This'll be a shorty versus last post lol.

Brisket was a success.  The thin end I knew was going to be rather dried out - I know some find ways to deal with that while cooking it, I usually cut the large end off from the thin end and cook them separately.  It wasn't too bad on the thin end, the only reason I ended up cooking the whole thing is it was frozen last night and after thawing out beef I don't like to refreeze.  No way to cut it frozen, obviously so it is what it is.  But the big end was juicy and delicious.  

A huge amount of food was devoured because James friends saw my post on Facebook and said they wished they could have some. Well yea, come over!  They literally live 2 blocks away lol.  So they showed up, Maria, everyone was hungry, the cauliflower bake I made was almost entirely devoured - that was 2 heads of cauliflower - the 2 pounds of bacon - gone, half of the brisket, gone.   It was a huge brisket so half of it gone was quite the feat.  

I like when I make food and most of it is devoured.  I don't like a lot of leftovers, especially here, they mostly won't get eaten.  6 adults and 2 children, that makes it more likely more of the food will be gone.  Plus sending food home with people.  

The day is done, the kitchen is cleaned up, I retired to the bedroom, everyone left and boys and J/T went to bed. 

As for me, it's time to go sleepy time.  The next 3 or 4 days will be busy, long days.  

 Oklahoma run over with.  Although, not without seeing another wicked accident.  A Mercedes sitting in the median, cables - those type that stop vehicles form crossing over the median into oncoming traffic - destroyed and the entire roof of the car torn off.  Ambulance come and gone by the time I got there, I have no idea if those people lived.  But the stuff I see out on the highways all the time!

Well, okay, the plant took 4 hours to get out of . They keep getting new people in there. They get one trained and finally figure out what they are doing and then? They bring another brand new person in there and taking literally FOREVER to do the paperwork after you are done getting loaded.  It's ridiculous. Before the lady that retired left, we were in and out in 10 to 15 minutes on most days.  A room full of other drivers yesterday,  some there longer than I had waited.  

I ended up using my 16 hour exception so I could make it to the casino truckstop near the Texas border.  Got done last night at midnight, slept 7 solid hours, went into the casino this morning for free coffee and cheap breakfast - but no gamlbing, didn't feel like it  -  and left there. 

Yesterday, however, I received my work assignment for the next trip.  The pic of the paper that has all the info on it was sent. I was thinking, hmm, I"m out of hours, I don't have enough hours left to go anywhere, not even a short run.  Just get back to the yard.  I clicked on the pic, it's a run to Stryker, Ohio. Not in love with that trip, but I'll take it over an Oklahoma.  Around 2,000 miles, the issue is it takes 4 days versus the 3 I could do it in if the plant would unload us as soon as we get there.  The last time I was up there, they did, indeed, unload my truck that afternoon.   Instead of having to wait up to 18 hours to unload the next morning. I was informed by another driver that they aren't doing that "anymore", as if it had been going on forver.

What I am going to do this time? If they make me wait? List it as detention time. Sit in front of their gate and wait the entire 16 plus hours and let them pay me for it.  If they refuse, I'm going to make some arguments about this nonsense of having to leave 3 days before the unload time when it only takes a day and a quarter to get up there.  Why should I be penalized for the plant simply wanting to dictate terms? If they are going to make me wait, pay for it.  

Well, anyways, it's Saturday 4:00 pm. I got back in town around noon today and decided to go grocery shopping - something I haven't done in literally weeks - go get some fuel for the vehicle, visit the eatery and then come home. That took 4 hours lol.  Dogs were howling lol. Temps have dropped considerably, it's back to outdoor fire pit season.  Not today tho lol, I'm in the bedroom, watching the news - yes I know I said I wasn't watching much of it, but there's so much coming out so fast now, and the election literally around the corner I have been watching some of it - petting the doggies, home alone.

James and Taylor took off to Arkansas with the boy to see mom/grandma.  I invited the ladies over tomorrow for steak.  I dunno if Kim will come, Maria is coming.  My trip to the grocery store included buying new york strip steak in case they wanted to come.  It's on sale so yea.  

______________________________

Sunday morning. Weather has dropped enough that I wanted to run the furnace - James and Taylor are coming back from Arkansas today.  The thing starts up making a humming noise and then it kills itself.  I have no desire to open that thing up and see if I can figure it out.  The exhaust vent has a huge opening on it and so I wouldn't run it anyway.  Carbon monoxide poisoning isn't a very pleasant thought of how to go out of this life.  I warned them even if they do get it fired up that thing needs to be sealed up good, can't be any leaks at all.  

In reality, an AC repairman said last year it needs to be replaced, the entire unit, it's on it's last leg.  If it were my house I would have already replaced that entire system and just make payments on it - they aren't cheap.  But it doesn't seem to be a priority to them and I am not spending my own money on replacing it. I have had it fixed in the past at my expense, I had no problem with that, but I'm not spending 7 or 8 grand on this house, it isn't mine.  I have a big room heater in my room and a window ac unit.  I'll neither freeze or burn up in here. Whatever they decide to do I'm fine with, it's their house, their expense.  They are both just starting new jobs and I suspect bills are piling up, so replacing it is very likely not on their priority list.  

And, the bills that cover utilities are on my dime, so regardless of their finances - I'm only guessing - the utilities aren't getting shut off. That's my rent here, I pay all the utilities and the wifi and the satellite. Sounds like a lot but it isn't really that bad and I get a huge room with it's own bathroom in exchange.  And pretty much do whatever I want within reason, such as the smoker and the pond situation.  

Alright, well I'm not spending my day off messing with that thing, I have a 3 or 4 day trip coming up, I'm going to stay home and hang out with my doggies and smoke that brisket.  In fact I need to get out there and fire up the smoker, it takes a while for it to get heated up and then stabilize the temp. Like a half an hour at least.  But this time, I'm just smoking it for like 3 hours and then I'm finishing it off in the oven. I've read on smoking sites that lots of people do that and it doesn't change the outcome of the brisket, just the purists who think you should smoke it all the way to the finish line think that's "wrong" lol.  

Ok, smoker fired up, brisket trimmed, rubbed with a nice home made rub and in the smoker as of 2 hours ago.  Still has a ways to go to get to the smoked appearance I like before I remove it from there and put into the oven.  Absolutely giant brisket, it's going to take half the day to cook it even at a higher temp.  Brisket has to be cooked to 195 minimum to get to the tender, juicy stage. Sounds ridiculous, it did to me at first too, but cooking it to any other temp below that and it was tough and dry.  Trip to Walmart as well since I was low on charcoal, smoker logs and smoker chips.  Of course they moved all of that "elsewhere" since Christmas stuff takes over the garden center.  

Adler is following me around like a puppy dog today, sticking his head into my side constantly and refusing to do anything but be near me.  Typical dog, even more typical for Great Danes.  He certainly loves my queen sized bed! lol

And, I've been reading texts from drivers all morning long. The COA - Certification of Analysis - is coming back bad.  Amazingly, they are still loading trucks anyway.  Like, if they can't get a good COA reading, they're going to have to unload all of those trucks, get that product back into the system and purify it some more.  That would take the rest of the day and probably into tomorrow.  ATM, my trip tomorrow is up in the air.   I mean, they'll still make me do the trip, the question is when? I don't really want to be doing an afternoon load on a trip that long, it will have me driving late into the night and I'm not a big fan of that. It's 7:30 load time tomorrow - gets me done with the day no later than 9:30 pm, probably earlier than that depending on how the day goes.  But if this stuff drags into tomorrow, kiss that schedule goodbye.  

Strange how over the last several months they've been having so many issues with both product and ability to pump the product into the trucks - tho more product issues.  They "fixed" the system and it has never been right since then.  

Well, the Presidential debates are over - thankfully - and countdown to election day.  A lot of people have already voted but I assume they can't start counting any of that until the 3rd - and then it's probably going to take more than a day in some areas to count all of that.  And likely, a lot of votes are going to be disqualified because of technical issues with not signing the ballot of filling it out correctly.  I wonder how many will be disqualified and if it would actually affect the outcome of the election?  

Texas has early voting, I just need some time on a morning here to go in and get it done.  Supposedly there are long lines tho, which is kind of strange in a small town.  I'm not going to risk waiting until election day to vote and find out I'm on the road somewhere and can't vote at all.  This is one election where everyone must go out and vote. If you're a Trump supporter, you don't have the luxury of thinking that there are enough votes to cover it without yours.  The polls are shrinking - I don't necessarily trust them anyway - but if theyre anything accurate, the gap is close, but some swing states have Biden winning. There are a lot of factors that people are discussing about the "hidden" or "secret" vote of Republicans who are tired of being shamed by democrats and won't talk to the pollsters on the phone or won't tell the truth about who they're voting for.  I have no such qualms, I will gladly tell everyone everywhere that asks or is discussing it that I am voting for Trump.  They aren't going to be spitting on me or ripping the hat off my head without consequences.  I've only received strange looks so far.  

Not that I'm going out looking for trouble, but I am not going to be shamed into a corner.  The one thing I have done is ensure that my employment information is to be found nowhere on the internet.  I would be concerned about the cancel culture, I have no idea how my company would react to a smear campaign.  Right to work state, they could release me without any explanation.  So I'm cautious on that point.  I could go out and find another job, yes, pretty quickly, but I found this one after a long search and it works for me- for now.  Not going to do this forever, but until I get my land and get an RV or mobile home park going or some kind of other mass rental type thing such as a small apartment complex, I need to keep working.  I'm up to 15 grand in cash saved, still have  ways to go. Maybe double that anyway if it's going to be down payment type thing.  All of it and then some if it's going to be a tax lien auction situation.  Get the land, wait the 180 days, get the title cleared up and then use the land as collateral for a construction loan.  

Around 50 grand to have a company come in, clear a lot, install the utilities, install pads for the RV's, make the roads/driveways.  Probably put up one of those moveable instant home things as an office to begin with and improve the property over time.  Make it a destination in and of itself. Which requires a lot of land so people can bring their ATV's with them and go riding.  A swimming pool.  A clubhouse with activities.  I know how to do this, I just need the capital to get it done and some legal help to get a contract for people staying overnight and something else for people living there, etc.  Oh, and of course permits, county approval - I don't want to do this in town, cost too much and too much regulation.  Taylor said a long time ago she would love to do the business end of this deal in paperwork and keeping track of revenue and expenditures.  

It's been a long term goal - for a long, long time I've wanted to do this.  I just feel like now with greatly improved credit score, a very good paying job and getting some cash saved up I can start to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Just a glimmer of it at the moment, but it is actually becoming doable, I believe.  This is something that I have never let go of. I got the taste for rental at my house and that has never left. Whatever happens, everyone needs a place to stay.  A lot of people live in RV's around here.  Mobile home park will have to be something out in the future, if ever, it really doesn't matter to me, RV parks actually look nicer and are less prone to becoming as trashy as MHP's.  They need less land, less amount of utilities since everything is closer together.  

But, at the same time, people like them to be a destination place as well as a place for those that are traveling can pull in, set up camp and sleep for the night.  I was watching one being built over several month span of time down south.  They got the place up and running - it's bare bones park too, its nothing but crushed rock driveways and a small module at the front for an office, the utitlies and that's it.  But every time I drive by there, I see the place has at least 25-30 RV's in there.  That's a more "prime" location tho, right off the side of the highway where travelers can stop.  For what I want, I'd like more trees - not to many but some - and a nicer drive way and pad set up.  

But I have to get the property first.  That's been a major hang up.  The final auction of the year should be the best one. Where they have properties that weren't bid on so they start the bidding at a tenth of the original bid. They take a loss on not getting the tax revenue out of it, but, they have someone buying the place and start collecting current revenues on it again.  Otherwise, they have property that is absolutely useless to them and not collecting any tax revenues at all.  I'm going to start looking every day for that next auction, the last one I didn't see until just a few days before it was to take place. There was no time to do research and I ended up having to work that day.

This time, if I catch it early enough, I can ask for the day off and I can go to the courthouse and research it.  Foregone conclusion I'm not taking any of those gas well sites.  What a trick they play.  They use up the gas that can be extracted out of the ground and then they just let the property go, they don't pay the taxes and therefore they lose the property.  But that also means they don't have to dismantle all of that equipment they leave behind.  It must make them a lot of money to be able to set up something like that and then just leave it.  I'm curious if that is an EPA nightmare and if they can actually get away with doing that.  The thing is, a lot of those properties are in excellent, prime areas where you could easily set up a nice RV lot.  But not knowing what I'm getting myself into with all of that stuff they have out there, I don't want to become liable for someone else's garbage.  

The other thing I am considering is buying up small lots in town where zoning allows a mobile home and then placing a small mobile on it and rent the property.  That is easy stuff there. Get an income from it, pay off the price you paid for the house and the land and then start generative profit.  Even mobiles are going high for rent in this area.  It's really odd to me that a small town out in the middle of nowhere would have such high rent for everything.  I don't get it, but I want to cash in on it.  Anyway, the auction I went to, lots of those properties didn't sell, no one bid on them.  

_____________

Seems counter-intuitive to cook beef to 210 degrees internal, but that's exactly what I did. I had to take it that high before it got nice and soft and juicy.  The brisket is sitting on the counter, resting.  Maria is on her way over for dinner, I think I'll just serve that instead of cooking steaks.  I didn't know if it would be done in time for dinner. James and Taylor stopped at Walmart and will be home shortly.

Taylor sent me an invite to an app called Life360.  She, James and two of their friends are on it.  It shows where anyone is at at any given time and if they're driving, how fast they are going.  You can see up to 2 days history - before you have to pay to use it if you want to see further back.  It's pretty cool albeit a bit intrusive, but it's voluntary intrusiveness. And I can shut off location services if for some reason I don't want them to see where I'm at lol.  

They'll see me all over the place, especially this next trip going through Texas, Arkansas, outskirts of Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and finally Ohio and back.  I have the route memorized. 

Okay, well the day wears long and I still have some stuff to do for the trip - but the food is all cooked, just needs to cool off. I also made some stuffed chicken breast. The stuffing is cream cheese, sharp cheddar, fresh spinach chopped up, fresh green onions also chopped, some cayenne pepper, garlic power, salt, pepper and a dash of love lol.  I'm not going to go hungry on this trip, once it cools down I'm going to drain green beans and put the meat in a container with green beans, I only need have to warm the stuff up in my truck microwave : )

I best be getting off of here.  

G'day. 

 Long long day.

Up at 5:30 am, make my coffee - I have a Keurig in my truck and I use it regularly - off to the races.  The only abnormality coming back up was the amount of Texas State Troopers out there. 40 of them at least.  Far more than normal. And one of them following behind me for miles and miles.  I promise I wasn't doing anything illegal lol.  

But he followed me for so long, I just wanted him to pull me over, do whatever he's going to do and get it over with.  Instead, he eventually - after like 10 miles - came up beside me, looking who knows what - and then sped way up and headed on down the highway.  Weird.  Whatever his beef was, he got over it, apparently.  

Whatever that was all about, the rest of the day was basically normal.  Back at the yard, I dropped the trailer I was pulling - going back down to Brownsville in the morning - and then hooked to a different trailer going up to Oklahoma tomorrow.  No, lol, I don't get a 4th Brownsville in a row.  

I need this next trip to be a "normal" one for two reasons. first, I want half of Saturday and all of Sunday off.  Second, they are going out of town for the weekend - up to grandma's.  So I need to be here to tend to the doggies.  And just be home, frankly.  They want the boys to be able to visit their half brother - I think it's called - before a custody battle start brewing.  The mother wants to move to florida and take the boy with her.  That will cut the grandparents totally out of his life - they live near the mom. That's gonna get ugly. Actually it already has. 

I did watch the debate tonight- Trump nailed it this time, Biden went off the rails. End fossile fuels? End fracking?  and a ton of other things he said including a reference to Hitler that was ridiculous and outrageous.  

Whatever the case, a very busy evening is over with, time to go to bed.

 Got to the yard in Brownsville at around 7:30 pm and there were fully 3 empty trailers sitting here and no other drivers here or at the truck stop.  I know they weren't at the truck stop because I went there to fuel up thirsty fuel tanks, close to empty.  I was hoping no empties to get some time to sleep in and relax a little, instead I'll be getting up at 5: 00 am to drive back up to Longview.  I mean, I guess I could get up later, but something in my brain will wake me up before the alarm goes off and tell me it's time to start driving. Get it over with, get home, spend a night at the house.  

I'll have enough time for a brownsville run or less after this trip on the 70 hour clock.  I figure around 27 hours left. That's not enough time to go on any longer trip, but it's enough for Brownsville, Oklahoma, Cheniere, Houston and La Porte.  I'll take whatever they give me without complaining - well I usually don't complain anyway, at least to them, unless they are dumping me with more than one crap run in a row.  

Well heck, that's going to be Friday for any run, they can't give me a 3 day run so I will at least have Sunday off, - I think lol.  Yes I know, lots of Americans are broke, facing mortgage or rent payment crisis and otherwise in finanical woes. I feel for them, but I've worked through this entire pandemic. I didn't get free $600 per week plus state unemployment, I didn't get to sit at home doing nothing while getting that money and still can't go anywhere of any consequence for a vacation.  Then again, I make far more money than all of that free money so it doesn't matter, but I'm ready for a real vacation.  

One like James, Taylor and I went on to Galveston beach.  That was my last real vacation.  Where you hang up the phone, go to the beach and spend days swimming out in the water.  And forget about work, life and all of it's problems.  James and Taylor won't be taking a vacation like that anytime soon.  James just started a new job - I didn't even know about this one and not sure how he landed it. Actually it's just a test run to see if he can do the work that the job demands he has the skills for.  Taylor has had several interviews. Her last day at her current work is Friday.  She's sweating it but now that she's had interviews I'm confident she'll land something somewhere. She's competent, well articulated, a great personality, easy to get along with.  She does her work, she adapts quickly and I think any decent employer will see those qualities in her if they do a competent interview with her.  

But vacations with them are out of the question since they basically have no money. I'm itching to go to Disneyland - it's shut down. Apparently that lovely governor over there doesn't want theme parks - which is a large source of revenue in that state - to be open to the public. I believe Disney World is open, tho, maybe a trip to Florida, I haven't been there in decades. There is no point to going overseas, European countries aren't exactly welcoming Americans with open arms right now.  But who wants to go to a theme park alone?  So probably not.  Like, you're in a sea of people but you aren't actually with any of them.  Probably take some of the fun out of it. 

Ugh it's already time to go to bed.  

Nite. 

 Well, the drive back today was uneventful.  Manager calling me asking me what trailer I'm bringing back. Ok thanks.  That was it.  He's not one to mince words, but now that I've found out that he gets literally hundreds of phone calls per day - and from drivers that are calling him for things they need not bother him with more often than not - I have more sympathy for him rarely ever talking to - most of us.  He is dealing with numerous different divisions that aren't even in our state.  These people constantly call him.  I mean, literally, when he calls me, is directly to the point and the call if over. If it lasts 15 seconds that's a long phone call. I'm surprised he didn't just text me for the info.  

Not really complaining about that, it's the runs that I was getting I was complaining about, but now he's given me a third Brownsville run - that's 3 in a row - I 'll take a s*** run after this without any yelping.  I'm shocked they are giving me 3 of them in a row, to be honest.  I don't do the run any better than anyone else - well most anyone else, some people have issues making it down there the same day and back up the next day if a trailer is available.  But I'm thinking too much about it, me thinks. Could be payback for al the crap runs, mistake, just next in line, who knows.  You get 3 of those runs in one paycheck such as this will be? Oh yes, that's a very good paycheck.  Maybe because it shifted back from the dispatcher to him - he was on vacation for over a week.  Sheila gave me the first two Brownsville runs. 

Home today.  I got back at 4:45 pm, so I wasn't going to stay in the truck tonight even tho it's a 6:30 am appointment,  if it were 7 or later, I wouldn't have come home.  Kids. Standing at the door. Waiting.  I have no idea why they are so enamored with me.  Can we come in your room? Can we do - this that and the other thing.  I helped the 5 year old with drawing pictures for quite a while. I'm not a drawer, tho, I just looked up tutorials on how to draw whatever really - you put it in there and a video is going to come up and show you how to draw it.  Well, maybe I'll become a drawer, he is constantly asking for help with drawing.  That's not a hat I normally wear lol.  

Well, it's past bed time, just relishing a few moments at home before having to get back out on the road again.

G'nite.  

 4:00 am.  Slept poorly.  It happens, unfortunately, it happens a lot when I have to drive all day long.  Best I can do is sleep in the truck while they're loading it, by then I'll be wanting to sleep lol.  

The election nonsense is heating up even more than it was already at.  With the revelations of the emails on Hunter Biden's laptop computer and implicating Joe Biden in schemes to use his position to gain money, Trump and republicans are ramping up their rhetoric, going as far as to call Biden and his cohorts a criminal enterprise.  

Pelosi basically is waiting for the election to take place, apparently she believes Biden is going to win and they will simply start writing checks in stimulus money that, allegedly, is going to go to bailing out large cities with huge pension funding headaches and looking for a way out, an easy way out.  So basically, taking money from other states that had nothing to do with those scenarios and giving it to poorly managed cities.   I will be curious if Nancy's posturing and holding up this stimulus is going to affect how people are voting and will vote on the 3rd.  

There isn't any way that I could possibly, legitimately say that either side is going to win in a landslide.  I don't think the polls are accurate and even Biden's own campaign team came out and said Biden doesn't have an 11 point lead such as one of the newest polls came out with.  Most people I read opine that the polls are done to shape public opinion, not show what it is.  

Then you have the censorship going on with Twitter and Facebook.  At face value, it does appear they are trying to censor republicans and give democrats a pass.  

Whatever the case, I doubt much of anyone can remember a year with so much that has happened in it other than 2020.  Trump was impeached and the coronavirus hit the entire world, screwing up giant economies and throwing the world into fear, finger pointing and death.  The stock market crashed and then came all the way back up.  Tens of millions of people lost their jobs and now, alot of that unemployment has been reversed. Not all of it, of course. 

Just a bizarre year tho.  We're only a few weeks away from this election.  Come what may, I want to get that over with and get that behind us.  Democrats are promising packing the courts, extreme gun control, raising taxes that Biden continues to claim will only affect the super high earners - but many analysis have shown it will trickle down to the middle class.  I've never heard a platform for a Presidential candidate proclaiming increased taxes and thinking that's a good thing. Specifically, getting rid of the "Trump tax cuts".  i can tell ya that a lot of people I know said they saw a decrease in their taxes and those people weren't making 400k plus per year.  Biden wants to mandate nationwide masks and other virus restrictions. I have no idea if he wants to shut down the economy?

I dunno, but we've been on a wild ride. Like a rollercoaster ride that has gone out of control and is flying along the rails without anything able to stop it, the virus in particular has done so much damange not just to people that have died from it but to the entire world.  Kids are starving in far greater proportions in nations where they were already having hunger issues.  Stuff that we don't think about or know about and how it has affected other nations.  

I can only trust in the Lord, give him the Glory, know that He is God.  This world is under a curse and the only thing that breaks that curse over individual lives is the blood of Christ.  I won't be surprised to see that some of this may be the results of our nation allowing tens of millions of innocent babies being killed inside their mother's wombs.  Abortion is truly one of the most horrific bloodbaths of current time, IMO.

I have to go to work. 

G'day.  

 Sat in Brownsville until Friday 5:00 pm, drove around 400 miles, stopped at a Flying J in New Caney for the night, had breakfast at the Denny's the next morning, drove out the rest of the trip, go home yesterday around 3 in the afternoon and now it's Saturday morning.  At least that Brownsville trip I was sharing it with another driver who is chatty and isn't - strange.  

Oh, just didn't feel like driving all night and there was no good reason to, they didn't need the trailer til Monday. And Monday - I have the first load going back down to Brownsville, lol.  

And now have another Brownsville trip Scheduled for tomorrow/Monday morning, first load, early rise.  Truck is already hooked to the trailer, at least I won't have to do that .  

That out of the way, I'm very unmotivated today - but - if the rental store was open I would have definitely rented the jackhammer to get that concrete out of the way of putting up my new pond.  I want that going and soon, before it starts getting cold.  I suspect  I won't have 2 days off anytime soon, so I"m just going to have to bite the bullet and do it on a day when I'm only getting the day off.

Meanwhile, the boys have been in my face literally all day long.  To the point I had to go outside where Taylor was hanging out - away from them as well lol - and get some quiet time.  It's just a really slow, almost boring day at home - but I'm not going to say I don't like that.  They are taking a nap now, finally. I love those kids but dang, I'm home for down time, not play time all day long lol. 

There isn't a heckuva a lot else, My nephew is being deployed to Germany, I think he's Army.  That's pretty safe as far as risk factor goes.  I've tried to keep up with his life but it makes it difficult when your brother, whose son that is, has written off the entire family and wants no part of us for the rest of his life.  He hasn't talked to mom in almost a year now.  Same s*** he and my oldest brother did with my dad.  I'm personally glad he isn't going to the Middle East is what I can say about that.  

Without giving away too much detail - ugh I can't even say that, oh well.  It's concerning my son and I promised I wouldn't say anything about what's going on with him on the internet, so I will adhere to that promise.  Once he comes out with it - if ever - then I'll have the freedom to discuss it.  It's just a weird request that I have never even heard of anyone going through before - tho I am sure it's probably happened to many people.  

BTW, I have been hearing about how so many people have contracted the virus.  Can anyone tell me how we are going to stop this virus from affecting the entire nation? Wouldn't it be better to just let it play itself out like the cold or flu and get it over with?  Who really believes the President could somehow, magicaly stop this virus?  I'd like to see anyone somehow prove that the President could have done anything different that would have a different outcome?  

And Amy Coney Barrett. She's a gem.  I still just sit back and behold her superior intellect over all of these senators that wanted to get her backed into a corner with gotcha moments.  They simply couldn't do it, no matter how many of them that tried to attempt the same thing.  She's more than qualified to be a Supreme court justice, that's my opinion but that's also the opinion of legal experts the nation over.  I hope she's voted in at the end of the day. I truly believe she will conform to the intent of the Founding Fathers, and if she makes a decision I don't agree with, I'm still good with that.  

Ok enough. I ordered more pond stuff, I'm going to do this one up nice.  And still some to go.  I have the seeds for beautiful pond plants, got to get to Lowe's - but I am not going anywhere today - to get containers to grow the seeds.  

Anyway, Addler is laying on my bed, of course, lazy dog and lazy day : ) 

Lol.  Oklahoma trip was normal.  Go up, drop trailer, hook to empty, come back.  Since it was an earlier load time, I was able to make it back to the casino truck stop - 552 miles by the time I get there and then only about 125 miles left for the next day, which is today.  No, I didn't go into the casino. It's just a good place to stop for there are always parking spaces available, unlike the Love's 20 miles down the road which is always full at that time of day.  

Manager is out on vacation, so get to yard, do my paperwork and immediately leave.  Get home. I don't hear the dogs, they usually start fussing when they hear my SUV pull up.  But I didn't think anything about it.  Dumped my bag in front of my room door, went and put my food away in the refrigerator.  Got into a conversation with James. Went to take my bag into my room, opened the door and.....dogs. James forgot about them. 1:00 pm lol.  They were probably in there for - 18 hours lol.  

I can blame my dogs for not whining and making noise. 

_____________________

Wednesday.  In Brownsville.  Normal trip - well wait.  The Interstate construction going on for the entire length of this run in various places is getting ridiculous.  I got hung up in 3 different lane shut downs for construction and lost 45 minutes of drive time.  These people running this show either don't understand that we still have to be able to get the miles or they just don't care, their Interstate takes priority over people actually needing to use the road as intended.  There is another way down here but it's much longer and if anything goes wrong at all, you don't make it.  However, I'm forced to conclude that sooner or later, we're all going to have to take an alternate route or end up being stuck overnight somewhere other than here, in Brownsville. 

Whatever the case, I got down here, stopped at the Love's and saw fully 3 of our trucks sitting there.  Ohh?  Am I sitting here 2 days again?  I wouldn't mind, actually, since they are running me like crazy, might as well just get the money for sitting around waiting.  But I drove past one of the trucks, it was hooked to a trailer which turns out was an empty.  And then got here and there was an empty in the yard.  So I am guessing sometime tomorrow they'll be bringing up 2 trailers - they usually do - and I'll be heading back.  But at least I get overnight detention pay so not bad.  I'm making a lot of money - yes - but I'd happily take some home time.  

Really wish I could discuss what's going on with my son, it's worrying me.  Major life event, they call it.  Not a pleasant one, either.  I guess I'll have to leave it at that.  

I'm also concerned about my dogs. I can't have them being left in my bedroom for 20 plus hours.  I still can't believe that twice now that's happened they didn't piss somewhere.  If they did, I don't smell it and neither does anyone else that checked it out.  Big dogs - they don't succumb to that as easily  But still, it kind of spells out that they aren't necessarily being thought about much while I'm gone, and that's quite a lot. With Rene -she took excellent care of them regardless of other issues.  Maria did too.  

It would be hard to imagine having to let go of my doggies and finding them new homes. But this stuff is concerning and if it happens again, I"m going to have to rethink having dogs at all.  My lifestyle - well my work - is dependent on other people helping me.  No one is obliged to help me in that department and taking them to a kennel every time would neither be good for the dogs or my checking account.  Perhaps I could find someone to pet sit.  I don't really think they would like that, having some stranger dealing with my dogs. Just things that go through my mind.  

Amy Coney Barrett. Far outclasses these democrat senators that are trying to get a gotcha moment.  She is far superior in her intelligence then any of them.  I'm not saying those senators are all stupid - well I think a couple of them are rather low in that arena or just being extremely calloused  in their disdain for anything Republican and especially if Trump's name is attached to it, which this situation definitely has that aspect - but they are playing the political hackery to the point that they are embarrassing themselves and I don't think they realize it.  

Ugh, there's more but it's getting late. 

 So here we are. The beginning of the confirmation hearings of Amy Barrett. Of course the left are going insane with - jealousy I'd call it - they are hating republicans right now and blood lust to regain power in the Senate.  But even if they do accomplish that feat next month? The "damage" is done.  Democrat Senators are already taking the opportunity to bash Trump and Barrett together in one fell swoop.  I do hope Barrett has a strong backbone, because it's only going to get worse as this hearing proceeds.

And rest assured, Dems are digging up her entire life's background attempting to find anything that they can use as fodder against her being confirmed.  Senator Whitehouse is going off on emotional rants at the moment, blaming the coronavirus on Trump, blah blah blah, everything he's saying is irrelevant to this hearing.  But I expected that.  These people make themselves look like blooming idiots, let them flap their lips and go off and let citizens see how they really are.  

Whatever.  Kim going off on Maria, day two now.  Maria hasn't texted me in weeks, I dunno what's going on with her.  Kim says she has had enough, wants to move to Arizona, the trust will buy her a house and pay the utility bills.  Indefinitely - it's over a million dollars, as far as  a place to live she's set for life.  Maria?  I dunno what she's doing but she's screwing up royally. She drove out other tenants at the other house, she just has issues with people in general. It's kind of hard to have sympathy for a person that is screwing up a very good living arrangement.  She is definitely not in any position to be giving a take it or leave it attitude.  

And not so surprising but - sort of a bit - that Taylor sent me a text today saying she's quitting her job.  Taylor is a level headed person, intelligent, organized at work, learns and adapts quickly.  The owner of the place was abusing her position with Taylor and even reduced her pay after Taylor asked her what her new role would be. Taylor simply asked it to be defined, the owner/manager said you are showing attitude. I read the letter Taylor sent her, it was a professional, business-type of letter. There was nothing attitudinal in it.  Most people want their work requirements defined. They kept expanded it for her and wanted to include doing another person's entire job on top of hers that also just quit.  

No, she doesn't have another job lined up.  Yes, she is ramping up her search now.  I know for me I'd want another job first, but Taylor has been very unhappy in recent times and she brings it home with her. Not too bad, I will say here, just noticeably unhappy person. Work can do that to you.  My job hasn't exactly made me happy in the last few weeks not letting me have even a full day off. Today is different, but only because I was out of hours, they couldn't have sent me anywhere on less than 10 hours left on the 70 hour clock.  I'm not looking for another job tho, lol.  I have very little interaction with any management. They basically leave me alone. They only contact me with a new run or if there is a question about a run I did or if they need to know which trailer I am hauling back so they can assign it for the next day.

And trust me, that communication is not that much. And when I"m on the road, I rarely ever hear from any of them.  It's not that I have problems with management, I just don't like being questioned about what I'm doing when they know I am getting the job done. Yes, some drivers have issues, but they can see that on the GPS whether any given person is getting to their destination on time or taking too many breaks. Or taking their time getting back to the yard when they need the trailer.  These trailers aren't cheap and we don't have excess numbers of them.  It got bad enough that they took very old trailers that were used for LNG and converted 2 of them to Ethylene.  I'm talking 30 year old trailers. This last trip is case in point.  3 days - brutal, long hours of driving, pushing it until the very last minute of my available driving time on the first day - I call it brutal cause you start feeling like a prisoner behind that steering wheel. 

But - you don't get home staying out there doodling around stopping everywhere.

Regardless, I'll be happy to see Taylor a happier person.  Like her old self, really.  Maybe anyway.  She's going to need to find a job quick - tho she did give a 2 week notice and as long as the owner doesn't tell her to take a hike, she has time to find one.  They are going to find out just how much they miss having her around when she leaves.  I'll even cover a month's worth of mortgage here - paid back eventually tho - if necessary to help this situation along.  

I started laundry last night.  It's been an all day process.  Just put in the - 6 th load? - and that will do it. Dogs - bedding - get nasty after not that long of a period of time, and I don't like the way my room smells after it's been too long.  Today was an "everything" day, that's dog bedding, my bedding, even the pillows.  Included in that was truck bedding, truck sitting pillow and the throw rug I have in the sleeper.  

And now? Well, I think we should do Wing Stop tonight. They're there, take advantage of it.  

 3 grueling days of late night, well tonight not quite so late but it is almost 11 pm and I just got home.  The first night I was behind schedule because the plant took too long, but I got to the goal destination at Smith's Grove in Kentucky with exactly 1 minute to spare on my 14 hour clock.  The second day - up the plant and back to Smith's Grove - I had over an hour left on the clock then but I was burnt out, no need to drive any further, I thought, I can make the trip home tomorrow - which is today.

663 miles on the drive today and home sweet home. Nothing was assigned to me for tomorrow - and no I wasn't asking for anything.  With only 10 hours left on my 70 clock, I couldn't go anywhere, even a short trip, anyway.  The best I could do is pre-load for someone else and  - NO THANKS. 

34 hour reset, won't surprise me if they try to dump me with something on Tuesday.  I won't turn it down, I guess, but I won't want it, either. 

I dunno what's going on here, I haven't heard from anyone at the house in 2 days.  I did hear from Kim - the lady that Maria is living with - and that went on all day long yesterday.  She was talking about Maria.  Maria - hasn't texted me in almost 2 weeks.  She is in some sort of misery. Her life not going as she planned, I know she has some health issues but she is capable of spending half the day cleaning house, she is capable of doing something for a job, even a part time job would get her double the money the government is giving her right now.  I'm not judging her, really, but if she wants a better lifestyle, she's going to have to do something about it.  

For most people, money doesn't just fall into your lap.  

Whatever the case, Kim has as much complaints about Maria as Maria has about Kim.  That obviously isn't working out.  I'm not really sure the exact details because the sides give conflicting stories. I just know they are both miserable and it's time to move on.  Kim says she's moving to Arizona, the original plan, up to Prescott. She has the trust her dad left her - it's a very large chunk of change.  It has lots of stipulations, but it will buy her a house.  If she does that, I don't know what's going to happen with Maria.  Kim said that Maria told her she would rent the rooms in the house - but that won't pay the bills there. Yes, the master bedroom is a luxurious room  that could be rented for $600 per month - providing she can find someone.  But, even if she had all 3 rooms rented out and taking in $1,400 per month, that isn't going to cover everything.

Maria is in a bad place right now, I feel for her, but I don't want to be responsible for that anymore. It was costing me too much money.  I don't know if my current situation is permanent - tho I've been here for  a long time now - things change.  They always do.  I've never had a living arrangement that didn't end up "going away" and having to start over again.  I wish that weren't so, especially here, but I keep that in my mind.  I have no desire at this point in time in leaving this area for I am making money like I've never made before and getting ahead.  

Never know what the future holds.

Tomorrow? Well, the weekend is over so everyone here is off to work and school, well not James tho he put in an application at a previous employer that will likely hire him back.  It's over 50 miles from here, tho, that's a long commute every day.  

I dunno, but it's bedtime.  

 I feel exhausted.  Run run run.  Get done with work, go home, go to Chili's go to the store go home go to bed. Get up, make food, take a shower, etc etc etc.  After all that, I only have 20 minutes left before I have to leave for yet another 3 or 4 day run - that totally depends on things like how long it takes to get loaded today, how traffic is the entire way up and back, any tire issues or breakdowns - etc.

After this run I am going to push for a couple of days off.  Maybe. Last time i did that they left me hanging for 8 days.  Of course, my hours will be down there on the 70 clock, but there will likely be enough for a short trip by the time I get back to the point they could actually send me to brownsville, oklahoma or some crap run. 

I dunno, but too much work gets old the same as too little work. My pond project has been on hold for lack of time to get anything done with it.  James has been working on getting rid of that solid concrete stump.  I am of the thought of renting a machine to break it all up into pieces and be done with it quickly.  But, that costs money but more importantly time - of which I don't have.

And now? both my manager and the dispatcher that took over again are out on vacation.  "Don't call unless it's an absolute emergency. If you can't get a hold of me (manager) call Kenny".  I won't be calling, thanks, I rarely ever do, in fact, I don't.  He calls or texts me, not the other way around. I'm quite self-sufficient and even with a breakdown or flat tire I don't need to call any of them, we have numbers that we are to call in such situations where the person on the other end of the phone sets up the tire guy or repair guy to come out or a wrecker if it's really bad.  

Ugh, whatever the case, it's time to hit the road. 

G'day.  

 I had this feeling today.

Driving back, I was like, I bet they're going to keep me going.  I won't get any time off.  

Sure enough.  I get sent a trip to West Virginia and a message after that: Is this okay with you?

I thought about it quite a while and talked with others about it before I gave an answer. Because I am ready for just a single day off. Most people get a couple of days off here and there.  Except truck drivers. 

They don't care if you run constantly or if your weekends are constantly eaten up and can't spend time with "normal" friends who don't work weekends.  I can't remember the last time I had an entire weekend off.  A day, maybe.  But Friday evening through Monday morning?

I replied - eventually - that I would take if you need me to, but I am looking for a day off, soon.  That isn't a refusal of the load, I also said, I don't do that.  So she eventually wrote back and said she'd get me a day after this trip, but that 2 drivers are out because of the hurricane.  Oh, didn't think of that. 2 of them are from the southern Louisiana region.  I didn't hesitate after that to say yes, I'll take it.  I mean, it's good money, I just want to spend some time here and there with people beyond Facebook and text messaging?  

You start feeling alienated from the world when you've been out too long.  A connection with humans is not a bad thing.

So, I invited them out to eat tonight.  Chili's it is!  Phoenix ran straight for me after he eyeballed me at the restaurant - I arrived before them, sat down next to me and was wanting my attention, hugs, etc the entire time.  It had been 6 days. He wanted to go home with me as well instead of in their vehicle - but I was going to the store and they needed to go to bed, school is open in Texas.  He was very unhappy that I wouldn't let him go with me and no amount of explanation would assuage his feelings, sorry buddy.  He's only 5 years old, he's a very emotional person and he doesn't understand such things.  

They were in bed - the boys that is - by the time I got home. But I haven't been to the grocery store in almost 2 weeks, have been short on supplies in the truck and couldn't possibly imagine driving another 3 or 4 days without replenishing supplies.  No food, mostly.  No sugar free sweets, no drink shakes for the mornings.  No paper plates or cups for coffee. No heavy cream for coffee. Etc.  

Noon load time. Way late for this run, I don't know how they've gotten the schedule so screwed up with loading times for particular runs, it means I'll be running midnight plus tomorrow night.  Smiths Grove Kentucky the first day goal, Charleston and back to Smiths Grove the second day goal and back to the yard the 3rd.  Doesn't always happen that way, but that keeps it at 3 days instead of going into a 4th day.  

So yea, I'm getting a little burnt out here. It's either feast or famine with this company.  You are either running as much as you can for 70 hour clock or off 2 days at a time between runs.  I should be thankful, a plant or more will shut down eventually and we'll be begging for work.  My mindset is at least a day off after 7 days working. Well, actually, after 5 days working.  

Whatever the case, they are all in bed - they have been doing hat in the last several months, going to bed early (not the kids, that's a given, the adults).  I'll get up early and see everyone off, at least Taylor and the kids, James is still unemployed tho he has a good lead on some work.  

Me? I have to get my mind into going on a relentless, 3-day run that goes on and on and onnnnnn......until the last day and I re-enter Texas and I'm like - home!

 Hmm, a couple of posts that I forgot post. Oh well.  I ended up stuck down in Brownsville not one, but two days which entirely blew out my hopes of going to the auction.  There will always be another one, yes, but now that i have a cheaper, simpler plan to at least get some kind of business going, getting land is the prerequisite.  Mobile home parks take a lot of land and a lot more resources to make them viable. RV Parks, on the other hand, only take a small plot of land and a lot less infrastructure in terms of quantity and hence cheaper to build.  It would still cost, but not near as much as a full blown mobile home court.  

I'm just thinking of what I can do in the near future, instead of something that will be years and years down the road.  A 20 spot RV court wouldn't take more than a few acres of land.  It would bring in enough to pay for a person to live there and run the place and other expenses that are germane to such a venture.  Pull throughs/overnighters could be charged a fixed sum per night - much higher of course - and not have to have electric meters and water meters at them, the permanent ones where people are living in them would have to have at least electric meters. A lot of those parks don't charge extra for water tho.

Scaling down my ambitions would make it a more viable goal, is the point.  Start small, stay small if necessary, but have more than one location.  As I said in a previous post, there are RV parks all around this area and they are all either totally full or mostly full.  Make it appealing, no trashy dump type of place and get it done.  If I can just get the land, I can take out a loan to do the infrastructure installation and doing the driveway and pads.  And interestingly, a lot of these places are not in town and are outside of the city limits.  County rules are almost always more lax than in-city rules concerning building and restrictions.  

Whatever the case, an empty trailer showed up around noon yesterday, I hopped right on that and headed on down the highway.  My manager calls an hour later, puts me on conference call with another driver who showed up last night, complaining that I had taken the empty trailer?  Dude, I have been there two days, that was my trailer to take.  That ended that conversation.  My manager ended that call and called back without the conference. Did Sheila say something about my going on vacation? He asked, referencing a statement I had made in the conference call about having had heard he was already on vacation. 

He was worried about that for some reason.  I replied no, another driver made that comment.  Gee, you guys really do talk alot among each other! Well, yes we do to some extent.  It wasn't long and Sheila texted me - with a run for tomorrow which is now today.  Gag, I thought, I'd really like a full day at home after being on the road five days.  But, after seeing it - it's an Oklahoma run, late load time at 2:30 pm.  So, It's overnight trip and then back home tomorrow afternoon. So I slept at home last night, have this morning here with the doggies, out again but back soon enough.  This OK trip will go on the same pay period as the 2 brownsvilles which will make an extraordinarly large paycheck.  My manager indicated he had hoped the Brownsville would make up for the s*** runs he had given me.  

Well sort of, but I have two low paychecks in a row. I would need two big paychecks to make up for that loss.  

One of the drivers that doesn't unload? Is now an unloader.  Thanks to another driver who has been there much longer than me, we have talked alot about this situation and how to go about addressing it to the manager.  I talked to the manager about it followed by him on another day. Calm, cool, collected, making valid, rational reasoning arguments, no emotional outbursts.  The manager agreed to let him train the two drivers.  This first one hadn't knowingly whined about having to unload, it's the other dude that boasted he will never have to learn. No one likes that guy because he has a really bad attitude all the time.  Be that as it may, he still should have to do the same work everyone else has to do.  So, it will be interesting to see if the manager also forces him to get the training as well and what this guy's reaction to it will be.  I'm sure he's just loving the constant Brownsville runs.

Another driver made a comment to him about "Brownsville is your exclusive" run, which is when the driver got pissed and walked off.  Look, it's really management's fault that they haven't forced these people to learn, but the driver going around boasting he doesn't have to unload and that the company never will force him to - kind of pours gasoline on the fire.  And makes the rest of us more determined to get him to learn or get him moved to another division.  It's quite easy to fill spots in our division because it's become known that it pays quite well - but that's only because of us being part of another company before being bought out. THAT company paid quite well. The new company took away several perks, but we're still making good money.  

The insurance company is supposed to get back with them - James and Taylor - today about what, if anything, will be covered.  They said the moisture is "in" the house, not coming from outside of it.  Well from where? Was my question. The AC is on all the time taking moisture out of the air. We can't find any water leaks anywhere, that is very perplexing.  I dunno how that is going to pan out, but if they don't cover any of it, the fact of the matter is we're going to have to do the kitchen at the very minimum.  

Some extremely disheartening news about my son - but I am not at liberty at this point to speak that out to anyone.  Major life event, I'll call it. No, nothing about his health.  It was kind of shocking to hear the news.  I wish I could go into it but I promised him I wouldn't say anything on social media or the internet about the specifics of it, so I won't.  Once he comes out and says something about it, then I'll be at liberty to say.  

James has been working on getting that concrete pillar out of the ground.  He's determined, I'll give him credit for that. The pond setup is in limbo until that thing is out of the way.  I haven't even checked on the fish, best go out and make sure the aerator is still on and pumping air into the bucket.  They're abourt 2 inches long, nothing huge but I don't think they can live in there indefinitely.  But I have nowhere else to put them, so I can only hope they will survive in there.  Even after James gets that thing knocked out, it's going to take quite a bit of work to get a pond up and running before I can dump fish in there.  Plus the part about snakes and birds and raccoons that I have to deal with.  

Well, it's amazing how fast time flies by when you don't really want it to.  The morning is almost gone, I need to start getting ready to head out.

G'day.  

I'm home!

No, not really lol.  I left Brownsville this morning, drove all day, got to the yard and  - walaah. I'm still at the yard.  There is absolutely no sense, in my mind, in driving all the way home to spend less than 2 hours there awake, go to bed and get up early to come right back to work.  Okay, if I lived close to work I would do that, but 35 plus miles each way? Just doesn't appeal to me, especially on an early load. If I had either gotten back earlier or had a later load appointment time, I would have gone home.  

I was sent another run to Brownsville late morning while driving back - from Brownsville.  It's cool with me, I need the work/money and I am not going to complain about a Sunday run down there. It had the highest likelihood of having detention pay.  The problem is I only saw one truck driving down there today, so there is a real possibility of an empty trailer waiting for me tomorrow when I get there.

Speaking of home, I got a text from Taylor.  The flooring in the house needs replaced.  Huh?  Very long story made much shorter: The flooring by my bedroom was buckling up.  She didn't know what to think about it. Well pull it up and see what's going on under there?  James did that today and found 4 layers of vinyl flooring, replete with water detention.  Is there any black mold?  Not that we could see. They are going to try to put a claim against their insurance.  Good luck!  I dunno if they'll cover that or not, I really don't think so, it's just old flooring.  People putting layer over layer on there wasn't a good idea.  

_____________________

Got busy last night, went to bed, slept fairly well, got up in the truck, in the yard, went to the plant, got loaded, drove down here - I'm in Brownsville. No empty trailers here, usually what I want to have happen...but..

I check online for tax lien auction of property regularly. So I was shocked to see yesterday that there is a sale on Tuesday.  Tuesday? Did they just put this up or what? How can you check out any of the history on anything such short notice? You can't even access that stuff on the weekends, not that I could at the moment anyway.  But I was like, what!!  I mean, I checked earlier this week and there was nothing up there.  

Just a bit irritating.  Anyway, I looked at the list of properties for sale and several of them stood out.  Going cheap for starting bid.  Who knows, if I can be there, I might actually get something? Several 20 plus acre stuff with starting bids between $3,500 and $8,000 range.  Just depends on how many people show up.  But it was obvious that rich people show up to these auctions, buy a bunch of the properties and likely resell them. Probably how they got - rich.  A few of the same people were buying stuff and bidding certain properties up as high as 90 grand.  

So I"m not really sure if I will ever have a chance to score at any of those auctions, but if I'm in town Tuesday morning, I am going again.  That's why I kind of wanted an empty trailer down here when I arrived.  I could get home by3 pm tomorrow and definitely be able to go.  Now, who knows?  There will be more auctions but the thing is, you can't do anything with this properties for 180 days. That is the redemption period for the owner to come and pay up the taxes and the fee and whatever charges given to 

The point is, I will be working forever to be able to retire on just my income from work, even tho I'm saving a lot of money, it would take over a decade, maybe longer, to have enough money to live comfortably on.  I've downgraded my goal from mobile home park to just a travel trailer park.  They are much cheaper to build, have few requirements and people live in those things.  The RV parks in the area are filled up.  I need property out in the county, tho, outside of town, for the town has too many regulations and very few areas where you could even open one up.

But, if I have to wait until the next sale, or the next after that, so beit.  Just one of those things I would like to at least get started on now, not 5 years from now.  I'm not getting any younger.  

Monday Morning. Just sitting here waiting on a trailer.  If one doesn't get here before 1 or 2 pm, I doubt I'll make it home today/tomorrow early morning and just have to wait for the next auction.  

Actually, after looking at the available land, much of it is priced far too high.  I mean, the back taxes in the 12 to 25k range.  Unless it was some prime piece of property I wouldn't pay that much anyway.  And I have no way of finding out in time what is what.  So if I don't make it this time, probably not a big deal. 

Anyway, it's time to go get coffee and breakfast.  

 So, my manager, this time, kept his word and actually gave me a run to Brownsville for today.

Yesterday - I drove the rest of the way down to La Porte after spending the night in a small truck stop in Seven Oaks, unloaded, drove back up. Almost got to the yard and was informed that the trailer I am pulling needs to be preloaded and would you do that please? Sure, after spending 2 days on a nothing route, I might as well make a few extra dollars to help boost the numbers.  With a bit of dentention pay at the plant, that was an extra .. around $140 for 2-1/2 hours.

Trump and his wife have acquired COVID-19. It is being reported - widely actually - that people are wishing him death.  I don't know what kind of spiritual sickness that is pervading our nation to the point that people wish death on the President.  I can tell you that I despised Obama's policies but I never would wish death upon him.  It's rather evil to wish death upon a political opponent.  

Whatever the case, I have that nasty run behind me, I'm certainly hoping for at least overnight detention pay in Brownsville. I should be the second load going down there, so perhaps there is a chance.  I have the 9:00 am load, someone else has the first load that is - loading right now actually.  

Anyways, I have to get going, just watching the news about how this Trump getting the virus news is evolving.  

Y'all have a good day.  If your heart if full of hate, regardless of why, inspect your inner man/woman and perhaps do something to change that. His name is Jesus Christ, to put a "cure" to it.

 Tuesday. Got a day off, at least. 

Manager calls me a while ago, I missed the call - I usually have my ringer off. I called him back, no answer, turned the ringer on, he calls me.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news.... and goes on to tell me about a run to La Porte, TX.  He then attempts to tell me about all the "shitty" runs others have gotten. All of them paled in comparison to 2 Chenieres and a Baker in a row and I flatly stated as such.

His "records" didn't show that. Whatever dude, I went to Cheniere twice and then a Baker after that.  Well it shows you did a Baker, Cheniere and then a Baker.  No - but that's not so great either - I replied, I did two Chenieres in a row. 

This guy has a short and bad memory and I don't mind bringing it up to him at this point.  He clearly isn't cut out for this job, he doesn't like it and he should move on and find something he likes to do.  His wife is making bank, there isn't any reason why he should just go find something else to do.  

After I said it to him a third time - he  then claimed it wouldn't let him see that far back.  This particular run doesn't require a driver to offload, but it's Houston area and back thing, like other runs that are just as undesrireable down there. The driver that doesn't unload? bumped me on this one.  

I can't really complain too terribly much, I've had 3 good runs in a row, but these other drivers get all good runs in a row, or a few lessor ones thrown in very infrequently.  And he specifically mentioned the name of a driver that refuses to learn how too unload that was getting the run I was supposed to be getting.  I started getting edgy when he told me that - this run he's dumping me with is not a driver unload, there is no reason at all that he should be getting another gravy run.  

The manager quickly stated he'd put me on Brownsville for Friday, apparently attempting to dance around the issue.  I was going to press it, but I do better with that kind of thing in person than on  the phone or texting.  I let it slide - for now - but if he tries to bump me off of the Brownsville run?  There is going to be words exchanged.  It may be respectful, but it's going to be very blunt.  

__________________

Wednesday. Sitting here balking at the idea of having to load at 3:30 pm, drive 4 -1/2 hours, offload and then drive back.  I won't be out of the loading plant before 6:00 pm, I won't make it to the other plant until at least 10:30, at least two hours to unload, that's midnight thirty or even 1:00 am before I am unloaded.  I'm not driving back tonight, I can almost guarantee  that.  There are truckstops down the road from where the plant is, hopefully one of them will have a parking space available. 

And spent an hour looking for my wallet - I misplaced it and I couldn't think where.  Until, I remembered that I was in James' truck last night in the back seat with the family after going out to eat.  I had gotten my wallet out - I cheated yesterday, just sort of happened - so I went full out with it.  We went to DQ after the chinese food place and that's where I left my wallet, in the back seat.  But my search went on so long I started having thoughts of having to replace everything and actually had gotten out my birth certificate and passport to go get a temp driver's license.  

It was only after just sitting there thinking- where was I? when did I take my wallet out? that it finally hit me and walaah, there it was.  

That's kind of a scare - because replacing a DL, a concealed carry, a boat registration card, several credit cards and other stuff in there - not a pleasant prospect.  

Anyways, James tried to take out that concrete pillar as well. He had obviously been beating the heck out of that thing - to no avail.  He said he was going to try using concrete bits, drilling several holes in it all over and then see if hitting it with the sledge would help.  Good luck!  

Anyway, with this load today, that will eat up half of tomorrow and allegedly I have a Brownsville run on Friday. We'll see. I wouldn't mind getting back on Saturday and then having nothing until Monday or even Tuesday.  

Regardless, it's finally time to get out of here. 

G'day.   

 Well, I was going to get on here yesterday while I was waiting at the plant up in Illiinois, but I ended up taking a nap, after getting up then got on here and found the flower arrangement for mom's birthday. This is what she wanted, flowers and not until she got back from the mountains.  By the time I got done with ordering the flowers - they make it a really long, drawn out process for whatever reason, the dude from the plant came to get me to rehook to the trailer and leave.

That was rather shocking. It was only a couple of hours, it normally takes them a minimum of 4 hours to offload.  I spent 2 nights at the same small truck stop.  I almost always stop there on the way up, I usually bypass it on the way back for I normally have enough driving time to get well on down the road.  But, by the time I got back to St Louis and south of it,  I was burned out from staying up til 2 am the night before, the result of having been given a load time so late in the day.  And it was raining, and it was dark out.  those 3 factors sent me back in there for another night's sleep.  It was a total of around 550 miles round trip yesterday, so I didn't think much of it, plus I knew I could make it back to the yard today.

the only oddity on this trip, really, was when I arrived at the plant. Another driver - who had loaded the day before - was just about to go into the plant to get his trailer.  He is another of the slow drivers that stops often, but I don't give him trouble about it, he's really cool dude and getting up there in years, as most of the drivers in our division are.  We talked for a bit, then he got his trailer and took off.  

It was a bit surprising to drive by a small rest area just south of the Missouri state line in Arkansas - Highway 67  - and see him parked there.  He not only was hours ahead of me, but he would have had his 10 hour break done long before I was passing by there.  I don't know how many miles later, I stopped in Searcy at the Love's for fuel and the required 30 minute break. He showed up there shortly after I was done fueling and parked next to me.  He was in a talkative mood again, so we chatted for 15 minutes before he headed back to his truck.  It was then he revealed he is retiring in 3 months from now. Lucky you, I thought a bit jealously, I have many years left before I can retired.

I congratulated him on it and wished him a happy retirement : )

I was not, thankfully, given a load for tomorrow. I only have 18 or so hours left on the 70 clock, I could only do a s*** run such as Cheniere with that few hours left. I'm hopeful that by now, Cheniere is filled back up and we won't be hearing from them for a while.  I've been driving for 5 days in a row, I am ready for at least a day off.  

Of course, after being gone so much, both the dogs and the kids were happy to see me and wanting all kinds of attention lol.  The 5 year old fairly well demanded attention - not being bratty or stupid - just wanting me to look at his new toys and horse play.  I'm just an old kid in some respects, I love horseplay so I engaged for a while lol. But now? I'm in my room. I'm really zonked out, needing some down time from the road.  This last trip I didn't want to do and that mindset, unfortunately, didn't leave me the entire time.  The only respite was going into the Bar/Grill, having dinner and a beer last night, talking with the bartender and just relaxing. 

Other than that? My disdain for driving hit me and I just couldn't shake it.  In fact, the bartender said the same thing.  'I don't come here for fun on my days off, it just feels like I'm going to work". I agreed, when I get in my personal vehicle, it just feels like I'm at work again.  I don't mind driving around town in my personal vehicle, it's a small town so that's not a big deal. But anything other than vacation driving - no thanks. But let's say I was going to go on a cruise out of Galveston? I would despise the drive down there, for most of the way there is also the same route as going to Brownsville. Am I going on a cruise or am I going to Brownsville on a work run?  

Tomorrow? No clue. James said he was going to figure out how to get that concrete pillar out of there. Have at it!  It's still there lol.  He's home, for how long I don't know, there's more work to be done up there apparently.  I doubt I'll have the desire to go attempting to beat down concrete tomorrow, in fact, I have already determined it needs a jackhammer. If he want to beat the crap out of it with the sledgehammer, be my guest tho.  My pond project is on hold until it is gone.  Now, if it was gone, I'd have the motivation tomorrow to work on the pond. But going and renting a jackhammer? Maybe if James will help.  

Other than that, it will be room laundry day - cleaning dog and human bedding.  I don't know about any running around town stuff, haven't really given it any thought.  I don't feel like smoking anything.  I don't feel like doing anything.  Living in a truck has it's disadvantages.  

I think that's enough for this post.  

No issues on the drive back from Brownsville yesterday - no detention pay but I have 2 of those trips and an oklahoma going on next weeks' paycheck, so even without detention it will be a decent paycheck.  I was looking forward to have at least today off. 

At around 6:00 pm, heading home from the yard and thinking about what I am going to do today - which most certainly would have included more attempts at getting that thick concrete pedestal out of the ground - I get a text from the manager. Actually a group text to 4 people: Y'all have work tomorrow, details coming shortly. 

Really? Wait until  it's almost the night before to tell us about work the next morning?  And what kind of run?  How far?  I wasn't prepared for some long thing taking up days and days, a short run I could deal with. Just my frame of mind atm, it changes from day to day lol and still not 100% from that headache/bodyache stuff, whatever that was all about.  He sends me a run half an hour later to Pennsylvania.  

I looked at that and said  no, in my mind anyway.  I don't want to go up there, wait 36 hours to unload and then come back. That's about how long the wait is.  You get up there the third day, park for the night, have the entire day the next day waiting and then over night again.  That's my main objection to that run: they want you up there early - for what?  You don't get paid for all that waiting, either. And frankly? I just don't feel like driving almost 3,000 miles round trip.  

So I stared at that text for a while, trying to figure out how I could get out of it without lying about it.  I don't like lying, it doesn't set well with my Christian beliefs.  The Bible says specific things about liars.....I do tend to take a lot of what is said in the Bible literally.  So, I thought well there isn't any reason I can't say I'm not feeling well, that's true, just not near as bad as it was.  So I texted him something along those lines and he called me. I told him what was up. Do you have a fever? I don't know, I haven't been checking that. But then, I remembered the plant had taken my temp the day before so I told him that.  

Well, he didn't want to let me off the hook, it's either call in sick or take a run.  Well can you at least send me on a shorter run?  I didn't think that unreasonable at all considering I've been bumped from good runs recently for other people who can't unload trucks. And besides, most of the drivers love this PA run.  Especially the ones that don't live around here, they are on the road regardless, they don't care how long they're out.  So it's not like I was trying to dump a "bad" run on someone else.  

So he got off the phone, did whatever, called me back and gave me a choice between PA, Morris, Illinois and some other run I can't remember what.  I asked for the Illinois run, it was the shortest one, even tho it's still 3 days out.  I drive up to Barnhart, Missouri today, then up to Morris tomorrow, try to make it back to at least St Louis tomorrow and then back to Longview the 3rd day. Well, I'm not stopping in St Louis, I want no part of the civil unrest going on there, I'm unarmed, I have no way to defend myself against a crowd short of running people over - which I really don't want to have to be forced into a position to do.  Barnhart is south of St Louis, a small town with a truckstop, pretty much where I stop every time. Not likely anything rioting going on there.

And then? I will drive around  St Louis.  I'm not looking for trouble, I doubt I would see any on the Interstate, but I don't need problems while carrying 37,000 pounds of flammable liquid.  There is no good day to blow up, thanks.  These stupid people that mauled that truck driver with that gasoline tanker could be seen in various videos attempting to open the valves that allow gasoline to dispense from the trailer.  What kind of idiot would do that?  Trying to kill yourself?  These people are either stupid or the mob mentality creates an atmosphere where they simply don't think.

So, at least I got out of a 7 or 8 day run. Illinois is 3 - either of the runs to Illinois, Morris run is like 70 more miles each way.  And, you have to wait several hours for them to unload, which gives me a chance to take a nap in their parking lot, eat lunch and do whatever or nothing at all.  Plus a little detention pay in the process, it's actually better than the Mapleton IL run in that regard - more miles and more detention pay but the say amount of days out on the road.  I need only make it back to St Louis tomorrow after offloading to be able to make it back to Longview the third day.

I'm still a bit unhappy that the manager would wait literally until the end of the day to dump a run on us the next morning.  That's uncalled for.  I need time to prep food and get ready, do laundry, lots of stuff before I go on a longer run.  I don't believe they just dumped those runs on him at the end of the day, the only thing I can surmise is he was waiting to see what drivers would be available to fill the slots.  I should have just waited until today to turn in my paperwork lol, that's how they determine who is available, by looking into the system and seeing who has turned in paperwork after they are done with a run.  

Whatever the case, I'm attempting to get my mind into dealing with an extremely long day. For not only is it a 3 day run, it is also a late load time.  Noon.  His scheduling is weird.  These Illinois runs are usually first or second load at best.  Now? I am faced having to drive until midnight or even later to make it up to Barnhart.  If I don't make it, it just adds another day to the trip plus management will probably be unhappy that I am not arriving earlier than I am at the plant.  

Well enough of this.  I need to get off of here and get stuff ready. Still a couple of hours before I need to leave, but I also have to make a grocery store stop along the way.  

 Well now Taylor has this same headache crap I had, so I dunno what's going on.  Mine is completely gone, thank God Almighty, that wasn't something I would want to have to live with on a daily basis.  

You start feeling the bad and you start wondering what's next. 

Whatever the case, I believe I have gotten the man a job.  He's the acquaintance - sort of friend, he's really a friend of James and Taylor but I have hung out with him on several occasions when he's over here - that I contacted my company has an opening for.

Well ok, I didn't get him a job, he has to get that himself, I gave him a good lead. And the pay they are quoting him is quite nice.  What I didn't know about this guy is that he actually went to school to learn diesel mechanics, he should be a top candidate.  Last time they were looking for a mechanic, they had all kinds of people coming in there wanting the job.  

I promised him that if I get the bonus for referring a mechanic - the company has a long standing offer out for referrals for both mechanics and drivers - I'd give him half.  I mean, I wouldn't have gotten it without him mentioning my name, seems fair to me.  I really can't remember how much it is, I haven't looked at that poster in a while, it's up in the office.  I think it's a grand tho.  So $350 a piece or so after taxes.  

I watched the press conference with the DA in ST Louis and the Breanna killing by the cops earlier today and wondered, how long will it take for the rioters to show up and start assaulting cops? I was just watching the news, 2 officers have now been shot.  People all over the internet are condoning the shootings.  Shoot an innocent civilian, shoot innocent cops? Anarchy. That's the definition of anarchy.  Couple that with defund the police shit.  But, the cops looked ready and waiting for come what may and allegedly the Guard has been deployed, tho I didn't see any of them in the coverage.  What's going on in America is appalling, insufferable and must end.  I'm sickened and saddened by what's going on - but this moral decline is directly related to the removal of God in everything.  That's my stance on it and that isn't going to change by anyone's arguments so don't bother trying.  

Well, I have a run in the morning. 2cd load.  5 am rise.  Weather forecast looks great, no or very little rain.  Just need the sleep, lol, which comes and goes at a whim's notice.  One night I sleep like a log, the next I wake up at 2:00 am and am up for 2 or 3 hours.  Which in this case, effectively means I woke up at 2:00 am. I truly hope that doesn't happen tonight.

With that, I wish you all a good evening.  

 A day off is nice.  Especially after not feeling so well the last two days.  I mean, yesterday I finally started feeling better getting close to evening time.  And I just got done with 9 glorious hours of restful sleep, only waking up twice. The first time - dunno why, the second time, the kids this morning blowing a whistle.  Kind of got me irritated, they are up at something like 5:45 am for school.  Maybe a little later, they leave at 6:15 is all I really know about that.  

I have no tangible plans today. I'll probably go out and about and get some things, but as far as getting anything done beyond cleaning and some laundry? probably not.  I certainly don't feel like going and renting a jackhammer - if I have tomorrow off I may very well do it then.  Get that over with and get that pond going.  I was thinking I could just dig that thing out of there, but no.  The whole platform is also concrete.  The concrete platform is level with the ground so I don't have to get rid of that, thankfully.  

James? No clue.  They have been working every day on whatever the project is, but they are apparently no where near being finished with it.  He was going to stay up there 10 days, apparently that may get pushed out a bit.  I mean, he's earning money, it's something better than nothing at all. 

Ginsburg being remembered today.  I don't really get into all of that stuff where the media spends days "mourning" the loss of some "great" leader.  Lots of people die every single day whose faces and names aren't plastered all over the media everywhere, I would rather that all of these "news" outlets stick to real news. Oh wait, most of them don't do that.  They engage in partisan activism, promoting whatever their political preferences are -- usually democrat.  

And speaking of that, democrats continuing on with their petty outrage over the fascist idea that Trump will nominate another SCOTUS appointee! The scandal of it all! The shame! He's a racist! lmao  They can't stop him and they know it. They may be able to slow down the procedure in the Senate, but they absolutely aren't going to be able to stop the President from posting a nominee.  So Schumer threatens to alter the way the Senate is made up and pack the courts, pelosi threatens to impeach. These are the idiots that are running our nation.  The idea that a President is actually engaging in his duty being an impeachable offense? What is wrong with these people.  

Bloodlust for power.  To invariably change the fabric of our society, even the capitalistic structure that allows people to become rich - or stay poor - or everything in between - to some socialist/communist scheme that gives a few people power and riches and everyone living in poverty and even hunger?  No thanks.  I believe patriotic Americans would engage in an uprising at that point.  When they come for your guns, what are you going to do?  Because they'll have to get rid of the guns before they can achieve that kind of power. They know and those of us that own guns know it as well.  How amazing it is that so many Americans don't understand the history of Socialism and Communism.  Just take a peep at China or the former Soviet Union.  Stalin, Mao, Lenin, Castro, etc etc etc....lots of names I can throw up here.  

The sad part of this is that eventually they will have power again - the White House, House and Senate - and they will try to force this s*** on us.  

COVID-19.  I feel for all the people who have died. I am listening to Fauci right now saying some stuff about the after effects of people who have had it, even after they are asymptomatic, there are lingering issues in some people.  As much as I hate masks and social distancing, I have done my best to keep my hands washed, stay away from strangers and wear a mask where appropriate.  But I will not get the vaccine.  That's from my history of getting faccines and having serious side effects.  He is saying they are doing clinical trials on humans - which we all knew - but that it may be ready for distribution by the end of the year and are already producing the vaccine for widespread distribution.

Seems a bit of the cart leading the donkey.  What if it isn't good? Then you've wasted all that money ane resources for nothing.

Well, my manager just sent me a load sheet for tomorrow: Another Brownsville. So, providing I get back by Friday, that one may go on next week's check. Even without any detention pay, 2 brownsvilles and a oklahoma run will make for a decent check. I don't assume detention pay anymore now that our manager is back in charge and doing his best to get rid of that pay.  Always perplexing, I made my case and so did everyone else, had no effect.  

I'm a bit amazed that I got a B-ville run. One of the drivers that doesn't unload came back after at least a week off.  He always gets the best runs, period.  No one denies that, including the manager. The manager doesn't say it in that manner, but he agrees the setup is wrong - yet he does nothing to correct it.  As of yet, I have heard no plea for someone to volunteer to be a trainer.  I don't want the position for I have had run ins with two of these individuals.  Spending a week with them in their truck would be awkward at best.  Even with a hotel on any nights out, it just isn't anything I'm interested in doing.  

Well enough of all of that.  Dog bedding is already quite dirty again, time to get that stuff into the washer.