On my nerves

Time is the enemy right now. There has been way too much down time and time to think lately. I believe that it is having a negative effect on my mental state. And it is one of those things that just cascades. The more time that there is, the harder it is to deal with. I have used meditation to get past it, but I cannot go on a five hour Astral journey every day. Something really needs to give before I do. But I am not even close to the breaking point yet, so we shall see what happens.

Tired

I am running on fumes at this point. I am just tired. I don't have any will to get anything done and I really need to get past that. I am running wake to sleep and something has to give in that scenario. I am not that close to the edge yet, but I can see it peeking up to greet me. We shall see what the next few days bring.

I am trying

I am trying to maintain a positive attitude. But it is not easy. Right now, I am fighting the clock at work. I am due for both preventative maintenance and home time in the next 10 or so days. And instead of sticking to the schedule, they have me heading down into North Carolina, and then back to Shippensburg, PA. Normally that would not be a problem, but I am fighting against my 70-hour clock right now, and it is not going to work. There are just not enough hours. But i have bitten my tongue and I am doing what I am told. We shall see if silence is more powerful than my usually suggestions (that no one ever listens to anyway).

Working hard

Since I have been running so hard and tight lately, I have not had time for anything but work. The saving grace is that I get to read while I drive, but right now, I am working on book five of The Serrano Legacy - Rules of Engagement by Elizabeth Moon. This book is disturbing me. Bubbles, the rich girl socialite, has been captured by religious zealots, muted by having her vocal chords removed, and is being used as a breeder. Moon does it without description and tactfully, but I still find it disturbing. I will be glad when they go in and kick butt. But it is taking a while to get to the point.

Burn out?

I always watch myself for potential burnout. I have been there, and it is not a fun thing. Right now, I am sleeping well, almost too well, and my appetite has not changed. But I am very short with things. I find myself having to count to 10 a lot more than before. People are on my nerves, much more than usual. I have put it in writing so that I can pay attention to it. And away we go.

Wow, just wow

So, there is very little to say right now about the personal side of life, because it is mostly drive, sleep drive. But I will say this. I stopped at the Travel plaza and when I pulled my break, I was beyond hungry. I had to run inside and grab whatever I could just to hold me over till I could make my (frozen) goulash. I got a slice of pizza at Sbarro's. The slice cost $6.26. That means that they are getting $50.08 for a pizza! So I thought about it. Godfather's charges $3.99 a slice, or $31.92. The other day, I went to grab a tube of peanuts, planters brand. I used to pay $0.59 a tube for these, and now they are $2.99. Potato chips are $5.69 a back instead of the previous $2.39 for the same size. And little Debbie Iced cinnamon rolls....I love this one. They cut the size in half and doubled the price from $1.29 to $2.69. Okay, not double, but close. The point is, this is not inflation. This is corporate greed. If you look at the stock market for the staples that make this stuff, it has not changed over the past few years, but the prices have gone up, almost double on many things. It is disgusting and of course, they keep us infighting enough so that we don't notice, or at least will not act. Of course, some of the taking heads blame the costs on fuel. Duh, this is the biggest no-brainer. Oil is a waste material and big oil feels their demise coming. They are sucking every penny out of the people that they can before they are obsolete. And we are letting them do it. There are public officials that are fighting against green energy. But why? Because they are on a certain payroll, that is why. But the cost of good is not caused by fuel. All of these companies are posting record profits. And it is time for the people to grab them by the nads and force prices down. How do you do that? Stop buying a product and the prices are forced down. It is a revolution my friends. Time to take back the country! But who will lead the charge?

Over the top?

Yeah, that was a bit over the top. But that is okay. I needed a bit of creative writing and this is what was open. Tee Hee. But it does sound like a fun revolution doesn't it?

Oh look, Dwell

I sat and figured my time, allowing for delays, especially around Beltway in Washington. I am working against my 70-hour clock, and I think that I can make the pickup and then run about four hours, shut down, and run the tail end into Dayton, NJ. But to do that, I had to sit on my butt in Dunn, NC for a while. It is annoying. But I made the decision, figured the time, then did some personal stuff. I did a LOT of reading for school and for C++, and I was fighting a headache, so I got some extra sleep.

Time for tedious stuff

I hit Skippers, VA and shut down to wait until midnight. I am so out of time. But I was fighting with the grumpy-cat. I should be on my way to Shippensburg, but instead, I am heading toward New Jersey. I was tempted to call for a repower, but nope, that is not going to happen. I will run this in tomorrow, against the odds. I could not concentrate, so most of the extended break was spent sitting on my butt and staring off into space.

Needed sleep

I shut down in the service center with less than 1 hour on my 70. I got a Starbucks and Panda express and relaxed. I am about four hours from Shippensburg and will roll out at midnight. I should just make it. I watched The Orville and fell into a restless sleep on and off for most of the night. I am going to be tired tomorrow, but it should be a short day.

A day in the terminal

Once I turned the truck in, I set myself up in a corner and started to work through things. It was chilly outside, so I kept my meditation and exercise until afternoon when it warmed up. I took everything that I needed, learning materials, entertainment, and food. I spent the entire day watching movies and such on the Terminal TV while I worked school, my email, my lists, and other things that I wanted to get done. I pulled out my new pen-tablet and played with it for a while, and FINALLY got Daz3D updated. That has been dogging me for ages, but it is done now. Now I just need to figure out how to use the program. I got my paper done for school, re-organized my lists and basically relaxed. Before the sun went down, I got my meditation, yoga, and exercise done without incident. They have been rebuilding the driver lounge in this terminal since I started with Variant. But they are no closer to getting done than they were when they started. So it is a trailer, not weather-sealed, with little or no amenities. It kinda sucks. It got rough after dark, because the sofas are not made to allow you to nap, and the temperature dropped to bitter levels. I got back into the truck after midnight and got two hours of sleep. Not really a relaxing 34-hour break.

Day leads to night

I spent the first part of the day going over school and prepping for the end of the course. I will have a few things to do on hometime this coming weekend, but it is all good. I ate, exercised and did my daily things. But I am in a negative mood, and that did not help at all. I listened to another driver doing a cold reading as he attempted to convince a young lady to become his sixth wife. Oye vey. He tried it on me. It did not work. Granted, he was not trying to get me to be a wife, but he tried anyway. After he tried his best, I pointed out that I knew cold reading ... he was not amused.

The endgame

One my truck was done, I got into it, checked everything out, and set it back up for the next week. I am low on food, but the truck is fixed and all I need is four-days of decent runs. The miles for last week are about 1800 and i only get four days this week. Things are going to be tight. I got back into the truck, and it was time to sleep. Yee Haw. Tomorrow is another day.

Born to Rise

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein - Photoshop

I have had a line from a song stuck in my head for days. They can't hold you down, you were born to rise from Freak like me by Halestorm. So I let the muse grab me. I cranked up the recently updated Daz3D and grabbed one of the basic models. I saved it off after applying some random makup mods and hair to it, and dropped it in Photoshop. I played with settings random and let the universe guide my hand. And here you see the results.

Trying for positive, and failing

I did the morning thing. It is brisk, but I got my exercise, yoga and meditation out of the way. I got my email caught up, updated the blogs, and waited. I am in a very negative mood, but I am able to keep it inside for now so that it does not leak all over everyone around me.

Pinpointing the problem

Work has been decent to me, it is almost hometime, I am still above ground and kicking. So what is causing me problems? I really think that a bit of it, a large bit of it, is Dr. Wong and his office. They are outright ignoring me at this point. And that is all fine and good, I am used to being ignored by people that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but in this case, the dude, and the company hold my life in their hands quite literally. Most of my meds are non-critical. But Wong made it quite clear that without my blood pressure medication, I could have a stroke and die. I have a feeling that, even though I am carrying a bold front, it is freaking me out a bit. I have looked into alterative's, but there really aren't that many. I get three days off, and I have a feeling that I am going to be spending a LOT of that time dealing with this one issue, and it is really pissing me off.

Calling it a Wash

This month plus a little more out on the truck has kinda sucked. At this point, it is almost hometime, and I am going to call the runs a wash and just relax. I am in week FIVE of school and have this week and next week to go, then that course is done. I am on day 175 of my French, I have progressed in Sax and art, and I have made headway on Ancient. It is time to rest my weary bones and see what the world holds come next week.

Trying for positive, and failing

I really tried to put a positive spin on the day, and I failed. Between the delays, failed pickup and annoyances, I was at my wits end by the time that I shut down. Not a great day. I tried to meditate, but no luck, and I tried distractions. Again, no luck. I could not get an Internet connection at Love's or on my phone. Luckily, I have entertainment with me, so I played the Sax for a while and watched some inane movie that I can't even remember. I figure a nice hot shower and tomorrow is another day. I am low on food, so I got a Hardee's burger and fries. It was horrible. Not the greatest day, but it is almost hometime and we will go from there.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein - Photoshop

A Bit Better

After the work stuff, I set my available time for midnight and prepped for my run tomorrow. I did some art, as you see above, and I think that it came out quite nice. I was going for bad/moody and I think that I pulled it off. It was a three hour distraction. I did my discussion for school and talked to a few people in the terminal. I helped one of our new drivers with some weight issues and spent some time relaxing. I got into the Gym for a bit and was able to meditate, so there is that. My Internet is spotty at best, so I settled in for some extended sleep. Today is a bit better than the past few days, and tomorrow, I should be headed home.

Heading Home

The personal time was a bit limited. I am a tiny bit moody, but I should be home tomorrow, and that makes all the difference. I stay out long enough that I really miss the family. I have a lot on my agenda for the weekend, but I will get through it. Besides the doctor, I am going to shoot from the hip on my meals for the next run out. I got to sleep early.

Busy busy

Okay, today kinda kicked my ass a bit. I was fighting a bad mood, but it was really nice to be home. I spent a lot of the day relaxing and pulling stuff together for what to do with my time off, and then I hit the doctor. It went well. I have improvements all across the board. I can't wait to get my test results back to see how my bloods are doing.

The New things

My tablet died a long time ago, and I have really missed my games and my podcasts. Laura ordered me a new one and even set up most of it for me. It is excellent and I installed a few more things. I love it!

Things, and Stuff

Laura took off work, and she was very helpful with the cooking. It was a very good day until one of those dickhead wasps decided it would like to take a nip at Laura. Got her on the foot. Not a great part of the day, but we took her up to Urgent care and got her a shot, and things got better.

The Menu for the next few weeks

• Hot Sausage
• Red Beans and rice
• Pork Loin
• Shrimp Scampi
• Teriaki Steak
• Asian Chicken
• Cajun Cabbage Casserole
• Sausage Loaf
• Pepperoni Bread
• Meatballs

I changed up the menu a bit because it was getting boring. But I have a pretty good selection for the next few weeks and we shall see how it works out.

Not restful, but productive

I was up early and in motion. I am not being a grumpy cat and that is a good thing. I finished up my week five stuff for school, finished up cooking for work, and then tackled some projects. I finished setting up the tablet for the most part, and I checked my data sticks for the truck. I was supposed to run to Walgreens for a few things, but I forgot. I will deal. Finally, I took care of the wasp nests around the house, removed two wolf spiders from the downstairs bathroom - TWICE (they came back, weirdos), and I finished up the garage door. It is painted, weather sealed, and the runners are back in place. I am counting the home-time as a productive success.

Speaking of Home Time

This week, I have to communicate with operations. There was some question about how much time I take for home time. Apparently, I don't take enough. There is a rumor that they are going to start cracking down on that. But that is okay, if that is the way they want it, it will be like a mini-vacation every month and a half. I think that I can deal.

Back to the creative journey

The past two cycles from work have really sucked for time and creativity. But I am thinking that it is possible that I may be back into the groove. You have seen some of the creative images, and now I am re-reading the stories and they are linked to my startup. So cross your fingers, maybe this cycle, I can get back into the creative mood. Yeah, that would be nice.

I wanna go...

Even with the false start today, I am ready to roll. I have 1400 miles ahead of me, and under 40 hours to do it. Can I do it? I have no idea. But I got to shut down for an extended break on my first day, so I did stuff...

And the stuff

I was a bit tired, but not quite ready for bed, especially since I have an extended break since I can't be at the shipper until after 800am tomorrow. That gives me about 14 hours, and that is a bit too long to sleep. So the first thing I did was get creative. I am back to my writing, but I needed a bit of visualization. So, using Wambo and Photoshop, I came up with this image of Lilith and Eve just after the fall of the Garden of Eden.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein - Photoshop and Wambo AI software

I think that the image came out pretty well. One it was done, I checked email and found that Roku has added quite a few new channels. I hooked into the Love's WiFi and checked them out. I added 10 of them to my menu, then deleted eight of them. Everyone thinks that they should be able to have a paid service. And you know, that would be okay, if they did not supplement their paid service with advertising in the shows. It is double dipping. It is no different than the click bait sites that give you interesting but bullshit stories about this or that, and while you are reading it, they are downloading gigabytes of garbage data to your device, and you are paying for that bandwidth. Sigh.

Ending the day

I did my creativity thing, something new to my daily agenda and shut down for the day. I ate my pork and potatoes. Next time, I have to add veggies, regardless of how I feel about it. It is just not the same without it. I previewed my route, and it is going to be rough to make the time-line, but i am going to try and see what happens. It was an irritating day, but I am counting it as a positive day.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein - Photoshop and Wambo AI software

I think that the image came out pretty well. One it was done, I checked email and found that Roku has added quite a few new channels. I hooked into the Love's WiFi and checked them out. I added 10 of them to my menu, then deleted eight of them. Everyone thinks that they should be able to have a paid service. And you know, that would be okay, if they did not supplement their paid service with advertising in the shows. It is double dipping. It is no different than the click bait sites that give you interesting but bullshit stories about this or that, and while you are reading it, they are downloading gigabytes of garbage data to your device, and you are paying for that bandwidth. Sigh.

Ending the day

I did my creativity thing, something new to my daily agenda and shut down for the day. I ate my pork and potatoes. Next time, I have to add veggies, regardless of how I feel about it. It is just not the same without it. I previewed my route, and it is going to be rough to make the time-line, but i am going to try and see what happens. It was an irritating day, but I am counting it as a positive day.

What a day

Okay, I had to try to have some fun today. And this is it. Sad isn't it? I used the AR capabilities of the new tablet to make it look like Aviana was walking toward me. The other drivers got a kick out of it. Even though I had eight hours down, I could not get anything done because I had to move the truck just a little bit a few times an hour. Active trains, other trucks, etc. The Riceland site is not designed for as much traffic as they push through there.

Not feeling it.

I am really hoping that things get better. Today has me down and I pretty much parked, at my sausage loaf, and went to sleep. But tomorrow is another day, it will get better. It has to.

Frumpy, Grumpy Cat?

I am kind of waiting for the grumpy cat mood to hit me. I mean, I am not in the greatest spirits with all that has been going on with this load, but I am not nearly at the grumpy cat just yet. I find that interesting.
Now, for a twist on the world. I got a call from Kristen and Crystal Ablemarle from Colorado Springs, CO. Good start so far. Except that they are apparently my half-sisters. Twins born to someone that worked with (and played with) my Dad back in 1975. But it gets more interesting because they are tracking the sexual antics of dear old dad and his brother Paul. Thus far, they have found, by the end of the day, 15 confirmed siblings with another dozen or so to check. Look at that, instant family. And that does not count nieces and nephews from Uncle Paul which numbers close to 45. Looks like both the brothers were dogs. I am not going to get involved with this in any way, but I did let them know they could email me updates as long as it does not get too intense. Oye.

At the end of the day, I shut down in a rest area in Salesville, OH on my way to New England. With the new appointment time, there is no need to rush. But I should be in Connecticut tomorrow afternoon and ready to pounce on the Boston area. Fun times. I did school, did some writing, and relaxed a bit. I was talking to the wife and she says that she prefers the high contrast, black and white art, so I played with photoshop. The core model on the left is Lindsey Lohan and on the right is my one an only. I used a line art brush on Lindsey and a charcoal filter on Laura. I think that they came out pretty well, but time will tell as the critics have their say.

A Boring day

Work has my primary attention right now. I am reading Saint City Sinners by Lilith St. Crow and I should be done that in a day or two. It is the climax of the series and Lilith has started killing off the main characters. Oh well. But what can you do, being an author gives you creative license to do that.

My muse

My muse is back, at least mostly. I have a bunch of thoughts on The Awakening on my voice recorder, but those have to wait until my first 34-hour break. I can't do anything with them right now because I am working on my final paper for school. Then another class down the drain. I think that leaves me with four or five to go. I do know that I have one more in my standard Master's and then I am working on my concentration, which is Homeland Security. Fun stuff.

Yeah, Grumpy Cat! No, wait...

Yeah, the Grumpy cat is here. But it will be fine. It is situational. Five days to do a run that should have taken two is irking me off. I did put in for eight hours of detention, we shall see if I get it or not. If not, I may be more grumpy. I got shut down in a rest area in Sturbridge, MA on my way South, and had Hot Sausage and noodles. Then I headed to the bunk. Sadly, I had trouble sleeping. That has not happened in a while. But it will be okay. The rest area was dark and quiet and I was feeling a lot more relaxed than I thought I was. It was just the brain that would not shut down. Before I went to sleep, I look out the windshield. The guy next to me parked about 15' too far up, and that is going to make it rough in the morning. But that is a problem for then.

Yeah, Grumpy Cat! No, wait...

I overslept this morning. I did not have a good nights sleep, and when I got up, I was almost done with my timer. But I took the time to start the morning right. I rolled into Virginia and got a few hours sleep. There was an incident with another truck that caused a bunch of noise, so I was up and about. I took advantage and did my final paper for class. All that remains is my two post responses that I will do tomorrow.

Annoyance

Okay, so I watch YouTube now and then, and I love funny things. But the trends lately are a pain in the ass. First of course, is the previously mentioned little boxes with people's faces giving their opinions. But the next one is the voiceover of canned silly laughter over things that just are not that funny. Finally, the videos that say Watch until the end that have nothing interest at all. We are living in a ME ME ME world where people are just trying to grab any bit of attention, good or bad, that they can. It is really annoying. Or it could be me just having a thin skin right now. I may be grumpy.

Tying up loose ends.

As soon as I dropped, I headed over to the Love's in Salisbury, NC and grabbed a spot, taking a nap. Then it was time for some cleanup. I cleaned the truck, caught up email, and finished up school. Then it was time for some fun. I have been working some photoshop and Daz3D art lately. My actual art with paper and pencil is not as good, but it is coming along. I talked to Laura, and she likes the full page, edge-to-edge work, so I figured I would try something new for her.

Starting with an idea

Instead of starting with an image in mind, I used meditation and concentrated on a theme. And here we have the result. The idea is a mythical girl. The fixtures are all clip art, and so is the dress and crowns. The rest is line-by-line negative space manipulation starting with a black canvas in Photoshop and going from there. I think it came out pretty well. Since this is a private web site, I did not have to censor the final work.

The rest of the day

I spent the other 15+ hours studying my C++ and catching up on my relaxation with random B-title movies running in the background on my Roku. Doom, A fairy tale after all, some other random stuff. Nothing that could grab my attention or distract me.

I did not have a lot of extra time, but I had some time, so it is time to play with photoshop. Time for some self portraits using old photographs, image manipulation, and photoshop filters.

I actually like the way that they came out. They give me a bit of a comic book villain type of look. The middle one is (obviously) the original source.

School update

I am done with my class, and I have the week off before I go into the next class which is Comparison studies. I am looking forward to that class, because i am not sure what we are comparing. I am hoping it is global comparison to United States criminal justice to the rest of the world. But we shall see. On a lighter note, I have to double check, but I think that this Comparison course is my last course in the Master's. After that, I go into my specialization, and then my capstone. I am rounding the finishing line now. Woo hoo.

Coming into line

I have not been feeling well, and the 34-hour break came at a really good time. I think that things caught up to me a bit. I lost all energy and became lethargic. I had no drive to do anything at all, and felt like cacca! And the ick progressed through the day. I even grabbed a COVID-19 test from Love's. It's not Covid! Yeah. But it's okay, on a 34-hour reset, school is done, and I had nothing that HAD to be done. So I messed with Photoshop, watched old movies, and relaxed. Tomorrow is another day.

Clarification

There has been some debate about home-time. I usually stay on the road for between five and six weeks, and then go home for 72 hours. Well, it was brought to my attention that it may not be enough home-time for a safe and sane professional adult drive. So I communicated with operations, and Kay Lynn called me and we discussed it. I can continue to run how I am, but they would (greatly) prefer that I would go by the 6/1 rule that is in place. For every six days out, I get one day home. That means that since I am going to be out for 47 days this time, I will get a six-day mini-vacation on my next run home the first week December.

I was feeling a bit weird today, so here is the result. It actually took a bit longer than most of them do, but it was a fun one.

34-update

I was a real butt on this 34-hour break. I spent a lot of it staring off into space. But there are times when that can be a good thing, and I am thinking that this may be one of those times. Normally, I will have a massive list of things to get done and attempt to sooth my over-bearing soul by filling it with accomplishments. This time, since I am between classes and have nothing really on the agenda that MUST get done, I chose to sit on my ass and be a lazy butt. I do not regret it. But I am not going to do it again. I did get my walking, exercise, Yoga, meditation, and sleep done, but I did not do anything productive, except for some studying in forensics, poetry (ain't that a pip) and C++. I did a bit of art, but you saw that here. I am really digging the Photoshop skills. Those lessons are paying off. I keep tripping myself up because Photoshop has so many controls. I know that it comes with time, but I am finding that I have to look back at education videos to get done what I want to. I will just keep pressing on and see where it takes me.

I really need to start giving titles to these things. I watched a lesson on brilliant colors. The technique on this one was loading TWO different blank images. On the first image, I grabbed a bunch of different clip-art and royalty free images and dropped them onto a giant pallet. Then I did a modification of the histogram, color pallets, saturation, etc to bring everything into bright light. Then I just cut-and-paste randomly, moving things around until the entire second image was filled. I think that it came out pretty well.

Updates during an update

One of the most annoying things that I have found is updates to computer programs. Windows, Firefox, Chrome, etc. They all update at will and now, without permission. There must have been some kind of cyber-event because everything wanted to update. It took, literally, three hours to update everything. And you are not given a choice to update these now or later, they just do it. It is very frustrating. The tablet is the same, a bunch of the stuff that I have installed wanted to go through updates. Luckily, if I kill the wi-fi on it, it requests a TIME to do it, so there is that. Ahh annoyances. The biggest annoyance was Firefox. A 30 minute download, followed by a failed installation that required a restart to clear. Pfft.

For the love of Sax.

It has been a couple of days since I noodled. So toward the end of my break, after getting a nice hot meal of red beans and rice, getting a nice hot shower, and watching the next phase of Hamburg Love's drama, I pulled out my sax..... side-thought, I really need to give her a name, and I jumped down from the truck and did some improv Jazz/blues. Just for kicks. I was shooting for a W. C. Handy vibe, but I got more of a Samuel L. Jackson in Black Snake Moan type of sound. But that is okay. The old truckers all out of their trucks watching the drama appreciate it. So there is that. I really do need to spend a bit more time noodling. I think that I may need to add it to my daily list. Mostly method and means, because I do well with improv, but I cannot get the sound I want. It is just what flows from me. That is not always a bad thing, but it is not what I am going for.

Hey, look, a grumpy cat.

Nope, the mood dropped. But then again, that happens anytime that I wander into New Jersey. I can't believe that for a large portion of my life, I was raised there. The state just smells bad. Shrugs. But I shall be now, and forever more, grumpy cat! Yeah me.

But seriously

Nah, I am not going to be grumpy cat forevermore. Just for right now. I have had a bad two weeks, and it will get better. I just have to stick it out until it does. One of the problems is that I am listening to my latest book, Crimson Death by Laurel K. Hamilton. And the author has gone through another change of style. When she started, she was very criminal based, to the point. Then she wandered into her lustful, get the main character laid in every chapter phase. Now she is in her distraction phase. Eleven hours into the book at this point, and they can't get out of the city to go handle the vampires in Ireland because every third sentence is a revelation or interruption by another character. It is like listening to storytelling by a meth addict with early onset Alzheimer. So why do I continue? Because the author, just like Stephen King, goes through phases. You have to root through the bad to enjoy the good because it is all intertwined. Weird huh? It relates to me because I use my reading (and writing) as escapism. Shrugs. But next will be back to Alan Maker! So that is something to look forward it. I know that Orson Scott Card always remains on topic.

Nope, not feeling it

Time is dragging. I could not get my wheels under me again today and it felt like it took a day to go the seven hours into Ohio. I shut down in Zanesville, OH because there was no way that I could make the drop, and it was pretty much the last Safe Haven where I could get a parking spot. But I felt like I had run a lot longer than I actually did. It is annoying. Add to that the fact that I feel like I have been out a month when it has not even been two weeks yet, and it makes me grumpy. But I tossed that into a bit of creativity.

A new Lesson

Okay, I really liked this lesson. Enough that I did two of them. They are still starting from mostly clip-art and such, and then modifying them, but I think that they came out well. I usually do one a day, but today is two. I stuck to the grayscale and full frame on advise from the wife, and it is working for me. I hope you enjoy them.

The artwork and things to come

Next month, I am dedicating the .NET site, listed at the top of each month, to revising the artwork. I am pretty proud of it, and I want to get it all into one place. Woo hoo.

The state of the world

Election time is always a bit of a bear, but it appears that it is getting worse over the past few years. I have been listening to my podcasts, the news, etc. and people are just bold-faced lying now. And the public is sucking this down like mother's milk. I see billboards that are blatant mis-truths, and hear mud-slinging advertisements that are little less than slander. So I will put in my two cents. As you go to the polls, you have two choices. You can vote for the party that wants to take your hard earned money and feed 10-year-old children free lunches in school, or you can vote for the party that wants to force that same 10-year old to have a baby after she is raped by her uncle. It all comes down to this. It is black and white and this argument is the core of the future in my opinion. And how you vote says a lot about what type of person you are. ... ~Drops mic.

Okay, that was a bit intense

I think that I may be getting tired. Just physically tired, just a general tired all around. People are getting on my nerves, especially those that share their opinions. I really try to stay out of it, but it is difficult. The world just seems to be a series of TV dramas with everyone trying to one-up everyone around them. Granted, I know and understand that this my be a reflection of my negative view of things right now, but it really is hard to ignore.

Ah, Mundania

All day, I felt like I was running about 30 minutes behind myself. I got up in a rush, oversleeping by almost an hour and then ran hard all day. When I shut down, I was not even in the mood for food. I managed to cook some mashed potatoes, corn and mushrooms, but then it was right off to sleep. I was exhausted. I did get a decent parking space in Lambsburg, VA. I always watch out when setting down here because if you set down up top, drivers tend to stack their parking and block those parked legally. I lucked out. Other than , a very mundane day.

Kentucky

As you see above, I am fighting the clock. But I pushed it, so I think that I got this. I have until Midnight on November 2, 2022 to get this load to Topeka, but I worked my clock and it should not be an issue. It will be tight, but I got it. To that end, I pushed a bit harder than I had to and set my sights on Grayson, KY. It is supposedly a little tiny Love's with almost no parking. Well, that is except for the gigantic, gravel back lot that holds about 300 trucks. So down I went. I got school caught up and got my introduction in, then relaxed.