An open book journey of Christopher William Klein
Greetings: An update on the previous month. I was able to see a bit more of the country than I have been recently, and I was not stuck in the NorthEast the entire time. I even made it to Colorado for a short time.
Jump to the Current PostFun at Schmuckers!
This morning was a 5 hour roll into Decatur, Alabama. I did not realize until I was right on top of my receiver that I was going to the schmucker's distribution center. I've been there before and it is never a happy time. Don't get me wrong, the people are very nice, but the yard is very tight and overcrowded. This is the first time I've ever done a live unload at this site and it went pretty well after a 2 hour wait. But that doesn't really matter when you consider that I got there two hours early so it all worked out. Then it was 20 miles down the road and down for a 34 hour break.
These are more experimentation with the abilities of Photoshop to manipulate images. I originally was not going to put these online because the clothing is an afterthought. And I do not go blue. But I made the modification, starting with the Victoria model and this is the result. I'm not ecstatic about them, but they don't make me want to yak either.
Once I got out of Smuckers, it was about a 20 minute drive over to the loves so that I could shut down for my 34 hour break. During that 20 minute drive, the sky opened up and it was like the end of the world. This weather is getting ridiculous. I even got to see lightning hit a lake that I was crossing over. The strike had to be within 100 feet of me. Kind of scary.
Once I made it to my shutdown point it was time for dinner and a nap. And dinner was yummy. I made myself a variation of cheesy chicken and it came out really well. I even made my cheese sauce using my last can of mushroom soup and some Jalapeno cheese. Not a terrible way to end the day. Then I took a three hour nap and started working on backdating the blog under the new format. I really hope everybody likes it. One of the biggest things that you will have to adjust to is the dates are no longer in reverse order. It is one of the biggest complaints that I have had from a lot of different people. The fact that I don't stick to the rules. Now who would have ever guessed that? But I can play nice and conform when I have to. And since one of the things I'm doing this weekend is updating my resume other people will be looking at this, I guess I should conform. For now.
But without internet
It is 34-Hour break time in Faulkville, AL. and I was all set to get some stuff done. Sadly, the Love's lost their internet connection last night. I did contact one of my new mentees and held a pretty good conversation with him. He is a 1-year driver, but really has it together. Good to hear. He picked up his truck in Dallas and was sent to Houston to pick up his stuff and be ready to roll. If things go well, he will be a good driver. I have a pre-assignment tomorrow at 4:45PM from Westrock heading in to Coal City, PA. Not great, but not terrible. It will depend on where they send me from there.
Today is just a bit of freestyle. A naked figure, a rose, a bit of color splash, and here we have something a bit abstract. I think that I like this one.
Since I prepped for time in service areas, I can live without internet. I rocked the blogs and got the new construct into place. This you already know, because you are looking at it. But I did make one change, which you may or may not have notice. Because of world-wide-web standards, the days now move forward instead of backwards like the previous template. This means that you have to scroll through the entire page to get to the current entries. I fixed that. Just below the map at the top of the page is an ANCHOR that will take you to the current entry with a single click. Cool huh?
I used the day well. Of course, I ate some of my new food. It was good not to be living out of a can. I had my last two eggs, sausage, an English muffin and jelly for breakfast. Later, I had another chicken tender, this time with some BBQ seasoning and mashed potatoes with peas. Then I worked a round-robin of the blogs, violin, saxophone, hand-art (not digital), my hook rug, and charged up my cameras. While I was doing all this, except while playing with my music, I rolled some canned music, gothic ambient and celtic, in the background. I finally feel a bit relaxed.
Once I got on a roll and started getting some fun stuff out of the way, I studied some of my French and my C++. I miss school, so I have started to design my own courses. I am getting pretty good at the French. Bientôt, je pourrai parler français comme un Français de souche (Soon, I will be able to speak French like a native Frenchman). I am counting today as a good day. All things considered, but it is almost time to go home, and I cannot wait.
After lunch, there was time to relax a bit. I worked on my French and C++ for most of the afternoon, with some artwork and rug hooking tossed in. I got the camera(s) cleaned, charged and ready to go, now I just need the muse to bonk me on the head. that would be nice. Finally, I did a bit of binging of my canned shows. I have Carnival Row with me and I was near the end of it, so I watched them. I really hope that they have another season of that. It ended on a bit of a cliff hanger. Boooo. Boooo. Hisss. Then it was time for bead. A nice, easy day.
And I don't care if it falls on the plain!
It was a long day without being a long day. I had to sit and wait all day to roll into Westrock to get loaded. I forgot how controlling the Stevenson, AL. site is. You have to pull up, open your doors after you check in, back up to the garbage bin, then they inspect your trailer. Of course, they found a small hole in mine and initially rejected it. But I did not argue the point, was nice, said thank you and "yes sir" and he reconsidered. He grabbed a ladder and some caulk and fixed the hole. It took about an hour to get loaded, then I was on the way. I hit the first Love's and scaled, right on, and then I was on down the road. I fueled in Dandridge, TN and shut down on I-81 at the Greenville rest area. What a day.
I have been working on this one for a while. I have no idea why the muse brought this to me, but here it is. Not really my style. But okay I guess.
I am very much ready to get home at this point. Every day feels like an uphill battle. I am having trouble holding my temper with little things and I feel quite snappy. I don't like it. The days was okay, but the rain was on my nerves, I have two flies in the cab that I can't get ride of, and I was rolling tired. That never helps. I finished reading "Duma Key" by Stephen King and I am on to "Mr. Murder" by Dean Koontz. I have my own writing queued up for my next break because I have to go back in and get everything re-ordered. It is annoying. I thought that with school done, things would calm. Sigh. Finally, I got confirmation that my audit is complete. I pay the final fee and my diploma should be here in 6-8 weeks. Joy.
Is this week over yet?
This was a choice day. The choice was where to stop. I had to roll from Alabama into Pennsylvania, but the route does not have a lot of places to park a truck for my delivery tomorrow. I was originally going to stop in a big mom and pop truck stop on I79, but I remember being there before and it was very uncomfortable. I continued to West Virginia and parked on the side of a mountain at the rest stop in Bridgeport, about 90 minutes from my target. I think it was a good choice. After I unload in the morning, I have to pop over to Pittsburg, PA, and then head for Nebraska.
I have been cleaning, tuning, and working on my Saxophone and Violin. I think that they are finally ready. On my last 34-break, I started these two images.
Now that I have time again, I am working on working in the music. I have really let it slide for the past few months. But I am back at it. I took both instruments out and just did a bit of playing for fun on the side of a mountain in West Virginia. Not the right mountain, but maybe preparation for Colorado.
This week is really dragging along. Once I was parked, I made some pork chops and rice and put some movies up on the wide-screen. Movies that I carry with me since my internet is highly limited here. But it was nice. I cleaned my top bunk and went through what I have left for food, and then I did some extra meditation. I started a new portrait using Victoria from Daz3D, but it will not be ready for a while. We shall see. Then it was time for some rest.
Of course - Goes unpunished
I rolled into Coal Center, PA. right on time and was unloaded right away. Less than 45 minutes, in and out of Westrock. They were a bit ornry about sitting on their site, even to set your GPS or do paperwork, but I was in and out fast. Then it was over to Pittsburg, PA and a nice drive through the city (all sarcasm intended) to pick up some carbon heading for Nebraska. But the high point of the day - sarcasm again, was the notification from operations that while I hit my docks on time, never refuse a load, and do my job generally in a positive way, that they are cutting the pay on the account. Hence, no good deed goes unpunished. They give you a choice, stay with the account, return to OTR which is currenly running about 11% loaded, or call operations and see if there is a dedicated account near your home. So, thing have not improved with the Knight-Swift hostile takeover. Who could have seen that coming? Oh, wait, I did. But what do I know? I am just a driver. I am very cynical right now, but that is because I feel that I am pounding on a brick wall lately.
This is still Victoria by Daz3D. I pulled off her head and did some serious modifications to the wireframe and then popped it into Photoshop for the eyes and mouth. Weird huh?
Every little thing is getting on my nerves right now and I can't stop it. I am reading "Mr Murder" by Dean Koontz and I take notes while I read, especially of authors that I like, such as Koontz. But I noticed that he has a really bad habit in many of his books. His characters do not follow human nature or even their own stated paths. When you are in a fight for your life, and you KNOW that you have five minutes until your spouse gets home, you do not debate dialing 911. You simply do it. Human nature is to seek help when fighting for your life, unless you are arrogant, which the character is not.
Block-Face streams. My timeline is filled with talking heads. People that post mundane videos that really mean nothing but have to superimpose their face into a corner of the video and give a play by play of nothing of interest. These are also called Vanity vids. They are second in annoyance only to "wait for it" videos in which the video states that you should wait for a climax that never comes. Right behind this is the "follow for part 2 videos" that take you right to the point of action, then say that you have to follow a link (that usually leads to nothing relevant) to get the non-existant next part. Or worse, it links to a page that has 100+ advertisments that waste bandwidth and try to force you to buy stuff you don't need.
None of this is new. It has been around for a very long time, it is just to the point now that it is getting on my nerves.
I have a very long list of things to get done on hometime next week. But to be added to that is a conversation with the wife to come up with a plan. I really don't like the way that things are moving at work. But that is okay, it may be time to grab the bull by the horns and make some changes, but what those changes are, that requires a conversation. The wife is a lot smarter than I am, and I seriously trust her judgment over mine most of the time.
Of course - Goes unpunished
There are times when I wonder if people purposely try to play me for a fool. Or if people are just that clueless when it comes to interactions with other people. Yesterday I got notification that they're cutting the guaranteed miles on the Ch Robinson account, basically because they're not making enough money. The reason they offer the guarantee is that drivers must sit over the weekend, instead of being able to run to their full capacity. However that's not the reason I don't get 3000 miles a week. The reason is there is excessive wait time between runs, excessive wait time in docks, and they allocate way too much time to get the run done. This is a planning issue, not the fault of the driver. That being said, I get a call from operations today trying to entice me to become the new flavor of trainer. And this is where being treated like a fool comes in. The company actually believes that paying $200 a week is an incentive to give up freedom of movement. I have a very specific way that I live my life while in the truck, and it saves me more than $200 a week. I just would not see an advantage there. But they still want me to think about it. Strange.
I did a 600 mile roll from Ohio into western Iowa and then shut down for an 18 hour break before I roll into Nebraska in the morning. It was a pretty easy day and I made myself some Asian Zing chicken for dinner which was excellent. After I do this drop off and then pick up in the morning, I will be shutting down for my weekend break and then I am within one week of home and I cannot wait to get there. I was going to work on back dating these blogs today, but I got trapped into a online conversation with people from Trinidad, Colorado. I made some pretty good connections and have a few ideas about work that I had not considered. There is a very significant need in the Colorado prison systems which would use my criminal justice degree, and there is also a significant need in the school system, especially for substitute teachers which only requires a teaching certificate, and a bachelors degree. The substitute teaching certificate just requires a background check and no education in education. That seems weird, but I got it from somebody within the system. I also made a connection with somebody from the Chamber of Commerce. City government is hiring. So I used up 4 hours of time but I think it was well worth it. And it made me feel like I had forward momentum. Then I sat down and watched “carnival row”, season 2. I've only watched one episode, but it seems to be as good as season one. Maybe I will get into a loves this weekend and roll it in the background while I do other things
Finally, I ended out the day with an extra meditation, and I used that calming time to concentrate on the stories that I have started. I reread those that I had started and then put on the back burner as I ended school, and i am still confident in the storylines. I have now added them to my daily list, so at least one creative endeavor is going to be addressed each day. Maybe I can finally get these done and get back on track. And I did not even go back and delete the first chapter of “the awakening”. I am really my own worst critic when it comes to that story. I just cannot get the girls out of the garden of Eden. But this time i did.
The Cascade of hell
This was the day from hell. It started out pretty good as I rolled toward Nebraska, but that took a hard left turn when I got within a couple miles of my destination. The first problem was that when I got within 5 minutes, it started to downpour. Normally that would not matter except the roads that I were on were getting smaller and smaller. The final road, Had some beautiful signs that said that it was closed. But there was some question as to where it was closed because it looked like it was closed right near my drop. So in the middle of a rainstorm I rolled down a dirt road and found out that the road was indeed closed. Thankfully there was room to turn around, so i did. I use my GPS to find the other side of the broken road end my destination. Wrong answer. I got to the other side, another wonderful dirt road in Nebraska and my destination was in the middle of a cornfield. Wrong location. It took about 15 minutes but I found the right place, but for both GPS to mess up? That's rough. Unloaded in the pouring rain and then off to the next adventure . I get to the pickup and they don't have anything for me. The irony is that the pickup was next to a closed Rd. Isn't that interesting? It took three hours for them to figure out what was going on because they had, you guessed it, the wrong location. The right location was in the same complex just next door. So a total of five hours wasted. You might wonder why that jumped up two hours. Because of math. They loaded 22 bags of stuff weighing 2000 pounds each. With the pallets, that should have put me at about 79,000 pounds. Not quite. It put me overweight so i had to return and get it fixed. Of course I had left for the weekend, but they were nice enough to come back and accommodate me. And then it was just time to find a place to park and shut down because I had had enough. Open
The work adventures listed above completely blew my plans for the day out of the water. I had everything planned perfectly so that I could get picked up and get about 300 miles toward Ohio and then have a nice relaxing day tomorrow. But that's not what's going to happen because I have to eat up almost 700 miles before I shut down. The only personal stuff I got to do today was communicate with the people from Colorado. And while that is enjoyable and lets me feel like I'm having forward momentum, it's not exactly satisfying on an intellectual level, or any other level for that matter. So once I shut down, I meditated and went to sleep. How is that for boring?
Rock and roll, but not in a good way.
Today was a 600 mile roll into Plymouth, Indiana. Normally 600 miles would not be a big deal, but this is across Interstate 80 through Illinois and Indiana. Some of the worst roads that I've driven in a long time. Coming across I-80 was like a roller coaster. And yes there are construction zones that are very bad, but the regular driving portions of the road are sometimes worse. And it became very annoying when I cut off of the Interstate and came across route 30, about 100 miles of traffic signals that are timed so you have to stop at every single one of them. It took close to three hours to go the 100 miles into Plymouth. But that is OK, I made it to the loves with about 40 minutes to spare and shut down for my weekend break. Monday starts the home week and all I have to do is make it through the week and then I will be home.
I'm sure you have heard of sorry, not sorry. I seem to be playing the game tired, not tired. I rolled into the truck stop and I was exhausted. For most of the day I rolled without any entertainment, including audiobooks or music, because I was contemplating an idea. I'm not going to put that idea here because I don't have a copyright on it, but it's one of those things that I cannot find the downside. I'm sure that I will, but it won't be today. The annoyance of the drive across the northern part of the country put me on edge. And even though I pulled into Plymouth completely exhausted, i could not even take a nap. So I grabbed a shower, played some music on YouTube, and did a little extra meditation after I ate my pork chops and noodles. I tried to go to bed early, but I was still sitting with my eyes wide open at 11:00 o'clock PM. It was quite annoying.
No rest for the weary
Today was a break day for my last 34-hour break before home-time next weekend. Even though I was relaxing, I talked to my mentees. One of them had a pretty serious issue that he should have called me on. He shut down in an illegal area of a truck stop in Crawfordsville, IN and was told to move. He moved to a dirt lot and they booted his truck, then demanding $2000 to remove the boot. Operations handled it, but it should not have happened. The area was not marked as paid parking and operations does not, or is not supposed to, handle those types of thing. I have to check into this.
I needed a mental break today so I put aside four hours to play with photoshop. I asked Laura for a topic. Being the muse that she always is, she said "welding". Of course this is a topic that we had brought up for some reason, and I ran with it. These three are the result. As always, I started in Daz3D and ended in Photoshop. They are okay, but not really my thing.
I could not sleep yesterday or last night and I woke up lethargic. I should have spent the day getting things done, but I did not have that kind of energy. still, I got a few things done. First, of course, was the morning routine and talking to the wife. That was a good start to the day. Then I dug in and cut into getting a few things done.
I wanted to get a meal for lunch so I headed across the street. But I took a quick run into the store "Karma" and I am glad that I did. It is an excellent record store, or at least that is how it is advertised. It is actually a hippy-style head shop. But it is quite diverse. They have CBD stuff, pipes and all. But they have an excellent selection of vinyl records starting at just 25 cents. They even have a few 45s. And it is not junk either. They have some first edition Joplin and Hendrix. I looked at a few of them and they are in decent shape. Their collection of body jewlery is extensive and they have about 100 or so vintage concert T's. There is a small selection of gemstones and incense. The ambiance is excellent and the attendent, "Shade" (that is her real name, I asked) has the most unique and unusual energy. I did not ask her, but I could swear she was Fae! I was not going to be that rude, but she had that vibe. The prices were reasonable. If I was not scared they would get broken in the next week, I would have picked up about a dozens classical vinyl at $1 a set. But now is not the time to expand collections like that.
I hit La Hacienda and asked the waitress to give me a mixed platter and to suprise me. It was excellent and highly filling. Three Mexican dishes, rice, beans and greens. It was delicious.
I took an hour and cleaned the truck, then about four hours to do my artwork. Then I broke out the Violin and tuned it. It held pretty well now that I have taken care of the pins. Then it was time for some writing. I re-read all my existing stuff and put together notes for going forward. Then the day was done. I have to get a good nights' sleep before tomorrow because I have to hit Ohio, then head down to North Carolina. In theory, after I get to NC, I should get a run toward home. Fun times.
Or maybe not?
Sometimes I think that these shippers know exactly what they are doing. I got unloaded in Deplphos, OH like clockwork. It was in and out in 20 minutes with no problems at all. Then I headed over to Napoleon, OH for a live load, and that was not nearly as easy. They overloaded me 400 pounds on the drives and with full fuel and DEF, I am at 79800. They do this all day, they know what this weighs. I get a bit of an excemption for my Alternative Power Unit (APU) so I rolled with it. I have never used that GIMMEE before, but I will this time. I have argued with this shipper before (Campbells) and it never goes well.
It was an all work day. I got unloaded, loaded, and rolled until I set down in an Ohio Rest area. My chicken went bad, so I have no food, but I do have bread and jelly, so toast it is. But that is okay, because I ate a big breakfast, and I stopped, tired as hell. I was asleep within 30 minutes of parking. Tomorrow is another day, and it is almost home time.
Times Two
Shippers love to get the most bang for their buck. And the last two loads have been loaded to the maximum and beyond. I am used to running heavy, but this time, it looks like it took a toll on the tires. As i was rolling out of Ohio and through Virgina, I could feel the difference. I made it through the Virgina Weigh Station on a wing and a prayer, because I was rolling 400 pounds heavy on my drive axels and just 200 pounds from legal on gross. Heavy load through the mountains. I stopped for my 30-minute break in Lambsburg and, as I always do, I checked the truck. Two tires had worn badly. It looks like an inflation problem. Both of these tires needed to be aired up twice in the past couple of weeks, and this means that the auto-inflators were not keeping up. So, since I was at a Love's, they got to do the job. It took about four hours. And the Love's at the VA state line is no joke. I watched for four hours and drivers fought for position, movement, and sanity. Oye. By the time the tires were changed, it made more sense to shut down than to move on. So I grabbed a decent spot that I can get out of in the morning and did the personal time thing.
There are times to fight against the darkness, and times to embrace it. This is me embracing the dark and using it for my purpose. I can deal with it.
The work day done, I assessed the eating thing. I have no options at this point, it is what I can grab in Love's. So I got subway, the NEW version of the BMT, which means that they add 3 extra slices of cheese and jack the price by $3.00. Oh, but they have a new name for it, of course, so that must require a raise in price, don't you think? And I grabbed a package of brats that I can mix up with my remaining noodles, potatoes and canned veggies. Another $8.00. I am telling you, prices are rediculous right now. Something is gonna give.
I had the time, so I took a bit and dealt with the latest school drama. I had outstanding bills of $188 and $150. I paid those and figured that my diploma was in process. Nope, it looks like they will be refunding those two payments as they should be paid by "the program." and that bill is outstanding and due on 7/16/2023. So my diploma is in a holding pattern until the powers of finance get their wheels moving. I know from last time that this can take a month. We shall see what happens. I agreed to give it a week and check the account at the end of next week.
This downtime is really getting on my nerves at this point. The company is giving me almost an extra day on each run. Don't get me wrong, I understand that some drivers do not roll like I do and need that extra time, but I don't. I just wish that there was a way to use this. Sigh. So I am trying to fill the empty time. Today, it was extra meditation, a bit of extra exercise, and some writing. I am back to the confrontation between Eve and Lilith. But it is taking a while to get it together in my head.
I needed something different, so I watched a random episode of House, MD. and it turned out to be Season 4, Episode 10, "It's a wonderful life". I don't really like the main plot of the episode, but I love the sub-plot of the hooker, played by Jennifer Hall, that tempts house to church because she is playing the Virgin Mary. A rare look at the soul of the immovable House.
Hometime is right around the corner, and it can't come fast enough. I am dark and moody, and the Grumpy cat is on the prowl. But I am dealing with it for the most part. At least I am trying to. Bad food, too much dwell time, nasty shippers, it has all combined to make a little ball of darkness within me. And I am, thus far, controlling that darkness, but it is harder each day.
So....NOT
I am trying to be positive in a negative space. But it is not working very well lately. Today is no different. I was able to hit the dock at Campbell's resupply right on time and get in and out of there. But then I went to pick up some cotton bales. It was a rough one. It is a no contact site, so you check in by text. That went fine. I got into the dock without problems, got overloaded without problems, and then had to go 20 miles out of route to get to a scale. Wait, did we miss something there? Yep, got overloaded. The third run in a row with weight issues. They loaded me 1000 pounds heavy on the drives. That means that after fuel, I will be a full ton overweight on the drives. So, I folled procedure, a message to operations, send them the scale ticket, wait. I should have just gone back and pulled into the dock (you aren't allowed to do this) and told them to fix it. Because after waiting 3-4 hours, that is what CHR told me to do. I could have cut out the middle man. Please remember that they recently CUT MY PAY because they are not as profitable as expected. Perhaps they are not as profitable as expected because it takes them 3-4 hours to make a simple choice and keep the drivers rolling? Since this is the third run this week with the same problem, that is a pattern. A waste of 11 hours, or 660 miles (a full day) of drive time. Knowing where the problem is leads to a solution. But who will listen? Anyway, I had to run on sleeper split and hit the first safe haven I could find, about 150 miles out. North Carolina sucks for parking. I shut down and went to sleep.
For the most part, I stared out the window today. I took the time to write this, but that was about it. I am spitting nails right now. I am feeling worthless (at work) and taken advantage of, and it is dragging me down. I understand the feelings and know that they are situational, but that does not help me to overcome them. In two more days, I will be home, and we can go from there. But for right now, I am in a very negative head-space. I shut down in a rest area, ate my macaroni salad and bratwurst, and went to bed.
So close to home
When things get this close to home, I am on the lookout for problems. I made it in to the Cotton dock right on time and they unloaded me quickly. I was ready to head over and pick up the stuff for my run to Huntsville, AL, but that got cancelled. Instead, I was assigned a terminal transfer out of Tunnel Hill. Oye. The first annoyance was a 3 hour run across the Blue Ridge mountains. Granted, I was no loaded, but that is not an easy drive. I was able to keep up speed, but the hills, twists, and turns, were rough. I hit the terminal and went through the inspection lane. There are a few things that need to be done on the tractor, but they told me to turn it in when I go on home time this weekend. They took the trailer. It needs some work. I hooked to the new trailer and went in to say hi to operations. I am unsure what is going to happen for time off next week. It was supposed to be paid vacation, but you seem to have to engage a bald priest and perform a human sacrifice to make it work, at least in the system. Haylee tried, I tried, everyone tried, it won't take the PTO tag. I will deal with it later.
It has been a rough couple of weeks. And my nerves are frayed at this point. Every little thing is getting on my nerves and I am doing my best to fight against it, but I am not sure that I am winning right now. Since I was at the terminal, I hit the gym and then took a nice hot shower. Annoyance! The person in the shower next to me was playing their music at the top volume, singing along, and that would be okay, except that it was the most heinous "kill the white man" music that I have ever heard. Seriously, why would you play that in a public place? So I rushed through the shower. Then I was going to do laundry so that I did not have to do that on Hometime, but everything was in use. Turns out by the same shower guy that was washing two or three things in each washer and drying the same in each dryer. Lilith, you heinous bitch, I love you but you are doing this on purpose now. A bit of a cosmic practical joke? A bet with the other powers that be? A psychological training exercise meant to treat me like a mouse in a maze? HA! I win, because you are not getting to me.
Since I don't have to be at the drop until 10:00am EDT tomorrow, I have time. I can't do my wash, but I can clear out the old brain. I made an early dinner of bratz, noodles, and tea and watched "Fate: The Winx Saga" while it cooked and I ate. The shower is okay, but there is no back story. You don't know why "Blue" is at a school for Fae, how she wound up there, why her mom is not covered with scars after being burned over 3/4 of her body, too many questions. This is a trend, especially on these made for (pick a service) releases. They lack depth. Just because you toss a cute redhead in the center position, that is supposed to make it a hit. Judgmental? Probably, but valid non-the-less.
Belly full, brain full, time to get some head time in. Yoga first, the downward facing dog and then meditation time. Five hours to be precise. I believe this is my longest session ever, both transcendental and balance-and-center. But the sad thing is that it barely helped. I do not feel like I am going to snap at any moment anymore, but I am far from a happy cat. Hometime coming, so we shall see. I drop tomorrow in Chattanooga, pick up the same about 5 hours later, then head to Searcy, AR for 10:00am CDT on Saturday. Then a 2.5 hour run to the yard and hometime. As long as the dock does not mess with me, I should be home by 1:00pm on Saturday. Just a few hours late.
...Not always the best thing
There are times when I hate it when I am right. They ran me across the Blue Ridge Mountains yesterday to hit the terminal and do a transfer. As soon as I looked at the order, I knew that this was going to be a drop and hook, not a live unload. None of the tire sites do live unloads of packed trucks. It just takes too long. But for once, I kept my mouth shut. I hit the drop right on time, and guess what? Yep, a drop and hook with no empty trailers. The kicker is that this was a JIT load, meaning it had to be there exactly on time under the threat of fines if we miss the time because it << WILL >> lead to a plant shutdown. They have FIVE of our trailers there, all loaded with the same thing. Yeah, not going to cause a shutdown. But I digress. I headed back to the terminal and caught the spotter just pulling one out of the shop. I hooked to that and hit a rest area for 3 hours until it was time to roll in for my pickup. Rough Coke site. They operate right to a schedule. I rolled in an hour early, and they got me in about 30 minutes later, but not before giving me the stink eye. The good thing is that once I was docked, it took them 10 minutes to load me. Then it was a roll that got interesting.
Do my thing? Or theirs?While I was loading, I looked ahead at my route. For some reason, the computer rolls us North to Nashville from Chattanooga and across I40. Serious traffic and a few accidents and it had me set to hit the site, with my break, at 12:00pm tomorrow. That is 2 hours late. Not a good idea on a Sam's club run. So I looked at my preferred route, across I-72 through Alabama. That puts me just in time with a break. I went that way. The point is, that this is the way that these runs should be. They are tight and don't leave a lot of time for error, but I could run 3500 miles a week, easy, with this type of run, assuming there was not the 5 hour dwell. Shrugs. I shut down at Love's in Tuscumbia, AL after I fueled because I was just tired as hell.
I am digging these self-guided meditations and artwork. I wonder if this type of thing exists as a therapy method? If not, hmmm. Today is concentrating on the word and theory of being shattered. These are my representations of what shattered means to me.
I see terrible things! But that is only the name of the song by Halestorm and Ashley McBryde that is haunting me. It is an earworm, but an excellent song.
I tried to nap on my dwell time, but that did not work out. It is humid as hell, and I am concerned with the home run. Will there be problems? Annoyances? Will the world come to an end? Who knows? But I got into and out of the dock fast, even with the dwell. And Then I rolled through Alabama. I finished up my three art projects, the ones that I have been working on for a few days, and you see those above. The meditation was "shattered" and this is the result. Not terrible.
I am heading toward home. I have to head down to Searcy, AR, then double back to the yard and then home. I am having trouble sleeping right now because I am very much ready for home time. Miranda and Lori are pressing me to be a trainer, and I told them that I would think about it, but I want to know EXACTLY what is involved and what compensation will be issued. Sigh. See? Terrible things!
I did not make it into the Olive Branch terminal because when I checked the route, it took me 20 miles out of the way both today and tomorrow. That is almost an hour of Memphis city driving that I can't afford. As it is right now, I am hard pressed to make the drop on time. So it will be a longer day tomorrow than planned, but at least I should be home early afternoon. That will be nice.
..is not always good
With a few possible exceptions, this will be the last work post for the next few days. I rolled into Searcy, AR and did my drop, and it went like clockwork. I got back to the yard, cleaned out the truck, prepping it for restock, and turned it in for repair. Time for a mini-rant. While I was at the main terminal in Tunnel Hill, the techs told me to turn the truck in during hometime for a few things that needed to be addressed. I tried to get those addressed but was told that they are ALWAYS handled during maintenence, never outside of then. There is a serious lack of communication going on here. Additionally, I asked the Olive Branch shop to address the voltage issue and the gap between when the electricty cuts out and when it starts up to charge the batteries. They quoted company policy on me. I am going to have to figure out what to do about that. I cannot do my 34-hour breaks with the truck like that. Sigh. I lose food when that happens. But the truck is in to have some tires put on and I am home.
I made it home, even though I was four hours later than anticipated. I can deal with it. I did not get a lot of sleep last night, and I was up at midnight, so I was running on fumes. Laura set up my new phone while I went through stuff. We had onion soup for dinner and I spent most of the day just basking in the light of being home. Tomorrow, I will get things done. I did handle one project and swapped out the cord on my Dewalt drill. That has been on my list for like a decade! Early to bed and ready for another day tomorrow.
Work is always easy when you are not at work.
Since I am on Home Time, work for today was just doing prep for going back in a week and going through my lists. I have a lot to do, and some of it is work, some of it is not. I did send a message to Miranda and Lori asking them to explain the trainer program to me. I still don't know how I feel about that, but I will consider it and talk to the wife about it.
I got about five hours sleep, which was about what I expected, and then tore right into things. I did my wash first, so I don't disrupt the needs of the house, and then I started going through my lists. I have a massive list this time.
I started out with a round robin, adding to the list on each pass. I worked on getting the data sorted out as well as the truck table. That is a monumental undertaking. But it came along well. The day, however, was routine. I worked it all day and got shopping as well as a bunch of stuff done around the house. I will count today as a good day.
But not feeling rested yet
Okay, being a trainer is going to be an issue. The company really needs trainers because we are getting quite a few inexperienced or under-experienced drivers. To fix the issues, they are assigning trainers. The problem is that training involves a few issues. First, a change in the driving lifestyle. You live in an 11 foot by 11 foot box with another person for three weeks at a time. This cuts the available space in half. The second one is money. There is a high amount of risk involved. Since you have to run as a team, one person has to drive as the other sleeps. With an experienced driver, that is not really an issue. But with someone new, there is not a whole lot of trust there. You have to put yourself in the hands of another and attempt sleep. Not an easy thing to do. Finally, there is a money thing. From what I am seeing in social media, 6400 miles pays $1900 gross. That is not really compensation for the time and skill. Things to think about. Sigh. I will talk to the training lead and see what is going on.
Since I am on home-time, I am working on "The Awakening". In meditation, I tried to picture Lilith and Osparia meeting for the first time. Osparia is on the left, Eve on the right. I used a library backdrop just to offer depth, it will probably change to a great hall, or even a natural setting. I have no decided. Opinions are always welcome.
Usually when I am on Home-time, things move way too quickly. That is not the case this time. I was up early after a decent nights' rest and got into motion. I took care of a bunch more data, worked on "The Awakening" a bit, and did the picture of Osparia and Lilith. I think that I like it. Then it was time to get into motion. I spent some family time and then got my butt into motion. Yesterday, the FOB for the jeep ate itself, so it was a mad dash to figure out what to do. Without a working FOB, the jeep will not start, it is a security thing. I have a second key, but it barely works, so resolution time. I hit Autozone, and they have a machine that can make them, but it takes hours and you have to wait at the machine. That is not really an option. They sent me over to ACE Hardware. Ace does not make them, but they sent me to a place near Hobby Lobby, and they were able to program the replacement in about 20 minutes while Laura and I wandered around Hobby Lobby. Fun times! Then it was over to Walmart to finish up shopping except for the perishables. Once that was done, up to the Airport to pick up Rowan. Home, food, and sleep. Not a terrible day.
But only a little
The work for today was responding to emails, mostly about the mentorship program. I am still being herded toward training, but I have no made a choice one way-or-another. I am inclined at this point to say no. I just don't like the loss of freedom.
I did the Colorado inverview via ZOOM for the financial position. As anticipated, that would not be for me. I am just not that type of person. What the lady said made sense, but I am not a salesperson anymore, and I could not believe what I would be saying, so nope, not going to happen. I got to Firestone and got the jeep tire changed. The big thing was that I mowed the rest of the back yard and did more work prep. I am going to head to the yard in the morning and set some of the stuff up. Hopefully, I will get a decent first run heading out of Memphis. Mid-West or West coast would be nice.
...And it is not fun.
First thing in the morning, I headed up to the yard and dropped off about 3/4 of my stuff. The truck is mostly set up and I should be ready to roll first thing Friday morning. I got my data ready, my new studies, and I think that I am prepped. I still have to do a Walmart run for fresh stuff, but that is about it.
I am starting to feel the back to work pressure now. Not terrible, but not great. Today was a long and tiring day. I did get up to the yard and got a few things prepped. I received my pre-plan for Friday, and it is going to be Suffolk, VA. NOT one of my favorite places, so that will be the "weekend run" and I will start up only to take a break on Saturday. That will probably put me in Toms Brook. Oye. Then I got home and it was time to get stuff done. I finished up the front yard, checked the generator, which needs a carburator (I think) and checked the broken fridge. That has a bad control motor. I don't think that it is worth fixing. Laura worked on my loan processing for the outstanding school loan, and then we all did Chinese from Asian Star for dinner. A pretty good day, but I was bone-tired and went to bed very early.
...But not one day of rest.
Okay, so what I did for work today was not that difficult. I received my preassignment heading into Suffolk, VA and I did some route planning because of the timing. I have to pick up tomorrow afternoon, then head toward Virgina. It is about 900 miles, so I will shut down where I can tomorrow, then I needed a place Saturday for an extended stay. Yep, I go back to work just to take a break. Isn't that fun?
I was feeling kind of trippy today. So here is a work based on the idea of being trippy. It has no meaning at all. Just an expression of duality in life.
Today is the final day of home-time and I really wanted to get a lot of stuff done. But everything took a LOT longer than I had planned. I was up and in motion early, and the first thing that I did was tackle the jammed shredder. That took over two hours, and I thought it would be 15 minutes. But it is done. Then I had to set up my audiobooks. I almost forgot to do this and that would have really sucked. But it is done. I only had one more left on the USB key and that would last about a day. Now I have 50 of them and that is good. I also have the entire works of Asimov on a seperate drive, and I can do those on the road. Fun times. I built the rig for the truck to hold the Yoga sling, and that took over two hours, and I hit Walmart and got the rest of my stuff. After that, I really wanted to do the yard, but I was just way too tired, and it was way too hot. I finished out the day by watching Scream IV starring Jenna Ortega. It is just a slasher film with no believable storyline. But that is what it is supposed to be, so that is okay.
...Comes to FrogTown.
I am pretty sure that this is going to sound like a bit of a ramble, but this is a rambling day. So I hope you will forgive me. The day did not start out great because as I was prepping for work, and getting all of my work things ready to be loaded into the Jeep, the power went out. I spent the next 90 minutes wandering around in the dark and feeling my way to getting everything together. Thank the trucking gods that I took a load up to the truck the other day. Because I'm not sure I could have handled the rest of this stuff in the dark. And that was the high point of the day.
I got to the truck, thanks to Rowan, and got everything moved over. And then I checked the work that they did for the week that they had the vehicle. They did none of it. They did not touch the power steering or automatic transmission fluid, they did not change the steer tires, and they did not adjust the voltage regulation. These are all things that were suggested by tunnel hill when I was through there last week. Obviously, olive branch knows better than tunnel hill. I will address this next week. For now it was time to get on the road. So I was going to hook to my trailer and then head down and pick up my load. Except that I don't have a trailer because there is another truck hooked to it. It's amazing that if I try and hook to a trailer that is reserved, I get a call from operations that tells me that I cannot do it. But that does not seem to be the case with other drivers, so I get to run around and look for one. I checked all of the empty trailers in the yard and they are all in shop status. I guess that the mechanics here are doing something, because they sure as hell are not fixing my truck . OK, I admit it, there is a little bit of venom there. But I digress.
I was sent over to Nike in Fraser to pick up an empty trailer. This place is a nightmare and it always has been. The funny thing is that this is the first place I ever picked up a trailer when I started with this company three years ago. At that time I corrected the entrance location for trucks so that the company could update the GPS. Guess what? You got it, they never updated the location. It took me about an hour to get in and out of there but I was hooked to a trailer and ready to roll. And then hell came to frogtown. I love that movie. But I digress again.
The pickup was down on harbor Ave. in Memphis. The problem is that all of the roads that lead to that area don't exist right now because they are under construction. The city planners, in their infinite wisdom, posted detours. The problem is that the detours are not made for trucks, they are made for cars. So when I followed the detours, it sent me through a residential district, with roads getting smaller and smaller, until I had a low bridge to my left, to my right, and ahead of me. I was trapped in a box with no way to turn around. I followed company policy and called operations, and they were unhelpful. I will not mention the name of the person, but they looked at the map and they were as confused as I was. They said they had to wait for advice from our main handlers. After an hour, i got tired of waiting. I called the non-emergency number for the Memphis police and they were nice enough to send a wonderful officer over and we discussed the situation. We discovered that one of the bridges was only low on one side. As long as I was willing to drive into oncoming traffic, I could make it under the bridge. Since I had been sitting for a total of three hours at that point, I was able to find a way to my shipper. The officer gave me a police escort under the bridge on the wrong side of the road and I was on my way. The funny thing is, I never heard back from operations. I could still be sitting there three days later.
I got to the shipper and got loaded after I had to take 30 minutes and sweep out the trailer again. Policy of the shipper. And then I was on down the road. By this point I was completely exhausted. I made it almost to Nashville and I shut down for the night. My brain and body were both tired, and I have until Monday to get this to Suffolk VA. Tomorrow is another day. Open
The personal side of the day is kind of boring. Most of it consisted of setting up the truck. I was able to get the new freezer in place and tied down, and i really hope it holds this time and doesn't give me a hard time. Because if it does, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I did not get the yoga swing in place, but I will in the next week. I really need to be able to relax. And if the start of the week is any consideration, it is going to be a rough seven weeks. But on the plus side, Laura took care of the student loan thing, and we are pretty sure that that is finalized at this point. That's pretty exciting and it's significantly less than they originally quoted me. She is so much smarter than I am. I like it. But like I said in the work section, by the end of the day I was beyond exhaustion and I just shut down, did not even eat dinner, which is not good considering I did not eat breakfast or lunch, and i went to sleep.
...but still tired.
Today was much better than yesterday. There was a bit of rain, but that was all the problems. I made it into Mebane, NC and shut down about four hours from my Monday target. I have to decide if I am going to roll a bit tomorrow, or complete a reset. That is a decision for then, not now.
I have been working on these for about a week. I finally got to finish them up today. The cat eye is because Laura does not like portraits. I told her I would try a cat. The mirror is something that has been jumping around my head for a while, and the colorful one is just me being weird and letting the muse carry me along.
I am feeling very off, and even a bit of early downtime is not going to fix it. I have to get myself centered, and I am failing right now. But I will get there. Just a bad start. I concentrated on finishing up my new works, and that helped a bit. Tomorrow, I will hang my Yoga swing, and that might help a bit more. I made myself steak, baked potato, and peas for dinner, then it was off to sleep.
...yes, already.
I am in Mebane, NC. and I am down for a 34-hour break, even though I just started my tour. This is the way that it works out now and then. I originally shut down in the Pilot, but that place is very nasty. I moved to the Love's, just across the highway, first thing in the morning. It is a much better location. The people, meaning the staff AND the drivers, at the Pilot, are just nasty. I have to try to reset my brain before Monday morning. It has not been the greatest way to start the new tour.
A few people have brought to my attention that my photoshop artwork is very feminine-centric. I do not deny this. I prefer working with the female form, but I have to get used to doing the male form as well. So here is one, based on Sean Connery as a framework. I don't really like it, I am sure that the wife will not like it because she isn't that into portraits. But ask, and ye shall receive.
Thus far, I feel like I have been on the road for more then a month even though it has only been three days. It has just been one thing after another. But I am in Mebane, NC. and I am trying to get my head straight so that I can push through the next seven weeks. Laura got the student Loans fixed up and that is a big monkey off of our backs. It has been looming and causing a bit of mental strife. But it is taken care of now, and it is reasonable. Kudos to the wife!!! And, I got my Yoga swing installed in the truck! That is exciting. I even gave it a bit of a sit and I like it. It is a big hammock and quite comforable for meditation. I can't really use it for Yoga because of the movement restrictions, but I can use it for meditation, which opens up a better mind-calming arena. Yeah me! I even have quick connects on it so that I can take it down when I need the room. It is kinda impressive. I will try for pictures, maybe next weekend.
One thing that hurt while I was home is that I was unable to get my final transfers down from the computer to external storage because the power went out. This was mostly lucid dreaming and meditation music and such. I was able to get them receovered while here at the Love's and using my YouTube history. So that is all caught up.
One of the big controversies right now in the public domain is the use of Artificial intelligence for creative ventures. And I admit, that I use the Photoshop AI plugin to create my art. I will choose a base and then use a series of filters, from 1 filter to (I think) 35 as the most I have used. These will change the image within the parameters of the filter and based on artificial intelligence. For instance, the above image starts with a headshot of Sean Connery. I changed it from a full color promo shot to grey-scale and then ran it through a antique filter. I added and inverse headscarf, which creates the bottom robe look, then I masked out the oval of the face, inverted it, and applied a blood filter in smart mode. I applied a scruff filter to the hair, and then fired up the AI. The AI added teh red on the forehead and below the eyes. Finally, I use a "demon" filter in AI mode which did two changes. The color of the eyes from blue to red and the sunken cheekbones. The final results are what you see. Is it a cheat? That is for the viewer to decide. It is art, but it is not creating something from nothing. I do free-form many of the images that you see here, but they are all done in Photoshop with a drawing tablet. I may start with a base image, but I make the choices of filters, colors, manipulations, etc, just like when I put brush to canvas. Shurgs
The second test was for writing. I posed the following statement to an AI interpreter: "A short story about a young woman looking into a mirror", the Artifical Intelligence responded with this...
"The young woman stood in front of the mirror, looking puzzled at her reflection. She had been told many times before that she was beautiful and she knew that she had a pretty face, but today she felt different. She reached out and touched the glass, feeling a strange warmth emanating from it. She ran her fingers across her cheeks and lips, tracing the contours of her face. She wondered what it would be like to really know herself, to feel an understanding that went beyond the physical."
"She stared into her own eyes and saw a mixture of longing, fear, and anticipation that felt unfamiliar yet strangely familiar. In that moment she knew that she was on the brink of a journey, an adventure that could lead to a new understanding of herself and the world. She smiled, feeling excited and ready for whatever she may find. She left the mirror and went off to find the courage to follow her heart."
The response comes back plagiarism free, but needs some attention to grammar. It is a decent rough draft generated in about 20 seconds. It is a good story base or foundation for a short horror story. So it is imperfect, but might be useful for brainstorming. I can see the problem though, because with the quality of the writing in the industry right now, it would be acceptable as-is.
...sometimes, it is best.
There are some days, when routine is just the best that you can do. And today was one of those days. It was very long work day, about 14 hours, and I started and ended within 5 miles of each other. But I did make it down into Suffolk VA and get unloaded right on time, and then made it back to North Carolina to get reloaded with sugar. And then I just rolled right back to the rest area adjacent to the loves did I spent the night in last night. There are times when I am thankful for the days when nothing happens.
Much like the work day, there is not much to tell today. If you are sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for something exciting, then I will refund your price of admission because that's not going to happen today. Everything was work, and then I shut down and went to sleep. I am such a party animal. But tomorrow is another day and we will see what it brings.
...But that is okay.
This was another routine day, but that is OK because at least there wasn't any serious drama and I can handle that. The biggest problem of the day was a 300 mile ride through Ohio across back roads. It sent me further behind in time that I would like, and i did not even make it into michigan. But I did make it into new Baltimore OH and the day was uneventful. So i will take it.
I had a little extra time when I finish driving today. I was going to go right to sleep after my dinner of pork, potatoes, and roasted corn but I did not want to wake up very early and then be extremely tired tomorrow so I looked for something to do. Hopefully, within the next day or so, you will all get to see the pictures because I did urban exploration. It is one of my hobbies that I have not been able to engage in for decades. But I got to do it today and I forgot exactly how much fun it is. I Explored an abandoned motel right off of Interstate 75 in new Baltimore OH. I only took my camera with me, and I did not take the bag, and I'm sorry for that because I did not have a flash with me. There's got to be some kind of story behind this real estate. Because it's like the owners just up and walked away and left everything behind. I have some really good pictures of the exterior, but the interior was too dark. The thing is, everything was still there. All of the furniture, the mirrors, even the publicity stuff in the lobby like brochures for local events. It was kind of creepy. As soon as I have the time, I will get the pictures off the camera and get a few of them up here and the rest will go over to the archive.
...Puppy kicking day!
I made it into Ada Michigan and got unloaded without any issues. And then the problems began. I got a dispatch to head over to Bay Logistics near Lake Michigan. Something about that gave me a knot in my stomach, and then I figured it out. I have been there before. They suck! Unless you are with Cadence Logistics, you have to be some kind of glorified deity to pass muster with your trailer. And of course, I didn't. They rejected the trailer for what they considered metal shavings. All that I could see was the normal wear-and-tear of years of forklifts going in and out of the trailer. So I had to play the hurry up and wait game until they finally pulled the load from me and told me to wait until morning and they would give me something else. OYE. Never try to teach a pig to dance, it wastes your time and annoys the pig. So I headed to Holland Township, MI and shut down at the Love's while waiting to see what is next. That in itself was an adventure. I had detours that let to closed roads, closed ramps and more detours. It took me more than an hour to go 20 miles because every time I would get close to Holland Twp, there would be another closed road or detour. Oye vey!
As I mentioned yesterday, I did some urban exploration. It is going to take a while to get the 30 or so photos off the card and processed, but I did not want you to have to wait. So this is the Crown Inn, an abandoned motel in New Baltimore, OH. Looks kind of creepy doesn't it? This is the back side of the place, which makes no sense, because this was the main lobby, facing away from the parking lot. Very interesting design.
I am way too "off" for being this close to out of hometime. I feel like I do in week six or seven when I am itching to get home. And that is not a good thing. It has just been one thing after another this week. I was hoping that after the rough start, things would even out. But that has not happened. I am still hopeful.
The urban exploration helped out a bit. So there is that. I had pork and potatoes with roasted (sort of) corn for dinner and did some relaxing. But I can't over-relax, because it is not helping. I rally need some kind of focus. And right now, those are elusive. Nothing to focus on, and it is making me...you guessed it, grumpy cat! It is way too early to become grumpy cat. I can't concentrate on my writing or C++ or even my French. I have saved off "Blue is the Warmest Color" so that I can watch it again without subtitles. Each time I watch it, I understand a bit more. Shrugs. I am working on back-Blogging, I have started to find a resolution for Ancient, and I am just trudging at this point. I will find balance, but I am not sure where it will come from. Speaking of balance, I have the Yoga swing up and operational. I even took a hammock like nap in it. I like it.
...Boom! Badda Badda! BUST!
Now, this is what I call an annoying day. I left Holland Township, MI. and headed over to Byron Center, MI to pick up my pet food. I was about 15 minutes early, or so I thought. Turns out I was 24 hours and 15 minutes early. They had the wrong date on the order. The young lady, Mindy, at the distributor was very nice. She said that they would have tried to work me in if they had not been so hell-swamped with trucks. So it was back to Holland Township, MI. to wait another day. I was really not happy about it, but this seven weeks out, I am doing as I am told and I am playing by the rules.
I continue to work on "the Awakening" and here is another rendition of Lilith coming face to face with Osparia and finding that there is more to life than just Adam and servitude. Osparia seduces Lilith 6000 years ago. The foundation of the ladies in from Daz3D, heavily modified in Photoshop. I am unsure about the hair for Osparia, the character on the left. I gave Lilith tatoos on her left arm just off of a whim, I don't know if they will stay there or not. But I think that I have the looks down. I removed the previous "fear" factor from Lilith and replaced it with curiosity, or that was the intent. I think it came out more as defiance, but I am going to leave it there for now.
After the failed pickup this morning, I was really skating the edge with my mood. So I got a shower and exfoliated my entire skin for about an hour in water as hot as I could manage. Then it was time for food, hamburgers and sausage, and a decision. Time to meditate. But I took it too far, maybe. I jumped in my yoga swing and gathered my thoughts. I went through every bump in my life right now. I could have used the time better, but, but choice, I meditated on all the issues that surround me from the repeated failed loads at work to the aspects of my writing that have been giving me problems. I want to talk to Laura about a subscription to one of the more professional AI based writing services. Now now now, don't freak, I don't want to "write" my works using AI. But there is an aspect of some of them that is excellent. I found one that is used, not to create work, but to point you in the right direction based on scenarios. You put in a prompt, such as "she looked out over the lake" and the AI generation returns 3-5 scenarios of what she may see. The writing is rudementary but offers storylines that may not have occured to me. I keep getting blocked by scenario details, especially on "the Awakening". I know where the story starts, where it ends, and MANY of the paths that take me from A to B. But I get tripped up on subtext and advancing the story through detail. Since both me and the wife are detail oriented, it might be helpful. But we shall see. As with my artwork, I would credit the AI (with the Artwork it is Daz3D and Photoshop filters), with the aspects of the story that are artificial. Bascially, I would generate an AI plot, then use it, in my own words, to create that part of the story. Is it a cheat? I am not sure. I don't think that it falls too far outside the circle of reading something, like the bible, and then incorporating those stories, modified by me, into the greater whole.
The six-hour meditation was helpful. I don't feel all stressed out and upset anymore. They have changed the run so that I pick up in the morning, and drop it in the Shippensburg yard on Monday morning. This is because they pushed the drop out to Tuesday and Halee and Brook did not want me sitting that long. I am thankful for that. So I will pick up, head toward PA. and then take a 34-hour on my way. There has been way too much sitting this week. But the meditation showed me a few paths to take. They led to the image above, which I like, a plan to update my resume this weekend, and some really clear ideas for stories. We shall see how they go.
...On the rise
It is hard to believe that this is day seven of this tour. It feels as if so much more time has passed. But today was a bit better of a day. There has been too much sitting lately and it is exhausting. I rolled into the shipper at Byron Center, MI. and only had to wait for about 15 minutes before they got me into a dock and loaded it. A heavy load of cat litter, but I scaled out just right, 30 minutes down the road. Then it was an easy roll onto the Ohio Turnpike and into the service area. I am about six hours out of Shippensburg, PA. where I am going to drop in the morning, then it is time for a 34-hour break before the start of a new week. They have me stacked, PA to GA to VA early next week. So that might be a decent week assuming I can find a trailer this weekend. Time will tell.
It has been a rough week, and going into the weekend, I just did not have it in me. I hit the service plaza on the Ohio Turnpike, and I just jumped into the sleeper. I did not even eat dinner. It was just time to escape into the land of dreams.
...an easy day
A seven hour roll into Shippensburg Terminal and down for the day. Sometimes, things are uneventful.
There are days when you just have to do nothing. I was tired and irritated, so I took the day and relaxed. Sometimes, boring is best.
...is usually welcome!
The day down in the terminal was okay. There was not a lot to do other than plan the next two runs. I am going from PA to GA, GA to AL, AL to VA. And that should take me to mid-week. So the rest of the day was mine.
I went through the stuff in my working directory and I have close to 300 images that I have started and not finished. I think that I am going to back off new stuff until I finish or delete some of those. I asked the wife for input and together we chose Black and White, and Angry. This is the answer. When the day started, I just had the portrait. I had to add the background and it was ready to roll.
I spent most of the day interacting with people. Very much out of my comfort zone. But in short, I did exercise, singular yoga, tandem yoga, some mixed martial arts, played with my Sax and Violin where people could actually hear me, did laundry, showered, and played pool. I held several conversations, and was generally a human being for a while. This was all after a psychoanalitical conversation with Laura about my unacceptable (my opinion) Boolean way of looking at the world. I really need to work on the self, and I think that forcing myself out of the comfort zone was a decent start. I finally headed back to the truck and had an excellent dinner and popped in my canned music videos to end out the night.
Ooops, wrong state.
One of the most significant issues about running through the Pennsylvania is that depending on the area, it can be a very interesting back roads run. And that was what we had this morning. Out of 116 miles, 70 miles of it was twisting and turning through the back roads of Pennsylvania. The speed limits went from 10 miles an hour to 45 miles an hour but nothing higher. So it took the better part of three hours to get to my pick up. Getting out was just as bad but not as long. I was on a major highway within about 1/2 an hour. Then it was an easy roll and I made it into Tom's brook Virginia before shutting down for the night.
I had close to a full two days off and I was really not ready to come back to work this morning. Thankfully I did all my morning prep before I went to bed because I woke up much later than I intended. I was able to get into motion quickly, but I was running an hour late. It did not really matter because I had a window on the pickup, but i hate to run late.
The day was pretty much all work and no play, but I did listen to the new band, AL1CE, and they are OK. Looks like they've been around for a while, but this is the first i've ever heard of them. I'm not even sure where I got them from, but they will do in a pinch. Other than that, I only listened to about two chapters of my audio book and then I turned the radio off. I did some heavy concentration on the potential purchase of an artificial intelligence writing program, and I've decided to come at the problem logically. I'm using a list of pros and cons. I've been incorporated into my C plus studies and over the weekend I wrote a small program that allows me to put different weights on different aspects. I'm seriously overthinking this. But when you consider the revelations recently, it's not surprising. Laura really did throw me for a loop and I have a feeling she's been trying to tell me about this Boolean way that I operate for a very long time. It's only in retrospect that I see it. But it is something I'm going to have to deal with and I'm going to take it head on. We'll see how that works out.