The Wall fiasco continues on....and on....and on....now we are seeing Trump moving towards a national emergency to fund the wall.  The debate is ridiculous. The federal government is mandated to secure our borders, a point that dem leaders conveniently leave out.  The news is nothing but the wall wall wall now.

Whatever the case, I slept a solid 10 hours last night.  I mean, I woke up a couple times but went right back to sleep. That's how tired I was.  Just not getting enough sleep several nights previous to it and plus putting in a full 14 hour day yesterday - I had 10 minutes left on the 14 hour clock when I was done last night - not including going to work and coming home, which is full of things needing to be done in itself.

Yesterday really wasn't worth that much money. I figure around $300 to $340 depending on how much detention time I get paid for.  I'm ready for another Brownsville run with a few days worth of detention thrown in .  I'll take whatever I can get tho and most likely now that my Cheniere credentials are renewed, I"ll be getting dumped with those runs.  I dunno but I hope to get sent back out again tomorrow somewhere.

But, with the room finally rented and the lady that moved in seemingly content to stay, I'm hopeful anyway, that takes a lot of pressure for $400 worth of bills off of me.  I paid all that out last month since I never was able to get anyone in there - tho I didn't think it would happen during December anyway.  I also dumped this load all on Rene - it's up to you, Rene, to make this work. If you can't give and take, she won't stay and I'll be tempted to bow out of this contract - another 3 months to go - pay my share of it and wash my hands of this.

The house itself is a problem tho.  It's small, I can't imagine it's over 1,300 square feet.  Good guess on my part, looked it up on Zillow, it's 1,274 square feet. Trust me, if you were to see the house you would call it small.  The monthly rent at $800 is way over priced and the insulation in the house is not sufficient.  The gas and cooling bills are ridiculous for the amount of square footage.  A mortgage on this house would be around $400 per month, which would make it much more appealing and perhaps do upgrades to it.  But I'm 100% positive I can't get a second mortgage right now.

So I dumped it on them. Come March, find a house that is owner financed or otherwise alternative funding such as rent to own.  Get back to me.  Or find another rental house that is bigger.  Take some of the initiative and find something that will work with bigger bedrooms and at least 2 full baths.  They are motivated.  Perhaps some of the problems with people getting cranky with each other is based on the smaller rooms and all of them crammed at one end of the house - versus such as I'm living in now, rooms are separated - well separated.

Whatever. I just don't want to be the only one doing all of this.  The problem with this town I'm in his that a lot of these old homes were built with only 1 bathroom.  I just looked again, a vast majority of them are 1 bath. Finding 2 full baths or even 1-1/2 baths is pretty difficult.  What I am noticing is bigger houses for less money.

Agenda for today: not sure.  It's already 11:30 am, I have no regrets getting up late. I probably could have slept another hour.  Or more.  A few things tho I should get done now that I think of it. Cook some meals for the road and freeze them.  Now that I have a microwave in the truck, I can reheat meals versus trying to find meals with low carbs. I'm still on the keto diet. Finding it difficult to cross below the 200 pound barrier.  Been stuck around the weight I"m at for several weeks now.  I also intend on working out today - 30 minutes or so with the weights.

Oh yes. I forgot. Transfer my balance from Capital one to Citi which is offering balance transfer with substantially lower rates for 12 months with no transfer fees. I kinda racked up a bit of debt for my new TV and my new laptop. Everything else at Christmas I paid in cash. It's less than $500, I'll have it paid off in a few months.

And finally, still can't review settlement sheets on my pay stubs. They took it down for unknown reasons. This shows each trip I'm getting paid for and breaks it down by the mileage pay, stop pay and detention pay. It's the only way I know that I'm getting paid everything. They announced they are no longer going to send the paystubs in the mail - which has all those sheets included. If I can't see the settlement sheets, I'm completely in the dark.  I mean, I would have to start keeping detailed recording of trips and everything I should get paid.  I wasn't doing that because the settlement sheets show all of that and I have a very good memory when it comes to what I did on any given trip. 

Regardless, my pay stub is already up there for tomorrow's pay. It's much more in line with what I should be getting on a weekly basis. 

The agony, the hell, the misery of going through that unbelievably boring, long-winded s*** called training for Cheniere.  I'm not sorry to say that. They said I didn't have to do the whole thing, just a "refresher". Yea, the refresher from hell.  They shaved off 3 hours and 15 minutes, big deal.  I had to sit in front of a computer and watch a 1 hour and 45 minute presentation on general safety at sites.  Nothing I heard was new, at all.  I answered 50 questions at the end and then moved on to the Cheneire modules.

That is the one from hell. Because you have to sit there for over 2 and a half hours, you can't get up, you can't go to the bathroom, you aren't allowed any kind of drinks or food in there.  It's just plain retarded.  Treating grown men and women like kindergartners because of the stupidity of a few people.  I literally hate that place.  To make things worse, I didn't sleep worth a petunia's petal last night and I was fighting sleep the whole through both of those presentations. And as the last time, the Cheneire presentation goes over all the things a new hired employee would  have to learn, but I"m not a newly hired Cheniere employee and I don't work there. 90% of the presentation was meaningless.  It had zero relevance on what I go in there to do.  I don't need to know about theory operations theories, guidelines and rules.  I only need to know their safety regs and I already have that well down, thanks. 

I don't even want to go there, but when times are tight, anything will be better than nothing. She has been handing out those runs quite a lot, the plant must have been brought back online again.  So anyway, I texted I was done with that miserable nonsense and she just laughed.  She knows what it's all about.  A complete waste of time, that's what.  Besides the operations stuff - which has no bearing on what I do in there - it's all common sense stuff.  And it was chock full of multiple choice questions as well.  Around 100 of them interspersed throughout the presentation, same exact thing as last year. 

Anyway, that evil is done and over with.  I don't care if I get paid for it. I'd rather pay them NOT to do it!

And darnnit if I didn't forget to get my new shoes.  I get a $125 perk for new steel toed shoes at this company every year.  My last ones are a long ways from wearing out. I'm going to find some steel toed hiking style boots - I have to buy them steel toed - but I'm not going to let that kind of voucher just disappear.  Just that I got out of that place and the first thing I thought of was food - over to Cracker Barrell for Keto friends pork chop, ham and eggs and then? Home.  No, back to my town to get a hair cut.  Wash the SUV and then I went to get the dogs and then went home. 

Tomorrow, a run to Houston.  This is legitimately a day run if it works out right.  227 miles down, they get you right in, unload as fast as possible and start right back.  There are reasons I couldn't make it in a day, of course, the biggest factor is the loading plant, but even if it goes a little over, I can still make it.  That short of a run isn't worth more than a day's worth anyway.    It's no more than 8 hours of driving total which leaves 3 hours to load at the plant and 3 hours to unload at the delivery station. Something has to go really bad to not be able to do that run in one day. 

Now then. We have this ridiculous border wall argument going on and on. Now Ted Cruz has rolled out an idea to take Chavo's fortune and use it to build the wall.  I guarantee you that if that's possible, dems will find something to complain about it.  They don't want Trump to win, they want their power back and they don't care how it has to happen.  The ends justifies the means. They have taken the moral low road, not the moral high road that they endlessly claim they are taking.  I'm sick of all  of this.  Politics in the US is completely broken.  It's pretty disgusting. 

Okay, well today is the 3 turned 4 year old's birthday.  I have nothing for him.  I just remembered now.  Lol.  Oh well.  I'd give him a few dollars but that wouldn't mean anything to him.  He doesn't understand the concept of money yet. 

_________________

Breakfast for dinner was the announcement and that we did!  I filled myself up on keto friends meats and a huge omelette.  I haven't felt full in days.  We sang happy birthday to the 4 year old, cleaned up and here I am. Waiting on Trump's speech.  I'm more interested in the spin the likes of CNN and MSNBC will put on it than what Trump has to say.  I already know what he'll say.  Or at least I think I have a very good idea. 

Annnnnddddddd......get ready for tomorrow.  Early enough rise at 5 am.  It will be a full, long day.  I hope I can sleep better tonight than last night. If I don't, I won't make it back tomorrow. I'll pull over somewhere on the way back up and go to bed and think nothing of it. 

C'ya next time. 

So my casino visit last night was a loss.  I drove straight up to Barnsdall without stopping, dropped the trailer and then headed back south - for only 30 miles tho, lol, I had to take a 30 minute break. After that? Down to the Choctaw Casino and Resort in Grant, Oklahoma.  I figured I'd have a little fun, get a bit at chili's and go to bed.  I could have walked out of there with near $300 over what I started with, but I didn't.  Sometimes, you just don't get up and leave when you know you should.  But I had fun and I only lost $100, which isn't anything near the recent wins I've had, so it's whatever.  I expect to take a few hits when I go into a casino here and there, the odds are stacked against you.  It's really that I only play blackjack and I both get lucky and play the way the online training tools teach you.

At least I got up and left when I hit my maximum loss that I set - which is usually just a whim I do whenever I enter one of those places - when I got there.

Anyway, the news is the 3rd room is finally rented in the other house.  And it appears, at least, that this lady is intent on staying a while.  She has a parrot and 2 dogs.  The entire house now is funded by people living off the government - disability benefits.  My only output here is she needs a bed.  I got her one.  If she stays awhile, expense worth it. If not, that thing will come over here for Addler. Actually it's a futon, but this one is really nice and a great price.  Addler sleeps on a futon now.  I don't bother folding it up anymore, it was falling apart doing that every morning so I decided to just leave it down in bed formation.  I want to get rid of it tho and get something that is easy to fold up and put away when he isn't sleeping on it and I want it out of the way.  2 large beds in a room take up a lot of space and also doesn't give me the appearance I want for my room.

I'll be looking for something in the near future.  But, I'm also really looking for a trip somewhere.

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Ugh, I was tired last night, stopped writing this and went to bed early, like 9:30 pm early. 
No idea when I'm going out again, another day off would be nice but I won't turn down a run tomorrow. Goals today: haircut, get trailer registered, replace battery in Jeep, cook dinner and be ready to go if it happens that I'm going out somewhere.  Like, cook a chicken fryer.  Figures I'm home for no-one being around, cept' the doggies of course. 

I found a local job in the endless emails I get from Indeed - I signed up for them with specific parameters - that pays $50 to $75k per year.  I wouldn't be interested in the 50k junk but the 75 k would be close to what I'm making now, I'd be home every night and the ad says you only work average 48 hours per week.  In the last 7 days I've put in over 70 hours.  I know, people think trucking is easy.  Well get behind the steering wheel of one, buttercup, drive endlessly and be away from home all the time, do that for a year and then get back to me. 

The industry has very little allure to pull new drivers of whatever age into it even with excellent pay. A lot of that may have to do with the training process.  You do 3 weeks of class study and parking lot maneuvers and then you get your permit and go out on the road with someone, living in a small box.  2 strangers living in a small box....for months. Until the new driver is ready. They'd have to pay me an extra $7,500 bonus to deal with that an even then I'm not sure I'd do it.  First and foremost, above and beyond the concerns of living with someone like that, is the idea of having a new driver behind the wheel and no way to correct that person if they are getting themselves into a dangerous situation.  Not with hazmat anyway.  New drivers don't start out in the hazmat industry, thank God. 

Anyway, I'm going to apply at that job today.  Our company is losing drivers tho.  The paychecks aren't coming for a lot of people and those people - are leaving.  Even at this rate of pay, some people just don't know how to save and burn everything up as soon as it comes in.  In other  words, paycheck to paycheck, barely surviving financially.  I don't get that but that's the way it is.  I mean, some of these guys made over 100k last year and they're still broke. 

At the moment I could last about 4 months without pay if I used both my checking and savings account money.  And I am slowly stashing cash at the house.  I want a couple grand in green paper bills in case something in the economy goes drastically wrong - which I hope it doesn't - but it pays to be prepared.  The new freezer is almost full and about to start in on the second freezer.  Lacking on dry goods tho.  We have some but not enough to withstand a natural or man-caused/made disaster.  Not for any length of time.  I also want to get a generator and have the ability to keep that freezer going if the power shuts off.  And of course keep at least 10 gallons of gas around.  I'm waiting for Harbor Freight or some store to have a sale on them. 

But this idea of making all that money and having nothing saved for emergencies is incredible to me.  I've got both my cash stash and X amount automatically being transferred into my savings account every week. Plus a very large chunk of change going into 401k every paycheck. Funny when people look at you in shock when they hear you saying things like that in response to people saying they are broke.  But, the parking lot tells the story.  One of them has a brand new Jeep -  about a $70k version. Various brand new pickups.  Make more money, spend it on more toys and more expensive houses, equals nothing in net savings.  I guess cause I lived a large portion of my life in poverty that I absolutely have not tried to equal my standard of living with the current wages I'm making.  I know this can go away and hell can come at me.  I've treated myself here and there - new laptop, new 65 inch tv, upgraded my vehicle but far from a new one. It's 8 years old. In excellent condition, yes, but no way am I getting into new vehicle payments. 

Well, unless it was one of those little tin can death trap cars.  At least they get good mileage lol.  Actually, if it wouldn't hurt my credit score, I'd refinance that vehicle loan right now.  I could bring the payment down around $75 per month.  That's a pretty good savings on a 5 year loan. But I'd be getting another credit check on my score and right now,I have a high number of them.  Some of those will fall off this year, I think, I might do it after that happens.

Hmm, well I best be getting about the day.  The clock never stops. 

Well it's a new day.
Just trying to put myself in a more positive thinking mode.
Cause after the information from my manager yesterday, I definitely went into dark thoughts.  No employer will ever be perfect, but an employer that isn't paying it's employees is definitely a problem.  People are quitting and/or talking about quitting.  I'm not there yet.  But the fact that I couldn't access my trip pay sheets online last night was irritating.  I wanted to find out what I had been paid for.

This is all due to the worst transfer of one company being shuffled over to another that I have ever seen anywhere.  All kinds of stuff has happened - negative stuff, things an employer doesn't want to have happen - but the pay stuff is the deal breaker.  Tho, some employees are getting paid for trips that they didn't do.  It's ridiculous.  The only way to keep on top of this is to see what they are paying out and what they aren't. I don't understand why they aren't getting this taken care of immediately? They stand to lose even more drivers in the midst of desperately trying to recruit new drivers?  If this stuff goes on the internet - the pay situation - that isn't going lure anyone to the company and will drive anyone thinking about switching over, away.

Just a frustrating situation.  Supposedly we are to "let it ride a couple of weeks, it should work itself out".  That isn't particularly encouraging, either. 

Anyway, per the diet, I am kicked out of ketosis lol.  I guess I ate too many carbs yesterday.  Must have been the marinara sauce I had with my chicken.  It was low carb but admittedly I at a huge helping of it.  Hopefully shouldn't take long to go back into it.  I'm back at the same plateau I was at.  Then again, I've lost a lot of fat, perhaps that's just the way it works when you are close to your goal weight.  My arms are still somewhat sore from that workout 4 days ago.  I'm not working out again until that passes.  Like hopefully by the time I get back from this trip so I can do a chest workout.  I'm getting serious about working out, but my body doesn't like it lol.  Just have to slowly condition it back into whatever peak performance a person can get at my age.  At least, if nothing else, I've at least temporarily eliminated this idea of growing old and fat.  Growing old, yes, fat, hopefully the tide is turning for a healthier set of Golden years. 

Speaking of age, I will pass a milestone in a month.  I will turn 55.  Seems surreal.  Just the "other" day I was 48, and before that I was 41, etc etc etc.  I dunno, but since I'm going to be officially a senior citizen, I'm going to take advantage of whatever discounts are to be found out there for us old people lmao.  I dunno if joining AARP is worth it, they've been sending me brochures since I turned 50. 

Well, I got back yesterday late afternoon and now preparing to leave again in a few minutes.  I kind of like a full day off in between trips, but right now? I'll take whatever she'll give me cause' they're still complaining about this slowdown.  She wanted to dump me with Cheniere yesterday and I just laughed. Sorry, but my training has expired, you know this.  She just said, oh darn.  You literally cannot get into that plant unless you have a current safety training card.  You can take a load of chemicals down there and beg and plead and they'll just smile and tell ya no.  I don't miss the place, I haven't been in there in quite a while and it will not hurt my feelings if I don't have to go back again for a long, long time. 

Well, see ya on the flip side!

First and foremost on my mind.
Started at 9:30 am when my son called me. They were about to take him in for the surgery.
He was nervous. Dad, I looked up this stuff on the internet and people can die from the stuff they use to put you under. 

Wow, ok, he's thinking he's going to die on the operation table.  I reassured him: that hardly ever happens.  This is in God's hands, you are going to come out of this alive and well! I was on the road, somewhere in northern Arkansas.  I'm sure I would have some nerves going into an operation too.  I reassured him the best I could, we "hugged" over the phone, told each we love you and that was that.

I prayed after that.  My thoughts went to the Lord.  And asking Him to intervene, to give Caleb peace and to guide the doctors.  As bad as the injury is, tho, this isn't anything difficult for specialists.  They do this every day.  They know what they're doing and they do a good job at it, usually anyway.  But they told him he would likely have wrist problems the rest of his life. 

It's motivated me to find out who did this, why they didn't stop and yes, make them pay.  I'm going to be contacting some private investigators and see if they can say whether they can find this person or not. From what I was hearing, the police weren't especially motivated to find whoever committed this crime. Hit and run, injuries? Definitely a crime.  I'll be working on that next week.

Well, I drove all the way back to the yard, spent an hour and a half there with the mechanic and doing paperwork, drove to some stores and went home before I heard anything.  That's when my mom forwarded me a communique from Caleb's wife, he's fine.  It was a pretty short thing.  Well, I'm over at the other house. A new person moved in with 2 dogs and they didn't want to introduce the dogs without me being there.  Neither of them would be capable of stopping a dog fight if it occurred. I've stopped a large number of vicious dog fights throughout my life, it's not that hard.  You pull the dog on top off and get in the middle of it.  Or, in certain situations, you pull the top dog off and pull back away from the other dog with the top dog collar in your hand and pulling him away at the same time. 

Whatever the case, my phone rang, the screen showed Caleb.  I answered the phone.  My son? High as a kite. Slightly slurred speech but going off into ridiculous, hilarious tangents.  I was cracking up. 
My wife has nice calves! he opined without asking. Did you know that crackers are good when you are down?  I mean, this went on for 20 minutes, the Caleb Entertainment Hour. I've never heard him like that, I wish I could have recorded it.  The surgery is over with, the damage is as fixed as they are going to get it, I imagine there is going to be therapy visits.  That phone call set my heart straight.  I was totally relieved.  I don't know what kind of hardship he might endure from this ordeal, but he's going to be alright.

Umm, anyway, the truck? Yup. all those same old idiot lights came up, the same s*** I've been dealing with forever. But this time, those lights were actually on when I came into the yard.  So, I found the mechanic, working on a trailer with another much more tenured driver. In fact, I think he's been there the longest.  A really delightful person, he always has a good attitude. If someone comes at him with crap, he just smiles and shines light back at them.  We chatted for a while. The trailer? A brand new one, already having a problem with the lights and shorting out. 

But my turn finally came, I wanted this mechanic to look at these lights - just some proof that I'm not making this stuff up considering this truck has been in the shop 4 times for this problem.  Well lookit there, he actually had the $10k software to diagnose problems.  Amazing.  So he got into the codes and the huge numbers of pages that showed up was unbelievable.  After 30 minutes of going through stuff, he informed me that it would take a full day - at least - of doing nothing but going through each of those procedures to finish all of that.

Whatever.  Not my job lol. But he's not doing it now. 
Cause when I went in to turn in the paperwork, my manager informed me I am going back out again - tomorrow.  This is a shorter run tho, thankfully, I'd like a day or two off right now.  It's a run to Barnsdall. The run used to have me going to a bowling alley parking lot for the night and enjoying fine Mexican food at a restaurant and sometimes bowling.  A few times staying at the hotel next door.  But now, this is a drop and hook run. Get up there, drop the trailer and hook up to an empty.  I can get 2/3rds of the way back.

IN fact, if I'm lucky, I can get back to the casino just at the Oklahoma/Texas border and maybe win some more money? Or just keep driving as long as I can before I have to find a place to stop.  But it's only like 2 hours from the casino back to the yard.  Who knows, I'll figure that out tomorrow, I just have the Jackblack bug in me. 

Oh, this last run. Didn't post anything about that.  Well, I got to the plant to load the trailer on time, but I sat on the scale for 45 minutes waiting for anyone  to show up and weigh the thing so I could go to the rack.  I ended up at the plant 3 hours.  That pretty much kills any idea of getting to where I normally would on this particular run. Worse, I had awakened at 1:30 am for whatever reason and never got back to sleep. So I drove all day on 4 hours sleep.  There is a truckstop that the app I use never had on there before.  There's a corridor south of St Louis where I can stop, but most of the stuff is already full when I get there.

Not this little gem. It's off the beaten track. It's only a mile off the Interstate but it's nothing you would just "find".  I found myself a place to park and an extra added bonus: a grill/bar next door.  It was 24 degrees when I got there lol.  Next morning, up to the plant, no detention.  I was hoping for a free stay at a motel and get some sleep.  But, no problem.  The head honcho guy there and I always yak it up.  He's big time into smoking meats and I learn a lot from him.

For example, my disasters with smoking brisket.  Yeah, that's a cut of beef that you actually go WAY higher than what you would think for say, a beef roast.  I pulled that Prime Rib roast out at 130 degrees on the last one and it was perfect!  I never imagined a cut of beef that you need to heat up internally to - 195 degrees?  My mind goes to stiff leather.  Like, the roast coming out looking like a piece of charcoal?  Inedible?  Turns out, that's what actually gets the toughness of the meat to collapse and turn nicely tender and juicy. 

Guess what I'm doing when I get a day off?  And Kroger's has it on sale.  It's not cheap even on sale but it's oh so wonderfully nice cut of beef!  I'll be back - I hope - from this trip on Sunday late morning.  My guess anyway.  Nope, I'm wrong. I have the 3rd load so I probably won't be back until early afternoon on Sunday. 

I'm a little busier than I'd like to be.  Trying to find a tenant for the other house was a huge headache. Just a small market out here and lots of rooms available vying in contention.  I lowered the price and got what I needed. I'll be eating maybe $100 per month, maybe a bit more in these cold months for gas heating consumption, but that's fine.  And likely more like $50 to $75 during summer months.  But I'm looking to change this situation after this lease is up coming April and make it a zero sum game. No output on my part, people paying to live in a place at a reasonable price and be done with it.

It would be far easier, however, to deal with the current place and either have them lower the price of the rent, or upgrade the insulation in the house, or upgrade the AC unit.  Anyway about it the house is not large and isn't worth as much as they're charging in this market.  I took it to deal with a deadline.  I shouldn't have tho.  Other houses were available but they were being picky.  We could have a 4 bedroom house right now at less rent.  It is what it is, but this situation will have to change. I'm not into losing money at all. There is an exchange of Rene watching my dogs in payment for the rest of the utilities that are unpaid for, but in reality, she loves the dogs as much as I do and misses them greatly when I take them home. It's just been tough to keep get  that 3rd renter and the rooms aren't exactly large in that place. 

March, I will be looking for houses that have a rent-to-own option, or as house with owner financing - and still wanting to get into this auction business of homes and land.  I figure something will work out to make this a cash-free proposition for me. 

Ugh, well anyway it's starting to get late and I need to get some other stuff done. 

Happy New Years!

Happy New Year!

2018 was a very strange time, politically speaking.  But as weird and outrageous as some of all of that was, 2019 presents itself to be far more entertaining in the political world. Or frustrating depending on how you look at it.  But I find the current government shutdown to be highly entertaining. It's a poker game, who is going to fold first?  Or who will ante up? Supposedly both sides have their offers out on the table, but neither side is budging and now we await the new House to be sworn in. 

Beyond that, you have Pelosi promising endless investigations and Schumer acting like a petulant child in a nursery day care center. He accuses Trump of throwing a temper tantrum, but from all appeearances to me? He's the one looking pretty stupid right now.  Anyway, I'm guessing this coming year, in that context? We will have never seen anything like it before.  Strap yourselves in, take it in stride, the nation isn't going to collapse, fall off the earth or just "go away" because of these idiots running our nation. 

__________________________

Okay, a house full of people.  James mom and grandparents came own and brought a 4x4 pickup in excellent condition for him.  Sitting in their garage, not doing anything.  It has less than 30k miles on it and although they aren't flat out giving it to him, for 10k, that's an excellent deal.  I mean, at a car lot I would imagine a truck in that good of a condition and especially a 4x4 to go for twice that, even if the thing is 10 years old.  In these parts, pickups retain a lot of their value.  It really isn't a good place to buy used anything, but especially trucks.  

Anyway, there are 3 extra adults here, an extra child and an extra, unfriendly, non-socialized dog.  I've had to keep Addler and Aspyn apart from it My dogs have no fear of it, in fact, Aspyn snapped at it pretty good when it got into Aspyn's face.  That was king of the - well we're going to have to separate them - moment.  Not sure why they brought that dog.  But it's whatever.  It's been nice talking with all of them. They have let down their guards quite a lot since the last time I saw them.  I don't really mean with me, just with family fighting with family.  

I think they were hoping I would be out of here when they came, but I can't say I am complaining about being home for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  Hey, I worked on Christmas.  My Christmas was spent in a hotel with literally nothing open - no restaurants, nothing, in the area and the hotels were ghost towns themselves.  I'm not complaining, I had dinner I brought with me in suspecting that that would be the case.  I made the best of it. 

Tomorrow morning, early, I'm going out again. Back up to Mapleton, Illinois.  That's the place where there's at least a 50% chance that I will get some detention time, which I would really love right now.  I always hope for it but prepare my mind to have to turn right back around and head back home.  Either way will work, but a boost in a paycheck would help.  Not to mention my shorted "paycheck" which only had a $75 bonus on it, that problem I have heard nothing back about.  Likely has to do with switching companies.  Every driver is complaining about it.  Numerous drivers are talking about switching companies. Some drivers are saying they are definitely going to find a new place to work.

mind to have to turn right back around and head back home.  Either way will work, but a boost in a paycheck would help.  Not to mention my shorted "paycheck" which only had a $75 bonus on it, that problem I have heard nothing back about.  Likely has to do with switching companies.  Every driver is complaining about it.  Numerous drivers are talking about switching companies. Some drivers are saying they are definitely going to find a new place to work.

I'm just sitting this one out.  Besides a shorted paycheck which I will get, one way or the other, I'm still making good money. The other drivers are complaining about the 'lowest" paychecks they have ever seen, but excepting for time off, I haven't really noticed that.  Note that my manager never did put those vacation hours on the check that I wanted them on. So I have full vacation hours.

I'm just sitting this one out.  Besides a shorted paycheck which I will get, one way or the other, I'm still making good money. The other drivers are complaining about the 'lowest" paychecks they have ever seen, but excepting for time off, I haven't really noticed that.  Note that my manager never did put those vacation hours on the check that I wanted them on. So I have full vacation hours. And I come to find out the reason it was better to wait until I had been there a full year is how vacation hour pay is calculated.  I will get much more per hour than what I would have received doing it before the full year up. As per getting my own truck, that's going to sit on a shelf for awhile til' I see what happens at work.  

I finally started working out today. We have close to the full weight set and bench and everything we need, I didn't want to wait any longer. This is not  a New Year's resolution.  I've all but given up on that stuff and haven't made any to myself, God or anyone else.  It's just not worth it.  You fail, you feel bad, you resolve not to make any more resolutions, so my previous resolution fulfilled.  I hope to work out at least 3 times a week, but 2 will work.  Just muscle building.  You don't have to do that every day to see results.  

I've been going over calories on my diet, but I still remain on the Keto diet.  I was down to 203 and now it's up to 205.  I'll get serious about it after today. We're having a New Year's feast, tho much of what they are going to be serving I can't eat anyway.  I smoked a Prime Rib roast yesterday and it turned out perfect.  I kept checking the internal temperature - I hate when I miss the goal and end up going way over. Then the meat isn't rare and that's a waste of a good rib roast.  I got that sucker pulled out of it at 130 degrees, let is rest for 20 minutes and it was hot, tender, juicy and nicely rare.  The thing is, once the internal temperature hits the 115 range - it goes up quickly after that.  It's easy to miss your target temperature.  I need one of those fancy remote setups that you put a probe into the roast and it sends the temperature constantly to the remote.  That way you don'e have to keep checking the temp and you don't have to keep opening the door, letting out the heat.  

My travel aspirations remain unchanged.  I've started yet a separate travel fund, apart from 401k, automatic bank withdrawals into a savings account.  That is going to be an emergency fund. I want at least 20k in it, it will take a while to reach that goal. But I don't want to deplete from the fund for travel.  As long as I can keep working like I have been for the past couple weeks,  my paychecks will reflect what I need them to to be able to do all that saving and still pay the bills and such.  

I'm resting today. Besides the workout, I am just going to take it easy. Get my stuff ready to go, yes, for tomorrow considering it's the first load.  Check my credit cards since it's the first.  A few I have balances on to pay  down to zero.  But I always check all of them anyway.  

With that, I think I'll end this one. 

The start of (at least) 2 days off. 3 would be nice at this point. But not 4. I'm really down for 3 days off.  Anyway, I have no motivation to do anything so - I'm not. Besides a trip to the store and take an inhaler up to Taylor at her second job and help james move his Harley, well and a few other things, I haven't done anything.

But saying all of that, I guess I have lol. 

I wanted to sleep in this morning, but a screaming child nixed that at 7:00 am.  I wanted to take an extra long hot shower, little did I know someone was running laundry and someone else had just taken a long, hot shower.  I just figured this was going to be a nothing day after that. 

The tornado that came close (a mile away) caused winds here that did some amount of damage.  They said there was a whistling sound outside as the tornado hit.  It's the only thing about this region I really don't like - tornadoes.  Every year they hit around here.  I don't think one has come this close tho since I've lived here.  There's a season for them and when that season comes, off we go!

Diet:  My plateau has apparently ended.  Down 3 pounds in the last week. I'm so close to 199 I can taste it.  My goal is in the 180's, but hitting the 199 mark would be a celebratory deal for me.  I'm sticking with this diet for now. I've been on it for quite a while and it's done wonders.  And, we have a weight bench now, just need to locate weights and bars for it.  I'm trying to find someone selling their set versus buying them new.  People get rid of that stuff and sell it a lot cheaper than the cost of new stuff. 

And for my paycheck. Besides the fact that I was shorted all of my trips that I made, I couldn't understand what the $61.02 was for.  What on earth do we do that gets that small amount of money? Turns out it's a $75 bonus for getting through a roadside inspection by a State Trooper without any write-ups.  Well that's not bad considering it was maybe 30 minutes spent. 

However, besides my manager acknowledging the trips I had to get to her to prove that I was shorted, I have no idea when I'm getting this money? Shouldn't an employer ante up immediately when they screw up like this? If I were broke I'd be all over it.  If I don't get it next paycheck I'll be asking for a name and phone number of whoever is in charge of payroll.  But I will get it dealt with next paycheck if it's not on there.  Which means next paycheck should be incredibly huge.  Well, I will be rocking the boat if it's not in there, that's what I will say about that. 

Texas actually has a law about getting paid - on payday.  "Texas Payday Law".  No less than 2 paychecks per month. 

Just interesting that after I supplied this information to my manager, she did not reply.  I had to text her again to confirm that she had received it? And then no word on what was being done about it? 

On another note, after 2 plus months of being on this diet, I caved and had 2 very small slivers of Taylor's birthday cake.  I dunno if it will kick me out of ketosis, but if it does I'll go right back in, I believe, cause it wasn't a huge carb overflow. Tho I have to say the icing tasted like pure sugar.  Again, I only had 2 very small slivers.  Who knows. It's actually something I really need to understand, cause' I read about people cheating on this diet once a week and they claim they are still losing weight.

But it's the internet. There is no way to verify that information.  In a while, I'll test on a strip and see if I was kicked out of ketosis and then, if I was, how long it will take to get back into it.  Many say a good long fast will deal with it.  I mean, if it takes 2 weeks to get back into ketosis, I'll regret it. If it takes a couple days, probably not. If it's back tomorrow, definitely not.  I've been very tempted to go in an all out day where I just eat whatever I want - which would be a large Dairy Queen Blizzard and mounds of potatoes and probably a plate of spaghetti thrown in.

Just the little of issue of ketosis.  It took a while to get into it. I've been in it steadily the entire time.  Just a few day where it showed weak, but still there. 

Well okay. I couldn't wait any longer. I'm in mild ketosis.  That's good. That means an 18 hour fast should throw me back into it. 

Meanwhile, I'm smoking - I think I will anyway - one of the rib roasts tomorrow. I'll have the day off, no one will be home. Oh, I take that back, the inlaws are here, I assume the kids will be too. But they won't go out back.  Make a nice fire in the pit, get the smoker fired up.  Maybe do some things, I dunno. The tornado took the cover completely off of the greenhouse.  Amazing. That thing was on there tight. They didn't take any videos of it. Then again, they were crowded in my bathroom shower stall, so I get why they didn't get video. 

Okay. Offa here.

Brownsville.
No detention this time.
Tho the trailer that is here is damaged. Either Something backed into something or another vehicle ran into it.  Either way, obviously unreported damage so I took pics and sent them to my manager with my normal disclaimer of "Sorry to bother you, but I"m sending these now because I'm not taking responsibility for someone else's screwup".  And I'm not taking responsibility for someone else's shit.  It probably happened in Mexico and they get away with this nonsense.

In fact, every trailer I've pulled out of here for the last several times has had some kind of issue with it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about this one.  The light is busted, the lense torn off - but - it still works. I think FMCSA only requires them to work, they aren't going to care how it looks.

I dunno, but I do careful, slow walkarounds on these trailers.  It's ridiculous to even have to do it to the degree I do it, but I'm not going to drive something that isn't roadworthy or won't pass a DOT inspection.

______________

That was last night. I'm actually home now lol. 
House full of people. Inlaws here - not my inlaws as I have none at this point but there are 3 extra people..  I'm sure they were hoping I was going to be on the road and I can't say that I wouldn't mind being out there right now.  I drove the day out and could do it again tomorrow. The only thing that I usually start missing is my doggies.   Other than that, I could probably live out there. 

The stuff my mom said to me several days ago is really messing with my head.  It was very subtle, but it was, I think, an internal thing with her reaching out. I have seen some things on her Facebook wall, just never connected it.  Mama is not going to spend her days in an assisted living center if she doesn't want to. She'll have to make some concessions.  She lives alone. I don't live alone, but by design. She likes her privacy. So do I, but that doesn't mean I can't live with other people. 

I'm really just thinking about an appropriately worded statement to her. 

I'm very perplexed with this situation. 

It's not so strange that your parents in their winter years need help. It's just the way that this is coming about. 

I dunno what to say.  The dynamics of this.  Nothing being forced at that moment, she's thinking about the days coming and ..... 

Really, this is bothering me. Just because I'm living with friends and there isn't anyplace to put her up here even if it came to that.

I could go on - and on - and on about this. And will, but not in one single post.  My mom is so independent. 

Well it's late. Time to go to bed.

Lol.
Yesterday.
I got out of the hotel, decided on a particular area of  Interstate where I would stop for the night.
I look on an app, what's available.  It shows the truck stops, but it shows much more than that.

Well, I figured on a Love's truck stop on the Arkansas border - tho not set in stone. That one  gets filled up. No parking spaces. I had several other alternate locations, I just thought I'd figure it out when I got closer. I mean, I was 580 miles off when I started thinking about that. You really have to look in advance nowadays. When Elogs were forced upon us, truckstop parking lots starting filling up at 7:00 pm.

The day dragged on, I have things to keep my mind busy while I'm driving, because it gets very boring.  Excepting for today tho.  I was intentionally run off the road by a FedEx truck who - no known reason. Well I guess I didn't slow down to let him pass? On an Interstate Highway? With a passing lane? I went full blown Fedex on that one.  In fact, that video will gain traction.  You can't run another truck off the road because why?

Well anyway, I was near the end of the day - end of the day means I"m almost out of driving hours - 11 of them - and I see this billboard. Whatever the name of the casino and "truckers welcome". Hey, I'ma trucker! and I love blackjack.  I've been up and down this 75 mile stretch of highway and never saw that billboard.

It sounded like fun! After being in a town on Christmas with nothing open, no restaurants, no socialism, I was ready to engage.  Getting off the Interstate? 5 miles to the casino? Dang, I wasn't prepared for that.  I don't ever go more than a quarter mile to find a place to park.  But this wasn't about parking, I love blackjack.  So  went on down the road and the road? Ended 5 miles later at the casino.

What I didn't understand is the road ends because the Mississippi river? Yeah, that's what's there.  Well there were already  about 10 trucks there - room for 50 more - I pulled up, did my paperwork and then a courtesy shuttle showed up.  I didn't order a courtesy shuttle and neither did I know I was at the Mississippi River and neither did I know I would end up on a boat to play blackjack. Not unusual, Shreveport has boats on the Red River.

I shut off my truck - hey, can you give me a couple of minutes? I need to finish my paperwork - there wasn't a line of cars or trucks coming in there - he said sure, I have nothing else to do.  The driver was the person that informed me that I was going to a boat and that the state has it mandated that casinos must be on the water. Well, I tipped him, might as well, I have this idea that tipping is the way to winning, start the good vibes, walked in there and walked down this long, enclosed corridor.

At least 100 feet long, probably more.  I get in the entrance, looking around for tables. Blackjack tables to be exact. Nothing but thieving slot machines.  I won't put a penny into those things.  If they don't have Blackjack, I won't play anything.  It's the only thing I will gamble on at a casino.  It's more likely to win me money - and have a good time doing it - than anything else there.  Yes, I do go in with the idea of winning money, but it's on the level of $200 to $500, not thousands or getting rich.

Second room - I found an ATM. I didn't have much cash on me, I won't sit down at a table with at least $150 on me.  It's psychological thing.  I won't lose more than $200 before getting up and walking out, either. If I hit $200 loss, I'm gone.

Then, going around, looking for a table. 3 blackjack tables, all full with people standing around them.  I just stood there like a fox looking at prey and waited. I'll get my chance, I thought, and I'm going to win tonight, not lose.  After 20 minutes, a man got up off the table on the either side - 3rd base at that - and I rushed over to fill that seat. Google "Blackjack 3rd base" if you want to understand that.  It basically means you can win or lose for not only yourself, but the entire table.  In many instances, it's very true. A sucky 3rd base player will cause players that have a clue to get up and walk to another table.

_____________

And got caught up in a bit of a scuff with Rene - once again. Blowing up my text messages with this dude that's living over there and..issues.

Anyway, I played that table for about 2 hours.  I was up $400 at one point -  not including tips with house money to the dealer for the good hands - and walked out of there with $250.  Spent the night in their parking lot, drove back to the yard - yesterday as of now - and here I am, 5:00 am, getting ready to go back out again.  I requested it. 

Well now.  I just checked my bank account. $61?  I should have had near a lot more than that with 2 runs on that check. We're on weekly pay now, there's 2 runs that should have shown up on this pay period. 

Have to deal with that later, about last track of time here.  Time go!

Morning after Christmas.
Like, woke up at 5am stuff. 
No particular good reason for it, excepting I had to go unload the truck.
Well, I fell back asleep and here I sit, lol, 45 minutes late and will probably be an hour and a half late.

It's bitterly cold out there and the truck is a piece of ice, basically. I went out, turned it on, put on the defrost on high, set it at it's hottest setting and figured at least 20 minutes before that's going to deal with the ice on the windshield.

I wasn't particularly liking the ice crystals on the ground, either.  It's 27 degrees outside, it never did snow that I can tell.  But I have to go stand out in this nonsense for an hour and a half or more and the only thing I can say is it's a darn good thing I brought all this heavy winter gear with me.  I've got a jacket from Ferguson - yes it's mine, they bought it for me and said I could keep it - but the one I picked out is extra heavy duty.  It will keep you warm at zero degree temps.  But I can't really wear that thing under the fireproof jumpsuit so I'm switching to thermal shirt and a sweatshirt and see if that works.

And more info from home, the place is wicked sick.  I'm not even all that interested in going back there right now.  It's 2 days back anyway tho, perhaps that stuff will pass by then.  Whatever the case, it would be nice simply because of that to get home and turn around and go back out somewhere.

Brownsville would be nice.  I know I always say that, but it's just a good deal. 

Ugh. I'm looking at the truck from my hotel room window - the ABS light is on.  Actually wouldn't care if that truck totally broke down after this delivery and I was stuck somewhere for days and days.  See, with a truck approaching 700k miles, that's always a possibility.  Everything has been running on the engine for all those hours and that stuff doesn't last forever.  Water pumps, alternators, turbo chargers, fuel injectors, fuel pumps, etc etc etc. 

Very likely this truck will have continuing problems with all the miles on it.  And it doesn't have an APU - auxiliary power unit - meaning no other source for power and AC/heat when parked, so the truck would have been running pretty much 24 hours a day when the team that was in it before me was using it. 

Hotel breakfast fare was untouchable. Not surprising in a low budget hotel brand.  The only thing I could take out of there was coffee. What I thought interesting last night was all of these hotels here including the one I'm at are veritable ghost towns.  The Holiday Inn didn't have a single vehicle parked in the parking lot at 10 pm.  And yet, they wanted $130? lol good luck with that.  Hilton Hampton across the street is a much nicer hotel and was cheaper. 

Well, I guess I best get this show on the road.  The truck should at least be getting warm by now. I mean, it takes quite a while for a semi to warm up when it's this cold out side.  The only thing that can help it is to shutter the grill closed, but this truck doesn't have one of those on it.  It stop most of the air coming in from the front to cool the engine, hence the engine heats up faster.  In cold winter weather up north, you will see trucks with blanket looking things covering the entire front grill.  It's simply so the engine can generate more heat, it gets cold in those trucks lol. 

Off to the races. 

My mom.
Wow.
Interesting discussion tonight.
I've thought about this for awhile anyway.
She can't live on her own forever.  She's going to need help.
She made this image up when we were kids.

I eventually saw through the parody of not being able to reach out to others
and tried to correct my course through that.  Parental influence on your early
years is pretty much life long whether anyone wants to admit it or not. 

It was a long battle.  I still have problems reaching out to people if I really, really need
some help.  I have lost faith in most of human kind tho. People are generally selfish in this
current day and age and have very little concern for their fellow man/woman.

There are exceptions of course.  I'm not even sure my view of it is realistic.  It's what I
was raised in. Just like - tho not really coming from my parents - black people are bad.
In various forms.  I was racist as anyone could be at my early ages. But I was fighting
them every day at school, I didn't start those fights and I remember being dragged out into
hall by them frequently.  They beat the shit out of me, to be honest. I couldn't defend myself
against a gang of people.  They hated whites, we hated blacks, that was how it was. 

I spent half a lifetime getting that out of my system as well. God had a lot to do with that.
He created all of these races, all of humankind, the only partiality I see in the Bible is to Jews.
But that isn't a race.  Yet, look at how much they are hated.

Well, she brought it up in a way that I recognized that she had thought about for a while.
I don't even remember how we got there.  It was out of the blue, it had nothing to do with what
we were discussing.  It was things like "I guess I messed up in being too self sufficient" type of things.  "I understand I would be difficult to live with".  I just listened to it before offering a
rather - I dunno - a reply that didn't give any promises but not devoid of hope either.

She would be very difficult to live with.  I was there at her house for 5 days and I can tell ya, after
that period of time, I enjoyed the visit but I was ready to leave.  She has no "bad" traits at all, I can't really say. But her lifestyle and mine are not copacetic for living with each other.  Yet, I would never see her moved to a nursing home. No way. Not unless she wanted that.  And even if she said she wanted that, I would never believe it. 

So now, the reality of my mom growing old enough to the point she needs help.  She has a sound mind, she isn't dull in the head at all. But her strength is obviously giving out.  I watched that when I was there.  Things she could do last time I saw her, she can't do now.  She asks for help but she stops when it's met with a cold shoulder.  It's obvious she needs someone to go over there once a week or a couple of weeks at least and help her do things that she can not longer physically do.

I have such a connection with the family I live with tho.  I really love them as family and as far as I've heard and experienced, they do me as well. 

To make this work where I am currently living, we would all have to move.  They would have to sell the house and we would have to move to a much larger place, including a setting with an "inlaw suite" type of thing where mom could have her own place but connected to us and have access to help when she needs it. I have already talked to my friends about moving to a much larger place with land, they aren't opposed to it at all. 

But I would be dragging mom into a place where she knows no-one.  Yet, she just moved last year from one side of the valley clear to the other side - about 60 miles. She doesn't know anyone out there.  She said she did it to move closer to her drive to Payson, and yes I believe that's partially true. But I also believe it's true that she hoped her sons would help her when she needs help. 

I saw my dad in his final days last year. But he had a loving wife that was there for him the entire time. My mom literally has no one like that.  She did have a man in her life that she dearly loved, but he died of cancer.  I guess she never felt the desire to seek out anyone else. 

It wouldn't really be a hard decision for me to have that kind of setup, but I wouldn't be moving in with her. She would have to deal with where I'm at, and the situation I'm in. My friends would probably go along with a much larger house as long as there was help paying the mortgage.  I could really see how this could work out.  I don't necessarily think she's there yet - but the time is coming. 

I'm going to let some time pass on this.  But it's obviously a concern of hers.  Do you want to live in an assisted living place when you grow old? Never or rarely seeing anyone you know?  I think I'd rather die.  I am living with younger people for several reasons, this is one of them. Tho assisted living is, hopefully, a very long ways off. Mostly not living alone. My mom isn't like that. She likes living alone. She has her dog and that's all she needs. She's told me of guys hitting up on her, so I have to believe she could find someone if she really wanted to.

Well, food for thought for me. But as I said, I had already given it thought. She can't do this forever.  At the least, she already needs someone to come help her once a week or so with stuff she can't do. I'm going to give my friends at my house in Phoenix a proposition.  They can take it or leave it and I won't have ill feelings if they leave it, but it's a monetary proposition that will help them immensely. And they already help the elderly in various ways.  They like helping people is what I am saying.

But I kind of don't know about asking them.  They might feel if they say no, they're going to not be welcomed there or whatever thoughts that goes through the mind with such apprehension.  I wouldn't hold it against them at all, they already do enough, but their money factor and my offer would definitely come into play.  People I trust that wouldn't try to take advantage of her. 

This thing will play out.  I dunno how, but it will.  My middle brother wouldn't do it. My oldest brother is retiring next year. Don't really think he'd like that at all.  Like, maybe build a separate dwelling for her on his property.  She has a place to live, but not in anyone's hair.  Just, I need this and that, please. I don't think she'd want to move out here, there are no mountains.  She would lose access to her property up north. But that day is coming anyway. Sooner or later she won't be able to drive and her freedom will be stripped from her. 

Have you ever thought of driving as a freedom? Well, get rid of it for a while and then come back to me about that experience.  When you become reliant on someone else to take you everywhere, your freedom to move about as you please is gone.  Granted the area she lives in has abundant Uber and Lyft and it's pretty reasonable, but going up north? 

I'm just going to wait and see how this plays out, that's all I can say.

Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas everyone!
To the whole world!
Reporting from Defiance, Ohio, where it's rather cold (at least my version of it, in the 30's and dropping rapidly), it is forecast to snow and I'm snug as a rug in a comfy hotel.

There was absolutely no way I was going to get up here on Christmas Day at 4:00pm and sit here in a truck for 14 hours, waiting at an entry gate to a plant.  Just no.  I paid for this room myself, but I get a holiday bonus so that will pay back the room and then some. In fact, I dunno if I'll even leave here to be there at 6 am.

The plant is like 18 miles away, where I'm at now is the closest stop to that place. I did stay once at another hotel in a different town probably 30 miles from here, but I didn't know about this area here until Iphone maps took me out this way once and I was like, well heck, if I ever have to stay again, it will be here!

My plan for getting here at the time I wanted to actually worked out perfectly. The only glitch I had was yesterday evening, the lights went out on the trailer.  My heart sank when I saw that.  This trip would have to work out perfectly to make it worth it getting a hotel up here.  I mean, if I'm arriving and going straight to sleep, I'll just do that in my truck .  I took the electrical pigtail connector apart and walaah, same problem: one line is shorter than the rest, causing tension on that line and eventually pulling it out.  I may just stop somewhere and have that pigtail replaced, the mechanic likes to argue too much. And get a second opinion on those tires.

Anyway, I pushed out 635 miles yesterday and 389 today getting my 1,000 plus mile trip over with and very glad to not be at home right now.  Word came today that sickness has caught the house and I always get whatever they have every time some virus hits everyone.  I mean, a miserable Christmas?  Tho I would have probably gone over to see Rene and visit with her so she wouldn't be alone today.

But, since I'm gone, she has my dogs and those are more than enough for her.  In her world, those dogs are the same as humans.  I don't quite take dog companionship that far, but yes they are fun to have around and they are really family members. 

The only other thing that lingered in my mind was eating.  I called numerous restaurants here today, including Applebee's and Buffalo Wild Wings - both advertising to be open today - neither of them answered their phones. Called a few other places, no answer.  I decided not to chance it, stopped at Petro, went into Iron Skillet where they were having a Christmas feast buffet.  I loaded up a to go box with that stuff and then got a fresh cooked streak and eggs for the road right there and then. I'm very glad I did that.  The only place I saw open was an Asian restaurant and right now, that kind of food is off the menu for me.

Keto diet, you know.  I'm full fledged into Ketosis and I see no good reason to depart from it.  I brought my test strips with me. I've been eating too much, I guess, but it is the holiday. Even tho I'm in ketosis, I'm not really losing much weight.  Probably after the New Year is when I'll get back into not only counting carbs, but also calories. 

So I have my buffet stuff here and will be munching that down a little later.

Meanwhile, my mom sent me some present in the mail, I decided to bring those with me so I'd have something to open here.  Included was a pair of thermal socks - of which I forgot to bring mine with me - I have high dollar socks that keep your feet warm even if they are wet - these are thermals.  I will be using those in the morning.  It's going to be in the 20's from what I am reading.  And then a cool neck thing - I think you put it in the refrigerator and wrap it around your neck when it's hot. 

Well I can use that during the hot summer months. 

And a check.  I won't disclose the amount, but rather surprising.  It will go straight to savings.  Save, save, save is my motto, while still being able to afford some nicer things in life.  Enjoy it while I can, right?  It's been a nice Christmas, really. Not near anyone to have any social time with - that's what I wanted to go to Buffalo Wild Wings for - I'm not sure why the sites say these places are open. Must either be a company or franchisee option.  Applebee's is allegedly open everywhere, but it's definitely closed.  Just the only thing that didn't quite work out, I really would have liked to sit at a bar and just chat with people.  I'm good at starting up conversations with strangers when I'm in the mood. 

Okay. It's going to snow here tonight, so the forecast says!  I hope so! 

So how are y'all doing today? Did you have a Merry Christmas?

I hope so : )

Saturday night.
Drove out the miles today, got back home, and can't say that I've done much of anything.

I get that way sometimes when I get home from a run. I figure I'll get busy the next day and just wind down the day of arrival to the house.  Especially if it's a late afternoon thing.  If I get home in the morning, I am likely motivated to get some stuff done.  I do have a list for tomorrow, but the thought of working on Christmas will overshadow much of that.

I just want to keep working on the leaves in the back yard - for the exercise part of it and yes for being good neighbors.

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Sunday morning.  This day is going to be a waste, so to speak. It will be gone before I knew it started and I will be facing 4 or 5 days on the road.  But I'm going to make the best of it.  Build a fire, rake some leaves. Cook a rib roast, spend my pre Christmas here and then face the music. 

I likely will never do a Thanksgiving deal again.  Christmas is far more important to me than Thanksgiving and the only reason I did it was because I hadn't seen family in so long.  I'm not really regretting it too much, I at least got something accomplished out of this deal, but sacrificing Christmas for 2 hours of Thanksgiving with family? Yeah, no.  Simply not worth it. 

And what's concerning me about this next trip is the weather.  I'm looking at snow showers on Christmas morning at the place I'm going to.  The delivery isn't until the next day but my concern is traveling.  I suppose on Christmas Day the roads should be veritably dead, yes?  I've got a friend in Indianapolis I haven't seen in years, I'm considering stopping there on the way back.  If I'm going to miss Christmas, I might as well try to do something with it.  That is, if my manager will allow me to stay another day out on the road. Just depends on whether she needs that trailer for another run.

Anyway, my breakdown pay check was as much as I thought it would be, didn't have to fight for it. I would have gotten irritated if I had had to.  I dunno, but considering the amount of down time I've had above and beyond breakdown pay, I guess I should count this upcoming trip as a blessing since it's over 2,000 miles total.  I'd rather just do Brownsville runs, but those I get sparingly.  They go to more senior drivers that likely have more say about the runs they get.  I figured if I could do 3 brownsville runs a week, not detention pay at all, just doing the runs, I would make close to 100k per year. 

Well, whatever.  I've got other business schemes running through my brain now. There is a truck washing chain called Blue Beacon. The large trucking companies have national accounts with them.  They are by far the most popular wash stations, but they haven't got near enough locations nationwide to cover the demand.  You go into one and there is almost always a huge line waiting to get their truck washed.  The start up costs of one of those businesses can't be that much. I mean, a chunk of change, yes, but nothing like starting up, say a fast food restaurant.  They are pretty plain, simple and small structures.  The highest portion of the cost of building one is probably all the plumbing needed to supply that much water to that many spray wands going at once.

It's just something I'm going to look into - profit margins, yearly annual income for the owner, etc.  The problem is that they are always located near a major truckstop.  The reason being, at least guessing, is that truckers want to be able to get their truck washed while off duty.  In other words, they're done for the day, they switch the elog off, but they still wait in line for the wash and stay off duty creeping back to the truck stop. That's not how it always happens but they seem to like it being near a major truck stop.  I don't personally care, I just go in them to get the truck washed and leave.

And, I haven't been able to get the truck in until 2 days ago - for almost 2 months.  There is a prime location here near my house where a major trucking lane going north/south and I-20 going east/west. 

Whatever. I tend to muse over things that might push me ahead in the financial department, considering how far I am behind.  Looking at my paycheck tho? The federal government took over $1,100 of it. Just poof, like that, they take my money so they can burn it in spending sprees that they go on endlessly.  They won't even balance the budget, there isn't even any talk about either party discussing balancing the national budget. They simply don't care. 

And let me say here, if progressives get control of the House, Senate and Presidency, our Constitutional Republic is doomed.  It will be a Socialist state with traces of Communism thrown in.  I've paid over $13,000 in federal taxes this year.  That's quite the chunk of change for the government to just take without my consent and then give it to other people that want my money. 

Whatever. Just quite irritating.  Let's just do a 32 trillion health care plan! And an extra 10 trillion for free college education!  It doesn't have to be paid back, it's all the government's word under the fiat system!  You know what's funny?  The interest payments on that debt we have. It's going up and up and up.  I wonder how much of the budget has to be spent on servicing the debt before enough people get pissed enough to force Congress to actually, at the very least, spend no more money than the amount that comes in? Everyone is blaming Trump for spending soooooooo much money, while they conveniently leave out that Democrats were all over that last budget deal and voted it in. 

Derp. 

Well, offa here. 

It's Friday before Christmas. 

I got sent out on a short run today - run an empty trailer to the repair facility in Amarillo and bobtail back.  It's about a thousand miles.  So a day and a half for some decent pay and not too much trouble since I didn't have to load the truck, just take it up there, drop it in the yard and leave.  I'm 140 miles back towards home at this point, where I had to stop due to running out of hours.  

And not wanting to drive anymore, anyway. 

The bad news - for me anyway - came a few hours ago.  I'm scheduled to go on a run on Monday and won't be back until Thursday. Well Thursday at the earliest anyway.  That means I'll be somewhere in Ohio for Christmas, far from home, far from anyone I know and probably not going to like it very much.  But, I made the deal and I'm going to honor it: Take Thanksgiving off and I'll work Christmas.  I figure I'll have to drive around 400 miles on Christmas Day to finish out the trip to get up there and then I have to wait until the next morning to get unloaded.  

I was hoping I could just be home Christmas Day and really not care if I were out before or after it.  I wanted to cook my traditional Standing Rib Roast, of which I have 3 of them in the freezer.  I've heard they still have them on sale, so I'm going to buy a 4th one as well.  

I will end up treating myself to a hotel room if I have enough time to do so.  I intend on pushing myself on Monday to get as far as I can get until I am forced to stop.  And hope that I can get done driving on Christmas Day by mid afternoon.  

Ahh yes, good ole' Super 8.  Defiance, Ohio.  My delivery is in Stryker, Ohio, right up the road from Defiance, but Stryker has literally nothing.  Well there is one hotel but there is no place to park a semi.  I looked once, lol.  There's a Buffalo Wild Wings right up the street from the Super 8, I can get wings in vinegar based hot sauce and stay on my keto diet.  I don't see any good reason to break the diet for a Christmas on the road.  If I were home, different story. Wait, I guess I'd better check and see if it's open on Christmas. There are several other, better places than Super 8 right there, but I remember Super 8 had a huge truck parking lot and I don't remember the rest of them having that.

But I'll wait til I"m up there to see if it's even worth getting a hotel.  Just depends on what time I arrive. To be honest with you, any company that wants you out on the road and a thousand miles from home should probably think about paying for a hotel stay on them for the holiday. They give extra pay for working holidays but it's Christmas, not just any  holiday.  It's the single most important holiday of the year for me.  It always has been. As distant as our family is now, it didn't used to be that way.  Well my oldest brother has always been distant, but we used to have fun at Christmas.

My mom told me the other day her wish was that family would some day get along with each other and we could have time spent together with joy and peace in our hearts.  I didn't say this to her as I didn't want to do anything to kill the moment, but that's likely never going to happen.  My brothers didn't bother to show up to dad's funeral. They don't give a s*** about family. They care about their version of family, I guess, but the brothers and mom? Nahhh. My middle brother especially. What a total jackass he is.  

It's just another day, right? Maybe for other people, not for me.  It's a time to celebrate Christ's birth and be with family and friends. The folks I live with now are my family .  I guess what's really going to be hard about this is that I haven't spent a Christmas away from home in as far back as I can remember.  Every single year, I've been home.  I've cooked a Christmas roast and we've had good times.  

Well whatever. I'll deal with it.  I'm hoping to make it up there for a bit of time to spend with whoever at Buffalo Wild Wings.  Oh yes, their website says they are open on Christmas day, the actual hours, who knows. Why this place? Cause' it's what's there. VERY limited options in that particular area.  It's a small town, some hotels and a few chains have capitalized on it's location right next to a major highway for that region.  

I already let everyone know I'm not going to be home on Christmas.  Might as well get that over with and I did. 

Okay, this wasn't totally unexpected. In fact, I had the feeling it was going to happen, I just was hoping for a different outcome. These plants are open 365 days per year, the stuff we deliver is a vital part of their operations, if they don't have this chemical, they aren't operating.  Somebody has to do it. I know lots of people that work on Christmas, just in my mind it's untouchable.  But it isn't with this company.  The CEO of the company sent out a statement saying he's thankful for all of us who work on holidays.  Blah blah blah.  If you really felt that, then you would give better rewards for having to sacrifice the time  $170 is peanuts, I would gladly give it to someone else to have the off time at home.  You would give everyone a paid hotel, period.  You would do more than lip service.  But that's what millionaire rich people who don't connect with the common man or woman do. They pitch their accolades while they are planning on being in their mansions whenever they please to be in them. 

Don't take that wrong  tho. I am not envious of the rich. They have their own sets of unique problems and I want nothing to do with that.  Lots of temptations to use that money in illicit ways, apparently alot of it in the sexual department. 

Hmm. Switched the map to satellite view.  Hampton Inn is right there, the map view seemed to show it further off. I may consider staying there.  But this is trucking, I have no idea whether I will even make it up there. Especially in a truck that by industry standards has mega miles on it.  

Anyway, I'm going to bed. I will leave as soon as my 10 hours are up and get home as fast as possible. I'll spend whatever time I can at home with my extended family and of course my doggies 

: )

Very nice breakfast this morning even if my choices were limited.  I mean, if I could eat pastries, bananas, other fruit, drink milk, have biscuits and gravy, eat waffles and have hot cocoa, well it would have even been better!  I was just glad to find something there that would agree with Keto - cut  up pork sausage, cheese, spinach, throw some salsa and tobasco sauce on top with a pat of butter and walaah. 

I decided to leave the hotel at 9:45 am.  I didn't figure a trailer would show up before then, but if one was going to show up early enough - before 1 pm at the latest, I would probably make it home today.  When I got to the yard down there, there were 2 other of our trucks sitting there waiting. One of the drivers got this dejected look on his face lol.  He informed me he didn't know I was already there and if I hadn't shown up he would have taken the next trailer to show up!

Well whatever, I could have stayed another day, wouldn't have bothered me. Anyway, he started talking about the slow down.  How he would have made 6 figures this year and was headed that direction until work slowed up.  He already told our manager if work didn't start picking back up, he was going to explore his options - switch to another division or look for another job altogether.  This is like the 6th driver that has said something along those lines. 

Anyway, about that time a trailer showed up, I hooked up to it and took off.  It was 11:15 am, I figured I could make it home tonight but whether I did or not wasn't really all that important.  Not going to be sent out tomorrow, that's for sure.  But then my manager asked me when I was going to be back and what trailer number I had?  Please get it back before morning, lol.  10-4. 

That sealed that, I just drove straight back, only stopping for fuel and stopping at Stripes (a gas station/convenience market, many locations having huge kitchens pumping out mexican food( for my baked half chicken.  It's delicious, it's low calorie and it's no carbs.  Match it with 4 jalapeno peppers of which I ate all 4 and I was quite content.  I get it everytime I'm going down there now. 

Anyway I'm home and this house is freezing, gag.  Had to check my weight even if the totally wrong time of day to do it.  Fully clothed and at this time of day I was almost 230 pounds when I started the diet.  Now it's 212.  But the naked weight, lol, is what interests me and the only "accurate" reading is in the morning.  The thing is, my 34's are loose now.  And getting looser.  I don't know how you can lose fat on this diet and not show a weight reduction, but it's been happening. 

Tomorrow? I dunno.  I need to work, that's what I need to do.  I don't need to be sitting around the house for extended periods.  I've got bills to pay and things I want to do.  I've considered doing Uber or Lyft for some extra money when there's nothing going on.  But I don't really know how much they make.  Or if there's even enough demand around this area to make it worth the hassle.  I guess if it comes to that, it's best to just go look for a new job.

And with that, I'm offa here. It's very late, I just had to have some down time before going to sleep. 

Okay.
I drove all day long yesterday and got down here with plenty of time left on the drive clock. 
Good thing, too, cause' there were no trailers down here to take back up.  My desire for detention pay realized, I didn't ask for a hotel last night even tho I could have.  I spend the night in the truck. I was just plain too tired to go through all the hassle it can be to get them to get me a hotel room. And anyway, the vibration the trucks provides all night long?  Lulls me to sleep and keeps me asleep. 

When I contacted my manager this morning, she informed me there is another person ahead of me - another driver - for whatever trailer may come in.  Cool, I thought, he can have that one and I'll hopefully get some extended detention down here.  Well, I had just arrived back from having a Keto friendly meal at Denny's - all meat and eggs - when the trailer pulled in and then found the other driver in the back lot.

We had an extended conversation.  I initially asked if work was slow for him?  I didn't say "too", just an off the cuff question.  Oh yes, he replied, it's been slow.  So I informed him what the plant workers had told me yesterday about the "loaner" drivers - who need to go back - and the company losing accounts.  But, he was already determined that he was going to go find a job after he comes back from his annual Christmas-New Year's vacation.  He jets off all over the country or takes off to Mazatlan - he's Hispanic and speaks Spanish fluently. 

Interesting conversation, also informed that other drivers were talking about leaving as well.  Fine, they can all leave and then I will have plenty of work!  I won't have to go anywhere and that would be fine by me. Excepting this truck situation. That is the ever-annoying facet of this job, but I need not go into that again since I've discussed it at great length on this blog. 

Well, he decided he was going to go ask the yard manager about when another trailer is coming?  I was going to do that anyway, but sure, be my guest!  The yard manager just smiled and started shaking his head. Nooooo, not today.  He already knows I love detention pay and that waiting is not anything that is deleterious to my way of thinking.  So, I immediately texted my manager: I need a room please, they're not going to have a trailer here until tomorrow - whatever time tomorrow who knows. 

Okay. Getting the hotel room was a 4 hour ordeal that got me more than just a bit irritated.  I don't know what took so long, but after 2 hours of waiting I was ready to just get my own room, pay for it and send the receipt to the company once the trip is over.  They will reimburse legitimate expenses and this one is legitimate.  If we wait in Brownsville, we get a room, just plain and simple.  Well, she said she was "working on it", my manager that is, at the 2 hour mark. It normally doesn't take anything even remotely close to this much time to get a room.  Another hour and I texted here again.  No reply.  I had already headed over to the La Quinta, that is where I mostly stay at company expense.  Sat there for an hour and decided to scrub down the interior of my truck.

I also spent quantitative amounts of time attempting to find a truck wash or a do-it-yourself RV wash in this town so I can wash my filthy truck.  Nothing.  I drove by several, either automated car washes or traditional one where you put endless quarters in to get the truck washed - with no RV bays to pull a tractor into.  I'm serious, my truck is filthy dirty. The wheel rims are black. The things is covered with black road grunge, it's just disgusting. But the company only allows us to use Blue Beacons. They are far and few between and when you do find one, it's usually got a huge line. Case in point was the last trip and going through Houston, there was minimum 40 trucks waiting there to get washed.

There is simply no way I'm going to waste that much time to get a truck washed, even if I do get paid for the sitting time. I want to get the yard or as close to the yard as I can at that point.

Anyway, sitting in the La Quinta parkiing lot, I was ready to leave, go to America's Best Value Inn - a place I've stayed at down here on my own dime and very nice for the money, get it over with and get into a room already!  So I texted her to not bother getting a room, I'll take care of it myself.  That's when she told me the internet has been down.  Look, my manager is a sweet lady. But the truth? Very often fudged to cover herself or the company.  Again, if I weren't making the money I am at this company I would have already left.  If the work picks  up - however that needs to happen either by more contracts, the other companies bowing out or drivers quitting - I will likely stay.  If not, many suggestions for other places to go to work for getting good money as well.

So, after almost 4 hours, I got a text: Residence Inn.  Wait, what?  That's Marrriott! In my view, that's the lap of luxury, pretty much any Marrriott property.  So, to the Residence Inn I went!  Parked in the back - just staying out of the way, you know, us truck drivers and always getting in everyone's way and such.......went to the office and even tho I had a texted copy and paste of the info? Yeah, they hadn't received a crew fax from the company. 

Lol.  I texted my manager again. At this point? I'm done.  4 hour ordeal for a hotel room, whatever the property, it's not worth it. Or was it?  She said  "hang on" after I told her the fax wasn't there.  Sitting down in the dining room, I'm reading a chalkboard sign listing the night's food: BBQ baked chicken.  Hmm, I thought, I could take the skin off, hence ridding it of BBQ sauce and eat the chicken at least.  Maybe the vegetables depending on what they are.  I sat there 30 minutes, just not wanting to drive clear across town to get into another place and then is when the hotel clerk said she'd check me in if I would give her a credit card.  Sure, why not?  I had offered it earlier but the other clerk was not as assertive. 

Now I'm in this amazing room. I don't get to stay in places like this very often. I'm too cheap to pay that much money for a room when I can be comfortable and happy at a place less than half the price.  This is at least 600 square feet.  It's kind of like a kitchenetter, but on steriods.  I mean, nothing you would think of as a cheap junky looking kitchennete.  Even some other hotel brands that have a kitchen set up is nothing near as nice as this.  It has a bedroom - but no wall separating it from the living room, a living room/entertainment area, a kitchen in the corner with a dishwasher, oven, microwave, full sized refrigerator and microwave, cabinets fully stocked with plate, cook and silverware. I'm glad I stuck it out. Tho the room isn't even secured as for payment yet.  My payment will work of course, but that's not how this works.

Anyway, dinner is free I find out.  What is really interesting is looking up this property, they only wanted $104 for the night.  That's incredibly cheap for this place.  Suits walking in and out of here lol.  I'm happy enough now.  I'm guessing I'll get 30 hours of detention pay after their hours deduction and that will tidy this trip up quite nicely. 

Meanwhile, I have no idea what I weigh, but I noticed today that the size 34's I moved down to from 35's are now starting to fall off of me as well.  At my fattest point,  I was bulging out the 35's.  It was either buy 36's or do something drastic.  Turns out drastic works!  I already had these 34's sitting in my dresser, never threw them out in hopes I would someday move back into them. I do not, however, have any 33's.  I'm not going to go out and buy 33's.  34's will have to get awfully loose before I do that.  Not that these aren't loose, without a belt on they fall off my butt.

But still, I'll wait.  I'm going to have to be convinced that I'm actually down to that size and really am staying there before I spend any money on that stuff.  Even then, it will be Walmart $11 specials, lol, until I'm really convinced I'm there.  Of course, 33 is still bigger than what I was most of my adult and a portion of my teen life: 32's.  It isn't in my goal plan. I don't necessarily need to be in 32's again to feel comfortable with the end result. 33's would be nice tho. 

Christmas. I really want to be home.  I want to cook a nice prime rib roast, blow my diet for one day, eat some potatoes and enjoy friends and really, they are my family.  At least that is how we talk to each other and treat each other.  I'm not blood, I've seen such situations go bad before.  I"d love to say this is a forever setup, but - the way this world works?  I just can't.  One thing can go wrong and people get their feelings hurt and nothing is ever the same. I've seen that over and over and over in other people's lives so many times. A bright note, tho, that is usually family treating other family members that way. 

They are wonderful people, that's what I can say.  I love living with them, we have good times and bad.  We suffer through the bad with a lot of humor.  Some of it dark humor, yes.  But we engage each other, push each other, motivate each other.  We make fun of each other, we don't get butt hurt about minor stuff or humor at someone's expense.  As it is, I am easily amused anyway.  I like to keep it that way. Find humor in simple things in life, laugh and not get too upset over things. Except shitty service from companies that you pay good money to have their services. That is a sticking point.  There are times when I wanted to tell some of those people to shove a baseball bat up their @$$ until the barrel end comes out and stamps "Eastman" (brand of baseball bat) on their foreheads. I never took it that far. Instead, when it gets that bad, most of these companies record every conversation now.

Well, I think I'll muse over flights to here and there, ships going hither and thither, trips that I want to take.  Free wifi and all that, not using up data. And, I'm on my new computer.  My friend that told me it doesn't measure up to her standards? Well yeah, maybe for the type of work that she does, but I really just use computers for internet access.  And watching movies off the internet.

I've got 17 more hours of glorious kicking back in a nice hotel. Or home? Or apartment? I dunno, but it's nice. 3 HBO channels.  I'm good : )

Well the dogs were certainly nervous being in this hotel. 
Just a strange surrounding for them I guess.  Addler wants to leave lol.
It's almost 10:30am, I'm leaving soon enough to get home and get my room put back together. 

I'll have to take it apart again eventually to do the baseboards in the dark color we chose for not only my bedroom but also for the dining room and the living room. 

That isn't happening today cause' Taylor got a new job and I'm simply not going to do it.  She is also going to eventually do the bathroom, but I have decided that I want a different color in there. It has no windows and it's dark.  I want a a bright color to compensate for that. An off-white or I'll just look at pics of bathroom design and see what might be appealing. It's a small bathroom.  They could have put a small window in there if they had wanted to, it has a wall that is on the outside structure.  In fact, my bedroom could have had at least a nice large portrait type of window installed as well. It's got a huge wall that faces out of the north side of the house.

Not sure why whoever did the addition to the house decided to leave out some much needed windows.  Even a small window in the bathroom would make a huge difference. Nothing I'm interested in paying for, knocking out a portion of a wall and correctly installing a window frame is not in my skill set.  I can see paying a thousand dollars for a contractor to do it.  I've spent a little money on the room to make it more appealing, but structural changes is nothing I'm interested in paying for. 

Instead, I will install more lighting in the small bathroom.  I already bought a new ceiling fixture a while back that I have yet to install.  I think I might just do that today once I get the room back in order.  It's really not a hard job since the old one is still there.  Take the old one down, cut the wires, put the new one up, connect the wires, done.  I bet I could have it done in 30 to 45 minutes max. 

Whatever the case, I find myself hoping yet again that the Brownsville run will have me waiting on detention pay down there for at least an over night.  But if not, I only want it a 2 day trip. The last trip was 3 days because the plant was having issues.  It's just not worth it for a few hours of detention.  What would be nicer is if my manager wouldn't have me sitting around quite so much.  I give her credit she was going to send me out yesterday - but that credit is negated because I have notified her 4 times over the last few months that my credentials were going to expire and now - have expired. 

Okay, I guess I better get my little self in gear and get moving.