The Photos

These are the last photos from 2021. Four of them are just stock photos and two of them are silly driver photos. These are for projects down the line.

Here comes the year

The new photo is from my studies into Photoshop. It is an older photo that I have stylized with an artistic filter and poster edges. Not the greatest effect, but showing progress.

Things that need to go away quickly

There are a few things that we deal with every day that just need to go away. Of course, there are things like black smoker trucks that go out of their way to pollute and "make a statement" and signs that say "Trump Won" and such. But I am talking about more common things that do their best to get in your way every day. I call these time-sucks. First are the emails that say "about your recent visit to "insert name here". These are click bait that manage to sneak past your spam filter. I get 8-10 of them a day, and every time I block one, 3 more pop up. These are annoying spam, and only take a few seconds to clear out, but I wish I could find those sending them and mail them a box of scorpions. The second thing is time-suck videos that go on for anywhere from 7 to 30 minutes. These things are trending and annoying as hell, but they are like a train wreck - you can't look away. The two that come to mind is making a flowing lava pie by a professional chef that says "here we go" more than 100 times in 17 minutes for a very anti-climatic effect. It is 17 minutes of explaining what he is trying to do, and about 15 seconds of actually doing it. The next one is a boyfriend walking in on his girl in an assumed compromising position behind a curtain with another man. For 9 minutes, he goes back and forth, reaching for the curtain, acting suprised and mad, until he pulls the curtain and finds that his girl and the dude are just washing a window. Let's be serious...if it takes that long to wash a 5*5 in area of window, he has more issues than just infidelity. Both of them need some serious training in window washing. You would think that you could just bypass these things (and I do for the most part), but they are entcing and since the fast forward is often disabled, if you want to see...you get to sit. There are ads out there that are like this, where you have to view a video to get "free information" at the end, only to find out it is a video that is the better part of an hour, talking about how great the product is, only to find the the free product only works if you BUY the premium package for X Dollars.

The New Year So Far

I saw it coming, I predicted it, no one listened. But that is okay, because I was prepared for it. Since before New Year's, I had a bad feeling about this run. I anticipated that Orgill would be closed, and closed it was. They sent me to Shippensburg to swap trailers and roll out to Mott's. We know that Mott's is a 365 operation, but I had a feeling that since they have been rocking their people on 80 hour weeks, that they would close down for the New Year. Guess What? They closed down for the new year. So back to the terminal I go. I spoke to Operations, and they had a puddle jumper heading out of here tomorrow morning, but it was a last-mile drop and hook. Not willing to bet on the trailer chase, so I sucked it up and accepted the original load back for Monday morning. Since this was nothing that I did not predict, it did not irk me off too much. But the alone time, that is something different.

All this time!

So what did I do with all this time? Nothing really. I did not leave the cab for the most part. Only once. The one time that I did leave the cab, I went into the break room to make a good pot of coffee, but there were a half-dozen people discussing how the election was stolen or rigged and how their golden idol will be back in two years. I just could not be bothered. The conversation outside was a lot more interesting. And I made a realization that I find interesting as hell. There is a direct correlation between the rise of violence, hate speech and school shootings, and the rise of Joel Osteen and the rest of the mega-rich mega-churches. It can actually be graphed. I am going to add it to my list to see if I can create a data set for it. But it goes all the way back to 1966 and the founding of the 700 club. I wonder of God is pissed off at the people for letting the money changers rise up and take control? And with each new mega-church, things get worse. Hmmm.

The rest of the day

The rest of the day was rolling junk in the background, some movies, that I did not pay attention to, and working on the big list. I did a couple of photoshop lessons, read my stuff for school and pulled all my citations for the projects, assignments and posts. All in all, a decent day except for being alone.

The Photo

Here is a try at a merger of two images.Not terrible for my first try ever.

Into Maryland

The day was a waste for the most part. But I am not upset about it, because I saw it coming. I got up and got right into motion, grabbing my trailer for tomorrow and heading down to the Love's to sit for the day. I have not been feeling great, but I have a feeling that a lot of that is mental. There was some drama at the terminal, and it was best to just not be there. So I hit Hagarstown, MD and shut down after less than 30 minutes drive. I grabbed a Wendy's breakfast Baconator and made some sausage. Then I took a nap. That meant that I got almost 10 hours sleep with the nap, and that is not a good thing. That would be the mood. I will pull through it.

Friend Drama

With the new year comes the friend drama. A lot of drivers are jumping ship, not understanding that the issues are temporary. But then there are people like "SW" from Wildwood that is about to be homeless again, and not willing to do so, so she is talking about taking her own life. Sadly, I understand this, it is a plea for help, but one of these times, she is going to do it. However, I have been there before and been exactly where she is. I cannot give comfort, because she can survive, but only by her own choice. If she chooses to wander the end of the path and beyond the veil that is her choice.

So, what of the day?

The rest of the day, after the nap, was going through my list as a round robin and rocking through it. I have good internet, so I popped up a three hour "Witch Songs Collection" and rolled that in the background while I updated blogs, did writing, cleaned my sax, did some photoshop and art classes and prepped for the school week. I am doing everything that I can to stay out of a funk. I know that things will get better come tomorrow, but that brings other problems with half the country under snow. I may wind up running the East Coast until my next hometime in February. That is not a happy thought.

I woke up from a very unusual dream. The characters and players were surreal.
I was living in a futuristic society, where I was absolutley dependent on those around me for everything. Lives were controlled by a wrist band, sliver with a gem, that held every aspect of our lives. You needed them for food, clothing, travel, work, everything. But that is not the sick part. I had a girlfriend that was a thief and liar, tight in with my mother. Yep, you got it folks, my mother. Mom, which wsa not MY mom, but still my mom, drove a cadilac. My girlfriend was a hateful cully, and I was miserable. I was ready to run, but while I was preparing, both my wristwatch, an old style expansion band one, and my control bracelet disappeared, stolen apparently. It was then that I realized that I was a juvenile, and I was crying to mom as we went through the remains of a shattered life in the truck of her car. She pointed out that she was all I had, her and my cully. And they owned me. I threatened her. I said, exactly "if you did this to me with the help of that cully, I will kill her, then I will kill you, then I will kill myself - because I have nothing left".
The twisted part is that I woke up disoriented and could not remember who I was, where I was or even where I lived. It took almost five minutes to come back to myself. Weirdness.

The day...OYE Frekin' Vey

This is another boring day, but only because of the lack of substance. I left out of Hagarstown, MD. right on time and hit Orgill right for my appointment at 900am. That would have been really good if they had bothered to set up an appointment. Nah, let's not do that, just let the driver show up and deal with it. Nope, not at this place. Not only will they NOT take you without an appointment, they already have an entire truckload sitting on the lot of what I am carrying. They don't need it. So, rejected a second time, and it took two hours to get a response as to what to do. Another wasted day. But back to Shippensburg, I am sure that they will have something for me right out of there. nope, sit for FOUR hours without response. When I finally checked in to see what was going on, they told me that I was scheduled to drop in the yard, and wanted to know when that would be done. I give myself Kudos, because I did not lose it. I just let them know that I had sent the information over four hours ago. Then the sound of crickets. At the eight hour mark, I logged off and setttled in for the night. The new preassignment came at 900pm just after I got to sleep. Of course. I will be heading out to Ohio then New York, assuming I can find a trailer. We shall see.

Gaga

Before midnight, I dreamed about Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. Who you ask? That would be Lady Gaga. So, were we dancing? Singing? Invovled in some torrid and clandestine love affair? Nothing so simple. We were sitting at a table in a New York resturant and she was explaining to me in detail the model walk ass shake technique. What in the name of the various gods!!!!???? According to Stefani, I should use it in my book "The Awakening" and show it inspired by Ospiria to give a little wiggle. Now, a spoiler for tomorrow morning, the technique actually exists. I have no idea how my subconsious mind knew it did, but it is real. It involves walking in a straight line, with the feet crossing the center line, to create a healthy butt wiggle. Fascinating.

At least I did not have dreams that were too weird, so I guess my mind has worked out whatever hell it was dipping into that brought Gaga into play. Now I am back to good old monsters and predictible scenarios. So that is good. But I am heading toward New York, so that is not so good. I really don't like running New York, mostly because that usually leads to New Jersey in one way or another. but we shall see.

A bit of annoyance.

I headed into Alliance to pick up at a brick manufacturer to get my load to head to New York. Except that the order number was set to go to Nebraska. It took a bit over 2 hours to get things fixed, but they got me loaded. When I looked into the back of the trailer...oye. It is only like 4 pallets. But okay, off I go. Then it was a quick run toward the Ohio border. I shut down just inside Ohio and will run the last 5 hours in the morning. It was the last Love's on my route, and they have my tea and Columbian. So it's all good for tomorrow.

Pictures

I did get some "lost things" pictures for my project, but they are still on the camera. Tomorrow, I have to get my second discussion post done for school, but I will try to get them off and up here. I think that you will like them.

yep, you guessed it. I have come full circle, and I am in New Jersey. Goddess help me. I really dislike running this area. There are a few missing days here, and I was going to back-blog them, but when I thought about it, there really is no point. The past 72 hours have been nothing but run-sleep-run. The only excitement has been rolling through the last Dark Tower by Stephen King. I should be done that tomorrow on my way to Ohio. So they would have been boring entries

The Jersey Experience

I was rolling hard into New Jersey to drop off and then head over to Ohio. I seem to be rolling right ahead of this snow storm that is attacking the country right now. We shall see if my luck holds. But while coming through Jersey, I took an offramp just because. I drove through my "hometown" of Barrington. Man how things have changed. It is like looking at an old Sepia tone picture of a forgotten dream. I do not miss it. But I have to process the opened memories before I say anymore.

I know this is short

I know that there is not a lot of meat here right now. But that should change soon and I will do a full update and add some pictures soon. I am rolling hard with back to back runs, and I am facing a few school deadlines that are wrestling me to the ground. So bare with me.

Today was another boring day with nothing but me running as hard as I could toward the West, trying to make it into Columbus Ohio. But on my coat-tails was mother nature with the granddaddy of ice storms. I stayed right ahead of it. I came all the way through Pennsylvania and was feeling very tired when I hit West Virgina. The day was rainy, but okay, and I was tempted to stop in Wheeling on my way though. There is a TA that is decent there. But something told me to push on, and I am glad that I did. I got shut down inside of Ohio at a Pilot in Belmont and when I woke up, I found out that the roads out of Wheeling were all closed. I got to my drop and then headed over to Proctor and Gamble in Lima, and they told me that since I was headed back East, into PA, I should check the weather. Right after I got through there, the main roads were closed with black ice and multiple accidents. If I had stopped where I was going to, I would have been stuck, and with a high priority load. The gods watch out for fools like me.

The mood darkens

I picked up and headed out toward PA just before midnight. The rest, I will tell you tomorrow.

I could have made it to Shippensburg if the weather had cooperated. But it didn't. According to PA511 and the news, the roads were impassable. So I headed out and shut down in Etna, OH at the Love's. Not my first choice, but the next place down the line is Zanesville, OH, and that is MUCH worse. So I shut down in the wee hours of the morning and let operations know that the load would be late due to HOS restrictions and ICE problems. So it is time for a 34 hour break.

Rest first

I took a bit of the day and got some extra sleep. I have really been pushing hard, and I am exhausted. By tomorrow, I am hoping to feel a lot better. But we shall see. I rearranged the truck and assessed my food. Still all good. I kept my 3.5 hour witch musing rolling in the background while I relaxed and worked through getting a few things done. Finally, I got my assignments done for school and then watched some movies until bedtime. I plan on getting up very early, working through my list, doing a major update to the blog (yes, this one) and working ahead for school. Then it will be off to teh races again. Hopefully, the roads will clear up by tomorrow afternoon. That will put me in Shippensburg around 900pm tomorrow night.

An Old Young me

As you can see, I am sorting photos. Was I ever really this young?

Relax Cycle Complete

It took a lot. Yoga, meditation, self-reflection, and even a bit of chanting. But I think that I have gotten myself back to place where life is not a black hole of dispair when I am not at home. Of course, when I am at home, life is unicorns farting rainbows and ice cream, so I guess it is okay. Okay, that was a visual that I didn't need, but you can see where about 9 hours of self-care has put my head. Joy.

Update Time

We are more than a week into the new year, so it is time to update progress on everything. And I mean everything. So sit back, relax, and let the world drift away.

Here they come...

Work Update: Work has been okay, but not great. I am not hitting my 2500 miles a week, and it is irking me off. However, there are big changes coming, and I have a feeling that with these changes, drivers are going to be more balanced. Right now, I am sitting in Etna, OH. I was shut down by the black ice and accidents heading back toward Pennsylvania and had to take an early 34. If I had not hit bad weather, I could have hit Shippensburg with about an hour to spare. But life loves to toss a curve ball now and then. After this is posted, I will be heading to PA, and then to who knows where on a fresh 70. My miles for the week should be about 2300, assuming I get a long run. If I get a puddle hopper, who knows?
School Time... I am still rocking a 4.0 in my current course, but I am having a lot of problems getting my wheels under me. I have to fight for every point. This is mostly because the subject is Criminal Justice by extrapolation of current and past rulings. And reading these cases just grinds my gears. Those in power either don't have a clue, or they pretend that they don't to keep us off balance. It is really annoying. But I am halfway through the course as of today and I just have to hold in there for another three weeks, then I will be on to something new.
The Writing... I am making it a point to write every day. But before I broke into writing, I went through the entire directory of writing and made sure I had a synopsis of each story, and that they were worth keeping based on my current vision. The result? I have 57 short strories, mostly horror or fantasy. I also have a total of 42 novels, with synopsis, storyline breakdown, and character creation for each of them. My current projects are "The Awakening", "SHORT Stories" (which has not yet been named and includes the 13th witch, Hello Pretty, and The end), and "Saving America". These I work daily. I am thinking that I may have all three completed by the end of 2022. Not terrible
Art... I am back to working on art. Laura and I have differnt visions of art. She is a free spirit that let's the soul of the world flow through her, and creates with an inner vision that captures the inner world of her subjects. Whereas I am a very tight creator with hard lines and angles. Laura got me a new ruler set for Christmas, and I am practicing on "throw away" art right now, trying to get down my images and shading. Then we will see what comes to be.
Music... I am still working with the Saxophone, practicing at least three times a week as time allows. For now that is okay, but I am going to have to increase that as soon as things calm down a bit.
The lists... Everything is back on my list(s) and they are in a book that I should not easily be able to lose. The list includes the Ancient Pathway project, the Triumph Media project, rebuilding my resume, setting up and working social media (including a YouTube Channel and possibly TikTok), and about three dozen other things. Fun times!
Photography... I am back to photography. I was able to fix my Nikon camera and I have about a dozen lessons for photoshop. I have included my red-moon photo on a previous day and I am doing my best to keep the camera at hand. I have about 2000 pictures to go through and sort, and I am using ACDSEE to catalog them. Once I get them all sorted, I will make a gallery here on Triumph Media and get most of them online. I did choose my replacement camera(s). A Canon EOS Rebel T7 for DSLR and a SEREE 4K HD digital video camera for video. I researched both of these and they are the best for longevity, and within my potential price range for the future. I added both of these items to my Amazon wish list, and we shall see what the future brings. I also added a RUKO video enable drone for fun. I am actually looking forward to getting to Colorado at the end of my trucking life to photograph, well, pretty much the entire state. Gotta have goals...right?

And the day comes to an end

I was able to get a lot of updates and all done, but nothing would be perfect without finalizing the run into Proctor and Gamble, arrving just at midnight, and having them not give up an empty trailer. However, the fun part was running in the virtual white-out between Morgantown WV and Hagarstown, MD. The snow was blowing crosswise, left to right, there were no plows or salt trucks out, and I averaged about 20 miles an hour. It was not a fun thing to do. What I can't figure out is why the router sends me that way anyway. To avoid the tolls on the Turnpike? I was more money in fuel and time than I would spend on a toll. But that is their issue. I shut down at the terminal and fell into a broek sleep. Just to bleed into tomorrow, it was eight hours before I was assigned an empty location, but that is another story.

Today was not perfect. In fact, it was as far to the left of perfect as you can get. When last we met our strange but interesting traveler, he had just fallen asleep in his cab after being denied an empty trailer by Proctor and Gable in Shippensburg, PA. One of the problems with big-logistics is that often shippers have pools of trailers, and they don't like to give them up. But the company terminal is right across the street, time for a nap while I wait...how long can it take?

Blew that thought

How long can it take? Eight hours, that is how long it can take. I finally got the empty assignment over at the Allen Distribution center. Which was a nightmare to pile on to this day. The site is an off-site, and you have to jump through hoops to get the main warehouse to send over a yard-worker to unlock a trailer. Which is not too bad, as long as you are willing to waste an hour trying to talk them into giving you the property of your company. But what is no fun is that when you are hooked to the trailer, ready to pull out, and you get a message from operations telling you that the trailer that you just inspected and hooked to is out of service. It took another 90 minutes to get the out of service status cleared up so that I could roll over to Arm and Hammer. OYE! Arm and Hammer in York, PA. Stand outside in the cold for an hour to get your load. Luckily, I was almost a day late picking up. Luckily? Yep, the dock is so behind that people are waiting for nearly 24 hours to get their loads of out of there. Mine was JUST done when I got there, a day late.

The attack of the Gods of Circuit and Power

Of course, early in the morning, waiting for the trailer location, gave me extra time to get school done and all. Well, that was the theory anyway. Long story short is that I bargain basment bought my computer and of course, it would choose when I have assignments due to crap out on me. I did my best with it, but I finally had to call Dell. Even though I am out of Warranty they walked me through the diagnostics. Of course it is the system board. But they can repair it for $900. GRRRRR. It is disheartening and I have to figure out what to do. That is a thought for another day. I just can't right now...

Today was an all work, no play day. I rolled hard into Ashley IN and then continued into Lima OH to pick up at Proctor and Gamble. My mood has hit bottom. It is rough doing school, or even getting a little entertainment with the computer working now, and then breaking down. As I am sure you figured out, this is a back-log entry, being included in mid-February, just to keep things in line. The tech is killing me. Not only is the computer down, but now the Roku failed. It has gone end of life, and there is nothing that I can do about it. I have to set priority to school, getting that done when I can before I try anything else. It is making me grumpy.

I rolled my ass off today and hit Port Royal VA. I could not get an empty trailer because a sub-contractor came in and took the last one. I was miffed and reported that to operations. The answer that I got was that they run the same runs that we do, and from time to time, they have to pick up our empties. It strikes me that the company should take care of our drivers first. They are able to see the trailer map, and should not be sending 3rd parties into sites with a single trailer and incomming trucks. But what do I know? I popped over in the bobtail to Tom's Brook and set down for the night. I put my mood on simmer and went to sleep.

I am out of time. I got up early and took a shower and spent the entire day staring out the window as the world passed by. I hate it when my breaks are not planned. I have school to do, but I could not bring myself to do it. I am sure that one day slacking will not hurt me too much. I am still rocking a 100 in the course, so I can take a day of down time.

This was one hard rolling day. I managed to get my discussions for school finished before I headed out but I just can't get my head on right for some reason. I am very distracted and moody. With snow and ice incomming, and running low on time by the end of the day, I managed to get my pickup done for Tractor Supply in Macon and then headed out only to pickup, then shut down. Man I am tired.

I ran hard, and did not have to. The snow and ice hit, just as it was supposed to. I ran overnight, and by the time that I pulled into Tractor Supply (store load), I was right on time. I was told that the other truck due in was not going to make it because they could not get through the ice. I did not really have any problems, I just dropped to 45mph and rolled slow. I had the swing and a miss 34 in Toms brook the other day, and I caught that up today. I shut down in a love's and got school caught up, then relaxed. It was still not a planned 34, but it worked out pretty well, and I get to start out with a trailer tomorrow when this is over. Hopefully, my 34 will end, and so will this ice storm. People are just being crazy. Even at 900 in the morning I had trouble finding a place to park, and I saw quite a few near misses right in front of me. What a day.

It is not really the end of an era. But it was the end of my 34-hour break, and the Sirius XM radio subscription expired today. I knew it was coming, but it was kinda rough. I did try to negotiate with them, but they would not budge on the $17.99 a month, which is too much for a serivce that is filled with advertising. They have gotten greedy. Even $9.99 would have been a decent price, but they will not budge, so poof, there it goes. I am going to miss it, but when I get home, I will set up my own music thingy. I think. We shall see.

Back on the road

The break over time to get back on the road. I headed over to Diamond Pet food and hit the road as soon as I was able to drive. Fun times.

Today was boring. It was just a hard run into Hagarstown MD to do a drop and swap at Tractor Supply. There was a bit of drama there, because I knew I had a load coming out of there, so instead of going in, dropping, grabbing a trailer, coming out, going back in, etc, I just unhooked from one and hooked to the other. I asked Ops to dispatch me and they came back questioning "who told you that you could bobtail into the shipper". I was about to loose my cool when they realized what was going on and got me set up for the store run. I hit the Love's around the corner and shut down for the night. But man, they almost pissed me off.

And thus we hit a day of frustration. I rolled my ass off out of Hagarstown MD to make the Ridgeway VA tractor supply on time. I got there for my 0500 appointment only to find another truck backed into the dock. His appointment was 1000 and after a bit of a heated discussion, he moved out of the way. I was there and ready to go 30 minutes early. Sadly, the unloading crew did not show up. To make a long story short, they told their employees to come in late bacause of the ICE. They just failed to tell us. I was in the dock for five hours. I will get paid for it of course (delayed entry - I did NOT get paid for the time). And then, just to push my buttons a bit more, I had a pre-assignment going from VA to San Francisco CA then back to Michigan. A total of 4400 Miles. As soon as I cleared the Tractor Supply dock, that went away to be replaced with an 800 mile run. They say that there is no favoritism going on, but I don't believe it, because still the SAME drivers are running the OTR runs. It is starting to get on my nerves.

I am rolling on this bullshit run to Ohio and I am really starting to get irked off at the company. I have checked, and the same golden-children are still running the OTR, so I was right. And here I am running a cock-and-bull run into Ohio. I really wish that they would just let the optimizer do it's job, then we would all have the same chances. But I am sure that someone would kick their legs in the air and scream if they don't get their binky. It is frustrating. But the one thing that I did notice is that with the way that the weather is running right now, the mid-west and beyond is getting dangerous. People are going to start getting stuck out there. But they wanted that....
For now, I am headed into Ohio, and the roads are icing up, so I shut down about 2 hours early. Better safe than sorry.

I rolled into the Meijer DC and was in and out fast. I had another Cali run pop up and then go away as soon as I dropped. I am not even questioning them anymore. They will say that it is cancelled, and yet I will see someone on the run later. Of course, there is no way to prove it. I just do not like being lied to. It is bad form.

Terminal HO...

With nothing else to do, I hit the springfield terminal, got dinner set up and did my laundry. I listened to a bunch of drivers. there is a mass exodus going on. Oye. I really hope that they do something soon, or things could get bad.

Ah, the game of ping-pong. I pick up in Ohio to got to North Carolina, to pick up in North Carolina to go to Ohio. Fun times. But it is miles, and without the extended downtime between runs, so I will take it. Today was a pretty boring day, and that is all there was to it. No drama, no excitement.

I am just not feeling it right now. Life has become work-sleep-repeat and it is grating on me now. I hit Brown Summit NC and was able to drop at one yard and pick up at the other, headed back North. But that was all that there was to the day. I shut down at the Love's around the corner and went to sleep. No passion for the day, no fun, or even nasty thoughts. Life trudges onward.

I completed the drop in Vandalia OH, but of course there were no trailers available. And thus the search begins. It took 17 hours to find me a trailer. Of course I will get the miles for it, but that comes out to about $50. That comes out to about $3.00 an hour. And they actually think that this is justified. I am telling you, they need to get on the ball here. And it was not that I was running around for that amount of time, that is how long it is taking to get a response from the professionals that are watching the trailer pools. If it is taking that long to get a response, then the division is understaffed and changes need to be made. Simple as that.

How did I deal?

Sadly, I slept the day away until there was a resolution. This is a recurring answer, and I am not sure how I feel about it. But I got a trailer and headed into Pendleton IN to pick up at Tractor Supply DC.

I ran hard overnight to Waconda VA and hit the Tractor Supply as soon as I could. I was unloaded fast and headed over for a 34 hour reset. I hate to say it, but this log gets cut short because I did nothing but sit on my butt all day. My tech is broken, no creative possiblities, even though my voice recorder is about half full right now, and I sits and thinks. I am very much looking forward to home time.

I woke up very early freezing my tail off because the heater in the truck failed. It took a lot of running around, but finally got with Tim from Dclimate and realized that the anti-gel that we use in the trucks is not compatible with the Dclimate system. Oye. A system that runs off the fuel for the truck, that is not acclimated to the addititives required to operate. Interesting.

I was finally able to get caught up on the discussions for school, and I talked to Gina Faye in Colorado about that 35 acre property on the top of a mountain (okay, a big hill, but still). Sounds like they are a nice couple. But pretty much would have to get to CO to take a look before we could do anything. I really feel like we are spinning our wheels on the move. Sigh.

It was a termninal day in Springfield. I spent more than eight hours sitting inside the terminal waiting for my heater to be fixed. But I made good use of the time and finished my final paper. So that is that, another course behind me, just waiting for grades. While I was in the terminal, I listed to drivers. People just are not happy, and most of it has to do with time sitting and the short haul runs. The same things is being said about the "Golden children" that do nothing but bi-coastal runs. Of course, operations and the executives deny this. I don't know what to believe. I do sit a lot, but then I will have times that it doesn't happen that way. But I know that I have been in the NorthEast for a very long time, and there are no signs that it is going to give one way or another. Each time I see a plan going West, that goes away only to be replaced by something much shorter. Shrugs.

Nah, I did not make up Mundania, that would be Piers Anthony. But that is where I feel that I am today. I did a drop and hook, then headed over to Unilever in Edwardsville, IL. I really don't like that site because it takes forever to get into, then forever and a day to get out of. I shut my butt down as soon as I was out of there and went to sleep. Like I said, Mundania! A mundane day.

Another routine day, I really hope that this is not becoming a habit. Right now, I am riding in silence because I have not had the time to prep my next set of audiobooks, and with the Sirius radio expired, I have only local radio. That is all fine and good, except the only thing that is coming through is preachy stuff about how it is "my body my choice" (about vaccines) but not about abortion. I really wish that people would get a life - get vaccinated, wear a mask, help us ALL recover instead of sitting on their high horse killing those around them. But I shall not pontificate (again).

It was very cold today. I rolled into Family dollar in Ashley IN and was in and out, then headed over to Campbells soup. That was supposed to be in and out as well, but the load was not ready. I was running low on time, but they let me drop my trailer and wait on site. I got loaded up and headed over to Love's for a break. Tomorrow is another day.

I rolled my ass off today and made it all the way back to Olive Branch, but only to shut down there for the "night". I had a bit of a mental moment, because I am running low on food, figured that I would grab the jeep, run over to Walmart and do some short restocking to get me through to home-time. I forgot that I left the jeep at home for the wife and kiddos. Oye, brain-fart. I am still a bit moody, but I am dealing. It is almost time to go home for a few days, and I can't wait to get the relax thing done. That will be nice.

I rocked hard today. I made it down to Hammond LA and then over to Beaux Bridge to pick up. It does not feel like the end of the month. I was running very low on time, so I shut down in a Pilot. No coffee, tea or internet, but it was quiet, so that works for me. I should have scaled this load, but I really just forgot about it. I was more worried about finding a place to park. The Pilot was okay, but I really prefer Love's for most things.

I am really looking forward to hometime. The computer thing is a level of frustration that is getting difficult to deal with. I do have a fix for it, but it requires a complete wipe of the machine and some programming that is beyond what I have ever done before. I will take care of that on hometime. I think that I am just getting tired as hell. And I don't get to do any of my writing and all, that is killing me. I do have a LOT of crap on my voice recorder, but until I can get it all off there, there is not much I can do about it. Sigh. But the month is at an end, and a new one cometh, we shall see what we shall see.

Here we go folks

Here is the link to February 2022. February 2022

Are you paying attention? It is actually mid Feburary, but I am a hell of a lot more popular than I thought that I was. A lot of people have been worried, I am sorry that, for the most part, I have ignored the texts and all. I have just been riding balls to the wall. But as of this morning, I have told you all that the January Blog is up now, and here it is. The rest will be caugh up shortly. It has been one hell of a magickal mystery right, but I think that things are finally coming into place. I am leaving the original "sorry" from Mid-January here, but if you look below - all caught up. Peace out.

I don't

Okay folks, here is the deal. I am not laying in a ditch at the side of the road. I am not laid up with COVID-19. And I have not run off and joined a monestary giving my life to the great "NOT THERE" and scourging myself with a bunny fur cat-o-nine tails. Instead, I am having a minor technical crisis. So I am done with the blog for January until I get a resolution on Home-time on February 4, 2022, when things will return to normal.

Too cryptic?

Okay, Okay, you want more information. My laptop computer, about 2 or 3 years old, decided that it would be a good idea to eat itself. Back on the 12th, I woke up to a blue screen of death, followed by a lot of bitching and complaining (some on my part, some on the part of the computer). After spending two hours trying to fix it, I placed a call to Dell. They rand me through a few things, and managed to get it back up, but barely. The system board is shot. I have been able to get the system up, basically in text mode, and as long as I don't let it load any audio, video, or high end graphics, I can use it. So it is basically a text editor right now. And it will be that way until I get to my hometime, first week of February.

Where from here?

As she always does, the wife came to the rescue. Amazing woman, my wife. She jumps on a problem like a cat on catnip and takes care of the family. She got me a new laptop that is sitting on my desk at home. And once I get there, I will get things installed and get back to normal. In the meantime, I muscle through. I can do some email, a few lines of text here and there, and I am muscleing through the last couple weeks of school. So there is always a way around things. I have one paper due tomorrow, and I am working on that, but I wanted to get this update out there before the emails and (potential) calls start. I do have some cool pics on the camera, but for the most part, you aren't missing much. I am driving around the NorthEast right now, running my tail off. So nothing great. I have to put off my writing and other creative ventures, saving the CPU for the important stuff for the next couples weeks. See you on the flip side and I will update the link to February HERE when I get back to full operation.