I spent nearly 3 hours this morning taking endless hazmat tests, as I reported in the last post.  I was confident that whatever trick questions they might throw at me, I could pass the test.  But when?  How could I show up at the local driver's license department when the office that canceled my appointment was 65 miles away? Take a chance driving clear over there and get - nothing out of it?

I just decided to show up there. At the local one, screw driving 2 plus hours round trip.  They will accommodate me.  Why? Because it's just what was going to happen.  No good reason to believe that, but I showed up with documents in hand, the lady at the door opened it and asked me if I had an appointment? 

But before going in there I noticed only one vehicle in the parking lot.  I knew I at least had a chance at this.  No, I don't have an appointment.  Well tell me what you need then? I proceeded to tell her how my appointment had been canceled, that this driver's license is my livelihood and that I was under the impression that I could show up on standby?  

She ushered me in.  There was only one man sitting there and he had already filled out all of his paperwork, he was waiting them to start his CDL test - a thing I wouldn't have to take, thankfully.  She handed me a literal pile of paperwork and said this is going to take you some time to go through. She then showed me the ticket she had given me - it had a caveat: this ticket number will not necessarily mean you will be seen today - because I was standby.  

I got through 3 of the papers and the lady called my number!  Now mind you, this is a small office to begin with and they were only having ONE window open.  She yelled at me through her screens asking if I was still working on paperwork? Yes, I had to unfortunately reply as other people with appointments started coming in.  "It will be several minutes before I fill all of this out" - I replied to her and thought, at least that long if not longer.  It  was really a pile of paperwork with a lot of redundancy.  

After filling out that, going up to the window - she wasn't going to take anyone else until she was done with me oddly enough but thankfully - paying the price, getting my temporary license she said, "take computer 1".  Gag. I thought I had skated the Hazmat test. I had even paid for it, she had printed it out, gave me my temporary license!  Okaaaaaayyyy.  Good luck! she said.  She knew, many people go in there and fail that test.  They don't properly prepare themselves.  You don't study that manual, that is useless. You just take sample tests over and over and over and over until you get enough right that you are pretty certain you are going to pass.

But it intimidated me, I am not going to lie.  Passing that test means job or no job. They'll let you retake it, yes, but not the same day.  By the time I had gotten to the computer, many more people had come in, many had been turned away that also wanted to be on standby and several people were waiting outside.  Stroke of luck getting there when I did? I doubt it.  I felt that feel you get when the Lord is telling you to do something.  Now, that is, don't waste time.  I was going to wait until 1 pm, when they allegedly take their second round of standbys, but something in me said differently. Now, go now! 

The test has many trick questions.  And worded differently than the tests - multiple dozens of them, if not 100 plus - that I had taken online.  I sat there on several questions and reasoned in my mind what the answer should be.  Questions that I hadn't been asked in any of the sample tests I had taken, but thing I had encountered and figured, well, that should be the answer.  I guessed I had minimum 6 answers wrong and wondered if I would get enough questions right.  I'm serious that out of all of those sample tests, there were questions on the real test that were either not asked in the samples or worded completely differently and with multiple choice answers that were very close together in their wording.  

They really don't have to make this that difficult, do they?  I got to the last question, answered it and stopped to take a breather. I went through the test quickly, it usually takes me little time to finish tests, I either know the answer or I take an educated guess or I take a wild guess, but I won't waste a lot of time on any given question. I'll give it enough time to read it through a couple of time if necessary, reason with it in my mind, but it doesn't take long.  I can tell you that I was quite surprised when I looked at the results screen: 29 out of 30 correct!  

I really felt the Lord was in this today.  That's what I can say about that.  I did prepare myself, but I know how these tests are loaded with trick questions and very tough questions that you are staring at the 4 answers that you can pick and trying to decide which one is correct.  

Hazmat. The love and hate of it.  Love the pay, hate the endless stipulations, regulations and demands of it.  It's not quite over  yet.  I have to go get finger-printed tomorrow morning.  Hazmat is serious stuff to the feds.  You will have a federal background check done - every time.  And they will freshly fingerprint you - every single time.  It doesn't matter about work, there isn't any tomorrow, I had contacted the dispatcher - Sheila - and told her that I was going in tomorrow to get my fingerprints done. I've been off this long, I might as well take the extra day off and get this s*** over with. The plant is up and running, but they are having trouble making product.  I dunno why, but I'll guess it's weather related.  

The street was torn up up the street from my house - like 100 feet at most - fixing the watermain break there. That was very fast for them.  But it was pouring out a lot of water and these main breaks are undoubtedly a large part of why the water pressure is so low in the city.  

The city's grocery stores are barren.  Super 1? Nothing.  Vegetables gone, meat - gone.  Milk - gone. Eggs - gone.  It's all - gone.  Manager said come back in the morning.  No thanks, I was just looking for a bag of potatoes and green onions.  They didn't have either.  Every town's markets in this region are like this, it's going to take time for the supply chain to catch back up.  It's quite amazing, tho, how fast 200 jugs of milk go right out the door. That's due to social media. Someone says a store has it, everyone swarms the place and it's allllll goooooooone.  

I don't need milk.  I can live without eggs - tho I scored those yesterday.  I don't eat regular bread.  This was just mostly for the house hold here and yes, I have been reporting on the local sites who has what and if you want any, you better get your @$$ in your car and get down here immediately.  

I found out at the driver's license office why the county court building wasn't answering it's phones this morning (tax sale): they have no water.  How does that work? Cause the county jail is in that building as well.  It's up on the 5th floor I think.  Somewhere up there.  

The company that does the fingerprinting has finally opened up an office here in town. Last time I had to drive 30 miles to the nearest location. So, they made me an appointment for tomorrow morning, which is fine, let's get this done and over with!  

And the realtor just sent me a listing for 33 acres.  It's 88k asking price. That's actually quite good for land around here - but it's kind of high. The payments would probably be higher than what I would like to get into.  I'm going to go look at it tomorrow.  I just finally got home after running around half the day, I don't need to go out there right now. It's been on the market since last August, it's not likely going anywhere.  

STILL no work for me. They are sending out limited loads right now, the plant isn't able to produce enough product for unknown reasons.  Today I figure the driver's license department is probably open after everything being shut down - but - I still needed to do more study/practice tests.  I can safely say that I feel like I'm ready to take the test for Hazmat endorsment.

I'm consistently getting 90 to 100% on the large number of practice tests that I have taken.  I kept going through one particular site the last couple of days because it would ask the same questions over and over and throw in new ones that I didn't know the answers to.  I've done that test at least 20 times today and finally getting to the point where my score is enough to pass. I think the real test is 30 questions long and you need 80% correct to pass. I needed to be able to get everything at 90% minimum to feel like it's worth spending the time going to a DL office and standing there waiting for an opening without an appointment - and not even being guaranteed that I will be able to in that day.

And now, they are even further behind since they've been closed an entire week. I do not want to continue driving on an expired license regardless of the state mandate.  I have no idea if other states will honor that.  If not, they will write me a ticket and put me out of the truck.  

The kids are gone, thankfully.  Schools are still closed here - not because of weather but because of lack of water pressure.  Taylor's work has been shut down - a local restaurant - because of no water pressure as well.  So, some parts of town have water pressure and other parts of town do not. The city needs to get its act together and get this town up and running.  Anyway, I've had the best study time this morning that I've had yet what with the kids not being all up in my business and running around the house yelling and screaming and stomping on the floors and making all kinds of noise.

They've been pent up for over a week as well.  The daycare is open regardless of the schools being closed and there they will stay all day long until around 5ish.

Went out with Taylor yesterday - get her out of the house and have some conversation about what's going on.  For my part attempting to solidify my future in this house and whether my presence is still welcome here - but we affirmed our friendship and that was enough for me.  It's an odd situation.  She is done with him, but not forcing him to move out.  He'd be screwed completely financially.  I think he's sleeping in the boy's room.  I dunno, but I suggested at the least get a travel trailer for him and have him live out back.  She thought they were too expensive, but actually you can buy older ones in still decent shape. Doesn't have to be huge, but a place where he goes at night and separates himself from her, for I can tell ya, she wants literally nothing to do with him right now.

I don't blame her, I fully understand which is why it was strange that he's still here.  But that's not my venue, I'm not going there, was just basically trying to assess the situation.  As I stated before, I hold no ill will against James, I still consider him a friend and whatever they work out is okay by me.  However, I did offer that if this situation required getting out of the house, I would be willing to buy a house on land outside of town.  3 bedrooms at least with 2 baths, that way we have a place to live and I have the property to build the park on.  Oh I'm still all about that park, but it seems so elusive.  

The city has yet to upload a new auction sale list, so I'm calling them today. It's almost 3 months now and it should be getting close to the time for another sale.  It's one hope I have for getting that property I need.  I actually wouldn't mind starting a park in various other states with much cheaper land or with views or with some sort of uniqure "thing" that separates the property. These full time RV'ers travel all over the place.  But - I do want a southern home for it so that they can come year round.  

There's a lot of RV parks around here, mine would have to have a unique setting. So far I've determined that far and wide, full time RV'ers want much larger spaces.  They complain about it in forums all the time.  I don't understand why RV parks cram them in so close to each other that when one RV deploys it's awning, it's almost touching the RV next to it.  Picnic tables and a fire pit are also high demand.  Laundry facility and propane for sale also high on the list.  A closed in dog run park also very high on that list as well.  

Some of them complain about full time RV'ers in parks - they don't want them there - but they don't give the reasons why.  In the setting around here? I'd have to have some full time people living in there, just no way around it.  Full hook ups are a must and many of them demand wifi.  And after reading a lot of posts about wifi, that sounds like it can cost a small fortune to have - it's a thing where you'd have to charge more for anyone using it.  I'm not sure why these people don't just have Verizon or ATT, perhaps some of the places they go to don't have reception, but I"m reading that many RV parks do not off wifi - either free or paid for - that one would be up in the air depending on the costs.  The bottom line is to make money, not throw it out in amenities.  A laundry room would be a one time set up cost, a dog park the same thing.  Picnic tables and firepits also the same. Get it set up, forget about it for the most part excepting a laundry room the machines may need perioidic repairs, but it's a must have.  

Full hookups are a given.  That's water, sewer and electric at every site. Pull thru's are preferred for many people that are hesitant about backing up those giant things. A lot of these people sell their homes and buy fancy, giant RV;s with the proceeds and go about living in them full time.  Many of the people I have been reading haven't been doing it long or haven't even bought their RV yet and asking for advice.  I don't give any advice, I do ask questions about things people say they want.  For example, people wanting huge, fenced in dog runs.  I asked whether they would like it better if the property had a forest and walking trails and you could just let your dog run off leash?  I haven't been back to that yet today to find out, I got busy with hazmat tests, that takes priority over pretty much everything right now. 

But, I am glad that I haven't actually acquired a property yet, the more reading I do, the more I get a feel for what people want/need in an RV park.  It's a mix, but there are certain things that most of them want.  I can tell  ya that all of the parks I have seen around here have them all crammed in there.  That might attract people wanting to live in them, that won't attract travelers - who pay a higher price for a nightly or weekly stay.  I have lots of things in mind. Even if I ever get this venture going, I won't have all of that at first.  Too much up front money. Things would need to be built as I have the money to install them.  Like a huge kiddy playground - those seem to be immensely popular with parents full time RV'ing.  Yup, they take their entire families and do home schooling and work out of the RV as well.

Hence the demands for high speed internet.  

Well enough of that - tho that is a lot of what is floating around in my head right now besides having had crammed a bunch of useless Hazmat info in there that will disappear after I take the test.  That endorsement will be good for 5 years and I'm not sure I will be working after 5, at least not for a company.  I guess I need to do an evaluation of my finances and see if I could afford a higher priced property.  It only makes sense, really, to get at least 25 acres for multiple uses.  An RV park, some mobile home pads elsewhere on the property.  A house to live in, that type of thing.  25 acres would afford for that and still have plenty of room for hiking trails and nature walks type of things. That would appeal to families for sure wanting to get their kids out of the unit and exploring the wild blue yonder.  Oh and a swimming pool.  That would not be something I'd put in at first, 30 grand or more for an amenity that may or may not pay off would not be a wise business decision from the start.  

So, I'm going to go back to hazmat tests - I'm do it a couple more hours at least today while the house is quiet.  It's just really nice to have a quiet house for once.  If by chance I don't get a run tomorrow, I'll be at the driver's license office before 8 am and be waiting at the door. This was their instructions to get in on stand by.  I may even ask to be passed by for a load so I can get this s*** over with. Sorry for the language, but this stuff is really annoying, having to take a test for something that is your livelihood, that you already know everything you need to know. I don't need to know anything about explosives - dynamite and the like - I never plan on hauling that stuff. Or chlorine, or a host of other things. 

G'day.  

 The sun is out shining full tilt - again - today. It was yesterday as well but the roads are still covered in snow and ice.  Local FB marketplace is full of people reporting horrid road conditions.  I fully expect that to start changing today as the temps rise. It's 28 degrees now at 9:00 am, another hour or so and it should be above the freezing level.  Now they are saying to watch out for giant icicles falling, lol.  

But I'm looking out the bedroom window at the street and it is still covered in snow.  A person posted a pic of 2 semi trucks crashed - one laid over on it's said and another jacknifed up against the center divider - posted in a trucking group.  Said they had just passed by him going ridiculous speed - 2 towns over from me.  The pic shows the trucks and the road - solid sheet of ice. 

This isn't driving conditions. This is stay home conditions, paychecks be damned.  I'm not going to be crashing into anything with highly flammable, potentially explosive, cryogenic liquid because some plant somewhere is demanding the stuff. Tough.  They could quadruple my pay and I would refuse to go anywhere until the roads are safe to do so - and right now, they are NOT.  Maybe, just maybe, this afternoon that will change.  By tomorrow definitely  But I'm very glad I stood my ground.  The reports keep coming in of I-20 closed, last night there were 5 places just in this area alone that it was shut down.  

Diverting traffic?  I dunno, but those side highways are even worse.  

So, another day at home and Lord only knows what's going to go on here with the current situation that isn't likely going to change -ever.  I reported about that yesterday.  I hold no ill will against either of them, it's just a very unfortunate situation that will change all of our lives.  I can't say I like it, but I can say it isn't the first time in my life that living situations have drastically changed over night.  What's going to change? Well one of them, obviously, is going to have to leave.  One of them will stay. Or both will leave and the house will be sold. I have no clue.  I think it's stay for one and the other leaves, tho, which I would prefer to stay even if it means upping my rent. 

It would be no different moving somewhere else and it wouldn't even make any sense.  Big house, decent sized property moving to a smaller house, smaller property at the same or higher rate?  I dunno how much equity is in this house for them to make anything off of selling it.  

I would prefer them to work it out. But this is the third time and you can only betray a person's trust so many times before that person declares enough, consequences be damned.  I know how this works, but the biggest losers in this scenario are young boys.  They will adapt, yes, but it's not going to be easy for them at first.  Confusion, fear, anger, lots of emotions, acting out, stuff like that.  Regardless, I'm making no plans to move anywhere - at the moment - until I see how this plays out.  I've already offered to up my ante in my living situation to keep this house.  Otherwise, I have to go find a new place to live, a place that allows large dogs and someone to care for my dogs while I'm off on the road.

That's a pretty tall order in a town with limited rentals as it stands.  I guess I'd just buy my own place instead, forget  the RV park for now for I would have to get a mortgage and that would cancel any further bank loans.  I would be relegated to either a tax sale auction - if I even had the money to do that - or owner financing.  This is a totally dire last resort type of thing that might even have me considering moving somewhere else.  But my mind tends to go down these rabbit trails, it's more of a "prepare thyself for come what may" type of thing than it is anything that may actually happen.  however, there are some properties with houses on them that have acreage out in the country.  I haven't seriously considered them for an RV park because of the price tag - a house and acreage isn't in the price range I am looking for but if I were going to live on the land that would present a totally different scenario. 

So, for sake of preparedness, I'll take a fresh look at properties online today.  I believe I'll be able to stay in this house - but that isn't guaranteed. Depends on if they can agree on everything.  Lawyers aren't absolutely necessary unless there is disagreement on who gets what and who gets control of kids or if they're splitting it 50-50 or what. That's none of my concern excepting the outcome will determine what I do next.  So yes, I have to at least be considering my options here.  

The job will keep me in this area.  I have never made so much money and I need to keep that going for a while until I get something else going.  Which is the continued focus of today after this entry and looking around at housing options: more hazmat tests.  I did as many as I could  yesterday until I got burned out on it and shut it off.  I was still missing some, but getting a lot more of the answers correct.  The motor vehicle departments will be closed today, not gonna bother even trying, I couldn't get to any of them anyway. I'd really like to get this license renewal behind me, but right now that's just not possible and I'm pretty sure I'll be back out on the road again in the next day or two, depending on if the roads clear up and if the plant is producing Ethylene again. 

Meanwhile, just heard that almost nothing in town is open today.  Why? Not because of the roads, but because the water pressure is too low to the point most businesses don't have any water pressure at all.  I'd like to get out of this house and go eat somewhere if the roads clear up enough to safely traverse.  If it isn't one thing, it's another.  There are a large number of underground water main breaks they are working to fix and

 Sadness.

That's all I can say.

I got a text: Be prepared.

Whattt?

A series of 3 screen shots followed.

I won't go into the details, but it was the 3rd time. 

Taylor announced she is getting divorced. 

I dunno what was going through James mind to be contacting a female outside of marriage like that, well I do know since I'm also a male but I'm not married.  I'm not looking either, but that's a completely different subject.  

Addler, bless his heart. He knows when I'm not exactly happy, he just sits there and stares at me with his ears perked up.

This is going to change everything.  

I may have to move. Taylor looked at me as she came into the room, are you still with me? Taylor and I are close friends at this point.  She has had offers to move back to Colorado - free living.  It's family that want the boys around.  I don't know what Taylor's intent is, we are going to have to have long discussion away from James.  

I'd rather stay here. James will have to pay child support - he's the one being unfaithful.  I can up my ante to keep my living space and have a place for my dogs - I am not moving back to Arizona.  As much as I'd love to see mom a lot more, I cannot move back there. 

But it's so sad to see a breakup like this, especially with two young boys.  3 and 6 years olds are going to have a very difficult time understanding how and why this is happening.  

I get it tho and I don't blame Taylor.  A partner's unfaithfulness in a committed relationship doesn't work. I hate to say it but it's usually the men that engage in that garbage.  It's wrong on so many levels.  

Well we're trying to talk but James is around and that's uncomfortable.  My mind instantly went to where will I live.  What are her plans.  Will she want to stay here or move to folks in Colorado?  She wants to stay here.  That's a relief.  I don't want to move at the moment, I'm kind of tied up here right now.  Job pays well, I have properties, in the middle of attempting to find an RV park property.

Tho......I could find much better property in Colorado for an RV park. That's just plain fact. I've seen lots of them in my searches.  

To stay in this house, I would have to up my input into rent about as much as a house payment.  Ok. If I moved somewhere, I'd be paying a lot more.  A house payment plus all the extras - utilities, wifi and satellite.  And the house payment here is less than any place for rent around here - or the same but a much larger house with a lot more room.  It really would make no sense to move out of here if we were staying in this area.  

Yup, I just looked.  Several different sites for home listings.  $650 a month - for a bitty little house. $800 per month for a house with 1,000 square feet less than this house has.  Etc.  They just had new flooring put in here, the place will be looking great once everything is put back together.  

Whatever. I'm giving it 99% chance that this divorce will go through. How many times can you breech a woman's trust before she finally says no thanks to any more of it?  

Yup.  

 Everyone was going stir crazy today - I just wanted to go out to eat.  We ended up at a Mexican food restaurant and then informed that we are going other places.  Harbor Freight and then Walmart.  I just stayed out in the pickup with the boys when they went to walmart, I had already been in there yesterday no need to expose myself to that place again.  

Right up the road, a hill that goes down and then back up - trucks were getting stuck on the upside because of ice.  I don't get the need to keep driving in these adverse conditions.  Money is nice, but not that nice.  You aren't making any progress, you are taking twice as long or more to get anywhere, get off the road.  The pictures flowing in from around the country confirmed that fact.  

Meanwhile, a person called me at 7:15 am today.  I'm in the middle of a deep sleep.  I have no reason to get up early, so I was a bit flustered when I found out this person was asking about how we were faring out here.  I'm glad they were concerned for our safety, but that sleep was mighty fine.  Never-the-less, it led to a flurry of other activity.

Namely, the next door neighbor's house.  James and Taylor took off shortly after I got up to take her to work.  Work said no, we are only opening for take out for 4 hours today.  Well, James had texted me asking about where the water valve tool is?  Turns out, the neighbor's house water lines had burst, going through the attic, right over the carport.  Water was pouring out everywhere.  I knew this was going to be a chore. 

Got out the water valve, a screw driver and a thing that churns up the dirt.  Found the main water valve under the snow, dug that all up, got the lid off and - that thing hadn't been touched in years.  You could barely see the meter, much less the pipe that goes to it and out of it.  It took about 20 minutes of digging before I finally found the valve and shut it off.  Damage already done, but ya gotta get the water off regardless.  Not to mention the city has turned the water supply down. Wells are running dry as people have their faucets left on overnight to keep pipes from breaking.

I can only guess the neighbor didn't have hers turned on.  She barely lives there, she found a man and mostly stays over at his house.  She did have the heat on, but that wasn't going to help where the pipe burst over the carport, no heat going in there.

Anyway, good deed done for the day.  Lol.  

Plans for the rest of the day: started last night actually. Taking sample tests for hazmat endorsement.  Need to get all of that junk back into my head.  Absolutely worthless information, all for the manufacturer. Some of it is for the driver, but only a miniscule amount of that information is relevant to the driver. The driver learns what he/she needs to know from the carrier about safety, unloading, what to do in a spill, etc.  In a spill, you try to turn it off or mitigate it. If not? Run for your lives!  Keep people well away from it, tell them what it can do if it blows up, they'll leave in a hurry.  

Anyway, many of the questions I had no clue.  That's the honest truth of it.  What line will --- blah blah blah --- information on the safety data sheet will show up on what line? WHO CARES, as long as it is on there.  That's the manufacturer's concern, NOT mine.  They've been doing it 5 decades plus, their procedures have long been set into place, long passed government scrutiny.

Yet, it's stuff I have to know if I want to pass the exam.  Which I do, lol.

And stir crazy kids.  Lol.  Days and days and days  in the house, not being able to go outside and get the energy out, they are driving the entire house insane.  I think they should get bundled up and go play in the snow for a couple of hours.  But that's me, growing up in the snow, parents made me put on all of my winter gear and said goodbye, don't come back til' you hear the bell.  We didn't care, it was all pure fun.  

Half expecting to get a load for tomorrow.  Roads will start to clear up today and will really start melting off tomorrow. Heck, there is a good constant dripping coming off the house right now even at freezing temps cause' the sun is out.  Our street, however, is still covered with at least 4 inches of snow.  We'll see what it looks like after today.  

Well that's it for now. Getting texts, messages and phone calls asking how we are.  We're fine, really, we are.  There is a 4 wheel drive pickup here, if we need anything. The power is on, we have bottled water - not much left but it'll suffice and if we absolutely have to we'll boil water for drinking - we have loads of food, the grocery stores are open again, albeit limited food supplies, a generator to supply the house with electricity if the power goes out,  nothing really to complain about.  I'm actually happy to sit in my bedroom and vegetate.  Especially after last trip and the icy hell that traveling entailed.  Getting home was number one priority.  I don't want to spend money at hotels, that's what I have a room at the house for.  I also still have stuff left to do with my room. Things to go through, decisions to be made on what to keep and what to throw out.  

With that, I bid you a good day. May the peace and love of the Lord Jesus Christ fill your hearts, souls and minds.  Be at peace, stay warm and have a beautiful day.  

 I've been reading travel news all day.

I'm looking at my GPS right now.  I-20 is showing red lines clear to Dallas, well into Louisiana.  59 is closed in 5 places going south.  Red lines on every highway, major or secondary.  I read an update from a driver on I-20 that had been stuck for 9 hours. The red lines means stopped or extremely slow moving traffic, btw.    

I've read numerous stories from many states about trucks simply getting stuck. The ice is bad enough they get on it and can't move.  Traffic completely stopped. I found a story about what this person was talking about - the same thing. Hilly stretches of road trucks are getting stuck on.  

There is zero point of any truck driver  - or anyone at all really - going out on the roads right now. You aren't going to make it anywhere.  I mean, it's gotten 100% worse out there since I was out there yesterday, amazingly bad.  I knew it was going to get worse but I didn't know how much worse.  This is why I was desperately trying to make it home yesterday, why sit in a truck when I can sit in my room at home and get stuff done?  I've been putting my room back together all day long.  The big stuff is in, the computer set back up.

I wasn't going to put the computer back together until I got the new computer desk - but that is impossible right now and I'm going to be sitting here for at least another day, probably 2.  Texas simply isn't prepared for such an event and probably never will be. Why should they?  Spend all the money on equipment you may never need to use again? I get it, but I don't get why they aren't just hiring out for graders to get out there and clear the roads.  That is a bit ridiculous.  

Anyway, between reading the news and reading various posts by truckers stuck everywhere in the trucking Facebook groups, I'm just glad I'm home.  If I weren't, I'd be sitting this out in a hotel somewhere.  Another thing that is happening is that truck stops pipes are getting frozen up and truckers are complaining about having a place to go number 2.  I'll go find a tree, I'll find some place to do it - figure it out, this is the most basic of human business.  I didn't know the truck stops were getting frozen up like that tho.  And lots of truck stops are actually closing down.  

It started snowing again this afternoon, the roads are worse than they were before, that mixed with the sleet that was coming down for hours?  No.  I mean, we went out to Walmart today - in James 4x4 and that was it.  Then Taylor wanted to go to the store - if I'm stuck here for days, I want snacks - so they went to Walmart.  If there wasn't a 4x4 here, we wouldn't be going anywhere. Wouldn't be the end of the world but still.

And now, the town has issued a boil water alert.  Plus begging everyone to temporarily stop using washing machines and dishwashers.  Why? Because we're all dripping water out of the faucets to keep the lines from bursting.  Some towns were reporting that their wells were so low they had to actually shut the pumps off.  That is a tragedy - water freezes up in the lines, the pipes break and then when the water starts running again? You have a flooded house and a huge repair bill.  Look, I can supply my own electricity with a generator, but there isn't a well here to supply our own water.  

This is really a tragedy - this weather - that just doesn't happen here.  I absolutely refused to take out a load for tomorrow, but after all the talk was over with, the loading plant announced the pumps were broken and they can't load anyone anyway.  I dunno if cold has anything to do with it, the weather that is - that stuff is already cold. But perhaps it's the outdoor stuff that operates the pumps. I dunno, but the dispatcher laughed when I said something about if we are being forced to go out, she said this company will never force anyone to drive in weather like this - but, she has to ask, per the company rules.

I wasn't so sure.  James offered to take me into work - for $5 per  mile if the company would pay it.  I almost offered it to the dispatcher before thinking about it and realizing this company would actually pay him to drive me to work in these conditions.  

It's not really going to start "warming up" until Saturday. The high tomorrow is 33 degrees. That's the high.  That's not enough to do anything with all the snow and ice on the roads and the low is going to be 17.  Friday looks only slightly better with a high of 35, but the low at 14.  I don't predict any real change in road conditions until Saturday, when the high will be 44 and at least the stuff will begin to melt.  I doubt I would take a Friday load is all I'm saying and possibly not even Saturday.  

Ok. I apparently haven't updated since I was at the truckstop in Cross Plains, Tennessee.

Well this is going to be a rather long entry.  I got up that morning, looked at a blanket of snow on the parking lot, but wasn't about to not at least get ou there on the Interstate and see what's going on.  

It was actually not that bad.  Yes there was sludge on the road, snow on the side, but it wasn't icy so I went with it.  It started snowing somewhere outside of Nashville and it was making the windshield clog up with sludge.  

I don't even remember to be honest where the real nasty stuff started and the highways were covered in snow and ice, but I drove hundreds of miles through that nastiness.  At slow speeds, I knew I wasn't making it home that day - two days ago/Monday.  I passed 100 cars and trucks stuck on the side of the highway or had slid off the highway into the center median.  

Even a snow plow had slid out and state Troopers had shut down the passing lane, apparently waiting for a wrecker to come pull him out.  When I saw that, I started thinking about whether I really wanted to drive in this stuff. I've never seen a snow plow like that before.  They're usually weighted down with salt in the bed and off road style tires that have better grip on snowy/icy roads.

But, I kept going. It was miserable driving.  Just on edge the entire time, I wanted to go home but how bad did I need to get home versus fighting with this weather, driving conditions and traffic?  Well, I drove out my 8 hours, I didn't want to stop but it's a mandatory rest stop for 30 minutes.  The exits were covered in snow and I could only imagine what the truck stops must look like.

I was right.  JJ's truck stop near Little Rock, Arkansas was a horror.  It's a huge place but it's not paved.  The entry ways were covered in ice and snow.  A truck had jack knifed trying to get into the place.  Trucks were having a pickle of a time getting out of the parking lot.  Seeing all of that changed nothing for me, I had to stop, I had no choice.  Well I got in there easy enough, started pulling up a  hill and right at the top I had seen an empty spot to pull in.

As luck would have it, 2 people went trudging through the snow right when I was going to pull in - walked right in front of, I had to stop.  Stopping meant losing momentum, and of course I got stuck.  So, I backed all the way down the hill, looked at my clock and just stopped there.  Out of the way, I took my break there. Half an hour later, I was ready to roll, trying to at least make it back to the Texas state line where I know several places I could stop.  

The brakes were frozen.  In just that short period of time, the brakes stuck to the drums and rotors.  I knew I'd be stuck there for a long time. The place has a shop - but it was closed.  I talked to our mechanic who said try this and that - none of that worked but I tried for 2 hours anyway.  After that, I got a hold of our company's road repair line.  After giving them all the info, I went into the store again. I had gone in earlier for a cuppa when I had first pulled in there and told them I was stuck there, sorry, I'm trying to get someone out to fix the brakes.

Well, when I went in the second time, they were on the phone with a mechanic company.  They then informed me that they don't allow "outside" repair companies on their property, they only allow the shop that they authorize.  Whatever, I don't really care who fixes the thing.  They offered me a free cup of coffee, asked me to please not get mad at them for forcing the issue.  I didn't really care. At that point, I'm on break down pay and those brakes freezing up in that icy cold weather was none of my doings.  I told them as such - I'm getting paid good money to do nothing, I don't care how long it takes, I was resolved that I was probably not leave there that day.

It was hours before that showed up.  By then, it was night time, the temp outside was in the teens and it was cold.  But, they got out there and started beating on all the brake drums and the rotors.  When that didn't work they brought out a torch and started heating everything up.  An hour plus of that they finally got the brakes to release, only to find that I was stuck.  It wasn't even that deep, maybe 3 inches, but it was solid ice and my tires just sat there and spun.  It wouldn't rock, it wouldn't do anything.

So, they took their truck, hooked a winch up to it and with my putting the truck in gear and them pulling it, the truck broke free.  I backed all the way off that hill, got moving and rolled up it this time clearing the top. The only place left to park was in a snow filled, angled spot.  I just pulled in it, they followed, took my company 2 hours to pay them, when they were leaving, they laughed and said we'll be here tomorrow to pull you out!

NOOOOO, I thought.  Next morning, I locked all 4 axles in and tried to pull out.  Yup, it wasn't letting me. But, I could back up, so I kept going back and forth until it finally cleared the front bump and struggling, got me out onto the driveway.  I dreaded trying to pull out of there, I had watched truck after truck trying to get out and making several attempts before finally making it.  I said to myself, screw that, I'm getting a running start the first time - barely cleared the top, the tires started losing traction.  

Got out on the miserable highway, drove 10 miles to the Love's, got in there, wishing I could have bypassed it but I needed fuel.  It has like an 8% grade entryway about 75 - 100 feet to the bottom and to the pumps.  Well obviously, going in was a breeze.  Trying to come back out? First try I was moving pretty good until  a truck came to the entrance forcing me to stop.  Nope, it wouldn't go.  Backed back down and then on the level part, back as far back towards the store as I could go.  The second try I was moving good with the axles locked in, it was a breeze getting up to the top and out of there.

The highway was bad.  But I was intent on getting home yesterday.  It stayed bad for - 50 miles? I don't remember, but all of a sudden, the entire Interstate was cleared.  Like magic, I was able to go full speed.  I cruised like that all the way to the Texas state line - where the roads went bad.  A few miles into Texas, I get off and onto Highway 59 - it was absolutely HORRIBLE.  I took a video of that and had it on my Facebook yesterday.  I didn't stop, just kept driving clear back to the yard, 30 miles per hour max speed.  

The yard? Horrible as well. A foot of snow on the ground, the truck started spinning out trying to get into a parking hole.  After that, my SUV? Was caked in snow.  Got that running, got the snow off of it and spent 10 minutes trying to get it out of the parking hole.  Then I spent 5 minutes trying to back up from the truck.  I finally got out of there, but the towns? ridiculous.  

I was traveling slowly.  Please, just get me home! I didn't buy all terrain tires for that vehicle, I had highway only tires on there. My trips are mostly back and forth to work, we don't get weather like this, old timers have never seen anything like this here.  I was on highway 80, outside of Hallsville, when it happened.  The vehicle just started going sidesways, I lost all control of it.  Nothing I tried changed the direction it was going - sideways, off the road and down an embankment.  I've never had that happen before, it was a rather - strange - experience. 

My vehicle didn't run into anything - tho another 50 feet and I would have slammed into a guard rail, it stayed up right and I was fine.  But I was also quite stuck.  But, this is Texas and people take care of each other.  I just sat in there discussing what to do with Taylor.  A man stopped, got out and asked do you need help> Yes PLEASE!!! Is that truck 4 wheel drive? Yes, I think I can pull you out of there.  Ok.  2 minutes later,  diesel dually 4x4 also pulled up, a bunch of young men got out and offered their help as well. 

I was amazed, really, they all just stopped out of the kindness of their hearts.  The first truck hooked a strap up to my trailer hitch, got in and started pulling and pulling, my SUV went sideways instead of up the embankment, but he kept on trying. The other guys said they would hook up to him if needed and pull the whole train forward.  But, it wasn't necessary, the smaller truck eventually got me up the hill and onto the roadway again. I pulled out some cash and said thank you.  I don't want your money. Are you sure?  Yes, he replied, I'd like to think if something like this happened to me someday, somebody would do the same kindness for me.  Yes, I thought, the Lord will be there for that, I believed anyway. 

I said thank you again and - got home with no further problems.  This town is shut down.  We went in James truck today to see about getting some stuff - James just wanted out of the house, he was becoming stir crazy.  His truck has 4 wheel drive so driving in this nastiness was no problem.  The Walmart was half empty, I mean product wise, especially the grocery store part.  We didn't go there for food but I ended up getting some supplies, plus the throw rug I wanted. Put it on the new carpet so I can have my office chair in here without destroying the new carpet.  Nice looking rug, complements the new carpet.  

So, while putting stuff back - the house is still in a shambles and today is the first real day I've had to start dealing with my stuff - Sheila/dispactcher texts me. Do you feel like you want to go out tomorrow? Uhhh, noooooo.  I told her about running off the road, the road conditions here in town, the fact that these town don't have snow equipment - we never get stuff like this here or if we do, it melts the same day or by the next morning.  Further, that another driver had reported that coming up from Brownsville, he spent 2 plus hours going the 70 miles from a town down south back to the yard.  She said don't sweat it, I wouldn't go out either but we have to ask.  

I got on the driver group text and asked if anyone was going out tomorrow? No, resounding theme from every single drive on there.  They all started going on about how bad the roads are and no, it isn't worth having a Fed Ex moment like you saw on the footage of that horrible 100 plus vehicle accident that happened in Fort Worth.  Yesss, I thought, at least we are all on the same page. Driving in this stuff is just plain horrible.  The road aren't being cleared, that's the problem. I saw yesterday a couple of graders cleaning up the highway up south of Texarcana, but that was it.

It did make me wonder why they couldn't just get a bunch of graders out there instead of snow plows? They could rent them from construction companies or just hire the companies to come out and clear the roads?  I mean, it's going to be below freezing until Friday and then, it's only going to get up to 35 degrees.  That isn't warm enough to clean up these roads. Saturday it will get warmer but geeze, if they don't start clearing out these roads, these towns are going to be shut down until moma nature says ok, I've given them enough, bring on the warmth and sunshine!

I'm not stir crazy, it's the first full day I've been home. But everyone else here is, including the boys who have been in my hair the entire day, only getting a break from them because they were put down for a nap.  They're good kids but they aren't allowed outside right now, it's too cold.  Schools are shut down, of course, along with everything else.  So I'm having a bit more patience with them than perhaps I normally would.  

Well I'm in the middle of getting stuff done, it's time to get my room back in order regardless of the rest of the house.

 2 days in a row running my butt off trying to get as far back on this trip as possible.

If you've looked at the weather forecast - for just about anywhere - you'll know why.  

So, I got all the way back to Cross Plains, Tennessee - about 700 miles driven today, almost 700 yesterday.  

It's not going to make any difference tho. It's going to start snowing tonight and will continue on into the morning.

Normally I'd rate my chances of getting back home tomorrow at around 95%

Tomorrow? I'll give it a 50-50 chance. 

My question to myself: Do I get up at 4:00 am, when I will be able to start, or do I wait until daylight so I can see what I'm driving over before I get to it?  

The real bummer?  If I would have gotten a Brownsville load yesterday, I would be "stuck" there until Monday.  It happens that way, the plant is behind schedule or something happens and then, trucks get stuck down there and yes, they are getting paid.  

If I get sidetracked by weather? I don't get paid for having to wait it out.  Probably wouldn't be too fair to the company to have to pay for something that is completely out of their control, I guess.  Weather is fairly predictable tho, if they know it's going to be inclement weather and they send you anyway, should there be some sort of stipend for taking the risk?  

So that's that.  Whatever happens, happens.  I'll go find a hotel an hole up for a day if I have to, really doesn't matter that much I guess.

I pulled into the last spot left in this truck stop earlier, thought how lucky I was.....until I heard all the noise coming from the truck next door.  Trucks have these air release valves that spit out air out of tanks that also spit out any moisture that gets into the tanks.  That's the point of them, to try and keep water out of the tanks and thusly rusting everything out.  

Well, this truck was spitting every 15 seconds.  And not only doing it that often, but loud.  I sat there and wondered how I could have such luck.  I mean, my windows were closed and it sounded like they were - open the noise was that loud.  Fortunately for me, however, a truck left it's spot several spaces down and yes, I moved over to that space.  I need my sleep, especially for driving in inclement weather.  You really have to be acutely aware of everything going on.

As for the house? I warned James that the generator is out of fuel, if the power goes out, there isn't going to be a running generator.  Cause' you have wind, snow and ice.  That's a recipe for a power outage, at least in our area and at 4 degree temperature tomorrow and 15 real feel right now?  yea, you aren't staying in that house with some way to heat at least one room.  So he went and got 10 gallons of fuel and that made me feel better even tho I'm not even there.

I also warned them - probably needlessly since I'm sure they know - about the pipes. Hard freeze, keep some water running.  

Then I was reading in a local facebook sell group, people arguing about whether they should be able to leave their dogs outside?  Are you serious?  I mean, it was livid anger stuff from both sides.  I wouldn't even dream of leaving Addler outside in these temps.

  "Did you know that Texas law requires pets to be brought inside during severe weather?

As a major winter storm is expected to dump freezing rain and bitterly cold temperatures over many parts of Texas this weekend, officials are reminding people about the risks of leaving your pet outside.

“It is illegal to restrain your dog under these conditions,” wrote Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez on Twitter Friday afternoon.

According to Section 821 of the Texas Statute, it is illegal to restrain your dog during severe weather conditions. This includes heat advisories, freezing temperatures, hurricanes, tropical storms and tornado warnings."

 I didn't know that until I started reading this elongated thread with people arguing.  Some of them said it's actually a felony.  Anyway, I was rather aghast that anyone could try and defend leaving their dogs out in such freezing cold weather.  Why even have a dog if you are going to treat it like that?  I know, some people just want outdoor dogs for security purposes.  And probably other reasons that I can't think of right now.

Well whatever. I have no other news on my end, the weather is what's on everyone's minds right now anyway.  I'm set the alarm for 4:00 am, get up and look out the window.  And then decide what to do lol.  I wish I were home, tbh, just don't feel right about being out here like this.  Im not afraid of driving in the snow, it's the ice that the weather reports are referring that get me a bit - thinking about whether I want to drive in that or not.  

If I'm relegated to driving 50 mph or slower in that mess, I won't be home tomorrow.  No I'm not feeling sorry for myself, I just want to get back so I can get back out and go somewhere else, preferably Brownsville where i won't have to encounter quite such weather. 

Whatever the case, I am exhausted, ending this one and going to bed soon. 

g'nite. 

 2 Brownsville trips later. Actually I should have just said nothing, if I had, I would still be down in Brownsville right now collecting detention pay.  But, it's good to be home and especially with the weather that's going on right now.  That 100 vehicle pileup in Forth Worth? Icy roads? That's only 175 miles from here.  

Anyway, I got down to Brownsville last night, pulled through the Love's Truck stop  - didn't get any fuel for I had to stop in Kingsville to do that, I was running low - didn't see anyone there, went to the yard, dropped the trailer, saw the empty sitting there. But, as is my want, I do not hook up to empty trailers in that yard until I"m ready to go and I wasn't going anywhere until this morning.  The reason? It's a small yard and if you have your tractor jutting out into the driving area for other trucks to pull in, they can't make the tight u-turn to turn around and get positioned to back into a spot. 

And then, they may come banging on your door in the middle of the night. It's a 24 hour operation. Well, I texted Sheila - the dispatcher, are there any other drivers down here waiting on trucks?  She said Terry was going to be there at 8:30 - about 45 minutes after I got there - should I tell him that you are going to take that trailer?  Sure, I said, no thanks, I thought lol.  I need you back for more loads!  

So then, Terry showed up. He pulled in front of my tractor. He's a likable guy - in his late 60's.  We started talking about everything going on there. I did end up saying that "I thought you had already retired?"  No, he said, but if I don't get anything after this trip, this may be my last load. He was supposed to start a vacation next week, taking paid time off and then retire after that. Sheila was fond of Terry - he's been there 25 years. But, there is a syndrome type of thing where people that are leaving a company for whatever reason?  Get a bit lackadaisical. I won't speak ill of him tho, he's obviously been a good part of the driving team for years and years and yes, he should be retired.  I just think in your 60's it's time to get out of working. 62 at the earliest to get some SS benefits since you have paid into that junk all of your life. 

Changing the subject, I have been spending inordinate amounts of time looking up info about RV parks. It is hard to believe that people are definitively telling everyone that it costs "30 to 50 thousand per space" to build a park. Some elite thing in the middle of a large town? Next to a national monument?  Along side a popular lake? These parks are like resort hotels.  Lol, I had an elongated conversation with one of them in a facebook RV group, we finally got down to the problem. His location in a large city. I didn't really need to hear anything more. Untold amounts of bs from city officials about what he needs to do. We were on good speaking terms. Just his dissing of anything about trying to start your own park.  

His experience - may or may not be mine, but I am not prepared to do what he did. He put up his rather large property as collateral for a loan to buy an abandoned nudist colony and transform it into an RV park. I wish him well, I really do. I hope his dreams and visions of the outcome are what he expected and wanted. I, on the other hand, am not going to start a park with 2 swimming pools, a hot tub and other things that are not on my horizon right now. Those are things you grow a park into. Well, you can start out with a half million plus dollar project, I don't have that kind of money and I am not interested in that kind of debt.  

I can tell you, it is not going to cost me 30 grand per space lol.  It might cost several thousand per space, yes, but 30 to 50 grand? lmao.  The cost is considering the cost of land, that's considerable input. And everything, really. I'm  intent on putting in as much as I can without contractor help. And then, I will try to contact people I know from my waterworks days and see if they can do me a deal.  

These people are not going to sway me. The fact that I can't find a suitable property - or property way over priced - is a bit disconcerting.  But that perfect land will show up sooner or later. The internet is not always a great place to receive the type of encouragement you need. I will find a property and I will make it work. It may be spartan at first, but I will develop it. There will be a savings account with funds funneled into it from earnings to build it up to a destination point.  There are plenty  of junk RV parks in this region that have no development whatsoever. Just a few acres with RV's parked on them.  

Again, I've been doing my research.  

Other things? The house is still in a shambles.  Not disappointing, I knew it was going to be in this condition but after viewing my room and feeling it on my feet, the outcome is well worth the hassles.

But, the house never recovered from moving everything out of the way foe the kitchen, living room, dining room and hallways. The stuff is everywhere.  I have tomorrow off, I will be moving things back into my room. But I'd like to get rid of the junky computer desk that came with room and get something - a bit nicer.  

It's nice to be home. My mind can be full of things, but home sweet home.

G'day

 Don't really remember where I left off last, the last several days have been a blur.  Today was driving all day long, yesterday was driving - all day long, the day before was filled with moving stuff - all day long and the day before that we moved stuff probably half the day.  Tomorrow? Drive all day long and the next day? Drive all day long!

I went down to Brownsville yesterday, dropped the trailer, saw an empty but decided I would hook to it in the morning.  Glad I didn't hook to it, someone else showed up, hooked up to it and left with it.  I didn't even know they had come in the yard.  That gave me 12 hours of detention pay and that's a nice extra chunk of change for sleeping lol.  Another empty showed up around 10:00 am, I was gone, out of there and headed back to the yard.  I was sent another run for tomorrow - right back down to Brownsville.  

So yes, I am guilty of being on the receiving end of what I was complaining about other drivers getting all the time.  I don't ask for any particular run. I never have, that's all on management. They could give me some Oklahoma runs - not that I want them but I'll do my share of low paying runs to keep it fair.  But lately, it's mostly been Brownsville, with one Oklahoma shoved in there.  

The other drivers are suspicious, too. One of them called me a while back asking me about trailers in Brownsville. Were there any empties?  I wasn't in Brownsville, I wasn't even driving, I was home at the time. He never calls me unless he sees me driving back up from Brownsville. They're likely talking behind my back and guess what? I don't care.  I do like things to be fair, but if I'm going to get a ton of B-ville runs, I'm not going to turn them down, not after seeing other people getting them endlessly for - years actually.  What am I going to say? Uhh, can you give that to someone else? I'm due for a West Virginia or Pennsylvania run.  Not that I want either, but I'll take them in exchange for all these wonderful gravy runs I have been getting. 

Mom got the first dose of the vaccine. Sorry,  but that makes me really nervous. I've read the stories of people having severe reactions to it.  She's old on the age scale of things, she wanted it done and she got it.  She said she didn't feel right for a while but feels fine now, adding that the second dose coming soon and she read that it has more severe side effects.

Again, that makes me nervous.  I unabashedly love my mother and I know her time is coming - hopefully nothing anytime soon, but I have been saying that forever. Will continue to say it, of course, but she's well up there in age.  She's healthy tho, has always taken care of herself.  

So that's life right now. I have no intentions of getting that vaccine - ever.  If they somehow force me to - such as airlines saying you can't fly overseas without their version of a vaccine passport - I'll have to consider it.  I just think I will have a severe reaction to it.  I don't know that it's worth dying over saving myself from a virus that has a low mortality rate.  I would rather take my chances with acquiring the virus than taking the vaccine. That's really how I feel about it.  

And the house in Phoenix is irritating me.  The internet bill last month was $182.  The satellite bill was $157.  The satellite is on a fixed amount every month, I have to assume someone is purchasing movies or something. Last time this happened, a tenant was watching pay per view porn s***.  I do NOT watch porn. YOU can watch porn if you want to, I don't agree with it, but that's up to you. THESE people are NOT going to be watching whatever the freak they are watching on MY dime.  I'm call Dish and find out which receiver is doing this s*** and that person can both pay for it and have that access shut off to that receiver.  

The internet is another thing entirely.  Cox used to give unlimited at one price. Then they say more dollar signs and walaah.  You pay for "overage" - which never existed until a year and a half ago or so.  I just texted Mark about the internet usage, he will be all over everyone's @$$ about it.  I have no interest in that house if it's going to end up costing more than what I am receiving.  Right now, not an issue because it's winter. Get in to summer? $400 plus per month electric bills plus this stuff? No thanks. Sell the house, give Mark 20 grand of the proceeds for taking care of it, offer him to move out here if he has no place to go, be done with it.  He'll deal with it, tho, try to anyway. 

I seem to remember that the last time the county had a tax lien sale, they gave you enough advance notice that I could ask for time off and not have to worry about it being "too near in the future" to ask for it.  Now, well, we're getting into February and March is the next intended sale date yet nothing posted.  I'm calling them tomorrow. Last time, they didn't change it until I went in there. They told me it's on the site, no ma'am, you have the old one on there. The next thing I saw? Yup, the newest one up. Poof and walaah, like magic it changed instantly.  

I'm going to get a real estate lawyer meeting going here eventually and get details about how it works with these properties I already have.  Can I just sell them without changing anything?  Cause' I don't know how these other people are putting properties up for sale that they just bought - with the rather important stipulation from the county that you can't do anything with these properties until 6 months have passed.  And they are jacking the prices up to ridiculous amounts of money.  I would never try to price gouge people for property for the amounts they are asking for.  If I paid a grand for a piece of property, I'd think 4 or 5 grand a good return, not 30 grand or 50 grand?!! 

Oh, no one is home. At the house that is.  Flooring contractor didn't leave until after 6 pm today. They finished the carpet, according to Taylor, but the house is in a shambles and it's far too late at that point to be trying to get things into livable condition to actually - move back in?   I dunno, but they are at a hotel again and I'm in the truck tonight.  I wouldn't have gone home anyway considering getting to the yard and having 10 hours before having to leave here. I've done that many times when it seems more trouble than it's worth to drive all the way home and then have to get up even earlier to drive all the way back over here.  Not to mention home sweet home isn't the same when everything is in disarray, I might as well sleep here, in the sleeper, engine running keeping it warm in here for me, the wonderful all-night-long-vibration.  

And finally, I'm looking forward to a day off to take my new motion activated camera to the hunting property, set it up and get that going.  I'm more looking forward to the day I can finally say I found and bought land for the RV park.  Lol.  Should we also discuss all the things Joe Biden is doing to destroy our economy, including turning his back on labor unions that have supported him? Naww, folks, I can't stand the dude, I don't watch any of his speeches, I just read the talking points afterwards.  

With that, I am off to bed. OHH! Feeling much better.  That actually started this morning.  I got out of bed a bit elongated time period, but after I got going I was feeling pretty good!  I mean, a heckuva lot better than I have been! 

G'nite. 

Sunday late morning.

As has been the case since I acquired whatever this illness is, I have had trouble getting out of bed in the morning every single day.  It takes a while, too, to get going and feel like I have any energy.  I can't possibly believe this is just bronchitis.  Whatever the case, it certainly isn't an easy recovery and there is one aspect of bronchitis that it does have: takes a long time to recover from it  

Whatever the case, after taking a shower to try and wake up, I did end up driving up to those properties.  The railraod tracks instantly nixed the idea of using any of those properties.  It's a steep angle and probably most RV'ers aren't going to want to pull/drive 100k plus units over that, taking the potential risk of bottoming out the landing gear and destroying it. 

I can tell you I wouldn't want to pull a semi trailer over it. It's too bad because 2 of the properties are perfect.  And another that isn't listed - 850 acres that they "will subdivide", owned by the city even tho this area is well outside of city limits. Why they own that property is a mystery.  Yes I did check the properties out anyway, but I think it would be a poor business decision to potentially alienate a swath of your potential customers because they don't think it's accessible.  

Keep looking.  There were 2 RV parks along the highway there. Junky affairs, the only appeal would be trees.  I'm wanting to start out small, yes, because that's what the budget will afford.  But down the road, I would want to add a clubhouse, a facility room and an indoor swimming pool.  Lofty goals, perhaps, but the only way to outdo everyone else is offer things that everyone else isn't offering and also be able to jack up the rental price.  I could see a park where the short termers reside in one area of the park and the longer term people actually living in their trailers on another side, preferably out of sight since that usually means older trailers/RV's that aren't the new looking things that full time RV'ers are dragging all over the country.

I've been reading intently the desires of these people and have a better compass of what I would eventually need to do.  This isn't some fleeting idea, I'm quite serious about all of this.  

The minimum goal is to have one of those sheds that look like small houses for washer and dryer set up, large lots for every trailer, pull throughs available (people that don't like to back their rigs into spots or perhaps if they're towing a car), a couple of BBQ areas, eventually giving every lot one, 30 and 50 amp hookups, sewer and water connections.  Actually, to start the office could be big enough to have a laundry room in it.  

Well, today is the day. The rest of the stuff is to be moved out of our bedrooms. At the moment, James is busy in his bedroom. My giant, extra heavy dresser is ready to be moved and I can't really do anything else besides  tear down my computer desk - which is exactly what I'm going to work on right now.  I have my laptop out of the truck with me : )

Later.  

 And today is my 57th birthday.  Don't feel a day under 90.  Seriously, I didn't manage to force myself out of bed until 10:30 this morning. That because I spent half the night hacking and coughing away.  Finally getting to sleep, I just slept in, lol, nothing going on today, probably break Keto for a few meals to eat some real pasta or potatoes. Well take that back, definitely eating potatoes!  I "fixed" keto for me after figuring out an ingredient I was using in things was definitely not keto and throwing me out of ketosis every time I used it.  Fixed, the pounds started dropping off again.  

And good ole' mom.  Called to wish happy birthday, asked about my RV park plans, again affirmed her desire to help out (money of course, loan I assume).  So I simply said I needed the land first  But hey, if I could get the land with the 401k = well the down payment anyway - leave enough left over to get things going on the property - all the stuff you have to have done to make it an RV park - maybe I could hit her up for a 10k loan.  Some things will have to be put off without more cash infusion, such as laundry room and showers - things RV'ers really want from what I have been reading all over the internet.  

Of course, I thought about that and thought temporary facility - giant shed things - could be set up until I make enough money to invest in putting up real buildings.  There's lots of thoughts about this thing floating around in my mind, but it becomes obvious that if you want it to be a "destination" in itself, it best be loaded with amenities.  And it should have something that sets it apart from other RV parks, The only real thing that comes to mind is a property big enough to have ATV trails on it, charge extra for the use.  

She has money, she offered it, I didn't ask - I wouldn't ask actually - it's something I might entertain in planning for this endeavor.  

There is no clear path at this point without the land and there is no land that I have found that isn't too far off a major highway that is suitable.  That one on 59 - if only it wasn't covered with water and flat land, would have been an absolutely perfect location.  I just don't have the massive amount of money it would cost to improve that land until it became usable.  And it's not worth sinking that much money into a property like that anyway.  But - I am pretty much come to the conclusion that 25 acres or more is really necessary to have something that can be expanded and improved over time.  

Well enough of that for now. I'm not cashing out the 401k yet - still haven't quite crossed that line in my thinking.  Im going to take it easy today. The dispatcher asked if I would like to come back on Monday - she didn''t ask if I wanted a load this weekend and I didn't even bother to ask.  After how I felt this morning, a few more days off won't kill my finances, especially after taking some vacation pay and maybe I'll have one small check 2 Fridays from now, but that isn't unusual even under normal circumstances.  

And, I can help move stuff out of bedrooms, at least, as long as my energy levels stay up.  I'll just focus on my bedroom lol, doing other bedrooms is kind of out of the question and besides, James found a couple guys at work that are going to come help move everything out.  I'd finish my room today, but now that I know I'm not working until Monday I am not going to bother to do that until tomorrow and finish up on Sunday.  It's mainly going through old papers - that were important at one time but are useless now - and chucking them into the recycle bin.  

I'm not bad about keeping my room clean, but I am bad about collecting papers lol.  New carpt tho? That will keep me focused on keeping it really nice in here and just getting rid of papers I don't need when they arrive - usually in the mail.  

_____________________

And just like that, I found 4 properties on the same road for sale, 3 of them by one owner and the other an owner financed deal.  The owner financed one is 14 acres. the prise is a bit more than I want to pay, but all 4 of those property have been up for sale for 6 months.  The other 3 are 40, 45 and I think 35 acres.  They are not owner financed \but he selling price is quite good.  I didn't have a chance to go today - I was at Chili's watching taylor work, chatting with employees and watching corporate people who showed up = standing in a corner, staring at employees and customers.  I know they were simply evaluating the workers and the happiness level of customers, but it got a bit weird after quite a while, them standing there, taking notes and - staring.  

 Sooo - Taylor texts me this morning.  Well, breakfast came up.

What? Lol.  She then went into how someone had literally s*** ALL over the restroom in the Chili's she works at. The sink, the floors, the toilet.  Sounds like what one of my Danes of the past did one night lol.  Gross tho, I can see "blowing up", having an episode it happens, but why all over the entire restroom?  Yuck.  This is why I am teaching the 6 year old to put toilet paper down on the toilet seat in public restrooms.  He didn't like it yesterday, tried to move it off the toilet. No, boy, who knows what kind of  - junk - maybe on that toilet seat?  So I put the toilet paper back on and he reluctantly sat down on it.  

It's Thursday.  I'm contemplating whether to take tomorrow off as well. NOt because I need to, I'm feeling much better. Not 100% but enough to go back to work. Just because it's my birthday lol.  Tomorrow that is, not today.  I dunno, but I'm unfortunately likely to be gone while they are having to empty out bedrooms for the carpet installation.  So I started on that yesterday,  continuing on with dumping old papers that are no longer needed into the trash.  Receipts, expired contracts, manuals for things I've bought, papers from work - stuff that is rather useless at this point.  Less to move.  In fact, I may just move some stuff out into the dining area today.  But, they have some stuff in my room from the new floor installation in the main areas of the house.  

And I am not helping with that, I don't know where they want the stuff. I have helped quite a lot with getting things where I do know it goes back into place and cleaning up.  The house looks so much better, really.  

I made a Keto lasagna yesterday for dinner.  The "noodles" are made out of mozzarella cheese with spices and a couple eggs added to it.  The sauce just like any other lasagna sauce - most of that is keto friendly.  It was a roaring success.  I was amazed at how close to real lasagna it tasted! Today I was thinking about it and determined to make it even better, make the noodles a day in advance and dry them out a bit on paper towels to give it a firmer texture.  Still, a lot of the newer keto recipes are getting more and more tasty. 

My dilemma continues.  After reading a lot of sites about cashing out 401k's, it seems almost not worth it to do that now.  They state many companies will deduct 30% of it to pay the 10% penalty and the taxes you will owe beyond the penalty.  2-1/2 years from now, I can cash it out without the 10% penalty.  

But do I wait that long to start a business?  No, is my answer to that. 

_____________

Met up with Taylor after she was done working. I was hacking away - cough subsided for a couple days and then came back with a vengeance. Chili's was dead, no one to complain.  You know, if you have anything, it's automatically COVID. I've been tested, so there is that.  

It's quite a bit different take with Taylor actually working there and employees opening up about their personal lives.  Nothing horrid, interesting actually.  

 I suppose I should have paid more attention to what they gave me to ingest.  Steroid pills. That's an interesting phenomenon.  Docs always inject that stuff into me.  Stuff has me on edge too, like crazy. And cough medicine pills.  Never had that prescribed either, it's always liquid.  The antibiotics I've taken before. 

Whatever the case, I'm feeling slightly better but no way was I going to be able to go to work today and I doubt I'll go into tomorrow either.  Just take a few vacation days worth instead.  

I never did go back to the hotel after coming home yesterday evening.  The house was normal enough and today, they came back but it's all installation now and much less noise.  In fact, they are almost done with the vinyl flooring.  Bedrooms will be next - but - we have to get everything out of our rooms.  I dunno how that's going to work out, probably not very well.  I can see getting my bedroom emptied out and then having to wait a few days for them to get in here to actually do it.  I dunno, but I'm looking forward to getting all of this stuff over with.

I'm also looking forward to getting rid of this bronchitis.  Historically, however, I've had it for up to 3 months.  So, today, I may go through old papers and start throwing that kind of stuff out to prepare to get out of this room, but that will be the extent of my activities.  If I even do that, really, I have very little energy right now.  

Besides the sickness, the people in here doing floors, the power company comes knocking on the door this morning.  We're replacing the arms on the poles, the power is going out in about 30 minutes and will be out for at least 45.  Wonderful!  Why not? We got all of this other stuff going on, join the fun!

Turns out that while I was in the hospital on Sunday, Taylor was in the Urgent care at the exact same time.  And they were giving us the same tests and the same kinds of drugs to treat it.  That was kind of odd finding that out.  I can tell ya driving right now is the furthest thing on from my mind.  

Apparently my mother had contacted Taylor about me - she worries too much when I get sick.  She knows how sickness affects me, understood, but I have been dealing with it on my own my entire adult life.  Usually I wait - too long probably - before going to the doctor.  I went straight away this time because I wanted to know if I have Covid and if so, I want the treatment right now.  Actually I have the treatment in my bedroom and I would gladly take the stuff if necessary.  

Speaking of offspring, I'm a bit concerned about my son right now.  I dunno how he's doing but he's not posting much on facebook and when we talk it's pretty short conversations and he's done.  Divorce that young probably messing with his head. It doesn't help that she has been all elated with giant smiles on her face and acting if she just got rid of the plague out of her life, posting all over the internet pics and joyful glee.  I dunno what their issues are, but almost always, it's both parties at fault, not just one side.  I did ask him to tell her I want to be paid for the refrigerator. You don't go buy a house with your mate and then a month later say gee, I don't want to be married anymore!

How convenient.  I don't have any legal standing to get the refrigerator back, I gave it to them. But apparently she is willing to make payments on it, which is fine by me, if she does make payments it will go to the credit card I put that thing on that I'm already paying down.  Actually, I might have a case considering they had just bought the house together, spent all the down payment money they had both saved and suddenly, she's so unhappy with the marriage she is dumping him?  I dunno how a judge would look at that, but I am guessing it would give a bit of standing for the idea that she undoubtedly had been unhappy for some time but just decided to wait until directly after they bought the house together to make her divorce announcement.  

My house in Phoenix could stand to have a new refrigerator, that's what I can say about that.  I'm not going to go to court, I don't live there anymore and it would be highly inconvenient to even attempt to take her to court, for I wouldn't hire a lawyer.  

I'm thinking about driving over to the 5 acres next to the golf course, the property being sold that I would have to have them bring the price down a bit to make me happy with it.  I don't have much energy but I can't sleep right now, these steriods have me all jumpy.  I could drive over there easy enough, don't really have to do  anything but take a look.  Might as well.  I just don't like the idea of 19 miles each way to get there.  That's a bit far in my book for having ease of access to get there and back on a moment's notice.  I'd actually really like to buy that owner financed property for the park.  I wonder what kind of hell I would have to go through to get a hearing to have the zoning changed?  There's a few huge apartment complexes near there, some residential housing - not much - and some old junky houses that are literally falling apart. There is a school across the street, but it's shut down.  They built another one somewhere else and it's not being used for anything. I'd think the school might have been a problem if it were open.  

I mean, it's not impossible to file for a hearing.  Whether there would be any success, who knows.  The payments would be perfect, the owner financing a plus and the location is actually pretty good.  Right off the loop that goes around this town.  But still, dealing with municipalities and all of their rules and codes and requirements - probably isn't worth the hassle.  Outside of city limits is a far better proposition.  

 I no more posted the last post and the Driver License office called me where I had scheduled an appointment on May 3rd to renew my license.  We're sorry, but the courthouse will be closed on that day so we need to reschedule your appointment.  That did, of course, throw me for a loop, for the next available dates are well out into the future, 3 months at least.  It's ridiculous. The state of Texas needs to fix this.

She got pretty short with me too after she went on and on about it and I said, uhh yea I didn't cause' this problem.  She went off on me. I didn't say it nasty, I was just responding to her going on and on about the fact that I would need to reschedule and my statements about the fact that my license expires in 4 days and the extension only goes out until April - and the next nearest appointment is well into May at the earliest.  You know, most people need their licenses, mine is of utmost importance since I also rely on it for my job. 

She then stated that I would have to just show up one day as a standby.  "We'll work you in".  Okkkk.  Obviously I have no choice in this matter.  But since my appointment is cancelled, I'm going to look for a new appointment in their system anyway.

Oh, and she threw in a monkey wrench, one I didn't know: When you renew your license? You also have to renew your hazmat certification.  Yes I know that.  Well, sir, you will also have to retest.  Oh dang.  I didn't know that, it doesn't tell you that on the renewal instructions.  Yes, I've been doing hazmat for 3 plus years, yes I know what I'm doing, but yes, they ask a lot of irrelevant questions that most hazmat drivers wouldn't know the answer to without - studying.  

I have tomorrow off - and no I'm not going.  My brain is tied up in sicknessland, I am not going to sit here for hours doing what I did when I got hazmat certification the first time: spend hours and hours online, taking sample hazmat tests until I could answer the questions correctly.  I can thank them for canceling, for I didn't know that little tidbit of information and I would have shown up without having had done any studying.  Would have I passed? I have no idea, probably not.  

Well I just had to type that one out.  Took me by surprise.  Like, how do you just shut down the courthouse for a day? Did they know this when they put up the available dates for appointments?  

 The only reason I use La Quinta in town is so I can bring doggies with me.  Other hotel chains aren't so fond of dogs, or if they are, they certainly aren't allowing Great Danes in.  Having said that, the TV wasn't hooked up, they gave me a single queen instead of 2 and the wifi password didn't work. Calling up front, the lady insisted it was the right password.

So I hung up and tried on my phone - after trying unsuccessfully 10 times on my laptop - only to have it do the same exact thing.  I gave up on that, I have unlimited wifi on my iphone and it has unlimited tethering, but kind of annoying that I can't just use the hotel's wifi.  

Anyway, on my way down to Brownsville 2 days ago, about 70 miles into the trip, I developed a flaming sore throat. I mean, it came out of nowhere and it was intense.  I'm not the type to just give up, call work and say I'm coming back, so I continued on, figured it would mellow out.  Uhh, not only did it not mellow out, I also developed other "symptoms" quite rapidly.  In no time, I was feeling like I was full blown flu.  

Miserable, I decided to press on, get down there and go to bed - and hope there aren't any trailers waiting so I could rest longer.  It became apparent to me, after arriving in Brownsville and going straight to bed that if this didn't let up by the next morning, it would be time to go to urgent care.  

The next morning - I felt worse.  Looking around, I only found 2 urgent care centers open. The first one was filled with people.  I had no desire to wait. The second one, they took me in right after filling out my paperwork, there were hardly any patients there.  The copay was much higher tho, it was considering a regular hospital with everything a hospital can do - whether that includes operations who knows.  But, it was filled with real doctors, so that looked at least promising.  

They took my blood pressure, rather high for me but they proclaimed it is quite normal.  Then they said they were going to do a flu/covid test and a strep throat test.  Plus take xrays of my chest.  This assistant took a swab with a wood stick and shoved up into my nose, into the membrane/flesh inside my nose at the top and kept pushing. Quite painful, in fact I pulled back after she just kept pushing firmly up in there as if it were some sort of machinery that you can just keep bashing against.  

Anyway, some time later the doc came back in and said negative on all tests, said I had bronchitis.  Interesting, I thought.  I've been getting bronchitis one and off all my life, I never felt like I had the flu. I'm not saying they were ever cakewalks, miserable indeed, but nothing like this?  Maybe my age is playing a factor in sickness feeling worse and worse as life goes on?  I don't know.  Anyway, I left there, was going to go to the pharmacy but I was going to be passing the yard so I stopped in to see if any trailers had come in.  Sure enough, 2 empties sitting there.  

I decided to hook up and get the medications the next day.  Whether I was going to be capable of driving straight through?  I didn't know, but I was determined to try.  Halfway back up, I had to take a nap.  45 minutes worth and before getting to Houston. It was Sunday tho, Houston should have been a non-issue, as it was.  I kept on driving.  I knew there was another driver "racing" to beat me. He had shown up last night and was coming back to the yard just as I was pulling out with an empty.  When I got to Lufkin, I saw him sitting in a fuel aisle.  He was taking his 30 minute break there, a big time no-no in the trucking world.  Selfish, no concern for others, they take up fuel lanes while others are waiting to fuel. Not to mention there was plenty of room for him to pull ahead and out of the way.  

Well, I entered the store, got a water and a hot tea, got back into the truck and started taking off, he fired up and started a second after I did.  He did, however, stop after seeing me rolling out of there.  Was feeling miserable the entire way, btw.  I got on the road, 82 miles left to go.  I pushed it, got back to the yard, unhooked the truck, turned in my paperwork, moved the truck to a parking spot - and went to bed in the truck. Driving home at midnight wasn't exactly in my line of thinking.  I was glad I did. Those people came early this morning to continue on with the banging and noise making on the floors.  

After getting up, dragging myself out of bed after 11 hours of sleep, getting some coffee - in the truck - I left and went to Waffle House.  Hadn't hardly eaten anything in well over 24 hours.  Filled up, went to the pharmacy got that filled and then went home.  They were all there. Banging away.  They had put fresh cement down - the use it to even out the new flooring between pieces.  They had done around a 4 foot section right in front of my bedroom door.  I mean, there was no way to get into my bedroom without stepping into their fresh concrete or whatever the substance is, so I took that as a sign to go get a hotel.  

I grabbed Addler, he wanted to go so bad, I was going to leave him but he's outside all day so I figured he'd like the distraction.  It's kind of like when I'm on the road and occasionally get a hotel room. I always think, Addler is the only thing missing here.  Of course people were - shocked - seeing him walking into the hotel, but La Quinta doesn't discriminate against the size of the dog.  I would like to think they'd deal with aggressive dogs, but I've never seen any like that here.  

So here I am, in peace and quiet.  I took all 3 of the concoctions they gave me, haven't done anything yet and I"m not sure what one of them even does.  I thought they were going to give me prescription strength cough medicine - the stuff I like, it doesn't have opiates or whatever in it, it just stops the coughing without making you feel drowsy.  But they didn't.  They also tried to give me ampicillin, which is a derivative of penicillin, of which I am highly allergic to and noted that on the paperwork I filled out.  

Well, if the coughing doesn't slow down after all of this stuff, I will go to the local urgent care here and ask them for a prescription for it.  

Dispatcher just texted: want me to take you out of scheduling for awhile? YES.  Not that I don't want to work, but right now? I just can't do again what I did yesterday.  At least through tomorrow, maybe longer.  Hopefully these drugs will do something quickly to deal with this mess.  

Nothing else coming from the realtor.  Probably nothing in my price range left to bring to the table. There's just that one, 19 miles away, sitting right next to a golf course.  It's the 1st of February, I think another lien sale is only a month away.  So, I'm just going to wait until then unless some spectacular, magical fairy dust piece of land appears before my eyes that I must have.  If there is nothing available at the tax lien sale, then I don't know what to do.  Nothing.  Give up.  I dunno.  My interest in it will start to wane, it's been a long term goal that sort of came to fruition last week - until it was confirmed that none of those properties will work. And I"m not sure I want to drive 20 miles each way to get to the property if something comes up.  I'm expecting them to update the sale list with a new one - but it might be a few weeks before they do that.  Amazing a county out in the middle of nowhere has so many listings for properties with unpaid taxes.  

Taylor said she'd contact me when they leave.  The contractors that is.  I'm not sure I want to go home.  My version of bronchitis is contagious.  I don't want to give it to the boys - they are always up in my business when I get home.  If they get sick, they have to stay home, period.  The school system won't let them go to school and neither will the daycare allow them.  Of course, I saw them the night before I left, I didn't get it from them, I'm assuming so wherever I got it, I can only guess that everyone in the house may come down with it.  Taylor also has it, but she always has it.  The "acute" kind.  Oh wait, that's with a fever. I guess they will accept them sick, but if they have a fever they have to stay out until they are temp free for 24 hours before they come back.  Still, this stuff is nasty.  

Yup, I'm just sitting here, lazing away the day.  Doing nothing is the order of business. Either laying down or sitting back in a chair, doesn't matter, as long as I"m not exerting any energy. Been through bronchitis - many many times before.  You try to do stuff? You just prolong it. It can literally go on for months if you don't simply rest.  Oh, well I found reruns of Star Trek the Next Generation, that will suffice for now.