As luck would have it, last night, upon arriving at the plant and asking if they would go ahead and let me swap out trailers or would I have to wait until the morning? The plant operator on the phone said, oh,nooo, we'll do it right now.  Note that the load is a day and a half late.  It was supposed to have been there the day before - early after noon.  None of that was any of my doings, of course, between the plant having issues and the other driver's truck breaking down, just the way things go sometimes in the trucking industry. 

So I got that done and then headed out of there.  Limited time on left on the drive clock, I started looking at the app for any available places down the road to park.  It's the way it is now.  If you aren't parked before 6:00 pm or even 5:00 pm - I was at a Love's today that was totally full at 4:30 pm - you are screwed.  Good luck finding any places but those that aren't on the app to park. And those that aren't on the app are usually sh**holes with giant potholes and in the dark, seedy places that you wonder if you are risking your life even going into them.

Anyway, the only place that said there was parking was at the Flying J in Ashgrove, so I went in there and found a couple of spots.  None of them were easy parking - backing in, at an angle.  I freely admit in those situations I get out of the truck once I get the back end of the trailer partially in and see if I'm going to clear the truck on my blindside.  And that I did and saw that I was too close for comfort, so did a couple of pull ups before finally getting it straight in there.  I was actually happy to find that truckstop, Flying J's have Denny's and Denny's has the kind of breakfast I am looking for.

Not long after getting parked  - and it was late, after midnight - a truck straight across from me pulled out to leave.  His trailer smashed the tractor next to him as he was pulling out, doing extensive damage to the passenger side of that truck.  But, this guy not realizing he had hit the truck was moving on.  All kinds of truck horns started sounding.  I was more amazed at how many drivers were not only awake, but obviously sitting in their driver's seat at that time of night.  I mean, I'd be sleeping, thanks.  I do have to admit it is often entertaining watching other drivers attempting to back into those tight holes - it's not easy by any stretch. 

In fact, half hour later - I was sitting there doing paperwork and watching the Sheriff that pulled in do his report on the accident - a driver came in and attempted to back into the hold 2 spots over from me.  He got out a couple of times - obviously having trouble getting the right angle.  I was about to get out and help guide him in - tho the rain certainly wasn't anything to be fond of - but 2 drivers walked up before I even opened my door. Yes, I sighed relief because it was a medium rain, enough to get you wet pretty quick. 

Anyway, getting up this morning and after my meal at Denny's, I just figured to get at least 600 miles driven today, 650 optimal if possible. The weather report showed snow and rain, then clear, then more snow and rain for a large portion of the route.  It was odd that when I was driving through the areas that showed it was snowing, there was no snow at all. And the large swath of area - hundreds of miles - showing rain - there was none of that, either. I had downgraded my ambitions to at least 500 miles because of the weather that was allegedly occurring. 

Truth be told, I hit all the high traffic volume areas at perfect times.  Lexington - mid afternoon. Nashville - around 3:00 pm - lots of traffic, yes, but no slow downs.  Memphis - after rush hour - it's like 200 miles between Nashville and Memphis.  After Memphis, I started searching well in advance - like 2 hours - for a place to park on the app.  I was not let down in knowing before looking that all of them for a 100 mile swath were already filled up.  The only  places that were up in the air were smaller truck stops where no one had updated the app.  I mean, I got off he highway enough times that I was starting to get irritated with it.  Not even a s***hole place had parking? Unbelievable. 

I drove long after the time I wanted to quit driving. In one of the final tries, there were 3 small truck stops at one exit.  All of them filled up, none of them had been updated on the app in days, so it was just guessing. I was almost out of time at that point with 23 minutes left on the drive clock. There was one place left in Little Rock I could think of. It is not  on the app, you would only know it's there if you happen to be looking over at it while driving by on I-30.  Trust me, I'm always on the lookout for places to stop - you never know where you're going to end up on any of these routes having to find to place to park for 10 hours. 

And let me say this: You really  have to be looking to see the place. I only started looking because there is an interesting country store/restaurant right next to it.  I remember the first time I saw the restaurant, hmmm, I wonder if I'll ever have to stop in Little Rock?  But the abandoned truck stop next to it? I didn't see.  In fact, there were many drive by instances where I was looking this interesting looking place and didn't even bother to look right next to it. 

So, that truck stop was my last hope. If I arrived and there was nothing there - note I have never been to that place before so I had no idea what to expect excepting what I could see on the satellite image as far as the lot itself is concerned, but no knowledge of how full the place would be - I would stop, do my 10 minute post trip inspection on the  ELD and then put the ELD in "Personal Conveyance" mode.  Legal? No idea.  Don't care.  Ever since ELD's were mandated, parking has been a HUGE issue for everyone.  If you're driving "late" - past 6 pm - you're going to have trouble. 

Anyway, I got there, which is now here/home for the night - and found ample parking space available.  It's a closed business, up for sale.  Lots of trucks here, yes. Nothing I ever want to see on the app.  I know lots of places that aren't on that app and I'm quite content that they never show up on there. 

I had 2 minutes left on the drive clock when I got here.  I drove 699.3 miles today - that from the ELD that isn't just and ELD, it is an electronic piece of monitoring s*** that tells the company virtually everything I'm doing with the truck.  I'm not going into all of that now.  It's 11 pm and I'm about ready to go to sleep. Get up at 7, get a bite to eat at that restaurant, get back to the truck in time to get out of here as soon as the 10 hour reset is up and 10 minute pretrip is over with. 

There is a lot to do tomorrow besides just driving back to the yard. Go to the other house, get my dogs, go home, get a load of laundry done, spend a few hours with doggies, pack my bag, get back out of there, drop the doggies back off - I wouldn't normally do that but I'm going to be gone for 5 days - head off to Dallas.  That is, presuming I get back to the yard tomorrow with this truck when I expect it. A lot of stuff can happen on the road, we all hope for a "normal" outcome, but we know stuff can happen.  I remain optimistic : )

More? Not tonight.  Lol. I'm going to sleep! Long day tomorrow as has been the last 3. 

G'nite.

The last 4 days I've done nothing much more than a huge exercise in cleaning futility.  I call it that because these trees around this property will just keep dumping crap all year round.  However, most of the leaves are completely off the trees, so not a total waste of time.  But, that's what I was up to until yesterday, Sunday, when I decided I wouldn't do any of that and instead just take the day off, throw in a load of laundry, think about the fact that I will have no paycheck next week - no work - wonder if possibly an emergency run might come across the wires.

And so it happened. Yesterday morning, one of the drivers got onto group text saying they couldn't get their truck running could someone please preload for them?  It was 5:30 am, there was no way I could get to the yard, hook up and get to the plant in time so I didn't bother replying - tho for 3 hours work you get about $200 - it's certainly  not a waste of time, especially during these times when there are hardly any runs.  Everyone is sitting around for 4 to 5 days at a time right now, not just me.

It was around 4:45 pm yesterday when I got a text from my manager, Marie's truck broke down, can you come haul this trailer off to West Virginia?  She had asked others who couldn't do it.  Well, one said he would do it but wouldn't drive all night long.  You don't have to drive all night long when you can't get there in the allotted 11 hours.  You simply have to drive far enough that you can make it the next day after your 10 hour break.  I figured this out long ago.  Anyway, I thought about it long and hard, I didn't reply to her for probably 10 minutes.  Yes, I thought, I want the run, but today is the 8th.  I have to be a plane, in Dallas, at 6:00 am on the 12th.  I did the math, added 3 hours to it at the end of figuring it out in case of a flat tire or something that takes more time than expected and came up with being back at the house around 2 to 3 pm on Wednesday, the day before departure. 

I also thought about the fact that it's already late, I'll have to drive a minimum of 400 miles today (yesterday) to get this route done according to my math.  That's minimum miles.  That's how far I'd have to go to safely understand that I would make it to the plant today.  That includes "extra miles" in case there is some sort of delay.  But I ended up taking it. It was that or no paycheck next week - or use vacation pay, which I am trying to reserve for other potential trips. 

So, I drove til 1:30 am last night - yes that was all part of this calculation. I actually was only going to drive until around 12:30 but the parking lots were all full and had to drive an extra hour before getting to where I am now.  And I'm glad I did.  It will be for more than half of today's driving according to the radar I was just looking at. It's raining in Kentucky and West Virginia and that will slow me down. I've got an extra hour of driving to help me make it to the plant today - that's the goal, at least make it there.  If they won't allow me to drop the trailer at 9:00 or 10:00 pm - approximate expected arrival time - I will take my 10 hour break in their parking lot and switch them out tomorrow morning.  Either way, I don't lose any drive time and still make it back to Texas in time.

That was also part of a potential calculation - whether I drop/hook tonight or have to wait until tomorrow morning, it's not relevant to the time I will get back.  Relevant things would be accidents that hold you up for hours, flat tires that take hours to get replaced on the side of the road, truck breaking down. I figured if worse comes to worse, ie: getting home too late to get to Dallas to get a hotel and get up early, I'll just have to eat it and get up at 2:00 am, drive to Dallas, parking garage, etc etc.  I'm not really stressing about this - it's not Christmas Day I'd miss if I don't make it.  Southwest will apparently let you change your departure time if you call them at least an hour before you are supposed to check in - probably with a fee but it's whatever.  I actually wouldn't mind calling them and seeing if I could get a later departure.  I still can believe I mistakenly hit the 6:00 am departure. 

Geeze. I originally was looking at a 9 or 10 am departure (can't remember exact time) where I could just get  up that morning, a bit early but not too bad, and not have to waste money on a hotel stay. 

Well, I best get offa here and get ready to drive.  A day of driving in the rain, at least there weren't any yellow or red spots on the radar.  Just have to deal with other drivers going far slower than they need to becajuse of fear of wet roadways. 

Wish me luck. Even though I'm not exactly stressing about this, I do hope to make it before the weekend. That's when my friends are available to visit. Everyone is working during the week, otherwise.

Off to the races.

G'day. 

The dogs took precedence over the boating outing today.  They needed rabies shots and they needed checked for heartworms and other shots.  So, I took both of them in at the same time.  I'm not interested in taking separate visits to the vet anymore unless of course, there is some sort of issue beyond the normal scope of a regular vet visit. The fact is, Aspyn hasn't been to a vet in well over a year, so I had blood work and shots and a whole workup done on her. On both dogs I had heartworm test. Aspyn had heartworms, Addler was diagnosed with them at another vet office which was repudiated by this veterinarian last year.

They both came up with completely good bill of health.  I initially went in there for rabies shot and get the yearly license.  I have wanted Addler chipped for a long time, today was the day.  Addler was not a happy camper today.  I know he doesn't like needles - he hates it and I always suggest a muzzle just so they all feel safer around him while they're doing that.  So the vet brought in 2 aids and a muzzle for me to put on him, lol.  He growls, that's it.  Everyone rubbing on him, it was a sequential growl and pleasure and growl and pleasure sound lmao.  I always hold his head and rub his ears and speak sweet dog nothings to him lolol.  It helps, I think. 

Of course, it's always humorous to see the other clients in there moving away from Addler as tho he is some sort of death threat. He doesn't growl at anyone, he doesn't act aggressive in any way.  He's just Addler, lol, but giant breed doggies intimidate some people - maybe a lot of people I guess. 

The other part of the day was spent working on the leaves.  Unbelievable. These giant, 100 foot tall trees just dump and dump and dump. On some days, it's literally like it's snowing leaves.  They're close to done. Still some leaves left but it's mostly on the ground. So, I got the blower out again and blew the leaves towards the fire pit area and created a giant pile of leaves Dumped some gasoline on it, made a trail of gas away from it and lit it up.  A  minor explosion sound lol.  But, gasoline works best IMO to get good hot coals going to ensure all the leaves are going to turn into ashes. 

Hours of that stuff and there is still plenty to go!  I haven't even started on the front yard......

Tomorrow is another day. Another day without work, of course.  I expect minimum 3 days off, not that I want that, but until Brownsville run fires back up, it's going to be slim pickings. Or not? I might get lucky? lol. 

Off to bed. 

Well it's been a few days since last posting lol.  I had 4 full days off after getting back from the last run on Thanksgiving night. Not exactly what I wanted, at all.  I really need to be running right now full steam for a few weeks to get Christmas stuff and for the upcoming trip to Phoenix.  

The cards are not in my favor. As suspected and now confirmed, the Brownsville run has ground to a halt. The plant in Altamira, Mexico broke down, they were going to do a pre-planned maintenance shutdown shortly after that, they decided to just shut the plant down from the day whatever broke - usually a pump - until the 11th of this month. That is a major blow to the available runs.  The Oklahoma run is, however, back online. It's nothing even remotely close to the miles and potential pay the Brownsville run has, but it's better than nothing. 

And, Cheniere has started ordering again.  That's up and down with them.  The fill up their 3 huge tanks with our product at both facilities and then - you  might not hear from them again for a month or even a few months.  

And then there's a client we used to have near Houston.  I can't name names or specific location in this case, but they acquired their own fleet of trucks last year I think it was and they stopped using us altogether.  And out of the blue? They are using us again?  

Regardless, I am in Decatur, Alabama at the moment. It's about the same miles as Brownsville - tho no detention pay is to be had here excepting the few hours it takes them to unload the truck and get me out of here. The 2 rednecks that unload the truck despise the job.  They complain about it every single time I come up here - which isn't that often.  I guess I don't really care, they can go off on themselves, I just stand there and throw in a few lines here and there - even tho they are unloading the trailer I am required to stand back there the entire time in case something goes foul.  They know as much as I do about the trailer side of things.  

I didn't take the boat out during that 4 days off, the days that the weather was permitting were too cold.  I don't need to be on a lake in 40 degree weather. The 4 wheeler parts haven't showed up, so that's idle as well - I'll go 4 wheeling in any weather.  I did, at least, start working out - yet again, lol -  and I also got out back and started the ridiculous job of cleaning up all those leaves, acorns, dead branches and spike ball things that fall off the trees.  We let the back yard go far too long.  

Flights.  I dunno, just didn't go there today. Looked at few sites.  An interesting thing popped up with Norwegian cruises.  They are doing a sale for a couple more days and not only giving discounted fares but several perks for free.  

Whatever the case, I didn't sleep well at all last night. Woke up around 1 am and never got back to sleep.  So, yea, I'm a bit on the weary side and going to bed early tonight. 

I was - amazed - to find almost nothing left after getting home. A friend of James/Taylor posted on my FB wall a pic of a plate of a feast of a dinner and said she'd try to save it for you. We had fun going back and forth about that - she showed the plate empty after that, but I thought she was joking.  I had no idea that she was being serious. That's a pretty cruel "joke".  I spend the entire day alone, on the road, no thanksgiving, no family, no friends, go to the other house, get the dogs, see a kid sleeping on the couch (NO idea what that is about and Maria was sleeping), come home, everyone is gone, they are all asleep - except the 2 year old screaming about something - go to the refrigerator and find no plate, most of the food gone and - wth.

I've been having thoughts about leaving this place with various things going on here for a while now, I've just not said anything to anyone about it.  The good and the bad. Obviously no situation is ever going to be perfect, but there have been a lot of liberties taken at my expense in recent times that have me wondering if I shouldn't take an abrupt change. 

3 houses worth of bills and headaches, it's really getting old.  The house in Phoenix is going to have a real surprise when I show up and sit down at the kitchen table and tell these people what is going to happen from now on.  It will not be a terribly pleasant engagement.  If they decide they don't want to deal with it, they can leave, along with everyone else and the house will go up for sale.  Not my first choice but I'm not going to have these people pulling shit on me. 

The other house here - Maria is a good person as far as I have seen, people trust her in the neighborhood with their dogs, kids,, houses. I assume the kid sleeping on the couch must be some situation with a family needing help with babysitting, I didn't know about it so opening the front door and getting Addler in my face - that wasn't unusual lmao - but the couch is right there and seeing  this kid laying there snoring away was rather shocking. Listed in the  "Things You Didn't Expect - At All" category.  When exiting with dogs, he opened his eyes, looked at me and I just - said howdy lol - and left.  I have no clue who that person is.  I'm willing, regardless of that scenario - to continue with that house, it's just the endless crap with service providers that irritates me. 

Alright, well I'm going to sleep. Tomorrow will be a different day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, a blessed day in the Lord and fun times with family and friends. 

For my part, still in Brownsville at 11:14 am Thanksgiving Day, but just informed that a trailer is coming, but apparently there is a lot of trucks waiting in line at the border on the Mexico side to get in.  So, he said probably around 2:00 pm a trailer should show up.  Well, if that happens, I doubt I'll drive all the way through today, but I"ll definitely make it up to Houston or further so I don't have to deal with the madness that will be on the roadways tomorrow down here.  Everyone came down yesterday, a lot will be going back up tomorrow.  I suppose the really bad day tho will be Sunday if a lot of people are making it a vacation to go home for Thanksgiving. 

I can't think of anywhere I can go on the way up to stop for a Thanksgiving dinner, so I'll just forego it this year and have leftovers tomorrow when I get home.  I also thought about Black Friday deals at Walmart and such, but there is nothing that I saw advertised that I need, maybe a few things I want, but I'll pass. I'm spending my money on my 4 wheeler instead, that will be Christmas gift enough to myself.  I already paid for the parts, but I suspect the labor bill will be around $300 since he's tearing the thing apart. 

But he's already got the thing running and it sounds as healthy as it ever did.  So the rest of it is just fixing things that I didn't get to, such as a bad bearing and some leaking seals.  Then next year I'll buy another one to have the ability for company to go along with me and have some fun.  There are a few people that are interested in going for sure.  And of course the boat.  But I'm not going out on the lake in 30 degree weather.  My goal right now is to get it to the reservoir, get it off the trailer, pull it up to the shore, get a good flashlight and see if I can see where the water is coming in at.  It's very perplexing.  You'd think if there is a breach in the hull you would easily see that.  Nope.  So its got to be something we can't see, I think I have it narrowed down to 2 possibilities: Either the motor where it hooks up to the transom is letting in water from perhaps an unseeable crack behind it or the other inlet that takes water to the live well is leaking somewhere along the way. 

Other than that? Just playing the endless waiting game that is to be had down here.  I could probably find a T dinner down here, but it's not late enough in the day yet, and there is allegedly a trailer coming.  I'll take getting out of here over eating a meal.  I far prefer day driving than night.  The stripes (gas station with a buffet) in Riviera might be serving turkey, if it happens that I get out of here, I'm going to stop on the way up and see.  They always have tons of fresh baked chicken if nothing else. 

Have a great day : )

Yesterday late afternoon, my manager sent me a trip sheet for a run to Brownsville.  Going out today.  After that, she simply said: Let me know if you want to be home on Thanksgiving and I will give it to the next driver.

I had to think about that for a looooong time.  I didn't respond to her for a couple of hours - she wasn't asking for a response unless I wanted to stay home.  After getting rid of the "I'd love to be home and hang out with everyone" stuff out of my mind, prudence took over.  If I don't take this run, I thought, next week's paycheck is going to have one, single run on it to Oklahoma. It will be a very not-so-nice check.  My mind went all over the place.

But in the end? I decided to take it.  Christmas coming up, I don't want to dig into savings for presents and I certainly don't want to load up credit cards.  I think I have 6 people to buy presents for and none of them are people that "must have" expensive things to make them happy.  Well there may be a 7th and 8th - the house in Phoenix, but they took their Christmas present in the form of shafting me out of rent money going towards the electric bill.  I'm sorry, but it's really hard to get past that shit.  Lying to me all this time.  For a year at least. 

Well anyway, Christmas was the day I wanted off, and Christmas it is.  The thing is, if I didn't take this run today? I would be placed clear at the back of the list.  This is how she, my manager does it. You don't take a run, you go all the way to the bottom of the list and work your way back up.  She does that to anyone, not just me lol.  Just saying, she has actually been giving me quite a lot of good runs in the last month and a half or longer.

But then, Maria informed me that today would be a miserable day to be traveling, the news said the roads are literally going to be full of people heading home for the holidays.  She wasn't wrong, either.  After wasting 3 hours at the plant - they have a guy working the scale house that is just slow - and getting down the road, well at first it wasn't bad.  Just normal traffic. But then, northbound traffic was getting very heavy!  I thought, well, once I get south of Houston, I'm probably going to run into all of that down there. 

And sure enough.  My truck only goes 66 mph top speed, so I spend most days getting passed.  And it was incredible the constant stream of vehicles flying by me.   I had looked on GPS - it showed large red spots where there are usually none.  I knew before enlarging the map to see where the spots are, the volume of traffic passing me would all get caught up at lights in the small towns ahead of us.  Refugio, Odem, north of Kingsville and Riviera.  I lost a great deal of driving and on-duty time, I was nervous about making it down here.

Two reasons.  1. Perhaps there would be an empty down here and I could get  up and go in the morning and be back in time for the last half of the festivities at the house. Or 2, nope, no empties but I'll be there tonight and start the detention clock.  I literally ran the clock out getting down here, getting fuel (near empty, I couldn't risk running the thing all night long without filling it up), stopping at store and then coming to the yard and getting the trailer dropped and getting this day over with. 

No empties. Kind of a let down, but now that I've been here a couple of hours, it doesn't matter.  I'm used to being on the road, I'm used to spending holidays on the road, and I wouldn't care if no empties showed up tomorrow. I would spend the night in a hotel, attempt to find some food to eat - who knows what's open on Thanksgiving down here -  and deal with it.  There is supposedly going to be 13 people there tomorrow, lol.  Or more, who knows. 

Back to Phoenix. The folks at my house have no clue I am coming to Phoenix and at this point, I am content to keep it that way.  I will park in the driveway and inspect the exterior of my house and what damages the felled  tree from the neighbor's yard did.  I was never sent photos of it.  If I were taking care of someone else's property and a tree fell down, I would take pictures from different angles and send it immediately to the owner/s.  I was "told" that no damage had occurred excepting to the fencing that separates one side of my property to the other.  I have had no word of that fencing being replaced or repaired.  I really have no clue what damage was done.  Just concerning that they take the liberties they have taken without my knowledge and no communicating with me.  I need to assess what is going on over there and whether I need to rid myself of that property and move on. 

Well I'm wiped out. Time to go to sleep. 

Thanksgiving en-queue - but I suspect I'll be on the road. No way to know that for sure, but if she were to send me out on a two day run tomorrow, I'd be home for Thanksgiving.  If the next day then probably not depending on the run. These plants don't shut down - 24 hour operations - excepting of course when the break down.  Part of the deal with working for this company - you agree to working weekends and holidays. 

I'm resolved to do that as long as Christmas is free.  I asked her again, she simply said remind her when it's close.   Some drivers are gone already for the Thanksgiving holiday.  I didn't ask for any days off before or after Christmas, I have no intention of using vacation pay.  I'm saving that for the coming year.  I think I have 155 hours available. Well I'll use some for the trip to Phoenix but if I want to travel anywhere the next coming year, I'll need something to buffer my income while I'm doing whatever. 

Whatever the case, the two year old got into mom's bottle of pills yesterday.  Somehow, he not only managed to climb up onto the counter, he also managed to open a child proof cap.  Apparently he took them out, took them to his room and that's where he was found with them.  They went to the hospital where they gave him charcoal and put him on IV's of whatever, I dunno.  He's fine as far as I have heard and supposedly coming home today. 

This, after the boy had gotten into my Atkins choco bars the day before.  I had no understanding tho, that he was actually able to climb up onto the counter, looks near impossible for a person that small and young to be able to climb up there.  The first time he did it, mom caught him.  The second time, grandpa caught him. The third time? No third time, I took them into my room. The things are expensive and I don't eat much of it, just here and there as a treat.  Low carb and high protein and very tasty, actually. 

They did blood tests on him and came back with nothing.  Not sure the kid actually ingested any of those pills, I'm sure they don't taste very good.  But they did an EKG and kept him overnight for observation as a precaution.  Yup, it's time for them to lock down the medications.  And anything else they don't want him getting into, he won't listen to anyone, he does whatever he pleases even knowing he'll be disciplined.  I believe it's just cause' the discipline isn't that bad yet.  He doesn't get spanked on the bar ass - yet  - cause of his age. Just a pat on the diapers which don't really do anything at all.  But, you still have to lock everything up.  That's just the facts of it. 

And other things can be done.  Such as keeping him under constant supervision.  Or just locking him out of the kitchen area - that would easily done since there are doors into the kitchen and dining room area, could just put key locks on them and not have to worry about anything.  I don't think they'll go for that idea, but I'm going to bring it up anyway. 

Whatever the case, today or next day I have free I'm going to get a keyed lock for my bedroom door and eliminate any wanderings into my room.  I don't have anything particularly dangerous, I just don't want him in there when I'm not home.  I have stuff that he's already gotten into once. Threw away a battery that cost me $10 to replace and he just takes stuff, walks off with it, dumps it into the trash or hides it.  A keyed lock would virtually eliminate that problem when I'm not here and it's cheap enough to boot.

And, getting some stuff for Maria to make to bring to the Thanksgiving affair.  There will be around 13 people here and she is making the dessert.  I have to get that today, lol, the lock can wait it's at a different store.  But it's getting close to T  Day and she wanted this stuff a few days ago, I just get busy with this and that and going to stores isn't my forte. 

The mechanic has the ATV totally torn down. Leaking seals and had to take the front differential apart to fix them.  And some sort of sensor in the differential that isn't working correctly that shifts it from 4 to 2 to 4 wheel drive mode.  I'm hoping that thing will be in "perfect" condition for a 2002 model.  In other words, whatever it looks like, irrelevant to me, just looking for functionality.  If it works, I'm happy. 

Well, awaiting the arrival home of mom and the boy. They've both been in the hospital the entire night, james went to work today but was there until last night as well.

With that, time to get some stuff done. 

Uhhh, been a few days since I wrote anything. My third day off in a row.  Hardly surprising since there were 12 trucks in the yard 3 days ago and they have only been loading one truck a day for the 3 days, allegedly ending today.  In other words, the plant is supposed to fire back up today and trucks start loading normally. Up til now, they were loading the trucks off of full rail cars - which they loaded intentionally to be able to cover one specific client that "desperately" needed the product, one load per day, 3 days in a row.  

It is likely that some of the plants shut down during this period as well to do maintenance.  They do this stuff in concert and plan it out in advance.  If the production plant for the chemicals must shut down, these other plants have the same opportunity to do repairs and usually replacing old parts that they want to replace, but want to wait til an opportune moment to do so.  The Mapleton plant blowing up is still of come concern, next time I see my manager - which isn't that often - i want to ask about whether anyone was injuring in that blast.  Besides that, it was good for 2 loads per week, quite consistently excepting for plant shutdowns and break downs. 

I'm not sure what I'm doing today.  There are thousands of leaves that have fallen off the trees, most notable in the back yard, but it seems a waste of time to clean all of that mess up until ALL of the leaves have fallen. Not even half of them are down off the trees yet.  I smoked a turkey 2 days ago an it turned out beautifully.

However, yesterday.  I was at Chili's. I ordered buffaloe'd bone in wings.  I've done it many times.  I was brought a plate full of breaded wings and just sat there looking at this huge plate filled with carbs included a ton of french fries. The bartender said "enjoy!" and walked off.  A moment of decision. Shall I not eat it and order something else? Note that previous orders had been non-breaded and I didn't know they had changed their menu and I also had forgotten to order broccoli in place of french fries... Or just take a cheat day for once and eat the whole pile?  I opted for the latter. Fried, battered foods and hot, crunchy french fries.....After that carb-filled visit, I went all out and went to DQ and got a large chocolate filled Blizzard.  That  was a mistake. I crashed so hard later on from that I literally had to go lay down in bed for a few hours.  

But, that didn't stop me. When dinner time came around, I ordered a pizza loaded with my favorite toppings - tho the toppings aren't the carb killers  in pizza, it's the crust that gets you.  I ate waaaaay toooooo much of that and knew what I was in for last night.  I couldn't stop myself, I just kept eating it.  Yup, my system doesn't handle too much pizza well.  Never has.  It will keep me up half the night.  Interestingly, keeping me up wasn't an issue, but extreme heart burn was. A couple large gulps of pepto bismol took care of that.

And now? Right back on keto.  It's much easier to restart after only cheating a day than it was when I got back from the Galveston vacation and had been off for 6 days. It took sheer will power to back into the Keto diet, but I remembered what I was looking like before I had started the diet, that was the motivation I needed to get back on it.  

I probably just won't eat until this afternoon and try to kick start back into keto.  I guess a bit of leaf raking would help burn out some of those carbs as well.  

But, I have been watching these impeachment hearings - watching a lot of it actually - and not it's getting boring.  It's different people saying the same things.  There isn't going to be any new "blockbuster" revelations.  Tho CNN's and other left leaning media outlets determination of these hearings as as giant revelations and "clearly" impugn President Trump are hardly realistic or credible.  Not that I give CNN any credibility anyway after 2 plus years of wild collusion conspiracy theories, none of which were based in any facts. 

Sondland's testimony allegedly was the final nail in the coffin, according to Cuomo and others on CNN. Yet, he said that Trump said he doesn't want anything, no quid pro quo.  That sondland had made presumptions that Trump had engaged in it and that he literally had no first hand knowledge that Trump had done any such thing.  The "evidence" thus far is lacking.  I assumed it would be, but I have watched this sham of hearings and have concluded that democrats will impeach Trump with or without any credible facts and it will go to the Senate where it will either A: have endless investigations to tie up democrat senators who should otherwise be on the campaign trail or B: drop the thing altogether, dismiss it and move on.  

What are democrat lawmakers currently "doing" besides these hearings?  Pelosi has had the new trade deal between Mexico, the US and Canada sitting on her desk for how long? These hearings are purely politically motivated wastes of legislators time.  They should be about the business of dealing with what they were voted to in to do.  But enough.  I am going to shut that off and just look at whatever highlights will come out of these hearings today as I have no desire to waste yet another day watching this stuff.  

_____________

And with that, the day is done.  I have a run going to Brownsville tomorrow - but late start.  It was going to a Saturday run, but the plant wanted it sooner so instead of 6:30 am load time, it's noon.  I like something in between, because noon loading means I'll be hitting Houston during rush hour traffic.  I mean, I'll do it, drive right through that chaos - but I don't like.  The option is to go around the route that I dislike even more.  Not really many good routes around it  Adds 45 minutes to an hour - minimum - going through there during rush hour.  I dunno, I'll have to think about this one because there is 80% chance of rain all the way down there tomorrow, which screws things up even more, especially during rush hour.  

Anyway, I'm outta here.  

Well yesterday certainly didn't turn out like I expected.  I was sitting in that truck yard (Brownsville) waiting for a trailer to show up that yard man said was coming.  The yard man is wrong about 30% of the time.  He was wrong on Friday as well.  At 5:00 pm, I saw him out there looking at a trailer so i went over to ask him when this trailer was going to show up - I still fully expected it was coming.  Ohhh, noooooo, there isn't any trailer coming today.  lol.

Okayyyy.  I got out my phone and texted my manager: hotel room, please, I'm staying a second night.  So yessss, I ended up at the Marriott Residence once again.  I very much enjoyed that, tho I have to say i really wanted to head home yesterday.  I know, it's a lot of extra money for doing nothing, but I was just feeling a tad bit home sick.

Whatever the case, I left the hotel this morning earlier than I normally would have - figured they would have one there earlier than normal.  Sure enough, two trailers showed up at 11:00 am and I was OUT of there, got back faster than normal and was happy to get the dogs, get home and settle in.

Meanwhile, the boat is done. Except the leak. The mechanic lifted it up and looked at the areas where the hull sits on the boards. Nothing.  Extremely perplexing.  Actually rather irritating.
_________________

Monday, early.  Heading to a plant in La Porte, Texas today.  It's a day trip.  Load, drive down, they unload the trailer, drive back up.  Another driver told me it's the only load going out today and for the next 3 days.  Didn't really want to do it, another of those low paying trips, but if I'm really going to be off 2 or more days, then best get busy.  Allegedly, the loading plant is going to be shut down for 3 days - to do what I have no idea, I'll find that out this morning. 

Monday, lol.

Whatever the case, it's time to get out of here.

Happy Monday!

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.  : )