Tuesday - near 8:00 am

I got a late start today.  Not late for work, it's the second load, I normally get up a couple hours earlier than departure time for the second load. First load? Not even, lol.  I get up, have a few minutes coffee time, make lunch and leave.  I would go ahead and get my butt out of here, but it's a waste of time.  This particular other driver can get himself up early enough to be at the plant loading on Sundays but the rest of the time?  He's at least an hour late.  And there's nothing I can say about it. For example, if I show up there today at 11:30 am, which is pretty much when I want to get there and he's just got there and started unloading? My "official" offload time isn't until 2.  

The other guy is no better.  

They got that boat cleaned up pretty good.  It could use another round of cleaning with a hand scrub-down with degreaser to get some of the stubborn stuff off, but it's not bad.  That thing was dirty, I can attest to that.  When I got back yesterday, they were asking me "what are you doing right now?".  Uhh, I dunno, you tell me?  They needed a ride to the store. Their pickup isn't running and they have no money to fix it.  I took them up there, tho after I did I thought, I should have driven another mile down the road to a better place.  Next time.

When I was leaving, the dude said he's going to start on the motor.  So, hopefully, he got that going.  He's going to take the carbs apart and clean them out - and replace stuff as necessary.  I've been convinced those carburetors need cleaning since I got the boat. None of the people I had working on it would do it, they said it doesn't need it.  How can it not need it when it's been sitting so long? I asked.  I mean, I was paying those people to do the work...

They had tried to put the canopy up.  I said nope, the frame is twisted, hence I have that replacement one over there.  Oh, that's why we can't get it to go all the way open! Lol

Yes, I'm very interested in getting that thing going now that I have started on it.  

For  whatever reason, I have no work tomorrow and then a load going out one Thursday.  I asked the manager to keep me working through next weekend when I saw this.  Like, I don't want any days off.  If you're keeping the other guys going, that's nice, but keep me going as well.  I've had half a mind to start looking for another job as I'm getting tired of constant break downs.  Newer equipment would be nice.  I doubt I'd find much of anything with the hours I have now, tho.  

So, I'm watching news that Biden blaming Netanyahu for the deaths of the hostages that were reported, killed execution style.  This administration is inept and beyond incompetent.  Biden apparently still wants a cease fire.  Are you serious? Do you blame Israel for saying no thanks?  The world that likes the reassurance of a strong America is yearning for the days of the US having a President that has a backbone. The world the likes us pandering to terrorists? They love us right now.  These people that were just murdered - hostages - were just innocent civilians as far as I know it.  

Whatever anyone thinks, that's fine, but I believe from the Word that the Jews are God's chosen people.  That's what it says.  People will argue that "these" people, for some reason, aren't the same.  Israel is the land where Jesus was born, lived, crucified and rose from the dead.   Moses, King David, Samuel, Ezekiel, Elijah, a long list of names of people who were servants of the Lord and did His bidding, that roamed the lands of Israel.  I believe when you are taking a stand against Israel, you are also taking a side against the Lord.  

That's where I'll leave that. 

Ugh.  Took longer than I thought to make lunch and coffee for the road. 

Time to leave.

G'day

 Monday - 8:00 am

Work today, but late load.  Not only that, but I already went down and cleaned out the trailer on the last load that was cancelled, so I don't have to do that today.  Just drive straight to the plant.  Yeah, I can't leave here until around 9:30 at the earliest.  

I was reading a story written by a communist, I mean Californian that had moved to Texas because her brother moved here and she didn't want to be away from him.  I read this hit piece, where this person moved her whole family here but in a huge, leftist run city (Houston) and her dismay with literally everything.  

She complained that "literally every person I met was obsessed with politics".  Huh?  The whole nation is obsessed with politics right now, at least for people who pay attention to it.  There are plenty of people everywhere that don't pay attention to politics, which is alarming for they seem to be living in a bubble of how our country is rapidly changing in ways that they probably wouldn't want it to - if they were paying attention. I know from a personal example that some people don't want to hear about politics at all.  They don't care and a lot of these people also don't vote.  Not even in local elections.  

She lived in Texas all of 4 months and declared how dismal the state is. She proclaimed that she had talked to people that have lived here for 10, 20 and more years who said it took years (italics hers) to adjust to Texas.  I'll agree with that.  It took me a long time to adjust to living out here, but that's because I moved to a small town which is infinitely different type of living than moving from one big city to another.  Once I adapted, I found that I love it here far more than my home state except for one thing: No mountains around here.  The nearest mountain range is hundreds of miles away.  That is one of the few things I miss.  

She even said they went to San Antonio Riverwalk and were "disappointed" with how little there was to do there. ??? Are you serious? The more I read this nonsense, the more suspicious I became.  This is either a Texan that wants Californians to stay in California or more likely, a Californian who has political ties regardless of her declaration that she does not and is trying to stop people from leaving the state by the droves.  There is a mass exodus of business leaving California and even more shutting down  shops, stores, service business, you name it and going bankrupt or out of business entirely.  Or, the large franchise restaurants who are significantly scaling back operations in California, or shutting it down entirely.

Californians brought this upon themselves and are continuing to do so with unbelievable taxation and social issues such as the legislature voting on giving illegals 150k  as down payment money on a house with zero down and zero percent interest.

Fancy that, they are giving people who are here illegally more latitude to live their lives without the "bother" of having to pay for anything than the citizens who live here.  How many of those loans do you suspect will go into default?  Can you imagine the tidal wave of people from around the world, not just south America, who are going to come up through the Mexican border, cross illegally and head straight for Anywhere, California?  It's like a giant welcome sign: Move here! How is California going to pay for this? The last I saw, they were in a budget crisis. Well duhhh, you have multiple policies such as this one that are freebies and giveaways to people who don't do anything and are taxing the last pennies out of business and then, raising the minimum wage to an unsustainable level ... which had immediate effect in restaurants saying no thanks and shutting down operations. 

So the end result of this? Please, go ahead and continue to say how miserable it is living here in Texas!  Arizona went through a few decades of this, Californians coming over in mass volume and then starting to take over politics (the politics this lady says they are disinterested in as a whole in her community) so they can start their insane antics there all over again.  

In case you haven't noticed, communism is rapidly taking over the mentality of most leftists.  They won't admit to it, they might not even see it. For those that do, they explain it away. It will be so much better than - every single historical account of it you can find - and none of that stuff will happen!  Imagine leftists getting control of the House, Senate and WH this election year.  They're going to substantially alter the make-up of the Supreme Court, which they currently hate because there are more conservative justices than communist on it,  They have several ideas, including impeaching 2 of the most prominent conservative justices, putting in term limits, enacting some sort of code of ethics determined by them (there is a reason we have a separation of powers), likely expand the size of the court (numbers of justices) so they can install a vast majority of leftists and basically, be able to bypass the Constitution. 

They desperately want to do away with semi-automatic weapons. That is what Biden said, it wasn't just "assault" weapons, it expanded to all semi-auto weapons.  If they can control the SCOTUS, they can control the country. It's the last "wild card" left that they cannot control and therefore they despise it.  Imagine a panel of activist judges just ruling however they feel and dismissing the intent or even the wording of the Constitution?

___________

I went off into that because of the direction this nation is turning with people that are completely oblivious to what is going on around them. That lady's version of it is exactly what I'm talking about.  The results of Stalin, Marx and other notable Socialists/communists be damned, they "know" it will never turn out that way. But, we already see the left wanting to censor the right.  Robert Reich wants Elon Musk arrested and imprisoned simply because he took over Twitter and turned it into a platform where people can speak their minds. We found out from Zuckerberg recently that the Biden administration did, indeed, pressure Facebook to censor certain things coming from the right about Covid and the Hunter laptop story.  

I could go on, I paid close attention to the Obama, Trump and Biden years.  Trump is no patron saint, he's more near the middle than anything, but at least there's some patriotism and a love of flag and country in him. I dunno about God, he says things that allude to God but I think he needs Jesus.  I think he has a pew-warmer version of religion, not a personal relationship with Jesus. I'm not judging him, he just needs to "see the light", the real light.  

The end result for me? I am preparing myself for a Harris win.  If she wins, we are in for a hell of a ride - a nightmarish ride IMO - but a ride never-the-less.  There is a reason they won't allow her to speak about her policy, if she starts explaining it to her constituency, they might have second thoughts about it.  I'm also preparing myself for the possibility of Congress being completely controlled by lefitsts.  They are targeting those evil rich people, they must pay their "fair share", whatever that is in their minds.  Go ahead and tax the earth out of them and see what happens.  It won't have the results they think it will. 

AS for today? Well, I'm headed to work soon. I'm contemplating getting pretty stringent on basic rules at the park that people are completely ignoring.  There are hundreds of cigarette butts laying around all over the place, I got tired of picking them up.  I am going to start that up again but this time? I'm going to tell every last person there that if they continue to just throw cigarette butts all over the place? They can leave.  I'm tired of it, it is very unsightly and it's going to stop one way or the other. A few days ago, a chain smoker was standing there talking to me, he got done with his cigarette and just flipped it away.  

Actually, I think I will just post a huge sign about it. Not sure of the wording yet but I'll think of it and just print one for temporary use.   Found a trailer leaking water, contacted that guy about it.  Noticed several lots that need mowing that aren't being mowed. I won't just eat the rent if they aren't going to work. Allen is basically gone, has been gone the last going on 3 weeks and a lot of nothing is getting done.  His kids are adults and they are lazy.  So, I will mow that stuff myself and then tell Allen about it.  And the fact that there really is no park host there now, please take that sign down.  If his wife were there, I'd be good with that. Apparently she doesn't want to do the motor coach even tho they say she is going to do it - nothing is happening.  

Yup, I'm getting irritated with some of the things going on over there and I've said something about it, not like I'm just waiting until I'm ready to explode. I've let people know in no uncertain terms about the cigarettes, some people just don't give a s***.   I feel like those people? Can leave.  Or change their attitudes.  

The oldest and grandma are leaving today. The tension between her and I have seemed to dissipate.  It's mostly the situation where she starts drinking and then starts getting rude and even insulting.  But that appears to have stopped.  I was even invited to come up to visit with the family if they move to Hot Springs as they are talking about doing.  Hot Springs is a short drive from Gurdon.  I could facilitate getting the kids up there for their scheduled visits, she wouldn't have to drive clear to us to get them. There is a large parking lot right next to the highway where trucks park all the time, just drop them off there, into her vehicle and move on.  It's a near 4 hour drive down here from where they're at currently. 

I like Hot Springs, btw, the vacation we took there was great - excluding the nasty hotel we stayed at that charges exorbitant prices.  Everything else was fun.

This one is going on long. I did put in an application to start and SBA loan, so far? nothing, but it's only Monday. I don't figure to start seeing any results until sometime today. My credit score isn't the greatest what with all of this credit card debt. I am not late on any payments, but the higher the ratio of debt, the lower your score goes.  Credit is a very weird thing, where you can make all of your payments on time for years and still have a lower than wanted credit score for a myriad of other reasons.  I have collateral, lots of it, to use, if they want that I will provide it.  I want about 175k to build out 20 more lots, install a pool and hot tub and perhaps install covered parking for at least a few of the new lots that will be created.  

I'm waiting for the tractor to reappear so I can contact the garbage company that I want to move the dumpster.  Last week, someone came along from the time I left Tuesday morning and the time I came back Tuesday afternoon and literally loaded up the dumpster from a little over half full to overflowing.  That isn't anyone in the park. There were diapers bags and empty plastic bags of diapers - no one in the park has a baby.  I could have gone through the trash and found out who, I'm sure, but that's kind of disgusting so I decided not to.  People say to put a lock on it, put up a camera, etc. but moving it much closer to the park is the best answer.  

The entire post sounds a bit...negative. I'm not in a bad mood.  Walmart deli gave me 24 wings yesterday for the price of 12.  Why? No clue, didn't ask the lady to do it.  She just started unloading the entire pan into a container and handed it to me.  I thanked her for it - I can only figure that they must have been getting old and they needed to change them out.  I'm having some of that for lunch, no way I'm eating that many in one sitting.  I do hope to have an easy work day.  I don't know why, but I have Wednesday off and then work Thursday and Friday with nothing beyond that.  I really don't know why the manager isn't giving me more work, I do my job quite well but admittedly was off for quite a while.  

If they wanted rid of me, just say so.  I'll go straight to - when are you sending someone to pick up the truck? rather than start attempting to argue about why they might want to get rid of me. I don't really care at this point, the corporate world sucks, there is no loyalty to employees anymore, especially in the trucking industry and that apathy goes both ways now. This company has serious issues as it stands.  For reasons I have gone into great detail in previous posts, not worth going into now.

I think I'll end this one. Yes, the trash trailer is finally gone. Someone took it for free.  The guest claimed he didn't know it was that bad when he got it, even tho he described it when he was going to move it into my park.  Lied about that description, btw.  As for everything else?  It's a beautiful day, lol.

G'day

 Saturday - late morning

Because it's supposed to start raining, not much is going to get done today. I suppose i could focus on business paperwork issues and reconciling receipts, what fun!

However, I did find out how much to register the boat online.  Was just looking because I was curious if they were going to try to back charge me for previous years that it wasn't registered - it wasn't being used, waste of money. Fortunately, no.  Didn't pay the fee, just looked, next will be to find out how much to register the boat trailer.  

I don't feel the need to pay for all of that until that boat is ready to go.  That might be a while.  No clue, really, depends on how motivated the boat mechanic is, which so far? Doesn't appear to be highly motivated.  But, who knows, he's probably broke since he isn't working, I'm not asking him to do the work for free.  I've got most everything it needs. Probably gonna have to buy some hardware and who knows if he'll find parts that need replaced on the motor, etc.  

If he sees things that could use an upgrade and don't cost a fortune, I will entertain that as well.  It doesn't have a sonar for fishing, tho I think those are pretty expensive.  Just get everything working is really what I want.  Lights, motor, trolling motor, etc. \

Still planning on going home for probably 6 days.  Home state anyway, I don't consider myself an Arizonan anymore, I have interest in the state but the entire Phoenix metro area is for -- well I don't even know if the birds like it there.  October is the intended month, the exact day I haven't pinned down yet. I have been informed that I will be asked to do work of some sort, I assume stuff mom can't do on her own.  I'll probably go on  monday, leave on a Friday morning and be back the next day.  I mean, a person who loves driving might could get it done in less time, me? No thanks.  Maybe 700 miles the first day and then finish up the other 600 the next.  Take the next day off after that for recovery and then go back to work. 

My 3 endeavors to reduce monthly expenses has so far only resulted in one of them actually coming to pass: I dropped Verizon and am on T Mobile now, the savings is around $175. It would be more but I decided on a service upgrade and insurance on the phones.  The shed IS paid off, but that apparently is going to be a battle.  The internet isn't going away, it's just that it will be reduced to $60 per month instead of the around $225-$240 I'm currently paying.  I'll still be saving a substantial amount of money once I get all of this stuff hashed out.

I'm trying to figure out if I want to try to get an SBA loan. It's kind of a ridiculous process that is even more involved than a house mortgage, so I've heard and the paperwork definitely makes it appear that way. They do, indeed, have loans for business upgrades tho.  It's probably the best or one of the best routes to take, I just balk at the amount of junk I"ll have to go through in order to get it done and even then, there are no guarantees and beyond that, the interest rates.  I'd want enough to cover 15 more lots, a pool and a hot tub.  Around 175k if I don't do any of the work and farm it out to contractors.  I would need to get those 15 lots filled up relatively quickly after they are created in order to cover the mortgage. Actually, they would want to add my current mortgage to it so another 60k.  

Alright, forget this. I just did the online junk you have to fill out - pages and pages of it, to get an SBA loan process started.  I have no idea whether I will get any offers.  I've heard business credit has dried up considerably in this inflation/high interest rate atmosphere the government has artificially created.  But, I'm going to try.  It would be 20 lots instead of 15.  If I'm going to go for it, might as well get as much as I can out of it, just have to get a bit bigger septic system to handle 20. 

There is far more I'd like to do with the property, one thing at a time.  I would just pay the same contractor to do the additional lots.  I don't see myself doing the same quality job as they did plus a warranty.  Septic warranty will run out in a couple of months, besides having to have it pumped out occasionally I don't see a huge problem occuring with it unless the aerator pump might burn out or something. Solid concrete tanks, those aren't going to be breaking anytime soon. 

I'd also like a BBQ hut, a covered hangout area, another large shed for equipment and tools, etc.  I'd have to add another washer and dryer to cover additional people.  

I dunno, but I am getting offa here. Stuff I need to get done.  

 Friday - 7:30 am

I unceremoniously knocked on the door.  A man answered. I think I know who he is, but I have never met him before.  He comes out after several minutes, they were all sleeping.  We're talking 10:00 am, so I don't really have a problem with my asking to speak with them.  It's Allen's son, nice guy, probably in his 30's I'm guessing, no shirt on, but said are you B? Yes. I finally get to meet you!

I haven't been hiding myself, I thought, I'm here almost every single day.   I mean, they can do whatever they want, I just know I want minimum amount of hours done in a month to consider the free rent setup.  And that includes mowing.  In fact, if they did nothing else, the mowing is top priority.  They did fix the mower again.  This time it was a linkage for the steering that broke, I ordered the new parts and they eventually installed them.  Allen isn't coming back until next weekend, he'll have been gone quite a while and one wonders if the man is going to want to do anything.  

Anyway, I took the man over to the freshly parked boat of which he started to uncouple the hitch rigth away. Well that's a good sign, I thought.  Seemed to be a pretty intelligent person, went to school for boat mechanics and said that he's been fixing everything but boats since he got out.  Well, here's a boat! And it needs work. I suppose I should back up and say yes, we got the boat out of it's parking place. James helped out, thankfully, there was a lot to move.  

I filled the tires up, still in good shape they just had been sitting for quite a while, drove it over there, backed it in behind their trailer - lots of room back there, parked it as much out of sight as possible and that was that.  I was there probably 3 hours.  I showed him all the things that need installed/fixed and then the next door neighbor came out. Another cool dude with a good head on his shoulders, his boat was parked out there s well. Much nicer thing than mine, but I'm not complaining.  Mine isn't horrible, it just needs that engine working properly.  

Well, the neighbor is taking his boat to the ocean somewhere near Corpus Cristi, he tried to move the engine up - it has a tilt motor and a motor that moves it straight up or down.  The one moving it up and down? Wasn't working. They spent 2 hours trying to figure it out and eventually got to a relay in the engine area.  He also gave me a $350 battery.  Yup, I didn't ask for it, he said he replaced it with a new one thinking it was bad, only to find out the problem the boat was experiencing was not battery related and it's fully charged and holding a charge.

I wasn't going to turn it down lol.  It was hot out there. In terms of extremely high humidity. It's the stand-there-and-sweat type of sauna style.  I had had enough after 3 hours and everyone else was heading inside as well. C'ya!  The first order of business on that boat is to clean it, it's really quite dirty. 

As for the junk trailer? Supposed it's gone.  I dunno, I'll find out when I go over there in a while, I have to work today but it's the second load unfortunately.  I saw yet another ad in the local gossip group, this time it was specifying that they need someone that can pull a 5th wheel and they had numerous replies.  On one of them, the lady - who is the daughter of the man living in the other trailer - told everyone that she had it covered now, thank you!  

Yes, thank you.  Get that pile of trash off of my property. I do hope whoever hauled it was successful, it's missing an entire axle worth of wheels and tires.  A cop sees that and I can imagine them thinking, what the h*** is this? I was worried about pulling my boat over there and the tires on my trailer are in new condition.  They have hardly been used at all since I replaced them and they don't look dry rotted.  

Load today, deliver tomorrow and then Sunday off and then?  I assume I'm working for a while without stopping.  I wish I could leave right now.....I'd get down to the wash and that would be taken care of but then I'd get to the plant and I'd be sitting there for at least an hour and a half if not longer. 

Making a payment for the mortgage online, the lender has a statement saying my home is worth $149,000, lmao.  Zillow says it's worth $312,000.  So which one is true? Neither, probably. It's worth far more than 149k, but is it worth the 312k zillow says it's worth?  Zillow range is 275 to 344 so I guess they take the median amount.  I just find it humorous that the bank comes up with a number that is far below what would be considered market value, especially in that market where there are few houses available for sale than there are buyers wanting to get into a house.

However, the current analysis I've read is that housing prices are so high now, it's pricing people out of the market for first time home buyers.  I feel their pain. I was in my 30's before I finally bought a pile of junk mobile home, I got it because it was on it's own property and not in an HOA. I fixed it up and then..it burned down.  It now has a beautiful manufactured home on it, it needs some stuff done to it but it's in good shape.  The neighborhood isn't the greatest, but my property is well taken care of.  I would really like to get rid of it tho.  Water conservation efforts have ramped up to the point you are allowed X amount of water per month (I don't remember what it is) and if you go over that, you are penalized along with the regular bill.

Meanwhile, they keep building more houses in the region - the Phoenix metro area is a sprawling layout of a lot of smaller towns surrounding it and it's probably 100 miles worth of cities from the furthest east point to the furthest west point.  So, how do you justify building more housing without enough water supply to cover it? I have no idea.  The area is still in a drought and has been seemingly forever.  They have been creative in building plants to treat waste water and reuse it for the hundreds of golf courses, landscaping along city streets and even cooling the nuclear power plant.  But once it gets to the point you are water rationing, what is the rationale of also approving more housing construction permits?  I don't get it.  

Anyway, a typical water bill is around $225 now. 

There.  While I was thinking of it, just ordered another T Mobile gateway device to be delivered to the house in a couple of days.  The last one they sent, the thing didn't have a sim card and T Mobile refused to send one without me being able to receive a text message on a Tmobile powered device, which I didn't have at the time. No problem now, although they aren't supposed to be sending out those devices without the sim card to begin with.  My internet bill over there is around $225 per month, it's outrageous.  This thing will cost $60 a month and there we go, another huge bill being shrunk down to a more acceptable amount. 

My battle with Tower Loan? No idea.  I sent a message to them on their form and haven't heard back. Shocking.  

 Thursday, not particularly early

Day off, I'm fixing to go outside and try to get that boat out from all the stuff in front of it. I've put it off because it's going to be a major chore, but now knowing the guy at the park is a certified boat mechanic, I'm going to get that thing out and over there.  It's unregistered but at least it's covered under my existing insurance.  It's 4 miles, I can hope that I don't encounter any law enforcement on the way.  The license plate and the entire holder is missing as well.  No clue on that one.  It had  a license plate on it.  

The tires are half flat but now I have a portable pump so that's not going to be an issue either.  

I am, of course, going to also inquire about getting that trash trailer out of there.  The man is supposed to get it out today, actually yesterday but the person that showed up didn't realize it was a 5th wheel - the ad they placed to have someone move it didn't specify what kind of trailer is it - so he allegedly found someone else to move it.  We'll see.  

There isn't much else going on. The specialists haven't called.  I am not on the cholesterol medicine, I will have to call the nurse practitioner and ask if there's something else that is available.  Money supply has dipped since taking 2 weeks off.  Expected but not ideal.  Looking at loans frequently, there are some options but the payments are pretty steep.  The current credit card payments would offset alot of it but the best deals are shorter terms and much higher payments.  I just don't think I want to try to handle even more amount in payments right now.  

That's just getting rid of credit card debt and having an actual pay off date for it. It's almost September, I'm wondering if perhaps waiting until after the election will have any impact on the fed and the interest rate? It is likely going to depend on who is going to win the WH and right now? That's pretty much up in the air. Trump was an easy win, IMO anyway, against Biden, but the left has pumped Harris up as some sort of miracle worker, a person they previously disdained for the most part. Amazing how quickly they change their stance depending on who it is and  if that person helps advance their causes. 

I'm not going to worry about it, if we get a Harris presidency, it's because this nation deserves it. I don't mean that in a good way.  I'm reading more and more stories of migrant gangs creating chaos and fear in the places they are dwelling.  We let them in, now we get to pay for it. And a host of other stances that harris is allegedly taking, who knows? She has yet to have an official press conference or sit down. Supposedly that's going to happen tonight.  I'll watch it just to see where she "officially" stands on some of the more hot-button issues.

They are still screaming a recession coming, they have been doing that for years now.  It's just nothing I want to prepare for if it's just a bunch of fear-mongering.  I mean, always be prepared for any kind of major event that will affect people's minds in storming grocery stores and emptying the shelves. But beyond that?  One thing for sure: People have to have a place to live. So I don't really fear a recession at my park excepting people's ability to pay their rent.  

I'm watching my newest competitor with interest.  He bought an existing park and added about 20 spaces to it, very close together. I don't recall seeing meters on them, but this dude is definitely all about metering his sites (electricity).  It's such a competitive market here, I'm going to be interested in seeing how he makes that work. I have given it considerable thought, I think a person could make it work by lowering the rent rate, giving away $50 worth of "free" electricity and having guests pay any overage. 

Meters are a hard thing to tackle.  If I put them in, people will leave. Even with reduced rent and a minimal amount of free electricity, the electric gobblers will look for "greener pastures" where they can their AC's turned all the way down to the coldest setting and blast electric heat continuously in the winter months.  So, how does that work out in the end, if I did get meters installed and switched over?  Well, keep that trucking job for sure! lol.  If, and that's a big if, but if I could keep the park full, I would keep a lot more of the incoming revenue instead of giving it to the power company.  

I stand undecided on the situation.  A couple thousand dollars worth of meters and then having to install them.  

I dunno, but I'ma drink the last of this cuppa and get busy unearthing that boat. 

G'day

 Wednesday - late afternoon

I would go into the nonsense with Tower Loan Company, it should be called Tower Loan Incompetence, ignorance at your service!  But I am quite done with them for right now.  Meh, I'll go into it I guess.  Ooh, I know what I'll do, just copy and paste the review I left about them here: 

"This is one of the most incompetent "loan companies" in existence.  I bought a 12X20 shed that was built on my property and financed by Tower Loan through the shed company. No experience with them, I just said fine.  

The shed was bought from a company operating in Louisiana, I live just across the border in Texas.  After a short amount of time of making auto payments, they decided they would switch the account to a Texas based address without letting either me or the bank know.  The autopay was declined, of course, because of errant information they were supplying.

I knew nothing about this until they finally sent me a letter.  You are behind on your payments. I wondered how I could be behind on  my payments with autopay set up?  BTW, they charge you a convenience fee to use autopay!  Almost $3 every time.  I called the number immediately and a long argument ensued.  They could not understand the fact that my bank informed me the info on the account had changed and they would not approve payments unless I verified it.  

I ended up making 2 payments that month, one the normal autopay which I had had the bank restart and an extra payment to make up for the "missing" on, plus they charged me a $40 late fee plus they reported this situation to the credit bureau, even tho all of this was their fault.

Fast forward to last month.  I just figured I'd pay this loan off and never do business with them again.  On the normal day of my payment last month, the final amount was taken out plus a separate convenience fee and I thought, thank goodness this is over with. Or was it?

The next day, I received a text from Tower Loan saying I am late on my payment.  Here we go again, except THIS time, they actually HAD taken the payment.  I called these people yet again. I was informed I hadn't made a payment at all. This would be funny if it weren't true.  Instead, it is maddening to deal with such moronic incompetence. As if I'm lying about the draft THEY made through autopay.  I spent quite a bit of time today on the phone and they came back with: You missed a payment and that has to be made up.  The lady didn't want to hear anything else even tho I told her I had made that payment up PLUS paid and $40 fee.  I have the proof, my bank statement shows in May of 2023 I made the normal autopay AND the extra payment.  

But do they want to hear this? No.  I am now told they are having staffing trouble and the manager of the store dealing with me will call me back on Monday. Today is WEDNESDAY.  
There is one thing for certain: I am NOT paying them another dime.  They will have to take me to court and I will produce the bank statements of every payment including the make-up payment with the $40 fee.
And let me tell you this. There is no corporate number for this company. You cannot call their headquarters - well you might be able to if you use one of these online search companies and pay a fee for it.  Who knows.  They are located in Flowood, Mississippi which is near Jackson. If they weren't that far away, I would just go visit them and deal with this in person.  

Since I can't, I sent them a note which is then directed back to where? The store that you deal with and in this case, a manager who isn't available until next week.  

And I will remain true to my word, I have the evidence, they are not getting another penny from me and I would suggest you never do business with this shady company.  "

  There we go.  That adequately sums up the entire misfortune of having had done business with them.  Now, on another note and related to my property, I have had an excellent go with Affirm.  Even issues that need resolved they deal with in a timely manner, I financed my coin op laundry machines through them and have subsequently financed smaller purchases as well.

I am entirely too reliant on  credit, or so I was anyway. I have cut the use of it back to near nothing. I few things here and there, the trolling motor and batteries the latest. 

And here is the hopefully good news: I just found out today that the son of the park host is a certified boat mechanic.  He has been staying at the park!  I am digging that boat out of there tomorrow and getting that thing over there.  If he can fix the motor plus do the rest of the stuff, I'll gladly pay him to do so.  This might mean I could get the motor fixed as well. Whatever the bleep is wrong with it. A short recap: It fires up, it runs great, you turn it off in the lake somewhere and.....it doesn't want to start back up.  

Yup, I have no work tomorrow I want to get that boat over there sooner than later.  

That was what I was going to start this blog with but that Tower Loan crap...unbelievable.  

I've determined that unless the rain stops me - it's supposed to rain tomorrow and we need it badly - I'm getting that boat out of the depths of the blockages it faces to get out of there and haul it to the property. 

Just spent over an hour looking for a kitten.  It's not my kitten, I don't want kittens, or puppies for that matter.  There is a feral cat that had kittens underneath my trailer and unfortunately, that is where they are living.  That is going to change soon enough.  The trailer is loading sno-cone high with branches/tree debris from a James outing doing work on a property.  My trailer has been tied up for quite a while and there have been a couple of occasions I could have used it.

No worries, not upset about it, just going to get that stuff burned and off the trailer.  

Oh, well the kitten turned out to be hanging out in the front right wheel well of a pickup truck.  I grabbed the thing out of there and the end of that ... problem. 

Other than that, I am done here. Going to go vegetate in front of the tv and watch reruns of some old show - probably Star Trek.  

 Monday  semi-early

I actually slept for once.  In saying that I simply mean I got 8 hours of sleep.  I don't typically get that much even tho I always go to bed in time for 7-1/2 hours to 8 or more.  I have no work today and my tractor plans have been thwarted.

Apparently the farm needs the tractor for some sort of work that it is best able to deal with. C'est la vie. However, when they are done with it, they are going to bring it back. Out of the blue yesterday, the boy calls and asks where's the key? I had forgotten to leave it at his trailer and it was in my vehicle. He was over there and needed to load it up.  "I can bring it back, we just have to do some work with it"

Upon arrival, a lady came walking up I had never seen before and I thought this might the overnighters that showed up.  "I'm with him".  Turns out it's the grandma and she owns that particular tractor. I found out the farm was started by her parent's parents many moons ago. A total of 700 plus acres, they've got all kinds of equipment.  And was appreciative for the new tire. So, I was going to do tractor work today, I would, in fact, be out there right now using it while it's still relatively cool outside.

I wasn't terribly unhappy however after the boy said he could bring it back and  do the work. "I can't pay you anything".  Oh it's ok, I need something to do!  He thinks I just want the land cleared out. Well yes, but I have plans which include adding at least 15 more lots. I"ve kind of come to the conclusion that if I ever want to go the tiny home route? I have plenty of land up front.  There's probably 3 acres up there if not a bit more.  It would need some leveling and such.  

However, I am going to try to find out how these other places afford all of these tiny homes. Does a bank finance them? Does the seller have their own financing? I doubt they're paying cash.  Not the nature of the business.  So much I could do if I could get financing on decent terms.  It is  coming down, I've noticed. 

Credit Karma has several offers now for 50k at 13% interest range. That sound high? Well, when it was just showing 25 to 30% interest range, it's a lot better.  In fact, CK has those offers on there and they are guaranteed.  It means they believe I can get any one of those loans so much so that they are willing to pay me $50 if I don't get it.  That's not that much money, but it means that they really, really think I will be approved. I have no idea how they come to these conclusions, but whenever anything says "outstanding" chances of approval? I will get that loan or card if I really want it.

No, I'm not jumping on that just yet, tho if I could pay off all my credit cards my score would go back to skyscraper heights and then I would qualify for even better financing.  The thing I'm looking for is even lower interest rates and thereby making it a smaller monthly payment. Right now? If I took one of those loans, I would lose about $200 in payments.  Great, but what if they come down even more and I could save $400 or more per month? Who knows.  I've basically got a mortgage payment in credit card monthly bills.  It's high, it's something I've been wanting to deal with, just waiting until I can get the right deal. Not going to wait forever, I'm looking at a 4 year loan that has about the same what I'm paying now. Or 5 or 6 year loans which reduce the payment. 

Anyhoo, I have decided I am not taking the prostate medicine. It doesn't cure anything, it's only relief.  I haven't even tried it.  I'm just not on the bandwagon of endless medications that make you feel worse than the symptoms it's treating.  I will not take that cholesterol medicine. I am going to look into seeing if there are any other treatments.  That stuff was too much and that antibiotic? Never again.  I have no control over how my body is going to react to various medications.  I am, instead, going to pursue this degenerative bone situation in my lower back.

After some reading, it appears if that is most likely the source of the pain. It has diminished greatly by no other reason than...nothing.  I don't know why it has done that. My big focus is losing weight to take stress off of that area and everywhere else for that matter.  I've been on the diet for a while now, the weight is coming off slowly but the fat is definitely coming off.  It seems to me that getting rid of 30 pounds would give my back and entire body significant relief. I have yet to hear back from the specialist. 

Well, not "hear back", I haven't received a phone call from them at all.  Are they that busy? Do they make everyone wait for next to forever? If you need a specialist, there must be a reason for it, right? Like, you need relief from something, please get the process started.

BTW, I did not want today off and I have no idea why he gave it to me. I am working tomorrow and then there's nothing in the tablet after that. I need to work and keep busy with it for a while.  

That's it. Sort of.  The newest person showed up yesterday as well as an overnighter. Another overnighter never showed - tho they paid.  I don't have any more overnight reservations until the end of next month, unfortunately.  I am not going to hold lots that long, I will rent one out if that opportunity arises.  Right now, I am getting calls for tiny homes or some place to live. I don't have anything available, sorry.  My coach will be available - sometime in the future but no idea when. Those people are gone and I"m not letting anyone else in it.  And if/when it does get rentable, well no.  I'm not going to rent it. It's going to be a payment plan to purchase it. This time, I will get proof of ability to pay and show me they have a job with a paycheck or government payment or whatever.

OHH! That reminds me, that man gets his money today. I'm hop over there and get in his face. Have that thing out of here...today. It's that or leave.  I don't care which at this point.  Maybe one of his friends will move it if he pays them. I don't know where he would move it to (and I don't care, I want the thing off my property).  The frame would be worth something, but you have to tear everything off of it. The amount you get out of it is not worth the time or energy. 

I don't know how that is going to end, honestly.  I will try to have a professional demeanor about me, that's all I can say. He's pushed this so far, however, it's really starting to annoy me.  It's not like today will be the first day I've been on his doorstep asking him to get rid of that trailer and replace those windows as he promised.  So, today, I will likely issue him a warning: fix this situation or you will be trespassed from the property, as granted by law.  Texas law on this situation is pretty good for owners of RV parks - once I found the correct law including direct reference to RV parks in the statute.  

As for today?  I don't know.  I'm not particularly motivated at this point.  The tractor usage was my plan and now...well there are other things I can do out there I guess.  I want to measure the amount of available room back there and see how many lots I can get in there without cramming them in too close together.

That sardine can, brand new rv park that was being built the next town north of here has opened. There was one trailer in it yesterday, it was amazingly ridiculous.  The lot is so small, as I had mentioned before, there is no breathing space around the trailer.  It's old style antics to cram as many lots in on a small space as you possibly can. People don't like that.  The only way they're filling that place up is if they give highly discounted rates. I doubt that place will affect me at all, I'm 30 miles away, I just comment on it because of the setup.  

The other place on the other side of town? Well I'm going to go back there today now that I have permission to enter the property and see what it has. From the satellite view, the lots were crammed into together. That and the video they have in their ad. But, sometimes appearances on videos aren't realistic, hence I want to see with my own eyes.  I can say that looking at the video, it appears that the lots are maybe 15 feet apart?  I dunno how he thinks tiny homes are going to appealing to anyone wanting to buy one on a lot that small. You have no room for a yard or anything, really. 

Ok,, I see what he's doing now.  He has "RV's for rent and in park financing available".  This guy has 4 other small parks.  He must have money, I don't.  Advantage - him, not me.  I think renting RV's is a bad idea now that I've done the research. Much better to sell them on payments and get a decent down payment in case they trash the thing.  The biggest complaint I've seen from park owners renting them is that people that rent them? Know nothing about RV's, how they operate, the do's and the dont's.  

That is significant for RV's are unique in how everything is done inside of them.  I read too many horror stores of people breaking things that were costly repairs because they had no idea what they were doing - even after being walked through and shown how to operate all of it.  

I like the idea of tiny homes - a long as the person moving in already owns the home and they are responsible for everything beyond a lot and power, sewer and water.  But, I'll be doing more research on it.  I want an RV park, not a mobile home looking thing.  

There are all kinds of financing options, tbh, SBA loans are popular. They require a lot of paperwork and the same kind of thing you go through with a house mortgage application.  Endless emails, phone calls and text messages.  I haven't really wanted to go through that again.  It just gets maddening after it goes on every day for several weeks in a row.  

I'm not going to concern myself with that today, it's just nothing I want to deal with right now. I'm working towards getting the motivation up to tackle it sooner or later.  As it stands, I'm giving the boy 2 months free rent - IF - he brings that tractor back AND he does the work. That is the deal and it is non-negotiable.  I made myself clear to him. Fortunately, he has a good head on his shoulders, he understands things that people 3 times his age have trouble comprehending for unknown reasons.  

Well, my motivation levels are high right now to deal with this dude and his trashed trailer. Going to head over there and get this done.

G'day

 Sunday - early

Cooking food for lunch today, I am sitting here waiting for the salmon patties to be thoroughly cooked and then? I can leave. Actually, it's about 25 minutes until my normal departure time.

With those people gone, I just have one more situation to deal with. I have confronted the man several times now, it's getting old.  So, the next thing is to tell him to use his money he's getting in a few days and get rid of that trailer.  I'll see what he says about that before I start discussing his departure from the park. If he says no, or he says yes but doesn't do it, I will tell him to leave. Immediately.  Go...somewhere...else.

Anyway, it's Sunday, don't particularly feel like working and I definitely don't feel like going through the rigarmoroo of attempting to get a security guard to the scales.  The plant isn't opened on Sundays for the logging trucks so the scales are closed as well.  Sometimes they show up in 5 minutes, one time they didn't show up for 2 hours : )

Lots of tractor work left to do, but I have tomorrow off so I will endeavor to get up early, go over there and put 4 or 5 hours on the machine. If the tires hold out, that is.   It would be nicer if it wasn't so hot outside, it just makes it difficult to stay out there in the glaring sun, heat and humidity attempting to get stuff done on that thing.  

Allen? No word from him. I guess he's staying down there another week before coming back up.  I am definitely suspicious that there are marital issues for the lady has moved back in now that he's gone.  I will be looking to see if she does it again when he shows back up.

Well, I guess I'm not very talkative this morning. Kind of tired.  Think I'll just get my lunch packed up and get out of here early.

G'day

 Saturday - early

So, it's 5 something am and I'm out in the kitchen putting hot water into the thermos. I like to do that before dumping coffee into it so you don't lose a lot of heat from the coffee in transferring it to the thermos.  Suddenly, there is talking behind me.  I probably jumped several feet.  Scared the s*** out of me!  The 7 year old.  What are you doing out of bed? You know it's only 5:30?  I'm going to watch TV! 

So, this kid can't get out of bed for school - trust me, mama has issues with getting him up every day - but he can race out of bed to watch tv on Saturday mornings?  It's the mindset, I know.  Monday-Friday it's getting up for school and he hates school, but Saturday? FREEEEEE dayyyyyy!

I slept poorly.  I had just fallen asleep when one of the phones dinged.  Kids! Turning the ringers on when I keep them turned off, gag.  

Ok, now both  of them are up.  Well whatever. I got up early to be able to drink some coffee and relax and that's what I'm doing. I don't want to get to the washout before 8:00 am.  

So, RFK has dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.  This may very well be a game changer.  He had more republicans supporting him than democrats, according to the stats anyway. We'll see the change in the polls, I don't put much credence in them but they are fun to watch and see people lose their ever-loving minds over them.  Trump is losing now! ... they say.  I know, they say it's a scientific method to come up with say, 1,000 registered voters to use them as a pulse for how the entire nation is going to vote, I don't believe it.  

Number 1, I have looked into polls and found them "sampling" more democrats than republicans.  Well, isn't the number of dems and republicans about the same percentage?  So what sense does that make?  Or the way they word the polls.  It's designed to come up with the results they want them to come up with, depending on who is doing it.  But but but...they say. Anyway, the dems are already having a meltdown.  You know they will bash and excoriate RFK and they have already started doing so.  Surprise, not. 

Today is the day those coach dwellers leave.  I have no idea whether they will do so voluntarily or if they are going to be jackasses about it and attempt some legal maneuver.  Such as, we're here, you can't make us leave. No, I can't physically force you to leave, but the county sheriff's department will force you out of there, off my property and trespass you. I only have this faint feeling of it because the lady has played this game for a long time at other places, I found out.  She was thrown out of the hotel she was staying in, she owed them a couple thousand dollars.  

The thing that makes me want to get rid of them is that they aren't doing a damn thing about their situation. It's called work. Work can suck, it can be good - depends on where you're working and what you're doing - but it's a necessary thing in life if you don't want to be homeless.  Those kids are perfectly capable of getting jobs as is she.  They're just leeches feeding off the good graces of people who try to help others out in need.  These are the type of people that I just can't deal with.  Whatever got into their minds to tell them they can just free load their entire lives?  Doesn't work with me. Especially a 17 year old and a 20 something.  There are plenty of jobs in town, they don't pay a lot but it's a helluva lot better than nothing. 

And this other dude.  Who brought that disgusting trailer in. I"m just going to wait until the 26th now, that is when he gets paid from the government.  I'm going to go pound on his door and tell him to sit there and order a tow truck or someone to get that thing off of my property.  I'll wait.  You don't believe me? I'll sit right there and tell him to either do that or get off of my property. If I have to deal with a pile of junk trailer, at least it won't be with him around.  The other trailer that is being stored there? That family finally paid for 3 months worth of storage fees. 

I don't want the thing stored there, they just haven't been able to sell it yet. They've had people over there looking at it. It's fairly nice trailer, newer, in decent condition, dunno if they're asking too much for it or what.  

Anyway, I need to get moving.  Time to leave in 5 minutes.

G'day.

 In other news, the people that paid for a lot for the month at the beginning of this month - but never showed, were over there a few minutes ago.  3 lots available, they didn't know which one they wanted.  Said they would let me know in a couple of days.  I didn't particularly care for that idea, but didn't say anything.  What if someone calls and wants one of the empty lots?  

And sure enough, immediately after that call, a man called in looking for a lot.  He said he had showed up "a couple of years ago I think" but you weren't open yet.  Umm, well maybe I don't remember, I opened the park at the beginning of last year.  So now, I had this guy wanting the back in lot and I have no clue what these other people want.  Long discussion and I told him I'd find out right away about what lot these other people want.

I called them, no answer. Texted - I have a person that wants the back in lot, but you have first dibs on it.  Do you think you'll want that one?  I am not going to be holding up lots for people even if they paid for it.  Make up your mind, please, I have a business to run. I obviously don't say that to people, that would probably be considered as rude, lol.  

They texted back one word: No. I didn't figure they'd want it because they allegedly bought a giant 5th wheel. It will fit in the lot easily, but there isn't a lot of parking space in front if the thing is a 42' long model.  So, I called this other dude back:  They don't want it. The guy paid over the phone and I'm very happy.  Now I'm back down to 1 lot not rented and I'm leaving that open for overnight use.  

I'm happy because I have to pay the guy for the damage done to his truck by that workamper. He finally had it fixed at a cost of $275. That's actually quite reasonable, I was expecting much more than that. I am very happy to have that man and his wife gone.  The drama queens of the century (until the next ones come along anyway), it was a ridiculous atmosphere he was creating with lies, accusations and verbal confrontations.  Which reminds me, I need to get that check sent out.  

Tomorrow I have the early load. Very thankful for that, I don't like getting up that early but I even more dislike getting done late in the day on the second load.  It leaves a good portion of the afternoon available for whatever instead of getting back at 5:00 pm or whatever and having nothing left.  As it stands I was awake at 5:00 am this morning anyways. 

Electric bill showed up.  Around $1,900.  That's not bad, actually. Not compared to last year with a bill of over $2,500.  I mean, it's "Ouch!" high, but it's not slam your finger with a hammer high.  I'll take whatever blessings I can get when I get them and thank God for them. We had some cool days this last billing period, many of them actually, which was amazing in itself for being the middle of the summer.  I assume that's what is at play in a lower bill.  It could also be people that were here last year that are no longer might have had AC problems and drawing a huge amount of electricity or just setting the AC at the lowest temp and leaving it there 24 hours a day.  

Oh! And Cigna.  They sent me a letter. After further review, we have determined that the scan will be paid for.  Yes! $800 I don't have to pay! Well, I paid $300 already but I fully expect that money to be refunded.  I'll give them a little time, if they don't send it then I'll be contacting them. This is the facility I got the scan at, not Cigna. 

 More than I expected, I thought I was going in there to hear about the cat scan.

Nope.  Took me to a bathroom, said pee into this giant funnel, urinate completely out if you can and leave it there.

Ok?  

Next, we are going to take a blood draw to test PSA levels.  I know what that means, they are looking for cancer.  That scared me a little but I was assured they do this with everyone in such circumstances.  Not that I had a choice.  I tend to get a little dizzy with blood draws like that, I turned me head and just didn't watch it.  I was fine, actually and amazingly for me. That's the second time in a couple of weeks a blood draw didn't have me feeling like I was about to pass out.

Next? Ultrasound to see how much of my bladder emptied out.  This including pulling my pants and underwear down right there for the lady to see. I thought that a bit strange, I guess she does that all day long and didn't phase her at all.  I was wondering why she brought some sort of lubricant in, I was thinking, no way do they need to do a "prostate exam" after getting a cat scan? So, I accepted that as a much better alternative, the ultrasound a much better deal, regardless of the semi-nakedness.  I wasn't particularly caring for all of this.

After that and only a few minutes later, the doc came in.  The scan showed nothing abnormal except some sort of degeneration of the lower back, I am assuming the spine.  Didn't know that. I don't have any pain there.  Strange.  He said he would forward it to my doc and then it can be addressed by a specialist.  How do they address that?  Whatever. That's for another day, I haven't even heard back from the specialist about my arm.  

He said the PSA results would be back Monday. So, if I don't hear from you that a good sign, yes? Yes, we'll have you back in 3 months to examine you again.  

He asked if I was taking the medication and I flatly said no, giving my reasoning and offering that I might cut the pill up and take a third of it to see what will happen. He was fine with that and said it will likely offer relief.

However, there are no kidney stones and the mystery of why I was experiencing pain was not solved.  The cat scan was on that kidney and my pelvic area, if there was something there, it would have showed it.  The pain has rescinded quite a lot but it's not completely gone.  I don't really know what to do about that now except take the medication and see if that is the reason? I don't think so, I think we are dealing with 2 separate problems here.  Urination was slowing for a while, that is just an issue older guys get a lot.  It doesn't necessarily mean cancer, it just means you have an enlarged prostate and if it gets too big? Guess what? They cut it out of there.  

Yeah, I don't want to do that if at all possible.

I have no idea what to think but I do know I might be worrying a little bit until after Monday.  I don't want to hear from the doctor, putting it mildly.

I ended up going to IHOP again, third time there in a couple of weeks time, I might as well enjoy a nice breakfast.   It was nice even with 3 young kids screaming and making all kinds of noise at a table not far from me, the parents doing nothing about it.  Yeah, no one is going to tell me you can't quiet kids down if you want to. It was very loud, but I did my best to tune it out. 

After that, over to the park.  I went to Home Depot before IHOP and picked up 4 bottles of wasp spray. I walked all over the area where the ground hornets had been at, I only saw a couple of them and yes, I sprayed them. That did not arouse any other hornets. I was kicking piles of brush attempting to find out where they moved to. Wherever it is, it is nowhere in that particular area.  I doubt they moved far, tho.  I am guessing moving the tractor around will eventually get them all riled up again if I happen to run over their new nesting spot. I am ready to kill every last one of them with a fresh bottle of spray. 

Home. I was going to get on the tractor but the doc office did something psychological to me to the extend I decided to go home instead of doing tractor work.  

I have things I need to get done, but instead, I think I will get a glass of ice cold unsweetened tea, of which I add Monkfruit sweetener to - calorie free stuff - and just relax for a while.  I could still go back to the property if my mind changes about that.  I did go over and check the tires on the tractor, they are all holding air.  

I am pretty happy with the progress I've made on both the front and back. Still plenty to go but I have cleared out a lot of land. I'm more than half done, at least and can safely say that without hesitation.

Tomorrow, the coach people need to leave.  I am quite serious about it and if they ask for time extension, it will be denied. They've had 2-1/2 weeks to find a place, I am very tired of hearing that generator on all the time.  I can't imagine the gasoline bill that has been created to keep that thing running.  I just know they need to leave and I will address them directly if they think they are going to stay.  Get out or I will call the Sheriff and have you removed from the property.

Let's hope it doesn't have to go that far, I just hope they will leave peacefully. For where? I don't know, probably another city where they have shelters and programs for homeless. There are none in our town, I know this because the people in the local gossip group answer that question frequently for someone trying to find shelter.  I know that Shreveport has them and Longview as well.  I mean, if the young people wanted to work, they could have figured that out by now.  They have access to transportation via the lady that is already living in the park. 

Anyway, I'm getting offa here. 

 Friday 8:15 am

Doc appointment 30 miles away at 9:45.  I'll be leaving here around 9. I don't know what kind of news I'll hear, just brace myself and hope nothing terrible comes out of the doc's mouth.  Pray.  Seek the Lord.  

Day 2 of being off work yet again, but that will end tomorrow and probably go on for a while.  Last paycheck was a thousand dollars and the next one will be similar, so yes, time to get busy. 

Yesterday, I went over to the property to continue with the tractor work.  And yes, I ran into yet another ground hornet's nest and yes, they instantly went crazy looking for something to sting, the perpetrator must be nearby, let's get him!  I moved away from there, not far tho, and continued working.  After a while, I forgot about them and moved back over there, lol.

Mistake.  They were still swarming all over the place, lots of them. I probably destroyed their nest and they'll have to build a new one. The thing is, I don't want them building a new nest anywhere on my property.  I used up almost an entire can of wasp spray. I'll be stopping for several more cans of a different type. This stuff sprayed out foam and emptied the can out quickly. I don't want foam. I started clearing the area near the main driveway in the back to start giving myself a view of what it might look like if I had it filled with pads.

Anyway, those wasps were holding me up so I eventually left.  

The drama yesterday afternoon, tho...

Nest cameras save the day. Yesterday, the neighbor's mechanic was pulling into the neighbor's driveway, he was there to fix his vehicle.  .  A random person went up to him and stabbed him multiple times in the armpit and shoulder area, close to the guy's heart.  We didn't see or hear this, we were in doors, tho my dog was out there barking incessantly.  I mean, according to the mechanic, this guy just came up and started stabbing him, saying nothing to him. 

We later saw a video of the mechanic walking up to the door of the neighbor's house, shouting he's been stabbed.  

Police, fire and ambulance show up. A lot of police.  They come over to our house, do you have any cameras? Yes but so far we've found nothing.  

It takes time to go through video surveillance and find what you may be looking for. The first thing I found was footage of the man screaming.  He had just been stabbed and was yelling for help. Again, I heard none of this and my window and room are located at their side of the house and facing towards the street.  Anyway, we're going through the footage and sure enough, there was a man walking up the street towards their house just before the stabbing occurred, like seconds.  

The police had already nabbed an person of interest, the man had run off, going through people's yards trying to get away from the scene of the crime.  Once we were able to bring up a video of the man walking past our house, the police confirmed that it was the person they had nabbed. I saw a pic of the man, he appeared to be latino and early 20's, maybe even a teenager. 

This man? An illegal alien.  Crime of opportunity, he saw the guy pulling up and just decided he was going to steal the car.  We know this for a fact now for the man admitted what his intentions were. Couldn't speak a word of English.  My neighbor was fuming.  He's an ex Sheriff, if he had been out there when this happened, that illegal would be dead right now.  Guaranteed.  He did have the presence of mind to tell the police to lock down the school nearby. It's maybe a 1,000 feet away if that.  The police argued with him, but he insisted.  

I mean, here we are in the middle of nowhere, basically, a town of 22,500 population, and we are experiencing violent crime at the hands of these illegals crossing the river 600 miles south of here?  It puts a whole new perspective on the problem of unvetted illegals coming across and just being distributed throughout the countryside.  We have no idea how many of these individuals are capable of committing this type of violent crime.  

Yet, the people that are opposed to open borders are labeled brown skin haters.  It's the leftists that make these absurd statements, running their mouths off.  I posted this story in a mostly leftist facebook political debate group and the response?  Man up, quit your crying. I wasn't crying, I just stated what happened and at whose hands it occurred.  You are lying!  One of them actually said: "We don't care!".  

This is the state of the democrat party.  It's a broad sweeping generalization, yes, but I've been watching this crap since they were calling the rioting and burning down of cities "peaceful protests", starting with House and Senate leftists.  Even encouraging it and applauding them.  

So now, you wonder if this can happen again? Do you let the kids out to play? Do you carry a piston on your person even around your house now?  We always have loaded guns nearby, out of the reach of kids, but this?  Makes me want to stay armed constantly.  This town has a lot of illegals in it, I dunno why they come here but they do. You think it couldn't happen again?  I don't know that.  I'm going to consider stopping at a gun store on the way home from the doc appointment and see if that have a smaller pistol to carry. I have a small one but it's still too big to carry comfortably out of sight.  You don't need a concealed carry permit in Texas, but I have one anyway because I got it before that law came into effect.

As for right now? It's time to leave. 

G'day

 Wednesday - night

I haven't watched any of the DNC, to start out with. Just don't know that I can stomach that garbage. I've seen a few of the highlights....Andy Beshear certainly made some waves with his ridiculous statement about Vance.

Anyway, today. Well, Just like any other workday, get up early, get in the truck, get on the road.  68 miles up the road on Highway 59 - very busy highway - a buzzer goes off with a light.  Oil pressure.  I look over at the oil pressure gauge and it's dropping like a bolt of lightning.  80 to 40 in a second and then down to zero.  

I turned the truck off before I even started over to the shoulder.  Truck engines are around 35k nowadays, maybe even more for that thing, a CAT engine. You run it without oil, you burn the engine up.  

I get out of the truck after getting it stopped and see oil all over everything. Amazing how all this oil was spurting out everywhere and I never saw a drop of it from inside the cab, just the way the truck is built.  The entire driver's side, underside and tanker were covered with it.  Open up the hood and there it was: fuel pump had 3 nuts gone and the pump popped out enough to spurt out oil literally everywhere.  Gallons and gallons of it.

It was then I knew the day was done.  I called the company, they sent out Love's, the mechanics had a heck of a time finding a repair kit. It's just the hardware and an O ring to put it back together.  This was an easy fix, it was just finding the stuff to fix it with.  I was there for 3 hours and 17 minutes.  

I was very happy that it was cool outside, long before the summer heat was going to kick in.  It's been getting cool in the mornings and that was a plus.  After that, over to a truck wash.  Love's opened up their version of one a while back at the facility in Prescott, AR.  I had never used it before, was hoping for a nice outcome.

I didn't get that. 2 men spent a little time on it but were lazy @$$es getting by with as little as possible.  They got around 85% of the oil off of everything and called it good. The wheels were still dirty, the tank was dirty, they did a horrible job.  Blue Beacon puts an entire crew of people on your truck when you go in there and for less money with far better results.  I had no choice, they wanted the thing cleaned up to go into the plant.  

I didn't say anything to them, no time for it nor desire to get into it with anyone.  I just left and went to the plant. That was one thing that did go right.  54 minutes and the tank was emptied out.  Amazingly fast, I wondered if they had unclogged something in the outlet tube and valve when they went inside it?

Yes, they had to get inside the tanker in order to clean all the dried up chunks of glue out of it yesterday.  I knew they were going to say that, the price tag to do it tho wasn't near what the manager was saying it would cost. He said over a grand, they actually charged $555.  The manager at the washout warned me.  It's as good as I can get it, I chipped away at everything with a shovel but some of it wouldn't come off.  If it falls over after this, nothing I can tell you.  

I didn't care, I was happy I didn't have to drive to Crossett to get it cleaned out and from the way it was working today? I'm perfectly fine with the results.  

Today is James birthday so we went to a local mexican food restaurant that has the goods. We're talking some of the best Mexican food in town. It's a small establishment, most people do take out but this time we sat down to eat.  

And now? The day is done.  I have tomorrow and Friday off because I have that doc appointment on Friday.  I didn't really want it off, I need the money but whatever. They've got me working this weekend of course.  Still, 2 days off, I can go to the property and continue on with the tractor work.  We're in the second week of having it there.  It's working, it just takes time. I would guess that I am close to half done with both ends?  Which reminds me, get some 25 foot wasp spray so I can kill off that hornet's nest.

I won't even go back there now until I get that done first. 

 Wrote this yesterday/Monday, forgot to post. 

This stuff messes with my head.

2 minutes ago, I braved the waters of never-before-taken drugs and popped a cholesterol pill.   This stuff have far few side effects listed than the prostate stuff, in fact, apparently the biggest one to look for is muscle spasms.  

No worries, I'm home atm.

I spent 6 hours messing around with the tractor, including going to Harbor Freight and getting a 12 volt air pump for tires. It had a slow leak, I'm not fixing it right away. I also realized that the problem with the tires is not my fault.  They are severely dry rotted.  Well of course they're going to pop, that's what dry rotted tires do.  If/when this one goes, I'm going to tell the boy that I don't feel responsible to replace it without some kind of trade going on here, namely: free use of the tractor for a month.  

No, I'm going to tell him about it now that I think of it and he can go take a look. I have no idea if he understands dry rot and how it affects tires, especially tires being put under load like that.  

Do you want to know why I left, tho? It had nothing to do with the tires, for now it's working.  You see, I got stung by "something", I wasn't sure what.  It was a fairly painful sting, but I didn't see anything flying around so I continued on.  I don't have time to let stings stop me.  No, what stopped me was when I was pushing a large pile of brush over weeds still in the ground.  Somewhere in there? Was  a hornet's nest.

Recall a few years ago when the whole front of the property was a forest and I was trudging through it, attempting to determine where to have trees cut down and putting ribbons around trees and such. Or something like that, it's kind of a blur atm, I'd have to go back and refresh my memory.  Yes, that's it, it was when I was still thinking I was going to build the park near the front of the property.  I had happened, unwittingly, upon a hornet's nest and I got stung a minimum of 50 times.  

I was not going through that again. I put that tractor in reverse and just floored it backwards.  There were hundreds of them things flying around trying to find whatever messed their home up so they could attack. They got close to me but I was moving right along and eventually, they stopped coming.  I only got that one sting.  But if you think I was sticking around for any more of that today? You are highly mistaken.  

I will have to go to Walmart and get a couple bottles of that wasp spray that has a 25 foot stream. I will kill every single one of those things, gleefully I might add.  

I also pulled the tanker back to where I could get a hose to the top and spray the thing out and get the glue loosened up on it.  A few hundred gallons of water later, it probably won't make a difference. I think they will have to have someone get down inside of the thing to clean it out. The reason being is there are large, flat chunks that kept falling as I was spraying the sides.  It's the reason I put a huge pool of water in the bottom of it, maybe it will dissolve those chunks? If it could do that, I can just take it to the regular washout.  I will probably go back over a little later and take a look.  I kind of think the water will dissolve the chunks into a liquid.  

But who knows. The manager was not sounding too keen on a thousand dollar bill to clean the thing out.  Yes, well he knew about it, he even brought it up.  In other words, he knew the tanker hadn't been cleaned out since the day I stopped driving.  Shrugs shoulders.  He could have had another driver come and pull it down to the washout.  Most drivers are willing to help out like that and of course they get paid for it.

But, it did spark an idea. Why not just spray the thing out with the garden hose whenever I get back from a run if I know it's going to be down for several days?  I can and do leave a pool of water at the bottom of the tanker, that keeps everything that ends up down on the bottom in a liquid state and keeps the valves down there from gumming up.  I don't wonder if I spray it out directly after I get back - so only a few hours after emtying it out - if it won't do a good enough job that it can sit for however long and the rest can be dealt with at the washout when I get there?  Or if I had a pressure washer, even better. I don't have to deal with the glue contaminated water, the washout deals with that.  No, folks, I don't dump it on the ground.  I am not that irresponsible and I would hate to foul up the underground drinking water supply.  

And here it comes, I'm already feeling funny. Wonderful.  Too late.  I figure that prostate medicine? I'm going to cut the thing into quarters.  It's heavy dosage after reading about it online, I will start with lower dosage and see how my body handles it. But right now? I'm seeing how things go with this stuff.  I feel a bit concerned about having high cholesterol and having had it for some time now.  If it goes okay - I can deal with initial onset of minor side effects if that's all it is, apparently the body will adapt to it - I will take it for the 6 months it's prescribed for.  

But boy howdy, did that set in quick. This is why I hate taking drugs.  It's not in my mind, I can feel whatever is happening.  It's why I'm afraid to take that prostate medicine, I don't care if everyone else took it and they are fine. I have always had more severe reactions to drugs than most people.  Penicillin was the first time I found that out at the age of 10 years old.  I was allergic to dairy, chocolate and whatever else when I was a kid with hospital visits if I ate a Tootsie Roll. It was so disgusting, I loved tootsie rolls but the hospital stuff was for the birds and at a very young age, I learned my friends were apples, bananas and "fake milk", the powered stuff that I came to love.  

How can you love powered milk? Well, when you're 5 years old and you can't drink regular milk, you learn how to precisely mix it (I started learning to cook, bake and generally put things together in the kitchen at the age of 5, mostly because I was sick frequently and couldn't go outside when I was) and then put it in the fridge and chill it nicely.  Just like drinking 0% fat milk, you get used to it over time. I can tell ya, tho, when I was 12 years old and said to myself, screw it, I'm going to try some real milk? And it didn't make me sick?  I drank gallons of it on a weekly basis. Like, wow, this is great and so tasty! 

Well, I'll write later about any side effects if it gets worse than this.  I find it odd that my manager hasn't called today. He said last week that work starts back up Tuesday - which is tomorrow.  I've been off for so long now, it's one of those things. You take work off for too long and you don't want to go back.  And so, you need the money but you don't want to be the first to make the call.  If they don't call, what's another day?!! lol

I am still contemplating moving that boat, but for right now, I'm going to sit here and see what happens. If an hour passes and this is the worst it gets, I'm probably going to go out there, move all of that stuff including a pickup, a trailer, numerous bicycles and other stuff, hook up to the boat and pull it over there.  I don't think the thing is going to be finished in less than a month, so I don't really want to pay to register it right now.  Not so great that the license plate is completely missing tho.  Still, it's only 4 miles and now I have a portable air compressor, I can air the tires up without having to go to the gas station.

It was only $29 at Harbor Freight and I did, indeed, buy the 1 year warranty. After asking them where you bring it back - can I bring it here if it breaks or do I have to send it somewhere - and the lady smiling saying bring it here! I was sold on that idea. I doubt that thing will last a year.  It was on sale and so, I think the $7 spent to warranty it was probably worth it.  

Kids were not real happy about school this morning.  "I'm tired". You went to bed at 7:30 last night, how can you be tired? Did you have trouble going to sleep? Yes.  I tried to.  Oh well, it's still the beginning of the school year for all intents and purposes and getting used to getting up at 5:40 am when you were getting up whenever you wanted to and usually at least 2 hours later than that?  Yeah, I can see that being tough at first. 

_____________

No call from the manager.  I haven't figured out yet how I feel.  But it seems like I have all of this energy all of a sudden.  I've had drugs give me opposite side effects before....I dunno if it's that or I'm just tired of sitting around so much. I just haven't had the energy. Forcing my @$$ out of bed at 5:30 am was a good thing and I'm still going.

I did, indeed, get most of the stuff out of the way of the boat. I just need to hook the pickup up to the trailer that's in front of it, pull it out and then hook the boat up and pull that out and then...put the other trailer back where the boat was.  I'm not sure I'm doing that today but if I am, I'm going to ask James' help if he doesn't work too late.  

I don't have any muscle spasms. It has only been a couple of hours so I dunno, just waiting this one out.  

 Monday - early

I do not have work today, I got up early to get readjusted to work life.  Tomorrow, I am highly likely to get a load and regardless of how I feel, I need to get back to work. I am expecting some information from this cat scan today, if I don't get it I will call the urologist and ask about it. 

Just going to go over to the park and do a couple of hours of tractor work before it gets hot.  It's been getting extremely warm here during the peak heat hours of the day and I just don't want to work out in that.  You are completely exposed on that tractor, there is no canopy attached to it. 

I'm only waiting until 8:00 am so I don't make excessive noise too early in the day.  

I will continue work on the rear portion as that is what I really want to get completely cleared out, sans some trees that are re-growing that are no Sweetgum trees.  At least 2/3rd's of those have been wiped out, which was the initial goal but the end goal, if possible, is to get the entire thing down to dirt.  Hopefully the grass will grow back, tho that is definitely not going to happen right now as the ground is bone dry and there isn't a drop of rain forecast for quite a while.  

Well I take that back.  I check the forecast daily. Somehow, a huge storm front is moving through, but it's to the east of us.  Probably 45 miles away over in Bossier City/Shreveport area.  We aren't getting any of that, as much as I would like it to. A little rain would loosen up the soil and make it easier to get those trees uprooted out of the ground.  Yup, the sky is quite dark to the east of us. 

I don't have much.  Just a bit tired as my sleep has been all over the board.  It wasn't terrible last night but not great either.  I do want to get the boat over there, I'm thinking of today, maybe. The license plate is gone, I have no idea what happened to that and it's unregistered. It's only 4 miles to the property, but I dunno if I want to take that chance. At the same time, i don't really want to pay to register the thing until it's completely ready to go? Lol, just not sure about that one.

Oh, well the tires are half flat - still, the nearest gas station with an air pump is only maybe a half mile away. It's been sitting quite a while.  I figure those ladies can get it nicely cleaned up, install all of that stuff and get it lake ready in a relatively short period of time. I want to put a new bilge pump on it as well and still need to buy another marine battery for the engine itself.

Regardless, it's 7:35 am and I think I will mosey on over there.

 Sunday mid-morning

I was put on a bit of a scare 2 days ago.  No, not my health, who knows where that's at, still waiting for the results of the cat scan.  

There is this guy that is also in a couple of the RV park owner's/managers forum that I have seen posting for quite a while and we've even discussed things with each other in those forums. 

So, the first thing that happened is him posting in my Facebook selling page.  It's up to 2.5k people now. Still kind of small but over time, it's slowly but consistently been growing.  So I saw this post, never heard of the place, looked at the video of the lots, thought, hmm, those are super-close together and moved on.

Then? He contacts me via Facebook messenger. I'm opening up a new RV park in (my town)!  He names the name of the park. Where is it located? "In your town!"  He names the name of it and no, I've never heard of it.  I instantly thought, another RV park in this town?  We got into a conversation, this is a tight market here, I said, a lot  of competition.  I"m only concerned about me, he replied. That was when things went from, dang another RV park to, what the heck is up with this dude?  

He owns 4 or 5 small parks all over the region.  He was pretty suck up and selfish and I eventually got tired of it and got out of the conversation. All me, me, me and "I'm not concerned about anyone else or what they're doing", I'm "taking care of myself" and much worse than that.  

Well, I have to see this place to see what kind of amenities he may have and what level of competition he's going to pose.  So, load up the kids (parents were still out of town) and drive over there.  The first thing we see is a huge graveyard.  Very well kept, yes, lots of fresh flowers all over the place, yes, but still - a cemetery.  Right next to it is this guy's "new" RV park.  I pretty much put out a sigh of relief when I realized this was Leigh RV park originally, then it apparently was sold and had a new name on it and apparently sold again and now this guy is slapping the new name on it.

In other words, it is not a new RV park.  I didn't want to drive onto the property for I didn't have permission to and I'm just not going there, so I pulled up Google maps and put it in the satellite mode.  All I could see out front was maybe 10 spots, most of them filled.  Google showed a bunch of new spots well in the back, out of site.  I noticed on the map that these sites are all very close together the same as what it appeared on the video on the ad.  

Strike one is the junky appearance of the place and considering he's opening tomorrow, it doesn't appear he's doing anything about that. Strike 2 is the new entrance he created, which takes you right next to the graveyard.  Strike 3 are all these new lots that appear like they are so close together, 2 rigs with slideouts wouldn't fit next to each other.  

One of the kids started shaking his head.  Now, I haven't really said anything about this graveyard besides, oh wow, there's a cemetery right there!  Nope.  Not me, I wouldn't live next to that, that's totally creepy! A 9 year old likely voicing the sentiments of lots of people.  

Oh, strike 4, actually, it's right next to the highway.  Sorry, I don't get the appeal of being right next to busy highways with lots of noise.  I know there are a lot of RV parks that position themselves in such places, convenience I guess. If you are driving and just need a place to stop, that may be appealing.  This highway basically leads to "nowhere".  Literally, one of the names up the road is named uncertain, lol.  There's a lake, there's fun stuff, but as far as a main thoroughfare? No.  

So, even tho he may take some business from the rest of us, the alarm bells are gone.  I'll monitor it and see what happens.  If he doesn't post his prices, I'll have someone call that actually owns and RV and ask them for their rates.  He is positioned for for taking a share of any highway workers that will come in when that Interstate construction begins.  It may be what he's looking for.  That's another ... year off? 

So, we get into another conversation yesterday and he offers to sell me the place.  Umm, ok?  How much?  2 million. Good thing he wasn't in the same room for I busted out laughing. That park isn't worth half that amount of money.  He will do owner financing with 12% down, which comes up to 260k. Lol, if I had 260k, I wouldn't dump it into that place.  I would use some or a lot of it to increase my park lots and add amenities.  I don't know where he's going to find a person to dump that much money down on a place like that. I never asked  his terms - length of time to pay it off and interest rate, he's clearly out just a shark in the RV park waters attempting to take advantage of some poor soul that wants in the business and doesn't know what they are doing. 

Ok, I just spent some time writing that out, but it was .... interesting to say the least.  I'm glad I decided to drive over there and see for myself what's going on there.  Now that I have permission to drive onto his property, I'm going to see this addition to the  place for myself.  It's just weird that the entrance to the park is also the entrance to a large cemetery.....

Sunday, going to get ready for church in a bit.  Kids are consumed with TV in the living room and bedroom, I don't go begging them to go to church. They know it's Sunday, if they don't show any interest, I just go by myself and oh well.  I do want to go, that's all I know.  I know how it is having parents forcing me to go to church every Sunday and that just doesn't work. You just create the environment for rebellion. It has to be their choice if they want to go or not, IMO.  

I dunno what else. Oh, yes, the new guy.  He disappeared for 3 days and I got a call last night that we need to do a wellness check. Ok?  I was going to go over there, but they decided to do it again...no one told me there was even an issue going on.  LIke, no one had seen him for 3 days.  He's probably hiding, I thought, because he can't find anyone to haul that junk trailer off the lot. I won't pull it, it looks extremely unsafe. It's missing 2 of it's wheels and I was surprised after seeing it that anyone would take the risk pulling that thing from 30 miles away.  Or that they hadn't been pulled over, they must have gotten lucky and no troopers or sheriff deputies saw them pulling it.   

Whatever.  He also didn't get the windows done, he was supposed to have someone come over there yesterday to do that.  No show, don't know, I'm going to be paying him a visit today.  I am at the end of my limits with this dude and his junk.  This trailer he has now isn't bad, it just needed a broken window fixed and a new panel put over the water heater access.  And washed, it needs a bath.  So who knows.  I'm afraid I'm going to get stuck with the cost of having that thing removed from my property.  He's broke, doesn't get his monthly check until the 26th. 

What else? The people in the coach. The sister that was already living in the park virtually begged me on the phone to let them stay another week. "We've been all over the place looking for a place for them..".  Ok? I want them off my property. There are adults in there that are perfectly capable of getting a job somewhere.  I know, work, sounds horrible to some people.  Like, can't we just live for free? They aren't paying anything for anything.  After a while of this, I agreed to another week. As long as they haven't been there a month, it's easy to get them off the property if it comes to forcing them out. I told her don't ask me for any more time after this, they are leaving.  I won't listen to another request.  I feel like I've done as much as I can do to help them out, they are using my resources and not paying anything for it.  At least I'm not paying for the electricity to cool that thing, the sister is paying for the daily gasoline bill which isn't cheap.  

I get myself into these situations and then I kick myself for falling for it. Then I think about Christ and if He would have had me help them? Well I doubt I'm getting sent to hell for helping poor people, that's a  lot of who Christ helped.  But you get into these people's minds and they are nowhere near any level of self-preservation. They are of the "someone else needs to help me do and pay for everything" mindset.  I can't stand that. People lie, a lot, about their situations.  I don't know how many more questions I can ask to get the truth out. It's up to me to either just help them or tell them to move on.  There's a 20-something in the coach along with the other 2 people.  He's not disabled. There is no motivation to do anything.  I don't get it. 

Oh, and another thing about the "new" park.  I went there in my mind, thinking about the nearest place a person could work and be able to walk there. It's a mile and a half away, a convenience store, dunno if they're hiring.  That new park? It's 5 miles to the nearest store.  I just add up all the things that are not in that dude's favor and say to myself, welp, he's not really in a good position over there.  

So, today is just go to church, go over to the park and deal with this dude, then to the pharmacy.  They want me to start taking stuff for high cholesterol.  I'll take, with hesitancy.  I don't know how high it is, the new doc just ordered it without calling me about it.