Friday mid-morning

I got my trailer ready to go and headed over to a church where we were all going to meet.  There was a bunch of people, that 16 foot trailer was full.  And it was a blessing because otherwise? There would have been a lot of walking.  It's just what it is in this area where you will find several houses together giving out candy and then have to drive a pretty good distance to find another one . 

But we found plenty and the kids were having a blast.  It was much better than last year where we went to a different neighborhood and for whatever reason, most of the houses weren't giving out anything.  Previous years most of the houses on certain streets were all participating.  I think a lot of people weren't doing it this year because the cost of candy is ridiculous and people aren't exactly prospering right now.  

Some friends spent $150 on candy and by the time we got to their house? It was all gone.  I did my part by offering the services of giving everyone a ride.  Slow ride of course, 5 mph or less excepting at the end where it was obvious that everyone was out of candy or weren't doing it at all and the houses were all dark. Then it was 10 mph to get back to the church.  

We also went to another person's house that was with us - her dad - who gave the kids candy and handed out free pizza to everyone.  He had a 10 foot tall - monster I guess? lol - on his front yard.  Looked like some version of a Frankenstein mixed with an Undertaker.  I have Christian friends who are vehemently against the idea of Halloween, which is fine, I don't celebrate demons, witches and the like.  Churches give it a different name and have fun activities while still promoting Christ above all things.  In this regard, I believe my heart is right. Just like people opposed to Christmas because Christmas trees are evil and a bunch of other stuff. Or Easter Egg hunting.  

That was last night.  Now? I have been cleaning my room.  Between dog odors and just a general sense of clutter, it was time to clean.  In fact, I think I may get out the carpet cleaning machine and clean the main travel areas.  It doesn't look particularly good, needs a good cleaning.

But it was time for a break.  Papers papers papers.  Ridiculous amounts of papers, throwing lots of it in the trash can.  

The bid finally came in. Bids actually.  When I saw 140k, I wasn't particularly surprised.  It's 25 lots and it's a lot of materials.  But, scrutinizing it, it became evident that none of the electrical was included in that price. So, I searched for another email from them, couldn't find anything.  

The contractor texted it to me, not shocking either, tho a lot more than I'd like to pay for this entire setup. 

The highest cost item? I knew what it would be before seeing it: gravel.  80 truckloads of gravel.  346k

1,200 tons of gravel or 1,200,000 pounds of gravel. Why? Because there are 25 lots worth of new gravel, an entire new driveway and covering the entire 1,400 feet of existing driveway.  Yup, I knew that would be high and I knew electrical would come in second place at $42,500. Oh, the gravel was $67,000.

So, we add up the first and second bid, then add the cost of covered parking (separate contractor) and the balance left on the land itself and we come up with $319,850. At 10% rate (that is what I found for SBA business loans, not sure if that's correct) on a 20 year note, the monthly payments would be $3,086.62.  I pay $441 now for the property so deduct that and the added amount to my monthly expenses would be $2,645.62.

Let's continue down this road of math.  Take the lot rent I charge and multiply it by 40 and you come up with 16,000 gross revenues for a completely full park.  You really don't calculate for that, that is optimal, I have had it this year for quite a while but currently I'm 3 lots empty.  Take out the $3,086.62 and come up with 12,913.38.  I'm going to be tripling my electric bill so take a realistic average and still have $8,413.38 left. Add around $300 per month water - people don't really use that much water I have found out, plus another trash dumpster, that would be an additional $170, plus another $300 for wifi and we come up with a total of all those items at $770.  That leaves 7,643.38 left.  

Now, let's say I can keep it 85% filled.  Take off an additional amount and my net revenue to put in my pocket before taxes is 5,242.38.  Unfortunately, you have to figure that you are going to need some help.  I ain't doing all that work myself, but if I could find workampers  I don't pay them anything and fill up one of those unused spots that I took out at 85% occupancy rate and not adding any electric or anything else since I calculated all of that at a full park using it and I still have...$5,242.38.  

That is around what I was taking home with my previous job - working 14 hours a day, 5 to 7 days a week, hardly ever home, etc.  

But, let's be realistic and take out the taxes and health care coverage.  

Yup, I'm not sure this is a workable deal after you do the nuts and bolts of the math and come down to where the rubber meets the road.  

My current electric bill is around $1,100. This is where I could make something back. Because I had meters priced on all of that installation.  Have a couple of tiers of rates. One full price with electric and one lower priced without electric, separate bill the guest has to pay all by themselves.  Electricity is by far and away my biggest monthly expense, nothing else even comes close.  

Oh, I could keep working, the thought just entered my mind.  Work until my credit card debt is paid off and get rid of that burden and then living on rv park only income becomes more feasible.  I'm not paying health care out of my pocket if I do that and work until I'm 65 (Lord willing that I live that long of course) and then it makes more sense to take a deal like this and get it done. 

There are things that could bring more money to my pocket. First is the interest rate.  Obviously, the lower the rate the better the monthly payment. Second is the loan length. 30 years would bring the monthly payment down by over $500.  Third is simply keeping the park full.  That adds over 2 grand per month - but that is hardly guaranteed, just a thought with those covered parking spaces and different pay options, I might be able to get it to capacity and keep it "relatively" full.  If I could get people to pay their own electric, even reducing the monthly rate still results in increased revenues.  The other thing is to just have the ability to know how much electricity people are using. If I know that, I can approach people that are using excessive amounts of "free" electric and ask them to ante up - or they can find greener pastures elsewhere. 

Mitigating the electricity department would really be key to success or failure, IMO.  And the ability to "steal" long term guests from other parks.  This would include amenities that aren't calculated into any of that.  Those are risky beyond the covered parking which I truly believe would bring people in for they want their units covered.  They no longer have to worry about roofing issues, it's worth extra money and yes, now that I just remembered it, I would be charging extra for covered parking. If it's going to cost me 76k, you can be rest assured that some of that is going to get spread to the guests and I believe guests are willing to pay extra for that kind of amenity. 

Pools and hot tubs? who knows.  

Oops, forgot that my insurance will go up with added spaces. Don't know how much.  And if I add amenities, that jacks up the insurance rate as well.  Property taxes would probably also go up, but at that point I would likely hire a lawyer to go in and attempt to litigate any excessive raise.  That or figure out how to get exemptions.  I don't have enough room for cattle, I own too much property for ...

Wait!!  If I cut the property in half, that would definitely have a net overall reduction in rate.  Why? Because 7 plus acres would be the RV park and the rest of the 25 would be undeveloped land.  Less acreage on the rv park will result in less property tax even if they increase the value for the fact of the RV park alone. 

I have a lot to think about, obviously and I haven't made any decisions and I don't even know if I will qualify for a loan.  It may be that they want me to get rid of a lot of credit card debt before they will entertain a loan. On the other hand, I have a lot of collateral to put up. If they factor in what it will be worth after the upgrade, it is going to be in the 800k to 1 million range.  You give a lendee 350k and have that much to back it up?  I dunno how bankers think, tho, not my expertise.  I'm definitely not factoring in a down payment and will not do it. Not with the property itself as collateral.  

I'd actually like to get more than the amount I listed above for the loan to cover things that I didn't think of when I built out the park. There are a lot of expenses you don't understand you will come up against when building a brand new park. I'm not talking about pools, if I do that you add at least 25k if  doing an above ground setup - that is sunk partially into the ground and decking, fencing, gate, etc.  If adding an above ground hot tub - that's whatever the tub costs and they are all over the place plus a concrete slab and some sort of gazebo to cover it plus fencing and gate.  Or, if you have a pool and a tub, you put them all in the same area and then you are only doing one fence. 

Again, I have a lot to ponder here and I still haven't filled out all of the paperwork to start the SBA loan process. It's going to be hellish if they feel like they can get it through, I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the onslaught of explanations and details they will endlessly ask.  Why are you in so much credit card debt? Because I didn't have enough cash to finish out the project, can that be added to the loan?  Lol, I will ask that even if I have the feeling they will tell me no.  They'll ask about my house, my trucking job, my debt, what I have done with the property, want to look at all the financials - which is basically log into my quickbooks account and look for yourself.  If you want receipts, I have piles of them, look away! lmao.

I'm done here. I'm going to get out the carpet cleaning machine and do the main travel areas of my bedroom carpet. 

G'day.  

 Thursday - mid morning

I'm fully admitting it here: I blew my plans up and just stayed in bed.  After 8 days of working, many of them very long days, not just work but everything else going on, I had had enough. Might as well sleep in, laze around, do whatever I please.  

I was going to do the grass seed today and it is going to rain in a couple of hours - but - it's still getting too warm day time highs for rye grass.  And tomorrow there is a low chance of rain, meaning the seed could get wet today and then dry out tomorrow. $250? down the drain.

No, the only plans I have today is go to the Park, put the outside camera on the charger, get the SUV and bring it home. And probably get a couple hay bales if I can find them in town and not too expensive.  Well apparently the local feed and seed has "quarter bales" and from what I'm seeing on the internet, they aren't very big.  I'm gonna have to go over there and lay eyeballs on them - but I'm waiting to see if anyone responds to my post in the local gossip group.  

I just need a couple of "regular sized" bales, whatever that is.  

It's raining again, on and off here, but the forecast says it's going to stop before we are going out on the streets. Of course, the forecasts have been wrong so many times around here, it gets a bit ridiculous.  

It's also a perfect day to go to IHOP and have breakfast, so..I'll stay home and make a sandwich lmao.  I'm trying to behave in the going-out-to-eat department and I have done pretty well so far with one exception going to Applebee's with the boys.  I looked up what I was spending on eating out and it's a bit on the ridiculous side.  Like wow, I didn't know I was spending that much money on that stuff.  I can buy a lot of food for that much money!  Fill up freezers.  

5 days off including today.  I dunno, but I can tell you I am perfectly content just sitting in my bedroom. But, I need to get some stuff done including a haircut, a trip to the bank and other "things" that take time that I don't want to do but need to get done.  Oh, the court house for sure.  Not today tho, I need to switch the title to Texas on the truck and I am just waiting that one out for as long as I can.  Why switch now when I can wait another couple weeks? The longer I wait, the longer it will be next year to re-register.  

I bet there aren't too many people at Great Clips right now and my hair? Yikes! It's growing all directions, I look like a white-headed freak show right now. Even putting that glue-like stuff in my hair isn't taming it.  

When I arrived at the plant today, it became obvious why they are shutting down for several days.  They have a huge number of people that showed up to install a new roof on that giant facility.  

The thing that really got me, however, after being there 30 minutes offloading, is another one of our trucks pulling up behind me.  Huh? I was told yesterday that I was the only one loading today, why is there another truck there? And what is it doing there so early?  The real kicker is this: there wasn't enough room for another truckload in that tank after I was done.  So, if I had shown up just a half hour later, that person would have been in my way and would have cost me untold hours waiting until the tank was low enough to drain a truckload into it. 

 

Yeah, not real happy about that, these other drivers just don't care and that's that.  

Another thing of amazement is what's going on right now: It's raining!  Today was supposed to be a very low chance of rain, but late this morning I noticed that they had it raining between 3:30 and 5:00 pm. All nice fine and dandy, but it's only 2:00 pm and it's supposed to go on through 5:00 pm. 

Well I hope it ends then for the church is doing it's annual fall fest - it's an alternative to trick or treating/halloween stuff - which allegedly starts at 5:30 pm.  

I'm so tired. I have been all day long. I thought I would wake up after a good night's sleep, apparently not.  It does seem to work out this way that after many days of hardly any sleep, I'll go into a deep sleep and then the next morning, I'll wake up in a fog and that fog will either take quite a while to go away - or it won't go away at all.  

Yeah, it hasn't gone away at all and I'm going to take a nap and get back at this blog later. 

________________________

It has been confirmed that Allen - the former park host - was drinking as much as 3 6-packs of beer per day, had liver problems and had a hernia before he died on Monday. Yes, you read that right: 3 6 packs of beer per day.  I am in no wise judging the man, to each his own.  You want to drink that much beer, that is your choice.  I don't believe the outcome of it is going to be very good if you do it for a long time such as he was.  I knew he was drinking beer daily, I didn't understand the scope of it until today.  

I really don't know how the family is taking it, Renee didn't sound good or bad on the phone, rather neutral. The son, no clue, the daughter is  in prison.  Like, for years.  

The boy - 18 year old at the park - is finally working on his tractor.  The blades are very dull and I basically demanded he get it fixed. I have stuff to do on that thing and I can't do it with blades that aren't cutting anything. They are so dull they just go over the weeds and beat them down to the ground, they don't cut them.  It's probably my doings but whatever.  This is a rent-for-use-of-the-tractor arrangement tho I think I'm going to use the thing a while longer and then dissolve myself of that arrangement. I need the money from the lot.   

Fall Fest in a few hours.  It's been raining and now they have upped it to raining up until 7:00 pm. Light rain, I dunno if they're going to have their outdoors activities or not. It was supposed to be bouncy house, hayrides, etc.  We're going, if nothing else they'll do it indoors.  I guess?  

___________

Many hours later. Keeping up with kids is quite the exercise in futility, or so it seems.  I took them to church - there were a lot of people there. These were people that don't even go to the church, the church made the advertisement to the entire community.  It was packed, the entire place and it's a big church.  One booth to another to another, we did all 27 booths.  Yes, there were 27 of them, plus a bounce house.  Had a small dinner of a hot dog and chips, things on the no list for me but oh well, I've cut back so much on fat and red meats and cholesterol laden foods that I am not going to feel bad eating something here and there.  

Anyway, I am worn out. That after working all day and getting other stuff done.  It is not likely that I will be getting up early in the morning, but who knows? Tomorrow is going to be more of the same - at least in the evening for it's Halloween and everyone is going trick or treating. I am going to pull my trailer around neighborhoods so there isn't so much walking to do.  I've done this a couple years now.  Just put along a few miles an hour.  There is going to be a large number of people going together.  I was thinking of getting some hay bales for people to sit on, but only if they don't cost too much.  

Oh, yeah, they're cheap but they're 30 miles away lol.  There is a store selling them, the same store that sells the grass seed, I might stop in and see how much they want for them.  

I'm done. Getting late, time to go to bed. No work tomorrow, don't have to get up early tho : )

 Wednesday - early

One thing is for certain: I slept like a baby last night.  Much needed sleep. I woke up a couple of times but I fell right back asleep.  You give me 7-1/2 hours of good sleep and yes, it will take a while to wake up out of that, but once I do wake up? Oh myyy the things that I can get done.  

Headline news: "Biden calls Trump supporters garbage...".  Senile old man, losing his mind, was always given over to bouts of anger.  They have plenty of clips of him getting testy with people who are standing around him at any of his "rallies" or visiting plants and such.  I'm not trying to judge the man, maybe I just did, he needs Jesus.  He can claim his Catholicism all he wants, it's just religion.  Not saying there aren't saved Catholics, not at all, but in his case?

I'm not God and I don't make those determinations, but out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.  You'll know them by their fruit.  And other scripture that helps determine where people's minds and hearts are at.  Biden is angry, I am supposing, because he gave up his nomination for another 4 years - which he clearly would not be able to handle if he even lives that long - and Harris is edging him out of the campaign.  Harris is, in my estimation, as useless as Biden but she is the presidential nominee for the Democrat party.  

In fact, I consider them to be evil people.  I also know that God loves them and wants them to come to Him, through Christ, the Mediator between man and God.  They have made their choices, however and they are glaringly obvious.  Especially abortion.  If you want to find out why people do the things they do, follow the money trail.  The love of money is the root of all evil.  You'll find the abortion industry is extremely lucrative, they make billions upon billions of dollars every year in killing innocent babies.  

I don't care who it is, tho.  If they are off, follow the money trail.  

Anyway, it's Wednesday, it's still early, I'll be getting out of here soon and heading up to Gurdon for the last time until next week when I am scheduled to go back to work on Tuesday morning.  I haven't quite decided what to do with the time.  I'll figure it out, but there is probably going to be some time spent seeking the Lord.  I spent some time studying that HOA overview for this and previous years since Covid and came to the conclusion that one of the ways to get more customers in? Get them from other parks.

I need to offer something that other parks don't have.  Well, the price is one thing of course, but that's not everything. Some people are willing to pay more for more amenities or whatever they perceive as a "better" place to live.  It's just a thing that will be floating around in my mind,, I have other thoughts after reading that report as well, but I don't have time for that right now.

G'day

 Tuesday - 7:45 pm

Washout - 23 minutes in and out of there. I thought, wow, this is great hope the rest of the day goes like this!  It did not.  I got to the plant and waited over an hour and a half before they even got to me, then they were doing "something" back there and disappeared for another 25 minutes and then finally got to me.  It was almost 3 hours in there where I am normally in there an hour or less.

Oh well, it happens.  I get fuel and am driving back and see a call from Allen - Park Host, you know, the one that left to go work near Austin and his family came to take over?  Hey Allen, how's it going? I said into the phone when I answered - yes I was using bluetooth, perfectly legal to use while driving.  

The female voice that replied was obviously not Allen. Hi Ben, this is Renee (Allen's wife), I wanted to call and let you know that Allen died yesterday morning.  

I mean....huh....what?!!  There was a bit of silence on my part after she said that for I had to digest that for a few seconds.  He wasn't on his death bed the last time I spoke with him, I wondered why he hadn't returned my text message.  Well, we are going down to Austin, his body has already been transported there, do funeral arrangements and take care of things.  I offered my apologies, condolences, sincere respect and said do whatever you need, take all the time that you need.

I then asked what happened to him, considering he was - well not perfectly healthy but certainly not dying the last time I saw him a few weeks ago and talking to him on the phone here and there.   She said he had actually come up to the park on Sunday - which I didn't know, his whole body was swelling up and his family told him he needs to go to the hospital.  He refused but they persisted.  

So, they took him.  His body was shutting down.  He had sepsis - from what I still don't know I didn't want to get too carried away with personal questions - his condition got worse overnight, his kidneys failed and he died Monday morning, yesterday.  Completely shocking, didn't see that one coming. I knew he wasn't in good health, you could tell that by looking at him.  He also had a severe hernia which he was going to get an operation on I think next month. 

We weren't best friends, we had hung out quite a lot tho before he left to go to work.  I'm only saying that because this is the third person this year that I know that has passed away.  I'm seriously hoping I am not on that list as well.  I mean, to the point I was asking God today if He could find it to give me at least another 20 years of good life and preferably without Alzheimer's - which runs in my dad's family lines.  I even asked Him for a sign, I didn't specify what or even that he "has" to do so, just a respectful request.  God is real and I have seen Him in operation many times over, especially when I was serving Him on the mission field in my 20's. 

They then contacted me and asked if I could help out with funeral expenses, so I sent some money. Not a huge amount but I felt like it was the least I could do.  He had no life insurance and he was broke besides the money he was bringing in from his job.  As far as I know, that trailer in my park is the only thing he actually owned, he didn't even have his own vehicle.  His wife has an older Ram pickup, it's in decent shape.  

I have no idea what this means for them in my park, I didn't ask or even think about it at the time but I'm thinking about it now.  Are they going to stay? If so, who is the son going to be accountable to since he's gone?  I know it sounds dreadful to even be pondering such things, but they don't know about this blog and therefore I have no problem discussing it in my mind out in writing, so to speak.  She said they'd be gone 5 or 6 days and I reassured her again that I completely understand (which I really do) and take as much time as you need.  

If I want that grass seed scattered, I'll have to do it myself tho I was planning on it anyway but was going to ask for a little help from the kid.  I want to do it myself for I want it done right, or at least done the way I want it done so I know that it's going to have a good outcome.  

As it stands, I have work tomorrow and then I'll have to decide whether I am going to go have the tanker washed out or take it back to the park and spray the inside walls of the thing down myself with a garden hose.  I'd do that at the plant but they don't allow you to get up on top of the tanker.  They won't even allow flatbed haulers up on the deck of their trailer to deal with tying down the load and putting the tarps over it if it's a load requiring tarps.  Well, you can tie it down on the property, you can't tarp it.  It's impossible to tarp a load on a flatbed without getting up on the flatbed. 

BTW, I don't make demands of God. I just ask very humbly and if it's within His will, great, if not, then there's something else He has in mind and I'm ok with that too.  I just feel like I have a purpose still being here on this earth in this human body and I'd love to stick around a while longer.   Any of us can click off at any time and this is a direct reminder, at least to me, of that fact.  

Politics. It's gross now.  Just repulsive. I don't get how these politicians believe that lashing out like some of them are to the point of even using vulgarity and extremely hostile speech is going to motivate voters to vote for them. It's a huge turn-off to me.  Democrats are desperate, they have been for a while. The polls have shifted in favor of Trump so now it's no holds barred, apparently.  Blacks and latinos are starting to turn on them, the unions have been turning on them, some democrat politicians have also turned their backs on Kamala/communism/extremism.  People are finally waking up, I think anyway, to the fact that their policies are not good for the common man/woman.  It is self serving to them and the elitists that are on the receiving end of their generosities.  

Anyway, if my sleep is good tonight, I'll go deliver the glue, come back, get in the Ford with the trailer already hooked up to it, go get 5 50 pound bags of grass seed and then go ahead and put it down.  I need that park nice and green again.  The seed is only $40 per bag.  That's still and amazing price. 2 years ago it was $35 per bag, only $5 increase in this inflation oppressed economy is not bad at all. It's a local feed and seed, everyone else is charging much more for it.  In my view it's a necessary thing to do to keep the place looking nice.

But, I was reading today on an RV manager's forum about the slow down that I have personally witnessed in my park.  I had no idea this was an industry wide thing going on.  It's the economy, stupid, I told myself.  That's why people aren't traveling as much. The stats showed that a majority of people are not traveling more than a gas tank's worth of fuel away from their homes.  He - this is an expert in the field of RV parks - noted a few other things and then said to reference the KOA ND camping report. I haven't done that yet, but I am going to. He specifically stated that a "new" style of ads needs to be directed to the new "audience", he called these new RV'ers that came about during the COVID crises.  

It is all very fascinating and I will be reading that report tonight or definitely tomorrow.  I have far  less travelers coming through this year than at this time last year.  I didn't know what to think of it. I really didn't know.  I sort of thought it was the new guy - but he's so far away from the Interstate that he's not likely to get a lot of overnight people coming in there.  I thought maybe someone has lowered their prices, but I am clearly the lowest price in the area for overnight stays.  Overnight stays are not my primary target grouping, but they can be profitable during this time of the year - I thought anyway if it was going to be the same as last year.

My target is long term/permanent.  Much less money.  The problem as I have already stated previously is there are only so many of them to go around to a pretty good amount of RV parks around here. The point? I have to get people to leave other parks and come to mine.  How do you do that? I really feel that covered parking is a good starting point, beyond pools and hot tubs.  

I don't want to go too much into that tonight.  I'm tired.  I slept maybe 5 hours last night - just another night of poor sleep - and then when I got home today I passed out on my bed and went into a very deep sleep, too deep. James came home on his motorcycle and woke me up - probably a good thing.  I might have slept for hours and then not be able to get to sleep tonight.  The thing is, during daytime and falling asleep like that? You are in a fog when you wake up.  

Finally out of that fog I will be able to go to sleep in an hour or so.  I have no drivers to contend with tomorrow, I am the last load as far as I know and I know for certain I was the only one loading today.  I believe after I deliver my load, there aren't any more going up there until Monday.  I am not loading until Tuesday.  I got lucky, actually, in having to do a full turn in one day, that's 2 days pay in one day's work.  

Time to get offa here.  

 Monday - early afternoon

Done with that run - I was supposed to be off today but the full turn yesterday forced me to deliver today. Not that I mind doing the work, but I felt so cruddy this morning. Not feeling well, not at all. However.

I've got another run to do tomorrow which takes me to Wednesday and then after that?  The plant is shutting down yet again and I'm off for 5 full days.  This is getting ridiculous.  I was thinking here I am, working my butt off and hopefully keep on going - whether I feel good or not, I need the money.  

Whatever.  I'll get the next 2 days over with and if I still am not feeling better after those 2 days, I'll count it a blessing that I got the time off to recover. Otherwise, I'm getting the grass seed and that will be a project that I really want to get done.  

The left is ramping up the vitriolic and inflammatory rhetoric to absurd levels.  Comparing Trump to Hitler, calling his rally in NYC a repeat of a 1939 Hitler convention, continuing on with the "threat to our democracy" and endless nonsense.  It's ridiculous and it's why I have been trying to stay away from watching the news for it's constant.  But, I can't help but watch at least a little of it before I get disgusted and turn it off.  I do believe Trump is going to win this election and I think they understand he's going to win the election, so they are ramping it up to levels we haven't seen in a long long time.  If ever.  

And I think if he does win, they are going to try to invent ways to disqualify him.  Remember in 2016 they were taking out ads on national tv to beg the electoral college voters to change their vote if it was going to be for Trump.  Ethics only go so far with them when they are convenient to use.  

Anyway, I'm tired, not feeling well, hoarse, just icky feeling.  

And therefore, cutting this one short.  

 Sunday - late

I got up at 5:25 am, got showered, got out of there. Made my lunch last night for I knew I was going to be driving all day long so wanted to take enough food to last the day.  

I wasn't wrong about driving all day long. Well, it's more a mix of driving and making stops, but it was over 500 miles so yes, I did some driving today.  

Gurdon delivery was painless. No one showed up before me, the security guards got to the scales quick, the offload was relatively short, we're all good there. 240 miles down to the washout, a bit of a wait.  I called in advance but they weren't answering their phone.  The dude eventually showed up, got the tanker cleaned out, off to Lufkin.  That was a 40 minute wait to even start loading.  I don't know why, I didn't ask.  I began to wonder if I was going to even make it home today-  I  have waited many hours there on certain occasions in the past to get the tank filled up.

Got it done and I hustled out of there.  I don't want to get home so late that I don't have any down time for it's time to go to bed.  I didn't even stop for fuel, which I normally do at one of the Love's in Lufkin.  I have plenty of fuel, I can stop at the Love's in Domino tomorrow morning on the way up to the plant to offload.   

That was my day. 12-1/2 hours of that garbage.  It reminded me of the days driving for the previous company and many, many 14 hour days, in fact, mostly all 14 hour days if not longer.  I don't miss that at all and would have a very hard time returning to that kind of lifestyle where you're out all the time, missing home, missing the people you hold dear, your pets, your bed, face to face conversations - all of that happens to you when you're on the road all the time and it can get pretty depressing.  Some people like being alone all the time, I used to be that way while driving but the older I got, the more I wanted off the road and spend more time at home.  

The flip side is I did a whole run in one day and that's a nice chunk of change for one day's work. 

Whatever the case, I'm home, burned out, tired, exhausted, relaxing and highly likely going to bed early tonight.  I slept ok last night but yesterday was a very long day and it wore me out. The kids too.   One of them wanted to know where I was at all day long, lol.  Couple today with yesterday and yes, the only reason I am awake is as mentioned above: down time before bed.  And it's not that late, 8:00 pm.  

The other driver going up there tomorrow is going to be there at 11.  We discussed this, he doesn't want to go up early, I will get up at my usual early time of around 5:30 and be up there around 9.  

Anything else today? Nope.  No calls for lots tho I did get an elongated messenger conversation from someone claiming they are moving here and want to park at my park.  The problem? The guy works in Shreveport. It's 35-40 mile drive each way, there are closer parks and I told him that.  

I have nothing else. I am going to bed. 

 

Saturday - late

Very long day. 

I started early, around 5 am, got up, got my stuff and just left. No blogging, no internet, nothing, just go.  I got to the washout and there was a truck ahead of me. But, it turns out, that was planned and there were 2 people working, abnormal for a Saturday but whatever. I got out of there, drove over to Lufkin to get loaded and saw one of our trucks on the shoulder on the northbound side - I was on the southbound side and I wasn't stopping. There is nothing I can do if the truck is broke down, call a wrecker or mobile mechanic and get it fixed.

I wasn't at the plant long, they got me loaded quickly and I got out of there. The truck was gone when I came back, I dunno if it was limped up to the truck stop or what.  

However....I pulled into my driveway to park the truck and freed up for the rest of the day.  The manager called. Johnny's truck is broken down, can you take that load up there today?  Say what?  I didn't hesitate to fire right back (but politely, my manager is actually pretty cool, it takes a lot to get him angry from what I've seen):  I have plans today, namely, taking the kids to Piney Park.  This is the last day we will be able to do that before the current theme is done and over with. 

He wasted no time in asking me to take the load up tomorrow that I have and then drive back down and load tomorrow?  I wasn't going to get out of that one.  He's done me some favors I'm due to pay him back. Just on a Sunday, ugh.  It means unloading, going to the washout out and then loading in the same day.  So I agreed, which means tomorrow is going to be a very long day.  

This driver.   This is his third truck that's broken down with him in it. The first two were his fault.  This one? I don't know yet but I'll find out eventually.  Old trucks, it could have been an unpreventable situation but it could also have been him and his ...well anyway, not really any of my concern excepting he's causing quite a lot of conflict with broken down trucks. The one with trashed transmission is still sitting in the shop.  We have no spares.  

Anyway, got out of that at least for today - I was wasted tired as well, just didn't sleep well last night - and went home, took a short nap and then we went to a birthday part for a couple of hours. After that, back home and then took the kids to the Piney Park event. I didn't make that up for the manager, lol, we had planned on going. $45 worth of tickets to get in for free, they have a lot of activities for kids to do in there.  Big, giant slides.  This giant air guns that shoot tennis balls and the put targets out in a field.  These things you walk on and they change colors - lighted things.  Giant air bags that you jump up and down on much like a trampoline.  Basketball hoops and the trail.  The trail had Halloween stuff up and they had people at various places giving out candy.  In fact, the only thing we didn't do was get on the train thing. There was far too long of a line and none of us wanted to wait. 

I spent nothing until we left, I got the boys some sweatshirts. Instead of some useless, overpriced toys, I wanted to get them a souvenir they would actually use.  

Home.  Feet worn out from walking around for 3 hours, the boys are totally worn and ......wait for it....wait for it::::: IT RAINED!!!

There wasn't even any rain in the forecast.  The kids got wet while they were on those giant air bags and I sat under a canopy lol.  Hey, they wanted to get wet!  This entire region is bone dry, there are no burn orders in most (if not all) of the counties around here. It was enough rain to get the ground wet, not just cover the top of everything and then dry up immediately.

This trucking fiasco has thrown my plans into the toilet tho.  I was going to buy grass seed Monday since my manager didn't have me loading and put the seed down at the Park.  It's supposed to rain for sure starting Thursday and going on 4 or 5 days or even longer after that.  But now, I"ll be delivering the load I pick up tomorrow afternoon.  I'm loading Tuesday as well unless he changed that.  If he gives me a load on Thursday to deliver on Friday, I could take the weekend off and not sweat a small paycheck.  

It is possible that I could get the Monday or Tuesday stuff done early and still get grass seed down, I'll see how my energy levels are at by then. I'll probably be ready to do nothing beyond what I have to do. 

I do need to sleep well tonight.  Or at least mediocre.  If not, it's going to be hellish doing all of that tomorrow.  I never know how I'm going to sleep, but since last night was poor, perhaps tonight will be better.  

Getting a bid on 20 covered parking spots.  If I'm going for that SBA loan, I'm getting covered parking on a good portion of the lots.  25 more spots. 20 covered, redo the main driveway, get another building as I discussed in previous entry (Uhh, I might not have posted that one lol, not sure),  and whatever else comes to mind that I'm going to need to get the people coming in there.  Oh, yes.  I'm going to need WiFi and tho T Mobile works great, I would need 2 more of their devices, they won't let me have them. 

I got 3 devices out of them, 2 on personal account and 1 on business and that's their limit, or so I have been told by a couple of people on their side.  Not really sure what I will do for internet in the back, what I have now suffices for what it's serving.  Starlink?  Pay 8 grand for the local cable company to install the line?  Hughes sucks.

Anyway, I'm really tired and I'm getting off here.   

 Friday - night

So, the main character starting trouble with me was "schooled" by another driver who told him to simply try and communicate instead of starting s*** every time.  Yes, that's my language, you want to get something done that involves me and potentially a conflict? Try talking to me first before you do whatever you are going to do, it will go over a lot  better if we are congenial and upfront with each other - before the fact, not after the fact. 

Thank you.  So he called me today, asked me when I was going to get up there, I told him and then we had a decent conversation - for once.  He wasn't getting up there that early anyway, he had been held up too long at the loading plant yesterday.  

At the receiving plant in Gurdon today, they were almost empty.  They are cleaning their 2 giant tanks. One at a time, obviously, so they don't have to shut down production.  But you get down to one tank only and you have to keep on top of deliveries. There wasn't even a truckload of glue in the tank they are using and that was causing them great concern.  You don't make plywood without glue - well they call it resin, same difference.  

Anyway, 3 of us went up there today and got them in good shape.  I was back relatively early - the delivery run takes longer so getting  back at 1:15 pm is pretty good time. 

I am loading tomorrow again and delivering on Sunday.    Monday off for whatever reason and then loading again on Tuesday.  

I get a call today. "Do you have a spot available?".  Yes, i do!  Great, we are passing through Jefferson, we'll be there soon.  Funny thing is, there is that brand new park in Jefferson. Right next to the highway. Yup, these are repeat customers and they don't want to spend the night next to a very busy highway with trucks making all kinds of noise.  I wonder if people who tell me how great my park is and how quiet it is don't put up reviews because they want it to remain a hidden secret? 

I thought about paying for reviews.  You give them money, they put up reviews. But, that would be unethical so I uindecided that one.  Yes, I know that's not a word.  When you see a brand new park with 45 reviews in a very short period of time, you know there is something up with that.  Especially when you read the reviews, they give a one sentence "it's so great here!" and you know there is some bs going on. 

I guess I will still try to get people to review the park by sending them a google link that takes them straight to the review section.  They don't ever do it, but  it's worth a try. Just a bit exasperating.  

Oh, yes those people did show up. The tent camper that had my ear for 15 minutes on the phone yesterday? Never showed.  What a waste of time for a few bucks.  The impeller pump showed up for the boat, I'm just going to mozy on over there tomorrow after work and ask Trey, did you get that installed?  

I dunno, but tomorrow? We're going to a local attraction with the kids. It's something of an adventure park, I guess you could call it. Different times of the year they have different themes. I don't think they're calling this halloween, something like harvest festival or whatever.  I had to go back to my Christian roots to remember that Halloween is a celebration of evil.  Sorry, I know people call people who think like this zealots and radicals, whatever.  Witches, warlocks, demons, the devil, etc.  That's what it's hyping. 

It's fun and it's going to be free. We have a friend that works at that place and she is getting us free tickets.  

Insurance. I called the insurance company last week and told them I wanted to cancel. They told me I had to come in and sign something.  Why? Just cancel the damn thing, what on earth.  I was going to go in the next day...and completely spaced it out.  I get distracted a lot with so many different things going on.  I was looking at an insurance ad today on Facebook and it hit me: dangit! I forgot to cancel!  

I went in there today - top priority, get my money back - and it took 15 minutes for this lady to go through a bunch of junk on her computer screen to cancel the policy.  Are you serious? I bit my tongue but the thoughts were flowing.  At some point I finally was handed the paper to sign and then was leaving. Oh no, I am going through all of these screens!  More than just hinting I need to stay, so I did because I stood to lose a lot of money if they don't officially cancel the damn thing.  

I then headed over to Applebee's, pulled into the parking lot and then thought, what the forbearance am I doing? Made a U turn, headed home and made lunch out of the refrigerator.  I've eaten 3 salads today, gag.  Enough salad already.  I have to admit that tho I made it through the day eating low fat/cholesterol junk, I ended up having a scoop of rocky road ice cream.  For shame!  

I'm feeling better tho I didn't sleep worth petunias last night.  I woke up at 3:00 am after 5 hours of sleep and that was it.  Whatever.  I'm used to it.  I hate it, but I'm used to it.  

I am on my laptop btw.  I don't use it much, it works great and yes, using a regular keyboard via USB port. Why? Because the oldest kid is using my computer lol.  

I dunno what else.  I have Monday off, I"m going to buy probably 250 pounds of rye grass. It's supposed to rain 4 days in a row start Thursday.  Wait and hold up. I forgot to see what the temps are going to be for the next month. It's still pretty warm and rye grass doesn't like warm.  No, of greater concern is the fact that it isn't showing any rain after that for the rest of the month. I'm not spending $200 plus tax on seed that is going to end up dying.  

Unless the forecast changes, I'm going to wait. Well, I might buy the seed and have it available, but it's not getting spread until regular rain comes back. We are and have been under a burn ban for a while now and that ban is lasting fully 90 days unless weather comes along to change it.  

Yeah, I do hope we are getting more then 4 days of potential rain in the next 90 days! 

Friday night, just another work night for me. I've had my time off. I was asked to go hog hunting on a farm somewhere with the boy - the kid in the park that brought his tractor. Sounded like fun, let's show them things! But, I have to work.  I'd love to blow some of them things away with my AR. They are a nuisance in these parts and it's always open season on them, no permits needed. 

That's it. It's starting to get late and I am getting up at 5:30 am. 

 Thursday - late afternoon

I have no idea where this week has gone, but gone it has.  

Today was half miserable.  I don't feel very good, whatever everyone else has in this household is now affecting me.  I don't have the horrible coughing but I certainly don't feel right. 

And getting to the loading plant today.  "Well you can pull around and park in the parking lot, when the other truck comes out you can back in there".  What? So another driver beat me there?

Well, yes, sort of. Another driver from another company loading some other type of resin out of the same bay that we load from.  It was and hour and a half before they got him out of there.  I found out later that this product takes fully 5 hours to load! Why? No idea, something to do with the idea that it has to be put into these little square containers first and then pumped into trailer. The other driver had shown up at 5:00 am.  

I wondered how many of these cheaters in our company have shown up early only to find they are going to have to wait for a looooong time before they can get loaded? lol!

It's a good thing there is nothing pressing at the park for it wouldn't get done. Not the way I'm feeling. I have no idea whether the kid fixed the tractor or if the park host son worked on the 4 wheeler.  I am not in the mood for bs right now, tho the kid doesn't really dish out bs, if he says he's going to do something, he does it. 

At least I got the holes fixed yesterday. There is still one area that I need to take a whole bucketful of gravel and dump it and spread it out. Still, it's a much smoother ride in there now. 

A person from the University of Tyler has sent me the form to fill out via email to start the loan process for SBA loan.  I don't have the quote on the project yet, I'm not sure I even want to go this route, but I think I will fill it out and see what happens.  Actually,  I had already filled out the form but I needed to look up gross revenues from last year and never got around to it.  That information should be on the business account on quickbooks.  Dunno, don't feel like doing that right now, don't feel like doing anything, not really sure why I'm sitting here pounding keys on the keyboard lol.

I'm going to have to take tylenol with me tomorrow, I wish I had taken some with me today. I would have downed at least one of them while waiting at that plant.  I don't really care how bad I feel tomorrow, I'm taking this load up there and delivering it and fully plan on working the entire weekend as well. I can't afford to get sick, but since I am, oh well, keep working!

Oh, the loan.  My mind is all over the place about that, I just think that if I do go through with this loan, all of those new lots need covered parking and all of the electric outlets need meters.  Skip the pool and replace that expenditure with the covered parking. Meters might cost a couple thousand extra, worth every penny to have them in there and at least seeing who is using what.  

It is also likely that I will get the 16X40 barn constructed next year - depending on the payments.  It's the same guy that built the shed for the laundry room.  He's about half the price of everyone else.  I can put in an office, a pool room (pool tables that is), another laundry setup, at least another shower and storage.  I really need storage.  So half the building for storage/shop purposes.  I'm figuring about double the payment of what I had for the first shed, so probably close to $500 per month.  

This is something I really need, not want.  I've only put it off because I don't want anything impeding me from getting the SBA loan, but in reality, I could add that to the loan as well. He reduced his price from 10k to 9k.  It's built on-site and is pretty good construction.  A precursory search shows the same barn being sold for almost 23k.  The guy just buys the materials in bulk and has crews going out every day building them of all different sizes.  Even if I weren't to get the SBA loan, I could get it through the ridiculous company he uses for loans, Tower Loans. But I think I'd go another route with it, I don't like that loan company at all.  

I'd go 30 wide but for whatever reason, some rule that he has to abide by by the state or whatever, the biggest he builds is 16X40.  It's a lot of room tho. 20 feet of it being a shop/storage facility, it's exactly what I need.  I think a lot of the 'extras' will depend on the cost of the expanded operation.  But, covered parking and meters are mandatory, at least in my mind.  

I'd really love to add a goofy golf course to the mix, 18 holes with all the crazy gadgets doing weird things that bring the people who have very little else to do in this area with their families.  I do wonder if I could build one of those courses myself.  I really need some earth moving equipment on property, owned and not rented.  It would be an interesting project.  Lots of concrete, artificial turf and pre-manufactured obstacles would be needed. Perhaps not quite a goofy golf, the things they use are pretty expensive, but I am looking prices for obstacles and it's not bad.  

 Well, I didn't go.  I ended up sleeping too late and I just gave up on it.  At least I got my Bible out...no church this weekend for I am working, the manager sent another run that covers tomorrow through Sunday. I would like to keep on working into next week, frankly.  I'll try the Bible study again next time I'm free on a Wednesday.  Note that I don't feel bad in not going.

I hooked up the trailer, went over to the park and then this park host son comes out. Haven't really talked to him in many moons for I was not happy with the results and the deal for that free spot was between his father and I, not his father, him and me.  Or, his father, mother, sister, him and I.  So, we chatted and were looking that the 4 wheeler trying to figure out what was going on with it.  Made some headway, he said he'd fiddle with it...if he can get it running I'll hand him some cash, not too much but enough to keep him interested in doing more.  If he can't, it's going on the trailer and to yet another shop.  

I then got on the tractor -after filling up a flat tire on it, it's got a slow leak on one of the front tires - and got busy taking gravel from the rear and filling holes in the front.  During all of this, the other guy did, indeed, show up with a massively long trailer.  That was a bit of a relief. Not staying more than a month, I just take whoever whenever for however long.  I can't be picky about that, especially not with so many open spaces.  I don't have any overnighters coming in for 6 more days - tho that can easily change of course.  

Got done with those holes and was heading up front to try to take down that big mound when the boy showed up. He's the one that owns the tractor - well his family owns it but they are letting him use it.  I had tried again today to use the bush hog attachment, just not doing anything.  So we discussed it and he said he'd get to working on it later after school.  He's got a job and going to school here.  Hopefully he'll get it fixed for there is plenty more weed whacking that needs to be done.  

Yeah, got quite a bit done but then decided to go home for lunch. Lately, it's go somewhere to eat, like Applebee's, but I'm trying to follow through with my decision to cut back on eating out. Plenty of food at the house, especially since I went personal grocery shopping yesterday.  

With the rest of today?  I think I'll start sifting through endless papers and start chucking old stuff. That is going to be a process that will take a lot longer than one afternoon, but I'd like to get a start on it.  I've got far too many papers around here, just need to get rid of "stuff".  

 Wednesday - early

I don't have work today but one of the alarm clocks went off, woke me up and I was like, oh well might as well get up and see the kids off to school.  They get up amazingly early for being young children, I remember those days of getting up before the sun comes up.  I'd make breakfast for dad and then I'd get my stuff and walk a few miles to school.  It's good, I think, to get kids into the habit of getting up early and having to go through a structured day where the entire day is one thing after another after another until the final bell rings and they get on a bus and come home.  

It's a veritable mess trying to take kids to school nowadays where you see a hundred cars lined up to either drop them off or pick them up. You've seen it, surely you have. It's 3:30 pm somewhere even out in the middle of nowhere, you come up on an elementary school and you see a huge line of cars waiting.  We have a school a block away and it happens every day around that time.  They are forced, at least, to wait on certain streets and not allowed to line up every single street in the neighborhood.  

Oh, one of the alarms? A motorcycle.  James rides his bike to work.  I'm used to having either a motorcycle or a pickup waking me up every morning if I'm not already awake.

Now then, to go or not to go.  I"m struggling with this because of the past and my extremely negative experiences with churches. Just get over it, right? I hear people saying this to other people and the other people get pissed off and tell the person that just said that to go eff themselves or something similar.  One of my friends whose wife died a few years ago goes through this with people he knows.  My friend has  meltdown, he gets extremely pissed off.  Who are you to tell me to get over anything?  You go through a traumatic experience and you don't just shake it off. You try to get past it, yes, if you are so inclined. Many people don't even get that far.

So, I'm doing good just to get myself to church every Sunday, worship the Lord and listen to a message - and then leave.  It has nothing to do with God, I love the Lord, but I am not in love with people who exert themselves over you and say rude or nasty things to you and think they are doing a service for the Kingdom of Heaven.  I'm full of faults, I freely admit that.  I am not Mother Theresa or Paul the Apostle, Moses, Elijah or anyone else that is either famous for their humble service to the Lord or are written about in the Bible.  

It is without a doubt I will not make the 7:00 am study and I'm still contemplating whether I will even go to the 8:30 am version.  Im not going to the 7:00 am one because I would have to leave in a few minutes and no.  I spent my time with the kids this morning, one of them asked me to get up today. That's not a problem with the motorcycle alarm clock lol.  Umm, I'm thinking about it, that's what I can say.

Meanwhile, a man moved in yesterday, he paid up in advance and then later on I saw him pulling in on the outside camera. Nice looking trailer, no issues there. Another person is supposedly moving in today and a third is perhaps moving in the next couple of days. I have a "confirmation" from the one moving in today, the others - who knows. Probably not.  

I'm also struggling with the idea of increasing the size of the park, it's taken this long to get a few new people in there, how long, if ever, would it take to fill up 25 more spaces?  And in the interim, if that even happens, how will I pay what would likely be around a $2,500-$3,000 mortgage?  Oh I can pay that kind of mortgage and make great money if the lots are mostly full.  Big if in this market.  There are X amount of people in campers and they want the cheapest deal they can find and they don't care where they stay in that quest, for the most part anyway.  

I just don't know right now and this question has popped up in my mind because the contractor texted me yesterday and said they just need a few more quotes and they will have a price ready to send to me.  It's going to be well over 100k, I am guessing that for sure. The cost of everything from wiring to gravel has gone way up and they sure aren't paying for it.  Plus you have a 20 year loan maturity, so you are stuck with those payments until it's either paid off, death or sell it.  I wouldn't mind being stuck with the payments as long as the revenue is good.  

I see so many new parks and new parks being built in the region, not just my town but you have to take into account all of it around you if you are trying to get the overnighters. I'm not really, not anymore anyway.  It's too sporadic and you might get 5 in one night and none in the week after that and then a few here and there.  I just don't have that kind of traffic coming in, I need the long term. 

Or, I need such superb amenities at such a cut throat rate that people won't be able to resist coming in.  A clubhouse with pool tables and a pool, hot tub, out door games, etc.  When you see places like that, you understand they've spent millions of dollars building it out like that.  

No thank you.  Even if I could get a loan for that kind of money, I wouldn't do it.  What I had of my life saving's are tied up into this venture I have now, I do not want to put that at risk.  

I found my Bibles. Yup, it's been a minute.  I go online to find scriptures now, I don't typically look at a book version anymore.  But I have 2 Bibles, I think I have 3 but I don't know where the third one is.  

You know what the thing is about a paper Bible is for me?  I have very often, in the past, just randomly opened it, looked down at what it opened up to and started reading scripture that directly spoke to my heart.  I just did that and what did I see? "Assemble yourselves!".  

I think I'm going to go back to sleep for half an hour, I didn't get enough sleep last night for I went to bed late.  Then I will try to make a decision about this church bible study....

Tuesday mid-afternoon

Got up earlier than normal, left about 40 minute earlier than normal, arrived up to the plant in Gurdon with apprehension. Is this other dude up here already and is he going to hold me up. Note that he's not supposed to be up there that early, not even close.   Thankfully not there, I got down to business to get that over with and get out of there.  

I checked the tablet, ahh, yes, there is a run for tomorrow. Or is there? I checked the date, it wasn't for tomorrow, it starts on Thursday. Yet another unwanted day off. There are 2 things going on at that plant, however.  First is the cause of the shutdown, they have an entire tank emptied out and they are going to clean it out completely. They to that yearly.  Second is today was cleaning day, so the entire production floor is shut down to clean out all the machinery.  Well, if there isn't any product being made, they aren't using any glue.  I was a bit shocked, tho, to see the second tank they are still using with only 2 truckloads worth of glue in there.  

They said they had plenty. Lol, not like normal when there is one tank full and the other has at least 1 or 2 truckloads worth in it.  

Taylor is in breathing hell right now so I got back to the yard....well. This guy calls. You have any ltos available? Yes, I have several.  Back and forth for a while, he said he's coming.  Ok, well I'll be here a few more minutes but you are welcome to take a look if I'm not here when you arrive. "My GPS shows your place is 1/2 mile away from me".  Lol, what?  Turns out he was down at the power company yard at the corner of my street and the main highway. They are going to build a 330 foot tall communications tower which he says will take 3 months.  

330 feet tall? Good Lord, how do you do that?  Well sometimes we use a helicopter others a crane, I think we're using a crane this time.  I have no understanding how they get cranes up on the main structures of those things while they are building them and I want to watch this construction as it unfolds.  They certainly don't have a 330 foot tall crane, I can assure you of that.  

He showed up, paid the first month's rent, said he'd be back later with his trailer and that was that.  

This is one of those times where I wish this would repeat itself 4 more times and then I'd be full again.  But whatever, I'll take whatever I can get.  Certainly convenient for him when his job site is only half a mile away.  

The brown grass as the park is unsightly. The grass is turning brown everywhere out here what with no rain, that isn't unusual but it's no particularly appealing.  I'm keeping my eye out for the next rain days.  Supposedly next week.  

Oh, Taylor. Well I went to Kroger's and got her medicine and then spent an hour in there looking for low fat low cholesterol stuff.  It takes a while to find stuff, I'm new to the low cholesterol scene, or at least in looking specifically for those kinds of foods.  Over to Starbucks, because I felt like it and no I don't go to Starbucks every day or even every week.  Just an occasional thing for they are way overpriced, albeit their drinks are quite delicious. 

I'm going to be looking for one of these free or super cheap hot tubs later today.  Why? Because I have tomorrow off, the trailer has finally been unloaded and I can go get one if I can find one. If I don't do that, I could also go get the materials for covered parking. But, I still have some research to do, I need it to be able to hold the weight of roofing shingles since that is the cheapest type of roofing there is. I know this because I have spent many hours looking. The other cheap stuff are the endless barns that are being taken down in this region and people save the galvanized panels.

Some sell them cheap, others not so much.  I know what they cost new, so if they are attempting to sell them at or near new prices? They can keep them.  

That's it, I guess, for today.  It's 3 pm and tho I was going to get some tractor work done, the man moving in and getting Taylor medication took precedence.  That is the other thing I might do with tomorrow, just work with the tractor. 

Any way about it, I will not be sitting around the house doing nothing like I did last week with those 3 days off. Well, ok, I did get quite a lot done on Friday, but the weekend was a total loss for any productivity.  I'm not real happy about not having work tomorrow, that was my real plan.

Oh yes, and the paycheck today was as small as I figured it would be.  I won't be taking any more lengthy times off any time soon unless of course health issues arise like they did for that 2 week stretch.  I will likely force myself through any sicknesses coming along, 2 people in the house are coughing and snotty, but that's allergies I do believe.  

Wait! Tomorrow is Wednesday. My earth-shattering revelation is that if I find it within my capabilities, I will get up and drag my butt over to church early morning for an in-depth bible study they do every week. I think?  I wasn't exactly invited but I would have a hard time believing it's not for everyone.  The worst they can do is tell me it's a private affair and then I will go find a new church.  Which means I need to dig my bible out. I read online bibles when I am reading it.  It's just easier to read.  

According to their website, it's Wednesday mornings at 7:00 and 8:30 am.  Probably the latter, a day off and I want to work doesn't mean that I don't want to sleep in just a little? 

Alright, one new person in (and paid for already), I just need 4 more!  Actually, with the "alternate space" I could do 5! That alternate space hasn't worked out so well the last 2 people.  

Enough for now.  I'm going to relax a bit and then I'm going to make dinner and then I'm going to hook up my trailer for tomorrow. Even if I don't buy anything, I want it back over at the property.  Just too much stuff over here.  

 Monday - early

I've been thinking a lot about finances and it just doesn't make sense to me.  I've got all of this credit card debt. I've been waiting for interest rates to come down to take out a loan to just pay all of it and have an end date probably 5 years down the road.   That's a long time.  And I don't know if/when rates are going to come down enough to make it worth it to take out yet another loan.

So what then.  Well I'm going back and forth in my mind about expanding the business in some direction and now just saying screw all of that and start focusing on paying down debt. Something along the lines of fix the driveway, be done with it and leave everything as is and focus on reducing my eating out and other things that can be at least temporarily eliminated, send that money to the CC companies and start getting my finances in order.  

I mean, I know the park isn't full and I don't know if/when it will fill back up, but in reality, I've got it pretty good right now.  I've got monthly expenses associated with the park, yes: electricity, water, trash, septic inspection, wifi, phone and a few other minor expenses. The only real expense in all of that is the electric and that is going to come way down now that we're entering a period of lower temps.  

In fact, if I shut all of that off and just said screw it, no RV park - it's all paid for I don't owe anything on any of it - I would be left with a $440 per month payment on 25 acres of land.  

I'm really thinking to shift my focus to getting rid of this debt and then, I won't be in such a position of financial slavery on cc companies to ..........

___________

13 hours later.  Got distracted, got busy getting ready to leave and that was that.  I was back by 11:45 am.  It took them longer than normal to load so I'm assuming it's going to take longer to offload.  I'm setting my alarm for 5:20 am, if I wake up earlier, I'll just get up and go.  Get it over with and have the rest of the day to do whatever I need or want to. 

I was on this thing about paying down credit card debt and I think it's an actionable plan, a very good goal and get started it on it as sson as possible instead of waiting for interest rates to come down. Which means significantly cutting back on recreational type of expenses.  It's mostly eating out stuff of which I had already been cutting back on.  But now, it would be cutting back to maybe my Sunday outing with the boys at Applebee's and that only on weekends when I am free to go to church.   I would like to try to pay down $400 per month, it may be too much tho.

The plan is Ramsay's, I think that's his idea anyway. Where you take the card with the lowest amount on it, pay it down, then start on the next one, and paying it down plus the payment on the previous card and so on and so forth.  If I could get out of this credit card debt I would have so much more money freed up every month.  And less worries.  

But who knows. Right now I"m so far out of whack with having had 2 weeks off with the severe pains that hit my body and then 9 days off with this vacation - it wasn't supposed to be that long but a load was cancelled giving me 3 more days off.  Take a while to make a comeback from that much time off.  And I still have 6 open lots; I'm getting some interest, people are contacting me about lots for long term but so far, none of them have shown up.

But, I have gotten over the exasperation of not getting any new people in. They'll come sooner or later, I hope they do anyway, but stressing over it is a useless waste of internal energy and mental resources.  I've got the ads running, the free ones anyway I stopped running pay ads for they weren't coming up with any results.  I have thought about posting a Google ad, they're a lot more expensive but it might be worth a try. I just hate seeing the park almost half empty and just staying that way.  

I dont really think a hot tub is going to bring that many people in.  It might, I can't say for sure it won't, but I am not going to spend a lot of money on it if I do go that route. There are some cheap ones available, just long drives to get to them.  One of them is near Dallas and I'm considering it.  I asked them if they had people that could help load it on to a trailer, I can't expect to take people with me for that far of a drive. It's a 2 hour and 20 minute drive each way.  I hate to go that far, tho, and then find out the people aren't home, don't have the people there to load it, whatever.  

Actually, there was a very cheap hot tub nearby, it was put up and sold in 10 minutes time.  And another that was close, they had it up for an hour and updated the post saying that 30 people were already waiting in line. It's one of those things where you just have to keep checking and hopefully hit it at just the right time when someone posts a deal like that. 

Dallas is full of them, cheap prices on good units.  People just get rid of them.  

No, the real answer, if there is one, is covered parking.  It's not just for the heat of the summer, it keeps the rain off the roof and keeps the sun from weathering it.  This is beneficial to owners of RVs for that is the most vulnerable part of any RV.  If you don't have a good roof, the rest of the thing is going to slowly fall apart.  

You wouldn't believe how much thought I've put into all of this.  And research. And more thought. And more searching. If I wanted to prioritize, it's fix the driveway and put up covered parking spots.  This park host kid told me today he would help me.  Okkkaaaayyyyy.  I don't really believe anything he says, especially if he's offering to help with anything.  

Anyway, it's getting late and I am getting up early. 

 Sunday - evening

I'm both looking forward to and not looking forward to work tomorrow. Get the mind back into the daily grind and get with it, get it over with.  Get back and possibly do some stuff on the driveway.  

We did go to church today sans the youngest who opted out for unknown reasons and I'm not into forcing anyone to go to church, especially kids.  I was forced to church when I was that age. I don't hold it against my parents at all, but they had to carry me out to the car to get to church.  And once at church, this was an absolutely enormous building - I would run all over the place after the worship service and mostly not go to the class I was "supposed" to go to.  So, it's whatever to me. Neither one of them has to go, the oldest loves it, I doubt he'll stop going.

After church, we went to the surprise birthday party at the local mom and pop restaurant.  Had an enjoyable time there, I knew all the people there and was glad to be among friends.  I even opted for the senior menu - "60 plus ONLY" the menu stated. People informed me their seniors meals came with a ton of food and I was not let down.  I'm slowly drifting into the idea of just taking the cheaper menu, what do I need with all the food on the regular menu anyway? It's the same food just smaller portions and lower cost. 

After that, I ran over to the park.  Checked the tanker, it was quite clean inside that thing, no visible flakes at all, good to go, wrote that one off.  That trailer is in better shape than the one I just let go before I went on vacation. I did not think that was possible, but they had replaced almost all of the brake components on all 4 wheels and all 8 tires are in good condition.  All the lights work, what's the problem? Nothing I guess, I was stuck on the other trailer because so many of them I have gotten under have so many issues that previous drivers apparently don't report OR deal with. 

Now? Well, the day is basically over.  I mean, it's 3 hours til' bedtime but it's late enough I have no plans to do anything else.  Actually I may go to the courthouse tomorrow and get the new plates, title and registration for the truck.  OHH!! I NEED to go to the insurance agency and sign off on whatever. I was going to do that yesterday but they are closed on the weekends. JUST before they charge my account $408 and then have to wait however long to get that money back. 

I'm putting a note in my notes folder on my phone to remind me.  

I've found several hot tubs, large ones in allegedly good condition, for cheap.  I dunno, people just get rid of the things when they are moving or don't want them anymore for whatever reasons.  It is highly likely I'm going to pull the trigger on all of that and get it done.  

What I've been doing for many days now is looking at roofing for a covered RV pad.  I want the cheapest option to be frank and through all of it, actual asphalt roofing shingles come up as the cheapest option. I don't know how much that stuff weighs and what kind of support system I would have to build out to hold all that weight up there, that is my next search mission on the internet.

Very compelling sermon today, btw.  I was totally lost in thought after thinking about scripture I hadn't read in quite a while. Old Testament stuff, still as relevant today as it was then. God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  It was actually the toughest sermon I've heard this guy put forth and he undoubtedly got some feathers ruffled with it.  I was glad to hear it, I wonder what his bible studies are like on Wednesday mornings?? Probably won't find out this week for I intend on working as much as they will keep me working, but the next time I have a Wednesday freed up I'd like to go and find out.  Perhaps his church version and his more intimate settings are different.

He does refer to deeper things after one gets saved.  But his message is consistently about salvation - which is great, wonderful and Biblical - but - there are people coming that are hungry for the Word.  For a fresh message that the Lord has compelled on the preacher to speak forth.  I'm not judging the man at all, I just need more depth.  I can get that on my own of course, but there is the idea of believers pushing each other on in the faith.  There are people that are gifted with the 5-fold ministry - that is also biblical and who God uses to speak forth fresh revelation.  

I'm really ready to get myself back into the flow of things in church - I think I am anyway.  I guess I'll find out.  I have to force myself to put down the offenses of the past, of which I could go into great detail and write 10,000 words about, but why?  I have already done that. I have been trying to let it go and I keep running into the roadblock. I think, I want to get involved with church! Then this "thing" rises up in my mind and says, look at what happened before! And so many times!  I almost feel like the enemy is speaking that stuff into my mind.  Like it's a temptation: DON'T GO TO CHURCH AND CERTAINLY DON'T GET INVOLVED.    

I'm tired of all of it, wherever it originates and I can also remember ample times of serving in ministry and having the joy of the Lord and the feeling of contentment.  I still give and help people, that never left me because that came from the Lord, not from man.  

There is nothing like losing your bank debit card.  You panic, then you start searching, then you start thinking: where was the last time I saw it?  I went through all of this and couldn't find it. Then I went onto my account, did anyone use it?  No, everything on there was my stuff.  So, at wit's end, I called the bank,  cancelled the card and having them send me a new one.  Actually, it was due anyway. They don't last forever and Chase ended the policy to make a new one while sitting there waiting, at least around here.  

So there it is. I"m not going to bed early, it will be 8 hours before I need to get up and if I don't sleep well, oh well, if I do, great!

 Sunday - mid morning

I was just informed that today is Saturday.  This came about because I had just taken a shower and I said I didn't want to go to church smelling like dirt, such as you (the kid I'm talking to) do.  Well church isn't until tomorrow why are you doing that now?  Today is Saturday!

I'm thinking, am I in the Twilight Zone? Because I'm 100% sure today is Sunday and yesterday was definitely Saturday. "uhh, how could it be Saturday? You spend the entire day laying around on your butt playing games, literally all day long. If today was Saturday, that means you stayed home from school yesterday to play your Switch".  I then looked at my phone and showed him it clearly stating it is Sunday.

Oh, I guess I was wrong about the days then.  Now he is all upset because we aren't going to Applebee's after churh today.  It's just a thing we do that he absolutely loves.  He had this look on his face and I dug it out of him. Yeah, we're going somewhere else to eat, it's someone's birthday and it's a surprise party for him.  Oh.  That didn't help him, so I just had to tell him sometimes life throws us curveballs and we have to learn to adapt and adjust. Then...he was banging on the keyboard.  What are you doing?  This is what you do when you're sitting here!  Yes, but I'm actually typing out words, you are just putting up a bunch of gibberish lmao.  I informed him he could learn how to type like that in - I dunno when they teach that now? Seems important enough they would start teaching the keyboard in middle school?  I said high school and that I had taken 4 years  of it.  

It's actually quite late in the morning, I didn't go to sleep until midnight last night. I have been treating these 3 days off as if it were a staycation, sort of anyway.  Just binge watching shows on Netflix and doing the minimal amount of things necessary to keep things rolling. The only new thing was an overnighter calling yesterday asking about a place to stay overnight. Yes, so and so forth, they actually showed up, paid cash to the park host and I have no idea if they're still there or not.  

So that's pretty much it.  Church, party, might stop at the park and home. Correction, definitely stop at the park.  Gonna get up on the trailer and make sure there are no flakes laying in there.  It happens even after they wash them out. If there is, I can just sprinkle water inside, get the flakes down into the drain pipe and done.  

That write up for expanding the park isn't done yet.  It's a lot of work, yes, but it's been quite a while since we met and they said they'd come up with a price.  Perhaps it doesn't matter, the park isn't even full right now?  I'm feeling a bit - not sure the word. Not really pressured, my expenses are easily covered by the lots filled in there and even if the place were completely empty, everything is paid for excepting the land itself and that payment is quite low atm.  

Just want the place to be full,  I guess.  I really should have gotten out there yesterday with all the free time and filled a few holes up in the driveway. You do the things you can do.  I've watched a lot of episodes of Bar Rescue and one of the most common things you see at the beginning of the show when Taffer is walking in there to give the bar owner/s heck is the bar is quite disgustingly filthy.  Like, cockroaches, black filth, dust, dirt everywhere.  Even if you don't have the money to do serious upgrades to the bar, you can definitely get off your lazy @$$ and clean the place up.  I personally don't care if a place is a dive bar but it has to be a clean place that doesn't look and smell like a landfill or sewage treatment plant.  

My park is not dirty but there are some things in the driveway I could temporarily fix. The real fix would be getting a dozer in there, blading the entire driveway and then bringing in 6-8 truckloads of fresh gravel.  I don't have the money for that, well I could cover a couple of truckloads, but what's the point when the surface of the driveway itself needs a blade taken to it, smooth it all out and get it even.  Then dump gravel on it. I can't rent a dozer for I don't have the credentials, ie: experience, to operate one.  It figures the company would rent one out to someone that has no idea what they're doing, that customer destroys the engine and walaah. Tens of thousands of dollars to rebuild a cat engine. Ruin it for everyone, in other words. I would definitely have the thing delivered and get it done.  I can learn any earth moving equipment, I already know how to operate trackhoes, backhoes and graders.  And bobcats.  

The other thing I will definitely be doing is dumping copious amounts of rye grass whenever we get a good stretch of rain.  We're in such a dry spell that the county has imposed a burn ban.  No fires of any kind excepting in grills.  Not even barrel fires are allowed right now.  The grass is brown, a good indicator of the dry conditions and I'm not about to start watering it, it would cost far too much money.  

 Saturday

Yesterday, I did, indeed, end up getting a lot of stuff done. We cleared off that trailer - we being the lady next door and I. She offered to help and I refused, it's not her job lol. She wanted to so I said fine.  Got all of that off of there and then went all over the place. Dumped cash rent money in the bank, over to the courthouse. 

Got new plates for the SUV- I never did replace them after the flooding we drove through on vacation in Galveston. Texas has 2 plates and they can write you a ticket for missing one of them if they really want to.  Then asked about how much it will cost to register/title the Tundra. $275.  I couldn't do it tho, I needed to get an inspection. Which I did immediately after that.  Waiting in the mechanic shop line for a while, this one actually has a lane dedicated for inspections and no, they don't take very long.

The guy asked: "How many miles on it?". 54,000 I replied.  He turned around with a look on his face. He asked without asking if I had actually said 54,000?  Yes, it is my mom's, she can't drive anymore, it's had an easy life.  He shook his head, that truck is what - 16 years old I interjected.  He looked at me again. You know those Toyota trucks can get up to half a million miles on them before they are done and over with?  No, I did not know that. Yup, we have them come in here all the time with high mileage on them.

That thought got me to thinking that I could basically keep that truck the rest of my life and will never have to replace it.  Which is fine by me, a truck payment is easily $500 and up even for used ones.  Over to Walmart, needed a license place bracket for the freshly replaced plates.  I stopped at Chili's - wasn't planning on it but since our friends work there, figured to stop in and say hi.  Got into a long conversation with one of the people that works there, she had recommended my rv park to a person that helps her with something (not getting into specifics here), who then called me later on asking questions. 

I was going to go to the park and install that license plate holder after that, but instead I just went home. I had spent many hours getting all of that done. 

So, that makes me feel better because today? I have cleaned the kitchen and that's it. Been watching a Netflix show, doing a staycation mentality and being lazy.  Are there things I could be doing? Of course.  But, the park is clean, the grass is mowed, everything is working, it's whatever to me.

Tomorrow will be church, then going to a birthday party directly after church at a local mom and pop restaurant and then after that? Probably nothing.  I have no intentions on getting up earlier than normal for the first run Monday since I won't have to do the washout, it will save around 80 minutes of time, meaning just drive straight to the plant and hopefully get loaded quickly.

I say that because another driver told me the last 2 times he's been there, it's taken 4 hours and 2-1/2 hours respectively.  I think one of those times another driver cut him, but the 4 hour thing was a problem at the plant making an error on making the product and had to start over, apparently.  

It's a quarter after 4 right now and since no one has contacted me, I am not bothering with going over to the park today. I will stop by after church to put eyeballs on everything.  I've stopped stressing over occupancy, people will come eventually.  I don't know when, it's been a pretty good dry spell. I've put up several ads and besides getting a Google ad going, I don't know what else to do beyond the added amenities I'd like to install that I've talked about rather endlessly but haven't done yet because I've got a "hold" in my mind about it.  

I'll say one thing tho.  If I find another deal like the ones I have been seeing over in Dallas where a 10k hot tub is going for $500 or a grand, I'm going to go over and snag it.  That would be a day trip, but yes.  There isn't a lot of down side in my mind to getting something decent in great condition.  I have a contractor who will come out and pour a cement slab for me, I want a decent sized lounging area for the hot tub and then put some tables and chairs around it.  It will need a gazebo or something over it, I've found the cloth kind for $300.  I'd probably sink $2,500 or less into the entire project.  This isn't resort style setup, it's "this is an amenity in great condition and looks nice" setup I'm talking along with if I decide to do a pool next year, it's going to be an above ground pool, set about half way into the ground and costing a fraction of what an in ground plaster pool costs. 

I've just made those decisions based on the type of park it is. I never considered it a resort park and never will.  Still thinking about setting up cabins or something, just haven't pulled the trigger on it and probably won't for a while.  It's all a gamble, folks. You spend the money and you hope and pray that it gets the desired results.  If it doesn't get results, you kick yourself for thinking that you would get more people in and it didn't result in anything. If it does get results, then you say, yayyy!

For example, the yurt tent I was thinking of doing a while back. That little thing is still sitting there on the back of my mind.  But it's not free and it's a hotel style setup so you have to clean it after every use, meaning you really need someone to work it. 

____________

Like, 6 hours later lol. My mind has been wandering all day long.  

I think I'm going to go to bed.

 Friday - late morning

Yup, I just laid in bed watching a movie called the Covenant this morning.  Sort of deflated not going to work, I just blew everything off. Until now, that is.  The movie over, I went searching through reams of paperwork to find the boat motor title so I could tell the mechanic what year it is so he can order the correct water pump.  In the process, I found my birth certificate and my social security card, both in bags of junk papers where it shouldn't have been.  

They are now safely in my desk file cabinet where they can be easily found. The title were in the filing cabinet the entire time, the rest of the piles of papers I went through I decided much of it can be trashed. Not that I am going through all of that again today, I was looking for specific paperwork. A task I will start doing in the next couple of days, getting rid of old paperwork that really is rather useless now.  

Now that that is done and the information has been forwarded on. 

I tried to cancel my Progressive policy just a few minutes ago, yeah, no.  You have to go in and sign a form?  Whatever.  It's 2 blocks from the house.  I need that done before they charge my account $408.  I already paid the $257 to Allstate so yea, I don't need 2 policies.  

Now? Well, I was going to go over and work with the tractor but I am putting that off. I'm going outside, getting that tree junk off of my trailer and have it free to go.  Just realized the truck doesn't have a hitch on it. It has the receiver, it needs a ball and the insert into the receiver.  I guess I can just switch the one I have on my SUV back and forth for whatever I'm trying to do.  I'd like to pull the trailer with the truck and see if it's got any better handling. It's heavy trailer, the SUV can handle it but I do wonder if the truck might do better.

Anyway, I need that trailer available for my next potential move. It's either materials to build the first cover or get a hot tub - or both.  Or none.  I'm still kind of wondering if it's the correct move and I really sort of don't have an answer for that.  

What I keep saying I need and definitely do is more people living in the park.  I may drive over to the new competitor today and see what's up over there. Is he taking my potential clients? And if he is, how is he doing it? He isn't giving a better deal tho he does have big trees, that may be the allure for people and there is nothing I can do about that.  Well, beyond putting up RV carports.  I've figured that it will cost $735 for the materials, not including lag bolts, screws, hardware in other words.  Add $100 anyway to that.  Probably need a new cordless drill, add another $75 or so for that. 

In fact, probably going to need several new tools.  Harbor Freight!

So yes, I'm going to go outside and drag all of that stuff off of that trailer and get it freed up. It's been sitting there for months like that.  I want to drag the ATV to another shop that is "highly recommended" and see if that person can get the thing running. I really miss the use of it.  It is a highly useable tool in performing tasks at the park and I haven't had use of it for quite a while now.  Supposedly, this shop is the best in the area.  

Supposedly.

What else....nothing. I may end up over at the park and work with the tractor anyway. I want to scoop up gravel from the back of the driveway where nothing ever drives over it and fill in some holes near the front.  While I have the use of the tractor. 

I have watched zero news today.  I saw yesterday that the Hamas leader that masterminded the October 7th massacre of innocent Israeli citizens was killed.  I don't wish death on anyone, really but if I did, that man would be near the top of the list for the brutality of the assault.  Bin Laden was up there on that list as well.  Iranian leaders could also be on that list.  These aren't just dictators or tyrants, they are murderers.  I always have to try and restrain myself on such thoughts because the Bible says that the Lord would have all come unto him, that none should die. Salvation, that is. Christ came for all of us, we don't all accept or even believe in Him (I definitely do, just making that clear here).  He knew that when he came, but that didn't stop Him at all.  

Anyway, I think I'll get the trailer emptied and probably get the hitch on the truck from the SUV - I have it parked at the RV park, I won't have 2 vehicles sitting out here in front of the house, just too much of an eyesore.  Oh, and drag the trailer over there as well.  I don't want it parked here either, it's just in the way.  I didn't park it where it is currently sitting, but I do want to deal with it while I have the time and the sort-of motivation.

With that, I'm offa here. Typing on a keyboard is not going to get that task accomplished. I'm sure I'll do some more blogging later on today.

G'day