I caught a Brady Bunch episode on television that I had never seen. It was the wedding. Kind of neat. Once again, the TV Land channel won the weekend ratings battle at our home.

To solidify their hold, programmers also had a Harrison Ford day. Coming up, they have scheduled a MASH marathon. Heh, heh. Now that is my kind of TV. Mindless.

I caught a little of the Masters. Kind of like osmosis. I didn't watch it, I had it on in the back ground. I was working at Krl's desk with my back to the screen until right at the very end. I had to go on line to get a play by play. It had to be heartbreaking for Campbell, and Perry. Of course $660K would go a long way to soothing hurt feelings.

Yep, ol' Angel had a $1.350M pay day. Not bad for someone who doesn't speak English well enough to do an interview.

Bueno.

It was a really quiet Easter Sunday. My phone rang only twice, and both times it was the same truck driver. I did a little finish work on some tax stuff and weekly payroll.

I am very frustrated with the cash flow situation of the business. You know there is a money on the books, but it is a race to see if you can collect more before the money in hand is gone. I sure don't like working like that.

I know I am fixing to get one of those calls from one driver, telling me how bad he is hurting. The other driver always calls to visit on Sunday afternoon, and after a lengthy visit, asks if I know how much his check is going to be. Both of these guys are on commission. They draw a percentage of what they do. I feel absolutely positive they have a good idea of the neighborhood their check is going to reside in.

I usually "try" to help these guys out as much as possible, but you can only do so much. One driver only had two loads last week. The other only three. One driver is at fault, taking off mid week, the other a victim of the time of the year. Not a whole lot of activity was going on.

One of our vendors must have needed the commodity we usually haul them because we got a call telling us they would have return loads, "so come on down". It got them three loads they wouldn't have received, if they hadn't called. Of course when we arrived to off load, they had no idea what the hold up was on the loads crossing the border. By Friday they had changed their tune and talk. "The two weeks leading up to Easter are the two slowest weeks of the year", they said.

I am hoping they are covered up beginning this morning.

We had made contact with a vendor we used to haul for. We were impressed with their growth since we had worked with them. Their website boasts of 500 loads shipped each month, that they are the largest importer of tubing in the U.S.. From what I have seen, they are going to have to really pick up the number of loads they have had to make the 500 number.

Each week I do a profit and loss on each company unit. Surprisingly, the P & L revealed black ink for last week. A $26 profit.

Yikes!

Krl and I had done a tag team on homemade beef enchiladas late yesterday. I really enjoy cooking with her. The enchiladas require an assembly line work ethic, so it goes much more quickly and smoothly with us both working.

Supper was yum!

But, by shortly after midnight, my belly got mad. I am beginning to wonder what is doing this, and I have my suspicions. I have always liked spicy foods, and usually they have liked me. What I suspect, is that the culprit may be Diet Coke. And that could mean a major lifestyle change if I have to eliminate it.

Don't worry, if I decide to do that I will try and give everyone a little advance notice so you can dump your Coca Cola stocks.

Actually, I have given some though to eliminating carbonated drinks. When Tj had are gastric bypass surgery, one concession her surgeon demanded was no carbonated drinks. They say that what the carbonated drink does to your body is pretty ugly. Of course Tj changed vices. After the surgery her drink of choice was a large Sonic ice tea.

I could probably do the ice tea deal, provided it is brewed. I am finding I can detect instant or tea concentrate is a minimal taste test. Yep, sun tea (or even cold brew) unsweetened would probably be my favorite.

I guess I am getting old and set in my ways, but I can tell a lot about a restaurant by the glass they use to serve their tea and the drink that is in it.

My week this week is a little different. Sylvia is off. Her daughter is in in for the week, first time in about three or four years. I think she resides in the Carolinas now.

What this means for me is I will be going in today. Dangit! I have become so used to having four day weekends it has taken some real adjusting to my brain. I don't mind it too much, and of course Pat said if need be she would come in. I just know she has to be chasing her tail. She just got home yesterday from Pflugerville. She and Hag have been helping to get Hank's home cleaned out and ready to go on the market.

So I will join the majority of the world this morning and begin my five day work week. Ugh! I have some research projects that I can get done (hopefully).

I have been able to (hopefully) set the tone for the week with the trucks on my Monday off. I guess I will see what I can do on the fly. I do know I have one problem to deal with. Last week I had visited with our only employee who is Catholic. I did this because he is a very religious man, and I wanted to respect his culture and practices. I asked first if he wanted off Good Friday. He didn't. He said he would work Friday and Saturday, but wanted off for Easter. That was understandable. We usually don't work Sunday unless we have done a weekend show and are in transit returning home. Other exceptions might include leaving late on a Sunday for a Monday delivery.

This driver also told me he needed off on Monday. His wife has been at their daughters in California for about six weeks, and she was coming in to do their taxes. So I asked this driver, "Do you want a load you can load Monday afternoon to deliver Tuesday?" He told me no, to schedule him a load for pickup Tuesday morning and a Wednesday deliver. I relayed that to Krl and she go him a Tuesday load. On Friday, when I last talked with this driver, I gave him his load number for Tuesday. "This isn't going to work", he said. "My wife won't be home until Monday night so we are going to have our taxes done Tuesday, so I can't take the load".

I almost went ballistic. Krl says it is a make it or break it deal. either he does what he had told us he needed to do, or he can hit the road. I might not be that radical, but I am not a happy camper.

If the week is beginning with that much drama, what does the rest of it hold?

Have a day and a week!

FATHER, I could sure use some help here. I seem to be muddled. I ask that YOU lift and inspire me. Please bless this week and my efforts.