9:11 AM Saturday morning.

Trip down here - I'm in Brownsville - not terribly bad considering I didn't sleep worth a crap.  

This will mark the first time in 4 trips down here that I finally get some holdover-detention pay.  No trailers here last night, another driver ahead of me will get whatever comes in here first - tho normally they come in with 2 trailers almost at the same time whenever they do come in here.  Like, 10 minutes after the first one comes in, the second one shows up.  

All fine and dandy, my manager contacted me at 11:00pm - last night - asking "did you pick up an empty?".  Why is he contacting me that late at night? No idea, I had already gone to sleep and had forgotten to turn off my ringer.  Won't be making that mistake again for a while.  I have no obligation to be answering non-essential questions at near midnight.  

If you've read this blog for any length of time you know that I am a very light sleeper and once I wake up, it takes a while or a long time to get back to sleep.  

Again, at 8:00 am, the dispatcher this time, contacts me and asks about picking up an empty?  Umm, no, I"m sure she already knew that, not like they can't see exactly where I am at with GPS - and, I continued, the other driver is also waiting.  

I'm seeing if this drags out long enough that I can't make a 7:30 am load appointment tomorrow morning.  The saga of two "privileged" drivers who get nothing but Brownsville runs continues to drag on, as I was contacted yesterday with a run, told to cancel that, then another run, told to cancel that because there are "issues".  

The issue? The dude that boasts how the company will never train me how to unload trucks refused to take the load to Ohio on Sunday for "I don't know how to unload the trucks" - which is a lie from the pit of hell for I talked to a highly experienced driver a while back who said he had taken this dude to one of the trailers and showed him how everything works and how to unload.  In the case of what we deliver, it's not rocket science, nothing near as entailed as the Nitrogen and Oxygen I was learning over in Connecticut.  

So, I got bumped for what would have been a second Brownsville run in a row - after having not had any of them for almost 2 solid months - because of this dude.  Pissed me off, to be frank about it. This guy has been around for almost 6 months now and they aren't forcing him to learn. 

So yes, I did say something to the dispatcher about it, this stuff grows old.  "Uhh, btw, Edgar showed him how to unload a while back".  This dispatcher apparently isn't happy about this situation either, but only because other drivers continue to complain about it.  Literally, if we don't say anything, they'll just let it ride indefinitely.  These two drivers that are literally getting nothing but gravy runs have been her for something like 6 to 8 months now, transferred over from other divisions where I'm sure they would have had to have known/learned how to unload whatever they were hauling before.  That's the way it works in this company.

She texted back that she is tempted to start sending them on Oklahoma runs only and let them stew until they decide it's rather important to know how to do every aspect of this job.  Yes please.  Not that that will happen, but getting bumped by another driver who has far less seniority because of this endless excuse is irritating to say the least.  I might have had yet another chance at detention pay for it would have had me down here on Sunday and that's one of the best days to get here in terms of no trailers available. 

The whole deal with Brownsville run is you get a 2 day run that pays for 3 days of driving when you get overnight detention.  That's the deal.  Less miles, more money, easy peasy.  Of course everyone likes and yes, of  course it should be evenly distributed to everyone, not just 2 people that come up and down here all the freaking time. I flatly stated to the dispatcher that this was the first time in almost two MONTHS that I have had one of these runs. She said she would keep that in mind.

Yes, please and thank you.  "Yes sir".  So at least if nothing else - I was polite to her - a bit straightforward about it but that is the way I do most things, nothing new there - but firm enough to get my point across.  So I'll take the Ohio run and put this nonsense out of my mind at least temporarily.  I mean, it's 2,000 miles round trip so if nothing else, it's a good paying run but you're running hard to try and get it done in 3 days, if at all possible.

Leave the yard and the first goal is to get to Farina, Illinois.  That's 710 miles up the road.  You can't have any lengthy delays, if you do, you can cancel that idea.  After that, you drive the 300 plus miles up to the plant, hopefully get offloaded as soon as you get there - you call ahead and let them know you're coming and is it possible to unload me today? type of thing - then you try to make it back to Farina.  If you look at GPS at Farina on satellite view - really small town - there is a huge truckstop right off of I-57 there. It's never filled up because it's not a major brand name truckstop, always a parking spot there, which makes it an even more desirable destination, you don't have to worry about parking.  

If you don't make it back at least that far, good luck in making it a 3 day run.  Is it mandatory to do it in 3 days? No, it's desirable to get any of these runs over and done with as fast as possible, go home, spend time with dogs/kids/surrogate family before having to go back out again.  

But, here's the deal: If they don't get a trailer in here for me before, umm, well about now - 9:30 am - which is almost impossible, there is no way I will make it back to the yard in time to get a 10 hour break in time to get to the plant to get loaded.  Impossible.  Now, this new manager has attempted to rid us of all  detention pay, a thing all of us said something about, something of which I stated in person, to his face that we like and the company should like since they are making a large amount of money off of it as well - well he's obviously trying to get the plant in Mexico to get two trailers up here in time to get us on the road to get back to the yard in Longview.  

But I know how this works.  The local drivers hook up to the loaded trailers we pull in here, take them across the border and bring empties back over. That's usually a 2 hour process. I don't even think they're in the yard yet.  If they are, they haven't hooked up to those trailers and so I'm not getting out of here before noon at the earliest.  See, they take the loaded ones to their yard across the border which is where their OTR Mexico drivers hook up and take them to the plant in Altamira.  

That's the way it's gone down here for the almost 3 years I've been coming down here, I doubt the new manager has been able to change that, it wouldn't make any sense for them to cross the border with tractors only.  I'm just thinking out loud here, I may get off of the Ohio load and someone else can take it up there.  My objection to it is that they don't unload you until the next day after you arrive - meaning you're sitting there for up to 18 hours. Last time I went up there, they changed everything and had a night worker there unloading. Which was great, I got up there, got unloaded and get the Hercules out of there.  Back to Farina and it was a 3 day trip - it was the only time I've ever been able to do that run in 3 days.  But now, some other driver disputed that and said that they had reverted back to their normal shifts, but he as "not sure" about that.

I am not in love with sitting around a plant for 18 hours doing nothing and not getting paid a dime to sit there and wait - it's the not getting paid part that is baloney to me.  If they want this stuff up there, then get someone there at the plant to unload it. Otherwise, pay us.  We are on time, they should  have to deal with it one way or the other.  

Whatever the case, James/Taylor/kids went to Missouri yesterday.  She wasn't going to go because of the Corona virus scare, but since she tested negative, they decided to go anyway.  It was preplanned a while back until she got that fever and came down sick.  I do have a problem with them going up there: untold number of stories saying people have tested negative only to get another test - and even show negative then and then yet another test after they remain sick and find out they do, indeed have the virus. They're going to visit another grandma up there in her 80's I do believe. If she gets that virus, that's almost like a death sentence.  I hope Taylor doesn't have it, her fever has been gone a couple of days at least.  

Regardless, the 5 year old 2 nights ago was almost in tears because I told him I had to go to work the next day - which he knows means I'll be gone for several days usually.  I dunno why that boy is attached to me so much, but he is. I mean, we horse play alot lol.  He's almost grown up with me - sans the 2 years they were in Georgia.  I was around when he was a baby, missed the 2 to 3 year old stage and then caught the 4 and now 5 year old stage. He started kindergarten last week, he's a "big boy" now lol.  Anyway, he took his wristband off - it says "I can read, I rock!" and put it on my wrist. Declared I can have that until I get back and then he gets the wristband back.  Oh yes, you'll get it back!  

Good that they can go visit that particular grandma. She's only been down once to visit and she's getting up there in age.  

The dispatcher just texted.  I told her that they haven't even moved the empty trailers out of the yard, much less thinking about bringing in empty ones, I'd suggest you start working on plan B for getting that load up to Ohio.  They know that there are 2 trailers coming up today - they don't know when they're arriving.  Well, nothing against Mexicans, but their culture is a "take your time" culture.  They're not in a big hurry.  Especially with the rain, it rained all night long. Looks like it's clearing out here, but looks like it's raining almost the entire road up here from Altamira. Dunno how that affects them, but Mexico isn't known for it's great roads to begin with. 

Welp, that's enough for this one. I think I"ll go to Wing Stop when they open in 45 minutes and get some of their delicious wings to go.  

 Down 7 pounds since I started on Sunday.  6 days, 7 pounds.  That's not bad.  Motivation to keep going strict with carbs.  That's eating no sugar, potatoes, spaghetti, rice, beans, bread, milk, etc etc etc.  Taylor asking me what I want for dinner last night, I said how about some goulash with the ground beef I bought? Well you can't have the noodles tho.  No, I can take a portion of the sauce and put cooked cabbage in with it, it will be delicious.  So that's what we had.

I'm dreading whatever route I'll get tomorrow.  I haven't done nay serious driving since before I left for Vermont.  Vermont was a more attentive type of driving on narrow 2 lane highways, but the distances were short.  Most routes we have here are long and you're driving 600 to 700 miles a day to get them done.  That's quite the difference.  

Rained all night long and slated to rain all day today.  So my plans to start situating the pond still on hold.  

Forgot to take out the drain plug on the boat, I'll have to go do that this morning, that boat's hull fills up quickly, much faster than I ever would have expected, when it's raining.  Well I'm going to try to wait until I get tomorrow's work assignment so I can figure out if I need to make a bunch of food in advance - and subsequent visit to Kroger's or not.  I suspect I will be in limbo until this afternoon - which means I might as well bite the bullet and get over there and get that drain plug out.  Not good for the wiring being submerged in water, the hull will completely fill up, no joke. When I first got that boat and saw that after it rained I was a bit shocked, actually.  Like, how did it fill up that fast?!!

They have, apparently, fixed this week's paycheck to reflect monies left out last week. Plus all of the expenses with the receipts I turned in, if I'm reading it correctly, plus the minimum daily wage.  It's around a 4 grand paycheck - before taxes of course tho the expenses won't be taxed.  That will replenish my rather deleted checking account after spending all of that money on baggage fees and eating plus not getting paid everything that i was supposed to last week.  I'm going to have to print the last 2 weeks pay out with the itemizations  and ensure that I am being paid for all of it, for tomorrow's paycheck will - should - reflect the full amount of what I am owed for that trip.  

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Coronavirus certainly hasn't made land owners who are attempting to sell their land in this area desperate.  Land going for extremely exorbitant price per acre for undeveloped land. As much as 10k per acre.  I dunno why they think it's worth that much money, but it's nothing I'm going to get involved with.  I've been looking.  Today I spent more time perusing lots for sale, just unbelievable.  It bascically forces the issue that if i want land, I'll have to buy elsewhere, pay a very steep price for it or get it at one of the tax lien auctions.  I've been watching for the next one coming up, but since they had one at the beginning of July, I don't really expect to see another one until probably September.

I would like to hope whatever the next one is, it will have few people there.  The virus has hit enough people's personal finances, perhaps that's favorable for a tax lien sale.  I dunno but I intend on being at the next one if at all possible.  They always have at least a couple of 30 plus acre properties for sale, tho usually the amount of minimum bid is more than I have.  Whatever the case, the fund for that ventures grows monthly, but at the rate it is going, it will be a couple of years before there is enough to stand a legitimate chance at any decent amount of acreage.  But, it's a goal and I have a chunk of change going into Autosave every month. 

Whatever the case, the boat was almost full of water.  Good thing I went over there when I did.  More rain today. Plus I forgot to put the hitch lock on it. It may be a secure lot, but that doesn't make it theft proof.  I keep putting off getting insurance on it, but I guess I best do it in case I get into an accident or in case it's stolen.  

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$309 for a full year's worth of full coverage insurance on the boat if paid up front.  That's everything including towing and bringing fuel out to you up to 3 grand.  That's pretty small price to pay to have the assurance that if I wreck the thing, if someone else runs into it, if I run into anyone, if it's in a car accident being towed, if it's stolen, I will be covered or reimbursed.  I think that kind of money spent on that thing warrants having some insurance on it.  That's less than $30 per month (monthly payments ratchet it up to double that price, I'll be paying it up front).  

And I'm going to Brownsville tomorrow morning. She sent a 10:30 load time which would have been great for starting back out again. But 5 minutes later she said it was moved up to 7:30 am.  I'm not sure what to think about that. If I'm getting bumped for someone else getting the 2cd or 3rd load spot for that run, then I'm going to be unhappy.  It removes the chance - or greatly lessons it anyway - of getting any detention pay.  She said they bumped her up on it, we'll see. I've noticed a penchant for management and dispatchers to make up (false) stories in this company.  As always, if I weren't making as much money as I am on a yearly basis, I would seriously be thinking about finding a new place to work - tho that alone wouldn't do it. Just the combination of things.  

As the old saying goes, money talks, bs walks.  It's been almost 2 months since I've been to Brownsville, it will be nice to do a familiar route that I don't have to even think about how to get down there, just automatic in my brain lol.  Note that the last 3 times I've been down there I have gotten no detention pay.  And note that the story is coming out that the new manager has basically tried to get rid of it completely.  I figured that from the beginning tho it made zero since since it decreases the amount of money the company gets for that account - substantially decreases it.  

And the Dow Jones - after going to record highs, dived 810.87 points today.  I was so close to 100k in my 401k's. Yes, that isn't very much money but for me, it really is.  Couldn't retire on that but I feel like I'm really getting somewhere finally with it. I'm not concerned about a huge drop, we've seen that over and over this year and yet it keeps coming back up. 

Well enough. The mechanics left early, they seem to do that alot.  I contacted them to start up the truck, it hasn't been run in weeks that I know of and it probably is going to have dead batteries. He said he'd show up early tomorrow in case it won't. Tomorrow is Friday, that's a good excuse for him to get to work early and get off early so that works for me.  

As for the entry, I"m done.  I don't need to make too much food for the road since there are dining options on the way down to Brownsville and in Brownsville itself.  My favorite is the baked chicken at a gas station that is popular in both Refugio and Riviera.  

 So the dispatcher - a different person in a different location than my manager - finally contacted me and asked me when i was I going to be ready to go back to work? I replied I had only asked for a couple of days off, I have been ready to go back to work.  But since I've had almost a week off, I'm going to use vacation hours to make up for it.  

The reality is that on the driver text list that informs other drivers about loading and whether it's on time or not? Hasn't been updated in days, that means we are extremely slow and that is 99% chance likely the reason they haven't contacted me before today.  

The dispatcher must have asked my manager about m availability for she replied she didn't know I was available until today.  When I contacted my manager to ask to put 40 vacation hours on my next paycheck, I only got a 10-4 and subsequent text "done".  This is how I know that they weren't exactly chomping at the bit to get me back to work along with the driver texting group.  

It further became evident that we must be really slow when she finally got back to me and said I'll send you out Friday - tomorrow is Thursday.  It's whatever to me.  I could have forced the issue, I just decided I will take the time off without saying anything, I just didn't think it would take them this long to actually contact me about going back to work.  I still have 45 hours of vacation available and a whole year's worth of vacation hours will be dumped into my account in November, which isn't all that far off. 

Now, I could have used some of this time to fly back to Arizona, yes.  But I wouldn't have been able to see my mother - unless they have the quick tests at the very least to ensure I don't have the virus.  I would have been able to stay at my son's new house of course and swim in his awesome looking swimming pool. No biggies.  I dunno when I'm going back tbh.  Maybe sometime this year, but it's really dependent on this virus nonsense.  It may be that I won't travel home until after they get their vaccine - not that I want to take it. I personally wouldn't suggest anyone that I know taking that vaccine until a large enough portion of the population takes it first and determine that it's actually safe to have injected into your veins.  

Or into your flesh, or however that works, I haven't had a vaccine shot in so long. 

Today - I cleaned the kitchen lol.  Everyone but the boys are home. Taylor went to work, only to be sent back after a manager questioned the time after a fever for being "allowed" to come back to work per the state's rules. It's 3 days, not the 24 hours the owner of the company said. So we have all been home today, not necessarily accomplishing anything but then again, it's been raining so my pond aspirations were put off. 

Perhaps tomorrow. I need to get Taylor out there first anyway and discuss the placement of the pond. She wanted the in-ground pond move to the rear of the property as it stood.  I have a place for it out of the way and where no grass ever grows.  But, it's not my house and I want to make sure there aren't  any objections to it.  I have the materials to build a stand for the waterfall filter and Taylor was suggesting building a full fledged waterfall - that might come in time it would make it a really nice place to sit and chat with people.  

Another nice thing about where I want to put it is there is only one tree over top of it and it's not one of the trees that dumps garbage year round. Sure some leaves fall off of it, but not dead branches, acorns, these giant seed balls that fall off and of course tons of leaves.  I could really turn the area into a "destination" area with enough work on it.  But, building that up like that definitely would need to have a consensus on where it goes first.  

Well, with that I'm going to watch reruns of Star Trek Generations lol.  

 This isn't the first time that they have somehow forgotten that I am - not working but should be.  Pretty much every time I come back from vacation this happens.  And other situations where they don't even realize that I am available - but that's their job.  I was going to text the dispatcher today and ask about getting back on the road - but I didn't lol.

But tomorrow I'll have to get back in the system.  My manager definitely knows I'm back, we might be slow but we aren't that slow.  I'll ask for 20 or 30 hours of vacation time put on next week's check and go back to work.  Whatever work they have, I assume I'm not getting sent to Brownsville and I assume I'll get sent to Alabama or Illinois.  Guess, I should say.

Anyway, I just checked and I am back in ketosis.  Like I said, I'm following the diet strict for the next month or so and lose a bunch of this fat and get it over with.  Drinking nothing but water all day long and a few cups of coffee in the morning.  No diet sodas, no low carb beers.  I might get some tea for a change up, stuff that helps with this diet actually.  I'm down 4 pounds as it is without ketosis, this should really start coming off quick.

What I was doing for the last  - 8 months or longer was eating more carbs than I should and not really following the diet that strict, maintaining my weight but at too high of a level. After this trip, however, gaining 10, well actually I was down to 209 so 11 pounds now that I think about it?  Time to get serious again.  

I will have to be prepared to leave tomorrow. A lot of times I contact them after this stuff happens being on hold and they come up with something and ask if I can "leave today?".  I never say no, but I will be putting my mind into that zone in case they do that.  It's funny my manager isn't keeping up with this stuff.  I wasn't fired or let go, lol, just got done taking a random drug test, so I know they aren't getting rid of me. 

I won't fail a random lol. I don't take drugs and no alcohol in my system.  

But, if they don't happen to send me off tomorrow I'll be working on building a platform for the pond waterfall filter, get the water treatment chemicals to condition the water.  

 Sunday.

Rebooted the diet.  Gained 10 pounds on the road.  I'm going to be strict about the carbs for the next few weeks and keep it under 20 per day and lose the weight I gained back and then some.  

Found a galvanized 6 foot stock tank 2 towns over. I don't think I"m working tomorrow - well I'm pretty sure about that since it's 3:00 pm and no word from anyone about it - so I'll go get it tomorrow.  I have to wait for a new UV sterilizer to come in before I will fill it up with water, but I can figure out what I'm going to do for a "lid" for it in the meantime.  

Birds ate most of my fish, I figure to use PVC piping and create a cover that birds cannot get through. Something light and easily removed yet good enough to keep these giant fishing birds from taking my rather expensive fish out of there.  Kind of defeats the purpose of a Koi pond when birds of prey are eating them up.  

I think I will also get another kind of setup where I can order 300 2 inch Koi and grow them in the tank and sell them.  I was going to have Maria do it and earn some money, but she didn't want anything to do with it.  Fine.  It's not gong to make me rich but if I keep them in there until they're 4 or 5 inches long I can snag a good price for them. They're hard to find in this region and there is a market for them.

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Monday.  Day 4 from being back, no work sent to me.  I haven't exactly been asking, but it's time to go back to work.  I'll probably use some vacation time to cover these days off.  I only asked for a couple of days off after getting back.  

My manager texted me this morning asking me to come to work and get this paperwork stuff done. Yes, well to get paid I had to do that. So, I hooked up the trailer fully expecting to go pickup a galvanized stock tank, went to work and turned in all of my receipts.  Almost $700 worth.  He also gave me a generous amount of travel time - apparently that's not paid out the $300 per day, but I came out ahead on that situation by $70 so I was okay with that.

And then i was handed a random drug test.  He said he'd actually received it for me while I was in Vermont, but decided to make me wait until I got back.  He looked at me and asked if I even could pass one right now?  Lol, yes, I don't take drugs and I haven't had any alcohol, I'm good.  It's the first random they have given me since I started working there, which is getting close to 3 years.  So, you go straight to the drug testing place once they give that to you, if you don't they - get upset.  It didn't take long and then over to Home Depot.

Where I saw the stock tank on sale.  But, of course, they don't even sell stock tanks.  Lol.  Okayyyyy. I searched the entire store, I had looked these tanks up online and it showed that the Longview location had one.  Whatever.  Over to Tractor Supply, who did, indeed have one and at a better price than the one listed at Home Depot.

And after paying for the tank and waiting in the parking lot, a rather odd event occurred with an older lady driving a giant, brand new ford F250 pickup attempting to back out of her parking space.  I posted all of that on my Facebook, don't really want to go into all of that again, but she got out of the truck, acted like I was blocking her - which i wasn't, demanded I move (instead of simply asking nicely) - I said sure - IF you ask nicely - she refused, called the cops and...whatever. Cops never showed, I just sat there and waited to get into the tractor supply yard in order to get my tank.  She easily  could have maneuvered her truck out of there.  She was a real piece of work.  Annnnnddddd. this woman just had to come into the yard and tell me "I won, you lost!". Juvenile, erratic, stupid behavior by an at least mid 60's individual. 

Home after that.  Not any hurry to set it up, I have a UV sterilizer coming, I won't fill the tank up until I have that sterilizer set up, otherwise the pond will turn bright green and algae everywhere.  I also want to fashion some sort of screened top for it.  I'll get the thing in place at least tomorrow.  And figure out how to set up the waterfall filter. It's going to have to be a couple of feet off the ground.  I'm not really sure about the screen covering yet, I'd really like some pond plants in there which would mean a bit different setup than what I had originally thought of doing.  

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Tuesday.

Play time over. I'm going to contact the disptacher today and ask when she intends on sending me back out on a run and inform her I've been sitting 5 days as of today. I really didn't mind this unasked for time off, to be honest so no biggies.  Just emailed the payroll department to see how many vacation hours I have left this year, going to take some of it to buffer these days off and not just lose that money in not working.

In looking up the yellow bellied water snakes, yes they do like to fish and yes they will clean out a Koi pond. I feel like I have no choice but to either catch and release them somewhere else or kill them.  I'll start out with cheap goldfish when I get the new pond setup going - if they eat those no great loss. Koi, even small ones, are like $10 a piece.  And then when they grow a few inches they're worth even more. The larger they get, the more they're worth.  I ordered a fake Blue Heron to set up next to the pond to deter those birds at least. They do work, I have one at the house in Phoenix and the herons stay away from the house.

But snakes post a different problem and they already live on the property. They sell snake traps, Im not sure I want to go to any expense in dealing with creatures that I very much dislike.  There are things I can do to try to keep them away from the pond, there is a stream that goes through the back yard which is what attracted them here in the first place. But, shedded snake skins on the pond I have now show they love the in ground pond and they may actually be the culprits that were eating my fish. A pond cover might keep out birds, it won't keep out snakes.  

The problem is these snakes set up shop underneath the concrete slap on the rear carport long ago.  There are urine smells from certain animals you can buy that allegedly scare them away.  I dunno.  Others say they will not necessarily eat your fish. Well something ate most of them.  There are things you can put on the bottom of your pond that the fish can hide in.  I might go that route, just try to keep count of the numbers of fish in there and see if they start disappearing.  

Anyway, I'll get out back and get the thing in place today and do some cleanup out  there - we did get storms coming through with the remnants of the hurricane and of course the yard is messy.  One good thing I can say is the neighbors next to us on the uphill side finally had a crew of people come out and clean the yard up.  There is still a lot of debris on the ground over there, but it's better than the nothing they had going before.  It's very disconcerting to spend hours cleaning up a yard, have  a storm come through the next day and have the yard look exactly the same as it did before you cleaned it up. It happens so often I finally gave up on it.  

I've lost 4 pounds since I started back on the diet 3 days ago.  I've been watching the carbs and keeping it down, the diet doesn't work unless you keep the carbs way down.  Keeping your carb intake under 20 per day may sound easy to some people, but go ahead and try it for a few weeks and then you'll get an idea how difficult it is to keep up with.  

Meanwhile, I'm watching democrats blame Trump for the violence. These are the same people that proclaimed the rioting that has been going on is actually peaceful protesting. Then some of these idiots said that there is nothing wrong with violence and where does the right come up with this narrative?

Well, that "narrative" come from the Constitution of the United States.  They obviously haven't read it or don't care what it says.  Trump proclaimed himself the candidate of law and order and that stand is resonating with most Americans.  Nobody wants to wake up in the morning to find rioters in their city has burned down even more buildings, killed more people and assaulted more cops and citizens.  

And I believe swing voters aren't near as dumb as these democrats such as Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi think they are. They have completely flip-flopped in their statements.  Their true colors are flying for everyone to see. You also have Pelosi attempting to blame Republicans for the impasse on another stimulus bill, when it's clearly Pelosi who is refusing to negotiate, at all.  "We came down". Well your initial and secondary "offers" are mind blowing amounts of money. Even the 1.3 trillion the right has moved it up to is a ridiculous, unfathomable amount of money.  

I personally don't care if they can't pass any new stimulus bill.  I also wish Trump would start talking about reducing the deficit and actually starting to pay off the national debt.  That apparently isn't popular with Americans? I dunno, but Biden is promising more taxes and contrary to what he states, it will affect middle class and even some lower class income earners.  

I guess in the end, it's going to be who do you believe?  

Anyways, with Taylor's negative outcome of virus test, the kids went back to school today.  She did not go back to work.  It's been stated that some people get a test, it comes back negative, another one, another negative and then a third that shows positive.  I guess these tests aren't very reliable.  In any case, having to wait 3 days for a result is a bit much knowing that they have tests that take less than 30 minutes out there.  

It's really one of the reasons I didn't go back to work or ask to. Come home from Vermont, find a person that just got sick with a fever and has had that fever ever since.  When that happened I thought, geeze, i should have just stayed up there another week or two.  I'm glad to be home but yeah, I'd rather just stay away from it if possible. 

_________________

ABout time to end this one lol.  Still not dispatched and just decided to take vacation hours to compensate.  I'll definitely ask tomorrow cause' it should mean get dispatched and be home for part of the weekend maybe.  I dunno. 

 All the symptoms of COVID-19!

Not me, someone else here. Low grade fever, coughing, fatigue, hard to breath, coughing, nausea.  

_______

I think it's day 3 of that for her, going on day 4. I haven't seen her today so I dunno how she's doing but considering she's still in bed I assume she's still not feeling well.  She gets the results of COVID test either today or tomorrow.  If she has it, we're all allegedly supposed to isolate for 14 days or whatever it is now?

No clue, haven't paid any attention to that nonsense lately.  

Finally found a storage place for my boat - too much stuff around here, I wanted to find a cheap place to store it out of the way. At $50 per month in a fenced, gated location with 24 hour access, I found the perfect place and it's only a few miles away.  Getting that taken care of this morning, my attention diverts to setting up a new pond.  Instead of in ground, it's going to be a galvanized horse trough. The only ones I've found around here are 8 footers which is larger than I wanted and also much more expensive.  

I'm still looking. A 6 foot version is perfect and less than $300. No one sells used ones around here, I've been looking in several different forums. Even a rusted one would be fine since I have a pond liner I can put into it.  I have everything else I need for it. 

Farmer's Almanac is predicting a much colder winter this year than last year.  The area I just came back from has already been recruiting 100 drivers to go up there and haul LNG for the winter. I do not want to be one of those people or the other gig for the college or apparently even more gigs to handle the overload of business needing the gas for heating purposes.  I'm rather curious why all of these places don't have pipelines running the stuff to them.  Especially a giant college - it's literally a city of its own.

I have no idea when I'm starting work again, but I'll assume Tuesday for lack of a better guess since it's likely all the weekend and Monday assignments have already been handed out.  Other drivers are still fuming about the 2 new drivers getting the gravy runs.  To the point one of them sent a text to the manager about it. He never got back to us of what the manager said - tho in my limited experience with him he probably didn't reply at all.

Tonight at 6:00 pm there is going to be a protest in the city square here.  Yes, these people are here.  Whether they are locals, outsiders or a mixture of the two, I do intend on driving up there and watching for a bit to see what happens. They are still complaining about that Confederate statue that's been there 115 years, I would be surprised if there weren't armed citizens standing around it tonight.  I'm not going up there to start or look for trouble - tho rest assured I will be armed, concealed carry tho - I want to see what happens. If it's truly a peaceful protest then more power to them.  That's their right. They don't, however, have the right to tear down the statue, assault police officers and attempt to burn down buildings.

Guaranteed the county Sheriff Deputies would put an immediate stop to any of that nonsense. This isn't the big city and they aren't going to tolerate that s*** here.  I've been speaking my opinion of it for a while now and that if any of it came here I would be there in the midst of it, time to put my money where my mouth is.  Again, I am not going there to start any trouble, whatsoever, no MAGA hat or shirt, just an interested citizen. 

I'm kind of in a holding pattern here waiting to find out if the lady of the house has the virus.  It will definitely make life interesting if she does, for that likely means we'll all get it.  I'm not at the age where it's of particular concern but I'm close enough to it.  Worried? No.  But, there is a certain element of concern when facing something that could potentially take your life.  I'm not being dramatic, lol, it is what it is.

Well I guess I best get outside, get my SUV hooked up to the boat and get it ready to go.  I doubt the neighbor is liking where I parked it tho she has said nothing about it.  It's on our property but it's between our houses where the lawn is actually quite nice.  

 Home Sweet Home

After the ordeal trying to actually get here, I'm very happy to actually be back, even if the kids were up at 6:00 am making all KINDS of noise, which I eventually got up and told them to quiet down in no uncertain terms : )

Oh, my luggage is - somewhere 😂😂😂

I spent a long time yesterday on hold and attempting to find out where, exactly my luggage is.  One person told me it was in Longview, another told me it was still in Dallas.  Now, if I had known my luggage was in Dallas 2 nights ago - and yes I asked and yes the man at the counter told me it was on the plane and flying to Longview- I would have grabbed it and taken it with me.  

American Airlines doesn't exactly have good customer service.  If you want to file a complaint with them, they don't have a phone number for that. You have to email them, lmao.  I'm sure those emails are read as soon as they come in!  I spent time with a woman from India - clearly know that accent for you cannot understand half of what they are saying and Direct TV used outsourcing to India for at least 10 years, probably a lot longer.  I hung up on here and called again, waiting for 25 minutes to nothing but we're sorry, someone will be with you shortly.

Long story short, I finally called and demanded a supervisor on the reservation line since they were the only ones answering the phone.  The man demanded to know my name,  I repeatedly told him no, I'll tell the supervisor that.  After at least 5 minutes of this bs, he put me on hold and walaah, a supervisor came on, couldn't  understand why other agents on the reservation line wouldn't deal with it for they can find where your luggage is and take care of it no problem.....!.....: ).......oh really?

The lady said the luggage is in Longview and will be arriving tonight (this was yesterday).  Oh, forgot the man at the longview terminal who didn't care where my luggage was and dismissed my requests and disappeared into his office.  I told the lady fine, you will send my luggage to me, I am not driving clear back here for it after all the bs your company has put me through.  It's 30 plus miles, please ensure you get it here tomorrow.  She told me 8:00 up to 6 hours for it to arrive. Fine! Just get it here, thanks.  

I'd say I won't fly American again, but that would be false.  The only other flights out of this immediate area is out of Shreveport and I am not sure I would want to leave my vehicle unattended over there for extended period of time, not to mention I see much higher airfare coming out of there consistently.  Regardless, the only regional airline out of Longview is contracted to American,  at least if you want to fly an entire trip out of DFW on one ticket. I guess there are other airlines, but if there are you aren't going to get any deals.  

if i were to ever take a trip overseas, I'd just drive to Houston, Dallas Love Field or DFW and park my vehicle there if American didn't have the best deal - which I doubt they would.  They charge for luggage, I spent $70 each way for 2 checked bags.  I'll be getting that money back eventually.  I need to get all of my receipts together and my manager just said dump them on his desk lol.  

Anyway, Taylor went to work and came home. After inquiry, she has an almost 100 degree fever. Of course, the first think you think: COVID-19.  Yea, we'll see.  

Oh, and I was already shorted on my paycheck, lol.  I knew it would be a battle to get all of my pay for this trip for their entire pay system is convoluted and it's not cohesive. One division is separate from another and for whatever reason,  they don't share information easily.  So, I was shorted $190 which I will, of course, be discussing with payroll post haste via email about.  

Other than that, just another day in paradise.  Very little storm damage here, the hurricane remnants took a right turn and really spared us the worst of the storm, thankfully.  A bunch of branches on the ground from the big tree out front, but small ones.  I saw dozens and dozens of power line crews traveling east on I-20 yesterday while we were driving back from Dallas - undoubtedly going to Louisiana to help restore power. 800,000 people without electricity was the last estimate I saw. That's a lot of outed power and it's why I have a generator. It did go out briefly here, but less than 2 hours.  `

James set up the generator before he and Taylor came to get me yesterday.  I mean, the freezers will be fine for quite a while without power, I wasn't really concerned about it but hey, better safe than sorry.

Get a haircut, go  to the grocery store and get some things I ran out of, hope my luggage shows up and get some other stuff done.  

 The never ending day.

Got to Charlotte, walked the 17 minutes it takes you to get there from where we got off, waited waited waited.

They started boarding late and we got out of there late.  Sat on the tarmac for 20 minutes and finally, 50 minutes late, took off.

\They blamed it on weather. There was no weather going on there and there wasn't any weather all the way to Dallas, that was just a bald faced lie to keep them from having to pay for hotel rooms.  Arriving at the jetway, 15 minute wait just to get out of the plane. 6:45, flight leaves at 7:00.

Teminal E at one end of the airport, teminal a is where I was, I had no doubts, whatsoever, that the airplane would be gone by the time I got there, but I tried anyway. People were frantically running through the airport, most of the people on the flight had connecting flights going elsewhere.  One dude was literally sprinting. We got on the Skylink, it was 7:00 pm getting off at terminal e, I just watched, amused at people attempting to catch flights that were already gone.

I walked at that point, and when I got there, they said the plane departed 10 minutes ago. Oh well.  When's the next flight?

Lol. 9:00 pm tomorrow night.  

The dude claims he fixed my ticket so that I can go tomorrow.

But it didn't end there. I was half decided to just rent my own car and drive home, but decided against it and called the company for a hotel. They got me a room, when I got there there were 4 people in line.  I heard the lady at the desk telling people that they were receiving reservations for rooms they didn't have.  

My turn, I already knew what she was going to tell me but I had to ask for I was tired and wanted to go to sleep. Nope, no rooms.  So I sat down in the lobby and watched 20 plus people walking in, all of them had reservations, some of them reservations they had made long ago.  I was waiting on whatever hotel, I told them I dont care, just call them first and make sure they have a room.  

The lobby was literally full of people by the time I left, more people standing outside and even more people showing up.  I've never seen anything like it. People getting pissed because yes, they even paid in advance and now being told there are no rooms.

Over to Candlewood Suites. Not my most favorite but it's whatever.  I get there and the lady said the company didn't send clc by fax. So I sit down, start calling them back yet again.  But, the lady found the fax and said here it is and here we go.  Thank God.  The only reason I"m on here typing this is because I am starving. The airport restaurants were closed and I was told due to covid19.

That virus can go back to the hell it came from.

The hotel has frozen food, lean cuisine to be precise and that is what I'm eating for dinner and lunch.  

Tomorrow, I'll give myself a 90% chance that I will drive a rental car back to Longview and eat the cost myself. I have zero desire to be sitting here til 9:00 pm tomorrow night. I truly thought I was going to be home tonight.

And I will get another $300 for an extra day, that can pay for the car. The only thing I may have to consider is weather.  If it's a downpour it's kind of hard to see when driving.  But if I decide to drive home, weather isn't going to stop me lol.  With that, eat this slop and go to bed.  Oh, and my luggage is in Longview, I have no clean clothes or toiletries lololol. 

 I'm almost regretting I didn't just say yes, I'll stay another week.  This is easy work for the money.  But, today/tonight was my last hoorah here.

Well, it's easy work but it's junk equipment, not something I would want to do forever. But really nice people running the plant where you pick up the loaded trailers and you contact them when you get to the paper mill as well. They control the entire operation remotely.  

But I'd like to be home in time for this hurricane. We are a few hundred miles north of it, but that funnel graph they do? We are directly in it's path.  I"m expecting the power to go out and I want to be home if that happens to get the generator out, running and providing electricity to the freezers, refrigerator, my window AC unit lol and whatever they need for the rest of the house.  

"East Texas gets the most of it" the dude is saying right now on whatever this weather channel is showing a graph of red directly over our town.  So yeah, I"m glad to go home and help out and be with my doggies : ). 

Get 10 gallons of fuel as well.  I dunno how much fuel that generator uses. If the power goes out everywhere, the gas stations aren't going to be able to pump fuel. I asked them to get some fuel today but I didn't get a response.  Which doesn't mean anything bad, lol, she gets busy at work and sometimes I don't hear back until the next day.  She being Taylor and the house and yes, she can't deal with those wicked storms.  Extreme anxiety. I just worry about these giant trees coming down and killing all of us. They are huge  trees, I've seen the aftermath of them falling on houses and it ain't pretty. 

Good Lord, now they're saying it may hit a category 3 by the time it hits landfall and " could hit Texas with extreme winds". WTH. No thanks!  Of course, these forecasters/meteorologists could be completely wrong lol.  But this dude is convinced. Up to 14 FEET swelling going INLAND.  

And one of our accounts is directly in the path of this 9 to 14 foot surge, they are on the coast and I have no idea what they are doing, but I would suspect they are shutting the plant down and getting the hell out of there. 

There are other things going on that are high on the list of importance but - geeze. I don't want to go too deep into other people's lives - especially those I am living with and are friends - on the internet.  It's after midnight and I'm going to bed lol. A day of travel tomorrow tho when it's flying that's usually a nice day : )

 Good job Ben, really confused myself last night.  

I was up past midnight, which I normally am not. So looking at my phone last night, it said Tuesday, I thought it meant yesterday was Tuesday and today is Wednesday.  I was tired, lol.  Have a nice, lovely headache this morning from staying up too late. 

So today IS Tuesday and the flight leaves tomorrow.  I had my head wrapped around leaving this morning when I woke up, so now I have to get it back into work mode.  At least the first run is at noon instead of starting at 4:00 pm and keeping me out so late.  If I can get the plant to allow me to take the second load earlier, I can be done by probably around 8:00 pm.  9 at the latest.  If not, well, I'll still only be out til 10.  

Paperwork.  Ugh. Lots of it here.  I thought I had a lot of paperwork in Ethylene, both of these terminals and their rules I have been to up here far supersede by double at least the amount of paperwork I normally have to do.

So I sit here for 30 to 40 minutes getting that done, most of it advance work so I don't have to spend a bunch of time doing it on the road and wasting time.  

Anyway, there are some things going on at the house, but I find myself in need of going to find something to eat both for breakfast and for the road.

G'day.  

 I was dreading tonight's work. Start the second load at 9 pm?  Gag It's a 24 hour operation on both ends. International Paper never shuts down that I know of and this natural gas company doesn't either.  I got the first load done easily - by 6:30 pm. The second load still 2-1/2 hours off, I asked the plant operator if it would be possible to do it now? Lol.  

I'm only awake because there has to be a wind down period for me before transitioning to bed.

He said, well, if you can do us a favor and move some trailers around?  Sure!  He came out and pointed out what he wanted done and I got to it, got it done quickly and got under a loaded trailer - and got out of there.  I mean, it was still almost midnight before I got back to the hotel here, but it's better than what would have been almost 2 am.  

Not to mention they have me loading tomorrow at noon thirty, that was more reason to want to get back as early as possible.  

Oh by the way, I was informed today that I could stay up here indefinitely.  The other driver has been moaning, groaning, bit****, complaining endlessly about going home.  I'm not near as needy as he is.  Yes I'd like to go home, but not that bad.  He's made himself a nuisance to the boss and I made the disclaimer today that he doesn't necessarily speak for me.  That's when the boss said "you can stay up there as long as you like" - after having had sent us both texts with flight information back to Texas.  

After I told Taylor both that I'm coming home and that I could stay up here as long as I wanted, she said "you could stay another week and make another $2,000!".  Well that threw me for a loop.  I miss my doggies, buy I doubt they are missing me lmao.  The lady that is visiting is staying in my bed and Addler has been sleeping with her every night, I found out today lol. I figured she was sleeping in my room, I didn't figure my dog was sleeping with her. 

I dunno how she can deal with it. He will literally push your ass right out of bed lol.  And he starts this shaking stuff - his whole body just starts moving and grooving while he's sleeping, constant, non-stop once it gets going.  Taylor reported to me that they have given him no human food and it finally appears that he is losing weight.  

Here's my question to myself: Do I stay up here another week, until next Friday?  I'm really thinking about this.  The flight back isn't until Wednesday noon thirty, I think.  Could I stand another week up here, well a little longer than that, but without this whining baby driver in the picture? That would certainly make it more palatable.  There are 2 caveats tho, that I must have: a kitchennette -move out of this hotel and into a kitchenette and go grocery shopping - and not lose my truck that is - I hope - sitting there in the yard in Texas.  

I'm going to make up my mind tomorrow one way or the other and then ask Taylor about the dogs - tho she doesn't really care if I'm there or not, James has been taking care of them - and if it sounds good, I may just ask the manager to cancel the flight and let me stay up here another  - 10 days actually starting tomorrow.  

Wait! This IS Tuesday! Tomorrow the flight leaves at 12:25! What the Hercules was I thinking? It's easy to lost track of time up here.  

Okay I'm getting off of here. I don't even know if they can bow out this close to a flight. 

But I have to think anyway and make a decision.

 Monday morning. I waited until well after the manager's arrival time to work before contacting him. I figured the other driver would have already blown up his phone.  Texted him the question about having to fill out a TDS sheet - Tour Data Sheet, it's a sheet that has spaces for all kinds of information we have to fill out for every trip we take - for every day we have been up here?  

He called back - no, you just need to fill out one TDS for all the days you didn't work or train. I've driven 5 days up here, trained 2 and didn't actually do anything for 3 days.  So, I got that done quickly and sent it back to him. 10 days worth of work in one paycheck will be quite nice.  And then there will be today after that and however many more days we are here. He said "Tuesday or Wednesday" return date, of which I didn't ask he volunteered. Well he best be getting with it if he wants us coming back tomorrow, it's gonna take a minute to get all of my stuff repacked and ready to go.

I have work at 3:00 and that will take me up to 8:00 pm or so.  That's why I'd like to know - now - if we are leaving out tomorrow. But for the sake of a partial nother' paycheck, I wouldn't mind coming back on Wednesday just to get something going for next week.  

Meanwhile, on the group driver's texting, they were all complaining about the 2 drivers that are being constantly sent down to Brownsville.  Those are the 2 newbies.  They aren't that new at this point, it's been 4 or 5 months anyway since they both showed up.  Why they get preferential treatment is unknown, especially considering it appears they are going to be permanent drivers in our system.  They not only need to learn how to unload, they also need to get their share of lower paying runs.  It's almost guaranteed to be a huge mistake in trying to discuss it with the manager, he'll just get mad and dismiss you out of the office.  I haven't done that but others have tried.  

They don't want to address why they are doing that stuff and they won't discuss it with any drivers.  But, you make other drivers upset because they don't get any of the gravy runs. It may be that we will all need to agree to go in separately all within a few day's time or so and speak our grievances.  He can dismiss one person, he can't quite dismiss 8 of us.  Well, he can, but he'll get the message.  We see what's going on, we don't understand why it's going on and we want the story, please.  

The same s*** went on with the previous manager with a couple of preferential treatment of drivers. ATM I'm not planning on saying anything. Perhaps when I get back and if my paychecks suffer from it I'll be tempted to, but even then with extreme reservation.  I've had it pretty easy up here, to be honest.  I just don't like being away from home too long.  After 10 days - I'm on the 11th - I'm getting bored, restless and have plenty of stuff to do at the house.  

I am going to take the pond out of the ground and get rid of it. It rains, the junk from the neighbor's yard uphill of us flows into our yard and fills the pond up with that garbage.  It's never ending and I just can't deal with it. I'm going to get a 6 or 8 foot round stock tank - horse trough - and do the same as I had at my house in Phoenix.  It was a great little pond.  It's 2 feet above ground so I don't have to worry about the rain. Stuff will fall into it from trees but that's easier to clean up.  I'll have to put a screen over it to keep birds from eating the fish, I think I can get James to manufacture something for me.  

They have plans for the back yard - but I know from experience that it requires daily maintenance if you really want something nice back there. That or cut down the trees that dump junk everywhere. That's costs thousands of dollars per tree, pretty sure that's not in the cards.  It's truly a mess back there right now, I clean it up here and there but not enough to keep it looking constantly nice.  Every single time it rains, it needs a mass cleaning.  

Roxie, the skinny little shepherd mix they have tore a raccoon to shreds, as the story was relayed to me, this morning. They let her out, roxie found the thing on the porch and killed it. And James said he found bones from another one in the back yard, apparently that little dog has taken a liking to killing raccoons.  They get into everything and eat the dog food up, good riddance to them.  

But, without major improvements that back yard is doomed to be messy.  The neighbor's yard would have to be blocked off somehow - like diverting the rain water and all the junk in it towards the stream out back.  That would entail having to build a block wall about 75 feet long. Gag.  

I didn't want to poopoo on their party, tho.  If they have the desire to do the upkeep I'll certainly help. But I won't take that burden alone, it's too much work.  

And with that I'm heading out to get lunch, bring it back, eat, take a nap and then get ready for work. 3:00 pm start time today.  

 Happy Sunday!

Another day in paradise - otherwise known as Williston, Vermont.  Looking at a map, I was almost shocked to realize how far up north I actually am.  I only did that because my buddy Fin kept mentioning how Canada is just across the lake.  Really?  Shows you how much attention I have paid to the countryside around me, Montreal is only 99 miles from here. 

Well, I've looked at the beautiful scenery and mountains and taken a lot of pics, but not a map of the region.  It would be interesting to drive up to Canada, but I don't know about driving a rental car over there. I actually have my passport with me.  

Anyway, I have one run scheduled to me for a 2:00 pm start time.  That kind of does in any chances of doing any traveling excepting by truck lol.  And today starts The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) Brake Safety Week . 

 That's just another excuse for them to pull over trucks and do inspections.  Coronavirus be damned lmao, we're going to inspect those trucks!  And there just happens to be a weigh station on both the north and south bound sides of I-89 where I have to travel through to get to the plant in New York.  Get past those two stations and there is no way they can pull trucks over on the rest of the route, there is literally no place to pull over.  If a truck breaks down in any of that area, it's taking up the entire lane and blocking traffic lol.  

I don't know the condition of the brakes on any of those trucks, I can look at the brake linings to determine if they have enough padding. They are going to be inspecting hoses and valves and such.  

If I get pulled over, it is what it is, it's  part of trucking but I'd far rather be in my own truck right now, I know it's in great shape!

I'm beginning to go stir crazy.  Simply because the lack of work.  One run? That's only 4 to 5 hours and it's done.  I'm at 10 days as of today here, that's 3 grand, nice number, time to go home!  But they're dragging it out, extending it further and further. At two weeks, I'll be putting my foot down if it goes that far and declaring that that is the maximum amount of time I agreed to be up here.  I said it twice to my manager in his office before I left, undoubtedly he has forgotten that declaration, but I'll be reminding him of it.  

Amazingly, the friend of Taylor's who has been staying at the house for - 2 weeks I think - lives in Maine.  That's only a hop, skip and a jump away as well.  I haven't been to Maine since I was a child.  

A few things I hope not to forget if they ever try to make me come up here again. 1 - a kitchenette.  There's 2 huge grocery stores not half a mile from this hotel. I could be preparing my own food and eating much healthier and according to my diet if I were in a kitchenette.  

2. Drive my own truck  up here - which is what they originally proposed.  And I was for, btw.  Then I know what I'm driving is road worthy and won't have to speculate what we will be driving.

3. Know what we will be hauling.  I want to know what product it is, if I've hauled it and if not, that they understand - the management where I'll be going - that they will have to train me.  However long that takes.  I don't mind learning new things, at the same time I don't need pissy management thinking simply because I've hauled Cryo I must, somehow, magically understand how other cryo operations work.

4.  A definitive return date. A "no later than this date you will return home".  Because right now? It's still up in the air. It wouldn't shock me in the least if they tried to keep us up here another weekend.  As if our lives are expendable, they just move it further and further out.  The other driver has a family and kids, I don't have that but I still want to go home!  Thursday marks 2 weeks.  Well Friday in reality but we spent all day friday in transit coming up here so I'm counting it as well.  

They leave so much up in the air. Even the driver that trained me up here? He had only been delivering this stuff for 2 weeks.  Lol, my training was green as well.  He did a good job, but apparently he left out a bunch of important information that he apparently thought wasn't necessary. Just the actual process of hooking up the trailers to the rail where the plant has it's piping to deliver the gas from the trailers to the plant. An operation they have well off from the rail - like at least 500 feet away.  

This go with the flow mindset I've tried to take doesn't work out.  They just take advantage of it.  I won't refuse another journey like this, but I'll want specifics before I make a decision. That's the gist of it, or they can move onto the next driver.  It's almost guaranteed they will need drivers up here to haul LNG this winter. They had to fill 100 open spots with drivers from around the country, in advance for just such an operation. Not the same one as I did before but not far from it.  The other driver said he volunteered for this one so that when winter comes around and they start asking, he can say he already did his gig, someone else's turn.  Good thought, I suppose.  

So there it is.  My Sunday morning. It's 8:30 am and I'm thinking of attempting to try to find a restaurant that actually serves breakfast that isn't 10 miles away.  

Hmm, The Skinny Pancake, right by the water. Or Panera which is right down the street.  Not much else I can find that has breakfast fare.  

_______________

Panera it was, just a breakfast sandwich and coffee.  Prices around here to eat out are pretty outrageous.  $15 for that.  Just another reason not to want to eat out all the time, tho the $40 allowance for food every day seems to be enough to not go starving. 

 I actually am going to do some driving today after.....4 days of not driving besides the rental vehicle.  

2 loads, should take around 9 hours max to get done.  I would have this run to a science if they had kept me up here doing it by now, but I feel like when I get to the paper mill I'm going to be struggling to remember the correct sequence. I have most of it written down.  Really it just means it will take longer than it should for me to stand there and reacquaint myself with it.

Yesterday's 3 hour excursion to Church street was interesting, I probably would have tried to find something else to do today if I were sitting around yet again.

The new story is Wednesday or Thursday we are coming back.  I was content with Monday, they really need to actually make use of us for me to want to continue to stay up here.  Allegedly the only real time they need us is the weekends. The weekend is here and yes I have 2 runs today and won't be surprised if there's 2 tomorrow.  It's still a light day compared to what I normally do. The first day of any normal trip for me is usually in the 13 hour range and more often than not winding my 14 hour clock down to a few minutes before stopping.  

This is day 9, regardless and I found out last night that our manager hadn't turned in any work for us to get paid with next week. That was rather disconcerting since I didn't get paid this week.  I dunno what the issue is but he really should have had us filling out whatever we needed to fill out yesterday and get it sent in.  I mean, I literally had nothing to do yesterday, it's not like I didn't have the time for it...

I'm being told that we have to fill out a TDS for each day regardless of whether we did anything or not.  Okay, so why wait until the last minute to inform us of this little gem of knowledge?  

I broke the diet yesterday It's really hard up here to try and find foods that fit in with Keto and I just gave up on it.  Very limited offerings and eating the same foods over and over, I just decided to go ahead and have a giant pizza at a local "wood fired pizza" place.  Delicious.  Plenty left over to eat on the road today.  I'm not completely ditching the diet - but it doesn't work unless you keep it under 20 carbs per day.  

Still, to completely ditch it makes it extremely difficult to get back into it, so at least some meals are going to be keto friendly as much as I can figure it out. I have no stove top or oven to cook with, that's pretty much the issue, I make a lot of my own food for the road, but it was impossible to bring anything this trip since we were flying.  There are decidedly few restaurants around here. It's weird.  And all of them you have to cal in advance to make an appointment, lol.  

I was talking to some locals yesterday, even with the foul winter elements up here they love living up here. Interesting.  They aren't in love with the heavy taxation and that would be a major decision maker for me if for some reason I were to ever want to move over to this area.  New Mexico, Arizona, Colorao - states with the Rockies running through them have far more appeal. Still have winter snow but I don't think it's anything like what goes on up here.  

The thought of retiring abroad has much less appeal, but is certainly nothing I would dismiss if the country turns into a socialist nightmare and taxation goes through the roof, along with ridiculous power grabs to dictate to the people how we are going to live.  I do wonder how much of that stuff America would put up with before a rebellion/uprising?  I was asking about 45 ACP's in several pawn and gun shops where I live an they have - none.  Much of their gun inventories are all but sold out, save some hunting rifles and smaller caliper pistols.  

Oh and the county voted to keep the Confederate statue. I don't remember if I wrote that in here yet or not.  It will be quite interesting to see what happens next, as some of these people opposed to that statue are hell bent on seeing it come down.  Will they try to tear the thing down? What other authority can they appeal to?  Maybe start a petition, the voting was within the county board, not citizens at large in the county.  They'd have to try to tear that thing down in the middle of the night if that were their intended course of action and even then - it's across the street from the county jail and courthouse.  Local police are always driving through there.  

My life wouldn't be shattered if the thing were torn down, but I have to wonder if the people intent on getting rid of that statue are willing to take the risk of armed citizens showing up and dealing with these people on their own? Not that the county sheriff is against the statue, he sent out deputies to stand by and watch when they were "protesting" here - which amounted to much of nothing since a bunch of armed citizens also showed up to keep the peace. I don't know about the police, they seem to be much more in the liberal aisle of their thinking and I have to wonder if they would even try to stop it if these people from outside the area were to come tear it down?

 Friday morning.

Got back up here at around noon yesterday.  They sent me nothing for today.  Could that change?  Maybe, I have no clue, but I am planning today as if I am going to be doing nothing. The other driver had a day off the other day as well.  I want to visit the infamous Church Street shops and see what that's all about.  Apparently some beautiful hiking trails near the lake.  Not really sure, won't wander off too far in case they call me in. 

The other driver only had one run yesterday, of which I met him after he was done at chili's for dinner - of which, of course, I had to make a reservation lmao.  The place wasn't particularly busy. 

I got no paycheck this week, I wasn't expecting one. They loaded up my last paycheck with all 3 Illinois runs and I knew that would have to suffice for 2 weeks.  We're at day $2,400, tomorrow will be day $2,700, we're expecting to go home, the other driver is pushing for it heavily.  Going home on Sunday or Monday will work for me. 

They aren't asking me to do anything, I really don't care that I'm getting paid to sit around be lazy. That's entirely on them. The only concern is not doing the run enough times you start to forget the procedure for offloading. So i went through that in my mind several times today to refresh my memory and I also decided to attempt to keep in memory everything I learned down in Bosrah. It really wouldn't have taken 2 weeks to learn that stuff, as this morning I went through the entire procedure in my head, only had to stop and think about it a couple of times.  the only real trouble you can get into is allowing the pressure on the plant side to too high - and it's really easy to bring the pressure back down. 

What I learned down there explained how they do ethylene at the plants I go to. None of the operators are interested in teaching anyone anything, you aren't allowed to touch their side of the plant so I guess they think it's a worthless of time to try and do so. Basically, you hook up the line from the trailer to the plant inlet, open up a valve to purge impurities out of the line, close that up and start pumping ethylene in. The operator goes and looks at the pressure once in a while and adjusts the top and bottom feed valves according ly.

There isn't much more to it than that but I never knew what the valves were doing that they were always turning until now.  

The CNG deliveries - which is what I should be doing up here - are a bit different.  Just procedure as well.  But it's much easier and I have all of that memorized. It's almost fail proof.  Actually it is failproof. Hooking into the main line can't effect anything because they don't open up their end of the valves to the plant until a whole swath of trucks are hooked up to it.  

Anyway. I could go on and on about that stuff, that would get boring.  I am watching a hurricane, or a storm that may turn into one - whichever it was, heading into the Gulf and heading straight for the coastline south of our house 250 miles north.  Whenever it hits, they are going to get flooded with rain.  Maybe some winds too and it is tornado season so that is always a concern.  

Keep me here til sunday, hit the 3 grand mark, I'm ready to go home.  

Lol, Taylor just started texting and said it's "been quiet without you" and "I won't lie. Its a bit too quiet".  

I kind of talk loud. Always have, never really think about it, just comes out that way.  Probably a childhood thing with two older brothers always getting their way and me squeaking my little voice out.  Compensated for it lol.  I dunno, it's just part of who I am and some people like it and others don't. Fortunately I don't live my life cowering in fear of what other people think about me.  

______________________

Trip to Church street done.  Replete with numerous phone calls from the other driver, texting between us and the manager, Taylor texting me and then finally, dispatch up here sending me  2 loads for tomorrow.  I've done much of nothing as far as driving - 4 trips altogether, so it's kind of my turn to spend 9 hours on the road lol.  

At least the first load is at 9am instead of 6.  I'll take that. That getting up early stuff every time was getting old.  I mean, I haven't really been doing too much lmao, so getting back at around 6 isn't going to bother me too terribly much. Whether I run again on Sunday who knows, but probably, that is allegedly - as the truth continues to unfold - the reason they brought us up here. 

Our manager told the other driver that we are likely to be staying up here until Wednesday or Thursday, well beyond anything he wanted to be doing up here and really, rather pushing it for me as well.  What I know? If Friday gets here of next week and we/I am still here? We be going home Captain Honey, cause' that's all I agreed to and I made that strikingly, glaringly, overtly clear to my manager several times over when we were discsussing this scenario.

 12 plus hour day.  Started with no tractor/trailer available, had to go back to my hotel to find one that had been taken here by another driver.  

The truck was empty  - no nitrogen in it, hadn't been refueled, etc etc etc.  That threw the whole thing out of whack.  That truck was supposed to be at the yard, fueled, filled with nitrogen and ready to go.  

Whatever the case, I am going to by pass the entire day and go to the last stop, where the trainer texted the manager and told her I am "green" meaning I don't know how to load trucks and do all of this stuff - but he's learning.  

She texts back expletives and said she would have to find out "what to do with me" - as if she didn't already know I didn't know any of this stuff. For when I got here, she asked I told her flatly that I have never done oxygen or nitrogen.  She must have known I wasn't staying forever and therefore training me was a waste of time.  

So I get a text from her telling me that she contacted Holly and that I was to drive back up to Vermont to work out of there.  No thank you for coming, no nothing.  I was a bit disappointed, to be honest, that I had learned as much as I had and wouldn't have the opportunity to finish out the training.  I don't want to stay up here forever, but word has it work is slowed way down again in Texas.  But it doesn't really help them that I would take advantage of learning and then leave.  Tho I could have come back here and there to help out for a week or two.  

Well, I texted my manager and told him what was going on, he tried to call me but the noise of that "pony pump" they call it pumping nitrogen into the tank was too loud, I had my ear muffs on. I called him back a little later and told him what was going on. 

I mean, someone should have to answer for telling these people that I knew oxygen and nitrogen.  But whatever, tomorrow morning I will drive back up there, get into a hotel again and do nothing for that day and presumably get a run or two on Friday.  Or sent home.  I dunno, but I'd rather stay up there a few more days and get a few more $300's on the books. It's relatively easy work regardless of the junky trucks and I'll just do it.  But my manager sounds like he's bringing us back.  

So that's it.  Boston was interesting - we drove through downtown and the trainer was showing me all these homeless people and a building where they get some sort of narcotics and drug themselves up al day long.  One man was laying in the middle of the street, obviously doped up and paramedics were there doing whatever they were going to do. We saw dozens and dozens of drugged up homeless people everywhere - well hundreds actually.  

And long lengths of row housing - but more like apartment version of it.  I'll be posting a pic of that on my facebook later on or whenever I get to it. The streets weren't near as busy as they should be - another state/city shut down by mayor/governor due to covid19.

Oh, this dude this morning, not my trainer he is a Trump supporter - anyway these pudgy, boisterous short little dude with a big mouth started going off on Trump this morning.  He said anyone that is a Trump supporter is an idiot. I directly spoke to him that I support Trump.  He said you're a Trumpette. I countered that you and the left only know how to throw out stupid insults and act like adult children throwing a temper tantrum. He didn't like that, lmao and let off a string of Trump hating, Trump supporter hating statements that I continued to counter - these people don't think for themselves. They don't bother to check to see if the s*** they are being spoon fed is actually true. They just believe it and that's that. 

He suddenly decided to stop with the nonsense and off into another subject that had nothing to do with politics.  

It truly doesn't bother me if you don't like Trump, or his supporters. That's fine, we all have the right to our opinions. But get over yourselves. If you start throwing a temper tantrum and talking like a teenager in heat in puberty, please just shut your d*** mouth.  Your emotional outbursts and tirades only make you look like an idiot. You people that think you can dictate to the rest of the country how we should talk, act and think are just asking for trouble.  I saw a video of that unfolding a few days ago.  BLM protesters attempting to attack real men. The real men won, they beat the s*** out of a couple of the worst of them and then asked if they needed help.

Just like this dude this morning, these people are used to Trump supporters cowering or backing off. I'm not one of those people and neither were the people in that video.  I am in no wise into violence, but if you're going to assault people that are far bigger than you, expect a world of hurt to come back at you. IF you're one of those people that mouths off all the time and think that everyone should just bow in agreement, you may eventually encounter someone who isn't going to just listen to you mouthing off for 15 minutes.

The other driver had - no run to do today.  So, he went to lake Champlain and took a ferry to some island out there.  Rather than sitting around a hotel all day long, of course.  I was kind of jealous lol, cause today I definitely learned a lot more and am just starting to get the hang of how this works. Oxygen and Nitrogen both unload the same and it's the same sequence, every time.  But since I'm not finishing training, none of this will stick with me.  I'll just have an "idea" of how it goes down the road. 

My manager said he found out - now the story changes yet again - that they only needed our help on the weekend. On weekends, the regular drivers disappear, they go home, leaving them shorthanded hence flying us up there. That's why they initially stated we would only be gone 2 days. Then management looked at the price tag of bringing us up there and decided to keep us longer.  I'd be a fan of doing that more frequently, just fly me up Friday, I'll work Saturday, Sunday and Monday, fly me home Tuesday.  At least when we're slow lol. 

My 401k's are up thousands of more dollars, into territory I've never been in before.  If this holds up I'll break my first 100k in savings soon enough.  Yea I know, that's not much for my age, but it's a good foothold into getting there. 

I dunno what else.  Addler probably getting grumpy by now, tho James can handle him lol.  Going home will be fun, he'll literally try to knock me over when he sees me.  

Well I'm a bit tired so I'm offa here. 

 So, day 6 since I left.  Tomorrow will be 7 days, the minimum I wanted to do up here before coming back.  That way I have actually accumulated some days to make some money. My manager is apparently working to get us back this weekend.  But I dunno that for sure and I won't get my hopes up.  The manager down here wants me delivering oxygen asap.  The well experienced driver training me says it takes a minimum of 2 full weeks training, usually 3, to get the hang of what's going on.

I would challenge that, it won't take me that long to learn how to do this stuff, but I am certainly not prepared yet to just float off in a truck by myself and start opening valves and doing this stuff. It's medical grade oxygen - being delivered to hospitals.  It's not for industrial use. Which means, people are using that oxygen while you're loading it.  You can't just make a mistake and say, oops!  The biggest mistake you can make, I was informed, is letting the pressure on the tank you are filling go over 300. If you do, liquid oxygen will be pumpinginto the lines and people will be breathing in  - liquid oxygen. 

That's an important one! 

Anyway, considering I have no intentions of staying here, this training is basically a waste of their time. Except that it shows there is another driver on the books.  This is what this was really all about.  Now that I've asked a lot of questions and gotten some answers. These plants put the company under contract and part of the contract is that at any given time, there will be a minimum number of X amount of drivers working on that contract.  Now, if they don't have enough drivers, the plant fines them a huge amount of money on a weekly basis.  So, this entire northeastern sector brings in drivers like me all the time.  ALL the time, this hotel has something like 8 of us staying here, same thing I'm doing the only difference is that I'm getting a $40 per day allowance for food, none of them are.

And I'm not supposed to tell anyone.  My lips are sealed.

But, if we go home on Sunday, which is being proposed, that's a nice chunk of change for the time spent here and I will feel like I made some decent money. Minimum would be leaving on Friday - we are paid for the travel day as well.  I'm good with Sunday tho.  That's a long time out for me at `10 days, not really interested in pushing it much further out considering they want me working every single day.  That isn't anything I normally do, either. I usually get at least a day off between runs.  And none of these people up there are working 7 days a week.  I'm not going to press that issue since I'm getting paid $300 per day regardless of what I am doing.

But I'm almost guaranteed to run into problems getting paid for all of this, and  if that happens and I have to fight for my money, that will be the deal breaker for any future requests to do this type of thing again. That and being sent to places where I have no clue what I'm doing.  Again, I get they are doing this the way they are doing it to fill the rolls with drivers, but I feel like I am just wasting my time doing all of this training, filling my head with all this new information for nothing.  I highly doubt I will ever get to go out on a run by myself on this particular place I'm at.  

The trainer, however, is loving it. He gets an extra $300 per day to train me.  Win situation for him, so I'm not worried about him. 

Anyways, after work yesterday I went to Walmart and bought a cheap, long sleeve shirt.  I had to wear my FRC jump suit yesterday and it got very hot in that.  I also bought snacks, I didn't get a chance to eat until yesterday afternoon, ran out of bottled water before noon and I wasn't feeling very good until I said down at a restaurant and ate something and drank several glasses of water. 

So today, it's a couple of bottled waters, some beef jerky and a low carb candy.

Anyway, it's almost time to leave. 

G'day.  

 Day 5 of all of this, early Tuesday morning.

Sleep was okay, not great but I'll survive the day.

Food hard to find around here, that's an issue.  

Going to have to find a grocery store so I can find some stuff to take with me during the day.  I don't need to eat a whole meal on the road, but I have no idea how long I'm going to be out.  8 hours? 10? 14?  No idea.  The people running this company are minimalists on handing out info and I suppose they do it on purpose, if you knew in advance you'd be driving junk trucks you wouldn't want to go.  

Again, I'd far rather be at the Vermont place even with junk equipment just because I purposed myself to learning what I needed to learn and getting that part over with.  Then I can just do my thing, get the day over with and get closer to getting back home without all the stress of attempting to learn an entirely new process.

I went through oxygen training in orientation almost 3 years ago.  But it was just classroom stuff, not hands on learning how to load or unload.  It can be quite dangerous.  Nitrogen - is very cold, but it's not flammable, that's likely much less involved stuff to deal with.  I'm guessing similar hookups to what I already do, their trailers I noticed are pretty much the same as ours.  

Well, off to the races.  

 I'm writing endless entries for my sanity.  

Because I just spent almost 2 hours reading endless training stuff.

This was the precursor that was pounced on me when I arrived at the plant today.

And tests. Tests on all of them.  

I'm a truck driver, I don't need to know all of this stuff about plant operations.  I'm not a low IQ person by any stretch of the means, but why should I need to know about plant operations that I have no involvement with? Scientist stuff and operations junk, I'm not working there, I just get the product loaded onto the trailer, deliver it and done.  

So I had to sit here on my laptop and study and memorize this stuff, for I know how this works with this company. I've gone through this several times before. Hours and hours of training for material I'll never deal with - unless I become an employee of their plant and become involved with their operations, smh.

However, it's not our company that wants us to learn this stuff. It's the customers.  This particular customer who shall remain nameless but is a huge name in the cryogenics industry and is all over the country feels it's necessary.  The thing is, I've been going into this customer's plants all along. Texas, Ohio and Alabama without getting too definitive here.  

Whatever. I'm done with all of that, it's all passed 100% correct and I'm tired.  

Kind of gives me a feel for going back to college. Lol

 The layers of bs just keep piling up.

I was sent down here - Bosrah (?) Connecticut to haul cryogenics, I found out after I got there. great, that's all I do anyway.  Cool, the lady manager replies, they said you've done Oxygen and Nitrogen.  Uhh, no, and I've never told anyone anywhere that I have.  I doubt it's much harder to learn than Ethylene, maybe easier actually, especially Nitrogen.  Oxygen - well that stuff is kind of different.  

I felt as if I had driven 270 miles for nothing. That was the length of the drive down here, I stopped for nothing, just wanted it over with. Drove straight to the plant to talk with her about tomorrow.  

Just another page in the books of time of failed communications and not on my part. For no one asked me those questions, they could have looked it up if they had wanted to, I think they were trying to find a way out for the obvious calculation error they made in needing two more drivers up there in Vermont. 

It's 5:30 pm, I just got done eating at a local restaurant, food not bad, not great but it filled my gut and I was hungry.  Place completely empty, I thought it was closed at first.  

Oh, and I'm now staying at a 6 story Holiday Inn.  Been 40 to 50 years since I stayed in one of these, everything else has been Holiday Inn Express.  The room is huge, the carpet is nice and well appointed. Much better, actually, than the Fairfield Marriott I just got done staying at.  But they have the same policy here: We don't go into your room while you're staying with us. The dude was completely apologetic saying that and was extremely helpful. For when I got to the room, I found a Keurig machine - with no coffee, no coffee cups and no creamer.  Wow.

I went all 5 stories back down - I asked for the highest up room he could give me, this was it, the 6th floor is obvious suites and probably much more expensive - he said yes Mr. B, I will be pleased to go get you a bag full of stuff! Do you like half and half? Yes please and no sugar and no decaf. Sure thing! Several minutes later he came back with a bag, but declared he needed to go to the - closed - restaurant and get the half and half.  So I followed him to the entrance of the restaurant - definitely closed and that was my guess before I even came here, hence going to a restaurant and eating dinner first. 

He comes back with that and says, well, since you have the ice bucket with you, I can go get you that too! Oh, no worries, I just didn't know where the machine was.  He insisted that the ice machine was right there in the kitchen and no bother! Service with determination and a smile, gotta love that! Sure, why not!

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow.  Why? Because I'll be back at the bottom yet again. After learning all that stuff up in Vermont, it was rather useless, being directly sent down here.  I've kept a good attitude about it while around all of these managers and other people, I will vent about it here. For I have never seen such mismanaged, miscommunicated, misdirected waste of resources. Okay, I have but this is really quite ridiculous.  

They didn't need us up here. That's the fact. 

The other driver is whining to high heaven, tired of hearing it actually.  Just more of the same after yet another conversation with him.  ON and on and on, he should have just said no thanks, I'm not going anywhere.  He said I was making him look bad.  I thought but didn't say, probably.  I am not demanding to go back this weekend. I may end having that done but right now, if my sleep comes back to me I will be good to go tomorrow. Yes I hate the idea of having to start over and fill my head with all kinds of new stuff - but at the same time, it's kind of intriguing. 

But, ethylene is back in full steam and has been  back since before I left. 

Whatever. I have online training to do now.  There are certain courses you have to take to be able to get into certain plants.  I figured I had done all of those courses, but apparently I haven't done this one.  Or more than one, I have no clue.  It's still early enough, but I want to get that over with. I have to be at the plant at 6:30 am, a bit more merciful than Vermont, to get a tractor and apparently follow another driver to deliver - whatever. I'd rather do Nitrogen, oxygen is really bad stuff, actually. You really need training for doing that stuff.