It dawned on me today after thinking about what the current electric bill might be that the next bill should be somewhere near or even lower than what I might be seeing now. I say might for I had not even thought to look at the current bill, it isn't due until the 11th.  It's $2,200.  The reason I believe the bill shouldn't be as horrible as my thoughts were taking me is that the last week? We've had storms and it's been cool.  AC units not working so hard to keep trailers cool, less electric usage. 

Anyway, the dude that might or might not show up? showed up about an hour ago. He called from the park.  I looked at the video, huge trailer.  I'm actually not in love with them, they use far more electricity. I mean, I'm not rejecting them, I charge more but I can't charge that much more.  It just seems to me that I should target the 30 amp trailers - smaller and only one AC unit.  How do you target 30 amp? Well, if I really wanted to do that? Just advertise 30 amp only, sorry, we don't have 50 amp here. It's that or just jack the price of 50 amp much higher and if they want it, they can have it, but I suspect they would move on.  I can see charging $500 per month for 50 amp to make decent profit off of them.  I say decent, I didn't say greedy. 

I've changed my thoughts about a pool. I still want one, it's just not doable right now.  Interest rates are jacked up to ridiculous highs.  I'm instead thinking of a large hot tub.  Those are popular year round, even in hot summer.  Much cheaper, the entire setup.  You're talking 10k or so for the actual tub versus 50k or more for the pool. Both need a deck - or - many hot tubs can just sit on a concrete pad.  I dunno, this is still a thought process.  There are other things I am "thinking about".  ATM, however, the coach is in the works.  Well, it's not being worked on ATM and the lady isn't even staying at the park. I was informed she's staying at the "kid's house", wherever that is and why, :I have no idea.

Marital issues?  She hasn't been around in almost a month.  She's very handy, I'd love to see her back lol. 

Not my call and certainly not inserting myself into other people's issues.  However, I do need word either way if she's going to repair and fix up the coach.  If she's not, I will head other directions and leave that thing be until I find the right person to do the job.  Other directions are my continued focus on "cabins". They aren't really cabins, that's just what they call them in the RV world. Much of it are sheds, they call them to keep them out of housing designation.  

What I want and what I need aren't that far apart.  I need something finished or very close to it, not just a shell. Finished as in the interiors being completed or certainly much of it done. Electrical, plumbing, flooring, walls, insulation, etc.  It needs to have heating/cooling or a built in area to install it.  It obviously has to have financing. Something finished like that is at least in the 20k territory.  I would pay that much and more to buy one unfinished and then have the interiors installed. Doing it myself would save money, but I am not there right now.  I don't want to do that kind of work atm.  It's enough to run the park and work a trucking job.  

The park host, so far, has been an invaluable tool to keep my head on the right side of sanity.  He deals with stuff I don't want to do.  I just plain don't want to do it and losing a month's worth of lot rent to have it done for me is fine by me, as long as I can keep working.  I say that because no one is granted tomorrow, and even if you get tomorrow, no one is granted the health to be able to do what you want to do tomorrow.  I keep that in mind always, not in fear but as a general way to keep myself in check.   I'm starting to get old and I am starting to need naps.  Not that I haven't always wanted to take naps, especially in trucking, driving 8 hours and getting a 30 minute nap in, now it seems like I need those naps. It isn't unexpected, I've watched many people growing old and the things that happen slowly, over time.

But whatever.  I just wish this inflation s*** would end and the fed would start lowering interest rates.  I need a loan to really move forward.  I can do stuff piece meal, that will take a long time to do it that way.  Now, if I could get a cabin under financing that's basically instant income.  No guarantees, but the local housing market is hot and on fire for places to rent.  And we aren't talking cheap.  I've been watching the market for some time now.  

Anyway, the washout took much longer than necessary.  There is a guy that does washouts on other types of trailers that feels like he needs to get every last bit of anything out of the trailer.  He spends far more time on it than anyone else and it's completely unnecessary and a waste of time.  He carried on almost to the point of having to go a second hour on it, which costs more money.  It's a mixed bag on Sundays, the place is closed but you can call them out 24 hours a day.  I rarely even see this guy, apparently this was his day to be on call.   After that and getting to the plant? They got me in and out of there quickly.  

Anyway, the park is full again, but on Wednesday another lot is vacating. And 2 more potentially vacating.  I have that guy saying he'll move his kid in - or will he? He never called back. People do this stuff all the time.  They say they'll call back, they don't and then...they just show up.  I don't argue with them, of course, but it seems a bit of a chance to just leave the park on hold and hope? that there is something available?  No clue.  I just go with the flow here, or at least I try to. It's the nature of RV parks? Yes, but you are more on the overnight side with people coming and going, not this type of thing where a long term just up and leaves without notice or a long term just shows up without notice. Or they tell you they might be coming, and then 2 weeks later, you hear back from them - at the park.  

I'm not going to feel bad if one of these people shows up and there isn't anything available.  Confirm it or don't, but if you don't, it isn't guaranteed that a lot will be available. When it comes to long term, it's pretty much first come-first served.    

It's starting to get late, I sort of stopped writing on here and ate dinner and tended to other things.  

 Sunday 7:30 am

I'm slowly starting to feel better. These chest colds have always kicked my @$$.  It's nothing new, but they allows pack a serious punch and just take me down for a while.  I've been working the entire time, thusly making the punch even worse. I get home from 7 or 8 hours of trucking and I'm toast, done, wiped out and ready to lay down.

The college kids up and left - I dunno if I reported that last post or not, I don't think so.  There was no advanced notice, it was: "School is over, we're going home!".  You know, while I'm turning some people away because I have no spaces available?  They literally said nothing until they were ready to hook up and leave.  Whatever.  A "dad" called yesterday going in an extremely long explanation of his kid, what the kid is doing, how well behaved he is, the fact that he, the dad, is buying him a brand new trailer and one that will "last for a long time", etc.  

Daddy is rich, I can tell ya that just by that conversation. We're talking a 150k trailer, not some hunting stand type of camper.  The kid will be going to a local college, there are 3 of them here (it still amazes me after living here 10 years that this bitty little town has 3 colleges, one of them is growing exponentially, another was part of a movie of a small town versus Harvard, I think it was, the other is a state college that churns out people who are instantly offered high paying jobs).

He wants to start paying rent on a lot on the 1st, even tho the trailer won't arrive until the 15th.  You got it!  I don't care what they want to do and so far, the college kids have, actually, been the best behaved of anyone.  Speaking of behavior, the park host went around after I told him I was getting disgusted with people parking on the grass and told everyone to get their vehicles off the grass, please and thank you.

And sure enough, people did it, with one threat of moving out.  Bye!  Those people would drive on the grass up to their front door.  Absolutely appalling behavior, as if they just bought that lot.  Even if they had purchased the lot, they would still be under what amounts to HOA rules.  How many people do you see parking on their front lawn?  Not many, hardly ever.  I may lose people, I'll take it over people who feel entitled for some unknown reason to abuse the privilege.  I'm not making money hand over fist here, folks, I'd need a lot more lots to do that.

I am watching the construction of a new RV park about 30 miles up the road, I pass by it every time I go and return from Gurdon.  They put the gravel in which really made it stand out. Stand out, however, as one of the worst set ups I've seen. It's old school setup where they cram as many spaces in as the possibly can in a very small area.  I mean, if you get a trailer in there with slide outs an dyou get another trailer next to it with slide outs - and most trailers being built now have the slide outs, I have to wonder if they could even do it without hitting the neighbor's slideout. 

I don't know who designed the thing, the only thing I can think is maybe they are just going to off cut throat rates.  Even then, having them that close together is very unappealing nowadays.  I've done my own polls and I've seen the stats, people don't want to be crammed in if they're paying. If they aren't paying, they don't care as much, think: truck stops where RV'ers think it's perfectly acceptable to park their rigs in truck parking spaces and then flaunt truckers who complain about it.  You won't find signs at places like Love's Travel Centers saying trucks only, they don't care.  If you go to a big mom and pop place, they very well may enforce trucks only, but those are few and far apart.

Anyway, there is allegedly a man moving in today.  I am not sure tho, he seems to be wishy washy about it, I am not counting on him arriving.  I have the college student spot empty and another is leaving on Wednesday and there is a one monther that should be leaving soon as well.  So just like that, down 3 spaces.  Oh and the people that said "we'll just move". Well move your @SSes out now if you're going to have that attitude, I don't need that s*** in my park.  They don't drive or park on the grass now, however and they aren't letting their dog out to roam freely around the park.  

I'm loosely following politics, it's really a circus act.  I'm amazed that democrats think they are pulling anything over anyone's minds.  Biden was sharp as a tack, now he's stepped down and this person that has no clue what she is doing and certainly has no business being at the helm of the country has been pumped up to the point you'd think she just invented electricity, made all the appliances for your house and you are experiencing the wonders of dishwashers and electric waters heaters all at once.  

And, of course, the left is calling anyone (read: Republicans) that opposes her racist and misogynistic.  Literally, they are doing nothing but using identity politics. She must deserve the position simply because she is black and a woman.  Virtue signaling on steroids.  What I know is, leftists engage in ad hominem attacks regularly online.  You can't have a conversation with them about politics without them attacking you personally.  You bring up something that is factually correct and can be verified with various articles from a myriad of different outlets both left and right leaning and they will still dismiss it, call you names and that's the end of the conversation and yes,  they won!

It's amazing how fast they change the narrative.  Did you see where Biden now wants to impose term limits on Supreme Court justices?  This is a change to the Constitution itself.  He's a self-imposed lame-duck President.  You do know that fully 3/4's of the House and the Senate PLUS 3/4's of states have to vote in the affirmative to ratify a change to the Constitution?  That is, if my memory serves me correctly.  The point is, in this political environment? That is literally impossible, especially with such a ridiculous proposition.  I don't recall Republicans wanting to change the structure of SCOTUS simply because leftist judges were installed?  If I am wrong, feel free to correct me, I don't have the time to look that up right now.  Nor the desire, it's absurd to think because you don't get your way, you are going to start crying like a baby and demand that you get your way! And wanting to impeach 2 of the longer tenured justices because...reasons.  

100 days until the election. What else can go off the rails?  And they are floating Gretchen Whitmer for the VP! You remember this chick? She banned stores "over 50,000 square feet" from selling gardening supplies, saying they are "not necessary" because of the Coronavirus.  You want to talk about Communism, there is a grass roots start to it right there.  Let's tell everyone when to piss and eat while we're at it!

We will become the laughing stock of the world, previous generations will all turn over in their graves at once creating a worldwide earthquake and the end of mankind as we know it. Ok, that might be a wee bit of an exaggeration. Lol.

I just wonder what 4 more years of this chaos will do to our country and what kind of poisonous, toxic, hateful environment we will be living in if Harris wins and ends up with a VP such as Whitmer?  

Meanwhile, I am watching footage of Israel striking back at Hezbollah in Lebanon.  Apparently Hezbollah fired off a rocket that hit somewhere in Israel and killed 12 children that were playing on a playground.  Imagine the outrage of these idiots that hate Israel - the people in this nation that are anti-jew and anti-israel (and who also hate America as it stands, tho most of them will never outwardly admit it) taking a stand against anyone that supports Israel in it's quest to defend it's own borders.  

The deadliest single attack against Israel since October 7th, I am hearing now.  They're showing a blurred pic of a child laying on the ground, but even blurry, you can see his legs are covered in blood.  

Well, anyway.  There is evil in this world and that's not going to change until you start to see the book of Revelations coming into play. When that happens or if that is going to happen in our lifetimes? I dunno.  "there will be a massive response ot this attack in Lebanon" and questions as to whether that will lead to a broader war.  Well, my guess? Of course it will. Hezbollah is evil, they might as well have the devil as their leader. They are just another extension of Iran the same as Hamas.  Israel, btw, has stated that they are going to take out Iran's nuke capabilities.  Sure sounded that way, anyway, listening to Netanyahu speaking during the speech he gave to Congress.  

You know, we live our lives and experience things like this and wonder, what is the end game of all of this? Well, I have the answer! Just start reading the Bible.  If you believe, you understand. If you don't believe, well, live in ignorance. I can only say that God gives the "peace that passes all understanding".  

I keep thinking "I need to leave now" and then I think, oh, yeah, other drivers who don't show up to appointments on time, which has a cascading effect.  The plant will say screw it and start loading their own trailers and then, when that late driver shows up, they will have to wait for the plant to finish loading the other trailers.  I was out of there at 10:36 am 2 days ago. I have the late load today, which sucks, especially on a Sunday.  I might leave early anyway just to get there and even if I have to wait, I will be en-queue to get loaded as fast as possible.  But still, it makes no sense to show up there before 11:30 am.  

If any of those other drivers were to show up on time regularly, I would already be on the road right now. 

But, I am going to get out of here anyway.  Leave by 9, at the washout by 10:30, over to the plant around 11:45 am.  I won't get home until 4:00 pm at the earliest is my best guess just from historical perspective.  Not that bad, I guess.  Not great but not bad.  2 Sundays in a row of missed church.  Kids haven't been to church in 3 weeks including today, unless mom gets up and takes them.  

And with that, I am getting offa here. Make another cuppa to go, a glass of ice water, maybe stuff something to eat in my mouth and get this day rolling.  I almost called in sick.  Just because I want the day off, lol, and because my sleep has been not-so-great.  

However...bills are calling me.  ONE more payment on that shed and I just keep putting off paying off the phone, I need to get that done.  Pay it off and rid myself of a monthly phone payment that is rather pricey.  Couple those with no more internet service at the house - however they are doing that, more power to them.  They will  have internet there, I just haven't heard how they are going to do it, some other plan that I don't know about because I am not there. Local deals aren't going to show up 1,300 miles away.  I fully look forward to ridding myself of a little over $600 per month in payments.  

G'day

 Friday

Haven't been feeling good, hence the lack of posting. Don't really feel all the great right now, in fact, but I'm sitting at the desk anyway.  Yes, I have worked the last 3 days including today, it's about all I can do to make it through that, get home and sit or lay down. 

The kid that brought this sickness with him from Arkansas was coughing all over the place and I started getting on him about covering his mouth and turning his head, at the very least.  He started arguing at the time that he only had allergies and it wasn't contagious. This boy is, in fact, extremely argumentative about most things when you tell him something else is true and what he has stated is not correct.

He gets offended and either storms out of the room or just starts getting whiny with the arguing nonsense.  Anyway, 2 days later after that conversation and I came down with what he has and then I said something to him again, wherein he stated once again he only has allergies. Well, you are the only sick person I've been around, it's not allergies.  9 times out of 10, he retorts, it's allergies.    WELL THIS TIME IT'S NOT ALLERGIES. 

It was 3 weeks of the 2 kids here going to grandmas, then 2 weeks here, 2 weeks back at grandmas and then a week here.  Basically, the entire summer.  Grandma came and got him today stating he had to be home with his biological mother today.  Maybe all the whining around here will stop, or at least a good portion of it.  Regardless, I am feeling quite miserable and it's likely that I'm going to head over to Urgent Care to see if they can give me some meds to at least make me feel better.  I am just glad that kid shuffling is over, tho there is still 3 weeks or so until school starts.  It's just one of those things that when summer comes near an end, kids start getting cranky and really need  to get back into school again.

The park was full for a little while, but one lady is moving out because she bought her new house and the college kids came and told me today they are leaving - today (no advance notice).  I just happens that way all the time, unfortunately.  I'm just a bit cranky right now so dealing with that stuff isn't high on my list of things I want to do. The things I want to do right now? Nothing. I want to do nothing at all. I don't want my phone blowing up with complaints and I don't want to have to deal with people moving in and out.  But, allegedly, there is a man coming tomorrow to move in so one of those lots will be rerented.  

Actually, neither of them had left when I left after returning back in the truck today.  

So that's where I'm at and watching a little of this nonsense with Biden stepping down and Kamala being inserted.  The problem I have with that is that people actually voted for Biden to be the nominee, no one voted for Kamala.  People are arguing that since she was on the ticket, they were voting for her too. Uhh, no.  Most people aren't voting for the VP pick, they are voting for the person that is going to occupy the Oval Office.  The VP might visit that office but it certainly isn't theirs.  That whole thing should have gone back to Democrat voters to decide for themselves who they want next.  

Of course, the whole thing is ridiculous to begin with. Biden is our man!  he is sharp at a tack!  Now, Kamala is our woman!  Whatever the case, they are both very poor candidates and I doubt she is going to have an easy time winning enough votes to insert her into the White House.  I sincerely hope she does not win.  She was the one that had set up a fund to pay for rioter's bail if they got arrested during the rioting.  She has said anti-Israel statements.  She is a complete tool and I can't imagine her representing this nation to the entire world.  She's also a liar, but I guess that isn't remarkable since most politicians lie.

Well, enough. I can't sit here very long, I'm going to go nap for a while, it's still mid afternoon. I got done early today being back before 1:00 pm.

 Tuesday - 8:00 am

Final day of vacation.  I am going over to the park today and moving the motorhome back to where it was before I moved it for these "workampers" to come in.  A mistake I won't be quick to repeat.  I wasn't really bringing them in for working in the first place, they just wanted it that way and I was too quick to be open to it, like, yes! I could use some help around here. 

Good riddance. That's what I can say about them.  

As for the other people, they are, so far working out fairly well.  He's a little authoritarian with people and I'm going to have to gently try to get him to bring his tones down with people several notches.  Yes, people do stupid and/or selfish things, yes, it is annoying, but also yes: I am running a business and I don't need to be running everyone off.  Neither does he.  Not that he's done that, I just see a tad too much bossiness. Not terrible, but if I don't put it in check, who knows where it may lead to.  Then I'll have another mess to deal with.  

However, people get this from other parks they have stayed at where management just tells people like it is in no uncertain terms and they can like it or leave.  I know this from being in numerous RV 'ers groups and also in several RV park managers/owners groups.  I can be that way as well, but only when I am forced into that position.  For example, I became pretty angry yesterday when I saw beer cans, a beer bottle and an empty cigarette pack laying on the trail in the rear of the property.  My mind went straight to: let's shut these trails down to everyone.  I didn't do that, I just don't understand people doing stuff like that.  I've seen it all my life out in the wilderness where people just chuck their trash on the ground like it's a giant trash can.

I have a trash can back there, located where I was going in and out where I was working on the bridge and such.  I'm going to relocate it to the trail head. At least give the opportunity to put the stuff into the trash.

Speaking of the bridge, the last rain?  Washed out one of the footers and the entire bridge fell on that corner. I'm talking that big bridge.  I was shocked to see it, actually.  I mean, I had that footer well into the ground and away from the creek.  It's why I bought 16 foot long spanners. With as much erosion as what happened, that creek must have been a river going through there. I promise you, the creek is barely a little bit of running water during the summer, no way would I have ever envisioned that much volume of water going through there to get up that high. 

I am not even sure what to do about it.  Get a hydraulic jack out there, I guess, jack the thing up and then figure out a way to put blocks under it. Hmm, thinking about it, I think I'll have to drive some rebar into the ground and pour a concrete footer that won't go anywhere.  I dunno, but I'm going to have to do something about that soon.  You can still walk over the bridge and such, it's just obvious that it's going to start to fall apart if left like that very long.  

What a pain.

There's always something.  Like the person saying there are dog tracks coming from the shower/bathroom, as if someone had given a dog a bath.  

On and on.  I've got eyes in there and I will be reviewing however many days worth of footage to figure out if that person is right in their assertion or if they're seeing things that don't exist.  I do not want people washing their dogs in my shower stall. There is a hose outside, it's warm out, they can wash their dog outside.  That's what I do with my dog.  

Allen's wife is, allegedly, finally coming home today.  She's been gone at least 3 weeks.  Trying to sell a trailer and traveling around doing what else? I have no idea. None of my business and there would have been no way for her to work in that coach before Saturday anyway.  I don't expect her to work in a very hot coach.  

Enough of that. Just daily nonsense.  Not near as ridiculous as the nonsense going on in DC right now.  Biden steps down as the nominee, Harris takes over, Biden disappears and walaah, you have a new nominee, yes I know it's not official yet but it highly likely will be and you have conspiracy theories that Biden is dead because he disappeared.  I doubt Biden is dead but I do wonder about a nation being run by Harris.  

___________

Wednesday morning. Whatever it is, I've come down with some sort of chest cold with sore throat.  I'm not in the throes of death, lol, so I'm going to work today.  I got from the manager that he doesn't have anyone to take my place today and I've been off 5 days, just going to tough it out, get it done, get home and go to bed.  

 Sunday - late

Vacation over. Didn't post anything the entire time because we were just plain too busy. Got up at 5:15 am Friday, got the Galveston before noon.  We ate at a seafood restaurant which is on the water, there are even docking areas for boats to pull up, get out and eat. After that, over to the main strip.  Up and down there, it was pretty hot out but it was nice.  To the AirBNB house, got situation and then to the beach for a couple of hours.  Back to the house and then to a Chinese restaurant which had great food, back to the house again and then settle in for the evening.

Day 2/Saturday: I got up and made breakfast. 3 meat breakfast casserole, it was a hit.  I mean, I was glad it was a hit because the ingredients cost a bit and it took quite a while to make it.  Double recipe for 18 people. After that we were off to the beach.  I mean, we weren't there even 2 hours, tho and they wanted to go to Galveston for lunch at Rainforest Cafe.  It was great and it was fun, but I wanted to stay in the water, lol, so did most of the kids.  

In fact, I spent more time in the water than anyone, kids included.  The 9 year old was in almost as long as me, but he was getting in and out and I was just enjoying the water.  By the time we got back, there was only 2 hours of daylight left but yes, went back out into the water until sunset and then back to the house for tacos.   

This morning was probably the most interesting part as far as memories go.  Well, first off, we were all in bedrooms and I was in with other adults.  One of them snores heavily and non-stop, all night long.  Friday night to Saturday morning, I might have gotten 4 hours  of sleep, I think it was more like 3.  Last night? No thank you.  I got my ear buds out of the SUV, fully charged thankfully, looked up green noise, found one that says continuous play with black screen for 12 hours, turned that on and turned the sound up until it drowned out the sound of the unbelievably loud snoring.

It canceled it the entire time, I slept 7 hours and I felt good today.

Ok, so we got up this morning, cleaned up, packed and left by 11:00 am.  Over to the beach for one last time getting in the water. This time, it was just me and the kids and they all got out after I saw a jellyfish.  Like, run for your lives! No thanks.  Takes more that to get me out of the water, but yes, I did get out of the water after being in it for about an hour and a half.

You see, I was out there with the 9 year old, pretty far out actually, he was trying to learn how to use a wake board and I was trying to teach him. Took a while but he started getting the hang of it. At some point, I noticed this very large man attempting to get my attention.  He was yelling something and frantically waving his arms.  You don't have to yell at me very long out in the ocean, especially as far out as we were, to get my attention and get me moving.  I don't know what he was saying, but in case it was sharks, I got the boy and we moved quickly towards the man, towards the shore.  

Sure enough, 2 sharks, large fins sticking well out of the water were spotted numerous times near us and actually closer to the shore than we were!  I'm not a beach person, we go infrequently, I don't care what kind of shark it is, I don't want to be anywhere near them. I didn't panic, exactly, but I got the hell out of the water.  These people all came running up to us, sorry we did that but "the sharks seem pissed off this year biting people everywhere" I never saw them, but the man showed the size of the fins sticking out with his hands and I was decidedly not going back into the water. There was a storm coming anyway, plus it was getting late and it was just time to go.  

Over to Taylor where they were hanging out and they had seen the 2 sharks as well.  I don't have any feelings of "I could have died today" and doom and gloom, I'm just glad I don't have a limb bitten off or in a hospital somewhere.  The boy as well.  He was also done and didn't want to get back in.

Is that going to stop from ever going back into the water? Of course not.  Just nice that people were watching and actually went out of their way to get our attention and get us out of harm's way.  

Well, the adventure continued today. James and Taylor wanted to go off on their own, which was fine by me, they wanted some alone time, we were going to head home.  Just wanted to take that ferry across the bay.  On the way to the ferry point, Taylor asked if we wanted to go to that Naval Museum, I took a poll, 3-1, we one.  So, it's raining heavy, we have to drive through residential area - large one - in Galveston to get over to the road that leads to the place. 

Well, we were in  4 inches of water after turning into there, I didn't think much of it. Then 6 inches, 8 inches, then water all the way up to the step rails on my SUV.  I wanted out of there but we were already in the mess. Small cars low to the ground were getting flooded.  One car driving through it opened their doors!  I ended up getting off the road, those people were all freaking out and went down other residential streets that were completely flooded out.  What have we gotten ourselves into?  

I finally made my way out of it and to a major street where all the cars were sitting up against the center median, some cars were broken down, most of them just sitting there. I had to flip a U-ey to get out of there, but we did, indeed, make it back to the road that leads to the naval museum.  The road goes up onto an  elevated highway which takes you out of that flooded mess, I as surprised more people weren't going that way. That elevated highway takes you out of there, I guess they didn't know it was right there.  

We toured an old sub and an old warship, then headed out of there to the ferry. That highway took us there without hardly any water, a little but nothing near the extent of those residential streets.  The ferry was free, amazingly enough.  Operated by TXDOT, they have several of them moving back and forth all day long. I'd never been on one. Just drive onto it, get out once it starts moving and do some sight seeing.  

Met up with James and Taylor at a restaurant on the other side and then we parted ways. They wanted to stay and have a few drinks, I decided we wanted to go home.  The kids in full agreement, they had lots of fun but it was go, go, go the entire time and they were worn out.  Not 30 minutes later, Taylor calls asking if it would be ok if they stayed another night?  Not ready for vacation to be over and just those 2 alone, I thought that was a great idea for them so I readily agreed.  

We're home now, I'm letting the kids play video games for a bit - they weren't allowed to take them on the trip - and then they are going to bed and I'm hopefully going to get as good a night's sleep as I ever get. I can't really complain too much about last night tho, that noise "barrier" worked great and I don't wonder if I should try doing that again even at home?  I might.  There is nothing tomorrow, I have no plans to get up early for anything like we have the last 3 days.  

I wasn't paying hardly any attention to the political chaos going on right now, my mom actually contacted me via text and asked "are you watching this?".  Huh?  Biden dropped out of the race.  I'm not getting into that now, I will catch up on everything tomorrow.  I've only seen that Kamala wants the nomination, lmao, Manchin is talking about running and who knows if this might reinsert JFK into the mix?  

So that's it for now. It's late and I want to go to bed. There are details in the trip I forgot but not going to go there now, time for bed.  

 Friday - early

Lmao.  It got ridiculous last night to the point I just let them know how I felt about the situation and ended my end of the conversation. The "lady" had to have the last words, of course, but what she said had me busting out laughing this morning.  I should transcribe the text here to get the full measure and dose of the influx of a woman's anger about something that if she had the sense of a dead cow, she would understand that what she texted to me? Made her look l like a sluggard, a family full of people that can't be bothered to get up off their @$$ and go out and do something about their situation.

"Today has been the first time I have left the RV since the 4th" was part of the text.  Today is the 19th.  LOLOL. She just admitted they haven't got the motivation of a sloth to do something about their miserable existence.  She said that Allen does nothing but "snitch" to me all the time. Yes, yes indeed he does, I encouraged him to after he started telling the the things he sees and hears. 

Some things I will ask the people involved about, other things I let go.  He's on the same page as me, if I'm letting something go, he doesn't pursue it any further.  "You have to pick your battles" I tell him and also said right now, the battle is to get these people gone.  2 things I will say that annoy me are people throwing cigarette butts all over the place and people parking on the grass.  I'm not sure which one annoys me more, I think it's fairly equal.  But if you start getting into people's faces, you risk the result of losing people and it takes time to replace them.  I had 3 empty lots for several weeks before all of a sudden, they were filled back up again.

I am facing losing at least 2, maybe 3 more right now.  It's just the way it goes, of course, the dynamics of an RV park are much different than what you see in a mobile home park. People love to compare the 2 but in reality, they are nowhere near the same thing.  You can't just hook up to your mobile home and move it the same day to another mobile home park.  Etc, I could go on about the differences but I'm sure you can surmise what I am talking about. 

Anyway, we are leaving soon, just wanted to get something thrown on here.  The Sheriff went to their trailer last night - I don't know why they called them excepting I had told them that if they follow through with their plan to "get their trailer out of there and if they damage that other trailer, it's not their fault" I immediately told them if they do that, I'll call the sheriff out there and give him/her your names.  Apparently they decided they would call the Sheriff on me, I guess? I don't care, I didn't say anything beyond business to them.  

The point was, they decided to leave today instead of Saturday, tomorrow.  I had contacted the owner of the trailer and informed him last week they were planning on moving out Saturday.  Now, these people say they are leaving Friday so I contacted him again, if you don't want your trailer damaged, I'd move it out of their way.  

Drama. Just what I don't need or want. 

Just a few more things.  Watched the speech, well I watched a little bit of it, it was a bit odd they had Trump giving his speech at 10:00 pm last night.  I mean, that's too late for me, I had to go to bed.  But, he gave his rendition of what happened during the assassination attempt. You could see on his face it had affected him greatly. That or he's a great actor, but I don't think he was acting.  They panned to people with tears running down their faces. I'm sure the left will say  that was all staged...whatever. But after that he went on into stuff I"ve heard him say continuously and didn't feel the need to hear it again, I understand his intended policies and have seen him in action already. 

The kids? They were just awakened since we are leaving. I need to get my thermos filled with coffee and things are moving quickly, so, I am out of here!

G'day

 Long day.

Up early, up to the plant, offload, took a little longer than previous loads but nothing serious and then back to the park. More drama, unfortunately, with the workampers.  But that just started half an hour ago. 

Oops, now I get a call from the county, the Sheriff is out there looking for lot 16.  This is an evolving story here, it's been going on for a while as any regular reader knows.  I just don't feel like talking about those people right now, I'm burnt out on them, done with them, happy they are leaving, goodbye. 

Anyway, I left the park and went straight to Walmart.  Ran into the family there, they were buying stuff for the kids for the beach.  I was there replacing the belt that broke this morning.

I can tell ya, it's lots of fun attempting to work a tanker while holding your pants up.  I don't have a second belt, I just buy one and hope it lasts.  After that, all over the store getting stuff.  Off to Great Clips for a haircut, decided to get a cigar for the vacation, over to the bank. I have found that on most trips, there are times when you need cash.  And anyway, the older generation likes cash over cards.  The "system" wants to get rid of cash because you really can't track it.  

Home, I got the dryer going to freshen up the clothes I had dried over night as well as pulling all the stuff out of the vehicle I had bought for the trip.  Some of it is ingredients to make breakfast casserole.  I went from biscuits and gravy to bacon, eggs and potatoes to breakfast casserole and cinnamon rolls. I don't feel like biscuits and gravy now, we had that the other day. Delicious but it changed my mind about having it yet again.  

We decided to go out for dinner and yes, I started the cheat days early. Just tonight, not all day.  I'm going through Sunday and then back at Keto.  

Back, got more stuff done and now? Trump just walked up on the stage and started speaking.  

Ending this here. Gonna listen to this and go to bed. 

 Thursday - early

Woke up 45 minutes before the alarm was going to go off, knew I would never be able to get back to sleep so...got up.

Whatever the case, final day before departure.  I was planning on going to the car wash yesterday until the rain hit 3 plus hours before it was "supposed to".  Never-the-less, I did end up going up to the car wash, which was closed, up to the new one and it was still opened.  I didn't want to pay even more for a car wash than the monthly rate I already pay. I took the cheapest wash, which wasn't bad actually and then spent over an hour at the free vacuum. 

All 3 boys in tow, I made them all get out, whether they were going to help would be up to them. Amazingly, the 9 year old decided on his own that he was going to clean the floor mats, which were pretty dirty.  He spent a good 40 minutes scrubbing those things. The other 2? Well, they walked around cleaning the windows, of which at the end I had to go around use paper towels to get them mirror-finish looking.

The SUV has dark tinted windows and if you get those windows cleaned up nice, it looks pretty sharp and not bad for a 13 year old vehicle.  I vacuumed the entire interior, scrubbed it down and used their free cleaning spray.  Didn't know anyone supplied that kind of stuff. Rags, yes, but Windex type cleaner?  Interesting.  The only thing that it is lacking now is carpet cleaning. It's good enough and it looks nice inside that thing again.  

Glad to get that behind me, I don't have a lot left to do today. Well, I take that back, I am allegedly cooking breakfast for everyone on Saturday morning and still have yet to decide what to make.  I was going to make biscuits and gravy. Then I thought, bacon and eggs with cinnamon rolls (easy to make, just pop them out of the tube and into the oven), then I thought well a couple breakfast casseroles and the cinnamon rolls. I'm thinking the casseroles.  They look easy to make and 2 or 3 of them should be able to feed the crowd.  There will be people that won't eat it so I don't have to make too much of it.  Cinnamon rolls will probably be gobbled down, I plan on buying enough to cover that many people and then some.  

The forecast for the Galveston area hasn't changed, it's going to be on and off rain for the entire 3 days we'll be there.  At least there are no hurricanes in the forecast....

As for today?  Just go up to Gurdon, get rid of 45,000 pounds of glue, come back, park the truck and hope that 5 days of sitting isn't going to cause me a lot of headaches. I have thoughts about taking a garden hose when I get back today and at least trying to spray down the interior walls of the tank.  With a pool of water at the bottom to keep it from drying it, it might be enough. I dunno, unless my manager says something, I have no plans to do anything beyond that.  I just don't have the time for it.  It would cost me at least 4 hours to go wash that thing out after delivering today. At least 4 hours.....

It is quite amazing the amount of gaslighting and genuflecting to media types and certain politicians the left rolls out whenever something happens where they have to change the narrative.  There has been zero press conferences from these people in positions of power about the assassination attempt and now there are several of them saying it wasn't that bad, or it was "only glass shrapnel" that hit Trump, attempting to change the conversation to Biden now!  Joy Reid, the piece of work mouthpiece for the American Communist Party (it's what I'm calling it) on MSNBC is comparing Biden having COVID to the attempt on Trump's life!  

I don't believe these people believe the words coming out of their own mouths.  They've been liars so long that speaking forth fictional stories as if they are real is normal to them.  

Back to the trip, I have the entire drive up to and back from Gurdon to think about anything I need to take and not miss something. I have a list, lol.  

As for the Park.  I don't know, I just take it one day at a time over there.  Whatever happens, I try to deal with it and move on.  If undesirables come in, it takes a "minute" to get rid of them. People can put up a good front when coming in, making it appear as if they are totally normal people and then...get them moved in and situated, a very different type of person actually surfaces to the top.  Or people, as in couples, in some cases.  So it was with this workamper and I will be hesitant to ever let that type of situation in again.

Certainly, if someone moves in and they haven't even brought up the subject of working but then do so after they are settled in, I am likely to not budge.  No, there was no agreement or even conversation about that.  I don't need your help, but thanks for offering.  I need to do a better job of attempting to vet some of these people trying to find out their sources of income and attempt to determine whether they have enough to get by or if they are going to become a real PITA with begging people for cigarettes, food, rides, etc.  I don't want those types of people in there, it always turns into a shit-show.  

Well, it's time to go make lunch, get some coffee in the thermos and leave.

G'day

 So a few things.

First, I texted the workampers - are you paying your rent today?  No threats of eviction, just asking their intentions.  We are moving out Saturday.  I let out a yelp of joy. Thank God!  They are leaving and all of their pettiness and bad attitude leaving with them. That is the last of the Mohicans, at least for now. I've dumped all the bad apples that are so rotten they are rotting everything else around them.

That lot will open up and I can move the motorcoach back in there and the lady can start demo and construction work on it.  It will have AC so she doesn't burn up in there, I'm fairly sure she wasn't going to do it anyway without some kind of cooling.  Although I'd love to have the income from that lot, I'd more love to get that thing in tip-top shape and then rent it out.  

Second, a discussion that started up an hour ago with the group. They rented this AirBNB house - 37 miles away from Galveston, lol. It's a beach front - or near it anyway - property, to the south of Galveston.  They were all shocked because they didn't realize it was that far away.  I just wonder about people renting something that expensive without doing their homework first, but I don't really care. I'm going for the beach.  Galveston has the restaurants and we will be going on Friday evening.  

Third, a lot of new developments in the attempted Trump assassination.  A picture of a tall ladder the assassin (he did kill another many so that is his title, assassin) bought allegedly at Home Depot that morning.  A lot more footage of people yelling at police and SS agents that there is a person with a gun on that roof!  There has been no official statement from any of the agencies involved, the only thing so far is Biden giving a statement but SS? FBI? Mayorkas? Nowhere to be found.  Most of the revelations about this incident are coming from civilians who took video footage of it, not from officials.  

The Director of SS is saying the "buck stops here", well she should be fired. She is stating she has no intentions of stepping down.  We were a millimeter away from a dead Trump and this person who, allegedly, has no business even being assigned that position, is defiantly saying she isn't stepping down. Then fire her ass.  I've heard no one saying that this wasn't a royal screwup.   Authorities might try to spin it, but the reality is, there is too much footage from all angles of what occurred.  

And oddly, there has been no calls for gun control from the left.  Note that the assassin was using an AR-15, the kind of "assault weapon" that they have been repeated calling to have banned for years now.  A tad bit strange, don't you think, that they aren't all out there calling for it now? Why not? Well in my view, it's obvious: whether they say it or not, they all wish Trump would have been killed.  It's a total act some of these Trump-hating politicians coming out and denouncing this event and the killer, those same people calling Trump a threat to national security and all the rest of their garbage.  THEY are the dividers, THEY are the threat to our national security.

I had thoughts of doing the interior clean on the SUV tomorrow since it's going to cool down considerably - but - it's also an 83% chance of rain tomorrow, the car washes won't be open. Either do it today at the car wash or do it tomorrow with a vacuum cleaner.  Yeah, I'm opting for today. Just need to vacuum the thing out, scrub some of it down and good to go.  

___________

Well, I guess my plans to vacuum out the SUV after dinner are dashed.  The rain that was supposed to come at 8 pm? It's 5:30 pm and it's pouring. The car washes will close.  Very unfortunate, I have a monthly membership to one of them and the wash and vacuum are free. I guess tomorrow I will be using the home vacuum to do the job for it's supposed to rain tomorrow. Darnit, I should have just gone and gotten it done.

Meh, oh well.  We have a shop vac now that I think of it, that will work.  It isn't going to rain all day tomorrow. And here comes James, home from work...on his motorcycle....wet.

Ok, well the rain stopped. Maybe it will "go away" and they won't close the car wash? I will call them after dinner.  The thing is, they not only have free vacuum they also have free, clean rags to wipe down everything. That was what I was looking for.

Well, here I am on the cusp of dumping $600 per month in payments.  The shed, Verizon and they are going to take care of internet in the AZ house themselves.  I don't know how or what, I didn't even ask them to, but hey, adding that all up? It's over $600 per month!  Talk about freeing up some finances. The only drawback is I still owe $180 on the phone, so I'll have to pay that off apparently before I can disconnect the service entirely. Definitely have to do that to get the phone unlocked.  

And now I have another one leaving. At the RV Park.  I didn't know they were going to be gone so soon.  They moved to the park to wait it out for purchasing a house and all the title work to go through. They just texted that it should happen a week from now.  I'm not worried about it, per se. I have one guy that wants to move in next month, that's a bit long for this lot and I have a lady saying she wanted to move in - next month as well. I don't really hold lots that long, it's wasted money if I can possibly get it rented sooner. I just tell them I "should" have a lot available by then, that is always based on when people are leaving, not just giving them a story to hope I have something.  

Well, I think dinner is served soon.  I wish the weather forecasters around here could get their act together. You don't expect it to start raining....3 HOURS EARLIER....then what they have predicted. Like, it shows it after 8 and while you're looking at that, it starts pouring. Ridiculous. 

 Wednesday - early

2 more days. Just 2 more days of this driving nonsense and then I can have 4 days off.  

Now that is something to look forward to!

The vehicle was nicely chilled yesterday with just the front AC on without even leaving the park.  I came into the park in the truck, turned the SUV on remotely and then did my post trip.  Got into the SUV and drove over to the park host place where I sat and discussed things for quite a while.  

Getting back into the vehicle, it was nicely cooled inside the entire thing. So, I'm definitely not taking it into the shop today or tomorrow.  Just don't have the time or the desire for it, really. 

Today is the day the lot rent is due from the workamper.  I have no idea what is going to happen, I just know that I will be taking a video of whatever in case they decide to get ugly. Probably drag the host along with me as a witness.  Well, take that back, I'm going to text them first.  I"d rather get things in writing...you owe this today, you were informed you owed this today, do you have the money?  

But I'll give them until this afternoon to contact me first.  Just in case.  Or by some miracle, they actually leave somehow (they don't have a vehicle).  Yeah, not really looking forward to any of this and if they don't have the money and/or aren't leaving, I will wait until I return from vacation to give them the notice.  That way I'm around if "something" happens with them.  

There isn't a lot else I can discuss right now, it's almost time to leave.  I'm just going to get those people out of my mind at least while I'm driving today, just not worth dwelling on it. I'd rather dwell on the Lord and what does He want in this situation?  I do wonder about that.  I might be more on the "okay you can stay a while longer" side of things if the man wasn't so caustic in his attitude.  

That's my real problem with this situation and why I want them out of there versus anything else. 

Anyway, it's a wonderful day and the Lord is still God and is still sitting on His Throne of righteousness and mercy! Thank you Lord!

G'day

 Tuesday  - 7:15 am

The park is full and there are 2 people wanting in next month.  Which works out as one person for sure is only there a month and another, I think, is also leaving next month.  Tomorrow is "do or die day" for the workamper.  Well, he won't die, I'm not talking about violence (old sayings from the past should probably be put into context nowadays for people who have no clue and think, gee, he's talking about killing someone!).  Just they need to pay up or leave.  If they can't pay up, they'll sit there and make a bunch of excuses and then they'll try to turn the narrative back on me, Allen and the park. 

Nope.  They won't get a lot of that type of verbiage out of their mouths before I shut it down.  I didn't even reply to her last message she left on my voicemail at 10:30 at night going off on Allen and telling us how respectful they have been and blah, blahhh, blahhhh.  HE, her husband, has NOT been respectful but she's never around when all of that nonsense occurs.  She hardly ever comes out of that trailer.  Actually, I guess I'd have to deal with it after vacation. I don't want to give them a 3 day notice and then have them going wild in the park while I'm gone.  Bad idea.  I just know they won't have any money, I don't know if they are going to be able to move like they said they were originally before they changed their story and told me how broke they are.

As the saying goes, he's a grown @$$ man, healthy enough to do some kind of work, get off your lazy @$$ and go do something.  My sympathy is over for them, they don't deserve it.  "The man who doesn't work, doesn't eat" or something like that in the book of Proverbs.  I've worked my entire life starting a the age of 10 and was doing chores long before that age.  I still wonder what kind of "empire" I could have built up by now if I had started this RV park project say, 10 years ago? 20?  

I see people complaining that they can't keep their parks full (in the managers/owners groups) and I wonder why they are so rigid on their view of how to run the place?  You have to adapt to a changing market and the market is definitely changing. People are rightfully discussing the fact that the market is becoming oversaturated with RV parks.  They keep building them, people that have no clue about rentals, RV parks or what the market is like in the area they are potentially developing one in.

They get into a million, 2 million dollars worth of debt and mortgage payments and are constantly under the pressure of having that payment to make, that huge payment to make every month.  They get desperate, make decisions out of that desperation and it doesn't work out.  I've read this a lot lately, people buying parks and after a year or 2, throwing in the towel. Or not making any money at all.  Or whatever.  I get offers to buy my park and I laugh at them.  $150k?  The land alone is worth more than that.  They approach me thinking I am also desperate and they get a no thank you back at them.  

The other owners drive through my park at least once  a month. Not like I don't occasionally look at theirs.  I don't go driving through them, I just stop and look.  I haven't done that in a while, tho, I think I will do that maybe next week and see how they're doing. The major competitor flatly told me a month ago they aren't full.  They are in desperation mode because their park was built back in the days of small spots and cram them in mentality.  The bigger units they are building now can hardly make it into the park, much less find a big enough space to park. 

Anyway, I don't have time for that this week.  Late day today, as I am not leaving for another 30 minutes, if I get there too early that other driver will just be there, unloading after showing up late.  I should be able to show up around 10:45 am at the latest and start offloading. Instead, I'm lucky to get started by 11:30 or even noon.  A bit ridiculous, there is nothing I can do about it.  

Today I want to finish out cleaning out the vehicle of stuff and then tomorrow take it to the car wash and spend an hour or longer, however long, vacuuming the entire thing out and wiping it all down.  Today, however, I intend on getting on the Interstate, driving 10 miles one direction and then 10 miles back and see if the AC in the front will cool the entire interior of it. If it does, I'm not bothering with taking it into the shop.  That can wait until I get the truck.  

That has been put off until September - at the earliest.  That came from mom, not me.  Apparently her diagnosis is severe, but not "end of life right now" type of severe.  I suppose I could plan a trip around her birthday.  

Trump's VP pick is JD Vance. I know nothing about him, but I do know that the leftist media instantly went after him and the republican party as a whole.  What a horrible pick! they try to establish with their version of facts.  I have to say that MSNBC is one the vilest, evil, self-serving, biggest propaganda driver and evil media outlets that exists in the US today on the mainstream scale.  If you want to see where a lot of this drivel originates from, just tune into their shows.  

It wouldn't have mattered who Trump picked, the left would have pounced on that person instantaneously regardless of who they are or what they have done.  They are saying Vance wants to raise taxes on the middle class and give breaks to the rich. They say this and other stuff on every election cycle.  It's Biden who is decimating the middle class, which started with Obama's policies.  

Trump came strolling into the RNC last night, he didn't give a speech, I guess he isn't doing that until the 3rd day. 

Ok, well there is nothing else, really, worth discussing. I am likely dumping Verizon altogether at the end of the month and just continue on with T Mobile, It's not near as bad as everyone has said it is. I may have to upgrade the account a bit for the perks I want.  I basically have a business account for T Mobile and a personal account for Verizon. I'll save $192 per month minus any upgrades I may get. Like, probably a new phone.  Couple that with dumping $221 per month or whatever that shed payment is and I'm over $400 per month off the outgoing payments (accounts payable). 

Taking a loan to pay off all credit card debt would save me around $400 per month in payments, but, those payments go on for 6 years.  And the only company that is offering it doesn't have very good reviews. A significant amount of reviews say they ask you for more and more information and at the end, they don't give you the loan.  Why go through that.  I have ideas, so far I haven't followed through with them for the money drain has been significant with doing things around the park and payments up the ying yang.  Losing $400 per month should  be redirected to just paying off some of the debt.  Yet, I find that any money saved is money spent elsewhere.  Things I need to get done that I have put on hold.

That much money saved could make a tractor payment, for one.  These companies are all offering zero interest loans.  The loans go on for 7 or 8 years, that's where I stop.  What if the machine doesn't even last that long? I'm stuck paying on something that doesn't work and is in the junk pile?  It's such a pain renting machines, tho, that's the downside of just renting machinery for whatever work needs done.  I feel like I need to just wait on the Lord and ask Him to provide an answer to this situation.  

Meanwhile, the trees continue to grow....Allen is working on that tho, he has made some good progress. 

Well, time to get ready to leave.

G'day

 It's pretty much guaranteed that Thursday, I'm not going to want to drive up to Gurdon and then go get the tanker washed out.  I may just end up paying for it on Tuesday unless my manager thinks ahead and says wait, what about the washout? Well what about it.....This job would be ever so much easier if there weren't washouts involved after every single load.  I dunno. I just see an extra 4 hours added to the day, so get home at 6 instead of 2 and then try to get everything ready to go? 

We're leaving early, btw.  This time 2 of us insisted we get our butts out of bed and get moving early instead of waiting until 11:00 am.  Get down there, get on the beach, have some fun and then meet up with the gang.  Everyone is on their own for Friday night dinner. Several of them want to go to this extremely expensive restaurant named Gaido's. I looked at prices starting in the $35 range going into the $50's and that was just a quick glance.  

We are not going there. We have decided on a fish restaurant with lower pricing and then the Rain Forest cafe, not cheap but not as expensive as this Gaido's place.  It's the only time we're eating out down there, the rest of it is eating meals at the house together.  That would be lunch and dinner on Friday, I should add and the costs are going to be split up.

Work today was quick enough even if the late load.  I hate the late load excepting the nice part about not getting up early.  Otherwise it eats up a day. I intend on being up there in Gurdon at 11:30 am tomorrow and hope the other drive is gone.  He didn't show up to the plant to load until 10:15 this morning.  It's only 15 minutes late, the point is that this dude always wants early loads - but doesn't show up early. I'm there between 9:00-9:30 am.  If I'm later than that, it's because I was either held up at the washout or something happened to the truck. It is never that I woke up late. I did, indeed, somehow manage to leave an hour late one day and still showed up at the plant at 10:00 am.  

Allen is sick and hasn't done anything, which is fine, I consider him to have done enough for most of the month already.  His wife is stuck in some town somewhere with a broken start - staying at her ex-husband's.  That is kind of weird.  She has been gone like almost 3 weeks now.  

I got home, watched some news but then decided I best be getting about cleaning out the SUV. Most of that is done, just some stuff that belongs at the RV park I will take out tomorrow over there and hopefully find a place to put it. I don't have a lot of storage over there atm.  Then I can  go to the car wash, get it washed and thoroughly vacuum the entire thing out and wipe everything down as well. It's nice that the particular car wash provides ample supply of clean rags to clean with. 

I have half a mind to try and take the thing into the shop on Wednesday.  I mean, from what I can tell, it's either a relay switch of the blower motor itself that is not working and it's in the rear of the vehicle with much easier access than if you were digging underneath the dash board.  But, I may just see if the front ac will cool the whole thing sufficiently.  It's a beast, blows out a large volume of ice cold air, I think it would cool the entire vehicle given enough time.  It's just that I will need a ride to the RV park after dropping it off and I dunno if that's possible. Or maybe drop it off tomorrow after work and get that ride if Taylor is home? I can drive the truck around town.  I think.  I will ask the manager, I doubt they will have a problem with it since the majority of my driving is within a few miles of home.  Honestly, I really don't feel like fooling with it, i think tomorrow I will drive it on a highway for 10 minutes with the ac blowing and then go home, get into the back and see how it feels.  

It's only going to be kids traveling with me and they usually don't make a fuss about it as long as it cools down some.  Well, I think it's only kids anyway, I really don't know.  My vehicle could eliminate another small family going....but I think everyone is in love with driving. As regular readers well know, I am not.  I could be a passenger going down there and be quite happy about it.  

I also think I've changed my mind about making breakfast. Instead of biscuits and gravy, make hash brown patties - easy peasy, scrambled eggs and bacon and toast.  There, a complete meal, easy to make, easy clean up, done.  

Did I say the forecast is for rain down there? lol of course it is!  We are committed now, it's go regardless. The property just today got the power turned back on from the hurricane. The property maintenance worker claims it's all good and ready to go.  

Half the group was complaining, again. These are the people that decided they wanted to go to Galveston, I had no say in it at all.  But now that I've paid my share of the rental property, it's a go regardless.  I don't  care if it's raining. If it's that bad, stay at the house and play cards. Go to Moody Gardens instead.  Peruse the shops on Main street - with an umbrella.  Go into the ocean anyway, it's all water, right? lol Just kind of getting tired of the endless pissy stuff going on with some of them.  Like, if it's that bad, don't go at all.  Seriously. 

Other than that? Well, some dude named Vance won the VP spot with Trump. I don't even know who this person is excepting that he's a senator from Ohio and that a lot of people were wanting him to be Trump's pick. Why? No one would say that part.  Makes a lot of sense. We want Vance. Why? Well we don't know, but we want him!  I'll be doing a considerable amount of research into this dude and find out who thinks he's so great and why they think he's so great.  I like to be informed about candidates and their positions on things.  One would assume he's all in on dealing head-on with the border crisis, undoing Biden's war on natural gas, electric vehicle mandates, shutting down too many coal fired plants, EPA bs in other words under Biden's reign of terror.   

And talk about draining the swamp again. Well, if Trump wins and goes and starts firing all the swampees that can be fired right off the bat, I'll believe it.  It's quite common for a newly anointed President to oust as much of the previous president's people as possible.  

___________

Trump just showed up at the RNC, they focused in on Eric Trump who looked quite emotional. Trump as a gauge bandage over his ear, as one would expect.  You have to wonder the security detail that is there with the SS and various law enforcement agencies, what kind of nightmare it must be to try and ensure that there is a round 2 of some nutcase showing up and somehow getting in there with a gun.  Actually, it's being held in an arena, so that's a bit easier to control.  

Well enough. I haven't heard of anything going on at the park (bad stuff, in other words). Things have died down since I got rid of the young couple, the farmers who think everyone is shooting them with "Direct Energy Weapons" and potentially the workampers.  If they pay, they can stay but there is going to be increased scrutiny on them.  Broke people can be thieving people. Not always, maybe not even the standard, but it definitely happens.  She claims she is only getting food stamps, but that means she lied when she came in and said she was getting disability.  I dunno, what I do know is that the man almost never leaves that camper, his claim that he could go get a job and walk there if he has to? 

I can only hope they find a way out of my park for at this point, I don't want them there. 

Well enough of this. I'm just sort of hanging on to see Trump speak.  If it gets too late, they'll probably have it on YouTube, but it's not the same as seeing events like this live.

 Monday - 8:00 am

The Republican Convention starts today, it should be interesting.  Very interesting, at least from my perspective, now that we have a leader that stands to receive the Presidential nomination (and likely he is going to name his running mate) who was almost killed just a few days ago in an assassination attempt that definitely will go down in history as a point in time that sticks out simply because of the crazy political turmoil that is going on.

And frankly, I believe it's the leftist rhetoric for many years now since Trump became involved in politics and the national discussion of how this country should be run that is the root cause of why this attempted assassination occurred in the first place. And how many more lunatics are out there that might be emboldened to try their hand at killing a president? 

Remember, Republicans/conservatives have been labeled as stupid people who live in "flyover country" and aren't intelligent enough to run this nation.  Remember Maxine Watters telling anyone that would listen to "push back" against any of Trump's cabinet members, don't allow them to do business anywhere.  Pelosi saying Trump is in Putin's back pocket. Schiff, Schumer, a long list of high ranking politicians who were on this anti-Trump train to the point of hate and anger. 

You talk to an average democrat on the internet now and you will see them instantly attack Trump and start name calling republicans.  You will not find many people that can name any one thing that Biden has done, at least in a good sense, for this nation.  Some of them have a "list" now that they are being called out on it, but it's all gaslighting.  Especially this idea that Trump "handed" Biden an over 9% inflation rate, which is a bold-faced lie that Biden is still propagating!

______________

Late load for me today, hence sitting here for another 10 minutes before I leave.  A few things on the list this week as it's 5 days before we leave for vacation. Presuming we are taking 2 vehicles, I still have to clean out my SUV.  It's been so hot...but I am going to have to buckle down and get it done, heat or no.  

I haven't even asked about what they want me to do on Thursday after I'm done.  It's the fact that the trailer will sit for 5 days in this heat without having been washed out.  It will need a chemical washout if that's the case, which costs more and I don't think they do that at the washout I go to in Nacogdoches.  

It's not like I want to be out all day long doing this nonsense on Thursday and then have to get up early the next day to go on vacation?  Anyway, clean out the SUV and a trip to Walmart and get a pot of gravy ready in advance to feed everyone on Saturday morning for biscuits and gravy breakfast.  I offered, I'm doing it.  It doesn't take long, it's just country gravy and sausage. I just don't think I'm going to want to do all of that on Saturday morning.  Just take tubes of rolls to pop into the oven, have the gravy premade and just reheat it and walaah.  

Well, it's about time to get out of here. They are replaying the assassination attempt over and over and over.  Now they have a still shot of the bullet flying through the air straight at Trump.  It would be laughable that some leftists are saying Trump set this up himself, but there is nothing funny about any of this.   Like, who in their right mind would want a person taking a shot at them from that far away, risking their lives for political gain?   

It's sickening and it's why I get oversaturated with news to the point I have to shut it off and just leave it off for a while.  It might be a while before the investigation gets anything more than what they have already dug up.

Anyway, it's Monday. Hoping for a good Monday.  Just praying and hoping, lol.  Like, no breakdowns, no being pulled over by Troopers, no flat tires, no issues at either the washout or the loading plant.

With that? G'day. 

 Sunday mid-morning

I was at a birthday party yesterday when I got a text message: Attempted assassination of Trump.  I immediately opened up the news app on my phone and it had just happened.  It would be hard for anyone to miss what happened by now, the next day since it's pretty much on any and every news channel.  

I spent the rest of the night glued to the phone as I watched the news flow in and more and more info about the details flow in with it.  We are left with a lot of questions now that need to be answered.  I can tell you, I do not trust the FBI to do this investigation.  A politically compromised government organization, IMO, that has no business engaging in what could be a self-serving investigation to keep Trump out and Biden in.  

Keeping cool about this, I'm just going to continue to watch the news here and there - I'm going to shut it off for now, at least until after church.  I don't see revelatory info coming out in the next few hours, but even if it did, it's going to be there to watch later.  So many questions, hopefully answers, legitimate answer, will come out quickly and whatever the deficiencies are that allowed this to happen will be corrected.  

I'm just "news'ed out" right now as I have searched all over the internet for anything relevant and watching the news on TV and using the phone and computer to dig up any relevant info that continues to flow.  There is a lot to unpack and I'm just not going to go into that right now, it's an hour away from time to leave for church and I would rather get my mind into worship. The Lord is still God, He is still sitting on the throne and none of this startles Him or somehow changes His plans.  

With that, the hosts of the birthday party rented a giant, blow up slide thing where you climb up one side and basically fall down the other.  It has air blowing into it and it has a pump so the water is coming down the slide and a little pool on the bottom to slide into.  It was fun and crazy, lol.  See, the kids had the use of it all day long, but last night? Kids were banned from it and it was an adult only adventure. 

It was hard to keep my mind off of the assassination attempt, in fact it was impossible at the time.  You just watch the footage over and over of Trump standing on the stage, leaning on the pedestal, pointing at some graph, apparently, off to his right - the cameras weren't panning over to it so you couldn't see what he was referencing.  You hear a pop and you see him touch his right ear and then immediately drop to the floor and Secret Service agents just as immediately surrounding him, using their own bodies as human shields to protect him.

That's what they sign up for and they know there is a possibility of that happening.  

Then there is the red-headed man with a trump hat on talking about how he saw the shooter crawling up on the roof with a rifle. He claimed he was trying to get the attention of both police and SS agents and allegedly, they were ignoring him.  I think he saw what he saw, whether they ignored him or just didn't understand what he was referring to remains to be seen and fleshed out, if we can rely on the FBI which is allegedly spearheading the investigation can be trusted.  The bigger government gets, the less I trust that it's sole objective is for citizen' well being and good.  

The Founders never envisioned a giant, centralized, powerful Federal government that can harass, imprison and even take away citizen' livelihood at will.  Or impose restrictions and rules from unelected bureaucrats who believe citizens are stupid and that they, the bureaucrats, somehow know better. 

Ok.  So it's Sunday, church en-queue, the kids are at the birthday party house doing a sleepover but the mom of the birthday boy is going to take them to IHOP and then to church. Well, maybe. She was quite inebriated yesterday and as I was leaving, I stated that if she isn't able to take them today, let us know I'll drop by and pick them up on the way to church.  I haven't heard anything so I assume she was able to get out of bed and by now, heading over to IHOP if not there already.

IHOP, at least the one here, is pretty slow service. You'll be there an hour at least, especially during breakfast time on a Sunday morning.

AS for everything else, I've got 2 more loads to run which starts Monday - late load - and ends Thursday.  Then Friday through Monday off.  It turns out we aren't going to Galveston, we are going to some island next to it that was allegedly wiped out with the hurricane.  Some answers need to be forthcoming soon, it's a little late in the game to be attempting to rent out a different AirBNB somewhere else.  I was under the assumption that rental was going to be in Galveston itself, that's what we've done the last 2 times we went there.

But this is a group thing and it was placed under another person's control to rent the giant house and take care of the particulars.  She sent out a request to the AirBNB company that rents the house out, who, after a few days, finally got back to her and said "we'll have to contact the owner of the house to find out if everything is ok over there".  Well duhhh.  You just had a hurricane go through there and allegedly, the area has been decimated.  We do need to know if we are going or not. The days off have already been taken, it's a done deal. We can go somewhere else, I guess, if that doesn't work out. 

But once you get close to an intended arrival date for any vacation, even if you can find anything available, you know the prices of those places rise substantially.  So at this point, that whole deal is up in the air.  

Looking at Expedia, hotel rooms are over $300 per night for the intended dates.  That's not for 19 people, you'd probably get 4 adults maybe in one room. 

I dunno, if I were in control of it, I would have already found whoever owns the place and had a discussion with them about the property and if it's in one piece, in good condition and if it's even accessible.  But that's me and that's how I work.  Let's get it nailed in, not just try to contact some person in a company that rents the property out for the owner.  Especially getting this close to departure date.

Beyond that, you have people within our group that are refusing to get into the water, they are claiming, because sharks attacked people hundreds of miles away.  "it's too close for my comfort" to which several other people agreed. Well why did you want to go to a beach in the first place then?  I asked one last night, however, she said: I'm following you into the water, lol. Well unless there is a rip tide advisory or swimming is closed because of shark sightings, I won't even think twice about it: walk right in, dunk my head under water and have fun in the waves. 

Anyway, these people started talking about going somewhere else.  I guess that'd be ok, but if you are going to do that, do it NOW, we can't just wait.  As it turned out, however, the cost of going to that place now is beyond anyone's ability to pay for it.   We are just moving along, this household I should say, with the idea that we are going to the beach whether anyone else is - or not. 

The park? I have no idea.  I didn't hear from Allen yesterday about anything.  I drove in another out of there in the truck, I did not stop to talk to anyone.  If there is an issue, rest assured I will hear about it and usually either immediately or not long after whatever it is that's going on has occurred.  3 days from now, the workamper will owe rent. They talked about moving out, then they said they don't know how they are going to pay....after all I've been through with them, I am going to look up this 3 day notice, print one out and have it ready to go.  

Everything else? I'm just going to enjoy my Sunday.  I am probably going to watch the newest Planet of the Apes which is out for streaming. Mark Wahlberg stars in it, he's one of my favorite actors.  I have no great plans for today beyond church, is what I'm saying. The kids will have already eaten so I'm not going to try to make them go to Applebee's, I'll just take them home and find something in the fridge.

I am still on Keto, stalled out.  It happens.  I know that if I stick it out, I'll suddenly dump a bunch of weight overnight and then I'll be like: what happened? Lol.  The thing is, I intend on ditching Keto for the vacation.  No regrets, vacations aren't for dieting.  Take a break from it and get right back to it after the vacation is over. We're talking Friday through Monday, so only 4 days and I won't go overboard with sugars and carbs.  I just want some potatoes, lol.  If I get nothing else on cheat days, I want potatoes!

With that, it's time to take a shower and get ready to go.

Happy Sunday! 

The Attempted Assassination Of Former President Donald Trump

 I'm not going to mince any words here.  The constant rhetoric of the left is directly responsible for this event in Pennsylvania yesterday. From President Biden on down to average leftist citizen that regurgitates the endless, division-creating hostility directed at Trump and his supporters, that is what caused this situation to come to a head yesterday.

"The end of our democracy!".  "The end of our Constitutional rights!"  "A threat to our nation's security!".  The world is going to end if Trump becomes President again!  This and MUCH more hype that has been spouted off endlessly, this is what finally pressed some 20 year old lunatic to get up on a roof and attempt to end Trump's life.  

The 20 year old shooter is dead and now there are certain leftists making statements such as the shooter should have gone to the shooting range more (or something to that effect), Trump had it coming to him! and more.  

You leftists, instead of attempting to demonize Trump and telling us the whole damn world is going to end if he becomes President need to shut your damn mouths.  Argue policy. Argue what Constitutional rights you believe are going to end.  Argue the things that politicians used to argue about instead of constantly hammering a political rival to the point you provoke people to take action that ends up in tragedy.

Yesterday was a tragedy.  An innocent rally attender was killed, shot through the head.  2 other people are in critical condition.  Trump was grazed in the ear.  But what the real tragedy is, is the fact that this event illuminates and illustrates what the end result of this constant, hostile rhetoric delivers. 

There are more of those 20 year olds out there.  How are they going to protect Trump at the convention with tens of thousands of people in attendance?  There are a lot of questions that are floating right now, taking it to the next step, of how the shooter was able to get on that roof in the first place.  Why police ignored a man that saw the shooter crawling on the roof with a rifle.  If the report is true that a request for more Secret Service personnel was denied (one report blaming Mayorkas).  

I will give Secret Service kudos, however, for instantly using their own bodies as human shields to prevent any further injury to the President. For SS to take the shooter out within seconds (reported and heard if you listen to the reel of the incident).  The reports say one millimeter, some say 2, movement of the bullet and we would instead be discussing Trump's assassination, not his miraculous survival. 

Potentially even God's intervention that the shooter wasn't able to deliver the knock out blow.  Also potentially because the shooter may have been put on hurried mode because there were people standing there 50 feet away watching what he was doing and attempting to get police and SS to confront him. The shooter knew his life might end yesterday, this was more of a suicidal mission on his part to kill Trump.

Now let me ask you a question: What legitimate reason do you have to believe that Trump is going to become a dictator, end our democracy (Republic) and literally take over America as a tyrannical dictator? Did you see any of that during his first term as President?  I don't want to hear rhetorical nonsense for your reasons, what, specifically, are we discussing here? Who told you that he and his supporters are a threat to our "democracy" and how, specifically, is Trump a threat to our democracy? 

HOW will he even be able to become a tyrannical dictator?  HOW is he going to end the Constitution?  What is going to happen differently than what is happening now, besides us seeing the left engaging in hostile rhetoric designed to raise people's emotions to the point that we have an extremely divided country? 

 For once, the day went flying by.  They got me in and out of the washout in 38 minutes.  I think it was 40 minutes at the plant loading.  Nothing to hold me up. Police always give the "eye" at trucks moving by, I don't look at them anymore. I used to, not in a disgusted kind of way, but it seems if you look at them, they get annoyed and come chasing you down.  I don't know what that's all about, live and learn.  I don't hate police, I also don't want to be stopped by them.  Especially state Troopers.  

So I was home at around 12:30, which is about as good as it gets.  

The kids are not home yet, I cleaned up the kitchen nicely so we can at least have a fresh start.  It wasn't terrible, it's just if you clean it all up, it stays relatively clean for a while.  

Allen seemed agitated about something over at his place when I returned so I didn't bother him.  I do know his wife was having trouble getting the truck to start wherever she is at.  But that was yesterday and I don't know what became of that.  

New people decided it was fine to park their dually on my grass....we are going to have a polite conversation about that.  There is plenty of room for their truck in front of their trailer on the driveway.  The reason I made 75 foot long driveways....

Otherwise, life is grand! lol

T-Mobile - amazingly, it actually works at the washout, Verizon does not.  People saying T Mobile sucks? I dunno, maybe where they were at once upon a time?  So far, I've had no issues.  The difference is, I only have LTE service on T Mobile. Apparently you have to pay more for 5g service. I have 5g on Verizon and I'm wondering if, in places where 5g isn't available, it doesn't switch over for some reason.  

Whatever the case, so far I'm good with it and could switch over just on what I have seen.  But, I'm going to wait until we go to Galveston and see what happens.  The thing is, I'm already driving in rural areas and through small towns.  There is only one place where the signal dropped - but it also dropped for Verizon as well.  

That's it.  It's 2:30 and I may get some other things done today, but right now? I just want to kick back and watch a movie.  

 Friday - early

Have a few minutes here.

So Biden continued on with his screwups.  Calling Zelensky Putin and calling Harris...Vice President Trump and "her" is a him.  This isn't funny, not to me.  It's pathetic that anyone that is close to him would continue to urge him on to staying in the race.  People that like living in the White House and the taste of power, it's reported that his wife sits in on cabinet and other meetings where one would presume confidential and high security things are discussed, along with Hunter allegedly being in some of those meetings as well.

He continues to claim he draws these huge crowds and says Trump doesn't - which is a ridiculous lie.  Trump draws HUGE crowds everywhere he goes.  Biden? Not so much.  I'll be listening to any new news about this today, but apparently there are more Democrat defectors. I don't call them "democratic" because I don't think they are democratic at all.  

I'm afraid there is going to be a showdown come the 17th.  The workamper doesn't have any money, he isn't getting a job anywhere, they just sit in that trailer all day long.  I will throw them out if it comes to that.  I don't want to have some sort of showdown where I need to have someone videoing it for proof and having a witness...but...if it comes to that, you bet I will.  At this point, they are just mooching off of me and that doesn't set well.  The man won't get off his lazy @$$ to do much of anything.  They enjoy the luxury of the AC they are using for free using my electricity, that's what I know.  

So, it's Friday, the kids are coming back today.  I dunno when I'll be home, but if it goes as normal, I'll be back around 1:00-1:30.   I've thoroughly enjoyed the lack of screaming, fighting and yelling that goes on when you have 3 kids getting cranky with each other. It's pretty normal, especially being summer time and they start getting bored and taking their boredom out on one another.  Mom lets them play their games, even and it still devolves into this nonsense.  

We like the school year. It's disciplined and well all pitch in to make it work - dinners and homework and all of that stuff - but there is much less bickering.  

Well, I want to get an earlier start than normal just to get out there and get to the washout and hopefully beat other trucks in there. I will also be streaming off the T Mobile phone all day today and see how it works down south.

G'day

  I ran the old phone on T Mobile all the way up and back, streaming YouTube videos. I wasn't exactly paying attention to them, I was seeing if there were any stall spots, of which there were none. Further, it worked better than Verizon network at the plant.  

The next test will be going to Natchitoches and Lufkin tomorrow.  Verizon has - had - excellent service in Lufkin.  The hurricane messed that up but I'm sure they'll get it back up and running soon if not already.  

The third test will be going to Galveston - if we are indeed going there.  There's some discussion in the group that it will be flooded, of which I balked at. Then they said it's "going through Houston". I sent live cam pics, 59 and 45 are fine.  Not to mention we are going on the 19th, that is a long time from now.  People get things set in their minds and it's like you're talking to a brick wall, even with proof that the fears they are experiencing are not realistic. 

I dunno, if we don't go there apparently we are going to Broken Bow. The time is running short for making reservations and the prices go up the closer you get to any intended departure dates.  Just throwing my hands up, we are going somewhere, I guess.  

Allen is working on the front. It's slow progress, not exactly easy to mow over that stuff, but he is definitely making headway.  He's trying to get a clear line of vision to the dumpster.  The only thing about that is, if you see someone dumping in the dumpster that doesn't belong there, it's too far away. By the time he would get there to confront the person or identify their vehicle? They're already done and gone.  

Republic wants $201 to move the damned thing.  Like, will they have a problem if I move it myself? I can rent the trackhoe for the trench and move it with that and save myself a chunk of change.  They responded to my query to move and left a phone number in the return email.  It's late now, I will call them tomorrow and ask if they have an issue if I move it to another location and just let them know where it is?  I can just chain it, lift it with the bucket and move it without damaging it.  

I dunno.  I've got 3 more loads before vacation. Working tomorrow and Saturday, off Sunday and then work the 4 days after.  Then 4 days off and honestly? I'm going to have to consider using that Monday that I was going to use for recovery day and work at the park, dig the trench and get other stuff done with the trackhoe.  

_________

I'm sitting here watching this Biden press conference. He spent 7 minutes bashing Trump in a pre-scripted diatribe of complete and utter bulls***.  He cherry picked quotes from Trump - and when I say cherry picked, I mean he took a few words out of sentences Trump made or a sentence out of a contextual set of sentences that Trump made.  Just utter hogwash.

Then, I heard him refer to Kamala Harris as "Vice President Trump".  I did a double take, wondering if I heard that correctly and sure enough, 5 minutes later the news already had it on there.  He mumbles, he's incoherent on some of his sentences. I am curious to see how his democrat detractors - and there are a lot of them now - are going to view this presser.  It's getting boring, I didn't think I would last all the way through this, he's 33 minutes into it, but I'm going to stick it out to see how he handles a lengthy presser and how long it actually goes on for.  I also saw him start yawning but feigned it as picking at his eye to try and cover it up.  

Look, the man has no business being the Oval Office making decisions that can permanently affect the fabric of our society, that can affect our standing in the world, our economy, financial markets, etc etc etc. Do you really believe that he, as Commander in Chief, could deal with a China or Russian uprising? 

Enough of that for now.  A person called, missed the call (I was listening to content at the time on my old phone), called them back, no answer, then they texted me. We're here.  Huh? Expecting no-one, they just showed up to take a lot, lmao. I mean, if someone shows up and there's something available, they can take it. No guarantees on that, obviously.  But, it was the last available lot.  

I do not have a reservation until the 3rd of August.  So the place is long term. These people said they are there for a month, another is also a month, the rest in the park are either "permanent", very long stays or there indefinitely.  People come and go, that's a fact.  

Tomorrow is early load.  Up at 5:30 am, get the day done as fast as possible and get home to....well the munchkins are coming back tomorrow, I doubt they will beat me back unless I have another breakdown or some sort of ridiculous nonsense at the plant?  Load tomorrow, offload Saturday, Sunday off and then Monday and Tuesday - late loads again.  

 Thursday

Last day of freedom.  I think I'll go out to eat somewhere for dinner today versus eating at home. We will be doing that - eating at home - pretty much every day once the kids get back. Apparently the 3rd one is staying yet another two weeks. It's so wonderful! He sits there all day long arguing and yelling back and forth with the youngest....when things start flying through the air, that's about the time we go out there, put a stop to it and end the ridiculousness. 

But, it goes on every day.  Maybe not all day long, but enough of it to make me want to shut my bedroom door so I can tune that noise out.  Once the oldest leaves, things will return to normal.  Normal is not having that oldest one around, I can attest to that. His mother gives him no routine, no structure, no discipline, he basically does what he wants.  Which is why there was a huge clash the first time he showed up here. He didn't know any of us besides his dad, for one and he was not used to rules and having them enforced.  It took him several visits to start figuring out the rules are what they are and they aren't changing or going to overlooked for his sake.  Lol.  

So far so good with the internet.  I just wonder about people that can't afford even $50 per month for what they want the most: WiFi access. Literally, they could get their own T-Mobile device for that amount of money and not worry about anyone else having to supply it for them. I've had a few do it when they found out the price, but most people? I don't know if they're too cheap or too broke.  Some people in the park came in with their own internet and they are quite happy.

It seems you lose access to the internet and life just falls apart?  I was without it yesterday for several hours, hours where I would normally be looking at stuff on the internet because there is not much of anything else to do.  It wasn't the end of my world.  I could see not wanting that to last forever, tho.  

Now? I have the old phone loaded up with T-Mobile, a service I am paying for but wasn't using. It was for the cameras and the internet.  I am going to be checking it throughout the day to see if it's as bad as people say it is.  "The internet works great, the phone service sucks!". I've heard this forever from numerous different people to the point I decided I would just keep the services I need (I am saving many hundreds of dollars per month using their internet over Verizon and other options) and not use the phone.  

Actually, I'm just going to have it streaming stuff all day long and glance at it here and there and see if it's working.  And, see how it works in Gurdon where Verizon service isn't very good.  What if T-Mobile is better?  I'm fixing to dump about $300 per month in the AZ house with them paying for their own phones - I was helping Mark with it because a second line wasn't terribly expensive and he claims he is going to get internet. It is costing me over $200 per month for internet over there. It's a ouch-factor to me every month seeing that kind of money going out.  I tried T-Mobile but they didn't send it out with a sim card in it and they wouldn't send one for I didn't have a T-Mobile phone to verify that it is actually me.

That's where the local store comes in, at least for stuff around here. They just look at my ID and that's that. They were so helpful yesterday, I didn't know they could deal with as much as they can, the plus is that they are a corporate owned store so they can pretty much do anything that I "can" do over the phone.  You try talking to those people on the phone, offshore call center with people whose English is spotty and whose attitudes suck. Not all of them, but enough.  I was amazed they just went into the back room yesterday,  pulled out a new router without my asking for it - I just wanted them to try a new sim card and if that didn't work, just send it back and ask for another one - pulled it out, set it up and walaah, here ya go, thanks.  

But yes, I'm going to contact Mark today and tell him I'm ordering another T-Mobile internet device and this time, if they don't send a sim card, I can verify over the phone who I am with a T-Mobile based phone and that should be the end of that problem.  

I'm just happy to get to dumping expenses.  ONE more payment on the shed, they took the next to last one out yesterday and there goes $221 PLUS a $3 "convenience fee".  That fee? They charge  you to pay them. It's an auto-withdrawal, who else charges their customers to pay them with auto-pay? It's not a credit card, they are not encountering credit card company fees, it's fairly outrageous in my view even if it's a small amount of money.  

Whatever the case, saving money is high on my list of priorities right now, the more I can save, the faster I can move forward with my expansion desires.  But, I doubt I'll take out a loan before the election.  Or, if Biden is going to do something to make him look favorable and somehow attempt to get the Fed to lower the interest rate?  I just balk at the idea of high interest loans.  I don't see how a HELOC at 11.99% is a good deal.  I remember those rates being much lower before the FED started all this interest rate hikes and basically destroying our economy while they were doing it.  

Well whatever.  I'm going to leave a bit earlier than normal for the second load, I just feel like getting out of here, getting up there and even if I have to wait, being there for whenever the first load is done.  But if I get there at 11:20 am, which is what I am shooting for, the first load should be done and gone.  Should be being the operative words. 

With that, go make a lunch, get some more coffee for the thermos, fill up the cup with ice water and outta here.

G'day.