The dude showed up late.  He also said there were 170 pages of documents he would have to go through and signing a large number of them.  

It took much longer than expected.  The land loan was a fractional amount of paperwork and signing than this behemoth.  

I have 3 business days to change my mind - which puts it at Tuesday. Monday is Martin Luther King day, they consider that a national holiday.  I doubt I will be changing my mind, but now that I have the entire thing in paper format, I'm going to go through it all again - without this guy just showing me it, explaining it and telling me I can read it later - and scrutinize everything.

Actually, I was appreciative the man showed up. It was last minute stuff for him, he certainly wasn't obligated to take the job - but I'm sure it pays well.  

I texted my dispatcher after and she informed me that they had found someone else to take the empty trailer to Amarillo.  Well thanks for telling me....I was going to ask to just take it tomorrow considering how late it's getting. Instead, she tells me I have a load for tomorrow but didn't tell me where and hasn't sent the paperwork yet.

______________________________

Thursday morning 

I'm just going to tolerate this dispatcher, act as if nothing is wrong. The other drivers are putting her through the wringer, I am not going to add on to it. And besides, she sent me yet another Brownsville run, that's 5 in a row.  Even in the best of times that was unheard of. I would actually like an Oklahoma run, that way I could have most of tomorrow off, but, this is good money and I will just deal with the nuances of this particular trip, the worst of which being the drive through Houston.

I'm going to redo the park plan map I made for the contractor and add 4 spaces to it, see what kind of increase in cost it will give me.  Probably around 10k.  18 spaces would be a better position financially if I could keep them mostly full most of the time, at least during peak season. 

Whatever the case, my math was off, I had not added on the additional 14k I received recently and just showed up in my bank account.  After the 66k is dumped in there, I should - hopefully - have ample finances to fund this project. 

With that, I'm outta here. Going to get to the yard early and get to the loading plant early as well.

G'day

 So, finishing my shower, I received an email from the loan company with the final version of the closing.  I was literally shocked to find out that instead of the 85k I was going to get, it went down to 66k.

Now there's a history behind this.  The loan officer called me the other day asking me about this 20k that was "hidden" behind the loan. Yes, I told you about that at the beginning.  Okkk, he says, well that wasn't included in the loan amount.  

So what are you telling me? I replied. Are you going to take 20 grand off of the cash out?  He was looking at it while on the phone with me for a while, said well no, it looks like it was baked into the loan itself.  I said great.  Fast forward to literally just a few minutes ago and I'm looking at this thing and my plans going right out the window.  

I wanted 70k left over after paying off debt.  I texted him my dismay and confusion about this. He immediately called me - I'm speaking of the loan officer -and went off how he told me the other day about this.  Yes, you did and you said the 20k was actually part of the original loan, nothing to worry about.  We went back and forth for several minutes, until he finally apologized.  He said he thought he had clarified it for me and it's up to me.  He did go over the details of even with only 66k, I'm saving a ton of money off of the current loan because of the way they made it up. 

Yes, I didn't know they had made it a 40 year loan, that information wasn't disclosed to me at all.  They must have just slid it on by me without my knowing it, I would never have agreed to a 40 year loan.  Or would I? My memory serves me that the loan was 30 years.  That means right now, I should have around 22 years left on it.  It was a modification made during the Obama era, well after the 2008 housing bubble that - screwed America up for quite a while.  

I knew about the 20k thing, I didn't know about the 40 year thing.  Anyway, it had dropped my monthly payment almost $300 and I was quite pleased with that.  

We discussed this new loan for a bit and I just opted to go ahead and continue on with it.  I can't get 66k loan at 2.3% interest rate anywhere else, that's a fact.  And it's only adding $300.  A 66k personal loan would have me in the $1,500 per month range.  So, still waiting on the dude to show up, but now my mind is flooded with new thoughts about how to handle everything.  Should I still pay off some debt and get 2 loans paid off and some credit card debt pay off?

I think the easy answer to that is yes, definitely. But now, how much of it should I pay down?  I am paying it down $500 over minimum monthly payments as it stands, but it was going to take a while to get them down into near zero territory.  

I'll be thinking about that for a while.  No need to rush it, but I will pay off those small loans this month.  I also realized I won't have to pay the mortgage this month.  The loan will be paid off, there is no need to make that payment.  I can use that towards paying off those loans.  

I just have to rethink what I am going to put up initially.  I still need a bath house and an office.  I'm guessing around $35k for those two, maybe 40k.  A swimming pool I wasn't going to pay cash on anyway, I was going to try to get a pool loan. 

Actually, thinking about it, I just want to get my credit cards down to 10% of total available credit. That's when your credit score cranks up nicely.  The rest I'll just pay off over time, continuing with making large cash payments towards the highest amount on one particular card that I've used quite a bit.  

Ok. Getting it down to 10% won't be that much money, I should have round 122k after all is said and down towards building out the park. 26k for the utilities, probably another 15k for the gravel and lots, 8k for the office building and unknown for the bath house.  I was thinking 20k but that might be low balling it. I'm not planning on building a huge bath house, just maybe 1 bathroom/shower for men and 1 for women plus a small laundry room on the side - or - get another portable build for laundry.  

Actually, I can get a decent sized portable building for a bath house as well, around 10k. But, you have to do all the interior work.  I bet another 10k to do all of that.  I'm not really there yet, sort of tho now that I won't have as much money as I originally anticipated.  

Well with all of that I'm at no more than 75k, I'll say 80k to be safe.  That's 42k left over to do everything else.  I think I'm safe.  The other stuff is a doggy park, finish the walking trails, dig out a pond and develop the lots - new, small trees to be planted and plant grass. Put some bushes near the trees and over time it will all grow to be a beautiful setup.  Oh, picnic tables at every lot and fire rings.  And also tent camp sites - but those shouldn't cost too much.  Primitive sites, they will have running water, picnic table, fire ring and considering building these pads they put up with sand in them - I think it's sand anyway - to pitch a tent on and have a more comfortable setting.   and that's it.  If they want electricity, they can stay home lol. No way, at least currently, that I'm running electricity all the way back there, far too costly.

Some day, if I ever decide to build a house back there, then yes, they will have to install telephone poles to run the power line over the easements.  Not sure how I'll get water back there with those easements, perhaps I can just install the line with shut off valve, if they need to dig up a portion of it in an emergency, just destroy the pipe and do what you need to do, I can fix it after they're done. A separate septic system would have to be installed back there.  

Oh, back on Keto. Went off of it for the holidays, started back up about 5 days ago.  Getting fat, the problematic point for me is contemplating having to buy the next sized up pants. No thanks.

Anyway, the officer should be here any time now.  

 News

A local loan officer will be here at 1:00 pm to do the closing signing.  You can't just have any ole' notary, I found out, you have to have one certified in closing documents. Learn something new every day? I guess, a regular notary would have just brought the papers, had me sign them, endorse it with their signature and stamp, enter into their log and be done with it. Right? I will find out soon enough, it's 11:30 am.  The loan officer from the company I'm doing the refi/cash out said that if I want to have it wire transferred, I need to fill in a block of info on the signing.  

Yup, I don't want a check, I want it wired directly into my account.  After that, it's going to go into another account. Last I checked, you are only covered up to 100k at a bank, after that,  your loss.  Just going to dump that entire amount into a new bank account after I get it set up, a local bank at that.  

Beyond that? Well my dispatcher apparently has been starting a lot of trouble with other drivers, I found out from the guy that initiated the driver texting group.  First, she sent out a text to all drivers - excepting me, I'm not on the list and knew nothing about until yesterday - saying that Comacho - he's the dude that runs the transportation department of the company that has us hauling all of that cryo product down to the border.  She informed everyone that detention pay would not longer be paid 14 hours from the moment you arrive, detention time would start after 10 hours of being down there.  

That would all-but-effectively end detention pay.  When we go down there, we start the 14 hour detention clock immediately.  After 14 hours, we are "off" for 10 and then if we stay a second day, the 14 hour clock starts again after the 10.  Note that the old company I first worked for before it was bought out by this current company gave us detention pay the entire time we were down there.  

She started a firestorm of angry drivers, apparently, contacting her, her manager and our manager.  Shortly after she sent out this text, her manager sent out a group text, including to her: Ignore Amanda's last text, nothing has changed with detention pay.  Must have been a slap in this new dispatcher's face, she for some reason hates that we get paid for waiting down there and has made it very well known to everyone, including my manager, who apparently had some choice words for her.  HE got the contracted re-worked after this  new company bought us all out and got us the 14 hour wait pay. They were going to do away with it altogether.

There would have been hell to pay with that decision, no one would want to go down there. Why should we? Wait for up to 2 sometimes even 3 days for nothing? No thanks.  Especially knowing the fact that our company gets paid for that wait time regardless.  

After that, this driver that called me went down a list of people she had pissed off. He said that if I ask literally anyone in our group if they had had a bad encounter with her, they would all give a resounding yes!  Typical truck drivers, speak first, think later.  But, perfectly understand the derision that ensued in mocking this dispatcher - tho I won't engage in that.  He then found out I wasn't on that list and apparently a viola! went up - he wondered why I hadn't jumped in there and said something immediately.  I probably would have, tho not deriding the dispatcher, I would have questioned the validity of her statement.  

Apparently this dispatcher has caused so much angst and anger among drivers, most of them are hoping she is fired and many are looking for new jobs.  This company couldn't cover a bunch of drivers walking out.  There are having a hard time finding new drivers - as are most all trucking companies - and are giving away prizes and lots of cash to anyone that can recruit new drivers into the company.  It's probably why they have, so far, tolerated me covering up the inward facing camera and microphone with duct tape.  

I'm actually glad I missed all of that.  

As for today? I have no desire to drive, yet, she wants me to take an empty to Amarillo for service and bring an empty that has been serviced, back.  She knew I had this going on today, but she told my manager "he has some personal business" to attend to. She neither knew the time it was going to occur nor did she care that I wanted the day off and that she had already given it to me. I am weary from constant working. I need a day or even two off right now.  From now on, I'm copying both the dispatch manager and my manager with any promises of time off.

We are planning a vacation to San Antonio soon - no date yet.  Probably 3 nights. Doing the river walk. I haven't been there in many, many years.  There's a lot of stuff to do there and there are some really nice hotels. But once I we get a date and I ask her for the time off, I'm making sure that this isn't going to happen again.  

The land clearing? I've asked this contractor a few times in the last couple of weeks, via text messaging, when he was planning on starting the project?  He never replied, so yesterday I asked again. No reply, so I sent a ? and then finally he said he was hung up on a project in DeKalb (small town probably 90 miles north of here) where he was building another RV park.  He said the rain had stopped work and they were waiting for the land to dry up so they could resume and finish. He said "probably" the 24th, which is two Mondays from now.

No, I am not upset about that. I have yet to finish the tree marking and frankly, I'm weary.  I could have gone out there this morning and done it, but I instead have been sitting in my bedroom for several hours.  I got up early, went with Taylor to take the 7 year old to the bus stop and then the 4 year old to day care.  Then off to breakfast, over to Super 1 to get some hamburger meat that is on sale - a lot of it - home, roasted a whole chicken, have that ready to go and now? Just going to take a shower, get ready to go after this guy shows up and we do the signing.  I wouldn't mind if he didn't show up until around 5:00 pm. I could then legitimately say the day is gone, I can go tomorrow or you can find someone else.  I've already made over $2,000 for next pay period, I'm getting a very large paycheck tomorrow, had a large paycheck last friday and the one before it was great as well.  

That's the only benefit of endless driving.  Huge paychecks.  I'm always of the thought, however, that there is more to life than working or money.  Money is good to have, yes, but it shouldn't consume an entire life to the point you have no time for anything else.  Hence, wanting to get into the RV park business - get that up and running, expand it when I have the financial capability to do so and then do that full time.  Home every day, have some part time employees helping out.  Taylor will arleady take care of the books and phone calls.  She found someone to clean the bathroom once a day.  I only need someone to clean up the property here and there - or I guess I can do it when I'm in town but I'm not sure I'm home often enough to keep up with it.  

Initially, the park will not have on sight management. It will have video surveillance to at least keep an eye on things.  And limited surveillance. The outside of the bath house, the entrance to the small office, probably the entrance and exits to the lots.  Oh, and one on the gas driveway.  That's about it, I don't want to get too intrusive with surveillance.  I'm not sure how I would sell firewood with no one there to collect the proceeds.  I'm not going to give it away.  I guess I could just have several cords out there and "please call" this number, say how many bundles you want and we will charge the credit card on file.  Maybe.  It's not just to make money, it's for all the people that want to have fires - there isn't going to be any wood laying around out there. 

Anyway, I need to get offa here, take a shower and get ready for the day ahead.

G'day.

 The person writing this article says it is a relatively "new" meaning for the word, but I've been hearing it literally all my life. 

Regardless, here is a bit of info on "being trespassed". 

BEHIND THE DICTIONARY

LEXICOGRAPHERS TALK ABOUT LANGUAGE

Trespassers Will Be Trespassed

April 25, 2013

By Neal Whitman

My sons and I arrived early at the mall movie theatre last weekend, so the three of us decided to explore a little. Doug, Adam, and I walked up to the multiplex's mostly empty upper floor, and down the hall that accessed the back exits to some of the individual theatres. We realized that we could sneak into some movies this way, by simply boarding the elevator on the ground floor, in the public area of the mall, and exiting on this floor, inside the theatre. Bypassing the box office and guest services desk, we'd be free to enter the theatres from the back.

In search of other discoveries, we continued to the end of the hall, where we saw an exit sign, and decided to see where the exit passage led. We descended a metal staircase, checking out sparse graffiti on bare drywall. At the bottom of the stairs, I was puzzled to see that the passage that had been labeled an exit at the top of the stairs was now an area for "Authorized Personnel Only." So we turned back. Back on the main level of the theatre, Doug remarked that the sign had also said, "Violators will be trespassed." Adam and I told him he must have misread, but he was insistent, so we turned away from the concession area to check out his story. We went to another out-of-the-way exit door, which Doug realized was near the bottom of the stairs we'd climbed. We held the door open while Doug went back to the sign and took this picture:

He was right!

I've seen signs that say "Violators will be prosecuted," and some that say, "Trespassers will be prosecuted" — although Garner's Modern American Usage points out that since trespassing is usually a tort rather than a crime, prosecute is usually the wrong word. And of course, there are the (semi-)joking versions that say, "Trespassers will be violated," which has been mentioned in places such as a 1983 issue of Verbatim, and dates back at least to 1958, according to Google Books. I wondered if the theatre sign was a joke, put up by a rogue employee, or maybe just some other explorer like us. Or maybe the creator of the theatre sign had had in mind Trespassers will be violated, realized it was a joke, didn't quite know how to fix it, and ended up just swapping the verbs trespass and violate. However, I've since learned that the verb trespass has picked up a new meaning in the last twenty years or so, one which hasn't yet made it into any of the dictionaries I've checked.

Following a suggestion from Jonathon Owen of Arrant Pedantry, I called the number on the sign the next day and talked with a man from mall security, who told me that trespassed meant "evicted from the premises for a certain period of time." He also said that he had been confused at first, too: "I felt the exact same way as you."

Trespass, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, comes via French from the Latin trans ‘across' and passare ‘pass'. It has been used in English since about 1300, and is usually an intransitive verb, sometimes taking a preposition, as in trespass upon or as we forgive those who trespass against us. In the past it has also been used as a transitive verb, taking as its direct object the person that the trespasser injures. An OED citation from 1523: "They had greatly trespassed the prince." Even the line from the Lord's Prayer has had transitive trespass in some translations: The OED cites a 1526 publication of the Bible as having "even as we forgeve them which treaspas vs." These days, you can find transitive trespass with the property as the direct object, as in this line from the Orlando Sentinel in 1989: "Cutting through parking lots is trespassing, and private property should not be trespassed." But both of those uses refer to going where you shouldn't go or doing what you shouldn't do, not to banning someone from your property.

The earliest attestation I've found for trespass with that meaning is from 1990, in a digest of criminal court cases from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida:

… the defendant will stay away from the community of Plantersville so long as the Beardens and Mott family live there, particularly stay away from and is trespassed from Nina Mott or any member of her family...

The next example is from six years later, in a similar digest from the same publisher, this one with court cases in Hawaii. A police officer is quoted as saying:

If [Defendant] wanted to continue going to other clubs in Waikiki, he's more than welcome to, but he was being trespassed from [sic] Hernando's Hideaway per management.

The [sic] is especially interesting. Is it calling out this innovative usage of trespass, or just the choice of preposition? (And by the way, how do you quote something that includes a [sic] and show that it's part of the original quotation, not your own comment?)

As we enter the 21st century, this new version of trespass comes with an explanatory comment in this 2001 attestation:

…Faber alleges in his Complaint that he was "trespassed" from the Mason City Menards store, which meant that he was banned from ever reentering that Menards location.

However, to step back to the 20th century for a moment, there's an impressive blossoming of "ban-from" trespass in J. Robert Wyman's 1999 book, Loss Prevention and the Small Business: The Security Professionalʼs Guide to Asset Protection Strategies. Starting on page 90, you can find examples in various finite and nonfinite forms, in both active and passive voice, apparently written with the full expectation that the reader would have no trouble accepting them:

Fingers was trespassed from the store for two (2) years ….

If your policy states that all shoplifters will be trespassed, then trespass every shoplifter. Subsequently, prosecute every trespassed person who enters your store without permission. If you pick and choose who you trespass, or who you arrest for violating that trespass, then you open yourself up to charges of prejudice and discrimination. …

Most state laws allow you to trespass any person who disrupts the usual flow of business. …

The person being trespassed first has to know what acts constitute a disruption of the business.

You do not have the right to detain someone for no other purpose but to trespass them from your property.

The longest of those passages gives a clue as to the origin of this usage of trespass. It mentions "who you trespass, or who you arrest for violating that trespass." Evidently, trespass can be used as a noun to refer to the action of telling someone they're trespassing on your property. From there, as readers of Visual Thesaurus are probably well aware, it's an easy step to "verb" that noun, so that trespass can mean "to give someone a trespass notice", i.e. notify them that they're trespassing.

Of course, notifying someone that they are trespassing is not the same as banning them from your property for some period of time. But given the high likelihood of these events co-occurring, the meaning extension is understandable.

Examples of this "ban-from" trespass continue to turn up in the 21st century, and interestingly, although all the examples I've mentioned here are from American sources, they are noticeably more common in New Zealand. Here's the earliest one I've found, in the Christchurch Press of July 9, 1998, via ProQuest:

He said before the protesters could be trespassed each one had to be informed individually and in a clear and unequivocal way that their right to be there had been revoked.

And the most recent, also via ProQuest, from the Manawatu Standard of June 2, 2012:

A Palmerston North man shocked to find titillating toys among the tiaras in the children's section of a discount store was trespassed by police after he confronted the shop's owner.

The Kiwi affinity for this version of trespass is confirmed in the most recent corpus in Mark Davies' BYU collection of corpora: the Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GloWBE). Of the 19 Anglophone countries represented, the strongest results for BE + trespassed come from New Zealand, as do those for any form of the verb trespass followed by a pronoun or proper noun.

"Ban-from" trespass has gone mostly unnoticed, but not entirely. On the English Language & Usage Stack Exchange ("a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts"), a discussion popped up last year about a headline (in a New Zealand newspaper) that used trespass to mean "ban." One participant, James McLeod, simply called it "illiterate newspaperese," but another going by the handle of ruakh (who also happens to be a frequent commenter on my blog), offered up several hits from a Google search for "trespassed him." All but one were from states in the Deep South, which makes me wonder if the unremarked use in the 1990 Alabama case is close to the origin of this innovation.

So how can this new meaning of trespass coexist with the old one? Somehow it does. You can even find them both in the same passage. Nestled among all the examples I listed above from Loss Prevention and the Small Business, there is also this one: "…If someone is on your property without your permission, they are trespassing and can be arrested." I suppose it's no weirder than saying, "I'm baking a cake right now, but it's not finished baking." Still, I'm waiting to see a sign that says, "Trespassers will be trespassed."

 In rare form, I actually slept last night and even tho I had an ultra-early load time, I was pretty good making it down here today. Here being Brownsville, the 4th one in a row.  And as I predicted a few months ago, they are back to their old habits, no empty trailers and lots of extra pay on all of those trips except the tire/DOT crap, but I got paid breakdown pay for that and a couple of hours of wait pay down here.  So it wasn't all bad, just not as good as 14 straight hours of detention pay.   

Per the last entry, when they did show up last trip with an empty from Mexico, yet another bad tire. This time I put my foot down, I'm not pulling that thing out of here until it's fixed.  My dispatcher asked for pics to send to the transportation manager at the plant in Mexico.  Sure! Bald spots down below the tread lines and one part where the tread had been yank up out of the tire and just hanging there. Just more DOT trouble, that's all I saw.  So I had that tire replaced and luckily, I got that trailer again to pull down here today.  No tire issues.  

I knew had forgotten something with this land clearing company, but remembered and sent out the signed contract back to them - well Taylor actually dropped it off at the post office early this morning.  They won't come out to clear the land without signing off on agreement of the payment due after services rendered. Don't blame them.  

Oh, I think I forgot to write anything about my son - he has Covid. He said he felt icky the first few days but the fever is gone and he's on the road to recovery. No tubes shoved down his throat, not even the need to go to a hospital. Plus, he gets a bunch of paid time off for it. It's the Indian reservation, they have their own rules about Covid apparently that go well beyond anything the federal government is forcing down people's throats.  I'm happy he gets a bunch of time off fully paid tho and I was very happy to understand he's getting better. 

My mother, on the other hand, is experiencing yet more side effects from vax shots and I'm very, very concerned about her.  I'm not going into full details about my mother on the internet, but if any of my praying friends are reading this, well, it's a prayer request.  This Covid crap is an evil originated from the pit of hell as far as I'm concerned.  There is SO much evil going on in this nation right now, especially with politicians, but I'm not going there, at least not tonight.

On another note, Taylor was talking to one of her co-workers at the daycare about my intentions of building an RV park and lo and behold, she immediately asked her "does he need any help?". Why yes, yes I will!  She offered her services to come out once a day and clean out the bathrooms - which don't yet exist but some day hopefully soon enough, they will.  Lol.  

And for my friend, I got a message from the sign company today, they proposed a change to it before making it.  Yes, I thought they would.  They were able to put "Speed limit 10mph" and in smaller lettering "violators will be trespassed from the property"  The italics words I wasn't able to input on their platform to make a sign, but they were able to do it.  It makes a bit more sense to have it saying that than just "will be trespassed".  And yes, I will trespass them, I'm not going to continue to play these games with these people. They don't own the property and yes, they are subject to my reasonable rules for their use of it.  The next time I'm out there and if one of them goes speeding up and down that driveway, I'm going to pull my SUV right in their way and I'm going to have a little conversation with them.

Okay, now then.  The loan is done, it's ready to be signed off on!  The loan officer called today and asked where I will be in two days? Ummm, how would I know lol.  It turns out, the plant is shut down on Thursday for whatever reason - the loading plant in longview.  If I can get an empty and get out of here early enough tomorrow, I can do a signing at my house on Thursday.  Well, not my house, the house I live in with my friends lol.  I'm awaiting confirmation from them on getting that done. Apparently, they put out requests to local notary publics to do the job and whoever replies first, or gives the best price if it goes that far gets the job.  

It's almost done.  Thank God.  So yes, good news on that front. 

I asked the contractor yet again, today, when he is planning on coming to do the work? No reply.  He only replied "thank you sir" when I mentioned that I had forgotten the contract but had sent it out this morning.  I'm not gonna get too pushy, it is what it is out here. Everyone is busy and they will get to you - when they get to you.  If it doesn't happen this month, then I might go looking at the next best offer and they will do the job just the same, but for a couple thousand more. Land clearing that is. 

Ok. An empty just showed up. It's 8:00 pm lol and I have to take a 10 hour break - thankfully.  Dunno what time I'll get up, probably I could leave at 4:00 am, but that will have me going through Houston a bit after the rush hour and I'm not sure it will be cleared up enough?  I dunno, I don't need to be back early for any particular reason lol.  Get home tomorrow, I can predict what I will do: nothing. Recover from driving all day long.  That's what a lot of people do after work - go home and do whatever makes them happy.

But, I am going to get offa here, go to bed and set the alarm for 4 am, if I am "feeling it" when it goes off, I will get up and leave.  The worst that can happen is that Houston is still messed up when I arrive near it and I can just pull into a truckstop in Rosenberg and take a nice nap.  A nice long nap, if necessary lol.  

G'nite.  

 Well why not?

I was thinking about my FOMS disease and wondering how I could just bypass new ways to increase your money.  FOMS = Foolish Old Man's Syndrome.  I wrote off Bitcoin when it first came out - and you could buy virtually unlimited amounts of it for next to nothing.  Even a hundred dollars worth back then would have me a millionaire now.  Oh, I made up FOMS, it's not an actual disease lmao. 

But I figure what the heck, I might as well pick one of them that is allegedly "up and coming" and see what happens.  What's a few hundred dollars?  I used to gamble that much away at the black jack tables.  Sometimes I'd win, sometimes I'd lose.  Yea I don't gamble anymore, well maybe once a year or something just for the fun of it. I also don't smoke cigars anymore, quit that stuff 3 months ago.  Not New Year's stuff, just life decisions. 

Anyway, I am going to throw a few hundred dollars on a couple of newer crypto currencies and see what happens.  

I'm sitting in Brownsville, btw, waiting on an empty trailer.  Another cash haul sitting here doing nothing, getting paid to wait. They claimed at noon a couple of trailers would come over - but - it's Sunday and who knows what will really happen. Empties could come in at any time, early or late, or not come in at all.  I'm the only driver down here waiting, they brought 4 empties up yesterday and sent everyone else home.  I know this because I saw all 4 of them coming up the opposite direction while driving down here yesterday.  

As typical for a Sunday, it's past 9: 00 am and there is literally nothing going on in this yard.  I'll gladly go home today, tho, tomorrow is Monday. I don't think the contractor is going to start clearing the land, but if he shows up I want to be there. I need to finish up there anyway.  Yes, I know I keep saying that and I keep going out there, measuring and marking away.  I'm not even saving that many trees, but the measurements have to be pretty close to correct for those trees to be able to stay up. I guess we'll see in the end.

But, I am getting fairly excited that this project is about to move on from just water taps and electrical connections.  To that end I'm calling that contractor tomorrow morning and asking where we're at.  I want to get this thing moving.  The house cash-out is almost completed, at least according to that company, tho I have plenty of money as it stands to start and finish all of the land clearing and utility installation.  And with some money recently acquired, I also have the cash to install the gravel driveways and pads.  All of that is a huge chunk of the construction that needs to be done.  After that I'll have 85 grand to do the office - around 10k, a bath house - unknown but I'm guessing at least 20k, install wifi, etc etc etc, things I have talked about endlessly on here.  

I'm thinking about getting a quote on asphalt driveways.  Not pads, that would cost too much but I'm curious how much it would cost for driveways to be asphalt. I don't want asphalt pads tho concrete pads might be interesting.  As long as there is grass in the "living area" the concrete doesn't look so wretched.  It's the RV parks that have nothing but concrete, no trees and no grass that look horrible, at least to me.  I mean, why don't those operations at least plant some trees or shrubs after all is said and done?  There is virtually no eye appeal to those places, at least in my estimation, at all. 

I'm also still considering some kind of fencing between lots.  Just considering it, lol, I don't want chain link, that would look gaudy but wood is so expensive right now.  

Well enough. I just spoke with the owner's son, the bridge doesn't open up until 11:00 am on Sundays, hence the longer wait for empties to come over.  But, he said he didn't know if there were any empties in their yard across the border or not. So who knows.

G'day 

 Another phone call later - to the insurance agency - and the lady said yes, actually there is an estimate on file.  Why didn't the first person I talked to find this information?  It would have saved me literally HOURS of phone calls.  Whatever the case, she sent it to me and I was correct: it's more than enough to replace the house, including everything that would have to be done to install it on the property. Thought so.  I wouldn't want less than replacement cost, that would be rather useless.  

So, I sent that info to this loan officer and a few hours later, he says they are going to do a "last minute verification of employment" and then "we are golden".  Huh? I already verified my employment, including sending pay stubs. They called my employer to verify that I'm working there. What more do they need? 

As I said, this stuff grew old, long ago.  The interest rate is locked until the 8th.  Well that's tomorrow, thanks, I hope they are able to extend it.  It's a ridiculously low interest rate that you really should take advantage of if you are able to and need it.  Refinancing isn't always the best option, but in this case? Definitely the best path to take for me. 

Just before our money becomes worthless, I'd like to get this thing rolling, lol. I'm telling you, if they are ever able to pass the BBB reconciliation bill, we ain't seen nothing yet as far as inflation.  I don't want them to pass it to prove me right, I don't want to be right.  

There will be no signing tomorrow even if they can get the paperwork done.  Unless the signing can be done online, there is no way I am in Phoenix, Arizona, tomorrow lol. That's because I'll be heading down to Brownsville yet again!  This last trip took it out of me.  I really would have like a day off, but oh well. I had a lot of today off, I guess.  I went to meet up with James and Taylor at the restaurant, had a social outing and came home, went to sleep for a while and now just lounging in my office chair. 

I informed the loan officer I needed advance notice to make sure I can be in town for the signing. That was a few weeks ago, he never replied to it. Of course he didn't.  The real kicker here is that getting a flight to Phoenix is highly risky.  I've seen nothing but cancellations by the thousands since before Christmas of flights due to "Covid", they say. Perhaps that's partially true, but I suspect pilots are still doing a version of a strike without calling it one.  

Just ordered a Mammoth dog bed for Addler. His current bed is old and is worn down from his weight.  I like my doggies to be comfortable when they are in the bedroom.  Good support is better for their joints as well.  

And that's it.  I did not go to the property today, I simply didn't feel like it. Well I drove by there.  The contractor hasn't responded, if he shows up Monday with equipment, I will probably be there if this is a 2 day trip.  Lately, however, the company in Mexico hasn't been keeping up with empty trailers - which is great, we get detention pay - but right now, not knowing if he's coming or not? I'd like to be in town. This is the way it's been with all contractors in this area, they are busy and you are on their terms. They don't say it that way, of course, but that's what it really boils down to.  

Oh, and the sign is ordered.  If they don't want to deal with me on a civil level, then I will deal with it another way. "Speed limit 10 mph violators will be trespassed".  No, I can't stop the companies from coming in there, but I can stop individuals from those companies from coming in there.  It actually doesn't bother me that they are going in there, as long as they are not creating a disturbance. I want these people to understand right off the bat that I can't have them speeding down the driveway like that.  At least 2 of them go in there once a day, every single day. They aren't in there long, but they are going 30, 35 and even more down that driveway.  Those people are being paid an hourly wage to check all of these gas wells, let them earn it.  I have no sympathy, I am governed at 68 mph, all day long, every single day.  I got used to it, so can they!  

THEY have their OWN sign up that says in large lettering: SPEED LIMIT 10 MPH.  So, it's not like I'm trying to do anything that they haven't already established.     

Ok, I'm obviously not going to hear back from the lender today.  It's past his work hours. Doesn't matter, really, but just trying to get a handle on when this thing will be ready to sign off and hand me a check or transfer money to my account.  

With that, I'm offa here.  

 The day started with waiting at the scale house for an hour on paperwork.  I was the only driver in there for at least 30 minutes.  

After that, I was driving past Diboll, Texas and saw up in the distance the lights flashing.  That means they are pulling trucks in and doing random inspections - a couple of trucks will get stopped, everyone else will be let through and they turn the lights off.  

Getting up to it and about to turn in, I saw 3 trucks blast by it.  I thought for sure the troopers would go chase them down - it's quite illegal to do that and you can get a hefty fine.  Instead of chasing them down, they pulled me in the scale and then - we're doing level 1 inspections today.

Great, pick me with all of these junky trucks going through here.  This ordeal ended up taking up almost 6 hours.  That's not a typo, 6 solid hours by the time everything was said and done.

This dude got under the truck and the trailer with a creeper checking brakes and everything under there.  He also found a nick in the side of one of the trailer tires that I hadn't seen when I had done my pre-trip inspection.  Yes, I had a flashlight but the nick was so small it was hard to see it in the daylight. "Well I can see the tire cord in there so this tire is going to have to be replaced" - or something akin to that.  

In the end, he gave me a CVSA sticker for the tractor - which is a very good thing, it signals the truck has been thoroughly inspected and other troopers will likely not pull you in for another inspection - but he put the trailer out of service.

Getting put out of service is a very bad thing and I haven't had that done to me since 1985.  Back then it wasn't even that big of a deal since there were no CDL's and there wasn't a nationwide data system.  The damage to that tire would have been done by a previous driver - it was obviously someone turning the truck and cranking that tire up against a curb. Instead of inspecting the damage and having the tire replaced, they just - hoped someone else would get dumped with it I am guessing, it happens all the time and that's why I try to thoroughly inspect tires before I hook up to a any given trailer.  

Now, the trooper said I had to have the tire replaced. It was sooooo incredibly dangerous? That he had me drive the truck to the next town to wait in a truck stop versus waiting there, at the inspection station. I wanted to just get it done at the inspection station, he said no, it can be done down the road.  To want me to continue on driving the truck means there is no way he should have put that truck out of service.  It's my company I was thinking of.  They will not like an OOS violation and they may even can me for it.  I had no idea what they were going to do, but as I have said numerous times on this blog, there is no job security at my company and I am always prepared for the worst, mentally if nothing else. 

Sitting at the truck stop, it took 4-1/2 hours by the time the new tire was put on there and I could leave. A 2 day trip turned into 3, although I got back early today, I only had 242 miles to go this morning.

Upon arriving at the terminal, I saw that my manager was in. He almost never comes on Fridays, I suspected he would be handing me a reprimand at the very least, and I would be rejecting it just the same.  Whoever that other driver was that pulled it before me? Should be getting the reprimand. I was going to flat refuse it, the best I would agree to is partial responsibility - you as the driver of the truck are always blamed for everything regardless.  

So I went in the office, did my paperwork and very loudly told the mechanics - whose office is across from the manager's office - about what happened and why it happened.  My manager had his door shut but cracked open enough that I could both see him in there and figured he could hear everything I was saying.  If he wanted to call me into his office, he certainly could have done so.  He did not.  I took my time leaving there, if there is going to be a bit***** session, I want it over with, today, not lingering forever.  If it's the end of my job, so beit, but let's do this now.  I can find another job if I have to.  I don't want to, but shrugs.  

At the same time, I wasn't going to go in his office and ask for it.  That's going to be on him to call me in there.  Because if he was going to start with me, I would have let him know in no uncertain terms about my feelings of other drivers not doing pre or post trip inspections and not reporting obvious problems.  This happens frequently, I have reported it a few times, they all know about it yet they do nothing about it.  

I missed detention pay in Brownsville because of that nonsense as well.  I left the office in no huge hurry, heard nothing from the manager....and left.  I left the violation ticket in  his mailbox, he has to see it and it has to be signed off on.

Now? I'm home, relaxing and hoping not to have a run tomorrow. I will probably get one, I just don't want one. The reason being it's the oldest boy's birthday tomorrow and he was greatly hoping I would be home for it.  Those are his words lol.  I also need to finish marking trees and I can tell ya, I just don't have it in me to do any of that today. I just want to sit in my room and vegetate.  I've probably got 2 more hours left to go out there.  Finish the other side along where the driveway will be and walk the perimeter one last time to ensure I have everything marked that I want marked.  

Yes it needs to happen, but again, my motivation levels after this trip are all but gone.  Maybe in a few hours I'll get the umph I need to go out there and get all cut up and tolerate trees with spikes and thorns sticking out of them and vines that do nothing more than stick your skin.  I can't wait until that front portion of the property is CLEARED and I don't have to deal with that s*** anymore.  

I'm going to take close up shots of everything that has spikes and thorns out there and post them on Facebook. It is 5 different plants/trees that I can think of that will stick you.  And good. 

Meanwhile, the loan. The endless parade of documents they want. Now they want a - calculator that the insurance company will come up with to determine replacement cost of the house.  They don't think the current amount I have on there is enough.  I can tell ya that it's far more than enough to replace the house - with everything that would be required such as removing the old house (if it burned down I guess), having the new one hauled over there and installed.  I understand the lender wanting this info, tho, it's just another pain to deal with. 

So far, I've made 3 phone calls to the insurance company to try and get that number. So far? NOTHING.

I have also not heard back from the contractor about his intended start date. I hope it's not this coming week, that would give me more time to double check everything.  I barren, 1,400 long strip of land is not all that appealing to me.  I am also going to have a speed limit sign put on the driveway-  these oil/gas people are flying up and down that road and I have contacted 2 out of 3 so far. The main operator hasn't returned my email - that was 2 days ago. So the sign is going to say 10mph and violators will be trespassed from the property. That will get their attention.....

Anyway, I am being asked if I want to join Taylor and james for lunch, I'm outta here.

G'day. 

 Well. Starting day 2 in Brownsville in a bit.  Turns out there will be no empty trailers coming across the border today. It's 2022 and it's also Sunday. Meaning? They can't get trucks across the border because they have to have a sticker that allows border crossings.  I dunno if these stickers are available before hand, one would think so. Whatever the case, they have to wait until tomorrow morning to get them and be able to bring the empties across.  

This was news to both the dispatcher - of course - and to the man that runs transportation in Alta Mira.  Ok?  George runs the Brownsville operation, whatever he says, you can rest assured it's the actual truth contrasted to whatever everyone else is saying.  It's his trucks that bring these empties across the border, of course he will know if they are coming or not.  Just that George isn't always available.  Or even there. But, of all days, Sunday, not only was he there, he was changing out tires on a trailer!  Imagine that, the owner's son, who happens to run the place, humble enough to do whatever it takes to keep the operation running.  

I don't encounter too many people like that anymore.  Most would call someone out of their day off to deal with it.  It's pretty cool, really.  

When I found this out, I immediately looked on the phone for hotels... and namely the one I'm at now.  Marriott Residence Inn.  It was listed at $127, but I called them and they said they had a room for $109.  Yes!  My dispatcher wasn't on board.  I didn't say anything about the hotel, she just can't believe this dude in Alta Mira wasn't giving her correct info.  

Whatever!  She came on board when I explained about trucks not being able to cross the border until a decal inspection can be done, and that won't happen until tomorrow morning!  I don't care, I will gladly spend the night in my beautiful, comfortable, serene, peaceful hotel room, take the money and run.  When the yard boss says the trailers will be here in the morning, believe they will be here - some time - in the morning.  Anytime before noon means I'm home tomorrow night, hopefully off the next day and try to get this tree saving business done and over with.  

____________________________

Day 3, 10:00 am, was just informed trailers are being inspected and allowed to cross the border, so allegedly any time now. But, when they say "soon", that could be many, many hours.  Especially if there is a backlog of trucks waiting to get their decals inspected/authorized.  I would like to get out of here soon, tho so I can make it home tonight.  Unfortunately, there is another driver that is ahead of me, so whatever comes in first, he gets.  

I frankly wish I were at the house, I am motivated right now and could easily spend the day out there measuring and marking the rest of the trees.  

I read in these RV parks for sale groups of people that buy existing RV parks and they are "killing it" - everything is already done, set up for them, they just have to get the financing.  Of course, they are spending a million plus dollars on it, but still, I'm a wee bit jealous lol.  All this stuff I am going through just to even get the beginning phases of construction going!  Just calm down, Ben , patience and keep the vision alive.  Yes, the vision.  Retirement is "just around the corner" and the end of trucking as we know it isn't that far off, either.  That's what motivates me more than anything.

Honestly, running a park would BE like retirement for me.  No more dealing with nanny-state trucking companies. No more dealing with endless idiots on the road with no more common sense than a dead cow.  No more dealing with invasive and ridiculous DOT rules and regulations. No more electronic logs, getting up at 3:45 am to load, etc etc etc.  

And since I'm - hopefully - going to have far more money than I originally anticipated, I'm going to ask the contractor to please give me a quote for more lots.  Like 20 instead of 14.  That's 6 extra lots, probably add 20 grand, it is what it is.  It would be a better start with more lots and potentially more income.  It's just a thought that entered my mind - but - there is a lot of other stuff I have to pay for beyond lots so I'll just have to wait and see how this all pans out.

Wait, the contractor said the week of the 10th or the 17th. If I can just get a full day off, I can hopefully get all the rest of that done and over with!  I just asked for a day off if it can be slipped in somewhere, I usually get one anyway without asking, but I really need to make sure it happens.  If it doesn't I'm going to have to ask the contractor to please not come until the 17th.

Good grief. I could have sat in the hotel room if I had known they weren't going to show up until late, lol.

G'day

 I don't tend to write too often when there isn't much to write about and at the moment, that's still pretty much true.

I'm back in Brownsville, the same as last writing lol.  No trailers here today, I didn't expect any because of the Holiday.  The dispatcher can't understand why they can't keep up with empties, after her being our new dispatcher for several months and people endlessly explaining this to her, you'd think she would get a clue.

But she doesn't and oh well, she isn't going to change their mentality down here, they do as they please and they pay enough money for that privilege.  She said the "customer isn't always right".  When they're handing our company millions of dollars per year in transportation payments, I would take exception to that statement.  And anyway, most of us don't care about waiting, we get paid for it and so does our company.  

We get these new dispatchers and it takes quite a while for them to catch on - and then they get fired or leave on their own.  It gets old having to deal with these people - she's nice tho, I just got off the phone we had a nice conversation that went well off the trucking topic.  I've explained to her several times that most drivers like the wait time pay and therefore don't mind waiting.  She doesn't understand that either.  What's there not to understand? We sit around playing on the internet or doing nothing, taking naps, seeing local sights, going to restaurants, get paid for it and make as much as a full day's worth of driving....and you can't understand that?  

So it is.  She is trying to reinvent the wheel down here - literally trying to force this company to get on a schedule and stay on it, but the dude that runs the transportation portion of the company we haul the product for has a completely different mindset and when he doesn't have an answer or just plain doesn't want to answer, he just doesn't respond to her lmao.  I've been around Mexicans a good part of my life, I know how they think. I'm not saying it's inferior or anything like that, it's just different.  If you set an event to start at 2:00 pm, you're really setting it to start at 4:00. If you can't deal with that, you are going to be a very frustrated person lol.

I have done nothing at the property and I am running up against a deadline.  The angle of the one side has to be redone to angle the opposite direction and then re-mark all of those trees.  I still haven't done the other side. Most of the perimeter is done tho, at least.  I have been over there, but just for walks. Took the boys 3 times during their 2 week vacation from school.  I didn't feel like doing anything during the holidays, that's on me I guess.  I'll ask for a day off if I have to, I really don't know when this dude is coming. He said the 7th or the 17th.  Okkkkk, lol, I'm going to ask him to hold off until the 17th.  I dunno if I'll get home today - it's still early enough but there is a chance that no empties are going to come.  I need at least a full day off to get that done. I'll just go out there and stay out there until everything is marked.  I just wouldn't be happy if I didn't keep at least a few trees up per lot.  

Per the loan. I really dislike this guy that's handling the loan and paperwork. He has very little customer service skills and it gets old.  He initially told me that short list of things he sent me that I had to sent back for proof of this and that was it, there would be no more. Since then, of course, it's been a constant stream of it and I'm just about done with it.  I thought I actually was  done with it, but no, more and more.  Now they want a foundation certification and said there should be one with my original loan since it's FHA and a manufactured home, it's required.  

Then, he said he has a person that will do it for $300.  The next day, he came back and said they'd do it for $450.  I flatly responded to him that I had already shelled out $500 for the appraisal and that I wasn't interested in spending any more money on this deal, I would call the current mortgage company and see if I can get it from them - for free.  I made it crystal clear that I wasn't paying anything else for any of this, if they want to spend the money and get some stake in the game, feel free.

I didn't get a response from him on the texting, instead I got another "we have more things for you to do", an email that I didn't bother to open. If they want to ask me for something, they can call me or text me, I'm through with the email games as well. My mortgage company told me on Friday they had the cert and would send it by the end of business day - which they did not. And they weren't opened yesterday because of the New Year, so I will call them tomorrow (it's Sunday) and ask them to please send it right away.  I DO want the loan, but I'm very much tired of the paperwork stuff and it needs to end.  I can't even imagine trying to get an SBA loan, that would be far more complicated and far more info they want to qualify for one.  

Right now? No thanks. Maybe down the line after I get the business up and running, I can apply for one and do some major upgrades to the park.  But, I have received another large sum of money - free - from "someone", not going to mention the person or the relationship on here, that has substantially altered the situation for me. I could put all the infrastructure in now plus by one of those portable buildings and not have to get a loan at all. I was not in that position before that money was given to me. Yes, I would still need the house cash-out to do other stuff, but the park would be usable at least.  

But I don't want bare bones minimum, I have discussed this in other posts.  The quality of reviews you get directly corresponds to the amenities you give and other major factors, such as angled lots, pull through lots and level lots.  I've read numerous - and I mean lots - of people that will go to an RV park's website, look for the park map and see how it's set up. If the lots aren't angled they won't look at anything else, they go looking for somewhere else to park.  And then the kicker where the guy said "and they should be driver's side angled". I really had to kick myself for not thinking of that.  When I go to park in a truck stop, I always back in the driver's side, blind side backing into a lot is difficult at best and tho I've done it, I don't like to do it. You really have to get out of the vehicle multiple times to ensure you aren't about to smash the truck on your passenger side. 

As I said, this operation is going to take awhile to get up and running.  I'm okay with it, but I feel the need to get it going as fast as possible so the word can get out and I can start establishing a review history.  Tu Simple - it's a company that is working very hard to get fully automated trucks on the road and probably further ahead than any of the other companies trying to do the same thing - did a test in Arizona with no human at the wheel at all.  They had to get permission from the state's DOT and apparently had lots of state troopers and personnel attending the truck.

I don't know if they alerted the public to this nonsense, I would want to know if there is a truck driving itself down the road, where it's going to be, it's intended route, the day, time etc.  I wouldn't want to be anywhere near it. The article stated it "interacted" with the motoring public. Did the motoring public know it was interacting with them?  You can tell those trucks easily - they have camera equipment mounted all over the thing.  The point is - these things are coming and they are going to take over the entire industry once they are allowed. Major companies will start converting all of their trucks over to fully automated and they will get rid of human drivers.  Our usefulness in the trucking industry is going to come to an end and I want to be fully operational before that happens. Yes, it is a concern to me, not a minor concern either.  

Just about guaranteed all major trucking companies will want to switch over. I dunno about our company, I would like to think that hazmat would be on a "wait" list to see how all of this pans out, but I'm sure our company will want a piece of that automated pie as well.  I think the nation's highways are not going to be safer, at all.  Perhaps there will be fewer truck related accidents, but the thought of being run into by something that has no human at the wheel gives a chilling effect.  The software doesn't know or care about getting hurt or killed or whether it hurts or kills anyone else. It's only as good as the people that designed it.  In other words, it's still humans that are at the heart of it and humans are fallible.  I can't stop this automated nonsense from happening, but I can definitely voice my opinion.  I'm decidedly of the thinking these trucks should be limited to Interstate highways and an extra lane each direction, sealed off with rebar-reinforced concrete dividers keeping them separated from the motoring public.  I've seen no-one else saying this, but I just about guarantee you that once these things start populating the highways all over the country, people are going to start thinking about the hazards these rigs produce and what should be done to mitigate the hazards. 

And with this defund the police garbage going on, thieves will see this as a golden opportunity to hijack entire truck loads of merchandise with nothing to stop them.  Software bandits will try to figure out a way to take over the truck's navigation systems.  Thieves will just try to crash the truck or otherwise stop it somehow and take everything that's in the truck.  Insurance companies will jack up their prices and I have to wonder the net result economically to these companies that use them, if there is any gain or if it even ends up costing more.  

I'll get off my soapbox, this particular subject gets me going.  I'm not angry about it, per se, it's just that I believe there will need to be some forced restrictions on these things coming from Congress that dictates where and how these trucks are going to operate.  And I'm preparing myself for this inevitability by starting my own business. And if this RV park venture doesn't work, I have a plan B and a plan C for that matter. Plan B would work, tho, there isn't much housing available for rent in the region.  That would be to simply install mobile homes and rent them out.  With lots at 40 feet wide, I have room to put in single wide mobiles.  

Plan C would be something of a combination of mobiles and RV lots.  There are some of those around the area as well. In fact, I talked to a waitress at Applebee's the other day, she was discussing the park she lives in has a mix of mobiles, houses and RV's.  Yup, you can do that in that county, they really don't get involved in dictating too much about what you can and cannot do.  It's a major plus and gives me alternatives if I need to go there.  I'm pretty confident this park is going to work out, tho.  There is also the option of building small houses - but that would cost substantially more money and even if I could get a loan for it, I'm really not that interested in it. I do want to do some glamping stuff tho.  That's costly as well but the nightly rates are much higher.  That would be after I get full time into it an out of trucking altogether.  I would be in earthly heaven if I could just go to work at "my" park every day and spend the days working on it - improving it, cleaning it up, etc.  

Dreams and goals. 

Meanwhile, real life. I have never seen so many trucks parked at this place.  One just pulled straight in and blocked me in here, lol.  Not that I'm going anywhere, I've heard nothing from the other driver or dispatch.  There is literally no place to park trucks and now this dude is moving his truck and blocked the entire back entrance off, lol.  Their management needs to get in here and do - something - lol.  OH, I see now, he's attempting to back out of this mess, good luck!  If they don't bring me an empty today, I'm definitely going to a hotel.  Not counting my chickens on that one, there could be empties coming up from Alta Mira and the dude from that company just not telling dispatch, that's just the way he is lol.

I'd actually like to make it home tonight and have tomorrow off - but it's not looking that way.

Anyway, I'm getting offa here and watch a movie. 

G'day.  

 Guess I haven't posted in a day or 4 lol. Merry Christmas to everyone and hopefully you had a great one at that!

There isn't too much new to report anyway. I'm currently sitting in Brownsville, Texas. I was supposed to go on a run today, but someone called and said no thanks to the load and so my dispatcher had this pleading sound in her voice when she called me on Friday asking if I would take this load on Sunday instead of the Monday run.

I uhh, said yes, not really wanting to, was looking forward to a couple of full days off. As it turns out, she had contacted other drivers who had gotten an attitude with her about it and flatly told her no.  Truckers.....some of us aren't really all that great of people, especially how we deal with others.  And more pointedly when it's something we don't want to do.  I try to stay in dispatch good graces, there is  no point in pissing them off or getting rude and nasty with them, they can make you pay for it.  

Well, anyway, I got down here yesterday evening and there wasn't any room at the old lot to park so I took the trailer over to the new lot. There were two drivers down here ahead of me, one of them just got a trailer and there is probably two more coming, I'm guessing anyway. It'll be a late start and if it's too late, I'm not committing to driving all night long. Just not going to do it, it messes me up for a couple of days and not worth it to me.  It's already noon - they just brought one of our empties over and an empty for a different type of hauling meaning that was the only empty over there. When the others will show up? Your guess is as good as mine. If two of them get here in the next hour or so, I'll make it back today. Otherwise, I'll stop in Rosenberg - probably anyway - for the night and finish out tomorrow.  Regardless, with detention pay I've already got 3 days worth of pay going for this run.  

As for the property, yes I did go there on Saturday and worked on getting more trees ribbon-ed-ized-or whatever lol.  I have the second row left to go.  That has to be measured out - the hard part because of all of the stuff in the way - and then put a few ribbons on 2 trees on every lot and that's it. Just trying to keep some of the foliage in there until other stuff can be planted and grown.  Then those trees will be cut down.  The contractor had missed my texts from a week ago and texted me this morning - it probably won't be until the middle of the month before I can get to it.

Perfect.  If I don't get a full day off here soon, I will request it.  I'll let them get through the holidays here first, they are hard up for drivers because everyone wanted time off. I didn't ask for it so yes, they are working me pretty good lol.  I got Christmas off anyway so I'm content with that.  Plus getting down here and getting wait pay - that doesn't happen that much anymore so there's a Christmas gift right there.  

The loan? No clue. It's the holidays, I'm not bothering them about it.  If they need something they have my phone/text number and my email.  I do want to get it over with soon tho, get it behind me and get it done before any new Biden mandate to force people to be vaccinated to get on domestic flights.  I will drive to Arizona if I have to.  I won't want to, but it's definitely on the table if need be.  I'll just rent a small car with much better fuel mileage - my SUV really isn't a good long distance vehicle, I don't think so anyway.  I don't drive long distances so it works for me.  It runs great but I don't think I would trust it driving 2,500 miles round trip.  It can take a rest for that if it comes down to that lol.

Christmas was fun.   Well sort of. The 4 year old was driving mommy up the wall, the 6 year old was out of character - acting out is what I would call it - but we fairly well ignored them and did our thing.

We're pretty good at ignoring children when they need to be ignored.  If they're just bored and looking for attention, yeah, they have plenty to entertain themselves with, they don't need to be constantly bugging the adults. 

I just keep reading the posts on the RV park forums for more ideas.  And I got one in the face today.  I was reading a guy's statement about a pic of a park another guy is developing. The man indicated that he should have angled back in spots (which I will have) and they should be driver's side back in.  I didn't even think about that, at all.  Blind side backing is difficult, even truckers don't like doing it.   In case you're wondering, yes, I had it set up with blind side backing in, totally escaped me while I was thinking of how t set it up.  Duhhhhh.  So that will be revised.  It shouldn't cost any more money, it's just the back in spots angled the opposite direction, the pull through sites won't change.  The dude that had posted the construction pic had a lot of experienced developers suggesting to him to angle the lots, straight in backing is not desirable and a lot of people who are looking for a place, when they see that, will just move on to another RV park.

He ignored all of the advice and that was that.  For me it was a no brainer after all the reading I had done, most people want it angled even if they are good at backing. Just makes it that much easier and less hassle. The pic included a view of a pond he apparently had built - totally dark brown and ugly.  That's what I'm afraid of happening and looking into ways to keep it from doing that.  Instead of having a stream feeding it, it would be better to have a well dug and just pump clean water into it from the ground.  Of course wells aren't cheap to dig and the pump and piping, but in the end, it may be necessary.  I need to do more research on that.  Dark water is fine, but brown, muddy looking water is not so pleasant to look at.  I don't think fish care, it's just the aesthetics.  Everything need to look good.  Everything.

And even more reading on RV parks that actually put up fencing in between the lots - and the high desirability that RV'ers have with such a setup.  It's just a chain link fence with the slats they stick through it at an angle to give privacy.  I'd rather have thick, tall bushes to do that - it takes years to grow such a setup.  I'm not sure about that one, just have to think about it.  Everything costs money and I only have a finite amount of that. Other things will take precedence, if there's enough left over then I will probably do it - at the same time a doggy park fence is put up.  

That's it, for now.  I just contacted the other driver who is in the yard over there - he said he's stuck in the back they have so many trucks in the way.  Okkkkk then, not going in there until a trailer arrives! lol.  I'm thinking it's time to go get some tacos....

G'day

 

 The appraisal was 5k below what we estimated was a good starting point.  I don't really think I"m going to bother contesting it, it is what it is, it's good enough. I'll get 86k instead of 90k.  That works. My plan was if it gave me less than 50k, I wasn't going to do it.  I won't pay off all of my credit card debt, I'll bring it down to a much more manageable level.  Some cards will be completely paid off, others will be brought down to acceptable levels and two loans - one for teeth and another for debt - will also be paid off. They have less than a grand a piece on them and it will free up $320 per month just on those two loans.

Credit card payments will come down a couple of hundred (at least) per month, so I will be doing quite well with getting debt reduced.  While I"m still working this trucking job I will simply continue paying off the cards at around $500 extra per month (on top of the minimum payments) until it is gone.  Well, sort of gone. If you don't use your cards at all, they eventually close the accounts. So, I need to get back into the habit of making purchases on the cards and then paying them off at the end of the month.  

I'm sitting at the loading plant, btw. I hadn't even gotten back from the Stryker trip yesterday and dispatch was sending me a trip for today.  I saw that and thought, this might actually be a good thing. If it's a short trip I can get back on Friday and maybe they will let me off for Christmas. 

Maybe.  There's only two places I will be able to go if I do get a Christmas run. Either Oklahoma or Brownsville. I'm actually, intentionally using up on duty hours right now - instead of being off duty while waiting - to ensure they can't send me on a longer run. Why? Well obviously if they send me out on a run Christmas Day I'm not getting home in time to enjoy anything.  But, I don't want a long trip.  Stryker kind of irritated me having to wait up there 24 hours before finally being offloaded.  

Anyway, driving back by the property on the way home yesterday, there it was....in all of it's creosote covered glory.  A giant telephone pole with a huge transformer on top, lines running off of it, down through conduit, into the ground and over to a large, above-ground meter box.  Lock on the box, I wanted to see this meter. Probably one of those types they can read from a control room somewhere.  It's not one of the smaller poles they typically have up in rural areas and definitely taller and larger diameter - so it appeared on the diameter part anyway - than the rest of the poles. I had to assume it is to hold the extra weight of that transformer up there.  

It was encouraging to see that thing up, finally.  I just need a day or two more off to get trees marked and I'm ready for the land clearing.  A note to those that were asking.  I originally wanted to clear the land myself. But, it's 7 plus acres in front and the trees are very difficult to get out of the ground with those weird root systems they grow.  Cutting them with a chainsaw wasn't going to work, even with a stump grinder, certain of the trees - the gumball trees - would have just started growing back. 

I definitely can't have that.  I can't rent a track hoe - they rent them but only to construction companies with qualified operators and presumably with commercial liability insurance.  I was left with the only choice to get some bids and take the lowest bidder - but still having good reviews.  I rely on reviews to help me make decisions about using a company or not. Just the same, people rely on reviews to decide what RV parks they are going to stay in.  

There will be clean up after tho.  Leaves, junk on the ground, that's all going to be done by hand and finding whosoever to help me out with that. That's a ways down the road, however.  I won't even bother to start that until all of the utilities are installed and the rest is just construction to limited areas.  I will be getting bids on construction of a bath house soon.  And getting a fencing company out there to install a 4 foot chain link fence for a dog park.  I'm still considering the pool...would have to get financed for it as they have specific loans for swimming pools. It's definitely in my thought process. 

But there is so much more to do.  A sign out front.  A business office.  Laundry room with 2 washers and 2 dryers.  A wifi system, getting the internet company to run a line to the property, etc etc etc.  It's a lot to do, but it can only be done in the order that it can be done in. I can't jump to certain things right now until I have the utilities in.  I'm thinking of having gas run to the property to heat the bath house, heat the water for laundry and bath house showers and potentially a water heater for a pool. Gas is cheaper and more efficient.  Gas heaters are a lot more expensive but I think the tradeoff is a good one. 

 I also want to run cable for cable tv.  Too many people complain about parks that don't have it.  I dunno, folks, I'm not trying to please the whole world but it would be dumb to start a new park up without all the current day amenities offered.  I was still surprised to find out on some of the larger motor coaches, they use both the 30 amp and the 50 amp outlets to power their rigs.  That's a lot of electricity and I will have to charge accordingly. I think those class A motor coaches are going to have to pay a few dollars more to offset the electricity usage.  

And I still haven't started an LLC and then a commercial bank account.  As I said, there's a lot to do.  I need to visit with an accountant and find out what I can deduct as business expenses and how to keep the books. I have no plans to do book keeping myself - that is definitely not my forte. Taylor will do that but I want the setup done by a professional to ensure I get maximum deductions.  This is why I don't expect to be able to start up until probably summer.  Or later, who knows.  The sooner the better, yes, but I need to keep my expectations realistic.  I don't even know if I can get a company in to build a bath house any time soon. There is a lot up in the air right now, but I'll work it out one step at a time.

Anyway, after seeing the pole and taking a few pics for my facebook, I headed home.  We left a while later to go to Piney Park - a newly opened park that has walking trails, some huge slides, bouncing thing that is filled up with air - it's kind of like a trampoline. A lot of Christmas lights, Santa Clause, food of course, etc.  

It was fun, but I don't really think it was worth the entry price.  They need to add more to do to make it worth that much money.  It's basically just a glorified walking trail with a lot of Christmas lights and some props plus a few activities for kids. Other than that - they really need to do more work on the place. 

Whatever the case, it was home and then straight to bed for me.  I had already driven 465 miles that day on top of all of that.  And now, should be getting close to the end of loading the trailer, I can get out of here and get on up to Tulsa area.  I have no intentions of getting back today, that would give me a 34 hour reset before Christmas and ruin my hope to be home.  It may not happen anyway, but with full hours, I might very well get sent out somewhere far away.  Without a reset, they simply can't do that.  

It's my way of guaranteeing a day and 3/4's off when I need it.  And right now, I need it. I have to finish marking the trees I want to keep!  I would regret it very much later on down the line if I didn't finish that project in time for the land clearing.  So, even if they send me on yet another trip after this one before doing a reset, they will have no choice but to let me off after that.  

Time is up. Gotta get rollin'!

 Near Stryker, Ohio.  

I arrived much earlier than I have ever made it up here - but that's due to the early load time I had yesterday. So it was before noon eastern time I called them and asked if they could unload me today.

Of course not, lol.  "Our tank still has product in it" and "no one will be here that early to unload it".  Well, I could show up and have them off load it at whatever time they wanted...but I'd have no time to get anywhere after that.  I decided to stay at a hotel down the road and enjoy some time out of the truck.  

Rooms are pricey here, don't know why.  Small town out in the middle of nowhere, the Holiday Inn across the way has very few vehicles parked there. I asked for a trucker's discount. Some places do give that. No, no trucker's discount. Well, everything I saw on the website says $76 per night, not $95. We're talking a Super 8 hotel, this is nothing fancy but I've stayed here before.  

I'm here, lol. Went to Buffalo Wild Wings and had some lunch, came back and just resting.  

The appraiser was at the house today.  Mark said he was there 20 minutes and left.  20 minutes? for $500?!! Okkkkkk The appraiser allegedly said "I'm impressed".  Well, I dunno if he was just saying stuff, but Mark keeps the place immaculately clean.  I could show up out of the blue and the entire premises would be completely clean, nothing out of place inside or outside.  

Whether that "being impressed" translates into a good and high number remains to be seen.  I hope this person does their due diligence to seek out real comps, not just going by whatever has sold in the neighborhood.  It's worth double and then some whatever is selling in the neighborhood, save the site built houses.  The only one of those that has sold recently has an error on the selling price - over a million dollars. No one in their right mind is going to pay a million bucks for a house like that.  I'm keeping an eye on it to see if/when they are going to fix the mistake. But, I remain hopeful - and I hope that this thing can close if it's good and get over there before any vaccine mandates are required for domestic airline travel.

I will not be getting that vaccine.  I have gone into that many times in this blog, not going to scratch that surface again.  I'm just not going to subject myself to something that mau have serious side effects to my system.  Period. 

Anyway, I'm 2 days from home.  Offload early morning, get on the road, drive out my hours.  Finish on ... Wednesday.  I'm hoping to get another short run that will keep me out til the day before Christmas and then, walaah. Home for Christmas!  Yea, well one can hope, I didn't ask for it off and I did get Thanksgiving off, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  

Many states are embracing the $15 per hour minimum wage.  Good for them. That amount of income will be as worthless as the $7.25 fed wage is now in a short period of time. Inflation is already devaluing the dollar - feds have been pumping trillions of dollars of cash into the system. The dollar isn't worthless, but it's value is shrinking.  Buying power shrinks with it. 

If you increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour, the price of everything will go up so that that $15 per hour will become default the same as the federal minimum wage that already exists.  Period.  Inflation.  Then I'm going to want even more money - as well as all of my fellow truckers. Because we can.  I'm not saying 90k per year is a pittance, but if those people that are doing unskilled labor can make that much, then I want that much more.  Everyone in every industry that had to have some kind of skill or head knowledge will be saying the same thing. Guaranteed.  

If I'm going to spend days at a time away from home - and many truckers spend weeks at a time - y'all going to pay for it if these people doing menial labor tasks are going to get paid that much money.  See how that works?  It is not in anyone's best interests to raise the minimum wage, in fact, I don't even believe in minimum wages at all.  But I don't feel like getting into that subject. 

What I feel like doing? Is getting into bed, even tho a tad bit early, and going to sleep.  I already did earlier for an hour or so, felt good, I think I'll do more. I'm getting up at 5 am anyway.  In fact, it's an hour ahead of the clocks I have going, later than I thought.

G'nite. 

 Saturday morning. Thunderstorms and lots of rain, a nice day to stay home.  Well which I am, lol, I'm not on the road today. I got back from Oklahoma yesterday, was headed home when Taylor redirected me to Chili's. After that I took the dogs to the property for a nice long walk.  Last night, we wen to Wonderland of Lights - the town dresses up this city's version of down town, especially the old courthouse - with a lot of Christmas lights.  There were train rides, carousel, ice skating, face painting, etc.  We spent a few hours there (at least), went out to dinner and that was that.

However.  Yesterday.  Long time readers will remember that there is a certain plant - actually a certain company that runs thousands of plants nationwide- that I have been banned from. I won't be saying it here, don't want to draw attention to myself.  I got a text from the dispatch manager yesterday with the work sheet to go to the plant in Stryker, Ohio.  I haven't been up there in - 2 years? - or so - because of this permanent ban.  I haven't unloaded a trailer anywhere since I was banned as well.  I don't want to go into the reason I was banned, it would just take too long to tell that story and I don't feel like it.  I have never regretted getting banned from that place where I was at that day, I just didn't know at the time that this huge corporation was running the chemical portion of the plant. 

Their name was nowhere to be found in that plant so it just never crossed my mind.  But again, no regrets. I have been doing easy runs ever since.  Now, that doesn't mean they are all gravy runs, I just said easy. When you don't have to unload? Yup, that's an easy run.  

I immediately texted back that I can't go to that plant because of that ban.  She said, yup, I know, I texted the manager right back. Apparently, I am the only one "qualified" to go tomorrow.  Meaning, capable of unloading trailers. We have a slew of new people that apparently aren't trained in offloading.  The manager said yup, send him, he's the only one available.  

Let me just say here that I don't like this run.  It's usually 4 days because when you get up there? They won't unload you thee second day, they make you wait until the third morning. And then, they come banging on your door at 5:45 am to get it done lol. Well at least you get an early start.  It's just that it should be a 3 day trip that is dragged out to 4. The last I heard, we were getting detention pay for having to wait. But that was a long time ago.  If I get up there Monday and they can't unload me (it's can't, not won't, they order ahead, before their tank is empty, their tank has to be completely empty before we can offload and that usually isn't the case on the second day), I will text my manager and find out what's up with the wait time.  I've been known to drive to a nearby town and spend the day and night in a hotel, get up early and get it done.

The only drawback to that is losing drive time going to the plant and on duty time that next morning. It's better to just sit outside the plant and wait that entire afternoon and overnight for that purpose alone. Then, after you offload, you have full drive hours to get back - probably somewhere near Little Rock if I hustle - and leave maybe 3-1/2 to 4 hours left for the 4th day.  I have this all down.  The first day, I try to make it to Farina, Illinois. It's close to 700 miles.  The second day, I drive up to the plant and if I do happen to get offloaded, I drive ack to Farina. It takes all day to do that and then, if I really hustle, I'll get back to the yard the third day. 

Anyway, I'll be interested to find out if the senior manager that banned me knows about me going up there. This plant rejected me from taking a load sometime last year up there because my name is on a "list" lol.  If they know about it there is nothing to worry about. If they don't know about it....well, they don't ask names when we go up there, so unless they remember me I will probably get away with it. I can't imagine my manager sending me all the way up there without them knowing tho. If they say no, you can't come into the plant, then what?  Drive the load all the way back to Texas? Redirect to another plant?  Who knows. 

Today? Well it's supposed to rain into the afternoon. I'm just going to continue on the closet cleaning project - I left it a week ago and got busy with work. Maybe I can get the rest of the stuff out of there, scrub it with bleach and then, there will still be the base board I need to replace before putting my stuff back in there.  It's been nice tho. I've thrown a lot of stuff I don't need in the trash.  Too much "stuff".  

As for the appraisal.  Well, I got a call from a 480 area code- that's Phoenix metro area - and I almost never answer them. They always way they want to buy my house. I now tell them I want a million dollars for it - the number of those calls coming in has shrunk dramatically lol.  Anyway, it was an appraiser! The lender didn't inform me they had found one, so it was a bit of a surprise. Are you available on Monday for us to come out and do the appraisal?  Yes, I probably won't be home but someone will be there to let you in, there are no dogs so your personnel will be safe, thank you.  

What time is good for you? 7am or noon? Noon, I thought, I don't want to subject Mark to a time frame that he may not be home for, he's an early riser and does stuff in the mornings.  I let him know a few weeks ago that one would be coming out - but - assuring him I'm not selling the house, it's a refinance.  It will doom that house as far as my owning it goes, I'll have sucked all the money out of it and the mortgage will start all over again. I mean, I'm not throwing them out, I'll continue on with them living there in the setup that has gone on for 7 years now.  I mean, 5 years down the road there will be some equity back in it?  Mark replied to my text informing him they are coming Monday at noon in the affirmative. 

I also informed the appraiser that there aren't any comps in the entire neighborhood. Mine is a manufactured home, yes, but the rest of the mobiles in that entire neighborhood are far older than mine and the other housing in there is site built homes.  Oh, I'll let them know that. Thank you and the call was ended.

I dunno what's going to happen with that. Kind of biting my fingernails type of thing.  Zillow has it showing at 279k.  Even with 10% margin of error, it would still be worth 250k, which is what the lender went off of in telling me I would be approved for 90k cash out.  But is that house really worth that much money? In this market? Yes. Whether the appraisal comes out at that or not, I would list it at 300k and come down to 250k - after that any potential buyers can go find some other house to lowball owners on.  The house does need some minor appearance work - probably a couple thousand worth, which I have been considering having done.  And it's probably due for a paint job. I dunno, but I have money available in case stuff goes bad. The AC system is getting old, tho the AC repair guy that lives behind us has done a nice job fixing things that break on it. 

The house still has lots of plants - tho Mark is not a green thumb and he let my evergreen die.  I had told him that it needs to be watered every day in the summer. He said "everything is dying" and I don't know why. Well I figured it out pretty fast once I found out he's not watering daily.  It's Arizona, it gets very hot and it rarely rains there.  If you want green plants, you have to water them.  I got on his case about that.  He was saying "everything in the neighborhood is dying". Yes, because the price of water has gone up so high, people probably aren't watering their plants.  Arizona has been in a severe drought for years, just like California.  The only difference is Arizona has water conservation districts they set up decades ago to manage the water supply.  

Arizona - at least the Phoenix area - is fairly well doomed tho if the rain and winter snow doesn't start picking up.  They can't just keep building out in all directions, there simply isn't enough water to go around.  I'm surprised they haven't done as Cali has and limited watering and grass and even dictating days you can water or even wash your car.  AZ also has the advantage that they started building reclaimed water - sewage water that is treated, not potable but usable for landscaping, gold courses and also cools the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant - they run a huge diameter line from Phoenix area out to that plant so they wouldn't have to use drinking water to cool it.  

California is way behind in both of those aspects. Cali would rather just dictate to citizens what they can and cannot do instead of actually trying to figure out answers to these problems. They have a vast supply of water on their coast line, it's amazing to me that someone hasn't invented a system to remove salt from water without having to use heat to do it. That's the drawback, it takes too much resources in the current method they have to remove it.  I believe someday sooner or later someone is going to come out with that invention and that will change everything. No more water wars on the Colorado river, Arizona can draw much more water from it, Cali won't need it.  

Well that's it.  My power pole - still ain't up.  I really don't need it up just yet, it's going to start costing me $150 per month once they do put it up, but I'm glad I ordered it when I did, I have no idea how much longer its' going to be.  I've got the engineer's number, no need calling him until I get close to needing it.  The land clearing is slated for some time next month. I went ahead and pulled the trigger on that, I figure to have that done before the end of this month.  I was going to go out there today - but the rain said something different lol.  I had to look up whether I can get 220 volt out of only one power line. There are only 2 lines coming through there, one has the power running through it at 7,200 volts and the other is a neutral line - or ground - depending on who you ask.  

Apparently you can get 220 out of it.  I don't need 220 for the RV sites, they are all 110 stuff. But I want 220 for dryers, AC, pool heater, etc.  Of course, one could work around it by using natural gas water heater and dryer. I assume you could find a natural gas heater for the pool as well, probably more efficient. 

I'll let the electricians play that game, I really wanted to run my own lines but I have decided against it.  I have no clue how it works off of only one power line.  They seem to think it will be perfectly okay, all I can say is I will be watching, taking notes and taking pictures of the installation process.  Come time to upgrade the park with more sites? Now there, I might just go ahead and do the wiring myself if I have enough confidence after watching them doing it to do it myself.  Maybe.  I was talking with people online that are in the business of building RV parks - they said the septic quote was way low?  Ohhh?  I only have 14 lots to start with.

Yes but it's still low and so is the electricity. One person said it was costing them 400k to install just the electric for 50 lots What? I think that person is getting ripped off, but what do I know.  Others said all of the quotes are well within reason and are actually low. That made me feel better because I am not hearing back from the other electrician and tho he said he wants the job - he certainly isn't acting like it.  I gasped at the 26k quote for electricity is all I can tell ya.  It really took me by surprise. 

Well, I think that's enough. I'm feeling pretty lazy. Rainy days do that to me.  Keeping the hope alive.  Now that I have the land clearing set for next month - no day given yet for their arrival - it will force me to finish measuring out the lots and ribboning the remaining trees.  I've still got a couple of days of work left out there, I'm assessing. And a bit of undecidedness on some areas where I can't decide what to leave up and what to take down.  I think I can just leave stuff up and if I need it down, well, it can be a future project.  

With that, I bid you a good day.