I decided to take the Vermont run.  My manager called me early this morning - my ringer was shut off so I didn't wake for it - he wanted me to go on an emergency run. Which I would have gladly taken, but i guess by the time I returned his phone call, he had already covered it with someone else.  So he said he was going to find out if the truck was fixed or not - I can't imagine that an EGR valve wouldn't be able to be easily fixed the same day the mechanics started on it so I assume he forgot that I was out of queue because of equipment breakdown.  

Whatever the case, Vermont would be okay at this point, I guess. Freeze my butt off but make guaranteed wage of $2,100 per week working or not working, full day or half day, whatever.  

Ahhh, he finally responded.  "I can put you on equipment moves, will take the better part of a month".  Ok. Where and when.  Let's get this rolling because I'm going to go broke if I don't start getting some work here.  He ignored the Vermont thing so that's fine, I don't mind doing equipment moves, those are also lucrative runs that simply have you dead-heading to point A and moving it to point B. That's usually only one trip tho, taking a month would mean it's much more than just one trailer.  Why do they do this? At this time of the year it would be trailers being moved over to the Eastern seaboard to cover LNG loads for the extra capacity needed to keep up with demand during cold winters.  They stated they were bringing in 100 drivers over there just to cover that. 

Thankfully, I'm not one of them, I really don't like driving over there what with snow, ice, narrow highways and roadways.  If you were reading this when I was in Vermont, it was and hour and a half trip to make 60 miles and that was in good weather.  But I don't mind sneaking in any out with empty trailers lol.

I checked the 4th property. That might have not been such a good move. It's a small property, it's cleaned up but there are giant trees on it and some of them need to come down.  I mean, there is one that is clearly dead. The good thing? It can be felled in the eastern direction and not have to worry about taking down houses, power lines or anything else, the property next door is a vacant lot. I'm going to wait and see if the city sends me any notices about it before proceeding to buy a chainsaw.  They want far too much money to cut them down and I have cut lots of large trees down.  Notch the the side of the direction you want it to fall about 20% into the tree.  Cut a straight line behind the notch.  Pound in wedges on both sides to keep it from falling the wrong direction, then cut the back of it.  Timber!  Okay, I've done it in forests where it didn't matter what direction the tree fell. So I'd start with a smaller tree to make sure I have the technique down.  

The other 2 properties have trees on them, but they aren't "nuisance trees" and do not appear to be in any danger of coming down. One lot needs cleaned up tho.  I'll probably have to do that as well, but that's something I can do without worry about destroying anything lol.  

Okay, we're in a back and forth, me and the manager.  Whatever he's going to come up with, take a deep breath and go deal with whatever the assignment is.  Likely be on the road for several weeks with either scenario.  But whatever, I've been home long enough - I love being home don't get me wrong - reality sinks in that small paychecks don't get me ahead. They may pay the bills but that's it.

In another note of encouragement, however, my 401k's are up to 105k now.  I'm trying to determine what action to take before Biden takes office.  For if he starts decreeing shutdowns and attempting to twist governor's arms or even mayor's arms (as his "plan" allegedly is from what I have read), I have no expectation but that the stock market is going to fall considerably or even crash.  The last crash cost 25k, but I left my stock alone as they advise you to do and it came all the way back up and then some - significantly more actually - in a rather short period of time.  If you're engaging in lockdowns, you are destroying the economy. There is no other way to assess that.  You may be taking the strain off of hospitals, but that is all you are doing, nothing else is accomplished by this besides the destruction of more people's lives through the elimination of life savings, jobs, small business and livelihoods. 

____________

Still waiting on final word of what I'm doing next, but it needs to occur tomorrow. You know, paychecks and things like that? I could stay home forever and love it - but I wouldn't last very long on the amount of money saved up. Guess I could survive 3 years living a very modest life and just paying bills and debt and nothing else. Lol.  I'm 5 plus years away from Social Security, and that's age 62 stuff, where you take a reduction in the amount you get.  I think I have to stay on it until 65 to get full benefits.  No, I don't want to work for someone else until I'm 65, I'm working on it.  

None of the properties I got will support an RV park, so I am relegated to saving as much money as I possibly can before the next auction and hope I can score something with at least 5 acres.  More would be nice, but I can do with 4 or 5.  And preferably not too terribly far from an exit off the Interstate or the major state highway that runs through here.  The land I have now is well off into the future before I can do anything with it, so that's a nonstarter as it stands.  Ie: sell it or put something on it and gain income from it.  RV parks aren't the only way to acquire income, but building houses isn't cheap and if I have to build a house, those properties will be sold, even if it has to be with owner financing.  I saw a mini house on a lot while I was engaged in all of this, apparently the city allows it.  Who would rent a mini house? At the right price, lots of people.  $500 a month, they cover utilities and yard maintenance, I could easily get someone or a small family to rent one out.  

Or just get the minimum dimensions for a site built home and find some way to build it cheaper than what you would normally get away with.  Think handy-man that has knowledge of how to do the entire project getting paid by the hour type of stuff. Still not cheap, but nothing near as expensive as a house built by a contractor.  So I have 3 properties that - can either sit as they are indefinitely besides keeping the lots cleared - or do something with them.  I have no desire to go to the city today and find out what my options are, especially considering it's at least 6 months before I can do anything with any of them.  

I like that lot by the RR tracks tho. That is really a prime location. Walking distance to Lowe's, Kroger's, Chili's and a myriad of small business that cover the spectrum.  It's just that it is literally right next to railroad tracks that makes it a sour grape for a potential renter.   I dunno how often trains come through there, we don't live near that area.  Other than that, it's a quiet street yet is' right near highway 59, but far enough off of it to keep traffic noise limited.  That lot would be my first pick for putting something up, especially since there is already a mobile home on that street.  Yet, zoning ordinances could have changed since that house was placed there.  

Well, I am just in limbo. My manager said he was "checking on it" - whatever's next - and that was an hour ago.

But enough of this particular entry.

G'day.  

 Today's net haul from the auction: 4 properties.  Just housing lots, no houses on them and mostly cleared land.  

It was amazing to see these people at the auction bidding up junk properties, like they hadn't done any research at all. A very small, dilapidated old house that was falling apart? 11k.  Another old house where the roof had caved in and the walls were buckling? 2k.  The house I wanted went up to 15k. I was only able to go up to 10k before I had to bow out of that one.

The 5 acre property that would have made a nice RV park? Bid up to 15.5k, out of my reach.  And a bunch of these lake properties that I wanted nothing to do with.  A lady bought up a bunch of them cheap - but I think she's going to regret that decision.  All of the properties are on a lake, yes, but they are also in an HOA and there are numerous restrictions on them.  It was too risky, IMO, not knowing if there are back payments on all of those properties with the HOA. I was tempted to buy one of them, but I decided it wasn't worth the risk.

Okay, I did impulse buy a 2 acre lot.  It went cheap, I hope I'm not in for a nightmare.  The property has no address attached to it and looking it up online there is no info except the property value at 24k.  Good risk or bad? I'll find out soon enough. I put a call into the tax appraisal district and am awaiting a return call.  

Deeds are sent out in the next several weeks, they informed us, but you can't do anything with those properties for at least 6 months.  

Oh and mobile homes! A giant one, starting bid was $30. Lol. No idea what  condition and not at all interested in buying one without first having a place to put it. The property description plainly stated that it is to be moved, yet these people who were doing "lower bids" were bidding on everything.  

Ahh and I found out what I have. 2 acres - in undivided interest, a 1/6 interest in 12 acres of land.  That means no one person owns the 12 acres and it is divided up between 6 different parties. Sounds like trouble.  More information needed, will be researching that particular subject, never actually heard of it.  

So, that consumed most of the day. It was 37 degrees out there. They don't hold those auctions indoors, they are held outside, in front of the county courthouse.  Rain, shine, snow, hot, cold they do it.  Anyway, I'm going to have to save up much more money to get the property I need if I'm going to do it at one of these lien auctions.  Ok I could have had 7 acres today for 5 grand, but I had already checked that place. Just barren property, no trees, out of the way and not a good location for an rv park. I guess I need about 15 grand to get the size property I need, judging from today's sales and the last time I went.  

Meanwhile I'll be researching what kind of housing I can put on the vacant lots. If I could put a mobile home on any or all of them, that would turn out to be a nice little cash cow eventually.  Rent them out, have a nice steady flow of income.  I don't have money to be building houses on any of these properties. There are those mini-houses, again, I'll have to check zoning in this town, 3 of the properties are within city limites, the undivided one is out in the county, it's all covered with woods, I have no idea if anyone has built anything on it but I bet it's a great hunting area.  Deer, hog and who knows what else.  I was given a phone number for a lady that owns a part of that interest, I will be calling her - after I get my copy of the title. Want that in hand.

One thing today has done. Even tho I didn't get anything I really wanted, I did end up with several properties and paid very little money for them.  I quit at 4, figured I better find out what might happen. The dude that is rich? And buys all of the good ones? He was talking with another man who also knows nothing about this stuff and says it's usually a money making proposition.  Did he get that kind of wealth just doing this? buying and selling these properties?  I figured he spent minimum 150k on dozens of them.  

So I'm a bit enthused about all of this.  Perhaps the beginning of a lucrative new journey? Time will tell. Oh I forgot to throw into this mix: You have to pay right after the auction, lol. And they don't take personal checks or credit or debit cards. You have to either get a money order or get a cashier's check. They give you an hour to do so!  That little tidbit of info isn't stated in the pamphlet they give out to everyone, would be helpful.  For I had thoughts of buying property beyond what I have in the bank and simply taking out a small personal loan to cover it.  Good thing I found out this information, that takes a couple of days to get the money in your bank.  For the right property, yes a small loan of 4 or 5 grand would be worth it.  Pay it off in 3 years - that's what the terms of those loans are I have 2 of them now paying off old credit card debt.  The payments aren't too high.  

Meanwhile, my manager texts me yesterday, strike that: he texts both of us yesterday, the 2 of us that went to Vermont 2 or 3 months ago: any chance you guys would go up there again?  I dunno, it's getting cold up there. And it snows, I do believe.  Beautiful summer retreat, I'm sure. But winters?  Icy and/or snow covered roads.  Not the greatest driving conditions.  

I'm thinking about it tho. Work has slowed considerably.  I asked my manager for a concession tho if I decide to do it:  I need a kitchennette, not a regular hotel room.  I do not want to eat out for weeks at a time. That wastes a lot of time and it gets old.  Sure, eat out here and there but every day?  Go to the local supermarket, buy what I need and cook for myself.  The Marriott Residence Inn in that area would work nicely, thank you.  They had me staying at a Marriott last time, just not a kitchenette type of thing and frankly, I far prefer the Residence Inn.

I guess I'm going to have to make up my mind on that - like tomorrow.  Ugh.  I'll sleep on it.  

 Haven't been posting much, there hasn't been too much new stuff to discuss and I have talked about my trucking life to the nth degree.

However.

Jame's mom/grandma came down for the weekend.  She was looking for something in a hall closet and was looking at the wall. There is the back side of an AC vent that goes down the wall, it's an outlet on the other side of the wall facing the boys room.  It was covered with mold/mildew/  

See, the situation here has been the flooring all over the house has been buckling up.  It continues to get worse.  I kept wondering how it could possibly be the AC drain for condensation after all of this time and mentioned it a few times? I mean, there is only so much water coming out of it, the problem should be isolated and near the area around the central AC unit. Edited. There WAS only so much water coming out of that AC condensation drain, that was dealt with months ago. No water since then, yet the entire house worth of floors excepting my room has continued to have buckled up flooring. 

But even an experienced insurance adjuster had come over and declared it was that as well.  

But we found out last night that that was the furthest thing from the truth and what we found was rather shocking.  See, a tree branch fell off the giant oak tree onto the house like 5 years ago.  It did 12 grand worth of damage. That branch was the side of a tree itself.  They came and put on a new roof, or so we thought.  

No, they didn't put on a new roof. They put on new shingles, yes.  But....

James got the ladder out, came into my room and climbed up into the attic to see what the deal is with the ac vent.  The only way to find out was to get up in there and take a look from the top. He came back down 20 minutes later, visibly agitated.  He got out his camera and said take a look at this.  He had taken a large number of pictures of the roof from the bottom side. There were gaping holes in the plywood.  The roofing company did not fix the damaged wood, they just put shingles over empty space!  That was shocking.  For a reputable roofing company that is widely respected in this area?  

Let me just say I've never heard of a roof being replaced without fixing any wood issues underneath it and especially with a tree that has fallen and damaged the wood.  

There is FAR more damage to this house than just some water under the flooring.  This from an unscrupulous roofer who charged for everything but didn't do everything.  There was black mold on the wood where water had seeped in through the holes every time it rains.  yes, BLACK MOLD.  This all of a sudden made MUCH more sense.  The entire house, literally, has flooring buckling up and we really couldn't understand why it was doing that.  I mean, we had accepted the ac unit theory in the absence of any better reason to explain why the hardwood floors are literally starting to lift up from the wood it rests on underneath. 

Lord only knows what kind of black mold might be under there or in the walls.  All of that water is coming from the roof, through the attic, down the walls and into the flooring.  I'm literally ready to move out of here.  Like, call the insurance adjuster tomorrow morning - which is Monday - and get some emergency action going here to rent a house and get the bleep out of here.  No wonder people are having respiratory problems and allergy conditions going in here.  I'm telling you, I do not want to live in a house with black mold.  They will have to tear down the roof, parts of the ceiling, as much wall/drywall and rip up literally all of the flooring to fix this mess. 

You can bet that isn't going to happen overnight. We are literally going to have to move out of this house to have this damage repaired.  And what is going to happen with that roofing company is unknown.  They want to call the insurance adjuster and get his thoughts on what to do next first.  Whatever, but we need an immediate plan of action.  I feel like I'm breathing in poison being in here now, especially knowing that there are several holes right above my bedroom.  Again, how do you put shingles over nothing and sleep well at night taking that kind of money?  Is this some standard in the industry to do this? I've really never heard of not replacing bad or missing plywood, you do all of that first and make sure you have a solid roof before you put down any shingles, yes? 

I guess I"ll have to look it up, but I feel like the insurance adjuster might know - tho this guy missed the mold in the closet so who knows.  

I can't even imagine the price tag to fix all of this after all is said and done. An entire house' worth of flooring? A whole new roof again plus removing all mold laden wood and replacing it?  Walls? Ceiling? Other damage we don't even know about?  That's 30 to 40 grand minimum.  Probably a lot more than that.  Paying for another house and utilities.  Really I can see double that money or even more.  Almost to the point of replacing the whole house.  Because that's really what you're doing with that much damage.  

So we were all reeling with thoughts in our brains of the aftermath of all of this.  What if insurance doesn't pay for it, citing the faulty roofer and going after them instead? but I think the insurance company paid the roofer directly, if  that's true then that's not going to happen. I doubt the insurance company complicit in this matter, not fixing a problem correctly the first time will lead to greater costs down the road.  if they are going to cover the damage, then they should insure that the damage is corrected the first time.  

The only good thing is if this house is basically rebuilt from the flooring on up, you basically are getting a new house for nothing.  So in that sense, that would be worth the trouble.  This house has hardwood everywhere, including crown molding on the ceilings and wood around everything really.  Expensive stuff.  Hardwood flooring is some of the most expensive flooring there is.  

This is s developing situation.  Hopefully know more tomorrow.  

Thanksgiving was fun.  Was glad I was home for it.  Food was great, company was great, a few games as well.  I went to Brownsville the next morning - no detention pay to be found there with fully 3 empty trailers available and I was the only driver coming down.  That's 4 trips in a row down there with no detention.  Guess I best alter my view of that run. The money is good enough tho with the miles and being only a 2 day run.

I got up 4:10 next morning, got on the road and  100 miles up the road?  A bunch of warning lights came on, including a stop sign and a constant, loud, incessant ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding noise going off.  I've had this happen before, it went off. Then came back, on, off and on and so forth for a while and then? I just stayed on. I stopped at a Love's and checked the fluid, everything good there.  I could smell exhaust in the truck.  After contacting my manager, I stopped at the TA in Ganado and they did a diagnostic on it - an EGR valve and something they couldn't fix.

Lovely.  I already knew what was going to be requested of me.  Drive it back.  I had already driven 150 miles with that dinging noise, 300 to go.   Sure enough, the manager contacted the lead mechanic, who said it wouldn't be a problem to drive it back in that condition. What that meant was it wouldn't cause any more damage to the truck. It did NOT mean that I wouldn't have to suffer some ridiculous amounts of noise and having to leave the windows open the entire trip back.

If it had been the previous manager? She would have found a shop to take it to and I would have sat there until they fixed it and not subject me to that kind of utter bs.  

Whatever.  I toughed it out, put in my earphones and tried to drown out the noise as much as possible for the entire trip.  By the time I got back to the yard I was highly annoyed and irritated.  Good thing there wasn't anyone there.  I was in no mood.  Foregone conclusion the run I was supposed to go on today was given to someone else, no way I was going to just say sure, I'll take that run! with that thing like that, they won't fix it until Monday.  And win or lose, I am still intent on going to that auction.   I'm just going to take some more vacation time to make up for what should have been another run to help buffer the next pay period.  

So, last night I got out a bag of navy beans, dumped them in a pot of water and then today made delicious navy bean soup with the ham bone left over from Thanksgiving. Absolutely delicious.  

Tomorrow I'm going to the city to find a listing of condemned properties and also any properties with liens on them and compare them to the properties I want to potentially buy.  I'm reading this paper with the properties on it as tho there are potentially other liens on these properties as well. That doesn't really make any sense to me, why wouldn't they include all of that on the sale? So you could get hit with a backdoor assessment of thousands of dollars for removing buildings or upkeep. 

More research I'd like to get in before going to the auction 2 days from now.  But there are certain properties that obviously have no violations, were not condemned and have not had any kind of city intervention. Such as the house I'd like to get.  Or the 5 acre property south of town. It's never been developed and I don't think it's even in the city limits.  Another property I'm not so sure about and a couple of others that may have had houses on them and potentially were cleaned up by the city.  

  I'm just trying to get some Christmas shopping done well in advance.  Not sure what my son wants. He always asks for movie theater gift cards but is Arizona even allowing people to go to the theaters? I'll have to look that up. Mom is taken care of, my oldest brother will get his normal thing.  Then there's the boys and James and Taylor here and that's probably going to be the extent of my Christmas stuff this year. I didn't even buy anything for myself on Black Friday.  I wanted a much larger screen monitor for my desktop but the one I wanted was sold out shortly after it was put up for sale.  

Spending money - besides investing in property - doesn't seem to be a good idea right now.  I've set a limit to what I will spend on property, I can't deplete my entire savings, gotta leave something in there for emergencies/fallback.  But I have some funds that I think I can get something if people don't bid stuff up higher than what it should be at an auction.  Enough for one post.  

G'day.  

 Hmmm, looks like I made several drafts and posted none of them, lol.

It's the day before Thanksgiving, supposedly several people are coming over tomorrow.  At this point, I  hope so because we are going to have a lot of food to eat.  The 22 pound turkey I got for free for spending $125 at Kroger's, that wasn't intentional, I just ended up buying a lot of stuff because I hadn't been grocery shopping in a while.  So that was nice. And of course got another rib roast - this is the time of year to get one at a cheaper price.

Today - went out with taylor around town getting stuff we needed.  She is back in the unemployed column after realizing the job she took just wasn't her cup of tea.  Putting up with rude customers on the phone isn't for everyone.  

Anyway, I had asked for Thanksgiving off but got a call on the way up from Brownsville yesterday that he didn't have enough drivers to cover everything and needed me to work.  I wasn't real happy about it, but I couldn't tell him no so I just ended up taking the run.  He was going to get me a 6:30 load time, which would have me back at the house by around 9 am, so it wasn't going to be that bad and Taylor has decided she is going to cook the turkey.  I was going to smoke a ham, but after that news decided I would just play it by ear. If I get back early enough, I figured, I could still do it. Hams are already cooked, just smoking and glazing it is probably only a couple of hours worth of cooking.

But, a few hours later, he called again.  Another driver who had originally wanted Thanksgiving off had changed his mind and wanted the run I was going to get if I wanted to let it go. Yup, I let it go.  I will pay for it, I'm sure, at Christmas time.  I try to alternate each year.  Last year I was home for Christmas and out for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is really the social party thing they have here, so I kind of enjoy that more.  Christmas is just a day at home, family thing, open presents, eat a big breakfast and that's it.  I'll miss being here, of course, but I made my choices and now will live with it lol.

Nothing really "new" going on.  The front yard was looking disastrous so I decided to mow it - aiming the outlet the same direction so that the leaves would blow out towards the street - the entire mowing session.  This was considerably easier than waiting until all the leaves fall off the tree and having to spend hours raking it.  Not to mention the bottom layer of leaves start to decompose - they get wet from rain and get covered up with other leaves - making it 10 times more difficult to get the stuff out of the grass.

I hadn't really tried that method before but it worked swimmingly.  There are still a lot of leaves left to fall, I'll just do that again in a few weeks and probably a final time after they are all down.  It would be really nice if Mother Nature would just have them all fall off at once.....just sayin'.  

Other drivers yesterday at the office were complaining - again - about Chenier and about the driver who refuses to learn how to unload.  I'm pretty much staying out of those conversations now, it's the same story, old, worn out and the driver gets away with it.  That's really on management.  And, apparently, we lost the Mapleton account.  The guy that distributes the loads to our and other companies apparently was pissed off that our company fired our previous manager and this was his way of showing us his dissatisfaction. 

That's his right, I suppose, but that is one of our better runs.  I was wondering what had happened to it, I hadn't seen or heard of anyone going there in quite a while.  The only thing stopping those other companies from grabbing even more of our work is the fact that they don't have the trailers to do anymoe with.  Those trailers are around 350k a piece, it's quite the investment.  I dunno, but if we start losing more contracts, they are going to have to get rid of drivers, there will be too many of us.  How they would determine who gets the axe is unknown to me, but I am guessing they would simply offer a spot in a different division, take it or leave it.  Personally, I would leave it.

Those other divisions aren't out of my area and I would be on the road for weeks at a time.  Up to a month.  No thanks.  I'd take it temporarily, of course, until I found something that is close to home and gets me home frequently.  My aspirations of doing fuel delivery have been kind of nixed after finding out what they are paid.  Tho Gemini - the company that hauls fuel for Love's travel stops - pays around 75k per year. I could deal with that but the terminal is 60 miles away. That's a long drive every day just to get to work.  

I'm keeping my eyes out for a decent, local job is all I can say about that.  In case it comes down to that.  

 Home.  Drove late last night, made it back to Smith's Grove - amazingly enough, at least in my mind it was - got up this morning and headed out.  His a traffic snarl that had no visible ending, I thought I was screwed there. It was a 10 minute backup, but not enough to stop me from cranking 684 miles down the highway and getting this trip over with. 

I didn't figure I would be working tomorrow and I was right. I don't have a run until Monday.  That's a Brownsville run and I can only hope for detention pay since we are in a slow period right now and the amount of work is coming up short.  

But I'm not going to complain about a weekend off.  I didn't ask for it, but I'll take it. I did ask for Thanksgiving and the 1st of December off - in exchange I'd work Christmas.  Yup, I'd rather have Thanksgiving off since that's a social event. Christmas is just family here and tho it's nice to be home for it, there will be lots of people over here on T-day and I just think that's more fun.  

My manager said it shouldn't be a problem.  I figured I could seal it by offering to work Christmas.  So, hopefully this comes to pass and I get that day off for the auction as well.  Really hoping I score on at least one of those properties.  House or land, doesn't matter which, really, I'd prefer the house that's close to where I live, but if I got any of the properties I'd like to get, I'd be happy.  

And Kroger's has Rib Roast on sale, thankfully.  I buy 2 of them at least every year, cook one and freeze the other.  And turkey's for .37 a pound if you buy at least $25 worth of other stuff. That's easy lol.  

Well, not going to go on too long, it's midnight and I'm just glad to be home : ) 

 Last night was rather horrible.

First, was the 2 hour delay on I-30 between Texarcana and Little Rock.  We were going so slow for so long, I was actually able to do the 8 hour reset.  

By the time I got to the accident scene, they were loading up the tractors - 2 semi trucks collided - onto tow trucks.  The trailers were apparently already gone, if there were trailers but assuming so.  

The aftermath of what happened was astounding.  The entire front end of both tractors were completely gone.  I'm not talking about a hood ripped off, I'm talking the frame, engine, hood, everything.  One of the trucks the cab was also smashed.  Well beyond anything anyone could guess as survivable.  Strange, tho, how you see stuff like that and find out later on the driver lived.  

In all of my years of driving, I can't recall anything quite that bad.  I've seen pictures online of horrific accidents, but nothing like this in person.  I have to wonder if the engines were smashed into the cabs? I really have to wonder how this accident happened, like it was a head-on collision at high rate of speed but how do you have that on an Interstate?  Someone going the wrong way?  I'm going to try and look it up and see if I can find out what happened.

After that - and losing 2 hours - I just drove.  I never did get a break. Like, stop and take a nap type of thing?  The only stop was to use the bathroom quickly and to get fuel.  After I got fuel I started looking for a place to park. But it was late and tho I expected it would be difficult to find a parking spot, I didn't think it would be that hard.  Every single truck stop was completely full.  Major brand truckstops and mom and pops alike, all filled up.  I was on I-40 in between Memphis and Nashville, something like a 200 mile stretch.  

After 100 miles of this and getting close to Nashville, I decided to stop, put on my 16 hour exception and drive to Cross Plains - north of Nashville off I-65 - a place I have stopped at many times before and hope that I could find something. No way was I going to make it to Smiths Grove after losing all that drive time on the Interstate.  I got there - here actually - and there was nothing.  But, there is a side street and I decided I was going to risk it. There were no no-parking signs there and I had no more options.  16 minutes left on the drive clock, the app showing the rest area and truck stops further up the road full, the only other place would be Smiths Grove - another 48 miles up the road.  

So here I am.  Another 40 minutes or so - it's almost noon - and I can leave here, get up to South Charleston, drop and hook, get out of there and get headed back.  I dunno how far I'll make it, staying up so late last night messed with my head and not feeling 100% today.  

Meanwhile, my manager pushing me to go to Bozrah, Connecticut.  Likely he's under pressure to find at least a couple of drivers to drop what they're doing - literally - and fly over there for a 2 week minimum tour.  $300 per day guaranteed, hotel, car, all of that stuff again.  The thing is, it will take at least a week if not longer to adequately learn how to fill and drain the trucks with any level of expertise and not risk screwing up at a hospital or plant where you can cause death, injury and destruction by doing things wrong.  I'm not comfortable with that - at all. They want to rush the training process. 3 or 4 days! I'm being told, while the trainer that I had started with and spent 2 day with said minimum 2 weeks, usually 3.  

I could possible see a week - I was starting to get the hang of it.  And tho I remember a lot of it from what I learned, I'd have to start over.  I also got a call from another driver last night saying the manager is personally texting everyone to go.  I mean, he's got to be under a lot of pressure to be going to that much trouble trying to find people.  Obviously it's a lucrative account if they can fork out that much money - airfare, food, hotel, car rental, training, guaranteed minimum pay - and still make a profit.  That driver is the one that also went up to Vermont who flatly refused.  

I just said I"d have to talk about it with family  - and while we're at it can I have Thanksgiving and December 1st off?  The manager was quick to reply to my texts with questions about going to Bozrah, he completely disappeared after asking that, lmao.  So, I may not get Thanksgiving ofF, which would be a bummer of sorts since now, all of a sudden, a whole house full of people are coming.  I enjoy cooking or helping cook Thanksgiving dinner.  Smoke a ham, bake a turkey, make a side, let everyone else bring a side dish or dessert.  

I'm guessing I'm not going to be having that off, which means I will force my way into being home for Christmas.  

But I realllly want December 1st off, thats the auction day and I went to all of that trouble to check everything out, I'd like to have at least the chance to bid on a few properties.  I won't be disappointed if I don't win anything, but I would be disappointed if I couldn't at least go.  I suppose I could have someone go in my place and just put maximum bid amounts  on any properties I would really like to have.  

Well, it's closing in on time to leave, gotta get offa here, do my paperwork and get ready to roll.

G'day.  

 So, my manager put out a text to all drivers in our division. There's only like 13 or 14 of us, not as many as it might sound.  It's the "holiday season" and as normal, business is slowing down.  Well, that's partly true.  Some of the plants shut down to do yearly scheduled maintenance.  It isn't that they are stopping production because of a lack of demand for the product they make.  

I know our 2 biggest accounts do that annually.  And the Mapleton does it as well, but I have to wonder if they are doing it this year since they basically just reopened after replacing every single valve in the plant, according to them.  

Whatever the case, he was pleading with people to head over to Massachusetts for a tour of helping out with a plant over there.  I was at that plant when I went to Vermont this year.  It is a huge operation.  It's oxygen and nitrogen being delivered all over the region including parts of NYC and Boston.  The streets in that region are narrow and aren't exactly truck friendly.  They countered for that by getting shorter trailers, but still.  I wouldn't want to do it now for a couple of reasons. First, you aren't even going to be able to go out on your own for at least 2 weeks, possibly 3, while you are in training.  Second, you are living in a hotel and while that's nice for a while, it gets old and third, there isn't a lot of decent restaurants nearby and you have to waste a lot of personal time going to find places to eat at.

Of course, if I ever do anything like what I did in Vermont again, I'm going to ask for a kitchenette and cook my own food and not have to fool around with going to restaurants every single day.  But I have zero intentions of doing any of that this winter.  Now, that may change of course, especially if work slows down so much that my paychecks are so thin that I can't cover bills with it.  Just that you end up in places that are frigid cold, snowy and not a pleasant or ideal working environment during the winter.  

At least that answers why I've been doing so much sitting lately besides the cheniere fiasco.  And not seeing alot of drivers texting that they are loading.  So, even tho I hate elongated trips, I am glad I have something to make a bit of money in this run today going to West Virginia.  I'm just going to cut back on "recreational" expenditures and tighten up the ship and buy only stuff I need, the want list will go out the window excepting to buy presents for Christmas. 7 people I can think of to buy for, 2 of them are a married couple and I only send them one present every  year, the same thing, Omaha steak package.  2 are kids - the boys here - they are young and I can buy cheap toys that they won't understand are - cheap toys.  Now for James and Taylor?

I actually have something in mind that may be a bit pricier, but something that they would both enjoy and would give them some away time.  Hot Springs is one of their favorite places to do mini vacations.  It's about 3 hours away and is not too far from Grandma's house - the boys can go to grandma's while they go enjoy a 2 or 3 day vacation together.  That pretty much just entails getting them a hotel room and help with expenditures. There are, of course, other things I could get them but I can tell ya, this house is full. There isn't much room for anything else.  

I dunno if I"ll do that, yet, I have plenty of time. I'd like to see how work plays out in the next coming days.  I am also potentially going to spend most of my savings on a piece of land if I can get December 1st off, get to the auction and actually have the winning bid on something.  I've narrowed that list down to about 7 properties that I would like to have.  Oh, wait, no it's more than that. There are 3 properties with at least 5 acres but they're outside of town. 15 to 20 miles away range.  That would be something for the RV park dream.  Or, get the property, sell it and use that money to buy something a bit closer and easier to manage.  

I'd really like to score at least one property regardless of whether it's land or a house.  

Noon loading time, ugh.

Okay,off to the races.

G'day.  

 So, I've spent hours both combing over properties for sale in the tax lien list last night and this morning and then going out and viewing a lot of them. The properties that are vacant lots I didn't bother with, I don't need a vacant lot and lots are plentiful in this city, there is no huge demand for them. If I were a construction contractor building homes, then yes.  

I was all over this city. I saw home that had been deteriorating for years, roofs caved in and falling apart, homes that were condemned by the city - big orange signs on the sides of the houses and several either workable or even decent homes. 

One of which stood out.  About a half mile away from where I live, the entire outside of the house looked in great shape.  It's on a narrow side street. Not a lot of traffic, nice quiet living.  The inside? Well you take a chance and yes you'll probably have to fix stuff, but that's a granted with buying homes at a fraction of the cost they are normally worth.  But as long as the roof is in good shape, I'm taking  a further look at them.  Homes are old in this area.  Letting them go and not maintaining them means probably faster than normal deterioration, age coupled with rain/weather all the time.

You have a bad roof and don't fix that right away? I'm not fooling with it.  I saw a 2 story house, the startin bid around a ground.  but it didn't look good.  Just trashy appearance and falling apart facades, the roof questionable I opted against that one.

Remember, I originally started this search as a search for property for an RV park.  It expanded after I saw all the houses on the lots from satellite view and the starting bids extremely low.  But due diligence required, you buy a condemned house, you are going to have to pay to have it torn down and then what? You have an empty lot, basically worthless. About the only thing I could see is a community garden type of thing.  I saw one of those in a little neighborhood, it was pretty cool.  They had nice seating in the midle of it and flowers and plants all over. No structures on the property. 

But I don't have time for that and that isn't my objective atm.  A 3 plot stretch of land available on a semi major street - with a small business still operating on it. I had to look at the maps again to ensure I was looking at the right plots of land.  Someone had placed one of those tiny houses on it and started a business.  How they are doing that on property that is up for tax lien sale is unknown, perhaps they paid the back due taxes and it's actually nixed off the list.

And then, I drove south of town and out into the country.  There I found the 5 acre lot that I was hoping would have nothing but trees on it - and I was not let down.  Heavily wooded, but small trees, nothing a rented bulldozer couldn't easily take down, that's how I see them clearing land in these parts.  It's a perfect setting for an RV park.  Off the beaten trail but roads good enough for trailers and RV's to get in and out of. I dunno about water and sewer tho.  There are houses in the vicinity, I didn't see any wells but that doesn't mean they don't have them.  Electricity is there at least.  

The 22 acre lot - I'll have to go to the county courthouse to find out where that's at, it isn't listed on any of the online documents.  Everyone will be interested in that, of course, no real hope of getting a property that big, but the bidding is starting low in the 2 grand range.  If the rich people show up like that did the last one I went to, I dunno what I might end up getting if anything besides buying vacant lots that have no real value.  Perhaps, if the city allows mobile homes on them, I could do something with them, but cities generally have specific zoning for mobile homes and usually limited to mobile home parks.  

The plot of land that is at least promising is outside of the city limits.  There are other plots further east I just didn't feel like exploring, I was out there for quite a while, time to come home.  

Oh, the 5  year old last night. He obviously knew he was in trouble and was going between crying and bawling fits without anyone saying anything at all to him.  He lied to his dad about punching the other one in the face.  That was not the best move to make, considering there was an eyewitness that saw him do it.  He eventually admitted to doing it after dad kept saying if he didn't tell the truth, punishment would be 10 times worse than what it will be if he just comes clean.  

His punishment was no TV, sit in his room for 3 days and yes, that set him off into celestial bouts of crying and insane, hyper sobbing.  Mom and dad went outside, I was sitting there eating, he looked at me and said "you're not my friend any more, we aren't friends".  I just looked at him, got up out of my seat and moved to the kitchen to finish eating. He can still see and talk to me, was just making the point.  He went back into a hysteria after realizing that probably wasn't the best thing to say, either, started choking on his food and then he started throwing up.  All over the table.  Huge lines of snot coming out of his nose, it was pretty gross.  I cleaned him up with paper towels, but he was to sit there until he finished eating per parent's decree and I wasn't going to change that.  

So that's been my day.  Now I have to try and secure the 1st of December off. I don't want to have spent this time doing all this work and not even go to the auction to have the opportunity to at least try and get a winning bid.  Preferably either on the house nearby or the land south of town. Or both lol, that would be an amazing haul.  Actually I'd prefer that small house if I had to make a choice, it would be a fast turn around to start getting income from it - after the 180 day wait of course.  That's one of the drawbacks - you can't do anything with the property for 180 days, the owners can come along, pay everything up and redeem the property, get it back and -  you are paid 20% of what you paid plus what you paid.  It's not likely that a property where they couldn't find an heir is going to have anyone showing up to pay the taxes on it.  

Well enough of this one.  

 So, in an attempt to at least get myself on some kind of movement towards goal here, I printed out and filled out the form the realtor wanted me to sign, was approved to go look at the property and drove on out there.  About 6 miles out of town off a 2 lane highway that I know quite well, I parked next to the highway and walked up the very long driveway to view everything.  

On the way up, I heard the sound of water and noted a small creek running through it, the listing claims it runs year round.  There is also a water company that has piping out at the road, another huge plus, don't have to find water and dig a well.

At the top of the drive, around the corner, the pad came into view. Yes it's large, but the area surrounding it is larger.  I walked around, heard some machinery from the operation next door.  It's the same company with the pad on the property, but that pad has buildings and running fans and such.  The noise not loud and couldn't hear it on the far side of the pad - where there is more property and a place to clear out a dwelling space.  After probably 30 minutes of looking around, I looked at my email on my phone.

The realtor was giving specific instructions how to get out there, of which I didn't need, and then proceeded to say he had an offer at list price and probably would be under contract by this evening.  

It figures.  This has been my luck in finding land out here.  I suspect someone had been hemming and hawing about buying it and then the realtor probably got a hold of them and said, look, I have a real prospective buyer en queue, if you want this land, you're going to need to act now.  That's my guess, cause the listing isn't new.  

Okay, acting a bit more proactively, I just called the county tax assessor's office. The next tax lien sale is december 1st.  They didn't have  it up online, even tho they told me it was.  So I can come down there and get the list? Yes sir.  And miraculously, the new sale list is up online! lmao.  Ohhh and SEVERAL properties WELL within my budget for starting bids. I mean, I could bid on some of those for a while before having to fall out if it came to that.  If I can get that day off, I am going to go.

In other news, the boys went over to Maria's at her behest last night when I told Taylor I'd be home today and can watch them.  She wanted them over there for whatever reasons so she got them. And now? I just received a picture of the 3 year old's face covered in blood.  The 5 year old punched him in the face.  This isn't the first time those boys have gone over there and gotten into trouble.  I'm not sure what it is about Maria's place and them acting out, but it's turning into a pattern now.  The 5 year old is well out of character in punching his brother like that.  I've seen them get into mild shoving contests but never a fisticuffs brawl.  

The 5 year old is also going to be in serious trouble when both dad and mom get off of work. I suspect a good spanking, an extended time out, sitting on the couch will be his deal for a while.  The 5 year old's excuse? "Jaxon wouldn't catch the ball".  Jaxon is 3 years old. His attention span is that of a gnats.  He isn't as coordinated and gets frustrated easily.  Even if he didn't want to play catch, that is no reason for the other boy to punch him smack dab in the face.  

Back to lien properties.  Cause' I found the site that actually processes the tract numbers, comes up with info on taxes going back decades and also shows a map.  I couldn't find this site last time i was looking and I couldn't even see what I would have been bidding on and therefore didn't know where the property was or what kind of property it is.  Because what I don't want is one of the thousands of properties with gas wells on them in this region. They are literally everywhere, they have easements and you can't do anything with that portion of the property on your property. The people that sold these easements made their money off of it, now I guess they don't care what happens.

Anyway, the largest tract of land has no address and no location attached to it, no map available to view of it.  So how do you find out where it is?  I'll have to go down to the courthouse and ask them about that one.  Anyway, of the tracts with at least 5 acres on it, all of them sans 1 are completely wooded properties. They are all in the 1 to 3 thousand dollar range for starting bid.  They all appear to have access by either regular roads or forest roads.  Forest roads are easements and yes, you can drive on them.  Sometimes, these properties are in the middle of other properties, completely surrounded.  If there is no road or easement, you can't get to it without one of the property owner's permission.  And in these parts? Good luck with that, this is Texas and people don't want strangers on their land for any reason.  

Oh this is exciting! I can look at the satellite view of the properties, see what town they are located in, how much of it is wooded and cleared and if I'm interested or not.  I can tell ya right now, any properties completely wooded I am completely interested in. Any properties that have been completely cleared of trees I have zero interest in, except perhaps to buy and attempt to resell.  Ohhh there's so many of them that would make an excellent site for an RV park.  I don't even know how you would go about finding out the county requirements for zoning or such for such a land, or if they even care. From what I've seen, they don't care, but those parks are probably old as the hills and around long before any of the newer type of regulatory reaching that the government engages in.  

Even if not for RV park, resell potential.  The county evaluation of the properties is well beyond what the starting bids are and those evaluations are usually well short of market value. 

Oh well.  Just something to delve into now that I have found out how to get the relevant information at my fingertips without having to stand in a tax assessor's office for hours, looking up propertiesin their books.  

And there are small tracts in the city here.  They call this place a city, I call it a town, but whatever.  But again, I don't know what the zoning is on any of it and without that knowledge I don't know what you could put on those little tracts. Their just normal, house sized city lots. A mobile home put on one of them, fix it up nice and rent it out.  Or even sell it owner finance.  The possibilities....... 

 What kind of magic tricks does the Trump attorney team have up it's sleeve? They are claiming that the software used in Dominion ballot counting machines was made by a person that is on the Biden election team and that it was used to discard "millions of ballots".  That lady is appearing on some news circuits, but I doubt you will see her being interviewed on any mainstream media. Perhaps Tucker Carlson would take it up, but he's not "real" journalism.  I dunno, but their time is quickly running out, they best be getting with it if they think they really have a solid case with irrefutable facts to prove it.  Once the election is confirmed, they can squabble all they want, Biden will be the President and there isn't anything they will be able to do about it.  I have kept an open mind about software issues because of the state where the officials admitted that over 6,000 votes that were supposed to go to Trump ended up going to Biden, but that they had given them back to Trump and they tried to claim - rather weak and feeble argument - that "elections officials should catch it" by using data that shows how the precinct normally votes.  

Really? That is how you think such issues should be caught?  How about experts looking at the software and seeing if there are any issues in the software itself? Or intentional malware or software that is designed to dump votes to a given party?  That would be my FIRST thought if I were an election official.  And with the allegations coming out, I wouldn't call the company that designed the software, I would be calling independent experts to come in and take it apart and scrutinize every last line of code, if even possible before the election results are officially announced.  

So, as far as I am seeing it, we still have a major issue with this election.  It may or may not end up in Trump's favor, but it's certainly worth investigating and now, post haste.

Having said that, I'm prepared for whatever outcome, regardless of what anti-trump people say about trump supporters. Most of us are not whack jobs, illiterate, stupid, morons and lame-brains as these people continually say we are.  We won't riot in the streets and there will be no max exodus to some other country as the claims by a large number of "famous" people made before the 2016 election. To my knowledge, only one of them actually left.  I'm watching the Georgia run-offs, that's what I can say.  

I go by lots of RV parks, changing the subject, all the time.  Most of them are in county areas, outside of any towns or cities and obviously not highly regulated.  90% of them are run down affairs that have nothing but dirt driveways, overgrown weeds and grass, pretty gaudy looking places, yet they all are at least half full.  I'm guessing people living there, paying low monthly rates, but not all of them.  You see newer looking RV's parked in some of these places.

Just thinking. I don't want a run down affair, but it also appears it doesn't have to be anything near the extravagance I was initially thinking of.  A destination place would have to have a lot of amenities most of these parks don't have.  But starting out, it doesn't have to be a destination place.  It does have to have some extra land available to allow for activities such as 4 wheeling, picnics away from the RV's, playground, water features, perhaps fishing, stuff that has more than just a place to park.  

Regardless, from the looks of these RV parks, the outlay of money is the land more than anything.  It would be greatly helpful if there is a water supply and sewer nearby to hook into - versus a well and a huge septic system that would cost a lot of money.  There is a large property available just outside of town that is reasonably priced and already has a pad that could be converted into an RV park.  $114,000 for the property.  

The property would afford for the RV park and plenty of acreage outside of it for a house and living.  It's definitely in county territory, well enough outside of town and it appears to have access to utilities.  I'm looking into that one.  Yes, I know I said I wanted to do a tax lien auction, but I'm not opposed to buying the land on contract/payments if the price isn't too high.  I believe this was around 50 acres.  

If you can't tell, I'm itching to get out from under large corporations and the chains attached to working for them. It's just time to amp this up and see what can be done now, versus 3 or 4 years from now, having to save up so much money to afford this project.  I never thought this would be easy, just click a few buttons and walaah, I've got my new business.  But it's been a far more daunting and elusive goal than I ever thought it would be.  Land is the biggest obstacle at the moment, if'when I get land, there will be other obstacles, but one step at a time.  

Okay, I received a return email from the realtor of that property. It's outside of the city - I had to ascertain that before anything else, I don't want to deal with city codes, regulations, ordinances and stipulations, that just ends up costing a lot more money, a lot more legal help, not worth it.  Now I've asked him about the grey pad.  But I found some pics, definitely appears to have been a gas well operation, this area has thousands of them around.  But the equipment has been cleared off the land, it would make a perfect lot for an RV park.  The surrounding land is full of trees and there is a running stream going through the property.  Access is right off a highway that takes you from my town to the bigger town 2 towns over.  It's 40 acres, not 50 but the price is really reasonable.  

So now, my question was about that pad.  Are there any lingering EPA issues or government issues that need to be addressed? 

And just like that, hopes dashed.  There is an active well on the next property over, but the pad on the property in question  is still being used by the gas company, apparently, and they have that as an easement.  That property might be worth half as much as they are asking with an easement that large on it.  I could still do an RV park with that property, but not at that price.  There is plenty of land around the pad, but the pad is huge.  You've got all of that land that you can't do anything with.  

I'll keep looking.  Still waiting on them to put out an end of year post for tax lien sale.  Looking daily on the county tax assessor's site for that.  They don't apparently, normally, give you much time to do any research on the properties they are trying to get sold.  

Hmm, well I'm going to go take a look at that land anyway, since I was given permission and it's not too far away.  I was not given the run for today as I was promised so I have free time to spare, tho I need to continue hauling dirt off the side of the house. Maybe do 7 loads of that today and get that pile reduced a bit.  The land, however, I would maybe offer less than 2 grand an acre versus the over 2-1/2 grand an acre they are asking.  There's just too much easement in it.  

Anyways, offa here.  

 Well my manager never sent the Brownsville - or any other - run.  So I'll bide my time and hope I get one sent for Tuesday. It's Sunday night.  

The final day of quarantine for the boys is tomorrow and then they can go back to daycare/kindergarten.  Trust me, it's time for them to go.  Get around other kids, get some socialization going on their own level at their own thinking grade.  

I dunno, but I was going to watch them tomorrow - for whatever reason Maria insisted they go over to her place.  Fine by me, I'll have the day to go get some new blue jeans and other shopping I've been needing to do.  Just that Phoenix will not get his school work done being over there.  

I finally hit 100k in my investments. Yes I know, that's not even close to being enough to retire on, but in my lifetime that's a significant milestone.  In fact, the only way I"m going to be able retire comfortably is either through real estate or learning enough about investing in the stock market that I can see types of business that have a future and invest in them before they become a thing.  Or both, coupled with 401k and whatever's left of SS by the time I get to that age, providing I even make it to that age.  Had to add that last part. I see so much death and destruction on the nation's highways, life ending in a glimpse of a moment, people's lives ended or invariably changed.  I'm going to do a trust and tomorrow would be a good day to look into doing that.  I've given a lot of thought to it.  Some of it to my son, some of it to my friends I live with, other options for the rest.   

I was only in the 50k range when I first started working at current company. A trump presidency with roaring stock market and making significantly more money have almost doubled that amount in 3 years. It's time to start looking at the future with a Biden presidency.  I was going to hit the stop button on stocks but I need to see what advisors are saying about 401k and what the best options are.  

My son's - soon to be ex - wife has changed her name back to her maiden name on Facebook. Just weird to see that. The rather pricy refrigerator I bought for THEM, not her, she will have to pay me back for it.  I have come to that conclusion.  Nothing against her personally, but I bought that for them, as a couple, looking forward to a future with children and a home. I have never even bought a refrigerator like that for myself.  it's that or I can have it moved to my house which isn't far from where "their" house is.  I don't want to judge, been there done that, but I literally just bought that thing for them and it's already ending?  No thanks.  

I'm going to have to make a trip back there soon.  I try to make it once a year, but we've got this Covid crap and I don't know what I can even do over there right now.  And now at least one state is announcing draconian lockdowns. State of Washington is going back to the same conditions the nation did that lead to the economic crises earlier this year.  I suspect other states will follow suit. New York, California, who knows where else. 

Whatever the case, enough for one entry. 

 2cd load done.  3rd load - was never sent. Still daylight in the day, could still happen. It was supposed to be a Brownsville run for tomorrow.  I'm not going to say anything if he doesn't give me it or another run.  But it's only 2:00 pm so I'm still thinking I might get that run or another.  Regardless, I'd like to know so I can prepare.  Or, not prepare, stay home and watch the boys tomorrow and save them some money on child care.  

Maria isn't charging a huge amount per day, but at the same time, she doesn't get much opportunities to earn some extra money and have a bit of spending money on her hands.  She wanted $200 for the week - with me having had watched the boys 1 of the days, so 4 days.  Rene - on the other hand - would charge $20 or less per day, thought it a joy to watch the kids and didn't have issues with it. Rene had a few redeeming qualities out of all of the nonsense.  But when it came to my dogs, she thought it was worth a giant fortune. 

Whenever she would bring up paying extravagant amounts per week to her for watching the dogs, I would simply respond that I would leave them at home from now on, James will watch them.  And, as evidenced by the last several months, he will and does.  She literally thought I should pay $150 to $200 per week for watching dogs. So, she was willing to watch the kids at half the price or less, but dogs? Charge WAYYY more! lmao

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have dogs if I had to pay that much every week to have them tended to.  Yes, I know kennels are expensive, I don't use kennels lol.

So anyway, the 2 - Maria and Taylor - were trying to agree ot how much she should get paid (I interjected a couple of times that y'all should have figued this out beforehand so there's no hard feelings) when James came home from work.  After all the bantering about pay, James was discussing the text messages he had gotten from Taylor and subsequently me about eating out tonight.  Of course, Maria took issue with that.  She takes issue with everything.  She privately told Taylor as she was leaving that if you can afford to go out to eat, you can afford to pay my full price.  

She really mouths off a lot and that's why I don't hang around her much anymore.  She was clearly the reason in most cases that people wouldn't stick around at the other house.  She has no tact, no ziplock for her mouth, just blurts everything out and still doesn't understand after the fact that her behavior is anti-social and turns people off.  

Taylor had to remind her that I pay a lot of our outings - I invite and if they go I pay the bill.  She has no sense of the notion that there may be more to a story than just a few sentences that she heard and therefore base an entire narrative off of the few sentences without digging further and finding out the real story, if there is, indeed, a real story behind it. 

I am going to cut well back on outings like that.  They are somewhat costly depending on where we go and I really want to save even more money than I am now.  Well, if that's even possible depending on what kind of runs I will be getting after this fiasco at Cheniere.  Oh, looking at year-to-date? I have paid over $14,000 in federal taxes this year.  Isn't that sweet? Just hand them over enough to buy a used truck.  

My Roth account started up this paycheck. I am only having 1% dumped into it, lol. That's just sort of a "gee, I"ll give it a try" thing.  My shares in GE went well up and am at a profit right now. But I decided I'll just leave them be and see what happens in the future.  I"m trying to learn about investing and a lot of what people seem to do is attempt to pick stocks from a company that will have something coming out in the near future that will cause their price per share to rise substantially.  Such as stocks in pharmaceutical companies that are attempting to make a virus vaccine.  

But where people get the tips to invest in some of this stuff? I have no clue.  More research needed.  I've got plenty of money to invest, I've got no money that I want to lose.  

So, home at 1:30 pm today.  Typical Sunday here. Taylor folding clothes, James doing projects and I disappeared into my bedroom.  And forgot the dogs lol.  

I sort of turned politics back on, for I am keenly interested in the Georgia runoff races that will determine who control the Senate.  I think republicans only need 1 more to have a majority, if they get 2 then it gives a little breathing room for a defector. The race is so "important" that people are allegedly moving there to be able to vote? That sounds ridiculous but it's been posted in numerous media outlets. Just how many people would have to move there to actually affect the outcome of the races? Probably too many and these people won't be making a difference.  

Trump apparently said Biden won but that he hasn't conceded anything yet.  The media is still blasting away at Trump. Excuse me, if he's already lost as all y'all says he did, why are you bothering with him?  Why? Because it increases their ratings.  

 Well, it felt kind of strange showing up for work yesterday.  Often times, when I go to work, there is no one there, either early for load or late coming in to the yard.  Or if there are people there, they're in their trucks.  Just because of the circumstances going on right now and knowing that probably everyone there knows at least some version of what is going on.  

Although I can say other drivers don't have the full story, they can't possibly have it because management isn't the people who divulged the information to them. I don't know how they found out, but I'm not willing to discuss it with any of them, that' pretty much a personal thing and as my manager said yesterday, it's as if it never happened. 

Yes I had to sign a written warning, no I didn't contest it or write anything on it even tho I was offered to do so.  I just looked at him and said, well what good is it going to do? He laughed and replied nothing. I had the thought that contesting it might even make me look worse than the situation already is, as if I were arguing the outcome, so I declined to do that.  Apparently after a few years it will fall off of there the same as a bad credit entry on  your credit report will eventually go away.  Even a bankruptcy eventually goes off your credit report.  So that's encouraging, I guess.  

My focus is saving for land/business.  If I'm going to try to get a loan, I'd have to save up around 60k to get the money I'd need to set up the entire thing in one, fell swoop.  I'm only a third of the way there.  The only way I know of to speed this up is to acquire property through the tax lien sale. I've been looking, they haven't yet published their end of year sale yet, where the properties are listed at 1/10 of of their original starting bid for properties that didn't sell.  

Anyway, it was a late start yesterday at noon.  So I drove til almost midnight to get back to the place I normally stop at and get most of the driving done.  That leaves about 115 miles left to go today and get home mid afternoon.  My manager said he has my next 6 days planned out, that I will apparently going right back up to Oklahoma tomorrow and then a Brownsville after that.  That would make a decent check. Not great, but not bad.  I am not going to fuss about the runs he gives me, it wouldn't serve any useful purpose.  I have started to look for new jobs tho.  It's time to find something local and get home every day/night.  This whole situation really gave me pause to consider this job I've been doing - great pay but out on the road far more than I want to be.  Overnights are okay but you get those 3plus day runs and it just gets old. 

My manager thinks those runs are the best ones, I didn't bother to tell him how I feel about it. And, he believes he can eventually get me back into most of the mother company's properties, I didn't say anything about that, either.  I don't care if I don't go to any of them, save the rednecks over in Alabama. They're fun to hang out with, lol, while we unload the truck. But I rarely get over there anyway.  

And right now? This is where ELD's are ridiculous.  I've been here since 11:45 last night. I'm ready to go. I've been ready to go for an hour and a half.  I'm not sleepy, tired or fatigued.  But, with these electronic devices, you have no choice but to sit here for 10 hours. I went to bed right after I got here, only doing paperwork first.  I could have gotten up at 6 am and had this run over with by now.  

____________

Well that was this morning, forgot to post it before I left there.  I have exact same run going out same load time tomorrow and then allegedly a run going to Brownsville after that.  We'll see. Part 2 of his plan at least en queue, but that Browsnville run will be needed to make a half decent pay check.  

Walking into the house today, the boys were obviously in bed for their nap, Maria was dead asleep on the couch and did not wake up when I walked through the front door. She continued to sleep after I walked by and into my bedroom.  THAT is a heavy sleeper and also someone that should probably have the front door locked when they're sleeping.  Who knows what could happen in that scenario? 

I fear for the boys safety, more than anything.  

Taylor made plans for all of us, lol: Meet her in Longview at the steakhouse for dinner. She now works 30 plus miles away and of course she loves Texas Roadhouse - I do too and I will be down for it if James is.  James being the operative name here, he's at work and doesn't have time for much of anything when he's at work.  He hasn't responded yet to her query of which she included all 3 of us in a group text message.  I dunno, but I've only eaten once today and now that this is a prospective, I'll eat nothing until dinner. Lol

Well enough of this one.  

 Ahh, indeed.

I figured I would be off until Friday, from the statement of my manager yesterday.  That wasn't the case. I received a texted worksheet for work tomorrow: Oklahoma, lol.  That is the least possible run I can get right now in terms of miles and pay.  I may get lots of those in the next coming days.  

That set the "am I still employed at this company" nagging thoughts out of my mind.  I needed a resolution to this situation regardless of what the outcome would be.  

The whole thing has been seriously downplayed now that truth has come out but, of course, my company's HR department still wants a written warning on my company record.  So beit, I won't contest it,  that's a dead end street. Large company HR departments aren't anything to argue with, once they have made up their minds, they are going to win regardless, you might as well just accept it and move on.  

I'll give my new manager credit: He fought for me.  I find it rare to find that in companies anymore, and that was a breath of fresh air.  He fought for me because, of his own wording, I drive like hell, get the job done, don't have to be communicated with constantly about where I'm at and why isn't the product there. My thinking: You don't get paid the big bucks for screwing around and doing everything but getting the load to the receiver on time - and usually ahead of time.  His words of commendation for my work ethic - his words - went on and on.  

I work my ass off because that's how I was brought up.  It was instilled into me at a very early age and it never left me.  Probably a lot of people in my age range have the same work ethic.  

My manager did concede that he hadn't even tried to contest any of this with the mother company.  My thoughts went there after I had talked to him and the middle manager yesterday. I was rather consoled by this manager's statement of my work performance, to be honest. He even said "I would be a fool to want to get rid of a person like you".  

What was downplayed?  I was hired on with the company that was bought out and all of us on that system are on a different set of rules.  4 strikes and you're out.  Not, first time something happens, you're fired. I have nothing on my history with this company preceding this. NOTHING.  No roadside inspection tickets, no safety warnings, certainly nothing with the customers.  

So this situation is over.  Well, he did say after a while he's going to contact some dude at the mother company after he's "calmed down" and see if he can get me back into the rest of their company's facilities.  I didn't bother to tell him that I wouldn't miss any of those places lmao. I get along with those people at all of those places, in fact one of them we all think alike and the conversation goes on the entire time we're together unloading the truck.  Another place we talk smoking meats.  Another, we talk about whatever - just random stuff.  I'm not against going back into that facility - Cheniere. Nothing against those people, security personnel are only the entrance stuff, after that you are interacting with plant personnel.  

My manager also offered that fact that you are out there 70 hour work schedules back to back  and yes, you are eventually going to have a problem somewhere. Definitely put in the hours.  

And then the - stuff.  Somehow, a driver found out about this and started going off to everyone else.  I haven't heard about that from any of them, but I have only talked to one of them since this situation has started and I told him zero, nothing, nada about what's going on. That driver called me - so I'm guessing he's the culprit - and started telling me about a rule that has been changed with "personal conveyance" - an option available on the Quaalcomm and nothing I'm going into right now.  

My manager said, we haven't said anything to any of them about this, so please don't blame this on me.  I knew before he said that management wouldn't divulge that to other drivers, that would be a serious violation of company protocol.  That's personal employee stuff, really don't get at all from this manager that he would go spouting off to drivers. He's just no like that and has proven to me that he is an advocate for drivers.  

He said he told a driver that came "bitching to me" about it that he was to zip his mouth about it, end of story.  No idea how he got that info, but probably at the plant where this occurred from employees. Other than that, perhaps some person in the company working in a different department that heard the info.  No telling, but if a driver comes up to me starting s*** about this situation? I told my manager flat out I can handle myself with other drivers. Not looking for trouble, but if they come starting it with me, I can deal with it. 

So, that is where this currently stands. But with other drivers knowing about this, it may evolve - or degrade - into something else.  

Okay, my head is cleared of this nonsense, at least for now. If other drivers start s***, well, there will be posts here about it.

Today? I spent the entire day - literally - getting Phoenix caught up with school work.  Amazingly, the 5 year old only had one off moment. He couldn't understand what I was trying to ask him to do and he started getting frustrated.  He was on the verge of a meltdown and I just stopped everything. Time to take a break. We got back to work after that and he had a good attitude and engaged for the rest of the day. Which included a 2 hour break in the midst of it for lunch, a nap and a bit of tv for him. 

Early afternoon, we got back to work and it was after 4 before we were done.  That was freedom time.  These boys - the other one was pent up in the living room, I couldn't have him disrupting the older boy's school work - hadn't had an energy outlet all day long.  We went outside, they rode their bikes, ran up and down the driveway, etc until parents came home.  

And today is Veteran's day. James is a veteran! So, we went to Chili's for a free dinner for him and then his best friend also showed up - and also a vet - and we had a very good time, really. Nice end to the day, we came home, his friend also, we all talked for a while and now the day is done.  

I'm very tired. I can't tell you the mental energy needed to deal with a 5 year in a school setting all day long, attempting to make up over 2 day's worth of school work. I am not a teacher, but I did my best to teach the boy without him getting aggravated and upset. I'm not surprised I feel this drained, I don't have the gift of teaching and could not be a teacher, but we did get through all of it today.  I was proud of him, mostly for keeping a good attitude.  

Well I'm out of it and going to sleep.

g'nite.

 

 Why is Russia the second largest grouping of people reading this blog? 

Lol.

I know I don't get much comments but it gets lots of views and there is a graph showing who is reading from where. US number 1, of course, Russia number 2, Australia 3 and so on down the line.  

Sorry, Russkies, y'all are welcome to read but you aren't manipulating anyone here.  

 Well now I understand why this process with my fate at work is being drawn out. The security guards flat out lied through their teeth about what occurred the other day.  They tried to claim I refused to give them ID, which is just plain false, and whether I should have taken the video of them ignoring it or not, it's proof that my ID was dangling out the window of the truck for at least 5 if not 10 minutes and asking them to look at it.  

They also claimed I said my name was Mike something or other.  No, not only did I tell them my name, I also spelled out my last name for them. Then they claimed I refused to stop videoing after being asked.  No, I turned the camera off immediately after they asked.  

It just went on and on into a litany of lies that went up the chain of command all the way to the parent company corporate, of which I won't name here, who said I wasn't allowed on ANY of their properties from here on out, as long as I'm employed by my company.  That stops me from going to 5 faciliites, 4 of which I don't like going to anyway, the 5th is an up in the air thing, I"ll take it if given but it certainly isn't on my top 10 of places I like to go to.

So, I really didn't expect that, the lying that is.  An it's my word against theirs besides that video showing me holding out my ID card.  But with the story they fabricated, I can see what the mother company would want to ban me. It became obvious, quickly, that the only real thing I could do is simply humble myself, apologize and eat it.  So I did. To keep the job and not get fired, yup I just apologized for things I didn't do, tho I did deny all of it.  What could you have done differently? Just hand them the ID without asking them about it.  Security guards can get pissy about their authority being questioned, even if you aren't actually challenging their authority.

I have had enough interactions with them over the decades of truck driving I've done, far and beyond just the current job.  

The mid level manager wasn't opposed to my staying in the company after seeing my demeanor.  I wasn't about to argue with them, it became crystal clear what my only line of action could be to salvage my job.  But, even with all of that, the manager said they would ask for a verbal warning - the least amount of infraction I could get and not go on my record, but that HR could come back and say they want - more. Such as a written warning or worse.  Worse would be to be let go.  So I've got another couple of days sitting around, according to him, to find out my fate.  

Here I figured they would have already decided that.  My manager had made his decision - he lauded my performance and my work ethic and said he would be stupid to want to let me go.  So I got that much of a concession at least.  I would, if kept on, be getting mostly gravy runs, such as the people I have continually complained about coming from other divisions lol.  The worst run I can think of I would get is Oklahoma, which is at the top of the "worst runs" list.  in other words, it's as too as it gets when thinking about bad runs. I wouldn't have to go to Ohio - where you are held up a day and don't get paid for it. The other drivers tried to claim we are going to get paid for the layover, but that didn't turn out to be true.  

The other thing he stated is that I wouldn't be able to go out back to back runs like he sends me out now.  Good, I thought I don't like that anyway, but certainly said nothing about that.  I mean, I've gone extremely long periods of time before he came along with getting a day or 2 days off in between runs anyway and still making bank for yearly earnings.  

So, if I get to keep my job - that's still up in the air, actually - this will actually work out better for me even tho I will have a stain on my record with them.  And if I decide to move on at some point, they won't be able to show that information to any potential employer for reasons I won't go into here.  

So I have at least another day off, maybe two before I even find out my fate, but at least my manager IS pulling for me.  It was really left into his hands to make the decision of what kind of discipline to give me - but - then he has to submit it to HR and HR has to agree with it. 

BTW, losing a job isn't the end of my life. But getting fired from a job? That can affect your potential for future employment -  greatly - with any decent company.  That, is why I ate this stuff, swallowed it whole and will live with it.  And even with that, no guarantees that I will still have a job there?  Well I tried at least.  I was honest, that is also something that counts with me.  Those guards obviously don't care what they have to say in order to keep their jobs.  They are probably making a lot of money at that facility. It's out in the middle of nowhere.  The nearest town going to Louisiana is about 45 miles I think. Going the opposite direction it's Port Arthur, but apparently none of them live there - people at the plant anyway that I've talked to - they don't like it there and live much further out.  We're talking 2 hour drive times for many of these people.  

Anyway, enough of that.  I will be home tomorrow, babysitting the boys but probably spending about 4 hours with Phoenix doing school work.  He just finished monday's work tonight and of course it's Tuesday, so tomorrow I will work with him on both today's and tomorrow's work. I expect about 4 hours of work.  So, we'll do Tuesday's work - in it's entirety - and then play time outside.  Do half of Wednesday's work and then naptime - which is when I can also start making dinner.  They sleep, I cook.  They're good for 1-1/2 hours of early afternoon sleep.  

That's my plan for tomorrow. I am undecided about setting up the pond now that I have it all cleared out. The leaves are falling. The trees are dumping lots of leaves. I bought some netting to go over it, but just undecided about having to deal with all of that.  Or, I could just do a setup like I have at my house in Phoenix, put 4 posts in and drape it with sunscreen material which will let light in but keep most of the leaves out.  Tomorrow won't be a good day for that regardless since I will be babysitting, doing school work, cooking and wondering about my job.  

Anyway, it's been a rather long day.  Oh, today is my 3 year anniversary at this employer. I found that out because I asked how many vacation hours I have left.  The middle level manager called payroll and they informed him that they had just dumped - however many hours -back into the system.  I really wasn't listening too well at that point, the meeting was over and I was attempting to digest everything I had just heard.  I knew my start date was around this time of the year, I wasn't sure what the exact day was.  

It's not time for bed, but I'm getting off the internet for the night.  

 Come what may this morning, I am prepared for it. Tho after what my manager said yesterday, it doesn't appear that my job is in immediate jeopardy. 

And if that's true, I"ll keep working there - for a while.  This "at will" stuff is haunting, to say the least.  I have never been fired from a job in my adult life and don't want to start with this company.  So, I think in the near future providing this goes as I believe it will today, I will start looking for something different. 

The oil injection job is an energy based industry and I don't think that's such a good idea to be looking at now, with the "presumptive" winner of the election being Joe Biden and obviously anti-fossil fuel, anti fracking, anti anything that doesn't promote the far left agenda.  This area I live in was hit hard several years ago when fracking/oil took a nosedive and a lot of people lost their jobs.  So I decided that particular job, as appealing as it looks in pay and home time, isn't a good fit for right now. 

But, if I could find something that has me at least in the 75k territory, I would definitely consider it.  The focus will be local job tho and I'm in no hurry to get into the wrong position.  There are plenty of local jobs around here, but the pay range is in the 50k area.  That's not really all that bad, but I've become accustomed to a much higher pay scale, being able to save money and live my life the way I want to plus paying down debt all at the same time.  50k doesn't afford that.  

Whatever the case, the anti-Trump rhetoric being broadcast all over the place, including Fox News, has became a nuisance. We know they all hate Trump, nothing has stopped even tho Biden is promoting a tone of "unity" and "healing the nation" while not condemning any of the multitude of statements left politicians and media types are puking out on a daily basis. Fox News is no longer owned by whoever it was that had it and allegedly now a Disney company and also allegedly managed by some liberal loving democrat.  That explains that shift.  They haven't touched Carlson or Hannity - yet. I would love to see them can either or both of them, tho, that would seal their fate and their millions of viewers would dwindle to CNN nothing-levels.  

And I would surmise Hannity and Carlson are popular enough that they would find a home somewhere else.  Actually, if some rich entrepreneur wanted to start up a conservative leaning outlet and could lure those two over, Fox News would be doomed and the new start up would thrive instantly.  I still watch some of Fox News, but apparently they believe  they can pose blond haired women handing out liberal-laden garbage and think that most viewers will just fall for it.  Yea, no.  Journalism, reporting without bias is a lost art.  

So, we sit on the precipice of a new President and we don't even know for sure who that is going to be, yet. ACA is being litigated with the new justice that the left has accused of somehow being able to single handedly get rid of it.  That's not the way it works, there is a full panel of SC justices, one person isn't able to do anything in and of themselves. I would love ACA to be dumped, personally, and replaced with something reasonable - well actually I spent my entire adult life paying for health care without any government help, I'm not really a fan of government sponsored healthcare insurance.  Medicare would be the exception since so many people are already on it and many people would be screwed without it.  

The other interesting thing that has occurred is that Real Clear Politics has rescinded their version of the electoral college map showing biden the winner.  That is interesting.  It's now got a lot of states shaded grey - presumably because of requests for recounts and lawsuits. Do I think anything will become of it? I have no idea.  I'm just going to sit back and watch this event unfold. In my view, it's just guessing whether it will change the outcome of this election or not.  Remember, the pollsters had biden winning this thing in a landslide, they said all the way up until election night that there would be a blue wave.  Trump supporters gave a definitive no to that scenario.  The pollsters also declared the House would pick up at least 10 seats. They were WOEFULLY wrong in that prediction and gives credence to the fact that pollsters have it all wrong - and probably some of them intentionally so.

You look at the methodology and you find democrats over sampled. Skewed questioning.  

Anyway, time to get some breakfast and get out of here.  

G'day.  

 Today.  I figured my fate would be revealed to me this morning.  I didn't even come out of my bedroom today until 9:30 am, figuring I would get whatever news I was going to get.  I needed a break from the boys anyway, I've been dealing with them for days, Maria was over to watch them today.  Taylor started her new job and since the boys are being quarantined from school and daycare, someone has to watch them.

I was getting rather irritated that by noon, I still hadn't heard anything.  I'm just the employee, not the manager/management, it's their place to tell me what's happening next. Keeping me on hold for 5 days is rather ridiculous.  I found some interesting leads for jobs today, but I didn't fill out any applications.  I figured if I'm going to be let go, I'll take my time in only filling out apps that interest me, that look like something I'd like to do, versus thousands of trucking jobs available. I literally could be hired tomorrow morning if I wanted to just do anything.  In fact, there is the owner of a company that has been texting me on and off for 2 years now asking me to join his team.  Just saying, there's no scarcity of trucking jobs. 

But trucking jobs aren't all the same and I am not going into all of that, it would take a book's worth to adequately describe what goes on in the pay and retention part of the trucking industry concerning company drivers.  And it would be boring, lol.   

I finally came out of the room and conversed with Maria. It took me quite a while to even get into the mood to want to be talking to anyone, I couldn't get my mind to be doing anything else until I heard from management.

3:00 pm arrived.  That's around the time loads are usually dispatched. That's just a time frame that isn't set in stone. No call, no text.  I was sitting here attempting to decide whether I should contact them first, or just wait and see if they ever actually get around to calling me.  It didn't take much longer after that for this to be resolved. Or at least, partially so. My manager contacted me around 3:30 pm.  Can you come tomorrow at around 10:30 am?  Kenny is here, don't take that wrong, he just happened to be here, not because of you.  Oh? It's been 5 days, I figured after this much time y'all were going to be letting me go.  

Why not say that? You can't leave an employee hanging that long without at least communicating with you what's going on.  5 days?  I can only guess that they must have been having talks with Cheniere about what happened or even investigation on Cheniere side as to their security firm personnel involved with this situation. Remember, this security company is a separate entity.  I continue to wish that there is video surveillance footage of that supervisor going off on me, raising his arms and throwing them around all over the place, livid, out of his mind, ridiculous and outrageous behavior for someone in that position considering what had actually transpired.  

My manager replied, well I wouldn't think that at all if I were you!  We are going to sit down and get this thing resolved and behind us.  That kind of gave me an answer.  I won't be let go, but I can probably expect an in-person interrogation from this middle level manager.  +

Tomorrow will be day 6 of not having had worked.  

Anyway, that's where I'm at now, at least I'll have some resolution to this situation tomorrow, regardless of the outcome, I want this over with.  

And an odd thing tonight. We're standing around in the kitchen - everyone - tonight and the power goes out.  A minute later, come on. Out, on, out, on, out on, out, on out.  The final time, it stayed off. We sat around for awhile doing nothing. Yes, the generator is out there, but it means hooking up extension cords and running them throughout the house. But after a while? I went outside, fired the thing up, ran a line into my room, was about done with that and then...the power came back on lol.  

That's enough, it's bedtime.

G'nite.