I'm considering starting a second blog reserving it for Keto.  There is sooooo much misinformation being spread about Keto out there, it's absolutely amazing.  Doctors declare that it causes heart attacks. Oh really? Why is that?  Isn't it the unhealthy lifestyle of eating fast food, processed, preservative and chemical filled crap we eat that is unhealthy? You hear about McDonald's bleaching it's meat and you think that  is somehow acceptable? Probably not, but that's the diet of the average American.  People don't want to cook anymore, they want companies to cook for them. The morbid obesity, obesity and extreme obesity rates are the proof and outcome of that culture.

Yes, you can eat very unhealthy on keto - and still lose weight actually.  So, the important thing to spread about the diet is to eat healthy fats.  You can eat a lot of bacon, but should you? Probably not.  And besides, it's the high carb diets that are bad for our systems, including drinking gallons of soda.  We all know soda - whether sugar filled or diet - is extremely bad for you.  You could drink one here and there and probably nothing, but the amount of soda Americans drink is unbelievable. 

I'll tell you my own experience from the mindset point of view after I started the Keto diet and staye on it for a long period of time. When you first start, you really don't know what you're doing.  You don't find a lot of information about it online, either. You'll find tons of recipes and you'll find blogs and sites telling you what you can and can't eat, but it's really not definitive. You just dive into it, hoping you're doing it right and tweaking it as you go along. 

And what you find, after you've been doing it for months and months, is that you no longer need to think about what you are going to eat in terms of what is being put before you.  Everything gets processed in your mind through Keto. Is that low carb? How much of it can I eat?  How many calories does it contain?  How many carbs will I have left over after I eat that plate of food? Note I also said counting calories.  If you think you can keep your carbs low but eat as much food as you want, think again.  You still, must, count calories. That's my opinion, but if you're consuming 5,000 calories a day and burning 2,000, guess what?  I don't need to tell you, do I?

Also, Keto is not a meat free for all.  When you eat more protein than your body needs, some of its amino acids will be turned into glucose via a process called gluconeogenesis.  You can easily defeat what you are attempting to accomplish by eating too much meat, hence the importance of eating fat, more of it, but healthy fats!  As much as possible. 

The whole point of the Keto diet is to get your body into ketosis.  Keeping your carbs at 20 and under forces your liver into a process that releases ketones into your system which in turn uses your body fat to create energy.  That is the beauty of the Keto diet.  Your body uses your body fat for fuel.  There are a lot of opinions on this diet, I can only tell you my experience with it and take it with a grain of salt - or take some of it seriously.  For example, forgone conclusion you will have to dumpe the potatoes, rice, pasta and beans - there are substitutes and you can find those recipes all over the internet. 

But, in my experience and reading a lot of other people's experience, you can expect to dump a lot of weight in the first months.  You can also expect to go into a stall - your weight won't go down. But ..... you will likely notice you are still losing fat!  I'm no doctor, I can't explain how you can lose fat and yet the scale shows no change. I've read lots and lots of people that have experienced the same phenomenon. 

BTW, if you are really serious about losing weight and are considering having your stomach staples - don't do it! Give Keto a try first.  Why go through such a drastic surgery without at least exhausting all options first?  Go to your doctor, ask him or her about this diet. Some of them are going to tell you it's bad for your health and give you a lot of scare tactics. I don't know why they do this. Do these people believe the average American diet is somehow healthy?  These "experts" should at least try to do some extensive research on this diet before giving out such information.  I've read a couple of people that have done it for decades now and are in great health!  Keto has a definitive effect on diabetes.  Some people report after they've done it for a while that they no longer have to inject insulin. Even more people have reported that the diabetes disappears altogether!

The high carb lifestyle is your enemy.  This is what is making America fat and unhealthy.  It's so easy to live that lifestyle, too, with fast food restaurants on every corner. Regular, sit down with waiter service style restaurants piling on even more carb laden foods.  The frozen food aisles at your grocery store filled with sugar and carb laden garbage.  Everywhere you go, your senses are affronted with sugar filled, carb laden foods. 

Getting into the Keto lifestyle - what many people call it - takes time. But you'll eventually find that donuts, cake, ice cream, soda, all of that stuff that is filled with sugar, will no longer tempt you .Or if it does, it's a fleeting temptation. Some people aren't helpful in offering you foods that they know you can't eat. Sort of like a mockery, c'mon, you can have just one!  No, you can't  and you can't go into the Keto diet with any thought of cheating.  Cheating means you get kicked out of ketosis and it can take days or longer to get back into ketosis, it's just not worth it and your results will not be good.

Now, I have cheated and am currently cheating.  But I've lost a lot of weight and I stuck to the diet for long periods of time without any cheating whatsoever.  A break - 8 months - was my first cheat. Yup, I went that long without cheating.  Then I had an accidental cheat day, so I blew that entire day and just decided to eat whatever I wanted. Then for Thanksgiving I also cheated and now? I went on vacation visit family for the Christmas season, got off the diet entirely and have stayed off of it. Tomorrow is Christmas and I am either going back on Keto the day after Christmas or will wait until the 2cd of January to restart.

And I can imagine restarting will not be fun. But, to keep the weight off and lose even more? It's the only diet that's ever worked for me. 

I'll likely be copying and pasting this and the post before this and starting a new Keto blog.  Many other people are doing it but I find a lot of those blogs to be void of the information that people are really looking for.

The Keto Diet

There is a LOT of confusion on the internet about what the Keto diet really is.  People get into those giant Facebook groups and ask what it is, how do you start? Of course, those groups get 100 of those posts a day so people start getting snarky with their responses. It is true that it's easily available information on the internet.  Google is your friend. I've been doing it for 14 months now - currently taking a couple of weeks off for the holidays - otherwise known as Christmas.  The fact of the matter is, if you follow the diet closely, you will lose weight. But, it's a strict diet. No rice, no potatoes, no pasta, no bread. Sugars goes bye bye. Processed foods as well.  Low carb - 20 grams per day or less is the way you get into ketosis - which is where your liver releases ketones to burn fat for energy. If you don't track your carbs - everything you eat including condiments, you are likely to fail and proclaim: "This diet doesn't work!".  It works only if you are determined to strictly follow the diet and get the idea of cheating out of your brain for quite a while.  Much of what we eat is all in our heads, you just need to retrain your mind and that takes time. 

Keto can be a pretty expensive proposition. A lot of meat.  A lot of ingredients for the recipes that you very likely do not have in your cupboards.  People give up on it because they say they can't afford it. Well that's not totally true. You can use hamburger meat and chicken thighs and such, but you might get tired of that after a while.  You can go without all the special recipes - but if you want any variety at all, you will undoubtedly start looking up keto this and that. There is keto bread, keto chocolate, keto ice cream, even versions of keto pasta. There is cauliflower rice and radishes cooked with a beef roast in a crock pot that come somewhat close to real potatoes - tho admittedly there is no real substitute for potatoes. But, if you searched the internet and found this blog, then you are at least interested in what it can do for you. If your obese or extremely overweight, you can expect to lose 10 to 25 pounds in the first month. 

Below, I came across this nicely populated list of the foods you can eat.  You start keto by eating very low carbs, some meat and lots of fat - tho fat in great quantities isn't necessary and you are far better off eating healthy fats.  You don't have to give up all vegetables, but you have to track the carbs in them to keep within your daily limit. Many people swear by the Carb Manager app. You just input into it everything you eat and it gives you a running total for any given day.  You are far better off prepping meals in advance if you are on a limited schedule. I know people that cook their food for the entire week in advance and put each meal into plastic containers.  They spend a whole day doing that, but they don't have to worry about it during the week. I have done the same. Actually, since I'm a truck driver, I do a lot of prepping - I'll make as many days worth of food in advance as I expect to be out on the road.  Truck stop is part and parcel of what made me heavy and over weight, I had to be disciplined enough to stop eating that food. There is an important point to note, however, that you can eat at restaurants, but you need to look up what you can eat in advance.  Whatever restaurant you are going to, just google Keto - and add the name of the restaurant after it and a good amount of links will pop up with lists of what you can and can't eat. You usually have to ask them to leave certain things out.  Such as having a hamburger - leave  off the bun and any sauces. 

Anyway, read the list below, look up keto recipes - you can literally just google "keto recipes" and a host of sites will appear - but dive into it head first, don't look back and give it time to start working. 





KETO
Read this thoroughly:
If you are a keto newbie- This should help pretty much all you need to know.. FREE... copy and paste to help other newbies.
- Meats: ZERO CARBS
• Beef- Ground beef, Steak, Ribs, and Roasts
• Pork- Chops, Ribs, BACON, Loins, sausage
• Chicken/ Turkey- Thighs w/ skin or wings are the best because breasts are high in protein. However, you CAN eat breasts, just have to eat more fat to compensate.
• Fish- Tuna, Salmon, Cod, Haddock, etc.
• Shrimp/ Lobster- Go crazy, use lots of butter!
• Pepperoni
-Cheese: MOST are no carb, almost all are low carb
• Mozerella & Cheddar- Buy in bulk, they freeze well and are insanely versatile!
• Colby jack, pepper jack, monterrey jack
• Taco style, Mexican style
• Parmesan, Asiago
• Ricotta- Freezes well, very versatile
• Cottage cheese- Good to throw in your lunch with berries, usually around 4-8g of Carbs per serving
• Cream Cheese- Freezes very well, this is one of the things that I always glance at whenever I go to the store, and always buy a bunch of if it's under 75 cents per 8oz.
- Vegetables: No potatoes! Get your carbs from above ground veggies!!!
• Leafy greens- Spinach, Spring mix, Kale, Romaine
• Zucchini- Great for a noodle substitute!
• Avacado- Awesome source of natural fat!
• Eggplant
• Brussels sprouts
• Tomato
• Spaghetti Squash- Versatile, makes a great spaghetti substitute and is even great for making hash browns!!
• Cucumber
• Peppers- Jalepeño, banana, green/ red/ yellow/ orange bell
• Broccoli- Great with cheese, steamed or just raw!
• Asparagus- Awesome roasted or sautéed with bacon and garlic!
• Cauliflower- AWESOME potato substitute!!
• Celery- Great with cream cheese or all natural peanut butter!
• Cabbage
• Pickles (Read nutrition labels, watch for sugar and carbs)
• Olives
• Green beans- Awesome sautéed in bacon grease with garlic, (watch portion size, though).
• Onions- Red, yellow: use somewhat sparingly, to taste
- Fruits: Most are a no-no, especially bananas, oranges and grapes.
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Blackberries
• Lemon/ Limes- Adds great flavor!
- Nuts (grams of Carbs per 100 grams, or 3.5 oz)
• Pecans/ Brazil (4g)
• Macadamia (5g)
• Hazelnut/ Walnut/ Peanut (7g)
• Pine (9g)
• Almond (10g)
• Pistachio (18g)
• Cashew (27g)
- Oils/ Fats
• Coconut Oil
• Butter: Kerry Gold is best but just make sure it's REAL butter and not a spread or margarine
• Olive Oil
• Vinaigrette
• Hollandaise
• Bacon/ sausage grease
• MCT oil- easily ordered online/ in specialty stores
-Dressings/ Condiments/ Fats
• Ranch, Blue cheese, Cesar, Thousand Island, Balsamic- Watch carbs/ sugar, but there's tons of brands, so you can find one you love!
• Mayo- Natural/ organic is best, but I use Hellmann's all the time.
• Aioli
• "NO SUGAR ADDED" Ketchup or sugar free ketchup
• G. Hughes brand sugar free BBQ sauce
• Yellow/ Spicy Brown Mustard
• Soy sauce
• Hot sauce
- Liquids: Use as base for sauces/ soups
• Heavy Whipping Cream (HWC)
• Broths/ Stocks: Stay away from reduced fat. Bone broth is awesome!
- Snacks
• Pepperoni
• Slim Jims/ jerky (watch carbs)
• Homemade cheese its/ tortilla chips
• Cheese
• Pork rinds (0 carbs, very versatile. Can be used as breading, nacho substitute or even sprinkled with cinnamon & stevia and eaten like cereal with Almond milk and tastes like cinnamon toast crunch!)
- Drinks
• WATER- Lots of it!
• Crystal Light- Tons of options and very convenient!
• Tea
• Coffee- Add a Tablespoon of coconut oil or MCT oil, Stevia/erythritol, heavy whipping cream and vanilla, pumpkin extract or Cocoa powder & peppermint extract *BOOM* Homemade creamer!
- Alcoholic Beverages
• Beers (grams of carbs per 12 oz serving)
▪ Bud Select 55 (1.9)
▪ MGD 64 (2.4)
▪ Rolling Rock Green Light (2.4)
▪ Michelob Ultra (2.6)
▪ Bud Select (3.1)
▪ Beck's Premier Light (3.2)
▪ Natural Light (3.2)
▪ Michelob Ultra Amber (3.7)
▪ Coors Light (5)
▪ Amsterdam Light (5)
▪ Bud Light (6.6)
• Vodka: Whipped Vodka & flavored water or pineapple Pinnacle with crystal light are a couple of my favorites!
• Whiskey shot (0g carbs)
• Brandy shot (0g carbs)
• Dry Martini (0g carbs)
• Tequila shot (0g carbs)
• Champagne (~1g per serving)
• Dry wine (~2g per serving)
- Sweeteners
• Stevia drops (0g)
• Erythritol (0g)
• Truvía (0g)
• Monkfruit (0g)
- Other common Ingredients I use
• Almond flour
• Spices: Garlic powder, onion powder
- Dont forget your electrolytes, they are needed daily.
• A good form of electrolytes is:
• Powerade zero
• Pickle juice
• Pink Himalayan salt added to your food
- Strict keto - counts all macros, does not eat processed foods.
- Lazy keto - doesn’t track all macros, still eats processed foods, as long as they are on plan
- Macros are a break down of the calories you intake for the day.
- Carbs are a limit - try not to go over your carb limit. 20 NET CARBS!
- Fat is a lever - you don’t have to meet your fat macro, it’s simply there to help you get full.
- Protein is a goal- try your best to reach your protein goal.

Ahh the joys of getting up at 4:45 am when you've been getting up whenever you want to - as late as 10:00 am - for the last 11 days! Merry Christmas! lmao

Meanwhile, the saga at the other house goes on.  Maria admitting that she may not be that easy of a person to get along with.  Yes, indeed.  Those were  her words, not mine. She wants the "perfect roommate" and even stated such in an ad on Facebook. If you want a perfect roommate, then that intones you are a perfect person yourself, correct?

She just makes wayyyyy too many demands of incoming tenants.  I get when people aren't cleaning up after themselves, that gets old. But other quirks of differing people are part and parcel of what you have to adjust yourself to.  She's used to having the house to herself - the other lady there is never home during the day and is like a ghost living there.  Maria is a great person, don't get me wrong.  But her lifestyle exceeds her income.  I need not get into too much, just interesting watching this play out.  She even offered that she may have to start looking for another place.

Welp, that's fine, but I'm outta there as well. My name is not on that current lease, I would just tell everyone to move out, have a sale and sell everything left in there or give it away if it doesn't sell and be done with it, the dogs can simply stay outside during the daytime over here and life goes on.

It's just interesting that a person with a very limited income would make such demands of other people.  She actually has it quite good there and has made numerous friends that she hangs out with in the neighborhood.  If we were on land with lots of property, I"d get her a small mobile and she could live there. But even the situation with baby-sitting. She decided what she was getting was not enough and demanded more than twice what she was receiving.  So, she hasn't babysat the boys in quite a long time.  Taylor has friends that will watch them - not free since it was a daily thing - but for much less money.  I guess I compare her current situation with what mine was when I was broke and poor all the time. I made do with what I had, didn't make demands of everyone else and looked for endless ways to save money.

I still do the last part quite frequently.  I just wonder where she thinks she is going to move where it is so much better? But if she's unhappy in that situation, by all means, find a new place!

And so it is, Christmas is 3 days away.  I'm doing a run that really doesn't pay that much and it will be the only run on the next week's paycheck.  So I'm kinda hanging low on spending money for a while until I get full steam into doing runs again, which hopefully will start the day after Christmas. That's what I'm going to ask for, anyway.  Having said that, I'm almost at 90k for the year.  It was almost shocking to see that because I wasn't really headed there until I started getting all of those Brownsville runs for a couple of months in a row and getting all that detention pay. That bumped my yearly earnings up quite a bit. Now there is something I can complain about - the federal government dipping it's hands into my paychecks and taking out large portions of it.

And these idiots attempting to win the White House with these plans to suck the life out of everyone's paychecks, especially the middle class.  Don't even try to tell me that Warren's or Sanders Medicare plans won't cost the middle class with no new tax increases. BS. Or Wang's $1,000 to everyone scheme.  The one I was really glad to see go was Beto with his "I'm coming to get your guns" nonsense. And now, all the drama that is playing out in Virginia with all the Sheriffs declaring these gun sanctuaries. 

Now THAT is something I am watching.  That could lay out a precedent for all of these gun hating politicians in the Federal government who want to do the exact same freaking thing.  To EVERYONE, not just one state. 

Oh well.  My Christmas shopping is done.  I couldn't figure out what to get the boys, Taylor came up with this giant slide that a small plastic car rides down. I was a bit shocked she would suggest that, visions of bumps and bruises and banged heads after falling off the side of it came into my mind, but hey, that's what boys do, right?

Well, I'm off to the races.

G'day. 

It will be a total of 10 days off.  I was good at 7.  Manager finally called and said are you ready to go back to work.  Yes please.
So tomorrow - Sunday - off to Oklahoma for an overnight run. Although it would have been nicer for a higher paying trip - I've been off so long a shorter trip is actually good.

Let's see.  I was walking across a yellow-painted cross walk at the Target store from the parking lot to the store.   Clearly designated pedestrian cross - walk.  This pickup comes zooming up on me, slows down at the last second - I didn't even look.  Just kept walking at the pace I was going, which wasn't slow, actually.

I'm walking into the store, the person driving the truck stops, rolls down their windshield and I hear this "ASS****" being yelled at me.  People getting done with Christmas shopping or heading in look at her with a look of shock.  I just stopped and turned around and looked at her as she was taking off - she wasn't sticking around for any feedback.  Everyone then stares at me and starts laughing.  Merry Christmas! People yelling at me and I just chuckled, exclaimed I thought it was funny I was being called an ahole when she couldn't be put out of her 25 mph rush through the parking lot to slow down for pedestrians, everyone laughed again and we all moved on.

Drunk neighbor comes over today. He was drunk when he came over, i didn't realize that at first as I was going to my vehicle at the street when he showed up at the door, wanting to borrow a cigarette from either Taylor or James.  It went downhill from there.  He helped himself to Taylor's half gallon bottle of Rum and continued on with that, getting more and more obnoxious as the drinking continued.  I ignored him until he was speaking to me, asking me what I was making? Lasagna. 

I'm still off the diet, James is trying to talk me into staying off of it until the 2cd of January and I haven't decided. I was - well am - ready to restart the day after Christmas. That will be 14 days, more than long enough of a cheat and will have to spend 3 weeks losing what I gained.

And other things.  Impeachment.  How will historians look back on these days?  I'm quite confident Trump isn't going to be removed by the Senate.  There was one witness that is actually a non-hearsay witness. The rest of them made presumptions, guesses, heard someone else say something or just plain hates Trump  and don't care that their testimony is nothing but opinion.  Sondland said that Trump told him no quid pro quo.  Sondland said he committed quid pro quo.  Why? After being pressed on it he said he made a presumption.

I'm really not looking forward to work tomorrow lmao.  I guess I should go early cause that truck hasn't ran in 11 days, who knows if it will crank over. 

I'm offa here. 

So, it's Tuesday the 17th. At the airport, my 6th day here.

I did much of nothing yesterday as all of this caught up to me.  Driving 4 days for work, getting home on the 4th day, getting ready to leave, come here, do all of this visiting and running around? Yup, I spent most of yesterday sleeping. 

Visiting mom was a joy . I mean, you have to deal with the things 80 years deal with in their timing, but that's ok.  I know I should get here more than once a year, just hard with this job and other aspirations. But moms don't live forever, and I know I said the same thing last year when I was down here visiting and thinking I should just make more visit for shorter duration - but I didn't do it. 

And seeing my son and his wife was fun, too. Texas Roadhouse followed by a trip to Target, Christmas gifts for them and then back to mom's house.  BTW, I"m on the laptop version of a computer keyboard, really hate these things, nothing like using a keyboard you can use in your actual lap, but it's packed in my now completely stuffed suitcase.

And seeing on of my best friends from High School. Really enjoyable, spent 7 hours there catching up and enjoying our time together. 

The weird thing about this trip is that it cost me next to nothing. Mother refused my money for various things.  I really am not hurting, I didn't want her to bear the costs of everything but she absolutely wouldn't take anything from me.  So, I"m sitting at the airport bar having a few beers, lol.  I got here way early.  I was searched in Dallas, I didn't want to waste the time here for that if it happened - but it didn't happen, I just walked through the machine and ... nothing~!

But I"m ready to get home. For all intents and purposes, I haven't seen my dogs in over 11 days.  I mean, I had them with me for a few, short hours after I got back from the last trucking trip and then dumped them right back off at Maria's.  Addler is going to knock me over, I know he'll try, when I get there tonight...which will be late, cause' this plane I will be getting on doesn't land til 9pm and then I have to get my luggage and then get back to the hotel to get my vehicle and then a 2 hour, 15 minute drive back to my town.

I'm not even sure I'll make it back tonight, I"ll determine that once I get on the road..

But an overall pleasurable trip.  Next time - I'll try to remember not so early departure time and a bit early departure time on the trip back.  I won't get home til' after midnight, not really looking forward to that at all.

Well enough for this entry, I'm getting ready to head to the gate area.

G'day

We got shaken up pretty good in the air at 38,000 feet this morning.  The pilots turned on the seatbelt sign and said to take your seats like 10 seconds before we hit it. It was bad enough even the flight attendants took their seats.  But it was short lived and the rest of the flight - some more turbulence but nothing scary lol.
__________

Well that was 2 days ago.  I spent the day at mom's the first day, yesterday I spent most of the day at my house talking with Mark.  The place was immaculate, pretty much as expected, he keeps the place clean and kempt.  I was disconcerted, however, to find out they hadn't replaced the washing machine. They were supposed to do that what, a week and a half ago?  My main objective in renting out rooms is to make tenants as happy as possible.  That includes certain "luxuries" such as having a washer and dryer there, in the house, instead of having to take hours out of your day to spend at a laundromat.

This isn't an absolute necessity, I guess, renting rooms doesn't guarantee that particular portion of ease of living, but it's something I like to make available.  In other words, you pay one price and you get everything. Full kitchen access, laundry, wife, satellite, utilities included.  No guessing games as to what one month is going to cost going to  the next month.

I was a bit perplexed at their lack of ability to simply use craigslist and facebook and other mediums used to sell and buy and find something rather quickly.  I found half a dozen suitable "candidates" within an hour of casual looking while chatting with a tenant in the house. Mark wasn't there when I got there, he was a bit distressed seeing me chatting with one of the tenants.  But, the guy was a talker and we hit it right off.  What mark didn't want, was me interfering with anything going on there. Fine and well, I don't live there, I did not, however, give the guy my phone number or even my full name for that matter.  He has no way to contact me.  He's smart person, finishing a 4 year degree in some sort of computer code field and graduating soon. He is then going to go for his Master's degree.

During all of that, he is living in the cheapest room in the house lol. Which is fine and I admire his drive to succeed in life.  He wants to be a professor in a college  which nowadays is a very high paying field to enter.

Anyway, besides the duress of having found out there is no washing machine in the house, everything else appeared to be normal.  A short conversation about the payments that were never made for electricity came up - I brought it up to reinforce the idea that I wasn't just going to turn a blind eye to that and yes, I am watching it.  Beyond that, we had a normal conversation, the damage from the tree appeared to have been fixed and all looked good.

Today - Saturday - I am getting the washing machine, taking it over there and then going to spend some time with my son and his wife if she isn't working. That was left up in the air as my son says sometimes they throw a rope into her plans and ask her to come in and work on Saturdays.

____________________

Day over. Washing machine acquired.  $150. 4 year old machine, perfect condition, older people, the wife wanted a new, fancier machine.  Lol.  Those are the deals I like to find.  Dropped that off - helped Mark get it into the house but I immediately left for I had visiting to do with my son and his wife. We talked for an hour plus, went to Texas Road House, had a nice dinner, went to Target - their pick not mine lol- got them what they wanted for Christmas and came back to mom's house.

Oh, forgot. Took mom to Petsmart.  She signed up with an organization to foster watch dogs that need forever homes, they set up at Petsmart every Saturday. Very well funded organization.  Not petsmart, they are just a retail outlet, the organization operates out of Petsmart.  She wanted to get acquainted with the organization and look at dogs, declaring she wasn't bringing one home. Yup, I said, you'll bring one home lmao.

And sure enough, she brought one home that needs a place to stay while they try to find it a forever home.  It's a cool little doggy, not sure of the breed, looks like some sort of Terrier mix.  It wouldn't surprise me if she just ends up adopting it and the end of the story.  Mom lost her doggy she had for years and years to whatever disease took his life.  She has been pretty lonely ever since.

____________________________________

Sunday.  Going to friend's house today - confirmed that already to be sure he and his wife are actually available.  A couple of more days here and I will be ready to go home.

Ending this one so I can start a new one lol

And let the fun begin!

Up at 3:15 am - no way am I missing the shuttle to the airport, might as well save a little money along the way.

Didn't sleep maybe 3 hours lol.  Too much road noise in the room. It finally settled down around midnight and I was able to get some sleep after that.

But..I have nothing much that I have to do today, so I can sleep on the plane and sleep when I get to mom's house.

Oh, yes, no hotel stays in Arizona.  No paid trips via Uber or Lyft excepting to get to mom's house - she isn't good driving into busy airports and I don't blame her. But, she is letting me use one of her trucks while I'm there.  

So, expenditures on this trip are rather on the light side compared to other trips - such as Galveston which broke the bank lol.  

Anyway, I need to be in the lobby in 15 minutes, so here I go.

Haven't been on  a plane since last year making this same trip : )

G'day. 

Whatta day.  First off, I was disappointed to find out this morning that the restaurant/country store doesn't open until 10:00 am.  No way I was waiting for that place to open.  I ended up walking half a mile to get a cup of coffee. Good leg stretching and a bit of exercise never hurt even in 25 degree weather lol. 

Drove straight back - stopping only for fuel and a quick shower at a Love's in Texas. Got to the yard and saw all kinds of vehicles with out of state plates in front of the office. Big wigs/upper management, I presumed, there for whatever purpose, I did everything by the book figuring I was likely being watched.  Not really helping me, just trying to make my manager look good.  See, look at the drivers, they follow all of your (ridiculous) protocols! I thought and so I did. After that, go inside and sure enough, a bunch of upper management there for what purpose I had no idea and didn't have the desire to find out, I was on a mission to get all kinds of stuff done, chit chatting with them wasn't on my agenda.

I did get introduced to all of them anyway, shook hands, said sorry to cut this short, but I'm flying off to Dallas tomorrow, I've got a lot to do.  They offered me pizza - I said no thanks on a diet.  Which I was - until I get back to my town today and stopped for a quick bite and decided it was time to start my cheat at chili's with a burger loaded with all kinds of carbs.  It was delicious, including the french fries. 

Anyway, I got out of there, headed over to Walmart to get fuel cheap, went to Chili's, went to Maria's got the dogs, went home,  a load of laundry done, spent time with my pups, packed my bags.  Taylor and the kids came home and I said hi to them, then remembered I needed to book a hotel and parking - did the same place as I did last year, got all of that done and finally left. Back to maria's, drop the dogs off, meet some new potential tenants,  flew on down the highway at a rather high rate of speed and am finally here, in Dallas at the hotel which is only like 3 miles from the airport. They have a shuttle leaves here at 4:00 am - my flight leaves at 6:00 am, I should be good. 

Drive drive drive. Finish the drive out from West Virginia, drive home, drive to Dallas. My life is encapsulated with driving all over the place. 

Well I guess it's bedtime. 9:00 pm - gotta get up at 3:30 am at the latest, maybe 3:00 am so I can drink some coffee.  I have nothing more than to leave this room, get on a shuttle, get to the airport, check in my baggage, get through security when I get there and snooze until they start calling people to board the plane.

Hmmm, but I am off the diet temporarily, I'm sure some breakfast potatoes will be in the works somewhere in there.

G'day. 

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.