Tuesday - 5:30 pm

I don’t typically do posts on my phone, but since I have ample time…

Started out this morning, as mentioned in previous post. I got to the repair shop around 8:45 am. Never been to this plus, but it’s a combination of junkyard, landfill, a lot of junk vehicles stacked on top of each, “stuff” laying all over the place, a wrecker/towing company and both truck and car mechanics. Pretty much a shit hole. 

It took them quite a while to figure out what was wrong - a cam sensor. Over an hour for my company to approve it, at least two hours to get the parts and another 45 minutes to install said parts. 

I was stuck there 5 hours. No other businesses out here, no place to get something to eat, nothing. I ended up getting into my sleeper and taking a nap. 

Durkk ok by this nap, this old hag came out, screaming: “where is the son of a bi*** that drives this piece of shit truck? Did he go on a hike?” I can tell you that I had been friendly and respectful to everyone there including this witch (she looks like one and acts like one, get her a broom) up until that point . I had words to say about that garbage coming out of her mouth and yes, I said something about it.

She tried to claim she was talking about her computer. Do you think I’m stupid? Calling me an a hole, calling my truck a piece of shit? Do computers go on hikes? 

Some other people came out, oh she says that to everyone! Maybe everyone that works there, she isn’t about to get away with talking that bs to me.  I settled myself down and just ignored her the rest of the time I was there. 

Took 20 minutes to get the truck started. You get air in the lines and it can take a while to get it all out. Left there, went to the wash out, got in and out of there. But here? At the loading plant? They are loading other trucks and I will have to wait, I am told. Yup, it’s been a long day and no telling when it will be over. 

 Monday - early enough

I contacted the repair department yesterday afternoon, I sent them 4 text messages over a span of time and still have heard nothing back.

Shrugging shoulders. I have texted them several times in the past now with almost immediate response.  They don't reply, that's their problem and I won't take any flak for it. I contacted my dispatcher who replied within 5 minutes and that was on a Sunday.  I mean, it's just the way this company is, but you can bet your @$$ they'll still want that load picked up regardless of how much trouble I will have to go through to get the damned truck fixed.

Okay, I am in a fairly good mood, just thinking about this stuff sort of gets me, so I'm switching that off.  

I think Biden is toast, btw, as far as winning another election. The polls have changed slowly but dramatically over time to the point now that a vast majority of Americans don't believe his economy is helping them, at all.  You aren't going to be unpopular if the cost of everything is to the point that you have to worry about buying the basic necessities of life and paying basic bills.  

But, if you are a "MAGA Republican" according to Biden and high ranking Democrats, you are a pile of dogshit.  That's the message they have been conveying and they continue to convey, but I don't think that message is resonating anymore excepting with perhaps the most staunch Democrats that will vote Democrat regardless.  Why go off about this? Because their decisions affect my- and yours - daily life.  I'm looking at interest rates through the roof on a loan that would have cost probably half of that 2 years ago in interest.  Borrow 40k and pay back 22k in interest? That's crazy!  

It's an absolutely horrible time to get a loan and I have to keep that in my brain while I'm considering my next moves.  The Fed will have to bring down interest rates to stop this madness. I wouldn't be surprised if they do in order to boost Biden's numbers. A last minute, Hail Mary attempt to say "look at me and how good I am doing!".  As if everyone will automatically forget everything that led up to the need for having to take drastic measures. Then, if they win, it will be right back to draconian, ridiculous and outrageous policy that costs you and I a lot more money than we need to be paying for everything and hit with ridiculous regulations over electric stoves, water heaters, gas house heaters, etc. 

So I just texted these people again.  We'll see what happens, it's 7:20 am. I should be on the road, lol.  Nope.  That truck won't pull a loaded trailer, it will just die and then they'll have to send a wrecker and pay a lot more money to fix the thing.  I mean, if that's what they want, but if I tell them in advance that the thing can't pull a load and they do nothing about it, that's on them and yes, they will pay me for waiting.  

A little angst this morning I guess.  Just a bit irritating.  I figure I'll give it til 8am and then I'll contact the dispatcher and tell her I've sent 8 messages so far without any reply.  Maybe the dude is on vacation, I have no idea.  But I am not interested in being out until 7 pm tonight simply because this company doesn't have it's act together. 

Next.  Nothing. I can do nothing without a day off.  Apparently not going to get one.  And getting a weekend day off doesn't help for renting a tractor.  Well, maybe if I rented it on a Saturday morning and took it back before they close, but I think they close at 1:00 pm on Saturdays.  I want the thing for a whole 24 hour period.  In other words, the entire day, get it early, take it back just before they close.  

Other things I can do over there, just need the time and not being tired after getting up early and driving/loading/unloading.  I really find it hard to do anything after driving, even if it's only an 8 hour day.  

Current forecast is rain starting Friday and going through Monday.  Lol, a wet Christmas.  Or not, their forecasts are frequently wrong.  

Okkkkk.......so I finally hear back from someone else.  The man is on vacation lmao.  He gave the phone to another person who wasn't looking at the phone, lmao again.  Are you supposed to unload today? No, I'm supposed to load but I'm not going to make it. I have to have the tanker washed out and then go load at 10 am.  See? The dispatcher didn't even know the man that works, right there with her, was on vacation?  

I think I'll just get another cup of coffee and watch this clown show continue on.  

G'day

 Sunday - late

The last offload took - 3-1/2 hours? I think - today it took an hour and a half.  The trailers have internal thermometers on them and I think this is what's causing the problem, cold resin that flows slower and slower the colder it gets. 2 days ago, it was 45 degrees and got colder as I continued to pump out the product. Today, it started at 50 degrees and ended up at 62 degrees.  Big temperature difference.  I had never been there on a Sunday, finding someone to go into the scale house and print out the scale ticket was not a short ordeal.  

However, the real problem started driving back.  It started cutting out when taking off from a start and taking forever to get up to speed, much longer than normal. The situation deteriorated all the way back to the point I was wondering if was even going to make it back.  But it did. I didn't want to call dispatch about this beforehand, I know what they're going to say, take it somewhere and have it looked at.  I'm 90% certain the problem is a clogged fuel filter and tho I could probably fix it, I have done anything like that in decades.  I'd hate to try and replace it and not get it right. Then they have to send out a mobile mechanic. 

This isn't like changing a fuel filter on a gasoline engine.  

I contacted dispatch who told me to contact the mechanic department,  of whom I tried 4 times to get a hold of and then gave up on it. Don't care really, it is Sunday and driving up, unloading and driving back was enough for me.  I'll have an ordeal, I'm sure, trying to get this dealt with tomorrow.  Oh well. There are several places in town that do truck repair.  It's going to be a long day, that's all I know. They originally gave me work for this weekend, then Friday and Saturday of this coming week, then Tuesday and Wednesday of the week after.

I had no idea they were going to dump even more work on me for this week.  

I got a call earlier from this couple that was sitting at the local Walmart, do you have a spot available? yes.  We'll be there in 10 minutes. They claimed they showed up, said nope, we don't like it and left. However, they never came back to the park, so I assume they saw the driveway or perhaps the weeds and just didn't care for that part of it.  I dunno, but I need to somehow find a way to fix that driveway.  

If the gravel wasn't so expensive.  $750 per truckload and that was the quote last time I checked which was quite some time ago.  Inflation, I'm told. Rocks? Inflation?  

I won't go into those sentiments again, not worth it.  I'm definitely going to try renting the tractor - next chance I get.  Perhaps I'll get Wednesday and Thursday off, perhaps not, but I need a full day off to do that.  I want a full day's rental to get the most time out of the thing.  It's a long driveway and it's not a particularly large tractor.  I have to try something, this is the only thing I can afford right now.

Keto - it finally showed a slight trace of purple again. After many days of not showing it. I've been following the diet closely this time around and it's still elusive on getting anything to show on the strips.  But, I am losing weight.  Just the fat is being rather stubborn, especially around my belly.  I haven't been doing the diet long enough this time around to really get impatient, it's been what, a couple of weeks? You don't lose a gut in 2 weeks.  Or even 2 months, but you can certainly get it to shrink quite a bit in 2 months time.  We'll see. I'm going to keep with it cause' it's the only thing I know that works.  It's just that you have to stay on it- eternally I guess - to keep the weight off.  I might do a cheat day on Christmas Day, but I'm thinking not.  I don't want to find excuses to eat whatever I want.  

I finally started getting approved for larger loans - I want to pay down credit card debt to get my credit score back up and lump it all into one payment at a lower amount per month.  The problem? Interest rates are ridiculously high right now.  I'd only be saving $150 per month.  And it's a 60 month loan.  Here's the thing, tho.  If I take on a loan like that, pay down all that debt and then if interest rates do, indeed come down sometime in the next - year or so say - I could refinance it.  It's an interesting proposition.  I wish I could take on more debt load to be honest, I'd just take the loan and build out the park.  

But I can't afford $832 per month on top of everything else. The whole thing of paying down credit card debt is just that, you pay off the credit cards so you no longer have those payments, those monthly payments just get transferred to the loan.  What I'd really like to do is take the loan, pay down credit card debt and get another septic system off of it. Just the septic system. Once I get that in, I've got a ticket to more lots installed. But you see, after the septic system, you have to install electric, water lines and sewer lines, plus a driveway, or the beginning of one anyway, etc.  So, getting a septic installed is the beginning of being able to get something going, but there is still more money needed to get there even if just talking 5 lots or so.  

I dunno what I'm going to do, nothing right now.  Sit on it, think about it, make a decision whenever I feel comfortable with it - or do nothing.  

Well, it's getting late. I'm going to get up at my normal time, even tho I have no idea where they are going to want this truck or when I'm going to be directed to move it there, there being wherever there is. 

 Friday- not particularly early morning, not late either

It totally slipped my mind until just now that it's supposed to rain today. Fortunately for me, rain doesn't start until this afternoon. I say that because the truck is pointed in the wrong direction - I am doing that now to keep the noise of that motor from reaching the park as much as possible. It's a very loud engine, I am projecting that sound towards the rear of the property instead of towards the RV's.  

Anyway, I prefer to turn the truck around at the back where this is a turnaround in the gas production area.   This is the area they tried to tell me long ago that I "can't drive through there".  OH? It's my property, I'll drive where I please.  I had to become almost insolent with those people for they were acting like mini-gods to me, attempting to dictate what I could and couldn't do on "our lease" as they put it.  Your lease does not supersede my ownership of the property the lease is based on excepting you are allowed to do what the lease states you can do. 

I can't turn the truck around, getting back to the point lol, if it rains.  It gets muddy back there and I already got stuck once after it had rained and a day's worth of drying had occurred.  I was able to back out of it, thankfully, left some pretty deep tire ruts in the ground. Nothing I will try again shortly after it rains, tomorrow after I get back I will just have to turn the thing around in the area I have designated for it, which is right in front of the motor coach and the other trailer behind the amenities shed.  

A new guest has informed me that the router that is on the pole needs to be elevated well up above what it is now.  Yup, I know that.  Well, cell signals travel downwards, not upwards.  Yup.  You want to do it? lol.  I'll have to buy the longest 4X4 I can find at Lowe's, which is probably 16 feet, drop 4 feet of it in the ground and probably cement it in there for the assurance the thing isn't going to come down on top of a trailer nearby.  It's nothing on my priority list.  One person was complaining that it "keeps dropping the signal".  Nope, it's more likely too many devices trying to connect to it and why aren't you connected to the other router which is literally right there? He did that and I haven't heard a peep from him about it since. 

It's that or buy a metal pole - somewhere - that is likely costly.  I would also have to deal with being able to get up that high on a ladder, it's just something I have put off.  

I'm not feeling particularly motivated, I have to work tomorrow and Sunday so I would love to enjoy the day off, however, I must get at least a few things done over there.  I'm just sitting here drinking coffee and musing the things of life.  Nothing highly profound, things like how they must have loved me having to get 7 new tires on that trailer yesterday.  They have to approve it tho, I only wanted 5 on there, the Love's said it needed 7. Yeah, it did, but I didn't want to push it too far.  Of the 2 extra tires that needed replaced, one of them was severally dry rotted and the other had a small piece of the outer skin of the sidewall that apparently had been hit on something.

Someone had actually placed an X over it, noting it needed replaced but did nothing about it? What I'm finding is that the driver who gave me the local training here cares about keeping the trailers in good working order, everyone else? Not at all.  Everyone else are OTR drivers that are brought in to take a load here and there when their runs dry up and there is nothing to do. 

The plant is taking forever to offload. We have conjectured several things that may have happened. The line may be clogged up - some of these drivers are not flushing the line out with water as required. A filter sock may have been swallowed up into the line or the product is too cold and has thickened substantially.  Whatever the case, I spent 4 hours dealing with tires yesterday and then 4 hours dealing with offloading.  I was on duty for 13 hours, even getting warnings that a "potential violation" will occur in X amount of minutes, the damn thing kept sending me those notices. It was a long day and probably why I"m not feeling particularly motivated to go work at the property. 

However, I am fixing to get up, get my shoes on and get over there.  Maybe take a thermos of coffee.  It's cool out but not freezing cold. I'd take the dog but he won't stay in the doggy park, he just tries to get out and stands there whining.   Would love to take him for a walk but work calls first. 

And the biggest thing on my mind over there right now is the driveway. It needs bladed. I don't have a grader in my back pocket.  I'm thinking to rent the tractor with the box attachment from the local rental company.  It's relatively cheap at $228 per day.  It's my only option right now, renting a grader is out of the question as there aren't any available rent anywhere nearby and hiring a person to do it would cost a thousand dollars or more. 

I also am expecting Christmas off. I worked Thanksgiving and I'm working this weekend, that should - will - get me next weekend off and Monday as well.  I'm not going to give them an option on that one, I'll work New Years if it is necessary to get Christmas Day off.  

And I'm waiting to see what this next paycheck is.  It should be more in the "normal" range of what I will be making on any given paycheck, what with having had worked quite a few more days than previous pay periods.  It's hard to make the goals I am making without understanding how these goals are going to be realized considering it's all based on income/outgoing expenses and what's left over.  Originally, I wanted to pay down a grand a month on debt, I haven't even started on that.  Way too many expenses have hit to be able to pay down much of anything.  That and smaller than necessary paychecks to even begin to start doing that.  I will see another paycheck on the 22cd.  

As for now? Time to get out of here. The sun is still shining, the rain doesn't appear to start until around 4:00 pm now - it originally said 3 - that gives plenty of time to get some stuff done over there.

G'day.  

 Thursday - early

5:25 am early to be precise. Just got up early to get tires replaced on the trailer before I end up in Gurdon, AR.

I don't even know if they are available to authorize such things early, but it won't but until after 7:00 am before I am at the Love's to get them installed.  Surely they're up that early? The mechanics shop seems to be, they leave at 4:00 pm, you'd think that means they start earlier than 8:00 am. 

You'd think. Lol.

Anyway I just realized the intended arrival time up there, I need to leave out of the house in about 10 minutes. 

That means no time for blogging this morning.

G'day

Wednesday - night

So, Biden is now facing formal impeachment investigation.  It simply means they can force the people they want to question to show up.  It will also force the White House to give up information they are obstructing.  I don't know why anyone would have a problem with this impeachment inquiry, Trump was impeached twice on ridiculous, bogus and sham nonsense. This is actual criminal activity, allegedly anyway, that occurred with officials from China, Ukraine, Russia and allegedly other nations.  

Hunter showed up to an inquiry that he was subpoenaed to testify in, gave a statement to the press and then left without going into the building.  Calls for contempt charges. 

And a bunch of other stuff in the news that only slightly interested me, I'm more interested in the Israel war and that has been shifted well down in priority or even coverage. Weird.

As for today and yesterday.  Well, it took 3-1/2 hours to offload yesterday and the other driver also spent that much time offloading today. So we've taken it to the head honcho over there, it's obvious the line is clogged and needs attention.  We don't want to spend that much time unloading.  I don't care about the detention pay, it isn't that much and definitely not worth sitting there for that long.

Today, loading, it took them almost 4 hours to load the truck. That is also ridiculous.  It's not the plant, it's a particular operator who really should find another line of work. Other operators take far less time than him. He always make excuses about how he has to transfer liquid from one tank to another - the others do as well. He always has an excuse, it gets old.  I flatly asked him today why it was taking so long and that was his rather lame excuse, he's given it several times now.  

There is nothing we can do about that, it is what it is.  I was there almost 4 hours. Messed up my plans for the day after I was going to get back to the property and start wiring up outlets for the new cameras.  I gave up on that idea getting back to the yard at almost 4;00 pm.  

It was chilly out today and it never warmed up. The sun hid behind the clouds and never peeked out from behind them.  

Whatever the case, we did end up taking the boys to the church Christmas party. I'm actually about to head over there and get them. A 2 hour affair, they were blaring loud music in the auditorium, which I didn't know they had services for kids in there since they have their own, rather large, room.  Then they were to go outside and play and then inside to that room for more playtime and pizza.  Hopefully they enjoyed themselves.  

________

And oh yes, they did. I went into their giant playroom/auditorium and couldn't find either one.  There is a giant set of those pipes you crawl through on one side and then a sort of tunnel that goes from one side of the room to the other - approximately 15 feet up in the air and then more play stuff up there on the other side. It's huge.  I finally had them call for them, the oldest showed up the youngest did not.

Found out they separate them by grades so the youngest was in a different room altogether.  

That's it, end of night and going to bed soon even tho it's only 8:20 pm.  I went to bed early last night as well and slept pretty well.  I am running this sleep app all night long - it listens to you.  It gives a report of your sleeping patterns, snoring and potential for sleep apnea.  Some night it's been mild snoring and no risk of sleep apnea, 2 nights ago it went way up on the sleep apnea scale but then decreased last night.

It says my room is noisy, lol. It's the fan on the window ac unit, I run that thing 24 hours a day.  I have to have it to sleep, there are far too many noises in this house at night that will wake me up, the biggest is 3 cats wandering around doing what cats do.  Drowns out noise of cars/trucks going up the road and just allows me to sleep better. If I were to turn that thing off, I would just lay there awake.  I might eventually fall asleep, but it would be short-lived.  So, it can tell me whatever it wants about that, that's not something that's going to change.  

At least I don't snore all night long lol.  It'll give me a summary of averages after it does it's thing enough nights.  

Keto - not in ketosis yet, or if I was, I'm not now.  Funny because I'm definitely not eating carbs.  I had finally weighed myself in the 230's range and now down to 219.  It showed 216 a few days ago but that was short lived. At least I'm no longer gaining any weight - fat.  

 Monday - late

I didn't wake up feeling particularly rested regardless of this new app's declaration that I slept well. It even showed the hour and a half I was awake, but it didn't care about that part, citing the deep sleep that I had acquired which is, of course, more important.

It was a typical Monday. The guy at the washout was tired, burnt out from the weekend and didn't want to work. It took him twice as long to do the job as it normally would.  He took several breaks. 

At the plant, the man that doesn't know what he's doing - showed that he doesn't know what he's doing, at least compared to other loading operators there.  He was crossing over tanks, which took him far longer than it should have.  Then he said a bleeder line was clogged up due to "lazy workers on the weekend" and he had to replace the whole line. 

I mean, it just dragged on for 2 hours.  At the end of it, he couldn't get his software to work on his computer to do my paperwork and some dude over him couldn't figure it out either.  So he hand wrote it and that was fine by me, I had spent enough time in there.  

Back to my property, I checked the doggy park again. No dog poop.  I've been checking and when I say checking, I mean walking the entire perimeter looking for any poop, anywhere.  Nothing. Thankfully. I was pretty sure the tent lady would keep her word and that the last days of dog poop in there was from the 2 night stay not dealing with their dog's dung.  I think I was right.  

I texted the lady that was having such an issue with it and she thanked me.  Ok?  

This dude that showed up last month that said he was staying into next year? No.  His work is already done and he's moving on.  Which is fine, I'm glad he gave me a head's up, I just wrote up a Facebook ad for my FB site and will be updating Google as well.  I just turned a guy away, unfortunately. I can't give spots I don't have....

Hopefully I can get that spot re-rented as quickly as the other ones were.  I may even restart the Facebook ad for a couple days. The only thing is, the man said Wednesday, but not 100% sure, he would be contacting me.  I still put it up on my Facebook page for this industry, you do what you can immediately upon finding out that someone is leaving.  

I am going to go over to the new place to see if any of "my" people have ended up over there after he leaves.  Why? Because I need to know.  If people are going for $25 less per month, why are they doing that? I could see him moving over there tho.  It's a straight shot from that place over to 43 and then down to the plant he has been working at. I'm just a bit suspicious that he said he would be here until February and now, only a month into it, he's leaving.  There is nothing I can do to keep  him, if he's leaving he's leaving, but I have to satisfy this need to know if I'm losing customers. 

If the weird people ended up there, that doesn't bother me at all.  They can bother the owners of that place with their - weirdness.  No love lost on that one, I had had several decent conversations with the dude, but they had become disgruntled with my truck moving through there twice a day and the lot itself. Now this dude is leaving, they could have taken that lot, but I am not stopping driving the truck in there for them or anyone else.  

I do think a good possibility this guy is leaving for that place. It's probably 3 or 4 more miles further away, but cheaper.  Or not, who knows.  People at my place like having quick access to town, groceries and everything that is in our town.  I'm going to take a pic of his trailer and the license plate so I can see if he's over there.  I dunno what the owners think about competition driving through their park, other parks do it to me all the time. 

Well not much else right now.  My Christmas shopping is almost done, I just have my son to buy for, which I forgot when I was at the store today, I would call it a more spartan Christmas then previous ones, no matter. Mom has hers already, my oldest brother will have his in a few days, my son will have his probably next week, the family here will have theirs Christmas day. 

Even if I have to work on Christmas Day, it's not an all day thing. I can be back early afternoon - maybe.  Depends on the day and how things are going. I'm going to Arkansas tomorrow, but if everything goes well, I can be home by 2.  If not, well, who knows lol.

 Sunday - late

Work sent me a run for Monday shortly after I posted yesterday's post.  Which is fine, that's what I wanted after realizing they're giving me 3 days off.  I'm a couple of hours until bedtime. 

I downloaded an app to find out what my sleep is like. It sits there and listens all night long.  It said I was snoring 15 minutes out of the entire time and risk of sleep apnea "low", that was nice. I then had a recording of me snoring - it wasn't snoring at all. Not that I don't snore, but this was an amber alert that went off in the middle of the night, woke me right on up.  The recording was of a monotone sounding female telling the story of an abducted minor.  

It told my sleep was average, far better than I thought it would be, but then told me "it could be better". Well no shit Sherllock, tell me something I didn't know.  It told me background noise is too much. No, it's white noise and it's perfect.  I wouldn't hardly sleep at all without it.  I didn't want to argue with the thing but I disagreed with some of it's findings.  I'll do it again tonight, nothing special to do but turn it on.  It stays on whether you have the app up or not.  It goes off at whatever time you are setting it at.  I really thought I spent most nights snoring.  I'm glad I don't but it's strange for me.  

New person did, indeed, move in today and I'm full again.  Yes, I do have the overnight pull through available, it's got several reservations on it and people show up out of the blue.  I turned down a person today after getting lot 10 filled up, sorry, the only thing I have available is overnight.  He then told me he was only a few minutes away from my park. And?  I didn't promise him anything nor have I ever spoken with him before. Sorry, I don't have anything available right now.  My competitors do, I didn't tell him that, I'm getting kind of wary of telling people other places when they are places I wouldn't want to go to myself unless under duress, ie: no other place to go.

I just brought the camera system into the house. Wanted to take a look at what I'm getting myself into here.  It's not "direct wired". Probably Chinese stuff, they don't know what they're talking about.  Direct wired is connecting it directly to wires, not plugging it in.  These are all plug ins. Does it matter? Well, I'll have to go buy out door outlets for it, which will add cost to it, a little more trouble than simply wiring it in.  

Time for bed.

 Saturday - semi early

No work today and nothing in the system.  Since they are doing this, they might as well skip Sunday for me so I can go to church.  If I get nothing for Monday, I will be calling or texting the manager on Monday to find out what's going on.  I don't need or want another 20 days off.   I need the money, get caught up on everything and then get moving forward. That was the whole point of getting this job which has, thus far, not panned out. 

There is an argument to be made for simply finding something that takes me out overnight and gets me back the next day - making more money.  I haven't quite gotten my mind to the point, yet, but it may very well happen at some point, especially if this job keeps playing these games.  The lack of communication is amazing, to say the least.  

Anyway, allegedly a new person coming into the park tomorrow/Sunday.  I still haven't collected the rent from the new guy that came 2 days ago - my bad, but I finally got this new laptop up and running this morning, including links to the reservation software which, in turn, has links to everything else including credit card payments. I got to the credit card payments, got that set up and now I can just turn the computer on and access it quickly. Amazingly fast compared to the old pile of junk.  

I spaced out paying the electric bill yesterday - it isn't due until tomorrow.  I would like to hope they don't just come and shut off the power because I paid a bill on the weekend and it's not posting in their system as paid.  I guess I will find out.  I assume that a power company will send notices of non-payment and I doubt they would wait terribly long to shut it off considering the size of the bills.  Even being winter, it's still $906 total, both bills combined together.

I suspect people are using space heaters, which I have subsequently found out is highly discouraged for use in RV's.  Not because it jacks up park power bills, but because circuit breakers in those things don't really handle that stuff all that well.  

I have finally come to the conclusion that I am going to have to install edging along the driveways. The rocks are getting on the lawns and then if I'm not careful, the rocks are getting thrown all over the place.  I have the new mower on mulching setting - which is simply leaving the flap down on the chute where the grass comes flying out.  It works most of the time but some rocks can still get out from underneath the machine.

I cannot take the risk of having rocks flying into windows, windshields or worse, the vehicle bodies themselves and having to make an insurance claim.  

My new security camera system is ordered.  It's a cheaper one with 4 cameras and a hard drive to store the images that are recorded.  It has WiFi access and hopefully will be enough to find out whose dog is crapping all over the place and it's owners not cleaning up. It's ridiculous and people are getting pissed about it.  I can install 2 cameras on the shed aimed at the dog park from different angles and I will find out who is doing this and they will  be confronted directly.  I am not the park maid and neither are other dog owners who want a shit-free environment at the doggy park. 

BTW, there are pool kits sold out there that are far less money than the tradition mortar/expensive stuff.  12 grand and you have a pool.  Not the most ideal setup but it's an option for cash strapped people such as myself who want/need such an amenity to exact higher prices.  These are decent sized pools, big enough anyway to make people happy, I think lol.  I dunno, just looking at options out there. I would be surprised if the new competitor doesn't install a pool in order to lure people away from existing parks and get new customers into their fold.

However, I think they have already started to fill the place up. With who? I have no idea.  As I said in previous entry, probably from my main competitor, maybe even 1 from me.  I just am wary of that park for those people have far more money than I do and can do whatever it takes to get their park full and steal clientele from surrounding parks.  

Regardless, I'm still going to continue on with my quest for another septic system and other options that I have been considering.  None of which will ever happen if I get too many days off from work.  

But let's not go there right now, it's something I have discussed over and over, take a break from that.  

Today? Well, go collect the payment and then possibly do some work over there.  I dunno, still recovering from this coughing cold.  Hate to overdo it and then have it come back full bloom.  Regardless, I am definitely going over there now that I have this new computer up and running.  I don't have any other payments currently due, unfortunately.  Where does the money all go......Oh, yes, I pay myself when I am backed into a corner and have nothing in my personal account.  That will likely happen again this month.  I don't really want to pay myself if I don't have to.....I want to save the money in the business account for the septic system and pay for it directly out of the business account.

No personal income tax spending money on things the park needs or upgrades, the money isn't going to me, it's going to the park.  

Well enough of this. Drink another cuppa and get moving.  

G'day

 Friday - late morning

When I realized I had no work for the trucking company to do today, I decided last night I would sleep in, wake up, and lay there and do nothing.

Exactly what I did.  It's a quarter after 10:00 and I just got out of bed, lmao.

I'm going to guess they will schedule me for tomorrow to work Saturday and Sunday, but who knows.  Or something happened at the plant...or or or....I don't call them to find out.  I don't really care, if they want to work me, work me, if they don't have anything, I'll find other things to do. I've already made a list for today that will take me well into the afternoon.

As it stands, a man moved in yesterday, I still have yet to go over and collect.  That's my doings, not his.  I also have another person saying they "might" want to move in Sunday or if not, 2 Saturdays from now.  I said I can hold the lot for him until Sunday, but if he wants me to hold it until next Saturday, he's going to have to put a deposit down.  I'm doing that now.  I can wait a few days, I'm not going to wait 10 for someone who may or may not show up. If they put down $200 non-refundable deposit, that will motivate them to come. If they don't show, I've got $200 and move on.  

At least the Facebook ad is working.  I've got his phone number, if someone else calls about the lot and wants it, I'll call him back and ask him his decision.  For I have lost enough business from wishy-washy people who have no stake in the game and don't stand to lose money if they decide they aren't going to come.  It's deposit time or if you need to, go find another place to stay.  The guy said "let me check my schedule", which means to me "Let me call every other place around town and see if they have a better deal". 

I don't blame people for doing that, but I think they should just be up front about it. I'm not going to scold them for comparison shopping for rates.  I'm not going to tell them about the horror stories I've heard about some of these other places.  Or the fact that the new park is well outside of town. Some people are fine with that, others want to be able to get to town quickly to get their needs so they can get back home quickly.  

I would be wiling to bet the weird people moved to the new competitor.  I say that because it's a little cheaper over there and even tho it's well outside of town, those people rarely leave their coach.  I did find it amusing that the new park already has 9 google reviews. some of them dating back 2 months. Oh it's so wonderful here!  Liars.  That park hasn't been open for 2 months, they had the gates closed and locked!  I'm going to go over there soon and see how many RV's they have in there. I suspect they're pulling them from what used to be my main competitor.  

I say used to be because this new guy on the block is undercutting everyone still and I don't wonder if that will go on for awhile. I just did a check for rates on their site, it goes down to $369 per month.  That's cheaper than me, but I have location as a huge extra added plus.

As the experts in the RV industry always say, location location location.  But the other place - well they have 2 of them - they are probably suffering, at least from what I have heard.  Their reviews are full of people telling the tale of sites that are too small for big rigs or even larger sized rigs.  Too little room to maneuver in and people complaining they ended up in a site that doesn't fit their rv.  It has gotten so bad for them that they are advertising 2 lots for one price.  In other words, a lot more room.  

It's an ongoing battle to look up other rates and see where I stand competitively.  I wasn't sure what the new place would do, but I had to figure they were going to undercut everyone.  How they are making money after spending on a million dollars? They aren't. The ROI simply can't be there.  This is a ploy on their part to get people in there and then jack up the rates, that's the only way I can see them playing this hand out.  They might add some amenities that we all don't have and namely: a jacuzzi and a swimming pool. 

These are things that are still high on my list of amenities I need and want in my park. I could raise the rates significantly.  People want pools and jacuzzies and are willing to pay more for it.  That's what I've heard over and over.  Yes! A pool!  I would up my rates at least $75 per month if not more.  Or give options.  If you want access to the pool, this rate, if you don't, that rate.  The pool can have a keypad security and a camera to identify who is going in and out. Tenants who aren't paying for the pool option but are using it? Will be evicted.  Or even make it a club so that it's exclusive. Pay extra for the club.  I can already see the pool and jacuzzi area replete with a small bathroom and an outdoor shower.  A covered area with a table  and covered pool side tables.  

This would up my game substantially.  It would set me apart from literally every other park in this area.  No one has a pool, not a single one.  There is one place that is a group event type of thing, they rent a few RV spaces on the side that has a pool. But, the caveat is that RV'ers can't use the pool when groups are using it as well as everything else.  

So, more spaces and a pool setup are my next objectives.  Impossible with my current credit score, so that's kind of where I'm at. I haven't paid a single dime down on debt for I haven't made that much money yet and the money I have received from the job I've spend on bills. As I said long ago, I knew that by September, after paying exorbitant electric bills, that I would end up needing supplemental income. ]

Thank me for reminding myself, lol, that the electric bill is due, well, there's 2 bills.  I broke it down, it's about $57 per month per lot in electric usage. That's not bad. The bill is high, of course, but getting the picture of how much is being used on average is a little easier to digest.  

Now then, for today?  I'm headed to the sign shop, Harbor Freight and Walmart.  Sign shop for a sign I had made quite a while back that I never went and got. Harbor Freight for a camera for the doggy park and walmart for miscellaneous stuff I need for both the park and personal.  After that, to the park to collect the rent from the new person and maybe, if there's time, go ahead and work on more potholes.  Get those potholes filled up. It actually lasts quite a while as long as I don't fill them immediately before rain.  

If it rains before people run over it and smash it in there good, it will just splash out a gooey mess as people drive over it and the soil becomes muddy.  There is a slight chance of rain today, there was a 70% plus chance tomorrow, it's now down to 40%.  Kind of iffy on that one.  

Anyway, I'm getting nothing done sitting here and lazy-time has been completed. Enjoyed it thoroughly, especially being that there is no one else in the house. No noise besides cats getting into things and dogs barking out back. James is doing his side job, Taylor is back to work and the kids are in school. It's the verge of the weekend and I will be quite interested in seeing what this company has me doing.  I can say I needed today off and didn't even know it.  Just need the break.  

G'day

 So...

I'm at the plant at the scales, getting weighed in.  Sitting on the scales, I got weighed but I couldn't move, there was a logging truck in front of me.  The whole place was backed up with logging trucks and there wasn't anywhere for the driver in front of me to go until some trucks pulled up on the roadway ahead.  

So I'm sitting there wondering how long this is going to take when I look over and see a silver trailer passing by.  I couldn't see the truck - more logging trucks blocking the view.  But the trailer was silver and I wondered what product was being brought into this plant that wasn't required to be weighed first.

I sat there something like 10 minutes before that logging truck finally moved forward, then I had to try and flip a U turn to get out of there, meaning going over another set of scales to do so.  I finally get out of there, onto the main highway and drive down to the other end of the plant.  Pull into gate 1, pull up to the offload shack, get out, go to the bathroom before anything, hook up the airline, go find someone to sign off. 

Sign off and unlock the valve. It was in the closed position, you obviously can't unload into a closed system, lol.  I get done with all of that and lo and behold, this driver pulls up behind me.  He was disgusted, apparently and also didn't bother to get of the truck to chit chat. His intent was obvious, he came in there like that to be me to the rack and get unloaded first - even tho his offload time was for 2:00 pm.  

I had just started unloading so yea, it's gonna be a minute.  A lot of minutes lmao.  Ok, well the dude that signed off on my paperwork and had come out and unlocked the valve came out again after I was unloading.  "I have a question for you if you don't mind". He's a real nice guy, humble, but has his position, he's over that entire portion of the plant.  "When were you supposed to be here to unload?".  I have the 10:00 am slot.  He shakes his head, yea I thought so...which is when yea, I was wondering what this guy was doing here.  

He went over there and had some words with the driver lol.  They don't want 2 drivers showing up at the same time.  I get done, pull back out to the highway, didn't bother to do anything about that other driver, don't really care - well I would have if he had shown up before me, then I would have contacted the manager.  It's a huge no-no in the trucking industry to do something like that, try to jump ahead of another driver. It has been that way for decades. 

Anyway, back to the road to get to the scale - there are 2 lanes of logging trucks backed up almost to the highway.  To put it into perspective, it's probably 1,000 feet to the scales - there are 3 of them, 2 incoming and 1 outbound scale - from the highway.  I sat in the outer lane for several minutes, thinking, I'm not coming in, I'm trying to leave, why should I have to wait in this line?  I've already waiting in an inbound line, thank you. 

So, I passed all of those trucks, went around the incoming scales and then did a u-turn to go into the outbound scales.  I didn't know what the scale house master was going to say, but I was facing a 45-60 minute wait.  I got up on the scale, got out, opened the window, explained how far out the line is. He said, well, I'd rather you come around to this scale for both incoming and outgoing anyway.  You don't need to be waiting.  

He never said this to me before so how was I supposed to know?  This is why I hate having to start a new job. You literally start at the bottom and you have to learn your way back up to any semblance of knowing what you are doing.  It would save me a lot of time to simply bypass all that logging truck nonsense, flip the u-ey, come around to the outbound side and scale in and out there.  

That was my day. That and driving on the same roadway with a large number of idiots behind steering wheels, doing stupid stuff in traffic.  

_________

Much later.  A man that called 2 months ago showed up today, lol.  "I'm 30 minutes out, do you still have a lot available".  Why yes, yes I do!  He moved in without me there, which happens a lot.  So for the moment, that leaves 1 lot available and I am just keeping one pull through lot open for overnighters for now.  I get lots of last minute calls for that one.  None today, but it happens frequently enough that it will pay for itself as long as that continues. 

Work never called or texted today and they didn't send a load to the tablet. So, unexpectedly for me, I am not working tomorrow.  Change that: I'm not working for the trucking company tomorrow.  I will go and fill some more potholes tomorrow and mow the rest of the lawns.  Go get a sign that was made months ago that I have just not had the opportunity to pick up.  See if I can find some cameras - there is far too much complaining about people not cleaning up after their dogs in the doggy park, I'm going to put cameras up, trained on it and find out who is doing it and approach them directly.  I don't want to spend the money on this but there are good people that are getting frustrated with the situation and I don't want to lose them over some person not cleaning up after their dog.

I believe it's still the tent lady's dog doing it, I'm going to have to catch it in the act - or more like the humans not cleaning up after it in the act to confront them - or whoever it may be. I will evict people that refuse to clean up the poop their dog is dropping. I don't care who it is or the loss of money, it is insufferable.  

That's about it.  There is some backlash going against universities that refuse to condemn this anti-semitism that is rising up within the confines of their establishments with big time donors pulling out and taking back donations.  This is good, in my view.  If there were ever an oppressed people, Jews would be at or certainly near the top of the list.  I don't and never have understood the anti-Jewish sentiment and it is not a stance I would want to take in light of God's Word.  Then you have the amateur hour with the wanna be GOP "hopefuls" that want the GOP nomination. It's a joke. We see this every time. They start acting like school children taunting each other and calling each other names. Ridiculous.  We are adults, we don't want to see this childishness.

Another day.

Paycheck wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be - I had 20 days off, the last paycheck was the really bad one, this one improved, the next one should be fairly decent.  Like, 3 days before Christmas type of thing.

They didn't leave a bad review - yet.  I have found good reviews on other sites that I didn't even know people were using.  So that's good I guess.  It was a bit off tho.  They said no bathrooms or showers or laundry.  Maybe they didn't know? They took pics, one of them has me on the riding mower. They, btw, being the weird people that are pretty much unhappy with life in general.

Now that these people are gone, I started up a new Facebook ad with the boost.  It targets people. You know, like when you start talking to someone about something and then it shows up online? lmao, something like that anyway. 

No bites from that yet but it has directed traffic to my facebook site.  

As for today, it's just a trip to Gurdon and back.  

Maybe write more later, but now? I have to get ready to leave.

G'day

 I'm coming into a small town called Jefferson which is in Texas off of Highway 59.  I'm going the speed limit - you really don't want to speed through these small towns in Texas or Arkansas.  There are frequently anything from local police to Constables, Sheriffs and State Troopers out there looking for people speeding through these towns.  

This dude in a semi comes flying up beside me, cuts in front of me and continues on well over the speed limit of 45mph going through town. Going over the railroad tracks, a steep incline and then a steep hill on the other side, he was hauling.  He was forced to slow down somewhat for a school zone, but he was still going well over the speed limit.  He was cutting in and out of traffic, cutting various cars and trucks off.  He gets out of the speed zone and speeds up, only to hit another speed zone for the high school, 35 mph.  

I don't know how he could have missed those huge signs with big, yellow lights flashing, but he did. That or he didn't care since it's heading out of town.  One thing he definitely didn't see was the Constable sitting out there.  He passes by the Constable going at least 60 in a 35 zone and the Constable, of course, takes off after him.  

The Constable gets behind him, lights flashing, lit up like a Christmas tree, the driver of the truck wasn't pulling over. The Constable pulls out into the passing lane, the driver still doesn't stop.  This went on for 2 miles before the Constable finally passed him, got in front of him and forced him off the highway.  By the time I got up there, he was already out of his vehicle, standing in front of the truck, hands on his hips, standing there with this look on his face that made me cringe.  

Like, I am very glad it isn't me that did that.  I don't know what happened with that driver, but I suspect it wasn't a happy ending for him.  

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. Only one slight mishap at the plant.  There was a crew of people that showed up after I started offloading the truck. I didn't know what they were doing, but they stood there staring at me.  Lol, ok?   One of them finally came up to me and said something about needing to add a new air line to the existing two and were waiting for me to get done, how long did I think I still had left to go?

About 20 minutes.  I need that air, btw, I can't unload this trailer without it. They weren't being pushy, at all.  Well, the thing finally got done and I did the cleanout of the trailer and then attached the air/water line to the hose itself.  They want us to push water through it to clean it out.  I pumped a lot of water through that thing, I like to keep it clean so it doesn't get clogged up and then pumped air through it to clear the line out of the water.  While the air was still pumping into the line, I closed the main valve on the plant side and then went and shut the air off, telling them I was done.

I think it was them that got me, even tho they were really nice, it kind of pressured me to get done with everything and out of their way.  Because I popped that line off of the trailer and it popped off all right, it was pressurized and spewed water out of it.  I forgot to bleed the air pressure off out of a little valve they have on it to do just that. 

I was fortunate that it was almost all water, only a very scant amount of resin.  But, I went and reported it anyway, tho I did clean up the little bit of resin that was on the ground with one of the rags that they supply (they have a 55 gallon drum full of them ).  I said, well, I spilled some water and there were a few drops of resin in it.  He said no problem. I said well, if you want to come out and take a look...No, lol, you can go.  It really was just a very small amount of resin, but I didn't want someone to go telling him that I had had a spill and didn't report it.

That's a good way to get banned out of those kinds of facilities.  One of those lessons you probably will never forget: bleed the air out of the line! lol. It actually wouldn't have been a disaster if it was a bunch of resin, just take a hose and wash it off.  I was just glad it wasn't that.   That and the idiots were out in full force, driving down the highways and causing trouble everywhere they go.  

Back to the park.  I took a package that FedEx just dumped off at the shed, lol.  I saw him doing it on the camera, he just threw it on the ground and left. It clearly says "Lot 4" on it.  This is why I'm getting a big box, they can dump packages into the box and people can come look for their stuff.  When I got over there, the weird people that are leaving were out front of their motorcoach.  But as soon as they saw me? They scurried back into the coach as if I was a monster out to get them, lmao.  

I hate to think this is going to happen, but I give it at least 50-50 odds they are going to leave a negative review and yes, I will respond to it.  If they have a problem with the park, they didn't tell me about it.  People that go and blab all over the internet without first at least giving management a chance to try and correct the situation are low-lifes in my view.  I never do that. I always give a company a chance to make things right before I go leaving negative reviews.  

Our local gossip group is actually a group to "lift local business up", specifically, local restaurants. But people go on there and trash restaurants all the time.  They almost never give management a chance and when they do, they say "I tried to contact the manager but they weren't available", so instead of waiting to hear back from there, give it at least a day, lol, they just start trashing the business.

Anyway, they're leaving tomorrow, or so they say.  I haven't heard back from this other guy that says he is interested in moving in.

As I travel through small towns in the region, I look up the names of RV parks that I am passing by on the internet to see how much they are charging.  It's all pretty much the same.  They're charging $400 which includes everything.  The difference between them and me is they are charging much more for nightly and weekly rates. 

I've thought about raising nightly rates.  Maybe another $5. I'm getting a pretty steady run of people coming into the pull through spot I've kept available for it.  People that stayed last night booked another night.  Guess they liked it, but if they want to stay yet another day, they're going to have to move to the back in lot cause' tomorrow night, the pull through has been booked by someone else.  These people like the walking trails. They have a rambunctious dog that has more energy than Obi, the thing is crazy.  

He asked yesterday if there's anywhere where he could run the dog free? Yup, just head up the driveway, you'll see a sign, follow the arrow and then you'll see another sign.  That's the trail head, you are on your own once you get back in there.  

Almost 4:00 pm and they just finally sent me a run for tomorrow lol. They keep sending me the early run, which is quite fine by me.  I can be home by 1:00 pm tomorrow.  I won't go home, tho, I need to start mowing grass. I say start, I don't do it all in one day.  I'll get half the lots done one day and the other half done the next or whenever I get to it.  I also need to continue on with filling potholes.  The park is looking much better now with grass.  

 Tuesday - early

Long day yesterday.

Long because I wasn't feeling good.  I think I was on the road a total of 7 hours, but when I got back to the yard, it became too much. The driveway has some big pot holes and I at least needed to put some dirt in them if nothing else.

So I hooked up the trailer, went to one of the dirt piles and shoveled dirt onto it, took it to some potholes, filled them in, decided to get more dirt, fill more and then? I was toast.  I just wasn't feeling good and decided I could just do some of this stuff on the shorter driving days. Today will not be a shorter driving day since it's more miles and usually a longer offload time.  

The weird people are leaving. This is the mother and her 50-something year old son that almost never come out of that motor coach.   I knew they wouldn't last long  just had no idea how long "not long" would be.  They gave no reason but they are unhappy people and find fault with everything.  Their neighbor was throwing food out the door, I got that stopped. The man came out glaring at me the other afternoon after pulling in with the truck. 

Not sorry. I need this job, I have to have a place to park the truck.  I have 25 acres, I'm not paying for a place to park when I have ample room on my land.  If he wanted to say something to my face, he could have.  I just assume that this was the last straw for them as they were complaining about the last place they stayed when they came in, they will probably complain about my place at where they're going.  Perhaps they are moving to my new competitor, who knows.  Can't make everyone happy, always have to remember that.  Most people are happy at my place, but some people will find fault with anything and everything. 

I just hope they don't leave a negative review on Google.  Especially if they complain about something park related and never even tried to contact management about it first. 

I have a prospect coming today for the lot that was made available from the worker that left.  He said "I'm new at this" referring to RV'ing.  I didn't get too personal, just figured he decided to live in an RV instead of renting houses or apartments - or - couldn't find anything decent in town at an affordable price.  I mean, an 800 square foot house renting at $1,500 and people are actually paying it?  Crazy.  

Up to Gurdon today, I do hope it is the same as the last trip: get the offload done in about an hour.  Previous trips were hours, just a waste of time.  I don't want detention pay, I want to get in and get out.  That was the point of this job, day trips that didn't take too long.  

I have grass that needs mowing but I dunno if I'm going to do any of that today, it really depends on what time I get back and more importantly, how I feel.  It's not terribly long, it can wait a few more days if need be.  

 Other than that and all that is going on in this world, just cruising along over here.  Need to get ready to leave.

G'day

 Monday early

Coughed all night long, if I got 2 hours of sleep I'd be surprised.  I was laying in bed after a night of sleeplessness and comparing it to the nightmare I experienced in Oregon.  Yup, that's a reminder of the hell I went through?  I'm going to go see a doctor if this continues. The boys are still coughing and have been coughing for a few weeks now.  I do have antibiotics somewhere if I can find what I did with them. Start a Z pack and see what happens. They automatically give me that stuff anyway if I go to see a doctor.

So, it's going to be a long day.  It may very well be that I get the truck loaded, get over the the Love's for fuel and then stop there and take a short nap.  

Day 7 of Keto dieting, I have no clue whether it's working or not.  My scale isn't working and I don't really care about that, it's the visual I am concerned with.  If/when the fat starts coming off, that's when I know it's working.  I don't have any test strips, however, to see if I"m in ketosis and I am interested checking that a couple of times per day.  I ran out many days ago and just hate going to Walmart. They have the style of strips that I like, there are other kinds but I don't like them,  they don't work the same for some reason. 

The college kid - well, it turns out, his friends are staying in the trailer, which I knew, but I didn't know he wasn't home.  They weren't answering the door, I don't know why.  They know I know that they are in there.  I don't really care, I just want my rent.  I found the phone number, tried to call it with no answer. Sent a text message and then many hours later, the kid contacts me.  I'm sorry!  I wasn't looking for an apology and I wasn't coming down on him, I just want/need the rent, please.  So, he sent it via cashapp and I'm good with that. Now for another character that hasn't been to his trailer in weeks.  

Sent him an email, but I'm fixing to simply charge his card if I don't hear back from him soon.  I'll give him another day, he's an actual, working adult who is sent around all over the place fixing damage to railroad tracks after derailments.  You would be surprised how many derailments there are that simply don't make the national news.  It's usually just a local event that is reported locally, unless there is significant damage and/or loss of life, then it makes the national circuit.  

I need another renter.  Just saying.  The dude left a few days ago and now I'm considering running a Facebook boost ad to rent it. Would be nice to get another long termer like him, he was there at least 6 months.  It's worth a few bucks for facebook to get someone in there that is going to stay. 

I was just looking at a person's post in an RV lifestyle group that was complaining about a state park putting up glamping tents in regular RV spots.  I get what she was saying, it's at a popular area in Florida where lots of rv'ers go to spend their winters.  They took out 7 rv spots and put up wood decks and put up a canvas tent.

It was quite a plain setup and no, there are no toilets or sinks in these things, you have to go to the public facility to do that.  There was a rug on the floor and the rest was just plain wood.  I was a bit surprised at the plain-Janeness of the setup and still getting $165 per night for it. I would never be able to get that much out of one of those setups, I'm not in a location for that.  But, I bet I could get $60 or $70 depending on how nice I set it up.  

Not really sure what I want to do next, I just know I need to keep working to get caught up on just basic bills and then start to get ahead. Being off 20 days didn't help anything at all.  It really set me back on getting start on the goal of saving and paying off debt at the same time.  I also just realized today that I didn't get a sign-on bonus. They didn't offer one and I never even thought about it.  Most companies are giving pretty decent bonuses to sign on with them.  Couple thousand anyway.  That would have been the shot in the arm that would have got me well ahead coupled with regular paychecks.  

The only good thing about this job is the hours.  As of lates, it's leave early and home early, leaving ample time to get other stuff done in daylight hours.  I don't know how I got switched to morning runs, but I am liking it.  I'd rather be done early than have to be done late.  I hope that trend continues.  Must be that the other guy would rather start later?? I'm sure he gets his say in all of this.

Well, the time to leave has arrived and I dont even feel tired.  That will likely hit me later on.

G'day

 Uhh, hard to believe I haven't posted since Thursday morning. 

I finished that run, which took 2-1/2 hours to offload.  I think their pipes were clogged up, perhaps other drivers aren't flushing them out when they're done.  

I dunno, but I went back up today to offload again and it took about an hour, which is about what it should take or even faster. But since it's cold, the resin thickens up so a little longer time offloading wouldn't be considered unusual. 2-1/2 hours, however, is ridiculous. 

I have tomorrow/Sunday off and I need it. I finally got coughing cold the boys have. It's all in the lungs, nothing in the head or throat.  It's also quite miserable, especially in cold weather. I wasn't feeling particularly good and considered calling in sick.  But that would throw them off and have to scramble to find someone to go to my park and get the load to take it up there, so I just dealt with it.  

In fact, they haven't sent me anything for this coming week.  The manager was going to give me a run for Monday but - maybe they just can't take that much product up there right now? They still only have one tank operating, there are crews of people going into the empty one and chipping out the dried up resin.  

It's that or they'll send something tomorrow for Monday, I dunno.  

Right now we're fixing to go to the annual Christmas parade which is held down town.  The new brewery opened up, we're going to taste some of the craft beer.  Don't worry, we aren't getting drunk or anything even remotely close to it.  

So, with that, it's actually time to leave.

Have to write something later or wait until tomorrow. 

Thursday - early

It's raining and the forecast shows rain until tonight, going up into Arkansas where I'm going.  So, unless the forecast is wrong - which it could be but the radar seems to show the entire region covered with rain - I will be getting wet today. Yayyyyy!

The realities of rain in 40 and 50 degree weather. 

At least it isn't freezing or in the 30's as it has been for many days. 

The - hopefully - last of being in the dregs financially should be lifting here soon.  Yes, I have a person leaving today, that isn't the biggest deal on the planet as long as no one else is leaving.  It's just the idea of not knowing, at least this guy called yesterday and gave me a head's up.  His rent would have been due tomorrow.  

I will be watching the phone today in case any last minute people call looking for a place. The beginning of the month sometimes does that. This time around? Not at all.  Not so far anyway.

I don't have much time here, I want out of here early to give extra minutes for rain delays and generally going slower in rainy conditions.  Just don't want this to drag out all day long if possible.  

G'day

 So a lady from the yard office calls me earlier.  Real nice person but to the point: we have an issue with your speeding. 

Huh? I keep my speed at or very near speed limits, I don't need tickets and I go through lots of small towns with police always on the lookout.

You went into Bernice at 65mph.  The speed limit was 45.  Yup, I replied, I didn't see the sign until I got to it but immediately slowed down.  She went on a monologue about the police there and how they always have speed traps etc.  Yes, I have been going through there for years, as I explained, I didn't see the sign until I got at it.

It's whatever to me. I have driven as a passenger with 6 different drivers in this company now, they all speed. I'm not too impressed with this company as it stands, if they are going to give me a call/hard time every time something like that happens, I will find a new job. 

Even the previous job hauling cryo never once contacted either me or my manager about speed and they have far more electronic junk in their trucks to monitor their drivers. 

She said, well, you don't normally appear on my list...yes so why bother me? I thought but didn't say, I'll keep my tones civil until it's time to amp it up a little. Not too much, but enough to let them know that I won't be tolerating excessive amounts of phone calls, if it comes to that.  Hopefully not.  The job is as bad as any trucking company job, but at least I'm getting done early for the most part.

Today I was back at my yard at noon thirty. Probably 2:30 ish tomorrow coming back from Gurdon. However, it's going into Arkansas is where they normally throw the monkey wrenches at me and cost me hours more of time than originally anticipated. I feel like if I can put up with that, they can put up with an occasional episode of hitting a speed limit change at a higher rate of speed, they can look and see that I slowed right down.  It doesn't happen often, I can tell ya that.  

I think there are some payments to be collected today,  I will be back over there in a little while to knock on doors if needed.  I dunno, my book is in the vehicle and I am currently in my bedroom.  Just gonna check when I leave for the park. 

I caved last night on the fasting.  Lasted 48 hours.  I was going for 3 days but I ended up getting a headache and feeling weak, I just decided to eat and then I'll try another fast in a week or so. I'm not going to beat myself up over it, 2 days was long enough considering I haven't really done much fasting recently.  It's kind of something you work yourself into.  

Keto - did the last strip test a few minutes ago. I'll have to venture into Walmart to get more of them - I hate going to Walmart. I think my visits there are on average about once to twice a month. Anyway, it showed Trace. As in, very small amount of ketones, but that means I should be full in ketosis within what, say the next several days?  A week at most. I wonder if I was feeling keto flu last night with the headaches and such? 

I'm doing intermittent fasting now along with Keto. I won't eat until noon at the earliest. And then a light meal followed by a heavier dinner and that's about it. I will most likely try another day/2/3 day fast next week, the week following at the latest. The only problem I will face is Christmas is coming up and it's rest assured I will not do the diet on Christmas Day.  I was about to say "if I'm home", but even if I"m working, it isn't all day long unless they throw some kind of garbage at me. 

That's enough. It's getting late - late for me anyway, I am getting up early, I want to be in Gurdon at 9:30 am or earlier. 9:30 is good tho.  I am the only load going up there tomorrow, hopefully that means their tank won't be full. They are still down to one tank, the other one shut down, I"m going to ask them why the one tank is down. I don't know of any reason why they wouldn't want to tell me. The workers at the Lufkin plant guessed the tank needs to be replaced. 

I dunno. I just know it has been shut down since they reopened the plant up there.

And finally, lot 10 is leaving tomorrow for work reassignment. He stayed much longer than he anticipated, I think he was there at least 6 months. He was only going to be there for 2. Wishing he didn't have to go, his lot rent is due on the 1st.  I haven't received any end of month calls in the last few days inquiring about lots.  I did update my Facebook and I might run a short Facebook ad to see if I can get someone back in there. 

If others leave, I will definitely be doing the Facebook ad - or boost they like to call it - for several days.  I most often get at least 1 person moving in out of those ads. If they stay a while, it's worth it.  

Wednesday - early

The 6 year old was making a lot of noise and woke me up out of a deep sleep.

I am quite sick of this boy doing this and I am going to remedy it.  The parents probably aren't going to like it either, but I am going to go in his room at 3 am and wake him up.  I mean, wake him fully up out of a deep sleep.  I will do it every night after he wakes me up that morning. I don't care what anyone thinks of it, he certainly doesn't give a shit about my sleep.   

I mean, it's quite irritating.  You are sound asleep, in a beautiful dream and then voices enter your head and if the voice keeps going, you are jolted awake. And then, you realize it's a child that doesn't care if you're sleeping even tho he's been told and even disciplined about it 100 times in the past.  

I was only sleeping in a little because I don't have to do a washout this morning.  No sense in getting up at 5:45 am to do something I don't need to do.  That was entirely erased.  It was 5:55 when he woke me up. 

Ok enough of that. Not worth raising my blood pressure over, but I am going to remedy this situation.  

And yes, I am going to Lufkin, straight to Lufkin, no washout stop in Nacogdoches. This is the short part of the run at maybe - 190 miles total driving?  If these runs would start working out as they are supposed to, I wouldn't be out so long on many days where some fluke or extenuating circumstance gets poked into it and adds hours, sometimes many hours, to the deal.  I'm not getting paid much more for having to be out there longer, this is a mileage thing with stop pay. Stop pay covers the washout, loading and offloading. Detention pay doesn't kick in until you've been at the plants for 2 hours, which is pretty unfair to the driver, that's too long.  If the washout goes over an hour, that also kicks in detention - which shows you that washouts typically don't take that long.  Maybe 20-30 minutes max if everything goes well.

I am working until 2 weekends from now. The dispatcher simply said "I'm working you until you say something different".  Fine, she already had me scheduled this weekend, I want the next weekend off. I'm not going to start losing all of my weekends and especially Sundays to this job.  In reality, because the work days are short enough, I could work 7 days a week in perpetuity for I would never cross the 70 hour threshold in any given 7 hour stretch of days. 

I don't wonder if they made HOS (Hours of Service) regulations to include mandatory ELD's because the new generation of drivers won't be able to figure out some of this stuff. 70 hours/7 days or 80 hours/8 days, most companies do the 70.  There is 8 hours of driving then 30 minutes off, 11 hours of driving then 10 hours off, 14 hours on duty, 16 hour exception, only valid in adverse weather conditions (and some other situations), there are all kinds of clocks.  When you are doing paper logs, you have to figure out all of that yourself, the ELD's do that for you.

The thing I hate about ELD's is there is no cheating. And yes, I don't a monkey's @$$ about "cheating" government regulations one-size-fits-all applying to millions of drivers. If I'm 30 miles from the yard and I am out of hours, guess what I'm doing? Yup, I'm driving back to the yard, I'm not uselessly pulling over somewhere because the government thinks I'm too tired to drive. These unelected bureaucrats making these decisions need to go jump into an icy cold lake. They need to get people in there that actually understand the trucking industry.  Think of people like Pete Buttigege, who literally has no clue about any of it, not just trucking.  Aviation, trucking, Rail, cargo shipping, not a tidbit of experience, no idea what he's doing and it glaringly shows.

Well whatever. Since it's early I might as well just go. Get there early, maybe they will load me early. If not, I'll sit there and wait, don't really care, I'm awake and want to get this day over with if possible.  

G'day

Home much earlier than expected.

I got out there this morning around 6:30 am, got the truck fired up, did my pre trip stuff and HOS stuff, got on the road.  10 miles up 59, there's a seriously bad accident.  A truck heading southbound had an entire stack of 2X4's come off the trailer and land in oncoming traffic lanes. A car hit it head on - you could tell the car was moving along because the front end of the car was basically gone, there was nothing but a frame there, even the engine had disappeared somewhere.  This was after the fact, Troopers, Sheriff deputies, fire were there, the body or the person was already gone.  I say that because I have no idea if they lived through or not.

Beyond that, I am contacted from dispatch that the load has been moved to a 5:00 pm offload.  Well, I'm already on the clock and already driving.  If I go on duty, I can go back off and erase it.  But once you start driving, you are on the 14 hour clock whether you want to be or not. One caveat is that a manager can erase it, but it's entirely illegal.  If they get caught, I have no idea what the repercussions could be, but I would guess a stiff fine at the very least. 

So, she contacts me back after I stop at a truck stop and tells me to bring it to the yard, they will have a local driver deliver it tonight.  Shortly after leaving the truck stop, I was on a 2 lane highway.  It's 65mph, not a heavy traffic road. I'm going up a small hill when I see a pickup  cresting the hill coming the other direction.  I don't trust drivers anymore, not like I used to. Especially on a 2 lane highway.  He comes around the corner.

And keeps coming around until he's coming straight at me.  I'm watching this and heading off onto the shoulder of the highway, slamming on my brakes and making decisions of what I will do if this ends up having to either get into a crash or go off the side of a steep embankment.  I'm not losing my life for some idiot who is looking at their damn phone instead of the highway ahead of him.  He crosses the yellow lines, still headed directly for me and gets over half way into my lane before he looks up, swerves and just barely misses me.  The car on my tail also swerved out of the way - if they hadn't that truck would have hit them.  

I started thinking about all the signs I seem to be getting that this job and trucking in general are not what God wants from me right now.  I need supplemental income, but is this the way I should be going about it?  What else can I do? Go work at a restaurant? No.  I'm good at forklifts, I wondered about finding a forklift operator job somewhere? Maybe just pray and ask God to lead me to wherever or whatever else I can do for sufficient income to pay bills, expand the park and live my life?  

Up to the yard.  The dispatcher asks me about having trouble with exiting the plant on the tablet? Huh?  Go get your tablet and let's take a look.  I have that tablet down, whether it's actually working or not is a different story. But I do the exit thing and only once have I forgotten, remembered up the road and did it after the fact. She was saying I don't do it at all.

It's the tablet. And her system. It was showing me in Lufkin lmao.  I dunno, I do my job, I do what they expect of me and then some. People don't bother to report broken stuff, I do it all the time.  The trailer I took up there I showed the mechanics things wrong with it that need fixing.  The one with the bad dome seal and a broken cap.  

Left there with the first decent looking trailer I've pulled since getting back from Oregon. Everything works and there is no damage to the sides or rear of the thing.  Originally, I was to go to Gurdon, offload and then go get an empty. I wouldn't have been home for many more hours from now and I was thankful, actually, to be dragged to the yard instead. 

I am working the rest of this week, the weekend and all of next week up until Friday.  She said "I have you working until you say something". Well, I said something. I'll work this weekend, she already had me dispatched for it anyway, but next weekend? I want off. I always remind them I like to go to church on Sundays. 

Left there, back to the Park and now home.  

Day 2 of fasting.  I was doing good until I got home. Taylor had cooked something and I could smell it. I think my sense of smell for food is a bit heightened right now because I haven't eaten since Sunday evening.  I'm trying to get into ketosis quicker, I haven't tested yet but considering how long I have been off Keto? It could be a week or longer.  I won't fast that long, but I do know fasting helps it right along. Plus helps cleanse your body of toxins.  This is a no food fast.  I did have coffee this morning but no creamer and I never put sugar in my coffee.  

I'm quite serious about doing Keto now that I've been fasting a few days and looking at my belly, it's just big.  I've never been this fat in my entire life.  I will do strict keto for quite a while and get this belly back down to a place where I can look and say, ok, that's not that bad. That's going to take a while.  

Tested a few minutes ago with the ketone strips, nothing.  I didn't really expect it to, the first time I started this diet it took 10 days to get into ketosis.  I surely hope it won't take that long this time, really doesn't matter, even not being in ketosis, not eating and then eating light after I do start eating again I will still lose weight anyway. It's just that keto burns fat for energy unlike other diets.  I know how the diet works, I don't have to look up a bunch of stuff, just some new recipes would be nice.  Someone gave me a Keto recipe book a few years ago, I'm going to delve into that thing and try some of that stuff.

But, I have a fresh influx of Keto bread and stuff to make low carb sandwiches.  That and taco meat for low carb tortillas are my go-to for quick meals if I'm in a hurry.  A local chicken place sells baked chicken and of course there are baked chickens available at most grocery stores, already cooked, warmed and waiting just for - me, lol.  

I will probably start eating again tomorrow evening at dinner. Beer brats are on the menu, I can eat those with low carb bread or buns.  I think I have some keto buns in the freezer as it stands.  

Yup, that's my plan unless I find the stamina somewhere to continue on with fasting.  It would be good for all kinds of things inside my body to take a rest and clean out.  

My accounts not looking so rosy atm. Interest rates are going up on credit cards so I am getting hit accordingly. I made my bed, now sleep in it type of deal.  I can't even think about starting to pay that stuff down until I get ahead - which actually should start happening in December, especially if I"m actually going to be working for the next 10 days in a row, a weekend off and hopefully right back at it.  

I have to wonder if they are going to try to make me work on Christmas day.  I worked Thanksgiving, I am going to push for that day off, in fact, a 3 day weekend would be nice. Yeah, dream on I'm sure.  I am assuming I will be working there until I either find something else or - just keep working there.  I am going to start looking online at general jobs hiring - all of it, not just trucking. In fact, screw looking at trucking jobs.  I likely wouldn't switch trucking jobs until I get some experience with these particular types of tankers under my belt.  At least there are many days where I'm home early.

Tomorrow "should" be no different. With a clean trailer that doesn't need washed out, I can drive straight to Lufkin, load and go home.  

It's been cold here, at least my version of it.