Rain today - Page 108

**Rich Z** · 08-21-2022, 10:43 PM

Yeah, I am REALLY surprised that mosquitoes aren't a major problem around here with all the rain we have been getting. It just stays wet outside. Today we got 0.37" which seems to be a daily event lately. Connie and I took a walk and she commented that it is just hard to breathe outside with that high humidity. Even our clothes start feeling damp pretty quickly.

**Rich Z** · 08-22-2022, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 85vette

Early Fall would be fine with me. We're already experiencing lower temps (62 degrees last week) in our weekly travels up to Kentucky and back.

And since April of this year we've been home practically every weekend (Thursday evening until Monday morning) with this wonderful, awesome, dedicated route we have now, We haven't seen much evidence of mosquitos. Which is a sharp contrast to last summer when they nearly carried us off when we did get home every month or two. And we've had plenty of rain this year.

And I've only seen maybe two yellow flies, one of which is no longer living!

BTW, glad to see that your trucking venture has worked out so well for you.

85vette · 08-22-2022, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich Z

BTW, glad to see that your trucking venture has worked out so well for you.

Thanks Rich. Yeah we are still pinching ourselves! Didn't see that coming. You can't even apply for a trucking job like this.

Apparently they like our attention to detail, customer relations, and everything else we're doing because they told us back in December of last year that a dedicated lane was in the works, and did we want it? The one they were talking about actually went to another team, but this one became a reality in April and it gives us more time off and more money than the first one they told us about.

We never dreamed that a route like this existed. We don't tell any of the other drivers about it, they'd probably hate us for having it. We get paid about the same as the teams that run 6000 a week but we only run about 2200 miles a week. And if any holidays fall on a Monday we don't have to leave home until Tuesday! So then we only drive on Tues., Weds., and we're home on Thursday afternoon!

And the manager that created this route told us that if we keep the customer happy with this route we can probably have it for the next ten years! So, yeah, we;re loving it!

**Rich Z** · 08-22-2022, 05:23 PM

It is good to hear that things are going so well for you. Hopefully you can stay the course till you are ready to retire. Of course, sounds like the job is so much prime gravy that you probably aren't much interested in retiring for a while.

85vette · 08-23-2022, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich Z

It is good to hear that things are going so well for you. Hopefully you can stay the course till you are ready to retire. Of course, sounds like the job is so much prime gravy that you probably aren't much interested in retiring for a while.

I planned on working until I was 70 anyway just to get a bigger SS check. But after I retired from law enforcement I wasn't sure what I would be doing. Now I jokingly tell my wife that I could always quit doing this and be a Walmart greeter!

One of us makes in a week what my SS check would be for a month, pretty sad to think about getting by on that.

**Rich Z** · 08-24-2022, 01:46 AM

2.13" of rain on Tuesday.

**Rich Z** · 08-24-2022, 01:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 85vette

I planned on working until I was 70 anyway just to get a bigger SS check. But after I retired from law enforcement I wasn't sure what I would be doing. Now I jokingly tell my wife that I could always quit doing this and be a Walmart greeter!

One of us makes in a week what my SS check would be for a month, pretty sad to think about getting by on that.

Well, I assume you are accumulating a nice retirement fund. And honestly, when you get old enough, you might find that you have run out of things you lust for to buy. So pulling in a lot less money won't be so bad. As long as everything you own is already paid for, there really isn't all that much pressure on the financial situation.

In any event, that seems to be how it has worked out for Connie and myself. Fortunate too, because with her cancer and my heart attack hitting all at once, medical bills are coming in. Fortunately we are with CHP/Medicare, otherwise those bills would be REALLY ugly. Between the two of us, pre-insurance adjustments, it would be over half a million bucks right now.

**Rich Z** · 08-25-2022, 10:41 PM

0.32" of rain today.

CHASZ51 · 08-26-2022, 07:58 AM

.20" during the day and 1.4" late last nite.

85vette · 08-26-2022, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich Z

Well, I assume you are accumulating a nice retirement fund. And honestly, when you get old enough, you might find that you have run out of things you lust for to buy. So pulling in a lot less money won't be so bad. As long as everything you own is already paid for, there really isn't all that much pressure on the financial situation.

In any event, that seems to be how it has worked out for Connie and myself. Fortunate too, because with her cancer and my heart attack hitting all at once, medical bills are coming in. Fortunately we are with CHP/Medicare, otherwise those bills would be REALLY ugly. Between the two of us, pre-insurance adjustments, it would be over half a million bucks right now.

We are putting about 12% of our income into a 401K at the moment. Of course with Joe running the ship that's been quite the roller coaster. More downhill losses than uphill gains it seems.

But the priority at the moment is getting renovations done to the house and property and then getting it paid off. I wish we could have been doing this 10 years ago but then the money wasn't this good back then, so we're just thankful this happened at all really.

And yeah, medical insurance has always been stupid high and getting worse by the day. Fortunately for most of the time I had the family covered through employers and it was very reasonable when I was law enforcement officer. I think the most I paid for the whole family was $194.00 a month and it was CHP so no 80/20 residual payments owed.

Now I'm on Medicare so $170.00 a month for me and it's a PPO which I understand is much like CHP so that's good. The company we work for covers my wife for a reasonable amount, she's got another 5 years before she's eligible for Medicare.

So as long as we can stay healthy and do what we do we don't mind working this job. A truckers dream really. We can't tell our associates about this dedicated route because they would all probably hate us or go whining to the bosses. I've seen some of their post and they are a self centered, vicious bunch. The truth is, you couldn't apply for a route like this. It is simply a pharmaceutical company that requested a truck and team dedicated to a custom route of their choosing. Truth be told, they're probably paying $20K a week or more for our services to justify what we are getting paid. We're pretty much making the same money as we were running 6000 miles a 7 day week, we're just running about a third of the mileage, so it's a win for the company too. Less miles equals less fuel, less wear and tear, less maintenance on the truck and a lot more time at home for us! And the manager that put this route together told us that if we keep the client happy we can probably keep the route for the next 10 years!

And somehow this is more economically feasible for the company who pays for this! It's no wonder prescriptions are so high. We have hauled one container. literally the size of a shoe box, from California to Canada (by itself, nothing else on this 53 foot trailer) that was valued at $700,000 dollars!
We don't always get the dollar amount on our invoices but quite often we do. I know of two instances that we had $4-$5 million dollars worth of something on 4 or 5 pallets and we have been told that that was a small number in comparison to some other loads we've hauled. Very high security. Trackers on everything. And we are armed, although that's just a bonus that the company is grateful for, since I'm a retired LEO I can carry in all 50 states. The drugs that we carry have no street value though, we don't carry anything that would get you high, plus everything we move is temperature critical. If it wasn't maintained at a certain temp it would be useless. But that's why we make the big bucks I guess!

And yeah, having this kind of income I can afford many things that I couldn't before. And I don't need any more guns. But honestly, I look at some things now that I may have wanted in the past, but I don't really have the desire for anymore. At some point I'm going to do some upgrades to the CTS V, probably rebuild the engine (got 209K miles on it now) new paint. It would be nice to take it to car shows again. But while I once thought about doing like you did on your C5, I know it's not going to be the fastest car out there and honestly, I don't think I want to go 140+ mph anymore! It would be nice.....but it's just not necessary anymore. And besides, that's retirement money now.