Sunday - afternoon

Yesterday morning, we headed over to 6 Flags. The parking fee was excessive and shocking. I mean, I was shocked: $45 to park a vehicle in a parking lot for one day.  I was on the far left pay booth lane and was looking at all the traffic heading into another parking area much further away...then the entrance to one right there It was the only entrance, immediately to the left, to that parking area that was opened, but people were going in there. Yup, I got in there and saved a lot of walking.

It was hot yesterday, there was no denying that.  We were all sweating all day long.  That didn't stop us from having fun, we had lots of fun on lots and lots of rides.  We didn't just do kiddie rides either, the boys did many "adult" rides that I thought they would be terrified of. Well, they admitted some fear but they worked through it and were glad they did.  The only ride of any visible fear was the Pirate boat one.  It's a boat that glides through an underground cavern with a pirate theme and also a them of "Spleelunkers" that don't like pirates.  Besides being a fun ride, it was very cool in there and I wanted to go again, lol.  

Actually, we tried to go on that ride in the morning, it closed down after waiting for around 40 minutes. We were close to getting on the boat, but, one of the boats was sinking, yes we could see it was submerged in water.  In fact, fully 7 rides we were going to go on had closed down either when we got to them or while we were waiting in line.  Others were closed for "refurbishing".  

The plus side was the fun, the downside is the excessive prices you will pay regardless of what amusement park you go to.  Disney, MG, Six Flags, mom and pops, they ream you. It's why we don't' go very often. Actually, we don't go on vacation often at all.  It's just too pricey, spending $18 on a glorified hot dogs with fries? $18 for a double cheeseburger?  

We were there from the time it opened until the time it closed. If we gonna pay that much, we gonna take advantage of it. The problem for me was when it was time to drive home. I thought I was good to go, the kids were still with me. But 30 miles down the road I said no.  The kids wanted to go to a hotel again anyway, so in Terrell, TX, I got off the Interstate and started going to various hotels. They were all completely filled up. There were only 2 places left after I went to the better hotels:  Motel 6 or Super 8.  I used to like Motel 6, they were obviously lower end but they took care of the places. 

At some point in time, they let the chain degrade into dive hotels and I refuse to go there unless there is no other option. Super 8 had many rooms available, I got one with 2 queen beds. I don't want to sleep with kids, thanks.  They move around all night long, they take up space, I want my own bed.  But, they were as exhausted as I was and they fell asleep at 11 pm and did not wake up until 9am. I didn't even try to get them up, I just decided it would be better to let them get a full 10 hours of sleep, there was no agenda for today, I blew getting home in time for church off.  

Oh, and Marriott, well I wrote about that in the previous entry but my, I just love those places. This one didn't disappoint. An indoor pool.  See, I was looking at satellite pics of that place and didn't see a pool, I thought a "mandatory" inclusion on those properties was a pool. I had never been to one with an indoor pool and thought didn't cross my mind.  We had as much fun playing in the pool as we did at 6 flags.  

The drive home today was uneventful. There was an IHOP in the area we stayed, so we went there for breakfast and drove straight through.  I was figuring on stopping on the way back for the kids to go pee, but I made them go to the bathroom before we left IHOP and they didn't say anything about a bathroom break all the way back, which was nice, we got it over with. It's really not that far to Dallas, it's the constant traffic on I-20 that I despise.  It's one of those highway corridors where they need to have 3 lanes on each side. There are many Interstates in the US where an upgrade to 3 lanes is really quite needed.  They spent all those trillions of dollars in the last 5  years on what, exactly?  

I did realize, however, that I need new tires.  One of them is vibrating but they are all in need of replacement.  I won't do that until next paycheck. I only need drive around town right now, 10-15 miles max on any given trip.  It also needs an oil change and the rear brake rotors are pulsing the brake pedal when I hit the brakes, so those and new brake pads.  Talking $800 worth of maintenance.  Oh well.

Maybe I will take a paycheck from the business after all to pay for that stuff.  I especially dislike driving around with a tire you know is going to fail sooner or later. If it fails in the way of the tread coming off, that can do extensive damage to your vehicle. It's cheaper to just replace the tires than to have to have body work done AND replace your tires.  

Home.  I can tell you I have nothing else planned for today.  I don't want to go anywhere, I don't want to do anything but kick back, relax, recover, rest and get myself read for another work week. Cause' honey, 5:30 am comes awfully early and I have issues with the truck that need fixed. However, I don't plan on dealing with that until Tuesday unless a tire blows out.  Love's broke a lugnut and I still have the tire vibration going on that Love's was supposed to fix - until they broke the lugnut in half.  I'm going to have to take it to the yard and Tuesday will undoubtedly be another very long day.  I won't be surprised if they don't want me to wait for them to do the repair and replace the tires that need replacing.  

But, as I said, that tire could give way before then. I'm just going to take the chance and hope that it won't.  It will pass any DOT inspection, it just did in fact even after telling them a tire is bad.  It's just I know a tread is going to come flying off sooner or later unless, of course, I get it fixed first.  I tried!  

Farmer bill called yesterday and said he has some "good news" for me.  No idea.  I haven't had any problems with them after I gave them a direct warning to cease and desist or vacate the park. I haven't heard a peep out of them or from anyone complaining about them, so if they want to stay, that's up to them.  As long as they follow my directive to keep the laser gun junk to themselves.  They are going to - and already have - find that no park anywhere wants to deal with that kind of nonsense. If you want to entertain conspiracy theories, that's your business....until you make it everyone else's. 

I dunno what else. Trying to think.  It would be nice tomorrow to go up through Carthage and stop by the tractor place.  But I dunno if I will, depends on the truck and whether it's giving me hell or not and also how long it takes to get done.  If it goes like it has been going, getting done is going to be early and very well received.  

Well enough.  Already 4:00 pm, the day is flying by.  

 It's been quite the day, lol. 

Drive up to Gurdon, offload, back home, get the kids out of daycare, back home again, get stuff, get in the car and leave.  

I-20 traffic was horrendous as usual, but even more-so today with holiday traffic.  We got here alright, even with idiots doing stupid things on the highway....

Got our room , got a free appetizer card for a steak house, went over there, which was all of maybe a 1,000 feet away and at steak dinner.  I thought it amazing they had a steak meal on the kids menu  I don't see that anywhere else we go and yes, I check. These kids love steak.  

I ordered medium rare for all of us, most of it was in the "raw" territory.  I can eat it like that and totally enjoy it, I wondered about the kids? Turns out, one of them had very rare steak and the other was cooked to near medium rare.  I cut and served the near-raw stuff to the 7 year old, he merrily downed it without a hitch.  I didn't say it was undercooked, I wanted to see if he would eat it like that.  

If you tell a 7 year old the meat is not cooked well enough, they will just reject it. If you tell them nothing and see what happens? Who knows.  

It turns out this hotel does have a swimming pool. And indoor swimming pool and yes, we went swimming.  These boys love pools and we are on vacation.

There was another young boy in there, they all hit it off.  However...

I got into a conversation with what turned out to be the stepfather.  Their house just burned down. Been there, done that, I could totally empathize with them in a way that they might not find with other people, my house burned down in 2004 and it's and experience I'll never forget.  I'm not going to go into all of that now, excepting to say it's a miracle my son wasn't killed in that experience.  Their story went further with the lady having just gotten done with chemotherapy.  Him quitting his job to take care of her.  

I could go on, you get the picture, they are in a living hell right now.  They are actually living here in this hotel.  It is a residence inn and they do have rooms with 2  separate bedrooms that have their own doors and bathrooms.  There is a kitchen with a full sized refrigerator, a stove top, microwave, Keurig,, dishwasher and all the tableware, cookware and plates/glasses you need. There is a kitchen table, a desk area and a living room.  This is one of those types of places corporates like to put up their people that are out on travel and have to stay somewhere for a while.  

The boy attached himself to me quickly, which I thought odd. His father is in prison, but his stepfather was sitting in a chair right there  The boys wanted me to get into the pool, I didn't feel like it but they pleaded lol.  Ok, Ok! We had fun, but after an hour and a half? I'm ready to go to the room, settle down and relax for the rest of the evening. The boys didn't disagree, so we dried off and left.  I felt sorry for that entire family situation, but, their needs are being met.  Just the emotional stuff got to me, brought back memories of that fateful Sunday 

__________

That was yesterday.  It's about time to check out of this hotel and head over to 6 flags.  Going to be hot today, not sure how that's going to work out lol.  

 Friday - early

About 300 more miles of driving plus offload the truck and I'll be done until Monday.  I can only hope and pray that I don't have any tire issues today, things I can deal with next week. No one can say I didn't try to get it dealt with, that's a fact.  I am driving the truck around 65mph when loaded to keep the vibration down.  You keep it up at 72 and it feels like the truck is shaking apart.  Something, somewhere, is definitely not right!

I wanted to keep it a secret from the kids about going to 6 Flags but mom let the oldest know.  Oh well. He didn't tell his younger brother, tho, so that one is totally in the dark about what we're doing.  We were talking about it and the younger thought we were talking about going to El Taco - a decent Mexican food restaurant in town.  No, that's not what we're doing.  He's clueless.

However, the older also doesn't know that I am taking them from the daycare today and heading over to Dallas today.  They like hotels and I am relatively sure they will very much like the one we are going to.  I'm not telling either of them.  We'll just hop into the SUV, get out onto the Interstate and away we go! Where are we going? Just out to eat - that's what we'll do after we get to the hotel, get checked in, get the rooms and get done with everything.  Oh, btw, you might want to play your games or something, the restaurant is about 2-1/2 hours away! lol!

Yes, I'm a bit psyched. Be nice to get out of town and go somewhere other than trucking.  I mean, I go out of town on an almost daily basis, just none of  that is appealing, at all.  

Well that's it. Not a lot of time here, just drinking a cuppa.  The other driver said I didn't need to show up up there earlier than I normally do, he won't show up before I leave anyway.  I'm just thankful that he agreed to switch. IF I DO have a problem, at least I'll have some extra hours to deal with it. That was mostly why I asked him to switch, the other reason is I can get home in time (hopefully) and get my stuff done, load up the vehicle and get an earlier start. Maybe get over there by 5 or 6ish, really would like to get out of here as early as possible and try to beat Dallas Rush Hour Nightmare On Elm Street With A Dosage Of Chucky Added To It traffic.  

G'day.   

 Thursday - evening

The vibration got worse, enough so that I got permission to replace the tire that I think is causing the problem. So, after loading, I went to Love's and they got right on it. Well, I had been sitting there an hour and the dude hadn't even jacked the trailer up?  They don't necessarily have experienced tire workers there, in many cases it appears they are brand new to it and just out of "training".

Well, it didn't get any better. The guy came in after a while asking if there was an adjustable wrench somewhere. He was informed by the manager where one was but then asked why he needs one?     A lugnut had busted in half taking it off and they couldn't get it off of there.

The manager eventually said, well, we'd take responsibility for this but look, all other lugnuts came off of there without a hitch.  Yes, I thought, the kid probably had the impact wrench set to turn the wrong direction and it snapped it. Please don't try to pull one over on me.  I said nothing, however, and just let it go.  He also said "we can't go any further with it", meaning they weren't even going to replace the tire.  Look, I've seen plenty of tire hands take tires off of rims that are still bolted to the trailer, many many times I've seen this.  Most of them prefer to do that versus taking all of those lugnuts off of there.

So, they put the mess back together, minus one lugnut and the manager said "it's perfectly legal to run with one broken lugnut". I was afraid they were going to try and tell me that they couldn't put it back together, much the same situation that happened last month in Arkansas where the lugnuts were stripped and they wouldn't put it back together without replacing them.  

I got out of there and then got pulled into a Texas CMV inspection station (Commercial Motor Vehicle). However, 2 of the troopers were standing out there chatting by one of their cruisers, looked at me, the truck and waved me on.  They couldn't see the busted lugnut, I'm pretty sure that even if it is legal, they're going to pull me in for that and probably write it up.  

The vibration was even worse after leaving there, to the point I slowed down to 65mph to keep it from getting too much, I was afraid a tire would bust apart and I can't do that right now. I needed to get home and I need to get to Gurdon, offload and get back home again.  It can be dealt with next week, drop the trailer at the yard and they can fix the damn thing.  

This whole thing irritates me because the previous driver knew there was a problem and just dumped it off onto someone else.   

The whole scenario has changed for the kids.  They will go to grandma's at some point, but it turns out they have Covid.  So, they aren't going to be around anyone for a while.  James and Taylor are leaving tomorrow after a meeting she has at work and going to Medieval Times, the venue I went to with the oldest kid last month for a school outing.  She said the tickets are non-refundable. I had mentioned after finding out grandma isn't coming, via text message I should add, that we could just bring the kids. I will hang out with them on the kiddie rides.  

Back and forth and yes, we are going to do that.  Tomorrow, they will leave for Dallas for their fun and I will go to work, get that load off the trailer, come back, go get the kids from the daycare, come home, get their stuff and also leave for Dallas. The 6 flags adventure isn't until Saturday, but I decided to get a nice hotel - Marriot Residence Inn - and stay the night in a place I really like to stay in from time to time.  That's already reserved.  They are buying the tickets tonight online, apparently they are having sale but you have to buy the tickets in advance. Anything to save a few bucks, but I am splurging on the hotel room.  

Meanwhile, the tent people.  They crossed my last line today and I told them to leave.  You are spending far too much time in the amenities shed, I have repeatedly asked you to keep your time in their limited, you have repeatedly ignored my wishes, I want you gone.  She took umbrage with that, the lady that is, and said they - the kids - were "only in there 45 minutes" today.  No, ma'am, they were in there for many hours, I have it on video.   What annoyed me was that yet again, I went in there to go use the toilet after driving and they were in there, again and had been in there for a long time. I'm talking the bathroom now.  I spoke loudly: Y'all are in that bathroom every time I come in here!

After that, she blew up my phone with basically pleading to let them stay.  The 19 year old blew up my phone with insults, I contacted the lady and told her if he doesn't stop, I'll call the sheriff out there.  If you don't think I'd do that, think again.  I will not be abused by guests mouthing off to me about things they know they are doing wrong.  I made it crystal clear to them I didn't want them hanging out in that shed when they first showed up. And then I had to ask again and again.

Just got to my limit.  It is decided to give them one last try.  They can take 15 minute showers and they can recharge their phones - OUTSIDE.  But, I required the boy to apologize, if he wasn't going to do that, no go. So, he texted and apologized. He had been telling me I had been "treating them like trash" and on and on, just wasn't interested in reading all of it, it was 5 paragraphs of bs.                      

Do I expect a different result? That depends on how bad they want to stay there.  They obviously have nowhere else to go.  I am sympathetic to a degree, but I am also running a business and I told her that: this is mostly an RV park business, not a tent campground. Also, the tent sites are primitve, meaning now water and no electricity.  How many times have I gone tent camping in my lifetime with no running water, no electricity and no toilet? Probably in the hundreds.  

So, that's the plan anyway. Oh, and I asked the other driver if it would be possible to switch delivery times.  I told him what was going on but also said "feel free to say no", not pressuring him but I really want to be home at an early hour, not at 4 or 5 in the afternoon.  He agreed to it and I told him I would gladly give up an early load next week if he wants it.  I will be leaving here even earlier than normal for he wants to be able to arrive around 11 and get done and out of there and back to the truck stop where he parks.  If he gets there too late on a friday, all the spots will be taken.  

One of the tractor dealers texted today - are you still looking or did you find something? Still looking. Told him what I need and said I really want a hoe attachment.  Yes, he replied, that will jack the price up, but I can get you that and all the other attachments you need and still keep it under 30k.  It all sounded good until he told me a 20 horsepower tractor.  That's not enough. It doesn't have the power I will need to move dirt around like I will need to.  The TMS dealer was quoting me 28 hp, which is much better. Actually, his first one was 42 HP, which sounded wonderful but the terms were too high. 

BTW, I could actually dig out a small pond in the stream out back with a machine like that.  Nothing huge, maybe 5,000 gallons.  Put some fish in it and see if they can thrive.  There is running water going through it mostly all year long with a few stints in the summer where it either is drying up or it's just going underground.  

Well enough.  I am getting up at 5:30 am tomorrow, but I'm just going straight out of here instead of sitting for a little bit to drink some coffee.  Get up there maybe half an hour earlier to accommodate for the other driver who so graciously let me step ahead of him.  

I haven't watched the news at all today, just glanced at some headlines but decided I didn't want any part of that.  News mostly sucks nowadays, negativity times negativity.  I know what the left world thinks about Trump, I know Biden has an issue telling the truth or that AOC mouths off a bunch of stuff that she doesn't even understand is false, etc.  Put something new in there that will catch my attention? There is a whole, big wide world out there, Trump, Biden and politicians in general are not the only newsworthy things going on?      

 Thursday - semi early

On the day that I could  sleep in if I wanted to, of course I wake up early and can't get back to sleep.  Tuesday and Wednesday?  Woke up in a fog, had a headache all day from getting my sleep interrupted by the alarm and having to go to work early.

Today is different. I have the late load and I'm not really unhappy about that. I've been doing early loads for many moons in a row and tho it's nice getting done early, I don't particularly like that alarm going off in my ears that early in the morning.  I have an hour and 45 minutes before I have to leave, italics for I don't really have to leave that early, I just want to get things started. You never know how long you may have to wait at the washout at that time of day.  

Paycheck came in yesterday, of which I started to write a blog entry but was too tired to finish it so it will sit in the halls of "drafts" along with a thousand other entries I either never finished or forgot to post, lmao.  It was good.  The paycheck that is.  It was around where I wanted and needed it to be.  If I could get a paycheck like that every time or most every time, I would be sitting pretty in a few months, even if there are going to be ridiculously high electric bills at the park.  I am not going to want to do this double-work-life forever, for now it's a necessary - I won't call it evil, I am thinking in different terms nowadays as I try to get myself together with the Lord and not cave to the throes of fleshful thinking in terms of worldliness and anything but heavenly thoughts.  A blessing in disguise? I'm 8 months into working for that company and it hasn't been a joy ride by any stretch of anyone's imagination, at all, nilch, nada, nein, no thank you. 

Regardless, the money is necessary to pay my bills and try to get ahead to be able to go ahead and start park expansion.  I have no idea how much fixing that truck is going to cost, but I'll assume it's not going to be more than a grand and I'm just considering it "the cost of doing business" and a write-off.  In fact, the man hasn't responded to me since I affirmed I would pay for the damage the mower caused, that doesn't mean he isn't going to do anything about getting it fixed, simply that he hasn't gotten around to even reading my reply to him yet.  I dont need the kind of negative review I would receive from "this park put a small dent in my brand new pickup and refused to fix it", there are ugly reviews I can deal with, that isn't one of them.  People see that and they see "unethical business, steer clear".  I wouldn't have considered not fixing it anyway, but my mind tends to wander down all the rabbit trails of "what ifs".  

So the train horns on the truck.  I'm afraid I take far too much pleasure in dealing it back to idiots on the highways cutting me off, slamming on their brakes and driving like jackasses for no more apparent reason than their stupidity or perhaps they are playing chicken, let's see what it feels like to get run over by a fully loaded semi? And when my truck is fully loaded, we are talking the real deal at near 80,000 pounds.  Not every truck running down the road weighs that much, they like to talk like all trucks are at capacity but in reality, much of it is not.  So yesterday, driving back from Gurdon, this person comes flying around me, gets in front of me and I just let that one go.  Then another one, then another one. It was the third one that really cut me off to the point I couldn't even see the highway in front of me. That is a big-time cutoff. 

I didn't honk the horn or do anything, a bit irritated at the ridiculousness of it, what is the point of driving like that and taking those kinds of risks? I think some drivers out there are just plain stupid.  Others are playing on their phones or otherwise distracted, yes, but that doesn't account for people who are fully aware of what they are doing.....and do it anyway.

Well, we get off that highway, onto a short loop and onto 59. I get over in the passing lane immediately, there is a light ahead and the right lane always fills up.  No, the truck wasn't loaded, don't want to mislead on this,  I can get back up to speed quite fast when empty and already moving.  So it was, I got up to the speed limit and then a few, got past an oversized load truck that was going very slow  and then got back over into the right lane. 

I had, in that action, moved past this threesome of cars that also got off on that exit. So what does this threesome do?  The lead car passes, starts to get off in the center lane, then gets back into the left lane, than cuts over in front  of me.  Yup, you guessed it: the other 2 did the same exact thing and yes, the cutoff was severe enough that I got over into the passing lane, got right up beside the 2 trailing cars and hit the train horn switch.  And these horns aren't those fake train horns they sell at auto zones and stuff, these are actual train horns and yes, they are  very loud. I mean, if my passenger side window is open when I hit the switch, the noise is deafening.  

Hands start popping out windows, lmao.  Other drivers are laughing, I'm assuming they had seen what these "drivers" had done and thought the whole thing amusing.  I felt no small sense of "there, gotcha"...until this morning, when I realized that this is extremely childish behavior on my part.  At least, that's what I'm thinking and also the Lord "Uhh, we need to have a discussion" I am sort of feeling in my inner man. Like, why don't you just let it go?  I dunno, sometimes I get angry in traffic. Not road rage or revengeful type of angry, such as wanting to do physical harm, but just mad that people take such ridiculous actions in front of my truck and cause me to have to severally smash the brake pedal in hopes I don't rear end them.  You try to predict this stuff in advance, sort of the 6th sense of things. There are times, however, there isn't any forewarning. A person pops out in front of you that you just didn't expect they would take such a risky move in traffic.

So, maybe I'll go get some more counselling. I did it in my 30's, I think it was, it was very helpful.  This isn't psycho stuff, it's just a person that helps you walk through your thought processes and takes you back as far as it needs to go in your life to help you understand why you do or think some of the things that you do.  Then they make you do exercises in your daily life, such as in traffic, when something happens, you do whatever they suggest. Take a deep breath, do something different.  I might do it, I have lots of things I would like to sort out in my mind that seem to impact my life.  I wouldn't mind a business mentor as well. Don't know where you would find such a person, don't care about their age or gender, if they are a successful business person and know what they're doing? That's what I need.  I make decisions based on my limited knowledge of how business works and some of those decisions are definitive fails.  Really, a college course for business degree would be helpful, I'm thinking I'm getting a little old to go to college.

There are plenty of them around here tho.  An ever expanding Baptist university, they are taking over downtown, so to speak, have acquired several old buildings and ramping up their sports program to become more nationally recognized.  There is another mostly black college that is also a nationally recognized college and there is a TSTC, Texas state college.  I don't think that one would teach what I need and I don't think the black college would necessarily welcome me with open arms, the baptist university, however, that might be interesting.  I would imagine they have such courses?  

Why discuss this? Because it's on my mind.  I just really have no business experience beyond what I have been learning in the last couple of years with this RV park.  I feel like I'm at a huge disadvantage.  I mean, I know about supply-demand and how it works to be competitive with the other parks in the area.  To an extent.  I am limited in my amenities and that is a real disadvantage there.  It would take a truckload of money to install what I would need to bring in local money, an event center, large building with a full kitchen and probably a mini bar (event planners bring their own alcohol and servers of course, I want nothing to do with that, just make it available) to have weddings and giant parties and such.  I have plenty of room at the front of the property for just such a thing.  

I don't have plenty of money to afford that, tho, I just keep wishing I would have been able to start this venture like even 10 years ago, if not longer.  Where would this business venture be right now if I had that much time behind me and ever thinking about expansion, plus doing it when the cost of everything wasn't so high? 10 years ago I could have built 30 spaces for the cost of what these 14 cost me now.  

Anyway, apparently grandma is sick and she isn't coming tomorrow for the kids.  The best laid plans of men....that means we are probably not going to go to 6 Flags. I am considering offering to take them and the 2 adults can still do their thing while I deal with the kids. I don't remember if 6 flags has a ride area for little kids, but I'm sure I can find out by looking it up.  

Yup, if you have read this blog for any length of time, you probably expected me to pause here and look it up. Turns out they have numerous rides for kids that age.  I don't mind taking them there, I don't really feel like getting on all of these crazy rides atm anyway. In fact, I feel like this unexpected "she's not coming" is a lifeline.  I don't have to go. I wanted to go, but i didn't want to go, if that makes any sense.  It won't be cheap, but it's only one day so spending several hundred on a very rare outing isn't really out of the question.  I haven't been on a vacation in a while...I mean, I went to mom's house last year, that was the last time I was on a "vacation" and that wasn't really vacation stuff. It was seeing mom, visiting friends, etc.  

Yes, it's going to cost me going to AZ, or is it? I will be able to get free airfare with my credit card points, I don't have to pay for hotels and the only ride I will need is from the airport to my mom's house. About a $40-$50 uber ride. It's a long way from the airport to where my mother lives, lol, the Phoenix metro area is spread out, what 100 miles from east to west?  Maybe a little less  than that, but it gives you the picture, it's a massive, sprawling affair that I sincerely do not miss. I  do miss the mountains, I don't miss the "Valley of the Sun". 

Ok, it's going to cost me fuel driving that pickup home and I will spend the night in a hotel somewhere, I won't drive 1,300 plus miles straight through.  I'm not going to get a truck, that is an after-effect of going to see mom.  And friends.  One of which I have an open invitation with.  He's still off on a land of - grief, confusion, whatever you want to call it with his wife having passed away.  That was a few years ago, she had cancer that they were going to begin treating with chemo, but then she got Covid. If you remember, people that had cancer and then got Covid were at a high level of risk of death.  Like, extremely much so.  They were married almost 3 decades and were truly in love with each other, he has given up on life to some extent and is drinking heavily on most days.   I get it, I hope he can find a path through all of that.  Like, you don't really care if you live or die, your life as you know it has been stripped of you.  He may still be in depression and obviously alcohol isn't helping with that at all.  But I can't judge him and I won't, it's a hard place he's in right now.  

Anyway, I just texted Taylor with my option of just taking the kids.  We can go separately as we were going to do anyway. They have other things they are going to do over there as a couple, nothing I need to be involved with lol.  It was just a day trip, maybe going on to 2 days.  Monday would be back to work, but that could be worked out with taking them to daycare if they were planning on spilling it over into next week.  I can take them to daycare, pick them up when I get off work which is well before daycare closing time, I have first run Monday so that makes it easier.  I dunno if they'll even want to do this at all, but it's at least an option.  Or, they can just stay home with me and we can go see movies or something while they go off to do what they had been planning to do.

I guess the point is, I'm not let down by this interruption to the plans and I have stuff I could do if we aren't going to go at all.  Like, stay home, do nothing and enjoy a staycation.  Or, if everyone leaves somehow, go find my favorite hotel, they have one in Shreveport and they have one in Tyler and spend a night enjoying nothingness in a place I love to just hang out at.  It's a bit pricey, but again, I don't do that much recreation stuff beyond a few trips to restaurants here and there.  It's because I work so much I just don't want to do anything else but come home, take care of whatever and do nothing.  

I feel like I'm going to have to do this trucking thing until at I at least turn 62, but I also have resolved in my mind that it may have to continue on to Medicare age at 65?  Retire, run the park, yes, but nothing else.  

This workamper has ideas of using the riding mower to chop down everything up front. I had similar ideas until the thing broke down. I have the parts, he was supposed to fix it but he hasn't.  I'll end up doing it at some point sooner or later.  It's just more work that needs to be done.  He was then contemplating doing it with the push mower, I'm not sure how that would even work out, however. Probably ruin the mower, but it would be a good tradeoff to getting that ugliness out of there.  There is real grass growing there now, it just needs all the junk growing up there, weeds, to be hacked down.  

My real concerns right now are, who's leaving and when?  I know the family is leaving, actually they have already left, they just haven't moved their trailer out of there .  They had gone 2 months without paying, they were supposed to leave weeks ago and wanted pro rated balance due.  I was fine with that until we hit and entire month past due and then I started pushing for my money.  I don't know what they are going to do with that trailer, but since they are leaving, I want it out of there so I can find someone else to take that spot and get it off of my mind.  I  assume the farmers are also leaving when the rent is due. I didn't tell them they had to leave, I told them they can't be going around accusing people of shooting them with government issues laser guns.

They completely stopped, of course, I wasn't playing.  I actually used the words cease and desist or get out of my park.  They will move on to another park, I am assuming, and start their laser conspiracy theory with someone else.  So, I have at least 2 spaces that will need filled and another that needs filled but i think I have a renter for that.  He is the brother of a friend that lives maybe 7 houses away.  She runs a restaurant here in town, I won't mention the name of it, but it's a national chain.  He goes to her house all the time for reasons i also won't specify here.  Anyway, he wants to move closer and my park is only 7 minutes away from her house.  Hopefully that pans out.  I just can't rent out the space until after this week, I have both open pull through lots rented for short stays.  

One thing that I am grateful for: I may not have business experience but I have ample experience dealing with renters via my house and renting out rooms.  I've had all kinds in there and this isn't any different when it comes to dealing with people on a face-to-face basis and telling them they can't do this or that. It's in my rules, you can't do this, please stop.  If they get offended and leave, shrugs shoulders. I am running a business and this particular business, people expect the rules to be abided by and if certain people don't, others want me to enforce them.  I neither like nor dislike confrontation, it's just a fact of life and especially in the rental business where people are living. 

What else? I dunno, I still have time before I need to leave here. If I end up getting to the plant to load too early, they'll just make me wait. Might as well wait at home.  

Well, the boy is up.  He's feeling better already and doesn't have a fever.  Apparently that's not the case with grandma.  I take that back, he still doesn't look very good.

And finally? The tractor.  I've all but sold myself on it.  Just finding the time to get there and look at it, discuss finances, sign on the dotted line and get this over with.  It's something I absolutely need and I get tired of renting machines every time I need one.  I could keep the driveway constantly maintained instead of having to wait for rains to pass.  It's in horrible shape, I just am not going to pay for more than one rental a month.  If I'm doing that, I might as well just buy one, right?  Fix up the driveway, get the pads started in the back and at least get them looking like, wow, I have this much done, might as well find the money and do the rest!  

See how that works? You set goals and you take whatever steps you can to fulfil them.  Once you get the ball rolling, well, there may be flat spots where the ball stops, just give it a good kick and get it started again. I just really want to get this done before I get much older.  The old bones tell me about it after a day of working over there doing physical labor.  If I get the tractor, then I'll plan the rest of the park, or at least the next 15 spaces.  I'm not sure how I want to do it, but it seems that I will have to move the doggy park somewhere else.  

It's a lot of measuring I need to do and I'm not fooling with that until I have something in hand that makes me say, well, I have this now I might as well do that.  So, I have a tractor, might as well get this planned out.  However, I don't need to plan anything out to clear that land out again.  I definitely have space for 15 more lots back there, probably more like 25.  Any more lots beyond that? Would have to go up front. Not anything I would imagine doing any time soon. It would take many truckloads of top soil being brought in to help level it out and then have to build retention walls and serious storm drainage. Talk a lot of money just in that stuff alone.  It's just too steep of a grade to consider putting in rv lots.  Now, I could do other stuff like tiny homes and just clear out space as needed, leveling it and putting up small retention walls.

I dunno, that's just not something I have the money for right now and my plan is going towards the rear of the park with more spots.  I have to get the business well established and bringing in minimum amounts of money per year before I can take out a huge loan.  A huge loan would pay for an event center, a pool, more spots, maybe some tiny home spots, etc.  They want 2 years of income that meets their minimum amount to be considered for say, half a million. And a business plan, would need an expert for that.  Property appraisal as well.  

Yeah, this is what I face when I start thinking expansion.  Or, the piece-meal, do it small bits at a time as i can afford it type of deal.  I'm thinking the latter, at least for now and get ramped up for the Interstate construction that will be starting sometime next year and the almost guaranteed business it can bring to my park - if I have the room for more trailers.

That's enough for now. Just being a bit chatty today.  Watching the news as the lunacy of what we call politics in Washington careens on.  Like a bunch of zoo animals running the show, they only know what they want and they don't care what they have to do to get it.  Power/money.  "The love of money is the root of all evil".  Yup.  Especially in Washington in the halls of Congress and the White House. We have a Trump presidency looming, if nothing  changes before November, it isn't likely Biden is going to win (and neither do I want him to).  Trump is controlling the Republican party right now and that isn't going to change until November. If he wins, 4 more years of it, if not, I would think others will have to start rising to the surface.  I don't despise Trump as all of these people calling him a Nazi, white supremecist and all the other nonsense like to call him. I do think he could do a better job with his demeanor, but, that's New York and he certainly fits that descriptor.  I'm positive leftists have more tricks up their sleeves, one wonder what an October surprise might look like.  

G'day

 Tuesday - late evening

The only thing that woke me up this morning was the motorcycle being fired up for James to take off to work.  My alarm was going off but there was no sound.  I was in a very deep sleep when the noise woke me up and my head was pounding.  I could have slept many more hours.  My head never really felt any better until maybe an hour ago, after 14 hours of feeling like this.  I've had this happen before so really didn't think anything of it....until...

The oldest boy's head hurts.  He is feeling very miserable and he has a sore throat.  I do not have a sore throat but I'm wondering if my pounding head is something more than just having had been awakened very wrong.  Not that I'm blaming James, it would have been the same with the alarm clock, it's the deep level of sleep I am referring to.  Others in the house are coughing, not feeling well....may not bode well for this weekend.  Or the kids going to grandma's house all sick.  I'm guessing grandma will take them anyway if the oldest isn't feeling better by the time they have to leave - in 2 days?  I think it's 2 days.

Meanwhile....I drive to Nacogdoches with my head like that, take a little snooze while waiting for the tanker to be cleaned up and then over to Lufkin to load.  I pull in the yard and I get a phone call.  Can you check the annual inspection sticker, we think it's out of date.  I didn't know what the date says on it, you can't read it. Those things never last that long before they become illegible.  

It's an OOS violation.  Out Of Service.  They catch you, they put it out of service and you ain't pulling that trailer until it's inspected again.  You can call someone out to do it on the road, but if there's something wrong that has to be repaired, you may be screwed.  Regardless, I have never thought of those inspections as the driver's responsibility. This is totally on the company you are driving for.  They keep records and obviously someone saw, finally even if 22 days after it had expired, that it needed done.  

It doesn't end there. I now remember the driver who was pulling this trailer saying he had gone to Love's but the wait was long so he didn't get it done.  In other words, they knew about it and this other driver knew about it but it didn't get done.  They told him to get it done so I guess they decided it was done and done.  This driver drove into this month over 2 weeks before he dumped that trailer at the washout and I ended up taking it.  He undoubtedly knew that the tires were low on tread and that one ore more of those tires were vibrating.

Anyway, I pulled the thing to the nearest Love's with a Speedco (shop).  Well, I got there and fueled first.  There were no trucks in the bays in the shop.  So I'm standing there fueling and I get this sinking feeling that if I don't get over there now, other trucks are going to show up and I will have to wait however long.  So, I finished fueling but left the truck parked at the fuel aisle and walked over there.  The tire guy that does the inspections wasn't busy, thankfully  It was only a couple of minutes later and another truck showed up, then another, then another, in 15 minutes time I think 5 of them appeared out of nowhere, just like magic. 

Waiting any longer to get in there would have cost me many more hours of waiting.  It's first come, first served at Love's.  I told them I needed the annual inspection and also said there is a vibration coming from one of the tires, please check them.  The only thing they came up with is that "all of the tires really should be replaced", but that only because it's getting near the minimum tread depth.  You can take trailer tires down to 2/32'ds.  Most of them on there are at 3/32's. They are legal, but it will be soon and they won't be legal.  

I already knew what our shop would say and yup, I was right: You can bring it up here and we'll put tires on it.....yeah, just what I want to do, waste 3-4 hours for something I could have done right here, right now and get it over with and have it done maybe in another hour or so.  Obviously I didn't go up there today, but the trailer passed the inspection so I didn't have to worry about the CMV inspection station right up the road that was, btw, doing inspections.  They had several trucks in there when i drove by, but they had shut off the lights to force you to pull in and I was very glad of that, regardless of the status of the inspection on the truck or the trailer. 

Another thing today was these people that showed up for a 3 day stay. They called saying they were there, where do they go? I told them take lot 1, which is the biggest and nicest lot in the park. Ok, thanks! They pulled in there, I was watching them on the camera.  Oddly, they did not get out.  I sat there and watched for a few minutes and just gave up on it. I would check back later. Instead, they called. Well, we aren't really that far from home so we're just going to drive on through.  Talking as if they were only staying one night and leaving in the morning, but acknowledging that they reserved 3 nights and go ahead and keep the 1st day that they paid for.  I asked them if there was something wrong with the park? Ohh noooo, we just want to go home.  

Ok, they might be telling the truth, but I found that odd considering they were a 3 day stay.  Regardless, I did, indeed, issue them a refund for the first night excepting what I am charged by the CC company and the reservation system.  I could always use the money, obviously, but I can also use the word of mouth people spread around. Oh, well we showed up there, but we decided to go home. They issued us a refund anyway!  Oh, we'll keep that place in mind if we are traveling through and need to stop overnight! 

Stuff like that.  Some things I won't refund, especially in a hostile situation where a person is causing trouble, read: Mark, the drunk.  I don't despise him for being a drunk, I was disgusted by him for his constant vulgarity and vile, foul behavior.  

I haven't heard back from the man whose truck was damaged. I'm sure I will sooner or later and I'm sure I will be eating that bill.  C'est la vie.  And shrugs shoulders while I'm at it. No sense in crying over spilt milk, the money is going to go away and I will give it a hug on the way out.  So to speak.  Nice having you for a little while, c'ya later!

I have come to an agreement with the man that he simply isn't going to be mowing in between the trailers.  He can mow everything else, of which there is plenty to do.  Or, he can go find a job and pay for their space or..they can go find another place to live. Up to them.  

The tent people actually got their space rent caught up. I was amazed by that, but then again, I haven't exactly let them on to believe that I am a softie. They are certainly consuming my resources.  The boy is much more respectful now than he was. I call him a boy, he's actually 19.  The lady is working somewhere, I am not going to even begin to entertain them moving into that coach until I have a long conversation with the lady.  In fact, it would be better, in my view, if they were to find an apartment somewhere.  Or perhaps the local housing authority, they have public housing tho the place always looks full when I drive by there.  

Or perhaps, the 19 year old can go find a job, or at least go to school, do something besides hanging out in the trees all day long.  They are hardly coming into the laundry room now for I got stern with them about making it their second - or first - home.  

Anyway, it's getting late.  I am wondering if I am coming down with something. I dunno, I don't feel bad and the head pain has all but gone away now.  But, I do feel some drainage going down the back of my throat.....Pop some vitamins and minerals at least?  And what's the OTC stuff you can buy at the first sign of a cold or flu? I can't remember the name of it.  

Other things going on in my mind if nowhere else, but I think I am going to go to sleep a few minutes early tonight.

 Monday - late evening

Sunday loading went by very fast and today offloading was the same.  I was home before 1 pm today, that's pretty much a record considering going to Gurdon.  Tomorrow is more of the same, load and then Thursday, load again, get done on Friday and then the weekend off.  Unfortunately, it's a late load on Thursday and Friday, I was hoping to get off early to get the weekend started early.

As it stands, I had sent a regular return visitor a note that I had charged his card for the remaining balance.  He hadn't checked his mail until after he left, sent me a pic of his brand new truck...and where a rock hit it. 

It told this dude...I told him: do not mow near vehicles. Stay AWAY from vehicles.  That's easily $500 down the drain, maybe more. They'll have to fix the damage -it's small nothing huge and easily repairable, but they'll want to repaint that entire panel.  

I will admit I got mad that this guy for not following my directions. HE has NO money. "Well, I apologized, we shook hands and that was that".  Uhh, no, dude, he is asking me to pay for it, rightfully so.  "Well he didn't nothing like that to me about it".  Of course he didn't, I replied, you are just a worker, he's going to discuss the financials with the owner/management.  He couldn't understand this, he thought that a handshake was the end of it.

You damage a person's vehicle, you have to pay to fix it.  He did admit to it, at least, but he didn't bother to tell me about it, albeit it was just that morning that the encounter with the customer had occurred, the customer had already left.  I dunno if I'll ever see that guy in my park again? I replied to his email I would pay for the damages regardless of cost. No way to run a business in damaging people's stuff and then reneging on fixing it.

I got all over the worker's case.  Because I had asked him repeatedly, in no uncertain terms about keeping the height setting on the mower at it's highest position and stay away from vehicles.  

Whatever.  It got pretty loud.   

Anyway, yesterday I 'm sitting there in my vehicle near the laundry room waiting for a lady to show up.  She wanted a long term lot.  I didn't have any pull throughs available, which she wanted, those are both booked up this coming week for the 2 that are open.  So, here comes a trailer with an older couple driving.  I thought that strange, it was a younger sounding lady on the phone, I thought anyway.  So, I went up to them and was going to point to the back in lot and that I would be happy to help her get it backed in there.  

They looked at me funny.  Uhh, we're tired, worn out, we can't drive any more today, we need a place to stay.  That took a second to get past my perception bias - it's not what I was expecting to hear. Well, I'm assuming y'all just pulled in here looking for a lot and you're in luck.  They hand me cash and that was that. Today, when I got back, they were still there.  Handed me more cash, sure thing.

4 more days of work and then the weekend off. The kids will be gone by then and they will stay gone for 3 weeks.  I have no idea how that will work out, I doubt they will last that long, especially the youngest who will start missing his mommy badly.  I did not ask for this weekend off, but it worked out that way.  Saying this because of this proposed trip to Dallas and 6 Flags this weekend.  I dunno if I even feel like doing it, after all of this endless working I think I'd rather stay home, lay in bed and do nothing.  

But, I'll go, hopefully have a good time and it's just a day trip, or maybe stay overnight and go home.  Probably half the rides in that place I will not get on.  I want to be home early sunday if I do stay overnight so I can vegetate the entire day, there will be work on Monday and Monday comes early.  

Oh, forgot to add, Saturday night I slept like hell.  So Sunday, when all that stuff happened, I wasn't in a good mood to begin with.  I dunno what it is, some nights I just don't sleep, not because I don't want to.  Laying there awake all night long is miserable.  I slept ok last night at least.  My sleep app almost never gives me a "good" rating on my sleep, I tis either average or fair and a few times it says poor.  I was only wanting that app to see if I have sleep apnea since my sleep was on and off so much.  Average and fair are not good sleep grades according to that app lol. 

I figure next month I'll make a trip back to AZ.  Mom is going up to the mountains soon and up there for 2 weeks.  

And the grass problem, well that will end soon. It's starting to get hot again, that rye grass is going to die off and that bermuda grass I spread all over the place never took as far as I can tell. Like, not a single seed.  I'm thinking about just putting down landscaping rock in between the rv pads and call it good.  It would eliminate this endless rock problem. That is never going to go away for there are unending rocks in the soil and the rain keeps bringing them up. It's landscaping rock or possibly put down sod, but that's super expensive.  

I don't know what to do about that situation, so I will do nothing for now.  Just seems like a waste of money to dump all of that into such a thing.  I'm trying to save for expansion, not pay for people's truck repairs and sod or landscaping rock.  

Well enough. It is much later than I realized, going to bed soon. 

 Saturday - afternoon

It only took an hour to unload the truck.  It took a combined 25 minutes, however, to get security guards to the scales to weigh the truck in and out.  And the production floor supervisor was nowhere to be found in the plant.  I spent quite a bit of time walking around looking for him. He gets into the nuts and bolts of things and there is never any telling where he may be hiding out at. 

So, it was 2 hours in and out of there just because of the extraneous stuff beyond unloading the trailer itself.  

Anyway, there was a scheduling glitch made by the office in having 2 drivers loading tomorrow at the same time.  Afternoon.  We only found this out because we were talking about loading and things in general in a texting chat.  So, I called dispatch and informed them of the mistake and told them I would take the morning run since he wants the afternoon run (and I most certainly don't if I have any choice in the matter).  

That makes Sunday not so bad after all, hopefully anyway.  It is loading as well so as long as I can get someone over to the washout without wasting too much time, they generally get trucks loaded quickly on the weekends.  I could be back before 1:00 pm, which gives me most of the afternoon to hang out and do - nothing.  

As for today? The boys just left with friends and their parents to go to a splashpad 2 towns over.  Kind of a late start for that, it's already after 4, they left maybe 30 minutes ago.  Whatever. Next weekend is Dallas. 6 Flags to be precise.  The kids are leaving for 3 full weeks with their grandma to go to her house in Arkansas.  We were originally going to go to Las Vegas for a wedding, but that all fell through.  Taylor and James couldn't go for financial reasons and the couple getting married decided they couldn't go either and are taking a trip to Hot Spring in Arkansas instead.  

So, we decided to go to 6 flags. No airfare, I think 1 night's stay hotel for them and I'm just going for the day.  It's why I don't mind working this weekend, I'll get next weekend off.  I won't go on half the rides over there, tho, just saying.

I'm not afraid of the rides, my head just can't handle it.  I'll get off of one of those crazy things and sit around for a while waiting for my head to stop spinning.   I like my version of the fun rides, that doesn't include the superman ride and several others that get me feeling woozy. I informed the folks of such as well. You don't mind waiting around? Nope.  I'll find something to do.  

Actually, I don't even know if I want to go.  Guess I'll make that decision getting closer to this weekend. I have no reservations for anything and it only worked out that I have next weekend off, I didn't ask for it off.  I am looking to go to AZ soon and I want time off for that, not for going to Dallas.  

The workamper was busy mowing and weedeating today.  It is looking good yet again.  It doesn't take long when it's raining as much as it is out here for the grass to grow exponentially. 

I'm tired.  Woke up in the middle of the night and took hours to get back to sleep. Time for a nap.  

 I made it through 3 weigh stations today without being pulled over and yes, they were out in force. This was the final day of the blitz. The station in Texas had something like 8 trooper cruisers in there (you never see more than maybe 4 and that would be considered a large presence in itself) and a bunch of state employees.  I saw 2 men getting on creepers and sliding underneath trucks.  I was so glad that they were busy already.  I just slowly cruised over the scale at their designated 5 mph and never got red lighted, kept on going.

On I-30 eastbound, it was crazy. The entire parking lot filled with trucks being inspected, the Arkansas troopers doing the inspections and numerous tire and repair trucks replacing tires and doing repairs.  

Coming back on the west bound side, they had tents out there. Done gone crazy with this stuff, but they do it every year.  

 At the plant?  There was no emergency.  There was on earlier in the week but that had obviously been relieved. Both of their giant tanks were 3/4 full, that is a LOT of glue.  I drained my tank in and there was still room for another truck load in there and the other one about a truckload and a half.  That's it.  So, making me go down and load last night was really a waste of time, at least from this emergency standpoint.  I was in and out of there in about an hour and a half, not bad considering that's weighing in, going to the shack, hooking up, finding someone to sign off on the paperwork, draining the tank and reverse.  

The tent people approached me when I got back today, we really want to buy that motor coach!  I looked at him for a second and said, y'all aren't even keeping up with paying $10 per day to camp here, what would make you think I would believe you can pay for the coach and lot rent?  The mother got a job. I was told that last week, I haven't seen her but once on one of the notifications from the inside camera in the laundry room.  Maybe she is working, don't know where, I have no idea how she's getting to work or how much she's making. All of those questions and more would have to be answered before I would consider it. The up side to it is I wouldn't have to do anything to the coach. They want to "rent to own", which I won't do, I'll just flat out sell it on payments (that way I'm not responsible to repair anything).  

If you do rent to own, you are on the hook for anything that breaks, I thought of this before I rented to the tent lady that skipped out on me, took her money and ran. What pathetic people and liars too. Don't get me started on the tent lady and all the promises of paying me back....

Not to mention I don't have a place for that thing. I won't put it in the regular RV spaces.  I could run another electrical line to it somewhere out back there if I do the trenching project with the extra electrical panel, but that's electric only.  I wouldn't let them have water in the thing for there is definitely not going to be another sewer line put on the septic system. It is at or even beyond capacity.  

Anyway, not a terrible day today.  I didn't have to get up super-early, couldn't get on the block before 8:36 am so I got up at 7:30 instead of 5:30, which is what I will be doing tomorrow morning.  It's been raining all afternoon - both up there at the plant and here at home.  It started raining on me as soon as I hooked up the delivery hose to the trailer.  

We all went to the youngest - concert I guess? - the entire 1st grade class got up on stage and sang several songs that they had obviously practiced and did quite well at considering they are 7 year olds.  The workamper seems to only want to clean up stuff and cut grass. I'm not balking at that, but soon there won't be that much grass to cut and I'm going to want him doing other things.  Remains to be seen if he'll do them.   I could keep him eternally busy over there with all kinds of different projects.  

 Thursday - 8:00 am

Funny how times flies when you don't want it to and vice-versa.  I got up this morning at 7:30, took a shower, sitting here watching some news and watching pro-Hamas (they claim pro-Palestinian but we all know the truth behind it) "agitators" discussing their lawlessness on a different news outlet that takes you into a bit closer, behind the scenes reporting.  

However, I don't have much time for that this morning neither do I want to waste a perfectly good morning watching people who hate America speak of their disgust for our beloved nation.  If this place sucks so bad, find another nation more fitting for you.  Perhaps go live on the Gaza strip.  China? Russia? Perhaps NK would fit you?  How about Venezuela, Cuba and other nations where starvation/food deficiencies are the norm?

Well, anyway, it's about a half hour off before I can get on the HOS clock for driving.  Today is the last day of the nationwide blitz to catch drivers, basically, hand them tickets, put them out of service, give them and their respective companies CSA points and have law enforcement tout the "success" of how many people they "caught".  

Whatever.  I am not anti-police, I am anti-disrespect coming from LEO's who do commercial enforcement who take pride in making life miserable for the people that bring the food to your table, not to mention the lumber to build your house, furniture, most all household goods, gasoline, etc. Some people need to be stopped and put out of trucking, granted.  It's the way they treat people is what I get disgusted about. If you are being totally respectful to them even when they pull you over only because they want to do an inspection and you have done nothing wrong and they are treating you disrespectfully for no reason, well, it lends to a certain level of disgust that builds up over the years.

I try not to go there, I really do, many of them are not that way, it's the bad apples, of which there are plenty, that make it a toxic atmosphere for everyone.  I have 1 CMV Inspection station to go through or around depending on if it's open and 2 weigh stations as well, one of which is open 24 hours, almost never closed and if they are open, there are Highway Police out there doing inspections, the other the same.  They don't ever stop doing inspections at many of those place regardless of the 3 day blitz.

Now, I don't much care for truckers who are drinking and driving, either.  Nor do I care for truckers taking controlled substances such as meth, crack, cocaine, whatever while they are driving. Or any time for that matter.  My drug consuming days were over 41 years ago.  

I don't know, I was just glad the trooper waved me through last night.  I wanted to go home, not sit around wasting time for an inspection on a truck that has been in the shop regularly for ac problems but also inspected for any other issues.  I wonder how my company feels about paying that much money to fix that AC system and now find out it isn't fixed?  I also wonder if they are done with it, like, no more shop visits. It works half the time and not the other half. In the heat, the other half is a particular problem as it warms up quickly inside of that truck after the ac stops working.  Pretty miserable, basically.  

So what next?  I want the tractor now.  I would like one with a hoe attachment, but that might be off the table for the cost.  Still, I keep reading about people that are building their own parks and yes, that attachment is absolutely necessary. It's that or have to go rent endlessly a mini-ex.  

I also am wondering about my job.  This company needs to get it's act together, but it obviously isn't going to. To let a situation degrade to the point that the customer is getting upset because they are running out of the product we supply them and probably considering using another company? Unthinkable.  Do what you have to to make them happy.  Don't just give them excuses - well we have 3 trucks broken down. So go rent some damn trucks.  When my manager told me the plant is sending a complaint to their main headquarters, that kind of shook me a little. Not too much, I can always find another job I guess.  I just figure my next check coming up should be very good and if it could stay that way, I would be ok with this job as long as they figure out what is wrong with that ac system.  

I'm basically basing making a tractor payment off of having a trucking job.  Not relying on park income. 

The family is allegedly moving out tomorrow, that will leave several open spaces. I haven't run any more ads, I intend on getting their space spruced up nicely after they're gone, take some pics of it and do an ad blitz for at least a week.  Probably ear mark $100 or more towards the ad and get the word out there. Also fill up the local marketplace on FB with ads.  Most of the selling groups allow it, some don't, oh well.

Well, that's it for now. My time is up. Time to go make a thermos full of coffee, make a couple of sandwiches and get out of here.

G'day

 Wednesday-late

It was relatively quick, driving back to the house for fresh clothing, over to the park to hook up the trailer, down to the washout.  The worker was still there, amazingly, who got up on top of the trailer I was hooking up to after dropping the dirty trailer.  Well, there's some flakes in there.  So, I pulled the trailer over to the washout area and he quickly sprayed that stuff out of there. 

Over to the plant, the got me in quickly and loaded it very fast.  Amazingly fast, indeed, I wasn't in that plant for even an hour.  Out of there, I opted against fueling, have enough to make to a Love's tomorrow morning in Domino.  However. 

The CMV Inspection Station was open.  I marveled at 3 trucks who just blew by it.  I decided to do no such thing.  Those lights are unmistakable, you can't just think, well that isn't for me!  I pulled in there and there was a Trooper sitting on a stool right next to where you drive through it.  He was looking at the weight as I drove axles over the scale.  He finally gave me the thumbs up and let me pass through.  

I was dreading having him do an inspection. Not because I fear he would find something wrong, but because of the hour of the night, being detained for an hour would just blow tomorrow up.  I was so relieved when he gave me the signal to keep on going.  It wasn't shocking to see a Trooper had pulled one of those trucks that blasted by the station over.  I don't know what the fine is, but whatever it is, it isn't good.  

So, I have to take a mandatory 10 hour rest break.  I will be able to depart the Park at around 8:50 am.  Not bad, actually, not for having had been out late.  You see, the whole scenario had changed quite a lot from the post I put up earlier.

Another truck had been repaired and was on the road.  They sent him to fetch the trailer of the other truck that is still broken down in Shreveport.  I'm not sure if he was to load tonight and take it up to Gurdon or what.  The other driver was retrieved by the office employee.  He still hadn't made it to Nac - neither of them did - by the time I went there and no one had been in to load before me.  So they must have still been driving down there.  But, the driver in Shreveport was to deliver the loaded trailer from the washout yard tonight instead of me, I was redirected to drop the dirty trailer, pick up one that was cleaned, load, go back to my place and deliver tomorrow.

You weren't going to get any guff out of me for that decision. It meant going home tonight for sure and much earlier than driving clear up to Gurdon, unloading and then who knows what, drive home? Not enough hours? Too tired?  Probably the "too tired" part.  

So why am I awake and blogging no less? Cause I have that road buzz going, I'm wide awake tho I've been sitting here about 15 minutes and sleepiness is starting to creep up on me.  It is a waste of time to try and go directly to sleep, it won't happen. I'd rather do something that will start getting me into sleep mode.

Anyway, I am done for the day and yes, after I brush my teeth and get ready for bed, I should be able to zonk out quickly.  

 Wednesday - 1:00 pm

After being told it would be done last night, then "around 9 am", then noon, we are now getting well past the noon hour and going into the afternoon hours.  My company has been calling this place but that isn't going to help anything. My manager just called yet again, he has no one else to move loads besides a driver with his truck broken down in Shreveport. They are sending an office worker to pick him up, bring him up there to Eldo, get that old pile of junk truck, drive it down to Lufkin to pick up a load and deliver it tonight. 

There are no OTR drivers in the area.  I am pretty much being forced to get to Nac, get that loaded trailer and deliver it tonight regardless.  Manager is saying this is how we "lose lanes", lanes being contracts with companies to deliver whatever products.  If they lose this lane, I'm out of a job here.  I never refused anyway, I just told him I'd call him whenever they get me rolling out of this place. But, the longer these people keep me here, obviously, the later into the night it's going to be to get this done.

It's times like these the company would be well served to find an outside company or Owner operators and pay them to do some temporary work rather than lose a contract.  But, that's me and my view of it, the previous company I worked for did just that. The other option is just rent a couple of trucks temporarily, I don't understand these people's thinking but it does go to advance my thoughts about this company: They are broke and don't have any money..and who knows if they are on the verge of bankruptcy/insolvency?  

I sympathize with them, I'll do what I can but I am not exactly happy about it.  I am a truck driver, sort of. I kind of departed with the "drive all night and do whatever it takes" philosophy after I got out of it for a year. Your eyes are opened to the abuses of the trucking industry and how they don't give a damn about your personal life or if you even get to have one.  It's not like I'm raking in the dough here and have been given the lime life for the time I've spent working here.  

So, whatever.  These tent people are on the same track as the previous tent lady:  We like the camper (motor coach) and we want to buy it. But it with what money?  They must think the thing is going for pennies on the dollar. I am not desperate and I won't sell it for less than I have in it. Otherwise, it can sit until I get to it.  I certainly didn't offer the thing to them, not at all.  

I'm just getting a little cranky because I've sat here 2 and a half days and no end to it in sight. And when it does end, I will have to drive until however late in the morning to keep the plant workers - working.  They can't make plywood without the glue.  Just isn't a happening event. But as I have stated, this company hasn't done me any favors, not at all. I have no idea how much glue is left in those giant tanks but it must be getting close to empty for the kinds of calls I'm getting and the desperation.  

If I left right now, I could be back up there in ... 6-1/2 to 7 hours, there is a pre-loaded trailer but it's sitting clear down in Nacogdoches, 2-1/2 hours from here not including stopping at my park for the empty and stopping at home for clean clothes, a thermos of coffee, cold water and a couple of sandwiches.  I don't need a shower, I got one at the hotel this morning.  

And IF all of that happens today, I can expect no less of a rat race tomorrow.  It was Saturday I was up there and both tanks were full, at least. But, it's 4 days later and very few loads have been getting up there.  It doesn't help that the driver trainer won't work today.  He said he "can't do it", with no explanation.  He might have legitimate reasons not to do it, at the same time, he might want to consider saving his job if he likes this dedicated run.  

All I can say is I have been looking. Haven't found anything particularly appealing, but I have definitely been looking at other jobs available in the area. 

Well I don't know what else to say here. I'm just contemplating the prospect of a very late night. Wouldn't have been that bad if they had had this truck done this morning at 9 when they said it would be done.

 The service director walked in about an hour before their closing time with a look on his face: I'm sorry but I don't think we're going to be able to finish it today.  He was probably expecting me to get upset.  I'm sure my face lit up and I was in all gleeful land with a wee bit of exuberance and gratefulness that I was all-of-a-sudden not having to drive all night long.  

I informed him of such.  He was kind of on the fence about it until I told him how happy I was to hear that news.  No, you don't have to finish it today if you can't.  I'm not telling you what to do, obviously, but I was facing driving all night long and now I don't have to!  He smiled real big once I told him all of that and said ok!  He estimated tomorrow mid morning the truck would be done. 

I spent another over  6 hours sitting in that little driver's lounge today and no, I was not the only one in there.  There were 6 of us at one point.  If they would have told me this morning that it would be all day, I would have just stayed here and paid for it myself if I had to.  The man knew about it, but he doesn't answer the incoming calls phone.  

Lol, I was going to do laundry, I only came prepared for one night's worth of clothing.  So, the desk sells laundry soap  Is there a coin dispenser up there where the machines are? Yes.  So, I go to my room, get my clothes and go to the laundry room. No coin dispensers.  I go down to the desk, I need some quarters.  

I'm sorry sir, we don't have any here.  Blank look back at her. First she told me there is a coin dispenser up there and now they don't have any cash in a drawer?  You can go to a convenience store!  Ma'am, I'm on foot.  There are no convenience stores around here.  She just shrugged her shoulders and dispensed with me, that was that and nothing she could do.  I have 5 quarters on me, not enough to even start the washing machine.  Whatever. Not like it's days before I get home, I'm not walking to the nearest convenience store which is at least a half mile away. There are restaurants, I don't know if they'll sell me some quarters.  

If they even have any.  I think we're heading to a cashless society....

 So, they're telling me if it's done today, it won't be until they close.  Didn't care, really, just figured home later than I want to be but no big deal.  

Fast forward.  Dispatch calls.  How's it going with your truck? Well, they don't know if it's going to be finished today, but if it is, it's not going to be until closing time at 6.

Well, can you load today? What kind of question is that, I'm thinking.  It's an hour and twenty minutes to my park.  Hook the trailer and then an hour and 35 minutes to the washout, where there would allegedly be a cleaned out trailer for me.  Drop my trailer and pick that one up.  35 minutes to the plant in Lufkin.  An hour MINIMUM at the plant, could be much longer, who knows?  2 hours including fueling going back to my park. 

You're talking 1 am at the minimum and probably much later, more like 2 or 3 with all the trailer hooking and dropping plus loading before the "day" is over.  And if I am too tired to drive back to the park, where am I going to park overnight? It's guaranteed that both Love's and the Pilot parking lots will be completely full and all "creative" parking will be taken as well.  I guess I could drive to the washout for the night, they don't care if we park there and I wouldn't have to fight for a parking spot.  35 minute drive instead of 1 hour 45 minutes in the dark, late at night, sleepy and not wanting to drive.  

Then, it would be straight to Gurdon tomorrow, no stopping at home until I get back from delivering.  

You see, now I'm hoping they will not be finished with my truck today.  Like, the man said "my goal is to get your truck finished, I'll let you know in a while whether you're going to have to get another hotel".  Yes, please.  If I see him again any time soon, it's going to be "well now I don't care if you don't get it done considering the alternative".  It's an hour and 45 minutes until closing.  

I guess I better take a good long nap in case I have to do all of this night driving, for they are not going to let me out of it unless I can't leave here.  No rush, please! lol

I get the feeling it won't work out that way.  I get the feeling this is going to be an extraordinarily long day and get over it, deal with it, get it done and over with.  At least the AC in the truck will be fixed?  That would be a good thing.  

I dunno, but I didn't sign up for late night driving.  I just don't want to do that anymore.  I get sleepy and I have to fight to stay awake, I don't care how rested I am, it just does that.  

Watching hundreds of air crash episodes both they Mayday version, other versions, watching videos of Mentour Pilot and others, they discuss at time circadian rhythms and how it can affect your performance if you are trying to fly - or drive in this case - at a time of the night when you are normally or should be sleeping.  

Whatever. Nothing new to me, but I find the older I'm getting the less I want to stay up late.  10 pm is about as late as I like to stay up, going to bed at 9 is better.  But, that's also considering getting up at 5:30 am.  

Ok, well I'm going to try and take a nap.  It's the only thing I can do right now to help mitigate what is probably coming at me tonight.  

 Tuesday semi-early

I guess I never posted the entry I made yesterday, lol.  

The wait was as long if not longer than I expected after arriving up here and yes, I am glad I brought a change of clothes and my laptop.  I waited 5 hours before a man came in and informed me the evaporator is bad (I suspected this all along) and because it had been running in this condition, it also ruined the compressor.  I immediately thought at least 3-4 grand worth of repairs.  Well whoopty doo.  If they had taken this thing into a shop much sooner, they wouldn't have had to replace the ac compressor.  

I start contacting people.  Well, they have to make a decision, I am told.  

It was 3 hours later and they had made their decision to go ahead and fix it. 3 hours.  I called my manager and asked him what was going on?  He said that they wanted me to start driving that pile of junk that I was in last time I had the truck in their shop.  I had told him after driving it I would never drive that truck again, and I meant that sincerely, fully, wholeheartedly.  

So, Oregon - it's where the head honchos are - were arguing back and forth with him.  He simply told him that I had adamantly stated I wouldn't drive that truck, end of story.  Well what was their beef with fixing it?  I wondered and said out loud but I knew the answer before he said it: they're too cheap to want to spend that kind of money simply on comforts for drivers.  He said: it's 5 grand and they didn't want to spend that kind of money.  Yeah, 5 grand on a truck repair is nothing in the trucking industry. It's like a speck of dust comparatively speaking.  It doesn't make sense, but much of what this company does doesn't make sense excepting that if they are going broke and just not telling anyone about it.

It lends to the idea that this company is broke and barely scraping by.  I wonder if it's on the verge of bankruptcy or selling out cheap to some other, larger company such as KAG?  My truck is working for them, bringing in revenues, lots of it, or is it?  Who knows what their profit margins are on any given load.  Not my problem, if the company fails, it fails and I will be looking for another job. It certainly won't be shocking to me if they come along some day sooner or later and say you're out of a job, the company is shutting down. In case you haven't noticed, trucking companies large and small have been shutting down all over the place.  It's a hostile market atm.  

The conversation must have come to the point that it's either keep him or lose him, up to you, but if you want to keep him, fix the truck.  Because my manager knows I will not stick around.  There's plenty of companies with much newer equipment that doesn't break down every time you sneeze at it.  Or look at it funny.  Or touch it incorrectly.

So, they decided to fix it, but the evaporator has to be ordered.  If you don't remember, I have been calling it on this problem being the evaporator for months now.  The mechanics said they would look at the evaporator, they didn't. They didn't want to be bothered with having to do that much work to be able to access it.  I wasted all of that time going in and out of that yard and switching trucks and such for no good reason and the compressor, which costs thousands of dollars to install wouldn't have gone out.  This is all on this company.

I ended up in a Comfort Suites. Not great, not bad. At least the carpet isn't nasty and the bathroom is ok.  They have a good breakfast here for a place like this.  Nice cubed potatoes, sausage, eggs, good hot coffee. For free I'm not complaining. I was going to go to the Cracker Barrel some 200 feet away, but when I saw what they were serving here, I decided to can the idea of spending money on food and eat the free stuff.  Some hotels serve a cheap, not very good breakfast, that's basically what I was expecting here.  

I did eat the Ta Molly's (mexican food restaurant) for lunch yesterday. Very bland food, not good at all. I just ate it because I was hungry and that kept me full for the rest of the day.  I dunno why people think that place is so great. I should have just waited and went to the Texas Roadhouse right down the street. I haven't been treating this as a mini vacation thus far, so I'll just stick with that idea.  Unless I'm here another night.

You see, we're waiting on a part and tho they said it would be here today, who knows what time it might arrive? Or if it will even arrive at all? They didn't get the order in until late afternoon yesterday, I wonder if it was made in time?  I don't really want to spend another night up here or if I do, upgraded hotel.  I just found out that another driver is preloading for me and dropping the trailer at the washout.  He wasn't terribly happy about it, I don't blame him since he had made plans for his day off today.  Then again, he just took 5 days off last week.....I'll be happy not to have to washout even if I have to drive to it.  Drop and hook is a quick operation. 

So this Cohen debacle is going to get interesting.  They are predicting today, perhaps, for the defense team to pick his story apart.  Mostly, they are going to bring out all the lying he's done and even being convicted of lying.  The man could actually be telling the truth now but it won't matter.  Once it's established he's a "serial liar", I like to call it, his testimony cannot be believed by anyone.  Certainly, if I knew nothing about Cohen or Trump and hadn't been watching all of the news coverage for  years now and presented with the evidence the defense team is going to present, I wouldn't believe a single word the man says.  You wouldn't know where the truth begins and the lying ends, if there is any truth to it at all.  

This Bragg trial is even superseding the Israel/Hamas conflict.  Tho, there is plenty of coverage at the universities, including the bright ones walking out on their own graduation ceremony in "protest" and even one tearing up their diploma while stomping off the stage.  

Whatever.  The nation is a mess.  Atheists take the public stage and given microphones, declaring their views devoid of morals or ethics, attack Conservatives because most are god-fearing people.  Everything that is going on here with all of this wickedness is from the enemy of our souls, satan.  There is no other explanation for it.  His days are numbered, I can say that. How much longer I don't know, but it won't go on forever. 

Some folks are coming over today to take a look a the park.  I am trying to fill the back in space and in a few days, another one coming open. That will be 3 spaces I need to fill with long term.  I probably won't be there, hopefully they'll either find someone, namely the workampers or they will just look and make their own decision.  I'm not desperate by any stretch of the imagination, but I am in business and the business is renting out rv lots, so lets get them filled. I will be running another ad after the family leaves.  I'm thinking of keeping the huge lot open for overnighters.  The only exception is if someone is willing to pay more for it, like $75 per month more over regular rates.  Otherwise, it is the "ultimate experience", the best thing I have to offer for people traveling through.  No one is going to say: "I hate this lot, it has too much space!".  

HipCamp is still shut down. I really don't think I want further involvement with it until I get something set up that definitively addresses their needs, which is not just a bathroom and shower and electrical outlets, it's also a full kitchen.  Many also want water and electric at their sites.  Note I did not say sewer. I've tent camped hundreds of times in my lifetime, no campground had sewer outlets for tent campers, a few of them did have water, most didn't have electric either.

But, times have changed and people want to be able to charge their electronic devices.  I need a whole area devoted to them and I have the space out front for it.  Would it be worth it? I have no idea.  The ideal spot is out back in the trees, but it's too far from water and electric sources.  This is nothing I have in the works now, it will cost money to do it and I am unsure if the return on investment will be worth it. Maybe if I had a nice setup and just advertised it all over the place.  However.  Summer is just around the corner and I don't suspect people will want to tent camp in 100 plus degree heat.  It's really a seasonal thing in my mind.  

And one wonders, if you're going to go to that much trouble, why not just build a glamping setup?  I have 7-1/2 acres for all of that, 2/3rds of it is going to be lots.  Out front, tho, it's too much of a grade to really think about putting lots in there without having to haul in a bunch of dirt and a lot of drainage pipe.  Too much money.  

No, the idea right now is to figure out how to start putting in more lots.  A bit of conundrum.  I have the money for the septic system, I don't have the money for anything else.  I don't know if it makes sense to install a septic system that may not get any usage for some time.  I'd need another 5k at least worth of gravel, 5 k for electric and a couple thousand worth of pipe to put in 5 lots.  This stuff ain't cheap, especially in this current market.  I mean, would it make more sense to see if inflation ever deflates and get prices back to "normal"? Or are these current prices on everything here forever?  Supply and demand, baby.  If there is too much supply, prices drop.  Well, extraneous things are probably out the window for people who can barely afford to pay their basic bills, buy groceries and put gasoline into their vehicles.  

It will probably be that: wait and see.  Prices can only do what? Go up even more, unfortunately.  

I've got an hour and a half left here.  If they tell me it's going to be done today, I'm going to ask them - the Peterbilt shop - to come get me. They brought me over here I would like to hope they'll take me back.  It's somewhere around $15 for Uber, might as well save every penny I can, where I can save it.  

+++++++++

I really am feeling like it's time to start trying to get a little more involved in church than just going to a Sunday morning service and taking the kids to occasional events they have for them.  The bible study on Wednesday morning sounds interesting.  A bit early, one at 7 am and one at 8, but I am thinking about going to that one when I can.  The other is an adult group that meets at 9:30 am Sunday morning.  Go to that and then get out and go to the 11 am service.  

Christianity wasn't meant to be walked alone.  There is strength and support in getting yourself surrounded with other believers.  It's actually, usually, a mix of different types of support where people might pray for your situation if you're going through one, another might give some exhortation to a situation you might have created where you need to refocus and take a different direction and then there's always the Word (Bible).  It's a thought that's been growing strength for some time now.  I certainly wouldn't mind people praying for me about making decisions of what to do next with the business.  But that's just worldly stuff, there is so much more. 

This one has gone on long enough.  I just know that a trailer is being preloaded as I write this so I can load it tomorrow.  That, if the truck is actually done today...

G'day

 Monday - early

I might have gotten up a bit too early.  I figured I need to be up at 4:30 am to take a shower, get some coffee, kick back for a bit and wake up.  I still have half and hour before I need to leave lol.  Actually, I woke up without the alarm anyway.  It was going off but I couldn't hear it.  The alarm was muted somehow, only on vibrate.  Well, with ear plugs in, I'm certainly not going to hear that and will now have to figure out how it was muted so that doesn't happen again.  It was 4:37 am, no big deal fortunately.  Knowing me, however, I could have slept a couple of more hours before waking up.

Mother is going up to the mountains.  She is not driving, the oldest brother's wife is taking her up to her property as she goes up as well.  My oldest has a cabin about 7 miles away from mom's property.  So, she still gets to go up there, just not as much as she used to.  She's going to be up there 2 weeks so that puts my trip off.  I figured it was far better for her to go to her favorite place on the entire earth than put a trip off for me.  I don't know how many opportunities she's going to have to go up there, but my brother/wife is being very generous in helping her out with that. 

Every year, there are always forest fires somewhere up in that entire regional area and it's simply not safe to drop her off and go back to the valley (Phoenix metro area) and come back up for her when she's ready to go home.  Otherwise, she knows how to pack for a month or longer, she's been doing it for decades. I'm very happy she gets to still go up there.  That was concerning to me for I think it would have degraded her spirits to stop driving and never be able to go again. 

Well, I think I'll leave out of here  a bit early now that I think of it.  Showing up at Peterbilt gates 10 minutes early isn't the end of my world.