Happy Sunday!

Another day in paradise - otherwise known as Williston, Vermont.  Looking at a map, I was almost shocked to realize how far up north I actually am.  I only did that because my buddy Fin kept mentioning how Canada is just across the lake.  Really?  Shows you how much attention I have paid to the countryside around me, Montreal is only 99 miles from here. 

Well, I've looked at the beautiful scenery and mountains and taken a lot of pics, but not a map of the region.  It would be interesting to drive up to Canada, but I don't know about driving a rental car over there. I actually have my passport with me.  

Anyway, I have one run scheduled to me for a 2:00 pm start time.  That kind of does in any chances of doing any traveling excepting by truck lol.  And today starts The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) Brake Safety Week . 

 That's just another excuse for them to pull over trucks and do inspections.  Coronavirus be damned lmao, we're going to inspect those trucks!  And there just happens to be a weigh station on both the north and south bound sides of I-89 where I have to travel through to get to the plant in New York.  Get past those two stations and there is no way they can pull trucks over on the rest of the route, there is literally no place to pull over.  If a truck breaks down in any of that area, it's taking up the entire lane and blocking traffic lol.  

I don't know the condition of the brakes on any of those trucks, I can look at the brake linings to determine if they have enough padding. They are going to be inspecting hoses and valves and such.  

If I get pulled over, it is what it is, it's  part of trucking but I'd far rather be in my own truck right now, I know it's in great shape!

I'm beginning to go stir crazy.  Simply because the lack of work.  One run? That's only 4 to 5 hours and it's done.  I'm at 10 days as of today here, that's 3 grand, nice number, time to go home!  But they're dragging it out, extending it further and further. At two weeks, I'll be putting my foot down if it goes that far and declaring that that is the maximum amount of time I agreed to be up here.  I said it twice to my manager in his office before I left, undoubtedly he has forgotten that declaration, but I'll be reminding him of it.  

Amazingly, the friend of Taylor's who has been staying at the house for - 2 weeks I think - lives in Maine.  That's only a hop, skip and a jump away as well.  I haven't been to Maine since I was a child.  

A few things I hope not to forget if they ever try to make me come up here again. 1 - a kitchenette.  There's 2 huge grocery stores not half a mile from this hotel. I could be preparing my own food and eating much healthier and according to my diet if I were in a kitchenette.  

2. Drive my own truck  up here - which is what they originally proposed.  And I was for, btw.  Then I know what I'm driving is road worthy and won't have to speculate what we will be driving.

3. Know what we will be hauling.  I want to know what product it is, if I've hauled it and if not, that they understand - the management where I'll be going - that they will have to train me.  However long that takes.  I don't mind learning new things, at the same time I don't need pissy management thinking simply because I've hauled Cryo I must, somehow, magically understand how other cryo operations work.

4.  A definitive return date. A "no later than this date you will return home".  Because right now? It's still up in the air. It wouldn't shock me in the least if they tried to keep us up here another weekend.  As if our lives are expendable, they just move it further and further out.  The other driver has a family and kids, I don't have that but I still want to go home!  Thursday marks 2 weeks.  Well Friday in reality but we spent all day friday in transit coming up here so I'm counting it as well.  

They leave so much up in the air. Even the driver that trained me up here? He had only been delivering this stuff for 2 weeks.  Lol, my training was green as well.  He did a good job, but apparently he left out a bunch of important information that he apparently thought wasn't necessary. Just the actual process of hooking up the trailers to the rail where the plant has it's piping to deliver the gas from the trailers to the plant. An operation they have well off from the rail - like at least 500 feet away.  

This go with the flow mindset I've tried to take doesn't work out.  They just take advantage of it.  I won't refuse another journey like this, but I'll want specifics before I make a decision. That's the gist of it, or they can move onto the next driver.  It's almost guaranteed they will need drivers up here to haul LNG this winter. They had to fill 100 open spots with drivers from around the country, in advance for just such an operation. Not the same one as I did before but not far from it.  The other driver said he volunteered for this one so that when winter comes around and they start asking, he can say he already did his gig, someone else's turn.  Good thought, I suppose.  

So there it is.  My Sunday morning. It's 8:30 am and I'm thinking of attempting to try to find a restaurant that actually serves breakfast that isn't 10 miles away.  

Hmm, The Skinny Pancake, right by the water. Or Panera which is right down the street.  Not much else I can find that has breakfast fare.  

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Panera it was, just a breakfast sandwich and coffee.  Prices around here to eat out are pretty outrageous.  $15 for that.  Just another reason not to want to eat out all the time, tho the $40 allowance for food every day seems to be enough to not go starving. 

 I actually am going to do some driving today after.....4 days of not driving besides the rental vehicle.  

2 loads, should take around 9 hours max to get done.  I would have this run to a science if they had kept me up here doing it by now, but I feel like when I get to the paper mill I'm going to be struggling to remember the correct sequence. I have most of it written down.  Really it just means it will take longer than it should for me to stand there and reacquaint myself with it.

Yesterday's 3 hour excursion to Church street was interesting, I probably would have tried to find something else to do today if I were sitting around yet again.

The new story is Wednesday or Thursday we are coming back.  I was content with Monday, they really need to actually make use of us for me to want to continue to stay up here.  Allegedly the only real time they need us is the weekends. The weekend is here and yes I have 2 runs today and won't be surprised if there's 2 tomorrow.  It's still a light day compared to what I normally do. The first day of any normal trip for me is usually in the 13 hour range and more often than not winding my 14 hour clock down to a few minutes before stopping.  

This is day 9, regardless and I found out last night that our manager hadn't turned in any work for us to get paid with next week. That was rather disconcerting since I didn't get paid this week.  I dunno what the issue is but he really should have had us filling out whatever we needed to fill out yesterday and get it sent in.  I mean, I literally had nothing to do yesterday, it's not like I didn't have the time for it...

I'm being told that we have to fill out a TDS for each day regardless of whether we did anything or not.  Okay, so why wait until the last minute to inform us of this little gem of knowledge?  

I broke the diet yesterday It's really hard up here to try and find foods that fit in with Keto and I just gave up on it.  Very limited offerings and eating the same foods over and over, I just decided to go ahead and have a giant pizza at a local "wood fired pizza" place.  Delicious.  Plenty left over to eat on the road today.  I'm not completely ditching the diet - but it doesn't work unless you keep it under 20 carbs per day.  

Still, to completely ditch it makes it extremely difficult to get back into it, so at least some meals are going to be keto friendly as much as I can figure it out. I have no stove top or oven to cook with, that's pretty much the issue, I make a lot of my own food for the road, but it was impossible to bring anything this trip since we were flying.  There are decidedly few restaurants around here. It's weird.  And all of them you have to cal in advance to make an appointment, lol.  

I was talking to some locals yesterday, even with the foul winter elements up here they love living up here. Interesting.  They aren't in love with the heavy taxation and that would be a major decision maker for me if for some reason I were to ever want to move over to this area.  New Mexico, Arizona, Colorao - states with the Rockies running through them have far more appeal. Still have winter snow but I don't think it's anything like what goes on up here.  

The thought of retiring abroad has much less appeal, but is certainly nothing I would dismiss if the country turns into a socialist nightmare and taxation goes through the roof, along with ridiculous power grabs to dictate to the people how we are going to live.  I do wonder how much of that stuff America would put up with before a rebellion/uprising?  I was asking about 45 ACP's in several pawn and gun shops where I live an they have - none.  Much of their gun inventories are all but sold out, save some hunting rifles and smaller caliper pistols.  

Oh and the county voted to keep the Confederate statue. I don't remember if I wrote that in here yet or not.  It will be quite interesting to see what happens next, as some of these people opposed to that statue are hell bent on seeing it come down.  Will they try to tear the thing down? What other authority can they appeal to?  Maybe start a petition, the voting was within the county board, not citizens at large in the county.  They'd have to try to tear that thing down in the middle of the night if that were their intended course of action and even then - it's across the street from the county jail and courthouse.  Local police are always driving through there.  

My life wouldn't be shattered if the thing were torn down, but I have to wonder if the people intent on getting rid of that statue are willing to take the risk of armed citizens showing up and dealing with these people on their own? Not that the county sheriff is against the statue, he sent out deputies to stand by and watch when they were "protesting" here - which amounted to much of nothing since a bunch of armed citizens also showed up to keep the peace. I don't know about the police, they seem to be much more in the liberal aisle of their thinking and I have to wonder if they would even try to stop it if these people from outside the area were to come tear it down?

 Friday morning.

Got back up here at around noon yesterday.  They sent me nothing for today.  Could that change?  Maybe, I have no clue, but I am planning today as if I am going to be doing nothing. The other driver had a day off the other day as well.  I want to visit the infamous Church Street shops and see what that's all about.  Apparently some beautiful hiking trails near the lake.  Not really sure, won't wander off too far in case they call me in. 

The other driver only had one run yesterday, of which I met him after he was done at chili's for dinner - of which, of course, I had to make a reservation lmao.  The place wasn't particularly busy. 

I got no paycheck this week, I wasn't expecting one. They loaded up my last paycheck with all 3 Illinois runs and I knew that would have to suffice for 2 weeks.  We're at day $2,400, tomorrow will be day $2,700, we're expecting to go home, the other driver is pushing for it heavily.  Going home on Sunday or Monday will work for me. 

They aren't asking me to do anything, I really don't care that I'm getting paid to sit around be lazy. That's entirely on them. The only concern is not doing the run enough times you start to forget the procedure for offloading. So i went through that in my mind several times today to refresh my memory and I also decided to attempt to keep in memory everything I learned down in Bosrah. It really wouldn't have taken 2 weeks to learn that stuff, as this morning I went through the entire procedure in my head, only had to stop and think about it a couple of times.  the only real trouble you can get into is allowing the pressure on the plant side to too high - and it's really easy to bring the pressure back down. 

What I learned down there explained how they do ethylene at the plants I go to. None of the operators are interested in teaching anyone anything, you aren't allowed to touch their side of the plant so I guess they think it's a worthless of time to try and do so. Basically, you hook up the line from the trailer to the plant inlet, open up a valve to purge impurities out of the line, close that up and start pumping ethylene in. The operator goes and looks at the pressure once in a while and adjusts the top and bottom feed valves according ly.

There isn't much more to it than that but I never knew what the valves were doing that they were always turning until now.  

The CNG deliveries - which is what I should be doing up here - are a bit different.  Just procedure as well.  But it's much easier and I have all of that memorized. It's almost fail proof.  Actually it is failproof. Hooking into the main line can't effect anything because they don't open up their end of the valves to the plant until a whole swath of trucks are hooked up to it.  

Anyway. I could go on and on about that stuff, that would get boring.  I am watching a hurricane, or a storm that may turn into one - whichever it was, heading into the Gulf and heading straight for the coastline south of our house 250 miles north.  Whenever it hits, they are going to get flooded with rain.  Maybe some winds too and it is tornado season so that is always a concern.  

Keep me here til sunday, hit the 3 grand mark, I'm ready to go home.  

Lol, Taylor just started texting and said it's "been quiet without you" and "I won't lie. Its a bit too quiet".  

I kind of talk loud. Always have, never really think about it, just comes out that way.  Probably a childhood thing with two older brothers always getting their way and me squeaking my little voice out.  Compensated for it lol.  I dunno, it's just part of who I am and some people like it and others don't. Fortunately I don't live my life cowering in fear of what other people think about me.  

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Trip to Church street done.  Replete with numerous phone calls from the other driver, texting between us and the manager, Taylor texting me and then finally, dispatch up here sending me  2 loads for tomorrow.  I've done much of nothing as far as driving - 4 trips altogether, so it's kind of my turn to spend 9 hours on the road lol.  

At least the first load is at 9am instead of 6.  I'll take that. That getting up early stuff every time was getting old.  I mean, I haven't really been doing too much lmao, so getting back at around 6 isn't going to bother me too terribly much. Whether I run again on Sunday who knows, but probably, that is allegedly - as the truth continues to unfold - the reason they brought us up here. 

Our manager told the other driver that we are likely to be staying up here until Wednesday or Thursday, well beyond anything he wanted to be doing up here and really, rather pushing it for me as well.  What I know? If Friday gets here of next week and we/I am still here? We be going home Captain Honey, cause' that's all I agreed to and I made that strikingly, glaringly, overtly clear to my manager several times over when we were discsussing this scenario.

 12 plus hour day.  Started with no tractor/trailer available, had to go back to my hotel to find one that had been taken here by another driver.  

The truck was empty  - no nitrogen in it, hadn't been refueled, etc etc etc.  That threw the whole thing out of whack.  That truck was supposed to be at the yard, fueled, filled with nitrogen and ready to go.  

Whatever the case, I am going to by pass the entire day and go to the last stop, where the trainer texted the manager and told her I am "green" meaning I don't know how to load trucks and do all of this stuff - but he's learning.  

She texts back expletives and said she would have to find out "what to do with me" - as if she didn't already know I didn't know any of this stuff. For when I got here, she asked I told her flatly that I have never done oxygen or nitrogen.  She must have known I wasn't staying forever and therefore training me was a waste of time.  

So I get a text from her telling me that she contacted Holly and that I was to drive back up to Vermont to work out of there.  No thank you for coming, no nothing.  I was a bit disappointed, to be honest, that I had learned as much as I had and wouldn't have the opportunity to finish out the training.  I don't want to stay up here forever, but word has it work is slowed way down again in Texas.  But it doesn't really help them that I would take advantage of learning and then leave.  Tho I could have come back here and there to help out for a week or two.  

Well, I texted my manager and told him what was going on, he tried to call me but the noise of that "pony pump" they call it pumping nitrogen into the tank was too loud, I had my ear muffs on. I called him back a little later and told him what was going on. 

I mean, someone should have to answer for telling these people that I knew oxygen and nitrogen.  But whatever, tomorrow morning I will drive back up there, get into a hotel again and do nothing for that day and presumably get a run or two on Friday.  Or sent home.  I dunno, but I'd rather stay up there a few more days and get a few more $300's on the books. It's relatively easy work regardless of the junky trucks and I'll just do it.  But my manager sounds like he's bringing us back.  

So that's it.  Boston was interesting - we drove through downtown and the trainer was showing me all these homeless people and a building where they get some sort of narcotics and drug themselves up al day long.  One man was laying in the middle of the street, obviously doped up and paramedics were there doing whatever they were going to do. We saw dozens and dozens of drugged up homeless people everywhere - well hundreds actually.  

And long lengths of row housing - but more like apartment version of it.  I'll be posting a pic of that on my facebook later on or whenever I get to it. The streets weren't near as busy as they should be - another state/city shut down by mayor/governor due to covid19.

Oh, this dude this morning, not my trainer he is a Trump supporter - anyway these pudgy, boisterous short little dude with a big mouth started going off on Trump this morning.  He said anyone that is a Trump supporter is an idiot. I directly spoke to him that I support Trump.  He said you're a Trumpette. I countered that you and the left only know how to throw out stupid insults and act like adult children throwing a temper tantrum. He didn't like that, lmao and let off a string of Trump hating, Trump supporter hating statements that I continued to counter - these people don't think for themselves. They don't bother to check to see if the s*** they are being spoon fed is actually true. They just believe it and that's that. 

He suddenly decided to stop with the nonsense and off into another subject that had nothing to do with politics.  

It truly doesn't bother me if you don't like Trump, or his supporters. That's fine, we all have the right to our opinions. But get over yourselves. If you start throwing a temper tantrum and talking like a teenager in heat in puberty, please just shut your d*** mouth.  Your emotional outbursts and tirades only make you look like an idiot. You people that think you can dictate to the rest of the country how we should talk, act and think are just asking for trouble.  I saw a video of that unfolding a few days ago.  BLM protesters attempting to attack real men. The real men won, they beat the s*** out of a couple of the worst of them and then asked if they needed help.

Just like this dude this morning, these people are used to Trump supporters cowering or backing off. I'm not one of those people and neither were the people in that video.  I am in no wise into violence, but if you're going to assault people that are far bigger than you, expect a world of hurt to come back at you. IF you're one of those people that mouths off all the time and think that everyone should just bow in agreement, you may eventually encounter someone who isn't going to just listen to you mouthing off for 15 minutes.

The other driver had - no run to do today.  So, he went to lake Champlain and took a ferry to some island out there.  Rather than sitting around a hotel all day long, of course.  I was kind of jealous lol, cause today I definitely learned a lot more and am just starting to get the hang of how this works. Oxygen and Nitrogen both unload the same and it's the same sequence, every time.  But since I'm not finishing training, none of this will stick with me.  I'll just have an "idea" of how it goes down the road. 

My manager said he found out - now the story changes yet again - that they only needed our help on the weekend. On weekends, the regular drivers disappear, they go home, leaving them shorthanded hence flying us up there. That's why they initially stated we would only be gone 2 days. Then management looked at the price tag of bringing us up there and decided to keep us longer.  I'd be a fan of doing that more frequently, just fly me up Friday, I'll work Saturday, Sunday and Monday, fly me home Tuesday.  At least when we're slow lol. 

My 401k's are up thousands of more dollars, into territory I've never been in before.  If this holds up I'll break my first 100k in savings soon enough.  Yea I know, that's not much for my age, but it's a good foothold into getting there. 

I dunno what else.  Addler probably getting grumpy by now, tho James can handle him lol.  Going home will be fun, he'll literally try to knock me over when he sees me.  

Well I'm a bit tired so I'm offa here. 

 So, day 6 since I left.  Tomorrow will be 7 days, the minimum I wanted to do up here before coming back.  That way I have actually accumulated some days to make some money. My manager is apparently working to get us back this weekend.  But I dunno that for sure and I won't get my hopes up.  The manager down here wants me delivering oxygen asap.  The well experienced driver training me says it takes a minimum of 2 full weeks training, usually 3, to get the hang of what's going on.

I would challenge that, it won't take me that long to learn how to do this stuff, but I am certainly not prepared yet to just float off in a truck by myself and start opening valves and doing this stuff. It's medical grade oxygen - being delivered to hospitals.  It's not for industrial use. Which means, people are using that oxygen while you're loading it.  You can't just make a mistake and say, oops!  The biggest mistake you can make, I was informed, is letting the pressure on the tank you are filling go over 300. If you do, liquid oxygen will be pumpinginto the lines and people will be breathing in  - liquid oxygen. 

That's an important one! 

Anyway, considering I have no intentions of staying here, this training is basically a waste of their time. Except that it shows there is another driver on the books.  This is what this was really all about.  Now that I've asked a lot of questions and gotten some answers. These plants put the company under contract and part of the contract is that at any given time, there will be a minimum number of X amount of drivers working on that contract.  Now, if they don't have enough drivers, the plant fines them a huge amount of money on a weekly basis.  So, this entire northeastern sector brings in drivers like me all the time.  ALL the time, this hotel has something like 8 of us staying here, same thing I'm doing the only difference is that I'm getting a $40 per day allowance for food, none of them are.

And I'm not supposed to tell anyone.  My lips are sealed.

But, if we go home on Sunday, which is being proposed, that's a nice chunk of change for the time spent here and I will feel like I made some decent money. Minimum would be leaving on Friday - we are paid for the travel day as well.  I'm good with Sunday tho.  That's a long time out for me at `10 days, not really interested in pushing it much further out considering they want me working every single day.  That isn't anything I normally do, either. I usually get at least a day off between runs.  And none of these people up there are working 7 days a week.  I'm not going to press that issue since I'm getting paid $300 per day regardless of what I am doing.

But I'm almost guaranteed to run into problems getting paid for all of this, and  if that happens and I have to fight for my money, that will be the deal breaker for any future requests to do this type of thing again. That and being sent to places where I have no clue what I'm doing.  Again, I get they are doing this the way they are doing it to fill the rolls with drivers, but I feel like I am just wasting my time doing all of this training, filling my head with all this new information for nothing.  I highly doubt I will ever get to go out on a run by myself on this particular place I'm at.  

The trainer, however, is loving it. He gets an extra $300 per day to train me.  Win situation for him, so I'm not worried about him. 

Anyways, after work yesterday I went to Walmart and bought a cheap, long sleeve shirt.  I had to wear my FRC jump suit yesterday and it got very hot in that.  I also bought snacks, I didn't get a chance to eat until yesterday afternoon, ran out of bottled water before noon and I wasn't feeling very good until I said down at a restaurant and ate something and drank several glasses of water. 

So today, it's a couple of bottled waters, some beef jerky and a low carb candy.

Anyway, it's almost time to leave. 

G'day.  

 Day 5 of all of this, early Tuesday morning.

Sleep was okay, not great but I'll survive the day.

Food hard to find around here, that's an issue.  

Going to have to find a grocery store so I can find some stuff to take with me during the day.  I don't need to eat a whole meal on the road, but I have no idea how long I'm going to be out.  8 hours? 10? 14?  No idea.  The people running this company are minimalists on handing out info and I suppose they do it on purpose, if you knew in advance you'd be driving junk trucks you wouldn't want to go.  

Again, I'd far rather be at the Vermont place even with junk equipment just because I purposed myself to learning what I needed to learn and getting that part over with.  Then I can just do my thing, get the day over with and get closer to getting back home without all the stress of attempting to learn an entirely new process.

I went through oxygen training in orientation almost 3 years ago.  But it was just classroom stuff, not hands on learning how to load or unload.  It can be quite dangerous.  Nitrogen - is very cold, but it's not flammable, that's likely much less involved stuff to deal with.  I'm guessing similar hookups to what I already do, their trailers I noticed are pretty much the same as ours.  

Well, off to the races.  

 I'm writing endless entries for my sanity.  

Because I just spent almost 2 hours reading endless training stuff.

This was the precursor that was pounced on me when I arrived at the plant today.

And tests. Tests on all of them.  

I'm a truck driver, I don't need to know all of this stuff about plant operations.  I'm not a low IQ person by any stretch of the means, but why should I need to know about plant operations that I have no involvement with? Scientist stuff and operations junk, I'm not working there, I just get the product loaded onto the trailer, deliver it and done.  

So I had to sit here on my laptop and study and memorize this stuff, for I know how this works with this company. I've gone through this several times before. Hours and hours of training for material I'll never deal with - unless I become an employee of their plant and become involved with their operations, smh.

However, it's not our company that wants us to learn this stuff. It's the customers.  This particular customer who shall remain nameless but is a huge name in the cryogenics industry and is all over the country feels it's necessary.  The thing is, I've been going into this customer's plants all along. Texas, Ohio and Alabama without getting too definitive here.  

Whatever. I'm done with all of that, it's all passed 100% correct and I'm tired.  

Kind of gives me a feel for going back to college. Lol

 The layers of bs just keep piling up.

I was sent down here - Bosrah (?) Connecticut to haul cryogenics, I found out after I got there. great, that's all I do anyway.  Cool, the lady manager replies, they said you've done Oxygen and Nitrogen.  Uhh, no, and I've never told anyone anywhere that I have.  I doubt it's much harder to learn than Ethylene, maybe easier actually, especially Nitrogen.  Oxygen - well that stuff is kind of different.  

I felt as if I had driven 270 miles for nothing. That was the length of the drive down here, I stopped for nothing, just wanted it over with. Drove straight to the plant to talk with her about tomorrow.  

Just another page in the books of time of failed communications and not on my part. For no one asked me those questions, they could have looked it up if they had wanted to, I think they were trying to find a way out for the obvious calculation error they made in needing two more drivers up there in Vermont. 

It's 5:30 pm, I just got done eating at a local restaurant, food not bad, not great but it filled my gut and I was hungry.  Place completely empty, I thought it was closed at first.  

Oh, and I'm now staying at a 6 story Holiday Inn.  Been 40 to 50 years since I stayed in one of these, everything else has been Holiday Inn Express.  The room is huge, the carpet is nice and well appointed. Much better, actually, than the Fairfield Marriott I just got done staying at.  But they have the same policy here: We don't go into your room while you're staying with us. The dude was completely apologetic saying that and was extremely helpful. For when I got to the room, I found a Keurig machine - with no coffee, no coffee cups and no creamer.  Wow.

I went all 5 stories back down - I asked for the highest up room he could give me, this was it, the 6th floor is obvious suites and probably much more expensive - he said yes Mr. B, I will be pleased to go get you a bag full of stuff! Do you like half and half? Yes please and no sugar and no decaf. Sure thing! Several minutes later he came back with a bag, but declared he needed to go to the - closed - restaurant and get the half and half.  So I followed him to the entrance of the restaurant - definitely closed and that was my guess before I even came here, hence going to a restaurant and eating dinner first. 

He comes back with that and says, well, since you have the ice bucket with you, I can go get you that too! Oh, no worries, I just didn't know where the machine was.  He insisted that the ice machine was right there in the kitchen and no bother! Service with determination and a smile, gotta love that! Sure, why not!

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow.  Why? Because I'll be back at the bottom yet again. After learning all that stuff up in Vermont, it was rather useless, being directly sent down here.  I've kept a good attitude about it while around all of these managers and other people, I will vent about it here. For I have never seen such mismanaged, miscommunicated, misdirected waste of resources. Okay, I have but this is really quite ridiculous.  

They didn't need us up here. That's the fact. 

The other driver is whining to high heaven, tired of hearing it actually.  Just more of the same after yet another conversation with him.  ON and on and on, he should have just said no thanks, I'm not going anywhere.  He said I was making him look bad.  I thought but didn't say, probably.  I am not demanding to go back this weekend. I may end having that done but right now, if my sleep comes back to me I will be good to go tomorrow. Yes I hate the idea of having to start over and fill my head with all kinds of new stuff - but at the same time, it's kind of intriguing. 

But, ethylene is back in full steam and has been  back since before I left. 

Whatever. I have online training to do now.  There are certain courses you have to take to be able to get into certain plants.  I figured I had done all of those courses, but apparently I haven't done this one.  Or more than one, I have no clue.  It's still early enough, but I want to get that over with. I have to be at the plant at 6:30 am, a bit more merciful than Vermont, to get a tractor and apparently follow another driver to deliver - whatever. I'd rather do Nitrogen, oxygen is really bad stuff, actually. You really need training for doing that stuff.  

 So, run done - 4 hours and I did it solo at the unloading plant so I am proud of myself that I only made on goof up and nothing serious and easily fixed.  I was trying to vent the emptied trailer before turning the actuator switch to the off position. It would have vented for a long, long time lol if I had tried to keep doing that. Realizing the error of my ways, I turned it off and it vented down within a few minutes.  

You can't really mess up too bad without them catching it. They are watching you on the multiple cameras they have installed everywhere. They can see the panels on the trucks and what you are doing. The other driver told me no way was he unloading solo today and demanded from the company that he be sent up with another driver again.  I found it refreshing not to have to follow someone all the way up and all the back.

So now, I'm at the hotel, taking a quick break to eat dinner from last night. There isn't much to eat in these parts without having to either order ahead of make an appointment for sit down, I basically bought this second meal yesterday so I would have something to eat either last night or after work this morning. Considering I crashed - heavy - early - yesterday at 5:30 pm, I wasn't exactly going to be eating last night.  I feel a lot better today just from getting a lot of sleep - a lot more than I have been getting anyway.  A lasting trend in the direction - more sleep - would be nice.  

I'm 263 miles from Bozrah, Connecticut, that's where the terminal I'm going to is. I have zero details of what I will be doing, presumably hauling some sort of chemical but it's guaranteed not what I normally haul out of Texas and whether I will need training or not, who knows.  I seriously could have just spent the week out here and have been very happy about it now that I know I can do the connections and disconnections at the receiving plant by myself with no supervision.  To have to start over somewhere else is a bit disconcerting.

Talking to the other driver a few minutes ago, he wants out of here.  He called our manager and told him to have him buy a ticket on thursday to fly out of here on either Saturday or sunday.  I'm not making any such demands even tho I'm fairly disconcerted with the equipment here, I can deal with it. I might vent a bit here and there, but I can make it through the week. Making through another week remains to be seen.

My real concern right now is if we're going into either New York City or Boston from that  yard in Connecticut. I have zero interest in either of those places as far as work is concerned and people are being murdered frequently now in NYC and crime rates have skyrocketed.  Deblasio is a freaking idiot, the people living there should get a petition going for a recall.  But above and beyond that, NYC is the worst city in all of America to drive a truck in. That's a fact.  If you ask a truck driver cities they don't want to go to almost immediately they will blurt out NYC at the top of their list. Boston and Chicago will be right up there as well and then LA.  I've done all of them, none recently and hope to never have to drive a tractor trailer rig in any of those towns ever again. 

Okay well, done with lunch, time to pack my things and get out of here. 

 5:00 am. 

Fell asleep yesterday at 5:30 pm and didn't wake up until midnight. Fell asleep again and woke up around 2:30am. Decided to get up and read a bit to trick myself back to sleep. It worked until around 4:00 am and that was the end of sleeping.  Sounds like a lot but my whole internal clock is out of sync and I'm feeling it. 

The realities of this trip are starting to settle in.  Junk trucks, various mechanical issues being the top complaint both I and the other driver have.  The one I drove yesterday wouldn't shift into gear without completely grinding and clunking it in.  One of the front brakes was making a horrid noise, metal on metal sound as if the brake linings are completely wore down. On both trucks I have driven, the Quaalcomms aren't working meaning I have to do a paper log.  

Federal regulations limit it to 7 days per month a driver using paper logs as I understand it.  

I'm happy to be in a hotel, but I sleep better in my truck.  We are also not assigned a truck, in fact, no one there is unless you are an owner operater and have your own truck.  That's troublesome.  I don't do slip seating and if I had known that that was the situation here I would have rethought my decision and said so. I should make a list of things for the "next" time they ask me and if they can't answer the questions, the answer will be no.  But, the manager just goes through the list of drivers he thinks would fit in well enough and if they say no, apparently they can, he moves on.  I might be doing them a big favor, but I'm not doing myself any favors besides the guaranteed minimum pay per day, which they almost 100% likely will screw up and I'll have to force the issue.  

I'd have to say that if this ever happens again, I'm not going unless I'm going in my own truck or they can guarantee me that there is a truck that will assigned to me while I'm there to drive that is in good operating condition.  How this company making as much money as they are can't keep their equipment in good shape is unfathomable. Think about it. They flew two of us up here. They put us both up at motels.  They are giving us $40 per day allowance for food. They are giving us a $300 per day guaranteed wage - which is good because that would be another sticking point.  We are getting all of this, you know they are making excellent money on this account, why aren't they at least as interested in keeping their equipment in good working order?

That's a good way to piss drivers off.  Apparently they do this "all the time" as it has been related, pulling drivers from all over the place because they can't keep any local drivers happy. Well no duhhh.  

Anyone that has been driving for any length of time know that this little game they are playing here is bs.  I'm putting my nose to the grindstone and toughing this out. 

And now being shipped down to Connecticut - near New York, not far from Boston, who knows what hellish conditions may be found down there?  I'm doing one trip up here today, coming back to the hotel, getting my stuff and driving 250 or so miles down there to face what, I have zero idea. After 7 days I'm asking to go home.  I was going to stay 2 weeks but I doubt I'll be able to handle it without getting thoroughly pissed off, these people don't have their acts together and it shows, glaringly, more so than looking directly into the sun. 

With that, I'm off to the yard to see if there even is a truck available to take out this morning.  

G'day.  

 Tired.

Second night in a row getting lousy sleep.  It's the AC unit I finally figured out, it makes  a loud thumping noise when the compressor shuts off.  

But the day moved along quickly and I was done at 2:00 pm. Went to a local restaurant - had to call in advance and make an "appointment" - they aren't calling them reservations for whatever reason I wasn't concerned to find out about - had a special of Prime Rib, got a side order of some beef dish to go and that ate up my $40 allowance for today.  

I didn't think there was any point to going back out again later if I got hungry and this isn't a per diem, it's a daily allowance and if you don't use it, you don't get the money.  It  was $38 without the tip.  

Anyway, the driver that's been training me obviously had had enough of it and said I was good to go.  He lied about not getting training pay tho.  I'm sure he was also lying about getting only mileage pay for doing this gig. It's only 127 miles round trip and you can only do two of them a day, an owner operator would balk at that few miles, no money in it.  I don't know why he felt the need to lie, but I didn't call him out on it.  

Whatever the case, the other driver has had enough of this already and wants to go home.  It's semi junk equipment, most of the company tractors have issues. Many of them, I found out today, have been getting written up forever - months in some cases - and never fixed.  I wrote up the tractor I drove today, numerous issues that the company already knows about.  This is the reason we like to drive our own trucks to these gigs.  At the same time, I wouldn't be staying at a hotel for free or having a rental car.

Anyway, when I got to the terminal after work,  the dispatcher there said well, I just got a text from the head head big big honcho - whoever that was he never gave a name.  After your run tomorrow - I only got one run sent to me for tomorrow - you are to drive down to Connecticut and help out a branch there that is overloaded and not enough drivers.  I mean, really? Now what are they getting me into?

As with this place, details are in short supply. Actually, there are NO details of what I would be doing there, or even what I would be hauling.  Trucks? Who knows.  Check out of your room after work and drive there. And then what? Move into a truck with a sleeper? Get another hotel? What?  These people are pushing the limits of my patience with this nonsense. Get some details, man, don't treat people like this. 

But, I'll try to "eat it" and just do it since the money is guaranteed pay every day. I thought it odd that they only had one run for me for tomorrow.  Like, why even bring us up here if you aren't going to keep us busy? Not that I said that, I don't care if I work 4 hours and stop for the day, that's on them not me.  They make the schedule, they decide the workload.  

Isn't Connecticut just a giant subdivision for New York?  If they put me in harm's way, I'm going home. I'll pull out my credit card and pay for airfare myself out of there. New York is not in the cards.  

Not impressed with this northeastern gigs and I can understand why people don't want to work in any of these places. I didn't grow up here and I have no need for it. I'll do it for the pay and the luxury of seeing new places, but that's about it.  I was informed by other drivers that we aren't slow in our division now, I can go home and work.  

Oh, the Marriott? They didn't do room service yesterday, I thought maybe  an oversight.  I didn't say anything about it.  But when I got back here today? Same thing.  I went to the front desk - where i had to wait forever for anyone to show up from anywhere the place was deserted - and asked. Uhh, no, she said, Marriott has made a nationwide policy that if there is a guest in the room, we aren't going to go in and do anything because of COVID-19. 

How convenient.  I was supposed to be here up to 14 days and these people weren't going to clean the damn room? If I wasn't leaving here tomorrow, I would have asked my company for a different hotel. A plethora of them around here.  Skip Marriott, please, they used to be my favorite brand until they conjured up this nonsense.    Shall I just throw my trash out into the hallway? Lmao.  

For a higher end brand to make that a company wide decision is utter stupidity.  Shut your hotels down if you aren't going to serve your guests. 

Whatever the case, I'm too tired to do any more of this atm. It isn't bedtime but I need to kick back and relax.  

 A  6 hour day.  A miserable 6 hour day.  I was so tired this morning it was a chore to get out of bed, rush to the shower, get dressed and get out within 15 minutes to head over to the yard and find.....nothing.  The truck they had said I would be driving was not there.  Lovely.  Clock is ticking I got there early just so I could make sure I wasn't hold the other driver up.  Turns out he's an owner operator - they're highly motivated, they don't get paid like us company drivers do so they have to hustle.

Not that I don't hustle, but there are lots of drivers that slack.  It is the same in every trucking company.  The go getters - get the gold, the slackers get small paychecks.  Anyway, the terminal manager answered the phone when I called - very early this morning - and said okay, and gave me another truck number. Yes it's out there. Good, but the Quaalcomm/elogs don't work, you'll have to use a paper log book.

Gag, I don't even like those things anymore and I'm a bit rusty with it, but ok.  Get to the yard where the loaded trailers are - the dude comes running out after I had already hooked up to the assigned trailer. They just told me you can't take that tractor because it's been used for 7 days without elogs functioning.  

These people have no clue what they're talking about. A different driver can get right back in it and use it for 7 days. One it's legal, 2 if it weren't there is no way a State Trooper would be able to tell. 

Whatever, this day started out bad, and I was ill prepared for all the headaches, especially all of that fuss at a very early hour.  And getting maybe 4 hours of sleep didn't help.  Something woke me up shortly after midnight and I was awake for hours. I eventually got back to sleep, that alarm going off was hellish tho.  

The deal? New Hampshire isn't even a part of that run.  The plant is only 63 miles away.  But, it's 63 miles of 35 mph, 40, 55, 50 etc - slow speed limits and lots of cops.  No sway are you going to go speeding through those little towns, not that I want to anyway.  So that added an explanation of why you only do 2 runs a day, I was informed you might be able to squeeze in 2 but they don't normally ask you to do that.  Well, I'm getting a flat rate per day so whatever they tell me to do, that's what I'm going to do.  I'm expecting 2 runs tomorrow/Sunday.  

One of the absolute worst aspects of this deal is the automatic transmissions. NOT a fan, at all.  Trying to back those things under a loaded trailer is ridiculous.  They don't respond when you hit the fuel, it jerks into motion even with slight pressure on it and there is no way to smoothly hook it up. It rams the kingpin and I'm not a fan of that at all.  It would have been FAR better to drive my truck up here, I can gently ease under and trailer with a clutch/manual transmission.  

But I'm stuck here now so it is what it is.  

The other thing was they had only gotten us one rental vehicle and that won't work at all.  We are getting dispatched at completely different times. Mine was 5:00 am, the other driver is Noon today.  I just happened to get done and back to the hotel before he needed to leave so it worked out. But I've had nothing to eat and the only thing in walking distance is a convenience store across the street.  

Oh, and this place is weird! They are all voodoo-ed out with corona virus and masks.  You can't go into any restaurant without reservations!  I didn't even see a fast food place here, just steak houses and Chili's and such.  I mean, I can eat at those places, lol, but making reservations for a Chili's is just strange to me.  

Okay, my manager got me a rental vehicle, I have to go back to the airport to get it.  Taking an uber over there and get it over with, stop somewhere - call first of course for reservations lmao - and get something to eat, then come back and take a nap.  

More later.  

 Uhh, okay. I was originally told I was going to New Hampshire.  Then it switched to Vermont.  In fact, all kinds of info has been lacking but what I do know? 

The dispatcher finally called me and afterwards sent me a text for driving assignment for tomorrow: 05:00 at the yard.

Are you serious? We have been traveling all day long, I have been up since 3 something am.  I didn't say that, but it was heavy on my mind.  It's already 8:30 here, just got into the hotel!  

This is called wind down time. The manager forget to get a rental car and I didn't notice the oversight until I got here.  

This dude I've been traveling with is okay - until he starts whining about every little stinking thing.  I mean, I just got annoyed with listening to it and said I'm going with the flow here. Nothing is going to be perfect, we are lacking info, yes, but it will pan out, we're making money.

I'm allegedly only doing one run tomorrow and it's 4 hours worth of driving I'm told.  Weird.  

Just thought I'd through a few thoughts in here, but it's really time to hit the sack.  Whether I can actually sleep this early and stay asleep is another issue. 

Anyway, the other driver just called me, it's only 63 miles to the plant we go to to deliver and they can only do 2 of those a day?  That's weird, must be more to that story than what I know.  

I'm offa here, time to go to bed.

 So, I'm at Philadelphia International Airport? I think the name of it.  The day didn't start out well, I can say that for sure. 

For one thing, I didn't sleep well at all. Went to bed a bit unhappy - grandma shows up and takes over the entire house.  Her way or the highway. She hasn't started that nonsense with me personally yet and I've warned them that if she does, I'm not having any part of it, she will hear about herself.  I already watched her berating her son in front of her son's children, that was quite enough for me.  

After that, I just got up early and drank coffee, spent some time with the doggies - figure I won't see them for quite a while - and then left.  Well, after finally getting my tickets and luggage checked in, $70 for that, my bag full of clothes and a PPE bag, I was then ramrodded through the scanner

As usual, the scanner showed 2 spots on my body with red zone - one of them being crotch area of course.  Of course! Every. Single. Time. No, I don't have a belt on. Yes, I empty out my pockets.  This time I bit my tongue. I ain't getting in there without them molesting me.  Reach all the way up to my crotch, feel my ass, stick their fingers down the waist band, it's pretty humiliating.  Then they took a sample of whatever on a stick, stuck it into a computer that analyzes it. Bombs? Who knows.

After that, the computer at the podium where show your ticket to enter the jetway? Malfunctioned.  Yeehaw! Plane left 40 minutes late, good thing I had a cushion of time at FWD.  We raced straight over there and got there in time for the first round of passengers to load.  Well I hadn't eaten anything but I didn't have time to get food so wasn't looking forward to that. And this was my first flight since covid. First leg no drinks at all, nothing not even peanuts. Second leg, a paper bag with a very small thing of preztels, a half bottle of water and hand sanitizer wipes.  Gag.  No inflight service.  Well anyway, on the first leg, we started going around in circles. I was noticeable.  Bank, straight, bank, straight, bank etc.  

The captain finally comes on - the radios are down at DFW. How on earth can their communications just go down like that they can't even communicate with the flight crew? I've never even heard of such a thing.  Well, eventually he gets back on - we have communication now, we're heading in.  

Second flight was on time and we got here to Philadelphia 10 minutes early, straight to the gate on the other side of the airport, confirm we're at the right place and then over to an eatery for $14 wings.  However, the wings are on the company. Keep the receipt, I'm all good. 

So here we sit waiting on the final leg. It sounds like I may be up here 2 weeks.  2 trips a day, I'm told, 4 hours a piece to the same plant, drop and hook every time.  Not sure about loading, I'm hoping it's local drivers load it and OTR takes it to the plant.  Just if we can only do 2 trips a day and it's 8 hours worth of driving, those will be great days! Guaranteed minimum pay worth far more than 8 hours of driving that would be wonderful.

The dispatcher called earlier, introduced himself and then I asked questions.  Daycabs, so that's the reason for the hotel every night. Back to the yard every day after you're done, so back to the hotel.  It sounds easy, but he didn't say where we are going and it's possible that Boston is a destination. We are so hoping that isn't it, that it's some rural area and it's mostly highway miles like most of what I already do entails.  

Well it's getting close to departure time, time to get off of here, 

 Well, that took longer than expected.  But I got all my gear, checked it all out, added some stuff I figure I'll want for the road, repacked my bag and removed pants and shirts -- and hope I won't regret that but it's enough for 8 days - went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, realized I had forgot to grab a pile of extra paperwork for trips, went back to work and then home - finally it really took several hours.  

Oh, well I visited the manager too.  I was not really happy to see the entire yard emptied of trucks besides mine and the other driver that is going - after being told everyone is sitting a few days ago.  Well obviously not everyone is sitting, I now know Brownsville is up and running contrary to what he told me, I know because I saw one of the trailers heading to the chemical plant to get loaded. I don't know that he lied to me or that the information was accurate at the time of telling me that, but it was still a bit unsettling.  I zipped my lips about that however.

He finally got a bit more info.  Hauling CNG - it's cryogenics contrary to the initial info given us - but it's allegedly drop and hook.  They are allegedly day cabs - thats a tractor with no sleeper so you have to spend the nights in hotels.  The hotel was assigned and extended out for a week.  I'm hopeful to be there a week, frankly, unless the working conditions are horrid, just to make up for what I've lost in 4 days off this week.

I did find out that I will get paid for the entire day tomorrow.  That's going to be about 14 hours from start to ending up in a hotel room.  I am assuming we will be working every day we're there - or however they work out local runs.  Guaranteed minimum daily amount gives me confidence that whatever happens I''ll get paid somewhat comparable to my current pay and not wasting my time with going up and back.  

Fairfield Inn - staying at a Marriott the entire time. That's very nice as well.  Near a giant lake, tho I doubt there will be anytime to go sight seeing in that capacity.  Rental car.  We're set. I don't have to take truck bedding or pillow with me.  Numerous restaurants within walking distance of the hotel.  I get a separate room than the other driver - that would be a sticking point. Some companies try to get you to shack up with another driver, no thanks. I'm too old for that, too set in my personal habits and ways and I don't want to hear someone snoring all night long, it will  keep me away - all night long.  This company makes huge profits off of these cryogenics divisions, I have no problem with them paying for all of my expenses.  

It was really relieving to hear we are doing daycabs and staying at the same hotel every night, that means however long the run is, it is doable in a day or perhaps several runs a day. We have zero specifics on that.  I tried to look at satellite view of where the yard is - no cryo trucks or tractors anywhere to be seen in the entire area.  It is a short hop away from the hotel at least, not a long drive in the perspective.  

Day is coming to a close.  I've kind of been writing this throughout the day as stuff is going on. Spent hours on the phone with Lowe's in Phoenix about the refrigerator for Caleb and Grace's new house.  I wanted to make sure it was going to arrive for they are moving in starting tomorrow.  They need a refrigerator lol, they were living in an apartment up until now with a supplied unit that comes with the apartment.  Lowes found the order but couldn't find the refrigerator.  That greatly worried me.  Exactly why I called them. This literally went on all afternoon until I finally said enough of this nonsense, if you can't find it get a manager.  The manager apparently told the lady that it was back there, it is scheduled for delivery, no worries.  

Thank you!  

My bags are packed. Enough for abour 8 days instead of 12 or 13.  I'm not convinced of the 2 or 3 day time to be there, I am going prepared.  They hand picked us for this job, they know we aren't slouchers, I'll do as much as anyone else is doing - excepting maybe the first trip. That's always a learning experience.  Getting into the plant, loading? I assume, getting out of the plant - paperwork - going to where it's being delivered and alleged drop and hook.  For one plant to have to have 45 trucks dedicated to it full time is amazing.  I can't want to see this behemoth of a place.  And also just getting back and forth - what routes to take, what routes to avoid.  You don't just get that right off the bat, you have to drive it out and find that out through experience.  It's how I perfected most of the runs I do now with regular job.  The more you do a run, the better you figure out how to run it.  You are going to get here night one, you are going to get there, night two, you are going to get back to the yard, day 3  - so one and so forth.  

I'm sort of excited about all of this just because it's something different and it's definitely a different landscape with different scenery, new people, new everything.  A challenge as well - things you haven't done before that you are thrust into, can you rise to the challenge and conquer it?  I hold myself to far higher standards than most if not all of these trucking companies, I strive to excel not because they want me to, but because I don't like living a half assed life.  Barely doing the minimum.  

Kind of been a stressful few days. AC going out at Phoenix house, refrigerator at my sons's house and being on hold with a trip.  The house is now loaded up with people.  The kids are cranky.  I think I'm going to go to bed early, if i wake up at 3: 00 am I'm fine with that, I have nothing but flying to do tomorrow. 

 So after waiting almost all day long, I finally got a text - no more phone calls lol - from the manager.

Your flight leaves at 6:30 am - sending me the itinerary that will take it more than half the day to get there with 2 layovers, one of which is over 3 hours long.  I will be getting paid a minimum $300 a day guaranteed plus $40 per daily allowance for food - keep receipts.  It's only supposed to go on for 3 days tho.  That's kind of messed up.  What on earth could be so important that we need to fly out there for 3 days? lol seems like a waste to me. 

So, I am going to treat this like the last time I did this and pack for at least a week,, the manager also suggested that.  I had asked how long, he said that and then I laughed and said last time I did this they didn't want me to leave.  His reply was "When they get a taste of Texas work ethic they are not going to." 

"I dunno how we stack up", I replied.  He had already looked into it and said "at the bare minimum you and Ricky like money. Some of the guys up there don't even appear to be motivated by that".  

Well geeze, get rid of them and get new people, I thought, there are plenty of drivers out there that would love the opportunity to make this kind of money.  When drivers are sitting around from the various companies at the scale house where we get loaded and bring up pay, they are literally shocked at what they are paying us. I guess the difference is that they aren't doing cryogenics and they aren't interested in it. 

Whatever dudes, I wasn't thrilled the first time I hauled the first load out of that plant and it took a while to adjust to it but it didn't take long to love the paychecks. Tho, $300 per day is lower than what I normally make driving out a 600 plus mile day, that's why I'd like to stay up there a week.  Then I'm getting some decent money out of it plus eating for free.  

Anyway, I leave GGG at 6:30 am, arrive DFW shortly after that - a pretty short jump - there for an hour and forty minutes, arrive at PHL at 1:22 pm, wait there over 3 hours, head over to BTV, arriving there at 6:14 pm and then - I have no idea, no further information was given lmao.  Hopefully not go straight to work, I'd rather do that the next morning but I'm down for whatever they want us to do.  Oh, this is Thursday, this little adventure starts tomorrow morning.  I'll get to fly over some interesting terrain during the daytime so that will be fun if I can get a window seat.  Hmm, I wonder if I can preselect a seat?  

I am SOOOOO glad I wrote this entry and it prompted me to look up the seating info.  I have no need to sit next to that other driver all 3 flights, I want a window seat and I wasn't assigned one on any of them.  That has been changed on all 3 flights for free.  The first flight, the jog to DFW - is almost full, but there was on window seat left.  The second flight however is a half empty airplane. Ohhhh if it will only stay that way! The last 10 flights I've taken anywhere the planes are jam packed. The rear of the aircraft is virtually empty besides us back there.  But still, I have zero desire to be sitting in  a middle seat.  Looks like first 2 checked bags are free and I can bring my laptop on the plane for free with me.  

I don't go on trips like this without my laptop. If I'm out longer than expected I want access to the internet. Yes my phone works but that's such a small screen, no keyboard, I like to have the option.  

Ok, that off my mind, now it's just re-doing my bag.  I packed enough in there for 12 days when I thought I was going to drive up there, I'm going to unload that down to about 7 days worth. I have to go over to the yard - 70 miles round trip driving - and get my PPE bag.  Can't do any of this stuff without the fireproof suit, the "oven mitts", steel toed shoes and hardhat with face shield.  Oh, and the AC off of my mind as well. My son is dropping by the cash for Mark to pay the guy behind us.  Mark had originally wanted to not go with him because "he's getting old", not taking into account that this guy fully knows what he's doing and the fact that he'll do it far cheaper than calling out an AC company.  In the end I was prepared to call whoever out there and get it dealt with, but let's try the cheaper route first?

When Mark gave me the total bill, I was relieved and told Mark how much it would have cost to have a company come out - more than 4 times what he's charging us. "Ohhhh, I didn't even think about that".  "Yes", I replied, "that's why I pushed you to see if Sam could do it".  At this time of year, the AC companies are all busy and they usually won't get out to you the next day anyway.  Mark doesn't have any business kind of mentality, he just thinks in terms of getting things done without taking costs and other factors into consideration. Which is fine, he does a good job of running the house but I have to keep on top of him sometimes.  

So, off to the shower and off to the races.  I want to get my PPE this morning while it's still early and get that over with.  Do some final touches on my room before I leave, someone will definitely be staying in here with all of these people in the house tonight, grandma is showing up. The 5 year old's first day in Kindergarten is today, he's there now.  He was excited about it - and then he didn't want to go.  I had a good conversation with him about how fun it will be and there is nothing to be afraid of.  Well, okay, there could be, lol, I still remember my first day of school because I got into a fist fight with a black kid. Racial tensions back there bled down to even the little kids.  I didn't start the fight tho, that kid pushed me.  I pushed him back and it was all on.

G'day.  

 Guess I'm post happy today.

Mark finally contacted me, the house is cooling down, he said. It's all the way back down to 95 degrees in here! Like that was some great thing lmao. But it's working, just that it's incredibly hot there, the last time that happened the unit had to literally run nonstop all day and well into the night before it finally cooled off again.

My phone - both calls and texts - have been off the hook today.  Between my son, Mark, Taylor and work it's been one after another after another. I gave up on trying to take a nap.  

But the AC is fixed. $125.  That would have cost minimum $400 for an AC person to come out, but I suspect $500 to $600 now.  It was $400 years ago, prices haven't gone done any, especially for AC repair to come to your house.  Of course, Mark doesn't have any way for me to send him money, so I had to ask my son if I could transfer $125 to him and could he take the cash over there? Tomorrow he replied . Cool.  It's like a $35 dollar part lol.  

Anyway,, the manager called yet again: Would you be willing to fly up there? Oh YES I replied without a second's worth of hesitation.  Sure the money driving up and back would be nice, but I'm fine getting a free airplane trip to a state I haven't seen in forever and experience something different without almost 4,000 miles of driving to get there and back.  I can get that trip over with much faster, tho I still don't know how long I'll be up there, what I'll be hauling or really, what this is all about except alluding to drivers needing vacations, some off sick and shortages.

But, when he said that, he said that's what he had heard, not necessarily what's going on lol.  Okkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.

Really weird this whole situation.  I'm packed and ready to go - but I will need to know how long I'm going to be up there, I could seriously reduce/lighten the amount of clothing I packed if it's not going to be forever.  I packed enough to last 12 days without having to do any laundry. Lol .  

So I'm back into a holding pattern.  They know it's kind of messed up with keeping me holding for this long not having any idea whether it's a go or not . I'm not really in love with the idea of getting into someone else's truck tho.  That usually entails a dirty truck that needs serious cleaning. Just the way it is.  You virtually live in the thing while you're  on the road. I like mine clean and smelling good. Not filthy and smelling like a pit.  And it opens up the possibility that they will want to use my truck for someone else. My fear is some trashy, filthy dirty person getting into all my stuff and smoking.  A smoker's truck is like a nightmare, it's truly horrible to try and sleep in what amounts to a giant ashtray.  

I've been trucking for a while, lol, I know how lots of other drivers are.  I was in one of them awhile back dropping off a fuel card - the truck was absolutely disgusting inside.  Smelly, filthy, dirty.  Another one I looked through the door - the entire floor looked like a construction site with dirt all over it.  

Kim also called. She sounded depressed.  After explaining what's going on I didn't really think there was any reason to be depressed about anything. The brother has an appointment tomorrow with the lawyer.  The lawyer will spell out to him what he can and can't do. The brother is obviously quite ignorant in this situation and has no clue, he should have gone to a lawyer at the very beginning.  He keeps saying stuff he can't do - but those things aren't mentioned in the will.  I hope a lawyer will help him straighten out his thinking on this and then, help her.  

She's really upset with Maria, is the issue. She claims that Maria's stuff takes up two full bedrooms, several closets and the garage. I knew she had some stuff, didn't know it was that much.  She also was complaining about Maria buying too much stuff for the fridge and freezer and not leaving her any room.  I understand Maria having a lot of stuff - she had her own house previously - but there comes a point where you just have to part ways with things or - if you can afford it - get a storage locker to put it in.  

Just drama. I listened to as much of it as I could stand and finally coaxed her off the phone.  I am waiting for a call back from my manager, that's a fact and the truth.  Mark also wanted to talk forever, I just had an extended phone call with him yesterday and the day before, just not in the mood for it right now.  I need for this trip to either materialize with all the necessary info or go away and get it out of my mind.  I didn't sleep that great last night so I'm probably a bit cranky to boot.  Not terrible bad, just not in to having conversations on the phone right now.  A nap would have been nice....

So this is my day at 1:00 pm. The ladies are cleaning house.  That was nice of them to do. 

Anyway, I guess I'll get off of Blogger for a while and watch tv lol.

 So now, my manager calls and connects online another higher level manager. Ruhhh-rohhhh, what is going on here?  Well, turns out, just a manager that wanted to say thanks for being on hold for 24 hours and really appreciates that i was willing to go on a moment's notice.  

Well that's the nature of trucking, lol, you get a last minute call for a run, unless your are incapacitated for some reason that is really a legitimate excuse to say no - and it better be a doozy - you take whatever they give you. Because if you turn it down?  You are setting yourself up for crappy runs, sitting longer than other drivers and basically way down on the totem poll.  With a very lucrative job like this, I'm not turning down anything.  I sometimes have to throw some info back at them - like the load they wanted me to take to Brownsville last week.  I told them I'd love to take it - and I really did want to go - but I will have to take a 34 hour reset down there after I get there.

They call back 10 minutes later - you're off the hook lol.  That's their call, not mine, but they will be paying for a hotel for me and that's a fact.  Just like this trip. There will be at least 2 34 hour resets - if I go.  Lol, it's still  on hold. 

So anyway, after the upper level manager thanked me,, then it was to the nuts and bolts of the situation.  Which is? Nothing. He literally still did not know if we're going up there or not.  It's a "project" of some sort, without defining what the project is or what the need for far off drivers is for.  Whatever it is, it sounds like it would be far longer than just 3 or 4 days up there. I know how this place works with such things, they just throw out limited information and then you find out the reality when you get there.  

They did promise me extra pay if I do indeed go.  I didn't ask for it, I make good money lol, if there's one thing I won't complain about it's the money. If with fewer perks after the company acquisition, I'm making great money.  This week's paycheck is over 3 grand.  It's more in one week's pay than I made in a month at Ferguson.  Well at the end, anyway, when they cut all of our hours back, completely eliminated overtime and cut my yearly overal pay by at least 20 grand.  It's what pushed me out of that place along with that jerkoff manager - who besides having anger issues was also responsible for the pay cut and his manager wouldn't over ride him.  Great, you want personnel that focus on excelling at their jobs, good luck at that pay rate.  

Oh and this job is in New Hampshire, not New Jersey - now I would love to go up there! That really changes it for me.  My recollection of that state - and I admit it's been several decades since I've been there is a beautiful, scenic filled state with lots of things to see and do.  Okay, I'm not on a vacation, but I do get to sight see lol.  But my manager said less than 50% chance I'm going, he was giving odds lol.

Okay, enough of this one. 

 So after my last post earlier yesterday, my manager calls me.  I'm going to be like a used car salesman, he tell me on the phone. Ok, what is it? I figured something that would put me on the road for extended period, that's the way he talks I guess when he thinks it's something drivers don't want to hear.  Summarizing - a division in New Jersey, drivers out sick and drivers on vacation, they need fill ins.  Ok, sign me up, I said without hesitation.  I didn't even have to think about it after his prior note that I probably wouldn't be working until next week. 

The Brownsville run and the Oklahoma run are both down.  That screws us for runs, totally and completely.  They are our major workload, without both of them, we have little else in terms of heavy workload to keep us busy.  The Mapleton plant was a nice shot in the arm, but certainly won't keep all of us busy or other runs that are regular but infrequent.  

So I immediately started thinking about everything that needs to be put into place to make that happen. Food, mostly.  I can't keep enough food in the truck for 10 plus days but I can at least fill it up and hope that I can get to a grocery store up there when it's depleted.  But, I also thought, hmmm, this could fall through and I'm buying a lot of stuff for nothing. Off to Kroger's I went, keeping the purchases minimal.  I already have stuff to take, just was short a few things that will keep if the run doesn't go through. 

Meanwhile, I get a call from my house in Phoenix. The dreaded call that I knew was coming sooner or later: Mark "The AC isn't working".  It's been years since it has broken down, I can be grateful that it has lasted this long.  But no one is going to live in a house when it's 109 degrees outside and heats up considerably more than that inside a house with no cooling.  I asked him about having Sam, the neighbor behind us, to come over and look at it?  Before I spend 8 grand on a new AC unit, for that is what they will tell us.  

Sam is getting old, he replied. I said well whatever, Sam knows what Hercules he  is doing and he will just fix whatever need to be fixed.  But Sam is getting old! Well I don't care about that, call him and see if he can come over and look at it!  It's gonna be out overnight at least anyway.  He then argued about some new freon that is out and you can't get without a license. Great! We don't have whatever that is in our system, CALL SAM!  It could be a compressor or it could be an electrical problem.  Sam will figure it out and give you an honest answer at least.  He finally conceded and said he'll call Sam and get back to me. Look, Mark, i replied, I'll have the system fixed, I just think it would be good to save some serious money if Sam can get it going, he wants the work, he's been over several times before, he can fix it if it's fixable.

So, Mark calls me back 10 minutes later. Sam is fixing an AC and will come over afterwards. So much for the aged theory.  If he's somewhere else fixing AC, he can also be at our house fixing AC. Good, I thought, a thousand dollars is easier to digest than 8 grand - that's about what I figure it will cost to have the entire system replaced.   A compressor is around $500 at cost, maybe less plus freon. Sam won't rape us for parts cost and he will charge whatever he thinks his time is worth.  Anyway, after this post I'm going to start looking at AC companies and see what I can come up with.  I have to be prepared if Sam says the unit needs to be replaced. He won't do that much, he'll replace a compressor or fix electrical problems, he isn't going to replace an entire system.  

________________________

Manager texts back after hearing nothing from him and asking for details.  Umm, they haven't conacted me and I probably won't hear back from them until tomorrow. If you don't hear back from me by mid-morning, I'll get you on an ethylene run asap.  This was sent to me and another driver, I had no idea they wanted to send two of us up there. Regardless, I didn't cook anything and I didn't make any plans for leaving first thing in the morning, as I was earlier directed to do.  I don't know why I had to wait half the day and finally have to ask if it was still a go to get any info.  

Meanwhile, I texted Mark a few minutes ago.  Did Sam come over? No.  Well did he say he was going to come?  Mark then called me.  I talked to him at 2:00 pm and he said he was coming.  Well call him again, otherwise I'm doing something else.  I already found a business online, the house isn't going to go without ac forever and lose all my paying tenants.  No thanks.  I dunno why he didn't call him back sooner, but he said he would after I asked him to please do so.  

So now I have 2 issues. The trip to NJ isn't a big deal, it goes or it doesn't. The AC - big deal.  Big big deal. Mark can't just let that stuff ride, if I have to pay out the ass to fix it, so beit, I'm getting it done and over with.  

________________________

Still in limbo/Wednesday morning.  Manager should be showing up to work around now, I expect to hear something one way or the other.  The steam was let out of my sails yesterday and now I really don't want to go.  I really don't like being left on hold when facing a very long trip. I have everything ready - excepting food. Too late now to start cooking, I wouldn't even if I did. Make all the food for nothing? No thanks.  I'll ditch the diet for a while if I have to I guess.  I don't expect to hear from Mark for a bit.  

Hours later. Manager finally contacted us - he'll be getting us the info "ASAP", they are "discussing the trip up north".  That was an hour and a half ago.  Allegedly wanting us to leave by noon.  It's beginning to annoy me.  Make up your minds, we're either going or not.  I don't care either way at this point, in fact I could just stay home and do nothing looking at this week's paycheck that is enough to cover 2 weeks.  That's a LOT of driving going up there and back and that doesn't even cover whatever they're going to have us doing, which has yet to be defined.  He must have said New Hampshire, not New Jersey, for New Jersey isn't 1,800 miles from here.  And frankly, there are a lot of divisions between here and there with drivers that don't have much to do, why they want to bring drivers from almost 2,000 miles away is unknown to me.  

That's quite a chunk of change just to have us drive up there and back.  What I'm getting annoyed with here besides it being up in the air is the fact that the day isn't getting any younger and they'll expect us to drive at least 600 miles each day to get up there-  that was already stated.  I'll be up late doing that today 

Anyway, there are 2 ladies here now that don't live here.  The lady from Maine is here for 2 entire weeks.  She seems pretty cool, the other one is very low key and is probably happy to have a place to stay until she can figure out what she wants to do. Doesn't sound like she's going to go back home.  She was talking about renting a room in a friend's or relatives house somewhere.  I believe the grandma is coming today.  I guess grandpa isn't coming, he has a job that keeps him busy. He was in retirement, he got bored lol.  

Whatever, I'm getting off of here. Take a short nap in case I'm leaving. My clothes are packed and ready to go, food is an issue but oh well, live on sandwiches I guess.  

Tuesday.

The entire issue has been all but forgotten.  I mean, I won't forget about it, I just don't think it's worth ruining relationships over.  Apparently everyone else agreed. It rattled Taylor tho, she was crying and not happy about what had happened.  I think she seriously thought I was going to take my bat and ball and leave.  It would have to be a very major thing happening that's a deal breaker either for them or for me to have me moving out of here.  I have, however, given serious consideration to where I would go in case that happens.  Just considering, not actually planning. But I would probably stay in this area and continue working at my current job.  Unless I could find a job somewhere else that i would want to go that is comparable in pay.  That would be difficult to find right now with COVID-19 going on and the downturn in business everywhere.  

I mean, I ideally I'd like to live now wherever I'd like to retire and get that situation up and going.  Preferably the mountains.  Of which there is very little of in these parts.  But, I'm still going to go to the tax lien auctions and hope to get something decent - that is really something that I would like, get a property and pay for it all at once.  Owe nothing on it so I don't have to worry about payments, something I'm sort of loaded down with at the moment in paying back debt off and a car payment and all the work I have had done on my teeth.  Then, after the 180 day hold on the property before it actually becomes yours - the owner can still come back and pay everything owed on it plus a percentage to the person that bought it at auction - you can use the property as the down payment to have a house built on it.  A 5 bedroom hours with 4 bathrooms, guest suite, a couple of fireplaces would be nice lol.  A huge pantry and other amenities.  

But I digress. I'd rather build a mobile home/RV park and start a lucrative line of permanent income coming in.  Getting the property to do that is step one.  So, I've been stuck on step one for a long time.  All I can say is I'm actively saving for it.  About 10% of my monthly income is going directly into a savings account for that purpose.  Even more going into 401k - which is up higher than any amount I have ever had them at.  A full recovery from the crash that the doomsday sayers were saying would wipe out everyone's wealth, that sort of happened, but I didn't touch anything, left it all where it was at and now it's booming again. 

What happens in November remains to be seen.  Oh, where would I like to go if I had to move? Kentucky, Colorado, Arizona - the mountains not the city - and other places where there are mountains. Texas is nice, tho, because there is no state income tax.  Of course, when they turn the state red, that will disappear.  Taxation knows no boundaries to liberal progressive democrats who love to steal from your paychecks and hand it over to someone else.  I actually believe in "safety nets" they like to now call them, but only to a limited degree.  Invalids, seniors that are broke and would suffer unimaginably, disabled who legitimately cannot work, things of that nature we should take care of. The rest of it, however, is well beyond any Constitutional scope and nowhere in the Constitution is there any provision for single payer healthcare insurance or "green new deals" that would end up with a massive power feed to the federal government, far beyond anything we've ever seen in this nation.  

Anyway, I have no idea what I'm going to do today, I really haven't thought about it. The temps are ridiculous with the humidity making going out doors a bit undesirable. But, the boat is running pretty good I'd really like to take it to Caddo lake and go for a joy ride lol.  Everyone is at work, there shouldn't be too many boaters out there, that's usually a weekend thing when there is huge numbers of boats on the lakes and - rather dangerous situation as far as I'm concerned being a novice boater.  But, I won't get any experience with the thing sitting on the side of the house.  

It would, however, also be a good day to go over and visit the ladies at their new house.  Kim keeps me updated on what's going on over there with the inheritance.  The brother that controls it seems to have come around and will try to help her, finally agreeing to get a lawyer and make heads or tails of the will and what can and cannot be done.  I suspect the lawyer will say  you can basically do whatever you please as executor of estate, but you are "supposed" to follow the intent of the person that has passed.  If you don't, you can be sued by the other people named in the will.  That's pretty much what I would expect to hear back from a lawyer.  Handing it over to some management company is a very bad idea, IMO and I said as much to Kim, asking why her brother can't simply handle it?  Not like he has to spend his entire days managing the estate, make the decisions and get it rolling and that is really the extent of what he would have to do.  But, it's really up to her to push for getting whatever she can out of it, I'm just trying to motivate her.  She could buy a house anywhere she pleases.  She doesn't want to and it just baffles me as to why.  She's as old as I am, I would love to have the security of knowing I'm living in a place that is paid for an nothing owing but monthly utility bills. 

Okay, well enough of all of that.  I'm hoping to get a run that will get me out of here and keep me out at least until Friday. I don't really want to be here when grandma, grandpa, the current house guest and a visitor from Maine are in here all at once. It's already 5 of us - their family and I  living here and now adding 4 more people?  I'd love to visit and chat with the friend of Taylor's - who was texting her the other day and asked how the "old guy" is, lmao.  So she took a picture of me sitting there with my arms crossed and a look on my face lol.  She said back coool.  Okay then. But it's too many people, I don't know where they are all going to sleep and that's not my problem. I do let them stay in my room when I'm gone a s a courtesy to James and Taylor.  I've never had any issues with it but then again I don't leave any cash or valuables laying around either.  

Oh, and my new birth certificate has already shipped! I'm absolutely amazed. The last time I tried to do this, it took over 3 months for them to ship it.  We're in the middle of this pandemic and somehow they already have it on its' way here in just a few weeks time? If I had known this when I was going through literally everything looking for my lost version of one, I would have just ordered a new one then and there.  I cannot renew my commercial driver's license without a birth certificate. The only other thing they accept is a marriage license, lol, no thanks.  Lots of credentials expire in February, I need all of them to continue work.

Oh, work lol.  Because so many other of our divisions have slowed so far down due to decreased demand directly attributable to COVID-19, they are bringing more drivers into our division.  Probably why I've been sitting for 2 full days.  One of which is a chronic complainer, I dislike the man very much.  He was the one that voluntarily took a position to help us new drivers when we came into the system 2-1/2 years ago.  The company had promised to pay him for his time but after spending some time with a driver, they refused to pay him, or so the story goes. I doubt that's the real story but it's all I have to go on.  Anyway, he refused to give any more help unless he got paid, got pissed at the manager at the time and switched to a different division.  Nothing but negativity, all the time, the man has a mouth that won't stop and I don't want to be anywhere near him. His buddy - another driver who never left - was sticking up for him at the office when we were discussing it the other day.  

But I didn't back down. The man never had to volunteer to do that and if a new driver needed help now? I would just help them for free.  No need to pay me for a few minutes time here and there on the phone, I know what it's like getting dumped into this job without any experience and no one to help you, save one dude that explained over the phone how to unload the truck.  It was nothing near as helpful as if I was there with someone unloading the truck and watching what's going on. It took a while to figure out the nuances and frankly get over the fear of dealing with this kind of chemical. I really wouldn't want anyone to go through what I went through, such as the first time, unloading LNG and having it spray out of one of the release valve tubes, raining on my head which thankfully was covered with a hard hat and I was clothing in winter clothing, saving me from extreme freezer burns.  

So I'll be happy not to even come in contact with that dude.  Anyway, I guess I'll have to live with longer periods in between runs once again.  The paychecks have been nice while keeping busy.  And I get into the groove of being on the road alot when - I'm on the road alot. Sitting at home? I tend to get into a funk where I don't want to go back out.  Just some mental thing.

Oh, I bought a small "tailgator" generator for the boat.  Harbor Freight just opened up in our town and they had one on great sale. It's only 900 watts but it's enough.  It's very small and also uses 2 stroke fuel, that's handy since the boat also runs on 2 stroke. And some other small items for the boat to get the canopy back in shape - I don't want to fish on a hot boat with no shade, no thanks.  

And  with that, off to the races. What races? I dunno, just a thing to say lol.