I caught the auction - the property tax lien county auction - in time this time.  It's on the 3rd of March. I may or may not be in town, who knows, but the list only had 2 properties that I would be interested in and the starting bids are well out of range. One of them is a 55 acre piece of land starting at 39k.  That's a great deal at less than a grand per acre.  I've just resolved that I will have to save for a long time to either get a good down payment on property or buy property outright for cash at one of these auctions. They always have something in those auctions with at least 20 acres.  There was one that had over a 1,000 acres - but it was pulled.  Probably meaning whoever owns it didn't want to lose that much property.

There are numerous small properties on the list I could buy, but it would be an investment type of  thing where you buy it and the try to resell at a profit. Land in town here isn't really selling that well and houses sit empty for a long, long time that are up for sale. There is one on the corner across the street from us. They painted it, but a new roof on it and did major upgrades on it - over a year ago - it's still sitting empty. They've brought the price down twice.

Whoa.  There's one on there for 2k and change - 22 acres. And the list didn't fully load, there are several properties on there that are "unknown heirs".  I'ma say right now, if I'm in town on the 3rd, I'll be at that auction.

And runs. Well, it turns out Brownsville run has more loads cancelled and all the Illinois runs were given to another company.  So I guess I should be happy for an OK run over - nothing runs left over from all that crap. We're really sucking right now on the delivery stuff, it's all the more impetus for me to get this certification and switch back and forth between divisions. I dunno how long they want to keep me out at a time tho with the LNG hauling.  But, right now, I won't complain cause' paychecks have mostly sucked and I'm not getting ahead like I want to in my drive to save for a down payment for land. 

Although, buying land is kind of in the air right now anyway. If they are actually going to move - they're in the talking-about-it-stage right now - I don't want to be living here alone not knowing that many people.  Missouri land prices are probably cheaper than out here. I don't know about Colorado.  Rut, if I could get a property for 5k or less outside of town limits, that would serve to give me the property I need to build a small mobile home community. There are far too many restrictions to open one up in town, the codes are ridiculous.  The county is quite a bit more relaxed in their demands. 

I would just want to start out with something like 20 lots plus some RV lots. The RV lots are what the town doesn't want or even allow, screw that. Lots of people live in RV trailers, I know because I did it myself for a while.  Get some pull thru's for people traveling through as well for overnight stays.  But it would have to start out small, just getting the land is only step one. Steps 2, 3 and 4? You know, putting in water and sewer, electricity, building the pads, etc.

"4. Purchasers at this tax foreclosure sale will receive an ordinary type of Sheriff’s Deed which is WITHOUT WARRANTY, express or implied. Title to property is NOT guaranteed. A policy of title insurance may be difficult to obtain."  That's the part about those auctions I don't much care for.  Lots of warnings about doing a title search before even considering bidding on a property, looking for liens or judgements.  I get it, you don't want to get stuck with a huge, unknown bill that you will be forced to pay up on.  But some of the properties are "unknown heir" so you wouldn't expect to find title problems with that, that's just property taxes that haven't been paid because the person passed.

Whatever the case, it's Saturday morning, I have a run to Oklahoma today, gonna get my stuff together and get out of here. And continue to study the guide for that test.  I suspect I will be doing that little adventure this coming week if I feel comfortable enough with the information - tho it's an open book test with two hours to take it and only need 75% correct to pass. 

So with all of those wonderful runs going out this weekend, I got one of the worst ones. : (
Another Oklahoma run.  No Illinois run, no Ohio run, no Brownsville run - there were a large number of those available.  I don't get to pick and choose what run I get, unfortunately.  It's better than the Airgas Houston and the La Porte run that was also in there.  Not much better, but a bit.  I was ready for a 3 or 4 day run and get something going towards the next pay period.

Anyway, I'm well on my way towards learning this Railroad material. It's not the involved examination I thought it was going to be.  That test is for managers.  The test I'll take is for drivers and it's an open book test.  I suspect I'll be heading to Austin soon enough.  They want me to take that junky shop pickup.  Old pile of trash, I'd rather drive my own vehicle but if that's the way they want to do it, so beit.  It should just be a day trip. Leave early, get there, take the test - pass hopefully - and drive back.  So it's over 500 miles of driving pay as well. 

Meanwhile, I think I've found a person to rent the room. Maria wanted me to run the ad this time, which this lady messaged me early this morning, said she's on disability and would like to come look. Sure!  With all the conversation we've had, she at least sounds like a normal human being. 

The house in Phoenix. They must have lost a renter because the deposit was short $500.  No clue what's going on there, will be calling them later - when I feel like it.  Nope, I don't feel like talking on the phone right now.  I need the rest of that rent money, that's what I know. Pay for the house the bills of the house and usually a bit extra during the winter.  There is $500 plus on the card reader now because they know I'm watching it.  I don't care if they're late putting money on it, but there won't be any getting away with lying to me again about it. 

I'm kind of excited about hauling LNG.  I'll get the same pay, but I'll get different routes.  Instead of being stuck on the same routes every single time, those horizons will be expanded.  Ok, going to west Texas is hardly an exciting trip - there is a run that goes over there near where I-10 and I-20 meet in some dinky little town literally out in the middle of nowhere.  I've been wanting to do some west routes ever since I started with this company.  The only route going west is up to Washington and they only order our product once per year - luck of the draw if you actually get that run. LNG isn't much different than the Ethylene in terms of hauling it.  It builds pressure over time the same as Ethylene and you have to monitor it - but in vacuum jacketed tubes, the product doesn't heat up very fast.

The trailers also have pressure builders on them.  In fact, Ethylene and LNG trailers are the same thing, they can haul either of those products.  The pressure builder is used to unload the product. Build the pressure in the vessel up to around 85 pounds, hook up to the plant and discharge the product.  The real difference between the two is that LNG is much colder, I do believe, than Ethylene.  It has a much lower boiling point as well -259 (yes, that's minus) degrees it converts from liquid to vapor.  It's much easier to build up pressure and keep the pressure up than Ethylene. 

Anyway, the rent issue is cleared up. It's a leap year, an extra day in February, rent isn't even due until Sunday, they had just deposited early payers - early because they don't like having that much money around the house.  Indeed.  And then, Mark was saying he didn't realize the homeless problem in Phoenix.  Yup, it's been that way for a while, what I didn't know, however, is that real estate in Phoenix is becoming more and more expensive as more and more Californians move to Phoenix and snow birds buy up homes.  Rental prices for houses are also starting to skyrocket.  Mark was suggesting raising the rents on everyone - but I think not, not yet anyway.  As long as I get all 5 rents paid up from that place, I'm in the black every month.  Even during the hot summer months, I'm at least breaking even. 

The reason I don't want to sell the place - my house value has done nothing but go up and up and up.  A far cry from the 2008 housing bubble where home values plummeted literally overnight.  My property is worth around 230k - give or take 10% for Zillow estimates - that's a lot more than I owe on it.  Realistically, I could really stand to have that money right now as a hefty down payment on land, but I see the upside in simply holding on to it.  My mortgage is relatively cheap.  I really would love it if this arrangement with Mark and Lynnette would last - another 20 years.  Probably unrealistic but the house would be paid off. 

As it stands, a thing I was going to do that I forgot all about - start taking whatever is leftover after all bills are paid for that house and dump that money into a savings account.  I need to start saving for a roof and probably an AC unit.  I shouldn't need a roof for another 10 years - but having a roof replaced is quite costly and I dont want to have to go into debt when that time arrives.  I'm afraid it's a bit late to just now start saving for an AC unit, I doubt that thing has much more life left in it. 

Well, off to Walmart for ink for my printer so I can start studying the Railroad material. 

So.
They are talking about moving.  James and Taylor I am referring to. And when I say moving, I don't mean down the street and around the corner.  Some of the places mentioned were Colorado, Missouri and - wherever else.  To be honest, I think I could get used to living in Colorado as long as it's near where the Rockies literally spout out of the ground, such as Colorado Springs.  They're bummed because of the job situation here.  They think they can find better paying jobs in green pastures.  I dunno, I doubt I'm going to find a better paying job than what I have going right now anywhere else.

But right now it's just talk.  Still, when Taylor gets a mind to do something, it's not going to be shocking if she eventually does it.  She was asking me if I were moving with them?  Well I dunno but I have a few other friends around here, but nothing extensive.

Speaking of the job, I met the Director of Operations today.  Over the entire company actually. He was in filling in now that Ann is gone.  I had heard his name before but never met him.  We get into a very long, involved conversation about the industry.  `It was interesting, they are planning on expanding the terminal, as some rumors have been floating around. Basically having some other operations coming and going out of there as well.  So my question eventually came out: if that happens can we do some cross training of other product and get involved in delivering that too? Because we go through these slow periods with the Ethylene.

Yes, in fact I have to turn down loads now.  Of what? LNG.  He was, actually, inviting me to haul LNG right now.  I can do that.  That is what I hauled in PA during that blizzard to Amhurst college.  No training whatsoever, just haul away! He got a shocked look on his face when I told him I had hauled the stuff without any training at all.  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

However, in order to be able to do that in Texas, you have to take a test through the Texas Railroad Commission.  Don't ask me, I have no idea why one would have to take a test through the railroad commission to haul LNG in a truck.  Well, the study guide is fully 175 pages long.  Gag.  Here's the real kicker: You have to go to Austin, TX to take  the test. He said there was one in Dallas as well. Well whatever, 275 miles to Austin, 155 miles to Dallas. Why not go to Austin? I'll get paid by the mile to go there in my own vehicle.  But the 'scary' part is, what happens if you fail? You can try one more time in the same business day.  But, I can't be just driving back and forth to Austin if I happen to fail the test and have to go back to studying more.

I tried to find practice tests online for it - couldn't find any.     

But I'll figure it out.  Going to Walmart tomorrow, getting new ink cartridge and printing out the 175 page book to study.  Or do it online.  But that much content I'd rather read on paper.

Trip done and over with.  Now, the funny part: the morning I left, another driver before me had loaded for Brownsville. He is still in Brownsville, waiting on a trailer.  I dunno why I can't seem to hit those gravy runs where you're sitting for days and days collecting a paycheck, doing nothing.  Well, I'd do something, but the point is, his next paycheck is going to be quite healthy. 

But it's whatever.  I got a 4 day trip done in 3 days - pushed it hard - too hard actually, I'm pretty trashed right now, glad I didn't get sent out on a run today,  My truck - which is in the shop - is getting picked up now.  I offered to go get it today, but the mechanic was well ahead of me on that one.  I just can't drive that auto pile of trash again, not if I don't have do and with my truck being ready to go, I don't have to. 

2 days ago, I pushed it hard to get from Cross Plains, Tennessee, up to Charleston, WV, and back down to Smiths Grove, Kentucky.  If I don't get back that far the second day, it's unlikely I'll make it back to the yard the 3rd day.  I was pleasantly surprised.  They tore down the old, junky building at the truck stop and put up a brand new, massive building in it's place.  It's not open for business yet but they are still allowing trucks to park in the massive parking lot.  Across the street, they built a brand new truck stop as well.  Very nice, clean and there is an IGA market next door, with .69 cent coffee.  That is always my goal, to make it there the second day.

Yesterday, my required 10 hour break was over at 5:41 am.  I got on the road just before 6 am and got to hoofing it down to Nashville, in a futile attempt to beat rush hour.  There is no way to beat it when there is a major collision blocking lanes.  When the GPS sounded that warning - crash ahead - take an alternate route - I just gave up on getting home yesterday.  The GPS told me to get on highway 155, so I got in those lanes - backed up for miles, stop and go.  No thanks, I got back out of it and decided I'd rather just wait in traffic on I-67 than sit in that long line. 

Well, however many miles down the road, traffic stopped, GPS told me to get off at I-24 west.  What the heck? It's an interstate, might as well try it.  I was the only one getting off there, all 4 or 5 other lanes were filled with stopped traffic. But as soon as I got onto 24, it told me to get off at 155. Huh? That's the highway with all that traffic.  But I was miles down the road, the traffic wasn't bad at all!  it was like 11 miles on that highway and only one part slowed down for a few minutes.  I got to I-40, looked at my available hours, figured I would have anywhere between 30 and 50 minutes "left over" to get to the yard, so my hopes were somewhat renewed.

But it was raining and that usually slows everyone down. That was the second miracle, everyone was moving right along even on the wet roads. But - I had to make it through Memphis without any major disruptions and Little Rock as well.  Traffic was flowing nicely through those towns as well.  So I was kind of surprised it made it back in time yesterday.  It was around 670 miles of driving - which is quite a lot in a truck that goes 67 mph top speed. 

I'm doing today a recovery day. I'd go see a movie but this little town's movie theater doesn't open until evening time.  Just not enough people going to movies during the daytime during weekday hours to  support opening it up. I don't feel like driving 35 miles to go see a movie in the nearest town where there are theaters that are open and showing flicks, so scratch that off the list. 

Now, the newest person to move in the other house - is already moving out.  One of the reasons given was that "you're too picky", talking to Maria in text messaging.  From reading the rest of the texts, that was only a small portion of it, but it was still a part of the reason.  Maria is putting me in a difficult position here.  People come and go and come and go.  I need someone in the third room that will stick around for a while.  I met this newest lady, she seemed nice. Albeit the reason she ended up in the house is because her girl friend dumped her off there after they broke up. That is really her deal, so the nitpicking isn't the major reason.  Just that this situation is getting very old.  We have no place to put her here in this house, I don't want to be continually shelling out extra money every month for that house, at least not too much.  This month I had to eat about $250 - the new lady came in half way through the month. It's highly likely it will take a while to get someone else in there, so Ill end up eating even more.  I'm trying to save money, not pay for a second house that I don't live in.

I like helping people in life, but this is starting to eat at me.  I'd really like to be able to save enough for the down payment I need for land and a house on that land.  I am doing it anyway, just started dumping even more money into a savings account with automatic transfer every month, it will take a few years to get that much money saved up.  But meanwhile, this situation. I don't want to throw her out on the street, that isn't something I will do. But this idea that she gets to picky and probably even bossy with other people in the house has to end.  At least eliminate that as a reason why people come and go. It's a very tough market to find renters here, I've said that several times in the past, but it's still quite true. Even with all of these colleges in this town. But the colleges here have huge dorms, most students live on-campus.  It's a small town, just not that big of a market. 

And the interim manager just sent me a load for tomorrow.  I could easily take two days off right now. I guess I'm getting old, pushing it that hard takes it's toll on me more than it used to.  But, this is an Oklahoma run, so one full day of driving and then 3 hours the next morning.  That will go along with the WV run, I'll be back in time to have it count on next week's check, so that's going to be very helpful.  Interesting that she sends out the load much earlier than Ann used to.  It's only 11:00 am, Ann never sent out loads that early to anyone.  There have been times she didn't send the loads out to the drivers until 9 pm.  usually it's around 5 or 6 pm. This is much more helpful - you can actually prepare for the next day's run in advance. 

The plight going on a the terminal - is a bit interesting.  An old timer who's been working there for 25 years was pulling out of the yard - but pulled right up to me instead, threw on the parking brake and jumped out of the truck.  Went straight to complaining about Ann being let go - this dude never complains about anything.  He was shocked when he found out and nervous about what's going to happen. However, he's only a year away from retiring, not sure he has that much to worry about.  He's only working to keep health insurance. Another driver I encountered yesterday in the office had been pushed out of our division and back to call out.  He's still based out of our terminal, but he is working for another terminal manager who is based out of Amarillo and hauling LNG.  The plant where we go in town doesn't produce LNG, he has to drive 150 miles just to load the truck.

So what's going to happen next? Who knows.  Take a day at a time with this situation.  See where they're going with this.  I literally have no clue.  A "new direction" could literally mean anything.  No announcement of any major changes have come forth tho. Just the idea that they want to expand the operation to include other types of chemicals that the local plant produces - and again, I have no problem with that, let's do it and keep us busy, this 3 and 4 day off stuff doesn't work.  I hate doing back to back deliveries as well, my happy medium is a day or 2 at most off between runs. 

Anyway, this next run will nicely round out the next week's paycheck, so I'm happy about that.  My truck is at the yard, very happy about that as well. 

Apparently a simple apology goes a long way.  I don't necessarily believe I owed her one, but I did it anyway. She did not, however, apologize back for her behavior, I just shrugged it off.  If I'm going to continue to work there, I can't be at odds with the "new" manager - temporary - that I have been assigned to.  She could easily get me dismissed out of there by complaining to the right person.

That person, the "right person",  is at our terminal, running things. Nope, he isn't running anything, he's just "there".  The lady that I apologized to is running the show, she lives in Louisiana not far from Nawlins.  She manages her own terminal and crew of drivers.  The dude at the terminal is a mid-level manager.  I don't know that man, I've heard very bad things about him, including a hot temper and a penchant for raising his voice at people. I haven't seen either traits exhibited, but I have no reason to not believe the people that are saying it, either.  I really don't care - unless that s*** is directed towards me.

I do not give managers reason to yell at me.  I do whatever they ask, I am respectful, courteous and polite. I'm not an ass-kisser per se, but respect is necessary in the workplace.  One person - not a driver - informed it was best to steer clear of him - and that I am doing as much as possible.  But it is impossible to not go into the office after every run.  Still, I haven't had any bad interactions with him, I hope it will stay that way.  It's certainly  not abnormal that after letting go a manager that they send someone in to make sure everything continues to operate smoothly.

Anyway, the Nawlins manager suddenly took a personal interest in me - again - I think this is where it kinda goes south. Seems to be too much of a personal interest.  She did this last time before things went south.  She indicated today there is a West Virginia run available on Saturday.  Sure!  Well it's ahead of a few other drivers, but....  I don't know what that means. I do know Ann did that on numerous occasions.  And not for me.  It's whatever to me.

I"ve taken my share, more than my share, of endless, consecutive, low-paying runs.  Or watching 5 people getting dispatched before I was yet they got back to the yard after I got in.  First in, first out? I never called Ann out on that or other times I found out for a fact I was getting dispatched behind other drivers who were getting more work.  People threatening to quit, so she caved.  And other reasons.  So maybe it's just my turn. I dunno, but I am not asking for special favors and so it's all on her.  I'll take the work, that's what I can say.  And I won't be saying anything to other drivers about it.

Meanwhile, I got back to the yard today, got into an elongated discussion with other drivers who happened to be at the yard about the current circumstances, then asked the mechanic when he was planning on taking the truck into the shop? It's under warranty, they're going to have Peterbilt fix it for free.  Uhh, tonight or tomorrow.  Can I take it in?  Sure.  I recruited another driver to drive the pickup over to the shop - some 45 miles away - but, that driver and I both get paid for taking it over there.  And that driver wasn't doing anything but sitting around watching tv, he readily accepted.

There have been many, many times when the truck needed repaired they would let it sit for days before taking it in. No thanks.  That is "my" truck. I have it dialed in the way I want it. I don't want to be in a spare truck.  I will if I have to - which I probably will for this next run - but at least get the thing into the shop and get it into the queue there to have a mechanic work on it.  It only needs a fuel pump, that shouldn't be more than a day job.  If I do get this run this manager says I'll get - on Saturday - it's going to West Virginia. The spare truck is an automatic. I hate automatic tractors.  They just plain suck, but it's the wave of the future! Most big companies are doing away with them.  They are pandering to a new generation of truck drivers that don't know how to operate a stick shift and don't want to learn.

Anyway, I have a tooth hurting - it's one of the teeth this dentist that I've spent uber amounts of money at worked on. He took out an old, silver filling and put this - whatever - stuff in there.  It hurts like the dickens when I bite on it and now, after taking a bite today of something that hit it just right, it's constant, low-level pain.  I tried to call for an appointment tomorrow - but they close early on Thursdays?  Weird.  I'll call in the morning and see if they can get me in.  Tooth pain is no laughing matter and it never just gets better on it's own.

If they can't, I very likely will see if I can find another dentist that can.  There's plenty of them in town and this isn't something I just want to let go and hope it doesn't get too much worse any time soon.

And good ole' Addler.  I left him and Aspyn home on this trip - I was really going through it in my mind with this situation with Maria, that other house and all the stress and drama that keeps going on there.  I'm really thinking I want out of that situation, but at the same time, there is a new lady there and perhaps this stuff will die down? Some sense of normalcy? I'm tired of the headache of every single month, a new person needs to be found for the place.  OH, I got distracted, anyway I left the dogs home this time, it was just an overnight run. I do plenty for the folks here, they can help me out once in a while : )

Well, Taylor let them in, Addler went straight to my room and jumped on my bed - wet and muddy.  No worries for me, I have a doggy blanket covering my bed when I'm not sleeping in it.  But, Taylor came in, told him to get off the bed and he growled at her, snarling his teeth!  Dumb dog.  Granted the dog is no longer used to being left out all day long, tough.  Taylor said she smacked his ass and he stopped, got off the bed and came back out, lol.  Good!  Not good he was snarling tho, if I'd been here I would have beat his ass.  He "allowed" her to dry him off.

I have an absolutely horrible headache. But I'll get to that in  a moment.
After discussing today with "people in the know", Ann basically did herself in because she wasn't trying to do anything about increasing the capacity of the operations going on in the terminal. IE: beyond the product we deliver, bring in other product trailers as well and get some more revenue going for our terminal  I've brought the idea up myself in the past - we are right down the road from a huge chemical plant that makes allllll kinds of different chemicals, not just the ones we deliver, why aren't we trying to get a piece of all of that other pie as well? 

It wasn't well received.  I was curious about that, because in my view, it's a gold mine waiting to be dug out.  But whatever, it's not my company, just thought it curious that we could expand to all kinds of different chemical hauling opportunities. We would never be slow. They would have to get a bigger yard, a better facility with far better accommodations and more perks on the local level. 

It turns out the mechanic has been actively attempting to get that done as well.  I'm not bashing Ann, tho.  But she kind of signed her own termination notice by not expanding her horizons.  My problem with what we've got going now is that we are limited to one product and in the last year, it's been slow more than not.  I don't really much care for driving every day until your hours run out.  But now? 3 and 4 days in between runs? I'm not rich, I need that money, I need more frequency than that for doing run.

Apparently corporate is on with the idea of expanding the operation.  Argon, oxygen, nitrogen, various different acids, all kinds of chemicals are made at that plant.  We could be hauling stuff all over the United States, not just the eastern half.  I'd love to get some runs going west, frankly. You know, like to Arizona? lol  So, the situation at work may, eventually, get better.   I can tell ya, I've worked at enough corporations, when they start shaking the hive, they often times get rid of a lot of people, not just one here and there. 

Anyway, to my dismay, we are all being temporarily assigned to this lady that runs a terminal in Louisiana - I wrote about her and the situation with my medical card last year.  I don't want to go into all of that again, but we ended up getting into a heated back and forth after she continued to deny me the opportunity to go get the card, instead giving me run after run.  Once that card expires? You aren't driving a commercial truck anywhere. 

She sent me a run for Oklahoma for today.  I wasn't so happy about it - there were 2 Brownsville runs as well, but I said nothing about my disdain for a short run that won't pay much.  I have been keeping my lips zipped in the complaining department for quite some time now.  I might vent on here, but that doesn't translate to any management or anyone of any consequence over there.   I took the high road today - I'm going to give myself that credit because that lady did me wrong and it ended up costing me money out of my own pocket and having to get a new license - and just said I consider it water under the bridge, I hold no grudges and I apologize if you were offended in any way.

So she lit up on that and went to town. In a good way, nothing bad. 

But what was the headache?  Well, my truck was giving me this bright red warning light in the shape of a stop sign with a pic of an engine in the middle of it last trip. So I reported it to the mechanic. I asked him this morning about that, he said he had hooked up his computer to it and it gave him "all kinds of random readings" but the readout came back and said to clear the codes and see if it was just  a fluke.  Lol.  Okaayyyyy. Well, he came out to the trailer I was hooking up to this morning, looking at whatever while I was backing under it.  I got out after hooking and started checking the coupling and everything else on the trailer. When I got around to whatever he was looking at, well, he started commenting on replacing the landing gear on all of these old trailers.

Really? And thank God.  40 year old landing gear.  Hard to crank down, been needing replaced for a long time.

I got back in the truck - and all of those lights sans the red one were on.  I rolled the window down - did you clear the codes? Yea, did the come back on? Yup.  He assured me the truck "should" run.  I don't really care, if it breaks down somewhere, I get paid for it.  But I wasn't prepared for what happened once I got 70 miles or so down the road. You see, when that red light comes on? This incessant, very loud beeping noise comes on as well. The truck is commanding to pull over and shut it off. 

Well, last trip, it didn't come on that much and went off shortly after. This trip? The 70 mile mark is when it started coming on and off and on and off - the noise unbearable.  After 100 miles? The damned thing STAYED on.  I've been getting assailed with this freaking noise all .... daaaaaayyyy.....looooooooooooooooooooong. HOURS and HOURS of this horrific noise.  I ended up putting ear buds in both my ears and literally cranking music through my iPhone for hours on end.  Would you rather hear music or beeping?  Yeah, I thought so.

But it eventually started to give me a headache.  Which got worse.  And the power was getting worse on the truck as well. It's got a bad fuel pump.  I've got 130 or so miles to go to get back to the yard.  I'm at the casino truck stop - my normal stopping place on this run. But I was close to being out of time, a thing that never happens, but this truck has been lugging up hills and lugging on straight aways all day long. I can't believe the thing has made it as far as it has.  I'm hoping to make it to the yard tomorrow and get out of this damned thing, put it in the shop and get it fixed. 

The new manager told me today she can keep me busy til' Monday "at least".  People needing time off and more work came in. Fine by me, I need the money.  I don't know if that will actually materialize and I have no idea, but according to the schedule I'm looking at, it's a spartan week. And, interestingly enough, the 2 Brownsville runs that were supposed to go out today? Got cancelled. I was the only run going out today and there is only one running going out - according to the schedule - tomorrow, going to .... Brownsville.  I don't know what is going on at that plant, but they need to get their s*** together and get it fixed and get it operational again.

I can only guess that the schedule has changed again.  I dunno, she said it, I ain't holding her to it, if she keeps me busy, great, if she doesn't, oh well. 

With that, I'm getting offa here.  Cause it's bedtime and I intend on having the all you can eat buffet in the morning - I'll find stuff keto friendly there I'm sure - and then get out of Dodge. 

So I'm sitting here at my computer desk a few minutes ago and I get a phone call from a number I don't recognize.  For at least a year, I have been ignoring the parade of phone calls I get on a daily basis that are spammers either offering a "cash offer" for my home or insurance schemes. But lately, I decided to answer the calls and see if I can get some of this crap from calling me, for ignoring the calls have definitely not made them go away.  

Especially the calls from people claiming they want to buy my house. Yesterday I answered the phone and they wanted to make a cash offer, I said how much? Well first we're going to have to ask you some questions. NO thank you. Oh, ok. Perhaps they'll mark it as a dead lead?  I ain't giving them any information.

Anyway, I answered this call as well. Hello? Hi, is this Ben? Yes it is.  This is - whoever, I don't remember his name - some corporate dude out of Ohio with my company - and we wanted to let you know that Ann is no longer working with the company.  Not that was shocking.  I just talked to her in  her office a few days ago, it was obvious she wasn't expect that news today.  But that's what happens when you get a smaller company taken over by a large corporation. They don't care about you, your life or anything that goes on in the company that directly affects you by their decisions.  That has been my experience in the trucking industry and I never expected this place to be any different.

But it still took me completely by surprise. My manager was fired.  She kept her ideals from the old company - which was a far superior company - and wouldn't let go of them. I don't know the specifics of why she was fired, the dude refused to tell me and yes I asked, specifically.  He gave the same old generic " the company wants to go in a different direction" reply that I've heard about people getting fired my entire life.  Ann was  making some waves.  She would give them information and they would reject it, make arbitrary decisions and then she would be forced to deal with the aftermath. 

I just texted my friend Taylor and told her she should apply for the position. She would stand to make a lot more money - albeit a lot of stress and bs - but the money and benefits would be worth it.  She is good with people, she is very much into office/clerical work, organized, a natural at giving out directions, would do an excellent job at it.  Plus she could work off-site here and there. Not every day but they allow it.  

______________

I talked to Ann. Called her, she wasn't fired as the man that had called me originally intoned. She was given severance pay - that isn't being fired. I mean, she wasn't wanting to leave, they just told her they want to take a new route and that was that.  The new route - direction - I'll be very interested in seeing. This new company is cheap, if they think they are going to take a new direction in lowering wages, I'll be leaving.  

Anyway, it's bedtime.  I have a run tomorrow.  Oklahoma. Not the Brownsville I was hoping for, but considering the caustic relationship I had with this "new" manager I'm being subjected to now, I am just going to keep my mouth shut, she can do whatever, I'll ride it out or find a new job. 

 

My 401k accounts have literally gone up like 5 grand in the last month.  I mean, it isn't anything that gets me to retire tomorrow, I'm just saying, at least for right now, the stock market is doing fantastic in many sectors.  You can swipe energy/oil off that list tho.  Poor outlook for the amount of oil needed globally this year coupled with the Cornoavirus - I'm not sure how they're tying the virus into oil usage, but they are - has reduced the positive outlook on oil productive, particularly fracking operations. 

Sunday.  Actually a nice day for once, even tho the sky is still overcast with clouds.  A nice, bright, sunny day would be cool.  Tomorrow is just a preload day.  Go to the plant, load the truck take it back to the yard.  I might drive over to Shreveport after loading and get the truck washed as well.  It's filthy. It's about 130 miles round trip of driving - which is paid, plus wait time at the Blue Beacon. It's something better than nothing.  Turn it into a $250 or so day, at least and help pad the pay period.  I've god one, small run on this week's paycheck coming up, that ain't gonna work. 

The - dude - at the other house didn't show up last night as he promised.  And Maria is texting me saying he isn't responding to her texts. And that she wants to go get smokes but doesn't want to leave and have him show up while she's gone.  That's the 3rd one in a row - tenant - turned out to be "less than desirable" person. The lady that just moved in, however, well I met her yesterday. She seems to fit right in there. Hopefully she works out. One can hope, I'd like a few months of relative peace.

__________

My son sent me some Omaha steak stuff for my birthday.  So I ate a couple of the burgers. Very nice, keto version of course. I ended up sending my brother - today - some Omaha steaks that I usually send at Christmas.  He has never been involved in my life, I have expressed interest in a closer relationship with him over the last several decades - and I gave up on it. To the point I didn't send any Christmas Omaha Steaks because - why bother.  Wasting even a few seconds of my time and my money on people that don't care about me took it's toll.   His birthday is in a few days, it won't get there in time I don't think, but since he "went out of his way" to send me a birthday text earlier this month with "Happy Birthday Ben", I figured I'll just do whatever.  Keep a line open?  He's retired now.  I have no hope for any kind of relationship with him in this lifetime.

My middle brother, however, I have permanently written off and don't care to ever hear from again. 

Anyway, getting close to bedtime.  Early rise, but not a long day, well, not long unless something happens at the plant. Even if I decide to drive to Shreveport to get the truck washed, it still won't be anything close to any normal driving day.  A little extra money, a clean truck, why not? 

Down to Brownsville after last entry, drop, hook, head back up. Ended up in Hungerford, TX Loves' last night.  Drove it out today, hooked up to another trailer - out on Monday.  I thought I had a run down to Houston, I misunderstood Ann's text message.  It is actually, get up, go to the yard, drive truck to loading plant, load the trailer and bring it back to the yard, drop it and go home.  Lol.  It's a preload for someone else.  She's doing both of us a favor.  I get the preload, the other driver gets the trip. He makes a bit more than me, but - lol - I'll do the preload and save myself the hassle of the Houston run that doesn't pay much and take all day to do it. 

Over to the other house. More drama.  Getting very tired of the drama. Always a new tenant thing.  I'm not even going to go into all of it, it would take several paragraphs of typing and I don't feel like exerting that much energy over a person that isn't worth wasting that much script on. The dude is a drug addict, long story short.  He blew up my phone about the rent.  I can tell ya, I'm not making money on that place, I'm not trying to make money on that place, but I am trying to break even. 

The dude made several veiled threats of which I totally laughed at. He's like 5'8" tall, I've seen a pic of him, lol. His bad-ass tones on texting with me wouldn't stand up in face-to-face confrontation. But he "invited" me over when he's moving out tonight - oh yes, he is out of there after all of this s*** - and I thought, no. Not worth it.  I have zero fear of the man, but him saying we are all part of a "cult" and that we were going to make him a "blood sacrifice" was enough for me before all of this got started.

Yes, he actually texted Maria that nonsense and then I called him out on it and the fact that he needs to pay up. He let loose on me, I started trolling him.  Well why not. He's a nutcase, a lunatic, possibly some spiritual things going on there.  He stopped texting, lol.    The lady across the street - she knows everyone, she's from this town - said she knows his family and knows who he is, an "ex heroine addict".  No thanks. 

So allegedly he's moving out after just moving in. Another lady moved into the bedroom he was in - he was going to take the living room. No, folks, that was not my idea.  But this guy is bad news and he can go without any further ado and thank God. 

And finally... the microwave at the other house quit working a few days ago.  The brother of the owner comes over to fix stuff.  He came today, took the microwave out - to do whatever.  You really don't fix microwaves, you replace them. Well, he told Maria he wants to buy my boat! LOL!! Boat isn't for sale, haven't said anything about selling the thing, but he wants it.  I bet he doesn't want the price tag!  I'd actually sell if for the price I bought it for plus the money I've dumped into getting it up to par. 

16 hour day.

Everything was normal this morning.  Hook up the truck, get out of the yard, get to the plant.  Get the truck/trailer weighed, get to the loading rack.  They came out right away, hooked the hoses up, filled her up.  It struck me as odd, tho, when they came in after only 40 minutes and told me they were done.

Yes, it's one of the Mexican trailers - they are wayyy heavy Empty weight for them with the truck attached is around 51,000 pounds.  That's a lot of weight for an empty truck.  But I've been doing this job for a while, even these trailers take at least 50 to 55 minutes to fill. I even said something about it: that was fast!  

Back to the scale. They have a digital read-out drivers can see.  The thing showed my gross weight was 72,000 and change.  That's not right.  Then the lady got on the intercom and asked what the trailer number is, of which I told her and said the weight doesn't look right, it's too low.  She didn't respond to that.  Well, she heard the first part all right.  I didn't know what to think.  After you give them the trailer number, the readout showed 21,000 pounds.  There's no way that Mexican plant is going to pay all that freight to have a "light load" being brought down there.  My 2 plus years going down there I have never seen anything but full loads.

Perplexing, but not my venue.  I drive the truck, if I see something wrong, I say something, if they don't care, then any consequences are on them.  But I do say something to ensure that no blame is coming back on me. I parked the truck, went inside - and waited.  For well over an hour, the scientists were taking their time getting the COA back to them. They never said anything about the weight. The lady that did the paperwork has been there over 20 years, I know she had to see those numbers. I finally got my paperwork and left. 

Around 50 miles down the road, my manager calls.  Starts asking questions about the "light load". What did I know? Why didn't I say something, blah blah blah.  I don't load the trucks, everything in that plant is on the plant, why she was assessing this shit on me I had no clue.  But I told her flat out that when I got on the scale, I noticed it didn't look right and said something to the scale master about it.  I also pointed out that the person that did the paperwork was a 20 plus year veteran, she should have definitely caught it.  My manager said something about making sure the truck is full - yes, Ann, I SAID something to them about it, they ignored it, talk to them.  

"Well I wish you knew the name of the person that loaded the truck".  I'm starting to get annoyed. There are a few constant faces at the rack I go to, but the rest of them? The plant moves them around all the time.  Cross-training, they call it. Trying to get personnel to be able to load anything.  It must take years to do that, because there must be at least 100 different chemicals coming out of that place.  I told her to call the supervisor, he was there and he would know his name. The supervisor is cool - but he should also have caught this.  I thought I overheard the guy saying something about 21,000 pounds, but I wasn't involved with that conversation and I was reading the news on my phone, not exactly paying attention to them. 

So, should I go back to the plant? No, just keep going, I'll let you know if you need to turn around.  Okay, cool. 10, 15 minutes passed, didn't hear from her, figured I'm safe.  Well, I wasn't. 98 miles down the road, she calls.  You need to find a safe place to turn around. Stop, tho, and mark it as the turnaround place.  That way you get a stop pay for it. I get a stop pay to turn around, lol, it's worth $30. I got into a truck stop, stopped the drive clock, put it in on-duty status, noted that I was turning around and drove alllllllllll the way back to the plant. It took them all of 12 minutes to finish loading the truck.  At the scale, they were right on it.  

But getting my paperwork? 3-1/2 HOURS of waiting!  When they finally got my paperwork done - headquarters in some other state was making a fuss over all of this and then, after they were done with their interference, the plant that ordered the product wanted the entire thing changed to completely different numbers - I got out of there. I had enough drive hours to get through Houston - my goal, get through that miserable town so I don't have to deal with rush hour tomorrow morning - but I didn't have enough on-duty hours.  So, I used the 16 hour exception rule that adds 2 on-duty hours to the clock, figured to make it to Hungerford and stop for the night. 

Well the Love's in Hungerford was jam-packed.  No place to park.  I got out of there fast, my clock was running out.  The next place was this truck stop that used to be a s*** hole, but then someone bought it, dumped a bunch of money into it, tried for 3 months to get it going, it failed, it shut down, then someone else bought it, opened it back up. It was 18 miles down the road. By the time I got here and in position to back into a parking hole, I had 10 minutes left on my clock!  

I've wanted to stop here several times, the place is usually empty and just wanted to check it out. If it's a decent place, I can promote it to other truckers on certain forums and a trucking app.  If it's not, I can agree with the endless - but very old - posts that state the place is garbage, a dump and don't stop here.  Several posts said the place doesn't even have diesel fuel  even tho it's listed as a truck stop and has 4 truck fueling lanes.  

In reality? The place is clean. The lot is clean, no urine filled bottles and trash laying everywhere.  The store is clean and kept up.  Decent amount of truck parking spots. I'm always for the underdog if it's something worth supporting. I talked to the dude running the place, he got a little unnerved when I said I drive by here a lot and it always seems empty.  Nice guy, decent place, good prices, worth giving a shout out!  So I got on the app after leaving there and "corrected" old posts that were no longer true - the place is shut down. Nope.  The place is a dump. Not anymore.  The place doesn't even sell diesel and it's a truck stop! Not now.  Come back, give the man a chance.  

Here's the thing: I tried to stop at the Love's 18 miles up the road, it was completely jam packed.  I wanted to take a shower in the morning.  This was the next nearest truck stop heading south, I was out of time, I literally had to stop here, lol.   

Well it's bedtime. I made it half way to Brownsville with the available hours - that after wasting 202 miles of driving and all those hours at the plant.  But I'm happy I made it this far. For those keeping track, I'm in El Campo, Texas and the name of this place I'm at is El Campo Truckstop.

G'nite. 

Rain, rain, go away......and don't come back for a lot more days...

Enough rain. I'm on my 4th day off, it's been raining the entire time, with a few lulls here and there. It's gotten so bad to day we are actually under a flash flood watch. Tho I don't concern myself about that too much, there is a stream behind our house that leads to a huge storm water channeling system only 200 feet away.  It's very deep and I've never seen it more than 2 or 3 feet high water depth.

And it's not just rain, either, it's also our version of cold. Low 40's.  I was going to smoke a rib roast, I am undecided whether I will or not.  Perhaps smoke it an hour or 2 and finish up inside.  Well, actually it's beef so it shouldn't take more than a couple and a half hours to cook regardless of method, so I'll just go ahead and smoke it for an hour or so and finish up in the oven, try to have it done when they come home from work.

The work situation around here has gone into chaos mode.  Taylor's hours were drastically cut this month, an entire day gone every week, so she has taken up even more of this side work she does from home.  James work hours were also cut to the point he had to find a second part time job. So now, he's working 4 10's Monday - Thursday and then doing a part time job Friday through Sunday.  I've been there and done that and I hate the 2 job scenario, especially if it ends up forcing you to work 7 days a week. I, on the other hand, have been sitting around for 4 days. 

There is no predicting how long you will have off in between runs, tho it would be helpful if my manager would at least send out an APB - such and such a plant has shut down, work is going to be slow. She doesn't do that and it's like pulling teeth to get any info out of her. I don't know why, it's just the way she is. But, I found out yesterday, the plant that comprises the Brownsville run cancelled fully 11 loads - hence the reason I've been sitting so long.  She gave me the usual "you can go out on call-out or wait", but didn't say it in anger as she has done in the past. 

My version of the schedule has highly likely completely changed. For Ann told me that "tomorrow" (Thursday) is looking good.  On the schedule I have, it shows tomorrow a  Brownsville, an Oklahoma and a Daiken (Alabama) run.  That isn't that good, so I have to guess that the plant has completely changed the schedule as they often do and have more runs on there. 

My penny stock is up $5 and change! lol, that's the for all the stock combined lmao, not per share. If it were per share I'd be selling them suckers right now.  Today I'll be doing my version of research to see if I can find something a bit better.  But, my Chase account will only allow me to buy stocks that are priced above $5, I dunno how it let me buy these I currently have, but the second round I tried with a different company stock it wouldn't let me.  So I'll just find something over $5 and see if I can stomach buying 100 shares or so of it. I've got plenty of money I could throw at this, but no thanks. We're stepping in toes, than ankles, then knees, so on. Right now the toes are wet lol. 

Other than that, nothing really "newish".  A new tenant at the other house, he has a job, is in his early 30's and works locally.  Well he had to, he doesn't have a car.  But we'll see how that works out.  Maria seems to be toning way down on her approach to new people, which is a good thing.  I'm not going to complain about her treatment of the last two in there, they were real pieces of work. 

Meanwhile, this Coronavirus.  People were downplaying it at first, of which I just shook my head at all of them.  Well, not that many people have died! many said and it's just another version of the SARS virus.  My reply was it had just started and it came out of China, huge population, disease can run rampant there.  And sure enough, the death toll has well surpassed the SARS virus and they can't say they are even halfway there in isolating it and getting the spread to stop.  How can they stop it? In China, they can't, except to shut down the cities that it's affecting and not allow anyone in or out.  Here and around the world, they are isolating planes and ships full of people. I'm not wishing this on anyone, not at all, it's just the way these viruses work. 

Enough of this one.  I"m assuming I'll be working tomorrow and plan for that.  Other than that, it's another rainy day. 

So the house called from AZ.  You have a $500 and change check from the mortgage company sitting here. They couldn't figure out why, but I knew right away.  My insurance was going to lapse over a year ago, the bank purchased their own insurance, I was having trouble finding anyone to insure it for whatever reason.  I only made one claim, once and it was a long, long time ago.  I think the type of home and the type of insurance they want on it was the deal. I was just going to leave the bank purchased insurance on it.

Until I found out the price tag and the fact that it only insures the house. No personal property inside the house and nothing on the property surrounding the house.  Or if someone falls, breaks their leg and sues you.  Blahhhh.  They wanted $1,700 for Insurance that really was quite useless.  So, I got on the phone, made a hundred phone calls - or whatever, a lot of time spent on the phone in other words - and found State Farm offering an excellent package for around $600 less.  So that is the deal.  They owed me that money from the escrow. 

Well it's nice to get a check, it will go into savings.  Or maybe I'll use it to continue dabbling in the stock market.  I made a total of $3.17 yesterday on my 300 shares lol.

As for the house, it's really up to them. The two living there running things. I'm inclined to just keep it indefinitely as long as they'll run the place, rent the rooms and fix whatever breaks.  Or find someone to fix whatever breaks. It's up 100 grand over what I owe on it.  I've been watching it, the entire neighborhood, even the old junky homes are all going up in value.  Location, location, location.  It is no longer affecting my ability to get a second property.  Chase is offering me a guaranteed loan up to 300k at 5% down.  Yup, I started looking yesterday after seeing that.  A guaranteed car loan and a guaranteed credit card as well.  I may take a look at the car loan as well.

I found a nice property with 80 acres at a very nice price.  But it didn't have a big enough house on the land.  Really need at least a 4 bedroom, large house with perhaps a room that could be converted.  And, importantly to me, be able to split off a portion of the land into commercial use and build a small RV or mobile home park.  These are thins that occupy my mind from time to time, I'm not getting any younger and the time to get this done is now/very soon.

Work isn't helping anything. With the slow down, we're off 2 to 3 full days.  I'm on my 3rd day off. Very nice for time off, very bad for paychecks.  Tomorrow has 2 brownsvilles, a baker, and a chenier.  Brownsville, pleeeeaaaaasssssseeeeee. If not, baker, I absolutely despise going to Cheniere for a myriad of reasons.  Well, it's early so I dunno if I'm even going out, but I will be contacting my manager soon.

So, I got back in yesterday morning - another one of those "waste" trips. The plant operator handed me a copy of the schedule 2 days ago for the coming week.  I didn't ask him for it but he did anyway, so thank you lol.  Tomorrow there are 2 good runs available and 2 crappy runs.  My luck isn't doing too well in getting the good runs department, but then again, I don't even know if I'm going out tomorrow and probably won't know until this evening. 

After leaving the yard yesterday, I went over to Maria's, I was already informed I was staying for breakfast.  I ended up staying for around 9 hours lol.  It was fun.  Taylor and James came over as well and spent a good portion of the day as well, we all left at the same time, it was time to go home and unwind.  Well, at least for me, since I hadn't been home since the day before. 

Oh, the boat was literally filled up with water.  From recent rains.  I forgot about that, from the other day after I got a charger specifically for the boat and just keeping it there.  Can't be going out on a lake without a fully charged battery.  I hooked up the charger - the battery was dead unfortunately, I hope it isn't ruined since it's only a few months old - and turned on the bilge pump.  It pumped out all of that water in about 10 minutes? I didn't keep track, but the hull was almost completely full.  I think my fears that the boat is taking in water through a leak are not founded in reality.

That because - the boat was sitting there full of water and nothing leaking out anywhere. So, I have a theory where it's likely taking on water but I can't prove that theory true or false until I take it back out on the lake again and run it full throttle with someone else driving the thing while I"m in the back looking to see if it's taking on water back there.  Of course, no one wants to go out in the cold and rain, so that's put on hold until the weather gets better.

Which isn't happening today, we are under flash flood watch - unusual for this area - with rain predicted for the next 10 days in a row.  However, the forecasters have been waaaaaay off recently, I mean not even close in their predictions.  I might as well just go out and look at the skies and take guesses as to what the weather is going to be.  Seriously, they haven't even been close in their rain predictions. It rains when they say it isn't going to rain and it doesn't rain when they give a 90% chance of rain with up to 6 inches of water? 

So I'm doing nothing, again, today.  At least yesterday was a change of pace. 

_______________

So I'm lightly dabbling in the stock market.  Placed an order for 300 shares of a cheap stock in the energy business that came recommended by a trading sight.  It's only $151 worth, I'm not jumping in with thousands of dollars spent on something I have very little knowledge of.  Heck, I had to look up what Time In Force means, and how it works!  I've seen this company in various places around the US and it's been around awhile.  And I made .28 today lmao.  Well whatever, I'll leave it in there a while and see what happens.  A while being months at least, if not a year.  And prowl for more stock to buy.  The good stocks are starting out at very high prices, I'm not going  that route right now. 

Chase has me preapproved now for almost 300k house for 5% down instead of the 10% they started out with.  I've looked at numerous properties today online, but none of them have sufficient acreage.  None of them have sufficient bedrooms, we're going to need a 4 bedroom house minimum.  I have to get a house on the land to have the 5% down. 

Anyway, enough for this entry. 

What time limits do truck drivers have to abide by?

This post will help end the endless questions about the hours a truck driver can do without getting into trouble with the law.

There are 4 clocks a truck driver has to observe:
1. 70 hour - 7 day clock
2. 14 hour- on duty clock
3. 11 hour - drive clock
4. 8 hour on-duty/drive clock. 

In order, number 1. In any given 7 day week, we can only have been on-duty for 70 hours.  We can't go over that.  Going on-duty starts when you do you pre-trip inspection. It used to be on a paper log, now we simply push a button on and Electronic Logging Device (ELD) that puts us on-duty and then we put a "Remark" on it depicting what we are doing - in this case, a pre-trip inspection (which is required by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rules. Many truck drivers don't do any kind of pre-trip inspection, which I find ludicrous but let's not get off topic. 

Per the 70 hour rule, quite a while back, the Almight FMCSA decided to give truckers the option to reset the 70 hour clock with a 34 hour break.  You take 34 hours off-duty and the clock automatically resets to 70 hours. That's the way most trucking companies run things today. 

Number 2: 14 hours is the amount of hours you can be on-duty on any given day. When you start that 14 hour clock, you can't stop it.  You can go off-duty, but that clock still runs.  It continues to run until 14 hours is up and then you have to stop.  Now, you can go off duty anytime before that 14 hour clock is up and if you stay off duty for 10 hours, your 14 hour clock resets.  You can go off duty, can drive, can be on-duty not driving - but that clock keeps running.

So, let's say I have to be at the plant at 6:15 am.  I go on-duty at 5:50 am, do my 10 minute pre-trip inspection and then drive to the plant. Get loaded, start driving.  I go to a plant in some cases, deliver the load or drop the trailer  and leave. And drive back as far as I can before that 14 hour clock is up.  I have to be stopped before that 14 hour clock is done. 

Number 3: 11 hour drive clock. In the amount of time provided in the 14 hours to be on duty, I can drive 11 of those hours.  That's it.  It doesn't have to be 11 consecutive hours, in fact with the current rules, you can't drive 11 consecutive hours. Back in the day - in the 80's we drove much differently than what we are forced to abide by now.  I mean, it wasn't legal, but I can remember driving 400 gallons of fuel out before stopping. Yes, no stopping, not even to go to the bathroom. Trucks could drive 100 plus miles per hour, we weren't limited by all of these outrageous rules and guess what? Do you remember all the horrific accidents occurring back then as they do now with trucks? Sure, there were some bad accidents, but you can find deadly accidents on a daily basis now.  Why? Different post, take too long to write out my opinion on that.

Number 4: 8 hour clock. This is a relatively new rule that most truckers hate.  This rule dictates that after you go on-duty, you have to take a 30 minute rest break before 8 hours is up.  If 8 hours come and you haven't done it, you can't drive until you do. It can really mess with any given driving day and it's completely unnecessary and more-so, they've finally done studies on it that have concluded that it doesn't help anything at all.  I drove a lot of years without being forced to take a break. 

That's it. Much more I could go into, but so many truckers don't understand this stuff. It messes with their heads.  It's kind of confusing at first.  ELD's messed with many people's heads that have been doing paper logs forever.  It's not that difficult, but you have to orient all of these different clocks in your head.  The ELD tells you everything, but drivers still have problems with it.  The rules haven't changed.  What you did on your paper logs is the same you do with the ELD, it's really that simple.

I have no idea what happened to that last post with all the words being whited out, lol, have to try and fix that later. 

Whatever the case, amazingly enough I got a run up to Oklahoma today.  That's only 1 day in between runs - when there were a lot of people waiting in line for the next run.  As I"ve stated before, I don't think my manager has a grasp of how to work giving out runs.  I don't know if she just doesn't keep track, or if it's on a whim type of thing, or what.  But realistically I shouldn't have gotten a run before Monday at the earliest. 

Hopefully I can get back from Tulsa (area) tomorrow morning, we have a BBQ planned for Sunday with Maria's (adult) kids who have shown up for a reunion I guess.  Pretty odd stuff.  Haven't really been in close contact with an actual post-op transgender person before.  I'm not homophobic, lol, don't take it that way I just haven't had any exposure before to such people.  She to a he, brought his girlfriend with him.  Interesting stuff.

Meanwhile, Virginia is getting closer to banning - yes totally banning according to the news anyway - semi automatic weapons. That was the description I heard. Not just rifles, but all semi autos.  I just can't imagine such a decree would pass constitutional muster before the Supreme Court?  It will be very interesting to watch what happens, but I would assume 2A rights groups will immediately file suit in court.  If this were to go before SCOTUS - or any federal judge for that matter - and actually stand, what will happen to the rest of the country? 

I have lots I could go into on that subject, it's pretty alarming the extent of what these people are willing to do to get rid of your rights.

However, it's almost time to leave and I must be off to business!

G'day.

I've been speaking to people at work about retirement savings.
The subject comes up frequently. But it is shocking to find out these people - late 50's/early to mid 60's - have little to nothing saved up for retirement! These people are making 80k and more per year, and have anywhere from nothing to - next to nothing - saved.  It kind of made me feel good that the pittance of money I have saved now is far more than anything most of them have saved?

Just weird that people making very good money would have very little saved up.  People that are living on the road most of the time.  They have home expenses - but so do I.  When I was working at Ferguson, it was hard to save anything because I wasn't making that much money, but I still put at least matching employer contribution amount in. 

Both Prudential and Wells Fargo - I have 401k accounts in both - always say to up it a "little more". I can't contribute to the Prudential one because it's the former employer's 401k - it's doing so well there is no point in taking that money out of there.  But I think it's a better idea to find some savings account or some way to save extra money beyond those venues that is easy to save, a pain to get access to.  It seems more prudent to have a savings account with some real cash in it in case of emergencies.

Just very interesting to talk to people that are saving nothing or have very little saved up that late in life.  I feel like the 300k I hope to have by the time I retire is not nearly enough. But I'm not going to work til' I'm 90, thanks.  What kind of lifestyle do they expect to have living solely on Social Security?  With only 10 or 20 k in 401k savings, you can't do anything with that.  You'd just leave it alone in case of emergency? It would be easy to burn up that much money in a very short period of time. 

"The bad news is that almost half of Americans approaching retirement have nothing saved in a 401(k) or other individual account. The good news is that the new estimate, from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, is slightly better than a few years earlier.

Of those 55 and older, 48 percent had nothing put away in a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan or an individual retirement account, according to a GAO estimate for 2016 that was released Tuesday. That’s an improvement from the 52 percent without retirement money in 2013.

Two in five of such households did have access to a traditional pension, also known as a defined benefit plan. However, 29 percent of older Americans had neither a pension nor any assets in a 401(k) or IRA account. 

What, exactly, goes on in the minds of people facing retirement that never saved a penny? There's at least one at work: she brags about having saved nothing.  She will live on SS payments. Well I'm sorry to tell you this, but that isn't going to be much of a life?!!  Even in my poor and broke days, I had money being taken out for retirement, tho all of that disappeared at the time of divorce. 

Anyway, I just found out I'm heading up to Oklahoma tomorrow. Really? How did I get ahead of everyone in the queue?  It's literally the only run going out tomorrow. I mean, I'll take it over nothing, I'm just baffled how that worked. Took  a bit to get my mind into - "work tomorrow" after thinking I'd highly likely have the entire weekend off.

Anyway, I met Maria's - son - and - his - girfriend today.  They came into town to visit with mama - which is Maria. Another one is - well probably there by now.  The son - was a girl.  He has had the complete, full-blown sex operation to transform from a female to a male. I was quite surprised to hear his/her voice, it sounded like a guy.  I was informed that testosterone does that. Yeah, I knew it did other things, I had no idea it also affected your voice. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was a point of intrigue.  Why would someone go to that much trouble to alter who they are physically? I saw pics of her before the operation, she was an absolutely beautiful woman.  So much so, that even with the deep voice and the breasts gone, still looked quite - female - in facial features.  Times have certainly changed.

Now, if I were where I will be tomorrow right now, at the casino? I'd be in there playing blackjack. I have the hankering. But, tomorrow is a different day and my mood may be completely different. I always - well usually - stop at the casino truck stop.  It's the best place to stop without wondering if I'm going to find a spot further on down the road. Paris Loves is full by that time of day, guaranteed.  There's a very shoddy, abandoned truck stop that I have no interest in stopping at. Well we'll see. 

It was actually quite shocking this morning to find out that my "MyLovesRewards" account has $885 on it, not the $88 I thought it was.  I have 88,500 points, my math was way off, lol.  Each point is worth a penny, my mind somehow thought that amount was worth $88, not $885.  Loves has a huge selection of smart phone accessories, certain lines of clothing products and depending on the size of the store, a large selection of electronics and even small refrigerators. 

The nearest Loves is 40 miles away.  I'll likely save any shopping spree for a time when I am spending the night at a loves so I can have time to look around and see what i want.  Guaranteed $885 is enough to buy any single product in the store and really, several higher priced things.

It is no wonder it takes so long to build up each $100, I have been thinking for a while, why does this take so long? I buy at least 1,250 gallons of fuel per month there.  Loves has different tiers of points awards for each gallon of fuel you buy.  0 to 500 is "base", 1 point for 1 gallon, 500 to 1,000 is Gold, 2 points, 1,000 to 1,500 is Platinum - 3 points and unlimited drink refills and free showers, Diamond is over 1,500 points accumulated per month and the same as Platinum except you get 4 points per gallon.

Diamond is elusive for me because we just aren't busy enough for me to be driving enough to be able to buy 1,500 gallons of fuel.  And right now, we are very slow  and I wouldn't be surprised at all if I wasn't given any work for either Saturday, Sunday or Monday.  These plants all shutting down at the same time created the perfect storm of no work available.  If it continues too long, I may be forced to ship out to another division for a while to actually earn a paycheck.  Of course, that means I won't be home for 2 weeks at a time, so that's kind of a last resort.  The thought of finding a new job, however, after seeing how much money I made last year and having the same problems - plants shutting down - have cemented in my mind, at least for now, that regardless, the work will pick back up and I will be busier than I want to be at some point. 

Well enough.  Laundry day - have to do all dog bedding, it doesn't take long for it to start smelling with all the rain we've been having.  Aspyn especially, who loves to run around in it until she is both muddy and completely soaking wet.  Much more rain in the forecast, I'm not taking her to a dog grooming place again until all of this season of rain passes.

Quick trip? Not exactly. It takes over 13 hours to do the La Porte trip from the amount of time spent in the plant loading and getting paperwork, driving down to La Porte (Texas), getting unloaded, driving back up, doing paperwork and getting it over with. 

I slept miserably last night.  I went to bed at 8:30 pm, woke up around 1 am, couldn't get back to sleep.  Until somewhere around 3:30 am, where I fell asleep, half an hour later the alarm went off. Must have been REM sleep because it was horrible.  My brain was foggy, I couldn't wake up.  I mean, that lasted all the way down to La Porte, where I got the opportunity to take an hour and a half nap. The plant worker came pounding on the door of the truck when they had finished. Seemed like 5 5 minutes - the time I went to sleep shortly after they hooked up the trailer - to the time they were telling me they're done. 

But I got out of Houston at 2:30 pm, well in advance of rush hour and the drive back to the yard was seamless. 

The unfortunate part of today was looking at the schedule. Spartan.  I figured getting back, I might get a run on Sunday until I found out that the Brownsville run is down until Monday at the earliest. 

That means the schedule is wrong.  So tomorrow, there is only one run going out - that one to Pennsylvania. The driver that was taking it happened to be in the office. He said he hates PA and lamenting how terrible it will be to go there.  I thought how lucky he was to have such a run in the times we're currently in. That's close to 3,000 +-miles of driving, a very nice paycheck for 7 days on the road compared to the crap that is on there now.  Saturday, one run, because brownsville run is down.  Sunday, ZERO runs because brownsville is down. It was only today that I found out the Oklahoma run has been  down. 

So in the next 3 days, there will be two runs going out.  Gag.  That, however, doesn't take into consideration the plant attempting to find other runs to sell their product to. There may be other stuff come up, who knows. 

Well it's 29 degrees here at 10:30 and getting up to 60 for a high tomorrow. Not exactly my idea of boating weather.  ATV? I dunno, maybe. 

Home for my birthday.
Also going to be the day Trump is acquitted for the impeachment.
I have much of nothing planned for today, because that's what I want to do: nothing.
Passing the mid 50's mark isn't really anything I want to celebrate lol. 

I'll probably go to Applebee's down the street and have a couple draft beers, a steak lunch and that will be about it.  90% chance of rain today as well, which kind of has a "stay at home" or even a "stay in bed" type of feel to it.

I made Keto friendly Salisbury steak last night, but I should have read through the instructions. I didn't get to the end until I was at the end of following the instructions. It said " doesn't make much gravy but it's ohhh so good!".  Ummm, you know, gravy is the best part of Salisbury steak.  So I improvised and made probably quadruple the amount of gravy, just adding some beef broth, more heavy whipping cream and a few spices. Turned out very nicely and almost all of it - 3 pounds worth - was eaten last night.  I'm always happy when the effort put out is worth the time and energy spent. 

And here comes the rain and thunder!  What a brilliant day to just stay indoors!  But I think my trip to Applebee's is going to change to a trip to Chili's - a bit further down the road - for Keto free birthday treat.  I put up a post on my Facebook wall to see if anyone would say stay on Keto! or Cheat!  Lol. 

+++++++++++++++++

And cheat it was.  A burger and fries - at Chili's.  Very lovely time even if alone, I'm pretty good at starting up conversations with strangers when I'm in the mood.  And then, Taylor inviting me to dinner for my birthday with the family this evening.  Not too late, I hope, because I just got a Happy Birthday! from my manager followed by - now let me ruin it for ya! lmao.

And it's one of the worst runs we get.  La Porte again - near Houston.  And first load, gag.  But I"ll take it, that money will go on this pay period paycheck, which currently has a brownsville with detention pay run, but more needed to make it a full paycheck.  It's a day trip, at least, I have never had this run go more than a single day.  So hopefully that guarantees me a run this weekend - and yes - probably on Sunday! lmao

Oh, and Donald John Trump, the President of the United States of America, has been acquitted just minutes ago of both the Abuse of Power article and the Obstruction of Congress charges.  We knew this was coming, what's next?

So I got down here last night - down here being Brownsville - and saw an empty trailer sitting there.  But, I decided to drop my full trailer and go stay the night up at the Love's truck stop.  Get up early, get home this afternoon.  It's Monday morning, btw, almost 7:00 am now.  So that's what I did, got up early, before 5 am, took a shower at the Love's gotta cuppa, headed to the yard and.....the driver that loaded 2 hours behind me was already under the empty and hooked up to it, presumably waiting for his 10 hour reset clock to be up and leave.  I could've gotten back by around 4:00 pm today. Maybe a little later, just depending on traffic.

I guess the good news is that I get detention pay on this trip and considering there were 15 trucks in the yard yesterday morning, that's a good thing. That guy that took my trailer won't get any detention pay.  15 trucks.  Rarely see that many drivers all in the yard at once, meaning we've slowed wayyyyyy down, so taking an extra day to get home - depending what time an empty trailer might arrive here - is probably a good thing.

But you know, you wake up early and get it into your head that you're going to get moving down the road and get home.  Just takes a bit to get that out  of your head.  I could have slept in, lol.  There's 5 loads going out today, I took a snapshot of the schedule, so that will get some of those trucks out of the yard, but 2 of them are short, junk runs and they may end up getting back before me.  It just all depends on what time an empty shows up today.  I'll be fighting to get back tonight if one shows up early enough, get back in the queue for another load before some of those drivers do.

But, my birthday is on Wednesday so getting home tomorrow would work out better, that would all but guarantee I'll be home for it instead of on the road.  I have no idea about any days after today on the schedule, the plant schedule ends on Mondays and they don't put the new one up until Tuesdays - today.  I was actually pretty lucky to get this run.  It will highly likely be the only thing going on this pay period so I'm not going to complain about sitting here - probably half the day waiting - for a trailer to show up. I'll hopefully get an estimate of an arrival time from the yard manager whenever he shows up.

__________________

12 hours later I'm home.  Trailer showed up around 12:30 pm, I hooked up to thing and got out of there.  Figured if I move it I can get home tonight. Of course, I didn't plan on the drowsiness that hit me 250 miles up the road.  Well,  you have to take a 30 minute break anyway so I found a rest area, set the alarm for 40 minutes, and fell into a deep sleep.  It was more than enough to wake me up and keep me chugging along for the rest of the 325 miles.  I'm not exactly sure if it was such a good idea to get home tonight tho. Those 15 trucks that were in the yard yesterday? There's only 6 now.  There are times when I hope I don't get a run, the next 2 days? I hope I don't get a run. 

Well enough of this.  Time to go to bed!