I texted my manager about getting another day off and therefore not having to go back to work any earlier than Wednesday.  She hasn't responded yet - she's always busy, always on conference calls, or talking to drivers with problems, or people in her office.
She's pretty well over worked.  My issues with this company are not really about her at all.  In fact, she really needs an office assistant, there's just no way around that.  Her days off she still gets driver calls and texts for problems or needing a hotel room or this and that.  I don't envy her position.  If she says no, it's no, I'll go back to work tomorrow quite begrudgingly, get in the truck and drive.

Regardless of when I go back to work, I really want short runs. Brownsville is a short run.  2 days, one overnight.  I mean short in terms of time out, not distance traveled.
Cheniere is a short run tho as anyone that has read this blog for a well knows, I hate that place.  Destined to get another run there sooner or later and also to drive down to Corpus Cristi whenever that plant fires up and load them up as well.

Whatever the case, that Washington run was a very limited thing that happens only once every few years.  They just don't use that much Ethylene apparently and the product is keep cool in double lined vacuum jackets.  I personally can't see ethylene sitting around for years without it heating up unless they have a way to refrigerate it back down tho.  But who am I, I'm hardly an expert on this stuff.  Definitive learning experience.

Meanwhile, I get a call from Taylor at 7:45 am.  I was sleeping, yes, I sleep much better at home in my own bed than I do in that truck.  Hotels are the only exception while on the road, I usually sleep well in a hotel bed unless it's a lumpy, bad bed or there are people making too much noise.  Anyway, she actually had tried to call twice, I had the ringer off but the vibrating thing was on and eventually woke me up.  The baby is sick, throwing up at the daycare. Gag.

She just started a new job, they are broke because of a gap in employment between the 2 jobs - but she still tried to find someone to babysit him.   The daycare had called her and said they couldn't deal with him like that.  I agreed to watch him - but boy am I paying for that. He isn't throwing up, he's got bad diahrea.  I'm no fan of changing diapers, but this kind  of mess is even worse.  But, she's a very close friend and I am happy to help her when I can.  Just not something I would want to do very often, at least not while the boy is sick like that.  He's 1 year old and change, he can't even talk yet to let anyone know what he needs.

Anyway, I changed him 3 times after he got home and then he started getting reaaaaaalllllyyyy cranky and crying and fussing, so I put him to bed - that after trying to give him milk and something to eat to make sure that wasn't the problem, but with the runs, he probably has an upset stomach.  So, he's been sleeping for a little over 3 hours, thank God, I'm sure there will be a mess to clean up when he wakes up but at least I got that much of a reprieve from it. 4-1/2 more hours and she'll be home to deal with this.

They aren't really going through such a great spell in life right now, with expenses mounting.  The washing machine started leaking. It's had several problems since they came back. The dryer timer is malfunctioning. They decided to go get a new set on credit.  I know those days - no money, but the need is great.  You can't have a family of 4 without having a washer and dryer set unless you want to spend a lot of time at the laundromat.  I would have financed the purchase myself if they hadn't been able to get a place to give them a loan.  Preferred not to, but I can't be living here without a washer and dryer.  It takes way too much time to go to a laundromat versus having it here and being able to do other stuff while doing laundry.

Hopefully nothing else goes bad, but unless the AC quits, everything else is in good working order and even if it went bad, wouldn't cost much to fix or replace.  I had found a used set at an appliance store for a very good price, but she balked at the 30 day warranty.  I admit that isn't much of a warranty, but you figure if it's going to go out, it would do it within the 30 days.  I've had great luck buying people's used sets, they just want to upgrade if you are getting it from a wealthier family.  But this was at a store, that does give financing.  Anyway, they did what they wanted to do and I'm fine with that.  It's not on me, I have enough bills to cover, no, they didn't ask for my help and they mostly don't. They are quite independent people that really don't want handouts from anyone, they want to make it on their own. They both have great work ethics, there isn't really anything to complain about them at all.  They do the best they can with what they've got.

Well, there sort of goes my day anyway.  The reason I asked for another day off, I want one where I can go out and do stuff. I'm not totally complaining tho.  It's raining outside, just a lazy day.  I was going to make Salisbury steak tonight, but that plan is nixed since I can't go to the store.  Just going to have to find something to make that is already here.  Rene should be able to come over tomorrow after she gets her pre op stuff done and after she takes Aspyn to the vet - she needs a heartworm shot.  Mosquitoes around here are terrible.  Dogs get heartworm all the time if they aren't regularly treated.

Well that was easy. I buy rib eyes when they are on sale, there's numerous packages of them in there.  Just pulled out a 3 pack and walaah.  Bake some potatoes, throw in a veggie, grill the steaks and there you have it.

Well here we go with Sunday morning. Sleeping in until almost 10 am felt really good!  Tomorrow I'm asking Ann for a 3rd day off.  I really need a break from this rat race.  If I didn't go back to work until Friday it wouldn't bother me in the least. Of course, it might affect my paycheck....

But I did get up and fire up the smoker.  Wasn't sure I wanted to do that until I walked outside. Very nice! 73 degrees. A bit muggy but still feels good, that motivated me to fire the thing and let it smoke a while before putting anything in there. I just repainted it before I left on that last run and tho I didn't paint the interior, I still want to make sure any bad stuff is burned out of there. 

Maybe another half hour and then I can put my rack of ribs and my small roast in there, then find the recipe for the spicy meatloaf.  I think that only takes like 2 hours to cook so no hurry there. 

And that may be the extent of my doings for today. Tomorrow I can get down to business and get some stuff done. 

Okay, I might go up to Walmart and try to get some Koi again.  They don't exactly come rushing to the aquariums whenever you go in there to buy some.  In fact, you can push the button and not have anyone show up for at least 10 minutes.  Last time, I waited so long I just walked out of the store with nothing.  I didn't buy anything else and I can assure you, I am attempting to make Walmart lessor of a stop on my list than it used to be.  They run the mom and pops out of business and town, the money doesn't go back into the local economy it goes to the corporate giant. They may have great prices on things, but as long as I'm making decent money, I'll pass on it as much as I can.

On that note, there is a local company that is hiring drivers. It isn't hazmat or tankers and it doesn't pay as much - but - home every weekend and still making around 60 to 65 k per year.  I'm still trying to make it a year here at this current place, they don't make it any easier by rolling out new stringent rules about getting bonuses.  Staying out of accidents and incidents should count for something, that's what the ultimate goal of safety is. 

I'm going to try, after a year at this place and if I last that long, to find local tanker jobs.  It's worth a try at least.  Before delving into something completely different that doesn't pay as much. 

But enough of that and this entry, I'm going to relax and enjoy my day off : )

4 days since my last post.  I got up Wednesday morning early, went to the Dutch Bros. coffee across the street - 24 hour place, constant line, 24 hours a day, amazing considering this isn't a really big town or anything - got a coffee and a latte.  Got in the truck, got over to the plant. It's just on the other side of the Columbia River.  I mean, you get across the river, take the exit right there, and a few miles down along the river is this plant. 

The first thing I discovered was ample room for one of the new trailers.  I mean, whoever told my manager that this place isn't big enough to maneuver one of these things around in there?  Not a truck driver.  That's all I can say about it.  I found out later that the person that told her that no longer works for the company.  This plant hasn't been fired up in a year, well 10 months I think.  So, starting it up? Of course! It's going to be an elongated, wait forever delay.  I had no doubts about this which is why I took 2 coffees with me. 

But I hadn't slept well, the over pressuring on the tank was keeping me up and I felt like crap that morning.  Hours and hours sitting there, waiting on them to get their act together and get this place up and running so we could unload this trailer and I could get the Hercules out of there.  Finally get the product flowing - but their pressure was high.  Meaning I had to get mine really high to pump it into their system.  It took forever. I was at that plant for almost 8 hours.  That's a regular working day for a lot of people.  Not for me.  Got done with that place and hoofed it down the road.

But you know? I was exhausted and worn out.  I drove 210 miles and pulled into a truckstop and slept - over slept - actually - for the night.  3 days after that and I am finally home. 

Lots I could tell about the route back, but I'm just burned out from that trip and I just want to relax. Of course, getting back to the yard, I found a notice to all employees in my mailbox.  They "changed" their bonus requirements.  One of them I found laughable. If you get an overspeed "event", you won't get a bonus and you won't get one for 3 full periods after that.  Overspeed is when you are going over the company speed limit to the point the system automatically engages a "critical event" advisory and sends it to the company. Yes folks, you go 3 miles an hour over the speed limit of 65 mph and you get an over speed event and you lose your bonus for a long, long time. 

I'm sorry, but this company isn't worthy of my driving for it.  This is just  a copout, a way to say we don't want to give out bonuses so you have to be a perfect little driving angel and make no mistakes, whatsoever, or you're toast.  I've had 2 of these instances. The last one, I had the trailer brakes locking up for a few seconds coming to a stop at a light - a light where the speed limit is 75mph - yes even through the intersection.  It turned yellow, I knew I wouldn't get stopped in time without cranking on the brakes (oh, I was going 64mph, the highest speed that truck will go except for gravity pulling it down a hill).  Anyway, there was a car sitting right there at the edge of the intersection.  I thought, I'm not blowing this light with that car sitting there, that person pulls out and we're both going to have a very bad day.

So, I get dinged for using my best judgement.  I actually had to give an explanation to the company about why I had a "hard braking event".  This place can go screw themselves.  I'm going to try and last the full year that I had previously I was going to at least do, which I think is 3 more months and then I'm going full scale into looking for a new job.  Screw their purchase program, screw them. Big brother watching over your shoulder?  You don't even know what it's like to have this system recording every single freaking thing you are doing in the truck.  It's ridiculous and it's outrageous, IMO.

The CEO of this company was lamenting why they had hired a lot of new drivers last year and ... subsequently... alot of those new drivers quit.  Well gee, dude, if you can't figure it out, ASK THE DRIVERS. BYPASS your management that are saving their jobs and find out what's going on. 

Whatever, I'm not going to waste any more mental space on that tonight. I turned on a movie, I'm enjoying being home, Adler started punching me when I got to the other house lol.
He gets up on his hind legs and throws his front paws at you.  It's actually, uh, kind of intimidating. The dog is huge, the paws are huge, the power behind the paws is substantive.  But, I thrust him off of me and we go at it for a while and then we're all buddies again.  I dunno dog minds, but I think it's his way of showing his disapproval of me being gone too long and at the same time happiness that I'm back. 

Tomorrow, I intend on smoking some meats.  In fact, thank you for reminding me, I was going to make a smoked meatloaf.  Just want to try a small scale version of it. Like a one pound deal.  So I need to go and get some hamburger meat out, is what I'm saying, lol.  I want to spice this on up nicely.  Cayenne pepper, some red chiles and put some pepper jack in the middle of it.  We'll coat it with a spicy covering and call it dinner.  The kids won't eat it but there will be plenty of other stuff to eat.  Anyway, I pulled out one rack of ribs.  We traditionally won't eat 2 full racks, so one will suffice and I pulled out a beef roast that I bought on sale for it being at the end of it's shelf life. 

The roast is small and it's only a pound of beef.  The roast will be smoked for 2 hours and then wrapped up well in tin foil.  The ribs as well.  The meatloaf doesn't take as long to cook and I have to look up the recipe again. It's a pretty spicy version of it.  We'll have some potatoes with it, tho easier to make version such as tater tots and a cold salad of some sort.  There is going to be company over, more mouths to feed, but really I just want to do some cooking.  I want to be home for awhile.

This trip has given me some new perspective on things I will write about tomorrow or future date. 

But I need not go into that now. I really like this movie for some odd reason.. It's called Passengers and it's pretty crazy. 

Anyway, it's a great evening.  I'ts getting a bit late depending on what perspective I want to take. I'm going to bed around midnight, which used to be a very late hour for me, now seems to be a good bedtime lol. 

Pressure problems.
Old trailer, of course. It just has plain old insulation like the kind you'd find in your attic.
The new trailers have vacuum jackets that keep the temp down and keep the product from starting to boil, which starts the pressure to start building up.

I've spent hours of my time since I came to this hotel dealing with this nonsense.
There is really no way they should be sending one of these old trailers on a trip this far.
That's the end of the story. Apparently a driver told my manager that a new trailer - which is a bit over 10 feet longer - will not fit in to this plant. I'll find out tomorrow.

But now? I have to deal with it.  I spent 2 hours this morning fooling with this nonsense and then
felt confident enough to take off to Walmart to get a much-needed haircut.  I wanted a new pair of shoes, but they had nothing that looked appealing to me.

So, I bought some "Tide pods" and some dryer sheets - I need to do a load of laundry today or I will be wearing dirty clothes on the way back. I took a bit of extra clothing but 8 days worth is a lot of clothing to pack.  My bedding in the truck needs to be washed anyway, so a couple of loads.

But before that, I'm going back outside, let off some  more pressure and then hopefully walk up to the theater and finally see Alpha. Just depends on where the pressure is at.  I want to go to the first showing, later showings are too late. I want to do  my laundry after the movie. I will need to be at the plant at 6:00 am and happily so, I will be there.  I was up til midnight last night keeping an eye on the pressure, I finally just said screw it and fell asleep - for 3 hours.  I bolted up right out of a dead sleep, got up at 3:00 and yes, went out there and checked the pressure.

Fortunately, it cools way down here at night and that helps to keep the pressure from building up.  So, in 3 hours it had "only" gone up 4 pounds.  Now, in a new trailer, it wouldn't go up that much in 24 hours.  I'm wishing myself luck that the pressure will be good when I go back out there in a few minutes. But if it's gone up, I'll stand out there for however long and deal with it and hopefully have it to a pressure by the time I need to leave for the theater that will have it low enough by the time I get back that it isn't a serious issue.

One thing I am doing here? A lot of walking. Looking in the mirror, I just said enough of this.  Getting fatter and fatter.  I'm trying to do a work out program, but it's not enough. I'm going to have to do some serious changes to my eating habits, admittedly, that's going to be difficult.  I'm really trying but there is a lot more I need to incorporate on a daily basis to actually start losing fat.  The walking can't hurt tho.

Oh, speaking of walking, I stopped at Payless shoe source to get some shoes.  I don't much care for the quality of what they sell, but the sale price was good enough that I actually bought 3 pairs of shoes and 3 bags full of socks for $49.

Okay. Well I'm back in the room.  I'm watching the confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh.  I read earlier that there was a ridiculous outcry from democrats when it first started and that there were people protesting in the room.  In other words, total chaos.  Well, it's in order now, I don't hear any objections coming from Democrats and right now? There is a man up there absolutely reaming Congress for the way it behaves.  I don't remember his name, but he is very nicely articulating what a lot of us think about establishment politicians that are career oriented to save their positions of power versus simply doing their jobs.
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Another 50 minutes dealing with pressure.  Gag.  But I'm confident it will hold well enough to spend 3 hours doing the movies.  Just come straight back after it's out - and probably spend another hour at least with this nonsense.

But I am determined to go see the movie, It says it's only an 1 hour and 37 minutes, add half an hour walk time and wait time for the movie to start, short of 3 hours, I should be good.  It helps that the outside temp today is much lower than it was yesterday.

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Nice walk to the theater.  Very good movie.  Basically a tribe living in the wilderness.  They take a bunch of young men on a journey to kill buffalo.  Long story shortened: the son of the tribe's chief falls off the side of a cliff, thrown over actually by a buffalo, lands on a ledge way down below.  The father howls his name for what appears to be at least a full day, but the boy is unconscience. They leave him for dead.  The boy then wakes up with a vulture in his face, and then endures a long journey home, relete with a wild wolf that becomes his friend.  You kinda have to be into movies like this, otherwise you might find it boring.  Anyway, very happy that I finally got to go. 

Stopped at a place on the way back to have a bowl of soup and a salad.  Very taste and very filling.  Back at the hotel, gritting my teeth for what may face me with this trailer, it was up to 70 pounds.  Really, very much less than I thought it would be at.  I figured at least 80 pounds, so that was a nice surprise. I decided to get laundry going instead of standing out there for an hour and a half venting down pressure.  I can do that a little later when the sun starts going down and cools off a bit. 

Apparently the first day of hearings is over, or if not, they aren't showing any more of it.  I'm waiting to see the recaps of the beginning when "people" including the left politicians were allegedly shouting and freaking out.  Totally planned of course, stupid and non-productive. Unfortunately I have 2 loads of laundry to do considering I decided to wash my bedding, but it really needed it. I should have washed it before this trip, but then again, I didn't know I was going on this trip until the evening before I was to leave.  But then again, again, I should know that stuff like this can occur and be prepared at all times.  It was just getting dirty from extended use. 

Well that's my day, so far.  I'm watching the news, now about Nike and using Kaepernick as the new face of the "just do it" ads they do.  Of course, the resulting getting pissed off was expected, I'm sure Nike weighed the costs of taking such a move.  Kaepernick, quoted, says "the U.S. oppresses black people", which is a bunch of malarky and why I don't respect him or his "movement" whatosever, at all.  Virtue signaling, identity politics, using a platform that most Americans can see is simply the wrong place to engage.  I don't see Kaepernick or anyone of the kneelers out on the streets doing crusades and campaigns?  I consider them anti-American.  Use some other venue and more importantly, some other way other than dissing our Anthem and flag. 

But I hear it all the time.  "F*** your flag", from blacks on the internet.  I'm quite sure they aren't all saying that, but I have encountered a large number of them.  They try to claim they "built" America, which is more baloney loaded with fruitcakery.  They may have had part in it, but not all of America owned slaves at the time slavery was a thing.  There's all kinds of nationals that can be accredited with building America. 

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I'm completely worn out.  I need much of nothing to do for the next however many hours  until I have to get up - 5 am - to rest.  My laundry is almost done.  I just got done dealing with pressure once again. I'm pretty sure tomorrow is going to be a very long day.  First off, they are firing up that plant.  I was already informed to "show up at 6am and probably wait around a while".....well why have me show up at 6am if you aren't going to be ready?   But grin and bear it. 

My legs, however, are the biggest bearer of the brunt. I've done more walking in the last 24 hours than I"ve done in quite a long time. Calculated, yes.  I'm going to get myself back into exercise mode and that means doing things you might not want to do. 

So whatever.  I"m done with this one.

I'm in a small town by the name of Hermiston, Oregon. 
I mean, not so small that it doesn't have some amenities thankfully, cause I'm stuck here for 2 days.

I came in here looking for a hotel that has truck parking. The Best Western did, but was far outside of town.  Close to nothing. I was looking for walking distance to restaurants, bowling alleys, movie theaters, whatever might be around.  I called another place and they said they had truck parking.  I pulled up there, it had a canopy over the entrance and was EIGHT FEET HIGH. Truck parking? For giant Tonka Toys? So now I"m driving down a side street, find a place to park and park I did.  \

I had passed a Motel 6 advertising truck parking.  I haven't stayed at a Motel 6 since that fiasco with my son present on a sport fishing trip in San Diego.  Google: "The worst motel 6 in America", click on the one for San Diego, not for Bakersfield.  I did the one in San Diego.  A giant whorehouse.  I'm surprised I was as lenient as I was on that review, now?  I'd just lay it on them.  Staff fully cognizant of what's going on, lying about it and not giving a shit.  August 26, 2011! Doesn't seem that long ago.  They ruined my trip, period. 

I said to myself I would never stay at a Motel 6 again - even tho I had spent much of my adult life staying at them since they were usually much cheaper than everyone else, a nice enough place to stay in.  My tastes have risen since then.  I don't want to stay in shithole motels just because they are in a price range I like. But, the Motel 6 was the only place I could see - beside even much worse hotel properties - in town, so I pulled in, got out, got a room for 2 days.

I braced myself, walking into this place.  Well, first off, I specifically asked him - the desk dude - about the wifi. No, if you want good wifi you will have to pay extra.  How much extra?  $3 per day.  Well whatever,  at the end of the transaction he asked for $5 cash, said it wasn't going on a ticket - obviously pocketing it and not claiming it in expenses which is a whatever to me, I don't care.  I parked the truck out back, got my stuff out and then braced myself to walk into this place.  Plain white walls - they could have at least put up an off-white, but whatever, clean at least.  Hallway carpet in great shape, good sign.  I get to my room, put the card up to the reader - and then - stand there. 

How the Hercules did I end up in a Motel 6? I was wondering to myself.  I opened the door and was shocked.  Hardwood flooring,  fresh paint, 44 inch flatscreen tv, microwave, refrigerator, bathroom? In excellent condition! No mold or mildew, no chipped fixtures, really really surprising.  for a Motel 6.  but then again, it's been many years since I've been in one and like America's Best Value Inn, it appears they are all upgrading their properties to throw up some competition.  I'll tell you what led me to believe this might be a shithole: the swimming pool? Filled in with sand.  The exterior? In various stages of disrepair. The landscaping? Unkempt.  I can tell ya I don't care what the outside of the property looks like - IF - the inside of my room is in good condition.

Now then, I mogied on over to the restaurant next door, had hot and spicy beef - Asian restaurant, then went for a walk.  60%? Maybe - of the town open, the rest of it closed.  Weird, Labor Day doesn't really mean shutting down business anymore. 

Oh, before I go on, yes I called the plant again today. I wanted to confirm we aren't doing this today, or tomorrow - Would really love to! Get it over with and start heading home.  Uhh, no, we have it slated for 6 am Wednesday morning.  Lovely, I thought, I'll have to find something to do here.  Well, I did my walk and and saw a bowling alley and a couple of hair cutting places.  I've needed a hair cut for at least a week, I just haven't had the chance.  But the real thing that caught my eye was the movie theater.  I have been wanting to go see Alpha ever since I first read about it and subsequently, since some of my friends have really given it high praises.  The showing was at 1:00 pm and was .. 1:00 I'm looking at the clock and it's down the street.  I don't like missing the beginnings of movies or even taking the chance that I might, so, I cancelled that out of my mind and thought - tomorrow.  1:00 pm showing.  Pacific time, lol, 2 hours behind my regular time. 

So that's my agenda tomorrow, haircut and the movies. If I really feel like it, stop at the bowling alley on the walk home.  I'ts only a mile to the theater, the walk is nice, it's not too hot here.  I'll get a 34 hour reset in here. I contacted my manager about that - no reply.  Second reset on the road in a row with no free hotel like everyone is getting.  Whatever.  I'm turning the receipts in for this one, I don't care what anyone thinks, they shouldn't have sent me out 6 days in advance of a delivery that take 3 and a half days to get to.  Actually, it didn't even take that long.  Just over 3 24 hour days to get here from the time I arrived at the plant to fill up the trailer.  \

Speaking of the trailer, well there is a hissing sound coming from inside the back cabinet.  I am going back out there in a while to see if I can delineate where it is coming from. Air pressure? Or vapor?  We don't want vapors being released unintended.  And, the pressure.  It was up at 79 this morning,  and then again at 80 when I got here. Well, the automatic release valves go off at 100, I took measures to alleviate  that problem. 

Well I"m going out there, actually, to check it out again, the pressure keeps rising. These old trailers are not what should have been sent up here, but I know my manager wouldn't have done that without understanding that there must be an issue with space in the plant, as several places have. In other words, you can't get a trailer that is 10 feet longer in there, my guess. I'll find out in 39 hours from now.  Yup, I have that much more time before I have to be at the plant......

3 days of pushing it and I'm in a small little nothing town called Caldwell, Idaho.  A truckstop that has it's own motel and restaurant.  I didn't opt for the motel.  I'm not going to be here long enough to warrant spending the money on it. 

But its been quite the drive.  Hundreds of miles of just grass land.  Some hills, NO TREES!!  

Anyway, I got to the plant on Friday and the usual stuff. Get it loaded and get out of there.  I started heading west and realized I better start checking hazmat rules in all these states I'm going to be going through.  Usually if you're staying on Interstates you're fine.  I hate staying on Interstates but for hazmat I didn't have the time to do a detailed search of all of this, it just never crossed my mind until I was already on the road. 

Colorado is pretty strict about it tho, they have a map of the highways that hazmat can drive on and from the looks of it, it's confined to the Interstates.  In fact, the only thing that took me by surprise was a tunnel that just appeared in front of me after going around a curve.  Tunnels can have restrictions on them for hazmat, some states won't allow you to go through them. But they are always signed if that's true and there were no signs on this one, so I blasted right on through it. 

It was a short tunnel anyway.  I'm pretty sure explosives aren't allowed through tunnels, ever, but the same does not hold true for other hazmat.  It really depends on the state.  And come to think of it, I just remembered I have a Rand McNally truckers road map, I'm sure they have the restricted routes in there.  

The other thing I didn't remember about this entire several state region is all these railroad type gates they have on the Interstates.  They get snow up here, and blizzards and bad weather.  There were literally dozens of these gates over hundreds of miles span of driving.  With signs and yellow flashing lights if there is a shut down.  There are chain- up areas where if the weather is bad enough, you are required to put chains on your vehicle or you can forget about going further down that road.  The thing is, a lot of these shut downs - which were all at exits - were leading you off into the middle of nowhere.  I'm glad it's not winter and I'm glad we only come up here once a year and I'm glad that only occurs during the summertime!

Anyway, the most enjoyable drive of the trip so far is on I-84 outside of Salt Lake.  You get off of 80 onto 84. I wasn't on it long and started going down - and down - and down.  And shortly after getting on it, there is a river the runs right alongside the Interstate and snakes back and forth underneath the Interstate all the way down - and trust me, it's a long way down there.  The fun part was that all of these people were at a launch site near the top with white water rafts to raft down this river.  It's a small river, nothing huge, but really looked like fun!  

I'm 227 miles out, this is a 2,000 mile and change trip one way.  I'll have that done somewhere around noon or maybe a little later tomorrow.  Anytime before 5:00 pm is fine. I want to get a 34 hour reset. That's when you sit around and screw off for 34 hours so you can get a fresh 70 hour start.  And I'm getting that because I found out after starting this trip that I didn't need to be there until Wednesday morning. Why on earth they think I need 6 days to drive 2,000 miles I have no idea.  I could have started today and been there by Wednesday.

Well I sort of get it.  They are firing this plant back up.  I have no idea why it's shut down, but apparently they do this every year, so perhaps they shut it down to do maintenance and repairs?  All I know is, from the man I talked to on the phone over there, Ethylene is used in the process of firing it back up, the 2 go hand in hand and they can't do it with this trailer full of this liquid being there I can see wanting to ensure it's going to be there on time, but at my expense....cause I'll sit around and not get paid for the wait.  I will ask for a hotel for the reset at least.  I should be able to get one of the 2 days paid by the company for that.  Actually, a friend wants me to come visit her over in Salem, Oregon, it's like 236 miles from the plant.  

The problem with that is the plant has to agree to let me leave the trailer there, I can't just leave it "somewhere" unattended and rest assured the company isn't going to want me dragging it over there on personal business.  Speaking of that, the pressure is up to almost 70 pounds. That is starting to get high.  This is one of the old trailers I am pulling. It uses old style insulation instead of these new vacuum jacketed trailers that will keep the pressure down for almost 2,000 hours.  I'm likely to have to find a place to vent it down a bit.  

Well I just found out this place has free wifi, lol. Too late! Time to go to sleep : )

Absolutely amazing.
I was only told this morning that I was going out this weekend. 
As always, never know where.

So when she finally sent me the pic of the sheet with the next place to go?
Wow!
Washington!\
Wait, which Washington? 
I never heard of the town so I'm looking it up and it's taking me to DC.  No.
They don't have these kinds of plants in Washington DC, do they?  I mean, I guess.

So I'm looking at the directions - they always put final directions in there. 
After being on road whatever in Oregon....that was all I needed to see.

Washington state! That means I get to go through the Rockies, real mountains!
Scenery! God's natural beauty!

But then I thought, isn't that a long way from here?  2,000 miles one way.
This is going to be an incredible trip.  I'm not necessarily looking at this as work
besides all the paperwork I have to do along the way and getting Texas out of the way and
all that desert junk.  Through Mexico - not the mountains but the scenery there is majestic.
I'ts 3 plus days to get there.  I can drive around 600 miles a day, maybe more, maybe less
depending on traffic, weather, road conditions, construction work.  But even so, it's still going
into a 4th day to get there.

My trips to West Virginia are 2,000 miles round trip and that's 3 full days and a portion of a third.

So yes, I've got a lot to do.  Laundry is done tho.  The rest I will get to tomorrow morning.  It's a
later load, I can go to Walmart, Kroger's and the bank, get my stuff done and be ready to go.

Several routes to get there, but none of them take me through Arizona. Right on the crisp of it, yes
but not into it.  Just another thing I need to do but on a trip dedicated to it and not through work. 

I''m excited.  It would be more fun traveling with someone or even my dogs but I'll still make it a memorable trip.  I just have to look on the map and figure out where I'll be on any given night - where I could be I should say and see if it's where I want to be.  I would love a night up in the mountains - drag the mattress out of the sleeper and sleep under the stars. 

Maybe wishful thinking but it would be cool.

I will probably have to take a 34 hour reset out there.  Well yes, almost certain I will. Rather take that in the mountains not in the desert. I don't have control over that, you run out of hours wherever that happens, but I'm going to try and calculate that tonight. 

Anyway, around 8 days on the road.....

Home.
The trailer I saw yesterday? It wasn't ours lol.  Ours showed up about 2 hours later, I figured I would make it about 400 miles and then quit, get up in the morning and drive the rest of the way in.  Management changed that idea.  So, I drove until around 1:15 am, got the trailer back in the yard and crashed out in the truck, in the yard.  It was too late to go home and I was too tired to even fool with it. 

When I got up this morning, I found out that the plant had cancalled the load, they didn't need the trailer today and oh, btw? Thanks for letting me have that information.  I left that last part out, but geeze. 

Well I'm sitting here watching the McCain procession leaving the state Capital heading towards North Phoenix Baptist Church.  I don't get to see Phoenix streets anymore, lol, but I'm familiar with all of it.  I have mixed feelings about McCain.  He turned conservative/Republic vote to a RINO and voting on the side of Democrats on so many occasions, I kinda lost respect for him.  He should have switched parties or at least come out and said what the obvious truth was.  And then the spat between Trump and him.  Trump was no angel in that nonsense, questioning his "heroism" - McCain spent 5 plus years in a hellish prisoner camp and for that I had the utmost respect.

Still, disinviting Trump, the sitting President?  Yes, I heard all that went on, but McCain kept up this rhetoric until his dying breath. Wouldn't you be thinking about Kingdom come if you knew you were about to die?  Politics would be the last thing on my mind, having a feud with the President wouldn't even be on my list.  That's some deep seated bitterness, I hope he let go of that before he passed. 

Seeing Phoenix just makes me want to go back. Wish I had the time where I could drive back and not have to rely on Ubers for rides but it is what it is.  I've done rental cars, they want wayyyyy toooooo much money to rent a car.  It's rather ridiculous. Phoenix is literally full of Uber and Lyft, 24 hours a day, that's going to be my plan to get around. the only thing I won't be able to do is take a drive up to the mountains, a place I really, really miss. 

Well, on about the day.  I proclaim right now that I won't get a lot done here today.  I've been on the road for 3 plus days and I need to get laundry done plus I'm making some dinner, spending time with the doggies and that's about it.  I was "promised" that I would be sent out tomorrow, a thing I didn't ask for but if it's a short trip - no more than 2 days, I would take it and have Sunday off at least.  But it's whatever.  In 3 months or so I will have a 112 hours of paid time off deposited into my leave account and I will be planning on 3 or 4 different trips.  I dunno if they allow a week off, but that would be the first one. 

Okay.  Well I did get something done: Called Wells Fargo, spent a long time on the phone with them and got my online account for my retirement account established.  I originally talked with an American but was connected to a Philippino in an "offshore location" to get it done.  She didn't understand English very well and contributed to a much longer conversation than what otherwise needed to be.  She asked me a name I wanted to give my account an I spelled it out to her several times, she still got it wrong. She kept getting the spelling of my email account wrong.  This is why I very much dislike dealing with overseas "departments" of US based companies.  I understand they are saving money in using lower paid help, I also understand that they piss off customers with just such scenario as I have described.  I also don't much appreciate them using other nation's labor, I would rather see those jobs here. 

After endless back and forth, I finally have access to my account. I completely forgot about having them resend the rollover package because - this took sooooo incredibly long, it slipped my mind.  I'm not doing that today, one of these types of phone calls is all I'm willing to deal with today.  I need to get it done, yes, I will try again next week.

Chicken is in a brine right now, be ready in a couple of hours to cook.  Just chicken breast, won't take that long to cook in the oven.  This is the dinner I was going to make last weekend before I got called out - again.  I mean, this waiting until the end of the day stuff to deal with who is going where and what time you are loading is a bit nerve wracking.  No wonder other drivers have complained about it.  I have sat there and listened to the conversations - she always puts it on speakerphone.  I mean, we all have lives to live?  Plans?  Things to do? Things we want to do?  Hard to accomplish when you are put on hold until 6 o'clock or even much later. 

Trucking life, I get it, but still.  I only know that I am going out tomorrow.  It's only 2:00 pm - for which I am quite grateful. There are still plenty of hours left in this day to enjoy being home. 


Oh, and Donny. Well, he came out, offered an apology.  I just said I really have nothing to say about the situation - referencing him going on a Crack spree the entire last weekend - excepting taking my money off the kitchen table. That pissed me off.  He understood. He knows he screwed up.  That's great, what is going to change? I didn't ask him that, I wanted to go home, I'm sorry he's in misery, even more so since he doesn't have a computer, TV or a phone to play on.  I'm not offering any "outs" on this one. Pay back the money, thanks.  I don't care what he owes on all of those electronics.  If he loses them, he loses them.  That may sound harsh, but he stole my money, used it for his crack spree, then when that ran out, pawned off the rest of his stuff. 

Now, I'm still trying to find the time and the right frame of mind to start investing in the stock market.  Haven't gotten myself into that phase yet.  Trying to, but things are always getting in the way and I really need to be able to concentrate.  On a scenario such as today when it's today off and back out on the road? I might take a look, but getting into it fully is likely not going to happen. 

I'm getting to the point that I absolutely despise ATT.
I don't recommend anyone sign up with their service unless you are like, part of ISIS or something, then you won't be able to communicate with anyone and that would be great.
The fact of the matter is, they have very poor coverage in most areas that I go to.  Often times only 1 bar of signal strength such as I have right now.  It makes for very slow internet, considering the premium price I am paying for this service, I expect a heckuva alot more. 

All I wanted to do today was get on my account and check how much data I have left.  I knew I was using a lot, even with being at a hotel last night and using their wifi, and I was not wrong.  I have 19 days left on this cycle and I have used almost half of my data up.  BUT, the system had locked me out and I couldn't access my account.  I had to spend half an hour on the phone with these people to get it unlocked. 

Whatever.  Note to self: listen to your internal voice next time when these phones are paid off and do NOT go with ATT EVER again.  As much as I despise Verizon, they have the best coverage and the price is not any different than what I'm paying now.

On to other things. I am at the yard in Brownsville, waiting on this trailer to show up.  If I'm driving out of here today, I'd like it to show up within the next hour to hour and a half so I can make it back today. Otherwise, I'd rather just sit here another night, get more detention pay and spend another night in the hotel.  I'm up to 34 hours of detention pay right now, which is incredibly good.  I guess I don't care when it shows up, I'm going to leave regardless, just have to spend the night on the road somewhere.  I'd like to get a full day off in between runs is the only thing I'm barking about lol.

You see, the only reason, I found out, that I haven't been getting dumped with Cheniere runs is because the plant shut down due to some problem. Hence, I've been getting gravy runs ever since.  Twice up to Mapleton with one of those runs an overnighter with good detention pay, a trip to West Virginia and now 2 trips down here, this particular one having a gob of detention pay.  I definitely want to get back no later than tomorrow afternoon so I can get this run on next paycheck.   Oh wait, this is pay week, I have until next week for this pay period, never mind. This paycheck coming up should be excellent.  But, if Cheniere opens back up, which it is supposed to by Friday, well, you know the deal.  Crappy run, crappy pay.  My only contention with Cheniere is that it shouldn't be dumped on the same people, over and over and over.  Everyone should have to take one load down there, none of us would be going there frequently at all.

Well, that is, until the new Cheniere plant opens up.  It's more miles but it still isn't going to be a great run because it, like the plant we go to now, will eat up 2 days.  In 2 days on the road with one run, you want  a good number of miles to make it worth it.  The new cheniere is like 412 miles from the loading plant. Much better than this one that is 242 miles and wastes a second day.  But still, 550 miles is minimum I want for any given run for each day out.  The Brownsville run is 562 each way, which is very good because you can do it in 2 days unless, such as now, you sit and wait for a trailer. But, I'm making as much detention pay as the miles currently and it's still going up : )

Anyway,  I guess I won't watch any more  movies or streaming video until next week.  I don't want to pay extra money for access to the internet.  I can write in my blog, get on Facebook, etc, its the streaming stuff that eats up the data. 

In fact, if I am here much longer, I'm probably going to go to a cooking site and see about tips for certain things that I like to cook.  Really just want to expand my cooking horizon. I don't want to be limited to certain areas of cooking, that gets old. Not cooking it, but eating the same stuff.  I'm kind of limited because the lady of the house has some pickiness to what she will eat, I had to cut back on smoking because although she likes the flavor, she doesn't want to eat smoked food every single time.  Fair enough. 

But new pasta recipes and things to do with hamburger meat, some casseroles, just check out different types of cooking and see what's available. I really got away from cooking when Rene was living there and doing literally all the cooking - by her demand lol.  It wasn't that I didn't want to cook, just she did it and enjoyed cooking for us.  But, the crowd I'm around now - they neither like nor dislike cooking.  After working all day they just don't feel like it and frequently end up eating - non-dinner dinner I'll call it.  Just throw together stuff that is ok once in a while, but every night? Naw, no thanks.  One night I caught them eating crackers with sausage slices for dinner lol.  They say they like my cooking, I guess you never really know but I like most of what I put out.  A few things in recent times I overcooked slightly making it a bit dry, so I'm working on getting internal temps precise - meaning paying more attention to it when it's getting close to done. 

It doesn't take long to go over that perfect temperature for chicken or pork and end up with a drier meat than one would like.  Even plain chicken is good with just a few spices on it - IF - it is juicy.   It was really fascinating watching those chefs in that contest last night. They were sweating it big time because of the time limitations they put on getting the finished product done, but the diverse cooking methods were a learning experience to watch.

Okay, I guess I'll have to talk with my manager in person to get any info she may acquire about buying a truck through the company. I don't have the wherewithal to buy one on my own - tho they definitely allow that.  I guess in my mind if I am going to take on such an endeavor, I'd want to buy a company truck and have some assurances that if the engine or tranny goes out, there will be assistance to fix it.  You can spend 20 grand on rebuilding or replacing a diesel engine.  I have a buddy that owns a truck repair shop in Indianapolis.  It would be a go - to scenario in any type of expensive repairs if I could, indeed, get the truck over there.  He does excellent work and I could be assured of a finished product that isn't going to fail me.  Neither here nor there, but this idea has been in my brain for a while now. 

OHHHH YES!! I believe I am seeing the trailer I am to take back  up north! 

13 hours and 45 minutes so far.

Detention pay at hourly rate : )

There was a trailer waiting for me down here when I got here - Brownsville that is - but my manager said no, I need to wait for another particular trailer to show up. That was yesterday, I pulled in at 12/45 am - exhausted, out of it, but wanting to get here since I knew the earlier I get there, the more money I make doing nothing.

Now, I texted my manager earlier and confirmed - there is a trailer here, but you want me to wait for this other one?  Yes.  Okee dokee.  So that's that.  About half an hour ago, I went into the office of the person that runs this yard and asked if he knew when the trailer was going to show up? Well, it's sitting at the plant right now. We were going to have it here today, but for unknown reasons there is a hold up. It won't be here until tomorrow.

That's when I said fine, I"m going to a hotel.
See, they had me do that other run down here a few days ago for the same thing: a particular trailer. Except I didn't even pull a loaded trailer down here on that run.  I just wanted to confirm with my manager this is what she wanted me to do since it's going to cost someone a large amount of money to keep me down here - but that's what they do in this business and waiting is expected. She even said to me today: everywhere you go, you wait. Yup.

So, with that in mind and not wanting to sit in a truck for the rest of the day and all night, I did indeed go and get a hotel room at the place I normally stay in down here.  Clean rooms, well upgraded, very nice for $47.  It's sort of a gamble getting the room cause I don't know if they know that the trailer isn't going to be here today, but since I already asked her about it and she said yes, wait and  yes, it's a lot of waiting - I wasn't complaining at all - I can sit back and relax and let them do their jobs.  I have gone beyond what I am supposed to do - most drivers wouldn't even ask her, they would just go get a room right away and not even wait.  The only ones that don't are the owner operators, I don't think they get detention pay but since they're making so much money it doesn't really matter.

So whatever.  I'll be over there at around 8 am tomorrow and just sit there and wait until it shows up - tho I will ask again if it's showing up for sure?  People have waited down here for up to 3 days, this is nothing new.

Meanwhile, I also asked about the truck purchase program they have in this company. She didn't know the exact details, just that yes, they have one and she would ask her supervisor about it.  Okay.  I want the full details to mull over for a while and see if it's anything I want to get into.  I dunno what kind of truck, new or used (used tho, I don't want a note for $150k), how much the payments are, all the particulars on company help with discounted fuel and tire pricing, things like that.  There's no dentention pay but with the money you are making you don't need detention pay.  But, I want to see the fact sheet. What they expect and how it all works.

Anyway, it's after 3 now and no word from manager, I'm hoping to stay until tomorrow, that would be a huge payout for one run that's usually only 2 days.  At least 32 hours of sitting around pay, it only takes 2 hours of detention pay to pay for this hotel, the rest is gravy and more money than the actual run itself is worth.  Well I take that back. It's worth about the same as the run itself is worth.

Well enough of work. Donny sent me a message via Rene's phone today. He understands he totally screwed up. It's strange tho, it wasn't a "I just screwed up" and quit deal, it was a " screw up for 3 days" thing.  Not that I want to judge him.  But, when you are addicted to a substance like that, you both have to want to get freed from it and you really need people to help, preferably licensed therapists that have a plan to bring you out of it.  The thing is, you know it's getting to the "really bad" point when you steal other people's money and then after that, take your valuables and pawn them off.  That's not a casual user.  God bless him tho, I hope he finds his way out of this, he's going to pay back my money.

Meanwhile, what to do here? I think nothing but surf the net and check out whatever movies might be on.  Or play a movie on my notebook since it's free data useage.
________________________

Wednessday Morning.
I ended up finding this cookoff show on the Food Network that was pretty interesting.  They took accomplished chefs from various different cities and pitted them against each other in a challenge that I ended up watching 5 episodes, I think? before they had the final cookoff between the finalists and an ensuing champion. The reason it was interesting is because they only gave these chefs 30 minutes to come up with the various aspects of dining.  One was the appetizer, then the entree and then the dessert.  They gave these chefs some rather bizarre foods to have to make a delicious meal out of and it obviously threw some of those chefs for a loop.

It really was fascinating.  I'm trying to learn more about cooking and what foods work together and how to make different foods and what spices you can mix together for a good result.  Just a challenge to myself to become a better cook. I've gotten heavily into smoking meats in the last few years but I am also doing all kinds of other cooking based on oven baked to frying to crock pot. 

Anyway it's almost 8 am and I think I'm going to get out of the hotel and go play the waiting game over there.  I don't want to be sitting here when the trailer shows up over there. In reality, that could be 5 hours from now, but I'm used to waiting in the truck. Can't say it's a lot of fun, but the sooner I leave here the better chance I have to make it home tonight.  After around noon? Probably  not unless I really want to drive late at night to get it over with. 

Not much else.   I sort of miss the days of newspapers and sitting down with a cup and opening up the local and world news versus getting on the internet.  I guess they still produce newspapers, none available around here lol.

Well, today will be interesting.  Load time is 12:30 at the plant.  IF that happens, I should be out of there by 3:00.  I say if because the later loads are always subjected to any problems at the plant.  Then I have to decide whether I'm going to try to make it all the way down there in one fell swoop. It would have me up until around 2 am.  I'll cross that bridge later on when I get to it, it really depends on how long I'm in the plant get the truck loaded. 

Meanwhile, Donny finally showed back up at the house.  I am not, however, leaving my dogs over there. Rene is going for surgery tomorrow morning and I won't be home until at the earliest tomorrow night, tho this may spill over into Wednesday.  I have no current reason to trust that Donny, who has spent the entire weekend at a crack house high on crack, will take care of my dogs in such a state of mind and I13
I'm pretty pissed that he took money that doesn't belong to him in order to pay for his little endeavor.

Rene was just over here, apparently Donny is apologetic for his actions, is sober and of "right" mind.  That's great, still not taking my dogs over there.  Only if Rene is there. Otherwise, they can stay in the back yard until Taylor or James gets home and let them in.  They'll let them free roam the house until bed time and then put them in my room for the night and then, back out in the morning.  It's certainly normal to just leave dogs outside with lots of fresh water during the daytime while people are work, nothing new or wrong about that. 

Donny apparently pawned his phone, his computer, his tv and even his truck stereo - but not to pay me back. He spent my money and then went right on going with the pawn junk and buying more crack.  Now? He has no tv, phone, or computer to entertain him.  Rene handed him spiritual books - not sure what - I guess better than nothing. 

As for  me, I finally got my password reset on DTV, now I can use the app on my phone to watch shows if I want to.  Dangit, I was on the phone with ATT, my mobile carrier the other day - for quite a while. I forgot to ask about unlimited data.  I'm spending much more time on the road than in the past and really have to watch the data so I don't go over. I've got 15 megs every month and I'm using them all up.  I could use more if I had the data.   I'm mostly interested in watching the news and movies, not much of anything else. 

Well that's it for today.  I'm leaving a bit early for the plant cause' Taylor has asked me to bring a Starbucks to her on the way over there.  And, I don't have all the info yet for my load, most notably, what trailer to take. When I was in the yard yesterday, there was nothing but new trailers and a damaged old trailer there. We don't take the new trailers to the Mexican border, they would get trashed over there. 

Okay.

Well, I was awakened out of a deep sleep this morning at 3 am to get up and get going to get back to the yard by noon. I was still 450 miles off and in a truck that maxes out at 65 mph and going through Houston - well, it's gonna take a while. But ....  it is Sunday so I didn't run into any sizable amounts of traffic. 

I was begging for sunlight tho.  3 plus hours of driving in the dark after that kind of awakening? Doesn't work for me.  Much better if I'm driving into the night, not getting up in the night and trying to shake off sleep in the dark. Just not me.  6:30 am, the sun finally started to breech the sky. Thank you Lord! And yes, I finally woke up after that and drove almost 8 hours.  

I had to stop for this mandatory 30 minute rest break, with the yard so close that this rest break was quite irrelevant. But, stop I did and slept for 25 minutes to freshen myself up, drove out the rest of the miles.  That was a rather grueling trip with getting up early both nights in a row and not getting much sleep.  I can't go to bed at 7:00 pm, it just doesn't work. I do sometimes go to sleep at 8 or more, but that after driving all day long and early rise, totally out of it, I sleep great on those occasions, not the case here.  

Sooooo, the situation I spoke of yesterday. Yeah, not good. Donny, as it turns out, is a crack cocaine addict.  Rene has been saying this for a while now, but I didn't know whether to believe her or not.  I mean, I won't call her a liar, I just have to have facts to back anything up. He said she said doesn't work.  I don't really have real proof of it now, but yes, I believe Rene now.  

Yesterday, I went over there at 3:30 am - about the time I got there with the dogs,, ,went in, put the dogs in "my" room, I have a bed in there for them to lay on, left Rene the dog money and her $20 request for money to get to the hospital on Tuesday.  $85.  I left went to work, got in the tractor, started heading down to Brownsville. I get a text 4 hours later......Good morning Ben.  I hope you didn't leave any money on the table because if you did, it's gone......

Wait, what?  You want to talk about waking up?  There's only 2 people in that place. With all the troubles I've had with Rene, taking money that doesn't belong to her isn't one of them.  Well, not with Donny either. A lot of conversation took place. Donny  took the money, left.  Came back yesterday afternoon, got his laptop computer, left.  Came back again, took his TV, left again.  He hasn't been seen from or heard from since.  He wasn't driving his truck, either, some "dude" was driving it for him.  Do I think ill has happened to him? Sure, at his own choosing.  I remember him alluding to the idea that he was doing crack but I thought he was joking at the time.  

There isn't a single person I have ever encountered that does crack that isn't a liar and a thief.  And let me tell you, in the area I used to live in? That is no small number. There's a reason I went around the neighborhood and up into people's faces telling them if so and so comes around my house again, I'm going to hunt them down. In fact, one person, Jarod, was coming over to my house even with people at the house and stealing stuff from me.  Not while I was there.  I went after his @$$.  I chased him down several times, but he was always on a bike and I was on foot.  And other instances where I knew they were hiding him, went up to a hoard of people and demanded they bring his face out there.  I was "warned". Warn me all you want, you do stuff to me like that, on a continual basis, all bets are off. 

Anyway, Donny is messing up big time.  His addiction is now at the point of taking people's money that doesn't belong to him. Believe me, the man off drugs and booze too is a great guy.  He's really cool, but this stuff here? No. And no. And double no.  I'm not going there.  Rene says he has excellent insurance and it would pay for him for rehab.  He even let his dog!  I mean, this dude just up and takes off.  I texted him yesterday morning after Rene told me what was going on and asked him "did you take the money off the kitchen table?'.  No reply.  That's a "yes I did" without saying it. Never a time he hasn't replied to me and that was before he came back for his computer and tv.  

So what's up?  Rene thinks he's hanging out at his dealer's house.  I dunno.  He's not done anything like this since I first met him a few years ago.  But, I know the guy well enough.  

Rene is going in for surgery Tuesday morning.  I'm leaving town tomorrow late morning and not getting back until Tuesday night - at the earliest.  It may well be there are no trailers available in Brownsville so I could get stuck down there - no bother to me, I love detention pay in most cases. So, the dogs are staying here tomorrow.  They can stay out back until James and Taylor gets home. They'll deal with them, I'm confident of that.  I'm only uncomfortable with Aspyn and not supervision all day. She jumps the fence like it's not there.   Addler has no such aspirations and is content to stay in the back yard.  I think he could high walk over that fence if he wanted to, lol. 

But even if Donny was there, I wouldn't leave my dogs there. Only if Rene is there. She absolutely loves my dogs and she will take care of them.  She has her moments with them that I don't care for, but not enough to not entrust them to her care as I have been doing all along since I started this job.  

She doesn't believe Donny will come back until he gets his monthly government check, to pay back what he took. I have no idea.  He might have completely gone over the edge and said to himself, screw it,  and just let his ambitions and everything that is who he is go to hell in a handbasket  and decide to live the rest of his days smoking crack until he dies.  I don't really know.  

He's still a friend, tho. Money freaked me out at first, I was pretty damned livid about it.  But I have gotten past the "what the hell" part and okay. This dude has problems, I hope to be able to direct him to some help. But I can't trust him, that's quite evident. Addler and Aspyn will no longer be staying under his care if she isn't there, period. 

So...tomorrow is another run to Brownsville. But none of this get up early and then get up early again stuff to get there and back.  I'll do that on occasion, nothing I would want to do on a regular basis.  It helps tho, for detention pay. I went down there without a trailer and pulled an empty back up.  That creates a "vacuum" of one trailer for availability.  This problem wasn't created by our company, so I have no issues with it.  They wanted a Mexican trailer filled up - with no explanation.  None of our trailers  cut it. Lots of speculation, nothing that anyone actually knows for fact.  I figure to ask one of the Mexican drivers.  The last one i spoke to went rolling off last time I encountered one of them - I still can speak some Spanish and understand it if they don't speak too fast but of course that isn't the way they talk lol.  I still got enough to understand what he was complaining about.

Anyways, getting late. Time to get myself headed towards "off to never-never land". Sometimes that is quite true.  Strange dreams.  I've always had them but recently some "Twilight Zone" type of stuff.  Fascinating, tho.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

I drove like a madman today.  Not like, speeding or anything, hard to speed in a truck set at 65mph on highways that are mostly 70 or 75 mph speed limits.  I just mean I only stopped once on the way down and that was to take the mandatory 30 minute break. Because I was driving the tractor only and not being slowed down by the weight of a trailer, I made excellent time.  Hardly had to slow down anywhere excepting some small towns where the speed limit goes down to 35, 40, what have you.

I drove 677 miles.  At 65 mph in 11 hours, I can go maximum 715 miles. That would be driving 65 mph continuously without slowing down or stopping for anything, so yes, that is a very good day.  I got down to Brownsville, got off the driving clock, got hooked up and drove right on out of there. 108 miles back up the road and had fully 3 minutes left before I had to get off the driving clock for the day.  Lol. This is literally the middle of nowhere as far as I'm concerned. A small town, a truckstop and a hotel next to it. There is a Dairy Queen here - which actually has truck parking - but I opted against that, figuring I would end up going in and getting a giant Blizzard full of calories.  Lol, it's actually within walking distance, but no, I'm not going.

There is a hotel right next to the truckstop - I thought about that for a while. I'm going to be sitting here 11 hours.  But the thought of getting up at 3 am, having to grab all the stuff and haul it to the truck at that hour of the morning? No thanks.  Yea I know, sitting in a truck that long.  Worse, it's hot outside so I'm not really desirous of getting out and doing anything.  Some exercise would be nice tho.  The good thing is, I chiseled off 108 miles of the trip going back tomorrow.  The other good thing is I finally stopped at a place that actually has very good cell service. ATT isn't all that great, the rest area I was going to stop at? No cell service at all.  There is no way I'm sitting this long without at least having internet access.  I'm very likely going to watch a movie in a bit, I just have to think of what I want to watch. 

Anyway, I'm going to get up at 3 am, get a coffee and get out of here.  Tomorrow is Sunday so driving through Houston should be a piece of cake.  I'm about 4 hours from there so it will still be early enough to avoid whatever Sunday traffic may accumulate. 

++++++

I watched The Last Samurai. Not a big Cruise fan but this was a really good movie IMO. 

Oh, I forgot to get into the drama of yesterday going into today at the other house.  I don't have time for that.  I'll just pepper it with crack, money stolen and a person that needs help.  Maybe get into that tomorrow after I get home. 

Well.  I'm sitting here today thinking, I'm prolly gonna get sent out somewhere tomorrow.  Dunno where, but it will happen.

Manager calls 10 minutes later.  "How early do you think you can leave out of here?".  Huh.  "What do you mean?"  She explains the situation.  Plant in mexico needs Ethylene - now.  Well, you know, as soon as we can get it there.  She tells them we don't have a trailer that can go down there.  We'd have to go down there, pick one up and bring it back up here to load it.

Well we need that.  Lol.  I'm informed that I would have to have an empty back to the yard by noon Sunday.  Now, I would have "thought" about leaving "now" but I was in the middle of things.  I don't just get up and leave in the afternoon unless I am really not doing anything.  Their emergency - that plant's - isn't necessarily mine. I'll do what I can to make it happen, but I have a life, too.

I just agreed to it.  She asks me if I can do it, I'm asking her when I would have to leave.  "Well you're the truck driver, lol, I don't figure that stuff out".  She didn't say that in a mean way or anything, I can figure it out, I was just not in that mindset at the time.  Well, I got into that mindset quickly and figured I would have to leave the yard between 3 and 4 am to get down there in time, take the 10 hour reset and get back up - driving a lot of night hours in the process.

Now I did say the other day that I kinda of like the night hours. I do.  But it really has to work out for me.  Well rested, not in dire need of sleep, not fighting to stay awake. That's not a given on any particular day. 

I'll be going to bed soon - it's only 8:15 pm but to get any kind of sleep, yes, I'll have to go to sleep early. Like in half an hour.  I need to wind down after the fiasco that just took place and God only knows what's going to happen over there tonight.

See, i was in the pool messing around. I put the phone on a stand next to the pool just in case, but it's certainly not any priority in my life to have a phone with me at all times.  I don't normally even have the ringer on, I miss a lot of phone calls.  Kind of like tv, I like it but I don't have to have it 24 hours a day.  Or even half of that. Or even half of half of that. It does entertain me on the road tho. 

Anyway, I saw Donny's truck passing by a narrow window on the side of the house.  Hmm, was Rene coming over? I asked Taylor and James, also in the pool.  Not that we know of.  That's when the thought hit me to look at my phone, so I did. 4 texts from Rene, claiming Donny had "attacked" her and she is bloody and all kinds of crap. I lived with these 2 for 2 years, I know what really goes on.

It was Donny.  Opposite story.  Rene claimed he was drunk. I could tel he wasn't. I know when Donny has been drinking excessively, this wasn't it.  Neither of them have "lives" to speak of, not dissing them or saying they are wastes of space, just how it is.  They are existing.  I live with the people I am living with because I don't want to just exist.  I also have plans.  They may or may not happen, but they are things I am trying to attain regardless. 

This was a he said, she said thing but it was vicious coming from both sides. Likely they got into a heated argument and all hell broke loose, they are both guilty.  They are compatible until - whatever sets one of them off, usually her. She is very unstable, has a lot of junk she is going through physically and facing surgery this coming week.  Their lives are nothing of what I envision at that age and I hope it never comes to it.

But in my mind?  It has come to the point that I believe one of them needs to leave.  Rene loves my dogs, she takes care of them while over there.  But that isn't a reason to keep her there.  Donny will take care of the dogs, just not his first choice.  But he would take care of them, he has several times in the past.  Yes, for me that is a factor considering that place is in my name and I pay $200 per month towards bills over there for the help and I help them out a lot regardless. 

So what needs to happen? I just think it's time one of them left.  Knowing Rene, getting another roommate in there would likely be hell for that roommate.  I don't think she truly understands how well she has it.  She hates men - she's stated that at least 10 times since I met her.  Bad child hood. She needs therapy.  I can't talk her into it, I've tried. Donny is no saint, but he knows when to shut up, not to push the buttons. 

Well whatever. I'm not even going to reply to her tonight. I have at least 17 text messages from her that I have yet to respond to.  Tomorrow, while I'm on the road, I will. Tonight, no thanks. I have to get up very early and I don't need this kind of irritation going on right before I go to bed.  I won't sleep worth a shit. I may not anyway but I'm not going to knowingly engage in something that will definitely mess with my sleep.

That's it. I'm getting up at 3 am, get the show on the road, My dogs will still go over there, hopefully not going to need to talk to anyone but if I do, I'm just going to say I need to get going, we need to discuss this all 3 of us when I get back. And getting back will be Sunday and I won't be in the mood for it. Monday I'm out again, back down to Brownsville.  So, this discussion wll have to take place text messaging if it must.  I don't know where she thinks she's going to go, tho, after having surgery? 

Enough. I'm winding down, time to get thinking about sleepy time, going to literally put this out of my mind. Yes, I can do that. Not worth going into the reasons why I can do that, I just can.

Well, a day off.
I got back to the yard yesterday and the new mechanic was asking me about my truck. It apparently is up next for whatever.

I'll be happy to write you a list. 

The handwritten list took an entire page to write up.  I figured if I was going to get a crack at getting this thing fixed, might as well put all of it on the paper and get it over with.  Still, my manager was saying, "well get your PPE out of the truck and put it in your vehicle or wherever you have access to it because I might need to send you out somewhere". 

Well, I don't want to get into a truck that everyone uses and I doubt any of them do, either.  Anyway, she didn't call me out for a run today and I was rather happy about that - but - it's very likely I'll spend yet another weekend working.  I dunno how good this mechanic is but it should take at least a couple days to get all of this done because the truck also has to go to the Peterbilt shop to have the engine light that's been on for months diagnosed.  I'd rather it take me til Monday, not get into a "strange" truck and just have some time off.

Speaking of that, I have the travel bug in me.  How on earth could you want to travel when that's all you do? you ask.  Yeah, that's all work. Well mostly all work, sometimes I get an opportunity to do something here and there while out, mostly it's drive, sleep, drive.  I have a goal when I leave the yard in the truck: get home as fast as possible.  The fastest route, push it as long as I can and get home faster.  It makes a difference.  Even if, for example, I have a 3 day run that gets me home "some time" on the third day, the longer I push it the first two days, the earlier I get home that last day.  That gives me at least some home time if I get called out again the next morning. 

Anyway, I really need to get back to Phoenix.  My son should be moving tomorrow I think, get that over with and then I'll have 2 options for a place to stay. I'd really like to get to know his wife.  I mean, we have basically never spoken at any great length besides hello and how are you.  She's a bit shy, not exactly outgoing. 

But getting back to Phoenix isn't really what's in my mind: really traveling somewhere, preferably across the ocean, is what I'm looking for.  I have the money, right now, I could take a week to go somewhere - or preferably numerous stops along any given "route" and see the sites. 

Taylor wanted to go with me to London next year, but I don't think they're going to be able to pull that one off.  They have too many financial commitments that really don't leave them much at the end of the day, and that with me paying all of the house's utilities.

Which just came down $117 with DTV wanting us to stay with them and cutting the bill more than in half.  I was on this campaign with them, I didn't even make the call but I know how to work their system.  It was being done on speakerphone, so when we finally got to the right person - that was 3 transfers - and got to discussing it, the lady on the phone said, okay let me see what I can do.  She made some initial offer and then said, wait, let me see what else I can do.  That's the point when I started a discussion while waiting and this lady could hear us:  Well look if the offer isn't good enough let's just cut it off anyway and we can go ahead and get the new package with Fidelity. 

I said that on purpose so that she could hear me, yes.  But it wasn't a lie.  I don't want to see another $215 television bill. Screw that.  There's nothing on TV worth that much money, and if I get the notion to watch a particular movie, such as I did last night, I can just look it up on the internet and watch it through my computer.  Which reminds me, I want to get somewhere around a 30 inch computer monitor and have that separate for watching movies while being able to surf the net. 

Well, a bit of an interlude.  The doggies were stinking badly. The other house? They play out in the dirt, not much grass back there, and they get nasty smelling and looking.  I just bathed them with expensive shampoo, I wanted them to look and smell good.  It's a lot of work to bath a Great Dane and a German Shepherd, Aspyn was more work. Much deeper coat and when I put the water sprayer on a certain setting, fleas started appearing on the surface of her coat.

So, seeing that, I just kept going all over her body and seeing more and more fleas appearing.  Yeah, I went on with it for about 25 minutes until no more fleas appeared. She is going in on Monday for her normal shots, I'm throwing in the extra money to get a 3 month pill as well.  They are both laying at my feet and both are very unhappy doggies. They simply don't like baths, oh well, too bad, so sad.  The fleas are coming from the other house.  The whole neighborhood is infested with them - I know cause' I already tried treating the back yard and they keep coming back.  The only defense is the pills that will 100% keep them from staying on their bodies.  Expensive, but I have no other options.

Decided to go ahead and tidy up my room while I'm at it, washing everything and looking for signs of fleas in here.  Nothing, but still wanted it clean in here. 

Next up: get in the pool and clean out the leaves.  It's an endless problem with all of these trees around. They usually put the cover on the pool, but they didn't last time they were in and it's basically "full" of leaves.  They want to play some sort of pool game in there tonight, I figured I'd spend half and hour cleaning that up and also going to the store and getting the stuff for dinner. Just baked chicken breast with scalloped potatoes and some sort of veggie. Easy to make meal, delicious, cheap, good enough for me. 

Okkkkaaaaayyyyy. That was nice. I was looking at my auto insurance payment last month, $360!!  But I found out that was because it was adjusted for the month I bought the SUV and the next month.  So, the payment is actually $200.  That is much better and something I can at least deal with.  Getting rid of the car will help , tho only minimally, they are only charging me $26 per month on top of the other 2 vehicles to insure it.  I've been getting quotes and no one so far has beaten Mercury.  Once place equalled it, no reason to switch for no benefit. 

Anyway, that's another $160 that I thought I had to pay every month that is now much more manageable. 

Well, I have to go to the store for dinner stuff and lots of other chores I'm going to get done today, Happy Friday!

OOOOOOKKKKKAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY

Now lookit here, I went up to Mapleton on Wednesday, got there Thursday, layover until Friday.  The story is their pump was broken and it needed fixed but it would be done on Saturday.  I was supposed to wait up there 2 days until they could get the pump going and unload the trailer. Friday, no, they tell me, it won't be done until Tuesday.  So I drag the full trailer back to the yard, go home for 2 days and back up there again, arriving this morning. Same trailer, same product in the trailer, the pressure wasn't going up so they just let it sit there. 

I get up there the second time and the dude tells the security guard at the entrance on the phone to tell me to drop the trailer, they can't take it today.  Lololololol. I dropped the trailer, went in to find out why they can't take it - my manager would be asking.  They had taken the pump apart and found a filter that needed to go to the machine shop, it should be done tomorrow.  Alright.  I went and got something to eat and then headed to the hotel.  The hotel hadn't received my info yet - which was a good thing. I would have gotten checked in for nothing.

Why?  Because they called me from the plant and told me that the pump wouldn't be operational until Saturday - which is 3 days from now - and that the plant where we get the product told them to tell me to bring the trailer back  - yes folks - loaded.  I would have preferred an overnight in the hotel and get the detention pay, but oh well. Just amazing these people are throwing this much money away having me drive back and forth like this.  The total mileage for both trips will be somewhere aorund 3,200 miles.  I couldn't get close to the yard today, I started in East Saint Louis this morning to head up to the plant and then after all the rigarmaroo, I ended up at a small truck stop in a town called Pocahontas in Arkansas. 

Nice little Mexican food restaurant, had some dinner and now? It's not even 8:00 pm, it's too early to go to sleep.  I'm no complaining about this run, btw, it's almost as good as the Brownsville run.  Which I haven't been on in 3 weeks or so now.  No statement as to why and no response when I asked.  I just let it go.  Whatever.  Haven't had to go to Cheniere in over a week, so that's been nice.  I guess my little message was taken to heart - the one about how I wasn't going to have much of a paycheck if she kept sending me to that place continuously without getting anything else thrown in.  I'm sure my time is coming - maybe even next run - to go back down to that place and deal with it. 

Oh well. I'm trying to "make" myself tired so I can go to sleep, for there is nothing to do where I am currently parked besides getting some exercise. 

With that, I think I will put this up, get my stuff ready for the morning and get ready to go to sleep.

Nothing against Rene, at all actually. She came back from her 2 week trip to see friends and family yesterday and wanted to come see the dogs - yesterday actually. Uhh, please, tomorrow, I've been out on the road for quite a while, tomorrow works better.  Well, she did show up today. I was in the kitchen tending to food I was cooking - I love to cook, well actually I love smoking food on the smoker.

I said nothing to the dogs, they heard her voice coming through the door and they went running. I continued to keep silent.  60 seconds later they were both in the kitchen, with me, at my side.  I'm only human.  I love my dogs, I like to think they "love" me back in their version of affection in a pack.  I'd like to think they want to be around me as much as I like being around them. They didn't fail me today. Without any coercion or even a word spoken to them they came back to papa : ) 

Yes, it made me feel good. My dogs spend probably as much time over there as they do here.  It's good that they love her, really it is.  But, after so much time on the road lately, I just had that thing in me that wondered if they were better off over there instead of with me?  Maybe I don't deserve to have dogs since I can't be with them everyday.

I don't know, just a lot of thoughts run through my head.  There are many times when I wished my Dane was traveling with me.  I could easily make it happen on a trip here and there, a bit of extra work but it would be worth it.  Of course, they don't allow dogs in trucks in my company and so that's not even a consideration. 

I'll be honest, I'd even get a small doggy if it meant it could travel with me.  But whatever. These plants don't care about your personal lives or how you feel,, they are doing you a favor letting you in there, so they think. I don't give a shit about their "thinking" or their attitudes, especially prevalent at Cheniere.  There are aspects of this job I could definitely do without, the security arrogance - that is: the way security handles themselves - I could do without. 

I could sneak a dog with me if I really wanted to. It's only an issue at the plant loading and at the plant unloading.  Everything in between is irrelevant.  And some places? You are dropping a trailer and hooking up to another. You aren't even there that long. The Charleston run in West Virginia run is an example  I spend about 20 minutes in the plant  Why would I risk doing such a thing? Because I don't give a damn about their disdain for people's lives and my dog isn't going to get out of the truck in their plant and therefore, it poses zero liability to them. 

Do you ever wonder about "safety"?  What I have come to understand that some person in power's version of safety is a reaction to some person that did something who is a complete idiot, so affect everyone because of it.  It's in the name of safety  Right?  Whose safety?  What is my dog going to do in the sleeper of my truck? Piss or poop on accident? 

The shit that goes on in this life....

I'm tired of it. 

Cold food.
Gets old.
Hence the reason I end up eating truckstop food. I can only eat refrigerated food/leftovers so long before I get tired of it and need a hot meal. 
It was - amazing - to see the line of cookware you can get for a truck. 
The thing is, this truck I'm in - and most trucks nowadays - has a power converter in it. This one is only 1500 watts - but I really only use it to charge my notebook, not much of anything else. 

So even tho they make these 12 volt things, I could actually run a regular crockpot or microwave in there.  Or oven toaster.  You know what would be great tho is a crock pot. Just prepare dinners in advance, throw it in large seal bags, get up in the morning, pour the bag into the crockpot and when I'm done driving? Dinner is ready!  That thing could just sit on the floor of the sleeper. 

I could also get a small microwave for reheating foods.  This truck has a bunk bed, which I don't use obviously. The top bunk is a giant shelf. I have plenty of room to store stuff up there.  This is more about eating healthier food than it is about saving money on truckstop food on the road.  Cold sandwiches are good, but at the end of a 14 hour day I"m looking for a hot meal. I think a small crockpot would answer that desire.

Chicken, beef and pork.  It all works.  I've just spent the last 7 of 8 days on the road.  Now, in a hotel I won't do anything like that. I can drive to get whatever is healthier eating in the area, I don't have to succumb to truck stop food. 

These are small investments for happier driving experience. 

______________________________

I have no idea when they came back last night. I left my bedroom door open but didn't hear them come in.  Heck, they pull up their vehicle right in front of my bedroom window and I still didn't hear them. I did wake up around 2:45 am and they hadn't made it back yet.  I'm assuming/hoping that means they had a great time without having to tow around kids and not having to pay for a babysitter.  I don't mind babysitting here and there, last night was easy. They put the kids to bed and there was nothing left to do.  Those kids are still sleeping and I just got done with 8 hours of sleep! 

Oops, I'm hearing sounds of kids wanting to get up...One of them is going to have to get up and deal with it.  I would but I have no idea what the morning routine is. 

I haven't decided on goals for the day besides getting dinner in the crockpot.  Which it already is.  And smoking a pork loin, which I haven't started on yet but the day is quite young.  Well, maybe not that young, but enough to be able to smoke the thing for a couple of hours and then put it in the over on about 225 to finish it off.  I figure if I start that around noon it should be good by dinner time.

I really need to drain out the pond, get the fish out of it if there's any in there and clean the thing out  Tree leaves and such have it black.  Just the consequences of having a back yard surrounded by giant, 100 plus foot tall trees: leaves, bark, branches, spike balls and other nonsense falls from them year round.  It doesn't have to be fall to be....fall. 

I may just do that today, tho I'm fearful of the heat index.  It's going to get up to 94 degrees today with medium humidity - enough to make it feel much hotter than 94 degrees.  But, it needs to be don and can probably finish the project in an hour or so.  I think, lol. 

Well that deteriorated quickly.
I was 2 blocks from the theater - I was really looking forward to watching a movie in a theater, just haven't done it in a while and then I was going to go to a local museum and who knows what else I might come across in the area - when the phone rings.  It's my manager.  I really had no guess as to why she would be calling.

"Has the plant called you yet?".  Umm, no.  She probably was seeing me driving the truck with the Quaalcomm set at Off Duty Drive option. It means I can drive the truck while off duty and not start the 14 hour clock. You can only do that driving the tractor only, not with a trailer.  They did change the rule recently tho, that if you were held up at a delivery point or being pulled over by cops or stopped at a weigh stand and ran out of hours, you can drive truck and trailer to nearest "safe haven".  I haven't tried that yet tho I have come close to needing it twice now.

"No, what's up?".  "Go get the trailer and bring it back to the yard".  Oh, I thought, here goes my trip to the movie theater and other destinations and here goes my off time being paid.  That was supposed to go on into the next day, which is today.  You know, get "time off" in you head, it's hard to shake it.  Oh and I had bought a $3 pair of swim trunks to go swimming or sit in the indoor jacuzzi.  I'm not feeling sorry for myself, not at all, it's just musing about the things that go on in life.

It turns out they weren't going to have the plant up and running until Tuesday.  I can tell ya, I would have loved to sit there until Tuesday, getting paid for 120 of doing nothing but sitting around. Our company won't do that, tho, limited numbers of trailers and drivers, they can't have one sitting around for 5 days doing nothing. Our company doesn't foot the bill for detention pay, so that wouldn't have mattered, just having a trailer sitting idle and out a driver does matter.  I still got 29 hours of detention pay, the trip is still a very high paying one.

And yes, I went back to the hotel instead of the theater, got my stuff, got out of there, over to the plant, under the trailer and hit the road.  Drove 600 plus miles, stopped outside of Texarcana and then drove back today.  I've been home all of an hour lol.  Here's the thing tho, their plans for going out for their anniversary are now back on the table.  I'm tired but I won't have too much watching of kids before they have to go to bed.  They sleep through the night so this should really not be any big deal.

Glad to be home!  Nothing today.  Just nothing.  I'm going to laze around and watch TV.  Tomorrow is a day off, in fact I believe Monday is off as well.  She hands out work assignments to cover Saturday, Sunday and Monday on Friday.  That doesn't, of course, mean she won't call me, but my fingers are crossed for 2-1/2 days off.  Rest, get some stuff done and enjoy something other than the sight of asphalt and concrete highways.

Okay. Well, a night alone. Well with the doggies of course : ) They're crashed out lol.  Kids are in bed, shouldn't have to do anything about that and they are out at a country western type of dancing venue - dancing.  Didn't know the misses of the house was into dancing.  It's all good for me, I'm content to be in my bedroom, AC running, a movie about Churchill on, a little writing, no work, no business, just relax : )