And just like that, I became left-handed almost instantaneously.
Why? I have no clue what happened, but a muscle or tendon in my right hand was injured - somehow - and my right hand became jolted with stabbing, intense pain with any use at all.
This was last night - Friday night. I thought to go an urgent care but none of them were open that late. The hospital sounded appealing, to be honest, but I decided to go to sleep instead.
I'm back in Brownsville. I was on my way back up Thursday and got notification from my manager that I needed to get back to the yard that night and go back out - down to Brownsville again - the next morning. Amazing, haven't had that happen in many, many moons. Back in the "good ole' days" when we were busting @$$ and moving until we ran out of hours. Perplexing, tho, because there is really not that much going on. There was no point in going home at 8:00 pm and having to get up at 5:00 to go back to the yard. I just spent the night in the truck, meaning out at least 4 days on this round. But that's okay, I had 3 full days off in between last run and 2 full days off between the runs before that.
TBH, I really wanted to go home after that last trip and recover. Like, lay in bed for several days and try to get past this sickness. I don't think it's the flu, it's just a major head cold that has respiratory congestion. Meaning coughing, hacking, sneezing, runny nose, all that wonderful stuff. I tried some off brand stuff - that was what was available at the time - and it didn't work. I found some Mucinex and that made me feel much better.
As for the hand? Attempting to just put on my clothes, pick up a bag, pull my belt through the loop - all major, searing pain jabs going through my hand. I was at the Love's down here all night long, I decided to take a shower - and found a packet of Alieve in the store, figured to at least try some pain reliever. Yes, it worked. I mean, the pain isn't completely gone but it is a huge improvement over what it was. Enough that I can even type without pain. So it's muscle or tendon, I'm guessing, not a bone issue. Just amazing how something like that can affect your whole life if only temporarily. Alieve is allegedly 12 hours worth of pain relief, I'm hoping that's actually true. The packet had 2 of them so I can take another one tonight.
But really, I might go to medical care down here if I have to wait a long time for a trailer to show up. I want that hand checked out and whatever meds the doc will give me including steroid shot if applicable to ease this respiratory pain. There's an urgent care opening soon - but I don't know what kind of equipment those places have? Are they able to take xrays? Cause' I figure that's the only way they can find out what's wrong with my hand. I'm waiting for the yard guy to show up and give me an idea of what to expect today. They normally will bring up 2 trailers on Saturdays - but at what time who knows. Yesterday I saw one of our trucks pulling up a trailer from down here - he hadn't made it more than 150 miles - at 5:00 pm, so I know they didn't show up until late with trailers.
When I got down here, there was one empty, but the driver that had left the plant hours before me? Nowhere to be seen. I dropped my trailer, left. Figured I come back this morning, if he shows up before me and takes the empty, all fine and well, I'll get the detention pay since I was here. Sure enough, he was underneath that empty when I came in here. He said he couldn't understand why he couldn't make it all the way down here last night. A few explanations - don't stop except when you have to. Get your fuel and take your 30 minute break at the same place so you don't waste time going into 2 separate places. Drive like a madman - not fast - but stopping for nothing. Well, a driving fool is the old terminology for it.
But, the other factor is his truck is slower than mine. By 3 miles per hour. In 10 hours of driving, that's a 30 mile difference, enough to possibly explain why he couldn't make it. Still, even when I was driving that other truck that only went 64 mph, I always made it down here unless something happened. I think maybe these drivers lose their time in Houston. Even if you are "sailing" right through there, it's likely they don't keep their trucks up at full speed. Just weird. Some other drivers say they never make it down here in one day - but those people stop everywhere and take their sweet ole' time. If that works for them, great, it doesn't work for me. Get the trip over with, don't drag it out longer than you have to, get more home time.
The other house. The "boy" has been sitting on his @$$ for over 2 weeks, I found out yesterday, not looking for a job and not getting any income. He texted me asking me for "more time" to pay his rent when it comes due on the 1st. I had no knowledge when he texted me that he hadn't been looking for employment, tho it comes as no shock. I didn't give him a definitive answer - yet - I was extremely cranky being sick and feeling like hell, I just decided to wait until I feel better. I can be pretty crass and unforgiving when I'm feeling like this. But even after my head cleared up - the thoughts were: Gee, dude, why haven't you been looking for work all this time, instead, sitting at home playing video games? Why is it it my responsibility to give you some sort of grace period because of your slothfulness? I'm sick as hell and still putting in 12 to 14 hour days. This kid is perfectly healthy and sitting around doing nothing?
So, his options are A: pay the rent on time. B: pay the rent on time or C: pay at least half the rent and then incur penalties as the state of Texas legally allows for the late portion of it. He needs a fire lit under his ass and I will be happy to do that. This kid - he's 18 not really a kid - doesn't know anything. I mean, how to clean a toilet. Load a dishwasher. Laundry. Cook. You hear Maria detailing what goes on over there and you are left dumbfounded after the conversation. Like the boy was living in a cave his entire life and just emerged a few months ago to find out what adult life is all about? I'm certainly glad I didn't raise my boy like that.
The house in Phoenix. They put $100 on the card reader, but they owe $150 more and I'm not letting that go, either. They never asked to "steal" from me, they never mentioned it, they lied about it and I'm on the warpath as far as that situation is concerned. She knows she isn't going to get away with it any longer. If she wants to have a discussion about her finances and ask, I might be more giving in my stance. But she didn't and still hasn't. She's described her financial situation, but still never asked me for any help with it. I don't figure $250 a month for a place to live with all of those perks is that much to ask.
I don't know anything about the boat. It's over at the mechanics. I've been sick, don't really care at the moment. Not going boating feeling like this, so it's whatever. I'll wait until he contacts me - or until I feel better, whichever comes first and then ask him about it.
That's it. Yard guy told me another empty coming within a couple of hours. Might make it home tonight.
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Gag.
I woke up this morning at 5:00 am and quickly went right back to sleep. The idea of driving all day long never entered my mind, sleep, recovery, that was it.
3 hours later I woke up - mind you I went to bed around 9:30 last night - and still feeling like hell, got up anyway and figured I'd drive as far as I could and if I had to, stop somewhere and go to sleep. I went 4 hours before I got a text from my manager - what is your ETA and what trailer do you have? At the time I was looking for a place to stop.
I wasn't wanting to hear what was coming next: I need you to load tomorrow morning. I was perplexed. The schedule at the loading plant was blacked out for tomorrow and the next day - they were going to take the pump apart and inspect it. It's making a noise that they can't identify.
Neither happy nor unhappy. I just had 3 days off, I need the run. I just got sick, I need to rest. It's one pitted against the other. I drove almost 8 hours after that call from the manager, however, to get through Houston before eternal rush hour started and get that s*** over with.
I got the run over with, didn't go home. Made no sense to get leave the yard at 8:00 pm, go to one house to get the dogs, go home, spend an hour awake and visiting, go to sleep, get up early, drop the dogs back off, drive 35 miles and get here on time for the next run. It's just cause' I'm sick that I don't want to do this. It's far more work than my energy levels were wanting to deal with after 11 hours of driving that I didn't want to do to begin with.
I have nothing else, cause' I'm going to sleep.
I woke up this morning at 5:00 am and quickly went right back to sleep. The idea of driving all day long never entered my mind, sleep, recovery, that was it.
3 hours later I woke up - mind you I went to bed around 9:30 last night - and still feeling like hell, got up anyway and figured I'd drive as far as I could and if I had to, stop somewhere and go to sleep. I went 4 hours before I got a text from my manager - what is your ETA and what trailer do you have? At the time I was looking for a place to stop.
I wasn't wanting to hear what was coming next: I need you to load tomorrow morning. I was perplexed. The schedule at the loading plant was blacked out for tomorrow and the next day - they were going to take the pump apart and inspect it. It's making a noise that they can't identify.
Neither happy nor unhappy. I just had 3 days off, I need the run. I just got sick, I need to rest. It's one pitted against the other. I drove almost 8 hours after that call from the manager, however, to get through Houston before eternal rush hour started and get that s*** over with.
I got the run over with, didn't go home. Made no sense to get leave the yard at 8:00 pm, go to one house to get the dogs, go home, spend an hour awake and visiting, go to sleep, get up early, drop the dogs back off, drive 35 miles and get here on time for the next run. It's just cause' I'm sick that I don't want to do this. It's far more work than my energy levels were wanting to deal with after 11 hours of driving that I didn't want to do to begin with.
I have nothing else, cause' I'm going to sleep.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
An absolutely miserable day.
Started out with the alarm going off. I slept almost straight through the night, the only thing that happened was some thunder that woke me up but I went straight back to sleep. I felt odd this morning, but I didn't give it much thought. Just, hmm, I slept 7 hours I shouldn't be feeling this tired right now.
Off to work, to the plant - where I was held up 3 hours and down the road we go. I was miserably tired. I just couldn't understand why I was so tired considering I had gotten sufficient sleep.
Further on down the road about 150 miles traffic came to a roaring stop. I don't mean we were slow and go or even moving and stopping, it was flat out stopped. And it stayed that way for an hour and 15 minutes. And that's when I began to realize that I wasn't feeling well. Not just tired, but yucky. I already knew there wasn't going to be any detention pay on this trip because another driver advised me there were empties sitting at the yard in Brownsville.
After getting through that mess - I saw one of the vehicles being hauled off, I thought I had seen some bad stuff but this one takes the cake. It was a Ford pickup with 4 doors. It was completely crumpled. It looked like a giant hand had squished it much like you would an empty coke can. The truck was almost a ball, a bit more conical in shape, but I couldn't see how any one could have lived through that. The rear axle was smashed around almost up to the front axle. If that gives you any idea of how wicked that thing looked.
Getting up to the scene of the accident - all law enforcement was gone. But - they had done their work with spray painting numbers onto the asphalt and lines and such, ending up at a crumpled portion of guard rail. What happened? I'll never know. But fatalities are always investigated like that and the roadway is blocked and that's that. I understand that, I just was feeling like hell.
Houston I breezed through, then the 28 miles of construction south of Houston but after that I was just fighting fatigue. I had to stop and sleep for at least 30 minutes. So, I stopped at the TA truckstop in Ganado, filled the tanks and fell asleep immediately. It doesn't take long for me to get to sleep normally anyway, but like that? I was out of here. The alarm went off 30 minutes later, felt as if I had just gone to sleep.
I fought the rest of the way down here. Aching body, sore throat, runny nose, headache to hell, itchy watery eyes - dunno if I have a fever I don't have a thermometer with me. I'm assuming a very bad cold or the flu. If this garbage doesn't subside at least a little by morning I'm finding an urgent care and getting looked at. No clue where I picked this up from, no one at the house is reporting any of the same symptoms besides Taylor saying she has a scratchy throat. I hope it isn't what I've got.
But my head! Dang!!! I finally got into the yard, got the trailer unhooked and headed straight to CVS for meds. And Kleenex. And lip balm - my lips went cracked dry and even open? What the heck is this thing that got me? I ain't playing with this s*** anymore, I know if I don't go see a doc and get whatever they will give me, I'll just suffer needlessly and usually horrendously. I think some of this must be a sinus thing going, because I have intense pressure going on the front of my head.
Whatever the case, my phone is switched over to Verizon. I now have unlimited data and I can tether it to my computer and I can watch movies or do whatever I please without the constant worry about using up my data. The real thing for me, tho, is dumping ATT. Just no. And now, I informed Lynnette that I'm canceling her service as well and she will have to deal with it. The simm card will arrive tomorrow. She'll probably have to got to verizon outlet to get it installed if she can't do it. Or find someone that can.
I heard nothing back from middle brother when I asked him in that group text about his telling everyone to f*** off - when no one had said anything like that to him - and more importantly, that the basis of his saying that was based on his assumption that we had all been talking behind his back. I didn't even know what he was talking about, much less talking about him about it behind his back. He's written the family off forever, so he says, good riddance. I doubt it's true but one can dream. It would give me much more motivation to spend Christmas's with the family.
Empty trailers here. Bummer. This is the one time where I actually need there to be no trailers. I'm underneath one in the yard, but leaving early in the morning is completely out of the question. There isn't going to be any of that unless I just happen to wake up and say, gee, I feel so good right now! I"m not setting the alarm, I don't care when I get up. The loading plant is shutting down tomorrow and will be shut down for two days. Meaning, they won't be loading trucks at the plant for 2 solid days. This is the time when I would love to make a trip back to Phoenix and check in. There's no way I will have another load for at least 3 days and probably 4.
I dunno. I'd rather suffer my illness at home, in bed, with my doggies and isolation. I'll either force myself to drive back tomorrow - or go to a hotel and climb into bed.
Started out with the alarm going off. I slept almost straight through the night, the only thing that happened was some thunder that woke me up but I went straight back to sleep. I felt odd this morning, but I didn't give it much thought. Just, hmm, I slept 7 hours I shouldn't be feeling this tired right now.
Off to work, to the plant - where I was held up 3 hours and down the road we go. I was miserably tired. I just couldn't understand why I was so tired considering I had gotten sufficient sleep.
Further on down the road about 150 miles traffic came to a roaring stop. I don't mean we were slow and go or even moving and stopping, it was flat out stopped. And it stayed that way for an hour and 15 minutes. And that's when I began to realize that I wasn't feeling well. Not just tired, but yucky. I already knew there wasn't going to be any detention pay on this trip because another driver advised me there were empties sitting at the yard in Brownsville.
After getting through that mess - I saw one of the vehicles being hauled off, I thought I had seen some bad stuff but this one takes the cake. It was a Ford pickup with 4 doors. It was completely crumpled. It looked like a giant hand had squished it much like you would an empty coke can. The truck was almost a ball, a bit more conical in shape, but I couldn't see how any one could have lived through that. The rear axle was smashed around almost up to the front axle. If that gives you any idea of how wicked that thing looked.
Getting up to the scene of the accident - all law enforcement was gone. But - they had done their work with spray painting numbers onto the asphalt and lines and such, ending up at a crumpled portion of guard rail. What happened? I'll never know. But fatalities are always investigated like that and the roadway is blocked and that's that. I understand that, I just was feeling like hell.
Houston I breezed through, then the 28 miles of construction south of Houston but after that I was just fighting fatigue. I had to stop and sleep for at least 30 minutes. So, I stopped at the TA truckstop in Ganado, filled the tanks and fell asleep immediately. It doesn't take long for me to get to sleep normally anyway, but like that? I was out of here. The alarm went off 30 minutes later, felt as if I had just gone to sleep.
I fought the rest of the way down here. Aching body, sore throat, runny nose, headache to hell, itchy watery eyes - dunno if I have a fever I don't have a thermometer with me. I'm assuming a very bad cold or the flu. If this garbage doesn't subside at least a little by morning I'm finding an urgent care and getting looked at. No clue where I picked this up from, no one at the house is reporting any of the same symptoms besides Taylor saying she has a scratchy throat. I hope it isn't what I've got.
But my head! Dang!!! I finally got into the yard, got the trailer unhooked and headed straight to CVS for meds. And Kleenex. And lip balm - my lips went cracked dry and even open? What the heck is this thing that got me? I ain't playing with this s*** anymore, I know if I don't go see a doc and get whatever they will give me, I'll just suffer needlessly and usually horrendously. I think some of this must be a sinus thing going, because I have intense pressure going on the front of my head.
Whatever the case, my phone is switched over to Verizon. I now have unlimited data and I can tether it to my computer and I can watch movies or do whatever I please without the constant worry about using up my data. The real thing for me, tho, is dumping ATT. Just no. And now, I informed Lynnette that I'm canceling her service as well and she will have to deal with it. The simm card will arrive tomorrow. She'll probably have to got to verizon outlet to get it installed if she can't do it. Or find someone that can.
I heard nothing back from middle brother when I asked him in that group text about his telling everyone to f*** off - when no one had said anything like that to him - and more importantly, that the basis of his saying that was based on his assumption that we had all been talking behind his back. I didn't even know what he was talking about, much less talking about him about it behind his back. He's written the family off forever, so he says, good riddance. I doubt it's true but one can dream. It would give me much more motivation to spend Christmas's with the family.
Empty trailers here. Bummer. This is the one time where I actually need there to be no trailers. I'm underneath one in the yard, but leaving early in the morning is completely out of the question. There isn't going to be any of that unless I just happen to wake up and say, gee, I feel so good right now! I"m not setting the alarm, I don't care when I get up. The loading plant is shutting down tomorrow and will be shut down for two days. Meaning, they won't be loading trucks at the plant for 2 solid days. This is the time when I would love to make a trip back to Phoenix and check in. There's no way I will have another load for at least 3 days and probably 4.
I dunno. I'd rather suffer my illness at home, in bed, with my doggies and isolation. I'll either force myself to drive back tomorrow - or go to a hotel and climb into bed.
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Lol I have so many drafts in this blog that I never published.
Anyway, 3rd day off. I wanted to work today, but it just wasn't happening, the work schedule has slowed down to a crawl. But I did contact my manager this morning and politely asked if there was any possibility of working tomorrow? She contacted me back several hours later with a run to Brownsville for tomorrow. Perfect, really If I can get back before Friday at 5pm, I can get that on the next week's paycheck and it will be a decent one what with the other Brownsville run I'll have on there as well.
Today, I went to Verizon and got this transition from ATT over to them started. I didn't want to just keep saying that I wanted to do it, it was time to do it. I've got one more day on ATT before I have to pay another full month's bill. The phone in Phoenix, I just sent the simm card today and they will have that up and going on Thursday. The 3rd phone failed, it isn't working and I am shutting the line off temporarily, will add a 3rd line to the plan but only after we have some conversation about how much they are going to be paying per month for their portion of the rent. I don't care if they want to put it on the M power machine, that's fine, but the reality of it is that it best be showing that they are putting that full amount on there and not - nothing at all - or a third of their obligation. The third phone is contingent upon an agreement for more exposure. Because I'll have to pay for that 3rd phone, the phones were simply a way of showing gratitude for running the house and taking care of things. The cost was something like an extra $50 per month above and beyond my own plan. The new plan I will have unlimited date and tethering for my laptop, of which I get on often enough to make it warrant extra money per month. My total bill will be $30 less per month than what I was paying ATT and with unlimited data I can stream movies and whatever I want on my laptop.
I'm not giving up on them, I have determined, but I won't be cutting them any slack, either. I want full accountability now that I know that I can't trust them. It's up to them whether they want to continue with this arrangement or not, but if they ever lie to me again, I will likely react with "get the bleep out of my house, now" type of response.
Anyway, the talk part of dumping ATT is over and done with. The action of getting rid of it altogether is almost complete. I may have to pay for the Phoenix line for another month for I can't have that phone turned on until the simm card arrives. Tho I think, since it's getting there Thursday, that they can just live without a functioning phone for less than a day and thank you very much, considering what has transpired anyway. This is a no contract thing, btw, I won't have phone payments and I can dump the whole thing or some of it at any time.
Okay so the boat outing almost left us dead in the water yesterday. Good thing for that test run. And the bilge pump isn't working now - I went and bought a new one today, you don't want to be out on the water without an electric pump to pump out the water in the hull if there is a problem that occurs. And it does have a leak, but not because of any cracks in the hull. I have come to the conclusion that one of the inlet lines must be leaking/broken in the hull itself. There is a hole in the side of the boat - intentional hole - for a line going to the live well where you keep the fish you have caught and another one that pumps in air to aerate the water in that well. I don't necessarily need a live well if it's going to be a cause of the boat to sink, lol. I really want it fixed but I don't think this mechanic is the right person to do that. There is a hull expert not too terribly far from here of which I am confident would get any leaks taken care of and won't cost that much to fix. Or, I can put rubber expanding plugs in those holes and just block them up. That may be the thing to do for now instead of spending even more money on this thing. We can put a 5 gallon bucket on the boat and throw fish in there. Or just have a trailing line for keeping the fish attached to the boat on a line but still in the lake water.
Anyway, I dropped the pump off at the mechanics place. I didn't ask him about getting the idle fixed, he'll get to it when he gets to it. The timing was off, we know that much, I also asked him to check the fuel pump and he said he was going to pull the carbs and make sure they are good - and I asked him to check the reed valves since he's pulling the carbs off. If any of them are bad, that will cause the thing to run poorly.
That's it for that for now. I'm not going to worry about this boat. It will come together in due time. The hot season is over so any chance of skiing or tubing is gone until next summer.
And with that, I have a dentist appointment. I was finally able to get them to get me in to hopefully get the new crowns put in. Shouldn't take him long to do that, it's just a matter of pulling the temps off and putting the permanents back on, which is a pretty quick process.
Anyway, 3rd day off. I wanted to work today, but it just wasn't happening, the work schedule has slowed down to a crawl. But I did contact my manager this morning and politely asked if there was any possibility of working tomorrow? She contacted me back several hours later with a run to Brownsville for tomorrow. Perfect, really If I can get back before Friday at 5pm, I can get that on the next week's paycheck and it will be a decent one what with the other Brownsville run I'll have on there as well.
Today, I went to Verizon and got this transition from ATT over to them started. I didn't want to just keep saying that I wanted to do it, it was time to do it. I've got one more day on ATT before I have to pay another full month's bill. The phone in Phoenix, I just sent the simm card today and they will have that up and going on Thursday. The 3rd phone failed, it isn't working and I am shutting the line off temporarily, will add a 3rd line to the plan but only after we have some conversation about how much they are going to be paying per month for their portion of the rent. I don't care if they want to put it on the M power machine, that's fine, but the reality of it is that it best be showing that they are putting that full amount on there and not - nothing at all - or a third of their obligation. The third phone is contingent upon an agreement for more exposure. Because I'll have to pay for that 3rd phone, the phones were simply a way of showing gratitude for running the house and taking care of things. The cost was something like an extra $50 per month above and beyond my own plan. The new plan I will have unlimited date and tethering for my laptop, of which I get on often enough to make it warrant extra money per month. My total bill will be $30 less per month than what I was paying ATT and with unlimited data I can stream movies and whatever I want on my laptop.
I'm not giving up on them, I have determined, but I won't be cutting them any slack, either. I want full accountability now that I know that I can't trust them. It's up to them whether they want to continue with this arrangement or not, but if they ever lie to me again, I will likely react with "get the bleep out of my house, now" type of response.
Anyway, the talk part of dumping ATT is over and done with. The action of getting rid of it altogether is almost complete. I may have to pay for the Phoenix line for another month for I can't have that phone turned on until the simm card arrives. Tho I think, since it's getting there Thursday, that they can just live without a functioning phone for less than a day and thank you very much, considering what has transpired anyway. This is a no contract thing, btw, I won't have phone payments and I can dump the whole thing or some of it at any time.
Okay so the boat outing almost left us dead in the water yesterday. Good thing for that test run. And the bilge pump isn't working now - I went and bought a new one today, you don't want to be out on the water without an electric pump to pump out the water in the hull if there is a problem that occurs. And it does have a leak, but not because of any cracks in the hull. I have come to the conclusion that one of the inlet lines must be leaking/broken in the hull itself. There is a hole in the side of the boat - intentional hole - for a line going to the live well where you keep the fish you have caught and another one that pumps in air to aerate the water in that well. I don't necessarily need a live well if it's going to be a cause of the boat to sink, lol. I really want it fixed but I don't think this mechanic is the right person to do that. There is a hull expert not too terribly far from here of which I am confident would get any leaks taken care of and won't cost that much to fix. Or, I can put rubber expanding plugs in those holes and just block them up. That may be the thing to do for now instead of spending even more money on this thing. We can put a 5 gallon bucket on the boat and throw fish in there. Or just have a trailing line for keeping the fish attached to the boat on a line but still in the lake water.
Anyway, I dropped the pump off at the mechanics place. I didn't ask him about getting the idle fixed, he'll get to it when he gets to it. The timing was off, we know that much, I also asked him to check the fuel pump and he said he was going to pull the carbs and make sure they are good - and I asked him to check the reed valves since he's pulling the carbs off. If any of them are bad, that will cause the thing to run poorly.
That's it for that for now. I'm not going to worry about this boat. It will come together in due time. The hot season is over so any chance of skiing or tubing is gone until next summer.
And with that, I have a dentist appointment. I was finally able to get them to get me in to hopefully get the new crowns put in. Shouldn't take him long to do that, it's just a matter of pulling the temps off and putting the permanents back on, which is a pretty quick process.
Sunday, October 13, 2019
I've left the Phoenix house on hold. The conversation ended abruptly the other day for I had nothing good to say and I felt it better to just shut up, let some time pass, let some anger fall away and get some non-emotional reasoning going about the situation. I didn't hold them accountable, that's my fault. They lied, that's on them. If this setup is going to go on, it will be with 100% accountability from now on. I want phone numbers for every person living in there so I can text them, identify myself and my position with the house and ask them how much they are paying per month to live there. I can no longer trust my "friends" to tell me the truth about anything.
Trust is not given away, It is something that is built up over time. And it is easily dispatched. There was no legitimate reason to lie about the finances. I've never been "hard line" with them about it. If they needed a grace period, I gave it to them. If they needed a free month here and there, I gave that as well. But I fully expect them to pay something for the privilege of living there. She has a job, he does side jobs. I'm not sure why they thought it was okay to deceive me the way that they did. I'm going to let some more time pass on by to mellow out, calm down, chill out and make a logical decision about what I want to do next.
Meanwhile, my family. This all started with an outrageous text message from my middle brother a few days ago telling the whole family to f*** off and saying that mom has "destroyed" the family "once again" and that we, his 2 brothers, have fallen for it hook line and sinker. Notwithstanding the fact that I had no idea, not a clue, what he was talking about excepting to try and read into the information that he gave in the text. It had something to do with the medical report the doctor has written out and given to my oldest brother, and my brother, who thinks he's a doctor, giving his version of what mother should do with her decisions about what the doc is telling her.
Mother is her own person. A very strong willed person. I had no idea until yesterday that my middle brother was attempting to enforce medical decisions on my mother to the point of his going into his unbelievable temper tantrums and giving her hell for even daring to say she will do something different. My middle brother IS a paramedic, he is not a doctor. If mother wants another doctor's opinion on something, what the bleep is wrong with that? So I listened to this for a while yesterday, the back and forth my brother has been doing with her for apparently a long time now.
My mood at this point is to laugh at that brother. I sent several laughing emoji's and "lmao" back at him after he said in that same-said text he wanted nothing to do with our "delusional" family. I firmly embrace that decision, I hope he follows through with it. He has been the toxic factor to every gathering - forever - decades. He was cool in his teens, he became self-absorbed in his adult life and put his "reputation" above literally everything else. My son wants nothing to do with him after his interaction with his wife at a Christmas function last year. I want nothing to do with any family functions if he is going to be there. I will simply not show up to another family get together if middle brother is going to be there. I can visit mom on my own time and my son as well. I'd actually like to spend my next Christmas - coming soon enough - here, where I am currently living, with the people that i have come to know and love as my own family.
The other factor with that brother is that he had my oldest brother duped into thinking his unbelievable reactions to anything that happens either with mother or me are somehow normal and justifiable. He apparently doesn't believe that anymore. I don't know how you could read some of his texts and not think he's mentally unstable. Or that he doesn't need some therapy.
Anyway, my oldest brother asked me to post the entire thread of the conversation that occurred between us brothers when mother disappeared on her birthday. He took care of her, I give him ample, exceeding credit for that. He made sure she was okay. He went over there several times to check up on here. Us other 2 brothers had no access to her because she has left her phone in the Uber ride she had taken to the hospital - which amazes me she didn't call anyone to help her out.
So, I took screen shots of everything and posted it. Crickets for 24 hours. No replies from anyone. Then mother said thanks. But the oldest bro? Is all offended now and won't talk to her. This is my family. And reminds me why I don't care if I am not living over there. Flights are cheap enough, I cn take one once a year, visit, have a shallow conversation with everyone because that's what they are all about, leave and feel like I've just wasted a round trip ticket, the drive to the airport, the parking fee, food, housing if any expenses for much of nothing.
But, I do need to pull a surprise visit on my house. We're going to sit down at my kitchen table there and we are going to have a face to face. I don't know yet when I'm going to do that, but probably next month.
____________
Finally. Not just word on the boat but a video sent to me showing the thing running. Sounds like a hot rod, lol. I mean, it sounds a lot better than it did before I took it over there. 6 cylinder 2 stroke, has a different sound to it. He wants to take it on the lake after he gets it put back together and ready to go. Which is good, I want someone that knows what they're doing to take it out there and make sure it's going to be dependable ride. I have plans for that boat.
Just spent the evening next door with the cop neighbor. He's actually a banker and a cop. Anyway, he invited me to head over to Dallas with him tomorrow. Just out of the blue when we were leaving - it's starting to get late we can't just sit out there all night long lol - you can come along if you want. He's very well connected. Ultra rich people connected including folks working in the Cowboys, not going to go into detail since that's all personal stuff. I'm not making any claims of anything lol, I don't much care if a person is rich or poor, but it's interesting to hear him speak about these people that are multi millionaires that don't act that way. You know what I mean, snotty, arrogant, stuck up.
I might go, I dunno. Do something different, but I don't really want to miss the opportunity to go out on the lake, either. Kind of a hard decision, tho the mechanic didn't say when he was going to wrap things up with it. Might be a nice distraction tho, go to Dallas and meet new people, engage in a totally different type of atmosphere.
Trust is not given away, It is something that is built up over time. And it is easily dispatched. There was no legitimate reason to lie about the finances. I've never been "hard line" with them about it. If they needed a grace period, I gave it to them. If they needed a free month here and there, I gave that as well. But I fully expect them to pay something for the privilege of living there. She has a job, he does side jobs. I'm not sure why they thought it was okay to deceive me the way that they did. I'm going to let some more time pass on by to mellow out, calm down, chill out and make a logical decision about what I want to do next.
Meanwhile, my family. This all started with an outrageous text message from my middle brother a few days ago telling the whole family to f*** off and saying that mom has "destroyed" the family "once again" and that we, his 2 brothers, have fallen for it hook line and sinker. Notwithstanding the fact that I had no idea, not a clue, what he was talking about excepting to try and read into the information that he gave in the text. It had something to do with the medical report the doctor has written out and given to my oldest brother, and my brother, who thinks he's a doctor, giving his version of what mother should do with her decisions about what the doc is telling her.
Mother is her own person. A very strong willed person. I had no idea until yesterday that my middle brother was attempting to enforce medical decisions on my mother to the point of his going into his unbelievable temper tantrums and giving her hell for even daring to say she will do something different. My middle brother IS a paramedic, he is not a doctor. If mother wants another doctor's opinion on something, what the bleep is wrong with that? So I listened to this for a while yesterday, the back and forth my brother has been doing with her for apparently a long time now.
My mood at this point is to laugh at that brother. I sent several laughing emoji's and "lmao" back at him after he said in that same-said text he wanted nothing to do with our "delusional" family. I firmly embrace that decision, I hope he follows through with it. He has been the toxic factor to every gathering - forever - decades. He was cool in his teens, he became self-absorbed in his adult life and put his "reputation" above literally everything else. My son wants nothing to do with him after his interaction with his wife at a Christmas function last year. I want nothing to do with any family functions if he is going to be there. I will simply not show up to another family get together if middle brother is going to be there. I can visit mom on my own time and my son as well. I'd actually like to spend my next Christmas - coming soon enough - here, where I am currently living, with the people that i have come to know and love as my own family.
The other factor with that brother is that he had my oldest brother duped into thinking his unbelievable reactions to anything that happens either with mother or me are somehow normal and justifiable. He apparently doesn't believe that anymore. I don't know how you could read some of his texts and not think he's mentally unstable. Or that he doesn't need some therapy.
Anyway, my oldest brother asked me to post the entire thread of the conversation that occurred between us brothers when mother disappeared on her birthday. He took care of her, I give him ample, exceeding credit for that. He made sure she was okay. He went over there several times to check up on here. Us other 2 brothers had no access to her because she has left her phone in the Uber ride she had taken to the hospital - which amazes me she didn't call anyone to help her out.
So, I took screen shots of everything and posted it. Crickets for 24 hours. No replies from anyone. Then mother said thanks. But the oldest bro? Is all offended now and won't talk to her. This is my family. And reminds me why I don't care if I am not living over there. Flights are cheap enough, I cn take one once a year, visit, have a shallow conversation with everyone because that's what they are all about, leave and feel like I've just wasted a round trip ticket, the drive to the airport, the parking fee, food, housing if any expenses for much of nothing.
But, I do need to pull a surprise visit on my house. We're going to sit down at my kitchen table there and we are going to have a face to face. I don't know yet when I'm going to do that, but probably next month.
____________
Finally. Not just word on the boat but a video sent to me showing the thing running. Sounds like a hot rod, lol. I mean, it sounds a lot better than it did before I took it over there. 6 cylinder 2 stroke, has a different sound to it. He wants to take it on the lake after he gets it put back together and ready to go. Which is good, I want someone that knows what they're doing to take it out there and make sure it's going to be dependable ride. I have plans for that boat.
Just spent the evening next door with the cop neighbor. He's actually a banker and a cop. Anyway, he invited me to head over to Dallas with him tomorrow. Just out of the blue when we were leaving - it's starting to get late we can't just sit out there all night long lol - you can come along if you want. He's very well connected. Ultra rich people connected including folks working in the Cowboys, not going to go into detail since that's all personal stuff. I'm not making any claims of anything lol, I don't much care if a person is rich or poor, but it's interesting to hear him speak about these people that are multi millionaires that don't act that way. You know what I mean, snotty, arrogant, stuck up.
I might go, I dunno. Do something different, but I don't really want to miss the opportunity to go out on the lake, either. Kind of a hard decision, tho the mechanic didn't say when he was going to wrap things up with it. Might be a nice distraction tho, go to Dallas and meet new people, engage in a totally different type of atmosphere.
Friday, October 11, 2019
Hopefully, today I will get word on the boat. The parts should arrive and won't take long to install. If he gets it running good, I'm going to ask him to take it to the nearby lake with me - I'll pay extra - and give me some pointers on boating and how to launch it and capture the thing back on the trailer. Worth an extra $50? The same reservoir I took the boat to with the first mechanic is only a few miles from his property. I remain hopeful, at least, that the problem will be resolved, the thing will run normally and we can go fishing.
We can't go skiing or tubing now, the temperatures have dropped significantly, but that won't stop me/us from going out on the lake for some peaceful fishing endeavors. Or not so peaceful depending on who comes lmao.
Waking up this morning, it dawned on me that they wanted crackpot chicken. And wanted it done by the time she gets home. Okay, they didn't demand anything, I had just asked what we wanted for dinner today and James definitively spoke out crackpot chicken. But, Taylor needs it done by the time she gets home at 4:00 because she is going to her second job at 5:00. Rushing out the door, I got to kroger's, got the goods, but couldn't stop myself from going over to the UPS store and getting rid of the second haul of useless Directv garbage - electronic equipment. Wash my hands of that company, at least on the DTV side and be done with them forever. I'm missing some of the channels I thought I would be getting on Dish, tho, and have to decide whether it's worth it to upgrade to the next tier up so I can watch reruns of Star Trek Generations and other old shows that I like far better than any of the nonsense that is being pumped out now.
They do have the AMC channel and the Walking Dead, but I have found that I have lost interest in the show. They lost the ability to keep viewers intrigued and captured by the unfolding drama. Namely, I started to lose interest after they had a million different chances to kill Negan and they kept letting him go. That story line started to get boring. I've heard they've made it better, but I haven't watched any of it recently.
_________________
Hours on the phone. Yet again. More ATT disrespect. I've had a snoot full of it. I paid off the phones a few minutes ago and then it's 24 hours before they can be unlocked. But the account is paid up through the 16th of this month so I'm going to wait until then to go ahead and switch over to Verizon. Or whoever, anyone but ATT. That is if I can get the situation set up with the folks in Phoenix before then.
Because right now, I gently spoke about the disparity of the amount they are paying on the M power card every month and the amount that has actually been paid. I can't just let this go. I thought about it long and hard, whatever happens, happens. But I'm not going to have people lying to me that I trusted with my house and just think they can get away with it. There was never any mention of reduced payments, it was always "I'll put the $250 on later on this month". 2 months they paid zero. The rest of them they put on $100. They never told me about it, I knew something was going on but I didn't have access to my M power account - which I recently rectified.
I may have partial responsibility in now knowing what they were actually paying - but that was based on a trust that I had with them that is now lost. They flat out lied to me, month after month. I trust very few people and this is another shutdown in that department. I know I will never get any of that money back, that's a foregone conclusion. She stopped responding. She admitted that "I haven't put on as much as I should have", but that doesn't account for lying about it. Or not just coming forward and saying they can't afford it - because, obviously, of this 13 grand in credit card debt they've gotten themselves into.
I'm at a loss as to what to do about this now. What else might be going on that I don't know about? Should I make a surprise visit to Arizona and check up on my mother and my house and my son? What do I say to her now? She admitted she had done "some" of it but didn't apologize. Very unsettling. I wonder how Mark feels about this? He's like the most honest person I know, he's not the one that's been telling me about making the payment later on the month, Lynnette has been saying that all along. But once you lose trust in people, it's hard to over come. Should I just evict everyone and sell the house? I'ts well above what I owe on it. I'd rather have waited a few more years - that market value will continue to rise because of the location. It's hot real estate - tho the people offering the cash payment for your house nonsense won't admit that.
People are refusing to move out of the neighborhood because it's far less expensive than anything within probably 10 miles besides the town of Guadalupe - I have no idea what housing is going for there.
Anyway, after checking again today to see if she had deposited anything and going over the last 9 months, I just couldn't ignore this any longer. Whatever happens - happens I know I said I didn't want to stir the pot but these people freaking lied to me. And took money that didn't belong to them. Even out of the rest of the rent, there is at least one month where only $80 was put on the card reader where it should have been minimum $200 from my part of it. I at the very least need her to apologize to me for this without my having to prod her to do so or I will have to contemplate what I want to do next.
__________
She finally apologized, at least, as I continued to press the issue. She for some reason mentioned
mark and their relationship isn't going so well. I said sorry to hear that, that doesn't change anything about what we're discussing. I'm not there, I don't know what's going on between them, I don't know if I should be concerned about the house or not.
Enough of that. It's Friday morning, leaving in a few to head to the yard and head down to Brownsville.
We can't go skiing or tubing now, the temperatures have dropped significantly, but that won't stop me/us from going out on the lake for some peaceful fishing endeavors. Or not so peaceful depending on who comes lmao.
Waking up this morning, it dawned on me that they wanted crackpot chicken. And wanted it done by the time she gets home. Okay, they didn't demand anything, I had just asked what we wanted for dinner today and James definitively spoke out crackpot chicken. But, Taylor needs it done by the time she gets home at 4:00 because she is going to her second job at 5:00. Rushing out the door, I got to kroger's, got the goods, but couldn't stop myself from going over to the UPS store and getting rid of the second haul of useless Directv garbage - electronic equipment. Wash my hands of that company, at least on the DTV side and be done with them forever. I'm missing some of the channels I thought I would be getting on Dish, tho, and have to decide whether it's worth it to upgrade to the next tier up so I can watch reruns of Star Trek Generations and other old shows that I like far better than any of the nonsense that is being pumped out now.
They do have the AMC channel and the Walking Dead, but I have found that I have lost interest in the show. They lost the ability to keep viewers intrigued and captured by the unfolding drama. Namely, I started to lose interest after they had a million different chances to kill Negan and they kept letting him go. That story line started to get boring. I've heard they've made it better, but I haven't watched any of it recently.
_________________
Hours on the phone. Yet again. More ATT disrespect. I've had a snoot full of it. I paid off the phones a few minutes ago and then it's 24 hours before they can be unlocked. But the account is paid up through the 16th of this month so I'm going to wait until then to go ahead and switch over to Verizon. Or whoever, anyone but ATT. That is if I can get the situation set up with the folks in Phoenix before then.
Because right now, I gently spoke about the disparity of the amount they are paying on the M power card every month and the amount that has actually been paid. I can't just let this go. I thought about it long and hard, whatever happens, happens. But I'm not going to have people lying to me that I trusted with my house and just think they can get away with it. There was never any mention of reduced payments, it was always "I'll put the $250 on later on this month". 2 months they paid zero. The rest of them they put on $100. They never told me about it, I knew something was going on but I didn't have access to my M power account - which I recently rectified.
I may have partial responsibility in now knowing what they were actually paying - but that was based on a trust that I had with them that is now lost. They flat out lied to me, month after month. I trust very few people and this is another shutdown in that department. I know I will never get any of that money back, that's a foregone conclusion. She stopped responding. She admitted that "I haven't put on as much as I should have", but that doesn't account for lying about it. Or not just coming forward and saying they can't afford it - because, obviously, of this 13 grand in credit card debt they've gotten themselves into.
I'm at a loss as to what to do about this now. What else might be going on that I don't know about? Should I make a surprise visit to Arizona and check up on my mother and my house and my son? What do I say to her now? She admitted she had done "some" of it but didn't apologize. Very unsettling. I wonder how Mark feels about this? He's like the most honest person I know, he's not the one that's been telling me about making the payment later on the month, Lynnette has been saying that all along. But once you lose trust in people, it's hard to over come. Should I just evict everyone and sell the house? I'ts well above what I owe on it. I'd rather have waited a few more years - that market value will continue to rise because of the location. It's hot real estate - tho the people offering the cash payment for your house nonsense won't admit that.
People are refusing to move out of the neighborhood because it's far less expensive than anything within probably 10 miles besides the town of Guadalupe - I have no idea what housing is going for there.
Anyway, after checking again today to see if she had deposited anything and going over the last 9 months, I just couldn't ignore this any longer. Whatever happens - happens I know I said I didn't want to stir the pot but these people freaking lied to me. And took money that didn't belong to them. Even out of the rest of the rent, there is at least one month where only $80 was put on the card reader where it should have been minimum $200 from my part of it. I at the very least need her to apologize to me for this without my having to prod her to do so or I will have to contemplate what I want to do next.
__________
She finally apologized, at least, as I continued to press the issue. She for some reason mentioned
mark and their relationship isn't going so well. I said sorry to hear that, that doesn't change anything about what we're discussing. I'm not there, I don't know what's going on between them, I don't know if I should be concerned about the house or not.
Enough of that. It's Friday morning, leaving in a few to head to the yard and head down to Brownsville.
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Almost 10 hours of cumulative sleep later and I feel much better. Maybe not 100%, but enough to make the drive home today. No rush to get out of here, it's still early enough at 5:48 am. My trip to Logan's was followed by going down to the Peterbilt cafe - my truck's refrigerator - pulling out a bunch of food, lugging it up here and making dinner. Last night that is, followed by going to bed early. Even with the road noise outside I slept right through all of that. That's a sign of how toasted I was in the sleep department, I'm a very light sleeper.
Sometimes, I forget to ask for a room on the backside of the property and preferably on the top floor. And if I do forget, I either end up asking for another room or just dealing with it. Usually asking for another room tho. The top floor here? Is not being used, at all, oddly enough. I've never seen that before. This is a 3 story property. Perhaps there is too much competition and they simply don't need to use it? Just weird. If I ever have the need to stay up here again, I'm going to be trying to find on a satellite view any place where I can park the truck and stay at that wonderful looking Marriot Residence Inn.
Not complaining tho, this room was not the nicest place I've ever been in but it was peaceful and a much better choice than the only other place I know of to stay up here - the Econolodge. I stayed there once and probably wouldn't want to do that again.
Well, according to the mechanic, the parts for the boat are coming in today (or tomorrow) - hoping today tho. It wont take him long to replace those parts and see if his diagnoses was correct. Fingers crossed - tho now it's too late anywhere for tubing or skiing on the lake. That won't stop us from going on fishing expeditions - if the thing is ever fixed of course.
With that, I'm moving out of here and get on down the road!
Sometimes, I forget to ask for a room on the backside of the property and preferably on the top floor. And if I do forget, I either end up asking for another room or just dealing with it. Usually asking for another room tho. The top floor here? Is not being used, at all, oddly enough. I've never seen that before. This is a 3 story property. Perhaps there is too much competition and they simply don't need to use it? Just weird. If I ever have the need to stay up here again, I'm going to be trying to find on a satellite view any place where I can park the truck and stay at that wonderful looking Marriot Residence Inn.
Not complaining tho, this room was not the nicest place I've ever been in but it was peaceful and a much better choice than the only other place I know of to stay up here - the Econolodge. I stayed there once and probably wouldn't want to do that again.
Well, according to the mechanic, the parts for the boat are coming in today (or tomorrow) - hoping today tho. It wont take him long to replace those parts and see if his diagnoses was correct. Fingers crossed - tho now it's too late anywhere for tubing or skiing on the lake. That won't stop us from going on fishing expeditions - if the thing is ever fixed of course.
With that, I'm moving out of here and get on down the road!
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Continuing on with yesterday's theme, I "figured" out what I was going to do alright. It was getting late - past 4:00 pm - in terms of getting a load for tomorrow (today) so I asked her if I was going to be sent out tomorrow? 2 minutes later I get a phone call from her. Dusty's truck broke down and I need to get that load delivered tomorrow morning. Meaning leave today - yesterday, drop what I'm doing and get on down the highway. I was all for it, but I cautioned her that I was about 2 hours out from being able to leave.
I never stopped to consider the timing of when to leave, just sounded like get in a hurry to get this run done. So she said she would see who's at the yard. I said cool, just let me know if you want me to do it. Back on the phone again, I don't want Gary to do it, he's too slow. In reality, Gary would never drive that late into the night for any reason. I don't necessarily blame him, but I do think it limits the loads he gets.
Oh, about the timing. Well she gave me the run - which is a hoot'n'anny'holler better than the thing she was going to dump me with today. A Houston airgas run, in the top 3 of the most worthless runs we have. When I got home, I started thinking. I am driving to Tellulah, Louisiana to get the trailer - the truck broke down there and is still there. Good thing for the driver he gets hourly break down pay. After that, drive straight on through to Decatur. It was 5:00 pm and I started thinking about the mileage of that run.
600 miles. If I leave too early, I thought, I'll get there too early and then I won't have enough on duty hours to deliver the load, much less find a place to park afterwards. Then it dawned on me, I will have to drive alllllllllll night long and into the daylight to get there on time. My manager was seriously concerned because this account isn't "our" account, it belongs to the plant that manufactures the product. If we don't show up on time, or very near it, they will start handing out the loads to some other company, the thing they did last year and we were hurting seriously because of it.
BTW, the Decatur run is a little bit more miles than Brownsville. The only thing that makes Brownsville better is the detention pay.
So I texted Ann: I'm leaving at 9:30 pm and driving all night. Otherwise, the load won't get there until around 5:00 pm (if I stopped for a 10 hour break before getting there). She said fine. I immediately went to bed. No sense in wasting the available hours to catch a nice 2 hour nap, which I did and then got up, got out of there, got to the yard, and yes, I drove all night long. I arrived on time - can't say the same for the people assigned to unload the truck - got into the plant, got to the unloading rack and waited until they showed up. It was 3 hours in that plant and I was dying. Exhaustion hit and it was all I could do to stand up.
I got to the hotel after that with 15 minutes to spare. Why did I get a hotel? Because the ac/heat decided to stop working altogether yesterday and I am not going to try to sleep in that truck after being up for 32 hours straight without it working. I contacted my manager: I'm getting a hotel because the truck AC isn't working, I intend on putting the receipt in the package with the rest of my paperwork and getting my money reimbursed. She said fine, thanked me for getting her out of a bind and that was that.
I really, reaaaaalllllllllyyyyyy wanted to stay at that huge Marriott Residence Inn! That thing is a mammoth! I've never seen one that big before. But there wasn't any truck parking there. Marriot Courtyard and Holiday Inn same thing. Along with La Quinta. So I opted for a mid scored brand in the Microtel. It was that or Econolodge. Actually, I might have been able to find parking at the Residence Inn, but from the front appearance it didn't look promising and more to the point: I've been awake since yesterday morning and fooling with parking was not high on my list of things I wanted to do.
The room isn't bad at all. No strange odors, nice carpeting, nicely appointed furnishings, an island jutting out from the wall with a dishwasher, microwave and a sink - oddly no stove top with all of that.
32 inch tv perched way up high on a cabinet they have on the wall in the middle of the room? Not good. Good thing I don't feel like watching any tv, whatsoever. I am so tired right now, that I'm too tired to go to sleep.
________________
After vegetating for an hour, I am no longer tired lmao.
I can say that I haven't done an all-nighter in - decades? I came close a while back at 4 am, but that doesn't touch getting to the plant at 7:25 am and then staying at the plant another 3 plus hours. I'm quite enjoying this particular hotel stay for unknown reasons. It's just relaxing this time around. I'm not stressed. I don't care about much of anything at the moment. I'm in some sort of daze, not confused, just a fog around my brain from lack of sleep. But it is strangely comforting. It doesn't hurt that this stay is - or will be - free. And that I filled my gut at Logan's steakhouse just down the street.
And so it is. I think I'll peruse dishnetwork on my laptop and see if there's anything good playing.
I never stopped to consider the timing of when to leave, just sounded like get in a hurry to get this run done. So she said she would see who's at the yard. I said cool, just let me know if you want me to do it. Back on the phone again, I don't want Gary to do it, he's too slow. In reality, Gary would never drive that late into the night for any reason. I don't necessarily blame him, but I do think it limits the loads he gets.
Oh, about the timing. Well she gave me the run - which is a hoot'n'anny'holler better than the thing she was going to dump me with today. A Houston airgas run, in the top 3 of the most worthless runs we have. When I got home, I started thinking. I am driving to Tellulah, Louisiana to get the trailer - the truck broke down there and is still there. Good thing for the driver he gets hourly break down pay. After that, drive straight on through to Decatur. It was 5:00 pm and I started thinking about the mileage of that run.
600 miles. If I leave too early, I thought, I'll get there too early and then I won't have enough on duty hours to deliver the load, much less find a place to park afterwards. Then it dawned on me, I will have to drive alllllllllll night long and into the daylight to get there on time. My manager was seriously concerned because this account isn't "our" account, it belongs to the plant that manufactures the product. If we don't show up on time, or very near it, they will start handing out the loads to some other company, the thing they did last year and we were hurting seriously because of it.
BTW, the Decatur run is a little bit more miles than Brownsville. The only thing that makes Brownsville better is the detention pay.
So I texted Ann: I'm leaving at 9:30 pm and driving all night. Otherwise, the load won't get there until around 5:00 pm (if I stopped for a 10 hour break before getting there). She said fine. I immediately went to bed. No sense in wasting the available hours to catch a nice 2 hour nap, which I did and then got up, got out of there, got to the yard, and yes, I drove all night long. I arrived on time - can't say the same for the people assigned to unload the truck - got into the plant, got to the unloading rack and waited until they showed up. It was 3 hours in that plant and I was dying. Exhaustion hit and it was all I could do to stand up.
I got to the hotel after that with 15 minutes to spare. Why did I get a hotel? Because the ac/heat decided to stop working altogether yesterday and I am not going to try to sleep in that truck after being up for 32 hours straight without it working. I contacted my manager: I'm getting a hotel because the truck AC isn't working, I intend on putting the receipt in the package with the rest of my paperwork and getting my money reimbursed. She said fine, thanked me for getting her out of a bind and that was that.
I really, reaaaaalllllllllyyyyyy wanted to stay at that huge Marriott Residence Inn! That thing is a mammoth! I've never seen one that big before. But there wasn't any truck parking there. Marriot Courtyard and Holiday Inn same thing. Along with La Quinta. So I opted for a mid scored brand in the Microtel. It was that or Econolodge. Actually, I might have been able to find parking at the Residence Inn, but from the front appearance it didn't look promising and more to the point: I've been awake since yesterday morning and fooling with parking was not high on my list of things I wanted to do.
The room isn't bad at all. No strange odors, nice carpeting, nicely appointed furnishings, an island jutting out from the wall with a dishwasher, microwave and a sink - oddly no stove top with all of that.
32 inch tv perched way up high on a cabinet they have on the wall in the middle of the room? Not good. Good thing I don't feel like watching any tv, whatsoever. I am so tired right now, that I'm too tired to go to sleep.
________________
After vegetating for an hour, I am no longer tired lmao.
I can say that I haven't done an all-nighter in - decades? I came close a while back at 4 am, but that doesn't touch getting to the plant at 7:25 am and then staying at the plant another 3 plus hours. I'm quite enjoying this particular hotel stay for unknown reasons. It's just relaxing this time around. I'm not stressed. I don't care about much of anything at the moment. I'm in some sort of daze, not confused, just a fog around my brain from lack of sleep. But it is strangely comforting. It doesn't hurt that this stay is - or will be - free. And that I filled my gut at Logan's steakhouse just down the street.
And so it is. I think I'll peruse dishnetwork on my laptop and see if there's anything good playing.
Monday, October 7, 2019
How fast will a 150 horse Mercury Black Max motor push that boat around a lake?
I do hope soon to find out.
Payment for parts made, hopefully this dude will get them ordered, installed and get that thing running correctly very soon. My friends laughed at me and said when I get it running I'll have to work two weekends in a row! Gag, that wasn't nice! Lol it was all in fun. Still, hope persists.
Meanwhile I was watching videos of this particular motor on various boats. Flying across the lake. I'm torturing myself watching this stuff. Because why? I can't do that - yet.
Or just get it way out there somewhere, stop it, get out the fishing rods and start catching dinner.
I'll take a finely crafted, executed, written and acted old Western over much of anything that is coming out of Hollywood any day. On that note, I have my Dish Network installed - at a much cheaper rate than what I was paying for DirecTV (tho admittedly I could have reduced service with DTV and gotten a cheaper rate as well, but I was through with them). But what am I watching? Reruns of Bonanza on Roku, the free stuff they offer.
____________
Monday. Just spent literally HOURS on the phone with ATT mobile and ATT Directv. A debit in the amount of $164.26 was taken out of my account. There was no rhyme or reason for it, so I called the mobile side of it first. After almost an hour on the phone with them, it was verified that that amount was not taken out. Direct - the same old s***. Get connected with one person, switched to another, dumped into the main system, start all over. I was getting very annoyed.
After unknown amounts of time - I started this earlier this morning and now it's 12:30 pm - I finally got to the bottom of it. I had cancelled my account. 11 days later, they took out that $164.26. They shouldn't have taken anything out, according to the guy I was talking to (of whom I got his ID for future reference). But, instead of getting my money back instantaneously? Or even in a few days? They are sending me a visa gift card in that amount instead? And up to 3 MONTHS to get it? If there was any reason not to deal with this company after all I've been through with them, this certainly topped it off nicely. ATT is history as far as I'm concerned.
Now, in my quest to get rid of ATT altogether, I found out I could get 3 lines with unlimited data on Verizon for a total of $165 per month after taxes. I'm paying $200 now but that includes the monthly payments. I don't have unlimited data now. I have 20 mg's and it's only on my phone, the other two phones, they have to use wifi if they want to access the internet on them. It's unlimited texting and calls, but they have no frills plans.
I'm actually considering dumping the other two lines and letting them pay for their own service. After finding out that they have lied to me about the monthly rent deposits - namely - their portion of it - I kinda got bent out of shape. "We'll put our $250 on later this month" - onto the M Power for electric service that is, it's cash you go to a machine at a grocery store, dump the money into it, it loads it onto a card, you take the card home, put it on the machine and walaah, you have that much added to your account. Well, she has only been putting $100 per month on there for a long time now, on one month they didn't put any money on it. I knew something wasn't right, I just didn't have the facts to support my theories. If I dump their phone service, the money lost will be partially made up.
Their problem is that they got into 13 grand worth of credit card debt and now they are drowning in monthly payments. In their financial situation, they shouldn't have gotten credit cards at all. So apparently, I'm the one that has to eat the loss, not the credit card company? But, now that she knows that I'm on this - I didn't specifically address it but she knows I can see if she's adding anything - I will be in position to ask her at the beginning of next month why she either A: didn't put anything on there or B: put the full $250 on? That's all they're being charged to live there.
You don't just presume that a person will agree without asking that they can just not pay the agreed to amount. I did them a favor long ago letting them come live on the property, they've done me a favor, so-to-speak, of taking over the house. But the agreement was they would pay $250 per month. And frankly, if they didn't have that house, they would very likely be back out on the street. I don't wish that upon them at all, at the same time, telling me all this time they were going to put that money on later in the month and then not doing it is very troubling for me.
After months of high temperatures, yesterday being 92 at high dew point/humidity and real feel well up into the 100's - the temps finally came down overnight. It's in the mid 60's outside right now, just about cool enough to start burning a nice fire in the fire pit outside again. Probably not today. I'm a bit exasperated that I had to go through all of this yet once again with ATT/Directv. You end the service, you expect them to stop taking money out of your bank account. I have no access now to my Directv account online since it's been deactivated. I could have found this info out if I had been able to just access those accounts.
Just mystifying the way that company treats it's customers.
Work? No clue. Off two days now, I should be going out tomorrow, but who the heck knows.
The rest of today? No clue. Not in the mood now to do much of anything. Hang out with the dogs. I've been contemplating for a while now of getting a generator. The lightning strike this morning caused the power to go out, then on, then off, and then partially on before the power company came out later and clicked the giant fuse on the telephone pole up with that very long rod they use to reach up there and do that. Power goes out frequently here. Just a lot of money tho, about $500 for the size I want - to cover what I want it to be able to power up, which would be alternating between freezers and the refrigerator and my window AC until so at least one room is cooled - or the room heater if it's cold - and some lights. Very frequent occurrence of power going out and it gets old on the days off.
Oh, and the other thought? Cooler temps have arrived. No skiing or tubing now whenever this boat gets going. Lol.
well, I'll figure something out.
I do hope soon to find out.
Payment for parts made, hopefully this dude will get them ordered, installed and get that thing running correctly very soon. My friends laughed at me and said when I get it running I'll have to work two weekends in a row! Gag, that wasn't nice! Lol it was all in fun. Still, hope persists.
Meanwhile I was watching videos of this particular motor on various boats. Flying across the lake. I'm torturing myself watching this stuff. Because why? I can't do that - yet.
Or just get it way out there somewhere, stop it, get out the fishing rods and start catching dinner.
I'll take a finely crafted, executed, written and acted old Western over much of anything that is coming out of Hollywood any day. On that note, I have my Dish Network installed - at a much cheaper rate than what I was paying for DirecTV (tho admittedly I could have reduced service with DTV and gotten a cheaper rate as well, but I was through with them). But what am I watching? Reruns of Bonanza on Roku, the free stuff they offer.
____________
Monday. Just spent literally HOURS on the phone with ATT mobile and ATT Directv. A debit in the amount of $164.26 was taken out of my account. There was no rhyme or reason for it, so I called the mobile side of it first. After almost an hour on the phone with them, it was verified that that amount was not taken out. Direct - the same old s***. Get connected with one person, switched to another, dumped into the main system, start all over. I was getting very annoyed.
After unknown amounts of time - I started this earlier this morning and now it's 12:30 pm - I finally got to the bottom of it. I had cancelled my account. 11 days later, they took out that $164.26. They shouldn't have taken anything out, according to the guy I was talking to (of whom I got his ID for future reference). But, instead of getting my money back instantaneously? Or even in a few days? They are sending me a visa gift card in that amount instead? And up to 3 MONTHS to get it? If there was any reason not to deal with this company after all I've been through with them, this certainly topped it off nicely. ATT is history as far as I'm concerned.
Now, in my quest to get rid of ATT altogether, I found out I could get 3 lines with unlimited data on Verizon for a total of $165 per month after taxes. I'm paying $200 now but that includes the monthly payments. I don't have unlimited data now. I have 20 mg's and it's only on my phone, the other two phones, they have to use wifi if they want to access the internet on them. It's unlimited texting and calls, but they have no frills plans.
I'm actually considering dumping the other two lines and letting them pay for their own service. After finding out that they have lied to me about the monthly rent deposits - namely - their portion of it - I kinda got bent out of shape. "We'll put our $250 on later this month" - onto the M Power for electric service that is, it's cash you go to a machine at a grocery store, dump the money into it, it loads it onto a card, you take the card home, put it on the machine and walaah, you have that much added to your account. Well, she has only been putting $100 per month on there for a long time now, on one month they didn't put any money on it. I knew something wasn't right, I just didn't have the facts to support my theories. If I dump their phone service, the money lost will be partially made up.
Their problem is that they got into 13 grand worth of credit card debt and now they are drowning in monthly payments. In their financial situation, they shouldn't have gotten credit cards at all. So apparently, I'm the one that has to eat the loss, not the credit card company? But, now that she knows that I'm on this - I didn't specifically address it but she knows I can see if she's adding anything - I will be in position to ask her at the beginning of next month why she either A: didn't put anything on there or B: put the full $250 on? That's all they're being charged to live there.
You don't just presume that a person will agree without asking that they can just not pay the agreed to amount. I did them a favor long ago letting them come live on the property, they've done me a favor, so-to-speak, of taking over the house. But the agreement was they would pay $250 per month. And frankly, if they didn't have that house, they would very likely be back out on the street. I don't wish that upon them at all, at the same time, telling me all this time they were going to put that money on later in the month and then not doing it is very troubling for me.
After months of high temperatures, yesterday being 92 at high dew point/humidity and real feel well up into the 100's - the temps finally came down overnight. It's in the mid 60's outside right now, just about cool enough to start burning a nice fire in the fire pit outside again. Probably not today. I'm a bit exasperated that I had to go through all of this yet once again with ATT/Directv. You end the service, you expect them to stop taking money out of your bank account. I have no access now to my Directv account online since it's been deactivated. I could have found this info out if I had been able to just access those accounts.
Just mystifying the way that company treats it's customers.
Work? No clue. Off two days now, I should be going out tomorrow, but who the heck knows.
The rest of today? No clue. Not in the mood now to do much of anything. Hang out with the dogs. I've been contemplating for a while now of getting a generator. The lightning strike this morning caused the power to go out, then on, then off, and then partially on before the power company came out later and clicked the giant fuse on the telephone pole up with that very long rod they use to reach up there and do that. Power goes out frequently here. Just a lot of money tho, about $500 for the size I want - to cover what I want it to be able to power up, which would be alternating between freezers and the refrigerator and my window AC until so at least one room is cooled - or the room heater if it's cold - and some lights. Very frequent occurrence of power going out and it gets old on the days off.
Oh, and the other thought? Cooler temps have arrived. No skiing or tubing now whenever this boat gets going. Lol.
well, I'll figure something out.
Saturday, October 5, 2019
The biggest thing that's been on my plate for over a month now is this boat.
And getting it fixed.
The first mechanic finally started talking to me after 17 days of blowing me off - through FB direct message but better than nothing. He claims he's been laid up in bed and sick. I have no reason to believe or disbelieve him - tho I have noticed they haven't updated their ad in almost 2 weeks so that lends some credibility.
But, he went into this long thing about other mechanics are going to want to replace the stator, the power pack, coils, all the ignition stuff. Notwithstanding the fact the he wasn't going to come out and fix it, he certainly had his opinions on the matter. Well, the other mechanic by that time had already texted me back after asking if he had any luck yet - and had narrowed it down to "Well its sputtering at all rpm ranges. If the carbs were rebuilt within 2-3 years, they should be fine. Compression is good on all cylinders. All 6 coil packs are good according to multimeter. The only other possibility is the power packs, stator, trigger, and rectifier. The voltage regulator appears to be fine because voltage is steady, not erratic. The trigger sends current to each power pack bank at a certian degree in rotation, basically a distributor. It is good because you would have no fire at all if not. I havent checked powerpacks yet but i will. That is my best guess hypothesis"
Later on, he called me. Said he had checked everything. The stator has a hole through it - so much for the first mechanic's theory that the stator isn't bad - he had replaced a power pack with a used one he had, had found that only 3 of the 6 cylinders were working, but after putting on the power pack 5 of them came to life and that some switch box - didn't understand that one - was also bad. Something like this motor's version of a distributor. He had taken compression, it was all good. That's the thing that worries you right off the bat.
If the compression isn't good and not within 10 pounds of the other cylinders, you are in for an expensive repair job. If the compression is good, then you are looking at either electronics of fuel. Or a combination thereof. Anyway, he came up with $260 to order the parts. I don't really have any choices here, I have to take his word for it and hope he's right. He tested everything with a multi meter, he wasn't just guessing. Well he was guessing at first as evidenced above, but he wasn't going to do anything until he was certain that he had a correct diagnostic.
So I was going to send him money via paypal, facebook dm, or cash app - or whatever he preferred. He doesn't do business that way, lmao. It's cash in person. So, he won't order the parts until I hand him the cash in person. Not to worry, the place where he is doing the repair work is also his house. I know where he lives, lol, and I will be getting a receipt. He "seems" to be an honest, upright person that has some morals and values. That was my first impression and I have no reason - yet - to think anything else. It's just plain and simple here - there aren't that many options for getting the thing fixed. It's an older boat and the shops mostly don't want to touch it. If I had taken the boat to the place that said they would look at it, they would have sent it back because they didn't want to fool with electronics and apparently, electronics are what the problem is.
This is a live and learn process for me. Boats are out of my range of knowledge and I'm a newbie. I'll get the thing going one way or another - got some money tied up into it now, no looking back part came and went a while ago.
Onto other things. After having a long discussion with another driver who has also been doing the 2 day sitting thing in between loads - while seeing others going out the next day or the day after - we came to the conclusion that our manager is really only going to consider what's in front of her. If you are in her chair, sitting in her office, you are going to get a load. If you aren't, good luck. If you text her telling her you are ready and available to go out, you will probably have better chances than not saying anything at all. I have refrained from saying anything because she is easily offended at even the slightest hint that you don't like the way she is running things. But if I sent her a text saying "Hi Ann, I'm at home and ready to go out again", without inferring anything about the way she does things, at least I have given it a try. If I get into it with her about her "first in/first out" and the fact that it doesn't actually work that way, she'll go directly into sending me out into the system on-call.
That's her standard, modus-operandi with everyone. Instead of discussing anything, she gets defensive and just basically tells you she will get rid of you. Well, I would go out on-call for a week or two, maybe, but I wouldn't do it permanently. That would be the cue to go find a new job. And right now? I don't feel like going through all that s***. It's a lot of work and mentally draining and sometimes even depressing looking for jobs.
And then there's the "other" house. Maria is getting discontent with her living situation. I saw that coming, just waited for it to materialize. I'm not going to help her anymore than what I am already doing, which is quite a lot. If she doesn't like it, she can go find a new place to live. My name isn't even on the current lease now, so it's whatever to me. I've already discussed with James about watching my dogs if it comes to that to see what his reaction would be - and also offered to pay him for the headache. Tho, my dogs aren't that much to deal with. Put them out in the morning, bring them in at night and please feed them. That's it. He likes Addler anyway - I think everyone likes Addler - that helps.
Anyway, she got all pissy with Taylor a few days ago. Taylor went out of town for work for a couple of days, maria agreed to watch the boys, for pay of course. When Rene was here, she did it for $40 per day. Or even less if Taylor said she was in a pinch financially. Or babysitting - Rene would do it cheap. So, Taylor went to Houston on work assignment last week, Maria agreed to the $40 per day. But, by the time Taylor got back, the whole story had changed. She was angry about "not getting paid enough" - even tho she agreed to it. It was obvious those boys had gotten to her. They are several handfuls, not just a handful. She's demanding double the pay. Listening to Taylor relay the story, I got a bit irritated with Maria.
She wanted the same from me. She wanted me to start paying her to watch my dogs. This was after we had already agreed that if she stayed at that house after Rene left, she would watch the dogs, I would be responsible for the bills and I would pay whatever is above and beyond what the 3 incoming rents didn't cover. Tho I went well beyond that buying her food and supplies for the house. She doesn't have any grip on me, my dogs don't have to go over there. It's a better setup if they do, but it's not mandatory. They're dogs, they will survive. She knows this. She is poor, broke and has nothing. Instead of being thankful for people helping her out, she is getting pissy about it all and if she starts up with me? I will give her a dosage of the foulest tasting liver oil she has ever had from anyone.
If you're going to be thankless, ungrateful and belligerent when people are trying to help you, piss off. Is that the Christian thing to say? I don't know, but I grew tired of being a doormat long ago, when people would tell you you aren't a Christian because you won't beckon to every command. You offer to help people and they walk allllll over you. That didn't stop me from helping people, but it certainly changed how I go about doing it. I could write a book about helping people who came to the point that they thought I was their personal slave and could just call me at any time of the day or night and demand I come over right now and do this and that.
I'm not making that up, it's no exaggeration. I learned how to place boundaries and limitations. People calling me non-Christian because I wouldn't drop everything I'm doing and go help them right then and there began getting it right back at them. There's a mechanic shop down the street from your house, go pay them full price for the work. Or - there's a Uhaul at such and such address, they will rent you a truck versus taking mine, emptying the gas tank, leaving dents on the body and leaving it trashed out. And a LOT of other stuff that I am not going to bother going into here. The point is my views of helping people have been tempered with a lifetime of experience with it. Once a person starts showing signs of discontent, I'm inclined to start pulling out of the situation..
But, I'm not going to say anything to her, the signs are telling. The 18 year old she let in there was of her own accord, I neither asked her to take him in nor pressured her - and even gave my doubts about it. Now she is regretting it and that's alllllll on her. The boy is working now, at least. I'ma play this one by ear and see where it goes.
On the way down here yesterday - I'm in Brownsville again - I saw one of the worst wrecks I have ever seen. I came up on a back up of stopped traffic. Got out my GPS and saw it went on for literally MILES. I was amazed GPS hadn't alerted me to this and given me an alternate route. I looked, there were definitely ways to get around this mess, but by the time I got to the back up, too late. I was stuck in that for an hour and fifteen minutes, stop and go, mostly stopped, until I finally got to the accident. The skid marks showed that something had rammed into the center divider, bounced off it, skidded along way and then....finally getting past the fire trucks and wreckers.....a mobile home, still attached to the truck pulling it, the truck was totally trashed and the front axle was hanging over the center divider! That divider is 3 feet tall, it's taller than others that appear about 2 to 2-1/2 feet tall. It must have been a terrible impact for it to force that entire truck up that divider and over the other side. That's solid concrete reinforced with rebar - it didn't phase it.
I didn't think I was going to make it down here yesterday, but I pushed hard and got down here with 5 minutes left on the 14 hour clock before I quit for the day. There was one other driver ahead of me getting down here. He apparently had tried to let me get here first because he had just pulled in when I got there. He left the plant 2 hours before me and didn't get stuck in that traffic. I know how some of these drivers work, lol, they want that detention pay as bad as I do. But, he still beat me. There are no other drivers waiting down here, so I doubt it's going to make any difference. Those empty trailers almost always come in one right after the other. Unlikely that I will get much more wait time than he does.
But, I don't have another run until Tuesday at the earliest. So it would be nice if there were no trailers coming in today, otherwise it's just another 2 day off scenario.
Well, that's enough for this one. Sit and wait. It's 10:00 am, if trailers get here before 1ish pm, I can make it back tonight.
And getting it fixed.
The first mechanic finally started talking to me after 17 days of blowing me off - through FB direct message but better than nothing. He claims he's been laid up in bed and sick. I have no reason to believe or disbelieve him - tho I have noticed they haven't updated their ad in almost 2 weeks so that lends some credibility.
But, he went into this long thing about other mechanics are going to want to replace the stator, the power pack, coils, all the ignition stuff. Notwithstanding the fact the he wasn't going to come out and fix it, he certainly had his opinions on the matter. Well, the other mechanic by that time had already texted me back after asking if he had any luck yet - and had narrowed it down to "Well its sputtering at all rpm ranges. If the carbs were rebuilt within 2-3 years, they should be fine. Compression is good on all cylinders. All 6 coil packs are good according to multimeter. The only other possibility is the power packs, stator, trigger, and rectifier. The voltage regulator appears to be fine because voltage is steady, not erratic. The trigger sends current to each power pack bank at a certian degree in rotation, basically a distributor. It is good because you would have no fire at all if not. I havent checked powerpacks yet but i will. That is my best guess hypothesis"
Later on, he called me. Said he had checked everything. The stator has a hole through it - so much for the first mechanic's theory that the stator isn't bad - he had replaced a power pack with a used one he had, had found that only 3 of the 6 cylinders were working, but after putting on the power pack 5 of them came to life and that some switch box - didn't understand that one - was also bad. Something like this motor's version of a distributor. He had taken compression, it was all good. That's the thing that worries you right off the bat.
If the compression isn't good and not within 10 pounds of the other cylinders, you are in for an expensive repair job. If the compression is good, then you are looking at either electronics of fuel. Or a combination thereof. Anyway, he came up with $260 to order the parts. I don't really have any choices here, I have to take his word for it and hope he's right. He tested everything with a multi meter, he wasn't just guessing. Well he was guessing at first as evidenced above, but he wasn't going to do anything until he was certain that he had a correct diagnostic.
So I was going to send him money via paypal, facebook dm, or cash app - or whatever he preferred. He doesn't do business that way, lmao. It's cash in person. So, he won't order the parts until I hand him the cash in person. Not to worry, the place where he is doing the repair work is also his house. I know where he lives, lol, and I will be getting a receipt. He "seems" to be an honest, upright person that has some morals and values. That was my first impression and I have no reason - yet - to think anything else. It's just plain and simple here - there aren't that many options for getting the thing fixed. It's an older boat and the shops mostly don't want to touch it. If I had taken the boat to the place that said they would look at it, they would have sent it back because they didn't want to fool with electronics and apparently, electronics are what the problem is.
This is a live and learn process for me. Boats are out of my range of knowledge and I'm a newbie. I'll get the thing going one way or another - got some money tied up into it now, no looking back part came and went a while ago.
Onto other things. After having a long discussion with another driver who has also been doing the 2 day sitting thing in between loads - while seeing others going out the next day or the day after - we came to the conclusion that our manager is really only going to consider what's in front of her. If you are in her chair, sitting in her office, you are going to get a load. If you aren't, good luck. If you text her telling her you are ready and available to go out, you will probably have better chances than not saying anything at all. I have refrained from saying anything because she is easily offended at even the slightest hint that you don't like the way she is running things. But if I sent her a text saying "Hi Ann, I'm at home and ready to go out again", without inferring anything about the way she does things, at least I have given it a try. If I get into it with her about her "first in/first out" and the fact that it doesn't actually work that way, she'll go directly into sending me out into the system on-call.
That's her standard, modus-operandi with everyone. Instead of discussing anything, she gets defensive and just basically tells you she will get rid of you. Well, I would go out on-call for a week or two, maybe, but I wouldn't do it permanently. That would be the cue to go find a new job. And right now? I don't feel like going through all that s***. It's a lot of work and mentally draining and sometimes even depressing looking for jobs.
And then there's the "other" house. Maria is getting discontent with her living situation. I saw that coming, just waited for it to materialize. I'm not going to help her anymore than what I am already doing, which is quite a lot. If she doesn't like it, she can go find a new place to live. My name isn't even on the current lease now, so it's whatever to me. I've already discussed with James about watching my dogs if it comes to that to see what his reaction would be - and also offered to pay him for the headache. Tho, my dogs aren't that much to deal with. Put them out in the morning, bring them in at night and please feed them. That's it. He likes Addler anyway - I think everyone likes Addler - that helps.
Anyway, she got all pissy with Taylor a few days ago. Taylor went out of town for work for a couple of days, maria agreed to watch the boys, for pay of course. When Rene was here, she did it for $40 per day. Or even less if Taylor said she was in a pinch financially. Or babysitting - Rene would do it cheap. So, Taylor went to Houston on work assignment last week, Maria agreed to the $40 per day. But, by the time Taylor got back, the whole story had changed. She was angry about "not getting paid enough" - even tho she agreed to it. It was obvious those boys had gotten to her. They are several handfuls, not just a handful. She's demanding double the pay. Listening to Taylor relay the story, I got a bit irritated with Maria.
She wanted the same from me. She wanted me to start paying her to watch my dogs. This was after we had already agreed that if she stayed at that house after Rene left, she would watch the dogs, I would be responsible for the bills and I would pay whatever is above and beyond what the 3 incoming rents didn't cover. Tho I went well beyond that buying her food and supplies for the house. She doesn't have any grip on me, my dogs don't have to go over there. It's a better setup if they do, but it's not mandatory. They're dogs, they will survive. She knows this. She is poor, broke and has nothing. Instead of being thankful for people helping her out, she is getting pissy about it all and if she starts up with me? I will give her a dosage of the foulest tasting liver oil she has ever had from anyone.
If you're going to be thankless, ungrateful and belligerent when people are trying to help you, piss off. Is that the Christian thing to say? I don't know, but I grew tired of being a doormat long ago, when people would tell you you aren't a Christian because you won't beckon to every command. You offer to help people and they walk allllll over you. That didn't stop me from helping people, but it certainly changed how I go about doing it. I could write a book about helping people who came to the point that they thought I was their personal slave and could just call me at any time of the day or night and demand I come over right now and do this and that.
I'm not making that up, it's no exaggeration. I learned how to place boundaries and limitations. People calling me non-Christian because I wouldn't drop everything I'm doing and go help them right then and there began getting it right back at them. There's a mechanic shop down the street from your house, go pay them full price for the work. Or - there's a Uhaul at such and such address, they will rent you a truck versus taking mine, emptying the gas tank, leaving dents on the body and leaving it trashed out. And a LOT of other stuff that I am not going to bother going into here. The point is my views of helping people have been tempered with a lifetime of experience with it. Once a person starts showing signs of discontent, I'm inclined to start pulling out of the situation..
But, I'm not going to say anything to her, the signs are telling. The 18 year old she let in there was of her own accord, I neither asked her to take him in nor pressured her - and even gave my doubts about it. Now she is regretting it and that's alllllll on her. The boy is working now, at least. I'ma play this one by ear and see where it goes.
On the way down here yesterday - I'm in Brownsville again - I saw one of the worst wrecks I have ever seen. I came up on a back up of stopped traffic. Got out my GPS and saw it went on for literally MILES. I was amazed GPS hadn't alerted me to this and given me an alternate route. I looked, there were definitely ways to get around this mess, but by the time I got to the back up, too late. I was stuck in that for an hour and fifteen minutes, stop and go, mostly stopped, until I finally got to the accident. The skid marks showed that something had rammed into the center divider, bounced off it, skidded along way and then....finally getting past the fire trucks and wreckers.....a mobile home, still attached to the truck pulling it, the truck was totally trashed and the front axle was hanging over the center divider! That divider is 3 feet tall, it's taller than others that appear about 2 to 2-1/2 feet tall. It must have been a terrible impact for it to force that entire truck up that divider and over the other side. That's solid concrete reinforced with rebar - it didn't phase it.
I didn't think I was going to make it down here yesterday, but I pushed hard and got down here with 5 minutes left on the 14 hour clock before I quit for the day. There was one other driver ahead of me getting down here. He apparently had tried to let me get here first because he had just pulled in when I got there. He left the plant 2 hours before me and didn't get stuck in that traffic. I know how some of these drivers work, lol, they want that detention pay as bad as I do. But, he still beat me. There are no other drivers waiting down here, so I doubt it's going to make any difference. Those empty trailers almost always come in one right after the other. Unlikely that I will get much more wait time than he does.
But, I don't have another run until Tuesday at the earliest. So it would be nice if there were no trailers coming in today, otherwise it's just another 2 day off scenario.
Well, that's enough for this one. Sit and wait. It's 10:00 am, if trailers get here before 1ish pm, I can make it back tonight.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Well today marks the first time that I can prove that the manager is playing favorites or using whatever system she is using to give out routes - whatever it is, it isn't what she claims it is. Because yesterday, a driver who had left ahead of me got in after I had already been a the yard quite a while and almost ready to leave.
Yet, this morning, he's already back out on a run and I didn't get anything. Not that I wanted a run today, but this claim of her's that its' "first in, first out" that she tells everyone - and many have questioned - can now be proven to be false. I don't know why she is doing thing the way she does, just no clue. One driver gets all the longer runs. Which I don't care anything about, but there are plenty of drivers that want those runs as well, never getting them or getting them in 6 month intervals.
I didn't actually want to go out today anyway, that's not the complaint. The complaint is simply she isn't doing what she says she is doing. He didn't get in until late, she would have had to have given him today's run before he ever even got back to the yard. Now, there could a factor here where her system is so flawed, she doesn't actually even know what's going on and is just guessing. I dunno. I'm not going to say anything about it for now, just information that may be useful if the discussion ever comes up.
Meanwhile, this boat mechanic finally stopped talking through his wife and contacted me directly after I demanded my money back. "The service call was 150 you paid 2p for a bow saver and gave 20 for parts you didn't receive. I got your motor running for you. Gave you about 4 hours work and spent 30 in gas going there and back. But please tell me what you think I I owe you sir."
I wasn't asking for all of my money back, I purchased the support from him for 20 bucks. But his claim that "I got your motor running for you" is false. It wasn't running any better after he left than when before he came. His 4 hours of work didn't result in any difference in the engine's sputtering and coughing and not running smoothly and dying out. He knows this, so why he's trying to purport that "I got your motor running" I don't know, but I replied to him and flatly told him the motor wasn't running any better after then before you arrived, why did you leave me hanging for two weeks and why haven't you followed through?
I, of course, have received no reply. I would rather resolve this amiably with him, but it's become obvious that he never had any intention of coming back out here, contrary to his word and obviously because I gave him money to buy the fuel pump parts.
Anyway, I've given up on him. He will send me partial money back or I will cause him trouble. He doesn't know that yet, not wise to say what I'm going to do if he doesn't do what he said he's going to do, I'll see what happens. But, they do all of their advertising on social media and I can respond to their ads telling everyone what kind of people they are and tagging facebook group admins in to alert them that these people are basically thieves, certainly not people of their word. They also have ads up in Craigslist, I can run an ad using the pics he posts to advertise and warn people in that manner as well, as well as contact Craigslist, tho I don't know that anything would be come of a complaint to them.
Regardless, I've contacted this other guy I found and now I've been told of yet another person that is a licensed boat mechanic that is also local. Otherwise, I have to drag the boat over 40 miles to the nearest shop that will work on it.
___________
Smoker going, a pork loin and a beef roast in it.
Meanwhile, the boat mechanic - the one that is local here, not the dude that is giving me the shaft - contacted me back and said I can bring it over this afternoon. So, that's exactly what I'm going to do. Once I get the smoker to the desired temperature, I am now able to get it to stay at the temp for several hours without having to bother to look at it. Took quite a while, honestly, to figure out how to do that.
It's mostly started with ample coal in the basket where the fire pit is on the smoker. Enough charcoal will ensure there is enough fuel to supply the smoker with heat for hours. Too little and the fuel is exhausted - the coal itself - quickly and you have to keep adding more. The problem was figuring out how to get it to correct temperature - the answer was to dump a bunch of fluid on it, let it soak in, fire it up, let it flame for quite a while until nice hot coals, dump some wood chunks for smoke on top of it, close everything up, make the adjustments on the air inlet and the exhaust outlet til it's where you want it and that's that.
And I"m still highly annoyed by the revelations that the screen view of purchases on the power company's website has provided. There is some serious explaining to do. I don't have to ask anymore how much is on the M-power machine, it's shown on the website. So now, I know that there is $300 and change on the card - A typical September power usage is well under $300, the temps have decreased substantially in Phoenix and they are enjoying super nice weather. But, she said she would "add hers" to the card. Well, okay, add it then. $250 please. I've basically been funding the house out of the 4 rooms with either no payments from them or very little. I wonder if they thought they were going to get away with this forever? Their getting themselves into credit card trouble is not my problem, I don't own it or take responsibility for it. If it's too big an issue, they can declare bankruptcy and that will be the end of that. But, she said the engine in her car died, so now she has to rely on either friends or the transit system to get around.
The Phoenix bus system is unbelievably SLOW. It takes forever to get anywhere. But, I've been there and done that. Not fun, but you do what you have to do. And now, her job is moving their location from near the house to downtown Phoenix. I dunno what she's going to do and I may just have to let it ride for a while, them not paying anything - but - they should be upfront about that and tell me right off. Not tell me they will add theirs later in the month and then come to find out that either hasn't happened or is less than half of what they are committed to paying to stay there.
Remember, their $250 per month gives them a large room, unlimited wifi, excellent Dish Network package, includes all utilities. The Phoenix rental market is starting to skyrocket. Even room rentals are going way up. But, I don't want to try to get too much and then have trouble renting rooms. Not getting that $250, tho, has been noticeable and hence finally drove me to call SRP, get them to set me up with a screen name and login password and see for myself. It shows payments up to 36 months, tho I only needed to look at summer to see that I have basically funded the electricity without any or very little additional input from their finances.
I'm still going to have to tread these waters pretty lightly. They're running the house. If they get mad and leave - tho I don't know where they would go or how they would survive - I would instantly have to start the process of getting rid of everyone in the house and putting the house up for sale. Zillow has it valued at 192k. Zillow's accuracy in the Phoenix market is 98.5 % within 10% of home sale price. Of course, 10% of 192k is a lot of money, but still would be more than I owe on it.
It's nothing that I want to have to deal with right now, so I guess I"m going to not say much of anything besides the indicator I gave her yesterday about going through all of it.... and saying nothing more. She is aware now that I am seeing everything and that should either force them to make this month's payment or start making requests. Forgive the past, but start asking about where this month's payment is if it doesn't happen.
Well, I"m fixing to get out of here, call the dude and tell him I will be on my way over there with the boat.
Yet, this morning, he's already back out on a run and I didn't get anything. Not that I wanted a run today, but this claim of her's that its' "first in, first out" that she tells everyone - and many have questioned - can now be proven to be false. I don't know why she is doing thing the way she does, just no clue. One driver gets all the longer runs. Which I don't care anything about, but there are plenty of drivers that want those runs as well, never getting them or getting them in 6 month intervals.
I didn't actually want to go out today anyway, that's not the complaint. The complaint is simply she isn't doing what she says she is doing. He didn't get in until late, she would have had to have given him today's run before he ever even got back to the yard. Now, there could a factor here where her system is so flawed, she doesn't actually even know what's going on and is just guessing. I dunno. I'm not going to say anything about it for now, just information that may be useful if the discussion ever comes up.
Meanwhile, this boat mechanic finally stopped talking through his wife and contacted me directly after I demanded my money back. "The service call was 150 you paid 2p for a bow saver and gave 20 for parts you didn't receive. I got your motor running for you. Gave you about 4 hours work and spent 30 in gas going there and back. But please tell me what you think I I owe you sir."
I wasn't asking for all of my money back, I purchased the support from him for 20 bucks. But his claim that "I got your motor running for you" is false. It wasn't running any better after he left than when before he came. His 4 hours of work didn't result in any difference in the engine's sputtering and coughing and not running smoothly and dying out. He knows this, so why he's trying to purport that "I got your motor running" I don't know, but I replied to him and flatly told him the motor wasn't running any better after then before you arrived, why did you leave me hanging for two weeks and why haven't you followed through?
I, of course, have received no reply. I would rather resolve this amiably with him, but it's become obvious that he never had any intention of coming back out here, contrary to his word and obviously because I gave him money to buy the fuel pump parts.
Anyway, I've given up on him. He will send me partial money back or I will cause him trouble. He doesn't know that yet, not wise to say what I'm going to do if he doesn't do what he said he's going to do, I'll see what happens. But, they do all of their advertising on social media and I can respond to their ads telling everyone what kind of people they are and tagging facebook group admins in to alert them that these people are basically thieves, certainly not people of their word. They also have ads up in Craigslist, I can run an ad using the pics he posts to advertise and warn people in that manner as well, as well as contact Craigslist, tho I don't know that anything would be come of a complaint to them.
Regardless, I've contacted this other guy I found and now I've been told of yet another person that is a licensed boat mechanic that is also local. Otherwise, I have to drag the boat over 40 miles to the nearest shop that will work on it.
___________
Smoker going, a pork loin and a beef roast in it.
Meanwhile, the boat mechanic - the one that is local here, not the dude that is giving me the shaft - contacted me back and said I can bring it over this afternoon. So, that's exactly what I'm going to do. Once I get the smoker to the desired temperature, I am now able to get it to stay at the temp for several hours without having to bother to look at it. Took quite a while, honestly, to figure out how to do that.
It's mostly started with ample coal in the basket where the fire pit is on the smoker. Enough charcoal will ensure there is enough fuel to supply the smoker with heat for hours. Too little and the fuel is exhausted - the coal itself - quickly and you have to keep adding more. The problem was figuring out how to get it to correct temperature - the answer was to dump a bunch of fluid on it, let it soak in, fire it up, let it flame for quite a while until nice hot coals, dump some wood chunks for smoke on top of it, close everything up, make the adjustments on the air inlet and the exhaust outlet til it's where you want it and that's that.
And I"m still highly annoyed by the revelations that the screen view of purchases on the power company's website has provided. There is some serious explaining to do. I don't have to ask anymore how much is on the M-power machine, it's shown on the website. So now, I know that there is $300 and change on the card - A typical September power usage is well under $300, the temps have decreased substantially in Phoenix and they are enjoying super nice weather. But, she said she would "add hers" to the card. Well, okay, add it then. $250 please. I've basically been funding the house out of the 4 rooms with either no payments from them or very little. I wonder if they thought they were going to get away with this forever? Their getting themselves into credit card trouble is not my problem, I don't own it or take responsibility for it. If it's too big an issue, they can declare bankruptcy and that will be the end of that. But, she said the engine in her car died, so now she has to rely on either friends or the transit system to get around.
The Phoenix bus system is unbelievably SLOW. It takes forever to get anywhere. But, I've been there and done that. Not fun, but you do what you have to do. And now, her job is moving their location from near the house to downtown Phoenix. I dunno what she's going to do and I may just have to let it ride for a while, them not paying anything - but - they should be upfront about that and tell me right off. Not tell me they will add theirs later in the month and then come to find out that either hasn't happened or is less than half of what they are committed to paying to stay there.
Remember, their $250 per month gives them a large room, unlimited wifi, excellent Dish Network package, includes all utilities. The Phoenix rental market is starting to skyrocket. Even room rentals are going way up. But, I don't want to try to get too much and then have trouble renting rooms. Not getting that $250, tho, has been noticeable and hence finally drove me to call SRP, get them to set me up with a screen name and login password and see for myself. It shows payments up to 36 months, tho I only needed to look at summer to see that I have basically funded the electricity without any or very little additional input from their finances.
I'm still going to have to tread these waters pretty lightly. They're running the house. If they get mad and leave - tho I don't know where they would go or how they would survive - I would instantly have to start the process of getting rid of everyone in the house and putting the house up for sale. Zillow has it valued at 192k. Zillow's accuracy in the Phoenix market is 98.5 % within 10% of home sale price. Of course, 10% of 192k is a lot of money, but still would be more than I owe on it.
It's nothing that I want to have to deal with right now, so I guess I"m going to not say much of anything besides the indicator I gave her yesterday about going through all of it.... and saying nothing more. She is aware now that I am seeing everything and that should either force them to make this month's payment or start making requests. Forgive the past, but start asking about where this month's payment is if it doesn't happen.
Well, I"m fixing to get out of here, call the dude and tell him I will be on my way over there with the boat.
Ahhh, the luxuries of staying in a nice hotel, company paid, on the top floor : )
I haven't had this in a while.
I stayed at the cheap hotel 2 weeks ago - but I did that cause' I wasn't sure if I was going to get reimbursed. They did reimburse me.
I actually did the same here cause' my manager was on the road and wouldn't do anything and I didn't want the whole day to waste away, so I got the room but 10 minutes later she had the confirmation down at the desk. And then warned me - a thing I didn't know - to not turn in the receipt because the company is now not paying for detention time while you're in the hotel. What a hoot - this new company totally sucks. That's just the grasp of it. Waiting down here for days, at least the second night you really should be afforded something other than Truck Sleeper Inn. From now on, if I realllllly want a hotel, I'll eat the cost and not turn in it at all. I will make the money back in a few hours of detention pay and then still get the rest.
It's Sunday, that;s all. I've been here since last night. Anyway, I always find out about these lovely new rules after the fact. Still, my manager said to not turn in the paper, that way I will get away with it. She said she would keep doing it that way until they get on her case about it. So maybe I will try it again, but next time make sure I go through her. But, I tried for almost 4 hours to get her to do it and she wouldn't until she got to her destination.
I just love this hotel. So quiet and peaceful. The expressway is right there, but I'm near the back, I don't hear any of that freeway noise. And it's carpeted, a thing I really like over those tile/wood plank floors. Well, as long as the carpet is clean and not nasty smelling and sticky, lol.
Anyway, if I get back tomorrow night, that allows me the opportunity to get to the auction on Tuesday morning. Trailers will have to show up early enough tho for me to be able to do that. Otherwise it will just have to wait until they have another one. Tuesday, tho, providing I'm back, I intend on taking the boat to a local mechanic and now have found another one that is allegedly a certified boat mechanic. Things "might" be looking up. Someone can fix the thing, I'm certain of that.
Other than that, just another day in Paradise? In politics, absolutely not. This circus about the Trump phone call to the Ukraine has gone full scale off the wall. I have read the transcipt and the whistleblower document and see absolutely nothing in there about Trump engaging in quid pro quo and trying to manipulate the 2020 election through a Biden investigation. And even more facts are now coming out. You just have to wait a while - a thing Democrats refuse to do in the case of this president - for all the facts to get dug up and come out. There will be more, I suspect. But, the dems went straight to impeachment, before they even got a chance to see the transcript - that they demanded and now are saying isn't good enough, just as they did with the Russian collusion s***.
Modern day politics has gone completely off the rails. Since when do we trust hearsay as evidence, especially considering impeaching the President of the United States? Or start demanding impeachment proceedings before you've seen any evidence at all? BECAUSE this whistle blower is giving second hand information, that person should be identified. And I bet there are a lot of people that are trying to uncover that as we speak. Should we even accept second hand info from "whistle blowers"? Or is this just another attempt to force through a Trump impeachment by Trump haters that don't care about the truth and potentially could just be making all of this stuff up? Well? Certainly isn't beyond the realm of possibility that none of this person's claims are true.
Whatever the case, I take breaks from reading the news because right now, the top news stories are ALL about this situation. Like the first 5 stories plus a bunch of sub stories below each one of those 5.
Well anyway, off of that. I can't imagine most Americans are happy with the way any of this political scene is going. But, we don't have to get totally caught up in it. Let them fight it out. The only thing you can do is call your representative and let your opinion be known. And vote next November.
Oh the weather has gotten nice and dreary. Okay, not dreary, but lots of people call it that when it gets dark, the wind starts howling and the rain starts pummeling the earth. We've been in a dry spell, so I'm happy to see it, even if not at the house. Giant American Flag flowing nicely above the Volkswagen dealership 100 feet away. Well, in the spirit of trying to save money, I'm going to bring my food from the truck up here, heat it up - well not the salad lol - it's left over prime rib and I have a lot of it. Yeah, good stuff. Salad and some soup I have should make a delicious dinner. Of course, Texas Road house is directly across the expressway.....sooooo tempting.
But no. My Prime Rib roast turned out excellent. Even the 2 and 4 year olds were wolfing it down with seconds and thirds - and it was quite rare meat, tho, I was surprised those kids were liking that stuff. For them it would be akin to eating raw meat, I think.
_________________
Time almost done at this hotel. No call yet about trailers coming in. Another driver over there at the truck yard decided to stay the night in his truck and would call me if trailers come in. I don't expect anything til' later this afternoon, but you just never know with this stuff.
I"m realllly wanting to go to that auction tomorrow, but the later it gets, the less likely that becomes. It's almost 11 am - checkout time. I usually figure that anything past 2 pm I will not make it back that night, even tho on occasion I have just decided to go straight through. Like last trip, when I spent 2 hours stopping and looking for a place to park and finally got disgusted with it and just drove the route out until almost 4 am.
I was also supposed to drag the boat in today to the repair place, but that is obviously not going to happen.
And I think I figured out why Addler is starting to get fat. Maria just lets him eat as much as he wants to over there and apparently feeding him that cheap Purina junk. I buy him Iams, which has kept him trim and fit. I don't want him eating that garbage food with all kinds of junk in it that isn't really good for him - at all. And I certainly do not want him getting fat. I'll have to have a "gentle" discussion with her about it, I made my desires about it known at the beginning, but apparently that is being replaced with whatever she wants to do. Her dogs are fat. I was wary of this at the get go. But Addler has been healthy all this time, I figured he would still remain lean. Instead, he's put on a lot of fat and harmful weight. Not good for large dogs to be overweight. Not good for any dog, but the giant breeds are prone to heart problems and weight issues don't help with that.
It's really quite annoying because I said well over a month ago I'm putting him on a diet. She obviously didn't receive that too well and she believes her dogs look "normal". Trust me when I say those dogs are quite over weight.
________________________
Home. Yesterday, 2 trailers showed up at once, despite the yard guy's adamant statement that only one was coming up. But, my Quaalcomm had going into drive mode when I had it on Personal Conveyance mode - causing the on duty clock to start. The company knows about the problem, I subsequently found out, but has done nothing to fix it.
So, I finally had to get an account set up with SRP online to see how much is being spent on electricity. Because I am being told one thing and the amount I am getting is telling me another story. I was shocked. I was literally shocked. They have been lying to me and I just have no words.
I knew something wasn't right but right now? I'm attempting to get my expenses under control. The house in Phoenix always paid for itself until we got to summer.
I haven't had this in a while.
I stayed at the cheap hotel 2 weeks ago - but I did that cause' I wasn't sure if I was going to get reimbursed. They did reimburse me.
I actually did the same here cause' my manager was on the road and wouldn't do anything and I didn't want the whole day to waste away, so I got the room but 10 minutes later she had the confirmation down at the desk. And then warned me - a thing I didn't know - to not turn in the receipt because the company is now not paying for detention time while you're in the hotel. What a hoot - this new company totally sucks. That's just the grasp of it. Waiting down here for days, at least the second night you really should be afforded something other than Truck Sleeper Inn. From now on, if I realllllly want a hotel, I'll eat the cost and not turn in it at all. I will make the money back in a few hours of detention pay and then still get the rest.
It's Sunday, that;s all. I've been here since last night. Anyway, I always find out about these lovely new rules after the fact. Still, my manager said to not turn in the paper, that way I will get away with it. She said she would keep doing it that way until they get on her case about it. So maybe I will try it again, but next time make sure I go through her. But, I tried for almost 4 hours to get her to do it and she wouldn't until she got to her destination.
I just love this hotel. So quiet and peaceful. The expressway is right there, but I'm near the back, I don't hear any of that freeway noise. And it's carpeted, a thing I really like over those tile/wood plank floors. Well, as long as the carpet is clean and not nasty smelling and sticky, lol.
Anyway, if I get back tomorrow night, that allows me the opportunity to get to the auction on Tuesday morning. Trailers will have to show up early enough tho for me to be able to do that. Otherwise it will just have to wait until they have another one. Tuesday, tho, providing I'm back, I intend on taking the boat to a local mechanic and now have found another one that is allegedly a certified boat mechanic. Things "might" be looking up. Someone can fix the thing, I'm certain of that.
Other than that, just another day in Paradise? In politics, absolutely not. This circus about the Trump phone call to the Ukraine has gone full scale off the wall. I have read the transcipt and the whistleblower document and see absolutely nothing in there about Trump engaging in quid pro quo and trying to manipulate the 2020 election through a Biden investigation. And even more facts are now coming out. You just have to wait a while - a thing Democrats refuse to do in the case of this president - for all the facts to get dug up and come out. There will be more, I suspect. But, the dems went straight to impeachment, before they even got a chance to see the transcript - that they demanded and now are saying isn't good enough, just as they did with the Russian collusion s***.
Modern day politics has gone completely off the rails. Since when do we trust hearsay as evidence, especially considering impeaching the President of the United States? Or start demanding impeachment proceedings before you've seen any evidence at all? BECAUSE this whistle blower is giving second hand information, that person should be identified. And I bet there are a lot of people that are trying to uncover that as we speak. Should we even accept second hand info from "whistle blowers"? Or is this just another attempt to force through a Trump impeachment by Trump haters that don't care about the truth and potentially could just be making all of this stuff up? Well? Certainly isn't beyond the realm of possibility that none of this person's claims are true.
Whatever the case, I take breaks from reading the news because right now, the top news stories are ALL about this situation. Like the first 5 stories plus a bunch of sub stories below each one of those 5.
Well anyway, off of that. I can't imagine most Americans are happy with the way any of this political scene is going. But, we don't have to get totally caught up in it. Let them fight it out. The only thing you can do is call your representative and let your opinion be known. And vote next November.
Oh the weather has gotten nice and dreary. Okay, not dreary, but lots of people call it that when it gets dark, the wind starts howling and the rain starts pummeling the earth. We've been in a dry spell, so I'm happy to see it, even if not at the house. Giant American Flag flowing nicely above the Volkswagen dealership 100 feet away. Well, in the spirit of trying to save money, I'm going to bring my food from the truck up here, heat it up - well not the salad lol - it's left over prime rib and I have a lot of it. Yeah, good stuff. Salad and some soup I have should make a delicious dinner. Of course, Texas Road house is directly across the expressway.....sooooo tempting.
But no. My Prime Rib roast turned out excellent. Even the 2 and 4 year olds were wolfing it down with seconds and thirds - and it was quite rare meat, tho, I was surprised those kids were liking that stuff. For them it would be akin to eating raw meat, I think.
_________________
Time almost done at this hotel. No call yet about trailers coming in. Another driver over there at the truck yard decided to stay the night in his truck and would call me if trailers come in. I don't expect anything til' later this afternoon, but you just never know with this stuff.
I"m realllly wanting to go to that auction tomorrow, but the later it gets, the less likely that becomes. It's almost 11 am - checkout time. I usually figure that anything past 2 pm I will not make it back that night, even tho on occasion I have just decided to go straight through. Like last trip, when I spent 2 hours stopping and looking for a place to park and finally got disgusted with it and just drove the route out until almost 4 am.
I was also supposed to drag the boat in today to the repair place, but that is obviously not going to happen.
And I think I figured out why Addler is starting to get fat. Maria just lets him eat as much as he wants to over there and apparently feeding him that cheap Purina junk. I buy him Iams, which has kept him trim and fit. I don't want him eating that garbage food with all kinds of junk in it that isn't really good for him - at all. And I certainly do not want him getting fat. I'll have to have a "gentle" discussion with her about it, I made my desires about it known at the beginning, but apparently that is being replaced with whatever she wants to do. Her dogs are fat. I was wary of this at the get go. But Addler has been healthy all this time, I figured he would still remain lean. Instead, he's put on a lot of fat and harmful weight. Not good for large dogs to be overweight. Not good for any dog, but the giant breeds are prone to heart problems and weight issues don't help with that.
It's really quite annoying because I said well over a month ago I'm putting him on a diet. She obviously didn't receive that too well and she believes her dogs look "normal". Trust me when I say those dogs are quite over weight.
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Home. Yesterday, 2 trailers showed up at once, despite the yard guy's adamant statement that only one was coming up. But, my Quaalcomm had going into drive mode when I had it on Personal Conveyance mode - causing the on duty clock to start. The company knows about the problem, I subsequently found out, but has done nothing to fix it.
So, I finally had to get an account set up with SRP online to see how much is being spent on electricity. Because I am being told one thing and the amount I am getting is telling me another story. I was shocked. I was literally shocked. They have been lying to me and I just have no words.
I knew something wasn't right but right now? I'm attempting to get my expenses under control. The house in Phoenix always paid for itself until we got to summer.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Sunday morning.
Got to the Brownsville yard last night to find no empty or filled trailers and no trucks sitting there waiting. Gag, I thought, no detention pay on this run. After dropping the trailer, however, I went to the new, nearby Love's and found fully 3 other of our trucks sitting there, waiting on trailers. 2 of them should be coming in today, but no way are they bringing up 4 trailers. They have never done that and I will be spending the entire day and night down here. I fully intend on requesting a hotel room, as stipulated in our new "rules".
Used to be you could get a hotel the first night down here. Now, the manager doesn't even reply to a valid request for the second night. Meaning, pay out of pocket and hope the company pays me back. BUT, if I text her a couple of times and receive no reply, no matter to me. I'm getting the hotel and I fully expect it to be reimbursed. It was the last time I did this not that long ago. Then only reason to "fear" not getting repaid is other drivers saying they were given a hard time about doing it on their own.
In reality? I would far rather the company get me one. If they get the usual - Marriott Residence Inn - I will get free dinner and a very nice room. If I don't do it through the company, no way am I paying regular rates for a room like that. I'll just go to the cheaper chains and deal with it. But, probably won't be able to get into a hotel until this afternoon, so I have a lot of hours in between to fill. The unfortunate thing is that the new rules for these electronic logging devices say you can only use the personal conveyance - meaning you are using the truck for your own use, not on duty time - option for an hour. Why the bleep do they care how much time I use the truck on my own, personal business? I'm off all day long, it takes a while to get anywhere in this town. It may not be that big of a town, but there are red lights everywhere and people drive soooooo slowwwwwwwww. If the speed limit is 45mph, they're likely going 25 to 30 or even slower. Drives me insane! lol
Well, I've gone through reviews on every single movie in the theaters and I'm not impressed with anything that's playing. I usually wait until I can watch it free when I have doubts. I don't go to the movies that often - mostly because of the fact that much of what is produced nowadays is either rehashed versions of old movies or completely lame, new themes that have no intellectual discourse or story lines that don't go beyond brain dead, boring trash. If I want to be bored, I can just sit in this truck. I don't neeeeeeed to go pay to be bored.
So I dunno what I'm going to do, which usually means I will do nothing until I can get into a hotel later on. Around 3pm I'll be contacting the manager, telling her I was the 4th driver waiting down here today, no way are they getting 4 trailers up in a single day, hotel please.
Meanwhile, I"m going to go take a shower. I get them free at Love's : )
Friday, September 27, 2019
And just like that, I remembered having a conversation with a person selling a boat here locally a loooooooooong time ago. I went through a hundred Facebook messages before finally finding the conversation we had had about a boat he had for sale and him saying he was the mechanic that had fixed it and the owner failed to pay him, so he was selling on a mechanic's lien.
So I contacted him earlier and he said yes, he can take a look at it.
I have no idea his credentials, I don't know if he has a shop or what. Well he must have something going to be able to put a mechanic's lien on a boat, I don't think you can do that without having a shop, can you? I dunno. But it's local. There were 2 other shops that said they'd look at it - each 1 being exactly 41 miles away, lol. I found that interesting, but in different towns.
So I'm in a rather slow back and forth with this guy about how to go about getting him to look at it. It's been this long, I'm resolved to just take as much time as it's going to take to get it fixed. I have no options besides buying another motor for it, I remain hopeful that won't be necessary.
I've been sitting 2 days - not shocking considering the number of trucks that were sitting in the yard when I got back from last trip and the small number of runs that are available on the schedule. I actually thought I might be sitting 3 or 4 days. No matter, the boat can't go out on the lake atm and so, I don't really care that I'm going out tomorrow. I was very glad I did not get the Stryker Ohio load tomorrow. The only options for today tomorrow sunday and monday are brownsville runs and the single Stryker load - I missed that by one spot. Someone got that before me - they can have it. It's 2,000 miles round trip but it takes up 4 days. If I get detention pay in Brownsville - even just overnight detention - I get as much money for a 1,187 mile trip and much less hassle for 2 days. 3 days and I make more than that 4 day trip.
Anyway, I met up with Taylor at In Japan, a local Japanese restaurant that has rave reviews from all kinds of people - many of which were just passing by our little town on the way to wherever and thought it odd that a sushi/hibachi style restaurant with this high class of food and freshness existed here. "Where do they get their seafood, it tastes fresh?". Well, in reality, there are ports only 250 miles from here. But, most seafood is flash frozen out at sea just after it's caught, from what I can understand. If you're ON the beach, I suppose you might be able to get fresh seafood that has just been caught? I dunno. Unfortunately, I cannot have sushi at this point in time, none of it on the menu was Keto friendly and so I opted for a Hibachi cooked steak with vegetables - very delicious.
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I smoked a beautiful Prime Rib roast in the smoker today. I took extra caution to wait for 45 minutes to even out the temp at 225. Once I was sure that it was where I wanted it, I put that baby on there. It's actually been sitting the freezer for 10 months - I bought it when it was on sale last Christmastime. Yes that's 10 months ago and yes, the roast turned out wonderful. It had no ill taste from being in the freezer that long, no freezer burn. But when I saw the date on it going through stuff in the outside freezer, i thought it's time to cook this baby!
I'm going through a lot of stuff in the freezers - we're emptying them back out again slowly but surely so we can fill them back up with fresh stuff.
But it's bedtime. The Brownsville run is a long one and I need my sleep.
So I contacted him earlier and he said yes, he can take a look at it.
I have no idea his credentials, I don't know if he has a shop or what. Well he must have something going to be able to put a mechanic's lien on a boat, I don't think you can do that without having a shop, can you? I dunno. But it's local. There were 2 other shops that said they'd look at it - each 1 being exactly 41 miles away, lol. I found that interesting, but in different towns.
So I'm in a rather slow back and forth with this guy about how to go about getting him to look at it. It's been this long, I'm resolved to just take as much time as it's going to take to get it fixed. I have no options besides buying another motor for it, I remain hopeful that won't be necessary.
I've been sitting 2 days - not shocking considering the number of trucks that were sitting in the yard when I got back from last trip and the small number of runs that are available on the schedule. I actually thought I might be sitting 3 or 4 days. No matter, the boat can't go out on the lake atm and so, I don't really care that I'm going out tomorrow. I was very glad I did not get the Stryker Ohio load tomorrow. The only options for today tomorrow sunday and monday are brownsville runs and the single Stryker load - I missed that by one spot. Someone got that before me - they can have it. It's 2,000 miles round trip but it takes up 4 days. If I get detention pay in Brownsville - even just overnight detention - I get as much money for a 1,187 mile trip and much less hassle for 2 days. 3 days and I make more than that 4 day trip.
Anyway, I met up with Taylor at In Japan, a local Japanese restaurant that has rave reviews from all kinds of people - many of which were just passing by our little town on the way to wherever and thought it odd that a sushi/hibachi style restaurant with this high class of food and freshness existed here. "Where do they get their seafood, it tastes fresh?". Well, in reality, there are ports only 250 miles from here. But, most seafood is flash frozen out at sea just after it's caught, from what I can understand. If you're ON the beach, I suppose you might be able to get fresh seafood that has just been caught? I dunno. Unfortunately, I cannot have sushi at this point in time, none of it on the menu was Keto friendly and so I opted for a Hibachi cooked steak with vegetables - very delicious.
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I smoked a beautiful Prime Rib roast in the smoker today. I took extra caution to wait for 45 minutes to even out the temp at 225. Once I was sure that it was where I wanted it, I put that baby on there. It's actually been sitting the freezer for 10 months - I bought it when it was on sale last Christmastime. Yes that's 10 months ago and yes, the roast turned out wonderful. It had no ill taste from being in the freezer that long, no freezer burn. But when I saw the date on it going through stuff in the outside freezer, i thought it's time to cook this baby!
I'm going through a lot of stuff in the freezers - we're emptying them back out again slowly but surely so we can fill them back up with fresh stuff.
But it's bedtime. The Brownsville run is a long one and I need my sleep.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Long day? Yeah, sort of.
I got up at 3:30 am to get out of that truckstop I had been sitting at all day and get through Houston before rush hour.
I made it through 610 west - if you can believe that - without any problem excepting one accident that only slowed us all down a little for a couple of minutes. Other than that, it was free sailing through there. My intention was to get south of Houston and then I could take a nap.
Just was very tired, 6 hours of sleep will do that.
Fast forward to arriving in Brownsville. My heart sank when I saw an empty trailer sitting there. Ohhh nooooo! Oh well, I thought, I'll just hook up, drive a few hours back up North - I only had 3 hours left to drive anyway - and then call it an early day somewhere, probably around Victoria, Texas. But wait! I decided to call the driver ahead of me, he was supposed to be behind me but all that s*** from yesterday moved me back.
And then is when I got the good news: TWO drivers ahead of me, the one on the phone and another that had been waiting for days. The plant is way behind again, yay! So, it isn't even 1 in the afternoon and I thought about the rare luxury of getting a cheaper but still nice hotel and spending the day and night in there. The driver told me that there may only be one trailer coming up tomorrow. Well, even if there's two, I'm going to make a chunk of sitting change both with being down here and yesterday.
My only regret is that if I had gotten down here yesterday, I would have been able to get a room at company expense and also would have gotten much more in D pay than in Breakdown pay. But it is what it is. I can't complain too much, it's great money, next week's check with 2 of these high D pays on them will make up for the abysmal thing I'm getting this week - the pay period with only the El Dorado run on it. If it's a $200 check after taxes and deductions I'd be surprised.
So yes, anyway, I got the hotel room. And I'm fixing to take a nice nap after I get done with this, I have a minor headache from getting up so early and driving in the dark. Night driving just messes with my anymore, I don't like it. I can do it, no doubt, it's not that I can't see or anything, I just don't like it. More attention has to be paid because - it's dark lmao.
Oh, the boat. I contacted those people yet again. Did he happen to get to the parts store? All I got back from her was a giant thumb's up, no explanation, no date to come and finish the work. I haven't given up on them yet since I'm not even there. I mean, I told them they can come and fix it while I'm out and the people at the house were expecting us, but that was it. So whatever. If they don't say anything about coming when I get back, I'm dragging that boat to an actual shop and getting this over with. I could have gone boating numerous times now.
Ugh. I need a nap.
I got up at 3:30 am to get out of that truckstop I had been sitting at all day and get through Houston before rush hour.
I made it through 610 west - if you can believe that - without any problem excepting one accident that only slowed us all down a little for a couple of minutes. Other than that, it was free sailing through there. My intention was to get south of Houston and then I could take a nap.
Just was very tired, 6 hours of sleep will do that.
Fast forward to arriving in Brownsville. My heart sank when I saw an empty trailer sitting there. Ohhh nooooo! Oh well, I thought, I'll just hook up, drive a few hours back up North - I only had 3 hours left to drive anyway - and then call it an early day somewhere, probably around Victoria, Texas. But wait! I decided to call the driver ahead of me, he was supposed to be behind me but all that s*** from yesterday moved me back.
And then is when I got the good news: TWO drivers ahead of me, the one on the phone and another that had been waiting for days. The plant is way behind again, yay! So, it isn't even 1 in the afternoon and I thought about the rare luxury of getting a cheaper but still nice hotel and spending the day and night in there. The driver told me that there may only be one trailer coming up tomorrow. Well, even if there's two, I'm going to make a chunk of sitting change both with being down here and yesterday.
My only regret is that if I had gotten down here yesterday, I would have been able to get a room at company expense and also would have gotten much more in D pay than in Breakdown pay. But it is what it is. I can't complain too much, it's great money, next week's check with 2 of these high D pays on them will make up for the abysmal thing I'm getting this week - the pay period with only the El Dorado run on it. If it's a $200 check after taxes and deductions I'd be surprised.
So yes, anyway, I got the hotel room. And I'm fixing to take a nice nap after I get done with this, I have a minor headache from getting up so early and driving in the dark. Night driving just messes with my anymore, I don't like it. I can do it, no doubt, it's not that I can't see or anything, I just don't like it. More attention has to be paid because - it's dark lmao.
Oh, the boat. I contacted those people yet again. Did he happen to get to the parts store? All I got back from her was a giant thumb's up, no explanation, no date to come and finish the work. I haven't given up on them yet since I'm not even there. I mean, I told them they can come and fix it while I'm out and the people at the house were expecting us, but that was it. So whatever. If they don't say anything about coming when I get back, I'm dragging that boat to an actual shop and getting this over with. I could have gone boating numerous times now.
Ugh. I need a nap.
Monday, September 23, 2019
There's nothing like Monday. It either makes you or breaks you. You don't plan or want trouble, but often times it comes at you, especially if you're at work.
And so it was today. Everything went smoothly - at the plant I was out of there much faster than normal, so fast so, in fact, it threw up warning flags. Hmmm, how is this day going so great? I loved it tho, figured I could get to Brownsville much earlier than I normally would.
I got south of Lufkin, going through a small town named Diboll when one of the super single trailer tires blew out. And when I say blow out, I mean this one was a real doozy. The entire tread came almost all the way off from the tire, slapped the tire and wheel in front of it, breaking an air line, smashed the air line on the wheel it was on, tore up the mud flap, damaged the rear strip on the trailer with the tail lights in it and destroyed all 3 tail lights on that side of the trailer.
When I say destroyed, I mean it ripped the lights right out of their sockets, pulled out the wires and stripped the wires themselves. I was stuck on the side of the highway, there was no hobbling down the road to a safe place to pull out, the trailer is loaded and the whole thing leaning to one side because of that huge tire all but gone. Super single tires are those huge tires that are over 2 feet wide. You only have one in place of duallies.
Ridiculous nonsense. Yes, I did a thorough inspection of the tires this morning, but they've been getting these retreads lately and they don't last long. A waste of money and now a waste of productivity. My company - also ridiculous. I had to call the tire hot line through Michelin to get the tire replaced, I had to call a repair hotline to get the lights and other damage fixed. Michelin ended up having Love's come out to replace the tire and then the repair hotline also called out Love's - excepting - Love's wouldn't be available for another 5 hours.
The dude said well we can fix this if you come back to the shop. The hell you say. You are the company that is supposed to fix this, but not for another 5 hours! Yup, it's first come, first served he said. I knew that, I just didn't want to sit in this little town, I wanted to get on down the highway and get this portion of the trip over with. I informed him I would not be driving 20 miles to the Loves without any brake or turn signal lights on that side of the trailer no only not working, but not even there!
Dangerous and this area is loaded with State Troopers, city cops - yes Diboll as small as it is has it's own police department and sheriffs everywhere. I'd be a sitting duck target for them if they saw that. I told him to make sure he looks at that mess and get everything written down that's needed so that whoever ends up coming doesn't have to make a trip back to the shop or a parts store. I then told him I was driving down to the nearest truck stop 2 miles down the road. It may be dangerous to drive it without those lights, I deemed it far more dangerous to be sitting right on the side of the highway with traffic zooming past a foot away at 60 to 70 miles per hour with a trailer loaded with 8,000 gallons of Ethylene.
I figured if I did happen to get pulled over in those 2 miles I'd easily talk my way out of it, even if I couldn't, my company would back me in such a move and at least try to fight any tickets or out of service s***. But. I waited before taking off from there until I could see that the highway was free of any traffic coming - I could see back about 2,000 feet - and took off, got here and have been waiting ever since. This ordeal started at 10:00 am and it's now 3:35 pm. Love's called about half an hour ago - we're getting the paperwork ready and getting this paid for before we come out there, do you have a phone number or know how this is getting paid for?
Yeah, I have no clue how they are paying for it and not my problem, gave them the phone number and wished them luck trying to get through to those people. I haven't heard anything back, but at this point, I don't care. I won't be leaving here until probably 3:30 am, that is if they even get this nonsense ever fixed. Would have been faster to just send our mechanic down here to fix this stuff.
I have 4-1/2 hours left on the 14 hour on-duty clock. By the time they get done here, I figure at best there will be 2 hours left on it. That means I could drive 2 hours and then have to stop. Guess what's 2 hours away? Yup, Houston. Screw that. I went off duty almost 4 hours ago, 6 more hours and I'll have a fresh 14 hour clock. I see absolutely no good reason to leave here with only 2 hours left on the drive clock and be in Houston during rush hour traffic and trying to find a place to take a 10 hour break. Makes absolutely no sense to me at all so I made the decision about an hour ago after seeing it really is going to be 4:30 before they get here to just spend the night here.
I've made $125 sitting here and I suspect I'll make minimum $50 more before it's done. Maybe even longer if they don't bring the right parts. They actually have to get a wiring harness for all of those lights, the connectors were stripped off the wires. The wheel hub covers have to be replaced as well as air lines and the mud flap has to be replaced as well.
____________________
I made the decision after the Love's mechanic finally showed up. Note: I could have fixed all this stuff myself if had had access to the parts to do so. I looked in the truck stop here but they didn't even have the lights much less the wiring harnesses to go with them. Anyway, the northern part of Houston being 1-1/2 hours from here and having 3 hours left on the clock, I simply decided to stay put. Rush hours - not hour - goes on for a while in Houston and I would have ended up smack dab in the middle of that nonsense and then attempting to find a place to park for the night - no thanks. I"m parked. I'll drive this route out tomorrow. The driver behind me will be ahead of me now. He should get there tonight. Anyone sitting over the weekend should also be there or gone if trailers show up.
But I am now placed last in line down there when I arrive and I just got almost 7 hours of breakdown pay, if I can stay down there until Wednesday add 14 hours of detention pay (at least). The only downside? There is another Massachusetts run going out on Thursday! I'm going to have to ask my manager about that run, when did we acquire it and how many loads per week or month are going there? I'm not the biggest fan of 7 day runs but it's good money. At the same time, the Brownsville run is just as good as those long runs if there is a wait period. Even if only overnight, it's guaranteed 14 hours when there's no empty available.
Ok, honestly, I just want to go to Massachusetts! When it isn't snowing, haling, the roads aren't covered with ice and snow and there aren't any white outs like there was when I was doing that LNG gig quite a while back. That was Amherst at the Amherst University. I got a written notice that I had "falsified logs" after that 2 weeks of icy cold hell. They said I didn't spend enough time at the fuel aisle dumping diesel into the tanks! A freaking blizzard, with the wind blowing it almost horizontally into your face, you are not going to waste any time fueling up that truck. I didn't care, either and told my manager as such.
That was then, this is now. The more time I have invested in this company, the less likely I am driven to leave it.
Well, that's it. The boat mechanics wife I contacted hours ago never replied. Shocking. Not. It's just going to the shop if I don't hear back from them before I get back to the house. I could have already had this thing fixed from a shop, just didn't want to fork out the dough I know it will cost. At this point? Don't care.
And so it was today. Everything went smoothly - at the plant I was out of there much faster than normal, so fast so, in fact, it threw up warning flags. Hmmm, how is this day going so great? I loved it tho, figured I could get to Brownsville much earlier than I normally would.
I got south of Lufkin, going through a small town named Diboll when one of the super single trailer tires blew out. And when I say blow out, I mean this one was a real doozy. The entire tread came almost all the way off from the tire, slapped the tire and wheel in front of it, breaking an air line, smashed the air line on the wheel it was on, tore up the mud flap, damaged the rear strip on the trailer with the tail lights in it and destroyed all 3 tail lights on that side of the trailer.
When I say destroyed, I mean it ripped the lights right out of their sockets, pulled out the wires and stripped the wires themselves. I was stuck on the side of the highway, there was no hobbling down the road to a safe place to pull out, the trailer is loaded and the whole thing leaning to one side because of that huge tire all but gone. Super single tires are those huge tires that are over 2 feet wide. You only have one in place of duallies.
Ridiculous nonsense. Yes, I did a thorough inspection of the tires this morning, but they've been getting these retreads lately and they don't last long. A waste of money and now a waste of productivity. My company - also ridiculous. I had to call the tire hot line through Michelin to get the tire replaced, I had to call a repair hotline to get the lights and other damage fixed. Michelin ended up having Love's come out to replace the tire and then the repair hotline also called out Love's - excepting - Love's wouldn't be available for another 5 hours.
The dude said well we can fix this if you come back to the shop. The hell you say. You are the company that is supposed to fix this, but not for another 5 hours! Yup, it's first come, first served he said. I knew that, I just didn't want to sit in this little town, I wanted to get on down the highway and get this portion of the trip over with. I informed him I would not be driving 20 miles to the Loves without any brake or turn signal lights on that side of the trailer no only not working, but not even there!
Dangerous and this area is loaded with State Troopers, city cops - yes Diboll as small as it is has it's own police department and sheriffs everywhere. I'd be a sitting duck target for them if they saw that. I told him to make sure he looks at that mess and get everything written down that's needed so that whoever ends up coming doesn't have to make a trip back to the shop or a parts store. I then told him I was driving down to the nearest truck stop 2 miles down the road. It may be dangerous to drive it without those lights, I deemed it far more dangerous to be sitting right on the side of the highway with traffic zooming past a foot away at 60 to 70 miles per hour with a trailer loaded with 8,000 gallons of Ethylene.
I figured if I did happen to get pulled over in those 2 miles I'd easily talk my way out of it, even if I couldn't, my company would back me in such a move and at least try to fight any tickets or out of service s***. But. I waited before taking off from there until I could see that the highway was free of any traffic coming - I could see back about 2,000 feet - and took off, got here and have been waiting ever since. This ordeal started at 10:00 am and it's now 3:35 pm. Love's called about half an hour ago - we're getting the paperwork ready and getting this paid for before we come out there, do you have a phone number or know how this is getting paid for?
Yeah, I have no clue how they are paying for it and not my problem, gave them the phone number and wished them luck trying to get through to those people. I haven't heard anything back, but at this point, I don't care. I won't be leaving here until probably 3:30 am, that is if they even get this nonsense ever fixed. Would have been faster to just send our mechanic down here to fix this stuff.
I have 4-1/2 hours left on the 14 hour on-duty clock. By the time they get done here, I figure at best there will be 2 hours left on it. That means I could drive 2 hours and then have to stop. Guess what's 2 hours away? Yup, Houston. Screw that. I went off duty almost 4 hours ago, 6 more hours and I'll have a fresh 14 hour clock. I see absolutely no good reason to leave here with only 2 hours left on the drive clock and be in Houston during rush hour traffic and trying to find a place to take a 10 hour break. Makes absolutely no sense to me at all so I made the decision about an hour ago after seeing it really is going to be 4:30 before they get here to just spend the night here.
I've made $125 sitting here and I suspect I'll make minimum $50 more before it's done. Maybe even longer if they don't bring the right parts. They actually have to get a wiring harness for all of those lights, the connectors were stripped off the wires. The wheel hub covers have to be replaced as well as air lines and the mud flap has to be replaced as well.
____________________
I made the decision after the Love's mechanic finally showed up. Note: I could have fixed all this stuff myself if had had access to the parts to do so. I looked in the truck stop here but they didn't even have the lights much less the wiring harnesses to go with them. Anyway, the northern part of Houston being 1-1/2 hours from here and having 3 hours left on the clock, I simply decided to stay put. Rush hours - not hour - goes on for a while in Houston and I would have ended up smack dab in the middle of that nonsense and then attempting to find a place to park for the night - no thanks. I"m parked. I'll drive this route out tomorrow. The driver behind me will be ahead of me now. He should get there tonight. Anyone sitting over the weekend should also be there or gone if trailers show up.
But I am now placed last in line down there when I arrive and I just got almost 7 hours of breakdown pay, if I can stay down there until Wednesday add 14 hours of detention pay (at least). The only downside? There is another Massachusetts run going out on Thursday! I'm going to have to ask my manager about that run, when did we acquire it and how many loads per week or month are going there? I'm not the biggest fan of 7 day runs but it's good money. At the same time, the Brownsville run is just as good as those long runs if there is a wait period. Even if only overnight, it's guaranteed 14 hours when there's no empty available.
Ok, honestly, I just want to go to Massachusetts! When it isn't snowing, haling, the roads aren't covered with ice and snow and there aren't any white outs like there was when I was doing that LNG gig quite a while back. That was Amherst at the Amherst University. I got a written notice that I had "falsified logs" after that 2 weeks of icy cold hell. They said I didn't spend enough time at the fuel aisle dumping diesel into the tanks! A freaking blizzard, with the wind blowing it almost horizontally into your face, you are not going to waste any time fueling up that truck. I didn't care, either and told my manager as such.
That was then, this is now. The more time I have invested in this company, the less likely I am driven to leave it.
Well, that's it. The boat mechanics wife I contacted hours ago never replied. Shocking. Not. It's just going to the shop if I don't hear back from them before I get back to the house. I could have already had this thing fixed from a shop, just didn't want to fork out the dough I know it will cost. At this point? Don't care.
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