Can I tell you that I was actually happy to see an empty trailer in the yard down here in Brownsville when I pulled in here? Usually I want to see no empty trailers - it's worth a lot of money to wait - but this town is shut down to the Nth degree.  I have masks now - they are mandatory in this town anywhere you go - but still, a lot of restaurants are completely shut down, everything is at a virtual stand still. 

I'd just as soon get under an empty and go home.   There  is another driver coming down here today as well - whoever that is is going to have to wait.  I got underneath this one so whoever that person is couldn't take it, I'm here, it's mine! lol. 

Meanwhile, the other house.  Not the one in Phoenix.  The brother of the man that owns the house texted Maria today saying that the 6 months is up.  The lease that is.  He apparently had misconstrued the desire for a 6 month lease with the desire to leave the house after that 6 months is up. I'll lay that one at the feet of Maria, I said no such thing and she is the one that mostly communicates with this guy.  So she started freaking out today, sending me screen shots of the conversation.  "Gus, do I need to go start looking for a new place to live?". 

Panic attack.  "I have nowhere to go if I have to leave here".  These are my projects in life.  Helping people. It comes with its risks and it comes with intervals of upheaval and having to deal with things I'd rather not have to deal with.  She got the extremely unadulterated hint, for example, that she is going to have to learn how to deal with living with other people if she wants that house situation to continue.  For I am not going to keep shelling out a bunch of money because people got into heated arguments and the new person leaves. 

Look, I don't always agree with my friends where I live. I bite my tongue almost always and just deal with it.  I love my living situation regardless of some things I'd like to see changed. It's not my house, they are free to do with it as they please. We all get along.  Very well, actually.  But we don't just get along, we like each other's company.  We hang out with each other.  I could easily go get my own rental place. Or for the cost of housing in that town, I could buy a second home.  But, I don't want to.  I'm not staying in that town because I like living in that town.  I am living there because I am with good company.  They are going through the midst of hell right now - well that has changed actually almost overnight.  But they are cool people. 

What changed? Childcare is free for 3 months.  Apparently a part of the stimulus.  That's a grand a month they don't have to pay.  They also got their stimulus check which was two adults and two children.  On the other hand, James employer is restructuring.  Getting rid of 3 plants or whatever and streamlining into one.  That meant that were going to lay off a lot more people and they were going to find out today.  Writing this post reminded me of that so I just texted him. He looked freaky last night. You could see the anxiety all over his face. 

Ahh, well he wrote back quickly:  I was told I was stuck there for now lol.  Okay!  haha

Meanwhile? The numbers of cases in our county of Coronavirus is going up.  Yup, it's not even 100 people -- yet.  But the curve is going way up, not flattening out or going down.  I'm not wishing this shit on anyone, but I knew from the beginning when they started reporting this crap over in China it would spread around the world. I said that when it started getting reported.  It's not going away. The government is controlling us far beyond any measure I have ever seen in my life time, at least in America.  Who gave them all this power? WE DID.

I have choice words for the government right now. Both state and Federal. They can kiss my @$$.  Little state governor devils handing out executive orders like pancakes and waffles at Waffle House. I am NOT opposed to social distancing or even wearing a mask, but damned if you are going to tell me not to go out on a blooming lake.  Or watch a freaking movie. They can DO social distancing at ALL of the venues we love.  Meanwhile, they are crowding the grocery and warehouse stores with people and they think nothing of it. WTH. This is where the disconnect comes in.  I can't go out on a lake with my boat - far from anyone, but you don't give a shit if I go into a store crammed full of people?

I drove on the Beltway in Houston today. I looked over at the Home Depot parking lot. The lot was literally FULL of cars.  Walmart and HEB the same exact thing. HEB is a grocery chain in the south.  What is the sense of all of this? 

I'm not exaggerating, btw. Those parking lots were FULL all the way out to the outer parking spaces. I'll snap a shot of it tomorrow if it can be seen from the other side of the beltway - cause' honey, I'm hooked to the trailer, I already inspected everything, my paperwork is filled out, the ELD junk is filled out, I'm ready to go.

But hey fam?  You want to take that boat out on the lake? Nahh bro, can't be doing THAT now can we?

Whatever. A lot of this doesn't make sense unless you want to invoke politics into it and then it starts making a lot of sense. 

Whatever the case, it's almost bedtime. I intend on getting up early and getting back earlier than normal. That's my intention, who knows what my brain will say in the morning.  Alarm goes off: Uhh, no, you don't have to get back that early, snooze a little longer! lmao

My stimulus money showed up in my bank account this morning.  A sizeable sum of money owed to me was also paid. And the lady renter that is in the hospital is paying up her rent.  And now a proposal to give every american over the age of 16 $2,000 per month for at least 6 months being floated.  Because we can just print money and make that happen!  These people in government making these decisions.

Isolate anyone that has the virus, keep the sick and elderly quarantined, put everyone else back to work.  I don't care if anyone doesn't like that idea, because, of course  - we're all going to die!  Well we're all going to die anyway.  I don't know when, but it's going to happen.  Our economy and our way of life is going to die right along with it if they keep everyone in their homes indefinitely.  Meaning, 6 months?  Naw, fam, we can't be shut down for 6 months.  Or go ahead, do it!  Let all those businesses die. All those small businesses - the back bone of our society - how many of those will go under?  Heck how many of them have already gone under?

Meanwhile. I haven't seen my next door neighbor in quite a while. He's the banker/cop.  Turns out he is still doing security work at the Sam's club a few towns over. First it was large numbers of people just walking out with goods that they didn't pay for.  Then, it was people attempting to buy more than limitations that most stores are putting on certain things.  After that - now - it's no more than 10 people in the store at a time.  Can you imagine? Sam's Club is a huge store.  10 people! Why even bother being open? Is there a crowd of people - close together - standing outside waiting to get in? I don't go to Sam's Club anymore, I haven't in a long time. Too easy to just spend way too much money in those places, the temptations to buy everything is too much. I just stay away.  One thing for certain, you aren't going to mess with that man. He works out - hours - every day.  Huge man, arms the size of most people thighs.

Whatever the case, we are taking it easy today. Taylor had a low grade fever last night that didn't last long and went away. So why she told work about it I have no clue, they told her to stay home.  I guess.  She is going into the docs today sometime. Are they going to give her the virus test? Who knows.  If she has it, I'm screwed and so is everyone else in the house.  Sit at home 14 days.  Or end up in a hospital.  Lol, whatever comes, comes.  I have no fever, I check every day now.  Why? Why not.  Doesn't cost anything, might as well.  I'm more concerned about the 2 little ones going to day care every day. That's where disease spreads like wildfire.

_________________

Friday morning.  Getting ready to head out to Brownsville. I now have ample masks to go into truckstops with - these masks stop the virus both ways, not just going out.  The reported cases in this area more than doubled.  Apparently a nursing home got infiltrated with it and everyone got sick. None of them have died, thankfully, but that remains to be seen. The county Judge extended the shelter in place decree and there are lots of people not working here.  I can tell ya that if you aren't working, $1,200 won't do much. Might pay your rent/mortgage for a month and maybe a utility bill or two, but that's about the extent of it.

Just astounding to me they are talking about even more stimulus money. Open the damn businesses back up, quit making up money out of the thin blue air. 

I was talking with someone yesterday that doesn't understand why we can't just keep printing money?  Ever hear of hyperinflation? Do you think that money is free? Yes!  Really?  Yes, I don't understand this.  THIS is why this nation is screwed.  People think that you can just print out money and it's furrrrrrreeeeeeeee!

Have a virus free day. 

The first time that ever happened.  The plant took the load yesterday afternoon when I got up there.  They used to force us to wait until the next morning, spending somewhere around 16 hours doing nothing and not getting paid to wait.  THAT was my issue with it, if I have to wait, I should be getting paid, just like everywhere else. Why is this place any different?  The new manager took care of that.  You will unload our trucks when we arrive or you will be paying detention pay for their time spent waiting.  So, I got out of there fast. The dude that took me in there was in a hurry to get it over with. He wanted to start the pump before I even had 40 pounds of pressure built up in the tank.  But I said, sure, fire that thing up!  

I had visions of trying to turn this into a three day trip.  But over 2,000  miles!  I was going to try anyway.  If I could somehow, magically get back to the truck stop I was at this morning, I thought, I could definitely make it back to the yard tomorrow - which is now today.  So I pushed it hard.  It helps that there isn't much traffic out there. There is a 1/3rd of cars out there than you would normally see, my guesstimation anyway.

I got back to that truck stop in Farina, Illinois with a couple of minutes left on my drive clock.  Today, wanting to make it back to the yard turned into having to make it back to the yard if it all possible. The manager needed the trailer for tomorrow.  652 miles is what I was facing this morning.  I pushed it again today and got back with plenty of time left on the clock.  Took it's toll tho, I am wiped out from all of that driving.  

But whatever, it's nice to not have to spend another night in the truck.  And Addler is not happy lol.  I guess I've been gone to much, he is in a foul mood for a doggy.  

Oh! The lady at the other house.  She had pneumonia we finally found out and she hadn't been taking care of herself, ie: diabetes.  She is now a type 1 diabetic, which is the really bad one. The one where you have to take care of yourself.  So I don't know how that's going to work out.  But, she's alive and Maria said she sounds a lot better than she ever did.  I never asked for the rent.  I thought that would be a rather - inhumane - thing to do.  The thought of having to cover that money this month never went away, but I kept my  mouth shut about asking for it. So it was a great relief to hear that she is, indeed paying her rent without my ever asking.  It was good to hear tho that she's doing much better.  

Home?  Uhh, I dunno lol. Everyone was in bed when I got here.  It's only 9:00 pm but I guess they all went to bed early.  I'm probably going to sleep in in the morning, What's there to do anyway, everything is still shut down. People are getting sick of this isolating stuff.  Lots of news out there about the effects of the virus on people's psyche and especially this idea of having to stay at home. And the arguments for starting the economy back up again - by sending everyone back to work....and the constant Trump bashing.  

I dunno if there is a ban on boating, I'm going to have to find out. Cause the boat bug is biting and I want to get out on the lake.  Which lake, don't really care. Any lake.  Lots of them around here.  

401k is coming back up rapidly.  That is a relief.  It's only down 10 thousand now. The stock market has been on a crazy up and down ride for a while now. But it's going back up.

And I'm going to bed.  Tired and my back is hurting for some reason.  

Happy Easter!
This was my day, lol.
Wake up to thunder/lightning.  Aspyn not happy, Addler ignores it.  Some dogs can't deal with it, some can, just the way it is. 
Rain - pouring rain. 
So I get up around 6:15 am, take my shower, go out to the kitchen to find - the whole family is up? This early, on Easter and a Sunday to boot? 

Taylor - lightning = don't mix. 
James - awakened by it, I don't think he's particularly disturbed by it, it just ruined his sleep.

Got my stuff, got the dogs, got out.  About 5 miles out from work, a screen pops up on my phone: Tornado warning (not watch, warning) - take shelter.  Sorry, I'm in a vehicle traveling down the road, I'll take shelter at the yard if I make it that far. If not, goodbye world!

I made it, but, the rain had messed up the keypad to open up the gate.  I'm texting my manager at that point. Uhh, that gate won't open.  Took a video of it and sent it to her, the thing was making a loud, constant buzzing noise and it was definitely not accepting any keypad inputs.  Is there a walk through gate? Nope, but there is a giant drive through gate on the side - it has a padlock on it.  We'll be changing that! she declared.  Yup, but right now, I need to get in there. So I put out a text on the group text.

Anyone at the yard? The keypad isn't working, I can't get in. Joe - another driver - texts back, yup hold on.  A few minutes later he slowly moves his tractor to the gate to open it.  If you drive over 5 mph, it automatically puts the truck in drive mode on the ELD and you are screwed.

It is a downpour.  The yard was flooding - there was a stream/river going through there.  I pulled up to my truck and got out and instantly was drenched.  Not a little wet - drenched. What a lovely Easter!

Did I say the tornado sirens were going off? Those started when I got that alert on my phone on the way to work. They were still wailing away when I got to the yard.  The wind was howling.  I got my stuff out of the SUV - clothing and lots of food, this is a 4 day trip, I'm not going to go hungry.  Got the truck running, got on the ELD and signed in - off duty mode - but signed in so it could catch up on my logs.  I drove over to the office, got out and immediately was hammered with rain.  My manager is texting me the whole time - she's looking at radar over where I"m at - she said in 5 minutes, it's going to get far worse. 

The prophecy was correct.  Things were rattling in the building and the water running through the lot looked like you could but a canoe on it and float.  A few minutes later, 2 other drivers - terrified - had come running out of their trucks into the office. "I ain't staying in that truck!!!".  Couldn't blame either one of them, it was that bad.  I haven't checked the news for Longview yet, but a town east of where I live had a tornado touch down. 

Meanwhile, a driver at the plant getting loaded said the plant was shut down.  We were all surprised they even started, the lightning was enough to shut any of those types of plants down.  Tornadoes and extra added touch of hell.  But he finally got back on there 45 minutes later - and the tornado warning gone - we started back up! And back out in the rain again, I was the next load.  And getting wet - all over again tho I had never dried off from the first 2 drenchings. 

I wondered how driving would be today.  I slept during the load - we are still being forced to stay in our trucks = in the passenger seat - while loading.  Get a pillow, lay out on the seats and snooze.  I"m not well rested these days, I wake up various times throughout the night, just the curse of getting old I guess.  I sleep, but it's a wake up, go back to sleep, wake up, go back to sleep type of thing.

That stuff caught up to me early on today. I was battling fatigue, wishing I could stop.  But to get the miles in? Nope.

Remember the trucker's clocks.

14 hour on duty clock.
11 hour driving clock
30 minute rest break clock forced on you at 8 hours.
And a 70 hour clock but I don't have to battle that one too often. 

When your 14 and 11 hour clock are battling for the time, you can't stop too early for the 30 minute break - which I almost always take a nap at.  You stop at 7-1/2 hours or later on the 14 hour clock. That way, when your 30 minute break is over, whatever is left on your driving clock, you get all of it. If you stop too early, you won't get all of it and you either have to take another 30 minute break - or most likely just stop earlier than you would like to.

I battled it out until I got just west of Little Rock, AR.  Couldn't take any more, got that sleep in - I set my alarm for 40 minutes, I knew after I left there I would be driving for 8 hours. And that I did. I'm in a little town called Farina, Ilinois. It has a huge truck stop in it.  It's never full - tho plenty of trucks pull in here. It's a nice, clean place with a large convenience store. 

I'm here until 8:30 am.  I guess it would be helpful to say where I'm going, it's the Stryker, Ohio run. I despise this run because you show up at around 2 to 3 pm the second day and then have to sit for 17 or 18 hours until the next morning when they will unload you. But, one of the drivers I was talking to today at the office said that the new interim manager called that plant up and said look, if  you don't start unloading us when we get there, we are going to start charging you detention pay. Yup, I sit there for free.  All of us do.  Well some of us don't make it there as fast as others, but you get the picture.

So, with the faint hope that maybe I can get unloaded tomorrow afternoon instead of Tuesday morning, I pushed the driving today further than I've ever made it on this particular run. 

I have to tell you that the roads are eerily vacated of car traffic. It's like the Twilight Zone, they have all but disappeared. Sure, there is some traffic out there, but nothing like normal. Not even close.  It's mostly trucks.  I'm not complaining about that, I can make more miles, such as today, because of it. There are too many people driving cars that have no business driving anything out here.  I"m not going to go into that right now, it's almost midnight and bedtime.  The point being, they drive in such erratic behavior, endless scenarios, and they slow me down. 

Oh and the truck stop? Weird. They have their soda and slushee machines shut down, the virus.  They still have coffee going? I'm not complaining, I want my coffee in the morning but so strange.  Why shut soda down and not the coffee?

I've got somewhere between 5 and 6 hours left to get to the plant in Stryker tomorrow.  I'll certainly be testing out the idea of unloading tomorrow afternoon instead of Tuesday morning.

It's been an interesting day. But I'm sleepy and I want my 8 hours of sleep.  I sleep much better in this truck than in any other sleeping arrangement.  The engine vibration - dunno how that works but it lulls me to sleep and keeps me there far more often than not and definitely more than sleeping at home. I'm not saying I would rather stay in the truck than go home, screw that, but when I'm out on the road my sleep is much better.

Hope y'all had a good day today, I watched an online service from my previous church and then watched a sermon from an evangelist I used to work with.  It's all good.  Christ has risen! 

C'yall later. 

Lmao.

Brownsville, Texas has a decree in place that anyone going anywhere in public must have a facemask.

Color me stupid for not knowing that. Cause' we should intrinsically know this stuff wherever we go!

I went to the Love's, everyone there had masks on. Great! I don't have one! But they didn't tell me I couldn't come IN to the store. I went about my business and left.  

Well, I had just come into town, I usually go through the parking lot to see if any other of our drivers are hanging out there - if so they get the next trailer that comes in from Mexico.  But this time I used the restroom, got a drink and left.  

After getting to the yard and dropping the loaded trailer, I went off to get something to eat.  Upon pushing the door in, a man confronted me - yes, with a mask on - telling me "you can't come in here".  Wut.  Ohhhhh?  You don't have a mask on.  I thought about being a caged tiger or animal that is forced into submission to human will.  I could think differently, but I won't. This isn't the nation I grew up in, thanks.  This is all bullshit. If we are going to live our lives in fear every time a f****** virus comes along, good luck! Get yourselves a lot and pay for your casket cause' you're ALL going to DIE!

The dude had sympathy at least. I don't live here and no-one I have seen anywhere is actually forcing anyone to wear a mask.

Let me add this: I LOOKED FOR A F****** MASK YESTERDAY. All over the damn town where I live.  NO MASKS ARE AVAILABLE ANY FREAKING WHERE WHERE I LIVE< THANK YOU.  

I'm cussing. You're damned right I'm cussing. This SHIT is starting to annoy me. We aren't ALL GOING TO FU***** DIE.  Wait! WE all ARE going to DIE!! Yes!!! I didn't say WHEN you are going to die, but if you are reading this, it's probably not going to happen TONIGHT or TOMORROW. It could happen, yes.

Oh you don't believe me? Google Brownsille Texas face masks. That's all you need to do. The nuggets of their version of livelihood will pop up.  Maybe we should all wear NASA style spacesuits!  Because we are The Martian and we be facing death! Lmaooooo

Yea, I'm not going insane, just getting annoyed.  I don't need this shit. If I get sick, so beit. If I die from it, so beit. God is in control, God's will be done.  I don't care about all this political bullshit that is going on with this situation and there are alot of politicians I could name that can go f*** themselves. 

YES! I SAID THAT!! Thank you very much. A town that won't let you in stores - or even "out in public" without a facemask on.  Because ma'am, that virus? It's going to jump on you from that tree, right on over there! See it? Yup, like a monkey, it's going to invade your immune system! Just ... like....that!! 

Whatever.  I'm in the trucking yard, since I "can't" be out and about,  Live your lives in fear! Because that's what God wants, right?  NO. Because that's what the ENEMY OF YOUR SOUL wants. Thank you, hope you don't get this virus, if you do - which a lot of us probably will - hope your suffering isn't too long and hoping for a full recovery.

Isn't that what we do as humans? Hope the best for each other? Instead of this news media bullshit invoking hate and anger against others? Others.... people.... mortals...that cannot control viruses....this shit is messing with me. What happened to us HUMANS coming together when a common "enemy" comes against us? 

Obviously I don't think a 300 pound man should be assaulting a small, older woman.  But in this case, she says things when she gets unhappy with her living situation - which happens everywhere she goes - that piss the people it's directed at off.  And she does it constantly once she gets into that mode.  I'm referring to Rene and I predicted that eventually, her newest living situation would go south and sure enough, it did.  The dude allegedly tackled her and she showed a pic of a scratch on her neck.

So, she got her own place. Likely she went through HUD to get public assistance for rent or perhaps a housing project.  I'm not sure since I didn't press her on that, but she has it dressed up nicely and I am happy for her that she finally has her own place.  She does not, however, have anyone to blame once she gets mad about...wait.  Of course. There are people living next to her and there is management.  So, that will break down eventually as well. She'll start calling the police on neighbors.  How do you know this? Because I lived with her for 2 years, another year plus in the other house and on the receiving end of her angst not-to-mention watching her go off on other people.

I have no idea why a person would like to live in a self-fabricated, perpetual, miserable state of being, but that's their choice.  Some situations need addressing, sure.  But it's how you deal with it that makes the difference. For example, the boy next door starts this nonsense with revving up his engine and cranking his truck around corners in the circle in the neighborhood, making all kinds of noise? I either say nothing or I just politely ask my neighbor to please tell him to stop.  Once you make enemies out of your neighbors, life isn't going to be pleasant living there.  Been there, done that, tho my circumstances had been going on for years and I had nicely asked the neighbors to deal with their cats - for years. I'm referring to my house in Phoenix.  That turned into a full blown war with neighbors. I still don't regret that, for they laughed at me asking them to please deal with their cats.  They thought it was funny the cats were shitting all over my property, destroying plants and making a nuisance of themselves. I eventually told them all if they didn't do something about their cats - especially the idea of feeding ferrel cats and attracting more and more of them to the neighborhood, I was going to deal with it myself.

They weren't laughing then, but they wouldn't change anything and I eventually started catching those cats in a cage, putting them in the car and releasing them elsewhere.  I never hurt any of them or killing them, as I was accused of doing. I don't hate cats, but this was 30, 35 even 40 of them and the neighbor behind me had huge piles of cat shit laying all over his property, the smell was nauseating and it was attracting a lot of bugs and flies.  That whole scenario changed with mark and lynnette taking over there and me moving.  They just tolerate it.  I couldn't.  I like being outside and enjoying my property. Kind of hard to do with the smell of cat urine and poop in your nostrils.

Whatever the case, Rene has been doing this with the people she lives with and neighbors for all the 4 or more years I have known her and I have no reason to believe that in her newest living accommodations she will do anything different.
________________

That was yesterday/Monday.

Today is a nothing day.
Well at least as in going to any shopping stores, save a local restaurant that just reopened in another part of town.  I went through the drive-thru, got my order and left.  Never went inside, never got out of the vehicle.  Again, I am not going out of my way - at least for now - to find toilet paper.  If I happen to be in a store I'll look.  There is a local facebook group that is giving alerts to whenever they find it anywhere - but by the time anyone else gets there, it is already gone.  Even with strict limits on how many you can buy - which is usually only one package now - it all disappears quickly. 

So today is a clean my room day including washing all dog bedding, human bedding, clothing, vacuuming, etc etc etc.  Taylor is home today as well - teleworking.  She has plenty she can do on the computer without having to go into work, the company she works for apparently is finally coming around to the idea that perhaps we should at least practice as much "social distancing" as possible.  I'm not for shutting down America in it's entirety.  But I have already explained my position on that so many times everywhere, I am not going to bother going into it here. 

In fact, I'm posting scripture on my wall, I find the politicizing of this pandemic to be rather disgusting.  Well, I might post something about the virus, but it's not going to be a blame this politician or blame that one type of thing.  Reality shouldn't succumb to political opinions that aren't necessarily truth - or mostly - not true at all.  Right now? Carson is on the news saying it appears the numbers are slowing down - new cases of the virus.  Great, but no magic wand is going to make it go away.  It's going to be around forever, just like the other forms of coronavirus and also the flu.  Just that they will develop vaccines and/or antibodies to combat them.  That's right. This stuff never completely goes away. 

So, how much of this virus reporting is just pure fear tactics and how much of it is truth? I dunno. History will look back on it and render a judgement.   For now, we just have to live through it and move on with our lives. 

2cd full day off, I'd be a bit surprised if I don't get a run for tomorrow. Then again, I can't see the schedule anymore because we aren't allowed inside the building anymore.  So I have no idea how much work is available.  Kinda sucks not knowing.  I'm not asking her - the manager.  She'll just get mad and who knows what will happen?  She doesn't like anyone asking even a simple question about when you might be getting another run. No, I didn't ask her, she was telling me about other drivers who have. She gets mad, she has a real temper, not worth crossing her.  Nothing new anyway, I was sitting up to 4 days with the previous manager.  Would just like to get another run on the books for the next pay period,  going out tomorrow on a 2 or 3 day run would do that. 

Well, back to cleaning.  Have a safe, blessed and virus free day!

Back. This Oklahoma trip was actually worth something for I had to spend the night up there waiting on an empty trailer.  13 hours of detention pay almost doubles the money the run is otherwise worth.  I was actually relieved when I pulled up to the plant and saw two trailers at the rack and zero trailers where they put the empties. They don't unload trailers at night there.

  I don't mind spending the night in their parking lot. I have food, a convenience store across the street and no one bothers anyone out there.  Police sometimes stare from across the street for unknown reasons, maybe they're bored. It's a very small town I can't imagine they get much action there.

To look at that plant, however, you wouldn't know that the economy is basically diving, people aren't working and staying home and that our nation is in a shelter-in-place verdict from state governors.  They are going through that Ethylene like there's no tomorrow.  Whether it continues on that way remains to be seen. But the Brownsville run is also functioning normally, they haven't slowed down production one bit.  They shut down a lot due to problems with their plant, but that's normal for them. 

I dunno about you, but we are pretty well stocked with food.  I just keep buying small quantities of this and that whenever I go to the store. Rice here, beans there, canned food over there.  I could stand another 50 cans of canned goods.  Now, before you call me a hoarder, I've been doing this for many years now.  Stock up, eat the stuff that gets close to expiration - or - eat all of it over a period of a few months or longer - and then replace all of it with fresh.  The freezers are full to the brim.  We are good for a while. Except toilet paper lol. I'd love to get my hands on a 24 or 30 roll pack and then not have to worry about that for quite a while.  We actually found rolls of paper towels.

So yes, I went to the grocery store today and stopped at a drive thru of a local restaurant to support my local community.  Half the town is wearing masks. Of course, there are no masks to buy anywhere, so I dunno if they already had some on hand or scored before they went to unavailable status, but I saw plenty of people with the highly coveted N95 masks that actually stop the virus from getting through the filter. 

Whatever the case, I'm stuck at home the rest of the day. There are things I'd like to do, but one thing I'd like not to do is get that virus. 

Haven't heard from the manager yet. I wouldn't mind another day off so I'm not contacting her today.  There were plenty of trucks in the yard yesterday so I might get my wish. 

I'm spending more time in the Word.  That wasn't virus initiated, I've had my mind on the Lord quite a lot lately.  Feeling like I'm missing something, I can only search the Word and seek the Lord for answers. 

Sitting at the plant - in my truck - in the passenger seat. New policy here. But, it allows me to pull out my laptop and get some bill paying done.  They actually built a platform out of scaffolding at the entrance to the plant for a person to stand on with a thermometer to take everyone's temperature.  It's one of those kind you just aim at the person's forehead, the thermometer never touches you.  I had heard about this so I took my temp this morning before I left the house, well within normal parameters. 

Frankly, I'd rather go lay down in the sleeper and take a snooze, but that isn't allowable. They won't let you sit in the driver's seat - I guess so you can't turn the truck on and move it, but they take the key from you anyways.  Just weird.  At least it isn't hot out today, they aren't allowing us to run the trucks for AC or heat, either.   And I won't be able to take a pic of the weekly schedule now since we aren't allowed in the container where we used to wait.

I didn't squawk about any of this, people are contracting the virus here - as is the case pretty much everywhere. I believe the only good isolating ourselves from everyone else is doing is to make it so hospitals aren't all overrun at once everywhere.  Because as I said early on, before it ever left China, this virus is going to spread around the world and everyone is going to get it. Most will live, some will die.  And that's really what is happening.  Lots of conspiracy theories about China inventing this virus to spread it around and cause the US economy to fail. Would I put that past China? Absolutely not.  But I tend to dismiss those types of theories unless there is solid evidence. 

The local news is reporting 26 new confirmed cases in this region - where they're lumping several counties together for the states in the "northeast Texas region". And 3 new deaths.  This area is expansive, with small towns and people living out in the country with a lot of ranches and private properties people use for hunting.  So to say 26 in one day is probably a lot.  But, the last flu that went through here earlier this year?  Our little town was saturated with people acquiring it.  Social distancing probably does work, I've been doing as much as possible, but there are those places you have to go to to get food, gas, etc.  There is no apex yet and there is no sign of the virus abating, not really anyway. Less new cases, they say but no apex yet or flattening the curve they like to call it.

The plant I'm going to doesn't even want you getting out of the truck.   They don't want you signing in as normally the case.  Just pull up to the auto gate, drive to the scale, get weighed, drop the trailer.  Get weighed tractor only again, hook up to an empty and get out.  I won't make it today as far as I normally do because this is a late load.  I'll get back tomorrow afternoon and I'll have Monday off as well unless this manager does things differently, I don't know. Previous manager sent out work on Friday covering Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  I frankly don't mind a full day off.

Well I think I'll try to take a nap. This passenger seat is pretty uncomfortable, was never forced to sit in it before this.....

Everyone at the house in Phoenix are "essential" workers, hence I am not worried about loss of income to pay the bills over there. Well, Lynnette is only working one day a week right now, so I let her off paying rent for this month.  The card reader for electricity is in the $600 range currently, a few months worth.  That's what she pays, the electricity over there.  Not during the summer of course, their rent isn't that much.  The bill during the 3 hottest months is usually over $400.  For right now, I am happy that the house paid for itself this month and no cash outlays.

The other house - over here - different story. That lady is still in the hospital.  She has been removed from ICU but she's still going to be in a rehab or something for 3 or 4 weeks.  She is on disability, this virus does not affect her ability to pay the rent, but I suspect I'll end up eating that money this month.  People get weird ideas in their heads.  Well, I'm not there so I shouldn't have to pay the rent.  No, you rent the room regardless of whether you use it or not, it's occupied, I can't rent it out to anyone else.  I have no idea what's going to happen there, but I'm not prepared to eat two months worth of that nonsense, not when she is perfectly capable of paying up.  In fact, her expenses at the moment are zero since she's on medicaid or medicare, not sure which.

At the house here, Taylor got her Fridays back.  That will be really helpful for them.  James is still at 4 days per week tho and that situation apparently isn't going to change anytime soon. 

My work is fairly constant atm.  I'm going to Oklahoma today, just got back from Amarillo yesterday late morning.  Not the greatest run - Oklahoma - but if I get something better this coming week that will make up for it. That's a big if, I never know what I'm going to get sent.  They brought several drivers into our division - temp or not I'm not sure - but it's too many.  And two of them are complainers.  If they don't get the runs they like, they whine about it to the manager. Clarice, however, said none of that will phase her and she'll dish it right back out to them.  Yes, from historical context, I believe she would. 

I'm going to see if I can find out what that plants makes that gets shipped to hospitals when I'm up there today.  I only know they make wax, anything beyond that? I've never really asked. 

 Speaking of drivers, one of them called me yesterday questioning me about the West Virginia run. "ben, they have me going up here with one of the new trailers, do you know if they're taking those up there now or is that a mistake?" I knew instantly what he was concerned about and told him yes, we have been taking the new ones up there for at least a year now.  The new trailers are 10 feet longer than the old ones, the facility up there is very small and it's a challenge to get a small one in the hole where they go, much more a much longer one. 

He's not a good backer is the point.  Everyone knows it tho we cut him some slack on it. I told him to cut as close to the building as possible and swing it wide after driving over the concrete pad where the trailer goes.  "Well did they expand the facility, move the fencing or anything?". Nope.  They actually could, there is a huge field right next to the facility which belong to them, it's really a giant complex, Union Carbide.  I just assured him he could do it. You might have to do several pull ups but you'll get it in there.  He'll be up there this afternoon, I could tell he was nervous about it.

Are you sitting at home? I've gone out to support local business here for curbside service. The Schlotzsky's - great sandwiches.  No one was there when I went the other day.  Lowe's - it's the only big chain type of home improvement store in town and they are already shutting stores nationwide, they've been doing that before this virus.  So I went in there for a short visit to get some supplies, it would truly suck to have to drive clear to the nearest town that has a Lowe's and Home Depot over 30 miles away. I actually like Home Depot much better than Lowe's - but not enough to drive that far every time I need something from there.  Of course the local Kroger's, that's really unavoidable.  I have home made hand sanitizer, I do not have a face mask - yet.  You can't find those anywhere as it stands. Now they're telling us to use non medical grade masks - such as you can find at Lowe's for contractors - but I suspect they've sold out of those by now. 

James went to Walmart yesterday and said there was actually toilet paper in there.  Did you get any? No.  Why not?!!!  We have some  toilet paper, maybe enough to last all of us a month, we don't have a hoarder's supply.  Another pack of it would have been good.  I don't go to the store looking for it specifically anymore. I look if I happen to be in a store, but it's not my goal anymore.  He just replied that we have enough. Okayyyy lol.  I wasn't suggesting buying 100 rolls but another 6 or 8 pack would have been good.

Well the boys finally woke up. Now I can get my stuff done.  On Saturdays or Sundays, if I'm home, I don't do anything outside of the bedroom until they are awake. Cause' I don't want to be that guy that woke them up, forcing the parents out of bed earlier than necessary.  I'm out of here at 10:15 am, about an hour and a half from now. Plenty of time to make a nice breakfast, finish my laundry - dryer - get the vehicle packed.  There isn't a trip I go on no matter how short of a distance or short duration that I don't take at least 7 days worth of clothing.  I had started to get a bit less on the amount taken with me - until the Oklahoma breakdown - which reinforced the idea of taking for more clothing than necessary for you never know what's going to happen. 

And finally, I'm ready to go back on the diet.  But, I dunno if it's a good time for it.  You eat what you can eat right now, and those choices are greatly limited.  There are several restaurants with drive thru windows that only allow drive thru, you can't go in and you can't walk up to the window, they won't serve you.  I might wait until this virus stuff is over and back to normal - are we ever going to get back to normal? Or will life unalterably change after this thing is done and gone? Oh, I was reading a scientist has developed an antibiotic - yes an antibiotic, not a vaccine - which works on rendering the virus useless.  If you've seen the pics of the virus, it has those spikes on it. The scientist was discussing how the virus uses those spikes to invade cells, the antibiotic he developed rids the virus of those spikes so it can't proliferate. 

He also stated that antibiotics are vastly easier to make and much more quantity can be produced in a much shorter period of time and expense.  His work has been handed over to military medical teams - that specialize in this kind of thing - and hopeful that by summer, human trials can begin.  Regardless of how bad this virus is, you can't just start injecting people with stuff and not having had done scientific, clinical trials first to ensure the public isn't going to die from the cure. 

Well, off to the races. 

Text message.

Don't worry about the trip number.

From the new manager. 

???

That was the text, lol. hadn't spoken with her since yesterday so I had no idea what she was referring to.  A while later another text: Take LE075 to Amarillo to have it repaired.  

Good Lord, I'm not even at the house, I thought, is this something that has to happen right now?

So I said I'm not at the house ATM, can it wait til later or even early morning?  

She said tomorrow would be better, just treat it as a regular load and leave when you would with that. 

In other words, we are slow and she is trying to keep people busy.  Oh, I would have left today.  But I was literally in the middle of smoking a ham and cleaning and getting stuff done. I can drop everything I'm doing - but the ham? Yeah I could have dumped the thing in the oven at 250 and it would have been good for them by the time they got home for work.  

I would have gone if it were an emergency or if she just said she needed it to go. 

So I figured to get up around 4 am, get over to the yard, fire up the truck and hook to the trailer and get on over to Amarillo tomorrow - 500 miles - and try to get back at least 100 miles this way.  For the life of me, I can't remember where I stopped the last time I did one of these runs.  Cramming my brain but it's not coming to me.  I'll have to look at a map. 

___________________

That trip over.  Dallas this morning was a mess. Not much traffic, but even in light traffic, people just don't deal with driving in the rain very well. Case in point was the idiot driving at least 80mph if not 90,. He went over into the exit ramp lane to pass everyone, then attempted to zip over 4 lanes. I saw it coming before it happened and immediately started hitting the brakes - heavy.  He lost control of the vehicle the car spun around 2 times, how he didn't crash head on into the center divider, I have no idea.  How everyone else that this occurred directly in front of was able to stop before ramming into him - well I'll just assume that everyone was actually paying attention to the road.

But even braking early, I came awfully close to ramming one of the cars and subsequently pushing it into the idiot in the car that had stopped, facing the center divider. Yes, I call him an idiot because he was driving stupidly for the road conditions.  Whatever.  Driving further, 2 cars had collided.  Further - a car on fire in the center lane.  No apparent collision, not sure what happened there, but it was holding up traffic. Further down, a truck accident, then a pickup that slid off the road, down a steep embankment and got stuck.  I should have figured this would happen in the rain and just gone around Dallas, but I thought since traffic would be light because of the virus, there wouldn't be so many issues. 

I dunno, but I stayed away from people as much as possible on that trip. Amarillo is under heavy reporting of people contracting the virus, I didn't do anything there but drop the trailer and get out of there. I never came in contact with anyone there.  My stop last night at the truckstop the same.  Minimal human contact and staying away as far as possible.  Love's - the 2 stops there, well that's a roll of the dice.  The first one was virtually empty, just washed my hands really good and got out of there. Today's stop? Fuel, bathroom, wash hands in hot water and soap and get out of there. I can only do so much, but I'm doing whatever I can to keep from getting this virus. I'd hate to bring it home and get everyone sick. 

I figure this virus is going to change a lot of things about how we live our lives in this nation.

I dunno, but while I'm maintaining as many safeguards as possible, I"m not happy about the idea that the government has basically taken over everything without even having to declare martial law.  But I have no desire to go into all of that right now, I just got home, got a hot shower, washed thoroughly.  Dunno about any work.  This is Friday so runs get handed out for the weekend today.  Nothing yet, but it's still early. 

Anyway, enough for this one. 

So we're on lockdown.
What to do today.
Well, smoking a brisket or nice meat sounds good.
But it means I'd have to go to the store.
There is no ban on going to the store, it's just risky as far as I'm concerned.
A teenager working at Kroger's yesterday was coughing all over the place.
No, he was not covering his mouth.
I got the hell away from him, whatever he has I don't want it regardless of
whether it's this virus or not. I cannot understand how people can be
sneezing and coughing in public and not at least try to cover their mouths.
I might go tho, a nice brisket sounds really good.

Meanwhile, the lady at the other house.  They finally found family members
somewhere in Illinois.  The hospital warning they were going to convene and
ethics committee pretty much told the story.  Guessing, sure, but probably a
good guess: someone has to make the decision to take her off the ventilator.
Presumably, when that happens, she dies.  A rather gruesome and sad prospect.
This lady just moved in there.  I'ma lose some money on that house over there
this month - just turned the 1st of April.  Don't disparage me for thinking about
money in such a situation, I'm the one holding the bag for that place when
something goes foul with it.  Really would like to find a way to get Maria
out of that house and into something to live in that doesn't cost me anything.

Such as a travel trailer on the property.  I doubt it's legal here tho.  Most cities
have ordinances against such things.  Just another reason I'd like to be living
in the county, outside of the city.  They mostly don't care what you do out
in the country, keep it to yourself. Hunting, shooting, fishing, living arrangements.

Unless I took out a loan, the prospect of getting land is well out of reach right  now.
Well, I mean there are things I could do but those considerations are at least for now,
off the table. My consideration to take out a loan is rather dampened with this virus
running around messing with the economy and the fact that I already have 2 small
loans going which were intended to pay off credit card debt - which they are.  But
I don't think it's a good time to be getting into another loan.

Got back to the yard around 12:15 am last night.  Got out of there at almost 1 - a lot to do to get out of there including turning in a lot of paperwork, which I have to double check to make sure it's correct. Get home around 1:40, dogs in tow.  Yes, I went and got my dogs that late, Maria said it would be no problem so there ya go.  Slept 5 hours and then off to the races.  The bank with a bunch of cash - the bank is not allowing anyone inside.  Starbucks for Taylor,,, she wanted an iced whatever. Over there with that drink, then to Schlotzky's - the doors are still open, you can go inside, you just can't sit down to eat in there.  Then to Kroger's, where I found a lot more stuff than what has been "normal" Still zero toilet paper tho.  When I say none, I mean, NONE. 

But we have enough tp now, all 3 of us have gone on missions to find it and at least have enough for maybe a month and a half or so.  However, there was PLENTY of pasta, that had been all gone, so i stocked up on that and various dried goods.  Enough to make me think our pantry is at least on it's way.  But, before I put that stuff in there, I need to check dates on existing stuff and chuck what is beyond expiration. 

Meanwhile, the loading plant. The first load today?  He got on the group text and said they weren't loading, something wrong with the pump. that was like 6:30 am. It's now 1:50 pm and they still haven't fixed their pump. This problem has been going on for months and months now. They need to replace the damned thing, but they're trying to nickle and dime everything.  I get it: it's a million dollar pump. It's also over 40 years old. So now they are sending the trucks that are there back to the yard.  Well, I know I won't be getting a run tomorrow. All the stuff today will have to be loaded before they can move forward with more loads. And they have to fix the freaking thing before anything is going to get loaded.

So, if this goes on for a while, I'm going to ask yet again about going to Austin to get the railroad card.  LNG is up and down, but when it's up, they can't keep up with the demand. 

I took my temp a little while ago. 97.8. I had to look that up, seems low, but the range for normal starts at 97.7 from what I found.  So it's fine. The least I can do before anyone gets home today was to wash up, clean my hands thoroughly before preparing dinner and check my temperature.  It could all be futile in the end, but I've also been engaging in social distancing - to the extreme. I stay away from people in truck stops as far as possible. 

All that driving yesterday for naught. They needed that trailer back for a load this morning - second load to be precise.  Not that it's a bad thing I got back even if late.  Roads are veritably deserted.  I mean, there is very little traffic out there anywhere, even Houston at 7:30 pm on a monday night there was hardly any traffic at all.  So much so I was able to take the 610 west loop instead of going all the way around on the Beltway 8. 

Meanwhile, my GE stock is up again.  Not much, but it is up.  The Dow Jones is down, but not over a 1,000 points down. 
____________

Our town is now subjected to shelter in place rules.  Okee dokee.  I'm not sure I had plans to go anywhere tomorrow anyway.  Restaurants? No, curbside service.  Bars?  Nope.  Movies? Nope.  Can you even fly in the states now?  No clue.  Plenty I can do around here if I go stir crazy. 

Whatever the case, this one is done. 

Day 3 in Brownsville.
Starting to get antzy. Not because I hate waiting, but because they ran out of drivers to haul loads up there and had to cancel a load coming down today.  So now, no matter what time a trailer shows up today - there are supposed to be here - I will have to drive all the way back.  Meaning if one got here at 9:00 pm I"d be driving until 7:30 am to get it back.  No thanks.  I'll do it, yes, but pleeeeaaassseeee I'm hoping one gets here soon. It's 12:30 pm right now, I'm good for driving up until around 1:00 am.  After that I'm toast and fighting to stay awake.  Even 1:00 am is pushing it. 

But I'll do whatever I have to to keep my  job.  They can easily push me out of their system to get someone who will do the night driving, I'm not taking that chance.

Since our company laid off 400 drivers, especially. But - most of that was in the fuels division.  Obviously, fuel consumption in this nation has gone way down because no one is going anywhere besides truck drivers.  But I just read that our company is fighting to give the rest of the drivers facing lay offs work outside of our industry. They've already connected with Werner, JB Hunt and others to haul loads for them - that's all grocery stuff,  the hoarding is still continuing but sooner or later, I'm assuming most people will run out of money for over stocking their pantries and buying hundreds of rolls of toilet paper.  But I'm glad they are finding ways to keep our drivers working.  It may not be optimal, but it's far better than nothing, or being on unemployment and not getting near as much as you normally would with a paycheck.

Just disconcerting that we don't have enough drivers right now to cover the loads.  Sounds like they could easily bring in a couple more drivers to pick up the slack.  A person hauling fuel can easily pull what we pull, they just won't be able to do any offloading at the plants.  We have lots of drop and hook places we go, including Brownsville. I'd rather see them bring in a couple more drivers than watch our business go out the window to a different cryo hauler.  We had that happen in 2018 and we never got those accounts back. Well sometimes if the other hauler is too busy, but for the most part, they get those runs. It's limited and not that much, but it took business away from us.

Even more conversations with other drivers about the now gone manager.  This one driver was getting set for up to 8 DAYS at a time.  WTH.  He admitted he doesn't run as hard as some of us do, that might have something to do with it.  These brownsville runs they want down here same day unless its impossible because of hours to get it here.  Still, 8 days. If you have that much disdain for a driver  you should just get rid of him.  But, she was doing that to a lot of us, just not as much sitting.  It was really obvious, too, who was getting all the runs because they were on the group chat ALL the time giving updates on loading times when they were getting loaded.  Why she played favorites I'll never really know for sure, I just know I have a pretty good relationship going with current manager - trying to keep it that way and keep busy. 

So, here I sit, keeping an eye out for any trucks coming in with our trailers. This yard has all kinds of trailers in it, only a limited number of them are ours.  I suspect all 3 of us waiting down here will be out of here today.  I'm first out, thankfully.

The disruption to our lives with this coronavirus is spreading. But, we now have enough toilet paper to last a while - no we didn't hoard we just wanted enough to last a month or two.  We're there.  If people would just calm down and understand the food chain supply isn't down, go back to buying normally, we wouldn't be in this dilemma.  I found more water today at the truck stop, so I got another case. We're good with that for a while too. But it took so long to find any, I have 2 cases in my truck now instead of the one I normally have.  That isn't hoarding. Hoarding would be buying 10, 15 or 20 cases of water, well beyond anything you directly need. 

I have stepped back a bit watching continuous news.  They are literally reporting this virus news around the clock. I was watching a lot of it until a few days ago, I decided to back off a bit. Not totally, I want to see what's happening with it, but I just don't need to be filling my head with that stuff all day and night long.  I tend to get carried away with watching the news when stuff like this happens.  I watched all of the OJ Simpson trial coverage, for example. I watched the news forever in 9/11.  Operation Desert Storm the same.  But this is going to go on for a while.  The only real changes are the numbers of people getting it are going up and up and the complaints of ventilator shortages keep rolling in.  Essential workers are getting pushed hard - doctors and nurses especially. Truckers? We run hard regardless to make that paycheck.  It's just that we are not sheltering in place and the don't want us to.  For obvious reasons.  Well, ok and they are asking truckers to drive longer hours in temporarily suspending HOS rules. You can drive as long as you want. Instead of 11 hours you can drive 15 if you have to, but the same rules about the 10 hour break are in place, so I've heard anyway. Once  you are done driving that day, however long you drove, you still have to take a 10 hour break. I'd be fine with an 8 hour break.  I don't need 10 hours and many truckers have complaing about that rule for a long time. 

I'm not sure if they suspended the 70 hour rule. I haven't looked into it. Our company hasn't suspended it that I know of but certain operations might have, such as oxygen to hospitals.  Well, I"m get offa here and get prepared, I have word that a trailer is coming in soon.

Arrive at the plant today. Get through the security gate and over to the scale. Sit there and wait.
Normally don't have to wait more than 5 to 10 minutes. I was there 40 minutes.  First load, it's early but that doesn't mean anything at that plant.  Well, except for today.

Everything changed there overnight, they didn't bother to tell anyone outside of the plant.  The scale house is closed even to plant employees, the only ones allowed in there are the personnel assigned there.  So, the loading rack personnel can no longer go in, input the weight of the truck/trailer and then go to the rack.

So, after sitting there all that time, a plant pickup pulls up next to my truck, a dude gets out - it was still dark - and then I recognized him when he got up to the window.  I'm thinking, what is this dude doing?  He says he can't into the office, I can go to the rack. There is a readout on the building in full view of the trucks so you can see what your empty and loaded weights are.  You need the empty weight to give to the rack employees, you definitely want to know your gross weight. If it's overgross, we be going back to the rack and getting product unloaded.

So anyway, I get to the rack and everything there appeared normal. But it was not.  I got into the container - it's a shipping container converted into an office - sat down as normal and then saw the operators looking at a printed sheet.  In huge letters it said that drivers were not to come into the office at all.  So I just sat there and waited for them to tell me whatever. They had contacted us about all of this stuff.  The main operator was clearly irritated.  He didn't want to answer any of  my questions.

Note: He is normally very sociable and we talk alot, so this was unusual in itself.

Next thing I know, yes, please go get into your truck in the passenger seat, we will bring the paperwork out to you.  This is all Corornavirus stuff.  As the pandemic spreads, so does the fear.  Not that I want to get that s*** and neither do I blame them for not wanting OTR truck drivers in there potentially bring that virus in with them without even knowing it.  But please. Get rid of the attitudes, we are all in this together, we all have difficulties to face in this crisis, don't act like you are alone in your misery.

Of course I didn't say that to him, I just got up and walked out, got into the truck and texted the group of drivers about everything going on.  Also note: you are not allowed to run your truck while you're forced to sit inside the thing and wait. It wasn't hot this morning, but hot days are here. Sitting in a hot truck without the AC? No thanks.  I'd rather sit outside under a shade tree than sit in a hot truck.

Clarice saw my message to the group and later asked if I was off the rack? Yup. Call me.  She dropped more F bombs and other lovely niceties than I have heard coming from anyone in a while.  She was pissed that they hadn't contacted her about this change and also extremely irritated that drivers were having to sit in the truck while loading explosive material. We can't see if there is something going on at the back of the truck.  That wasn't my concern tho, lol, I just don't want to sit there sweating my ass off the next time I go in there and it happens to be warm and humid. But she went on for 10 minutes, dropping expletive after expletive after expletive, about her disdain.

What's more fun than getting up at 4 am for work? 
Being awake half the night.
First, with stuffed up nose - allergies and then the kid next door.
He decided it was a good idea to come backing in between our houses with
a diesel pickup truck, revving it up and making all kinds of noise.

This is going to be a looooong day. 

Oh, btw? The internet here comes on and off.  Why? Because everyone is at home. 
Everyone is on the internet. 

Lol.  I'm going on the road 4 days, that's all I can say.  Brownsville 2 days and Oklahoma 2 more. 
Got my hand sanitizer, made a bunch of food and likely the roads are still going to be pretty light, even through Houston I'm guessing.  I'll find that out later on - well you know, as long as yet another truck doesn't break down somewhere..

Yea, a bit of a pessimistic mood this morning, probably cause' I didn't get anything even close to enough sleep.  I mean, I got up 20 minutes early because I gave up on it, hence the time to write out a post. I have no idea if I'll be on here again in the next 4 days, definitely not tonight. By the time I get to Brownsville and operating on not enough sleep, my first thought will be to go to bed. 

And I'm only going to check one place for tp down there, the only place I found it last time. But I will try.  James scored a 6 pack at Walmart yesterday. He actually showed up before Walmart opening time - they are all closing now at night to restock and sanitize the store. There was a line of 50 people he said when he got there and then line doubled by the time the opened the doors.  He said by the time he got in there, all the toilet paper was gone - excepting one 6 pack that was hiding in the back.

Hey, at least we aren't going to run out this week. And on the road I never have a problem - the rest areas are always well stocked and the truck stops are usually stocked. 

I"m curious through all of this coronavirus woes going on - people dying, people getting extremely sick - how this will change our society going on in the future after this thing is over?  Will we look at how we interact with each other differently? Will new technologies emerge?  Will society create new social rules that won't go away?  I dunno, just musing. 

But for now? Time to get my stuff out of the fridge and get ready to get out of here.  Taylor is worried she's going to catch this virus and die.  Literally, she is. She has respiratory problems, lifelong version of it.  Jaxon, the 3 year old, has asthma.  Those are not helpful things to have when confronting a virus that attacks your respiratory system.  I dunno what to tell her.  Stay away from people as much as possible, yes social distancing, sounds ridiculous but it's a thing now, wash your hands often, keep your hands away from your face at work and do whatever you can to keep yourself free from it.

Cause' honey, we have 2 cases of it in our little town now and it's only a matter of time before more get it.

I predicted when they first spoke about this virus in China, before it went anywhere else in the world, that the entire world would get this thing, we would all get sick and some of us would die.  Grim prediction, but it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.  People travel to China - lots of people. Even people in this little town, some of them are from China, here studying at one of the local colleges.  I think the colleges are shut down now, I know all of the grade schools are shut down and kids are - whatever the remaining working parents are doing with them.  That's gotta be an additional hardship if you are used to having the school system having your children while you're at work.

I think it's time for us all to get on our knees and seek the Living God and ask for His help.  That's what I think. 

Trip to Oklahoma.
First off, the old "POS" - piece of shit - truck - that's what they called it I knew nothing about this truck - was definitely that.  Smelly, old, falling apart, AC in the sleeper doesn't work, no mattress in the sleeper and other internal things. But the worst part?  Hit about 35 mph? And the front end would start shaking violently. Get up to 50?  It wasn't even funny. The whole thing felt like it was going to bust apart.  I texted the shop foreman about it. Yup, he replied, that's why we're getting rid of it.

They knew about the problem but were having me haul 40,000 net payload of Ethylene.  Was rather shocking, actually.

I thought, well, if it comes apart, I hope it doesn't cause an accident.  But it came to pass after stopping it, that taking off, the next time it didn't do it. So subsequent times it did do it, I pulled over immediately and started from stop.  I decided to get rid of the loaded trailer first and then head over to Oklahoma city. 

After parking that truck in the Peterbilt lot, they brought my truck over to where I was.  I said thanks, I'll give you the keys to this truck after I'm done, I have to move out of this one and into that one.  So getting into my truck, I felt nothing but warm air coming out of the AC.  Huh?  I fiddled with the controls, nothing was working.  Nooooo! It was 92 degrees in Oklahoma City yesterday.  So I drove the truck back to the service entrance and they were like, huh?  Umm, when I brought this truck in here, the AC was working perfectly. 

The man runs into the service area, pulls out the records and notes that they, for some reason, pulled the AC lines off to change out the turbocharger. A service tech came out and was perplexed.  He pulled out the AC machine and said he was going to evacuate all of the freon in the system to see if they forgot to put the freon back in.  He then went on for 10 minutes attempting to figure out why they even pulled those lines off of there.  Had nothing to do with the turbo and there was no ticket for checking the AC system. There wasn't one because there was nothing wrong with it.

An hour later - no, they hadn't refilled the freon, hence the system obviously wasn't working - and I was out of there.  But only to the lot next door, lol. I was out of hours and spent the night there.  This morning, I got up, took the truck a mile down the road to Blue Beacon truck wash and got the thing washed. After that? The oddity.  Rush hour traffic time and  very light traffic. I know, the town is shut down to Coronavirus, but the reality of it sinks in when you see with your own eyes the lack of people going to work.

Several hours later - Dallas - the same thing. Like traffic you would find on Sunday.  Everywhere I got, businesses are shut down with signs out front.  Even a Waffle House was closed. Not open and selling food out the door, totally shut down. THAT is very odd for Waffle House, they are the restaurant chain that stays open during catastrophes. 

AT 2 Loves, they had the soft drink fountains barricaded - literally, I mean barricaded - off to customers.  They had an employee working the fountain. Same with their roller grills.  Even guys after peeing or using the toilet in the restrooms were actually washing their hands! THAT  is an anomaly.  Public restrooms are gross because people use the toilet and come out and walk out without washing their hands.  Even weirder these people will talk on their cellphones while pooping and flushing the toilet.  But the new class of truckers is a lot of nasty people with very little hygiene habits.  So I am glad they had that stuff barricaded.  Keep that nastiness out of there. 

In the Carl's Jr. connected to the Love's in Van, Texas, the manager of the store told people to leave.  They had ignored the signs coming into the store saying "NO MORE THAN 6 PEOPLE IN THE RESTAURANT AT A TIME" and an advisory to stay 6 feet apart from others.  She was short and curt about it. 

Now, a 2 TRILLION dollar bill, passed. I can only say that I think it outrageous that we think we can spend this kind of money - that we don't have, dumping that much more into our debt load and that much more on required interest payments.  Trump is on now reading out a list of stuff the money is going to. I don't support Trump or any of the rest of them in this pork filled bill. The should have done a 1/3rd of that much to start with and related to the virus only.  But whatever, this country will eventually face austerity measures.  It will come to that someday.  All of this just motivates me more to get achieve my goal of having rental properties to sustain me in my old age. 

Anyway, I got back to town at 1:30 pm, got 2 runs for the weekend. Yup, she's been keeping me busy. Obviously I couldn't work without a truck but she's definitely making it up.  A run to Brownsville tomorrow and then a run to Oklahoma on Monday.   I don't know about making it back in Brownsville in 2 days - a lot of times that happens, but definitely not all of the time. 

I always take food with me anyway, but I'm not taking any chances.  4 days on the road coming up? Yea, I'm taking a small refrigerator full of food with me.  Eating junk in Truckstops is better than nothing - that old truck had no refrigerator so I took no food with me - but I'll be busy making food for the road in the next few minutes. 

And finally, the lady in the other house.  She was carted off in an ambulance over a week ago, put on a ventilator in ICU and has been in there ever since.  We aren't related, so they won't tell us what's wrong with her or if she's even going to live.  It's - an interesting - thought that we may all get this virus.  But, I predicted when they first came out with the news that it was in China - hadn't spread anywhere else at the time - that the whole world would get it just like any other virus that passes around everywhere.  And here we are. 

Umm, I think I"m done here. The politics involved with this virus is dumbfounding. People are dying, but both sides are playing blame games and politicizing it.  Shameful. 

Talking to Mark today - seeing how things are going in Phoenix.  Not well. they have caught up to everyone else. Many were boasting how Phoenix is "still good" when everywhere else had stores emptied of most everything.  Not so now.  He was lamenting how he can't get anything, every time he goes to the store everything is gone. 

I asked him his age - I thought he was in his mid 60's.  "I'm 72".  Oh.  Well, you can go to Fry's then early and they have a time set aside for seniors to shop before anyone else gets in there.  I had to get him to understand that most of these stores stock up overnight and then are emptied out early.  I dunno if that's so in Phoenix, but it is here and everywhere else I've been to.  So get over there early!

But, besides Lynnette - they're a couple - her hours cut back to one day a week - 3 of the 4 other tenants are working and one isn't working but collects Guard pay. He goes to college and does national guard stuff.  Arizona has placed a no-eviction status in place. Not that I'm looking to evict anyone, but Mark brought it up.  Please don't tell anyone that, mark. If they are earning the same paycheck they always have been, they should be paying their rent. If they have lost hours or cut off altogether, different story obviously. 

For Mark's sake, I let them off the hook next month for rent. Lynnette was the one lying about the rent payments, Mark knew nothing about it.  She kept him in the dark. Well I"d do it for her too, just because my faith in the Lord.  But it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth thinking about how long she did that and the trust I placed in her.  In Mark's case, I am pretty much resolved that I will be helping him out for the rest of his life.  He'd end up on the streets if he lost the security of my house to have a place to live and live out his old age in.  He's been there for what, 11 years now I think? 10 anyway. I can't do that to people. I'm not like that. 

Note, I wasn't thinking of kicking them out, I got over the Lynnette lying thing already, just the thoughts started running through my head about this dude. He helps people - all over the place. He goes to widow homes and people as old as him to help them out with stuff they can't deal with.  He's not in the best health, but he's not an invalid either.  There's almost $700 on the electric card reader now. That's enough to last into - July actually. Not all the way through July since the heat fires up into the 110's range, but it will get it there.  He takes care of the house too. Keeps it immaculate inside and out, literally.  He's a good guy, I would have to be in a really bad place to think about having to change that situation, such as selling the house. 

But if I can get the other 4 tenants payments next month, it will be fine. 

Well, enough of that. I am going out in an old "piece of shit" truck tomorrow - as my manager described it. I don't know this truck, apparently it's in the yard.  It disgusts me to get into a nasty truck. I've only been told it's a piece of shit and old as the hills.

My plan is to take the loaded trailer to the plant in Oklahoma first and then drive over to Oklahoma city and get my truck.  If I run out of driving hours - and if that truck is that nasty, I will pay for a hotel rather than sleep in a thing like that.  I have standards. They shouldn't even be dealing with trucks that old.  The company makes huge profits, replacing trucks however isn't high on their priorty list.  Every company has it's pros and cons. 

Whatever the case, off to bed. 

Wednesday.  Since I didn't get the Brownsville run, this is 4 days off of work. I actually didn't mind a day or even two, but I can't afford extended time off.  Word is that truck had a busted differential and for whatever reason, they aren't going to fix it right away.  That truck has a brand new engine in it, that kind of decision is perplexing. Is the company sinking financially?  I heard rumors that other divisions lost money last quarter, ours made money hand over foot.

Regardless, I just texted the shop foreman to find out if the truck is done. I need to get back to work, whatever is available, I want it.  Well, some runs I don't really want but right now, I need something to keep the paychecks rolling in.  I spent a chunk of change stocking up the freezers. I didn't leave myself broke but I'd like to get that money refreshed in my bank account. 

Okay, my breakdown pay will save me this week at least.  It's not quite as much as I expected but it's still a good number. 

Ahhh, the truck is finished. Now I need to get my manager to get me up there somehow. Bus, rental car, airplane, I don't care. Well are airplanes even flying now? Well I"m going to get my laundry done before contacting her, if she gets a wild hair to do it right now, that's exactly what she'll do and I have to be ready to go. 

Did I make a foolish investment?  I dumped $200 into a stock yesterday.  It had been tanking for weeks.  Okay, $200 is a mere pittance in the stock market, I'm not ready to start dumping thousands of dollars into one stock based on my very limited knowledge of it.  But $200 is a risk I can accept.  As of right now, it's up over a buck a share from where I bought it yesterday and it is still trending upward.  I'm not day trading. I'm hoping it will get back up into the $12 or higher per share range it was at before this crisis and more than double my money off of it. 

The other stock I got 3 or 4 weeks ago was a foolish mistake, energy was not the stock to get into at the time.  But, since it was a cheap stock to begin with, I've only lost like $75 on it.  Live and learn.  More research is necessary when buying stock than what I did with that one, for after I bought it, I started finding more - interesting - information that would have had me put the brakes on it.  I'll just hold onto that stock, it seems to have hit the floor.  Even if it hasn't, I have no impetus to dump it. Energy will eventually come back up, breaking even on it would be nice at least. 

Well, the stimulus package apparently is going to go through.  So, here we go with 2 trillion more debt, and the ensuing interest payments that must be made on that debt.  I'm still shocked that even conservatives are agreeing with this nonsense.  It may help in the short run, in the long run it's going to bite us in the ass. 

Whatever. My laundry is done soon, then I'll text my interim manager and see about getting up to OKC and getting into my truck and getting back to work. 

Another 75 miles down the road and I could have at least gotten breakdown pay for a day or - well probably much longer but they would have brought me back before then - and get some money out of this trip. Instead, 26 miles out of town, the transmission went out on the spare truck.

I take no responsibility for someone else's shit shifting the gears. Because that's likely what it is and that is very likely the guy that drove the truck before he got fired's doings.  I drove the truck around 1,200 miles before this happened. But, who knows how it looks on me having 2 separate trucks breaking down in a week's time?

Anyway, I made a left hand turn at a light in Henderson, Texas and got a few hundred feet, shifting gears, when the thing went into this loud clunking sound and trucking not moving, clearly coming out of the transmission and clearly - well likely - bearings gone out on a spline and/or broken off gears from faulty driving.

I was pissed.  $1,100 trip down the drain.  I knew what was going to happen.  Another driver would be sent to pick up the trailer and a tow truck to get the truck.  Actually, it was up in the air after contacting my interim manager - Clarice - and her telling me that between drivers off, drivers doing reset and drivers set to do runs tomorrow, that she didn't have anyone.  I don't always believe terminal managers, they have a lot of pressure to keep product moving. But what was I supposed to do? I had already called the terminal mechanic and let him listen to the thing when I put it in gear.

But, Clarice sent a driver that was going to be going on an Oklahoma run down - he arrived quickly, motivated by getting off that horrid Oklahoma run and the prospect of getting more than double the money, he was actually happy about it. I wasn't. I was counting on a beautiful paycheck next week - meaning 2 Fridays from now.

Although I blamed the previous - fired - driver - and yes I still think he brought this about - we are also dealing with trucks with mega miles on them.  I'm on 35 years of driving, I have never burned up a clutch and I have never trashed a transmission.  So whatever happened, was already going on before I ever got in the driver's seat.  I can tell you, with only 448,000 miles on it, the transmission shouldn't be giving up the ghost.

My truck - the one at a Peterbilt shop in Oklahoma - had a bad turbo. I knew that, but it was nice to hear that my analysis was right on. They are fixing it, according to the shop foreman at my terminal.  It's an easy fix in truck mechanics world, it won't take long, I'd like to go up and get the thing tomorrow.  Or the next day at worst.  I dunno, I'll ask Clarice about that tomorrow.

For today? Just sucked that I lost out on that much money.  I might have made $175 at max.

Good news? Krogers in the town where the yard is at? Had some stuff. Milk - for the boys, beef - not alot and limits, but still. Paper/tp aisle empty except for Kleenex, so I got a 4 pack of them just in case. And an abandoned case of water which I quickly grabbed up and put into my shopping cart.  They were sold out in the store of water to the point the water section is filled with Coca-Cola products.  I found it - funny actually - that they had removed the entire egg racks, it was just an empty, rather large, slot in the giant cooler.

We're not going to starve, tho I never expected to.

I had to clean out the spare truck of my stuff today. Just unbelievable.

_________________

Now Monday.

Still reeling at the prospect of losing that much money because of a junk truck.

I have no idea what's next. I mean, I should be getting sent to OKC to get my truck - but I've heard nothing from Clarice. It doesn't matter I guess, the day off will be used to go around to a few stores in town and see if I can find some beef and chicken.  Probably not going to be any toilet paper, but I scored a 4 box pack of Kleenex yesterday, those will work if/when the rest of the supply we have is gone. 

But if I hear nothing about getting my truck back by the end of the day? I'll be texting the shop foreman about whether they finished it or not.  It's  just a turbo charger. Easy access. 4 bolts hold it in, some tubing to have to remove, not a big deal. 

The Dow continues to tank. From a high in the 29,000 range not long ago, it's not in the high 18,000 range. That's a lot of wealth wiped out.  I  wonder if my oldest brother took his money out of the 401k he had going?  He also gets a pension.  Business shutting down. People staying home. Money not being made.  Now the government wants to throw money at us.  A mere pittance of what it will take to survive an extended period of no cash flow, it's a waste of taxpayer dollars and they shouldn't even be considering it. I can see offering small business loans - that eventually has to be paid back.  Other ideas I might get on board with, but a trillion dollar package?

It's going to be interesting to see where we are at in 3 months.  And also interesting how long I will have work - provided I get a truck again of course - and when production in these plants starts winding down.  In my view, it's not a matter of if, but of when.  It's all interconnected, the economy. 

Anyway, it's raining out, but that's not going to stop me from heading up to the stores and at least seeing if some supplies are available.  Maybe it will keep others from going? Lol, I'll find out soon enough. 

The loading plant yesterday had an unusually large number of trucks loading and I was already a late load as it stood.  2:30.  I got there at 2:15 and waiting an hour and a half before they could even get to me.  They were out of product and were making more. But it takes time.  I didn't get out of the plant until 5:00 pm. Faced with the prospect of either driving all night long or - quitting after around 300 miles and just finish today.

But, the way this interim manager is working things, she is keeping me far busier than the previous manager, I figured she'd dump me with a load for this weekend. So I decided to battle the fatigue and drive all night long.  I got to bed "last night" at 5:00 am. I can tell you, around midnight? I'm ready to go to sleep.  I pushed through it, got it done and now sitting here waiting on a trailer to come up from Mexico. Actually, I still have over an hour before I can start driving again anyway, taking my 10 hour break.  6 hours of sleep is all I could manage, going to try and get an hour nap here in a few minutes. 

Yes I'm in Brownsville and yes I decided to try hitting up the stores here again. The HEB store had a hundred people waiting in line to get into the store. The Walmart parking lot was almost completely full. I didn't bother wasting my time at either but I did, finally, find a 6 pack of paper towels!  And James found chicken at one of the supermarkets yesterday - buy as much as you can.  He got $80 worth.  No ground beef was available. I'm half thinking to stop at one of these small town grocery stores on the way back up and see if I can score some meat at one of those. 

All the restaurants are closed to dine in and many of them aren't even letting you in the door. In fact, some of them actually have barricades in front of the doors.  It's drive thru only and truck drivers - can't go through drive thru windows. So I gave up on all of that, but - the Wingstop doesn't have a drive thru window so everyone has to go inside the store to order, fortunately for me, so I got a nice healthy order of cajun seasoned wings.  I have plenty of food with me, I just wanted something hot. My food I have with me will last me through next trip - which will be on Sunday.  It's Friday, I'm hoping to make it back home tonight, get the dogs and get a full day off from work at least.  One can hope! 

Actually, I have a package of liverwurst in my fridge - I'm looking forward to a nice sandwich made with that later on.  That was like the only meat left in the Kroger's I was at the other day 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I haven't had that stuff in a long time, just kind of forgot about it lol.  I'm not starving and likely won't be, just a few extra added inconveniences on the road. I'm still perplexed by all of these drive thru's that basically telling truckers to screw off.  Truckers have LONG memories of getting such treatment.  Not that some of these places give a damn, but there are certain things that some municipalities do, for example, that piss off the trucking community to the point that they start calling for a ban of taking anything into those towns.  You put up enough no parking restrictions in a town for truck drivers to take their breaks? It gets on social media and the next thing you know "I'm not taking anything to that (town, city, state).  Lots of drivers won't even go into California.  It is, by far, the worst state to drive a truck into and drivers just summarily reject loads going into that state.

Not ALL drivers of course, but there is a substantial number of them that refuse to go anywhere near that state. 

And now word that our small town is shutting down as of tonight. That's the deal where restaurants and bars are closed down, save doing curbside food service.  And probably the theater will be closed down as well.  There are several colleges in town, but they've already implemented their own lock downs and severe restrictions on students traveling anywhere and trying to keep them engaging in "social distancing". We don't have any big sports venues in our town.  It's mainly just going to affect the few bars that are in town and all of the restaurants. It was only a matter of time, I'm kind of surprised they waited this long. 

Well, hopefully y'all are faring okay in all of this. I don't know of any place that isn't really being affected by all of this, the restrictions are starting to grow more and more severe.  I think New York was contemplating a "shelter-in-place" decree, California just did that, tho I don't know the specifics.  Been kinda busy today to do much reading of news and it's all the same s*** every day, the only real news is that drug that already exists that may be able to ward off this virus.  Oh, that and some politicians that are raising eyebrows about selling off stocks at the "right" time before the stock market tanked, some straight up in-your-face questions being asked of them. 

It's some strange times we're living in.  I am still perplexed by the hoarding.  I can see people buying up food - but the toilet paper thing is really strange.  I thought it funny  at first - just ridiculous really - but now that the hoarding has crossed over into food - all kinds of food from fresh meats to canned and dry goods - it's not really funny anymore. 

But whatever. We aren't starving and besides bottled water shortage - I really need that for my truck, I keep a case of it in here at all times, not just this virus garbage - I'm doing ok.  No signs of any sickness - yet - washing my hands whenever I can, using the Purell sparingly - I only have a tiny bottle of it.  Keeping my distance from people. Given a warning when I come home that I was going to be sprayed down with lysol - lmao - I replied I'll just take a good long hot shower and clean up well.  I understand them being a bit wary of a person living with them that travels all over the place and potentially exposed to this crap and having 2 little kids that don't need this stuff.  I don't wonder if I should just stay away from the house temporarily - my boss is keeping me busy enough that I could basically live in the truck.

I dunno. Perhaps just isolate myself in my bedroom and keep the kids away from me, that's where all of this stuff gets spread around. 

Anyway, taking a nap and hoping a trailer shows up soon.