I got to the yard 3 hours early, my manager didn't even ask for that, but she called me 10 minutes after I got there: they're ready for you. Great! I'll get this over with early and spend quality time at home.  I mean, these people are my family and they consider me their family.  That's where we're at.  Of course I stopped at Waffle House on the way to work.

And there, I got into yet another Keto diet conversation. I sat at the "bar" as I always do so I will get served faster and get out of there faster. This lady sitting next to me said something about her fat belly after I said I to the waitress I didn't want bread or hash browns.  Well, it isn't I don't want them, I just can't have them.  So I brought up low carb diet option to get rid of it. The dude sitting on the other side of me chimed right in, yea, the Keto diet!  

This led to a 20 minute conversation with this lady about this diet.  Very restrictive, very results driven.  I can't do without my fruits!  Well, you don't have to do without them forever, go on the diet for 3 months and you'll likely lose whatever you want!  It's just interesting how much interest this diet sparks - it's really spreading like wildfire.  America doesn't have to be fat and there is an alternative to make it happen without even having to exercise.  

Anyway, I get to the plant and they don''t ... have...enough...product... to load the truck.  "We're making more right now".  I'm thinking, why did you call me in here? But it was only 30 minutes and the system automatically started pumping fluid into the trailer. I've come to understand that this plant is highly automated. There are valves that have to be opened by hand, but once that's done, the system takes over.  

Anyway, got that done, back to the yard, out of there, to the Petco.  I found out today that Walmart is getting rid of their fish sales nationwide - I called the store and they told me that and that they were sold out of their remaining fish. Well I'm not going to Petco anymore without calling them first.  They sell out on Koi fish quickly after they get them in. It's a void in this region that needs to be fixed.  People want Koi, Koi aren't available.  I visited enough homes in the Phoenix area with a Koi tank set up to sell them on the side.  A 500 gallon tank, order them 200 and more at a time, sell them at a profit. I don't have time for that if work is booming,  but I know someone who has a lot of free time, needs money and could earn a nice tidy profit if the business took off.  

I was going to go back into looking at pricing on large quantities of 2-3 inch Koi and 4-5 inch Koi, but I ended up over at the cop's house next door and visiting for several hours.  He's a huge Trump fan and brought out his 45 acp that is a Trump model semi-auto pistol.  Awesome piece of metal. High quality, only 1,500 of them have ever been made  Can you get me one?  It's a collector's item.  Sure, I'll see if my supplier can get you one.Talked politics and the fact that some freaking thief siphoned gasoline out of my SUV tank overnight and left my tank empty today.

Anyway, the day is done.  I figure to get up at 6:00 am and get out on the road in the truck by 7:30 am.  11 hours is about the time it takes to get there with fuel stop and mandatory 30 minute break.  All the way through Louisiana and Mississippi, over to Birmingham and up to Decatur, Alabama. 

Well, it's been a fun day actually.  I got done so early I didn't expect to have that much time at home.  And Taylor and James took off to Walmart so I spent a couple hours playing around with the boys. Besides going to work, I didn't actually "do" anything today lol.  

Well, off to bed.  I intend on getting up at 6:00 am and getting out of the yard no later than 7:30 am.  

So, these keto strips the Taylor got me have not shown me in any level of ketosis since I started using them.  They're not the same as the ones I normally buy - I told her where they would be found in the pharmacy area of Walmart, but admittedly they are easy to miss. There is a diabetics section there that has a bunch of products all sold in the same colored box. The keto strips just say Ketosis on the side, it's just easy to miss.

Now, I wasn't sure how long it would take to get back into ketosis after that wild cheat day and literally eating hundreds of carbs.  But, I decided to go up and buy the normal strips I get.  Checked this morning and walaah! In the moderate range, which is the range I am usually in.  It's not usually either dark purple or light purple, tho if I go a bit over on the carbs it will dve down into the lighter hue, but that always reverses itself by the next day.  I'm bound and determined to get down to 186 this month - it's June 1st and get the rest of the weight off before we go to the beach. 

Okay, that might be a bit of vanity. I didn't start this diet, tho, for the beach, but now that I'm near my goal weight, I want to push forward and get this over with.  My lowest weight so far was 193.  I jumped up 3 pounds after having that extreme carb day - but never went back over 200 pounds.  I won't have another cheat day until we go to the beach and then, I'll probably do one total cheat day, the other 2 moderate cheat days and see what happens.

I''m also going to do some light working out with weights.  Nothing extreme, just sort of get my muscles back up to looking decent.  I don't need to be a muscle man, at all. Lol,  I'm actually still quite pleased with the amount of success I've had.  I'm even happier that I've talked numerous people into starting the diet.  People I know, acquaintences, people on the internet getting into my inbox - can you help me with this?  I just give them a few general sites that have recipes and plans and also direct them to a few Facebook keto groups.

Tho, those groups have both normal people in them and total trolls, pretty much like any Facebook group.  The group I have been helping manage for a couple of years - it's a political debate group with 15,000 members - I was able to clean up and throw out all of the trolls over a year's worth of time of working on it.  I said that in the group once a while back - that it took a while to get rid of the trolls and what happens?  A troll pops out of the woodwork and starts blasting me about even wanting to get rid of them.  Trolls are only there to disrupt, make fun of people and throw any good conversation into mayhem and chaos. In our group, when a troll comes in as a new member, they stick out like a sore thumb.  Our group isn't perfect, but it's a far cry better than most of them.  It was worth the effort to create a decent atmosphere for debating. Granted the hot topics always get people going - the abortion debate has popped its ugly head back up and of course people go bat shit crazy with emotion when discussing it.

I guess abortion is always a hot topic during any Presidential election.  Trump is launching his 2020 presidential campaign this month, I think this coming week.  That will ignite the maelstrom of  emotional outbursts. This upcoming election is likely to be even more fascinating than the last one.  Because the socialist movement is growing stronger and stronger, plus strong Trump hate from the left leaders and outlets such as CNN hammering down, yet again, on the same old, washed up narratives. CNN ratings are down 26%, you'd think they'd learn.  But it's nothing more than a propaganda machine.  New polls have come out showing a vast majority of Americans - not just Republicans - do not want impeachment proceedings to take place, but left leadership is hot on the trail of a Trump impeachment.

I predict that if they go that route, it's going to go badly for Dem leaders in the coming election.  They want a majority of Americans, including republicans, to go along with it before they start it - Nadler has specifically stated that - they're delusional. After the Mueller report came out and showed no collusion and no obstruction, that was the cue for Dems to let it go.  Instead, they started up new investigations and wanting to subpoena and interview the same people that Mueller has already interviewed.  Mueller himself gave a statement to the press - his bias is  glaringly obvious. He is also a Trump hater and should never have been appointed as special counsel.  Someone with no bias and would do the job without using their own prejudice to guide them was what they should have found.

But, hence, Barr doing his own investigation into the investigators.  Brannon, Clapper, Comey, Page and Strohk should be concerned, IMO, from the way Barr is talking. 

Well, I'm just kicking back and watching the s*** show going on with dems tripping all over themselves renewing outrageous and debunked accusations and key players - especially Brannon and Clapper - obviously nervous, obviously concerned. 

Meanwhile, I've another "split" run.  Today I load, tomorrow I go out with it.  Not a fan. But it shows that we are still not that busy. There were 5 loads going out tomorrow, I got one of them.  There were better runs but I'll take this one better than nothing.  Unfortunately, the schedule up in the office at the plant only goes til Monday and they don't post the new one until after Monday.  So I have no idea what's available next week.  I only know that the 2 major contracts are both fired back up, that should help get us back to normal.  Sort of. 

Ooops. It's the beginning of the month.  Sometimes I forget about credit card payments.  I have them all paid down but I still use some of them for the bonus points.  My capital one card has something like $150 worth.  I haven't tried to use it yet, but I believe you can use it just like cash for purchases.  I'm not going to use it until it has enough money on it to buy something - nice.  That might be years down the road, lol. 

Well, I have to leave early today. My manager wants me there early enough to be able to get to the plant quickly if they call and say we're ahead of schedule, send the next driver early.  I wasn't in that position last time and my manager simply told me that I needed to "be in the area" if it occurs again. Meaning I have to waste my own time sitting around waiting. This isn't a problem with most other drivers because they live in the yard.  So, if that call comes in, they can leave immediately. 

So, Happy Saturday. 

So, some stock market experts are all over these announced tariffs that Trump has declared will occur if Mexico won't step up its game again the flow of illegals coming to our borders.  Namely, the caravans they simply let travel through their country without doing anything about it at all.  I've seen dozens of videos, Federales, policia and government officials just standing there, doing nothing while thousands of them walk on by them.  Mexico could do a heckuva lot more about the drug flow into this nation as well.

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Well that was earlier. The point was potential for making a lot of money investing in stocks that dive but are highly likely to come back up.  I'm not acting on that - yet - I'm more watching the trends.  I could risk a grand on something that has that potential and see what happens.  Well I could risk a lot more, but I'm not going to jump into this like that and I'm still hesitant to do anything regardless.  I really would like to learn more about the stock market than what I already know to be able to acquire that understanding of how to invest.

But I suspect it's much like anything else, get the head knowledge, sure, but experience gives you the upper edge.  My experience is 401k and attempting to have my money invested in higher risk stock. In fact, I have very little in lower risk.  I may be getting up there in years, but I don't have near enough money saved for various reasons that I don't want to bother going into right now. 

Anyway, it's Friday night.  I got my run "for the weekend".  It's going to Decatur, Alabama.  It's 20 miles short of the distance it is to Brownsville, so the miles aren't that bad. Not that great either, but it's a 2 day run.  Or is it? Nope, I'm pre-loading tomorrow.  How does that help me? The company has a rule I didn't know about until the last trip I took that if you preload a trailer, you will get a minimum 200 miles worth of mileage pay, on top of stop pay.  Otherwise, it's 22 miles round trip which is worthless.  I'll give my manager kudos for doing as much as she can - but there were far better runs available that I obviously didn't and won't get.  Brownsville being one of them. Brownsville has the high potential of detention pay, this trip, never.

The plant in Mexico simply cannot mitigate the problem getting across at the border, so they can't stop the detention pay happening at least occasionally, tho it's more like frequently.  It costs them a lot of money, tho I hardly feel sorry for a plant producing HDPE pipe.  Some of the most expensive pipe in the industry.  I have never seen a single truckload of that pipe coming up from there, tho.  And if they are shipping it through rail cars, why aren't they getting the product we haul through rail as well? A rail car holds 3 truckloads worth and cheaper transport.  Oh, yeah, cause rail takes forever.  And who knows how long it takes to get across the border. 

Whatever, I'll take what I can get at the moment.  I'll get back faster than all those other loads going out on Sunday, I'm hoping that works in my advantage - if - the manager's statement that "first in, first out" is actually true.  A 3 day trip after this one and ending on or before Friday would go on the week after this coming paycheck.  I have no clue tho what's coming up next week as the schedule at the plant only goes as far as Mondays. 

Of course, i keep my eye on the help wanted ads.  One company advertising "dedicated lanes in your area" with no further detail.  "call or text"  I texted and the person wanted to call me back. No thanks, just text me the details.  Dedicated lanes from where to where?  It was "light unload" and saying the boxes are light but you have to unload them, and that you start detention pay the moment you back up to the loading dock. Well of course, if you are unloading you should also be getting a stop pay. 

Whatever the case, manager wants me at the yard early - in case the plant calls and moves appointment time up. I'm not particularly inclined to show up hours early for no pay for the plant's convenience.  If they wanted to pay for that privilege I would be more amenable to it.  When we're talking early, it's 2 hours plus, not 15 or 20 minutes. 

Whatever.  I'll show up early to get the 200 free miles of pay. 

Anyway, it's getting late. 

2:30 came awfully early.  I had the alarm set at 3:00 am, but I always wake up somewhere in that range every night, just happened that it was half an hour before the alarm.  I'm not much of a night driver anymore.  I really hate it.  Especially if I'm not fully rested and doing that nonsense early in the morning.  That trip should have taken less than 4 hours, it took 5, cause' Houston isn't exactly the fastest place to drive in during rush hour.  I got that truck unloaded, drove 100 miles back, pulled into a truck stop and went to sleep.

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That was yesterday.  Got that all done and then heard about work on "Sunday".  I bit my tongue about referencing the fact that it was Wednesday. Sunday is 4 days off.  The point being the really good runs are on Sunday. There are  a few good ones before then, but the yard is full of trucks, it seems likely the way she was talking that I won't be working again until Sunday.  3 more days off, having just finished a run that is rather worthless and will be the only thing on my next paycheck.  And looking at the other company that is taking a lot of the loads that used to be solely ours......

Annnnnnnddddddd....she is still bringing in drivers from other divisions??!!! To do what? Sit in the yard and not work?  These OTR drivers should be getting shipped to the hot markets where they are complaining they don't have enough drivers to cover the loads.  Not to a yard where there aren't enough loads to keep the drivers busy.

Well, I have 100 hours of paid leave time left.  I dunno if/when they expire, I need to find that out.  I'm going to use some of it up for this upcoming trip in July - if we go.  I mean, it's all set and things, but stuff happens.

I've been looking at trips to various places around the world, I found a few that look intriguing.  I also found a couple of cruises that look inviting.  I keep putting such things off because work keeps slowing down and i don't want to get caught in a financial bind. 

Meanwhile, maria declared she can't afford to live at that house anymore.  Okayyyyy......she has an offer to move to Minnesota and take care of an old friend's kids - the mother has leukemia I think she said.  I wasn't going to try to convince her in any direction. That's a decision she needs to make on her own, but if she wants to move, that's okay by me.  My dogs will survive at home, they'll just be like other doggies that are outside all day long. 

But, I asked  her what she was lacking?  She doesn't like asking for stuff, I get that, so I haven't really pushed her on that.  But she started talking about having to eat Ramen noodles and other basic necessities that she has to do without.  I mean, really.  I'll always help people with food.  If I had known I would have been doing something about that long ago.  We have 2 freezers full of meat, she is welcomed to some of it.  You have not because you don't ask........  Well, she has to get that room rented out again. The lady that moved in moved back out. She wanted to party all the time - even tho she was informed it's not a party house before she moved in.

That's a "whatever" thing. She paid the rent for the month. I need that room re-rented, tho, before the end of this month, which is almost here.  She was a bit surprised when I told her how much an empty room costs me.  It's not free, lol.  I explained to her the whole reason we got into that house, she already knew most of that info but apparently needed a refresher.  We need all 3 rooms rented out to be able to pay for it.  Well, you aren't really covering everything with 3 people in here at the rate you are getting. Nope, but it's not much and I don't mind for the exchange of watching my dogs, that's what the whole premise of this situation started as in the first place. I go on the road, Rene would watch my dogs.

But note, that Rene wanted to watch my dogs. It wasn't a chore for her.  So, Maria wants to stay, but at the same time probably needs to get a little less picky about who moves in.  Yes, we don't need nutcases but on the same there isn't anyone on the planet that don't have their little quirks.  Anyway, she said she actually wants to stay. She's made numerous friends in the neighborhood and is getting nicely settled in.  I hope this can continue to work out, but I won't be devastated if it doesn't. 

As for today, I am babysitting a sick little boy.  He isn't really that sick tho, it just started yesterday and the day care says they won't take him back for 24 hours.  I volunteered since I'm home - he's pretty easy to watch once parents are gone.  It's when parents are home he turns into the crying machine.  I dunno, but I got him cereal and juice, he's all happy lol.  Well, he's running around full of energy, so I really don't think he's sick anymore, which is a good thing because I am going to Walmart today and I may go to Kroger's and buy maria some hamburger meat that is on sale. 

Well, wish me luck. I'm off to Walmart with a 2 year old in tow, lol. 

Somewhere around 300 carbs consumed today, lolol.  That's 15 times the amount of carbs allowable on any given day with the keto diet.  Pasta salad, deviled eggs filled with carb filled contents, tortilla chips and dip, a giant baked potato, the pint (or quart? ) of Ben and Jerry's, of which I found out that thing had 4 servings and added up to 100 carbs in and of itself! lmao. In fact, it's probably much more carbs than 300.  A lowball estimate. Doesn't really matter, it kicks you out of ketoss and may take days or even a week to get back into it.

But, I am down as low weight as I have been in - in years.  I might gain a pound or two from this excursion, but probably not that much and not worth worrying about. It was planned, not a cave-in.

I got the giant planter planted, finished cleaning the back patio, brushed Aspyn - and brushed some more- and more - and filled an entire trash can full of her hair. Then I bathed both dogs.

In the middle of washing the dogs, Maria showed up with her deviled eggs and the wonderful pasta salad.  We ate a huge dinner.  Steak is great! But after not having pasta or potatoes for as long as I have gone without it?  I focused on that instead.  A nice long walk in the morning will help burn off some of the carbs.

It's been a very productive 4 days. That's over now.  I don't have to go to work until afternoon tomorrow and I am only preloading a trailer.  But I've done enough work around the house.

Aspyn is, for some reason, terrified of the ceiling fan.  She just sits there, staring at it with her ears held back and a very - bad - look on her face.

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Memorial Day shindig over and done with, Tuesday morning.  Actually, the only person extra that showed up was Maria, the other couple stayed home and "slept", but we had a good time anyway.  We tend to be able to have a good time without any outside influences, ie: more people.  Maria fits right in, she has the same type of sense of humor.

I have changed my plans for today as well. My load time isn't until 2:30, meaning I won't be out of the plant until at least 5:00 pm and possibly later.  Hopefully not later tho because I really need to be able to leave around 3:00 am from the yard with the load.  Regardless of how that goes, it seems a waste of time and fuel to drive all the way back here/home, be here for a couple of hours and drive all the way back over there.  Therefore, I'll drop the dogs off over at the other house before I go to the plant and just stay over there today.

The news, lol.  It's getting quite humorous.  It's been humorous.  Barr is expected to do real investigations and dem leaders are freaking out.  I wonder whyyyyyyy?  The left online saying we should just "drop it" and stop these endless investigations. Yup, well the right is just taking after the left, right? No pun intended.  In fact, Nadler is full steam bore onto more investigations, attempting to hold Barr in contempt of court and going after Trump's tax returns.  But we should stop these investigations?  Tell your dem leaders that and then get back to us. 

And the border. Now, the guy that started a GoFundMe for money for a border wall is actually starting the process of building it - on privately owned lands.  The left also took snipes about that one saying the money wouldn't be spent on a wall. Duhhh, is all I have to say about that. That guy would go down in flames if he were to do anything but use it on the wall.  A bunch of money has been refunded from those donations because he didn't come anywhere near a billion dollars, which was the goal and apparently a promise he made, or maybe it's GoFundMe rules? I dunno.  But, a bunch of money was kept because those donors said go ahead and keep it anyway and a single donor came along and give 6 million to make up for the amount that was refunded.  Stay tune for more: who knows what dems will try to do to stop this from happening? How can you stop a wall from being built on private land? And more to the point, why would you care if a person wanted a wall on their private property? 

And thennnnn, the freshly emerged abortion debate. Same old arguments from the left who want women to be able to have abortions into the 3rd trimester? Nope. They've come out with new ones now. Just as lame as the old ones, but give them E for effort.  Apparently abortion is going to be used as a campaign issue by some of the left candidates.  One of the new ones is a man needs to control his sperm.  They go on to say he should somehow stop it?  The argument is utterly ridiculous.  They think that because the sperm violated the woman's uterus, that in and of itself makes abortion viable.  I simply brought up the fact that the lady spread her legs and allowed that guy's penis in there and of course they tried to shoot that down.  It's interesting to see what they keep coming up with if nothing else.

And that's my take on politics.  Excepting for China and tariffs. China is an existential threat to world safety.  If you don't believe China is out for world domination, you aren't watching what's going on or you are listening to your masters of propaganda at CNN and MSNBC, among others, pumping out disinformation.  This isn't just about the 2 economies, it's also about the war chest China is building and the ever increasing in size military complex they are building, including the man-made islands they have been building for years now.  The arguments that Trump tariffs are hurting the US economy fall on deaf ears over here.  This situation has been talked about endlessly for years, if not decades and nothing has been done about it. 

Talk til' you're in your grave, at least Trump is attempting to do something about it.  China isn't our friend. They are a Communist nation that carries off their own people to labor camps with no trial or judge, they kill their own people and they beat them. They encourage neighbors to spy on neighbors and they have been oppressing their own countrymen for hundreds of years.  They want the world, that's a fact.  Don't be deceived by false news stories.  Just look at history, then look at what China is doing to build up their war inventory. 

Well, enough of that, time to be off to work!

G'day. 

4 days off, this being the 4th. Tho tomorrow is only a preload, then get up really early the next morning to drive down to Houston.  And then probably another day off at least unless these plants have reopened.  Don't really know. 

I blew the diet - preplanned - today and will resume with much more intensity tomorrow and going on for the next month or so until i can shed the rest of this fat and weight and be done with it at least temporarily.  If I can get down to 185, that's when I will switch to a low calorie diet, but not necessarily low carb.  In fact, likely not low carb.  Just not high sugar content. 

But, today? I just ate a pint of Ben and Jerry's chocolate something or another, it's chocolate plus chocolate lol.  I'm eating a baked potato for dinner with some pasta and that will be my cheating. Second time in - 2 or 3 weeks now?  Real ice cream - tho I should have gone to Dairy Queen and had a Blizzard, too late now, that was quite a bit of sugar I just consumed, I don't really want to do anymore.  The potatoes are just high carbs as well as pasta.  I'll be out of Ketosis for at least days, maybe a week or more.  So,, along with going ultra low carb after today, I'll also keep calorie intake down to around 1,200 per day. 

I actually can't wait for the baked potato : )  Load it up with sour cream, cheese, chives and maybe some bacon bits. 

Tomorrow, I will eat nothing but cream cheese, which will help kick start getting back into ketosis. 

As much as I didn't want to do anything today, the flowers we bought a few days ago couldn't wait. They dry out too easily in those little containers, they needed to be planted.  So, got that done as well as more cleaning out back.  The next chore and final for me today if I even get it done is to bath both dogs.  THAT is a CHORE.  A Great Dane that hates getting bathed - I will be soaking wet by the time it's done.  He'll sit there and keep shaking it all off and of course, all that water goes flying everywhere.  I'm debating it.  Really would be nice to end all of this activity around here and get some free time.

I finally found a boat! It was local and everything! Until I saw the size of the motor.  25 horsepower for a 20 foot pontoon boat? So go maybe 15mph with it loaded with people? BOOORRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGGG.  If motors didn't cost so much I'd just buy one of those local boats and switch out motors . I saw a 150 hp motor going for 2 grand lol.  No thanks. 

Well, I'd like to find a good war movie for Memorial Day today, but, for some reason? there aren't many on.  Didn't used to be that way, Memorial Day was one of the days where they'd load up the channels with all kinds of oldies but really goodies. 

I haven't tried smoking a brisket in a  while.  I"ve got other cuts of meat down pretty good, but the brisket remains a curiosity, as I have followed instructions on how to smoke it and have come up with dry meat.  Which isn't very good.  At all.

The last brisket I did came close, tho.  I just got done reading a site that says to cook it 12 hours at 225 or until 195 to 205 degrees.  Perhaps I'm getting it up to 195 too quick, I'm not really sure, but it takes half a day to get it there in a smoker.  Well brisket is finally on sale again, so I'm going to try this again.  Probably tomorrow.  I guess I could today but I'd have to run up to the store right now.

There is one thing tho that I read that might be making the difference: I haven't trimmed the fat off the meat down to 1/4 inch, and apparently not doing that can mean the difference between success and failure.  So, this next one I"m following the prep instructions to a T and see what I come up with.

I just didn't want to try brisket at regular price - it's not the cheapest cut of meat and if it gets ruined, it ends up being dog food.  At least there's one upside to  a failed attempt - the dogs will wolf the stuff down like it's prime rib.  Oh, I want to try smoking a prime rib.  That would be easy, much easier than this brisket thing.  Just smoke it to about 122 degrees, pull it out, let it stand for 20 minutes and walaah.  perfect prime rib.  Or pull it out earlier for redder meat.  But, not everyone likes eating next to raw meat like I do so I usually cook it til it's somewhere in the medium rare range.  Still red, still nice and tender, still juicy, just a bit more cooked.

Kroger's is having a meat sale extravaganza, they usually do the week of/before Memorial Day. The brisket is $1.67 per pound, St. Louis style pork ribs are buy one get one free (yes, I know they usually up the price of it for such sales but it's still a great deal), T-Bone steak is $4.77 per pound ( that's also a great price), I think there's something else, salmon I believe also on sale.  We're going shopping today to stock up the second freezer.  After this, I'm going to stop buying meat for a while and start working on emptying out the first freezer in using up everything that's in there.

Anyway, I may try the brisket tomorrow.  I've really got the temperature thing down pretty good on the chip smoker, it's not that hard to keep a constant temperature as long as you keep an eye on it here and there and adjust the air intake and the exhaust to keep that temp in as near the same range as possible.  Firing it up, you just have to give yourself time to drench the charcoal, light it up, get it hot and then get your chips and even small logs on it.  Walmart sells huge bags of small logs of various types which are perfect.  You put one log in the firebox, put some wood chips around it, get the fire going and then shut it up, close up the air intake and walaah, you are in the 230 to 250 temp range.

That isn't the only thing going on today, but Taylor asked if we could go together.  Sure, why not? Hopefully earlier than later tho.

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Well, yesterday was hopping. Not just to the store for meat sales, but also to Lowe's for flowers and then, I ended up buying a smoker/propane grill combo that I've been looking at for at least a year now.  Finally just said let's do it, tho she wasn't asking me to buy one. The current grill is busted, the bottom fell out of it and it's time to move on from it. It did it's duty well for at least 3 years.  Considering how much grilling we do, that's a long time for a grill to survive.  The one I bought is much heavier duty, actual steel plate versus the - whatever that thin stuff is they use on those propane only grills - and should last many years. 

But, we busted @$$ yesterday and did a massive property clean up both front and back yard.  It looks so much better out there now.  We should do that once a month and just keep up with it. But by the time we got everything done, planting those flowers was out of the question.  It was 5 pm and I had had enough.  So had everyone else. We went out to a mexican food restaurant where I had, finally, some authentic carne asada steak. I love that stuff.  The kids - mostly - behaved for that outing.

Arriving back home, Taylor apparently had a wild idea to jump right back in the truck and head over to a manicure place with James. Will you watch the boys? Sure! I was done for the day, the boys are relatively easy to watch since they mostly entertain themselves.  Shortly after they left, a pair of their friends showed up, lol.  I entertained them for an hour or so before James and Taylor finally showed back up and then absolved myself of social functions as I was exhausted. 

It's now Sunday morning.  I'm going to smoke a brisket in the new smoker, tho I need to get out there and get it going so I can get the smoker cleared out of any harmful chemicals- ie: smoke in it for a while before even attempting to throw any meat on there.  And of course the flowers to plant - later on.  They won't die if we don't get to it this morning lol. 

Yes, I have the brisket warming up to room temp in the kitchen, really need to get this show on the road.

So, the recent storm in Oklahoma shut down the plant - the entire town actually.  Highway 11 was flooded, no one was passing through there and the town's electric went out.  Like the entire town. Not that the place is that big, but still.  The plant uses copious amounts of electricity to run and I haven't seen any generators on the property.

So at least for this weekend there are no runs going up there.  To further exacerbate the situation, the plant in Mexico - the Brownsville run - is also shut down.  Something - major - in the plant is broken.  Well, there goes the weekend.  I just checked the schedule, there will only be 3 runs going out this weekend because of all of this.  Actually this is only Thurssday, so I don't expect to see another run until at earliest Tuesday. That's my guess anyway, since I just got into the yard yesterday and there were 8 trucks sitting there.  Meaning all those trucks have to go out on runs before I will get anything. 

I'll know after today what if anything is going to come my way for the weekend.  If it's a 3 day weekend - at least - well, Monday is Memorial Day and so, a holiday off.  Or, if I'm working on Monday, I get paid a nice little extra bonus.  It would be nice to have 3 days off - but not 3 unpaid days off lol.

I've grown rather frustrated with the boat search.  The only ones available in the price range I'm looking at  are hundreds of miles away.  Anything local either has too small of a motor on it or the furniture is in need of being redone and the carpet.  Why would a manufacturer of a large boat put a 25 horsepower motor on it?  That's barely enough to make the thing move.  125 horsepower or higher is better. I saw one with a 90 horse on it, but it was 300 plus miles away.  Just not worth driving that far and then potentially seeing it isn't what you expected and have wasted a good deal of time driving for nothing. 

I'm teetering on the verge of getting a couple more 4 wheelers and calling my boat search over with.  Or, not getting a pontoon boat and get a fishing/skiing combo.  They aren't as big and won't hold near as many people, but certainly would be fun. They are cheaper than pontoons as well.  At least the older versions of the same year range as a pontoon boat.  There's a couple of boats I let slip that I now regret. But, I wasn't serious about buying one at the time. The one with a 350 chevy engine that was 24 feet long and could do 65mph on the lake - that one I should have bought. 

Any good ones locally are 8 grand and higher. Just not going to spend that much money on a boat right now.  I mean, I could go into payments and such, just don't think a toy should be bought on credit. 

Well, I've been invited to have lunch at Chili's today. Can't turn down an offer like that! 

However, I have a list of things to get done on these potential days off, must get to it.

Well, stuck in Brownsville. How long, I don't know. I figured it a good sign yesterday when I saw 3 of our trucks heading up from here - and only an hour and a half away.  I thought - no way is there any trailers down there now with that many just freshly removed from their yard.  I was right, fortunately, so now I get to sit on the detention clock.  At a hotel, but of my own purchase.  They changed their deal down here, you only get a hotel if you stay a second night.  I wasn't feeling too good - 2 hours sleep and still getting over this bug - so I decided to take a stay at the America's Best Value Inn.

It's actually a decent hotel for the money. I've stayed here before on my own dime. But now, they've changed out all the bathroom fixtures from old rusty junk to new, modern looking outlets and valve handles. They replaced the entire bath tub/stall and the toilet.  The furniture in this room has degraded a bit - people obviously dumping food (or whatever) onto the couch and the chairs. That all needs a good shampooing.  But, everything else was great and I slept very nicely.

It's still early tho, I had thought about heading over to the yard and seeing if they know when/if a trailer is coming in. The dude usually has a pretty good ball park estimate.  Not always, but usually close.  The border situation hasn't gotten any better, so trucks are stuck in line for up to 10 hours at a time.

Meanwhile, the national tragedy that is known as the House of Representatives continues on with this ridiculous nonsense of seeking to find some criminal wrong doing with Trump so they can get rid of him. They aren't doing their duly elected jobs.  There have been 4 investigations now, FOUR of them, into Trump and whether he colluded with the Russians - all of them have resoundingly stated no, he did not.  Anything Trump says or does, the left calls him engaging in an act of obstruction now.  It's mind bogglingly outrageous. Thankfully, we have an AG named Barr who is going to get to the bottom of who/what/where/why this all started and I can predict it will go very high into the Obama administration.

Taylor - has been out of sorts ever since the uncle left.  I think she is seriously thinking about moving to Missouri.  I don't know what to think about that.  This is her favorite uncle and he's inviting her up there.  I think I'm just baggage that will probably need to go away and find something/somewhere else if that occurs.  Like go live on a beach or find a place in the mountains.  I just don't think I'd fit in in with that guy.  We didn't exactly clash at first, but I could tell there would be some tension.  Who knows? Would be a rather awkward move, I think.  It isn't anything on the near horizon - yet.   But, when Taylor gets something in to her mind, it is likely going to happen.  I'm just wait this out and see what happens.  The uncle invited her to come up and spend a few days visiting up there. If she does that, I'm 100% certain she'll come back wanting to move.  Just another bridge to cross in the game of life...would I move up there or just find something else to do?

After 4 Oklahoma runs in a row, the drought is over.  At least for one run. I have a run down to Brownsville.  This particular run would really be nice if there was some detention pay to make up for all of this nonsense of driving back and forth to Barnsdall and not making much money doing it.

Another plus side to not having had to go to Barnsdall today? Tornadoes and flooded roads. To the point the manager put out a mass text to everyone informing drivers that are going up there to use highway 123 - coming out of Bartlesville.  I used to take that route when I'd hang out overnight in Bartlesville instead of going to Barnsdall - where there is literally nothing but a small gas station and a restaurant that closes early. The roadway apparently was flooded on highway 11. 

And, that restaurant isn't open on Sundays, I found out on Sunday when I got up a bit early to go over and get a bite to eat.  Didn't really matter, that is the time I was starting to feel pangs of sickness which exploded on the way home and now - finally starting to feel better. 

Ahhh and watching the news there were 20 tornadoes that touched down overnight in various places and the tornado threat is still going - and some in Oklahoma of course.  I either got very lucky in not going up there or God is watching over me.  I'll take the latter.

I haven't checked the weather towards Brownsville. Not usually tornadoes going down there, but a lot of heavy rain is possible.  Uhh, yeah, I'm going to hit rain but if the radar is correct, it won't be anything too serious.  I'll hope the radar is correct - last time I hit heavy rain, well, Houston was a disaster. 

And with that, I'm outta here. 

4th consecutive Oklahoma run over.  Started feeling really bad a few hours out from the yard yesterday tho. I mean, like pull over in a rest area and sleep for 35 minutes bad.  Even after that it was a chore to make it back, get the end game paperwork done for the run and get home.  But I made it home, dogs in tow, and went to bed at 6:00 pm.  On the way into my bedroom, tho, I was informed that there was stomach bug going around.  That kinda of spoke to why I wasn't hungry.  12 hours of sleep later and I feel much better. 

Hopefully this passes completely before the day is over.  Tho, the schedule  - which is allegedly for the plant employees only to see (sitting in plain view of drivers that have to go in there and wait) - and now is sitting on the table on our office -shows not much work available for the next couple of days.  Of course, there are Barnsdall, Oklahoma runs on there, but there are always the Brownsville runs as well.  I'm still questioning this idea that it's "first in first out" nonsense and even if true, it's ridiculous that one person or even more than one could get stuck on runs that don't pay anything. 

Either way, the process is totally flawed. 

An idea that has been floating around in the back of my head for  a while now is simply to switch over to the fuel division of this company. But that would mean driving to Shreveport back and forth everyday - which I used to do with the old job - I don't miss that kind of wasted driving just to get to and from work.  And another idea - drive for Gemini, who supplies the Love's travel centers with fuel.  They run a class act from what I've seen and the drivers are making around 75k per year.  And, they're home every day.  I dunno if they'll hire without specific experience in fuel hauling tho.  They're also pretty far away for a daily commute type of thing. 

Much of the rest of the local stuff around here doesn't pay enough money to make it worth switching over to. Such as the oil job that pays $13.00 per hour!  Lmao, they guy tried to convince me that I could make "good money" simply by doing a LOT of overtime!  SCREW THAT. But, that's a taste of what the local jobs are paying around here. The really lucrative business of hauling for fracking operations means you are automatically out for 3 weeks at a time.  Staring out at 120k was temping until I found out that little piece of info.

Today? no plans whatsoever.  Sit around and get better. 

Look at boats lol.  Lots of them on there, all of the ones that catch my interest well out of my price range.  Plenty of stuff to do - always - no interest in any of it. 

Tornadoes at the town where I live.  Well, several tornado sirens, whether there were any tornados, I have no idea, but I was certainly getting people texting me about the sirens.  They went off 3 separate times plus phones being blown up with weather alerts.  No doubt about it, not the most pleasant place to live at certain times of the year, especially people that get very anxious about tornadoes, the sirens – they are a bit intimidating but they are designed for that and all the warnings that blow up your phone.

I’m not there.  In fact, all the recent tornado warning events? I’ve been out of town.  I did drive throw some seriously heavy rain earlier, but I drove on out of it.  It wasn’t a big deal tho, hardly any traffic on the road anywhere I was driving, even through the towns.  People apparently decided that on  a Saturday and with the weather? Stay home.  Fine by me!

I’m on the Barnsdall run for the 4^th consecutive trip.  I don’t actually hate the drive or whatever up here, I just hate the lack of money involved with this run because of lack of mileage. 

Anyway, driving up here? I saw 4 of our trucks heading back down – and I mean late in the day.  That wasn’t a good sign.  They can only use so much ethylene in their production.  I looked at the loading schedule – I take a photo of it every week now from the plant to see what is going where - one of those trucks would have had to been up here for 2 days.  Huh?  

Well I got up here and saw 2 of the 3 loading spots with trailers on them - meaning they are full and waiting to be unloaded.  The question is: do we get paid for waiting outside the plant when they don't have an empty trailer available?  I have no idea.  Everything has changed with this merger and I haven't had to do any wait time up here since before that merger, no clue.  My manager is off for the weekend and I'm not going to bother with this other individual running the show.  I doubt she would know, but it's not that important to me to find out tonight anyway. 

And, my bedroom is occupied again, lol.  The grandma is sleeping in there - I did offer since I am on the road tonight.  

No boats of interest yet in either FB marketplace or craigslist.  Well, there are certainly a lot of very nice units advertised, but will out of the price range I am looking for..

G'nite.

So the Barnsdall saga continues.  It will be my 4th trip up there in a row.  There were 2 brownsville runs available today and I think 3 of these worthless Barnsdall runs.  My manager stopped responding a few days and now has taken the entire weekend off, shifting this onto another dispatcher.  Wasn't worth trying to start talking this conflict with a person that has no involvement with it, so I just said thanks, have a great day after this person sent me the run. 

There is no way in hell that I just "happened:" to come in at the time that it would set me up for 4 Barnsdall runs 4 times in a row.  I don't know what the odds of that realistically happening per chance, but I'm sure it's quite high.  She does this with other drivers as well.  Now she can shirk responsibility - but note that she assigned these weekend routes, that wasn't done by the other dispatcher, the other dispatcher just sent them out via text. 

I'm beginning to get highly annoyed with this situation. 

Meanwhile, these people that installed the bathroom cabinet with sink in my bathroom did a lousy job of it. The simple plumbing set up is leaking, I don't know how long.  The set up they used for the pipes is ridiculous and dumb.  I'm going to have to change it when I get back from this run.  It didn't ruin the wood inside the cabinet - but I don't use that sink all that often so it's really no indicator of how long it's been leaking, but it shouldn't have been leaking at all.  I can only say that I only used them for that, after hearing that the main guy is an ex felon and has been stealing from my neighbors, I quit using him and ignored his text messages. 

The house has more guests. This time, a surprise visit for one of the grandmas.  The grandmas and uncle were heading to Missouri, but they had planned this over a month ago.  Bring grandma here to see the youngest son and visit for a couple of days.  She was totally surprised.  I offered my room - tho honestly I didn't feel like giving it up again after just being out of it for 5 days with her dad here.  But, they worked it out differently and I was fine with that. The uncle didn't want to stay here, he went to a local hotel to get some sleep and the grandma and Taylor stayed in the master bedroom and James stayed in the living room - James is at work now. 

She can have my bedroom tonight, tho, since I won't be here.  But, they were talking last night.  The uncle just moved from California to Missouri - and as usual for those scenarios, he's basically rich from selling an overpriced home over there and buying up property in Missouri.  He only bought 10 acres tho.  I mean, if I'm buying acreage, my desire would be at least 50 acres, but at least 25 as bare minimum.  Anyway, Taylor now wants to move to Missouri.

She looks at me,, do you want to move to Missouri?  Lol, I dunno.  I'd have to find a new job.  Not that that would be such a bad thing with what's going on here at this job anyway.  This manager is making a lot of people unhappy because she is totally incompetent.  If she really doesn't understand that what she's doing is totally unfair - handing out "first in first out" - then that just adds to the idea she has no clue what she's doing.  None, whatsoever, and word is back from other divisions that they don't do it like that.  Of course they don't, not if you want to have driver rentention.

Anyway, I travel through Missouri frequently enough. It's got some natural beauty to it.  I don't really have anything holding me here, or anywhere for that matter.  I dunno what Maria would do tho.  Taylor wants to take a vacation up there this year to see if it's anything she would want to get into.  Almost guaranteed she'd move, tho most of her friends live in these parts.  Last time they moved to Georgia and were terribly missing this place. 

I'll just let that one sit in the back of my head for a while. If I ever get out of this Barnsdall run and back up through Missouri I'll take a more realistic look at the area.  Lots of trees and some mountain areas i think.  The only thing I know is, I don't want to move to any big cities.  If they were to do that, I'd be parting ways.  The area where the uncle moved to is a very small town and the biggest town I think is St. Louis - 200 plus miles away.  So, a situation like that would have a drawback of having to drive a long way to get to an airport.  And who knows what job opportunities are up there. I don't really want to live with the uncle, either.  I don't know him at all and that's really nothing that interests me.  I like the living arrangement we have now - but we all no nothing lasts forever.  Been here, done that, things always change. 

So, moving on, I have a run today. Late start, 1:30 pm load appointment.  That puts me out very late to getting back down to Grant, OK.  I doubt I'll make it.  Depends on how I feel, really, but driving late into the night isn't my first choice, not when there is no need for the trailer back tomorrow anyway.  Maybe I'll last til 11 or midnight?  If i can make it back at least as far as the service plaza in McAlester, Ok, that would probably suffice.

Well, off to breakfast and other things before I leave.

G'day.

So, after itching and scratching and getting fleas off of me all night last night, both Adler and Aspyn have ingested $150 worth of flea pills to get rid of the damned things!  It's flea season, they're thriving, it just started with them.  Aspyn being the worst - those fleas get under her undercoat? There's no end to the endless scratching and itching.  I mean, pulling out tufts of hair to get at the flea. No, that happened with her yet. In fact, she hadn't even been scratching at all.

But Adler? Biting his flesh all night long and itching and scratching.  I do hope those pills work quickly.  I washed all the bedding in hot water and hopefully not another night of that nonsense.  Whatever. It's $150 well spend, as far as I'm concerned, cause' this only gets worse.  MUCH worse.  You try everything at Tractor Supply and Walmart to get rid of the fleas and guess what? They don't work. Not in this area.  Just nasty stuff.  The dogs got their relief, I'll have mine, over and done with.

I'm finding US and world politics to be particularly entertaining right now. Especially this Iran situation.  Iran says it can destroy our entire fleet out there with a single missile!  HIGHLY  doubtful. And wait until those fighter jets that got off of that carrier before you bombed it get back over to you with their  payload.  They'are talking clean out of their @$$es right now.  They know if they start a war with us, they are going to lose.  We won't need to deploy troops on the ground.  It will all be an air war, we'll take out all their bases and known nuke locations in a matter of a few days and that war will be over. 

And then, we have Dems wanting to put Barr in jail! lmaoooooo  Barr actually went up to Pelosi and asked her if she had her hand cuffs with her!  Lol!  Why is Barr is confident? Because the law is on his side. 

I will project right now that some heads are going to roll, the real Russian Collusion is coming, the people that wanted to take the President down - the anti-Trump FBI, DOJ and all the rest of it - is coming.  I don't know when, I don't care. But it's coming. Barr has his grip on this thing now, the real truth is going to come out and the nation should be shocked when it happens.  The FISA conspiracy will turn into the worst moment in American history.  It won't surprise me if this s*** goes all the way up to Obama.  It's already begun with Comey and Brennan and Clapper going at it.  They're nervous.  They should be.

I'll wait patiently and watch as this all unfolds. If it doesn't take too long, Trump will be vindicated completely before the next election.  I mean, in my view he already has been, but lets get to the nuts and bolts of this situation, get to the bottom of it and get this situation unveiled. Names, who did what, when and the obvious: why.  We  know why.

Back to my little slice of life, a several store hunt for specific bug killing supplies for the other house.  She -  Maria - want diatemacious earth.  Food grade, I found out, because I don't want my dogs around that stuff. Apparently food grade isn't harmful to animals or humans, the other stuff is.

And I "got into it" with my manager again today. She sent me the 3rd run in a row to go to Oklahoma.  It's a low paying trip, no one should have to go there more than twice in a row, I texted her and said fine, I'll do this one but don't send me a 4th one.  I'm not going to go into all of it because it's not worth the time to type all of it.  But, she threatened to "send me somewhere else" to which I informed her it wasn't very professional to threaten your employees with retaliation when they are asking legitimate questions - to which she replied this conversation is over, I"m going to have Tony (whoever the hell that is) take this over. 

It went back and forth, she stopped replying, I will see her tomorrow morning and we can have this conversation in person. 

It's whatever to me.  I'll find another job if I have to, that's the end of that story.  I have an impeccable safety record with this company, that's what matters. They can't use anything against me legitimately, because there's nothing to use.  I get the runs done way faster that most other drivers - which right now counts at least because we have been short on trailers.  I've followed all of their ridiculous rules, if I have a legitimate beef they should be well prepared to hear those grievances and deal with it. Threatening people is outrageous. 

I'm keeping my cool, I can say that. 

So, tomorrow, I "get" to go waste 2 days going on a trip that money-wise counts for one day. 

Whatever the case, my boat search has gone on - and on - and on.  I think I find one and then i read the fine print and say, noooooooo thank you.  25 horsepower motor? no thanks. "Project boat". No thanks.  Doesn't have titles? DEFINITELY NO THANKS. And more.  The titles are for the boat and the trailer.  Oh, I found a pretty good deal today until I got to the part about "bring your own trailer".  No. No. And no.  Boats are sold with the trailers that came with them. If they aren't, the price should reflect that and in every single case I have found? They want full price for the boat.  It's no wonder all of them I have found have been on the market for weeks and months.

I've put this boat search into the same mode I do with cars.  Take as much time as it takes. The only exception was the SUV I'm driving now.  But I know I got a good deal on it and it's in near perfect condition. There are zero dings anyone on the entire body of it.  The paint is perfect.  The interior is very good. Not perfect but very, very good. And I endeavor to keep it that way so I will get a good trade in value. 

Okay. My new grass plugs aren't exactly taking off yet, but there are green blades of grass coming out of them.  For them to die off would mean - well they claim they will replace dead plugs.  I dunno, but the information provided says it takes awhile for them to get going. It's been a few weeks?  The winter rye grass is still alive and looks like green velvet.  I hate that that stuff dies out in summer.  If it would live year round? The easiest, cheapest, most beautiful grass you need. But, the extreme heat is coming and it will definitely die.  It doesn't regrow the next cold season, either, you have to buy more seed and replant all over again.  Ugh. 

Oh! Can y'all tell me what democrats platform is? Beto getting a haircut?  Corey wanting us to become vegans?  Bernie - the rich dude that wants to redistribute wealth - except his own of course?You know, Marxism revisited?  LOL

Have a good evening. 

Well, that trip is over and done with.  I over slept this morning. I was planning on getting back at 8 am but instead it was after 10.  Not an issue with the company, tho, the trailer isn't getting used until tomorrow.  I'm off for what appears to be 3 days including today.  "My" boat was sold before I had a chance to go look at it. I knew it wouldn't last long. All the upholstery was redone on it and it had a 150 horsepower Johnson engine on it.  It was in good shape. Why they were selling it so cheap, who knows.  There's a couple more in there that look good, but they are too far away.  I don't want to drive 300 miles to get a boat.

There is one in Texarcana, but the upholstery is all torn up on it.  Costs a grand to have it redone. They want too much money for the boat. I got them down a grand but when I found out about the upholstery, no thanks.  I might pay 3 grand for it, but no way am I shelling out $4,500 for the thing.  They've had that one up for sale for over a month now.  Doesn't seem probably they're going to sell it for that much to anyone.

Ahhh. Hours later.  The entire family is back.  The refrigerator isn't working and more importantly, the AC went out.  There was a tornado over there 2 days ago and it did a lot of damage.  It's whatever to me, I'm cranking music tonight. They just got here half an hour ago, shrugs.  We've been cranking out tunes all night long lol.  I'm not doing it to spite them, not at all. I'm just living my life here with the other people here that love to play music.  This family is along for the ride.  I haven't had time off in quite a while, I'm going to enjoy it.

_________________

It started at  6:45 am. It's Sunday morning, I started this post yesterday. Kids - screaming and crying.  At 6:45 am.  I haven't had a Sunday off in a long time.  I'm pretty irritated right now.  They could have stopped them from making all that freaking noise, but they didn't.  They were running all over the house on top of that, no respect whatsoever for the people that live here.  The thing is, I was in my sleep mode - that's when I call it when I'm able to actually sleep versus waking up and laying there awake.  I tried to sleep for another 3 hours - on and off  - but I finally gave up on it. 

I'm considering going to a hotel today.  I am not going to sit in this house listening to this unending noise all day long.  Total lack of parental control.  They apologized profusely when I came out a few minutes ago - I must have had a look on my face. The look probably matches how I'm feeling.  Apologize as much as you want, tho, it's not impossible to get kids to stop crying and whining.  Or if they don't send them to their rooms. Pretty simple concept. It sure as gold at the end of a rainbow is possible to keep them from trampling around the house like a herd of cows in a stampede. 

I had plans for today, but I am nixing them. Stuff to do around the house.  Screw all of that.  Maybe tomorrow, but since they'll still be here tomorrow, I won't be able to sleep tomorrow morning, either.  They being that other family with the 2 very young girls. They have their own place now, but the AC quit working and the fridge as well.  They asked to spend a weekend here and so - here they are, on my dime actually since I pay all the utilities and wifi around here. 

I told you I am cranky, lol. 

And now they have left. Apparently they don't need to be here another night - or day.  I don't hate kids, but in this case? Good riddance. 

And I've also been sent a run for tomorrow.  I was hoping to have tomorrow off. She almost never sends me a run after Friday - she hands out all the runs on Friday to cover Saturday, Sunday and Monday. 

Life working all the time? Not such a pretty sight.  This run is going back up to Barnsdall, so at least it's not going to be a long trip.  My goal will be to get up there, swap trailers and get as far back tomorrow as i can, thus allowing myself some time at home on Tuesday.  Because apparently work is still clipping along.

Called mom for Mother's Day, just got off that call.  But I sent her flowers earlier this week and they are apparently still lovely, which was nice.  I wondered if my brothers did anything with her for her special day, but I didn't want to ask.  I figure my oldest brother probably did something, he's fairly good about that - now.  He didn't use to be, not sure what got him motivated to start giving her a little more attention but it's a far cry better than what he did with my dad. 

But I'm not going to get into that.

I'm spending the day petting my dogs, watching tv and doing absolutely nothing else. 

And with that, Happy Mother's Day to any that may happen to read this and have a great day!

Well.
I finally get the loaded trailer back to the yard.  A 3 day trip that should have been 2.  My 70 hour clock is run down to 3 hours.  That isn't enough time to do much of anything but perhaps get loaded at the plant - if nothing happens. My manager texts me after I leave the yard - don't make any plans.  I have work that needs to be done.

I texted back: I only have 3 hours left on the 70 hour clock. She replies that I'm picking up 9.57 hours at midnight.  Great, that's 12 whole hours! With loading, I spend more than that getting down to Brownsville!  And then she says I'm picking up 7.55 hours again at midnight 2 nights from now. Huh?  And?  I"m due for a 34 hour reset.  I have  plans, namely, to go look at a boat tomorrow.  It's here, in town, it's a great price, the upholstery and carpet have all been redone o the motor works fine. That's the big sticking point with any used boat.  Strong motor or not?  But a 150 horse motor! On a pontoon boat! Yes!  Oh well. If I'm on the road, I'm not going to be happy because it's almost guaranteed I'll have to do a 34 hour reset out there, on the road. Yes, they pay for a hotel while doing it, but I don't want to be in a hotel, I want to be home.  Well sort of want to be home - this other entire family is still here.

Thank God they weren't here when I got here at least. 

____________________

Friday - early - morning. Slept like a log.  I mean i really had a good night's sleep without waking up all night long.  I actually feel good lol.  But, I'm still a bit cranky about having to go up to Oklahoma today. 5 runs in a row without a single day off.  I wanted more work, but this much more? Nah, everyone has to have a day off here and there. 

I won't even have a full 14 hour clock to start with today, guaranteeing I won't make it back today.  It is possible, I think, to make it back in on day, especially considering I don't have to load the trailer, tho I do have to go to the plant and get new paperwork on the old load.  And, that load is 3 days old now.  I bet the pressure is going to be high on that trailer this morning.  I blew it off yesterday when I got back, but these are old trailers with old style insulation.

The new trailers have vacuum jackets around them, they keep the product cold much longer.  I dunno but I'm gonna fly that baby up there and they will be getting that product off there post haste, the plant I'm going to has been advised of the situation and willingly taking the product, knowing it's heating up.  When I say heating up, it means it's reached it's boiling point - I believe it's 120- , yes that's 120 below zero boiling point haha. 

Anyway, she put me - she being my manager - on a run that I should have no problem getting back on even with low hours.  It's less than 7 hours up, drop the trailer, pick up another and head straight back.  I usually end up at the casino truck stop in Grant, Oklahoma.  Whether I play blackjack or not really depends on my mood. I never do it if my mood isn't right, I know I won't win. Gambling and playing blackjack has no logical parameters for me, it's all about how I feel lol.  But, there is good food there if nothing else, so I will have a meal tonight - if - I make it that far.  I'm down 2 hours of on-duty time before I even start the day.

Right now? I'm sitting here enjoying a cup of Keurig coffee, a seemingly rare offering these days.  I always manage to find a cup of coffee somewhere, but not Keurig. 

Oh!! That family is moving out weekend!  Yayyyy! And apparently Taylor gave the guy some s*** about not doing anything around the house. Yes, he was there all day long, no, he did nothing to contribute to the household. You know, simple things like doing the dishes? Absolutely nothing.  He wasn't on vacation, he was living here. Albeit temporarily, but for free.  On my dime, actually, since all the extra usage of utilities with 4 more people living here all goes on my account.  I pay the utilities - all of them and satellite and wifi - they pay the mortgage.  I'm not complaining about that, it's not much more than just renting a room from someone else, but this dude. 

Grow up, get a life, stop acting like a freaking child.  Be a good role model for your children, don't pander to them,

Whatever.  I'm getting out of here. Get this day started, get it over with. 

Happy Friday. 

Don't forget Mother's Day coming up!  I already took care of my mom with some nice flowers : )

So, I'm stuck at the plant in Portland, Texas.  The rules for unloading here say to call 30 minutes before arriving to ensure that they can unload you.  So I did, before turning on the on-duty clock on my electronic log device.  They said yes, bring it.  So I brought it, called them again from their staging area and told me they had some sort of compliance operation going and it would be quite a while before they could get to me.  I replied that I had just called 30 minutes ago and y'all said it was fine to bring it? Well, he was unaware - referring to the guy I talked to the first time.

I'll get detention pay, fine, but I hate sitting in these parking lots like this.  The real issue is running out my 14 hour clock and not being able to make it back today.  Well how long do you expect to wait?  I don't know.  I've been here and done that before, it could be an hour, it could be 6 hours, it could be longer, who knows? They just keep you in limbo. The fact that they told me to come is what is annoying me. I would have far rather stayed at the Walmart parking lot, I did some shopping but then realized I had forgotten some stuff. I could have gone back in there and got the rest of it.  But oh well, I guess I shouldn't complain too much, making $25 an hour to sit around and wait isn't that bad. 

I'm just ready to go home.  I've been out on the road for a week, the period of time between the last trip and this current trip I didn't go home, it was late after I got into the yard so I just stayed there and then went out on this trip late the next morning/yesterday.  We're busy again, but there is no guarantee anymore that we'll stay that way.  I'll take what I can get when I can get it, but I want to see my doggies and visit with friends and also get some things done that need to be done. 

Meanwhile, yesterday!  I knew I was in trouble before I got into Houston when I pulled out the Houston Transtar app - just Google it, it shows current traffic conditions on all the freeways in the Houston area - and all of it was red.  That means it's stop and go traffic and you probably aren't going over 3 to 5 mph when you are moving.  I looked at the Tollway 99 - which goes wayyyyyyyy around the city, it only had one red area and I thought I would save time taking that route even if it was well out of the way.

I was right, too.  But I wasn't able to get off at that exit. Why?  There must have been one devilish storm that came through there before I got done there because the service roads next to the freeways were completely flooded. When I say flooded, I mean cars submerged in water.  It was raining, lightning and thunder and high winds as it was when I came through there. But, the first wave of traffic came well before I even got into Houston. Somewhere between Humble and Cleveland. 

It was there that I saw a pickup truck with water halfway up the side of it.  It was toast.  A bunch of traffic on that service road stopped with no where to go.  I finally got up to where the highway was flooded with water and hence, everyone slowing down and trying to get over to the left to avoid it.
But I could see the white highway lines under the water, it wasn't that deep so I just drove through it. 

After that, well, everyone was driving slow.  The flooding on the frontage roads must have happened quickly because there were literally hundreds of cars that had driven up the grass embankment, stopping at the trees trying to escape the water and the ultimate damage it would do to their vehicles.  There were hundreds if not thousands of cars stopped on the side of 59 - for what reason I have no idea.  I guess they were afraid to drive.  I finally made it to the Beltway 8 - and lo and behold, for the first 20 miles there was hardly any traffic at all. Again, people panic in weather like that  - which was a bonus to me because I was able to cruise at full cruising speed and get some of the lost time made up a bit.

But that wasn't going to last long.  I caught up to traffic on the Beltway and it slowed down to around 15-20 mph until we got back to the transition back to 59 and then it was stop and go.  I have to take a loop around downtown with hazmat, I can't just drive straight through downtown on 59. It would be a hefty fine if caught doing so.  Once back on 59, same stuff. Cars stopped along the side of the highway and massive amounts of vehicles stuck on the service road, service roads being flooded.  But it got worse.  The service road was 3 lanes wide at some points and it was full of vehicles - not moving at all.  On 59, we were moving along, finally, between 5 and 50 mph. For miles, I saw cars backed up on the service road - there was no where for them to go. There's businesses along there and some cross roads - but those cross roads were flooded and had cars on them stuck as well. 

When I finally got to the end of that mess, I saw why no one was going anywhere.  The service road was a literal lake.  There was a car stuck with it's front end completely submerged in water.  There was literally no where for anyone to go anywhere. I can't imagine how long all of those people had to sit there in their cars? Hours? Maybe still stuck there? I have no idea.  The city of Houston had trailers with boats on them heading to these areas and I saw some boats on the service roads helping people.  That's right, they were boating on the service roads. 

Getting south of Houston - after hours of this nonsense - was no better. Rosenberg area, which is basically a suburb of Houston, or at least that's what it looks like on a map - the highway is under construction.  They are transitioning it into and Interstate highway and they are building bridges over all the cross roads and re-doing everything. It goes on for 21 miles like that.  So, it's down to 2 lanes and at some point, it all stopped again. Slow and go. When I got up to what the stoppage was - the road was flooded.  But again, I could see the pavement underneath, it might have been a foot of water, I just drove through it, but understandably, traffic had slowed way down.  It took another 30 miles to get completely clear of the traffic and be able to get back up to cruising speed again. 

It was raining but nothing that should have slowed anyone down. But slowed down they were. Driving with their flashers on and going 35 to 50 in a 65mph zone, it took awhile to get past all of that.

Anyway, it took hours longer to get down here than it normally does, it was midnight by the time I finally got here, so I decided to go to bed at Walmart parking lot instead of unloading it that late at night.  I was too tired.  I had enough time to unload but it was too late for me.  I don't really regret it now even tho I'm stuck here just because staying up til 2:30-3:00 messes me up the next day. 

Anyway, I put the electronic logging device into off-duty mode. It still counts against my 14 hour clock but it doesn't count against my 70. That way, even if I happen to somehow run out of hours for today's driving, I'll still have enough hours left to make it back tomorrow.  Hoping that they won't leave me out here that long, tho.  I have about 5 to 6 hours I can sit here/get unloaded before I won't have enough hours left to make it back tonight.  It is what it is I guess.  I don't get near as homesick as I used to when I first started this job, but there is a point where it's time to go home, thanks.

At least I got to eat a nice Keto breakfast at the IHOP near the Walmart this morning.  I would have rather gone to Denny's but I didn't feel like walking a mile for breakfast and then have to try and walk back with a full stomach afterwards. 

Unfortunately, I've been out on the road so much that I'm almost out of data for the 30 day period.  I still have 8 more days before it renews......I'm seriously thinking about paying myself out of this contract and switching to a company that gives you unlimited data.  It's just a gamble, tho, as to whether those companies have enough coverage in the areas I go to to be able to get on the internet.  T Mobile has a great deal going, but will I get coverage at least in most places? Verizon is just as expensive as ATT  or even costlier.  It's just a bit outrageous, as far as I"m concerned, the amount of money these companies want. 

Anyway, I'm ending this one.  I want to look at phone plans and continue to look for a boat. 

So, trip to Brownsville was "short and quick", I guess.  Lots of trailers in the yard when I got down there yesterday. No free hotel, no detention pay.  Oh well, can't win em' all.  Driving back up today? Just didn't feel like driving. When I'm in that mindset, it's a real chore to get the 587 miles behind me.  But I got it done and back to the other house around 5:00 pm.  Sat around with Maria and a neighbor from directly across the street. Real nice lady, we chatted for an hour and a half and then? Home.  Home - has 4 very young children and 2 married couples living in it currently. 

Not necessarily fond of home right now. Mostly 2 kids - one from each couple - that love to scream and cry constantly are the issue.  I love helping people, but right now? I'm tired and I don't want to hear all of that.  I don't know what those kids are even doing awake right now. It's almost 9:00 pm, they should have been in bed by 8:00 pm.  But whatever.  I agreed to it so I'll live with it. Won't go on forever.  

I admit I'm rather cranky right now.  I've gotten used to have a day or 2 days in between runs.  Tomorrow I'll be on my 3rd consecutive run. That's another trip to Corpus Christie and after that trip, I'll be out of hours.  I'll have to stay home a couple of days, or at least a full day off anyway.  Although the real reason I'm cranky is a lot of missed sleep.  We've had thunderstorms here and going on all night long. The first night, the lightning was striking in this neighborhood. It woke up  at 1:00 am and I basically didn't get back to sleep. 

The night of my last trip, same thing.  Hours and hours of lost sleep.  Last night I slept well but it wasn't near enough to make up for all of that.  

But tomorrow morning? There is a change.  I don't have to be at the loading rack until 1:15 pm.  That means I can sleep as long as I need to and try to get to feeling normal again.  I can attest to the fact that it truly sucks being a light sleeper.

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I think it's Monday morning. Whatever it is, now that the dad of the young girls is here, all 3 of them are here. Which meant a lot of noise at 7:00 am.  I had planned on sleeping in but that wasn't going to happen. I'll be out late tonight trying to get down to Portland, TX and getting the trailer unloaded.  If I can get that done, I'm good. Drive the drive back the next morning, get back sometime mid afternoon and definitely have a couple days off, or at least one full day since I won't  have any hours left. 

And I have a lot of stuff I need to get done.  My day off won't really be a day off, but it also won't be spent in that truck.  As it stands, I forgot to pay credit card bills - but fortunately not too late to incur late fees.  I usually get it done on the first.  Care credit is paid down to $595 and that remaining balance is due the end of July. 

My boat aspirations continue.  I've been looking every day.  Mostly for a pontoon boat but a flat deck boat or a large fishing boat would also suffice.  Lots of people want to go fishing and I would likely find the activity more enjoyable with sociable people also there wanting to fish.  But so far, in the price range I'm looking, it's mostly a bunch of barges that need work.  Or they are in good condition but have small motors on them.  I'll just keep looking until I find the "right" on.  Maybe if it needs carpet or a bit of upholstery I'd go for it, but anything needing massive repairs I simply don't have the time for.

Meanwhile, we are back to "feast" mode at work. IE: too much work and not enough drivers or trailers to keep up with the demand.  The whole thing is pretty weird the way it works.  Not having enough trailers tho is totally on them.  They should have dealt with that problem long ago. They got 5 new ones in and then a few more after that.  This is how we lost work, not enough trailers and then not enough drivers.  The trailers are extremely expensive, yes, but they make a lot of money off of this type of hauling.  Whatever the case, my manager just responded to my text asking if there was a trailer in the yard for today's run: Not yet. 

Dunno, but I'll leave in time to get there to hook up and leave for the plant. If there isn't one there, oh well! 

Off to the races. 

Today was messed up.
After leaving Cheniere, I went to Walmart to park for the  night - I had very little time left on the 14 hour clock, Walmart is down the road and this one actually has truck parking next to it.  Anyway, getting up this morning, I walked over to the IHOP, in light rain, walking back, heavier rain. After I left there, I was still in medium rain. At the Love's travel center in Sinton? I pulled in a fuel isle, got out, got my cards into the reader and then?  The wind started howling. I mean, in a matter of seconds it went from almost nothing to winds that were forcing me to push against it.

Well, that wasn't the bad part.  Because, then, it started pouring rain. Because of the wind, it was coming straight at me, underneath the canopy.  I was soaking wet in a matter of 60 seconds.  Water pouring into the fuel tanks as well while fueling it. I had no choice, the truck was near empty.  Nearest "authorized" fuel stop after that 100 miles away.  It just wasn't pleasant.  I finished fueling, and took my time strolling into the store in the pouring rain since I was already soaking wet.  No point in rushing myself in there.  Leaving the store, the employees standing at the door, holding it open for people rushing in said "good luck".

I'm already soaked. I walked normally back to the truck, rain pouring out of the sky and ignoring it at that point

It's other drivers that irritate me in the rain.  The block the highway going 25 mph below the speed limit and won't move out of the way.  GET YOUR ASS OVER TO THE RIGHT LANE AND GET OUT OF MY WAY.  Thank you.  Appreciate it.

Well, I got back to the other house to get my doggies and sat around with a lot of people hanging out there - room mates and neighbors. pretty cool, actually. But then I got the text that I am going out again tomorrow.  Okay!  I'm going to Brownsville tomorrow and then? Back to Corpus Christie the next day.  I've got the hours on the clock, I think, to do all of that. Or if not? Well who knows what is going to happen. A delay at the border would cancel the Corpus Christie load and it wouldn't bother me at all.  But whatever.  I need the money, I'll get busy when it's available.

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Saturday morning.  Thunder just shook the house.  I mean, that's how close it was.  It's 4:00 so I had to get up anyway, tho I most certainly didn't want to.  Went to bed too late last night and will pay for it today, driving all day long down to Brownsville. I absolutely hate the first load time, I hate when I get it and always hope I get at least second load. Second load is another hour's worth of sleep.

James was already up - something lodged in his eye bothering him all night long to the point he couldn't sleep. 

Well, off to the races.  I'll just have to take a nap later on when I'm 6 hours on the clock at least. 

Well then.  Thursday morning. Cheniere on the horizon again or today - but the one down near Corpus Christi. More miles at least.  I haven't been to that facility since the last time when their tanks were at capacity and we had to sit there for hours to get permission to over fill them.  That was sometime mid last year.

And...last night.  I finally caved!  I'm not going to feel bad about it, either. I had 2 very large slices of Supreme pizza, a large McDonald's fries, Taylor's half a box of the fries she didn't want and 2 large chocolate chip cookies.  I mean, I had a sugar high like crazy but I went to bed before the crash so I never experienced that. What I did experience starting at 1:00 am was a wild lightning-thunder storm that was making so much racket I doubt too many people in this area slept through all of that noise. 

And it's still  going on now.  I'm wondering if the loading plant is even opened.  They shut it down when there's lightning.  For good reason, too.....but I haven't received any notices yet about it.  Just haven't seen a lightning show going on this long for quite some time now.  I mean, it's constant lol

And good for my new grass plugs.  They are finally putting out some green blades of grass.  When they arrived, they were all brown, looked dead to me.  But I went through the trouble of planting them and walaah.  How long will it take to spread to the entire yard? Years I'm guessing. But that isn't my plan. I want to see if they are going to take over even the portion of yard they are in before I spend any more money on that. 

In fact, I'm not really looking to spend any money on extras right now at all.  Except the boat.  That is in my savings account, something I've been saving for quite a while for.  I've given up on land for the time being.  That's a long term savings goal. They want too much money down at 20% and unless I want to take less acreage - which I haven't succumbed to yet - I'm just going to have to keep saving for that one.  I don't just want land, either, I want either a house already on it or a loan that will pay for a house to be built on it as well.  I can get land with a house on it already, but that's still 10% down and at 250k plus, it's still at least 25k down.  Further, I want land that I can split and start on a small mobile home or RV trailer park.  In my view, the land needs to be able to pay for itself.  Cattle could also pay for the land, but that costs a lot of down money investment as well in actually buying the cows and the bull and the equipment you need to maintain them. 

Towards all of this end, I'm hoping to take some of my savings and start investing in the stock market.  I just haven't take the step yet to actually give the go ahead on any particular stock, tho I have located some investment sites that allegedly have a solid reputation for gains in their predictions of stock to buy.

Well, I think Taylor may be regretting the decision to allow the lady and her 2 very young girls in here.  The youngest one screams as much as her youngest boy - something she literally cannot stand.  Plus, the living room is being occupied by the lady to sleep in - which throws off James activity of watching TV and relaxing after the the boys go to bed and Taylor goes to sleep as well - she goes to bed early.  More mouths to feed as well.  I bought enough pizza yesterday for everyone, including all 4 kids, but that's got to be a strain as well.  This house would have to have a 4th bedroom to really make this work out well.  I have a room to disappear into when it gets to be too much : )  The kids all like me and all, but I only have enough energy to put up with that for so long and then? I just quietly disappear lmao.

In fact, the oldest girl absolutely adores Adler.  Adler was out of sorts when I got him the other night. I've been gone too long and about to leave again. At least this time it's only out overnight.  Even if something happens at the plant down there, it shouldn't force it into a 2cd night/3rd day. 

Speaking of that, the other house is back to paying for itself again.  I dunno how long that's going to last, but now that Rene is gone, there isn't a dictator over there getting cranky with everyone, blowing up people's phones with drunken texts and acting like she owns the place, telling everyone what they can and cannot do.  Absolutely ridiculous.  I don't think Maria will ever not tell me about what's going on over there again with tenants. I know nothing about the newest young lady, she doesn't spend much time there but she did send me rent last night so that was nice.  In fact, the only rent left is Maria's, she gets that on the 3rd of the month I believe. 

Well, it's almost time to leave.  Gotta get my food ready - lol I may have cheated once, that doesn't mean I'm giving up on Keto.  Gotta stick with it!