Last Month: July Journey

As a new month comes in, I get to do things like look at my Geomapping data for the previous month. As you can see above, the entire month was spent in the NorthEast, and I have not seen 2500 miles since the week ending June 6, 2022. That is eight weeks. I am going to have to say something about that this week and see if we can get a resolution. It is annoying.

The rest of the story

I am pushing the limits of my time. I rolled into Mt. Vernon IL to pick up some tires, and was in and out of there quickly. Then I pushed as hard as I could and made it to Oak Grove, KY, shutting down with about 90 minutes left on my clock. I pick up just under seven hours at midnight and will need that to make it to Gainesville, GA. Then I will have to shut down for at least 16 hours. I may push for a restart, or I may run recaps, I have not decided yet.

A new Month

Since we are in a new month, it is time to do all the fun updates. I will, of course, start with my mental and physical states and yes, I am going to try to get a new picture up. I just have not decided on a theme for the month. Recently, the house got sick and I headed home right at the end of it. Luckily, I did not catch the bug, so it is all good. It was rough going for the family for a bit, and I could empathize with them, but everyone is doing much better now. My physical state has been a bit precarious. I have been doing my daily physical and mental exercises (some are below), but I am still feeling very fatigued. I know that this is a reflection of the mental self, and when I can concentrate on it, I am fine. But once in a while, the old gray matter wants to take a holiday and then my tummy hurts or I get a headache.

The Mental State of me

My mental state is best described as wishy-washy right now. I am on a mood swing roller coaster with Cybal at the switch. You only get the reference if you are an old cat like me. Suffice it to say the pendulum is doing its' thing. Most of it is caused by work because they are not coming through with the trailers and the miles. Each time I get back to center, I face another challenge. And my latest group of mentees has been a lot of fun. I have one that needs hand-holding on everything that they do, and the second one picked up a load out of Olive Branch that has a Bill of Lading that said it had 37,000 pounds and was actually overweight by 2800 pounds. That means that there was at least 49,000 on the load. Oye.

The Big Update

And here is the rest of the story. Art is coming along. I am doing a lesson a day and I am almost comfortable with it. My photography is coming along, but my camera continues to give me issues. I am $100 toward my new camera, for which I need $600, but I only get to add an additional hundred when I make 3000 miles, and that is not happening. Hopefully, I can get into Tunnel Hill in the next couple days and corner someone about the miles issues. We shall see. My French is coming along very well. I am over 100 days straight of my studies of the language and I have a basic understanding. I have been watching movies and shows in French, and even have a few books. It is slow going, but pretty cool. Never thought I would be a Frenchman. The new site is almost done, that is Ancientpathway.net, and it is going to be quite a shock to anyone that knows me. I am really out of the box on the design. It is PINK. ROFL. I have grabbed ALL my stories and I am working through them, sifting out the ideas. I have The Awakening started, with Fixing America in the same directory being worked, and I am compiling all my mostly finished short stories into an Anthology. I am torn on what to work the hardest, but I am thinking that Lilith and Osparia need the most love. I modified the first chapter, added an aged priest, and a secret, and the story flows a lot better without the Tolken-like overcasts. Finally, education is coming along. I am just finishing up my Ethics course and waiting for my grades, and I am starting a Constitutional law course. That one is going to be boring, but I like the professor, so it is all good. I continue to work my e-hacking courses, saxophone, and photoshop. The big project right now is Ancient and AncientNET. I am working the astrology database which is one hell of an undertaking, and I have to grab about 30 old photos for the .NET site. I think that I am going to like it, but I don't want to launch it until I can keep it up with changes monthly. To that end, I have to make sure that I can take at least 30 pictures, about one a day, going forward. If I can keep my camera working, it should be easy enough. I have plenty of potential material. Fingers crossed.

Kinda tired

I rolled into Oak Grove, KY very tired. I am feeling a bit physically and mentally fatigued at this point. So I made the command decision to eat dinner, Tilapia with Chinese Sauce, and head off to bed. I woke up when the truck acted like a butt and needed to recharge the batteries, but I was able to get another nap in before I left. While I was up charging the batteries, I checked Facebook and found a new Candidate for Mayor, Brent Hammonds. I checked out his main web page and found a hard coded spambot. I tossed him a message and held a nice conversation with him. Nice guy. Kind of a wishy-washy platform, but I think he has good intentions. He needs a PR person and a new webmaster. He jumped right on the issue of the spambot and said that his designer was going to run some software to kill the bot. ROFL. It was installed by either the designer or the host. I will check back on it in a couple of days. But I was pretty impressed by his interaction. Not standoffish. I will have to keep an eye on him. One thing that I like is that none of his promo pages give party information. Granted, there is a LOT of blue, so that may be a clue. He might be one to watch. I don't usually watch the local stuff, because they are ever-changing like the winds. But sometimes...

Not a terrible day. I rolled from Kentucky into Georgia and made it about 15 minutes early for my drop appointment. They even had an empty trailer for me. I was in and out of Continental Tires in under 30 minutes. I had about 90 minutes left on my 70-hour clock at that time. I called into Operations and spoke to Chris and let him know what was going on. I had a good deal going on with recaps, but if I had run that way I would have to do a 34-hour reset on Friday going into the weekend. That is never a good idea and Chris agreed with me. So they got me a run starting tomorrow night after a reset going into Denton TX, about 1000 miles and dropping Thursday. That lets me start with a fresh clock and about 1600 miles under my belt. I may hit my 2500 if not my 3000 mile goal this week. I headed on over to the Love's at Commerce, GA to shut down for the est of the day and tomorrow. The Internet there kinda sucks and keeps dropping off, but they have good food, decent showers, and if need be, I have my personal hotspot that I can use. Since I am goal oriented right now, that is fine.

Downtime!

I am down but I am far from out. The time is not and will not be wasted. When I hit Commerce, GA at about 0900am, I took a one hour nap and then jumped all over it. I have a 10 level round-robin and I started with the hard stuff. I cleaned out the accumulated junk of about eight weeks from under the bunk in the sidebox. That took quite a while because I had to roll through all the damaged straps, sort, and toss the bad ones, lube, roll and store the good ones. That was one hell of a feat. Then I ate some noms, updated journals, made some changes to the new .NET site, added a few pages to the Ancient Update, did my French, uploaded my introduction for the first class, did an art class and an E-hacking class. And that was only round one. The rest of the day was pretty much rolling those things and keeping ambient music in the background.

Round Two

Round two, I switched to pop music for a bit more movement. I got my exercises and Yoga done but I am saving meditation for when the sun goes down. This round was cleaning the inside of the truck. I have not done a good spic-and-span in weeks. So every hard surface has been scrubbed until a NEW cloth came out white and every soft surface has been scrubbed. Then I disinfected everything, just in case. That being done, I did some back-blogging, an extra French lesson, some more NET formatting and Ancient pages, and then it was lunch time. Whew.

And the Rest of the Story

After I felt satisfied that I had done my best to appease the beast within and I would not feel that time had been wasted, I settled in and looked for something new to watch. I found First Kill on Netflix. There are eight episodes. It is a coming of age Rom-Com about a young lady that falls in love. Well, there might be a few twists. The young unobtrusive girl is a vampire, her lesbian crush is a monster hunter, Lilith accepted the bite of the snake in Eden and that is the source of vampires. The vampire legacies cannot be killed by staking and have no problem with daylight... Yeah, lots of twists and turns. I will have to watch for season two. But I did not just star at the boob-box, I also worked the new site. Tomorrow, you should see the link at the top of the page. Just some tweaking to do.

There was not much to the workday today. I spent most of the day in the Love's in Commerce, GA on my 34-Hour reset and did not head out until late in the evening. But it was uneventful for the most part. The truck is cleaned and prepped and I am headed to South Carolina and then to Denton, TX, just North of Dallas. We will see what happens with the weekend approaching.

To rest or not to rest.

That is one hell of a question. I chose to do both. I fired up Pandora and then buckled in and got some stuff done. I finished catching up the new class. As I anticipated, this one is going to be a real snooze-fest. But that is okay, with a little luck, I will just walk right through it. Thus far, I have about ten fellow students, but they are not that talkative. I worked on the stories for a bit, but I was really not in the mood. I am still doing the Grumpy Cat thing and my concentration for creativity is not 100%. So that is to the side for now. However, I did jump into the Ancientpathway.NET project and guess what? I finished it, for the most part. As long as I remember, the link is now up near the top and you can check it out if you are interested. All it is, is a PEACOCK site for my projects such as photography. I think that I did a pretty good job with it. I had to change the PINK color foundation to blue, but this is out of respect for those that use pink for breast cancer awareness. Check it out won't you? I would love to know what you think.

Avoiding the time suck

So, I could have binge watched another show on Netflix, or Hulu, or Amazon Prime. But I avoided that trap. Even though I would really like to watch Papergirls, I did not. I will wait for them to have a few episodes then I will jump in. So, instead, I did a bunch of art courses, listened to some French audio books, and did some French readers. I still have no idea what I am going to do with French. I don't think that there will be much call for it in Colorado.

Finishing the day

I finished out the day before driving by taking a very long nap, eating a good meal, and then jumping in the very long line for a shower. All-in-all, I would say not a terrible day. But still rocking the grumpy cat. Not a good thing.

I started out last night and took a nice one-hour drive over to Piedmont, SC to pick up some truck parts heading toward Denton, TX. Interesting site actually. I got checked in, and it took me longer to drive to the dock from the gatehouse than it took them to load me. They were fast fast fast. The drive West was a bit rough though. It was misty all night, and I was very tired even though I got a decent amount of sleep. I hate to pull off for 90 minutes. Very unlike me. Then I made to the Love's in Lake, MS and went right to sleep.

Fast Loads Fast Drives

The first part and last parts of the day were spent driving. Between that, I tried to play catchup to some things, but that was not easy. The Love's in Lake MS appears to be in a technological black hole. The Love's Internet does not work, at all. It allows you to connect but then it does not give you Internet access. I have seen this before, but usually in areas with almost no towers or other coverage. No problem, noted for future reference. I will just use my private hotspot. What? You can't connect to that in this demographic? Well, you can, but only at dial-up speeds. Ain't that a pip? It took about 7-9 minutes to load any pages, including school or email. So Meditation, exercise, and then get on down the road it is. I will upload this in the morning.

Some quick updates

I got my final grade on my recent Ethics course. 98.92%. Not perfect, but I will take it. That was a fun course, and now I am in Constitutional law, which is not fun. But I guess you have to take the good with the bad. I was able to work through my French even with the Internet issues. So I maintain my 107 day streak. Woo hoo. I went back over an old Art lesson because I could not get my normal ones to load. I am reading James et la Grosse Pêche, the French version of James and the Giant Peach, fun times. I am hoping to get to Denton early in the morning and hit the Love's right there off of 35. My drop is not until 1100pm tomorrow night, so I will be a bit early. It's all good.

The Grumpy Cat

Yep, I am still dealing with the grumpy cat. I just can't seem to shake it. Even with additional Yoga, longer meditations, and accomplishments like the photo-site, I still find myself being snitty. It has not touched anything like eating or sleeping, just making me be a grumpy old man. If any of ya'all have any suggestions, I am willing to entertain them. Granted, this could be the onslaught of the September / Birthday thing, but only time will tell on that. But I don't think so.

Down in Denton

I pretty much drove all night and got my drop done early. Then I hit the Love's in Denton TX and took the last parking space available, at 900am. Busy place. It was hot as hell though. I think it topped out around 115F and I was facing the sun. Even with my curtains closed and both AC units running, it was like an oven. Fun times. It may have been busy as hell in the Love's, but I really don't think that these are attended trucks. Way too much dust on them. Shrugs.

The evening cometh

I got my sleep and then got my butt up and in motion a bit early. I am running nights right now, so it messes with the round-robin a bit. But nothing horrible. I am still working through the 9 point list. It used to be 10, but I finished the photo site project. Woo hoo. And of course, good food. Pasta and meat sauce after an excellent breakfast this morning. At least I get my noms. There is something to say about that. I was actually going to break down and buy a Wendy's breakfast Baconator this morning but when I walked in, I saw the old pull a snogger and wipe it on your pants thing - and he was a manager. Shrugs. Not meant to be.

The day ends with work

I did not get the best sleep, but I was on the road, got the home depot drop and swap (it was actually a pallet drop - not a store drop) done and then headed down to Houston. I am feeling a bit fatigued, but for right now, holding my own.

Nothing to see here...

That's right folks, just move it along. Nothing to see here. Mostly because this was just a work day and rolling hard toward Virginia. I like those uneventful days once in a while. I am almost done my latest book, I got my new class and French done, and I watched a new art video. Other than that, easy-peasy. And before I hit Georgia, I was done with my latest book and ready to start the next one. I have never finished the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and now I have.

I rolled all day, so there is very little personal today. But I have my voice recorder out. I have sent the first part of Chapter 1 of the Awakening to the wife and hopefully, I will get a little constructive criticism. I think that I am on the right track finally. I anticipate that she will have some very interesting things to say and I will heed them because she is an avid reader.

The biggest excitement.

Okay, so I have a 1st cousin on the MOM side of the family. Her name is Sarah and she contacted me through 23 and me. It looks like quite a few of the Freshwater clan are still around, mostly in Florida. Interesting. But the biggest excitement for the day is that even though it was mostly sleep and work, I started a new book. I am on Incubus Dreams by Laurel K. Hamilton. I really forgot where I was in the series and we are in that I must describe this single kiss across three chapters phase of her writing. I have to push through this book and the next two before it settles back to excellent story lines, if memory serves. We shall see.

Working on the Awakening

I spent quite a bit of time using the feedback from the wife to rework the storyline for The Awakening and I think that after 18-months, I am finally happy with the storyline. Now away we go. Time to muscle down and get it done for good or for ill.

Harrisburg Area

Combining two days here because let's face it, Monday, the 8th, was boring. It was nothing but work and sleep.

I hit the Love's and took a nap. Another surprise, I talked to Elaine and she is right near here. So dinner with an old friend along with all the stuff that I wanted to get done. A bunch of the ladies that work the truck stop said Thank you for the personal care items and they are keeping an eye on my truck for the next day. Not that it is really necessary here, but it is a nice gesture.

Then the fun began. Before Elaine picked me up, it was time to hunker down. I did my 34-hour break clean on the truck, and studied my French. I read a few French children's books and watched a short movie all in French. I picked up most of it and it was geared toward the young teen crowd, so I think that is advancement. I did a few photoshop lessons and an art lesson. I loaded up The Awakening and started the rewrite after talking to Laura. It is looking a LOT better. I am saving my legal class for the morning because it is a boring as hell class, and I am not in the mood.

Funny thing is that I was looking at wonderful blue skies and headed in to take a shower. When I came out, it was pouring like crazy, and it did that for the rest of the day, on and off. Funny weather. Elaine picked me up after she finished work, and we headed over to Jasmine Asian. I got General Tso with Rangoons. We sat for about 90 minutes and played catch-up. Then it was back to the truck and into the sack. I have no idea why I am so tired today. But tomorrow is another day.

I said I was tired.

I had this great plan to sleep about 4-6 hours, get up and get stuff done. That did not happen. Instead, I slept close to 10 hours. And when I got up, I was still tired. That never happens. But I dragged myself out of the bunk, got my daily stuff done such as my French and school and then began the trudge through the day. I managed to push through and even got a few extra hours of sleep before I headed out.

I am tired. And I got a Subway sandwich before I headed out. It really did not sit well. It was all that I could do to roll within about 300 miles of my drop. I listened to more of Incubus Dreams, but I have to take that in little spurts. I am 4.5 hours into the book and Anita has done nothing but have physical relations with multiple people for nearly 1/3 of the book. She got out of the house once, for about a paragraph, and that was it. The rest of it has been bang bang bang. I have to listen to this book, and the next two, before the plot goes back to something more than a sex-fest. But I know that I skipped these three last time, and I was lost in the ongoing plot. Oye.

When I shut down in Troutman, NC, I was beyond tired and just jumped into the sleeper and went to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.

The Saga Continues

I am feeling a bit better in the old brain. I think that I am finally on a roll and things are leveling out. I have started gathering the stuff that I want to accomplish into a list and I am working on putting that together. I picked my next project for home-time, and that is going to be the master bathroom hole in the ceiling. It has been there for a very long time, so it is time that I get it fixed. Fun times.

I continue with the book Incubus dreams, and I am about a quarter of the way through it. Blake STILL has not gotten out of the house. Sigh. I am sure she will get there sooner or later. There is a dead body on the ground. Sooner or later, she will have to go to work. Maybe in the next chapter.

I got my stuff figured out and I do not have to see Wong on my next home-time, so that is helpful. My tummy is still acting up a bit, but it's all good. It is not nearly as bad as it was. I did my sax, my art, and started moving files into a more acceptable format. That is one hell of a project, I have stuff all over the place. It would be nice to be able to find things. And then it was time to go off to sleep.

A little better?

I must be doing a little better. I was up and in motion and ready to roll, bright eyed and bushy tailed. I hit Dublin, found out that i was overweight, with weigh stations on both sides of me, and few options, and it did not even upset me. I just gave the facts, discussed options, and waited patiently. That is pretty impressive. Just a week ago, I would have been filled with all kinds of anxiety. I used the downtime in Love's in Dublin, GA to catch up a few things and move some pictures around while listening to music. Not terrible for a bad situation.

Positive shifts to negative

I really did try. I did not let anything bother me until the professional company was at a loss of what to do in a common situation. After five hours, I finally had to tell them that I would take care of getting the trailer to a safe haven where it could be re-worked. And that was a catch-22. I did get the trailer to Ellenwood, so now I get to wait for them to get permission and then get the team over here to transload and rework it. But I am in Ellenwood. I will grab a shower, do laundry, maybe grab the company van and hit walmart. Oh, except that there is only one working shower, no laundry (it is being renovated by the slowest contractors in history) and oh yeah, the company van is inoperable. It is a like a very bad practical joke. I was talking to the guard when I got here, and he actually thanked me for not being a dick. Seems everyone is yelling at him, especially about the Van and the shower situation. Like there is anything that he could do about it. But that leaves me here until they get this fixed or pull it off me and give me something else. It may be a long couple of days. As long as they get it fixed my Monday at around 9:00am, I can still make delivery on time.

Ending the day

So, I refused to go to bed pissed off. I got to Ellenwood, assessed the situation, and then decided that a nice two hour meditation session was in order. It was a nice way to end the day, and I may not be happy, but I am not grumpy cat and I can face tomorrow with a bright outlook, assuming that no one decides that it would be fun to urinate in my cheerios.

Unexpected downtime

I did not fiddle away the downtime for the most part. Even though I could not do laundry and all, I did catch up on my French, move a bunch of files around, deleted more than a gigabyte of old data, did a LOT of school and education reading, and checked in on school. After they made the choice to drop me off the load, I took a nap for a bit to be ready just in case they decide to do something fun to me this afternoon. I am very glad that I took a nap because i had a feeling that they were not going to let me sit here for the weekend.

Tight time

With the tight time restrictions at work, I had to do some serious time management. I rolled to the limits of my logs, but I had to balance work with life to be able to get all of my stuff done. This included getting one of my papers for school done. That problem got compounded because I lost my Grammarly account because of expiration. Oye. So I have to figure out what to do about that. The short term fix was that I had to hand edit my paper without software help. That was loads of fun. There is also no operational laundry at the Love's so I am still without clean clothing. I am running short. Oye again.

So, I did the hard concentration thing and got my stories updated, French updated, paper done, and even snuck in my exercise, Yoga, and meditation. I am still rolling a bit tired, but tomorrow is another day. I am heading into Michigan, then I figure that they are going to send me back South. We shall see.

Running on fumes

I had been running pretty much back to back. After I dropped, I hit the closest Love's in Frenchtown, MI. That was an adventure because they have the road torn apart and I had to re-route around it. It was a lot of fun, all sarcasm intended. Sadly, I was tired, but could not sleep, so I updated the blogs, did my French, got my personal stuff done, and then the old eyelids decided that it was time for sleep. I woke to a pre-assignment for Campbell's soup headed back to South Carolina. So, I got my sleep, woke up, got my daily stuff done, and I was back on track. I have checked my food, and I am running tight, but should be okay. I also found out that I like Halestorm featuring Lzzy Hale. I actually knew this because of the Shatter me video by Lindsay Sterling. But I never really checked out Halestorm. I am usually not one that is drawn to the Angry chick music, but Lzzy rocks. Good to know.

Time is fleeting. I have about 20 hours left on my 70 because I did not get that restart back in Georgia. So I am not sure how things are going to play out. I have my new TODO list, and I am looking forward to my next restart, but I am not sure when that is going to happen. I am also checking into some BLOG software, so there may be a few changes in the coming weeks. Plus, it is almost hometime again. I am very much looking forward to that as well. Time is fleeting.

Extra Time

The morning just came up ME. I hit the Love's just as they were shutting down the pumps, but I was able to fuel before I got an excellent, easy-out, space and popped my laundry in, taking the last washer right before two other drivers walked in with bags. Since I have about five extra hours, I did my updates, emails, school, and my personal stuff. I had someone make fun of me for doing Yoga and then I was defended by a grizzled old female trucker that I later found out has been on the road for 45 years. That is a LONG time. She dug into the Red Hat wearing dude for everything from his flip-flops and water-filled ankles to his beer belly and scraggy beard. He was offended. It was funny as hell.

Cleaning up the truck

Even though this is not a real break, the truck has been on my nerves, so I took the time to clean it, double check my food, and sweep my floors. Sometimes my OCD will kick in, usually when I am tired. Today I am tired. Then I managed to get a bit of sleep, get up and in motion and get my discussion posts done for the week. That just leaves a paper and week-three will be out of the way. Getting closer.

A good start

I really tried to be in a positive head-space. I got to Max Meadows and took a nap after an early dinner. But I had to manage time since I will be here for 24 hours. After my nap, I cranked on some random music, checked school, worked by stories, and then dove into an old project that I have been working. I am going through old data and clearing it out. I hit my OneDrive and found some stuff going all the way back to Idaho. And that started the spiril into negativity.

A negative head-space

I live in a box. Usually it does not get to me, but today it was grating on my nerves. Everything seemed to close in on me. I could not find my center, even with exercise, Yoga and meditation. I tried random music from Japanese Flute to The Pretty Recklass. I even went for some old school Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Nothing helped. I wound up watching Heavy Metal 2000, a good fallback and that did not help. I finally surrendered and drifted off to sleep.

Harrowing Days

I am running soul-tired right now. I am not sure what it is, but I am rolling a bit of negativity and I can't seem to shake it. Since I have pretty much been running back to back, my life has been In the box drive-sleep-drive. The only thing that I have as distraction is my current book, Incubus Dreams, and that is annoying because I am halfway through it, and so far, Anita has visited two crime scenes with two dead hookers, and had sex more than 20 times. I need the context of some of the storyline because they pop up in future books, so I have to muscle through. But I will be glad when this one is done.

A project

I have a library that I carry with me, but out of hundreds of thousands of books, I don't think that I would have an interest in mote than about 10 percent of them. So I have started to get rid of the ones I will never have a reason to use. It is a daunting task, but akin to cleaning out the Memphis house in preparation for the Colorado move. However, it is not part of my daily tasks. I preview each book, evaluate the potential merit, and then keep it or delete it. So far, I have removed more than 5000 books. For those that know me, and my packrat type of persona, this is a major evolution of the self.

So, how did it end?

The marathon of two days ended in New York State. I got dropped off at my final drop and was pre-assigned another run that just did not work with the time that I had left. I hunkered down, called operations, and explained the situation. That put me in a Pilot in Schenectady, NY until Sunday afternoon. It is a tiny little place with no hot food, no fresh food, a Dunkin' and a Subway, and three showers. I don't like the idea of having to pay for coffee and tea, plus the shower, but it is simply a lack of options. Down I go. There is, what looks like, a nice Italian place right next door, and I am hoping to grab a pizza and salad, or maybe a Stromboli tomorrow. We shall see. I had to street park since I got here late at night, but once the sun comes up, I will get into a better position. And thus ends my marathon drama, until the next runs begin.

The Grumpy Cat attack

I have not been able to get my preverbal wheels under me for a few weeks now. And today is no different. Even though I am on a break, it is not restful. I just can't bring things into line. But I am sure that this is because I am close to my birthday, it happens every year. Yeah, NOT my birthday, even though that is true, the coming of the deep blue funk. I have had this as long as I can remember. I think that it goes all the way back to childhood. This has never really been a good time of year, even though for the past years, it has been much better, I am still riding the negativity of youth. Sometimes it is a month, other times, just a few days. I will get through it, and knowing it is there helps.

Distraction

Sitting in my box for a day and a half, I have exercised and meditated, done my Yoga, sax, writing, and art. I have done some school, but I have a lot more to do before I leave out tomorrow. I am just ready to be home at this point. I am bone-tired and I think that I am going to be this way for about another month. Then the cycle will begin again. I did get some work done on The Awakening and did some extra French lessons. I continue my data project, and that is helping a little bit. I spent a large part of today going through properties in Colorado, and I like what I am seeing. Prices continue to drop and it looks like they may continue. In contrast, the prices in Memphis continue to rise, which is good for the eventual sale of the house. I just hope that things don't flip-flop before we are ready.

The screaming meanies

I am pretty sure that the screaming meanies belong to the Beatles but I know what they were talking about. I have had way too much time to myself, and it is grating on me. Even with some extended meditation and exercise, as well as some intellectual pursuits, I am still sitting on the edge. I don't like the feeling at all. And the only real thing that I accomplished today was finishing up my paper for school. Three more weeks to go.

Run rabbit run

For a continuation of the above, I have to comment on the information center and rest area on I77 outside Charlotte, NC. I have no idea what it is all about, but there were more than 100 cars parked willy-nilly all over the place. Which is not a problem, except there were taking up at least 20 truck parking spaces, and they were leaving 10-15 feet between their park jobs. It is quite rude. Pfft.

Done!

I have finally finished my latest book by Laurel K. Hamilton, Incubus Dreams and it was a fight to get through it. But I think that it was worth it because I now have the information that I was missing that is used in later books. So we will say KUDOS to me. Woo hoo. I am on to the next book, Micah but that should not be too bad. It is only about four hours long and I should be done before I hit New York tomorrow. After that, I get to take a break from the Vampires and I am on to the Justice League of America and a few others before coming back to when Hamilton returned to her more interesting style of writing. I look forward to it.

The personal stuff

That status on the personal stuff is rough. I have barely had enough time to eat and sleep with the way that I am running. I did take a few pictures before the camera crapped out again, but I have no idea when I will get to pull those and drop them into an editor. Time will tell. This also means that my books have suffered. Even using the dictation features, I simply have no time. But it is almost home-time, and hopefully, that will make things better.

Good starts..

I woke up with about two hours to spare, so I got my yoga, meditation and exercise out of the way. I did my French, read some of my class book and got a really good start to the day. As you can see by the work day above, the day was annoying, but not terrible. I finished Incubus Dreams and moved on to the next book, Michah and finished that as well. Tomorrow, I will start one of the Justice League of America Graphic novels. It should be a good change of pace.

Into the Night

I shut down at the shipper, Impulse Footcare, instead of going to a truck stop. It is secluded, dark, quiet. In fact, a bit too quite. It is like something out of a horror movie. As the sun set, the fog rolled in, the frogs and bugs quieted, any normal man would hold his breath for a moment and.... Oh, wait a second, I am not normal, love horror, and I am not afraid of things that go bump in the night. It was a pretty cool place to shut down. There are no lights anywhere, and I was serious, after the sun went down, even the bugs got quiet. I was able to turn off my climate control and revel in the silence. I pretty much shut down and went right to sleep. I have been running very tired lately. I figured that I would take advantage of it, get up early, and knock out some school and all.

Hey look, a Grumpy cat!

I slept a solid seven hours or more in the back of the vendor in Durham, NC. I could probably have slept longer, but I got up and in motion so that I could be well rested, fed, and ready to roll when the workers get here. But even a restful night could not prepare me from the driving frustrations. I did start, and finish, JLA Exterminators and it was pretty good, but it was not enough of a distraction for the old brain. I got to thinking that I am making decent money, not great, but decent. And as such, I have no right to complain. But then I want to complain. I am understanding the tossing around of the word privileged because there are some drivers here that are just that. I wish that I had the balls to issue the kind of ultimatum that some so, where they either run 3500+ miles a week, or they move on. I am just not that way. And I think that I could be if I wanted to, then I remember that I have to look at myself in the mirror. Sigh. On the one hand... ROFL. The wife will get that one.

I could put this into a rant box, but I am not going to. I may later, but not today. The Federal Department of Transportation, or FDOT as they are known, controls drivers. They tell us how long we can drive, how long we have to rest, etc. I was thinking (yeah, be afraid). Since we cannot be trusted to self-work ourselves and must depend on daddy FDOT to tell us how to do our jobs and how to live, then why don't they also extend that reach to make sure that we have safe havens to shut down in and rest across the country? I mean if we cannot be trusted to self-regulate our driving, and rest when we need to, how can we be trusted to find a safe place to get rest and the necessities of life? I think that they should regulate truck stops and rest areas, assuring that every drive has a place to stay safely to get the rest they need. This is especially true on the coasts where parking is limited. Just a thought.

Shutting down

The day was annoying with the traffic going up I95 and then onto I83 and I81. I dislike running this load channel and part of that dislike is the traffic. Everything is under construction and the corridor is always filled with incidents. Le'sigh. I ate dinner when I stopped and went right to sleep. I am bone tired.

Dwell

I got to take a little extra time down due to the dwell on this run. It has me a bit itchy. I pick up tomorrow morning and it delivers on Monday morning. But the drive is about 26 hours and I have 22 hours left on my clock. I will have to do an in route 34-hour reset. That may be a bit rough, but at least I will get to pick and choose where I shut down. I have a paper due for school, but that is about it, and I am due home about eight days from now. I am very much looking forward to it.

The Rest Area

I have had way too much dwell time and time to think on this run. It has my dreams a bit scattered and my annoyances, well, annoying. Shutting down in an off-grid rest area was a bit helpful. I had about five extra hours plus my 10-hour break, so I broke out the Saxophone, did some drawing, and some extended meditation. It has helped me get the brain back into line, at least for now. But this is becoming a daily fight. I feel that I am lacking forward momentum, even though I know that is not true. I just can't figure it out. Shrugs.

Looming 34

There is no doubt that I will be taking a 34-hour restart in the next 72 hours. I am trying to plan well for that so that I can prep the truck for home-time, get the old gray matter into order, get school done, and still relax. I have to try to set down in a Love's so that I can roll my Roku and have access to milk, bread, etc. I counted up meals this morning and I am one short, so that works out perfectly. I usually do fast-food or eat out while on my reset. So it is all good. Things worked out perfectly this time out. Now we shall see if I can do it again, this time, making sure that I label everything. I forgot this last time, so everything has been pretty much a crap shoot with the food this time out.

Tired and Grumpy

I am still rocking the grumpy cat but I am sure it will get better with the looming 34-hour reset tomorrow and then home-time next weekend. I just have to make it to that point. I have been a bit under the weather for the last day or so and I am just feeling very tired. None of my distractions are working at this point. I can't concentrate on anything and I really think that I just need a reset. Hopefully the break will help.

The Muse is asleep

I have tried to do Sax, Art, writing, anything. Nothing is working at this point. I tried to take some pictures and the camera jacked up again. I came very close to tossing it into the lake next to the rest area. But I restrained myself. When the thought hit me, it took me back to the days of tossing my controller around while playing video games. NOT a good thing. Control, needed control, got control. At least for now.

Wow, just wow

I saw on one of my Social media groups that Rodney Smite died. At first I could not remember why I knew the name. Then I remembered. Randolf Jr. High school. My first bully. Catcalled me for weeks, tripped me in the hallways, spit on my lunch. I told my dad who said in front of my step-mother that I should never fight no matter what. But when he drove me to school the next day, he told me that I should never fight unless I am going to win. After a day or torment, I caught Rodney outside and sneak attacked him from behind. He never had a chance, even though he had 30 pounds and six inches on me. I hurt him...bad. Of course, I got caught, and step-mommy picked me up. Dad was outraged and showed his power to me. I was out of school for days because of that power. I always regretted the actions with Rodney. And the aftermath of course. The lesson that dad gave me here, was don't get caught and he said that as he came down on me with his iron hand. It is amazing I turned out a (mostly) pacifist.

Feeling Icky

The run was not horrible, but I was feeling a bit under the weather most of the day. Nothing like Covid-19 or anything like that. Just a sour stomach. So it was a non-productive day. I did my normal morning stuff before I headed out, took a 30 minute break and fueled along the way, and then shut down in Hollady, TN. At the Love's, the Internet was not working, and I worked with tech support to get it up and running for the entire site. That took about two hours, but then I was pretty much done for the day. I took a five hour nap, got up and took a nice, long, hot shower and then went back to sleep again. I am going to count this as a good day.

Extra Rest and..

I took a double five-hour sleep cycle between last night and this morning with a shower in there. When I got up the second time, I will still feeling lethargic and I figured that it may be the music that I have going in the background. I switched to a more upbeat music and got a bit more energy, but not too much. I think that I am just feeling dragged this time out. But that should be over by the end of the week and I will be home.

The Round Robin

I have a lot of stuff on my list that I am trying to get done before hometime. The current round-robin is the personal stuff, including cooking food for the week and setting up for the next five days so I don't have to think. Updating all the journals and blogs, making my data list for hometime, catching up all my email, catching up school and getting ahead of week five, and possibly week six, and seeing what I can get done on Ancient. I also have to set up September for both the .NET site with new pictures and the new blog for next month.

I don't Understand

I can't wrap my mind around the world today. I see so many smart people making stupid comments on social media right now. The big one is the Biden resolution to remove between $10,000 and $20,000 in student debt from people that are burdened down, mostly by predatory lenders. The thought is that these people don't deserve it because they should have planned better. The stupidity of this comment is amazing. Most of the comments say that people should have gone to trade school. I am not sure that I would want a doctor, a lawyer, or an accountant that went to a trade school. They suggest that you leave school, take out a personal loan for $50,000 and start a business. Who lends that kind of money to someone without experience or a work record? In other words, this is just another right-wing diversion to keep our attentions off those things that matter. I say right-wing because all of the original posts are coming from right-wing media, the same media that backed the 1.9 BILLION dollar tax breaks a few years ago. People need to wake up. We, the people, are under siege by forces beyond our kin and as long as we are fighting with each other, we will not notice this until we are wrapped in shackles.

Ending the day

I did my best to relax and then gave myself enough time to get a full eight hours sleep. It was a bit warm, but the AC was able to keep up. Another DOT reset out of the way and ready to roll into Texas tomorrow.

Ready for home

I rolled hard and hit Mt. Vernon, TX. As soon as I shut down I grabbed some chicken from Chester's and then took a nap. I have been extra tired lately. This is my second day in a row having very strange and unusual dreams. Yesterday it was about being accused of abuse within a home, and proving myself innocent, though I wasn't. Today, it was being a convict and getting home time with my prison girlfriend, a short little black woman. We got to go to her home for two hours to see her two kids, age two and ten. The weird thing in both of these dreams is they don't relate to anything that I have been watching or listening to and I don't recognize any of the people in the dreams. Weirdness.

Extra time

I have a 20 hour dwell on this run inbound to Texas, so I made sure that I had a place with Internet and the other things I need. I had to do my final restock and things like water before hometime. I decided that since this is kinda a second break, I would relax a bit. I figured up Pluto TV and watch Convoy, because I could roll that while I did other things. I did some sax, a few art lessons, my French, and then I prepped my lessons for school lessons for last two weeks of this course. Finally, I did some photoshop and programming lessons.

Once I had done all my studying, I popped on Tubi on the Roku, just for giggles. They have a lot of old stuff on there, stuff that I remember liking. I actually did a microbinge on Green Acres with Eva Gabor before bed. It was fun. But it might be worth starting up Tubi whenever I am at a Love's. They have some old fun things. Then it was sleep time.

The Dreams

I am not sure if I am living in the world of Dr. Seusse of H.P. Lovecraft, but I have to figure out the source of these weird dreams. I cannot go Lucid with them, which means there is something important, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what. Especially Brittany Spears on the beach. That just makes no sense to me at all. There are no common themes, no shared ideas, no similarities. Weird.

Almost Home

In theory, I am supposed to be home on Friday. I am heading into Southern GA right now, to drop on the first, and then supposed to be home on the second. We shall see. I have things set up mostly for the new month including the new blog and the new pictures over on the .NET site. Hopefully, I will have time to upload those tomorrow and get those into place. I am really looking forward to home time. I am very tired of being on the road right now. Plus, for the most part, I am out of food. I have enough for two more days, which is prefect since that is when I should be home. I grabbed Pizza for dinner tonight, but fast food just is not doing it for me right now. I need to do some cooking!

The end of the month

September is almost here. I always do my updates at the beginning of the month, but here is a sneak peek. I am very disappointed with August. Even though I got a lot done, I got nothing done. How is that for weird? I just feel like I am spinning my wheels. More to come on the first. Stay tuned!

Retrospect

The month of August is in the passed now. It was not a great month for anything other than work. With work, I did okay, and they kept me rolling for the most part. I am still stuck in the NorthEast, but I got a few really good runs, especially near the end. But the creative side of me suffered this month. I got little done. I did get the September updates done for the blog and the Gallery. I have 12 new pictures over on the .NET site, but they are old pictures. I am still weeding out really old pictures. That is going to continue until the end of the year, then we shall see what happens. Other than that, the muse has been asleep. I have done my French every day, and I did the basics for school, and my art, and all that. But little else. I have set goals for September to get out of this slump. Don't forget to check out the new blog for September and the new Gallery.