Thursday - Afternoon

The Park driveway has turned into a crisis.  I have no choice but to do something about it. It's just a mud pit now what with the recent snow/sleet/freezing rain combo. It was already bad enough before that, but people driving over it has turned it into mud slosh. I'm afraid I'll lose people over it and I have to do something about it. 

To that end, I first called to find out gravel prices.  The prices have gone up yet again. SB2 is now $850 - a year ago or maybe a little more it was $450.  Iron Ore mix is $650.  It's very high prices for rock but they are the cheapest thing around.  

I then texted the guy that built the park. Do you have anything that can blade my driveway? It's in bad shape. "Just my dozer".  Will it work? "It should with my operator".  I must say here that his operator is one of the best I have ever seen.  He's pretty much awesome with that machine. I asked how much, still awaiting a reply.

The logic here is that if it's in the same ball park as having rock delivered, well, there is rock under all of that dirt.  He could both level it and pull up that rock to the top again.  

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Many hours later, still haven't heard a price. The man gives me breaks sometimes, maybe he'll work me a deal here, so I'll wait until tomorrow to try and contact him again about it.  I don't know how busy they are right now anyways beyond their normal septic maintenance stuff what with the weather.  

I dunno, but the only water problem I have had in the park so far is the hose that is going to the motor coach.  She was supposed to turn the water off to it, she didn't and I ended up using warm water so I could turn the valve off.  2 days later, she went out, turned on the valve and when I came this morning? There was a small lake of water out there and a geyser.  Who knows how many hours she had it going like that and yes, I said something to her about it.  Like, this is going to raise my water bill quite a lot.  

This is the tent lady and going on 4 months, I think, of nothing coming from her.  She said 2 weeks ago she was going to find a job, apparently that hasn't materialized. I don't see any answer to this any time soon and I'm going to start getting a bit antsy about this situation.  Is this supposed to go on in perpetuity?  

Enough. Time to kick back, watch a bit of TV and doze off. 

The Problem With Today

 Wednesday  semi-early

I wasn't going to get up this early, but something woke me up and I just said oh well and got out of bed. The dog wanted out as well.  He's a real trooper wanting to go outside in 10 degree weather and tromp around all over the place - that won't last long tho, lol, and he'll be whining at the door. Yes, I let him in, we aren't making the dogs stay outside in this below freezing weather.  

Yes, it's 10 degrees and it feels like 10 degrees.  

So what is the problem with today? Well, to start with, the roads are still covered with this sleet/snow mixture that starts to melt down on the top and the refreezes and has done that several times now. I can't imagine trying to get to my park right now much less down to Nacogdoches to wash out the trailers.  

Second is the fact that the truck refused to start 2 days ago. Batteries didn't have enough juice in them to crank the engine.  I put a charger on it, left and thought I was coming back. But by the time I was going to try to come back, the roads had iced over again and I said no thanks, not worth it.  As it is right now, not worth it. 

Third, if I can even make it down there, how many trucks will be sitting in that washout yard ahead of me, waiting to get cleaned out? How many hours might I have to sit there and wait?  If I drive down there, will I even get the truck loaded today?  

4th.  Is the fuel gelled up in the fuel tanks?  I know they put anti-gel in the fuel at the truckstops, but is it enough and strong enough mixture?  

5th.  Just how long is this day going to be in terms of leaving here and getting back home?  I truly wonder if I even do make it back home today.  If I can't get the truck running? They'll send someone out to jump it.  They will get it going, I can guarantee you that unless the plant in Lufkin says nope, we don't have anything ready because we are shut down.  

6th. The fact that the dispatchers are no pro-active. They don't call the plants, they wait for the plants to call them.  It's kind of dumb.  Who cares since it's the drivers paying the price for their lack of initiative, right? 

So what to do now? I'm going to sit here at least until the sun is beaming and doing something to the ice on the roads. I can't drive my SUV over there in this stuff. It's not a 4 wheel drive and it's got highway slicks for tires on it, not all terrain tires.  Next time I have to replace tires I will definitely be putting something that gets traction in mud, snow, whatever.  In fact, 2 of the tires are getting close to replacement time but guess what? 

There isn't like a huge pool of money laying around to pay for them and I am trying to not put anything else on credit cards.  It is going to have to be an extreme emergency to use credit for anything right now.  

I'm not going to see any big paycheck with all of this time off that's been going on.  The pay period ended on the 15th and I think I had 8 days of work on it.  That's a 15 day pay period with only 8 of them having had worked.  I do have a full park - we'll see how much of any profits are eaten up by excessive electric bills for running people's electric heaters.  These people will and do take advantage of free electricity and eventually, I am going to put a stop to that even if it means people leave the park.  

And yes, I'm still worried about the water situation.  We'll find out about that either later today when things thaw out or, if it doesn't thaw out today, it definitely will tomorrow.  Today is only slated to get up to 40 degrees and then back down to freezing or slightly below 32 but tomorrow? Mid 50's.  

Anyway, I have no idea when to actually try to leave here?  It's almost 9:00 am now, considering trying to get out of this neighborhood. I got stuck the other day trying to climb up the hill, the wheels just spun. I had to back up around 300 feet to get to level ground, turn around and try another route home.  But, if I can make it out of here, apparently the highways are relatively clear. Well, take that back, 59 is doing ok, 43 looks pretty bad, I'd have to go out of my way to get to 59 and take an alternate route down to Nacogodoches.  

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9-1/2 hours later.  The drive over there was a bit white knuckle. Roads were still covered with that sleet/snow mix and has iced over several times now.  I slid a few times, kept it very slow and did, indeed make it. Once I got the truck out onto the Interstate and then the state Highway, it was great.  The roads were clear.  

The visit to the washout was not fun.  There were no other trucks there and there was a reason for it. Their equipment was down. They originally told me it was water frozen in the feeder tank to their machinery that pressurizes the water and also heats it if they so desire.  But that wasn't the case at all. It was their machine that wasn't working. I suspected right away that the pump was simply frozen and they needed to do something to warm it up.

I didn't bother to tell them that, they wouldn't have listened to me anyway.  It took them over 3 hours to get it running. I was the first truck they had tried to even get the stuff up and running for since the winter event took place.  It was nearly 4 hours before I left there.  The plant was great.  They loaded me up quickly, it was after hours and the people running that place after hours are quick and efficient. 

But, it was still a 9-1/2 hour day due to the washout.  

Tomorrow will be another long day. That's because the trailer is out of inspection and needs to be inspected immediately. Who knows how many hours that's going to add to the day.  They are talking having me go to El Dorado to the yard to get it done.  That's easily another 3 hours.  

Anyway, it's getting late and I am beat.  I just knew this day was going to be something like this. 

 Tuesday mid-morning

The roads are icy as a winter's hell.  I just saw pics the police department posted, you can tell there is an icy sheen all over the roads.  I need to go to the park, I never did yesterday because of the same factor: poor driving conditions.  But today? It's far  worse.  The roads looked nothing like what the pics are showing this morning.

It's very simple: the roads everyone was driving yesterday, creating slush and such, then overnight, all of that stuff froze up and now? You have hellish driving conditions, especially for 2 wheel drive vehicles. 

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That was this morning.  Never left the house, the roads were not good and I didn't see any reason to risk going over to the park.  Someone called and said there is water leaking onto the floor in the bathroom. After some questioning I figured that the drain pipe outside must have frozen up and backing up the drip I had going. I asked them to turn the drip off. The shower is still dripping according to them, hopefully that's enough.  I have it dripping out of the hot water faucet, so it's going to keep the hot water line that is outside going inside moving inside of the line and also keep water moving in the main line going into the shed. 

The rest is up to the heaters to keep it warm enough in there to keep the interior lines from freezing up.  the electric bill is going to go way up and it's really starting to eat at me.  Not just because of the shed, but because it's "free electricity".  In a pig's eye it is, it's free to use as much as you want if you aren't paying separate for it.  It's already decided for me to start buying the conversion kits as I can afford them and install them until I have the entire park done.  

At first, I can monitor what each lot is using. People going way over may get a notice, or I will probably end up charging separate to everyone for electric and reducing my monthly rate to make it more appealing. So, cut my monthly rate $50 but guests have to pay for their own electricity.  This move, when I get there and it will be a while, I certainly can't afford 14 of those setups right now, but then again, it's not terribly expensive - will undoubtedly drive out some people who love the taste of running everything for "free" and most parks around are giving one price for everything.  

But I see no point, now, in giving away free electric to people who will abuse it to the point you aren't making that much money.  If I could fill up the park with people paying for their own electric, I would be making so much more money.  I am in competition with other parks, yes. It might be spartan for a while, I don't know. I won't be charging overnighters for electric, that's included in the nightly rate. Just long-term guests.  

It's $39 for the kit and another $40 for the meter, plus tax and delivery.  So I dunno, $90 we'll say, or just say $100.  Installation? I would do that, not paying anyone, I have already looked at some youtube videos, doesn't look like anything particularly difficult.  Just have to shut the power off each time you do it.  But if you have everything in place, it's only maybe 10 minutes shutting off the power.  

What's pushed me to this point is the fact that i am just not making that much money off of this park and I see no reason to continue on with this in this manner.  I didn't get into business to make spartan income, I want to make decent profit off of the investment and that's just not where it's at right now. A full park is great - until you start spending the gross profit on expenses.  It's electricity, water, power, property tax, income tax, maintenance, repairs, upgrades, etc.   Just not seeing it.  It just seems to me that it's more prudent to do this first before thinking about adding another sewer system.  

So, once I get these property taxes paid - which I don't even know when, I have to come up with the money soon or they will start imposing late fees - I will start on this and I will also have to think about summer grass being planted in the Spring. See how that works? Money, money, money for everything.  

One more laundry payment and I will have a couple hundred plus more per month to work with.  After that, it's the shed and after that? There's nothing on the immediate horizon that's going to be paid off.  Get rid of those 2 payments, however, and the only recurring, monthly payment for loans is the mortgage which is sitting at $440 per month, hardly any great expense.  It's my personal expenses racked up doing the stuff I had to do after the cash ran out that's eating me alive.

And will continue to do so until I can figure something out - the best option would be a big loan to pay it all off. Just not going to do that until interest rates come back down. If they ever do?  

Work. Well, I never got over there but I did inform the company today that truck isn't starting.  I also said I have a battery charger on it, so hopefully tomorrow morning I can get it running.  I dunno, but it's not supposed to break the freezing point until noon tomorrow.  You think I want to run on roads in 8 degree weather? You should have seen the pics they were showing of the roads around here this morning....

I called the washout place, the man said he was going to go over there early, but not guaranteeing me that he can do any washouts before noon.  I wonder what kind of crowd is going to be there waiting? No one has been able to get washed out in the last several days now at that facility or any other for that matter that is experiencing these kind of freezing temperatures.  

I texted the dispatcher - she isn't really useful.  She didn't call them or do anything but say "I don't know, it's a go unless they call and say otherwise". What the hell good is that? Never heard of being proactive?  CALL THEM AND FIND OUT, I'm thinking, which is what I did after I got that info from her.  Roads good or bad, why should I drive down there to find out they can't do it until noon and I have to sit there for almost 4 hours?  I texted the manager, who called me - he doesn't like texting - and just discussed the situation and he just said probably don't plan on being there until noon.  

I expect tomorrow is going to be a very long day.  It just is.  

If you want to know what's really weighing on my mind, it's that if these pipes are, indeed, frozen, what's going to happen when they start thawing out? Are some of them busted and just not spewing out water because it's an ice cube inside? I'd like to be there for any kind of event like that.  You know, if it is just getting above freezing at noon, any frozen pipes are going to take a long time to thaw out and then? It's going to get below freezing at night until Sunday.  

I dunno. Hopefully nothing or not too much anyway will have to be repaired and we can all go on living our lives without mother nature throwing curve balls at us.   

 Monday mid-afternoon

I had no choice, I needed to get over to the park, check the water outlets, put one of the cameras on a charger, put the shed faucets on drip, try to start the truck and generally check everything. 

I was lucky on the drip. Someone had flushed the toilet and it suck, the thing was just draining water when I got there.  Lucky because that means it didn't allow the lines to freeze up.  The water heater is outside in this mess, it is probably running continuously, unfortunately.  I could turn it off, I guess, but I'm afraid of the tank freezing up and something happening to it.  

I turned on the other space heater in the shed for it wasn't exactly warm in there.  The truck wouldn't start, so I ran extension cord to it and put it on a battery charger. I tried to turn it on, no go.  So, I figured after 4 or 5 hours of charging and warming up the batteries I will go back over and try again and also put the camera back up, it should be charged by then. It lasts 3 weeks or so on one charge, at least.  

The people that moved into lot 1 were busy installing new flooring? In this weather? Whatever toots their horn. They were the only people I saw. I think a couple other folks were home, the rest of the park was deserted.  I couldn't get water to come out of the valve on the outlet by the septic system.  I dunno, I'm just hoping it doesn't burst for I will have to shut down the water to the entire park.  

The roads were not bad this morning, but now they are slick and icy.  People driving like idiots in town, watched to people spin out and several others spinning their tires.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you slow way down on icy roads if you should be driving on them at all. I had to go to the park, this was a must do thing to deal with everything listed above, but especially getting the heat up in there and dripping the faucets and putting up a sign.  The truck? Oh well, I figure it will start when I go back.  

 Sunday - night

Guess I forgot to post a couple entries.  It's currently snowing outside, very light snow, the street is covered with it, it's melting on the grass for some reason - current actual temp is 21, feels like 11.  This isn't he cold night, btw, that's coming tomorrow night and Tuesday.  

I did get the generator up and running with a couple shots of ether.  Fired up, shut down, gave it a couple more shots, fired up and ran it for about 30 minutes to ensure it was going to stay running. We haven't even had any flickers yet signaling any power outages, I just wanted to be prepared. EPCOT is asking for voluntary reduction in use of electricity - if possible.

Our furnace runs off of natural gas, the electricity used to run the fan is minimal.  Our water heater is also gas.  I have space heaters in my room - because it gets cold in here. Even after they installed a new furnace/AC and put in new ducting, this room still gets either hot or cold depending on the time of year. This is an add on, it was a carport. I assume they didn't put in too much insulation in the walls.  

Realistically, in cold like this, who in their right mind is going to say, yeah, we'll cut back on heat! I imagine most houses around here are running natural gas furnaces anyway, but it's likely there's a lot of space heaters going on as well.  

The space heater in my park laundry room is running non stop now.  It's not keeping it particularly warm in there but it's enough to keep the pipes from freezing.  If it's in the mid 30's or higher, it keeps it warm in there, these temps and weather are an anomaly, won't last forever and just going to hope there aren't going to be any blown lines anywhere either here or at the park.

As of late afternoon today, I had heard nothing from work. I was going to text them but i thought, maybe they updated the tablet. Sure enough, they canceled my Monday and Tuesday load and moved it to Wednesday. We've had freezing rain and sleet today besides the snow and more freezing rain coming, I'm not particularly interested in driving to the grocery store much less all the way down to Nacogdoches and Lufkin in this kind of road conditions.  I'm not glad I can't work, I am glad I don't have to try to deal with it.  

We did go to church today, it was so cold going outside. It was real feel 19 degrees, I'm just not into that anymore.  I'm thinking that if a water lines does blow with it being this cold, I won't be able to fix the it, the glue will never set.  Or who knows, I'll be looking that up online how they do glue repairs in freezing cold weather.  Hopefully won't have to fix anything, I want to be prepared.  

A large number of people in the park are gone. They have gone to family/friends houses to keep warm.  I don't blame them. I'll be over there tomorrow if I can make it to check on everything, especially the shed.  I have another heater in there, if I have to fire it up to warm it up in there, I will do so. In fact, I really should have turned it on today when I was over there. It will be turned on tomorrow, but I won't drive over ther if the roads are too icy. 

I've got 2 more days off. I can do some paperwork at least during those days stuck in the house.  

I'm just resolved at this point to waiting this thing out.  Send it off to wherever it's going and bid it a permanent goodbye.  

It's getting late.  

 A little less painful than I imagined. In fact, it took far longer for the Love's people to do the paperwork than to simply install the filters. Still, the whole thing was less than an hour and the thing fired right up without shutting itself back off, which is what happened the last time the filters were replaced.  I decided to go ahead and fuel up while there and treat myself to Denny's - I don't get to go to Denny's too often. I don't have time to stop at  one at a truckstop on the way back from Lufkin and the nearest one to my house is either the one I went to today or the one over in Longview.

Anyway, that misery over with (I'll find out next load whether it fixed the problem or not, I bobtailed the tractor over there today), I decided to get the generator, fill it with gas and take it home.  I couldn't get it to start, tho the battery was fully charged. Couldn't find my starting fluid, I'm going to have to go buy another can of it.  It's cold and that thing has been setting quite a while.  Plus it was almost completely out of gas so whatever was in there probably went bad in that length of time. It has fresh fuel, but I think just giving it a hit of ether should get it running again.  I got the hard part done, lol, if the power goes out, at least I'm not faced with having to go clear to the property, hook up the trailer, go to the rear of the property, get the generator loaded, take it to a gas station, fill it up, take it home and offload it. 

That's all done and it's sitting in the back yard.  

So yes, I'm fixing to head up to the auto parts store for some ether and probably go to Kroger's for some supplies. I will not be caught red handed without sufficient food stock and we just bought several cases of water yesterday in case (almost guaranteed) the city water lines are affected, read: sprout cracks and they have to not only shut off the water, but also give out boil water notices.  I'd rather be prepared and it turn into a nothing-burger than not be prepared and left scrambling at the last minute. We've done the latter too many times, it's not a good feeling.  

Plus Kroger's has Rao's spaghetti sauce on sale, it's $4.00 off the normal price and no limit. I'll take at least 7 of those if they have them.  It's normally very expensive stuff.  

Many people are leaving the park for the extreme cold event. Long term, they have friends or family nearby they are staying with.  Some are staying and have adequately taken care of their hoses for the most part, have contacted more of them about dealing with this situation adequately so they don't incur damage in their unit. At worst for me, a line could blow and I would just have to replace some parts.  Not a big deal at all, besides having to do it in frigid cold temps outdoors in the wind.  

Oops, I need to contact the college kids. I don't know if they're staying or going home, but I need them to deal with it either way.  It's their parent's rv, it's only a few years old, a burst line can do significant damage to the interior of an rv trailer.  Put that on the list to contact them today.  That should be just about it tho.  

I found out more about the guy that had brain surgery. He had a tumor on his brain and they had to open him up to cut it out. I have no idea the prognosis, whether he's expected to survive it or what. I justknow that the dad who also lives in my park called his neighbor tenant to shut off their water.  I am going to unhook the hose to allow the water to drain out on both of their units.  I dunno why the dad didn't contact their friend that also lives there to do that?  

The tent lady is allegedly trying to go back to work. She complained the other day that she's broke, can't afford anything and needs to get money coming back in.  Her brother - I hate to judge the man - but he's completely useless. He is able bodied, he just has no motivation.  It's amazing he can't get off of his @$$ to go get some kind of income coming in so he can help his sister.  Not to mention they are living in my motorcoach and are using my electricity to heat that thing.  This isn't a freebie for me, but at the same time I am just considering the bible and what Jesus had to say about helping the poor. Still, that man could do something to help the situation.  I dunno, sometimes people just get to the point in life where they don't care about anything anymore. I can only imagine that's where he's at.  

I guess where I'm at with it is that I am helping her, not necessarily him tho he's being helped because of it.  I don't know where they are getting their cigarette money - certainly not from me.  

I guess I'm a bit consumed with this cold weather coming up and getting it dealt with in advance.  The house will be fine, especially if my generator is there and James welder which is also a generator.  We had both running during that almost 7 day power outage last summer. 

So, to that end, I am going to get moving again.  

 Friday - 8:20 am

The storm petered out last night, went all around us. We got 5 minutes of rain and that was that. No tornadoes, no hail, no freezing rain. I'm not complaining, but for all the hype they made about it....

We still have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to go as far as bad weather is concerned.  We'll see.  I was going to go get the generator today, instead, I am forced to take the pink glory to a Love's and see if they can fix it. I'm guessing fuel filters again, our mechanic said the same.  Just strange it's doing it again so soon after replacing them.  Not that I want to go to my property, drop the trailer, drive over there, wait for probably hours and then drive back.....

The cheater wasn't there yesterday at the offload plant.  Thankfully.  Not only that, but offloading was quick, the product was warmer and flowed out much faster.  The problem with the truck started after I left there about 4 miles down the road.  I was intent on just going home, didn't really care at the time, no regrets now.  

I'm fixing on leaving here and going and dealing with this nonsense.  If I don't, I will be stuck doing it on a day when I am assigned a load and will add many hours to any given day.  I am not keen on taking the truck clear up to the yard in El Dorado, especially with it running the way it is.  Like, 10 miles to get to 65 mph and then it just chokes out.  I would just change the damn filters myself but they won't allow it.

It's fairly simple. Take off the 2 filters, get the new ones opened, fill them up with diesel fuel, install them, and then pump the primer on the fuel pump 100 plus times before even trying to start it up.  It will start up, the question is will it stay running?  The mistake these people did last time is that they tried to start it and when it died, they didn't refill the filters. They just kept standing there pushing the primer pump forever.  It took half an hour to get that truck started.  

Anyway, I don't want to fool with it. If something goes foul they'll blame me and I don't need that at all. 

If I can get this done before say 2: 00 pm - I brace myself for long waits at these places, they usually take forever, a day and a half - I can get other stuff done. It is, however, getting quite cold out there. funny that in the middle of the night last night it was almost 70 degrees and now? 

The 4 nighter showed up yesterday, despite my warnings of potential foul weather.  He replied to my email that he's coming anyway, but is it possible to stay longer if necessary?  Of course.  I wouldn't dream of trying to force someone to head out on the highways if the roads are dangerous.  I blocked that space out so that no one else can take it in case he does, indeed, need to stay. 

The forecast for Monday, however, has been consistent showing either a wintry mix or a wintry mix followed by snow.  I mean, if he headed out Sunday after he's done, he might be okay but I have no idea where he's going and how long he would have to be on the road to get there.  He's slated to leave by noon Monday.  But, if the forecast is accurate - which it often times is not - it will be too late. 

I do not own cats, but they visit me regularly, especially the dark brown one, which is currently sitting on my lap. The kitten messes with her quite a bit, sometimes she seeks out humans to shield her from the "abuse", lol.  This cat is perfectly capable of handling herself, I don't know why she allows that kitten to mess with her like that.  

The dog is the dog.  He's sitting there this morning staring at me, yes I got up late and yes, he wanted to go out.  He's a pretty good doggy, just needs a little more training in certain areas.  I'm not a fan of dogs not listening when you tell them to do something.  I have him close to being at an automatic-sit when coming in or out of the house, we're not quite there yet but almost.  I haven't been walking him that much, he runs like crazy with the other dog around the back. He's still skinny as a rail, the dog's bones are still protruding from his sides and when he eats, you'd think he hadn't eaten in a week.  I don't know what else to do about that, he gets plenty of food, trust me on that one.  Twice a day feedings in fact.  

I'm just trying to get my head into this mode of driving over there to get this nonsense taken care of, if you can't tell, I don't want to do this at all. It's just a hassle, won't pay that much but it will save me time whenever I go on my next run. Slated for Monday, the washout place said nope, if the weather forecast is right, we won't be here.  I told them that in Gurdon and they just said "we're going to play it by ear".  Well, don't expect to see any of us up here if we can't get the trailers washed out or if the highways are bad.   They will have enough glue to last them for a few days at least up there.

They have 2 huge tanks and if they are both full I suspect it's enough to keep them busy for a while.  We might have to do a lot of loads to get caught up, meaning they'll bring in people off the road to help out that don't know anything about that plant and aren't told anything.  They just show up, do whatever they're going to do and that's that.  It usually ends up in some sort of small disaster.  To the point the head honcho up there asked me yesterday if I was blowing out the lines when I'm done? Yes, every time. I don't think the problem is with me or the other normal driver, it's everyone else they bring in here.

He'll have to address them all individually.  It's become obvious those drivers don't care about flushing out the line and then pumping air through it.  

Anyway, I guess I best git.  It's almost 9 am and I don't want this dragging out all day long.

G'day

 Tuesday - midday

I had an agenda for today and I wanted to get it done and over with earlier versus later.  With that in mind, I went to the park around 9 am, took notes of everything I needed, headed to Lowe's and they did, indeed, still have quite a large stock of all the items I wanted in order to protect the pipe and also fittings in order to fix any burst pipe.

It is going to get down to 7 degrees on Monday. They keep changing it, lower and lower.  That is definitely hard freeze territory and I'm not taking a chance with it.  I have already started contacting people - please think about putting the faucets on a slow drip to keep your pipes from freezing. 

I had second thoughts about turning off the water supply for that reason.  If you shut off the water supply but people don't winterize their trailers, there is significant chance of damage to the trailers themselves.  I am not going to be held liable for internal problems caused because people didn't have the foresight to deal with it.  

Back to the park and I got busy.  Got the shed done, then did all 16 outlets for the RV's and also the outlet they installed to deal with the septic system whenever they want to clean it out.  It took 3 plus hours to do all of that and I'm done.  I feel good about that, no more worrying about getting a project done that has a sense of immediate urgency attached to it.  I don't know about working, I don't necessarily want to be driving in 7 degree weather. I noted that in Arkansas, it will be down to 2 degrees.

That creates icing conditions on highways and I do not like driving on ice.  If they schedule me for working that day, I am going to be calling them and letting them know about the extreme cold, the potential for black ice and the fact that I am not going to take responsibility in advance for any adverse incidents that may damage their equipment if they do, indeed, insist on driving in such frigid conditions.  

Further, unless the plant has "hot" product flowing into the tanker while loading it, there is a good chance that the product won't even offload in such cold conditions anyway.  It already takes forever to offload when the internal temp is lower than 50 degrees, I can't imagine what it would be like to try that in 2 degree weather.  Yesterday, the other driver showed up, his internal temp was over 60 while mine was sitting at 40.  The colder the product, the longer it takes to push it out via air pressure.

I am not looking forward to Sunday, Monday or Tuesday if any of those days are going to be working days. Well I'm not working Sunday regardless. I worked last Sunday, I will be getting this Sunday off whether they want to give it to me or not.  That was the conditions the manager set out and I will hold them to it.  Those are good days to stay home and let the bad weather pass.  I'd also like to be around in case any of my piping bursts.  I hope it won't, what with all I just did to insulate them, but that's some pretty cold temperatures coming up.  I checked to make sure I have extra 1 inch pipe - I have 20 feet of that and some 3/4 inch as well.  

That's it for today at the park.  It's chilly outside, the wind is blowing heavily, it's currently 44 degrees with the real feel of 38. It feels colder than that, but after a while of working outside I started to warm up, thankfully.  

Processed another credit card payment and need to go dump some cash into the business account at the bank, the only other pressing matters I had and have to attend to today.  

I'm not saying there isn't more to do over there, I just am not going to get involved with it. Specifically, trying to burn the weeds with a propane torch - a large one.  Everything is still quite wet from yesterday's rain, waste of time and energy to try and burn it without letting some time pass for everything to dry out.  There are some lots that need grass mowed - same thing, I normally do not mow wet grass. It just doesn't work right and I see no need to do that today.

Other things as well that I just don't want to work outside in the cold, only if it's something that is pressing.  

Oh, forgot to say they originally had Monday as snow showers. Then they switched it to rain and now they are listing it as a "wintry mix".  I don't know what it takes to be a forecaster, but apparently it is not an exacting science for not only does the forecast constantly change, they are often times very far off with their predictions.  

It is highly likely that Monday, they will cancel school. It's pretty much standard modus operandi in any winter conditions like that that they cancel school here.  It may be that work cancels out for many or most people as well. The road conditions will likely be horrid and not a good idea for people to even drive to the store, much less driving a truck to Arkansas.  I think I may haul my generator over here as well. I am not going to sit in a frigid cold house when we can simply fire up the generators and plug in the space heaters.  I have 2 of them in my room and I have an extra one at the park.  The power goes out around here so frequently, it's definitely a good idea to be prepared in advance.  

 Wednesday - night

 I wrote a full post yesterday and posted it and now find? It didn't post? I think our internet is screwing up and has been screwing up for quite some time now.  

Just a quick reference to the weather forecast. For several days, it showed a 47% - or sticking around that area - chance of snow on Monday.  Today, it disappeared and said nah, fam, we ain't snowing on y'all.  Then, this evening, it reverted back to snowing on Monday, a 31% chance.  I find it humorous the the forecast for the same day constantly changes.  We want it to snow, btw.

Now then, today.  I get to the washout place and there is one of our trucks with the same dude that is constantly cheating, sneaking himself in front of everyone and holding others back that are at -wherever - on time. He didn't care that he was there 6 hours early, I texted the manager who called him and asked him why he's there?  Oh, I didn't see the appointment time, blah blah blah.

Conversation with the manager. No, he does this ALL the time.  He is constantly cutting people and I for one am sick of it.  The manager didn't promise to do anything about it at all.  He is a nice guy but he doesn't have - well anyway, he seems to avoid confrontation.  I think, if I were to take a guess, he doesn't want to lose anyone, so he tries to offend no one.  

This dude set me back 45 minutes, plus, he decided to put oil in his engine, right there, at the rack where they wash out the trailer, after the wash was done and just holding me up for no reason.

I get to the plant. Of course, he didn't wait for me to load first, he was in the bay and stayed in the bay for 2 hours.  Yes, 2 solid hours of waiting on him.  Then it took yet another 2 hours for me to get loaded, meaning sitting at that damned plant for 4 hours.  No thanks.  I won't do this forever.  

I'm having a conversation via text messaging with the dude that trained me, he is just as disgusted with this guy for this guy has also done the same thing to him.  

Now?  I truly hope he shows up uber early.  Why? Because the trainer talked to the head honcho at the plant in Gurdon who doesn't like this other guy anyway because he shows up early and said that's fine, we won't allow him to unload until after the other guy shows up and is done. The other guy being me.  As I said, I truly hope this dude tries this stunt again now that we have an actual plan to stop him in his tracks. 

I stopped him a few weeks ago when he showed up early, bypassed the scales so he could beat me to the rack. What he didn't know is that I don't go through the plant to to the delivery rack, I go back to the highway and drive 50 mph to the other end which is where the rack is at.  He thought he had me beat, I didn't even know it was him when I saw the back end of the trailer and was scratching my head about it.

So we'll see. If this continues to occur at either plant or the washout, I'm going to lay down an ultimatum. I was looking at several jobs yesterday online.  I probably should try to stay with this company at least 6 months to make it look better than get hired and quit.  I was also looking at the reviews for this company again and just thought, these people were right, run, don't walk, from this company.  It truly isn't worth it, there are far better jobs out there in terms of both pay and how any given organization is run.

I'm in no great hurry to find another job...I am definitely looking.  

As for anything after tomorrow? I have a Monday load scheduled, the washout people said nope, if the forecast doesn't change, we won't be opened, we aren't cleaning out trailers in sub freezing weather.  Great, because I don't want to drive in it either, not if it's going to be a "wintry mix".  

It warmed up quite a bit today, into the 60's range and tomorrow it will warm up into the high 60's. I will likely try to get some stuff done at the Park tomorrow after I get back from the run - depending on how long the run takes.  I'd like to mow some grass and perhaps try getting the security system either installed or at least get a good start on it. And maybe go home, get the dog and take him for a walk in the woods.  

Friday marks a high wind day and significant change in the weather.  Sunday is the beginning of the teen's weather going on through Wednesday morning. Unless the Gurdon plant shuts down, they are likely going to want the product shipped up there at some point regardless.  This is the way it works in the trucking industry. Everyone must have their product. I can understand why: they have to shut down an entire, large production plant that has a lot of people working at it if they run out of glue.  I have no idea how they operate or if they just say nope, this isn't worth it, we are shutting down. 

Gurdon's forecast is more ominous in terms of travel. A mix of rain and snow on Sunday, it will never get above freezing on Monday, meaning icy roads.  No thank you. This would make it hazardous for their employees to get to work, not just truck drivers bringing in glue and logs. 

Oh yes, lest I forget.  Tomorrow or maybe I'll wait until Friday, hook up the trailer and drag the generator home.  With any kind of weather in cold temps, we can expect power outages in the region. Whether they hit us or not is unknown, I am going to be prepared for it this time.  It's highly likely there will be a host of water leaks in the underground transmission lines, that simply means we should be stocked up on bottled water.  

What else? My mom has been urging me to get a - living trust I think it's called - for quite some time.  I said yes, I'd love to, but it's quite expensive.  She said she'd pay for it, hence the reason she brought it up.  Ok! And I have yet to do it.  But, she is urging me yet again, I want to get it done, so it's going on the priority list.  It's free to me, I might as well. It's like the best thing you can do to protect your assets both in the here and now and when you die, that it doesn't go to anything but what you said it's going to.

So what's the good news? I dunno, what is going on?  Politics is full of bs.  People are being quite hateful to one another on the political realm.  Trump and his MAGA supporters are a threat to national security! Biden, the "healer" says emphatically once again.  You remember, the dude that said he was going to heal this nation.  He has been one of the most divisive figures in politics, beyond anyone else.

But, life is good.  The now 9 year old got a brand new Fender guitar for his birthday from his grandpa.  I had to pick the thing up and see if I could remember any chords. Only a few- I haven't played guitar in decades.  I looked at a chart and started trying to get my fingers wrapped around it correctly to engage the strings.  Made me want to get a classical guitar and start re-learning it.  I took guitar lessons for a couple of years in my teens.  It was after I gave up on 8 years of clarinet training and become pretty good at it. I've forgotten most music now. 

I would be hopeful I could pick it back up quickly, I guess. I was good at chords and at picking, doing solos and intermediate level of difficulty.  Never really mastered it, I was interested but at the time, I wasn't spending a lot of time practicing. It was lessons and a little practice and that was it.  I kind of think if someone else in the house was learning it, it would motivate me to want to get back in to it.  Maybe.

Well, I guess it's time to pay the electric bill, gag.  Oh, it's not due until the 12th, I'll wait the extra 2 days.  I do that out of probably bad habits formed long ago when I was broke and poor and wouldn't pay bills until the last minute in case something happened and money had to be diverted elsewhere. Or just juggling money around, really, trying to make ends meet. I'm not exactly rich right now, I am making it but it's just making it, nothing much more atm.  Too many bills keep coming up, such as the property taxes due at latest the end of next month and too much debt.  I have one more payment on the washer/dryer, that will free up a few hundred dollars per month. 

It just makes the idea of expanding the park seem out of reach.  Like, almost permanently out of reach. the only real way I can see right now is seriously going back on the road, make the 6 figures for a couple of years and make it happen. Yup, no thanks.  Not going to do it unless I am somehow forced to.

I qualify for a 31k loan, lol.  The interest and fees on the loan will add up to 22k. To borrow 31k, you end up paying 54k? That's flat outrageous and I'm just not going there.  If you take the cc payments and pay it off, you end up with more money per month with the loan payment than with all the cc payments, but the loan goes on so long, it becomes oppressive.  84 months or 60 months.  

Ok enough of this.  I"ve been trying to put expansion stuff out of my mind for atm, it is just fairy dust.  I can't get anything started on it and I don't have the money to do any of it, it's a non-starter, for now at least. Not giving up hope, just facing the reality that I can't do anything about it and no sense in stressing and hyping myself up over things I can't change. 

G'nite. 

Monday - early

Day 7 of consecutive days working, it will be a typical Monday today if the weather continues, which it appears it will. It's raining and slated to rain much of the day both here and up in Gurdon.  So, yes, I will probably get wet.  At least I have an umbrella and definitely taking an extra pair of socks today.  I don't much care to have to be moving around in wet feet, even less so when I get done and have to sit in a truck for 2 hours and 15 minutes driving back.

Tomorrow is off and then back to work Wednesday and Thursday. After that, there isn't anything in the system so I dunno about the weekend excepting I will definitely be wanting Sunday off. 

I don't have much to say this morning, mostly because I am still in a walking daze - I slept hard - and because I am facing the rain in a few minutes.  Just going to make the best of it : )

__________

Somehow, this post didn't get posted. So, here we are Monday night.  Rained most of the day, it was cold in Arkansas, cold wet and raining off and on.  The glue was sitting at 40 degrees Fahrenheit, it took quite a bit of time to get it off the truck.  The driver that trained me showed up - he was over 4 hours early. He didn't realize he had been given the afternoon load.  

I dunno, I just got it done and got out of there. There were hardly any logging trucks, I would guess mud stopping them from accessing the areas where the logging operations are going on to get loaded and bring it in.  The 9 year old basically had a second birthday party today, today being his actual birthday. He wanted go to In Japan, a rather pricey - but excellent - local Japanese food restaurant replete with 6 separate Hibachi grills. You sit at a table around the grills and the chef does all kinds of amazing tricks with his spatulas and throwing food into your mouth. The kids loved it, it was really a great show for everyone.  This is what birthday boy wanted - parents gave it to him for they said " you can go anywhere in town you want to".

Mark - called last night but only let it ring 3 times before hanging up. I was in the other room and ran to get the phone.  I assume he read the two text messages I had sent in response to his message before that.  It's not like I was going to back down on the phone, I have had these conversations with him to his face.  

I don't know what's going on with the guy that had brain surgery, but I think his dad must be there with him for his vehicle has been gone for a while now . The friend is still there and working.  

I was hoping to get a few travelers in on open lots while they are - open, but I guess it's just not traveling season right now.  There was a lake on one of the pull through lots, the water was pooled up a good 40 feet.  The pipe was clogged with growing grass, of all things.  I hadn't noticed it before.  I cleared that out of there and left after I got back.  

The situation with the weather is what has me going now.  It's supposed to snow on Monday with 14 degree low temp.  That's definitely hard freeze territory and I will be getting more pipe insulation tomorrow and getting everything up to snuff.  I will have to put a note at everyone's door - I have decided to leave the water on and hope that people will follow directions and let water drip overnight.  

It's in the camper's own best interests to do so, their un-winterized trailers can also experience significant damage if they don't take steps to mitigate the event.  I will be buying a couple of short sticks of pipe and fittings to deal with any damage that may occur, just in case type of stuff that I don't want to be caught last minute trying to find the parts to fix anything with.  1 inch line, 1 inch fittings, some adapters and fresh primer and glue.  I may also buy buckets to put upside down over every spigot outlet.  

Speaking of water, we are near the end of a days long water problem with the city's transmission lines that sprung several leaks.  Water pressure was down city wide, including our house and the park.  Old lines, they just keep patching them up instead of dealing with the real problem: the entire system needs replaced. We're coming to that 14 degree night and I would be willing to bet money that leaks will pop up all over the city. It happens every single year.  

They cancelled school today because of it.  The kids have been out of school for 19 days I think?  It's time to get back to the books, which thankfully they are tomorrow.   

Well enough I guess.  As with all aircraft disasters, I have been watching the 737 MAX incident with interest.  The latest coming out now is that United started inspections on their fleet of MAX aircraft and found "loose hardware" on the door plugs, referencing the door plug in question that blew out on the Delta aircraft. This doesn't look particularly good for Boeing.  This follows the previous disasters with these particular aircraft and sensor malfunctions that caused 2 of the aircraft to nose dive into the ground, killing everyone on board.  

Any particular plane that gets that much negative attention eventually gets canned, just look at the MD DC-10 and it's fate after several crashes.  Fortunately in this case, no one was killed or severely injured.  

And with that, I bid you a good night. I am going to relax in bed, watch a little tv and doze off. Probably not get up too early tomorrow since I've been doing that 7 days in a row, but I definitely have an agenda that I must get done with making sure that all water outlets in the park are insulation and dealt with.  I will need to leave some water dripping in the shed on the hard freeze night as well, now that I think of it. I do have a heater in the keeping it at a constant 68 degrees, but that doesn't mean the pipes situated right next to metal walls are going to be covered by that heat.  I doubt it.  I can turn the sink water on a drip and that will keep all of it moving along.  I just have that water heater out in the shed I need to think about.  Those pipes are inside structures, but definitely susceptible to the cold.  

It really slipped my mind the shed. There isn't a lot I will have to do, but it needs to be done. 

Okay, I keep going here, lol. I am also considering getting a truckload of driveway gravel delivered and they can just dump it in a heap where I can use it.  Or not?  I dunno, I'm just trying to keep this place running here. I'm facing that property tax bill so the gravel is kind of out of the question, yet the driveway desperately needs it in numerous spots.  

I'm stopping now before I start writing a book.

G'nite. 

Sunday - Early

Woke up out of a deep sleep. I wasn't in a deep sleep earlier in the night and I could easily have spent another 3 or 4 hours in bed.  

Sundays - not work days. Not in my mind anyway.  The only good thing is normally it's 7 - 8 hours and it's over, I'm done by 2:00 pm at the latest and I have the rest of the afternoon and evening to do whatever. 

Mark contact me last night, wants to come back for his firewood. I replied with one word: yup. But he had to take it further so I just dished out another dosage of reality. He was blaming the lady that he cussed out and I wasn't even going to deal with that, this was all done through texting this time.  

Take responsibility, get help with your excessive drinking and stop the victim and manipulation garbage, it gets old. Or something like that.  I didn't bother to read what he wrote back for it was bedtime and I didn't need his poison invading my mind when I'm trying to go to sleep.

His lot has an overnighter in it right now.  Another 4 night stay coming in on Thursday, I think, but that was slated for another pull through lot with people pulling out of there soon.  I would rather the lady behind the shed take the other lot and leave lot 1 open. It's that or she is going to have to pay more for that lot...it's what I do with that one and the one across from it.

And in sad news, one of the welders in my park had some sort of brain trauma which resulted in him having to have brain surgery a few days ago. I don't have the whole scoop on that but I do now know that his trailer is being moved out of there to take it home to wherever in Oklahoma.  He, his father and friend have occupied those 3 spots since January of last year. 

__________

Late afternoon. 

I call the washout and they say they are already there and opened. I get there and there's no one there. I call the number on the door, the normal dude answers (versus whoever answered the phone the first time), said he'd be there in 20 minutes. Get to the plant.  Oh, well there's a truck that just got here that is loading first.  My appointment time was 10:00 am, I was there at 9:56 am even with the holdup at the washout.  

At the inspection station was closed on the way back.

I go talk to the dude that beat Mark up.  He was high as a kite, you could tell just looking at him. I don't really care that much about that, it's the stuff that makes people violent and rowdy - meth/crack or alcohol - that concerns me.  He said Mark and him were drinking, Mark started using the N word (racial slur word) and this guy said, ok, I'm going home.  Mark allegedly grabbed him by the shoulder and that's when the fight broke out.  

I knew they were both drunk, or I guessed that anyway.  Do I take this guy's word at face value? I take the facts of how Mark acts, especially when drunk and then make rational deductions.  Mark speaks, offends someone, the someone gets mad, hits Mark, end of story.  

It's over, Mark is gone, if this dude starts any more trouble, then I might have to think again about letting him stay there. For now? I doubt it.  Mark has a way of getting on your nerves to the point you can get angry with him.  

Mark hasn't replied to the 2, rather-long, texts I sent him this morning after his reply to me.  I don't know if he will.  I also spoke with Tina and then the lady behind the shed. She wants lot 1 - where Mark was. I tell her fine, but that lot costs more money. She agreed so I said fine again.  She wants to move there on Saturday.  I opened up the reservation system for that lot in case I can rent it out for an overnight before then.  This lady is really nice, she is going to have her boyfriend living with her. I haven't seen him yet.

I already feel so much better about the park.  Just getting that man out of there.  Apparently the entire park knows about it, lol.  I also took the 8 going on 9 year old to Gamestop for his birthday present. He couldn't decide. So we go to Walmart. Still couldn't decide. Finally got to the gaming section and he saw a pair of headphones - he's been wanting to talk to the other kids playing for a long time.  So, that's what he got.  

Stopped at Chili's, I wanted to speak to the lady that is connected to this lady at the park.  She said, yes! That's my mother in law. She never connected her mother in law with my park even tho she had said my name.  That's your park?!! Yup.  Well, people stop at her trailer, knock on her door and tell her everything that's going on in there.  Ok folks, that park has some sort of social structure that inevitably arises when you have a bunch of people living fairly close together.  

I looked to see if the guy that had brain surgery's trailer was gone. Not in a hurry to get him out of there, I had just heard they were going to move it back to wherever he lives.  I don't know anything about brain surgery in terms of recovery time or what was wrong with him or what the prognosis is.  Can he go back to work, ever? Or a recovery time? Or is he done?  Must pray for that man, he's much too young to be going through some extreme, life-altering event such as this.  

So, lot 1 and 2 are currently empty. Lot 1 will be taken on Saturday, lot 2 will be kept open for overnight.  I have an ad up on facebook for the "alternate" lot behind the shed, just an ad on my facebook business page.  I will boost it in an ad format once she gets the whole situation taken care of. She is going to haul out her current trailer back there and then haul in a 40 foot - guessing 5th wheel trailer in there.  

The weather forecast changes as frequently as the blades on a ceiling fan go around in circles.  I'm seeing between 21 and 28 degrees for Friday.  The week after are days slated for 20 degrees.  Tuesday is my day off, I'll go to lowe's, hope they have that noodle insulation, buy enough to fix everything back up and get it all covered.  

 I was looking at the camera for several hours this morning - Mark's lot is clearly visible. He was out there with his buddy. They put in the slide outs, unhooked the water hose, sewer line and the electrical line. It was about an hour later and he was gone.  Shortly after that, the lady he was calling a slut, cu** and other lovely names sent a video of it.  

It is a liberating feeling to force him out of there and be rid of him. Whatever the aftermath is with other guests who liked him, it is what it will be. I hated going to the park with him being there, honestly, because the first thing he'd do is come over, start calling me an ass****, a grumpy old man and interrupting anything I tried to say to him.  I had had it out with him numerous times and was done with him as it was, but finding out he was harassing this lady to the point of calling her foul names was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Now I can go over there and not be bothered by this shell of a man. I actually feel sorry for him, for he has no clue, apparently, how abhorrent his behavior is.  I told him, trust me, I told him several times over but it never sunk in.  He had plenty of chances to straighten up his act, he was getting too drunk, too often and that was and is that. He is gone and I will never have him back there. His lot is now available and I already have an overnighter coming in tonight, I had to turn another one away unfortunately, I only have that one lot available for overnighters.  

It may change if Mark was trash talking me as I have heard he was and had an effect on the handful of partiers that liked him.  It won't be shocking to me if, when their rent is due, they up and move to wherever he went. However, his work is far from my park and it isn't likely that people will want to move so far away just to - be near him or spite me or both?  No clue.  I just prepare myself for whatever may come, maybe nothing will happen and everyone will stay. 

As I said in a previous post, I have nothing against anyone else there. I haven't had the kinds of problems with anyone else as I have had with Mark, unless you consider the guy that beat the s*** out of Mark a problem.  I don't think he is, but I haven't had a chance to talk to him. He was home when I got back from my run, he took off before I could go over to his trailer.  I do want to his side of the story, highly unlikely I will do anything, highly likely Mark started it by mouthing off to him in a drunken stupor.

Mark claimed that some of the guys were sick of him, but he doesn't really hang out with those people. I think Mark was shooting off at the mouth yet once again. 

Now then, we had the birthday party today for the 8 turning 9 year old.  Just cause' it's easier to have birthday parties on the weekend and the actual birthday is on Monday - school restarts after 2-1/2 weeks off. Still astounding to me that a school would have kids off that much time for any holiday break.  It's got to be hard for the kids to get their minds back into school mode after having that much time off.  It was fun, lots of cake, money and gifts to the kid and a bunch of people came over to celebrate it. 

As for me, tomorrow - Sunday - work, Monday, work, Tuesday off, Wednesday and Thursday - work and after that? No idea, but I want Sunday off.  If I miss one weekend, I'm getting the next off.  It's non-negotiable and I've let them know this in no uncertain terms.  As for all of these new viewers that showed up out of the blue? Apparently they left as quickly as they showed up, lol.  Kind of strange.  

Tuesday I'm going to have to assess my pipes and get covered back up any of them where the insulation has come off. It will likely be  along day.  Friday slated to be 22 degrees low overnight, that's getting into hard freeze territory.  I'm thinking re-cover the pipes where it's come off and then potentially just get 5 gallon buckets to turn upside down over top of the pipes. They don't stick out of the ground that much, a bucket would help keep the frost off at least.  

What I'm worried about, however, is this polar vortex situation and the idea that the jetstream holding it back over Canada is going to buckle and allow it to move into the US, including southern states.  You get down into single digit territory and you have a real threat of frozen, burst pipes without serious and even drastic measures being taken.  In this case? I would likely turn off the water to the park, drain the water out and not have to worry about it.  Fire it back up the next morning after the temps rise.  I haven't seen any forecast for anything that low - yet - they were saying about a week and a half and we'll see what's going to happen. 

My water meter is down low, at the bottom of the hill, the water in the park would naturally drain back down to it and if there is no water pressure and no water in the pipes, there is nothing to cause the pipes to burst.  

Ok. It's bedtime, up early even tho I know I'm not going to want to work tomorrow.  

 Saturday - early

Weekend working is not my favorite thing to do, small paychecks aren't my favorite either.

On that note, last paycheck was substantially higher than the previous one and has me rethinking the idea of going and finding a new job. If I were to get that kind of pay every paycheck, it's just on the cusp of the minimum amount I want to make at any given company for the hours given to it to perform the tasks the company requires of me.

Today is Gurdon. The temp outside right now is 41 degrees, cold (my version of it anyway), but not near as cold as it has been.  

The man causing the problems is leaving "this weekend". I told him to be out no later than the end of today.  I just want him gone at this point, he has caused too many problems and has broken one of my own personal rules of cussing out ladies,, calling them vile names and acting like a child.  Much of this has to do with his constant drinking problem.  He's bored, he drinks, he opens his mouth, a bunch of shit starts pouring out and then all hell starts breaking loose for those that he dislikes.

He's lucky that dude he followed up to the store didn't bust his ass.  He's also lucky the state of Texas hasn't caught him with the booze considering his status with the state and he's further lucky that this lady that he called a cu** didn't report him, for she was tempted to do so.  If he leaves today, I'll wash my hands of this, hope that I never have to deal with a person like this again. I actually had one a while back something like him, but his drunknenness caused him to lose his job and the problem fixed itself.

This guy was laid off, or so he says.  I don't really believe a word he says now and I really don't want to hear him speaking at all.  The amount of lies that spilled from his mouth along with the vile speech crossed my line a while back when I had it out with him the way he was talking to me.  Yes, I'm still agitated with this situation, it will dissipate once he's gone. Other people in the park like him, that's fine and that's their choice, but his incredibly foul behavior is making life hellish for several people including the ladies in the park and I won't tolerate it. 

I do ask people if they have any felonies on their record that are of a violent nature.  I don't do that just to keep that kind of person out of the park, I also do it because my previous insurance required it. I don't know what the current insurance requires, the insurance agency had to switch companies on me after the last one declared they weren't going to insure RV parks anymore.  I haven't received the paperwork yet from the new one to read over.  

As for this blog, a sudden influx of viewers has come onto this page and I'm wondering who, what and where.  I have never seen Facebook or X or other social media sites giving suggestions for people you may know about their blogs, otherwise I would wonder if park people didn't find this page. Not that it matters, if that's the case, you now know how I feel about this situation and my mind isn't going to be changed about it.  

Regardless, my time is up. I was sitting here watching a Bar Rescue show, lol, some of it is highly entertaining.  Jon Taffer just goes straight for the throat with his criticisms of the owners, usually, of any given bar and how they aren't really running the bar.

Anyway, all the new viewers? have a great day as well as the regulars.

 Friday - early

Slated to work at least through Monday. We'll see how that pans out, as for right now, today is still a go.

Rain, rain, rain.  It's raining moderate to heavy and it's not going to be any fun getting out there in it.  It will likely add time to the run as well, plus it's chilly and yes, I do have an umbrella - in the truck lol\

I tried to set the field on fire yesterday, no go. I poured out a swath of gas onto the weeds, lit it up and poof, the weeds burned up but did not set any of the weeds next to where the gas was, on fire.  It's quite dead and dried out, I was hoping for a little better result than that.  Next will be a weed torch.  This is simply a long line with an attachment for throwing out flames, basically. It attaches to a propane tank.  It's a relatively cheap setup, it won't be something that goes quickly but I'm hopeful if I spend a few days at it, I can get a lot of those weeds burned down.

After the weed torch, if that really doesn't work - it'll be trying the riding mower. I can't see how the torch won't work, I can see if it just takes forever to go through all of that with it. Unless, of course, a good wind is blowing and just blows the entire thing on fire. It doesn't matter right now, the rain will cancel those plans for several days.  Since there is a 98% chance of thunderstorms on Monday? It's going to be a while before I get back to that.  

Interestingly, however, there is a lot of grass growing in the field, all around the weed stalks coming out of the ground.  This is what I wanted out there in the first place - get the weeds out and get grass growing.. Naturally growing grass even better, it should be the type that grows in any weather including hot summers?  There's ground weeds in the mix as well, but still, nothing growing straight up and looking ugly.

Mark - I still haven't seen him come out of that trailer for 3 days now.  I mean, he has a dog, what is he doing with the dog's waste in there?  I start to get concerned that a person is having suicidal thoughts - his life isn't exactly going too great here.  He hasn't ever spoken anything about suicide, it just comes to mind when someone is holing themselves up in a small space and not coming out of it.  He probably doesn't want to move, I'm not sorry, he brought this upon himself.

First it was all the crap he was saying to me.  He goes around calling his "friends" as**oles, grumpy old men and a lot of other things that constantly flow out of his mouth, non-stop.  It got old and I confronted him on it several times.  He would go into the victim and manipulation stage at that point, tell me he'd go into his trailer and not bother anyone ever again. 

Of course, he doesn't do that. Then he got into a fistfight with another person in the park, getting a black eye and then, I find out he was calling the ladies all kinds of vile, vulgar and reprehensible names. That is when it became completely in tolerable and when I called him and let him know his presence is no longer welcome in the park. 

Regardless, it is time to leave and I still need to make a small thermos of coffee to take with me.

G'day

 Wednesday - late

I ended up driving over there a few minutes ago to collect from the newest addition to the park.  Nice guy, really nice doggy, good looking trailer.  We talked for a while and then I did a drive around the park to check things out.  Mark has not come out of his trailer that I have seen since we had it out.  I haven't seen him out of on the camera, either.  If I don't see him out of that trailer tomorrow, I'm going to start asking if anyone has seen him come out of there and if not, I may call the sheriff to do a welfare check.  

The park is full if only temporarily. The overnight lot is booked up until the 15th.  It is all blocked off on the reservation software grid so people can't book a night. I hate to turn overnighters away, but that's the story temporarily. I suspect another guy that came in about 3 weeks ago will leave with Mark. They both hit it off right off the bat.  I don't really care who leaves with him, tho I really don't suspect anyone but perhaps that guy will.  Things seem to work out lately that someone leaves and then it's not too much time and someone else comes in.  

The lady in the trailer behind the shed said she wanted to move her new trailer onto lot 2 on the 14th or the 20th.  Well, unless Mark leaves - and if I have to force the issue I am going to - but if he's not gone by then she is going to have to wait until the 20th.  She never gave me a definitive date after asking her a couple of times, I am going to make the money there is to be made until she takes it.  I'd just as soon keep lot 1 open for overnighters anyway.  It's good for the experience of coming into the park and having a really nice lot to stay at. 

So that's that.  Today was akin to a Monday.  People driving crazy and stupid.  I was in a town about to pass a pickup when another one came zooming up in the slow lane - this is a town mind you, not the open highway and just started moving over.  He would have hit the front of my truck had I not hit the brakes hard.  I could have just let him run into me, but I thought better of that idea.  Let the idiots drive like idiots, I don't want to get entangled with them. It wasn't like I had been sitting in the passing lane for 10 minutes, I had gotten over there to pass the pickup when this other guy did that.  

Another one pulled directly out in front of me from a driveway on a 70mph 2 lane highway where there was a passing lane where they cut me off. Fortunate for the passing lane. And a few others that did some crazy stuff, it's a daily thing but today there was a lot of it.  

The day is done, I have to go to Gurdon in the morning and am scheduled through Monday. But, it seems like every time they try to do this, a load gets canceled or something happens.  I don't really want to work on Sunday, then again, I didn't work for 5 days straight so I will eat it and work it without complaint - if it actually happens.  

And with that? I am off to bed. Tired and feeling it. 

 Tuesday - semi-early

Woke up at 4:00 am, was able to get back to sleep around 5 and then jolted awake for unknown reasons a little after 8:00 am.  That 3 more hours was very good.  I'm not glad my load was cancelled today, at the same time I'm quite happy about sleeping in a little, at least more than the normal 5:45 to get up for work.

I dunno what's on tap today.  It's very cold outside at 28 degrees so I'm in no hurry to go do much of anything. My room was 62 degrees when I woke up and it's still 66 in here with the heaters on. That will slowly change, but to help things along, I fired up the central heat furnace and opened my  bedroom door. Seems like everyone is in a fog this morning even tho no one went to bed late as far as I know. 

No work for me or James, I'm still contemplating setting that field on fire and see what happens.  

My eye was caught earlier with this rather smallish gazebo kits that Wayfair sells. Upon clicking on the link, however, I saw unbelievably high prices for very small setups. I just sat there and scrolled through looking at these things and the ridiculous price tags they have attached to them.  Even in this economy and the high price of wood, I could build one for half those prices or even less. 

It's like I started building my park at the absolute worst time in terms of inflation and prices of everything and since that was completed, the price of everything has continued to go up, skyrocketing to the point I must believe these people that somewhere along the line here, a recession or depression is coming.  I don't think most people can afford to buy things at the inflated prices they are currently sitting at for most everything that is for sale anywhere.  I am definitely not wishing for a depression, however, that would be catastrophic as history shows us and the people who are still alive that went through one in the early period of last century will attest.  

They don't forget such things and it affected their lives for the rest of their lives. How they see things, how they save, spend, everything.  My mother was born a bit after the depression but it definitely affected her life as well. She isn't cheap but she is very frugal.  There is nothing wrong with being frugal and if we end up in a serious recession or depression, I will be forced to take steps I dread to take, such as perhaps bankruptcy.  

However, these price levels can't stay up there forever.  If you set your prices so high for something that they become unobtainable for most people, how long will your business survive with a spartan crowd of consumers actually buying your wares?  

___________

The lady that Mark was calling a fat c*** and other vulgarities contacted me a few minutes ago telling me it was time to pay.  So, I took her card info and then she told me it "looks like Mark is moving out".  Sure enough, after looking on the camera, he has his truck hooked up to the trailer and is packing everything up.  Good riddance.  We had it out yesterday, as stated in a previous post, I mean, we had it out. I wasn't allowing him to bring up his s*** or allowing him to interrupt me.  It got loud in our house because I raised my voice on the phone to overtake him attempting to steer the conversation away from him.  As I have said repeatedly, he is always the victim in everything.  

It's not my fault.  No, a man just gave you a black eye for nothing.  A lady says she can't stand being around him and stopped going over to his place, but "it's not my fault".  Another lady says he's calling her all kinds of vulgar names, "it's not my fault".  Yet another lady said he invited her over to party with her, she said no thanks.  She never got involved with him but obviously she had bad vibes.  He's drinking when he's on parole, that will get him thrown back into prison if he's caught as far as I understand it.  Not my job to watch over him, the state of Texas will be visiting him.

He will drag his woes with him wherever he goes and likely he will be invited to leave other places as well unless they are just trailer trash parks that don't care what anyone does.  He will get drunk, start hell with someone somewhere else and then he'll get contacted by management or someone that is affected by his stupidity and he'll say "it's no my fault".  Well, dude, it's not your fault until it something like this happens.  I wonder if he'll leave negative reviews.

I'm bracing myself for an exodus of his friends he's made in the park.  They can leave, I don't care.  I already have someone moving in today and another one just called saying she wants to move in today if she decides my place is the right one for her.  

However.  I do have to say that I have to wonder if he's really leaving or if he's doing the manipulation crap again.  Like, I'm leaving, poor me, pity me, etc.  I am looking at his place, the truck is definitely hooked up to the trailer and he's loaded the truck bed up with stuff. However, the slide out isn't moved in and I don't see any movement from him.  Still, you have to put stuff away and lock things down when you're moving a trailer, there's a lot to it actually.  

So, I'll sit here and wait to see what happens. It's a premium lot and I charge more for it for it has a huge yard.  I can also use it for overnighters if I so choose, but again, I'm suspicious he's playing mind games again.  Regardless, just like that I have 2 people coming today to move in.  That leave one open lot even with Mark still there if he doesn't leave.  I'm kind of in a money crunch right now, I need finances, the lady that wanted to move her new trailer to a regular spot?  I dunno, hopefully Mark leaves and she can move to lot 5.  If he doesn't leave, my bad, so sorry.  I always hope things will work out because I hate turning people down when I have lots available.  And I've asked her a couple of times now when she thought she was going to get that trailer and she hasn't responded. 

That's sort of when I think, well, she doesn't know and I wonder if she's even going to get a new trailer, somebody will move out and that will take care of that.  However, if Mark is moving out, she isn't getting that lot.  I'll keep that one open for overnighters and give them the "premium treatment".  It's arguably the best lot in the park, tho some think the one across the driveway from it is better. They are both end lots with the huge yards on the passenger side of the trailers where the entrance doors are, meaning they walk out of their trailer and they have this huge space they are living on.  

____________________________

1st long term made it in, they are paying tomorrow. The 2cd long term paid, is showing up later tonight. 

The park is currently full. Mark did not leave.  I did not go over there today, I don't want to deal with him.  I will be over there tomorrow morning to go to work and back over there after I get back.  I really want him out of there now that I have that taste in my mouth, like, get this dude out of here. 

As far as any issues with spot availability, I just checked.  I only had one, 4 day stay coming up Thursday of next week. The Hipcamper that showed up today will be out of here on Sunday.  I have everything blocked out now excepting the days between when the Hipcamper will leave and the 4 day stay shows up.  After that, I have everything blacked out for I don't want people reserving a spot that that lady behind the shed may be taking. I need to talk to her again.  

Hipcamp doesn't pay until after the stay, but the pay is so pitiful, I'm just thinking, huh, didn't expect that. Hipcampers typically stay overnight and leave, not stay 5 nights and then leave.  Just seems like I'm getting ripped off, lol, but I changed the rates on that for the regular lots.  No one is going to be getting away with that again.  I don't get that much traffic from Hipcamp anyway, no loss there if I don't get any more stays out of it.

Just tried to run the card of another guy that's given me permission to run it when it's due. "If the trailer is here, I'm here, run it".  Unfortunately, the card declined for lack of funds.  It's due today, but I think I'll wait and see if he leaves. He wasn't staying there forever, he's rail manager that goes around directing fixes of faulty tracks and train derailments.  This is why you won't see me turning down anyone wanting to come in long term if there is availability but a potential conflict down the line.  I figure it will work itself out. I screwed myself too many times out of long term tenants by telling people I didn't have anything because someone was "coming". 

Then that someone didn't show up and I lose all of it.  With Mark leaving - if he actually is, this wasn't supposed to take place until the end of this month, I'm not returning his money for a variety of reasons, not the least of which violation of several rules. The other is he took my chainsaw bar oil - $20 and used it to start fires and a $25 can of chainsaw gas which he also used to start fires.  After using it, he told me he would be replacing it.  Sure, and pigs are flying, it hasn't been replaced and if he leaves, I'm sure he won't be replacing it.  

Anyway, quite a bit of financial juggling later and my bills are covered. Collected a lot of money, have some to go but we're good for now. 

 Now there are several "experts" saying this year is going to see the beginning of a recession so severe that it may dip into depression level severity. However, their main concerns and investment in the stock market. I am completely out of the stock market now, no 401k's, my cash cow is sitting in the form of 25 acres and an RV park.  Not that I'm making much money off of it - yet.  They are also saying a housing correction to come in the form of home values going down as much as 50%.

I dunno, maybe it will maybe it won't, but "they" have been saying this stuff for several years now.  They have their excuses why they have  missed the mark up until now.  A correction of the severity these people are talking about would have a major positive effect: the price of pretty much everything will come back down to non-ridiculous levels. I'm referring to the price of gasoline, groceries, home goods, etc.  

My washer and dryer have 2 more payments on them and that will be done, freeing that money up.  It will leave a mortgage payment and shed payment on the property beyond the normal, recurring monthly bills.  

I'm going to have to do better this year at managing finances.  I can't afford to be paying property taxes all at once, ie: just finding the money somewhere to pay it. It needs to be like a house payment where the property taxes are factored into the monthly payment.  I've got a couple more months to go before they start adding late fees to it.  

It's all making me rethink my rates and how I am charging people for electricity.  I really think I need to install meters on the pedestals.  Lower the monthly rent rate but make them pay for their own electricity,  all of it.  It might rid the park of people finding greener pastures but it also wouldn't leave me screwed during the summer months with such high electric bills that I am spending much of the park income on that bill alone.  People don't care if they turn the ac down all the way on all of their ac units and basically running everything when they don't have to worry about the electric bill.

I'm not making enough money off of this long term stuff, that's the nuts and bolts of it, the biggest culprit is electricity and also being force to charge lower rates to get people in there.  I need the financial stability to be able to weather a mass exodus after installing such things and then taking however long to get new people in there.  Not to mention those meters would set me back a good chunk of change as well. Money spent is money earned in this case.

It doesn't help the new park is lowballing us all as well.  It's what this area didn't need - another RV park.  

People are shooting off fireworks again tonight.  Please, folks, it's over, we are already in 2024.  The cats don't like it and both dogs are equally aghast at the sound of it.  My dog is particularly unhappy with fireworks.  

 Monday

So I'm sitting here watching TV and get another text (there's been lots of texts today): hey ben, sorry to let you know but your load canceled tomorrow.

A bit of a letdown.  I need to work, I didn't get this job to sit around all the time. Holidays have been fun for the most part, but it's time to get busy.

As for today?  Oh what fun!  I get a text this morning from mr grumpy informing me he's moving out.  I did not respond to him.  This is the 4th time in a month or longer span that he's informed me he's moving out and then goes into the current victimization he's experiencing with whoever at the park.  He's an eternal victim and a half decent manipulator.  Tired of it, I almost texted him back and said goodbye. 

Instead, I just waited. He then went into this lady that is staying at the park and calling her a bi*** and such and that he can't deal with it.  I called him and he went off on her, making all kinds of accusations and saying things I had my doubts about.  In fact, I didn't believe much of what he was telling me based on his demeanor, the way he talks, the vulgarity of his speech, the foulness of his mind, especially when he's been drinking.

So, I got all of that and then texted her.  She called me.  She went into a lengthy list of things he had been saying to her - all of which are easily believable including calling her a fuc**** c*nt (that word I particularly loathe),  following her boyfriend to the store, letting his dog s*** on her lot, cussing her out last night after she said something about them lighting off fireworks IN the doggy park and several other things.  

So, I called him back and confronted him on it, especially the part about calling her a stupid b**** and worse, a fuc**** c*nt.  He admitted he had, 2 sentences later after I started digging into him about it, he said he didn't.  No, you just admitted you called her that, where did you learn that it is acceptable to talk to ladies like that?  I handed him has @$$ on a platter.  I don't need his ilk in the park.  I'm tired of the drama, I'm tired of his mouth, vulgarity, foulness of speech, I'm done with it.  

It's exacerbated with his drinking.  He has been sitting around for quite a while now, laid off, not doing anything so he starts drinking out of boredom.  Then he finds someone to mouth of to. This is why he has a black eye, from the dude that was beating the s*** out of him.

The real, underlying problem is that he has spent time in a federal penitentiary - a thing I didn't find out about until after he moved in - and his mindset is still sitting in the facility.  I've tried to coax him to get that garbage out of his head, I am done trying to be his counselor.  He's paid up through the end of January. 

He then got quiet and then stated he would "keep to himself". Yes, you've TOLD me that SEVERAL times now.  Even if he isn't drunk, he still talks in a way using words that most people don't want to have to listen to on a continual basis.  

I texted her back and told her if he says ANYTHING else to you, let me know.  Like right now let me know.  This guy is the center of problems and I am done with him. 

Last night we stayed up very late, I was up until 2:00 am. Another family came over - 4 of them - and a couple - and we played cards and hung out until midnight, where we set off fireworks and ushered in the New Year.  James and his couple friend stayed up long after the family left and we went to bed.  Like, until 8:00 am this morning he was up, his friends left at 5:00 am lol. 

The oldest boy leaves in the morning with grandma who showed up some 5 hours ago.  The middle one is sick and the youngest is going stir crazy. I took the 2 that aren't sick to the property today to walk off some energy.  Helped a bit I guess.  While we were going the sick one was throwing up but also had a meltdown because he couldn't go with us.  Yeah, sorry, but being sick and it being very cold outside today with a crisp wind giving a pretty good wind chill factor, he needed to stay home.

So what to do tomorrow? I haven't decided yet.  It may be that I will stay home with the kids who are off until next week. They were going to take them to daycare tomorrow since we are all working, but now both James and I have had work canceled.  I am thinking of trying to burn off those weeds tomorrow tho. It's worth a try, just put some gas on some of the weeds to get them going and see what happens.  I'm definitely not going to be paying anyone to do anything right now, I don't have the finances for it.  It's fire, a scythe, or possibly trying to mow it down.  It's what I have available, it's what I can afford - nothing, lol. Nothing more than what I already have anyway.  

If I can't get it done with any of those methods, it just isn't going to happen right now.  Just would love to get them cut down, put down a spartan layer of seed and get something growing in there besides weeds.  And have that grass in there and in place when weed season starts up again.  Just set the spreader at a much lower setting. It's more about the view you see when you come to my park.  You see 2 signs, trees and then a field full of weeds.  Ugly, not a good first impression, I'm tired of it.  

Keto. I've been off 3 days again for the holidays.  Tomorrow I will start back up and then there won't be any excuses to cheat. Christmas is over, New Year's is done, I'm good with going a couple of months without any cheating.  It's not a New Year's resolution, I don't really even do those anymore. I always break them and feel foolish for having had made them.  This is something I've been doing for 3 years now, on and off, I'm ready to get back on it and stay on it for quite a while.  I could see, now that I'm thinking about it, taking my birthday off of it to go get ice cream.  

I guess there's more, but right now I'm a little preoccupied with the situation going on a the park. I didn't sign up to be a counselor, mediator or having to be an adult man's nanny.  Just going to relax, take it easy for the rest of the night and eventually go to sleep.  

 Saturday

So what is the worst that can happen? 

If I use my riding mower to try to cut down the weeds in the front of the property.

Why am I asking this? Because I don't really have $600 to pay someone else to do it and in the past when I did pay someone to come out, they did a terrible job of it and exacted premium prices for it. 

My riding mower is $150 plus the parts I have put on it.  I was reading about it.  The blades can get ruined.  Fine, the blades are already done for.  The housing can get damaged. Fine, it can be fixed.  Anything else? It's got a strong and larger than average engine on it that has lots of power.  

I'm going to try it at least.  If it doesn't work, I'll find that out pretty quickly. Set the speed on the lowest setting and the engine speed on highest and see what happens.  If it takes forever but it does the job - I"m fine with that.  If it doesn't do the job, I have lost nothing.  I think, lol.

The only other cheap method is getting a scythe and doing it by hand.  I don't really think I would last very long trying to do that, that's a lot of work for there are a lot of weeds. I'm tired of looking at the damned weeds, they are a huge eyesore, I have to at least try whatever I can.  

The driveway is also a source of frustration but so far, I have found nothing that I can do to fix it. Not without spending a lot of money anyway.  There is no hand solution to that, it has to be a blade on a machine, I see no other way of fixing it.  

That's where I've been at today, looking up things on youtube, google, etc trying to find some way to rectify these problems without spending a fortune I don't have on it.  

Well, anyway, in a couple of hours we are headed downtown for the first-ever, in-town fireworks display. Or at least, the first I've ever heard about here and everyone else for that matter has said the same thing. Fireworks are not allowed in city limits.  Everyone does fireworks shows outside the city.

It came to my attention today that the owner of the local company pretty much knows everyone, he must have pulled some levers to get it done.  The only drawback to tonight is it's cold and will be down in the mid 40's by the time we get there. The plus side is I was looking up at the roof of the place yesterday and saw one of those tall propane outdoor heaters up there. For the price, yes, we should get at least one of those, lol.

Oh, there is also this thing called "controlled burn" for the weeds.  It is actually a possibility since there isn't really anything that could go up in flames beyond weeds - and 3 telephone poles?  They're stone dead weeds At worst it would hit live trees - small ones - in it's path and doom them. I'm quite fine with that.  I just don't necessarily think it's dense enough to keep a fire going through them.  You think this a bad idea? No, I don't.  I've seen them doing these burns around here.  

Even the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department have instructions on how to do it. Mostly, disc-ed fire stops. Yup. a driveway on one side, a street on the other, the end of the weeds on another and an empty field on the other.  

This is actually by far the best idea I have seen yet.  A little gas on a small area to get it started and then see if it takes off or just peters out.  I might actually try that on New Year's Day. I have 3 days off including today.  I delivered yesterday at Gurdon, fairly painless process tho it was freezing cold with a bone chilling wind factor going.  I got in and out of the truck as little as possible, staying in the truck, running with the heater on.  

They don't care, we run the trucks there all the time.  They want you to be competent in what you're doing and so, as far as identifying problems, I think I have sufficiently done that by now.  The head dude is amenable and easy to get along with.  He might come out and check on any given trip up there, that's his prerogative.  He can check all he wants and frankly, if he sees something wrong, I want to know about it.  So far, they have liked my work and those are the people you really have to make happy. If they are happy, my management will be happy.