And all of this working is paying off.
A large check tomorrow - very nice for a week's pay, but next week?  It will be like 2 weeks pay for one week's work. 
Now, if they would just keep me this busy for a while, my checking account would make significant gains again, such as it was before the slow-down that started last October.  I'm not holding my breath on that one, but one can hope. 

Not that I like being out on the road that much, tho.  I could stand a couple of days off. That's 3 runs in a row now with only a day off in between. As it stands, I got into the yard at 3:30 am - this morning not last night I guess lol. There was a huge storm, lightning flashing all over the place and pouring rain, the type of rain where you step out into it for a few seconds and you are drenched.

So, I parked the truck/trailer into a space and just decided to go to bed right there.  They didn't need the trailer today, I just decided last night I would get this trip over with. Otherwise, I would have to park somewhere, sit there for 10 hours and, yes, I would still be on the road trying to get to the yard right now if I had done that.  It saved me from sitting around for several hours longer than I needed to be sitting around and the trip goes much faster. In the wee hours of the morning, every light you come upon in small towns is green. There is little to no traffic.  Once I finally got into Houston - on the outskirts a truck had broken down and in a construction zone at that so everything stopped - I breezed through there.

Anyway, I am home now.  As soon as I pulled into the driveway, FedEx showed up with the grass plugs.  Ugh.  I did this to myself.  I'll have to put them in today to ensure that they don't die.  At least there's a guarantee on them.  If they don't survive, they will replace any plugs for free that die off.  We'll see what happens, but I'm hopeful none of them die and they all take.  It poured rain here last night as well, so the ground is freshly, nicely watered, I won't have to do any of that.  It actually should go relatively quickly.

Excepting that I'm tired and cranky, haha.  I want to go to sleep, not go out and start using an auger to make holes.  But, I'm going to force myself in a bit to get out there and get this done.  I was reading up on installation, I don't even have to put down mulch or anything. The grass is so hardy, just planting it without anything but  a well watered ground is all that is necessary. I was prepared to go buy a large amount of mulch to cover the ground, but they don't even want you using mulch. 

And, the sales at the grocery stores on steak are amazing! T-bones for $4.57 per pound, that is an awesome price! 

Well, now that I think of it, if I sit here and write and lounge around on the internet too long, I'm going to lose motivation and get nothing done.  And who knows, I might get sent out tomorrow.

I'll have to write more, later. 

The tranquility of sitting in a huge hotel room, nicely appointed, quiet, solitude and time to reflect.  It really puts me into a different state of mind, like I just left earth and went somewhere tranquil where the cares of this world have temporarily disappeared.  I have a little over 3 hours left in this little world before checkout time forces me out the door.  A trailer will not likely show up until this afternoon. The last couple times I've been down here, trailers didn't show up til afternoon, either, so there is no hurry to rush back over to that yard and then sit in my truck all day long waiting.

The Yard manager said the waiting line for trucks to get into the US has grown for unknown reasons.  Well I know why, I've seen the news reports and I've seen them taking video of trucks in a single file line, over 3 miles long, taking up to 10 hours to get across the border. It's the border crisis and taking manpower from ports of entries and relocating them elsewhere.  BP is doing whatever it has to to try and stem the tide of illegals crossing into our nation.  I mean, for me it's a bonus.  If I have to stay for detention, I want it to be good and long, not just a few hours.  I'm at 14 hours right now and will be at minimum 17 hours before it's over.  This is the icing on the cake for my next paycheck.  If I get out of here late - which I am guessing I will, I'll just drive until I get too tired and pull over for the night.

Tho, hopefully, I would get past Houston at least. Going through Houston at night time is far preferable than going through there anytime during the day. It's 5 hours from here give or take, even if I got out of here at 6:00 pm today I'd likely drive through Houston to get it over with.

Well, a phone call to the grass company settled that issue.  I placed an order with them something like 2 weeks ago. The order never processed and my credit card wasn't charged - tho it showed a pending charge for a couple of days, that fell off of there.  They shipped it yesterday and be there at latest Friday.  Be nice if it came today, waiting for me for when I get home to go ahead and plant it.  The front yard is rather abysmal - the St. Augustine grass died in certain spots over the winter and has not come back.  I planted Rye grass which came up beautifully - but that's a winter grass and the summer heat will kill it.  You have to replant that every year in Fall. Kind of a pain but produces a beautiful grass that would be awesome if it lasted year round.

I take up a few projects around the house here and there, nothing too pricey since it's not my house but I'm living there and have been living there for like 4 years now.  I like a certain standard of beauty and cleanliness, especially out on the front part of the house.  The neighbors continue to vex us in the back yard as they haven't cleaned up that yard since I moved in there. The rain comes flooding through their yard, picks up all those leaves, dirt and everything else and washes it right into our yard, every single time it rains. The efforts to clean up the previous mess are washed away with a bunch of dead, rotting twigs that have been sitting in their yard for years. 

Well, inevitably, my time is running out here.  There is another driver who was a couple hours behind me that may already be over there.  It wouldn't bother me at all if he took the next trailer to come in and leave me "stranded".  Unless 2 were coming in today then it wouldn't help.  I forgot to ask the yard manager yesterday if it was just one or 2 trailers coming. 

Other things I am musing, but I best end this one.

I was about to leave the yard this morning and realized I had left my new laptop in my SUV.
Considering what's going on now, I would have been very unhappy with myself if I had forgotten to bring it.
Well number one, I didn't sleep that well last night.  I got to work, got the truck/trailer hooked up, got to the plant, loaded it and din't make it maybe 120 miles down the road before I was forced from severe fatigue to take a 35 minute nap.  I just couldn't drive in that condition.  I felt much better after that nap, tho, and proceeded to drive the rest of the route down to Brownsville out - with the necessary stops for fuel and the wonderful baked half-chicken at Stripes.

It was 7:30 pm when I got down here and the staff was still in their offices. That is very unusual for this place.  After dropping the loaded trailer, I looked around and found - no empties! Yay!  That made me very happy.  I would get at least 10 hours of detention pay, I thought, maybe more.  Well, the dude that runs the place was in there.  When do you think you'll get another trailer in? Well, tomorrow, but throws up his hands. It's taking a looooooooooooooooong time - yes it was quite exaggerated the way he said it lmao - to get trucks across the border. Up to 10 hours!

Yup, I've seen video of it on the news.  Miles and miles of trucks backed up in a line waiting to get across the border.  Thank Democrats for dragging their asses and finally admitting that there is, indeed, a crisis at the border. DUHHHHHH - how much intel do you need and actual footage of what's going on before you come to the same conclusion everyone else is? They're diverting resources to capturing illegals.  Ports are under-manned and it shows it.

But for me? That's a very good thing.  One of our trucks was leaving the yard when I was pulling in. Like wow! He had to wait all day long for that trailer to show up.  That was enough for me.  I called my manager.  Hotel please, thanks.

I'm back at the Marriott Residence Inn. This is not a room, it's a luxury apartment as far as I'm concerned. This one has 2, separate, master bedrooms, each with it's own bathroom, a living room, a dining area and a fully equipped kitchen. I'm thoroughly enjoying this, even if alone in this giant place.

So, a lady came over to the other house today to talk to Maria about renting out one of the rooms.  Long story short: no thanks.  Bipolar, Turrets, multiple personalities, a long list. How did Maria know this? Because this lady's counselor brought the lady there.  It's a Rene on steriods situation.  As much as I need to get that room rented, I don't need to subject everyone there to another nightmarish situation with a person that literally doesn't have all their marbles together.  I'm not trying to disparage this lady at all, but living with a person like that?  Uhh, no.  We just went through Rene, I would hate to subject them to another person like that.

It's been a tough sell this time around trying to get the room rented.  There is a guy that says he'll stop by on Thursday.  But I think I'm going to delete all my ads and put fresh ones up, replete with new pics that Maria sent me today.

Tuesday morning.
Ugh.
Alarm went off in the middle of a deep sleep.
I hate when that happens.  Takes forever to wake up.

Never-the-less, today is a Brownsville run which will go perfectly with the run I just got done with and make for a nice, fat healthy paychceck next week - that's whether there's any detention pay down there or not.  I have no idea if that's still happening down there, I just know 2 trips ago down there I did, at least get about 14 hours worth.  But, as with everywhere we go, they are trying to do away with detention pay, I'm sure it's this new company we have been consumed by.  Eliminating it altogether would be a big cut out of annual earnings.

Unless, of course, my manager keeps me running, then detention pay becomes irrelevant. It's just easier to sit around getting paid to nothing than it is to be running down the road constantly. 

As for my investment intentions, I've been reading for some time now that the Motley Fool - I know, it's a weird name - has a good track record of calling stocks to invest in. They really have a good reputation. There is a subscription fee, but at least if nothing else I can get a little better knowledge of how and what to look at when considering a stock to purchase.  I haven't done that yet,  I was going to last time I was home but I got caught up hanging out with James and just chatting and having a good time, really.

I'd like to dump a couple grand into 3 or 4 different stocks initially and test the waters. 

Well, it's time to get out of here and put in a 14 hour work day. 

Well here I am, at home and on my "new" / refurbished computer. So far, so good and all the USB ports work, that is refreshing.  My old computer half of them didn't work, another reason I wanted to rebuild it. This one also has the high speed ports. I plugged my new wifi adapter in and it's working swimmingly  Much faster than what I had before.  But I have another one I'm going to try, it's got an antenna on it and may even be faster. It wouldn't work in my old computer, the ports wouldn't accommodate for the speed increase.

Anyway, that was the extent of anything I am doing today.  Besides smoking some pork ribs, which are smoking as I type and have been smoking a couple of hours now.

______________

That was yesterday.  Ended up hanging out with James outside for hours in front of a nice fire and eating the smoked goods out there.

The smoked chicken wings were amazing. Had never tried doing that with them before,  we"re going to get 3 or 4 packages of them and have a feast of them.  We weren't actually going to smoke chicken wings, I had rigs in the smoker, but the sell by date on the package showed yesterday as being the last day, so we threw them in there.

Anyway, Monday morning, the kitchen was a disaster.  I just can't live like that, so I just got done cleaning all of that up and now about to go get a much needed haircut.  No clue whether I'm going out tomorrow, don't really want to, a couple of days off would be nice after going hard for 2 longer runs - but - I wouldn't turn it down or even hint that I want another day off.  Money - takes precedence. A Brownsville run would be nice. 2 days, good money and make it on the next paycheck.

Meanwhile, I was looking at Care Credit, the promotion runs out next month.  And I was looking at loans.  Cheaper rates than dumping it on to another credit card and won't hit my credit score the same as transferring the funds. And then the phone rang, I credit company I had looked into for a loan/ Blah blah blah, what prompted you to not finish your loan application?  I guess I should expect such calls, but I don't need a stranger on the phone questioning my motives or decisions.

I just don't know how much I want to borrow atm.  I'm considering a few other things to add onto a loan, but I don't really want to pay too much more than what I am currently paying to service the monthly payments.  Tho, that would go back up once they add the interest back onto that care credit card.  It's a nice program - a year to pay it back interest free - if you can do that.  But I'm guessing they calculate that most people can't do it and therefore, they get to tack all that interest back on.  I'm not really complaining, per se, just that it's a gimmick  I doubt most people that would need to use a card like that are going to be able to pay back a large amount of debt still remaining after a year.  I'm just fortunate that some of my credit decisions have finally paid off and very well into the good range for credit score.

And dinner is ready. For all one of me. The entire house is gone  Only James will be coming home tonight. Taylor is in Kansas and the boys are in Arkansas.  The lady and her 2 kids that are coming to stay for a while aren't going to be here for a couple more weeks.

And, Brownsville tomorrow. Haven't been down there in quite a while, actually.  I prefer it over a lot of runs, but the last couple of runs were worth far more money.  Longer time out on the road the only drawback.  I'd prefer a long run, and then a shorter run and alternate like that But what I prefer and what I get? lol.

Ahh, so I was tempted on a pontoon boat.  I want to go boating, I want to go fishing.  So the small images of the boat on my Iphone had it looking good. But when I got to my 22 inch computer screen and looking? oops! Lots of cosmetic work needs to be done.

Saturday Evening, Little Rock, Arkansas.
After the pay parking on Thursday, I made it to the plant in West Virginia around 5:30 pm on Friday.  It was interesting trying to get one of our new/much longer trailers in there, but I was very happy that they were letting me go ahead and make the swap after hours.

I think I might have made it 100 miles down the road, not very far.  I didn't have much hours left.  I got into this Love's Travel Center in Grayson, Kentucky, what a crap hole.  They have this tiny truck parking area and I mean tiny. Like maybe 40 spots at most and it's in a hole, dead end.  You aren't pulling in there and flipping a U-ey.  If you want to back into a spot on the right, you will have to turn around away from the parking area and back all the way in there.

It's very difficult to back into a parking spot like that on the blind side.  Highly not recommended unless you have a spotter - a good spotter.  Anyway,  I did get the trailer into a hole and there was, by chance, a Hardee's across the street! Yes folks, another lettuce wrapped bacon burger with cheese and no condiments and this time? They did it right! Absolutely delicious! 

I got out of there early this morning. Around 5 am.  The rain began some 100 miles down the road and it got worse as the day progressed. And people driving 45 mph in the passing lane because - excuses. Get the H*** out of my way.  Just move over! Dang.  It's unnecessary and it's stupid.  If you are afraid, stay in the slow lane and let everyone else pass!  Even truck drivers were doing this nonsense. 

Whatever.  I spent a while trying to decide whether I wanted to stop at a truckstop for the night or actually get a hotel.  I spent even more time lookiing for hotels in the region where I knew I would run out of drive hours.  I got tired of it, found a place that was probably not the greatest but at least has 10 parking spots. I decided on the Petro truckstop. I had to stop for fuel anyway, it would be easier just to stay there for the night.  Fueled up the truck and drove the entire parking area.  It was only 5:30 pm and the entire place - except - the pay parking spots, was full! 

Have you seen the news stories of ELD's - Electronic Logging Devices - causing truckstop parking lots to be full and drivers finding it difficult to find places to park?  Yeah, that's my reality on a daily basis when I'm on the road.  You can plan ahead all freaking day long - as these people advise you to do - that doesn't do anything for this dilemma that was caused when this mandate went into effect. But why should the people that made this law care? They don't give a shit.  It doesn't affect them, all they know is their numbers on a computer screen tell them this is what must be done, and right now!! 

Anyway, that was it for me. Economy Inn it is. There were crappy truckstops I could have stopped at, but I had already made up my mind to come here.  Enjoy being out of the truck, $45 - get what you pay for place - but they actually have Directv here.  Not bad for a place like this.  And very good WiFi.  Again, for this place, not bad.  I would have stayed at a better place  but just didn't have it in me to keep searching. The rain and foul driving conditions with idiot drivers just took it's toll on me, I made it almost 700 miles so I'm not going to complain too much.

Now, if this was a "normal" trip - normal now in this new truck I'm in - I would be pulling into the yard instead of being 200 plus miles out.  \

Rene. I'll give her kudos for one thing, that I really miss: She would send me videos and pics of the doggies.  I don't want to ask Maria to do anything like that, tho she did send me a pic yesterday of Addler passed out on her bedroom floor, on one of the much smaller dog's beds lmao. She is far better with the dogs than Rene was.  That's a fact. But, still, Rene loved those dogs.  She's high 24 hours a day now, so she says and I believe it, eating pot brownies.

I'll be getting up early - I think - and get back to the yard before too late in the day.  Or I'll sleep in and say screw it lol.  But if I'm out of here at 6:00 am, which is my current thinking, it's 4 hours or less driving from here.  Okay, so I don't need to get up too early! Haha!!! Just I want to be home before 2:00 pm.  Why? Because on Sundays, inevitably, invariably, the sleep button hits my brain around that time and it's time to doze. It's been that way for me for decades.  I can't explain it, it is what it is.  I'll pull over into a rest area and doze off for a half an hour and try to shake it off if I'm on the road, but if I"m home? I'll sleep for at least 2 hours. 

My new desktop computer came in, thank goodness. The new grass? Not yet.

However, home will be different.  Taylor is off on a business trip for a full week. She left this morning out of Shreveport.  That should be, I would hope, a nice diversion for her to get out of there and do something different.  I mean, company paid, flight, hotel, car rental, per diem. 

The other change? They have a friend that - found a job the same city where my yard is - but she can't find a place until she gets employed. She has 2 kids that will be there as well.  My interpretation? Wherever she was living before, she didn't have the money to pay for because she was broke and she can't find a place until she has the job and gets some money flowing in.  2 weeks? Highly unlikely.  More like a month.  She asked if it was okay with me.  Taylor you know me. If a person is in need and I can help, I always help.  It's not even me helping, they aren't taking over my bedroom. But they'll be in the house and I appreciate Taylor being considerate to ask me. And I've met this lady before, she's very cool and fun to hang out with. 

Well, I have been torn between buying a boat and just continuing to save for land. Taylor asked which one I would be happier with? Uhh, the boat lol.  But for the long run? The land.  Of course the land. but I'm not getting any younger and I want to have some fun on my time off.  The middle ground for me is getting my big ATV fixed and buying another one and at least having something to take off with and go vent life into the woods somewhere blasting down a dirt trail.  Why does that do anything for a person? Why does anything do anything for anyone? Personal tastes, likes and desires. Things you grew up with. Processes in the mind you have had and have been building over time. 

Do something different. Get out of the house.  Go somewhere, meet new people.  More to life than working and going home. I like going home but it's not enough for me.  Actually, I may just attempt again to figure out what's wrong with my ATV. I think it's a fuel problem. If I can't fix it, I'll hire someone who can.  I can take the dogs, go to the river and have some time away from everything.

With that, I'm outta here.  Bedtime approaches, I'm sure I want to leave early.  4 days out is enough. 

   Thursday.
Long, long day.
Well first, yesterday's load was cancelled.  Well before that, my computer situation.  The new desktop hasn't arrived, I checked tracking, it's in Fort Worth as of 11:00 yesterday.  It may end up on the front porch tomorrow.  I had left my laptop - this one I'm using - in the truck.  I tried to find the power cord for the older laptop - it still works it's just slow.  No luck. So I pulled out the one with the bad keyboard - just amazingly annoying trying to use it so I gave up on it. 

Hence, I am on tonight, even if a long day, and am glad to have a functioning computer.  I can only do so much on a smart phone, tho James told me they actually sell and actual bluetooth keyboard for them, I may look into that. 

Anyway, the day before yesterday, my manager told me that I had a load for yesterday, but no trailers in the yard and she didn't know when to expect one to come rolling in.  The load appointment for 10:30 am.  Well, I got up yesterday morning, got my stuff done and took the dogs over to the other house.  Sat around and chatted with Maria for a while, while texting the driver down at the plant I was going to - Cheniere.  He said he was still there, meaning there are problems at the plant and I began to wonder if I was even going.  That question was shortly answered: load cancelled.

It's kind of hard to shift gears internally from "I have to work today" to "I have today off, what do I need to get done".  My mind is in work mode, not home mode.  Work mode was thinking about a 14 hour day and getting within 100  miles of the yard and spending the night at - wherever I end up.  The day was already half over anyway.  And not much later, I got my assignment for today: Charleston, West Virginia.  A much better run, I  have only had a day off in between loads, so actually a gain with a 2,000 mile round trip run versus a less than 500 mile round trip run that's a pain in the ass. 

Well I got to the yard this morning and found the trailer parked in front of the shop on the concrete.  Upon checking the gauges, the thing had 10 inches of product still in it and the pressure was high.  Ahh, the cheniere trailer. They didn't even finish emptying the thing.  I found out later why: their system was full. They shouldn't have even ordered that load, much more the one I was supposed to take down there. Well, I unloaded the vapors into the clear blue sky until I got it down to a better number.  If I take it to the plant with  high pressure, I"ll be there forever while their system deals with it..

At the plant, the newest driver had shown up late - big no-no - so I was sitting there for 40 minutes just waiting for his truck to get done loading. Then, I got in there, got into the driver/employee shack and got into a discussion with the manager.  He's saying they are loading 27,000 pounds, my manager is texting me that they are loading what was left on my trailer into a rail car and then loading me from scratch.  The manager at the plant was like, what?  He instantly called her, lol.  She was saying it was 37,000 pounds, he got out his sheet and there it was in huge numbers, with yellow marker on it: 27,000 pounds.  She then argued about just adding product to the product.  Umm, now that should be left to the purview of the plant that actually creates the product.

Wait wait wait.  I got done there, got back to the scalehouse - and waited there for almost an hour for paperwork.  I finally got out of there and got on down the road.  50 miles worth - when my manager texted me: you have to go back to Eastman.  Why?  They have to put more Ethylene on your trailer.  50 miles.  100 miles in total wasted.  And time - precious clock time.  I knew the day was screwed as far as my plan to make this a 3 day trip.  I totally gave up on that.  Back to the plant, load 10,000 more pounds - the purchasing agent of the company I am going to made an ordering mistake - well they can pay for that by paying me for the extra mileage AND the extra hours.  Over 6 hours wasted. 

I only made it another 450 miles before I ran out of HOS hours.  I was down to 15 minutes, pulled into the TA - and it was full.  Except for pay spaces and I ain't paying them $18 to park for the night, that's ridiculous. Across the street, pay parking there.  I went in for a drink and to ask them how much? $10.  I could have driven down to the rest area down the road, but I had had enough of this day and paid them the $10.  If I get up early enough in the morning, I can walk over to the TA and have a keto friendly breakfast.  I'm well behind where I would normally try to stop - which is somewhere around 50 miles north of Nashville. 

We're still trying to rent that room.  2 nights ago, this dude contacts me on Facebook Messenger off of my Facebook marketplace ad.  He'll take the room without seeing it.  Uhh, no, I thought.  That sets off alarms/red flags/something is wrong signals into my brain.  So I politely said, well we like for people to stop by and check the place out first.  Meaning: We like to get a chance to meet you and find out if your a slob, nutcase or other kind of undesirable that we don't want living there. 

I let Maria know this guy is coming - yesterday it was.  This guy shows up.  With a wife and a baby.  At no point in our conversation did he say there were 3 people.  It's just not a good setup for a family.  I have 2 mature, single adults living there, they don't want to hear a screaming baby or deal with the congestion in the bathroom with 3 more people living there. And other undesirable things that I can think of, such as bickering and fighting potential with them.  This dude was polite, all the way up until, after he left, he texted me saying he wanted the room.

And I replied that we can't have a family in there, if you would have told me that from the start I would have told you sorry, we can't do that.  So, sorry, we can't do that.  Just too many people in a small house.  I was very polite and just trying to let him know why it wouldn't work out. His reply? I'm a racist pig, don't like black people, f*** off, blah blah blah.  I am so sick of the race card.  It's more than just annoying.  I've heard this shit for over 2 years being a Trump supporter and I just won't tolerate that crap.  I gave him a reply that then sent him over the deep end, to the point I had to threaten to call the police. I was going to inform him I am armed and so is the "fat lady" - his words - at the house.  But he needn't know that until it's in his face.  This went on for a while, tho.  I wasn't a lily white angel, I can admit that.  I was pushing his buttons on purpose at that point. 

Whatever. Someone will come along sooner or later that fits in. Just hoping to find a longer term person versus short term.  A lady also asked to move in until August. She's pregnant. More alarm signals. This time I flat out asked - is anyone intending to live with you? She said well that depends. I just flatly told her we weren't interested in more than one person in the room and that ended that conversation.  Just a tough market to find them in. 

Oh, I'm in a town called Denmark, in Tennessee.  I see so many odd names for towns. Did they have a fantasy of replicating Denmark? Lol.

OH yes! My newest shipment of Keto ice cream came in - this time I ordered 4 pints of their newest flavor: Peanut butter fudge. Sooo delicious! 

Well, Taylor is leaving tomorrow or Saturday - I don't remember which - for an out of state business outing.  James parents are coming down to pick up the boys and take them back to Arkansas with them.  For  week I think. It'll be James and I in the house - when I'm home lol anyway.  The problems today extended my trip from Saturday evening to Sunday - who knows what time I'll get back. I wanted to get back Saturday so I would get sent out on Monday. That's not very likely to be given to me.  Cheniere is what caused the sudden increase of work flow. 

I guess I need to get find another loan.  Pay off the Care Credit debt so I don't lose the interest free year.  I've got all kinds of offers for loans now at low interest rates.  I could get a 50k loan right now if I wanted to without anything more than filling out an application and boom, a few days it's in my bank account.  I gave it some thought.  Take out that loan, put it up on the land I want, get the land, sell 25 to 30% of the timber, pay off the loan and have - land!  But I haven't contacted any lumber operations to find out how much timber minimum acreage they want to make it worth it for them to come in there with all of their equipment. 

Well my time is up.  I need to get up in time to get out of here as soon as the clock lets me. I'll make to the plant tomorrow - Lord willing - and then maybe make it 100 miles back this way. That will put me at over 200 miles on Sunday left to drive back. So probably somewhere near Little Rock on Saturday when I stop.  I try to figure this stuff out in advance so I can figure out where I'm going to stop. 

Off to Dreamland.

I forgot to bring my laptop home and my new desktop hasn't arrived yet.
So, back to the nightmare of this  laptop - it only needs a new keyboard lol.  I hope it will work at least to make an entry.

Anyway, I got up at 4am, but reluctantly. The alarm went off, I could have slept for a couple of more hours. Regardless, 410 miles to go, I got with it - until I got to a Love's about 130 miles down the road.  Shower, fuel and tried to get a low carb hamburger from Hardee's.  It was too early and they wanted me to get something else. No thanks. Another 150 miles and I stopped to heat up some food I had brought with me - quite delicious.

After that, I"m about 100 miles from the yard.  My manager texts me - We need that trailer back here - like now. Lol, I'm 100 miles out, it won't be "right now".  I'm not a magician, the truck doesn't have wings and I can't just magically be there, at the yard!  They had a load come up last minute - which almost never happens - and I was the only trailer within range to be able to take it.  I mean, I couldn't get it there any faster than what I did and I thought nothing of it.

During that 100 last miles, I got a call. Bethlehem PA.    I didn't answer this one, but I knew that it was probably from my company.  Sure enough! The President of the "sub-company", leaving a message.  I won, the maintenance director lost. How you have the engine brake set up, as the President described it, is a matter of driver preference.  OK! I had no idea until this truck that were is any other setup, I only knew that the way it is set up now is ridiculous and stupid.  When I'm on hills, I don't want to hit the brake pedal every single time I want the engine brake to come. It neeeeeeeeeeds to come on as soon as I let off the accelerator.  

Whatever.  I dunno when the change will occur, apparently they put our mechanic through hell doing a week's worth of research attempting to figure out how it all works.

It was a simple request, that's what I can say.  It wasn't a demand. The truck was already at Peterbilt, they should have just had it done there.  The mechanic was making it sound like, when I was discussing this with him today, that they had been considering it all along. So, I asked him: "The way you were talking about it when I first made the request, it was that the director of maintenance flatly said no"?  He just sat back in his chair and smiled, gave gesture of "no" and said yup, he wanted nothing to do with it, it wasn't happening.

I'm probably on a shit list now.  I don't care, but it's probably what it is. Tho they can't supersede the President, apparently he's more on the driver's side than on their side if it's a reasonable request. I dunno about complaints.

So, unheard of for me in a long time, I am actually going back out tomorrow.  The unusual part is that I am usually sitting at least 1 day at home, if not two, since the slowdown. The bad part is that I am going to cheniere. The only good part about that is that I will be back in time to get that run on next week's paycheck.  It's an underpaid run, worth maybe $350 - more if there's detention down there - but it goes into 2 days.

My dinner concoction - disappeared.  I was pretty proud of it, considering I just decided what I wanted in my mind and hoped to come out with a finished product that tasted like I envisioned. 50% of Keto recipes are the worst garbage I have ever tasted.  It took a while for me to come to the conclusion that I could just make up stuff in my mind, be Keto friendly - and taste far better than any of that s***.

Dinner was pre-cut beef cubes - I would have bought a roast and cut it myself, but this stuff was cheaper per pound.  And going off on tangents - the price of beef has gone out of control.  I was looking at price-per-pound, as high as $18?!!  The cheapest stuff there besides these cubes was $6.99 per pound and we're not talking high quality.  I mean, if I had been home earlier I would have defrosted some out of the freezer.  And frankly, dinner tonight? Was actually road food until I found out it I'm going to Cheneire.

There was literally nothing in beef on sale.  Unusual to say the least.  Well take that back, ground beef. Walmart was even more ridiculous in beef prices.  I can tell ya, I can live without beef at those prices. Chicken is fine by me. And that coming from a person that can afford whatever - I just don't see paying that much money for a cut of meat that isn't even on the prime side of things.

Seeing that today just further fortifies my position of buying desired cuts of beef - and other meats - when they come on sale and freezing them.  The overflow has gone into the second freezer.
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Wednesday morning.  Kind of in limbo. No idea when a trailer will shop up, but under normal circumstances I'll have to leave in 45 minutes.  Realistically, who knows when a trailer will show up, but I'd like to be at the yard, waiting.  The later start I get, the later into the night I will have to go to get down there and get the trailer unloaded.  I've been up as late as 2 am doing that, very much not my cup of tea. 

And, I am going to definitely get this computer fixed. It's a pricey computer and it's only a keyboard, less than $100 fix.  I really didn't use it that much, it doesn't have a lot of miles on it. 

Anyway, I'm thinking of a "quick trip" to Phoenix in the next month or two.  I simply don't make enough trips back there and I want to change that.  3 days

Amazingly, the deals on desk top computers are significant. Significantly low.  I think I mentioned that a glass of water dropped onto my desktop computer, the water went straight into the cooling fan and into the cabinet, destroying the computer.  Well, probably destroying the motherboard, but same difference.

So, not wanting to continue to live without a desktop computer, I decided to go looking this morning.  $200 give or take the cost of a computer meeting the parameters of what I want.  Not a gaming computer, just for internet and such, you don't need anything fancy.  This is the best deal I found:

HP A Grade Desktop Computer 600 G1-SFF Intel Core i5 4th Gen 4570 (3.20 GHz) 8 GB DDR3 500 GB HDD Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit

That is a refurbished computer. That was all I was looking at. Even Walmart has them, but Walmart's deals weren't as good, as walmart wanted to include the monitor and speakers as well plus charging tax, which put it well above the price I paid for this unit.   I already have those items and I don't need to pay extra for them. So, the above computer I purchased from Newegg earlier for a cost of $209.  No tax and no shipping fee. I dunno how they got away with no tax, I thought that was mandated now by our lovely politicians making sure they get their filthy greedy fingers on everything.  

Anyway, that is a good price for a computer with 8 gigs and an i5 Intel processer.  500 gig hard drive suffices. I'm not a big fan of Windows 10, but I have Windows 7 available if I decide I can't deal with the 10.  It will suffice until/if'/when I decide to rebuild my old computer. Not a priority at this point, I have other things I need to do with my money.  

It is Saturday, I have a run set for tomorrow morning, early.  Like, getting up at 4:00 am on a Sunday.  It will have been fully 7 days since I last worked.  Unacceptable.  I would have gone to work today, but there weren't any decent loads available. The run tomorrow is a 3 day run, decent pay - tho it isn't going to make up for 7 days off.  It's what was available, oh well, on the 3rd day of this upcoming run, I'm going to ask to be sent right back out to make up for all the time off. Whether that happens or not, I have no idea.  Work is slow, one of the senior drivers went back to Colorado to haul LNG gas and wait it out for whether it will ever pick back up.  I predict that won't occur until around October or November of this year.  

And that is certainly not guaranteed. But that's when we lost partial contracts last year, we're 6 months into and work has basically been slow the entire time. IF we get those full contracts back, we will be busier than some of us want to be and then it will warrant hiring more drivers.  Or perhaps, hiring them a bit in advance.

Anyway, full tilt cleaning going on today - after spreading grass seed in the back yard and covering it up with straw.  The back yard grass is almost entirely Rye grass now, the summer grass - i think it was St Augustine grass - was all but completely gone.  Today, it's raining, tomorrow and the next day.  The straw over the top of the completely barren areas will keep it from floating away and will keep it moist.  But now was the time to start this, before the heat comes and the rye grass dies off.  It will help keep the seed from floating away in the rain - tho fortunately it isn't raining hard, just the perfect amount to moisten everything without flooding it - and hopefully get some started.

I just got through scrubbing the entire bathroom by hand, floors included.  I don't much care for a smelly bathroom, but if it is going to smell, it's going to smell like cleaning agents with perfume in them or whatever makes them smell good. 

__________________

6 full days off - over. Sunday morning, early.  Preparing for 3 days out. 

The news nowadays is quite entertaining on specific topics. To build a wall or to tear the existing fence down, that is the question that pervades the news and the major topics of discussion with some of these lefty politicians that want to be the next President.  Some of these candidates to have any policy listed anywhere, at all. Beto is one of them.  He's cool, man, he should be your next president! lmao.  And people thought Trump had no qualifications for the office......

I've received no more replies from the president of the company. I'm not sure how long it takes to simply find out why they reached the decision that they did? I'm not the only one that questions the actions and decisions of this company, tho, that's for certain. 

Anyways, the clock doesn't stop ticking and it's time to get out of here.

Happy Sunday.  

So the mechanic texts me after 4:00:  The truck is done and can be picked up as late as 9:00 pm.  Are you serious?  So if I drive to the yard and no one is there, how do I get to Tyler to get the truck?  Who is going to take me there?  I didn't bother to ask the question, as far as I was concerned, the day was toast that late in the afternoon, next?  I texted my manager hours and hours ago about the my contacting the President of the division, she never texted me back.

I dunno what that means. I don't really care.  I did what I had to do.  Because I am not going to continue to just be trampled over and eat it without any kind of action on my part taken to alleviate it.  There is too much history, in such a short period of time.  I've eaten it long enough. Learn from my past: don't wait, confront situations head on.  Sometimes it's prudent to wait, well I've waited and I've seen where that has gotten me.

My manager needs some training.  Serious training.

I've heard nothing back from anyone about this situation, yet, after the President's email, so beit, I will wait now and see what happens. There are other things I could do, but that would be on the side of "well it's time to move on, might as well grab the bull by the horns" type of scenario.  I'm not there yet.  But I'm really tired of broken down trucks. And in the case where I'm not getting break-down pay such as now, it really sucks.  I get on the verge of starting to make up for lost time - and I lose time again.

________________

Well what fun that was. 30 plus miles the yard, wait there for an hour while the other 2 that were also going - on to Dallas after Tyler - came back - then off to drop off the first truck, then to the Peterbilt dealership before I could finally come back to the yard with the truck.  I should have just drove the truck until the filter totally clogged up and broke down. Then I would have gotten break-down pay instead of sitting home 6 days.

I'm going to Mapleton, Illinois again on Sunday. It's worth something, but certainly not an entire paycheck's worth.  Not really happy about that.  If this happens again, I'm going to specifically ask if it can just be done while on the road and actually receive some pay from this company.  The idea that I should sit around and get nothing while "working" for this company is ludicrous.

Okay, onto other things. Such as tonight.  I contacted Taylor earlier while she was at work - I didn't take anything out for dinner and I just got home from getting the truck.  Back and forth, I said I would make Keto pizza - I've been wanting to make it for days now.  But then she blurted out: Margaritaville! Unlimited crab legs!  Okay! lol, I wasn't going to argue, as long as I don't have to drive.  I fun night out without having to drive? Yes!  And maybe some time at the blackjack tables.....that would be fun. Not a huge fan of the tables in Shreveport, but maybe I'll strike it lucky, who knows.

The thing that sucks - if I know in advance how long these truck break-downs are going to take and I'm at home, I can take a trip somewhere.  I wouldn't have to sit around here, I could be flying over the ocean or just going back to AZ for a visit.

Well whatever,  a fun night may be just what the doctor ordered.

Day 4 - off work.
Not sure what I'm going to do today since it's raining. Most of my activities yesterday were focused on doing outdoor cleanup and related issues.

Plenty more I could do out there today, but it's been raining and the forecast is for more rain.  A lot more rain.  My project was going to be to take down and carefully roll up the greenhouse.  It served it's purpose for the winter over the pond, it's time to take it down.  But  I ain't doing that out in the rain.  I was going to pull out the grass - I mean literally pull it out of the ground - put some decorative flagstone over it and dress up the edges of the pond.  I'm also definitely going to put a gazebo over it this year, in no way shape or form do I want to deal with all the junk from the trees continuously falling into it.

It actually wouldn't take more than an hour to take that thing down, perhaps later on this afternoon if the rain stops I'll have a window of opportunity.
 ____________

And a reply from the president of our division.  Nice gentleman, professional and courteous.  Note that I didn't just blast him or the company, I made requests and did it in a respectful manner.  He's going to look into it and find out why the director of maintenance said no, thanked me for my thoughtful input and assured me he would at least get the information as to why the decision was made.  He wanted me to make sure I informed my manager of everything, so I did that as well. Now? more waiting.

Meanwhile, off to several stores to find various things I needed and then home.  Tomorrow is up in the air.  The mechanic texted me earlier asking me if the truck has a manual or auto tranny in it?  Manual, I replied, tho he gave me no info as to why he was asking.  That's the way this company works, keep you in the dark.  Sorry, but I don't work that way.  If it isn't up front - info that should be made readily available - it only piques my curiosity even more. WHY do they want to keep this information hidden?

Admittedly, I may be setting myself up for unwanted scrutiny in this company, but, considering the way I have been treated, that doesn't really matter to me at this point.  It was a simple request, not outrageous, not something that isn't already going on everywhere, not something that is dangerous.  The engine brake that is.  I look forward to hearing a rational statement for the decision.

As for the rest of today? Taking down the greenhouse is out of the question. Everything is wet. I don't want to roll it up - wet- and then have mildew growing on it. It must be a dry day outside for me to engage in that operation.  I did go to Lowe's to try and find some new blinds, but the only ones they had that were appealing were not the right size.  That can wait.  I also looked for Bermuda grass seed, they only had small bags of it. I asked when they were going to have a sale - they always do, every year, they put huge bags on a pallet and put a sale price on it.

The lady wanted to argue with me that they have "never" done that, to which I just shrugged my arms and said I wasn't going to argue with her about it. Pretty rude customer service, tho.  I let it go and left there, only to find a good price on the seed at Walmart. 

Now home, I'm not sure if I want to do anything. The next door neighbor commented to me a bit ago that "you were busy yesterday", referencing everything I was doing outside.  Yes, I wanted to take advantage of a dry, rainless day.  I hadn't noticed that anyone was observing my activities. Daytime in this neighborhood? You hardly see anyone outside during the weekdays.  I'm really just waiting to hear whether this truck is going to be done.  I bought food to cook for a road trip, but I'm not making it until I know for certain that I'm actually going out somewhere.

I guess I'm just a bit disconcerted about this truck situation, not really thinking about much else. I was going to have a pit fire outside, but it's not cold enough.  Low 60's, but I only like having a fire if it's cold outside and I have to wear a jacket. 

So, I think I'll just watch a movie instead, lol. 

I wasn't going to sit around all day long doing nothing.  The truck isn't finished and now it's going into Thursday.  On that note, I called work a while ago asking if it was done. No, no word from Peterbilt yet.  I'm not one of those kinds that sits around waiting for a call. I'd rather call them after the time has elapsed to fix the thing in the time they say it should take and find out what's going on. But, I didn't do that, just bite my tongue and let them deal with it.

However, the mechanic said we aren't going to be changing the parameters for the engine brake. Meaning, they aren't going to change from the odd configuration of having to hit the foot brake for th engine brake to come on and instead just having it come on when you let off the accelerator.  Why?  He said the VP of the company said no and that the maintenance director called him and gave him an earful about it.

At that point, I understood it was out of his hands and I either live with it or go up the chain.  I went up the chain, immediately actually. Wrote a letter to the "Executive VP" of our division of the company.  However, the mechanic said the decision came from the VP of the mother company. No explanation why, just take it or leave it I guess.  I'm fully prepared to write a letter to everyone - the entire chain of command and their emails are readily available on a Google search.  But, I'll see what, if anything, happens with this individual.  I'm in no hurry, I'm obviously not going to get the thing configured the way i want it - which is not unreasonable and most other trucks in the fleet are already configured that way.  That's the kicker.  The previous 6 trucks I have driven in this company, 3 of them company trucks, were configured the way I want it.

Well whatever.  I'll wait and see what becomes of it, but at the very least, I want a rational explanation of why, exactly, they won't allow this.

So, I set out to get a bunch of outdoor stuff done around the house today and I can say that I accomplished most of what i set out to do.  Just cleaning up, raking, hauling and burning leaves, cleaning up the front porch, mowing the lawns. Used the electric blower and cleaned up the entire cement areas in the back of the house, tidied it up and then fired up the smoker.

Popped in a pork loin and cooked it in there for about 2-1/2 hours and finished it off in the oven at 325 degrees for however long, I didn't really pay attention, came out very, very tasty.

Busy day, made the best of time off at home.  Taking vacation hours for the time wasted sitting here waiting on yet another broke down truck.

So, what fun. I'm stuck home for probably 3 days.  It's a filter for the DEF exhaust system. Apparently they clog up over time and they have to be baked.  Literally baked in a super hot oven.  It takes up to 2 days.  Well 2 full days from tonight - when they are starting on it - is Wednesday evening.  Just what I don't need, 3 or 4 days off.  Anyway, it is what it is. My manager said she'd give me the extra truck to use - but it's in the shop, too.

The funny part about all of this? She also told me last truck has been in the shop 3 times since I got out of it! lolololol I should have just stayed in the thing and collect the easy break down pay.  I just wish they would have let me do this out on the road and collect some money while waiting.  I'm not going to literally sit around and do nothing while home, I just don't want to be home that much, getting caught up on my checking account and getting ahead are more important to me right now.

And the worst part for me, is if I stay home too long, it takes a while to get back in the groove of being on the road. It sucks but it's best for me if I"m just home a day and right back out.  Or last year, I'd be home one day and out the next morning.

______________________

Wednesday. Finally, one of my credit scores has jumped into the Very Good range.  I have never had it in that category and only recently have had it in the Good range.  I've been working on this - literally for years now.  I have no current aspirations for the Excellent range - I don't even know how one gets to that point.  I really don't. Credit scores are so fickle. One little thing and they drop you 50 or more points.  The companies give you very broad and general outlines of how to increase it.  I suppose if I had 0% of my credit being used, it might boost it up into the excellent range. 

But that isn't going to happen this year. Care Credit is in the high 3 grand range - that was all the work done on my teeth. And I have more that needs to be done this year.  Actually, my Care Credit promotional offer is expiring at the end of May.  It's a no interest loan on that card. If you pay it off before a year is up, they don't charge you any interest.  If you don't, they dump all of that interest from the beginning back on it.  It only behooves me to dump all of that onto one of my other credit cards and save the year's worth of not having to pay interest.  But I'll wait until May to do that.  Might as well enjoy as much interest free payments as possible.

Actually,  a low interest loan would serve that better.  It would take all of that off of credit cards, the interest rate will be much better than transferring it to say, Capital One and my credit score would undoubtedly go even higher. Tho the point of it would be to save money on interest.  And, my credit score would tumble for 2 months. Just the way that it works.  I'm trying to put myself into a position where getting a land loan will be doable.  That 72 acre property is still on the market. But there is a 50 acre property that is cheaper, has lots of forest percentage on the land and is still in this area.  50 acres would suffice and would be smaller monthly payment.  Just that that 72 acres property I could sell off 25% of the trees and get enough to put a house on the property. 

Dreams. Won't get there without continue this credit score battle.  The reality: I ain't getting any younger. Needs to happen in the next few years or I'll likely end up giving up on it.  Saving money is tough when I have so much going into 401k and have loans Im paying off.  They want significant down payments for property.  I have 5 grand available out of the new 401k account to borrow.  But I'm really trying to avoid doing any more of that.  The whole situation would have to be quickly moving from having had purchased the property to having a home placed on it within 2 months and moving out of here and into the house. 

Yes, we've actually discussed this and they actually brought up the idea of a large manufactured home.  Not my first choice but the new ones are like real houses excepting for a few things, such as the plumbing.  I know because I still have the house in Phoenix.  That situation has been going on for years now.  I have no idea how long that will hold out until I have to do something about the place, but as long as the couple running it are content to stay there, I will not doing anything about selling it.  I get requests all the freaking time from people texting me - how they got my cell phone number remains unknown as these people won't reply - to buy the house.  No thanks.  I'll wait until some developer comes along and eye balls that entire community as land ripe for development. 

It's built up now all the way along that major road to our manufactured community. It's not a park, we all own our own property there.  They would have to offer me market value to sell that house, right now, I know they just want to low ball it.  It's mostly old, junky mobile homes.  They're not worth much but the land is.  They've been putting in huge apartment complexes all the way down the road until 2 miles down, where they developed large strip malls on both side of the road.  It used to be, long ago, a 2 lane dirt road and only flower farms were operating along there.  We're the last holdouts.  But it's cheap living for people in that community considering those old homes, it may never change, who knows.  I just know that every year I have more and more equity in that house. 

Yet, at the same time, the thing needs repainted and that is going to cost me thousands of dollars.  Mark - the guy helping running the place - is set for a class action payout eventually and wants to do all kinds of stuff to the property.  But those class action suits are dragged out for years, on purpose, in the hopes more people will get on board and more of an overall payout.  It's been in the courts for a couple of years now.  I can't wait forever to paint the place. I've been looking at licensed contractors to do it.  If I still lived there I would definitely do it myself, I have painted houses before.  It's not that hard but there is prep work you must do. And there are bushes growing up next to the house that would have to be pinned down, away from the house, to be able to paint behind them.  I think some of them might have to be cut down entirely.  I planted them at least a foot from the house, but some of them have grown rather large now.

I'm on my 3rd day off and it's time to go back on the road.  I am hopeful the truck is finished today.  3 days is too much, 2 days is really too much, 1 day I can deal with.

As for now? Well, I am going to clean up the front porch and I'm going to get a fire going on the open pit out back and burn a bunch of boxes and stuff that we don't need. 

Well that was an interesting trip.
I set off "Critical Event" incidents numerous times, lmao.
I don't change trucks and then some how mysteriously change my driving habits.  These "critical events" were going off going down some of the numerous hills I had to go over.  The damn thing was setting off this s*** going 3 MPH over the company set speed limit of 65.

Here's the problem.  The last truck? I could go up to 70MPH down a hill and as long as I brought the speed back down, nothing would happen.  This is all related to the QUALCOMM - electronic logging device that does much more than log your hours.  It tracks everything you are doing with the truck, basically.  MPG, MPH, fuel use, percentage of time spent in each gear, on and on and on.  Why one of them would work differently than another in the same company is beyond me, and I don't really care.

If they want to give me trouble about it, they aren't going to like my reaction.  Because I don't give two shekels about going 68 miles an hour.  It wasn't disclosed to me when I signed on to this company.  The company's speed setting is listed nowhere on the internet when searching out this particular company for considering hiring on  I know, I looked - at the time I was considering this place.

I'm beginning to take this job with a grain of salt.  It's to take a place like this seriously when they attempt to Lord themselves over you in so many different ways, it's laughable.  Oh, and I put this company's speed limit and other things truckers would want to know on various reviews of the company on job boards such as Monster and Indeed.  People should have that kind of information made available to them to make an informed decision about whether they really want to quit their current job and move over to another place.

____________________

Enough of that and the next morning.  Fixing to contact my manager about making sure to get that truck into the shop - today. There is no way I'm going to sit around for days while they sit on their asses and take their sweet time dealing with it - doing nothing at all.  I'll drive the thing to the town where the Peterbilt dealership is myself and take a very expensive Uber drive back to the yard and bill it to the company if I have to. 

Work is kind of consuming my thoughts at the moment.  I've made 21k and change in the first 3 months of this year, which is quite surprising considering I haven't had much detention pay and really don't seem to have worked enough to have made that much money.  But, that is on track to making at least as much as I did last year.  The job has become more tolerable - temporarily anyway - with the advent of driving another truck that goes 4 miles per hour faster.  Doesn't sound like much, but it is much more engaging now, driving that is.  Hence the fact that I drove almost 700 miles yesterday.  Just more motivated. 

So, pay staying on track, I'm not sure moving anywhere is a good idea. Excepting wanting to have a local job and home every night.  Dreaming and reality. I can make around 60k per year at the highest local run I've found.  That's a 20 grand reduction in pay.  This is a different situation than Ferguson.  Ferguson, I was going broke with the reduction in hours to 8 and not getting any OT at all - which was promised when I moved out here.  Now, at least I'm making money.  That's the baseline.

Onto other things. I spilled an entire glass of water onto my desktop computer and the water went straight into the fan intake and yes, fried the computer.  Reminder to self to have the thing set up where that will never happen again. My plans to rebuild the computer just went from sometime in the near future to - now lol.  I was already planning on replacing the motherboard, the processer, the hard drive, the power supply - the entire guts really. Especially the video card. The one in there goes out at random and shuts the entire computer down.  I've had the thing for something like 8 years, it isn't really a great loss.  If I had just rebuilt it and that happened? I would be kicking myself, hard.

So, it was a dumb mistake, but it is mitigated. 

Meanwhile, Taylor asked - very nicely asked and said please say no if you don't want to - to allow the use of my room later on this month by the grandma and grandpa.  She was going to put me up at a hotel if I agreed.  I like my room now, lol.  It's got a huge, 8 blade ceiling fan, a heater, it's own AC unit, a 65 inch screen tv, a Keurig coffee machine, a very nice dresser.  A brand new "convertible sofa" otherwise known as a futon but much classier than your basic futon and I am keeping it in new condition by putting a waterproof cover on it and a large blanket over it. It's still a dog bed, but a dog bed that I want kept in good condition.  It's been freshly repainted and the only thing major left to go is replacing the carpet.  I'm not doing that anytime soon, I have other things and it's good enough as it is.

But, as much as I like my room? I'm pretty giving person and help people whenever I can.  So I agreed to it and even agreed to a cheap, local hotel that I have already stayed at once.  $35 plus tax per night and actually not bad.  Dogs allowed if I want to go that far with it.  Maybe maybe not.  La Quinta is here too - but much more expensive. Usually in the high 80's or low 90's range per night.  But, to be honest, I could have just brought the truck home and slept in that, which I offered but she feels guilty I guess about even asking me to do this in the first place and that was an unacceptable offer from  me, lol.  The truck has a $1,000 mattress in it.  It's pretty darn comfortable.  I usually - not always but usually - sleep very well in it. Then again, I don't always sleep well in my own room, that's nothing new.  The vibration from the engine just lulls me to sleep.

Okay, well, I just got texted back after asking about taking the truck in. Yes, please come take it in. I now know if I don't do it, it probably won't get done or it will be days before it does get done.  And I"ll be sitting around doing nothing. Right now? I want to drive, drive, drive and get my checking account back into shape. The yard is nearly empty of tractors, there is work.  I want my full share of it. 

With that - I'm outta here. And probably looking up components for a new computer when I'm done with that.

G'day.

My day off almost over.
I've got another run - a decent run at that - going to West Virginia.  It's 3 full days and part of a 4th to complete.  There is no unloading, it's just take a full trailer up, drop it, pull the empty back.  I'm a bit tired from the last trip tho, but nothing I can't deal with.  At least there isn't as many days to have to prepare food for for this trip - 3 days worth and that's it. The 4th day I'll wing it.  Should only be like 3 or 4 hours of driving left on that last day.  I get to miss another weekend at home? Oh well. 

Okay, I'm kinda busy, just thought I'd get a post in before the night is over.  But I had to make some food, that and laundry usually take up the night before a longer trip.

However, Trump is doing a rally in Michigan and it's hilarious.  He is pushing back hard on all of this fake russian hoax trash that has dominated the news media for 2 years now.  Anyone that continues with this crap is going to get my direct ire directed back at them.  The obstruction accusation is also trash, a lie, another hoax and I won't entertain anymore of those discussions, either.  If people want to follow propaganda news sites such as CNN - the voice of the Democrat party - and a host of other fake news organizations - note they are propaganda, not news outlets - let them.  But don't shove any of that crap in my face, thanks. 

Enough of politics, tho the border situation is really starting to irritate me.  Because nothing is being done in Congress to address the loopholes that allow detained illegals to be released into the US.  And that the left wants open borders - let's just let the whole world in here!

Whatever.  My SUV drives like a dream now.  Just very wonderful.  Like a whole new vehicle.  Now if I could just get the fuel mileage up a little lol. 

And, even more revelations of how Rene was behaving over there. She was truly a dictator.  I had no idea the extent of what she was doing, if Maria would have told m I would have confronted her with it.  She told Maria she couldn't use her rotisserie oven in the house - electric oven.  She told her she couldn't bath her dogs.  She said all kinds of nonsense.

Anyway, I'm tired and I'm going to bed early.  Long day ahead tomorrow.

Rene.
I don't know what this person was doing over at that house - well I have a good idea, but I guess my take on it needed to be multiplied by 1,000 - but she certainly didn't make any friends . 

Maria says 3 neighbors  - all ladies - have come up to her since Rene left and thanked God that she was gone.  What on earth was she saying to these people? How was she behaving?  Maria is all content now, the dogs aren't fighting anymore - her 2 dogs and mine - and everything is running smoothly.  Of course, there isn't anyone else there.

Why? Because the guy that moved in several weeks ago had one night in there and left. 

I'm finding out that Rene was making noises all night long, yelling at the dogs constantly, barking orders to Maria and tried that s*** with the new guy who just didn't show up after that.  I thought he was going to move out and that was going to put me in some dire straits with that house. 

And now, she has taken all of that baggage and issues and internal stuff to Michigan, and it will only be a matter of time before it all comes out up there.  She can only hide that stuff so long before she starts dumping on literally everyone. She will wear out her welcome and then?  I don't want to hear from her.  Not for a place to live.  She no only left a good thing, but she almost destroyed it in the process. 

Ken - the new guy - told Maria Rene is controlling and an authoritarian.  He wanted no part of it. I really don't blame him, but I had no idea the extent of Rene's doings over there. To put it into perspective, she told Maria I owe her $250 for every week that she watched my dogs.  That was the original idea of this - Rene agreed to watch my dogs and I would get a place for her to live and take responsibility for the bills.  This is what she agreed to.  Anyway, I thought I had washed my hands of her until I heard all of this nonsense.  A person that literally cannot get along with anyone.  That takes a special kind of magic.  

Maria is a very happy camper right now, at least so she says. She loves my dogs and they all hang out together in her bedroom. She's asking for satellite in the living room and I may just do that since the package allotted for 4 receivers - we never had the 4th one installed because there wasn't a 4th tv there when the tech arrived to install it.  So it wouldn't cost anything more than what I am already paying for the service. 

Anyway, yesterday.  Driving down those hilly, narrow, steep, winding roads through all over these little bitty towns was quite fascinating.  It isn't the Pennsylvania I remember, but then again, I grew up in Pittsburgh and that's a ways off from there.  Just fascinating all the old structures and houses built out of stone - not bricks or blocks - stone.  Of course, there was a bunch of new homes with vinyl siding, not really interested in that stuff.  I followed both GPS and the written instructions.  I got to the road they were both telling me to turn on and - whoa Nelly.  I turned down on it and stopped. No traffic coming down there at all.

The first thing that got my attention was the "Bridge ahead 7/8th's mile.  8' 9"

Yea, this truck is not going under a less than 9 foot tall bridge.  And the first turn - I wasn't even sure I could make it around it.  But reading the written instructions, it said there was a road to turn on right at - and before - the bridge.  I went down this road with 10 and 15 mile an hour sharp curves, steep angles but pretty scenery.  All farmland.  People giving me strange looks - what's that doing here? The truck that is.  I was wondering the same thing, but I was sure  I was following the instructions correctly not to mention GPS, so I continued on. 

But that nagging feeling - good grief, if I have to turn around? I'll be backing all the way back out of here.  There is no place to turn around! The road was extremely narrow, the truck didn't fit into one lane.  It was basically a one way road but with double yellow lines painted on it anyway.  Well, here comes the bridge.  Lol.  I took a pic, I'll have to post it on Facebook.  And sure enough, another even narrower road with the truck just barely clearing the telephone pole right at the corner. 

Passing by more old structures, barns, houses and such, I finally came to the plant. 

I don't really want to spend too much time discussing the plant. They're all the same, go in, watch a safety video,, sign in, get a badge, go out to truck, wait.  And wait. And waaaaiiiiiiiit.  35 minutes later - umm - you have to go down that street go get back to where you need to go.  Fine, open the entrance gate, I'll back out and pull in there.  This plant has no room.  I mean, it's a cramped facility.  Regardless, I got the truck into position and then the dude told me it would be a while.  How long is a while? A couple of hours.

I dunno why, but I didn't sleep very well that night before, so I crawled up into my sleeper bed and went to sleep for a while.  2 hours later the guy comes up and says a lunch truck comes in every day if I want to get something to eat. I thanked him, but no thanks, I have my own food.  It was almost 6 hours in that plant unloading that truck.  Petrified Forestedly slow unloading time. 

To add to the situation, the pressure on my tank was at 72 pounds when he was done. He informed me most drivers just leave like that but he could bring the pressure down - if I wanted to wait half a day.  Their system needs upgrading is all I can say about it.  I got out of there, drove down the road a while, found a place and brought the pressure back down.  Then drove out my hours.  Made it to a town called Max Meadows.  I was wanting to stay at the Love's but it was full. Love's are always full now, early.  This was a Sunoco truck stop.  A small store, a small hotel and a restaurant.  I took my food in there and heated it up in their microwave. Yes I asked and yes I bought something just to make it feel right to be using their stuff.

This morning, I decided I was going to fill my gut before I left as the restaurant had opened. Some nice country ham, eggs and tomato slices.  No toast, no grits, no potatoes, thanks.  Delicious. 

Fairly uneventful drive to where I'm at now except for all the selfish drivers on the road.  And all the rest of them that are more interested in what their cellphones are showing them than what the road is presenting before them. 

I drove out 600 miles - still had enough time to go ahead and drive another 100 - but I decided to stop at TA truckstop on the outskirts of Meridian, MIssissippi.  It was almost full when I got in here at 6:00 pm, it was  filled up after I went looking for a space. I passed 2 of them by thinking there was one down at the end, only to find a tractor with no trailer hooked to it occupying that space. Cardinal sin in trucking, if you don't have a trailer, you need to go park in the regular parking lot and save the spaces for anyone else coming in there. 

Anyway, there was one spot left at the entrance - as soon as I went to pull back around to grab one of those other spots, 3 trucks came in and took them up.  Because I"m near the entrance, I've watched at least 100 trucks come flying in here and go flying right back out after driving around the parking lot and finding nothing.  If they bothered to use the Trucker's Path app, they would know it's full and not waste time coming in here. I've updated it a couple of times now. 

Anyway, all this stuff about Rene today was quite unnerving.  I just don't understand how a person can act like that and think that anyone wants to be around them? 

I'm 381 miles from the yard.  About  7 hours when including the bs that you have to do in trucking lol.  I could leave at 4:00 am, but why bother.  I'll get up at 6:00 am and get home mid afternoon - it's not just the time getting to the yard, it's the time spent getting out  of the yard as well and then 37 miles home, a stop along the way for my dogs. 

I'm hoping for 2 days off when I get home - but I won't ask for it. If I get sent out on Thursday - it's Tuesday night - I won't complain and take whatever it is and go with it.  I could stand to use about 4 of these types of trips in a row, to be honest.  I won't get that, but that's what would get me well ahead  I've still got expenses coming up that will just continue to drain the bank, not to mention the bill I put on the credit card to pay for the struts for my vehicle.  I'm paying that balance off before the end of the month.  My credit card usage needs to stay low to keep my credit healthy. 

Well enough of this. Not that late, but I"m going to watch some tv and then go to sleep.

So, it's Monday morning, somewhat early at 5:47 am. 
Taylor has decided to start up the diet again.  She has trouble staying on it.  I get it, diets aren't fun and you really have to put your mind towards the end goal to stay on one. 
But, this time, she's part of a pool of people at her work to see who can lose the most weight in a month. Each person is putting in $20, whoever wins gets the kitty. 

Well, it's easier to do something like this when someone you know is doing it as well. It's even easier when that someone is a person you are living with and has to eat the same kinds of food.  I've been on my own with this since shortly after we started it.  I was determined tho, to lose as much as I could. 

And I've stalled out again. It's obvious: I need to exercise with this diet. Most people do.  I just haven't felt like it, to be honest and haven't really done anything. But, I took that two mile walk yesterday which took about 30 minutes.  My feet were hurting at the end tho.  I have a $125 pair of walking shoes I got from the work yearly allotment for steel toed boots from Red Wing.

I didn't need another pair of work boots, the ones I have will last at least another year if not 2.  I only use them for unloading and at plants, they require those kinds of boots with all these dangerous chemicals and processes around. I also have to wear a fire retardant jump suit and other protective gear - all supplied by the company at least.  Anyway, I got this hiking shoes/sort of boots from Red Wing that I haven't even worn yet except to try on.  I'm guessing they will also hurt my feet until they are broken in.

But, hopefully, she stays on the diet and that will give me the motivation to go ahead and start light exercise - just walking and some weight lifting - every day or every day it's possible anyway.  Today, I'll try to do at least a mile walk after I'm done and parked wherever I'll be.  I haven't done this route before so I really have no idea where I"ll be on the way back.  I'll be looking for that after I get on the road and get 4 or 500 miles behind me.  The era of ELD's meant the era of everyone trying to find parking all at approximately the same time.  It's a fact: people cheated with paper logs.  Meaningless to me, a few extra minutes or even an extra half an hour to find a place wasn't a big deal.  Nobody cared, now we are forced by a piece of electronic garbage to find places and since it's forced on all of us, the truckstops fill up early.

Case in point the Petro I stayed at 2 nights ago.  All the free spaces were gone, it was 8:30 pm. The Love's was full, the Flying J was also full.  The only spots left were the Petro's pay parking. $18 to park! That's nothing short of outrageous.  I can see maybe $10.  Goes to show how often I pay to park.  If I come on this run again, I won't be looking to stop in that area, I'll either stop somewhere up the road if time permits or I'll stop before that area.

WEll, someone has stolen my CapitalOne credentials somehow - I haven't been on that site for 2 and a half weeks - and used it to purchase Apple Pay cards. It's like the 10th time this has happened, but the first time it's happened with CapitalOne.  My card is now restricted.  I'm of the mind to leave it like that, but I sometimes use it to gain the free points rewards.  I paid for the SUV repair just for that purpose.  It gets really old having accounts that are hijacked by thieves.  The banks always eat the loss, but I still hate it. 

Anyways, I'm half hour from my departure time, time to get moving!

Happy Monday. 

Okayyyyyy......
Well, I'm at a hotel in Allentown, Pennsylvania.  According to my GPS, it's 12 miles from the plant I'll be delivering to in the morning.  I will be literally spend the entire day here.   Why?  Well, I guess I misread the instructions.  It's only 1,400 miles up here, that's 2 full days and a couple of hours on the third. Easily make it to the plant on the 3rd day.  Instead, it is a Monday delivery, which is quite ridiculous.  I could have been there this morning for the 8am delivery.

We must have some really lame drivers to be scheduling a delivery the 4th day on the start of a run.  Well whatever, there's nothing I can do about it.  Whatever, I'm not going to complain about it.  I took a medium class (well, upper lower) hotel at the Red Roof Inn. I went to the Wingate at first - nice hotel. I made reservations last night for it.  I spent the money for a decent place and when I got there? They wouldn't let me in until 3:00 pm.  They are completely renovating the facility and many of their rooms are vacated for the renovation.

Nice, but that didn't help me.  I called Expedia, who called the hotel, who approved to let my reservation go without any cancellation fee. $94 back - well back in 7 days probably - but then I decided the heck with it, might as well get a cheaper place and hope it's a decent room. And yes, this is a decent room.  I always like it when I come into a cheaper room and find nice furniture in good condition without scratches tears and wear.  No carpet - fake wood flooring but in nice condition and I don't have to smell old foul carpeting.  Haven't turned on the tv yet - because I don't feel like watching tv.

In fact, I'm going to see if anything nearby to go and visit.  The Liberty Bell museum is closed this entire month, just my like. That is what I would have really like to have visited.  That kinda of took my aspirations to go see stuff out of me.  Cause to go see anything, I have to use Uber or Lyft.  Im still thinking about it tho.  There are a couple of interesting looking things only 4 miles away.

Anyway, the advent of Rene has come and gone.  She finally moved out, leaving her reign of terror in that house behind her.  She really abused her position with Maria and it really pisses me off.  She also instigated Addler into a fence fight with neighbor dogs and now he has a 1 inch gash in his jowls.  I have doubts it will heal properly, but I have Maria dumping antibiotics down his throat to make sure it doesn't get infected.  I have FishMox - dog antibiotics that are available online without a prescription but labeled for fish so they can sell it without that prescription - always available in the refrigerator.  I can only hope a half decent healing.  But, it's his mouth. Constantly licking, jowls constantly flapping back and forth. My beautiful Dane? Will still be beautiful in my eyes regardless. He isn't a show dog so it really doesn't matter.

Rene's drunkenness was the problem with her and she got much worse with her drinking problem near the end.  I'm quite sure all the attitude and bs she has now is being transported with her. Maria is enjoying the bliss of being alone. The other roommate is hardly ever there - making me question if he's going to stick around or not.  Although, I think he kind of figured the lunacy that Rene is and was staying away until she's gone. And now that Rene is gone, I don't have to worry about her driving tenants out.

I have to be honest: I'm actually gleeful that she's gone.  That's just a confession.  She will never be welcomed back to live there.  Not that she has any such desire, but if she asked, I would flatly tell her no and give her the reasons why.

Onto other things.  My TransUnion score dropped to 660 2 months ago for unknown reasons.  I could only figure that Christmas debt on one of my credit cards. But it was only $700 and that out of 25 grand worth of available credit.  Didn't make any sense, but perhaps my history is so bad that anything will drop it.  Last month, tho, I asked 3 of them to up my credit line and they did.  Not to use it, thanks, I don't want any more debt, but to have the increased amount of credit available. The more of that, the better I'm finding, especially if you aren't using it.  One of them specifically asked why I wanted it: I just want to raise my credit score. I have no history of using that particular card except for a balance transfer and that debt it completely gone.

Well, yesterday I got an email notice from creditkarma: Your score has gone up!  I instantly went to their app I have on my phone and sure enough, it went from 660 to 722 and my equifax went from 718 to 739.  I mean, I'm not bragging or anything, I know lots of people with better scores, but that puts me back into the good range.  It's soooooo easy for you to do the wrong thing, without understanding you are doing the wrong thing, and have them dump your score just like that.  It's kind of ridiculous actually. I get it, they want to be a credible source for bankers and loan companies to be able to reference them for good information, but you will spend a long time figuring out what works and what doesn't to get your credit score up.

They don't freely give you that info, they just speak in generalities.  I'm no expert but I've been the rounds with this and I've learned several things that work and that don't work. And things you think should work, but doesn't work. Just craziness.  One thing that definitely works: Keep your balances at zero.  And another: get the card issuers to increase your credit line.  That really seems to be a lot of it tho: don't keep any balances on your card. I know, they all say keep it below 30% of your credit usage and some 20%, but I didn't see any real results until I took out that cash loan and paid off all my cards excepting care credit - that was the one to get my teeth fixed, desperately need work and I still don't regret going into debt for that.  It is what it is. My goal is to try, somehow, to get into the very good credit score range.  How one accomplishes that, I have no clue.

Anyway, this morning I got up and had breakfast at the Iron Skillet at the Petro I stayed at. I actually had to pay to park last night. The truckstops were all full and the only available parking places were the pay one at the Petro.  I'm going to try to get my company to reimburse me for it - no idea if they will. And also try to get my company to reimburse me for this hotel room. It's not my fault they are sending people up here 24 hours early.  There is no way I was going to sit in the truck all day long, on a Sunday, alone and just - sit there. No thanks.

__________________________

That was the ticket:  A nice, long, hot shower.  I mean, there is nothing like it after a couple of days of not having one.  I was going to last night, but the Love's truck stop was totally filled up.  I could have paid for one at Petro but I knew I would end up in a hotel room today.

Anyway, now that my credit score has ramped back up, I'm considering that 72 acre property not far from where I am currently living.  It's still up for sale and it's still a beautiful, wonderful piece of property.  But I'd have to take out a loan to get the rest of the down payment money that I don't have.  And that still wouldn't put a structure on the property to live in - we all discussed it, everyone is down to move.  They even voiced their approval of a manufactured home - something I didn't bring up but would definitely consider if it was big enough and it was in excellent condition.  Not a new one, thanks, way over-priced for what they are.

And how would I pay for it?  Have about 20 acres of the forest taken down for a logging company. Not my first choice to get rid of all of those trees, but it would pay for a house.  It would basically be worth about 20 grand.  It's just me thinking again tho.  The reality of it?  Probably not.  I would rather have the cash up front for the down payment and not have to go into 5k worth of debt to go into - more debt.  The upside would be the forestry/lumber and getting rid of the debt shortly after getting into it and also if it worked out- we'd all move there.  I would be getting rent from them instead of vice versa but the mortgage would be paid for.  Which would be another question: How much would the mortgage be?

______________

I did nothing today.  In terms of going anywhere.  I mean, I went for a 2 mile walk. It was a sightseeing adventure of itself.  Houses and lawns and everything are different here.  Much different than AZ or Texas.  Lots of houses with this vinyl siding.  Even new housing developments with that stuff on there. Not a fan.  Not a fan of stucco, either tho, which they love to use in AZ. 

Oh, and the Mueller report. Trump won, the left lost.  End of story.  Seriously, what else is there to say? That dems want to continue on with even more incessant investigations? Shocking! If you can't win an election, attempt to steal it. 

That's it for today. It's not really late, per se, even on Eastern Standard time it's only 8:30. And I don't have to get up until 7:00 am.  Just enough for one post. 

Almost shocking to see tomorrow's paycheck up there near where it should be.  The whole thing will be gone today before I get it, lol.  The SUV repair, total, is over $1,400.  That's struts, alignment and oil change.  I'm hopeful I won't have to spend any more of that kind of money on it anytime soon. It runs great, everything works - so far - so I at least have some confidence that it will stay good for a while.  I really did not want to fork out this kind of money right now. But the thing was bouncing like a seesaw every time I hit even a minor bump in the road.  Highly annoying, I finally gave in and thought, well, I"ll just have to make it up somehow.

Basically, I need a 3 or 4 day run.  Or another Brownsville run.  Tomorrow preferably. And keep it up with only a day off in between runs for a while. Pipe dream, but one can wish.  Cold temps - not below 0 but still cold by my definition - in Palm so I'm taking enough cold weather gear with me to be able to withstand a blizzard.  Ahhh, just remembered.  To be able to use the inverter in the sleeper, I have to have an extension cord. I have to hook the invertor up to the truck battery pack to make it work. It actually has the spring loaded clamps - it has enough watts to just use my microwave. I'll be finding out.  Otherwise, stop at any major truck stop to heat up food in their microwaves. A pain, but a necessary pain.

I don't absolutely refuse to eat truck stop food - but I mostly reject it.  It's impossible for me to pack all of the food I would need into that small refrigerator.  I focused on the main meals - replete with salads and avocado sliced and tomato slices.  I've been on this diet for 5 months now. It's become a way of life.  The weight came off, I came to a stall here and there ...yes....but.... the weight doesn't come back on.  I probably need blood tests to determine if my vitamin/mineral contents are good.

Regardless, a very busy day is coming to a close.  I fortunately do not have first or even second load. Third load works - out late but not anything past 10:30 pm.  I can get the second day done by 5 or 6 pm at the latest and only have a hundred plus miles to go on the third day, unload and turn around and head back.  Enough miles on the third day? Turns this run into a 5 day run instead of the 6 or 7 it's been touted to be.  We have drivers that aren't really motivated.  They are in their 60's, they're tired of driving, they are only in the company for the health insurance benefits and waiting out til they're old enough to receive whatever level of social security benefits they want to get.

It's a strange life, the trucking world.  I'm not really OTR - I am by their definition but I really am not.  These OTR drivers tho - living in those trucks for months at a time. And they think nothing of it.  Here I am busting ass to just take care of 6 days? lol - but that's the diet that is motivating me.  And a couple of others now are cooking their own food, stopped drinking straight liquor and are trying to lose weight as well.  I think that's a good thing Especially two of them are in their 60's but facing early termination of life if something doesn't change.  I could only tell them the results I had and reinforce what they already know: obesity is a killer.  What they do with that is up to them, but they have both looked up the Keto diet and they have both taken rather serious steps towards changing their eating habits.

You simply cannot live off of truckstop food and expect to maintain a normal weight.  Not to mention clogged arteries and high blood pressure.  But like them, I found weight loss to be hopeless until this diet.  It seemed like you'd follow a plan and not lose much weight and then - gain it back.

Well, this show is about over for tonight.  I've been feeling good for several days now - much better than I've felt in years. I have no explanation for it and I have no understanding if it will last.  I can't say it's the Keto diet - just no evidence at the moment that that's the source of it.  Yesterday I could have driven the entire 600 miles without stopping. I had to stop for fuel and the mandatory 30 minute break, but if that weren't the case? I could have done it non-stop.  Today I've been going all day long as well. No rhyme or reason to it. Just a feeling I haven't had in a long time and had even forgotten that I ever had. 

Whatever the case, I am actually looking forward to this trip to Pennsylvania. I just wish it took me through my childhood home town of Pittsburgh.

Ugh. I'm looking on a map and 2 different map apps how to get to Palm.  2 different routes claiming almost identical time to get there. But it seems to me the route taking Interstate but not going through many big cities is likely the best way. 

Anyway, day over, time to go to bed, g'nite.