Friday - early

It was a good day yesterday. 

Got up early, saw the kids out, got on the road about the same time they would be leaving the school. I knew I would beat them, I didn't realize I would beat them by almost an hour.  No biggies, just sat out in the parking lot in my vehicle and then decided to mosey up to the entrance and wait for them.  I had no idea that there would be several other schools showing up from all over the place. 

Once our busses showed up, we went in side, bought a few souvenirs and then headed into the arena.  Huge affair, looked like a light, powdery sand on the floor where the performances were done, there were hundreds of people in there at least, the place was full.  There was lunch waiting at our seats which had a long, narrow strip of counter top running in front of the rows of seats for your food and drinks.  

The boy wanted a drink, so I got up and waited in line. The performance started while I was out doing that, I didn't miss much. It was some dude on a horse in the middle of the arena facing the King and Queen, the Queen seated on a large throne, the platform they were on near the ceiling at one of the ends of the arena.  

Some actors came out and there was a skit done about bullying.  But, of course, they took that portion too far and went into DEI.  Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness. These are alert words, you hear any of that you know you are being exposed to pure, unadulterated wokeness.  It was disheartening to hear all of that and wondered whether the entire show was going to be like this?  The message about bullying was ok, the rest of it was ridiculous.  I then assessed - well, this is  Dallas, a leftist bastion of socialist/communist ideologies, not surprising you are going to hear such nonsense here. Just one of the reasons I refuse to ever live in a big city again. 

They got done with that s*** and then the real show started, fortunately and thankfully.  It was pretty cool. They had actors on horses - well versed actors that had obviously taken the time to learn their parts and also hone their sword and jostling skills - and they did the entire show on different factions "fighting" each other for the championship title.  Yes, the place is divided up into 6 different groupings, wherever you are seating, you in one of those grouping and your knight in shining armor represents you in the arena.  

 There were skill sets, fighting sets, horse back agility sets.  They were using real, metal swords, by the way, these were not wood or plastic stuff. The sparks from when the swords clashed against each other proved that, which gave the whole scenario a heightened sense of reality, like: this isn't fake, they could actually do each other real harm if they mess up and accidentally hit each other. Not that I would want that to happen, but it added to the authenticity of the event.  

I was imagining what this place must be like filled with adults and getting rid of the "school" style talk, this show was definitely geared towards kids, but, it was a lot of fun regardless.  The boy had a blast, I was egging him and others on to cheer on our knight. The instructions online stated the more you shout for your knight, the better he will fight!  

I can say that 2 hours of it was about the perfect length.   By the time they had all of their skill sets/fighting scenes done, I was also done. Oh, well, during this time we ate our meal which consisted of a half chicken (small chicken, lol), half a small baked potato and a half piece of corn on the cob.  After that, they brought around some garlic toast, very delicious and after that, they brought some large, prepackaged chocolate chip cookies.  I ate one of the 2 in my package and gave the other one to the kid, who happily devoured 3 of them.  

Fortunately, my pep talk on not being able to go home with me worked, he was all happy when we left, but mostly that was because I let him take his newly acquired sword and shield and lighted cup with him.  

The drive home was uneventful even if the road is filled with idiots paying more attention to their phones than the road and acting like morons cutting people off all over the place. That's on the Interstate, driving in Dallas is the same as driving in any other big city: it sucks.  I'm well versed in it, I don't miss it at all.  I just let people do their thing and enjoyed my ride home.  I sort of pushed the speed limit a bit, will freely admit, I was following along a small group of vehicles going a wee tad faster than posted signage allowed for.  

Got home, relaxed.  I never did go to the park yesterday, but I did note on the security system that the new people were cleaning the amenities shed and mowing grass. 

I made dinner which consisted of reuben sandwiches, quite delicious if I do say so myself. Taylor agreed, we have somewhat same tastes in food, tho I love onions and she hates them, lol.

I ended up going to bed early, 8:45 pm.  And for once, I slept through the night, only waking up once and quickly getting back to sleep. The sleep monitor app said my sleep was "average", balderdash.  I slept quite well and I feel pretty good this morning.  I think it counts snoring against me.  When I'm tired like that, I will snore quite a bit.  It said I was snoring well over an hour and also a very minor amount of sleep apnea.  

The reason I got the app was to see if my problems were related to sleep apnea.  I almost never show any of it on there and if it does show some, it's because I'm wasted tired when I go to bed.  Never more than a minute, couple of minutes at most. But, I guess they think snoring isn't so great either.  

Never-the-less, I am ready to hit the ground running, so to speak, get down to Nac, get the trailer washed out, get over to Lufkin, load, come home and then see what this dude has done.  They are clearly looking for reduced or even eliminated rent rate.  My only beef so far is the trailer is dirty.  It's in good shape, but it's covered with dirt and mildew.  Please clean that.  

 
Thursday - early

They just left for the school bus. We decided that the bus would, indeed, make it to school on time and that would be that.  It is much easier for him to take the school bus instead of being dropped off, for dropping them off means going to a street near the school and sitting there and waiting in a long line.  You've seen them, I don't care where you live. If you're near an elementary or middle school, the parents line up in very long lines well in advance of picking up or dropping off and sit there...and sit there...and sit there. So, it's not a huge chance, Taylor has an app that shows where the bus is at.  As long as it makes it there by 7, we are good.  I am not leaving here until around 7:15, another hour off.  No need to, they aren't leaving until then and I will easily beat them there. 

I can safely say that unless stranded on the side of the highway, I have never been passed by a school bus lol.  Not that they drive slow, tho, just they aren't cruising at 75-80, which is the speed limit out there once you get past Longview on 80.  For some reason, all the towns along the I-20 corridor starting  at the state line and going to partially into Longview voted to agree with TDOT to lower the speed limit to 70.  

Yes, I'm sure that will force all the idiots to start paying attention to the roadway in front of them! Lower the speed limit by 5 mph!  I listened to that session of city council. The police chief made a 1 minute presentation and without any questioning, they voted for it.  But, that's the way this town operates.  They make a lot of stupid decisions that cost a lot of money for not a lot of return and ignore the glaring elephants in the room. Things such as a 70 year old water and sewer transmission system that is falling apart.  Residential streets that are in horrible condition.  

Anyway, the kid started getting extremely  pouty because we decided not to take him to school. After explaining how much easier it is to take the bus - he just gets on, they pull right up to the school and gets off versus the waiting scenario described above? Didn't matter. That is when we both said oh, well you don't have to go then.  You don't have to go to Dallas at all.  That changed his mood quickly. 

"I wish I had never said anything", he later stated.  Yes, you need to learn how to switch that s*** off and quickly.  There was literally nothing  to get upset about.  I figure him saying "I wish I hadn't said anything" is a good learning experience for him. There are times when you should just keep your mouth shut, think about what you are saying and what the implications of what you are saying might be.  There's a time to speak and there's a time to be silent.  It's a learning experience.  Anyway, he is already at school and it's well  before their departure time, so, I'm going  to sit here, relax, sip some coffee and do ---- nothing.  

He has been informed a couple of times now that he won't be able to come home with me after the event is over. Apparently I would have to go through a background check and that they didn't think it would be done in time.  Yes, I've gone through several of those types of checks for my CDL, the hazmat part of it, concealed carry and TWIC card.  It can take months for them to do that stuff.  Not because it takes particularly long for them to go through your files/history, just because they are backlogged.  The CCW took many months before they finally approved it.  I don't really understand how a person that is designated as a person that can actually pick the child up at school can't also take the child home, but whatever.  It's a better experience to ride in the bus with other kids his age and continue on learning social skills.

I was looking this place up.  It appears you dine in an arena where they have jostling events and sword fighting.  It looks like a lot of fun, actually.  According to maps, it's 155 miles, 2 hours and 33 minutes. Almost guaranteed it will take me 2 hours and 15 minutes or less.  I don't stop for anything going to Dallas and the speed limit is high almost the entire route, the only thing that would hold me up is heavy traffic/accidents.

Well enough of that.  The new people are moved in, whether they stay or not is entirely up to them and their behavior.  I am quite sure I made it crystal clear about certain things yesterday, we'll see if it pans out.  Because if it doesn't, I have no problems confronting them and even getting rid of them.  I have no problems getting rid of anyone in that park if their behavior is unacceptable. It doesn't appear like there will be problems, but you never know.  I'm just hoping that this offer to mow grass and stuff actually works out, I don't mind giving substantial cut on lot rent in exchange for a good amount of work.  Weedeater and lawnmower work would save me a lot of time wasted in engaging in such things and could focus on other projects. 

Or just being lazy at times and doing nothing at all.  It would be nice to have help with the power line project.  Or having someone hold the ladder while I'm up 20 feet installing the router at the top of the pole.  I haven't done that yet for I haven't felt like it.  It's just another thing to do in a long list.  Mostly, I was waiting for the rain to not only stop but also dry out so that that concrete would harden.  

So many things to do over there, always.

And with that, departure time draweth nigh.  I want a nice thermos full of coffee to sip on on the way over there.  

G'day

 Well, the trailer isn't terrible anyway. Dirty, I told them to wash it but it's in good shape. This is the new people. I didn't know they had 4 yip dogs. I educated them on that as well.  I was pretty direct: clean up after your dogs immediately. No poop left anywhere, there are dog poop bags right there and a trash can.  No excessive barking.  Are you friendly people?  Oh yes.  They seemed like they were, but I'm going to get down to the nuts and bolts of this right away.  The man wants to do some work. I don't mind giving them some money off their rent in exchange for working.  However, I collected the first month's rent up front.  

I have no way of knowing whether he will actually work or not and I am not giving them a break until I see how he does.  Grass and trimming, that would be a big help.  Other stuff as well.  

During that time, a dude called telling me he is with so and so contractors, he needs to fill up a 300 gallon tank.  How much will you charge?  I have no idea.  I don't really want to get into the water business, it won't make any money, but the water is readily available.  I said 15, he said 10, I said fine.  So, he showed up and yes, filled up a 300 gallon tank. They spray gas pipe line easements for weeds.  I just did it to help them out, there is no money to be made in selling water nor did the thought ever cross my mind.  I dunno what made him call an RV park, I guess his experience tells him he has the best luck going that route.  They are not from around here.  

So now, it's just get ready for tomorrow.  Take the kid to school tomorrow, we're worried his school bus won't get to school in time and the bus leaves whether anyone that should be there is there or not.  So, if we leave their normal time to get on the bus, I will have him there 30 minutes early.  I will likely just take off for Dallas after that, if I have to wait, I will take my laptop with me so I can pass the time.  

Another tractor company quoted me far higher than even John Deere.  Amazingly ridiculous.  I guess I'm too cheap for this?  No.  I just know what I can afford.  This is all new machinery, not what I want.  Just can't find anyone selling used with financing.  Half the price. This guy quoted me a higher monthly payment and a 10 year installment loan. There is no way  I am getting involved with a 10 year loan, 7 sounded ridiculous, this even more so.  He says zero interest, so I am assuming extremely inflated pricing.  

I mean, I'd take the John Deere - trusted name for many, many decades over this foreign stuff. Just me. I have owned foreign made vehicles, not bad, not great, I'm a Chevy person when it comes to vehicles even tho I own a Ford SUV.  Just what was available at the time and I didn't feel like spending weeks/months looking.  

Anyway, I'm in no rush for a tractor. I'd love to have one, but it's just not in the cards right now.  I'll just have to rent one again to fix the driveway again.  

_________

Many hours later.  One call for a lot today, they put it in the system today and just showed up, lol. Well, no biggies, I was over there and had no clue they were coming. I don't check my email all day long, but I do check it frequently enough, I get a notification if there is reservation.  Big ole' giant motor coach pulling a 20 foot trailer, walled/enclosed.  Who knows what they had in there, probably a car or motorcycles at least.  Diesel pusher, expensive.  As I have been saying for some time, these people spend the big bucks on their toys but boy howdy do they want to tell everyone about high prices for overnight stays! Hence, I get enough traffic coming through on those types of people wanting cheaper prices.  

Time to wind down and get ready for bed. The SUV is filled with gas, vacuumed out and washed. Did all of that a little while ago, she needed a bath and a good vacuuming, which is free with the wash.  This place also has air chucks at every vacuum station, you can check all of your tire air pressure, which I'm glad I did, one of them has a slow leak and was at 25 pounds - it should be at 50.  I put it at 55 since it's a leaker that Ive had fixed how many times now? I think it's time for a pair of tires for the back of this boat.  Actually, it's time to replace all 4.  

 I spent a couple hours over there dealing with this and other things,  mostly this, this being the dumpster.  I sat there in awe of people who are capable of doing such things without blinking twice about it.  Oh well, now it's his  problem, they must have thought with a smug grin on their face as they dumped all of that and left.  Yes, they are very lucky - I am too now that I think of it - that I didn't happen upon them doing it for it would have gotten ugly, quickly.  

I don't take kindly to trailer trash mentality.  As it stands, I blew up her phone with pics of the disgusting filth - some of it was quite nasty, had to put gloves on to deal with it - and told her she WILL be paying for it.  She said she'd send me $40, it's all she has.  Good, it's better than nothing.  

I've got most of it cleaned up and put in the dumpster.  The bags were overloaded and I didn't want to load them onto my trailer like that.  The dumpster still has about 2/3rd's room left, hopefully it will last til next week. If it doesn't, figure something out.  The big stuff is behind the dumpster and I am not going to waste money taking it to the landfill.  I will burn the wood stuff and just throw in larger items as I can until it's gone.  This will save me from having to spend money on this crap.  

That's as done as it needs to be for now.  I cleaned out my vehicle, still have to go up to the carwash, get it washed and vacuum it out.  I don't really have to do all of that, lol, it's just me driving there and back, the kid has to take the bus there and back, apparently it's a school rule, they can't drive back with parents/guardians.  Oh, and fill the thing up with gas.  The venue is already paid for, it was $40 per person for the tickets. It's dinner and shows. Like 2 hours worth of shows with medieval theme. It should be fun. I would stick around Dallas afterward and check some other stuff out, but I'll have to go back to work on Friday, so I'll just drive straight home after it's over.  

I'm looking forward to it.  That is all I am going to do with the rest of today. Oops, plans changed. Those people never showed up, hence I left.  Well, they just called right now, they are going to be at the park in 45 minutes.   I need to move my utility trailer out of the way so they can get the trailer in there.  No rush, I'm 7 minutes away from the park and it only takes a couple minutes to hook up the trailer.  

I sort of need some time to just chill out here.  Tomorrow maybe while I'm driving.  But, I hate driving and especially along I-20 to Dallas.  It's just constant traffic and people looking at their cell phones. 

Anyway, I think I'll get another cuppa and get out of here, get over there and mow their area back down real quick as well.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 Wednesday mid-morning

Still reeling after the view of all of that trash laying out there by the dumpster.  They filled the dumpster up first...it's like a dumpster and a half total of trash they chucked....mostly onto the ground.  The lady trying to defer blame to the dudes living with her....Whatever it costs me, it's going to cost her.  She lives here locally with family, I am not eating this.      

It makes the case that people that don't have very much in terms of finances also don't live very well. At least not with the experiences I have had so far with people that are in the lower income bracket.  I don't have these problems with higher income bracket people.  I'm not trying to be a bigot, but so far, these observations are holding true and I am having serious doubts about whether I am going to allow any of these types of people in my park again.  I'd rather have empty lots than dealing with trashy people.  Proof of income or living comfortably off of retirement.  

I do have a retired couple that moved in getting close to 2 months ago, they have worked out well so far.

Moving on with this, Republic services texted me a little bit ago that they have completed the service, meaning they have emptied the dumpster.  However, I can't just fill the whole damned thing back up with their trash. Where is everyone else going to put their household trash? On the ground, of course.  I'm likely going to load that s*** onto the trailer and either haul it up to the landfill and eat the cost or just leave it on there in the back and wait until Tuesday next week and load the dumpster up as far as I can with it without overloading the dumpster.  

I just still can't believe this lady not only thought it ok to do this, but didn't give a damn the amount of my own time I will have to sacrifice to deal with their s***. Actually, I'm thinking I can burn at least some of it.  I still have the huge burn piles in the front of the property where they had burned up the forest in giant piles. Stuff that can be burned, this is mostly junk, not the waste from cooking and normal day to day stuff.  Just sort out the plastics and burn the wood stuff and maybe I can reduce the amount of trash I have to deal with.

5 paragraphs to convey the irritation and aggravating feeling I am experiencing right now.  

Whatever.

2 days off starting today. I have some new people moving in today, I'm waiting for their text or call telling me they are on their way.  If they do what they laughed about doing - well maybe you'll show up and we'll be in one of the spaces - they are going to also receive a hellish welcome.  I have given them specific instructions of where I want them and that they are not to park anywhere without contacting me first, I will direct them to the spot they need to take.  

If I didn't have the field trip tomorrow, I would be renting a mini ex today.  Get that trench done and over with.  It's starting to warm up, but nowhere near temps it will take to start overheating the main circuit breaker.  I have been saying I need to get that done for many months, however, I knew I wouldn't get to it until - about now, maybe next month.  No later than next month tho. We get into June and that's when the problems will begin if I don't fix it.

So today? Well, I have to deal with that trash.  I can't just leave it like that, it's a very unsightly appearance and I am not going to just leave it there.  After that, I dunno. Maybe nothing.  Well, clean out my car, take it to the car wash, get it all nice and cleaned up for the drive tomorrow.  That will take some time and then, well there's always something to do.   Basically, I'm just sitting here waiting for these people to call. Not going to wait all day, lots of people say they are coming and then - no show.  

Oh, Turbotax cost $237.  We'll see if it was worth that much for an online service, tho I did contact support a couple of times with questions.  Some of the answers were helpful, I'll give them that.  I think I'm stressing pretty good right now, a nice long walk in my woods would probably be beneficial. Get out into nature, temporarily leave the world behind and dial it in.  Life isn't worth living in stress.  Take the dog, let him run free for a while. Sounds like a great idea, actually.

 So, I drive up to Gurdon, feeling miserable I might add.  It was at least good that the product was over 60 degrees inside the tanker and therefore, the delivery was much shorter time than many previous deliveries. But I was soooo tired.  I tried to take a nap while the glue was draining,  just wasn't happening.  

Anyway, I'm on my way back and this lady contacts me: her boyfriend and the other dude living with her basically shafted her, she needs to leave.  Ok.....do you know anyone that might want to buy the trailer?  Long story short, I said I'd ask around, which I was going to do.  

Well, I pull into the park and lo and behold, her whole family is out there moving her out.  I mean, we went from moving out before the rent is due to moving out today. Whatever.  I thought nothing of it.

Fast forward many hours and another person calls. You know those people dumped trash all around the dumpster? Which people? The ones that moved out.  You mean they took the trailer out as well?  So I'm thinking, well how bad can it be, the trash around the dumpster that is?  

I found out.  Some travelers had called earlier needing a place, I had to go over and collect their payment.  The dumpster? There was a huge pile of trash sitting next to the dumpster on the ground and they had over loaded it.  It gets worse.  After I left, well, I hadn't seen the huge amount of trash they had thrown behind the dumpster. This is at  least an entire dumpster worth of trash laying next to it.  They also left a oil drain pan full of, what else? Used oil.   

I was pissed. I texted her, replete with pictures of the disaster she had left.  I flat told her I am not eating this, you either need to come back and clean this shit up or pay me to deal with it.  She ignored my texts for a while but then finally tried to tell me that since she had left early, can I work with her on it?  I guess she thinks I will immediately have that lot re-rented. There is another lot that needs re-rented already and then hers.  

But I unloaded on her.  Why would you treat me this way? You dump trash all around the dumpster and act like a bunch of hillbillies and expect my @$$ to deal with it? WTH.  Yes, I was pissed.  Especially after she said it wasn't her stuff, it was those guys living with her.  YOU rented the LOT, YOU are responsible, not to mention those guys didn't dump that stuff there, she and her family did.                  

I had to stop texting her. It was just too much. Like it's somehow normal to just dump a bunch of junk - as we are talking a lot of stuff here - on the ground and then act is if it's somehow MY responsibility to deal with it.  

Amazingly irresponsible and completely selfish, asinine bs.   I just can't believe people sometimes.  

Whatever.  

 I had to take  a long nap after I returned home today, I was completely out of it.  Wednesday and Thursday are days off. I only needed Thursday off, but the way it works...it's a 2 day run.  So, I'm working Friday and Saturday, they wanted me to work Sunday. Nope.  I worked last Sunday, you are welcome to schedule me for the following Sunday but I'm not missing two weeks in a row of church.  

Well, just realized it's getting late.  I don't have anything forced upon me tomorrow, stuff I'd like to get done but I'm not going to fret it if I don't.  This tax thing really got to me and I don't mind relaxing for a day.  

 Tuesday - early

Sleep eluded me last night.  Fall asleep, wake up, fall asleep, wake up.  Too much stuff going on in my mind and wasn't feeling all the great either.

In fact, if the tanker wasn't loaded with glue, I'd call in sick today.  Not that I am sick per se, just tired and not feeling it.  

I think it's the tax stuff that has really messed with me in the last week or so.  "Your Federal Tax was accepted by the IRS", Turbotax sent me an email. Well, whatever that means. Accepted could simply mean they have it. Do they review these things? Or is it just some sort of program that scans them?  I can't imagine them individually reviewing hundreds of millions of tax returns, but who knows?  I'm sure AI will be involved with this in the future if it isn't already.  

Well, at least they have it.  Sent in on time, barely.  

Today, I'm supposed to offload the tanker and then go switch out trucks. 

However, from how I'm feeling right now? Switching out trucks can wait.  We'll see how I feel later on today when I'm leaving the plant. It's a decision that actually needs to be made before leaving the plant, because going to El Dorado necessarily means heading south on a 2 lane highway that starts in Gurdon.  That is the only way to get down there, other than that, you go way out of your way to get to Eldo from there. 

Anyway, I have an open lot I need filled at the park and I think there are more openings coming.  I'll wait for more to open up before I take out another Facebook ad boost.  I have ads on there, just on my business home page.  It's the ad boost that targets people looking for RV parks.  It is inexpensive and usually generates results. Not always, but generally I'll get one or more people in the park out of those ads being "boosted".  

Anyway, I have 20 minutes to get my stuff ready and get out of here.

G'day

 Monday - late afternoon

It is finished.  I added other sources of income I had forgotten about and done with it.  It has been sent, they are claiming I am owed almost 2 grand, we'll see.  Will the IRS see it differently? Under the current administration that wanted to add almost 80,000 agents and have banks submit to them any transactions over $600?  

Yeah.  Who knows. I'm hoping that if something needs changed, they will simply tell me that more info is needed, or something like that.  I dunno, but I am washing my hands of it for now, if something changes, I will deal with it when I get to the entrance to that bridge.  Hopefully it's a drawbridge and traffic can be stopped to - deal with things.

"It is finished" meaning I have electronically filed my tax return.  Really, the only thing I needed to change was some income that I had forgotten about. It was easy to find, it was in my business checking account.  And I needed to add the check I received from the AG loan company on my mortgage, it says right on the form they sent me it is recordable income.  So yeah, I put that on there.

Meanwhile, the air leak on the truck has grown significantly, to the point I reached out the to lead mechanic - who is the person you reach out to for stuff like this - and asked him if he's available to get this stuff done in the next 3 days? Well, 4 actually.  That should be plenty to replace an air bag and tear apart the guts inside the truck and git'er done.  That is, fix the AC once and for all. If they can't get it right this time, I am going to demand, not ask, for it to be taken to an actual AC repair shop.  This will the the third time trying to get this fixed.

Anyway, a sigh of relief as I am finally done with this junk and have learned a few lessons about inputting where things should be inputted on quickbook/income and expenses for tax return purposes. Do it right now, don't have to have to pull the hair out of my head about it later.  

Oh, well, one kid has a baseball game and the other has a soccer practice. I am taking one of them to the soccer practice.  It's like a mile away from here and its about an hour and 15 to 30 minutes.  The coaches keep them later than the one hour that is advertised, lol.  

Tomorrow will be a long day. Up early, get up to Gurdon, offload and then drive to El Dorado, switch trucks and then drive home. Add 2 hours at least to the return-to-home drive time.  Why can't they have a yard closer to an Interstate? Well, I haven't asked for it's a useless conversation, they are doing what they are doing, but it is probably because they have local people running the day-to-day of the place and why bother switching things up?  Well, because it would be far easier for OTR and drivers like me to access it and not waste a huge amount of time just getting TO and FROM the place.  Trust me, El Dorado AR is not close to any Interstates. 

 Sunday - night

Air leaking out of the top of the tanker after hooking up the air hose to the fitting at the bottom. I climbed up there to find out what it is.  Coming out of the seal on the dome lid, gag. 

I went in and asked them if it would be ok to climb up there? The guy just couldn't commit one way or the other and even tried calling his boss to ask him, who didn't answer the phone.  This went back and forth for a while until he offered to get a support you wear with a lanyard on it for fall protection. 

Well, I guess.  "or just do it without it, it's up to you, I'm not your boss".  That's all I needed to hear. The plant has a policy of having fall protection over 4 feet. Yea, that's well over 4 feet, thanks. It's almost all geared to truckers coming in and out of the plant on the scale road, likely someone did something stupid, hurt themselves and sued the plant for it.  

So, I unhooked the air hose, opened the tank valve and let out the air pressure. Yea, just go ahead and try to open a cap like that under pressure, you'll be lucky to come out alive.  Sure enough, there were clumps of hardened glue that were obviously allowing air to pass by them.  I cleaned the gasket and resealed it and walaah: no more leak.

I would have been there much longer than I was. 2 hours and 45 minutes? Would have been 4 hours anyway with pressure that low.  

I have not finished the taxes.  I am not doing it tonight, either. I am going to Lufkin tomorrow and whenever I get home, I will finish it and send it off. I have several things I want to change after giving some thought about things I have read, info from Turbotax and just - thinking about it. It will be what it will be, I guarantee you I will send that thing off tomorrow regardless of how I feel about it and let the chips fall where they may. 

The conspiracy theorists called me again today. This time? Complete strangers that have nothing to do with them are not only shooting lasers at them, now they have radiation.  I couldn't make  this stuff up in a thousand years on my own.  It went on and on and he said he has pics.  I have seen his pics, they just look like light fragments likely caused by the lense or some other thing that has nothing to do with....lasers.  Pretty sure they won't stay another month, but, in their minds, the government is doing this to them and paying people who are near them to shoot them.

I just have to stop myself from laughing, it's way too far out there.  If the government really wanted to "get them", they wouldn't be here.  

No, I got home today from the run and just did much of nothing.  It is my thing on Sundays.  I mean, I got up at 5:30 am for work, not like I sat around on my @$$ all day long.   

Anyway, I'm not going to linger on this post.  I'm tired, it's getting late and I have to get up at? You guessed it: 5:30 am, along with the rest of the house.  

 It took many more hours than usual to mow the lawns for the grass was tall.  It was one of those situations where you have to go over certain patches a couple of times to bring it down.  I also had a bad fall that feels really good right about now.

I was backing up at a site and forgot there was a fire ring behind me.  Yup, I tripped on the ring and my lower torso on the right side landed square on the thin metal wall sticking up.  There is this line going across that area that is black and blue.  I'm telling ya...it was a stupid mistake but I guess nothing serious, just painful. 

I mowed all 14 lots, the only thing left now is riding mower work, which is the easy stuff.  

I don't quite understand people wanting to get into conversations when they can plainly see that I am working and trying to get stuff done, but that happened several times which dragged the process out even further.  

The man on lot 5 - who hasn't been there in at least 3 weeks and told me he was paying today never called.

So, bashful me called him.  I'm looking for my rent, your account is severely past due. He didn't answer, I left him a message. Then I started texting him.  There is no way I was going to let this go on any longer, pay up or that trailer is going to be moved off of that lot, plain and simple.  He did call back a few minutes later, I took credit card payment over the phone and he is moving out on Monday.  I have a tentative long term for Monday, tho they wanted to come in on Sunday, so they haven't made up their mind yet.  

__________________________

A few hours later.  Right side of my entire back is sore.  It isn't just where my side was impacted by the wall of the fire ring.  I was put into a pretty grotesque twisting position trying to break the fall, I probably pulled a/some muscle/muscles.  

I don't know, but everyone is telling me the impact area is purple.  Hard to see that portion of my body.  I opted against going to the youngest' baseball game tonight, I didn't think I would be in a very good mood to sit on a hard metal bench watching 7 year old baseball game.  

Plus I have to work in the morning.  There was no way around that.  If I took the weekend off, which was what they had me slated for, I would have been off for 7 days.  This is too much and I need the money.  Now, they have it for Saturday through Tuesday.  They tried to give me a Thursday run, but I texted them after they dumped that into my tablet and said no, I have Thursday off to go to Dallas for the school field trip at Medieval Times.  So they changed it to Friday load.

Meanwhile, more phone calls about RV spots. I'm trying to juggle things around to get people in there for the park is going to lose several people in the next coming days.  I think, anyway.  Lot 5 is definitely leaving.  Lot 12 apparently found a place to rent out, their own land.

I've been told that she is pissed because "no one would take in my packages" while she was gone. Well, she didn't tell me she was leaving anywhere and she didn't tell me about packages.  If she had, I would have been happy to deal with it.  She told other people, but she didn't ask them to move the packages out of the elements and yes, those packages got rained on for 3 full days.

Shrugs shoulders. If you want my help, ask me, I'll help you.  I don't read minds.  I don't know that you have 10 packages being delivered.  I don't even know that you are moving out.  She either bought or renting land, I'm hearing different versions of the story. All well and fine, I need a move out date.  She is paid up til the end of the month, tho.  I'm guessing that will be the end of it and she will have that trailer moved out of there.  

And then there's the family.  No clue when they're leaving but the last I heard, they had struck a deal with someone.  Of course, it's months between striking a deal, making the sale, signing off on the paperwork and then, after the sale is complete, getting power, water and sewer run to the property.  People tend to leave me in limbo about their leave dates and I have gotten used to it.  I just work very proactively the second I find out they are leaving - or see that they have left - in getting the lot re-rented.  It may be time, soon, to run another Facebook ad. 

Right now, everything is rented besides the second alternate lot. The pull through has an overnighter tonight and another one tomorrow night, empty for 2 days and then more coming in. It pays for itself and at this rate, it pays much more than long term.  

Oh, forget that, I just remembered another phone call I just got: the second alternate site is going to be rented out tomorrow.  It works out so wonderful sometimes. Other times, not the greatest but as long as lots aren't empty for a month or more, it's fine.  

The only problem with the second alternate site being rented is that power issue.  I didn't get to it this week - taxes ate up my time. I'm still not through with that, I took today off. I will get back to it tomorrow after I return from Lufkin.  I'm hopeful a couple more hours of that stuff and I will be comfortable enough to hit the send button and transfer it over to the IRS electronically.  Ok, I didn't take today off, obviously, I took today off from taxes, not from working.  I am grateful I had these days off, I wouldn't have had time to work and do taxes.  

Well, I'm going to go lay down.  I don't feel very well right now. Probably take a Tylenol for the pain.  

 Friday - morning

Will be taking a break for several hours today from this tax nonsense to go over and mow grass. The rain, of course, has made it grow substantially and it's not looking very pretty over there right now.  Never-the-less, it has been too wet to do anything with it.  Today should be good, however and I can get it looking good again.  I'm sure there are complaining tenants that go around behind my back cursing me because of it.

Trust me, it happens that way, word gets back to me.  Such as the family that decided to mow 3 lawns a while back and tell everyone they want me to give them a deduction on their rent, notwithstanding the fact they never asked me about it.  I figure those people are ready to leave and frankly, it won't hurt my feelings if they do, indeed leave for a variety of reasons.  Whatever they have to put up with from me, I have had to deal far more from their end of different things that are occurring that point back to them.

Such as dog poop in the doggy park.  They're nice enough people, but it's the nature of the beast. The real deal here for them is that they want their own land and they are becoming disgruntled with their situation in life.  I get it, a family of 3 in a small trailer, that is going to get old.  Not to mention their roof started leaking badly during this recent rain.  

There should be several people leaving soon, actually.  The college kids should be getting out - well that may not be until the end of next month. I guess I have a little time for that.  The dude that is almost 2 weeks behind in rent is leaving Monday.  There is another trailer that came in for only a month.  I'll have some lots to fill  up here pretty soon, unfortunately.  I mean, it's easier if they just stick around, obviously.

Oh, there is some chainsaw work that needs done as well, not sure if I'll get to that today.  Some branches sticking out over the driveway that need trimmed back.  

I dunno, but I'm in no hurry.  To do much of anything.  

I rarely watch tv news anymore and am reminded of one of the reasons just now.  I turned it on to one of the media outlets to find - commercials. Endless commercials. It must be 4 or 5 minutes now and it's just one tv ad after another.  I mean, besides the fact that all of them put a spin on it and many of them are engaging in the dissemination of nothing more than pure propaganda, the commercials are highly irritating.  

I wonder what the allure is of a drug that can give you a heart attack, stroke, death, etc and all it does is help you lose weight? You hear this list of things many current day drugs can do and you wonder why anyone would take them, save if it's a desperation move where there are no other options.  But a lot of it is not life-saving drugs.  This is the kind of ads your ears are assailed with when you turn on regular tv.  To think I was naive enough to believe, many years ago, that getting satellite would eliminate ads, right?

I mean, you are paying to watch tv, wouldn't that therefore and logically also eliminate the possibility of having to watch endless ads?  Otherwise, what are you paying for?  I've been watching a lot of Hulu content lately that has no ads whatsoever.  It's cheap and it has a lot of interesting content.  Well, let me change that, if I am watching tv, I am looking at Hulu a lot more than I used to.  TV isn't a big thing in my life at this point, I have far too much other things to do. 

What do you think of FISA?  The recurring theme I've soon over and over is it has been abused to spy on Americans as well as foreigners.  Like, they can listen in on conversations without a warrant to foreigners without a warrant even if that person is talking to an American, who, under normal circumstances, they would definitely have to have a warrant to eavesdrop.  That's the problem I have always had with FISA and other privileges the government gives itself to intrude open citizen' rights.  

And Biden, clearly attempting to buy votes by giving away billions more in student loan forgiveness.  It's an election year, expect to see more of it.  I wonder if people will start to wake up to these tactics that occur every election year, especially a presidential election?

_________

I told "them" that I am working on my taxes and not sure yet if I can work this weekend. But alas, my last load cancelled and that was what, Monday?  So waiting until Monday to go back to work is a bit excessive, even if I don't want to work on the weekend, the money is greatly needed.  It's that thing of not wanting to use business account money for personal use. The tanker is washed out already, which makes it nice, I can bypass the washout and go straight to the loading plant, meaning not having to get up quite so early.

I haven't responded to her yet, she just texted asking if I can work this weekend.  The rigors of trucking include working when you don't want to.  Well, I don't ever want to, lmao, I mean working on days when you'd rather be home doing other things.  I'll miss the soccer game again and a baseball game.  Not the end of the world, but those things are more important to me than driving trucks all over the place.  At the same time, a steady paycheck is also necessary in this life, or something that replaces it.  

My taxes come as surprise as I thought I would be owing some money, not getting a return.  Of course, I'm still fairly nervous about this situation and when I send it in, it's just going to be a shrug-my-shoulders event, hope everything is correct and move on until/if/when I hear from the IRS.  

With the trucking job, I was well above poverty level, with the income only from the business last year, it was only 4 thousand above it.  One would still consider a person in the poor range with the income I made from both sources, lol.  

Well that's that, I'm working, probably tomorrow load and Sunday offload, I'll find out shortly. They just dump the stuff into the tablet. I asked for early load, tho, in fact I required it.  I will not be wasting entire days on the weekend doing trucking work.  I can be back by around 1:30 tomorrow afternoon and 2:30 on Sunday.  That is, if nothing goes wrong. Which reminds me, that truck hasn't been started in 4 days, I need to turn it on while I'm over there today for a half hour and make sure the batteries are good to go as well.

Well, that's it. I need to get over there and get the mowing started.  I will put off this tax junk  either until this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon when I return from loading. 

 

 I have no idea how that happened, but all of a sudden, I am at the end of this trail of tears, trying to get through all of this stuff and it's asking for payment.  I'm not ready to do that yet.  I want to go over all of it again and I do mean ALL of it even if it is a PITA and at least try to make sure I haven't done anything wrong.  Especially the payments I made to myself, I will be triple checking that.  It's pretty easy, I wrote checks to myself and I got cashapp payments that went to the personal account, but all of those transactions are viewable in cashapp.  

Which is nice, just add them up and there it is.  There's also a few mortgage payments that I loaned to myself that I just now remembered I never paid back to the business account, so I need to add that to income.  It isn't going to affect anything, my expenses were far too large for the small amount of money I took out of there, with the mortgage payments will come to around 20k.  It's actually more than I expected.  I made less than 10k with the trucking company.  Last year was a bust in annual revenue.  

Yup, I'll be taking a fresh look at it tomorrow and attempting to decide if my nerves can handle clicking on the send button to send it over to the IRS and hope to high heaven I got it right.  Because I have no doubt they will be contacting me if they don't think it is.  They are good at that. The whole point here is not intentionally doing something to evade taxes.  I only need adjust the mortgage income and after that, I  will have reported all of it. I was really good about cash too, taking it to the bank and dumping it into the business account.  

But, this is a small business and there just isn't that much income coming in from it, it shouldn't be expected that I made that much from it and especially with all the start up costs.  I am feeling a little more confident right now, but just a little.  It's really nerve wracking. I have never been audited and I don't want to start now.  If they want to, fine, I'll bring hundreds of receipts, access to quickbooks and the bank account and they can do whatever they want to do.  

And when I do hit the send button, that's it, I'm not going to lose sleep over it, it will be what it will be.  I am definitely doing things differently this year, receipts are all being input as I go along now.  I won't have this mountain of stuff to do at the end of the year, it will all be input into quickbooks and it will just be a lot easier.  

I may actually be ok to go to work this weekend.  I'm afraid tho that what they'll want me to do is the late run, that just sucks on weekends.  Leave late, get home late, miss the weekend basically. At least on the early run I get home early afternoon and still time left to enjoy the day.  

The aftermath of the 3 day rain event was extensive on the driveway. There is still water running down the driveway.  Not that much, but it's just trashed again.  The man that wanted to sell me the tractor isn't really interested in down payments and financing it.  He said he was, but he changed his mind today. He just wants full payment or he wants to trade for "something". I don't have anything to trade that is worth that much money.  So that's off the table, unfortunately.  The Kubota dealer said they could get me down around $300, but with caveats.  

Still considering that one.  I think I'll wait to see several paychecks before opting to get into a 7 year loan.  Do those things even last that long? I  would like to hope so.  

Well whatever, I need to go vegetate in front of the tv or something and get my mind off of taxes.

 Thursday mid-morning

I went to bed at 8:40 last night and just now got up - 12 hours later.

I was very tired, I think this tax stuff is getting to me.

I also think I have met my match on this nonsense.  I usually can figure things out and was hoping with the help of Turbotax I could sort of feel my way through this. I'm going to try again today, I haven't given up just yet, but I think it may be that I will have to pay someone to do this stuff for me.  

__________

After an hour spent with a live chat agent, I think I have finally figured this out and it is going to take agonizing hours to go through all of these receipts and reclassify them.  It is a slow process and I am not exactly jumping up and down for joy with it.  54k worth to go through, that's just those types of receipts.  I think I have everything else categorized correctly, it was just this stuff I figured were expenses and in reality, some of it is expenses and some of it should be classified under assets.

What that does to my tax return and whether I owe money or not? I will find out in the end.  Right now, I am taking a break from this nonsense and also wishing, of course, that I had started this sooner.  Now I am under pressure even tho I still have what, today through Monday.  The only other recourse is to file for an extension, something I'd rather not do.  I just want this stuff finished and over with.  

__________

I am entangled in the woes of this tax nonsense and not getting a lot of help from "pros".  I suspect I will end up doing the best I can, call it good and if they audit me, they audit me.  I have receipts for everything.  It's all input into the system, I don't have to produce them, there are pictures of them.  They can access my bank account and my quickbooks account and come up with whatever conclusion they want to.  I'm going to continue on with editing what is an expense that isn't an assett, get it over with and be done with it.  Today? No.  

Hopefully by tomorrow I will just say screw it, here it is, hope it goes through, whatever.  

Well that isn't shocking now.  Electricity is under expenses, that's what it is categorized under.  I spent around 15k just on that last year.  Then you have credit card payments under the business, a shed payment, the washer and dryer payment, these are all under expenses.  I don't actually think I mislabeled most of this, some of it should have gone under assetts but not that much.  

 Taxes

It is giving me red flags telling me that maintenance and business expenses "seem high".  Yes, it is a new business and there were many expenses for a start up that I incurred.

However, I am going to go back through all of it and find what title I should have given it, there must be something for new start up expenses or something that will more adequately explain what the expense is for. I just put it under supplies, but perhaps that isn't correct.  

I can tell ya, I have no idea what I'm doing here.  I will be paying for the return to be reviewed, for so far, with all of the expenses, I owe nothing to the IRS.  I feel like that isn't right for some reason. 

______________

Night time, many hours  later. 

I got tired of tax work and went up to Lowe's for supplies I needed - chain saw oil and gas, a bag of concrete and paper towels.  Oh, and a hair cut up the street.  And met up with Taylor/oldest child at Cici's for lunch - sort of a buffet pizza place.

Went over to the property later on, the driveway is totally trashed again.  I kind of expected it, but it's worse now than the last time and there if far more water coming down the driveway, draining off neighboring property, than last time.  The destructive powers of moving water.  I have no plans to fix that this week, it will happen after the next round of rain comes and goes next week.  I don't really want to be renting an expensive machine every month, but then again, we don't normally get rain the lasts for 3 days at a time.  

So, this round is over.  

I have a lot more work to do on taxes and it's just going to have to wait until tomorrow. It takes precedence over renting machines and other stuff, I need it done, over with and get it behind me. And right now? I don't know that it will be done before or on Monday if I don't just continue working on it as I have today and yesterday.  

I'm going to have to go over a few hundred receipts from last year and probably reassign them, that will take hours.  I want it labeled under construction, not supplies  That makes it look like what it is: supplies for new construction. It's 60k worth which is why it was flagged, I guess.

That's it. It's almost 9, I'm going to bed soon.  

 Tuesday late-morning

Well, yesterday was a unmitigated horror flick on real life. OK, it wasn't that bad, but it was seriously bad driving conditions.  I got on the road and felt the truck hydroplaning at only 55 mph.  I was driving slow in very heavy rainfall for a long distance.  When I got near the trailer washout place in Nacogdoches, guess what happened?

Work texted me: Your load cancelled for today.  I drove an hour and a half, got soaking wet to get into the truck, etc etc, for this? The worst part about it is that they had received that email from the company last night, no one bothered to read it until after I was already well down the road.  That kind of got me going a little bit.  I was almost to the washout place, so I went anyway, at least get that over with.  

Drove back in rain, but it wasn't as bad. When I got home, I started working on inputting all of these receipts.  Oh, well the manager called me and didn't exactly apologize for having me driving in that s*** for no good reason at all. He instead asked about my schedule, which he already knew but was about to make a point: we are really short handed for weekend drivers.  He made it known in no uncertain terms that he needed drivers for this weekend. 

I replied that since it was scheduled off - something I didn't ask for btw - I was going to be finishing up my taxes. It might take a while to do them since I've never done a business tax before coupled with a regular job taxes.  

I have, in fact, started on that after spending many hours this morning reviewing endless receipts and assigning them to their proper account designation and how it was paid for.  In fact, I am on Turbotax now but I needed a break from this nonsense.  It asking me endless questions and I am stuck at the W-2 part.  I don't remember getting a W-2 from my employer, I'm about to look through where it "should" be if I did.  If not, I will be asking them to email it to me so I don't have to wait for it in the mail.  No rush, it's only Wednesday, I will try to take care of it today but this office work really is not my cup of tea.  Or coffee. Or anything else for that matter.  

Actually, I'm fixing to leave here and go to the park and see if these people took the spot or not.  They reserved it yesterday, I did accept the reservation but I included in that email that the spot where it's at is quite wet and potentially muddy, you may want to find other accommodations.  So they call me and start yada yadaing and I just reminded them what I had written.  In no uncertain terms, I wasn't recommending this spot, at all.  

We have had ongoing rain for a couple of days now. It has stopped but only for a few hours, it is going to start again around 1:30 pm it's saying on the forecast. That's enough time to get over there, take look, get over to Lowe's and get some bar chain oil and gas for the chainsaw.  There is a tree that needs to be cut back along the driveway and some brush that has come down along it as well.  It's sort of impeding the flow of traffic through there.

Needless to say, there is a stream (and not a small one either) of water traveling down the driveway and of course destroying my driveway again.  I will be renting that machine again, I guess, to fix it.  But first, I need the mini ex and get that stuff done.  I can use the mini to dig up some pothole areas, loosen up the soil and then just use the blade on the mini to go over it and smooth it out. That way, those potholes are no longer an issue, the area around them will be completely loosened and the holes will be gone.  

When am I doing that? Well, tomorrow isn't showing any rain, so maybe tomorrow, maybe Friday, not sure.  Taxes really take precedence but right now, I just remembered my hair has grown out quite a bit and I need a haircut, need to get to Lowe's for the chainsaw stuff and another bag of concrete for that pole and then over to the park to see if those people decided to stay, they owe money if they did, but I'm guessing they moved on.  Who knows.

Then I can come back home and look for that W-2 and request ...cancel that, found the W-2 looking where I figured I would have dumped it and lo and behold, there it was.  So, that takes a big worry off, the next thing is finding how much I sent in last year for estimated taxes.  I wrote it down on my big pad - somewhere, lol.  I never said I was a businessman, tho by default I am one.  I'm referring to the paperwork part of it, I hate that stuff and I have Quickbooks to thanks for saving me from an otherwise dreadful existence trying to figure that stuff out.  

Anyway, I have a 3 hour window to get some stuff done before we get another deluge. And I really would like to help the manager out if possible, I hate working weekends but working every other weekend was part of the deal. However. I did work 2 weekends in a row....still, it's going to be too long between runs, I need the money.  

One thing that is making me very happy, however, is the fact that after paying the property taxes and the electric bill, I still have almost 3k in the business account.  And most of this month's business bills are paid. 

The only thing of concern right now is a person that has disappeared but their trailer is still sitting on one of my lots. They aren't responding to my attempts to ask them their intentions. Staying, going, if staying, when do you plan on paying?  They are currently 8 days behind on their rent.  Not the end of my world, but if they are moving, take the damn thing out of there so I can re-rent it. I have been turning people away left and right......Anyway, if I go into summer with at least 3 or 4k in that account, I won't have to worry about summer electric bills. Really took me by surprise last year the incredible amount those bills were.

This year will be different in that I have a trucking job so I shouldn't need money from the business to pay for my personal bills.  

Yup, I still have some stuff to do for this tax return. I have to see how much I paid myself as well, that will take some time going through all of that. Or will it? I will be looking in quickbooks to see if it delineated owner draw checks, I put that on them to ensure I knew what was what.  It's pretty easy, tho, they are even amounts and usually around 1k.  I would be surprised if I had any huge tax burden from last year considering I didn't really get paid that much.  I'll be finding out soon enough. 

As for now? I want to get stuff done before the next round of rain.

 Mid - day

Got more than I planned on getting done - done.  The pole is put together, in the ground and cemented in.  It will be next week at the earliest before I trust the cement has dried and cured enough to put a ladder against the thing.  It's supposed to rain the next 3 days.  I don't mean sporadic rain, from what I am hearing it's going to be another 3 day constant rain event.  

Not in love with that idea, but, it doesn't matter. I have a lot more mowing to do over there, I didn't plan on doing all of that today.  I threw away a large amount of trash from the tent lady's area, mowed that all down and the guy next door and cleaned it up nice.  It's usable for 30 amp service if anyone wants to stop in for an overnight.  I don't want to do long term there right now, not until I get my other electrical system in.  

I could have forced myself to do more, but I have other plans with the rest of the day that don't include physical labor. I badly need a haircut and then - if there's time after I get the rest of my agenda done today? start clicking off photos for my quickbooks.  That will get tossed into the turbo tax setup - it's all owned by the same company and interlinked when you allow it to do so.  

Oh, I also went to the bank and deposited more cash.  I'm pretty good about that, getting it into the business account and getting it out of my hands so I don't spend it.  Both accounts are looking pretty spiffy now that I have dumped the gift money in there, have a large paycheck added to it and just collecting rents for the business account. Even after the property tax, there is a nice chunk of change in that account of which I am fixing to pay out the electric bill.  It will still be around 2 grand, money I don't want to touch but, alas, will have to in order to rent a mini-ex.  

I figure Thursday I will get everything ready for that venture and then Friday morning, go get the machine and hope that they have one available.  I'll get the pipe for the driveway over to where it needs to go and I'll get the spool of wire out and ready to go as well.  

With that in mind, yes, I"ll get started on this tax garbage today. I've been procrastinating, I freely admit. I hate that kind of paperwork, it is tedious and it just gives me a headache.  

BTW, the sky is completely overcast.  The eclipse starts in 40 minutes, will peak in something like 2 hours.  I'll try to get a live video - short one - of near the period where the least light will be showing, but it's already dark out there with the overcast skies. 

 Monday - semi early

I had no plans of getting up ultra early today and don't regret it. 

I do have plans of getting out of here in about 30 minutes and go get some stuff done over there.  Mostly, finish cleaning up the tent lady's disaster zone - most of that stuff is going straight to the dumpster.  And see if I can put that pole up.  

That will eat up some time and then - we have an eclipse and afternoon rain.  And the comet, which I am now reading has been viewable with a pair of binoculars and apparently will be most visible on the 21st of this month. 

The people that wanted the tent lady's old space bowed out of it. Said their son was going to take them in and so they won't be needing it.  I basically advertise those "alternate" lots on FB page here and there, but I don't actively seek people for them. It just sort of works out that way that they eventually get filled.

Off today, 2 days on work then 4 days off.  Thursday or Friday I'm hoping to rent the mini ex and get with that trenching project.  I want 2 days to be able to rent the thing, get the stuff done but not have to take it back until the next day in case I find other stuff I want to do with it.  The trench should be easy enough, dig it out, lay the wire and backfill it with the machine's blade.  I'll just leave enough extra wire sticking out of the ground near the pedestal to be able to run it into it once I hand dig out the pedestal to be able to get the wire in there.

The other end, the trench can stop where I want the new electrical panel to be installed.  I'll have to install a couple 4x4s in the ground, I can't mount it to the shed for I have no access to install a couple of boards on the inside of the shed to be able to screw the setup onto.  In other words, I'll get the trenching done and the line in the ground, but there will still be work to do afterwards.  I also want to get a trench across the driveway and get an 8 inch diameter piece of pipe in that can drain off water from one side to the other.  Or maybe 6 inch would work better.

I keep looking at the power bill and dreaming it could stay that way year round.  I might get another month close to it tho.  I don't expect the next bill after this one to be terribly high, after that? yeah, can expect it to start ticking up. 

There is nothing else of note going on in my world - I did file a complaint with Applebee's about the atrocious service I received their yesterday.  The oldest boy was sad that I stated I don't want to go there anymore.  He said he didn't get a chance to say "goodbye to Applebee's". What that really means is there is a gentleman that works there who is really cool, he is a host that seats people, cleans tables, puts out the silverware, stuff like that.  He has no control of how the place is run and I don't blame him for yesterday's ridiculous fiasco at all.  

It isn't the first time this has happened, but after an hour and forty five minutes, one would think, especially after the restaurant had finally cleared out, they could have gotten me my food and they even told me my food was ready.  20 - 25 minutes later I left - with no food. I am sure Applebee's will write back and say we're sorry, make excuses and that will be that.  Shrugs shoulders.  

Well, make some coffee, put it in the thermos and get out of here.  

 The local Applebee's typically has horrible service, so it's not a shocking surprise when you wait, 30, 40 50 plus minutes for food.  Today?  I was there an hour and forty-five minutes and never did receive my food and yes, I finally got up and walked out.  It's a long story and I don't feel like going into it right now, but an hour and forty five minutes? And a manager visiting several times and still nothing?  Bad day for them? Every day is a bad day for this particular Applebee's, the place is an anomaly. Most Applebee's are not this bad.  

Learn my lesson? Well, I like their food but I'm not going to go back any time soon.  Try keeping hungry kids from getting irritable for that long amount of time.  Yea, doesn't work out too well. 

The cows are gone. I called the Sheriff, they contacted the owners, the owners must have come and got them.  

________________

Sunday night.  

Tomorrow is rain, which doesn't start until afternoon, but the forecast is calling for "mostly cloudy".  I'll just wait for the eclipse around noon, watch it get partially dark, say wow that was fun! and move on.  Someone will get footage of that 2 horned comet I would like to hope, that's what I really want to see.

More tractor companies pitching their wares. They are mostly in the same price range tho there is a Kubota dealer - the orange tractors - that gave me a quote for 27k. Still pricey, at least in my little world, but not as bad as 35k.  $337 per month.  7 years, of course.  This is where they lose me still, even with a lower payment, they are still quoting for near forever terms.  I'll be 67 years old by the time the thing is paid off. 

I haven't gotten back to the dude at the park about how much I could do for a down payment.  The Kubota place said if I put 3k down I'm at or below $300.  Still 7 years, but that is a little more palatable than the rest of the "offers" I have received.  I'm not in a hurry here, if I need to rent a tractor again, I will.  If I can afford a monthly tractor payment then I can afford to rent a tractor once per month as well?  

I'm not dwelling on tractors, I need one, but not so badly that I can't live without it.  It just means stuff not getting done.  

If it isn't raining in the morning, I'm going over and get some stuff before the rain hits.  Get up around 8ish, get over there 9ish, work 3 hours and then come home and start taking snapshots of receipts, get that into quickbooks.  Quickbooks wants $425 to do my taxes if I have a pro take a look at it after I'm done, less if I just do it myself with no oversight, much more if I want a pro to do all of it.  I'm undecided but it's probably going to be the first one as long as I'm comfortable that I have it right. I don't need the IRS breathing down my neck, I want it right the first time.  It'll be the first time I'm trying to do a return with owning my own business and working a job.  I can say that it's less than 25k earned between the 2 last year, there isn't that much money to have to account for. 

I'm not worried about it, per se, just want it right and get it postmarked/elecrtronically sent before or on the 15th.  

Well that's enough.  It's getting close to 9 and I'd like to vegetate in front of the tv for awhile, go to sleep relatively early.  

 Sunday - late morning

I don't think it's going to be all that great for people wanting to see the eclipse tomorrow. 97% chance of rain here, we're on the outside of the total eclipse but we'll be in the partial range.  However, the I-30 corridor basically has 50% chance of rain and that would likely mean even if it doesn't rain, there is going to be cloud cover.  Not trying to be a party-pooper, but even the forecasters have been throwing a wet blanket on these traveler's desire to spend that kind of money and see- nothing.  It will get dark, but you won't be able to see the actual event.

Anyway, cows on the property this morning. From the looks of it, they've been there at least since yesterday considering the considerable amount of cow pies laying all over the place and a large area in the grass where they were obviously laying down.  There are 14 of them. A bull, heifers and several calves.  

Almost 100% sure they are a neighboring property owner's cattle. I tried going to their house, which is set back about 150 feet from the street. Their security gate was open but if anyone was home, they weren't coming out when I drove up.  I did not get out of the vehicle, this is Texas and the dude is an ex-sheriff who held the position for 40 years.  I'm not taking too much chances getting shot or otherwise confrontation with someone that would obviously be armed and quite well able to defend their property.  

I left a note, but I decided to call the Sheriff's dispatch number (non emergency).  They took down the info and then a lady called back about 30 minutes later.  "I know Tom goes to church on Sundays, he isn't answering his phone".  They had left him a message and asked if I thought the cows would be ok? Oh yes, they're fine, they're on the easement running through my property, eating grass, no water but they'll be ok for now. I've heard nothing since then, but I'm sure he'll be along with a group of people to herd them back to his property. I'm more interested in him finding out where the breach is so he can repair the fence line. I couldn't find anything and still wondering how they got onto my property? So  yea, even if I could force those cows back to his property, I want the owner to see them on my property so he'll be motivated to find wherever it was they made their way through and repair it.  

It happens.  Not a fan of cow pies, but other than that, they were mowing the grass for me.  

So, I have today and Monday off, back to work for 2 days and then Thursday through Sunday off.  I don't know about tomorrow, it's a high chance of rain so getting stuff done over there is questionable, however, it doesn't matter. I am going to spend however many hours inputting receipts into the quickbooks application and getting everything caught up and then start on trying to get my taxes done.  I'll pay them to do it for me if I have to, but I am going to try to do it myself with their system guiding me through it.  

I think I've only written myself $1,500 in owner's draw checks this year and if these paychecks hold up in net amount, I will not have to take any more checks off of the business side, meaning paying on taxes on it at all.  I also didn't make that much money last year, I was living off of loans mostly, so even tho I expect to have to pay some tax money - I have paid some on it and I have payroll taxes going through as well, it really shouldn't be much.  I would be considered in a poverty level status for the amount I took in.  I wasn't living in poverty, of course, but that's what it will look like on the books for income.  

You do a cashout-refi on your house, that cash is non-taxable because it's a loan. The previous year I cashed out the 401k's but the government took their money and I can tell you it was in the tens of thousands of dollars range.  I should be good there as well.  But, the IRS is clued in onto me after having sent me the envelopes and the estimated tax info and stubs to pay it out quarterly.  The only thing I "fear" if I stop taking money for paychecks out of the business account is that the IRS might grow suspicious and wonder why I am not claiming anything.  I can answer that, of course, with paychecks from trucking, but still.  I'll cross that bridge if if/when it comes to it I guess.  Not like this venture is making me right - yet.  Maybe some day if I ever get more lots in there.  

Well, almost time to leave for church. I was wishy-washy about it this morning, sort of didn't feel like going but after taking a shower I feel better.  Just wasn't quite awake and thinking, gee, sitting in church, sleepy and not very well tuned into the message.  

 Thursday - evening

Typical late start day.  Get up there in 2 hours 18 minutes, scale in, drive to the shack, spend X amount of time there, drive back to scale, get out of there.  Just feels like a very long day when you don't get back until after 5:00 when I'm normally getting back from Gurdon around 2:00 ish - give or take depending on how long it takes to pump the glue out of there.

Anyway....the farmers. They had decided to leave because they were being shot at by - lasers.  Not laser pointers, but actual lasers. I sat there and listened to this story after I got back from the run today.  Well, first off, then they changed their minds and said they would stay another month.  I'll listen to anyone's story regardless, some of the things people conjure up in their minds is pretty interesting, even more so if they actually believe the stuff they are saying.

Lol.  So, a snapshot of the story goes like this:  they were farmers for 50 plus years.  I'm sure they were, why would they make that up? He said they were selling about a quarter million dollars worth of produce off of their land every quarter.  Ok? Yes, well we were taking business away from - it's a chain local to Texas, supermarket with a lot of medium sized and a few larger sized store.  People had stopped buying their produce because they were going to these farmers to buy it from them instead.  Pretty typical, people like to stop at those stands and buy fresh produce right from the farm.

Then we get to the conspiracy theory.  The corporate people decided they didn't like this and somehow enlist the government to hire people to shoot lasers at them.  He then produced a large number of pictures both showing lasers being shot and the damage they had done to their skin.  A man sitting up on a cell tower (this wasn't at my park, this was a few years ago) was one such person and he had pics of him, his pickup and the light beams that he claimed were lasers.  

I don't want to go too far with this on here, who knows who's reading this blog and I am not trying to start trouble.  Not with them or anyone.  Some of the pics were rather ghastly looking, tho, the damage from these lasers or - whatever caused it to happen to their skin.  

Take all of that for what it's worth.  He then started asking about my tractor - he's a farmer.  I don't have a tractor, I replied, but I've been looking into buying one. They want a lot of money for one and I don't want to spend that much money - or really - I don't want payments that high.  So he starts telling me about his John Deere tractor and the he might be interested in financing it for me.  How much do you want to pay? He had already told me a price of 18k including several attachments.  

Well, I want to keep my payments around $300 per month, John Deere wouldn't budge in their price or payments so I just finally said no to them.  Well, what if I were to owner-finance for you?  I had no idea he was going this direction with the conversation, so he sort of caught me by surprise.  Ok....do you  have anything for a down payment? Umm, well I do, but I'd have to look to see how much I could afford, I can get back to you on that.  

I came up with a figure in my mind but I didn't want to say anything right away.  These people are loaded with money, they sold their farm and they are set for life.  But, you know, if you have something worth something, you aren't going to just give it away. If I put 3k down on a tractor, it comes out to 4.16 years worth of payments at $300 per month, not including if they are charging interest.  You say, well, I thought you were going to sit on that money?  Yes, I was and thinking of getting another septic system.

Unfortunately, the price of the same size septic system as what I already have has gone up almost 2 grand in price.  It wasn't shocking to see the contractor texting me that price today, everything is going up, not surprising his costs are going up with it and therefore, dumping it onto potential customers. 

It put the cost of one of them out of range.  I don't have $8,500 and I really need a tractor to boot.  I need both, really.  I have no clue, but if he'd take that kind of down money, I'd probably go for it.  However, I didn't want to just blurt out: Yes! I''ll give you 3k down right off the bat.  These are financial decisions that I really just need to think about first and see where it's going to leave me after the fact.  

I also need to find out what I'm going to be getting paid on new pay scale, which I will be finding out shortly.  

Anyway, the kids? One has guitar and soccer practice, actually the soccer practice is already going, but he had guitar practice first and the other has a baseball game that starts, get this, at 7:30 pm.  That seems a little late to start a game for 7 year olds on a school night, doncha think?  He'll be getting home way past his bedtime and even later actually getting to bed.  

I'm leaving for the soccer practice in a few minutes, the field is only 3 minutes away.  He was begging me to come, the other one wasn't asking me to go to the game, thankfully, I don't want to be out that late.  It's not really late, I guess, but I have first load tomorrow, meaning get up at 5:30 am. Back to normal.

So, that's it for now.

Thursday (already?)  semi-early

I got up early this morning for no particular reason, well, I was feeling rested I guess so that was that.  I went to bed at 10 and got up at 7:15.  The sleep tracker finally, after all of this time and for the first time give me a score of 81 - which in their view has the statement of "Perfect!" and Great. Asleep time was 8 hours and 23 minutes, snore time was 8 minutes and 28 seconds.  Lol, snore time.  Is snoring a bad thing? Sleep apnea is bad, but I have no risk of that at all, at least according to this app.  A few times sleep apnea have appeared on there, but it wasn't long enough for it to do anything but say "risk is low">  

Why is all of this important? Well, when you've had sleep issues for going on 2 decades, get back to me and tell me how wonderful a ride that is.  When you get the night that you actually sleep well, you feel so wonderful the next morning. Alive, jubilant, ready to tackle whatever comes your way.  On the nights when you get 3 hours of sleep, you just wish the day was over before it started, you do the bare minimum and you struggle. 

Anyway, I was drying off after the shower this morning and had the thought: who on earth had the idea of making clothing and towels out of cotton?  When did it jump into a person's brain that this is possible and what made them think that? Just odd things that cross my mind at times.

Or, this idea that people are actually making vacations out of this upcoming eclipse and purportedly contemplating spending thousands of dollars on said vacation.  Why? I know eclipses are interesting, but I wouldn't drive a thousand miles to go see it.  In fact, I will by happenstance be in the direct line of it if I wish to wait around a couple of hours to "see" it.  I guess it's going to get dark for a few minutes and that's it, a partial eclipse before and after the darkness.  

Well, I can just wait until night time to see darkness lmao.

BTW, have you been watching this wave of crime all of these illegals coming into our nation are committing? Murder, rape, taking over people's homes (squatting), assaulting police officers, jubilant defiance and rebellion, they don't care.  

Anyway, I'm just sitting here musing about having a late day. Yesterday was quite late, much later than it should be.  I can't show up too early today, they will get upset and tell me not to show up so early for the second load.  I've seen them doing it with other drivers, I don't need to be on the receiving end of that.  I don't think they care if the tanks aren't full or close to full, but if they are close to full, they don't want you showing up until they use some of the product.  You can't offload into full tanks, obviously.

I was there 2 days ago and one of the tanks was completely full and the one I was pumping into had just enough room for another truckload.  Yes, it can change quickly, but I know for a fact there is another truck going up early today, so showing up too early without knowing the tank levels isn't a good idea. I'll just sit there for hours waiting.  I figure to get up there around 12:30, maybe even closer to 1.  

Basically, I don't like the second load in case you haven't noticed.  Just wastes the entire day.  

When I returned yesterday, however, I did get the motorcoach moved. The guy that has a trailer next to it decided he wanted to get into a rather long conversation, part of which turned to the fact that he had seen a rat underneath the coach and had jumped up inside of it.  I'm moving it to let other people use the spot but I also wanted to get it away from the shed and this other guy's trailer.  There are plenty of natural predators out there to eat those rats, let them run amok in the fields.  Feral cats and snakes to be precise.  They're welcome to munch away and gobble up all of them.  It wouldn't surprise me if there is a snake hiding out in that coach as well. 

I do have James interested in doing the work tho.  

I also found a loan with - well not great but better than anything else I've seen - that would have low monthly payments and would help me install 5 more lots - if I can get the septic installer to give me a quote.  If I can't afford the same sized system I have now, I can opt to get a smaller one. Less lots can be on it, at the same time, I can build them out as I have the time and money to do so.  It's 6 grand worth, the money I got from mom could get a septic system, I think but it couldn't do anything else.  Still need the electrical setup, pipe, pedestals, gravel, etc.  

No, I'm not taking the loan, not right now anyway.  I wouldn't do that until a septic system was actually installed and ready to hook pipe up to it.  There is the problem of how to form the lots as well.  Without  a machine with a blade, I can't do it.  I'd have to pay someone thousands of dollars to do that for me.  Not something I'm really interested in. This is going to be a lower budget operation, I won't skip on quality, I'll just skip on quantity.  I would do the same exact setup I already have, people like it and that's that.  

So, I'm sitting on that cash for now.  And also waiting to see what my next paycheck will be, I think I'll get it on Friday since we get paid on Monday.  They tend to pay early instead of waiting until the next day which would make it 16 days between checks.  I don't want to get overly optimistic about this, but there should be a pretty good check coming after taxes and deductions.  

Basically, what I would like to do is finance starting up the motor coach renovations.  I have no idea when James might get a start on it, I think he has slated Saturdays for his extra work stuff.   I could actually bring the thing over here, but it would look tacky and just out of place.  Not that our neighbors don't do that all the time, bringing all kinds of stuff and parking it both in front of their house and in their driveway and even in the front yard.  And 7 puppies, 3 dogs .... etc etc etc

Obi was out there "fence fighting" with all of them yesterday. They were making so much noise, it was easy to sneak up behind Obi and just stand there.  His barking at the other dogs through the fence went on for a couple of minutes before he turned and saw me.  The dog jumped 5 feet, let out a yelp and ran off ! lmao.  

Just one more thing and then I'm offa here. The farmers are leaving today. They said that people are using laser lights and went off into some wild conspiracy that I've never heard of, but sounded pretty sketchy.  He said they wanted to stay another month but won't because of that.  Ok?  I contacted a few people around them and asked if they had noticed anyone using laser pointers?  No.  They also talked about people being "planted" in small businesses, trying to ruin them. I'd be the first to deal with anyone like that in my park.  No one can really ruin my business unless they sued, perhaps, and got some ridiculous amount of money worth of a judgment, that's why I have insurance.  

I mean, there are ways to ruin a business, obviously, but my type of business is more immune to a lot of it.  The worst I could see happening is perhaps no one coming to the park.  Ok?  I'd change the venue of the park and turn it into mobile home lots or tiny homes, I'd figure something out.  Ok, not mobile homes, I'd have to change the underground electrical system and that would cost too much money.   

I guess people could bombard my Google reviews with negative stuff, that would definitely have an impact.  I simply told that I'm pretty proactive owner, I can't do anything about things I don't know about.  They can leave if they wish, I have someone else that wants to move in anyway.  They are friends with someone in the park and are going to buy a trailer and move in when a lot becomes available.  

Anyway, it was an odd conversation.  

And with that, I'm going to get my lunch ready to go, get another cuppa or two and fill the thermos, get my ice water and go to the park. I have rent to collect and want to set off the bombs in the coach before I leave today - oh and put up fresh, large glue traps in there. I threw most of the other ones away, there were either dead rat bodies on them or the entire edges of them were filled with cockroaches.  

G'day

 Wednesday - 8:00 am

The newer scam parades on.  This is the one where they claim to be Facebook and say you have shared a copyrighted picture that belongs to someone else and if you don't do something about it, your FB account is going to be suspended or closed.  I knew it was fake the first time I saw it and now? I've been on the receiving end of this scam many times over.  They think fear tactics will work.  If FB is going to suspend your account, they just do it.  I do wonder what kinds of new scams will be generated with AI behind the wheel. I've heard that some scammers are using it to mimic a person's voice and then use it to call loved ones and somehow use it to get money out of them.  

Basically, if someone calls you and they sound out of character, hang up and call them back. The other thing these people do is use software to make their phone number appear as someone else's when they call.  I get sales calls all the time from "local" numbers.  I answer and it's some dude in India. I ask them if they are in the Texas city that the call says they're from? Of course not!  I say something to them about it and hang up. 

I will be in Arkansas along I-30 the day of the eclipse.  I know this because they keep dumping work on me.  Whether I want to stay up there that long to see it - unknown.  I typically wait for nothing when I'm done in Gurdon, it's get in the truck and drive home, non-stop.  I might - and I fleetingly say might - stay up there the guesstimated 2 extra hours it will be I would have to wait to see it.  I read a news clip that said the entire length of the I-30 corridor will be in the full eclipse path.  54 miles of my trips up there is on, you guessed it: I-30.  I could drive to the rest area right inside Texas off of I-30 to wait, I suppose. that would shave an hour off of driving back and still should be able to see the full thing. I guess I might want to get the glasses if I'm even considering it, plenty of places giving them away for free and even more selling them cheap.  

I paid off James after that money came in - I owed him some from the work he did on the shed last summer. I've been slowly paying him off, but it was nice to get that over with.  I guess I'll find out today - or tomorrow morning - whether the farmers are staying. I only have one spot available right now so if they do leave, it's not overly concerning, just try to get it filled back up quickly.  I get calls frequently and infrequently - it goes through cycles it seems -for long term.  

_______________________

12-1/2 hours later.

Another long day.  I ended up having to wait at the plant 2-1/2 hours before they would even get to me.  The first load had come and gone, but they told me their truck takes precedence - even tho they were preloading it.  Meaning that the load wasn't going out until tomorrow.  So why did they have to load that first?  It was a 2-1/2 hour wait before they even got started on me.  I dunno, sometimes this job sucks, that's all I can say about that.

Tomorrow won't be any better, for there is no reason to get up to Gurdon before noon and it's been taking 3 plus hours up there to get the tanker unloaded. Yup, I won't be home until 5:30 at the earliest.  

Oh well, I can sleep in again, that's what I can say about that.

The septic install dude finally texted me back. I then asked him pricing and again, I never heard back from him.  Pretty normal for that dude, I will eventually get some sort of reply.

As for now? I am tired, it's 9:00 pm and I'm going to get ready to go to bed. 

Still Tuesday lol.  

The boy was running all over the place on the soccer field, his team has a very good coach.  Very knowledgeable and very good with kids, even tho he coaches on a pro level.  Amazing a coach like that would even go to the kids sport level. I keep telling the boy he has an awesome coach and please listen to him.  I think he does listen, but I still want him to try and understand what kind of opportunity it is to learn from someone that has that kind of knowledge, expertise and skill. The coach is teaching basic level soccer, which is exactly what these kids need.  

Last year, the coach they had knew a little but really didn't have teaching down too much.  I give her kudos for volunteering and doing the best she could, I just find it a great opportunity to learn from someone who knows the sport inside and out.  

Anyway, it's the time of month to collect several rents.  I did try to get a small amount out of the tent lady's account, she owes me and she promised 20 times over she would pay me when she got the money - yeah it declined and the card company telling me to "do not try to run the card again". It was a longshot and there is no use in trying it again anyway.  My need to be able to run credit cards outweighs her need to rip me off, basically.  

The retired farmers either owe rent tomorrow or they leave. No clue, they don't socialize with anyone else in the park. Which is fine by me, people are free to do as they wish, I just have no pulse on what their intentions are.  

The dog is finally started to slow down, at least in the house. Outside he's a crazy barbarian, but, inside the house, if he wants my attention, he has to slow WAY down.  This has been a battle for awhile now, but I figured I would eventually win that battle and yes, it's working.  He's now coming and laying at my side and then, when I start petting him, he sits up and just takes it in. Good doggy!  

Late run tomorrow.  I mean, I'm not going to complain about sleeping in.  It'll keep my out later but since it's the Lufkin portion of the run, it shouldn't be terrible. I am not en-queue to take kids to any games or do anything but my normal stuff.  I am finding that the park - well it doesn't exactly run itself - but it does well enough if I am not available.  People don't leave because of my departures on a daily basis for points south or north.  I just tell them flat out, the park doesn't pay my bills, I have to work to make ends meet.  

Really? they say and look at me with bewilderment.  Yes, this is only 16 spaces, I'd need at least 3 times this amount to live off of it.  

Meh, I'm running out of steam, it's getting late and although I don't have to get up early in the morning, I'm done.