Sunday

We had a great time yesterday, but it oddly ended much earlier than I expected it to.  Ate, had some laughs and then everyone went home early.  Like, we aren't doing a card night?  I dunno, I don't make the plans, I'm just along for the ride in those events.  The ladies make all the plans on a 4-person texting group that have with themselves, the men find out afterwards whatever they are deciding. Sometimes, the other side doesn't find out until it's actually about to happen.

Whatever the case, the grandma and the oldest boy are going home today after being here...9 days as of today.  The living room will go back to normal, the kids will return to normal - the house will return to normal.  If you really want an ideal situation for these much-more-frequent scenarios with them coming down for extended stays, we would have to have at least one more bedroom, if not 2. 

At some point, there will need to be another bedroom.  The 2 that actually live here are young, I don't think the oldest much cares for having to share a bedroom with his younger brother, but it's been that way basically their entire lives.  The time will come - probably preteens - when he will start getting vocal about wanting his own room.  I dunno, my brothers and I had our own rooms when we were growing up.

My room in Pittsburgh was very small. It was a servant's quarters, barely enough room for a twin bed, a small bedside table and a dresser. It was small but it was my own room.  My brothers didn't think it was my room, coming in and giving me hell all the time.  They always said I was the spoiled one. No, I was the one that did their chores and got their allowances.  They were too busy either hanging out with their gang friends or the eldest beating up the middle to pay too much attention to me.  We moved one state to another and we still had our own rooms.  

The problem is, you are talking about a needing a 5 bedroom house.  Housing here isn't cheap, which surprises people attempting to move into the area. A small town out in the middle of nowhere with high housing prices whether you're trying to buy a house or rent one. Rentals are ridiculously high.  

I'll just be glad to get the house back to normal. If this situation ever comes to all of us moving into the same residence, I do hope the kids are older by that point in time, the whole house wont' be upended by a "visit" from a person that wants to take over. It would be sad for me to have to leave here, but it would definitely be something I'd have to weigh in my mind if this grandma's intentions ever come to fruition.  

I'm definitely starting the diet Monday.  I have had it in my mind, this time I'm going to do it.  I keep saying this over and over, I know, but now is the time.  It's going to be hell converting back to keto, I just have no choice. I have been giving myself excuses to just eat whatever - rice, beans, lots of potatoes, pasta, etc.  Even sugary stuff.  Cake, cookies, fudge brownies. Not excessive amounts or even on a daily basis. I was off of sweets excepting the fake stuff for a few years and got to the point I didn't really miss sugar.  

New person moved in to the alternate spot yesterday.  A whole crew of people came with her to help, which was nice. They seemed like nice people, the whole lot of them, including the older man that was pulling the trailer with his truck.  I tried having them place it parallel to the coach, it wasn't working out.  The sewer connection on the trailer was too far from the sewer connection coming out of the ground.  It was also too close to the coach, it would have created a complete lack of privacy for both parties to be that close together. 

I had the guy move it the way I had the other trailer that was in there.  The connections are much closer and it creates a situation where the back end of the trailer is facing the coach instead of the whole side of the trailer. I was trying to get the thing out of view and hidden behind the shed. Just didn't work out.  They paid, I left to go to the store and then go home and start helping out.  

A 40X16 shed/small barn, site built is 10k.  I know because I contacted the guy. He's the one that build the shed.  He's the cheapest thing around. A no frills barn that size starts at 20k and goes way up from there from anyone else.  He says 40X16 is as big as he makes them, I was originally inquiring about a 40X20.  What would I do with a barn that size? A small office, a size getaway room and the rest a shop.  Probably 10 linear feet for office/room, maybe a little more. I'd like to be able to set up a work bench, have plenty of storage shelving and have area to put the mower and anything else I need stored indoors.  

Well, I need to go get that laptop today.  It's sitting there at Walmart, ready to be picked up "we'll hold it for 4 days for you". Okay?  I think I'll just put this one in storage and pull it out whenever I might need to access any files from it.  It's that or transfer a bunch of files and I"m not sure I want to load a new one down with that.  

Other than that? Church, probably.  Go check the camera, maybe, bring it home, plug in the memory card and see if it actually took any pictures.  

G'day

 Saturday - Friendsgiving

So the wonderful day is here. I don't say that sarcastically, btw, we are all looking forward to seeing everyone at the same place and enjoying each other's company. It's been a while. Taylor was pregnant, not feeling well and the capped any idea of doing anything over here or anywhere else, for that matter. It's been a little of girls night out here and there, nothing with the whole crew. I take that back, there was one of them a while back that I was out of town for - in Oregon doing that nightmarish training. 

We used to get together at least a couple times a month, sometimes more.  I'm just a little worried about the tiny bird I bought, but as I said previously, I thought it was just going to be for us 5, not us 19.  There are going to be so many side dishes and the fact that all of those people already had Thanksgiving dinner, I'm hoping it will be enough coupled with the ham.  

Anyway, my cleaning activities started quite a while ago and trying to get stuff done before I have to go to the park and get these new people moved in. 

Start the turkey around 11 this morning it should be done by 2.  Or earlier than 2, which is fine.  

My park will be completely full including the 2 alternate spots as of today, again.  However, one of the alternate spots isn't paying anything and hasn't for going on 2 months now.  I'd be a little more - unnerved - about that if it was summer and they were consuming large amounts of electricity on my dime.  The whole purpose of that setup was to sell her the coach - making payments on it and paying the lot rent every month.

That has gone completely out the window and I suspect that once they get on Medicare, it will still be difficult to get both the lot rent and the coach payment out of them.  There is nothing I can do about that right now, I agreed to let them stay out of the kindness of my heart and the Lord's directives as stated in the Bible, there isn't anything more to it than that. To throw a person out that was working but became incapacitated due to a medical event would seem ... horrible.....to me and nothing I could live with. I would wonder what the Lord would say to me about that at Judgement Day.  

I can tell ya there are plenty of landlords that would throw them right out without hesitation.  No pay, no stay.   I'm just not one of those people, not under these circumstances anyway, I've thrown plenty of room renters out of my house, that sort of conditioned me to having to deal with people that are unruly, inconsiderate or otherwise won't follow park rules. Haven't had a lot of it, but there have been a few.  

I do wonder how long it's going to be before they get the Medicare going.  If the payments come to my park, I'll find out soon enough.  If they go to the daughter's house, will the daughter let me know and give me at least the lot rent every month? Remains to be seen.  The tent lady isn't 100% incapacitated, she is moving around with a walker tho I have no idea how her mental state of being is.  She is in some sort of rehab is all I know about that and also know that her brother, also living there, now takes the dog out and lets the dog poop wherever and doesn't clean it up. 

I completely forgot about that, need to deal with that directly.  The man is lazy, has no more motivation in life than to get up, smoke several packs of cigarettes a day and look at the internet. Oh, and drinking. I don't know how much he drinks.  And wandering around without a shirt on on the occasions he does come out of that coach.                                                                               

I don't want to get started on that, that sort of irritates me, for that man could be collecting SSI payments and doesn't do anything about it.  Supposedly the daughter is up his @$$ about that, if she isn't I will.  When considering money being left on the table and what they owe me? Yes, his ass can get up, get over to the SS office in town and get started on getting everything he needs to start collecting his money.  

Ok, let's get off of the negatives. It's kind of easy to go down that path when I start thinking about it and get to the point rather quickly that money could be getting paid to me if that guy had done something about this months ago when I 'encouraged' him to get to that office and get started on it. I don't have a birth certificate.  Yes, they will help you do whatever you need.  It's not rocket science. 

The grandma and the oldest kid are leaving tomorrow. She has completely taken over the living room and I rarely go in there. That's her bedroom, but she sleeps on that couch throughout the day.  I don't know why she sleeps so much, she isn't much older than me and tho I admit there are times fatigues catches up with me and nap is in order, not the entire day?  I just wish there was another bedroom for her.  

I did say let's get off of the negatives. There's a lot of negatives going on around me I guess, just have to try and focus on the positives. One positive is the park insurance coming down by almost $700. That completely surprised me and in a good way.  I was expecting it to go up, not down, inflation being the reason and everyone has jumped on the inflation bandwagon in order to justify jacking prices up of pretty much every single thing whether inflation really affected it or not. 

Just the idea that I need to come up with that much money right now, lol.  I guess not that bad, I have lots of payments coming up quick, I am going to get that done this weekend, I fear that Monday morning will come, I will get busy with trucking and space it out.  I do not want a lapse in coverage.  I've had that bad luck before, where the house insurance ended because the company wasn't doing mobile coverage anymore for anyone and I procrastinated looking for new coverage - and then my house burned down.  I learned from that and I will not be repeating it if at all possible.  It's just minimum coverage to save my @$$ if someone sues me for whatever reason or something happens and they somehow find me liable.  

It's going to be a while before I get another paycheck.  It's only twice a month and I just got paid 3 days ago - it was a small check.  Payroll period ends at the end of the month, I hope to have another 4 days of work on it before it ends so I can have some money coming in.  By then, the insurance will be paid, I will be looking to buy some Christmas presents but I will be saving for property taxes.  I have until February, I think, well the end of February, before they start adding penalties for late payment.  It's 3 grand worth.  

Whatever the case, I will be attempting to save business funds for the septic system.  That's going to take a while, that's 7 grand.  

Oh! I did buy a new laptop yesterday on Black Friday (I still am wondering when they will start calling it racist?).  It was a cheaper model.  I did it on $25 per month payments.  It is less than $300, but I really don't want all my cash tied up in any one thing right now.  I really must get more lots in there to up the income so that all of these payments won't eat up finances so much.

Well, these people just texted me. "We're going to show up a little early if that's okay?" Yes, but they said they would be leaving between 9 and 10.  I need to get moving, now that I think about it. I'm only half dressed, lol, just enough to not be walking around the house looking inappropriate.  

I bid you a good day.  

 Out early, out of the park early, up to the plant in reasonable amount of time.  Weigh in, go to rack, hook up the air line, turn the air on and then find someone inside to sign off on paperwork. Back out, look at the pressure, it's only at 17 psi and not budging.  I need it at 30 psi.  Well, I figured it would go up so I hooked everything up, opened all the valves and let'er rip.  

The pressure was not going up.  They have a high volume air compressor, it's not the air supply. I go by the ladder on the tanker and hear hissing.  Went up - the dome lid is leaking, profusely.  There's not a damn thing I can do about that, I don't have a spare gasket for that dome.  Well, I could have probably taken a hammer and beaten those lugs down tighter, but we aren't allowed to climb on top of the tankers inside the plant property.  

It took almost 4 hours to unload that thing. It was not fun.  I checked the thing after returning to the park, it is trashed.  There is a obvious portion about 10 inches long where the air can escape easily. This is a different trailer, not the one I have been using.  The manager said "we need to get you spare gaskets". 

I don't find out about things until after the fact.  And too late.  

Monday, when I get back from Lufkin, I will take some sealant and put it on that area and then take a hammer and bash those lugs as tight as I can get them.  If that doesn't work, it will be another fun, exhilarating, 4 hours of offloading.  Definitely going to at least try to get it shut down good.

The deer meat has been "processed".  The processing at the dude's tailgate on his pickup lol.  He took about half of it and gave me the rest.  It isn't really a lot, I don't think he cut down that whole deer.  Whatever the case, it's going in the freezer. We are having Friendsgiving tomorrow and leftovers probably for days after that.  The lady of this house doesn't like deer meat, so that doesn't help. I'm cook the stuff anyway, just going to have to have it separate from dinners. 

A newbie moving in tomorrow morning.  She will be taking the space behind the trailer.  The park is full and has been full for some time now.  I get calls all the time for long and short term and unfortunately, I have to turn them down.  I am pretty sure I could fill up another 15 lots.  Probably take a month or two, but it would happen at least with the current load of calls coming in.  Nothing I can do about it.  I doubt I will even be able to begin saving any money towards a septic system until next year, too much stuff coming up for payments.  

Anyway, filling out the insurance stuff - finally got it, a little late in the day considering my current insurance runs out on the 1st.  It has a "Notice of Terrorism Insurance Coverage" inclusion in it.  ??? Do I really need terrorist coverage at a small RV park out in the boonies in the middle of nowhere?  The price went way down from the first year's coverage, probably because I am only looking for liability coverage and coverage on the shed since I spent so much money on the thing.  It's at $966 for the entire year.  Ok, I am getting the same kind of coverage I have now, it's just that it's cheaper. I'll have to guess because I already have insurance and because I have made no claims.  

It's just one of the things you need if someone sues you and tries to take what you own.  I worked a total of 17 years for those 401k's I cashed out and was paying on the house 15 years to get that cashout/refi.  It's not something I would like to see just disappear because some person got hurt or whatever, sued me and I lose everything.  It is wonderful, however, that Texas implemented a limited liability for damages to RV park owners this year.  You break your leg on my walking trails? That's no my fault unless you can prove that there was some circumstance that I should have mitigated in order to make it safer.  

Still, it really limits what people can sue for, as it should be. There are legitimate things and then there's the miles long lists of illegitimate things. Sort of like the woman who sued McDonald's for millions of dollars because she spilled her coffee on herself and burned herself.  She wins because of her own mistake?  This never made sense to me nor the endless parade of lawsuits you saw on the news that came after that one with people making ridiculous claims and actually winning and usually in the millions of dollars range.  

I'll have that taken care of Monday, I am rather relieved that amount isn't so high.  It's still up there, but I doubt it will ever get much better than that.  It's actually getting late, like 11:00 pm.  I dunno what else, there's something but I can't remember what.  Well, the turkey I bought is rather small. It's only 12 pounds.  I usually get 20 pounders.  I didn't think we would need a huge one this year so I bought a smaller one.  People are bringing so much stuff tomorrow plus someone is bringing and entire ham that it really shouldn't be an issue - hopefully.  It would be different to see an entire turkey consumed versus the norm of having plenty of it left over.  

So, lots to do tomorrow with getting the turkey prepped and runs to the store and then over to the park to get this new person situated in and then cook the turkey for everyone to eat around 2ish. 

With that, I think I will go to bed. No need to get up super early, just would be nice to get a good night's sleep. 

 Thursday - night

Kind of get busy in the morning so not so much time to write blog entries.  Today was pretty simple. Get i the truck, drive to Lufkin, load and come right back.  I was done by 1:30 this afternoon. Tomorrow will also be simple tho more driving: Get in the truck, drive to Gurdon, unload, drive back to my park.  After that, a 2 day weekend - no work.  I specifically asked for it off since I worked Thanksgiving and that was that.  They've got me set for Monday unless that changes somehow in the interim.  

I've got the earlier load tomorrow, I can get home at a decent hour.  Like, get up at 6:00 am, leave the yard by 7, get up there around 9:30 am, probably out of the plant around 11, back home 2 at the latest.  I add time always to everything because there are so many unknowns that can occur.  So we'll call it 3 in the afternoon for good measure, which is still a decent hour to get home by.  

Anyway, this couple calls me about an hour and a half ago. They are sitting at the local Golden Corral, probably the only restaurant in town that was still open besides IHOP.  Well, Waffle House may also be open. But Golden Corral has an actual Thanksgiving dinner.  Anyway, they said "we are in the wrong state" without any explanation and asked if I had anything available? They sounded desperate, like no one else at the other parks were answering their phones.

Well, I have an alternate spot if you want it. It's just a parking area, not  a regular RV lot in my park but it has 30 amp service with sewer and water connections.  They said they would call me when they got over there, but I was watching for them on the camera.  The did, indeed, show up and I went over there to collect.  "JUST MARRIED" on the back of their Jeep window pulling a small travel trailer, I congratulated them.  I had to find out the story about "being in the wrong state". How do you do that, what happened?

They are part of 2 groups that were traveling together, a Jeep group and an RV group.  They were going to meet in our town.  Or were they? They said they were told my town's name and thought our town- in Texas. No, lol, it turns out the rest of the gang is up in the same named town - in Oklahoma - north of Oklahoma City.  Lol.  I said well, I'll tell ya what, since your were just married and having a time of it, I'll just let you have this space for free tonight.  Congratulation on the wedding!  

He told me that he was over in Dallas today near a pond in some ritzy area. The pond was being cleaned out for the winter by some personnel and their truck got stuck. So, he unhooked his trailer, got his Jeep into position and pulled them out with his winch.  He declared "Karma!".  I did something for someone today and now it gets paid back to me!

Ok, something like that lol.  

After that we went into the woods for a hike. Those 3 kids had been in the house almost an entire week, time to get some energy out. After that, over to some folks that showed up for a 2 night stay and hung out with them for awhile, over to another trailer, hung out there for a while and left. 

By the time we got home, 2 people had stopped by our house. Both came bearing gifts of Thanksgiving dinner, and we are talking some excellent food!  No one knew they were coming, they both knew that we weren't doing Thanksgiving tonight so they decided to bless us.  What a cool thing for people to do!  

So, those people help some workers in Dallas, I help them and then some other people give to us : )  I see the Lord in all of that.  And "do unto others as you would have them do to you".  "Give and it shall be given unto you".  And stuff like that. Not the prosperity message of the false teachers, the real message of the Bible to love your neighbor and lots of other scripture.  

Well, anyway, the meal was absolutely delicious. I had it in my mind that today is Friday.  I know it's Thursday, so have to get that feeling out of my head, cause' tomorrow is going to come early and I don't need the weekend feel about anything.  Not yet anyway. Just looking forward to it since we are having a rather large party on Saturday and another Thanksgiving meal, everyone is bringing something.  Ham, Turkey and all kinds of sides dishes.  Plus good company, should be fun.  

So, get the task of getting work done for the week out of the way so I can get something from the grocery store to make.  I want to make something - don't know what yet - to offer at the dinner bar.  I was going to cook the turkey but apparently Taylor wants to do it. I dunno, but you really have to keep checking the meat frequently when it gets close to done because it can overheat easily and dry the bird out.  Just want nice, tender and moist turkey.  

Apparently deer meat is coming home with me tomorrow or sometime in the next few days anyway.  It's fresh and it's probably going to be tasty, this was a young do, good sized deer but still young enough that there should be any game taste to it.  Soak it in milk, I've read over and over, might do that when it comes time to cook some of it.  

 Wednesday - night

Got home late, going to bed late.  

I got to the washout this morning to find out they don't open until 8:00 am.  Their website lists them opena at 7.  Yes, I was there before 8, I called the dude, asked him when they open? Because it didn't say it anywhere.  We open at 8. Ok, I'll just wait. I went back to sleep is what I really did.  

He shows up, I'm still sleeping, the truck in front of me doing his thing, I woke up.  I think it was the eyes on me, I didn't go into the sleeper, I just let the seat down and snoozed. 

I went into the office, he was finishing up with the other guy and then he gets into this long conversation with me.  It was about this other driver that talks too much, is an ass**** and the truck I am driving reminded him of that dude because he used to drive that truck. Great!  I just listened, no need to speak my mind to the people that clean out the trailers.  I don't really give a s*** about what the other driver was doing, but, this dude seemed interesting and just didn't like the other guy very much.  

They got the guy in front of me done in  - I have no idea how long, I pulled into position to wait and yes, I went back to sleep.  I don't think it was very long.  Then they got to mine, pulled the truck up and the kid went at it. I say kid, he's probably in his early 20's. I went back to sleep. Are you getting the idea yet that I didn't sleep very well last night? Yea, that's me.  It came to the point where I remembered to just empty out my mind, take some deep breaths and let the air out slowly. 

It worked. But not after I was awake for 2 hours.  Whatever. I drove all day long.  Had a headache at the last stretch from not getting enough sleep but keeping enhanced focus on the road.  It went away on it's own, eventually.  

I have only to run to Lufkin for 10 am appointment and then back home. I dropped the loaded trailer off at the yard in Arkansas and picked up and empty that had already been washed out. I'm skipping alot, but I won't skip the kid that was still under my trailer with his truck when I got to the yard. I called my manager, there is a truck still under that trailer.

Yes, so and so is probably sleeping in it, go knock on the door. Oh, someone's in it? Yes.  No problem. this kid comes to the driver's seat, opens his window, blah blah blah. Lazy ass from a lazy, unmotivated generation, I just said you have my trailer.  His @$$ wanted me to unhook his truck so he could pull out versus his @$$ getting out of the truck and doing the unhooking himself.  He should have dropped that trailer as soon as he hit the yard, not try to make some other dude to do his work for him.

I admit my response wasn't so great. I am your personal b****? Get out and drop your own damn trailer.  It's the first time in my trucking career I had some person wanting me to do that for them.  No clue this idea of getting other people to do your work for them. I got my ass out of bed at 5:00 am, I don't know when he got up but I had been working all day long and he was in his sleeper, sleeping.  

Anyway, got to the yard, this dude blowing up my phone. The dude that always interrupts me and talks over to the top of me and calls me names constantly.  This dude that I am eliminating from my life, I am far too old and have gone through far too much stuff in my life to put up with this s***.  He turned from aggressor to victim.  I am going to move out, blah blah blah, I don't want to cause any problems.

I refused to get drawn into his baiting, I didn't respond to any of it.  If he wants to go find another place to live, that's fine by me, but I'm not going to be his excuse to carry on his pathetic mindset and attitude in and towards life.  I came into the yard and he was sitting in his yard next to the lady he claims to dislike. Yeah, dude, whatever.  Just done with this dudes' disrespect.  

It's getting late. I have the trip to Lufkin, leaving at 8:00 am. So I best get myself to be and hope I sleep better tonight.  

 Tuesday night

Yesterday was not fun.  First off, getting to the tank washout place, I was informed there was no paperwork for it, they had already sent it off to their corporate.  A very long story short: I didn't need it.  

Second, the other driver informed me that I should get up on top of the tank and look down into it to make sure there are no clumps or anything, that I may have to have it washed out again.  Then, he said, to get a hose and just pump some water through it - this because it had been sitting so long.  

Another very long story short: I ended up using their pressure water replete with heat to spray out the inside for the man that runs the place said it's too late and he wouldn't come, I am welcome to do it myself. 

After that, to Lufkin.  Where I spent 3 hours and 15 minutes getting loaded. I didn't get home until midnight.  

Today?  Off to the property, did my pre trip inspection and found a flat tire. I instantly knew this would cost me hours of time.  After much conversation with people at the yard, I took it to a local tire shop that I always go to for new tires or to get tires fixed.  

They offered me brand new tires for $300 a piece, installed.  That's a smoking deal, actually.  The found another bad tire and yes, it was bad.  It was a very long process to get the company to actually pay for it.  That they did.  Then we found more bad tires.  Hard to explain, but impossible to find the problems with these tires on a pre-trip inspection. They were so bad, however, that it was a blow out waiting to happen. A total of 4 new tires and that was that. 

UP to the plant.  Took forever to find anyone to deal with signing off on paperwork, that person didn't deal with it, he found the man who does that stuff somewhere in the back of the plant who eventually came up and said he wasn't sure they have enough room for another truckload in their tank. Well, this is really a wonderful day! 

I lost a half an hour on that, just waiting for them to make up their mind, but eventually the did, indeed, take the load and yes, it fit in there, however, it is completely full. Or was. It's a 24 hour operation, they are making 4X8 sheets of plywood and glue is, obviously, a vital component in that manufacturing process. It is rather fascinating to stand in there and watch how it works.  Lots of automated, hydraulic equipment but equal amounts of people moving thin sheets of wood around. 

Plywood is, in fact, very thin sheets of wood that is apparently pressed together with glue. At least that's what it looks like.  

Anyway, it was a long offload for unknown reasons, I kept thinking I was doing something wrong, I kept going over the entire thing and finally came to the conclusion it's nothing I am doing, it's just a slow offload, which it often times is up there, but there is no explanation of why. It happens to other drivers, which makes me feel better at least.

The hunter finally bagged a deer tonight. He called me while I was still in Arkansas and started cussing me out because I wasn't there to help him. Well, I didn't know he was going hunting tonight and I certainly didn't tell him I could help him today.  I would have told him that if he had bothered to ask. Work takes precedence and I just didn't have the time for it. 

When I arrived at the park, he was there cutting this deer up in the back of his pickup.  When I got done with truck stuff, I went over and helped for a while. He kept cutting me off in the middle of sentences and calling me names and I just let loose. No, you aren't going to talk like this to me anymore.  I got in his face, I had had enough of his BS. I don't call him names, I don't cut him off in the middle of sentences, his behavior is juvenile at best.  60 years old acting like a teenager.  

Anyway, I am not going to get riled up over it again. He really pissed me off today for all the bs, there was no reason for it.  Just call me up and start cussing me out? WTH.

Anyway, it's getting late and I need to get ready to get to bed, early rise in the morning.  I have to go to the washout, get the trailer cleaned, go to Lufkin, load and then up to the yard in Arkansas and back to my park.  It's going to be a very long day doing all of that.  Especially if it takes over 3 hours like it did last night to load, ugh.

Anyway, I bid you a good evening and a good night's rest. 

 Sunday - night

The latest revision to the work schedule is to go to the loading plant tomorrow - to be there at 7:00 pm.  Yes, I said pm, not am.  Allegedly, that's when they will be ready to start loading trucks.  I have my doubts but we'll see.  I said yes, tho it will make for an awfully late night.  Up to 2 hours to load, 2 hours back plus fuel.  

Talking midnight arrival.

I still have my doubts.  I think they will try to push it up and get loading started earlier.  I'll be ready tomorrow, that's all I can say.  Go over in the morning, fire the truck up again and make sure it's good to go.  If it IS a go, it's leave at 4:00 pm to go to Nacogdoches for a trailer and then over to Lufkin to load. If I show up too early, I'll stop for fuel before going to the plant.  

The RV guest said he had a nice sized buck in his sights today.  Went to fire the gun and plunk.  He forgot about firing it off the other day and nothing happened when he pulled the trigger, lol.  I haven't even seen these alleged bucks except quite a while back when I pulled in to the gas rigging area to make a U turn and there were 2 of them out there.  

The guest confirmed my suspicions about yesterday. I went out to sit and see if I could get one, but shortly after I got started, a loud banging noise started very close by.  Somewhere on the east side of my property - well maybe not ON  my property, who knows, but close by. Sounded like a metal pot being clanged with a metal serving spoon.  It went on the entire 45 minutes I was out there. After I was sufficiently annoyed and wondering who is doing that and also wondering if it was being done on purpose, I got up, got the camera off the tree and walked out of the woods. 

The clanging stopped. That's when I figured this is someone doing it on purpose to stop me from bagging a deer.  My hunting buddy said the same thing without my hinting at it. I just said there was a loud clanging noise with the spoon/pot sound. He went into a long explanation of how he figures these people have probably been living there forever and likely think that those are their deer and we can't and wont' have them.  Well, next time I hear that noise I'm just going to start heading straight towards it.  

The 2 night stay just showed up.  I called them to ensure it was them - another couple called earlier wanting a space, I told them I have an "alternate" space available (where the NJ people were) with 30 amp hookup and sewer and water.  Give it to them cheaper price since it's not exactly ideal, but they said they just need electricity for the night. Whether they show up is another story entirely.  If they do, according to their story almost 3 hours ago, they should be showing up in the next 10-20 minutes.  

The  NJ lady claims she is getting another trailer - I assume when she gets her money near the end of the month. But if she does that, she does that leave her for the rest of the month? Or if she wants to bring it to my place, is there any lot rent money?  Just a charity case that sometimes gives money to try and "appease" me.  The tent lady is getting around with one of those 4 wheeled - scooters or whatever you call them.  I saw video of her going into the amenities shed last night.  

It is definitely her dog that is dumping in the doggy park and her brother is not cleaning up after it.  I was getting complaints. I should have thought about it 2 seconds, she can't take the dog out of the camper, he is lazy, unmotivated and doesn't care about much of anything.  I will be dealing with him directly.  Take the dog to the park and then?  Use the dog poop bags provided free of charge to pick it up and throw it into the trash can that is sitting right there.  I will threaten to evict them if he refuses or gives lip service saying yes but doesn't actually do it.  

Anyway, the trials and tribulations of owning an RV park with people that are poor and broke.  I've got the live camera going on my phone, if those other people show up, I will have to go over there to show them where to park.  I will also be looking for more bottles. Apparently someone is drinking Dos Equis and throwing the bottles all over the place.  I have a few people that look out for the park.  They picked up the bottles and then informed me about the situation.  Hard to do anything about something when you don't know who the perpetrator is.  I have zero problems confronting people who are acting like pigs.  

In other news? The grandma is acting out just as everyone thought she would. To the point her son - James - had to get all over her case. She was sitting there trying to spoon feed one of the boys - he's 8 years old.  He already had a mouth full of food.  1. An 8 year old doesn't need help eating and 2, you don't try to shove food into a mouth that is already full.  And other things.  I think she has been drinking, she's certainly acting like it.   Whatever the case, she isn't respecting the parents in the house and they are not happy.  They came in Friday night, so they've been here all of 2 days and are here for another 7? 

They left, the parents that is.  I am assuming they are discussing how to deal with this.  Grandma set up camp in the living room, took that over and basically has taken over everything that has anything to do with the kids.  I don't think James or Taylor cares until she crosses the line of contradicting their rules or just common sense and respect with the kids.  Now the whole house is at odds and I am sitting in my bedroom, thank you, I'll just wait this thing out.     I am hopefully going to be working, at least, to set off some of this time to not be at home.   But, I can always go to the property and hang out there or work or hunt or whatever, really.  

I'm more focused on this job than what's going on in the house.  This house situation will work itself out one way or the other.  Work?  So far, not so much.      I have no confidence that I will actually be going there at 7:00 pm tomorrow night. It will either be earlier than that or it will be put off yet again.  As of today, I should have just gotten home from the second run on the first stage of the trip to take it up to the receiving plant tomorrow.  Instead, I have done nothing.  I'm just hoping this situation will change so I don't have to go looking for another job.  

I'm not seeing these people.  That doesn't mean they aren't coming, they just haven't arrived - yet. It's 10 after 8, I don't want to have to be going out there at 10 pm to deal with this, it isn't worth $20 to do that. I'll charge them more if they don't show up soon but do show up late.  

Anyway, that's the current drama.  Went to church this morning, it was good. I"m still surprised the pastor remembers my name. It's at least 500 people at that church if not a thousand. A huge auditorium that has 2 services and both of them are full usually.                                                       

Uhh, that's it. These other people showed up, I described how to set up, they had it good to go by the time I got there to collect money.  I don't have that lot officially on the campground software. It's something where I would want the buyer to understand that it's behind a shed, next to another camper, an "alternative spot". I'm just not comfortable putting it on  there, if someone calls I can offer it to them and if they want it, great, if they don't, that's fine as well, probably more hassle than it's worth. However.

By the time people are calling me, they are usually calling out of desperation. That or they are calling hours ahead trying to find the cheapest spot.  In this case, these people called about 4 hours ahead of their arrival.  It's how some of them do it. Try to find a spot as they are heading to wherever their final destination is.  Kind of risky, I think, but maybe not so much now that we're at the end of the traveling season for most of them. They are going home or to wherever they park for the winter.  People are coming through from the north and heading further south. I wouldn't recommend my area as a winter location if you are looking for warm.

It's nice a lot of the time, but we definitely get the cold air and sometimes even snow, things those people are looking to flee from.  None of my long term people are snow birds.  They're here for a specific purpose - school, family, work - not because they are trying to find a place to camp for the winter simply because they can.

Maybe I can put on the website "alternative parking site, call for availability" and put the price, which will be cheaper.  I can do that now that the park is full, I won't do it if the park has even 2 spots empty. Just not willing to sacrifice money for someone that wants to save a few bucks when I can get a few more dollars for the regular spots.  The only exception is if it's a much smaller rig or a truck camper.  Or one of those popup campers.  I'll give lower prices to them.  

Anyway, I collected my money, the situation around here is calming down, the kids are in bed and I'm heading to bed myself. 

 Friday - night

My manager calls and then texts me at a bit after 5 this morning, left a message on voice mail and says there are start up problems at the plant, bad resin coming from Lufkin, load canceled, please call me as soon as you get this.  I turn my ringer off at night. I got the message at 5:30 am, was going to get up to shower and get ready for the driving day.  \

Well, I was informed nothing, they didn't know when.  So, he calls back later, we've got you going out tomorrow.  Sure thing.  He calls again.  They've switched you to Sunday, they won't be ready tomorrow.  

And again.  Well, we are going to switch you to Monday and haul out of  (a town up there), I'm going to have local guys doing it, etc, lengthy explanation why, I'm guessing because yea, I am not working.  So that's where it stands atm.  Monday.  I don't even know what time, they keep changing it, I'll check the load time in Lufkin after I am sure I am actually going down there.  

I was over at the Park today mowing the rest of the lawns and then on the riding mower mowing the front of the property and the triangle area when you get to where the RV park is.  The area behind the trailers on the west side is still good, everything has slowed down growing because it's not weed or bermuda grass growing season. What I am cutting is the rye grass I planted. Not sure what kind of grass out front, but it's still growing, slowly, but it hasn't stopped like the other grass has.  

The friend of James that install septic systems seems to be a no go.  He wants plans from an engineer.  I know the state imposes a lot of restrictions on septic, the contractor I used has their own engineer. I sort of figured anyone that does septic would either have their own or have a person you can contact.  I haven't heard back from the man after asking him if he knows of one, so I'll take that as a no and just stick with the original contractor.  I mean, the money saved on the install with this other guy will likely be lost with also paying an engineer.

I'm nowhere near being able to do a septic install, I was just looking at any options that I might have left off the table. If I magically come into money beyond working and business revenues, I'll be doing that first - or - some sort of cabin - or - a glamping tent.   

Whatever, that's not now so I'm just going to put that on a shelf and forget about it. Nahh, psyche, lol.  No way I can just forget about it, it's the next step.  

Well it's getting late.

Wednesday - late morning. 

Yesterday.......(wrote this yesterday, just didn't post it)

Now there we got something done.

Lowe's. 4 50-pound bags of the asphalt and a new mower. A larger one with more power, self drive.  Over to the gas station, I was actually below empty, but I know it's not empty when it says it is ever since I had the gas gauge fixed. At empty you still have over 5 gallons of gas in there. I was correct, it took 28 gallons, the vehicle holds 33. 

The price of fuel has dropped substantially, from pushing $3.50 to $2.78.  that's a very nice change indeed.

Over to Harbor Freight for a tamper.  This is to compact the asphalt, pretty necessary tool. When I eventually found the place where they should be? There were none in any of the bins for 3 separate prices worth.  I asked someone, they checked, no we don't have any. 

I'm walking out of the store and the lady at the register says "Sir, hold up!".  Huh.  We have them here, they just don't know where they're at.  So on some random aisle nowhere near where they should be, they had used 2 of them to hold up a display of some sort of shelving. They were inside of the middle of 2 stacks of them, you very likely wouldn't even have registered them there even if you looked right at them.

Not only were they the same color as the racks they were holding up, but you only saw the top of the handle.  Ok, I said after we went over there and said the same thing: I would likely have not seen these even if I had looked right at them.

Back to the property, I didn't even go to the park itself, I stopped where the potholes are and dumped the bags out, tamping them down on each one.  Yup, I need probably 4 more bags.  I didn't buy enough on purpose, it's $21 per bag plus tax, I don't need to be spending money ... that I don't need...to..be ...spending right now.  I got a good start on it.

To the rear of the shed, put the mower together and then went to work mowing.  I got 9 of the lots done before my feet were hurting too much. I need some inserts for my work boots, they are not comfortable at all. Doesn't help that I'm overweight.  

______________

That was yesterday.  I have now spent the morning doing paperwork and finding a standard RV park rental agreement - a thing I really didn't want to get into - copying and pasting it into a word document and then going through the entire thing and adjusting things as needed.  And removing things, I took it off another RV park's site, some of the stuff they had on there was rather unbelievable.  

The newest tenant that came in on the 8th is being funded by her mother, I think.  Seems that way anyway. She is the one with the DWI that apparently is having issues in life.  She needed an agreement to show proof of residency.  I have this with the lady that just had the stroke as well, she needs one to apply for Medicare.  I haven't heard back from them, I have the document ready now.  

In case I haven't said this before here (I'm sure I have but now that I had to do it again...) I absolutely despise doing paperwork.  It's just not in my DNA .  I have automated as much of it as possible, but there is still the deal of having to take screenshots of every receipt and uploading it to quickbooks. It automatically interprets them and assigns them to parameters I preset with particular businesses such as Lowe's.  

The oldest boy's Thanksgiving dinner at school is today, we are all going.  I went last year alone, taking the boy a McDonald's meal because the previous years Thanksgiving was rather - bad, lol.  I ate it anyway, Taylor despised it.  The turkey was completely dried out. It was close to leather-like condition.  All the food was cold. That was 2 years ago. Last year, they had their act together, the turkey was moist and the food was warm at least, some of it still hot.  I'll eat the dinner again, I don't really need McDonald's, thanks.  I think it costs something tho, can't remember but I'll take some cash with me.  

Once that's done, I will likely head over to the property and finish push mowing the lots. That's all the new grass stuff, the rest of the park that I mow on the riding mower is still good, no mowing necessary atm.  

I'm watching the news, Israel's IDF is now in the largest hospital where Hamas has holed up, storing weapons, shooting off missiles and using Palestine citizens as human shields.  They are going room to room and apparently are finding armament in most rooms. Of course. Cowards.  They aren't going to win this war unless Iran gets involved with the IRGC and I would still question whether they could win against Israel. The U.S. would likely be drawn into such a confrontation and then....all bets are off. WW3?  I just want to watch the news, I don't want to hear political bias reporting, I can form my own damn opinion on this situation, thanks.  

So, will this conflict spread to the entire region? Who knows, God is still on the throne, that's all I can say.  I will say that IMO, Israel has the absolute right to defend it's borders and Hamas brought this conflict upon themselves.  And remember, Palestinian citizens voted for Hamas to govern their territory. I'm not saying I am wanting to see any civilians on either side killed.  There is no genocide going on, as many people here are claiming, especially college "professors".  Israel isn't targeting Palestinians, they are targeting members of the Hamas.  

Anyway.  I need to get out my book and see who owes what, when.  Getting close, if I recall correctly, to some people needing to pay up.  I need to collect enough money to pay insurance.  Well, add enough money to the business account to pay for the insurance and hopefully have some money left over.  

Oh! Almost forgot, I need to head over to Waskom after the lunch to get a very nice rocking chair I won online auction for $35.  It was worth far more than that, there is a new thrift business that opened up and they get all kinds of interesting and cool stuff.  A coin op coffee machine is up for grabs, no one has bid on it, but I don't know if the thing works or if you can get supplies for it.  

Ok. This time, I saved the name of the RV park that has that rental agreement on their site to my phone notes and I printed an extra copy of what I sent to the new tenant today.  It took quite a while to go through all of that and get it the way I wanted it, I'd rather not have to do that again. But, just in case, I can find that agreement again. Why not save it to my computer? Because this computer didn't come with a functioning copy of Microsoft Word. So, I can download it and save it, but when I try to bring it back up?  It won't let me do anything with it, I can't even print it. I can only use WordPad to upload it from the internet, make whatever changes to it and print it. After that, I can't do anything, I can't even copy and paste it.

I suppose I should get a free version of some other software.  

Anyway, that's enough for now. 2 more days until starting work again, not particularly looking forward to it but my checking account is.  I'll be hurtin' for certain with not having had worked all this time beyond 2 days of training.  It's probably $500 or more worth, better than nothing.  I am happy I do have next weekend after this one off so I can participate in the Friendsgiving - and - people are bringing side dishes and one family is bringing a ham. We are going to cook a turkey as well, kind of need it with 19 people. 

G'day

 Tuesday - semi early

I didn't get much done yesterday.  Got the trailer hooked up, took the trash can to the dumpster. It full and the liner broke when I tried to take it out.  Trash out, headed over to the tire shop.  Trailer has a leak on it, they said it was a bad rim, so they replaced that for 20 bucks.  After that?  I wasn't feeling good.  I dunno what it was, but I started more thinking of going home than going to Lowe's.  

And that's exactly what I did.  Work or no work, I just didn't have it in me yesterday to do anything beyond going to the store for dinner supplies later that day and make dinner.  I felt it kind of lame not to get more than that done, at the same time I wasn't feeling it at all.  I'm not going to bash myself for getting next to nothing done, it is what it is. I just know that Friday I will be going down to Nacogdoches then to Lufkin then back home, so I kind of want to get this stuff done before then.  

Well strike that, I definitely want to get this stuff done before then.  I find it enough to drive/load/unload 8 hours for any given day.  Plus, Friday is 10:00 am load time, so it's an up-early day and fortunately, get the day over with early as well.  That should have me home by 1:00 pm, but we'll say 2:00 for good measure. 

But you used to do 14 hour days. Yes, I did.  I didn't like them then and I definitely don't want to do them now.  I've gotten used to a more normal lifestyle and I'm not particularly interested in reverting back to these ridiculous 70-80 hour work weeks where life is just go-go-goooooo.

What I find funny is these other RV Park owners that complain about "all that I have to do" on any given day.  What do they have to do? Make sure lots are clean and functioning? Clean a bathroom?  Do some paperwork?  Larger operations normally have employees that do a lot of the work for them. I won't laugh too hard, tho, I'm turning 60 soon and I'm definitely slowing down a bit.  Enough to notice it. Don't have the same energy I used to.  No biggies, that's part of growing old, I'm not helpless lol.

My problems have been the idea that not everything is done from new construction, most of it is but the grass situation and other things that still need to be done sort of add to the work load.  It's not that bad, just things like having to go fix the driveway, buy a new lawnmower, more grass seed. I suppose that stuff can be an on-going struggle.  

Well, whatever the case, I'm ready to get out of here, get to Lowe's get the stuff I need - hopefully they have the asphalt patch on hand - get over to the seed store, get a couple more bags of that and get to working.

G'day

 Monday - semi early

Strange dreams last night.  Those kinds of dreams where there are people you know (my dreams rarely have anyone I know in them, they are almost always people I don't know, have never seen before or if I've seen them I certainly don't remember them) in odd circumstances.  Just kind of woke up out of that and decided it was time to get the day rolling.  I doubt I have many more days off after today, if any.  Tuesday was their target, no guarantee of that but that was their decided restart day.  

The grandma and the oldest boy are coming this week. And staying a week.  This is the lady that is rude, short, obnoxious and interrupts anyone/everyone in the middle of a sentence.  When called out on something, she never apologizes and I'm done with her.  Obviously, James isn't done with her since it's his mother, I want nothing to do with her.  Too many of these interactions with this person have led me to the point that I don't even want to be around the house when she's here.  The idea that she is staying an entire week....

She also takes over the entire living room where she sleeps and starts dictating to the kids what they can and cannot do. We have had exchanges about that as well.  When James and Taylor leave, they don't ask me to watch the kids.  This is normal around here that I watch them when they leave, but when she's here? No, she takes over.  It was a while back that I decided I didn't care if she thinks she's the boss and just started doing my normal thing, something she doesn't like. She's on a power trip and wants control of those kids to the point they come running whenever she calls out loudly throughout the house.

She did that a while back and I just kept the kid with me for a few minutes to see what would happen.  She yelled his entire name, which is when I got up and walked out there and informed here he was with me.  She could hardly stand it.  I live here, she does not.  She has this idea that she is going to build a big house and we are all going to go live in it -under her roof. NO thank you.  If that day ever comes, I will have a tough decision to make, for I am not going to be under her "law" and "rules" in her house.  I didn't sign up for that and I want nothing to do with it.  

She admitted quite some time ago to Taylor/James that she is jealous of my relationship with the 2 that live here. Yes, well that's pretty obvious.  Going around being a mini-dictator and trying to somehow brush me out of the picture isn't the way to go about having a closer relationship with those kids. She is grandma and blood related, so there is that, but you can't expect to have the same closeness to a person when you live 3-1/2 - 4 hour drive away and show up here and there compared to a person that actually lives in the same house.  Hence, she wants to move down here and set up shop.  I feel like I best start making moves to have some kind of dwelling place over at the property.  Hence another reason to build or have built a large barn.  40X16 - at least.  

A portion of it made into a living space with an open floor plan replete with full kitchen and bathroom.  Nothing fancy, but a complete setup.  I don't want to move from here, not at all. But if there is writing on the wall, it's trying to tell me to be prepared.  I have property, I have a place to build, get it done.  That isn't going to happen overnight, so I have time.  In fact, her hubby doesn't want to move down here at all, I suspect from the verbiage I have heard in the past that her moving here wouldn't occur until he passes away, if, indeed, he does pass first.  

So, that is on my list of things to do.  Even better would be a barn with 2 stories. Bottom floor, workshop, entire top floor, living area.  A couple of bedrooms, a large bathroom and kitchen and the rest living area.  But that would cost a lot of money since I know I couldn't build such a thing myself. I could attempt a single floor building, 2 stories is out of my league.  

Just not looking forward to her coming and staying that long. She just had all 3 kids for 10 days, what on earth does she need to stay down here that long for?  They seem powerless to do anything about her. She does what she wants and unless you stand up to her, you are one of her subjects. Yes, it's that bad.  It's been that bad for a long time, it wasn't an untenable situation until there was a court battle for the oldest boy and visitation rights were established.  The boy is also a total mess.  I won't get into the details, it's private stuff that doesn't need to be floating around on the internet.  

Her, however, I have no problem discussing here. Because it affects me greatly.  I suppose I could get a 5th wheel over at the park for personal use.  Park it behind the shed and would have to run 50 amp electrical over there.  Money I don't have, a bridge I may have to cross. If I ever had to move out of here, I would likely sell the park and move elsewhere.  Nothing keeping me here. Again, this is a possible scenario but one that I have certainly run around in my mind on numerous occasions. Especially when she is showing up for an extended stay.  I'm not really the loner type, living alone has no appeal to me whatsoever.  Find a woman, lmao. I've had real luck in that department lol. 

Well, one thing here.  She has toned it down recently.  We don't really even talk to each other now.  I stay away from her and I don't want any interaction.  If/when she decides she isn't royalty that needs to be bowed down to, perhaps things can change.  Maybe.  

I think I'll shut that off for now, in my mind that is.  She's coming, she's staying, I have no say in the matter, if I did I would tell her to get a hotel.  She doesn't need to be taking over the entire damn living room and I'm not the only one that thinks that way.  

Going to get ready for the day instead.  Go get the trailer, get the asphalt stuff - I don't want that stuff in my SUV, hence the trailer - and probably a couple more bags of grass seed.  

Back on keto. The gut has grown too large, shirts/pants starting to not fit too well, I'm on a cycle of weight on, weight off that I don't much care for. I went off keto for quite a while and now I'm paying for it.  Don't care that much, just that this diet is so strict.  Thanksgiving will be an excuse to get off of it for one day, that's it.  Ill eat my potatoes, pies and whatever else we are having. Actually, we are doing "Friendsgiving" with a total of 19 people in the house.  That's on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I don't even know if I'll be able to be here or not.  

Actually, I am on a fast right now.  Like, eat-nothing type of fast.  And nothing to drink beyond water, coffee in the morning to keep from getting withdrawal headaches. It's keto kick start, plus helps with other things. It's the fastest way to get back into ketosis. 

Anyway, I'm going to finish what I'm doing and get outta here, get that driveway at least partially done.

G'day

 Sunday - night

Just didn't have time for writing blog entries this morning.  Not doing anything particularly important, the boy wanted to go hunting this morning and I did not.  I prevailed.  We did go to church and after church, the park where the boys played with the young kid over there and the off to Applebee's, but it was a totally unproductive day.

Pretty much planned it that way.  I figure at some point this coming week, it will be time to go back to work.  What day that is is completely unknown, nothing was sent for tomorrow so I know Monday is a nothing day for work.  I will be going and getting cold patch tomorrow and working on the deepening potholes.  I will try the cold patch once to see what happens.  It's something that came to mind the other day and then I looked it up.  They say it works on dirt, remains to be seen.  

The rain the last few days is the culprit for the potholes growing deeper.  I mean, a couple of them are pretty big.  

I don't really have much to say today. The war hasn't really changed, much of U.S. politics and situations hasn't changed, nothing much going on around here beyond normal stuff.  

I'm going to bring the trail camera home, look it up online and see if I can troubleshoot it. It seems to work - but it doesn't.  That particular one was over $100 and I'd like not to trash it since everything appears operational. There must be something I'm missing on setup that needs to be done to set in whatever mode to make it work.  

I might also get some more grass seed tomorrow.  Not a lot, I said 250 pounds the other day, I think I'll tone that down to about 100 pounds and just go for 2 passes on each lot.  Enough to fill in some bald spots, not enough to break the bank.  And I guess I"m going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new push mower.  No choice in the matter, my push mower isn't working and tho I can take it somewhere, I haven't had much luck taking machines to shops and having the shop actually fixing the problem.  They don't mind charging you for shoddy work.  

 Saturday - not so early lmao

I really didn't plan on getting up so late. I woke up around 4:00 am, went to the bathroom, went back to sleep and 4 hours later I woke up.  Like, that's a lot of sleep for one night.  

The boys come into the room, are we hunting today?  I dunno, yes, not right now, lol.  I have to have my coffee before anything else happens, so the oldest proceeded to make my first cup and bring it to my bed.  Pretty good cup of joe!  

And then, before anything else, the hunter calls and asks if I'm coming?  Yes, give me a while! Dang, people, at least let me get my @$$ out of bed!  I know it's late in the day but I had no intentions of getting up early today and I let the boy know that.  He wanted to go early, something told me I would want to sleep. I'll take the sleep.  

As for yesterday, yes, it was a waste of time such as the previous day. I could have figured out both.  But, it's pay.  That's the point from the company I'm sure.  Get something going for payroll.  I can tell ya, next paycheck isn't going to be too wonderful.  As long as my park stays full or nearly full, I can make it through it, just that it's not helpful for getting money together for the insurance payment.  

The receiving plant's scales weren't working, which didn't matter, you just drive in there, park, hook up the air line to start building pressure and then - you follow a huge sign's directions on how they want you to do everything.  Quite detailed, there is no way I couldn't have figured out what to do in there.  It is helpful, obviously, to see a person doing it that has been doing it for years.  No guess work.  

But if I had to sit there without any training in that plant and figure it out? Yup.  There was only one thing I really didn't like about the last 2 days: this driver drives really slow.  75 mph speed limit? He's doing 62. 70? 60. I mean.....I looked at the GPS going back to my town, there was a red spot when you first get on 20 and then nothing.  It would have saved us an hour of driving time if he would have sped up to at least the speed limit, for there were 2 more accidents up the line that cost us a lot of time.  

Anyway, it's over and I don't expect to need any more training that I know of.  Those are the 4 plants that I am supposed to be working out of. This other driver doesn't like the Ennis run, I don't see why?  It's easier than the Gurdon run.  He for some reason doesn't like the set up at Ennis. Loading at the place in Arkansas takes longer than it should, not much different than loading in Lufkin tho.  

So, it won't hurt my feelings at all to get any Ennis runs. It seems like they must have that run covered, tho, cause' they didn't give me anything for today, tomorrow, or the rest of next week.  Supposedly, Gurdon might reopen on Tuesday.  

Well, the boy is chomping at the bit to go hunting. It's good, IMO, that he's interested in doing something that doesn't lead him to be taking drugs, drinking, getting into trouble, etc, as he grows older.  Maybe something to pursue with him to keep him involved.  Perhaps a little .22 to kill some squirrels.  Squirrel meat isn't bad, just have to kill a lot of them to get any amount of meat out of it. The point is to have him bagging something to give him the taste of the kill.  The idea that all that waiting actually amounted to something.  Well, you don't really have to wait long for squirrels, they will scurry around even if humans are present.  

Anyway, my second cup of coffee almost gone, my excuses are also gone. Time to get ready to go.

G'day

 Friday - early

I'm at the mercy of this other driver to tell me when he's coming so I can get myself moving.  I got up at 6:00 am, it's now 7 and he still hasn't contacted me.  I want to get moving and get this day over with.  I do not want to be out until after 7:00 pm, a thing that happens when you are lazing around the house instead of getting into the damn truck and get rolling.  

__________

Made my lunch.  I suspect this dude might end up showing up, forgetting to text me in advance, I'm not going out all day long without something to eat.  I'm ready to go. In fact, I'd already be on the road if it were me with the appointment time that was given.  I just don't understand people that want to drag a day out like that.  

It rained all night long, but this dude is going out there hunting anyway.  He thinks we'll never get close to that deer, he keeps saying that. With that kind of defeatist attitude, why is he bothering to try?  I suspect he's not as self-defeated as he is suggesting he is.  The challenge of getting a prize deer is too much for him, he said he is going to try some different tactics.  He was asking me if I have to work today - unfortunately, yes.  

It's 2 hours, 15 minutes to Ennis. So, there is still hope of getting done relatively early with what we'll call 5 hours of driving round trip plus an hour or so of unloading.  6-1/2 hours we'll call it, even leaving at 9 I guess we can be back by 3:30. But if we left 2 hours ago....

And finally - at near 8:00 am, he's on his way over here.  A whatever moment, 9:00 departure I'll guess a 4 pm return.  That isn't terrible I guess.  Then the weekend, of which I have no idea whether they will want me to start doing Ennis runs or just wanted me to get the training - or more like - know that most people need to work and keep the money rolling in, taking 15 days off doesn't accomplish that.  

Whatever the case, I'm getting my stuff and getting out of here.

G'day

 As expected, today was a complete waste of time. The only good that came out of it was earning some money and that is, suspect, the only reason they had us doing this today.  The Gurdon plant is still shut down and apparently isn't going to fire back up until the earliest on the 13th.  As for today? I could have driven up there without any "training", gone to the plant, go to the security shed, get clearance, handed a map, find the loading rack, etc.  

And it took much longer than it should have.  The guy went to the yard for the trailer but spent forever there.  I just know that training always entails things taking much longer than it should, every single time. Tomorrow, if he gets here by 8 as he says he is going to, we "should" be at the Ennis plan by 10:30 am, an hour in the plant and then 2-1/2 hours back.  But if we're before 4 I'd be surprised.   

It's just the way training goes and whatever.  The 13th is another 4 days away and that's not even guaranteed to be the reopening of the Gurdon plant.  I can get used to not driving trucks pretty easily, so yes, it's probably good I'm having to do this.. I have no idea if they are going to want me to do an Ennis run on my own this weekend. I'd prefer not.  

It's raining. It didn't start until quarter of a day after they predicted it would, but it did, indeed, finally start an hour and a half ago.  Enough that I wasn't confident of the man driving that truck back to the back of the driveway to turn around and his lack of confidence in his driving skills, I also didn't feel comfortable with him turning around in the area I created behind the shed for just such purpose.  So I just had him drive through the RV park.  

Deer man called several times today. The dude that is a serious hunter.  He said there is a giant buck that is bedding back there. He was all kinds of excited about it.  He went on and on about how it's a very large deer considering the scrape marks he's making on the white oaks with his horns. I mean, the guy has been hunting all of his life and he seems to know what he's talking about.  He says deer that are this big means they are probably older and highly likely very smart.  His assessment is he's bedded down during the day out of sight and only gets up to forage at night time.  

He also proclaimed it would be very difficult to bag that particular deer.  They are too smart.  His idea is to go to his bedding area and get him running in my direction and I can take the shot.  I deer running at full tilt is going to be extremely difficult to hit, even for a highly experienced shooter.  I'm not highly experienced but a moving target and especially one that moves the speed a deer can go? Next to impossible.  

I dunno. We can try this weekend if I don't have to work. Or even if I do, if I get home in time from these runs I can still go out.  

It's actually 2 weeks before the next reservation shows up for the over night lot. That isn't enough.  I'll take another long term if one shows up and cancel their reservation well in advance.  I've gone back and forth on this issue.  A man showed up this morning asking if I had a lot available? (Hint: all lots were full). Well, I will later on today.  Long - long - story short, he wants to move in December 1st.  Ok, I should have a space available. I say that honestly, not hopefully.  

I never know who is staying for how long.  You just don't turn away potential business that isn't showing for 2 weeks. That 3 day stay is before the end of the month, I can cancel other  1 nighters if I had to, but we're talking a month away for those.  

This whole RV business thing is a juggling act.  Keep the place full constantly, is the obvious goal. Trying to accomplish that feat? Well, good thing I'm starting out small.  Getting valuable experience here.  It's the stuff you get off line, not done on the campground software, that throws you for a loop.  Long term always calls or shows up, they actually could do it online, not a single person has done that.  People calling last minute - do you have a lot for tonight? That isn't difficult tho, you either do or you don't.  It's really the long term stuff that is what I am focused on yet offers the most consternation in trying to determine if I can give them a place on the date they need to show up.  

I'm getting better at it as I go along with it and figure things out, such as the idea that you don't tell anyone that you don't have something available if they are telling you they don't need to move in for 2 weeks.  Somebody is going to leave before then. Sometimes, you have no choice but to turn people away, you try not to do that tho.  

Well, it's not really that late but it's been a long day.  And this driver - really nice guy - but talks ... and talks....and talks....it got to the "agonizing" point.  Just please, can we have some quiet time? He asks me if I wanted to drive at all? No, not really, unless you need me to?  He said something about his disdain for driving at night. I don't really care, if he needed me to drive, pull over and let's get with it. I would have driven much faster than he was going anyway.  Didn't particularly bother me he was going slow, but I envisioned getting home earlier.  

That's enough.  I'm going to watch a little tv, probably won't watch the news tonight, and go to bed. 

 Thursday - early

Going to Crosset, AR today to "learn how to load" the truck. I don't know why, they load the truck, not the driver.  I can easily go in there without any  help and just sit there and wait for them to - load...the...truck.  Unless there is something I am missing, but I am guessing it's because we've been sitting so long, they want to get us rolling and not thinking about finding another job somewhere.  

I dunno about that, it certainly isn't off the table and hasn't been off the table for a while, but I am not seriously looking for another job, yet.  I have looked, yes, but being very picky about what I would want in another job.  

So, I will be a rider all day today, getting the truck loaded and all day tomorrow, going to the plant to offload, which is where I actually need/want the training.  

Meanwhile, the ex QT worker had his trailer moved and not an hour later, the new people were already in there.  The mom already paid, I think the daughter has kids that she is cut off from or can't have them living with her or something like that.  She has a DWI - who knows what happened there - I think it's on the felony side of the issue.  However, as long as it's not a violent crime, I can take the people in.  Now, is she a real basket case? I dunno, you find out after people move in.  It's a nice trailer, that's what I can say about that.

The NJ lady was moving out yesterday.  But this went on all day long.  And she gave the door code to people that don't live there. One of which went in to use the bathroom.  She came out the bathroom door, made some sort of hand gesture towards the camera then went on this crazy flinging of the arms stuff and then walked out.  I sent that video to Taylor to see if I am being overreacting or if that person looks like she is cranking on meth - Taylor said drugs, lol.  

Like, I really need these people having the door code to my shed with tools and equipment in there.  If they are meth/crack heads, they are probably also thieves. The 2 go hand in hand.  You know that if you have ever been around those types of people.  

Then, late last night, a tenant contacts me and leaves a message saying that the dude that beats on the lady is over there as well. No, no, no.  I just contacted her, I don't care how early it is and asked her if that guy is over there, because if he is, he needs to leave now or I'm calling the police.  I'm done with this situation, over it, they are leaving and he needs to be permanently gone.  

Now, looking at the camera, she has people in there taking showers at 2:00 am.  Unbelievable. No, it won't wake anyone up, the she is far enough away from the trailers, it's the idea that she feels it's ok to just let people that don't live there taking showers and doing whatever the hell they please. And the person has a bag in her hands, did she steal my tools under the sink in the bathroom? I have no idea, but I will be checking when I've over there in a little, the other driver is picking me up from the park since he's driving a truck.  

She's a really nice lady, but this stuff is too much.  

Anyway, the driver said he'd be here "between 7 and 8 am". So that kind of made me get up at 6:00 am to get ready, sit here and drink some coffee and prepare my mind for going back to work.  I need the money and I need to have health care coverage, that is the only thing that motivates me to continue on with this ridiculous job.  

Whatever the case, since she is leaving and the tent lady is incapacitated at the moment, I have no income coming out of that behind-the-shed area now and that will hurt a bit.  I've looked at old trailers, yurt tents, camping tents, building cheap cabins, etc.  A basic cabin would be the best option to building something that someone could live in, we're talking plain Jane, has a toilet, kitchen, electrical outlets, a window AC unit that also has heat and that's about it.  

Or, furnish it as well with a bed, a dresser, a small kitchen table, etc.  

I dunno, just mulling things atm.  Cabins are popular, I get calls for them.  You have anything I can live in? Do you have cabins?  It's a cheaper alternative to staying in expensive hotels.  Even guys making good money, they don't want to have to waste it on $100 plus per night hotel stays.  The decent hotels in my area are as pricey as they are anywhere else.  Holiday Inn, Marriott Fairfield, Hampton Inn, etc, all expensive if you are proposing staying there indefinitely on a work assignment.  I would charge somewhere around $600 per month.  

Lol, it's after 7 and he still hasn't contacted me.  I'm guessing he's on his way and forgot to text me as promised. So, I'm leaving here soon, I don't want to hold him up if he shows up without having had told me in advance that yes, I am on my way, be there in X amount of time.  I need to get my boots, vest, hardhat and safety glasses ready to go.  And see if she has left yet - I don't think that trailer is out of there- and if that dude is over there.  The 4 night stay is leaving this morning, so another lot open, tho it does have some reservations on it, the next one isn't for like a week or longer from today. 

Oh, rain. Yes, it's going to rain. In fact, it should start any time now and basically continue on until tomorrow morning.  So, it will be a fun day driving in the rain! I'm not driving, lol.  Just a passenger today. 

With that, I'm closing this one, getting ready to leave out of here.

G'day. 

 Wednesday, not particularly early.

I was going to get up and go to the men's bible study this morning? Yeah...no. I woke up, yes, getting up? Just said some other time, invited the doggy on the bed to sleep with me and went back to sleep. 

The NJ lady - the one that was assaulted by her former boyfriend, is moving out.  She's got her trailer sold and they are coming today for it.  I now have zero revenue coming from behind the shed. The New Jersey lady will be gone and the tent lady had a stroke and is literally broke.  And apparently can't speak very well.  

Whether I invite anyone to move back there or find a cheap trailer to put back there and rent? I have no idea.  I get calls all the time from people asking if I have an old trailer I can sell to them on payments?  The tent lady was doing well until this unfortunate circumstance took over her life.  But, the daughter is working on getting her on medicare, we'll see how that goes.  

I don't have the money right now for even a cheap trailer so that kind of needs to go on the backburner.  I did take a glance to see if there was anything...

But I am still looking at these glamping tents.  

What I'm looking for is some sort of cheaper type of living arrangement that I can rent out to people who are desperately looking for a place to live.  In my area, there  are lots of them doing that.  

Anyway, I got totally sidetracked from this blog entry and spacing out on how to build a small structure the cheapest way possible.  I didn't think it would be that difficult but they didn't have any water or sewer lines going into it or electricity. Not that I couldn't do that, in fact, I did do that on the shed.  Just looking to see how others might do it.  The fact of the matter is, however, that I wouldn't need a bathroom since it would be located directly next to the shed, it would only need a water and drain line for a kitchen sink.  Or, perhaps, a toilet at least but a shower would have to be taken in the shed. There is no need to spend that much money on shower installation when I've already got one.  

Heating and cooling in such a set up would be provided by a window AC unit that has both heat and ac.  That's the simplest way of doing it.  A one window, one door structure with a small kitchen and perhaps a toilet, electrical outlets, ceiling lights and that's about it.  Or, furnish it as well with a couch, bed, dresser.  I guess a small closet wouldn't hurt anything.  

I would have to price out lumber to see what it would cost.  I already have another electrical panel with circuit breakers.  I dunno, just thinking how I can make more money, I was getting used to this income from behind the shed and now it's nothing.  In fact, now it's going back the other way, what with the tent lady not being able to work, I'm going to have to eat their electricity.  I really don't know what to do about that situation excepting for right now, just sit on it, let her have time to recover and see what happens. 

I'm actually glad the trailer is being moved out today.  I should have positioned it differently so it didn't jut out from behind the shed. It was kind of an eyesore.  Apparently didn't bother anyone or if it did, they didn't say anything about it, but I feel like in this business, image is everything.  

Guess I'll go over there and look at things and see what she's doing.  

 Tuesday

A couple of rents that need to be collected today, one of which I have no idea what this guy is doing.  I have someone that wants to move into the park and his space is potentially "The One". I'll be calling or texting him here shortly to find out his intentions.  No clue.  He hasn't been around in 2 months?  But he's been paying his rent, so no biggies, but if he's leaving, I have someone that wants to move in immediately.  

Or, I could just rent the open space. The people that rented it for four days are no shows.  They should have been there 2 days ago, we are going into day 3.  They emailed me 2 days ago and told me they were going to show up yesterday.

If they aren't coming, I'm giving that space to these new people and hope that by the time I need a space for overnights, one will come available.  

As for yesterday, no deer were seen, much more bagged.  Probably the time of day I was out there, but it was nice to sit on the ridge and hear the sounds of natures with a breeze blowing leaves off the trees.  I was on the east side where there aren't many pine trees, it's all kinds of other varieties of trees.  The west side has a thicket of them, I guess you'd call it, more like a giant swath of them that starts at the gas property and goes clear to the back of the property.  I only point that out because pines are my favorite type of tree.

I don't know if I'll go sit out there again today, maybe.  

Also yesterday? I was sitting at Chili's with Taylor and started getting numerous notifications from the Park outside camera.  I eventually looked to see a Sheriff's deputy and his cruiser and 2 other vehicles with people I've never seen before.

What on earth.  I finally see the lady in the trailer behind the shed standing there talking to the cop, the other people were off to the other side, doing what, I had no clue.  What I did know is all of them were entirely blocking the entrance to the park and that didn't set well with me.  I sent the lady a text and asked her what was going on.  Her boyfriend had stolen her car, her purse, her money, her EBT card (food stamps) and other things. This isn't the first time he's done this and she had to go out and find him.  

However. He also was beating her.  She was apparently filing assault charges, I immediately informed her I want a criminal trespass on the man - meaning he cannot come on the property and if he does and he's caught, he will be hauled off to jail.  I don't need trailer trash mentality on my property and my other guests certainly wouldn't like the idea that some "man" is beating on a defenseless lady.

She cannot defend herself.  Number one, this is no small man. Number two, she has rheumatoid arthritis in her hands and her fingers are basically frozen.  She legitimately lives on the government.  I don't know what kind of work you could do with that kind of thing going on in your body? Walmart greeter? She is in constant pain.  

By the time I got back to the park, it was all over and everyone was gone. Turns out the other people were the people inquiring about a space for their daughter to take. I dunno why they had 2 cars of people in that situation, maybe it was mom/pop and daughter/boyfriend? No clue.  

I am fairly well resolved that if I want to increase the size of my park, I'm going to have to pay for it myself, ie: no loans.  I mean, I'll try down the road for a loan if I can get some debt paid down, but at this point, I'm not looking at loans as the origination of finances to increase the park size.  There are too many negatives going on here and the interest rates right now are the nail in the coffin.  Ridiculous.  I'm not giving up hope, not at all.  Just saying I'll have to do this in small phases, the first of which will necessarily need to be another septic system.  

It is possible I can get a small loan to get that going.  Small, as in 7 grand.  But I won't even try that until something else is paid off and right now, that would be the washer/dryer set.  I have no plans to add another set, at least not atm, for I don't think my septic system can handle another washer filling up the system with water.  Or, maybe it can but it's going to be having those sprinklers going continuously or very frequently.  

New loans, even smaller ones, aren't in the cards right now, the washer/dryer set will be paid off I think in April.  There's just no way I'm going to take on any more debt without paying something off first.  

No word from my company.  I expect that I would hear by Friday, which should be the last day of the scheduled maintenance at that plant.  I would have to surmise from all of this that I am only doing that plant and nothing else.  This idea that they were going to have me going to Ennis apparently has disappeared.  Which reminds me, I need to fire up that truck today and run it for an hour or so to make sure the batteries stay charged up on it.  You can't have those things sitting too long without running them, especially this older stuff.  

I'm glad we are entering the cold season is all I can say about that and the fact that that park is full besides the one pull through which currently is empty but a paying customer is "occupying" it.  They haven't canceled the reservation, they also haven't shown up.  

The 8 year old came into my room a while ago saying "good morning".  What are you doing home from school?  He's sick. I told him he's sick yesterday, he didn't believe me.  Yup, I know when people are sick, lol. 

There is an election that I didn't know anything about today in Texas. Just went through all of the state constitutional amendments they are proposing, some I agree with, others, not at all. Anything that has to do with leveraging more money from property taxes I will vote down regardless. And there is one that forces the mandatory retirement of judges from 75 to 79.  Why do people want to work when they are almost 80 years old? Are these positions of power so internally forceful that they don't care about life beyond work?  Well, we have a House and Senate full of them, I guess so.  

Those are constitutional amendments, so I'm going to see the pro's and con's statements from either sides of these issues to see the real nuts and bolts of what these amendments will do.  

Well that's it for now. Going to go to my SUV, get the "Book" out, check the people that need to be contacted and contact them. Actually, the one set of people already told me they have their rent money ready, please pick it up today. The type of people that want their rent paid on time and they don't want people like me, the owner/manager, holding it up.  I dunno, but with not working, I need allllll of that money! lol

G'day

 Monday - morning, not particularly early

At least, not as early as it has been the last couple days trying to bag us a deer. It's 7:30 am, which is when I wanted to leave out of here this morning. Instead, I just got out of bed, lol.  Oh well, I'll be headed over there in half an hour or so.  If they are showing up at 4:30 pm, then they are just coming and going as the please, it sounds like anyway.  Get into the chair with a thermos of coffee and wait and hope one comes along.  

I'm busy erasing all content on my old iphone. I kept it as long as I could, the kids like to play on it.  But I am not paying for the thing, that's what would happen if I keep it, I would still owe however much I have left on it, in the $300 range. Might be worth it if it didn't have a busted back and front and the charging port works sometimes, sometimes not. Replacing all that stuff would cost too much.  

That can go to the post office before I head to hunting land.  

The people that were supposed to show up last night - didn't.  Too bad, so sad.  They said they are coming in today at noon now.  Yup, well y'all still paying for 4 full days.  There isn't any RV park that I have seen that will give them a refund for now show and contacting you about it after the fact. 

Well, I did it. Turned on the news. There's senator Lindsay, war hawk.  I have no problem with Israel taking action against a hostile actor, Lindsay predictably is talking about taking it to Iran.  There is an argument to be made since they apparently have killed a few dozen of our soldiers in the Middle East since this war began.  I just think if we had a strong leader - Biden is not a strong leader - we wouldn't even be seeing those kinds of things happening.  I just wanted to see news on the war, not Lindsay talking about expanding the parameters of the war.  I guess I'll get past the slew of commercials and see if they actually report what's going on, otherwise I'm turning it off. I don't need or want to hear the opinions of media types or politicians to be able to form my own opinion of what I think should happen.  

Actually, it's sort of getting "late" at 8:00 am.  It's 59 degrees and I'm glad I just thought about that, it's getting warm during the daytime again and flies - mosquitoes - are coming out. Need that Off! to keep them things away.  "A new poll shows Trump beating Biden in 5 of 6 swing states". Lmao.  Democrats will start losing their minds over hearing that.  Democrats are making themselves very unpopular with the appearance of anti-jew stances from "leaders" going all the way up to the House.  And calls for action against college campuses that aren't doing anything about students taking vocal positions against Jews and going so far as to call for their "eradication" from the earth. 

Ever hear that before? Yes, of course you have, from the Hezbollahs in Iran. And "from the river to the sea". Ever hear that before? Of course you have.  Coming from same said terrorists wanting Israel wiped off the map, such as China has done with their maps.  

Whatever.  I've seen enough and it was only 5 minutes worth.  I don't need all of that angst, hatred and threats of violence in my life. That stuff isn't happening here.  We have a black college, a rather large Baptist college and a state college in this little town, but if there are anti-Israel protests going on, I haven't heard about it.  It wouldn't go very far here, this is a highly conservative area and people wouldn't much appreciate students engaging in that nonsense here.  

Well, enough.  Time to check my book, I think I have 2 payments due tomorrow.  After that? It's off to the races. 

G'day