Wednesday 7:20 am

The beginning of another late load starting in a few.  

Fact checking the fact checkers - the moderator was wrong and Vance actually did post the proof of his statement about migrants - especially illegals - driving up housing prices because of a limited available market of housing.  I mean, I'm reading where people are calling Vance a liar, yada blah blah yada ho ho.  

Whatever.  The driver trainer asked which route I am going to take coming back from AZ, 10 or 40? 

40 is the scenic route and by far more interesting driving, but it adds a lot of miles to the trip. 10 is the desert route and very boring driving.  I don't like driving anyways, but boring driving is the worst.  Especially alone.  I do believe my objective will be to get back as fast as possible and get it over with, however, so I will probably take the 10 route.  I've done both routes.  I went 40 that one trip over there to participate in dad's memorial service and then up to see mom in the mountains.  It only made sense to leave the mountains going north up to 40 and heading east.  

But from the Phoenix area?  It's much fast and shorter to go I-10.  There's even stretches that have 80 mph speed limits. 

I dunno, but my new jeans are coming in today, at least according to a text from the supplier.  My prep work for leaving is mostly just get my clothes in order.  We are making an appointment if possible to show up at the AZ DMV to have the title transferred over into my name.  The reason we want to do this is because she has it in a living trust, which are "inviolable" I guess you'd call it, everyone involved has to give their approval.  

However, the DMV told me on the phone I need only have the title signed over to me, I don't have to transfer it officially, to get a travel permit.  Sounds like it's going to be a hassle, lol.

My business finances aren't overflowing atm because of numerous empty lots.  I dunno what to say about it.  I've done my best to run ads and give discounts and that's that. I'm not going to stress over it, my expenses there are not that great.  Less trailers, less electricity being used, smaller bill. I've got a $1,600 bill due by the 10th and then next month's will probably be up there as well and then? It will go down as the temps go down.  

Guess I best let the washout know this morning that I will be calling them early on Friday to come wash out the trailer.  I'm guessing between 6 and 6:30 am.  Just depends on when I decide to get out of bed.  

I'm losing weight and not really even trying.  It's all this fat free junk and not eating as much because of it.  Fat free food is a major shift in eating. I used to eat like that long ago, now I'm being forced back into it. That or clogged arteries and die I guess.  I'm down to 217 now. Yup, it's still heavy but not as bad as when it was in the 220's.  

I'm going to spend some time praying over the business today and see if I can hear anything from the Lord.  No, I don't mean the audible voice of the Lord, unbelievers see Christians saying stuff like this and think we are psycho because we think God talks to us like we would to anyone in person, face to face. No, the Bible says to listen for the still, small voice of the Lord. In your heart.  I don't have the answers here, He does.  What His guidance might be? I have no idea yet.  I've prayed over it but I just need pray more.  

Where do I go with this business? What do I do next? How do I get people to come in now that there is so much competition in the region?  It's not just the new park that opened up, there are parks opening up all over the place. The one next to highway 59 in Domino, TX?  It isn't done yet but it's got concrete pads and asphalt driveways.  I can't compete with that.  People stop wherever they find that is cheap, yes, but also has to be nice.  I guess one thing that would help is if I could get more reviews. I ask people to post them, they say they will and they ---- don't.  Even if I send them a link.  

It's perplexing, perhaps I should have started a different kind of business. Not too late for that, actually, but it costs a lot of money. That is the type of business where you are not only offering the land but you are offering the housing as well.  There are no cheap options to that. Even building my own cabins would be pricey.  

I think I could do it, I just don't have the money for that.   But should I get into a loan right now?  I am second-guessing myself what with having 5 and today 6 empty spaces and not that much inquiry from interested renters.  I was thinking to run a Google ad. They are more pricey but they do have more reach.  The yurt tents is not totally out of the picture and I do have a place to put one.  That would still cost around 5 grand for the finished product and I wonder if it would actually produce enough guests to make any money off of it?  

I just don't know and I feel like I'm at a cross roads and I really need God's guidance on what to do next.  If a loan is needed, it's needed.  If not, then what? Nothing?  Just stay at 16 spaces and call it good?  Certainly not enough to live off of, I would have to work for many more years to come.   That is not my goal, my goal is to get out of working for anyone but myself.  I need "opportunity" to come my way and I trust in the Lord to make that happen if it's within His will.  His will be done, that's the end all of any scenario.  I don't want to do things He doesn't want me to do or isn't leading me to do.  

Opportunity could be anything.  Housing offered via payments?  Building cabins?  Some sort of small apartment structure?  Yurt tents?  Mobile homes?  I'm not above that, that was my original plan anyway.  

This is my dilemma right now. What to do next.  I haven't received the quote from the contractor. I wonder if that's a sign in  and of itself - don't do it.  I still think a hot tub is on the table. It's a relatively small investment for potential returns.  If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.  I have the place to put it.  

Well, it's time to get my stuff and get out of here.

G'day

 As stated yesterday, I had the late run this time and late run the next run.  I wasn't about to take a 3rd one, but that's exactly what the manager tried to do to me.  Nope.  I politely texted him asking him to give me the early load, I will have already done 2 in a row.  I am glad it didn't have to go any further than that, but as I suspected, the reason he wants to dump 2cd runs on me is because I get irritated with these people showing up early and he obviously doesn't want to hear it. 

Yup, well I don't want to be cut, either.  The reason I can say this is because he mentioned me showing up early so the "knucklehead" won't get away with his antics.  I mean, if you are a manager and your employees are doing whatever they heck they please....you can fill in the blank after that.

I had already planned on showing up early anyway, it will be a short time before I leave for AZ and I want time to get some stuff done.  So I told him I would show up a couple hours early both days at both ends.  He was all over that.  OK?  I can do that from now on, I thought. Save me the grief and get done with the work day at 11 am or even earlier.  

Now then, the VP debate. It starts in 8 minutes and I am definitely going to watch as much of it as my stomach can handle.  I thought I'd have to watch it on CBS - Communist Broadcast System - but apparently they are allowing it to be simulstreamed everywhere, including Fox.  I'm actually watching it for the entertainment value, if there will be any, and see if CBS stands by it's word.  They have promised no fact checking, at least on air.  The mics won't be muted and the nominees can fact check each other.  

Well I'm getting distracted, a lot of speculation about this debate starting in a few minutes.  But, I am just waiting for this thing to start and see how this plays out.  

___________________

I'm a Trump supporter so my opinion is going to be a bit swayed, but Walz was nervous, committed word salads, lied, made up stories, did not have a convincing argument and I can't see most undecideds seeing him as the winner of this debate. Vance did a far better job debating the positions that Trump has then Trump did in the first debate.  Much better speaker than Trump, Trump gets tripped up on his ego and anyone saying anything to him that maligns him he can't help himself but to fire back.  

Vance interrupted the moderators - who had agreed to no fact checking - after they fact checked him. They ended up cutting off his microphone.  I think they cut off both microphones. CBS will be endlessly blasted for this, but it wasn't near as bad as the first debate.  

It's over and I'm toast.  

But...

I have second load again tomorrow.  It's the same thing as the last 2 days - if I can sleep in, I will.  If I can't, I'll just let it go as far as these drivers showing up to butt in before me. As far as I'm concerned, I have, in writing, permission to show up as early as I want. I don't want to get up at 4 am but I will to get my day over with. I can always take a nap when I get home and I can nap both at the loading plant and the delivery plant.  

Well, at the delivery plant I have to get out of the truck every so often to check the air pressure going into the tanker.  You can't get it too high or seals will start blowing out.  But I do take short naps up there sometimes. Today was not one of those days. For whatever reason, the product was blasting through the outlet line and I was done offloading in 42 minutes. That's a record for me.  I was busy the entire time and got out of there and got home at a still-decent time. Not good enough to get stuff done I wanted to, but enough that I didn't feel like I had blown the entire day away with the 2cd load.

I'm running ads, I'm giving $200 off first month's rent, besides adding more amenities such as building the canopies over the lots, I really don't know what else I can do.  There is a lot of competition, that's what I can say.  I've had several inquiries through Facebook messaging, nothing that has converted to a person actually moving in.  

 Tuesday - 7:55 am

I woke up early - way too early - and decided I was sleeping in today. If I have late load I might as well enjoy the time to sleep in if I am able.  Sometimes- many times - I try to sleep in and I am laying there awake. That didn't happen either today or yesterday and I'll take all the sleep I can get when I can get it. 

VP debate tonight, anchored by CBS News.  I used to respect CBS news long ago, but once they got involved with propaganda and Russian Collusion, ignoring the Hunter laptop story when it came out and determining it was "fake news", etc, I lost all respect for them.  

I do not expect any less hostile landscape from their biased moderators than what we saw in the Trump-Harris debate.  Many leftist outlets are saying, finally, that the moderators in that debate were extremely biased and were hostile towards Trump while they were soft on Harris.  Of course they were, it was glaringly obvious.  

I'm going to watch the debate regardless for I believe Vance is a much more accomplished speaker than Walz.  There is allegedly going to be no fact-checking.  Trump claims they had agreed before the Trump-Harris debate that there would be no fact checking.  We obviously know that isn't true and that the only person being fact-checked was Trump. Harris spoke some real "big fish stories", not even exaggerations, just bold-faced lies.  I don't see any use for Trump to engage in any more debates, he will be treated the same way unless the Harris campaign would agree to unbiased moderators that aren't from any news media outlet.  

Yeah, that's not going to happen.  We all know that and Harris can call Trump a coward/chicken/whatever all she wants, it just makes her look childish. 

That's where we're at in this campaign.  Leftists are engaging in extremely immature behavior, some of it is unbelievable.  Leftists putting up a 40 plus foot tall, naked Trump effigy near a Harris rally in Vegas.  

Meanwhile, 36 ports from Maine to Texas are shut down.  The union workers went on strike as promised.  Uhh, y'all/we all might want to go out and get stuff you need, because if this strike goes on long enough, there are going to be shortages of everything.  I don't know what, exactly, at this point, but I'm going to stock up on paper goods immediately just in case.  We went through Covid and lack of toilet paper and other paper goods, I am not going to be caught in that position again, going around town looking for ANY toilet paper.  

I eventually found a 4 pack at Walgreens.  I also found single rolls of TP at truckstops for sale. Outrageously priced but you'll take anything once you get to the desperation mode.

We have a war going on in Lebanon now and we have the devastation of the Helene storm.

The world is always in turmoil to some extent, we're looking at some extreme stuff going on right now.  

Now then, if I can get up early enough tomorrow..no I'm not going to try and bypass whoever is loading, I have second load yet again.  No, I'd like to go the 7:00 am bible study. It only goes on an hour and I don't typically leave for the 2cd load slot until around 9:00 am.  Big if, but I'm at least going to try. I don't even know if "outsiders" are invited to this thing.  They mention it once in a while, but not in the context of anyone can come.  I guess if I were disinvited showing up - yeah - I'd leave that church in a hurry.  

That's enough for now.  I need to make lunch for the road and get some more coffee.

G'day

 Monday - 7:45 am

I was going to do it. Get up early and just play their game against them.  I didn't even have to have an alarm wake me up, 4:45 am I woke up out of a dream and thought about getting up.  Then I thought how nice it would be to sleep in and so I said screw it.  

I'm referring to simply showing up at the plant whenever I damn well please like these other drivers do without any repercussions.  One driver got a scolding, or so I'm told, other than that? They aren't going to stop this nonsense.  The drivers don't care and management does little or nothing to stop it.  It greatly irritates me, that's all I can say and until I do anything about it beyond saying something to management - who basically do nothing - I guess I'll just have to eat it.

Nooo, bro, I'm not eating it lmao.  This s*** is going to come to a head and I'm going to force it there.  When I feel like getting up early on a day that I don't need to for loading or delivery? I'll be there at a time when I'm not supposed to be.  

It seems relatively straight forward.  Building a wood-structured canopy, that is.  16 foot tall 4X4's, 8 of them and 2X6 for the outside structure and I think it's 1X2 or maybe 1X4 for the cross ties.  No, 10 4x4's.  So, $250 worth of 4x4's, $90 worth of 2x6x10's, I'm not sure how wide, but shooting for 14 feet so another $40 worth of end side beams...

Well the cross ties apparently are going to also have to be 2x4x16 to make 14 wide.  I don't know how many so I'll guess 10, there's another $110. What do we have for a total so far....$490.  Add 4 more pieces of lumber for support beams, $50, $250 for the canopy to drape over the top....$790 and then screws, lag bolts and thin wood strips to wrap the ends of the canvas around and staple them to the wood.  So around $850 to build one.  Canvas probably has to be replaced every few years I'm guessing.  I think a wood structure that is stained and put the acrylic finish on it would look far better than these ugly metal things.  

Oh, forgot the cement for the poles in the ground.  Let's say $900 to build one. Incredible that lumber costs that much nowadays.  I think 5 years ago it would cost half of that.  Have to be realistic about it, but it's still thousands of dollars less than the metal structures that come as a kit. 

__________

Yes, I'll be doing that sooner or later, probably sooner than later.  One of them and see what happens when I advertise it.  This way, I don't waste a lot of money on something that might not work.  Or might be an instant hit? Who knows.  

Meanwhile, I've been watching a lot of footage of the devastation that storm did. Chimney Rock, a small town I think in NC, is almost completely leveled.  It's just a pile of wood and belongings now with some structures on the sides.  A man was on the news that lives in that area and said there is almost no gas, power, water and very little food.  This is where the government should step in, not opposed to that at all. But you can be rest assured Red Cross either will be there or likely is already there. And other Christian ministries will be bring in truckloads of needed goods for the people to survive.  It's an amazing amount of destruction in an area where that kind of flooding was never expected.  

The reports of dams breaking were wrong tho.  No dams broke, they are opened up wide and letting a tremendous amount of water out but they are all holding so far.  That's good news in a situation where there isn't much good news at all.  

Not much else on my front. I ordered new jeans for my trip, I don't have much "good" clothing right now and I don't want to go traipsing across the country to visit people in clothing that isn't quite in good condition. I do have a few pairs of jeans, I just needed some. I was waiting to see if I would go down to the next size down. Weight has been fluctuating but it does seems to be slowly inching down, I'm a ways off from the next waist size down.  

The 2 weeks off did a number on my finances, admittedly and unfortunately. It doesn't help having unwanted days off.  I really If I had my way, I'd work the next 6 days including today and get Sunday off to not only go to church but to get ready for the trip.  It starts Monday and hopefully home by Saturday.  I called AZ MVD and it's simply a matter of showing up with a signed title, I don't have to register the vehicle or get an AZ title in my name and I can get a 30 day out of state pass that gets me back to Texas legally.  I need to call the insurance company now and see what that will entail.

Beyond that, it's just getting clothing ready and mentally prepared.  I was hoping for a bit cooler weather in AZ, my mother keeps the house at 80 and I can't sleep in that warm of a situation.  It's still in the 100's there and down in the 70's at night.  Bearable maybe, not ideal.  I'm used to sleeping in a house that is between 68 and 70 degrees - tho that is done to keep the humidity at bay. Almost no humidity in AZ desert, it might be ok.  I worry about it because I need my sleep. Last visit there was just too much.  80 degree house is like an oven to me.  At least for sleeping. Even during the day time it was so warm in there I was mildly sweating.

She likes it like that, it's not a matter of money for paying electric bills. 

Anyway, it's almost time to go. Get my coffee going, a glass of ice water and get out of here.

G'day

 Sunday - afternoon

Yesterday, when I arrived at the loading plant, another driver was already there. He was many hours early for his appointment time.  I said nothing to the manager about it, but I contemplated starting the search for another job again.  Today?  I left early, got up there around 8:50 am and guess who was there?  Of course. The driver had showed up at 8:20 am, so he still had quite a while to go before he was going to be done. 

I got fairly pissed at this point and texted the manager about it.  I texted him again and said: "I assume at this point that since Johnny, Phillip and now Jerome can show up whenever they want, I can now start showing up when I please".  

Yeah, he never directly addressed that.  He did call me right after that second text.  I did not get a "no" from him on that second text at all. Instead, he said the driver was supposed to be at the plant at 7:00 am this morning and out of your way.  The manager also acknowledged that he knew that other driver had been at the other plant yesterday at the same time I was supposed to be there.  I mean, from my perch, that just means he not only knows about it, he condones it or at the very least, doesn't say anything to anyone about it.  

You see, tomorrow I have late load. So what happens if I just go out there at  6:20 am, fire up the truck and just head down south? What's he going to say to me?  I'll quit before I get chewed out about something that is going on with fully 3 other drivers who couldn't care less.  I dunno if I'll do it or not, but I'm seriously considering it. Like, get up even earlier, around 4:45 am, get out the door by 5:30 am, out of the park by 5:45 am and down to the washout around 7:15.  8:30 ish to the plant, load and leave and if anyone else shows up, who cares?  Right?  

I'm sure I would hear about it and I'm sure I would dish it right back.  Would he fire me? Anyone can be fired for no reason at all in "at will employment" state where you have no obligation to work for them and they have no obligation to keep you hired.  In other words, no unions.  Well, there are definitely unions in Texas, but I am not a part of the Teamsters and have no desire to be.  I doubt there are Teamster style jobs around here anyway.  Legitimately, he couldn't fire me because everyone else does it and he knows all about it.  But I wouldn't count on it as a given of course and finding another job right now.....yuck.

They go through employees like the changing time of day - not because people are fired, but because drivers quit.  They are constantly hiring for our positions for they know they will need someone to replace someone else who quits.  

Enough of that. It's pretty irritating and I"m a bit agitated right now.  It happens far too often. If it was just once in a while I could deal with it.  

The poverty case still hasn't paid his rent. He claims he still hasn't received his check from the state. I'm giving him until the 1st and then he'll get a 3 day notice replete with trespassing notice and then he will leave my park.  I'm not footing the bill for his AC and everything else he's doing in there that is consuming my resources.  

I'm down 5 guests and about to lose yet another one. Another short term worker, he was here 3 months but is leaving on another assignment.  I don't have any negative reviews and I've been running ads yet I am only getting a little bit of interest here and there. Some guy that doesn't speak english showed up today, but wouldn't come down the driveway.  So how are we supposed to receive him into the park if he won't enter it?  I eventually gave up on him, whatever his deal was, I don't have time for it.  

I have no idea what to do to get people in.  Oh wait, yes I do! I was looking up RV carports today and finally found a video where man had built his own.  Just used 4x4s and then 2x6's on the top and some supporting braces.  He says it cost him under $700.  It looked decent too. Not all gawdy and yucky looking as those metal contraptions. You buy a 40 foot long sheet of shade canopy online after you construct the frame, staple it on there and walaah.  For home made, it looked pretty good and I could do that kind of project pretty easily. Time consuming, but the saving over 5 k and up shade systems would be substantial.  

It would be worth the try to build one and see what happens.  For that much cheaper construction price, I wouldn't have to jack up my lot rent price that much to pay for it.  

How do I know for sure it would attract a new renter? I don't, but for $700 I would definitely risk it.  

 I basically fired the park hosts today.  Allen and his wife are long since gone, he came back once after 3 weeks of being gone. His daughter left the park to go to court the son?  He is a nice guy, but he's a lazy person with no ambitions or motivation to do much of anything unless Allen contacts him and lights a fire under his feet.

I didn't sign up for that.  I thought his wife was sticking around after he - Allen  - left and I was good with that, but she also left and had been gone. Now, she has gone through carpel tunnel surgery and can't do anything anyway. She's been gone quite a while so it's really immaterial.  

I informed Allen of this via text today, outlining the situation and he just replied: "ok".  Whatever.  The son is not a Park Host and I want the sign taken down.  I could possibly deal with him as a workamper, if his dad keeps on his @$$ about getting things done, but for me? I don't want to have to continuously ask for the same things to be done over and over and over.  

___________________

That was yesterday and just never finished the post. Now I'm looking at a potential strike of a union of dockworkers who claim that if there isn't a new contract reached by October 1, they are going on strike.  They estimated that half the country's seaborn goods come in through the docks that they work.  And, if this happen, prepare for another empty shelf phenomenon where everything disappears in grocery stores and ... hope you have food at home!

And then, I see the IDF is claiming they killed the Hezbollah leader.  Israel and it's enemies could be heading towards a much larger, regional war if Iran - who funds these terrorist groups - decides they can't deal with it and start a direct war with Israel.  Do you think they'll do that? I have no idea. Israel is a small country but they are bad-@$$es, train endlessly and have a huge war arsenal at their fingertips including nuclear weapons.

We all know this, what we don't know is if that is enough to stop Iran from declaring war and now we're dragging the entirety of the middle east into this conflict and potentially, WW3.  

I can only get into the word, pray and watch God do His thing, whatever that may be at the end of all of this.  

Anyway, I woke up to the sound of the alarm in a very deep sleep and I am still not fully awake yet, even after taking a shower.  

And unfortunately, it's already time to leave...

G'day. 

 Friday - not so early/8:28 am

I dunno, I just decided last night I wasn't going to get up early today and true to that thought, I did not. I woke up early, but I went right back to sleep.  

I got quite a bit done yesterday on that tractor but there's plenty more to go. I burned up that mound with the trees and shrubs on it, today I'm going to see if I can start shoveling it out of there.  I also saw that that hole is definitely the storm drainage pipe underground that runs across the driveway near the entrance.  It's broken to the point  that you can see down into the pipe.

Since the county did such a poor job of fixing the roadway where it meets the driveway - all they did was dump some loose gravel on it which quickly move from the edge of the roadway and was rather useless - I took that gravel and dumped it into that hole until the hole was filled up.  I just couldn't leave it like that. I also called the county and informed them that they need to come out and fix it.  It's the county's problem, not mine. I've seen them fixing driveway entrances up and down the road, they can properly fix mine.  I know I spent the money on property taxes....

I was reading in the Word this morning, book of John, about Jesus coming and his Love for all of us, starting with miracles to prove He was/is who He says He is. I know if I saw some of those miracles in person I would become an instant believer.  Not that I am not one now, but how amazing it must have been to be in the presence of Jesus while he was walking this earth and healing people of incurable diseases and feeding large masses of people with nothing but a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. It's easy to just say God doesn't exist, the internet is full of those people.

They deny Christ and attempt to mock God at every turn.  I used to get upset about it, now I understand that these people are lost, do not have the Light and use science for the most part to explain everything away.  They don't understand that God created science and man can choose to believe science or understand that it's all part of God's creation.  Some of the blasphemy they engage in tho....They did that to Christ when they were about to execute him and hang Him on the cross.  It's nothing new but it can be disturbing.  

I had one 3 night stay show up yesterday - they decided to stay 4 nights for they were afraid the hurricane was going to stop them from being able to travel out of that area, somewhere on  the coast.   2 more are actually showing up as well.  This is all the Boogie Woogie festival and these people love it.  I didn't open up  enough spots for reservations, I could have had another one in there as well.  I just hoped that I would get another long term in there. A guy did show up to see if he could park his 5th wheel there temporarily until he gets it sold. He lives up the street and wants to be able to have it plugged in to show everything works. 

Well, since I have so many openings right now, I decided to let him do that and at a reduce rate for he won't be living in it, just showing it to any interested buyers.  I'll take something over nothing.  My ads aren't doing much, tho this guy showed up because he saw the ad.  The new guy in town, the other RV park doing a grand reopening under a different name and ownership has flooded Marketplace with his ads. I have responded in kind and have put up a couple of different ads and run them in as many groups as FB allows. He doesn't have a better deal than me beyond the first month's rent, he is trying to meter the electricity and that is not going to fly with people who can find every other RV park in town giving the electricity away for "free", meaning included in the cost of the monthly rent. 

In other words, he has his lot rent and then you pay electricity separate.  He may get some people in there, I suppose, but as long as the other options are showing up on any given searches, he won't be taking everyone out of the picture coming into town.  At this time of year, that may be a good deal and perhaps I could lower my rent since my expenses are going down just to get a piece of the pie.  However, if I lower my rent and people in the park see it, they may demand lower rent as well.  Rent prices are just a hard thing to determine, I think I have mine set as low as I'm willing to go. Now, if I had a lot more spaces, I could easily lower the rent rate, take in less profit per spot but with more spots still make decent money.  

I think I'll get some gravel from the rear today, now that I think of it, and bring it up front and fill some of the small holes.  It won't last long but it's better than nothing at all.  I really need to go get a small amount of gravel from the local supplier - my trailer has a bunch of tree limbs and junk on it and it has been sitting there like that for 2 months.  Yeah, not me. I am going to end up burning it even tho I didn't bring it here and just be done with it. It's loaded so high I wonder how he got away with pulling it down the road like that.  I would imagine some of that stuff falling off the side. If I didn't have to worry about that, I would just drag it over to the property and burn it with everything else. 

Oh, yes and I may get out the chainsaw today and start cutting up that felled tree at the front. Must have been hit by lightning. Actually, there's 2 of them, they are both huge trees. Just want to get that stuff done before that tractor is pulled out of there.  

Nothing else really.  I am going to Wally's world to see if they have any jeans my size. If not, I guess I'll have to drive to the next biggest city, much larger, and go find some clothing there. I've ruined a lot of my jeans with both trucking and working at the property. A couple pair of new jeans would be nice for the upcoming trip.  I am thinking to stay until that Thursday and then drive out of there.  2 days to get home and then a recovery day before going back to work.  That's 3 full days plus 2 partial to hang out with mom and see some friends and my son, probably go visit the house, etc.  

With that, my second cuppa is almost done and I'm heading out of here.

G'day

 Thursday - not particularly early

I got a call yesterday from the manager: sorry, but they cancelled your load.  I should be in Nacogdoches right now, getting the trailer cleaned out.  I don't go back to work until Saturday.  There's  nothing I can do about it, wanted to work, shrugs shoulders.  

I spent a lot of hours on that tractor yesterday and got a lot of weeds cleared out.  That front is starting to look much better.  I need to get the chainsaw out there and cut up some trees that were piled up along the fence line.  I don't even remember them being there, they must have dumped them there when they cut down the forest.  

That can wait, I want to get as much weeds cut down before I stop using the thing, I have no idea when that kid is going to take it out of there and there is still more on the front I want done, not a lot. There is a huge burn pile that I want to burn down the foliage even if there is a tree I'd like to spare, it's elevated on that pile several feet off the ground, it just won't work.  I can plant another, I guess, they grow quickly and would make great shade trees.

I have 5 open spots now and I am not getting much interest.  I have been running a lot of ads locally - the free kind - on marketplace.  The "other guy" has endless ads running, I'm just putting up a lot of them to make my presence known.  I've been running the Facebook ads in sell groups in the entire region, not just around here.  Probably a good 70 mile radius, I have joined groups all over the place.  If someone is thinking of moving over here, they are going to know that I'm in business and have availability. I have a couple of 4 day stays coming in today.

The welder left yesterday is how I ended up with a 5th open spot.  He was allegedly leaving Saturday, it really doesn't matter when he was going to leave, I wasn't getting any more money out of it. I don't think I'll see any of the welders again, they were drawing down in this area as it stands and the company that was hiring the use of the company isn't paying their bills.  I just need 3 people to come in there in the next week and get the place looking full again.  If not? Nothing I can do but keep running ads and hope that I get some of the available supply of people needing lots. 

_______

I'd like to try one covered lot on existing lots and see what happens. It would necessarily need to be a higher cost since the investment needs to pay for itself.  

I am admittedly sitting in my bedroom, watching a movie and doing much of nothing.  I'm leaving here soon enough, however, to get more tractor work done.  I'm going to call the local seed store and see how much rye grass seed is going for.  I don't need it right now, there is no rain forecast any time soon and I'm not putting out seed until that times comes. Otherwise, birds eat the seed and it's a total waste of money.  But I do want an inviting green scape going out there. Right now, it's trees, dirt from working on it and still some weeds.  

I suspect, like everything else, the price of seed has gone way up. If it's too high, I may just see if the natural growing grass starts up again.  The thing is, I don't want weeds having a chance to start growing again. Get a nice, thick carpet of grass and it chokes them out. 

Anyway, my mind is wandering all over the place, not really focusing on this blog entry, so I'm ending this one.

G'day

 Wednesday  semi-early

I would still be sleeping if it weren't for the loud thunder claps - a lot of them - that hit in rapid succession. Baam, right out of what was a wonderful dream I was in the middle of.  Even worse, we barely got any rain out of it.  

Yesterday evening, Taylor was busy with work and James hadn't even left work.  The oldest kid had open house and so I took both of them. We landed at McDonald's for them for dinner.  I have to admit I caved.  10 piece chicken nuggets, fries and a small milkshake.  It was far too tempting, especially after the fat free, taste free, just free of anything that you would consider a nice meal.

But, that's my current situation and I expect it takes a while of dedicated effort to bring elevated cholesterol levels down. It put myself into this situation, now I have to get myself out of it. I'm not going to sweat one night of eating one meal that is out of the "low cholesterol" category, especially considering how long I've been doing it.  Going out to eat is especially challenging, there are very limited options on say, Applebee's menu.  They have  a chicken breast meal that is nothing but plain chicken breast, broccoli and mashed potatoes, of which I sub for a house salad. 

The open house was nothing to write home about. It was a required meeting forced on the school because it's a "STEM" school and they have to lay out Title 1 objectives and mission.  Then, you go to the kid's room, meet the teacher and then the child reads you a card greeting you to the open house and you get to see what projects he has been working on.  

I was a bit disappointed in the teacher, wholly unsociable with everyone, didn't seem to even want to be there.  Trying to get into a conversation with her, she brushed me off quickly.  She did that with all the parents tho, I was watching her.  I was also rather appalled that the boy was at a desk area by himself.  There is a cluster of 3 small desks that all adjoin together where he sits, but there are no other kids sitting there with him.  The rest of the classroom are the same types of desks, excepting there are 6 at each cluster and there are 6 kids at each cluster.  

I wondered out loud why the teacher had him sitting there alone?  Apparently, I'm guessing here because I could see no other answer, the 3 desk cluster where he sits is the last 3 desks that the classroom could have and apparently this teacher doesn't have a full class, ie: short 2 students.  He's a good kid and he doesn't like to get into trouble, so I knew it wasn't because he's difficult to deal with.  I asked him anyway and he got this look on his face and got very defensive: NO, I don't get into trouble!  I would like to think that a teacher would just move kids in and out of that lone setup on a weekly basis so one child doesn't have to sit there alone all the time.  She doesn't do that.  

No one stayed long, that was the other thing that stood out.  I blame that directly on the teacher.  Parents came in, took a look, no engagement from the teacher excepting those basically forcing themselves into her realm and then left.  I can only hope she is more engaged with the children, I'm not sure why one would want to become a teacher if they can't deal with the parents. 

Out the door, they were serving free nachos.  They were pretty good actually, it was part of the cheat.  Chips covered in cheese, then the option for salsa, pico de gallo and sour cream. Yup, I put all of that on there.  Home after that and back on the "special diet", I haven't even eaten since then.  I even had to change my coffee habit.  I was putting heavy cream in there, now it's fat free powdered creamer.  It's a big adjustment. I used to eat and drink like this long ago.  I figured since I'm forced to do this, I might as well start drinking milk again.  Fat free and very light on the sugars.  It's actually quite good, but then again, I drank skim milk for decades.  

Today. Well, I need to go get some supplies for the boat work to continue.  Allen forced the son to start working on it.  I didn't ask him to do that, he just said yup, he'll be fixing that boat. Allen is gone again but I suspect he's dealing with them via phone or perhaps some sort of wifi driven messaging for the boy doesn't even have a phone atm.  

I am going to spend quality time on the tractor, that's a fact unless the boy has taken it out of there. It was sitting there yesterday.  I have 2 people coming in for the Boogie Woogie event.  It's some sort of music festival that occurs here every year.  You can look it up, lol, it's definitely a thing.  I decided to open up a 3rd lot for anyone needing it since I have had people leaving lately. Another one leaving Saturday.  It sucks and particularly so with the idea that I am getting very few new people calling, except thing one yesterday.

He calls. Yes, I have lots available. Do you have any shade? No, I do have some trees but not really shade trees. He shows up, looks around and leaves, I saw this on the cameras, I was still on the road.  He had stopped, asked someone about shade trees? and decided he didn't like it.  I didn't promise him shade trees or even artificial shade. There are some parks around with mature trees providing shade. My only option for that would be to install RV carports.  I fully intend to do that at this point, I just need the money for it.  

To that end, I am still waiting on a quote from the contractor.  Until I get something from him, I'm stuck.  I knew it would take time to get that quote, hurry up and wait. 

The temps have finally come down.  The storm probably brought that in, it was forecast for quite a while now that temps would start coming down and stay down.  Not going to burn up on that tractor, in other words.  

I watched 10 minutes of news this morning and then shut it off.  Just don't want to hear it.  This was about a report from an investigation the House is doing into the attempted assassination of Trump and the SS failures.  You'd think the SS was a bunch of amateur, armchair agents from what I was listening to.  

Anyway, I'm going to finish my cup of coffee and get out of here.  Lots to do today and I am going to redeem the time. 

G'day

 Tuesday - 7:18 am

So, I was looking at a post from an old friend - we're talking old friend as from the early 80's, high school pals type of thing - he had posted a pic of another old friend that had died maybe 3 years after he graduated high school.  I won't be posting names or anything to keep it private and not trying to judge anyone here, people have all kinds of problems in life and they deal with things differently.  

I asked how he had died?  I mean, it's not a bad question, people pass others ask what happened to them?  I got a Facebook video call from this guy.  I hadn't talked to him in probably 42 years.  We've had a few chats via comments on a post, but not an actual conversation.  He went straight to it and something I had previously guessed when I heard about it.  The dude was at a party playing Russian roullette. 

Meaning, he had a revolver loaded with one round.  He used to do this at parties I attended - rowdy parties with lots of beer and fighting.  He'd do it and challenge others to do it as well.  They got to me one night and I flatly refused.  I thought it was an incredibly stupid thing to do and I made no bones about it.  You want to off yourself, that's your choice, I am not suicidal.  They called me a pus*** and such and I didn't care.  If you don't care whether you live or die, then go right ahead. If you feel you have something to live for, that's probably not a good idea. 

So, this guy was 21 years old, at a drinking party, did his routine and blew his brains out right in front of a crowd of people.  

At the age of 21, I was fully into the mission field and doing God's work, I was both loving it and hating it, but I wasn't drinking and I wasn't engaging in stupid stuff.  I won't go into the mission field now, it's a story that would take days to write out and that wasn't the point of this post. 

We caught up with each other, he invited me to visit him in Canada and ended the call. I finally found out how he ended up back in Canada, he had been deported.  I find that amazingly ridiculous considering what's going on at our southern border right now.  

Anyway, that was an interesting conversation to say the least. He was lamenting that most of "us" are all dead and gone now.  I haven't kept up with those people, high school years were tumultuous, even scary.  Lots of fighting, gangs, hate, anger, drugs, recipes for disaster and failure.  I would have been a lot better off in life if I had never become involved with any of those people.  If I had followed my "dream" I wouldn't even be thinking about working trucking jobs now or wondering how I'm going to deal with retirement. 

The driver trainer says he wants to work until he's 70.  70?!!  If I'm alive and still working at 70, I want that to be at my own business, not working for someone else.  He'll collect a nice paycheck from the government every month, but what a tradeoff to have to work until that late in life.  

I"m not overly concerned, if some bad scenario happened the worst I would have to do is sell the business/25 acres and that would end any financial problems.  Or the house.  Or both.  The point is to build the business up until it's nicely profitable and then hand it over to those I have chosen to be in my will.  If they sell it, so be it, but by that point, hopefully, it's worth more to keep it and run it.  

As for today? I have Gurdon to go to and then tomorrow is off.  I didn't ask for it off, I don't need or want it off, that's the manager's decision.  Back to work on Thursday with early load and I"ll have to work the weekend for sure.  

It's 13 days until my trip.  I have a lot to figure out before then.  I also have too many empty spaces in my park. I am actively running ads in local facebook selling groups and running boost ads.  

The dryer situation came to a head yesterday.  The repairman received the new motor on Friday, kept telling me he was coming, didn't show up, blah blah blah.  I called Whirlpool to confirm whether they had sent him the motor under warranty? Yes, free of charge.  After that, I started trying to contact him. Phone calls, text messages and Yelp messages, where I found his business to begin with.  

He replied to none of it.  ON texting, you could see where yesterday morning he had read a few of the texts for he had his read receipts on, which tell you that it is "read" by the recipient.  This went on all day long and I finally left him a message:  If I don't hear back from you soon, I'm going to come over there, stop in front of your house, call the police and demand my motor. It doesn't belong to you and I will do whatever it takes to get that motor.  

You see, it got to the point yesterday where I just wanted the motor.  I could find someone else to fix the machine, but not without that expensive motor.  It wasn't 30 minutes after I left that message that he contacted me Yelp and told me he was coming "tomorrow morning" and now he has Yelped me again saying "I'm on my way".  So I'm looking at the cameras over there to see if he actually does it.  Otherwise, I will indeed go over there tonight and I will stand there in front of his house, call the police and let the chips fall where they may. He is NOT getting away with this, that's for sure.  Not if I have anything to do with it.  

What else...I need to get busy with that tractor and I intend to spend a good portion of tomorrow working on it.  If the boy doesn't take it before then, that is. When his family farm needs use of it, he just takes it and that's that.  I can't blame him at the same time I want an entire month's lot rent worth out of it.  So a good 5 or 6 hours tomorrow will get most of the front completely finished.  I also want to get back on the walking trails, there's an area where it's overgrown with tall weeds. I can bush hog them down and clear it out and also a tent camping area that I want to get freshened up just in case.  

Yes, I am facing a lot of empty spots right now, some of that I am sure has to do with the new competitor and his $200 off offer.  I am now offering $100 off and that's as far as I go with it. More than that is a losing proposition and only fruitful if  a potential guest has the intention of moving in and living there indefinitely.  I am getting overnight stays coming in the reservation system, I am not getting hardly any bites on long term.  It sucks, but what am I to do?  I advertise the virtues of my park. I have seen yet another park not too terribly far off that has installed covered parking over all of their spaces.  From the picture, it appears the place is either full or maybe a few empty spots.  

It looks so tacky tho.  That and the cost, it's not cheap. 

I'm just sitting here waiting.  I am not going to leave too early, the other driver has to have time to get in there, unload and get out of there. That and the manager doesn't want 2cd load showing up too early regardless.  I figure to be there around 11:30 am, maybe closer to noon.  It's 2 hours and 20 minutes to drive up there so I just going to leave around 9:15 am.   

I need to fix some errors on my financials, I made some mistakes that I didn't see until I started the process of getting the loan thing started.  I can't move on without fixing that stuff first.  It is not my strong point, doing business paperwork junk.  I am not making enough money to hand it over to a CPA or someone not licensed as a CPA but still has the authority to do a person's accounting.  It's why I have quickbooks. You have to enter the info in correctly, however, for it to be accurate....

I'm looking at how to get a temporary tag to drive the truck back to Texas.  It appears as tho I will have to have the title transferred to me while there to get one and then do the title process here in Texas.  Texas is very expensive doing that, they charge you buyer's fee based on the cost of the vehicle, which is based on their valuations, not based on what the actual vehicle may be worth. In other words, your vehicle could be a pile of trash and they will still value it as in good condition and you will pay a percentage of that.  

It's not really fair, at all, the way they have it set up, but I don't see any such requirements in AZ.  I just don't want to have to drag mom down there, she probably won't much care for that, at all.  AZ issues a non-resident drive out tag, but you have to have the title to do that.  I will probably just show up down there with the title signed over to me and then they can tell me if they can do it then and there or if I have to do such and such.  It will be top priority in case it takes more than a day to do it.  Actually, now that I think of it, I can just call them and ask them what I will need to do instead of waiting for surprises.  I can actually use my house as a resident status if I need to.  

I don't really need more headaches right now, in terms of paperwork lol.

Anyway, I'm going to get busy making lunch for the road and get out of here. 

G'day

Oh, and half an hour later? That repairman still hasn't arrived....

 Sunday - morning

I love that the kids have 2 tv's now to watch.  This means they don't "need" to come in here on a wonderful Sunday morning and disturb my peace.  Oh, they do still watch cartoon network. I was told they weren't watching the satellite at all, but I found that's not true.  What I would really like to do now that I have thought about it for a while is see if there is a much cheaper package that has the cartoons and some of the networks that I like to watch.  

Oh, well I wasn't really intending to start off with that but it's so nice and quiet in here.  

This coming week, temps are going to drop.  We had some nice weather for a while, but that disappeared and we're in the 90's for a high and even was 100 degrees a few days ago.  What this means for me is that when I get back from 1st run loads, I'll actually feel like getting on the tractor and getting some work done.  I got quite a bit accomplished yesterday but there is still plenty to do.  

I'd like to get front completely done and then get a couple hundred pounds of the winter grass seed when the temps are down and are staying down - and - when it's showing it's going to rain for a week straight type of thing.  There was grass growing out there, unfortunately the only way to get rid of the weeds and trees was to run back and forth over it.  That grass will eventually come back. Until then, a nice covering of winter grass will look great and I won't have a weed field to greet people when they're coming in. 

So, I'd like to finish that project before that kid takes that tractor out of there. Unfortunately, tomorrow is 2cd run which means the next day is also second run.  Late days, no time for tractor work. 

Fat.  I dunno, but I'm battling this weight nonsense.  One day it's 22, the next it's 217, then it's 223?!!!  It's not like I'm eating sugar and fat one day and nothing the next.  It's a steady, constant diet of more salads than anything and low or non fat everything else.  If there is beef or pork involved with a meal, it's eating a small portion of it and if I'm still hungry, then I have to fix something else.  Usually a quick sandwich made with keto bread and low/non fat ingredients.  

I just don't understand the weight fluctuation, haven't experienced anything like that before.  

Meanwhile, my initial applications are almost done for the SBA loan help center.  After I get that going, they'll start trying to match me with a bank/s and probably/undoubtedly a lot more paperwork. Gag.  This guy has done several RV parks so at least he knows the nuances of getting a loan for one and what I need to produce to secure the loan.  Since the pool is out, that ...well that isn't going to bring the amount down that much since I want to install covered parking.  

I am finding covered rv carports for much cheaper now that I've started looking. It's DIY but the cost savings is substantial. 3 grand for a 20x40 which is 8 grand installed.  I'm assuming installation is nothing more than sinking posts into the ground, cementing them in place and then building the structure on top of it.  It's still 30 grand for 10 of them.  Go for the gusto and get 20 of them.  I can include a price for all of it in the bid for a loan.  Amazon has $46,232.87 for 15 of them including shipping, tax and 2 year warranty plan on each one.  The warranty is $129 a piece.  

That's just a preliminary search that I am not engaging in today, it's Sunday, I'm finally going to church and enjoy a nice day off.  I worked yesterday outside and it was blazing hot.  Tomorrow, the trade off for a late start is - a late start. That's Kamala Harris style speaking.  Except this has meaning: I don't have to get up at 5:30 am, I can get up at 7:30 am instead.  I like to be at the loading plant between 11:30 and noonish on the second load day.  Tuesday I'll be there around noonish as well.  2 hours later than the first load appointment time, plenty of time for them to deliver the product and get out of there. If I show up and they are still there...it's not like I showed up AT their loading time or that I am going to somehow get in front of them. If they want to complain, they can and I'll explain the same thing to the manager.

Right now? I need this job. The hours mostly work out for me - I wish I could get early load every time but I understand that's not possible and it's home daily with a very rare day where I stay out because of a truck problem.  The pay is ok, not great but not bad either and mostly good for the amount of hours I have to work.  I can't see many scenarios where I would ever go back to OTR again.  The money is great and that's the only thing good about it.  

Today is the first day of Fall, I just remembered. Looked it up a few weeks ago and here we are.  So, having a 91 degree day isn't all that Fallish, but it's a comin'!

Time to get ready for church. 

G'day

 Saturday - mid afternoon

Goodness, I've not attended to my blog in the last several days.  Just busy.

Allen came back yesterday so I went over today and we had a discussion about his kids, their lack of motivation and the fact that stuff isn't getting done in a timely manner, if at all.  Not my deal, my deal was with you. If you can get them to do the stuff, great, if not then we're going to have to do something else - like you paying rent. 

Allen was barking out orders to them this morning, especially the dude.  Fix this, fix that, btw you ARE going to fix the boat (I told him I was going to pull it out of there, he said no, he's going to fix it.  The discussion went on: I'm willing to pay him, this isn't a park related thing), mow the grass once a week, etc.  I'm guessing he'll move on, but that's just a guess.  He hasn't been brought up in a home where they don't teach a work ethic, I do know in life you can become overwhelmed by everything, shut down and just do nothing. 

Been there, done that.  Something has to kick your @$$, basically, to get you back in gear.  I don't think Allen barking orders at him will do that, but it will get him to either working or he can leave, either or.  They certainly got busy right away as soon as he showed up tho.  He's only staying until tomorrow so I have no idea if that effect will continue on, but I do know that I will be letting Allen know whether they are doing as agreed - or not.

Now that I seemingly and finally have something going there, let's discuss the upgrades.

No, I haven't heard anything back from the contractor but he did ask for the legal name of the park yesterday so I'm hoping that means he's working on it.  They are busy people, I do know that, but to stay busy, you have to make bids and quotes.  

I have decided against an in ground pool.  It's way too expensive and the upside to it isn't that much, I don't think. Some people like pools, a lot don't use them.  A hot tub, however, is a completely different story. 1st off, it's much cheaper, especially if you get a used one that is still in good shape. There is relatively little to install.  A water line and 220 volt for the pumps and the heat.  I will very likely install a pool, but it will be an above ground version with a deck built around it, much cheaper.  And I won't do it until next year, no point in it now, we're going into cooler season very soon. 

No, what I have determined that is an upsell that people really want is covered RV parking.  These are park fillers.  People will pay more for a lot with a cover over it and they will be happy to do so. Of all the things I have been studying and watching, the covered parking is the best upsell there is available, over pools, spas, club houses, etc.  Another upsell is having park wide BBQ's.  That takes a lot of time tho and it's also not particularly cheap to feed that many people. Once in a  while is ok, Allen was doing it frequently but with people bringing food to help out.  

Anyway, I've been looking at pricing on these covers and they aren't cheap.  I'd like to find some that are maybe DIY kits, haven't gotten that far yet. This stuff would have to be baked into the loan, I don't have that much money laying around and even if I did, I wouldn't want to put it all on one thing and just not have any cash available.  I can say I've put a lot of thought into how to get people in there.  If I add lots and can't keep the place full, there is no point in it.

I also have a major competitor now who is doing a lot of advertising and also is offering $200 off first month's rent.  So,  countered with $100 off and did a Facebook boost ad.  I have had no responses to it yet, but it hasn't been 24 hours yet either.  I feel like if I could just write an ad with "Covered RV parking!" and hype that up, I could actually steal people, so to speak, from other nearby parks.  So that's where I'm at in my thinking about all of this.  The contractor gave me a look the other day and said - "don't get into too deep".  He was obviously talking about spending too much money.  I agree and it further confirmed that an expensive in ground pool is not necessarily that great idea.  

I won't even do a mortgage if the monthly payment is too high.  I am not going to jeopardize losing the property over mega-high payments. But, presuming I can get a decent monthly payment on a 30 year loan, I'm definitely going to go for it now that I have a clearer path forward.  I can see going $2,000 or thereabouts per month, maybe a bit higher since the income will hopefully be there. But I would base it on being partially full, not completely full all the time.  You just can't do it that way, people leave and sometimes it takes time to fill the spots back up.  I think right now I'm going to have trouble because of this new player in town, tho I feel like I have made a decent counter to his ads. Besides boost I'm also going to post it in all the local selling groups.  

I dunno, but I am doing the best I can with the circumstances I am facing.  I'm not going to reduce my monthly rent prices beyond giving a first month discount. The new guy's rates aren't any better than mine and my 50 amp price is $25 cheaper per month.  I just need the necessary amenities that will draw people in.  So, I'm also looking for hot tubs. If one is popular and not enough? I can put 2 in.  I don't really care except I think it's going to have to be have a cover over it and that may be a bit pricey.  I feel like, at least at this point, that I don't have to go all out with super nice stuff.  I can go all out with cheaper stuff that does the same thing. Won't look "resort style", I never claimed to be operating a resort.  If people don't like it, go somewhere else. I can't and won't be able to please everyone, I knew this going into this deal. But I do need more than what I have right now.  

What I am really relieved about is getting the adult kids of Allen dealt with. I didn't deal with them, Allen did as he should have to begin with. They had no accountability until I got tired of it and texted Allen who then started cranking on them - they are living for free there, this deal between him and them was they did a certain amount of work around the property.  Now, I'm just going to text Allen - this and that needs done, please contact your kids, thank you.  

That pretty much covers the last several days.  I was out there today on the tractor plowing down small trees and brush with the bucket and then mulching them with the bush hogger.  I got quite a bit done.  I'm trying to get the front completely tidied up so I can just have some grass in there.  It's already looking much better but there is more to do. It got way too hot and I just ended up quitting for the day. It's 92 degrees out right now, which with all the humidity, is ridiculous.  It was the first day I had an opportunity to use the tractor since the kid brought it back.  I guess I could go over there this evening for a couple hours before the sun goes down? Maybe. 

The kid did not, however, bring the box blade he said he had and that was a bummer. The driveway is getting messed up again and I need to blade it.  The driveway is a constant PITA and if I get the loan, the cost of fixing it will be baked into the cost of adding lots, the contractor already agreed to that.  It needs a dozer to get it smooth, a trench on the hill side of it and then add some gravel.  He wanted me to do it like he did the RV park driveway - but that's way too expensive.  You're talking 20k at least just worth of rocks.  I think that if I get a drainage ditch put in and have a crossover for the whatever to drain into, this problem will be eliminated.  

I don't remember what I've posted about trucking, but the situation with another driver turned into an argument several days ago. That problem has allegedly been fixed, I dunno, I'm off this weekend and driving trucks is the furthest thing from my mind right now. I need to print out a couple of applications for the SBA loan and get started on that. 

In fact, I'm going to do that right now.  

 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