Don't forget to check out the new PEACOCKING site AncientPathway.NET. February 1, 2023 Update. This month is a bit different. For February, there are no photographs. They are all screen shots of the Avatars from the online game Kiss of War. It is an interesting game with a bunch of dangerous and seductive woman as officers in a WWII style war setting. Not for everyone, but I find it amusing as hell.

Time is fleeting. We all know this. The image for today is a combination of about eight source images brought together and taken to black and white. The image represents time slipping through our fingers.

Rocking into February

I updated the sidebar image with an older image. It reminds me that there was a time in my life when I had hair, a beard, and a MONKEY. Okay, so the monkey was not mine. But I played with a monkey. And it was a cute monkey. Sometimes, as long as you have a monkey, life is good. And I did the above image just to push my photoshop education a bit further.

Not feeling it

I am trying. The gods know that I am trying, but time is not on my side right now. I feel like every day is taking a week. I have only been out about five days and it feels like a month. It is warmer today, and that helps a little bit, but not much. After the fun with two bad docks, I rolled South. I felt a bit better when they reset my appointment. It really doesn't matter though, I could not have made 7:00am tomorrow anyway. But I rolled into Corbin, KY and shut down at the Pilot. I tried to get into the Love's, but that place is a mess. I got a good spot, but they don't have any showers and that pissed me off a bit. Pfft.

Speaking of piss me offs.

When you consider my youth, something that I do not try to hide from anyone, it is kind of funny that I cannot stand being lied to now. When I was younger, I would lie for the sake of lying. Now, it really irks me off. A situation came to my attention, that I am not going to make public, that a trusted person (or people) have lied to me in an attempt to gain or keep my favor. I am really not sure what I am going to do about that just yet. But it is there.

Ending the Day

I made it to Corbin, KY. I did not go any further, even though I had more drive time available. It was getting late, and I was about to head into the Knoxville, TN area. There are NO places to shut down there without my tail hanging out in the road. So I took the safer road and shut down a bit early. That may bite me in the butt a bit later, but we shall see. I was tired, and ate a small meal, just some sausages. Then I finalized Hello, Pretty and got the next project in place. So far, I am meeting my 2023 goals even though they are a bit over the top. I set myself up to fail, but I did it on purpose. If I can keep pressing... well, we shall see.

Ouch brain - Think already

I know this entry is short, especially since it covers two days, but it is a brain thing. I am just not processing information properly. I feel like I have been on the road for a month or more, not just a week. But time does not lie. A lot of it came to a head today and showed me how off I am. I was rushing to keep the re-set appointment at Dollar General in Jonesville, SC. I was running about 30 minutes early, and I figured that was just fine. Until my alerts on my tablet starting going off about early deliveries. They aren't allowed. But 30 minutes is not early. I pulled into a rest area and double checked everything. Nope, not 30 minutes early, 24 hours and 30 minutes early. I mis-read the modified order by a whole day. Now, that can happen, I am human. But I said okay, and headed for the nearest Love's, in Blacksburg, SC. And went the wrong way on the interstate. Worse, I did not notice it for 10 miles even with the GPS up. So I turned around and made it to the Love's to shut down. That was not to be either. I callled breakdown about my windshield and was told that there is a serious backup for window service. Ouch. We are talking weeks. But Bobbie of Breakdown helped me out. He called the Duncan, SC terminal and they could get me in today. I rushed over there, and sure enough, they got me in and out in about an hour. Not terrible. So I shut down in the terminal and went to sleep. I really need to reset the brain. With a bit of luck, I will get back to normal entries starting tomorrow. Because tomorrow, I drop off this load, then I head to Vermont. That could be an adventure.

The 11-hour workday today took about three days to pass. No, nothing magickal or arcane, no temporal vortex, no twilight zone phantasms. I just mean that the drive from the rest area in Virginia to the Love's in Binghampton, NY. felt like it took days to pass. I was rolling at full speed most of the day, but when I would look at the clock, it felt like no time was passing. I did call operations and let them know that I would have to run recaps if I pulled through to the dock on time. They told me that it was a work in dock and I could be a little late. As such, they suggested that I shut down for a 34-hour reset tonight and tomorrow. So I set my sights on the New York State border and rolled my little tail off. I made it to Binghampton and shut down for a day and a half. Fun times!

If you study martial arts or any form of meditation, you know that there are times when the best answer is to go back to the basics or the foundation of belief. Today, I could not meditate properly and my mind has been all over the place. So here is a work that goes back to the basics. Black and white, arbitrary lines, simple design.

Not coming together

I just can't seem to get it together right now. Things are just not falling into place like they should. As I point out above, time is an enemy and it is doing its best to foil my plans. But I drive on, physically and metaphorically. I finished up my latest book, a Lemony Snicket story read by Tim Curry, and moved on to another book. But most of the day passed in a blur. The problem is that it was a slow-moving blur, and that annoyed the hell out of me. When I shut down at the Love's in Binghampton, NY., I was exhausted. But I made dinner, Pork tenderloin, a salad that I picked up earlier today, and tortellini, and then I was off to sleep. It was supposed to get down to Zero, so I figure that would wake me up when the truck got too cold. Spoiler, that did not happen. The incoming cold front appears to have moved to the side. So I got about seven hours of sleep and I was in to Sunday. Ain't that special?

Just a bit of this and a bit of that. Some surf, some old trees, some small animals and a half naked woman. And this is what comes out. My brain needs a bit of help :)

Relax, or not

I am at the Love's on the New York State line and down for the day. It should be a day or rest, but it is not turning out that way. I just can't shut the old grey matter off right now. I did manage to get the rest of school caught up, so that all that remains is one discussion and my final paper and I am done with Homeland Security. That is kind of exciting. After that, I could not concentrate on anything at all. I tried to do art, you see what came out. I tried to write, it came out like the art. I finally figured up Amazon Prime and found out that they re-added The Hunger Games. I finally got to find out what happend to Katniss and Peeta. Yeah!

Wasted Day

Other than that, the day was a total waste. And I am going to own that. Maybe I needed to waste a day. Only time will tell if that is good or bad. For now, I will accept it, get some sleep, and tomorrow starts another week.

My mood is not the best, so I meditated on the issue. Of course, being the grumpy cat comes to mind, so here he is. The grumpy cat - the me within me.

The mood slips

This is not the best week for moods, and I am only in day TWO of that week. I just can't bring it together. I feel pushed and rushed all at the same time. Granted, this may be because of school. The Homeland Security course has been a bear. But I am in the last week of it, so perhaps things will come to an even keel. We shall see. But I represent myself as one grumpy cat, as you see above. I can deal with this. On with the show.

Into Vermont

After today, I have been to every state in the United States for either pickup or delivery. I have finally done Vermont. I have only ever known one person from Vermont, and I don't like her much. The thing that I noticed mostly about the state is that it is falling apart. Except for the one big city, or what Vermont calls a big city, that I saw, the entire state appears to be in disrepair. South Burlington was okay, but the 100+ mile to and from the area was amazing. four out of every five buildings were falling down. The architecture is amazing, the houses are old and gigantic, but they are showing their age. I passed many homes that had sagging roofs, falling walls, or other problems. Wow. Beautiful state, but just falling apart.

A wee bit of extra time

It was a 10+ hour work day, and when I shut down, it was in the service plaza on the NY State thruway, the turnpike. I was going to grab a deli sandwich and a Starbucks, but the deli is gone. Very sad. And the Burger King meals were running about $18.00. That is just silly. So I grabbed a Mocha and made a Hot Burger with potatoes and French Green beans. It was pretty good. I used the extra time for some serious meditation. I don't think that it helped, but at least it did not hurt.

The dreams..

The dreams are getting more pronounced and more vivid. Every day this year, for more than a month now, I have had tea at a small table with someone famous. The munchies are always different, but the tea is the same. Luke warm, a bit sweet, Jasmine and Earl Grey I think. And I talk to someone famous. The differ every night, and they don't always appear to be based on something that I experienced for the day. Granted, last night was Lindsey Lohan, but that was probably because I considered watching her Christmas movie and then chose not to. That was right before sleep. But the other night, my tea partner was Jack Klugman (Quincy M.D.) whom I have not thought about in years. It is very disturbing. And no, we are not discussing the fate of the world, or great thoughts, or even current events. It is just like tea, and I have no idea where it is coming from. And before you ask, yes, I have been able to lucid dream since the new year, and these, I cannot. I must drink my tea, eat a bit of something on the table, and listen to the conversation. I think that Morpheous may be messing with me. ROFL

The Brood mood

Being in New Jersey puts me in a bad mood. But I am out of there now, and made it all the way back to Virginia. Ain't that special? But I cannot break the mood cycle that is riding me right now. I have tried exercise, yoga, meditation, howling at the moon, creative outlet, overeating, under eating, and even sax. Nothing helps. I am beginning to fear that I may be stuck with this mood until something gives. And that prospect does not fill me with hugs and puppies. But I move onward. I am in my last week of class before the new one starts, I have my discussion half done, and my paper almost done. And the new course should drop in a couple of days. Joy. Almost there boy, almost there. There is no art today because I have to watch my data usage, even on the uploads, because I have been doing the non-conventional thing this month, and I have used double what I am supposed to by now. But it will be all right. For now, some sleep in Virgina and knowing that tomorrow is another day.

Can't come together

I am rolling a tired train here, and no matter how much I sleep, I just can't bring it together. I slept well last night except for some really weird dreams, that ironically are showing some kind of telepathy between me and the wife. ROFL, we are thinking and experiencing the same things. That is funny as hell. I even pulled a muscle in my back doing Yoga. How is that for weird?

Getting there

This week is another one that is taking months to pass. I am only going into Thursday and feel that I should already be in next week. But I did get my final discussion posted for school, and that means that my paper is all that remains. I still have a few more days. I am catching up on things, it is just slow going. I can't believe that I have not even been out for two weeks yet. I did get my next hometime put in for, and approved, so there is that. When I shut down for the night, I grabbed some hot dogs because I was just not in the mood to cook. That is the first time since I have been back out. But tomorrow, I am thinking spare ribs! Yummy.

Just a quick artistic jaunt into what is left of the innocent recesses of my mind.

Feeling It

I slept okay and was up right on time with enough extra time to run through my morning routine. I was even able to do my basic Yoga without pulling a muscle again. But that is little comfort. I am really feeling life right now. It is like walking up a hill. I have a feeling, and Laura backed me on this, that it may be my homeland security class. It is a real ball-buster, and it ends in about three days, so maybe this moody will finally come to an end. It is exhausting.

The Creative edge

I continue to push myself. I am following up on my previous 30 Photoshop lessons, especially since my new camera is at the house waiting for me, and the wife put visiting a cemetery and train tracks on my home TODO list. I am continuing with my French and improving. I am also doing my C++ daily. That is a bit more tedious because I keep getting confused with some of the syntaxes. But it is like any other language; once you get a certain point, it falls into line. I just have not gotten to that point yet. At least three times a week, I do the Saxophone, and I work my short story book and The Awakening at least four times a week. I am a busy boy. I have considered that the pressure of my personal projects may be part of the moodiness, but I did three days without any of it, the mood descended into the pits of hell. Pfft.

Mountain Time

The shutdown point was Mt. Nebo in West Virginia. I found a 300 parking space truck stop in the middle of nowhere. It was calm and quiet. There was a dollar general right next door, and I wandered in, but it was a big yawn fest. I guess I was not in the mood, even for cheap shopping. But I got some excellent meditation and some extra sleep. I am not sure if it will help or not, but it won't hurt.

As people get older, they find faith. I am sure that this is the mortality of the human animal. Lately, I have dreamed of churches. But they are not normal churches. This is representative of some of the things I am seeing. I am pretty sure that it is because I spend a lot of time with Lilith as I am writing The Awakening

Hey, you, yeah, the grumpy cat!

The work day was rough and frustrating. Since the run into and out of West Virginia was a white-knuckle drive, it set me more on edge than I have been. I have been rolling very tired, regardless of how much sleep I get and the quality of that sleep. And when I get tired, I get grumpy. I am only two weeks out of the house as of today, with another five weeks to go, and it feels like I have been out here forever. Luckily, both docks today were, for the most part, efficient, so I was in and out of both of them. When I shut down, I cooked my last meal from the current pack, and pulled the new one. I am shooting for a Love's in Alabama tomorrow that has a Godfather's pizza, so maybe I can get a pizza for lunch or dinner, and that should keep me right on track. I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep, but that happens in rest areas sometimes because of the traffic passing by. I rolled my mind-music and headed off to sleep, knowing that I get my 34-hour break tomorrow. Woo hoo.

Today, I am on a 34-hour break, so I get to sit back and play a bit with Photoshop. This is just an experiment with filters of different styles. The base image is the wife, though none look like her. I just used her as a wireframe to get the base image; then I tossed random free-use filters at the image. I am not sure if I like the outcome or not.

Reset you evil brain, you!

My mind has been in a bit of a fog, so this will be short and sweet. I rolled into Alabama and shut down for my 34-hour reset. I took a nice nap, picked up a pizza from Godfather's pizza, and took a nap. Once I got up, I rolled some music on YouTube and worked through my six-set round robin, including finishing half of my final assignment for my Homeland Security course. I downloaded the text for my Terrorism and Threats course and talked to my new Mentee for over an hour. We are getting a lot of new drivers, with about three months' experience, coming from Werner. And they have expectations way too high for what they will make here. Oye. Besides that, it was a rainy day, so I sat in the cab, did my thing, and then went off to sleep. Yeah, for no distractions for a change. Tomorrow is another day.

The good and the bad

I had a full 34-hour break and then some, so I expected to have a pretty decent day. The funny thing about expectations, they can get muddled, or sometimes tossed in a blender on puree'. I spent about seven hours on school and got my Homeland Security class finalized. So, the paper is done, the discussion groups are done, and I have started the next course. A lot of reading. A total of 700+ pages. But I got it started. Then the bad hit. I felt like poop. Back neck, head, tummy, pretty much anything that could hurt, was doing its' best to hurt. And that was the way that I spent the second half of my day off. Sitting like a bump, hoping that the wind would not blow and rock the truck because it would hurt. I started feeling better about 800pm, right before it was time to go to bed. Sigh. So a wasted day, with little done beyond school. Very sad.

It's all about the little things sometimes.

As you can see, the workday was annoying. But it gave me all kinds of time to think, and there are little things that get on my nerves daily. Drivers, of course, are at the top of the list. Both common drivers and professional drivers do not think. At the truckstop, I almost watched a car carrier back into a Western Express truck because the Western driver was not watching things around him. I also watched the operator of a Rotator (a heavy recovery vehicle like a tow truck on steroids) almost swing his recovery boom into a passing trailer because the operator was too busy watching a skirt passing by. Granted, the skirt was way too short, showing panties, or the lack thereof, but that is another annoyance. He was moving something that weighed more than 30,000 pounds and not paying attention. Then there is the old but revised trend on social media...

Old and New

Facebook, Tik Tok, and others have short video features. And people want followers. Do they get followers by posting quality content that is interesting and complete? Nope, that is not the trend. The marketing trend to shore up your numbers is to post a short teaser in multiple parts. You put up 15-30 seconds of a story, ending in a cliff-hanger, and then people have to follow you to see the second part. Sadly, that second part rarely exists, but they get the numbers. It isn't very pleasant. As I have been going through the plethora of social media sites, trying to pick about a dozen to set up and start posting, I promise myself that I will not engage this tactic. I want people to follow me for the quality of my information. I would rather have a dozen people that are interested in the information than 100 people that get tricked into being there.

What to do with the day

I had to sit and watch my onboard computer all day, waiting for an answer that never came. So I put the time tto good use. My new course on Terrorism started, and the book as 790 pages. I read more than 3/4 of it and I am ready for the course. I did some extra meditation and got myself, finally, out of the negative mood that has been haunting me for weeks since I set out from home, and I got in some extra Yoga and exercise. I took my Drone for a spin, and it did pretty well. So I am counting the day as a positive-negative or a negative-positive. I finished out the day by re-watching Pitch Perfect because I had internet, but the Flying J-Pilot system does not allow you to access things like Hulu or Netflix. You can get to basic access such as email. The day was not great, and it had me down a lot longer than I like, but I will take it. One excellent part of the day was dinner. I cooked some onions and mushrooms and tossed them on my weekly steak. I added cabbage as a side. The steak and toppings were excellent, but the cabbage sucked. I will not be getting that again.

Not Feeling it

From a personal perspective today, I was able to use some of the downtime to finish reading my course text. That is 790 pages in two days. I am pretty impressed with myself. I got the first of two discussion groups posted and my introduction, and then it was time to work. I muddled through that and then shut down at the Mississippi terminal. I was not feeling well, so I ate some pork and then fell asleep. I need to get things together. This is starting to grate on me. I also had some serious frustration with my phones. Somehow, Talkback got turned on, and I could not access anything to turn it off. Thankfully, Laura was able to help me with that, and after more than an hour of serious frustration, I resolved the issue. Looking for a better tomorrow.

Still not 100

After work, I had a bit of extra time. I used it to try to get the old brain straight. And the brain is not cooperating. Pfft. For dinner, I had fish and sausage with mushrooms, onions, and peas. I know it sounds weird, but it was pretty good. I am down to two meals in my current package, so I am running right on schedule with my food for the time that I will be out. Between the food, meditation, and such, I think I am back in a good place. If not a good place, a tolerable place. Yeah.

Indian Country

I rolled into Oklahoma into Muscogee Nation country and shut down in Webber's creek. The big thing I had to do was finish up school for the week, at least my part. I still have some responses to do, but those will wait until I shut down. So it's all good. All-in-all, it was a decent day. Now I just have to get my mood right. I should be hitting a break within the next 48 hours.

Head together? Nah.

I really have to get my head together. I am sleeping fine, but I am having some seriouly messed up dreams. And that is counteracting the positive sleep environment. Work was much better than it has been, but when I shut down, I did not have internet and the temperature was reaching toward the bottom of the scale. I made noodles, meat sauce and sausage for dinner and then watched a Babylon Five from my collection before I drifted off to sleep. I just could not get things together to get anything done. Maybe tomorrow.

Just not feeling it

Okay, I am just not feeling it. When I finish work for the day, I am pretty much shutting down. I have little energy and little will to do the extra things that I want to get done. I really need to get to the root of all this and see what is bothering me. I am having bad dreams, I am lethargic, and little matters. And I know that is all NOT right. But I will figure it out. The first part of resolving a problem is to understand that there is a problem. Time to put myself on the couch and figure this crap out. I can see it...and it will not hide.

Into the darkness

Work was long but easy, and I hit Connecticut with plenty of extra time to be able to start picking my brain apart to resolve these up-and-down issues. My late-night meditation on the subject gives me the image that you see above. I have no idea what that means, but at least I have a direction to follow. I guess I will call her the white rabbit because I am going to do the Alice thing and follow the idea to wonderland and see what sights I can see. But in theory, tomorrow should have some serious updates. When I shut down today, I did some minor stuff, took a nap, and then hit a mood swing. That is not a good thing because they suck the life and will out of me. So I want to sleep before it could take hold.

Bring Balance

First, the image. I call it Solitude. The design is mostly because of Laura because she loves the black and white images that have a full canvas. The intent behind the image is the name of the image. I spent a long time, a HELL of a long time, in self-reflection and meditation to figure out why I keep spiraling the drain around a dark pit of despair. I finally figured it out. Control! So many things in my life, mostly related to work, are under the control of others and outside my ability to touch. While this may seem trivial to many people, it is a big thing to me. I like to be in control. I am a dominant and Type-A personality, and when I do not have control, I feel I am failing in some way. But the best way to avoid a trap is first to know it is there. Understanding that this is part of the problem helped me quite a bit. As soon as I recognized the issue, things started to improve, so I am going to take it as a win, for now.

Let's talk food

Breakfast was toast, cheese and oatmeal and lunch was my first try at making meatballs in the truck. They came out pretty well. Obviously, I don't have eqqs, so I used my Chili infused olive oil instead. I have Panko breadcrumbs and I was a bit worried about those, but they came out really good. I paired them with my spinach tortellini and it was a pretty good lunch. Dinner is chicken fingers and mashed potatoes. I did not add a vegetable because I am saving those. I have to bring more veggies next time!

The rest of the day

I have been lazy on my breaks, and it is very much unlike me. So I made sure it did not happen this time. I made a TODO list and made sure that it was completed before I turned on the ROKU and relaxed. I got everything caught up that has been behind since the first of January. I am impressed with myself. I am ahead in school, my French is caught up, and I even have a full plan in place for the websites and social media. I am caught up on The Thirteenth Witch and I have a bare-bones plan for The Awakening. That is a lot for one day, and it brings me back on track. Once all that was done, it was time to relax.

The Personal Side

Even with a bit of extra time off today due to seven hours of dwell, I really did not get a whole lot extra done. I tried to sleep, but it was too hot and my A/C is not working again. Oye. But I did do an extra meditation and a bit of scenario planning. And that is where this image comes from. I am ready to Rise Above everything. I have a lot more fear about things than I realized and I am about to start poking those and see what happens.

Yummy lunch

My lunch is notable today. I made some rice, and it finally came out perfectly. Who would have thought that a one-to-one ratio of water to rice would be the answer? Pretty cool. And I made some lemon-pepper fish to go with it. It was excellent. I was down in the Roadys Truck stop for about six hours during my dwell. And I learned something interesting...

I can't believe...

I will end the blog on this note. You cannot buy menthol cigarettes in the state of Massachusetts. No, seriously, they are no longer for sale along with any form of flavored cigar, vapes, etc. Why? Because the previous governor of the state says that these products kill black people differently than they do white people. Yep, I am serious. I just shook my head, dumbfounded at that one. I am pretty sure that our leaders have lost their minds. But then again, I think that I already knew that.

Easy Peasy

The rest of the day, beyond work, was also mundane. I rolled hard but did not make a lot of progress because of the hills and speed due to traffic. But I did make it into Staunton, Virginia. I had to shut down in the Pilot because the Love's was full, but I walked to Love's, grabbed a shower and some water, and then ate some pork. I was going to have steak, but I did not have time to cook my onions and mushrooms, so I will save the steak for tomorrow. Once I ate, it was time to get off to sleep. A very easy day.

My mood is dark but positive. I am trying to cast off the chains of my own internal war, but it is not easy. Today represents that battle.

Colorado Dreaming'

After the past couple of days, and conversations with the wife, I figured out that it is time to start making some plans. I found that one of my limits of information is the towns that surround Trinidad, and even the distance to such places as Pueblo and Colorado Springs. So my next Colorado task is to bring up a map and get used to the area so that I know what I am dealing with.

Little Steps

One thing that I have really sucked at for more than a year is time management. But the ends today. Last week, I clocked ALL my downtime that I could use for other things, not including the time when I am actually on break, and it totaled more than 10 hours. And it was a light week. So today, I have my computer set up and my notebook next to me, and I do whatever I can while I am in waiting to get into docks, or while I am waiting to load. We shall see how that works out.

Still feeling good

While in the dock for close to three hours, I worked my round robin. I got a post done for school and worked Ancient. I did some extra Yoga to maintain the calm, and I worked my stories. I think that it was time well spent. I was just getting out the Saxophone when the dock cleared. So that is for tomorrow morning. When I shut down at teh Love's in Lambsburg, I made my steak with mushrooms and onions, and I grabbed a salad from Love's. It was not terrible. But I could do a rant on the prices. They are up to $7.00 for a bowl of lettuce and three slices of cucumber. No wonder this country is so out of shape.

Pile it in Universe

Today has been a day of annoyances. It is like the universe is trying to poke the bear to see what he will do. What will he do? Nothing. I am not going to let it bother me. It was just little things. Each day, I play three games, all of which take about fifteen minutes in total. Today, players well above my level decimated me in all three games. Of course, the only way to win at this level is if you pay, which comes down to over $150 per game a year. Yeah, that is not going to happen. So I have decided to sleep on it, and, come morning, delete two of the three. Games are supposed to be fun, not frustrating. I will keep Kiss of War because I have already talked to my guild, and they will repeatedly carpet-bomb the dude that attacked me. Have to love my Russian friends. Snicker.

Finish on a high note

When I got to the Springfield Terminal in Ohio, it took close to two hours to get things in line to repair the trailer and get my tractor into the right status. Then it was time for me to get things done. I popped into the main office and updated my permits. As I thought, I could only get my NY HUT sticker in Tunnel Hill. I said this to Breakdown; they insisted I could get it in Springfield. Oye. That being done, I settled in for the afternoon and evening. I finished up school for the week except for my responses to my fellow students, and I made dinner. Chicken and rice with Empress sauce. I added making Empress sauce to my home list, because now I am out. And I can make it and freeze it. Woo hoo. Once school and dinner were done, I settled in and meditated to some nice ambient music and noodled along with the sax for a while, then it was off to bed.

Lazy day

I did not get an answer to what is going to happen until almost noon. By then, I had been up close to eight hours. I was a bit irritated, so I used the day as a false 34-break. I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow, but I will deal with it tomorrow. I spent a signficant amount of time on my French, on some brush up on Photoshop, and some intent C++ studies. I did some reading for my Terrorist strategy course and then watched TWO movies. Isn't that scary? TWO??? I honestly don't remember what they were because they were nothing more than background noise for me. I made meatballs for lunch and had garlic shrimp for dinner. So it was a decent day, all things considered. I just don't like sitting without a plan.

A little break

I am taking a little break and starting a new project that I hope to get up and running soon. While talking to Larua, we figured out that I like to share things with people. Go figure. But one way that can be turned into a project is that I am going to create a new page off of this ongoing blog to share how I do what I do. I have run into so many people in the past year that spend hundreds a week on food on the road. They are amazed that I have things like a Freezer or air-fryer that actually works. So I got that little project started. At least I started to sketch it out.

Unexpected downtime

So, I was down all day after my failed NFI drop and sitting in a Love's in Etna. I grabbed a bacon platter from Hardee's and went about my day while I waited to see what would happen. The egg crisis finally hit Hardee's and the price went up my $.79. Who could have seen that coming? Hands? I am sure that the price will go back down once the egg crisis is past! Yeah, right. Cynical? Moi? Nah. But after I ate, I spent the day working all my projects. Not a horrible day. I finished school for the week and set up next week. I am into the proofing part of the Ancient Project, and I am also proofing my shorts and finalizing the first chapter of the book. oye, long day. But that is okay. I ended the day watching a random movie on Prime called My Normal about four lesbians living together and running a dungeon. It was funny as hell. I think it was a British flick, but it is not important enough to look up.

And thus it begins

The day started like waking up in a sleeping bag staring into the eyes of a Cobra. First, operations wanted to know if I had dropped the load in Springfield. The information that they sent me after I was alseep last night. I am not even going to comment on that. Sit for 18 hours then run run run? Yeah, NO! So I got up and into motion with the morning things. Then, I could not do anything on my tablet because it downloaded an update. I could not cancel the update, and I could not even get the damn thing to restart. It is going to do what it is going to do and nothing is going to stop it. But no worries, I had ROKU up and running and connected. Until I had to force it off because the same 3 minute ad was playing back-to-back about every 60 seconds. I can promise you that I would never use a product that uses forced advertising like that. I understand advertising, but three minutes? and repetitive? Yeah, I don't think so. Finally, was the computer. Love's kept disconnecting, and I could not get it to connect, even to my phone. I hate it when Love's goes wonky, because it takes everything else with it.

Making the day positive

I took advantage of the downtime. Finally! I stayed awake, even though I wanted to sleep. I rolled relaxing music in the background and I worked all my projects. I am not going to list them here, because the list is extensive. But suffice it to say that there were a lot of them. I set up the next week in my planner, started the new project that Laura and I developed together and validated more than 10 sections of Ancient. By the end of the day, it was time to relax. And that is exactly what I did. I did some serious brain work on school, then it was bunk down and watch something strange. Good day!

Monday, Monday, Can't trust that day

As you can see, work sucked. But that is okay. I finished up The Testament by Grisham and got shut down in a Love's in Maryland. I made some yummy pasta with spiced beef, and headed off to bed. Tomorrow is another day and another chance for a win.

Good start, bad ending

I really thought that my life at twisted back to the positive. But not today. Work was okay and I rolled as hard as I could. But I had to find a place to shut down. I choose Pilot in Harrisonburg, PA. BAD CHOICE. I was exhausted so it was a quick dinner and right off to bad. Four hours after I parked, one of those Pilot stormtroopers banged on my door demanding that I go into the shop and pay for my parking spot. When I parked, I double and tripled checked to make sure that was not in a paid parking spot. Of course, they wait four hours. By then, most drivers would not have hours left to drive. It is a scam to force the $17 charge on drivers. I am not going to let this lay. I have not yet decided my reaction, but the forced-hand of the Pilot / FlyingJ regime will be known. It is going to cost them a lot more than $17 in the end. I am a bit angry.

The Rough Start

The rough start for March is in place. But it really needs work. I need a new picture and have to catch some things up. But it will get there.