Home much earlier than expected.

I got out there this morning around 6:30 am, got the truck fired up, did my pre trip stuff and HOS stuff, got on the road.  10 miles up 59, there's a seriously bad accident.  A truck heading southbound had an entire stack of 2X4's come off the trailer and land in oncoming traffic lanes. A car hit it head on - you could tell the car was moving along because the front end of the car was basically gone, there was nothing but a frame there, even the engine had disappeared somewhere.  This was after the fact, Troopers, Sheriff deputies, fire were there, the body or the person was already gone.  I say that because I have no idea if they lived through or not.

Beyond that, I am contacted from dispatch that the load has been moved to a 5:00 pm offload.  Well, I'm already on the clock and already driving.  If I go on duty, I can go back off and erase it.  But once you start driving, you are on the 14 hour clock whether you want to be or not. One caveat is that a manager can erase it, but it's entirely illegal.  If they get caught, I have no idea what the repercussions could be, but I would guess a stiff fine at the very least. 

So, she contacts me back after I stop at a truck stop and tells me to bring it to the yard, they will have a local driver deliver it tonight.  Shortly after leaving the truck stop, I was on a 2 lane highway.  It's 65mph, not a heavy traffic road. I'm going up a small hill when I see a pickup  cresting the hill coming the other direction.  I don't trust drivers anymore, not like I used to. Especially on a 2 lane highway.  He comes around the corner.

And keeps coming around until he's coming straight at me.  I'm watching this and heading off onto the shoulder of the highway, slamming on my brakes and making decisions of what I will do if this ends up having to either get into a crash or go off the side of a steep embankment.  I'm not losing my life for some idiot who is looking at their damn phone instead of the highway ahead of him.  He crosses the yellow lines, still headed directly for me and gets over half way into my lane before he looks up, swerves and just barely misses me.  The car on my tail also swerved out of the way - if they hadn't that truck would have hit them.  

I started thinking about all the signs I seem to be getting that this job and trucking in general are not what God wants from me right now.  I need supplemental income, but is this the way I should be going about it?  What else can I do? Go work at a restaurant? No.  I'm good at forklifts, I wondered about finding a forklift operator job somewhere? Maybe just pray and ask God to lead me to wherever or whatever else I can do for sufficient income to pay bills, expand the park and live my life?  

Up to the yard.  The dispatcher asks me about having trouble with exiting the plant on the tablet? Huh?  Go get your tablet and let's take a look.  I have that tablet down, whether it's actually working or not is a different story. But I do the exit thing and only once have I forgotten, remembered up the road and did it after the fact. She was saying I don't do it at all.

It's the tablet. And her system. It was showing me in Lufkin lmao.  I dunno, I do my job, I do what they expect of me and then some. People don't bother to report broken stuff, I do it all the time.  The trailer I took up there I showed the mechanics things wrong with it that need fixing.  The one with the bad dome seal and a broken cap.  

Left there with the first decent looking trailer I've pulled since getting back from Oregon. Everything works and there is no damage to the sides or rear of the thing.  Originally, I was to go to Gurdon, offload and then go get an empty. I wouldn't have been home for many more hours from now and I was thankful, actually, to be dragged to the yard instead. 

I am working the rest of this week, the weekend and all of next week up until Friday.  She said "I have you working until you say something". Well, I said something. I'll work this weekend, she already had me dispatched for it anyway, but next weekend? I want off. I always remind them I like to go to church on Sundays. 

Left there, back to the Park and now home.  

Day 2 of fasting.  I was doing good until I got home. Taylor had cooked something and I could smell it. I think my sense of smell for food is a bit heightened right now because I haven't eaten since Sunday evening.  I'm trying to get into ketosis quicker, I haven't tested yet but considering how long I have been off Keto? It could be a week or longer.  I won't fast that long, but I do know fasting helps it right along. Plus helps cleanse your body of toxins.  This is a no food fast.  I did have coffee this morning but no creamer and I never put sugar in my coffee.  

I'm quite serious about doing Keto now that I've been fasting a few days and looking at my belly, it's just big.  I've never been this fat in my entire life.  I will do strict keto for quite a while and get this belly back down to a place where I can look and say, ok, that's not that bad. That's going to take a while.  

Tested a few minutes ago with the ketone strips, nothing.  I didn't really expect it to, the first time I started this diet it took 10 days to get into ketosis.  I surely hope it won't take that long this time, really doesn't matter, even not being in ketosis, not eating and then eating light after I do start eating again I will still lose weight anyway. It's just that keto burns fat for energy unlike other diets.  I know how the diet works, I don't have to look up a bunch of stuff, just some new recipes would be nice.  Someone gave me a Keto recipe book a few years ago, I'm going to delve into that thing and try some of that stuff.

But, I have a fresh influx of Keto bread and stuff to make low carb sandwiches.  That and taco meat for low carb tortillas are my go-to for quick meals if I'm in a hurry.  A local chicken place sells baked chicken and of course there are baked chickens available at most grocery stores, already cooked, warmed and waiting just for - me, lol.  

I will probably start eating again tomorrow evening at dinner. Beer brats are on the menu, I can eat those with low carb bread or buns.  I think I have some keto buns in the freezer as it stands.  

Yup, that's my plan unless I find the stamina somewhere to continue on with fasting.  It would be good for all kinds of things inside my body to take a rest and clean out.  

My accounts not looking so rosy atm. Interest rates are going up on credit cards so I am getting hit accordingly. I made my bed, now sleep in it type of deal.  I can't even think about starting to pay that stuff down until I get ahead - which actually should start happening in December, especially if I"m actually going to be working for the next 10 days in a row, a weekend off and hopefully right back at it.  

I have to wonder if they are going to try to make me work on Christmas day.  I worked Thanksgiving, I am going to push for that day off, in fact, a 3 day weekend would be nice. Yeah, dream on I'm sure.  I am assuming I will be working there until I either find something else or - just keep working there.  I am going to start looking online at general jobs hiring - all of it, not just trucking. In fact, screw looking at trucking jobs.  I likely wouldn't switch trucking jobs until I get some experience with these particular types of tankers under my belt.  At least there are many days where I'm home early.

Tomorrow "should" be no different. With a clean trailer that doesn't need washed out, I can drive straight to Lufkin, load and go home.  

It's been cold here, at least my version of it.  

After inspecting the dome lid on top of the trailer after returning from Lufkin, it became obvious that people were bashing on the lugs instead of simply fixing the problem by replacing the seal.  The same said trailer also has a camlock lid with a broken cam arm on it.  It cannot be sealed shut. I ended up putting a different cap on it that they had given me.  Then, this morning at the plant, the plant worker said the inspection on the trailer is expired at the end of the month and if we try to bring it back after that, they will reject it.  ALL plants to that with chemical trailers, at least every one I have ever been in. \

So, texting the manager, I now have to take the trailer to a place in Crossett to drop off and have washed out and pick up an empty there.  This came from the dispatcher who contradicted the manager.  Does it make any difference? No, it takes forever,  a day and a half to get to either Crossett or the yard from Gurdon, I don't really care. It's 3 plus hours from Crossett back to my park. Tomorrow will be a long day.  I think I have the 10:00 am delivery time, I'm going to get up there earlier than that, say 9:00 am.  

I bashed the lugs on that dome so I am hopeful no leaks this time and I can offload quickly.  Done by 10, I can get down to Crossett by noon, out of there in probably half an hour and then home by - I'll just guess around 3:30.  But, we'll add another hour for good measure. I can say that I got done and back quickly today, as I had hoped for. If everything goes right, it really shouldn't take that long to go to Nacogdoches for the washout and then Lufkin to load.  

 After I got back and bashed those lugs down with a hammer, I headed off to multiple stops, the longest being Walmart.   I had to get Keto stuff and out of dog food, to name a few things.  Then I had to go wait in the curbside pickup to get the new laptop.  Not a big deal.  In a parking lot I was in that I was leaving, there was an accident. Yes, in the parking lot, lol.  A lady had driven her car in front of an oncoming pickup truck and the truck hit the car, putting a huge dent into the passenger side front door. 

The lady was both on the phone and yelling at the dude in the truck, who was just sitting there looking at her with a perplexed look on his face. They hadn't moved the vehicles so it was quite obvious it wasn't his fault, he had the right of way. But, in parking lots, I don't think police will get involved. Well, I don't know about Texas, Arizona is that way.  The lady's anger was better directed at herself than this man sitting in the truck. 

Off to the bank to deposit funds I had received from the park and then home. 

And very hungry. Today I relaunched Keto.  Haven't eaten a thing.  Was trying to make it through 24 hours without eating, I'm not sure I'm going to make it. It's ok if I don't, it just helps get back into ketosis faster.  I bought plenty of keto stuff and I'm good to go.  Not really looking forward to the first week or so of this, it will get easier after I am doing it for awhile.

No show on an overnighter. They paid in advance and I've heard nothing from them, they forfeit their deposit, which is the first night's stay. They were only staying one night anyway.  I need to get out my book and see who owes what now that I paid that insurance bill. 

Welp, so much for the weekend. I will apparently be working all this week, through the weekend and all next week. That's fine, I guess, I need the money badly atm.  I'll be collecting around 4 grand between the 30th and the 7th, so maybe not so bad. Just paying this insurance bill kind of hurts and then a mortgage payment goes out before I even receive the money and beyond that normal payments. 

So, I'm not toast, just have to get a couple payments in there that are due before the 1st.  

 Monday - early

Lmao

I get up, barely, lol, dragged my @$$ out of bed, got in the shower, etc.  I come out of my room to get a coffee cup and hear yelling on the other side of the house. Oh boyyyy, here we go! Monday morning!  I make my cuppa and then they all come out. 2 boys and mama.  The youngest took 20 minutes to drag his butt out of bed and mama wasn't happy, it was time to leave.  School busses don't wait, if you aren't there, they leave without you. He had lost his shoes, mom had finally found them. He didn't want to go to school.

So this boy sits down on a large recliner in the living room, picks up his other shoe - one is on his foot, one is in his hands, and starts playing with it. It took her having to go get a belt before he would finally even do anything. She didn't whip him, btw, it was just a motivational tool, lol.

Mama goes into the kitchen for the milk she's been pumping for the baby - if you follow this blog you know what I'm talking about, if you don't, oh well, she's a surrogate mother helping the new parents out with pumping milk instead of having the baby have to consume formula.

While she's in the kitchen, this boy got the shoe on and then engaged in the most magnificent stomping act I've ever seen in my entire life!  You know, when little kids get mad they stomp their foot? Oh nooo, that's not what happened here. This boy stomped his entire body! Arms flailing around, screaming, crying, I've never seen anything like it.  It's youtube gold, I wish I would have had a camera on that event.  That kind of video would go viral in a minute lmao.  

The older boy was standing at the door, motionless, silent, with a look of terror in his eyes.  He doesn't like when mom gets that angry.  The younger brother wasn't listening, was having a hissy fit and she wasn't having it. I said bye to the oldest as they started to leave, this little squeaking noise came out of his mouth, byyyeee.  

That woke me right up! I''m ready for the driving day! LMAO!! The funny part about this? They've been off on Thanksgiving break for what, 9 days now which includes 2 weekends? They've been getting up early almost every single day without anyone prodding them.  I know what it is, too. That little boy is coddled by grandma.  She spoils the hell out of those kids and it shows when she leaves. Life goes back to normal, thank God Almighty, but the kids? Well, the youngest anyway, the older one not so much, he can't deal with it.  

I really think her visits here should be limited to a few days at most.  But, I just live here, it's not my call.  I would tell her in a minute. She tried to chastise me out yesterday. The oldest had left stuff on the couch so she, grandma, got onto his case about it.  Especially leaving the Switch (game, Nintendo) on the couch that is black, matches the couch color and anyone could miss it, sit right down on top of it and smash the thing. Those things are $350.

After she got done with that, I actually agreed with her on that one and told the boy you did the same thing yesterday leaving that game when you got up to go to the kitchen. That game is going to get smashed and you aren't going to have a Switch anymore (I pitched in half the money to pay for the damned thing a few years ago plus bought games for it).  

Well, she overhears me, steps into the room and attempts to tell me how things should go! Lmao, wrong person, gong!  You sure as HELL aren't coming into MY room to attempt to talk to me like I'm one of the kids! I talked right of the top of her and set her straight.  I don't do that often, but it was definitely warranted at that point in time.

Anyway, a trip to the washout, to the plant and back up, if I'm lucky, I'll be back at the park around 1:00 pm. If I'm not lucky, who knows?!! I'm still laughing about that boy's stomping act, it was really a sight to see.  I was laughing even harder because, of course, no one else found it funny lmao.  

Anyway, those kids are on their way to school, they get free breakfast which is usually pretty good (at least by their accounting of it ) and so maybe they'll get into better moods. I don't know, but they are gone and I don't have to deal with it. I have other things to deal with and that's enough for me!  

Time to get out of here!

G'day : )

 So we go to church. We being 2 kids and I.  I do the normal thing in signing them in, leaving them at the kidz (that's how they spell it) church and I go to the regular adult version.  

We're 30 minutes into the sermon.  I sit on the 2cd row from the front, highly visible 

I'm taking in what the pastor is saying when I notice something out of the corner of my eye and then look over. It's one of the youth ministry workers wanting me to come with her.  She was being as discrete at possible, but obviously it's going to distract a lot of people.  

I start wondering what's going on, but my mind settled quickly on the 6 year old getting into trouble.  It's just how he is.  He knows when he does certain things that he's going to get into trouble and he's fine with that.  Or so it appears anyway, cause' he gets into trouble a lot at home.  

We get outside the doors and she proceeds to explain to me that the boy is in the play tube things - this is a huge array of them that goes clear to the ceiling some 25 feet up maybe even 30 feet, hard to judge.  They can't get him to come out, they asked him his parents phone number - does anyone know anyone's phone number any more besides their own? I have my mother's phone number memorized because she's had it something like 30 years.  

We walk into the children's auditorium, the lights are out except up front on the stage and obviously, we are a huge distraction.  He had, of course, come out of there once he understood I was coming to get him. Cause' honey, he ain't about to sit there and defy me.  I'm like a 3rd parent, not exactly a parent but I have no problems telling him when he's doing something wrong.  

Oh, well he's out...yea he's coming with me, I'm not going to leave him in here to further distract your service.  

I bring him back into the main auditorium and back to my seat.  Yup, more distraction, but I came to church to worship and to hear the message.  Sorry everyone.  The boy sits down and yes, he is now behaving.  I was, however, peeved at this point after thinking about it.  This boy causing distraction to not 1 but 2 separate services.  I tried to get back into what the pastor was saying, eventually I was able to.

The boy had no explanation, of course, for his behavior. 

I get back to the kidz auditorium to pick up the other boy- he's almost always a good kid. He has his moments but he's pretty much a non-trouble maker, he doesn't like to get into trouble and he definitely doesn't like getting spankings. He will do whatever it takes to keep from having that happen. I then get more of the story now that there was time.  

The kids service was starting, they called all the kids out of the play tubes, this boy refused.  This went on for "at least 10 minutes if not longer", multiple people trying to get him out of there.  He finally comes out, a ministry worker tries to talk to him, he runs back into the tubes.  That's when they decided to come find me.  As I said, he knew I was coming after him and he didn't want any part of ignoring me, he knows better. 

So I text mom.  Yada yada yada, this is what happened. They are going to deal with him tonight, for we had a busy day and there wasn't time to adequately address him without being in a hurry.  We went to our normal Applebee's, then home, then off to Christmas pic with the group of friends we hang out with - the rich lady paid for all of it (I don't mean that disparagingly, she's a nice lady), back to the house quickly so Taylor could go to her D&D game she always does on Sundays.  

I expect all hell to break loose tonight when they get a hold of him, set him down and give him whatever discipline he is going to get.  I wash my hands of it after I hand it off to them, it's their department to deal with their kids and they have no problems doing it.  I'm not the father/mother, I just let them do whatever they are going to do whether I agree with it or not. Mostly I agree, sometimes I greatly disagree but I keep my mouth shut about it.  They've tried everything with this boy, he simply won't listen.  Well, take that back, on some things he's gotten better.  

The ministry workers even asked him if he really wanted to get into that kind of trouble? Who is stricter, your mommy or your daddy? They understand I'm not the father, I've made that know several times over.  Daddy.  Yup.  Daddy doesn't automatically whip his ass or anything, but he's stern when it comes to the trouble this boy causes.

I was slightly embarrassed, tho not that much. I just was sorry to cause that kind of distraction to a church service. Both coming and going.  I don't go to church to have to deal with unruly children.  It's arleady determined he's going to miss at least one week of church, in my view, he could miss a few months of it.  This isn't the first incident. The first time was him flipping off another kid inside the children's church.  He won't care if he doesn't go and that's why I don't care if he doesn't go again for quite a while. He'll see his brother going without him and knowing we always go to Applebee's......

That's my excitement for the day.  I finally got around to getting the deer meat separated into meal sized portions - probably a lot bigger than one meal's worth but whatever, it's 4 large baggies full, wrapped it all in plastic wrap and then put it in Ziploc baggies.  Marked the outside of them with the type of meat and date and then decided to put a piece of paper with same-said info inside of it. It will probably not get eaten quickly, but I am looking forward to backstrap. 

Now? I've got to take snapshots of the insurance papers and send them back to the insurance company along with a check - they want a pic of the check both sides so they can get this done quickly, I"m coming up on the end of a full year of insurance coverage as of the 1st of December.  

Up early tomorrow for work, go get the tank washed out, get it filled with glue and back home.  Hoping to be home no later than 1.  Then I have to bash those lugs on there with a hammer and try to get it sealed up, I do not want to spend another almost 4 hours again up in Gurdon unloading the damned thing.  Uhh, make it hopefully no later than 2. Really depends on which person is there loading, I have found out. Some are fast and efficient, some aren't fast or efficient at all.  

What else. Rents coming up, gonna need them. Electric bills total just under $900.  That still seems pretty high, but it's a far cry better than $2,500.  Hmm, maybe not.  No, it's not that bad I guess. For 16 lots it's $56 per lot on average.  I mean, it probably won't go much lower than that unless I lose lots and don't refill them quickly.  

Still musing whether to build a cabin, put up a glamping tent or save for a septic system.  I have plenty of time to muse, lol.  It's in my mind.  The new person hasn't said anything since I spoke to her yesterday so I am going to hope that I don't have any issues going there.  I'd prefer her unit to stay back there even if a lot comes available. It's older, it isn't in bad shape, per se, just not the prettiest thing.  Doesn't blend in with everything else out there on the main lots.  

I didn't go to the park today and doubt I will unless something comes up.  There is another overnight stay coming in sometimes today and that's it until - Saturday.  I look at the over all pic. In a 30 day period, it's rented out just short of a full lot's monthly rent rate. I like having people coming and going, I just like to be able to give people a place to stay at the last minute.  Don't have that available today or tomorrow, but that's a good thing, right?  I had to turn down at least half a dozen people this week, just no room.  

The new park is showing up now in Google searches.  It's a pretty barren place, they just took fresh pics 3 weeks ago and it's nothing but dirt and some gravel.  They have 3, brand new cabin things set up, a few RV's in there and really, the only thing going for them, is their price.  I doubt I will lose many people to them for I am not that much more expensive and I don't charge extra for electricity either.  Why stress of that? Not stressing, really, I like to keep my eye on what everyone around me is doing for prices.  Looks like brand new park models they've brought in for overnight or long term, not sure which.  They are nice looking.  I wonder if the local dealer would finance me for such an undertaking? 

Keto is en-queue for tomorrow. Eating stuff I won't be able to eat again for quite a while. Had a loaf of Keto bread in the freezer which saved me a trip to the store.  Keto lunch is easy, just make sandwiches on keto bread and it's keto friendly. Just keep off any sugary sauces.  Cheese, meat, keto bread, onions, jalapenos and mayonnaise? Those are all good.  Back to eating separately from everyone else. That's not really that hard, I just don't eat the noodles, rice - whatever.  Off the sugary stuff.  Probably gonna get some "fake" sweets tho to get me through the hard times in the beginning.  I want to fast tomorrow but I wonder if I'll make it through.  Actually, I can make it until early afternoon without eating under most any circumstances, so I might just skip taking food with me.  A 3 day fast would help get me back into ketosis, but alas....I doubt I have that kind of internal fortitude right now.  

My belly has grown as big as it's going to grow, that's what I can say.  I'll spend 6 months bringing it back down or a year or however long.  One thing that always motivates me is if I'm pushing going into another size up on pant size. No thanks!?

 Sunday

We had a great time yesterday, but it oddly ended much earlier than I expected it to.  Ate, had some laughs and then everyone went home early.  Like, we aren't doing a card night?  I dunno, I don't make the plans, I'm just along for the ride in those events.  The ladies make all the plans on a 4-person texting group that have with themselves, the men find out afterwards whatever they are deciding. Sometimes, the other side doesn't find out until it's actually about to happen.

Whatever the case, the grandma and the oldest boy are going home today after being here...9 days as of today.  The living room will go back to normal, the kids will return to normal - the house will return to normal.  If you really want an ideal situation for these much-more-frequent scenarios with them coming down for extended stays, we would have to have at least one more bedroom, if not 2. 

At some point, there will need to be another bedroom.  The 2 that actually live here are young, I don't think the oldest much cares for having to share a bedroom with his younger brother, but it's been that way basically their entire lives.  The time will come - probably preteens - when he will start getting vocal about wanting his own room.  I dunno, my brothers and I had our own rooms when we were growing up.

My room in Pittsburgh was very small. It was a servant's quarters, barely enough room for a twin bed, a small bedside table and a dresser. It was small but it was my own room.  My brothers didn't think it was my room, coming in and giving me hell all the time.  They always said I was the spoiled one. No, I was the one that did their chores and got their allowances.  They were too busy either hanging out with their gang friends or the eldest beating up the middle to pay too much attention to me.  We moved one state to another and we still had our own rooms.  

The problem is, you are talking about a needing a 5 bedroom house.  Housing here isn't cheap, which surprises people attempting to move into the area. A small town out in the middle of nowhere with high housing prices whether you're trying to buy a house or rent one. Rentals are ridiculously high.  

I'll just be glad to get the house back to normal. If this situation ever comes to all of us moving into the same residence, I do hope the kids are older by that point in time, the whole house wont' be upended by a "visit" from a person that wants to take over. It would be sad for me to have to leave here, but it would definitely be something I'd have to weigh in my mind if this grandma's intentions ever come to fruition.  

I'm definitely starting the diet Monday.  I have had it in my mind, this time I'm going to do it.  I keep saying this over and over, I know, but now is the time.  It's going to be hell converting back to keto, I just have no choice. I have been giving myself excuses to just eat whatever - rice, beans, lots of potatoes, pasta, etc.  Even sugary stuff.  Cake, cookies, fudge brownies. Not excessive amounts or even on a daily basis. I was off of sweets excepting the fake stuff for a few years and got to the point I didn't really miss sugar.  

New person moved in to the alternate spot yesterday.  A whole crew of people came with her to help, which was nice. They seemed like nice people, the whole lot of them, including the older man that was pulling the trailer with his truck.  I tried having them place it parallel to the coach, it wasn't working out.  The sewer connection on the trailer was too far from the sewer connection coming out of the ground.  It was also too close to the coach, it would have created a complete lack of privacy for both parties to be that close together. 

I had the guy move it the way I had the other trailer that was in there.  The connections are much closer and it creates a situation where the back end of the trailer is facing the coach instead of the whole side of the trailer. I was trying to get the thing out of view and hidden behind the shed. Just didn't work out.  They paid, I left to go to the store and then go home and start helping out.  

A 40X16 shed/small barn, site built is 10k.  I know because I contacted the guy. He's the one that build the shed.  He's the cheapest thing around. A no frills barn that size starts at 20k and goes way up from there from anyone else.  He says 40X16 is as big as he makes them, I was originally inquiring about a 40X20.  What would I do with a barn that size? A small office, a size getaway room and the rest a shop.  Probably 10 linear feet for office/room, maybe a little more. I'd like to be able to set up a work bench, have plenty of storage shelving and have area to put the mower and anything else I need stored indoors.  

Well, I need to go get that laptop today.  It's sitting there at Walmart, ready to be picked up "we'll hold it for 4 days for you". Okay?  I think I'll just put this one in storage and pull it out whenever I might need to access any files from it.  It's that or transfer a bunch of files and I"m not sure I want to load a new one down with that.  

Other than that? Church, probably.  Go check the camera, maybe, bring it home, plug in the memory card and see if it actually took any pictures.  

G'day

 Saturday - Friendsgiving

So the wonderful day is here. I don't say that sarcastically, btw, we are all looking forward to seeing everyone at the same place and enjoying each other's company. It's been a while. Taylor was pregnant, not feeling well and the capped any idea of doing anything over here or anywhere else, for that matter. It's been a little of girls night out here and there, nothing with the whole crew. I take that back, there was one of them a while back that I was out of town for - in Oregon doing that nightmarish training. 

We used to get together at least a couple times a month, sometimes more.  I'm just a little worried about the tiny bird I bought, but as I said previously, I thought it was just going to be for us 5, not us 19.  There are going to be so many side dishes and the fact that all of those people already had Thanksgiving dinner, I'm hoping it will be enough coupled with the ham.  

Anyway, my cleaning activities started quite a while ago and trying to get stuff done before I have to go to the park and get these new people moved in. 

Start the turkey around 11 this morning it should be done by 2.  Or earlier than 2, which is fine.  

My park will be completely full including the 2 alternate spots as of today, again.  However, one of the alternate spots isn't paying anything and hasn't for going on 2 months now.  I'd be a little more - unnerved - about that if it was summer and they were consuming large amounts of electricity on my dime.  The whole purpose of that setup was to sell her the coach - making payments on it and paying the lot rent every month.

That has gone completely out the window and I suspect that once they get on Medicare, it will still be difficult to get both the lot rent and the coach payment out of them.  There is nothing I can do about that right now, I agreed to let them stay out of the kindness of my heart and the Lord's directives as stated in the Bible, there isn't anything more to it than that. To throw a person out that was working but became incapacitated due to a medical event would seem ... horrible.....to me and nothing I could live with. I would wonder what the Lord would say to me about that at Judgement Day.  

I can tell ya there are plenty of landlords that would throw them right out without hesitation.  No pay, no stay.   I'm just not one of those people, not under these circumstances anyway, I've thrown plenty of room renters out of my house, that sort of conditioned me to having to deal with people that are unruly, inconsiderate or otherwise won't follow park rules. Haven't had a lot of it, but there have been a few.  

I do wonder how long it's going to be before they get the Medicare going.  If the payments come to my park, I'll find out soon enough.  If they go to the daughter's house, will the daughter let me know and give me at least the lot rent every month? Remains to be seen.  The tent lady isn't 100% incapacitated, she is moving around with a walker tho I have no idea how her mental state of being is.  She is in some sort of rehab is all I know about that and also know that her brother, also living there, now takes the dog out and lets the dog poop wherever and doesn't clean it up. 

I completely forgot about that, need to deal with that directly.  The man is lazy, has no more motivation in life than to get up, smoke several packs of cigarettes a day and look at the internet. Oh, and drinking. I don't know how much he drinks.  And wandering around without a shirt on on the occasions he does come out of that coach.                                                                               

I don't want to get started on that, that sort of irritates me, for that man could be collecting SSI payments and doesn't do anything about it.  Supposedly the daughter is up his @$$ about that, if she isn't I will.  When considering money being left on the table and what they owe me? Yes, his ass can get up, get over to the SS office in town and get started on getting everything he needs to start collecting his money.  

Ok, let's get off of the negatives. It's kind of easy to go down that path when I start thinking about it and get to the point rather quickly that money could be getting paid to me if that guy had done something about this months ago when I 'encouraged' him to get to that office and get started on it. I don't have a birth certificate.  Yes, they will help you do whatever you need.  It's not rocket science. 

The grandma and the oldest kid are leaving tomorrow. She has completely taken over the living room and I rarely go in there. That's her bedroom, but she sleeps on that couch throughout the day.  I don't know why she sleeps so much, she isn't much older than me and tho I admit there are times fatigues catches up with me and nap is in order, not the entire day?  I just wish there was another bedroom for her.  

I did say let's get off of the negatives. There's a lot of negatives going on around me I guess, just have to try and focus on the positives. One positive is the park insurance coming down by almost $700. That completely surprised me and in a good way.  I was expecting it to go up, not down, inflation being the reason and everyone has jumped on the inflation bandwagon in order to justify jacking prices up of pretty much every single thing whether inflation really affected it or not. 

Just the idea that I need to come up with that much money right now, lol.  I guess not that bad, I have lots of payments coming up quick, I am going to get that done this weekend, I fear that Monday morning will come, I will get busy with trucking and space it out.  I do not want a lapse in coverage.  I've had that bad luck before, where the house insurance ended because the company wasn't doing mobile coverage anymore for anyone and I procrastinated looking for new coverage - and then my house burned down.  I learned from that and I will not be repeating it if at all possible.  It's just minimum coverage to save my @$$ if someone sues me for whatever reason or something happens and they somehow find me liable.  

It's going to be a while before I get another paycheck.  It's only twice a month and I just got paid 3 days ago - it was a small check.  Payroll period ends at the end of the month, I hope to have another 4 days of work on it before it ends so I can have some money coming in.  By then, the insurance will be paid, I will be looking to buy some Christmas presents but I will be saving for property taxes.  I have until February, I think, well the end of February, before they start adding penalties for late payment.  It's 3 grand worth.  

Whatever the case, I will be attempting to save business funds for the septic system.  That's going to take a while, that's 7 grand.  

Oh! I did buy a new laptop yesterday on Black Friday (I still am wondering when they will start calling it racist?).  It was a cheaper model.  I did it on $25 per month payments.  It is less than $300, but I really don't want all my cash tied up in any one thing right now.  I really must get more lots in there to up the income so that all of these payments won't eat up finances so much.

Well, these people just texted me. "We're going to show up a little early if that's okay?" Yes, but they said they would be leaving between 9 and 10.  I need to get moving, now that I think about it. I'm only half dressed, lol, just enough to not be walking around the house looking inappropriate.  

I bid you a good day.  

 Out early, out of the park early, up to the plant in reasonable amount of time.  Weigh in, go to rack, hook up the air line, turn the air on and then find someone inside to sign off on paperwork. Back out, look at the pressure, it's only at 17 psi and not budging.  I need it at 30 psi.  Well, I figured it would go up so I hooked everything up, opened all the valves and let'er rip.  

The pressure was not going up.  They have a high volume air compressor, it's not the air supply. I go by the ladder on the tanker and hear hissing.  Went up - the dome lid is leaking, profusely.  There's not a damn thing I can do about that, I don't have a spare gasket for that dome.  Well, I could have probably taken a hammer and beaten those lugs down tighter, but we aren't allowed to climb on top of the tankers inside the plant property.  

It took almost 4 hours to unload that thing. It was not fun.  I checked the thing after returning to the park, it is trashed.  There is a obvious portion about 10 inches long where the air can escape easily. This is a different trailer, not the one I have been using.  The manager said "we need to get you spare gaskets". 

I don't find out about things until after the fact.  And too late.  

Monday, when I get back from Lufkin, I will take some sealant and put it on that area and then take a hammer and bash those lugs as tight as I can get them.  If that doesn't work, it will be another fun, exhilarating, 4 hours of offloading.  Definitely going to at least try to get it shut down good.

The deer meat has been "processed".  The processing at the dude's tailgate on his pickup lol.  He took about half of it and gave me the rest.  It isn't really a lot, I don't think he cut down that whole deer.  Whatever the case, it's going in the freezer. We are having Friendsgiving tomorrow and leftovers probably for days after that.  The lady of this house doesn't like deer meat, so that doesn't help. I'm cook the stuff anyway, just going to have to have it separate from dinners. 

A newbie moving in tomorrow morning.  She will be taking the space behind the trailer.  The park is full and has been full for some time now.  I get calls all the time for long and short term and unfortunately, I have to turn them down.  I am pretty sure I could fill up another 15 lots.  Probably take a month or two, but it would happen at least with the current load of calls coming in.  Nothing I can do about it.  I doubt I will even be able to begin saving any money towards a septic system until next year, too much stuff coming up for payments.  

Anyway, filling out the insurance stuff - finally got it, a little late in the day considering my current insurance runs out on the 1st.  It has a "Notice of Terrorism Insurance Coverage" inclusion in it.  ??? Do I really need terrorist coverage at a small RV park out in the boonies in the middle of nowhere?  The price went way down from the first year's coverage, probably because I am only looking for liability coverage and coverage on the shed since I spent so much money on the thing.  It's at $966 for the entire year.  Ok, I am getting the same kind of coverage I have now, it's just that it's cheaper. I'll have to guess because I already have insurance and because I have made no claims.  

It's just one of the things you need if someone sues you and tries to take what you own.  I worked a total of 17 years for those 401k's I cashed out and was paying on the house 15 years to get that cashout/refi.  It's not something I would like to see just disappear because some person got hurt or whatever, sued me and I lose everything.  It is wonderful, however, that Texas implemented a limited liability for damages to RV park owners this year.  You break your leg on my walking trails? That's no my fault unless you can prove that there was some circumstance that I should have mitigated in order to make it safer.  

Still, it really limits what people can sue for, as it should be. There are legitimate things and then there's the miles long lists of illegitimate things. Sort of like the woman who sued McDonald's for millions of dollars because she spilled her coffee on herself and burned herself.  She wins because of her own mistake?  This never made sense to me nor the endless parade of lawsuits you saw on the news that came after that one with people making ridiculous claims and actually winning and usually in the millions of dollars range.  

I'll have that taken care of Monday, I am rather relieved that amount isn't so high.  It's still up there, but I doubt it will ever get much better than that.  It's actually getting late, like 11:00 pm.  I dunno what else, there's something but I can't remember what.  Well, the turkey I bought is rather small. It's only 12 pounds.  I usually get 20 pounders.  I didn't think we would need a huge one this year so I bought a smaller one.  People are bringing so much stuff tomorrow plus someone is bringing and entire ham that it really shouldn't be an issue - hopefully.  It would be different to see an entire turkey consumed versus the norm of having plenty of it left over.  

So, lots to do tomorrow with getting the turkey prepped and runs to the store and then over to the park to get this new person situated in and then cook the turkey for everyone to eat around 2ish. 

With that, I think I will go to bed. No need to get up super early, just would be nice to get a good night's sleep. 

 Thursday - night

Kind of get busy in the morning so not so much time to write blog entries.  Today was pretty simple. Get i the truck, drive to Lufkin, load and come right back.  I was done by 1:30 this afternoon. Tomorrow will also be simple tho more driving: Get in the truck, drive to Gurdon, unload, drive back to my park.  After that, a 2 day weekend - no work.  I specifically asked for it off since I worked Thanksgiving and that was that.  They've got me set for Monday unless that changes somehow in the interim.  

I've got the earlier load tomorrow, I can get home at a decent hour.  Like, get up at 6:00 am, leave the yard by 7, get up there around 9:30 am, probably out of the plant around 11, back home 2 at the latest.  I add time always to everything because there are so many unknowns that can occur.  So we'll call it 3 in the afternoon for good measure, which is still a decent hour to get home by.  

Anyway, this couple calls me about an hour and a half ago. They are sitting at the local Golden Corral, probably the only restaurant in town that was still open besides IHOP.  Well, Waffle House may also be open. But Golden Corral has an actual Thanksgiving dinner.  Anyway, they said "we are in the wrong state" without any explanation and asked if I had anything available? They sounded desperate, like no one else at the other parks were answering their phones.

Well, I have an alternate spot if you want it. It's just a parking area, not  a regular RV lot in my park but it has 30 amp service with sewer and water connections.  They said they would call me when they got over there, but I was watching for them on the camera.  The did, indeed, show up and I went over there to collect.  "JUST MARRIED" on the back of their Jeep window pulling a small travel trailer, I congratulated them.  I had to find out the story about "being in the wrong state". How do you do that, what happened?

They are part of 2 groups that were traveling together, a Jeep group and an RV group.  They were going to meet in our town.  Or were they? They said they were told my town's name and thought our town- in Texas. No, lol, it turns out the rest of the gang is up in the same named town - in Oklahoma - north of Oklahoma City.  Lol.  I said well, I'll tell ya what, since your were just married and having a time of it, I'll just let you have this space for free tonight.  Congratulation on the wedding!  

He told me that he was over in Dallas today near a pond in some ritzy area. The pond was being cleaned out for the winter by some personnel and their truck got stuck. So, he unhooked his trailer, got his Jeep into position and pulled them out with his winch.  He declared "Karma!".  I did something for someone today and now it gets paid back to me!

Ok, something like that lol.  

After that we went into the woods for a hike. Those 3 kids had been in the house almost an entire week, time to get some energy out. After that, over to some folks that showed up for a 2 night stay and hung out with them for awhile, over to another trailer, hung out there for a while and left. 

By the time we got home, 2 people had stopped by our house. Both came bearing gifts of Thanksgiving dinner, and we are talking some excellent food!  No one knew they were coming, they both knew that we weren't doing Thanksgiving tonight so they decided to bless us.  What a cool thing for people to do!  

So, those people help some workers in Dallas, I help them and then some other people give to us : )  I see the Lord in all of that.  And "do unto others as you would have them do to you".  "Give and it shall be given unto you".  And stuff like that. Not the prosperity message of the false teachers, the real message of the Bible to love your neighbor and lots of other scripture.  

Well, anyway, the meal was absolutely delicious. I had it in my mind that today is Friday.  I know it's Thursday, so have to get that feeling out of my head, cause' tomorrow is going to come early and I don't need the weekend feel about anything.  Not yet anyway. Just looking forward to it since we are having a rather large party on Saturday and another Thanksgiving meal, everyone is bringing something.  Ham, Turkey and all kinds of sides dishes.  Plus good company, should be fun.  

So, get the task of getting work done for the week out of the way so I can get something from the grocery store to make.  I want to make something - don't know what yet - to offer at the dinner bar.  I was going to cook the turkey but apparently Taylor wants to do it. I dunno, but you really have to keep checking the meat frequently when it gets close to done because it can overheat easily and dry the bird out.  Just want nice, tender and moist turkey.  

Apparently deer meat is coming home with me tomorrow or sometime in the next few days anyway.  It's fresh and it's probably going to be tasty, this was a young do, good sized deer but still young enough that there should be any game taste to it.  Soak it in milk, I've read over and over, might do that when it comes time to cook some of it.  

 Wednesday - night

Got home late, going to bed late.  

I got to the washout this morning to find out they don't open until 8:00 am.  Their website lists them opena at 7.  Yes, I was there before 8, I called the dude, asked him when they open? Because it didn't say it anywhere.  We open at 8. Ok, I'll just wait. I went back to sleep is what I really did.  

He shows up, I'm still sleeping, the truck in front of me doing his thing, I woke up.  I think it was the eyes on me, I didn't go into the sleeper, I just let the seat down and snoozed. 

I went into the office, he was finishing up with the other guy and then he gets into this long conversation with me.  It was about this other driver that talks too much, is an ass**** and the truck I am driving reminded him of that dude because he used to drive that truck. Great!  I just listened, no need to speak my mind to the people that clean out the trailers.  I don't really give a s*** about what the other driver was doing, but, this dude seemed interesting and just didn't like the other guy very much.  

They got the guy in front of me done in  - I have no idea how long, I pulled into position to wait and yes, I went back to sleep.  I don't think it was very long.  Then they got to mine, pulled the truck up and the kid went at it. I say kid, he's probably in his early 20's. I went back to sleep. Are you getting the idea yet that I didn't sleep very well last night? Yea, that's me.  It came to the point where I remembered to just empty out my mind, take some deep breaths and let the air out slowly. 

It worked. But not after I was awake for 2 hours.  Whatever. I drove all day long.  Had a headache at the last stretch from not getting enough sleep but keeping enhanced focus on the road.  It went away on it's own, eventually.  

I have only to run to Lufkin for 10 am appointment and then back home. I dropped the loaded trailer off at the yard in Arkansas and picked up and empty that had already been washed out. I'm skipping alot, but I won't skip the kid that was still under my trailer with his truck when I got to the yard. I called my manager, there is a truck still under that trailer.

Yes, so and so is probably sleeping in it, go knock on the door. Oh, someone's in it? Yes.  No problem. this kid comes to the driver's seat, opens his window, blah blah blah. Lazy ass from a lazy, unmotivated generation, I just said you have my trailer.  His @$$ wanted me to unhook his truck so he could pull out versus his @$$ getting out of the truck and doing the unhooking himself.  He should have dropped that trailer as soon as he hit the yard, not try to make some other dude to do his work for him.

I admit my response wasn't so great. I am your personal b****? Get out and drop your own damn trailer.  It's the first time in my trucking career I had some person wanting me to do that for them.  No clue this idea of getting other people to do your work for them. I got my ass out of bed at 5:00 am, I don't know when he got up but I had been working all day long and he was in his sleeper, sleeping.  

Anyway, got to the yard, this dude blowing up my phone. The dude that always interrupts me and talks over to the top of me and calls me names constantly.  This dude that I am eliminating from my life, I am far too old and have gone through far too much stuff in my life to put up with this s***.  He turned from aggressor to victim.  I am going to move out, blah blah blah, I don't want to cause any problems.

I refused to get drawn into his baiting, I didn't respond to any of it.  If he wants to go find another place to live, that's fine by me, but I'm not going to be his excuse to carry on his pathetic mindset and attitude in and towards life.  I came into the yard and he was sitting in his yard next to the lady he claims to dislike. Yeah, dude, whatever.  Just done with this dudes' disrespect.  

It's getting late. I have the trip to Lufkin, leaving at 8:00 am. So I best get myself to be and hope I sleep better tonight.  

 Tuesday night

Yesterday was not fun.  First off, getting to the tank washout place, I was informed there was no paperwork for it, they had already sent it off to their corporate.  A very long story short: I didn't need it.  

Second, the other driver informed me that I should get up on top of the tank and look down into it to make sure there are no clumps or anything, that I may have to have it washed out again.  Then, he said, to get a hose and just pump some water through it - this because it had been sitting so long.  

Another very long story short: I ended up using their pressure water replete with heat to spray out the inside for the man that runs the place said it's too late and he wouldn't come, I am welcome to do it myself. 

After that, to Lufkin.  Where I spent 3 hours and 15 minutes getting loaded. I didn't get home until midnight.  

Today?  Off to the property, did my pre trip inspection and found a flat tire. I instantly knew this would cost me hours of time.  After much conversation with people at the yard, I took it to a local tire shop that I always go to for new tires or to get tires fixed.  

They offered me brand new tires for $300 a piece, installed.  That's a smoking deal, actually.  The found another bad tire and yes, it was bad.  It was a very long process to get the company to actually pay for it.  That they did.  Then we found more bad tires.  Hard to explain, but impossible to find the problems with these tires on a pre-trip inspection. They were so bad, however, that it was a blow out waiting to happen. A total of 4 new tires and that was that. 

UP to the plant.  Took forever to find anyone to deal with signing off on paperwork, that person didn't deal with it, he found the man who does that stuff somewhere in the back of the plant who eventually came up and said he wasn't sure they have enough room for another truckload in their tank. Well, this is really a wonderful day! 

I lost a half an hour on that, just waiting for them to make up their mind, but eventually the did, indeed, take the load and yes, it fit in there, however, it is completely full. Or was. It's a 24 hour operation, they are making 4X8 sheets of plywood and glue is, obviously, a vital component in that manufacturing process. It is rather fascinating to stand in there and watch how it works.  Lots of automated, hydraulic equipment but equal amounts of people moving thin sheets of wood around. 

Plywood is, in fact, very thin sheets of wood that is apparently pressed together with glue. At least that's what it looks like.  

Anyway, it was a long offload for unknown reasons, I kept thinking I was doing something wrong, I kept going over the entire thing and finally came to the conclusion it's nothing I am doing, it's just a slow offload, which it often times is up there, but there is no explanation of why. It happens to other drivers, which makes me feel better at least.

The hunter finally bagged a deer tonight. He called me while I was still in Arkansas and started cussing me out because I wasn't there to help him. Well, I didn't know he was going hunting tonight and I certainly didn't tell him I could help him today.  I would have told him that if he had bothered to ask. Work takes precedence and I just didn't have the time for it. 

When I arrived at the park, he was there cutting this deer up in the back of his pickup.  When I got done with truck stuff, I went over and helped for a while. He kept cutting me off in the middle of sentences and calling me names and I just let loose. No, you aren't going to talk like this to me anymore.  I got in his face, I had had enough of his BS. I don't call him names, I don't cut him off in the middle of sentences, his behavior is juvenile at best.  60 years old acting like a teenager.  

Anyway, I am not going to get riled up over it again. He really pissed me off today for all the bs, there was no reason for it.  Just call me up and start cussing me out? WTH.

Anyway, it's getting late and I need to get ready to get to bed, early rise in the morning.  I have to go to the washout, get the trailer cleaned, go to Lufkin, load and then up to the yard in Arkansas and back to my park.  It's going to be a very long day doing all of that.  Especially if it takes over 3 hours like it did last night to load, ugh.

Anyway, I bid you a good evening and a good night's rest. 

 Sunday - night

The latest revision to the work schedule is to go to the loading plant tomorrow - to be there at 7:00 pm.  Yes, I said pm, not am.  Allegedly, that's when they will be ready to start loading trucks.  I have my doubts but we'll see.  I said yes, tho it will make for an awfully late night.  Up to 2 hours to load, 2 hours back plus fuel.  

Talking midnight arrival.

I still have my doubts.  I think they will try to push it up and get loading started earlier.  I'll be ready tomorrow, that's all I can say.  Go over in the morning, fire the truck up again and make sure it's good to go.  If it IS a go, it's leave at 4:00 pm to go to Nacogdoches for a trailer and then over to Lufkin to load. If I show up too early, I'll stop for fuel before going to the plant.  

The RV guest said he had a nice sized buck in his sights today.  Went to fire the gun and plunk.  He forgot about firing it off the other day and nothing happened when he pulled the trigger, lol.  I haven't even seen these alleged bucks except quite a while back when I pulled in to the gas rigging area to make a U turn and there were 2 of them out there.  

The guest confirmed my suspicions about yesterday. I went out to sit and see if I could get one, but shortly after I got started, a loud banging noise started very close by.  Somewhere on the east side of my property - well maybe not ON  my property, who knows, but close by. Sounded like a metal pot being clanged with a metal serving spoon.  It went on the entire 45 minutes I was out there. After I was sufficiently annoyed and wondering who is doing that and also wondering if it was being done on purpose, I got up, got the camera off the tree and walked out of the woods. 

The clanging stopped. That's when I figured this is someone doing it on purpose to stop me from bagging a deer.  My hunting buddy said the same thing without my hinting at it. I just said there was a loud clanging noise with the spoon/pot sound. He went into a long explanation of how he figures these people have probably been living there forever and likely think that those are their deer and we can't and wont' have them.  Well, next time I hear that noise I'm just going to start heading straight towards it.  

The 2 night stay just showed up.  I called them to ensure it was them - another couple called earlier wanting a space, I told them I have an "alternate" space available (where the NJ people were) with 30 amp hookup and sewer and water.  Give it to them cheaper price since it's not exactly ideal, but they said they just need electricity for the night. Whether they show up is another story entirely.  If they do, according to their story almost 3 hours ago, they should be showing up in the next 10-20 minutes.  

The  NJ lady claims she is getting another trailer - I assume when she gets her money near the end of the month. But if she does that, she does that leave her for the rest of the month? Or if she wants to bring it to my place, is there any lot rent money?  Just a charity case that sometimes gives money to try and "appease" me.  The tent lady is getting around with one of those 4 wheeled - scooters or whatever you call them.  I saw video of her going into the amenities shed last night.  

It is definitely her dog that is dumping in the doggy park and her brother is not cleaning up after it.  I was getting complaints. I should have thought about it 2 seconds, she can't take the dog out of the camper, he is lazy, unmotivated and doesn't care about much of anything.  I will be dealing with him directly.  Take the dog to the park and then?  Use the dog poop bags provided free of charge to pick it up and throw it into the trash can that is sitting right there.  I will threaten to evict them if he refuses or gives lip service saying yes but doesn't actually do it.  

Anyway, the trials and tribulations of owning an RV park with people that are poor and broke.  I've got the live camera going on my phone, if those other people show up, I will have to go over there to show them where to park.  I will also be looking for more bottles. Apparently someone is drinking Dos Equis and throwing the bottles all over the place.  I have a few people that look out for the park.  They picked up the bottles and then informed me about the situation.  Hard to do anything about something when you don't know who the perpetrator is.  I have zero problems confronting people who are acting like pigs.  

In other news? The grandma is acting out just as everyone thought she would. To the point her son - James - had to get all over her case. She was sitting there trying to spoon feed one of the boys - he's 8 years old.  He already had a mouth full of food.  1. An 8 year old doesn't need help eating and 2, you don't try to shove food into a mouth that is already full.  And other things.  I think she has been drinking, she's certainly acting like it.   Whatever the case, she isn't respecting the parents in the house and they are not happy.  They came in Friday night, so they've been here all of 2 days and are here for another 7? 

They left, the parents that is.  I am assuming they are discussing how to deal with this.  Grandma set up camp in the living room, took that over and basically has taken over everything that has anything to do with the kids.  I don't think James or Taylor cares until she crosses the line of contradicting their rules or just common sense and respect with the kids.  Now the whole house is at odds and I am sitting in my bedroom, thank you, I'll just wait this thing out.     I am hopefully going to be working, at least, to set off some of this time to not be at home.   But, I can always go to the property and hang out there or work or hunt or whatever, really.  

I'm more focused on this job than what's going on in the house.  This house situation will work itself out one way or the other.  Work?  So far, not so much.      I have no confidence that I will actually be going there at 7:00 pm tomorrow night. It will either be earlier than that or it will be put off yet again.  As of today, I should have just gotten home from the second run on the first stage of the trip to take it up to the receiving plant tomorrow.  Instead, I have done nothing.  I'm just hoping this situation will change so I don't have to go looking for another job.  

I'm not seeing these people.  That doesn't mean they aren't coming, they just haven't arrived - yet. It's 10 after 8, I don't want to have to be going out there at 10 pm to deal with this, it isn't worth $20 to do that. I'll charge them more if they don't show up soon but do show up late.  

Anyway, that's the current drama.  Went to church this morning, it was good. I"m still surprised the pastor remembers my name. It's at least 500 people at that church if not a thousand. A huge auditorium that has 2 services and both of them are full usually.                                                       

Uhh, that's it. These other people showed up, I described how to set up, they had it good to go by the time I got there to collect money.  I don't have that lot officially on the campground software. It's something where I would want the buyer to understand that it's behind a shed, next to another camper, an "alternative spot". I'm just not comfortable putting it on  there, if someone calls I can offer it to them and if they want it, great, if they don't, that's fine as well, probably more hassle than it's worth. However.

By the time people are calling me, they are usually calling out of desperation. That or they are calling hours ahead trying to find the cheapest spot.  In this case, these people called about 4 hours ahead of their arrival.  It's how some of them do it. Try to find a spot as they are heading to wherever their final destination is.  Kind of risky, I think, but maybe not so much now that we're at the end of the traveling season for most of them. They are going home or to wherever they park for the winter.  People are coming through from the north and heading further south. I wouldn't recommend my area as a winter location if you are looking for warm.

It's nice a lot of the time, but we definitely get the cold air and sometimes even snow, things those people are looking to flee from.  None of my long term people are snow birds.  They're here for a specific purpose - school, family, work - not because they are trying to find a place to camp for the winter simply because they can.

Maybe I can put on the website "alternative parking site, call for availability" and put the price, which will be cheaper.  I can do that now that the park is full, I won't do it if the park has even 2 spots empty. Just not willing to sacrifice money for someone that wants to save a few bucks when I can get a few more dollars for the regular spots.  The only exception is if it's a much smaller rig or a truck camper.  Or one of those popup campers.  I'll give lower prices to them.  

Anyway, I collected my money, the situation around here is calming down, the kids are in bed and I'm heading to bed myself. 

 Friday - night

My manager calls and then texts me at a bit after 5 this morning, left a message on voice mail and says there are start up problems at the plant, bad resin coming from Lufkin, load canceled, please call me as soon as you get this.  I turn my ringer off at night. I got the message at 5:30 am, was going to get up to shower and get ready for the driving day.  \

Well, I was informed nothing, they didn't know when.  So, he calls back later, we've got you going out tomorrow.  Sure thing.  He calls again.  They've switched you to Sunday, they won't be ready tomorrow.  

And again.  Well, we are going to switch you to Monday and haul out of  (a town up there), I'm going to have local guys doing it, etc, lengthy explanation why, I'm guessing because yea, I am not working.  So that's where it stands atm.  Monday.  I don't even know what time, they keep changing it, I'll check the load time in Lufkin after I am sure I am actually going down there.  

I was over at the Park today mowing the rest of the lawns and then on the riding mower mowing the front of the property and the triangle area when you get to where the RV park is.  The area behind the trailers on the west side is still good, everything has slowed down growing because it's not weed or bermuda grass growing season. What I am cutting is the rye grass I planted. Not sure what kind of grass out front, but it's still growing, slowly, but it hasn't stopped like the other grass has.  

The friend of James that install septic systems seems to be a no go.  He wants plans from an engineer.  I know the state imposes a lot of restrictions on septic, the contractor I used has their own engineer. I sort of figured anyone that does septic would either have their own or have a person you can contact.  I haven't heard back from the man after asking him if he knows of one, so I'll take that as a no and just stick with the original contractor.  I mean, the money saved on the install with this other guy will likely be lost with also paying an engineer.

I'm nowhere near being able to do a septic install, I was just looking at any options that I might have left off the table. If I magically come into money beyond working and business revenues, I'll be doing that first - or - some sort of cabin - or - a glamping tent.   

Whatever, that's not now so I'm just going to put that on a shelf and forget about it. Nahh, psyche, lol.  No way I can just forget about it, it's the next step.  

Well it's getting late.

Wednesday - late morning. 

Yesterday.......(wrote this yesterday, just didn't post it)

Now there we got something done.

Lowe's. 4 50-pound bags of the asphalt and a new mower. A larger one with more power, self drive.  Over to the gas station, I was actually below empty, but I know it's not empty when it says it is ever since I had the gas gauge fixed. At empty you still have over 5 gallons of gas in there. I was correct, it took 28 gallons, the vehicle holds 33. 

The price of fuel has dropped substantially, from pushing $3.50 to $2.78.  that's a very nice change indeed.

Over to Harbor Freight for a tamper.  This is to compact the asphalt, pretty necessary tool. When I eventually found the place where they should be? There were none in any of the bins for 3 separate prices worth.  I asked someone, they checked, no we don't have any. 

I'm walking out of the store and the lady at the register says "Sir, hold up!".  Huh.  We have them here, they just don't know where they're at.  So on some random aisle nowhere near where they should be, they had used 2 of them to hold up a display of some sort of shelving. They were inside of the middle of 2 stacks of them, you very likely wouldn't even have registered them there even if you looked right at them.

Not only were they the same color as the racks they were holding up, but you only saw the top of the handle.  Ok, I said after we went over there and said the same thing: I would likely have not seen these even if I had looked right at them.

Back to the property, I didn't even go to the park itself, I stopped where the potholes are and dumped the bags out, tamping them down on each one.  Yup, I need probably 4 more bags.  I didn't buy enough on purpose, it's $21 per bag plus tax, I don't need to be spending money ... that I don't need...to..be ...spending right now.  I got a good start on it.

To the rear of the shed, put the mower together and then went to work mowing.  I got 9 of the lots done before my feet were hurting too much. I need some inserts for my work boots, they are not comfortable at all. Doesn't help that I'm overweight.  

______________

That was yesterday.  I have now spent the morning doing paperwork and finding a standard RV park rental agreement - a thing I really didn't want to get into - copying and pasting it into a word document and then going through the entire thing and adjusting things as needed.  And removing things, I took it off another RV park's site, some of the stuff they had on there was rather unbelievable.  

The newest tenant that came in on the 8th is being funded by her mother, I think.  Seems that way anyway. She is the one with the DWI that apparently is having issues in life.  She needed an agreement to show proof of residency.  I have this with the lady that just had the stroke as well, she needs one to apply for Medicare.  I haven't heard back from them, I have the document ready now.  

In case I haven't said this before here (I'm sure I have but now that I had to do it again...) I absolutely despise doing paperwork.  It's just not in my DNA .  I have automated as much of it as possible, but there is still the deal of having to take screenshots of every receipt and uploading it to quickbooks. It automatically interprets them and assigns them to parameters I preset with particular businesses such as Lowe's.  

The oldest boy's Thanksgiving dinner at school is today, we are all going.  I went last year alone, taking the boy a McDonald's meal because the previous years Thanksgiving was rather - bad, lol.  I ate it anyway, Taylor despised it.  The turkey was completely dried out. It was close to leather-like condition.  All the food was cold. That was 2 years ago. Last year, they had their act together, the turkey was moist and the food was warm at least, some of it still hot.  I'll eat the dinner again, I don't really need McDonald's, thanks.  I think it costs something tho, can't remember but I'll take some cash with me.  

Once that's done, I will likely head over to the property and finish push mowing the lots. That's all the new grass stuff, the rest of the park that I mow on the riding mower is still good, no mowing necessary atm.  

I'm watching the news, Israel's IDF is now in the largest hospital where Hamas has holed up, storing weapons, shooting off missiles and using Palestine citizens as human shields.  They are going room to room and apparently are finding armament in most rooms. Of course. Cowards.  They aren't going to win this war unless Iran gets involved with the IRGC and I would still question whether they could win against Israel. The U.S. would likely be drawn into such a confrontation and then....all bets are off. WW3?  I just want to watch the news, I don't want to hear political bias reporting, I can form my own damn opinion on this situation, thanks.  

So, will this conflict spread to the entire region? Who knows, God is still on the throne, that's all I can say.  I will say that IMO, Israel has the absolute right to defend it's borders and Hamas brought this conflict upon themselves.  And remember, Palestinian citizens voted for Hamas to govern their territory. I'm not saying I am wanting to see any civilians on either side killed.  There is no genocide going on, as many people here are claiming, especially college "professors".  Israel isn't targeting Palestinians, they are targeting members of the Hamas.  

Anyway.  I need to get out my book and see who owes what, when.  Getting close, if I recall correctly, to some people needing to pay up.  I need to collect enough money to pay insurance.  Well, add enough money to the business account to pay for the insurance and hopefully have some money left over.  

Oh! Almost forgot, I need to head over to Waskom after the lunch to get a very nice rocking chair I won online auction for $35.  It was worth far more than that, there is a new thrift business that opened up and they get all kinds of interesting and cool stuff.  A coin op coffee machine is up for grabs, no one has bid on it, but I don't know if the thing works or if you can get supplies for it.  

Ok. This time, I saved the name of the RV park that has that rental agreement on their site to my phone notes and I printed an extra copy of what I sent to the new tenant today.  It took quite a while to go through all of that and get it the way I wanted it, I'd rather not have to do that again. But, just in case, I can find that agreement again. Why not save it to my computer? Because this computer didn't come with a functioning copy of Microsoft Word. So, I can download it and save it, but when I try to bring it back up?  It won't let me do anything with it, I can't even print it. I can only use WordPad to upload it from the internet, make whatever changes to it and print it. After that, I can't do anything, I can't even copy and paste it.

I suppose I should get a free version of some other software.  

Anyway, that's enough for now. 2 more days until starting work again, not particularly looking forward to it but my checking account is.  I'll be hurtin' for certain with not having had worked all this time beyond 2 days of training.  It's probably $500 or more worth, better than nothing.  I am happy I do have next weekend after this one off so I can participate in the Friendsgiving - and - people are bringing side dishes and one family is bringing a ham. We are going to cook a turkey as well, kind of need it with 19 people. 

G'day

 Tuesday - semi early

I didn't get much done yesterday.  Got the trailer hooked up, took the trash can to the dumpster. It full and the liner broke when I tried to take it out.  Trash out, headed over to the tire shop.  Trailer has a leak on it, they said it was a bad rim, so they replaced that for 20 bucks.  After that?  I wasn't feeling good.  I dunno what it was, but I started more thinking of going home than going to Lowe's.  

And that's exactly what I did.  Work or no work, I just didn't have it in me yesterday to do anything beyond going to the store for dinner supplies later that day and make dinner.  I felt it kind of lame not to get more than that done, at the same time I wasn't feeling it at all.  I'm not going to bash myself for getting next to nothing done, it is what it is. I just know that Friday I will be going down to Nacogdoches then to Lufkin then back home, so I kind of want to get this stuff done before then.  

Well strike that, I definitely want to get this stuff done before then.  I find it enough to drive/load/unload 8 hours for any given day.  Plus, Friday is 10:00 am load time, so it's an up-early day and fortunately, get the day over with early as well.  That should have me home by 1:00 pm, but we'll say 2:00 for good measure. 

But you used to do 14 hour days. Yes, I did.  I didn't like them then and I definitely don't want to do them now.  I've gotten used to a more normal lifestyle and I'm not particularly interested in reverting back to these ridiculous 70-80 hour work weeks where life is just go-go-goooooo.

What I find funny is these other RV Park owners that complain about "all that I have to do" on any given day.  What do they have to do? Make sure lots are clean and functioning? Clean a bathroom?  Do some paperwork?  Larger operations normally have employees that do a lot of the work for them. I won't laugh too hard, tho, I'm turning 60 soon and I'm definitely slowing down a bit.  Enough to notice it. Don't have the same energy I used to.  No biggies, that's part of growing old, I'm not helpless lol.

My problems have been the idea that not everything is done from new construction, most of it is but the grass situation and other things that still need to be done sort of add to the work load.  It's not that bad, just things like having to go fix the driveway, buy a new lawnmower, more grass seed. I suppose that stuff can be an on-going struggle.  

Well, whatever the case, I'm ready to get out of here, get to Lowe's get the stuff I need - hopefully they have the asphalt patch on hand - get over to the seed store, get a couple more bags of that and get to working.

G'day

 Monday - semi early

Strange dreams last night.  Those kinds of dreams where there are people you know (my dreams rarely have anyone I know in them, they are almost always people I don't know, have never seen before or if I've seen them I certainly don't remember them) in odd circumstances.  Just kind of woke up out of that and decided it was time to get the day rolling.  I doubt I have many more days off after today, if any.  Tuesday was their target, no guarantee of that but that was their decided restart day.  

The grandma and the oldest boy are coming this week. And staying a week.  This is the lady that is rude, short, obnoxious and interrupts anyone/everyone in the middle of a sentence.  When called out on something, she never apologizes and I'm done with her.  Obviously, James isn't done with her since it's his mother, I want nothing to do with her.  Too many of these interactions with this person have led me to the point that I don't even want to be around the house when she's here.  The idea that she is staying an entire week....

She also takes over the entire living room where she sleeps and starts dictating to the kids what they can and cannot do. We have had exchanges about that as well.  When James and Taylor leave, they don't ask me to watch the kids.  This is normal around here that I watch them when they leave, but when she's here? No, she takes over.  It was a while back that I decided I didn't care if she thinks she's the boss and just started doing my normal thing, something she doesn't like. She's on a power trip and wants control of those kids to the point they come running whenever she calls out loudly throughout the house.

She did that a while back and I just kept the kid with me for a few minutes to see what would happen.  She yelled his entire name, which is when I got up and walked out there and informed here he was with me.  She could hardly stand it.  I live here, she does not.  She has this idea that she is going to build a big house and we are all going to go live in it -under her roof. NO thank you.  If that day ever comes, I will have a tough decision to make, for I am not going to be under her "law" and "rules" in her house.  I didn't sign up for that and I want nothing to do with it.  

She admitted quite some time ago to Taylor/James that she is jealous of my relationship with the 2 that live here. Yes, well that's pretty obvious.  Going around being a mini-dictator and trying to somehow brush me out of the picture isn't the way to go about having a closer relationship with those kids. She is grandma and blood related, so there is that, but you can't expect to have the same closeness to a person when you live 3-1/2 - 4 hour drive away and show up here and there compared to a person that actually lives in the same house.  Hence, she wants to move down here and set up shop.  I feel like I best start making moves to have some kind of dwelling place over at the property.  Hence another reason to build or have built a large barn.  40X16 - at least.  

A portion of it made into a living space with an open floor plan replete with full kitchen and bathroom.  Nothing fancy, but a complete setup.  I don't want to move from here, not at all. But if there is writing on the wall, it's trying to tell me to be prepared.  I have property, I have a place to build, get it done.  That isn't going to happen overnight, so I have time.  In fact, her hubby doesn't want to move down here at all, I suspect from the verbiage I have heard in the past that her moving here wouldn't occur until he passes away, if, indeed, he does pass first.  

So, that is on my list of things to do.  Even better would be a barn with 2 stories. Bottom floor, workshop, entire top floor, living area.  A couple of bedrooms, a large bathroom and kitchen and the rest living area.  But that would cost a lot of money since I know I couldn't build such a thing myself. I could attempt a single floor building, 2 stories is out of my league.  

Just not looking forward to her coming and staying that long. She just had all 3 kids for 10 days, what on earth does she need to stay down here that long for?  They seem powerless to do anything about her. She does what she wants and unless you stand up to her, you are one of her subjects. Yes, it's that bad.  It's been that bad for a long time, it wasn't an untenable situation until there was a court battle for the oldest boy and visitation rights were established.  The boy is also a total mess.  I won't get into the details, it's private stuff that doesn't need to be floating around on the internet.  

Her, however, I have no problem discussing here. Because it affects me greatly.  I suppose I could get a 5th wheel over at the park for personal use.  Park it behind the shed and would have to run 50 amp electrical over there.  Money I don't have, a bridge I may have to cross. If I ever had to move out of here, I would likely sell the park and move elsewhere.  Nothing keeping me here. Again, this is a possible scenario but one that I have certainly run around in my mind on numerous occasions. Especially when she is showing up for an extended stay.  I'm not really the loner type, living alone has no appeal to me whatsoever.  Find a woman, lmao. I've had real luck in that department lol. 

Well, one thing here.  She has toned it down recently.  We don't really even talk to each other now.  I stay away from her and I don't want any interaction.  If/when she decides she isn't royalty that needs to be bowed down to, perhaps things can change.  Maybe.  

I think I'll shut that off for now, in my mind that is.  She's coming, she's staying, I have no say in the matter, if I did I would tell her to get a hotel.  She doesn't need to be taking over the entire damn living room and I'm not the only one that thinks that way.  

Going to get ready for the day instead.  Go get the trailer, get the asphalt stuff - I don't want that stuff in my SUV, hence the trailer - and probably a couple more bags of grass seed.  

Back on keto. The gut has grown too large, shirts/pants starting to not fit too well, I'm on a cycle of weight on, weight off that I don't much care for. I went off keto for quite a while and now I'm paying for it.  Don't care that much, just that this diet is so strict.  Thanksgiving will be an excuse to get off of it for one day, that's it.  Ill eat my potatoes, pies and whatever else we are having. Actually, we are doing "Friendsgiving" with a total of 19 people in the house.  That's on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I don't even know if I'll be able to be here or not.  

Actually, I am on a fast right now.  Like, eat-nothing type of fast.  And nothing to drink beyond water, coffee in the morning to keep from getting withdrawal headaches. It's keto kick start, plus helps with other things. It's the fastest way to get back into ketosis. 

Anyway, I'm going to finish what I'm doing and get outta here, get that driveway at least partially done.

G'day

 Sunday - night

Just didn't have time for writing blog entries this morning.  Not doing anything particularly important, the boy wanted to go hunting this morning and I did not.  I prevailed.  We did go to church and after church, the park where the boys played with the young kid over there and the off to Applebee's, but it was a totally unproductive day.

Pretty much planned it that way.  I figure at some point this coming week, it will be time to go back to work.  What day that is is completely unknown, nothing was sent for tomorrow so I know Monday is a nothing day for work.  I will be going and getting cold patch tomorrow and working on the deepening potholes.  I will try the cold patch once to see what happens.  It's something that came to mind the other day and then I looked it up.  They say it works on dirt, remains to be seen.  

The rain the last few days is the culprit for the potholes growing deeper.  I mean, a couple of them are pretty big.  

I don't really have much to say today. The war hasn't really changed, much of U.S. politics and situations hasn't changed, nothing much going on around here beyond normal stuff.  

I'm going to bring the trail camera home, look it up online and see if I can troubleshoot it. It seems to work - but it doesn't.  That particular one was over $100 and I'd like not to trash it since everything appears operational. There must be something I'm missing on setup that needs to be done to set in whatever mode to make it work.  

I might also get some more grass seed tomorrow.  Not a lot, I said 250 pounds the other day, I think I'll tone that down to about 100 pounds and just go for 2 passes on each lot.  Enough to fill in some bald spots, not enough to break the bank.  And I guess I"m going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new push mower.  No choice in the matter, my push mower isn't working and tho I can take it somewhere, I haven't had much luck taking machines to shops and having the shop actually fixing the problem.  They don't mind charging you for shoddy work.  

 Saturday - not so early lmao

I really didn't plan on getting up so late. I woke up around 4:00 am, went to the bathroom, went back to sleep and 4 hours later I woke up.  Like, that's a lot of sleep for one night.  

The boys come into the room, are we hunting today?  I dunno, yes, not right now, lol.  I have to have my coffee before anything else happens, so the oldest proceeded to make my first cup and bring it to my bed.  Pretty good cup of joe!  

And then, before anything else, the hunter calls and asks if I'm coming?  Yes, give me a while! Dang, people, at least let me get my @$$ out of bed!  I know it's late in the day but I had no intentions of getting up early today and I let the boy know that.  He wanted to go early, something told me I would want to sleep. I'll take the sleep.  

As for yesterday, yes, it was a waste of time such as the previous day. I could have figured out both.  But, it's pay.  That's the point from the company I'm sure.  Get something going for payroll.  I can tell ya, next paycheck isn't going to be too wonderful.  As long as my park stays full or nearly full, I can make it through it, just that it's not helpful for getting money together for the insurance payment.  

The receiving plant's scales weren't working, which didn't matter, you just drive in there, park, hook up the air line to start building pressure and then - you follow a huge sign's directions on how they want you to do everything.  Quite detailed, there is no way I couldn't have figured out what to do in there.  It is helpful, obviously, to see a person doing it that has been doing it for years.  No guess work.  

But if I had to sit there without any training in that plant and figure it out? Yup.  There was only one thing I really didn't like about the last 2 days: this driver drives really slow.  75 mph speed limit? He's doing 62. 70? 60. I mean.....I looked at the GPS going back to my town, there was a red spot when you first get on 20 and then nothing.  It would have saved us an hour of driving time if he would have sped up to at least the speed limit, for there were 2 more accidents up the line that cost us a lot of time.  

Anyway, it's over and I don't expect to need any more training that I know of.  Those are the 4 plants that I am supposed to be working out of. This other driver doesn't like the Ennis run, I don't see why?  It's easier than the Gurdon run.  He for some reason doesn't like the set up at Ennis. Loading at the place in Arkansas takes longer than it should, not much different than loading in Lufkin tho.  

So, it won't hurt my feelings at all to get any Ennis runs. It seems like they must have that run covered, tho, cause' they didn't give me anything for today, tomorrow, or the rest of next week.  Supposedly, Gurdon might reopen on Tuesday.  

Well, the boy is chomping at the bit to go hunting. It's good, IMO, that he's interested in doing something that doesn't lead him to be taking drugs, drinking, getting into trouble, etc, as he grows older.  Maybe something to pursue with him to keep him involved.  Perhaps a little .22 to kill some squirrels.  Squirrel meat isn't bad, just have to kill a lot of them to get any amount of meat out of it. The point is to have him bagging something to give him the taste of the kill.  The idea that all that waiting actually amounted to something.  Well, you don't really have to wait long for squirrels, they will scurry around even if humans are present.  

Anyway, my second cup of coffee almost gone, my excuses are also gone. Time to get ready to go.

G'day

 Friday - early

I'm at the mercy of this other driver to tell me when he's coming so I can get myself moving.  I got up at 6:00 am, it's now 7 and he still hasn't contacted me.  I want to get moving and get this day over with.  I do not want to be out until after 7:00 pm, a thing that happens when you are lazing around the house instead of getting into the damn truck and get rolling.  

__________

Made my lunch.  I suspect this dude might end up showing up, forgetting to text me in advance, I'm not going out all day long without something to eat.  I'm ready to go. In fact, I'd already be on the road if it were me with the appointment time that was given.  I just don't understand people that want to drag a day out like that.  

It rained all night long, but this dude is going out there hunting anyway.  He thinks we'll never get close to that deer, he keeps saying that. With that kind of defeatist attitude, why is he bothering to try?  I suspect he's not as self-defeated as he is suggesting he is.  The challenge of getting a prize deer is too much for him, he said he is going to try some different tactics.  He was asking me if I have to work today - unfortunately, yes.  

It's 2 hours, 15 minutes to Ennis. So, there is still hope of getting done relatively early with what we'll call 5 hours of driving round trip plus an hour or so of unloading.  6-1/2 hours we'll call it, even leaving at 9 I guess we can be back by 3:30. But if we left 2 hours ago....

And finally - at near 8:00 am, he's on his way over here.  A whatever moment, 9:00 departure I'll guess a 4 pm return.  That isn't terrible I guess.  Then the weekend, of which I have no idea whether they will want me to start doing Ennis runs or just wanted me to get the training - or more like - know that most people need to work and keep the money rolling in, taking 15 days off doesn't accomplish that.  

Whatever the case, I'm getting my stuff and getting out of here.

G'day