Thursday - mid-morning

Slept in.  Needed it badly.  I woke up to find the dog laying next to the door giving me a strange look. Yes, Obi, I can see you need to go. At least he holds it in.  

According to my weather phone app, it's supposed to start raining around 1pm.  I've been here before, attempting to make plans according to the weather. You get closer to the time for rain and then it gets moved out and then it gets moved out again and sometimes, well many times, it never rains at all.

However.  I'm going to get my @$$ out of here soon enough, get the grass seed and get it put down on the lots only to start with. The rest of the areas can wait unless I have both the time and enough seed to cover more territory.  It's going to take a couple of hours, I'm guessing, from the time I leave here, get the trailer, get the seed and get it spread. It's not a difficult job, it's just going to consume a bit of time. 

I think I'm going to do that anyway, lol, I'm feeling pretty unmotivated right now.  I could just go back to bed, honestly, for a couple more hours and sleep.  

But no, I'm not going to do that, it's time to get some grass growing again, I've been looking at weeds and crabgrass for many months now, it's unsightly but there's nothing much I could do about it.  

I've been having a steady stream of overnighters coming in for the only available pull through lot.  Just curious how that just started popping up. I am thinking it's people heading to warmer states for the winter.  I'm not really in a "warmer" area, not with freezing temps in the winter.  It's not all winter long freezing temps, but it does get pretty cold at times.  In fact, the cool temps are starting next week starting on Monday with a high of 49 degrees and a low of 39, at least according to the weather app.

That's cold in my world.  It's probably cold in most people's world that don't live in those frozen regions up north.  

We have a mass shooter that killed at least 22 people and probably hurt a bunch more.  I am not watching much of it, the news is just focused on that and the war right now.  I watched enough of the news to find out they pretty much know who the guy is and who has apparently disappeared.  With the kind of manhunts LEO's do in such cases? I doubt it's going to be long before they find him and either arrest him or kill him.  

Well enough of this, now that I think of it. This grass seed is something I have been wanting to do for a while now, motivation or not, I'm heading out of here to get this done.

G'day

 Afternoon offload times make for a long day.  I got there early, but the first truck was still there.  He was there another hour after I got there. I still started unloading earlier than my appointment time but it wasn't really worth it to leave that early to find another truck there.  Didn't get home until after 6:00 pm.  Not the end of the world and at least it was still daylight - that will change as we get further into fall and then winter and it starts getting dark in the 5:00 o'clock range.  

So, when I was completely done - everything put up and put away - I went looking around for whoever to come check my work. I don't really have to do that but they seemed interested in making sure everything was correct.  Not in the office. Not in the production area, back to the office, where are these people?  I decided to just leave, I had everything right, I didn't have any issues leaving. 

I walked outside and remembered that they might be in the tank room.  That's where the product we deliver goes into those giant tanks.  I go in there, crawl around things - it's tight quarters and wasn't really built with mobility in mind, usability was their main goal - and saw something strange on the floor.  A stream of this resin was running.  Like, what? Now I'm fearing I did "something wrong". Went through my brain quickly to figure out that there is nothing I could have done excepting if a tank was overflowing. And if there was a tank overflowing, they are the ones that determined which tank to deliver the product to, I make sure I do that every single time.  

So I start following this stream of resin to it's source. There is a very long, fire-hose type material hose running on the floor from one room to some vats in the back of the other room.  I'm looking and there it is, a hole in the line spewing the stuff all over the place.  Definitely not my fault, this is old equipment and they need to redo all of that. Shouldn't be pipe that stuff on the floor through what amounts to an old fire hose.  

I hurried out of there to find someone - anyone.  Went on the production floor and found a dude operating some sort of control panel with all kinds of dials, buttons and switches on it. Hey! There is resin spewing out of a hole in a hose in the tank room all over the place!  It's not my business to deal with their problems, he asked if I had turned off the valve? What valve?  No! I did my self-appointed duty to find someone and tell them. He set off an alarm, people appeared out of nowhere and were shutting down the production line immediately.  Apparently a pre-planned course of action.  

I stood there for a few seconds taking all of that in.  These people were in a big hurry and they hadn't even checked to see if what I had told them was anything of value. But rest assured, resin shouldn't be spewing out of holes in lines.  It's not a health hazard, the floor is built to divert just such things into holding areas that don't allow anything to get into the ground or down drains and such.  But, I mean, those things can only hold so much liquid.  Anyway, the man came running past me to go into the tank room, I said just letting you know....thank you for letting us know....

I wasn't about to wait for them to check my work after all I had done to try and just find anyone.  I triple checked everything, the last thing I need is to add fuel to the fire by not having something right before I leave.  I am 100% confident that everything I did was correct and the only thing you really have to do is make sure you have all of the valves closed, the air and water turned off and obviously, the hoses disconnected and put away.  

I don't know what became of that, I would guess they turned off whatever valve runs liquid through that line and then did some sort of temporary fix on it. They are shutting the plant down, I found out today, for 15 days for maintenance and repairs.  What a time to have that happen, I just started working out of that plant and they are doing scheduled maintenance.  Gag.  

So, my load tomorrow was cancelled tho I don't know why, that has nothing to do with the maintenance.  Then I called again and asked if I wanted weekend work? No, you said I didn't have to work every weekend, I need Saturday and Sunday off and I emphasized my need to go to Church on Sunday.  That isn't a lie or even an exaggeration of the truth.  I kind of repeated that one several times, perhaps it would get into his head that this particular driver likes his Sundays off to go to church. 

He said, no, it's fine, I did say that and it's ok, I just wanted to be sure.  Ok, thank you.  Another call for  a preload on Friday.  I didn't want to but I said sure!  Lol.  It would be a very long day to go down to Nacogdoches, wash out the tank, down to Lufkin, load and drive clear up to El Dorado. It just takes forever to get to El Dorado.  Anyway, I wanted to be a team player to some extent and refusing to help out isn't really the definition of a team player. I do not consider telling them I don't want to work on weekends part of team playing. These were things I asked about before I ever went to Oregon.  Work one weekend, off the next, I guess I can deal with it tho I really don't want to.  

Yet another call - that preload was also cancelled.  Ok, well this is getting crazy, lol. He then tells me I can bring the truck up on Friday and switch back to my truck - or - I can do that on Monday.  I think he's just trying to find ways for me to make some money, he stated that I would get paid for driving up and switching out trucks.  However, there is no guarantee the truck will be finished on Friday. They ordered parts for the door and haven't received them yet, supposedly coming tomorrow.  

So I dunno about Friday, but maybe.  I was also informed that I would - likely - be training at the Ennis plant.  But, they can't give any definitive yes or no for that scenario apparently changes so frequently, they don't really like to hand out assignments for it until close to the actual delivery date.  So I have no idea what I"m doing next week but I do have at least 3 of the next 4 days off for sure. 

I'm going to get rye grass seed tomorrow if it doesn't rain me out first. There is a 42% chance of rain.  If that happens, I will probably do some tree trimming along the main driveway.  

Also watching this mass shooting on the news in Maine, 22 people dead in 3 separate locations.  A photo of a gunman with what appears to be an AR walking into a bowling alley.  Yikes.  Grainy pic of the rifle in the gunman's hands, but definitely appears to be an AR15, at least to me, they haven't identified the type of gun.  If it IS an AR, there are going to be more calls for banning them.  It will instantly turn into a political agenda, they will deride everyone for saying "thoughts and prayers" to the families and friends of the deceased and it will turn into a shit show.  

Whatever, my thoughts and prayers DO go out to everyone affected by this madness.  

I'm done, I think.  I had people calling for a lot for tonight. They still haven't shown up, it's after 9, they said they wouldn't come in until late and if that would be ok?  Well, yes it's ok, as long as you come down to the shed and take the U turn to get in there.  I had some people come in the wrong way and run over the pedestal on the lot you are taking.   It's not a big deal coming in at night if you go the correct way. There ARE signs.  It isn't left up to the person's guesswork.  I know they haven't shown up yet cause' there isn't a video of them showing them coming in. Lots of videos of vehicles going in, it's a fairly busy place at night.  Daytime it's basically dead, night time there are all kinds of vehicles coming and going.  

 I'm leaving 2-1/2 hours early today for Gurdon.  I was informed by the manager that I could do it, whether that was in perpetuity or not, I don't know, but getting there at noon sounds far more appealing than getting there at 2:00 pm.  If no one is there offloading, there isn't going to be anyone coming after that.  This gets me home at a decent hour versus getting home at 7 or later.  

If I thought I could get away with even earlier, I'd be almost there by now.  I am assuming this other guy that trained me the final day is getting the early spots.  Good for him, I guess, but this late day stuff is going to get old quickly.  

Anyway, I expect to go to the feed/seed store on Saturday, get around 250 pounds of seed and put it down.  Actually, I'm going to need to mow that existing junk down as low to the ground as I can get it.  I dunno, I'll be thinking about that today to figure out what to do.  

As of Monday, allegedly, the daytime high temps are going to come down substantially.  I say allegedly because these forecasters are garbage. You try to plan things according to the weather and at least half the time if not much more, they are wrong.  Often times so far off, it's ridiculous.  

I've got rye grass coming up all over the place from the seed I planted last year.  It isn't enough to give any kind of lush, green covering, but if that stuff can grow without any rain, I'm assuming it's getting it's moisture from dew.  I put down a lot of seed last year, a lot of it washed off, but washed off where? Well, apparently a lot of it got into the ground I guess. I dunno, but it's definitely rye grass and every site I've read says it has to be replanted every year.  

It doesn't like hot weather and will die off quickly.  This is basically my main focus right now for the park -  get it green again on the ground. I already have to mow weeds anyway, might as well be nice, luxurious grass.  I'm just going to have to buy a new mower, I've gotten quite a bit of use out of that one I bought used, but it's having problems firing up.  I think it's a fuel issue and I may very well remove the gas tank, clean it out and see if that fixes it.  It acts like it's being fuel starved.  

It is unbelievable watching this news of students at campuses calling Israel and evil entity for taking the fight back to Hamas.  The Turkish president calls Hamas a "liberation group", apparently attempting to normalize the idea that killing a bunch of innocent civilians is somehow acceptable and the idea of that nation that was attacked fighting back to be somehow evil.  Or students at MIT calling for an intifada, which I had to look up. Basically the eradication of Israel in the Palestine occupied territory.  

Even more amazing is the lack of condemnation from these University officials of these student uprisings that are clearly backing an evil organization that is funded and controlled by Iran, who hates Israel AND America and has made statements to that effect unequivocally clear that they would like both nations eradicated from the earth.  

These are curious times we are living in and I wonder where it's leading.  I can only say that your relationship with the Lord is more important than these things going on in this world. None of this is taking God by surprise.  Peace, inner peace, comes from the Lord, even in the midst of dire situations such as some of these university professors who are Jewish or are taking the side of Israel.  

It is indicative of what these colleges are teaching these students to see these students protesting against Israel.  It is also indicative, in my view, of the anti-God stance, basically atheist, that these students have.  I don't know what kinds of homes they are being brought up in, but if my conversations with a large number of Democrats is any kind of indicator, they are being taught that God is not real.  

Anyway, I need to get ready to leave here. Another day of driving up, offloading and driving back. I don't know about the truck, they haven't contacted me.  The truck that is "in the shop" or allegedly so.  I'm still feeling this company out, but it's become obvious to me that they are cheap and petty.

G'day

 I ask questions.  I am the curious type.  How does a thing work? What is the science behind it?  Just in my mind, the things you encounter in life are to be examined and if enjoyable, enjoyed and certainly attempt to have a basic understanding of things.  

So, I thought it odd that this driver that did the partial, last-day training for me didn't know how to judge when the tanks are full or empty.  It was the 4 feet that the tank shows filled after an entire truckload thing I was referring to in a previous entry.  He didn't know how they knew when a tank was full and when the loading hose had to be switched from the east to west tank or vice-versa.  

He's been doing this for years, the same route, all the time.  He doesn't really do anything else.  He said he was hired for this route and this route only.  He doesn't even want to do the Ennis run. I don't know why and it's none of my business.  

I found out from the man that runs that portion of the plant how many feet of the tank the gauge will move when you unload an entire truck into it.  At only 4 feet? Not that much.  Yesterday, it was at 4 feet before full and that's why the worker asked me to look at it. I said I already had, it's got just enough room for a truckload.  None of this is rocket science or brain surgery skills.  It's just information that is learned and the learning is there if you want to. 

Personally, I don't want to see their tanks overloaded to the point it overflows all over the floor. It's a disaster and cleaning it up is an equal disaster.  I wouldn't think it funny to see that happening or amusing or entertaining.  Much of the thinking I have encountered with drivers in this company is like union thinking: this is my job and the rest of THIS is NOT my job.  I was even lectured by one of them in Oregon that if you say you'll do something one time, they'll take that as a foot in the door to ask you to do it every time. 

I didn't really respond to that for I don't necessarily think that way.  Perhaps some things should be left to plant employees, but things that could affect you? Or your job, IE: the plant shuts down because of whatever and you lose that account temporarily?  

People just plain don't care. That's "their" problem.  

Just my thoughts tonight.  I will be heading back up there to offload again in the morning.  It's turning into a routine, not necessarily one that will continue much longer - or it might - or who knows?  

See, they have some sort of sensor in these trucks that tell them if the thing is going even 2 mph over the speed limit.  So, if you're going down a steep hill and happen to let it go over a little, you have this dinging noise coming into your ears.  That's craziness. Even the anal-retentive company I worked for the last job didn't care if I went over even 5 mph.  Of course, there is a report sent to the "safety department" and then you apparently hear from them. 

I haven't heard anything. But I can tell ya, I'm not in the mood for people getting rude, acting like tyrants with super-authority powers or whatever. They have nothing over me.  I like having health care coverage and these meager paychecks are better than nothing.  But seriously, working as much as I am every day, it's going to get to the point where I'm going to say to myself: self? Why are you working for sub-standard wages? 

It really isn't the wages as much as it is the hours involved getting those wages.  If you have to be involved with a job for 8 hours, you should be getting paid for 8 hours, miles be damned.  

Anyway, just some thoughts on a Tuesday night.  I have a 2:00 pm appointment time, but I am told I can show up early. Not too early, since there is another truck ahead of me apparently, but a couple of hours shouldn't be a problem.  You can't offload 2 trucks at the same time, it's only set up for one.  I intend on show up there around noon. Get out of there no later than 2 and get home around 4:30. Well, to my park anyway, home a little while later.  

BTW, there is both a Greyhound Bus stop in that town and hotels if it comes to that. Comes to what?  Finding a new place to work, silly. It just dawned on me a company that pays excellent wages and used to be based in our town.  They moved somewhere....gotta look into that.  

 Tuesday - semi early

They have given me work to keep me busy until Friday.  If they try to send me anything for the weekend, I will reject it.  I want the weekend off - I need the weekend off.  To do nothing or do many things, it makes no difference, I want something besides work.  I guess after this weekend, I will work 12 days in a row?  So far, it's just the Gurdon run.  I don't know if/when they are going to switch me to this Ennis run or what that even entails.  Not that it matters that much, it's probably more miles and a longer day, which I don't want.  

As I said in another post, if this job starts taking up too much time, I can go find something else that pays more with the same amount of hours.  I'm not saying anything to them about this for now.  

What I am going to do is start keeping record of how many hours I have worked each day and then I will calculate the hour rate.  I doubt it's anywhere near where it needs to be.  I hate to waste my time with a cheap company that doesn't pay, but I'm here now, getting the experience, not much of a choice in the matter atm. 

Well, yes there is, I just choose to stick with this a while longer and get this type of tanker down and have no issues with going anywhere, really, and just figuring stuff out at any given plant.  That's what those guys in Oregon do, if they are tasked with a "new" product they haven't done before, they just figure it out, step by step.  

I intend on leaving the yard (my yard) at 9:00 am, which is an hour from now and see what happens.  I've been leaving 3 hours early and that doesn't seem to work too well.  If I were just driving to Lufkin to load, it wouldn't be an issue. But, I'm driving to Nacogdoches to wash out the trailer and then to the plant to load.  If they have an issue with me showing up early at the Lufkin plant, they can tell me and I will alter all of this yet again. It really just depends on how long it takes to wash out the trailer.  

_____________

Well I guess I forgot to post this, got distracted with starting the day and left.  The washout place kept me waiting for 30 minutes and the plant kept me waiting for almost an hour. So, that much time lost into nothingness and getting home that much later.  This truck I'm now driving is a pile of junk and I am going to call them tomorrow and find out how much longer before the pink classic is done.  But, I suspect they'll have to order the parts they said they were going to order and probably didn't.  

Or, that other guy will see it and tell them to give it to him instead.  I'm kind of thinking in the negative because so far, the entire experience has been almost completely negative.  The drivers I have encountered have been the only real exception, most of them are pretty cool guys.  

 By the time I left the park, it was like 10:30.  They wanted me to bring the truck first to the yard and then drive another truck up to the plant.  I decided against that and drove to the plant first, dumped that load and then spent 2-1/2 hours going on these back roads going through a bunch of small towns with slow speed limits and most of the highway speed limits are 55 mph. It's Arkansas and that's what they do.  Interstates being the exception.

There is no fast way to get to El Dorado and the location makes zero sense.  They should have a setup near an Interstate, not some hick town in the middle of nowhere that is far from Interstates and costs a lot of time to get to.  But whatever, this company is pretty backwards in its thinking all the way around.  

So I have this offloading down now.  No questions in my mind about any of it, just get it done.  One of the operators wanted me to keep checking their tank - that is not our venue and tho I know how to check it, that is really on them.   He was afraid it was going to overfill.  They have this setup with 2 giant tanks.  They're like 24 feet tall.  An entire tanker full of product only fills them up 4 feet worth.  That's a big tank lol.  

I went inside several times and checked the thing, it was getting close but I figured it would be right at it's maximum fill line and I would be done and I was correct.  I got done, put everything away and went back inside, something we don't really have to do but these people seem to want to check my work.  I asked them, I'm done, do you want to check my work or can I leave?  They wanted to check.  I figure they're looking for any spills and to ensure there are no lines still attached to the tanker.  Well of course not, I'm not going to just drive away with lines attached lol. 

What I was looking at was the fact that another driver had put the drip bucket into the containment area - this is the area where their line and filters and inlets are for their setup, if it leaks, it just stays in the containment area and yes, it leaks constantly while offloading - on the floor instead of up on the ledge.  They had used all of the cloth blankets to put the bucket on and had left a bunch underneath the bucket. It was all stuck on there. 

I was scratching my head. Do they have other new drivers and if so, why would they do this? There is obvious resin on the floor, why would you put the bucket into the resin?  I wondered if everyone would be blaming me for this mess. I cleaned up the cloth blankets and threw all of that in the trash and got out new ones.  

Off to El Dorado  - 2 hours worth of that, then 30 minutes in the yard dropping the trailer, moving the tractor, getting the other tractor, hooking up to the trailer, moving my stuff from one truck to another, updating the elog and then finally leaving.  I took another way to get home and it's definitely much easier drive and faster.  It was coming from Gurdon that took forever today.  There is only one way down and it's zig and zag and what a drag.  Going any other way looks like it would add 50-75 miles.  

Home several hours later.  They day was done for everyone else, the boys were already in bed and the parents not far behind them. Me? No thanks. I have to wind down, think about my next steps, catch up with the news, visit with the doggy, stuff like that.  

Whatever happens, I am keeping the goal front and center in my mind and with everything I am doing.  Pay off debt.  But I've got bills that are coming due that will have to move some of the goal further out.  The property taxes and the insurance, to be precise.  I'd love to pay off the washer and dryer, $800 owing on that.  Just get rid of $220 per month payment.  If you look at getting rid of payments, that one makes more sense than paying down credit card debt first. It's only $800 and it's $220 a month.  That's a decent chunk of change.  

Getting late.

 Monday - 8:00 am

I don't have to leave here until 11 am.  

The dog got up in the middle of the night, started wretching and puking all over the floor. Out with him fo the rest of the night, cleaned up the mess and went back to bed.

I thought maybe sitting on the situation (not the dog) overnight would help after writing a pretty anger-filled post last night and not posting it, and it has to some extent.  

The problem - the inside door latch quit working yesterday.  I have to roll the window down, lean out the window and reach down about 3 feet to open the door from the outside.  I complained about this door in Oregon and I said something to the mechanic in Arkansas and then I said something to the manager in Arkansas. It's not like I didn't say anything to anyone.

That and the AC only working half the time? I don't want to drive this truck again until they fix it. I'll take this load on there up today, but after that, I intend on forcing them to fix this damned thing.  It isn't so much that the door handle broke as it is I reported this several times over to the people that could do anything about fixing it.  And it's been warm so the inside of that truck gets nice and sticky with humidity and feeling icky in there with the AC not working.  

Last night? I was ready to quit.  I have had this feeling a couple of times with this company, most of it was over in Oregon going through that hellish orientation trying to sleep in that A frame office with that laundromat going on all hours of the night underneath me- and several other things that I have written in this blog for memory's sake. 

I need a job, but do I need this job? My senses told me before I even left for Oregon that I should just dump this idea and move on.  Move on to what? I don't know, there's go to be something out there local that will work for me.  I think what set me off initially was this idea that you have to bring a sleeping bag for the bed, the don't provide sheets.  When I got there, the whole situation escalated greatly.  I made sacrifices, to put it mildly, to work with this company.  

I think I should just start looking again and seeing what's out there.  I have to make a promise to myself that I will never knowingly go into something like this ordeal ever again.  In fact, I just now decided that yes, I'm just going to start looking for another place to work.  The only thing that might stop me is that I am getting experience on tankers that I have never done before and these types of tankers are all over the place. They use them for milk/dairy, gas/diesel/jet fuel, the resins I am hauling, caustic materials, all kinds of stuff.  Stick with it long enough and I can call myself experienced with it and open up a very broad field of opportunity.  

Cryo is ok, but local jobs are very limited.  I imagine they haul it from the Longview plant to plants in Dallas and Houston, I haven't found those jobs, yet.  Gasoline I could easily learn now, but you have to still find a place that will train you.  

Just calming myself down and letting some time pass was good. 

I'll just think about all of this for while and find out what their decision is on fixing the truck.  I shouldn't have to keep asking. I don't care how much of an inconvenience it is for them, it will certainly be an inconvenience for me if I have to take it to their shop in Arkansas and sit there and wait for who knows how long to fix the thing.  If more than a day, I expect them to do something other than put me in some horrific "bunkhouse" type of situation. There's hotels in El Dorado, amazingly, didn't think it was a big enough town for that.  

Anyway, just sent them a text now that it's Monday morning and they are all in that office up there.  We'll see how this goes......

And now they are asking me to bring the truck up there, of course.  I replied I need to deliver the load today.....

They aren't replying to that so I assume they want the load delivered and then, back to their yard, where they leave early so ......

well nix that. They want me to bring the truck up there, drop the trailer, get into another truck, take it up to deliver the load and then come back to the yard.  The mechanic will "work" on the truck while I'm gone, lmao.  Okkkkkkkkkk........

I'm leaving much earlier than I originally thought.  Give him as much time to see if he can deal with this today as possible. 

G'day

 Sunday  - not particularly early, but certainly early compared to anything I was doing before this job

I don't want to do anything today.  I'll just have to erase that from my mind and embrace all of this. Probably 7 hours total, leaving here at 10 am and likely arriving back at around 5 pm.  The kids will probably be home by then so that will be more stuff to deal with.

I can tell ya, I love the kids, but I also love the peace and quiet we get around this house when they aren't here.  If those kids are awake, there is something going on.  Screaming, fighting, loud laughing, running, they can be a real annoyance.  Don't take it wrong, I just like these infrequent breaks we get from them.  It's sort of a psychological thing where you have to get your mind back into the groove of constant noise. 

Anyway, when I got home yesterday, I decided I was going to take the dog for a walk.  He needed the release and I wanted to see the deer feeders that tenant bought, he has them up on both side of the rear of the property. Deer have been feeding at one of them, varmint at the other one - or both.  Well, I got out on the trails and the 2 night stay people were out there with their German Shepherd.  It didn't like Obi.  

It was a surprise as well, I walked around a turn and there they were, fortunately their dog was on a leash and for whatever reason I had Obi by the collar.  I just walked on, they asked if the trail goes around, I said yes but there is a section of weeds you would have to walk through.  I hate to have to say that, but it's true.  Oh, well we don't want to walk through weeds, we'll just turn around. Well, at least go to the bridge!  The lady said yes! Let's go to the bridge!  I left them since the dogs weren't getting along. 

This tenant is buying his own piece of property, clear out in a town that is literally out in the middle of nowhere.  I mean, whatever makes you happy.  I figure this town I am living in is small enough lol.  That place is 20 miles from the nearest town, which is our town.  He wants me to go out there with him to throw in my 2 cents worth, I don't mind doing that but not today.  I'll be out til 5 or later and then home to greet the kids and then I will have to take that load to Arkansas, tho the offload time is not until 2, which sucks.

I'll probably end up showing up a little early.  Half an hour anyway.  It's 2 hours offload so at best I'll be home by 6 pm tomorrow evening.  And then, I have no idea, they haven't sent me anything else. That doesn't mean they won't, I suspect I'll be working all week and then the weekend off.  If they don't give me the weekend off I will likely refuse any loads they try to dump on me.  I don't care, they aren't going to keep me on this kind of schedule endlessly.  This was their promise and it's beyond what I wanted to begin with, to take it even further? No thank you. If you don't think I'll refuse loads for next weekend, you don't know me very well. They could offer me double pay and I'd still turn it down.  I don't want to work that much, I don't care if it's shorter runs, it's still a full time job in the regular world.  

The trucking industry, as I have endlessly stated, doesn't care about driver's personal lives or mental health.  They don't care if you don't have opportunities to socialize with your friends or go to church.  They only know their greed and they want you to work and if you don't put your foot down, they will work you to death.  Because these trips are normally (I think and hope that 11 hour day was an anomaly) short, I could work every day until I die.  

It's a 70 hour work week, but it's not set  by days, it's just set by how many hours you worked the previous days.  If they don't add up to 70, you have however many hours it does add up to to be able to work.  So, in a 7 day work week, you would probably come up in the low 50's for the number of hours you had worked before any given day.  You would never run out of hours on the 70 hour clock.  If I were in my 20's and had no life, I might think about working every day, but I'd probably just go regional or OTR and make the money.  I'm in this for the money, yes, but not the high dollars you get for working 14-16 hour days.  

They keep saying Israel - the IDF - is about to go in - but it doesn't happen.  I'm guessing it will happen, who knows why they are holding off. Attempts to get more hostages released, a comprehensive invasion plan, getting their military situated? It's not a really good time in this world right now.  China, Russia, Iran. These are the main hostile actors and you combine all of that together and you have a scenario where people are talking about WWIII.

I dunno, but I'm 45 miles from an AFB with B-52 bombers and world headquarters, it is on a nuke target I am sure.  If a nuke comes, stand outside and wait for it, you won't be able to get far enough away fast enough, everyone else will have the same idea and the highways will be at a standstill. Might as well die at home.  Just a realist view of it. At a younger age I would have the flight fear reaction, now? 

I don't actually believe we are facing a nuclear war, I am just reading it all over the internet and references to it in the news.  I think I have enough problems to have to think about a war with whoever - china and russia - if it happens, it happens but the end of it is predictable and therefore, I just don't believe the big nations would start a war. Now, Iran? If they had nuke capability? You can be rest assured Israel is eyeing Iran in this military initiative.  Iran hates Israel and has called for its destruction throughout - well I think my entire life I have been hearing that rhetoric.

But back to my world? I'm fixing to leave.

G'day

 Saturday - early

Not my idea of a Saturday - the getting up early part - but whatever.  I got up early so I could enjoy some coffee and see what's going on over in Israel.  Nothing has really changed excepting they are reporting that Hezbollah has decided to fully involve itself in this war theater and so, I assume, a lot of them are going to die as well.  

And watching the politicians going full tilt meltdown.  I consider the Squad to be anti-Jew trash and they can go jump into an icy, cold lake. I don't say such things often or lightly, you can't take the side of terrorists that kill innocent civilians - or even if they did vote the Hamas in, you still don't take the battle to the civilians unless they are engaging in a guerrilla style warfare.  

If citizens in their districts keep voting them in, they are also anti-Jew trash, at least the constituents that voted for them.  If you are one of those people, yes, you are a pile of trash.  I don't suspect anyone that reads this journal takes sympathy with Hamas, but if you do, you have an idea of what I think of your viewpoint. 

This reminds me once again of the situation with Iranian students in the US protesting against our nation.  That didn't last very long if memory serves correctly as Americans had more balls back then and weren't putting up with this nonsense.  I could say a lot more, but this is as far as I go with it on the internet.  

Yes, I find this situation insufferable with so-called American citizens taking sides with evil, is what it boils down to.  

As hoped for, the current power bill, which just came up this morning, is lower than the last 2 months at around $1,300.  It's still high, the heat has lingered, AC's have still been pumping out the cold air during the daytime excepting during some days where the temps didn't go too high.  

Today slated to hit 90 degrees.  2 Mondays from now, if the forecasters are correct - which they more-often-than-not are wrong, the temps will go down and pretty much stay down.  The next coming week is low to mid 80's, after that we are going to be in the 70's.  

As an example of what I am now assuming is just taking guesses at what the weather will be like, a very high percentage chance of rain for tomorrow, Sunday, is now gone.  3% chance tomorrow and then 42% chance Monday.  The 4 day swath of pretty good percentage chances of rain this coming week? Down into the 20% range.  I could put up a dart board and then write in the little separate spaces on the board things like "90% chance of rain", "Cloudy with some blue skies", "Rain likely", throw a couple of darts and there ya go.  That's the forecast and about as accurate as what we get with these people that work at the national weather center, or whoever these people are and whoever is paying them for ridiculous, errant, wrong, zilch, nada, bad, incorrect weather forecasting.  

On a lighter note, the dog is doing well. He didn't wake me up last night, he does want out right now, lol.  But I'm fixing to leave so he can go out for the entire day, or at least until I get home. If I get home at a decent hour, I will take him to the property and take him for a nice, long walk.  Get some energy out, get him running around. He runs around the back yard tho.  He chases the Shepherd, they play together a lot.  I think it good for dogs to have other dog companions, especially when the humans in the house are gone for the day, which is basically every week day around here. 

Oh, I also slept fairly well last night. That is an amazing thing in and of itself.  It's around 5 hours total of driving today, 2-1/2 hours of total unload time including weighing in and out and finding the dude to indicate which tank he wants the product dumped into and signing off on it. That can take some time in and of itself.  I have my methodology down in my mind at this point at least.  I'm no longer worried about it, I made it through the first day alone without any issues and even had my work checked by a plant supervisor. He is welcome to check it whenever he wants, actually, doesn't bother me at all.  I just wish it wouldn't take so long to pump out the product.

It didn't take near as long to pump out similar product in Oregon. Maybe 45 minutes.  This is 2 hours and I have a gauge on the truck that shows the suspension load in terms of air pressure. It is at 70 right now, when it gets down to 22, I know it's almost done.  The 22 is the weight of the trailer itself pushing down on the air suspension.  I also have the pressure setting down pretty good.  I monitored it closely last time and finally figured the angle for the valve handle to leave it at to keep the pressure at 30 psi.  

I was initially told 25 psi, then I was told by the trainer that he goes as high as 41psi.  Others say in the 30's range, I'm just sticking with 30.  I don't want to do 25 because that will just make it take longer to offload. Mostly what I learned is to make sure the dome lid is on very tight so it doesn't leak any pressure out, that will cause offload times to go into overtime as well.  

I think the training was ok, not great, but ok, considering the wide disparity of ways these drivers do it.  They all end up getting it done without any problems but the lack of an actual method that is followed by everyone is - strange.  The driver I trained with the other day doesn't use the velcro straps.  I asked him about it, he just gave me a strange look.  I said, well, the company wants us to do it so I'm doing it on mine.  It isn't likely those arms would just fall down on their own, but if they both did at the same time, you would have a disaster.  You could turn the valve off - there is an internal valve you just hit a lever and it closes almost instantly. But you'd still have product on the ground and you'd have to report it and who knows what actions the plant might take against you.  

IE: ban you from their plant.  It takes 5 seconds to put the things on there, it's a safety net that I am willing to continue using just to have that peace of mind.  

Anyway, it's time to get out of here.

G'day

 Today was about as long as I want to go on any given day.  It took almost an hour for the washout, but amazing, it only took an hour to load the trailer. The first load took closer to 3 hours.  It was 7-1/2 hours round trip.  The washout was a new experience, nothing terrible tho. The person checking me had no idea what he was doing, apparently new to the office, he was actually doing the washouts and doing office work.  

Off from the washout place in Nacogdoches, over to the plant to load.  This guy there today was efficient, fast and wasted no time at all.  We suspected after discussing it that the previous crew was giving me a hard time for being new and wasted hours for no more reason than their own, personal entertainment.  

Back to my yard, the grumpy old man, lol, met me with a beer in his hand, asking about where the "alleged" firewood is? It's right there, dummy.  He was looking right at it and somehow didn't see it?  Whatever the case, I didn't feel like lingering at the park. My sleep was a mixed bag last night, waking up in the middle of the night and taking hours to get back to sleep.  

Tomorrow, I'm supposed to be up there to offload at 10:00 am, which I consider a decent time for it means not having to get up extremely early. Probably 6:00 am if I want my coffee time, but that's a far cry better than 2:30, 3:00, 3:30 am, etc.  So, get that thing offloaded no later than 12:30 pm (hopefully anyway), get the 2-1/2 hour trip back over with and be done by 3:00 pm.  The Arkansas portion of the trip is definitely longer both for more miles and a much longer time in the plant.  This is the run I'm doing for now, I don't know when they will start me on the Ennis TX run.  I don't really care if it's never, but the plant is south of Dallas so not a terribly long drive, but definitely more miles than what I am doing now.  

Ennis is 150 miles, but 3/4's of it is 70 mph at least Interstate.  I'm not going to concern myself with something I haven't been scheduled to do yet. I have to finish this run tomorrow and then start over again on Sunday - and hope that Sunday goes at least as fast as today did.  That'll put me back here, in my bedroom, early, even before the automatic internal sleep thing kicks in. 

Oh, I somehow mistakenly thought today was Saturday. I dunno, folks, you start to lose track of days in the trucking industry. They don't care about your weekends, they DO care about theirs.  I really want Sundays off permanently and I am going to have to cross that bridge here pretty quick.  I will also want at least some Saturdays off as well.  I probably won't be offered Sundays off and I will have to decide whether to eat it.  I will probably eat it, because starting at yet another company atm doesn't sound particularly enjoyable. Not after what I just went through getting the training done with this company.  It's easily the worst time I have ever had at an orientation/training. 

It's a no-contest thing, where I can think back to other places I have worked including the last job and think, orientation was a breeze compared to this place.  

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

Dinner done, lunch for tomorrow made, dog fed, everyone gone - they went on a dinner date, no kids still, I'm tired, I'm going to lay down, watch some tv for a few hours (still early) and go to bed. 

 Nothing fancy this morning.  Saturday - early and drinking coffee after already having had taken a shower and pretty much ready to go.  

So we have Israel going up against Hamas, Hezbollah allegedly going to join the fight against Israel, we have Russia v Ukraine, China threatening war against Taiwan and allegedly North Korea was involved in the initial assault of Hamas killing well over 1,000 Israeli citizens.  Anyone ever think we might be on the brink of a world war here?  Iran is threatening Israel as well, but Iran controls Hamas so that's nothing new or shocking.  

Biden claims Israel wants to "completely annihilate it's neighbors, completely annihilate it", which is a ridiculous and outrageous statement.  Israel has no intention of intentionally killing Palestinian people, they are out for Hamas, while Hamas is using it's ago old tactics of human shields, including the killing of over 500 people in that hospital. They're saying it was an accident, I have my doubts.  

"Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem".  That's the only thing I can do about this, trust that God has His plan in place, for the scriptures clearly say that Israel is the apple of God's eye and it becomes obvious with many scriptures through the Bible that Israel is his chosen nation.  God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  

Oh, it didn't take long to figure out the reason I don't pickup and deliver the product in the same day is that it's impossible to do so in 14 hours.  It's around 7 - 8 hours to load and that long at least to offload. Plus the driving is likely more than 11 hours. It doesn't bother me, I'm glad it doesn't all happen in one day or I would be running 14 hours every single day.  I wouldn't be working there under such conditions and I don't want to come anywhere near 14 hours on any given day.  Exceptions are ok if something breaks down or something happens at a plant, but certainly not on a continuous basis.

Well anyway, it's about time to leave.  The kids are coming home today or tomorrow.  The house has been quiet.  Taylor is heavy with that baby and suffering pretty good. Another week and a half and it's coming out.  I am just wandering through this current phase of life wondering why I am doing all of this, effectively working 2 full time jobs.  I know why I took this trucking job, but was it the right choice? It's kind of saving my @$$ right now, so at least temporarily, I'd have to say probably.

But did I seek God about what He wanted for me right now? Not really. I just figured it was the "right thing to do" and here I am.  So now, a little late in the day, I am praying and seeking the Lord His will concerning all of this and some direction about what I should be doing next. Keep working like this indefinitely?  I don't know, but I don't want to do this forever, that's for sure.  I don't even know if I could last a couple years doing this and the park.  

Time to leave.

G'day

 It took far more work than I anticipated to get a truck route going through that area.  It was a lot more dirt than I expected and ended up having to haul it from other areas.  I could say I wish I would have never dug that trench in the first place, but seriously, I had a vision for a HipCamp area that in the end? Never panned out.  I could probably produce an effective Hipcamp arrangement, but it, like everything else, would cost money. I would rather gamble on a Glamping tent than a Hipcamp setup at this point.  Or just add more spaces to the park, but of course that costs a lot more money.  

I dunno, but I worked my @$$ off getting that all done, the only thing left is taking the tree trimmer over there. it's basically an electric chainsaw on a pole that can reach up probably 15 feet with my long arms anyway.  That's probably 20 minutes worth of work I need to do there and frankly, I'm done for the day.  That trimer is her at the house. After I left the park, it was bank, near Harbor Freight, Great clips, lunch, Krogers and then home.  

I was kind of sad, actually, to have to chop that tree down.  It was about 25 feet tall and was living a good life. Well, I chopped it up into firewood sized chunks and so, it can be used for something at least.  There was absolutely no way to make it around that tree, unfortunately.  I don't even know if I want to continue with this job, but for now, I'm going to make accommodations for it and having today off was the perfect timing for it.  

Tomorrow is a trip to Lufkin again to get loaded. I think they are going to have me on this run for a short while to get used to it.  The trip will now entail stopping at a washout before getting to the loading plant.   The manager said today that I should add about an hour for the washout, meaning leave an hour earlier that I would if I were just driving straight to Lufkin.  It's a 10:00 am load time. I'm going to leave 3 hours in advance to figure this out and leave ample time.  The load doesn't deliver tomorrow, so unless I get stuck at that plant for another 3 hours, I should be heading home around noon.  Or earlier.  I want short days, that's what I signed up for. 

Not 11 hour days such as yesterday. My mind is here: if you are going to work me 11 hours, you are going to pay me for 11 hours whether the miles reflect that or not. I'm trying to keep my mouth shut for now, because I'm just now getting out of training and the whole scenario - should - change.  We'll see, but now that I'm back into this nonsense, I have no problem finding another job if it becomes necessary. Let's hope it doesn't become necessary, I don't want to have to go through this again.\

And even if it's not what I want, I will probably stick with it long enough to get this kind of trailer hauling down to a science. I can tell you that I haven't forgotten anything about hauling the cryo products I was hauling before. It's all methodical. Do this, that, the other thing, back to this and get it cranking. All you want to do is get the stuff out of your tanker and into their tank.  It's the process of getting it there that can get confusing and even a bit complicated - only because there is no continuity to how it should be done. 

_________

The day is done. I figure to get up at 5:30 am for coffee and time to reflect, contemplate and pray.  I need to leave my park at around 7:00 am. That's enough time to get washed out and get down to the plant on time for the loading.

 So I'm being lazy this morning, slept in, slept ok last night, watching a little tv, but the park calls me.

I have to get that ditch backfilled before the rains hit.  If I don't do it, I have no idea what I am going to do if it rains, the back of the driveway gets muddy and then...what?  

Yeah, that will motivate me to get with the program here today.  It's the only day I know of to be off until the rains hit, so it's today or not at all.  I don't really even know if that area back there is large enough to turn around a tractor trailer rig, the only way to find out is to back fill that ditch and clear out  the brush, move a trailer, cut down some branches.  

Yup, that will take hours at least.  It may take hours just to do the ditch? It doesn't appear there is enough dirt to backfill it and I will have to use a wheelbarrow to haul dirt in from a bit of a ways away.  

Whatever, lol.  Get it done and move on.  There is also a tree next to the driveway with a large branch that has sort of come down quite a bit that you have to move over to get by it. I want that down as well.  

Well, the list of things to do has multiplied after remembering I need a haircut, trip to the bank to deposit cash and a trip to Kroger's for lunch foods.  I do not stop at truck stops to eat. Takes too much time and th food is full of garbage/junk.  I just take sandwiches and snacks. Leftovers if there are any.  

No, I want to get this ditch stuff done first, get the hardest part over with then move onto easier stuff.

With that? 

I need to get busy. The day is slipping away.

G'day

 Long day.  11 hours  is long enough, anyway.  I got over to the property this morning thinking I'd have to run up to NAPA auto parts, but I found the pin laying in a bin on the top.  There was no cotter key, so I got a nail and did a temporary fix.  When you're trying to do a pressure off unload, that dome lid needs to be sealed tight up there. One of those lugs loose will cause it to leak pressure and it will just take that much longer to get the job done. 

That was a sigh of relief because by the time I got that and everything else done, it was time to leave.  I would have been late if I would have had to run up to the auto parts store.  I got on the road, only stopping once and that only a few minutes at a rest area in Arkansas off of I-30 to get rid of the coffee I had consumed earlier. 

Up to the plant, they didn't bother to tell me I had to go in through gate 4 to weigh in.  In fact, there were 4 gates and I guess which one I would take.  It turns out that gate 1, the one I went through, was the correct gate for offloading, it was not the correct gate for weighing.  Anyway, I turned around, back to the road, over to gate 4, weighed back to gate 1 and then I  parked the rig and went over to see what he was doing.

He being the other driver.  Well, he wasn't anywhere near being done offloading the tanker.  We went through all the steps of his version of offloading. One thing that was sealed in my mind today: there is no consistency on the differing versions of how different drivers offload these tankers.  There are various ways they do it and I guess it all ends out well enough, but it's strange that there are so many different ways to do it that leads to the same conclusion. It gets confusing.

You remember one way one driver did it, another way another did it and you get all of it mixed up in your mind.  Remember, today was the 5th driver that I have had training me.  I just decided to do it his way. He was far more methodical in his procedure and had it down to a science.  His way of doing it allegedly reduces the amount of time it takes to get a washout.  Which was of great interest to me, anything to speed up the process is a good thing.  

Well, he finished and said goodbye, lmao.  You're leaving?  Yes. Well can you at least stay long enough to watch me do the initial setup? So he stuck around another 10 minutes and then he left.  I figured I had it down anyway, so I bid him ado.  I can't be babysat forever, at some point I have to be able to do all of this on my own without supervision and make myself worth something to the company.  

It was two full hours before the truck was empty.  The other driver figured it would take me as long as it took him to offload and so it was.   I went through the ending procedures to clean out the tank and then clean out the fill hose, shut everything off, put up the hoses, got everything good and was about to take off - when - a dude that works at the plant came out.  I don't know if there is a camera out there somewhere or what, but he showed up right when I was about to get into the truck and leave, go to the scale, scale out and drive .. home actually.  

Hi there, he said, I'm Ed and I was sent out to check to make sure you have everything right. My pride wasn't hurt, I'm new, I understand that, so I showed him everything I did and asked him if it all looked ok to him?  Ok Ed, well I'll see y'all again soon! He then asked if I was going to be doing more of this? Yes, it's a dedicated run for this and another plant I haven't been to yet.  

Was all of this stress and worrying over this worth it? Maybe.  It helps force me to pay attention.  There was a lot to learn. It may not sound like there is a lot to learn, but when you are engaging in a process that you have never done before and having have it have potential severe consequences if done wrong, you want to learn correctly.  The other driver was not following company procedure on a few things, but then again, he wasn't really trained on it either.  One thing that stuck out was he wasn't using velcro straps around the cam lock arms.  I think this is an important step that shouldn't be ignored. It isn't likely those arms will just pop off of there without being manipulated to do so, but what if they did?

Well, the hose would pop off and you would have this resin going all over the ground, that's what and that's why the company wants everyone to use them.  

Most of these plants have really nice people working at them, good natured, not loud, boisterous or over-bearing.  So, after that I went to the scale, the man handed me a fresh scale ticket before I could say anything, i was out of there.  I didn't get back to my park until 6:15 and out of there around 6:30.  

Home, I had 5 pounds of hamburger meat about to go bad, I cooked all of it. A huge meatloaf and a large pot of taco meat. Lol, that "huge" meatloaf shrunk to a normal meatloaf size after that 73% lean ground beef shed all of that fat and left a huge amount of liquid in the pan.  It turned out good, tho.  

I've got tomorrow off, amazingly enough.  I don't know why, they didn't tell me, they originally had me working 9 days in a row. No worries, I don't have the weekend off, lol.  Or Monday and Tuesday so far.  I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow, but what I should do is trim back some trees, backfill a ditch and get the area behind my shed ready for rainy season to turn that truck around.

I should also go get at least 200 pounds of rye grass seed and have that available to put down before the rains next week. The forecast has changed again, so I dunno if I'll do that or not.  

It is unfortunate that I barely slept last night and right now, at almost 10:00 pm? I'm not tired at all.  I don't need a repeat of last night....

 Just have a few minutes, if even that.  I got up on that trailer yesterday after I got back to my Park and found one of the lugs had the pin missing on it that connects it to the trailer to keep the dome lid secure and snug. 

So, I'm getting that lug this morning (I don't know why I didn't do this last night, I think I just wanted to go home), running over to Napa, getting something to hold that lug in place and call it good until a correct pin can be located and installed.  It's only one lug, the trailer is loaded and nothing can get out of it, but still, it needs to be correct.

I am driving 2-1/2 hours to Gurdon, AR to meet up with another driver to do final training - well final for this run anyway - to see how they do things at that plant, how the plant wants everything done and a refresher on air-off offloading.  Not that I really need one, I've got that stuff running through my mind so I don't forget any of it, plus checking my notes occasionally. My main concern is getting the product to the right tank and not having any spills.  

Yesterday was a bit much as well.  The shipping plant didn't have enough product and was busy pumping it from one location in the plant to another so they could fill my tanker.  I was sitting there like 3 hours for them to do this and get the truck loaded.  That's a far cry from an 'hour or less'. 

Anyway, my time is running out here, I've been running around the house getting my morning rituals done so I can get out of here, the time to leave? Right now.

G'day

 Tuesday - morning, semi-early

I don't have to be at the plant in Lufkin until 1:00 pm.  And Lufkin is only 90 miles from here.  I don't have to load the truck, either.  So, I will probably leave here around 10:30 am, stop at Love's and fuel up and perhaps I will be at the plant a little early.  Who knows. I don't need to be with another driver to load since I am not loading the truck.  It's nothing different than the myriad of plants I was in and out of in the last job.  Pull up on the scale, go in the guard shack, tell them I've never been here before, they will know what to do next after I tell them what I'm loading. 

Watching Israel/Hamas war scenario on the news. Nothing has changed, it doesn't appear, since I was watching this stuff yesterday.  Biden's intended trip is, IMO, nothing more than a political stunt.  He'll taunt his "record" of having to go into a war-torn country that is currently in the middle of a war.  I can tell you right now, the person that tops the list or is very near the top for doing something unbelievable like that is Trump. Walking across the demilitarized zone with a relative handful of security agents into an extremely hostile nation.  

Anyway, we still don't have a House Speaker, they are taking a vote this morning?  And apparently there aren't enough votes for Jordan, who is feverishly attempting to make the dissenters happy.  How, I have no idea.  How long do we go on without a Speaker? No idea. 

So, I am going to have to get with the program and get that area behind the shed done so I can pull the truck through there. There is no way I will want to drive that truck back to the back when it rains, it turns into a mud pit back there and I can imagine getting stuck and trying to somehow get it out of there without having to call a tow truck.  The area behind the shed can get wet but it won't turn into a mud pit.  I just need it as a turn around.  

What it means is backfilling about 10 feet of not-too-deep trench that I had made back there to install power lines, that idea is defunct and I gave up on that.  Clear out the brush, not terribly much of that either, cut some branches off of trees, move my trailer to some other location and it "should" be good.  I'm pretty sure there is enough room to basically make a wide U-turn.  I'm not positive about that, but these trailers are only like 42 feet long.  

I'm not necessarily sold on this company yet, they are probably not necessarily sold on me, either.  Once I start offloading without supervision they will probably become more relaxed with my employment there.  I, however, am thinking about working 7 days a week and know that this isn't what i signed up for. But, as always, recruiters lie, leave out important facts that you don't know to ask about and other things that are critical information for a driver to figure out whether he wants to work there or not.  She did tell me about the lower paychecks and I can see that being true with such few miles.

This job is a supplement to my income, not the main source of it.  I already have a full time job doing the RV park - well it's not really full time, but there is enough to do over there.  

The trailer I am pulling has a significant amount of damage to the passenger side. They know about this and apparently aren't going to fix it. I consider it a magnet for troopers to pull me over.  I've been pulled over for damaged trailers before.  And have gotten into arguments with troopers about it.  If it doesn't affect the operation of the trailer or it's safety, it is irrelevant.  But, troopers will still argue about it anyway.

Just a few things that affect my thinking about whether to work for a place - or not.  I will likely start looking for another local job. No rush, but see if anything comes along that is better. Trucking is not a good industry to be in if you're looking for specific hours unless you are willing to trade off money for a more structured lifestyle. It would help if I could get earlier load/offload times, but I'm sure other drivers have that via seniority. I would be off work today, for example, around 1 or 2 this afternoon instead of 5 or 6.  Actually, it may not be that late, I'm just padding it for psychological reasons. If I'm loading at 1:00 pm, it should be over with by 2 and then back to my yard by 4.  So, I say 5 or 6 in case it just doesn't work out that way.  

Well, I'm going to go to the park early.  Get the trailer sealed up, do my tablet work, make sure the thing will fire up, stuff like that.  

G'day

 Long day. Didn't help that I didn't sleep worth a poo bears bad toilet paper. 

It was drive up to the yard, sit there for 3 hours getting acquainted with people and waiting on a mechanic to do his inspection of the truck, 45 miles east to a washout facility to pick up a trailer and then back home.  It's the sleep stuff that gets me. If I don't get a decent night's sleep, I'm just fighting through the day with fatigue and just doing things to keep myself attentive. 

Back to my yard at the property, parked the truck, took note of the fact that I am going to have some serious work to do to make that area behind the shed accessible for turning that truck around, noticed the new dog dung trash can was already completely full and overflowing - that was odd.  I just put that thing out there 2 days ago, actually a day and a half ago.  It's not a huge trash can but to see it that full already? 

So I took the bag out, put it in the big trash can and put a fresh bag in there.  

The New Jersey lady came out of her trailer as I was getting out of my freshly parked truck.  I didn't know you drove big rigs?!  37 years of it. 

Taylor came and picked me up, thankfully, she is in her own hell with that baby causing her constant pain. They are going to induce it with some kind of drug to come out early. Like a few weeks early, but she still has a couple weeks to wait until they can do that.  Home, no dinner, got out the pork chops, made that, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn - simple, quick and filling.  Did dishes, made lunch for tomorrow even tho it's a late start, one more thing nixed off the list of things to do.

Trust me when I say that although that sounds like a lot, and frankly it is, I don't have near the energy to do that every day for the next 11 days that it would take to carry that out on a daily basis.  Because yes, I am to work for 11 more days and then get a weekend off.  I'm pretty sure I can't keep that kind of schedule, but we'll see.  Tomorrow, for example, is just drive to Lufkin, load and come back.  That's not even 4 hours of driving total for the day.  

Today was an oddball because of having to go up there for a trailer and to meet everyone and get the truck looked at.  That won't likely happen again anytime soon.  I very much do not like Arkansas 2 lane highways, only because the speed limits are mostly 55mph.  Feels like you're barely moving.  

And when I got to the wash out place, I didn't know what I was doing and had to ask the workers.  So, you leave that lid open like that? Yes, the inside of the trailer has to dry out.  Oh.  But we can do whatever you want...nooo, no no, I'm learning here, new to washouts, I just needed to know it's okay to drive down the road with that lid opened like that. Yes, they do it all the time.  

The Lufkin trip will not always be as fast as tomorrow should be, that's because you have to take the trailer to a washout before you go to the plant to load.  I won't have to do that since I just picked the trailer up at a washout up in Arkansas.  They suggested that I drive 50-100 miles and then pull over and close everything up.  I didn't do that, I just drove it back to my property and will deal with it in the morning.  I think it's the idea that it should all be closed before you arrive at the shipper.  

I will never have to load trucks, I will likely always have to offload.  Wednesday, I will follow another driver up to the plant in Gurdon to have a one day training session. That should be all it takes.  Actually, I have it down now that I had what they want done explained today. The last part that I was struggling with is easy now.  

They want you to chase out the product with air, water, air just like you would do if you're pumping off. Why? I don't know, it only adds a few minutes to the process, not a big deal... once you get to the final part of air pressure in the delivery line, you just go close the plant valve. You already closed the internal and hand valve on your trailer.  The rest is just putting everything away.  The idea is to get everything out of the delivery line before putting it up at the plant.  The next person comes along and doesn't have a heavy line loaded up with product sitting in there.  Makes sense, but they don't do that at all with the Oregon drivers unless it's a pump off.

I'm learning.  Lots more to learn, there is yet another plant to load at and a different plant to offload at after I get this one down.  Then, it's alternate between the two as dispatch need arises.  The only difference between the offload plants is the other one you have to use your own hose.  Which looks like a true pain because the hose is on a rack mounted to the back of the truck and you have to get that hose way up high to get it over the rack and then strap it down. Those hoses are heavy. 

I think the only thing I'm really objecting to right now is this idea of working 12 days in a row, if you count today, which you would.  And doing that all the time.  12 days on, 2 off? That's a bit much.....BUT...if I"m home a lot that helps.  It sounds like, at least with this Lufkin/gurdon run, that the first day doing Lufkin is a pretty short day and the second day, not a lot more. Gurdon is only 2 hours and 15 minutes from here.  It's up there, deliver, and back. 

Just the first time will take many more hours because I will be with the guy delivering his load and then he will come with me delivering mine.  Same product, same plant, just a training day.  Get this training junk over with and really, this isn't a big deal - I think. Probably gets old doing the same thing over and over, just gotta keep in mind that I have an end game here.

But I can't really determine how the end game plays out until I see a "normal" paycheck.  This next coming paycheck won't be normal because it will be that 2,700 mile trip and a few days from working in Oregon.  

If I'm calculating this correctly - my mind is jumping all over the place right now - it really shouldn't be more than 6-7 hours per day with 8 at most on any given day.  That is nothing in the trucking world.  

Meanwhile, I just had to write an owner's draw check from the business account and pay myself. Yes, I got a nice chunk of change for the first paycheck from this company, but it's almost gone already.  This  was my financial state of affairs that took a huge hit from these excessively high electric bills.  As I said a month ago,  and a few months ago, I knew September was my deadline and that I possibly could make it going into October. I was spot on with that and I had actually predicted that many months before I ever got there.  

So, these new RV'ers hadn't even left yet when I get back today.  They have no idea what they're doing but they definitely enjoyed my park, they told me that in no uncertain terms and the lady said she hadn't slept so well in ages. That's all she did, sleep, take the dogs out to do their thing, back to sleep.  Hey, I ain't judging people's vacations, I'd absolutely love to be able to sleep like that!  

Anyway, I just went incognito to check out my website and book a site.  There is a field you can click that says "view terms and conditions". It says plainly you have to be out by noon unless you call us first and ask if you can stay longer, and then, if the lot isn't going to be used, you can stay until 3:00 pm, after that, you will pay another night's stay. The catch here is this: You must click on the field that says "I have read and agree to the terms and conditions" before you can finish the reservation.  

I said nothing to them. Let some other RV park that is strict about it's rules confront them, I felt it unnecessary considering I didn't have anyone else coming in and they had had such a nice, relaxing stay. Why ruin it for them?  Leave on a negative note? What possible good does that serve?  The only way I would have said something is if someone else came in - for their lot - and called me telling me their lot is already taken. Huh?  

I guess you could call today a productive day, yes it was.  I'm just concerned about the toll it might take having to work every single day for almost 2 weeks, even if it's a light schedule. I'll miss church this coming weekend as well.  Not a fan of that idea at all.  

Oh, there's probably $300 worth of quarters in those machines at the park right now. I opened one up and was shocked to see the thing almost completely full.  I get paid on the 22cd, I think I'll wrap those quarters up, deposit it into my account and give it to James. I own him for the drywall work. I started paying him last paycheck, it would be nice to get him paid up. That way he isn't going to hesitate about asking him to do other stuff as it arises.  I can trust James to do things right.  I don't have to worry whether he'll half-@$$ something, he never does anything without a calculated thought of doing it right the first time regardless of how long it takes him to do it.

I did not pull the quarters out. I had nothing to put them in.  

That's it.  I don't know how I can have all of this energy after doing everything I've done today. I am not tired now that I think about it, hopefully that will change after I get myself into bed and turn something on on the tv.  I don't have to get up early, that's a beautiful thing.  I can only hope I can get a decent amount of sleep tonight.  Like, go to bed at 10:30, get up at 7:00 am, get stuff done, get out of here, get the Lufkin stuff over with.  I should be home between 5:00 and 6:00 pm if my thoughts about how long it should take are correct.

Should be close.  I did a large number of these loads in Oregon, same stuff here as there, over and over.  It's about an hour - hour and 15 from start to finish.  I'm not going with that other guy to do this.  I'm not loading the trailer so it's just a matter of finding the entrance, finding the scale and tell them I have never been in there before, what do I do now? No different than the myriad of different new places I went into with the previous job.  Giant plants, send someone to escort me or give me a map.  

Expect when I arrive to question that I'm at the right place and getting the correct product.  My anxieties about how all of this works are starting to fade.  It's completely new to me, but the training has been good and I've been exposed to it over and over.  The only thing that sucked was the fatigue, lack of sleep and yes, I tell them that when they ask. How was training? I tell them about that horrid bunkhouse, how they can believe that anyone can get a decent night's sleep in that abomination and why they subject new drivers to such nightmarish conditions.

Lol, well, that is probably going to stick with me forever.  When some of the reviews said things like: "Run, don't walk, run from this place" they weren't far off.  You can't expect decent help when you are putting people through such a wretched, vile, nightmarish process.  I'm not 20 years old, thank you very much.  

With that? I bid you a good evening, lol. I'm not depressed about that experience now, I'm still paying for it tho.  I doubt you ever truly get caught up on losing such a large amount of sleep. I told the new manager quite bluntly that I will never stay in that place again.  If there was some reason they wanted me to go back for some training or whatever, it will be a hotel or it will be nothing.

Oh, btw, it's Christmas at Walmart! and a lot of other stores, lmao.

G'nite.  

 There are 3 ways to get to the yard that are truck friendly. All of them add almost 40 miles to the trip.  The ways to get there that are much shorter are not truck friendly, have low bridge weight tolerances and you get busted bad if you're caught overweight going over them.  I don't have any way to get up there legally without having to go through weigh stations.  I despise weigh stations, I normally get green lighted through, but I still don't like going through them.  

Lunch, update logs, fire up the truck, put my boots in the cubbyhole, get the tablet and recharge it, etc.  Getting ready for tomorrow.  All of those logs have to be verified even tho I haven't driven all week long.  You know, FSCMA rules and all.  And troopers.  And the possibility of getting pulled into a scale house. There are several ways up there, but anyh way I choose to go? They are  open more often than not.  

I want everything ready since it's up at 5:00 am, shave, shower, enjoy a cuppa or two and then hit the road.  Just have to get a bag of clothes in the truck. Always must have a least a change of clothes, that just-in-case syndrome where something might happen you don't go home that day.  It's 99.999999999% guaranteed that will happen eventually.  

I will only be going to the yard, meeting people, hopefully getting some things fixed, hooking up to a trailer and going back to the Park.  That's where I intend on parking the truck. There will be no hazmat loads, apparently, so that's acceptable.  You can't leave hazmat unless it's in a locked, gated, fenced, secured yard.  I don't remember if it has to have cameras, but every one of those yards I have ever been in have 24 hour monitoring.  

____________

Monday - early

Up, truck started (barely), getting things ready to go.  Got up early so I could deal with things without being in a rush.  It should just be drive up to the yard, meet/greet, get info about loading and offloading, perhaps a few things fixed on the truck, grab a trailer and leave.  I would say 3 hours up there but who knows.  If that is true, I would then guess around a 9 hour day, home around 3:00 pm.  

We'll see if that fairy tale comes to pass.  On a "normal" day, which starts tomorrow I suppose, I do wonder what a typical day will entail in terms of hours.  I'm going to catch a little news before heading out to see what is up in Israel.

G'day

 Sunday  mid-morning

Been up for quite a while, actually, getting stuff done.  I'm on my last day of freedom before the grind of daily working comes to pass. I can tell right off the dispatcher is going to be a problem.  She came right off as all the host of other trucking dispatchers that don't care about your personal life, you will drive the truck and that will be that.  I don't want to clash with anyone, but I feel like she is going to want me working 7 days a week in perpetuity and that isn't going to happen. I could see possibly working a weekend here and there, but I am not working 7 days a week. They don't even force you to do that in long haul trucking.  

____________

Went to church, over to the park to confirm the 2 night stay had left - which they hadn't. I have a long term coming in today, so that kind of got me going.  Went straight home, pulled up their phone number and called them.  This is the RV Park, what time were y'all planning on leaving today?  He replied he is at the entrance to the driveway and will be hooking up and leaving immediately, he and his wife had gone to breakfast with their student they have at one of the local colleges and were just now returning.

Ok, I thought, breathing a huge sigh of relief. My long term is coming in at 3:00 it was only 12:30, so we're good.  I said no problem then, I have someone coming in at 3:00 so I was getting a little concerned.  I don't have any other empty lots and won't have until tomorrow, unless the other QuickTrip worker is staying. He's due to pay his rent today but he's not home.  I saw him a few days ago, seeing that guy is pretty sporadic.  

I turned the battery charger off this morning to the truck and now, 6 hours later, fired it up.  A little sluggish but that's the way it was when I first got into it in Oregon.  An interior light was left on - the kids got into the thing a week ago and turned the lights on, unbeknownst to me and left them on after they got out.  I saw one of them and turned that off, but yesterday I noticed yet another one on.  Any lights left on in a vehicle, obviously, will eventually wear the battery/ies down.  

I only say all of that because at 6:00 am tomorrow, I will be leaving out of here for the yard in Arkansas. I don't want to be having to fool with jumper cables, battery charger and hoping I can get the thing to fire up.  Presumably, I'm meeting the manager and the dispatcher, hopefully getting some things fixed on the truck, pickup up a trailer, coming home and then loading in Lufkin, I believe it was.  Lufkin is something like an hour and a half from here, so a 10:00 load time is pretty easy.  Come back here, leave the next morning at whatever time I will need to leave to go up somewhere in Arkansas and deliver, then back here, down to Lufkin, etc.  

Then, I will be put on another dedicated run that is similar but is more miles, I believe.  I dunno, but I'm both ready to get started with this and at the same time, ready to just stay home and deal with my park, lmao.  No worries, I'm sure I'll get with the program and get into this situation as much as I can, but I can foresee butting heads about weekend work.  Need not go into that again, I'll deal with it as best as I can without getting myself fired.  Tho, if they express to me that they expect me to work on weekends in contradiction to what the recruiter said, I will be looking for another job.  And good luck to them finding someone like me that is willing to take lessor pay for the home time.  

It's a good problem to have in having a full park and trying to keep it that way. The family backed out, I know because I called them this morning.  I would have had to cancel a man that wanted to come in today if this family was actually coming, but I had this feeling they were not going to follow through.  I texted them twice last night with no reply.  I called them an hour ago and they said no, it's too far away.  It pissed me off, actually, because I was going to cancel the other person coming in, I had to leave them on hold while I figured this out.  

THIS is why many RV parks require a deposit to hold a lot, a non-refundable deposit and I'm thinking of doing the same thing now.  This lady tried to tell me she "had just now seen my texts from last night". BS and in a pig's eye.  You just now saw texts sent over 15 hours ago?  Please.  I would have lost this other person's business and he has been in the park before. He has a nice looking trailer, he's quiet, doesn't bother anyone, perfect type of people to have in there.  I think the reason this lady "changed" her mind is because I was asking for the condition of the trailer. I forgot to ask when she first called but once I remember it, I wasn't leaving it to chance.  It may very well be they have a trashy looking trailer and that is what really got them to just blow me off.  

I could have directed them to the trailer trash parks nearby if they so needed.  

So, just checking the camera, the 2 nighters just left and this other guy is coming in in about an hour and 15 minutes.  This keeps my park full. Tomorrow, the 3 nighters are leaving and then that lot will be empty.  So currently, just the quik trip dude. I will be going over later to see if he's home again.  I can't see his lot from the camera and I really need to get about 4 more cameras over there to be able to see everything.   

I'm seeing several days of rain next week after this one coming.  Like, if it were true, I could put down the grass seed. It's amazing that there are several patches of rye grass coming up around the place. I put down far too much seed last year, some of it must have gotten into the dirt and waiting for cool temps to come back out?  Rye grass doesn't come back such as Bermuda, it has to be replanted every year. Hence, pain in the butt but the seed is far less expensive than any variety of summer grasses. The price went up, but not that much on the rye grass. $39 instead of the $35 I was paying last year. That's at a local mom and pop feed store, everywhere else is much higher.  

___________

Phone call.  Hey, I'm here at the park but lot 1 is taken!  I look through the camera, who on earth pulled in there? The 2 nighters were already gone, I verified that earlier.  Ugh. I replied I'd be over there in 10 minutes to find out who is doing what there, cause' there isn't anyone else slated to come in today.  Well, lot 2 is open! he says. Ohhhh, ok, the dude at lot 2 moved to lot 1.  We're all good, you can take lot 2 and you won't have to move again.  

Went over there, grabbed my month's rent from him and then lot 1 wanted to get into this long, unbelievable conversation.  I mean, seriously.  Dude.  I finally said I need to go.  It's Sunday afternoon and I have stuff to do. Yup, I up and left lol.  

The QuikTrip dude wasn't home, as usual. Hit and miss with him, I'll keep going over there until I see him.  Actually,  he has until tomorrow noon to either pay or leave.  But if he intends on staying, it's not like he's going to call me or anything.  He'll just stay there until I finally get a hold of him.  

Well, enough of this.  I'm going to relax for a while and then go out and check to see if the truck is going to start.  I kind of think it will now that the lights are off in the thing.  Make some lunch for tomorrow ot take with me and get my computer in the truck - I will be taking the laptop with me in case there is something that needs to be dealt with for the park. There is no smart phone app for the software.

 Saturday - semi early

Got up early, just now getting to blogging.  The kids left with grandma half an hour ago, they'll be gone until next Saturday.  It's some sort of vacation - kids get lots of them nowadays from school - Taylor, James and I will be working and they would have had to pay for day care for them to stay home. Grandma coming was an easy fix, tho I don't know about staying up there an entire week. The youngest starts getting homesick and asking for mommy.  

The trucking company called yesterday.  This time, it was a lady who had an Oregon prefix, so I assumed it was headquarters calling about something. She didn't introduce herself on the phone and I began to wonder if it was a person calling about an RV lot, these people do that a lot.  Instead, she started asking me if I wanted a load for tomorrow?  I was quite hesitant for a number of reasons.  This conversation, however, started out with things other than trucking so I had no clue who she was and only half way into the conversation did she identify herself as my dispatcher and that I should save this number.  

What kind of person calls you in that type of role and doesn't even bother to explain who she is?  The manager was over hearing the conversation and eventually took over the phone call. Why don't we have you come in Monday morning, preferably early and we can meet in person, get the truck fixed and work this out?  Ok, was my reply, Monday was my desired start day anyway.  Providing everything goes ok, the truck will be fixed, I"ll grab a trailer, go home after all of that and then head to Lufkin, I believe, to load and then back to the house.  Then to the facility to offload the next day, rinse, lather, repeat.  

We'll see. I tend to get stressed about new jobs and doing things I haven't done before. In this case, I've done it but only with supervision.  However, there was a twist in this situation, or sounded like one anyway, where you air, water, air at the end instead of just pushing the final amount of product through the hose to the customer's tank.  That procedure was done only for pump offs in Oregon, not for air offs. So I'll be asking direct questions about that when I get up there Monday.  I want to know what the plant and management want of me in this endeavor long before I ever arrive at a plant to offload.  

But, out of memory:  Enter plant, find the tank. Ensure it is the correct tank by matching the numbers and name on the tank with the numbers and name on the paperwork.  Check to ensure the tank has enough room to take an entire truckload.  Open the valve on the top of the tank to let air pressure in.  Put down the mats and the buckets under connection points - which should only be 2, one on the tanker and one on the customer tank.  Hook up the hose, taking the lids off slowly to allow any product to drip into the buckets.  Make sure you put the velcro straps around the arms that hold the lids on - this ensure the arms don't fall back and let the hose come off during offload. 

Hook up the airline.  Go find someone to sign off on everything.  Turn on the air pressure, open the valve on the customer's tank, then on the tanker and let'er rip.  The hose will start cavitating when the tanker is empty.  But leave it do that a minute to ensure the product is all out of there and you also check by lifting up the hose, it should be light.  In fact, you pick up the hose after you start offloading to check the weight of it so you know when you are at the end.  If it's an air, water, air situation, then you close the valves on the tanker.

You hook the air hose up to the bleeder valve where the hose connects to the tanker.  Turn that on for a minute.  Then hook a water hose up to the same valve and turn that on for a few minutes and yes, it does pump water into the customer's tank and they apparently don't care.  Turn off the water, remove the hose and put the air hose back on, pushing any product back through and while you have pressure on, turn off the valve to the customer's tank.  Unhook the air hose and let the pressure out and then unhook the delivery hose at the customer's tank and then the tanker, putting the lids back on and the velcro strap around the arms.  Put their hose away, roll up their air hose and put that away, roll up the water hose and put that away.  

Now you open up the valve where the air line was attached to the tanker to allow pressure to build in the tank and let all of that pressure out.  It comes out through the top, there is no worries of any product coming out.  You can just leave that valve open even driving down the road until it's pressure free, it's just air coming out.  You put their buckets and tarps away and you are done, you can leave.  It's like an hour process.  I forgot, you have to put out the storm drain tarp over the drain if there is one in case of an event.  Event is not something you want to have happen, obviously.  

But I have this down in my mind pretty well, I think about it daily to keep it fresh in my mind and not start forgetting stuff.  I wrote this out to see how much I remember, all of it really. I would have remembered the storm drain thing if I had been there. It's just sequence.  Some places don't allow you on top of the tanker unless they provide a set of stairs, meaning you have to open that valve before you enter the plant.  All of that and more is what I spent 9 days memorizing.  And doing, plus learning how to load, but it turns out we don't load, we only offload.  Loading is actually easier than offloading.  

As for today? Well, the Fire Ant Festival is going on downtown so apparently we are going to go walk around and check everything out.  I'm just going to enjoy my 2 days remaining off and then get up at 5 am Monday, get dressed and ready to go and hopefully go out and turn the truck on.  I have had the battery charger on there now for about 15 hours or longer.  It should fire right up.  

Oh, I have a mother and her kid moving in on Sunday - but I forget to ask her about the condition of her trailer.  People try to pull fast ones on me.  I don't want junk in there.  

Yesterday, I mowed down everything around the fire pit I built last year.  Or was it earlier this year? Well, whenever it was, it took many hours to get all of those weeds down and mulched up.  I just went over and over it while at the same time, I built a huge fire in the thing to burn out all the weeds inside of the fire pit. The firewood almost gone, I saw several black widow spiders in that mess.  I didn't know they had black widows in Texas.  I was being careful, tho and was concerned about snakes.  No snakes, but if a black widow bites you, have fun with that! Been there, done that, bought the farm and sold it. 

I now need to go over and collect money from new rv'ers. They haven't got a clue what they are doing and called me several times yesterday. Lol.  They didn't even know where to buy propane and was asking if I sell it? Nope. I might consider it if I had, say, 100 lots in there.  But with only 16 lots, no. It wouldn't be profitable and the setup isn't cheap.  I'm all about profit right now, get money in.  Well, I've been all about profits, just want to get that business checking account to start building up money in order to save for Phase II of the park.  

Not going into that right now, I've already discussed that at-length in this blog and right now? I'm heading over to see about collecting 2 night's worth of fees. 

G'day