Long day?  Yeah, sort of.
I got up at 3:30 am to get out of that truckstop I had been sitting at all day and get through Houston before rush hour.
I made it through 610 west - if you can believe that - without any problem excepting one accident that only slowed us all down a little for a couple of minutes. Other than that, it was free sailing through there.  My intention was to get south of Houston and then I could take a nap. 

Just was very tired, 6 hours of sleep will do that. 

Fast forward to arriving in Brownsville. My heart sank when I saw an empty trailer sitting there. Ohhh nooooo!  Oh well, I thought, I'll just hook up, drive a few hours back up North - I only had 3 hours left to drive anyway - and then call it an early day somewhere, probably around Victoria, Texas.  But wait! I decided to call the driver ahead of me, he was supposed to be behind me but all that s*** from yesterday moved me back.

And  then is when I got the good news: TWO drivers ahead of me, the one on the phone and another that had been waiting for days.  The plant is way behind again, yay!  So, it isn't even 1 in the afternoon and I thought about the rare luxury of getting a cheaper but still nice hotel and spending the day and night in there.  The driver told me that there may only be one trailer coming up tomorrow.  Well, even if there's two, I'm going to make a chunk of sitting change both with being down here and yesterday.

My only regret is that if I had gotten down here yesterday, I would have been able to get a room at company expense and also would have gotten much more in D pay than in Breakdown pay. But it is what it is.  I can't complain too much, it's great money, next week's check with 2 of these high D pays on them will make up for the abysmal thing I'm getting this week - the pay period with only the El Dorado run on it.  If it's a $200 check after taxes and deductions I'd be surprised. 

So  yes, anyway, I got the hotel room.  And I'm fixing to take a nice nap after I get done with this, I have a minor headache from getting up so early and driving in the dark.  Night driving just messes with my anymore, I don't like it.  I can do it, no doubt, it's not that I can't see or anything, I just don't like it.  More attention has to be paid because - it's dark lmao. 

Oh, the boat. I contacted those people yet again. Did he happen to get to the parts store? All I got back from her was a giant thumb's up, no explanation, no date to come and finish the work.  I haven't given up on them yet since I'm not even there. I mean, I told them they can come and fix it while I'm out and the people at the house were expecting us, but that was it.  So whatever. If they don't say anything about coming when I get back, I'm dragging that boat to an actual shop and getting this over with.  I could have gone boating numerous times now. 

Ugh. I need a nap.

There's nothing like Monday.  It either makes you or breaks you.  You don't plan or want trouble, but often times it comes at you, especially if you're at work.

And so it was today.  Everything went smoothly - at the plant I was out of there much faster than normal, so fast so, in fact, it threw up warning flags.  Hmmm, how is this day going so great? I loved it tho, figured I could get to Brownsville much earlier than I normally would.

I got south of Lufkin, going through a small town named Diboll when one of the super single trailer tires blew out. And when I say blow out, I mean this one was a real doozy.  The entire tread came almost all the way off from the tire, slapped the tire and wheel in front of it, breaking an air line, smashed the air line on the wheel it was on, tore up the mud flap, damaged the rear strip on the trailer with the tail lights in it and destroyed all 3 tail lights on that side of the trailer.

When I say destroyed, I mean it ripped the lights right out of their sockets, pulled out the wires and stripped the wires themselves.  I was stuck on the side of the highway, there was no hobbling down the road to a safe place to pull out, the trailer is loaded and the whole thing leaning to one side because of that huge tire all but gone.  Super single tires are those huge tires that are over 2 feet wide. You only have one in place of duallies.

Ridiculous nonsense.  Yes, I did a thorough inspection of the tires this morning, but they've been getting these retreads lately and they don't last long.  A waste of money and now a waste of productivity.  My company - also ridiculous.  I had to call the tire hot line through Michelin to get the tire replaced, I had to call a repair hotline to get the lights and other damage fixed.  Michelin ended up having Love's come out to replace the tire and then the repair hotline also called out Love's - excepting - Love's wouldn't be available for another 5 hours.

The dude said well we can fix this if you come back to the shop.  The hell you say.  You are the company that is supposed to fix this, but not for another 5 hours!  Yup, it's first come, first served he said.  I knew that, I just didn't want to sit in this little town, I wanted to get on down the highway and get this portion of the trip over with. I informed him I would not be driving 20 miles to the Loves without any brake or turn signal lights on that side of the trailer no only not working, but not even there!

Dangerous and this area is loaded with State Troopers, city cops - yes Diboll as small as it is has it's own police department and sheriffs everywhere.  I'd be a sitting duck target for them if they saw that.  I told him to make sure he looks at that mess and get everything written down that's needed so that whoever ends up coming doesn't have to make a trip back to the shop or a parts store.  I then told him  I was driving down to the nearest truck stop 2 miles down the road.  It may be dangerous to drive it without those lights, I deemed it far more dangerous to be sitting right on the side of the highway with traffic zooming past a foot away at 60 to 70 miles per hour with a trailer loaded with 8,000 gallons of Ethylene.

I figured if I did happen to get pulled over in those 2 miles I'd easily talk my way out of it, even if I couldn't, my company would back me in such a move and at least try to fight any tickets or out of service s***.  But. I waited before taking off from there until I could see that the highway was free of any traffic coming - I could see back about 2,000 feet - and took off, got here and have been waiting ever since.  This ordeal started at 10:00 am and it's now 3:35 pm.  Love's called about half an hour ago - we're getting the paperwork ready and getting this paid for before we come out there, do you have a phone number or know how this is getting paid for?

Yeah, I have no clue how they are paying for it and not my problem, gave them the phone number and wished them luck trying to get through to those people.  I haven't heard anything back, but at this point, I don't care.  I won't be leaving here until probably 3:30 am, that is if they even get this nonsense ever fixed.  Would have been faster to just send our mechanic down here to fix this stuff.

I have 4-1/2 hours left on the 14 hour on-duty clock.  By the time they get done here, I figure at best there will be 2 hours left on it.  That means I could drive 2 hours and then have to stop.  Guess what's 2 hours away? Yup, Houston.  Screw that.  I went off duty almost 4 hours ago, 6 more hours and I'll have a fresh 14 hour clock.  I see absolutely no good reason to leave here with only 2 hours left on the drive clock and be in Houston during rush hour traffic and trying to find a place to take a 10 hour break. Makes absolutely no sense to me at all so I made the decision about an hour ago after seeing it really is going to be 4:30 before they get here to just spend the night here.

I've made $125 sitting here and I suspect I'll make minimum $50 more before it's done. Maybe even longer if they don't bring the right parts. They actually have to get a wiring harness for all of those lights, the connectors were stripped off the wires. The wheel hub covers have to be replaced as well as air lines and the mud flap has to be replaced as well.

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I made the decision after the Love's mechanic finally showed up.  Note: I could have fixed all this stuff myself if had had access to the parts to do so.  I looked in the truck stop here but they didn't even have the lights much less the wiring harnesses to go with them.  Anyway, the northern part of Houston being 1-1/2 hours from here and having 3 hours left on the clock, I simply decided to stay put.  Rush hours - not hour - goes on for a while in Houston and I would have ended up smack dab in the middle of that nonsense and then attempting to find a place to park for the night - no thanks. I"m parked.  I'll drive this route out tomorrow.  The driver behind me will be ahead of me now. He should get there tonight.  Anyone sitting over the weekend should also be there or gone if trailers show up. 

But I am now placed last in line down there when I arrive and I just got almost 7 hours of breakdown pay, if I can stay down there until Wednesday add 14 hours of detention pay (at least).   The only downside? There is another Massachusetts run going out on Thursday!  I'm going to have to ask my manager about that run, when did we acquire it and how many loads per week or month are going there? I'm not the biggest fan of 7 day runs but it's good money.  At the same time, the Brownsville run is just as good as those long runs if there is a wait period.  Even if only overnight, it's guaranteed 14 hours when there's no empty available.

Ok, honestly, I just want to go to Massachusetts! When it isn't snowing, haling, the roads aren't covered with ice and snow and there aren't any white outs like there was when I was doing that LNG gig quite a while back.  That was Amherst at the Amherst University. I got a written notice that I had "falsified logs" after that 2 weeks of icy cold hell.  They said I didn't spend enough time at the fuel aisle dumping diesel into the tanks!  A freaking blizzard, with the wind blowing it almost horizontally into your face, you are not going to waste any time fueling up that truck.  I didn't care, either and told  my manager as such. 

That was then, this is now. The more time I have invested in this company, the less likely I am driven to leave it.

Well, that's it. The boat mechanics wife I contacted hours ago never replied.  Shocking. Not.  It's just going to the shop if I don't hear back from them before I get back to the house.  I could have already had this thing fixed from a shop,  just didn't want to fork out the dough I know it will cost.  At this point? Don't care. 

Friday - noonish time.
The decision to take the alternate route was a sound one, speaking after the fact.
I got to the juncture where I would either head down the normal way through Houston or go the alt route and something in side of me said - alternate route!  I hated to do it because I didn't know whether I would have enough hours to make it to Brownsville the same day going that way.  I have never taken that route, tho one other driver said it adds 30 minutes to the drive. 

I was halfway through that alt route - passing under I-10 well west of Houston - when my manager texted everyone:  The roads are closed in Houston but Highway 79 to 77 is still good.  It wasn't long after that that I started seeing the images of the flooding in Houston and a picture of I-45 in North Houston.  The pic showed the entire Interstate flooded, a lot of cars and trucks - all bunched up on the side that had tried to escape the flooding.  Most of those vehicles did not appear to have avoided it, many of them were half or completely submerged.

And other pics of neighborhoods flooded, service roads flooded and reports that most if not all highways had been closed.  If I had taken that route, I would have had to turn around, go almost all the way back up and take the alt route anyway.  I did, indeed, make it down here without much time to spare either on the 11 hour driving clock or the 14 hour on-duty clock.  The alternate route takes you through a lot of small towns with 35 mph speed limits, lots of traffic lights and lots of cops watching.  It was rather annoying, to be honest, to have to go through all of that, but it's whatever.

One little town had this 10% grade with switchbacks going up it.  Narrow road and not enough room if a truck is coming down and one is going up.  I found that out because I was hugging the wall they had on the shoulder while this other truck was coming down - 2 feet into my lane as he passed by, coming very close to hitting my trailer.  SLOW DOWN, was the thought going through my head, why is this driver in such a hurry?  20 mph speed limit, he must have been going 40.  That doesn't sound like much until you appreciate the steepness of the grade and the sharpness of the turns. 

Anyway, I decided to stay at the new Love's again last night, figuring there was no need to spend the night in the truck yard since it was fairly reasonable to assume that there would be no empty trailers coming in early - and that assumption was correct.  When the man that runs the yard finally got there, he said there were no trailers in Matamoros, there would be one  leaving the plant - that is 4 hours south of there.  Lol, they had me thinking that plant was IN Matamoros, now find out it's nowhere near it.  And then, when it does arrive at the border, you don't just sail right through there. There is a line of trucks you have to wait in line for to get inspected to come into the U.S. 

He said this afternoon.  If his 4 hours stuff is correct, I'm guessing 4 pm, which is far later than acceptable to be able to make it back today.  I simply refuse to drive all night long to get back to the yard anymore unless there is a need for the trailer the next morning.  The yard is full of trailers right now.  I'll drive til 1 pm at the latest and then stop for 10 hours and finish out the drive the next morning.  Just for me I won't feel like crap all day the next day after getting home and wanting to do nothing but sleep or lay in bed. 

And the dude that was behind me - he loaded directly after me yesterday - just now pulled in down here.  He got caught up in a rainstorm that had hit the alternate route. I saw that the alt route wasn't free of the rain from the Houston area, I just happened to beat the worst of it. I only had to drive through some sprinkles here and there, he experienced the deluge.  That always slows everything down and it caused him to not be able to make it down here by 3 hours lol.

Anyway, I tried to contact the mechanic but he's unavailable right now.  So I dunno when he's coming back to finish the boat.  If he just isn't coming back, I'll find someone else.  I don't know where the vacuum lines are supposed to go, that's not really anything I would know unless I had taken it apart in the first place.  It's one of those things where I would have taken pics of the lines - there's a lot of vacuum lines on that thing for some reason - so I would remember how they go back on.  Any mechanic project I have ever gotten involved with where there are a lot of lines and electrical coming off I have always taken pics and/or taken notes to ensure  that the whole thing gets put back together correctly. 

The "boy" living at the other house - that's his nickname until he earns a more respectful title - has allegedly found a job and is going to go to an orientation at IHOP this coming week.  His mother is still pandering to him - tho it's in my favor so I'm not turning it down - by co-signing a loan with him to pay the rent next month.  It's whatever to me, as long as the rent is paid. Maria has to "nag" him to do simple things such as clean up after himself when he's done eating or occasionally take the trash out.  It's just a weird situation as far as I'm concerned, but Maria is trying to work with him.  His parents obviously failed him.  She brought this upon herself tho, so I have a little less sympathy than I might have otherwise. The parents did lie to her about his lack of work ethic and lack of motivation to do much of anything beyond playing video games, eating and sleeping.  I did spend a half hour with them in the living room over there the other day attempting to chat with him.  He's not a very sociable person, but at least he wasn't rude.  He's just completely caught up in his own little world.  I'll give him credit for trying to break out of it and get a job, I guess.  We'll see how that goes.

Not much else going on. Gonna end this one.

The biggest question for me today?
To go way around Houston or to attempt driving through it with that tropical depression Emelda lingering around over everything.  I'm not going to make it to Brownsville today if I get caught up in weather related flooding or accidents holding up the freeways through there.  Not to mention everyone slows down automatically when it's raining, often times when slowing down is unnecessary and just wasting time. 

I get it if visibility is reduced.  Many times that isn't a factor and they still go way under the speed limit and block the passing lane while doing it.  I mean, I don't care if you slow way down, just don't slow me down with you.  But they'll sit there at 50 mph or even slower in a 75mph zone and not pass or speed up or slow down to get out of anyone's way.  Often times they'll put on their flashers as if that's helping anything  - which it is not and authorities don't even recommend you do that. It's likely I'll try going around Houston, I just have no idea whether that extends the drive time too far to get down to Brownsville? 

But, I will check the traffic map for that city before I make my decision and that won't occur til' later on today.  The last time seriously heavy rain occurred in Houston and I was driving through, it flooded the service roads and turned them into lakes with cars submerged and even more cars that had tried to flee the flooding and drive up on the embankment.  It took 3 hours to get through there and that ruined my chances to get to Brownsville - and the delectable detention pay that is a staple of those runs when you do, indeed, get it. 

So, I'll just be thinking about that this morning.  I have the alt route planned, I've never taken it and it will definitely add at least 30 to 45 minutes to the drive.  So really, it's kind of more dependent on how long I get stuck at the plant today and how much of my on-duty time I have remaining after leaving there.  Because I usually have at least an hour left hour of drive time when I get to the yard in Brownsville. 

Mother - is doing much better now and finally got herself a new phone.  I may call or at least text her today and see how she's doing anyway tho.  She claimed that the doctor said she had some sort of virus. The paperwork appeared to say something different.  I dunno, just glad she's better. 

The boat mechanic is supposed to come tomorrow. I won't be there but I definitely want him to come and finish this motor project.  Okay, I'd rather be there when he is there and ask him some questions, but geeze, let's get on with this already!

G'day. 

El Dorado trip done and over with. Always a one day trip - at least - and considering it doesn't pay hardly anything it shouldn't take more than a day.

Only one load going out today.  That's how bad it is right now with the schedule.  Yet, yesterday, arriving in the yard there were only 3 trucks. The schedule has been light since last week so either people are going out on call duty or they are going home.  Otherwise, there should be at least 10 trucks sitting there.

Highly likely I will not get that nice Massachusetts run. I haven't been to that state in forever, would be nice to go just to see it - before winter gets here.  We must have picked up a new contract because I'v heard of this run for several months now.  Not many loads going up there, but it's a nice paying gig.  It's hard to live like this when you have no idea when you're going out next and your manager is never specific when you ask.

Or doesn't reply at all.  Which has always been normal for her, but still. Do you meal prep or not? Do you wait until the end of the day and hope you have a run "somewhere"? For example, if I did get the MA run, I'd want to know the morning before, like right now.  Spend the day cooking some stuff for the road.  It's a 7 day trip I think. 6 anyway.

But, if I'm going to Brownsville, not so much pre cooking. In fact, I can get away with none at all if it came down to it, with the Stripes gas station selling baked, half-chickens I can wing it for eating. Just get some veggies and some heavy whipped cream and a few other oddities for the road and I'm set.

It tout the Keto diet everywhere I go when the subject of diets comes up - and amazingly that subject comes up pretty often.  You see a heavy-set person and they are talking to another heavy-set person about diet and Keto just pops out of my mouth.  I tell them if you've tried other diets that have failed, try this one.  It will work if you follow it correctly.  And it works fast.  I got into that discussion yesterday at the guard shack at the plant I was at.  The drawback for everyone is always when you go down the list of things you can't eat, which is probably 90% of what any given person has been eating up until that point.  Lots of negatives but the huge positive is results.

Today? I have let the back yard go.  I mean, I don't do anything with it now because of the neighbors uphill of us.  They simply will not clean up the years old mess back there and every single time it rains, all of that s*** comes floating over onto our property and I just got to the point where I had had it.

Think of spending hours sweeping or using a blower to clean up twigs, branches, dirt, leaves and debris and then the next day a rain comes and their yard dumps all over yours?   Hours of wasted effort.  Really started getting to me and so I just stopped.  Well, James told me last night that they had finally cleaned up over there. I haven't been outside yet, remains to be seen but I'll go take a look in a few.  If they really did, I'll do a light cleanup and see what happens. Wait, maybe not. It's supposed to rain today so that kind of nixes that plan.  Hard to sweep or blow wet concrete.

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Day over.  Next trip sent. I dunno, I would say my manager screwed up, but this week's schedule is way messed up, light less than half the runs we would normally have.  I didn't get the Massachusetts run, but I didn't expect it.  I did  get a Brownsville run, the other alternative tomorrow was a Houston run. Another worthless run that takes up a day - or if a split trip - 2 days. 

I'm happy to get the Brownsville run. The one I did 2 weeks ago that had me down there 2 nights was worth $1,600. That's just 3 days out. I'd gladly take another of those, but even at mileage and stop pay only I'm good with it.  Oh, and my company did reimburse me the hotel stay.  The next time I get stuck down there 2 nights and my manager doesn't respond to my text for a hotel? I'm going to Marriott.  That's what the company gives - I won't get their rate and I don't care.  I'll get reimbursed and that's that. 

Oh, and yes, they did clean up their back yard next door!! I was shocked.  It was allllllllll cleaned up, the only thing on the ground was the leaves that have fallen off the trees since they did it.  I love trees, I really do, but these trees?  Can burn.  I would say struck by lightning but they are so big they would crush this or their house if they fell on either and anyone in it's way would be quite dead.  These trees are HUGE. 

Well, time to go to bed. 

It's Sunday night.
I haven't worked since I got back Thursday.  I assume I have nothing until Tuesday.
Although I know we're slow, we are never that slow.
I have, however, decided that the time off is good and so I am just going with the flow.

Monday morning, however, I'll be be contacting my manager for work on Tuesday. No way I should have to sit 5 days unless we just went dead broke dead on work.

Well anyway.
The dude showed up - james and taylor's friend - today with the family actually.  Wife and son.  I came to the understanding quickly he didn't have any knowledge about boat motors. Not a problem, I found someone anyway this morning to come over.  They came over to party lol. The kid with their kids and them with all of us.

Well, after I got to that understanding I went ahead and had the mobile mechanic come out.  I found him on Facebook in an ATV/off road local group and away we go.

When he got there, he started chuckling. "I know this boat".  That didn't sound good.  Oh, how's that?  I worked on this thing for a guy not long ago.  2 + 2 still equals 4. I immediately deduced he was the guy that sold the boat to James and was the middle man. He confirmed my conclusions.  Yup, the guy that owned it wanted rid of it.  I had rebuilt the carbs, but we needed to get the boat into a body of water to adjust them.

When we got out there, he continued, he told the man that he had to adjust all 3 carbs on it and that it would take a bit to do it. The man who owned the boat got mad and said f*** this, I just want to get rid of this boat!  He wouldn't allow him to finish the work and they left, sold the boat - to me but through James and that was that.

Umm, so we were at the same place he left off. "Do you have a 55 gallon drum or something we can put the engine in? Cause' the only way to properly adjust the carbs is with the boat in water and having that back-pressure".  Um, no, I'm not sticking the thing into my Koi pond.  "well when we're going to have to go to a lake to finish this".

I wanted to visit with these folks, not go to a lake. I mean, yes i want to go to the lake with the boat but in running condition and with everything that needs to be done - done.  We ain't there yet. Getting much closer, but not there yet.  I did not, however, verbalize those sentiments. I immediately said yes! let's go!  In fact, we weren't even going to float the boat, we were going to back the thing into the water far enough to get the lower unit in the water so the impeller can pump water to cool the engine.

This prospect wasn't as terrifying as actually attempting to launch the boat...until we got there.  A "primitive" site, the ramp was very steep and no pier. In fact, it was just a dirt lot and this ramp going at a maybe 35 degree angle? Whatever it was, it was more than I wanted to deal with the first time backing a boat trailer into the water. But we were there, no turning back. Not to mention the place was less than a 15 minute drive from the house.

Well, I backed the thing down into the water until he told me to stop. Then, we got it going - eventually - but it was running erratic.  Not smooth at all and kept dying out.  A single ramp, two other vehicles parked with boats already in the water, didn't really expect to see a bunch of people showing up there. I mean, this place is dirt, weeds a cement ramp and nothing else.  We were blocking the ramp for a while until a family floated a ski boat in.  They started asking questions. We'll move out of the way.  No, we're not ready yet, they had just floated the boat up to the shore to get the truck and do whatever they were doing.

Well let us know when you want to use the ramp and we'll move.  20 minutes later - we'd like to load our boat. So, this mechanic was taking the engine apart anyway.  I told him I want the thing working properly, I don't want anything half assed and I want the motor to purr like a kitten. Or as close to it as possible.  It was then I found out he had done a compression check on the cylinders previously and found them all at 125 excepting one at 123. Perfect.  The amount of compression in each cylinder isn't as important as the compression being within 10 pounds of pressure of each other.  That made me very happy to hear.

After pulling it out of the water,  he began researching online, calling people and making discoveries. The fuel pump needs rebuilt and there is a vacuum leak.  He got the thing running as smooth as possible with those deficiencies, but a vacuum leak will cause the engine to run bad and so will a fuel pump problem.  Bad bladder.  We put the thing back into the water after all of that so he could adjust the carbs, regardless of those problems, he said, he could get the carbs set and we wouldn't have to go back there to test again.  No matter to me, I had no idea that reservoir was that close.

We were there a long time and I observed people launching boats and retrieving them back onto the trailers. They were all much smaller, tho, I had my doubts about it going so smoothly with this bigger thing, but it's all the same principle.  I also watched a lot of jet skis being put out into the water, including a group of people that had brought two of them.  After they had launched, pretty simple thing after watching it for such a small thing, they had to sit there and jump start from one to the other one of them. Then, the thing took a while to get going. And after a while of this - they took off out of sight.

I saw them over an hour and a half later.  Both of them had died on the water and they were swimming, pulling them back.  A girl had swum ahead of them proclaiming to us that they had just spent the last hour pulling them back by swimming.  It's a wonder to me that the other boats that had launched didn't see them and help them, but the main portion of the lake/reservoir is out of site of that ramp so I just assumed no one saw them.

A family of 5 in this small boat also came floating into view. I couldn't imagine having that many people on a boat that size - but they seemed perfectly content.

Well, after the carbs were set I headed home. He said he would get the parts and come back tomorrow and finish the job. Fine by me.  He also sold me his "transom saver" - its a bar that attaches to the lower unit of the motor and rests against the trailer. It keeps the engine from bumping around and eventually breaking the transom.  I have seen them, it's a bar with rubber covered protrusions on each end.  I have also read you should have one. Yup, well I hadn't gotten that far, so I bought his after he offered to sell it to me.

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Monday.  I expect today to be the last day of the "vacation" that isn't really a vacation.  I haven't even contacted my manager yet about the 4 days off, whether it was intended or an oversight.  The boat repair guy is supposed to come back today and finish the job, I did just contact him and awaiting a reply.  He showed me nicks in the hull, well, pointedly where the boat has been captured back on the trailer that needed addressing, gave me a tube of Marine JB weld and said that would definitely do the trick for such small holes.  They aren't holes per se, not all the way into the hull.  They're deep scrapes where he said water would probably seep through.

Thankfully, the bilge pump works lol. Anyway, I just got done from climbing all the way underneath the boat and applying the weld to about 7 places. only 2 of them were deep enough to really warrant the stuff but since I was under there, might as well.  Upon closer inspection of the transom at the bottom, there is some minor hull damage right a the corner about 4 inches long It's obviously they ran it into something because it's all chipped off there.  I applied a goodly amount of the weld there and hoping that will solve the problem. If it doesn't, I wouldn't expect a huge repair bill from the shop that specializes in fixing such things.  But I will see if the JB weld does the trick first, ie: take the thing out on to the lake and see if there is still water entering in through the bottom.

Also going to ask about various openings in the sides of the water craft, what they're for and are they potentially letting water in?  The only one I know of for sure that would let water in is a plug at the bottom of the thing that you are supposed to pull off after every outing.  Any water build up in there will just flow out of that plug opening.  And contrarily, leaving that plug out would sink the boat, lol.

It's nice to be home alone.  Yesterday was a consortium of people over and screaming kids.  A little solitude - with the dogs of course but they aren't a bother - is very nice.  I'll have to attempt to get my mind functioning in work mode, a thing I always find difficult to do after I've had some time off.  But it's time to go back to work and make some money.

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Boat back at the other house, light fixture exchanged at Lowe's, food picked up for dinner - if I don't cook there may not be dinner, laundry, etc etc etc.  Normal household chore stuff.  And word back that the mechanic won't be back until Wednesday or Thursday 🙁🙁🙁🙁🙁🙁🙁🙁🙁

Oh well.  Nothing I can do about it.  I still have that list of stuff that you are required to have on the boat to buy.  Just not buying anything else until the motor is dialed in.  I just thought it a bit disconcerting he told me he was coming back today and now backing it off by 3 or 4 days.  However, the only thing over that I paid him yesterday was for the fuel pump kit, so to "lose" that money would be losing $23.  But, even tho he's changed the date, I don't think he's a ripoff.

And now, confirmation. The big account that was going to shut down for a month and a half - has  shut down.  It's at least 10 loads a week gone.  Some drivers have been "sent out of the system". By their own choice, they get to some other division temporarily until work picks back up.  If I can't get anything more than one load every 4 days, I'm going to have to do that as well.  One load every 4 days is just that load per paycheck. Might be close to okay, might be shit.

What I got? Shit.  The worst, lowest paid run we have to El Dorado.  It's a day trip almost always, a 14 hour day, but a day trip never-the-less.  When I asked her about what's going on, she simply replied that she could send me out into the system.  She gets defensive too easily, too quickly. I didn't even say anything offensive or abrasive, I was just inquiring as to what was causing the slowdown, not complaining about the run.

So, I'm on Facebook wishing my mother a happy birthday and seeing nothing from her.  Weird.  She's usually on enough to at least see such posts.  I was out driving down to Brownsville, I was going to call her and wish her a happy birthday, when I started receiving texts from my oldest brother.

I don't get texts from him, or my other brother for that matter, something must be up.  Mother had been to the hospital, had taken an Uber, lost her phone, purportedly left it in the Uber. Alarms went off - if mother went to the hospital, something serious has to be wrong cause' she doesn't just get up and go to the hospital.  Today, he sent a text showing the hospital's doctor's statement of what was up.

It was all doctor jibberish to me, might as well have written in Chinese.  I gathered from the paper that she had some sort of thyroid problem but the rest of it? I have no clue what any of that meant. Worse, my oldest brother didn't know either, hence the reason he posted pics of the statements to us to see if we could make anything of it.  My middle brother is a paramedic, so he eventually got on there and said everything looked "fine".

Again, mother does not go to the hospital because she's "fine".  She's up in her 80's. Things may affect her worse than earlier in life.  I dunno, I can't talk to her because - she doesn't have a phone. My oldest brother is an extreme minimalist in giving out info. He doesn't like the family, he loves his mother I believe but the rest of us can go to hell - and has been that way since he's been a child.  Growing up with him was like growing up with a ghost brother. He was only around when he was forced to be at the house.  He had nothing to say to any of us.  I don't know what is wrong with him, I never will.  I accept that I cannot change my family, but I also accept that I don't have to have much of anything to do with them, either.

I'll get the information I need when Caleb goes over there on Saturday. I intend on having him hand mother the phone.  Again, I have zero info on what actually happened to her, I just know that she's home, got up out of bed after being in bed for a day and is moving around.  I didn't find out about the hospital visit until after she went home.  Very disconcerting.  I mean, to the point that if I don't find out some info soon, I'm flying to Phoenix and I'll see what's going on with her.  That's my resolve.  But I think when Caleb goes I should be able to get a LOT more information than my oldest brother cared to share - although that's probably all the info he has because that's all he probably cared to find out.

My brothers are like strangers to me.  That's all I will say about that at this point in time.

It's midnight thirty here.  Yes, that's 12:30 am, just my way of saying it lol.

That makes it Friday early morning.  On Wednesday - the second day off in a row and relaxing, doing much of nothing and enjoying that status - I texted my manager about whether I was going out tomorrow - which would have been Thursday.  I didn't receive a reply right away and I just put it out of my mind. Not unusual to not get a response from her about upcoming work, I don't get pushy, I just ask the question and let it ride until she has time to give me an answer.

Well, instead, I got a phone call back a couple of hours later.  You want to go down to Brownsville and pick up a trailer?  I knew we weren't short on trailers, the yard was starting to get full again.  This was a mission to bobtail down there - bobtailing is driving the semi tractor without a trailer attached to it - get an empty and bring it back.  We didn't need an empty, the yard is full of them. Several of them are trailers that can be used in Mexico.  I wasn't gonna argue tho, I said yes. Got my stuff, got the dogs, took them to the other house, got to the yard, in the truck and headed down to the border.

Hence, the reason I'm awake at midnight thirty.  Cause she didn't call me about that run until it was after noon, meaning not getting out of the yard until almost 2:00 pm.  It set me up for failure in Houston. Both going down and coming back I was smack dab in the middle of their version of a rush hour, which I can tell you is as bad as most anywhere you will find them.

So tomorrow. Well, I think I'll drive on up to the upholstery place and take a lookit the boat. It was out there in front the other day, looked like they had replaced most everything - but that was from a distance.  I didn't stop, just didn't feel compelled to.  Give them as much time as they need to get the job done right and not make them think I want a rush job or something.  But it's been there a while now, so I do want to see what's been done.

Nothing too great.
Driving on Sunday is great for traffic, terrible for my psyche.  That's a I-want-to-stay-home-and-do-nothing-day.  It wears me out.  I was awfully tired this morning.

OOOH MY.... the dogs smell TERRIBLE!! What on earth have the been into?!!!! Gross!

My goodness, I may have to throw them clean on out of here tonight, that is disgusting!  Smell like death, rotting garbage and a bit of skunk thrown in.  Okay, maybe not THAT bad, but it's pretty bad ugh.

Last night was quite trying when I arrived at that yard down there. There was only one parking spot available for the trailer I was pulling. Clear in the back of the lot, in a corner.  The lot was so full that they had dropped empty trailers in front of trailers on the lines.    The only way to get the trailer back in there was at an extreme angle relative to the spot, and then just as the tandems on the trailer started to pass the corner of the trailer on one side, crank the truck steering tires the opposite direction and try to jackknife the thing in there. 

It was late, it was dark, I was tired and I had to get out like 15 times to walk back there and make sure I wasn't about to run into the trailer on the other side, my blind side. That's that kind of backing where you expect to have a spotter help guide you in.  I'm not joking, either, I got my exercise last night just getting in and out of the truck. A good way to get fired? Just back a trailer into one of the other company's trailers. 

Well, I got it in there. Then I thought there were no empties because the other 3 trailers were on the concrete slabs, normally meaning they were full. Otherwise, they just drop them on the dirt.  But I checked the water meter gauge - tells you if there's any fluid in it or not - 0 inches.  Gag.  No detention pay : (  Well whatever, I went to the new Love's truckstop which was totally full - excepting the bobtail spaces where I parked, went to bed, got up this morning, go under the trailer and got out of there.

And now? Worn out.  It was cool tho, that when I got back to the yard they were having yet another BBQ cookout and they offered me some.  It was amazingly good! They had lightly smoked the meat with cherry wood chips and had marinated it with whatever - it was really good stuff.  They have a culture there of eating together if any of the regulars who are actually social are there.  There are plenty there are very unsocial and don't like to talk to anyone unless they are bitching about something. 

But these guys are good guys and fun to hang out with.  The manager showed up about the time I pulled into the yard - she had a newborn baby.  Sleeping, quiet little thing.  I asked how it was related if at all? Oh, you know the 16 year old girl we took in?

Okayyyy.  16 year old having babies!  That'll change your life forever.  Especially at that age.  No judgement from me, it's whatever. Condoms work tho!  Lol  Grandma was happy, didn't want to poo poo on her party. 

And arriving at the other house has turned into a entertainment/shit show.  This 18 year old kid has no manners.  Has no work ethic.  Has no schedule to do anything.  He plays his video games and he sleeps and he eats. He has no social life excepting what I assume through the games he plays, you know, like talking to people on group games while you're playing? I'm only assuming he does that, I have no clue if he really does. He's very unsociable.  He got made at the ladies today because the other lady tenant didn't invite him with them to go get DQ blizzards. 

His parents came over yesterday and told him they weren't going to pay for next month's rent, he needs to go get a job.  His parents. Again, I hate to judge, but how do you raise a boy to be that socially awkward, self-centered, introverted and stuck up?  They basically lied about the whole situation to get rid of him.  I wasn't a part of any of those discussions so I don't know what was actually said, I am going by Maria's retelling of the stories.  I can only say that I gave my hesitations about getting an 18 year old in there, especially if parents are bringing him there, out of THEIR house. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. 

It isn't a ghost, but it sure sounds like it has the stink to high heaven problem.  And it did.  I was right, but I didn't rub it in.  Just knew this would turn into a problem.  This kid doesn't want to work and he doesn't care.  He'll have to sell his high dollar gaming computer to pay for next month's rent.  I'm assuming the parents paid the thousands of dollars that thing cost.  It's not that they can't afford to pay his rent next month, I assume they are trying to wean him off the bottle. They should have started that process - about what, 17-1/2 years ago?  And then dumping this shit onto someone else, leaving out large portions of what's actually going on?  And trying to say they "thought he would be more motivated to get a job"?  Do they think the rest of us are that dumb?  You throw the boy out by leading him to a prepaid room and think that that is going to magically change him? 

What he needs is boot camp.  Or some similarly structured environment that is disciplined and has rather rigid structure concerning your daily schedule.  Anyway, I stay tuned to this situation intently since I am directly involved with it.  Regardless, he could probably sell that computer for a grand, easily.  But - he would be a totally miserable adult child.  I don't take pleasure in other people's suffering - unless they're people like Isis - but at the same time, it would be a nice wake-up call. 

Enough of that. Tomorrow I'll run to 2 towns over and get the new starter, get some other stuff done while over there, head back here and take the starter to the shop where the boat is.  I want to see if any progress has been made - I have no reason to suspect they haven't I just want to see it - and use the starter as an excuse. Actually, I want to put that starter in and take the new one that doesn't work out and get it sent back and get my money back.

I hate that Sears went out over there in that town. They shut that huge, giant store down.  I liked clothes shopping there and looking at things such as grills and tools and such.  Really a dynasty gone south.  I really liked Sears, I know they were a dying brand but it was one of my favorite places as a kid and I still like it today.  Internet shopping is fine, but a big brick and mortar such as that one is pretty cool with all the diversity of items they have. 

Well, it's getting latish. Not really late but enough. Time to go to sleep. 

I've been following with interest this Walmart decision to stop selling pistols and ammo for certain guns and their decision to not allow open carry in their stores.

Conservatives and Republicans went bat-shit crazy over that last part and declared boycott! Walmart!

They apparently didn't read a few lines further in all of those stories that they were not banning concealed carry.  This makes perfect sense to me.  I never open carry.  I think it's just asking for trouble.  You also might be making yourself a target in the advent of one of these mass shootings - that guy has a gun, the killer thinks, shoot him first. 

Highly likely you will never encounter in your entire lifetime a situation where you will need to draw that gun on anyone, so why open carry anyway? I can see it out hiking in the wilderness, you want it easily accessible to pull in case of a confrontation with a wild animal.  But even if you got into that kind of confrontation, you still may not need to use it.  The fact that an animal is staring you down does not mean it will attack you - been there and done that on countless occasions.  No need to senselessly shoot the poor animal if it just turns around and walks away or if you slowly back off from it.

So I find my fellow conservative arguments about this Walmart decision ridiculous.  It's also private property, which nullifies this idea that it is somehow a "public space".  I don't know where conservatives came up with these arguments, but they are wrong.  Walmart can make any decision about what they allow in their stores, all they want, it's their property, they get to make those rules.  If we're going to be consistent as conservatives, certainly you should be looking at property rights. Do you want the government to come telling you what you can and cannot do with respect to guns and other people having them on your property?

Talk about opening up a can of worms! 

Them decided to stop selling pistols and certain ammo is also their business.  They don't sell pistols at the Walmarts anywhere in this region.  They sell hunting rifles and shotguns, yes.  They sell ammo for some of the pistols that they are going to discontinue, yes. It might cause me to have to pay more if I decide to buy ammo locally, otherwise I can order it online cheaper than I can buy it at any brick and mortar store.

When I see people proclaiming they are boycotting a store, I always wonder if they ever went to that store in the first place?  I'm guessing not.  I am not boycotting Walmart, but I rarely go there. I hate those stores.  Just despise going into them.  Weirdos and people wanting to start trouble and arguing, I don't need all of that s***.  I almost exclusively only go in there for dog food now.  Occasionally I'll buy some work jeans and some socks and such, but very rare.  So if I were to say I was boycotting Walmart, it wouldn't really be any kind of statement at all.  I suspect that is true with a lot of these people making such claims.

Now, if I were to boycott the local Krogers, I spent at least $600 a month there, probably a lot more. I don't really keep track.  It would be foolish for me to boycott them, they are my main source for groceries.  There are 2 Super 1 food stores, but they have limited selection and higher prices.  Anyway, this current situation with conservatives making all of these statements is baffling to me. 

Well enough of that.  I am about to go off to work.  Brownsville, it's a Sunday, should be a relatively easy ride down there - especially the Houston part of it.  I'd rather stay home and sleep in today, but making money isn't terribly shabby,either. Have to earn that dough to pay for the boat upholstery!

G'day. 

Well it's Saturday morning. The neighbor's 30 year old son came ringing the doorbell and then pounding on the door earlier, waking me up out of a peaceful sleep.  It wasn't early, but I could have taken another hour or so of sleeping in.  His only statement was that his mom had left town for the weekend, but the dog was outside, are y'all taking care of the dog?  Yup, we're dealing with the dog.  So he went into a long statement of how he had told her he would take care of  the dog and yada yada yada, I simply told him we had it covered.

"I guess I'll go back to Longview then". Yes, that sounds like a good idea, closed the door and hoped the kids weren't awakened by the door bell or the pounding on the door.  Which they weren't.  But the dogs wanted out, naturally, so I had to hope that wouldn't make too much noise as well.  It didn't, thankfully, you want those kids to sleep as late as possible.

Anyway, I got back into town from Oklahoma early yesterday, like 9:30am.  So it gave me the entire day to enjoy being home and another entire day today before heading back down to Brownsville tomorrow.  I got lucky on that one, one of the drivers declared she was taking some time off and passing the run onto someone else - which just happened to be me next in line.  I was slated for an El Dorado trip, the worst paying trip you can get in this division of this company. A complete waste of time.

Brownsville is, by my manager's definition, behind again and causing everyone to have to wait.  I'll be happy with another 2 day wait? Tomorrow is Sunday and almost never do they have a trailer available on Sunday even when they are "caught up". And there should be a driver or two ahead of me, I can only hope to stay down there til' Tuesday and have another nice paycheck in a row.

The guy at the starter placed called me - an hour after I had come home from that town. Your started is in, he left a message cause I had the ringer turned off. Well, no biggies, the boat is in the shop for 2 weeks but I don't want to leave this guy hanging either.  Get the starter and maybe even go over to the shop and see about installing it to make sure it's the right one - tho this starter guy seems to know his stuff quite well, I'm fairly confident it will be the right one. But then, I could send the one back that I bought that was the wrong one and get my money back for that one.

As for today?  Probably going to smoke a pork butt that I was going to the other day - or put it  in the freezer and do something different.  Not sure I'm in the mood for pulled pork today.  I could crockpot it but it wouldn't have that nice, smoky taste that makes it so wonderful.  Of course, I could smoke it for 2 or 3 hours and then dump it in the crockpot.  A bit of indecision here. Lol.

_______________

Well now we have a problem. The house central AC isn't working. It tries to turn on but it won't fire up.  I suspect a bad capacitor again, but, as with everything around here, those types of places that sell that stuff? Not open on the weekends.  But, the line is frozen?  So it's not the capacitor. 

I've got it narrowed down to either the fan capacitor on the inside unit or the fan motor itself.  The fan tries to come on when you hit the switch. Its still a bit cool in the house, but it's 98 degrees outside, it's going to heat up in here - excepting my room, I've got that AC turned down to 67 so it will stay on and keep the room cook, coupled with my giant ceiling fan to help circulate that cool air. 

This stuff always has to happen on the weekends.  You can't just take the motor out and take it parts place and have it tested. They aren't open.  Calling out an AC tech - add hundreds of dollars for weekend/emergency work, if you can find anyone to come out.  These small, old towns are set in their ways.  I just know I"m not going to burn up and I already offered my room to them. I could take the dogs to the other house and stay the night in the semi, I have to get up early anyway. 

In my view, it's not worth calling them out here on the weekend.  I've had that situation and I've had them charge me to come out and then tell me they can't get the parts until Monday - and that was in Phoenix, a huge, giant city. If they can't do that there, I doubt we're finding anything here to deal with this.  No sense in paying the extra money for something you likely aren't going to be able to get fixed right away anyway - and - paying extra for after hours/emergency service.  I'ts not an emergency. I'll be out of here until Monday night at the earliest, but highly likely Tuesday. My room is cool, the AC isn't turning off now in my window but it's keeping up with it.  It's a 12,000 BTU unit. However, the room is very large lol. 

I dunno, but Taylor is taking a nap, there aren't any parts available, they will have to make a decision when she gets up.  I don't consider this my problem.  I can help with financing fixing it if needed, but I don't feel I should pay for this.  I'm just glad I have my own AC unit. Otherwise? I would be heading towards the cheap, $35 per day hotel down the street. Strike that, since I"m going out tomorrow, I'd be taking the dogs to the other house and going to the yard. There is nothing wrong with being at the yard the night before and not having to get up so early . They can stay cool without having to make rash decisions and I will stay cool in my truck. 

That's that. That's where this day has gone. We were having fun before we got home......lol. 

Dinner was actually eaten last night, almost all of it.
I won't make two racks of ribs anymore, it's just a waste.  I make it thinking we will eat it and they think we will eat it as well - and then?  Might eat a couple of ribs off the second rack and that's it.  Just because we have plenty of meat in the house doesn't mean we should be wasting it.  Wasn't brought up that way and those types of habits are hard to break.  So I was happy to see all but a couple of ribs eaten and a "fight" over who was going to get those last ones for lunch tomorrow.

I wasn't engaged in that bickering, lol, I already had cooked wings that were going to go bad the day before and those are what I'm taking with me to Oklahoma.  Anyway, I had also made a Keto version of pizza with CarbQuik which was also eaten, amazingly enough.  I figured the thing was all mine. Not all keto stuff is that good. This particular pizza needed to be a bit more crispy.  I'll do some tweaking next time around.  Namely, push the dough out til it's thinner and precook the crust a bit before loading it up with toppings. 

It was really the only thing wrong with it, other than that it was delicious.  However, I'm thinking the almond flour pizza dough tastes better.

The boat is just going to have to be put out of my mind for a while. Two whole weeks! But, they're taking it apart to do it right, meaning it should look pretty much brand new when they're done and it should stay looking that way for a long time to come.  I'll have to invest in a cover to preserve the newness of it.  Be kind of wasteful to spend that much money on it and then just let it begin to rot in the sun again. 

The $250 worth of grass plugs I put in the ground - a loooooooong time ago - have finally started to do their thing.  I gave up on them and just figured I wasted my money.  However, I was walking over the lawn yesterday and a string of grass over a barren patch caught my eye.  Upon closer observation, it was one of the stringers that this type of grass is supposed to put out both above and below ground.  Whatever the technical names are, that's how it proliferates.  Parts of the front lawn grass are nice and thick and beautiful - other parts are barren, nasty looking nothingness, which is what prompted me to put this stuff in there in the first place.  The only thing I have been successful in growing over that barren stuff is winter/rye grass.  I really love that stuff because it's super easy to grow. You don't toil the soil or do anything but spread it over the top of existing grass and water it. 

Usually, I just wait until several days of rain are forecast and don't bother manually watering it at all.  It's beautiful grass, very easy to grow and maintain - and dies out when summer hits lol. It doesn't regrow the next season, you have to buy the seed all over again and start all over again. 

But, it's exciting to see the new grass that's been in there like 8 months finally doing something.  I spent a small fortune on it and it only covered maybe an 1/8th of the front lawn.  After seeing it do nothing for all this time, didn't seem prudent to buy any more of it and frankly, I'm not going to anyway.  If it really does it's thing, it will eventually take over the entire lawn, the neighbors lawn on that side of the house and move to the back lawn - which is a shambles at the moment.  That is an irritating situation with neighbor's trees overhanging the yard and dumping s*** all year long.  I hardly ever clean it up anymore, it's just a waste of time. Couple that with the neighbor that is elevated on the other side whose yard is never cleaned and full of that stuff - washing over onto our property every time it rains? Forget it.  I get tired of the mess once in a while and clean it all up only to have it trashed very quickly.

I'm not sure how that Zoysia will do in the back yard, it would be years before it ever got that far anyway. 

I saw pallets of summer grass being sold cheap the other day, that would be nice back there - until it got covered with all that tree crap and then seem like a waste of time.

Regardless, departure time for work almost here.  And following this hurricane situation.  Amazing how some natural thing can capture everyone's attention.  It degraded to a Cat 2 and now is Cat 3 again, willing be hitting the Carolinas.  The forecaster on the news said a Cat 3 hasn't hit there since 1996. I feel for those people, but there's a reason I don't live on the coasts. Nice places to live - normally - until one of these monsters come at you.  Nice places to visit on vacation!

With that, off to the races!

G'day. 

I did, indeed, get motivated today, got up, had a couple of cuppas coffee, got out of here and dragged that boat to the upholstery shop.  Very light boat, didn't slow down the SUV at all.   That should be good for loading and unloading at the dock ramp.  I have a little more confidence now after watching numerous launching and loading videos.  At least I have an idea of what to do and what not to do.  Like, don't back up so far that your rear wheels go off the ramp and into the water.

That's when you see the videos of vehicles floating in the water and slowly sinking.  Lots of those videos on YouTube.  I don't really think it's that people start losing traction, tho one video showed the driver had put the truck into park and locked the rear brakes and the thing still ended up floating off. I guess it's just backing up too far, supposedly these boat ramps have markers on the docks next to them showing where the dock ends. 

Just a bit terrified of the idea of losing my vehicle like that. Once it sinks, the vehicle is doomed.  You can't expect all the computer and sensor parts to actually survive that nonsense.  Gets into the wiring, everything that makes the car work - likely doesn't work anymore and your vehicle is a total loss.  Even if it isn't, I suspect you would look forward to issues with the vehicle for the rest of the time you own it.  From what I have observed, the rear wheels of your vehicle go into the water a bit, but not very far before you stop and get the boat off the trailer.

Some videos show the truck backing into the water and hitting the brakes to nudge the boat off without any further help needed for it to float off. 

Well that's going to be the future cause the boat is going to be at that upholstery shop for 2 weeks, the owner stated. He has to order the vinyl for one thing. The other thing is they remove everything off the seats and chairs down to the wood and check the wood.  If it's good, they go ahead and simply replace the vinyl.  If not, they replace the wood.  They also replace the foam cushion part if it's bad.  Local shop, great reputation, been around for years and years, I've seen the finished product and it looked good, they didn't have an issue with me leaving the boat there - tho I gave them the new ball hitch lock to make sure it wasn't going to get stolen. 

I'm happier to help the local mom and pops - if they do good work - than taking the thing out of town and dumping money into some other city's economy. 

_____________

Day over. Manager called and said she was busy but wanted to let me know I have first load.  That's good to know in advance, that's early rise.  She texted me a few hours later, an Oklahoma run.  I'll take it over Cheniere, Houston or El Dorado run.  Whatever the case, it's very late considering the time I have to get up so, off to dreamland.

I didn't get out of Brownsville yesterday until after 4:00 pm.  I braced myself for the traffic - I knew there would be a lot of it heading north and I wasn't wrong. 2 small towns had traffic backups for miles - took quite a bit of time to get through those places, even with police waving traffic through red lights to keep traffic moving.  At 11:00 pm, I decided to stop, I wasn't about to drive until 4:00 am to get back to the yard.  So a truck stop I knew wouldn't be filled up I stopped at in Rosenberg.  Bed at midnight, much better than bed at 4.  So I don't feel as crappy today as I would have.

After getting back, getting the mechanic to deal with a bolt in a tire on the trailer I pulled up and chatting with some other drivers, I headed straight to the nearest starter shop. The dude hooked it up to a machine of some sort and declared it wasn't working correctly. So, he proceeded to take it apart thinking the brushes would be worn - which they were not when he got them out of there.  He was then stating it's likely the armature, but no guarantees. He then decided to see if he could even find a new starter for it.  It took him quite a while - but I wasn't leaving or getting impatient, if he could deal with this I want to get this over with.  I don't want to have to drive all over town to other starter shops or even go to a marine shop and pay exorbitant prices;.

He finally found it, declared I will probably pay more than the one I found on the internet and gave me a price of $155 plus tax. Well, how big a hurry are you in for this? No hurry, I'd rather get this right than be in a hurry. So, 3 to 4 business days he said it should arrive. That's fine, I said and offered to pay for it on the spot.  Nope, I don't need you to do that. 

But sure enough, his machine verified that the shaft wasn't lifting all the way up when you turn the key to start the engine.  That's what I was observing the one time I finally did get it to work. It was spinning and raised up a little, but not enough to engage the flywheel. It was just relieving to find out for sure from an expert that yes, what you thought was wrong - is wrong. 

I'll get the new starter installed when it arrives, get the thing fired up and let it run awhile.  Maybe quite a while since I have the garden hose attachment to keep the engine cooled.  Just no reason to get in a hurry to get stuck out on the lake.  But first I have to find the dipstick? I've searched all over that engine and can't find one, but the videos I've watched say they all have one. 

Anyway, over to Maria's to get the dogs - and listen to the tale of this new kid she let move in there. I knew there was more to the story than this kid's parents were letting on. He's not really a kid, he's 18, but he is in no wise prepared for adult life and the pressures in life. In fact, he doesn't even care.  His parents are rich, apparently, driving around an Audi suv and paying his way - just paying it for him to be out of their house.  She said he hasn't taken a shower since he moved in there on Friday - it's Tuesday.  He goes to bed late and gets up late. He isn't looking for a job.  He makes messes in the kitchen and doesn't clean up.  Let my dogs out and - they got out alright.  I was pissed about that one.
Gets uppity about being asked to help with taking out the trash and basic household chores. 

Basically, he's as lazy as hell and apparently has lived a golden life with everything handed to him.  Has no sense of responsibility, accountability, work ethic, etc.  So, did the parents coddle him and just not raise him right? Or perhaps were busy with careers and didn't have time for him?  Or what?  Could do lots of speculation, but that's all it would be.  Just about guaranteed that the best - and worst - thing that could possibly happen to him is that he is thrown out on his @$$ into the stark reality of life and let him figure it out.  My mother did that with me when I was 19 - tho i wasn't lazy and I did have a job - she just wanted all of us out of the house.  Including dad lol.  She stormed into my room one day, demanded I leave right then and there, at 10:00 pm, bye or I'm calling the police. 

I now know she could've called the police all she wanted, but they wouldn't have forced me out of there that night.  Not that I'm holding anything against her, probably one of the best things that ever happened. The stark reality of life comes glaring you in the face when you are dealt a hand of cards that all say the same thing: You're screwed, now do something about it. 

But let's make Maria's situation clear: this was all HER decision.  I did not push her at all, in fact, I spoke my reservations about having that kid in there. There must be a reason the parents want him out.  She's pretty unhappy about it, but again, none of this is my doings. I recommended against it and asked about the other people that had inquired about the room.  She said she felt pressured to get the rent paid for for the house.  I just don't do that. I'd rather she find quality people even if it takes a bit longer, people that are self-sufficient and don't need to be led around by the hand and instructed on everything to do.  The kid isn't going to like it there.  Maria is pretty strong willed. She doesn't want to be his mother, at the same time, she isn't going to tolerate him just doing nothing to contribute to the house. 

We'll see what happens. 

I was instructed to "ignore the kitchen" when talking to Taylor today. Lol, I knew what that meant.  Kitchen is trashed.  I sometimes get irritated with it, I usually just grin and bear it and clean it up myself.  But, it's already late, I didn't get home until after 4:00 pm and I'm just ready to sit here and take it easy.  Waiting to see if I have to go back out tomorrow. There weren't many trucks in the yard, but I recall this week's schedule not showing that many loads going out on Tuesday.  I would like the day off to get some stuff done tomorrow. I really can't complain, tho, I spent Sunday in Brownsville in a hotel and not doing that much. It's just that it isn't the same as being at home with the "family" - they're really like family now - and my dogs and my bedroom, 65 inch tv, desk top computer, maybe smoke some meat, etc. 

In fact, I forgot about the pork butt I bought on sale at Kroger's before I left. Sitting there, all big and fat and ready to be put in the smoker : ) I can get the smoker going, get it at a good temp and stick that sucker in there while I go out and get stuff done.  Cause this smoker? Will stay at a constant temp once you get it there. Takes a while to get it that way but once it's there you don't have to worry about it for a while. 

Hollandiase sauce! I had forgotten about this. I used to make it as a 5 year old and in that age range for my dad in the morning. He would eat poached eggs with that sauce, I would make them for him before he went off to work.  I haven't had that sauce since I was a little boy. Something sparked it in my mind today, a different kind of sauce - bernaise - which I have never made.  But now that I thought about this poached eggs and hollandaise, I am quite likely to make some very soon.  It will be a visit to the past and thinking about my dad who is now in Heaven with the Lord.  I have boxes outside in the shed that I want to to go through, there are some writings from my dad in there as well. The sauce brought back childhood memories of my father and then it kind of just kept going in my mind.  I do have some regrets not visiting him more often.  But nothing life shattering, just thoughts that I could have spent more time there. The off-factor were his wives that didn't like us boys and hence, kind of difficult to warm up to a setting where you are clearly not well received. 

Which makes me think it's time to go visit mom. 

Ireland or some other nation where I have to fly over the ocean and use a passport isn't off the list.  Very much in my mind.  I'm going to have so sit down with my manager and get specific permission to go ahead and book a flight somewhere and have her okay it in advance.  I mean, in advance of my actually giving her the dates, for finding good deals can't be based on permission after the fact, it needs to be before. That way, it doesn't matter what day of the week you leave or return. And days of the week? Have become more and more meaningless as to the importance of one over the other, ie: weekends, as they used to have on my mentality and thinking.  The only thing that has changed in my thinking about this is the Ireland is not set in stone. It's a bucket list thing, but not necessarily the first place I would have to visit over the ocean.  I don't have any other destinations in mind, necessarily, just I want to be flexible. There are beautiful, scenic, history laden places all over the world. 

Hurrican Dorian dominating the news and just watched footage of the Bahamas in a place called Marsh Harbor. Homes literally gone, just the pieces of it laying on the ground. HUGE swaths of it. But that's where the hurricane was at 185 mph winds.  Unbelievable devastation there. 

Well that's it for now. 

I walked out of my hotel room this morning to go up to front lobby and found something weird.  Zero traffic.  I thought about it for a sec, it's Monday morning, what is going on here?  Like the Twilight Zone, this area is very busy with traffic during the weekdays. Then it hit me:  Labor Day. Of course! I'll be working on yet another National Holiday! Woohoooooo!  I did the math earlier: with mileage pay, stop pay, detention pay and holiday pay it's almost $1,600, a little short of the $1,700 I claimed yesterday but still quite decent.

The plant is open 24 hours a day, 365 days per year - and the trucks taking full trailers down and empties back up also work every day, so it's a fore-gone conclusion I'll be driving back today, the question remains when?  There's a driver over a the yard right now that came in last night, I'm going to text him in a few and see if he's heard anything over there for an arrival time for a trailer to show up.  I'm really hoping this morning, that would get me back tonight.  Perhaps the amount of trucks waiting at the border slows down on holidays?  I have no clue.

The downed tree in the Phoenix back yard.  Destroyed the fence between yards - their fence at that point - and my 4 foot tall chain link fence that separates one side of the house to the other in my yard.  I had put that up years ago to keep the dogs out of that side of the house where the ponds were. Well there's still a pond there and the fish are way too big for it.  I told Mark he should put a listing out for trading fish.  Big fish for several little fish in exchange - or sell them and go buy some little fish and start over.  Poor fish, I mean some of them are pushing 14 inches long!  Anyway, I dunno what's going to happen about fixing the fencing.  The people behind us are extremely poor.

Their house has been falling apart for years now.  It needed a paint job 10 years ago. Now the paint is gone and the elements have slowly been eroding the wood on the side of the house.  I said something to this neighbor about that rotten tree years ago as well. That thing is going to come down sooner or later, you need to cut it down.  Yup, well I can only breath a sigh of relief that the house wasn't touched by that nonsense. 

The errant new tenant - he had only been there a month I found out - is moving out, a  much larger sigh of relief.  Mark said he was 90% out. I said fine, don't push him, let him get his stuff out of there without prodding and get the thing emptied out.  I won't have to waste a trip to Phoenix and the money involved in flying there, going to court  and getting him forcibly removed.  I'll take the loss in rent in exchange for the loss in rent, airfare, court costs, loss of days worked, etc. 

Well, I'll just hope they get the tree remains taken care of, if not I'll hire someone to go over there and cut it up and haul it out of there. 

And - rent. At the other house where I live.  I forgot to leave a check and Maria forgot to remind me until after I was on my way down to Brownsville. Oops~!  It's not officially late until tomorrow, I think, and then they can start charging a daily late fee.  But I'm hoping to be home either tonight or late tomorrow morning. 

Actually late tomorrow morning would work better - I could drop off the boat starter at the repair shop on the way home.  In fact, even if I do make it back tonight, I'm still going to stay at the yard so I can get that over with.  I doubt it will take them long to fix it if they'll do it. It's a starter/alternator place that sells new starters and fixes old ones. Hoping to get mine fixed. 

That starter and engine are really the things holding us back from having some boating adventures.  The other stuff isn't near as important as the engine running.  I think I should get a trolling motor not just for fishing but also in case the outboard motor ever quits.  At least have some sort of propulsion to get back to shore. 

Well, hotel time is over. 10:00 am.  They claimed they would have a trailer there by 11:00 am.  I am doubtful of that, but I can't stay here forever anyway and I'd like to be there if/when a trailer actually shows up. 

So this other driver - who was down here before me - wanted me to take the second trailer that came in today.  No thanks, I want the extra detention pay I'm going to get.  Im 3rd in line, that's your trailer : )  But it turns out the only reason he said that was because he knew he was going to need a 34 hour reset before his next load on Tuesday.   No one bothered to ask whether I wanted to do that or not.

By not taking that trailer, I get to wait another night and get that many more hours wait time - plus -  I will get holiday pay tomorrow for  Labor Day which is an extra $140 I think it is.  But I had already covered my @$$, I contacted my manager at 11:00 am - this morning - saying I wanted a hotel since it was a foregone conclusion that I wasn't going to get a trailer today.  She never responded.  I also texted her yesterday twice with no replies.  She's somewhere out in the boonies on vacation I think with spotty reception.

Nice that she replied to the other driver but not me.  Note that I don't have a load on Tuesday pre-given to me on Friday.  I didn't even know she did that that far in advance, it would be great to know well in advance what I'm doing instead of being left in the dark every load until the evening before.  But, those drivers stand to get the run on Tuesday while I stand to get nothing.  Anyway, the other driver said ok, he didn't have a problem with it, his reset is over at 8:45 tonight and he's taking off then.

My manager never replied to my text.  Whatever the case, since she didn't contact me, the other driver and I left it at he taking the trailer when his reset is up and yes, I went to a hotel.  And I fully intend on getting reimbursed for it since the 2cd night is supposed to be given a hotel at company expense. But...in case they refuse, I took a cheaper brand hotel, America's Best Value Inn. I've stayed here before, they have renovated this entire property and redone all the rooms including putting in brand new mattresses, flooring, furniture, fixtures, everything.  It's not a Marriot but it's pretty nice for $57 per night.  I had no desire to spend my entire Sunday sitting in that truck, I wanted out of that thing.

So, as it stands currently - at 4:03 pm - I'm staying and he's going in 4 plus hours and if my manager calls me, I'll refer her to the text I sent her 5 hours ago and acted on that after waiting for hours, which is the honest truth.  And then, if she still wants me to go, she can agree to pay for this hotel.  IN reality? She isn't going to care.  She just wants him back in time to go back out.  So, if I lose $62 - that was with tax - I'm still going to have a $1,700 trip for 3 days which is pretty awesome.  THIS is why I like this run, it doesn't happen every time but it certainly happens enough and even without detention pay, it's a good run for mileage pay for the time spent.

But as I said, I'm kinda burnt out on driving and was delighted to find out this morning that there wasn't going to be a 3rd trailer in there today.  Likely, from what the first driver that got there told me earlier, there won't be a trailer in there until tomorrow morning around 11:00 AM, at the earliest.  But there are no trailers in Matamoros right now, so that may not happen. I'd prefer one to come earlier cause' that means getting home same day. Gets too late and I'm not always interested in driving til 1, 2, 3 or even 4 am.  I've done it, even recently, but I hate what it does to me.  My whole sleep cycle is thrown out of whack and it takes days to get back to normal.

So that's that. It's taken half the day plus to figure this out.

Now then, a call from Mark at my house in Phoenix yesterday.  I've been blessed/lucky that the tenants they've gotten in there have either been very good tenants or left when told to leave.  I didn't figure that luck would last forever and it hasn't.

They got a new tenant in there that started out wrong and it got worse as time went on. Mark and Lynnette try to shield me from anything negative going on there, I don't know why. I've never threatened to throw them out or something if they don't do a "good enough job". They've done excellent so far,  minor issues that didn't take much to resolve, I've been very happy with them. But I think they have a different mindset in listening to them speak.  They come from the streets, they know what it's like out there. But over the years Lynnette has been living there, she has done very well for herself.  It took a while but she got a - decent paying job I guess, I have a different view of decent but she's doing well - got her legal issues taken care of, has a car and is doing good.  In fact, now she's been offered a job taking care of an invalid that they both have been helping for a couple of years now at her house.  She lives down the street. She'd make 2 grand a month take home, which ain't bad and more than she's taking home now.

Regardless, this new dude took up the driveway parking space, left the gate open - tho the only dog there now is a chihuahua, Mark still has a strong rule about closing and locking the gate, moved everyone's stuff out of the refrigerator, put his stuff in and then just crammed everyone else's stuff where ever,  had a "friend" over who got drunk with him and then passed out on the living room couch, etc etc etc, I was listening to this for a while.  That was yesterday and the first I had heard about it.  Mark had given him a 10 day notice, the man yesterday got in his face and told Mark to get out of the house!  LMAO!! That dude is very lucky I am not there right now. I'M probably lucky I'm not there now because there is no way in Hades that any person is telling me to get out of my own house. I would have called the police at that point and that's what I told Mark to do.

You get a rotten apple once in a while, but I suspect this guy is going to have to go through the court system to get him out of there. I guess it's time for a trip to Phoenix anyway.  This dude declared that he doesn't have to pay rent and he's not going anywhere. Lol, I got news for him. 5 day notice after he fails to pay his rent.  I don't have to be there to do that.  Then file for eviction  - I don't have to be there for that either, just fill out the paperwork and let them take it downtown.  I'd have to show up for the court date.  Likely that guy wouldn't show up.  So, get the judgement, go home.  3 days later, you file for forcible detainer and then a marshall comes and escorts them off the property.

A neighbor down the street approached Mark and told him this dude is selling drugs as well.  That's enough for me to want his stupid ass out of there.  No wonder he's acting like an ass.  Drug users always have ridiculous issues.  This guy also lost his job last week, Mark found out through an acquaintance that works with this guy. So, he has no income, today is the 1st and - I'm just waiting for the word.  Copy and paste a link to the proper 5 day notice, send it to them, they fill it out and hand it to him.  That's just the beginning of legal eviction for non payment of rent, but it's a process you have to go through if you want to get them forced out of there. However, if they are doing something illegal, you can call the police and have them removed.  You can also go to court and get a restraining order if they are threatening you, bring it home, call the police and have them forcibly removed on those grounds.  Been there, done that!

Drama.  Always something coming up in the drama department. Well, not so much anymore now that I'm twice divorced and out of drama filled environments. The friends I live with have very little drama between them.  We poke at each other in fun, but we all know we're just playing around. I very much like having fun at someone else's expense if I know they have a good sense of humor and they do the same with me.  We take turns with each other lol.  I may not come off that way on here, but that's just cause this is the internet and this is just words on a screen. The intonations and the inflections and how a person speaks and body language is completely lost on the internet. I have a dry sense of humor and that is lost on many ears.  Doesn't stop me, but people don't get it often times.

 Whatever.  I just received text message photos of a downed tree on the property. I'm not getting any info on it yet, but from what I can see, it's the neighbor's behind use tree that has been rotting for years that finally came down. I can't confirm that yet tho. It appears the tree was struck by lighting or somehow the top of the remaining trunk is burned.

In Brownsville, Texas - again.
Coming down here a lot in the last week and a half.
I drove 400 miles today before stopping, I wanted to drive as many miles as I could to see if I could see any of our trucks coming back up - 2 drivers went down there yesterday.  I had this feeling that there wouldn't be any trailers down here.  I dunno why, but I wasn't tired at all driving today and I only got 5 hours of sleep last night.

Anyway, upon finally arriving here, I saw Edgar's truck sitting in the back facing the front.  That was the ding ding ding and money signs moment.  If he is still sitting here, I am going to be here until at least Monday.  I got my paperwork done, dropped the trailer and then knocked on his door.  He said that the guy in the yard told him there were no trailers showing up at the border, didn't know if any would come tomorrow, but if they did show up, they wouldn't be here until late afternoon.  Well, then I saw that the other driver was also still there, hiding away around a corner. 

I've never seen them bring up 3 trailers in a single day, I've never heard of them doing that, hence the conclusion that I will be here until at least Monday.  And - if they don't show up with trailers at all tomorrow, you can figure Tuesday.  Well, that is if our manager doesn't say screw it, drive back up here bobtailing.  But I asked the other driver about that, he said she told him that she needs the trailers.  We have been coming down here steady with something like 10 or more loads a week for quite a while.

This place is pretty fickle in that department, They usually have shutdowns here and there that leave us high and dry for runs.  I mean, it happens frequently, the plant shuts down and we are kind of screwed. Our terminal relies heavily on this place to keep drivers busy.  I may not get down here that much - it's all the luck of the draw I guess - but there are drivers coming down here 1 or 2 loads every single day.  You take this place out of the running and we are sitting around waiting for 2 days after every run, guaranteed.

Regardless, unless they have changed policy again, I will be getting a hotel down here tomorrow.  Actually, even if they have changed policy,  I will get a hotel on my own dime regardless.  I have no desire to sit around in a truck alllll day long.  In fact, I am considering driving over to Padre Island and spending some time on the beach.  I have shorts, some cheap sandals and sun screen with me.  No beach towel but I can figure that out.  I kind of want to be sure about the trailer situation first, tho.  It would be a bummer to get to the beach and then find out that I have to go back to the yard lol.

Well that's that.  My starter motor project on the boat on hold until I get back. I am taking it into a repair shop in the town where the truck yard is.  If they can't do anything, I'll go to a marine parts store over there and see if they have one or can order one.  I'm not paying a mechanic to do such a simple job, that starter was quite easy to get out of there.  Very accessible, took 5 minutes and that was that.  Now, if a new or rebuilt starter doesn't fix it and I can't figure it out, then it goes into a shop.  I'm 80% confident that it is the problem tho.  It wouldn't even try to do anything until I tapped it.  I really should have just taken the boat in yesterday to the upholstery shop, I keep thinking I should get the motor fixed first and make sure I have a running boat.

But now that I have the boat, I'm fixing it regardless. So my thinking wasn't all that great in that department.  Should have gotten done what I could get done. 

Oh well. I didn't figure this was all going to happen overnight, no big deal.

Well it's getting late, time for Truck Sleeper Inn bed.
 

Well, I burned up my 70 hour work window - down to 9 hours left.  You can't do anything in this line of work in 9 hours excepting get a trailer loaded. Or perhaps take a pre-loaded trailer to certain destinations that you can make within 9 hours - but you wouldn't make it back.  They do not like having drivers out on the road for a 34 hour reset because it forces them to pay for a hotel.  They have, in face, since making this change in the company, eliminated a lot of free hotel stays.  I would have far better liked it if we had stayed the company I had signed up with.  More perks and a lot more hotel stays.  It's been a while since I've stayed in one per company expense.

Brownsville, you now only get one if you're there a second night.  That hardly ever happens because they forced the company down there to try and get trailers back up to the yard in time for when drivers arrival. They were doing okay at it for a while, but they have recently been slacking, which is fine by me.  The only reason I didn't get any detention pay on this last trip down there is because one driver decided he was going to go on vacation - there in Brownsville. Presumably staying at the beach some 20 miles away.  The word had it he got into some tiff with our manager.  The specifics I have no idea and really don't care. 

Well, I knew this driver was down there, I didn't know when he was coming back and he didn't answer his phone. So, I hooked up to that trailer and dragged it out of the yard, stopping at the new Love's 2 miles down the road for the night.  To be honest, I wanted to get home anyway, I was glad to get the trailer this time and get out of there. I knew I had a 34 hour reset coming up and I wanted to get home and get started on it. I definitely have today off,, I may have tomorrow off as well.  I'll find out when my manager sends out the work assignments for the weekend. The only runs according to the schedule available are either Brownsville or Oklahoma. I'd be ok with Oklahoma I guess, it's better than nothing. 

Anyway, 34 hour reset meant sleeping in this morning and trying to catch up on some z's.  My new bimini top arrived yesterday and after checking my new starter should arrive some time today.  I have no idea what it's going to entail to get that starter installed. On cars they can be either very easy and accessible or a pain in the rear. The starter is right there, on the outside of the boat motor, but I did not have time to examine the intricacies of how to get it off of there.  It's just regular mechanics that all motors share in common - but - boat motors are tight and everything is crammed in there. 

I'm trying to motivate myself to get over to the other house, hook up the boat and drag it over to the upholstery shop.  I'm just not really interested in doing much of anything today, I've been running hard and long hours and it takes it's toll after a while.  I'm really hoping for tomorrow off, 2 days would do me some good.  I informed the folks living here it would be a couple of weeks before we would ever get to taking that boat out - get everything fixed on it first and then take it out. 

Alright, I've decided to head over there. I want to try to fire up the motor again.  At least hear the thing running.