Thursday - early

It's days like this when I wish I wasn't working.  I woke up a couple times last night but it was short lived and I was out of it otherwise all night long.  I had the feeling that I could have slept at least a couple of more hours and I would have happily tried.  This never happens on days off.  

I made it 27 minutes yesterday, I was going to keep going but my legs were on fire. I'm referring to brisk walking and just keeping up a fast pace to where I'm breathing heavily.  It's a good walk, but I can only go so long before the legs just say no more, thank you, you need to quit and I do, indeed quit.

I'm still waiting on the motor to show up to fix the dryer and I'm still waiting on the contractor to come up with a quote.  I figure that might take a while, so I'm not going to get too amped up about that yet.  I kind of think once I get that paperwork in to the SBA helper, the requests are going to start pouring in for even more paperwork to be filled out and a lot of information. I may be spending most of my free time trying to come up with all of that info.

Tbe 3rd T Mobile Gateway device showed up a few days ago, I finally got a chance to set it up yesterday.  It's not plug and play. You have to download their app to set it up.  For some reason, I only have 2 bars of service showing on the thing, the last - 3 - have all showed 3 bars.  I got it set up and it is working.  

Yesterday..at the plant in Gurdon...

I show up at the scale, get my paperwork and then the dude says, you're going to have wait time.  It was obvious what he meant and sure enough, when I got over to the delivery shack, there he was again.  Sitting there unloading hours before his offload time and during mine.  I'm not going to say I let it slide this time, I parked the truck, walked over there and asked him curtly: What are you doing here?  Excuse me? Why are you here right now?  It turned into an argument this time and his calloused, selfish statements about his right to show up before I should be showing up got me riled up.  

He said "what law is there saying that I can't be here right now?". Then he looked at his watch, "it's before 10:00 am so I can be here". I decided before this devolved into something much worse to walk away from him, letting him know that I was going to be contacting Mitch.  He said it doesn't matter, go ahead and call Mitch. I texted him and a few hours later I got a call back. He dealt with it and that driver got his @$$ handed to him. I'm not making friends at work beyond the driver trainer.  We talk in text all the time, the rest of these people? Well, the head mechanic is pretty cool I've spent hours talking with him.  But it's like this company draws the people with the worst attitudes.  I suppose being stuck in junk equipment all the time might add to it but it certainly wouldn't be the root cause of it.

I have no idea, but if this dude shows up again trying to butt in line, there is going to be a serious problem now that management has allegedly dealt with him.  I'm not going to just sit there and continue to take it.  Oh, and this dude yesterday? I said what if I just start doing the same thing to you?  He laughed, I get up really early, you can try... well obviously not early enough to be out of my way.  However, the manager has a much different take. They don't want us there before our load times, certainly not 5 hours before it.  The loading plant is our customer and they want us there around the correct time for some sort of statistical purposes.  

Anyway, the kids are swarming around me and so, it's time to get offa here.  My goal today is get the trucking stuff done early if possible, get back to the property, do the 30 minute walk and then get on the tractor for a couple of hours.  I want to work on the front and get as much cleared out as possible.  Just before the kid takes it away again...sporadic I guess at best. 

G'day

 Tuesday mid-afternoon

I slept so poorly last night, it was a real struggle to get out of that truck at the Park this afternoon and get heading towards the trails.  A force sheer will to overcome that fatigue and just get it over with. I can't give into constant excuses. Going a few days without doing it is okay, but then I feel like I'd need to go 4 days in a row after that. Today is day 1.  It is warm and extremely muggy out there.  It isn't pleasant walking conditions on top of the desire to simply go home and relax.  

Social Security sent me a yearly statement of how much I will get, depending on what age I retire.  At 62, it $1,565 and goes up from there to age 70 where it's $2,756.  Ridiculous.  No wonder people complain about it all the time.  I'm sure you can  live off of that kind of money, but it's a pretty frugal existence I would imagine without having anything else saved up.  

This is why I started this RV park and it's why I'm looking at getting into some serious debt and hope it pays off.  But honestly?  Upgrade that park to 40 spaces with a pool, a spa, a doggy park and amenities shed and that property is worth around 600k or more at current market prices.  

When I say serious debt, however, I'm not talking a million dollars. I'm talking putting the property into it, the extra lots which I figure is going to cost around 120k - just guessing off of what they charged me for Phase 1 and factoring in inflation - and a pool setup with spa? No clue. 70k?  That's 250k, which is not a huge loan in my view.  Shouldn't be a huge payment, either, no more than 2 grand per month anyway.  It's kind of a deal breaker, tho, if I can't get a pool and a hot tub in there.  The only alternative would be to put covered parking over many, most or all lots.  That is highly popular I have noticed at the parks that install them. I don't think they look particularly good and they are expensive.  

The ones that look nice start at 6k plus and go well up from there. I've seen a park that just opened up recently, they started installing what looks to be home made version of it, just pipe for the stands and I guess galvanized for the roofs and they have filled that park up. It is extremely ugly looking.  People want the shade is the point and if they are long term, the protection they provide from the elements - sun and rain - eating away at their roofs. 

It isn't likely that I won't have any of them if a loan were to go through.  At least put 10 of them up at an elevated price and see what happens.  

No word from the contractor yet, tho I don't expect I'll get a quote particularly fast.  It's going to be a process and no, I have no guarantees of getting the loan but it's all I have right now.  Waiting for eternity isn't helpful and isn't conducive towards expansion.  If I were to get a higher interest loan, if interest rates ever come down, I can refinance it at some point.  

Here's what I can do if a pool won't be financed: Get a good, used hot tub, poor a cement slab somewhere and at least have that.  I've seen RV parks who have put put above ground pools and built wood decking all around it at a fraction of the cost of a built in pool.  Not as nice, but it's something.  I can get a good used hot tub for around 4 or 5k.  Hook up a water line to it, run the 220 volt and walaah, you have an instant recreational spot.  

Anyway, I have a lot of irons in the fire atm, just waiting on replies.

Meanwhile, I did, indeed, send Allen a text last night. I had had enough. I am not giving away free lot rent for next to no work being done at all.  "So.  You never came back, Renee has been gone quite a while. The grass is getting mowed every several weeks but there is no trimming so the stuff around the driveways is a foot tall.  My agreement was with you, not your kids. Nothing against them but they are highly unmotivated.  So it's up to you. I don't have park hosts and necessary work isn't getting done here. If you want to pay lot rent then I'm fine either way it and I'll go another route".  I guess I missed a word at the end there.

The point was made. You want to keep your situation, do something about this.  And he did.  I came back from the run today and all of the grass was mowed and trimmed. This should be done every week. There was a lot of texting back and forth after that message, of course, but I'm not going into all of that.  I got results and that's what matters.  The kids were saying they need weed killer for the grass.  Yes, but that doesn't preclude the need to trim the damn grass.  What, are you going to just mow the grass and leave the stuff around the pads up?  It looked stupid, I should have taken pics of it.  Like grass half mowed.  What on earth. 

So, I hope to have that under control, but now I'm going to just tell him every week - the grass needs mowed (if it does. indeed, need it).   

One of the other drivers that's been trying to cut in front of me lately finally got it right today. He didn't show up until 11:30 am.  I should have been out of there long before then, but they were transferring product from the kettle to the cooling unit, I had to wait.  Over an hour.

Diet. I'm actually still doing a version of Keto, with a lot less meat and mostly getting rid of as much fats as possible.  I dunno what to tell ya, I was down to 217 and then this morning right back up to 220. Makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.  I didn't eat that much yesterday so I guess I have to rack it up to going 3 days without the walking?  

So, let's see what happens when I walk 5 days in a row.  I just have to do it regardless of what's going on.  I check my weight every morning so maybe after 3 days I'll see it go back down? Or what?  No clue.  My legs are aching from today, they will probably be aching tomorrow as well.

 Monday - 8 am

Amazingly enough, the boy did exactly what he said he would do. He is a person of his word.  I guess I can call him a man, he's only 18, baby face but his work ethic is stellar. Probably better than many men 20 years his elder.  Anyway, he brought the tractor back.  I didn't see when he pulled in, must have been night time and the camera didn't pick it up. I can see the truck and trailer on the lot, I'm hoping he brought the box blade. I need it badly, the driveway is messed up again. 

The driveway basically needs to be paved. Well out of my affordability zone right now, it could use a couple of truckloads of gravel at least.  If the price of gravel was reasonable....I could put cheaper gravel down I guess, it's not my RV park driveway, it's the main driveway that both park guests and gas well employees drive on.

I might look into that since there is a tractor to spread it out with.  

I have the house to myself, hence I'm sort of moving slowly. Like, no kids and no adults either. Everyone went off to work, it's like my Sunday.  Because yes, I did work yesterday, the entire weekend for that  matter. I didn't really want today off, but since I have it...

I have lots to do.  If he brought the box blade I'll get with that today.  I need to fix the drain in the sink in the shed and I have a leaking faucet on one of the lots. Meaning a trip to Lowe's at the very least. The dryer repair guy has been "missing" for 3 days now. I just found his actual text number (it was going through Yelp up until now), if he doesn't reply, I'm going to dispute the charge...

He finally texted back. They didn't have the right motor and he'll have to order it. I just supplied him with the phone number and the reference number to order the part direct from Whirlpool, hence we get the right motor and not have to have a broken machine sitting in there forever.  Ok, so hopefully he does that for people are depending on this stuff.  Some people don't want to go to a laundromat, others just don't drive.  

And then there's this T Mobile fiasco. It's such a long story and just too exasperating to go into all of it.  So, after hours of being on the phone with these people that don't know how their own system works, I have a separate account for the third one and it should be arriving today or tomorrow.  I have 2 of these internet Gateway devices now already that I have to return.  Why? I have no idea why they would just keep sending this stuff out and not just transfer over the info to the device.  The idea that these people can't control their own devices in such a manner... I'm waiting for them to send labels to send them back, this problem wasn't created by me and I refuse to pay for the shipping.  Not that they would do that anyway, but I wouldn't even know where to send them back to...

I skipped walking this weekend. Not because I wanted to, things just getting in the way. I will be trying to do 45 minutes today to at least start getting caught up.  Well...I said I'd do at least 3 days a week, so I hit that goal last week. Then on Friday, I was 11 minutes into it when I saw a trailer pulling in and abandoned the walk.  

I'm losing weight and tho my diet has changed substantially, I would like to think the walking is also helping out.  I'm finally below the 220 mark for the first time in quite a while.  However, the "sacrifices" in choices of food has been pretty tough to deal with.  For example, last night was bacon-ranch pasta.  I couldn't eat any of it. Wonderfully delicious, I can't eat bacon or regular fat filled dressings.  Loaded with both, I had to do a hard pass on it.  

So, I had to pull out some plain old chicken and make some bland food for dinner instead.  

I haven't heard anything more from the loan dude, but then again, he did ask me for a written quote, which I asked of the contractor, who said yes, but that's all I've heard.  There is yet another  RV park going up.  They are popping up all over the place like hotcakes.  They're not down the street and around the corner, they are in/near neighboring towns, they pose a threat to my business.  1st would be travelers and second would be long term who is trying to decide where they want to live.  

I've had problems with this contractor getting stuff done, I may have to find someone else.  I'll just have to contact him again and ask if he got anywhere with a quote for me.  I need a pool quote too, now that I think of it.  I dunno, never thought that this was going to be a fast process.  But, I need to get the steps taken that I need to get done to start walking through all of this. It is very clear to me that I need amenities that make my park stand out plus more spaces to make the park viable.  If I want to add a cabin with 100 amp service, I already have 2 panels on the meters that can do that. 

Anyway, I'm just sitting here drinking my coffee and enjoying a house to myself, but alas, I need to get done with this and get moving.  I hate going to Lowe's but I need 2 separate parts from there.  I haven't watched any politics in a couple of days. Well I take that back, I took a look at the second attempted assassination of Trump.  The tolerant left, right? The left claims the first assassin was a Trump supporter which turned out to be completely false and now they are saying this one is, too.

So, someone who supports someone wants to kill them?  Makes perfect sense to me....The man looks old and somewhat frail - I turned the news on to see what's up, they've got a pic of him sitting in a police cruiser looking out. He'll probably spend the rest of his life in prison, was it worth it?  He's lucky SS didn't kill him, there were shots fired, I just haven't seen the details of it yet - again, I haven't been watching the news that much, it gets old.  The constant mud slinging is sickening and revolting to me and I can only handle so much of it.  

There was something else, tho....Well there's the trip coming up. I need to figure out how I'm going to get that truck legal to drive back here.  I have plenty of time, but I want it dealt with in advance, I don't want to have to be doing that on the trip unless that's the only way it can be done, ie: having to go into AZ MVD and get a temporary trip permit or something.  I certainly don't want to pay registration in AZ and then have to pay it again in Texas. Texas is also going to charge me a buyer's fee, whatever they deem the truck is worth, they assess a purchase fee against it to title it in my name.  Texas is pretty expensive in that regard.  

The trip ate up 24,000 points in cc perks.  I mean, the ticket was over $300 1 way.  I had to leave out of a local airport, driving to Dallas or Fort Worth to fly out would mean I would have to get a ride back there when I return....my friend works in Longview, hopefully when I get back she can just drop me off at the airport. They charge no parking fees at all. The last time, that vehicle sat there 3 weeks before I cam back for it, that was the trip to Oregon and that nightmarish orientation crap.  

Alright, my excuses have run out.  I need to get going.

G'day

 Sunday  mid-afternoon

No church today, it was working today and yesterday. 2cd weekend in a row but I did ask for it.  Oddly, he's given me tomorrow/Monday off. Umm, if I have to work through the weekend, why would I want a weekday off?  I may actually work through next weekend as well. I need to get caught up.

 A man that had great influence on my Christian life passed away yesterday.  I may end up writing an entire post about how my contact with him came about and the entire scenario that unfolded afterwards. But, to shorten it to a few words? I was standing out on the tarmac of a small airport, washing an airplane, listening to a Christian radio station and heard an advertisement about a revival in a tent, come one come all!  There is just too much to this story to even begin to go into it here.  But, I ended up going to that meeting and then several more after it and then? Ended up on the mission field for 5 years.                

Yes, I'll have to simply write an entire post about that and broadcast it as such.  I don't feel like doing that right now, I got up at 5:30 am and just now got home at a little after 3 pm.  

They've done nothing more with the boat, so I'm hoping the other dude will come through and do what he said he'll do. If he doesn't, it's coming home, I'll do what I can.  The other guy predicated his statement with "I'll need 7-10 days" to figure out what's wrong with it.  I'm going to have to contact Allen and inform him if his kids don't step it up with the stuff they are supposed to be doing for free lot rent, he'll have to start paying.  I'd rather have an empty lot than giving away freebies to people who aren't motivated in life.  Their lack is not my problem excepting it's affecting my bottom line.  They aren't paying, I want results or I want them to pay - or I want them gone.  

On another note, I was sitting at a table last night playing a game of Skip Bo.  A married couple were in a bad mood and they were in a bad mood last week as well.  Well, let's focus this: the lady was in a very bad mood last week and last night after asking why she isn't talking, she just gave me a look and wouldn't answer. I found out today that everyone (read: other ladies in the group) is concerned about her, but she won't open up.  I asked her last night how she's doing and it was a very short and very curt, frankly.  I was trying to engage in friendly conversation, I knew this wasn't going anywhere and wouldn't end well if I continued on so I just stopped and let it go.  

But, beyond that, there's one thing I have noticed in social situations that has greatly annoyed me for many decades now.  You can sit there and watch certain individuals doing a lot of talking and everyone is listening to them, but when you throw in a comment about it, it's as if you hadn't spoken a single word.  They turn their heads, act as if you hadn't said anything, don't want to hear anything you have to say - but yet - they want your total attention.

When I start seeing this now, I just stop talking.  If they are that in love with the sound of their own voices, let them babble on and on and on without a care of anyone else. It's disconcerting, however, to have people that you would otherwise hold in high esteem acting out like this.  As if the entire world revolves around them and anything anyone else has to say beyond their circle is irrelevant and useless. 

It's a pinnacle of disrespect that I find obnoxious.  I'm not referring to me only, I have been watching this with whoever, wherever, situations I am involved with and you just see people blankly staring into outer space.  I observed this for an elongated period last night.  2 of them going on and on, but when anyone attempting to say anything, they just ignored them.  Remember, this is a card game, we are all sitting around a table, there are 7 or 8 of us.  

It doesn't have to be any particular situation, however.  It can be anywhere, doing anything.  I sometimes get the urge to confront people on this.  I tend to speak my mind when I want to, but there are constraints.  Not that I don't hear other people out, I just don't use a lot of filters.  I just want to ask them why they are so self-absorbed that they think that they should be the only one/s speaking and everyone else? Shut the hell up.  

If I'm going to give you my attention and respect to hear everything you're saying? You better darn well give me some of that back.  And if you don't, you are going to get met with silence or, if I'm in that mood, I'm going to call you out on it.  You (whoever you are, not anyone in particular) are not God and you don't sit on a throne.  You are just another person like the rest of us. Take yourself off of your self-made throne and get back down to earth where the rest of us are.

As for the loan, nothing yet. As for the dryer, the guy left 2 days ago with the thing completely disassembled on the floor and I have been trying to get a hold of him for 2 days.  I'm going to give him until tomorrow morning to at least reply to me. If he does not, I will call my credit card company, dispute the amount charged and then find someone else.  I would like to hope that even if the thing is disassembled, a pro can still fix it and put it back together.  

The tractor is suppose to "appear" tomorrow morning.  If it does and if he brings the box blade with it, I'm going to spend several hours fixing the driveway once again.  If it doesn't, I have things to repair over there. 

The next Gateway is coming from T Mobile. I have gone through a fair amount of hell with them about this situation and I'm simply not going to go into all of that right now.  Basically, you can only have 2 Gateway internet devices on one account.  When I tried to get one for the Phoenix house some time ago - April - they cancelled the shed gateway without bothering to tell me and I have had nothing but trouble since then.  These people don't know their heads from their - other end.  It was quite an exasperating day yesterday attempting to figure out what's going on with this and finally having someone tell me there's too many devices on the account and that's why.

So why didn't these people tell me this at the get-go?  Why did I have to spend countless hours on the phone? I told them I wanted a separate account for the Arizona house, which they said they would do, but they didn't.  It actually comes down to your SS number and only 2 can be attached to it, not separate addresses some 1,300 miles apart. The policy makes no sense to me. Charge more if you like, I would be happy to pay it over what I'm paying now.

I have started a separate account with my business name and address, which they said they would "happily" do, without giving an explanation of why all of these people before these 2 at the end informed me of this policy.  

What's even more ludicrous is that they can't/won't just use the device you already have.  I have 2 of them now, 2 "extra" Gateway devices because these people somehow can't just transfer it over.  Why? And what am I supposed to do with this junk?  Send them back. Well send me a damn label then?!!  Oh, we didn't do that on the first one? NO.

Oh! And yet another brand new RV park opening up.  About 45 miles away.  This is getting into the insanity department.  There is going to be so much competition, I am either going to have to get that swimming pool and spa or I'm going to have to switch to a mobile home park. Or a mix of RV's and mobile homes.  My dream will not evaporate, it will just take a different look. I don't really want to do a mobile home park for a variety of reasons, but if I have to - I have to.  I do believe a swimming pool and a spa will bring people in from all over the place.  

And I heard back from the insurer: "You may not believe this, but a pool doesn't really add that much to the policy as long as you have all of the safety equipment and measures in place".  Well that's good news. I don't think people are drowning all the time in swimming pools and when they do, it's all over the news.  People do, however, slip and injure themselves, many times out of stupidity, which is why you need to have cameras.  

I could put up a used hot tub for "cheap" and have it going quickly.  A water supply and 220 volt is all I need and that is readily available where I intend on putting it.  Well and a cement pad, preferably.  On that huge lot 1 where most of it is getting used for nothing, I have decided that facilities are going to be put there. What kind of facility, I hadn't determined but a hot tub and a pool would fit in there nicely, I think.  

Well whatever. I've been going all day long and I'm ready to go lay down in my bed and watch something on the tube.

 Friday - early

Went to bed wayyy early last night. And slept fairly decently considering.  

I have heard nothing back from the SBA loan helper and the part for the dryer hasn't arrived. They thought they had one in Shreveport, they had to end up ordering it from Little Rock.  I would like to hope it arrives today and get that thing up and running again.  

I'm working the entire weekend - by choice.  I'm going for another 6 days next month, I need to make up for it somehow and that's only going to happen with working weekends.  I found out the reason Wednesday was off is because they weren't loading anyone on Wednesday.  I thought that strange for the plant in Gurdon has been going through that glue pretty fast.  I go in there and both the giant tanks are usually at least half empty.  Enough room for many more truckloads.  

BTW, Trump is now saying he also wants no tax on overtime.  I can tell ya from a lot of experience that the overtime taxation is outrageous, more than regular tax, I don't know the formula for it, I just know that when you have a lot of it, you think, ohhhh, but the taxes!  Why don't we get rid of all excessive taxes and just force the federal government to "live within it's means"?  Citizens are struggling to make ends meet while the government doesn't give a s*** and spends, spends, spends, creating money literally out of the thin blue air and telling us "we know better than you".  

If there is one tax that needs to go, I have endlessly harped on this particular one, it's property taxes.  Get rid of that and you get rid of at least one way the government can't simply come along and take your land or home.  They'll never get rid of all of those mechanisms, but a person that has paid off their house or land and still be exposed to losing it for high taxes? That is total bs. Find another way to fund schools and counties.  

If Trump is elected, I have to wonder if he'd be able to get those proposals through tho. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime and what was the other one? Democrats are in love with taxation and even citizens will tell you they don't mind pay more.  What...if that's true, go ahead and voluntarily write them a check and leave the rest of us alone.  

We got quite a bit of rain a couple of days ago and it shows already. The grass greened right up.  Looks nice again.  I can't say that I am having much luck getting the offspring of Allen to do much of anything. I hardly ever see them outside of the trailer and I see lots of grass that either needs mowed or trimmed.  

Well, I guess it's time to get ready to get out of here. Work/driving calls.

G'day

 Thursday - early

I would have to say that Trump did somewhat poorly in that debate.  Talking about people eating dogs wasn't particularly helpful. Regardless of whether it's true or not, the internet blew up mocking him saying such things.  As if people don't eat dogs, especially from South America. There are numerous areas in the world where dog meat is considered a delicacy, it is entirely possible - whether it's likely or not is up in the air - that people coming up from there are eating dogs.  I've had dog meat - unknowingly at the time I was eating it - it was quite tasty but had a rather odd texture to it.  

The moderators, especially the dude, were playing fact checkers and also engaging in the debate. Entirely expected, along with the fact they weren't fact checking or debating Harris.  It was completely lopsided and they were forcing Trump to go into the defensive, I'm sure that was their plan and coordinated it with ABC in advance. You don't have to believe me, you just watch the debate and you can see for yourself.  

Trump would have recognized what they were doing early on and he should have just started ignoring their questions at that point and start hammering on Harris communist/socialist policy and calling her out on numerous things most Americans don't agree with, some of which she is now not saying - in order to get elected of course.  If America votes her in, we will get what we asked for and it isn't going to be pretty.

So, I don't really blame Trump for the performance, excepting going off into things that were immaterial and irrelevant.  I think they were getting into his head and that's why he was getting flustered. There were some moments when Trump was also occupying space in harris brain, you could tell by the fluctuations in her voice.  Overall, the debate was a waste of time for it was planned as an attack on Trump and that's what we saw.  

I had yesterday off and I did much of nothing the entire morning. It was raining and it was a very pleasant time to just stay in bed, binge watch a Netflix series I had never heard of about a man who becomes President after the capital building is basically blown to pieces with the president, VP and almost the entirety of Congress as well as SCOTUS inside and killed. It was a great show - until they got more into politics and an obvious anti-gun message.  They could at least try not to be so obvious and blatant about it. So I don't know if I will watch any more of that, we're already deep into ridiculous political times.

I had a guy come over to fix the dryer at the park yesterday.  I had no idea what was wrong with it and it took him quite a while to figure it out.  He said the motor is getting very hot when it's running and that's what's causing it to shut itself off. I was a bit taken back by that. That dryer is only a year old and the motor is already bad in it? It's a $300 price tag, ridiculous for a newish machine.

Anyway, I have to get ready to go, maybe finish this one up later.

G'day

 I've seen enough commentary about the debate. Harris is going to win! Trump is going to win! Whatever.  I have my choice and I decided that long ago, I don't need a debate to help make up my mind.  You are either going to vote for far left, progressive/communist policy or you are going to vote for a more sane approach to governance.  Harris is completely out of her league, as far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't want to vote for her even if I were a democrat.  If she wins and actually enacts some of this absurd nonsense she wants to do, I don't believe these people that installed her are going to be secretly happy about their choice. They might continue to prop her up on the world stage, but behind closed doors they are likely going to find that they aren't terribly happy with her.

4-1/2 hours away from the debate.

Trucking.  One of the other drivers was there, of course, when I arrived. He was supposed to show up at 6am and be out of my way, instead, he didn't show up until almost 8.  It was only 15 minutes waiting, but still, he shouldn't be there at all.  He then informed me he had to take the trailer in because the safety pop-off valve is "leaking".  It's a valve that when a certain level of air pressure is reached, it lifts and start letting it out.  

I checked the plate on his trailer, he pop off is set to 30 psi, he is trying to take it up to 40 psi.  Well, you can cancel your trip to the yard to get it "fixed", they are just going to tell you it's only rated to 30 psi and it's doing it's job precisely the way it was designed to.  He had lots of ruined tires on the trailer as well, now I have found the person that is trashing everything.  I couldn't believe he was pulling that thing with tires like that.  If he were to get pulled over for an inspection, they would simply put that trailer out of service and it wouldn't be moving from there until a tire truck showed up to replace the bad tires, they were that bad. 

On the way home? I got stuck behind an entire house being moved down the highway. It was huge and it was taking up both lanes, there was no way to get around it.  I was thankful I was only a few miles outside of my town, they weren't pulling over to let traffic pass, there was no place for it to pull over.  Got to town and they turned onto the loop, which is my normal route, but no way I was being stuck behind that thing like that, I went through town, with all the lights and still beat it.  The pilot truck had made it through the light, the rest of the caravan had not. This dude was trying to stop traffic even tho the carvan was stuck at the light behind him. Lol, I came up on him and he moved over. 

Walk today.  Was great.  I was on the phone trying to get service for the dryer which has stopped working.  Well, it turns on, runs for about 2 minutes and then turns off.  I was on the phone the entire walking session, then to the shed to get the serial number off of it, then to the grocery store before the phone call was finally over. What was the end result? We don't have authorized Whirlpool technicians in your area.  You'll have to find one for us.  In other words, even tho the thing is under warranty, I highly likely won't be able to use the warranty because whoever I do find to fix it? They aren't going to be "factory authorized".  

I haven't even started looking, that was maybe an hour ago and I am relaxing before delving into the arena of local appliance techs who can actually fix the machine.  I will end up paying for it out of pocket.  Had I known this before purchasing these units, I would have bought a different brand.  

The walking is getting easier on my legs.  I am also feeling better.  Sleep last night was nice too, but that could have just been a one off.  It happens.  We'll see. Just not counting the chickens before they hatch, if I start getting a lot of nights worth of good sleep, then I can start chalking it up to the exercise.  I also went to the store and bought a bunch of low fat/cholesterol stuff, tho I completely forgot to get more salad fixings.

No worries, I am not working tomorrow, I guess it's back to the regular schedule.  No, that isn't the regular schedule, if I want to keep working, I will have to work another Sunday.  Mixed feelings but if the work is available, I'm going to do it.  I need money and it's not happening by not working when I can. 

I did, indeed, receive a reply from the loan specialist. He charges no fees - yes well it is a government funded agency that is there solely to help people fill out SBA loan requests and try to help people get them passed through the system and eventually approved.  He said the pool may be a problem, some banks don't want to lend for that. I haven't responded to him yet, but it's fine, not a deal breaker, but if it is, I want to try and get financing for rental units instead.  

 Tuesday - early

Today is the presidential debate.  I have doubts there will be another one.  I have doubts Harris will say anything of substance about her policy, she will instead either engage in speaking endless words that have no substance or meaning or she will attack Trump. 

If Trump is smart and has a decent memory, he can hammer on her previous statements - not that long ago - about intended policy, she is basically a Marxist Communist in her approach to the economy and all things pertaining to citizens.  Also Trump: Please, please please stop with the name calling. Hammer on policy, your policy versus hers and the outcomes of both sides. That is my personal request to former President Donald Trump who will undoubtedly not see this post, lmao. I think him pounding on her Indian/black ancestry was fairly stupid. 

You aren't going to win over any voters by pulling the race card. Democrats have done that endlessly and people are finally waking up to it.  It serves no useful purpose, as with Democrats who are still calling all of the Republican party a bunch of racists, bigots, misogynists, "white nationalists", "radical right", etc.  I would be considered radical right just for my views, but when you assess people with that label, people start thinking mass murderers, people who will go kill innocent victims in crowds, starting civil wars, violence in other words.  Yeah, I am none of that.  

I would love for us to move into a different era, where you don't have both sides focused on name calling and denigration, this from politicians is what I'm referring to. If politicians would take a different tone, the gullible would follow right along.  I say gullible because there are people on both sides that believe every word that comes out of the mouths of DC mouths and think not for themselves.  If the likes of Pelosi and Biden say "Trump is a threat to our democracy!" you'll see democrats coming out immediately declaring the entire lot of us are a "Threat to democracy!".  Well, honeys, if we were such threats, considering the numbers of us, don't you think whatever we intended to do would have already been done? Again, Pelosi is one of the most divisive figures in any recent times.  

_______

Up to Gurdon, offload, back to the yard, do the 30 minute walk and go home, hopefully.  A bunch of other stuff laced in with that. The dryer isn't working, I need a tech to come out and fix it.  I think it may be a thermal fuse, but who knows?  

Well, my ear is being buzzed by child voices telling me about being grounded.  One of them took a toy to bed, handed it to the other, etc, they aren't supposed to have toys in bed. That doesn't promote sleep.

Speaking of sleep, I actually got 7 hours of beautiful sleep last night.  Amazing how much better I feel when I get a decent amount of quality sleep.  I only woke up once and I went right back to sleep.  If this could only happen every night...

I probably won't hear from the SBA loan help dude for a bit, he was on vacation when he returned my email.  I, uhh, am going to try, I guess.  Unless he says I don't have a chance, then I'll abandon it.  If he says my chances are good, I will have to pray over it.  I have very little debt on the property - but at the same time  - the income isn't enough to live off of. Meager existence I guess, it's just not what I envision, it's not in my plan, my goal is enough and then some to live comfortably, help people, go on an occasional vacation, get the things I need and not worry about money.  

I'm not worried about money now - but that's only because I am working the trucking job. Without that, I would have gone into bankruptcy.  But that wouldn't work with that property, I would have to sell it and pay off my debt.  

Well, about time to get going. I'm watching the news - have been watching very little of it. Trump is apparently advocating for no taxation on SS payments. That will appeal to a large swath of the voting public. If I were a Trump hater and heard that, I would take a second look, lol.  I don't think seniors should pay property taxes, either.  

Anyway, I'm going to probably be listening to the commentators today - on both sides - to see what kind of reality they are currently living in and what kind of things they have to say about tonight's debate.

Other than that?
G'day. 

 

 Monday - afternoon

Ridiculous nonsense, getting very tired of it.  I'm referring to other drivers encroaching on loading/unloading times.  3rd day in a row, 2 different drivers. This dude today showed up at my appointment time.  I was there earlier than that, but there is no way he should have been there at that time. I dunno, I guess I can just do whatever I want, that's what these people do.  I figure the next time I get a late load and I find out that the driver trainer isn't the first load, I'm just going to show up early regardless.  These people can do it, so can I.  I'll force this issue one way or another.  

The SBA loan center specialist did, indeed, reply to my email. He's still doing it, said he needed to know how many sites I have and how many I want to install.  I sent him all the info he asked for and then he said he'd get started on it.  That is, of course, going to mean I will end up having to do a lot of work.  If I can get a big enough loan to cover everything I want to do, I'll go through the hellish nightmare it is to go through the entire process.  I've never done and SBA loan attempt, it appears to be far more information they want than anything I've gone through previously.

I did, indeed, go for the walk today.  According to "experts", you should walk a minimum of 150 minutes per week.  This is something I can work up to.  I walked 3 days last week and now starting over.  This isn't casual walking, it's a very brisk pace that I keep up for the entire walk.  I'm looking for my energy back, if it's available to get.  Trucking doesn't do much exercise, excepting at the delivery plant I'm walking all ove the place.  The RV park does offer some exercise when mowing,, but I haven't been doing that lately.  

Canceled Cox internet at the house.  I knew they would try to keep me, I just told them their prices are completely outrageous, you heaped on me the last few years, I finally found an alternative and good bye.  The do the retention junk, but I cut her off. I do NOT want your services at all, just turn it off, please and thank you.  But, we see that you are paying $227 per month...she just wasn't getting it, but then again, that's her job, keep trying to make offers.  I didn't want to hear their offers.  I don't want to negotiate, please shut off the service. She eventually did and that was the end of that and an exorbitant monthly fee.  

I'm still thinking of getting rid of satellite at this place, or, maybe just drop a bunch of programming so I can keep the few channels that I do watch.  I've dumped $550 worth of payments in the last month and looking for anything else I can drop.  Satellite is fair game, but I will look to see what their cheapest tier costs and if it has the channels I want.  I'm also going to see if I can find cheaper car insurance - but not until after I get back from the trip. I'll have 2 vehicles to insure.  

The boat.  Well, apparently they got motivated after the discussion with the other guest.  They being the "park host" kids, of which at this point I don't consider that I have a park host.  They don't do anything besides mowing grass occasionally.  Allen's adult kids are lazy, unmotivated and stay in bed until at least 10:00 am every day.  Allen's wife hasn't been around - she left again and is gone, she's the one that actually gets stuff done.  Allen never came back like he said he would and I am just going to tell him there is no longer a park host, thanks for what y'all did, please take the sign down, you are welcome to stay but you'll have to pay lot rent.  

Anyway, the top was off of the motor again this afternoon - it was on it this morning.  I don't really care if they don't want to do the work on it, if not, just say so. I'm not going to get upset about it, I"ll just find someone else.  Which I already did anyway.  

Back to SBA loan, I want 30 more spaces, a pool, hot tub and a covered canopy area for get togethers.  Nothing fancy, just need it.  On a separate venture that will have nothing to do with the RV park, I am going to start doing research on opening up a miniature golf park.  I have plenty of room at the front of the property to build one out.  This is not a high dollar type of operation but it can make decent money.  I'd actually like to do goofy golf, where you have weird contraptions set up that look like giant clown heads, light towers, whatever and attract families.  Our town has much of nothing to do in it and the only gaming venue is leaving town. 

He did not have the right idea and I am sure his demise in the town was the way he structured his building and lack of any appealing things in the building. It was drab and tho it did appeal to a certain sector of gamers, it certainly did not have an appeal to families on budgets that want something to do with their kids that doesn't cost a fortune.  I want to search out the costs of building one out and then start looking into financing for it.  Basically the whole front of the property beyond the RV park could be devoted to it with 9 holes, parking, a small building selling tickets and snacks.  At the right entry prices, I am positive I could get enough people coming in there to make it profitable and worthwhile and I am just outside of city limits.  I have had all kinds of thoughts on things I could do that wouldn't cost a lot, the easiest would be truck parking but I have yet to find any property for lease that is right near an Interstate exit.  

I do not want to buy property for truck parking and I do not want a long term lease.  It's 'let's try this at a reasonable price versus everywhere else charging up to $25 for a truck to park overnight and see what happens' type of thing.  Parking only, nothing else but maybe port a jons on the lot and dumpsters for endless trash.  Recruit some food trucks to go in  there whenever they want to, there are a lot of those around here.  

Walking is apparently already having a positive effect. I don't feel as sluggish as I have been, my sleep still isn't good but allegedly walking can help with that as well.  We'll see, I am doing it for the core purpose of lowering my cholesterol and I am sure that is a long term project, so whatever other benefits I get from it, great!  I will be wanting to get cholesterol checked again in 6 months.  I've been eating much better than anything I've been doing up until now.  Being very picky on the foods I eat and learning about low cholesterol foods.  It turns out, my old diet at a younger age was good for cholesterol, ,I only at that way because I was both poor and I didn't want a high fat/salt-sodium diet.  

Oh, btw, I saw a big doe out in the woods today!  I walked up on it, I must have been downwind of it, it didn't see me until I was almost up on it.  It took off like a jet plane, leaping over downed trees and shrubs and moving very quickly.  

 So this dude is at the loading plant yesterday, loading, didn't care about his actual loading time. Just got ahead of me and oh well, eat s*** and die type of attitude. That man is a piece of work, putting it mildly.

I called the dispatch number and told them about it. It's obvious they are not going to do anything about it.  Well we don't want him doing that...yes but he does it all the time...yes we know that....

So today I left a little early high tailed it up there.  I knew he was going to show up early, I envisioned him being there when I arrived.  

I pull into the scales, get on the phone and ask them to come scale me in. Scales aren't open on Sundays, you have to call security to come do it.  A few minutes later, the security person shows up and a few minutes after that, guess who also shows up?  Yup, that dude that doesn't care about loading or unloading times.  

This is the same guy that threatened to kick my @$$ the first time I called dispatch on him about it and he had to pull out of the loading station - they hadn't started on his truck yet.   I mean, I couldn't deal with it, I got out of the truck and glared back at him. Come kick my @$$ right now......

I didn't bother to look at him today.  I got scaled in, drove to the offload shack, got it hooked up, found the supervisor on the floor, signed off on it and then proceeded to offload.  He showed up shortly after I got there, but I was in the building at the time.  He didn't get out and threaten me.  He's older than me, is probably all of 130 pounds, he can get as mad as he wants.

The mentality of drivers that have been in the company for a long time is pretty crazy.  He's not the first attitude-laden person I have encountered.  I don't think very highly of this company as it stands. This nonsense here, and they tolerate it?  I can tell ya that if that dude had gotten there before me today and I had to wait as long as he had to wait for me? I'd call dispatch and tell them since you don't care when he shows up, you won't care when I show up hours early as well.

If you don't think I would do that, you don't know me.  They are tolerating this stuff from this dude. They have set the standard. If one can do it, everyone can do it.  It's the trucking industry, every man for himself, at least in this current atmosphere.  

___________

911 stuff is starting to pop up everywhere.  3 days off.  Memories flush with the reality of what occurred, those of us that are old enough to remember it and old enough at the time it happened to understand what was happening - well it was a day you'll never forget.  Or even the months after with the skies void of aircraft. 

I dunno if I'll go into that again this year, maybe, but today isn't the day.  

But it got me thinking, best get airfare done and over with. One of my credit card points paid for the trip, it's only one way and it's economy and still $313.  That's probably because it's using points, I've found it for much cheaper paying cash. Those points have been sitting there, use them please.  I will try to use the rest of them on that card for a hotel on the way back.  Nothing I will do now, I will figure out where I'll stop when  I get to AZ.  Leaving 10/7, arriving 10/7.  Staying until - probably Friday tho I think I'll have enough visiting done and over with by Thursday, I expect to be taking 6 days off.  

 If I leave Thursday, I could take 5 days off. I dunno, but I just worked through the weekend and likely going to work through the next. I really am asking the manager to keep me going indefinitely here until departure.  I'm far behind with having had 2 weeks off, I have to try and get caught back up.  I see no path forward for that without just working every day.  

I was discussing this with him and he was like, well let's see where your hours are after the current round. Huh?  I'm not paid by the hour, that's not the issue here. He's talking about my 70 hour work week. I can work 7 days a week with this particular job and keep under 70 hours, well under it in fact.  Whatever.  I'm probably  not getting on their good side reporting this driver showing up whenever he feels like it. And frankly, I'm of the mindset to just go ahead and start doing what that driver does. If they don't care about him showing up early, then I shouldn't have a problem doing that either, right?  I'd love to put that to the test.  I'm pretty sure what I'll hear....

 Let's discuss the boat.  These people occupying the trailer are Allen's kids. They are highly unmotivated.  Hence one is living out of a pickup truck and the other floating around all over the place.  I was done with it yesterday. Boat sitting there, them doing nothing more than the initial cleaning. There was a small group of us talking and I said I'm just going to pull it out of there, you apparently don't want to do the work.  This was going to be paid, btw, not "free" work for the lot rent.  

Another dude was standing there that works on motorcycles - 2 cycle stuff in other words - and starts asking all kinds of questions.  It could be the carburetors, especially since it's been sitting for 3 years.  Etc etc etc.  Yup.  I know the carbs are likely the culprit, whatever, I'm taking the boat home.  This conversation went on a while, but this guy said, nope, don't take it home, give me about 7 days and I will figure out what it will need and we can order everything.  

Well, that's better than what I currently have - which is a boat mechanic that .... anyway, he isn't doing the work he said he'd do, I'm shut about him, who knows what's going on inside his head, maybe he's got issues.  The girl as well.  This isn't my problem nor is it my place to judge them, they can do whatever.  

HOWEVER.  The situation with the park?  The free lot rent is going away. I haven't told Allen that yet, he was going to come home "every 2 weeks",  he was supposed to come back last weekend, then this weekend, I have heard nothing from him.  I'm going to contact him when the let rent is due and they can deal with it. Or take the trailer out of there, I'm not going to let this go on forever.  If the other guy doesn't work on the boat either, well, I guess I'm just going to do the work myself at the house - excepting the carb work.  

That's that and this is the end of this entry.  I am going to bed soon, it's getting late.       

 Sunday - early

It is 2 days until the Presidential debate.  I will be watching it for the entertainment value.  I believe Trump is going to rip Harris a new one, she is clueless when it comes to policy and the debates I saw her engaging in when it was up on a stage in 2020? She was abysmal.  Harris has done zero press conferences since she was installed (not elected) by the DNC as the new candidate after they got rid of "sharp as a tack" Biden (those were Harris' words).  I'm sure they are prepping her for this debate and if she has anyone that has any idea what they are doing to help her, they will go after Trump's weaknesses.  

However, she is incapable of delivering any kind of quality performance on the debate stage.  Trump has a tendency to start name calling, but I've seen in recent times he's dumped that trait.  I would like him to continue on with that, not getting into stupid name calling, getting out of the race junk he has been doing with her - that's not helpful.  Whether she's Indian, black or both is irrelevant. Hammer on policy. She is entirely weak on it and her intended policy is garbage that most Americans will reject if they hear it without all the glitz and sparkling mirages they put it up as.  

Anyway, it's Sunday and I'm doing okay. Sleep wasn't great but it wasn't horrible either.  I only made it 20 minutes walking yesterday - my legs started hurting, specifically: my leg muscles are hollering at me to stop it!  No, senior, we are going to keep going and going with it. Y'all down there will get toned up and won't be bothered by it anymore once I work y'all out enough.  That's my lecture to my leg muscles for today, they might as well get used to it.  Now that I've started, I don't want to stop.  I've also started light weight-lifting back up.  My arm isn't hurting as much as it was, my arm muscles have paid for it.  I've lost a lot of muscle mass in the last few years and I just want to try and put at least a little back on.

Couple that with a low fat diet - now anyway.  A complete change from what I was doing, that's for sure.  Keep it going for a few months and hopefully some noticeable changes will occur.  I'm still trying to do Keto, well it's more like a low carb diet for I am cutting out as much fat as I can.  But yes, still doing low carb, just not eating a lot of sugary stuff is most of it and still cutting out potatoes and pasta. For now.  Lots more salad these days as well.

I'm looking at a newish scam for SS, they're trying to tell you that your SS number has been "temporarily suspended", blah blah blah. Scams are pretty easy to spot nowadays, I keep up with it because they keep getting better at it, but it's still fairly obvious in most cases.  Their English is getting better but you can still spot the sentence structure and/or the use of certain words that English speakers wouldn't use in such sentences.  That or just telling you something like this one,, where your SS number is "suspended". Bunk,, that should be an obvious sign right there.  The government might suspend benefits if you are in some sort of trouble with them, but your actual number? 

Got me to thinking about the fact that in only 17 months, I will qualify for SS payments.  I'm not necessarily planning on taking it at 62, then again, I'm not.. not..considering it.  We'll see how this RV park stuff goes.  If I can expand it and keep it full, I won't need SS.  

As for SBA loans, I am just going to bypass all this internet stuff and go back in old email, find the application sent to me from an SBA government center over in Longview that helps people apply for them and see if I can get anywhere with that.  I want to find out what kind of interest rate I can get.  You still have to go through a bank, but the government backs up a certain amount of the loan to "guarantee" it.  So the bank has less exposure to risk. I really want around 175k.  More if I could qualify.  More spots, more amenities, more appeal.  It takes money to do all of that, even if you want to do the work yourself.  Which I don't.  

I'm amping myself up for the prospect of going through all of that again, is the point.  I could pretty much cite the costs of each phase of the project by memory.  I only need 1, maybe 2 days of dozer work.  It's just simple stuff: level it out. 18 grand for septic system plus the sewer line run to each site.  Around 35k worth of electrical junk.  Maybe 7k worth of water line.  At least 30k worth of gravel.  

A pool setup - expensive.  In ground anyway.  Above ground much less but not exactly preferable.  Hot tub much cheaper.  

I don't want to go into all of that right now, I'm fixing to leave here, but I am getting it back into my brain again to get myself excited, motivated and ready for whatever to get that money.  

AS for now? Going to make a sandwich and get out of here.

G'day

 Saturday - early

I've got work keeping me busy until Wednesday. I don't know what then, more work presumably.  Need it, don't want it, will take it.  

Meanwhile, on the "let's save some money" front... I just got billed by Cox cable, $227.  That's just internet, nothing else.  Unbelievable.  This gateway device I just had sent over there is the premium one and it's $60 per month, unlimited data and up to 66 devices can connect to it.  I'm just going to give it another day - well Monday - before I cancel.  Their happiness is important and access to the internet is obviously important, however, spending that much money every month on internet? No thank you.  It's been going on for a while.

Cox at some point a few years ago i think it was, decided that unlimited internet pricing would go up. And up. And up.  I had few options, not really any options tbh.  ATT lines in that neighborhood are totally screwed up and they won't fix them. I know this because I went through hell with them. I eventually had the price knocked down to $17 per month but the service was worthless so I ditched it altogether.  "We have no plans currently to upgrade in your neighborhood".  Once ATT was knocked out, there was no real competition.  

Not until Verizon came out with their version of an internet portal - which I tried at my park and they were charging me $500 per month for.  Then along came T Mobile.  An aggressive campaign to win over customers, they certainly won me over.  Say good bye to Cox cable!

That'll dump over $160 per month in expenses right there.  Then I was discussing the satellite over here.  The kids don't watch it anymore, they are stuck on YouTube and Netflix.  I hardly watch it now, I just want access to certain news channels but it appears I can get them with a cheap subscription to one of various apps I can install on my smart tv.  Any of the old movies or shows I like to watch? I'm just buy the whole seasons of certain western shows and star trek, the rest of it is bunk. The satellite channels show the same movies over and over and over.  

What I really dislike is this thing that both satellite companies do with agreeing to bring the price back down and then after a few months, they add a charge, then another, raise the prices and think I should have to eat it.  Well la de dah.  I am finding I don't even need it now.  I've been weaning myself off of it for it's not cheap and a complete waste of money now that I am hardly watching it. 

I don't know how much the one over here is right now, I think's it in the $130 range, the one in AZ is $177.  Per month, that is. I can't dump the one in Phoenix but I can switch back to Directv and get the price back down to somewhere around $120.  

That's it.  I didn't even turn the news on this morning.  It's the same old stuff. Orange man bad, Walz and Harris for the win! At least if you watch any of the legacy media outlets.  Most media you see on tv is controlled by the left and far left.  Even Fox news is managed by democrats, a thing that if you tell a leftist that, they start laughing as if what you're saying is false.  Well look it up yourself then.  They've slowly been bringing on left and far left commentators and "reporters" to their lineups.  

In all of that, you wonder who is actually telling the whole story and which ones are cutting pieces of truth out that are highly relevant to any given story. I'd say most all of them do that.  We are long and far gone from we report, you decide.  They think we are all too stupid to do that and they should be able to set the narrative for us.

Anyway, I am going to try and get out of the truck after returning today - Lord willing of course - and go back in the woods and do the walking thing again.  It is so much nicer to walk in the woods than traipsing around on concrete or asphalt in the city.  Seriously.  I see the same things over and over going around in huge circles, but I'll take that over people gawking at you wondering what you are doing in "their" neighborhood or if I'm walking a giant Great Dane, wanting to take pics with the dog and all of that stuff.  

With that, I must be out of here. It's 6:10 am and it's almost time to leave. 

G'day

 Friday - early

I dunno what it was, I think the neighbor's dogs, but I woke up at 11:00 pm last night and it was a long, long time before I could finally get back to sleep.  I'm going to have to figure something out here because this is getting ridiculous.  Like, maybe I should just get up and do something until I get sleepy again and then try to go back to sleep.  

I don't care how tired I am after work today, I'm forcing myself to do 25-30 minute walk around the back 15.  It's one full loop, then a smaller loop and then finish a partial full loop.  That's 25 minutes. To make it 30, well, backtrack I guess going the other direction after I get done with the partial small loop.  

Lol, I'm watching Fox News atm and Joel Osteen is coming up.  That guy is a wolf in sheep's clothing and all of conservative/Christian America knows it.  I could go into a list of things, but who cares.  I'm not sure I want to hear anything he has to say, but I might subject myself to a little bit of it to find out why Fox bothered to bring this man on.

As for everything else?  You know, I got onto an SBA list and these people called me.  I don't trust anyone anymore, if YOU are calling ME, I want your full name, business address, etc. THEN< I can look it up and call them back independently.  These scammers have gotten so good at what they do know - which is lying to you to get your personal info - that seems to be the only way to be sure that you aren't being scammed into giving a hoard of personal info that will give them the ability to open accounts in your name and then you being the person responsible for their theft.

So, these people text me, I ask for that info and then they want to call me. No, thank you, I will look up your info later and call you back.  So what do they do? Call me anyway. I reminded the lady of what I had said in the text, she got snippety with me and I unfortunately gave her a huge dose of it right back.  I'm just sick of scammers.  They have infiltrated everything, everywhere. Even local Facebook groups are spammed continuously with their crap.  They try to get you to make a partial payment up front for services they are going to render.  Around here? Constant and I do mean constant ads for air duct cleaning.  I ban one from my group and another pops up. And another, and another. It's daily.  And it's in all the other local groups.  They just don't do a very good job clearing out that stuff. I find that in my group, once you clear out all the scam junk, there isn't even that much legitimate stuff in there.

But, it gives the reader less to have to filter through to get to the real stuff.

Well, I just realized it's almost time to go. Was just getting started lol.

G'day

 Losing track of time here.

Today was easy.  Drive to the washout, got that done quickly, over to the plant, no waiting there either and home by 12:40.  That's a good day.  Remember, time doesn't mean anything towards my pay-unless it's an extended wait at a plant and it's the plant's fault.  If the day takes 6 hours, it pays the same as a day taking 9.  So, the faster it gets over with, the quicker I get home.

Annnnd, someone dumped half a household worth of junk in my dumpster a few days ago.  It is at the point where if that kid doesn't bring that tractor back soon, I"m just going to pay the dumpster service company the $204 it costs for them to move it 100 feet and be done with it.  People wanting to steal the use of my dumpster will actually have to drive into the north end of the RV park to engage in their activity of trespassing and theft of services. Oh how I would love to catch these people in the act.  

The money spent is the money saved. It's not free to me for them to overload my dumpster.  

And now? I am on a cholesterol kick.  Meaning, I have to completely redefine my entire eating habits.  I'm looking at fat and cholesterol counts on everything now.  It isn't something I want to do, it is something I am motivated to do for preservation of life.  I did not go for a walk today, I was plain too tired.  My sleep comes and goes. When it goes, I'm able to work and then go home.  I am promising myself to do it tomorrow regardless of how I feel.  If I completely change my eating habits and couple it with frequent walking, I think it should come down, yes?  

Going to be eating more salads and berries and such and less meat.  

Anyway, I'm winding this day down, it's getting late.  I completely spaced the blogging until just now, figured I could throw down a few words and get ready for bed.

 Tuesday - near 8:00 am

I got a late start today.  Not late for work, it's the second load, I normally get up a couple hours earlier than departure time for the second load. First load? Not even, lol.  I get up, have a few minutes coffee time, make lunch and leave.  I would go ahead and get my butt out of here, but it's a waste of time.  This particular other driver can get himself up early enough to be at the plant loading on Sundays but the rest of the time?  He's at least an hour late.  And there's nothing I can say about it. For example, if I show up there today at 11:30 am, which is pretty much when I want to get there and he's just got there and started unloading? My "official" offload time isn't until 2.  

The other guy is no better.  

They got that boat cleaned up pretty good.  It could use another round of cleaning with a hand scrub-down with degreaser to get some of the stubborn stuff off, but it's not bad.  That thing was dirty, I can attest to that.  When I got back yesterday, they were asking me "what are you doing right now?".  Uhh, I dunno, you tell me?  They needed a ride to the store. Their pickup isn't running and they have no money to fix it.  I took them up there, tho after I did I thought, I should have driven another mile down the road to a better place.  Next time.

When I was leaving, the dude said he's going to start on the motor.  So, hopefully, he got that going.  He's going to take the carbs apart and clean them out - and replace stuff as necessary.  I've been convinced those carburetors need cleaning since I got the boat. None of the people I had working on it would do it, they said it doesn't need it.  How can it not need it when it's been sitting so long? I asked.  I mean, I was paying those people to do the work...

They had tried to put the canopy up.  I said nope, the frame is twisted, hence I have that replacement one over there.  Oh, that's why we can't get it to go all the way open! Lol

Yes, I'm very interested in getting that thing going now that I have started on it.  

For  whatever reason, I have no work tomorrow and then a load going out one Thursday.  I asked the manager to keep me working through next weekend when I saw this.  Like, I don't want any days off.  If you're keeping the other guys going, that's nice, but keep me going as well.  I've had half a mind to start looking for another job as I'm getting tired of constant break downs.  Newer equipment would be nice.  I doubt I'd find much of anything with the hours I have now, tho.  

So, I'm watching news that Biden blaming Netanyahu for the deaths of the hostages that were reported, killed execution style.  This administration is inept and beyond incompetent.  Biden apparently still wants a cease fire.  Are you serious? Do you blame Israel for saying no thanks?  The world that likes the reassurance of a strong America is yearning for the days of the US having a President that has a backbone. The world the likes us pandering to terrorists? They love us right now.  These people that were just murdered - hostages - were just innocent civilians as far as I know it.  

Whatever anyone thinks, that's fine, but I believe from the Word that the Jews are God's chosen people.  That's what it says.  People will argue that "these" people, for some reason, aren't the same.  Israel is the land where Jesus was born, lived, crucified and rose from the dead.   Moses, King David, Samuel, Ezekiel, Elijah, a long list of names of people who were servants of the Lord and did His bidding, that roamed the lands of Israel.  I believe when you are taking a stand against Israel, you are also taking a side against the Lord.  

That's where I'll leave that. 

Ugh.  Took longer than I thought to make lunch and coffee for the road. 

Time to leave.

G'day

 Monday - 8:00 am

Work today, but late load.  Not only that, but I already went down and cleaned out the trailer on the last load that was cancelled, so I don't have to do that today.  Just drive straight to the plant.  Yeah, I can't leave here until around 9:30 at the earliest.  

I was reading a story written by a communist, I mean Californian that had moved to Texas because her brother moved here and she didn't want to be away from him.  I read this hit piece, where this person moved her whole family here but in a huge, leftist run city (Houston) and her dismay with literally everything.  

She complained that "literally every person I met was obsessed with politics".  Huh?  The whole nation is obsessed with politics right now, at least for people who pay attention to it.  There are plenty of people everywhere that don't pay attention to politics, which is alarming for they seem to be living in a bubble of how our country is rapidly changing in ways that they probably wouldn't want it to - if they were paying attention. I know from a personal example that some people don't want to hear about politics at all.  They don't care and a lot of these people also don't vote.  Not even in local elections.  

She lived in Texas all of 4 months and declared how dismal the state is. She proclaimed that she had talked to people that have lived here for 10, 20 and more years who said it took years (italics hers) to adjust to Texas.  I'll agree with that.  It took me a long time to adjust to living out here, but that's because I moved to a small town which is infinitely different type of living than moving from one big city to another.  Once I adapted, I found that I love it here far more than my home state except for one thing: No mountains around here.  The nearest mountain range is hundreds of miles away.  That is one of the few things I miss.  

She even said they went to San Antonio Riverwalk and were "disappointed" with how little there was to do there. ??? Are you serious? The more I read this nonsense, the more suspicious I became.  This is either a Texan that wants Californians to stay in California or more likely, a Californian who has political ties regardless of her declaration that she does not and is trying to stop people from leaving the state by the droves.  There is a mass exodus of business leaving California and even more shutting down  shops, stores, service business, you name it and going bankrupt or out of business entirely.  Or, the large franchise restaurants who are significantly scaling back operations in California, or shutting it down entirely.

Californians brought this upon themselves and are continuing to do so with unbelievable taxation and social issues such as the legislature voting on giving illegals 150k  as down payment money on a house with zero down and zero percent interest.

Fancy that, they are giving people who are here illegally more latitude to live their lives without the "bother" of having to pay for anything than the citizens who live here.  How many of those loans do you suspect will go into default?  Can you imagine the tidal wave of people from around the world, not just south America, who are going to come up through the Mexican border, cross illegally and head straight for Anywhere, California?  It's like a giant welcome sign: Move here! How is California going to pay for this? The last I saw, they were in a budget crisis. Well duhhh, you have multiple policies such as this one that are freebies and giveaways to people who don't do anything and are taxing the last pennies out of business and then, raising the minimum wage to an unsustainable level ... which had immediate effect in restaurants saying no thanks and shutting down operations. 

So the end result of this? Please, go ahead and continue to say how miserable it is living here in Texas!  Arizona went through a few decades of this, Californians coming over in mass volume and then starting to take over politics (the politics this lady says they are disinterested in as a whole in her community) so they can start their insane antics there all over again.  

In case you haven't noticed, communism is rapidly taking over the mentality of most leftists.  They won't admit to it, they might not even see it. For those that do, they explain it away. It will be so much better than - every single historical account of it you can find - and none of that stuff will happen!  Imagine leftists getting control of the House, Senate and WH this election year.  They're going to substantially alter the make-up of the Supreme Court, which they currently hate because there are more conservative justices than communist on it,  They have several ideas, including impeaching 2 of the most prominent conservative justices, putting in term limits, enacting some sort of code of ethics determined by them (there is a reason we have a separation of powers), likely expand the size of the court (numbers of justices) so they can install a vast majority of leftists and basically, be able to bypass the Constitution. 

They desperately want to do away with semi-automatic weapons. That is what Biden said, it wasn't just "assault" weapons, it expanded to all semi-auto weapons.  If they can control the SCOTUS, they can control the country. It's the last "wild card" left that they cannot control and therefore they despise it.  Imagine a panel of activist judges just ruling however they feel and dismissing the intent or even the wording of the Constitution?

___________

I went off into that because of the direction this nation is turning with people that are completely oblivious to what is going on around them. That lady's version of it is exactly what I'm talking about.  The results of Stalin, Marx and other notable Socialists/communists be damned, they "know" it will never turn out that way. But, we already see the left wanting to censor the right.  Robert Reich wants Elon Musk arrested and imprisoned simply because he took over Twitter and turned it into a platform where people can speak their minds. We found out from Zuckerberg recently that the Biden administration did, indeed, pressure Facebook to censor certain things coming from the right about Covid and the Hunter laptop story.  

I could go on, I paid close attention to the Obama, Trump and Biden years.  Trump is no patron saint, he's more near the middle than anything, but at least there's some patriotism and a love of flag and country in him. I dunno about God, he says things that allude to God but I think he needs Jesus.  I think he has a pew-warmer version of religion, not a personal relationship with Jesus. I'm not judging him, he just needs to "see the light", the real light.  

The end result for me? I am preparing myself for a Harris win.  If she wins, we are in for a hell of a ride - a nightmarish ride IMO - but a ride never-the-less.  There is a reason they won't allow her to speak about her policy, if she starts explaining it to her constituency, they might have second thoughts about it.  I'm also preparing myself for the possibility of Congress being completely controlled by lefitsts.  They are targeting those evil rich people, they must pay their "fair share", whatever that is in their minds.  Go ahead and tax the earth out of them and see what happens.  It won't have the results they think it will. 

AS for today? Well, I'm headed to work soon. I'm contemplating getting pretty stringent on basic rules at the park that people are completely ignoring.  There are hundreds of cigarette butts laying around all over the place, I got tired of picking them up.  I am going to start that up again but this time? I'm going to tell every last person there that if they continue to just throw cigarette butts all over the place? They can leave.  I'm tired of it, it is very unsightly and it's going to stop one way or the other. A few days ago, a chain smoker was standing there talking to me, he got done with his cigarette and just flipped it away.  

Actually, I think I will just post a huge sign about it. Not sure of the wording yet but I'll think of it and just print one for temporary use.   Found a trailer leaking water, contacted that guy about it.  Noticed several lots that need mowing that aren't being mowed. I won't just eat the rent if they aren't going to work. Allen is basically gone, has been gone the last going on 3 weeks and a lot of nothing is getting done.  His kids are adults and they are lazy.  So, I will mow that stuff myself and then tell Allen about it.  And the fact that there really is no park host there now, please take that sign down.  If his wife were there, I'd be good with that. Apparently she doesn't want to do the motor coach even tho they say she is going to do it - nothing is happening.  

Yup, I'm getting irritated with some of the things going on over there and I've said something about it, not like I'm just waiting until I'm ready to explode. I've let people know in no uncertain terms about the cigarettes, some people just don't give a s***.   I feel like those people? Can leave.  Or change their attitudes.  

The oldest and grandma are leaving today. The tension between her and I have seemed to dissipate.  It's mostly the situation where she starts drinking and then starts getting rude and even insulting.  But that appears to have stopped.  I was even invited to come up to visit with the family if they move to Hot Springs as they are talking about doing.  Hot Springs is a short drive from Gurdon.  I could facilitate getting the kids up there for their scheduled visits, she wouldn't have to drive clear to us to get them. There is a large parking lot right next to the highway where trucks park all the time, just drop them off there, into her vehicle and move on.  It's a near 4 hour drive down here from where they're at currently. 

I like Hot Springs, btw, the vacation we took there was great - excluding the nasty hotel we stayed at that charges exorbitant prices.  Everything else was fun.

This one is going on long. I did put in an application to start and SBA loan, so far? nothing, but it's only Monday. I don't figure to start seeing any results until sometime today. My credit score isn't the greatest what with all of this credit card debt. I am not late on any payments, but the higher the ratio of debt, the lower your score goes.  Credit is a very weird thing, where you can make all of your payments on time for years and still have a lower than wanted credit score for a myriad of other reasons.  I have collateral, lots of it, to use, if they want that I will provide it.  I want about 175k to build out 20 more lots, install a pool and hot tub and perhaps install covered parking for at least a few of the new lots that will be created.  

I'm waiting for the tractor to reappear so I can contact the garbage company that I want to move the dumpster.  Last week, someone came along from the time I left Tuesday morning and the time I came back Tuesday afternoon and literally loaded up the dumpster from a little over half full to overflowing.  That isn't anyone in the park. There were diapers bags and empty plastic bags of diapers - no one in the park has a baby.  I could have gone through the trash and found out who, I'm sure, but that's kind of disgusting so I decided not to.  People say to put a lock on it, put up a camera, etc. but moving it much closer to the park is the best answer.  

The entire post sounds a bit...negative. I'm not in a bad mood.  Walmart deli gave me 24 wings yesterday for the price of 12.  Why? No clue, didn't ask the lady to do it.  She just started unloading the entire pan into a container and handed it to me.  I thanked her for it - I can only figure that they must have been getting old and they needed to change them out.  I'm having some of that for lunch, no way I'm eating that many in one sitting.  I do hope to have an easy work day.  I don't know why, but I have Wednesday off and then work Thursday and Friday with nothing beyond that.  I really don't know why the manager isn't giving me more work, I do my job quite well but admittedly was off for quite a while.  

If they wanted rid of me, just say so.  I'll go straight to - when are you sending someone to pick up the truck? rather than start attempting to argue about why they might want to get rid of me. I don't really care at this point, the corporate world sucks, there is no loyalty to employees anymore, especially in the trucking industry and that apathy goes both ways now. This company has serious issues as it stands.  For reasons I have gone into great detail in previous posts, not worth going into now.

I think I'll end this one. Yes, the trash trailer is finally gone. Someone took it for free.  The guest claimed he didn't know it was that bad when he got it, even tho he described it when he was going to move it into my park.  Lied about that description, btw.  As for everything else?  It's a beautiful day, lol.

G'day

 Saturday - late morning

Because it's supposed to start raining, not much is going to get done today. I suppose i could focus on business paperwork issues and reconciling receipts, what fun!

However, I did find out how much to register the boat online.  Was just looking because I was curious if they were going to try to back charge me for previous years that it wasn't registered - it wasn't being used, waste of money. Fortunately, no.  Didn't pay the fee, just looked, next will be to find out how much to register the boat trailer.  

I don't feel the need to pay for all of that until that boat is ready to go.  That might be a while.  No clue, really, depends on how motivated the boat mechanic is, which so far? Doesn't appear to be highly motivated.  But, who knows, he's probably broke since he isn't working, I'm not asking him to do the work for free.  I've got most everything it needs. Probably gonna have to buy some hardware and who knows if he'll find parts that need replaced on the motor, etc.  

If he sees things that could use an upgrade and don't cost a fortune, I will entertain that as well.  It doesn't have a sonar for fishing, tho I think those are pretty expensive.  Just get everything working is really what I want.  Lights, motor, trolling motor, etc. \

Still planning on going home for probably 6 days.  Home state anyway, I don't consider myself an Arizonan anymore, I have interest in the state but the entire Phoenix metro area is for -- well I don't even know if the birds like it there.  October is the intended month, the exact day I haven't pinned down yet. I have been informed that I will be asked to do work of some sort, I assume stuff mom can't do on her own.  I'll probably go on  monday, leave on a Friday morning and be back the next day.  I mean, a person who loves driving might could get it done in less time, me? No thanks.  Maybe 700 miles the first day and then finish up the other 600 the next.  Take the next day off after that for recovery and then go back to work. 

My 3 endeavors to reduce monthly expenses has so far only resulted in one of them actually coming to pass: I dropped Verizon and am on T Mobile now, the savings is around $175. It would be more but I decided on a service upgrade and insurance on the phones.  The shed IS paid off, but that apparently is going to be a battle.  The internet isn't going away, it's just that it will be reduced to $60 per month instead of the around $225-$240 I'm currently paying.  I'll still be saving a substantial amount of money once I get all of this stuff hashed out.

I'm trying to figure out if I want to try to get an SBA loan. It's kind of a ridiculous process that is even more involved than a house mortgage, so I've heard and the paperwork definitely makes it appear that way. They do, indeed, have loans for business upgrades tho.  It's probably the best or one of the best routes to take, I just balk at the amount of junk I"ll have to go through in order to get it done and even then, there are no guarantees and beyond that, the interest rates.  I'd want enough to cover 15 more lots, a pool and a hot tub.  Around 175k if I don't do any of the work and farm it out to contractors.  I would need to get those 15 lots filled up relatively quickly after they are created in order to cover the mortgage. Actually, they would want to add my current mortgage to it so another 60k.  

Alright, forget this. I just did the online junk you have to fill out - pages and pages of it, to get an SBA loan process started.  I have no idea whether I will get any offers.  I've heard business credit has dried up considerably in this inflation/high interest rate atmosphere the government has artificially created.  But, I'm going to try.  It would be 20 lots instead of 15.  If I'm going to go for it, might as well get as much as I can out of it, just have to get a bit bigger septic system to handle 20. 

There is far more I'd like to do with the property, one thing at a time.  I would just pay the same contractor to do the additional lots.  I don't see myself doing the same quality job as they did plus a warranty.  Septic warranty will run out in a couple of months, besides having to have it pumped out occasionally I don't see a huge problem occuring with it unless the aerator pump might burn out or something. Solid concrete tanks, those aren't going to be breaking anytime soon. 

I'd also like a BBQ hut, a covered hangout area, another large shed for equipment and tools, etc.  I'd have to add another washer and dryer to cover additional people.  

I dunno, but I am getting offa here. Stuff I need to get done.  

 Friday - 7:30 am

I unceremoniously knocked on the door.  A man answered. I think I know who he is, but I have never met him before.  He comes out after several minutes, they were all sleeping.  We're talking 10:00 am, so I don't really have a problem with my asking to speak with them.  It's Allen's son, nice guy, probably in his 30's I'm guessing, no shirt on, but said are you B? Yes. I finally get to meet you!

I haven't been hiding myself, I thought, I'm here almost every single day.   I mean, they can do whatever they want, I just know I want minimum amount of hours done in a month to consider the free rent setup.  And that includes mowing.  In fact, if they did nothing else, the mowing is top priority.  They did fix the mower again.  This time it was a linkage for the steering that broke, I ordered the new parts and they eventually installed them.  Allen isn't coming back until next weekend, he'll have been gone quite a while and one wonders if the man is going to want to do anything.  

Anyway, I took the man over to the freshly parked boat of which he started to uncouple the hitch rigth away. Well that's a good sign, I thought.  Seemed to be a pretty intelligent person, went to school for boat mechanics and said that he's been fixing everything but boats since he got out.  Well, here's a boat! And it needs work. I suppose I should back up and say yes, we got the boat out of it's parking place. James helped out, thankfully, there was a lot to move.  

I filled the tires up, still in good shape they just had been sitting for quite a while, drove it over there, backed it in behind their trailer - lots of room back there, parked it as much out of sight as possible and that was that.  I was there probably 3 hours.  I showed him all the things that need installed/fixed and then the next door neighbor came out. Another cool dude with a good head on his shoulders, his boat was parked out there s well. Much nicer thing than mine, but I'm not complaining.  Mine isn't horrible, it just needs that engine working properly.  

Well, the neighbor is taking his boat to the ocean somewhere near Corpus Cristi, he tried to move the engine up - it has a tilt motor and a motor that moves it straight up or down.  The one moving it up and down? Wasn't working. They spent 2 hours trying to figure it out and eventually got to a relay in the engine area.  He also gave me a $350 battery.  Yup, I didn't ask for it, he said he replaced it with a new one thinking it was bad, only to find out the problem the boat was experiencing was not battery related and it's fully charged and holding a charge.

I wasn't going to turn it down lol.  It was hot out there. In terms of extremely high humidity. It's the stand-there-and-sweat type of sauna style.  I had had enough after 3 hours and everyone else was heading inside as well. C'ya!  The first order of business on that boat is to clean it, it's really quite dirty. 

As for the junk trailer? Supposed it's gone.  I dunno, I'll find out when I go over there in a while, I have to work today but it's the second load unfortunately.  I saw yet another ad in the local gossip group, this time it was specifying that they need someone that can pull a 5th wheel and they had numerous replies.  On one of them, the lady - who is the daughter of the man living in the other trailer - told everyone that she had it covered now, thank you!  

Yes, thank you.  Get that pile of trash off of my property. I do hope whoever hauled it was successful, it's missing an entire axle worth of wheels and tires.  A cop sees that and I can imagine them thinking, what the h*** is this? I was worried about pulling my boat over there and the tires on my trailer are in new condition.  They have hardly been used at all since I replaced them and they don't look dry rotted.  

Load today, deliver tomorrow and then Sunday off and then?  I assume I'm working for a while without stopping.  I wish I could leave right now.....I'd get down to the wash and that would be taken care of but then I'd get to the plant and I'd be sitting there for at least an hour and a half if not longer. 

Making a payment for the mortgage online, the lender has a statement saying my home is worth $149,000, lmao.  Zillow says it's worth $312,000.  So which one is true? Neither, probably. It's worth far more than 149k, but is it worth the 312k zillow says it's worth?  Zillow range is 275 to 344 so I guess they take the median amount.  I just find it humorous that the bank comes up with a number that is far below what would be considered market value, especially in that market where there are few houses available for sale than there are buyers wanting to get into a house.

However, the current analysis I've read is that housing prices are so high now, it's pricing people out of the market for first time home buyers.  I feel their pain. I was in my 30's before I finally bought a pile of junk mobile home, I got it because it was on it's own property and not in an HOA. I fixed it up and then..it burned down.  It now has a beautiful manufactured home on it, it needs some stuff done to it but it's in good shape.  The neighborhood isn't the greatest, but my property is well taken care of.  I would really like to get rid of it tho.  Water conservation efforts have ramped up to the point you are allowed X amount of water per month (I don't remember what it is) and if you go over that, you are penalized along with the regular bill.

Meanwhile, they keep building more houses in the region - the Phoenix metro area is a sprawling layout of a lot of smaller towns surrounding it and it's probably 100 miles worth of cities from the furthest east point to the furthest west point.  So, how do you justify building more housing without enough water supply to cover it? I have no idea.  The area is still in a drought and has been seemingly forever.  They have been creative in building plants to treat waste water and reuse it for the hundreds of golf courses, landscaping along city streets and even cooling the nuclear power plant.  But once it gets to the point you are water rationing, what is the rationale of also approving more housing construction permits?  I don't get it.  

Anyway, a typical water bill is around $225 now. 

There.  While I was thinking of it, just ordered another T Mobile gateway device to be delivered to the house in a couple of days.  The last one they sent, the thing didn't have a sim card and T Mobile refused to send one without me being able to receive a text message on a Tmobile powered device, which I didn't have at the time. No problem now, although they aren't supposed to be sending out those devices without the sim card to begin with.  My internet bill over there is around $225 per month, it's outrageous.  This thing will cost $60 a month and there we go, another huge bill being shrunk down to a more acceptable amount. 

My battle with Tower Loan? No idea.  I sent a message to them on their form and haven't heard back. Shocking.