PhotoCredit:OldTime Photos: Philadelphia PA

A lot has happened since my September posts. Of course, I am now a senior citizen, so I post a picture of the Young me, which you see above. I am feeling my age a bit, but that is more because Variant is finally running me hard. I did close to 3500 miles last week, running recap most of the time and barely stopping. It was a good thing. And then, while talking about Variant, I stopped into the Tunnel Hill terminal to buy a hat. And I came out with a new truck. That picture will be forthcoming. But now, I have the cap, the facemask, and the truck. I am ready to roll.

School is going well. I am in the last week of my Human Resource Management class, and I am still rocking a 95 or higher. I have a few responses and my final paper to do before I head back out on the road tomorrow. Then on Sunday, the new course, Financial Decision Making, begins. I have enjoyed the HRM class, but I am ready for it to be done.

On the health front, things continue to improve. My blood pressure and sugar levels continue to improve, and I built a tracking tool to keep better records. Now I have to get the information transferred into them. Of course, I still have to move the old blogs into this format, so there is a lot to do. Most of that can wait until I am back on the road. I am going to concentrate on those things that cannot be accomplished by remote while I am home.

The political front is heating up. I have gotten to the point where I don’t even listen to the news anymore, which is a real shame, since my new truck as another six months of Sirius XM radio. It would be an excellent time to keep in touch with what is going on in the political landscape, but I cannot stomach it. I am seeing some long-time and good friends lose their minds. I do not understand how this is happening, but it is. So I take it with a grain of salt.

A nice one

In September, many of my memories were heavy. So here is a light one that is kind of cute. Last year, I lost the young lady pictured above. Her name was Jennifer, and she was my oldest and dearest friend. Losing her was not the cute part; that is a tragedy. The cute factor is how I met her. I was walking to school with my best friends, Kathy and Peggy, and this little wisp of a girl ran up behind me. She danced around us like a pixie on speed, and that was coming face to face with a young girl that would turn into an amazing woman, wonderful mother, and my best friend. Every time I miss her, I think of that first meeting.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

Right now, I am in New Jersey. Granted, it is barely in New Jersey, but still there. I am in the Pennsylvania border because I had to go on the great parking hunt last night after I dropped in Bethlehem PA. That is one of the things I really don’t like about the PA / NJ / NY and surrounding areas. They simply are not truck friendly. After leaving Bethlehem, I headed over to the 309 truck stop. The place is a seedy dump and they charge you, pretty much, your first born. I jumped back on I78 headed toward the rest area on the state line and came across a TA and a Pilot. The Pilot has about 12 parking spaces, and 9 of them are reserved parking. The TA is a bit better, they have about 200 parking spaces, but all but about 30 of them are paid parking. It is very sad. The funny thing about the TA and Pilot is that most of the spaces were unoccupied. They are trying to mug you on one end, and losing on the other. Greed does not pay off.

Anyway, there have been a few days between posts. I blame school. Even though I was home for two days, it was rush rush rush. However, thanks to Laura, the truck is well stocked. Thus far the only problem I have is running my appliances. My extension cord doesn’t work. So I can only run things with a long enough cord. I will have to check when I stop for fuel for a cord. Above, you will see my new truck. I stopped in Tunnel Hill last week to buy a hat, and came out with a truck. It is a nice one. 2021 Freightliner Cascadia. Pretty much the same thing I had before but this one has a fridge and an APU. I am still trying to figure out the latter.

School. I am all over the place this morning. I posted my final paper to my Human Resource Management class last night, and my introduction on Financial Decision making this morning. That is one thing I will say about Ashford, they keep you hopping. The courses run back to back. Granted, I could take a session off if I chose to do so, but I choose otherwise.

In the world, Donald and Melania Trump have come down with CoVid-19. I was not really shocked to see how many liberals had very nasty things to say about this. In some ways, it makes me ashamed to be a human being. The biggest argument is the way that Trump treated McCain before his death and then the left handed compliment issues with the death of Bader Ginsberg. I should not have to remind those around me that we are better than him, and so I don’t. I just delete them from social media, then BLOCK them. I am tired of negative people, and I choose to take the high road. Join me or don’t. It is really your choice.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

I have been running my tail feathers off for about five days. As you can see from the image above, I took a few nice trips through New York City. That was a scary run, and I had to do it twice.

Currently, I am down for a 34-hour break that I did not even realize that I needed. I have been running so tight that I did not notice I was out of time until the computer warned me. But that is okay, I am running from Ohio to Alabama right now, and I took my break during the run. I have barely left the truck except for some much-needed meditation this morning. I have all the food that I need and I have caught up on my sleep.

MY CURRENT WORLD: The world is on it's head right now. Between the antics from Washington, the gathering of the lacking-brain-cell masses on social media, the constant infusion of half-information by the media, it just isn't worth it to listen. I have Sirius XM back on my new truck for a while, but I can't even stomach to turn it on. Luckily, I just started a new course at Ashford. This time it is financial decision making. I figured it would be a walk in the park. But alas, time makes fools of us all. It is not as hard as the recent Human resources course, but it is up there. I am still waiting for the HRM grade, that should be coming through any day now.
On the health front, all is good. My blood pressure and sugar and playing nice, I am eating well and getting enough sleep. So all is well on the Chris-Front. I have felt a bit off, but I think that is all the back-to-back running and I have it under control.

Other than that, I am doing my Sax, studying my programming and ITIL and working on my book. Everything status-quo. Always a good thing. Hopefully, I can get back to daily posts. See you down the road.

I thought that I would have more time, but that did not happen. Since my last post, I have still been running my tailfeathers off, and there does not seem to be any sign of that slowing down. It is tiring, but I am still glad to be running back to back. I barely have enough time to get school done at this point. But I am loving it. And speaking of school, the final grades for my Human Resource class are in. I scored above a 92. So I am happy with that. I am still pulling a 4.0 for the degree. Now I am in finanical planning, and rolling a 99 after one week. So all is good.

Right now, the entire country is on edge because they do not know what is going to happen. The proud boys are threatening civil war if their golden boy doesn't win. The right is screaming at the left, the left is screaming at the right, and the entire system of government has forgotten that they are supposed to represent the people, not themselves or their petty bickering. I am just ready for it to be over.

Right now, I am sitting just West of Augusta GA with an early morning drop off with potential runs to either Illinois or Ohio, not sure which. Today has been a bear. I was well planned with an excellent place to set down. Sadly, the offramp to Love's in Thompson GA was blocked by emergency activity. And that I did not understand. It was a downed pole, but they did not need to block all four lanes. Shrugs, who knows why they do what they do. So I coninued down the road and set down in the nearest rest area. I managed to pick up buns on my last stop, so I had some nice sausages for dinner. And now it is time for bed. I am going to strive to get a more detail into the posts here soon.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

And awayyyyy we go. Here we go, two days in a row. Above, you will see Kitska, one of the two furrballs that wait at home for me. Doesn’t she look like she knows a deep dark secret? I have tried to get it out of her, but she is too stubborn. I wonder where she gets that from?

So, I am sitting in Georgia, about to head into South Carolina to do my drop, then heading up to Niles OH. At least they are keeping me running. It was touch-and-go there for a while, but I am being kept stacked now. I can still remember my last 34 hour break, when I ran out of time, and I am about to breach those gates again. When I log in this morning, I will have 20 hours left on my timer. Isn’t that fun? Looks like it may be another forced 34 break in Ohio. But what can you do?

And here are the updates that I know everyone has been missing. The health is doing well, even though I am running really low on water right now, mostly because of the break options I have experienced. I have to rectify that today, or I could run into a problem. I have less than half a gallon of water and a cup of milk remaining. The blood pressure and blood sugar have been doing well, and I am pretty sure I have lost quite a bit of weight. Either that, or the tailor gnomes are visiting me in the night and letting my pants out. But you never know.
I am still working the sax when I can, but I have not really had a lot of time for the extra stuff. I am working two books, a little bit each day and I am studying my Java programming and my ITIL. But still a long way to go. I did see the addition of the three final classes to school, I completely forgot that this degree has a concentration. Project management. I have three courses in that, then I should be able to take the PMP exam. And let the fun begin.

On the world stage, the entire planet has gone buggernuts. And I use the term buggernuts to make light of the situation, but there is nothing light or funny about it. We really need to take a step back, to pause, to think a bit about what the hell is going on. Good people are turning really bad. Bad people are being worshipped like the second coming, and little makes sense anymore. Between the pandemic, political upheaval, questionable moral choices on the parts of those in the spotlights, we are ready to implode. We really need to head back to the 1960s for a little peace, love and magic mushrooms. But we can’t even have a damn Woodstock level love-fest because of CoVid-19. It’s a conspiracy I tell you.

When the journey began

I hae always been a traveler since I was very young. From when I ran away at 15 years old until today, I have considered myself a bit of a gypsy. But without being a tramp or theif, even though I have had my moments. But where the traveling bug actually bit me was on the train tracks next to my home in Barrington NJ. We used to hide in the tree-line next to the tracks. By we, I mean myself, Louis, Anna and a few others. We would wait for a train to pass by, moving slow coming out of Camden, and we would jump on board, jumping off about a mile up the tracks, before it could really gain any speed. Except one day. I was out there alone doing some train jumping and I got a really nice open boxcar. They were rare. The door was wide open, I popped in, there was no tell-tale breaking indicating that the conductor had noticed me, I was all set. Just about a mile up the road and then a quick walk over to see Susan, and life would be good. Sadly, I was not paying attention to the speed of the train. It was up to full speed before I realized it. I finally was able to jump off in the Peasley Wildlife management area in Cape May County NJ. As a trucker, the 60 miles to the management area is no big deal. But to a teen with no money, no provisions and no way of contacting home, not to mention no clue where I was, it was a big deal. It took 3 days to get home, and ironically, the only person that missed me was JoAnn and that was because I was supposed to help her do her hair. The lines of fate can be fickle. I enjoyed the walk out of the woods and the adventure of getting back home.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

I am down for 34+ in Hubbart OH at a Love's. I got a slow start because of a rough delivery to an Aerospace facility in Nile, OH yesterday. Nothing that Variant did, it was a city planning issue. The facility is just outside of the town, but to get to it, you must go through the town. The city took all the roads leading to it, and made them "no Trucks" but they do not provide a truck route. They leave it up to the drivers to figure it out. It took about 90 minutes to find the right way in. Once I got into the site, I found out that their main dock was broken and they prepared me for a hard-to-reach dock. It was simple, but they said that no drivers are able to get into it without help. I am wondering what company is sending in these drivers. Once I cleared the load, I headed for down-time.

I took about half of yesterday as a mental health day and did a small bit of school, and listened to some music. I always watched The Avengers as ambient noise. Not a terrible day. But I did sleep almost 10 hours last night. I am hoping that was because it was about 46 degrees and nice and comfortable. We shall see.

Today is a bit better. I have been blowing through projects and school, so all is good. Tomorrow, I am picking up about an hour down the road and then heading to Georgia. Fun times.

PhotoCredit: Variant Team

Variant is great, expect when it is not. And the past 24 hours is a NOT kind of time. I am sure that things will come together, but while I wait, the clock ticks away. I am broken down in Slippery Rock PA at the Love's there. It is actually a really nice place and not crowded at all. Even when I woke up at 300am this morning, the parking lot was only half full. But I digress. Yesterday, I picked up a very heavy load of dog food. I made it to loves to scale, and sure enough, a bit too much junk in the trunk. Easy enough to fix, except that the brakes on the trailer will not hold. During Pre-trip, I noticed uneven wear, but they were legal, just barely. I figured it could wait until I made the drop, then I could report it and get it taken care of. No such luck. Even though each brake will engage, there is simply not enough meat on the brakes with the weight on the trailer to make a tight brake. Sigh. So I called breakdown, and I have been sitting ever since, about 15 hours now, for the red-tape to be cut. We shall see what happens.

I am making the choice to stay out of the news for a few days, perhaps until election day. It is just getting more and more like either a Stephen King novel, or perhaps a better thought would be Lewis Carroll, because we are hitting underland here. Politics, and the social environment in general, appears to have entered a world of surrealism. Everything is exaggerated and appears to mock itself. It would be an interesting study, if we were not in the middle of it. A lot of it takes place in social media, where the world hides behind a keyboard. But it is spilling out into reality. Yesterday, after the breakdown, I was in the Love's waiting room with an older trucker. He had about 10 or so years on me. And he was proudly wearing his Trump 2020 hat. The conversation turned to politics, as it always does. He sung the praises of Trump. But one thing stuck out in my mind. Red faced and gritting teeth, it talked about how Trump would have handled the 9/11 event and how Obama was so insignificant during this crisis, probably cowering under his desk at the White House while those "a-rabs" attacked this great country. I listenened as he went on. How the wall stops those "mexis" from taking our jobs and how we, as a country, have the lowest unemployment rate, right now, in history, all thanks to Trump. I only asked one question, and that was "where do you get your information?". Well, from Trump himself of course, he is the most honest president we have ever had, he said so himself. For once, I did not argue. When the man left, the mechanic, whohad been watching this interchange asked me who was president during 9/11. He did not think it was Obama. Of course, it wasn't. But it really was not worth the argument. This is what we are facing as a country. And it is sad.

And of course, I will end with my personal notes. The health is doing well. Blood pressure is well in range and my blood sugar is a bit elevated, but just about where I am supposed to be. The truck food is holding out nicely, but I am pretty much out of cold stuff. I have to pick up some milk, but other than that, I think that I can survive a bit longer. I am working two books right now, and my studies are coming along quite well. I just received another 99% on an assignment in Financial Planning. I really thought I would dislike this course, bt it is coming along well. Much easier than Human Resource Management. As you can see, I am doing the blog, and I am also working on Ancient, though that is a slow process. Finally, I am working the library and validating all of the books I carry with me. That is another long process, but it is coming along.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

For almost four years, we have been progressing through the novels of Stephen King. One of my wordsmith heros. First we have the Dead Zone with a leader that has done everything but hold a baby in front of him to protect his own life. Then we face The Stand, with CoVid-19. It is eerie how it acts a lot like the Earth killer, Captain Tripps with the way it has spread. This morning, I woke up and could not see more than 20 feet in front of me. That would be the book - turned movie - turned series, The Mist. All we need is the fourth novel, IT. So if Pennywise comes out of the mist, I am out of here.

I am back in New England right now. I sing the praises of Variant, but there are times, when things do go bad. This week was one of those. I rolled into Georgia, dropped my product and then headed over to a new shipper. I only had about 2 hours left, and the pickup was not ready. I headed to Ellenwood and set down for the night, only to get back in the morning and find that the load was still not ready. They were unsure when it would be ready. I communicated with Fleet and let them know what was going on, then I headed back to the terminal. I met Russ, one of the Ambassador Managers, and I picked up some snow chains for the coming winter. They got me reloaded, but it took a few hours. One of the problems of computer control, is that when the system breaks down, it takes a bit to get things back on track.

I am still a bit moody, but I think that I am missing home a bit more than usual, especially with the holidays right around the corner. Laura and I have been talking a bit about Colorado, and things are starting to come into line. I am ready for the move. I am three weeks into my Financial planning course, and still pulling higher than a 97, so it is all good. Now I just have to get out of New England. It is beautiful up here, but it really is not truck friendly. HOpefully, I will drop first thing in the morning and be headed West. But you never know.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

There are times, like now, when I do sit back and question why I would spend my time out here on the road, away from my family, I away from my home. But every once in a while, I come across something so natural, so real, that it brings things into perspective. Sitting in a Love's in Canaan NY, with the leaves changing in the mountains, while I set down for the evening before Heading over to Rochester NY, I can gain some perspective. For just a moment, the pandemic is gone, the politics are gone, the world just takes a breath. And it is enough to go on.

Okay, I wax poetic a bit today. But that is okay. I am just into New York State about five hours from my drop point in the morning. So I have a little time, I can afford to dive into the poetic side of me, just a little bit.

So, we are ten days from the election. Trump has tried his hail Mary plays, and thus far, the people are not buying it. I figure any day, he will announce that he has made contact with another race of intellects, that of course have endorsed him, but they will only show themselves if he is re-elected. It really is a nail biter this year. I hope that the American people do the right thing.

The personal side of my simply isn't right now. I am concentrating on school and work, with little time for hobby or fun, at least any fun I can have on the road. Laura and I continue to so the Colorado plans, and things are coming into view. But not nearly fast enough for me. I have not been able to design and build a time-machine yet, so no jumping forward and checking things out. Too bad.

PhotoCredit: Artist Unknown

I am sitting in a rest area in Victor NY. This was not a planned break, but it worked out well for the runs that I am currently on. The past two days have been, for the most part, uneventful. Yesterday, I picked up at Anheuser Busch, and aside from being a slow load, taking about three hours, it was a good dock. I found out some interesting things though. While talking to the spotter, he mentioned that they have a staging area that trucks can use, and that we could use their break room, complete with showers. We can even take 10-hour or 34-hour breaks on site should we want to. After I headed out, I figured my remaining time, and since I am running on recap, I was only going to drive about five hours Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and then have to set down for 19. So I chose the Travel center and I took 34. The bad part of this is that the Checkers is closed, and the only food stuff is a Tim Hortons. Not agood choice for lunch, but I am going to try it for breakfast. At 11:00 tonight, I will be reset and get to roll again./p>

Now, about the picture. Obviously, I did not take a picture of myself in a fiery meditation. This is a stock picture, and the artist is unknown. But it is where I am today. I am trying to use my limited Internet as an advantage, and get some personal time in without the distractions of the outside world. Will it work? I don't know, but I am going to try.

The State of the World

And then there is the world. The state of the United States is, at best, a cluster-bumble. Note thatI did not curse there! In the past few weeks, I have seen some of the most intelligent people that I know, become idiots. And some of the most compassionate people, close their eyes to the world around them. And it simply does not make sense. One person specifically comes to mind. A woman that I have known for much of my adult life is a Trump supporter. She is Catholic. And she votes republican, only because of their stand on abortion. She is willing to overlook children in cages, the removal of health insurance for millions of Americans, a leader that lies every time he opens his mouth, and a leadership that is promoting dissonance of race and social class, solely on the belief that Roe vs. Wade will be overturned. In a private message, I asked her about abortion for medical necessity, to save the life of a mother. Her response? If it is God's will, then the women will live and we have no right to interfere. I reminded her that in the mid-1980s, she had an abortion to save her life. Did she have an answer? No, she didn't, her only answer was to block me. And I am seeing this kind of thing all over the place. I don't understand how so many Americans can be enthralled by such a creature in history, and remain blind to fact.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

Sometimes, things are good, other times, they are bad. But we have to take them all as they come and deal accordingly. Right now, I am in Springfield OH. at the USX terminal getting my bunk heater / AC repaired, hopefully. I was rolling into Proctor and Gamble two days ago, when an order was running behind. I communicated with Fleet, and we decided that this would be a good time to get the bunk unit programmed and I headed over to Stoops Freightliner yesterday morning. It took more than nine hours for their technicians to realize that they could not service the unit because it was not a Freightliner device. I was irked and a bit irritated. I let fleet know what was going on and headed to the terminal. It has not been a good time since I came off my 34-hour break, but I am hopeful for today.

So, the picture. I took this a long time ago, and, as I have stated recently, I have had Colorado on my mind quite a bit lately. This is one of the things that I would like. A water feature. It does not have to be this elaborate, but just water in motion. It could be a small pond, or even better, a natural stream on the property. Funny, I am a fire sign, but I am deeply drawn to the water, or at least I have been lately. Every day is a bit closer, even though I hear that a lot of the state has snow right now. I miss snow.

I am not sure where I am going from here in Springfield. I am pretty sure that the P&G load is gone by now, but I am hoping for something with some serious miles on it. Right now, I am 20 days out of home. I am supposed to be back in Memphis at 0900 on November 17, 2020. This time, I have nothing that I have to do while I am home. Charles has asked if we can do a face-to-face catch up meeting, but I don't know if that is going to happen or not. We shall see. I did do an inventory of the food stuffs. I have a small list of stuff that I need, but not terrible just yet. I have some fresh food that I picked up recently, but most of my food right now is canned. But that is okay, I am digging my potatoes with a soup or stew over it.

Of course I have to include my update to the state of the world. Everyone is still going bugger-nuts. We are about six days out from the election, and more than 65 million Americans have already voted. It has a lot of people on edge. I am seeing very smart people being of questionable intelligence, and I am seeing some people of questionable intelligence, pretending they are rocket scientists, sharing false news as if it is the milk of the mother. I will just be glad when it is over. Both Laura and I agree that we are ready to just suck it up and accept whatever happens. We can't change it, so we might as well just go for the ride. But it can be frustrating. I limit myself on the news and facebook and all, and I try not to engage the enraged masses. So far, so good.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein: Created using Paint3D

First the image. This is not the usual type of picture, but it is part of another project for Ancient Pathway as I bring things up to date. The image was created using Paint 3D and copyright free stock images linked in the program. Pretty neat huh?

So, it has been an interesting few days. Three days ago, headed into P&G, the load was delayed. I spoke to fleet and we decided that it would be a good time to get the bunk heater fixed. That did not go so well. I took the truck to a Freightliner dealer, that, after 9.5 hours, figured out that it was not something that their company had installed, so they could not fix it. So I headed down to the Springfield terminal. Ritish, the technician, was professional. But his hands were tied by the red-tape of the company. A part was required that had to come overnight, so I was down for another two days while he fixed the problem. When he showed me the offending part, I almost laughed. It was a crushed fuel line. A special part only available from THIS distributor. It had been crushed. Funny, it looked exactly like a lawnmower fuel tube, available at pretty much any hardward store. Isn't that special?

I used the downtime to catch up school, do a lot of files from my personal library, read about 1200 pages from multiple books, practice my Sax and start working on the Ancient Pathway update. I did not waste the the time. Even though I was down for more than 70 hours over four days, I was productive. So that is a good thing. Of course, being in Ohio, the first thing that I faced was the infamous trailer chase. I am waiting for a resolution on that front. I am still in a positive swing, but it is getting rough to maintain.