Well, it felt kind of strange showing up for work yesterday.  Often times, when I go to work, there is no one there, either early for load or late coming in to the yard.  Or if there are people there, they're in their trucks.  Just because of the circumstances going on right now and knowing that probably everyone there knows at least some version of what is going on.  

Although I can say other drivers don't have the full story, they can't possibly have it because management isn't the people who divulged the information to them. I don't know how they found out, but I'm not willing to discuss it with any of them, that' pretty much a personal thing and as my manager said yesterday, it's as if it never happened. 

Yes I had to sign a written warning, no I didn't contest it or write anything on it even tho I was offered to do so.  I just looked at him and said, well what good is it going to do? He laughed and replied nothing. I had the thought that contesting it might even make me look worse than the situation already is, as if I were arguing the outcome, so I declined to do that.  Apparently after a few years it will fall off of there the same as a bad credit entry on  your credit report will eventually go away.  Even a bankruptcy eventually goes off your credit report.  So that's encouraging, I guess.  

My focus is saving for land/business.  If I'm going to try to get a loan, I'd have to save up around 60k to get the money I'd need to set up the entire thing in one, fell swoop.  I'm only a third of the way there.  The only way I know of to speed this up is to acquire property through the tax lien sale. I've been looking, they haven't yet published their end of year sale yet, where the properties are listed at 1/10 of of their original starting bid for properties that didn't sell.  

Anyway, it was a late start yesterday at noon.  So I drove til almost midnight to get back to the place I normally stop at and get most of the driving done.  That leaves about 115 miles left to go today and get home mid afternoon.  My manager said he has my next 6 days planned out, that I will apparently going right back up to Oklahoma tomorrow and then a Brownsville after that.  That would make a decent check. Not great, but not bad.  I am not going to fuss about the runs he gives me, it wouldn't serve any useful purpose.  I have started to look for new jobs tho.  It's time to find something local and get home every day/night.  This whole situation really gave me pause to consider this job I've been doing - great pay but out on the road far more than I want to be.  Overnights are okay but you get those 3plus day runs and it just gets old. 

My manager thinks those runs are the best ones, I didn't bother to tell him how I feel about it. And, he believes he can eventually get me back into most of the mother company's properties, I didn't say anything about that, either.  I don't care if I don't go to any of them, save the rednecks over in Alabama. They're fun to hang out with, lol, while we unload the truck. But I rarely get over there anyway.  

And right now? This is where ELD's are ridiculous.  I've been here since 11:45 last night. I'm ready to go. I've been ready to go for an hour and a half.  I'm not sleepy, tired or fatigued.  But, with these electronic devices, you have no choice but to sit here for 10 hours. I went to bed right after I got here, only doing paperwork first.  I could have gotten up at 6 am and had this run over with by now.  

____________

Well that was this morning, forgot to post it before I left there.  I have exact same run going out same load time tomorrow and then allegedly a run going to Brownsville after that.  We'll see. Part 2 of his plan at least en queue, but that Browsnville run will be needed to make a half decent pay check.  

Walking into the house today, the boys were obviously in bed for their nap, Maria was dead asleep on the couch and did not wake up when I walked through the front door. She continued to sleep after I walked by and into my bedroom.  THAT is a heavy sleeper and also someone that should probably have the front door locked when they're sleeping.  Who knows what could happen in that scenario? 

I fear for the boys safety, more than anything.  

Taylor made plans for all of us, lol: Meet her in Longview at the steakhouse for dinner. She now works 30 plus miles away and of course she loves Texas Roadhouse - I do too and I will be down for it if James is.  James being the operative name here, he's at work and doesn't have time for much of anything when he's at work.  He hasn't responded yet to her query of which she included all 3 of us in a group text message.  I dunno, but I've only eaten once today and now that this is a prospective, I'll eat nothing until dinner. Lol

Well enough of this one.  

 Ahh, indeed.

I figured I would be off until Friday, from the statement of my manager yesterday.  That wasn't the case. I received a texted worksheet for work tomorrow: Oklahoma, lol.  That is the least possible run I can get right now in terms of miles and pay.  I may get lots of those in the next coming days.  

That set the "am I still employed at this company" nagging thoughts out of my mind.  I needed a resolution to this situation regardless of what the outcome would be.  

The whole thing has been seriously downplayed now that truth has come out but, of course, my company's HR department still wants a written warning on my company record.  So beit, I won't contest it,  that's a dead end street. Large company HR departments aren't anything to argue with, once they have made up their minds, they are going to win regardless, you might as well just accept it and move on.  

I'll give my new manager credit: He fought for me.  I find it rare to find that in companies anymore, and that was a breath of fresh air.  He fought for me because, of his own wording, I drive like hell, get the job done, don't have to be communicated with constantly about where I'm at and why isn't the product there. My thinking: You don't get paid the big bucks for screwing around and doing everything but getting the load to the receiver on time - and usually ahead of time.  His words of commendation for my work ethic - his words - went on and on.  

I work my ass off because that's how I was brought up.  It was instilled into me at a very early age and it never left me.  Probably a lot of people in my age range have the same work ethic.  

My manager did concede that he hadn't even tried to contest any of this with the mother company.  My thoughts went there after I had talked to him and the middle manager yesterday. I was rather consoled by this manager's statement of my work performance, to be honest. He even said "I would be a fool to want to get rid of a person like you".  

What was downplayed?  I was hired on with the company that was bought out and all of us on that system are on a different set of rules.  4 strikes and you're out.  Not, first time something happens, you're fired. I have nothing on my history with this company preceding this. NOTHING.  No roadside inspection tickets, no safety warnings, certainly nothing with the customers.  

So this situation is over.  Well, he did say after a while he's going to contact some dude at the mother company after he's "calmed down" and see if he can get me back into the rest of their company's facilities.  I didn't bother to tell him that I wouldn't miss any of those places lmao. I get along with those people at all of those places, in fact one of them we all think alike and the conversation goes on the entire time we're together unloading the truck.  Another place we talk smoking meats.  Another, we talk about whatever - just random stuff.  I'm not against going back into that facility - Cheniere. Nothing against those people, security personnel are only the entrance stuff, after that you are interacting with plant personnel.  

My manager also offered that fact that you are out there 70 hour work schedules back to back  and yes, you are eventually going to have a problem somewhere. Definitely put in the hours.  

And then the - stuff.  Somehow, a driver found out about this and started going off to everyone else.  I haven't heard about that from any of them, but I have only talked to one of them since this situation has started and I told him zero, nothing, nada about what's going on. That driver called me - so I'm guessing he's the culprit - and started telling me about a rule that has been changed with "personal conveyance" - an option available on the Quaalcomm and nothing I'm going into right now.  

My manager said, we haven't said anything to any of them about this, so please don't blame this on me.  I knew before he said that management wouldn't divulge that to other drivers, that would be a serious violation of company protocol.  That's personal employee stuff, really don't get at all from this manager that he would go spouting off to drivers. He's just no like that and has proven to me that he is an advocate for drivers.  

He said he told a driver that came "bitching to me" about it that he was to zip his mouth about it, end of story.  No idea how he got that info, but probably at the plant where this occurred from employees. Other than that, perhaps some person in the company working in a different department that heard the info.  No telling, but if a driver comes up to me starting s*** about this situation? I told my manager flat out I can handle myself with other drivers. Not looking for trouble, but if they come starting it with me, I can deal with it. 

So, that is where this currently stands. But with other drivers knowing about this, it may evolve - or degrade - into something else.  

Okay, my head is cleared of this nonsense, at least for now. If other drivers start s***, well, there will be posts here about it.

Today? I spent the entire day - literally - getting Phoenix caught up with school work.  Amazingly, the 5 year old only had one off moment. He couldn't understand what I was trying to ask him to do and he started getting frustrated.  He was on the verge of a meltdown and I just stopped everything. Time to take a break. We got back to work after that and he had a good attitude and engaged for the rest of the day. Which included a 2 hour break in the midst of it for lunch, a nap and a bit of tv for him. 

Early afternoon, we got back to work and it was after 4 before we were done.  That was freedom time.  These boys - the other one was pent up in the living room, I couldn't have him disrupting the older boy's school work - hadn't had an energy outlet all day long.  We went outside, they rode their bikes, ran up and down the driveway, etc until parents came home.  

And today is Veteran's day. James is a veteran! So, we went to Chili's for a free dinner for him and then his best friend also showed up - and also a vet - and we had a very good time, really. Nice end to the day, we came home, his friend also, we all talked for a while and now the day is done.  

I'm very tired. I can't tell you the mental energy needed to deal with a 5 year in a school setting all day long, attempting to make up over 2 day's worth of school work. I am not a teacher, but I did my best to teach the boy without him getting aggravated and upset. I'm not surprised I feel this drained, I don't have the gift of teaching and could not be a teacher, but we did get through all of it today.  I was proud of him, mostly for keeping a good attitude.  

Well I'm out of it and going to sleep.

g'nite.

 

 Why is Russia the second largest grouping of people reading this blog? 

Lol.

I know I don't get much comments but it gets lots of views and there is a graph showing who is reading from where. US number 1, of course, Russia number 2, Australia 3 and so on down the line.  

Sorry, Russkies, y'all are welcome to read but you aren't manipulating anyone here.  

 Well now I understand why this process with my fate at work is being drawn out. The security guards flat out lied through their teeth about what occurred the other day.  They tried to claim I refused to give them ID, which is just plain false, and whether I should have taken the video of them ignoring it or not, it's proof that my ID was dangling out the window of the truck for at least 5 if not 10 minutes and asking them to look at it.  

They also claimed I said my name was Mike something or other.  No, not only did I tell them my name, I also spelled out my last name for them. Then they claimed I refused to stop videoing after being asked.  No, I turned the camera off immediately after they asked.  

It just went on and on into a litany of lies that went up the chain of command all the way to the parent company corporate, of which I won't name here, who said I wasn't allowed on ANY of their properties from here on out, as long as I'm employed by my company.  That stops me from going to 5 faciliites, 4 of which I don't like going to anyway, the 5th is an up in the air thing, I"ll take it if given but it certainly isn't on my top 10 of places I like to go to.

So, I really didn't expect that, the lying that is.  An it's my word against theirs besides that video showing me holding out my ID card.  But with the story they fabricated, I can see what the mother company would want to ban me. It became obvious, quickly, that the only real thing I could do is simply humble myself, apologize and eat it.  So I did. To keep the job and not get fired, yup I just apologized for things I didn't do, tho I did deny all of it.  What could you have done differently? Just hand them the ID without asking them about it.  Security guards can get pissy about their authority being questioned, even if you aren't actually challenging their authority.

I have had enough interactions with them over the decades of truck driving I've done, far and beyond just the current job.  

The mid level manager wasn't opposed to my staying in the company after seeing my demeanor.  I wasn't about to argue with them, it became crystal clear what my only line of action could be to salvage my job.  But, even with all of that, the manager said they would ask for a verbal warning - the least amount of infraction I could get and not go on my record, but that HR could come back and say they want - more. Such as a written warning or worse.  Worse would be to be let go.  So I've got another couple of days sitting around, according to him, to find out my fate.  

Here I figured they would have already decided that.  My manager had made his decision - he lauded my performance and my work ethic and said he would be stupid to want to let me go.  So I got that much of a concession at least.  I would, if kept on, be getting mostly gravy runs, such as the people I have continually complained about coming from other divisions lol.  The worst run I can think of I would get is Oklahoma, which is at the top of the "worst runs" list.  in other words, it's as too as it gets when thinking about bad runs. I wouldn't have to go to Ohio - where you are held up a day and don't get paid for it. The other drivers tried to claim we are going to get paid for the layover, but that didn't turn out to be true.  

The other thing he stated is that I wouldn't be able to go out back to back runs like he sends me out now.  Good, I thought I don't like that anyway, but certainly said nothing about that.  I mean, I've gone extremely long periods of time before he came along with getting a day or 2 days off in between runs anyway and still making bank for yearly earnings.  

So, if I get to keep my job - that's still up in the air, actually - this will actually work out better for me even tho I will have a stain on my record with them.  And if I decide to move on at some point, they won't be able to show that information to any potential employer for reasons I won't go into here.  

So I have at least another day off, maybe two before I even find out my fate, but at least my manager IS pulling for me.  It was really left into his hands to make the decision of what kind of discipline to give me - but - then he has to submit it to HR and HR has to agree with it. 

BTW, losing a job isn't the end of my life. But getting fired from a job? That can affect your potential for future employment -  greatly - with any decent company.  That, is why I ate this stuff, swallowed it whole and will live with it.  And even with that, no guarantees that I will still have a job there?  Well I tried at least.  I was honest, that is also something that counts with me.  Those guards obviously don't care what they have to say in order to keep their jobs.  They are probably making a lot of money at that facility. It's out in the middle of nowhere.  The nearest town going to Louisiana is about 45 miles I think. Going the opposite direction it's Port Arthur, but apparently none of them live there - people at the plant anyway that I've talked to - they don't like it there and live much further out.  We're talking 2 hour drive times for many of these people.  

Anyway, enough of that.  I will be home tomorrow, babysitting the boys but probably spending about 4 hours with Phoenix doing school work.  He just finished monday's work tonight and of course it's Tuesday, so tomorrow I will work with him on both today's and tomorrow's work. I expect about 4 hours of work.  So, we'll do Tuesday's work - in it's entirety - and then play time outside.  Do half of Wednesday's work and then naptime - which is when I can also start making dinner.  They sleep, I cook.  They're good for 1-1/2 hours of early afternoon sleep.  

That's my plan for tomorrow. I am undecided about setting up the pond now that I have it all cleared out. The leaves are falling. The trees are dumping lots of leaves. I bought some netting to go over it, but just undecided about having to deal with all of that.  Or, I could just do a setup like I have at my house in Phoenix, put 4 posts in and drape it with sunscreen material which will let light in but keep most of the leaves out.  Tomorrow won't be a good day for that regardless since I will be babysitting, doing school work, cooking and wondering about my job.  

Anyway, it's been a rather long day.  Oh, today is my 3 year anniversary at this employer. I found that out because I asked how many vacation hours I have left.  The middle level manager called payroll and they informed him that they had just dumped - however many hours -back into the system.  I really wasn't listening too well at that point, the meeting was over and I was attempting to digest everything I had just heard.  I knew my start date was around this time of the year, I wasn't sure what the exact day was.  

It's not time for bed, but I'm getting off the internet for the night.  

 Come what may this morning, I am prepared for it. Tho after what my manager said yesterday, it doesn't appear that my job is in immediate jeopardy. 

And if that's true, I"ll keep working there - for a while.  This "at will" stuff is haunting, to say the least.  I have never been fired from a job in my adult life and don't want to start with this company.  So, I think in the near future providing this goes as I believe it will today, I will start looking for something different. 

The oil injection job is an energy based industry and I don't think that's such a good idea to be looking at now, with the "presumptive" winner of the election being Joe Biden and obviously anti-fossil fuel, anti fracking, anti anything that doesn't promote the far left agenda.  This area I live in was hit hard several years ago when fracking/oil took a nosedive and a lot of people lost their jobs.  So I decided that particular job, as appealing as it looks in pay and home time, isn't a good fit for right now. 

But, if I could find something that has me at least in the 75k territory, I would definitely consider it.  The focus will be local job tho and I'm in no hurry to get into the wrong position.  There are plenty of local jobs around here, but the pay range is in the 50k area.  That's not really all that bad, but I've become accustomed to a much higher pay scale, being able to save money and live my life the way I want to plus paying down debt all at the same time.  50k doesn't afford that.  

Whatever the case, the anti-Trump rhetoric being broadcast all over the place, including Fox News, has became a nuisance. We know they all hate Trump, nothing has stopped even tho Biden is promoting a tone of "unity" and "healing the nation" while not condemning any of the multitude of statements left politicians and media types are puking out on a daily basis. Fox News is no longer owned by whoever it was that had it and allegedly now a Disney company and also allegedly managed by some liberal loving democrat.  That explains that shift.  They haven't touched Carlson or Hannity - yet. I would love to see them can either or both of them, tho, that would seal their fate and their millions of viewers would dwindle to CNN nothing-levels.  

And I would surmise Hannity and Carlson are popular enough that they would find a home somewhere else.  Actually, if some rich entrepreneur wanted to start up a conservative leaning outlet and could lure those two over, Fox News would be doomed and the new start up would thrive instantly.  I still watch some of Fox News, but apparently they believe  they can pose blond haired women handing out liberal-laden garbage and think that most viewers will just fall for it.  Yea, no.  Journalism, reporting without bias is a lost art.  

So, we sit on the precipice of a new President and we don't even know for sure who that is going to be, yet. ACA is being litigated with the new justice that the left has accused of somehow being able to single handedly get rid of it.  That's not the way it works, there is a full panel of SC justices, one person isn't able to do anything in and of themselves. I would love ACA to be dumped, personally, and replaced with something reasonable - well actually I spent my entire adult life paying for health care without any government help, I'm not really a fan of government sponsored healthcare insurance.  Medicare would be the exception since so many people are already on it and many people would be screwed without it.  

The other interesting thing that has occurred is that Real Clear Politics has rescinded their version of the electoral college map showing biden the winner.  That is interesting.  It's now got a lot of states shaded grey - presumably because of requests for recounts and lawsuits. Do I think anything will become of it? I have no idea.  I'm just going to sit back and watch this event unfold. In my view, it's just guessing whether it will change the outcome of this election or not.  Remember, the pollsters had biden winning this thing in a landslide, they said all the way up until election night that there would be a blue wave.  Trump supporters gave a definitive no to that scenario.  The pollsters also declared the House would pick up at least 10 seats. They were WOEFULLY wrong in that prediction and gives credence to the fact that pollsters have it all wrong - and probably some of them intentionally so.

You look at the methodology and you find democrats over sampled. Skewed questioning.  

Anyway, time to get some breakfast and get out of here.  

G'day.  

 Today.  I figured my fate would be revealed to me this morning.  I didn't even come out of my bedroom today until 9:30 am, figuring I would get whatever news I was going to get.  I needed a break from the boys anyway, I've been dealing with them for days, Maria was over to watch them today.  Taylor started her new job and since the boys are being quarantined from school and daycare, someone has to watch them.

I was getting rather irritated that by noon, I still hadn't heard anything.  I'm just the employee, not the manager/management, it's their place to tell me what's happening next. Keeping me on hold for 5 days is rather ridiculous.  I found some interesting leads for jobs today, but I didn't fill out any applications.  I figured if I'm going to be let go, I'll take my time in only filling out apps that interest me, that look like something I'd like to do, versus thousands of trucking jobs available. I literally could be hired tomorrow morning if I wanted to just do anything.  In fact, there is the owner of a company that has been texting me on and off for 2 years now asking me to join his team.  Just saying, there's no scarcity of trucking jobs. 

But trucking jobs aren't all the same and I am not going into all of that, it would take a book's worth to adequately describe what goes on in the pay and retention part of the trucking industry concerning company drivers.  And it would be boring, lol.   

I finally came out of the room and conversed with Maria. It took me quite a while to even get into the mood to want to be talking to anyone, I couldn't get my mind to be doing anything else until I heard from management.

3:00 pm arrived.  That's around the time loads are usually dispatched. That's just a time frame that isn't set in stone. No call, no text.  I was sitting here attempting to decide whether I should contact them first, or just wait and see if they ever actually get around to calling me.  It didn't take much longer after that for this to be resolved. Or at least, partially so. My manager contacted me around 3:30 pm.  Can you come tomorrow at around 10:30 am?  Kenny is here, don't take that wrong, he just happened to be here, not because of you.  Oh? It's been 5 days, I figured after this much time y'all were going to be letting me go.  

Why not say that? You can't leave an employee hanging that long without at least communicating with you what's going on.  5 days?  I can only guess that they must have been having talks with Cheniere about what happened or even investigation on Cheniere side as to their security firm personnel involved with this situation. Remember, this security company is a separate entity.  I continue to wish that there is video surveillance footage of that supervisor going off on me, raising his arms and throwing them around all over the place, livid, out of his mind, ridiculous and outrageous behavior for someone in that position considering what had actually transpired.  

My manager replied, well I wouldn't think that at all if I were you!  We are going to sit down and get this thing resolved and behind us.  That kind of gave me an answer.  I won't be let go, but I can probably expect an in-person interrogation from this middle level manager.  +

Tomorrow will be day 6 of not having had worked.  

Anyway, that's where I'm at now, at least I'll have some resolution to this situation tomorrow, regardless of the outcome, I want this over with.  

And an odd thing tonight. We're standing around in the kitchen - everyone - tonight and the power goes out.  A minute later, come on. Out, on, out, on, out on, out, on out.  The final time, it stayed off. We sat around for awhile doing nothing. Yes, the generator is out there, but it means hooking up extension cords and running them throughout the house. But after a while? I went outside, fired the thing up, ran a line into my room, was about done with that and then...the power came back on lol.  

That's enough, it's bedtime.

G'nite. 

 So, after being requested to do so, I wrote up a detailed accounting of what happened at cheniere and sat on it for 2 days - until today that is. He didn't want it until tonight and obviously I'm not going to be sent out on any more runs until they decide whether I stay or go.  

I'm not going to wait on a potential "go" decision and will be putting out applications at places that look like they are decent, pay somewhere in the range I want and are home or mostly home daily.  
That may be a challenge, of course, especially the home daily part, but that is where my search will begin.  The money I have been saving for land will just have to be spent on living expenses if it comes down to that.  If so, I have enough money in my account to last probably 5 or 6 months if I don't do anything but pay bills, eat and not go out to eat or any of the other things I occasionally do that cost money.  

I have to say here that I never intended on this job being a permanent one, I just wanted to get some money saved up and then find something different that doesn't keep my out for days at a time.  That gets old, I'll tell ya right now.  The normal 600 plus miles per day and 14 hour shifts are part of that thinking.  Sure, there are shorter runs, but all of the shorter runs cost 14 hours and more.  I figured 3 more years or so and then find something different.  

Anyway, I am partially at fault for the event that transpired there, of that I won't lie about and didn't with the accounting I sent in. Clear conscience and also they probably have asked for and received the accounting from the security guards. Tho I have to wonder how that supervisor could possibly defend his demeanor during that event in going off the rails, yelling and completely unprofessional conduct. That facility is a multi-billion dollar operation, but, if they don't have any recordings of him going off then it's their word against mine and I will simply accept the fact that my word will be discounted and my employer, the "at will" people that get rid of people all the time - are going to dismiss me.

I am not wanting that kind of outcome, but I'm definitely mentally prepared for that, including the idea of having to go tomorrow and clean out my stuff out of the truck.  There will be no hard feelings, I"m not going to become agitated there, I'll shake the manager's hand if he allows me to do so, say nice working with you and move on with my life.  

But again, if that's what happens, I'm going to focus my search on lucrative local jobs.  Now that I have 3 solid years of accident free tanker experience, perhaps I can get on a fuel gig.  Or some other type of tanker setup that pays - usually much better than dry vans, reefer or flatbed hauling.  I have experience in all of that and more.  There are other tanker companies that go to the loading plant - but I haven't heard anything great from the drivers there about how the company treats them.  

Enough of that. I am hauling dirt today from the pile that was dumped. I'm almost half finished hauling the dirt but the project in the back is almost full.  The holes have been filled around the yard and the hole in the front yard is finished. Meaning I have more dirt than I needed.  I'm going to haul several loads to behind the shed and dump a pile there for future use, I did that a few years ago and ended up using all of it. The rest I  guess I'll just have to dump in the stream. The next heavy rain that comes will wash all of that away.  Speaking of rain, I need to get that stuff out of there on the side of the house before that happens. So I"m gonna haul another 10 loads today and try to finish up tomorrow. Even if my company lets me stay on, I won't have any work tomorrow.  

And as far as the news goes? I'm not watching any of it.  I shut it off after the projected Biden win for the most part.  Today I've watched nothing but a few clips of Biden continuing to claim he is going to "unite the nation".  Biden isn't the person that will united this nation, neither is Harris. They both have blasted Trump and supporters for years now but especially heated up after they won the democrat nomination.  We've been labeled racists forever and I'm sick of it.  The left haven't even stopped calling GOP names, it's still going on, which is why I decided to shut off the news for the most part and just take a glance here and there. Michelle Obama took a huge swipe at republicans, not just trump and so have a lot of hollywood elites, left politicians and definitely left media types gloating and smearing trump supporters.  If that's their formulae for uniting a divided nation, I have news for them.

As it stands, my belief is that only the Lord can unite this nation and I'm not sure that's going to happen. Or if it does, it will be under severely dire circumstances which force us to have to band together against a common enemy.  

I AM curious as to what Trump is going to do with his last days.  I know the election is only projected to Biden, but I don't see anything concrete happening that will change the outcome regardless of if there is fraud and faulty machinery that was allegedly giving Biden votes that should have been counted as Trump and so on. He could probably get the Senate to continue on with appointing Federal justices if nothing else.  Might as well get something accomplished in his last days.  If there was some miracle and Trump somehow were to win this election, the chaos that would ensue isn't something I even want to think about.  

And the news just in that Alex Trebek has died at the age of 80.  RIP

With that, I"m heading out the door and hauling more dirt.  

 So, some interesting news today.

Nothing to do with politics.

Taylor calls me.  She rarely calls, we mostly text.  We talk a lot in person, calling isn't really necessary. 

I'm thinking, hmm, what is she calling me about?  Took the call, of course.  She needed to tell me something about Phoenix: a classmate had exposed everyone in the class to COVID-19.  The school told her that he had to be quarantined for 14 days at home.  

Keep a 5 year old boy, active, likes to be outdoors, quarantined in the house for 14 days.....

And, the possibility that he may have contracted it - and - if that's true, we're all doomed.   Well I shouldn't say doomed, exactly, more like probably going to get the virus and hopefully walk out of it on the other side. 

Am I concerned? Yup, a little. The virus does take lives.  I'm no ready to be scratched off of the "still among the living" list just yet.  

Oh and yesterday I may have just ended my employment with my current company.

Not intentionally, of course, but never-the-less.  

I got to Cheniere. There are 3 checkpoints you have to go through. The third one is the only one of any importance. The first one is just the entrance to a driveway to get to entrances.  In other words, you aren't in the plant yet getting through the first gate.  They always just ask if you know what you are doing and you tell them yes, are you searching trucks today? If not I'm going to gate 3 to get my visitors badge.  Ok and they wave you on.

The second - as already stated. A search.  Their version of a search is quite flawed, if anyone wanted to bring in some sort of explosive devices or firearms or whatever evil these people are looking for in trucks, it would be quite easy to get away with it.  So that's a waste of time and they don't always do it.  Which makes it even more questionable. One day I may be a threat but another I' am not?

The third is where they take your credentials and issue you the pass. That's where you actually get escorted into the plant.  I absolutely despise that place simply because of all of this and several security officers with attitudes and authoritarian complexes up the ying yang. I probably didn't help that I had just gotten the news about Phoenix and exposure to COVID-19 and whether he will get it and in turn, the rest of us will definitely get it. He's always getting up close and personal with me, all the time when I'm home.  If I sit down at the couch, he's plopping himself right down next to me.  If I'm sitting at the bar in the kitchen, he's right there.  

Anyway, I gave the man my name and spelled it out for him, my last name sometimes gets spelled wrong.  He then said he needed my ID.  What for?  Just struck me wrong.  Having to give ID 3 times in 3 separate places is ridiculous and nonsensical.   He immediately got on the phone with whoever.  I didn't lose my cool, I didn't hurl insults at him, I didn't get rude with him at all.  He, however, got major attitude and the next thing I know, there is a supervisor there.  I had gotten out my phone, dangling my TWIC card, waiting for the dude to come back out of his little shell. He did come back out, refused to even look at it and that's when the supervisor showed up - I showed him the card but he also refused to look at it or even speak with me at all.  

I took a recording of that - I wasn't actually on their property, well sort of but not inside the property.  The supervisor yelled at me I couldn't record on their property.  So I shut the phone off.  I was then escorted into the facility - but not into the plant - to a turn around for trucks about a half mile down, turned around and they let me loose. I stopped right next to the highway - I had 2 minutes of paperwork to do before I could leave - that's federal regulation stuff - while I was doing that, this supervisor came up to the truck and stood there with his arms crossed, not saying anything, glaring at me.  

I opened my window....yes?  You need to leave, you need to leave right now!  GET OUT OF HERE!  I still kept my cool "I have a little bit of paperwork to do before I can leave". YOU CAN'T DO YOUR PAPERWORK HERE, YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, LEAVE! LEAVE NOW! GET OUT OF HERE! 

It was all I could do to stop from laughing at this idiot.  I take humor in people having meltdowns over nothing, I see it all the time on the internet, don't get to see it too often in real life.  I just kept a blank look on my face and said nothing more to him.  He abruptly stopped his tirade and walked off, I sat there another 75 seconds finishing up what I was doing.  My fate was already sealed at that point, I thought, might as well just do what I was doing and then leave. There was no traffic coming in or out of the facility, I wasn't blocking anything and I was at the very edge of their property.  

My manager called me back after about 10 miles of driving - can you please turn around and go back if I can get the plant manager to get security to allow you  in? Sure.  I don't care, I have no axe to grind with these security people.  Whatever happened, it was nixed.  Just come back to the yard, I got texted about 15 minutes later.  I am guessing some lying from security guards about what transpired, which is why I am glad I at least got a video of the guard shack dude refusing to look at my ID.  At the point I pulled that out, it should have been over.  They should have just done their jobs and none of this would have happened.

I don't claim to be a perfect person and there are things that bust my nuts and authoritarian security officers that go off without reason and get all heated up over literally nothing is one of them.  This isn't the customer, this is a hired firm also working for the customer.  We all have weaknesses, shortcomings, failures.  I could have just produced the ID right off and that would have been that.  It just took me by surprise and it didn't set right with me.  They did that the last time I was there as well, but never before that. Last time, I just complied without saying anything and the security guard at the entrance there was just as ridiculous as this dude - excepting he didn't have a melt down.  The supervisor was a complete whack job, has no business being in that position. Going off the rails like that without even talking to me, at all.  A person in that position should have a bit better temperament than that, but it just goes to prove my assertions that a lot of these people are on power trips.  Just like bad cops.  The bad ones are also like this. Power trips. I rarely run into them, thankfully.  They have no business being in that line of work.  I suspect many of them choose that line of work just because they can act out like that, asserting their will on people.  

So, I drove all the way back with a loaded trailer, got to the yard, dropped it, parked the tractor, went into the office, turned in my paperwork, came out, a truck was backing under the trailer, apparently the manager had gotten someone else to take it right back down there.  I've heard nothing from my manager/company since last night but I assume trouble for they will undoubtedly blame me for this incident regardless of what actually happened and that will be that.  I'm not going to sweat it, I've already been looking for jobs and found a rea doozy. It's a local job, home every night, around 70k a year. A bit of a pay cut but I could deal with that in exchange for being home more often.  

My company likes to remind everyone, frequently, that employment is "at will". What they mean is that they can release  you at any time without warning or even without a reason.  That is what had me nervous when I first started here and went through their training program - the dude didn't thank us for working for them, he instead told us the many different ways that we could be fired, terminated and done away with. 

It has sat in the back of my mind ever since then and the frequent "at will" garbage. Texas isn't a union state, they could do that anyway without the reminders.  People have been laid off, others have been terminated, more have been furloughed.  It's literally nothing to them to get rid of people. So, if that was my last ride with them, so beit.  I very much like the look of the job I saw where  you haul an oil tanker to "injection points" along pipelines and pump oil straight into the pipes.  There was no explanation why that needed to be done, but there was the thing about the money and about being home every night, rarely ever have to spend overnight on the road.  There are other tanker jobs in there, the pay is around 75k.  Again, a pay cut but not enough to change much of anything besides perhaps reduce the amount of money I am currently saving for retirement and property.  

I'm just saying all of that without even knowing what my fate it. I am not the first one that has been banned from Cheniere. Another, much longer tenured driver, lost it with them years ago and told them off to their faces. They banned him as well.  There isn't a single driver that actually likes going there and most openly give the manager a hard time about getting any runs down there. I don't - or didn't - do that unless I'm given more than one in a row.  

I did not send out any applications, I was just looking to see if anything decent available out there.  

The election is still undecided.  Pretty much, in my mind, if Nevada goes to Biden, the election is over. They are still counting ballots in Arizona and the Trump campaign has high hopes of that coming his way even tho news outlets have declared it a Biden win.  Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina are also still counting ballots.  But I think it's Nevada that determines this election and as of right now, that's not looking good for Trump. On a brighter note, at least for me, the Senate appears as tho it will stay under Republican control, which, along with the 3 justices Trump had appointed in the supreme court, puts a blockade to any democrat extreme progressive garbage that they want to try enacting on the citizens.  McConnell, tho, needs to get a bigger backbone and not cave so easily to dem demands, is all I am concerned about.  There are enough dissenters in the republican side that if McConnell does try some garbage, it won't ever pass anyway.  So that's a bit of a sigh of relief.  

Biden, however, can attempt to get us into more wars.  He's pro abortion.  He can sign executive orders.  Talked about tearing down the wall that's been build on the southern border.  Open borders.  other outrageous schemes to give away America to illegals.  Every President relies on Executive orders to get things done they otherwise can't, nothing new there.  I'm not going to have a melt down, not going to start shooting people, not going to start burning down buildings and all the other nonsense that dems were promising us if another Trump win occurs.  I'll be sad about my 401k if the stock market crashes, that was getting up there quite nicely.

At home? both boys are home for 14 days.  That's right.  14 days of - well you know, kids that age get bored, they get cranky, they start fighting with each other, they start defying parents, things that kids that age do, especially when confined for lengthy periods of time.  So that has already been fun, lol.  I hauled some loads of dirt from the pile that was dumped the other day. The front hole is either filled enough or maybe another couple of loads. The pond hole in the back I got several loads dumped in there as well. Far from finished.  But wanted to put a dent in that and get some of it done.  

Well, Taylor is off to the chiropractor.  She has a knot in her back and she says whenever it comes, she can't breath right - she has asthma and breathing problems.  The boys are sleeping, thankfully.  So, just kicking back with some actual quiet time, the news turned off.  I'm 75% sure biden is going to win this, already prepared my mind for that eventuality.  It's still possible for a Trump win, but not very likely from what I can see.

g'day. 

 So now our company is back to installing cameras in every truck.  Forget that the fleet is aging and most of the trucks need replaced - we're talking as much as 900k miles on many of them in the fleet. Mine has half a million miles and THAT is considered well over the threshold of most major trucking companies for how long they will keep a truck before getting rid of it.  

The thing that bothered me about this camera stuff was the inward facing junk.  I would have seriously considering quitting over that.  They don't need to see what I am doing inside of the truck.  We LIVE in those things when we're on the road, we do things other than just driving it. They want to be able to "coach us" if they see something that they don't think is "safe driving". How will they know when that happens? Are they going to have staff going over countless hours of driving to find ever driver's mistakes? Who is going to coach us? I've been driving 36 years, I doubt there is much of anyone available that is going to show me anything different than I already know.

Knock on wood, I have never had an at-fault accident in a truck and I intend on staying vigilant to make sure it doesn't happen in the future.  Anyway, they canned the inward facing thing - drivers gave their opinions and it wasn't anything the company wanted to hear - people talking of quitting.  I worked for a very short time for a company that had inward facing cameras AND microphones listening to everything you're doing in there. Just won't do that again.  I'd hate to have to leave this job right now, but I'd find something else even at lower pay before putting up with that nonsense. My reaction to such foolery is to ask them if they are going to have cameras in their bedrooms as well that we can see? They look at me funny. Exactly, those trucks are also our bedrooms at night.  We take our clothing off in there and we sleep in there.  I don't want you watching me doing my private, personal stuff, thanks.  

And got a text from my manager, I knew this was coming sooner or later as the news of at least 47 loads going there came at me a few days ago: Cheniere.  I don't need to tell you how I hate going to that place since y'all already know. I'll just grin and bear it and hope that by some miracle I can get it done tomorrow and not have it dragged into a second day!  The truck is filled with fuel, at least. If it were to come down to a time thing and I could possibly make it back tomorrow night, getting fuel on the way back up can be bypassed. 

The truck arrived with the dirt.  It's a lot of dirt lol.  More than I wanted but it's on the property now.  I am not doing any of that today, the jackhammer was enough of an ordeal for me.  I just wanted it here so my next day off I can start hauling dirt to various places around the property, both out front and mostly in the back.  Since the hole in the front was my doings and also the hole for the in ground pond in the back also my doings, I had no problem paying for this load of dirt in here.  It was a lot more than it's likely worth, just needs to be done and spending too much time looking for that "deal" wasn't worth it to me.  I can get stuff done, including mowing the back yard as low as the mower will go and shave it down to the ground.  Then plant rye seed. It has transformed into very little grass and some sort of low lying weed that doesn't grow high enough for the current setting for the blade.  Smart weed? I have no idea, but that sucker will go to almost ground level. Rye grass grows easily, like weeds really.  And it's beautiful, even if only for the winter.  It's going to take turning up all the dirt with a machine next season to actually get some bermuda grass growing in there.  

Not sure I'm that motivated.  Just a lot of work.  And rather costly for renting the machine and buying all of that grass seed. And even more work maintaining it with all of these trees dumping garbage all year long all over it. And then dogs pooping all over it lmao.  

FINALLY!!! The no bark collars finally arrived. 3 of them.  These aren't shock collars, they let off a vibration that dogs don't like and on high setting, also some sort of noise they apparently doing like either.  They will all be set on high setting the first day.  Aspyn has gotten them all barking. Even Adler is barking far more than normal.  I've had enough of it and they aren't going to like it, but for our sanity and the neighbor's we had no choice.  My cop neighbor says he never hears them barking, considering they bark all day long on their side of the house, that's amazing. But still, they drive us nuts with the incessant noise. 

I just increased my 401k savings by one percentage point and apparently started a Roth IRA account - which I didn't know I had available - and decided to put 1% in that.  Yes, that's a pittance but what with what I am having deducted to my 401k and the automatic deductions going into my savings account with Chase bank, it's really getting up there on the savings stuff.  I'm around 25% of my income being saved now.  Funny how making good money allows for that and still live your life and do pretty much whatever you want to do within reason.  Beyond my automatic deductions, I dump a lump sum into my savings account every month - up to $500 depending on the income that month and where I want my savings account to go to.  If I'm at $9,100, I'll put in $400 to bring it up to a nice $9,500. stuff like that.  

Truck purchase put on hold.  No way of knowing what's going to happen today or whenever the presidential candidate is declared and what's going to happen next.  I don't think it prudent to be getting into a higher monthly payment with the uncertainty that lies before us.  And, I have decided that I don't want to pay 35k for a used truck.  It's probably a good deal for what it is, but it's too much money. I'm frugal in some things and not so much in others, but with used vehicles? This is why I wait for a while and let reason and analyzation have time to kick in over the "wow that's awesome i want to buy it today" stuff.  My limit will go down to 20 to 25k - lower payments, will result in needing to buy a bit older vehicle, which I'm okay with.  My thought process, tho, is buy a brand new truck that will last me the rest of my life.  Fun, yet unreasonable. 60 plus thousand will be a pricey monthly payment.  

I've seen plenty of older trucks that I would love to be in.  In fact, the alien type design of new GMC vehicles I don't even like.  Amazingly, I love the look of the new Fords and could handle that - but - no thanks.  A GMC diesel, 4 door with long bed.  That's my "dream" truck.  

______________________

Wednesday morning.  The presidency is still in limbo.  Both sides are claiming victory.  Talk of people burning flags? Wisconsin running out of ink? Millions of ballots still needing to be counted in Pennsylvania and other states... The only good news I have heard is that Republicans have retained the Senate, regardless of which way the presidency goes, the Republic is saved. From what? AOC types taking over Congress and pushing this nation off the far left cliff.  That's what.  The House is still undetermined by they are calling it for Democrats.  That's kind of a downer since the House controls the purse strings of the nation and Pelosi has done nothing but play political games with it. Didn't expect that to flip, tho, and was holding my breath about whether the Senate would remain under Republican control. So, even if Biden does win, there will be gridlock for 4 years. McDonnell easily won his state, we'll have the same majority leader who has, imo, done an excellent job at least in recent days of standing up to Pelosi and her minions.  

But, I will still stand my prediction that if Biden wins, the stock market will crash at some point in the near future, if not immediately.  

Whatever the case, I'm going to watch some news and try to get caught up and try to wrap my mind around a Cheniere run coming up today.

G'day.  

 Well I finally did it. Had today off, voted last week, didn't need to go to the polls.  Taylor is still home - she starts new job this week sometime, we went out to eat breakfast with Jaxon, who had a slight fever at the day care yesterday and they sent him home. Like a 99.1 fever.  They have to stay out for 24 hours and not show any further fever.  Anyway, we went to the rental place after eating, got an electric jackhammer, brought it home and got that cement garbage out of there.  

It was quite the chore.  I'm not near in the shape I used to be, as I found out that today more so than ever.  Just holding that thing up and keeping it in place was quite the job.  They make quite the money off of those rentals. $75 for the jackhammer and the bit.  You rent the bit separately - I guess if you ruin it you get to buy them a new one.  It's done, regardless, it's level with the ground. That was easily the hardest part of this pond installation.  I am now looking for a partial truck load of dirt to be brought over - or have it dumped onto the trailer and bring it home myself.  I need to fill in where the pond used to be and I need to level out where that concrete stump was.  

However, finding dirt hasn't exactly been a cake walk. A person 2 towns over was selling it - but neither can bring it here or load it onto the trailer.  I have no idea what that setup is and I don't want to find out.  I want the dirt loaded onto the trailer at the very least, I don't want to have to shove it onto the trailer and then shovel it back off.  No thanks, more trouble than it's worth.  And found a guy who is bringing out a large trailerful of it. Probably lots more than I need, but these companies won't just bring you a partial load even if you tell them you'll put for the whole load and just put on half or less. So whatever, it's coming today, in about 20 minutes in facts. There are some low spots in the yard that need filling and there is still the remnants of a hole I had dug out front for a pond that, after having it dug, I realized was a bad idea and never finished building that pond.  

So I got something done today at least.  "Minor" cheat day.  Had some potatoes this morning and having pasta tonight.  After that back to the diet and seriously considering switching to a different one that isn';t quite so hard to do, especially when out on the road.  As long as I can still keep the pounds off and lose even more.  

The news - full of election day stuff. But there are no results being posted yet, it's too early, so I have it muted.  Just turning up the volume to anything that looks interesting.  I was watching Jaxon while Taylor went and got her allergy meds.  I have no idea who is going to win this election.  I really have no indication either way. I hope it's Trump but there is certainly no guarantees of that happening.  Apparently a lot of people are going to the polls today, which is amazing because 100 million people have already done early voting.  Which is also amazing.  The commentators and the pundits are all whipping this up to be a Biden landslide.

I don't believe it's going to be a landslide either way, but I'll truly be shocked if Biden actually does win in a landslide.  And sad, because I fully expect the stock market to crash if he wins.  The news channel I'm looking at on the internet is showing nothing in any of the states yet. It's too early, but if you can't tell, I'm fully engaged in this. This election cycle has been horrible.  The name calling, the accusations, the finger pointing, all of it, unbelievable. I'm ready for all of this to be over, whoever wins, wins and maybe get back to some sense of normalcy again?  

Alright I'm getting offa here for the man with the dirt will be here soon. 

 Off to Brownsville, I'm the first load which is - early.  Got a reprieve with Daylight Savings Time going back an hour, We're 2 days away from the election.  I'll be on the road today and tomorrow unless I get hung up in Brownsville which would have me coming back through Houston on Election Day.

Not too worried about that tho, I doubt we're going to see the results until late night or some are predicting even days and weeks because of the massive numbers of mail in ballots.  But, reports also declare that Biden has hundreds of lawyers poised to file suits in every state in the Union. 

That alone tells me that this is going to be a contested race and could drag on for a while without any declared winner.  

I think we're in for a wild ride here.  Predictions that major cities will erupt into rioting will probably come to pass, seems like the people perpetrating that nonsense will use any excuse to loot and then burn down buildings.  

Anyway, we pretty much spent all day yesterday doing Halloween. I'm usually not home for any kind of holiday, so it was a treat for me. We couldn't find a single pumpkin anywhere in the city or the next city over. Kind of waited a bit long to get some but I've never seen a town completely sol out of them.  Didn't really make sense.  The boys were a bit disappointed in that.

We decided to go to a neighborhood known for houses giving out treats and tho it wasn't near as many this year as last - Taylor said the entire neighborhood was doing it last year - there were still plenty of houses with people sitting out front, dressed up in costume and giving out candy. I drove the pickup, they sat on the tailgate with the boys safely in the bed of the truck and I only went like 5mph to be safe.

Yes they asked me to drive as Taylor had seen so many people doing it that way last year.  It became readily evident that we would have to go through a large portion of that neighborhood to get any real amount of candy.  The boys were having a blast. Phoenix was dressed up as Spider Man and Jaxon was dressed up as a police officer.  The only glitch was we showed up too early, so we went to Chili's and had a bit, used up an hour there and were just in time for the festivities to begin. We were the first wave of people going through neighborhoods.  

Saw the cop next door at the Chili's - hadn't seen him in a long, long time.  He said he would be sitting out on his porch tonight, come over and visit. So when we got back, I did just that.  he had been working security at Sam's Club for 8 months and making bank in doing so. $40 per hour plus OT.  he said in that amount of time he was able to stash away 40 grand on top of his regular pay as a banker.  Wow is all I can say about that. At the same time, sacrificing your life for money isn't really all that worth it for me.  I guess I put in plenty of hours, but what he was doing was even beyond what I do.

He's done with that now, he says, and will be home a lot more.  Since he's a cop he told me he could get me a pistol that I've been wanting for $500. That pistol is easily over a grand anywhere and you can't even find that version of a .45 ACP right now.  I've looked.  What do you need another pistol for? I"ve always wanted a .45.  He said next time he's in Dallas he'll get me one.  As of right now, he's having his knees replaced next Friday.  

Well I can't go on too long here, work looms. It's Sunday, so the dogs are staying in my room until they get up this morning. I had to order 3 new bark collars, Aspyn has them all barking now and they are ALL going to STOP with that nonsense.  It won't take much to get Addler ot stop, but Aspyn won't shut up unless I go out there and yell at her.  

Anyways, off to the races. I do hope this trip I get a bit of detention pay even if only overnight version.

G'day.  

 Just a quick update. 

The truck would be in t he mid 30k range.  It's what I expected after looking up pricing from various sites.  The interior appears to be in excellent condition.  My monthly vehicle payment would go up from the $350 it is now to somewhere in the $500 range. I could easily swing that.  5 year loan I'm assuming. 

Giving this some serious consideration. The only thing I really don't like about the truck is that it's white.  I like something with some color to it, but it's definitely not a deal breaker.  OTOH, there will be more of those trucks coming in over time. The Ford dealership I am doing business with bought out the Chevy dealership in this town so I know people will trade in their older vehicles to buy new ones.  I just won't buy a new vehicle, They're nice, yes, a novelty. A novelty that loses thousands of dollars of value when you drive off  the lot.  And the price tag with a new version of this truck would easily be in the 50k range.  

But, I'm in no hurry to make the wrong decision.  Just in the thinking process right now.  

 Darn alarm. Goes off at 5:00 am. I set it a half an hour after I should have left this morning, but I was soooo tired last night.  And so it was, I was dead asleep when that thing went off. Last night I pulled into a truck stop that I figured would have a lot of spots.  I was wrong. There were 2 left and I got the one and shortly after another person got the other.  It was pouring rain - I've driven in rain the last 3 out of 4 days.

__________

Friday - morning.  Day off. Truck needs all kinds of required services, the mechanic said, he's going to do that today.  Plus the air leak, they need to find that and fix it.  It's gotten worse and I'm not comfortable with it. Yes the giant air compressor on the truck can more than keep up with the leak.  I reported this problem 2 weeks ago and now I just forced the issue: time to find the leak and fix it.  So it should be in the shop there now.  It'd be nice if it went over into tomorrow. I don't mind a couple days at home. 

However, talking with the manager yesterday - who is never very chatty - but he let get the info that next month is going to be extremely busy.  he said there were 160 loads to do.  Uhh, I thought, we can't do that many, even if we drove every day for the entire month. He agreed. He said he just tells them we can do it because they always cancel.  Yup, Brownsville, Oklahoma and probable Cheniere always cancel some loads.

Cheniere, however, is firing up a new "train", they call it.  Turns natural gas into liquid and then they ship it overseas in giant tanker ships. When I say giant, I mean giant. You can see those things sitting in the port.  They attach what appears to be 24 inch diameter pipe to the ship to load it.  I can't guarantee that size because you can't get close enough to really see it well enough, but just the point: huge lines attached to fill them up.  I assume overseas they convert it back to gas.  They say a lot of it goes to Australia.  

Anyway, there are over 50 loads going there, so I know I'm going to get some of those runs - or a lot of them, I dunno.  There are equal numbers of Brownsville and Oklahoma runs. The driver trainer expressed his hope that the other driver that came over from another division - who does only gravy runs - will have to be trained to offload so we all get equal shares of those crappy runs. Tho, this is the cheniere in portland, at least there is some miles in it - 400 each way.  But it adds hours onto the delivery time to have to offload - they make you jump through a lot of hoops to get into either of their facilities.  You can easily be there 3 hours before you even get to start unloading the truck.

Okay, enough of that.  Just hold my breath and hope for equal amounts of decent runs with the garbage ones.  I went and voted, just got back. No way was I missing this election by being out on the road on election day. I prefer to vote on election day, but it's whatever at this point and the job I have, just don't want to take the chance.

There was no line, thankfully. I drove by there last week and there was a huge line and there were pics in the press of long lines as well.  Taylor says she thinks it's cause' it's cool and weather - even just a little coolness - makes people not want to do anything lol. It's Texas lol.  I was particularly concerned with this city's desires to give themselves far more powers than they currently have.  I voted against all of it excepting a couple of them. One was giving citizens powers to start recalls and have 15% of registered voters.  Anything that gives citizens more powers than the city? I'm all for that, for the most part.  Don't want anarchy, either, but this town has enough power, most of it was directed towards taxation and....no thanks.  I did vote for the extension of  1/4 of 1% tax  to maintain the roads.  I don't think they are necessarily spending that money well, this town's roads are horrible.  Maybe they should have put a "repave the roads" initiative on there and I probably would have voted for a temporary tax increase.  Anyway, I was happy to get that over with and done.

Taylor asked me to go to Longview with her to get Phoenix (the 5 year old) a Halloween costume. She ordered one on line and it got hung up in Houston.  Jaxon's already arrived from another company she had ordered on line.  The boy's little feelings would be hurt, lol, if he didn't get the costume he wanted, especially considering the 3 year old got his.  So I thought why not.  I was wanting to do that concrete thing in the back yard today, but I really have little energy.  Too much time on the road does that too me.  I usually need a recovery day - which would be today. 

Would you want Warren and Bernie on finance committees, knowing their views on "democratic socialism" and spending?  We're going to have a nightmare, IMO, for a federal government if Biden gets elected.  I don't care what you think about Trump, what we are going to get with that disaster group is going to be far worse than anything Trump has done.  That's all I will say about that here for now.  Election day is almost upon us. It's reported that Biden has a team of hundreds of lawyers in all states ready to file lawsuits or whatever for any "issues" in voting.  I hope the courts are ready to make quick decisions on all of this.  Whoever wins, we need to have that answer sooner, not later.  We don't need the election dragged out for weeks - which is what it appears will happen at least in some states.   

In other news, the dealership called asking if they could give me a quote for trade in value for my vehicle? I've been thinking about it. Really undecided. Pay this thing I have off and then get my truck, or get rid of it, trade it in and get the 2500 HD GMC pickup she just sent a pic of to me.  141k miles, not too bad tho it's only a 2015 so someone's been driving it pretty good. it's 4 doors, 4 wheel drive.  Very tempting, but she didn't give me a price. So I'm going to look up bluebook values for it and take it from there.  I just like this SUV because it's the long version and the dogs easily fit into the back with ample room.  The truck would either be the back seat or have to have kennels for the bed.  I don't like the idea of transporting dogs without having them nailed down somehow.  i see people with dogs running around in the back of their pickups and I just am not comfortable with that, at all.  I doubt that truck will last long, it's a Denali HD, they are pretty popular - but I know they're also pretty pricey.  

Well, time to go to longview. 

g'day

 Drove long and hard yesterday, almost 700 miles.  Got to Farina - with scant few minutes left on the clock - got up this morning and drove the rest of this route out.  I called the plant from the Love's about 40 miles away.  Can you offload the truck today? I don't think so but let me check.  Nope, sorry, the tank has too much product left in it.  

And these people expect us to come up here, wait 16 to 18 hours because - why?  This has been going on for years and I thought - my time is so worthless that I shouldn't get anything for excessive waste of time waiting here for them to get their act together?  Why can't they just wait another day to order? Why do drivers get treated this way at this particular plant?  If they want us to wait, they best be willing to pay for that privilege. That's how the trucking industry works.

So I wrote my manager a text - are we still having to sit around here for 17 hours to wait on this plant to be ready to receive the load and we should just eat it? Why do we get paid everywhere else we go and have to wait but here?  

I followed it up with - I mostly want to know because if we're not, I am going to go to a place 20 miles down the road instead of sitting in a dustbowl in front of their facility for all that itme.  He called me back - thought it's bs that we have to do this and said he would contact Eastman, there's no reason we shouldn't get paid for waiting.  

So I dunno how that will turn out, but I decided to get a hotel room and  spend the day here versus sitting in a truck.  I was hoping I could unload today, turn around and get back to Farina - I had enough hours left to do that - and then get home tomorrow.  That obviously isn't going to happen, drag the run out another day and make it less valuable.  

Well whatever.  Mark called and went on and on about some guy that left a room trashed - literally full of trash. He'd been living in there for years but bought his own house and moved out.  And left a huge mess.  Dunno, we don't go into people's rooms checking up on them, tho I think that's really something that might need to be looked at once in a while.  

Taylor was telling me I need to get home, she's bored lol.  She doesn't start her new job until the 6th, tho she decided to go on a house cleaning rampage, even sent me a pic of this huge list she made for herself. 

Amy Coney Barrett confirmed, the next Supreme Court justice has been installed.  I'm willing to bet she won't be near as far right as lefties think she will be.  I think she's going to go by the Constitution, not her own personal feelings or beliefs on things.  I dunno, time will tell.  Basically, I don't believe she is an activist judge.  

Anyway, just a short entry.  I have to go to bed to get up at 5:00 to get up, get some coffee, take a shower and get out of here around 5:40 am to get to the plant at 6, hopefully get unloaded straightaway and get at least 600 miles back towards Texas tomorrow. 

G'nit.e   

 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.