Very, very long day. Not because of the tropical storm, rain, driving or any of that, but because of how I woke up this morning.  It never left me.  Even now, 15 hours later, I still feel groggy in the head.  It happens.  Wake up in the middle of a deep sleep and it can mess up your entire day. I'd literally rather wake up 2 hours earlier, not in deep sleep and even tho I don't get enough sleep?  I feel far better than this.  

I don't know where people get off saying that truck drivers have an easy life and do much of nothing. If you think getting up at 5:00 am for work and getting done with work at 8:00 pm is easy, then please tell me what kind of job you are doing that forces you to do that and what you have to do all day long?

Because I can tell you, driving near 80,000 pounds of machinery down the road for near 11 hours and everything else that this job entails?  Isn't "easy" work by any stretch of the imagination.  I digress and not going into all of that.

I'm just glad to be done with today, kick back in my bed in my sleeper, wind down and hopefully get some good rest and wake up feeling better tomorrow.  It's only 8:17, I can't go to bed this early.  Even with my head throbbing, just going to give it another hour and then hit the sack.  

Oh, today's drive? Not really that much. I saw a lot of red on the radar on the weather app - that always means a heavy downpour, but I didn't experience any of that.  I was getting pushed around by the wind a bit - quite a bit in a few certain areas - but I was surprised with all of these forecasts and not experiencing anything near what they were predicting. Perhaps it happened after I drove through there?  Or the forecasters are way off, yet again.  I didn't alter my course, I was going to go an alternate route starting in Henderson, Texas.  I just had this feeling, no explaining that, just went the normal route.  

Unfortunately, we are back to the manager's "old" ways of getting rid of detention pay - which our company doesn't pay for, the company we haul for does. The dispatcher was a gem, a gold coin, a rainbow with piles of gold buckets at the end.  This dude, however, is too new to the company, is being hounded by his managers, but I am still perplexed at the idea of free money that goes to the company and the driver.  OH, well there were 2 empty trailers sitting here when I got here. No point in wasting time, got hooked up to one, but I doubt I will be leaving too early. Set the alarm for 7:00 am, if I wake up before then and feel ok fine, otherwise, I'm "sleeping in" until 7:00 am.

As for the boating trip.  It fired right up at the dock.  We went down quite a ways to a point where i was able to tie off to a floating log and do some fishing from there.  Tho I didn't feel like fishing, I was just enjoying being out on the water, Taylor was trying to catch something.  When we wanted to move somewhere else - what happens?  The engine won't start.  It was a good thing I charged that battery over night.

I was sitting there after 20 minutes and looking up Allstate and my boat coverage to call someone out, it wasn't trying to start at all.  I let it sit for a while, then squeezed the fuel bubble several times and after a few tries it finally fired back up - and kept running.  We went back up the channel we had come down and were admiring the houses - the entire right side of the channel for as far as we went up it were lined with houses both on land and on stilts over the water.  Some houses were million dollar homes - guessing of course but yea, they spent serious money on that stuff. Other homes not so much but still cool to look at. 

Some of the stilt homes actually had elevators on the sides of the houses, lol.  We dreamed of living off of a place like this.  The thing is, tho, you are hearing boats roaring up and down that channel all day long, at least on the weekends.  Still, the thought of it was very alluring.  Anyway, going way up the channel, finally found a place. The engine died, but it fired right back up. That 45 minute thing where it wouldn't start, tho? Not fun.

Then, later on ,back at the dock, it died again and wouldn't start, tho I only tried a few times, I figured we could just pull it up far enough on the trailer that I could get the strap on the hand crank on it and just pull it up. 

Yup, the boat is going back to the shop. They actually did get it working much better, but there is still something that needs addressing on it, what I don't know.  I still think it has a fuel problem. 

I'm hopeful they'll figure it out. I don't have the time or patience to pull out the flooring over top of the fuel tank - it's not a small job - and see if there's a problem there as that one dude told me a long time ago.  Well I might have the time - occasionally - just not on my list of things I want to do, lol.

And with that, this one's over, for I want to go to sleep.

 Going to work isn't on my list of things I want to do today.

I was in a deep, restorative sleep when that alarm went off. Undoubtedly would have slept several more hours before waking up.

Not to mention there is a tropical storm that is heading to or already  hitting Houston today that I'll have to drive through.  Even the route going around it will get his and I'm not sure it will save any time.

That's a call I will have to make later, very well may be a drive to Brownsville that takes more than a day to get there.  I do have a 16 hour exception available that will add 2 hours of on-duty time if I need it, but I'm more thinking I'd run out of 11 hour drive time.  

I dunno. Not going to fret it.

Whatever the case, it's almost time to go already.

Lol.

G'day.  

 3 low paying runs in a row and finally I  get a Brownsville run for tomorrow - Monday.

Yesterday was spent going around town with Taylor and the boys doing this that and the other thing. I mean, we spent like 4 plus hours going from one place to another.  How the boys were able to manage all of that and keep smiles on their faces I have no clue - tho that changed after we got home lmao.

One of the things we did yesterday at the end was go get the boat out of storage, bring it home and park it in the driveway.  I have had the battery charger on it - tho it wasn't dead it wasn't fully charged either.  Put the rest of some 2 stroke mix I had in it and now about to go to the gas station and get another 5 gallons of gas, mix it with the 2 stroke oil and pour as much in there as I can.  I have no idea how much fuel the gas tank holds on the boat and I have no idea how much fuel is in it, excepting the 10 gallons I have already poured into the thing.  

I don't figure we'll come anywhere near burning up all the fuel, but when you don't have a functioning fuel gauge, better safe than sorry.  One of the things I like about this boat insurance policy is that they'll send a boat to save you, lol, if the thing stalls and won't move, you know, like in the middle of a lake?

We haven't decided which lake to go to yet, but we are going today.  The boys are going to maria's and we are either going to Lake O' The Pines (yes, that's it's actual name) or Lake Caddo.  I'm opting for Caddo since it shows a lot more varieties of fish and reports that people are actually catching them.  I never did purchase the fish sonar.  I just dumped that money from the deposit on the house into savings and haven't yet touched it. 

Still trying to learn about those things and buy something that works that people agrere is good enough to do the job without spending a truckload of money on it.  Oh, it's just Taylor and I going, James is still up northing doing some project that his uncle asked for help getting done and since James isn't employed atm, might as well take advantage of a money making opportunity.  

Oh, and this Brownsville run?  names written on it and scratched out 3 times before it was given to me.  My name first, another driver, then another driver, then finally back to me.  I don't know what the manager thinks he's accomplishing by doing that.  Irritating drivers, for one thing. Second time he tried to bump me off a brownsville list without starting over on the paperwork - versus scratching names out and showing that he was going to give my run to fully two other drivers before it came back to me.

One of those drivers went to South Carolina this week, there was no reason on earth he should have even been on that Brownsville run after I just did 3 garbage runs in a row.  It really doesn't set well with me that this manager is engaging in this type of foolery.  His error is in leaving paperwork in the bin in the office. IT's in the "driver lounge", if you can call it that. After every run, drivers put their paperwork in that bin. He hasn't been emptying it lately so I have gone through all of that stuff to see who is getting what.  Some other drivers are also getting the shaft with consistent low paying runs, but none of those were forced to do any Chenier runs, much less 2 in a row.

Whatever the case, I'm going to be looking through that pile of paperwork simply because it's there. No one told me I can't look at it and it's not in his office, so I have no problems seeing who is getting what.  There are some drivers from other divisions that are now "in" our division, tho they are still hauling other products that are also ending up in there, but that stuff doesn't count. Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, - other types of chemicals.  

Well the queen of the house just texted me, she's taking a shower and getting ready to go, so I need to go to the gas station quick and fill up the can one more time.

G'day.  

 An exasperating, long, drawn out day.  

8:50 am, I pull up on the Ethylene rack to get loaded.  Dude comes out: There's gonna be a wait.  I need you to move off the rack until we're ready to load you.

Slow product, was the claim - it's been going on for weeks, you'd think their maintenance department would have fixed this issue by now, it's costing them literally truckloads of money.  

4:30 this afternoon, they start loading it.  Yup, I sat there all day long.  2 other trucks showed up, around 4:00 pm they sent them out of the plant, but me? Ohhh noooo, can't do thhhhaaaaaatttt.   

I started seeing product coming out of the vent - that's a big time no no.  Then I get a call from my manager, well they're sending you out of the plant, the trailer has a leak. OH?  An hour later, after they drained out everything they had pumped in and got rid of the vapors the let me go. Go - that is - to get another trailer and come right back.  

This just went on and on and on. I finally gout of that plant at around 8:30, cruised back to the yard and went home.  I had less than 2 hours left on my 14 hour clock, no point in trying to drive anywhere and I didn't feel like sleeping in the truck since I didn't have to.  

That's it, lol. I have nothing else. For whatever reason, this all took it out of me today and I quite exhausted. 

So, going to sleep. 

 It isn't really shocking that I got dumped with another Cheniere load. I reminded my manager that he had told me that he would make it up to me.  I heard nothing back from him - as is his want - i therefore communicated again. He replied and said everything is shut down, only 1 load went out yesterday and 2 the day before.  

I get what he's saying, the loading plant has had issues for a couple of weeks now.  But he's played this game with me several times.  He's bumped me from good runs to s*** runs several times as well, finally figuring out that I am getting a run these -4 drivers I have found out now - can't do because they "don't know how to unload".  

FOUR drivers out of 14. Such bs, it irritates me.  So, I am going to waste a total of 6 days for 2 crud loads.  2 days for the first load, a day off in between, 2 days for tomorrow and then at least another day off.  Next week's paycheck will be slim pickings. 

I suppose I could think back to the days of Ferguson where the amount made on this paycheck will still be more than 2 weeks pay there after the new manager cut out all of our overtime.  It's all in the perspective, right? Knowing that other drivers will be making a lot more money than I am making simply because of a lame excuse, however, doesn't set well with me at all.  

I wasn't going to argue with my manager, simply make my position clear - as I have been.  I will volunteer to be a 'certified trainer' if that's what it 'takes to get these people doing the same thing everyone else has to do. We don't have a constant influx and people leaving like other divisions do, once you get them all trained there are no more excuses.

Okay, well I'm about to start this day.  Another waste of my time and dealing with overly authoritarian security guards who act as if they are protecting the President or something. Perhaps there will be different guards there today, I had never experienced that much of it before the other day.   

 I will make my confessional.  My manager called me this morning and I intentionally did not answer the phone.  I sat there and thought, I'll cal him back in about 20 minutes and let him deal with his "emergency", get someone else to do it.  Hopefully by the time I call him back, I was surmising, he'll have someone else lined up to take that run. 

What run? Another Cheniere.  Suddenly, Cheniere wants all of these loads taken down there.  It's they way it goes with them, they'l order mega numbers of loads and then you don't hear from them for a long, long time.  How did I know that's what he wanted? Cause' he sent out a mass text to everyone asking for a volunteer to take the run today at 3:30 - 20 minutes from now lol.  Literally no one responded lmao.

I told him yesterday that not a single driver likes this run and everyone hates it.  He knew the reasons why - too many layers of security asking you for the same information and waiting too long to get into the plant to unload. It's like they want to run your 14 hour clock out so you can't make it back the same day.   

It was actually 35 minutes before I called him back, he was busy and said he would call me back later. I replied I was just responding to a call I missed from you. Oh, well no worries, I got that covered.  Yayyyyyyy!!!! I didn't say that of course, but I'd rather stay home and not work rather go to that hell hole.  I haven't heard back about a run tomorrow.  Not concerned, my activities today have left me needing to continue on tomorrow if possible and attempt to finish this project I started this morning.  

I don't mind getting last minute calls - for decent runs - but not this garbage after I just got done doing one.  And finding out fully 4 drivers do not go to Cheniere - or anywhere else with driver unload.  4 drivers - gravy runs, every single time. Outrageous and unbelievable.  

Anyway, I did as I said I was going to do this morning: Got started on the new pond project.  I realized I would have to drain the existing pond first, attempt to save whatever fish and get it out of the ground so I could shovel the dirt from the giant, built in planter into the pond hole.  That took quite a while, a pain in the @$$ and was cleaning up yet another 2 weeks worth of leaves from the next door neighbors, stuff was decomposing, attracting flies and mosquitoes, looked and smell bad.  I got as many fish as I could find and dumped them into a 5 gallon bucket, put an aerator in there to keep them alive.

I got stuck however, at a cement post that whoever put in this planter. It's about 16 inches diameter, solid cement and isn't budging. It's sitting right where the new pond is going to go.  I was already over 3 hours into this stuff when my legs told me it was time to take a rest.

Funny how your body tells you about yourself.  Truck driving like I do now without the physical exertion I used to have has made me rather out-of-shape.  I have myself to blame. I just need to get out there and do yard work and stuff every time I come home, even if only a couple of hours.  

The back yard is a tragedy.  Just no other way to put it.  I cleaned up the leaves around the pool area at least.  But there is so much to do back there, just to get it nice looking.  Just so much work, it seems, with little satisfaction. Now that the neighbors cleaned up their pigstye in their back yard I"m hopeful our side of the fence can stay relatively clean now without the rain washing all of that s*** onto our property every time it rains. 

Anyways, I left after hours of doing that this morning to get stuff.  Met up with Taylor at the local coffee shop, then to Harbor Freight for a sledge hammer, off to Walmart for a bunch of stuff I have been needing, especially for the truck but for the house as well, over to Chili's for lunch and then back home. Back out back, I put up 2 fly traps - the flies are unbelievable back there. They attract them all quickly, I'm guessing if I went back out there right now there would be dozens in there already.  

I did not try to bust that cement thing down. I'm toast for today, enough is enough.  No run sent to me - yet - if I don't get one I'll be back out there in the morning attempting to bust that thing down.  If I can't get it out of there with a sledgehammer, I will have no choice that I can see but to go rent a jackhammer setup and bust it out of there.  Whatever the case, it needs to go. That planter set up was ugly, I wanted ridded of it but they only agreed on it recently when Taylor was happy to be seeing the end of the inground pond and also happy to allow having the horse trough setup.  

As for now?  Out to the kitchen to make dinner.  

 Cheniere - has gotten even worse.  I didn't think that was possible, but how I was wrong.  Now, I get interrogated at the entrance by the security officer there. He demands to see your credentials and then wants credentials I don't have (and won't be getting).  You have your TWIC card? I show that to him.  You have your safety course card? Nope.  You don't have that? Nope. Do you have your LNG railroad commissioner card? Nope.  Why not? I felt like telling him to read the words on the side of the trailer: ETHYLENE. I'm NOT HAULING LNG.  I just shrugged my shoulders. Don't really care.

In reality, I could have just said okay, you aren't going to let me in? Let me in to turn around and I will leave. I really should have called his bluff on that, now that I think of it.  They aren't going to send away a load, they'd still get charged for the shipping and get nothing out of it. He frowned at me, well I have to make a phone call. Great, call the President, I thought, I don't care.  I'll gladly take this loaded trailer somewhere else in America where they actually want the product without all the bs. His posturing did not, of course, stop me from entering the plant.   After 10 minutes of his bs, then I'm to go to the canopy and wait for another security officer to do what? Search the truck. 

He shows up 5 minutes later and then spends another 5 minutes doing whatever in his pickup. Finally comes out and demands to see my TWIC card. I didn't bother to tell him I just showed it to the security officer, not trying to cause trouble here, but if I get sent down there again and they start all of that with me again? I'm just going to tell them if they are refusing to allow me in to deliver the load, I'll call my manager, let him know and he can hash that out with the plant managers who will very likely be giving you  a phone call : )

So, 20 minutes wasted at the second checkpoint with an authoritarian and then had to follow him to the next checkpoint.  Now I have several security officers at a guard shack asking me to do this, that and the other thing, including showing my TWIC card a THIRD TIME.  Then off into a small cubicle where there is a guy stationed to take your temperature. Back to the truck, they come out, we were wrong, you need to come in here to get your visitor pass. Yes, I knew that.  Again, didn't say that, just trying to get through all of this garbage.  In the shack, he looks me up, oh yes you've been here before. Yes, like 100 times.  I didn't try to blow up your plant those times, why on earth do you people make it so difficult for us to get in here?  

He just laughed.  I then sat at that place for over 2 hours waiting for the plant workers to come get me.  All kinds of excuses were offered why they didn't come sooner, I was getting annoyed by that time, lets' get this over with.  But I already knew that all of this bs I went through just to get into the plant would cost me getting home yesterday.  After I got out of there, I knew I was about 40 minutes short of enough on duty hours to make it back. So, I spent the night at a truckstop some 67 miles out for no more reason than these people causing all kinds of grief because - they can. 

Time to push back on that bs.  Likely plant managers don't have any real idea how they are treating truck drivers, I'd like to change that.  I told my manager today all of the bs they put you through to get in there, plus all the waiting.  He got a hold of the plant manager yesterday after I texted him again, saying I've been sitting here for hours.  It was maybe 10 or 15 minutes later that plant workers showed up - with all of their accompanying excuses.

I also told my manager that not a single driver likes this run, it drags out into 2 days, we aren't hardly paid anything for it, there needs to be some adjustments made here in the pay to at least make the time wasted more bearable.  

I have no idea when I'm going out again, but I want my truck fixed before that happens.  It's got a coolant leak somewhere and I'm tired of dealing with it.  

Home early at least. Got into the yard around 9:30 am.  Vacuuming floors currently and going to do some other stuff. I'm hoping to have tomorrow off so I can get that pond up and running.  Like, start early and have it done by mid afternoon.  I need to have the transition completely done in one day, I can't have it half and half.  It's noon now I just don't feel comfortable starting that project without an entire day to ensure that if there are any glitches I will have time to rectify them.

And Addler washed.  He smelled horrid. I have no idea what that dog got into, but it was repulsive in smelling it.  He smelled like it the other day, just got a chance to thoroughly wash the dog down. A dog that size is no small undertaking. He's a good boy tho, he just stood there and took it the whole time - he hates the water hose but he knows he has no choice when I'm telling him to stay, he gonna stay.  Lmao

Requested to wash the other dogs. Not today, thanks, that giant dog was enough.  The other dogs don't smell like he did,, either. However, Aspyn could use a thorough washing to get excess hair off of her.  Maybe use some conditioner for the lady dogs of course want to smell good lol.  

 Headache. 

Other than that not much aftermath from driving all night long. Haven't done that in a while and actually not regretting it since I'm home 10 plus hours earlier than I would have been otherwise.  Whether that becomes a habit for future runs where driving all night would actually get me home faster remains to be seen.\

Tomorrow's run will make no difference. Instead of the Brownsville run I was initially given, i was relegated to a rather worthless Oklahoma run - now that our manager is dispatching again I suspect I will see a lot more of this garbage while witnessing at the same time certain individuals who will get one gravy run after another after another.  Oh, well it won't make any difference for it is impossible to do that run in one day.  I actually wouldn't care about that garbage if it also means getting a decent run afterwards and counting on this pay period's paycheck.

It's already noon-thirty, the day wasting away, tho I just got up a while ago so I at least have an excuse lol.  

Well, let's see here. Jaxon apparently fell off the bunk bed and hit his head on the floor. Docs said no need to bring him in unless he shows specific signs - what those were I wasn't party to. He seems to be doing okay besides throwing up at breakfast.  

James I just found out is going up to Missouri for 10 days.  Temporary job from the uncle who needs some sort of fencing work, I believe he said, done.  James is unemployed at the moment and failed the welding test, unfortunately, so this will be a boost for his income while he figures out what's next.  Of course, that leaves the family here without him, I'll certainly help out in his absence on whichever days I may happen to be home.  Taylor will want the help I'm sure lol.  I wouldn't be surprised if she finds a friend to come stay for at least part of the time James is gone to help out with the kids.  I can't be here every day, obviously.  

Umm, I'm only doing some laundry today and I guess I'll go out in a minute to drain out the horse trough so it doesn't turn into an algae infested, mosquito larvea filled cesspool, tho I suspect it's already headed that way.  Easy enough to drain it out with the pump and clean it out with the power washer.  

_________________

Sunday morning. My original load that was going to Brownsville, ditched and given an Oklahoma run? Yeah, that changed as well. I've been downgraded to the worst run we have: Cheniere.  I thoroughly and absolutely despise that place. Last of our drivers that was there said he was stuck there for 2 solid days.  They wouldn't let him leave but they couldn't take the product either.  A one day run - sometimes, usually not because they drag their feet and don't care how long you are stuck there - usually drags out to a second day.  I have not been there in at least a year, probably much longer. Like a faded memory, another company took over that account and none of us drivers cared.  Please take over that account and never give it away! It's not even 500 miles round trip of driving ,which adds to the nausea that this particular trip is. 

 At 5:30 am, I'm home.

No one actually asked me to drive all night long. My manager texted me a run for - today - yesterday afternoon - before I even had an empty.  It was 4:00 pm, he only replied "seriously".  Yes and I said a few things - that he never responded to.  He's a lousy communicator and I really don't think this job is a good fit for him.  He doesn't reply to texts and he doesn't answer his phone.  

Anyway, a trailer finally came in a 6:00 pm - I was thinking if one didn't come in before 8, I'm closing the curtain on my sleeper and I will get up early in the morning and see if one is there.  That way, I can legitimately claim more detention pay (it's not cheating, they actually tell you to do that).  

I sort of had it in my head to drive through the night and get this over with - after the manager texted 3 of us in a group text and said we would be working Sunday, details coming tomorrow - which is now today - at noon.  If I drive 300 miles and stop for the night, I thought, I won't get home until afternoon.  

I made it to Rosenberg - started yawning - decided to take a 40 minute nap.  It was midnight, still a lot of driving left to go.  If, after the nap is done, I wake up feeling good, I'm driving. If I feel groggy and out of it - I'm going back to sleep. Driving won.  I only stopped once the rest of the 260 miles to get fuel. It was the fastest trip I have ever made from Brownsville to Longview.  

But, that didn't mean the clock stopped.  It's now 5:45 am, I just got in here 15 minutes ago, just trying to wind down so I can get whatever sleep I'm getting before either a 3 and 5 year old making noise wakes me up or daylight says no thanks, time to get up.  And since I'm going back out tomorrow, plus I still have to get some sleep, I have no aspirations of doing much of anything today.  

The exception is if I'm being sent on a longer trip - I'll be going to the store and getting some supplies. 

Oh, and Addler stinks to high heaven.  I have no idea what that dog got himself into, but when I walked into this bedroom a force of nature assaulted my nostrils that was overwhelming.  He was on my bed of which I threw him off of and yes, later on today, I will have to wash all my bedding again AND wash that smelly dog. So I guess I should change that, I do have some aspirations, but only by virtue of force of needing to be done.  I was happy to spray air freshener - half a bottle of it - all over the place which made the atmosphere more acceptable.  He'll be getting thrown outside as soon as anyone wakes up.  

I really can't believe I just drove that route all night long, lol.  

And it's hitting me, time to go to bed.  

 4 hours of sleep is all i could manage. Woks up at 8:15 am and that was that.  That is the main reason I don't like doing night driving, it totally messes up the next day for me.  And sometimes it literally takes days to recover and feel right again.  Not something I would want to do on a regular basis, I am definitely not a night owl by the standard definition of the term.  

And already, the manager has texted 3 of us informing us we have work tomorrow.  Do I have a problem with that? Nope.  I don't have enough hours available to go on a long run.  I could do a 2 day run max before having to do a 34 hour reset.  I dunno why he feels the need to group text the individuals that are working the next day, it's kind of weird.

He then group texted everyone and informed all of us the dispatcher has moved on to a different position within the company and he will be doing our dispatching from now on.  I doubt she was moved to another position, she was probably let go.  They have been systematically getting rid of all of the employees from our previous company over the last - however long a year plus at least now since the merger took place and they got rid of our company's name and most of the management.  I dunno if they intend on getting rid of drivers as well from that company, if that happens I"m screwed.  I have leads on other jobs - been looking just in case that happens.  

None of them pay anything near what I'm making now.  It's still decent money, a couple of these other jobs but I'm fairly happy what I'm doing now.  I'm just hoping they don't decide to dump the rest of us and be done with JBK employees altogether.  

________________

Another Brownsville run. Apparently telling them I hadn't been on one in almost 8 weeks? Or driving half the night? Or both.  Or, just out of need and getting that position by sheer luck? I dunno but I'll take it.  That's will give me a net paycheck of 2 grand minimum.  Taxes eat me alive the bigger the paychecks go - and the amount being deposited into 401k.  I've got a chunk of change going into savings, but I'm thinking upping savings and decreasing 401k a few percentage points.  It's prudent IMO in this pandemic situation to have plenty of cash available.  I do have that, lol, but I want more - it's mostly trying to get money saved up for business investment.  My retirement would be better funded by a constant, monthly income than what I'll be able to save in the next - however many years before I retire. 

It's something I want to get done sooner rather than later.  The older I get the less motivation lol.  A lot of mental and physical energy needed to get something like that going.  Once it's going and everything fluid, less trouble and hand the management of it off to someone else and reap the benefits. I already have someone in mind. Just got to get there.

And there it is, Thursday morning.  About to leave for the yard to go to the plant.  The first load is the driver that boasts they will never train him to unload the trailers, he literally gets nothing but Brownsville run unless the plant shuts down then they reroute him. Does that sound fair to you?  I could make 6 figures per year doing just brownsville.  Never-the-less, after he complained about a text I sent to the group I have no further dealings with him. Privileged, entitled person that is highly likely getting all of this because of his skin color.

The real minorities - politically wise  not the numbers of people in each race - that are being marginalized, shamed, shunned and called all kinds of names are white people. You have to be guilty of nothing to earn the title of being racist if your skin is white.  Far more so if you happen to be a Trump supporter, then a whole book of stupid names and adjectives are hurled at you.  Happens to me all the time on Facebook. A small grouping of people are radically changing the way this nation operates, how it looks at "social justice" and attempting to rewrite the history books.  The Constitution is trampled on when it's convenient for them to attempt to quell the 1st Amendment rights of average citizens.

We are living in different times. I have no predictions of what will happen in November if Trump wins.  Beyond chaos and heterdyne, more violence in the streets, more buildings being burned down, more citizens and cops assaulted and the left blaming it on Trump. I do predict the crash of the stock market if Biden wins.  Probably the economy will go to burnt toast again as well, as his intended taxation policiies will affect far more than just the upper income earners, contrary to his claim that those are the only ones that will be affected.

Just look at New York City right now - people are fleeing the place in droves, the news stories are abundant with it.  Much of this is because of shuttered business and the "mayor" wanting to raise taxes on everything, the streets aren't safe, covid 19 is still an issue and nobody wants to live there now. AS far as I can see it, Biden wants to do this to the entire nation. 

NFL starts tonight - I won't be watching it.  I gave up on it last season.  It's now even worse than last year with the politizication of a game that used to be about people coming together for a social event regardless of your political views, putting that behind you for a few moments in time and cheering on your team.  Now? It's players preaching to you the gospel of BLM, an "organization" loosely conceived that I consider to be a terrorist organization at this point.  Players will allegedly have names of police 'victims' on their helmets and apparently words - not sure what - are going to be painted onto the field. 

The name Blake should not be heralded all over the place as some victim of police brutality, neither should several of the others shot and/or killed by police.  I'm not going into that right now for i have to leave and it's an argument that's been hashed out to the nth degree. Sure, there needs to be some type of police reform, but nothing like wanting to defund police departments and get rid of cops. That was and is the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard.

With that, I'm out to get the day started.  

G'day.  

 It's almost 3 am.  Why did I know, when a trailer finally showed up around 3:00 pm, that the dispatcher would text me, ask me if the trailer had come in and had I left yet - that trailer is scheduled to be used tomorrow.  I in no wise wanted to drive half the night getting that thing back there, but I had no choice.  Want to get on a s*** list? Just decide you are going to stop for the night somewhere instead of driving it out and see what happens.  

So I did it.  Drove the route out, dropped the trailer, did my paperwork and came home.  I was  half tempted to spend the night in the truck and skip going home, but then I thought, it's this late already, what's another 35 minutes?  What am I doing on here?  I"m all wired out.  There's something about night driving that gets me going, especially under force of having to drive well into the night to get the job done.   So, I have to wind down or I will just lay in bed for hours and not be able to go to sleep.  

I was amazed pulling into the yard, only a few trucks and trailers. We must have gotten busy cause not only that but a lot of personal vehicles parked all over the place.  I actually wouldn't mind going out tomorrow - Thursday that is - on a 2 day run and get a very healthy paycheck next week.  

Changing the subject, every time I get on Facebook, my lefty friends on there who hate (not just dislike) Trump have posts that are stupid, ridiculous and unbelievable show up first thing. Every single day. As if Facebook wants me to see this s*** first.  I told one of them a few days ago if I couldn't find a way to hide her posts I was going to unfriend her for the seething hate and stupid memes gets old.  Another person I've known since the 80's I told him I would no longer be commenting on his account - more Trump hate and inability to have a civil conversation with him about said President. He erupts into personal attacks and name calling.  It's unbelievable.  Yet another one - also posts stupid garbage about Trump ALL day long - these people, how do they survive in the real world?

I thoroughly despised most of Obama's policies but I wasn't so obsessed with him that all I did, all day long, was post stupid crap about him.  Memes are not a valid form of debate, btw.  I can make a meme and say anything I want to in it, anyone can make a meme and lots of people distort the truth through them, especially that Riden' With Biden' meme garbage.  The current craze is the "losers and suckers" statement that Trump made.

Except there isn't a shred, not a scintilla of evidence he ever said that and plenty of evidence that he would never say such a thing.  I had yet another "friend" call Trump supporters stupid  and morons with one of the freshly minted sucker memes that have poured out all over the internet.  I called her out on that.  Where is the video that shows him saying that? "Google it".  She didn't even know that this accusation is coming from an unnamed source through the Atlantic.  She literally thought there was video of him saying it.  This is how deceived people are, they don't care if it's true or not, if it's about Trump and casts a shadow of negativity on him, it MUST be TRUE! 

 It's disgusting and revolting what's going on with the media.  And the utterly hypocritical politicians such as Pelosi and her hair salon debacle.  Portland's "peaceful protests".  Blake being called a hero and Kamala Harris telling him "I'm proud of you".  I'm truly sickened by what's going on in America right now.  The nation has become godless, immoral, immature, hateful, divisive and angry. Hint: Trump is NOT the cause of all of this.  You people that think this violence and rioting is good for the country are disgusting.  There isn't any virtue in assaulting cops, innocent civilians, looting private businesses and burning down buildings in the name of = what?

What are we protesting now? Cops?  Buildings?  People with differing opinions?  I could go on all night long, but good Lord, it's 3:30 am - watching a bit of news, just a bit.  Lol.  

But wait until November comes.  If Trump wins?   I find it hard to believer that democrats would take it graciously.  I dunno, but I have been slowly stocking up on ammo.  

I'm not getting anything done in the back yard today.  I won't be out of bed before noon lmao.  Or if I can't sleep because it's daytime, then I'll just be miserably tired and won't want to do anything.  The only thing pressing is get the water out of the horse trough - it's going to start growing algae and probably full of mosquito larvae.  No thanks to either.  I'll get that done tomorrow regardless of how I feel.  I'm saying tomorrow, lol, it's today.  I'm betting this late night venture will mess with me for 2 days.  

With that, although I'm still not sleepy, I'm getting offa here.  

 So - sitting and waiting. 

The group that undertakes finding a local mechanic to come out and repair trailers didn't have them come until this morning.  Cost controls I'm sure, not to mention they wouldn't have been able to find the parts in the middle of the night anyway.  Well the mechanic showed up around 8:00 am, was here an hour and left.  That was 4-1/2 hours ago.  

But I'm not waiting on them to fix that trailer, that is out of my hands for once it's fixed, it goes down into Mexico.  I'm waiting on empties.  The yard people here told me "midday" today - whatever that means to them. To me it means noon, I'm guessing to them it means 3:00 pm or later.  Whatever the case, it's getting too late to make it back today - which doesn't bother me at all but if they think I"m driving all night long to get that trailer back in the yard by morning? 

Well they best ask and ask nicely cause' it's not on my list of things I want to do right now.  I don't mind sleeping in the truck another night versus driving all night long.  Well, unless it's one of those rare times where I feel like I can drive as long as needed to get it over with - doesn't happen often but it does happen.  

Anyway, it was what I thought it was - burned up bearings.  The actual damage isn't that bad.  The wheels and tires are good, the spindle is good, they are just going to have to replace bearings, the hub, the brake drum and the wheel lug studs.  Sounds like a lot and it will cost them, but it would have cost a lot more if the spindle had been damaged or the wheels lost.

Amazingly, the lead mechanic said this same thing happened to this trailer a few weeks ago on the other side - and the never were able to find the wheels.  They probably didn't look far enough.  I've seen truck wheels rolling off of trucks that will go for half a mile before it finally stops.  

Anyway, the next door neighbor spent $450 for a crew of 3 people that spent 18 hours working on the property to clean it up.  It looks really nice.  They raked the entire back yard and carried out bags and bags and bags of leaves, branches and other stuff.  Now that they finally got that done, I feel motivated to go ahead and try cleaning the entire back yard again.  It's just been a waste of time up until now.  I also thought about digging a small canal between their property and ours - have it drain out into the creek in the back.  And the pond. I was hoping to make it back home today so I could get that pond stuff going tomorrow. 

That is highly likely not going to happen.  

Anyway, I guess I'll just sit here and wait patiently, lol.  

 First time I've ever seen them do it that way, they brought in empty trailers before taking out the loaded ones. Dunno, but they came in at noon, the first taken by the dude ahead of me and then 15 minutes later the second one came in.  

I fought heavy thunderstorms all the way back up.  Literally, get out of one, drive a few miles and right back into another one.  Houston being the worst because everyone turns on their flashers and then slows down to 1/3 of the speed limit.  Great, get OUT of my way.  Don't load up all 3 lanes with this nonsense, if you are too afraid to go the speed limit, move over out of the inside lane.  I don't understand why people don't get this.  

But they don't - or more likely don't care and everything gets blocked and you're sitting there just trying to remain calm and not let this stuff get to you.  I drove almost 8 hours without stopping except a couple of minutes at a rest area and 15 minutes at a store to get a bit to eat.  When my 8 hours was almost up, I stopped at a place I normally do on the way back up to take the mandatory 30 minute rest break.  The other truck was sitting there as well. 

After that, into Lufkin, fuel up and then......a few miles down the road... at 9:00 pm..........the lights flashing.  What lights? The lights for the inspection station. I couldn't believe they were pulling trucks in there on a Saturday night, 9 pm, at that place. Sure, there are weigh stations open on Interstates 24 hours a day - not all of them, just saying some are open all the time - but this place? 

The first trooper I came across said go ahead, you can leave. Pulling up 100 feet and about to leave, another trooper said stop. And so it went. A level 2 inspection.  The trooper was n't being polite, to put it mildly - first one in quite a long time that I have encountered that was acting that way.  Especially Texas, they are usually quite cordial and easy to deal with.  I dunno, I wasn't in the mood for foul treatment but I also wasn't in the mood for getting tickets.  I'm like 75 miles out from the yard - I want to go home. I don't want to deal with this nonsense at this hour of the night.  

Bring in your paperwork.  I brought it in. I need this that, the other thing, the other other thing and trailer registration.  They don't normally ask for trailer registration so I went back out to get it. What I thought was the trailer registration turned out to be the trailer annual inspection certificate.  I took that back in. Well I need the registration!  OK, I'll look again, I couldn't find it. Back outside, I searched the entire interior of the rear cabinet - nothing.  I texted my manager - I think I'm about to get a ticket judging from the way this guy is acting - there is no registration paper in this trailer.  

Well, this trooper apparently didn't want to wait for me so he came out and took a pic of the license and went back in.  I went around the entire trailer, looking for a container with the registration in it.  I threw my hands up, I can't find it, walked back inside. I dunno, sir, I thought the registration was the paper I brought into you when I did my pretrip, I had no idea it wasn't the registration.  I gave up on ttempting to appease the dude, I just treated him respectfully but gave up on it, figured I was getting a ticket and that was that.

Sat there forever.  I mean, other drivers came and went with their inspections while I was sitting there waiting on this dude to finish typing up his report.  Worried? Nope, it is what it is. I don't want scars on my record but most truckers have something on there, I figured it was my turn.  You can only get inspected and get a "no violations found" so many times before they - find something wrong.  Attitude means something, if you can get your head into the right mind frame and talk to them in a way that isn't in anger, impatience, stupid - you can get away with stuff.  If it's just paperwork or minor. If you have bad tires, brakes, air leaks, etc, you aren't getting away with that.  

His attitude mellowed out, at least, after sitting there a while.  I learned long ago however messed up they are, however foul, curt, short tempered, if you throw gas on their internal fires, it's going to turn out far worse for you than if you had just kept your mouth shut, forced a fake smile on your face and grin and bear it.  Truckers love to argue with CV inspection officers, they don't do themselves any favors and that's all on them.

So, after all of that time and he finally printed out his report, I was rather shocked to hear him say everything looked A okay, no problems. Please sign this either of these and keep one for yourself.  Say what? You've got to be joking me, I thought but didn't say out loud.   This dude was having a literal cow over the trailer registration.  He was impatient, petulant and bossy.  WHATEVER.  I just smiled, said thank you sir, he said thank you sir back and I hightailed it out  of there.  

That's a face palm moment with accompanying emoji that this thing isn't offering.  🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦

Ahh, there it is, just do a search in the emoji field.  

Ohhh! and this Ohio run? nixed. I texted Sheila - she's the dispatcher in Amarillo - there is no way I'm making it back in time to get a 10 hour break and then make it to the plant.  Skipping a lot of small talk - I like to find out about the people I'm talking to if they are open to it and I have my ways of getting to that place where they want  to discuss their personal dealings - she gave the Ohio run to someone else and then gave me another run to Brownsville on Monday!  So,  get to stay home tomorrow - well it's today now, 1 am, I didn't get home til after midnight - and then down there and back. They are so obsessed now with no detention pay after they got rid of my previous manager, I don't really expect it anymore.  So this trip was a pleasant surprise and a chunk of Benjamins to add to the trip.  

Umm, yeah, the dude that got dumped with the Ohio trip? VERY unhappy. He didn't know the whole story, but he got onto the group text and exclaimed that this driver from Louisiana - who refuses to learn how to unload trucks - got his Brownsville run and he has to go to Ohio.

I'm going to skip a lot of stuff and just say that these drivers love to complain about things that should be changed - but are too afraid to bring it up to management. If you just want to complain but do nothing about it, SHUT UP, thank you.  That's putting it nicely : )  It became evident they are all talk and no walk. I have no qualms speaking up about things that are obviously wrong and need fixing - just have to be nice about it, be less than direct and appeal to their authority.  Throw the ball into their court - but do it in a way they didn't even know the ball had been thrown.  It's called tact and I have it when I want to. It's not kissing ass - I don't do that well for I wasn't brought up that way.  

Well whatever. Dogs extremely happy to see me home lol.  One of the cats had been yelling for so long it was hoarse. Poor little kitty.  But it can stay in the pantry with the other cat, I'll let it out in the morning.  The other cat isn't allowed out - some problem with it. I'm not a cat person, don't ask me lol.

My UV sterilizer arrived - well ahead of their stated arrival date.  Taylor intoned where she wants the pond, not where I thought.  Much closer to the house and removing a brick structure she apparently doesn't like and put the pond where that structure exist.  I dunno if I'll start on that tomorrow or not, lots of physical labor involved with that.  I wish I had a brisket, if I'm going to be out there I might as well smoke something in the smoker.  I'm good with the location, lol.  I'll probably start on it, I'd really like to get this thing up and running. Motivation, in other words.  She wants a full tilt waterfall - she didn't demand that or anything, but it became obvious that is something she would love to see - so I'm going to have to think that one through a bit, how far I want to go with that.  I could build a very entailed thing that looks natural. Lots of work, but I could do it.  Doesn't mean I couldn't get the pond going before it's built, that doable.  

Umm, so. Sunday off. Whatever the holiday is Monday I'm working.  No biggies, they won't be home until late afternoon or evening anyways.  Labor Day, that's it.  Well I'll be celebrating Labor Day by laboring lmao.  

And with that, it's probably time to go to bed. I'm just a bit hyped out with that inspection and that officer, trying to wind down. 

 9:11 AM Saturday morning.

Trip down here - I'm in Brownsville - not terribly bad considering I didn't sleep worth a crap.  

This will mark the first time in 4 trips down here that I finally get some holdover-detention pay.  No trailers here last night, another driver ahead of me will get whatever comes in here first - tho normally they come in with 2 trailers almost at the same time whenever they do come in here.  Like, 10 minutes after the first one comes in, the second one shows up.  

All fine and dandy, my manager contacted me at 11:00pm - last night - asking "did you pick up an empty?".  Why is he contacting me that late at night? No idea, I had already gone to sleep and had forgotten to turn off my ringer.  Won't be making that mistake again for a while.  I have no obligation to be answering non-essential questions at near midnight.  

If you've read this blog for any length of time you know that I am a very light sleeper and once I wake up, it takes a while or a long time to get back to sleep.  

Again, at 8:00 am, the dispatcher this time, contacts me and asks about picking up an empty?  Umm, no, I"m sure she already knew that, not like they can't see exactly where I am at with GPS - and, I continued, the other driver is also waiting.  

I'm seeing if this drags out long enough that I can't make a 7:30 am load appointment tomorrow morning.  The saga of two "privileged" drivers who get nothing but Brownsville runs continues to drag on, as I was contacted yesterday with a run, told to cancel that, then another run, told to cancel that because there are "issues".  

The issue? The dude that boasts how the company will never train me how to unload trucks refused to take the load to Ohio on Sunday for "I don't know how to unload the trucks" - which is a lie from the pit of hell for I talked to a highly experienced driver a while back who said he had taken this dude to one of the trailers and showed him how everything works and how to unload.  In the case of what we deliver, it's not rocket science, nothing near as entailed as the Nitrogen and Oxygen I was learning over in Connecticut.  

So, I got bumped for what would have been a second Brownsville run in a row - after having not had any of them for almost 2 solid months - because of this dude.  Pissed me off, to be frank about it. This guy has been around for almost 6 months now and they aren't forcing him to learn. 

So yes, I did say something to the dispatcher about it, this stuff grows old.  "Uhh, btw, Edgar showed him how to unload a while back".  This dispatcher apparently isn't happy about this situation either, but only because other drivers continue to complain about it.  Literally, if we don't say anything, they'll just let it ride indefinitely.  These two drivers that are literally getting nothing but gravy runs have been her for something like 6 to 8 months now, transferred over from other divisions where I'm sure they would have had to have known/learned how to unload whatever they were hauling before.  That's the way it works in this company.

She texted back that she is tempted to start sending them on Oklahoma runs only and let them stew until they decide it's rather important to know how to do every aspect of this job.  Yes please.  Not that that will happen, but getting bumped by another driver who has far less seniority because of this endless excuse is irritating to say the least.  I might have had yet another chance at detention pay for it would have had me down here on Sunday and that's one of the best days to get here in terms of no trailers available. 

The whole deal with Brownsville run is you get a 2 day run that pays for 3 days of driving when you get overnight detention.  That's the deal.  Less miles, more money, easy peasy.  Of course everyone likes and yes, of  course it should be evenly distributed to everyone, not just 2 people that come up and down here all the freaking time. I flatly stated to the dispatcher that this was the first time in almost two MONTHS that I have had one of these runs. She said she would keep that in mind.

Yes, please and thank you.  "Yes sir".  So at least if nothing else - I was polite to her - a bit straightforward about it but that is the way I do most things, nothing new there - but firm enough to get my point across.  So I'll take the Ohio run and put this nonsense out of my mind at least temporarily.  I mean, it's 2,000 miles round trip so if nothing else, it's a good paying run but you're running hard to try and get it done in 3 days, if at all possible.

Leave the yard and the first goal is to get to Farina, Illinois.  That's 710 miles up the road.  You can't have any lengthy delays, if you do, you can cancel that idea.  After that, you drive the 300 plus miles up to the plant, hopefully get offloaded as soon as you get there - you call ahead and let them know you're coming and is it possible to unload me today? type of thing - then you try to make it back to Farina.  If you look at GPS at Farina on satellite view - really small town - there is a huge truckstop right off of I-57 there. It's never filled up because it's not a major brand name truckstop, always a parking spot there, which makes it an even more desirable destination, you don't have to worry about parking.  

If you don't make it back at least that far, good luck in making it a 3 day run.  Is it mandatory to do it in 3 days? No, it's desirable to get any of these runs over and done with as fast as possible, go home, spend time with dogs/kids/surrogate family before having to go back out again.  

But, here's the deal: If they don't get a trailer in here for me before, umm, well about now - 9:30 am - which is almost impossible, there is no way I will make it back to the yard in time to get a 10 hour break in time to get to the plant to get loaded.  Impossible.  Now, this new manager has attempted to rid us of all  detention pay, a thing all of us said something about, something of which I stated in person, to his face that we like and the company should like since they are making a large amount of money off of it as well - well he's obviously trying to get the plant in Mexico to get two trailers up here in time to get us on the road to get back to the yard in Longview.  

But I know how this works.  The local drivers hook up to the loaded trailers we pull in here, take them across the border and bring empties back over. That's usually a 2 hour process. I don't even think they're in the yard yet.  If they are, they haven't hooked up to those trailers and so I'm not getting out of here before noon at the earliest.  See, they take the loaded ones to their yard across the border which is where their OTR Mexico drivers hook up and take them to the plant in Altamira.  

That's the way it's gone down here for the almost 3 years I've been coming down here, I doubt the new manager has been able to change that, it wouldn't make any sense for them to cross the border with tractors only.  I'm just thinking out loud here, I may get off of the Ohio load and someone else can take it up there.  My objection to it is that they don't unload you until the next day after you arrive - meaning you're sitting there for up to 18 hours. Last time I went up there, they changed everything and had a night worker there unloading. Which was great, I got up there, got unloaded and get the Hercules out of there.  Back to Farina and it was a 3 day trip - it was the only time I've ever been able to do that run in 3 days.  But now, some other driver disputed that and said that they had reverted back to their normal shifts, but he as "not sure" about that.

I am not in love with sitting around a plant for 18 hours doing nothing and not getting paid a dime to sit there and wait - it's the not getting paid part that is baloney to me.  If they want this stuff up there, then get someone there at the plant to unload it. Otherwise, pay us.  We are on time, they should  have to deal with it one way or the other.  

Whatever the case, James/Taylor/kids went to Missouri yesterday.  She wasn't going to go because of the Corona virus scare, but since she tested negative, they decided to go anyway.  It was preplanned a while back until she got that fever and came down sick.  I do have a problem with them going up there: untold number of stories saying people have tested negative only to get another test - and even show negative then and then yet another test after they remain sick and find out they do, indeed have the virus. They're going to visit another grandma up there in her 80's I do believe. If she gets that virus, that's almost like a death sentence.  I hope Taylor doesn't have it, her fever has been gone a couple of days at least.  

Regardless, the 5 year old 2 nights ago was almost in tears because I told him I had to go to work the next day - which he knows means I'll be gone for several days usually.  I dunno why that boy is attached to me so much, but he is. I mean, we horse play alot lol.  He's almost grown up with me - sans the 2 years they were in Georgia.  I was around when he was a baby, missed the 2 to 3 year old stage and then caught the 4 and now 5 year old stage. He started kindergarten last week, he's a "big boy" now lol.  Anyway, he took his wristband off - it says "I can read, I rock!" and put it on my wrist. Declared I can have that until I get back and then he gets the wristband back.  Oh yes, you'll get it back!  

Good that they can go visit that particular grandma. She's only been down once to visit and she's getting up there in age.  

The dispatcher just texted.  I told her that they haven't even moved the empty trailers out of the yard, much less thinking about bringing in empty ones, I'd suggest you start working on plan B for getting that load up to Ohio.  They know that there are 2 trailers coming up today - they don't know when they're arriving.  Well, nothing against Mexicans, but their culture is a "take your time" culture.  They're not in a big hurry.  Especially with the rain, it rained all night long. Looks like it's clearing out here, but looks like it's raining almost the entire road up here from Altamira. Dunno how that affects them, but Mexico isn't known for it's great roads to begin with. 

Welp, that's enough for this one. I think I"ll go to Wing Stop when they open in 45 minutes and get some of their delicious wings to go.  

 Down 7 pounds since I started on Sunday.  6 days, 7 pounds.  That's not bad.  Motivation to keep going strict with carbs.  That's eating no sugar, potatoes, spaghetti, rice, beans, bread, milk, etc etc etc.  Taylor asking me what I want for dinner last night, I said how about some goulash with the ground beef I bought? Well you can't have the noodles tho.  No, I can take a portion of the sauce and put cooked cabbage in with it, it will be delicious.  So that's what we had.

I'm dreading whatever route I'll get tomorrow.  I haven't done nay serious driving since before I left for Vermont.  Vermont was a more attentive type of driving on narrow 2 lane highways, but the distances were short.  Most routes we have here are long and you're driving 600 to 700 miles a day to get them done.  That's quite the difference.  

Rained all night long and slated to rain all day today.  So my plans to start situating the pond still on hold.  

Forgot to take out the drain plug on the boat, I'll have to go do that this morning, that boat's hull fills up quickly, much faster than I ever would have expected, when it's raining.  Well I'm going to try to wait until I get tomorrow's work assignment so I can figure out if I need to make a bunch of food in advance - and subsequent visit to Kroger's or not.  I suspect I will be in limbo until this afternoon - which means I might as well bite the bullet and get over there and get that drain plug out.  Not good for the wiring being submerged in water, the hull will completely fill up, no joke. When I first got that boat and saw that after it rained I was a bit shocked, actually.  Like, how did it fill up that fast?!!

They have, apparently, fixed this week's paycheck to reflect monies left out last week. Plus all of the expenses with the receipts I turned in, if I'm reading it correctly, plus the minimum daily wage.  It's around a 4 grand paycheck - before taxes of course tho the expenses won't be taxed.  That will replenish my rather deleted checking account after spending all of that money on baggage fees and eating plus not getting paid everything that i was supposed to last week.  I'm going to have to print the last 2 weeks pay out with the itemizations  and ensure that I am being paid for all of it, for tomorrow's paycheck will - should - reflect the full amount of what I am owed for that trip.  

++++++++++++++++

Coronavirus certainly hasn't made land owners who are attempting to sell their land in this area desperate.  Land going for extremely exorbitant price per acre for undeveloped land. As much as 10k per acre.  I dunno why they think it's worth that much money, but it's nothing I'm going to get involved with.  I've been looking.  Today I spent more time perusing lots for sale, just unbelievable.  It bascically forces the issue that if i want land, I'll have to buy elsewhere, pay a very steep price for it or get it at one of the tax lien auctions.  I've been watching for the next one coming up, but since they had one at the beginning of July, I don't really expect to see another one until probably September.

I would like to hope whatever the next one is, it will have few people there.  The virus has hit enough people's personal finances, perhaps that's favorable for a tax lien sale.  I dunno but I intend on being at the next one if at all possible.  They always have at least a couple of 30 plus acre properties for sale, tho usually the amount of minimum bid is more than I have.  Whatever the case, the fund for that ventures grows monthly, but at the rate it is going, it will be a couple of years before there is enough to stand a legitimate chance at any decent amount of acreage.  But, it's a goal and I have a chunk of change going into Autosave every month. 

Whatever the case, the boat was almost full of water.  Good thing I went over there when I did.  More rain today. Plus I forgot to put the hitch lock on it. It may be a secure lot, but that doesn't make it theft proof.  I keep putting off getting insurance on it, but I guess I best do it in case I get into an accident or in case it's stolen.  

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$309 for a full year's worth of full coverage insurance on the boat if paid up front.  That's everything including towing and bringing fuel out to you up to 3 grand.  That's pretty small price to pay to have the assurance that if I wreck the thing, if someone else runs into it, if I run into anyone, if it's in a car accident being towed, if it's stolen, I will be covered or reimbursed.  I think that kind of money spent on that thing warrants having some insurance on it.  That's less than $30 per month (monthly payments ratchet it up to double that price, I'll be paying it up front).  

And I'm going to Brownsville tomorrow morning. She sent a 10:30 load time which would have been great for starting back out again. But 5 minutes later she said it was moved up to 7:30 am.  I'm not sure what to think about that. If I'm getting bumped for someone else getting the 2cd or 3rd load spot for that run, then I'm going to be unhappy.  It removes the chance - or greatly lessons it anyway - of getting any detention pay.  She said they bumped her up on it, we'll see. I've noticed a penchant for management and dispatchers to make up (false) stories in this company.  As always, if I weren't making as much money as I am on a yearly basis, I would seriously be thinking about finding a new place to work - tho that alone wouldn't do it. Just the combination of things.  

As the old saying goes, money talks, bs walks.  It's been almost 2 months since I've been to Brownsville, it will be nice to do a familiar route that I don't have to even think about how to get down there, just automatic in my brain lol.  Note that the last 3 times I've been down there I have gotten no detention pay.  And note that the story is coming out that the new manager has basically tried to get rid of it completely.  I figured that from the beginning tho it made zero since since it decreases the amount of money the company gets for that account - substantially decreases it.  

And the Dow Jones - after going to record highs, dived 810.87 points today.  I was so close to 100k in my 401k's. Yes, that isn't very much money but for me, it really is.  Couldn't retire on that but I feel like I'm really getting somewhere finally with it. I'm not concerned about a huge drop, we've seen that over and over this year and yet it keeps coming back up. 

Well enough. The mechanics left early, they seem to do that alot.  I contacted them to start up the truck, it hasn't been run in weeks that I know of and it probably is going to have dead batteries. He said he'd show up early tomorrow in case it won't. Tomorrow is Friday, that's a good excuse for him to get to work early and get off early so that works for me.  

As for the entry, I"m done.  I don't need to make too much food for the road since there are dining options on the way down to Brownsville and in Brownsville itself.  My favorite is the baked chicken at a gas station that is popular in both Refugio and Riviera.  

 So the dispatcher - a different person in a different location than my manager - finally contacted me and asked me when i was I going to be ready to go back to work? I replied I had only asked for a couple of days off, I have been ready to go back to work.  But since I've had almost a week off, I'm going to use vacation hours to make up for it.  

The reality is that on the driver text list that informs other drivers about loading and whether it's on time or not? Hasn't been updated in days, that means we are extremely slow and that is 99% chance likely the reason they haven't contacted me before today.  

The dispatcher must have asked my manager about m availability for she replied she didn't know I was available until today.  When I contacted my manager to ask to put 40 vacation hours on my next paycheck, I only got a 10-4 and subsequent text "done".  This is how I know that they weren't exactly chomping at the bit to get me back to work along with the driver texting group.  

It further became evident that we must be really slow when she finally got back to me and said I'll send you out Friday - tomorrow is Thursday.  It's whatever to me.  I could have forced the issue, I just decided I will take the time off without saying anything, I just didn't think it would take them this long to actually contact me about going back to work.  I still have 45 hours of vacation available and a whole year's worth of vacation hours will be dumped into my account in November, which isn't all that far off. 

Now, I could have used some of this time to fly back to Arizona, yes.  But I wouldn't have been able to see my mother - unless they have the quick tests at the very least to ensure I don't have the virus.  I would have been able to stay at my son's new house of course and swim in his awesome looking swimming pool. No biggies.  I dunno when I'm going back tbh.  Maybe sometime this year, but it's really dependent on this virus nonsense.  It may be that I won't travel home until after they get their vaccine - not that I want to take it. I personally wouldn't suggest anyone that I know taking that vaccine until a large enough portion of the population takes it first and determine that it's actually safe to have injected into your veins.  

Or into your flesh, or however that works, I haven't had a vaccine shot in so long. 

Today - I cleaned the kitchen lol.  Everyone but the boys are home. Taylor went to work, only to be sent back after a manager questioned the time after a fever for being "allowed" to come back to work per the state's rules. It's 3 days, not the 24 hours the owner of the company said. So we have all been home today, not necessarily accomplishing anything but then again, it's been raining so my pond aspirations were put off. 

Perhaps tomorrow. I need to get Taylor out there first anyway and discuss the placement of the pond. She wanted the in-ground pond move to the rear of the property as it stood.  I have a place for it out of the way and where no grass ever grows.  But, it's not my house and I want to make sure there aren't  any objections to it.  I have the materials to build a stand for the waterfall filter and Taylor was suggesting building a full fledged waterfall - that might come in time it would make it a really nice place to sit and chat with people.  

Another nice thing about where I want to put it is there is only one tree over top of it and it's not one of the trees that dumps garbage year round. Sure some leaves fall off of it, but not dead branches, acorns, these giant seed balls that fall off and of course tons of leaves.  I could really turn the area into a "destination" area with enough work on it.  But, building that up like that definitely would need to have a consensus on where it goes first.  

Well, with that I'm going to watch reruns of Star Trek Generations lol.  

 This isn't the first time that they have somehow forgotten that I am - not working but should be.  Pretty much every time I come back from vacation this happens.  And other situations where they don't even realize that I am available - but that's their job.  I was going to text the dispatcher today and ask about getting back on the road - but I didn't lol.

But tomorrow I'll have to get back in the system.  My manager definitely knows I'm back, we might be slow but we aren't that slow.  I'll ask for 20 or 30 hours of vacation time put on next week's check and go back to work.  Whatever work they have, I assume I'm not getting sent to Brownsville and I assume I'll get sent to Alabama or Illinois.  Guess, I should say.

Anyway, I just checked and I am back in ketosis.  Like I said, I'm following the diet strict for the next month or so and lose a bunch of this fat and get it over with.  Drinking nothing but water all day long and a few cups of coffee in the morning.  No diet sodas, no low carb beers.  I might get some tea for a change up, stuff that helps with this diet actually.  I'm down 4 pounds as it is without ketosis, this should really start coming off quick.

What I was doing for the last  - 8 months or longer was eating more carbs than I should and not really following the diet that strict, maintaining my weight but at too high of a level. After this trip, however, gaining 10, well actually I was down to 209 so 11 pounds now that I think about it?  Time to get serious again.  

I will have to be prepared to leave tomorrow. A lot of times I contact them after this stuff happens being on hold and they come up with something and ask if I can "leave today?".  I never say no, but I will be putting my mind into that zone in case they do that.  It's funny my manager isn't keeping up with this stuff.  I wasn't fired or let go, lol, just got done taking a random drug test, so I know they aren't getting rid of me. 

I won't fail a random lol. I don't take drugs and no alcohol in my system.  

But, if they don't happen to send me off tomorrow I'll be working on building a platform for the pond waterfall filter, get the water treatment chemicals to condition the water.  

 Sunday.

Rebooted the diet.  Gained 10 pounds on the road.  I'm going to be strict about the carbs for the next few weeks and keep it under 20 per day and lose the weight I gained back and then some.  

Found a galvanized 6 foot stock tank 2 towns over. I don't think I"m working tomorrow - well I'm pretty sure about that since it's 3:00 pm and no word from anyone about it - so I'll go get it tomorrow.  I have to wait for a new UV sterilizer to come in before I will fill it up with water, but I can figure out what I'm going to do for a "lid" for it in the meantime.  

Birds ate most of my fish, I figure to use PVC piping and create a cover that birds cannot get through. Something light and easily removed yet good enough to keep these giant fishing birds from taking my rather expensive fish out of there.  Kind of defeats the purpose of a Koi pond when birds of prey are eating them up.  

I think I will also get another kind of setup where I can order 300 2 inch Koi and grow them in the tank and sell them.  I was going to have Maria do it and earn some money, but she didn't want anything to do with it.  Fine.  It's not gong to make me rich but if I keep them in there until they're 4 or 5 inches long I can snag a good price for them. They're hard to find in this region and there is a market for them.

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Monday.  Day 4 from being back, no work sent to me.  I haven't exactly been asking, but it's time to go back to work.  I'll probably use some vacation time to cover these days off.  I only asked for a couple of days off after getting back.  

My manager texted me this morning asking me to come to work and get this paperwork stuff done. Yes, well to get paid I had to do that. So, I hooked up the trailer fully expecting to go pickup a galvanized stock tank, went to work and turned in all of my receipts.  Almost $700 worth.  He also gave me a generous amount of travel time - apparently that's not paid out the $300 per day, but I came out ahead on that situation by $70 so I was okay with that.

And then i was handed a random drug test.  He said he'd actually received it for me while I was in Vermont, but decided to make me wait until I got back.  He looked at me and asked if I even could pass one right now?  Lol, yes, I don't take drugs and I haven't had any alcohol, I'm good.  It's the first random they have given me since I started working there, which is getting close to 3 years.  So, you go straight to the drug testing place once they give that to you, if you don't they - get upset.  It didn't take long and then over to Home Depot.

Where I saw the stock tank on sale.  But, of course, they don't even sell stock tanks.  Lol.  Okayyyyy. I searched the entire store, I had looked these tanks up online and it showed that the Longview location had one.  Whatever.  Over to Tractor Supply, who did, indeed have one and at a better price than the one listed at Home Depot.

And after paying for the tank and waiting in the parking lot, a rather odd event occurred with an older lady driving a giant, brand new ford F250 pickup attempting to back out of her parking space.  I posted all of that on my Facebook, don't really want to go into all of that again, but she got out of the truck, acted like I was blocking her - which i wasn't, demanded I move (instead of simply asking nicely) - I said sure - IF you ask nicely - she refused, called the cops and...whatever. Cops never showed, I just sat there and waited to get into the tractor supply yard in order to get my tank.  She easily  could have maneuvered her truck out of there.  She was a real piece of work.  Annnnnddddd. this woman just had to come into the yard and tell me "I won, you lost!". Juvenile, erratic, stupid behavior by an at least mid 60's individual. 

Home after that.  Not any hurry to set it up, I have a UV sterilizer coming, I won't fill the tank up until I have that sterilizer set up, otherwise the pond will turn bright green and algae everywhere.  I also want to fashion some sort of screened top for it.  I'll get the thing in place at least tomorrow.  And figure out how to set up the waterfall filter. It's going to have to be a couple of feet off the ground.  I'm not really sure about the screen covering yet, I'd really like some pond plants in there which would mean a bit different setup than what I had originally thought of doing.  

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Tuesday.

Play time over. I'm going to contact the disptacher today and ask when she intends on sending me back out on a run and inform her I've been sitting 5 days as of today. I really didn't mind this unasked for time off, to be honest so no biggies.  Just emailed the payroll department to see how many vacation hours I have left this year, going to take some of it to buffer these days off and not just lose that money in not working.

In looking up the yellow bellied water snakes, yes they do like to fish and yes they will clean out a Koi pond. I feel like I have no choice but to either catch and release them somewhere else or kill them.  I'll start out with cheap goldfish when I get the new pond setup going - if they eat those no great loss. Koi, even small ones, are like $10 a piece.  And then when they grow a few inches they're worth even more. The larger they get, the more they're worth.  I ordered a fake Blue Heron to set up next to the pond to deter those birds at least. They do work, I have one at the house in Phoenix and the herons stay away from the house.

But snakes post a different problem and they already live on the property. They sell snake traps, Im not sure I want to go to any expense in dealing with creatures that I very much dislike.  There are things I can do to try to keep them away from the pond, there is a stream that goes through the back yard which is what attracted them here in the first place. But, shedded snake skins on the pond I have now show they love the in ground pond and they may actually be the culprits that were eating my fish. A pond cover might keep out birds, it won't keep out snakes.  

The problem is these snakes set up shop underneath the concrete slap on the rear carport long ago.  There are urine smells from certain animals you can buy that allegedly scare them away.  I dunno.  Others say they will not necessarily eat your fish. Well something ate most of them.  There are things you can put on the bottom of your pond that the fish can hide in.  I might go that route, just try to keep count of the numbers of fish in there and see if they start disappearing.  

Anyway, I'll get out back and get the thing in place today and do some cleanup out  there - we did get storms coming through with the remnants of the hurricane and of course the yard is messy.  One good thing I can say is the neighbors next to us on the uphill side finally had a crew of people come out and clean the yard up.  There is still a lot of debris on the ground over there, but it's better than the nothing they had going before.  It's very disconcerting to spend hours cleaning up a yard, have  a storm come through the next day and have the yard look exactly the same as it did before you cleaned it up. It happens so often I finally gave up on it.  

I've lost 4 pounds since I started back on the diet 3 days ago.  I've been watching the carbs and keeping it down, the diet doesn't work unless you keep the carbs way down.  Keeping your carb intake under 20 per day may sound easy to some people, but go ahead and try it for a few weeks and then you'll get an idea how difficult it is to keep up with.  

Meanwhile, I'm watching democrats blame Trump for the violence. These are the same people that proclaimed the rioting that has been going on is actually peaceful protesting. Then some of these idiots said that there is nothing wrong with violence and where does the right come up with this narrative?

Well, that "narrative" come from the Constitution of the United States.  They obviously haven't read it or don't care what it says.  Trump proclaimed himself the candidate of law and order and that stand is resonating with most Americans.  Nobody wants to wake up in the morning to find rioters in their city has burned down even more buildings, killed more people and assaulted more cops and citizens.  

And I believe swing voters aren't near as dumb as these democrats such as Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi think they are. They have completely flip-flopped in their statements.  Their true colors are flying for everyone to see. You also have Pelosi attempting to blame Republicans for the impasse on another stimulus bill, when it's clearly Pelosi who is refusing to negotiate, at all.  "We came down". Well your initial and secondary "offers" are mind blowing amounts of money. Even the 1.3 trillion the right has moved it up to is a ridiculous, unfathomable amount of money.  

I personally don't care if they can't pass any new stimulus bill.  I also wish Trump would start talking about reducing the deficit and actually starting to pay off the national debt.  That apparently isn't popular with Americans? I dunno, but Biden is promising more taxes and contrary to what he states, it will affect middle class and even some lower class income earners.  

I guess in the end, it's going to be who do you believe?  

Anyways, with Taylor's negative outcome of virus test, the kids went back to school today.  She did not go back to work.  It's been stated that some people get a test, it comes back negative, another one, another negative and then a third that shows positive.  I guess these tests aren't very reliable.  In any case, having to wait 3 days for a result is a bit much knowing that they have tests that take less than 30 minutes out there.  

It's really one of the reasons I didn't go back to work or ask to. Come home from Vermont, find a person that just got sick with a fever and has had that fever ever since.  When that happened I thought, geeze, i should have just stayed up there another week or two.  I'm glad to be home but yeah, I'd rather just stay away from it if possible. 

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ABout time to end this one lol.  Still not dispatched and just decided to take vacation hours to compensate.  I'll definitely ask tomorrow cause' it should mean get dispatched and be home for part of the weekend maybe.  I dunno. 

 All the symptoms of COVID-19!

Not me, someone else here. Low grade fever, coughing, fatigue, hard to breath, coughing, nausea.  

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I think it's day 3 of that for her, going on day 4. I haven't seen her today so I dunno how she's doing but considering she's still in bed I assume she's still not feeling well.  She gets the results of COVID test either today or tomorrow.  If she has it, we're all allegedly supposed to isolate for 14 days or whatever it is now?

No clue, haven't paid any attention to that nonsense lately.  

Finally found a storage place for my boat - too much stuff around here, I wanted to find a cheap place to store it out of the way. At $50 per month in a fenced, gated location with 24 hour access, I found the perfect place and it's only a few miles away.  Getting that taken care of this morning, my attention diverts to setting up a new pond.  Instead of in ground, it's going to be a galvanized horse trough. The only ones I've found around here are 8 footers which is larger than I wanted and also much more expensive.  

I'm still looking. A 6 foot version is perfect and less than $300. No one sells used ones around here, I've been looking in several different forums. Even a rusted one would be fine since I have a pond liner I can put into it.  I have everything else I need for it. 

Farmer's Almanac is predicting a much colder winter this year than last year.  The area I just came back from has already been recruiting 100 drivers to go up there and haul LNG for the winter. I do not want to be one of those people or the other gig for the college or apparently even more gigs to handle the overload of business needing the gas for heating purposes.  I'm rather curious why all of these places don't have pipelines running the stuff to them.  Especially a giant college - it's literally a city of its own.

I have no idea when I'm starting work again, but I'll assume Tuesday for lack of a better guess since it's likely all the weekend and Monday assignments have already been handed out.  Other drivers are still fuming about the 2 new drivers getting the gravy runs.  To the point one of them sent a text to the manager about it. He never got back to us of what the manager said - tho in my limited experience with him he probably didn't reply at all.

Tonight at 6:00 pm there is going to be a protest in the city square here.  Yes, these people are here.  Whether they are locals, outsiders or a mixture of the two, I do intend on driving up there and watching for a bit to see what happens. They are still complaining about that Confederate statue that's been there 115 years, I would be surprised if there weren't armed citizens standing around it tonight.  I'm not going up there to start or look for trouble - tho rest assured I will be armed, concealed carry tho - I want to see what happens. If it's truly a peaceful protest then more power to them.  That's their right. They don't, however, have the right to tear down the statue, assault police officers and attempt to burn down buildings.

Guaranteed the county Sheriff Deputies would put an immediate stop to any of that nonsense. This isn't the big city and they aren't going to tolerate that s*** here.  I've been speaking my opinion of it for a while now and that if any of it came here I would be there in the midst of it, time to put my money where my mouth is.  Again, I am not going there to start any trouble, whatsoever, no MAGA hat or shirt, just an interested citizen. 

I'm kind of in a holding pattern here waiting to find out if the lady of the house has the virus.  It will definitely make life interesting if she does, for that likely means we'll all get it.  I'm not at the age where it's of particular concern but I'm close enough to it.  Worried? No.  But, there is a certain element of concern when facing something that could potentially take your life.  I'm not being dramatic, lol, it is what it is.

Well I guess I best get outside, get my SUV hooked up to the boat and get it ready to go.  I doubt the neighbor is liking where I parked it tho she has said nothing about it.  It's on our property but it's between our houses where the lawn is actually quite nice.