Thursday - evening

Well first off, this computer.  It decided to do yet another update. Third one this week. Takes up to an hour, sometimes longer.  Didn't let me down this time, the thing took forever, a day and a half to even pop up the home screen and it's still working now trying to get back to normal.  I don't know why they want to do updates that frequently and I am sick of it.

Anyway. Got to the office this morning, was shown a tablet that is used for hours of service and for loads, then handed to me.  I want to fiddle with this for a while, I said, I need to just use it and get the feel for it. Well fiddle away, he replied, we have plenty of time.  I spent a couple of hours, actually, flipping back and forth through screens until I felt I had a good knowledge of how to use it. 

After that, I was handed a full-face respirator, told to put it on and get it adjusted. Ok? He came back a few minutes later and said we're going to do a smoke test.  The tube he picked up busted in his hand, smoke started pouring out and he immediately started  choking.  That was fun. He opended up another one and then started letting the smoke roll up around my mask. Nothing.  

Done with that, he issued me all kinds of safety equipment and then sent me to the bunk house.  It wasn't even noon yet. I have been here all day, save a nice, long walk to get the blood flowing and just got done with a few sets of pushups.  So, here for all night until 8:00 am, where I am to go through an interview with some high level manager. I thought the interviews were over?  

Well, whatever, it's another paid day as today was, just a flat rate they give you for showing up.  The pay goes up substantially once you are in a truck and training with another driver.  

Meanwhile, the internet here? Sucks.  It's slow, it's not enough, obviously, to deal with all of the trailers plus what's  going on in this office/house setup.  I can use my Verizon, but it throttles at X amount of data and then doesn't work very well anymore.  Might as well notifications on the computer screen that "update failed" which simply means the WiFi isn't working.  It wasn't working before everyone came home, either. Just sporadic. 

The other guy just showed up a few minutes ago. Meaning he was gone for around 15 hours.  That's what I have to look forward to next week, tho the days before today he was only out maybe 8-10 hours.  I don't know how well I'll handle 15 hour days after not doing them for a year.  I guess I'll find out!

I'm trying to access my recorded shows on mydishnetwork account onlline, they don't make it easy to find anything on there.  You would expect to find a "dish anywhere" tab on the home page. Instead, you have to look it up.   Anyway, I found it.  I'm getting off of here and off of anything I can't do on my phone for the night.   

 Thursday - early

Well, the week is slowly ticking by. At least I'm at Thursday and no longer at Monday.  

Fitful sleep last night, just kept waking up. Anxiety, the desire to not be here and stuff going through my  mind about the park.  Gotta shut all of that off, I know that, sometimes it's difficult. Oh, and weird dreams.  

Mostly, I just want out of this corporate world.  You are subject to their rules, desires, whims, methodologies, etc.  This particular company hasn't taken any hardline stances about much of anything, yet.  They have their rules but most of that is required by the Feds. The feds basically run the trucking industry nowadays. Companies that don't adhere to their beckon desires, your company can literally be axed.  

I voluntarily subjected myself to this, I have to keep telling myself.  I'm spending an entire week going through training that I have gone through endlessly before just to be able to get on the road and actually what I'm being hired to do.  I'm not even hired yet, that is supposed to happen today when the drug test results come back.  I don't do drugs beyond occasional Tylenol and sometimes some cough medicines, shouldn't be any issues there. That is all required by the feds. 

I got lucky this month that those 2 trailers stayed another month. Speaking of that, I need to write down their phone numbers, gag, I'm forgetting to do that again.  I am assuming their work with QuikTrip will be done before a month's time, but in case it isn't, I need to be able to contact them.  Oh, take that back, I saved it into my phone.  I was busy at the time and thought, if I don't save this, it will fall off of recents and I won't be able to contact them yet again.  

Anyway, just sitting here biding my time.  Today may be a full day, who knows, but tomorrow is going to  be something like an hour and then it's over. Now, whether it's over until Monday or over until getting into a truck on Saturday with a trainer? Who knows.  I "feel" like taking the weekend off, but my brain is telling me work.  It's not my choice, if no one is available, which apparently they are not very often on weekends, I will sit the rest of Friday after work until early Monday morning.  

I'm resigned to be here until at least Friday, it's just what it is. The only way to leave earlier is to say screw this and go home. After all I've done with paperwork and well over 100 tests? No. Might as well follow through, get home and find out what it is really like to work for this company versus what people are telling me it is like.  

As previously stated, today is tablet day and hire-on day.  The hiring doesn't take place until after they get the drug results back.  Then I am to sit down with some high level manager and get interviewed.  Which is odd, I have been interviewed up the ying-yang already.  I'm guessing this is the part where they tell you how it's going to be, fall in line or leave.  Someone is going to come along with a hardline stance sooner or later, it's pretty much inevitable in the trucking industry. I just sit there and say yes sir and no sir, eat it and move on. Everyone eats it at some point in their lives.

If this works out like they say it will, I will park the truck when going through at the property. Behind the shed.  On the side of the driveway.  There's just one problem I can see with that setup.  Rain. If I'm going to need to use the rear of the driveway where the tanks are set up, when it rains hard? It turns into a mud pit back there.  The only way to fix it is to have several truckloads of gravel brought in.  I can see the need for at least 3 or 4.  

Oh, btw? My room is directly above the RV park laundromat. They have a lot of machines in there and people are in there early and late.  Another thing that kept me awake last  night.  There is nothing I can do about it. The people aren't making unecessary noises, they are just opening and closing the doors to the machines  This building I am is the RV park office. The second floor above it is where I'm at. 

I dunno if the original builders of this park had some sort of idea that they would have live-in management up here or what.  The manager allegedly lives in a trailer in the park itself.  That isn't unheard of at all.  

I'm not making that much money this week, it was expected.  Not desired, but expected.  This company is cheap, that is the bottom line.  They gave me a set of papers to fill out to review them.  Uh, they might not much care for what I have to say about the way they are treating incoming drivers.  I have my views of it and it is in line with what most of the trucking industry does as standard practice, this place excluded from that description. 

In the world of the RV park, I may be raising my short term rates once I get money flowing from this job in.  I don't get that much overnight stuff, they might as well pay the same as everyone else is charging to come here.  I wouldn't mind raising my monthly rate back up to what it was before I hit a dead period where I had too many lots open and no one really inquiring.  My rates are too low, I just did it to get people in there. I wouldn't necessarily raise the rates on the people already in the park, just incoming newbies.

Well, getting close to departure time for the main building. It's only a few minutes walk away.  See what kind of day I'm going to have and hope I wake up a little better than what I am right  now, I feel like I could go back to bed for several hours.  I've got a mind full of thoughts about things to keep  me from getting bored if it turns out to be a long, boring, monotonous day. Most orientation stuff and doing all of those modules is a big, long fight to keep oneself awake and focused.  There is some material in there that I hadn't encountered before, this isn't the same products. A lot of  it is glue. And a new one: having to wash out the trailer every  time.  You don't do it yourself, you take it to a facility where they do it for you. 

G'day

 

 Well, that didn't take all day, anyway.

Learning how to adjust brakes was easy. I hadn't done it in 30 years and it turns out, it hasn't changed in that amount of time either. Exact same setup. So that took 10 minutes and I was done with that. 

Back to the orientation  room and doing Hazmat stuff for about 4-1/2 hours I cranked all of that stuff out.  Read, take a test. Read more, take more tests. A few tests were difficult, most of them were either common sense or just pick an answer type of stuff based off of what you had just read. The most difficult testing was on formaldehyde.  I don't even know how many I got correct because it grades you automatically but doesn't show what you got right or wrong.  I don't know if I got them all right, or a few wrong? No clue.

And, after doing a Hazmat module for an hour and a half, the rest of the modules after that were all repeating the stuff that was in the long Hazmat module.  Just a lot shorter versions of it.  The safety guy came in while I was doing it, said he was leaving, finish up what you're doing and then you can leave.

Well, I left around 1:45 pm.  Tomorrow is learning the tablet. I have no idea how long that will take, I can't imagine it will take all day, but maybe? he wants to drag it out so that I have something to do on Friday so I'll get paid for it.  Well, I don't want to spend 8 hours doing something that takes 4 hours to do, or however long it takes in reality.  But whatever, I'll do whatever he wants, I'm not the guy making the decisions here.  

Got done with that and the other guy in this house and I went to town to go to Walmart to get some food.  I was getting low and I don't want to be here without food.  

Got back from that, made some dinner - first time I had eaten all day besides a very small bag of crackers - and then Taylor contacted me. Said the oldest boy wanted to talk to me on the house phone. 

Well, why not.  He was quite chatty and it went on for 35 - 40 minutes telling me about how life is going for him, lol and the tree cutting operation James is doing around the house. He cut down a tree out front and I was watching it on one of the cameras since the kid was too.  

That over, I'm just sitting here listening to highway noise, writing in my journal and thinking about things.  I got 4 calls today about spaces. 3 of them were overnighter calls coming up in the next month and the 4th was wanting long term. Too late, those 3 had already booked, that lot is taken - tho I need more overnight type reservations to make it equal a month's worth of a long termer. The people that disappeared for 2-1/2 weeks paid up for another month so I have no idea who is leaving next.

Let me think about that for a second....oh yes, lot 1 is leaving - no, they have another 3 weeks.  Lot 7 is the railroad boss, he didn't know how long he was saying, but probably 2 months.  Lot 10 said he might leave in September a few months ago...lot 14 is still dealing with closing on the 3 turned into 4 properties....I can't tell people I have  a lot available until it's actually available.

I say that because people have told me they were leaving before only to have their circumstances change and end up staying, sometimes for months longer.  I don't really mind that much having one lot open for overnighters, but if there was going to be anyone wanting to move in before anyone else got an spot for a night or two here and there, they were going to get it.  I could probably go ahead and rent it out after these first 2 get done with their stays, the 3rd isn't until the end of next month and I will have people leaving before then.  I'm pretty sure that family that is closing wants to be on their own land as soon as they can. However, they just paid for another month 2 days ago.  

Apparently the dog - Obi/Obito (I call his full name when I need his attention) - is doing ok.  He hasn't torn my room to shreds, that's a plus.  We didn't really get to spend enough time together to really have him missing me. In his mind, I'm probably like his previous owners: gone.  I like him, but we haven't grown seriously attached to each other yet.  That takes time, a lot of time, like a year or something.  

Next week will be much more grueling than this one. Apparently the main trainer is up early - picks this other guy up here at 3:30 am.  They were out until around 1 today. At least they didn't have to work the entire daytime hours.  I used to get up early on occasion for the previous job, but it's not something I actually like, lol.  I don't really care at this point what I have to do to get out of here. If it's up at 3:00, to be ready by 3:30, then so beit. They think he'll be ready to leave by Friday. I'd like to get the same results.  They load and unload the trucks, so there will be some new variables thrown at me on that, but I am confident I can learn whatever and have it memorized by the time 4 full days of it is done.  

Anyway, I'm getting offa here. I want to get caught up on some of the news.

 Wednesday - early

After spending the entire day doing modules, I went back to the = house is what they're calling it, I'm calling it a boy scout camp host room - and at some of the food I bought on Monday.  I won't last much longer on that food, I'm ito have to go to town to get some more and it will have to be during working hours.

This is because you are only allowed to use their compnay vehicle between the hours of 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. If you want to go to town on the weekend? That's apparently on you.  I can imagine the cost of an Uber/Lyft for whatever it is pretty well up there and I just looked at hotels, pretty pricey stuff.  But, it's Oregon and they have a hotel tax here, I am understanding, that is outrageous. The kind of thing you'd expect to find in a Dem run state where taxation is loved by the many. 

This other dude showed up yesterday while I was making dinner.  We got into an hours-long conversation about this company and other stuff in general.  I was wondering if he was seeing this place through the same eyes that I am seeing it as.  He went off on them, lol.  

And off some more but was relieved because he only has a couple of days left here and then he gets to fly home. And yes, he spent the weekend here doing nothing for they don't have weekend drivers available to train.  I can tell ya right now, I am not spending an entire weekend sitting in this - place.  I'll spend credit card rewards points on a hotel and go spend a couple of nights in town, eating at restaurants and seeing whatever sights there are to see.  

I'd rather work, get into a truck with whoever, get the training started and get it over with and get the Borg out of here.  I'm preparing myself mentally for the idea that I'm going to be stuck here doing nothing, which is ridiculous.  You aren't getting paid to sit here and do nothing, btw.  

I mean, it's my fault I'm here I guess. I started getting the instinct that this place isn't really right for  me once I started getting information close to departure date.  Now that I'm here, I'm going to struggle through this ridiculousness, get it over with and go home.  I have no intentions of going straight to work even if I "pass" all of this stuff, I intend on going home and spending time with family and making sure everything in the park is going good. Rest assured it will need mowed by then.  

Well, the morning rituals come and go in these days, another long day ahead of me as I was informed by this other guy that after I get done with learning how to adjust brakes, I'll be spending the rest of the day doing hazmat modules on the computer.  In other words, a repeat of yesterday, different subject matter. He said they intentionally dragged it out at the brake learning portion for they didn't want to go do more modules.

Yeah, well, teach me how to adjust brakes, I'm sure it takes 10 minutes and get me back in the building. I don't want to drag this thing out any more than I have to, get it over with and move on to whatever is next, which I believe after hazmat is learning their tablets.  That will probably take some time, new electronic devices and learning the functionality of them usually does. But I think tablets are tomorrow. 

Basically, the safety guy wants me to go slower and drag it out so I can get more pay.  Thanks, no thanks, get it done so I can head home - or just to get it over with.  It's a daily pay anyway, not an hourly pay and if they try to screw me on that, well...

The tent lady finally figured out that "someone has hacked my card".  She claimed that someone took $100 out of it. You know, I've offered to her several times to just reduced the bi-monthly payment to make it more affordable.  She keeps talking about "getting behind" on it, I don't really care as long as she makes some kind of payment that is at least $250 every 2 weeks.  In other words, pay the lot rent and pay something on the motor coach itself.  I don't know if she's telling the truth or not, I just   said well, we can put off this payment if you like. No, I appreciate the offer, etc.

So I took out $200 on the 4th try. I don't like all of these declines I have going on the card site.  I want her to check to make sure the money is in there.  I asked her to this time and she was sure it was there.  No, it wasn't there and tho I haven't heard anything from the card company, I do wonder if it looks bad on me in making several attempts for a declined card?  Or worse, that I'm getting charged each time?  Ill have to find that out, they take out a lump sum of a percentage every month of what I have run through their system.  It's why I raised my nightly rate by $3, to cover that charge.  I'm not paying it, so to speak, I want the customer to foot that bill.

Ok, well I guess I best get ready to leave. I just realized I haven't really looked a the news lately, guess I'll get caught up today

Oh, and sleep.  Well, I must have been too tired to care about the road noise last night because I slept a full, much-needed 8 hours and only woke up once and fell right back asleep.  I feel much, much better this morning, quite thankfully. At least I won't be dragging through the day, dead tired.

G'day

Probably before then.  

 The  end of the work day, 4:00 pm they go home.  I didn't ask for use of the vehicle for I have nothing in me to want to go anywhere but bed.  

Last night was the dude up til 3:30 am, bed bugs (I'm guessing, I have several fresh bites on me), Interstate noise and little sleep.  I won't last here like this.  I can't go 2 weeks without sleep.  I'll be one cranky person if every night goes as it did last night. 

I sat there all day long working on 63 different modules and got them all finished, only taking 1, 10 minute break after 6 hours of going at it.  The safety guy said "you got them ALL done?" Yes, isn't that what you wanted? Well yes, but what I want and what I get are 2 different things, you are ahead of the curve.  

Well I guess that's good, but there is still a plethora of things to do before I can even get to trailer training. Tomorrow they want me to learn how to adjust the brakes.  I already know how to do that, but I didn't bother to tell them since I haven't done it in so long, the whole setups might have changed.  Plus it will be far easier to learn how to adjust brakes than sitting in that hard chair all day long doing those endless modules with endless tests. 

There is a food truck across the main street about 500 feet from here.  They not only serve dinner, they also serve wine. I don't wonder if a nice glass of wine would help me at sleep better.

But, I don't even feel like walking over there. My arm skin is all dried out and flaky, desperately need some lotion.  Probably should have asked for the vehicle but driving 16 miles each way just isn't in the cards for me today.  If only I can get some decent sleep tonight, I can get tomorrow work day over with and go into town.  There is literally nothing else out here beyond that little food truck.  It's also a winery outlet. The people own a  winery and a food truck? At this exit out in the middle of nowhere. Just a little odd.

The tent lady paid today? No, not yet.  She needs to get this issue of telling me to process her card and having it declined behind her. I doubt it looks good trying to process cards with insufficient funds from the same person happening every time. I'm waiting for her reply, but I'm not running it again until she fixes it or lowers the amount.  She doesn't necessarily pay what we agreed to every time, but then again I offered that to her.  It will just push out the length of the repayment time.  Oh, yes, I ran the card and it declined.  The money would be great but no thanks to declined cards/  I only have one more payment due before the end of the month and that would be the "hunter" that wants to bag some deer. But he doesn't know if he's staying or not.

Oh and the New Jersey people. They are a needy bunch.  They're always broke. Seems like she gets her disability check and it's gone immediately, hence the reason I'm on her doorstep when she gets it.  

Yes, checking my book, the NJ people owe - they always owe and Lot 2 will owe on the 27th.  After that, there will be a large number of payments due around the 1st.  \

I'm thinking I best pay someone to go out there and mow the lots next week.  I mowed the 3 people that were talking about leaving before I left, but it'll need it mowed again.  It rained a couple of times now and that's enough to get weeds and grass flying right on up. 

Well I'm done with this. Going to lay down even tho it's only 5:15 in the afternoon, just need to rest a little. 

 Tuesday - early

Not sleeping well. Too much Interstate noise and its like the window just lets all that noise in. Its going to be a long day.

Plus there is a very strong musty smell in the room I am staying in.  Lunch time today will undoubtedly be nap time.  Don't care much what they think about it, perhaps put people in better accommodations and they won't have sleep issues. Probably not true with everyone that comes through here, but I'd bet money I'm not the first person that had trouble sleeping in this setup.

I didn't help that whoever is staying in the other room was up to 3:30 am.  TV on, bathroom visits which is near my room, etc.  

I also was bitten by whatever in multiple places on my body during the night. I have a couple of huge welts. It's a bad cocktail of things adding up to misery.  I would have been happy to have a hotel room and drive a rental vehicle to the building every day like most other trucking companies do. They are having trouble recruiting new people and I can see why.  

One of the negative reviews, however, wasn't right. It doesn't smell like dog urine in the main building and there aren't any animals in there that I could see.  But pretty much everything else was right on.  These are nice people and all, they just don't appear to have any understanding of how to make people feel like they are at home, ie: sleeping quarters that are a place that THEY would like to stay in.

It's clean in  here, but that's about it.  

There isn't much noise from the RV park, which is amazing because there are a lot of people crammed in there. Heck, there's a crew out there right  now working on electrical for the new lots they are building, don't hear them either. But what I do hear? Constant Interstate noise. I must have been extremely tired 2 nights ago to be able to sleep through all of this. 

The only change today is that I bought a can of coffee and some creamer yesterday while at the creditless-card Winn-co grocery store.  I was trying to put some of the purchase of the items on this company credit card which they alot you $15 per day to eat.  

$15 per day.  I mean, you can buy food and make your own meal for that much money, you can go out to eat once if you're lucky, but for a whole day?  These are the major disconnects I'm having with this place.  

Well, for now, I'll grin and bear it, maybe less grinning.  I have this week to do modules on the computer and next week is training.  I "get" to go home if I can complete trailer training next week. Probably one of the few things they have right: you go out with an experienced driver to do hands on training.  You can't learn that stuff in a classroom, at least I can't.  Have to go to the job site and see it, learn it and try it.  

I'm sort of getting burnt out on having to learn new stuff all the time. The shed was all of that and more, installing a new pedestal, all the stuff I had to learn from scratch and mostly You-Tube videos being done at the park.  I'd like everything to go on auto-pilot for a while and just be able to not have to stress over things.

The good thing that happened were the 2 that paid for another month and another paid via cashapp this morning.  Much needed money and I haven't checked the book yet, someone is due in the next couple of days I think.  

At least the testing junk is over with.  That wasn't much fun either.  Maybe after training today I will take that van of theirs if it's available and go to town and get a "free" bite to eat.

Or, I will be to tired to do anything and just force myself to go for a walk and then spend the rest of the day in this "house".  I do start getting paid today.  

This RV park next door. This isn't "long term", well I guess you could call it that if you want. It's permanent.  Like, this is the house, this is where we live we are here to stay type of thing.  They obviously don't care about the age or appearance of the trailers. Some are new looking, some are very trashy looking.  The thing is, it's full.  I mean, even the new spaces as they are completed fill up.  It's their business model, more power to them.

The cost of housing in this area is very high,  A one bedroom, plain Jane apartment going for $1,300?  This is why the RV parks are filled up as people who can't afford regular housing find living in RV's to be much less expensive.  The trainer said yesterday the owner of the trucking company is charging them between $400 and $500 per month, including electricity.  This is pretty much what I do, I just don't have a lot of junky trailers. I do have one, it's behind the shed and mostly out of sight.  I tired of those people.  They fight with each other all the time.  They make life difficult for the tent lady. Their car was parked in the main driveway the other day when I was leaving town, a thing I forgot to address them on.  If the car is out of gas - again - push the damn thing out of the driveway.  It's not mine, it's shared. 

Well, getting close to time to get out of here. Not much access to do anything on the internet during the day, they have signs up "no cellphones" but I don't care about that if we aren't doing anything. I'll get it out and check it anyway. They do all the time. 

Oh and finally looking out the window, I had thought I as in the rear of the house.  I'm on the side of it and it's angled towards the Interstate.  So yea, that's why I am hearing this noise all the time and likely why the other dude - who was here before me - took that other room. There is a third room but it has a sign on it saying Private. I don't see anyone coming or going out of it, no one is in there. This is a 3 bedroom "house", as it was described, perhaps someone put that up there for their own private oasis when they come into town?  

Fortunately for me, this laptop started working pretty good again. It must have been all of those endless updates.  It was updating every day for a while there.  And those updates aren't 5 minute deals, it takes this thing an hour, hours, a day to process it.  It's ridiculous and it is beyond my understanding why they think it's such a great thing to force updates all the time.  It may be security stuff, but do it once a week not every day. 

Well, the dog is doing ok, so I've heard.  James will have taken him on by now.  He likes the dog, fortunately for me. Not sure how that is going to be when I finally get home.  Or anything else for that matter. They said I might be driving a truck back from here, told me that before I came out here. Well, that is impossible if they were referring to anything in the yard. All the decent trucks are on the road. There is a grass burner, I guess, that works ok, it's old but it's clean. There is no mattress in the sleeper tho.  

And finally - if they have me doing nothing this weekend, I am not staying here. I will go to Eugene and burn up credit card rewards points on a hotel stay for 2 nights. I don't see any reason to subject myself to this hellish place when I'm doing nothing. I'd rather sit in the comfort of a Marriott Residence Inn or similar, nicer hotel establishment.  

15 minutes left, I have to get ready to go.

G'day

 Well, still Monday and Day 1 is over with. 

I can't say it was fun or anything like that. 

Filling out all kinds of paperwork that I have already filled out several times, handing over my driver's license 4 times to various people, going to this Dr office and going through unbelievable testing.  

Easily and hands down was the blow into a tube test.  This is where you take as deep a breath as you possibly can and blast it out as forcefully as you can all at once and then, keep blowing until there is basically nothing left in your lungs.  

The assistant said 3 times unless there is too much of a difference in between the first 3.  After 5 times I said no more.  I was seeing stars, lightheaded, this isn't something you'd just normally do hanging out at the house - or ever for that matter.  

The other thing I didn't much care for was lifting 70 pounds from the floor to a shelf that was 6 feet off the ground.  It wouldn't have been an issue, but they wanted me to do it 12 times in a row!  And the beam test.  Where you are balancing yourself on this plank of wood that is 12 feet long.  You balance yourself across it, turn around without touching anything to hold you up and then back across, turn around again, back across, turn around again, and then you finish.  

This took the morning up.  It was more waiting on the various technicians/dr's than it was getting the stuff done. Waiting on the physical ability testing was an hour in itself.  I grinned and beared it, that's all I can say about that.  

I then stopped at a Winn-co on the way out. No sense in going back to the yard which is out in the middle of nowhere and then having to drive all the way back again.  I bought a little over $60 worth of groceries, enough food to last many days worth of eating without having to buy anything else, anywhere else.  I had a feeling I wouldn't want to be driving 16 miles each way just to get to a grocery store.  

There is a little eatery across the street from here and they have rave reviews, I might check it out, but my fried chicken is pretty tasty and it was in the refrigerator waiting on me after I was done for the day.  
Did I say I hate this new keyboard?  Piece of junk.

Anyway, getting back from that wasn't the end of the day as I was originally informed.  Oh nooo.  Now we fill out more paperwork and then do a road test. Road tests are mandated by federal regulation.  

I can't really tell you how I felt about that before getting back into a truck, I just figured I'd get the hang of it back quickly and that would be the end of that.  And it was true. Like I had never left trucking.  Old trucks here, a yard full of junk equipment that is never used, the good trucks are all out on the road.

We went through 2 trucks before finding one road worthy enough to get out on the Interstate - which is literally right here, 100 feet away? However far it is, it's just far enough you couldn't throw a stone onto the roadway but definitely close enough to hear the highway noise.  Fortunately, my room is on the back side of the building and there is a portable ac unit in here with fan settings, I just turn that on for background noise plus the Interstate dies down with traffic at night time.

It's I-5, tho and it's very busy daytime.

Well, I got the tractor backed under the trailer, hooked it all up, did a pre-trip, etc.  The man was watching but more interested in his phone.  I dunno, guess he just figured I knew what I was doing after finding out I had been driving since the mid 80's.  Well, we got onto the Interstate, shifting was a breeze - thankfully they don't believe in automatic transmission and they don't believe in inward facing cameras with microphones either.  A big plus considering some of the negatives going on here.

We got back, I parked the trailer, unhooked the tractor, put it back in it's place and then he asked me how I thought I did? I replied I thought I did pretty good considering I haven't driven a truck in 13 months.  How do YOU feel I did? Yup, you did good actually, no problems.  Well that's good. 

Finally done with that, he told me what to expect tomorrow and the  next several days - mostly just doing online stuff. HE's hoping to get me in a truck with another person for the weekend, otherwise he said I'd be sitting around til Monday. NOOOOOOO, I want to get this s*** over with and get home.  Not sit around a whole entire weekend doing nothing.  I didn't come up here for a vacation.  

Oh, btw, for a company's safety director to tell you you did great driving? That's high compliment. Those people never have any issue telling you about yourself if you are doing something they see that they don't like.  

Ok, well it's 3:22 pm here.  I have a lot of time to kill.  I dunno why they  just didn't start me on the training today, I just want this garbage over with. I have passed everything but the drug test. That won't be back for a few days, rest assured I don't do illicit drugs and will pass that easily.  So what am I going to do with the rest of the day?\

I'm totally worn out, that's what.  I found pillows in a closet and yes I brought a pillow case with me along with my own sheets.  I will double pillow my bed and take a nice, long nap.  Yesterday wore me out worse than I thought it would and I have no idea how I made it through today without feeling more sluggish than I did.  It was 2:00 am my time - central time - before I got to bed last night and tho I slept 5-1/2 hours without a problem, that isn't anywhere near enough sleep to go through a day like today. 

And miracle of miracles, the people that disappeared contacted me. They are staying another month and I will be happy to charge their cards for another month. That is a big relief, actually, I won't have 3 empty lots sitting around for however long, it's still just the one.  

There. 2 more lots charged for another full month, you don't know how much of a relief that is right now, knowing there will be another high electric bill coming next month. Hopefully not as high as the last one, but it's still going to be up there.  There are no new reservations in the only available lot and I'm pretty much saying if someone wants it long term, they can have it.  \

The forecast for my town where the RV park is at changed quite a bit.  Now, it's in the high 80's but more low 90's than anything. That is a significant change from just seeing 2 low 90's days and the rest in the 80's.  It's still not as hot as it was a week plus ago, but that's still pretty high.  Just that night time lows are getting down there very nicely, so the real heat of the day isn't lasting terribly long.  Alright, I  need to get the park book out - yes I brought that with me - and see who is upcoming on the rent payment list.  

I'm gonna call this one done and over with.  Might check the news and see what's up. It's pretty much the same garbage day in and day out with Republicans and Democrats fighting each other constantly.  Gets old seeing that stuff, but I still like to keep up with what's going on.  I just don't do near as much as I used to, it's just too much negativity and I don't feel the need to expose myself to too much of that.  

And anyway, that nap is calling my name.  

Monday. 

Very long day yesterday.

the shift key on my computer keyboard broke, there may be instances of no caps when there are supposed to be, oh well, at least the keyboard still works. 

Anyway, flying to DFW wasn't any big deal besides the man sitting next to me that didn't fit in his seat.  WAY too big.  I didn't say anything because it was going to be a short flight. He did ask if he could be moved up another row, the flight attendant refused, saying all of those empty seats were upgrade seats you have to pay for. 

Ridiculous.  If you haven't sat in a commercial jetliner any time recently, you aren't missing anything besides a very uncomfortable setup where they cram as many seats in there as they can possibly get away with.  

DFW, found a restaurant and ate.  The cheapest things on the menu were burgers which didn't feel like eating, so I opted for the next cheapest thing which was a half slab of ribs, mashed potatoes and a house salad. IT was a lot of food, thankfully, that was yesterday afternoon and i'm still not hungry.  Which is good because there isn't any food here besides some canned vegetables. There is no coffee, either, which is pretty messed up.  

Sitting in DFW for 5 hours was neither good nor bad.  Just sit there and exist.  

Getting into the Airbus A320 was nice tho,  A newer plane, in great condition. Seats crammed together of course, but the bonus was the middle seat was empty.  There weren't many empty seats on that flight, i counted that as a blessing. The lady in the window seat was a very strange person, i'll leave that at that.  

However.  We sat there quite a while until the captain finally came on and gave the usual rundown of weather of where we're going, etc, but then threw these two little gems in; We are experiencing a minor maintenance issue and we are having a minor paperwork problem.  We expect to have these issues corrected within the next 15 minutes.  

"minor maintenance issue"

Why he thought informing us of that as being a good idea I will never know.  A man boarded the plane with an American Airlines safety vest on, did something in the back and got back off.  We didn't take off until 45 minutes later than we were supposed to. 

The flight - almost 4 hours of it - was uncomfortable but at least I could move my legs around what with no passenger next to me.  People don't know how to walk down the aisle without hitting people either.  

Anyway, we get to Eugene airport. Smaller but nice facility. Waited for quite a while for the luggage, the taxi driver was out there waiting and had been waiting for over half an hour.  Not my fault, but I did end up giving her a tip on top of whatever they paid her for  the fare.  Got to this place and ugh.  Yes, that RV park is filled with old junk RV's and newer ones as well.  Crammed in together.  

Found this A frame "house", found the entrance on the second floor.  This is something you would think of staying at when you were 10 years old going on a Boyscout outing, not something you would bring in new drivers to make a lasting impression with. Well, there's an impression alright, not a good one.  It's clean at least, but yes, there is no bedding, no pillows that I could find, they did have clean towels at least. Refrigerator is empty and there is no coffee.

Emphasis on no coffee.  So, this recruiter just texts me and tells me not to show up at the front until 8:00 am.  I wasn't planning on it.  I did say there isn't any coffee over here hopefully y'all have some over there?  Well, we recommend you don't drink coffee until after testing.  

This testing....it sounds like something that isn't pleasant, is elongated and at least a medium probability of failing it.  I was up until 2:00 am last night (Central time, it was midnight here) and I'm not really feeling it too much right now. Especially with no coffee.  That'll just make me grumpy.  No one needs a grumpy old man, especially me, lmao.  

I'll go through this testing with no coffee in my system and if I pass, they best be doing some stuff  to impress me.  I'm not beholden to them and so far, there is no reason to believe this is any great company. The only good thing I've heard is the taxi driver saying, well, they've been around a long time.  It's a good company, without expressing why  it's a good company and probably having no idea what she is talking about.  There's lots of bad trucking companies that have been around a long time, they exist usually with the help of newer drivers that can't get anything else.  

Well.  I'm watching an RV park tenant with a dog and a kid sitting ou by the street, apparently there is a bus stop here as a busload of kids already went through here and now thes older kids.  This place is not well maintained.  This house is right next to the RV park, I mean right next to it.  There is a crew of workers out there working on an obvious expansion of the park and there is an Interstate maybe 150 away from this property.  

At least there are some mountains here.  

Anyway, my time is up. No idea when I will be free again, probably not anytime soon.  

G'day

 So here I set at DFW,  trip from Longview uneventful besides sitting next to a man whose body didn't fit the seat. He asked if he could be switched to one of the rows in front of us that were empty? Oh no, we can't do that, those are upgrade seats.  So even after the flight is seated and no one else coming with several empty they still won't allow people to switch? Unbelievable.  

I said nothing to the man, it was a 37 minute flight, just eat it.  \

However.  The next flight, fully 3 hours from now and yes, I've eaten and done everything I wanted to before sitting down at the 3rd gate now. Just received a text to go back to the previous gate.  3 gate changes, 4 gates total so far. 

Should I walk from gate 37 back to gate 21, or just sit here and think, gee, they might change it again?  I've never seen this many gate changes especially so long before the flight even takes off.    

Oh, well I don't plan on having someone else's body in contact with mine for 4 plus hours the next flight.  I will politely say something to the person if that's that case, if that's even possible in this day age.  

Yup, I"m just going to sit at gate A37 until it's an hour before departure time. If nothing changes before then,  I'll do the walk clear back to gate A21.  

Anyway, I am neither enthused nor aghast at this trip so far. It's just normal now for all kinds of bs.  

 It's good to just get up and act as if you're leaving.  When you aren't really leaving, but all kinds of things start flooding through your mind. Do I have everything? Did I pack everything I need? Did I forget something? 

Why yes, yes I did.  I forgot to take my house keys off of the key ring and leave the keys for the park here in case they are needed for something.  That is done.  I do have a couple of warm clothing items, but the day time temps there are in the 80's so nothing too heavy.  Looks like just evening/night time temps are getting cool. A little cash in case I need it for - something, who knows.  Look at the bank accounts, a bit spartan but that will change in the next coming weeks before the end of the month.  

I'll have to have the new friend check lots 4 and 5 for me daily to see if these people ever showed up.  I haven't heard anything after charging the one dude for a week's rent, of which he is still 4 days behind now.  

I think the laptop has given up the ghost.  I said the same thing for 35 minutes.  So I just pushed the off button until it shut itself off and now? it's actually doing .... something.  It'd be nice if I could just get it to last at least this trip, I doubt it's going to happen. I need to be able to take payments for lot rents and I can't do that with a screwed up laptop.  

Well, it's trying anyway.  Just slower than slow.  Well, maybe I'm luck. The thing is working, just taking forever to do anything.  I clearing of history and cookies and such might speed things up. 

Success.  Maybe the thing will give me the few extra weeks I need out of it after all? No idea, but I'm running with it. 

Concerning. Very concerning.  I've got the campground software up, google finally put up the internet screen and tho it's going slower than a turtle with it's legs cut off, it is working.  I just did everything I need to do on the software for the campground.  Mostly, blocking out access for reservations on lots that are full.  

Well that's it. The thing started functioning normally.  I mean, kinda slow but after all the updates were finally done - a thing this machine does all the time - and deleting history

 Sunday - semi early

Figured I'd better get up and get the day started. Unlike yesterday, starting before 6:00 am, I didn't manage to crawl out of bed until around 7:30.  

Yesterday, the trip to the property was - strange.  The man that wants to do the hunting decided he'd get into his truck run down after us and go with us on a walk.  I did not invite him and I really didn't want him with us.  These are more "private" walks with the dog and the boys.  This dude couldn't handle it, either.  He was dripping in sweat, face covered with sweat droplets as we might have gotten half way through the walk.

He also tried to take over the conversation, which I quickly shut down. He is free to come back here and walk with his dog any time he wants, he doesn't need to take away from my last moments with normal life with the dog and kids before I have to go back to the corporate working life. I suspect this transition is going to be rough.  He was worn out after one pass through the trail and I bid him g'day.  

Back to the trail for a while longer without uninvited guests.  

Over to the shed after all of that. Ladies came swarming out and I ended up dealing with  - stuff. A lot of stuff.  I did a lot of stuff and then I informed them again I'd be "gone awhile". How long will I be gone, I asked myself? Hmmm.  The entire 2 weeks? Find out this place is the dud people have proclaimed it to be and cut out early?  Not really sure.  I'm going with the idea that I'm going to go through the entire process, but there is this reservation inside of me that says, this may not turn out well. 

I have decided to go to church this morning. Out at noon, bring the kids home, grab my stuff and run over to longview.  I'll be there an hour and a half early, ample time to get through that tiny airport security.  And then sit there and wait.   And then to Dallas - and wait 4 hours.   And then direct to Eugene.  Weird that they have a direct flight to Eugene. I wonder what the industry/economic factors are over there to have a direct flight over there.  

It just gets worse. I just checked the tickets.  Middle seats.  I don't sit in middle seats. Why would this person put me in the middle seat? Have you ever sat in the middle seat of a commercial jetliner for several hours? I always sit on a window seat. She didn't even ask, probably because they are so cheap that that was likely the only seats available without paying for upgrades.

Well, upgrades it is.  I paid $34 for the flight from DFW to Eugene on the aisle seat.  There were no window seats available.  Oh well, I'll get out of the seats quicker and actually be able to get up and get moving. Last time, people were sitting in their seats until after everyone ahead of us was well down the aisle and near the exit door.  I just sat there, in my window seat, wondering why these people are just sitting there?   The flight attendants were giving odd looks as well. Most people want to get off the aircraft, not sit there forever. I had never seen such a thing where people were waiting - for what exactly?

I'm used to aisle row people getting up, getting their stuff and standing there waiting until everyone ahead of them starts moving.  If it happens again, I'll be the sole person standing there, I guess, cause' I'm not waiting.  Get off the plane, get my luggage, get in the taxi and go. It will be late and I don't want to linger.  

Ok.  My laptop?  Is all messed up now.  The ports to plug in the keyboard aren't working.  Click on Google to access the internet a menu pops up instead of the application.  I'm pretty much screwed if I can't get this thing to work, just tried to restart it and see what happens.  I guess it would simply mean I will have to buy a new laptop on any off time over in Eugene, I can't go 2 weeks without one and I don't have time right now to go laptop shopping.  

If one were to believe in omens, one might think, hmm, you are getting some signals that you may just want to find a different job.  I have another laptop but it's so old and it's in worse shape than this one.  Well, there is one in there that needs a new keyboard after I spilled liquid onto it.  

Oh great.  This thing is doing yet another update. This could take an hour.  I should have done this yesterday but I was busy with other stuff.  I dunno, I'm just sitting here scratching my head.  Middle seat.  Why would they even do this?  Sheets. Food.  Dog piss smell in main office.  Trashy trailer park.  Yikes!  

Maybe I can set this thing to default factory settings and see what happens. I'll lose my pics but most of them are stored on this desktop I am using to write this post anyway.  In fact, the important files are on this computer, I don't have hardly any of that stuff on the laptop.  Just didn't think I would want them on that one. 

Then again, maybe I won't have time. 15 minutes and it's still saying "Getting Windows ready, Don't turn off your computer". What is it getting ready for? The apocalypse?  Maybe it's trying to take as much time as it possibly can to set a new record?  Well, I need to get off of here and get busy with thing.

 Saturday - early

Got up early - 6:00 am - to get the day started and get myself into a bit different mode of thinking. Work life for a company isn't the same as work life in your own company.  Pretty much was getting up later, tho not terribly much, but there was really no need to get up at 6:00 am unless I wanted to get outdoor work done before the worst of the heat hit - which is something that definitely happened.  Just not every day.   

I slept well, regardless of the ridiculous dream I was having when I woke up.  

Anyway, I am mostly packed, just waiting for some pants to dry.  This idea that they don't have sheets for their beds irritates me, frankly.  What kind of way is that to bring a new person into a company? And if they are willing to stoop that low - or be that lazy - or whatever their deal is - what else are they willing to skimp on?  Who ever heard in the last couple of decades at least of putting people up into a "house" - whatever that thing she sent a pic of, it isn't a house - instead of just getting them a hotel and rental car? 

So yes, I am having reservations on this deal at this point, but she didn't reveal this sheet-less bedding situation until yesterday. Eating remains to be seen.  But again, who is told to bring their own food by stopping at the grocery store after you leave the airport?  No one, ever.  At least, nothing I have ever experienced.  AT worst, in this weird arrangement, they should have something in the refrigerator waiting for you from a local eatery.  

I'm trying to dismiss all of this out of my mind - and other stuff as well that I read online but who knows?  Sometimes people get upset and they just start blabbing and exaggerating and saying things that are either total falsehoods or are only partial truths.  But then, you start looking at the reviews on the RV park they own next door and that also paints a picture.  LOTS of very negative reviews. Some of it is typical, lots crammed in together, other of it?  Drug land, scum land, etc. But, someone said recently they are upgradin the place and it is "getting better".  ]

Sounds like a long term sh**hole that isn't well run.  They label the manager is an angry woman that doesn't want to talk to anyone. Strangely, however, I was reading a post the other day in the RV managers group and many of them expressed the same type of sentiment.  They say getting too chummy with guests always leads to problems.  Like having them knocking on your door constantly or wanting special privileges.  There were a few that said otherwise, but the majority of them just don't want a lot of interaction with guests. This may be larger parks where there are too many people to consider having too much familiarity with.

I talk to my guests if they want to talk.  It can get a bit too much sometimes.  The dude that wants to hunt deer apparently wants to become my best friend. Another wanted me to stand out in heat/direct sunlight while they are sitting in a motorhome, not in the sunlight and going on forever.  Those people are a bit...different.  

Anyway, this whole situation has turned into some weird, paradoxical situation with sheets, food, intoning not to do checked in baggage, etc.  They didn't come out and say that, I said I would be checking in a bag, there is no way I am packing for 2 weeks in a carry on bag.  This is work and that necessarily means clothing getting dirty, it's not a vacation.  

I have no qualms, if this situation just becomes too weird, getting a taxi, getting a ride to the airport and paying my own way back.  Maybe go visit the beach since it's only 60 miles away and make a mini vacation out of it. Make something good out of it, in other words, instead of foul memory.  I'll just hope that it doesn't come to that, but preparing myself in case it does.  

My clothes are done.  Most of the bag is packed, just have to try on the new jeans and make sure they fit.  Other than that, I have to check my laptop - I didn't replace it yet, it's just an expense I really can't afford right now - and hope it will work. The keyboard quit working - remote keyboard, not the on on the computer itself, so I'm unboxing one that I have had for a while and hope that works.  I don't like using the keyboards on laptops, just very uncomfortable and I'm certainly not going 2 weeks without having the ability to write out my thoughts.  

I don't know how long these days are going to be, but I'll guess 8 hours.  

With most of my packing done, well it will be done soon enough, I can turn my attention to the Park. Go over, check everything out, hope it's all good enough to work for the next 2 weeks, hope nothing breaks, especially electrical stuff and get that off of my mind as well. Think about anything I need to take that I might be forgetting. Mostly, I need my giant notebook with all of the dates everyone pays.  If someone wants to pay in cash, it'll just have to wait or I can ask one of the folks here to go get it.  I think the only cash customer coming up is not due until the 27th.  

The thing I really want to nail down are these 2 trailers from QT workers.  Today, the other one is due to pay as well.  They just really need to show up - today. Or tomorrow morning.  

 So, we have beds with no bedding.  In a house. That is provided for new people coming into their system. Noted and will be remembered - forever actually.  That is kind of a pile of dog s***.  We are told to get our own food after we land.  I found the RV park next to their operation, a lot of very negative reviews. I'm getting a bit concerned here.  And a lot of other things that are adding up to - something I'm not sure I want to be involved with. A lot of this information I didn't think to ask because I have never heard of it being done in the trucking industry.  

I'll still fly over there and hope that it's something I can deal with - over here.  I am beholden to no one in that company and I have no qualms walking away from a shi*** company.  

Well I don't know why I didn't do this long ago, it just never crossed my mind.  The reviews on this company are almost all horrible.  But none of it was the division over here.  All of it that I could find was over there in the northwest.  I dunno if this is going to be worth wasting my time with this.  It doesn't bode well with everything that I'm reading. They certainly want a LOT of the drivers for what they are "giving" back in terms of just doing an orientation.  

I guess I'll just go, get into this thing and if it sucks, I'll find something else. All of trucking sucks as far as I'm concerned, but there are definitely companies out there that are true horror stories.  A corporate office "full of dogs that smells like pee" and other wonderful stuff. 

Oh well.  I liked the idea of home daily, I'm getting the feeling that that probably isn't going to be true. I also know that I will immediately call them out on it, using their own words, for I nailed this down decisively.  I left none of that to chance.  

So, it's Friday evening, I'll enjoy my last nights and day here, go to church on Sunday, come home and leave for the airport.  And not stress over this company. It's just this idea that the "beds don't have sheets"and other such nonsense that started sending the alarm signals rolling through my mind.  Yes, I'm having serious second thoughts. Not about going back to work, but going back to work for this company.  Yikes!  

Uhh, ok, going to just sit here and think about all of this.  

 Friday - early

Getting up early to get used to a different schedule.  

Heat coming back - but just a little.  It will be 88 high today, which is a far cry better than the 107 last week.  No rain today, overcast at 97% humidity. That's what gives the 88 degrees a little bit of a bite.  

Doing all of my laundry today and getting ready for this elongated trip coming up in 2 days.  I have to go over her list again, but I think I have everything in order.  They want me to bring steel toed boots, which I have, but takes up a lot of space in a suitcase.  Well just wear them over here on the plane!  Plane rides are bad enough being cramped in there without having to add a heavy pair of boots to the discomfort.  

Well whatever, I'm pretty much sealed into this - I could not go and there isn't a thing they could do about it, just cancel the ticket and move on.  I'm not officially employed by them and won't be until after I pass all of their ridiculous tests.  Even the recruiter admitted the extensive testing is a bit much....

It's called truck driving, not marathon running at the Olympics.  Yes, there is a physical element to this job in climbing up a ladder onto a trailer and pulling hoses and putting them into place, nothing worse than what I was doing last job.  

Anyway, well into the day, getting stuff done, going to go over later after it warms up and see what's happening with the 125 amp breaker.  I suspect nothing..it took a few months for the other one to peter out and that was in dreadful heat temperatures.  It's just something that can be put off temporarily.

I dunno, but after much consulting with people who are in the business, with every single person saying yes, go ahead and run the card, that's exactly what I did.  They aren't staying for free, those 2 that are working the QT, I doubt they expected that to be the case but they also didn't inform me they were leaving again and staying out for so long.  It's like they're doing another entire job somewhere else before coming back. Did they finish this job? I have no idea.  

Today is the last, paid day that the other guy has going for him.  I've got his card info as well.  The amount I charged to the past due account sent an email to him, I'm not trying to hide anything and if they have an issue with it? Yes, please call me, today! That letter has been sitting over on those steps for a week now?  

So whatever.  I'll go see if they finally showed up, but I left a note on the steps so I would hope the past due guy would call.  He's still past due 2 days, I didn't charge anything but the weekly rate to sort of get caught up.  Of course, that note has been rained on on 2 separate occasions, it may no longer be legible.  

A family of 8 allegedly showing up for 3 weeks.  I dunno, but I quoted a much higher price than my regular tent camping rate.  6 kids? She claims they are "very well behaved", my gut tells me something different.  No matter, really, they will be far from the RV park and if they like to play, they have woods to run free in. Just don't destroy stuff, don't throw trash, respect the property and the wildlife.  The money is for usage of the facilities.  You have that many people using the bathroom, yes, you are going to charge more.  I also specifically stated that minors will not be using the amenities facility without adult supervision.  A lot tent campers never show up anyway.

I don't have any coals in the fire for long term.  I need some, those 2 are likely leaving soon, the QT workers and others that aren't really there for that long.  I just have one lot available currently, but that lot has no overnight reservations on it even tho it's completely open and available.  Well I take that back, a railroad worker called, but he said he wasn't coming til next month. That doesn't help me in the here and now.  

I'm considering an across the board rate hike for long term once I start getting paychecks rolling in.  Back to what it was, actually. $450 and $475.  This quite the deal when you consider electricity is included.  The big competitors raised their price to that amount recently, I haven't followed suit.  I can't afford to lose anyone right now or lose any potential new people.  But once I get money flowing in, that can change.  Just considering it.  Or add meters and lower the rent but make people pay their own electric usage.  

And just before I leave, the dog is eating 12, yes 12 cups of dog food per day. 6 in the morning and 6 in the evening.  His ribs are sticking out, his pelvic bones are sticking up, he's skinny as a rail.  I'm spending as much time with him as I possibly can before I have to leave.  Just one reason I am not really liking having to jet off over 2,000 miles from here. Many other reasons as well.  

Anyway, off to the park. 

G'day.  

 Thursday - morning

Wrote an entire post yesterday and forgot to post it, lol.  Oh well, it can just go into the unposted abyss of unposted drafts history.  

Yesterday was filled with numerous phone calls with the trucking company.  It started with this idea that they were having me board a flight out of Longview at 6:10 am and then go to Dallas....and sit there for 12-1/2 hours.  No thank you. I'm getting the idea that this company is cheap.  Which isn't necessarily bad, I guess, excepting when you're trying to bring in a new driver and he's sitting back watching all of this unfold before his very eyes.

I looked up flights out of Longview - which necessarily fly to DFW since it's just a regional carrier that is taking you to a main hub - and found flights leaving out of DFW at 2:27 pm and arriving in Oregon at the same time as the first flight. In other words, she wanted to shave off a few hundred dollars to save the company a few bucks. 

So, I texted her and said please change this.  I don't want to sit in an airport for half a day, thanks.  I don't know what went on behind the scenes, but if this was a deal breaker for them? I'm out.  I can find something else quickly, just nothing that really gives me the home time this one does (or so they claim, anyway).  

So, I'm on the flight that leaves at 2:27 pm, arrives in Oregon, I think it was 9:45 pm.  There is still a 4 hour wait at Dallas but that's a far cry better than sitting around for 12 plus hours.  The next morning, it will be at their office at 8:00 am, go to some facility somewhere and spend 3 or 4 hours doing some sort of extensive testing.  

I have never even heard of some of the tests they have you do, such as breathing into a tube to find out how much lung capacity you have? Not even the last job I had had me do that or lifting 70 pounds several times or walking across a beam to see if you can keep your balance?  Let's see, I guess I could go to the property and walk across the felled tree that I used to go across to cross the stream before I built the bridge back there.  Not only is it narrow, it is also slippery. 

The boys could never get it, I had to hold their hand and keep them from falling off every time we went across, lol.  The older boy is bored of the property now, when there is free time, he either wants to watch tv or play his games.  Well, games are a weekend only affair and tv is also limited, hence, they were out playing in the rain 2 days ago.  The younger boy still loves to go to the property and go for walks. He is the outdoorsman type.  He'd rather go outside and play than watch TV if given the choice.

Which reminds me, it's beautiful outside. 70 degrees, a light rain, just enjoying this lovely weather. I think after the rain stops I'm going to take the beast over there for another walk.  He loves it over there.  He prances around the woods just like Addler did.  Those are 2 Danes that definitely would have gotten along with each other.  

The oldest wanted to pull out his ashes box yesterday and look at it.  Well, I guess you can, but those boxes are typically very hard to open, so we're not opening it today.  I hadn't even taken the contents of the bag out.  The giant paw print mold, 2 signs, one with the Rainbow Bridge poem and another with a prayer. The box of ashes and, interestingly, a small bag with which they shaved off some of his fur.  The boy started crying when he saw the fur.  I just told him that he's in a good place now, don't worry about him.  

Well, I got off track.  The rear of the property is still a fascination to me, it's nice, deep woods and it's mine.  

So, off to Oregon, deal with the undesired things that occur in life out of necessity and move on. I'll get back into the groove of driving eventually.  

I'm just waiting for the rain to end - should be another 45 minutes or so - and then take the dog over there for a gallop through the woods.  I am not going to do that wire this week.  It's already Thursday and I'm getting my mind into a different realm.  The main breaker will work and actually isn't even under much load now that it's cooled off.  There's a couple of 90 degree days coming up - but that's 90 degrees, not 90 plus degrees and that's the high for those days.  Nothing like the 100 plus degree days where it was 100 before noon, it won't hit 90 on those days until mid-afternoon.  

It will be getting down into the 60's - going forth and lower I'm sure once we get into fall.  The wiring project can be put off for a while now, I think.  A week ago today it got up to 107 degrees with a heat index in the teens.  We won't see anything like that again this year and I have a probably 7 or 8 month reprieve from that kind of heat, at least.  

It simply means the AC's won't be on as much and will be cycling on and off versus staying on continuously.  It also means that the ambient outside temps won't further affect the breaker.  I had a double whammy going. AC's running continuously and the outside temps also heating up the breaker.  I don't think our house AC has come on all night long.  

So what else? I dunno. The dog.  I let it out and it's been running around in the rain.  I couldn't not let him out, he had to go.  So, I put his food out there instead, he won't be coming indoors until later when the rain stops and he can dry off a bit.  Just seems pointless to dry him off and then take him to the property where he will likely get wet again.  

I was talking to him this morning, asking him if he needed to go potty?  He jumped onto the bed, partially on top of me and indicated yes, lmao.  The cake he got into never did have any affect on him, or if it did, I never saw or heard it.  Fortunately, he didn't eat that much of it as the boys saw it and made him stop.  I didn't do anything about it, I found out about it long after the fact and the dog would have no idea what I'm "referring to" if I were to scold him.  I already figured he'd get into stuff on the counter if he was given the opportunity, not really his fault beyond training to make him stay out of the kitchen. 

Not a big fan of dogs in the kitchen just because of that alone.  

Finances.  Not the greatest. Expected after that $2,500 electric bill hit.  It'll go back up before I have to make another electric bill payment. The next one will still probably be high, but nothing like this one.  The reason I know it will be high is that I had probably 2 weeks of heat after that last electric bill.  But, after the next bill it will go down significantly and I can start seeing some profit start building up in the business account.  

IT doesn't negate the need for this job. I have a high property tax billing coming up and renew the insurance. The insurance won't be due until December, it gives me time to save up for all of that.  My income after taxes and health insurance coverage is unknown.  Get me rolling and get some paychecks in and then I can see what I'm going to have.  

The people occupying lots 4 and 5 are still gone.  I've had enough.  I'm going to charge the 8-day overdue lot a week and 2 days worth of lot rent. The other one is due tomorrow. I'll go over to the park - with the dog - to ascertain that they haven't returned yet, but my letter to lot 4 is still sitting on the steps.  They have clearly left town, without notifying me. Surely the owner of the trailer on lot 4 understands he is past due?  I dunno, he's young, maybe it's just not in his head that he owes lot rent.  

My interactions with other RV park owners is that they would simply charge the card and be done with it.  

_______

Well, the card is inactive, can't be charged. Their trailers are still there.  I don't know what else to do.  These are not trashy, junk, old trailers, they are newer and in good condition.  So I hesitate to act on the belief that they are derelicts.  People that paid once and then never intended to pay again.  I could move the trailers to the parking area.  Just how long are these people going to be gone?  

Someone decided to shut off the power to the wifi device today because they were moving their coach.  "I've seen trailers burn down before".  Well you probably didn't see them burning down because you didn't unplug that wifi device which is on a separate circuit and has nothing to do with your 30 amp outlet.  I tried to explain this to the man 3 times before I gave up and just went over there. 

He had plugged it back in.  I knew it wasn't on because someone called and said the wifi isn't working.  It still wasn't working, so I reset it and there it went, working again.  

 Yeah, forget getting any digging done.  The washing machine wouldn't come on so it wouldn't release the lock for the lid.  Lol.  

But before that, half the stuff wasn't working in the shed anyway.  This meant a trip to Longview for a new breaker.  Well, it turns out, a new breaker is as expensive as the entire panel kit that comes with the breaker and several 20 and 30 amp breakers as well.  Yup, got the entire panel.  Throw the panel out, use the breaker and have spares.

Well, that got the dryer going again, at least and everything else excepting on one circuit. That was a head scratcher as I checked breakers, the buss bar, and then decided it must be the outlet in the shed.  Pulled that out of there and sure enough, the thing was burnt.  I had the washing machine and the AC unit pulling off of that, live and learn.  I went to Lowe's and got a new outlet, put the AC on a different circuit and walaah.

But, that took all...lllll...llllllllllll day long.  That stuff wears me out. You're sitting there trying to figure out what's wrong and go from there.  I still have the amperage issue but it's not 105 degrees out.  It is 90 today, which is still hot, yet I'm hoping not so much as to over heat that breaker and starting tomorrow, if the forecast is right (which it hasn't been), it will be a high of 79 degrees. It is also supposed to rain. But now that I have lost a day, I want to get that digging started regardless. Unless it's really pouring rain, I'm going to get that going.  

But, the nice thing is, AC units will be off more than they are on. Which means far less draw on the panel and hopefully a lot less heat being generated.  I dunno, but I checked the main breaker when I left, it was warm but not boiling hot, it should be ok until I can get this project completed.  

___________________________

So the fun goes on.  First off, I'm out front with the kids playing soccer.  It starts raining. I'm thinking, it's just going to be another dud.  Nope!  It started pouring rain and the kids were like - let's play in the rain!  So I let them considering how long it's been since any substantial rainfall.  They got soaking wet.  They were having a blast.

However.  At some point, there was this loud cracking noise, followed by a lot more loud noises followed by a very loud crashing noise. The kids saw what happened, I was sitting on the porch. A giant branch on a 80-90 foot tall oak tree came crashing down on the street.  

The neighbor goes up there, we go up there and just looking at the aftermath.  Amazingly, no damage to anything besides maybe a few scratches on an older pickup.  The city came out pretty quick and got it all cut up and out of the way at least. 

After that, I hadn't hung out with the neighbor in forever, he invted me over to visit, which ended up in an hours long visit since we hand't talked in so long. 

Well, anyway, the trucking company called. Said they were sending me a link to release my DAC record to them - it's a trucking history type of thing.  I think I have a few inspection warnings on there from previous job, other than that there is nothing bad on there.  Pretty much every driver has some sort of DAC record, they're looking for tickets for unsafe driving or DUI's and such.  

Well, she didn't send me the link. She said they won't book a flight until I give them the auth, well, you have to send the link to sign first!  It's driver's appreciation week and apparently they are busy at the yard in Oregon with drivers coming in and them taking care of them. I get that, but you get too close to  a date you need to be on an airplane and you are asking for potential booked flights and no available seats.  

She told me she heard they have a Peterbilt picked out for me.  "That's just what I heard, don't quote me on that". Well if it's a long nose, I'd love that.  I don't know, but she said she'd have me coming on Saturday or Sunday.  Umm, I can see going out on Sunday, what on earth would I want to go over there on Saturday for? To sit around the entire weekend waiting for everything to start on Monday?

She also warned me about the physical I'll have to go through..  You have to life up 70 pounds "several times" and that drivers have informed her that it isn't all that easy.  Well, I just lifted a 95 pound Great Dane off the floor the other day, I wouldn't say it was easy but it was doable.  I don't know what weighs that much? A filler hose maybe?  No, I've lifted plenty of those.  No idea really.  You have to be able to walk across some sort of beam without falling off, keeping your balance in other words.  Climbing, etc.  I'm pretty sure I have all of this covered.  Easy or not, I'm sure I can do it. Not like I sit around doing nothing all the time, this RV park is a pretty active lifestyle.  

I was also informed that a taxi would be waiting for me and that I will need to stop at a grocery store on the way to the house to get some food.  Oh?  It has a full kitchen with all cooking utensils but you'll have to get the food to cook.  Ok?  I don't mind I guess, not exactly what I had in mind on a trip like that, I will be handing them the receipts for food and they can reimburse me.  Apparently another new hire will be in the house, but in a bedroom at the other end of the house. Good, cause' I will not be sharing a room with anyone, no way, no thanks, I wouldn't even go there to deal with that.  I'm almost 60 years old.  Cooking my own food? I cook meals here allllll the time. I've made dinner several nights in a row.  Casseroles and all kinds of dishes.  Take some recipes with me, get the stuff for them and have plenty in the fridge for leftovers.  

The dog.  Well, I had him out front when the kids were playing in the rain. When the tree crashed, I put him inside, but just in the house, not in my room. Completely forgot about him.  2 hours later, sitting on the neighbor's porch, James comes over and tells me he got into my cake.  I made a German Chocolate cake the other day with coconut frosting. I was done with it anyway, I don't like too much sweets, but I decided I wanted some cake. Well, the dog got into it.

I thought from the way James was talking that he had eating the whole thing.  I envisioned a dog getting diarrhea, possibly vomiting, who knows what.  Well, I came back a while later. He had just eating some of the frosting off the top of it and mostly left the cake alone.  Well, I don't really think he's going to get sick from that, he isn't showing any signs of it yet.  But I'm watching him lol. Any signs of puking or pooping and he's going out back!  Chucked the cake but didn't really miss it. I had had 3 small pieces of it but was really eating the topping off of it, so the topping was already half gone and he really only ate a little of that. 

Well, I've got stuff to get done for this trip and stuff to get done at the park. It's going to - allegedly anyway - start raining around 3:00 am and go through mid morning.  The forecast has, amazingly, stayed the same for quite a while.  So maybe it will happen, which isn't very helpful.  I really want to get that shed electric system solved, completed, done and over with.  
With an 80 degree high tomorrow, AC's with compressors running continuously isn't going to be an issue, the load will be decreased on that shed power box.  Well, the main breaker to be precise.  The load lowered and the ambient temperature well down, I'm at least  a bit confident the setup will last if the weather is going to continue to play games with me.

I also need some new jeans.  I've been wearing old stuff to do work in for a while, with limited amount of "decent" stuff.  Yup, I just get Walmart jeans, cheap stuff, don't much care about fashion and certainly don't much care about what anyone thinks what I look like. I keep myself presentable, just not in designer jeans, shoes and shirts.  Need a haircut badly, my hair grows really fast.  Not too much I need to buy, just need to get it done.  If I'm leaving on Sunday - or Saturday - I want to have all of this stuff ready to go by Friday.  And I want to leave out of GGG - Longview airport. NOT Dallas, NOT DFW. American will fly me to either of those airports in smaller aircraft. 

They have plenty of flights still available for Sunday, amazingly, at least on one of the sites I use to find flights.  Various leave times, fly direct to Portland from DFW.  

Anyway, I'm getting tired and I want to get to bed in time to get up early - ish.  Like, up at 7:00 am at the latest.  They're telling me I have to be at the building by 8:00 am Monday morning. Great, means I can get up at 7, get some coffee, get the day started and ready to go.  

 Tuesday - early

Now that I'm finally starting to feel better and as I promised myself, I am starting to get up early. I don't what their start time for orientation is in Oregon, but the thought did cross my mind that they are probably 2 hours behind us. Yup, just checked, 2 hour time difference. Something actually just flat woke me up - it wasn't the dog, in fact it wasn't anything external.  More like something in my brain said: GET UP!

I am still coughing and a bit of fatigue even after sleeping, oh well, life moves on, get used to it.  

The power bill depleted my business checking account to the lowest point it has been in quite a while.  I've got a check out in the vehicle that needs deposited and there are payments coming up soon, as long as the people don't leave of course.

The Quiktrip workers are still gone.  The one is 6 days past due and the other is approaching his due date.  The letter is still sitting on the steps and I am just going to have to wait until they show up.  But, if they think they are just going to leave when they get there, they best hope I'm not around because the instant I see them, I'm going to approach them.  Nobody stays for free.  Not even the NJ people, I say on their @$$ about paying.  

They were arguing with each other yesterday so loudly, I could hear them from 100 feet away. They were inside their trailer with the door shut and the window AC unit right there to drown out the noise and I could still hear them.  I asked the Tent lady if she could hear them inside her unit. "Every day".  I'm going to put a stop to this nonsense.  They can take their arguing away from everyone or they can leave.  I intend on dealing with this today, I will be over there digging out that pedestal. 

The power issue has come to a head.  The machines are starting to not work properly and that is the straw that broke the camel's back.  Time to get with it. I'll get that pedestal all dug out and hand-dug trenched away from it so that I can pick up with the machine where I leave off with a shovel.  This whole thing is probably going to be spread out over several days - fortunately I have several days to get it done.  

The lady from the trucking company is supposed to call this morning and discuss the details of the upcoming trip.  I dunno, but she best be thinking about getting the ticket, they fill planes up anymore and they sell them out.  In fact, they intentionally try to overbook them. I think it's a ridiculous business model to sell more tickets than a plane can hold and then, if everyone shows up, force people out of line to get on the plane and tell them they will have to wait for another flight - but they get away with it. Excepting that now, if it's over 2 hour wait?  They have to pay - but - you have to know your rights and force them to pay right then and there.

That is something they are forced by regulation to do, not something they want to do.  If you are forced to stay overnight, they don't, apparently, have to also pay for a hotel but many of them will.  I can only imagine how much net revenue a full 737 makes.  It must be a pretty good sum to be giving away thousands of dollars in cash and hotel stays.  

I'm not really looking forward to this trip, btw, even tho I do like Oregon.  The trip represents going back to work for a big company and all that that entails.  Living on their schedule.  Letting them dictate what days I work and don't work.  Starting from the bottom at a new company.  Not that there is any place to "work up" to, you're still the last man down on the totem pole.  You have no seniority and who knows how they work vacation when multiple people from the same division ask for time off.  I only know that right off the bat? I'm asking for Memorial Day weekend off and I am getting it whether they want to give it to me or not.

It has already been planned to go with the group of people we play cards with to Las Vegas for a marriage for 2 of them.  If this company says no, I will simply take the truck back to their yard before that weekend, drop it off, take a bus home and bid them adieu.  

I also want to take a short trip back to AZ at the end of this year.  That isn't set in stone and the days I visit aren't necessarily important.  I think I want to visit AZ I should say.  

Yesterday was mom's birthday and I visited on the phone with her for quite a while.  She is insisting I get a living trust will and that she will pay for it.  My brothers already took advantage of her offer. I was going to do this a while back and just got busy and put it out of my mind.  She says that if I leave this world with a "regular" will, you end up having to get attorneys involved for every little thing that happens and it ends up draining the trust considerably and needlessly.

I believe her, I've seen it, I just need to make time for it.  Of course, it doesn't help I'm going back to work. I have no idea, yet, what my work hours will be and I guess I sort of need to get that nailed down pretty quick? Lol.  I know that I can work 5 days a week and have 2 off, but I can work the other 2 if I want to.  I didn't agree, I will take the 2 days off if its' really the way they have it set up and be able to deal with park issues.   That's the whole reason of getting a lower paying job, the exchange is that I can run my business. Otherwise, I might as well go chugging down the road and make the 6 figure income. 

But yeah, no.  No thank you.  Nada. Zip. Zilch.  Bye-bye to those days.  I will tell you right now, I have no qualms telling them directly what we agreed upon before I ever went to orientation for work hours, home time and the fact that I specifically stated I am not going to do OTR or Regional, period.  I only agreed to "occasional" runs to Florida and/or Georgia.  Neither of those 2 states are that far away and I used to make a run that took me through Atlanta once in a while.

Operative words being "once in a while".  Not, every week.  Trust me, I have the cajones to tell them directly about themselves if it comes down to that, but lets hope it doesn't.  I dont' want to have to get in their face, the older I get, the less appealing that kind of confrontation becomes.  It isn't appealing at all, actually, I just know I can go there when backed into the corner that forces me to.  

A man working for the DA's office gave me a subpoena yesterday.  This is for the dude that punched me in the face after the traffic accident.  I said, well when is the court date?  The 18th.  Of what month? This month, of course.  Who gives a subpoena for a court date only a week in advance?  I politely informed the man that I will be out of town, going for job training in Oregon, I can't be there on the 18th.  Ok, well we don't even know if it's going to court yet, the man may yet take a plea deal.

Well that's all nice, fine and dandy but I can't be there if this goes to trial. I didn't bother to say "thanks for giving me advance notice, all of one week!".  So, they are going to have to move the trial date, but I'll just hope this dude takes a plea agreement and not have to show up in court  at all. Not that I'm afraid to go to court and tell my story - this dude punched me out of road rage and that's that.  I don't want him to go to jail, I want him to learn how to control that kind of anger.  Personal counseling is one good way to try to approach that subject.  

But, who knows. The girl got out of the truck after he punched me - which would have been out of her view - and immediately began saying "no he didn't, not heeee didn't" like a child taunting another schoolyard boy after the subject of insurance came up and I said, well he just punched me in the face.

I then called the cops and never did get their information.  The cops got it, of course and that was that.  I didn't really need it since I was the person that caused the accident.  The point of all of this is to wonder whether these people are willing to lie in court as well? He claimed to the cops that I had spit in his face.  Uh, no and the cops didn't believe him either. He was off in front of his pickup with 2 of them almost yelling about how I intentionally ran into him. It's easy to tell from the damage that I was trying to avoid the collision what with only the front right portion of the vehicle hitting his truck versus the whole front end of my vehicle slamming into the rear of his.

Apparently Mother Nature is going to change my plans today. It is raining and in a few hours, it's really going to rain, at least to the forecast and the radar.  If I dig out that pedestal and we get a downpour, that thing will just fill up with water.  This sucks, actually. We desperately need the rain, we just didn't need it today.  There was a small chance of rain tomorrow, not today.  Today showed 4% chance last night.  The forecasters, I'm telling ya. I'm sure it's probably not their fault, but they don't even get it remotely right.  Whatever predictors they are using? Suck.  

I need to get this situation at the shed fixed before I leave. 

Dang. The entie forecast has changed for the week. Chance of rain every day through Saturday, Friday having 56% chance.  

The dog.  He is busy gnawing on a rawhide bone.  He is eating like a man who hasn't eaten in 3 days.  He just consumes as much food as you give him.  I forgot to latch the dog food container yesterday and he was in it, eating directly out of it.  Uhh, no.  He's had 4 cups this morning and probably another 6 cups later on today. 

Well that's enough.  Yup, still following some of the news.  Biden is a walking disaster zone.  Even Democrats are waking up to that reality.  It is becoming clear that many of them don't want him to run for a second term.  It's just going to be voting for Harris by default.  Again, this may actually be an intentional hope, that Biden gets re-elected and then Harris becomes the first female president in US history.  It wouldn't bother me to have a female president, just not her. She takes nothing seriously, she has no real knowledge of anything pertinent to her role as VP, she doesn't really do much of anything besides sitting on TV shows and laughing like a clown at a circus attempting to entertain a crowd.  

Except that the is not entertaining, even in the slightest bit. She is, as far as I"m concerned, worse than Biden.  We don't need either one of them in the WH after next election and I'd take a moderate Democrat over either of the any day. Not that I want a moderate in there, but it would be far better than what we have going on now.  

9/11

 It's important for me to write about what happened on 9/11 every year it comes up.  I can only explain it being because it was such a traumatic, life-altering event for all Americans that changed the way we live our lives after it occurred.

It was 7:00 am.  My best friend called me and said, "are you watching this?!!".  No, what's going on? Turn on the TV. Which channel? ANY CHANNEL!!

He was right.  I turned on the TV and it was CNN with a reporter on top of their own building with the Twin Towers behind him, one of which had been crashed into by a commercial jetliner.  Well what's going on here? He told me a jet liner had crashed into one of the Twin towers. We were listening to their reporting and discussing at the same time what we thought might be happening.

We didn't know what was happening. It seemed odd that a commercial jetliner with skilled pilots would somehow accidentally find it's way into the side of an extremely tall building.  You would see that coming from a long ways off and  you would likely rather crashing into the water nearby than just go crashing into the side of a building like that.  

The reporters were commenting the same.  How does this happen?  It was only a few minutes later, on live TV, that I saw the second jet come crashing into the second tower behind the man doing the reporting.  The man was in shock. They flatly stated that there is no guessing about it now, this is a terrorist attack, America is under attack!  

I remember being glued to the radio all day long while working, I think I was doing the telephone book delivery thing at the time.  The job afforded me the ability to simply leave the radio on all day. We heard about the other 2 crashes and "if" they were associated with these first two and then the decree that ALL aircraft flying over US airspace were to be immediately grounded. The only aircraft you saw flying for the next several months were military aircraft.  

I spent as much time on the phone with my friend as I had time for, but work duties called and I had to get going.  We all wanted to know what was going to happen because of this event and who was responsible for it?  Al Qaeda came up immediately with expert analysis.  Bush went to the site of what was left of the buildings that were now downed and made a very emotional declaration that "I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear ALL of us soon!".  

It was, of course, many years later that justice was served to Osama Bin Laden. 

The Department of Homeland Security was born out of this catastrophic event and our lives were forever changed.  An airplane crash in New York after this event happened caused wide spread panic at first, people believing we were under attack again.  It was a horrible crash that took many lives but it wasn't an attack. Airlines had to be bailed out by the federal government, the economy and stock market took a temporary nose dive but it all came back eventually.  

These were different times in America.  There may have been political division, but nothing like what we're seeing today.  They may have been moral challenges, but nothing compared to the culture rot and moral degrade we are now experiencing as social media has basically become a venue for wokeness, DEI, cancel culture, hate, anger and rage of people being spoken against one another. We are an extremely divided nation now and I have no idea - beyond God - what could possibly bring us back to what we once were.

I do believe America will have a reckoning sooner or later with the decisions that have been made concerning life and liberty.  But, as we look back upon the events of 9/11, there is still a glimmer of hope that perhaps, somehow, we can all find a way to come back together and not look at one another as our enemies.