Somebody please tell me this is worth this much aggravation? I’ve only made it 300 feet. Have to wind the tape measure back up in reverse through all this nonsense and then start a fresh 300 feet…

2 cara in center median, toast. Pic of traffic waiting for investigation to end. 7+ mile backup, vehicles completely stopped. Accident long since over, must have been a fatality to have it shut down like that. That’s I-40 somewhere west of Nashville, this morning. 

Truck fire, it was burning pretty good. 

Random tree on the property. 

And yesterday’s sunset in the rear view mirror. 

Started early to beat Nashville rush hour and was pleased with the results. Should  be back at the yard today by 4:30. 

Sweetgum tree. Finally figured out what they’re actually called. They don’t really look that bad. I intend to try and leave up 2 per site. Later down the road I’ll plant pines near them. 

It’s Friday. I dunno when I’m going back out but hopefully not tomorrow. Just gonna have to cut brush out of the way if it comes to that to measure the lots. 

460 miles to go. 

G’day

Long day.  Smiths Grove, Kentucky to South Charleston, West Virginia and then ended up here, at Cross Plains, Tennessee.  It's the way I design these trips to go - if they can work out that way.  I had an audience at the plant, there is a construction crew doing some sort of earth work at the site where all of the cryo stuff goes.  I'm not sure why they were looking so intently at what I was doing.  It was kind of strange, actually now that I think about it lol.

Got to this Mapco truck stop in Cross Plains and literally no parking. Even the creative parking was taken up and beyond that, trucks blocking in other trucks. That's a big time no-no in the trucking world. If you can't find a place to park that isn't blocking other trucks in, MOVE ON.  But I've been here with no parking available, the street has no, no-parking signs, it is hardly used at all from local traffic and it's very wide.  So, that's where I'm at for the night.

I sent a text to the construction company this morning.  Basically saying I'm ready to do this, let's get moving.  I just need a bit of time to figure out how to mark the sites so I can figure out which trees I want up - it's hard/next-to-impossible to use a tape measure in there because of the thick underbrush.  He had his office send me a contract via email. It wasn't an E-sign - where you sign documents online such as I just did with the refi-cashout loan the other day. So, it will wait til I get home, print it out, sign it and hand deliver it.  

I did flat declare to him that I was getting a second quote on the electric, no offense intended.  It's a huge expenditure and I need to at least know for sure you're in the ballpark  In reality, I want to use the other guy, his knowledge and his reviews for his work are impeccable from what I can see. I have time for that.  He didn't have a problem with that- pretty much standard operation to get multiple quotes....

.....but, I need to get the land cleared and get moving with this.  Slow progress is better than no progress.  I'm content with the way things are slowly shaping up, it's not really unexpected that it will take forever to get things done.  Just that one guy that wouldn't even respond to my texts or phone calls.....

I was watching some footage of kids from the Oxford high school where 4 of the students were murdered and 7 people went to the hospital.  It's a tragedy beyond imagination.  I saw a picture of one of  the deceased, Justin - whoever I can't remember the last name - a huge smile on his face, gleaming, bright eyed, looked like a person that was loving life.  The boy that indiscriminately shot these people has declared his 5th amendment right and has pleaded not guilty through his lawyers.  

There is surveillance footage of the incident - I didn't see it I don't know if it's posted online but a prosecutor was discussing it and horrified what he had seen on it.  What goes through the mind of a person to wantonly set out to end people's lives and destroy others' while doing it?  It's unfathomable to me and it's heartbreaking to listen to the surviving students tell their stories about the deceased.  

With all of this evil going on, if I had kids in school, I would be - seriously asking to say the least - to the school system what they are doing to protect our kids while they are in your care?  I dunno about anywhere else, but the school system in our town is literally flush with money.  As evidenced by the gigantic covered stadium they built last year.  I was shocked to see it going up - what on earth?  I have no idea how much money that thing cost, but was definitely pricey. Perhaps that money better spent on hiring off duty cops to protect the kids....

With that, I am getting off of here and going to bed. I am bushed.  This is a lot of driving, this particular trip. It's not the only trip with lots of driving but I don't get the longer trips that much anymore. It's either Oklahoma or Brownsville.  

Unfortunately, I can't start driving again til' shortly after 8 am - I'm about 30 miles from Nashville, ugh.  They have a pretty raunchy rush hour.  OH well, maybe GPS will give me a route around it, lol.

G'nite.

I'm bushed. 

 Shouldn't be shocking to anyone to understand that I a pro-life.  I doubt God is very much pleased with the tens of millions of babies that have been murdered in wombs across the country for the last several decades.  People on the pro-death side openly flaunt killing their children in this era of - whatever the heck is going on in this nation.  Godlessness, that's what I'll call it. A nation where the enemy of your soul is running rampant, seemingly doing whatever he pleases wherever he pleases to do it. 

So it is with some pleasure to see not only the Supreme Court take up the case from Mississippi but all the pro-choice pundits going ape wild s*** over the possibility that it could be completely reversed.  As much as I would love to see that happen, I seriously doubt that's going to be the end result. What would be nice, at least, is having it restored to the states purview to make their own decisions on abortion laws.  You can be rest assured that New York, California and Illinois will continue to offer internal child slaughter without hesitation.  Places like Texas and Florida, on the other hand, would likely make it completely illegal, replete with jail time and huge fines for any "doctor" who does the procedure.

It was quite interesting reading the Justices reactions and questions, grilling of attorneys and even openly speaking against one another.  We are in living in a very strange era.

Changing the subject, we won't hear a decision from the court for quite a while.  

I didn't order the vegetable seeds as I stated in the last entry, instead, I was near Lowe's yesterday and just decided to go in any buy them.  Same price as online and I bought enough to start a mini-farm's worth.  It isn't really just-in-case, Taylor asserted a while back she'd like to have a piece of land on the new property to grow the stuff and I was happy to oblige.  Nothing planted, that won't happen until Spring - and I'll have to have a water line run over there.  It might be something fun to do. It takes a bit of work tho and some attention and loving care.  I'm over there frequently, if she doesn't have the time for it I will fill in the gaps.  

The new website? Didn't start it yet. I have a lot going on right now. I'm on the road as it stands, just got into Smiths Grove at the BP truckstop and parked for the night. This is a pay-to-park truck stop, guaranteed there is always a place to park here. this entire I-65 corridor is a very difficult place to find parking at night.  I don't mind stopping here every time - if I can make it this far, it's  a bit of a drive to say the least to get here and going through 3 cities that can be nightmarish in nature depending on what time you are driving through them.  I'm 670 miles by the time I get here.  It leaves the door wide open to making it back to the yard in 3 days.  

As much as I despise trucking at this point in time, I'm happy to get this run and get some money going.  Been some slim pickins as of lates, being off work 6 or 7 days didn't help anything.  

Oops, forgot to add I'm headed to South Charleston, West Virginia.  I never say the names of companies/plants I am going to or the plant I load it - cancel culture.  I don't need people calling my work complaining about whatever.  I've had that happen before under a different scenario, it didn't get that person the results she wanted, but I learned from that experience.

On the drive up here today, someone on the driver's group text said that there was a box full of window mount cameras that arrived today. The issue? These cameras have inward facing lenses as well as a view of the road.  They also have a microphone so they can hear anything you're saying.  Last year, the CEO flatly stated that they wouldn't be installing inward facing cameras but they wanted road facing cameras to protect drivers and the company from people who drive - less than competently.  

Another driver got on the text and said "they told me at the Quaalcomm repair shop that the inward facing camera would be disabled". Bunk.  Don't be so dumb. They had to order the cameras with the inward facing option and pay more for it, it wasn't free.  If it's there, it's going to record.  I'd like to offer the minds that came up with this s*** at corporate a compromise: If you all will have cameras installed in your bedrooms then I'll agree to having it installed in my truck.

That's exactly what it feels like, a huge breach of privacy. Yes, it's their trucks  and yes they can do whatever they please with them, but I didn't sign up for peeping Tom's looking at me whenever they want and hearing any conversations I might be having on the phone.  Or just talking to myself. Yes, I still do that even at my age. Lol.  If they do install it, I'm going to put tape over the lense and mute the microphone.  If they don't like it, they can get rid of me, period, end of story. I quit the last job over that. It wasn't the only reason I quit but it was by far the biggest, most prevalent reason.  

I suspect a large swath of drivers will quit over it, as evidenced in just that small group chat.  But I don't care what anyone else does or does not do or tolerates, I'm not going to lay down in front of the gods of micro-management and succumb to that horse-shit.  They can have their job and find someone else that willingly gives up their privacy.  I saw a place 15 miles up the road from my town - while driving up here today - with a huge sign stating that they are hiring local drivers for $25 per hour.  It would be a pay cut but I can make do with it.  That's a home every night job.  Just saying, I'm always looking around for something local...

The property.  The other electrician texted me back yesterday, Roger Houston we have ignition.  He's going to get me a quote at "some point and thank you for your patience".  I don't need that quote right away, but I will be needing it soon enough.  If I don't hear back from him in a couple of weeks I'll just text him again.  At some point, tho, I will do the same with him as I just did with the water install guy - bid him a good life and take care.  

I have determined to go with the company that gave me quotes to do everything. They are the best price I have received for land clearing so far. Oh, let me clarify: for the land clearing only.  I gave up on Mr. Waterinstall, he just won't answer his phone and he won't even reply to a text.  I haven't called this other guy back, yet, I just wanted to sit on it another day before pulling the trigger on it.  

It will be at least 2 or 3 weeks before they can come out and do the land clearing, I'm just not in a hurry to do the wrong thing. I have to sleep on it a few or many nights and be comfortable with it.  It's a lot of money, at least in my world, at 12 grand just for the land clearing and includes nothing else.  It actually isn't unreasonable - a crew of people and heavy equipment.  And all the expenses a company has plus trying to make a profit.  Unfortunately, I'm going to have to get out there and cut down underbrush and trees with a chain saw around 1,000 feet in length on both sides of the intended driveway to be able to measure out lots so I can determine what trees to keep.  Unless this guy at this company has a better idea. I'd like a couple of the trees on each lot.  If'when I decided they are in the way or replaced with pine trees - my goal in the future - they can simply be cut down with a chain saw and come along with a stump grinder to get it at or below ground level.  

I think that will do it for this one for the day, It's not terribly late at 10:25 pm, but I'm bushed with all the crazy drivers out there doing stupid stuff and having to be hyper-focused much of the day.  The worst incident was when a  driver in  a small car got on the highway from the on-ramp, came over one lane, then another and then just kept coming - right into me. Or would have if I hadn't slammed on the brakes, he would have just crashed right into the side of my tractor.  Pure stupidity, one wonders how people like that stay alive driving in such an erratic and ridiculous manner.  It just makes me hate driving and trucking in particular that much more.  I don't want to get into accidents, I don't care if it's the other guy's fault.  Dead is still dead.  

I'm just happy the day is over, deal with tomorrow when tomorrow gets here.

G'nite.  

 

 Oops, just one more thing tonight before I go to truck sleeper bed heaven.  I am going to have the website designer make me a personal page that I can go to the internet with. Yes, this is the internet, lol, but it's pretty well hidden.  Not a lot of traffic here.  I'll start a "Trucker's View Of the World Today" page or some junk like that.  Or whatever, That probably doesn't quite best describe this page, this is a mix of my personal life and my political views.  

I'll have to step it up with more pics and stuff to keep people's imagination soothed and stimulated.  

I'd like a pic of me and my truck as the profile pic - but - it's got the company name on it and you know what happens to people that become victims of cancel culture.  My company name is nowhere listed on any of my internet venues and for a very good reason. 

But stay tuned, I'm going to email him tomorrow and get that going. He's a very talented person, he will get something up and get it up there in the google search ratings in a couple of months time...

Just a head's up. 

 Repeat of last trip. Up to near Tulsa, drop and hook and back to the casino truck stop for the night, where I"m at now, up early am and back home early.  I would like not to have a repeat of that idiot in the car starting trouble with me.  

Regardless, yet another phone call - endless supply of them on a daily basis - from an Arizona number, I mostly ignore them.  Or I answer and make funny noises.  I'm through with asking them to stop calling me, they won't. It's been going on for years now.  The only thing that has worked is having the kids answer the phone or just making up gibberish type noises that are nothing but made up words that have no real meaning.  

Hooloooloooo stonatons papoppum stoons, sir.  Pee poppum spooms.  As I said, utter gibberish, more like madman stuff lmao.  I'm getting less and less of the calls lol.  Anyway, I took this call off of a whim and was glad I took it. 

Cardinal Finance - it's a nationwide lender, big company I found out after Googling it and been around a while.  I applied for a cash-out loan with them a few weeks ago - but I never finished the application. It got to the part where you have to give your social security number and I instantly got a bit apprehensive.  I don't like giving that number out.  Call me old school, but that number was never intended to be an identification number that everyone wants nowadays in order to check your credit and such. 

Too much abuses can become of giving out that number.  So, a rep called me today.  That's the point where I decided to Google them and see if they are legit. Now, it's not like they called first or anything. I was looking on my CreditKarma account and this was the highest one on the list for refi options.  I've acquired several personal loans off of Credit Karma - they have the best rates I can find and approval every time without a lot of hassle.  Plus they already have my info I don't really have to fill out too much.  

Anyway, the man wanted to run my credit score so I begrudgingly allowed it - it's another thing I don't like to have done too often. A hard check of your credit stays on your report up to two years and tho it doesn't take out that many points, it looks bad if you have too many of them.  They start thinking you are desperate and need the extra credit to pay for everyday things and such.  Or something like that, lol.  Anyway, long, long story shortened.  Cause he needed a lot of information - they always do, just went through this garbage with the land loan.  

The interest rate is locked in a 2.3 percent. That is awesome in case you don't keep up with things like that.  I don't want just a refi but if I did, I would definitely take it.  No, if this didn't come with the cash out option, I wasn't taking the deal. I told the guy right upfront this is a manufactured home.  What he came back with about blew my mind: as long as the appraisal is good, you can get up to 90k cash. Yup, I'm taking the risk and spending the money.  It is what it is.  This RV park will work - or it won't - but I'm believing it's going to pay for itself and make a decent profit.  It might not happen right away after it opens, but who knows.  

Remember the last time I had to wait on an appraisal, for the land loan? lol.  I dunno how long it's taking to get them done in Arizona and it's a house, not land.  

Zestimate is $276,700.  Zestimate range is $243,000 to $307,000. Is any of that anywhere near accurate? I have no idea.  I do know that finding comps in my neighborhood is literally impossible.  The rest of the homes there are old - ooooollllllddddd- home excepting the site built homes.  Those are worth more than mine and there are a handful of them. Zoning in the city doesn't say you can't build a regular house there.  But the rest of it is old, aluminum sided mobile homes with metal roofs for the most part. Even the ones with shingle roofs are 25 years  old or older.  

So it will be interesting to see how this appraisal company is going to come up with comps. When I got the new house, they had to go look at comps in completely different neighborhoods many miles away.  Redfin has the house valued at 120k lmao.  Sure! And it has a picture of the old house that burned down in 2007!  Yea, if they're going by that house, it might be worth that just because of the red hot housing market. This is what I'm trying to take advantage of, the housing market in Phoenix is through the roof, it's a seller's paradise.  

That's the pic Redfin has on their site.  I haven't seen a pic of the old house in ages, I don't even know if I have any.  That's the house that burned down.  The entire property is completely different now.  I mean, totally different.  Some memories there, tho.  And a lifetime' worth of nostalgic items burned.  Memorabilia, burned. A huge stash of photos of my son as he was growing up - gone.  I'll never forget the day it burned down. Sunday morning, my son sleeping next to the wall where the flames literally burst out - he would have been burned alive and I doubt he would have lived through it.  Michael basically saved his life.  He came to the bathroom, pounding on the door, yelling at me that there was smoke in the house. I was about to take a shower.  I got my clothes back on and in a hurry ran out, saw the smoke, got my son out of bed and everyone else for that matter, and out of the house.

I was trying to get some items that I would truly miss (worthless to anyone else, only had meaning to me)  if they burned up and when I went to go back into my bedroom, kabaam! And that wall burst out, flames shooting out of it - right where my son had just been sleeping a few minutes earlier.  I was halfway down the hallway and the heat from that burst of flames was unbearable, I ran out of the house.

It's a long story, but that photo brings back those memories. We were truly blessed that no one was hurt that day - but at the same time, my life became a living hell for a while, literally had to go buy new clothing, all of it was gone.  I didn't even have a shirt on.....

Anyways, maybe Zillow has that thing listed way too high - but I doubt it's that far off.  Old junky homes in that neighborhood are selling for 120k and more.  Location is everything. 10 minutes from downtown Phoenix, the only affordable option left in the region for people wanting to leave near downtown, it's an old neighborhood.  Houses - regular site built houses -in nearby neighborhoods start at 300k and go well up from there.  The fact of the matter is, not much sells in my neighborhood because people couldn't afford to live anywhere else in the city.  Or neighboring cities.  The ones that do sell, the people dump money into them and fix them up or replace it with a regular house.  

Enough of that. It will be weeks before I hear back what the appraisal comes up with. 

I was in Kroger's on Sunday - morningish - I was buying some ingredients for dinners we are making this week. I went by the manager's specials meat shelves - which have been empty every time I've gone in there the last several months - and saw a huge number of packages of thick smoked bacon. What?!!

No one was even at the manager's special area, I went over there and looked at one.  1.25 pound packages for $2.99 a pound!  Expiration date was is the 6th of December.  I don't care about that, it would alllllll be frozen.  I started grabbing them and chucking them into my basket.  They don't have limits on that stuff, first come, first served. Everyone else ignoring it, their loss.  

I felt eyes on me.  What's going on here? some random stranger asked.  I ignored him, still grabbing the packages.  Other people started chiming in.  What's the deal, I thought?  This stuff has been sitting here and it takes some dude grabbing them for them to notice it? The manager's special bay is at the same place, every time. They don't move it around the store, lol, if you are interested in such things, LOOK AT IT when you go in there.  I look every single time I go into that store. I don't have to be getting anything even on that aisle and I'll still go over and look.

It was a gold mine for me. I grabbed 18 of them and then decided that all of these people that were lusting after the bacon could have the few that were left.  I was going to take ALL of them.  Chicken and chorizo in there as well, I grabbed some of that for freezing when I got home. 

I can safely say the freezers are literally full.  I also got another prime rib roast - amazingly they still had some. They usually sell out by thanksgiving. Inflation - they weren't exactly the greatest price, but a prime rib roast on a random, non-holiday day?  Amazing.  I've got 4 of those.  I didn't score on turkeys this year save one.  It's in the freezer, they were really high priced. And hams weren't too great on the price, either, I just got one this year for the Thanksgiving feast. I normally would get a couple of them and freeze them as well.  

I saved $50 on that visit to the store and that doesn't include the savings on the bacon. The savings for manager's specials won't show up on the receipt, as the checkout clerk asserted, you saved a LOT more than this with that bacon!  We do like our bacon.  Inflation be damned, there will be months worth of bacon available.  This is the way I do it.  See it on sale? Something we eat regularly, frequently, often or even just here and there? Buy as much of it as they allow.  Another freezer will be coming soon.  It will also be filled up. Freezers don't cost much to run - if they are full.  The frozen stuff helps keep it cold and the compressor doesn't have to come on that much.  

I'm going full out on this.  I'm putting in an order for seeds for a huge variety of vegetables tomorrow.  We started growing some stuff this year for the fun of it, but if any of these "experts" that are predicting an elongated period of inflation are correct, I want the option to grow veggies on the new property.  Plenty of land, folks, plenty of space to put in a small patch for a dozen or more different varieties of vegetable plants.  

What are they predicting? Food shortages on a global theater and giving numerous reasons why, much of it tied to inflation and the cost of farming, especially hard on family farms.  Seeds are not a huge investment, they don't cost that much.  I'd like to see a vegetable patch going regardless of economic downturns and hyperinflation, it's fun to watch stuff grow.  It's also fun to eat and not be hungry : )

No, I'm not fretting over the economy or inflation. It's hurting a lot of people tho.  I just don't want to be hungry. And even if it never happens, it still saves a bundle of money.  40 pounds of this, 35 pounds of that when it's on sale.  Maybe I should just buy a side of beef for the next freezer, butcher wrapped.....

I like to keep challenges in my life.  The Biden administration is offering plenty. He doesn't give a damn about the flood of illegals coming in and apparently making reparations to them....Afghanistan....inflation - they are totally disconnected from that, they are all rich and don't give a s***.....New Covid strain- gee, let's get MORE vax shots!! ---- this dude is easily, IMO, the worst President that has ever occupied the White House, far worse than even Carter - and his polling numbers show it.  

But whatever. Y'all wanted this dude, you are now paying for it, you are literally paying for it and if that 5 trillion reconciliation bill goes through? Y'all gonna lose your minds with the taxation that is coming YOUR way.  "Anyone but Trump" didn't quite work out that well for ya, did it? Oh, and if that bill goes through? You think inflation is bad now? Oh, my peoples, are you in for the rudest of awakenings....

G'nite. 

 So, yesterday, I got up at 4:45 am, got rolling at 5:05. Left the truck stop casino parking lot - and no I didn't do any gambling, I just went to bed after the night before not sleeping but maybe an hour.

Got oto Paris, Texas, stopped at Love's to refuel, coffee, water.

Pulled ouf of the Love's to the 4 lane highway, it's highway 271.  There is an acceleration lane for trucks turning right to get the speed up a bit before attempting to merge into traffic. I turned right into that lane, started shifting through the gears.

Another car was coming, but it was in the passing/inside lane, so at the end of the acceleration lane, turn signal on of course, I merged into the outside lane.  

This car comes speeding up in the inside lane and then slows down to match my speed, right beside my trailer.  I thought nothing of it - at first - they were supposed to slow down for the slower speed limit, tho not that much. 45 mph, we were going 35.  I just sat at 35 thinking he would just speed up and get past me.  

He did not. I needed over in his lane to make a left hand turn at the light about 1,000 feet up the road.  So I accelerated to get past him and get over.  He accelerated when I did.

It was then I came to understand we were going to have a problem.  +I slammed on brakes, slowed down way faster than he did and got behind him.  He slowed down to 20mph.  I just slowed down even more. Note there wasn't any other traffic out there, it was early  Saturday morning.  He limped his old, junky looking car up to the light.  I'm calling it as it is now.   

He made the left turn, got onto the on ramp to the highway and sped up a bit.  Got ahead of me and then put his arm out the window, replete with the middle finger.  I don't know if he thought he was making me angry, I was just at the point of attempting to determine whether I needed to call state troopers and started taking video of this nonsense. 

He flipped me off for a while - bad mood? Juvenile?  Just lost all his money at the casino? Thrown out by his girl friend? Just a wanton as*****?  Who knows.  I do know that I did nothing to warrant him acting out against me like that. I was literally minding my own business.  I don't look at people in traffic much anymore, they tend to get up set and the first thing they do is call the company and make up a story about how I cut them off or something like that.

He then took off , got about 500 feet ahead of me and turned his lights off.  Even tho it was dark, I could still see the outline of his car in the darkness.  Why he did that? No clue.  He then got off the highway at an offramp and pulled up to a red light down there. I accelerated, not gonna wait around to see if he's still going to play his games.

I got past the on ramp where he was the other side and up to a light on the highway. I passed through it and it turned red afterwards.  Yup, he got back on the highway and .... ran the red light.  Didn't even slow down.  He comes racing up to me, flashing his lights from high to low beams, straddling the center lane. Where are the police when they could be useful for something?  

I had had enough.  I started to pull over to the side of the highway. I was going to stop the truck, get out, get his license plate number and call the police. He had kept himself just out of sight enough for me to get that number, otherwise the police would have already been called.  Consequences be damned - and there  can be a lot of them even tho the CDL driver has done nothing wrong. Companies tend to believe drivers that "have gone out of their way" to make that call to them. They judge and jury the driver before even asking them the first question about the incident.  

I thought about that, but I also thought - I have a video of most of what this idiot was doing.  If they fire me, so beit. I'll find another job.  But it didn't come to that, this guy saw what I was doing and took off.    As I said, I had had enough.  If he had a gun, a knife, whatever, at that point I didn't care.  I'm getting that license number and calling the police and then come what may.  I was never able to get the plate number, unfortunately, for even after the fact, I still would have called and reported this guy.  

I haven't had anything like that happen in a long time.  What set this person off? I did nothing, literally, to this person. 

That was the beginning of my day yesterday. Fortunately, the rest of it went rather well. When I got home, we went out to Longview to try out a new restaurant. It's called Hook and Reel - a bit on the pricey side bit it's seafood and it's always higher priced plus inflation right now is killing everything. Delicious, wonderful food.  Great service, it was really worth the drive over there.  I had heard good things about it.  

Today/Sunday. No load today, thankfully. Didn't want one tho I never said anything about that to dispatch. I'll pretty much take whatever they give me without complaining.  I'm going out early tomorrow. 2 Oklahoma's in a row - but - there are a lot of trucks sitting in the yard and there are a lot of those unbelievably bad Cheniere runs going out.  I'm glad to have no part of them.  

Today? Continue on my closet project and probably take the doggies for a walk.  I'm still grounded by mama Facebook.  I doubt at this point I will ever get rid of the account myself, they'll just have to do that for me, which I presume is coming sooner or later.  Whether I end up starting up another one with a different email address, who knows.  

Rain - it's been raining here, the only reason I might not go to the property. The ground will be wet and in the back, I dunno if that equate to mud or not.  I would like to traipse through the front portion tho and see if there are any obvious water channels running through anywhere.  Mark them on GPS for future reference.  The rear I don't much care about, but I also would like to see if the stream has picked up any. It hasn't been running very heavy in recent times.  I bet that's different now.  

I'm going to start looking for a blogging platform that also allows for uploading videos. This one doesn't do that. Every time I try to upload one, even a short one, it won't do it.  If Facebook goes away for me, I want some platform to be able to show videos of some of the stuff going on.  It may or may not attract that much attention, but I want the option available.  

Tomorrow, I'm going to start calling the water install guy once a day, every day, until he answers his phone.  That's the only way I know of to get a hold of him. If he doesn't answer tomorrow, I will follow it up with a text, which he probably also wont respond to, but trying to get him to get out there and give me a quote on land clearing.  

I will also call the electrician and see if he's had a chance to get out there and take a look.  Again, another guy that is hard to get a hold of, it seems like they all are. I'm not a regular customer of theirs that takes priority.  But, patience.  It's pretty obvious that even if I had all the money I needed to do everything right off the bat? It would take a year to get it done. I've read this from other people trying to build new parks, it's just a slow process and don't be in too big of a hurry. I'm not, now, it's winter. I'd love to open up next month and get the operation going, but realistically? It's probably 6 to 12 months off.  I can't see it taking any more than a year tho.  It really shouldn't even take that long.

Well, the day ain't getting any younger and I have things I want to get done today.

G'day. 

 Happy Saturday morning from near Bogata, Texas!

Well that was nice.

I just wrote an entire post and hit "a button" and it disappeared, all of it. Hitting undo? Didn't undo anything.  

Nutshell

Left Brownsville this morning.  Got to the yard, got in the rental car and started heading north.  There was already a rental car there from someone else's excursion, they said to use it.  Rather than wasting time driving all the way home, spend 7 hours there and then drive all the way back, I opted to make better use of the time.

I ended up in Paris, Texas, ate at Applebee's and now at the Quality Inn. Decent hotel. Much better than other Quality Inn's I've stayed at.  I chose this place because it is much cheaper than all the other similar quality hotels in the area and this one is on my dime. I chose to come up here and get some of the driving out of the way today.  \

The other electrician returned my calls today.  I called him yesterday and today with no reply, I then texted him and sent him the drawing I made of the intended setup.  I must have another quote to find out of this $26,600 quote from the other company is legit.  It could be, I'm not saying it isn't  They might even be cheaper than what this guy will come back with, who knows.

Let's look at the factors. Supply/demand.  Definitely the demand is greater than the supply right now. If you haven't heard about the supply chain issues by now, you are definitely living under a rock. Well, perhaps you just choose not to listen to the eternal mutterings of blabbering heathens in the mainstream media, can't blame you for that.  That will always see rising prices, companies will take advantage of it.

The other issue is inflation.  I can apply blame for that on the government. Huge, gigantic spending bills are not really helpful to American citizens. I do not believe these politicians care about citizens, they care about their agendas and right now, the Socialist/Communist agenda is front and center for many of these politicians.  

Anyway, couple those two together and prices for everything are skyrocketing.  Been to the grocery store lately? The gas pumps?  How about a lumber store?  Or anywhere, really.  

Anyway, this electrician is the one that says he builds his own pedestals and just from his life time of experience I would prefer to use his services.  He said he would get me at least a ball park figure soon.  He's going over to the property to take a look as well.  

The other guy - the one that installed the water tap - didn't reply to my call today. I didn't call him yesterday, he's fresh off of vacation.  I texted him after the no-reply call and he still didn't respond. Seems like that's a normal thing for him.  I am also going to ask him about installing the water lines from that tap. Never thought about it, but if he's installing a tap onto a main water transmission line, certainly he does the smaller installs as well? Can't hurt to ask. I'll be calling him again tomorrow.

And I think that's enough. It's getting late and I'm bushed.

G'nite. 

 Well.

Sitting at the plant at the rack getting loaded. 

Coughing went down yesterday. Hardly gone and not really feeling much better, I can't just take off work forever. So I'm going to run this regardless of how I feel.  Hopefully the subsiding coughing is a sign of this thing getting out of my system. Antibiotics, vitamin C, vitamin/mineral pills, a steroid shot and serious cough medicine hasn't done much, I can attest to that.

Anyway, this dude from this company that says they can do all of it came back with quotes on everything.  The septic went up a thousand bucks along with the installation of the pipe to each unit - that went up $1,500.  I mean, ok, I can deal with that. The fresh water pipe was quoted at 3 grand.  A bit high for what they have to do, but I can deal with that as well.

The shocking part? Electrical installation.  We're only talking 14 sites. It's cable and pedestals. Yes, the stuff isn't cheap but it isn't that  expensive.  I figured on the high side would be around 15k. 

Well, I wasn't anything remotely close to the actual price he quoted me at: $26,000.  Yes, inflation is raising the prices of everything, but that much?  

Im definitely going to get a second bid before I make any moves here.  I am still waiting on a call from the other electrician who said he had me in his book for whenever he would be done with his current project. But I don't need him to be done with anything to be able to come out and give me a quote.  

2 more quotes I need - land clearing and electrical.  I might also get another quote on septic.  Long process but there is no need to simply be throwing money at the wind.  I don't have that much money to begin with and I want it to go as far as I possibly can get it to go. I was hoping it was at least enough to get everything done on the utilitiy, land clearing and pad creation part done.  With his quote, I'd need another 5k loan.  

Well, whatever. I'm going to call the other land clearing guy tomorrow, he should be home from vacation today, I'll give him a chance to recover and then ask him to please quote me on the land clearing portion. The other guy that can do the electrical as well.  He said it would be 2 weeks before he could come out, it's been 3.  He might give me the same quote as this guy today.  He might even be higher. Or he could be a lot lower. I won't know until I get a bid.  

I've actually written other entries, but I just left them hanging.  I've been feeling pretty miserable and everything is out of whack.  

I mean, some stuff has happened. Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all counts and of course the legacy media types, politicians - democrats and especially the far left, hollywood elites, and sundry other personalities that have acclaim with their base have all denounced the verdict, to the point they started talking about a federal investigation.  Oh? Double Jeopardy anyone?  The feds can just supersede the state with this verdict?  Perhaps they can drum up some fresh, new charges? I dunno.  

And then this horror at the parade in Waukesha.  Wow!  You wonder the depths that evil men can go in order to be able to do something as vicious, heartless and cold as what happened there.  I watched a video of it and that was enough for me.  

And the oldest brother is at the house. It changes the dynamics of the house and how things go.  The youngest being mostly ignored by the 2 older, things go south quickly. Because the youngest will let everyone know about it in no uncertain terms.  Whatever the case, it's probably just as well I'm gone today and tomorrow at least. 

The truck - my truck that broke - is done. I have to go to Tulsa to get it.  I'm thinking maybe I can work it out that I can be home tomorrow night late and have Thanksgiving off and then go up the next day.  But, I'll do whatever my employer asks, considering the amount of time I have had off. 

Well, they are shutting off the valves and I'm about to have to leave here.

It's a Brownsville, run, btw.

G'day. 

 So, I knew the oldest boy was coming for a visit.  Over a weekend, it's tolerable. Barely, but it isn't anything we call can't recover from quickly. The grandma brings him down and stays with him.  However, the grandma visit has been greatly extended to a full week.  Now don't get me wrong, it isn't that I don't like the grandma.  But...

Number 1.  She spoils the kids.  When I say spoil them, I mean giving them sweets, snacks and garbage to the point they won't eat regular food, especially the 4 year old. Then, when mom and dad invoke their parental authority to enforce the boys eat their food? Temper tantrums. When they get into trouble, they run to her for solace and make it into good parent/bad parent shit.  It's totally wrong, IMO and she shouldn't do that crap.  

Number 2.  Because of that, the whole atmosphere in the house grows rather divisive.  Now you have grandma on one side giving the boys full reign to do whatever the hell the please and then you have the regular house rules on - our side - saying no thanks.  I have determined that this time, I am going to enforce the regular rules - especially the noise and running around nonsense - and I don't care if she likes it or not.  

Okay, the oldest brother is from James side, another mom.  He lives in Arkansas and I think it's like 4 hour drive each way or something like that.

Number 3.  After they leave, it will take forever to get the house back into some sense of normalcy again.  The 6 year old will be pouty because the oldest has left and the 4 year old will be cranky because grandmas isn't around to give him his way.  The best way to make something like this work is to for grandma to take them all back to her  place, let them do whatever and then come back home to where they know they aren't going to just do whatever they want.  

Number 4: Grandma.  She goes off on long, drawn out stories that are never-ending.  It's guaranteed that whatever you did? She did better and she will cut you off to let you know about it. It's highly annoying.  I tend to try and stay away from her - but I live here, she does not.  When a person always one-ups you on anything you are saying, yes, that just tends to drive people away.  She also isn't in love with the fact that the 6 year old tends to cling to me a lot more than he used to.  The 4 year old, but the 6  year old yes.  In fact, the last time she was here, he didn't even go say hi to her right off the bat.  I had to encourage him to go say hi to grandma.

That's just sort of a layout of things to come at this house, I suppose starting tomorrow afternoon.  I dunno how they are getting off school that long, must be Thanksgiving holiday or something.  

I'm hoping these antibiotics kick in and soon, because I'd really rather not be here for all of this chaos.  I get aggravated after enough of it and then I start saying stuff.  Unpleasant things, cranky things. I don't blame the kids, I blame the adult that encourages the kids to act out like that.  

Whatever the case, the guy finally texted me back this morning - yes, we can start within a week or two after you give  the go ahead.  This is the company that says they can do everything from putting in electricity, running water lines and installing a septic system to creating the pads.  The only actual bid he's given is 12 grand to clear the land.  I was hoping for 10.   I'm going to wait until next week for the other guy.  Whatever his bid will be, that's it for quotes on that.  I'll pick one of them and start with this project, finally.  That other guy won't do electrical or septic, but I could get him to install the water lines as well and dig a trench for the pool.  The pool may not be going in right off the bat, but I want that drainage pipe in the ground for future reference so everything doesn't have to be torn up all over again. It will have to run to the rear of the property, so that's quite the long trench.....around 1,400 feet long worth of trench and the pipe.  

The rear of the property tapers down in width.  I noticed it before but I confirmed it yesterday. It's around 170 feet with the easement driveway on one side and the other guy's land on the other.  But, 170 feet is quite a lot of room, especially considering the lots will stop at around the 1,065 foot mark.  

I've got to get whoever ends up doing nailed down to doing some leveling work as well.  That should be included in the price since I have it written on my plans, but I need that acknowledgement that yes, you are going to move dirt from one side to the other and get it a bit more on the level side of things.  

Anyway I have one firm commitment for them to come out. Actually 2 or 3, but the others are thousands of dollars higher in price than this company, the only one left is the old gentleman and I am really curious to see what he will charge me to do that work.  I'd really feel like I'm missing out on a potentially good bid and I know he does solidly good work.  

Well I think we're supposed to be leaving soon for school.  The 6 year old's school lunch for parents or whatever it is officially being called.  The boy doesn't know we're coming.  It's kind of a monkey wrench into the soup, I need to go get that boat out of the shop. Not that I'm doing anything with it, it's just been over there forever and I'd like it here, thanks.  And, I'm going to really try to do something about marking some of the lots over there.  Trees I want to leave up have to be on the site border lines, I can't just walk through there and guess which trees should stay up.  I won't be leaving a lot of them, these trees dump too many leaves and I don't want too much mess to be cleaning up.

Well that was easy. The school's site says it's a Thanksgiving Dinner for parents. Glad I'm hungry! lol.  Good Lord, we're leaving soon and I'm still hacking away.  Cough medicine to the rescue! They'd be looking at me funny going in there coughing like this lol. I was walking through Kroger's the other day coughing and this lady looked up at me and gave me a - stare or glare, I am not sure - lmao.  I had just gotten tested so I knew I didn't have Covid, but they don't know that and everyone is terrified of contracting that virus.  

Well, I don't want to contract any viruses is what I can say, they all suck. 

And with that, it's time to get ready to leave.

g'day

 Just not sleeping at night.  Coughing has subsided greatly but whatever's going on with this nonsense, it's keeping me awake. Not having to go to work? No big deal. If I were driving right now, tho, it would be miserable.  I completely forgot to start the antibiotic regimen yesterday....got distracted with property stuff. Picked up the prescription, yes, just didn't start it.  

But I was growing stir crazy today.  Well, just as a rehash, I got sick probably 5 or 6 days ago. The coughing got worse and worse until I just enough of this, I'm going to urgent care, which I did yesterday. I was supposed to go out on a run but my dispatchers said no thanks, hon, you are staying home, you don't need to driving sick like that, you sound terrible.  

So this morning went out with Taylor on multiple errands.  It ended up at IHOP, we were both hungry and a nice omelet sounded good, we both had one in fact.  One of those last all day long meals, I am still not hungry at all.  Also went to Boot Barn, I bought the 4 year old a bit better pair of boots, the ones I bought for him a few months ago had already worn out and were separating.  A bit pricier, but not that bad because it's small child size, he should get 4 or 5 months out of those, worry free. The boy loves his boots.  Better than sneakers, amazingly enough.  The older one likes boots, too, but not as much as the 4 year old.  

Back  home, took a nap.  Had to, sleeplessness caught up to me.  The steroids I think is what's causing it, because when I took the prednisone pills for a couple of days it was definitely having some sort of effect on my system. It was a tradeoff - little sleep but much less coughing all night long.  

Then off to the property.  Still looking for the telephone pole, lol, not there yet but I had Addler with me an we went for a nice, long walk.  Not too strenuous, but definitely needed to get the blood pumping through my veins. Laying around doing nothing gets extremely old after a while.  I don't know how able-bodied people can do that every day.  I can see kicking back for a while, but not all day long.  

I measured from the edge of the street to 15 feet the other side of the power lines.  From there I started 280 feet - that's the length of 14 spots. 7 on each side, so actually 7 lots long at 40 feet wide.  I really think I'm taking the right route at 40 feet wide.  It's a good amount of room - but it's not too much.  I can see with a 9 foot wide trailer and losing at least 5 feet on the driver's side plus the room the slide outs take, you are still left with a goodly amount of room on the passenger side for your living area.  

Quality over quantity, 50 lots total, which is what I intend on putting in total, would take in a minimum of $1,500 per night gross receipts.  That's even if you  I can totally fill it up during the peak season - tho with enough advertising I believe I will be able to.  I have around 250 "extra" feet at the rear. It's plenty of room for a dog park, a swimming pool, a bath house a pavillion and maybe even a party house - weddings and such.  Parking along the side of the existing driveway.  

The plans are becoming a bit more definitive over time.  I think it's the best idea to have the facilities all together near the rear.  A bath house in the middle is the only different route I might go, so it's not too far from anyone to walk to.  Or perhaps in the end, one in the middle and one in the rear as well.  

I was also looking into swimming pool financing again.  It's amazing, but they have financing just for swimming pools. The best thing I could find is around $500 per month for an elongated period of time making payments.  Yes, I would consider it at the beginning.  If I'm not even opening before Spring, I have time to consider that kind of payment every month.  Propane service may be a thing, in the future, as well.  I'd probably just ask guests about it - if this facility had such a service, would you use it? I wouldn't mind getting one of the local services coming maybe once a week if they would agree to it to fill people's containers at the sites.  Simply have a sign up sheet and see if there's enough interest to have them come out.  Even in the summer people will use propane for their water heaters and indoor cooking.  

Anyway, even with only 14 lots to start and if I could keep them relatively filled up most of the time, making  a pool payment wouldn't be that bad.  I'll have another loan payment as well and I want the operation to make the property payment as well.  Plus a part time employee.  $1,000 + $452 + $500 = $1,952 for payments per month, plus electricity, water and internet.  And an employee on top of that.  I'd up that $1,952 to around $3,900 for everything but the employee.  28 hours per week, office open from noon to 4, Monday through Sunday.  Or Sunday through Sunday I guess you'd say?  add another $1,680 for that employee or employees at $15 per hour.  I'm looking at $5,580 per month expenses. Which is a lot for only 14 lots, but it's doable and still pull a profit.  

30% of gross for 14 lots would be around $3,780 per month, so that's going well over the 30% cap, but that isn't permanent.  And that includes a pool payment. Oops, forgot about pool care.  Weekly service.  $1,800 more in monthly expenses, it's about 44% versus what they say should be 30% max.  But once the operation gets up to 50 spaces, 30% is $13,500 - that's a significant difference and ability to do much more and have more employees.  Of course at that point I'd be quitting trucking and I would be part of the payroll.  And I won't be part time. I'll be out there all the time working maintenance, clean up and upgrades.  At that point there would be another monthly payment added - a piece of machinery for bush hogging, clearing, backhoe.  Perhaps a farm tractor.  

This isn't just a dream to me.  This is going to be reality if I have anything to do with it.  Lord willing.  

So far, since I've started looking, I've seen absolutely no one outside of their houses.  I'm looking to ask about these ATT pedestals, surely someone must know whether there is actual service and whether Fidelity has an operation. Otherwise, there are mobile hotspot options which are costlier, but internet is vital to the appeal of any RV park.  At least the option for mobile hotspot is there, hopefully there is a business plan if it comes down to having to go that route.  

Ahh, and I saw a tiny little green snake.  It didn't move when I stepped over it, it caught the corner of my eye.  I got a stick and picked it up, it didn't even try to get away.  Bright green it looks like from what I could find it's called a Rough Green snake.  Non venomous, I didn't think it was but, just in case, that's why I picked it up with a stick versus picking it up with my hand.  I thought it unusual the thing didn't try to escape.  

I am kicking back now. I tried not to exert too much today but I thought it was time well spent. Hopefully the antibiotics will do some good - if the doc is right this isn't a virus and antibiotics will actually help.  It was peaceful, serene and lovely to walk through the woods. It made it all that much nicer with the thought that those are my woods.  Just me and my doggy. Water still running in the little stream. Not a lot, but it's there.  Walking trails covered with leaves, fall is kicking in and the deciduous trees are dumping their leaves in a quick hurry.  

Well, I was going to go get the boat today- it's finally done.  Months sitting at that place.  They didn't call me, I had to call them, lol.  Maybe tomorrow. Tho, we are going to the 6 year old's school tomorrow to partake of some parent lunch or whatever it's being done for, parents are showing up, I was invited.  Phoenix - the 6 year old - doesn't know we're coming.  So it'll be a surprise for him - whether it's a nice surprise? Remains to be seen when we see his reaction to showing up.  Mama's been getting on his case and grounding him from certain things for doing poorly on tests, kind of a motivational kick in the @ss type of thing to get him to pay more attention and focus himself on his work and learning.  

But if I do get the boat tomorrow, I won't be able to take it out just yet. The trailer license plate is current but the boat registration is not. Get busted on the lake without it current? They write you a ticket just like in your car.  And anyway, I need to install a trolling motor,  I won't take it out again before one of those is on there to at least get me out of any trouble if the darn engine still wants to have trouble firing up.  

It's been a long time since I have taken that boat out.  Covid hit and everything was put on hold.  I didn't care about the boat at the time, it could wait. The shop has had it running. They turned it, off. Left it running, turned it off, turned it back on. They had no problems with it, of course they didn't.  No clue.  I don't want a new boat, I don't want another boat, I just want this one to work.....

Next will be to take the 4 wheeler in and get it fixed.  Can't do that until one of the friends of the family brings my 16 foot flatbed trailer back. He has had it several weeks, time to bring it home sir, I have need for it.  I want to ride it on the trails at the property and keep them "maintained" - riding on them will keep anything from growing on them.  Trust me, the tires on that 4 wheeler will tear up any plants, lol.  It's  a beast. 

That's enough for one entry. I completely forgot to take pics for the site designer to use for temporary pics of the "park".  These would be pics of the trees - nice pics, not anything showing where I have cleared out the back and front portions. He adamantly suggested not having "under construction" pics.  That's fine, I can take photos that will make that property shine, look right as rain, appealing to nature lovers.  Too late to go back today, the sun is already going down. I want full, over head sun for those pics for the everything to stand out.  Was a perfect day for it too, it wasn't over cast, just a nice day. 

Oh well, maybe tomorrow- maybe.

 

 

 The misery of whatever I have drags on. Kept me awake much of the night, quit trying to sleep around 8:30am.  I have a load appointment at 1:30.  I just contacted my dispatch and told them if I don't start feeling better after this trip, I'm going to need to take a few days off.  

I never heard back from my manager about the ticket, I also didn't hear back from my neighbor about his attempt to get the judge to remove the ticket outright.  I'm not going to push him on that one, tho, He offered, I said yes, please do!

Inflation is ticking up at almost 7% average nationwide. That's pretty substantial.  We've been stocking up on food while the prices are still manageable.  In fact, they're going to get a third freezer - they asked me first if I wanted it since I'd be the one filling it up - which I immediately said yes to. We've cleaned out much of the old stuff in both existing freezers and have refilled them.  

I just buy meat when it's on sale, which there are still some deals to be had. Boneless skinless chicken breast and hamburger meat being the biggest acquisitions.  Anything else is dependent on prices.  Alot of it is just stuff that is on sale and there are never any limits on how much you can buy, at least not at the Kroger's we go to.  I'll show up with 15 chubs of 3 pound packages of ground beef and they say nothing to us about it, the same with chicken.  We also stocked up on dry and canned goods.  

This isn't waiting for a war or some natural disaster, this is just stocking up in advance of what appears to be a sustained increase in inflation that isn't going to get better any time soon.  It's stuff we eat all the time, it won't go to waste. Some things are treats of course and soon we should see turkeys on sale, a couple of those won't hurt and maybe some prime rib roast.

After calling the man yesterday - again - and not getting through to him, I spoke with their office. It automatically goes to the office if he doesn't answer. I just wanted an answer.  Is he interested in doing business with me or not?  I got pretty direct about it because I've waited over a week now for him to at least respond to the texts I sent last week.

30 minutes later he called. $12,000 to clear the property and then he had questions about the lot setup. The electrician apparently was asking.  Yes, the lots are going to be 40 feet wide, 65 feet long on the west side and 70 feet long on the east.  The pads are going to be 10 feet wide - tho I might adjust that to a bit wider. That's the part the RV's park on.  These people will have ample room to enjoy their space.  There will be no complaints about small spaces and all crammed together.  

I also went over there yesterday. They are apparently close to installing the pole. There was a fresh set of flags put right next to where the pole is supposed to go for ATT. There is no reason that ATT should have anything there? I moved the stakes over away from that a few feet. They just drill straight down for those poles, it's not a huge excavation area.  The area for ATT was a giant box made out of orange marking paint, weird.  

Meanwhile, the jury is deliberating the fate of Rittenhouse.  I find it amusing that all of these protesters are calling him a racist for his actions.  All of the people involved where WHITE people, there weren't any black or other minority people killed or injured by him.  I've watched all of the videos - I watched them as they rolled in after the incident happened long ago.  I see a very good case for self defense.  If a person pulls out a handgun and sticks it to your head? If I have a gun, I'm going to fire that pistol in self defense. If some dude is smashing me in the head with a skateboard, that person knowing full well I have a very high caliber rifle that can blow him away and does it anyway? I dunno, I might shoot him or I might clobber him with the butt of the gun. I will  defend myself, that's for sure. 

It's so easy for everyone to look at all of that and say he should have done something else. You run for your life with people chasing you down the street, adrenaline pumping and in the midst of chaos and wondering if you're going to live through that night and then come back and tell us your new version of what you would have done....

Oh, well anyway, I also tried to call the guy that installed the water tap. He called back, said he was at the fuel pumps, about to leave town for Nebraska. Nebraska?!  Me and my daughter are going on a hunting trip!  Can't fault the guy for that, we discussed that for about 10 minutes lol and then I told him at the end to please remember me when he gets back? Oh, you bet, I sure will!  I want to wait and see what he says about clearing the land, I know he'll do an excellent job and I just want that final bid put in there to make me feel better that I got a lot of different contractors giving me their quotes.  

They all will work around any trees I want to keep up...there is  no way I'm just having all of those trees taken down. It's just not gonna happen. At least some of them are going to stay up, period.  It would be such a waste in my mind to have them all just plucked up and gone with nothing to replace them but maybe some 6 foot tall pines that I will plant that will take many years to grow and get to any height that they can offer any shade or give the beauty of nature appeal. 

It's just going to be difficult to determine which trees should stay and how many.  I may get out and traipse through the woods - at a very slow pace, I"m really not feeling all that great right now.  In fact, I think I will go to urgent care and see if they'll give me a shot for the coughing.  They'll probably ask to do a covid test - which I might allow if they are going to do it free again. Free to me anyway.  I ain't paying for it.  

I was finally able to get into Paycom and make my health care selections.  I upped the various types of insurances quite a lot.  I'm not getting any younger and who knows what may happen.  I'll get $1,100 a week in long term disability if something happens, that's more than enough to pay my bills.  That was the biggest concern on my mind after I found out earlier this year they had removed it without my knowing or permission - I didn't check anything last year when the registration time comes around.  I don't know how long is long term - it didn't say on the website and I had forgotten to take the info packet with me.  But I also added other stuff. It doubles what I am currently paying but I am good with that. It doesn't take but one bad thing to happen to you to wipe out your savings. 

My dispatcher just called. I had texted them earlier and told them if I didn't start feeling better after this trip, I would be wanting to take a few days off and rest.  The dispatch manager called me back an hour later - I'm having you stay home and rest, I found a driver to take your load.  Note that I didn't ask her to do that but as bad as I am feeling today? I'm elated she did.  She flatly informed me that I sound "terrible" lmao on the phone and that they are taking me off the queue and call them back when I am ready. 

It's kind of a push both from them and Taylor - are you going to go to Urgent Care today? - to go and see what they might prescribe me.  Taylor and James are on their way home.  They should be here this afternoon sometime.  

Anything else? No, not really. I haven't called the other electrician back - yet.  I'd like to get that pole up and get the land cleared before I do much of anything else.  The 12 grand bid is about 2 grand more than I wanted to pay for having that done.  I want at least 2 bids on electrical so I know that I am getting a good deal.  And I still need to get another septic contractor out there to give me a quote on a system.  At least 2 bids, please, on everything.  Just doesn't make sense to take the first thing that comes along and run with it - not when you're talking that much money.  

So, off I go.  Just a drive by unless I "feel it" and get out and go for a quick walk into the woods and get a refreshed sense of what I want to do in there.  It helps to make regular trips over there even if drive bys to keep the vision fresh.  It is a vision, beyond goal stage now. Getting the property realized the goal of stating the business, now we move on to getting it done.  Sloooowly but surely, we are making progress.  I'm just so happy I don't need permits for much of anything! The county doesn't give a hoot.  Just the septic permit/s.  I don't currently have to have any blueprints, I don't need them for I am not currently getting a loan and when I do get a loan, it's not going to be SBA - not yet anyway.  

Oh, and I need to work on rules.  I'm just going to gather rules from a variety of parks - they all have them listed online - and weed through them and tailor them to this operation.  And I just remembered - still haven't done anything about it yet - I need to get that LLC going in my name - soon.  Or however I can write off the expenses related this year so far with implementing this operating on  my personal taxes? I will probably have to visit an accountant to get info on that.  

G'day.  

 So court.  

Went to the courthouse, the first floor, signed in. Told to go to the 4th floor. Got in there, they asked me what my name is? Gave them my name, couldn't find it.  I handed her the letter with the case number on it and then she found it.

Turns out the guy sitting at the defendant's desk seat is the judge. I was wondering who that man was, lol. He said the best I can offer you is a 71 in a 70 zone.  OK.  I wasn't going to argue that, if it screws me at work, it screws me.  I paid the fine at the first floor window and got out of there.

Fast forward and my cop friend next door asks about it. Yea, I replied, they reduced it a 1 mph over infraction instead of 15.  "Uhhhhmmm" he replies.  Fast forward, that was unacceptable to him and he's going to try to get it removed altogether.  Nice to have friends like that.  Note that it isn't the higher up judge that he knows that I was dealing with.  

I dunno, but I didn't think trying to get the ticket removed altogether was really worth the far greater aggravation and time and money spent over a 1 mph over speed infraction.  I was not going to try to stop him from trying, he's been in those court rooms for 25 years, he knows all these people, he grew up with all of these people. Yes it's at least possible he could get it dismissed.  

The property.  An underground utility locater company came out and put a huge amount of orange paint on the ground right next to where the telephone pole is going to be installed.  What? this is well away from the street. It is 20 feet away from where their line runs. What is this nonsense?  So, I moved the telephone pole stakes several feet closer to the property line but still on my property, just barely.  I have NO idea what ATT has going on there, but trust me when I tried to find out again, today.

No one that I have spoken to at ATT yet has been able to tell me what services they offer and all of them tell me they don't have anything going on on that street.  Funny, I replied today, this new marking from the utility locater has flags saying "ATT" on it.  I was on the phone a long time and got nowhere.  Can I please talk to someone in engineering, in planning and development, whoever had all of that infrastructure installed on that street?  There is no way that I can do that, sir.  It's typical of ATT for it's right hand to not know what the left hand has done. 

"It must be a newly installed set of lines". No, it's not.  I couldn't get any info on how to actually speak to someone who would be able to find out what is actually installed on that street.  So, I found something on line that is a request for service to be installed in the neighborhood.  It's amazing, but it's typical, of a giant corporation to not be able to find who you need to speak with.  

I did not call Fidelity, the local internet provider. I didn't, because the telephone pole isn't installed and I don't even know if where I reposted the stakes is going to work.  I wouldn't mind taking a shovel and digging down to the ATT marking and see what, exactly, is under there and why, more importantly, it is there.  

My giant doggy, Addler, is crashed out on my bed, lol. I don't mind when I'm around, i can monitor it, when I'm gone, I load the bed up with stuff to keep them from getting on it. 

Ohh! and the company I was giving up on? I called one last time.  They informed me that he - the guy that I was talking with - was busy. Ok, and cool, but I texted him twice last week and heard nothing back from him and tried to call him now?  It really doesn't bother me if they don't want to deal with me for some reason I have no idea what.

The man texted me 10 minutes after speaking to the office. 12k to clear the property, would give me a formal bid on the rest of it.  

I also called the guy that did the water tap installation.  He didn't answer but called back later. He's going out of town on a hunting expedition with his daughter.  Cool! We talked about that for a bit and then I expressed my desire for him to contact me when he gets back.  

That's it.  I'm done for the day. 5:00 pm, taking it easy until tomorrow.

Late load, I won't be worrying about other companies trucks butting in front of me, they do that earlier in the day, not later.  

Steroids working but I'm still coughing horribly at times. Ugh.

 Rather hellish day driving back.  I'm not going to sit here and try to say it was a breeze feeling the way I do.  It didn't help the next door neighbor was complaining about the german shepherd jumping over their fence and getting into their garbage....The dog is more trouble than it's worth. It causes problems all the time, but especially when I'm not around. I had NO idea she was still jumping over their fence, I thought she had gotten over that.

One of the very few times in my life I would like to get rid of a dog.  I've tried and I've spent the money, trust me, I have dumped out the bucks trying different methods.  No one has control over her when no one is home.  

________________________

That was last night.  About an hour from now and I'm headed to court to try and get the speeding ticket either reduced or done away with altogether.  I had to sit here and think for a while all the relevant factors that I can and probably should say to at least give the judge a snapshot of where I'm coming from.  I'll even tell the judge I'm okay paying a fine, I just would really please and thank you like the ticket changed to something else/lessor so my driving record isn't stained as bad as it's going to be with a 15 mph over on it.

It's unfortunate but true that the system does not delineate between your personal vehicle driving and your commercial vehicle driving.  Whatever happens, it goes on the CDL and unless you fight it, there's nothing you can do about it.  It's was also true that you cannot go to driving school, but I"ve heard some saying they have changed that.  I'm going to look that up after I get done with this entry and see what Texas allows - if anything.

There is also a deferral, but I don't know if that applies to CDL drivers. It's basically a deal where they say if you drive the next 3 months and don't get any tickets, this one will go away.  Well, it's been over 3 months.  I haven't had a moving violation in over 7 years, that should help my case along a bit as well.  I'm not actually worried about this, whatever happens, happens and if worse comes to worse, I will ask for a jury trial, get a lawyer and spend the money to preserve my license.  I gave up worrying about it weeks ago when I thought, well, I'm just a human, I'm not perfect, never claimed to be, I make mistakes like everyone else. Sometimes I do stupid things, like everyone else has.  Shrugs shoulders.  

I remembered around 2 am - after waking up and hacking away, unyielding coughing that simply wasn't going to stop anytime soon - that the doc had prescribed me Prednisone the last time I had a cough like this.  Yup, out of bed, 2 of those pills as the directions say. About 40 minutes later maybe? I felt that stuff going through my system and all of a sudden- the coughing stopped.  I still have enough of those pills to last for several days.  I won't need to go to Urgent Care today, those two pills are good for 24 hours.  

Steroids have always helped when I have a dry hacking cough like that.  I dunno how it works, but it definitely does!

Family still up north, they're coming home tomorrow.  I am still not feeling all that great.  I really don't think I'm going to want to go to work tomorrow.  I definitely wasn't feeling it yesterday, it was a long day trying to just keep focused on the road and tough it out.  You start feeling like this and working is the last thing on your mind.  I went to Chili's after getting into town,  no one home meant no dinner waiting and definitely wasn't in the mood to cook.  Had a drink - that helps a lot too - stops the coughing somehow.  

I really don't know if I'm going to make any calls about the property today.  I guess it doesn't matter about talking to people on the phone but if per chance one of them wanted to meet over there today? Not into it.  If I didn't have to go to court I would have just stayed in bed.  I figured to get up an hour and a half early, take a long hot shower, get that steam down into my lungs - that helps a lot too.  Drink a cuppa and get mentally prepared to at least make a decent case for myself.  

I hope I can curtail the coughing while in there, yes the steroids are working but they haven't eliminated the coughing 100%, it's like they got rid of about 90% of the coughing.  I'm afraid they're going to throw me out of there if I am hacking away.  I figure at least wear a mask in there, I definitely could have Covid.  I've never gotten headaches with a coughing cold before but I've had them the last 4 days since this all started.  That seems to me to be a sign of Covid.  But the coughing? Pretty much status quo misery that occurs every time I get sick.

Yea I think I will make some calls today.  Especially that guy who said he could do all of it, it's been a week since I last contacted him with no reply whatsoever. If he for some reason doesn't want to do it, that's fine, just tell me so I can move on.  That's all I ask. The other 2 as well, It's been over 2 weeks now, they said they could come out and take a look, we'll see if they answer their phone and just give them a friendly reminder that I'm still here and I still need this work done....and probably drive by there anyway and see if the power company is ever going to show up.....

Funny how a cup of coffee slowly starts to motivate a person out of slack and slumber, lol. 

I'm enjoying my time off of Facebook, btw.  I moved the app on my phone to the last page, all by itself, instead of at the bottom of the screen where it always shows no matter what page I'm on with the apps. That way I don't just automatically click on it.  I was going to delete the app altogether, but decided against it. There are interesting videos that show up there from random people, it takes you to Tik Tok. I don't have a Tik Tok account and I don't have the app on my phone but you can still watch other people's tik tok videos, some of them are hilarious.  The Trump app is apparently coming somewhere around the beginning of the year?  Whenever it's rolled out I'm going to join that and see how it compares. I would like to ditch Facebook permanently....no longer in love with their propaganda and censorship.  It really has just become a tool of the left and the far left to tell people how to think and what you are "allowed" to say. And if you come up with anything they don't like?  Baaammm!  And they must flag accounts that get repeated suspensions.  

If they eventually ban my account? I dunno if I"ll start another one.  It might just be the last hurrah, goodbye, good riddance, am already getting used to life without it now on my 3rd 30 day suspension, them treating users as some sort of school children that need monitoring is ridiculous. It's not like I go around cussing people out and calling them personal names, I'm not a troll in other words.  What you see here is what you get on the internet. I don't act out like a 5 year old having a temper tantrum as many, many grown adults do all over social media.  You see in the news where some celebrity or media figure has tweeted or posted on Facebook some outrageous statement about people they don't like - and usually directed against Trump supporters - neither Twitter nor Facebook does anything about them.  

The double standards are glaringly obvious.  

But it's also amazing how Facebook can seemingly take over your life if you're not paying attention to how much time you spend on it.  What would the progressives do without conservatives to bash on that platform?  As it stands I don't even go into debate groups anymore, save one, very small group (:and no, it's not an echo chamber) that has diverse views but the people remain civil. Many of them have been banned from facebook and are using alternate accounts, their main accounts disabled forever.  

And on that thought, I am in trucking groups where people talk some serious s***, I come nowhere even remotely close to the things these people say that don't get banned.  I'm mostly in those groups to dispel the constant misinformation that many truckers dish out all the time. Seasoned, veteran drivers that believe things that are not true, at all.  Newbies looking for info, I like to try and help them out.  many will get on there and bash them, but I take a stand against the trolls and I give real life, useful information to people that are just starting out in the industry and really are just clawing their way through the menagerie of all the things they need to learn.

I wouldn't even like attempting to start out as a newbie, greenhorn in this industry.  It's so overloaded with endless regulations and trucking companies looking over your shoulder, watching everything you're doing and troopers pulling you over all the time and some of them giving you a hard time even when you're being respectful to them - it's no wonder more people quit than stay in the industry within their first year.  I guarantee you that if I get any kind of ticket out of this, even if it were reduced to not having a seat belt on in my personal vehicle, my company is going to try to get all over my case about it.  And I'm going to shrug my shoulders, ask them about their perfection and if they have ever gotten a ticket and tell them to do what they must.  If that's part ways, it's part ways.  I'm not going to be shamed or humiliated because I did one single thing in the last 7-1/2 years that I have lived in Texas, in my OWN vehicle.  

I'm not going to apologize, I'm just going to say I'm human, I make mistakes. Show me a single driver here that hasn't had some kind of ticket in the last 7-1/2 years and I'll buy them dinner.  It's really outrageous that they hold us to such high standards - these companies and the states - but they don't hold themselves to the same standards.  You literally have to be a perfect little driving angel.  If you get enough tickets, they will suspend your CDL.  2 15 over tickets I believe is a year suspension.  I don't have 2 of those, but saying if I got another one I'd be being dragged before some counsel and being told I can't drive anymore.  

Just one more reason I desperately want out of trucking - before that happens and they take my livelihood away.  I'm not going to sit here and proclaim that I'll never get another ticket again....that would be stupid to say.  But I can tell ya, if I were just driving to my property every day and taking care of business there? The odds of getting tickets would go down greatly since it's only a little over 4 miles away, versus the 32 miles to work and the endless driving in a truck all over the place.  I can just be a hometown boy, working my own thing, minding my own business, helping others as much as I can and not having a corporation breathing down my neck along with a state that is insane along with all the other states and the feds in doling out punishments to drivers.  You wonder why they say there is a driver shortage? 72,000 of them have been disqualified for failing a drug test.  A vast majority of it marijuana - which can linger in your system for 30 days. Then you have drivers being disqualified for ridiculous reasons. And you have drivers that are saying screw this, I've had enough and hanging up their keys.

It's going to get far worse.  Only when automation takes over will it ever get better.

That's my rant for the day, I'm offa here, get my mind into a neutral mode and head over to the court house.

G'day.