So the house has gone to hell.

There isn't really any other way to put it.

When grandma comes, the kids - get away with everything, want everything, break house rules, engage in continuous whining, crying and complaining, don't sleep well, then get even more ridiculous.

Compounding the problem is she hasn't been here in months - coronavirus - no can do.  It came to a boil a few minutes ago and I decided my bedroom was a good place to be.  Mama is angry, papa is caught in the middle and grandma - well it's all good I guess.

Now, mama said no pool, the kids are crying, the pool is covered back up and - it's whatever to me.  I don't care if anyone goes swimming or not.  She - made some remarks and went into her bedroom and that was that.

Although some shape and form of this happens every time she comes here - grandma - this time has been particularly bad.  Whatever the case, that was last night.  Mama was pissed, said a few things to me in whispers - not happy things tho nothing about my actions since I was no part of any of this - and went off to her bedroom.

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Okay, well today, Saturday, was supposed to be the first day the plant fired back up.  I was rather surprised to get to the yard and find all truck there.  All the driver's trucks and all the spare trucks.  How is the plant back in operation and none of our trucks at the plant loading? This is why I bit my tongue the other day when he sent me a Monday load - when i was originally scheduled to get back to back Brownsville loads starting today.  I get far more information from the manager if I'm in his office and chatting.  Then he apparently feels compelled to spill the beans - all of it.  So, maybe we aren't getting any loads until Monday? I have no clue. 

I have the 3rd load Monday.  Normally i would think, cool, there is a high probability of getting overnight detention pay. But since we're just firing back up? Nope.  There should be a yard full of empty trailers sitting down there.  How do we get ahead? Well, if we get down there and there are empties, we leave after the 10 hour break. That will happen until all empties are gone and they aren't, as normal, keeping up with it. Then we start getting the layover pay.

Today's run was uneventful. I didn't sleep worth a crap last night, woke up at midnight and got to sleep somewhere between 3 and 4 am.  I turned the alarm off, if I do get back to sleep, I don't care when I wake up, the run today is a short one, I'll get home today regardless.  What woke me up today?  Extremely loud thunderclaps.  Major storm with pounding rain.  It was 7:00 am.  I dragged myself out of bed, got the Keurig machine fired up, got in the shower, let the water run and wake me up, a cup of coffee, force the dogs out the back door. Addler wanted nothing to do with it, Aspyn was already trembling with fear from the thunder.

But I wanted them to go pee, please.  I don't know if they did or didn't. I left them out there until I got my other stuff done and let them back in, put them in my room and asked James to please deal with them today.  He likes my dogs, thankfully, so it was no problem. 

I got to work, dragging.  Just told myself, it's only 400 miles today.  Half of it will have no trailer attached and I am going home today.  Well, my old church showed up on Facebook with a Zoom meeting.  Not a meeting, but prayer and bible verses.  Zoom is both ways. You see them, they also see you.  I mean, what I'm doing shouldn't make any difference, if they don't want to see it, don't look at it.  What I was doing was driving the truck, shifting gears, looking in mirrors, looking at the sites going by but also listening to everything.  This is a huge church, was interesting there were only 27 other people online for it.  It was funny when the pastor, at the end, made mention that the format works - literally wherever or whatever you are doing, referring to what I was doing lol.  He wasn't complaining tho.

I got down to this itty bitty yard  - hadn't been here before, the trailer I was hauling as a methane gas trailer - dropped the trailer and decided to take an extended nap. No time limits here, there was 9-1/2 hours left on the 14 hour clock and plenty of drive hour.  Sleep did not come quickly, for whatever reason, but it did finally happen and I felt much better after that. 

Back to the yard, all the trucks still there, back home.  Nope, they didn't go swimming today either.  They bought this pool what, a week ago at least?  But I imagine she was still unhappy.  Well, I know she is.  After Monday, the house will get back to normal after nana leaves, but the kids will take a while.  I'm not saying she's a bad person, but whatever happens when she comes?  Those kids get very different attitudes - mostly bad attitudes.   They are cranky, they don't sleep well, they get petulant and don't want to listen.  A week or more of "recovery" has to occur before it actually gets back to normal.  I hung out with the peeps for several hours, but I decided to hibernate to my bedroom and chill.  Dogs chilling with me : )  Addler is zonked out, I dunno what he's been doing all day lol.

No agendas for tomorrow. Some things I'd like to do. Plant the second rose bush, the first one is in the ground.  Clean up the side of the house - natural disaster.  Clean up the firewood pile. Take your pick, I'm not doing all of them, lol, I may not do any of them if the weather gets as bad as the forecasts say. But, it's really hard anymore to believe any forecasts around here....

With that, watch a bit of TV - no news - and go to bed.

Being exceedingly bored with the internet, sick of the endless political war over the virus and generally wanting to do something else, I spent the entire day working around the house. The list was rather long.  Wash the kitchen rugs, wash my dog bedding and rug, clean the kitchen, smoke a brisket, mow the front lawn, pick up piles of sticks from the giant tree out front that have accumulated everywhere, get out the pressure washer and begin cleaning the exceedingly dirty driveway.  Mixed in a run the coffee shop, took a drink to Taylor at her work, went to Walmart for a 3 wheeler for Jaxon - he's the 3 year old, gets quite unhappy about the 5 year old's bike because isn't capable of riding it yet.  Put that together as well. Didn't quite expect heavily part laden project to put it together, but that's what it was.

I didn't get that together until tonight, Jaxon was in bed before I got it done, he can try it tomorrow. Phoenix - the 5 year old - got on it instead and was riding it in the dining room.  Grandma showed up today and is apparently staying until sometime next week. Grandpa is coming after work on Friday.  It's always interesting when they are around lol.

Anyway, I felt much better about spending the actually doing something than just sitting around watching TV or browsing the internet. That gets boring after  a while and I've been off 8 days now with allegedly 2 more to go.  My alleged schedule is working 4 straight days with 2 Brownsville trips and yes, working through yet another holiday.  But after being off work so long, I will be ready to hit the road and get some trips going for paychecks.

Speaking of that, the company sends me a run down of the trips they're paying me for and what is being paid for what.  Noticing that an entire Brownsville run was missing, I contacted payroll via email. She replied that there was no such run and no paperwork.

Lol, okay.  I contacted my manager and gave him the trip number.  He came back 2 hours later and said there is no such run, no such run in the system, no paperwork and you didn't turn it in.

The hell I didn't.  I never leave the yard after a trip without turning in the paperwork before leaving. I want to get paid for it, sitting on paperwork does absolutely no good.  I distinctly remembered turning in that paperwork because there were so many anomolies with it.  Being told to wait for a trailer even tho there were empty ones there. Then being told 2 hours later to take one of the trailers to Baytown, TX to a repair facility. The loading plant - the pump wasn't working and I was almost 5 hours there.  There was extra pay associated with that trip, it stuck out in my mind.

So it was whatever to me. "Someone is going to have to research this and find the paperwork".  No reply from my manager.  I then sent him the dispatch he sent me when I got that run.  I was prepared to send all the subsequent text messages, but I figured that should be enough.  Hours later, he finally replied he had found the paperwork that he originally said didn't exist and was working on getting it onto my next paycheck. Yes, please and thank you.  Just a bit disconcerting to have 2 people in the company tell you the trip number didn't exist and the run never occurred.  Lol, OKKKKK. What it tells me is the new manager probably screwed up. I mean, all's well that ends well, so no particular biggie to me, this kind of thing has been happening since I started working there - tho never to the point of being told the trip number doesn't exist lmao.

No word on the boat, I'll start getting impatient after 2 weeks. Then I may call them. After a day in the shop, my SUV engine light came back on.  Okay, I spent good money getting this fixed, now I have to take the thing back? gag.  It's running fine, but that light irritates me. I spent over $500 to get rid of that light.  It means something is wrong.  I may just go to Autozone tomorrow and have them hook up their computer and see if it gives any codes.

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Friday. Presumably last day of "vacation".  Can't say I'm ready to go back to work now. Just the way it is, when I'm off work too long, I usually don't feel like going back.  Much better to keep busy.

Okay well I just found out that the plant is reopening tomorrow - but that the Brownsville run canceled 5 loads.  But, there were still 5 loads going.  I've been off work the longest, I should have gotten the first load going out, instead, he's got me doing Brownsville on Monday and asking if I can take an empty to Conroe, Texas tomorrow.  Well I can, I thought, but why am I not getting one of the first Brownsville runs to go out?  I didn't ask him that, I dunno if he forgot that I was off that long or if - other things I won't mention. Just won't go there unless evidence arises to back suspicions. 

Tuesday.
Was going to smoke brisket today, but the lady gave me a frozen brisket so i guess we'll do that tomorrow.  I want to start early and cook it around 200-225 for however many hours - probably at least 12 - to get it to the falling apart with a fork mode.  The price of food is rising - that was predictable and coming to pass.  Ground beef is up several dollars per pound - the meat supply was disappearing around here but now it's slowed way down after the rising prices.

Supply and demand.  I was at least happy to see that the toilet paper chaos appears to be over.  Cleaning supplies with bleach - Lysol especially - is still a rare find.  This cattle ranch has higher prices, but that's to be expected for quality cuts of meat.  I wouldn't want to have to rely on them solely for meat.

Texas is every so slowly reopening, but we're far from being out of the woods.

Anyway, my vehicle is running great, the engine lights are off, the bill was $536 so I'm as happy as can be considering spending even more money on that thing.

_______________________

Mark called from the Phoenix house.  We got into a conversation for short period of time and then? He informed me that Lynnette left at the beginning of April.  What?!!!  Mark takes care of the house, Lynnette went off to work. Lynnette paid their portion of the rent - quite modest at $250, mark took excellent care of the house . Now what.  Mark has no income.  He can't work. He's 72 years old.  He's dealing with the house, but he's in fear of losing his situation.  He dumped $700 onto the card reader last month, unbeknownst to me until he said he had and I just checked and yes, it's all good.  There's enough on there to last until somewhere in August, maybe even September. 

So, he's basically paid up 3 months of their portion of the rent in advance.  He then went into worrying about getting everyone to pay rent. But lengthy discussion came to the conclusion that those that were put out of work are all receiving the $600 per week stimulus from the government on top of the state unemployment.  They are well saturated with funds to take care of their living situation.  So what? He's broke.  Lynnette used to give him money for his projects and things.  Not exorbitant but it's money.  His work around the neighborhood has fallen off because - of course - the virus. 

So what now?  I dunno.  Give him rent free living for the next 3 months, sure.  But do I go further with it.  Probably  At least give him $100 to keep out of the rest of the rents collected to help him out a little bit.  Crunch the numbers, see what I can do to help him.  I need the house to pay for itself.  I don't need him to fall out into the cracks and end up on the street somewhere. THAT is undoubtedly what he's worried about. I speak highly of him because he really is a man of moral character.  He did some things in his life that got him into a bad situation, but that was decades ago.  People change. Things people did a long time ago and have obviously changed their ways shouldn't be held against them, for the most part anyway. 

I'm going to do what I can to help him, that's what I can say. I wish I could start a go fund me for him, but I doubt it would go anywhere, especially in this financial climate. 

The other "news" that came today was that the grandmother is coming here - tomorrow. She hasn't been here in months, she lives hundreds of miles away.  I mean, there are things that happen when she comes here. First, she tries to take over the entire household.  Her way.....

Second, she spoils the hell out of the kids.  They become infected with the idea that they can act out and do whatever they want. I completely resist that nonsense and if I'm around, those kids aren't getting away with the nonsense.  3rd.  The kids get spoiled to the point that when she leaves? It takes a week at least for things to get back to normal.  In a normal situation, the kids GO to grandma's house. What happens there? Is whatever.  When they come back, the normal rules still apply. 

We had a discussion about that today as Taylor invited me to Chili's after she was done with work today.  We're friends, let's get that clear. Yes we all live together, but we are just friends. It doesn't go beyond that, in case anyone reading this starts wondering.  After she told me grandma is coming, I also observed the exasperated look on her face.  It's all about the granny's effect upon the household.  She can deal with it for a couple of days, after that, it's too much. She is coming from tomorrow - Wednesday - until at least Sunday.  Lol.  Taylor is not in love with the way she treats the kids and the last time granny was here, she started to put limitations on her.  You just can't come into someone's home and expect to radically change it with the flip of a switch. That's ridiculous, selfish and disrespectful.

Now what? Nothing, lol. Getting late and I have an agenda for tomorrow, not the least of which includes smoking a brisket, but also mowing the front lawn.  The kid (he's actually 18 years old but in my view he's still a 5 year old in the way he conducts himself) next door was paid on Thursday to mow the lawn the next day. Nope, I didn't pay that, Taylor did.  We have a lawn mower, one of us can do that.  I dunno why she offered him to do it, waste of money but it's whatever to me. Just that if he doesn't get it done by noon tomorrow, I'm doing it and he can Taylor can deal with the aftermath.  Yup, I told her I would do it. 

I think I've had enough for one day.

Monday.
7:30 came around. I dragged myself out of bed - went to bed late last night - got a cup of coffee and headed out the door.  Took the SUV to the Ford dealership where I was informed that they don't have a shuttle.  Geeze.  There is no Lyft or Uber in this town. There used to be on Uber driver but they stopped for whatever reason, probably not enough business.  Whatever the case, I walked the 2.6 miles home and found out just how out of shape I am in lol.

It wasn't a "specific" appointment time, it's drop your vehicle off and they get to it in the order that it was received.  So no way I'm going to sit around there and hope they get to it immediately.  They might not even get to it today, I was informed, but I'd rather take it to the dealership than any other place in town.  That's because everywhere else here is actually a lot more expensive for car repair and I would like to hope the dealer would have more knowledge and specific equipment for Ford products.

As with the boat, I'll be lucky to get it back out of there under a grand.  This is why I'm considering trading it in, it's not been a cheap vehicle. I've had several issues with it - the thing only has 132,000 miles on it but it acts like it has 300k, just for the issues it's had and the issues have been cheap fixes.  I never had these kinds of expensive issues with that old Buick I had for 10 years. Yes, it had some issues, the interior was falling apart by the time I got rid of it, but as far as repairs, it was light on the wallet - excepting when I got the front windows fixed at $800.

I really would like a GMC diesel pickup, a bit older model, nothing new.

And they already called me.  An ignition coil needs to be replaced.  I figured. They wanted to do all kinds of other "maintenance" that would amount to over a grand.  With just the coil, an oil change and fix the wheel tire sensor - the light is on showing a low tire, none of my tires are low - we're around $500.  The maintenance they wanted to do included replacing spark plugs that we already replaced, no need for that thanks.  I couldn't believe they wanted $350 just to replace plugs and the boots that go on them.  Hopefully the coil fixes it and I can get down the road without any other expenses for a while with it, if I decide against a new vehicle. Just haven't really decided, I'm looking at my financing options atm.

Sunday. Day 5 of being off work.  6 more to go if what they say actually occurs.  The manager texted me on Friday, so you want an Ohio run going out on Sunday? NO, I thought, Sure!! I replied  Why now? I just don't like that run, but considering 11 days off, I'd take just about anything. After sending me the info for the run, he literally called me up 2 minutes later and said, you aren't going to believe this. 

In this industry? I can believe anything.  During that short time frame, the plant called and said the load was cancelled. Not the load he was going to give me, but a load that another of our drivers was going to take for another division hauling Liquid Natural Gas.  I was getting the load he was originally going to get. See how that works? With at least some other drivers, they aren't selfish and willing to do whatever to keep everyone busy.  Hence, my 11 days off instead of 5.  So I said no problem.  He said, well see? At least you know I"m thinking about you.  True.  I'm not an ass kisser type of guy, but I will talk shop and attempt to at least put myself in a decent position when he "thinks" of me.  You get on a negative bent, those people thinking of you think of negativity. 

The truth of the matter is, I still could get another run before the Saturday start up for me, which will be back to back runs to Brownsville. That is, of course, subject to change.  I'd actually be surprised if it doesn't.  Just the nature of the business.  Still just amazed that we only have 13 drivers in our division now. I really didn't know that. I thought we were still at 20 or 21, wasn't sure which, especially considering they had brought some drivers back from call and demand.

Call and demand fizzled out. Our division is one of the few left this is still get decent amount of runs. 

Anyway, this morning, one of the drivers got on group text and texted to everyone: "Ok. So."  I sat there and watched for a while to see if anyone would reply. Ok, so is rather meaningless, I had a clue what he was inferring but still, a bit short on context.  So I texted back after 10 minutes ??  Another driver - the first driver's friend - texted "Me too". I texted: What are you all talking about?  After another 10 minutes, a 3rd driver and in that group of friends - those 3 or buddies outside of work - said "probably drunk text". 

But I knew what they were referring to. 5 days off.  Well deal with it.  Not the first time we have had the plant shut down, happens every year actually.  I said Vacation time! and the first driver came back with the pic of a man face palming himself. That dude is a chronic whiner as it stands.  He must have his way or the world is going to hell and the sky is falling.  I got over it the first day the manager asked me to take vacation time off.  All 3 of those drivers have worked since Tuesday when I said fine, I'm just make the best of this.  They really have nothing to complain about, but that's human nature and we all do it from time to time. Well, some do it all the time. 

Today? It's Sunday.  The Louisiana 14 quarantine mandate that Governor Abbot in Texas decreed to anyone coming from there was lifted and now, some of James and Taylor's friends are over today. Nice people.  I smoked a turkey - it only took 2 hours, I didn't realize how small the thing was. We'll have that thing devoured today for sure. 

The 5 year old was clinging to me today for whatever reason. He does that sometimes.  So after the turkey was done, I took him out back and got him back on the bicycle.  A little kid bicycle with training wheels.  He had no clue.  James came out shortly after and we said, yup, the tires are flat, so he went and got his air pump and pumped the tires back up to 35 pounds. The boy? Has no leg muscles to speak of and had no coordination.  It was a test of my patience to the boy's resolve to learn.  Angle your feet back as you try to push down!  Don't push backwards, that's the brake!  He wasn't getting it, so I took him to the carport and got him up against the neighbor's fence.

It's all a slight down hill angle, I thought if anything, it might help him.  He kept wanting me to push him, which I refused. Cycling isn't a push sport, you move it yourself with your feet and legs.  I didn't want to get the boy upset, but I didn't feel he was going to learn without figuring it out on his own with a little instruction.  The downhill worked, he finally started getting the hang of out. It got to the point where he was going to the end of the carport, getting off, pushing it back to the fence and doing it over and over and over without being prodded.  Now that's more like.  Mommy came out after about 45 minutes of this and declared it's nap time.

Everyone went out to smoke cigarettes so I went into my bedroom lol.  Been messing around all day long, just taking a break. I got them the new pool 2 days ago - but we haven't been able to put it up yet.  It's been raining and we all decided that the concrete needs to be dry before setting it up.  That way no mold will grow under it, because once the thing is full of water, water isn't going to be able to seep under it.  Yes I bought the pool - but yes they reimbursed me for it the complete purchase price.  I had to drive clean to Shreveport to get it.

Even at that, the Walmart I went to that claimed they had 2 in stock - had zero in stock of the 18 footers, they had a 23 footer that was too big.  The other Walmart over there went from 1 in stock ot zero during that time.  I did ask why they still showed the 2 in stock. WEEEEEEELLLLLLLL, THAT THING IS AAALLLLLLLWAAAAAYYYYYYSSS WRONG.  I wasted a total of 90 miles of driving to go over there and come back empty handed.  They tried to call other Walmarts, but amazingly, those other Walmarts hung up on them several times!  At least they tried. 

I looked online, Target - 19 miles the wrong direction, showed they had one.  But I decided against it. Time to go home.  On the way home, on the west side of Shreveport, is a Walmart right off the Interstate on Pines road.  It showed no pools in stock, but I wondered if the opposite could be true? It says they have none but they actually do have one?  So decided to pull in there, no loss if they don't besides a bit of time.  I got back to where the pools are and low and behold, a 14 foot wide by 42 inch tall pool!  It was the only one left.  I could probably sell the thing for double the price right now on Ebay, above ground pools have virtually disappeared at Walmarts and other stores where they are cheaper and you can't even order them online.  No, I'm not going to try and get another pool to test my theory, that's a lot of dough to be out for hoping it will sell.  And anyway, I'm not really into this idea of hoarding or price gouging. 

Meanwhile, I listed my Keurig Rivo R500 latte machine on Ebay. Why not?  It's been sitting, it works, I want to get rid of stuff.  I tried a while back to sell it and no buyers. But looking ebay, people were trying to sell those things for more than double that price.  So, it sold for $54.89 plus shipping, which has already been paid. Get that sent out tomorrow.  I was just going to give it away otherwise, no one here wants it. 

In fact, I am going to go through stuff and see what I can sell, give away or chuck.  Too much stuff. It's for a whole house, not a single bedroom. I chose this lifestyle to live with others, if there is too much I want to keep, I'll either buy my own shed or store it.  I don't want to get rid of stuff just to get rid of it.  Sentiimental things and things of family origins I would rather not just discard.  But cleaning up the back yard  and with them helping got me motivated to go ahead and start dealing with the back yard again. 

The boat - in the shop.  I don't expect to hear back from them for a while. The SUV is going into the shop Monday, get it fixed once and for all and then determine if I want to stay in that vehicle or trade it in for the truck I really want.  I'd say it isn't a good time to be buying vehicles because of the virus, but it looks like it's the best time to do so and if I can keep payments near where I'm at now, I'm good with that.  Not a priority tho, just something that I have been musing.  Property is higher on my list, but I'm just nowhere near getting that at the moment.  I still might try and apply for a loan at a lender and see what happens.  Been a long, long time since I've been late on a mortgage, car or credit card payment.

And with that? A lazy sunday.  Nothing to do but relax and take it easy.  And head back out of the bedroom and be social-able lol .

So, getting up early this morning - 9:00 am lmao - I got about the day's business. Hook up the boat and drag it 42 miles to the repair facility  Guy came out, wrote up a work order, didn't give me a timeline for when they'd get to it, I didn't care and left. 

Over to the yard. It's only 2 miles away from the boat shop. I didn't know this boat shop was there because it's 2 miles west of where I turn to go to work.  But, I wanted to discuss with the new manager in person what exactly I am doing and when exactly - if he can tell me - I'm going back to work. 

He had forgotten to tell me what my hourly wage was yesterday, he picked right up on that lol.  The guy is a bit overwhelmed, he's been dispatching for 15 years but this isn't anything like most normal dispatching jobs.  So, we got started there.  Turns out I'm now making FAR more money per hour on vacation time than I knew.  They started me out at a low wage. The number goes way up after you've been there long enough for them to determine the number.  It helped dramatically and it also helped that I was part of the original company that was bought out. 

The amount is determined by your yearly earnings divided by 2080.  It came up to almost $42 per hour.  That's more like it! Elated at hearing that and also the idea that I won't need to use near as many vacation hours as I originally had thought we went onto the next deal.  Since you're doing us a favor, I'm giving you back to back Brownsville runs when you come back.  Yessss.  I still don't understand how anyone uses up their entire year's worth of vacation hours before we even get half way through the year, but to each his/her own. 

That was the deal, people weren't going to be working for at least 2 weeks if I didn't give up my spot and  they had no vacation hours to back up on.  Ok, I can empathize with not getting any work, I cannot empathize with not having some extra hours tucked away in case you need them.  That's really on them.  But I didn't say any of that to the manager, lol.  We talked for an hour and  a half beyond work. He's an avid boat enthusiast and just boat a new pontoon boat. 

Yup, I'm going to do my best to get on this dude's good side. And also make myself appealing to the company through him because right now? They are laying off even more drivers. Other divisions, we haven't been hit yet but there's no guarantees.  I was shocked to find out we only have 13 drivers now.  Down from 21.  I know one was fired, others were shifted out, some moved last year to other divisions (I'm guessing they are regretting that decision now), and some just quit the company entirely.  All the trucks I see in the yard? 4 or 5 of them aren't in use. 

Although I don't want more permanent drivers brought in, it also screws us if we get busy.  I then got into a long discussion with the lead mechanic. He obviously knows more than he lets on.  He gave me kudos for being a "good driver" and we discussed the fact that we all have to do our best to make ourselves as appealing to the company as possible to keep us from getting a "hard look" if/when they decide our little division should be hit.  It's not likely to find as high a paying job as I have now anywhere, the economy is tanking and so is trucking in many sectors.  He stated the company can look at everything you do - I already knew that, the amount of info accumulated and recorded on the Quaalcomm is amazing, you can bring up the read out on it.  Even the time you spend in each gear is recorded.  How long you idle - I have no choice on that one, my truck doesn't have an APU to keep it cool or warm depending on what season we're in.

Long story short, everything that I had suspected was true.  I didn't want this time off but now that I'm in it? I'm going to enjoy it even if it means staying at home. The mechanic and the manager both stated that the facility I took the boat to is the perfect place to take an older boat - but - don't expect it to be done in less than two weeks.  EVERYONE is boating right now, everyone wants their boats fixed/in working order.  Oh well. I just found out about this place, not like I could have taken it in any sooner.  Just sucks that I may end up not being able to go on the lake the entire time I'm off work. 

But, if they get back to me and say yes, we can fix it for X amount of money, I'm good with that, then I'll add to the list - all those old boats out there they have? They strip them for parts. Maybe one of them has a ladder they can put on it.  And fix the fuel and transom gauges.  Speedometer would be nice but not mandatory.  All lights as well.  Might as well get this all dealt with in one fell swoop.  James wants to use the boat whether I'm home or on the road.

James spent the entire day on Sunday and part of Saturday cleaning the thing.  He even went out and bought a shop vac to clean all the leaves out of it. He's a good guy, I trust him to take care of it.  So he has that permission, tho he can't drink too much beer out there, they stop boats all the time on the major lakes and do "inspections".  You can drink, but you better not be over the blood/alcohol limit.  Passengers can basically drink as much as they want.  James really like to fish, I didn't know that until we got out there on the lake.  He spent the entire time fishing, we got very few bites and no hits, but I expected that at that lake. It was just close by. And I wasn't sure about the operation of the boat.  I figured a less used boat ramp would be better to be at if it had problems getting it back on the trailer.

I was wrong about the "less used boat ramp" Part. The entire parking lot was full of trucks/boat trailers and people coming and going off the single ramp.  And yes, we had some problems getting it back on the trailer. but mostly because James is new to this and he was backing the trailer into the water.  He completely submerged the trailer, including those side rails that help guide the boat in!  Uhh, James? You are too far in lol, pull up a bit.  Well, that caused us to have to back the boat back into the lake and then make another attempt - but by that point the thing was having trouble starting. I just asked everyone waiting to please be patient, I'll get us out of the way quick enough.  They all just said no problem! I think when you ask, people don't get upset or impatient, not as much anyway.

But if they don't know why you are taking so long - which I explained, this motor isn't idling properly - people tend to get irritated that you are taking so long.  Especially with a single boat ramp.  Anyway we got the thing on there and out of the way without delaying others too much.

My manager said it's probably the carburetors, btw, that's wrong with the boat. Ethanol - that additive they put in gasolline - is really bad for boat motors.  Whatever is wrong with this boat, I'm going to have to use ethanol free fuel. I don't "have" to, but it's much better on the fuel system.  And there is a place that has is available in town. 

After the boat place and the shop, I went to the store.  We're back into a meat shortage.  The grocery stores are all but empty of it.  They said this was coming - tho for us this is the second time around.  I was looking for pork chops, that's what Taylor wants for dinner.  I was also looking for a pool - she desperately wanted a swimming pool, but Walmarts everywhere are sold out of them.  You can't even get them online.  They are sold out.  Maybe other areas of the country have them, I have no idea. 

Anyway, Kroger's had no pork chops - they had almost no meat to speak of. The Walmart over there, same.  The Walmart in my town? Had one package of pork chops left, snagged that.  And then stopped at Super 1 grocery on the way home, their meat supply is fully stocked - for whatever reason I couldn't possibly explain considering what's going on everywhere else. 

Back to the house, finally, after half a day out all over the place. 

I'm going back to work on the 23rd, "guaranteed". He already had me in the slot for 2 runs in a row, he showed me on the computer screen.  This week's paycheck totally sucks, only an Oklahoma run on it - but next week is 2 brownsville runs and the week after that will be vacation hours and then after that, back to normal.  And given the possibility that if something comes up before then, do I want it, such as a Brownsville run? Uhh, yea, if there's a Brownsville, I want it!  Okay, I am definitely not going anywhere until Wednesday at the earliest of next week if that happened.  The point is that the chemical plant may not need all 5 days to reopen, they usually don't. They just give that number out in case things go south. 

Oh, my paycheck this week? $284 net pay! lmao.  Oh well, they aren't all great all the time. The new manager was like, you really think you're going to make the same money you did last year with everything slowing down like this? The lead mechanic jumped right in: Yup, this division is up and down. It will go back up. I interjected, yes, it will go back up, unless Covid-19 does some bad stuff to our division as well.....

Well that's it.  A 5 year old just ran into my room wanting a hug lol. 








 

I believe I finally found a mechanic shop that can fix the boat motor - or whatever's wrong with it. 
I asked the dude that oversees the house - the one that Maria lives in - if he knew anyone. Yes, they're throwing us out, no I don't much care for it, no I don't hold it against them.  It's their house, it's whatever, the onus is on Maria and the other tenants - if they really want this to continue - to find another place.  I'd prefer it be in this town, but I think it's going to end up the bigger town 35 miles away.  As long as it's on the way to work or not too far out of the way, I have no problem with that. 

Well, I mean, it is what it is.  There are far more rentals available over there. I haven't given up hope here, yet, but it's pretty slim pickings.  It's either high priced or it's junk.  If they find a place that is junky and they are good with it fine. Otherwise, I don't expect them to stay in a place that has a lot of issues.  I am not going to buy a house just for this endeavor tho.

Oh, way off subject. Anyway, the guy texted me back 2 places, nothing close but I didn't think I would get any suggestions for anything close. The boat specialists in this town are dealers and they won't work on a boat that old. Anyway, one of his suggestions I looked up reviews. Boats that are as old as early 70's this place has worked on and has rave reviews. I told him the boat has a black max 150, yup we can fix it.  Lol, ok!  I have to keep trying til I find someone that is an authority on these types of motors. I'm kind of stuck with it.  New boat motors are unbelievably expensive.  More than the entire boat is worth.  You can get good used ones - for $3000 and up.  Just want the thing to run right, not much to ask for? lmao

I really don't get the cost of boat motors, they far exceed the price of any car engines.  Even high performance car engines mostly don't match the price tag of a new, higher horsepower, regular - boat engine.

Whatever the case, if they can fix that issue, I am going to get the rest of the problems solved there as well. Lights that don't work, gauges that don't work - I'd really like a working fuel gauge if nothing else.  I have no idea how much fuel is in the tank.  Kinda scary to think about running out of fuel in the middle of a lake, well away from the ramp.  James is going to build a heavy anchor.  We wanted to stay in place at various locations last weekend for fishing, the wind was blowing the boat all over the place.  Other things I'd like on the boat as well, but nothing that a mechanic or shop has to do. 

Of course, I have a bunch of time off coming at me here. I am mechanically inclined.  I could learn this stuff.  But I don't have the motivation to take the carburetors apart. That is a lot of work and in my view, best left in the hands of someone that knows what they are doing. It is a possibility at the very least the carbs need rebuilt.  Something in the fuel system, I'm sure of that. But what, I have no clue. 

Today was a bust.  I just cleaned the kitchen and got nothing else done.  The kitchen was a disaster tho, so I felt good about that anyway.  It's pretty normal for me to get back from a run and do much of nothing the next day.  Nice to spend some time with the doggies too.

____________

End this one. Get up relatively early in the morning and take the boat to the next place to look at it.  Come home and start smoking a turkey.  I don't think I'll smoke it all day long, just long enough for a decent bark and then finish it off in the oven. Of course, that really depends on what time I get home.  It can wait until Friday if tomorrow doesn't work.

Getting to the Brownsville yard last night, there was 1 empty trailer, with a driver having had pulled one out of the yard and parked on the street for some odd reason, I have no clue.  I texted the manager - any other drivers down here waiting on trailers? Nope, but don't take E001.  Well, I replied, the other driver is under E001.  So, I figured I was getting detention pay and went to bed.  Woke up the next morning, the other driver had dropped E001 and taken the other trailer. Went back to sleep after seeing that lol.  2 hours later, a call from the manager. 

You won't believe what they want to do now!  They being the plant that owns the trailers.  What?  They now want us to take the trailer up to Lawler and drop it.  Ohh,  great, I could have left 3 hours ago if I'd known that.  Yup, he said, and you're going to get those 3 hours detention. 

So, another Brownsville trip going to Baytown, dropping the trailer and hoping there is enough time to get back to the yard.  I actually didn't care if I made it back tonight from the perspective of getting home, I did care that I want to get back in the queue for the next run.  

Anyway, I intend on taking the boat to a mechanic tomorrow.  It's 42 miles one way, but whatever  Hopefully they figure it out and get it going and I don't have to worry about that anymore. All of us want to go on more boat outings.  Summer is coming, we got the itch.  

____________________

Well the whole situation has changed.  Manager calls me up at 9:00 am.  I was just thinking about getting out of bed. I'm not a slacker, lol, I was up til 1 am. Had some relax time after getting back late from the Brownsville run. He started discussing other drivers who would not be in the queue for 2 weeks and if I would consider taking vacation time from today until - Sunday of next week apparently.  The issue that I didn't even know about until today was that the plant is shutting down for a week to do maintenance. 

They usually do this during the fall each year.  No clue why they are doing it now, not really of great importance excepting that it's disrupting the work schedule greatly. I also didn't know that the Oklahoma run had already been down for 5 days, hence the slow down in work as it stands.  I'm usually last to find out about such things unless I learn it from the plant - but since the plant has us staying in our trucks now the entire time excepting at the scale house, I don't have any conversations with the workers.  My manager profusely apologized for not informing me, he thought everyone knew.  Nope, I don't hang around at the yard very much. I'll stay and chat for a while if someone is in the office, but I've been getting in late the last several runs so I've seen no one.

Lots of the drivers are OTR - they don't live in town or even anywhere  close, so when they aren't doing a run, they are sitting in the yard waiting for one. 

This has to to be THE worst time to be taking a vacation. There is no where to go. I can't go to Phoenix to see mom - she is isolating and sure as hell am not putting her at risk of getting the virus, I have no idea if I might have it or not.  They say you can have it for up to 14 days without even knowing about it AND you can have the virus and be asymptomatic - meaning you have it but you show no signs of it and therefore don't know you are sick at all. 

Nothing is open.  Well I dunno if the beaches are open or not, I'd have to look that up but going to the beach alone wouldn't be that much fun anyway.  My boat needs work and I'm hoping to get it in today. If not today, definitely tomorrow. I'm just taking my time doing anything since I'm facing all of this time off. 

Anyway, the manager politely asked if I would be interested in taking time off since I have more vacation hours available than anyone else.  That seemed strange.  I haven't used any in quite a while, but there are far more senior drivers that get a lot more vacation hours dumped into their accounts each year, the idea that they have taken that much time off when it's only May seemed odd.  He said there was no pressure whatsoever, so I asked a series of questions about when I would be going back to work, what my hourly pay is for vacation time (it's different than detention pay, which also seems odd) etc.  He said he'd get back to me. 

This week, however, I'm only getting paid for an Oklahoma run. That's only $500 gross pay.  Next week would be brownsville run and if I take vacation time.  That would be a good paycheck if I took enough vacation hours I guess. Which I'd have to to make up for this week and more than a week off. 

I agreed to it - but not because I wanted to. He said I am in line for a Brownsville run on Saturday or Sunday.  But it became obvious without him every saying it that it could count against me in the future.  I know how this works.  You do them a favor and they may or may not treat you right in the future. But if you refuse, you can expect to get unfavorable treatment for a long time to come.  This will end up eating up the cash I have accumulated in my checking account, but I don't see any options here.   No pressure, but yes, pressure. 

So it's whatever.  Nothing to do, nowhere to go, stay home and do cleaning projects?  I can't imagine these people being forced to isolate all this time.  Restaurants around here at least finally opened back up, but that isn't exactly a vacation. 

Whatever the case, best get moving. 

No new laptop for me.  It was just a broken charging cord, tho the Lenovo is a pile of junk, it will just have to do until I see if there are some good deals on a new laptop in November.  New cord ordered.

Barclay's card - sent me a notice that I didn't see saying that because I haven't used the card in so long, I have X amount of time to use it or they will close the account.  Well, they closed the account. So I got another card at another large bank that gave me a much larger credit line, the biggest credit line I've ever had actually, but I did that only to have my credit score remain the same.  A loss of available credit will affect your score.  The card has 12 months no interest, that's a plus.  No annual fee - I refuse to get any cards anymore that have any annual fees on them.  Was amazing to me you could just apply online and they instantly come back with that kind of approval.

Sunday.  Second day off.  Early rise tomorrow for a Brownsville run. The manager had initially informed me that I wasn't going out until Tuesday and gave me the option of Brownsville or Ohio. Brownsville please. I won't take an Ohio run if I'm given the option.  Anyway he changed it to tomorrow morning because someone's truck is down and had to have someone take his/her place.  Dunno who, don't care, I'll take it. 

This last run? Well, there were 2 empty trailers down there when I got there, but the manager told me those trailers were being hauled to inspection places and that he had drivers coming to get them and haul them off.  Fine by me, that's at least 14 hours of detention pay.  So, the next morning I went to get a free coffee at Love's - I am a diamond status card member now that I'm working a lot more and burning a lot more fuel.  I couldn't get past Platinum status with the old manager.  Anyway, he called me and said he was changing things up, take the Mexican trailer to a place east of Houston and have it inspected. 

Ugh.  Okay. There goes detention pay and taking a trailer to an inspection place will probably eat up my hours so that I can't make it home that day, either.  But I didn't complain, I just took it up there. On the way, a huge accident.  Same place another accident had occurred a few months ago and they were diverting traffic off at an exit right there. Well, there wasn't anyone diverting traffic, I just took it. The traffic was literally stopped, I thought might as well take the chance.  That one paid off. But now? Houston traffic is back to normal.  Texas reopened for the most part and people are obviously working again. Couple heavy traffic with a wicked thunderstorm? yeah, lost more time. 

I got lucky at the facility tho. It was closed and they weren't coming back til' Monday. Manager said drop the trailer. Which I did gleefully and made it back that night with time to spare.

Yesterday? Saturday?  We took  the boat out on the lake.  Note that I said we, James and Taylor wanted to go.  The engine - not working right. A fuel problem, I can tell.  Whatever. I'm not taking it back to that last mechanic. He tries hard but he doesn't know enough about these boats.  I'm guessing a fuel line problem somewhere.  I have an actual business I'm going to take it to - and would today but it's Sunday and they are, of course, closed. We went out on the lake anyway, the thing would eventually get up to full throttle, but it takes a while to get there.  And idling it just dies.  We still spent several hours out there, but yea, I'm not going out again until I can get this issue fixed. 

Today would be a relax day, but my room needs attention - again - cleaning that is and other things that I need to do such as cleaning out the SUV. 

That's it for my life right now, lol.  People are starting to ignore all of these virus threats and fear mongering going on. I dunno how that will work out with more new cases or not.  We saw people having parties in their yards yesterday, lots of people, no masks and no social distancing. 

And James off to Lowe's.  He's getting soap for the pressure washer and going to clean off the mold and algae off the boat.  It sat for a while.  I'm kind of thinking the carburetors need to be rebuilt in it. 

Whatever the case, must be about the day's business.

Happy Mother's Day!

Because I want to wait 20 to 30 minutes every time I turn on this laptop for it to do another of it's unending updates.  I will never buy another Lenovo again.  It was my first and last one.  The thing is slow as...

Oh, how shocking. The computer shut itself off in the middle of typing a sentence and another 5 minutes turning it back on.  As I said, I will never buy another Lenovo product again.  If I can last that long, I will buy a new laptop on Black Friday in November.  Or not. Probably not, this thing is getting beyond annoying, it's quite irritating. 

Whatever the case, I am now in Brownsville.  After getting stuck at the plant for almost 5 hours this morning, I didn't know whether I would have enough hours to get down here even with a 16 hour exception - that adds 2 hours to your on duty time.

First it was the pump at the loading rack. When I got to the rack a the appointed time, the first truck was sitting there, doors closed on the trailer cabinet, no lines hooked up, no plant personnel anywhere in sight.  I walked up to his truck and woke him up.  Oh, he said, the pump isn't working. Yup, I thought, I KNOW that. I was also thinking, why didn't you bother to tell anyone?  I let it go - but it's pretty rude and selfish not to take 10 seconds to type a text to the group and let everyone know the plant is down. 

After I finally got loaded, hours later, off to the scale house to get paperwork. The ladies in there were doing everything but working.  I sat there an hour and a half waiting on paperwork, there were only 2 other drivers ahead of me waiting - and they waited that entire time as well.  The job isn't that hard.  Enter some info into the computer, print it  out, hand it to the driver to sign.  But, after sitting there an hour, I nonchalantly asked if the COA was bad and that's why it was taking so long? Nope, she said, we are the problem.  I couldn't believe she actually said that.  She admitted they were taking their sweet old time. 

The drive down here uneventful, and now waiting. The was another driver ahead of me - the dude that didn't bother to tell anyone - he should have hooked up to the empty in the back of the yard here. He is gone. I don't know if there was another trailer for him to take or if he just took off somewhere to come back in the morning.  I did not hook up to that trailer. Last time I did that, there was another driver - who should have left out of there 6 hours before I ever even got there with it - that should have taken it.  I want the detention pay, but at the same time?  We all want to go boating on Saturday and that ain't happening if I don't get back tomorrow. But I am not going to back under a trailer not knowing whether another driver should be taking it. 

I think I'm done with this entry already. The port for the charging cord to plug into on this computer is broken, apparently.  The plug keeps popping back out. I'm literally ready to just smash this thing with a sledgehammer and be done with it. 

I don't know why, but it's been really tough to get back into this keto diet. Just weird that it's so difficult to get into that regimen again.  I'm back into mild ketosis, which will increase in the next few days and start using fat for energy.  I"m doing it, just not as easy as it seemed to be before I stopped doing it for a few months.  Of course, no one claims that this diet is easy and if they do, they probably aren't exactly being truthful about it.  If you like potatoes, rice and beans, you will find this diet a tough cookie to crack.  Oh, no cookies. At least not the kind you grew up with lol.

I'm off 2 full days, plus the more than half day when I got back from Oklahoma yesterday.  I asked the manager after he texted me that it "looks like you're going out on Thursday" if we had slowed down.  No, not really, you just missed it by 15 minutes lol.

I didn't bother to ask him what that meant, for when I got back to the yard, I was the only driver there besides one other that had been sitting there over a day. He was already en-queue for a load, so his statement made no sense.  Complaining about it isn't going to change anything, I"ll just ask him nonchalantly what he meant next time I see him.

Nothing much new, really.  Women fretting over finding a place to live.  Wanting me to contact the owner of the house - who sent a letter stating he was happy about how we treated the place, but he has a family member he wants to move in there.  I can't do anything to change that situation.  It's not my house, he has the right.  I'm not going to try again. I made my pitch, it was rejected, it is what it is.

I could buy a house. Nothing that I want, I'm not getting bogged down in that.  People are fickle, things happen, people find new opportunities.  I'm actually hoping that some opportunity opens up for Maria to live elsewhere. Family, friends, whatever.  My dogs can stay at home in the back yard when I"m gone, come in at night into the bedroom.

___________________

Talk of another meat shortage prompted me to head to the store.  The reimposed limits on beef, pork and chicken. But another 9 pounds of hamburger meat and a large tray of chicken breast, plus some sliced ham for road trips.  And a bunch of canned food.  The pantry is really starting to look nicely stocked with all kinds of canned and dried food. We're good for a couple of months if things really got bad. 

I also bought another thing of toilet paper. Not because we need it, but because it's so hard to find, I figured to buy an extra and give it away to whosoever needs it.  Note that i said give away, not price gouge - and it would be easy to price gouge in this community right now. The TP aisles are either always empty or almost empty and getting empty quickly.  There's no in between and hasn't been for 2 months now.  Trust me, someone will need toilet paper and I can give them a whole 8 pack of Scott 1,000 count each roll.

Brownsville tomorrow. I was beginning to wonder if I'd get any of those again. I have not complained about the runs.  This week's paycheck will be a bit spartan as only one run on it, but it is the West Virginia run so it's not going to be too terribly bad. At least enough to pay the mortgage in Phoenix. Yes, they sent the rent from that house, yes I have it in the bank, but I tend to pay the mortgage the last day it's due before I get zapped with a late fee, which is on the 16th of every month.  The reason I do that is to keep as much cash available on hand as possible up to the last minute I need it.  Yes, I've needed it in the past and yes I ate the late fee and had the money for something else that I needed ti for, making up the payment later on. I'm hoping I can get back from Brownsville on Friday so I can get that run on next week's pay, otherwise next week will be an Oklahoma run only and that isn't a paycheck. That's just pay the government, my 401k and my health insurance.  Maybe a bit left over but not much.

Not much else today.  Still looking for a rental house for them.  One house was $900 and was terrible.  The place looked like it had been ravaged by previous tenants and they decided not to fix it, including bare plywood floors.  $900 for that?  Filthy, dirty, nasty looking place.  Good luck renting that out. I'll be watching that one to see if anyone actually rents it - or if they bring the price down.  Bring it down to around $600 per month and I'll replace the flooring on a long term rental - tho I won't bother to tell them that.  Other than that, way over priced homes.  1,400 square foot homes going at $1,500 and higher.  Ridiculous.  If we get to the end of the road and we still haven't found anything? I don't really know what to do.  I can only say I tried to find a place. Maria is talking to moving to a house 2 towns over - where I work.  So taking the dogs wouldn't be a big deal. 

But that would pretty much end child watching arrangement.  Taylor isn't going to want to drive 35-40 miles each way to take the kids if something happens and they get sick or whatever the precludes them from going to daycare.  I guess as a last resort. I'll watch them - if I ''m home.  But that's not reliable.  Met some people at Kroger's, we got into a long discussion about the impending meat shortage. Lady helps run a foster care with 27 children and having trouble finding enough meat to feed them all.  I gave her some suggestions - the Kroger's we were at was out of ground beef. Out, that is, until the butcher came out with a huge tray of 3 pound chubs and told her to take as much as she needed.

She had already asked about getting some.  I took 2 - that was the limit.  We're not going to starve over here if I have anything to do with it.  I know, doom and gloom, I think it's common sense and reasonable to prepare for the worst and hope it doesn't go there. But when this pandemic broke out, the grocery stores were veritably emptied out of everything.  I posted pics of the meat coolers - there wasn't a pound of anything in  them.  They were virtually wiped out and they stayed that way for along time.

Canned food was also gone, dried beans, pasta, tuna fish, etc etc etc.  I bought a little of all of that today. On top of what I have already bought for the pantry, it's pretty much full. Could make room elsewhere and very well may.  I have peace of mind we could survive 2 or 3 months without buying anything. Kids wouldn't be eating their chicken nuggets or taquitos, but they would have meat on their plate.  Eat - or don't eat.  That's the 3 year old currently. He has a very limited list of food he'll eat, the rest he'll just sit there and stare at you with an ugly face and refuse to eat it. It's delicious food, btw.  Brisket, steak, burgers, all kinds of good stuff, but the boy just wants the junk food. At least the parents refuse to cave, eat your food or don't eat.  Many times he doesn't eat, then tries to steal cookies and other stuff. 

Since we have a lot of hamburger meat, it's hamburgers for dinner! 

With that, I'm offa here.

Haven't been posting because I've been on the road. And with a late load time on this last load going to West Virginia, I was up late every night - didn't feel like doing much but going to bed as soon as I was done driving.

The truck did break down again- but nothing serious.  Well the truck responded by shutting itself down - while driving down the road.  That wasn't much fun. A hole opened up in a radiator hose and leaked out a lot of coolant all over everything - but the temperature never went up on the gauge.  So why did it shut down? Because that's the way they have it set up. There are sensors on the large coolant storage tank that feeds into the radiator. When it gets below the first sensor, a warning light comes on and start dinging.  When it goes below the second, it shuts the truck down. 

Strange because that's just the reservoir, not the main cooling system.  Anyway, Love's came out, lied on the work ticket, charged hundreds of more dollars than they should have and apparently they just get away with this stuff.  The people at work didn't care - oh that's normal. Normal to rip customers off?!! 

So, shrug my shoulders. They want to overpay, that's on them.  I alerted them - I won't do that again. 

The rest of the trip was uneventful excepting trying to find a place to park late at night.  Lots are full everywhere nowadays, good luck. You have to find places that aren't in truck stops for the most part.  Except last night. I ended up at a place I know is never full. That lot is huge. By the time I got up this morning, it was 3/4's full, still lots of spots tho.  And the restaurant was open - take out only but I got a nice meal. 

The other thing that happened while I was away was a try that fell over on our street during a heavy thunderstorm.  It fell on top of a utility work truck, destroying it and of course it took the power lines down.  Enough.  Taylor went up to Lowe's, found a Caterpillar 10,000 watt generator and we got it.  I can't do this anymore - power goes out, food potentially spoiling in freezers.  Not to mention when I'm home, I don't want to sit in a powerless house.  I can run my AC, computer, tv and satellite easily with that much wattage and still be plenty left over to run the freezers and refrigerator.  That power was out like 16 hours.  It was about 12 before they got the generator in place and had it up and running. The freezers never got about 32 degrees tho. Not even close. They are so full, the meat in them retains the cold and it takes a lot longer for it to heat up in them, as long as you keep the doors closed and don't try to look.

Paychecks looking great for now.  Checking account back up to where I normally like it.  I could weather up to 4 months right now if I were frugal without getting a paycheck.  It would deplete everything to zero, of course, but at least I have something.

Oh, and one of the stocks I bought a few months ago? They did some sort of thing where they - whatever. My 300 stocks turning into 1 and 1/2 stocks. I didn't know what had happened until I called the bank to find out what. They explained it to me. I would have taken some notes but I was driving at the time.  But that move must have gotten investors skittish,  cause that single stock went from $40 per share down to $17.  Basically, that stock is a scrub, worthless, lost a few dollars on it, but it was penny stock.  My GE stock initially went up a couple bucks per share - but now has dropped back down to the range of where I bought it at.  That I can hold onto, I figure GE will eventually come back if we all ever get back to work and the economy - attempts to come back to normal. 

401k - different story. From a high of 25k down, it's up to 7k down now.  That is a bit encouraging, but if we keep this economy shut down, that's not going to stay that way. 

Taylor got a week off. The entire company did.  Work got one of those ppp loans and they just let everyone go home.  Still paying them - yes - for doing nothing.  So that's nice for her.  She has had her days home alone - something she very much likes.  I believe that stipulation with those loans is that if you continue to pay your employees, that loan is forgiven. 

As for me today? Well it's noon.  I'm home. I'm "isolating" myself in my room. Not because the government told me I had to, but because that's pretty much standard modus operandi for me after a longer road trip.

Addler was being cranky today, he bit one of Maria's dogs and got all over me when I showed up.  I keep telling Maria when I am gone too long he gets irritable.  Nothing necessarily you can do about it, but be alert and keep him away from other dogs when he starts acting up.

If it's going to be an issue I'll leave him home when I go on longer trips. 

Maria, changing the subject, thinks they are being booted out of the house because the owner believes the dogs are tearing the house up.  This belief is based on zero facts if true, but she said that Gus - the owner's brother - asked her just before being told everyone has to move out if the dogs were tearing up the house?  She hadn't told me this until today.  So I texted the owner's brother. He had texted me a few days ago about wanting the names of everyone in the house for the lease. A lease? We're being told to move out, what do we need a lease for? I didn't ask that and didn't reply until today after Maria texted him the names. I texted him  quite simply: Maria is texting you the names and you could have come in the house and inspected it if you or your brother had thought the house is being destroyed.  I told him that a long time ago as well - you can come at any time and take a look.

I don't know if that invitation will change anything, probably not.  The house is old. It's in great need of renovations.  If someone bought that house, they could easily expect to have to dump at least 50k into it. The entire electrical system needs to be replaced, that's about 10k. The kitchen needs to be torn out and completely redone.  The flooring is bad, that needs replaced as well.  Just a lot of stuff.  It could use an extra, add-on bathroom.  These are all things I would want to do with it if I were to buy the place - which I'm not. The central AC is too small, it doesn't keep the house cool enough during the summer.  There's 6k.  Yup, for about 50k I could have the renovations to that house that need to be done - done. No thanks. 

So, we are looking for a new place.  We have until the end of July to be out.  The 2 ladies there - Kim is out of the hospital and appears to be in decent health - are sticking this out. They have nowhere to go.  The third is moving out, but a former tenant wants to move back in.  It would be nice if they changed their minds, I am now suspecting that they just want us out and will re-rent it to someone else.  Good luck tho, that place was empty for a long time before we got into it.

My savings plan is on track to have enough of a down payment to buy land with a house already on it - in about 3 or 4 years lol.  Hope deferred.  But, the money is being automatically deducted from my checking account once per month.  But the lien auctions aren't out of mind, just out of reach atm. 

And finally? Addler is on my bed. Has taken the thing completely over.  Content, starting at me.  I'll be here all day long, we can reuinte lol. 

Oklahoma run behind me- like returned at 9:00 am yesterday. 

So I had a full day off in between runs and out to West Virginia tomorrow. Tho this new manager has me loading at 12:00 pm.  That's way too late for that run.  9:00 am at the latest.  There is far too much driving and they want the product there the second day, not the second night.  But I said nothing.  This dude will figure it out - when the plant complains the product isn't there when they want it.  And he calls me or whoever down the line whenever it finally becomes an issue. I'll tell him straight up, but only if he asks. I'm not into getting into these people's bad side/under their skin.

They can make your life miserable with bad runs.  And trust me, they do it.  Some worse than others, but they do it. 

So, I'll be driving til' midnight at the earliest tomorrow night, probably more like 1: 00 am or later.  To get the minimum miles in for each day (by my standards, not necessarily the company's, I go well beyond what they think you should do in a day and since we're paid by the mile, getting it done faster isn't a bad thing).  I'm not patting myself on the back, I'm just driven to get the trip done and go home.  I'm afraid this trip will tip into 4 days because of the issue of starting too late in the day. 

Whatever the case, today was spent at home. I didn't go anywhere.  Not because of isolation and quarantine, but because I didn't want to go anywhere.  I've decided to start back on Keto tomorrow - after quite a while being off of it. I gained back 15 pounds and quite the gut to go along with it. Growing out of the 34 waist size, enough.  I have enough keto friendly food to take with me I'll never have to shadow the door frames of any truck stop venue.  In fact, I found a recipe today that was really quite awesome!  It's something I'd eat Keto or not.  James loved it too - Taylor not so much because of the red onions that are in it.  Onions are not her thing - but when I'm making  a dish calling for onions, I chop them up til they're in minced condition and then cook them down.  She doesn't notice it in there and you get the flavor.    Yup, I tell her there are onions in it, the dish I made today? was road food, just had them take a taste of it. 

The lady that was in the hospital for a month is home - and apparently complaining about whatever.  I'm sorry, but Maria makes this deal too difficult. She doesn't have anywhere to go, but she complains about everything when it comes to other tenants.  It's with great reluctance that she gets other renters in there. I'm not paying $900 a month for her living situation.  That's what it would cost me without 2 more renters in there, no thanks.  She also gets far too dramatic when things  start to go south, such as the house falling out from under us and the owner wanting to give it to a family member.  The lease is up, the only footing I had to extend it was the coronavirus.  This man is a Catholic Priest, I called him out on that, having to find a place to live under such extreme circumstances. 

Yeah, I went there.  If I consider myself a person that loves the Lord - and moreover, following His edicts  - not claiming to be a perfect person by any stretch of the imagination - but if so, and following the Word, how much more so a person that claims to be a "man of the cloth" and standing in the position of a man of God? Yes, I take issue with that.  I'm glad there's 3 months now to figure this all out - after my interaction with them, the owner and his brother - because this town has very little in the way of rentals right now and they are either cheap - shit holes - or very expensive. 

Anyway, Maria - I've given her more direct statements recently.  Learn to live with other people.  Deal with it. I've done it for decades. Not years, decades. Everyone has their quirks.  Don't get freaking bitchy about it, talk to them if it's really bad.  But nagging on them, crowding them, bitching at them, that's not going to work and I can tell ya, if she keeps that up? I'm going to bow out of this situation.  No one ever  said life was going to be easy.  I mean, she could find a job - an at-home job if necessary. She could  be doing something. She has had mini-strokes, but she is quite capable of moving around and cleaning house and such.  She's not in a wheelchair, she's not an invalid.  She is not helping herself and I'm growing weary of it.

I guess I'm venting but this situation over there is really starting to get to me.  My house in Phoenix? They deal with it.  They don't call me every day cranking about some renter. Sometimes they tell me about a renter with serious issues - but they've either already gotten rid of them or getting them out of there. But - they know that everyone else? Gonna have some things they may not like. Tough, be happy you're not on the streets, live with it.  Or go live on the streets! Whatever makes you happy!

Mark - dude at the house in Phoenix- good guy.  The lady, however, well not saying she's a bad person but she's done some stuff that really got me going. 

As much as I had wanted to spend it,  I'm hanging onto stimulus money and everything else I'm getting right now.  Greed? no.  Spending? Well if you can tell me when these governors are going to lift all of these restrictions and get our economy back up, let me know.  Americans are rising up against this nonsense at least.  Sick people? Stay home. People that are vulnerable? Same thing. The rest of us? Go back to work. How many of these small businesses that are shuttered by government decree are going to go down permanently because of it?  Open up the restaurants, the bars, the "non-essential" businesses. We're not going to recover from this if we keep this going on. 

A nice day hanging out with family, regardless of what is going on. 

I don't want to dig into the new manager too much right off the bat - but...

Today, stopping at a Rest Area near Victoria, Texas, I took my 30 minute break. Got up, went to the back of the trailer, took pressure and fill reading and then inspected the trailer itself.  Took 2 seconds to see a flat tire.  Gag.

So, I call the tire hotline, they get a truck set up to come out.  I then tell the new manager about the ordeal, letting him know I wasn't sure if I would make it to Brownsville today or not - just depends on how long they take to get to the rest area and replace the tires.  I ordered 2. The tire beside the blown tire was bald on one section of the tire, something I had missed in my pretrip inspection.

I"m not perfect, lol.  That portion of the tire was probably on the ground and not view-able at the time, for I inspect the tread as well. I don't run bald tires.  It's dangerous, it usually leads to a blowout and it always costs time.  The reason you want excellent tires on that trailer is because of the product you are hauling.  It doesn't play well with fire.  A blown tire can catch on fire if it's driven down the road long enough, I've seen it too many times.  In fact, I've seen entire trailers burned down because of it.  Yea, we aren't going there. 

I then asked the manager who was already down in Brownsville and were there any other trucks coming down today?  "I don't know yet".  Huh? How do you not know who is waiting in Brownsville? I started thinking. And more to the point, how in the heck do you not know who is going where today?  I said nothing of the sort to him, probably not a good idea to start trouble with a new manager, who knows what he might do.  So I texted Clarice, see if she knew.  I haven't been doing dispatch for you guys for over a week now, you need to ask  your manager.  Oh, I replied, well I asked him and he didn't know.

LOL! she replied and geeze after that.  She's worried about her job.  Now that she isn't doing ethylene, she isn't doing much. Her division has been very slow. Whatever the case, the tire guy showed up, took a bunch of pics of the tires - they have to do that to prove that the tires actually needed replaced.  The one that blew out? It was on the inside.  That side of the tire, of which you cannot see unless you get down in the dirt and crawl up under there, was dry rotted. It just caved to the tire pressure. 

Well, after that a driver in Brownsville called me and told me Ricky had just left and he was still waiting on another trailer - and how much he'd love to stay another night. Well I ain't giving up an empty, I had to do that last time with that driver that was sleeping all day long and didn't leave when she was supposed to. No idea  what became of that.  Well I know she isn't getting the second day of detention pay - she didn't deserve it, it wasn't hers to get. 

I finally made it down here almost 3 hours later than I should have.  So I'm going to get an overnight detention pay at least.

Meanwhile, one of the tenants at the other house texted me today - Hi Ben, I'm moving out next week.

Lovely. 

Just, awesome! One more headache to deal with in that situation on top of the already present problem of having to find a new place.  Maria is, at least, trying to find another place.  She texted me a link to a 2 story house type thing, but split up into 3 apartments.  They wanted 7k plus for the entire property, including 2 alleged rental units in the back.  The pics, however, told the story. Bad roof, no AC, caved in ceilings - because of the bad roof. House a total disaster. It's completely worthless.  Sorry, I thought, I ain't getting into that disaster.  Wouldn't be shocking if the place is condemned by the city. 

Maria literally has no place to go. If she loses that place, which she is cause' the owner isn't going to budge on it, I tried, she's homeless. See I can't do that to people. I don't want to spend ALL of my money helping people but at the same time, I can't just see people ending up without a place to live that I could have helped and more importantly to me, the Lord would say I should have helped since I had the wherewithal to do so.

I'm far more concerned with eternity than what my little earthly existence eeks out here.

Whatever the case, I am completely stuffed. And I didn't eat that much. Last night's dinner.  WE ate last night feeling like stuffed turkeys, it was tri tips on mashed potatoes.  The stuff filled us up.  I just ate another medium sized serving of it, feels like I've been eating for hours.

Time to kick back and let this stuff digest. 

New manager = fail right off the bat.

Told me 2 days ago I was going to be sent out - today.  He said he would text me later that day or yesterday morning with the run.

It never happened. Around 6 pm yesterday, I texted him.  Cause' I don't want to find out today - Monday - that I'm going somewhere and he forget to tell me. That's a good way to mess up an entire day. 

Next thing I see is a text with the run sheet on it.  Then the claim he had sent it the day before but it didn't "send for some reason".  Whatever.  Other managers would insist on a text back to make sure it went through. 

And of course it's the first run. I dunno how I got into this funk of having to get up at 4:00 am - at the latest - to get to work to get to the plant in time. And then, the plant - that insists on the first load truck to be there at 6:15 am - doesn't do anything until around a half hour later.  So, you get on the 14 hour clock that runs regardless of what you're doing, including waiting at the plant, and getting wasted.  But if you don't show up  on time, they complain? 

One driver yesterday was extremely unhappy after seeing a text from him going to the group.  Someone else texted back $$$$$  He then texted a pic of an alarm clock. Exactly. The money waiting is minimal, the need to get out of that plant and get on the road is far greater. 

Well I'm going down to Brownsville today, so I like the run at least. 

I've had the whole weekend off as well.  But, you know, trying to go to bed at 8:00 pm just doesn't work for me. I'll wake up at 11 or 12 and lay there awake. 

Well enough of that.  I think this virus stuff is starting to affect everyone's psyche.  I still can't believe the police in this little town are pulling people over asking them what they're doing.  They'll be examining and studying this government over-reach of power during this time for decades to come.  How historians will look back on this situation and the endless decrees various levels of government will be of great interest to me.

Then again, I fully suspect that some of this will end up in the Supreme court anyway. What gives the government the right to just say - shut down your businesses, close the doors and send your workers home?  Lots of reports of people going broke, not being able to make their mortgage/rent payments.  Talk about stressing out?!!

This little town and the surrounding county is up to 45 cases and one death.  It goes up - slightly but it's going up - every single day. 

What about China? It's now a fact that withheld information about this virus from the beginning and didn't tell anyone about the seriousness of the nature of this virus.  Should they pay?  How do you just get away with messing up the entire world?  The theory that it was developed in a laboratory is continuing on and getting more press. 

But to tell you the truth? I"m so sick of seeing 24 hour a day coverage of it, I am hardly watching any of it.  Just enough to see what's new - which is usually nothing besides governors engaging in outrageous abuses of power - and understand where we're at with this.

Other than that, I am watching movies and shows.

And with that, I'm out of here. 

Glad to be home frankly. Yes I could be sitting in Brownsville collecting detention pay, but yet I like going home too. I've put in a heavy week driving wise, starting with that run to Ohio.  They wanted to send me again, I didn't say no thanks - I won't turn down any load - but I did say I was almost out of hours.  I would have had to have done a 34 hour reset on the road.  Which isn't the end of the world, they still give you a hotel to do that.  But as described by the new manager yesterday, the whole company is on "lock-down". 

Meaning profits from other divisions are not happening, especially the fuel hauling division.  That's a no-brainer.  No one is driving anywhere besides trucks and even trucks are getting sidelined as the economy shuts down.  Brokers - these are the people that up loads on the load boards for owner operators to see and potentially take one - are reducing their rates.  To the point lots of OO's are staying home. I've been reading that all over the internet. They won't take "cheap freight" is what they like to call it and would rather stay home and do nothing than running down the road not hardly making any money.  I can't blame them, but then again, I'm not an OO and I don't know how much money these people have saved up for the rainy day situation.

Our fuels division is the largest division in the company. What I haul is probably the smallest.  But highly profitable. And so far, nothing has slowed down that I can see.  Except they are sending drivers from other divisions to haul loads.  When they bring too many of them, we are going to be back to sitting around 3 and 4 days at a time.  I can understand trying to help other drivers who are sitting idled, but in my view, it would be better to lay them off and let them get the stimulus unemployment money. 

Anyway, the company on lock down means they may take further Profits and shareholders always take precedence in most any company over the employees needs.  Hotels are a thing of the past. What I really don't like when a company starts making excuses to take away the perks is that it usually becomes the new-normal. The economy could come roaring back and they would likely still keep the perks in check.  When you lose perks in a good economy, that is when the idea of "corporate greed" comes creeping in. 

I'm seriously ready to go sit down at a restaurant and have a nice meal.  I can tell you that it wouldn't be any different than all of those people cramming into Walmarts, Lowes and grocery stores.  In fact, it would be quite easy to have social distancing in a restaurant. They' have to take out some tables and space them further apart, but it's better than being shut down.  If there's one industry that is greatly suffering, it's definitely the restaurant and bar business.  If you  believe the economy isn't going to descend to unrecoverable depths if this shut down is kept too long, I can't help you.  Small business is the backbone of america. The stimulus loans for small business is already gone. I knew that would happen.  And if enough of these small businesses shut down permanently, there are going to be a lot of people out of work. Remember, small business employs 2/3rd's the working force in America.

Anyway, it's Saturday morning. I have no grand plans today.  I'll start looking for a new house, I guess, for the ladies.  The stuff available right now is small and over  priced.  Well, just looking. I really don't know what to do with this situation. I'd actually like it to go away and not have to deal with it, but what amounts to throwing people out onto the streets wouldn't sit well with me either.  Basically, tho, to be able to pay for what's available right now would mean having to raise their rent.  They can't afford that. Something will have to shake out here, somehow.  I don't know how, but I trust the Lord that something will open up.  It'd be great if I could just get the property I want, with a house on it and get a trailer or something decent for Maria to live in.  lt would be a win-win for everyone.  Maria has a place to stay, could help with the kids whenever they are having to stay home, she wouldn't have to worry about eating and could just join us for meals.  That would cut her expenses quite a lot.  Seems like a pipe dream tho to get into decent land with a decent house on it right now.

And it probably isn't a good time to be considering such things with a tanking economy. My income is not guaranteed, no one's is right now.  People aren't spending money and it's reflecting upon the numbers. 

It's probably a better time to increase the "prepper" stance of buying enough food to last months, a generator and enough gasoline or propane depending on which style to get to last a while.  I've been wanting to get a generator for quite a while anyway - the storms come, the power goes out. There's a thousand dollars worth of food in the freezers. That's a conservative estimate.  I also want to buy another 40 or 50 cans of food and more dried goods.  The pantry is getting full, but we could make more room. Probably a good time to buy some more ammo if there's any available anywhere. 

A generator tho. That is high on my list of priorities at this point.  And enough extension cords to reach the things that need to be reached with the electricity.  Namely, 2 freezers, a refrigerator and yes, folks, my room. Lmao, because my AC will work at least even if the rest of the house has no cooling.  I have a couch, everyone could come in here. 

Well, enough. 

So I drove down to Brownsville yesterday - it was the first load so I got there earlier than normal, around 7:30  But, I stopped at the truckstop first to fuel up and see if there were any drivers ahead of me to get a trailer - drivers tend to go to the Love's to hang out for the night. Not a problem, I do that too if there aren't any trailers in the yard. I can get a shower in the morning and free coffee.  There weren't any.

At the yard - down there that is - I was looking for any of our drivers there.  I scoured the yard, it's not that big. I did that because there was an empty there.  I love the detention pay, but if there's an empty, I'm hooking up to it that night and ready to go in the morning.  No tractors in the yard, I dropped the loaded trailer and hooked up to the empty - doing a full pre-trip. These trailers go down into the interior of Mexico, stuff happens to them.  Everything was good tho. I got up at 4:45 am, got myself together, did another pre trip inspection - I just do that by habit, stuff can go wrong. Even overnight, I freshly dropped trailer might have had a nail or something in a tire and the tire go flat overnight. 

Nothing wrong with it, everything good, did my paperwork and left. 

I have to add here that I didn't sleep that well.  And the night before I didn't sleep well either.  So I was driving on 2 days worth of not sleeping well. I only made it 247 miles before I decided that that Rest Area north of Victoria, TX? I was going to stop and take my 30 minute break and snooze a bit.  I fell fast asleep, woke up 20 minutes later feeling much better.  When you have to start doing - weird - stuff to stay awake, it's time to pull over and sleep a bit. A 20 minute nap almost always does it for me. 

Much later on, I got to the yard - the rest of the trip was uneventful.  The new manager was there, we talked about. But I was taken by surprise by the statement about Marie - the only lady driver in our division.  What was the deal with E007?  Huh?  I replied.  That was the number of the trailer I pulled back up.  Well Marie was supposed to bring that back up.  Oh? Was Marie down there? I looked everywhere to make sure that there weren't other drivers, I explained, going through the truckstop and through the yard.  Yes, but he wasn't taking me to task, and already knew about Marie.  It took her a day and a half to get down there.  She should have been under that trailer long before I got there and out of there.

I was instantly disappointed that I missed out on easy detention pay that I would have gotten and freely spoke that to the man.  But not in a haughty or disparaging way. Just musing.

I texted the interim manager - Clarice - sorry I took that trailer in front of Marie,, I didn't know she was down there and I looked to make sure first.  Oh she should have been under that trailer and out of there long before you got there, she texted back.  Clarice has a tempter.  Try not to cross her.  In reality, Marie would have tried to get 2 days worth of detention pay out of that, that's cheating. And unethical.  Hell, it's stealing, to it's immoral. You are claiming you had to wait more hours than you actually had to to get the trailer. I dunno what, if anything they are going to do with her about that. I don't actually wish any ill will, except this has been going on since I started working there. 

Driving down there yesterday, I was going through a village/town/whatever called Mahl.  There is a truck stop there.  You come up a hill, go around a curve and then start heading back down the hill. 55 mph speed limit.  So there I was, going down that hill. I saw the truck at the exit ramp of the truck stop. It was just sitting there.  There was a car next to me - 4-lane highway.  I was maybe 150 feet from that exit and that truck decided it was going to pull out.

I'm fully loaded at 79,220 pounds. On a downhill. At 55 mph.  I thought I was going to die.  I knew the truck couldn't get slowed down that fast in that short amount of distance.  But miraculously, the car driving next to me slammed on it's brakes, the driver seeing what was going on, to get out of the way and let me over!  Not ALL drivers of cars are distracted or playing on their phones, thank God, because I can assure, I wouldn't be writing this post right now.  The driver of that truck? Blooming idiot, almost got us all killed.  I'm not going to lie, not proud of it, but I flew past him because he wasn't even moving by the time I got up to him, got over, got down the road and then, slowed down. First to get his company information and truck number and then? Yes, I did it.  I stuck my arm all the way out the window and gave the middle finger.  The Eagles were flying yesterday. 

I then found the company on Google an called them.

The news ain't over yet.  Mark called from Phoenix.  A crack head he let into the house - ok Mark didn't know it was a crack head, but mark was going off on that.  Yes, people have been laid off, after I asked, but they are applying for unemployment.  Ok, Keep asking them,  I can't afford to eat an entire month's worth of bills there. Well I can but it's a lot of money, if they are collecting state unemployment plus the $600 per week stimulus for unemployment, they can pay their rent. 

Then, the owner of the other house over here? Texted Maria, time to leave.  That's the short version and then I got involved.  The man called me, his brother who owns the home wants to let a family member move into the house.  So, we have to be out by the end of next month. WTH? You want us to move with this pandemic going on? Isn't your brother a Catholic priest?  What kind of godly person does that to anyone in the midst of something like this going on? Note that I did NOT say that I was throwing anyone out of my house - but if they can afford to pay, they need to! 

So this guy called his brother again. Yes, Ben, you can stay for 3 more months, but my brother already talked to his - whatever the relationship was, i don't remember - he already promised her that she could move into the house.  He's throwing out 3 people - well one is still in the hospital - but 3 people that are living on fixed incomes.  I dunno what to think about that.  Just don't. I wouldn't do it at my house, that's what I can say.  People already living there? Try to accommodate especially if they've been there awhile. 

I dunno. I try to help people. I don't think God is going to condemn me for doing that, especially in relevance to a large number of scriptures.  But it's such a headache sometimes.  Like, more than I want to deal with.  But I will trust Him that an answer will pop up in the next 3 months and this situation will be dealt with. 

There's more, actually, lol, but I"m tired. I've run my 70 hour clock almost out with all the driving I've been doing. And it's taken it's toll. Time to sleep.