3 rather long, grueling days are completed, I am in Bethlehem, PA and as luck would have it, there is no way to get a rental car tonight so I am forced to hunker down in a Holiday Inn Express (I like the regular Holiday Inns much better, but these aren't too terribly bad). I restarted the diet today - I've been off of it quite a while and have gained a good deal of fat back - and as luck would also have it, Waffle House is next door to the hotel.

No waffles for me, just meat, eggs and tomato slices.  A salad earlier today with a couple of hamburger patties, nothing else.  I'm not really sure I can do this diet on the road without having anything with me as I usually do, but I'm going to try.  

Oh, that horrid hotel.  The one I stayed in last night.  Quality Inn in Greenfield, Indiana.  I couldn't believe how filthy and smelly that place was.  I'm going to write up some reviews on TripAdvisor and other outlets about that place.  The carpet in the main areas of the hotel, the steps going up to the second floor from the balcony (kind of like a grand stairway setup) and the carpet in the hallway on the second floor were completely filthy. The walls were dirty and scuffed up.  Going into my room? A horrid smell came into my nostrils.  Putting my toiletry bag down in the bathroom? A cockroach came crawling out of the cracks!  I've had other such experiences at Quality Inns before, if they try to give me one again, I'm going to politely ask for something else.  

Tomorrow, everything going the way I see it going - as in, get to the yard at around 8:00 am, get into a rental vehicle, get my stuff out of the truck and into the vehicle and take off, I am thinking of attempting to make St Louis tomorrow night. That will be 872 miles of driving, a little more than halfway back.  That will get me back to Amarillo in 2 day, driving like crazy. But.  I have to find out if we are getting paid by the mile or paid hourly wage for driving a car back. That question was brought up today and I had no answer for it. I know if I drive my own personal vehicle to a company function, I get paid by the mile.  

Dunno, want to get that answered.  Because I have less motivation to get back there in 2 days if we are paid by the hour.  I can drive 2 and a half days and that would be totally legitimate per the miles driven per day but get paid a bit more.  In other words, go a bit slower than the speed limit and not try to cover mega miles in a single day. I'm out here to make money, I already knew I'd be gone up to 2 weeks, I'm going to make the best of this.  

Oh, I take that back. 48 hours on the road, paid by the hour is more money than driving. So who cares, get back in 2 days, get into the other truck and go right back over here - and then head home.   I really don't think I'm going to be out here 14 days, more like 10 or 11.  Actually be time for a third trip if they'd let me.  Yes, I know, a glutton for punishment, the entire time out here is going to be driving a lot of miles every single day, there will be no breaks from it and it will get old.  But I get to make up for lost revenues sitting around doing nothing and making nothing.  

Alright. Well it looks likely I'll have to drive back with that other dude that didn't quite come off so well on the first meet.  But, he called me today - I dunno who gave him my phone number - and we chatted for quite a while.  He didn't sound quite so abrasive as the first meet where he was demanding I wait for him to leave at 3:00 am - when it was 3:00 pm, plenty of daylight hours left.  So, it won't be so bad going back and even if we do have to drive together, I'm either going to be at the steering wheel cranking down the road or laying in the back seat sleeping.  I'd rather be sleeping, but I'll drive the wheels off the vehicle to get this 11 or 12 days over with, behind me, a couple of good paychecks and move one.

And with that, I'm burnt out and ready to go to bed.

G'nite.  

  

 Woke up at desired hour this morning via help from alarm - and went back to sleep.  Long days taking their toll, no rush, I thought, nothing I can do when I get there today anyway.  I'll have to wait until 8:00 am tomorrow morning to get a rental car and get out of there.  

So I'm a bit behind my time.  And I don't care.  No relevance placed on this truck ATM, it's going to sit until it's needed. BUT, when they need it, they need it right now.  It needs more work as it stands. It sat so long the front tires aren't round and creating a nice vibration.  Check engine light on.  Filthy, it needs detailed.  The best be finding a short person, too, there is literally no room in that thing and it's not high enough inside of it either the sleeper or the cab to stand up, I have hunched over.  I would hate to have to drive that thing full time.  

But, if they get those things worked out it will be a good truck for emergency use, ie: nothing else available.  It's just old school, the way they used to make trucks.  

Anyway, about to head out there and fire it up and get this day going.

Dreary, overcast day tho.  Not sure how far down the line that goes or if there's rain ahead.  And at 30 degrees, it's cold outside as well. It went down into the 20's overnight.  Of course that poses ice risks on the highway, but, we're gonna go and get this thing over with.

With that?

Happy Sunday.  

 Day 2 is over.  Almost 700 miles. This truck is so small.  My legs are cramped all day long. I could never drive this truck permanently.  It's like being crammed into a commercial jetliner where your legs are smashed up against the seat in front of you.  My knees are hurting from driving like this.  One more day, 600 more miles and I am out of that thing.  You put the seat in the furthest back position and it's nowhere near enough space for my legs.  The mechanic warned me about it at the shop, but what choice did I have?  

And the sleeper! There is NO room in that thing.  The bed takes the whole sleeper up besides maybe 10 inches of floor space.  It is, as I stated yesterday, a half sleeper.  There is no where to put anything excepting a miniature closet that won't even hold a duffle bag. It's big enough to hold maybe 1/3rd of my duffle bag.  

Complaining? Yes a little, my legs were talking to me today.  Keep my eye on the prize - a couple of extremely healthy paychecks will be coming up.  And tomorrow evening I will be in a hotel, out of that thing and - well yes I'll have to drive it to the yard Monday morning but that should only be a few miles.  Get a rental car, move my stuff out of that truck and into the car and drive back - hopefully anyway - to Amarillo for the second truck.  They didn't have this truck ready to go, so I don't know about any other truck that may be there.  

But, my manager gave me the truck number, so I'm guessing the thing is sitting there somewhere.  It'll be about 10-1/2 hours by the time I'm done tomorrow and then I can relax a bit.  There won't be any car rental places open on a Sunday evening, I can't go there, dump the truck and turn around an leave - as much as I will want to.  So it will be 8:00 am Monday I'll be waiting at the gate to get in and get the process of going back to Amarillo going.  And hopefully drive 800 miles at least, get halfway back the first day.  

My real concern is getting there and getting out of there before that other dude makes it.  I don't want to drive with him back.  Just don't.  That's another reason I pushed it today.  He cannot make it there tomorrow night. If he did any amount of driving, he's likely 300 - 400 miles behind me.  Guess but probably fairly accurate. So, he'll stop tomorrow after however many miles and he'll still have at least 5 hours if not more to go on Monday. Guy just came off wrong, I don't want to spend 1,632 miles of "quality time" with him. If I am forced to, I will sit in the back seat when he's driving and just sleep. I'm sorry, but I was around him about 30 minutes and that was enough to tell me that he isn't my cup of tea.  And my manager informed me to "do your own thing, don't wait for that guy if you don't want to".

Speaking of my manager, I texted him earlier about a hotel for tonight.  He texted back: I'm in a deer stand, I can't talk, please - do this that and the other thing and get a room.  Turns out he was with friends, he had already bagged a deer earlier in the day, didn't want another one - said he didn't want to clean another deer today lol.  I probably should have stopped in Indianapolis instead of where I am now. They have higher rated hotel names here  in this town I came to, but for whatever reason, they aren't on the list my company will allow.  

Which is strange, because I have stayed at all of those brands with this company in the past.  Must be a price limit thing? or some parameter that stops them from paying for those better hotels. I'm at a Quality Inn, and I must say it's not much better than a Motel 6, Days Inn and other brands of that "quality".  Well, it's not the end of the world at least the carpet isn't torn up and stained and the beds look - ok. I got some Chinese food - still haven't restarted my diet and not sure if I am or not on this trip. I don't have any food with me, everything is eating out - which is going to get really old, really quick. 

I came here because it's east of Indianapolis, I wanted X amount of miles done so I can be sure that I can make it to PA tomorrow - sans any breakdowns or blown out tires.  

Well, I could start at around 5:00 am. But I think I'll sleep a bit longer.  There is no difference as far as the company is concerned whether I make it at 4: 00 pm or 6:00 pm tomorrow.  It's not a loaded trailer with a plant operating 24 hours a day waiting on it.  It's likely the truck won't even be used until it starts getting really cold and the demand for LNG goes way up.  

______________________

And just like that, this pile of junk computer decides to shut itself off and do an update.  I timed it this time. 25 minutes from start to finish.  That's a lot of time to update a computer, as waste of my personal time and now it's time to go to bed.  

G'nite

 That's a long day.

Left the house in the rental pickup at 6:00 am, arrived in Amarillo around 2:00 pm.  My truck wasn't ready, they told me, they just went to Peterbilt to get it.

I hadn't been informed that the truck I was taking wasn't ready to go or that it had issues.........lol

Well, I've been to the Amarillo terminal many times now, I headed straight for the driver's lounge, where there was no one else, shut the lights off and went to sleep.  I mean, I drove 526 miles with a "rest break", of which I am accustomed to stopping between 300 and 400 miles and taking a 30 to 40 minute snooze, get up and finish out the run. 

I had it in my head to go ahead and run another 100-200 miles in the truck and get a start on the trip.  So some other driver came looking for the keys to my rental truck. Huh?  Yup, I'm taking it to the hotel tonight.  Well you aren't taking it now, I have all my stuff in there and I have to unload it unto the truck whenever it gets here.  

Must have slept longer than I realized, the truck was there, it was in the shop and a mechanic then came looking for me.  Come with me, I have something to show you.  That isn't exactly a good sign coming from a mechanic.  But it's whatever to me, I'm on the road, if the truck is broken, I'm getting paid to wait.  

The truck had been fixed at the Peterbilt shop only to have it code (engine light) after they left with it.  Mechanic tells me "I tried to get it to shut off, but it wouldn't".. yes, please tell me what's the deal? I've driven lots of trucks with engine lights on, is this serious or what?  Well, it's (some sort of valve I've never heard of before) and it's sticking.  But it (should) work.  

Another dude, a manager, says: Well you can just drive it, if it fails you'll have to deal with it somewhere.  Meaning have it towed or limp it in to a Peterbilt shop.  It's whatever again to me.  They're sending me out in a truck that has a known issue and they don't exactly know if it will make it to PA. I'm fine with that, this came from them, they know about it, I'll run with it.  If it fails? I'll be stuck somewhere for however many days and I will get paid for every single hour the truck is broken down.  

This trip is really a make up trip for all the lost hours not only this week - 5 days off - but also before my last run where I was also off for several days - unwanted days off.  I'm going with the flow here.  Drag this thing out.  I have until Christmas, I don't care if I go home at the moment. That will change, of course, after being on the road a long time and doing mega miles every day.  But, I'm going to get back what I've lost in time off - I'll be running minimum 600 miles a day, every day, car and truck, that's going to be a couple of very nice paychecks.  

Anyway, this dude - other driver - for some reason wants me to run with him.  But, he's out of hours, he drove a truck into the yard, I drove a pickup truck.  I had full hours, I don't have to log hours in a passenger vehicle.  He's really pushing it, I have no idea why, but then he said, are you okay with getting up at 3am?  I thought, no, why the heck would I want to do that? It's 3:00 pm, I can get some good miles in before I finally cave into one of the longest driving days I have had since my dad died and going to see him, I can sleep all night, wake up the next morning, feel good and go about my day.  

I didn't say that, I just played this out.  I finally said, well let me text Brandon and see what he wants us to do.  I'm thinking, if he says go with this dude, then fine, I'll deal with it. There is a host of reasons I do not want to have to be hooked with another truck going to the same place, but it would take too much time and writing, so I will just say it really causes problems. Brandon calls me 10 minutes later, dude, you just do your thing, however you want to do it, don't worry about this other guy.  This other guy also is under Brandon - but a different division so I had no idea who he was.  

He said that and I said C'yall later, I'm outta here.  Truck nasty.  Smoker truck. Not sleeping in it, my manager says he'll get me a hotel.  I'm all down for that. He says back, yea but don't throw this on me last minute, let me know well ahead of where you intend on stopping.  Of course!  Which I had no idea where I was stopping at that point, I didn't know what driving mood I had left and figured I could deal with that on the road. 

Leaving there, as I was driving I started thinking, well, I need to get enough miles done so I can get there by Sunday night, drop the truck off Monday morning and get a ride to the car rental place.  It's just my truck driver thinking, get this stuff over with as fast as possible.  And have some off time while I'm at it, they won't show up til 8:00 am Monday, the sooner I get there, the sooner I can relax in a hotel and bask in the glory of doing nothing after a long day of driving.  

I ended up in Tulsa, some 370 miles later.  I'm 3 miles short of having had driven 900 miles today.  My eyes are bloodshot, I'm not tired, I could have driven another 300 miles, but hey.  The company isn't going to complain about that many miles legally driven in one day.  I fully intend on driving back from PA in 2 days.  It amounts to about 850 miles per day.  

My manager got me a very nice hotel. It's the Holiday Inn Suites.  A 6 story affair, this room has a separate living room, kitchen and bedroom.  I was amazed he got me something so nice.  I don't ask for anything specific, I just hope for the best.  

Tomorrow I'll try to hit Indianapolis or further.  If Indianapolis, I might look up an old friend.  He's apparently unhappy about the divorce with Valerie and hasn't spoken to me in a long time.  Relationships in this modern age seem to be meaningless values with no set parameters.  I've known him since the mid 80's.  Good guy. Don't know if I'll look him up or not.  I'll think about it tomorrow.  

Otherwise, I'll try to make it to Spiceland, Indiana.  Not because it's anything special, but because it's the miles I'd really like to get in tomorrow and leave less for Sunday.  I always plan, plan, plan my routes once I know my starting point.  

With that, I think I"ll take my bloodshot eyes to the bed and sleep for a while. 

G'nite. 

 Well here we go.

First off, my tractor is at the Peterbilt shop. That's why I haven't been working.  I had no idea they had taken it to a shop, it must still be under warranty.  Would have been nice to know that so I could at least think "gee, I'm not working but I understand now why".  

So my manager calls me a few minutes ago, actually,  letting me know about the tractor and said I'm not going to have you sitting around any longer.  Cool, what are we doing?  I have equipment moves I need you to make across country.  From Amarillo, TX to the northeast.  Back and forth, you're going to be out a few weeks.  Yesss.  I don't care about that, it's alot of driving but that's my job.  I'm getting a rental car today, driving up to Amarillo, leaving in the morning and then getting a rental car at the destination - I have no idea where these trucks are going - get a rental car there and drive back to Amarillo and doing that for at least 2 weeks.  I'll take 3 since the work is available.

They wanted me to do over a month's worth, but my manager said no, he's a "local driver' and I can't have him staying out that long, he's not used to that.  Well, okay, I don't like it, but it means making some serious money and that's what matters to me.  Plus half the driving is going to be in rental cars, I can boogey at the speed limit - well I usually push speed limits at least 5mph - and get the return trips done much faster.  ALL of our trucks are set at either 68mph for OTR or 65 for local.  

Anyway, that will be constant driving.  I won't run out of the 70 hours since the drive back will give me a reset every time - however many times "every" time is.  It's what I guessed tho,  They need trucks up in the eastern seaboard to run LNG for the winter months.  This is a huge waste of money to the company, but they make bank off of the product hauled.  Now, what condition these trucks are in is unknown.  I'll be taking paper towels, spray cleaner and aerosol spray with me to "counter" whatever nasty conditions may be inside of those trucks.  That's gotta be a 3 day drive to the northeast from Amarillo. 

Yes, I figured it out, it will be $4,520 for 10 to 11 days work, maybe 12 if there are delays between trucks. My manager just contacted me saying I would be moving two of them.  He figures that's 2 weeks work - well not quite and I will ask for a 3rd trip if I can get it.  Take the work while I can get it.  As it stands, I just asked for 40 hours of vacation time added to next week's work - I've been off 5 days now.  

Ah yes, tomorrow's paycheck will suck. Next week's will be fully vacation hours. After that will be the small mountain of cash accumulated by all of this projected driving.  I will actually have made more this year for annual earnings than last year. Maybe not by all that much, but it should be close to 90k.  

Well, I have stuff to do now, lol.  I don't have my toiletries bag since it's in the truck and the truck is in a shop over 60 miles from here, so just gonna have to take from the bathroom and go with that.  

Anyway, now it's getting late in the day and I need to get moving.

G'day. 

 The last thing my manager sent me in texting today: "I'm checking". Well I dunno what he was checking, but he never got back to me, didn't give me a run for tomorrow and that will make 5 straight days off.  2 of them would have been a run admittedly, but for the truck breaking down.  1 of them - yesterday - I had asked for off.  Today was not asked off and neither was tomorrow. I didn't even get word back if there is some issue going on with the truck.  I mean, who knows, maybe TA was wrong and the issue was much more severe than what they said it was. Who knows? They said they couldn't fix it.  It's really the only reason I can think of that my manager wouldn't be giving me a load after 4 days off. 

Whatever the case, I intend on putting some pressure on tomorrow and finding out what's going on, what his plan is and how he intends to get me making some money.  If that means going to Vermont, let's go! I need to get to work!

Meanwhile, I tried to start my Keto again. I stopped for a while during Thanksgiving - leading up to it as well.  I was ready to start today, but dinner time came around and the folks here wanted me to call in the promise of the manager at Chicken Express to pay up.  That was the deal when I bought everyone here dinner from them, got home and was missing a large thing of coleslaw.  I don't get chicken at any of these chicken joints without getting coleslaw.  It was on the receipt.  I had called them, a manager answered the phone right off the bat.  I told him what happened, he said "I don't know I just got here".  Nice, I thought AND said, pass the buck, get on the phone with a customer and just deny any responsibility because YOU weren't there at the time.

His tones changed and he simply replied: Keep your receipt, next time you come in we'll replace the entire meal for free.  Now THAT was interesting, amazing actually.  So, I left with 5 year old in tow - he insisted on going with me and mom said it's fine as long as I wanted him to go, which I don't mind at all.  I had some trepidation that after two weeks passing, they would just say we don't know what you're talking about.  But I had spent $62 on that order.  We ran into the store - it was raining.  Handed the young girl at the counter the receipts, told her what was going on, said you'll probably have to get a manager.  It helped I had a young kid with me, what are they going to do, get rowdy with me in front of him?  But that never happened, the manager never came out, they just made that entire order - far too much food - over and handed it to us with a smile. So I smiled back, gave a hearty thank you! and left. Oh, we ran much faster to the SUV, by the time we left there, it was pouring rain.  My leather coat was nicely wetted by the time I got the boy in the SUV, the food in the other side and myself into the driver's seat.  

I had ordered that much food the first time because all 3 of us were working and we all were taking lunch with us the next day.  Even after that there was still leftovers. Oh, and they also screwed this order up, but in our favor: a whole box of chicken wings that we most certainly did not order and wasn't on that ticket.  It was amusing that while we were waiting, other customers came in the door with their box of chicken saying their order was wrong lol.  It's this town. We have a local facebook group for all the restaurants to post on a daily basis and show us their specials and what they have to offer.

Lots of people get on there and I'm telling you every chicken joint in town gets railed on.  Especially Popeye's, far worse reputation than Chicken Express.  Better tasting chicken, but you are guaranteed your order is going to be wrong every....single.....time.  If I go there for a take-out order - which we always do - I'm taking every thing out of the bags and checking every single item.  And counting it.  They don't much care for it, but it's whatever to me.  

So it's been raining most of the day and will be raining on and off most of the night.  See, I wanted to use the blower in the back yard and clean up the first round of leaves.  Well actually we're at the second round now.  But wet leaves, of course, don't respond well to a leaf blower lol.  

I'm really just going to blow up the manager's phone tomorrow. I need to work.  I didn't ask for 5 days off.  If they send me to Vermont, my truck doesn't need to work, they will fly me up there to use the trucks up there.  Which actually isn't much fun, but having a working truck here isn't required.  Oh, their trucks up there are complete piles of junk.  Garbage that needs to be scrapped, they don't fix them, they have all kinds of problems and it is amazing they don't get pulled over more often than they do. I guess that's kind of difficult on those roads up there, there aren't many places where trucks will even fit off of the side of the highway.  Any  of those highways, sans the Interstates.  Which is probably why there are weigh stations seemingly every 10 miles - tho I never saw any of them open.  

Anyway, since my manager was talking about going on one of these equipment hauls, I'm preparing myself for leaving tomorrow at a moment's notice. Whenever they dispatch you on those, that's not for the next day, that's for the same day.  No huge rush to get to the yard, but they want you to leave that day.  Enough clothes are clean, plenty of winter gear - it's getting cold if you haven't noticed - I'm ready.  I could get too used to staying home and just doing my own thing, I really can't be sitting around here this long, it takes it's toll on my thinking. It's like coming back from a vacation, you have to get your brain into working mode again.

Am I following politics? Yes, to some degree.  The whole thing got old weeks ago.  Well months actually.  The worst of it is the politicization of the virus.  And these dictatorial governors making these outrageous lockdown decrees and then finding one after another after another violating their own edicts, going out to eat or whatever against their own mandates, and then attempting to explain it away or avoiding the press at all.  Beyond that this movement to attempt to tell Republican voters in Georgia not to show up to vote. And beyond that, Stacy Abrams - look her up if you don't know who she is - creating an organization that now has been accused of using people who are dead names on ballots for this runoff election coming up that will determine whether the democrats have full control of congress and the White House or if there is some sort of blockage to them having a runaway train with far left, progressive - communist - bs ideology taking over.  

Republicans really need to up their game in these elections. Tho, it is almost impossible with nearly all of the media outlets being on the left.  With a vast majority of Hollywood elites being on the left. With the media giving far more press time to Democrat politicians than conservatives/republican politicians.  It's an uphill battle, especially with voters who don't educate themselves.  Which are a lot of them, they simply don't follow politics, see the propaganda and vote accordingly.  And take a close look at who Biden is proposing to fun the various cabinet appointments.  Unbelievable.  

I just don't want to spend too much time on that, whatever happens, I have to trust that God is still in control and go with that mentality.  Because down here on earth? It certainly won't seem that way. Biden will get us into foreign conflicts, that is almost a foregone conclusion. That is the democrat way.  Fire up the military industrial complex and get that corporate bs flowing!  See? there is a lot more, too, it's too much, just gets overwhelming to think about all of it and it's not good for me/you/anyone.  Vote, speak up when it's appropriate to do so, but don't lose your minds over it.  Whatever happens, I'm trusting in the Lord.  That's all I can do.

And with that, I bid you a good night.  

 I decided to take the Vermont run.  My manager called me early this morning - my ringer was shut off so I didn't wake for it - he wanted me to go on an emergency run. Which I would have gladly taken, but i guess by the time I returned his phone call, he had already covered it with someone else.  So he said he was going to find out if the truck was fixed or not - I can't imagine that an EGR valve wouldn't be able to be easily fixed the same day the mechanics started on it so I assume he forgot that I was out of queue because of equipment breakdown.  

Whatever the case, Vermont would be okay at this point, I guess. Freeze my butt off but make guaranteed wage of $2,100 per week working or not working, full day or half day, whatever.  

Ahhh, he finally responded.  "I can put you on equipment moves, will take the better part of a month".  Ok. Where and when.  Let's get this rolling because I'm going to go broke if I don't start getting some work here.  He ignored the Vermont thing so that's fine, I don't mind doing equipment moves, those are also lucrative runs that simply have you dead-heading to point A and moving it to point B. That's usually only one trip tho, taking a month would mean it's much more than just one trailer.  Why do they do this? At this time of the year it would be trailers being moved over to the Eastern seaboard to cover LNG loads for the extra capacity needed to keep up with demand during cold winters.  They stated they were bringing in 100 drivers over there just to cover that. 

Thankfully, I'm not one of them, I really don't like driving over there what with snow, ice, narrow highways and roadways.  If you were reading this when I was in Vermont, it was and hour and a half trip to make 60 miles and that was in good weather.  But I don't mind sneaking in any out with empty trailers lol.

I checked the 4th property. That might have not been such a good move. It's a small property, it's cleaned up but there are giant trees on it and some of them need to come down.  I mean, there is one that is clearly dead. The good thing? It can be felled in the eastern direction and not have to worry about taking down houses, power lines or anything else, the property next door is a vacant lot. I'm going to wait and see if the city sends me any notices about it before proceeding to buy a chainsaw.  They want far too much money to cut them down and I have cut lots of large trees down.  Notch the the side of the direction you want it to fall about 20% into the tree.  Cut a straight line behind the notch.  Pound in wedges on both sides to keep it from falling the wrong direction, then cut the back of it.  Timber!  Okay, I've done it in forests where it didn't matter what direction the tree fell. So I'd start with a smaller tree to make sure I have the technique down.  

The other 2 properties have trees on them, but they aren't "nuisance trees" and do not appear to be in any danger of coming down. One lot needs cleaned up tho.  I'll probably have to do that as well, but that's something I can do without worry about destroying anything lol.  

Okay, we're in a back and forth, me and the manager.  Whatever he's going to come up with, take a deep breath and go deal with whatever the assignment is.  Likely be on the road for several weeks with either scenario.  But whatever, I've been home long enough - I love being home don't get me wrong - reality sinks in that small paychecks don't get me ahead. They may pay the bills but that's it.

In another note of encouragement, however, my 401k's are up to 105k now.  I'm trying to determine what action to take before Biden takes office.  For if he starts decreeing shutdowns and attempting to twist governor's arms or even mayor's arms (as his "plan" allegedly is from what I have read), I have no expectation but that the stock market is going to fall considerably or even crash.  The last crash cost 25k, but I left my stock alone as they advise you to do and it came all the way back up and then some - significantly more actually - in a rather short period of time.  If you're engaging in lockdowns, you are destroying the economy. There is no other way to assess that.  You may be taking the strain off of hospitals, but that is all you are doing, nothing else is accomplished by this besides the destruction of more people's lives through the elimination of life savings, jobs, small business and livelihoods. 

____________

Still waiting on final word of what I'm doing next, but it needs to occur tomorrow. You know, paychecks and things like that? I could stay home forever and love it - but I wouldn't last very long on the amount of money saved up. Guess I could survive 3 years living a very modest life and just paying bills and debt and nothing else. Lol.  I'm 5 plus years away from Social Security, and that's age 62 stuff, where you take a reduction in the amount you get.  I think I have to stay on it until 65 to get full benefits.  No, I don't want to work for someone else until I'm 65, I'm working on it.  

None of the properties I got will support an RV park, so I am relegated to saving as much money as I possibly can before the next auction and hope I can score something with at least 5 acres.  More would be nice, but I can do with 4 or 5.  And preferably not too terribly far from an exit off the Interstate or the major state highway that runs through here.  The land I have now is well off into the future before I can do anything with it, so that's a nonstarter as it stands.  Ie: sell it or put something on it and gain income from it.  RV parks aren't the only way to acquire income, but building houses isn't cheap and if I have to build a house, those properties will be sold, even if it has to be with owner financing.  I saw a mini house on a lot while I was engaged in all of this, apparently the city allows it.  Who would rent a mini house? At the right price, lots of people.  $500 a month, they cover utilities and yard maintenance, I could easily get someone or a small family to rent one out.  

Or just get the minimum dimensions for a site built home and find some way to build it cheaper than what you would normally get away with.  Think handy-man that has knowledge of how to do the entire project getting paid by the hour type of stuff. Still not cheap, but nothing near as expensive as a house built by a contractor.  So I have 3 properties that - can either sit as they are indefinitely besides keeping the lots cleared - or do something with them.  I have no desire to go to the city today and find out what my options are, especially considering it's at least 6 months before I can do anything with any of them.  

I like that lot by the RR tracks tho. That is really a prime location. Walking distance to Lowe's, Kroger's, Chili's and a myriad of small business that cover the spectrum.  It's just that it is literally right next to railroad tracks that makes it a sour grape for a potential renter.   I dunno how often trains come through there, we don't live near that area.  Other than that, it's a quiet street yet is' right near highway 59, but far enough off of it to keep traffic noise limited.  That lot would be my first pick for putting something up, especially since there is already a mobile home on that street.  Yet, zoning ordinances could have changed since that house was placed there.  

Well, I am just in limbo. My manager said he was "checking on it" - whatever's next - and that was an hour ago.

But enough of this particular entry.

G'day.  

 Today's net haul from the auction: 4 properties.  Just housing lots, no houses on them and mostly cleared land.  

It was amazing to see these people at the auction bidding up junk properties, like they hadn't done any research at all. A very small, dilapidated old house that was falling apart? 11k.  Another old house where the roof had caved in and the walls were buckling? 2k.  The house I wanted went up to 15k. I was only able to go up to 10k before I had to bow out of that one.

The 5 acre property that would have made a nice RV park? Bid up to 15.5k, out of my reach.  And a bunch of these lake properties that I wanted nothing to do with.  A lady bought up a bunch of them cheap - but I think she's going to regret that decision.  All of the properties are on a lake, yes, but they are also in an HOA and there are numerous restrictions on them.  It was too risky, IMO, not knowing if there are back payments on all of those properties with the HOA. I was tempted to buy one of them, but I decided it wasn't worth the risk.

Okay, I did impulse buy a 2 acre lot.  It went cheap, I hope I'm not in for a nightmare.  The property has no address attached to it and looking it up online there is no info except the property value at 24k.  Good risk or bad? I'll find out soon enough. I put a call into the tax appraisal district and am awaiting a return call.  

Deeds are sent out in the next several weeks, they informed us, but you can't do anything with those properties for at least 6 months.  

Oh and mobile homes! A giant one, starting bid was $30. Lol. No idea what  condition and not at all interested in buying one without first having a place to put it. The property description plainly stated that it is to be moved, yet these people who were doing "lower bids" were bidding on everything.  

Ahh and I found out what I have. 2 acres - in undivided interest, a 1/6 interest in 12 acres of land.  That means no one person owns the 12 acres and it is divided up between 6 different parties. Sounds like trouble.  More information needed, will be researching that particular subject, never actually heard of it.  

So, that consumed most of the day. It was 37 degrees out there. They don't hold those auctions indoors, they are held outside, in front of the county courthouse.  Rain, shine, snow, hot, cold they do it.  Anyway, I'm going to have to save up much more money to get the property I need if I'm going to do it at one of these lien auctions.  Ok I could have had 7 acres today for 5 grand, but I had already checked that place. Just barren property, no trees, out of the way and not a good location for an rv park. I guess I need about 15 grand to get the size property I need, judging from today's sales and the last time I went.  

Meanwhile I'll be researching what kind of housing I can put on the vacant lots. If I could put a mobile home on any or all of them, that would turn out to be a nice little cash cow eventually.  Rent them out, have a nice steady flow of income.  I don't have money to be building houses on any of these properties. There are those mini-houses, again, I'll have to check zoning in this town, 3 of the properties are within city limites, the undivided one is out in the county, it's all covered with woods, I have no idea if anyone has built anything on it but I bet it's a great hunting area.  Deer, hog and who knows what else.  I was given a phone number for a lady that owns a part of that interest, I will be calling her - after I get my copy of the title. Want that in hand.

One thing today has done. Even tho I didn't get anything I really wanted, I did end up with several properties and paid very little money for them.  I quit at 4, figured I better find out what might happen. The dude that is rich? And buys all of the good ones? He was talking with another man who also knows nothing about this stuff and says it's usually a money making proposition.  Did he get that kind of wealth just doing this? buying and selling these properties?  I figured he spent minimum 150k on dozens of them.  

So I'm a bit enthused about all of this.  Perhaps the beginning of a lucrative new journey? Time will tell. Oh I forgot to throw into this mix: You have to pay right after the auction, lol. And they don't take personal checks or credit or debit cards. You have to either get a money order or get a cashier's check. They give you an hour to do so!  That little tidbit of info isn't stated in the pamphlet they give out to everyone, would be helpful.  For I had thoughts of buying property beyond what I have in the bank and simply taking out a small personal loan to cover it.  Good thing I found out this information, that takes a couple of days to get the money in your bank.  For the right property, yes a small loan of 4 or 5 grand would be worth it.  Pay it off in 3 years - that's what the terms of those loans are I have 2 of them now paying off old credit card debt.  The payments aren't too high.  

Meanwhile, my manager texts me yesterday, strike that: he texts both of us yesterday, the 2 of us that went to Vermont 2 or 3 months ago: any chance you guys would go up there again?  I dunno, it's getting cold up there. And it snows, I do believe.  Beautiful summer retreat, I'm sure. But winters?  Icy and/or snow covered roads.  Not the greatest driving conditions.  

I'm thinking about it tho. Work has slowed considerably.  I asked my manager for a concession tho if I decide to do it:  I need a kitchennette, not a regular hotel room.  I do not want to eat out for weeks at a time. That wastes a lot of time and it gets old.  Sure, eat out here and there but every day?  Go to the local supermarket, buy what I need and cook for myself.  The Marriott Residence Inn in that area would work nicely, thank you.  They had me staying at a Marriott last time, just not a kitchenette type of thing and frankly, I far prefer the Residence Inn.

I guess I'm going to have to make up my mind on that - like tomorrow.  Ugh.  I'll sleep on it.  

 Haven't been posting much, there hasn't been too much new stuff to discuss and I have talked about my trucking life to the nth degree.

However.

Jame's mom/grandma came down for the weekend.  She was looking for something in a hall closet and was looking at the wall. There is the back side of an AC vent that goes down the wall, it's an outlet on the other side of the wall facing the boys room.  It was covered with mold/mildew/  

See, the situation here has been the flooring all over the house has been buckling up.  It continues to get worse.  I kept wondering how it could possibly be the AC drain for condensation after all of this time and mentioned it a few times? I mean, there is only so much water coming out of it, the problem should be isolated and near the area around the central AC unit. Edited. There WAS only so much water coming out of that AC condensation drain, that was dealt with months ago. No water since then, yet the entire house worth of floors excepting my room has continued to have buckled up flooring. 

But even an experienced insurance adjuster had come over and declared it was that as well.  

But we found out last night that that was the furthest thing from the truth and what we found was rather shocking.  See, a tree branch fell off the giant oak tree onto the house like 5 years ago.  It did 12 grand worth of damage. That branch was the side of a tree itself.  They came and put on a new roof, or so we thought.  

No, they didn't put on a new roof. They put on new shingles, yes.  But....

James got the ladder out, came into my room and climbed up into the attic to see what the deal is with the ac vent.  The only way to find out was to get up in there and take a look from the top. He came back down 20 minutes later, visibly agitated.  He got out his camera and said take a look at this.  He had taken a large number of pictures of the roof from the bottom side. There were gaping holes in the plywood.  The roofing company did not fix the damaged wood, they just put shingles over empty space!  That was shocking.  For a reputable roofing company that is widely respected in this area?  

Let me just say I've never heard of a roof being replaced without fixing any wood issues underneath it and especially with a tree that has fallen and damaged the wood.  

There is FAR more damage to this house than just some water under the flooring.  This from an unscrupulous roofer who charged for everything but didn't do everything.  There was black mold on the wood where water had seeped in through the holes every time it rains.  yes, BLACK MOLD.  This all of a sudden made MUCH more sense.  The entire house, literally, has flooring buckling up and we really couldn't understand why it was doing that.  I mean, we had accepted the ac unit theory in the absence of any better reason to explain why the hardwood floors are literally starting to lift up from the wood it rests on underneath. 

Lord only knows what kind of black mold might be under there or in the walls.  All of that water is coming from the roof, through the attic, down the walls and into the flooring.  I'm literally ready to move out of here.  Like, call the insurance adjuster tomorrow morning - which is Monday - and get some emergency action going here to rent a house and get the bleep out of here.  No wonder people are having respiratory problems and allergy conditions going in here.  I'm telling you, I do not want to live in a house with black mold.  They will have to tear down the roof, parts of the ceiling, as much wall/drywall and rip up literally all of the flooring to fix this mess. 

You can bet that isn't going to happen overnight. We are literally going to have to move out of this house to have this damage repaired.  And what is going to happen with that roofing company is unknown.  They want to call the insurance adjuster and get his thoughts on what to do next first.  Whatever, but we need an immediate plan of action.  I feel like I'm breathing in poison being in here now, especially knowing that there are several holes right above my bedroom.  Again, how do you put shingles over nothing and sleep well at night taking that kind of money?  Is this some standard in the industry to do this? I've really never heard of not replacing bad or missing plywood, you do all of that first and make sure you have a solid roof before you put down any shingles, yes? 

I guess I"ll have to look it up, but I feel like the insurance adjuster might know - tho this guy missed the mold in the closet so who knows.  

I can't even imagine the price tag to fix all of this after all is said and done. An entire house' worth of flooring? A whole new roof again plus removing all mold laden wood and replacing it?  Walls? Ceiling? Other damage we don't even know about?  That's 30 to 40 grand minimum.  Probably a lot more than that.  Paying for another house and utilities.  Really I can see double that money or even more.  Almost to the point of replacing the whole house.  Because that's really what you're doing with that much damage.  

So we were all reeling with thoughts in our brains of the aftermath of all of this.  What if insurance doesn't pay for it, citing the faulty roofer and going after them instead? but I think the insurance company paid the roofer directly, if  that's true then that's not going to happen. I doubt the insurance company complicit in this matter, not fixing a problem correctly the first time will lead to greater costs down the road.  if they are going to cover the damage, then they should insure that the damage is corrected the first time.  

The only good thing is if this house is basically rebuilt from the flooring on up, you basically are getting a new house for nothing.  So in that sense, that would be worth the trouble.  This house has hardwood everywhere, including crown molding on the ceilings and wood around everything really.  Expensive stuff.  Hardwood flooring is some of the most expensive flooring there is.  

This is s developing situation.  Hopefully know more tomorrow.  

Thanksgiving was fun.  Was glad I was home for it.  Food was great, company was great, a few games as well.  I went to Brownsville the next morning - no detention pay to be found there with fully 3 empty trailers available and I was the only driver coming down.  That's 4 trips in a row down there with no detention.  Guess I best alter my view of that run. The money is good enough tho with the miles and being only a 2 day run.

I got up 4:10 next morning, got on the road and  100 miles up the road?  A bunch of warning lights came on, including a stop sign and a constant, loud, incessant ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding noise going off.  I've had this happen before, it went off. Then came back, on, off and on and so forth for a while and then? I just stayed on. I stopped at a Love's and checked the fluid, everything good there.  I could smell exhaust in the truck.  After contacting my manager, I stopped at the TA in Ganado and they did a diagnostic on it - an EGR valve and something they couldn't fix.

Lovely.  I already knew what was going to be requested of me.  Drive it back.  I had already driven 150 miles with that dinging noise, 300 to go.   Sure enough, the manager contacted the lead mechanic, who said it wouldn't be a problem to drive it back in that condition. What that meant was it wouldn't cause any more damage to the truck. It did NOT mean that I wouldn't have to suffer some ridiculous amounts of noise and having to leave the windows open the entire trip back.

If it had been the previous manager? She would have found a shop to take it to and I would have sat there until they fixed it and not subject me to that kind of utter bs.  

Whatever.  I toughed it out, put in my earphones and tried to drown out the noise as much as possible for the entire trip.  By the time I got back to the yard I was highly annoyed and irritated.  Good thing there wasn't anyone there.  I was in no mood.  Foregone conclusion the run I was supposed to go on today was given to someone else, no way I was going to just say sure, I'll take that run! with that thing like that, they won't fix it until Monday.  And win or lose, I am still intent on going to that auction.   I'm just going to take some more vacation time to make up for what should have been another run to help buffer the next pay period.  

So, last night I got out a bag of navy beans, dumped them in a pot of water and then today made delicious navy bean soup with the ham bone left over from Thanksgiving. Absolutely delicious.  

Tomorrow I'm going to the city to find a listing of condemned properties and also any properties with liens on them and compare them to the properties I want to potentially buy.  I'm reading this paper with the properties on it as tho there are potentially other liens on these properties as well. That doesn't really make any sense to me, why wouldn't they include all of that on the sale? So you could get hit with a backdoor assessment of thousands of dollars for removing buildings or upkeep. 

More research I'd like to get in before going to the auction 2 days from now.  But there are certain properties that obviously have no violations, were not condemned and have not had any kind of city intervention. Such as the house I'd like to get.  Or the 5 acre property south of town. It's never been developed and I don't think it's even in the city limits.  Another property I'm not so sure about and a couple of others that may have had houses on them and potentially were cleaned up by the city.  

  I'm just trying to get some Christmas shopping done well in advance.  Not sure what my son wants. He always asks for movie theater gift cards but is Arizona even allowing people to go to the theaters? I'll have to look that up. Mom is taken care of, my oldest brother will get his normal thing.  Then there's the boys and James and Taylor here and that's probably going to be the extent of my Christmas stuff this year. I didn't even buy anything for myself on Black Friday.  I wanted a much larger screen monitor for my desktop but the one I wanted was sold out shortly after it was put up for sale.  

Spending money - besides investing in property - doesn't seem to be a good idea right now.  I've set a limit to what I will spend on property, I can't deplete my entire savings, gotta leave something in there for emergencies/fallback.  But I have some funds that I think I can get something if people don't bid stuff up higher than what it should be at an auction.  Enough for one post.  

G'day.  

 Hmmm, looks like I made several drafts and posted none of them, lol.

It's the day before Thanksgiving, supposedly several people are coming over tomorrow.  At this point, I  hope so because we are going to have a lot of food to eat.  The 22 pound turkey I got for free for spending $125 at Kroger's, that wasn't intentional, I just ended up buying a lot of stuff because I hadn't been grocery shopping in a while.  So that was nice. And of course got another rib roast - this is the time of year to get one at a cheaper price.

Today - went out with taylor around town getting stuff we needed.  She is back in the unemployed column after realizing the job she took just wasn't her cup of tea.  Putting up with rude customers on the phone isn't for everyone.  

Anyway, I had asked for Thanksgiving off but got a call on the way up from Brownsville yesterday that he didn't have enough drivers to cover everything and needed me to work.  I wasn't real happy about it, but I couldn't tell him no so I just ended up taking the run.  He was going to get me a 6:30 load time, which would have me back at the house by around 9 am, so it wasn't going to be that bad and Taylor has decided she is going to cook the turkey.  I was going to smoke a ham, but after that news decided I would just play it by ear. If I get back early enough, I figured, I could still do it. Hams are already cooked, just smoking and glazing it is probably only a couple of hours worth of cooking.

But, a few hours later, he called again.  Another driver who had originally wanted Thanksgiving off had changed his mind and wanted the run I was going to get if I wanted to let it go. Yup, I let it go.  I will pay for it, I'm sure, at Christmas time.  I try to alternate each year.  Last year I was home for Christmas and out for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is really the social party thing they have here, so I kind of enjoy that more.  Christmas is just a day at home, family thing, open presents, eat a big breakfast and that's it.  I'll miss being here, of course, but I made my choices and now will live with it lol.

Nothing really "new" going on.  The front yard was looking disastrous so I decided to mow it - aiming the outlet the same direction so that the leaves would blow out towards the street - the entire mowing session.  This was considerably easier than waiting until all the leaves fall off the tree and having to spend hours raking it.  Not to mention the bottom layer of leaves start to decompose - they get wet from rain and get covered up with other leaves - making it 10 times more difficult to get the stuff out of the grass.

I hadn't really tried that method before but it worked swimmingly.  There are still a lot of leaves left to fall, I'll just do that again in a few weeks and probably a final time after they are all down.  It would be really nice if Mother Nature would just have them all fall off at once.....just sayin'.  

Other drivers yesterday at the office were complaining - again - about Chenier and about the driver who refuses to learn how to unload.  I'm pretty much staying out of those conversations now, it's the same story, old, worn out and the driver gets away with it.  That's really on management.  And, apparently, we lost the Mapleton account.  The guy that distributes the loads to our and other companies apparently was pissed off that our company fired our previous manager and this was his way of showing us his dissatisfaction. 

That's his right, I suppose, but that is one of our better runs.  I was wondering what had happened to it, I hadn't seen or heard of anyone going there in quite a while.  The only thing stopping those other companies from grabbing even more of our work is the fact that they don't have the trailers to do anymoe with.  Those trailers are around 350k a piece, it's quite the investment.  I dunno, but if we start losing more contracts, they are going to have to get rid of drivers, there will be too many of us.  How they would determine who gets the axe is unknown to me, but I am guessing they would simply offer a spot in a different division, take it or leave it.  Personally, I would leave it.

Those other divisions aren't out of my area and I would be on the road for weeks at a time.  Up to a month.  No thanks.  I'd take it temporarily, of course, until I found something that is close to home and gets me home frequently.  My aspirations of doing fuel delivery have been kind of nixed after finding out what they are paid.  Tho Gemini - the company that hauls fuel for Love's travel stops - pays around 75k per year. I could deal with that but the terminal is 60 miles away. That's a long drive every day just to get to work.  

I'm keeping my eyes out for a decent, local job is all I can say about that.  In case it comes down to that.  

 Home.  Drove late last night, made it back to Smith's Grove - amazingly enough, at least in my mind it was - got up this morning and headed out.  His a traffic snarl that had no visible ending, I thought I was screwed there. It was a 10 minute backup, but not enough to stop me from cranking 684 miles down the highway and getting this trip over with. 

I didn't figure I would be working tomorrow and I was right. I don't have a run until Monday.  That's a Brownsville run and I can only hope for detention pay since we are in a slow period right now and the amount of work is coming up short.  

But I'm not going to complain about a weekend off.  I didn't ask for it, but I'll take it. I did ask for Thanksgiving and the 1st of December off - in exchange I'd work Christmas.  Yup, I'd rather have Thanksgiving off since that's a social event. Christmas is just family here and tho it's nice to be home for it, there will be lots of people over here on T-day and I just think that's more fun.  

My manager said it shouldn't be a problem.  I figured I could seal it by offering to work Christmas.  So, hopefully this comes to pass and I get that day off for the auction as well.  Really hoping I score on at least one of those properties.  House or land, doesn't matter which, really, I'd prefer the house that's close to where I live, but if I got any of the properties I'd like to get, I'd be happy.  

And Kroger's has Rib Roast on sale, thankfully.  I buy 2 of them at least every year, cook one and freeze the other.  And turkey's for .37 a pound if you buy at least $25 worth of other stuff. That's easy lol.  

Well, not going to go on too long, it's midnight and I'm just glad to be home : ) 

 Last night was rather horrible.

First, was the 2 hour delay on I-30 between Texarcana and Little Rock.  We were going so slow for so long, I was actually able to do the 8 hour reset.  

By the time I got to the accident scene, they were loading up the tractors - 2 semi trucks collided - onto tow trucks.  The trailers were apparently already gone, if there were trailers but assuming so.  

The aftermath of what happened was astounding.  The entire front end of both tractors were completely gone.  I'm not talking about a hood ripped off, I'm talking the frame, engine, hood, everything.  One of the trucks the cab was also smashed.  Well beyond anything anyone could guess as survivable.  Strange, tho, how you see stuff like that and find out later on the driver lived.  

In all of my years of driving, I can't recall anything quite that bad.  I've seen pictures online of horrific accidents, but nothing like this in person.  I have to wonder if the engines were smashed into the cabs? I really have to wonder how this accident happened, like it was a head-on collision at high rate of speed but how do you have that on an Interstate?  Someone going the wrong way?  I'm going to try and look it up and see if I can find out what happened.

After that - and losing 2 hours - I just drove.  I never did get a break. Like, stop and take a nap type of thing?  The only stop was to use the bathroom quickly and to get fuel.  After I got fuel I started looking for a place to park. But it was late and tho I expected it would be difficult to find a parking spot, I didn't think it would be that hard.  Every single truck stop was completely full.  Major brand truckstops and mom and pops alike, all filled up.  I was on I-40 in between Memphis and Nashville, something like a 200 mile stretch.  

After 100 miles of this and getting close to Nashville, I decided to stop, put on my 16 hour exception and drive to Cross Plains - north of Nashville off I-65 - a place I have stopped at many times before and hope that I could find something. No way was I going to make it to Smiths Grove after losing all that drive time on the Interstate.  I got there - here actually - and there was nothing.  But, there is a side street and I decided I was going to risk it. There were no no-parking signs there and I had no more options.  16 minutes left on the drive clock, the app showing the rest area and truck stops further up the road full, the only other place would be Smiths Grove - another 48 miles up the road.  

So here I am.  Another 40 minutes or so - it's almost noon - and I can leave here, get up to South Charleston, drop and hook, get out of there and get headed back.  I dunno how far I'll make it, staying up so late last night messed with my head and not feeling 100% today.  

Meanwhile, my manager pushing me to go to Bozrah, Connecticut.  Likely he's under pressure to find at least a couple of drivers to drop what they're doing - literally - and fly over there for a 2 week minimum tour.  $300 per day guaranteed, hotel, car, all of that stuff again.  The thing is, it will take at least a week if not longer to adequately learn how to fill and drain the trucks with any level of expertise and not risk screwing up at a hospital or plant where you can cause death, injury and destruction by doing things wrong.  I'm not comfortable with that - at all. They want to rush the training process. 3 or 4 days! I'm being told, while the trainer that I had started with and spent 2 day with said minimum 2 weeks, usually 3.  

I could possible see a week - I was starting to get the hang of it.  And tho I remember a lot of it from what I learned, I'd have to start over.  I also got a call from another driver last night saying the manager is personally texting everyone to go.  I mean, he's got to be under a lot of pressure to be going to that much trouble trying to find people.  Obviously it's a lucrative account if they can fork out that much money - airfare, food, hotel, car rental, training, guaranteed minimum pay - and still make a profit.  That driver is the one that also went up to Vermont who flatly refused.  

I just said I"d have to talk about it with family  - and while we're at it can I have Thanksgiving and December 1st off?  The manager was quick to reply to my texts with questions about going to Bozrah, he completely disappeared after asking that, lmao.  So, I may not get Thanksgiving ofF, which would be a bummer of sorts since now, all of a sudden, a whole house full of people are coming.  I enjoy cooking or helping cook Thanksgiving dinner.  Smoke a ham, bake a turkey, make a side, let everyone else bring a side dish or dessert.  

I'm guessing I'm not going to be having that off, which means I will force my way into being home for Christmas.  

But I realllly want December 1st off, thats the auction day and I went to all of that trouble to check everything out, I'd like to have at least the chance to bid on a few properties.  I won't be disappointed if I don't win anything, but I would be disappointed if I couldn't at least go.  I suppose I could have someone go in my place and just put maximum bid amounts  on any properties I would really like to have.  

Well, it's closing in on time to leave, gotta get offa here, do my paperwork and get ready to roll.

G'day.  

 So, my manager put out a text to all drivers in our division. There's only like 13 or 14 of us, not as many as it might sound.  It's the "holiday season" and as normal, business is slowing down.  Well, that's partly true.  Some of the plants shut down to do yearly scheduled maintenance.  It isn't that they are stopping production because of a lack of demand for the product they make.  

I know our 2 biggest accounts do that annually.  And the Mapleton does it as well, but I have to wonder if they are doing it this year since they basically just reopened after replacing every single valve in the plant, according to them.  

Whatever the case, he was pleading with people to head over to Massachusetts for a tour of helping out with a plant over there.  I was at that plant when I went to Vermont this year.  It is a huge operation.  It's oxygen and nitrogen being delivered all over the region including parts of NYC and Boston.  The streets in that region are narrow and aren't exactly truck friendly.  They countered for that by getting shorter trailers, but still.  I wouldn't want to do it now for a couple of reasons. First, you aren't even going to be able to go out on your own for at least 2 weeks, possibly 3, while you are in training.  Second, you are living in a hotel and while that's nice for a while, it gets old and third, there isn't a lot of decent restaurants nearby and you have to waste a lot of personal time going to find places to eat at.

Of course, if I ever do anything like what I did in Vermont again, I'm going to ask for a kitchenette and cook my own food and not have to fool around with going to restaurants every single day.  But I have zero intentions of doing any of that this winter.  Now, that may change of course, especially if work slows down so much that my paychecks are so thin that I can't cover bills with it.  Just that you end up in places that are frigid cold, snowy and not a pleasant or ideal working environment during the winter.  

At least that answers why I've been doing so much sitting lately besides the cheniere fiasco.  And not seeing alot of drivers texting that they are loading.  So, even tho I hate elongated trips, I am glad I have something to make a bit of money in this run today going to West Virginia.  I'm just going to cut back on "recreational" expenditures and tighten up the ship and buy only stuff I need, the want list will go out the window excepting to buy presents for Christmas. 7 people I can think of to buy for, 2 of them are a married couple and I only send them one present every  year, the same thing, Omaha steak package.  2 are kids - the boys here - they are young and I can buy cheap toys that they won't understand are - cheap toys.  Now for James and Taylor?

I actually have something in mind that may be a bit pricier, but something that they would both enjoy and would give them some away time.  Hot Springs is one of their favorite places to do mini vacations.  It's about 3 hours away and is not too far from Grandma's house - the boys can go to grandma's while they go enjoy a 2 or 3 day vacation together.  That pretty much just entails getting them a hotel room and help with expenditures. There are, of course, other things I could get them but I can tell ya, this house is full. There isn't much room for anything else.  

I dunno if I"ll do that, yet, I have plenty of time. I'd like to see how work plays out in the next coming days.  I am also potentially going to spend most of my savings on a piece of land if I can get December 1st off, get to the auction and actually have the winning bid on something.  I've narrowed that list down to about 7 properties that I would like to have.  Oh, wait, no it's more than that. There are 3 properties with at least 5 acres but they're outside of town. 15 to 20 miles away range.  That would be something for the RV park dream.  Or, get the property, sell it and use that money to buy something a bit closer and easier to manage.  

I'd really like to score at least one property regardless of whether it's land or a house.  

Noon loading time, ugh.

Okay,off to the races.

G'day.  

 So, I've spent hours both combing over properties for sale in the tax lien list last night and this morning and then going out and viewing a lot of them. The properties that are vacant lots I didn't bother with, I don't need a vacant lot and lots are plentiful in this city, there is no huge demand for them. If I were a construction contractor building homes, then yes.  

I was all over this city. I saw home that had been deteriorating for years, roofs caved in and falling apart, homes that were condemned by the city - big orange signs on the sides of the houses and several either workable or even decent homes. 

One of which stood out.  About a half mile away from where I live, the entire outside of the house looked in great shape.  It's on a narrow side street. Not a lot of traffic, nice quiet living.  The inside? Well you take a chance and yes you'll probably have to fix stuff, but that's a granted with buying homes at a fraction of the cost they are normally worth.  But as long as the roof is in good shape, I'm taking  a further look at them.  Homes are old in this area.  Letting them go and not maintaining them means probably faster than normal deterioration, age coupled with rain/weather all the time.

You have a bad roof and don't fix that right away? I'm not fooling with it.  I saw a 2 story house, the startin bid around a ground.  but it didn't look good.  Just trashy appearance and falling apart facades, the roof questionable I opted against that one.

Remember, I originally started this search as a search for property for an RV park.  It expanded after I saw all the houses on the lots from satellite view and the starting bids extremely low.  But due diligence required, you buy a condemned house, you are going to have to pay to have it torn down and then what? You have an empty lot, basically worthless. About the only thing I could see is a community garden type of thing.  I saw one of those in a little neighborhood, it was pretty cool.  They had nice seating in the midle of it and flowers and plants all over. No structures on the property. 

But I don't have time for that and that isn't my objective atm.  A 3 plot stretch of land available on a semi major street - with a small business still operating on it. I had to look at the maps again to ensure I was looking at the right plots of land.  Someone had placed one of those tiny houses on it and started a business.  How they are doing that on property that is up for tax lien sale is unknown, perhaps they paid the back due taxes and it's actually nixed off the list.

And then, I drove south of town and out into the country.  There I found the 5 acre lot that I was hoping would have nothing but trees on it - and I was not let down.  Heavily wooded, but small trees, nothing a rented bulldozer couldn't easily take down, that's how I see them clearing land in these parts.  It's a perfect setting for an RV park.  Off the beaten trail but roads good enough for trailers and RV's to get in and out of. I dunno about water and sewer tho.  There are houses in the vicinity, I didn't see any wells but that doesn't mean they don't have them.  Electricity is there at least.  

The 22 acre lot - I'll have to go to the county courthouse to find out where that's at, it isn't listed on any of the online documents.  Everyone will be interested in that, of course, no real hope of getting a property that big, but the bidding is starting low in the 2 grand range.  If the rich people show up like that did the last one I went to, I dunno what I might end up getting if anything besides buying vacant lots that have no real value.  Perhaps, if the city allows mobile homes on them, I could do something with them, but cities generally have specific zoning for mobile homes and usually limited to mobile home parks.  

The plot of land that is at least promising is outside of the city limits.  There are other plots further east I just didn't feel like exploring, I was out there for quite a while, time to come home.  

Oh, the 5  year old last night. He obviously knew he was in trouble and was going between crying and bawling fits without anyone saying anything at all to him.  He lied to his dad about punching the other one in the face.  That was not the best move to make, considering there was an eyewitness that saw him do it.  He eventually admitted to doing it after dad kept saying if he didn't tell the truth, punishment would be 10 times worse than what it will be if he just comes clean.  

His punishment was no TV, sit in his room for 3 days and yes, that set him off into celestial bouts of crying and insane, hyper sobbing.  Mom and dad went outside, I was sitting there eating, he looked at me and said "you're not my friend any more, we aren't friends".  I just looked at him, got up out of my seat and moved to the kitchen to finish eating. He can still see and talk to me, was just making the point.  He went back into a hysteria after realizing that probably wasn't the best thing to say, either, started choking on his food and then he started throwing up.  All over the table.  Huge lines of snot coming out of his nose, it was pretty gross.  I cleaned him up with paper towels, but he was to sit there until he finished eating per parent's decree and I wasn't going to change that.  

So that's been my day.  Now I have to try and secure the 1st of December off. I don't want to have spent this time doing all this work and not even go to the auction to have the opportunity to at least try and get a winning bid.  Preferably either on the house nearby or the land south of town. Or both lol, that would be an amazing haul.  Actually I'd prefer that small house if I had to make a choice, it would be a fast turn around to start getting income from it - after the 180 day wait of course.  That's one of the drawbacks - you can't do anything with the property for 180 days, the owners can come along, pay everything up and redeem the property, get it back and -  you are paid 20% of what you paid plus what you paid.  It's not likely that a property where they couldn't find an heir is going to have anyone showing up to pay the taxes on it.  

Well enough of this one.  

 So, in an attempt to at least get myself on some kind of movement towards goal here, I printed out and filled out the form the realtor wanted me to sign, was approved to go look at the property and drove on out there.  About 6 miles out of town off a 2 lane highway that I know quite well, I parked next to the highway and walked up the very long driveway to view everything.  

On the way up, I heard the sound of water and noted a small creek running through it, the listing claims it runs year round.  There is also a water company that has piping out at the road, another huge plus, don't have to find water and dig a well.

At the top of the drive, around the corner, the pad came into view. Yes it's large, but the area surrounding it is larger.  I walked around, heard some machinery from the operation next door.  It's the same company with the pad on the property, but that pad has buildings and running fans and such.  The noise not loud and couldn't hear it on the far side of the pad - where there is more property and a place to clear out a dwelling space.  After probably 30 minutes of looking around, I looked at my email on my phone.

The realtor was giving specific instructions how to get out there, of which I didn't need, and then proceeded to say he had an offer at list price and probably would be under contract by this evening.  

It figures.  This has been my luck in finding land out here.  I suspect someone had been hemming and hawing about buying it and then the realtor probably got a hold of them and said, look, I have a real prospective buyer en queue, if you want this land, you're going to need to act now.  That's my guess, cause the listing isn't new.  

Okay, acting a bit more proactively, I just called the county tax assessor's office. The next tax lien sale is december 1st.  They didn't have  it up online, even tho they told me it was.  So I can come down there and get the list? Yes sir.  And miraculously, the new sale list is up online! lmao.  Ohhh and SEVERAL properties WELL within my budget for starting bids. I mean, I could bid on some of those for a while before having to fall out if it came to that.  If I can get that day off, I am going to go.

In other news, the boys went over to Maria's at her behest last night when I told Taylor I'd be home today and can watch them.  She wanted them over there for whatever reasons so she got them. And now? I just received a picture of the 3 year old's face covered in blood.  The 5 year old punched him in the face.  This isn't the first time those boys have gone over there and gotten into trouble.  I'm not sure what it is about Maria's place and them acting out, but it's turning into a pattern now.  The 5 year old is well out of character in punching his brother like that.  I've seen them get into mild shoving contests but never a fisticuffs brawl.  

The 5 year old is also going to be in serious trouble when both dad and mom get off of work. I suspect a good spanking, an extended time out, sitting on the couch will be his deal for a while.  The 5 year old's excuse? "Jaxon wouldn't catch the ball".  Jaxon is 3 years old. His attention span is that of a gnats.  He isn't as coordinated and gets frustrated easily.  Even if he didn't want to play catch, that is no reason for the other boy to punch him smack dab in the face.  

Back to lien properties.  Cause' I found the site that actually processes the tract numbers, comes up with info on taxes going back decades and also shows a map.  I couldn't find this site last time i was looking and I couldn't even see what I would have been bidding on and therefore didn't know where the property was or what kind of property it is.  Because what I don't want is one of the thousands of properties with gas wells on them in this region. They are literally everywhere, they have easements and you can't do anything with that portion of the property on your property. The people that sold these easements made their money off of it, now I guess they don't care what happens.

Anyway, the largest tract of land has no address and no location attached to it, no map available to view of it.  So how do you find out where it is?  I'll have to go down to the courthouse and ask them about that one.  Anyway, of the tracts with at least 5 acres on it, all of them sans 1 are completely wooded properties. They are all in the 1 to 3 thousand dollar range for starting bid.  They all appear to have access by either regular roads or forest roads.  Forest roads are easements and yes, you can drive on them.  Sometimes, these properties are in the middle of other properties, completely surrounded.  If there is no road or easement, you can't get to it without one of the property owner's permission.  And in these parts? Good luck with that, this is Texas and people don't want strangers on their land for any reason.  

Oh this is exciting! I can look at the satellite view of the properties, see what town they are located in, how much of it is wooded and cleared and if I'm interested or not.  I can tell ya right now, any properties completely wooded I am completely interested in. Any properties that have been completely cleared of trees I have zero interest in, except perhaps to buy and attempt to resell.  Ohhh there's so many of them that would make an excellent site for an RV park.  I don't even know how you would go about finding out the county requirements for zoning or such for such a land, or if they even care. From what I've seen, they don't care, but those parks are probably old as the hills and around long before any of the newer type of regulatory reaching that the government engages in.  

Even if not for RV park, resell potential.  The county evaluation of the properties is well beyond what the starting bids are and those evaluations are usually well short of market value. 

Oh well.  Just something to delve into now that I have found out how to get the relevant information at my fingertips without having to stand in a tax assessor's office for hours, looking up propertiesin their books.  

And there are small tracts in the city here.  They call this place a city, I call it a town, but whatever.  But again, I don't know what the zoning is on any of it and without that knowledge I don't know what you could put on those little tracts. Their just normal, house sized city lots. A mobile home put on one of them, fix it up nice and rent it out.  Or even sell it owner finance.  The possibilities....... 

 What kind of magic tricks does the Trump attorney team have up it's sleeve? They are claiming that the software used in Dominion ballot counting machines was made by a person that is on the Biden election team and that it was used to discard "millions of ballots".  That lady is appearing on some news circuits, but I doubt you will see her being interviewed on any mainstream media. Perhaps Tucker Carlson would take it up, but he's not "real" journalism.  I dunno, but their time is quickly running out, they best be getting with it if they think they really have a solid case with irrefutable facts to prove it.  Once the election is confirmed, they can squabble all they want, Biden will be the President and there isn't anything they will be able to do about it.  I have kept an open mind about software issues because of the state where the officials admitted that over 6,000 votes that were supposed to go to Trump ended up going to Biden, but that they had given them back to Trump and they tried to claim - rather weak and feeble argument - that "elections officials should catch it" by using data that shows how the precinct normally votes.  

Really? That is how you think such issues should be caught?  How about experts looking at the software and seeing if there are any issues in the software itself? Or intentional malware or software that is designed to dump votes to a given party?  That would be my FIRST thought if I were an election official.  And with the allegations coming out, I wouldn't call the company that designed the software, I would be calling independent experts to come in and take it apart and scrutinize every last line of code, if even possible before the election results are officially announced.  

So, as far as I am seeing it, we still have a major issue with this election.  It may or may not end up in Trump's favor, but it's certainly worth investigating and now, post haste.

Having said that, I'm prepared for whatever outcome, regardless of what anti-trump people say about trump supporters. Most of us are not whack jobs, illiterate, stupid, morons and lame-brains as these people continually say we are.  We won't riot in the streets and there will be no max exodus to some other country as the claims by a large number of "famous" people made before the 2016 election. To my knowledge, only one of them actually left.  I'm watching the Georgia run-offs, that's what I can say.  

I go by lots of RV parks, changing the subject, all the time.  Most of them are in county areas, outside of any towns or cities and obviously not highly regulated.  90% of them are run down affairs that have nothing but dirt driveways, overgrown weeds and grass, pretty gaudy looking places, yet they all are at least half full.  I'm guessing people living there, paying low monthly rates, but not all of them.  You see newer looking RV's parked in some of these places.

Just thinking. I don't want a run down affair, but it also appears it doesn't have to be anything near the extravagance I was initially thinking of.  A destination place would have to have a lot of amenities most of these parks don't have.  But starting out, it doesn't have to be a destination place.  It does have to have some extra land available to allow for activities such as 4 wheeling, picnics away from the RV's, playground, water features, perhaps fishing, stuff that has more than just a place to park.  

Regardless, from the looks of these RV parks, the outlay of money is the land more than anything.  It would be greatly helpful if there is a water supply and sewer nearby to hook into - versus a well and a huge septic system that would cost a lot of money.  There is a large property available just outside of town that is reasonably priced and already has a pad that could be converted into an RV park.  $114,000 for the property.  

The property would afford for the RV park and plenty of acreage outside of it for a house and living.  It's definitely in county territory, well enough outside of town and it appears to have access to utilities.  I'm looking into that one.  Yes, I know I said I wanted to do a tax lien auction, but I'm not opposed to buying the land on contract/payments if the price isn't too high.  I believe this was around 50 acres.  

If you can't tell, I'm itching to get out from under large corporations and the chains attached to working for them. It's just time to amp this up and see what can be done now, versus 3 or 4 years from now, having to save up so much money to afford this project.  I never thought this would be easy, just click a few buttons and walaah, I've got my new business.  But it's been a far more daunting and elusive goal than I ever thought it would be.  Land is the biggest obstacle at the moment, if'when I get land, there will be other obstacles, but one step at a time.  

Okay, I received a return email from the realtor of that property. It's outside of the city - I had to ascertain that before anything else, I don't want to deal with city codes, regulations, ordinances and stipulations, that just ends up costing a lot more money, a lot more legal help, not worth it.  Now I've asked him about the grey pad.  But I found some pics, definitely appears to have been a gas well operation, this area has thousands of them around.  But the equipment has been cleared off the land, it would make a perfect lot for an RV park.  The surrounding land is full of trees and there is a running stream going through the property.  Access is right off a highway that takes you from my town to the bigger town 2 towns over.  It's 40 acres, not 50 but the price is really reasonable.  

So now, my question was about that pad.  Are there any lingering EPA issues or government issues that need to be addressed? 

And just like that, hopes dashed.  There is an active well on the next property over, but the pad on the property in question  is still being used by the gas company, apparently, and they have that as an easement.  That property might be worth half as much as they are asking with an easement that large on it.  I could still do an RV park with that property, but not at that price.  There is plenty of land around the pad, but the pad is huge.  You've got all of that land that you can't do anything with.  

I'll keep looking.  Still waiting on them to put out an end of year post for tax lien sale.  Looking daily on the county tax assessor's site for that.  They don't apparently, normally, give you much time to do any research on the properties they are trying to get sold.  

Hmm, well I'm going to go take a look at that land anyway, since I was given permission and it's not too far away.  I was not given the run for today as I was promised so I have free time to spare, tho I need to continue hauling dirt off the side of the house. Maybe do 7 loads of that today and get that pile reduced a bit.  The land, however, I would maybe offer less than 2 grand an acre versus the over 2-1/2 grand an acre they are asking.  There's just too much easement in it.  

Anyways, offa here.  

 Well my manager never sent the Brownsville - or any other - run.  So I'll bide my time and hope I get one sent for Tuesday. It's Sunday night.  

The final day of quarantine for the boys is tomorrow and then they can go back to daycare/kindergarten.  Trust me, it's time for them to go.  Get around other kids, get some socialization going on their own level at their own thinking grade.  

I dunno, but I was going to watch them tomorrow - for whatever reason Maria insisted they go over to her place.  Fine by me, I'll have the day to go get some new blue jeans and other shopping I've been needing to do.  Just that Phoenix will not get his school work done being over there.  

I finally hit 100k in my investments. Yes I know, that's not even close to being enough to retire on, but in my lifetime that's a significant milestone.  In fact, the only way I"m going to be able retire comfortably is either through real estate or learning enough about investing in the stock market that I can see types of business that have a future and invest in them before they become a thing.  Or both, coupled with 401k and whatever's left of SS by the time I get to that age, providing I even make it to that age.  Had to add that last part. I see so much death and destruction on the nation's highways, life ending in a glimpse of a moment, people's lives ended or invariably changed.  I'm going to do a trust and tomorrow would be a good day to look into doing that.  I've given a lot of thought to it.  Some of it to my son, some of it to my friends I live with, other options for the rest.   

I was only in the 50k range when I first started working at current company. A trump presidency with roaring stock market and making significantly more money have almost doubled that amount in 3 years. It's time to start looking at the future with a Biden presidency.  I was going to hit the stop button on stocks but I need to see what advisors are saying about 401k and what the best options are.  

My son's - soon to be ex - wife has changed her name back to her maiden name on Facebook. Just weird to see that. The rather pricy refrigerator I bought for THEM, not her, she will have to pay me back for it.  I have come to that conclusion.  Nothing against her personally, but I bought that for them, as a couple, looking forward to a future with children and a home. I have never even bought a refrigerator like that for myself.  it's that or I can have it moved to my house which isn't far from where "their" house is.  I don't want to judge, been there done that, but I literally just bought that thing for them and it's already ending?  No thanks.  

I'm going to have to make a trip back there soon.  I try to make it once a year, but we've got this Covid crap and I don't know what I can even do over there right now.  And now at least one state is announcing draconian lockdowns. State of Washington is going back to the same conditions the nation did that lead to the economic crises earlier this year.  I suspect other states will follow suit. New York, California, who knows where else. 

Whatever the case, enough for one entry. 

 2cd load done.  3rd load - was never sent. Still daylight in the day, could still happen. It was supposed to be a Brownsville run for tomorrow.  I'm not going to say anything if he doesn't give me it or another run.  But it's only 2:00 pm so I'm still thinking I might get that run or another.  Regardless, I'd like to know so I can prepare.  Or, not prepare, stay home and watch the boys tomorrow and save them some money on child care.  

Maria isn't charging a huge amount per day, but at the same time, she doesn't get much opportunities to earn some extra money and have a bit of spending money on her hands.  She wanted $200 for the week - with me having had watched the boys 1 of the days, so 4 days.  Rene - on the other hand - would charge $20 or less per day, thought it a joy to watch the kids and didn't have issues with it. Rene had a few redeeming qualities out of all of the nonsense.  But when it came to my dogs, she thought it was worth a giant fortune. 

Whenever she would bring up paying extravagant amounts per week to her for watching the dogs, I would simply respond that I would leave them at home from now on, James will watch them.  And, as evidenced by the last several months, he will and does.  She literally thought I should pay $150 to $200 per week for watching dogs. So, she was willing to watch the kids at half the price or less, but dogs? Charge WAYYY more! lmao

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have dogs if I had to pay that much every week to have them tended to.  Yes, I know kennels are expensive, I don't use kennels lol.

So anyway, the 2 - Maria and Taylor - were trying to agree ot how much she should get paid (I interjected a couple of times that y'all should have figued this out beforehand so there's no hard feelings) when James came home from work.  After all the bantering about pay, James was discussing the text messages he had gotten from Taylor and subsequently me about eating out tonight.  Of course, Maria took issue with that.  She takes issue with everything.  She privately told Taylor as she was leaving that if you can afford to go out to eat, you can afford to pay my full price.  

She really mouths off a lot and that's why I don't hang around her much anymore.  She was clearly the reason in most cases that people wouldn't stick around at the other house.  She has no tact, no ziplock for her mouth, just blurts everything out and still doesn't understand after the fact that her behavior is anti-social and turns people off.  

Taylor had to remind her that I pay a lot of our outings - I invite and if they go I pay the bill.  She has no sense of the notion that there may be more to a story than just a few sentences that she heard and therefore base an entire narrative off of the few sentences without digging further and finding out the real story, if there is, indeed, a real story behind it. 

I am going to cut well back on outings like that.  They are somewhat costly depending on where we go and I really want to save even more money than I am now.  Well, if that's even possible depending on what kind of runs I will be getting after this fiasco at Cheniere.  Oh, looking at year-to-date? I have paid over $14,000 in federal taxes this year.  Isn't that sweet? Just hand them over enough to buy a used truck.  

My Roth account started up this paycheck. I am only having 1% dumped into it, lol. That's just sort of a "gee, I"ll give it a try" thing.  My shares in GE went well up and am at a profit right now. But I decided I'll just leave them be and see what happens in the future.  I"m trying to learn about investing and a lot of what people seem to do is attempt to pick stocks from a company that will have something coming out in the near future that will cause their price per share to rise substantially.  Such as stocks in pharmaceutical companies that are attempting to make a virus vaccine.  

But where people get the tips to invest in some of this stuff? I have no clue.  More research needed.  I've got plenty of money to invest, I've got no money that I want to lose.  

So, home at 1:30 pm today.  Typical Sunday here. Taylor folding clothes, James doing projects and I disappeared into my bedroom.  And forgot the dogs lol.  

I sort of turned politics back on, for I am keenly interested in the Georgia runoff races that will determine who control the Senate.  I think republicans only need 1 more to have a majority, if they get 2 then it gives a little breathing room for a defector. The race is so "important" that people are allegedly moving there to be able to vote? That sounds ridiculous but it's been posted in numerous media outlets. Just how many people would have to move there to actually affect the outcome of the races? Probably too many and these people won't be making a difference.  

Trump apparently said Biden won but that he hasn't conceded anything yet.  The media is still blasting away at Trump. Excuse me, if he's already lost as all y'all says he did, why are you bothering with him?  Why? Because it increases their ratings.