Thursday - evening

Welllll....

So my work wanted to get me an uber and do all kinds of driving today - we're talking it was already after 11 am.  I was looking at getting back by what, 10 pm at the earliest? No thanks.  But, she tried and tried to get Uber over here and we don't have Uber here, tho they do work in Shreveport.  Figured they could come from there over to here, but apparently none of them wanted to do that.  

I finally put my foot down. There is no way I'm going to be out that late doing this stuff. Long story short, the lady of the house eventually came home and I went over to get the truck only, not go get loaded in Crossett.  Ridiculous nonsense.  

We're toodolooohing through Shreveport on I-20 eastbound, up on the bridge that goes over the Red River and the divider between Shreveport and Bossier City.  I don't really pay a lot of attention when I'm not driving. I'm just not behind the wheel. I don't want to be s side chair driver, that gets annoying.  I was looking down at my phone but something told me to look up.

We're going 60 or so mph, and traffic literally shut down right in front of us.  I thought for sure we were going to crash into the vehicle in front of us, but she was on top of it, slammed on the brakes and very narrowly avoided a rear end collision.

The people behind us? Not so lucky.  The car immediately behind us also slammed on their brakes, she managed to avoid hitting us, but the semi truck behind her? Yeah, no.  He slammed into that car.  The semi was trying to move over while slamming into that car and the SUV next to the truck moved over and then a speeding pickup literally smashed into that SUV, a sort of T Bone crash but at more of an angle. 

The SUV hit my friend's truck in that maneuver directly after we had avoided a rear end collision.  We just looked at each other in stunned silence, it was rather shocking.  She pulled over to the right side of the bridge - there is no shoulder there. The truck pulled up behind us, the SUV and the pickup were deep into each other. So deep, the front wheel of the pickup were off the ground and just sitting there like that. 

Well I didn't know what happened to anyone but looking at the front of the truck I immediately knew the truck driver would be alright.  We went back to the SUV - there was no one getting out of these vehicles folks, no visible movement at all.  We didn't know what was going on.  A lady gets out of the SUV but she goes to the rear door and pulls out two young kids, I'd estimate 7 and 9 years old, young boy and girl.  The boy was in tears, the mom was swelling up, the girl was shocked.  

My friend started talking to them but we brought them to our vehicle, theirs was totaled and it was very hot outside today.  Put them in the back of the truck and I was trying to console them while walking to the truck and eventually after I got in the front seat and really tried to calm them down.  The boy couldn't stop crying, I don't blame him, if you saw where that truck hit that SUV and how heavy that collision was?

It was buried into that SUV's rear door.  I guess I didn't post the pics of that on my Facebook page, I'll have to add them, those are the worst pics of all of it.  

The lady that was rammed into by the semi eventually walked up to where we were at.  She was sobbing, I mean it was worse than that little boy.  She was just in shock. I think everyone there was shocked by what happened.  That lady was in her late 40's/early 50's and she cried for a long time. The mother was teared up for a bit but she calmed down and left her kids with us while she went and started getting her stuff ready to move out of that SUV, she also handed her phone to me to tell the dad where we were.  

It was taking so long for first responders to get there, I wondered if anyone had called 911, so I called them.  5 vehicle crash on the bridge over the Red River, minor injuries, a little girl smashed her head on the window and she needs attention.  You see, I didn't even know about that pickup until a little later. I couldn't see it from where I was at, the SUV was crashed into the side wall to keep people from - falling off the side of the bridge and into the river.  Amazing job it did, that concrete didn't budge.  It's all lined with a huge amount of rebar and it's is very strong. 

It was around 20 minutes before Bossier police arrived.  It was another 10 after that before fire and ambulance got there. Just amazed at how long it took them. I made sure the cops knew that this little girl needs to be looked at. 

But then, a woman appeared from behind the SUV.  I looked, who is that? Oh I think that's the lady from the pickup. There's a pickup behind there? Yes, it crashed into the SUV.  She was dazed and confused.  This is the reason I wear seatbelts.  You hear a handful of stories of how people died because their seatbelt wouldn't release, but most of the time, in such situations, they save lives, way more than any deaths they may cause.  

Anyway, the lady brought her tiny little dog to our truck and deposited it in the back seat with the kids. She didn't want it running out into the highway and getting run over.  This did it for the little boy.  He got all happy pretty quickly, the tears dried up and the whole atmosphere changed.  I spoke at length with the truck driver. Bad day for him, they would have cited him for following too closely.  Half his bumper was destroyed but beyond that, it was perfectly drivable from all appearances.  

The father was working at an oil rig an hour away.  When I talked to him, he said "I'm hauling ass, where exactly are you?" It took him a while to get there.  The mom - who is a nurse it turns out - thanked us profusely for our help.  The man also thanked us at the end of it.  I don't know how long we were there, but we were sweating profusely by the time it was all over with.  

Eventually went and finished the job of getting the truck. Walaah! They actually fixed the ac!

I've got to get off of here. I have a long day ahead and stuff to do.  

 Thursday - mid morning

I feel like my life is on hold with this job and waiting eternally for a truck to be fixed, over and done with.  And then the health care crap that I finally figured out why it wasn't going through.  Turns out you have to click on a field to make selections. 

It doesn't say you have to do that and the rest of the process it has a field to proceed.  You have no idea that that is a mandatory input that you have to click on and deal with the questions. None at all.  It's par for their course, Bavvy that is, it's ridiculous and brutal. Brutal because of all of the time and effort I have dumped into trying to get it fixed through endless emails, text messages and phone calls.

It's also very draining.  I don't take any pleasure whatsoever in having to deal with stupid people who don't know how to do their jobs and corporations who could care less. 

And then there's the computer issue.  I'm wondering now if the culprit isn't the sound card.  I've got a bypass coming that costs $5.  You plug the speaker jack into an adaptor that goes from 3.5mm receptable to USB port.  I don't know what else could  be causing this issue, but of course I'm no computer genius so there might be something staring at me directly in my face and I wouldn't know it.  

For $5, I'll take the risk.   The last resort is take it to a repair shop and let them fool with it.  I know a place and I've taken other devices there and they do a good job.  They are experts, they'll figure it out, I'm just wondering if I somehow fried the card. This computer isn't that old.  Who knows, I'll find out soon enough. 

So, anyway, it's 9:30 am and I'm still sitting here waiting for the call or text telling me the truck is finally done. But since they had to take out the dashboard and still trying to find a short circuit somewhere, that may take forever or it they may find it and get it over with - and then have to put all of that mess back together.  

And, the lady of the house ended up having to take the kids to daycare for I don't know if I'm leaving or not.  

I don't know what else, I have enough with all of that going on that I don't really need to have to deal with other things, but there is always the RV park.  It's kind of self sufficient for the most part.  It's an ideal setup for my situation without having too many amenities to deal with. I don't really like not having them but for a 16 lot park, a huge amount of that stuff isn't  really warranted. The ROI wouldn't be worth it.  

 Late night Wednesday

Not a long post here.  Just thought about when the last time I was at work, without the trip up to El Dorado and back for nothing (I will get paid for that but I'm not really counting that as work).  \

My last day was the 14th and today is the 29th. 15 days off.  Unbelievable.  

I asked for any available vacation hours and I got nothing in reply.  The manager is still sick and this is getting old fast.  

And then the idea that I will have to pay out of pocket if I go through the normal government healthcare portal to get insurance.  This was from this lady that I was talking about the last post.  I gave her a polite but to-the-point earful.  I ended it with: "I am not in the mood for threats".  I was going to say a LOT more, but I bit my tongue and boy was it bleeding. 

Metaphorically anyway.  It is a threat.  You are telling me that if I get healthcare through some other means than what you want it done - that isn't working - I will have to pay all of that myself.  No.  No. And no.  These people are begging for a lawsuit. And I'm still tempted to try the wage theft route.  There are still 3 Texas government agencies I could go through to make life miserable for them.

Why not? They certainly haven't done me any favors.  At all.  

It's going to be hard to get back into the groove of trucking but I have been oh so tempted to quit this job altogether after another day of this bullshit with the insurance crap.  What is the point of working like this if I don't have health care insurance?  It's fully half the reason I have a job at all at this point. 

I really, really wanted to tell that lady that if she wants to threaten me with that, you can just have that truck, I will go over in the morning and get my stuff out of it.                       

I didn't do it mostly because I don't have another job lined up. I'm one of those people that wants to have another job first before just outright quitting, but with this company? They keep pushing it and I may just say screw it, goodbye.  Permanently. Keep your pile of shit truck, your mismanagement and your bullshit and dump it on to someone that hasn't been exposed to your version of what amounts to employee abuse.  

It's just one of those things where I may not care if I don't have a job lined up, just do it and then find a new job.  But, it doesn't look too good on your resume even tho most trucking companies won't care anyway. They really don't. They are more interested in your driving history, tickets, accidents, is your medical current, is your CDL current, ok, get that truck over there and start driving it. Please. 

 Wednesday - afternoon

Yep, I'm still sitting at home waiting for this truck that was supposed to be done "around noon".  These people wanted me to go over there and wait, apparently.  No thank you.  It's a repair shop, they said they had to tear the entire dashboard out to find a short somewhere.  That in itself is a huge job.  There are a lot of things connected to that dash and taking and I can't even imaging taking that whole thing out of there and then attempting to find a short somewhere.  Good luck!

Hey, they may get it done "around noon" yet!  It's 12:30 pm, that's "around noon". But I have ample experience with truck repair shops giving estimates - and that's all it is, an estimate - to have something done only to have them take many hours or even days beyond what they thought they would accomplish.  They must be sick of working on that thing by now lmao.  I still wonder what the bill is going to be for that thing, very very high, I can only imagine. 

But, our repair shop didn't fix things when they should have and had the opportunity to and that guy quit anyway.  He always was taking shortcuts to get things done fast, but they wouldn't be done right.  Any shorts were ignored, he would find a work-around that might work but also would leave some systems non-operational. If they ever get done with this thing, I'm definitely asking for a print out of everything they did to it, I want to see just how much time spent and money in parts that it took to get all of that huge list of things I turned in done and over with.  

Now, if this thing isn't done soon, just how long do they expect me to be out trying to do a run today?  From there, it's going to be 8 hours total.  Get the truck, go over to Haughton, pick up a trailer and get down to Lufkin.  Right now, I'm looking at probably 9 or 10 o'clock tonight getting home if I left right now.  It's 45 minutes to an hour over there, get the truck, pre trip it, then over to Haughton, get the trailer, pre-trip that and then over to Lufkin - provided the trailer is actually washed out. Nope, adding that all up it's around 9 hours.  Yes, it's 10:00 pm leaving right now. 

I don't like to do night driving anymore and I don't see any reason to be getting loaded today if this wait goes on for even a few more hours.  However, I would like to get the truck today at least and not have to deal with that tomorrow.  

Anyway, it's 1:00 pm now and in my book, way too late to just get started on a run.  It's the loading time for the second run, I would be somewhere around 5 hours away from that - at least. 

______

Something happened to the speakers on my computer overnight - I think there was an auto update. Whatever it did, I spent hours attempting to fix it with the help from AI which had endless - literally, seemingly endless - prompts to try this and that. I have no idea what happened.  The speakers work, the audio is being sent - somewhere - but it isn't playing.  I always try to fix this stuff myself before getting help - help is expensive and I really don't want strangers going through my PC.  

In this case? I guess I have no choice. 

There's a couple of places in town that are good at working on them and I'm sure an expert could figure it out quickly, I would like to hope anyway. I certainly am not an expert and don't claim to be one.  

______________

Several hours later.  I'm now wrapped up in this Bavvy catastrophe shit again.  UNBELIEVABLE. I have someone from corporate in OUR company who is completely incensed about this entire situation and actually called BAVVY "obnoxious".  Yes, that is the polite way to say it.  I can't go into all that just occurred, it infuriates me too much.  I don't need to be getting that pissed off.  I can say that  this lady from our company says "I WILL take care of  this, I'll call them when I get done driving and I WILL deal with this" and that she will call me back after she gets confirmation.  

Also? The truck isn't even going to be done today.  They have had to trace wiring through all kinds of nastiness to find out what is shorted. I don't even know what system it is applying to, but I'll guess the engine brake and the cruise control, those both went out at the same time. 

Oh, the lady at our company, sorry to backtrack here, but she said they hadn't even contacted her about this email I got from BAVVY and that she is even further pissed off. She's a professional, you can tell by her demeaner, it doesn't sound like a person normally acquiesced to losing it.  "Trust me, you have been heard corporate wide about this situation, we have taken them off of our "preferred vendor list".  They've heard from me because I haven't held any punches about my feelings about this once I understood the depth of the incompetence and arrogance that is going on with this Bavvy company.

That's it for now. I just have to put that Bavvy nonsense out of mind. I had been doing that until I got this notice yesterday of a window of time that is almost out to shop and select for a healthcare premium.  Like an open wound that is bleeding profusely and hasn't been treated at all, it just started all of that all over again.  

I am not working today and tomorrow - well who knows? That's in God's hands as far as I'm concerned, He tells us not to worry about what will happen tomorrow, there is enough for today.  

 Tuesday - late

Tired and sleepy.

But who cares I guess, the truck still isn't done and it's starting to irritate me the way the company is dealing with it.  The fact that it isn't done isn't the issue, the fact that they leave me hanging ... is.  I don't get information and I have to prod and pry to get it, we aren't talking intra-company info that is nunya for me, we're talking when is the truck going to be done because you know I need to coordinate a ride over there. 

Earlier today was just one of many examples.  They kept telling me that they would have the "part" late afternoon. Ok? So are they going to have it done today? You want me to work tomorrow but the truck isn't done, what are you thinking here?  My manager still isn't back from sick leave so everything is left up to this person who really just doesn't have the caliber of wisdom to be able to handle the job effectively. 

There is too much thrown at her at once, such is the job description, and I guess she just has a hard time dealing with it.  Well we'll find out this afternoon. Well please let me know when you find out anything. Oh I definitely will!

She definitely did not. Supposedly we could go get thing at 5:30.  At - 5:30, which is way too late to head over there, it's 45-60 minute drive over there depending on traffic, I texted her and basically gave a mild rebuke. I can't leave this person that is going to give me the ride over there hanging like this.  I NEED TO KNOW THE INFO WHEN YOU FIND IT OUT, NOT ME H AVING TO PROD YOU FOR IT. 

It turns out the truck isn't going to be done until noon.  Yeah, who knows when it will be done? I surely don't.  I will probably just call the Peterbilt dealership tomorrow morning and ask them myself, I'm tired of these half-assed answers that basically tell me nothing.  If I have to start at noon, meaning being over there and leaving right then, I might be done by 7:00 pm tomorrow evening.  Maybe it will be done at noon, maybe it won't be done tomorrow at all? I am wondering what the humanoid freakosis it is that they are working on on that thing that is taking them so long?

I'll take a stab at it. Either the ac system was so messed up with the wiring that it's taking them forever to figure out that night mare - or - they had to remove the transmission to fix the shifting issue.  Or a combination of both. I can't imagine any of the rest of my list taking more than a few hours at most to fix.  But those issues? Yeah, could be a nightmare.  

After the lawn mowing man came over last night and helped install the new ac unit?  My room is as cold as I want it to be. I think I had it too cold last night and hence I didn't sleep well. Turning it up to warmer temp a few degrees tonight.  Just take some tweaking to get it right.  Just glad. It's not near as noisy as the old one and probably will suck down much less electricity. 

Well, this is a short one. I'm tired and I need to go to bed.  I know, I don't have to get up early but I'm trying to keep some kind of hours that aren't too late because when i start working again, it's going to be 10:00 pm bedtime every night. 

Oh, and finally....I did the test strip thing again this morning and there was light purple on it, meaning ketones are in the system. Didn't really need it tho, I am back down almost to where I left off when I started the vacation. I was at 215 this morning, I left on vacation at 213.  25 pounds is the minimum amount of weight I need to still lose.  I'm not necessarily saying I'll get there - I want to yes but who knows? I'll try my best.  The diet gets easier as time goes on and you get used to it.  Getting down to 200 would be a wonderful milestone, going to give it my best shot to hopefully, eventually, get there. 

G'nite. 

 Monday - morning

Last night, signs of ketosis were evident on the test strips.  Not much, but enough to motivate me.  This morning? Gone, lol. How do I lose ketosis overnight? Not sure about that one ..... but....my weight is back down to 217 and counting.  I was up at 223 after I got back.  So, whether it shows it on the test strips or not, it's definitely showing on the scale.  Perhaps today it will start showing again.  Otherwise, I might be forced to go ahead and do a shorter version of a water-only fast.

I haven't done one since I returned from vacation because I simply haven't felt like it.  

I'm going to have to start working out again as well.  Yep, haven't felt like it. Vacation took it all out of me.  I was wiped out by the time we got back and the older you get, the slower the recovery.  

I've still got quite a bit of flab/fat on my gut and thighs, hence I am going to continue on with keto hopefully for as long as it takes. I say hopefully because after a while being on the severely restricted diet, you want to eat your potatoes, pastas, rice, beans, etc. You want to take a break from it even tho you know what's going to happen: weight piles on quickly.

-----------------------

It's now Tuesday  night. Not a peep from work, don't care really, I've lost this much money in non-working why not some more?!! The truck isn't done. I have no clue what is taking those people so long to fix a truck that has been sitting there what, 10 days? What is the repair bill going to be on that thing?  I want to know just for the fun of it. 10k? 15? At what point do they decide the old junk isn't worth repairing and let's move on to newer equipment?  I didn't say brand new, just something within, say, the past decade anyway? 

I mean, driving up there Sunday for nothing really got me going and not in a good way.  At least I slept QUITE well last night. I'd love to hope for more. 

But you know what's keeping me awake more than anything, now that my room is cool again? Yes, that!

My room ac quit working some time ago and tho it isn't hot in here, it isn't sleeping cool either.  Yes, they replaced the central ac a while back and while they did it, they also replaced the old ductwork. Doesn't matter.  They either didn't put insulation in the walls when they build this carport into a room or they obviously put ineffective stuff in it, because it gets warm in here in the summer. Well, at least if the room ac isn't working. I have it down to 68 degrees in here.

The funny part? I've had a brand new AC sitting in the living room for what, 2 years now? I bought it when the one I had was making funny noises. I dunno why I didn't replace it, but the fan motor was making a HUGE amount of noise and hasn't been pumping out cold air at all.    It feels so good in here.

Oh, the funny part, well not funny, just out of the ordinary.  You see, it got so bad in here today that I had to open the door all the way and put a box fan in the door to blow the heat out. When the didn't work, I tried it the other way. Yeah, neither worked - at all. I'm like, I have that new ac sitting out there, why not put it in? Oh,  yes, because it's very heavy. 

Just so happens we have that lawn mowing dude and he is a totally upright guy, a very hard worker and doesn't play games. He'll help with anything if it means money in  his pocket.  I sent him a message saying I need help installing an AC  unit, but I didn't intone I needed help right now. It was 9 pm!  I didn't see his messages back or the phone call, I must have had the ringer off, I do that after I get so many spam calls, I don't want to hear the phone ringing anymore.  I must have had 15 of them in a row tonight. 

The next thing I know, the 9 year comes running into my room: Jeremy is here! Huh?  Jeremy! Ohh, well tell him to come in. Surprising, yes. He just showed up lmao. I didn't want to do this tonight, I just wanted to see if he could come tomorrow - well today now, lol, it's a little past midnight. Don't normally stay up this late but that's what a good night's sleep does for/to me. 

I said oh, didn't expect you to come so soon! He apologized, thought I wanted it in tonight, he could come back tomorrow. NO NO NO! You're here, let's get this done!  We got that thing installed in 30 minutes, including taking out the old one, putting in the new one and putting in the insulation.  Turning it on - took a minute before that compressor kicked in but when it did, ice cold air started pumping out.

I was fretting that one.  After sitting so long, was it going to work? Or would I be out a substantial amount of money on a defective product? Or  product that might need to be used before so and so time? I don't think the latter is true tho. As long as the manufacturer had it right before shipping and no freon is leaking out anywhere, it will work. And work the new baby did and is doing now. 

It's much quieter and the compressor kicks in and out.  It's a work of beauty. It feels so nice in here now, it's amazing!

And it's late. Need to get offa here.

Good night. 

 Sunday - late afternoon

What it boiled down to was, yes, I went to work today.  I slept like HELL last night, it was going to be a long miserable day.  But that only came partially to pass.  

Why?

Remember when I said the dispatcher wanted me to go up there, to El Dorado, pick up a tractor, then head over to a town near Shreveport, pick up a trailer and then go down and load in Lufkin? Yea, all of that.  

So, I got up early, 5 am, not uber-early but that's early enough, especially after having been on vacation a total of 10 days and not sleeping well - at all - the night before.  Umm, it was still night when I left lol.

I drove up there in my pickup, got in the truck fired it up, started my log book, did a pretrip, transferred my drinks and stuff from the pickup  to the truck and then.....sat there doing my log book. I noticed the air coming out of the vents was not cold.  

I proceeded to take off - this leg of the trip was no trailer attached. I got a few miles down the road and still no air. Contacted dispatch.  Did you know the AC isn't working in this truck?  It was going to be in the high 90's today with real feel in the 100's, no thanks.  She replied, oh just give it a minute, we just had the ac fixed in it. 

She's a kind soul and very nice person, but half the time she doesn't know what she's talking about. If the AC is working, it starts working right away. It might take a minute for cold air to come out? Yes. But 20 minutes? NO. 

I kept driving just to make her happy, after another 10 minutes I pulled over to the side of the road and texted her again.  "It's not working I wouldn't have agreed to this if I knew this in advance"

She replied she wouldn't have asked me if she had known. She went on to how it was JUST in the shop and it was working fine after they were through with it.  Yes, well if it's leaking freon that badly, I thought, they should have at least looked for it, found the problem and fixed it. 

"It's going to be mid 90 heat, index in the 100's.  I really don't want to do this."

"I'll call the customer".  "I'm bring it back.".  I didn't ask permission. It was already hot and sitting in that hot truck literally all day long was a non-happening event.  Are any of the other drivers driving without ac? No.  Would  they? Probably only if it broke while they were on their way somewhere and would be demanding to get it fixed immediately. 

IT'S FLAT ASS HOT OUTSIDE.  IT GETS MUCH HOTTER INSIDE OF THE CAB OF A TRUCK THAT HAS NO AC. 

I wasn't wasting any more words, I drove straight back to the yard, did a post trip inspection, noted the ac isn't working, got my stuff out and drove home.  I actually was so tired I had to stop and take a nap for 15 minutes - which made me feel fine and the rest of the drive home went without any issue.

Well, except: The AC in my pickup isn't working correctly either! I'm taking it into a shop probably tomorrow. I'm guessing the semi will be done tomorrow as well and I will try to get a ride over there to pick it up.  I'll guess beyond that that I have to work on Tuesday - but who knows? They often times get the beginning days of the week covered in advance. 

_________________

Many hours later.  I kind of think that truck having broken ac was a gift from God. It would have been an incredibly miserable day trying to drive that long and get all of that done with so little sleep.  I am not working tomorrow - they have Mondays covered by the previous Friday because they don't like to work weekends doing scheduling stuff.  Allegedly the truck will be done sometime tomorrow.  I dunno, but if I drive down the road and the ac quits working, I'm turning that truck around and taking it right back to the shop.  

BTW, the truck they wanted me to drive was a very junky truck, older than the hills and had a 10 speed in it. I'm used to a 13 speed which can handle the loads much better.  

There are other things to discuss, but I have to keep my mouth zipped on some of it for now.  A revelation came out about a situation going on here that really was incredible. Incredibly bad, maybe incredulous is a better term for it's amazing this has now happened the second time. I wish I could go into details. 

I don't really know what I'm doing tomorrow. It's so hot I abhor going outdoors.  I've been keeping up with politics to some degree but I haven't really been discussing it too much.  The hate and anger coming from the left is something I just don't want to deal with.  I don't remember Republicans being so filled with rage and anger over Obama and some of the things he did, such as Obamacare - which he later admitted was designed to fail, so that they could initiate single payor healthcare system, otherwise known as full blown socialism.  

Trump is Trump and he makes me laugh the way he handles the press.  They treated him very poorly during the Russian collusion hoax - I don't really think many of those people actually thought it was real, they just didn't like Trump so they didn't care if they printed outright lies.

Oh, I got a 2 hour nap this afternoon lol. That's what I did now that I'm thinking about it. I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open, I just passed out.  That's what needs to happen - AT NIGHT TIME!

So I'm forcing myself to stay up a bit later than I should because of that and not wanting to set the conditions for waking up yet again and not being able to go back to sleep - too long of naps will do that.  

With that, however, I'm outta here.  

 Friday - afternoon

I have had a sore throat and headache for several days, it's not crazy bad so I haven't really said anything about it - I picked up something on the trip or I"m just that worn out, could be either or a combo of both.

I"m starting to feel better today, the sore throat is dying down and I slept quite a lot last night.  

My employer was wanting me to come back to work tomorrow.  No thanks. I didn't say that, I just relied on not feeling well - which definitely isn't a lie at all - for not doing it. This started yesterday now I've had 2 phone calls about it today.  I finally agreed to do a Sunday Arkansas run - the other part of this was that they were wanting me to do an Ennis run.

No clue why, I didn't ask and I have no idea what's up with my manager. He gets sick a lot but perhaps he's on vacation.  I know he's been stepping back from active dispatch duties but he is still doing the schedule for everyone.  I mean, what else is there for him to do if not scheduling? Manager stuff, I get it lol.  

Anyway we settled on the Sunday run but my truck isn't finished yet and allegedly not done until Monday.  You see, my manager would never ask me to do this ridiculous stuff trying to get a truck that is 2-1/2 hours away by car, he'd just go to plan B, C or D. He always has back up plans and I don't know why this dispatcher doesn't do the same.  

Well, we agreed on a Sunday run but I then asked how I'm getting to El Dorado to get the substitute truck? Well don't you have a friend that can bring you up here? LOL!  I replied no in the absolute definitive.  Yes, my friend took me to Shreveport to drop off the truck but she isn't going to drive me clear up to El Dorado  for a sub truck, that's 2-1/2 hours!  She was offering money and such and I just said no, she won't do it and besides, she has plans tomorrow.  I wouldn't ask her to do that much as it stands. She likes to drive but she just go done driving the entire trip we went on (and yes, I offered to help but she said she was fine). 

My statement that I can't get a ride up there put her into a conundrum, apparently she assumed I could just "find a way" there.  It isn't down the street and around the corner. I can't even imagine someone asking another person to do that without a plan on how to get that person there.  I really dislike when my manager isn't available, this is the kind of nonsense that ensues.  

So now, she said well I don't know, I"ll have to figure something out.  Yes, please do and that was the end of that.  They must be hurting for drivers - I would have thought they would have pulled someone off OTR to cover for me.  I have been driving 6 days a week, surely my manager had figured out how to cover it? Not like this was a last minute vacation request, I put that request in many months ago.  

See, even if I get a ride somehow up there, there is still dropping that truck off up there and getting back down here. They have never asked me to do this before, just weird.  

Changing the subject, I am still dealing with this insurance middleman. 

 Thursday - afternoon

We got home yesterday around --- 7 ish?  No a little earlier than that.  We emptied out the truck completely and I put everything away that wasn't clothes/personal items related.  

I've very tired, as I expected would be the case after getting home from a fairly long vacation starting on Thursday and ending on Wednesday.  Which is why I took today off as well, but really, I need a couple of days recuperation time.  

My phone has been ringing off the hook for hours now.  All kinds of things, one of which came in about half an hour ago.  My truck isn't done yet, it's going to be completed either tomorrow or Monday.  I really thought they would have had that thing done by now, it's been in there what, 9 days now? I wonder what that repair bill will be. Well, there are multiple repair bills - everything is billed separately as is their habit in truck repair centers. The AC repair is separate from the oil leak repair, which is separate from the engine brake repair - well you get the picture.  

Anyway, one of the messages was about them wanting me to take another truck to use tomorrow for a Ennis run.  First off, how am I supposed to get up there?  I am not asking the lady of the house to drive me that far, that's 2-1/2 by pickup if you take the shortest direction, which you would obviously, but that isn't available for trucks with weight restricted bridges.  I think about that anytime I'm doing anything in a vehicle lol, even when it doesn't apply.  

This dispatcher is a nice person but when it comes to doing schedules, she isn't very good at it. The manager wouldn't likely ask me to do such a thing.  I don't want to go up to the yard, pick up what truck in who knows what condition, drive over the Crossett and drive home and then have to drive to Dallas and then what? Drive back to the yard?  I'm not driving my personal vehicle and frankly, I was at the point of telling them I'm not going to work again until the insurance problem is solved.  

Annnnndddd then. Another phone call. I'm not answering my phone because I'm busy getting post-vacation stuff done. There is a lot to do. I'm just taking a break because of this particular phone call.  I've had to wash my bedding - they left my dog in my bedroom most of the time. We came home yesterday and yes, I remember now, it was just before 6 pm and he was in my room.  I knew the dog would pee on my bed, just a granted at this point, he doesn't do it anymore because I don't let him.  He stays outside when I'm not home - excepting vacation obviously.  

He has to be able to come in at night and not bark all night long plus have a retreat from the outdoors. It's still quite hot out and tho I keep cool water out there and he has plenty of shade, I do like my dogs indoors at night and sometimes during the day depending on what's going on.  Today? Nope.  

Oh, well the dog peed on the bed, I could feel it wet so that was all washed in hot water heavy soil mode.  I vacuumed the carpet and just got finished going over the carpet multiple times with a carpet cleaning machine. I'm thinking of having a professional carpet cleaning company come out and really get the carpet deep cleaned. 

Anyway, this "broker" calls. They deal with our company and they deal with the Bavvy company in getting stuff done like our benefits.  How many companies have to be involved with this? I didn't even know about these people.  

She left a book's worth of a message. The long story short: Bavvy screwed up, but I already knew this.  This lady said she's going to be dealing with this from here on out. She is in a separate company unrelated to Bavvy but apparently deals with them making sure issues are resolved. She said she was  totally sorry for the "terrible" situation - at least they admit that much - that I was put in and that Bavvy had sent me an email about permission to set up whatever that gives authorization to have the account set up for auto pay. 

That is obviously not my venue, I don't deal with that. I deal with trucks and glue.  I am not HR, they had no business sending me that email.  She then stated that my company was not at fault here, I disagree with that statement vehemently. I have informed my company since these late pays ending in no pay started and they did nothing about it. They bear at least partial responsibility.  Maybe not all of it, but certainly some of it lands directly on their heads. 

What I'm getting at here is that the problem was identified in Bavvy not following through with an email they sent to the wrong person and not ensuring that it was corrected.  I had no dealings with Bavvy at all until July 2, when I found out my insurance had been canceled on May 31st.  I never even heard their name before, I think I might have seen that email they had sent and I didn't know who it was or why it was being sent to me, I just ignored it. I did not ignore the emails from Christus telling me the payment is late for several months running and in jeopardy of having my insurance  removed. 

I don't know who did what here, but Bavvy is paying my company back the premiums paid this year, I am going to be reimbursed all of what I have paid - it's a chunk of change folks, it's not just a few dollars, I pay for decent insurance because I want and need that kind of coverage.  They are also going to pay my premiums for the rest of the year.  At the end of this ordeal - well we'll see if we are actually at the end or not - I am not paying a dime for health insurance this year at all.  

This is thousands of dollars. Close to 5k on my end of it, double that on my company's end. That's how expensive health care coverage is and I rarely use it, I just have it because that "something" that might happen, God forbid, but stuff happens to people all the time and age isn't really even a factor.  Kids, teens, young adults, middle aged, old.  If you want to be able to get the care you need in a time of need and not lose everything you own? You best have health care insurance coverage. 

It's a happy - well I'm a bit reserved on it right now for the fact of everything I've gone through with this ordeal, we'll see if they actually do what they're going to say - but  aside from the fact I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch - ending. Everyone knows I was pissed because the situation continued to escalate and I was pretty   upset when this Bavvy company dissed me, didn't call when they said they were going to, put me off on the phone.

The only thing I don't understand is who is covering me right now. Is it Christus or the company I found to give temporary insurance? That was not clarified.  I can't use the company I found until the end of the year, federal or state law prohibits it - I think it's Texas law but my memory is a bit foggy for all I have read and tried to absorb on this matter to try and get it resolved.  It's temporary health insurance coverage only intended to cover a person - well going through something like this.  I never knew such coverage existed and neither did my employer, I thank AI of all "people" for not only telling me about it but giving several links to find the coverage I needed and the thing was even imploring me to go ahead and get it with or without employer permission and get that coverage!

I didn't listen to it at first but after it became obvious this situation wasn't going to be resolved any time soon and I wanted coverage before we went on vacation? Yea, I did it even when they were trying to stop me from doing so.  I didn't care at that point, it obviously doesn't affect them, why should it matter if I have coverage or not to them? Obviously it didn't.  

A LOT of people got involved with this situation thanks to me contacting all kinds of people within my company, contacting Bavvy myself, calling a government agency and threatening to fill a complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission for theft of wages. It most certainly as theft as far as I'm concerned, they were taking my money and not giving the services it was supposed to be paying for.  They knew I was serious and I was contemplating contacting a lawyer.  That's very expensive, last resort type of thing. 

Anyway, I need to get back to the chores I was doing and then I am going to rest. This has been one of the most exhaustive vacations I've been on in quite a while. We did a LOT of walking in extreme heat.  Everyone else - people much younger than me - are also worn out and didn't want to go back to work for lack of energy. 

 Sunday night

Long several days, no real time to put up posts tho I did remember to bring my laptop with me at least.

Sort of a different agenda traveling with another family.  Baton Rouge was going to the new and old state capitol - interesting but very hot and a lot of walking in that heat.  Then we were going to see something I would have really loved - the Kitt warship - but it had been moved to a drydock for a years long restoration.

Over to New Orleans and I can finally say I've been to Bourbon street and I can also say it's not  a place I would be interested in visiting again.  It was very hot, smelly, dirty, etc.  Lots of drug users, drunks, people passed out on streets, sidewalks, grass, etc.  The hotel was a pile of .... as well.  Nothing like the pics showed it and how they could get all of those awesome reviews? They had to have paid people to put them up there. I gave them a 1 star and I would have given them zero stars if possible.  The rooms showed a pic of a queen sized bed and double bunk beds. The rooms? Were the size of large walk in closets, had no queen bed and 2 sets of bunk beds. No furniture, there wasn't room for any.

The whole place was ridiculous and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Turns out it isn't a hotel, it's a hostel even tho it says hotel in their name.  I mean, we got the rooms to ourselves but even one of the rooms, the door wouldn't close they had to relocate.  The only thing good was at least the ac was working.  

We spent the rest of the first day and much of the second day there - I did not want to spend that much time there but apparently I was along for the ride.  It wasn't all bad, the Christmas store was very interesting.  I think halfway through the second day and after trudging through unbearable heat and humidity, we left there but there were several stops on the way to Gulf Shores, so many so that we didn't get there in time to get into the ocean.  

I did get to meet up with an old friend who is a regular reader of this blog, that was nice.  Yesterday, we spent most of the day at the beach. I got my fill of the water and dragging a heavy cart through deep sand, once in and once out. It was a chore just to walk through it, much more drag that thing! But we all had fun, I spent alot of it in the water.  

I'm kinda skipping past things, maybe get more depth this week when we get back home, but we are getting up early in the morning to clean the house, get our stuff packed and head over to Destin for 2 more days of beach fun or whatever.  Hopefully beach fun.  Fair chance of rain there tomorrow, pretty good chance on Tuesday.  I dunno what else there is to do over there, some tropical storm is trying to move in and even if it doesn't turn into a hurricane or high wind event, it's likely to dump a lot of rain. 

I won't let the spoil my vacation, we'll just find other things to do. 

 Thursday - early

Just a short one here. Got up early, like 4:00 am early for my sleep had departed from me for whatever reason, probably a head full of thoughts that I can't shake.  

Regardless, we are leaving at 6:00 am for Baton Rouge and then New Orleans. Will be a busy day once we get there, however, that is many hours from now. It's 4-1/2 hours down there and I haven't been in that area since I worked a previous job over in Louisiana.  

Health care issue just goes on and on, I did buy my own premium, it doesn't go into full effect until tomorrow, but, if there's an accident I am covered.  Bavvy wants to get me into the health care portal to "shop for coverage". No, I flatly told them - or more like a tone of irritation - I am going to file a few things, one with the government and another with Christus itself, to try and appeal this situation. 

I'm at least going to try before I go with United or whoever else is in the portal.  Otherwise, I think I would be eligible again when the yearly selection window opens up, near the end of the year.  This temporary thing is just that and it has a huge deductible and out of pocket expenses.  As I stated before, it's basically just a measure to keep myself from losing everything and going broke if something major happens. It has up to a million dollar limit.  That sounds like a lot but in this day and age, who knows. 

Anyway, apparently the Peterbilt dealership has already fixed the AC - or so they claim anyway, we'll see about that when I get back - and several other issues including the train horns, the cruise control, the engine brake and they said they steam cleaned the engine in order to find the oil leak and found "several of them", one of which they claim to have fixed and working on the others.  

Those were the main issues.  The ABS light was on all the time too, they hadn't addressed that yet.  It's the anti lock braking system, keeps trailer brakes from locking up if you slam on the brakes. I never much cared for that stuff when it first came out so I didn't really care if it got fixed or not - but - if it's on and DOT pulls you over, they're going to see it and write you up for it. 

We have a family moving in temporarily - friends - to watch the animals and to have a break from their temporary living situation. They moved back in with one of their parents in order to be able to save up enough money for a down payment to buy a house. Smart move, but I'm guessing that can get a bit sticky with 2 young kids and the issues they present in daily living. I know, it's a daily thing around here but I'm quite used to it.  No one will be here so it's a win- win. They get a break and we don't have to take 3 dogs and 3 cats to kennels.  

Last night, after having yesterday off, it was hard to shake the thought that "I need to go to bed, I have work tomorrow". It's been 6 days on and 1 off for a while now.  There are a few variants at times but that's pretty much my schedule.  Getting up early wasn't anything but the idea I'm not actually going to work, lol.

We did manage to get haircuts yesterday.  One of the boys wanted a mohawk - it's still a pretty popular hair style with younger kids, the other 2 didn't want haircuts at all but I forced one of them to get one anyway.  The oldest doesn't live with us so I don't really have any say in it, his hair is about a foot and a half long, unkempt and ridiculous.  It'd be ok, I guess, if he would at least take care of it.  His stepdad was here when they dropped him off and said he was going to cut it when he gets home, the same sentiment: he won't take care of it and it's pretty ugly looking.  

The other one I had them cut number 2 on the sides and finger length on the top and it looks good IMO and mom's opinion as well and that's all that counts.  

There's something looming here that had me a bit worried, it's a pretty major thing, not me but the man and wife here that will take place eventually. I don't know when but I had questions concerning my situation here.  Do I need to make plans to move on?  Not something I wanted to have to think about but the possibility was lurking in my brain. That was answered decisively yesterday and was "you aren't going anywhere" type of thing.  I don't mind if I spend the rest of my life living here tbh, no desire to move back to the desert and I've managed to make some friends here as well.  It's basically my home.  

I figured to be here long after the kids are grown and gone.  Or, have a house built on my property after this "event" is over with and we all move over there.  Not really sure, no huge hurry - yet.

Time to get off of here, get some coffee in me, play a couple of games and then get the stuff loaded in the truck - I got up well before anyone else.

G'day. 

 Tuesday - night

I think I mislabeled the previous entry as Tuesday which was incorrect. That was Monday.  

Today was the last day of work before this massive vacation. I say massive for the number of days off - 9 - and the amount of traveling we will be doing - with me NOT at the steering wheel.  

The offload went quickly, drove over to the Peterbilt in Bossier City - about 2-1/2 hour drive.  When I got there, the man knew who I was with. You must be the one with such and such trucking. Yes.  You're here for the AC issue.  Yes and a list of other things.

Well, we only have AC on here. I don't understand why every single thing with this company has to turn into a pain-in-the-ass, but it does.  We went back and forth, I simply ended this nonsense by saying first off, my  manager said he sent an updated list and second, I can call them right now and have them verify it. 

The list was not a short one, trust me, there are a lot of things wrong with that truck that have been needing fixed.  When we finally got to the bottom of this situation, I dropped the trailer on their lot, parked the tractor where I wanted it and waited for my ride. The misses of the house and the kids.    

The real ordeal today, however, was the ongoing bs with the health insurance.  This person who had sent me an invitation from Bavvy to use their system for health insurance never replied to fully 4 separate emails.  The man that is the contact for it never replied, either.  I emailed the HR person and told her I am buying temporary insurance today and I fully expect you, the company to PAY FOR IT.  

She wrote back rather testy - didn't you see the email they sent you? They said they sent you email and you never replied.  I replied to this person with a rather lengthy message.  I'm not going to revisit that message because this whole situation is completely and totally aggravating, it's going on and on and onnnnnn.....But in a nutshell, yes, I got their email and I replied to her 4 times without a reply and once to the man that was going to set temporary up also without a reply. 

This woman copies and pastes as reply from Bavvy stating that they never received a reply from me. I copied and pasted the emails I sent to them and then I jumped right back down her throat, reminding her that she didn't believe me when I first contacted her telling her that Christus has sent an email saying my health care coverage had expired on May 31st and sending her an actual copy of the damn email. 

I then informed her yet again I'm purchasing my own through the Texas portal today and I want immediate reimbursement.  I sent her a series of other emails since she wanted to talk so bad but I didn't receive any confirmation that the company is going to reimburse me for health care coverage.  

And yes, I went into the Texas portal and bought a temporary policy that is limited and has a huge deductible but it's intended for catastrophic types of incidents that you need that kind of coverage for. If you don't, you lose everything you own paying for it and your life is basically ruined as you once knew it. 

I sent a copy of the statement which included the price and no, I of course didn't receive a reply, but now I at least have coverage of some sort, better than nothing.  

I am likely going to inform my manager that if it isn't paid back to me before I return from vacation, I am refusing to work until it is.  If they want to fire me, they will get a lawsuit thrown at them for retaliatory termination and it highly likely that I would win such a case. I hope not to have to go down that road, but as is me, I tend to go down all the rabbit trails of things that could possibly happen now that I have started this ball rolling.  

I can tell you something that I have said a few times here: AI has been my friend in this. I am NOT an expert in healthcare situations such as this, I was groping in the dark and just happenstance put in an inquiry at the beginning of this into a Google search and an AI response came up that was quite intriguing. Asking it multiple questions, I came out with knowledge I don't really want to have to have but glad I found it. This AI creature even gives me drafts of the words I should speak to the various people I am dealing with.  Especially the government agencies.  It's quite amazing but yes, it can be wrong.  In this case and so far? It's been spot on.  The ESBA is a real government agency.

In fact, there is an update about that as well!  This lady from that agency calls me back and says she has called multiple times and has left numerous messages and has received no reply from them.  I was like, wow!  So, I gave her the direct number to Tabitha, the HR person! LMAO.  

After talking to her, I am assuming she spoke with Tabitha today, who knows they aren't saying anything from corporate, I input this information to a ridiculous long "conversation" I have been having with AI about this and it came back with a lot of stuff.  The only thing that  not replying will do, AI stated, is make the government even more suspicious. The government will not stop, they don't care how long it takes and it has "unlimited" resources.  Which it does, basically. They don't just say, oh well, they won't answer their phone or return phone numbers, ohhh my goodness nooo. 

So, that's where that's at for now.            

Today I started prepping for the vacation, tomorrow will be a full day of it.  Haircuts - me and 3 kids, tractor work at the park, a few hours should deal with it, pack, get the house cleaned up nicely, some trips to stores for the last minute stuff - we are having a steak night but they want to buy steaks from some meat house in a town 30 miles away. All well and fine, she is going over there tomorrow with the youngest for his psychology assessment.  The assessment will detail at length what they have found to be issues with him and in depth look at his inner being as they see it and what is going on inside of his brain to the best that they can determine it.  I have a list of things to do, is what I'm saying and I need to go to bed!

G'nite.                                                                                                 

 Tuesday -  night

Just got home 25 minutes ago, it's 8:00 pm.  I got to the plant this morning at 9:00 am and didn't leave until 5:00 pm.  Yup, they had an issue with their lines being clogged and it took them all day long to resolve it.  

Couple that with sitting in a truck that doesn't have AC.

Add to that the ongoing bs with the healthcare chaos. Today it reached a head for me.  I was informed that CHRISTUS - the insurance provider I picked and was paying for - has refused to reinstate me. Bavvy is the incompetent company that mishandled my funds and didn't pay the premiums and now I have to pay for it. They are still telling my company today that they can't figure out what happened....

About an hour ago, I informed my manager that I will be getting temporary insurance and the company will pay for it.  Note that I didn't ask or make  request, no no no. This has been going on far too long and now it's just going to happen and if they don't pay it, I'll file a lawsuit in local small claims court and they can send a lawyer over here to defend the indefensible. 

But now, I got into my email and found an email from these Bavvy idiots "graciously" offering me temporary health insurance until they can resolve this issue.  Well, how they are going to get me reinstated when CHRISTUS has flatly stated they won't?

Well, screw them, but thank AI for seriously vital information on how to get it reinstated.  I actually have discussions with AI on Google about things I need more information about and it has no problem giving it's version of reality, which is copied and pasted below:

3. Use an "Exceptional Circumstances" Enrollment to Get Back In

If CHRISTUS's insurance arm completely digs their heels in on the old policy, you can still buy a new plan with them through the marketplace.

• The Bypassed Window: Because you are past 60 days, you normally can't enroll. However, a third-party error qualifies you for an Exceptional Circumstances Special Enrollment Period.
• Action: Call HealthCare.gov at 1-800-318-2596. Explain that Bavvy's systemic failure locked you out of your plan and your standard enrollment windows.
• The Goal: Once they manually grant the exception, choose a new CHRISTUS Health Plan option right on the marketplace exchange so you can keep using your local doctors and facilities.

Would you like me to help draft the exact narrative text to copy and paste into your Texas Department of Insurance complaint so it hits all the right legal points?

 It's late. I'm getting worn out on this battle with this health care nonsense.  Even the owner of our company has now gotten himself involved in this ridiculousness.  He should, apparently this Bavvy company has also screwed over another coworker tho I am not at liberty to give out the details.  Not now anyway.  

 Sunday - night

Basically just about bedtime and facing yet 2 more days of a hellish truck that has no ac in it.  Tomorrow will be cooler tho, a little more bearable at least.  Tuesday, I intend on taking it wherever they want to take it and drop it off and they need to figure out in advance how I'm getting home. I don't want to be fooling with this on Wednesday, there's no good reason for it and I don't want to drive it another day like that.  

I've heard nothing about health care and now I'm at the point that if it doesn't materialize tomorrow, I'm buying a temporary plan that covers major events.  I don't need minor stuff, just if something big happens.  I hope not, obviously, but that's why you carry the insurance, so you don't end up losing everything you own to pay for something that otherwise would be covered by the insurance.

I'm telling them that tomorrow.  I've waited long enough and I'm tired of the games.  There have been no notifications from anyone and apparently my manager is sick yet again.  That guy gets sick a lot.  

So today, we went to church and when I say we, I mean everyone in the house.  Well, the other guy is on the road and basically stays on the road now.  But even the misses went again, I had no idea she was seriously getting into this stuff.  They are preaching the Gospel message, I hope something is getting through to her, especially about a current situation going on with her and someone else that I simply don't have liberty to speak about on the internet, too personal and just would be inappropriate. Down the line, after it's over, yes, now? No.

Anyway, the oldest kid is here from Arkansas and he's too old  to go to the kid's church and doesn't want to go to the teen stuff.  He's a vocal atheist at the ripe old age of 12.  I've had discussions with him about it, he has been listening to his step dad in AR who is also an atheist and steering him away from "religion". Not a big fan of religion myself, Christ is all about a relationship.  There is condoned religion in the Bible, but it's a fairly narrow description of what it is and it doesn't mention anything about denominations, or different beliefs about certain scriptures found in the bible.

So, he was already coming into the main service anyway, but the middle brother decided he wanted to, too. I said well ok but you're probably going to be bored. It is nothing like the kid's church and I don't see why you wouldn't want to finish out your time there as it stands. Not much time left and he'll be out of 5th grade and into Junior High school.  He insisted so he went into the main service as well.  Sitting there, the misses made a statement: I think you're ready to be baptized, you've done well the last year or so and it's time.  

You see, the kid's church ministry leaders said they thought he was ready for it quite a while back, at least a year ago.  They were pushing it on me, but I am not the decision maker.  Parents said no, you (he) aren't ready for that yet. I wasn't sure if he was ready or not either, tbh.  Baptism is basically an outward  showing that you not only love Jesus, but you want to live your life for Him, follow after Him, learn more about Him and strive to do the things He says to do.  Baptism doesn't save you, no, salvation is the gift of God and not of works.  It plainly states that in the Bible, none of us are worthy, it's by the grace and mercy of the Lord that we are given that eternal gift. 

 By happenstance, there was actually a baptism today as well.   I thought this great! He'll get to see what he will be going through. It's not a long, drawn out thing, whoever is doing the baptism has a headset on, asks the person being baptized if they have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life, they say yes and then you dunk them in the water while saying " I now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Blessed Holy Spirit". Ok, they don't say the blessed part, I do because the Holy Spirit is awesome.  

So we watched the baptism and I said, well, they'll do an interview with you and they will want to make a short video of you to show the congregation.  They do this with everyone, the person sits  in the video and gives a short statement about what they like (kids anyway and it's almost always kids getting baptized), what they believe, what they want to do with their life, etc.  I then said he can choose whoever he wants to baptize him, think he'd probably pick the pastor or one of the leaders of the church or the youth ministry.  Some kids choose relatives or people they look up to that aren't necessarily any more part of the church than just coming to the services.                      

He thought about that for a while and had noted that the baptism he had just watched, a relative had done it, not anyone in church leadership, looked at me and said "I want you to do it".  I was really quite surprised by that statement.  The church has taught those kids about Christ but I'm the one that has been taking them going on 3 years now.  Only the last 2 services did mom decide to start coming, but she has been implementing some serious changed in her life including serious dieting. She's lost a lot of weight, her friends are doing it too. I had been planning on starting the keto diet for a few weeks and had a start date for it, informing her I wouldn't be eating normal meals, I need to lose the weight.

I had no idea at the time that she and her friends were going to start going to the gym 5 days a week and that she was going to seriously cut back on her eating.  I dunno if my saying I was serious about losing weight and doing whatever it takes to achieve that goal had anything to do with it, but it's a lot easier to diet like this when others in the house are also dieting.   

Got off track there and need to end this, it's time to go to bed. I replied to the kid that I would be honored to do it and really, it really made me happy that I would have the opportunity to do it.  I suspect it won't take long for them to set up an appointment, have him go to it and do the interview thing and get whatever Sunday they determine to do it set.  I will have to ask to make sure I have whichever Sunday it is off of work and it certainly isn't happening before vacation for we are leaving on Thursday morning and coming back Tuesday.  

Yup, I'm getting sleepy.  

 Saturday - afternoon

The heat today, driving in a semi with no ac, was brutal.  I pushed it hard to get back today without being out too late and I accomplished that task, arriving back to the park and my nicely ac'ed suv at around 12:10 pm.  That's really good.  Offload time at 43 minutes was quite helpful. I was going to take shorts with me and switch out after leaving the plant - but very unfortunately I forgot. 

I don't work tomorrow - Sunday - and then back at it Monday and Tuesday and hopefully get the truck dropped off at the Peterbilt in Texarkana on Tuesday to get it over with and therefore end up with an extra day off, which would be a total of 9 days.  

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Totally sidetracked. It's bedtime now lol. The misses of the house went to a lake with a friend like 110 miles from here so I was babysitting. It's not real difficult for me anymore, they know what I won't tolerate and they won't do those things.  

I wish I was awake enough to write out  the entire post but alas, I am not. 

Night.  

 Thursday - night

Close to bedtime, but I have a few minutes.  The whole clan is chomping at the bit for this vacation to come and get this party started! I think there are 16 people going in total, tho we are all driving separately.  Well, one of the other families may be tagging along behind us, I'm not sure. I'm not driving and the queen of the house doesn't take her time, she loves to drive and she likes speed.  She doesn't drive unsafe, especially with 3 kids in the car, I am happy to not be driving the entire trip as far as I know it.  I don't want to drive. The other guy in the house, now a truck driver, doesn't even log as many miles as I do per week. Which is crazy cause' he's OTR.

I know this because Life360 keeps track of all  your trips and gives a running total of how many miles you have driven for any given week.  

Today, coming back from Gurdon? A bit brutal. The AC is not working in the truck and it was pretty warm.   I stopped for nothing, get it over with, get back to the park and get in my vehicle with the ac blasting.  I dunno about doing these next 2 loads without AC. It's going to be hot tomorrow and Saturday tho the morning are pretty nice, driving down to Lufkin won't be terrible it's coming back up that is a bit hellish.  

The thing is, I don't think they have another truck and if they do, it's going to mean going up to the yard in ElDo, switching out and  spending many hours doing it.  I may end up doing that anyway, I'm not sure what the manager has in mind, he doesn't know yet as he has informed me several times (I didn't ask, he gets testy sometimes and tho I don't have a problem getting testy right back at him, I'd rather avoid it).  One thing is for certain: that AC in that truck must be fixed. And several other issues as well.  

As for health care coverage? Yeah, I don't have any.  I don't know if I spoke about this here yet, but I misread the date when the coverage was cancelled. It wasn't the end of last month, it was the end of May!  I just thought in my mind that it was the end of last month because they didn't send me that notice about it until the 2cd of this month.   I filed a complaint with the EBSA yesterday and the lady was all over it.  This is exactly what they exist for, dealing with issues with both retirement funds and health care benefits - that you aren't getting but having money deducted from each check for.

I am paying a good deal of money for nothing.  

I heard nothing from my manager or corporate or anyone about this situation today, I suspect they aren't pleased that I filed a complaint and I don't give 2 rat's @$$es what they think. They've had ample opportunity to fix this situation - the company they are using I should say - and they haven't.  What is the holdup? No clue.  Stupidity. Incompetence.  Ignorance of their own systems.  I could take a large number of guesses, they might all be wrong.      

I feel like there is the possibility of retaliation but I am prepared for that possibility. I hope not for it would entail having to find a good lawyer and shell out some bucks for it, tho I would expect to get that all back and then some.  Dunno, but I'm not letting this go. First of all, I still have no insurance and second off, I called that company yesterday and they were dismissive.  I asked for a manager who refused to talk to me.  I was nice at the beginning of the call but when they started giving me the runaround and talking in circles, I got rather pissy about it. No one cares about this except me, the party affected. They don't care, obviously. I don't know how my company chose that company to handle all of this, but they might rethink it. 

Regardless, the ESBA has to start the process with my company which I would think has already occurred. The lady was definitely aghast after I told her all the details without any exaggeration or leaving things out.  I admitted I got upset with that company but only after they started treating me the way they did. She was on my side, at least on the phone.  

I dunno. Tomorrow is Friday and I will be making phone calls again.  As many as I need to.  I will call that company over and over and over if I have to. I will make myself such an annoyance that they will want to deal with it and get it over with to get rid of me.  I already promised them I would be doing that, I figure it's time to keep my word on that one.  

As for right now? Time for sleep.  

 Tuesday - evening

The day started out ok. Slept rather well last night which is always amazing the next day.  But, alas, it wouldn't stay so good.  I got up to the plant, pulled up onto the scale and the air pressure buzzer went off. It goes off after it goes under 67 psi, at least on my truck.  It's always somewhere in the mid 60's on any truck.  

Why on earth is it doing that?!! I looked at the air pressure falling, this started as soon as I had come into the plant, apparently and I could see why.  I pulled the yellow valve and the air pressure started building back up.  Ok, so there is a leak in the system that is related to the service valve.  When I got to the offload site in the plant, I quickly found the problem. I don't know the precise name of it, but it's a valve used to divert air pressure to the brakes.  It's not a big thing and there are hoses running in and out of it. 

It was dumping a massive amount of air.  Long story short: I drove to Prescott, Love's said I would have to wait until tonight before they could get to it.  TA told the same story and a place across the street from Love's as well. BUT...that place said they have a shop in Hope and they should be able to get to me. That whole area is a  bad place to have mechanical issues, seems like a lot of people have truck breakdowns there.  And tire issues too. You can wait a long, long time to get a tire issue resolved there.

Welp, I drove the 14 miles to the Hope shop and fortunately for me, they were able to get right to it and they actually had the part in stock! I was there an hour and a half, yes but that's far better than waiting 5 to 10 hours for them to even start looking at it. I had 2 air leaks fixed and that  was good.

However.  The other thing going on with that truck? You know the AC problem I have been talking about for a couple of years now - well going on 3 - with it? Yeah, well now it's gone. there is no AC working. The compressor isn't even coming on now.  Lucky me! Well, blessed me today, rains caused temps to come down temporarily and driving it wasn't bad. Tomorrow, however, a different problem.  It will be back up in the 90's and tho the morning drive is ok, once we start getting to the afternoon, no thanks.

Talk of switching trucks now instead of when I go on vacation.

The  health insurance issue has not been resolved but the problem has been identified.  Our company uses a health insurance middle man or whatever it is to pay everyone's monthly premiums. They take a lump some out all at once to pay for all of it.  

The fact that the HR gal didn't even believe me to begin with.  I have a written statement from them, lady, what more do you want? I called them twice to boot, they told me twice I have no health care insurance.  She left me a message telling me I had to call Bavvy and find out if they are the problem. 

ME?  I am a driver, not HR, not payroll, not a representative official in the company, YOUR @$$ needs to do this, I thought while reading this nonsense and that's when my manager called. I flatly told him it's the company's responsibility to deal with this, NOT ME. "Well she's out sick". How convenient. Why can't someone else in the department do it? There is no one else, one person runs the entire company's hr platform! 

But, he insisted on calling them himself (btw, I had tried twice to call them anyway out of irritation, they did not answer either time) and he got them to look into it and now? They had the money for my premium but for whatever reason, they "pulled it" according to my manager and it went unpaid.  The person my manager was talking to said the whole thing was odd ever since I changed insurance companies when the selection process was open.                

Allegedly I will have health insurance again tomorrow if not already. I don't know, but if they don't get these people to get this done tomorrow, I WILL CALL THEM AND LIGHT A FIRE UNDER THEIR DAMN ASSES. Thanks. 

As for my friend asking me when we're leaving New Orleans, I have no problem saying it here: We should be traveling to the Shores on the 17th.  NO is only an overnight stop to see some of the sights the ladies are interested in seeing.  We will probably get up early, but I don't know that for a fact, I only know they want to leave here to start the trip on the 16th at 6:00 am lol.  Ambitious, I'll give them that.  I don't care any way about it, I will not be driving the entire trip and I am QUITE happy about that. 

She doesn't like the way I drive - I don't know why and it's whatever to me, I drive pretty good I think but I don't waste any time getting to where I'm going - but then again neither does she, but more importantly, she wants to drive the entire trip.  This is a brand new Ram truck and it's a very nice truck indeed.  Personally not interested in buying new vehicles tho I'd love to upgrade that SUV to a newer model. It's a 2011 and I'd like something a little newer, maybe 2020.  New is nice but new is not a good economic move, at least not for me.  Anyone that likes to buy brand new vehicles, more power to ya! No judgment here but it's not a fairy tale when people say that a new vehicle loses thousands of dollars worth of value the instant you drive it off the lot...

Just looked at one right now from a dealer. 2020 Expedition MAX for 18k.  143,000 miles, not too much mileage.  Nice looking thing.  But, of course, we're talking payments and I have enough of that going on right now.  Maybe after I get that personal loan paid off in a few years - then again, maybe not.  The old ford is still running great.  I've had it 9 or 10 years and only put 50,000 miles on it.  

Well, not exactly cutting this one short, kind of covered some ground here, but it's many hours later and time to go to bed. I have my schedule up until vacation.  Working through Saturday, Sunday off, work Monday and Tuesday and likely taking the truck - somewhere - to get it fixed on Wednesday.  Would rather get it done Tuesday now that I think of it, doesn't matter how long that day is, I can get unloaded in Gurdon and then either take it to the yard or over to Rush (Peterbilt) and they need to figure out how I'm getting home.  He hasn't decided that yet, not my department and he still has time to figure that out (he being the manager).

Regardless, time for nighty night time.