Apparently I forgot to publish the last post before leaving.
Mapleton was a plain old trip. I got up there, they unloaded it, I drove back, got back into town earlier this afternoon.  In fact, when I got up to the plant, they told me they had run out of ethylene a few hours earlier and I was just in time.  Oh, well if y'all had called me I could have been here sooner.  No, the guy replies, we had other stuff we needed to get done, no big deal. We stood there and discussed everything on the earth I think for 2 hours before the thing was unloaded and I got out of there.

I was determined to get up early this morning because I figured that I would only have today to relax at home before getting sent back out tomorrow.  I was right and wrong about that deduction.

When I was at the yard, my manager was on the phone, but said don't leave yet!  She's a really nice lady, she doesn't "yell" at people in anger or anything, it was just a please stay a moment type of thing.  It turns out every single driver has complained about the changes that have come with this new company and several drivers have threatened to quit.  One was on the phone with her and she had it on speakerphone and he was informing her about the changes to Qualcomm (logging device) and that he wasn't going to drive for a week and just wait for his truck (he's an owner operator that was using a company truck) to get out of the shop.

Other drivers with same sentiments. It's like this company is working against it's own drivers to make the job as difficult as possible.  I was very glad to hear I was not the only person that is extremely unhappy about all the bs going on with this change.  Very happy indeed.  I only asked to switch to a different division - it would still be the same bs with this new Qualcomm crap, but at least I would be home every day.  Whole different set up delivering gasoline. 

Anyway, she wanted to see what I was talking about this noise making stuff. She thought it was the Qualcomm, I said no, it's this radar unit. If you get into heavy traffic, you can kiss your peace goodbye because this thing is going to beep and beep LOUDLY.  She had spent half the day telling these people that know everything about all the sentiments against this new setup.  Hey, there's only 20 of us in this division and this stuff doesn't deliver  like anything else in the rest of their divisions. Enough people quit?  Same as my last company, you are kissing your experience goodbye and good luck.  I'm sure this company wouldn't care about that, tho, seeing their attitudes but it's always nice to give them a dose of their own sundry medicines. 

After all this time - I've been there 10 months now - they finally got a driver that was given the "driver training" promotion. That guy has been there a long time, he knows his stuff, he's definitely qualified to train others.  I don't need training, they deemed that from the beginning. I figured most of this nonsense out on my own through force of being there and doing that without anyone's help.  Ridiculous. 

Anyway, she said she was sending me out tomorrow. I said great and left.  Might as well fly home, get the dogs and relax for a few hours anyway.  I got to the other house and found 2 cop cars and an animal control truck out in front.  My heart sank immediately.  What is going on here?  I didn't see my dogs so I was wondering if they had them in the truck?  I started freaking out - not saying anything but definitely going haywire on the inside because all of those people were inside the house and one of them came out with one of those noose things they use to capture stray dogs. 

Rene was sitting there. ???  Your dogs are fine, it's Donny's dog.  Dang.  What happened?  My friend from church came over yesterday, I opened the door Helga (his dog) ran out and viciously bit the man on the leg. This dog has been biting people since the first day I met it, when it bit my twice and I ended up kicking the damned thing half way across the yard.  It started in on Addler, who finally had enough and bit the s*** out of that dog.  It then went after Aspyn who also tore into it after it kept going at her and wouldn't stop. It's bitten all kinds of people, in the house, with owner present.

Lack of training, obviously.  So, they hauled the dog off and are doing a 10 day hold of it.  I don't know what they expect to do or find out, but apparently Donny can get the dog back after that.  No clue on that one.

I got home, got out a beer - yep it was have a few beers time - and then my manager called.  Oh, wait, she had called earlier and said I had my choice. Pennsylvania, Corpus Christi or Pasadena.  I'll take Pasadena thanks. PA is a 7 day trip.  Corpus Christi is the new plant and a 2 day trip, Pasadena is in theory a 1 day trip - it can be done but everything has to go right.

When she called again, she said she had "manuevered" some things around and was sending me to Pasadena on Sunday.  Meaning a full day off tomorrow! Yay!

Well Taylor is home so I'm going to go visit with her and the kids.

Well. I'm going up to Mapleton, IL tomorrow. That place almost always causes some form of detention pay.  But now, detention pay is up in the air.  Are we getting paid for it or not?  Why was my paycheck cut to 13.5 hours of it after what i believe was 36 hours if I recall correctly?  What are the parameters?

I'm not sitting around for free, I can assure them of that.  If I have to sit for a day waiting on a plant to unload or a trailer in Brownsville, I want paid for it. If they are changing that, I want the damn policy in writing.  Why aren't they paying it and if I even want anything further to do with this.  There are plenty of trucking companies that will not pay detention pay even tho they say they will, if this is one of them they can go stick it where the sun doesn't shine. I sure as hell am not going to sit up in Mapleton for a day or two and have them think that I'm doing it for free or that they can somehow just randomly subtract hours because they say so.

I'm basing this on the conversation with the other driver yesterday who said that they are taking out 10 hours every day for motel stay that the company pays for. I didn't have the company pay for a hotel, the policy is or was that if you don't, you are paid the entire time for waiting.  I am waiting for a reply, I contacted my manager again awhile ago and she hadn't even asked about it yet.  But, if they are going to take out 10 hours whether you use them to pay for a motel or not, then I'll take the company paid motel and meanwhile start looking for a job.  Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and the plant will unload the product then and there when I arrive and I can immediately turn around and head back.

Cause' right now? I have questions with no answers.  If this new company has different policies, I want all of it in writing.  I'm not going to work for a company in the dark  concerning specific policy that addresses drivers.  I'm going to Mapleton. Only one time I have gone up there that I didn't have to wait, the rest of it was a nice generous amount of detention pay and I was happy.

Okay, that was irritating.

More irritations: the kitchen sink is clogged again. I called a plumber out this time, this happens too frequently and takes too much time to try to figure out what's going on.  I want a plumber with a guarantee to come out, find out why this drain is always clogging up, fix it, let us know how to deal with it and be done with this problem.  Very much tired of it.  I didn't ask my friends, I just called them. My friends can't afford a plumber but we can't clean dishes or run the dishwasher at the moment.  As it stands, they are getting into a contract for a new washer and dryer set. I just know their finances aren't too great and they are having trouble dealing with all of this.  But you have to have your plumbing working and I have no idea why this drain keeps backing up.

We don't dump grease into it, but we also don't have a garbage disposal. I'm wondering if the food going down in there is doing it.  It's an old house, I just think there is something maybe going on down there we don't know about.  The rest of the plumbing in the house is working fine, I'm doing laundry while writing this.

That's the other thing. The washing machines is leaking water and it's making a lot of noises.  It's dying. They went and bought a new set on payments but it won't be here til next friday.  The place they got it from has to order those specific machines. They are giving them the financing to get them, so my friends were willing to wait.  But if this set continues to fall apart, I'll be spending quality time at a laundromat.

And that is my day. Cleaning my room, tried to clean the kitchen but kinda difficult without the sink working.  And now that I know I have to get up at 3 am, my motivation just ran clean out of my bones.  I know what tomorrow is going to be like, I might as well enjoy the rest of my day.  Cause I don't see tomorrow as being any barrel of fun. Up at 3, out the door at 3:30, at the plant at 5:00, get out of there by around 7, on the road.  It's about 560 miles to the area I normally stop in, another 40 if I go to the Flying J I made it to last time.  Depends on how I sleep.  I'll probably just stop at the gravel parking lot I've stayed at before - the truck stops in that area fill up and there's no room to park at them.  The Flying J has spots, but I have to be able to make it there.  It's better to get to the Flying J because that is most of the way around Saint Louis and avoiding rush hour traffic in the morning.

Well, I was going to take the dogs out to Caddo Lake today, but this early rise thing nixed that.  I might take them for a short walk but that's about it.  They'll end up over at the crack house tomorrow.  Okay, it's not a lab or anything, just that "dude" living there going on his crack binges. If Rene didn't love my dogs so much, I wouldn't even think of taking them over there.
______________________

Long interruption and life.
I was given another trip to the place in Illinois that is notorious for sending you off to a hotel.  I want answers to detention pay. If they hold me up, I want to know what is being pad and what is not. Pretty reasonable request?

Meanwhile, I have a dumb bell with enough weight to not overload me while driving but still keep me busy at times to do some bicep work.  There is no reason I can see why I can't work out with one hand while driving down the highway on open road with little traffic.  I've done mock versions of it without anything, I can do an effect bicep work out with both hands while driving, just the left hand limited to one kind of workout.  I'm not sure it's so great to have biceps bigger on one side than the other, but I'm not interested in losing any more muscle definition because I'm not doing anything to keep it up.

Wow.
Yesterday was grueling for me.
I woke up at 1 am for whatever reason and never was able to get back to sleep.
13 plus hours of driving and loading and unloading later and I was done. 
And boy was I toasted done.  Fried crisp, felt like hell, wanted to go to bed.
And bed I did, 9:30 pm and didn't get out of bed until almost 9 am.

Anyway, this is a cleaning day for me. I just spend an hour cleaning off my computer desk, wiping off dog hair and about to get the vacuum cleaner, throw the dogs outside and thoroughly vacuum as much hair out as possible. 

But, I ran out of windex so a trip to the store is in order. And I really need to get a flea shot for Addler, calling them in a few to see if there is any availability. I hate taking that dog to the vet because he refuses to get on the scale.  I literally have to pick the dog up, step on the scale, weigh both of us and then weigh myself alone and then subtract it.  It's a bit ridiculous this giant dog won't just step onto the freaking thing and let's get this over with. 

They both smell again, so i guess I'll have to give them baths today as well. That is quite the exercise program, bathing 2 dogs, one the size of 3 or 4 of most people's dogs.  But Taylor complains about dogs smelling like dogs so I am trying to keep up with bathing them at least ever other week.  I think I'm going to see about getting one of those things you hook up to the garden hose and see how that works. 

Ehhh. And the kitchen is in a shambles.  I'll likely clean that as well.  I can stand a dirty house in other parts of the house but the kitchen? No, no and no.  It's just a magnet for roaches, ants, mice, rats and whatever else.  And it simply looks "trashy" I guess you'd call it. 

Meanwhile, I got the pay stub for last paycheck and sure enough, they deducted over 20 hours of detention pay without any explanation.  Well I got an explanation from another driver yesterday who called me asking if there was a trailer yet - he was at a hotel.  He said he's heard different things from the "new" company that has taken ours over.  They bought it quite a while back but now are transitioning it from the old company to one very large new one.  And allegedly they are taking out 10 hours of any wait for your time forced time off.  I could see that for the first night, but after that? NO. 

The reason? Because after the first 10 hours off, that's all I need.  After that, whenever a trailer comes in at whatever hour of the night, I can leave.  If they don't pay me this detention pay, it will push me to further considering finding greener pastures. But, I'm almost at a year, so I'll try to at least wait the full year out.  I think I started in November, which isn't too long off now.  Actually, I may try to simply switch over to the gasoline division, that's all local work, home every day or night depending on what shift you get.  After that, I could get on with a local company that pays more.  I've heard my company doesn't pay well for the local gas gigs, but I can deal with that on a temporary basis.  Just need to get my experience in and move on. 

Or move over to Hines trucking and haul wood chips.  14 hour days, 5 days a week. That's why I didn't take it the first time, but now that I know I can handle such long days, I could do it.  Weekends off as long as you get all the work done during the week.  Which I would, would try anyway. It would be a pay cut but I could deal with that for the trade off of going home every night and have my weekends freed up.  I'm still very unaccepting of a trucking company such as the one I'm working for not having any regular scheduled time off.  It's not fair to the drivers and it's very self serving to the company. 

The news. All things Trump. If it isn't Trump directly, it is related to Trump, such as his SCOTUS nominee, Kavanaugh and these "new" allegations that he groped a girl in high school.  Textbook play book by the left.  Feinstein had that information since July but chose now to do anything about it?  65 women signed off on a statement that says otherwise about Kavanaugh's demeanor during high school years, now hundreds of colleagues have also delivered a letter.

Monday, apparently, they are going to have a hearing where both Kavanaugh and this woman are invited to come. Kavanaugh will most certainly be there, I dunno about the accuser.  This isn't the first time this has happened, Clarence Thomas went through similar accusations and delivered a scathing monologue for the Senate committee members at the time. It's a classic, you should listen to him speak. 

Well, back to work - home work that is. 

Not the greatest trip on earth.
The trip to Portland, Texas which is right on the other side of a bay from Corpus Christi.

Geeze. Interrupted by people doing things.  Intent for bad things.  Things that you think you want
to do when you're drunk.  Not going into that here tho...and not me, thanks.

Uhh, wow.  That is an unfolding event, I'm not involved with it, but it's happening "near me". 

Anyway, I got to the yard yesterday around 5:30 am, fired the truck up - and didn't fire the truck up.
The batteries were dead.  Not completely dead, just not enough to fire up the truck.  Went into the shop and got the portable jump starter only to find out the battery packs in it had been removed.  Okay.  That's when I dump it on my manager's lap.  I called her - she was obviously sleeping at the time - batteries dead, truck won't start, can't get it going, what now. 

Call the mechanic.  Please give me his number and away we go. He shows up 40 minutes later, decides it needs new batteries and installs them.  I get in the truck, fire it up, back under the designated trailer, go to start my 14 hour day on the electronic log - and it wouldn't allow m to log in.  I'm sitting there 10 tries anyway. What is going on with this thing?  Safety dude shows up, gives me a number to call. Not the right person to call in the company.  She gives me a number to call, but it's for a mechanic?  Mechanics don't deal with electronic logs, so I go to the mechanic that was there because of my situation, he tells me while I was gone they switched the name of the company over to the new name and and that people were having trouble logging in.

Back to my manager, I can't log into my elog. This goes on for hours, actually, between the batteries and the elogs. I wasted almost 4 hours of the day and the elogs were never figured out.  Back to paper logs.  I leave for the plant.  About an hour into filling the tank up, the dude comes in and says we have a problem. I go out, the air is leaking out of the main bag that holds up a valve that allows the product to either flow in or out, depending on what you're doing.  Air leak, it's held up by air pressure.  After 45 minutes of fooling with that, the dude declares the truck full enough and sends me off. I'm directed back to the yard, where the mechanic "fixes" it and I leave.

That whole ordeal wasted a lot of my on duty hours, so I ended up driving down there but staying at a truck stop for the night. Slept pretty well actually.  Anyway, I get up this morning, drive over there, this that and the other thing - ordeals you run into in going into plants you haven't been to before.  Weird tho. They didn't take down my name or ask for my license or anything.  That's not really standard protocol for a plant that produces liquid LNG. But whatever. It's raining.  It's been raining.

I got in the plant and directed to wait for a propane tank to finish loading ahead of me, about an hour.  It starts raining heavy, I know at this point I'm going to get wet regardless of a good rain coat.  I thought the suit came with pants, but it didn't hence I knew my jump suit was going to be soaked and probably my pants underneath it, I wasn't wrong.  So, standing out in the rain, trying to get this all going, that main valve bag setup was leaking profusely.  To the point it leaked out all the air within 60 seconds. That's bringing down 150 pounds of air pressure!  I finally see what the problem is, the mechanic didn't fix anything.  2 nuts that hold the stud on the top of the bag assembly were missing, turning on the air pressure to it was simply letting out all the air out the top.

An hour later, we fixed it, at least temp fixed it.  Then, getting the pressure up to 90 pounds in the tank - turn on the valve to the coils, the product goes through it, bubbles up because of the heat and produces vapor which produces pressure - they turned on their intake valve and away we go! And away we went to the pressure on my tank dropping rapidly.  I had no clue.  Weather? Rain? what? 

I tried several different settings to no avail. It was building pressure, just not enough to keep up with it. We discussed it. Do you have a water hose?  I asked.  Well, somewhere, yes.  Well if you can spray the coils down with water the pressure will come up.  They looked at me funny. Really? Well yes, otherwise, we're going to have to shut this all down and I'll have to build up pressure again.  They got out their hose, they obviously didn't believe me. Trust me, I wouldn't have known about it either except having had gone through this already once somewhere else and the people at the plant told me about it.

They start spraying water on it, the supervisor comes out and stares at the pressure gauge.  At first, very slow. But after a few minutes, baam. Pressure starts building rapidly.  I'm no expert, I watch and learn.  People take an action and there is a consequence.  We had to do that twice. Near the end of the delivery, I let the air out of the airbags in the back. What are you doing? A whole crew of them standing out there in this pouring rain with me. At least I wasn't suffering alone - it was raining but it was also warm and muggy, very uncomfortable. I'm letting the air out of the air bags.  Why? To angle the trailer back so all the product comes out.  Ohhhhh. The last driver here didn't do that  - this is a new plant and the "last" driver was the only driver they had had any experience with. 

Well they should be letting out the air so they can get all the product out.  I didn't learn that from the company, btw, I had to figure out why they had a dump valve on the trailer.  I knew what it did after the first experience with it, I didn't know what it's purpose was.  It just dawned on me:  angle the trailer down at the back, product all comes out.  Actually I had seen a picture of a truck on the internet with it angled down and showing the air bags dumped, it just didn't say why.  I had to really think about it. It seems obvious but when you don't know, you just sit there wondering endlessly. 

You sit there thinking. Here is a valve, it lets the air out of the airbags.  WHY does it do that?  I just couldn't connect it with the product delivery because I thought it was for some mechanical reason, new technology I might have never heard of.  Anyway, I didn't suggest they tell truck drivers what to do with their trucks, I just said they should be letting the air out to angle the trailer back down. As with the water trick, that's up to them to inform other drivers that are having difficulties but don't know what to do.  If they so choose. My guess? They will so choose.  And as an aside, I got this trailer yesterday morning with 2 inches of product still in it.  The vapor pressure was up to 72 pounds.  Yeah, no.  You shouldn't be returning to the yard with any measurable level of product in there.

So, we finally get done with this ordeal 4 hours later.  I was soaking wet.  "I'm getting in my truck and putting on dry clothing before I even leave this rack". There were no trucks waiting, I didn't to trash the interior any worse than possible with mud and water everywhere, so that's what I did.

After that, the trip was a piece of cake.  Well, no cake trip tho.

Anyway, it's super late, time for bed. 

Well, that changed.  The plant in South Carolina cancelled the order and now I'm going to Corpus Christi tomorrow instead.  Someone decided to inform me that there is a tropical depression that will be hovering over that area - tomorrow - lol.  I have a rain coat, I can deal with it, but if there are thunderstorms? The plant won't take the delivery until the lightning goes away and they likely won't stand in the rain for 2 hours dealing with the unloading of the truck.  It's just rain tho, it's nothing like a Hurricane, I'll deal with it if they will. If I show up and they turn me away? Detention pay.

Rene - I don't know if she's in the hospital still or what. She got on my FB and said she was doing great, but I don't know any specifics. I do know that she won't be in any condition to watch my dogs and I sure as hell am not leaving my doggies over with Donny. First off, he leaves his dog in the hous over there when he goes on these binges without saying anything and second off, after the exchange via texting? I'll never trust him again.  I'll leave them here. 

All this nonsense going on over there is highly annoying, to say the least. 

Anyway, the hurricane is starting to hit hit the shores, the predictions weren't exactly right but from the appearance it's a good thing they told people to leave. No one can perfectly predict storms, and if you don't warn people and you don't get all this stuff on board at the beginning before it hits?  Well, the President gets accused of not caring.  I'm so sick of the endless accusations of our President. 

Anyway, this is a new plant I'm going to, I have no idea if anyone's been there yet, forgot to ask about that, it's not the greatest miles but it's better than the other Cheniere and it will get me some miles started towards the next paycheck. 

So yesterday, all hell broke loose over at the other house.  As far as I'm concerned, Donny has gone off the deep end and yes Donny, since this is the only place I write about such things and you mentioned my "social media content", you need help.  You need to get yourself into a rehab center, apply yourself towards getting out of your addiction and get on with your life. Find something to do besides sitting in your bedroom watching a TV which you no longer have....because of your addiction.  I don't hate you, I don't wish you evil or harm, I wish you would deal with this. To blame all of this on Rene is ludicrous, outrageous and unbelievable. 

She said you kept turning off the AC yesterday because - spite.  Anger, rage, pettiness, selfishness.  Whatever dude.  Get a grip.  I'm not interested in your excuses, you stole my money off the kitchen table, you disappeared, you brought the drug dealer over to that house, you screwed up, deal with your situation and move on with life. Or don't, wallow in it, and end up dying in it, because addictive drug use never has a good ending.  Get into church, speak to a minister, get the help of people that care if you won't do rehab.  Whatever.

Enough of that.  My manager called today and said she has a run going to - South Carolina.  I chuckled at that one.   I've been to that plant if it's the one I'm thinking of, once.  It's on the west side of the state, well away from the coast.  I said fine, I'll take it, always love an adventure.  But I think if I do end up taking the run that the worst I'm going to run into is maybe some heavy rain and wind.  But whatever, I'll take a challenge for the fun of it.  The other 2 options were to go to Massachusetts - too far, I don't want to do another long run after just getting done with another one.  It's too long away from home, I want that kind of run to be far and few between if possible. I didn't even know we had an account in Massachusetts.  I don't really understand what's going on, the longer timers in the company usually want those long runs.  I was in Massachusetts last winter, saw enough of that place. 

The other run is down to Houston. That's a one day run, home that night almost always. Doesn't pay much but it pays sufficient on a one day basis.  I've apparently been moved out of the Brownsville run.  I can only guess that longer term drivers figured out how profitable a 2 day run can be.  Lots of miles, only 2 days out, if you're out longer that's because you are getting detention pay and that adds up quite a lot. 

Well I'm waiting on this run, cause' they don't know yet if the plant is going to stay open.  If it isn't I just asked for the Houston run. 

I'm on my 5th day off and I have really loved most of it. Sans watching a sick 1 year old baby, but I did that cause' I wanted to help my friends.  But I can tell ya, that baby has a lot of energy and is a handful.  The only thing I didn't love is finding damage to the grill on my new vehicle. Somebody ran into it, hit it, not sure.  But the "Ford" emblem is covered with white paint where it appears something backed into it or drove by, is smashed in and the chrome grill itself is cracked, tho only in one place.  Just pissed me off.  If you damage someone's vehicle,l own up to it, pay for the damages. You don't just drive off and say too bad so sad.  Makes me want to mount a camera system on my vehicle just like you can do on big trucks. 

I go out of my way to park well out in parking lots to keep vehicles away from it. It's in that good of a condition.  Trying to keep the thing in good condition so it will still have a good trade in value when I go to get a truck.

Well that's it for me today.  Watching the hurricane news, tho that is getting boring, it isn't going to do a whole lot until tonight or tomorrow morning.  Trump gets credit for mobilizing in advance whatever the states need and declaring emergencies in those states.  There is nothing more he can do, so reading from the left about his lack of concern is rather humorous. 

2 Facebook posts, texting and ended with a phone call to mom yesterday on her birthday plus got her a magazine subscription that she said she wanted and that hopefully was enough.  She gave me news of my cousin in Australia attempting to find out info on another extended family member and then said this individual was dissing her about her sons - my 2 brothers and I and how her family is "much better".  How do you tell a mother crap like that?  And her family is hardly much better with one that committed suicide and another that apparently wrote the entire family off and will have nothing to do with the whole lot of them. 

There aren't too many people walking the face of this earth, I think, that have the "perfect family". I certainly have never met any of them. Even people that put on their best face in church with their families there? Yea.  You find out everything isn't hunky dory behind the scenes.  That doesn't in any way  mean that I wish that upon everyone, it's just human nature.  Even Christ alluded to it in the Scriptures.  It just seemed appalling to me that this person took it upon herself to say that junk to my mom, they don't have a relationship and she really had no business.

Then she apparently said she was trying the reunion thing again.  I won't be going.  It's become obvious that my relatives aren't the greatest people on earth and I am not going to dump that kind of money on a trip to have a miserable time.  The best airfare is a bit over a grand round trip. That's with the searcher inputting the dates for you.  Specific dates? Go way up.  I could afford it but why?  I'd LOVE to go to Australia, but not to meet up with some miserable family that doesn't want to get along with each other.  I have internet friends that live over there that I'm sure I'd have more fun with - really complete strangers - than my own relatives. 

Anyway, I really wanted to spend more on my mom but she is very frugal and just doesn't think that way.  She just doesn't like to spend money.  So, for $39 bucks I got her a package deal of 3 subscriptions.  She wanted Better Homes and Gardens, so I got that along with a couple of other home type magazines replete with recipes and home fashion ideas and gardening tips.  It's a recurring annual subscription so if she likes it, I'll just let it go indefinitely.  I'd actually like to get her on some sort of wifi that would get her on the internet as much as she wants versus her limited data that doesn't get her much time on it at all. Perhaps it's best lol, but she does like getting on Facebook and looking around the internet. 

Well whatever. I'm on day 4 off.  I didn't ask for today off, I know my manager told me last week that she knows she has been working me hard, I guess she figured I'd like another day off? Yes and no.  4 days is 4 days of no pay.  Still, the paycheck coming tonight should be very good, next paycheck after that should be okay.  But I'm going to need to get back to work in order to work on 3 paychecks from now.  That pay period starts tomorrow and goes 2 weeks.  I can say that 2 days definitely wasn't enough so I'm happy for that.  It's really going to be hard to get up at whatever time to go back to work, lol.

Meanwhile probably alot of us are watching the progress of this hurricane.  They're predicting a potential stall and that, of course, would be devastating.  I hope these people have flood insurance and not "acts of God" provisions that leave them hanging.  I was looking at a map, whoever is going to Charleston may be in for a time, tho I would suspect just heavy raining. I think they're talking sometime today for a landfall or tomorrow morning.  I don't necessarily understand people staying in the zone where they believe it's going to hit tho.  I mean perhaps some of them don't have the means to get out, but some of them are just stubborn. I hope it doesn't end up with them losing life and limb.

So what to do today? 2 days in a row I was babysitting, that wasn't really that much fun because you're both responsible for a very young child and you don't get to get out and do anything at all. I mean, you aren't going to take a sick child all over the place.  I dunno if I want to go anywhere. Probably means I'll spend money and that isn't really that appealing right now.  The local theater is cheap, but they aren't having any showings until after 6:00 pm.  Weekday, small town, yea you probably are taking a loss opening up any earlier before kids can also show up with family. 

I might go to Walmart and see if I can actually get them to get me some fish.  Maybe stop at my favorite local restaurant and have a bit to eat and attempt to get my mind back into working phase. 

3rd full day off. Wouldn't have had it if I hadn't asked.  I always get this "we'll see what we can do" as a reply.  As if it's evil to want some time off once in a while.  Really, that's what it is.  There's a lot of work, there's not enough drivers apparently, but that will change.  At the end of the year, there will not be enough work and then, you either get shipped off somewhere like I was last year or you sit around and don't make any money I guess.  I'm not really in love with the idea of doing another blizzard stint, but I'll do it if I'm pushed hard enough.  Just that this time, perhaps another driver can go up there that didn't do it last time and is a new driver.

Lord only knows where I'll be sent off to tomorrow.

Today is my mom's birthday.  It's always a bit strange to have a family member having a birthday on what is the anniversary of one of the worst attacks on our own soil that has ever occurred.  And then there's this Cat-4 Hurricane barreling down on the Carolinas. If I were any of those people in the path of that thing? I would be getting the heyday out of there, in a fast hurry.

Some of that huge storm system seemingly hovering around Houston right now has come up this way and it's been raining all night long.  I'm watching a time line of the attack on the World Trade Centers on Fox News.  Some footage I've never seen before of the planes crashing into the buildings.  It's still just as sickening to watch today as it was to watch the events unfold before all of us in 2001.  But I'm not going to spend the day watching footage of it like I have every other year.  I've seen all of it enough times, I don't need to see it anymore.  It's a sad day in American History, the perpetrator has been killed, the nation moved on, took a while but it did. It was eerie to not see any airplanes flying in the sky for however long it was, months?  And the worst part was seeing those people jumping out of the building faced with either burning up alive or ending their own lives.  I certainly can't blame them for not wanting to have their flesh burned off of their bodies, I would like to hope that on impact, they didn't feel anything.

Moving on from that and honestly having had forgotten about mom's birthday until today, I am going to see about sending her some flowers at least and whatever she may want for her birthday.  My mind has been a bit cluttered with thoughts of what to do next, if anything in terms of this job and just life in general.

I texted my manager about getting another day off and therefore not having to go back to work any earlier than Wednesday.  She hasn't responded yet - she's always busy, always on conference calls, or talking to drivers with problems, or people in her office.
She's pretty well over worked.  My issues with this company are not really about her at all.  In fact, she really needs an office assistant, there's just no way around that.  Her days off she still gets driver calls and texts for problems or needing a hotel room or this and that.  I don't envy her position.  If she says no, it's no, I'll go back to work tomorrow quite begrudgingly, get in the truck and drive.

Regardless of when I go back to work, I really want short runs. Brownsville is a short run.  2 days, one overnight.  I mean short in terms of time out, not distance traveled.
Cheniere is a short run tho as anyone that has read this blog for a well knows, I hate that place.  Destined to get another run there sooner or later and also to drive down to Corpus Cristi whenever that plant fires up and load them up as well.

Whatever the case, that Washington run was a very limited thing that happens only once every few years.  They just don't use that much Ethylene apparently and the product is keep cool in double lined vacuum jackets.  I personally can't see ethylene sitting around for years without it heating up unless they have a way to refrigerate it back down tho.  But who am I, I'm hardly an expert on this stuff.  Definitive learning experience.

Meanwhile, I get a call from Taylor at 7:45 am.  I was sleeping, yes, I sleep much better at home in my own bed than I do in that truck.  Hotels are the only exception while on the road, I usually sleep well in a hotel bed unless it's a lumpy, bad bed or there are people making too much noise.  Anyway, she actually had tried to call twice, I had the ringer off but the vibrating thing was on and eventually woke me up.  The baby is sick, throwing up at the daycare. Gag.

She just started a new job, they are broke because of a gap in employment between the 2 jobs - but she still tried to find someone to babysit him.   The daycare had called her and said they couldn't deal with him like that.  I agreed to watch him - but boy am I paying for that. He isn't throwing up, he's got bad diahrea.  I'm no fan of changing diapers, but this kind  of mess is even worse.  But, she's a very close friend and I am happy to help her when I can.  Just not something I would want to do very often, at least not while the boy is sick like that.  He's 1 year old and change, he can't even talk yet to let anyone know what he needs.

Anyway, I changed him 3 times after he got home and then he started getting reaaaaaalllllyyyy cranky and crying and fussing, so I put him to bed - that after trying to give him milk and something to eat to make sure that wasn't the problem, but with the runs, he probably has an upset stomach.  So, he's been sleeping for a little over 3 hours, thank God, I'm sure there will be a mess to clean up when he wakes up but at least I got that much of a reprieve from it. 4-1/2 more hours and she'll be home to deal with this.

They aren't really going through such a great spell in life right now, with expenses mounting.  The washing machine started leaking. It's had several problems since they came back. The dryer timer is malfunctioning. They decided to go get a new set on credit.  I know those days - no money, but the need is great.  You can't have a family of 4 without having a washer and dryer set unless you want to spend a lot of time at the laundromat.  I would have financed the purchase myself if they hadn't been able to get a place to give them a loan.  Preferred not to, but I can't be living here without a washer and dryer.  It takes way too much time to go to a laundromat versus having it here and being able to do other stuff while doing laundry.

Hopefully nothing else goes bad, but unless the AC quits, everything else is in good working order and even if it went bad, wouldn't cost much to fix or replace.  I had found a used set at an appliance store for a very good price, but she balked at the 30 day warranty.  I admit that isn't much of a warranty, but you figure if it's going to go out, it would do it within the 30 days.  I've had great luck buying people's used sets, they just want to upgrade if you are getting it from a wealthier family.  But this was at a store, that does give financing.  Anyway, they did what they wanted to do and I'm fine with that.  It's not on me, I have enough bills to cover, no, they didn't ask for my help and they mostly don't. They are quite independent people that really don't want handouts from anyone, they want to make it on their own. They both have great work ethics, there isn't really anything to complain about them at all.  They do the best they can with what they've got.

Well, there sort of goes my day anyway.  The reason I asked for another day off, I want one where I can go out and do stuff. I'm not totally complaining tho.  It's raining outside, just a lazy day.  I was going to make Salisbury steak tonight, but that plan is nixed since I can't go to the store.  Just going to have to find something to make that is already here.  Rene should be able to come over tomorrow after she gets her pre op stuff done and after she takes Aspyn to the vet - she needs a heartworm shot.  Mosquitoes around here are terrible.  Dogs get heartworm all the time if they aren't regularly treated.

Well that was easy. I buy rib eyes when they are on sale, there's numerous packages of them in there.  Just pulled out a 3 pack and walaah.  Bake some potatoes, throw in a veggie, grill the steaks and there you have it.

Well here we go with Sunday morning. Sleeping in until almost 10 am felt really good!  Tomorrow I'm asking Ann for a 3rd day off.  I really need a break from this rat race.  If I didn't go back to work until Friday it wouldn't bother me in the least. Of course, it might affect my paycheck....

But I did get up and fire up the smoker.  Wasn't sure I wanted to do that until I walked outside. Very nice! 73 degrees. A bit muggy but still feels good, that motivated me to fire the thing and let it smoke a while before putting anything in there. I just repainted it before I left on that last run and tho I didn't paint the interior, I still want to make sure any bad stuff is burned out of there. 

Maybe another half hour and then I can put my rack of ribs and my small roast in there, then find the recipe for the spicy meatloaf.  I think that only takes like 2 hours to cook so no hurry there. 

And that may be the extent of my doings for today. Tomorrow I can get down to business and get some stuff done. 

Okay, I might go up to Walmart and try to get some Koi again.  They don't exactly come rushing to the aquariums whenever you go in there to buy some.  In fact, you can push the button and not have anyone show up for at least 10 minutes.  Last time, I waited so long I just walked out of the store with nothing.  I didn't buy anything else and I can assure you, I am attempting to make Walmart lessor of a stop on my list than it used to be.  They run the mom and pops out of business and town, the money doesn't go back into the local economy it goes to the corporate giant. They may have great prices on things, but as long as I'm making decent money, I'll pass on it as much as I can.

On that note, there is a local company that is hiring drivers. It isn't hazmat or tankers and it doesn't pay as much - but - home every weekend and still making around 60 to 65 k per year.  I'm still trying to make it a year here at this current place, they don't make it any easier by rolling out new stringent rules about getting bonuses.  Staying out of accidents and incidents should count for something, that's what the ultimate goal of safety is. 

I'm going to try, after a year at this place and if I last that long, to find local tanker jobs.  It's worth a try at least.  Before delving into something completely different that doesn't pay as much. 

But enough of that and this entry, I'm going to relax and enjoy my day off : )

4 days since my last post.  I got up Wednesday morning early, went to the Dutch Bros. coffee across the street - 24 hour place, constant line, 24 hours a day, amazing considering this isn't a really big town or anything - got a coffee and a latte.  Got in the truck, got over to the plant. It's just on the other side of the Columbia River.  I mean, you get across the river, take the exit right there, and a few miles down along the river is this plant. 

The first thing I discovered was ample room for one of the new trailers.  I mean, whoever told my manager that this place isn't big enough to maneuver one of these things around in there?  Not a truck driver.  That's all I can say about it.  I found out later that the person that told her that no longer works for the company.  This plant hasn't been fired up in a year, well 10 months I think.  So, starting it up? Of course! It's going to be an elongated, wait forever delay.  I had no doubts about this which is why I took 2 coffees with me. 

But I hadn't slept well, the over pressuring on the tank was keeping me up and I felt like crap that morning.  Hours and hours sitting there, waiting on them to get their act together and get this place up and running so we could unload this trailer and I could get the Hercules out of there.  Finally get the product flowing - but their pressure was high.  Meaning I had to get mine really high to pump it into their system.  It took forever. I was at that plant for almost 8 hours.  That's a regular working day for a lot of people.  Not for me.  Got done with that place and hoofed it down the road.

But you know? I was exhausted and worn out.  I drove 210 miles and pulled into a truckstop and slept - over slept - actually - for the night.  3 days after that and I am finally home. 

Lots I could tell about the route back, but I'm just burned out from that trip and I just want to relax. Of course, getting back to the yard, I found a notice to all employees in my mailbox.  They "changed" their bonus requirements.  One of them I found laughable. If you get an overspeed "event", you won't get a bonus and you won't get one for 3 full periods after that.  Overspeed is when you are going over the company speed limit to the point the system automatically engages a "critical event" advisory and sends it to the company. Yes folks, you go 3 miles an hour over the speed limit of 65 mph and you get an over speed event and you lose your bonus for a long, long time. 

I'm sorry, but this company isn't worthy of my driving for it.  This is just  a copout, a way to say we don't want to give out bonuses so you have to be a perfect little driving angel and make no mistakes, whatsoever, or you're toast.  I've had 2 of these instances. The last one, I had the trailer brakes locking up for a few seconds coming to a stop at a light - a light where the speed limit is 75mph - yes even through the intersection.  It turned yellow, I knew I wouldn't get stopped in time without cranking on the brakes (oh, I was going 64mph, the highest speed that truck will go except for gravity pulling it down a hill).  Anyway, there was a car sitting right there at the edge of the intersection.  I thought, I'm not blowing this light with that car sitting there, that person pulls out and we're both going to have a very bad day.

So, I get dinged for using my best judgement.  I actually had to give an explanation to the company about why I had a "hard braking event".  This place can go screw themselves.  I'm going to try and last the full year that I had previously I was going to at least do, which I think is 3 more months and then I'm going full scale into looking for a new job.  Screw their purchase program, screw them. Big brother watching over your shoulder?  You don't even know what it's like to have this system recording every single freaking thing you are doing in the truck.  It's ridiculous and it's outrageous, IMO.

The CEO of this company was lamenting why they had hired a lot of new drivers last year and ... subsequently... alot of those new drivers quit.  Well gee, dude, if you can't figure it out, ASK THE DRIVERS. BYPASS your management that are saving their jobs and find out what's going on. 

Whatever, I'm not going to waste any more mental space on that tonight. I turned on a movie, I'm enjoying being home, Adler started punching me when I got to the other house lol.
He gets up on his hind legs and throws his front paws at you.  It's actually, uh, kind of intimidating. The dog is huge, the paws are huge, the power behind the paws is substantive.  But, I thrust him off of me and we go at it for a while and then we're all buddies again.  I dunno dog minds, but I think it's his way of showing his disapproval of me being gone too long and at the same time happiness that I'm back. 

Tomorrow, I intend on smoking some meats.  In fact, thank you for reminding me, I was going to make a smoked meatloaf.  Just want to try a small scale version of it. Like a one pound deal.  So I need to go and get some hamburger meat out, is what I'm saying, lol.  I want to spice this on up nicely.  Cayenne pepper, some red chiles and put some pepper jack in the middle of it.  We'll coat it with a spicy covering and call it dinner.  The kids won't eat it but there will be plenty of other stuff to eat.  Anyway, I pulled out one rack of ribs.  We traditionally won't eat 2 full racks, so one will suffice and I pulled out a beef roast that I bought on sale for it being at the end of it's shelf life. 

The roast is small and it's only a pound of beef.  The roast will be smoked for 2 hours and then wrapped up well in tin foil.  The ribs as well.  The meatloaf doesn't take as long to cook and I have to look up the recipe again. It's a pretty spicy version of it.  We'll have some potatoes with it, tho easier to make version such as tater tots and a cold salad of some sort.  There is going to be company over, more mouths to feed, but really I just want to do some cooking.  I want to be home for awhile.

This trip has given me some new perspective on things I will write about tomorrow or future date. 

But I need not go into that now. I really like this movie for some odd reason.. It's called Passengers and it's pretty crazy. 

Anyway, it's a great evening.  I'ts getting a bit late depending on what perspective I want to take. I'm going to bed around midnight, which used to be a very late hour for me, now seems to be a good bedtime lol. 

Pressure problems.
Old trailer, of course. It just has plain old insulation like the kind you'd find in your attic.
The new trailers have vacuum jackets that keep the temp down and keep the product from starting to boil, which starts the pressure to start building up.

I've spent hours of my time since I came to this hotel dealing with this nonsense.
There is really no way they should be sending one of these old trailers on a trip this far.
That's the end of the story. Apparently a driver told my manager that a new trailer - which is a bit over 10 feet longer - will not fit in to this plant. I'll find out tomorrow.

But now? I have to deal with it.  I spent 2 hours this morning fooling with this nonsense and then
felt confident enough to take off to Walmart to get a much-needed haircut.  I wanted a new pair of shoes, but they had nothing that looked appealing to me.

So, I bought some "Tide pods" and some dryer sheets - I need to do a load of laundry today or I will be wearing dirty clothes on the way back. I took a bit of extra clothing but 8 days worth is a lot of clothing to pack.  My bedding in the truck needs to be washed anyway, so a couple of loads.

But before that, I'm going back outside, let off some  more pressure and then hopefully walk up to the theater and finally see Alpha. Just depends on where the pressure is at.  I want to go to the first showing, later showings are too late. I want to do  my laundry after the movie. I will need to be at the plant at 6:00 am and happily so, I will be there.  I was up til midnight last night keeping an eye on the pressure, I finally just said screw it and fell asleep - for 3 hours.  I bolted up right out of a dead sleep, got up at 3:00 and yes, went out there and checked the pressure.

Fortunately, it cools way down here at night and that helps to keep the pressure from building up.  So, in 3 hours it had "only" gone up 4 pounds.  Now, in a new trailer, it wouldn't go up that much in 24 hours.  I'm wishing myself luck that the pressure will be good when I go back out there in a few minutes. But if it's gone up, I'll stand out there for however long and deal with it and hopefully have it to a pressure by the time I need to leave for the theater that will have it low enough by the time I get back that it isn't a serious issue.

One thing I am doing here? A lot of walking. Looking in the mirror, I just said enough of this.  Getting fatter and fatter.  I'm trying to do a work out program, but it's not enough. I'm going to have to do some serious changes to my eating habits, admittedly, that's going to be difficult.  I'm really trying but there is a lot more I need to incorporate on a daily basis to actually start losing fat.  The walking can't hurt tho.

Oh, speaking of walking, I stopped at Payless shoe source to get some shoes.  I don't much care for the quality of what they sell, but the sale price was good enough that I actually bought 3 pairs of shoes and 3 bags full of socks for $49.

Okay. Well I'm back in the room.  I'm watching the confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh.  I read earlier that there was a ridiculous outcry from democrats when it first started and that there were people protesting in the room.  In other words, total chaos.  Well, it's in order now, I don't hear any objections coming from Democrats and right now? There is a man up there absolutely reaming Congress for the way it behaves.  I don't remember his name, but he is very nicely articulating what a lot of us think about establishment politicians that are career oriented to save their positions of power versus simply doing their jobs.
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Another 50 minutes dealing with pressure.  Gag.  But I'm confident it will hold well enough to spend 3 hours doing the movies.  Just come straight back after it's out - and probably spend another hour at least with this nonsense.

But I am determined to go see the movie, It says it's only an 1 hour and 37 minutes, add half an hour walk time and wait time for the movie to start, short of 3 hours, I should be good.  It helps that the outside temp today is much lower than it was yesterday.

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Nice walk to the theater.  Very good movie.  Basically a tribe living in the wilderness.  They take a bunch of young men on a journey to kill buffalo.  Long story shortened: the son of the tribe's chief falls off the side of a cliff, thrown over actually by a buffalo, lands on a ledge way down below.  The father howls his name for what appears to be at least a full day, but the boy is unconscience. They leave him for dead.  The boy then wakes up with a vulture in his face, and then endures a long journey home, relete with a wild wolf that becomes his friend.  You kinda have to be into movies like this, otherwise you might find it boring.  Anyway, very happy that I finally got to go. 

Stopped at a place on the way back to have a bowl of soup and a salad.  Very taste and very filling.  Back at the hotel, gritting my teeth for what may face me with this trailer, it was up to 70 pounds.  Really, very much less than I thought it would be at.  I figured at least 80 pounds, so that was a nice surprise. I decided to get laundry going instead of standing out there for an hour and a half venting down pressure.  I can do that a little later when the sun starts going down and cools off a bit. 

Apparently the first day of hearings is over, or if not, they aren't showing any more of it.  I'm waiting to see the recaps of the beginning when "people" including the left politicians were allegedly shouting and freaking out.  Totally planned of course, stupid and non-productive. Unfortunately I have 2 loads of laundry to do considering I decided to wash my bedding, but it really needed it. I should have washed it before this trip, but then again, I didn't know I was going on this trip until the evening before I was to leave.  But then again, again, I should know that stuff like this can occur and be prepared at all times.  It was just getting dirty from extended use. 

Well that's my day, so far.  I'm watching the news, now about Nike and using Kaepernick as the new face of the "just do it" ads they do.  Of course, the resulting getting pissed off was expected, I'm sure Nike weighed the costs of taking such a move.  Kaepernick, quoted, says "the U.S. oppresses black people", which is a bunch of malarky and why I don't respect him or his "movement" whatosever, at all.  Virtue signaling, identity politics, using a platform that most Americans can see is simply the wrong place to engage.  I don't see Kaepernick or anyone of the kneelers out on the streets doing crusades and campaigns?  I consider them anti-American.  Use some other venue and more importantly, some other way other than dissing our Anthem and flag. 

But I hear it all the time.  "F*** your flag", from blacks on the internet.  I'm quite sure they aren't all saying that, but I have encountered a large number of them.  They try to claim they "built" America, which is more baloney loaded with fruitcakery.  They may have had part in it, but not all of America owned slaves at the time slavery was a thing.  There's all kinds of nationals that can be accredited with building America. 

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I'm completely worn out.  I need much of nothing to do for the next however many hours  until I have to get up - 5 am - to rest.  My laundry is almost done.  I just got done dealing with pressure once again. I'm pretty sure tomorrow is going to be a very long day.  First off, they are firing up that plant.  I was already informed to "show up at 6am and probably wait around a while".....well why have me show up at 6am if you aren't going to be ready?   But grin and bear it. 

My legs, however, are the biggest bearer of the brunt. I've done more walking in the last 24 hours than I"ve done in quite a long time. Calculated, yes.  I'm going to get myself back into exercise mode and that means doing things you might not want to do. 

So whatever.  I"m done with this one.

I'm in a small town by the name of Hermiston, Oregon. 
I mean, not so small that it doesn't have some amenities thankfully, cause I'm stuck here for 2 days.

I came in here looking for a hotel that has truck parking. The Best Western did, but was far outside of town.  Close to nothing. I was looking for walking distance to restaurants, bowling alleys, movie theaters, whatever might be around.  I called another place and they said they had truck parking.  I pulled up there, it had a canopy over the entrance and was EIGHT FEET HIGH. Truck parking? For giant Tonka Toys? So now I"m driving down a side street, find a place to park and park I did.  \

I had passed a Motel 6 advertising truck parking.  I haven't stayed at a Motel 6 since that fiasco with my son present on a sport fishing trip in San Diego.  Google: "The worst motel 6 in America", click on the one for San Diego, not for Bakersfield.  I did the one in San Diego.  A giant whorehouse.  I'm surprised I was as lenient as I was on that review, now?  I'd just lay it on them.  Staff fully cognizant of what's going on, lying about it and not giving a shit.  August 26, 2011! Doesn't seem that long ago.  They ruined my trip, period. 

I said to myself I would never stay at a Motel 6 again - even tho I had spent much of my adult life staying at them since they were usually much cheaper than everyone else, a nice enough place to stay in.  My tastes have risen since then.  I don't want to stay in shithole motels just because they are in a price range I like. But, the Motel 6 was the only place I could see - beside even much worse hotel properties - in town, so I pulled in, got out, got a room for 2 days.

I braced myself, walking into this place.  Well, first off, I specifically asked him - the desk dude - about the wifi. No, if you want good wifi you will have to pay extra.  How much extra?  $3 per day.  Well whatever,  at the end of the transaction he asked for $5 cash, said it wasn't going on a ticket - obviously pocketing it and not claiming it in expenses which is a whatever to me, I don't care.  I parked the truck out back, got my stuff out and then braced myself to walk into this place.  Plain white walls - they could have at least put up an off-white, but whatever, clean at least.  Hallway carpet in great shape, good sign.  I get to my room, put the card up to the reader - and then - stand there. 

How the Hercules did I end up in a Motel 6? I was wondering to myself.  I opened the door and was shocked.  Hardwood flooring,  fresh paint, 44 inch flatscreen tv, microwave, refrigerator, bathroom? In excellent condition! No mold or mildew, no chipped fixtures, really really surprising.  for a Motel 6.  but then again, it's been many years since I've been in one and like America's Best Value Inn, it appears they are all upgrading their properties to throw up some competition.  I'll tell you what led me to believe this might be a shithole: the swimming pool? Filled in with sand.  The exterior? In various stages of disrepair. The landscaping? Unkempt.  I can tell ya I don't care what the outside of the property looks like - IF - the inside of my room is in good condition.

Now then, I mogied on over to the restaurant next door, had hot and spicy beef - Asian restaurant, then went for a walk.  60%? Maybe - of the town open, the rest of it closed.  Weird, Labor Day doesn't really mean shutting down business anymore. 

Oh, before I go on, yes I called the plant again today. I wanted to confirm we aren't doing this today, or tomorrow - Would really love to! Get it over with and start heading home.  Uhh, no, we have it slated for 6 am Wednesday morning.  Lovely, I thought, I'll have to find something to do here.  Well, I did my walk and and saw a bowling alley and a couple of hair cutting places.  I've needed a hair cut for at least a week, I just haven't had the chance.  But the real thing that caught my eye was the movie theater.  I have been wanting to go see Alpha ever since I first read about it and subsequently, since some of my friends have really given it high praises.  The showing was at 1:00 pm and was .. 1:00 I'm looking at the clock and it's down the street.  I don't like missing the beginnings of movies or even taking the chance that I might, so, I cancelled that out of my mind and thought - tomorrow.  1:00 pm showing.  Pacific time, lol, 2 hours behind my regular time. 

So that's my agenda tomorrow, haircut and the movies. If I really feel like it, stop at the bowling alley on the walk home.  I'ts only a mile to the theater, the walk is nice, it's not too hot here.  I'll get a 34 hour reset in here. I contacted my manager about that - no reply.  Second reset on the road in a row with no free hotel like everyone is getting.  Whatever.  I'm turning the receipts in for this one, I don't care what anyone thinks, they shouldn't have sent me out 6 days in advance of a delivery that take 3 and a half days to get to.  Actually, it didn't even take that long.  Just over 3 24 hour days to get here from the time I arrived at the plant to fill up the trailer.  \

Speaking of the trailer, well there is a hissing sound coming from inside the back cabinet.  I am going back out there in a while to see if I can delineate where it is coming from. Air pressure? Or vapor?  We don't want vapors being released unintended.  And, the pressure.  It was up at 79 this morning,  and then again at 80 when I got here. Well, the automatic release valves go off at 100, I took measures to alleviate  that problem. 

Well I"m going out there, actually, to check it out again, the pressure keeps rising. These old trailers are not what should have been sent up here, but I know my manager wouldn't have done that without understanding that there must be an issue with space in the plant, as several places have. In other words, you can't get a trailer that is 10 feet longer in there, my guess. I'll find out in 39 hours from now.  Yup, I have that much more time before I have to be at the plant......

3 days of pushing it and I'm in a small little nothing town called Caldwell, Idaho.  A truckstop that has it's own motel and restaurant.  I didn't opt for the motel.  I'm not going to be here long enough to warrant spending the money on it. 

But its been quite the drive.  Hundreds of miles of just grass land.  Some hills, NO TREES!!  

Anyway, I got to the plant on Friday and the usual stuff. Get it loaded and get out of there.  I started heading west and realized I better start checking hazmat rules in all these states I'm going to be going through.  Usually if you're staying on Interstates you're fine.  I hate staying on Interstates but for hazmat I didn't have the time to do a detailed search of all of this, it just never crossed my mind until I was already on the road. 

Colorado is pretty strict about it tho, they have a map of the highways that hazmat can drive on and from the looks of it, it's confined to the Interstates.  In fact, the only thing that took me by surprise was a tunnel that just appeared in front of me after going around a curve.  Tunnels can have restrictions on them for hazmat, some states won't allow you to go through them. But they are always signed if that's true and there were no signs on this one, so I blasted right on through it. 

It was a short tunnel anyway.  I'm pretty sure explosives aren't allowed through tunnels, ever, but the same does not hold true for other hazmat.  It really depends on the state.  And come to think of it, I just remembered I have a Rand McNally truckers road map, I'm sure they have the restricted routes in there.  

The other thing I didn't remember about this entire several state region is all these railroad type gates they have on the Interstates.  They get snow up here, and blizzards and bad weather.  There were literally dozens of these gates over hundreds of miles span of driving.  With signs and yellow flashing lights if there is a shut down.  There are chain- up areas where if the weather is bad enough, you are required to put chains on your vehicle or you can forget about going further down that road.  The thing is, a lot of these shut downs - which were all at exits - were leading you off into the middle of nowhere.  I'm glad it's not winter and I'm glad we only come up here once a year and I'm glad that only occurs during the summertime!

Anyway, the most enjoyable drive of the trip so far is on I-84 outside of Salt Lake.  You get off of 80 onto 84. I wasn't on it long and started going down - and down - and down.  And shortly after getting on it, there is a river the runs right alongside the Interstate and snakes back and forth underneath the Interstate all the way down - and trust me, it's a long way down there.  The fun part was that all of these people were at a launch site near the top with white water rafts to raft down this river.  It's a small river, nothing huge, but really looked like fun!  

I'm 227 miles out, this is a 2,000 mile and change trip one way.  I'll have that done somewhere around noon or maybe a little later tomorrow.  Anytime before 5:00 pm is fine. I want to get a 34 hour reset. That's when you sit around and screw off for 34 hours so you can get a fresh 70 hour start.  And I'm getting that because I found out after starting this trip that I didn't need to be there until Wednesday morning. Why on earth they think I need 6 days to drive 2,000 miles I have no idea.  I could have started today and been there by Wednesday.

Well I sort of get it.  They are firing this plant back up.  I have no idea why it's shut down, but apparently they do this every year, so perhaps they shut it down to do maintenance and repairs?  All I know is, from the man I talked to on the phone over there, Ethylene is used in the process of firing it back up, the 2 go hand in hand and they can't do it with this trailer full of this liquid being there I can see wanting to ensure it's going to be there on time, but at my expense....cause I'll sit around and not get paid for the wait.  I will ask for a hotel for the reset at least.  I should be able to get one of the 2 days paid by the company for that.  Actually, a friend wants me to come visit her over in Salem, Oregon, it's like 236 miles from the plant.  

The problem with that is the plant has to agree to let me leave the trailer there, I can't just leave it "somewhere" unattended and rest assured the company isn't going to want me dragging it over there on personal business.  Speaking of that, the pressure is up to almost 70 pounds. That is starting to get high.  This is one of the old trailers I am pulling. It uses old style insulation instead of these new vacuum jacketed trailers that will keep the pressure down for almost 2,000 hours.  I'm likely to have to find a place to vent it down a bit.  

Well I just found out this place has free wifi, lol. Too late! Time to go to sleep : )

Absolutely amazing.
I was only told this morning that I was going out this weekend. 
As always, never know where.

So when she finally sent me the pic of the sheet with the next place to go?
Wow!
Washington!\
Wait, which Washington? 
I never heard of the town so I'm looking it up and it's taking me to DC.  No.
They don't have these kinds of plants in Washington DC, do they?  I mean, I guess.

So I'm looking at the directions - they always put final directions in there. 
After being on road whatever in Oregon....that was all I needed to see.

Washington state! That means I get to go through the Rockies, real mountains!
Scenery! God's natural beauty!

But then I thought, isn't that a long way from here?  2,000 miles one way.
This is going to be an incredible trip.  I'm not necessarily looking at this as work
besides all the paperwork I have to do along the way and getting Texas out of the way and
all that desert junk.  Through Mexico - not the mountains but the scenery there is majestic.
I'ts 3 plus days to get there.  I can drive around 600 miles a day, maybe more, maybe less
depending on traffic, weather, road conditions, construction work.  But even so, it's still going
into a 4th day to get there.

My trips to West Virginia are 2,000 miles round trip and that's 3 full days and a portion of a third.

So yes, I've got a lot to do.  Laundry is done tho.  The rest I will get to tomorrow morning.  It's a
later load, I can go to Walmart, Kroger's and the bank, get my stuff done and be ready to go.

Several routes to get there, but none of them take me through Arizona. Right on the crisp of it, yes
but not into it.  Just another thing I need to do but on a trip dedicated to it and not through work. 

I''m excited.  It would be more fun traveling with someone or even my dogs but I'll still make it a memorable trip.  I just have to look on the map and figure out where I'll be on any given night - where I could be I should say and see if it's where I want to be.  I would love a night up in the mountains - drag the mattress out of the sleeper and sleep under the stars. 

Maybe wishful thinking but it would be cool.

I will probably have to take a 34 hour reset out there.  Well yes, almost certain I will. Rather take that in the mountains not in the desert. I don't have control over that, you run out of hours wherever that happens, but I'm going to try and calculate that tonight. 

Anyway, around 8 days on the road.....

Home.
The trailer I saw yesterday? It wasn't ours lol.  Ours showed up about 2 hours later, I figured I would make it about 400 miles and then quit, get up in the morning and drive the rest of the way in.  Management changed that idea.  So, I drove until around 1:15 am, got the trailer back in the yard and crashed out in the truck, in the yard.  It was too late to go home and I was too tired to even fool with it. 

When I got up this morning, I found out that the plant had cancalled the load, they didn't need the trailer today and oh, btw? Thanks for letting me have that information.  I left that last part out, but geeze. 

Well I'm sitting here watching the McCain procession leaving the state Capital heading towards North Phoenix Baptist Church.  I don't get to see Phoenix streets anymore, lol, but I'm familiar with all of it.  I have mixed feelings about McCain.  He turned conservative/Republic vote to a RINO and voting on the side of Democrats on so many occasions, I kinda lost respect for him.  He should have switched parties or at least come out and said what the obvious truth was.  And then the spat between Trump and him.  Trump was no angel in that nonsense, questioning his "heroism" - McCain spent 5 plus years in a hellish prisoner camp and for that I had the utmost respect.

Still, disinviting Trump, the sitting President?  Yes, I heard all that went on, but McCain kept up this rhetoric until his dying breath. Wouldn't you be thinking about Kingdom come if you knew you were about to die?  Politics would be the last thing on my mind, having a feud with the President wouldn't even be on my list.  That's some deep seated bitterness, I hope he let go of that before he passed. 

Seeing Phoenix just makes me want to go back. Wish I had the time where I could drive back and not have to rely on Ubers for rides but it is what it is.  I've done rental cars, they want wayyyyy toooooo much money to rent a car.  It's rather ridiculous. Phoenix is literally full of Uber and Lyft, 24 hours a day, that's going to be my plan to get around. the only thing I won't be able to do is take a drive up to the mountains, a place I really, really miss. 

Well, on about the day.  I proclaim right now that I won't get a lot done here today.  I've been on the road for 3 plus days and I need to get laundry done plus I'm making some dinner, spending time with the doggies and that's about it.  I was "promised" that I would be sent out tomorrow, a thing I didn't ask for but if it's a short trip - no more than 2 days, I would take it and have Sunday off at least.  But it's whatever.  In 3 months or so I will have a 112 hours of paid time off deposited into my leave account and I will be planning on 3 or 4 different trips.  I dunno if they allow a week off, but that would be the first one. 

Okay.  Well I did get something done: Called Wells Fargo, spent a long time on the phone with them and got my online account for my retirement account established.  I originally talked with an American but was connected to a Philippino in an "offshore location" to get it done.  She didn't understand English very well and contributed to a much longer conversation than what otherwise needed to be.  She asked me a name I wanted to give my account an I spelled it out to her several times, she still got it wrong. She kept getting the spelling of my email account wrong.  This is why I very much dislike dealing with overseas "departments" of US based companies.  I understand they are saving money in using lower paid help, I also understand that they piss off customers with just such scenario as I have described.  I also don't much appreciate them using other nation's labor, I would rather see those jobs here. 

After endless back and forth, I finally have access to my account. I completely forgot about having them resend the rollover package because - this took sooooo incredibly long, it slipped my mind.  I'm not doing that today, one of these types of phone calls is all I'm willing to deal with today.  I need to get it done, yes, I will try again next week.

Chicken is in a brine right now, be ready in a couple of hours to cook.  Just chicken breast, won't take that long to cook in the oven.  This is the dinner I was going to make last weekend before I got called out - again.  I mean, this waiting until the end of the day stuff to deal with who is going where and what time you are loading is a bit nerve wracking.  No wonder other drivers have complained about it.  I have sat there and listened to the conversations - she always puts it on speakerphone.  I mean, we all have lives to live?  Plans?  Things to do? Things we want to do?  Hard to accomplish when you are put on hold until 6 o'clock or even much later. 

Trucking life, I get it, but still.  I only know that I am going out tomorrow.  It's only 2:00 pm - for which I am quite grateful. There are still plenty of hours left in this day to enjoy being home. 


Oh, and Donny. Well, he came out, offered an apology.  I just said I really have nothing to say about the situation - referencing him going on a Crack spree the entire last weekend - excepting taking my money off the kitchen table. That pissed me off.  He understood. He knows he screwed up.  That's great, what is going to change? I didn't ask him that, I wanted to go home, I'm sorry he's in misery, even more so since he doesn't have a computer, TV or a phone to play on.  I'm not offering any "outs" on this one. Pay back the money, thanks.  I don't care what he owes on all of those electronics.  If he loses them, he loses them.  That may sound harsh, but he stole my money, used it for his crack spree, then when that ran out, pawned off the rest of his stuff. 

Now, I'm still trying to find the time and the right frame of mind to start investing in the stock market.  Haven't gotten myself into that phase yet.  Trying to, but things are always getting in the way and I really need to be able to concentrate.  On a scenario such as today when it's today off and back out on the road? I might take a look, but getting into it fully is likely not going to happen. 

I'm getting to the point that I absolutely despise ATT.
I don't recommend anyone sign up with their service unless you are like, part of ISIS or something, then you won't be able to communicate with anyone and that would be great.
The fact of the matter is, they have very poor coverage in most areas that I go to.  Often times only 1 bar of signal strength such as I have right now.  It makes for very slow internet, considering the premium price I am paying for this service, I expect a heckuva alot more. 

All I wanted to do today was get on my account and check how much data I have left.  I knew I was using a lot, even with being at a hotel last night and using their wifi, and I was not wrong.  I have 19 days left on this cycle and I have used almost half of my data up.  BUT, the system had locked me out and I couldn't access my account.  I had to spend half an hour on the phone with these people to get it unlocked. 

Whatever.  Note to self: listen to your internal voice next time when these phones are paid off and do NOT go with ATT EVER again.  As much as I despise Verizon, they have the best coverage and the price is not any different than what I'm paying now.

On to other things. I am at the yard in Brownsville, waiting on this trailer to show up.  If I'm driving out of here today, I'd like it to show up within the next hour to hour and a half so I can make it back today. Otherwise, I'd rather just sit here another night, get more detention pay and spend another night in the hotel.  I'm up to 34 hours of detention pay right now, which is incredibly good.  I guess I don't care when it shows up, I'm going to leave regardless, just have to spend the night on the road somewhere.  I'd like to get a full day off in between runs is the only thing I'm barking about lol.

You see, the only reason, I found out, that I haven't been getting dumped with Cheniere runs is because the plant shut down due to some problem. Hence, I've been getting gravy runs ever since.  Twice up to Mapleton with one of those runs an overnighter with good detention pay, a trip to West Virginia and now 2 trips down here, this particular one having a gob of detention pay.  I definitely want to get back no later than tomorrow afternoon so I can get this run on next paycheck.   Oh wait, this is pay week, I have until next week for this pay period, never mind. This paycheck coming up should be excellent.  But, if Cheniere opens back up, which it is supposed to by Friday, well, you know the deal.  Crappy run, crappy pay.  My only contention with Cheniere is that it shouldn't be dumped on the same people, over and over and over.  Everyone should have to take one load down there, none of us would be going there frequently at all.

Well, that is, until the new Cheniere plant opens up.  It's more miles but it still isn't going to be a great run because it, like the plant we go to now, will eat up 2 days.  In 2 days on the road with one run, you want  a good number of miles to make it worth it.  The new cheniere is like 412 miles from the loading plant. Much better than this one that is 242 miles and wastes a second day.  But still, 550 miles is minimum I want for any given run for each day out.  The Brownsville run is 562 each way, which is very good because you can do it in 2 days unless, such as now, you sit and wait for a trailer. But, I'm making as much detention pay as the miles currently and it's still going up : )

Anyway,  I guess I won't watch any more  movies or streaming video until next week.  I don't want to pay extra money for access to the internet.  I can write in my blog, get on Facebook, etc, its the streaming stuff that eats up the data. 

In fact, if I am here much longer, I'm probably going to go to a cooking site and see about tips for certain things that I like to cook.  Really just want to expand my cooking horizon. I don't want to be limited to certain areas of cooking, that gets old. Not cooking it, but eating the same stuff.  I'm kind of limited because the lady of the house has some pickiness to what she will eat, I had to cut back on smoking because although she likes the flavor, she doesn't want to eat smoked food every single time.  Fair enough. 

But new pasta recipes and things to do with hamburger meat, some casseroles, just check out different types of cooking and see what's available. I really got away from cooking when Rene was living there and doing literally all the cooking - by her demand lol.  It wasn't that I didn't want to cook, just she did it and enjoyed cooking for us.  But, the crowd I'm around now - they neither like nor dislike cooking.  After working all day they just don't feel like it and frequently end up eating - non-dinner dinner I'll call it.  Just throw together stuff that is ok once in a while, but every night? Naw, no thanks.  One night I caught them eating crackers with sausage slices for dinner lol.  They say they like my cooking, I guess you never really know but I like most of what I put out.  A few things in recent times I overcooked slightly making it a bit dry, so I'm working on getting internal temps precise - meaning paying more attention to it when it's getting close to done. 

It doesn't take long to go over that perfect temperature for chicken or pork and end up with a drier meat than one would like.  Even plain chicken is good with just a few spices on it - IF - it is juicy.   It was really fascinating watching those chefs in that contest last night. They were sweating it big time because of the time limitations they put on getting the finished product done, but the diverse cooking methods were a learning experience to watch.

Okay, I guess I'll have to talk with my manager in person to get any info she may acquire about buying a truck through the company. I don't have the wherewithal to buy one on my own - tho they definitely allow that.  I guess in my mind if I am going to take on such an endeavor, I'd want to buy a company truck and have some assurances that if the engine or tranny goes out, there will be assistance to fix it.  You can spend 20 grand on rebuilding or replacing a diesel engine.  I have a buddy that owns a truck repair shop in Indianapolis.  It would be a go - to scenario in any type of expensive repairs if I could, indeed, get the truck over there.  He does excellent work and I could be assured of a finished product that isn't going to fail me.  Neither here nor there, but this idea has been in my brain for a while now. 

OHHHH YES!! I believe I am seeing the trailer I am to take back  up north! 

13 hours and 45 minutes so far.

Detention pay at hourly rate : )

There was a trailer waiting for me down here when I got here - Brownsville that is - but my manager said no, I need to wait for another particular trailer to show up. That was yesterday, I pulled in at 12/45 am - exhausted, out of it, but wanting to get here since I knew the earlier I get there, the more money I make doing nothing.

Now, I texted my manager earlier and confirmed - there is a trailer here, but you want me to wait for this other one?  Yes.  Okee dokee.  So that's that.  About half an hour ago, I went into the office of the person that runs this yard and asked if he knew when the trailer was going to show up? Well, it's sitting at the plant right now. We were going to have it here today, but for unknown reasons there is a hold up. It won't be here until tomorrow.

That's when I said fine, I"m going to a hotel.
See, they had me do that other run down here a few days ago for the same thing: a particular trailer. Except I didn't even pull a loaded trailer down here on that run.  I just wanted to confirm with my manager this is what she wanted me to do since it's going to cost someone a large amount of money to keep me down here - but that's what they do in this business and waiting is expected. She even said to me today: everywhere you go, you wait. Yup.

So, with that in mind and not wanting to sit in a truck for the rest of the day and all night, I did indeed go and get a hotel room at the place I normally stay in down here.  Clean rooms, well upgraded, very nice for $47.  It's sort of a gamble getting the room cause I don't know if they know that the trailer isn't going to be here today, but since I already asked her about it and she said yes, wait and  yes, it's a lot of waiting - I wasn't complaining at all - I can sit back and relax and let them do their jobs.  I have gone beyond what I am supposed to do - most drivers wouldn't even ask her, they would just go get a room right away and not even wait.  The only ones that don't are the owner operators, I don't think they get detention pay but since they're making so much money it doesn't really matter.

So whatever.  I'll be over there at around 8 am tomorrow and just sit there and wait until it shows up - tho I will ask again if it's showing up for sure?  People have waited down here for up to 3 days, this is nothing new.

Meanwhile, I also asked about the truck purchase program they have in this company. She didn't know the exact details, just that yes, they have one and she would ask her supervisor about it.  Okay.  I want the full details to mull over for a while and see if it's anything I want to get into.  I dunno what kind of truck, new or used (used tho, I don't want a note for $150k), how much the payments are, all the particulars on company help with discounted fuel and tire pricing, things like that.  There's no dentention pay but with the money you are making you don't need detention pay.  But, I want to see the fact sheet. What they expect and how it all works.

Anyway, it's after 3 now and no word from manager, I'm hoping to stay until tomorrow, that would be a huge payout for one run that's usually only 2 days.  At least 32 hours of sitting around pay, it only takes 2 hours of detention pay to pay for this hotel, the rest is gravy and more money than the actual run itself is worth.  Well I take that back. It's worth about the same as the run itself is worth.

Well enough of work. Donny sent me a message via Rene's phone today. He understands he totally screwed up. It's strange tho, it wasn't a "I just screwed up" and quit deal, it was a " screw up for 3 days" thing.  Not that I want to judge him.  But, when you are addicted to a substance like that, you both have to want to get freed from it and you really need people to help, preferably licensed therapists that have a plan to bring you out of it.  The thing is, you know it's getting to the "really bad" point when you steal other people's money and then after that, take your valuables and pawn them off.  That's not a casual user.  God bless him tho, I hope he finds his way out of this, he's going to pay back my money.

Meanwhile, what to do here? I think nothing but surf the net and check out whatever movies might be on.  Or play a movie on my notebook since it's free data useage.
________________________

Wednessday Morning.
I ended up finding this cookoff show on the Food Network that was pretty interesting.  They took accomplished chefs from various different cities and pitted them against each other in a challenge that I ended up watching 5 episodes, I think? before they had the final cookoff between the finalists and an ensuing champion. The reason it was interesting is because they only gave these chefs 30 minutes to come up with the various aspects of dining.  One was the appetizer, then the entree and then the dessert.  They gave these chefs some rather bizarre foods to have to make a delicious meal out of and it obviously threw some of those chefs for a loop.

It really was fascinating.  I'm trying to learn more about cooking and what foods work together and how to make different foods and what spices you can mix together for a good result.  Just a challenge to myself to become a better cook. I've gotten heavily into smoking meats in the last few years but I am also doing all kinds of other cooking based on oven baked to frying to crock pot. 

Anyway it's almost 8 am and I think I'm going to get out of the hotel and go play the waiting game over there.  I don't want to be sitting here when the trailer shows up over there. In reality, that could be 5 hours from now, but I'm used to waiting in the truck. Can't say it's a lot of fun, but the sooner I leave here the better chance I have to make it home tonight.  After around noon? Probably  not unless I really want to drive late at night to get it over with. 

Not much else.   I sort of miss the days of newspapers and sitting down with a cup and opening up the local and world news versus getting on the internet.  I guess they still produce newspapers, none available around here lol.