist.  We are going for all of it. The dentist said we are putting in one crown today.  Statement of fact, yes that was the original thing and then it spread to everything else on the first visit.  I said, well, let's go for as much of it as you have time for today. He looked at the info and said we could do the 2 cracked teeth and all 4 front teeth.  Yes, let's do that please.  I'm ready to get this over with, even if payments are going to last a day and a half next and half of forever.

3 hours of 4 sets of hands.  Mouth wide open.  Uppers deaded to the point there was no feeling in them for hours.  I haven't had dental work done - since my 20's actually.  I mean, I've been to the dentist but I haven't had any work done.  Just given costs for what they want to do and me thinking, I don't have that kind of money right now. I didn't have any credit then, either.

I truly hate going further into debt, but it was either get these teeth fixed or eventually have to have them pulled and implants.  So, 2 weeks into June I have an appointment to finish the 6 crowns, get fitted for the last crown and have all the rest of the work down.  "You are going to have to be prepared to be here for 3 or 4 hours again". That's fine, I said, I want to get this done.  He lines his pockets, I get the work done, capitalism at it's finest.  I could have probably found a place to get it done cheaper, but this guy knows what he's doing.  I've had enough dentists that don't know what they are doing or hand your off to apprentices/aides that have no clue and not enough oversight.  You pay full price for half assed work.  I'll just pay this time, thanks.

I'm going to have a sit down with my manager next time I'm in there.  What does it take to switch over to Owner Operator, is ti feasible in my case and can I do it whenever I want to?  Does the company have any trucks for sale, btw?  Just curious, lol.

I am going back to Cheneire tomorrow. I was given a choice of that or another undesirable place, so I took the one that has a "chance" of getting back the same day.  Unlikely, of course, but perhaps after the last fiasco and the man that runs that place raising hell over there, it might go a lot faster.  That doesn't change the attitudes of 2 particular punks kids working there, but I'm prepared to deal with that as well now.  And yes, I'm taking food this time.  Enough to carry me over a night if need be.  Just enough, but enough.

So I got a spot in a couple hours at the dentist office. Hopefully that means a couple of crowns to start with? I have no clue how long that takes nowadays, I haven't had dental work done literally in decades.  Hmm, it appears there is new technology out that you can have the new crown put in the same day.  Whether this dentist has that or not, unknown.  Will be finding out lol.

My new CareCredit account brought my credit card usage down to 30% which in turn upped my credit score.  However, and unfortunately, that particular account will be all used up by the time I am done.  I fully intend on using all the $2,000 my dental insurance gives plus that credit plus any cash necessary beyond that, get my teeth all fixed, done and over with.  I don't care if I have to make payments on it for a few years.  I'm 54 years old, this stuff isn't getting any better and my smile is wretched.  Chipped, cracked teeth on the front.  Broken teeth.  Teeth that need fillings.  And now a mild pain in one of the cracked teeth. Naww, we aren't going to just continue to let this go.

Moving on, I have looked into financing on a semi tractor.  Seems like there are quite a few lenders out there willing to finance such.  That qualifications vary as does the down payment, some requiring no down payment at all.  I'm in the "I'm thinking about it" stage.  Nothing I will take action on any time in the next few months.  I'm sort of more interested in my relationship with this company at the moment.  I'm new.  I get a notice that I made it through the month of April without any violations and congratulations! 

Well, that's cool, but I had at least 2 over speeds this month and I'm sure I'll be getting their version of a company issued citation for those coming next month.  This is why I'm not really going to invest anything, even in the company truck I am driving now, until I have further evidence, over time, that they are actually going to keep me.  The orientation was full of instances of how they can and will fire you for this and that.  That's kind of what is keeping me on the fence.  In reality, there is no perfect driver and I'm not pretending to be.  Staying out of accidents is my number one priority, if I do that, that should count for something. But in this age and era of big brother watching everything you are doing,  that isn't necessarily true. If you are engaging in "risky" behavior, they like to call it, then you are no better than a person that just rear ended a car in front of you can injured everyone inside of it. 

Next month is CVSA International Roadcheck. Level 1 inspections done on trucks randomely pulled in - wherever.  Weigh stations, roadside check stations, just pulling you off to a safe area on the side of the road.  Almost guaranteed with the places we drive through I'll get pulled over yet again. Last 2 checks have netted "NO VIOLATIONS" against me, but they weren't level 1 inspections, either.  I've had a self initiated crash course on Quaalcomm, since I haven't used one in 20 plus years and they have completely changed since then.  I didn't know about the "load" info you have to put on for each trip, it isn't right there in front of your face when you look at it.  In fact, the thing is loaded with all kinds of screens and you have to just sit there and go through each one to learn how to use it..

They will be looking at driver's ELD's (electronic logging device) and I want the thing to be completely accurate.  One of our drivers recently got dinged for 8 days worth of not having the load info in there. That was a lot of points against his record and against the company.  I don't want any points and I want to keep in as good a standing with the company as possible.  The load info is actually quite easy to input once you actually find the field where to do it at.

Well, I'm smoking some meats in the smoker today.  Figure James can tend it while I'm at the dentist.  Doesn't take much, if temp is down, add some chips, maybe throw in some more charcoal to make sure it stays consistent heat.  Other than that, somewhere around 6 or 7 pm we'll be having that wonderful pork loin roast again. If it turns out as good as it did last time, hands down excellent meal.

With that, I must be off to the shower and then off to the dentist. 

So, stuck down in Brownsville. I was anyway and don't read that wrong, for the money, being stuck down there is great.  I've got the drive down both days - tho admittedly there are times going through the Houston area you are going to fight traffic regardless and unless you want to go out of the way through small towns, just deal with it.

Uhh, yea well anyway, I was talking to an older dude - I'm 54, but he's much older than me, lol. He owns his own truck and drives for our company.  Well I knocked on his truck door and he came out quick.  Some sort of - underwear overalls?  I've never seen such garb before so I can't really explain it. Did I wake you? No, he laughed, I was watching TV. 

We were discussing the situation of a trailer coming in, he declared there wasn't going to be any showing up tonight.  I asked him if he was getting detention pay since he's an owner operator? We got into a discussion about that.  This dude clears 100k after expenses.  That's what he takes home.  Seriously?  100k.  Take home. 

I had to take that in for a moment.  So you're driving for this company and after taxes, fuel, insurance, repairs, etc, you are taking that much home every year?  I had no reason to disbelieve him. He's a very down to earth person.  65 years old, he's ready to retire soon enough. 

It gave food for thought, that's for sure.  I have always leaned away from the idea of owning a truck, but this is a bit surreal.  I mean, if someone says they are making a hundred grand per year, that's what they are grossing, not what they are netting.

But, that means having a lot of money in the bank for any problems. Repairs, mostly.  Engine repairs can cost a lot of money.  Some advise having over 20k.  I'd figure 10k enough, but that's a ways off and then, getting financed for a truck.  I don't have a bunch of cash sitting around, lol.

Lol. Well, tomorrow is smoking day. That's smoking meats.  A huge pork loin, a rack of ribs and a half brisket. It will happen, I think anyway, but I'm going to try to get into the dentist.  I called today but they were already closed - still left a message. I found the insurance info, I have the financing, please let's get some of this started if there is a spot on your schedule. 

So, whatever happens then, I"m feeling much better today. Not 100%, but the improvement in how I feel today is quite noticeable.  I mean, for some reason, I'm feeling better than I have in a long time?  Perhaps it's just being sick and getting out of it amplifies it.

Enough.  I'm not going to bed but I am going to find something to watch on the tube!

Monday morning.
Decided to get up, take a shower and head over to the yard to see if a trailer is there. I don't want to try and charge for time I'm not owed. 
I didn't think anything would be there yet and there wasn't.  There is another one of our tractors there waiting for a trailer already, so even if one does show up, he has first dibs on it. These trailers usually show up in twos.  I don't really care if I have so sit around all day and spend another night here again, but we'll see. The dude that runs the yard wasn't over there, I wanted to ask him if he had talked to any of the drivers about when they were going to show up.  Anyway, I'm going to check out of the hotel at around 11:00 am and go over there and wait. 

Or, if the guy is there I can find out, maybe, when trailers are going to show up.  Hard to determine whether to get another room when you don't know when a trailer is going to show up.  Basically sit around the yard over there until either one shows up or it starts getting late - not really late, like 5:00 pm - and then make a decision.  Not a hard decision to make tho.  I don't like night driving. I won't drive all night long to get back to our yard. 

My desire is to either have them show up before noon with trailers or not show up at all today.  Either is good for me.  I'm going on 15 hours of detention pay now, which gives me a nice tidy sum of cash for waiting and pays for the hotel room.  It makes these trips worth a lot more.  I make more per hour driving doing the math, but there is always at least 10 hours down time.  Why not get paid for it? : )

And nothing else really.  I mean, I just got some texts saying the baby is sick and so is mama.  But she has stomach illness going, I didn't have any of that so that didn't come from me. The baby, perhaps.  Bummer any way about it.  I was trying to stay away from the kids, but the 1 year old kept coming to me the other day, he wanted attention and figured I was the nearest one available.  I didn't pick him up tho, which is what is strange.  I really tried to keep my distance so they wouldn't get sick. There is another possibility is they got sick at the day care.  That happens a lot with kids interacting with each other

Nothing I can do about it. It is what it is.  Maybe next time I get sick I'll just go stay at a hotel until it passes.  It creates a lot of problem for parents trying to work and having to find a babysitter or have to stay home themselves, tho right now James isn't working so he can deal with that stuff. 

Umm, I guess I have bills I could pay online, but meh.  They aren't due until next month.  I have plenty of cash but I am always of the mindset keep as much of it around as long as possible incase something happens and you need it. 

There are things I want to buy as well, but that is also something I am putting off. Nothing I need, just a want list I've had for years now.  I've fulfilled some of the things on that list, the new bed being one of them. 

And now, I am going to start toying with apps that allegedly teach you how to invest in the stock market.  You get X amount of "fake" money but you are investing it in the real market at real market pricing.  I guess it's something like the apps I used to use for learning how to play blackjack at the casinos.  Learn with fake money, don't lose the real stuff.  Sounds like a plan to me.  Get my feet wet.  James actually turned me onto it, I had no idea they had apps for that, but duhhh, should have figured so. 

I'm going to do that later when I'm out of the hotel, sitting in the truck, bored, waiting in a dirt park lot.  Put the time to good use.  I've got 3 grand to invest, but I'm not doing anything with it until I figure out what I'm doing. 

Umm, there are other things, but it's still just long term goal stuff. That 3 grand could just sit there and grow until it's around 20 grand and then buy property or see if I can get into the rental business in a mobile home park or maybe a du or quadplex.  This small town I'm living in has several colleges, amazingly enough and at one of them, people come from all over to attend it. 

My credit score is ever so slowly going up.  It's those late mortgage payments. They are slowly falling off, 1 month at a time. They problem, I found out, is that I should have no more than 96% late payments for my score to at least go up to the good range.  I'm at 90% at the moment.  All of it is the mortgage stuff.  I'm guessing another year before it hits that percentage.  Kinda of sucks, but my fault. I shouldn't have let it go on that long, I should have found a way to get out of that mess long before I did.  So what, I guess, because I won't have a sizable down payment before a year is up anyway. And that's if I even last at this place. 

I try to weigh the pros and cons of any given place. The recent 6 unwanted days off left a sour taste in my mouth.  Some revelations about how other drivers are being treated isn't so great either.  Just smacks of favoritism.  I can see a longer term driver getting some better runs, but the days - not working weekends?  This job requires every driver to be agreeable to that.  It's in writing.  Not that that means anything and no I'm not openly complaining about it, just things that run through my mind.  The run I'm on was a Sunday load - yesterday.  Up early, at the plant early.  I had 2 days off, so it wasn't that bad, but the weekends are when everyone else is off. 

But, James did say he wants to try and fix that broken 4 wheeler.  Have at it!  I could fix it but I don' think it's worth the money.  I've been going after the neighbors to pay for the damages for it for a while. The only real alternative is to sue them.  I dunno if I'm going to do that or not.  That kid has a job, he has an expensive truck sitting in the yard, he could pay for the damages he promised to pay for like 15 times. 

Just strange that the dad is going to run for sheriff next year but has situations like this looming over him?  I'm not running to the press, but any court case is open to the public.  So, I'll just sit on that for a while and think about it.

I'm finally thinking I"m starting to get better.  I still have a cough but the cruddy feeling is starting to go away.  I can deal with that. 

Well, I'm off of here. Need to start getting ready to get out of this place.

The older I get, the worse even a common cold's effect has on me. Especially the junk that gets into my respiratory system. It just flattens me.  I can go for chunks of time, but rest is necessary at some point and nothing will replace it.  I got back here at around 10:00 am, got some stuff done and then came home, sat my happy @$$ down and haven't moved since.  Dogs in tow of course, had to go get them.

I did stop by the used car dealer lot, but they had nothing I wanted. At least not in my price range. I'm not agreeing to 30k for a 4 year old truck.  It was a nice truck, yes, but not worth that much money to me.  I told him what I want, he suggested a car, no thanks. I want a truck, I'm not buying anything else.  Well that's not totally true If my current car totally broke down and I need a replacement, I could get one for 2 grand - cash.  No car dealer needed.  In fact I have found several trucks at cash pries that could work, but they have ultra high miles on them.  Real roll of the dice buying something with over 200k miles on it.
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Well, it's Friday, didn't have to work today.  Don't know about the weekend.  I'd like another day off for recovery, just won't know until later on today what, if anything, I'll be given for the weekend or Monday.  It seems to just be a coughing cold with flu like symptoms.  So, I'm not doing anything today excepting I put a roast in the crock pot  I didn't feel like tending to the smoker today.  It's not that much work but I don't want to be outside much today.  Just sitting around in my room lazing around with the dogs.

But my roast should turn out excellent : ) I got a recipe off the internet including cream of mushroom soup,  worcestershire sauce, dry onion soup mix, etc etc.  I think it should be very good. Slow cooking all day, I'll find out later.

Some high level drama here last night, nothing that involved me fortunately, but still.  It isn't anything I want to go into on the internet since some of it is pretty personal stuff, it was quite divisive and people ended up leaving all pissed off.  I decided after having sat and listened to it for a while to disappear into my room and actually go to sleep early.

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I started this post days ago. Been too sick to do much of anything.
I got the run for today on Friday and wondered, last night, how I was going to do this.  The steroid shot sort of worked this time. The inbaler I have been using sparingly but it works when I use it, sort of.  The cough medicine I think has codeine in it and I don't want any of it.  The antibiotics, who knows.  It's only been since yesterday morning. 

I didn't sleep much last night as coughing was keeping me up.  So when 4:30 am came around, I just got myself up - was already awake anyway - got busy with the day.  Figured I would pay hell for the night's lack of sleep, but, not the first time I've driven on 3 hours of sleep.

Got to the plant with the truck and the operator was in a talkative mood, which I was not, but I entertained him anyway.  He wanted to know what my answer to school shootings were. I gave him a detailed layout of how I think it could be curtailed and then asked him his?  Give them allll guns.  Who? Everyone that comes through the school door.  Everyone has a chance to protect themselves.  He was serious, too, it wasn't a joke.  Lol, I had thoughts about that but decided not to get into it, I just was too out of it. He eventually got up and went outside to check on stuff, I went to sleep.  Unknown amount of time later, he came back in, I was startled awake, he gave me the truck key. 
After the scalehouse I was out of there.

I dreaded the drive.  But, as the hours wore on, I was amazed at how awake I was and not really even feeling that tired.  I drove 5-1/2 hours straight, pulled in to a TA truckstop to get fuel, decided to take my 30 minute break there as well. Fell into a deep sleep.  I mean, like deep sleep lol.  The alarm went off, I bolted up right and got with it.  260 more miles, I figured I could cut that no problem.  Well, it was sort of a problem, but I managed to get down here and...find...one of our trucks waiting in the yard. 

Yayyyyy!  No empty trailers! I knocked on his door.  He confirmed it. He said there ain't gonna be no trailers here tonight.  Yayy again! I'll get at least 14 hours of detention pay out of this, possibly a lot more.  That was my ticket to get out of that yard - after turning in my paperwork of course and legitimizing the beginning of the detention pay clock - and heading a mile away to the nearest hotel, an America's Best Value Inn. This one is pretty nice for the money.  It's amazing how some of these low end hotel chains are upping their game at least in some areas.  Hardwood floors, king sized bed, marble topped counters, 44 inch flat screen, huge room nicely decorated and in  great shape.  Free wife of course, mini fridge and microwave.  $57. 

That's not even 3 hours of the detention pay and I gladly took it.  I figured I could try to get a good night's sleep in here tonight versus the truck bed.  It's okay, but the mattress isn't thick enough so my bones hit the wood underneath.  Most times I have waited I'm there til noon.  That would be 17 hours of detention minus hotel pay, I'm good with that.  Even better if they don't show up at all tomorrow.  It's happened to other drivers many times, sitting there for days.  This is one of the places I like waiting, just because there is a lot to do around here, tho I have no desire to do anything, it just fits well.  You get paid, there are restaurants all around me and I don't really miss home in an environment like this.

Now, that Cheneire place, different story. No hotels, no stores, no nothing.  You are stuck in your truck.  That nonsense no thanks.  The detention pay is nice but they should at least have a store or something on site?  Vending machines? Something?  Well whatever. I'll be sent down there again, I'm sure and I'll hate it again, I'm sure.  And oh well.

Well, that's that.  I mean, that's the end of this day.  Depends on when a trailer comes, but if it's too late tomorrow I wont' make it home tomorrow night, but with enough DT I'm not concerned about that.  I'll get up around 7, cruise over there in the tractor and see if there's anything there. If not, I'll come back to the room and hang out until check out.  Usually there's someone there during the week and you can ask them when a truck is going to show up. They have phone numbers for the drivers but they can't always get through to them.

At home, James quit his job. I can't hardly blame him. He worked 15 days straight with no days off in site. The owner of the place is eccentric and - weird.  He told him he would work 3 months straight and then time off. Instead, the guy had a large number of crates full of the bolts brought in yesterday and that was when James said enough.  He won't give a day off per week, he won't give a day off - anytime.  You can't work 7 days a week forever, especially a married man with 2 young kids.  He's going to hit the job trail hard this coming week, I'm sure he'll find something.

I am sitting idle at this job for now.  I really need at least a year's experience in this field for my resume.  I wouldn't mind being shipped off to other places to learn other chemicals.  No Pennsylvania to Massachusetts runs in a blizzard tho, thanks. 

Anyways it's past 10, I'm getting sleepy, going to see about a night's sleep here. 

Trip to West Virginia.  I didn't get slowed down by construction traffic yesterday, so I made good time. Made it as far as north of Nashville and called it quits.  Got into a Love's travel center just in time, only 2 spots left, I got one of them and then another truck came in shortly after that and got the other.  I sat there and watched truck after truck after truck rolling in looking for a spot.  It's real dilemma.  It needs to be addressed. Cities and towns that don't want trucks around anywhere unless they are bringing stuff, otherwise, get the hell out of here.

That's the way I see it. I see no truck signs everywhere. No parking, no truck parking, trucks take this route, trucks aren't allowed in the city. It's a bunch of bs.  You want what we are hauling but you won't let us park somewhere to go to sleep?  And if we don't find a place before that magical 14 hours is up, we get dinged by our companies and/or if DOT catches it, we get written up and fined?  Crock of crap. I think it's Arkansas - they "voted" to not allow trucks to park on Interstate on -ramps.  I'm not sure of the state, but I think it was Arkansas.

Really?  Would you like us to come park in your front yards?  Even places we deliver to don't want us around. Meanwhile, they are trying to pass a bill to allow drivers as young as 18 to fill those seats because there is a shortage.  Oh, maybe you should fix the freaking problems that are driving drivers out of the business and you wouldn't have this issue?  What a load of shit. 

Texas is the exception. I can literally find a place to park just about anywhere.  I think.  Well maybe no going through Houston and Dallas, but the towns you drive through have places all over where you can park and cops don't mess with you.  If they have "no trucks" signs up, it's usually for a legitimate reason. 

Anyway, it started yesterday afternoon. I was not feeling right.  Starting to get a sore throat and headache.  It got worse last night and today - I"m not full blown sick but I sure don't feel good either.  No idea whether this is severe allergies or strep throat that's going around or what.  It was bad enough that I got a hotel room for the night.  I intend on going to sleep early.  What I feel like in the morning will determine what I do.  The problem is that they are always lacking trailers. They will want this one back as fast as possible - which is sometime Thursday, probably late morning.  But if I am sick, I don't care.  I'll hole up in a hotel as long as it takes to feel good enough to drive again. 

I got yet another "critical event" warning on that Quaalcomm device.  I had no idea what it was until I was finally done for the day. I'm not pulling over to find out what this stupid machine wants to tell me.  It says I had an "extreme overspeed event", meaning I let the truck get rolling too fast down a hill. Whooopdeedoo.  I will get another warning from the company.  This part of the company I'm not comfortable with. Little dictators called "The Safety Team".  I spent more time in orientation hearing about how you can get fired than anything about how happy they are you are there.  I don't need that and other devices on the truck to tell me how to drive.  I have done quite well in my driving since 1985 and I don't expect to change any of that.  I'm not going to bow down in fear to these people, either.  If  it comes to that, we will be parting ways.  A bunch of desk jockeys that have no clue, whatsoever, what it's like to drive a truck and do the work involved with driving it 14 hours a day.  Okay, I stopped at 13 hours and 30 minutes today. Whatever.  Yesterday I left myself a 30 minute window in case my parking plans failed.

You have to do that now. You can't just pick a truck stop in advance and "know" that it's going to have spaces. You have to leave yourself a window so you have time to find somewhere else.  I could have driven another 75 miles today, but the only truck stop or place to park along the route I have to take has very few parking spots.  The truck app says it's full all the time. I went in there this morning to use the bathroom and check it out.  Very small place, not room for more than maybe 10 trucks at most.  Besides, I wasn't feeling good and I got in 565 miles today. Not the greatest but acceptable.  It's where I would normally stop on the other trips. 

:Lol, Taylor warned me earlier: don't you dare come home sick!  No worries. If I am, I'll isolate myself away from the boys and everyone else in my bedroom. My dogs will be happy to be with me : )  I am very good at disappearing when not feeling well. I don't want to talk to anyone, just leave me alone, thanks, no I don't need anything, I just need to lay here and live through this misery until it's over.  Been that way all my life, not likely to change anytime soon lol.

Car dealer said no problem getting me financed. Not sold on it yet, but was looking into it.  Depends on the interest rate, the price of the truck - I'm not going to get into financing on a car, thanks and any other "special" things they want to add to the price.  No new vehicles, either.  And it has to be in good condition. I don't want any blemishes on the outside, no dents no dings, no major scratches.  The interior has to be in excellent condition.  That's it.  These dealers will always try to sell you something you don't want and I am very good at getting up and walking out of such places.  I have two vehicles, I'm not hurting for a ride.  My Jeep needs the AC fixed, but James is using it until he gets his car fixed. And his motorcycle went down. The car doesn't need much tho.  He just doesn't have any time to do anything. 

Working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week will do that. 

I'm exhausted but too early to go to bed.  Some decent movies on, think I'll kick back and relax. 

Getting run pretty hard here.  On my way back from this trip today, I was given a run to the place I have been to in West Virginia 3 times now?  It's a good run.  A bit over 2,000 miles. No detention pay unless the plant screws up. I'd rather the plant get their stuff right and get detention pay at the other end. The plant makes you wait in very uncomfortable chairs in a 40 foot modified container (like they use for shipping).  It gets very boring. You aren't allowed in your truck, you can get in there if you need something, but really, it's no fun. 

Anyway, that's Monday - early. The first load type of thing, you know, the one I hate?  Yeah, that one.  I was able to at least hook up to the trailer I'm taking and get my paperwork ready so I don't have to be doing that at 4:00 am.  Which means an extra 20 minutes to sleep lol.  The first day of any of these trips on the first load is misery for me.  I just pay for it all day long. There is nothing I can do about it. I would have to go to bed at 7 pm, I can't do that.  Well, I can but I'd wake up at midnight and never get back to sleep. 

As long as I'm working here and getting up this early, that will likely never change.  I don't consider this a permanent job.  Whether that changes in my mind over time, I dunno, but at the moment, it's something like a 2 year gig - providing I don't screw up badly - and move on to something in the loca work realm, which is, of course, gasoline or diesel fuel.  Screwing up badly would be something like rolling the tanker over, pumping the Ethylene into a tank that doesn't have Ethylene in it, stuff like that. Pretty much impossible to pump it into the wrong place, everywhere I go, the plant operates the plant side, I don't have to deal with that. If they pump Ethylene into the wrong tank, that's on them.  I ask anyway, tho, just to cover my @$$. 

I've gotten very much more confident with operating the truck side of the equation. Much more than even the last time I said this on here. I've been through a bit already with this job, even tenured drivers look at me funny with the stories I already have to tell. What gives me confidence is finally understanding what I am doing.  With zero training on unloading trucks - which is appalling - I've come a long way. It's really consumed my thinking in the last - months, many  months.  C'mon. Anyone reading this for a while understands the nature of this chemical.  You don't just haphazardly do - anything - with it.  The first leak in Massachusetts - which was LNG - was terrifying.  I didn't show it tho, lol.  You aren't going to solve a problem by freaking out, jumping up and down and running for your life.

Likely you don't keep your job and more likely, you could have sat there and figured it out eventually.  The thing I have always kept in mind: whatever happens, stay calm.  Don't panic. Be afraid? Sure, but don't let it paralyze you.  I've been afraid. I'll freely admit that. LNG pouring on my head and down my arms? Yeah, that scared the s*** out of me to be honest.  259 degree boiling point?  Explosive? Volatile?  Highly flammable? Wouldn't that freak you out a bit too?  I had all kinds of garb on, I never felt it on my skin, it never got that far. 

Anyway, I'm home now.  I have tomorrow off  I have plans, just chores and things to get ready for a road trip.  Unfortunately it's not a week day. I love weekends but I need to get my dental work done. That ain't happening tomorrow.  I'll be home - if it goes as normal of course - early on Thursday.  I can't call them and make an appointment tho. Not until Thursday. I'll ask them if they have an opening.

Tomorrow Mother's day. Flowers sent and then found out she isn't home. So they are sitting in front of her door, probably wilting in the heat : (  She'll be home tomorrow but I have low hopes that they will survive AZ heat.  Well I don't know, it's not as hot there as I thought it was.  Maybe they'll be okay? 

My son.  I'm not necessarily in the dark with him, I just don't hear from him often. Precious moments when he does call.  Almost as good if he replies to an email.  I know his life doesn't revolve around me, don't expect it to, just nice to hear from him whenever he does call. 

I'm planning a trip to Phoenix. No date, just in my mind. Something that I need to do. See mom, see Caleb and his wife, visit friends, check out the house.  Really a cheap trip, even if I fly out of the local airport 2 towns over.  The flight will be the most expensive thing, Uber the next, eating after that, housing will be provided. I could afford to go tomorrow. In fact, I could fly over the ocean, a thing I have always wanted to do, tomorrow as well.  Visiting family and friends takes precedence.  I think it will be a marathon trip - out 3 or 4 days and get back home and get back on the road. 

Funny having money and not being able to use it the way you want to.  I knew that would happen with this job.  I'm not complaining.  I'm not broke anymore and that's a very nice thing.  I can afford all my bills, have almost 20% in various savings ccount;  medical, dental and vision insurance and still have money left over? That never occurred at Ferguson.  Well, it did in Phoenix. Not to this degree but I wasn't perpetually broke there.  Leaving that company was a no looking back deal. I pretty much burned my bridges there.  I didn't go off like cussing and telling people where to stick it, but I very candidly stated my views on an abusive manager and his management not giving a s*** about it.

I'm kinda thinking next month to Phoenix, but June is historically the hottest month there.  Guess that shouldn't matter that much. Everyone has AC and one of my best friends has a pool he has invited me to come partake of. 

Life is interesting right now.  Not necessarily stimulating, but interesting. 

Hmm. Think I'll watch a movie. 

Okay, so i was sent up to Barnsdall today.  It's in Oklahoma, on Indian Reservation I believe. Or surrounded by it, or something like that.  All I know is they actually have an ATT cell tower out here in the middle of nowhere, so I have 4 full bars of service! Woohoo.  Good thing too, because I changed my plan today in coming up here. Instead of going to Bartlesville nad parking next to the bowling alley and eating at the Mexican Food restaurant, I drove straight up to the plant.  They are no allowing us to drop the trailer at the unloading rack. Unhook the tractor and go sit out in the parking lot until morning.  Considering it's 12-1/2 hours from now until 8 am - which is the appointed unload time, not so much fun.

But the problem here, well there's a couple of things.  First, if I don't get up here as early as possible, someone else might and probably will come up here, drop their trailer and then, when I show up at 8 am to unload, their trailer is already being unloaded.  So, even tho I am supposed to be the first to get unloaded, they just do the trailer that is sitting there first.  They don't care about who is who in line and the other drivers don't care either.

Now, that gives me some detention pay, yes, but not enough to make it worth sitting up in this place all day long. I'd rather get the run over with and get back to Texas.  I only really find 10 hours minimum of detention pay worth the waiting, if it's any less than that, well, I'd rather not.

The other drawback is since I'm waiting, I don't get to go home.  This is Friday, the weekend has basically started for most people.  If that trailer is sitting there, I have been told they will start unloading it as early as 6am since it's sitting there. They'll come wake me up, but they will have that thing hooked up and draining.  They've changed their method up here, they now reuse the vapors that they used to just flare off.  It takes much  longer for their system to absorb those vapors versus what used to be simply turning on the flare, burning it off and sending us on our merry way. The only way to get out of here at a decent hour, now, is to get up here the day before, drop the trailer and wait in the parking lot.

Fortunately there is a convenience store directly across the street and a restaurant next to it.  If I get hungry or need anything, it's just a stroll across the street. But I brought food up here. I might have breakfast over there in the morning, but otherwise I'm good.  Anyway, I fully expect another one of our drivers to show up tonight sometime or a driver from another company that comes up here to show up, go in, drop their trailer and come out and wait.  I beat them, I have my trailer in the number one slot, so, I will sleep better lol.  I was just sent my next load after this one: West Virginia on Monday. Everything going well, that's a 4 day trip and coming back on Thursday, that means that trip will go on the next coming paycheck.

Next paycheck? I am expecting at least 5k.  I'll have amassed at least 40 hours of detention pay and probably more like 50, a whole lot of stop pays and a whole lot of miles.

The Everlasting Ethylene Run

Should have been a one day trip. Overnight and home in the morning at most. 

Instead, I get to the plant on Tuesday at 1:30 pm.  When I pulled up to the Ethylene rack, there were fully 4 trucks in line ahead of me.  I mean, I've never even seen that there.  Maybe a truck or two, but 4?  I'm thinking, how many hours am I going to have to wait here? My appointment was at 2:30, we have to show up an hour early, which I did.  I just sat there and shook my head, gonna be a long afternoon.

I got in the sleeper and went to bed.  Fell into a deep sleep.  Woke up a couple hours later, now another truck had shown up and ahead of me.  My truck loads coming in from the opposite side than those trucks, which were all ISO tanks.  They filled them all up and then Lance comes up to my truck. Uhh, Ben?  We're out of Ethylne.  LOLOLOL

Okaaaaaaaaaaayyy.  I didn't get out of there until 9:00 pm.  After that, I decided i was too tired to drive too far, so I got a hundred miles in and then pulled over for the night.  Drove the rest out the next morning, got to the plant near Port Arthur. I was directed to the waiting lot, where I waited and waited and waited. 5 hours, actually.  I got tired of it, drove up to the guard shack where they gave me a look. They didn't come to get you? No. She made a phone call. Well, the plant operator forgot to tell the crew to come get you, but they can come now.  Okay.

A process to get the truck turned around, got back to the parking lot and waited 2 more hours.  Enough. I texted my manager and then went back up to the front.  She called me back, explaining that the plant operator had gone home - a shift change - and hadn't passed on the info to the next shift.  Same operator twice? We're on the level of incompetence.  Well, when I got up to the guard shack my manager called and said I have 2 options (but I really need the trailer back here): get up at 4:00 am and get it filled up or go in at 7:00 am.  She wants the trailer back, I opted for 4:00 AM.  The guard apparently thought I didn't know what was going on and tried to feed me a story. Instead of getting snappy with her, I just replied, yes, the plant operator went home and now they are pumping pressure into Train 1 to fill up the ships. 

She looks at me funny and nods, yeah.  Wouldn't have known any of that if it weren't for my manager.  I am assuming heads were rolling after she had called some senior manager who made his own phone calls and apparently let people know how things should be, versus how things occurred.  I like the detention time - 30 hours worth on this trip - but I had to cancel my all important dental appointment and that didn't set well with me. in fact, this trip spread out over 3 days which is ridiculous.   There aren't any stores down there, there is nothing but that plant.  It's positioned right next to the Gulf.  It has spots for 2 giant ships.  No one has built anything for a store within 10 miles of there.  There is no cafeteria on site, if you don't have food and drinks with you? You're screwed. I had food, so no biggies. 

The only good part about this besides extensive detention pay was that that "normal" crew I have to deal with, which includes 2 very arrogant and loud mouthed kids - weren't there.  A very quiet and reserved manager and his crew.  I was left to do all the work - which was fine with me.  I had the thing set up and got the pressure up quickly.  In fact, I had to shut the pressure building down for a while, it got up at the threshold.  This is an old trailer and I was surprised at how well the pressure coils were working. I got it to the right position for the liquid on the valve - about a 3rd of a turn - and that was it. Just wait until the thing emptied, pull out the excess pressure, leave. 

Drove back to the yard.  That plant asked if "that driver" could load up and come back down again?  No, she said, he won't have enough hours.  14 hours for today, to clarify, I have plenty of 8/70 hours.  She argued with them. Sure, he could load the truck but he won't be able to drive back down there, he won't have enough hours.  She got it settled with 10 am tomorrow with another driver pulling that trailer down there.  I don't want to go back down to the freaking place.  They can keep it. I didn't make that demand to my manager, but she can definitely spread that joy around. 

It's over. I was informed that I might have to go out again tomorrow. I said fine. If not, I replied, I'll try to get back in  with the dentist, but if you have a load that needs covered I'l take it. 

So far, nothing. But it's still early.  This trip really wore me out, I'd just as soon have tomorrow off but I won't ask for it.

I dunno, but life around here has definitely taken a twist.  Rene broke her ankle yesterday, so now the kids are going to a daycare.  I'm coming home to no one here. Okay, it's totally fine with me, lol.  Peace and quiet for a while. 

Ugh. I think I'm going to take a nap. Must be that old age thing. 

As much as I didn't want to go into any further debt, the teeth situation is getting a pass.  2 cracked teeth, another missing a cap, 2 fillings needed.  Those are the problem teeth and then beyond that are my front teeth which are cracked and my smile is hardly anything worth looking at.  The problem stuff will be dealt with first, which will add nothing to my smile, just make it so I won't be experiencing painful teeth problems further down the line. 

The dentist said my bite comes straight down over the bottom row of teeth, creating pressure on the teeth, which is what is causing the problems.  He will put crowns on my front 4 upper teeth and claims that he will fix the pressure problem with it.  I'm not sure about that, I don't have any kind of over bite at all and it might feel strange to have that going on in there, but something needs to be done.

Meanwhile, I get to go back to Cheneire much later on today.  That's sarcasm.  I don't want to go, but that's the way the chips fall.  It is, however, 2 short runs in a row, I fully expect a longer run after this one.   I will be getting out of there late, so I'm hopeful they won't mind me parking in their parking lot again. It's outside of the secured portion of the facility and they didn't care last time. 

The whole scenario around here has changed with both James and Taylor working. James is working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day.  I'm not really sure that's any better than what I'm doing.  In fact, I'm sure it's not.  No free time to speak of.  Work all day, come home, eat, deal with the kids, go to bed.  I'm not sure how a company expects it's workers to never get any time off..  That's just a recipe for burnout.  Sure, they need the money, but that is a bit much IMO.  Anyway, Rene is watching the boys during the daytime and making some moolah while she's at it.  I at least get a mandatory 34 hour reset if nothing else, which guarantees at least one full day off, usually 2. 

Well, I think I'ma put buying a vehicle off for a bit longer now.  I need to see what the payments are going to be on the dental loan before I get into $300 plus per month for a vehicle plus having to put full coverage insurance on it, something I don't have at the moment.  Driving an old car, it's not worth putting full coverage on it, especially considering I have a backup vehicle.  It's old too, but it runs fine.  Just doesn't have AC and I think I"m going to get that fixed soon. 

I have not, however, put off the idea of investing.  I have that money my mom gave me and I expect to be doing something about that soon enough. I'm just still undecided how to go about it. 

Well, I think I"m going to go back to sleep for a while. They woke me up early with vehicles firing up to go off to work. I have a late night coming up and I don't want to be falling asleep trying to unload the truck.

Monday evening.
I knew I wasn't going  to be sent anywhere today, my 34 hour rest didn't finish until somewhere about an hour ago - around 9:00 pm.  My manager is back, she called today. When is your reset over? It's kinda strange that she asks me that because she can see when I went off duty and how long it will take for the rest to complete.  Anyway, she wanted me to take the first run.  I bluntly stated to her again, please, that 3 am stuff kills me.  Well, the only other option is the 2:30 load.  Fine, I thought. It's going to be a late night tomorrow, but late nights don't kill me near as bad as these 3 am rises. 

I can't say either of them are good, but the worst is definitely getting up what amounts to me as the middle of the night. I never sleep good on those nights and I end up fighting to stay awake all day long, my head aches, it just sucks.  So it's the late load for me.  Probably get out of there around 5:00 pm, get to the plant around 9:00 pm, take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours to unload, then drive to a truckstop and sleep.  I'm at the bottom of the totem pole. I get the s***.  Early loads, some crappy runs, weekend work.  The longer I'm around there, the more I hear about who is doing what. 

Anyway, if those two kids start trouble with me again tomorrow night, I'm going to have my manager file a complaint with their plant.  That's all I need say about it at this point.

I started today getting up, getting the smoker fired up and putting in a large pork loin roast and a half a beef brisket in it.  Then I ran around town on errands - drop cash in the bank, internet service provider to set up auto deduct, hair cut, Kroger's, Applebee's. Almost went to the car dealership.  Instead, I went to the auto shop, got the oil changed and the fan belt replaced.  Yes, lots of pickups at this local dealership, almost guaranteed they would finance me, but I opted out of it. Fighting the urge. This car is sooo old and in such bad condition on the interior, I'm tired of driving it. It's got near 200,000 miles on it, definitely not worth dumping that much money into it to fix all of it. 

I will cross that bridge soon enough, but the biggest deterrent today was the fact that I was going to the dentist office to get a cracked tooth looked at.  I figured when the dentist came up with a plan, I would be told 8 thousand dollars and I wasn't wrong.  I need a lot of crowns, a couple of fillings and some bonding work done.  I knew about all the teeth except one.  He looked at a tooth I thought was okay and said it has 4 cracks in it, the same thing is going to happen to that tooth as is going to happen to the other one - a portion of it is going to come off. 

I wasn't shocked or dismayed. I knew what the verdict was going to be.  I figured before I went in there - this is going to be a process, but I'm going to get this rolling now. I'm not going to wait any long and I will shell out the bucks to get this stuff done.  I have 4 chipped teeth front uppers.  1 tooth where the cap came off, the tooth above it has come out enough to compensate for the tooth below that is shorter.  2 cracked teeth, 2 molars that need fillings. 

Well, I paid the bill to have the x-rays done and went home, got on the computer,  applied for CareCredit, got approved for almost the entire bill.  My teeth look bad, and some of it is going to get bad - pain - if I just let it go.  I knew all of this years ago, I just haven't had the money to deal with it. 

Anyway, I have an appointment to get the cracked one dealt with on Wednesday.  I will be making appointments for the rest of it as time permits. 

Well I have more but I'm seriously tired. Time for bed. G'day. 

I'm losing track of days.  It's Saturday, yes that's what it is.  I got back to the yard from Houston only to get a text from the interim manager.  Don't leave the yard yet!  A total guess, but immediately I knew I was going to be asked to take a trailer to the plant and preload it for someone.  I hadn't even told her I was in the yard, she obviously was monitoring me from the Quaalcom/GPS.  I had just gone off duty, actually.

Sure enough.  There is an ISO tank in the yard I need to you take to Eastman and load it for another driver.  I didn't have to look, "there is no ISO tank in the yard".  Are you sure? Positive.  Ohhh, she says, let me contact Dusty.  I told him to take the trailer to National but then I told him to just bring it back to the yard.  And yes, Dusty had gone taken the trailer to National and left it there.  She went on and on and on about how he hadn't done what she told him to do. At the end of it, I became convinced that she was just attempting to cover up her mistake.  I didn't say that to her, but what was the point in going on for several minutes like that? I certainly didn't need to hear it.

So, instead of going home after a 4 day trip and my mind and heart all set on it, I dragged my sorry @$$ back to the truck, went back on duty (had plenty of hours left, the trip from south of Little Rock back to the yard was less than 4 hours), found this ISO trailer at the repair shop (if you don't know what an ISO trailer is, simply Google ISO trailer on images, it will come up with a pic of one) , spent several minutes trying  to hook up to it. I had never hooked up to one and it was different because the front of the trailer is out of view of your mirrors.  You have to be in alignment when backing in for the kingpin on the trailer to match up to the opening on the front of the 5th wheel. I kept having to get out - like 5 times, before I finally got it right and got hooked up to it.  A bit embarrassing if only to myself because I normally can hook up to a trailer, plug in the air line and get the landing gear cranked up in a couple of minutes. I figured the guys/gals that haul these trailers have a trick for hooking up to them, I also figured I am not going to be hauling ISO trailer so why bother finding out.

Off to the plant, which is only a mile away from the repair facility.  They got to loading the trailer right away, so I thought I would be there maybe an hour and a half, a little more.  Not so fast, Benny Boy.  I got to the scale house and waited and waited and waited - well over an hour. Watching the clock tick away. My afternoon melting away into the sunset.  Why such a big deal? Because Sheila had also texted me a run for tomorrow (which is now today) - the early load.  Have to be on the scale at 5 am.  I absolutely hate the first load, I have to get up at 3 am to get everything done and get to the plant on time.  I don't do 3 am. Well I do with this company.  I hadn't had to do one in a while, it sucked as bad as I thought it would when I walked out of the house this morning, dogs in tow, took them over to the other house,  drove the 35 miles to the yard, got in the truck and, gag, I felt really bad. 

Anyway, it was an almost 2 hour wait at the scale house for the certification to come through.  I mean, I finally got up and asked how much longer it was going to take.  I don't normally do that, but my gosh, I was facing going home and basically going to bed if it was going to take much longer.  Not quite that bad, but it felt like it to me.  I was dismayed at the wait and eating up my personal time. Remember, I had just gotten back from a 4 day trip.  Well, I finally got to the other house. got my beautiful doggies, took them home and had a great time bantering back and forth with everyone. 

It then came up that James had found a job!  He went into a machine shop, had an interview and the didn't let him go home, he started right then and there!  Oh but life is going to suck for him at that place for a while.  They have a backlog going and they are working him 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.  He was cranky when he came home that day. It's only going to get worse. But, that's 44 hours per week of overtime, they will get caught up in no time.  I am wanting them to take at least one of the house utility or entertainment payments over once they do get in a better financial place because I'm paying quite a lot.  I'm around $550 a mouth.  Well maybe that's not that much, but I have all the utilities, the satellite and the internet coming direct pay out of my bank account.  I do a lot around there when I am there.  Cleaning, mowing, sweeping, etc etc. Plus the upgrades I have done to that place.

Don't take that as complaining, tho, I'm just thinking out loud it would be nice to drop about $100 per month on those payments to equalize everything out a bit.  But they're good people and now close friends and I really have desire to change my living arrangements any time soon. Grow old and die with people that care about me and me them.  That would be ideal. Whether that happens or not? No clue, not even counting on it. Life sucks at times, fastballs are thrown at you, never know what's going to happen. 

Ok, so this morning.  I get up at 3 am.  The new routine.  Shower, get dressed, make the bed - that's not new but it costs time - but, the dogs are versed in this now.  They automatically know what's going to happen. When I open the bedroom door, they aren't heading for the back door to go pee, they head for the front door because they know they are going to the other house.  This is a good thing.  Dogs like routine, I think.  I'm praying this to be a one day thing, get down there, get the truck unloaded, get back up to the yard before the clock runs out.  I was surprised when I got over there ot see Rene up and at-em.  It was 3:30 am.  What are you doing up?  She is watching the boys now during the day. She says she needs to get up that early to get prepared  So even when she isn't going over there to watch the boys, she is still getting up that early. Whatever suits her fancy.  At 3:30 am, I am in bed, sleeping or attempting to sleep.  Unless work lol.

Off to work, had already hooked the truck up to the trailer yesterday, to the plant.  Got in and out of there in 2 hours, pretty reasonable for that place. A bit over 4 hours to the plant and then?  Yea.  Clusterfreak. I was there an hour and a half before we finally got to hooking up the trailer.  I'm getting good at it.  At the places where I am responsible for the truck end of unloading - of which this one is - I can get that thing hooked up and get the pressure up in no time on most trailers.  So ti was. but I knew I was screwed for getting home for the amount of time I sat there, after checking in, waiting for them to come out and get this going.  Still, I felt good about my performance, I had that thing up and cranking quickly.  Strive for excellence. In the totally unknown world of cryogenics, might take a while to get there, but yes, that's what I'm striving for. 

We got that Ethylene dumped out of there quickly, and hour and 15 minutes, then pumped the pressure out of it, well some of it, we are never totally without pressure.  I looked at the clock.  Awe. I'm not going to make it back today.  Drove around the back of this place through a veritable maze, back on the scale. This dude running the plane, I had to go back into the control room says: "That's the fasted unload I have ever seen". I figured he was fooling around with me.  No, seriously, that is by far the fastest I have ever seen here.  I uhh, thought about that for a moment. Okay, thank you, I'll take that as a compliment!

I got out of there and on the road and fatigue set in quickly. Serious fatigue, like, I should pull over to the side of the road and rest for a few minutes.  But, I came up with a plan.  Well I had 2 plans. Either make it to Lufkin where i would totally run out of hours or stop at Livingston where there is a truck stop and a hotel right next to it.  A hotel. Like a dream come true.  I made it to the truckstop in Livingston and said enough.  It was almost 13 hours on duty anyway.  Only had another hour's worth, what's the point? It'll take 2 hours to get to the yard in the morning, I'll feel much better.  I truly feel. I mean, I was totally dragging when I pulled into the truck stop, parked the truck, left it idling tho, went to get a room, went to the BBQ joint and got some fine, smoked meats, got into the room and collapsed on the bed.  Its just an old motel.  It's nothing fancy, they attempted to upgrade this room  but failed lol, still not that bad. It doesn't smell and the carpet looks new even tho some person dumped what appears to be a vile of ink on the carpet.  The bathroom much better than expected, updated and no mold/miildew.  The Dish Network works, it has a fridge and a mircowave, the bed is comfortable, the AC works, I'm good.  I'm literally laying in bed typing this, I'm just out of it.  But, the sun is still up, it's much too early to go to sleep. 

Oh, "the other guy" living there also scored a job.  But, it's with Halliburton and rest assured, they work your butt off.  He hasn't had a job in a couple of years I think.  He's been just hanging out and not really doing much.  I dunno about that job starting back to work after that much time off. 

I'm really, really tired.  I hate feeling like this.  I'm going to sleep as soon as it gets dark. I don't care what time I get up, either.  I could get home early if I want. But what's the rush? If I sleep well here, I'm staying here until 7 or 8.  I've only got 7 hours left on my 70 hours so I have to have a 34 hour reset.  I can't go back to work until Monday.  I'll take a run if she asks me to Monday morning.  I would rather have a couple days off and then go back to work, but after she had me sitting for 6 days, better off taking whatever she has when she has it. 

That catches me up on my life as it goes.  Thoughts of property fill my mind.  50 acres at least, 100 better.  My credit is starting to rise.  I see how it's working. As each month of the late payments on the mortgage fall off their horizon from however long ago, a couple years now?  it comes up slightly. They say it should be at 97% on time payments for good credit. I'm up to 90% now. 

My son has contacted me in quite a while.  We were going to do emails to make it more convenient to talk, so that started. I sent him the last 2 emails - quite a while back now - with no response.  I"m giving up on it.  Let him go.  When he decides he wants to communicate with his parents, he will. I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't call my parents at least once a month and when email came out, much more frequent communication.  I can't hold it against him. I just figure it's a time of life.  He got married, he's got a full time job, he's studying at the college and he's got a wife.  I figure a person could squeeze out an email at the very least once a month, but that's me and obviously not him.  I spent my free time raising my son, giving to him whatever I had to impart.  Just makes me sad. 

It's also the reason I am living several states away and with people that show me love on an unconditional basis and love me as family. 

______________________

Okay, this is the same night - fixing to go to bed - but something amazing.  This post hasn't been published so even more amazing to me.  My son just called me!  Amazing, cool, nice conversation.  Anyway, just a bit odd that I was speaking about this here and while writing it he calls?  Really wonderful to connect iwth him tho.  Very nice.  And with that, I'm off to sleep land. 

I got called up at 6:30 am.  It was the safety guy.  He's not in any way involved with dispatch, so I don't know why this Sheila person is contacting him to contact me.  In the time it took her to write him that email, she could have just contacted me directly.  They wanted me to take a trailer down to Houston to have a "Visual" done on it. That's both doing the annual inspection required by the Feds and an inspection of the unit on the cryogenics level.  So I obviously got out of bed and got moving, drove down there, got the inspection done and got back up here in time for another load in the morning.

Which, never materialized.  I have zero knowledge of what's going on.  I do have this inkling - again - to start looking for a new job.
___________________

Oops, as bit behind on my blog. Well I did go down to Houston, got that trailer inspected  and back up to the yard. Then, the next morning Sheila calls me: I need your help with something. I new it would be a trip somewhere, so I immediately agreed. Turned out to be a whopper of a trip.  Bobtail to Nashville (bobtailing means driving with the tractor only, no trailer), pick up a trailer and head to West Virginia with it/ Turns out a driver had his truck break down.  I pulled into that truck yard at something like 630 miles of driving that day, hooked onto the trailer and dragged it out of the secured yard.  I wanted to leave early, didn't want to be stuck in there.

Fortunately for me, there was a restaurant right there, so I grabbed a bite, went to bed and then got on over to WV.  I'm on the last leg of this adventure, sitting in a small fuel station parking lot in Malvern, Arkansas.  This tiny place actually had showers, of which I needed one badly lol.  I don't always get a shower every day on the road, much to my chagrin, but that's because I am finding the big brand truck parking lots full by the time I get stopped. Everyone is blaming it on elogs, I've had elongated conversations with truck drivers about this debate, turns out they are just cheating on their logs - or have been on paper logs anyway - elogs forces them to keep it honest.

I dunno, but you can count on truck stop parking lots filling up early nowadays and don't even bother trying after 7 or 8 pm.  They are full.  I have a couple of apps that I use to find alternate parking places, usually not truck stops but who cares when you need a place to park and sleep for the night. That also means, however, not getting a shower.  I passed by a Love's earlier, 6 pm - it was completely full.  So, I used that app to find this place today. There is a HUGE truckstop up the road, but it's hardly got any asphalt, it's mostly dirt and it's been raining. I didn't even bother looking, I always have to get out of the truck after driving, no way am I going to sludge around in mud.  But, that place proabably has room for at least 500 trucks.  It's just a vast open lot, and I do mean vast.  It's got fuel and a restaurant at the front. I would have pulled in there for no way it's full at 6:00 pm. 

Okay, well anyway, James found a job today. He went in for an interview and they didn't let him leave lol. He went straight to work. Hopefully he can make it work there instead of going OTR, though every time I ask him about it, he has his heart set on OTR. Yet, if he found a decent place and good money, perhaps he would just stick with it.  Rene is going to watch the kids and the other guy is still looking for a job.

So, there it is.  I'm going to text Sheila tomorrow morning - please do not leave me hanging for 6 days again, I need to work, thanks. Send me out Monday at the lastest, please and thank you.

As for the morning, I could leave around 4:15 am.  I think I will just get out of here around 5:30 am.  I need some sleep.  I took a nap on my mandated 30 minute break this afternoon and fell in to a deep sleep.  Thank goodness I set the alarm, I don't know how long I would have slept before waking up. I had the curtain closed to the sleeper and that keeps it pitch black in here.  Here, is where I am now, the sleeper, cause I'm fixing to go to bed early  It's 8:30 pm and if I go to bed now, getting up early wont' be such a problem.

G'nite. 

Sunday evening.
Likely won't be going back out again until Tuesday morning.  So, I've had a week off. Didn't want it, could have taken a vacation with it if I had known in advance.

But, maybe I'll have time to get something done about a bad tooth.  It was filled when I was 15 or something like that.  Well, a whole portion of the tooth broke off yesterday.  Just out of the blue, not even chewing on anything.  I've got lots of teeth problems.  I've let it go. Chipped teeth, probably some fillings need to be done, some fillings that need to be redone.  I was already informed 3 or 4 years ago that the best option would be to have a realignment of my mouth by putting caps on all of my teeth.  18 thousand dollars, no thanks.  But, they haven't gotten any better. I really dread going into any dentist office at the moment, I know they will have nothing but bad news for me.

But go I must.  I can't just leave that like that. It will rot out and I will end up having to have the tooth pulled. Heck, they might have to pull it out anyway.  And then, I'm walking around without one of my teeth. That will look sooooo pretty!

As for today?  Well, we tried one more time to hitch Addler up with the Dane in heat.  She wasn't having any of him.  I mean we tried, definitely.  1st over at the other property, then over here, then the guy left him with me in hopes the dog would relax.  It took hours for her to relax, but that didn't mean she wanted anything to do with Addler.  I can tell ya Addler tried for hours and eventually gave up on it.  I mean, just flat laid down on the ground, worn out, panting, went to sleep lol.  So, fail the second week in a row.  I know Addler will do it cause' he was doing Aspyn when she was in heat before we got her fixed.

Meanwhile, the guest that moved in here is - still here.  I'm guessing he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, either.  It's neither here nor there for me. I have my  room, my own personal bathroom, I'm good. What it may mean in extra utilities is unknown until the end of May.  It will cost more tho. I have ample experience with that in renting out rooms.  The electric bill highly likely to go up irrelevant, as they are leaving lights on all over the house and leaving doors open.  I'm not going to complain - yet. That bill is coming out of my pocket, I'd like to see people shutting off lights in rooms that are not being used at the moment and shutting the door.  There is a glass door in front of the wood door in the front and a storm type door behind the wood door in the back. Closing both doors is optimal, especially when running AC.

Again, nothing to seriously complain about unless the electric bill goes up substantially.

Drama.
Not really interested in it, but I was subjected to it last night. I wasn't any part of it, but I had to sit there and listen to all of it. One of James friends was over where the drama began with his wife texting Taylor and asking her why she had asked James friend to come over?

It went down hill - wayyyyy downhill - from there.  At the end of it all, the man was told to get his stuff and get out.  All 3 of them left, I just sat there wondering how that could go that far south in such a short period of time.  He got his guns and ammo - fearing she would sell them or otherwise remove them from the premises, a few basic things and they call came back around midnight. 

I went to bed after that.  I had agreed to listen for the boys if they happened to awake, which thankfully they did not.  What happens today with all of this I have no clue, whatsoever.  Obvious issues within that marriage, James friend that is, but none of my business really. 

Anyway, my manager is out of duty for a while.  Understandable with her father passing and a very close relationship. What got left out in the process of handing drivers over to the interim manager is that they didn't have my phone number and therefore assumed I was on vacation.  I'm not sure what not having a phone number has to do with a vacation, but I emphatically informed them that I did not ask for time off, couldn't afford time off and need to work.  I was polite, don't worry, I didn't make any threats of quitting tho the thought certainly crossed my mind. 

This company really is very unorganized.  They have their stuff together as far as knowing about hazmat and having all the proper licenses and permits, knowledge of the industry, but when it comes to employees, they aren't even close to be on track with anything.  It isn't the worst thing in the world and much of it, I am guessing, has to do with the company I am working for being acquired by a much larger company.  But I believe that was years ago and I would think with the passage of time that they would have had all of those details worked out.

It's too soon to look for another job anyway.  I need a year there before I think about doing that.  Preferably 2 years and some experience showing on my resume with hazmat tankers.  A week off isn't going to kill my finances. Not at all, in fact I'm not concerned about going "broke" right now at all. But it's some serious money towards savings that I won't be getting.  But it's a foregone conclusion that I won't be going back to work until Tuesday morning.  The weekend loads are handed out on Friday, including Monday.  These corporate and office people don't work on weekends, or certainly want their time involved with any workplace interaction severely limited, so all work is handed out in advance. Not to mention the plant office is skeleton crew as well, it's just how they have it worked out, tho that plant is open and running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year excepting for scheduled maintenance shut down.  I think. 

But I let them know I hadn't asked for time off, I wasn't on vacation and tho I had made good use of the time, I needed to work.  They are going to need to send me on a 3 or 4 day run next week is all I can say about that. . Perhaps someone will bow out of a load and I can take one sooner.  Tho I have plans for today now that I know I'm not going to be working.  Namely, spraying both properties with tick/flea killer in the yards. The dogs are getting affected by it and I need to deal with it.  I was informed by 2 pest control companies that they were going to charge me $199 and $169 respectively for each property.  Totally unacceptable.  I'm not going to spend almost $400 to have 2 properties sprayed, end of story.

Last year, I sprayed this property myself and the problem of mosquitoes, especially, was kept at bay.  I was just short of shocked to hear them telling me with a straight voice that they wanted that much money to spray a property that would likely take them less than 15 minutes to accomplish and probably ten dollars worth of product.  So, that's what I'm doing. 2 large garden hose spray jugs of poison, $15 a piece and another hose to be able to reach all portions of the properties.  Cost me around $80, will work just fine and will save a ton of money. 

Well, I guess if they called me today to go out I would just go ahead and take the run anyway.  But, it's after 10 am and that isn't very likely at this hour of the day. 

Anyway, I paid most of my bills already for the coming month.  Mortgage not included, but that money is coming in in a few days and so is the money for the other property here.  There are bills that come at the end of the month - for next month - but by then I will have made up for this loss I am currently experiencing.

I don't suppose much else.  Just cleaning stuff today.  I came out of my bedroom this morning to an unmitigated disaster in the kitchen, so I cleaned it all up.  They made dinner, I figured it was my part to go ahead and clean all of that mess up.  They stayed up very late, much later than me, probably discussing the friend's marital situation, fortunately my ear plugs and fan muted that noise and I slept right through it.  I'm still attempting to decide how to enter the stock market on my own without going through 401k.  So far, I am pretty much not doing anything but research, looking up websites, reading articles, etc. 

I want to start out with $500 and see what happens, but not haphazardly just dump it into a stock somewhere and hope it goes up in some set amount of time.  My mother suggested CD's - she's been doing those for decades, but the rate of return isn't enough.  Another thought I had was to rent some sort of dwelling structure and then sub rent it.  But, that's kind of risky out here. It would be unknown if I could get tenants to fill up the room and if not, I'm stuck renting a place I'm not using. In phoenix, if I had a second property, I could easily fill it up.  As long as the place is decent and has all the perks, you can rent a room within 24 hours of it vacating.  In fact, you end up with a list of people you can rent it out to and you have to make a decision based on interaction with them.  Anyway, I thought about a couple homes in the immediate area of my house there, but I think they are doing as much as they can right now maintaining my property and adding something on would probably be too much for them.

Tho, the incentive would be that they would end up paying nothing for anything in the house they are living in now.  As it stands, I think I have them down to $200 per month. 

No hurry to do the wrong thing.

Score.
Hooked the trailer up to the Jeep, drove the  65 miles to get the dresser and wow, was it worth the drive!  I was amazed at the quality of it and the fact they weren't asking that much for it. $240.  I imagined the thing was worth at least a grand.  It's absolutely an amazing piece of furniture, I dunno if hand crafted or not but definitely on the higher end of the quality scale. Near perfect condition, a few very minor blemishes that can be covered over with treatment. 

Brought that thing home and then the lady texted me.  It was nice talking to you, you seem like a very nice person. I actually bought that dresser 14 years ago and paid $2,700 for it at the time.  They easily could have gotten $500 for it.  But, they appeared to be well off considering the house they live in and the cars parked in their driveway, an older retired couple.  I was shocked at the price tag, and the fact it was that long ago they paid that much for it. 

What can I say? Sometimes you score things in life, right place at the right time, etc.  I didn't really look all that long for this, either. I just got on Craigslist, scrolled through a bunch of junky looking particle board disasters and then saw this beauty sitting there, calling my name.  The price tag was good.  Note that I did not have a dresser before this.  I was hanging everything in my closet and I really need that closet space for other stuff.  So, in my room and bathroom, i have a brand new toilet, vanity, bed, computer chair and now this wonderful dresser.  The only other thing that i intend on getting now is a large screen TV.  Not a priority, but the prices of these large flat screens have come down substantially. 

Well that's my excitement for today.  I was going to get out and mow the lawn, but I changed my mind.  I figure to rest the rest of the day, I would be surprised if I didn't get a text with a load going out tomorrow.  I've been off 2 days. I would surely love another day off, but the finances don't work out if I do that.  Well, they do, I just don't save anything. 

I get hit with a lot of bills every month, 3 houses worth. But one house more than pays for itself, the second I'm contributing a couple hundred a month in exchange for watching my dogs and this one, I pay all the bills except the mortgage as my monthly rent.  It's a bit high at this house, but it's only temporary.  I figured to give $500 per month for my living quarters plus helping with food and necessities in the house after they both have jobs.

She is working, he went in for another job interview today.  He had no word either way of whether they were going to hire him or not.  A local job, imo, would be far better for him than going OTR.

Well ain't that cozy.  Another trucking company calling me begging me (literally, she sounded desperate) to come work for them. Just another mega-carrier.  They don't pay anything, you aren't home much and your quality of life goes down with both the low pay and in frequent home time. No thanks. 

Pleasant surprise today when I went to pay my mortgage online.  I had a message in red letters saying property taxes had been paid and my payment amount had been updated.  I was thinking, red letters, this is going to be bad.  Instead, it came down $100 per month!

Ugh, but I just got off the phone with my mortgage company and found out the insurance they have on the house ONLY covers the house.  No damage, theft, nothing.  So, that became my project for today, find a new insurance company, of which I believe I have found and at half the price. If that works out then my payment is going to come down another $100 per month, putting my mortgage at near $700 with escrow.  That's pretty awesome.

I'm kinda just rambling here.  I've got to get that toilet replaced. I got the new one, just sitting there. I actually was able to stop the leak on the old one so I kinda lost motivation.  But, I definitely need to put the new one in, not only because I bought the thing but also because this old one doesn't flush very well. I mean, this is old technology here.

Nothing really new going on here.  I thought I was going to get sent out this morning, but that didn't happen.  I'm ready to go out on another run, need the dough.  Saving money for retirement, paying off debt slowly and attempting to save for a vehicle.  I mean, even if I don't pay cash for a vehicle, I want enough down money that the payment will be low and the length of it will be 3 years,.  I'm basically trying to save up 8 grand for that project - I may be able to find a decent pickup for that money and not have to get into a loan at all.

Day 2 of being off.  I kinda like having the days off, but it almost guarantees I will be working through the weekend.  I am cutting the manager some slack since her father just passed away and she is busy making funeral arrangements and family and such.  I'm not sure how she can even do her job while having to do deal with all of that plus grief at the same time.  They do have people at the corporate office that can fill in for her in just such occasions.

But, that's none of my business. Just at this point, I'm going to need a longer run, a couple thousand miles worth would be good.  Get some miles racked up towards next paycheck. 

So, I am about to get off of here and get ready to take a trip to a town about 60 miles away.  I found a beautiful dresser on Craigslist - I have no dresser in this room/house and I desperately need one. This is more antique vintage, in perfect condition and they only want $240 for it.  Guaranteed it's worth at least twice that if not more. I'll post pics of it on my FB wall if/when I get the thing back here. It's supposedly very heavy, but they said they would help me load it on the trailer.  I hope so, cause I sure as heck can't put it on there myself.  It's too far away to ask anyone to go with me - probably close to 3 hours round trip by the time it's all said and done, but well worth it for the quality and the beauty of it.  Must needs to get moving here~!

The City showed up yesterday after taking the water meter reading. I didn't get the personal attention, James did.  Just letting you know, y'all are using 28,000 gallons of water per month, which is a huge spike from the 5,000 you normally use.

I knew what it was right off: the toilet in my personal bathroom. Unbeknownst to me, the thing had been leading the entire time Rene was in here. She turned the water valve on and off instead of asking me to fix it.  Well, anyway, I was looking at it yesterday. The flapper valve was very bad, but the seal below it also no good.  Meaning taking the toilet apart to fix it.

Nix that.  I'm going to replace the entire toilet, hopefully today.  I'm off for a second day, which I'm definitely not going to complain about.  That will be the extent of my goals today besides minor things.  I fully expect to be sent out somewhere tomorrow, likely a 3 day trip.  So I'm not going to wear myself out doing stuff around the house.  James is still...

________________________

Got completely sidetracked. That was days ago.  I got a phone call writing the post - can you please run down to Houston?  I had a last minute load thrown at me.  Uhhh, I guess.  I was not in the mind frame of going to work.  It persisted throughout the day.  I got up to Tulsa area late, so i didn't do my bowling and mexican food restaurant thing, I just found an abandoned truck stop that I knew about and parked there for the night.  It really sucks, tho, getting a call that you are needed to go out that same day, in a few hours at that. 

But went I did, got up the next morning, headed up to the plant from where I had been parked and waited. And waited. And waited some more.  2 trucks ahead of me, but it shouldn't have taken 10 hours to get them unloaded and then to me. They changed how they deal with the pressure after unloading trucks. Instead of burning it off on a flare, they send it back through the system to recompress the vapor back into liquid. It is a very elongated process that takes hours to accomplish.  I had no idea I would be sitting there literally allllll day long. 

By the time I got out of there, it was 5:15 pm. I had 4 hours left on the clock to drive, so i took off, hoping to at least get beyond the Indian Nation Turnpike and not have too much left to drive this morning.  Well, I ended up at the Choctaw travel center near Durant, Ok.  And low and behold, right next to it? A rather large casino, this right near the state line. I got the truck parked and debated with myself whether to go in and play a few rounds of blackjack.

Haven't been in a casino in what, a couple of years?  I couldn't resist.  I got $200 out of the ATM, sat down as a lone player at a $5 minimum bet table and went to town.  I was having great fun just playing against the dealer, a thing in the past I never really liked.  This went on for an hour and I was up $400 before 2 people showed up at the same time, sat down, and yes, ruined the table.  Bad choices, but I still was winning enough to not lose everything I had just won.

They eventually got up and left, I stuck around, got my winnings up over $600, went on a losing streak, down to $400 and decided I wanted to leave there with more than I walked in with, so I cashed out.  Walked over to Chili's - it's right there, in the casino - had a nice salad and then went back to the truck and went to sleep.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable visit and i was glad I had gone. The place didn't reek of cigarette smoke, either, as many other casinos do, even tho plenty of people were smoking in there.  Just denotes that they invested in a good system to take out the smoke. 

Whatever the case, got up just before my 10 hour mandatory rest break was up, got myself in gear, got the truck in gear and drove back to town. Just in time for another driver who was looking for that trailer - I should have been back last night but obviously that wasn't happening.

I went to Home Depot, got a new toilet for my personal bathroom  - a pretty decent one with good flushing power for $119 and tax - then headed to Starbuck's to get Taylor a Frappucino, back to town. Lots of running around later and I'm sitting here laughing at the old toilet. The new flapper valve I put in there apparently decided it was going to conform itself to the seal it goes into and now it isn't leaking lol.  I'm not regretting getting a new toilet.  The old one doesn't flush very well and doesn't, therefore, clean out the bowl very well.  But, I am not going to do that today. I do have tomorrow off and I have a run going out on Monday down to Brownsville, a run I very much like because it's good miles and at least half the time good detention hours, tho admittedly the last two times I've been down there, there was a trailer waiting for me and I didn't get any detention hours out of it.  Still, the miles are good and it keeps it  2 days.

No dinner planned here.  I got in too late to think about defrosting something. But lo and behold, there is still a bunch of that Ribeye roast left and after having a couple bites, it's still just as wonderful as the day I smoked it.  So I'm going to have that an veggie for dinner and then pull out some ribs for dinner tomorrow. I intend on smoking them and still adding some BBQ sauce at the end of the smoke. 

It's 2:30 now.  Undecided whether to carry on with productivity or relax.  Dogs want to relax, lol. Got them shortly after I got home, gave the drink to Taylor and unloaded the toilet.  Addler about jumped over the fence when I showed up over there. 

A few other things.  I'm thinking about taking an ankle deep wade into the stock market. Plenty of apps to help with that, Ameritrade has one for starters.  A few others as well.  You don't have to start out with  pumping a lot of money into it, just get my feet wet and see if i can learn about it.  I think there are online courses I can take. I dunno. Not looking to be a day trader but definitely looking to broaden my horizons with investments.  Now that I'm making a lot more money that is.  Savings are good too, yes.  That's going full blown all out at the moment.  In total I'm having around 17% of my paychecks going into either 401k or savings account.  I am not missing the money. I'm thinking of upping it to around 25% and see if I can live without it. 

Rental properties are still on the goal list, but I'm kinda starting to get old.  I'm still working on getting my credit score up.  I've noted that it's going to take about 15 more months before most of those late mortgage payments go away and my late payments are down to the point that I'm at a high percent of on time payments.  Currently it shows 90%, they want it at around 96 to 97%.  I'm still paying down debt, that will take a while too. 

I am also planning a trip - no date yet - to Phoenix  I wouldn't mind including a trip over to California on that itinerary to visit the beach.  Or even take off from phoenix to Ireland.  Pricing is pretty cheap right now, 3 or 4 days visiting over there wouldn't hurt me : )  I got that passport for a reason, I'd love to put it to good use.  I've got money now, a helluva lot more than that loser job of 12 years was giving me.  There are tradeoffs in this job, but I'm slowly getting used to it.  The tradeoff being no being home every night and weekends no longer sacred. 

I was approached this morning at a truck stop I had stopped for fuel at in Paris. Not France, lol, but I laugh every time I drive through that town.  No fake Eiffel tower anywhere, either, haha.  Anyway, he points to his truck parked in the parking lot - i was in the fueling lanes - and I immediately recognized it.  One of our parent company's other divisions.  He was asking about our division.  He said he had just bought property in lakeport and talking about having to be out 3 weeks in a row and how bad it s.  Lol, I laughed, no I'm not out 3 weeks at a time after he asked. I get home after every trip. The longest trip I've been on was 3 nights/4 days.  Most of them shorter. Even if I have to go on a trip the next day, I still go home that night. 

I told him they were looking for a few more drivers and had actually borrowed a few trucks/drivers from your division to keep up with the workload.  He can make the same amount of money or more at our division and get home FAR more frequently.  But, that's up to him to pursue it, I just gave him the info.

Anyway, I can take solace in the fact that I could have it much worse in terms of work schedule.  And I'm making more than double what I used to.  Quality of life has improved without having to worry about paying bills and buying the things I need to buy, such as this toilet.  And being able to buy some things I want. 

With that, I'm ending this one. Still haven't decided what to do with the rest of today, lol. 

Mid week.
I got called out on what I had hoped would be a day off after a co worker called in for need to go see a doctor.
It was a relatively short run, 2 days, still worth around $700.  I went up to my usual parking spot next to the bowling alley, but didn't go bowling this time neither did I get a hotel room,.  The rate at that hotel goes up and down - substantially - on any given day.  There is a Days Inn on the other side of that bowling alley and looks as tho there is room for a truck to park there as well.  I haven't actually done the hotel thing in a while now on any of these runs.

That mostly due to the fact that time didn't permit.  I mostly only want to do a hotel if there is ample time to stay at it, ie: I got there early to mid afternoon (destination) the day before delivery.  I didn't really show up up there that early, as it was a later load time and it took over 3 hours to get loaded. 

Anyway, no issues on that trip.  By the time I got back to the yard yesterday, I noticed I was almost out of available hours.  Meaning I've been doing some serious running the last 8 days.  So, that forced the issue of a 34 hour reset and hence, I am home today, probably not tomorrow however.  For whatever reason, we are extremely busy and there isn't any time off being given excepting of course for the forced time off we have to take.

I suppose a 3 day run would be nice and get home to have Sunday off.  I'd really like to go to church.  I'd really also like 2 days off in a row.  I guess that's not going to happen anytime soon.  But a nice dream. 

I am currently saving for a trip to Phoenix. I haven't been there in something like 2 years.  I would like to take a look at the property - tho I know it's being maintained very nicely.  See some friends, stay with mom a couple days, see my son and visit him and his new wife at their digs in Tempe.  I've got to save up not only for a trip, but also for the days off that i won't get paid for.  But a few weeks running like I have been pretty much pays for it and then some. 

Meanwhile, taking advantage of today. I've put off store visits for a bit because - I get home from these trips and need down time.  But, you can only do that so long before the pressure of things you need to get done take precedence. Such as a hair cut, things for the truck, things for the house, groceries, etc.  So, off to the races!