Trip to West Virginia.  I didn't get slowed down by construction traffic yesterday, so I made good time. Made it as far as north of Nashville and called it quits.  Got into a Love's travel center just in time, only 2 spots left, I got one of them and then another truck came in shortly after that and got the other.  I sat there and watched truck after truck after truck rolling in looking for a spot.  It's real dilemma.  It needs to be addressed. Cities and towns that don't want trucks around anywhere unless they are bringing stuff, otherwise, get the hell out of here.

That's the way I see it. I see no truck signs everywhere. No parking, no truck parking, trucks take this route, trucks aren't allowed in the city. It's a bunch of bs.  You want what we are hauling but you won't let us park somewhere to go to sleep?  And if we don't find a place before that magical 14 hours is up, we get dinged by our companies and/or if DOT catches it, we get written up and fined?  Crock of crap. I think it's Arkansas - they "voted" to not allow trucks to park on Interstate on -ramps.  I'm not sure of the state, but I think it was Arkansas.

Really?  Would you like us to come park in your front yards?  Even places we deliver to don't want us around. Meanwhile, they are trying to pass a bill to allow drivers as young as 18 to fill those seats because there is a shortage.  Oh, maybe you should fix the freaking problems that are driving drivers out of the business and you wouldn't have this issue?  What a load of shit. 

Texas is the exception. I can literally find a place to park just about anywhere.  I think.  Well maybe no going through Houston and Dallas, but the towns you drive through have places all over where you can park and cops don't mess with you.  If they have "no trucks" signs up, it's usually for a legitimate reason. 

Anyway, it started yesterday afternoon. I was not feeling right.  Starting to get a sore throat and headache.  It got worse last night and today - I"m not full blown sick but I sure don't feel good either.  No idea whether this is severe allergies or strep throat that's going around or what.  It was bad enough that I got a hotel room for the night.  I intend on going to sleep early.  What I feel like in the morning will determine what I do.  The problem is that they are always lacking trailers. They will want this one back as fast as possible - which is sometime Thursday, probably late morning.  But if I am sick, I don't care.  I'll hole up in a hotel as long as it takes to feel good enough to drive again. 

I got yet another "critical event" warning on that Quaalcomm device.  I had no idea what it was until I was finally done for the day. I'm not pulling over to find out what this stupid machine wants to tell me.  It says I had an "extreme overspeed event", meaning I let the truck get rolling too fast down a hill. Whooopdeedoo.  I will get another warning from the company.  This part of the company I'm not comfortable with. Little dictators called "The Safety Team".  I spent more time in orientation hearing about how you can get fired than anything about how happy they are you are there.  I don't need that and other devices on the truck to tell me how to drive.  I have done quite well in my driving since 1985 and I don't expect to change any of that.  I'm not going to bow down in fear to these people, either.  If  it comes to that, we will be parting ways.  A bunch of desk jockeys that have no clue, whatsoever, what it's like to drive a truck and do the work involved with driving it 14 hours a day.  Okay, I stopped at 13 hours and 30 minutes today. Whatever.  Yesterday I left myself a 30 minute window in case my parking plans failed.

You have to do that now. You can't just pick a truck stop in advance and "know" that it's going to have spaces. You have to leave yourself a window so you have time to find somewhere else.  I could have driven another 75 miles today, but the only truck stop or place to park along the route I have to take has very few parking spots.  The truck app says it's full all the time. I went in there this morning to use the bathroom and check it out.  Very small place, not room for more than maybe 10 trucks at most.  Besides, I wasn't feeling good and I got in 565 miles today. Not the greatest but acceptable.  It's where I would normally stop on the other trips. 

:Lol, Taylor warned me earlier: don't you dare come home sick!  No worries. If I am, I'll isolate myself away from the boys and everyone else in my bedroom. My dogs will be happy to be with me : )  I am very good at disappearing when not feeling well. I don't want to talk to anyone, just leave me alone, thanks, no I don't need anything, I just need to lay here and live through this misery until it's over.  Been that way all my life, not likely to change anytime soon lol.

Car dealer said no problem getting me financed. Not sold on it yet, but was looking into it.  Depends on the interest rate, the price of the truck - I'm not going to get into financing on a car, thanks and any other "special" things they want to add to the price.  No new vehicles, either.  And it has to be in good condition. I don't want any blemishes on the outside, no dents no dings, no major scratches.  The interior has to be in excellent condition.  That's it.  These dealers will always try to sell you something you don't want and I am very good at getting up and walking out of such places.  I have two vehicles, I'm not hurting for a ride.  My Jeep needs the AC fixed, but James is using it until he gets his car fixed. And his motorcycle went down. The car doesn't need much tho.  He just doesn't have any time to do anything. 

Working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week will do that. 

I'm exhausted but too early to go to bed.  Some decent movies on, think I'll kick back and relax. 

Getting run pretty hard here.  On my way back from this trip today, I was given a run to the place I have been to in West Virginia 3 times now?  It's a good run.  A bit over 2,000 miles. No detention pay unless the plant screws up. I'd rather the plant get their stuff right and get detention pay at the other end. The plant makes you wait in very uncomfortable chairs in a 40 foot modified container (like they use for shipping).  It gets very boring. You aren't allowed in your truck, you can get in there if you need something, but really, it's no fun. 

Anyway, that's Monday - early. The first load type of thing, you know, the one I hate?  Yeah, that one.  I was able to at least hook up to the trailer I'm taking and get my paperwork ready so I don't have to be doing that at 4:00 am.  Which means an extra 20 minutes to sleep lol.  The first day of any of these trips on the first load is misery for me.  I just pay for it all day long. There is nothing I can do about it. I would have to go to bed at 7 pm, I can't do that.  Well, I can but I'd wake up at midnight and never get back to sleep. 

As long as I'm working here and getting up this early, that will likely never change.  I don't consider this a permanent job.  Whether that changes in my mind over time, I dunno, but at the moment, it's something like a 2 year gig - providing I don't screw up badly - and move on to something in the loca work realm, which is, of course, gasoline or diesel fuel.  Screwing up badly would be something like rolling the tanker over, pumping the Ethylene into a tank that doesn't have Ethylene in it, stuff like that. Pretty much impossible to pump it into the wrong place, everywhere I go, the plant operates the plant side, I don't have to deal with that. If they pump Ethylene into the wrong tank, that's on them.  I ask anyway, tho, just to cover my @$$. 

I've gotten very much more confident with operating the truck side of the equation. Much more than even the last time I said this on here. I've been through a bit already with this job, even tenured drivers look at me funny with the stories I already have to tell. What gives me confidence is finally understanding what I am doing.  With zero training on unloading trucks - which is appalling - I've come a long way. It's really consumed my thinking in the last - months, many  months.  C'mon. Anyone reading this for a while understands the nature of this chemical.  You don't just haphazardly do - anything - with it.  The first leak in Massachusetts - which was LNG - was terrifying.  I didn't show it tho, lol.  You aren't going to solve a problem by freaking out, jumping up and down and running for your life.

Likely you don't keep your job and more likely, you could have sat there and figured it out eventually.  The thing I have always kept in mind: whatever happens, stay calm.  Don't panic. Be afraid? Sure, but don't let it paralyze you.  I've been afraid. I'll freely admit that. LNG pouring on my head and down my arms? Yeah, that scared the s*** out of me to be honest.  259 degree boiling point?  Explosive? Volatile?  Highly flammable? Wouldn't that freak you out a bit too?  I had all kinds of garb on, I never felt it on my skin, it never got that far. 

Anyway, I'm home now.  I have tomorrow off  I have plans, just chores and things to get ready for a road trip.  Unfortunately it's not a week day. I love weekends but I need to get my dental work done. That ain't happening tomorrow.  I'll be home - if it goes as normal of course - early on Thursday.  I can't call them and make an appointment tho. Not until Thursday. I'll ask them if they have an opening.

Tomorrow Mother's day. Flowers sent and then found out she isn't home. So they are sitting in front of her door, probably wilting in the heat : (  She'll be home tomorrow but I have low hopes that they will survive AZ heat.  Well I don't know, it's not as hot there as I thought it was.  Maybe they'll be okay? 

My son.  I'm not necessarily in the dark with him, I just don't hear from him often. Precious moments when he does call.  Almost as good if he replies to an email.  I know his life doesn't revolve around me, don't expect it to, just nice to hear from him whenever he does call. 

I'm planning a trip to Phoenix. No date, just in my mind. Something that I need to do. See mom, see Caleb and his wife, visit friends, check out the house.  Really a cheap trip, even if I fly out of the local airport 2 towns over.  The flight will be the most expensive thing, Uber the next, eating after that, housing will be provided. I could afford to go tomorrow. In fact, I could fly over the ocean, a thing I have always wanted to do, tomorrow as well.  Visiting family and friends takes precedence.  I think it will be a marathon trip - out 3 or 4 days and get back home and get back on the road. 

Funny having money and not being able to use it the way you want to.  I knew that would happen with this job.  I'm not complaining.  I'm not broke anymore and that's a very nice thing.  I can afford all my bills, have almost 20% in various savings ccount;  medical, dental and vision insurance and still have money left over? That never occurred at Ferguson.  Well, it did in Phoenix. Not to this degree but I wasn't perpetually broke there.  Leaving that company was a no looking back deal. I pretty much burned my bridges there.  I didn't go off like cussing and telling people where to stick it, but I very candidly stated my views on an abusive manager and his management not giving a s*** about it.

I'm kinda thinking next month to Phoenix, but June is historically the hottest month there.  Guess that shouldn't matter that much. Everyone has AC and one of my best friends has a pool he has invited me to come partake of. 

Life is interesting right now.  Not necessarily stimulating, but interesting. 

Hmm. Think I'll watch a movie. 

Okay, so i was sent up to Barnsdall today.  It's in Oklahoma, on Indian Reservation I believe. Or surrounded by it, or something like that.  All I know is they actually have an ATT cell tower out here in the middle of nowhere, so I have 4 full bars of service! Woohoo.  Good thing too, because I changed my plan today in coming up here. Instead of going to Bartlesville nad parking next to the bowling alley and eating at the Mexican Food restaurant, I drove straight up to the plant.  They are no allowing us to drop the trailer at the unloading rack. Unhook the tractor and go sit out in the parking lot until morning.  Considering it's 12-1/2 hours from now until 8 am - which is the appointed unload time, not so much fun.

But the problem here, well there's a couple of things.  First, if I don't get up here as early as possible, someone else might and probably will come up here, drop their trailer and then, when I show up at 8 am to unload, their trailer is already being unloaded.  So, even tho I am supposed to be the first to get unloaded, they just do the trailer that is sitting there first.  They don't care about who is who in line and the other drivers don't care either.

Now, that gives me some detention pay, yes, but not enough to make it worth sitting up in this place all day long. I'd rather get the run over with and get back to Texas.  I only really find 10 hours minimum of detention pay worth the waiting, if it's any less than that, well, I'd rather not.

The other drawback is since I'm waiting, I don't get to go home.  This is Friday, the weekend has basically started for most people.  If that trailer is sitting there, I have been told they will start unloading it as early as 6am since it's sitting there. They'll come wake me up, but they will have that thing hooked up and draining.  They've changed their method up here, they now reuse the vapors that they used to just flare off.  It takes much  longer for their system to absorb those vapors versus what used to be simply turning on the flare, burning it off and sending us on our merry way. The only way to get out of here at a decent hour, now, is to get up here the day before, drop the trailer and wait in the parking lot.

Fortunately there is a convenience store directly across the street and a restaurant next to it.  If I get hungry or need anything, it's just a stroll across the street. But I brought food up here. I might have breakfast over there in the morning, but otherwise I'm good.  Anyway, I fully expect another one of our drivers to show up tonight sometime or a driver from another company that comes up here to show up, go in, drop their trailer and come out and wait.  I beat them, I have my trailer in the number one slot, so, I will sleep better lol.  I was just sent my next load after this one: West Virginia on Monday. Everything going well, that's a 4 day trip and coming back on Thursday, that means that trip will go on the next coming paycheck.

Next paycheck? I am expecting at least 5k.  I'll have amassed at least 40 hours of detention pay and probably more like 50, a whole lot of stop pays and a whole lot of miles.

The Everlasting Ethylene Run

Should have been a one day trip. Overnight and home in the morning at most. 

Instead, I get to the plant on Tuesday at 1:30 pm.  When I pulled up to the Ethylene rack, there were fully 4 trucks in line ahead of me.  I mean, I've never even seen that there.  Maybe a truck or two, but 4?  I'm thinking, how many hours am I going to have to wait here? My appointment was at 2:30, we have to show up an hour early, which I did.  I just sat there and shook my head, gonna be a long afternoon.

I got in the sleeper and went to bed.  Fell into a deep sleep.  Woke up a couple hours later, now another truck had shown up and ahead of me.  My truck loads coming in from the opposite side than those trucks, which were all ISO tanks.  They filled them all up and then Lance comes up to my truck. Uhh, Ben?  We're out of Ethylne.  LOLOLOL

Okaaaaaaaaaaayyy.  I didn't get out of there until 9:00 pm.  After that, I decided i was too tired to drive too far, so I got a hundred miles in and then pulled over for the night.  Drove the rest out the next morning, got to the plant near Port Arthur. I was directed to the waiting lot, where I waited and waited and waited. 5 hours, actually.  I got tired of it, drove up to the guard shack where they gave me a look. They didn't come to get you? No. She made a phone call. Well, the plant operator forgot to tell the crew to come get you, but they can come now.  Okay.

A process to get the truck turned around, got back to the parking lot and waited 2 more hours.  Enough. I texted my manager and then went back up to the front.  She called me back, explaining that the plant operator had gone home - a shift change - and hadn't passed on the info to the next shift.  Same operator twice? We're on the level of incompetence.  Well, when I got up to the guard shack my manager called and said I have 2 options (but I really need the trailer back here): get up at 4:00 am and get it filled up or go in at 7:00 am.  She wants the trailer back, I opted for 4:00 AM.  The guard apparently thought I didn't know what was going on and tried to feed me a story. Instead of getting snappy with her, I just replied, yes, the plant operator went home and now they are pumping pressure into Train 1 to fill up the ships. 

She looks at me funny and nods, yeah.  Wouldn't have known any of that if it weren't for my manager.  I am assuming heads were rolling after she had called some senior manager who made his own phone calls and apparently let people know how things should be, versus how things occurred.  I like the detention time - 30 hours worth on this trip - but I had to cancel my all important dental appointment and that didn't set well with me. in fact, this trip spread out over 3 days which is ridiculous.   There aren't any stores down there, there is nothing but that plant.  It's positioned right next to the Gulf.  It has spots for 2 giant ships.  No one has built anything for a store within 10 miles of there.  There is no cafeteria on site, if you don't have food and drinks with you? You're screwed. I had food, so no biggies. 

The only good part about this besides extensive detention pay was that that "normal" crew I have to deal with, which includes 2 very arrogant and loud mouthed kids - weren't there.  A very quiet and reserved manager and his crew.  I was left to do all the work - which was fine with me.  I had the thing set up and got the pressure up quickly.  In fact, I had to shut the pressure building down for a while, it got up at the threshold.  This is an old trailer and I was surprised at how well the pressure coils were working. I got it to the right position for the liquid on the valve - about a 3rd of a turn - and that was it. Just wait until the thing emptied, pull out the excess pressure, leave. 

Drove back to the yard.  That plant asked if "that driver" could load up and come back down again?  No, she said, he won't have enough hours.  14 hours for today, to clarify, I have plenty of 8/70 hours.  She argued with them. Sure, he could load the truck but he won't be able to drive back down there, he won't have enough hours.  She got it settled with 10 am tomorrow with another driver pulling that trailer down there.  I don't want to go back down to the freaking place.  They can keep it. I didn't make that demand to my manager, but she can definitely spread that joy around. 

It's over. I was informed that I might have to go out again tomorrow. I said fine. If not, I replied, I'll try to get back in  with the dentist, but if you have a load that needs covered I'l take it. 

So far, nothing. But it's still early.  This trip really wore me out, I'd just as soon have tomorrow off but I won't ask for it.

I dunno, but life around here has definitely taken a twist.  Rene broke her ankle yesterday, so now the kids are going to a daycare.  I'm coming home to no one here. Okay, it's totally fine with me, lol.  Peace and quiet for a while. 

Ugh. I think I'm going to take a nap. Must be that old age thing. 

As much as I didn't want to go into any further debt, the teeth situation is getting a pass.  2 cracked teeth, another missing a cap, 2 fillings needed.  Those are the problem teeth and then beyond that are my front teeth which are cracked and my smile is hardly anything worth looking at.  The problem stuff will be dealt with first, which will add nothing to my smile, just make it so I won't be experiencing painful teeth problems further down the line. 

The dentist said my bite comes straight down over the bottom row of teeth, creating pressure on the teeth, which is what is causing the problems.  He will put crowns on my front 4 upper teeth and claims that he will fix the pressure problem with it.  I'm not sure about that, I don't have any kind of over bite at all and it might feel strange to have that going on in there, but something needs to be done.

Meanwhile, I get to go back to Cheneire much later on today.  That's sarcasm.  I don't want to go, but that's the way the chips fall.  It is, however, 2 short runs in a row, I fully expect a longer run after this one.   I will be getting out of there late, so I'm hopeful they won't mind me parking in their parking lot again. It's outside of the secured portion of the facility and they didn't care last time. 

The whole scenario around here has changed with both James and Taylor working. James is working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day.  I'm not really sure that's any better than what I'm doing.  In fact, I'm sure it's not.  No free time to speak of.  Work all day, come home, eat, deal with the kids, go to bed.  I'm not sure how a company expects it's workers to never get any time off..  That's just a recipe for burnout.  Sure, they need the money, but that is a bit much IMO.  Anyway, Rene is watching the boys during the daytime and making some moolah while she's at it.  I at least get a mandatory 34 hour reset if nothing else, which guarantees at least one full day off, usually 2. 

Well, I think I'ma put buying a vehicle off for a bit longer now.  I need to see what the payments are going to be on the dental loan before I get into $300 plus per month for a vehicle plus having to put full coverage insurance on it, something I don't have at the moment.  Driving an old car, it's not worth putting full coverage on it, especially considering I have a backup vehicle.  It's old too, but it runs fine.  Just doesn't have AC and I think I"m going to get that fixed soon. 

I have not, however, put off the idea of investing.  I have that money my mom gave me and I expect to be doing something about that soon enough. I'm just still undecided how to go about it. 

Well, I think I"m going to go back to sleep for a while. They woke me up early with vehicles firing up to go off to work. I have a late night coming up and I don't want to be falling asleep trying to unload the truck.

Monday evening.
I knew I wasn't going  to be sent anywhere today, my 34 hour rest didn't finish until somewhere about an hour ago - around 9:00 pm.  My manager is back, she called today. When is your reset over? It's kinda strange that she asks me that because she can see when I went off duty and how long it will take for the rest to complete.  Anyway, she wanted me to take the first run.  I bluntly stated to her again, please, that 3 am stuff kills me.  Well, the only other option is the 2:30 load.  Fine, I thought. It's going to be a late night tomorrow, but late nights don't kill me near as bad as these 3 am rises. 

I can't say either of them are good, but the worst is definitely getting up what amounts to me as the middle of the night. I never sleep good on those nights and I end up fighting to stay awake all day long, my head aches, it just sucks.  So it's the late load for me.  Probably get out of there around 5:00 pm, get to the plant around 9:00 pm, take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours to unload, then drive to a truckstop and sleep.  I'm at the bottom of the totem pole. I get the s***.  Early loads, some crappy runs, weekend work.  The longer I'm around there, the more I hear about who is doing what. 

Anyway, if those two kids start trouble with me again tomorrow night, I'm going to have my manager file a complaint with their plant.  That's all I need say about it at this point.

I started today getting up, getting the smoker fired up and putting in a large pork loin roast and a half a beef brisket in it.  Then I ran around town on errands - drop cash in the bank, internet service provider to set up auto deduct, hair cut, Kroger's, Applebee's. Almost went to the car dealership.  Instead, I went to the auto shop, got the oil changed and the fan belt replaced.  Yes, lots of pickups at this local dealership, almost guaranteed they would finance me, but I opted out of it. Fighting the urge. This car is sooo old and in such bad condition on the interior, I'm tired of driving it. It's got near 200,000 miles on it, definitely not worth dumping that much money into it to fix all of it. 

I will cross that bridge soon enough, but the biggest deterrent today was the fact that I was going to the dentist office to get a cracked tooth looked at.  I figured when the dentist came up with a plan, I would be told 8 thousand dollars and I wasn't wrong.  I need a lot of crowns, a couple of fillings and some bonding work done.  I knew about all the teeth except one.  He looked at a tooth I thought was okay and said it has 4 cracks in it, the same thing is going to happen to that tooth as is going to happen to the other one - a portion of it is going to come off. 

I wasn't shocked or dismayed. I knew what the verdict was going to be.  I figured before I went in there - this is going to be a process, but I'm going to get this rolling now. I'm not going to wait any long and I will shell out the bucks to get this stuff done.  I have 4 chipped teeth front uppers.  1 tooth where the cap came off, the tooth above it has come out enough to compensate for the tooth below that is shorter.  2 cracked teeth, 2 molars that need fillings. 

Well, I paid the bill to have the x-rays done and went home, got on the computer,  applied for CareCredit, got approved for almost the entire bill.  My teeth look bad, and some of it is going to get bad - pain - if I just let it go.  I knew all of this years ago, I just haven't had the money to deal with it. 

Anyway, I have an appointment to get the cracked one dealt with on Wednesday.  I will be making appointments for the rest of it as time permits. 

Well I have more but I'm seriously tired. Time for bed. G'day. 

I'm losing track of days.  It's Saturday, yes that's what it is.  I got back to the yard from Houston only to get a text from the interim manager.  Don't leave the yard yet!  A total guess, but immediately I knew I was going to be asked to take a trailer to the plant and preload it for someone.  I hadn't even told her I was in the yard, she obviously was monitoring me from the Quaalcom/GPS.  I had just gone off duty, actually.

Sure enough.  There is an ISO tank in the yard I need to you take to Eastman and load it for another driver.  I didn't have to look, "there is no ISO tank in the yard".  Are you sure? Positive.  Ohhh, she says, let me contact Dusty.  I told him to take the trailer to National but then I told him to just bring it back to the yard.  And yes, Dusty had gone taken the trailer to National and left it there.  She went on and on and on about how he hadn't done what she told him to do. At the end of it, I became convinced that she was just attempting to cover up her mistake.  I didn't say that to her, but what was the point in going on for several minutes like that? I certainly didn't need to hear it.

So, instead of going home after a 4 day trip and my mind and heart all set on it, I dragged my sorry @$$ back to the truck, went back on duty (had plenty of hours left, the trip from south of Little Rock back to the yard was less than 4 hours), found this ISO trailer at the repair shop (if you don't know what an ISO trailer is, simply Google ISO trailer on images, it will come up with a pic of one) , spent several minutes trying  to hook up to it. I had never hooked up to one and it was different because the front of the trailer is out of view of your mirrors.  You have to be in alignment when backing in for the kingpin on the trailer to match up to the opening on the front of the 5th wheel. I kept having to get out - like 5 times, before I finally got it right and got hooked up to it.  A bit embarrassing if only to myself because I normally can hook up to a trailer, plug in the air line and get the landing gear cranked up in a couple of minutes. I figured the guys/gals that haul these trailers have a trick for hooking up to them, I also figured I am not going to be hauling ISO trailer so why bother finding out.

Off to the plant, which is only a mile away from the repair facility.  They got to loading the trailer right away, so I thought I would be there maybe an hour and a half, a little more.  Not so fast, Benny Boy.  I got to the scale house and waited and waited and waited - well over an hour. Watching the clock tick away. My afternoon melting away into the sunset.  Why such a big deal? Because Sheila had also texted me a run for tomorrow (which is now today) - the early load.  Have to be on the scale at 5 am.  I absolutely hate the first load, I have to get up at 3 am to get everything done and get to the plant on time.  I don't do 3 am. Well I do with this company.  I hadn't had to do one in a while, it sucked as bad as I thought it would when I walked out of the house this morning, dogs in tow, took them over to the other house,  drove the 35 miles to the yard, got in the truck and, gag, I felt really bad. 

Anyway, it was an almost 2 hour wait at the scale house for the certification to come through.  I mean, I finally got up and asked how much longer it was going to take.  I don't normally do that, but my gosh, I was facing going home and basically going to bed if it was going to take much longer.  Not quite that bad, but it felt like it to me.  I was dismayed at the wait and eating up my personal time. Remember, I had just gotten back from a 4 day trip.  Well, I finally got to the other house. got my beautiful doggies, took them home and had a great time bantering back and forth with everyone. 

It then came up that James had found a job!  He went into a machine shop, had an interview and the didn't let him go home, he started right then and there!  Oh but life is going to suck for him at that place for a while.  They have a backlog going and they are working him 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.  He was cranky when he came home that day. It's only going to get worse. But, that's 44 hours per week of overtime, they will get caught up in no time.  I am wanting them to take at least one of the house utility or entertainment payments over once they do get in a better financial place because I'm paying quite a lot.  I'm around $550 a mouth.  Well maybe that's not that much, but I have all the utilities, the satellite and the internet coming direct pay out of my bank account.  I do a lot around there when I am there.  Cleaning, mowing, sweeping, etc etc. Plus the upgrades I have done to that place.

Don't take that as complaining, tho, I'm just thinking out loud it would be nice to drop about $100 per month on those payments to equalize everything out a bit.  But they're good people and now close friends and I really have desire to change my living arrangements any time soon. Grow old and die with people that care about me and me them.  That would be ideal. Whether that happens or not? No clue, not even counting on it. Life sucks at times, fastballs are thrown at you, never know what's going to happen. 

Ok, so this morning.  I get up at 3 am.  The new routine.  Shower, get dressed, make the bed - that's not new but it costs time - but, the dogs are versed in this now.  They automatically know what's going to happen. When I open the bedroom door, they aren't heading for the back door to go pee, they head for the front door because they know they are going to the other house.  This is a good thing.  Dogs like routine, I think.  I'm praying this to be a one day thing, get down there, get the truck unloaded, get back up to the yard before the clock runs out.  I was surprised when I got over there ot see Rene up and at-em.  It was 3:30 am.  What are you doing up?  She is watching the boys now during the day. She says she needs to get up that early to get prepared  So even when she isn't going over there to watch the boys, she is still getting up that early. Whatever suits her fancy.  At 3:30 am, I am in bed, sleeping or attempting to sleep.  Unless work lol.

Off to work, had already hooked the truck up to the trailer yesterday, to the plant.  Got in and out of there in 2 hours, pretty reasonable for that place. A bit over 4 hours to the plant and then?  Yea.  Clusterfreak. I was there an hour and a half before we finally got to hooking up the trailer.  I'm getting good at it.  At the places where I am responsible for the truck end of unloading - of which this one is - I can get that thing hooked up and get the pressure up in no time on most trailers.  So ti was. but I knew I was screwed for getting home for the amount of time I sat there, after checking in, waiting for them to come out and get this going.  Still, I felt good about my performance, I had that thing up and cranking quickly.  Strive for excellence. In the totally unknown world of cryogenics, might take a while to get there, but yes, that's what I'm striving for. 

We got that Ethylene dumped out of there quickly, and hour and 15 minutes, then pumped the pressure out of it, well some of it, we are never totally without pressure.  I looked at the clock.  Awe. I'm not going to make it back today.  Drove around the back of this place through a veritable maze, back on the scale. This dude running the plane, I had to go back into the control room says: "That's the fasted unload I have ever seen". I figured he was fooling around with me.  No, seriously, that is by far the fastest I have ever seen here.  I uhh, thought about that for a moment. Okay, thank you, I'll take that as a compliment!

I got out of there and on the road and fatigue set in quickly. Serious fatigue, like, I should pull over to the side of the road and rest for a few minutes.  But, I came up with a plan.  Well I had 2 plans. Either make it to Lufkin where i would totally run out of hours or stop at Livingston where there is a truck stop and a hotel right next to it.  A hotel. Like a dream come true.  I made it to the truckstop in Livingston and said enough.  It was almost 13 hours on duty anyway.  Only had another hour's worth, what's the point? It'll take 2 hours to get to the yard in the morning, I'll feel much better.  I truly feel. I mean, I was totally dragging when I pulled into the truck stop, parked the truck, left it idling tho, went to get a room, went to the BBQ joint and got some fine, smoked meats, got into the room and collapsed on the bed.  Its just an old motel.  It's nothing fancy, they attempted to upgrade this room  but failed lol, still not that bad. It doesn't smell and the carpet looks new even tho some person dumped what appears to be a vile of ink on the carpet.  The bathroom much better than expected, updated and no mold/miildew.  The Dish Network works, it has a fridge and a mircowave, the bed is comfortable, the AC works, I'm good.  I'm literally laying in bed typing this, I'm just out of it.  But, the sun is still up, it's much too early to go to sleep. 

Oh, "the other guy" living there also scored a job.  But, it's with Halliburton and rest assured, they work your butt off.  He hasn't had a job in a couple of years I think.  He's been just hanging out and not really doing much.  I dunno about that job starting back to work after that much time off. 

I'm really, really tired.  I hate feeling like this.  I'm going to sleep as soon as it gets dark. I don't care what time I get up, either.  I could get home early if I want. But what's the rush? If I sleep well here, I'm staying here until 7 or 8.  I've only got 7 hours left on my 70 hours so I have to have a 34 hour reset.  I can't go back to work until Monday.  I'll take a run if she asks me to Monday morning.  I would rather have a couple days off and then go back to work, but after she had me sitting for 6 days, better off taking whatever she has when she has it. 

That catches me up on my life as it goes.  Thoughts of property fill my mind.  50 acres at least, 100 better.  My credit is starting to rise.  I see how it's working. As each month of the late payments on the mortgage fall off their horizon from however long ago, a couple years now?  it comes up slightly. They say it should be at 97% on time payments for good credit. I'm up to 90% now. 

My son has contacted me in quite a while.  We were going to do emails to make it more convenient to talk, so that started. I sent him the last 2 emails - quite a while back now - with no response.  I"m giving up on it.  Let him go.  When he decides he wants to communicate with his parents, he will. I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't call my parents at least once a month and when email came out, much more frequent communication.  I can't hold it against him. I just figure it's a time of life.  He got married, he's got a full time job, he's studying at the college and he's got a wife.  I figure a person could squeeze out an email at the very least once a month, but that's me and obviously not him.  I spent my free time raising my son, giving to him whatever I had to impart.  Just makes me sad. 

It's also the reason I am living several states away and with people that show me love on an unconditional basis and love me as family. 

______________________

Okay, this is the same night - fixing to go to bed - but something amazing.  This post hasn't been published so even more amazing to me.  My son just called me!  Amazing, cool, nice conversation.  Anyway, just a bit odd that I was speaking about this here and while writing it he calls?  Really wonderful to connect iwth him tho.  Very nice.  And with that, I'm off to sleep land. 

I got called up at 6:30 am.  It was the safety guy.  He's not in any way involved with dispatch, so I don't know why this Sheila person is contacting him to contact me.  In the time it took her to write him that email, she could have just contacted me directly.  They wanted me to take a trailer down to Houston to have a "Visual" done on it. That's both doing the annual inspection required by the Feds and an inspection of the unit on the cryogenics level.  So I obviously got out of bed and got moving, drove down there, got the inspection done and got back up here in time for another load in the morning.

Which, never materialized.  I have zero knowledge of what's going on.  I do have this inkling - again - to start looking for a new job.
___________________

Oops, as bit behind on my blog. Well I did go down to Houston, got that trailer inspected  and back up to the yard. Then, the next morning Sheila calls me: I need your help with something. I new it would be a trip somewhere, so I immediately agreed. Turned out to be a whopper of a trip.  Bobtail to Nashville (bobtailing means driving with the tractor only, no trailer), pick up a trailer and head to West Virginia with it/ Turns out a driver had his truck break down.  I pulled into that truck yard at something like 630 miles of driving that day, hooked onto the trailer and dragged it out of the secured yard.  I wanted to leave early, didn't want to be stuck in there.

Fortunately for me, there was a restaurant right there, so I grabbed a bite, went to bed and then got on over to WV.  I'm on the last leg of this adventure, sitting in a small fuel station parking lot in Malvern, Arkansas.  This tiny place actually had showers, of which I needed one badly lol.  I don't always get a shower every day on the road, much to my chagrin, but that's because I am finding the big brand truck parking lots full by the time I get stopped. Everyone is blaming it on elogs, I've had elongated conversations with truck drivers about this debate, turns out they are just cheating on their logs - or have been on paper logs anyway - elogs forces them to keep it honest.

I dunno, but you can count on truck stop parking lots filling up early nowadays and don't even bother trying after 7 or 8 pm.  They are full.  I have a couple of apps that I use to find alternate parking places, usually not truck stops but who cares when you need a place to park and sleep for the night. That also means, however, not getting a shower.  I passed by a Love's earlier, 6 pm - it was completely full.  So, I used that app to find this place today. There is a HUGE truckstop up the road, but it's hardly got any asphalt, it's mostly dirt and it's been raining. I didn't even bother looking, I always have to get out of the truck after driving, no way am I going to sludge around in mud.  But, that place proabably has room for at least 500 trucks.  It's just a vast open lot, and I do mean vast.  It's got fuel and a restaurant at the front. I would have pulled in there for no way it's full at 6:00 pm. 

Okay, well anyway, James found a job today. He went in for an interview and they didn't let him leave lol. He went straight to work. Hopefully he can make it work there instead of going OTR, though every time I ask him about it, he has his heart set on OTR. Yet, if he found a decent place and good money, perhaps he would just stick with it.  Rene is going to watch the kids and the other guy is still looking for a job.

So, there it is.  I'm going to text Sheila tomorrow morning - please do not leave me hanging for 6 days again, I need to work, thanks. Send me out Monday at the lastest, please and thank you.

As for the morning, I could leave around 4:15 am.  I think I will just get out of here around 5:30 am.  I need some sleep.  I took a nap on my mandated 30 minute break this afternoon and fell in to a deep sleep.  Thank goodness I set the alarm, I don't know how long I would have slept before waking up. I had the curtain closed to the sleeper and that keeps it pitch black in here.  Here, is where I am now, the sleeper, cause I'm fixing to go to bed early  It's 8:30 pm and if I go to bed now, getting up early wont' be such a problem.

G'nite. 

Sunday evening.
Likely won't be going back out again until Tuesday morning.  So, I've had a week off. Didn't want it, could have taken a vacation with it if I had known in advance.

But, maybe I'll have time to get something done about a bad tooth.  It was filled when I was 15 or something like that.  Well, a whole portion of the tooth broke off yesterday.  Just out of the blue, not even chewing on anything.  I've got lots of teeth problems.  I've let it go. Chipped teeth, probably some fillings need to be done, some fillings that need to be redone.  I was already informed 3 or 4 years ago that the best option would be to have a realignment of my mouth by putting caps on all of my teeth.  18 thousand dollars, no thanks.  But, they haven't gotten any better. I really dread going into any dentist office at the moment, I know they will have nothing but bad news for me.

But go I must.  I can't just leave that like that. It will rot out and I will end up having to have the tooth pulled. Heck, they might have to pull it out anyway.  And then, I'm walking around without one of my teeth. That will look sooooo pretty!

As for today?  Well, we tried one more time to hitch Addler up with the Dane in heat.  She wasn't having any of him.  I mean we tried, definitely.  1st over at the other property, then over here, then the guy left him with me in hopes the dog would relax.  It took hours for her to relax, but that didn't mean she wanted anything to do with Addler.  I can tell ya Addler tried for hours and eventually gave up on it.  I mean, just flat laid down on the ground, worn out, panting, went to sleep lol.  So, fail the second week in a row.  I know Addler will do it cause' he was doing Aspyn when she was in heat before we got her fixed.

Meanwhile, the guest that moved in here is - still here.  I'm guessing he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, either.  It's neither here nor there for me. I have my  room, my own personal bathroom, I'm good. What it may mean in extra utilities is unknown until the end of May.  It will cost more tho. I have ample experience with that in renting out rooms.  The electric bill highly likely to go up irrelevant, as they are leaving lights on all over the house and leaving doors open.  I'm not going to complain - yet. That bill is coming out of my pocket, I'd like to see people shutting off lights in rooms that are not being used at the moment and shutting the door.  There is a glass door in front of the wood door in the front and a storm type door behind the wood door in the back. Closing both doors is optimal, especially when running AC.

Again, nothing to seriously complain about unless the electric bill goes up substantially.

Drama.
Not really interested in it, but I was subjected to it last night. I wasn't any part of it, but I had to sit there and listen to all of it. One of James friends was over where the drama began with his wife texting Taylor and asking her why she had asked James friend to come over?

It went down hill - wayyyyy downhill - from there.  At the end of it all, the man was told to get his stuff and get out.  All 3 of them left, I just sat there wondering how that could go that far south in such a short period of time.  He got his guns and ammo - fearing she would sell them or otherwise remove them from the premises, a few basic things and they call came back around midnight. 

I went to bed after that.  I had agreed to listen for the boys if they happened to awake, which thankfully they did not.  What happens today with all of this I have no clue, whatsoever.  Obvious issues within that marriage, James friend that is, but none of my business really. 

Anyway, my manager is out of duty for a while.  Understandable with her father passing and a very close relationship. What got left out in the process of handing drivers over to the interim manager is that they didn't have my phone number and therefore assumed I was on vacation.  I'm not sure what not having a phone number has to do with a vacation, but I emphatically informed them that I did not ask for time off, couldn't afford time off and need to work.  I was polite, don't worry, I didn't make any threats of quitting tho the thought certainly crossed my mind. 

This company really is very unorganized.  They have their stuff together as far as knowing about hazmat and having all the proper licenses and permits, knowledge of the industry, but when it comes to employees, they aren't even close to be on track with anything.  It isn't the worst thing in the world and much of it, I am guessing, has to do with the company I am working for being acquired by a much larger company.  But I believe that was years ago and I would think with the passage of time that they would have had all of those details worked out.

It's too soon to look for another job anyway.  I need a year there before I think about doing that.  Preferably 2 years and some experience showing on my resume with hazmat tankers.  A week off isn't going to kill my finances. Not at all, in fact I'm not concerned about going "broke" right now at all. But it's some serious money towards savings that I won't be getting.  But it's a foregone conclusion that I won't be going back to work until Tuesday morning.  The weekend loads are handed out on Friday, including Monday.  These corporate and office people don't work on weekends, or certainly want their time involved with any workplace interaction severely limited, so all work is handed out in advance. Not to mention the plant office is skeleton crew as well, it's just how they have it worked out, tho that plant is open and running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year excepting for scheduled maintenance shut down.  I think. 

But I let them know I hadn't asked for time off, I wasn't on vacation and tho I had made good use of the time, I needed to work.  They are going to need to send me on a 3 or 4 day run next week is all I can say about that. . Perhaps someone will bow out of a load and I can take one sooner.  Tho I have plans for today now that I know I'm not going to be working.  Namely, spraying both properties with tick/flea killer in the yards. The dogs are getting affected by it and I need to deal with it.  I was informed by 2 pest control companies that they were going to charge me $199 and $169 respectively for each property.  Totally unacceptable.  I'm not going to spend almost $400 to have 2 properties sprayed, end of story.

Last year, I sprayed this property myself and the problem of mosquitoes, especially, was kept at bay.  I was just short of shocked to hear them telling me with a straight voice that they wanted that much money to spray a property that would likely take them less than 15 minutes to accomplish and probably ten dollars worth of product.  So, that's what I'm doing. 2 large garden hose spray jugs of poison, $15 a piece and another hose to be able to reach all portions of the properties.  Cost me around $80, will work just fine and will save a ton of money. 

Well, I guess if they called me today to go out I would just go ahead and take the run anyway.  But, it's after 10 am and that isn't very likely at this hour of the day. 

Anyway, I paid most of my bills already for the coming month.  Mortgage not included, but that money is coming in in a few days and so is the money for the other property here.  There are bills that come at the end of the month - for next month - but by then I will have made up for this loss I am currently experiencing.

I don't suppose much else.  Just cleaning stuff today.  I came out of my bedroom this morning to an unmitigated disaster in the kitchen, so I cleaned it all up.  They made dinner, I figured it was my part to go ahead and clean all of that mess up.  They stayed up very late, much later than me, probably discussing the friend's marital situation, fortunately my ear plugs and fan muted that noise and I slept right through it.  I'm still attempting to decide how to enter the stock market on my own without going through 401k.  So far, I am pretty much not doing anything but research, looking up websites, reading articles, etc. 

I want to start out with $500 and see what happens, but not haphazardly just dump it into a stock somewhere and hope it goes up in some set amount of time.  My mother suggested CD's - she's been doing those for decades, but the rate of return isn't enough.  Another thought I had was to rent some sort of dwelling structure and then sub rent it.  But, that's kind of risky out here. It would be unknown if I could get tenants to fill up the room and if not, I'm stuck renting a place I'm not using. In phoenix, if I had a second property, I could easily fill it up.  As long as the place is decent and has all the perks, you can rent a room within 24 hours of it vacating.  In fact, you end up with a list of people you can rent it out to and you have to make a decision based on interaction with them.  Anyway, I thought about a couple homes in the immediate area of my house there, but I think they are doing as much as they can right now maintaining my property and adding something on would probably be too much for them.

Tho, the incentive would be that they would end up paying nothing for anything in the house they are living in now.  As it stands, I think I have them down to $200 per month. 

No hurry to do the wrong thing.

Score.
Hooked the trailer up to the Jeep, drove the  65 miles to get the dresser and wow, was it worth the drive!  I was amazed at the quality of it and the fact they weren't asking that much for it. $240.  I imagined the thing was worth at least a grand.  It's absolutely an amazing piece of furniture, I dunno if hand crafted or not but definitely on the higher end of the quality scale. Near perfect condition, a few very minor blemishes that can be covered over with treatment. 

Brought that thing home and then the lady texted me.  It was nice talking to you, you seem like a very nice person. I actually bought that dresser 14 years ago and paid $2,700 for it at the time.  They easily could have gotten $500 for it.  But, they appeared to be well off considering the house they live in and the cars parked in their driveway, an older retired couple.  I was shocked at the price tag, and the fact it was that long ago they paid that much for it. 

What can I say? Sometimes you score things in life, right place at the right time, etc.  I didn't really look all that long for this, either. I just got on Craigslist, scrolled through a bunch of junky looking particle board disasters and then saw this beauty sitting there, calling my name.  The price tag was good.  Note that I did not have a dresser before this.  I was hanging everything in my closet and I really need that closet space for other stuff.  So, in my room and bathroom, i have a brand new toilet, vanity, bed, computer chair and now this wonderful dresser.  The only other thing that i intend on getting now is a large screen TV.  Not a priority, but the prices of these large flat screens have come down substantially. 

Well that's my excitement for today.  I was going to get out and mow the lawn, but I changed my mind.  I figure to rest the rest of the day, I would be surprised if I didn't get a text with a load going out tomorrow.  I've been off 2 days. I would surely love another day off, but the finances don't work out if I do that.  Well, they do, I just don't save anything. 

I get hit with a lot of bills every month, 3 houses worth. But one house more than pays for itself, the second I'm contributing a couple hundred a month in exchange for watching my dogs and this one, I pay all the bills except the mortgage as my monthly rent.  It's a bit high at this house, but it's only temporary.  I figured to give $500 per month for my living quarters plus helping with food and necessities in the house after they both have jobs.

She is working, he went in for another job interview today.  He had no word either way of whether they were going to hire him or not.  A local job, imo, would be far better for him than going OTR.

Well ain't that cozy.  Another trucking company calling me begging me (literally, she sounded desperate) to come work for them. Just another mega-carrier.  They don't pay anything, you aren't home much and your quality of life goes down with both the low pay and in frequent home time. No thanks. 

Pleasant surprise today when I went to pay my mortgage online.  I had a message in red letters saying property taxes had been paid and my payment amount had been updated.  I was thinking, red letters, this is going to be bad.  Instead, it came down $100 per month!

Ugh, but I just got off the phone with my mortgage company and found out the insurance they have on the house ONLY covers the house.  No damage, theft, nothing.  So, that became my project for today, find a new insurance company, of which I believe I have found and at half the price. If that works out then my payment is going to come down another $100 per month, putting my mortgage at near $700 with escrow.  That's pretty awesome.

I'm kinda just rambling here.  I've got to get that toilet replaced. I got the new one, just sitting there. I actually was able to stop the leak on the old one so I kinda lost motivation.  But, I definitely need to put the new one in, not only because I bought the thing but also because this old one doesn't flush very well. I mean, this is old technology here.

Nothing really new going on here.  I thought I was going to get sent out this morning, but that didn't happen.  I'm ready to go out on another run, need the dough.  Saving money for retirement, paying off debt slowly and attempting to save for a vehicle.  I mean, even if I don't pay cash for a vehicle, I want enough down money that the payment will be low and the length of it will be 3 years,.  I'm basically trying to save up 8 grand for that project - I may be able to find a decent pickup for that money and not have to get into a loan at all.

Day 2 of being off.  I kinda like having the days off, but it almost guarantees I will be working through the weekend.  I am cutting the manager some slack since her father just passed away and she is busy making funeral arrangements and family and such.  I'm not sure how she can even do her job while having to do deal with all of that plus grief at the same time.  They do have people at the corporate office that can fill in for her in just such occasions.

But, that's none of my business. Just at this point, I'm going to need a longer run, a couple thousand miles worth would be good.  Get some miles racked up towards next paycheck. 

So, I am about to get off of here and get ready to take a trip to a town about 60 miles away.  I found a beautiful dresser on Craigslist - I have no dresser in this room/house and I desperately need one. This is more antique vintage, in perfect condition and they only want $240 for it.  Guaranteed it's worth at least twice that if not more. I'll post pics of it on my FB wall if/when I get the thing back here. It's supposedly very heavy, but they said they would help me load it on the trailer.  I hope so, cause I sure as heck can't put it on there myself.  It's too far away to ask anyone to go with me - probably close to 3 hours round trip by the time it's all said and done, but well worth it for the quality and the beauty of it.  Must needs to get moving here~!

The City showed up yesterday after taking the water meter reading. I didn't get the personal attention, James did.  Just letting you know, y'all are using 28,000 gallons of water per month, which is a huge spike from the 5,000 you normally use.

I knew what it was right off: the toilet in my personal bathroom. Unbeknownst to me, the thing had been leading the entire time Rene was in here. She turned the water valve on and off instead of asking me to fix it.  Well, anyway, I was looking at it yesterday. The flapper valve was very bad, but the seal below it also no good.  Meaning taking the toilet apart to fix it.

Nix that.  I'm going to replace the entire toilet, hopefully today.  I'm off for a second day, which I'm definitely not going to complain about.  That will be the extent of my goals today besides minor things.  I fully expect to be sent out somewhere tomorrow, likely a 3 day trip.  So I'm not going to wear myself out doing stuff around the house.  James is still...

________________________

Got completely sidetracked. That was days ago.  I got a phone call writing the post - can you please run down to Houston?  I had a last minute load thrown at me.  Uhhh, I guess.  I was not in the mind frame of going to work.  It persisted throughout the day.  I got up to Tulsa area late, so i didn't do my bowling and mexican food restaurant thing, I just found an abandoned truck stop that I knew about and parked there for the night.  It really sucks, tho, getting a call that you are needed to go out that same day, in a few hours at that. 

But went I did, got up the next morning, headed up to the plant from where I had been parked and waited. And waited. And waited some more.  2 trucks ahead of me, but it shouldn't have taken 10 hours to get them unloaded and then to me. They changed how they deal with the pressure after unloading trucks. Instead of burning it off on a flare, they send it back through the system to recompress the vapor back into liquid. It is a very elongated process that takes hours to accomplish.  I had no idea I would be sitting there literally allllll day long. 

By the time I got out of there, it was 5:15 pm. I had 4 hours left on the clock to drive, so i took off, hoping to at least get beyond the Indian Nation Turnpike and not have too much left to drive this morning.  Well, I ended up at the Choctaw travel center near Durant, Ok.  And low and behold, right next to it? A rather large casino, this right near the state line. I got the truck parked and debated with myself whether to go in and play a few rounds of blackjack.

Haven't been in a casino in what, a couple of years?  I couldn't resist.  I got $200 out of the ATM, sat down as a lone player at a $5 minimum bet table and went to town.  I was having great fun just playing against the dealer, a thing in the past I never really liked.  This went on for an hour and I was up $400 before 2 people showed up at the same time, sat down, and yes, ruined the table.  Bad choices, but I still was winning enough to not lose everything I had just won.

They eventually got up and left, I stuck around, got my winnings up over $600, went on a losing streak, down to $400 and decided I wanted to leave there with more than I walked in with, so I cashed out.  Walked over to Chili's - it's right there, in the casino - had a nice salad and then went back to the truck and went to sleep.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable visit and i was glad I had gone. The place didn't reek of cigarette smoke, either, as many other casinos do, even tho plenty of people were smoking in there.  Just denotes that they invested in a good system to take out the smoke. 

Whatever the case, got up just before my 10 hour mandatory rest break was up, got myself in gear, got the truck in gear and drove back to town. Just in time for another driver who was looking for that trailer - I should have been back last night but obviously that wasn't happening.

I went to Home Depot, got a new toilet for my personal bathroom  - a pretty decent one with good flushing power for $119 and tax - then headed to Starbuck's to get Taylor a Frappucino, back to town. Lots of running around later and I'm sitting here laughing at the old toilet. The new flapper valve I put in there apparently decided it was going to conform itself to the seal it goes into and now it isn't leaking lol.  I'm not regretting getting a new toilet.  The old one doesn't flush very well and doesn't, therefore, clean out the bowl very well.  But, I am not going to do that today. I do have tomorrow off and I have a run going out on Monday down to Brownsville, a run I very much like because it's good miles and at least half the time good detention hours, tho admittedly the last two times I've been down there, there was a trailer waiting for me and I didn't get any detention hours out of it.  Still, the miles are good and it keeps it  2 days.

No dinner planned here.  I got in too late to think about defrosting something. But lo and behold, there is still a bunch of that Ribeye roast left and after having a couple bites, it's still just as wonderful as the day I smoked it.  So I'm going to have that an veggie for dinner and then pull out some ribs for dinner tomorrow. I intend on smoking them and still adding some BBQ sauce at the end of the smoke. 

It's 2:30 now.  Undecided whether to carry on with productivity or relax.  Dogs want to relax, lol. Got them shortly after I got home, gave the drink to Taylor and unloaded the toilet.  Addler about jumped over the fence when I showed up over there. 

A few other things.  I'm thinking about taking an ankle deep wade into the stock market. Plenty of apps to help with that, Ameritrade has one for starters.  A few others as well.  You don't have to start out with  pumping a lot of money into it, just get my feet wet and see if i can learn about it.  I think there are online courses I can take. I dunno. Not looking to be a day trader but definitely looking to broaden my horizons with investments.  Now that I'm making a lot more money that is.  Savings are good too, yes.  That's going full blown all out at the moment.  In total I'm having around 17% of my paychecks going into either 401k or savings account.  I am not missing the money. I'm thinking of upping it to around 25% and see if I can live without it. 

Rental properties are still on the goal list, but I'm kinda starting to get old.  I'm still working on getting my credit score up.  I've noted that it's going to take about 15 more months before most of those late mortgage payments go away and my late payments are down to the point that I'm at a high percent of on time payments.  Currently it shows 90%, they want it at around 96 to 97%.  I'm still paying down debt, that will take a while too. 

I am also planning a trip - no date yet - to Phoenix  I wouldn't mind including a trip over to California on that itinerary to visit the beach.  Or even take off from phoenix to Ireland.  Pricing is pretty cheap right now, 3 or 4 days visiting over there wouldn't hurt me : )  I got that passport for a reason, I'd love to put it to good use.  I've got money now, a helluva lot more than that loser job of 12 years was giving me.  There are tradeoffs in this job, but I'm slowly getting used to it.  The tradeoff being no being home every night and weekends no longer sacred. 

I was approached this morning at a truck stop I had stopped for fuel at in Paris. Not France, lol, but I laugh every time I drive through that town.  No fake Eiffel tower anywhere, either, haha.  Anyway, he points to his truck parked in the parking lot - i was in the fueling lanes - and I immediately recognized it.  One of our parent company's other divisions.  He was asking about our division.  He said he had just bought property in lakeport and talking about having to be out 3 weeks in a row and how bad it s.  Lol, I laughed, no I'm not out 3 weeks at a time after he asked. I get home after every trip. The longest trip I've been on was 3 nights/4 days.  Most of them shorter. Even if I have to go on a trip the next day, I still go home that night. 

I told him they were looking for a few more drivers and had actually borrowed a few trucks/drivers from your division to keep up with the workload.  He can make the same amount of money or more at our division and get home FAR more frequently.  But, that's up to him to pursue it, I just gave him the info.

Anyway, I can take solace in the fact that I could have it much worse in terms of work schedule.  And I'm making more than double what I used to.  Quality of life has improved without having to worry about paying bills and buying the things I need to buy, such as this toilet.  And being able to buy some things I want. 

With that, I'm ending this one. Still haven't decided what to do with the rest of today, lol. 

Mid week.
I got called out on what I had hoped would be a day off after a co worker called in for need to go see a doctor.
It was a relatively short run, 2 days, still worth around $700.  I went up to my usual parking spot next to the bowling alley, but didn't go bowling this time neither did I get a hotel room,.  The rate at that hotel goes up and down - substantially - on any given day.  There is a Days Inn on the other side of that bowling alley and looks as tho there is room for a truck to park there as well.  I haven't actually done the hotel thing in a while now on any of these runs.

That mostly due to the fact that time didn't permit.  I mostly only want to do a hotel if there is ample time to stay at it, ie: I got there early to mid afternoon (destination) the day before delivery.  I didn't really show up up there that early, as it was a later load time and it took over 3 hours to get loaded. 

Anyway, no issues on that trip.  By the time I got back to the yard yesterday, I noticed I was almost out of available hours.  Meaning I've been doing some serious running the last 8 days.  So, that forced the issue of a 34 hour reset and hence, I am home today, probably not tomorrow however.  For whatever reason, we are extremely busy and there isn't any time off being given excepting of course for the forced time off we have to take.

I suppose a 3 day run would be nice and get home to have Sunday off.  I'd really like to go to church.  I'd really also like 2 days off in a row.  I guess that's not going to happen anytime soon.  But a nice dream. 

I am currently saving for a trip to Phoenix. I haven't been there in something like 2 years.  I would like to take a look at the property - tho I know it's being maintained very nicely.  See some friends, stay with mom a couple days, see my son and visit him and his new wife at their digs in Tempe.  I've got to save up not only for a trip, but also for the days off that i won't get paid for.  But a few weeks running like I have been pretty much pays for it and then some. 

Meanwhile, taking advantage of today. I've put off store visits for a bit because - I get home from these trips and need down time.  But, you can only do that so long before the pressure of things you need to get done take precedence. Such as a hair cut, things for the truck, things for the house, groceries, etc.  So, off to the races!

Trip to Cheneire was - eventful.  After spending over 3 hours in the plant due to a mistake by the plant operator, I drove down there.  I got within 12 miles of the plant, coming up to an interchange I needed to get on. Police blocking it/  They tried to wave me on, not happening. I asked them how long? Bad accident, fatalities, road blocked for a 5 mile stretch, accident investigation team just showed up, you're looking at a minimum 2 hours, probably longer than that.  They were nice about it. I asked them how to get around?  They said well you can wait at the truck stop but yes, it's going to be hours or, you can go - such and such a route and that will take you there. 

So I started this route and then started looking at maps. Because of where Cheneire is, there is only 2 ways in there. One from the Texas side and one from the Louisiana side.  It turned out to be a 105 mile drive to get there.  Yes, you read that right: a 105 mile detour.  It was the only other way there.  Well, I got out onto I-10 and decided I would get some fuel just to be safe.  I can say you with great assurance that that was a very good decision after what happened later on.  I got a hot dog, figured it might be a while before eating again and I hadn't stocked my fridge for this run, it was only supposed to be a day run, go down, come back up, ,go back to the plant in the morning and head up to Illinois.

Yea, didn't quite work that way.  The drive along the beach was great tho.  All these beautiful houses up on stilts, the beach right there next to the road way with the waves lapping up in some places almost all the way to the road itself.  Pretty cool.  Anyway, I got there, got checked in, got into Gate A, they told me to wait at the hill. I waited at that hill for almost 2 hours for them to show up.  When I got to the rack to unload, I was told to hook everything up, but - don't start building pressure. This all turned into a nightmare.  Their plant pressure was too high, they were trying to bring it down.

I finally got word they had it "down" to 50, which is still high.  I got the truck pressure up to 90, turned off the pressure coil. It was still slowly building pressure after that, but I figured it would stop since no fluid was running through there. I was wrong.  We opened the valves and - all kinds of ethylene pouring out their faulty hookup.  Long day growing longer, we tried several times to get the hookup to not leak.  This went on forever.  I mean, I had 4-1/2 hours of on duty time left on the clock when I got there, plenty of time to get unloaded.  When I finally left, I had to drive to their parking lot and spend the night there, I was totally out of hours and couldn't drive anywhere legally.  Not to mention my company would flag me for driving over hours.  I had no food with me. My mistake.  I just figured this would be an overnight trip, or at worst, I'd find a place to stop and eat.  But, as I stated, this plant is out in the middle of nowhere. There aren't any stores out there. I think the nearest one is 8 miles away on that Gulf Beach Highway. 

I spent a fitful night's sleep, got up early this morning, drove back to the yard.  I had already given up the load to Illinois, foregone conclusion I wasn't making it back in time and there was another driver who wanted the load, I gave it up to him freely.  I visited with Donny and Rene at Applebee's, went home to find a houseful of people. I knew they were there, tho. The older kid - 3 year old - was brought home by grandma.  Grandma made dinner - pretty good stuff - and they left earlier this evening. 

So, I'm sitting here watching the final season episode of the Walking Dead when I get a text from my manager: Joe has to go to the doctor tomorrow, can you take his spot?  OK, I didn't want to work tomorrow. I didn't say that to anyone, just in my mind. Once it gets into my mind, it's hard to dismiss it.  I "should" be off until Tuesday since all load are doled out for Saturday, Sunday and Monday on Friday.  It wasn't totally shocking tho.  I've come to expect that my life can be interrupted by this job at just about any time.  I've also come to expect that the truck can break down at any time and I may have to spend time in hotels. Or, the plant will reject the load until they are able to take it. Or the plant has problems and it's going to take forever to get the product off of the truck.  Or whatever. 

There is no set schedule is the point. It has it's pros and it's cons.  I'm dealing with it for now.  Probably not a forever job, but it's doing what i needed it to do.  I've had years and years worth of getting home every day and not working weekends, those thought processes haven't left my mind.  I'm slowly getting accustomed to this job, but I can't say that I'm just fine with it yet.  If I'm out on the road too long, I start getting antsy.  My thoughts go towards home and it's hard to shake.  But as I said, it's getting easier over time. 

I told Ann sure, I'll take it, having no idea where it's going on how long I'll be out.  Turns out it's going to Barnsdall, which I actually like. It's the place where I get up there the day before - usually pretty early, sometimes get a hotel, park next to the bowling alley, eat at that fabulous Mexican food place, maybe throw a few games on the bowling alley, enjoy myself.  I haven't taken a hotel in a while, if I get up there early enough, I might just do it.  Oh, wait, let me check the price of that place. Last time I was up there it was almost $100 and I won't do that. 

Well the Candlewood Suites is at $76, but I forgot about the Days Inn on the other side. It's going at $57.  I dunno, I'll make that decision tomorrow. I can't book in advance because you never know if you're going to even make it up there.  I've had too many breakdowns.  Anyway the run isn't worth as much as some other overnight runs - unless of course they have problems at the plant and I get detention pay, but I've already had several good runs, 3 consecutive, so no biggies.  Next paycheck should be awesome, especially considering that this run should also be on that paycheck since I should be back in time to get it posted. 

There is plethora of other things I wanted to discuss, but it's getting late and I am very tired. 

I'm back from Illinois.  I checked in at the office after unhooking the truck and getting my paperwork done.  There were two other drivers in there talking with Ann.  I was too busy to stop, at that moment anyway, trying to get my stuff done, get in my car and go meet Taylor and James for dinner at Applebee's.  Their treat : ). 

But, after I got it all done, Ann comes up and says, well, I've got two runs for you this weekend.  I mean, I just got back, I'm thinking, I'm ready for a day off at least.  But I didn't say that.  No point in it.  But I was still a bit incredulous, considering how these runs work: 2 runs?  You're joking. She started laughing so I thought, yes, she's joking.

Uhh, no, I'm not.  Cheniere tomorrow and Mapleton, Illinois, on Sunday.  She knows I won't say no t any runs she wants to give me.  I just won't. I might as well just work and get the paychecks. I had extended time off and it showed on today's check, but I expected it.  Anyway, tomorrow will be a full 14 hours. There is no guarantee I get it done in time to be back at the yard before the clock runs out. 

I could tell she was giving leeway for that.  Meaning, even if I had to take a 10 hour break to get back, load time isn't til later in the morning.  I would basically be getting to the yard the next morning, dropping a trailer, hooking up to  another and heading straight back to the plant.  That's not ideal, tho, cause' that means you don't have the full 14 hours for that next trip. You ate up some of it on the first one and the way she has this planned, it's gonna have to work perfectly for it to work.

So, that's my last several days.  The trip wasn't bad.  I found a new app that give MUCH more options for truck parking, not just truck stop parking lots.  It's any known places where trucks can park.  This is much more advantageous for those of us truck drivers that don't want to live in freaking truck stops.  I mean, it even includes hotel where trucks can park - albeit the driver isn't staying at the hotel.  In this case, it was a restaurant that has enough space out back for maybe 4 or 5 trucks.  And I have to tell ya, the truck stop a few miles down the road was crammed full of trucks the day I passed through and this morning, coming back, same thing. 

I spent two nights at that restaurant, had some very nice food and didn't have to deal with all the bs at truck stops. There are only 2 advantages staying at a truck stop: fuel and showers.  Fuel no biggies, can stop anytime for that, showers a bit more difficult because can be time consuming just getting into a shower.  Many times there is a wait. If I'm stopped for fuel and want to get a shower, it's just a matter of whether I'm lucky enough that there is an immediate opening.  If not, I'm out of there and down the road. 

Well tomorrow is going to be a long day. I"ve only been home a few hours - went and got the dogs tho.  I won't make apologies for bringing them home even if only for one night and taking them back again tomorrow, early.  And tomorrow evening, same thing, if I get home. 

Anyway, I'm bushed. Time to go to sleep. 

I didn't figure it would take her long to find a job. She started looking 2 days ago, she's off to work this morning, already.  That would be Taylor.  The job she found is right up here alley: quality control. That was the type of job she had here when they left for Georgia.  The pay isn't the greatest but she's getting a foot in the door. They will find out quickly that she's smart, even keeled and is really management material.  I predict she will move up quickly, if there is room to move up at that place.  If not, it's a job that will bring income.  They're kinda broke- neither of them is working. James is waiting on his license which could be another week and a half.

You can only live on borrowed money for so long.  She hasn't worked since she left almost 2 years ago, she said she was nervous this morning.  I figured she'll get over that quickly and fit right in there.  I'm just happy that at least one of them is going to have an income.  I kinda had this feeling I would end up having to cover the mortgage here - and that would break my bank quickly.  I'd have to beg Ann to stay out on the road continuously, something I don't want to do.  Anyway, good on her, maybe a tough decision considering they just got back here and not everything is even put up yet.

The talk of the day is this situation in Syria and the Chinese leader apparently caving to the pressure that Trump has applied on trade equalization.  Note that there hasn't been the dire trade war the left has been predicting would happen. It's as if they want America to fail just so they can see Trump go down in flames? While we all go down with him?  That doesn't even make any sense.  Not to mention these liberals and democrats are praising this Chinese leader for "taking the first step and making himself look like the better man".  What the hell is wrong with these people? We are talking communist China, not Sweden or Switzerland or something.

Well anyway, I went to pay my cell service bill, had totally forgotten about the $300 credit I managed to get.  I owe nothing and still have substantial credit left over : )  Kinda nice considering I took all that time off. This is pay week, but I am not expecting much of a paycheck.

Well, I've been doing quite a bit of driving in the last 4 days. 2 round trips to Brownsville. it was  my favorite run until they apparently figured out how to keep the yard down there having at least one of our empty trailers in it. Well it's still a good run, just not as good as when you have to wait and get paid for it.  Actually, I could just do that run all the time and I wouldn't mind it.  I have the route memorized, tho I got lost yesterday trying to find my way through Houston.

Houston has hazmat routes.  You have to go 610 east or west to go around downtown. That or the tollway which takes you even further out of the way.  I can't drive 59 through the center of town and I can't drive I49 either.  Well, I went east on 610 yesterday only to find it shut down. I got off and ended up on an unfamiliar freeway, which took me to either 49 north or 49 south.  49 north had no hazmat sign on it, so I had to go south. I really don't remember how many different freeways I was on until I eventually ended up back on 610 east - beyond the construction that had it shut down.

Anyway, if Ann sent me down there again tomorrow, I certainly wouldn't complain.  But, I'm pretty sure my next run is either going to be a short one or a very long one.  Brownsville is in between - but for a 2 day run it's really excellent pay. I make around $700 each trip - 3 of those a week, well that's pay I wouldn't balk at, lol. The cool part about the Brownsville trip is it's just an overnighter. Unless there is a delay, then I get paid to wait and I get to go to a hotel, which I very much like as well.

Well I got the rent paid back for the new house and I got the money lent to James and Taylor paid back today.  That was a sigh of relief.  $1,300 of money.  I'm seriously glad to have this moving behind me, but it's really burnt me out. I'm trying not to do much of anything for a while and just recover from all of this.  I had to find a house - a feat in itself in this market, get the house secured, contact a lot of companies for services for the house, buy a refrigerator, move them, move me, move my friends back in, deal with the aftermath.  Plus work.  Plus other things I need to deal with.

Funny how much life costs.  I'm responsible for utilities, satellite and internet for 3 houses now.  Fortunately I am not actually paying all of that on my own.    I'm paying this house I'm living in, I'm giving Rene and Donny $200 per month towards costs for watching my dogs - which they have already spent quite a bit of time over there.

And, I might add, they are absolutely LOVING that place. The back yard is HUGE.  Addler can gallop like a horse and not have to slow down, making long, sweeping turns - or - coming to abrupt stops.  Aspyn is playing a game with him by hiding in  a stand of thickets that Addler won't go into. She comes barreling out of it only to have Addler chasing her all over the place.  Then she either high-tails it back to the thickets or comes crawling up under a human chair, lol.  Not as if Addler would do anything to her, tho, he loves to play.

Now, they need a lot of stuff over there, no doubt.  But I covered the basics and they can get by with it. I'll pick up stuff over time, but hopefully they can charm someone's heart and maybe some people will give them stuff.  Still, I have my own bedroom in the house - Addler and Aspyn sleep in it.  I'm not sleeping there, that bed is wayyyyy too soft for me, I wouldn't sleep at all. I am still helping both parties out with food.  They're all basically broke. I'm the only one at the moment bringing in an income outside of government sources.  But that changes tomorrow, at 5am.  Taylor is going to start working with a friend at a Taco Cabana in a nearby town.  They are going to go broke quickly if one of them doesn't start bringing in an income, she saw that and she is leading the way in that department.  I'm paying more than my fair share of costs here, which I don't mind but they definitely need to be able to at least make the mortgage payment.

Oh, anyway, Rene did score a table - but no chairs.  So I'm gonna see if i can find some cheap to go with it.  There are some affluent people in that neighborhood. Also some people that are retired but obviously well off.  I don't want to be the sole source of charity is all I'm saying. Rene is good at reaching out,  I hope she finds more stuff.


































                                                       

I'm kind of slacking on posting because I have been too busy.  Yesterday - April's fools day and Easter - basically did me in.  It started with me getting up early and finishing moving my stuff out of the now-old bedroom and into my new one.  Then, the cleaning people showed up and did their thing.  Not long after, Taylor arrived and shortly after that James in the U-Haul.  They had far more stuff than I had remembered. They had obviously picked up quite a bit of stuff since they had moved to Atlanta. The U-Haul James arrived in was much larger than the Uhaul they left here in 2 years ago.  The thing was packed from front to back, floor to ceiling.

But, we had to wait for them to finish cleaning.  I was busy trying to fix a clogged up drain. Of which, on and off, I worked on the entire day.  I snaked that thing out 3 times, the last time going about 15 feet into it.  There is not way, I thought, that this drain could still be clogged.  None of the rest of the house was clogged up and 15 feet? I must have gotten to a tee, because I couldn't go any further.  I almost panicked when the snake wouldn't pull out of the drain for the fact it was in there so far and around so many turns.

We tried Drano after that to no avail and then this stuff that's basically sulfuric acid after that.  I was stumped.  I threw in the towel, declaring that I had given up after fooling with it all day long.  Then, a friend of Taylor and James came over and we were discussing guns - the favorite topic of everyone around here, and no, not on a political basis, these people just love guns.  It came up about the sink and I offered everything I had done.  This guy said, well just the vent stack, it might be clogged up.  It never even crossed my mind to see if the vent was clogged up.  We decided to do that the next morning since it was already late at night.

Meanwhile, there were a large number of people that had shown up to help move and so, Rene cooked a huge dinner.  A whole ham and a whole turkey that I had bought earlier in the year on sale.  I figured we needed to eat that stuff before it started to get the freezer burn taste.  I made a big pot of home made mashed potatoes - turned out really good actually.
_______________________

Well, after an excellent night's sleep, I'm feeling much better.  That stuff really took a toll on my body.  I'm not 20 years old anymore, lol.  I have clothing to go through, kind of let that build up in my closet, no point in keeping clothes I don't wear anymore.  Anything in good shape I'll take to Goodwill, the rest is getting chucked. 

Oh, finish the story I started above, I got distracted yesterday.  I'm not really the big eater I used to be and Rene and Donny don't eat a whole lot either.  But I knew these people are all younger and would likely have huge appetites, hence the reason I wanted both a ham and a turkey for Easter celebration. I wasn't wrong, either.  They devoured that entire turkey.  I mean, I spent 30 minutes cleaning off the tidbits and came up with a nice amount of leftovers, but the "real" meat of it was entirely gone. They went through 2/3rd's of that ham.  And half of a huge pot of mashed potatoes. It was amazing seeing them eating all that food. 

Besides that irritating drain clog, the day was a success. We got all their stuff moved into the house.  I got all my stuff moved into my room, laundry done.  We had a couple beers that night - well they wre doing shots but whatever.

Then yesterday, after discovering that the vents were clogged and that fixed the problem, a huge monkey off of our backs.  Plumbers aren't exactly cheap. Even the "cheap" ones are charging a $60 fee just to walk through your front door and at least $100 to clear out the drain.  I'm not complaining about plumber fees, they have to earn a living, just right now, spending money is not on my list of things to do.  As it stands, I'll get my $800 back for front the rent money today and the $500 I loaned James and Taylor to get over here. They borrowed money from a relative but the check didn't actually clear until today.  They wouldn't have been able to make it back here without the funds I loaned them. 

I've been off work far too long, that's gonna hurt in a few weeks, but it is what it is. I needed the time off, just not getting paid for it.  That will eventually change and I will get $24 hourly wage for comp time.  Right now, I'm gonna hit the road tomorrow morning and ask her to keep me as busy as she can for a while to get back ahead. I would really like a run to Brownsville and spend 2 days waiting for  a trailer and get all that detention pay.  But, I have no control over where I'm going unless I happen to be sitting in her office and she asks me where I would like to go, throwing out available options.

Yesterday was leftover day, but I can see that cooking is no longer optional. Rene change her stance on it, she says now "she'll cook sometimes".  I'm just blowing that off and treating it like she isn't going to cook at all.  That way I won't think, gee, she's coming to cook today.  Instead, I'll have to pull out the cooking hat again and starting thinking in those terms. James and Taylor are good cooks too, but they just don't like to do it  I remember now that I would clean up if they did the cooking lol. 

But, James is getting his Texas license and then, he'll be applying at a place he's already talked to and then off to trucking school. He'll be gone a long time.  At least two weeks to start with, maybe a short home visit and then out on the road.  But probably longer.  However long the school is at the compound, that's how long he's going to be gone. I think it's a month and then you get paired up with a trainer and sent out on the road for a while to learn the ropes.

______________________

I got my wish. A run to Brownsville. I can only hope there won't be any trailers waiting and that I'll have at least a 24 hour wait for one to show up. That would be dreamy like, the pay for waiting is substantial and worth it.  I've been off work for a while now, I will need the cash once I get a full paycheck again. 

Anyway, it's a lazy day today.  Thundershowers, rain pouring, dogs wanted inside. I was enjoying the rain but I decided to come in and watch a movie. I haven't had a TV in my room in almost 2 years. I could have had it installed in that other room, but I just said no to it an hanged out in the living room instead if I wanted to watch the news or a movie.  Not into much else on TV, but it's a nice diversion for today.