Wednesday - night

I'm sitting here watching some movie with Gerald Butler I think his name is, always doing wild action movies saving presidents and things.  

This job grows weary on me.  I have worked 6 days in a row and still have 2 more to go before I get a couple of days off. And it's not like I don't have a plethora of work to do at the Park. I mean, at this point, I could keep busy for a long time.  The thing that is helping me change my mood on that is the temps are coming down.  I mean, enough that it doesn't feel like you are walking into a sauna turned up to 115 degrees and feeling like you're cooking to death.  No, the last several days have been much nicer.  

Well, tomorrow will hopefully go like the last 2 loads getting the tanker loaded down in lufkin.  I have gotten in and out of there quickly, unlike the 3  previous loads where I was there for 2-1/2 to almost 4 hours depending on which day it is.

Things are fixing to change drastically around here for quite a while. The guy is going to truck driver training school in Arkansas which will leave the parenting duties to the mom, but I will be helping out of course.  It isn't that big of a deal - until it turns into a big deal. Namely, the youngest kid who likes to not listen when he doesn't feel like it.  

I'm going to have to pick it up in certain areas of dealing with household chores as well.  I take turns cleaning the kitchen, I'll probably just start cleaning it every day until he returns.  But even when he gets done with that school, he'll then have to go out on the road. I don't know what his plans are, but to make any money and especially just starting out, you're going to have to drive the miles.  3,000 of them a week minimum for a decent paycheck.  I drive a little under 500 miles per trip which only means 1,500 miles per week if I do 3 loads to put it into perspective.

In the trucking world, I don't drive that much. I have mixed feelings about the current job.  I hate the equipment, it is all junk. One driver texted me 2 days ago saying "MY TRUCK BROKE DOWN AGAIN!!".  He is trying to go to college while doing this job and every time the truck breaks down, he ends up missing classes.  He said he can only have 2 more absences and after that, they will disqualify him for the school year, lose the money and have to start all over again.  I feel for him, this isn't the job he needs. He needs some sort of job in-town with a dependable schedule even if less money.

He is learning to do IT work, which can be very profitable.  

I've gotten lucky in the last little while with no major break downs.  They don't have extra trucks right now, the "extras" are all in the shop, some of them I think may be put out of commission altogether. In my view, ALL of them should be trash heaped and buy newer equipment.  With all the money they spend on towing and repairs, I think perhaps they might come out ahead just making payments.  

The list of things I need to start doing at the park on the expansion haven't dwindled at all. I have done nothing since the dozer work.  It'll get done when it gets done?  Yup.  I could go into the list, but I've already done that several times.  I'm just glad that the temps are coming down.  

I was watching the footage of the Catholic school shooting.  An 8 and a 10 year old - dead. 17 people injured, several are in critical condition.  This person was transgender.  Anti-Trump, anti-semite, DEI, woke, left whatever. These are things I have seen commentators saying, whether they are true or conjecture I can't say.  Excepting the transgender part, he/she was definitely trans.  The evil in a person's heart and mind to kill innocent children is beyond me.  I don't understand such things, these are unthinkable acts of nonsensical violence. Since the "thing" - man - took his own life, who knows what motivated ... it?  I'm sure they'll dig stuff up about him/her/it.  

As usual, certain politicians blame guns and use such things to call for gun control.  

Well anyway, it's getting close to time to go to bed.  I haven't been sleeping well and I think I know at least one of the reasons why.  The window AC unit is getting noisier and noisier.  It helps keep this room cool. Yes, this house has a massive central AC system but this room is an add on and there just isn't enough of the air getting in here.  I have been needing to replace that thing for a while now, I just haven't gotten around to it.  I may try just turning on a fan tonight, turn that thing off and use a phone app white noise maker. Or green noise, actually. I have found that green noise is actually a much better sound than the fan noises.  

I have to have some kind of sound to drown out noises that occur in the night, such as the neighbor coming home at 2 am and making all kinds of noise in his truck.  

Well, I'm getting offa here.  

 Monday - night

I dunno, this company.....

I get a text from another driver whose truck is always breaking down: "This truck broke again!".  I'm stuck on the side of the highway, been sitting here for hours!  I feel for him. He's trying to go to college while doing this stinking job and if he keeps missing classes, he'll forfeit the school year and have to do it over again.  This company and it's junk trucks is not exactly a place I would recommend to someone who needs something dependable in terms of a schedule.  He was only 23 miles away from me, but what was I going to do?  

He didn't make it to class, in fact, I think he's still stuck on the side of the highway some 6 hours later.  It's exactly why I refuse to drive one of those other brand trucks this company has a plethora of - they are always breaking down. My truck is pile of junk, but the break downs it typically has doesn't shut the thing down on the side of the highway.  

I got done relatively quickly - tho it took an hour and a half just to unload not including everything else you have to do at the plant, I still got home before 2.  That's not bad for the Gurdon portion of this run with more mileage to drive.  

I've gotten nothing done on the property since the dozer work was completed but it was recommended and I had already thought about spraying weed spray all over the entire portion of the area that has been done. We're talking hundreds of dollars worth of liquid to mix in a broad cast spreader.  I saw one at Harbor freight, it holds 15 gallons.  I'm going to go look tomorrow, I think.  I have first load. Yes, I am working yet another 2 days, I figured that would happen after hearing they were going to have 3 trucks loading today.  That means all of us are working plus they would have had to drag someone in from somewhere else to cover all of it. 

Yesterday was my dad's birthday - he passed many years ago due to complications of Alzheimer's.  It's something I want to avoid and will be doing a 3 day fast here pretty quick. I did 5 day fast some 3-4 weeks ago, it's time to keep up that pace. Not a 5 day fast, 3 days is enough.  I'm shooting for 7 days on the next really long fast, but I suspect 5 will be enough. I just don't want to try one too soon after already having had done one. A 3 day fast serves a good purpose in getting the cells to get rid of dead stuff and all of that entails with autophagy.  I don't claim to be an expert, I just watch the real experts - all of them are doctors - giving scientific explanations on the beneficial side effects of prolonged, water-only fasting.  

Trust me, I have done a lot of reading and watched a lot of video content about this subject over the years and the information they have now is far greater than what they had 20 years ago. They have been doing studies on human test subjects of fasting and the results are too good to not at least take a look at. Especially people my age and older. Heart disease is a major killer in this nation and fasting helps greatly with eliminating that threat along with cancer.  I'm not saying you can't get either if you are fasting, but it reduces the possibility of it greatly.  

This nation's diet is what's killing us.  It's hard to pass up some junk food, fatty filled food, food with ultra processed ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup - that stuff is really bad for you and it's in a lot of foods we eat.  This is why people start in on organic foods and many end up with the Mediterranean diet.  

I got in and out of dieting.  You just get surrounded by people eating whatever and it's hard to resist sometimes. Other times, I go for weeks or even months eating healthy with few variants.  

Anyway, I have to determine my priorities with this expansion and get started on them.  I need that electrical set up energized so I have a bit of work to do there.  I need to figure out my lots and how I am going to position them.  This has proved to be the most difficult thing for me. That situation continues to evolve as I have to decide if I want larger spaces or just have smaller spaces and get more people in. At the rates I am charging, I think closer together isn't such a bad thing. It isn't great but we're not talking packing them in like sardines, just not as much space as my other lots.  I'd really like to get 18 spots or even more up there.  

I'll be spending a day out there walking it, looking at it, measuring and finally, hopefully anyway, staking it.  Once I can get the lots staked, I can stake out the trench for the utilities.

After that? It's getting everything ready for the use of a mini-ex.  This will include trenching a line from the septic to the starting point of the line through the lots, the lots themselves, the side of the main driveway and finally get some drainage going in there including trenching for a culvert pipe and also another drainage pipe from the RV driveway where water backs up and spills over the top of the driveway. 

That will eventually ruin that area and I want to deal with it.  I also may dig up clay after all of that is done if there is any time left.  It's 24 hour possession of the machine but they only allow 8 actual hours on the timer.  That will be a long day - a day off at some point not too far in the future, I need to make this all happen as quickly as I can.  It's just that when I don't sleep well, I don't have much energy after a day driving. If I can't get this sleep thing under control soon, I'm probably going to go find a sleep expert somewhere and start looking into why, exactly, I wake up several times a night and often times getting back to sleep is next to impossible.  But, there are habits I am changing such as eating too late, drinking anything but water after say, 6 pm - haven't started that yet, I keep forgetting about it - limiting caffeine intake and whatever else I can find for suggestions on the internet.  

For example, I didn't know that looking at a phone screen inhibits the release of melatonin right before going to bed. But that doesn't really matter, I fall asleep quickly, it's staying asleep I have issue with. It's become almost habitual that I wake up 3 hours after going to sleep.  I have no idea why that happens.  

Anyway, it's getting near bed time, time to get offa here.  

 

 Saturday - afternoon

Some nights I sleep well, some nights I don't. Last night was definitively in the "some nights I don't" category.  Which makes for a long, long work day. 

When I arrived up there, the first load hadn't arrived yet.  I was beyond the time they should have been there and either gone or certainly close to being done, not "gee, let's show up at 10:30 am and take our sweet ole' time doing whatever we want to".

Sure enough, the goober showed up at 11:00 am, I was already hooked up and offloading and frankly, I didn't care.  I was in no mood for gruff from anyone including that driver or my manager about it.  The driver was late, end of story and he is mostly always late.  I grow weary of working weekends, missing church and not having the opportunity to spend the day doing what my friends are doing - basically nothing.  

Not that I would have done nothing today, plenty to do now at the park now that the dozer work is done.  I got done, neither the manager nor the driver called/approached me and as I said, I was in no mood for having people giving me hell over things that they create.

Such as a manager continually giving this person first loads and this person not showing up even remotely close to the time even the plant says they should get there - around 8:30 to 9:00 am.  10:00 is the appointment time but it's the unwritten rule that everyone knows including this driver that you should up at least an hour earlier than that. 

Regardless, their system was perilously close to being empty.  Maybe 2-1/2 truckloads in the entire system. That isn't much for a plant operating 24 hours a day.  The 2 truckloads we put in there today will be gone tomorrow.  I know the plant manager knows all about this, he orders the product.  I just mentioned that "the system is almost empty".  Yeah, I'm going to order a third load for Monday.  I'm overly glad I am not loading Monday, I'll be delivering instead. 3 loads in a single day at the loading plant? That is not going to go well, at least not if recent, ridiculous amounts of time to get loaded are any indicator.  

The thing is, until recently, the Gurdon plant was keeping their system as full as possible. It makes sense to do that in case there is an issue at the glue plant or issues getting the product there or whatever, they aren't going to run out and have to shut down the production line (making plywood). You can't make plywood without resin (glue). 

Anyway, I get home and the first thing the 10 year old wants is to wash the dog.  The dog has been smelling badly and the kid wants to earn extra money.  So, I offered him money to help wash the dog (motivate me to get it done, especially on a day when I get home and just want to go lay down in bed and watch tv or sit in my computer chair and play on the computer - games, blogging, reading the news, surfing the internet.  Well, that big old smelly dog is now officially washed.  

And I started back in on papers. Lots and lots of papers.  He wants to just keep dragging stuff out of the closet, I put a stop to it. Too much in here now! I have to have time to go through all of this! The disconcerting part? There is more rat poop on the floor!  I had completely cleaned out the closet, thrown a bunch of stuff out and fixed the wall where the rats had dug through it. They must have dug through it again? I didn't even know we have rats in here again!  I haven't heard or seen them but the poop is an obvious sign.. 

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Night time.  5:30 comes early trying to go to bed late, so I'm going to bed at a reasonable hour.  Everyone else is in bed anyway.  

 Friday - night

A quick update, it's getting late tho I do have 2cd load tomorrow so I don't have to get up super early. Still, I need to get to bed soon.

Anyway, the dozer was delivered around 7:45 am this morning.  I called the operator and told him they are out there with the dozer and need a signature.  I was just about to leave to head over there anyway but I didn't want to hold them up.  By the time I got over there, the dozer had been removed from the trailer and the operator had just gotten on the thing and started on his first run.

We discussed what needed to be taken down and what needed to be done overall and I left.  

The loading today was ridiculous, again.  I wasn't informed until after I was at the washout that they had run out of product and it would be 12:30 before they could load me. At the time, that was 3 hours.  They didn't actually start loading me until 1:36 pm.  The maddening part out this is, they know how much product they have and how many trucks it will fill, they know we are coming, why don't they make enough to cover it?  

Because they don't care, that's why.  

Anyway, I didn't get back until after 4. By that time, the operator had done both the entire area for the lots and the entire driveway, all 1,400 feet of it. He was doing some touchup work on the lot area. We discussed what was next and clearly, the rear of the property needed to be cleared again before those fresh growing trees got too big.   

I left him there doing the rear of the property, he wanted to earn some money and I was glad to get that done as well, keep a new forest from popping up and ending up costing me far more money to remove than the extra half day charge I'll get for the usage of the machine and more to pay him.  Thousands of dollars worth of savings, to put it into perspective. That area is proposed Phase 3, well down the road.  

I mean, there's more to today but that's the nuts and bolts of it.  I will have to run the tractor with the box blade on it to give the lot area a better finish, no big deal there.  The ball is rolling again.  I'm going to try and get the electrical portion done soon enough so I can get the power company out there to turn on the power to the meter.  It's just that it could take them a minute to get someone out there once I get a line run, need to prioritize that now versus later.

Anyway, I am constantly yawning, I'm off to bed. 

 Thursday - late morning

I dunno folks. I woke up at 5:00 am and said nope. Then I woke up to the sound of the pickup taking the kids to the bus stop and I said nope again.  Then at 8:00 am, I woke up again. Nope.  9:30? OH MY GOODNESS! IT'S LATE!

Then I realized I have nothing pressing today. Things I want to get done and probably will? Yes.  But, there is no dozer over there right now, otherwise I would have shown up at least a half hour before it arrives.  Unless, they are going to deliver it the night before which is what the operator says they typically do.  Well that's great as long as they don't charge for a full or half second day, like the in-town rental company does.  

So, it's 10:00 and I am enjoying the day off, sipping hot coffee, browsing reels and writing a blog.  I haven't even turned the tv on yet and no games.  It's amazing when kids are in school, you aren't awakened early and getting up for no particularly good reason when you have a day off.  I am facing at.......

....................

Phone call interruption.  The operator - who is also a tenant at my park, I know I have said that before but just for clarification - says they are ready to bring that machine at noon. 2 hours from now.  So, in about an hour, I'm going to get my water ready, get a bite to eat and get over there. I'll get on the tractor and help out however I can.  I don't care how long I have to sit out there, the operator is used to operating machines for up to 12 hours a day.  He's expecting $250 for the work, I thought that pretty fair, actually.  The whole thing will cost me $1,250 unless we go over 8 hours. Then I asked him to ask them how much they'll charge if we have to go, say, 10 hours?  

So, not a day off at all. But irrelevant, I got to sleep in and I'm stoked that we can get this project moving along.  In fact, I am going to dig out a portion of the line running from the power pole to the meter stand, take a pic of the type and rating of the line so I can get more of it to run to the stand again.  I haven't done that because - just haven't been motivated to do so. It's not going to take forever and I was hoping to just rent a mini-ex once the dozer work is done, trench that out and also trench out 3 or 4 lots worth plus trench across the existing driveway in an area where water pools up when it rains, put stick of pipe in there and make sure that water doesn't destroy my driveway.

And also, to dig out a trench along the main driveway and then run a large pipe underneath where water goes haywire during rain storms and get that water draining properly.  It does a number on the driveway every single time it rains, pretty soon I hope to be able to fix that problem with storm drainage pipe, I also happen to have SCH40 12" , tho I don't know if it's enough. I think 20 feet is enough tho.  

Basically, every time an advance in the project is made, I'm immediately working on the next part.  What I just described is the next part.  

Oops, just remembered I need to take the Ford into the upholstery shop this morning. But that won't take long and my friends said they would take me from there to the park where the pickup is parked.  

I'm so glad I didn't find out that this is happening today until now.  If I had had that call earlier, I wouldn't have been able to sleep, my mind instantly fills with thoughts. What do I do today to help? Or just get stuff done while he's doing it? I intend on being out there until he quits for the day no matter how long that is.  So, I got to sleep in and that was very important to me, sleeping in well beyond what I expected and feeling pretty good right now.  

Which is also a good thing, I need to feel good to make it through all of this lol.  

And I am oh so glad I wasn't loading yesterday.  My driver friend yesterday from the company I work for was giving up me updates. He was the second load, the first load didn't even start loading until like 2:30 PM!  At that late hour of the day? Both trucks should have been loaded and long gone!  

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Many hours later. I get another call after doing a bunch of stuff to prepare for today......and.........find out the dozer isn't being delivered until tomorrow, the machine hadn't been picked up from the jobsite it's already sitting at.  Beyond that, the company wouldn't take a credit card over the phone, I had to go clear over there 30 miles away - to pay for it in person.  If that wasn't enough, I was given directions to the wrong rental company.  When I figured it out, I realized I was 15-20 minutes away from where I was supposed to go and had already passed the place earlier. 

If that isn't enough and ironically? It's pouring rain right now.  You can't do that kind of dirt work in the rain, period.  So, it was a good thing it wasn't happening today even tho that really throws it off for tomorrow, when the delivery is going to be made.  

 Wednesday - evening

Forced myself to man up today, get whatever energy I could muster and get stuff done.  Work, obviously, but that is a granted.  After work, it was the dude cleaning out the Ford. It was a mess and I'm getting it all readied up to either sell it or start using it again.  Either way, it's not going to just sit there. That's how vehicles go bad and start falling apart.  Then the dozer operator - who lives in the park - came up and we spent a couple hours discussing the project, walking the entire area where I want the work done, explaining what I want out and what I don't want out.  

Do NOT, under any circumstances, take down ANY pine trees!  We added oak trees to that mix and anything, really, besides those sweetgum trees. Yes, some of them can stay, but some of them have to go to make room for pads.  

Well, since the Ford was cleaned out, I decided to drive it home. I looked at the year and month registration sticker on the windshield, it expired 2 months ago!  Ugh.  Went home, got the insurance papers and then went to the county courthouse to get it registered.  Over to the upholstery shop, a bit pricey on getting it done but I didn't expect it was going to be cheap.  After that, harbor freight for yet another, 2 gallon chemical sprayer for the weed/grass spray.  Trey stole the last one, it's gone.  

That was "it" for the day, I went to Chili's after that to visit with an employee that I hadn't seen in a while.  Also saw some friends that I have hung out with there and we chatted for an  hour or longer. A lady I used to see there often when i was going out to eat all the time passed away a few weeks ago.  Bummer, she had a heart of for stray dogs and was always picking them up. 

After that?  Home, dinner and now finally sitting down in my bedroom.  

Tomorrow is a day off, but.......it's not really.  I am going to fill that chemical sprayer up with grass killer and spray all the lots.  I need to dig out a portion of the cable at the power pole so I can take a pic of it and get that done. I need to run the line between the meter and the power company's pedestal.  I need the right size. I hope to be able to at least get the cable and get a start on digging out the trench. 

Oh! The plant today.  Well, I got up there, pulled up, got my stuff going and then? Some truck pulls up behind me. Who is this guy? He gets out of the truck, walks around then approaches me.  Do you know where to check in here?  Uhh, sure. I explained where to go and then asked him what he's hauling? Caustic.  I was wondering if we were already being replaced, lol, but another company hauls the caustic stuff.  Then the glue man came out of the side door and I pointed at him- that is exactly who you need to speak to.

I got lucky on that one.  If I had arrived up there 5 minutes later, I would have had to wait for him to unload.  As per the spill, the glue man said he went out to look after I left last week and just thought it was funny. It was like there's nothing there, lol.  Yes, I know, but we are required to report it regardless.  If 2 drips go on the floor, I don't care, but a gallon of water tainted with glue spreads out all over the place.  

Tomorrow's agenda is to simply__________________

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Well, tomorrow is to try and get stuff done. Apparently there is a strong possibility of rain so i guess it's a good thing there is no dozer tomorrow?  I just found a set of 4 security cameras that have their own, built-in solar panels. No charging them, wireless, I have plenty of internet access where I need it and want the cameras.  I want to put one in a tree facing the outside of the shed so I can see what people are doing = there are things going on that I don't know exactly what it is but odd stuff.  

I can do some tractor work as well, some dirt needs to be sifted through. Just want to dump as much dirt out there as possible, the operator says he can get it a bit more level.  Tho, tbh, as far as level goes, it's  not that bad.  Smooth - not at all, lol, hence the reason for the dozer.  

Anyway, it's possible we'll get it out there Friday.  

  Tuesday - afternoon

Made quick work of the pickup today.  I was done at 1:00 pm, which is good.  Tomorrow, I have a dentist appointment at 2, so I'm going to have to get up early to get my trip to Arkansas and delivery done and back by - well shooting for 1.  

I'm also trying to get it set up for Thursday to have the dozer delivered for the day.  They say the rental comes with 10 hours of use, which should be plenty.  I want to be there for the dozer work and I have Thursday off. Of course I do, for they want me to work yet another weekend.  And I suspect these types of schedules will continue on until they get at least 1 more driver.  

I'm just eat it for a while until they either find someone or I get sick of it and then...start looking yet again.  I haven't started yet, I figure to give it a chance. They said we are in jeopardy of losing the contract, but I wonder if the manager isn't blowing it way out of proportion just like he did with the water spill situation? Maybe, maybe not.  I wouldn't think my manager would have that kind of contact with the higher ups of a large corporation with plants all over the US.  I would suspect that kind of communication is with corporate.  

Anyway, I haven't heard back from the dozer rental place so i contacted another one. Neither are particularly close to my place, I have no choice. It's do that or pay even more for someone to bring their equipment and operator.  

 Monday - semi early

I had no plans to get up early today and I didn't, beyond waking up to the sound of the pickup taking the kids up to the bus stop.  

Yes, I still plan on going over to the property and seeing if I can knock out the bush hogging. It's hot out, I don't really feel like doing anything, goals are never met sitting in bedrooms watching tv.  

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    Went over, filled the radiator up, fired it up, went over to start bush hogging anddddd.........nothing.  Something is still wrong with the attachment. The blades move around but they are secured in place. So when they hit something, it just gives instead of whacking it down. I think I did this last year after hitting something, the boy thinks the blades are just dull.

They may be, but even dull blades will do some amount of hacking, just not as efficient. This is just running the stuff over with the tractor and nothing at all happening beyond the grass being smashed down from the tires.  

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Many hours later.  I was reading that my brand of riding mower can hack down even tall weeds. I mean, I read a lot of different sites about it and videos before I thought, hmmm, maybe this bad boy can actually do it?  So I went back to the property, got on the zero turn mower and headed over to the offending area.  And sure enough, that thing was plowing down 5-6 foot tall weeds like no one's business.  It was amazing.  2 hours of that and I was done with most if not all of it.  

I took the mower back to it's parking space and then drove the pickup back over to the area and just sat there. And then moved around, all over the place, aligning myself where the intended driveway would go.  That went on for a couple hours. I was trying to figure out how I could stuff 14 lots in there spaciously.  Not crammed together.  It started to fall together after quite some time and I thought, I can actually get 18 lots in this area and they will be nice lots, some of them will be very nice lots!  

The property narrows at the front.  There is a swatch of trees there, some of them mature pines, I am not cutting those trees down this time such as the contractor thought I should last time. That won't ever happen again, actually, I don't care what the contractor thinks, I am the one that has to live with AND pay for the results, not him.  I want my damn trees and that's that.  So I figured it out. At the front on the east side, I can put 2 lots in paralleling the driveway.  These lots will be right next to beautiful trees. I will command a higher price for such luxuries.  

It's the west side, amazingly enough (at least to me) that will accommodate many more lots. As I started looking and counting out in my head, I got up to 18.  I'm going to want the sprinklers for the septic systems moved to the edge of the property.  I really wish the septic around here could be the leach field instead of aeration.  Aeration works well enough, but there is a slight odor to it.  Hence wanting that stuff move further to the west.  Actually, what would be really nice is if the city could add to their water line going through the neighborhood and install sewer lines. 

Actually, I just want all the sprinklers in a small area.  I don't care about the swampish effect, that area will not affect the rest of the operation and well away from lots and people.  It may be a do-it-yourself thing, their hands may be tied, I'm not sure.  I've seen systems with a bunch of sprinklers all in a small area and they just put a fence around it and that was that.  The northwest corner will work.  

_________________

2 days off is over. Time to go to bed.  The incident at the plant? The driver who I'm pretty much friends with said the managers that were up there today hadn't even heard that something happened. Exactly, it was a giant nothing-burger blown out of proportion by my manager.  I only reported it because they want you to report it at that plant, they don't do anything if it's a small spill but they want to know, naturally.  

Speaking of friends, this guy I have been chatting with at church for some time told me yesterday at church that for "some reason, I was thinking about you". No, he isn't gay lol, that's not what I mean, he's actually engaged to be married. I've sort of been wanting church type friends.  I have plenty of non church friends and I have lots and lots of Christian friends - but none of them live anywhere near here where I live.  

So, we are going to go have lunch at some point in time that hasn't been determined.  

But, my mind is full of this expansion now that I have all that weed stuff mowed down.  I'm going to try to get the dozer operator out of his abode tomorrow to come take a look and get his mind filled with precisely what i want done and if he is sure he can do it and if there are any obstacles or things that need to happen first.  I'm not going to pay a thousand dollars for a dozer for one day and whatever his pay, a couple hundred anyway, and not get everything done the way I want it.  In fact, I want to have it be a day off so I can hang out on the tractor in case I need to help him at all.  So, maybe we can do this next week I'm thinking.

Once that dozer work is done, it's going to get the ball rolling a lot faster.  But if it won't be until next week, I can go back over all that I have in  my mind about the layout again.  There's some trees that need to come down, but I'm hoping he'll say he can push them down instead of cutting them. Cutting them would therefore entail stump grinding, an apparatus I don't have and don't want to have to need.  

Actually, it also makes sense to go get 40 feet of 12 inch culvert pipe and get that in place and have him push dirt over that.  Or however that's supposed to work. Now that I think of it, I need to do some research on that.  Do they just cover it with dirt or do they put pea gravel around it and then dirt on top? or what?  And then gravel on top of the dirt.  I wouldn't mind getting the second entrance/exit installed now.  

Do you know that 40 feet of that pipe is probably around a thousand dollars?  Hmmm, $618 plus tax for 40 feet at Lowe's.  Not bad.  

5:20 comes early, time to get offa here. 

 Sunday

A beautiful day off, much needed and frankly, well deserved. Tomorrow as well, but the way things have been going lately, who knows if that will actually materialize?  I've got bush hogging to do over at the park and if I can get that done, I'm going to go visit with the dozer operator, have him come take a look and then plan on when to have the dozer delivered.  The bush hogging shouldn't take more than a couple of hours at most.  

But, who knows, lol.  I really need to get pushing with this project and get as much done as I can do before the funds dry up.  Meaning, before the funds are gone to the limit I want to take it with cash on hand.  I must have X amount of cash to meet contractual obligations and monthly expenditures.  

But not just enough to meet those, I like to keep quite a bit on hand in case something happens, such as my current trucking job disappearing because the customer isn't happy with our performance.  Still, I should have enough to do the dozer work, get the electrical in between the pole and the stand and then put in hopefully 3 lots to start with.  That includes pedestals with meters, enough sewer pipe to reach those 3 lots from the septic system, water line, the electrical line between the stand and the pedestals, renting a trenching machine or mini ex (probably the latter) and have enough gravel brought in for the pads on each of the 3 lots. 

However, if I can only do 2? Then 2 it is.  Get those lots rented out and start using the money to reinvest right back into more lots. This is why it will take a year or who knows how long to get 14 more in there, finances.  It's a desire to get them done without going into debt.  I mean like, any additional debt.  Just cash, if I can't afford it, it waits.  I can see at least half of it done in the next 4-5 months anyway.  

It's the goal I'm currently working on and I really wish I were on the other side of it right now.  This would open up the doors of opportunity for a large loan to put up a building and 25 more spots.  If I had my druthers, the building would be an event center that has a full kitchen, bar area, a couple hotel rooms and a gathering center.  Along with a game room and C store.  We're talking some serious money and I'd have to have professional analysis done to see if it's viable in that area.  

We're talking a few years down the road - or - when interest rates are finally brought back down.  Sooner or later that Fed chair is going to have to do it.  If he doesn't there's already talk of governors on the board over-riding him and lowering the interest rate regardless of the chair's feelings about it.  The strange thing is, he's a Trump appointee from his first term. I guess give the guy credit for standing his ground, but is he standing on solid ground? 

Church in less than an hour, out to eat somewhere, home and just spend the day at home after eating.  

That's it for now, G'day. 

 Saturday - late

Got up at 4 am, got up to Gurdon, did the offload and then....

I flushed out the line with water, pressured aired it out.  All well and fine. I have a bucket underneath where the line hooks up to the trailer, you do that for the drips that come out, tho it really doesn't do much so how that bucket gets full of water and resin I have no idea.  The bucket was maybe 5 inches up from the bottom with water tainted with resin, making it red, but definitely just mostly water.  

I pulled the line off, it slipped out of my hands, fell onto the bucket and probably a gallon of that water ended up on  the sheet of plywood they have down there.  We are not talking a big deal here.  I got some kitty litter, sprinkled it on there but reported it to the plant manager.  I said it wasn't a huge spill and just red tainted water, had put down the kitty litter.  He shrugged it off, said fine. 

Then I contacted my manager, who blew the thing up WAY out of proportion. He was acting like I had just dumped an entire truckload of glue onto the ground.  NO, this is just water with the hue of resin color.  It's literally nothing.  Well you are going to have to write out a report and send it to me so I can send it to the rep at the glue factory.  

I didn't feel like arguing with him, whatever, I don't really care.  But then the truth came out as to why he was freaking out.  I am not going to name the names of either plant, but one makes wood products and the other makes the glue to put certain wood products together.  The plant that makes the wood products has allegedly been hounding the other plant to get rid of us and that we are on the verge of losing the account. 

I asked why?  Because of so many late loads.  I forgot to ask him, late loads as in a day late or late as in not showing up on time?  Because I am never late unless, on rare occasion, something happens to the truck like a flat tire keeps me from getting there on time.  I don't know, it was the first I had heard that this was even an issue.  But it's typical for trucking companies and many other types of companies as well. They don't want to tell employees that they may not have a job, tomorrow, the next day, the next week, whenever, because they don't want them to go looking for new jobs and just up and quit.

YET, the companies have no problem sticking it to the employees AFTER the contract is cancelled. The phone call comes: "Sorry, but we have to let you go". You don't get advance notice from THEM, even tho they could have if they had wanted to.  Perhaps some people WILL leave and I wouldn't blame them.  Many would stay and ride it out to see what happens. It might even be the impetus for the employees to not only stick it out, but start going well above and beyond to try and keep their jobs. 

So that kind of threw me into a thought process that has been going on since then.  Perhaps not put in applications, but find the companies I might like to work for beforehand so I am ready in case that does, indeed happen. 

I dunno, but I've just put in 6 straight days of work and all 3 of the days I was at the glue plant, I was held up by them well beyond the appointment time, I always show up early there. They do not care how long we have to wait.  Us showing up late in the day to the wood plant doesn't matter at all. They are almost never so low on glue that they are in jeopardy of having to shut down the massive plant.  It's happened once since I started there that I was on vacation and our company had trucks break down and etc to the point that the plant almost ran out of glue.  

The company screws itself, however, with old junky trucks that are continuously breaking down.  And drivers not treating those old junky trucks with kid gloves.  You can't beat an already beat to death vehicle and expect it to just keep chugging along. We have some pretty bad drivers, tbh. 

Anyway, I'm winding down. It's late, I was playing games with the kids but I am ready to go to sleep now. I'm not going to fret over this company losing the contract.  They will either put me on the Ennis run if that happens or they will just tell me there isn't any more work, sayonara.  Oh, and me spilling some red water isn't going to lose them the contract.  

Tomorrow is church, Monday I allegedly have off, if I do, I will do the bush hogging. I am more motivated now than I have been in a while to get the ball rolling on this expansion project.  Let's move along now!

 Thursday - night

I slept like hell last night.  It was miserable and getting up this morning was agony.  Just one of those nights I couldn't sleep and probably got around 4 hours worth.  But, I just get into a mode while driving, deal with it, get it over with, go home and take a nice nap. Which is exactly what I did.  I actually felt worse after taking a long nap than I did before it. I chalked that up to extreme lack of sleep the previous night.  

Besides counting a bunch of quarters, doing dishes and dealing with a person who was detailing my truck, I did little else the rest of today.  No park related issues at all. The tractor is fixed - I didn't break it - but it needs coolant.  I'm hoping for a better night's sleep tonight so I can go to work, get off and get an hour or two worth of tractor work done on the area where I want to put in a driveway and pads.  

It is going to cost a fortune to build an entirely new driveway out to the street.  I'm calculating 28k for 6 inch deep.  I don't have that much money to spend on a driveway.  My plan will work out, but it will take time.  It's going to be back in spaces off the main driveway at first.  This way, I'm only having to put down gravel for pads, not for pads AND an entirely new driveway.  

I'm already committed to this what with having spent the money on a septic system, I will figure out some way to make something work.  I've got to sit down over there and start making drawings and attempting to come up with a plan so I have something to work with.  '

I dunno, I'm not going to stress over it but I will definitely be doing a lot of thinking and research.  Maybe not so much research, I've already done plenty of that.  

This is where I'm at atm with this expansion project.  It's going to cost a lot to get to the finished product regardless of the fact I am either doing the work myself or farming some of it out to subcontractors - the septic system and the dozer work mostly.  

I dunno, I just can't think right now, I'm too tired.  

 Wednesday - evening

Today was a day off, so I went to bed last night after midnight.  I mean, I was watching a movie and sporadically playing the game, just lost track of time, but didn't much care for I knew I could sleep in, even if I wake up a few times a night.  Who cares, right?  Sleep in until 10:00 am if necessary!

Yeah, I worked all day today.  The phone calls started at 7:45 am and I completely ignored the first one.  I was groggy and had no desire to talk to anyone, let alone my manager.  I knew what he wanted before even talking to him,  I just knew. He has no reason to call me early excepting for one thing.  He called again, leaving a message.  I think it was the third time I answered the phone.  Yes ***** (his name I won't identify here for a myriad of reasons).  That's exactly what I said and it wasn't in a pleasant tone.  

I want my day off. If I am given it, I want it. I make plans, I have things to do - or not do if I so choose. Whatever it is, it gets into your brain, it's a psychological thing: I have tomorrow off, I will do this that and the other thing. It sets in your brain like Jello cooling off in the refrigerator, it solidifies and you become comfortable with it. You are open to some changes, but nothing wild like - going to work. 

And that's exactly what it was.  Again, I knew what he wanted before any words were spoken.  I was so not into it.  He went on and on about some dude calling in and saying he's sick. Yea, who waits until the morning to call in sick? If it's so bad you can't go to work,  you usually (tho definitely not always) know about it the night before. That's when I'm calling in: Hey, I feel like hell, I know I won't be able to get up tomorrow, sorry.  In fact, I tell them as soon as I've figured out that, oh yes, this is bad, I'm not working.  Gives them a chance to find someone. 

I was very grumpy, not just because of having to go to work but because I had gone to bed so late and wasn't sleeping in like  I wanted and needed to.  It was many, many hours later before that wore off and I started to feel like, ok, this day is now tolerable.  As I said, it's mostly a mental thing.  You knew  you didn't have to work and then baam! You had to work. And it threw off the entire schedule.  I was supposed to work tomorrow and Friday and then I would have another weekend off.  Nope.  Now, I am working until Saturday and then off Sunday.

Oh, and no, now that he has put THAT one in place, it's not going to change. At least not for me. The only thing that I would find acceptable changing is if the plant cancelled a load

But it gets worse. It was after 8 am when I talked to him, I didn't actually get on the road until around 9:30 am, WELL beyond any time I normally would start even for 2cd load.  He put that load in my tablet and then later on, he put the Friday load in there. It was the SECOND LOAD AGAIN.  NO NO NO.  I immediately contacted him and flatly told him I wasn't doing a second load after getting the shaft today.  

He's well versed in this stuff, it's his job. Oh, well just be there at 8:00 am!  I thought about that for a second and agreed.  I could get the day done very early and have it over with, have the rest of the day off and all of Sunday.  It means getting up at 4:00 am on Saturday, I can deal with that. Take a nap when I get home type of thing.  I will do it, I don't want to be out mid afternoon Saturday doing this S***.  

The whole situation is still agitating me.  I was thinking about it today: September, next month, marks my 2cd year at this hell hole and also my commitment ends.  I said I would work there 2 years.  I am guessing I will get phone calls sooner or later from corporate.  The recruiter to be more precise.  She had asked over and over for "5 years" and I replied over and over "2 years". I never relented on that one and seeing how people come and go? yeah, that is a long time lmao.

Reality? I can't stop working next month. Nowhere near having enough income from the rv park to afford that.  Well, maybe if I didn't have the debt I currently have.  Do I want to continue working at this company? HELL no.  But then again, I don't want to work at any company.  If this subject comes up, I will tell them "more money will keep me around".  I don't really want to start looking for another job, but I did see a local tanker company today that I thought, hmm, what are their hours and days working?  Then I thought, probably horrible, just like everyone else.  

I was contacted when I was 20 minutes out from the park, we are going out to eat, it's been determined to give you the decision where we are going?  I thought El Taco immediately and that was confirmed so that's where we went.  People laugh at the name but they have the best Mexican food in the city, IMO.  There are a LOT of Mexican food restaurants and food trucks in this town, this on is authentic. Not saying the rest aren't, just that these people have it down.  

What else?  Well, I still need to get those weeds chopped down. Maybe tomorrow after work?  

I want to continue to make progress, I already have money dumped into this expansion, let's go! with it.  

The park is full? yes, I guess I've said that recently but I really mean it. I don't have a lot reserved for overnighters now, it's all long term and that's the way it's going to stay unless someone leaves. Then it's overnight until I get it filled again.  I have all but given up on overnight stuff, people just aren't coming and it's a waste of revenue to keep something available that is hardly getting used.

I think I'll end this one now, even tho there is a lot of politics I could discuss, the biggest thing that has gotten my attention is the federal police "takeover" of DC.  And talk of doing the same in LA, Chicago, New York, Boston and who knows where else. ABOUT TIME!  This disgusting takeover of our nations' largest - and democrat controlled and run - cities by thugs, murderers, thieves, robbers, etc is disgusting and outrageous.  We have become acclimated that "this is normal"> The HELL it is.  It doesn't HAVE to be normal. It's all about "Defund the Police" and letting criminals go with little to no bail.  

Trump is reverting this nation back to something it used to be, which in many ways was far better than the nonsense we have going on now. 

But I don't have time to go into my thoughts on that subject and the rest of what Trump is doing, much of which I fully support and agree with.  It's almost 9:00 pm and I'm watching the original Star Trek, lol.

 Saturday - morning

It is Saturday but I just published thursday's unfinished post, lol.

We had a change of plans yesterday at the last minute. We were going to go to the waterpark today, but the lady of the house remembered she had a prior commitment that she couldn't break.  So, it was 10:00 am, yesterday and we just decided the heck with it, let's go today!

about an 80 minute drive over there, we get out of the vehicle and walking over to the ticket window.  Some lady way down at the other end started yelling at the lady, but she was busy talking to her man (I'm not sure I should be putting my friend's names on here so I am trying to remember to discontinue doing that).  I tried to get her attention, then the dude's and back to her - that lady down there is yelling something at you for whatever reason.

The other lady?  4 of her family members were a no show, she had free entry tickets, did we want them?  Does a snake eat rats?  Does Superman fly? We happily took those tickets - which saved me $120 or so and that was all she wrote.

This was not a huge waterpark but it was plenty of fun and the biggest plus? There were not that many people there.  I went down the long, fast, winding tubes until my head started getting dizzy then I headed over to the mini wave pool.  Nothing like I expected at all. A wave pool is a giant pool - at least at other parks I've been to - that sends out very large waves. You get a raft, go all the way out towards where the wave comes out as close as they'll let you get to it and you start paddling like crazy.  

You ride that wave all the way into the shore which is usually at least 100 feet if not much more.  Often times you crash over top of people - but they are standing there expecting it for whatever reason, but I can tell you from experience, if you crash hard enough into a person, they are going to feel it.  

Well, this pool was maybe 50 feet long if that by 30 feet wide and just these little waves being created making more of a nuisance than anything, but we adapted.  Just played Tag You're It!  for an hour, then went around the lazy river, back into the tubes, over to the wave pool but I can tell  ya, I spent more time in the lazy river than anything and pulling trains of people along behind me.

I was exhausted by the time we left there at after 8:00 pm and still feeling it today.  

So, the days were reversed and I am trying to muster the energy to go over and mow the grass over there and maybe try to get some bush hogging done as well. I'm not very energetic after yesterday.   I didn't even get out of bed until 9:00 am after going to bed at 9:30 last night.  I'm glad we reversed the days, I can see trying to go to church today and then get ready for work tomorrow.  No, no, no.  I was exerting quite a bit of energy yesterday pulling those tube trains around.

 Thursday - mid afternoon

Got back from Gurdon and was greeted from the front of the truck a very, very loud, constant noise like something extremely loose.  Whatever it was, it was quite noisy.  I sent a video of it to the mechanic and he called me and asked me where it was coming from? the front of the engine somewhere, I can't tell, it's too noisy.  That engine is already noisy as all get out without whatever is going bad on it.  The have stethoscopes you can use to pinpoint noises, nothing I'm interested in buying. Get a mechanic out here and have them use their tools, this ain't my truck and not my responsibility beyond reporting it and getting the ball rolling.

As for Gurdon, I was second load but slated to be there at 11 am.  I got there at 9:50 am.  I figured if I had to wait, no biggies, I'd be ready to jump on it as soon as the first load driver was done, I could play my game while waiting. 

Instead? There was no truck there.  But I knew gut feeling that whoever was the first load hadn't shown up yet.  I didn't care, got weighed in, got to the delivery shack, hooked up the air pressure line, went inside and got it signed off, came back out and got everything hooked up and got the resin flowing.

It was 10:20 am by the time that was all done and the resin flowing.  Then? The first load truck shows up.  Nosympathy.com, they should have been there an hour and a half ago at the very least.  If they wanted to chat with me, they could certainly get out of their truck and come do so. They did not. New drivers, they don't seem to last long.  It was an hour and a half before I was out of there, shrugs shoulders and moved out of the way once I had everything completed.

The delinquent renter finally paid last night.  I had the boy go over there and get it from her, I owed him some money for doing that dirt work anyway.  She still shorted it $15 and I immediately called her out on it. "Oh I was fixing to get to you about that.." as if somehow I wouldn't catch it.  

I intend on going over to the park tomorrow morning and getting some mowing done and also trying to get a mechanic out there to look at it. That was the end story of that, our mechanic dumped it on me to find someone.  There are plenty of truck mechanics in my town and tomorrow is Friday so it shouldn't be terribly difficult to get someone to come look at it.  

 Tuesday evening

Of course the manager thinks he's somehow doing me a favor by switching things around so he dumps me with 2 load tomorrow. This is nothing unusual for him, I more than half expected it when I checked today.  Like, driving up there, spending the entire day and driving back - that's almost 6 hours of driving  and the rest waiting for the truck to be repaired - is hardly some sort of favor and frankly, the way I was going to do it would have worked quite fine and I would have had first load.  

Turns out, anyway and there is nothing I can do about it, a bit too late now, that what was causing me to fly all over the place every time the truck hit a bump was the shock absorbers on the cab.  Cabs have both air ride and shocks.  Work pretty much like a car suspension.  I thought the air bag retaining nut was gone, but it also turns out the front axle is set up differently for those things than the rear.  Weird. 

Anyway, he pulled those shocks off. They weren't just bad, they were completely separated.  The top wasn't attached at all to the bottom on either of them.  It was basically a trampoline effect.  Hit the floor of the trampoline - hit a bump - you fly up.  Dramatically. It was the straw that broke the camel's back in getting things repaired. The other PITA was the safety release valve on the trailer. It kept going off at 14 PSI when it shouldn't be going off at the lowest 25, but really 30 PSI.  They fixed the door switch for cab lights - it was staying on all the time.

__________________

This is not Tuesday evening now, lol. Just started that one and decided why ditch it to the infernos of everlasting non-published-ness?  That isn't a real word, but you get it.  

It is now Wednesday evening, steaks are on the grill and we are about to eat a fabulous dinner.  Steak, corn on the cob, a little salad and a few potatoes.  Light on the potatoes please, lov'em but they are so stacked with carbs.  Trying to change the way I look at food. An occasional steak I will do for sure. I'm hardly eating beef or pork at all as it stands.

Oh, and this morning? This first load dude didn't show up until 11:00 am.  I was already there and tho I waited quite a while to get loaded, I would have had to wait a LOT longer if I had arrived when he did.  His bad, so sad, don't care, arrive on time and you won't have these problems.  

The saga of the non-paying "renter" goes on.  She claims to have the money but she keeps pushing the run around endlessly.  I gave here the low-down earlier, I have dealt with people like this and I know how they play. They just keep leading you on and on and on and...on...and..........onnnnn...............

You will be trespassed from the property and the sheriff will be called and I will show them the Texas Statute.  You trailer will be hauled off the property by a tow truck and placed in an impound yard.  Yup, I said that to her and that's because she lied to me multiple times and I have really no reason to believe her now, except now?  Is the time to get rid of her.  

UGG. 

Much later now.  Almost time to go to bed. 

 Tuesday - mid morning

At the yard in El Dorado.  I'll be here a while.  First off, I got a late start.  The alarm was set and it was going off - but it wasn't making any noise.  At 6:00 am I woke up without the aid of the "blaring" alarm and realized instantly that it was much later than it should be.  The light of day clued me in on that.  When I looked at the clock, I jumped out of bed and started my morning routine in a very rushed manner.  

I tried a different route up here, more direct approach but slow speed limits and lots of small towns to go through, definitely the scenic route.  I ended up taking 2 hours and 45 minutes to get here anyway, partially due to a road I was on having a washed out bridge.  Louisiana is notorious for that back in the boonies where old bridges prevail and they are grossly underweighted.  Built back in the days where no heavy trucks were going through there or expected to, you can see bridges with max weights as low as 5 tons.  

They've slowly been replacing them, painstakingly slow.  Oh, yea, the sign for the washed out bridge? Right before the damn bridge lmao.  Had to figure out how to turn around on a narrow 2 lane highway.  Got up here and here were 4 mechanics working on a single 5th wheel plate, trying to dislodge it.  In fact, 5 minutes after I arrived and standing there watching them, they got it off but said they had spent that last 2 and a half hours first trying to get it off of the trailer and then trying to get it off of the truck.

Apparently the driver didn't get under the trailer correctly and the kingpin was barely being held in there.  Catastrophe waiting to happen, if that driver hadn't been up here switching trailers, he might have had a loaded trailer disconnect from the truck while driving down the highway.  

Anyway, they wouldn't have started on my truck before that so getting here a little late wasn't an issue at all.  

Yesterday - crazy.  

First off the dentist office. They took a bunch of x-rays and then said I had no major issues - thankfully - beyond the need for crowns.  Then it was a cleaning - rather painful when the lady was digging that thing down into my gums, but necessary.  She said "If at any time it gets to be too much, i'll back off immediately".  I replied, no, I'll just eat the pain, would rather have it done right.  After that, the dentist came in.  Looked at everything on the x rays and paperwork and then started examining my teeth.  

I knew the idea of putting on 4 crowns would be costly, but what he came back with with crazy.  You're going to need to raise the gap line so the crowns will actually fit on there, which means we would have to replace all the crowns - 13 of them - on the upper row, plus a bridge on the missing tooth, plus gum work, plus we would have to grind down the bottom row.  That was an immediate no for me, they've been grinding my teeth forever, they aren't doing that anymore.

Which was confirmed by him anyway, he said if they get too short, I'm concerned about tooth sensitivity.  You know, when you drink something cold or hot or whatever and you get an unwanted sensation in your tooth or teeth? Yeah, that. No thanks double down now.  The cost wasn't the biggest issue to me, even tho he stated between 10 and 15k.  It's this idea of gum work and grinding already ground down teeth.  

The other option, he stated, was a bridge. I knew he wasn't fixing to tell me dentures, because I'll have none of that either.  I'll pay for implants before I go the dentures route.  I don't want removeable teeth.  A bridge is basically permanent.  He showed me a pic of a man's mouth, but before he showed it, he said he wasn't happy with it but the client was.  I looked and saw no way, no thank you, that looks as fake as the scam phone calls telling you you owe the IRS blah amount of money and if you don't pay now, they're going to come arrest you.  

However, the client had chosen them to look that way. The dentist said he would have opted for far different.  I want my teeth looking natural, not obviously fake.  He said he could do that.  That took 2 hours and I have another appointment to start that process.  They wanted to wait for my insurance to determine how much they would pitch in for that.  As it stands, yesterday's visit was free, thankfully, all of that was covered under insurance.

I went straight home after that, got the dog and went to the vet.  Was there 8 minutes early and still ended up waiting an hour before they got to me.  

There was a dog that had been brought in for an emergency so they pretty much dropped everything to deal with it.  I can empathize with that, if they are overbooking I not only don't empathize, I get pretty vocal about it.  Anyway, they gave him all shots.  Including a dose of heart worm preventative medicine = Heartguard - that is 12 months.  You can get it for shorter duration, and it's extremely expensive regardless, I just forked over the money for 12 months worth, won't have to worry about him getting heartworms. 

They tested him and he came back negative - because I had had them give him the 12 month dosage last time.  The only thing that was out of normal was his ears.  I knew they were doing  something funny so I had them inspect them, the vet said he has yeast infections and they gave drops to put in there once a day for 10 days.  The bill for that visit is what floored me. I was thinking $300-400, the bill was $698.  For shots!  It was the Heartguard. That was $316 alone.  I also got him Bravecto - lots of mosquitos in these parts, I wanted him to be a bit more comfortable outside.  Double dose, double the price.  $160 worth of that stuff and it is only for 3 months.  Still, in 3 months it will be winter time so no need for it.  

Yesterday was busy and the dentist and vet visit were last minute stuff that they got me sneaked in same-day, glad to get it done really. Especially the dog, He was a bit past due for the shots.  

 The park is completely full once again.  A student at a local tech college moved in, he's only there a few months they said, but whatever. I'll take it filled over nothing.  Someone else will leave sooner or later and it's just a constant thing.  The nature of RV parks, people come and go.  That doesn't concern me, it's when I have a lot of empty lots and I'm thinking, why am I expanding?  Oh, yes, because they'll fill back up sooner or later and then I'll be turning people away again, that's why.  

Too late now, I already spent the money on the new septic system, It's a go regardless.  It may be a slow-go, but it's a definitive go.  These things take time and money.  Just the way it is.  I want to get a couple more lots in as fast as I can tho, I need to get that dozer work done and now I have the end of that particular tunnel in sight, at least.  

That new driveway is going to be costly.  Now that I have determined the only real way to go is to create a new driveway all the way to the street, I'm going to have to not only have the gravel all the way to the street, I'm also going to have to lay drainage pipe and create a new entrance.  That will be thousands of dollars in and of itself.  

I don't know where the money for that will come from, not an issue right now.  I can install a couple new lots as back in lots and use existing driveway.  I have no choice, I don't have 20k for gravel right now, or I kind of do but I can't be spending it all on that.  

Diet.  Going well actually.  I'm doing a strict version of keto temporarily.  No heavy amount of fats this time around and I won't be doing it too long.  Just enough to take advantage of being in ketosis and maybe trying to get down to 200 and then switch back to alkaline diet.  Or my version of it anyway.  It was working, just pretty slow.  

I don't know what else?  Oh, I've got 3 days off coming up now.  My manager called to figure out this week, he switched me from having to load today to getting the truck fixed and loading tomorrow, delivering on Thursday and since I basically demanded the entire weekend off? I have 3 days off coming up.  I was perfectly fine with that, even tho the manager was like, well I'm not trying to give you too much time off for your paychecks....no worries at all.  

Since Saturday is going to be taken up and Sunday I pretty much don't do anything unless my job is making me do so, Friday off will be good. I can get the mowing down at the park and try to get the weeds hacked down for the dozer work.  Then I can have the dozer delivered and get the dude out there to smooth it out.  He knows what he's doing, I need to get him over there and tell me what to do to get it dozer ready. I know about the weeds, I have a question about some of the trees I want to take down. 

Would it be better to cut them down with a chainsaw or can you push them over and get the whole thing out and no stumps?  If he can do that, I'll just wrap ribbons around the trees I want to keep and he can spend the day out there getting that job done.  I'm also going to want him to fix a part of the main driveway that is uneven and has humps and dips in it.  

Well that's enough. I'm going to play my game.  

 Monday - morning

Day off.  No way I'm taking that truck up north to get it fixed, it can wait until Wednesday after delivery.  I had thought I was working today but I was wrong and glad I'm not.  

Finally snagged a spot to get Obi - my Great Dane - in to the vet to get him his shots and get his ears looked at.  Probably just need cleaned out and whatever they put in there, drops if I recall correctly, for whatever is ailing him. The dog is in obvious discomfort and he also shakes his head half the night and keeps me awake.  I did not sleep very well last night because of it.  

Well well well. The manager just called and asked me to plan the week.  I said sure, I'm loading tomorrow and delivering on Wednesday and then going to take the truck/trailer to the yard to get stuff fixed.  He said well what if we have you come in tomorrow and get it fixed, load Wednesday and then have 3 days off? Yes, yes and yes.  

This is actually a much better deal for me. I get paid to go up there and get the stuff fixed, get a load and then have 3 luxurious days off. Saturday we are going to a giant indoor water park, end of summer for the kids and we decided to give them a last hurrah to usher them into - the joys of school.  That starts Monday I do believe.  I'll be glad for that, on my days off I can sit in the house in peace and get stuff done without constant this and that from kids.  

Friday I'll devote to the park, Sunday is church day, get back to some sense of normalcy.  

Actually, maybe I can find a dentist to take a look at my teeth on Friday, I need 4 new crowns to replace the disastrous work the previous dentist did. That's a great idea, actually and I'm going to look around for recommendations after I finish this post. Probably just go to the gossip group.  

The other guy in the house quit his job and is waiting on 401k payout.  Then he's going to fix things around the house and end up in some trucking school in Arkansas.  He was going to do this a long time ago but things didn't work out. Now?  Well, he thinks it will make him a lot more money and I wish him success.  He tried to start his own side business but there is a lot of competition around here for the type of work he was doing, even tho it's skilled labor, just a lot of people are doing it.  

Once he leaves, things are going to change around here quit a bit.  He won't be home to help out with the kids, tho his job kept him out late every day anyway - but - he had 3 day weekends.  Not complaining just sort of allowing room in the space of my head for probably a different sort of landscape around here.  It will help they're in school, that's basically most of the day for her - the lady of the house - to get her stuff done. I am usually home in the afternoons when they get home from school so usually it's all covered.  There are friends of family that live like a block away and they are always willing to help out if they are available.

Anyway, I couldn't wait, called a highly recommended dentist office that is literally 2 blocks from my house.  They are, of course, busy so I just left a message, trying to get in on Friday.  If not, I'll make an appointment for 2 or 3 weeks from now and take the day off.  

So now that I have 3 days off, that's going to make this week go by pretty fast.  It's only 3 more days of work and one of them is just take the truck up, sit around picking my nose for 6-8 hours and then go back home. The next morning head over to the washout, to the plant and then deliver the day after that.  I'm all good with that.  

Well, let's go all out today. I've got an appointment, new patient, for a different dentist than the last one who gave me buck teeth.  I'm assuming they'll want to do x rays, cleaning and consultation about how much crowns are going to cost. Not cheap, I already know that, somewhere around a grand per tooth.  I don't like going to dentists, hence I haven't been to one since I had an emergency extraction. Oh, I guess I'll have to get something for that too, probably a bridge.  There is nothing there atm, lol.  It's costly, I'm looking at 5k to do all of that easily.  This time, however, I'll be asking about a warranty or replacement or whatever to understand that I am spending this much money and if one breaks off, then what?  

So, this afternoon is all of a sudden busy. Nothing I wanted to do, things that must be done.  

Tomorrow, I'll get up at 5 am, head up to the yard, be there around 8:30 am, spend however many hours waiting on them to repair everything - they must fix the airbag and the pop off valve and the door switch, the rest is whatever.  

You know what I feel like doing? NOTHING.

 LOL

 Saturday - evening

Up early this morning, got down to Nacogdoches, over to Lufkin and back up to here in about 6-1/2 hours.  That's about as good as it gets.  Work again tomorrow and then Monday off. Tuesday and Wednesday working, presumably Thursday and Friday working as well and then the weekend is off. The weekend is off regardless of what they say, I've already informed them I'm not working next weekend. I didn't ask, I informed them.  It's 4 weekends in a row now and I'm just not doing this. As I said in previous post, I'm not going to just sit here and eat this and not be able to go to church and let junior drivers take precedence over me.  I ate the after-vacation garbage, time to be done.  I ate it this weekend as a good-will gesture for respect but that's it.  

I've got a dozer operator in the park, I remembered, he's allegedly pretty good, so I'm just going to rent a dozer, have it delivered and have him do the work.  This is easier than finding someone and he has an operator's license for dozer work.  

_________________

Just going to do Sunday here. 

Sunday - afternoon

Got up early, went to Gurdon, unloaded, came back, texted the manager and the mechanic there are several things the truck needs done to it, I'll be bringing it in after next load.  

I won't go into the whole list - it's mostly minor stuff - but today I finally got so annoyed with the truck bouncing like a ping pong ball all over the place every time it hits even a small bump, I started doing an exhaustive search for the issue.  

The mechanics couldn't find it, hence it's been like that for a while now. I knew it HAD to be something with the suspension, I just wasn't finding it.  This time, I had an idea pop into my head.  The airbags have a stud on the bottom of the assembly that goes through a metal crossbeam and attaches underneath with a giant screw.  I started checking them and walaah.  One of them broken off.  It was after that that I said no more, let's get all of this fixed.  

I have tomorrow off and then a run on Tuesday, so I can go to the shop on Wednesday after I get done unloading.  

On another front, this person that moved in.  I won't go into all of the details, but she lied to me about having the rent after someone had already pulled the thing over there.  When I finally got her at the door after several attempts, she handed me $85.  Fast forward what, a week later?  And I'm still getting the runaround except today?  I told her to get me the money or get that trailer out of my park.  End of story.  "Oh, I'm sorry I should have been up front with you at the beginning, I don't get paid until the 5th".  

That set me off, but we were texting thankfully or I would have filled her ears with "information" that she wouldn't particularly want to hear.  I did tell her I was annoyed and how many times I've been over there and yes, I'm done with this.  I am giving her til the 5th since it's the 3rd already and I told her if she doesn't have it, be prepared to move the trailer off the lot immediately.  I didn't threaten the Sheriff, but I will if I have to.  

I'm a bit tired, got just short of 6 hours of sleep last night which isn't enough.   I can sleep in tomorrow but I was also annoyed I was working on yet another Sunday.  I don't like Sunday work and dislike it even more when you figure 3 out of the last 4 Sundays I've both worked and missed church.  

 Thursday - night

Late load today, but it was scheduled to pick up at 11 am instead of 1 pm.  Hadn't seen that before, got home at a reasonable time.  I'll be showing up at the plant around 10:30 am tomorrow morning, that should give ample time for the first driver to unload and I'll still get home at a decent hour,  around 2:30 if it works out. 

Day 4 of fasting is now completed as of - right now actually.  I have a chicken broth I started in the crock pot going, 18 hour cooking time.  I'm going to end this tomorrow, I figured on either 5 or 7 days, I'm not going to make it 7 days especially considering I have been scheduled yet another entire weekend to work. If I weren't working, I would probably try going 7.  I'll save 7 for a future date.  I figure in a month or 2 or I'll do another extended fast and will probably do 1 or 2 day fasts in between.  

Oh, speaking of my job, I informed the manager today that I will not be working next weekend, that I have been working entire weekends since I got back from vacation excepting last weekend where I worked Saturday but not Sunday - still weekend work and that after this weekend I'll have worked 4 weekends in a row.  I expected to get some crappy work after vacation, but enough is enough.  I wasn't asking for next weekend off, I was telling him I'm not going to work.  He responded in the affirmative and that he was sorry and would get me back on my normal schedule.  Thank you.  

About time.  He would have just kept doing it unless I had said something.  I just couldn't believe he had dumped me with another weekend of work, I think I have paid them back in crap runs.  The last load up there I was stuck up there 5 hours and it was incredibly hot.  I think the temps have come down at least up there, not here.  

I had a new person move in, but I didn't have time to collect until yesterday.  I stopped by and this person handed me $85.  Uhh, you said you had the $400?  Oh well I"ll have it tomorrow.  She wasn't there today so I contacted her telling her I need my money.  I'll get direct with people when I need to, if they think you are a pushover some people will just walk all over you.  She eventually replied and said she was at the hospital with her father and that she would be back later. I had already been there twice today, I responded I'll be over tomorrow.  

1 more week and kids summer is over.  I discussed today with T about taking them to an giant indoor water park about 60 miles away, of which she replied in the affirmative, let's go!  The man of the house, whom I'll call J, quit his job - I'm not sure how long ago, a few days, a week?  Not long ago.  He was tired of the way they were treating them and he wants to get into the trucking business. Not any of my doings, I don't recommend trucking to anyone for a variety of reasons.  But he's intent on it and I'm not going to try to talk him out of it, he figures to make a lot more money than what he was making at his previous job and I suspect that will definitely be true.

But the real deal was tonight, he came into my room and handed me his phone telling me to read it.  The company he just quit? Is closing down.  Now there's a 6th sense? He was talking about all of the stuff that needs to be done on the house and I definitely agree. I don't want to pay for that kind of stuff for it isn't my house.  I mean, I could see myself adding on to this room by 10 feet to the north side, yet that would cost a small fortune.  

Nope, my money is tied up in this rv park and will be for some time. If I'm buying a pool, it's for the park, we can all use it if we want to - over there.  I do intend on getting a pool, it's just been put on hold until I get more revenue coming in from the park to help pay for the monthly expenses.  As I have stated previously, I have no intention of maintaining it, it will be handled by a service to come and keep the ph levels and chlorine accurate and keep it clean and such.  It makes no business sense to put one in until I am "rolling in the dough", or at least, making a nice sum out of that place and wanting to attract higher paying guests who want access to a pool.  I was quoted 105k for a medium sized one (it's very large) so I think I'll downsize that but I will also shop around. Plenty of pool builders in this region. 

I figured 60-70k is the max I want to spend on one.  Or I could go the cheap route and put in a large above ground pool and have a deck built around it.  Talking 15 - 20 k doing it that way, but I'm not sure about the appearance or the quality.  Maybe if there is a professionally built deck around it.....

I'm not there yet and won't be until I at least get these 14 new lots in.  That is going to take some time and I"m in no huge rush because of the intense heat.  Those 14 lots will be costly and I will have to do it in spurts of 2 or 3.  It's the gravel and electric that is high dollar, can't get around it but it will limit me from attempting to get all 14 done in a short period of time.  I can see 20k in gravel and 15k in electrical alone.  

However, I couldn't even begin to think about starting until I got that septic system in .  One step at a time.  I figure approximately 2k per lot doing it myself.  And then I'll have the extra problem of needing another bathroom.  

Anyway, it's getting late - 10:00 pm - I don't have to get up too early but I'll still need to roll out of bed at 6:30 am.  

 Wednesday - evening

So, today, people at the plant in ?Gurdon were taken to the hospital for heat exhaustion, stroke, etc.  This hot weather isn't playing any games and I want no part of it.  The plant manager was visibly overheated yesterday, I sent him off after he was helping me - thanks for the help! He left immediately, presumably to go iuto his nice cool office and get some relief.

I got my stuff done today and that was that, I haven't been outside for more than a few minutes at a time since then.  Evening time now, I'm sure it's not near as hot out there. 

This company has me working the next 4 days.  I'm going to be telling the manager next week that I want a full weekend off.  This will make 4 weekend work in a row, with 3 of them being both Saturday and Sunday and off.  I don't know what is going on here, but it's going to stop.  I need the work so I'm going to take it, he's setting up my schedule so that I will have to do weekends. I haven't said anything to him about it, hence he thinks he can get away with it.

No more.  Getting ridiculous.  

Fasting got so hard for me today that I had to watch several YouTube videos of doctors walking everyone through 5 days worth of fasting.  The real benefits start tomorrow. Yes, there are physical benefits that have started already, autogaphy should have started yesterday, I'm in full throated ketosis now and other things, but the T cells and other things don't start until the 4th day, which starts for me in about 30 minutes. 

Now that I've made it this far, I fully intend on going 5 full days.  Anything after that would be icing on the cake, but I'm only committing myself to 5 days.  I don't think I can make any more than that.  Since I started that diet maybe 5 or 6 weeks ago, I'm down 13 pounds. I am guessing some of that in the last few days, I dunno, I didn't get new batteries for my scale until today. It shows 215.  I was near 230.  My goal, if attainable which I know it is but it seems daunting, is down to at most 190 pounds. 185 would be better.  

I'm just happy that eating fruits, nuts, vegetables and mostly fish and some chicken/turkey has paid off.  I would like to think my cholesterol levels are also coming down.  I'll have it checked again after I've done 6 months of this.  

Ketosis throws a monkey wrench into the works.  It's highly effective but that wasn't really the goal here.  The goal was an internal reset, the real reset according to 2 doctors I watched starts on the 4th day and continues on into the 5th.  The videos motivated me to stay on the fast and now it's 8:30 pm so it's not going to be a problem finishing the night out without eating, I will be going to bed in an hour.  I'm quite fatigued from this venture, can't wait to start eating again lol.  

Well enough of this.  I am really tired it was just too early to go to bed.  Hoping tomorrow might be better.  I think the problem is ketosis and I'm no longer fat adapted like I used to be and that can really drag you down. Oh, well the conundrum of being in ketosis is whether I want to continue with it after this fast is over?  It would be really restrictive tho, because I am also trying to bring down cholesterol.  It would be a diet of mostly vegetables and meat.  

I'll have to make that decision when I get done fasting, I'm only going to eat some salad, bone broth and soup to break the fast.  You can eat a bunch of stuff when you break a fast, but it is highly inadvisable.  I like the diet I'm on so I am thinking I'll just dump the ketosis.  I like my fruits and bread options as well as the fish and veggies.  We're talking low carb, not ultra low carb such as keto is.  

Oh, brain fog should be clearing up pretty quick here. It hasn't yet, that was another main goal was to get rid of this fogginess.  I think a lot of that is sleep deprivation and the last couple nights, I've slept really well. I figured I would doing an extended fast.  You see? Lots of benefits to fasting, hardly any cons beyond maybe a little muscle loss and obviously being in hunger, that comes and goes.  Just seeing food sets me off. I'm staying out of the kitchen as much as possible, lol.