The state of me

So, how's things going? Well, they are going, I tell you. I am on hometime, getting ready to get back on the road for another five or six weeks. Probably about 42 days in all. That is a lot of time to spend away from home, and I really don't think that any non-truck drivers or family can relate, expect for maybe military families, but that is something different, and I would not compare the two.
Work: Work is going okay. They have removed the optimizer for the time being, and we are back to using planners. They have removed the Driver Manager pool and we are back to dedicated squads. In other words, things are reverting. I am unsure if it is going to be good or bad in the long run. Only time is going to tell. One good thing is that I have been, and appear to keep, running stacked. As I drop one off, I pick another up. It works out pretty well. But we are headed into a new tour. I am pre-assigned on a puddle hopper, but that is to get me a trailer I think. We shall see.
Colorado: The fight continues and we are making headway, just very slow at times. On hometime, I managed to get the back gate fixed, but there is a lot more on the list, and there is only so much time. I will be glad when things come together finally.
School: Another class down, and a small break before the next one. Finally grade for Victimology is 98.7. Not terrible. One class closer to gradution.
The Muse aka the bitch: Sadly, this past month has been so filled with work and school that I have had very little time to play with the muse. I have a lot of things on my voice recorder, but I need time to get them off, and that just is not happening. Pfft. This month MAY be better, only time will tell.

The rest of the story

You are pretty much caught up, well, except for the French. Yep, I am studying French. I am embracing my 23-and-me returns. It was disturbing to find out that I am not German-Romanian as dad told me, but more swinging to the French side of things. Weird. But what the hell, I give the French 10 minutes a day to learn a few phrases. We shall see.

Beltane came and went, and no celebration. But it is time to get back to work. I was up and at it early, but I did sleep in just a bit, not getting up the first time I woke up. So I am well rested. I started the day double checking my data updates and my stuff for the truck, a good breakfast, then on down the road. Ain't life grand?

The work week cometh

I am always pensive when it comes to coming back from Home Time. But this is mostly because I spend half of the first day tracking down a trailer. But not today. I hit the yard, got my stuff loaded into the truck, got everything ready, and then hooked to a trailer in the Olive Branch terminal and popped on over to Kellogs in Byhalia, just a few miles away. Not a terrible run. Then it was out to Newbern, TN to load up 350 pounds of auto parts going to Detroit, MI. I was not feeling all together well, so I napped while I was in the pickup, and then set down in Mt. Vernon, IL about eight hours from the drop.

A book down

I just finished "Cold Fire" by Dean Koontz, and the storyline was okay, but I felt as if I was remembering it. But I have never read it before. I finally figured it out. It was a cross between "the Dark Half" by King, and the Book/Movies "Sphere". Not exactly an original idea. But it was okay standing on it's own. Now I am on to "Lord Foul's Bane" by Stephen R. Donaldson, something I have been looking for for a very long time. I am excited. And I have the entire Thomas Covenent series. So that should be fun. I re-worked my entire audiobook USB key to include Covenent.

Doing my best

I am going to try to do my entries every day. I can't do pictures because both cameras are down again, so if you are a visual reader, sorry. I will do what I can with my phone, and I will keep trying to fix the cameras, but it is becoming a bit too frustrating to be healthy.

Today was a run run run day. I had to put about 600 miles behind me and make it up into the Detroit area. It went pretty well until I hit the Chicago area. Then traffic slowed to a crawl. But I made it into my drop, and immediately was reassigned to pick up a run out of the Detroit drop yard. I got there with about 20 minutes to spare and shut down for the night. Fun times.

Ah sleep

I had a good meal and then went off to bed. I have been so tired lately. I am ready to retire, at least right now I am. Oye.

Learning

I am out of school right now, so I am upping my game on my french and my alternate studies. It is going well. I have it as part of my daily routine, along with my journals and blogs.

If you did not know it, one of the local folk-lore/Urban Legends of the Garden State is the "Jersey Devil", so see what I did there? The play on words? Fun, right?

Easy then not so easy

I got into Strongville, OH and was able to get my live-unload done quickly, with plenty of time left. Then it is a skip on over to Old Fort, OH, to the Church and Dwight plant in the middle of nowhere for a pre-loaded trailer. Well, that was the plan. But you know what they say about the best lain plans of mice and men. The load was not ready, so it turned into a live-load. Oye. And to top it off, the load is going to Lakewood, NJ. Not exactly my favorite place.

Taking the time

Since I had extra time in a dock, I broke out my writing to see where I stand on everything. I am trying to figure out if I want to go back to Ospiria and Lilith, or pop onto a short story for a bit, just to get used to it again. I have about six days before my next class starts, and I should have access to the materials in a day or two. I have set up the class as best I could until I gain access, I just have to edit my WORD template and remove a few pre-sets for the next class. I fixed my 35mm camera again and it is working. But this is going to be the last time. If it breaks again, I am giving up on photography once and for all. I will take it as a sign from the Universe that it simply was not meant to be. The choice is made.

Down the road

It did not take them too long to load me up, and I was on down the road. I was trying to make it to the Ohio state line, but that did not happen. Traffic was a bit intense on the expressway and I was a bit Frazzled, so I took time down in one of the Travel centers before I hit Cleveland. It gave me a chance to grab a Starbucks. I had pork with rice for dinner, and then headed off to sleep. Not a terrible day.

Some words about pay

Last week was kinda rough because I had three days home. So it is going to be a teeny tiny paycheck this week. But hopefully, I will get back on track this week with miles. At least that is the hope. But bills are paid, so it is not the time to complain.

I had to run very hard to make it to Lakewood, NJ on time. And when I realized where it was, it just led to another great groan. Spoiler, it was not nearly as bad as I expected. It took 10 hours to get to Lakewood, and that was running full out. A lot of that was problematic because the last two hours was only 45 or so miles. In Jersey, you have to be patient. There are a lot of highways like 95, the Garden State, and the Turnpike. But none of the shippers seem to be near these, so you have to jump off and travel 45-60 miles on roads littered with traffic lights, and of course, Jersey drivers. As I pulled into the area, I remembered too late, that this site has bad directions. It takes you around a block, about three miles long, instead of straight in. But I missed that turn and poof, more wasted time. Then things got better. Last time I was at this site, they had close to 30 of our trailers, all still loaded. Now, they have plenty of empties. So I took one, then scampered for a place to shut down

Teeny Tiny

It was rush hour, and I cast my dice and hit the Garden State Parkway to the closest safe haven. It was a tiny whisper of a service center with parking for only about eight trucks. And the lot was not designed for us big boys. It was a fight to get in, and will be a fight to get out. But there was a spot, I took it, and it was off to sleep.

A resolution

My camera is pissing me off. I take a few pictures, then I have to fix it. And sometimes I don't know that it is broken again until I look at the photos. It is annoying. I need a new one. The one that I want (for real) is almost $3000. But the one that I need is only about $600. That is still too much money for a hobby. But it is also part of what keeps me sane, and lets those at home, plus my friends, keep track of me and my travels. I cannot, with the pending move, justify just popping that kind of money down. So I came up with an idea. Any week that I run over 3000 miles, Laura is going to put away $100. That will not happen fast, because running 3K miles is a jewel that I do not find often. It will give me incentive to work toward that goal, running hard, delivering early when I can, etc. Now I just have to pass it by the wife.

As I anticipated, it was a bear to get out of the service area. None of the entrances or exits is big enough for a truck. But after a bit of wiggling, and a lot of praying, I was on down the road. Because of the type of load that I am running, I had to roll 40 miles out of route to get fuel before I picked up in Millville.

Annoying

The shipper is annoying. First, it is in a part of Millville that is difficult to navigate with a truck. Then, I was assigned any door between 10 and 14. Small problem. Four of those doors have pre-load containers, and the other has an over-the-road rig from CRST. So I sat for an hour before the spotter came out and moved a pre-load. BUT, while he was hooking to the container, a Trailer work guy showed up and talked to him, sitting in the dock, for almost 20 minutes. It is just a giant waste of time. And they have no interest in moving any faster. Like I said, annoying. The annoyance continued as I sat there for almost two more hours until I was loaded and on down the road.

Dispatch and Planning

There was a minor communication glitch on top of everything. The run is weird. I am picking up in Millville, NJ, and it has me running with a Terminal Transfer to Springfield tomorrow, then running to the final in Colubus OH on Monday. That does not make any sense, because a terminal transfer removes the load from you. So I sent a message by chat, and it took hour, then I called in. I talked to Zach. I know that area of Ohio, there is going to be no freight on the weekend, and the chances of finding an empty trailer are null. So I said I would take an early 34-hour break and run through. Zach agreed. Then after I shut down in a service plaza on the PA Turnpike, I got a message saying NOT to take the 34-hour and they would "find" me a trailer because there is local freight that has to run. I said "no problem" and set my sights on tomorrow. No biggie, it just means that I will take my break on Sunday or Monday. No worries.

The looming break

On my previous two tours, I have been so tired on my 34-hour breaks that I always go into them with great plans, and then I wind up sitting on my butt, binging this-or-that. That is not going to happen anymore. We are in a much more stable position and it istime to make sure that time is my friend, not my enemy. So, on this upcomming break, I have a checklist. It includes cleaning the truck, cooking my meals for the week (This is something new that I am going to try to attempt to save time during my drive days), reading my entire course text (I am halfway through it already) and pulling my references for the entire six-week perious. I am also going to get week-one finished and the other five weeks fully prepped. I have a few drawings that I want to do to strech my drawing muscles. I don't know if they will work out or not. We shall see. It is something I have been practicing here and there. It includes some famous people, some is Manga style and some is Japanese Hentia. Don't worry, the Hentia, strictly defined as Japanese cartoon pornography, is not nearly as bad as it could be. I like suggestive, not pornographic. We shall see how it turns out, you may see it here. I am going to continue with my French, and I am going to update my journals. Shhhh...that part is a surprise. We shall see how far I get. Finally, I have my camera disassembled, and I am going to put it back together, fully cleaned, and see if it will stop jamming until I get then new one. And of course, since I will be in the Terminal, hopefully, It is Saxophone time! If I finish all that, then I get to watch a movie or three.

It took about seven hours to reach Springfield, and there as still no clear path of what I was going to be doing. After about an hour, they cleared me of the load, and then reassigned me a load to Lima, OH, about an hour away. The weird thing was that it is for 0800 Monday morning. There is only about a 90 minute differential between the two loads. I have no idea why they changed them, but so be it. Time for a 34-hour break, plus a little more.

A productive day

I had goals, and I completed them all today. I had to clean the truck, cook some meals to make leftovers, do school for the week, do some drawing (that did not work out too well), study my French, and get my journals updated. I also had the time to watch Pleasantville and get some relxing done. All in all, a decent day.

Down in Springfield on an extended break, and with everything done, I had time for meditation and self-reflection. Since I had extra time, I tried some more drawing, and it still did not go well. Back to the drawing board. No pun intended. I am just not ready for what I have taken on. No worries.

A work thing

I have a live-unload first thing in the morning, and then I am headed right back to the terminal to pick up another live-unload. I guess I am one of the only ready drivers locally. That is fine.

Movie time

So, I watched the movie "Lucy" with Scarlett Johanson. Interesting premise. She gets an "accidental" dose of a new drug that enhances her brain processing to the 100% mark. All the time being chased by the drug dealers that created it. Fun.

Reflections on the self

One of my main focuses for the past year has been patience. But it is really running thin. I know where I want to be, and we are moving in that direction, but it still seems so far away and does not appear to be getting any closer. I know that it is, but it just seems to be moving very slowly.

Today was not terrible. I was back to work, right on schedule, and stopped to get coffee and tea before heading into the CHEP dock. I hit the dock right on time, and they unloaded me fast. I was dispached to a pickup about an hour away off the beaten track (picture below) and the load went smoothly. The only real annoyance is that there is a 20 hour gap on this run. I will hit the drop area almost 20 hours ahead of time. Oh well, nothing I can do about that for now.

It's a reading thing

Right now, I am reading "Narcissis in Chains" by Laurel K. Hammilton. This is part of the Anita Blake series. I have read a lot of the series before and I could not fully remember why I stopped. Now I remember. Hamilton changed her writing tactics in this book, veering away from the intrique and concentrating on the sex. In this book, she takes four chapters, a total of 2 hours of reading time, to describe Anita battling her inner demons (as well as the external ones) before she gets laid. The four chapters do not advance the plot, do not enhance the characters, do nothing with the storyline. It is simply a smut piece that is nothing but a Converted Catholic girl fighting with herself saying "should I or shouldn't I" the entire time. Of course, she does. But you can only hear about Nathan's lavender eyes, or Jean Claude's silky black hair so many times before it gets really old. I am all for a bit of foreplay, but while Anita fights with herself, she leaves her poor lepoard in danger, the actual plot of the story. I am going to push through, because I want to get to the more interesting stories, but now I remember that I have to wade through chapters of drivel to see the main plots.

Headache

I know that it is the weather, but I have been dealing with an annoying headache for going on three days. Don't worry my friends, it is not COVID, just a headache. I used to get these a lot in teh spring. I did not get them last year, but I guess they are back. Time to move to COLORADO! Yeah!

The state of me

Right now, I am rolling toward the Atlanta area. I made it into mid-Kentucky and shut down at a Love's. I could have gone further, but I have a lot of time on this run, so I shut down, restocked my water, and went right ot sleep. I am tired. But tomorrow is another day.

I was up bright and early after more than seven hours of sleep. I got a good breakfast and was on down the road before you could swing a dead cat. I have always wondered about that. Why would people want to swing a dead cat? I am sure that there is a story around it, but I am going to have to look it up one of these days.

Pre-drive adventures

I had a bit of time, so it was catch-up time. I did my social media, nothing really new there. I loaded up my lessons, did school, and updated the blogs. Right now, the camera seems to be working, so yesterday I took some abandoned train track pictures, and one of them is on the blog for yesterday. So that is a bit exciting. I have not been able to post a picture in a while. Maybe it will hold for a while. That would be nice. Then I updated teh old journals, and it was time to get on the road.

The Need to Pay attention

I have not done this in a while, but I dropped the ball today. I always look ahead to see what area I am going to be in when I reach my destination, and I did the same thing today. I knew the rough area, but I did not zoom in to see that my delivery for the 11th at 800am is actually in Atlanta. Atlanta is problematic, because regardless of the time of day, parking is, at the very best, a challenge. I realized my mistake when I went to drop onto 20 West and found myself within a few miles of the site. That left limited parking. I tried the PETRO, and I can promise that I am never going to touch another Petro again. $25 parking, for non-reserved parking. Reserved parking is an additional fee. Of course, the entire lot is now reserved parking. They are taking advantage of the trucking industry and do not deserve our business. I pulled in, turned around, and pulled right back out. I checked a couple of other smaller sites, but nada. So it was across the city over to Ellenwood for the rest of the day and into the night. It was okay, but annoying as hell.

The deep grey moodies

I am fighting the moodies again. I really want to be off the road. Even when I am running back to back, I feel like I am spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. We are actually a little over a year from the proposed move, but it does not feel as if it is getting any closer. Gotta tough it out, but I am very much not feeling it. Little things are getting on my nerves and I don't like it. I fell into the sleep trap again today. I shut down and ate, then took a nap. I got school done, and then put a movie on, then went back to sleep. Not a good thing. I have to pay more attention.

I was up an in motion with plenty of time to spare. I got a good breakfast and did the morning thing. But I am still not feeling it. I shall do work first, and then go on from there. I got out of Ellenwood and hit Love's on my way into my drop in Douglasville, GA. What a dock. It was like they were playing Tetris in the parking lot. The yard spotter was moving trailers around because they had them stacked three deep in front of the docks and people could not get in and out. They must have a lot of really green drivers in there, because I was watching daycabs trying to wiggle into docks, and I got in with my sleeper with no problem at all. I guess that they don't teach new drivers to do a 45 degree pivot anymore. Shrugs. It took about three hours, but I was an hour early, so I can't really bitch. Then it was on down the road about 120 miles to load up with a Tractor Supply load for Hagerstown, MD. Another two hours in a dock. So that is five hours wasted today. But I am out of Atlanta.

The music in my head

I have been listening to a lot of older music and I tripped over Three Doors Down. This called to me.
I look ahead to all the plans that we made
And the dreams that we had
I'm in a world that tries to take 'em away
Oh, but I'm taking 'em back
I have no idea why that is so signficant to me, but it is.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein
I was really disappointed with my recent attempt at art, so I popped open DAZ3D to see if I was any better at graphic art. This is my second try at fantasy artwork in a 3D environment. I call it Flying Girl, and it uses the standard Genesis 3 model. I think that it came out pretty good. I think that I got got the joint control and human body realism pretty good. Hmmm. I still want regular art, and I have a plan for that. Maybe tomorrow, I will put my first 3D try up. It is actually a LOT better than this one, and is based on an earlier Genesis model. But has little or no body manipluation, just environment. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

The morning started late, so my routine was tossed in the crapper. I woke up 15 minutes after I was supposed to be driving. That was because the new lot in Blacksburg, SC at the Love's is right beside railroad tracks, and I am pretty sure a train comes through, blaring its' horn, about every 45 minutes. So I got about 4 hours of sleep, out of 9 hours attempted. I think my mind finally just said "screw it" and took the train. No pun intended. So no coffee, no Yoga, no exercise, no meditation, not even email or blogs. I had to catch those things up later. Then it was an eight hour drive into Hagerstown, MD. The good thing is that I made it to the drop with three minutes left before my required break, and they had a trailer for me. So that helped a bit.
I popped over to the Love's and got a nasty parking spot facing the center of the lot. This is where trucks will park illegally overnight and block everyone in. But since I did not expect to leave out until morning, that is fine. Then came the pre-assignment. Picking up tomorrow morning about 90 minutes away and going back to ...dum dum dum...the Ellenwood terminal. Which means it is probably a Monday delivery. I am curious to see how that play out. Time will tell.

PhotoCredit:Christopher Klein

This was my previous try at using Daz3D software. I think it came out pretty good. I used the downloaded Genesis 2.0 model and built in filters. I think that I did pretty good with this one. I wonder what would happen if I actually knew how to use the program? Hmm. Added to my things to learn.

The day continues

The rest of the day was in Love's. Time to catch up on email, blogs, journals, personal stuff, and school. Then time to watch a movie and see what time it is one all that is done. I am watching my meals very carefully. I have had way too much time and I have "eaten ahead" of myself. I don't want to run short on food.

Today will be a really short one because it was a really boring day. I was down for the night in Hagarstown MD with little or no drama. I did get interviewed by someone that said that they were with FOX news, but I did not give them the answer that they wanted about the president being responsible for fuel prices, so that will never hit the air. No worries, they had plenty of other sheep that will say anything they want for five minutes of fame. So it was early to rise and pop over to pick up some Olive Oil to take down to Atlanta. The biggest annoyance was that the entire drive today was down 29, which is mostly a back road. That is more than 300 miles of small towns and stop lights, and I will have to do about another 100 tomorrow.
But that is another day. Eh?

Trucking is probably the only job where you shudder when you know the weekend is coming. Because we are out here working, and the docks are all closed up tight. Pfft.

Bad start

A really bad start to the day. I went to pull food from my freezer, and things are NOT all nice and frozen. My freezer blew. I checked fuses and all, but nope, it is dead as a doornail. Sigh. I am against the clock now to get it repaired or replaced, or I am going to lose a month of food. Sigh.

And the day actually degrades

I was not an hour on my way, just south of the South Carolina line, when Bambi decided it would be a good idea to argue with the front of my truck. Weighing 77,000 pounds and moving at 65mph, I did not have recourse. I braked, but it did little good. Bambi went bye bye, and so did the air dam on the driver side front of my truck. Makes me sad.

On down the road

I reported the incident, which included calling safety, calling breakdown about the damage, and calling the state police about the dead body in teh road. It all took about 90 minutes. I had to make an additional stop in route because I could not keep the damaged bumper tied up. But it was toing to take TA about three hours before they could even look at it, so I used a hacksaw and removed it.

Remains of the day

I finally made it to Ellenwood and got the trailer dropped and shut down. I was exhausted. I talked to the shop, and the bodywork people are off for the weekend, of course, so I am stuck here until Monday. I made the choice to waste the day and just listened to music, watched some shows, and relaxed. It has been a long but short week, all at the same time. Even with three days down, I am still getting 2100 miles for the week. I would have made both my goals if not for the deer. So things may be looking up.

A dream, a WEIRD dream

I woke up just before midnight, so this goes on today. I dreamed about the song "Fever" being sung by Peggy Lee. And here is what made it really weird. Peggy Lee was on stage singing the song. And I was sitting in the "audience" with just me and a young black man. The dream was just repitition. Peggy Lee would sing the song, the young man would say "do you understand?" and then shake his head, and she would start again. Had to be 20 or 30 times. At the end, Peggy Lee took a bow and exited, and the young man told me to pay attention and I would get to where I wanted to be, because I have the "fever". He bowed, said that he hoped I liked HIS song, and then poof.
Curiosity got me. I looked up the song. Yep, Peggy Lee is famous for singing it. But William Edward "Little Willie" John was attributed to writing the song. And yep, found a picture of him. My dreams are channeling 1950s R-B entertainers. Weirdness abounds

First things first. I am going to show off a bit. Most of this will not make sense, but it is here for me, so I stick my tounge out in your general direction. I did not waste the day.

The beginning

I did the shower and breakfast thing, and then figured out what I was going to do with my day. I did not want to be a bump, so I figured I would feed the old grey matter before I relaxed.

Serial Killer

I did not want to sit on my butt and stare at TV all day, so I started with the basics. First, of course, was school. I pulled ten excellent resources for my Final paper in five weeks. The topic is the life, actions, and death of Jeffery Dahlmer. I downloaded, read, and then wrote an analysis of those ten papers. Interesting stuff.

A bit of Sax please

I spent about two hours on the Sax. Not bad. I have been doing about fifteen minutes a day, but it was good to just be a blow-daddy for a while. I still suck, but I am getting a bit better at least.

Some creativity next

I worked on a couple of short stories, just to get myself back into a writing mood. Nothing major, I just could not break back into the Awakening after that long away, so I chose some short snippets.

Est-ce que tu parles francais?

J'ai suivi cinq cours de francais. Which of course, means that I completed five French Lessons. That is more than I have done in a single day since I started. I am actually starting to understand the language. Then I took a break and watched a few scenes from "Blue is the warmest color" in the original French. Fun times.

above you will see my latest adventure with Daz3D. I am very limited because I only have Genesis 2, Genesis 3, and Genesis 8, and some very limited materials. That crap is expensive. I can probably build it myself, but I have to take a LOT more tutorials on the subject first. As a hobby, no money unless it can make money. But I think I did pretty good for using starter stuff.

Time to relax

I filled my head and it was time to rest. I watched Cruel Intentions and discovered that in my youth, I was very much like Sebastian. I was a manipulative bastard who thought I was above the rest of the world. We all know who changed that. Hint, it was teh wife. Then it was time for bed.

Today was a mental mess. The came at got the truck at 0600EDT and it did not come out of the shop until almost 1600EDT, 10 hours later. I watched the actual repair which took under 30 minutes. So the rest of the time was waiting. Sadly, I could not be in the truck during this time, so it was me in the breezeway of the terminal. I did try to do the driver lounge thing, but that was a very negative experience, I am not going to go into the reasons why Suffice it to say that it had to do with PEOPLE, especially those that are highly opinionated toward a certain EX-leader of the country. I am so tired of politics lately that it is not funny. I am just dumbfounded by some......nevermind.

So the grey meanies

I don't like to sit this long, and being down for another three days is pissing me off. I got back in the truck and set my available time for first thing tomorrow. With luck, that will make things better, but right now, I don't think so.

So, why the sitting?

There is very limited space to wait. Since I could not be inside, I was in the breezeway. It was HOT, so my computer would go through thermal shutdown and there was no place to plug it in anyway. It annoyed the hell out of me. I could not even distract myself with some mundane show.

Where from here?

Because of the mood, I am not going to make any opinion-editorials, because they would reflect my mood. So I sit, I wait, and tomorrow will be a better day.

I am pretty sure that I irked off a black cat in the past few days, and it is out for revenge. It has just been a series of unfortunate events starting with the late start and deer impact event on Saturday, and running into today. Today, I have the truck back and I am ready to roll. I got an assignment first thing in the morning, right on time at 200am, but the day went downhill fast. First, they were not sure where the trailer recovery was. It took almost five hours to figure that out, and then I was on my way. I hit the site, and the mystery started. They assigned me to pick up the trailer, and drive 627 miles to St. Louis to return the WRONG product to the shipper. I could have let it go, shut my mouth, and just rolled. That would be about a 1300 mile round trip. But no, I had to actually look at the problem. The problem was the materials. The trailer was suppose to have bus parts. But when I actually looked, it had bottle caps that could not possibly have come from a metal distributor in St. Louis. So I spent another five hours trying to get an answer. In the end, I took the load back to Ellenwood for them to figure out later, but by then, my day was spent.
No worries, tomorrow is another day. I will update the blog! Nope, that is not going to happen either. I use Brackets to edit this blog, but I use Microsoft Expression to upload it. I like MS Expression because it double checks files and updates automatically. The problem is that the program went End-Of-Life about 15 years ago, and it finally crashed and burned. It can no longer access the site. And there is not, and will not be, a resolution. It is simply too old. That means I have to find another interface. This is something that I have been avoiding for almost three years since Expression began to show instabilities. The most viable option is Adobe Dreamweaver, but that means adding it to my already costly Adobe subscription. I could write a rant about this subscription software bullshit, but that has been overdone, and iam not going to repeat it here. I have a potential stop-gap through Cpanel that uses coreFTP, but that still means editing in one program and uploading in another. If it works, I will use it for now, but I may have to figure something else out later if I want to continue this blog, and the rest of the sites.

Tomorrow

I hit the terminal and dropped my load of bottle caps, and got a new dispatch for tomorrow morning taking some pet food to New Jersey. Not the greatest run, but assuming they get me a trailer, it should be okay, at least for now. It is going to be another short-mile week, and that is pissing me off. But I understand why. They are keeping me in the area because I have to be in Tunnel Hill in about 12 days. So I will be rocking the NorthEast for a while, go figure.

The studies continue

I got my grades for my latest Criminal Justice class, and I am rocking a 4.0 after one week. I have one discussion finished and should be able to do the second one tomorrow while I am in the dock, so that should keep things in line. I did an art class, my french, and a Photoshop class. I did not touch the 3D stuff today. There is a lot to learn there, and I want to take my time. Tomorrow is another day.

IL know that it is a bit cliche, but that is the way that I feel today. It was a nail biting, hand gripping, teeth grinding day. And mostly because of things that should never happen. I will explain.
After yesterday and the recovery run, which was after being down for three days with something that should have taken an hour, I was ready to roll. But roll I did not. Actually, I went about 100 miles in six hours. This was because I did not have a trailer, and they had to send me after one. First they sent me to an apartment complex that would not even fit my tractor, but the trailer was "somewhere in the back". I never did get into there, because the entrace was 8 foot wide, and i am 8 and a half. So that was a NO GO. Then it was to John Deere, only to find out that the trailer is tracking 150 miles away in Swaintown at a Red Roof inn. Then to Home Depot in Locust grove, Fedex in Ellenwood, then they tried to send me back to Locust Grove. This is a serious problem that the company needs to address. Usually it does not get this bad, but today it did.

The Saga continues

I finally got a trailer by stalking a driver bringing one in to Ellenwood. It was a little tense when it was put into shop status, but I talked to Naomi at the desk and she fixed that. Then it was finally off to get loaded. More fun crap. Because I was five hours late for the pickup, I was loaded on an as available status, which means that after they load every other truck, they will load me. Another five hours wasted. Since Saturday, I have gone 200 miles and worked amost 17 hours. I am really not feeling the love now. I loaded up, hit Ellenwood and went to sleep.

One good things

I have been without good coffee and iced tea since Saturday. It is making me grumpy. I finally perfected "truck tea" and it simple. It is one bag of black tea and one bag of lemon zinger. How about that? Easy peasy.

Tomorrow

I am not happy about it, but tomorrow, I am off to New Jersey. Let's see if I can put some miles behind me.

I finally got a load and got into motion, headed toward New Jersey. The load took forever to get started, but once they started, it only took a few minutes. Not even a quarter of a trailer. I was not going to risk running late into the Delaware, New Jersey area, so I shut down just North of Richmond, VA in a Travel America. There was plenty of parking, and they had a Fuddruckers. I have never tried Fudds, and I will not be trying them again anytime in the near future. For $20.00 I got a bland burger on a sesame bun. The bun had about 12 sesame seeds on it, the onion rings were flavorless, just dredged through flour and fried, poorly. But now it is something that I know.

Something weird

I knew that someone remade "Genie in a Bottle" and I searched for it for a while and finally found it. It is Dove Cameron. I really think that whomever re-worked it for her did not have a grasp of the original song. Yes, she is an okay singer, but the words, oh gods, the words she changed. Christina Agulara says "I'm a Genie in a bottle, you have to RUB me the right way" indicating that she is a Genie. Cameron goes more politically correct and says "I'm a Genie in a bottle, you have to ASK me the right way..." it seriously loses something in the translation. I know that this is petty as hell, but it takes me back to the Fugees singing "Killing me softly" and their use of the word BOI in place of BOY. I might just be getting old.

Up and running after an extended break. I had a 1600pm appointment and hit it about 45 minutes eaerly. They got me right in the dock, but it took them about 2 hours to get me unloaded. I got a load right away out of Jamestown, just 8 miles down the street, but even though a drop and hook, it was not ready. So I had to sit there for another two hours. I was not willing to brave NJ into PA, so the shipper let me shut down in one of the unused docks for the night. Oye. Wasted time.

Rats from a ship

The exodus begins. Three top drivers are leaving the company. Two left today and one is leaving over the weekend. This does not bode well. I have tried to be very positive in the groups, and I am uncertain if I am just luckier, or if they are bitching too much.I have a feeling I would have to bet on the latter. It is really disheartening, especially since one of them was doing bi-coastals for a while, and is still not happy. I just don't understand greed.

As long as we are in update mode...

So, the latest update on education. I have a strict regiment going on now, and for now, it is working. I have my Arizona global course, The Psychology of Criminology. It is pretty cool and I get to do a report on Jeffery Dahmer. I am also doing my sax daily now, drawing, photoshop, Daz3D, advanced forensics, and Photoshop. Plus, I continue my French. That is actually getting easier. I was able to watch "Blue is the warmest color" with the subtitles off, and I understood quite a bit of it. I have no idea why the hell I am learning French, but I am learning it. So that is fun. All in all, I keep to my daily regiment, and thus far, it is productive. On my last real 34-break, I was really pissed off that I could no longer draw. I am going to fix that.

I am serious. I woke to a fog so think that I could not see a parked trailer just 20 feet from me. And then I realized, yep, parked 20 feet from me. A few calculations and sure enough, I have 20 feet to get out, and I am 73 foot long. Hmmm. Luckily, it was on dropped there temporarily and someone came and got it before I had to get out and move it. I would not have been gentle.

Out of Jersey

I had to shut down at the shipper last night, but no worries, I am out of New Jersey and rocking back to the midwest. I have about nine days until I am due in Tunnel Hill to shoot the Full-ride video. So I am going to be rolling the NorthEast for a while. Then another 10 days to home. I am very much looking forward to it.

I set off out of the terminal in Shippensburg early, even though I was running late again. This is becomming a habit, a habit that I have to break. I got into the Sam's club dock about an hour early, and I was happy that I did. They were having problems with the yard dogs and it only gave a total of three docks open out of about 100. If I had been late, or less professional, it could have been a 20 or more hour wait. But it worked out.
While I was in the dock for about three hours, I managed to get my paper done. That is another indicator. I am working on the psychology of serial killers, and I should really be stoked for this, but I am not. It is like trudging. When I finally get to shut down for my break, I need to figure out what is going on. I feel off.

Into Amish Country

Once I finished in Green, OH. I was off to Amish country. The sign in Middlefield, OH where I picked up some cabinets headed to Kentucky, said that it was the largest Amish Settlement on the planet. And when you consider how many buggies I saw, I believe it. I was in an out of the shipper without incident, and headed South-West into Kentucky. I shut down in Horse Cave, KY right next to Lost river caverns. And then I took a nap around 400 in the afternoon and did not wake up until after midnight. That ain't right.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

So, I rode next to this guy on and off headed into Green, OH. yesterday. I was in the right lane, and he would try to pass. He would get up next to me, and not have enough speed to get around me, then he would fall back. Then he would get past me on a downslope, and drop to about 45mph in front of me. I would go around, then we would do it again. I thought that he was just an inexperienced driver. But he wound up next to me in the dock, and I saw what is in the picture above. When he backed in, he hit the dock HARD. Because his eyes were down and to the right. Yep, the whole time he was driving, he was watching a movie. Please don't do this drivers.

Down for the day

I am in Horse Cave, KY. And I woke up a bit disoriented because I fell asleep yesterday for a nap, and I slept close to 10 hours. That ain't right. But I must have needed it, for one reason or another. So I rolled with it.

Not a wasted day after all

I was not really prepared for this 34-hour break, but I should have been. So I fumbled with what to do. I did get my two discussions done for school, and I got my paper for the week prepped. So I am a bit ahead for now. Then, with nothing else planned other than the basics, I re-worked my entire lifetime education plan and got all my courses into order so that I will work them every day. Yeah for working the brain.

Something New

It is possible that my moods and sleep issues are caused by overuse of subliminal music. So, since I am in a Love's and I have my wi-fi hooked in without using my own, I fired up Roku. I watched "The Adam Project" which was cute, but then I fired up YouTube. Instead of my normal calming music, I included Halestorm, The Pretty Wreckless, Old Led Zepplin and such. Things that have a bit more kick than I usually have rolling. I am not sure if it helped yet or not. We shall see. The end of the day was sleep time since I have to roll out at midnight. I can't make the drop on time, but I will make it as close as possible.

Yep, I admit it. I got a bit lazy. There was not a whole lot to tell other than complaining about being in Texas for yesterday, so I chose to take the day off. And now it is today. I rolled the last five hours into Houston and got dropped at Home Depot and then headed over to the Houston Love's for five hours. Not a terrible place actually, considering that it is in the city. It is old and a bit dirty, but huge and maintained. I took a nap after I did a bit of my courses.

Water Water

I was sent over to Pasedena TX to pick up a load of water headed up to Joplin, MO. A problem run, but I am not sure why it is a problem. Supposedly, an LP driver came in yesterday for this and just walked away from it. I didn't have any problems. They have some tight rules, but nothing too horrible. Shrugs. I got loaded up, used the sleeper berth option, and rolled up to Willis, Tx before I shut down for the day. I got Wendy's for dinner and that was the end of the day. I am telling you, I can't wait to get hometime to get my new freezer and have real food again. I have five meals left, and I am about 14 days out of home. Oye.

So, what's with the creative bug?

I have not said a lot about it, but I am working on the books. It is just slow going. I do not do them daily, but at least every other day. They are coming along nicely, but I have been working and reworking them. We shall see.

Pictures

I have a few new things for the truck. A big ass coffee mug and a new sandwich grill. I am going to get pictures of them, but time is running against me. Previous time. Evil time.

And finally...

Entertainment right now. I am working hard on the studies, and have two new certificates of completion. One in HTML/CSS and one in forensic basics. I am "reading" the third book in the Thomas Covenant series, "The Power that Preserves" and I am watching the series Agents of Shield. And now, you are up to date.

Okay, here we go folks. I am on a run that is not pressing for once. I have to pick up whenever in Kansas City, KS and run it to Savannah, GA by whenever. Actually, it is by the 31st, four days from now. I will be there early. In fact, I think I am going to try to get it there by tomorrow. And then I will be within a stone throw of "the Hill". Since I am due there on the first, they may just skip me over there. But I will deal with that when it comes around. I have no idea what the next few days are going to bring.

There is not a lot that can shake me, but today, I was shaken. I had to head into Topeka, KS to pick up a load of pallets and take them over to the East coast of Georgia. A decent run of about 1200 miles. But as I pulled into the pickup, my tummy rebelled against me. Yep, I think that I gave myself food poisoning. Fun times. To be blunt, icky and sicky all around all day with multiple stops. I finally surrended and shut down in Booneville, MO, went to sleep and slept for 9 hours, getting up every 45 minutes to take care of business. Rough day.

So the icky and sicky only lasted a day. Thank the goddess. I am pretty sure that it was my catfish that got me. When I lost the freezer a couple of weeks back, I tried to salvage what I could. Looks like my last few meals did not survive, and one of them was the catfish. I recognize the signs from when I got Salmonella in the Florida Panhandle from some poorly cooked "fish dip". But live and learn.

The aftermath

I rolled hard today, eight hours straight through and made it into the drop on the East coast. They did not have an empty trailer, we are going into Memorial day, and I am in a freight dead zone. We will top that off with my requirement to be in Tunnel Hill day after tomorrow, and only 12 hours left on my 70-hour clock. I can't wait to see what ops says in the morning.

The food issue

I am still about 12 days out of hometime, and all that is left is canned goods. They are okay in a pinch, but they are too high in sodium unless I double up on my Blood pressure meds. That is not going to happen. So I am going to try to make it to a Walmart before I hit the Hill mid-week. Some microwave rice, hard veggies, yum-yum sauce and maybe some of that sushi seasoning that we use at home. It would be like a bit of fast, but I could live on rice for a while. Just before I met Laura, I dropped 15 pounds in 15 days eating nothing but rice and water. Of course, they are probably still looking for the bodies from my mood swings...but you can't have everything.
We will see what tomorrow brings. I am not going to let it upset me, regardless of how it goes. Centered and balanced. Something NEW. Woo hoo

Okay, so I am sitting in a Love's in Richmond Hills, GA, just outside of Savannah, GA, and there is a billboard right in front of me that is advertising Peach Fudge. Seriously. I am tempted to stop, jut out of morbid curiosity.

Anyway

Nope, they don't know what to do with me. I am due on the hill in 48 hours, I have 12 hours left on my big clock, and no trailer. I am also in an area that is known to be a trailer and freight dead zone. Fun times. But this is an early entry, maybe by the time you read this, something will have changed.

And then things changed

I got to squeek out one more run. A quick jaunt over to Ellenwood to pick up a mystery load to be delivered first thing in the morning. I hit the terminal, found the trailer and then shut down for the day. I am still not feeling 100%, so I relaxed for the day. I was going to do my laundry and all, but I was not in the mood, and the facility was stinky. So I got some serious meditation in play and relaxed for the day.

Some reflection

Okay, I considered putting this in a rant bubble, but I am not going to. I leave it open for the world to see. I am concerned about people. There is something seriously wrong with the world. This may just be the influence of reading the fourth book in the "Thomas Covenent: Unbeliever" series by Stephen R. Donaldson, but I can't get it out of my head that there is something seriously wrong with "the Land". It is like the spirit of the American people has been sucked dry. With the latest school shooting in Texas, and the response of the people, it is like we have lost our soul. Old 45 actually went to the NRA and danced a little jig after the reading of the names of the dead children and two teachers. When I was young, which is not that long ago, the man would have been stoned where he stood. That is not biblical, that is human nature. I read these responses that say we need to arm teachers. Say what? They can't be trusted to choose books, or teach critical theories, but they should be armed? Then the sheeple, huddled masses come down on the police that follow a pre-described protocal because they did not rush in blindly without all the information? Nothing is being said about the youth that purchased a weapon of war. Nothign is being said about the blood of children. It is like this country has sold it's soul.
Now the thing is people posting pictures of their collections of weapons of war. Enough armaments to arm a small army spread out by a pool while someone fires a flamethrower over the water. And this is a healthy response? We, the people, battle to take away the rights of woman, while children dispassionatly explain to adults what to do in an active shooter event. I heart cries for a country that is quickly sinking into the quicksand or morality, cherishing their right to bear weapons that could silence a small town, over the children that reside in that small town.
As easily as I can put it, when you come upon a fire, you do not spray it with gasoline to quench the conflagration, you take away its' power. Or leaders better wake up soon, or there will be nothing left.

Okay, okay

I am sorry, that was a bit intense. It is like we have become blind to what is happening around us. It is not TV, or video games, or movies that is causing the problem. Yes, we are partially desensitized to the issues, but we still have a moral compass. At least most of us do. So I have a few suggestions, but for now, I am going to keep them to myself. They are extreme, but they would work. And I think that I will hold them for my book.

Special thanks to...

Everyone that sent me a message about my coding issue last week. Yep, missed a comma. Okay, was not actually a comma, it was a division exit tag, but pretty much the same thing. It is all fixed now and everything is back to normal. Well, as normal as things get right now.

Time for a break

I rolled out of Ellenwood and about an hour East of Atlanta to drop off. Easy dock, but it took about three hours. Then I got word to head to Tunnle Hill for my "break" and project. I am ready for my close up Mr. DeVille! Yeah, you might have to be old to get the reference, and depending which one, it could be SaVille. But you get the point. I finally got information about this video shoot that I am doing tomorrow, and it is not just a simple "read the cue cards" thing. It is kinda a mini-documentary. Should be fun.

Ahh the hill

I hit Tunnel Hill early enough to get some stuff out of the way today. I hit up Chris Hollandsworth and Jordan first thing. All good. A few other things, but they are things that don't need to be done tomorrow now. So it is time to relax, get school done, which is ironic considering the project tomorrow, and just be me for a bit. I am very tired. Not physically, just tired.

Okay, why am I tired?

I really thought it was me becoming intolerant of the world around me. But I don't think that is it. People are becoming real butts. They are just being mean for the sake of being mean. It is disheartening. And then there is the new thing with advertising. Well, maybe not new, just more people have caught up to it and are using it. You are going through facebook, or other sites, and you see a picture of someone famous with the beginning to a story... "Sam Spade found....." and you have to click it! It is a moral imparative to find out what Sam found, or if he was found dead, or with another woman, or better yet...a man!! You must know. So you click the link. Of course, it is part of a bigger story that encompasses 30 or 40 stars, all of interest. You have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find out that Sam found his PURPOSE in acting at a young age... Not only disappointment, but you have just loaded your browser cache with about 200-300 nice advertisments, because that was the purpose. So, before you click that latest pic of Winona Ryder, or Sam Elliot, consider if you really want to have to clean your browser and restart your computer for something you can just google?

Ending the day

And of course, the month. I got to Tunnel Hill in the late afternoon, just before shift-break, and wandered into operations. I got in touch with Chris H, Lori, and a few others. That takes a lot off of my plate for tomorrow. I am meeting Miranda tomorrow morning at 0830am and the process is supposed to take about two hours. Not terrible. An interview, some video of me "studying" and wandering the terminal, and then some of me in my truck. They are using a staged truck. Not a problem. The only difference is my Alexa, but I use that when I am driving, not sitting still, so it should not make that much of a difference. And I am sure we are not doing a hot run for the video. I think that I am ready. I had a nice meager meal, lay down, and went to sleep early. Time to start June right. I am 10 days out of the house, and I should be rolling out of here tomorrow morning nice and early.