Brownsville, Friday afternoon.
Trailers were here, but two drivers before me.  They got them, I am stuck here.  I actually decided yesterday, while driving down here, to stop and the get truck washed in Houston at the Blue Beacon.  The truck hadn't been washed in two months, but also an intentional move to get other drivers down here before me.  I didn't know where they were, I just knew the loading times. It was an hour wait at the wash to even get into the bay and then they spent fully 45 minutes washing the truck and trailer, both were filthy. 

I had plenty of on-duty hours available since I didn't have to load the truck - that takes at least 2-1/2 hours.  On the other hand, it rained the entire drive down here and that ate up some time driving in Houston - everyone slows way down. I mean, they slow down far more than necessary.  And, of course, people that panic in such traveling conditions do stupid things in traffic resulting in numerous accidents. 

The worst accident I saw yesterday, however, was not in Houston.  Highway 59, somewhere near Livingston, Texas, there was a tractor-trailer rig parked on the side of the road on the north side.  There were a lot of first responders a the rear of the trailer and when I saw why they were, well, it was an incredible and horrific scene.  A car had smashed into the rear of the parked truck. That was obvious, the truck was on the shoulder of the road and the driver of the car, for whatever reasons, drove right into the trailer.  The speed limit there is 70 mph, from the looks of the collision, yes, that person was doing at least 70.  The entire front end of the car was completely gone.  Just smashed all the way up to the firewall. 

You see stuff like this and wonder how it happened? Distracted driving?  No clue about the condition of the occupants of the vehicle, but the passenger compartment at least appeared to be intact, perhaps they survived.  I see this type of stuff all the time.  Terrible accidents up and down 59, the entire stretch, there is no place that is "safe" from someone making a mistake in traffic and causing a severe crash.  It's probably why I see so many cops hanging out, especially south of Houston. 

Anyway, one of the drivers called me and asked if I wanted to leave?  I was here last but I was supposed to leave yesterday.  I said well I dunno, which is when he stated he'd like to leave, he didn't want to have to wait down here.  Fine by me, feel free to go!  I wasn't sure I wanted to stay or not. The first driver down here had already hooked to a trailer and left - went to the Love's and parked there for the night.  So the second one took off around 8am and I am likely not going to be able to leave until nightfall. The next empty was at least 4 hours south of the border, I was informed, at 11 am.  So figure 3 or 4 to get TO the border, then they have to wait in line to actually cross the border. 

That's at least a couple of hours, could be much longer? Who knows.  If it gets here early enough, I'll take off and try to get at least 300 miles behind me before stopping. If it doesn't I'll spend the night, get up early and just drive straight on through tomorrow.  I'm guessing I'm going to get dumped with another run for either Sunday or Monday, I actually hope not, I've been running hard and a few days off would be nice - but - it's whatever. 

As for the Trump impeachment inquiry - boring.  I watched a couple hours of it and then shut it off.  There isn't any new revelations coming out, at least none that I saw up to that point.  I'm sure the highlights will be put out on every news channel, so I really am not missing anything.

Dropped the money off for the parts to fix the 4 wheeler before I left for this trip - that should be ready to go next week and I will be ready to take the thing out to the woods somewhere and take it for a test ride.  Maybe take the dogs too if I can get away with them running around off the leash. I figure if I go daytime during the week - there won't be many people at the parks where you can go riding.  The boat - we still have a leak issue, can't locate it.  The mechanic said he was taking it out to the lake, reset the carbs and then just sit there in the water and see if he can see where the water is coming in from.  The final chapter to fixing the boat may very well be to take it to a hull specialist to find and repair it. 

And I'm getting bored sitting in this lot.  Just trying to decide whether to find a show to watch on my computer - or go do something.  I kind of get this feeling a trailer will show up soon?  This yard guy is right on sometimes - and other times he's wayyyy off on his predictions when a trailer will show up. Like either one shows up much earlier than what he stated or as of late - much later in the day than what he calculated. 

Actually I think I'll take a nap, then eat some lunch and then watch a movie, time permitting.

G'day.   

Since the other driver was going to preload the trailer this morning, I took my leisurely good time getting to work.  The other driver texted me when he was leaving the plant, I knew he would beat me to the yard and that didn't concern me.  I was going to leave early enough to beat Houston rush hour and make it down there with no known issues.

So, after firing the truck up, I went into the office to do my paperwork.  After lots of discussions about different things with both my manager and the mechanic,  I went back out to depart hence for thither yonder lands.  I saw a huge pool of - whatever - in front of the truck.  I didn't know what it was, but it wasn't water.  I thought it my be DEF, but wasn't sure. It wasn't diesel fuel, oil, hydraulic fluid or coolant.  

I got the mechanic out there.  Oh, it's just a little leak.  Well do you have the parts?  No, I'll have to order them. Well what am I supposed to do? Drive it! It's only going to leak when it's trying to regen.  NOT, I thought in my mind, this pool of fluid didn't get there because it was trying to regen.  But I said fine and figured to have to stop for DEF a few times?  Whatever the case, I got back in the truck and saw a giant warning notice on the dash screen that said power was being reduced because of a problem with the SRC system. DEF - a system to clean the exhaust.  

I got under the truck and the fluid was pouring out of it now, not just a minor leak.  I knew the mechanic was wrong in his assessment, I should have just left, driven down the road and had to have it fixed with breakdown pay.  He said take it, I didn't cause' I knew better.  But, thinking about it now?  I should have thought beyond my own limitations, but I have good reasons for those limits. I have never been paid for breakdown pay before this company in my entire trucking life, it just didn't cross my mind. The mechanic said take it, I should have taken it! I could have gotten far enough down the road - a couple hundred miles anyway - and then be sitting  there for probably at least 2 days waiting for it to get fixed.

I know it would have taken time to get it fixed because the mechanic made 15 phone calls looking for a new replacement line.  And I ended up driving 90 miles one way to get the part.  Well I didn't have to, they asked me if I wanted to? Sure, why not? Not like it was free for the company, I get paid for doing that stuff and that problem was not caused by me, that was a mechanical issue that was not driver caused. 

Anyway, I drove to Lufkin, got the part, got the part, got within 25 miles and the mechanic calls me.  Uhh, do you want to leave today with it?  I thought but didn't say, yes that's my intention but I guessed immediately that he didn't want to fix it today.  It was almost 3:00 pm and he alluded to a person situation he needed to tend to and asked me for my permission to please let him just come in early am to fix it.  Yup, he had to ask me. It's a live load, the trailer is full, the load should have been down there today, if the driver wants to take it, that takes precedence over their personal lives.  I know, sounds horrendous, but that's the way this business works. Then he said he talked to the manager, who left it up to me. 

I told him the load wasn't making it there today- I  am not driving til' 3 am to deliver this load, even if I did, they wouldn't come to get it until around noon tomorrow - but I was planning on taking it to get south of Houston at least.  However, since you say you'd come in early (5 am) to fix it, Houston won't be an issue, so yes, I'm good with that.  I really don't want to mess with people's personal lives, if they need to do something, unless there is valid reasoning to say no, it's fine by me. 

___________________

It is now Thursday morning, rather early.  Very glad I decided to just go home yesterday and let the mechanic deal with it this morning.  I got a very good night's sleep, well rested, won't have any fatigue issues driving to Brownsville today.  My pay statement came in this morning as well - a very lovely paycheck even after all the federal deductions and 401k and such.  I'm putting aside at least $500 for spending money for upcoming trip next month.  I want to take my son and his lovely wife Christmas shopping.  Actually, it's for his wife, he always wants gift cards for the movie theater. I usually dump $100 on one from a local theater chain and call it good. 

Meanwhile, the dispute with the boy's parents continues.  They want the rent back for the time that this month "left over".  Sorry, it doesn't work that way, as I told them in return text, but I will give them whatever money I receive if someone does, indeed, rent the room before the end of the month. The "man" fired a very long text back at me, calling me stupid names, attempting to make himself look as tho he is taking the high ground.

My text back to him was the fact that they flat lied to us about the boy, didn't give us any pertinent and highly relevant info about him, and now I just found out in the "man's" latest text the boy has Autism.  We certainly knew NOTHING about THAT. Basically, they couldn't deal with him, so they attempted to dump him out on society without letting anyone know that he has that kind of condition.  WE are NOT set up to deal with a person with that condition.  I have basic knowledge of that disease, I have  no professional credentials or innate knowledge on how to deal with a person with autism.  I have much more sympathy for the boy  now, but, I would have never taken him in if we had known this.  A person with autism needs professional care, or at least people that understand it and know how to deal with it.  I gave them a very long dosage of their own medicine and ended my last text with the statement to not contact me again, but, if anyone rents the room before the end of the month, I will forward the proceeds to them.  If they continue on with their ranting, I will inform them that I am blocking them and have nice lives. 

Unbelievable that they didn't tell us about that little smidgen of information . Absolutely unreal. I knew he had behavioral problems - that became quite evident - I didn't know it was caused by a mental disease.  Perhaps they told Maria about his Autism, I don't know, I just texted her as well and asked about that. That was quite the surprising revelation. 

Whatever the case, I am awaiting a reply from the mechanic.  When do you think the truck will be ready to go?  He said yesterday he had to replace the line and he would have to hook up his computer to the truck to clear the problem from the truck's system and reboot it.  I don't think any of that will take much time to complete, at the same time, who knows if he will run into issues trying to get it going?  He's a good mechanic, he knows what he's doing, I do believe that I should be able to leave relatively early this morning, hence getting up early and getting prepared for the work day.

Yup, the truck will be done in the next 40 minutes or so.

I'm outta here.

G'day.   

Brownsville.
There was a trailer here last night when I got here - after driving in the rain for hours and hours on end - no tractors in the parking lot.  But, lo and behold, there was a driver in the parking lot at Loves. I wasn't taking that trailer - I want the detention pay, that's his trailer and don't try to pawn it off on me.  Well, he's been idling that truck for 2 days so now he is having a regen problem.  If he's stuck here another day, I'm taking that trailer that is already here out of here and just eat the detention pay.  I just got off the phone with him, there is a Peterbilt shop right down the street from the truck yard - I imagine they'll be able to fix it in no time.  Just hook up a computer, force it into regen mode and it should be good to go.

Because otherwise? I could have left out of here hours ago.  Don't get me wrong here: He wants that empty trailer.  He's been down here for days, apparently, and is ready to go home.  So, I'm waiting for him to call me back and let me know what the shop says.  Otherwise, the yard dude said there's a trailer in Matamoros - but it has a bad tire on it.  It's one of the plant owned trailers, so they don't want to bring it over here until the plant decides what to do about it.

____________________

Well that ended quickly  I did not get the detention pay, the other driver is a screw-up type of person.  He idled the truck 2 days - again - and messed up the DEF system - again.  So, he ended up going to Peterbilt and I ended up having to pull that trailer out of there.  I actually contacted my manager after he said he would have to wait for quite a while to find out what's wrong.  My manager about had a cow - he should have left last night.  If he had left, the DEF system wouldn't have screwed up and yes, I would still be sitting down there for another night getting that delicious detention pay.

But it's whatever.  Just kind of irritated me because of this guy's screwups I didn't get what otherwise would have been mine: at least $350 in extra pay.  Anyway, she wanted that trailer back to the yard tonight, it's going back out tomorrow.  Ok, I'll get it there. On the way back, she sent me another trip sheet via texting: a load for me to take out tomorrow morning, with the trailer I am pulling, going straight back to Brownsville!  Lmao, I looked at the loading time: 6:15 am.

Now, I'll take that run without any complaining, it's going to be 3 brownsville runs on one paycheck and yes, that is going to be a very sweeeeeet paycheck.  BUT - there is no way I could get back tonight in time to get the required 10-hour break to give me a full clock again and I informed her of such, asking if she could get me a different loading time slot.  20 minutes later - I can have Mike preload it for you, will that be okay?  At least she asked and didn't try to dictate anything to me. 

But absolutely yes, please have him preload it.  I won't have to go to work til much later.  Like around 10:00 am. After this trip, I will be home for 2 days or a day and a half at least cause' I will be completely out of hours. 

Meanwhile, the boat mechanic sent me a video today.  He put the new spark plug wires and spark plugs on the engine, fired it up and got it going.  He then took a video of it. It was idling really nicely. I mean, if it sounds in person what it sounded like on that video, my engine idling woes are all but over.  Right now? It's far too cold for me to want to take a boat out on a lake.  He, however, said he was taking it to the lake to set the carbs again.  He's a few miles away from a boat ramp, I get that he doesn't have a water container big enough to set the engine into and have that back pressure created. 

The ATV?  Nothing. Lol, I haven't taken him the money yet to order the parts.  I was going to do that tomorrow - I had no idea I was going right back out again.  If I had the money here I would just hide it in a safe place and he can come get it - he comes up to our town all the time.  Oh well.

And, it's 25 degrees here right now. I walked into my room and it was freezing  cold in here. Yup, I fired up my rather large heater - but it's taking it quite a while to warm things up in here.  I'm going to have to get a thermometer in here so I can stop guessing the temp in this room. Low 60's anyway.  Like little dribbles of heat come out of the ceiling outlet, not even enough to warm the room up from the central heat. It's been an hour and it's still quite cool in this room, lmao.

However, I think it's time to go snuggle up in bed and get some sleep.  Another long day tomorrow....

G'nite.

An entire day of drama and bullshit.

A trailer showed up down in Brownsville around 11:00 am. Good, I get to go home today.  Got that thing hooked up and took off.  A short time later?  I started getting texts from Maria.  The kid - the blowhard with the attitude - starting shit with her.  He was cussing her out, telling her to f***  off.  It was only the beginning of today's woes and misery with a clueless 18 year old kid that has anger issues up the ying-yang.

Nooooo, I have the timeline way off. It's been a long day. This shit started at around 8:00 am.  By the time I left the yard down there we were well on our path to earthly hell. It was a day filled with this kid cussing Maria out on multiple occasions, jabbing his knee into the dogs including mine, throwing things around and slamming doors.  The kid has serious issues. We knew that after he had  moved in and was in just a short time.  I still don't take any blame for this for I cautioned Maria before she rented it to him that this was likely going to cause problems.  He has no job, no work history, no income, to start with.

I'm going to skip a lot cause' it's too much to write all of it out - this literally went on all day long and into the night.  At some point I texted the kid and told him if he touches any of the dogs again, I'm going to call the police.  He did laughing emoji's and said what, are you going to tell them to arrest a kid for petting the dogs?  "Keep pushing it and you will find out".  Then he called me a "fuc**** baby" and that's when I took screen shots of all of it and sent it to his parents.

It was a few hours before the mom saw it and she had a meltdown. She went off about how she was going to deal with this and yada yada yada.  I wonder where she was the rest of his life? Or the father for that matter.  At the end of this ordeal and drama, mom did finally come over.  The boy wouldn't open his door for her - Maria was recording the whole thing.  Mom tried to coax him to open the door but finally gave him 5 minutes to open it or she would unlock the door herself and come in.  Well, she had to unlock the door. It went on for hours.  He wouldn't leave. She took his computer away from his - that's literally a part of him for all intents and purposes and he started very loudly protesting.

But she got it, took it out to the car and that's when he started to change his mind about leaving.  She ended up taking him to a homeless shelter about 45 miles from here - but they were closed, ie: not taking anyone in at night.  Most of them are like that, you have to get there early.

It was then and there at that facility that she sent a series of texts - alluding to bringing him back to the house.  NO way on earth that kid was coming back. He voluntarily handed over his key to the house, that's where it ended legally.  Maria got on that group text as well - she was beside herself by that point in time, she wouldn't even think about the possibility of this jerk-off kid coming back and told me in separate text she wouldn't open the door for them if they did show up.  In the end, the mom wanted to come and get his dirty laundry, Maria said fine, I'll leave it outside for you.  And she did exactly that, and wouldn't come out for them.

It was that bad.  I mean, I was furious after I found out that boy was sticking his knees into the dog's sides.  If that mom hadn't come over to get him, I would have definitely called the police yesterday.  The harassment and abuse he was heaping on Maria and messing with the dogs would be enough for them to at least come and have a "discussion" with the boy.

I started this post last night but finishing it today - now Sunday.  I got home late, around 11:00 pm, well I went to Maria's first to get the dogs and to chat with her for a few.  Today, I went over there and the across-the-street neighbor was also there.  We got all of this out of our systems.  Fortunately, we have weeks before the next rent payment is due, hopefully enough time to find another renter.

That's the story in a "nutshell". Just don't want to relive all of that.  I've gone through bad renters before, this one near the top of the "worst" heap. There were a couple worse than him, but not by much.  I knew my instincts were good about this kid, tho, when I first heard the story.  There's got to be more to this story than what the parents are telling Maria, I thought and expressed to her.  They are dumping him for some reason.  The boy really needs some serious therapy.

Anyway, it's already 2:00 pm.  I got up early this morning and headed to walmart to get dog food for the other house.  She apparently ran out because she said that I needed to get some before I leave again. I usually get much more of an advance warning, but it's cool.  James and Taylor are leaving soon to go up to Texarcana to get the youngest boy - he's been at grandma's for several days they were trying to see if they could help with him getting up all night long and screaming and crying. The word is that they made a "little" progress.  That doesn't really sound too encouraging. I don't hear much of it, sometimes if he's really screaming at the top of his lungs I'll wake up but mostly I sleep through it cause I'm on the other side of the house.  But, if he starts up again tonight, they'll have yet another sleepless night and then up for Monday work early.

The 4 wheeler problem has been diagnosed - bad carburetor, everything corroded.  Mechanic said he could replace all the stuff, but for the time spent and the kit, it would be cheaper to just order a new carb.  Well how much? I was thinking some ridiculous amount of money, he said $80.  Ohh, well let's do that.  And put in a new fuel pump while  you're at it - a $10 part.  And something else he said I can't remember what, but altogether $120 worth of parts.  I'm spending a  bit more on toys than i really want to, but once this stuff is all fixed I am hopeful that the spending part on repairs is over for a while.  Oh, the battery was bad, that's it.  I've heard nothing about the boat, just going to leave that alone until he figures out what's wrong with it.

As for the rest of today? Nothing.  I have one load of laundry and the rest of the time I'm going to relax.  Brownsville tomorrow morning. I'm the only one going down there, but today 2 went down. I'm hopeful that means there will be no empty trailers when I get there and at least overnight detention pay.  Would be very helpful in keeping my account balances up while paying for these repairs and parts.  I got really lucky, the first run is Stryker, Ohio - not my favorite run, I'll do it but it's at the bottom of the list of better paying runs - and Oklahoma- a not so good paying run that takes up two days and really isn't worth the time spent.  The only good thing  I like about that run is the casino, if I'm inclined to go. I haven't been in quite a while.

Oh, and Addler.  It was so bad, stressed out and negative atmosphere yesterday, he was not himself when I got him.  He had this look on his face and he wanted constant attention.  Not that that is totally unusual, when I come back from a run he wants that every time. But this went on for hours.  I stayed awake late last night just petting him and trying to calm him down a bit.  I think Addler was sensing Maria's state of being - which wasn't good with this kid cussing her out and all the rest of it.  He seems to be doing okay today.  My instinct the other day was to leave them at the house and I didn't follow through with that.  I'll listen to that instinct the next time if something like this ever happens again. They would have been far better off here, alone in the back yard than over there with all that drama going on.

Anyway, I'm getting off here.

G'day.

Just a quick update this morning - at 4:00 am - getting ready for work.  Rudely awakened out of deep, restful sleep and some weird dream that I couldn't possibly explain why it happened the way it did or what the purpose of it was - but all of my dreams are weird if I happen to remember them when I wake up. 

I have never liked the first load and today is no different. It's too early, I've been sleeping in the last 4 days in a row - that's my fault but it sure felt good! I didn't get out of bed until 9:00 am yesterday lol.  Anyway, I went ahead and did the Southwest airlines tickets.  $201.96 total including taxes and fees.  That takes me to Sky Harbor right smack dab in the heart of Phoenix and the metropolitan area.  That was around $175 cheaper than the nearest other offering I could find either leaving out of  Dallas or leaving out of the small airport near here.

Well, excepting the cheap airlines like Spirit. Buying a cheap Spirit ticket is only the beginning. You have to literally pay for everything else.  Flying out of the local airport is limited to American Airlines and the cheapest ticket I could find for that was $383.  And they charge $25 for the first checked bag - each way - and $30 for the second.  I won't need 2 bags but that's another $50 I saved by going Southwest as well.  I probably won't like driving to Dallas, but the savings were too good to pass up.  And I've found a hotel that has paid parking for as long as you need it at $4 per night, with a free shuttle going every hour to the airport. 

I will remember - or try to anyway - that Southwest has online checkin 24 hours before the posted flight departure.  If I recall correctly, checking in as early as possible gets you in the first line of people boarding the plane.  Meaning you aren't back in the restroom area and when it's time to get off, you get off faster.  It truly sucks being the last person on the plane and trying to find that seat and somehow find room in the overhead to find a place for your bag or coat or whatever.  I check in a large bag tho, and I don't mind traveling with a large suitcase because I usually have stuff to bring back with me. 

Well that's my current excitement besides this kid at the other house who, for unknown reasons, texted me "GAMES!" and when I asked him what he was talking about and why he was contacting me, he called me a "f****** idiot" to which I responded that I was only a mile away from him and if he continued with the foul name calling, I would be coming over there and he could say that s*** to my face.  Not another word from him since then. Note I didn't threaten him, and literally wouldn't have done anything physical to him for he isn't worth jail time over and having that on my record, but I would have gone over there, that's a fact. 

Well, departure time has arrived, I'm headed to Brownsville again today. 

G'day. 

I've decided neither of my more cherished holidays will be spent with family  If family wants to bicker and fight, let them, I'm just going to come in between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I won't see either of my brothers and that works for me.  I asked my manager if I can have Christmas off this year - citing the fact that I spent last Christmas in Defiance, Ohio, where nothing but a few hotels were open, including anywhere to get anything to eat in freezing temperatures.  She said OK.  Cool and then asked about getting off sometime next month - Ok. 

So that's my quest this morning - since I'm off for a 4th day in a row - to find whatever the cheapest airfare is from here to there.  Likely not going to go the Dallas route, when you factor in gas to drive there and back and high cost of parking, there isn't much savings over just leaving from two towns over here where parking is free and relatively short drive.  So far the $350 to $380 range is what I'm finding.  Mother has already promised me the use of one of her vehicles basically saying she wants me to stay with her the time I'm there.  All well and fine, but I have an agenda that I didn't get done last time that I definitely want to this time. 

The trip will intentionally contain an entire weekend so I can visit with some friends that are only available during that time, which I wasn't able to visit last trip, almost a year ago.  I never gave up on an overseas trip, I just put it on hold, btw, cause' I bought that boat. And after my solo trip around the lake 2 days ago, I can safely say that I'm not having any buyer's remorse.  It's still at the mechanic, more bugs to work out, hopefully we get that resolved soon. There is a leak, neither of us can find it.  He filled the entire hull up with water after I left it there and said nothing was coming out anywhere.  Water's going in but not coming back out? Weird.  He said he was going to hoist the boat off of the trailer to see if there is perhaps an opening where the boat sits on those carpet covered slats. 

As for the missing brownsville trip on my previous pay?  If I hadn't tracked down the problem, I would have never gotten paid that money.  $1,261.93 of money that would have just poof - disappeared.  They flat out paid the wrong driver for my trip.  I was certain of it after I saw the settlement sheet.  It had my detention pay, it had my breakdown pay in Harlingen for the trailer that came up from mexico that had been placed out of service, it listed my layover  - 10 hour break - in Combes, TExas where I had decided to spend the  night (not far from the facility where the trailer was repaired) it allllll matched up including the trip number.  It's a farce that I have to keep track of every single, payable movement I do with the company, but if I don't do it, I get screwed over.  This has been going on since I started at the company, yes, but it got worse after we merged to the giant corporation. 

Stuff pisses me off, really. Why can't these people get their shit together?  Why do drivers have to do their own investigations to find out what's happening to pay? Why are they missing ENTIRE runs - which has happened several times in the past - or now, mixing my pay up with someone else? And omitting entire sums of detention pay.  I call that pure and utter incompetence.  Ugh. This stuff really gets me fired up.  I've spent 2 days on this now, it's just disconcerting that if I hadn't of found this, not only would I have gotten shafted for that pay, another driver would have gotten away with taking it from me! Not that the other driver had anything to do with this, but he should have realized that he had received far more pay than he should have on the last paycheck.  I'm expecting that this money is added to my pay this week.  And now, this week's pay looks short as well. The pay is on one web site, the settlement sheets are sent via email. Those sheets have not been sent  yet - the get sent to me sometime today, I'll be researching that immediately. 

So what are they going to do with this other driver who got my pay?  I'll tell ya: they'll take it out of his next paycheck.  Which will probably piss the other driver off, but that's the breaks.  You shouldn't expect to keep pay that you didn't earn, I know I wouldn't. 

Soooo tempting.  Southwest airlines has round trip airfare for $200!  For the dates I want!  But it means driving to dallas.  Now that  is savings I would consider driving to dallas for.  Prepurchase cheaper parking - namely at a local hotel that has paid parking for the airport even if you don't stay at the hotel and has a free shuttle to the airport.  2 checked bags free.  American has no checked bags free and is rather pricey on their checked bags, I think the first one is $25 - each way. So that's $50 saved plus $150 minimum saved on the flight, that's $200 savings and then remove from that savings fuel to the airport and the parking fees.  Further tempting the deal, it has departure times for both flights that I am very much in love with.  Not red eye flights, either.  I pretty much resolved a long time ago I wouldn't do any more red eyes unless the deal was just too great to pass up or some sort of emergency that I needed to fly out for. 

I'm going to sit here and look for more deals, tho. I'd far prefer not to drive to Dallas Loves Field or DFW, which is even further away. 

Unfortunately for the other driver, I just received word: My missing pay will be added to tomorrow's paycheck and his paycheck will have that entire amount deducted from it.

Uggh. A trip to Walmart today.  I'm completely out of dog food and it's the only place with the large bags of Iams around here and at reasonable prices.  Really do NOT like going to Walmart!

G'day. 

Tuesday evening.
I made it back from Brownsville at around midnight Sunday, not home til' around 1 am.

I've been home ever since.  I gave the Cheniere load up to someone else who wanted it.  I didn't know if I would be able to make it in time because of the holdup in Brownsville, I don't want to do Cheniere, I used it as an excuse to get out of it - but I would have done it if it came down to it.  Even sitting for 3 days as of tomorrow, I don't regret not going.  My last Brownsville run is a week's pay, I'll relax and take it easy. 

Yesterday, the boat mechanic - who is actually a 4 wheeler specialist - called and asked if I still wanted to get my Polaris fixed?  Yup. He alluded to fixing it "sometime", I knew he wanted the work, I want the thing fixed, so I just said, cool, I'd bring it now but it's way too heavy for me push that dead thing up the ramps onto the trailer.  He said he'd come help me push it up and if I am not using the trailer, he can just haul it back to his house.  Fine by me, I know where he lives, he doesn't come across as a dishonest person - at all. 

He already went to buy the parts to fix it, apparently. Meanwhile, I was determined to get that boat out on the lake today!  I put the battery charger on the battery in the boat to make sure it was fully charged, got the new tags on the sides of it, got it all ready and headed out to the nearest lake - Brandy Branch Reservoir.  It's only 11 miles away. This man made lake is actually a giant pool of water used for cooling the power plant.  The water is much warmer than any natural lake you would encounter.  I know cause' today was my first solo attempt at launching and capturing a boat onto a trailer. I didn't have the trailer positioned quite right and ended up walking into the water to get at the strap that holds the boat onto the trailer. 

Besides that, tho, it was an easy affair, I had a rope, shoved the boat off of the trailer, it floated out into the water, got it past the side rails on the trailer, pulled it to shore hard to get it stuck in the sand, pulled the SUV up to the parking area, came back, fired the thing up and away we go!  I can admit right now I had very little confidence in my ability to pilot a boat. There were only 3 other vehicles with empty trailers in the parking lot, none of them anywhere in sight.  So, at least I had the ramp to myself - well, take that back - a boat came in when I arrived. I just sat there and waited for them to come to the ramp, get out, get their vehicle, load their boat and get out of the way. 

I'm in no hurry to make a fool of myself in front of everyone. I've seen enough videos of people just sitting at launch ramps watching everyone launching or capturing their boats, waiting for someone - that doesn't know what they're doing like me - to get them on a Youtube video.  It's whatever, they want to do that, fine, it's in public, but it really just kind of adds more stress to the situation as far as I'm concerned. It isn't rocket science, but it's also nothing I've ever done before. 

Lol, at least the motor fired up - after getting the battery connections tightened down again.  Whoever set that stuff up did a funky job on it, something I'm going to fix after I get the thing back from the mechanic.  Look, I haven't piloted boat since I was a teenager and that was sailboat with no motor.  Just a little - interesting - and very glad no one in sight out there.  I got it out of the no-wake zone, got the thing up to speed but the bow went way up and the back went wayyyyy down.  Tilt/trim!  The motor move up and down, I had it up too high, brought it down and then the bow came down. 

I cruised out there for around 45 minutes, mostly going in a giant circle  And keeping an eye on the amount of water coming into the hull.  The bilge pump failed - brand new, worked the day before in my front yard - so it was filling up fast.  But, I kept flying around in circles, then took it back to the ramp. Not to get the boat out of the water, but to see if it would idle - not to mention I had to use the restroom - which it did, but rather rough. Cruising out on the lake, it was purring.  I went back out for another 20 minutes, decided the hull was as full of water as I was willing to risk it, went back to the ramp, shored the boat, got the trailer into the water and then, tried to fire up the boat.

It simply wouldn't start - for several minutes anyway.  Put the thing in reverse and then floated it up onto the trailer.  Easy enough.  And took it back to the mechanic. 

Ohh, forgot the part about coming into the "No Wake" zone and unintentionally causing a huge wake coming in there too fast.  I really thought I was going slow enough, lol.  There was no one there, so no one to offend on boating rules.  This is why I chose that lake, even if there's a bunch of vehicles in the parking lot, there isn't anyone around, or if there is, very few people and minding their own business.  I just thought it would be foolish to start out at a busy ramp, on a busy lake, not having any navigational skills.  I will be taking it back out on that lake at least a couple of times after we get this all figured out to try and learn some maneuvers and how to get the boat stopped quickly if necessary, just getting a feel for it. 

Anyway, the mechanic called me after I left it there saying he thinks it's the spark plugs and we should try that route.  Fair enough, tho I think it's more likely a fuel issue.  However, my ignorance of boats has no limits. I didn't know that all outboard motors are 2 strokes.  At least as far as I have been able to ascertain. I didn't know the exhaust on them is out the opening where the prop is.  I thought that was really strange, lmao. 

Well, anyway, tomorrow off. That's 3 days in a row.  I pretty much thought we would still be in a funk with work, despite another driver's assurances that work was picking up.  Had my doubts. 

Not sure what I'll do tomorrow since the boat is back at the shop - I'd go get my fishing license, fishing gear and whatever else I need and spend half the day fishing tomorrow. The back of the property here is ridiculous.  It's time to clean it up.  That's likely what I'm going to do. 

With that, I'm outta here. 

Saturday morning, 8:06 am. Sitting at the Residence Inn - my favorite hotel.  They're just so nice, luxuriously appointed rooms, quiet (if you get a room in the back of the property away from traffic), no one banging doors and parading up and down noisy hallways, just doesn't happen here.  Got a very good night's sleep as well, which is what I was looking for after the previous night's fitful sleep that left me tired, driving all day long yesterday.  This one isn't free tho, they did away with the free hotel stays on the first night when we merged with that other company.

3 hours of detention pay will pay for this room, I'm good with it. Actually, I can get them to get me room, but then they will not pay detention if they are paying for the room.  The merger caused a few things to go away that were nice perks, this was one of them. We also used to get every single hour we're here paid for detention, now we get 14 hours, the remaining 10 is free.  I'm not going to complain, I'm still making great money and I'll take 14 hours of detention over nothing, which is what a lot of trucking companies pay for waiting.

Ongoing situations.  This teenaged adult living at the other house is really getting on my nerves.  He said he had gotten his state issued ID, that turned out to be a lie.  He went there, got the form and was told he needed mail in his name to verify he has a Texas address.  What he told us was that he gotten the ID - and then yesterday tried to claim "not really".  The issue - he has no job. He literally stays up alllllllll night long, every single night, playing video games.  We're back to square one with his lack of motivation.  I literally blasted him for lying and told him if he doesn't get a job within the next week, he can play alllll the video games he wants this month, cause' at the end of the month? You're gone. 

So basically, he has sat on his @$$ this entire week, doing absolutely nothing but playing those stupid freaking games.  His game habit is apparently more important to him than his living situation. He apparently needs to find out the hard way what it's like to live on the streets.  My mother kicked me out on to the street when I was 19 - I hated it then but it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.  I have no qualms doing this to him, I'll be his surrogate father and simply do what his parents refuse to do. Kick him out. 

Maria: Her birthday was on Halloween! and I just happened to stay that night since the trailer wasn't loaded, so I went back to her house to get the dogs but sat around chatting for a while.  She had her rotisserie going with a whole chicken on it.  Nice.  But it was far from done and it was like night time.  So I thought, why not just take her out on her birthday? No, I'm not looking for a relationship, just friends.  She jumped all over that.  I said whatever place you want to go to, the other thing is to keep in town here.  I gave her a partial list of the better places in town, she opted for Chili's.  Good choice.  So we went, I had a beer, she had whatever it was she ordered, then food, then her son texted her.

Wishing her happy birthday and such, she told him I had taken her to Chili's for her birthday. That went on for a while and then she finished that conversation. About 15 minutes later, this man shows up at the bar and Maria's jaw dropped.  Who is this? I asked with interest.  That's my son!  He surprised me by coming on my birthday!  She literally did not know he was coming, total surprise.  We hung out there for quite a while chatting, cool dude, interesting person to talk with.  They went home in his truck, I went back for the dogs and went home and went to bed. It was a good day after all was said and done.

I half wish I were home right now.  I would be making plans to take the boat out onto the lake and test it out.  Well, take that back, still need to put that new bimimi top on it and also just want to run it for a while in the yard and see if it's going to idle - like it wasn't on the lake.  If it will idle for 10 or so minutes, then I'll take it out there and give her a whirl.  No fishing, just a test run.  Well, if I get out of here today and back tonight, I can at least try and get the top on it tomorrow. I have a run on Monday going to Cheniere, but Sunday is open and free. 

Well I have 3-1/2 hours left remaining in  here. There is another driver at the  yard, he said he would let me know if an empty shows up. 

OHHH, this other driver. Not the one at the yard, but a different one.  2 days ago, I was driving back up from Houston. It's the "split run" they now call it where you load one day and go down the next.  Or, you can go down the same day, which is what I did, and come back up the next.  Anyway, I was at a Dickie's BBQ joint - awesome smoked meats, they put them in the smoker and leave them in there at 175 temperature for 16 hours - pulling back out after getting lunch.  Very busy highway, I had to wait for a while for an opening to get out there. But while waiting, another of our drivers passed by, honking his horn, I waved at him.  He was fully a half mile ahead of me by the time I got out of that driveway.

I caught up to him, passed him and kept on going.  Thought nothing of it.  Got well ahead of him, to the point of being out of sight, before I got off the highway and stopped at the Love's in Lufkin to top off my tanks.

He didn't stop for fuel and beat me back to the yard.  When I walked into the office, he came in behind me and started ragging on me, I mean, blasting me for having had passed him.  I looked at him and asked him what his major issue was? I am in NO mood for this bs, you need to get out of my face.  I didn't say it nicely, either, since he was all upset over - nothing - and going off on me.  He shut his mouth after I said that. 

So yesterday, his friend called me - this is another of our drivers. THIS guy is cool, we talk occasionally on the phone about work and non-work related things.  He was laughing and said Rick - the "offended driver", wanted me to call you and tell you about yourself about having had passed him.  He was joking tho, he said him and another friend - there is a group of 3 of them that came over to this company from another they were all working at - listened to Rick's story and then asked him why he was so upset and angry over Ben passing you? 

Apparently this dude had a problem articulating any reasonable argument why someone shouldn't pass him, even if from the same company. There is no unwritten code saying we shouldn't do that. There is certainly no company rule about it, why should there be? WHO CARES.  If another driver passed me, I would think, more power to you!  Some of these trucks are faster than others, I just happen to be in one of the faster trucks. 

So then, several hours later, the cool guy - Preacher is his nickname - got on the group chat for the company and asked if anyone wanted a trailer preloaded? His load had cancelled and he would be off for 3 days.  Ouch.  The load that cancelled was a Brownsville run to boot.  That's bad news, Brownsville has been keeping us working for the last few months, without it, we totally sink.  Then he said the other driver - Rick - also was looking to preload if anyone wanted.  It's worth a little less than $200. The company pays you 200 miles driving for doing it, plus the stop pay, plus any detention time. Maybe 3 or 4 hours of work and you make at least a little money. 

So, I thought, why not?  I will be low on hours when I try to come in there Monday - unless I sit here in Brownsville another night, highly doubtful but you never know - I'll let him preload my trailer, I won't have to get up early, he can make a little money and I will still get most of the money I would have gotten without the loading stuff.  So, Preacher calls me - what time? - after I said on group chat, sure you can mine if Ann (our manager) is okay with it. She got on there and said she had no problem at all and said anyone else wanting to was ok to do it as well. 

Then he found out conflict with another load he had already agreed to preload.  So, I said oh well, guess that's nixed. He called back 20 minutes later - Rick - the dude with anger issues - said he would preload my trailer. Do you want to call him? Umm, no, but he can do it I guess. The dude owes me an apology tho.   Okay, do you want to send the info to him? Nope, I'll send it to you, you can deliver it to him.  So, Monday morning's load is covered for loading it anyway. I won't have to be to the yard until 11:00 am, I think.

But disconcerting about Brownsville. That plant down there in Altamira has issues from time to time and shuts down. A day, a week, several days, who knows.  It shuts down, we don't get that work.  Baker is firing back up this week, a good thing I guess, better than nothing at all.  If Baker AND Brownsville running at full steam? The only time off I'll have will be 34 hour resets.  I'm good with that for a while anyway.  Get my checking account caught back up.  They let several people go back into the system - these were "call out" drivers that came to help us. All of them didn't want to leave, all of them want transferred over.  I'm guessing she'll call them back if we pick up again. We cannot afford to not cover every single load, no matter how "bad" it is. If we do, customers dump us and contract out to our new competition that fired up a year or so ago. 

Well, I'm getting offa here.  I have 3 hours left to enjoy peace and quiet.  I don't even want the TV on, just want to soak in the essence  of being alone in a very nice hotel property. 

G'day. 

Interesting day.
Well, last night-  got to Houston.  I wasn't going to be getting up at 2am to get down to Houston on time to deliver.  I was down there last night at a truckstop 4 miles away from the plant.  This morning? My version of cold.  41 degrees, high winds, enough to make me cold.

The scenario this morning was funny, at least in my view and posted on my Facebook page, so no need to go into it here.

Anyway, my manager was telling me yesterday that I will probably have to take a load out tomorrow - today - when I get back.  Okkkkkk.   I mean, I don't say anything about not wanting to take loads, I just take them whether I want to take it or not.  I don't want to be identified as anyone on her s***list.  We can, actually, refuse a load if we don't want to take it.  Not a good idea tho!

Anyway, today is Maria's birthday.  I found that out via Facebook - which always tells you about birthdays.  Maria is basically running the other house here.  So I wished her a happy birthday via text.  Getting back to the yard, the trailer wasn't there.  I headed to the other house - rent check due tomorrow, wanted to get that dealt with. Went home, took a shower and drove clear back over to the yard.  And then? Found out that the plant was behind and the driver that was pre-loading for me had reported that they had just started loading the trailer.

Well that's 2 hours at least by the time he gets out of there. I left, back to my town again. Lots of driving. 2 trips to my town were 140  miles.  Anyway, I went back to Maria;s - my other house basically - to get the dogs and spend a  night with me at least. But sitting there with maria, she had  a rotisserie chicken going, had asked if I wanted birthday dinner with her? Of course! But, that chicken wasn't going to be done for quite a while and wanted to get on with the day.  I have to get up early and get to the yard, hook up to that preloaded trailer and get on down the road to Brownsville.

So I casually threw in the conversation " we should just go out to eat". She was all over that.  I mean, no question about it, let's go !  So she decided to go to Chili's. We got there, ordered her a drink - she's a very light drinker type of thing - and got to discussing all kinds of thing, when her phone got her attention.

Her son! Wishing her a happy birthday and light talk.  He asked where she was at and she said at chili's, I had taken her out for her birthday and she was enjoying her time out.  That's how that conversation went and the call eventually ended.  We started talking again - I had no problems her talking to her son - and maybe 10 minutes later? This dude comes and sits down next to me, looking at Maria, who got this look on her face. 

So this dude started talking to her out of familiarity, I had no clue?  It was her son! Who was talking to her as if he was still at home in Houston! How cool?!! He drove a few hundred miles to show up unexpected for her birthday! She was totally elated, he is very cool, we spoke at length. I bought him dinner as well - he's freshly married, they spent their money lol. 

Great night, glad I was here for it.  Glad I helped it along, Maria had not knowledge of his arrival and I certainly didn't either.  Very nice. So, maria went home with him, I went over there to get my dogs - I'll take them even if only a night and up early - and that was that.  But yes, I'm up and out of here early in the morning. 

Down to Brownsville - very happy I'm not spending the night on the road, don't care if the plant had issues and that is why I am still here, good day.

And, g'nite.  : )

Welp, that worked, at least temporarily.
They put $250 on the card reader for the electricity this month - I checked. I will  be checking from now on.  Putting the money on there or not will direct how I proceed with them from now on.  You don't just give yourself a cut on the rent because - I dunno - without even discussing it with the home owner?  I'm telling you, I've had thoughts of selling the place and washing my hands of it.  But for now, I'll keep the situation as it currently stands.  There is no way for me to find anyone else to run the house - I'm not there to find such a person or couple. Regardless, I was happy to see the full amount on there.  I told them flat out that there will be no electricity payment taken out of the rent this month. Meaning, they aren't withholding money from the other renters to pay for it. THEY will be paying for it, period.  There's enough on there now to last 52 days, according to the forecast on the SRP site.

Of course, because we're going into winter.  The AC doesn't have to be on at all at the moment, it's very nice in Phoenix, AZ.  Currently 57 degrees according to The Weather Channel, I guess they may be turning on the heat, but that won't consume near as much electricity as the AC does during the summer. 

I'm planning a visit back, just not sure when. Likely not Thanksgiving or Christmas, somewhere in between. I would very much like to spend Christmas with my adopted family where I live this year. I don't want to be out on the road such as last year, sitting in well below freezing temperatures in a town that was virtually shut down besides the hotels. 

I'm currently sitting at a truck stop in Houston Texas.  I was given this gem yesterday, which I didn't mind since I have 2 Brownsville runs going on the pay period that this run will coincide with.  It's a 2 day run that used to be 1 day.  They "split" it, meaning you load one day and deliver the next, even tho we could load the same day, drive down, offload and drive back the same day. I don't understand why the customer changed it, I don't care.  Just do it and get it over with. At least on split trips, you get 200 miles driving for free on the day you load the truck. Yup, you get paid for driving you don't do. 

I was originally supposed to load at 9:00 am.  Then, my manager texted saying it had been changed to 2:30 pm.  Why? Because the plant had determined that 3 truckloads of Ethylene loaded the previous day were non-compliant for quality and had to be offloaded and reloaded.  Lol.  That doesn't happen often, thankfully ,but it completely changed my plans. I had originally planned to load the truck and go home and get stuff done. With the change, I decided to just drive down here today after loading, there is literally no sense in going home and then having to get up at the wee hours of the morning to drive down here.  My home time is important to me, but this getting up at 2 am nonsense is for the birds. 

Instead, I woke up out of deep sleep this morning at 7:40 am - I went to bed at 10:00 pm the previous night, got up instantly and determined that I would go get the boat, get a haircut (my hair, since turning grey and partially white, is course, stiff and completely unmanageable after it grows out even a week after getting it cut - go to the store and get some chicken wings and whatever else I needed to do.  The boat is, allegedly, lake-worthy.  I dunno. I dumped it in the front yard, put the hitch lock on it - LOTS of thieves come through our neighborhood - and left.  I have stuff to do, the boat can wait.  They don't care if I dump it in the front yard temporarily - Taylor wants to get on that thing and ride it on the lake.  I do too, but it looks like that might not be in the next several days.

I was at the yard, getting the truck ready this afternoon, when my manager asked me if  I was going to be back by 1:30 tomorrow?  I had to think about it.  There are too many variables to give any kind of guaranteed arrival time.  I knew what she was getting at before she said it, cause' she only asks that if there is a load she needs me to take.  I go through the thought process and then add an hour to it.  Probably 2:30 to 3:00 pm tomorrow afternoon.  Well I have a 1:30 load appointment for a Brownsville run.  I'd love to take it, I thought, but I can't tell her I'm going to be back there in time? No. I got here at 9:19, I have to take a 10 hour break (bs, HOS rules need to be changed), so I can leave here - this pay to stay truck stop (I rarely pay to park anywhere, but I'm unfamiliar with this area and I wanted to be close to the plant), at 7:30, be there at 7:45, 2 hours to offload - that's "about" how long it takes, it could take longer or be shorter period of time - 4 hours back up - again, approximating, if there is a traffic delay, a tire blowout, etc, ad infintum - who knows? - plus fueling, gets me around 2:15 to 2:30 arrival time. 

I'll take the run! Yes, but you might want to find another driver - already knowing she's asking me because - she doesn't have another driver available - maybe a driver will show up in time?  Not my problem.  And, I won't have time to go very far if I do get the run, after 2 hours offloading, 4 plus hours going back up and then 2 to 3 hours at the plant - leaves me 5 to 6 hours driving time. That would work for me, tho, get through Houston when there's no traffic jams. 

She eventually said, in that conversation on the phone - that she would keep me "in mind" if nothing else works out. I'm preparing myself mentally that nothing else will  work out because when she makes these types of calls, she has a run that needs to be covered and there isn't anyone else available. 

Onto other things.  The "boy" has the full rent for next month now. Apparently mama is helping him once again - but that would likely have not happened if fully 3 of us hadn't gotten all over his case about not already not only finding a job, but getting a state issued ID and a food handler's card.  His parents have no bearing on his mindset, we the people that have to put up with his shit - do.  We aren't his parents, we aren't related and we aren't going to just, what, give him a pass? Hey, you can sit on the 2 grand computer that your parents gave you that you play with  alll day and night, eat our food and not pay rent? He's had a dose of reality delivered to him in no uncertain terms from fully 3 of us: me, Maria and James who went over there and told him what fun it is to dumpster dive for food and the rest of what homelessness and poverty is like.

I just prodded the boy 3 times in text messaging about his alleged job at McDonald's.  I'm not letting this shit go, if he wants to live there, his ass is  going to work.  Period.  Or get OUT.  Yes it's 11 pm and yes, he stays up half the night playing those damned games.  This boy claims that McDonald's - the place where he was allegedly given a job providing he gets the required documentation - they didn't answer the phone after calling twice? LMAO, Ima call him out on that bs.

Whatever.  It is what it is, I'll deal with this "kid" and he'll get his act together or not. Ima send yet another person over there who expressed interest in talking to him, an ex Marine. He'll hate his parents, I guess, for finding this wonderful place to live?  Maybe. Now anyway. Later on in life, perhaps a different perspective. There's bills to pay, they don't stop because you don't want to work, sorry, thanks, have a nice life. 

There's a lot more, actually, but it's getting late and I want to get a good night's sleep. 7 hours worth anyway.  Might be a long day tomorrow if I get assigned to load tomorrow after getting back. 

But! I can say I am now very happy I can tether my phone to the computer - what I'm doing now - unlimited and not have to worry about it!  Yeehaw! 

G'nite.

Yesterday, I felt literally like hell.  Got up at 4:00 am, dragged my @$$ out of bed, dragged myself to work. By the time I was in the truck and driving to the plant to get loaded, I felt like dying.  Sitting in the driver area over there, I just slept.  I couldn't figure out how I would make it through the day feeling like that.  I guess the extra sleep at the plant did it?  I dunno, but after I finally left there, I started feeling much better.

It was Sunday, so driving down to Brownsville - especially through Houston - was much easier than normal.  Upon arrival at the yard in Brownsville, I only saw one of our trailers there and it was hooked up to one of their trucks.  I walked around it and couldn't see anything wrong with it - they had it backed up to the mechanic shop. But it was dark so who knows.  I went to the Love's and spent the night there, coming back this morning and still seeing the truck unmoved. 

However, this morning was daylight and I could see the giant orange sticker on the side of the trailer. It was a Federal DOT Out Of Service placard.  Those aren't any fun to get, I wondered if they issued the driver a citation.  It said upper coupling bolts loose.  So I got underneath there. Looking the bolts? You couldn't tell they were loose. It isn't any part of a pre trip or post trip inspection to inspect bolts by grabbing a hold of them. If we had to do that we'd spend hours doing inspections.  That's not something you expect to happen, either. 

But sure enough, those bolts twisted easily, they weren't even tight.  Now, look at the picture. These bolts hold the king pin plate to the trailer.  That plate rests on the 5th wheel while doing down the road. If that plate were to come off of there - whoosh - there goes the trailer right along with it!  I've seen the aftermath of trailers coming off of tractors while going down the road - NO THANKS.  So, I  of course got dumped with this project - there were two other drivers in the yard, but it's whatever.  I had almost 14 hours of detention pay going at that point and then? I got to start the break down pay clock. I'm getting close to 6 hours of that. They have been working on it all day long. The bolts had to be cut out of there with a disc, the bottoms of the studs were ruined from being loose and couldn't get a wrench on it to hold it while turning the nut on the top. 

It's whatever to me - I'll be getting about 1 and 3/4 days' worth of detention and breakdown pay for the waiting, I'm fine.  I won't get home tonight, but with all that extra pay, who cares?  I don't.  My dogs are fine, the boat mechanic will just have to wait an extra day, sorry, but he knows I'm a truck driver and my hours aren't like normal people's lives.  I already paid him for all the work he initially did, I only owe him another hundred bucks anyway.

So that's my excitement. 

The boy at  the other house has gotten the message, apparently.  I gave several of them to him in no uncertain terms: You will go find a job or you will be out on the streets.  He went to McDonald's, who said they would hire him, but he has to get some paperwork first. His food handler's card and a state issued ID.  I can see not having the food handler's card, but not having a state ID? He's 18 years old, for crying out loud, how do you even function without ID?  No driver's license, no motivation in life.  Well, he got motivated. Between my messages and James actually going over there and talking to him about eating out of dumpsters and living on the streets.  He claims he got his food handlers class done today - you do it online.

And then he says he is going to the bank with his mom to get money and then to the DL office to get an ID.  He won't have the full rent at the beginning of the month, he'll have half of it.  I did not agree to it unless he got moving, quick, and got a job. There are all kinds of fast food places in our town, they are all hiring.  Low paying job? Yes of course it is. You have to start out somewhere.  Part time? They all are.  Fast food doesn't hire full time excepting for management.  Even at 20 hours per week he could make the rent and have some left over.  His entire life revolves around video games, period.  He'll need money for food tho.  I don't know what to expect here, he has not work ethic whatsoever.  How long will he last at McDonald's?  Well, I'ma tell him if he quits or doesn't try to make his supervisors happy, he's gone.  Gone as in out of the house.  I'm not paying his way, thanks.  He had PLENTY of time to go look for a job and he spent all of it playing video games and sleeping.

Where the rubber meets the road is where I"m paying his portion of the house bills - no thanks. I had to "force" him to get OUT of the house and go down the road and start applying at places in person. That online stuff doesn't work with fast food, they want to see how you look, smell and act. 

Between Maria and I, well, we kind of had no choice. "Help" him along or get rid of him.  Our help turned to tough love type of stuff.  His parents are to blame for all of this, I really put all of this squarely on their feet. And then dumping him off on other people to deal with their lack of his upbringing - and lying about all of it to Maria.  I do not ever want to meet them.  If I do, I will have some choice words to give them.  They can try to explain it all away, but they taught absolutely nothing about adult life, maturing or preparing him for going it alone. NOTHING.  He knows NOTHING about running a house, cleaning, laundry, cooking, etc etc etc. 

THOSE people annoy me greatly.  I'd just rather never run into them, because if I do, it's going to get ugly in a fast hurry. 

Well, I can hear them hitting the new bolts into place, that means - hopefully - I can leave soon.  Maybe make it close to Houston at least before I have to stop for the night.  I'm ready to get out of here and start driving at least for 4 or 5 hours. However much is left on the clock. 

g'day. 

Saturday night.
Not feeling that great this morning, I decided to not only sleep in, but also do much of nothing today. The weather has cooled considerably.  My boat? Can wait.  I figured I have at least 3 days off, I can put it off until tomorrow. 

So, I visited the cop neighbor for several hours - he texted me "porch, smoke?"  That's sit on his porch and smoke a cigar.  James came over too.  For a cop, he's a pretty cool person, tho his main job is banker at this point.

Anyway, back to the house and took a long nap, Addler laying at my side of course.  I won't sleep at night with him cause' he moves around too much and wakes me up, but I can take naps. 

Getting up from that - and hanging out with James, I decided I just didn't want to make dinner.  I'm highly unmotivated right now, everything and anything that takes energy I could care less about.  James took over. Amazingly, after working in restaurants half his life growing up in a family that had it's own restaurant - he has never cooked spaghetti in his entire life.  I was amazed, lol. 

It's easy.  Brown the ground beef and spicy sausage, drain it well, mix in the spaghetti sauce and let it simmer. I do more than that, but that's good enough to have a decent outcome. He already knew how to make the pasta so relatively painless.  I couldn't have any pasta, however, but I found an idea of using sliced up cabbage instead, which sounded intriguing.

It was amazing good. Not as good as pasta, but a nice substitute.  Remember, I'm still doing the Keto diet. Low carb.  I don't know how long I will stay on the diet. I'm neither losing any more weight nor am I gaining it back. I really need to get motivated to get back the gym, but I've found that unbelievably difficult to do. Considering I spent my life working out, you'd think that would be easy, but it's not.

Going into this evening - company over.  One person is doing a sleepover with Taylor - girl's night in, but then the other couple came over as well.  They wanted me to join them for the fire they are going to build - pass.  Why? Cause my manager called me half an hour ago - it's almost 9:00 pm - can you take Dusty's load out tomorrow?  Uhh, sure (I guess, thinking not saying).  Where was he going? Brownsville.  Ugh.  I really don't feel like driving tomorrow and the next day, but this trip coupled with the other one I just did would make a healthy paycheck, I didn't have to think about it, I just said sure!

I'm "sure" I'll pay for it tomorrow morning getting up at 4:00 am.  My mind isn't anything even remotely close to being in work mode. I figured minimum 3 days off, probably 4.  It's just that I have to get my mind into work mode and getting that kind of news this late? Kind of hard, especially when company is over and people I know and like to hang out with. 

It's whatever tho. I need the money,  I wasn't going to be getting another run before the pay period ended, have to do it.  I have a bit more to spend on the boat to pay the mechanic - only $100 - and then there is stuff I need to buy for the boat if we are actually going to use it during the winter time.  Which I will be taking it out on the lake at least a few times to ensure that it both runs and isn't going to sink.  Sinking being the operative word, gag. 

Well, time to go to bed lol.

2 day trip.  Saw 2 trucks coming back up so I thought for sure that there would be no empties in the yard in Brownsville when I got there.

I thought wrong.  There was one sitting there.  I didn't stick around for it, tho, I dropped the loaded trailer, turned in the paperwork and headed up to the truckstop.  Figured I would rather be near a bathroom and also if the second driver came in the yard and wanted to leave, well there it is! I dunno who the second driver was, but I came back to the yard this morning at around 6:30 am. He had dropped his loaded trailer and left, also - without the empty.

I wanted the detention pay, but I wasn't getting it this time. Hooked up to it and drug it out of there, drove all day long and got home around 7:00 pm. Maybe it was later? I dunno because when I got to Maria's, we had a discussion with the boy about the rent.  I want it on the first or you can go.  Mama and papa aren't covering his ass anymore, I am not paying for dead weight. He literally sits on his computer playing video games all night long.  I gave him straight, full doses of life reality medicine. I'ma give him more tomorrow:  Get up off your ass and go find a freaking job.  Period.  Or be prepared to leave on the 1st.  The 1st is coming fast.  I'm done with this, letting him in there wasn't my choice but getting him out of there  is my choice.  He isn't helping himself, he says he puts in applications on line, screw that. We're talking minimum wage jobs, they want you to show up and expose your face to them so they can see if you're material for dealing with their customers. 

I'm telling you, 8 am I'm texting him: are you leaving yet?  Go find a job, today.  Period.  No more excuses.  Other than that, find the money to pay the rent on the 1st.  Other than that, be prepared to leave.  He's gonna be SOL, his parents aren't doing it with him anymore and I have no desire to help a person that isn't motivated to help themselves.  That crosses my line, he can go live under a bridge for a while and figure out life the hard way. 

What day is it? Hump Day! And what am I doing? Nothing! Why? ?Because it's my 4th day off of work!
I didn't ask for all this time off, I knew I would be off several days after seeing the schedule, knowing a full day had no loads going out and seeing how many trucks were in the yard when I arrived late Saturday night.

But I didn't know it would be 4, full days.  I even texted my manager yesterday morning about getting a load out of here for today, nope, not today.  At least she didn't threaten me with going on call out - tho I worded the text as to not be "offensive" in any way, shape or form, for she is a very-easily offended person that goes off when she feels a driver is complaining. I've seen her do it to me and I've seen it  and heard about  it multiple times with other drivers.  It's a "don't like it, leave" attitude.  I like it well enough, for the moment anyway, to just say nothing, which I haven't done in months now.

And have coached other drivers recently to simply zip it, you aren't doing yourself any favors.  You can point out real, credible, factual issues with the way she hands out the loads and she isn't going to hear any of it, she will blast you out of her office.  THAT is a fact.  When you come to the realization that she is unapproachable in her methodology - unfair at best, perhaps even playing favorites, who knows - you just have to decide whether you want to stick around or go find another job. 

Frankly, I would have gone on a trip back to Phoenix starting 2 days ago - but I am still recovering from this illness and preparing myself for the possibility of another one.  I had a head and chest cold, what is now going around the house is a stomach bug.  They tried to blame that on me, nooooo nooooo nooooo, I'm not taking responsibility for that. I never had anything going on with my stomach during this illness, it was all in the head and chest.  But, germs spread about the house with kids running around, it seems as tho it's only a 24 hour thing, I'm hoping not to get it at all but bracing myself for the potential of round 2.

Funny the things that happen when you get your credit score turned around.  Credit offers galore.  Low interest loans,  highfalutin credit card offers - guaranteed in several instances - that you'd never thought you would acquire in your entire lifetime by applying on your own for one, much less have them sending these offers to you in the mail, new car loans, guaranteed line of credit up to "$340,000" for a new home all coming all the time.  Fortunately, I learned my lesson about getting into credit trouble. I have a bit on a few cards at the moment, stuff that will be paid down in a couple of months, not 10 years.  I put some on them, pay them off and then do it again. Some of them have excellent reward programs, which are the only ones I  am using. The rest of them sit in limbo and aren't used at all.  I'd get rid of them - but they have no annual fees and they keep the amount of credit available way high, unused, which is very good for your credit score.  I've become my own "expert" in credit scores after going through the ringer with them.  Credit scores remind me of the movie "A Christmas Carol" where Scrooge says that the apparitions that are appearing before him could be a bit of unsettled beef in your stomach.  Credit scores are fickle, they move up and down all the time.

Just throwing this out there: I cannot possibly imagine Senator Warren as the next President of the United States. I'd take Biden over her and that is saying something.  I'm a Trump supporter, hoping he will win another 4 years.  I could give numerous reasons why, but I'm not going to waste time with that on here.  I spend enough time in debating groups on Facebook. 

The boat - the mechanic called yesterday. I just let it go. Why pester the man, he'll get it done when he gets it done. He said the timing was off and also put a fuel pump rebuild kit in it - that was by my request for I had seen the diaphragm and it was disfigured and whatever else he did. He also found the cause of the water leaking into the hull of the boat.

Can I just interject here that I've actually had nightmares of the boat sinking in the middle of the lake?  Not because anyone was drowning, I'm a good swimming and these boats all have to have life jackets in them - but watching the thing slowly sink into hundreds of feet of water, unrecoverable - well I guess you could recover it but the cost wouldn't be worth it, money just gone, down the drain. It's what prompted me to have him also install a brand new, high velocity bilge pump in it.  But it also prompted me to ask him to please find the leak.  The only thing left were the water inlets. One to provide water for the live well and the other as an outlet for it, apparently. Water in, water out.  He said he went through the control panel - the only thing that was working on that panel was the bilge pump switch, everything else was dead.  He said he got all the lights and everything on that panel working - except - the live well pump.  I said I don't care, I don't need it for now. 
\
But, he said, he pumped water through the live well inlet and had the boat jacked up - and saw water leaking back out from the outlet hole.  Or inlet hole for air, or whatever, I'm not really sure what he was saying.  Anyway, it's a hole that is below the water line so I would assume an inlet for "something", but maybe an outlet for the live well?  LOL He said it was leaking around the inlet where someone had apparently stripped the threads on the fitting that goes into it and had used what he thought appeared to be roofing tar to seal it back in there?

What the Hercules is that all about?  He asked me whether he wanted me to fix it correctly or put a plug in it and be done with it.  Yup, plug it up for now.  Just please do a good job of plugging it up!  If I'm not using the live well, I have no need for unnecessary inlets.  I have no idea whether he's planning on taking it out again on the water, I do hope so cause' I want to ensure that it's going to actually run and not die out on the lake again.

So, whatever the case, hopefully the thing is given a clean bill of health today - it's been a rather long wait and "adventure", if you can call it that, in trying to get this thing in lake-ready condition.  IF this thing is actually ready, the next thing will be a trolling motor. I don't necessarily think I need one for fishing, I want a back up in case the motor quits in the middle of the lake. 

Well, well, well. I just got the email for this week's paycheck. It's a breakdown they send of what is being paid for what.  2 Brownsville trips, both with ample detention pay  And both?  Actually paid for that detention.  Amazing.  I don't even have to fight for it this time : )  Even with 4 days off, next week will also be a handsome payout, right now? I need to start on the week after. 

Today? A trip to Ollie's - I need a new heater for my bathroom. The one I bought last year never worked right. Come on for a few minutes and then shut off.  That bathroom gets cold in the winter. There is an AC/heat ceiling outlet in there but almost nothing comes out of it.  And I'll probably make some food for the next road trip.  I can't say I "fully expect" a trip tomorrow, but I'd guess it's highly probable.  Another Brownsville trip would work, lol.  It does seem almost unbelievable to me, taking an objective look at my finances, that I have made so much money without being out as much as most other OTR drivers.  Many of them making in the 40 and 50k range and out on the road all the time.  I mean, home once weekly, or bi-weekly or even monthly.  I get this guy from a trucking company texting me allllll the time.  Hi Ben, we talked some time ago, you are in an excellent area for our company as we have shipping lanes going through  your area. You would easily be able t go home weekly.

Yes, well I don't want to go home weekly.  I want home several days a week if possible.  So, there are times when I'm running hard and not home that much, granted.  When that plant in Oklahoma fires back up and gets rolling, we are likely to be very busy.  My luck currently has been one Brownsville trip after another after another.  Hardly any Chenieres, Houston or El Dorado runs. A few of them, to be sure, but not enough, thankfully, to screw up my overall earnings. 

Those companies also run you like a rat in a cage with a spinning wheel.  Been there, done that.  They don't care what hours you have to keep to keep up with their endless new runs they will give you directly after you are done with the current run, or even before you have completed it.  They don't pay near as much money as I'm making now, so again, after giving some actual, objective thought to my current situation, I'd have to say it's a pretty good setup.  It just took a long time to get used to being out for 2, 3, 4 and sometimes longer days at a time. 

Well, enough of this, I've been watching the news all morning and I've had enough of that.  Trump impeachment!  Quid pro quo!  Lynching! Gag.  Time to get out of here and do some running around.

G'day. 

Made it home last night at 1:05 am. 
Amazingly, many drivers take 4 days to do this trip which almost always only takes 2.  I'm not sure how that is advantageous to them to drag out a run that is only a total of 1,168 miles round trip for 4 days.  But I've spoken to 4 of them now that don't understand how other drivers make it down there in one day and back up the next.  Unless, of course, there is detention time making it worth staying down there.

Anyway, upon arrival at the yard last night, Danny - another driver - was in the office making food.  He had just dumped a bunch of cabbage and whatever else into a crockpot and declared that the office was going to stink like cabbage to anyone coming in there the next morning.

Lol.  He had been drinking -heavily  Non of my business, he's a cool person, just drinks a lot.  But we got into discussions about work.  I simply told him and have told others that tho there are some things here that are seriously bad, the pay at least somewhat helps level that out.  I mean, what is the company going to do? Fire every single driver that isn't a perfect little robot driver? They'd have to get rid of almost everyone. They  make various threats to everyone from time to time, but some of it is so vague and broad reaching, it would apply to almost anyone.  In the last 4 straight days of working I've made a nice sum of money. I could take the next 3 days off including today and not worry about 2 paychecks from now.  In fact, I probably will have 3 days off.  Way too many trucks in the yard and too few runs, I doubt I'll be going out on Tuesday. 

Monday is a given no, if I were going out tomorrow, she would have sent that to me on Friday.  No biggies, I'm in recovery mode finally of this sickness. Far from 100% but definitely feeling a lot better. And whatever happened to my hand? Has all but disappeared! Weird. I really don't get that at all.  But since the cold is in remission and the coughing has died down considerably, I'm not going to the doc unless it resurges.

It's Sunday and one thing I'm not doing today? Anything. There is no sense in doing anything that requires physical output when you are trying to recover from a cold. So, Addler was content to cuddle up with me in bed for several hours, we then went outside for a couple of hours - beautiful day, perfect weather, perfect temps - and now back inside and probably going to rest more. 

_______________

Well, my mother's long time companion had to be put down apparently yesterday. Pretty devastating to her.  She got that dog as a project to teach it how to become a service dog.  After a couple of years, the society that it was being done through determined the dog didn't have the right temperament and took the dog back.  They were going to adopt it out.  I remember asking mom why she doesn't just call the and tell them she wants it? So the next thing I knew, she was driving to California to get him. That was many years ago.  The dog was 13, had some sort of spine problem and finally wasn't able to get up.  That's what happened to one of my Danes, tho in that case his hips completely gave out. 

Meanwhile, my brothers are mad at her, tho my middle brother apparently has been starting shit with her for decades. I had no idea until mom just let that information out. She alluded to it a few times, that "You don't know the trouble I've had with him". No, I did not but she wasn't willing to give that info out and I didn't press her on it.  He has, yet again, allegedly written off the family and wants nothing to do with any of us for the rest of our lives.  Good for him. 

This is what they did with my dad. Wrote him completely off and wouldn't talk to him in any type of format. I never really thought they would do this with mom.  She's pretty old at this point, the "winter season" of life.  My oldest brother - no clue.  He believes she called him a liar, I seriously doubt that. He likely read more into what she was saying to him than he should have.  But, that wasn't a conversation that I was privy to.

Whatever.

I'm going to bed, still lacking energy. 

And just like that, I became left-handed almost instantaneously. 
Why?  I have no clue what happened, but a muscle or tendon in my right hand was injured - somehow - and my right hand became jolted with stabbing, intense pain with any use at all. 
This was last night - Friday night.  I thought to go an urgent care but none of them were open that late.  The hospital sounded appealing, to be honest, but I decided to go to sleep instead.

I'm back in Brownsville. I was on my way back up Thursday and got notification from my manager that I needed to get back to the yard that night and go back out - down to Brownsville again - the next morning.  Amazing, haven't had that happen in many, many moons.  Back in the "good ole' days" when we were busting @$$ and moving until we ran out of hours.  Perplexing, tho, because there is really not that much going on.  There was no point in going home at 8:00 pm and having to get up at 5:00 to go back to the yard.  I just spent the night in the truck, meaning out at least 4 days on this round. But that's okay, I had 3 full days off in between last run and 2 full days off between the runs before that.

TBH, I really wanted to go home after that last trip and recover.  Like, lay in bed for several days and try to get past this sickness. I don't think it's the flu, it's just a major head cold that has respiratory congestion.  Meaning coughing, hacking, sneezing, runny nose, all that wonderful stuff.  I tried some off brand stuff - that was what was available at the time - and it didn't work. I found some Mucinex and that made me feel much better.

As for the hand?  Attempting to just put on my clothes, pick up a bag, pull my belt through the loop - all major, searing pain jabs going through my hand. I was at the Love's down here all night long, I decided to take a shower - and found a packet of Alieve in the store, figured to at least try some pain reliever.  Yes, it worked.  I mean, the pain isn't completely gone but it is a huge improvement over what it was. Enough that I can even type without pain. So it's muscle or tendon, I'm guessing, not a bone issue.  Just amazing how something like that can affect your whole life if only temporarily.  Alieve is allegedly 12 hours worth of pain relief, I'm hoping that's actually true.  The packet had 2 of them so I can take another one tonight. 

But really, I might go to medical care down here if I have to wait a long time for a trailer to show up.  I want that hand checked out and whatever meds the doc will give me including steroid shot if applicable to ease this respiratory pain.  There's an urgent care opening soon - but I don't know what kind of equipment those places have? Are they able to take xrays? Cause' I figure that's the only way they can find out what's wrong with my hand.  I'm waiting for the yard guy to show up and give me an idea of what to expect today. They normally will bring up 2 trailers on Saturdays - but at what time who knows.  Yesterday I saw one of our trucks pulling up a trailer from down here - he hadn't made it more than 150 miles - at 5:00 pm, so I know they didn't show up until late with trailers. 

When I got down here, there was one empty, but the driver that had left the plant hours before me? Nowhere to be seen.  I dropped my trailer, left.  Figured I come back this morning, if he shows up before me and takes the empty, all fine and well, I'll get the detention pay since I was here.  Sure enough, he was underneath that empty when I came in here. He said he couldn't understand why he couldn't make it all the way down here last night.  A few explanations - don't stop except when you have to.  Get your fuel and take your 30 minute break at the same place so you don't waste time going into 2 separate places.  Drive like a madman - not fast - but stopping for nothing.  Well, a driving fool is the old terminology for it. 

But, the other factor is his truck is slower than mine.  By 3 miles per hour.  In 10 hours of driving, that's a 30 mile difference, enough to possibly explain why he couldn't make it.  Still, even when I was driving that other truck that only went 64 mph, I always made it down here unless something happened.  I think maybe these drivers lose their time in Houston.  Even if you are "sailing" right through there, it's likely they don't keep their trucks up at full speed.  Just weird. Some other drivers say they never make it down here in one day - but those people stop everywhere and take their sweet ole' time.  If that works for them, great, it doesn't work for me. Get the trip over with, don't drag it out longer than you have to, get more home time.

The other house. The "boy" has been sitting on his @$$ for over 2 weeks, I found out yesterday, not looking for a job and not getting any income. He texted me asking me for "more time" to pay his rent when it comes due on the 1st.  I had no knowledge when he texted me that he hadn't been looking for employment, tho it comes as no shock.  I didn't give him a definitive answer - yet - I was extremely cranky being sick and feeling like hell, I just decided to wait until I feel better. I can be pretty crass and unforgiving when I'm feeling like this.  But even after my head cleared up - the thoughts were: Gee, dude, why haven't you been looking for work all this time, instead, sitting at home playing video games?  Why is it it my responsibility to give you some sort of grace period because of your slothfulness?  I'm sick as hell and still putting in 12 to 14 hour days. This kid is perfectly healthy and sitting around doing nothing?

So, his options are A: pay the rent on time. B: pay the rent on time or C: pay at least half the rent and then incur penalties as the state of Texas legally allows for the late portion of it.  He needs a fire lit under his ass and I will be happy to do that.  This kid - he's 18 not really a kid - doesn't know anything. I mean, how to clean a toilet. Load a dishwasher.  Laundry.  Cook.  You hear Maria detailing what goes on over there and you are left dumbfounded after the conversation.  Like the boy was living in a cave his entire life and just emerged a few months ago to find out what adult life is all about?  I'm certainly glad I didn't raise my boy like that. 

The house in Phoenix. They put $100 on the card reader, but they owe $150 more and I'm not letting that go, either. They never asked to "steal" from me, they never mentioned it, they lied about it and I'm on the warpath as far as that situation is concerned.  She knows she isn't going to get away with it any longer.  If she wants to have a discussion about her finances and ask, I might be more giving in my stance.  But she didn't and still hasn't.  She's described her financial situation, but still never asked me for any help with it. I don't figure $250 a month for a place to live with all of those perks is that much to ask. 

I don't know anything about the boat.  It's over at the mechanics. I've been sick, don't really care at the moment.  Not going boating feeling like this, so it's whatever. I'll wait until he contacts me - or until I feel better, whichever comes first and then ask him about it. 

That's it. Yard guy told me another empty coming within a couple of hours. Might make it home tonight.