Alright, I'm the owner of a flat deck boat!

But I haven't seen it beyond pics yet.

At the moment, I'm stuck in Woodville, Texas, where I arrived at 3:45 am.  

Cheniere, up to their usual pranks.  First they failed to notify the plant operator that I was even there to offload.  That's security, they are supposed to call them.

Well the dude didn't.  I waited in the parking lot for over an hour and decided to call the operator myself.  It's not unusual that they don't bother to come tell you anything about what's happening, they'll just leave you sit there. But now that I have the phone number for the operations room, I won't be sitting around for hours on end without at least calling after an hour is up and finding out what's going on.

The operator knew nothing about me being there. 20 minutes later a golf cart showed up to escort me in. Once inside the plant? "Oh, well our pressure is at 100". WTH.  What is wrong with these people?  They always do this! My truck? The safety relief valves are SET at 100 MAWP.  At 100 or probably even less, those safety valves will open, releasing vapor and product all over the place!  Whatever. They brought the pressure down to 72 - which is still wayyyyyyyyyyyyy toooooooo hiiiiiigh.  I mean, seriously.  It took three hours to unload that truck because I am only allowed to take the pressure up to 85 on the truck, meaning pushing the product out against 72 pounds. 

I didn't get stopped last night until 3:45 am.  I was literally dying, well it felt that way anyway. I didn't get out of the plant until almost 2 am and then I couldn't find a spot to park anywhere.  Truckstops full, I drove almost 100 miles before finding a place.  

I passed out in the sleeper and slept 4 hours before waking up - only to go back to sleep again.  Anyway, it just ruins my day when I am up that late.  It takes a day to recover - for me anyway - after staying up so late. It wasn't by choice, but since the plant was down, I didn't get started until late.  I mean, I knew yesterday was going to be a long day. 

So now, I'm tired, grumpy but couldn't sleep any longer and stuck here for another hour.  142 miles to go before arriving at the yard.  

Anyway, the boat is parked at Maria's, there's no room for it at our place. Well there is but I don't want those damned trees dumping large branches, small branches, leaves, twigs, acorns and gumballs all over the thing.  Maria did a survey of it.  Captain's chair needs reupholstered and the bimimi cover needs replaced. She showed a pic of wires all rolled up, but after asking James, he said that was for a fish sonar, everything else works on the boat, he made sure of that. If I want a fish finder, I'll have to have one installed.  

Not a priority.  I want the bimimi cover replaced and definitely reupholster the captain's chair.  But what I really want to do is take it for a test drive on the nearest lake and make sure it doesn't sink and it does work.  James had him run the motor for a minute to make sure it would fire up.  But out of the water and without a hose adapter hooked to the motor, you aren't supposed to run them at all...the water from the lake cools the engine.  I guess a minute or two isn't going to heat it up enough to damage it.  

But before I can do anything, I have to take the paperwork in to the MVD and hope and pray that it's all proper and correct and that they will issue me title and registration without any problems. I tried my best to make sure all the necessary paperwork was included for the transaction and that the areas the seller needed to sign were signed off on.  

Meanwhile, I also am watching videos of how to launch and capture the boat. I've never actually done that.  We had a sailboat when I was a kid, but it was not that big and easy to deal with. This boat is much larger and much heavier.  I'm a bit uneasy about that part of it, because I've seen videos of pickups being pulled right into the water with the boat.  Or taking too much time at the launch ramp and upsetting others waiting.  But, that's the breaks, everyone has to start somewhere. If they don't like it, they can come and help and offer pointers : )  I mean, if I were an experienced boater and I saw someone having trouble, I'd at least offer to help them.  If they didn't want the help, fine, sit back and watch the show, maybe make a video of it lol.  

I will invest in the top and the chair, but it's more important to me to find out if the thing runs properly and has no leaking issues.  I'm excited tho.  Whatever it needs I'll deal with it. Already a bunch of people want to go.  And that's cool, too. But honestly? On weekdays when I have a day off? Hook that sucker up to the SUV, get the dogs in the back, go to the lake and have some fun, solo time.  Well, I dunno about the dogs.  If they'll get on the boat lol.  That might take some serious coaxing. Take some beef treats with me to lure them on there.  

Oh and the rumor about having to have a boating license was only partially true. That's only for those born after some date in 1993.  I'm much older than that lmao, not that I don't want to learn everything, but I don't have to have some sort of license.  I may take the course anyway just to get the basics down tho.  I'm really a stark, shiny, brand new boater, green as all get out, as far as owning one goes. My experience from 40 plus years ago are just memories.  Rules have changed and it's a completely different type of boat. 

What I'm stoked about is not having to sit around the house all the time.  That gets old.  Taylor and James are all over this too, they want to get their fishing stuff together and get out there as well.  They've been wanting to.  But, I wasn't going to buy some trashy looking old boat for an over inflated price. That's what's available in the up to 5k range.  "Boat runs but needs some TLC". Pics of a thing that has been hit, dented, the side rails are broken, the flooring is trash, etc etc. And they want 4 to 5 thousand dollars for that junk!  "Boat has been sitting for 4 years, ran before we parked it, $4,500".  Unbelievable.  Or the boats that have no titles.  And the always lovely ones that all the upholstery is totally trashed. So you're looking at at least a grand more than their already inflated price to get it looking decent.

Right up front, the boat was listed at $2,550 and I knew I wanted it as long as the motor worked.  Well, no way to tell if it has any holes until getting it into the lake.  Hopefully not. There is a boat shop 40 miles away that specifically specializes in repairing hull problems including fiberglass, but let's hope that isn't even in the picture.  I figured for that price, even if I had to dump another grand into it, I would be coming out ahead.  They had originally listed the boat as non-running and no one wanted it.  It needed a battery, the motor needed the carbs cleaned out and other work done to it.  They replaced the battery, the stereo, got the motor running and put new tires on the trailer.  I did buy this thing "sight unseen". Sure there were pics, but real life looking at a thing shows much more than pics may. 

But I will give James credit.  He went and got the thing, I was busy with work yesterday.  He made the guy fire up the motor and show that all the lights and electrical stuff works.  he inspected it carefully - I trust him in that - he did the best look at it he could do.  He doesn't have any experience with boats, either, as far as I know, but there is at least a medium of common sense that can be used to look at one and know whether you have a keeper or walk away from it.  None of these older boats have good upholstery on them unless the owner has either A: kept the boat covered or B: has had the upholstery replaced.  

This one has a couch on the side, the captain's chair and 2 fishing chairs on the front. The rear couch is gone. Which is fine, it's intended to be a fishing boat, we don't need a bunch of couches, one is enough.  If I really get into it, I will have a live well installed where the rear couch is missing.  Just a holding unit to keep fish alive until you are ready to clean them.  I think they pump water into them continuously and  it drains out as it comes in to keep it fresh and the fish alive, but don't quote me on that. 

Well I'll pick this up later. Like after I get back to Maria's and get a chance to look at it in person. I've got 5 minutes before I can get on the clock and get the Hercules out of here.

G'day.  

Keeping my posting to a minimum for now since it's just the same stuff, over and over.
4 day trip to Ohio - uneventful.  Just another trip.

Had a day off, then over to Cheniere yesterday.  They, of course, ruined my chances of getting home the same day by making me wait 3 hours before we even got started unloading. Actually, they brought me into the plant, realized their mistake, took me back out and I waited there for hours.  As normal, they don't care how long you have to wait, they don't care about anything but their own doings. When unloading the truck, a group of them form together, talk about their grievances with work and totally ignore me.  I'm a pretty social person, but I'm not going to get involved with their gripes with their company. The lowest paid person there is making 130k per year for doing grunt work.

I have no sympathy.  Well, a little.  That place is out in the middle of nowhere, they have kept them there for 30 days straight now.  30 days without a day off and not going home either.  Alot of them, anyway.  The person that lives the closest - that I have heard thus far anyway - lives an hour and a half drive away.  But these are young men - in their 20's.  I wouldn't have had a problem with that at that age and was working 7 days a week back then anyway.  In fact, I'm still putting in more hours than any of those guys.  Not that I'm anything special, but the work ethic in this day and age is a bit less than what we experienced growing up.

Anyway, one guy sat there and complained for almost 2 hours to the rest of them about the cliques in upper management and how they haven't said anything to him at all in a long time.  This dude is making $51 per hour plus huge, vast amounts of OT.  But he's quitting, lmao.

I got home at around 2:00 pm.  As normal, the trailer I took yesterday had a problem that wasn't reported. Namely, a tire with a huge bald spot on it, flattened.  This is clearly a tire that had been locked up and rubbed the tread right off of it.  The tire next to it was not like that, so I assume it happened in Mexico. They steal our tires all the time.  I missed it on the pre--trip inspection - I check all tires but I admittedly do not move the truck to see if the portion of the tire on the ground is good.  Then again, I didn't get this trailer in Brownsville, someone else did and obviously didn't report the fact that it was bald.  See, I knew something was wrong because after I started driving it to the plant, a huge vibration in my truck was going at 35-50 mph.

After leaving the plant and loaded over 79k, the vibration was horrible.  Fortunately it went away after hitting 55mph.  It's a recurring thing, tho, to get a trailer that has an issue and the previous driver does nothing to rectify the problem.  Regardless, I dealt with the tire this afternoon - called the Michelin tire hotline and had them come out and replace it.  Because that's what you should do as a professional driver. Not just let it go and think someone else is going to deal with it.

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Well that was interesting.  Last night, I was on one of the local Facebook selling groups.  Someone posted that power had gone out - and then - our power went out and then came back on.  Then someone passing by the plant where I get the truck loaded took a pic - of a bunch of black smoke going up into the sky and proclaiming Eastman is on fire.  I looked at the pic - it was the main flare off- it stands at least 100 feet up in the sky-  it had a flame coming out of it at least 60 feet high. I've never seen it like that, nothing even remotely close to being that much fire coming out of that thing.

And then, there were black smoke pockets coming up through the trees throughout the plant.  I thought, dang, the plant is on fire?  No, it turned out, they had all of their flares fired up - they have a lot of them on that property.  A power substation at the plant had "blown up", so they said, probably a giant transformer caught on fire would be my guess - and caused voltage to go up and down, initiating an automatic shut down of the entire plant.  Besides the plant shutting down, one of the flares was burning so hot it set the nearby dried out grass on fire, a minor issue.

But, of course, that screwed up everything for loading today.  I didn't even think they would load any trucks today, but I saw several group texts - first load started loading at 7:38 am. That's when the first load should be done loading.  Then an hour later, another driver texted that first load hadn't even started yet.  Lol, the other driver noted the lines hooked up to the truck weren't white yet.  The product is so cold, the lines become enveloped in frost once the liquid starts flowing through it. Quite easy to tell if it's pumping.

So now?  It's 10:15 am, they still haven't started loading the first truck.  That was my guess last night, they wouldn't even begin to think about loading anything after a system wide shut down.

The issue, of course, is if these plants we take the ethylene to don't get the product in time, they, in turn, also have to shut down.  But that's the breaks. S*** happens, deal with it.  At least it isn't our fault, just a random event that is affecting everything else.

My good or bad fortune, depending on how you want to look at it, is that my manager texted me early this morning after trying to call - I was in the shower at the time.  She stated the plant wanted the Cheniere loads filled up first.  We do whatever the plant wants, it's their show, it's their call.  But she knew I wasn't anywhere near the yard where my truck was already hooked up to the trailer and ready to go, so she asked if it was okay another driver that happens to be there just take my truck over there and preload it for me?  Sure, why not?  That's where I"m either fortunate or not.  Fortunate that I'm not sitting at the plant, waiting endlessly for something that may not even happen today? or unfortunate that I am not sitting at the plant, making a nice, tidy sum of money per hour to sit and wait?

I decided fortunate. I'd rather be home. Plus, whenever the load actually does end up getting back to the yard, I will have full hours available to get to Cheniere and get unloaded.  Instead of losing the 2-1/2 hours at the plant it takes to do all of that.  That gives me extra hours to get down there and wait for even an extended period and still have time to unload and get back.

So, that's where it's at for now.

And I finally found a boat.  Right price, flat deck boat, decent condition, 150 horse motor, lady said come get it today - which James will do, I went to the bank and got the money out - and then? She disappeared.

Gag.  This is pretty much what happens with every boat I've wanted.  I comb the ads and finally find something and baam! It's sold out from underneath me. Tho that is usually while I'm on the road. I'm not on the road now and could go deal with this myself since the plant isn't pumping the product, my truck is sitting there 3rd in line and will be many hours even if they do get it going

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Alrighty.  The plant finally started loading, my truck is getting loaded now, I'll be heading over to the yard soon.
Meanwhile?  A boat! maybe?  I finally found a flat deck boat with lots of room and in good shape and a bigger motor (bigger for a flat deck/pontoon boat anyway) at 150 horsepower.  Most of the pontoons and flat deck boats I see have very small motors 40, 50, 60 horsepower and I know I wouldn't be happy with that.

This one has had carpet redone and the upholstery is mostly in good shape.  Titles for the trailer, motor and boat : )

I dunno where it's at yet cause' James is busy - I hope - getting them to sign off on paperwork to transfer titles to my name. I went to the county courthouse and got the actual paperwork so I knew there wouldn't be any issues.

Welp, off to work/Cheniere.

Monday morning.
Usually, I've been on the road since Sunday morning - I mean I've worked every Sunday for months now.  You kind of get used to things that once were considered sacred and untouchable after doing it for a while.  So, I get to start the week on Monday like "everyone else".  I'm hopeful for a 4 day trip, come back and get sent back out on a 2 day trip and then get 2 more days off. 

That's in a perfect world. Considering other drivers saying they've been sitting, I dunno what's going to happen. 

The current media uproar is Epstein.  If you don't know who Epstein is, good for you! That means you don't watch the news and in this day and age, that might not be such a bad thing!  The question of course is whether he actually committed suicide?  I don't hardly ever go for conspiracy theories, but this one definitely lends to suspicions and questions.  Seems quite convenient and the timing very odd of his just dying.  He had pleaded not guilty, has all the money in the world to put up the best defense that money could buy, why would you at least not wait until the declaration of a jury?  You could conjecture that he "knew he was guilty so why prolong it".  Possible, he wasn't allowed out on bail.  With all that money, he could have simply flown over to a nation that doesn't have extradition agreements with the US and lived there the rest of his life. 

Just another thing in a long list of odd things that is going on.  I think the real problem our society is currently facing is Progressive idealism and wanting government control of every single thing.  They are using the "free giveaways" to try and achieve that desired ending.  But make no mistake, the free stuff is just the method to get to their madness.  That idealism wouldn't be appealing to the masses if there wasn't a carrot on the end of a stick.  It's fascinating that people simply choose to ignore the history of socialism and communism. We've simply discarded the axiom that says "if history repeats itself......".  Why? 

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is their favorite go to for both those running for president on the democrat side and the liberal media which loves to howl the evils of Trump at every turn,.  They constantly say that he is doing things to take scrutiny off of himself, when in reality, it's the democrats doing that exact thing.  Note that Bernie sanders doesn't really go after all those evil millionaires anymore, he is focused on billionaires.  Why? Because he IS  a millionaire.  Double standards, forked tongues, hypocrisy.  It's so obvious it's like it's up on a giant billboard on the side of the highway for all to read - but everyone that is in love with this free stuff idealism simply ignores the reality of it. 

Whatever the case, I spent a good portion of yesterday cooking.  I am one pound away from where I left off before going on vacation.  The reality that if I want to keep this weight off, I will have to stay on this diet or some form of it the rest of my life kind of sank in after this "experiment".  The fact of the matter is, tho, is that I went hog wild crazy eating everything and anything I wanted for 6 days, had planned to do so in advance and took full advantage of that opportunity.  So, from one end of the scale - not eating the foods most people eat - to the other - eating a lot of junk, calorie packed, carb packed foods. 

Well, gotta get my stuff in the vehicle and get out of here.

Happy Monday!

It's 9:30 am.  I would love to get the day started, ie: start cooking the things I want to take with me on the next trip.  But, the boys are still sleeping and the adults didn't get in until 3:30 am last night.  I'll give it another hour but then, I'm going to have to start making the stuff I want to make.  Specifically, a loaf of Keto friendly bread, a keto friendly pizza, no bake cookie dough bars and a half cut of brisket.  I could get started on the brisket, but no need. Too early.  I should be able to get that thing done in 3 or 4 hours. 

I particularly liked the pizza on the last 2 trips - one pizza lasted that long.  It's a quick, easy snack or lunch that doesn't even have to be reheated.  It doesn't take long to make..  In fact, I could make that one now, now that I think of it, the only noise is the microwave. On a 4 day trip, I definitely want to take a whole pizza with me, as well as the BBQ pork I smoked and then put in the crock pot - that stuff turned out delicious.  The bread I want to be able to use to make BBQ sandwiches.  The brisket just a stand alone meal, having a salad with blue cheese dressing with it. 

I was actually hoping for a 3 day run such as Mapleton or Morris instead of a 4 day run.  Stryker is about 600 more miles than either of those two listed, so it's worth it for the miles, I just prefer 3 day runs over anything longer.  But as I mentioned in another post, I am not complaining about it - at all.  The only other thing that would be "nice" would have been starting today - Sunday - to have trouble-free driving.  However, two days off is nice once in a while :  )

Oh, well Taylor decided this week she was going to go out with a friend over in Shreveport and have James be the "designated Uber driver".  I agreed to watch the boys - they were going to be going to bed anyways not too terribly long after they left.  Babysitting while they are asleep is easy, lol, just leave the doors open so I'll wake up if they have a problem.  The dogs alerted me when they came home last night, Addler wasn't too fond of people walking into the house that late at night. 

Today, for me? A cleaning, cooking, laundry day. Well laundry is almost done actually, I started that last night.  I wanted to start cooking early so I didn't have to feel pressured later on in the day, and with that thought, I'm definitely making the pizza as soon as I get done with this entry.  There isn't much else going on in my small, little world right now anyway.  I drive  a truck, keep up with politics - tho I'm definitely watching less and less news, it's really so negative and the same s*** every day - Trump is a racist! or Trump is a White Nationalist! comparing him to Hitler. It just gets old hearing the same stuff.  Other than that, I really have nothing going on - which is a good thing actually.

I like to look for some of the interesting stories that are off the political trail as well.  Such as the dog that was spotted by the motorist that had been leashed to some sort of power supply box on the side of a freeway.  The leash was holding the dog up, choking it.  Whoever put the dog there like that is an idiot. The motorist cut the leash and took it to some animal shelter.  The shelter checked for a micro chip and sure enough, not only did the dog have one, but the owner had been looking for the dog.  It was good ending to a story that started off rather badly.  It is also a reminder that I want to get my dogs chipped.  Be nice if they'd invent a GPS tracker you can put in with that chip.  Where's my doggy? Get on the internet, access the app to locate them and there ya go!  No, I do not advocate doing that with humans.  But dogs I'm fine with.  Hmm, well I should be back on Thursday, perhaps I will do it Friday - if I'm not sent out again the day after getting back.

That's been happening alot and the reason i was happy to get 2 days off. I also talked to another driver a few days ago that stated he had been sitting alot.  This is why I'm keeping my mouth shut about complaining.  Whatever I get, I get, deal with  it. Complaining might get you - nowhere with the manager. She's a nice lady and all, but she doesn't like drivers complaining about getting low paying, low mileage runs. I've only said something after I've gotten too many of them in a row.  But, realistically, it does no good.  It only serves to frustrate and irritate her.  She has a lot of drivers to deal with and at least some of them are chronic complainers.  I don't count myself on that list, I don't complain to her about every little thing.

I might vent on here about things, but I keep it at that.  I still think it's ridiculous that that terminal has no shower, laundry or dedicated driver's lounge.  I still despise the radar junk that beeps on the truck - tho I have gotten better at ignoring it.  I really don't like driving 65 mph when most other traffic is whizzing by you at 70 mph.  I get cut off all day long because of it.  But, I have gotten used to it -- better than when I first started this job anyway.  Doing some calculations, I am on track to making at least 80 grand this year, the same as I did last year, maybe a couple thousand more than that if it stays on track.  Really, if I were to stay as busy as I have been for the last 2 to 3 weeks, I would be more on track for 90k plus.  But it's whatever, 80k is fine, I'm not greedy, it's paying the bills, building up a retirement account and paying off old debt plus a much nicer ride.

Money talks.  It shouts louder than all of those negatives I posted above. 

Anyway, this is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it! And God is greater than all of those complaints and the money. 

G'day. 

How will history look back on the Presidency of Donald Trump?
Will historians label him the traitorous, white nationalist, Hitlerish, racist Mexican hating, black hating person that the left currently says he is?

Or, will he be looked back on as a highly successful President that made huge accomplishments that helped turn the nation back around?

Or what?

This new movie The Hunt coming out has turned the entire nation upside down in either an uproar because of it's content - allegedly a hunting resort for rich, liberal elitists to hunt down "Deplorables" - aka Trump supporters.  I've watched all kinds of outrageous things coming from the left since Trump took office. Grifford making a bloodied head of Trump, a play at a New York park depicting the murder of Trump, a rapper doing a skit of killing Trump, actors saying outrageous things such as Madonna "blow up the White House" and others wanting harm done to the President or even having him killed.

The left claims to be the party of peace, but from all appearances, that's an unbelievable proposition. Pelosi calling him a racist and wanting him in jail - and both her and Schumer repeatedly saying he's having a "temper tantrum" - because he won't cave to their demands?  This political climate is going to lead to out and out violence if something or someone doesn't come along that can throw water on the fires of anger, hate and reaction.

Moving on.  I'm going to make bake free cookie dough bars today - I think. I'm trying to get motivated. Tomorrow for sure.  These are Keto friendly "sugary" concoctions that look delicious.  It's pretty much granted you can only eat one per day and still be able to eat other things on that day as well, but something has to give here.  6 grams net carbs gives me something to enjoy.  I'll make a batch and freeze them - I won't eat a whole batch any time before they go bad.  I'm 2 pounds above where I was when I went on vacation.

No regrets and will do it again.  But i am going to go on a 60 hour fast with a bunch of people in a Keto facebook group I'm in. They do it once per month.  That's a fairly good fast.  They have some products they want to sell at outrageous price - $70 for teas and supplements during the fast.  I don't think I'm going to do that, I'll just do the fast along with them and drink water only, as has been my habit during fasting most of my adult life.

Heading back up to Stryker on Monday.  I'm not complaining at all about these long runs.  I'll take them as long as she gives them to me.  I didn't complain about the 6, very short runs in a row to her either.  I'm trying to keep my mouth shut and just take whatever comes.  But 2 Strykers, a brownsville and now another Stryker in a row is very good.  I know I'll get caught up in another series of short runs eventually, gotta take the long ones when they come along.  I have the route down to science now.  Well, science if the hours are available. Biggles Cafe is the first night's stop, it's near Centralia Illinois.  If I make it there, I have relatively few miles to put on the next day.  Realistically, I could make it a minimum of 450 to 500 miles and be guaranteed to make it the next day.

But I always push myself to drive as far as my time will allow it.  There is another truck stop further up the road from Biggles in Farina.  I was just a few minutes short of being able to make it last trip. I would rather make it up there if I could, perhaps time will permit me to make it this next trip. Or, perhaps I will get caught up in the plant and not even make it to Biggles.  Whatever the case, I do like getting a run frequently enough to be able to figure out where to stop without having to scour the app to try and figure it out.  The 3rd day, I'm trying to make it back to the Love's on I-40 in Palestine, Arkansas, 688 miles from Stryker.  These are "in a perfect world" types of driving days where I'm not getting slowed down by construction or accidents or bad traffic to the point I have to stop somewhere before those places.

_________________

Late.  Taylor went out with a girl's night out thing, James was the designated driver and I - had no aspirations of going anywhere. Stayed with the boys, put them to bed a few minutes ago, one was happy to go to sleepy land, the other was screaming.  Lol.  I would have let them stay up later, but they have a schedule and a routine and if you try to mess with it, especially at their age, they will be up early  in the morning.  Now, I don't have to deal with it in the morning, but I certainly don't want them to have to wake up early to kids. 

Oh, well the screaming boy - 2 years old - fell asleep within 3 minutes of my turning off the light and leaving the room : )  I knew he was tired, he's an obstinate little boy but it was time to go to sleep.  The older boy - 4 - I let stay up a half an hour later  He was the happy one.  But, I mean excepting the 2 year old not wanting to go to sleep before the 4 year old and letting my ears know about it - it was a good night.

Meanwhile, my smoked pork butt transferred into the crock pot also was finished.  Very tasty!  Dumped a half bottle of sugar free - and delicious - BBQ sauce on it, very nice.  I've got a half brisket thawing and laundry going, but the rest of my cooking will be tomorrow.  I want Keto bread for the next trip!  Well I want bread trip or no lol..

That's it for me.  G'nite.

Not too bad of a trip. And great money.  Last one I did - this same trip - was worth almost $1,300.  It's a lot better money than these little short trips.

That trip up to El Dorado - for all it entails - is only worth $312 and that's before taxes.  Okay, it's not so bad because it truly is a day trip.  But as things have been going lately, 2 4-day trips are better than all of these little nonsense trips taking up more time than they are worth and working a lot  of hours for low pay - well low pay compared to other runs.

I'm ready for a Brownsville run, it's been a bit since I've been on one. 

This trip went identical to last one, which is amazing because things have to really run in rhythm to make that happen. Yesterday was another 688 miles - the same as last time, I actually made it back to the same Loves in Palestine, AR as I did last time. That's a lot of miles for a truck that only goes 65 mph.

My only gripe on this trip was finding a knocked-off mud flap on the trailer. Whoever was responsible for that didn't bother to have it fixed, neither did they report it.

They just dumped the broken off flap in the cabinet in the back of the trailer and apparently decided to dump the problem on someone else.  That's really total bs.  Yup, I said something to my manager today about it.  There is no way a professional driver should just be dumping that kind of s*** onto someone else. All he/she had to do was report it when they got back. In reality, they should have fixed it while on the road.

But I can guess what happened. They backed into a parking spot somewhere, didn't stop before the tires hit the curb, the mud flap got caught between the tires and the curb and - rips right off of there. They may have some fear  of getting into trouble or something, but mud flaps are cheap and it happens.  The problem  is if you are caught by a Trooper driving down the road like that, they will write you up for it and then it goes on your CSA record.  It also goes on the company's CSA record.  That becomes an issue if you get written up for something as easily avoidable for a fixit ticket as a mud flap. 

Whatever the case, the mechanic wasn't there on Friday - he should have been but he had run out of hours and the company isn't doing OT right now - and when I tried to get a hold of him for authority to get it repaired somewhere, he wasn't responding.  I ended up driving the entire trip with that mudflap missing.  The caveat is that these trailers, in the rear, are very low to the ground.  So low mudflaps are almost irrelevant.  Not like a typical truck on the rear. I'm just saying it doesn't really kick rocks back out of it - they end up hitting the chassis instead. 

The last write-up for a CSA infraction I got was while driving for Ferguson in Arizona.  I had 7 small sticks of pipe on the rear of the trailer - with 4 straps on it - far more strappage than needed for that small amount of pipe, but they said I needed 5 on it regardless.  There was approximately 1,600 pounds of pipe, the 4 straps were rated, combined, to hold 22,000 pounds.  I called bs on that one, but there was nothing I could do. The point being, however, I haven't had any write ups for along, long time and those points back in AZ are undoubtedly off my record right now, I should have a perfect CSA record at this point.

I'm getting much better about not eating out on these long trips.  I take enough food to fill my gut all 4 days.  I only ate out once, and that was breakfast at a cafe I was parked at overnight.  Biggles Cafe near Centralia, Illinois.  Nice people, decent food, absolutely horrible parking lot. Covered with huge craters, it's actually dangerous to drive a truck through there, especially a tanker.  But once I got back there I had no choice but to continue.  They said they are planning on redoing the entire lot soon.  Good, because on the Stryker trip, I could do that every time.  It's as far as I can go on the first day heading north before I run out of hours.  And nobody likes to park there because of that parking lot. 

I mean, on the Truckers Path app there are endless complaints on reviews about it. 
But the waitresses are sweet as can be.  Just very nice people, makes you happy you went in there.  I don't expect I'll get another Stryker, Ohio run anytime soon, just the way that "luck of the draw" stuff works, I was shocked to get 2 in a row.  I'm actually ready for a 2 day trip.  But not a s***** one, a Brownsville style trip.  I don't have enough hours for another 3 or 4 day trip, so if she does send me anywhere tomorrow, it's going to have to be a shorter one.

Oh, anyway, my truck refrigerator can only hold so much food. So I would rather put in meat/dinners and heavier foods than putting breakfast foods in there.  I am finding that I am not as hungry as I used to be anyway.  Not much energy output driving a truck. The biggest thing is just trying to stay awake! 

I can also say that I have all but gotten over the homesickness that I experienced when I first started this job.  I was in pretty bad shape for a while there.  This 4 day trip was basically nothing. I get a bit "anxious" I guess is the word, the last day on a trip when I'm only a few hundred miles out and anticipating getting home and having my dogs with me.  That's pretty natural, I think. 

I'm waiting for my new teeth to show up to the dentist.  2 lower fronts and the botched front upper that was too short when it arrived.  The dentist knew it was too short before he even put it on there, but checked it anyway.  I'm paying far too much money for that kind of irregularity. 

Pretty uneventful trip  Drove almost 700 miles yesterday - a record for me - after deciding I wanted to just drive until I ran out of hours.  I had a minute left on the clock when I was done lol.  Ended up in Palestine, AR, started the day in Stryker, Ohio. The funny part is I started out yesterday - well I had to unload the trailer first.  Then I decided I was just going to drive halfway and quit for the day, finish the drive up today. But around halfway through the day, I was more into it and just kept on going after the 500 mile mark...

My manager said I may have to work tomorrow.  Gag.  Not that I don't want to, but there's a dinner get together tomorrow evening that I want to go to.  I just politely asked if it's possible, please schedule me for Sunday? She said fine, if she can get by without me, she'll do it.  And, if it did work out, Sunday has more better runs than tomorrow.  In fact, there's another run going up to Stryker. I would love to get that one, high paying trip and definitely worth being out 4 days for. 

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Tomorrow is here. I am going back to Stryker - tomorrow - Sunday - it's Saturday today.  I've spent the day shopping, laundry, cooking and getting ready for another 4 day road trip.  I'm quite worn out and still doing required work modules on my computer and still have a get-together to go to in a couple of hours.  There is a chocolate sweet recipe I was going to make - but I"m too worn out for that.  

I really, reaaally, realllllly don't want to go to work tired tomorrow. It will be 600 minimum miles of driving after 2 plus hours at the plant, being worn out isn't on the menu.  But, maria wants to do this for everyone and it's important to her.  I think I"m just going to go for an hour or so and call it a day.  I at least have an out that it isn't first or second load, so I don't have to get up super early.

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And here we are, Saturday night. We just spent 4 hours over at Maria's who was hosting a get together for some of the neighbors and us.  Steak, hamburgers, etc.  But I just spent the entire day besides those 4 hours messing around with getting stuff ready for another 4 day trip.  Cooking in advance doesn't exactly take 5 minutes. A thick pork chop - a meal in itself.  A rack of ribs - only wanted enough for one meal but it is what it is, I can't eat a whole rack, one meal worth of chicken wings and keto pizza.  I had a slice of the pizza, it was quite good for being a "fake" version of the real thing.  Its enough food, probably too much but I'd rather go prepared and eating out costs much more than all of that stuff. 

Whatever the case, politics is still fascinating me.  The idea that all republicans are racists, that we are all thrown under that blanket, every single one of us now and even more-so Trump supporters is ridiculous, outrageous and unbelievable.  How do they allow themselves the privilege of making such unbelievable, unfounded, baseless accusations? How far is this going to go?  Where does it end?  I'm dumbfounded at this point with all of this nonsense going on.  Even Pelosi has jumped on the bandwagon calling Trump a racist and previously - a month or so ago - say he should be in jail.

Med4all. It's no longer for senior citizens, it should be for everyone and they are telling us, health care is an absolute right, they are now saying. The endless spending idealism they are propagating would bankrupt this nation.

I'm waiting for the violence.  It's coming. If this rhetoric continues and they keep ramping this stuff up, I don't believe this will go on forever without confrontations.  I'm not advocating violence, not by any means. But human nature will eventually kick in.  I don't see any other end to this unless they come to their senses, dial it back and stop treating the "other side" as mortal enemies.

I'm still following all of this stuff, just not spending near as much time as I was previously doing it.  It's too stressful and I don't want or need unnecessary stress in my life.  Politics can go to the hell it came from as far as I'm concerned and the people engaging in this s*** - I don't want to go to hell, but let's get beyond this nonsense already.  Or just fight it out and let the winner prevail. 

It's time to go to bed.  I have a 14 hour day facing me tomorrow.  I just got home tho, figured a few minutes down time to relax before going to sleep would be good.  My goal tomorrow will be at least make it to Mount Vernon, Illinois.  Actually, that area is full of truck stops that fill up by the time I will get there so it will have to be that dive truck stop up the road. If I even make it that far - but Sunday driving is usually pretty trouble free.

Have a nice evening. 

After 6 low paying runs, I apparently hit the jackpot and am leaving for Stryker, Ohio today.  I took a chance and cooked food fitting for such a trip yesterday - without knowing where I was going.  I had asked my manager at around 11 am yesterday, but she didn't reply to me until I asked her again 6 hours later.

But by that time, I had already smoked a nice cut of beef, made some buffalo chicken wings and some cream cheese and spinach stuffed chicken breasts.  Now, of course, I am very pleased that I went ahead and did all of that.  I would be hurting for finding food on the road without being able to take all of that with me.  Oh, and a couple of breakfasts as well - eggs, chilis and ham.  So I'm set.

This is also the run I gave up when I was trying to get my med card - and that interim manager played her little games and then got belligerent with me in texting.  I never get rid of texts : )  If she ever tries to say she didn't say all that s***, I'll have written proof to back me up.  

Well fun fun.  It's 12 minutes before I have to leave and it just started raining.  Gag.  

Meanwhile, the race card continues to be pulled with political pundits, commentators and politicians all calling Trump a racist!  He's a racist because - he says things that don't even mention race?  Lmao. Apparently, if you criticize a person and that person happens to be dark or black skinned, that is automatic racism!  Does these people understand how foolish they are making themselves look?

I wonder what swing voters are thinking right now.  Vote for the side that wants a Green New Deal that is now estimated, released today, to end up costing QUADRILLIONS of dollars over time. We are no longer in the trillions range.  A thousand trillion dollars.  That's an unimaginable amount of money.  Vote for a party that has so much infighting, it makes the daily news?  Vote for the party that has no visible platform beyond accusing Trump of being a racist?  If I were a swing voter, I'd either vote for Trump or perhaps consider not voting at all.

Welp, time to go get wet apparently. I was hoping it would stop before I had to leave, but the rain is coming down even harder now. 

4 Oklahoma runs, a Cheniere and tomorrow an El Dorado run.  All of these runs are low paying, 6 in a row.  El Dorado is tomorrow.  It's really bad luck!  Yup, cause on Monday there are a slate of good runs going out.  There weren't any good runs going out today, they all sucked but that's the way the cookie crumbles I guess.  I figure if I get a 7th low paying run, I'm going to say something about it whether my manager wants to hear about it or not.  Her system is totally unfair if you happen to just catch the days when nothing good is going out - or - you catch a day when a good run is going out, but you don't get that run, you get a s*** run instead.

But.....in calculating an average month intake of pay so far this year, I'm well on my way to 85k gross pay for the entire year.  I just did that math. That doesn't eve seem possible, but I guess it is what it is.  It's just that when I get stuck in these elongated ruts of low pay runs, my checking account suffers and it takes quite a few good runs to get it back up to where I like it.

Oh! They finally put air conditioning in the bathrooms at the terminal!  Think about having to sit on the toilet when it's almost 100 degrees outside in a bathroom that has zero ac and is much warmer feeling than the outside temp.  They still haven't put in a shower tho.  I would use it if they installed one, get back from a run, take a quick shower and freshen up a bit.

Anyway, I got home early today so at least I have most of the day to enjoy home.  El Dorado is only like 145 miles the way that I go, it's totally and usually possible to get it done in one day.  But......that depends on the loading plant and more importantly, the facility in El Dorado.  I haven't gone in a long time, but I've been stuck there for 7 hours waiting for them to unload. It just takes a long time, it's not because they don't get right on it.  It's great for detention pay, at least.

Addler about plowed me over today when I came in the house. Maria is still in Houston so James and Taylor were watching my doggies for me.

I think my entries are getting boring. Same old thing every day, excepting for vacation which was marvelous.  And contemplating next vacation.  I'm not taking any action on it until I get some good runs under my belt and ensuing pay.  People telling me to go over to Ireland during the summer. But looking at the temps over there, it looks pretty nice.

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Lmao.
The plant held me up for 5 hours yesterday.  I like to never got out of there!
Then, when I came out of the scale house, I saw one of my tractor tires half flat!  😂😂😂
So I call the mechanic, bring it to the shop? Nope, take it to the tire shop in Kilgore.
2 hours later, I'm finally headed to Oklahoma.  7 plus hours before I even left the area to get up there.
Enough to get up there, drop and hook and drive 30 miles to an abandoned truck stop to spend the night - in the middle of nowhere.  Good thing the middle of nowhere also has a Quik Trip.

Really odd place to put one of those stores, there is literally nothing else out there. No other businesses, no hotels, no houses, nothing. Yet every time I drive by the thing the parking lot and fuel pumps are loaded up with cars.  Just weird.  It provided a nice walk last night for dinner - a salad - and this morning for coffee.

Yup, I"m full blown back on Keto diet - 2cd day back on.  I couldn't possibly continue on with the carefree, eat-whatever-I-want-whenever-I-want-to.  I'd gain all that weight and fat back quickly and hike right on up from there.  No thanks!  I haven't checked for ketosis yet, I figure it's too soon after eating all those carbs for all of those days in a row.  I might check it tomorrow.

Anyway, I got back from that trip alright and am getting another run for tomorrow, at least my manager told me that. I'll probably get a shit run. there are only 4 runs available and only one of them is good. The rest of them are utter garbage.  2 of them are the worst runs we get. Cheniere and Airgas Houston.  I am hoping for a streak of luck here, just hoping!  The good one is the Brownsville run.

Meanwhile, Maria.  I bought her dress for the wedding, then the shoes.  Thankfully her son finally sent her the money to get transportation down to Houston - he had promised her to do it but he kept putting it off.  I wished her a good time today as I picked up my doggies, left her a few bucks for food or whatever and came home.  But, I am ready to go right back out again.  I need money, the road is where it's at for me, let's go!

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And here we are. Friday morning, 4:00 am, getting ready to leave. For where, you ask? Where else! Oklahoma! Woohooo!  There was only 1 good run available today and I was pretty sure Iwasn't going to get it. Then there is another Oklahoma run and then...there are 2 far worse runs.  I'm just hoping I get one of those nice runs that's going out on Sunday. 

Welp, the day ain't getting any younger.  But, I don't have to take the dogs over to the other house. Maria is going to Houston today for her son's wedding, which automatically means my dogs will be staying home.  In fact, it's so early I'm not even putting them outside. Taylor will do that later when she gets up. 

Ah, final day of vacation. 
I have been given an Oklahoma run. I absolutely despise this run but at least it's a short one to get me back into the flow of things. 

But, I have spent most of today at both the dentist's office and at urgent care.  The dentist was preplanned - and not a very good idea to try and go to a dentist the day after returning from vacation.  I figured it would be a bad idea, but I also figured I needed to get all of this done. 

So, the crown was the wrong size. The dentist wasn't too happy about that.  I should have a pemanent tooth now where the temporary one kept falling off and I finally gave up on it and threw it in the trash.  So now, I have another temporary one, but this time he put on permanent cement to keep it in place. Good thing, because it's going to be 3 weeks before I can get back in there. They weren't going to give me another appointment for 2 weeks anyway, I just decided I need to get some work in before taking another day off for this stuff.

They also ground down 2 of my front bottom row teeth - that was the other part of this plan - and going have those crowned as well.  So, 3 teeth today with temporaries on them and all cemented with permanent glue.  Hopefully I don't have to worry about that until I get back in there. 

Then off to the urgent care.  Couldn't hear out of my left ear after the ocean and I was getting concerned that the salt water might cause an infection.  Well, the doc said she couldn't even see the ear drum I think she said for the amount of junk in there.  So, an assistant came in, dumped it full of stool softener - sounds gross but that's what they use apparently to loosen up the was.

But, after draining that out and her digging away deep inside there, the situation actually got worse and my hearing was affected even more.  She gave up on that after 20 minutes and went to the other ear. Not near as bad, but there was junk in there blocking the view as well.  That stuff came out - incredibly gross looking stuff that was not even ear was.  Not to make anyone queasy lol.

Then, the doc came back in, got a totally different thing to unplug the left ear and away she went.  All kinds of gross stuff came out of there.  And walaah, my hearing came back to normal.  She looked again and declared it all cleaned out, but, she thought it was getting infected so I'm on antibiotics. 

Those 2 ordeals took many hours of today up when I was actually looking forward to resting and doing much of nothing. Not to mention laundry and getting ready for tomorrow.  Today will also be my last day of abandoning the diet.  We're having spaghetti for dinner and I plan on downing 2 large plate fulls.  I also bought some milk - another Keto no-no- and have drank almost the entire half gallon.  I really got well off the Keto diet during this vacation. I gained around 6 pounds.  I expect to get rid of it quickly.  I don't find it likely to gain that much weight in 5 days time, probably water weight in there as well, I'll find out soon enough. 

And here I am, finally, in my bedroom.  Taylor stayed home from work today as well - planned to recuperate and recover before heading back to work tomorrow.  We are both dreading that proposition.

And reconnecting with my dogs today.  They have spent more time over at the other house than they have here in recent months.  Unfortunate part of the trucking life, you're out a lot.  But my doggies are always happy to see me when I pull up after a run over there. 

I have plenty to do, but I'm only doing the stuff that I must do today.  I'll pick it up once I get back from Oklahoma 2 days from now. 

As for this entry? Done and done. 

Let's see here.
We spent yesterday touring shops in downtown version of Galveston, replete with a giant cruise ship - the Carnival Freedom - docked right there, towering over everything. Pretty cool sight. We also went on an old - but still in use - pirate ship.  Absolutely fascinating.  I always like getting on those old ships and seeing how they lived.  This particular one had giant placards everywhere telling the story about each portion of the boat you were on.

The captain's quarters were quite small, tho this wasn't a huge vessel. I looked at the sleeping space and wondered how he could even fit on the thing. Very cramped quarters. Frankly, the crewmen's quarters had much larger beds and tho you were double and triple bunked, it would have been better sleeping, at least for the body.

Now, having to listen to other men snoring all night long wouldn't have been so pleasant.  That was the most interesting thing we've done on this trip, as far as I'm concerned.  Not complaining at all, we've had a marvelous time so far.  The adventure is coming to a close, as we have to leave tomorrow.  I don't know what time they plan on leaving, I don't have to work the next day after we get back so I'm all good.  I needed some time off from work.

We also went to Pleasure Pier last night - all the way until it was closed at midnight.  I fell asleep but later was awakened. I can't say that I've slept all that well on this trip but I haven't let it phase me.  I suspect when we get home I'm going to spend the rest of Monday and all of Tuesday recuperating from this.

Today, we took a Lyft to a mexican food restaurant. I'm not sure why we took a Lyft. It wasn't a drinking affair so we could have saved the money and just drove the pickup over there. But, it's fun to ride along with the drivers and all of them telling their tales of this and that.  Most of them don't live on the Island, they come from Houston and other nearby cities.  They try to get an airport ride over here and then one going to the airport from the cruise ships back and make some decent money along the way. 

After that, over to a bar.  I had a drink but I wasn't interested in getting drunk today, which is more than I can say for the other 2.  They're having a good time, I'm not knocking them.  But today, we spent the whole day at the beach.  Now I understand the fungus stuff and potentially getting into someone's system. The water is pretty warm, not cold enough to stop that kind of growth in the water.  I took my chances and spent hours out there.  I will, of course, be looking for any signs tonight and tomorrow of that dreaded sickness that that fungus is giving people.  I did get into the swimming pool at the hotel after getting done with that swimming. At least get into some chlorine!

Oh, to clarify, I'm not interested in getting drunk on any day.  As it was yesterday, I didn't even have a drink until it was almost 3:00 pm.

Anyway, I am  sitting in the hotel room taking it easy.  Beautiful day at the beach. Wind blowing, cool breeze came in with it - weather off the coast.  James wants to go back to Pleasure Pier tonight after we eat whether the lady of the house is going or not.  We purchased 2 day passes, we might as well have some more fun. Well, honestly I'm ready to just call it a day.  But, they're younger and more energy and all of that, just that she is out of it right now and I dunno if the lights are going to come back on today or not with her lol. 

James says he's going with or without her.  This wasn't the cheapest trip and I"m sure he wanted to get his money's worth out of it. Prices for everything over here is kind of like what you would expect to pay for food and drinks in a NFL or similar stadium - expensive. 

We are going to SaltGrass here - eventually. Not sure when lol.  I am going to have a steak and lobster tail, I think.  It's like 2 buildings over from where we're staying, I've never eaten there but everyone says that chain has excellent food.

I think I'll end this one and peruse the internet. 

Arriving at Galveston beach, the hotel let us in early.  No time to waste, Taylor had her itinerary and we weren't in the hotel 10 minutes before she had already ordered a Lyft ride to Moody Gardens.

Pretty cool place. We spent 5 hours there I think.  We saw everything there is to see.  Didn't quite do everything, but that's just because the price goes way up.  Like the zip line. $35 just for that.  We did do the rope course tho. It's 4 stories tall with varying degrees of difficulty in crossing solid platforms to much more difficult ropes that you are "standing" on.  I did that for an hour, lol, and regretted that.

Not because I fell off, but because my legs were very sore!

Oops!

I may have lost weight, I am still not in any kind of "great" physical condition, not like I used to be anyway. It was fun tho. Going through the aquarium and the rain forest was also pretty cool. Well, cool in the aquarium, very warm in the rain forest! Oh, and no  one got drunk. 

Yikes. Just got out of the shower, they are already texting me for breakfast at Denny's. Sounds wonderful! 

I only know today's agenda has some shopping in some touristry type of location in town. Other than that, well, I think she wants to go to Pleasure Pier - it's an amusement park on a pier - I want to walk over to the ocean and sleep on a towel?  And maybe actually brave the waters and fungus junk and get wet?  

Who knows!

Here.....we.....go!!!

Last night? Supreme pizza night.

I decided vacation officially started last night and had a pizza to celebrate.  Well, I had 3 slices of pizza, the rest I gave to James. I can't eat more than 3 slices before bedtime - I'll be awake all night long.  I have no idea what it does to my system, but whatever it is, sleeping will not be part of the equation.

And sleep I did! Until 5 am when James got up and shut the refrigerator door hard. I managed to get back to sleep until the kids - woke up at 6:00 am.  They never wake up that early. But grandma is here and she is taking them to her home in Arkansas to watch them while we're on vacation.  There was no getting back to sleep. I was planning on getting at least 8 hours of sleep today, that turned in to 6 hours and oh well.

So, they just left.  Taylor and I will be heading to the bigger town 35 miles away to do some shopping. James is at work.  She has some stuff to buy at Kohl's, I want a plain ole' beach towel and a couple of cheap beach style T shirts.

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Vacation day has arrived. The alarm went off at 6 am and abruptly woke me up out of a rather strange dream and deep sleep.  I had driven a truck to some sort of encampment. Was filling in paperwork when Addler appeared out of nowhere (my Great Dane).  What are you doing here? How did you get here?  He wasn't in the truck with me. After that, there were a few faces from the far past appearing in that dream, none of really made any sense.  Then again, a lot of dreams are weird and seem to have  no specific meaning to them. 

Anyway, I forced myself out of bed - I could have easily gone straight back to sleep - took my shower and demanded to know if everyone else had also awakened with me?  Yup, they were already up. Got the dogs, walked out the front door and saw.....James truck with a flat tire.  What a lovely way to start vacation! 

Whatever the case, there was a good spare underneath the truck and a full size tire at that, not one of those worthless donut tires, so he put that on while I took the dogs off to Maria's place, who in exchange handed me a huge plastic container full of these wonderful, mini cheesecakes.

I can see I am destined to gain 10 pounds on this trip.  No worries. I will go on a 60 hour fast after I get back and kick start ketosis again.  Ok, I'm not hoping to gain that much weight, but I bet it goes up 5 pounds. 

I'm not abandoning the diet but I am taking a much needed break from it. So far I've had a hamburger with the bun, lots of potatoes, a sugar filled coffee drink and a few other things.  Today, Im not really sure, but I hope breakfast includes hash browns. 

We've come to the conclusion that we're not going into the ocean.  Yet another case of that flesh eating bacteria has surfaced, this time a woman from California whose foot was eaten down to the bone. Rather disgusting photos of it too.  There is a huge pool at the hotel, we'll go swimming there. 

I'm ready to get this trip rocking and rolling, just waiting on them. We should have left 25 minutes ago, lol, but the flat tire kind of threw a monkey wrench into the mix. 

Oh, I should add that Taylor decided we were going to Longview yesterday.  We had lots of fun going around to different shops looking for things for the trip.  Not that I spent a lot of money, but I was along for the ride. As long as I'm not driving, I don't really care.  Of course, the state of Texas hasn't sent me my new license, so I'm stick with this paper license. They just give you a plain paper, 8X11 "license" while you're waiting for the new one.  It looks rather worthless tbh.  I wonder if any place would actually take it as ID.  I have my passport with me in case I run into a snare. 

Well I"m cutting this one off. I hope we leave soon cause' I intend on going back to sleep for a while after we get rolling. 

The end is coming.

The end of work for 5 days anyway, lol.

My first diet free meal will be on friday, and I want it to be a Schlotsky's sandwich.  But it could just as well be Denny's with everything I normally get, but add hash browns and toast to the meal : )

The hotel we'll be staying in - La Quinta East Beach Galveston - has okay reviews, not great but not terrible either.  I thought it was worth an extra $20 per night to stay there than the place they wanted to which was cheaper - but had terrible reviews.  Focusing in on "the AC doesn't work in my room" which was repeated in numerous reviews of the place, no thanks.

Other, nicer hotels were much more expensive. I would have paid it, but I understand they're on a budget.  Regardless, the ocean is right there, I mean, you walk out the hotel and turn towards the ocean and there is the beach.  Some reviews also said there are very nice restaurants within walking distance. I promised them again yesterday that I won't be driving, at all, thanks : )A vacation for me necessarily means no driving. I mean, if I were driving to an airport, of course but I really don't want to be driving anything.

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Okay then.  I ended up going to the dentist.  I had that crown break off almost 2 months ago and finally have a day off, they got me in there and put a temporary tooth in there until they can get the crown made.  It looks a heckuva lot better than what was there before I walked in there! And, I don't have to pay for the new crown, as well I shouldn't.  But in this world in the new era of greed and lack of business ethics in the corporate world, I wasn't holding my breath.

I've got an appointment to go and have the crown put on the day after I return from vacation - I took an extra day off for recovery. Not really interested in doing that on a day off, but, it needs to be done. I'm having 2 more crowns put on the lower front teeth as well to fix that mess. If I'm doing it, might as well do it all!

After that, the bank - deposited a grand I've been saving up cash for the trip, but put it into savings account. I just can't deal with "reserved" money in my checking account, if it's in checking, it's fair game for bills.  Over to Chili's for lunch, my local hair salon for a cut, Kroger's to get Marie the stuff to make homemade cheesecake, over to Marie's to deliver the stuff and finally back home.

I was happy the dentist got me in - someone failed to show.  They asked me if I could be there at 9:30 - am - and I looked at the clock, it was 9:17. Lol, I wasn't even dressed but I said yes! I'll be there! Rushed into the bathroom, cleaned myself up, got dressed and - well -the dentist office takes 3 minutes to get there so I was there on time.  Now I can go on vacation without this ugly front tooth missing. It's only a temp replace thing but it looks farrrrrrrr better than just this little stub of a tooth sticking out that is intended to hold the crown in place.

Welp, I'm looking at airfare to Ireland.  Hotel packages with it.  But, I don't know where to go, exactly and the advice I got - I thought I had saved and lost it. A gentlemen that lives in Ireland gave some excellent advice and here I am, forgetting to save it?  Or I did and don't remember what file I put it in. Oh, wait, that was my old computer lol.  It on that hard-drive.  I may very well pull that hard drive out of it and install it into this computer so I can find that very excellent information. I can't remember where he said was the best city to go to, excepting somewhere in northern Ireland. Dublin was not on his favorite list and deemed a huge tourist destination.  He gave all kinds of suggestions of cool places to visit.  Hope I find that again, or fine another Irish person to give some clues on what's the best places to visit. I want to see old castles, museums, visit the countryside.  I don't want to sit around in a hotel, but I do want a decent place.  I'd like to find the same hotel to stay at and venture back and forth from there.

But I'm not cemented on that idea.  Traveling around the countryside really could mean staying in a different hotel every night.  One has to be able to plan such things in advance in order to make that happen.  I mean, if I were rich and could just spend as much time doing whatever I pleased over there in traipsing around the countryside at will, that would be a different story.  Looks like I can get an airfare/hotel package for staying at the same place for around a grand.

Meanwhile, my temporary tooth fell off earlier.  Gag. It's not glued in there but I think he puts some sticky substance on it to help hold it in place. My last crowns, none of them came off.  I'm just pushing the thing back up on there.  Not very nice tho.

I'm worn out.  It's been go go go for weeks now.  I finally get a 34 hour reset - today and tomorrow off. I got back to the yard earlier at 8:00 am, so I basically have all day today and tomorrow to rest.  I just got home, but I could literally go to sleep for several hours and since it's Sunday, I will definitely be taking that afternoon nap. 

Vacation coming up in 5 days.  After this reset, I'm hoping but not expecting a good 3 day run to help offset having 4 days off.  I don't expect anything good anymore from this company because this company is jacked up, they don't know what they are doing, they are just a big corporation that is full of people with swelled heads who think they know better than everyone else.  I heard another driver's story of "it's our way or the highway" take it or leave it s*** yesterday.  He said he was pushing at the verge of leaving - but he wants to stay in the hazmat tanker business and the other carriers aren't paying as much as we do.

So he said. But if you take all these crappy runs that are forced on us, our pay is going down to likely where those other carrier's pay is.  It doesn't "even out" among drivers.  A few select individuals magically hit the jackpot every time they go out.  They must be really lucky or - something else.  I'm guessing the latter. 

I came home to a deserted house. The vehicles are in the driveway, my dogs were in my bedroom - I left them home this time - but  no one home? Is it possible they are still sleeping at 10:30 am?  I guess it is, but those kids never sleep in this late.  I tried texting Taylor but have as of yet to receive a reply.  Whatever the case, I think I'm going to turn on the TV, find a decent movie and watch it until I fall asleep. 

With in a 2 year span of time, my 2 uncles and my dad passed away.  Today, the oldest of them - at 90 - passed. I have no idea of what, there hasn't been any communication coming from that side of the family since my dad started with Alzheimer's years ago.  The daughter despises all of us sons of my dad's and sticks her snoot up at us.  It's typical family bs that goes on in lots of families in the US nowadays, I just ignore her.  Anyway, since there has been no communication from any of them, there isn't any feelings attached to his death from me, just the thought that they are all dead now in a fairly short time span.

It's weird, I guess is what I'm saying. But life is strange as it stands sometimes.

Take this med card situation.  I gave up a good, 4 day run so I could get it done.  I initiated that, saying I don't want to let this go any longer.  You want to get it done in time to make sure they get it input into their system in time so your CDL isn't suspended.

Well, this interim manager decided that I was going to go out on a s*** run the next day instead of doing that.  The Oklahoma run.  Then, when I got back, instead of letting me do the exam, she sent on yet another s*** run to Houston, which then was changed to Cheniere as a favor to switch with another driver.  There's 2 crap runs in a row.  Today, I finally got the exam done after getting back from Cheniere and then? She sends me back to Oklahoma today?

I said something about it.  I wasn't being nasty, but I did ask her why she didn't end up giving me the Stryker load she had promised.  It was canceled, she replied.  I replied well you  could have given me some kind of decent run to make up for all of this.  Otherwise, the way it worked out with her continuing to shift my exam date, I could have just taken the damn run up to Stryker, got back today and done the exam on Monday morning. 

Beyond that, when I tried to send the exam via fax today, it wouldn't work. I tried like 5 times and it failed, 5 times. So I went into the DL location in that town - to find something like 60 people all crammed in this little building waiting to do whatever.  No thanks. I left there and went to the itty bitty one in my town - only a few other people in there.  But they informed me because it was less than 10 days until the old med card expired, I would have to pay an $11 fee. After that, I find out they had to actually issue me a new CDL with a new picture and all of that on it to be able to process my med card in time!

THIS, because this "manager" kept putting me off, giving me crappy runs in the process and making my life more difficult than it needed to be.

The "conversation" blew up when she started insulting me and making it personal.  I gave her a stark dose of her medicine right back at her.  I did you a favor and you screw me in exchange.  She was getting all pissed off, she has anger issues, she blows up instantly whenever anyone challenges her.  I'm assuming that is also tied to ego and authoritarian issues.  Whatever the case, if she reports it as anything but her doings, I'm going to show whoever the text messages, because it's alllllll in writing.

Well, I already have to get out of here. I have first load, fun fun.   

Well that was fun.
100 miles into yesterday's trip, I realized I had forgotten my wallet. Driver's license, truck fuel card, debit card - everything I need.  No way was I turning around and going back to get it after having driven that far, I just decided to go ahead and finish the drive up to Barnsdall, drop and hook and then ask for a T-Check to be electronically sent to the Love's in Okmulgee, OK.

Well, that was the "old" way of doing things, apparently, before our company got consumed by another, much larger company.  The "new" way of doing things? Nothing.  I was informed to call the card issuer and cancel the card.  Ok, well that didn't work.  Then I was informed to call an 800 number and get a T check. That didn't work. Then they called both those places, still didn't work.

Finally, T-check said just have Love's manually input the info.  Yup, that didn't work either When they got to my driver's license number, it wouldn't accept it.  Yes I had the right number, they tried several times and I finally said screw this and dumped $85 of my own money into the fuel tank to at least get me down the road, possibly even make it all they way back to Longview.

Well, this morning I tried another Love's that's on the way - Paris, Texas - same results. DL number was't accepted.  So this fill in manager tells me that I don't need to give them a DL number. Sorry, but the system is requiring it, it won't allow them past it. Then this lovely person took it upon herself to get salty with me and start saying I shouldn't have forgotten the fuel card and this wouldn't be an issue. Instead of attempting to figure out how to deal with this problem, she just shoved it back on me.

This is their truck, not mine.  I asked her if I was just supposed to sit there and do nothing? She came back with more s*** , which is when I ended that "conversation".  I texted her "have a wonderful day!!" and that was it. I decided to drive it out and see if I make it. If not, well, they'll have to send a truck with fuel and get it running :)

I basically made it back to the yard running on fumes.  Not the optimal thing you want with a tractor trailer rig, but I did, indeed make it back and decided that I wasn't going to do my physical until tomorrow.  I need a day off from this nonsense.  Imagine a trucking company that doesn't have a contingency plan for if a driver loses the fuel card, or if the card stops working, or in my case, just plain forgot it?  I've never even heard of such a thing, much less had to personally experience it.

I was quite annoyed with that manager, but I bit my tongue.

Another driver at the yard stared at me in disbelief when I told him the story.  And even more people are talking about quitting now.  This "new" company totally sucks.  They are interested in numbers, not people.  Drivers are just numbers on a screen to them.  There is no sense of belonging and the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.  The communication is terrible.

_________________

Thursday.

Sitting in the kitchen last night, I heard thunder. Everyone said no, it's not supposed to rain, that's the motorcycle next door.  Ohhhh, I replied, sure sounded like thunder. A few minutes later, another one. And then, a REALLY loud one! KaBLAAAAAAM! Like it was in the friggin' living room.  And then, 10 minutes later? Another loud one and yes, the power went out.  For almost 7 hours, the power went out.  I hung out at the cop house next door for hours since there was nothing else to do and chatted about all kinds of different things.

About 10:23 pm, I decided to go home and try to sleep.  Meaning no AC, no fan, nothing. Took a while but I eventually drifted off to sleep - on the hard floor.  The bed was too hot.  At 2:30 AM, wake up call! Lights came on, window AC unit came on, back in business. 

Then, this lovely  manager giving me all the shit about fuel yesterday calls me about 20 minutes ago. I was thinking about getting out of bed anyway, but my load isn't until 2:30 this afternoon.  I'm going to Houston.  It used to be a day run, now they have you preload and you don't deliver until 8:00 am the next morning.  It's a really messed up load because it isn't worth anything - but - it used to only take one day.  Wasting 2 days on a worthless load isn't my idea of fun.

But, the manager says that Preacher - his permanent nickname, another driver - called her at 2:30 am and said her daughter had some sort of medical emergency and had to take her to the hospital, can you switch loads with him?  I said no immediately, because I have to get my medical exam for my med card done this morning.  I mean, it's not like I haven't said anything about this to them - like half a dozen times on separate occasions now spread out over more than a month.

I dunno what's going on, but I guess we got busted @$$ busy all of a sudden in the last few weeks because I've been running like crazy.  But I thought about this.  Houston or Cheniere? They are both equally worthless.  The only advantage to Cheniere is it's a bit further for more miles and you don't have to drive anywhere near Houston. Because my plan today? Do the pre-load and drive straight down there, avoid the heavy Houston early morning rush hour traffic and stay at a truck stop about 5 miles away from the plant. It's really kind of hard to just change your plans like that for these runs.  Especially when they're calling you only a few hours before the proposed change has to occur.

But, I decided to switch, told her I would do my med card tomorrow when I get back. Basically I saved her ass, she didn't have anyone else to do it and you can't just not do a load, the loading plant says fine, we'll use another carrier and walaah. There goes more work.  However, some other company has been doing the Cheniere.  I would rather not work than go to that stinking place to be honest.  They don't care how long you have to spend there, I guess that's a plus for detention pay - but I want to get in and out of there.  It's hot and muggy down there and there are these giant biting flies.  This is 2 crappy loads in a row, I best be getting a decent run next or, I'll just open my mouth and say something again. 

Meanwhile.....I was looking at my settlement sheets for my pay yesterday.  I finally got on their email list to get them sent out.  The information does not show up on your paycheck.  Anyway, an entire trip worth at least $1,200 was missing.  This is happening far too often.  That's a healthy chunk of change, I was expecting at least a $2,500 net paycheck this week. So I contacted this lady that continues to screw up the payroll 90% of the time.  I didn't get pissy with her, I just said the Union Carbide/Charleston, WV run is missing on my paycheck. Amazingly, she not only got back to me right away, she admitted her mistake and promised to have that money deposited separately into my banking account tomorrow! 

It's kind of easy to think about starting to get pissy with a person that can't get their job right.  She does this with everyone, not just me.  If you have any detention pay due on any given run, you best be writing it down somewhere to record it so you can match it with what she gives you, cause' honey, there is an almost 100% chance she's going to either miss  it altogether and not give it to you at all, or, she will give you less than what you should be getting.  I scour my settlement sheets for errors.  I shouldn't have to, but to get the pay I deserve, it has to be done.  But, kudos to her for owning it and immediately dealing with it.

So, anyway, here we go.  I'm getting a little nervous about this medical card.  If you don't have it renewed before the expiration date, TEX DOT downgrades your commercial license to a regular license and then, you have to go through the written AND the driving test all over again!  But, I just looked at the notice, I have more time than I thought.  It doesn't expire until the 18th.  So getting it done tomorrow will be fine.  Just have to get it into them ontime for them to process it and get it added to your license info.

Welp, off to the races. 

So here we go again with yesterday's schedule, all over again. 
And it's Sunday.
Seems like I work most Sundays, a thing I would love to see change.
But, Sundays are great days to drive in terms of traffic and driving through
Houston isn't any fun no matter what type of vehicle you are driving. 

I'm watching the news and just have to shake my head.
There's too much foolery going on in politics.  I don't even want to label
that to one party, the whole thing is messed up and it doesn't matter who
we vote into office, they become a part of that machine, eaten and swallowed up
whole.  They just abandon their political platforms that they run on and go with the
crowd.  Excepting  a few notables.

Regardless, my medical card is about to expire.  I told my company about it last
week and have heard nothing back. THEY should KNOW about this, that should
be part of a program that pops up a notice for any drivers whose medical card is about
to expire. Cause' if you let it lapse? The state you have your CDL will revoke it until
you get it renewed. States store the information now - as evidenced by the State of Texas
sending me notification a month and a half ago and then another notice that it needs to
be renewed.

I can't just go to "any" place for this exam either.  I mean, I can to cover myself, but my
company wants drivers to go to specific facilities and get it done their way. 

Well, if my company continues to drop the ball, I will go to the nearest place and get my own
exam done, because getting your CDL reinstated is, I have heard, no short process and isn't
worth it. 

Okay. Off to the races. Hopefully not a repeat of yesterday. 

Well, that was irritating.  Number one, I woke up at 1:00 am and never was able to get back to sleep - and at this point in time rather cranky and irritable unfortunately.

Then, leaving the house at 4:30 am, I arrive at work to - the trailer that I was supposed to take not being there.  I spent over an hour and a half trying to call my manager.  Nope, she never answered.  So,  I took a trailer I know is good for Brownsville and went over to the loading rack.

During that time, another manager replied to me but she didn't know about what was going to happen.  Because, just before I was to pull up to load the trailer, my manager finally calls back. That's over 2 hours, 30 phone calls trying to get a hold of her.

At first she said, ohhh, trying to figure out if they will accept that trailer down there. But all of a sudden, her memory returned to her. Ohh, that load canceled yesterday! She went on to making her excuses as to why she forgot to text or call me that information.  I bit my tongue.  But pulllllleeeeeeeeaaaaaaasssssssseeeeee spare me the excuses.  At least she apologized eventually after going through all of that. 

I was exhausted.  I still am.  And I've tried to sleep and I just can't do it right now.  I got home - James and Taylor gone.  I texted Taylor - please turn off the alarm so i can go in the house : )  She did and I ended up explaining her the whole story above. They did a spur of the moment thing - which is really good they did for once - and took off to Hot Springs, Arkansas this morning.  I didn't know anything about it, but then again, they aren't accountable to me lol.  They took the kids with them - the grandparents don't live that far from there, they are going to meet them, take the kids and husband and wife are going to have some alone time in a cool place. 

The plus for me? It was actually a good thing I didn't have to drive clear down there today - excepting the fact there are no trailers down there and likely not to be until Monday. Which would have given me at least 2 days worth of detention pay. But I'm so tired right now, I would have been miserable forcing myself to stay awake for 10-1/2 hours of driving.  I can do it, don't get me wrong. Have done it for decades, but it isn't pleasant. 

I can't sleep right now, I tried and I'm just in some funk.  It'll hit me later an I'll crash.  The other plus is that I have the entire house to myself. No kids crying and screaming, just peace and quiet. 

My manager has informed me that I will be going on the same run - tomorrow - same early load. 

So what am I doing today? Nothing.  Watching movies and shows that I have recorded on my DVR.

And with that, offa here. 

We had a really nice fireworks display last night - well out into the country, well out in the middle of nowhere.  No cops were called, cause' it was county land and the county doesn't care what you do unless there is a burn ban.  Well, none of that going on with all the rain going on around here recently.

Unfortunately, when I got home, Aspyn was gone.  She doesn't like the fireworks and I forgot to put her in her kennel.  I left Addler in my bedroom. I just can't do that with Aspyn, she chews stuff up and sometimes expensive stuff that isn't too fun to have to replace.

Well, I went out looking for a while, but it was too dark to see a dog in the dark unless she was running down the road.  No clue, came back to the house, went to bed actually, it was late.  I can't imagine those boys today, they were up til 10:30 or later last night, well past their bedtime.  Jaxon was terrified of the loud booms of the explosions, but he seemed to have started to like it a little later. The older boy was having fun with it.  We were out in the street, setting off a rather large stash of fireworks that took a few hours to light off.

Well anyway, I got up this morning - late actually, I wanted to sleep in and I did -  texted Maria about Aspyn, please keep and eye out for her - and then went to the pound.  They didn't have her but asked for a pic and phone number, so I got the lady's phone number and texted it to her.  Maria decided to get into her vehicle and go looking, I was joining her after that. We ran around that  neighborhood for quite a while until Maria texted that the letter carrier lady saw her just a few minutes go, at the time of course, on Woodland street.

Cool, I was over there and then scouring the neighborhood as well as Maria.  Up and down streets - up and down same streets twice to get a second look - people giving interesting looks lol after the second pass - and then, Maria found her at a residential intersection that I had just had been at a few minutes earlier.

Poor doggy was hot and panting heavily. It's hot and muggy outside, not great conditions for running up and down neighborhoods without access to water. She had been out there all night long, whether she had been trotting all over the place all night long is unknown.  What is known is that when she got into the back yard, she went straight to the water pail and drank heavily.

I ended up meeting up with Maria at the local Applebee's.  She doesn't get out much - financial situation - so once in a while I meet up with her and she gets whatever she wants.  Note, not a relationship thing - at all.  At least, not dating.  A friendship relationship, yes, but nothing beyond that.  I'm really not looking at the moment.

So anyway, the fireworks are over so I don't have to worry about Aspyn taking off.  Poor little doggy.  I dunno how Addler was during all of it.  He was on my bed and I had the TV going.  He wasn't going anywhere, but he has started to get visibly nervous in previous fireworks events going on around the area.  I really need to get them both chipped.  I had the chance last trip with Addler ot the vet, but I totally spaced it while I was there.

_________________

Saturday - early morning.  Going off to Brownsville. Was very glad to get that run versus anywhere up north.  Northern runs are good, but I like them balanced out by a more "local" run, even if it's 580 or so miles south of here.  And, another weekend gone to working.  Oh well, we are getting excited about the upcoming trip.  And frankly, even tho I'm working lots of weekends, I'm going to have a couple of good paychecks in a row.

As it stands, Taylor is getting pretty restless. They spend most of their weekends home, doing much of nothing. It's a pretty gruesome rut to be stuck in, if I do say so myself.  One of the reasons I wanted to get a fishing boat - they like to fish, they just don't go.  But I stopped looking at boats temporarily, got tired of seeing boat after boat in the price range I want that has something wrong with it.  Usually a major engine problem. There was a pontoon boat that was in excellent condition judging from the pics - but the engine is trashed. 3 grand for a boat that will needs thousands of dollars worth of engine work? No thanks. I'll give ya a grand for it.

I do lowball them on offers when they have jacked up engines.  They laugh - but their boats don't sell.  Some of them have been for sale for months now. You are buying someone else's costly headache. They had their fun with the boat, burnt the motor up and now trying to sell the thing at a profit? Screw that.

Happy 4th of July!  Independence Day! Wait, we are becoming totally dependent on the government! What are we independent from?  lol

Drove all day yesterday and ended up at the casino truckstop. It was late, I didn't feel like gambling but I did feel like eating so I went in there to grab a bite.  Well, Chili's was closed and the other restaurant was cram packed full of people, plus a live band, plus a bunch of drunken revelry going on. It was very loud in there.  I skipped eating and got the bug, so I went to the ATM, got out $140 and sat down at a blackjack table.

Fun to watch people getting so upset about a game where they know there is a good chance they are going to lose money.  Especially people saying that money was supposed to be use for whichever bill they now can't pay.  I was there for the fun of it, not because I think a casino is some sort of bank.  That's desperation and you can't effectively gamble if you are desperate. 

But I did have a lot of fun!  I went up and down in terms of winnings, but near the end of my table play, I had gone up to $675.  I placed a final bet of $75 and lost it, decided to walk before I went all the way back down again.  I was there 5 hours until 3:30 am lolol.  It did feel good tho to actually have some fun and walk out with a lot more money than I walked in with : )

Woke up 4-1/2 hours later after going to sleep in the truck and drove the rest of the route home.  I figure it's about time to take a nap, since we have all been invited over to a 4th of July BBQ at one of Jame's friend's house.  I dunno when they intend on going, but they took off after putting the kids to bed - I didn't want to go buy fireworks, I've been out enough thanks, time to rest a bit. 

Anyway, my Bank of America card showed up in the mail while I was gone - I'm not the biggest fan of BOA but they gave me a card with a $7,500 line of credit - none of which I intend on using.  It's a travel rewards card and you earn points for every time you use it, or so it claims.  I'm still reading through the fine print trying to find out how many points it takes to actually do anything with it, ie: go somewhere via airplane.  Now that I have this card, I suspect I will be getting a lot more offers for the "good" cards.  I have the mediocre ones now, but not the ones that really give you good rewards returns.  Well, Capital One gives me some decent rewards, I have a couple of hundred in cash that I have earned with them. 

I suppose I should clarify, I intend on using the card but I do not intend on having any balances on it. Pay it up at the end of the month, no interest and rack up the rewards.  That's my goal anyway.

Well, I'm really worn out from all the driving.  I mean, I got back from Mapleton the last trip and was sent right back out yesterday on this trip I just finished.  I need at least a full day off. Whether I get it or not remains to be seen, but since I worked today, I get the holiday pay bonus.  I think it's $170 for working on a holiday. Not really that much - many  holidays I'd rather be home and skip the bonus pay, but couple that with my winnings last night and that's a nice chunk of extra change I wouldn't have been getting otherwise.  The gambling winnings and the extra pay are going into my travel fund.

Specifically, for our upcoming adventure at the beach.  But, now I have so much cash saved up, I do not intend on using all of it for just 4 days at the beach.  Some of I'm going to save for the next trip.  I am still fully intending on at least trying to get my @$$ across the ocean this year, even if I have to go it alone.  But, to start off using my new card, I'm going to charge the entire bill to to it which will be $1,150 or something like that - half of it is my hotel room the other half is theirs which they will pay me back - and get a good jump on points. 

Reeeeeeaaaaaalllllyyyy want to go to Ireland, there are so many interesting points of interest in old structures and cliffs and water views.  London, too, but I think I"ll pass for the time being considering all the Trump hate going on over there and an incompetent mayor that hasn't got a clue what he's doing. 

Just did a search, random dates in September, the lowest fare available was $704 round trip. Not bad? I dunno, really don't know what is a good deal for international traveling . I'm more concerned about leg room and sitting cramped for hours in a giant sardine can where they cram as many people in those things as they possibly can.  I don't blame them for wanting to get the most profit, but that is a long flight to be crammed up.  I have long legs and they start hurting if there is minimal leg room. 

Justfly has an even better deal at $526 round trip - but it's got 2 layovers.  31 hours, sounds like a longer than normal time to get to Ireland from DFW.  Depends on where the layovers are an if there is enough time to investigate the surrounding areas.  Great price, I think. 

Okay, enough of that. At some point I'm going to pull the trigger, buy the tickets - and insurance just in case - and just do it.  But I"m going to wait until after this month's journey to Galveston beach.  I'm in fairly decent shape now for beach going.  I'm in size 34 jeans but they are falling off of me the same as 35's were a few months ago.  I have a pair of 33's in there somewhere, I'm going to try them on again and see if they fit now. 

And for that, the end of this post.  Time to get ready to go light off fireworks!