Slept til 9:00 am, lol.  I woke up at 5: 00 am and said no no no no noooo, we aren't doing this.  Went back to sleep and 4 hours later I was like, what?  Uhh, got my @$$ out of bed, showered and then drove to the Whataburger for breakfast.

Well, I tried to go inside - I can't park in the online ordering spots they had set up - they are still not allowing anyone inside the store. For whatever reason, Brownsville went well beyond any state measures that were ordered and a lot of local shops are still full bore with it, even tho Texas is opening up. 

Well, I was just going to leave and wait until later for lunch, but a lady came out and said is that your truck over there? Uhh yea?  Well I will take your order here.  Trust me, I wasn't going to raise a stink about them not serving truckers.  Wasn't in the mood for that and not worth the hassle.  It was reported widely of truckers being refused service at the beginning of this virus nonsense. 

So, it was actually pretty cool that they recognized my profession and went out of their way to serve me.  I would have given the lady a tip - but she wouldn't take it. 

Back to the yard, I only sat there an hour before an empty came in. Amazing! It was 11:00 am and there are already bringing an empty into the yard.  I got hooked up, checked the entire trailer out before logging on to the drive clock - if there's something wrong you don't want to waste clock time getting it fixed, it could literally take hours.  Manager was elated. You get to come home! He knows full well I'll gladly wait down there to get that pay, but yes, I was feeling good and ready to drive.  I was leaving the yard and yet another empty came in - I called another driver down there, there's an empty pulling in. He was next in line. 

Houston - I hit there at 5:00 pm.  Yeah, worst time during a weekday.  Busy, but nothing like it normally is, virus must still have people sitting at home - or worse - no job at all. 

I could have driven many more hours after I got back to the yard lol. I was just wide awake, feeling good, let's go!  Send me back to Brownsville! OHHHH, Mapleton is coming back up!  I dunno exactly when, but it's been reported that they are going to start - slow tho.  Heck they may have already sent someone up there. 

Well I'm home, It's late lol.  Almost 1:00 am.  And about time to go to bed, but this Borg episode on Star Trek Next Generation? I'm going to finish watching it. 

Well. 

Tuesday late afternoon.

The company where we drop the loaded trailers wanted the lights fixed on it before they would take it.  My manager called me - on speakerphone - you'll have to take it to Harlingen and get it fixed. Why on earth would I want to do that? It's just lights I can fix them myself.  The mechanic, listening in, offered to order the parts at the local Peterbilt and I could just go pick them up and not have to front money. 

30 minutes later, he calls and says they didn't have the parts, but FleetPride does.  Over to fleetpride. I assumed they were the right parts, they 'looked' like the right parts, but our mechanic is pretty good so I didn't question any of it.

But, that's exactly what I should have done. I should have brought the rubber light holders from lights that didn't get broken so I could match them up.  Yup, I ended up having to back. But, they didn't have the right ones, so I went to another place down the street. They had the right rubbers, but not the right light.  Lol.  So, I went back to Fleet pride to get that light back. I had returned it because it came with the rubber thing to hold the light and I didn't want to have the company paying for duplicate. 

Anyway, back to the yard, but I had gotten the wrong light for the side marker.  Gag. BACK to the store for a THIRD time, but I got it right this time, fixed all the lights and they immediately hauled it out of the yard and to the port crossing.  Well now I know what kind of lights all of them are on those trailers, I won't have to guess again when this happens in the future.  I was very happy to get done with that as it's almost 100 degrees out and very high humidity. Great day for the beach! 

Instead, I went to Wingstop, got 21 Cajun spiced wings and headed over to the local hotel. America's Best Value Inn.  I was going to go to Residence Inn - but their prices went back up after I had found  the price down and I'm not going to pay $179 for a room.  Im not on vacation and it just isn't worth that much money to me. It was disappointing tho, really wanted to stay there.  This hotel is nice enough for the money, which I can assure, is nothing even remotely close to $179 or even the Residence Inn's normal price. 

So here I am, relaxing on the couch, watching TV, perusing the internet and out of that truck.  30 hours in the thing, I had had enough.  A small dent in the amount of detention pay I'll make on this trip, well worth it to me.  Don't get me wrong. There are trips where I'm in that truck over 90 hours, but Brownsville is different, getting paid to sit around and do nothing. And finally, a 2 day layover after the last what, 4 trips down here getting no detention pay at all?  Yes that makes me happy.  Oh an yes, I verified for a last time with the manager of the yard down here - how many more empties coming back today? 1, only 1.  Good, I thought, Joe will take that and I'm getting a piece of this detention pie.

I'm still in awe at how much has happened in the last - very short period of time.  A man is killed by a police officer - of that I am not questioning and it was merciless, brutal, savage and outrageous - but then the whole nation erupts into riots and protests...and then....they now demand to eradicate or defund entire police departments?  I''m not sorry to say that they aren't interested in defunding the police, I'm pretty sure this is a power grab move.  I'm not going to go into that excepting to say that no one in their right mind wants entire police departments. There is more to this story than what we are hearing. Even Joe Biden - a person I wouldn't vote for in my worst nightmare - is saying he won't support defunding the police. 

Soooo....
Late load appointment time yesterday, at least in my book it is. But, it definitely worked out to my advantage. I was the 3rd load coming down to Brownsville yesterday.  2 drivers were already sitting down there according to the manager and 2 more on their way down there.  I get a lot of information from the dude when I sit down in his office and chat.  Otherwise, you get minimalistic replies from him on texting or even on phone calls.

As it stood, I had to go into the office to get the run, he didn't have all the info on Sunday.  He was wasted tired - this particular job being a dispatcher will keep you up all night long on some days.  He clearly wasn't liking it, I'm wondering how long he will last at the position. I've grown to like his style of dispatching, much better than the previous manager, so I kinda hope we don't have to go through yet another new manager,  if he decides to quit.  His wife makes boocoo bucks doing whatever. They have brand new vehicles, bought a brand new pontoon boat, live on a ranch.  I'm assuming his money is just extra and I don't get from him that the extra is all that worth it.

But we'll see.  After I baked my @$$ off in the plant - they still aren't allowing us to come inside the AC conditioned unit at the loading rack, we have to wait in our trucks, not running and hot and humid gag - I started the longish trip down to Brownsville.  I was tired, I didn't sleep well and it was dragging me down.  But I decided to force myself to drive at least 300 miles before stopping for forced break.  Tho I don't really complain about that 30 minute break too much, I usually zonk out for a nap and extend it to 40 or 45 minutes. As long as I can get the trip done that day, they aren't going to care.

I was 6 miles away from having 300 behind me when it happened - again.  This is the 3rd time I've had one of those deficient tire caps come off.  So, something catches my eye in the mirror, I look back and there it is flying all over the highway and cars and trucks slamming on their brakes.  It's a busy highway all the way down. The Interstate they are building there will eventually make it a much nicer, smoother trip without having to go through endless small towns and slow downs and traffic jams excepting maybe Houston.  But that's years away, I'm guessing.  Anyway, this is a "Super Single" tire, it's one of those extra wide tires that takes the place of dualies.  So, the cap is huge.  No one stopped claiming any damage, since I pulled over immediately to see what happened, at least that was good.

Well, sitting on the side of a busy highway with trucks and cars zooming past you only a few feet away going 70-75 is not my idea of fun, and since the tire still had pressure in it, I decided to slowly drive to the next exit and get away from that mess.  You know, this whole idea of having flammable, explosive, volatile cryogenics in the trailer? And the idea of someone not paying attention slamming into it and killing all of us with a huge explosion.  That's not really my idea of a day's worth of fun, thanks.

It took them an hour and 45 minutes to find a service truck to come out.  Why? Because the company wants the same, specific tire on the truck, but, they want it to be a recap.  Well some places might have a recap and some probably won't. No one in a 100 mile radius had one so my company eventually gave them permission to put a much more expensive drive axle tire on there. Like a thousand dollar tire.  It was over 3 hours before I was on my way.

An odd thing happened, tho, while I was waiting. A red Nissan pickup pulled over in front of me.  I was thinking, Hmmm, now what?  Do I get out a club? Or is this someone asking if I need help?  Well, a boy- guessing 16 or 17 years old?  Got out, came up to the truck and started chatting as if we were long time friends. He didn't even ask if I needed help, it was really strange lol.  He had a big smile on his face, nice person, good natured you could tell, I guess he's just the type to - approach strangers to start talking?  I didn't want to be rude to him so I chatted with this boy for at least half an hour.  He was going bowling, he proclaimed and was going to meet his friends there.

Which made the encounter even more odd. Why did he stop, then, if he had a date with his friends? But I didn't ask him that. Lol. After hearing his life story, basically, growing up in that region - which I can tell ya the biggest town around there probably has a couple thousand people - he decided it was time to go meet up with his friends. I bid him a fun time and that was that.

Just one of those things that leaves you scratching your head.

Meanwhile, I was nervously looking at the 14 hour clock. By that time, it was too late, I didn't have enough hours to finish the run - but the guy was working on the tire.  It's a process, they have to take pics of the tire and write down a report before they even begin changing it out.  This to prove to the company that it was, indeed, ruined and needed replaced.  Guessing if it didn't then they come back down on the driver and ask why? Well I can assure you that sitting on the side of the highway, broke down, is not my cup of tea regardless of whether I am getting paid for it or not.  Anyway, there is this feature called a "16 hour exception" that adds 2 hours to your drive clock. You can only do it once per 70 hour reset.  I was thinking, well if I do that, it's going to be 2 am by the time I get down there.

The other side of the brain was thinking - the sooner I get on the detention clock, the more money I make. If I take a 10 hour break before getting down there, I'm shorting myself.  The 16 hour exception won, I drove until 1:30 am, stopped for fuel at the local Love's down here, uhh, the fuel gauge was in the red zone, it couldn't wait until today cause' I would run out of fuel and that's not anything you want to do - got to the yard and got the day over with.  There are still 2 drivers waiting on trailers here, that almost guarantees I will be here until tomorrow. The manager confirmed that as well, I would be getting an empty on Wednesday, I haven't seen them drag 3 trailers in here on one day in a long time.  But it's almost noon and they haven't even gotten a first empty in here, so I'm fairly safe in that assumption.

Later on today, assuming this situation remains as it stands, I"m getting a hotel, jump in the pool, relax and enjoy myself. The detention pay will go up to around $800 if 2 days occurs, the little added expense of a hotel isn't going to hurt anything and I rarely do it anymore.  Brownsville shut their town down when the virus hit and all the restrictions. They went well beyond the state mandates, so there isn't much to do down here besides just go relax in hotel. I'd prefer a nice hotel, that usually what makes it fun, but the Residence Inn? They are listing at $160 to $180!  2 weeks ago they were listing at $70 lmao.  Must be some kind of event going on?   Dunno but I'm not paying that much money for a hotel room.

Interesting. Just like that, overnight, Residence Inn came down $60.  Yes, I was checking yesterday for a room for today, so that's kind of weird.  They have great rooms, quiet, nice, and Monday through Wednesday they have dinner - tho I dunno if they're doing that now with this Covid crap in place.  I might do that.  I don't want to jump too far ahead and counting chickens before they hatch.  I know the manager says there is no 3rd trailer today, but I am not going to do anything until around 3 or 4 this afternoon.  Watching for any trailers to come in for the other drivers, I figure 2 of them will show up at roughly the same time, after that? I'll ask my manager to ensure that I'm not wasting money on a hotel room when a trailer is showing up. They will want me to leave immediately with one the second it shows up.  We go through this busy -not busy at all - routine and right now, for the next few days anyway, we're busy.  He was complaining that he had so many drivers stuck down here that he didn't have enough to cover the loads.  It's like this constantly. We either have too much work or we're sitting 2, 3 and even 4 days. 

I started weightlifting again. Nothing too intense, but my arms and chest have lost a lot of muscle mass after 2-1/2 plus years of not doing the kind of work that kept me in good shape, namely, lifting heavy fittings to load onto pallets and load onto the truck.  That was a pretty active job and that was one of the things I knew I would miss when I was considering quitting the place. This rather high protein Keto diet I'm on will help with rebuilding muscle.  Growing old is not an option, that's just part of life unless you die early for whatever reason. But growing old and weak? Unless you have underlying medical problems that stop you from being able to engage in weighlifting and workout routines, there is no reason to allow your skin to just become flabby and looking like you have zero muscle.

Just that it takes a lot more discipline to force yourself to workout versus a job where you have no choice, it's part of the work description.

Lol, the manager just sent us a text - the 4 of us down here - asking if any trailers had shown up? Uhhh nope. Anymore they don't get here til afternoon or even early evening.  He clearly wasn't happy with that answer but that's the truth of the matter.  His issue is with the customer, but I doubt he gets too cranky with them since they are far and away the biggest customer we have. And it's a different culture in Mexico, they don't do things like we do here. And don't take that wrong, it's not a slur or slam against Mexicans, but I've spent enough time around them both in Mexico and the US to understand that if you say a meeting starts at 3:00 pm, they will show up at 4 or 5 pm.  Same with these trailers, if you ask them when one is coming up and they tell you a specific time, do not take it literally.  It could be hours after that time.

Oh, and now? They want the lights fixed. I did a temporary fix on them, but they went out, looked at it, took pics and declared that the wanted it fixed before they would take it across the border. I find that laughable. They don't care about truck conditions in Mexico, you can be 20000 pounds overweight, have bald tires, leaking oil and air, lights out - they literally don't care.  So now, my manager called and said I need to take the trailer to a place in harlingen.  Like what? It's just a couple of lights for crying out loud.  I can fix that shit myself.  Yes, yes! they were all over that, the mechanic was also standing there and said he's call Peterbilt - a mile away versus Harlingen - 30 miles away - and see if they have them. So, I"m getting off of here because either way? I have to have the trailer fixed. 

In an amazing turnaround, my 401k's - both of them - have increased to the highest I've ever seen them.  Here I was 25 thousand down and now I'm up thousands of dollars more than the highest point either of them have ever been at.  Like, how does that even happen in this economic environment?

My new card arrived. Barclay's canceled my card because of inactivity.  I had totally spaced that card and hadn't used it in at least a year.  I figured to replace the lost credit line - and ensuing credit score drop - by getting another card somewhere else.

Wells Fargo kept offering me a card.  So, I took the offer.  No annual fee, lots of points for spending wherever type of card.  What I didn't realize? It's another American Express card.  Somehow, I thought since Wells Fargo is a bank they were issuing their own card.  American Express will cancel your card in a short period of time if you don't use it.  It's the highest credit line I've ever gotten in a card and that's the only reason i wanted it. In case of extreme emergency.

My credit score went up 13 points after that card was reported to the credit bureaus.

Meanwhile, a run tomorrow back down to Brownsville. And unfortunately a later load time at 10:30 am, meaning it's going to be a late night tomorrow.  Also interestingly is from the forecasts I looked at, the rain from the hurricane isn't going to affect Houston.

__________________

That was Sunday, a pretty lazy day, no one here did much of anything besides listening to kids whining about this and that. 

And watching the news again - for a bit.  This nonsense of defunding the police is the dumbest idea I have ever heard.  If you want chaos, mayhem and death, just get rid of all the police departments.  Better go buy a large amount of ammo if you want to protect yourself!  Ridiculous. Do these people even think about what they are saying?  What kind of society do you want to live in? A handful of progressive social justice warriors are reported on TV and then half the nation falls for it?  De Blasio - moron.  Minneapolis council - idiots.  Even the liberal mayor is fighting this insane idea.  I'm just glad I don't live in any of those cesspools that are going to turn into giant morgues. Minneapolis already has high crime rate, sit back and watch what happens when they get rid of law enforcement.

Maria is finally back from Houston.  But she has a mess to deal with this lady that has a bad attitude one day, a good one the next and fluctuating like a person with bipolar.  I asked her if I could drop the dogs off, but she doesn't check her phone that much, I actually don't care if they stay home as well.  Spoiled babies, they won't like the heat but there's a 100 gallon tub of water out there.  And plenty of shade. 

The talk in the house here - sort of comes and goes - is selling this one and buying property.  I'd be on their land living with them, but I'm fine with that.  I could build my own 2 story loft.  Or whatever I want to do-just save money for retirement and not have to worry about land payments.  But who knows if they are really going to do it.  I just keep bringing the idea up - they want land as well, get away from society, people, stupidity.  I'm going to just keep bringing it up - James is a vet and can get property with a house on it without any down payment.  That's what the allure of them doing it is - but they have to sell this house first. 

I'm off to Brownsville again today - second one in a row. I'm late load I'm really hoping there will be no trailers down there, the extra money would really buffer my paycheck nicely.  2 Brownsvilles a week with the detention pay is all I would need to get very nice paychecks. 

No signs of Covid-19 here - yet.  I'm just basing that off of no one having fevers. Kids are healthy, adults are normal. 

Biggest hope going now is that maria and kim actually do take off to AZ - just to get out of that house and get rid of that headache.  Maria has gotten better about running it and not cranking on people - but it's still a "gee, I wonder if the rent is going to be paid this month or not" scenario.  I mean, it was last year? I think that last time I had to cough up half of a tenant's worth of rent, so it's not been that bad in that realm but it's still a constant nagging thing in my brain. And then all the drama. 

Anyway, time to get out of here.

Happy Day! In the Lord!

So, I was given notice today of a person in the house that is working at a plant where people have now been diagnosed with Covid-19. That's so awesome!  That's ok, I've had a cough which started out with sore throat for over a week and a half now.  Never had a fever tho.  I'm not even in the least bit phased by the news that people James works with has it.  It isn't surprising, it's not a shock to my system and certainly won't come as shocking news that we may all end up with it.

I've lost 8 pounds since going back on thee diet. Blew it tonight.  We went to Applebee's, I had the whiskey burger.  And fries.

And will be right back on the diet again tomorrow.  A little hiccup here and there isn't all that bad.  It gets tiring eating everything low carb all the time.

I went over to the other house today and finally burned the giant pile of branches off. I dumped almost a whole gallon of diesel fuel all over it, might as well have some fun with it.  Woohoo! Flames 15 feet high, heat pushing everyone back 20 feet from the fire.  I got the hose and doused the flames a bit, I didn't want them calling the fire department.

__________________

That was 2 days ago.
A trip to Brownsville in the interim, got home tonight, company came over and pool time. I didn't get in, tho, lol, small pool too many people.  Brownsville was no detention pay, yet again.  This time? The driver that left 3 hours before me got there after I went to sleep in the truck in the yard in Brownsville.

Another driver called me - about another issue - but then informed me he is doing that on purpose so he can get the layover pay.  The other issue? We have a text group going, but more than half the drivers won't participate.  The point of the group? When you go to the plant to load, you give a report if you are loading on time - or if you are being delayed. That way, the next driver can know whether to go to the plant on time or wait to get on the 14 hour clock.

I will be having a discussion about this idea of drivers hiding wherever to get the second load to Brownsville to arrive before them. That's cost me minimum $350 and not the first time it's happened since this new manager showed up.  Not his fault, he's still learning.  But it's costing me and I'm neither happy about it nor will I just take it.  It's around 15k a year of my annual earnings, I'm not just giving it up because some other greedy drivers won't take it when they don't get it. I don't have a problem if there's an empty down there waiting, I hook up to it and leave the next morning.

Meanwhile, the situation at the other house has deteriorated.  The lady that moved in again - she moved to Dallas but the wanted to move back her name is Dee - has a serious attitude problem and has been starting shit with both the other ladies. Maria has been trying to keep her cool.  But it's obviously not going to work out. And after a long texting session with the other  lady - Kim - stated that maria wants to move with her to Arizona.  Kim has to move there as a stipulation to get her share of her recently passed dad's inheritance.  Maria wants to go with her.

Maria, however, hasn't told me any of this.  I mean, I can tell you if that happened? I would be happy to get that house situation ended and over with.  I'll give my friends some money to watch my dogs while I'm gone.  But she needs to tell me - I'm moving to Arizona.  There is a 6 month lease coming up.  Oh, the house is no longer going to be occupied by the family member of the owner.  And frankly, why wait? I'm going to suggest they move there before we have to sign another 6 month lease. I'd really like to absolve myself of this situation and this is an answer to prayer, frankly.

Kim asked if I wanted to go with them? LMAO, no thanks. Lived there 40 years.  I'd move to the mountains - maybe - but nowhere near the Phoenix area.  Kim doesn't want to live in Phoenix either, I'm sure my rendition of living there didn't help her with that.  I suggested numerous small towns going in all directions outside of Phoenix, all the way up to Rim Country.  I LOVE the rim country.

But that isn't even in the cards at the moment, not even a goal, frankly  Living alone in the mountains has it's appeal and at the same time - not so desirable.

Decatur, Alabama.
Got there last night - decided I didn't have enough hours to offload - about an hour and 15 minutes on the clock, takes longer than that on the best of days, at least 2 hours.

Was a good decision.
The whole day was just one thing after another.

1. Security shack.  They didn't know what they were doing.  I spent 45 minutes in there just getting clearance to even get into the plant.  I had to watch a video - which they couldn't figure out how to turn on. So I answered the question sheet - which is based on the video - got them all right but they still wanted me to watch it.  A lady from another part of the plant eventually came and got it on for them.

2.  Ethylene rack.  The manufacturing plant was supposed to email them the COA - certificate of analysis - all plants require it before they will offload.  Over an hour wasted on that.

3.  Personnel had no clue what they were doing. They were literally learning from a manual how to take the product off the truck. That was a bit scary to me.  When they finally thought they had it going, they couldn't figure out why nothing was happening.  That's when I took over the truck - they want to control everything at this plant including the truck, but enough was enough.  "You don't have the valves on the truck opened, I'll deal with that".

4.  After everything was supposed to be fine - they still couldn't get their end of it to work.  They tried to blame the truck, as they did the last trailer up there last week.  Nope, not having it. This trailer is almost brand new, I said, there is literally nothing wrong with it. The valves are open, the problem is on your end.  I finally got them to admit their pump is defective and has a leaking seal. They actually tried to get the manufacturer to credit them for the last load - almost all of it was sent to their flare and burned off.  They admitted they have a leaking seal that stops the product from going to the flare when closed.

5.  After another hour and a half of that, they finally  got their pump to run. At high speed? It would take hours to unload - and it did.

6. After almost 5 hours of that nonsense, I finally got out of there.  Drove 300 miles, stopped for my 30 minute rest break. I was ready for it - all that time in the plant and then 5 more hours of driving, yes, I was ready for a break. When I woke up from my nap, I had forgotten I had not driven under the overpass. I got on the highway headed the wrong direction. Lost 40 minutes on that deal, my fault on that one.

7.  Coming into Jackson, Mississippi, there was a 5 mile long line of stopped traffic.  Stop and go for 45 minutes.  An accident.

8. Got lighted to go into the weigh station down the road from Jackson.  I usually get bypassed.  I knew I was in for trouble when the arrow pointed me to weigh the truck instead of bypassing the scale. They have a weigh-in-motion that determines your weight while you are rolling over it before you get to the scale. I was empty.  Yup, DOT inspection.  Almost an hour of that.  I could have actually made it home tonight if it hadn't been for that everlasting inspection.  Nothing I could do but show the officers respect, say thank you, yes sir, etc.  You will get a failed inspection every time if you give them hell and don't give them the same respect they give you - and yes, almost always, they are quite professional.

On very few occasions, I've given them attitude right back. They start out with authoritarian tones, go to demands and then start condescending and getting rude.  I bite my tongue until they get to the rude part, then I let them have it right back. They simply don't have a reason to be rude when the driver is being respectful and having a good attitude.  Especially our trucks. They are WELL maintained, they don't have leaks, bald tires, broken axles, bad brakes, etc. I accept that I can get pulled over whenever they please to do it, I don't accept the bad behavior.

But that didn't happen today, and after what seemed like an eternity, they brought paperwork back, asked me to sign it - which I did - and then pointed to fields on the paper where management had to sign it and send it back.  Oh, what was wrong? Oh nothing, he said, you're good! Good truck. Thank you sir!  But even if he had written me up for something, I still would have been respectful. They're doing their job and keeping the roads safe from bad trucks with faulty equipment.

And now?  At a giant truckstop well away from any big cities.  I'm not interested in engaging in these riots unless they come to my doorstep, which I doubt it will.  14 hours - and I am wide awake. I could have easily, safely, driven back to the yard.  DOT regulations, one-size-fits-all crap is bs.

To tell you the truth, tho, I don't really care.  The only thing that will happen is I get pushed down the queue for the next run. That's why I'm always trying to get back as fast as possible.  Get back on the road, get the paychecks.  Well I'm also interested in going home, lol. seeing the fam and the dogs.  I consider my friends where I live family now, as they have been calling me family for quite a long time.  The kids call me uncle ben. Yes sir, when they are doing something they aren't allowed to do by the parents' decree and I enforce it.  Mama says they like me more than them lol.

Okay, well, just watching the news at this point. These riots aren't going away.  Until these mayors that are refusing the help from the National Guard get to the understanding that their cities are going to be completely destroyed if they don't do something different than what they are doing - ie: call in for help that's already been offered to them - this isn't going to change.  Our nation is under attack.

What happened to the virus?

I looked on the door camera today - kids bikes haven't moved in days.  I took them around the circle the other day - walked the dogs while they rode their bikes. I'll do it again tomorrow after they get home time permitting.

Tomorrow, after I get back which should be late morning, I will be heading over to the other house. Maria is in Houston with her son and his wife and new born.  The remaining ladies are going at it throat to throat.  I'm going to show up with dogs, diesel fuel and a beer or two, go out back, douse the huge pile of tree branches that have accumulated on the burn pile and light'er up.  And then, we can discuss living together as mature adults and with respect, one to another.  The neighbor across the street witnessed one lady bullying the other, and the other not backing down. When I arrive, there will be the bully's kid and her kid's kid there.  This isn't going to be entertaining or fun, hence bringing the dogs and burning the woodpile that one of the ladies is complaining about.  Well disclaimer here: if I get back too late, I'm not going over there and I'm not dealing with this. It can wait until Thursday.

Boat. I want my boat!  Ugh. Beautiful boating and fishing weather right now. I could easily spend half a day out on a lake and just forget about all the garbage going on right now.  It could be weeks before they get the parts : (

I need a vacation.  NO, not a stay at home vacation, something away from home. Relaxing.  Entertaining. Rejuvenating.

So, now the nation - in big metropolitan areas anyway - is in chaos, violence running rampant, a mayor that decided to leave an entire precinct abandoned of any LEO and the ensuing looting, violence and chaos.

Meanwhile, the virus lockdowns are still engaged. Loosening up still existent.

What does this spell out for the nation?  IMO, permanent joblessness for millions of Americans who were gainfully employed before either of these 2 scenarios unfolded and ensuing poverty.  If businesses are shut down permanently, who is going to employ these tens of millions of people? Probably not all of those businesses are permanently shuttered, but enough reports of swaths of small business and even larger corporations shuttering their doors forever is a gruesome prospect.

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Boat.  Called them, they said they took a "peak".  Said putting on automotive plugs and wires was wrong and that they don't work with the kind of setup the motor has.  Ok, I didn't put them on there but I get what they're saying. Boat wires are apparently made of different material internally to carry the spark better.  They ordered a whole new set of wires and plugs and then said it is taking up to 28 days to receive parts because of the virus.

The virus, the virus, the virus. I am sooo sick of this virus nonsense.  Everywhere you turn, you find something affected by it.  Hurry up and wait on the boat.  But they only ran the engine with a water hose, I want them to put the motor under load, which I assume they will and see how it does. Under load meaning in a pool of water to see how it does with the backpressure.  At least the motor has good compression.

Work.
Other drivers are starting to get hot under the collar with how loads are getting handed out with this new manager.  It is true that one of the temporary drivers is getting mostly Brownsville runs with a few Oklahoma's mixed in.  It's always this way when they bring in an outside driver.  They get the gravy runs and everyone else is still stuck with the garbage runs that no one wants.  Mostly because of the pay.  The company doesn't force them to learn how to unload the trailers so they just get a pass.  That driver will probably become permanent and then what.  Well, if history is any indicator, it will be years before they force him to spend the half hour to hour it takes to learn how to unload the thing.

The other driver who claimed he would only take high paying loads was shut down by the manager, now that I heard the full story.  "You are mistaken if you think you're only getting the good runs".  But, the manager can be over-ridden by his manager, of whom this driver is friends with.  The real story? Who knows.

Another driver - who is currently "Texas only" per some problem with his driver license, is also getting a dose of reality.  He got his way for years - taking the good runs and shunning the bad stuff.  That was with the previous manager who kept saying he wasn't getting preferential treatment, but everyone knew the truth, she could lie all she wanted, that didn't change the fact he was always on the road, 90% gravy runs, rarely in the yard waiting.  Now, he's 3 and 4 days in between runs, not getting the Brownsville run that he always does when he wants it.  He used to be able to pick and choose which runs he would get. And he's complaining bitterly about it.

Welcome to the rest of us real life in that company.  That driver hasn't even been there as long as several other drivers who were getting the shaft in getting more undesirable runs than good.

And then, the revelation came out 2 days ago that yet another driver had told the interim manager - the manager they put in charge after ours was let go and before this new guy showed up - that he has asthma and "higher risk" and didn't want to do anything but Brownsvlle and Oklahoma runs.  Mostly Brownsville.  His close friends - 2 other drivers there that have known each other a long time and go way back - didn't know he had this arrangement until one of them somehow found out about it.  The further revelation came out that this driver? Is a chain smoker.

I see this stuff, shake my head and say nothing to the new manager about it. He's already gotten a bit hot under the collar with other drivers saying things to him about how the runs are being handed out, I'm not going to get involved with that, at least not for now.  Another driver was fired last week.  The story was her truck smells bad.  Lol, that's not why she was fired. She takes twice as long or longer to do the same amount of driving as most anyone else. She doesn't arrive to appointments on time.  She holds up the customer and they get upset.  She was going to retire this year, but she only had until November I think before she would have jumped up into the highest slot for SS payments you can get.  It's unfortunate for her, but she did nothing to remediate the problem.  She stops everywhere, she takes 14, 15, 16 hour breaks when her 10 hours is up.  I feel bad for her that she got axed just before she was going to retire, that's all I can say about it.

Anyway, the reason I'm not saying anything to him is because good jobs are not easy to find right now.  All of these drivers complaining could have it a lot worse if they were driving elsewhere, or worse, no job at all and attempting to find one.  These people either don't realize this or are turning  a blind eye. We are still making decent money, some paychecks are kind of lean, others not so bad.  The virus is shutting down the economy, the fact that we're still semi-busy at all is wonderful news for me.

With that, I'm headed to Decatur, Alabama tomorrow.  The load time is 6:00 am?  Meaning I have to be there at 5:45 am.  I dunno what's up with that, first load never starts that early. Perhaps they have more loads and have to start earlier?  I dunno, but I'm not getting up at 3: 30 am to get started with the day.  This afternoon, I'm finally getting a haircut after almost 3 months of not having one, in the town where the yard is, and then I'm just going over there to spend the night.  I mean, starting that early is not necessary for that run,  the only requirement is to make it to the town where the plant is that same day and then go the next morning and unload and drive back. So, I'll arrive tomorrow afternoon and have to wait something like 14 hours for  unload time.

I dunno, but I already have the truck hooked up to that trailer, which is a plus. hooking up at night time isn't much fun, especially early in the morning when you're already tired and don't want to have to deal with it and triple checking everything because you are tired and you don't want any mistakes. The worst of which is having an improperly coupled trailer and having it fall off the truck when you start pulling out.  2-1/2 hours from now 4 of us headed to a hair stylist to get our hair done, when I'm done there I'm just going to go get a nice steak dinner, head to the yard and relax for the night.  Or, I guess I could just go with them and come back and leave later.  I dunno, guess I'll make that decision when we're leaving.

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What was this morning. We actually did end up driving to Longview to get hair cut/trimmed. I had half a ton of hair - 3 or even 4 months worth of it - removed from my head.  Felt really good to get that off of me, it was getting annoying and it was getting quite hot.  My hair is thick, it holds heat in.

After that we all met at Bubba's 33 - the babysitter drove from the other town with the boys as well.  Welp, the 5 year old is extremely attached to me for unknown reasons and decided he was going to sit next to me the entire time.  We had to get 2 tables because of the ongoing coronavirus restrictions they still have in place anywhere.  The table we sat down at before the rest got there - Taylor and I were there first - was huge and big enough for everyone.  The place was busy and it is a wonder how they believe that a virus isn't going to spread because - we aren't all sitting at the same table? 

Staff all forced to wear masks, I can't imagine how uncomfortable that must get wearing one for that length of time. I wear a mask here and there, depending on where I'm at and what I'm doing. 

Oh, I'm at the yard.  I finally decided that going home and getting up an hour and a half early with such an early load wasn't going to cut it. So I came to the truck, got it fired up and cooled down - it is quite warm here today.  I would have liked more to stay home tonight with my doggies, but they'll survive and I'll be better off without being dead -tired tomorrow.  Even being here and shaving off alot of time I'm still going to have to go to bed in 45 minutes to get a good night's rest.  It's only 8:00 pm lol.

Well it's almost 3 pm and I haven't heard from the manager about a run for tomorrow, so I'm going to assume that it isn't going to happen. He doesn't deal with this the same as the old manager did.  He gets the runs out much earlier - something I very much like - easier to prep for a run when you know well enough in advance how much time you're going to spend on the road.

I have really no idea what's going on with runs and the schedule.  I got back in after he had left the office yesterday.  We're still being held in our trucks at the loading plant - and if that continues much longer, we are all going to be frying like roasting chickens in an oven for the temps have been going up.  I really don't see how they make us wait in a truck that is shut off and no AC when it's 90 plus degrees outside with high humidity.  I'll get out and stand under a tree, thanks. Anyway, if I knew what the schedule was I could have a guesstimate of how long it will be before my next load.

Paychecks will start showing the last few weeks of nothingness.  Vacation hours taken for this week, 2 runs on the books for next week - but the first one was less than 400 miles.  All the gains I have made in recent times will just evaporate into thin air.  Oh well.

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Getting up early to take Maria to the Amtrak station.  She is headed to Houston for the C-section of her first grandchild, scheduled for Friday if I recall correctly.  I dunno what's going to happen over there, the other 2 ladies are at each other's throats. The one just moved in, she just got dumped by her mate, the other is cranking about the fact that the new one doesn't do her share of the work around the house  It won't surprise me if one of them is moving out by the time Maria gets back. Maria has been playing intermediary. But hopefully the one that promised to take care of her bird and dogs will stay.  If not, all of that animal burden will end up over here until Maria gets back.

As for me, I pulled a muscle in my leg attempting to race a 5 year old.  Yup, I didn't stretch and therefore, I am now paying for it.  It's rather painful, I must admit.  Ice, I know, but it's on the back side of my leg, just below my butt, just going to go to bed and hope it will feel better in the morning.

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Didn't feel like starting another post.  So, it's now Thursday morning, took Maria to the train station, she got word on her way down there - well she's still enroute - that the baby was delivered. Baby boy, 6 pounds, 4 ounces.  So she's all excited, happy, tears of joy, etc.  I'm happy for her, especially getting a break from that house and getting out of there for a while.  Especially in a house with 3 ladies.  They all go at it at times.  It would have been nice to get a male in there, but there were none to be found, at least not during the times we were looking.  Maria will have to figure out how to come up with the extra $100 per month tho.  The owner of the house isn't backing down - tho if we were to move out I doubt he would find anyone to take that house for that much money.

I've been watching rentals in this town and alot of them just sit there - seemingly forever - too small and over priced. The same true with this house.  But we have no where - yet anyway - to move to.  And moving costs.  Switching the services isn't free and moving everything I could do with some help, but still it's a lot of work and free time spent.  I haven't actually made my mind up yet - but I will soon because we are going to be getting down to the wire once we get into June.

Meanwhile, my kabob skewers are going to be great today! I hope anyway lol.  Marinated chicken, beef and cajun seasoned shrimp with tomato chunks, pineapple squares, seasoned mushrooms, onions and something else I can't remember right now. Last time I made them they disappeared with only a couple left over. But since Taylor wanted 3 meats on them, there will be a lot left over - which is cool because I'm going to Oklahoma tomorrow and would like to take at least a couple of them with me.

Okay. Taylor won't want anything on hers besides the meats and mushrooms. Everyone has their tastes lol, I like different flavors on the skewers and some vegetables are necessary IMO for that effect.

Brownsville trip uneventful.  I was the first load down there since the shutdown I found out this morning.  Strange they only had one empty trailer sitting there. I'd think after all this time they'd have a yard full of them.  Well whatever, hooked up to it this morning and got back up to  - well almost the yard when my my manager called.

Hey what's up! he asks. Oh, just finishing out the run.  Oh, are you on the road? Yes. What run?

I'm coming back from Brownsville? lol  Okkkkk, the dude is new, he doesn't have this all down yet. 

Oh, well never mind.  Uhh - not knowing what he needed - "I'm 20 minutes from the yard".  Ohhh, ok, well someone bailed out on doing a run tomorrow, but you are way back in the line". 

Okay, I replied, I like to treat drivers fairly so it's no problem.  He started to go into how I was one of his best drivers and that customer service is more important - and then he cut himself off.  That was interesting.  But not anything new.  We have several drivers that are on their own schedule, they used to get away with whatever - taking their time basically, stopping all the time, not getting to their destinations when they are supposed to. 

The problem, of course, is that the customers have time windows when they want the product there. People taking 14 hour breaks instead of 10, getting to destinations 8 hours late -etc - doesn't make customers happy. 

Well I didn't get the run, of course, he found someone up the line on the queue for getting the next run.  So I dunno when I'm going out again, didn't ask, it is what it is. 

Home.  Maria is going to Houston on Thursday.  C-Section coming up for son's wife's baby.  They wanted her to be there.  She has no intended return date - the son told her they'd figure it out.  So any runs coming up my dogs well be at home - out back during the day and probably getting into trouble lol.  But it's fine, James will take care of the dogs. 

Tomorrow: No clue.  But I just thought - best go out and get some food out of the freezer and defrost.  Taylor has been wanting a replay of the kabobs I made a while back - but not with just chicken.  Chicken, steak and shrimp. Yea maybe, just one package of frozen shrimp, have the beef and chicken already.  She doesn't want anything else on them, but on mine and James? Put some mushroom, onions and bell peppers. That's going to be quite a bit of kabobs tho. 

I was actually thinking ribs tomorrow tho.  Grilled - slow cooked like I used to them.  Not smoked this time.  Get them nice and tender with a nice texture and then coat them with BBQ sauce.  Yessssss

Well, tomorrow, I do believe I'll take the trailer to a tire shop and have the tire fixed. We loaned it to a couple that needed it to go to Dallas and get a commercial sized refrigerator.  For what? I have no clue, a 3 person family, but that's none of my business. I just saw that one of the tires was flat - must of picked up a nail or something on the way, the tire isn't destroyed.  And since that trailer will be out of the way,  a LOT of leaves there. And probably snakes.  Unless the rain continues, I'll likely clean all of that up.  Oh yes, every time I've cleaned that area out, I've run into Copperheads. 

Yea, I'd love to go boating tomorrow...and now that I have a fishing license, throw some rods over the side and go fishing as well. 

Well, that's it for today!

Day...3? No Day 4 of this stuff.  Stuff being nana here and kids - now getting on daddy's nerves and he was spanking them earlier, telling them he's had enough and will just spank them if they continue to ignore him.  Kids woke me up this morning, much earlier than I wanted to wake up with them running around the house making all kinds of noise.  I should have thought about it last night and set up my box fan next to the bedroom door and turned up on high.  That will sufficiently drown out the noise and allow me to sleep in. 

100% chance of thunderstorms today, according to the forecast. The forecasts, however, are notoriously bad about accurately predicting the weather in these parts.  I don't really believe them anymore.  Just look at the weather radar and figure out if there might be rain or not.  If the radar is accurate, then we are in for one heckuva storm around 4:00 pm.  Last night we were discussing just getting the generator out.  High probability if there is a thunderstorm, there is going to be a power outage.  Yesterday morning, the power went out momentarily during the thunderstorm that had developed, but, it came right back on and amazingly stayed on after that. 

But I don't know.  I think we can just wait and see.  If the power goes out, we might get a bit wet getting it out of the shed but I'd rather leave the thing in there versus pull it out and have to put it back in. The thing weighs over 200 pounds.  James tore down the rotten ramp into the shed, it's about 3 feet up off the ground. I have ramps for my trailer that we can use to get it out, but we just lifted the thing up in there last time.  There's lots and lots of thieves around here, we don't have a camera in the back and it would be easy for a thief to just come back there and take the thing.  I suppose it would be easy to break it out of the shed, but at least they'd have to understand that it's actually in there and go to the trouble of breaking the lock off.  There is a dog - their dog - back there all day long.  It's a small, scraggly thing that I doubt would scare many people, I'd really like to get a camera back there for asset protection. 

Between a 4 wheeler, a freezer full of meat, the brand new generator, a $500 Oklahoma Joe's grill and other things, I think the $5 per month for continuous recording on a wireless camera would be worth the money.  The problem is that thieves will come up the creek behind the house.  Since there's a chain link fence, they are protected from any dogs before trying to make any moves.  Now if Addler is back there, thieves will think twice.  Unless they are going to try and poison or shoot him, they will get bitten if they try to come into the yard.  I know, Addler is a big old goofy, loving dog. But when it comes to his property, he will defend it.  He has the right, private property, fenced off. 

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Sunday. Raining.  A couple of hours before I have to go to sleep.

Called my son and wished him a happy Birthday, fortunately  he had a few minutes to talk, we don't do that very often anymore, we mostly text.  Hard to wrap my mind around having a son that is 27 years old.  His life is currently going well, from the sounds of it. He has one class left he needs to take to finish his degree in college.  He said he has excellent credit and they almost have enough saved to buy a house.  And he's been writing a book! I didn't know this at all!  6-8 months he figured he'd been working on it  A fun work, he described it as, I can't wait to see what he has come up with.

Anyway a pleasant conversation. 

Today was spent watching kids screaming about getting into a swimming pool.  Digging out a large hole for the other rose bush - yes I got that done, mostly cause' Taylor wanted it done, lol. The lady of the house pretty much gets her way haha.  Foot races,  playing catch, lots of chatting, taking it easy other the rose bush - tho James helped this time. Dig, find tree roots, he took a spade and cut them out. Dig some more - more tree roots.  No wonder the other roses we had planted there died out  Bad soil, loaded with tree roots. 

Yesterday's 400 miles was good for helping me start to get back into work mode.  My Keurig machine arrive today - a small one I bought for the truck. Countless times I've been in situations where coffee? Not available. have to get up, get on the clock and drive down the road. Or in Brownsville, if I stay at the yard, I have to drive up to the trucstop to get it.  Not the end of the world, but I really want that first cup shortly after I get up.  I already buy K-cups for my Keurig at home and Ollie's sells the varieties I like at much reduced pricing.  I always carry bottled water, so I have everything now to just make my own coffee. Oh yes, and I always take heavy cream with me, it's part of the Keto diet, load it up with fat filled cream, drink, lose the weight, done.

These companies and their packaging. This thing comes in it's own box. It's then put into a larger box. A box in a box.  Waste.  And then, it's filled with - usually plastic bubble wrap but this on was unusual.  It had a ten foot long "thing" of brown paper tubing.  I have never seen it before.  Paper versus plastic.  Not a fan of this disposable plastic junk. It's filling the world with waste.  I'm not a tree hugger, but plastic everything needs to go.  We don't need plastic bottles, plastic fillers, plastic endless.  The floating islands on the oceans got me to thinking about that.  Especially the island that they estimate is the size of TEXAS floating out there. 

Oh, and a charging cord I ordered.  I received a box big enough for a laptop computer. I opened that up to find another box inside of it. Inside of that box was the box the cord came in?  What one earth are these people thinking? 

Anyway hopefully I'm mentally prepared enough to get back into the work mode. These long intervals off I never like at the beginning because I know what it does to my psyche. And then, when I'm off too long, I don't want to go back to work. Okay, call me a whining baby, it's just the way it affects me.  I'll be good tomorrow - about 300 miles into the trip lol. 

Finally, the rain. It's nice actually to hear the rain falling.  Some sort of comfort or peace comes from it.  Tranquility?  Whatever it is, it's all good for me. 

Time to make a bit of food for the road tomorrow and go to bed.

So the house has gone to hell.

There isn't really any other way to put it.

When grandma comes, the kids - get away with everything, want everything, break house rules, engage in continuous whining, crying and complaining, don't sleep well, then get even more ridiculous.

Compounding the problem is she hasn't been here in months - coronavirus - no can do.  It came to a boil a few minutes ago and I decided my bedroom was a good place to be.  Mama is angry, papa is caught in the middle and grandma - well it's all good I guess.

Now, mama said no pool, the kids are crying, the pool is covered back up and - it's whatever to me.  I don't care if anyone goes swimming or not.  She - made some remarks and went into her bedroom and that was that.

Although some shape and form of this happens every time she comes here - grandma - this time has been particularly bad.  Whatever the case, that was last night.  Mama was pissed, said a few things to me in whispers - not happy things tho nothing about my actions since I was no part of any of this - and went off to her bedroom.

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Okay, well today, Saturday, was supposed to be the first day the plant fired back up.  I was rather surprised to get to the yard and find all truck there.  All the driver's trucks and all the spare trucks.  How is the plant back in operation and none of our trucks at the plant loading? This is why I bit my tongue the other day when he sent me a Monday load - when i was originally scheduled to get back to back Brownsville loads starting today.  I get far more information from the manager if I'm in his office and chatting.  Then he apparently feels compelled to spill the beans - all of it.  So, maybe we aren't getting any loads until Monday? I have no clue. 

I have the 3rd load Monday.  Normally i would think, cool, there is a high probability of getting overnight detention pay. But since we're just firing back up? Nope.  There should be a yard full of empty trailers sitting down there.  How do we get ahead? Well, if we get down there and there are empties, we leave after the 10 hour break. That will happen until all empties are gone and they aren't, as normal, keeping up with it. Then we start getting the layover pay.

Today's run was uneventful. I didn't sleep worth a crap last night, woke up at midnight and got to sleep somewhere between 3 and 4 am.  I turned the alarm off, if I do get back to sleep, I don't care when I wake up, the run today is a short one, I'll get home today regardless.  What woke me up today?  Extremely loud thunderclaps.  Major storm with pounding rain.  It was 7:00 am.  I dragged myself out of bed, got the Keurig machine fired up, got in the shower, let the water run and wake me up, a cup of coffee, force the dogs out the back door. Addler wanted nothing to do with it, Aspyn was already trembling with fear from the thunder.

But I wanted them to go pee, please.  I don't know if they did or didn't. I left them out there until I got my other stuff done and let them back in, put them in my room and asked James to please deal with them today.  He likes my dogs, thankfully, so it was no problem. 

I got to work, dragging.  Just told myself, it's only 400 miles today.  Half of it will have no trailer attached and I am going home today.  Well, my old church showed up on Facebook with a Zoom meeting.  Not a meeting, but prayer and bible verses.  Zoom is both ways. You see them, they also see you.  I mean, what I'm doing shouldn't make any difference, if they don't want to see it, don't look at it.  What I was doing was driving the truck, shifting gears, looking in mirrors, looking at the sites going by but also listening to everything.  This is a huge church, was interesting there were only 27 other people online for it.  It was funny when the pastor, at the end, made mention that the format works - literally wherever or whatever you are doing, referring to what I was doing lol.  He wasn't complaining tho.

I got down to this itty bitty yard  - hadn't been here before, the trailer I was hauling as a methane gas trailer - dropped the trailer and decided to take an extended nap. No time limits here, there was 9-1/2 hours left on the 14 hour clock and plenty of drive hour.  Sleep did not come quickly, for whatever reason, but it did finally happen and I felt much better after that. 

Back to the yard, all the trucks still there, back home.  Nope, they didn't go swimming today either.  They bought this pool what, a week ago at least?  But I imagine she was still unhappy.  Well, I know she is.  After Monday, the house will get back to normal after nana leaves, but the kids will take a while.  I'm not saying she's a bad person, but whatever happens when she comes?  Those kids get very different attitudes - mostly bad attitudes.   They are cranky, they don't sleep well, they get petulant and don't want to listen.  A week or more of "recovery" has to occur before it actually gets back to normal.  I hung out with the peeps for several hours, but I decided to hibernate to my bedroom and chill.  Dogs chilling with me : )  Addler is zonked out, I dunno what he's been doing all day lol.

No agendas for tomorrow. Some things I'd like to do. Plant the second rose bush, the first one is in the ground.  Clean up the side of the house - natural disaster.  Clean up the firewood pile. Take your pick, I'm not doing all of them, lol, I may not do any of them if the weather gets as bad as the forecasts say. But, it's really hard anymore to believe any forecasts around here....

With that, watch a bit of TV - no news - and go to bed.

Being exceedingly bored with the internet, sick of the endless political war over the virus and generally wanting to do something else, I spent the entire day working around the house. The list was rather long.  Wash the kitchen rugs, wash my dog bedding and rug, clean the kitchen, smoke a brisket, mow the front lawn, pick up piles of sticks from the giant tree out front that have accumulated everywhere, get out the pressure washer and begin cleaning the exceedingly dirty driveway.  Mixed in a run the coffee shop, took a drink to Taylor at her work, went to Walmart for a 3 wheeler for Jaxon - he's the 3 year old, gets quite unhappy about the 5 year old's bike because isn't capable of riding it yet.  Put that together as well. Didn't quite expect heavily part laden project to put it together, but that's what it was.

I didn't get that together until tonight, Jaxon was in bed before I got it done, he can try it tomorrow. Phoenix - the 5 year old - got on it instead and was riding it in the dining room.  Grandma showed up today and is apparently staying until sometime next week. Grandpa is coming after work on Friday.  It's always interesting when they are around lol.

Anyway, I felt much better about spending the actually doing something than just sitting around watching TV or browsing the internet. That gets boring after  a while and I've been off 8 days now with allegedly 2 more to go.  My alleged schedule is working 4 straight days with 2 Brownsville trips and yes, working through yet another holiday.  But after being off work so long, I will be ready to hit the road and get some trips going for paychecks.

Speaking of that, the company sends me a run down of the trips they're paying me for and what is being paid for what.  Noticing that an entire Brownsville run was missing, I contacted payroll via email. She replied that there was no such run and no paperwork.

Lol, okay.  I contacted my manager and gave him the trip number.  He came back 2 hours later and said there is no such run, no such run in the system, no paperwork and you didn't turn it in.

The hell I didn't.  I never leave the yard after a trip without turning in the paperwork before leaving. I want to get paid for it, sitting on paperwork does absolutely no good.  I distinctly remembered turning in that paperwork because there were so many anomolies with it.  Being told to wait for a trailer even tho there were empty ones there. Then being told 2 hours later to take one of the trailers to Baytown, TX to a repair facility. The loading plant - the pump wasn't working and I was almost 5 hours there.  There was extra pay associated with that trip, it stuck out in my mind.

So it was whatever to me. "Someone is going to have to research this and find the paperwork".  No reply from my manager.  I then sent him the dispatch he sent me when I got that run.  I was prepared to send all the subsequent text messages, but I figured that should be enough.  Hours later, he finally replied he had found the paperwork that he originally said didn't exist and was working on getting it onto my next paycheck. Yes, please and thank you.  Just a bit disconcerting to have 2 people in the company tell you the trip number didn't exist and the run never occurred.  Lol, OKKKKK. What it tells me is the new manager probably screwed up. I mean, all's well that ends well, so no particular biggie to me, this kind of thing has been happening since I started working there - tho never to the point of being told the trip number doesn't exist lmao.

No word on the boat, I'll start getting impatient after 2 weeks. Then I may call them. After a day in the shop, my SUV engine light came back on.  Okay, I spent good money getting this fixed, now I have to take the thing back? gag.  It's running fine, but that light irritates me. I spent over $500 to get rid of that light.  It means something is wrong.  I may just go to Autozone tomorrow and have them hook up their computer and see if it gives any codes.

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Friday. Presumably last day of "vacation".  Can't say I'm ready to go back to work now. Just the way it is, when I'm off work too long, I usually don't feel like going back.  Much better to keep busy.

Okay well I just found out that the plant is reopening tomorrow - but that the Brownsville run canceled 5 loads.  But, there were still 5 loads going.  I've been off work the longest, I should have gotten the first load going out, instead, he's got me doing Brownsville on Monday and asking if I can take an empty to Conroe, Texas tomorrow.  Well I can, I thought, but why am I not getting one of the first Brownsville runs to go out?  I didn't ask him that, I dunno if he forgot that I was off that long or if - other things I won't mention. Just won't go there unless evidence arises to back suspicions. 

Tuesday.
Was going to smoke brisket today, but the lady gave me a frozen brisket so i guess we'll do that tomorrow.  I want to start early and cook it around 200-225 for however many hours - probably at least 12 - to get it to the falling apart with a fork mode.  The price of food is rising - that was predictable and coming to pass.  Ground beef is up several dollars per pound - the meat supply was disappearing around here but now it's slowed way down after the rising prices.

Supply and demand.  I was at least happy to see that the toilet paper chaos appears to be over.  Cleaning supplies with bleach - Lysol especially - is still a rare find.  This cattle ranch has higher prices, but that's to be expected for quality cuts of meat.  I wouldn't want to have to rely on them solely for meat.

Texas is every so slowly reopening, but we're far from being out of the woods.

Anyway, my vehicle is running great, the engine lights are off, the bill was $536 so I'm as happy as can be considering spending even more money on that thing.

_______________________

Mark called from the Phoenix house.  We got into a conversation for short period of time and then? He informed me that Lynnette left at the beginning of April.  What?!!!  Mark takes care of the house, Lynnette went off to work. Lynnette paid their portion of the rent - quite modest at $250, mark took excellent care of the house . Now what.  Mark has no income.  He can't work. He's 72 years old.  He's dealing with the house, but he's in fear of losing his situation.  He dumped $700 onto the card reader last month, unbeknownst to me until he said he had and I just checked and yes, it's all good.  There's enough on there to last until somewhere in August, maybe even September. 

So, he's basically paid up 3 months of their portion of the rent in advance.  He then went into worrying about getting everyone to pay rent. But lengthy discussion came to the conclusion that those that were put out of work are all receiving the $600 per week stimulus from the government on top of the state unemployment.  They are well saturated with funds to take care of their living situation.  So what? He's broke.  Lynnette used to give him money for his projects and things.  Not exorbitant but it's money.  His work around the neighborhood has fallen off because - of course - the virus. 

So what now?  I dunno.  Give him rent free living for the next 3 months, sure.  But do I go further with it.  Probably  At least give him $100 to keep out of the rest of the rents collected to help him out a little bit.  Crunch the numbers, see what I can do to help him.  I need the house to pay for itself.  I don't need him to fall out into the cracks and end up on the street somewhere. THAT is undoubtedly what he's worried about. I speak highly of him because he really is a man of moral character.  He did some things in his life that got him into a bad situation, but that was decades ago.  People change. Things people did a long time ago and have obviously changed their ways shouldn't be held against them, for the most part anyway. 

I'm going to do what I can to help him, that's what I can say. I wish I could start a go fund me for him, but I doubt it would go anywhere, especially in this financial climate. 

The other "news" that came today was that the grandmother is coming here - tomorrow. She hasn't been here in months, she lives hundreds of miles away.  I mean, there are things that happen when she comes here. First, she tries to take over the entire household.  Her way.....

Second, she spoils the hell out of the kids.  They become infected with the idea that they can act out and do whatever they want. I completely resist that nonsense and if I'm around, those kids aren't getting away with the nonsense.  3rd.  The kids get spoiled to the point that when she leaves? It takes a week at least for things to get back to normal.  In a normal situation, the kids GO to grandma's house. What happens there? Is whatever.  When they come back, the normal rules still apply. 

We had a discussion about that today as Taylor invited me to Chili's after she was done with work today.  We're friends, let's get that clear. Yes we all live together, but we are just friends. It doesn't go beyond that, in case anyone reading this starts wondering.  After she told me grandma is coming, I also observed the exasperated look on her face.  It's all about the granny's effect upon the household.  She can deal with it for a couple of days, after that, it's too much. She is coming from tomorrow - Wednesday - until at least Sunday.  Lol.  Taylor is not in love with the way she treats the kids and the last time granny was here, she started to put limitations on her.  You just can't come into someone's home and expect to radically change it with the flip of a switch. That's ridiculous, selfish and disrespectful.

Now what? Nothing, lol. Getting late and I have an agenda for tomorrow, not the least of which includes smoking a brisket, but also mowing the front lawn.  The kid (he's actually 18 years old but in my view he's still a 5 year old in the way he conducts himself) next door was paid on Thursday to mow the lawn the next day. Nope, I didn't pay that, Taylor did.  We have a lawn mower, one of us can do that.  I dunno why she offered him to do it, waste of money but it's whatever to me. Just that if he doesn't get it done by noon tomorrow, I'm doing it and he can Taylor can deal with the aftermath.  Yup, I told her I would do it. 

I think I've had enough for one day.

Monday.
7:30 came around. I dragged myself out of bed - went to bed late last night - got a cup of coffee and headed out the door.  Took the SUV to the Ford dealership where I was informed that they don't have a shuttle.  Geeze.  There is no Lyft or Uber in this town. There used to be on Uber driver but they stopped for whatever reason, probably not enough business.  Whatever the case, I walked the 2.6 miles home and found out just how out of shape I am in lol.

It wasn't a "specific" appointment time, it's drop your vehicle off and they get to it in the order that it was received.  So no way I'm going to sit around there and hope they get to it immediately.  They might not even get to it today, I was informed, but I'd rather take it to the dealership than any other place in town.  That's because everywhere else here is actually a lot more expensive for car repair and I would like to hope the dealer would have more knowledge and specific equipment for Ford products.

As with the boat, I'll be lucky to get it back out of there under a grand.  This is why I'm considering trading it in, it's not been a cheap vehicle. I've had several issues with it - the thing only has 132,000 miles on it but it acts like it has 300k, just for the issues it's had and the issues have been cheap fixes.  I never had these kinds of expensive issues with that old Buick I had for 10 years. Yes, it had some issues, the interior was falling apart by the time I got rid of it, but as far as repairs, it was light on the wallet - excepting when I got the front windows fixed at $800.

I really would like a GMC diesel pickup, a bit older model, nothing new.

And they already called me.  An ignition coil needs to be replaced.  I figured. They wanted to do all kinds of other "maintenance" that would amount to over a grand.  With just the coil, an oil change and fix the wheel tire sensor - the light is on showing a low tire, none of my tires are low - we're around $500.  The maintenance they wanted to do included replacing spark plugs that we already replaced, no need for that thanks.  I couldn't believe they wanted $350 just to replace plugs and the boots that go on them.  Hopefully the coil fixes it and I can get down the road without any other expenses for a while with it, if I decide against a new vehicle. Just haven't really decided, I'm looking at my financing options atm.

Sunday. Day 5 of being off work.  6 more to go if what they say actually occurs.  The manager texted me on Friday, so you want an Ohio run going out on Sunday? NO, I thought, Sure!! I replied  Why now? I just don't like that run, but considering 11 days off, I'd take just about anything. After sending me the info for the run, he literally called me up 2 minutes later and said, you aren't going to believe this. 

In this industry? I can believe anything.  During that short time frame, the plant called and said the load was cancelled. Not the load he was going to give me, but a load that another of our drivers was going to take for another division hauling Liquid Natural Gas.  I was getting the load he was originally going to get. See how that works? With at least some other drivers, they aren't selfish and willing to do whatever to keep everyone busy.  Hence, my 11 days off instead of 5.  So I said no problem.  He said, well see? At least you know I"m thinking about you.  True.  I'm not an ass kisser type of guy, but I will talk shop and attempt to at least put myself in a decent position when he "thinks" of me.  You get on a negative bent, those people thinking of you think of negativity. 

The truth of the matter is, I still could get another run before the Saturday start up for me, which will be back to back runs to Brownsville. That is, of course, subject to change.  I'd actually be surprised if it doesn't.  Just the nature of the business.  Still just amazed that we only have 13 drivers in our division now. I really didn't know that. I thought we were still at 20 or 21, wasn't sure which, especially considering they had brought some drivers back from call and demand.

Call and demand fizzled out. Our division is one of the few left this is still get decent amount of runs. 

Anyway, this morning, one of the drivers got on group text and texted to everyone: "Ok. So."  I sat there and watched for a while to see if anyone would reply. Ok, so is rather meaningless, I had a clue what he was inferring but still, a bit short on context.  So I texted back after 10 minutes ??  Another driver - the first driver's friend - texted "Me too". I texted: What are you all talking about?  After another 10 minutes, a 3rd driver and in that group of friends - those 3 or buddies outside of work - said "probably drunk text". 

But I knew what they were referring to. 5 days off.  Well deal with it.  Not the first time we have had the plant shut down, happens every year actually.  I said Vacation time! and the first driver came back with the pic of a man face palming himself. That dude is a chronic whiner as it stands.  He must have his way or the world is going to hell and the sky is falling.  I got over it the first day the manager asked me to take vacation time off.  All 3 of those drivers have worked since Tuesday when I said fine, I'm just make the best of this.  They really have nothing to complain about, but that's human nature and we all do it from time to time. Well, some do it all the time. 

Today? It's Sunday.  The Louisiana 14 quarantine mandate that Governor Abbot in Texas decreed to anyone coming from there was lifted and now, some of James and Taylor's friends are over today. Nice people.  I smoked a turkey - it only took 2 hours, I didn't realize how small the thing was. We'll have that thing devoured today for sure. 

The 5 year old was clinging to me today for whatever reason. He does that sometimes.  So after the turkey was done, I took him out back and got him back on the bicycle.  A little kid bicycle with training wheels.  He had no clue.  James came out shortly after and we said, yup, the tires are flat, so he went and got his air pump and pumped the tires back up to 35 pounds. The boy? Has no leg muscles to speak of and had no coordination.  It was a test of my patience to the boy's resolve to learn.  Angle your feet back as you try to push down!  Don't push backwards, that's the brake!  He wasn't getting it, so I took him to the carport and got him up against the neighbor's fence.

It's all a slight down hill angle, I thought if anything, it might help him.  He kept wanting me to push him, which I refused. Cycling isn't a push sport, you move it yourself with your feet and legs.  I didn't want to get the boy upset, but I didn't feel he was going to learn without figuring it out on his own with a little instruction.  The downhill worked, he finally started getting the hang of out. It got to the point where he was going to the end of the carport, getting off, pushing it back to the fence and doing it over and over and over without being prodded.  Now that's more like.  Mommy came out after about 45 minutes of this and declared it's nap time.

Everyone went out to smoke cigarettes so I went into my bedroom lol.  Been messing around all day long, just taking a break. I got them the new pool 2 days ago - but we haven't been able to put it up yet.  It's been raining and we all decided that the concrete needs to be dry before setting it up.  That way no mold will grow under it, because once the thing is full of water, water isn't going to be able to seep under it.  Yes I bought the pool - but yes they reimbursed me for it the complete purchase price.  I had to drive clean to Shreveport to get it.

Even at that, the Walmart I went to that claimed they had 2 in stock - had zero in stock of the 18 footers, they had a 23 footer that was too big.  The other Walmart over there went from 1 in stock ot zero during that time.  I did ask why they still showed the 2 in stock. WEEEEEEELLLLLLLL, THAT THING IS AAALLLLLLLWAAAAAYYYYYYSSS WRONG.  I wasted a total of 90 miles of driving to go over there and come back empty handed.  They tried to call other Walmarts, but amazingly, those other Walmarts hung up on them several times!  At least they tried. 

I looked online, Target - 19 miles the wrong direction, showed they had one.  But I decided against it. Time to go home.  On the way home, on the west side of Shreveport, is a Walmart right off the Interstate on Pines road.  It showed no pools in stock, but I wondered if the opposite could be true? It says they have none but they actually do have one?  So decided to pull in there, no loss if they don't besides a bit of time.  I got back to where the pools are and low and behold, a 14 foot wide by 42 inch tall pool!  It was the only one left.  I could probably sell the thing for double the price right now on Ebay, above ground pools have virtually disappeared at Walmarts and other stores where they are cheaper and you can't even order them online.  No, I'm not going to try and get another pool to test my theory, that's a lot of dough to be out for hoping it will sell.  And anyway, I'm not really into this idea of hoarding or price gouging. 

Meanwhile, I listed my Keurig Rivo R500 latte machine on Ebay. Why not?  It's been sitting, it works, I want to get rid of stuff.  I tried a while back to sell it and no buyers. But looking ebay, people were trying to sell those things for more than double that price.  So, it sold for $54.89 plus shipping, which has already been paid. Get that sent out tomorrow.  I was just going to give it away otherwise, no one here wants it. 

In fact, I am going to go through stuff and see what I can sell, give away or chuck.  Too much stuff. It's for a whole house, not a single bedroom. I chose this lifestyle to live with others, if there is too much I want to keep, I'll either buy my own shed or store it.  I don't want to get rid of stuff just to get rid of it.  Sentiimental things and things of family origins I would rather not just discard.  But cleaning up the back yard  and with them helping got me motivated to go ahead and start dealing with the back yard again. 

The boat - in the shop.  I don't expect to hear back from them for a while. The SUV is going into the shop Monday, get it fixed once and for all and then determine if I want to stay in that vehicle or trade it in for the truck I really want.  I'd say it isn't a good time to be buying vehicles because of the virus, but it looks like it's the best time to do so and if I can keep payments near where I'm at now, I'm good with that.  Not a priority tho, just something that I have been musing.  Property is higher on my list, but I'm just nowhere near getting that at the moment.  I still might try and apply for a loan at a lender and see what happens.  Been a long, long time since I've been late on a mortgage, car or credit card payment.

And with that? A lazy sunday.  Nothing to do but relax and take it easy.  And head back out of the bedroom and be social-able lol .

So, getting up early this morning - 9:00 am lmao - I got about the day's business. Hook up the boat and drag it 42 miles to the repair facility  Guy came out, wrote up a work order, didn't give me a timeline for when they'd get to it, I didn't care and left. 

Over to the yard. It's only 2 miles away from the boat shop. I didn't know this boat shop was there because it's 2 miles west of where I turn to go to work.  But, I wanted to discuss with the new manager in person what exactly I am doing and when exactly - if he can tell me - I'm going back to work. 

He had forgotten to tell me what my hourly wage was yesterday, he picked right up on that lol.  The guy is a bit overwhelmed, he's been dispatching for 15 years but this isn't anything like most normal dispatching jobs.  So, we got started there.  Turns out I'm now making FAR more money per hour on vacation time than I knew.  They started me out at a low wage. The number goes way up after you've been there long enough for them to determine the number.  It helped dramatically and it also helped that I was part of the original company that was bought out. 

The amount is determined by your yearly earnings divided by 2080.  It came up to almost $42 per hour.  That's more like it! Elated at hearing that and also the idea that I won't need to use near as many vacation hours as I originally had thought we went onto the next deal.  Since you're doing us a favor, I'm giving you back to back Brownsville runs when you come back.  Yessss.  I still don't understand how anyone uses up their entire year's worth of vacation hours before we even get half way through the year, but to each his/her own. 

That was the deal, people weren't going to be working for at least 2 weeks if I didn't give up my spot and  they had no vacation hours to back up on.  Ok, I can empathize with not getting any work, I cannot empathize with not having some extra hours tucked away in case you need them.  That's really on them.  But I didn't say any of that to the manager, lol.  We talked for an hour and  a half beyond work. He's an avid boat enthusiast and just boat a new pontoon boat. 

Yup, I'm going to do my best to get on this dude's good side. And also make myself appealing to the company through him because right now? They are laying off even more drivers. Other divisions, we haven't been hit yet but there's no guarantees.  I was shocked to find out we only have 13 drivers now.  Down from 21.  I know one was fired, others were shifted out, some moved last year to other divisions (I'm guessing they are regretting that decision now), and some just quit the company entirely.  All the trucks I see in the yard? 4 or 5 of them aren't in use. 

Although I don't want more permanent drivers brought in, it also screws us if we get busy.  I then got into a long discussion with the lead mechanic. He obviously knows more than he lets on.  He gave me kudos for being a "good driver" and we discussed the fact that we all have to do our best to make ourselves as appealing to the company as possible to keep us from getting a "hard look" if/when they decide our little division should be hit.  It's not likely to find as high a paying job as I have now anywhere, the economy is tanking and so is trucking in many sectors.  He stated the company can look at everything you do - I already knew that, the amount of info accumulated and recorded on the Quaalcomm is amazing, you can bring up the read out on it.  Even the time you spend in each gear is recorded.  How long you idle - I have no choice on that one, my truck doesn't have an APU to keep it cool or warm depending on what season we're in.

Long story short, everything that I had suspected was true.  I didn't want this time off but now that I'm in it? I'm going to enjoy it even if it means staying at home. The mechanic and the manager both stated that the facility I took the boat to is the perfect place to take an older boat - but - don't expect it to be done in less than two weeks.  EVERYONE is boating right now, everyone wants their boats fixed/in working order.  Oh well. I just found out about this place, not like I could have taken it in any sooner.  Just sucks that I may end up not being able to go on the lake the entire time I'm off work. 

But, if they get back to me and say yes, we can fix it for X amount of money, I'm good with that, then I'll add to the list - all those old boats out there they have? They strip them for parts. Maybe one of them has a ladder they can put on it.  And fix the fuel and transom gauges.  Speedometer would be nice but not mandatory.  All lights as well.  Might as well get this all dealt with in one fell swoop.  James wants to use the boat whether I'm home or on the road.

James spent the entire day on Sunday and part of Saturday cleaning the thing.  He even went out and bought a shop vac to clean all the leaves out of it. He's a good guy, I trust him to take care of it.  So he has that permission, tho he can't drink too much beer out there, they stop boats all the time on the major lakes and do "inspections".  You can drink, but you better not be over the blood/alcohol limit.  Passengers can basically drink as much as they want.  James really like to fish, I didn't know that until we got out there on the lake.  He spent the entire time fishing, we got very few bites and no hits, but I expected that at that lake. It was just close by. And I wasn't sure about the operation of the boat.  I figured a less used boat ramp would be better to be at if it had problems getting it back on the trailer.

I was wrong about the "less used boat ramp" Part. The entire parking lot was full of trucks/boat trailers and people coming and going off the single ramp.  And yes, we had some problems getting it back on the trailer. but mostly because James is new to this and he was backing the trailer into the water.  He completely submerged the trailer, including those side rails that help guide the boat in!  Uhh, James? You are too far in lol, pull up a bit.  Well, that caused us to have to back the boat back into the lake and then make another attempt - but by that point the thing was having trouble starting. I just asked everyone waiting to please be patient, I'll get us out of the way quick enough.  They all just said no problem! I think when you ask, people don't get upset or impatient, not as much anyway.

But if they don't know why you are taking so long - which I explained, this motor isn't idling properly - people tend to get irritated that you are taking so long.  Especially with a single boat ramp.  Anyway we got the thing on there and out of the way without delaying others too much.

My manager said it's probably the carburetors, btw, that's wrong with the boat. Ethanol - that additive they put in gasolline - is really bad for boat motors.  Whatever is wrong with this boat, I'm going to have to use ethanol free fuel. I don't "have" to, but it's much better on the fuel system.  And there is a place that has is available in town. 

After the boat place and the shop, I went to the store.  We're back into a meat shortage.  The grocery stores are all but empty of it.  They said this was coming - tho for us this is the second time around.  I was looking for pork chops, that's what Taylor wants for dinner.  I was also looking for a pool - she desperately wanted a swimming pool, but Walmarts everywhere are sold out of them.  You can't even get them online.  They are sold out.  Maybe other areas of the country have them, I have no idea. 

Anyway, Kroger's had no pork chops - they had almost no meat to speak of. The Walmart over there, same.  The Walmart in my town? Had one package of pork chops left, snagged that.  And then stopped at Super 1 grocery on the way home, their meat supply is fully stocked - for whatever reason I couldn't possibly explain considering what's going on everywhere else. 

Back to the house, finally, after half a day out all over the place. 

I'm going back to work on the 23rd, "guaranteed". He already had me in the slot for 2 runs in a row, he showed me on the computer screen.  This week's paycheck totally sucks, only an Oklahoma run on it - but next week is 2 brownsville runs and the week after that will be vacation hours and then after that, back to normal.  And given the possibility that if something comes up before then, do I want it, such as a Brownsville run? Uhh, yea, if there's a Brownsville, I want it!  Okay, I am definitely not going anywhere until Wednesday at the earliest of next week if that happened.  The point is that the chemical plant may not need all 5 days to reopen, they usually don't. They just give that number out in case things go south. 

Oh, my paycheck this week? $284 net pay! lmao.  Oh well, they aren't all great all the time. The new manager was like, you really think you're going to make the same money you did last year with everything slowing down like this? The lead mechanic jumped right in: Yup, this division is up and down. It will go back up. I interjected, yes, it will go back up, unless Covid-19 does some bad stuff to our division as well.....

Well that's it.  A 5 year old just ran into my room wanting a hug lol.