Will the madness ever stop?

I went back to the seasonal jobsite yesterday. The GM asked me if I was rested? I told him I was going to have to return just to rest up! It seems like all I have done is run here and there. I fueled my pickup just after mid-day yesterday and I had been 372 miles already. Yesterday afternoon I lived in that truck.

I am getting very frustrated with employees. I have two who want to remain on year round. One says he can dispatch himself and make money for him and the truck. I am willing to try this to see. The other driver wants to stay right where he is. Last year he worked with us and left, buying his own truck. I knew the truck he was buying and tried to talk him out of it, telling him I was afraid he was buying someone else's trouble. As it turned out, I was prophetic. Now he tells me he is content to stay where he is, even if it gets slow.

What is frustrating me is, they talk a good show. When we finished the seasonal work the one driver told me he was going to call his contact and begin flatbedding. The following day he called me telling me they were closing from the December 16th to January 5th. Now he wanted to bat the ball back in my court. What are we going to do? I can't go without working.

I devised a plan to keep both these men working. They wouldn't be making huge bucks like during the seasonal work, but it would be good money. After I gave them the plan, they began modifying it. Finally I threw up my hands in frustration and called two more drivers in. Then the original drivers complained at how the part timers were stealing their money! Hey, the money is there and someone is going to get it when the do the job when I say to do it. One driver who could have worked everyday last week, worked only three. Yesterday neither showed up before nine, with one arriving closer to ten.

I gave them a list of things to do. I had the broken down into expedite, today and tomorrow. They have hunted and picked through that list so much it looks like swiss cheese. I even had the driver who came in close to ten tell me he needed off early to go cash his check.

Today one can't work. The other only wants to work part of the day. So, good Lord willing, by mid-afternoon, we will be done until after the jolly fatman's visit!

Much to their dismay, we are shutting down until after Christmas. It is more work for me to keep them working than it is for them!

I have made a a private promise to myself on my neighbors behalf that by nightfall, the big travel trailer will be gone. That is the bogey on my screen. Krl just wanted to die off. I will have all the office moved out, all the bed linens removed, everything from the entertainment center. I give you my word, it will all be out of the trailer when it leaves.

It may be sitting in the front yard, but it will be out of the trailer.

No progress yesterday on the Christmas shopping. If you are on our list and your name begins with a letter between A and Z in the alphabet, your gift could be in jeopardy. You have been advised.

I am in hopes Krl and I can do the gift shopping like the old show, "Name that Tune!", and contestants would say, "I can name that tune in ten notes", and so on and so forth and the note bidding would come down until the one contestant would challenge the other, "Name that tune!"

I can do all our Christmas shopping in four hours! That will be my opening bid. When Krl counters, I will challenge her to "Buy those gifts!" Meanwhile, back at the house I will be sitting beside the roaring fire, roasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate!

You know I won't do that. I will suffer through every step until we have finished.

That line above is what I tell my buddy K.O., he is still at his seasonal jobsite (albeit six miles from his home), but everytime we talk he tells me what he is doing and I respond with the fire and marshmallow and hot chocolate line!

I'm sorry, but I can't write his response here because this is a family blog!

It was an interesting night last night. I dreamed a lot. (O.K., I was un-medicated). I dreamed of Tj, and Fred, Felipe, Leonard, and even a patron from the jobsite Duane H. I have no idea what this dream meant, it involved a crewcab module truck, a really big cotton crop for Pepa on a place that hasn't had cotton in three years, and even Don H. and Moe were in it with the old John Blue Module builder. Of course Fred's old white suburban had to play a part in an underground labyrinth at his house.

Not just weird. Extremely weird! I may need counseling!

Well, I am going to go. I think I will jumpstart my day by soaking in the tub and reading for a while! Have a day!

Two days and counting!

LORD help us all.