Greetings: The journey for last month, April of 2023.

Still feeling off

My cold is mostly gone, but now my teeth are hurting like hell again. I am going to have to do something about them if they do not improve. I am still running too much sleep and can't get any pep in my step. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. I have my last week of school to deal with, and I am heading back into New Jersey. Running these areas is really getting on my nerves, but that is what is available unless you are some of the special few.

On the Mend

Even though the day was a bit frustrating, I was able to bring it together. When I started the day my tooth was really acting up, and I went so far as to send operations a message saying that I might need to do something about it. They were really good about it and said that they would back me with anything I needed to do, even if they had to get me an Uber to get to medical attention. Thankfully it did not come to that. After I dealt with the stress of the day I was feeling a lot better and I rolled into Tennessee shutting down at a rest area. I ate my dinner, and went to sleep, but I had trouble sleeping. I had the strangest dreams. But I am back on track, and I am getting everything caught up. I took some time and did a bit of my artwork for the other site, and that should be ready this weekend I hope. I still have to get caught up on school and I am headed into New Jersey right now, but I'm hoping things will be OK. I will be updating the sidebar to the right in the next day or two. But right now school is the priority. And I have to catch up my emails. I have not been in a good place to get things done in a couple days. And going back into New Jersey, that's not likely to change. We shall see.

Feeling Better

I'm feeling a lot better today than I've been feeling for the past week, so it looks like I might be on the mend. I'm still dealing with agoraphobia, and people are still getting on my nerves even for little things, but I have a lot better control of it now. I did about an 8 hour drive and shut down at one of the travel stops that I don't really like, but it was one of the best options. I took a short nap and ate lunch and then I got my discussion group for the week done in what should be my final class before the capstone. All that remains for that class is my paper, which I will get done this weekend. Then came the fun stuff. I went back over the 12 pieces of art that I created last month and I tweaked them all. The gallery is up. I will give you a sample here, and you can click the link at the top of the page to go see the other 11.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein, Created with Photoshop

I did not have a lot of time this past month, but I dedicated myself to creating 12 different pieces of artwork. I'm trying to find my niche. If you look at the gallery, I think that you will agree with me that my niche is black and white with kind of a noir look. Anybody that knows me has my e-mail address, let me know what you think.

Ending the Day

Once I got everything updated, it was time to relax. I popped in some random series that I don't even remember and let myself drift off into emptiness. I got to sleep at a decent time but I'm still having weird dreams. Tomorrow is another day. And since I am headed into New Jersey, i'm going to make sure i get a good meditation session and double yoga done in the morning. I have a feeling I'm going to need patience.

Wow the mood

I have never liked the New Jersey runs. But this time it really got onto my nerves. It was like traveling back in time into the 1970s. My route took me to the places of my childhood trauma. Things that I have forgotten and I have tried to get over. You would think that 50 years later they would not be able to touch me, but that's not the case. The positive side of the coin is that sometimes you have to make it hurt to make it feel better. And remembering all that crap, i believe, allowed me to let it go. Now maybe it will not know at the back of my mind. That would be nice.

Other than coming face to face with my monsters of old, the day was pretty much routine and when I shut down I was exhausted so I went right to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.

Run rabbit!

One of the drawbacks of running so many miles is that I don't get a lot of personal time because I'm exhausted when I shut down for the night. When I landed in Sparta KY, that's exactly where I was. But it is Friday, and I was able to get a little bit of school done and see that the capstone has dropped. I went in and took a look at it and it doesn't look like it's going to be that horrible. It is kind of ironic that the final course that I take in my degree is finally something that I know absolutely nothing about. There is not a lot of work to do in the process, but the work that there is is going to be challenging. I will take it.

No personal time at all

It was all work today. I rolled my butt off to make Hot Springs, and that puts me about 100 miles from the Monday drop. It was down and out like a light with all day tomorrow to catch things up.

Do stuff mon!

You know, the Jamaican accent just doesn't come out in the typed word. I'm referring of course to the header for this section. I wanted to write that I was going to do stuff but it felt like it needed something. Kind of weird the way my mind works sometimes. Anyway. I finally get a full day off and I was up and at it early in the morning. I put on my tracksuit and went wandering in the woods pretending that I was a cat. It was quite a bit of fun jumping from tree to tree. Granted none of these trees were extremely high off the ground and they were more like logs that had fallen to an early demise. But it's fun to think swinging from the trees like Tarzan could be a thing. I'm too old for that. But while I was in the woods, I did almost two hours of yoga, exercise, and meditation. I think I finally have myself in a positive brain space and frame of mind. That would be very nice.

The Stuff

But here we go on with the day. And it was a very busy one. First, of course, there was school. I finished up my risk assessment course and submitted my final paper. It took about five hours. And then it was fun time. I dove deeply into my capstone. I finished reading the 500 page book that goes with the course, and I copied off 86 citations and references from the textbook. I read through about half of those before I decided that my head was going to explode. I finished up by doing my introduction and I found that Amelia is also in this class. She was one of the young ladies from the risk assessment class and she lives near Colorado Springs. Small world. After I got school out of the way it was time for something enjoyable. I turned on the Roku, ran something ambient in the background and worked on ancient pathway. The big thing that's going on over there is that each new page is getting a new image. And of course I will give you some examples. Those will be at the end of today. Other than that it was a relaxing day, my tooth is still acting up but I was able to eat with no problems, I got an extremely long shower, and I got all my water bottles filled. We are going to count this as a very positive day and see what tomorrow brings.

Three images from the new Ancient Pathway located at Ancient Pathway. I have been rebuilding this site for about two years and I finally pulled the entire thing offline and I am putting it back up a section at a time. Right now, only the business pages, the beliefs section and the celebration section are done. If you are into that kind of thing, check it out and watch us grow!

School Time

The personal side of the day could have been more uneventful. I had about 5 hours between the two docks where I was sitting on my rear end. But I used all that time to read my textbook for my capstone. I'm in an area of education that I have yet to gain experience in—program evaluation. I know basically what it is, but there is a foundational model behind the theory. And that's what I will study for the next six weeks. Once I shut down in Oklahoma, it was a quick meal, and then off to sleep. I get more tired every day the closer I get to home. So it will be nice to have a few days off even though I have an entire list of things to do. But there are things for me, not for the company.

Concentrate

Even with the extra time for the day, most of my time was spent on school. I finished a significant amount of reading for school, including finishing up my textbook and reading about 30 of the citations from that textbook. In addition, I got my discussion group posted and made a few responses to my fellow students. There are only about four of us right now, but it is only the first day of class, and I hope that number will go up. Other than that, it was time to relax and take a short break before I do the tail end of this week. Things always get more challenging when home time is around the corner. And since I am down to a week and 1/2, that's where I'm sitting.

A bit o time

I was stuck in docks for about four hours today, so i had some time to do a little artwork. You will see that below. I did a bunch more reading for school and I had a nice dinner. All things considered i am counting this as a decent day. I'm not sure what the next few days are going to bring because I am headed into Pryor OK tomorrow morning to drop off and then I am picking up in Tulsa. After I get loaded in Tulsa, I'm going into New Jersey. I just can't seem to stay away from that area. They gave me six days to go 1300 miles, i think i can handle it.

I am really starting to like my meditation art. Some of it comes out pretty good, some of it comes out very obscure. With this piece, most people will think that the model looks familiar, and perhaps she does. This is actually a morph picture. It is a combination of four separate famous people. Jeri Ryan, Bree Olson, also known as Rachel Oberlin, Sean Connery, and Kat Dennings. The four of these together create the image that you see. But I did not pick and choose different parts of the profile, it is a true morph combination. I loaded all four images using a similar profile and adjusted the overlays until I was happy with the outcome. What I was trying to signify was a person looking to the future with fear. I think that I pulled it off. And yes if you want to know, the eyes came from Sean Connery. That was the most significant part of his image. Let me know what you think.

A bit on edge

I believe that the weather is messing with my head. It has been threatening to rain but never seems to get there and I think that it is making me stuffy and grumpy. When I took my break between my drop off in my pick up, I took the chance to take a two hour nap. It seems to have helped a little bit. But I'm still feeling on edge. I've been having weird dreams every night but at least I am sleeping. I think I'm just ready to get home it has been almost two months. When I shut down for the night in the Missouri service area, I spent a little time finishing up one of the pieces of artwork that I've been working on. I don't have the wife to tell me that I'm done so I told myself that I'm done. And here it is…

Unlike the composite art from yesterday, this starts from a single image. It was just a generic blonde female who was untitled. I pulled the image from a free stock image and went to work on it. I think it came out pretty well.

Uneventful

This is one of those boring days when nothing at all happened. Even though I did 600 miles today, aside from some traffic around Indianapolis, there was no drama, no events, nothing. Sometimes that kind of thing scares me, because it usually means that the universe is giving me a break for something horrible. But I'm not going to think that way this time. I am going to consider that Lilith is just giving me a break because I need one. And I'm going to take it that way. I was able to get my exercise and my yoga in, i was able to get a good meal of chicken and potatoes, and I was able to relax before I went to sleep. So I will take it. I should be able to roll into Pennsylvania tomorrow and shut down for my 34 hour break. It's almost home time.

Food and rest

I have done really well with my meals and my protein, but I was one meal off for the week. Thankfully, shutting down in Carlisle allowed me to get Chinese food. Unfortunately I did not realize that they use MSG. While it was really good, it messed with my stomach afterwards. Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. But since I was on my 34 hour break, I grabbed a shower, ate my dinner, and got some extra sleep. Tomorrow will be a catch up day.

Rest but not restful

Today was a day of rest but it was not restful. I finished up school for the week and then decided that I would try and meditate and relax, but that was not in the cards. I took the time to clean the truck and get everything in order for the week, but after that I just could not get comfortable. I helped another driver move out of his hotel room across the street and I got to experience a bidet. Interesting experience. He was coming back on the road after an extended stay in the hotel for a legal issue. Nice guy. I am very much ready for home time because I am getting quite antsy and short tempered. Usually I can handle my own moods but not this one. I spent the day trying to relax, but I think I failed. Tomorrow, I go into the last week before I go home. Let's hope for a good week.

I wanted to try something a little different, so I put my meditation today into the road less traveled. Ironically this is the image that came to mind. I understand the mountains in the background because of Colorado. I understand the road because of what I do for a living. But I'm not sure I exactly understand the image of myself, because it doesn't remind me of me. Something for future contemplation.

Frustration

Even with a significant amount of sleep, getting stuff done, proper meditation and exercise, and a feeling of general well-being, I am still frustrated. Granted part of it has to do with dealing with New Jersey. I just do not like the drivers. They are ignorant, arrogant, self-centered, everything I used to be. But then again i am a jersey boy, i just don't admit it usually. Even with the extra time that I had at both the pickup and the delivery, I did not have time to get a lot of reading done. I've got five weeks left on this capstone, and i am rolling a 4.0 average. I refuse to drop the ball in the final mile and this class is difficult. But I am almost done. When I shut down for the night it was in a truck rest area right near the Pennsylvania, New Jersey Stateline. Tomorrow, i roll into columbus OH and then down to South Carolina. By then it should be time for them to start working me toward home. And i am very much looking forward to it.

Not Great

I am very thankful that the company is trying to run me into the ground. With that level of work requirements, I'm sure how my mental condition would be. I feel like I'm against a wall, which might get on my nerves. I'm sure it's the fact that it's two months out from home and that out of those eight weeks, at least four of them were problematic. At least I'm ending on a solid point, so everything should be OK. However, after a conversation with the wife today, I realized I already have two weeks of paid vacation. So that means that the next time I come home, I don't have to go without a paycheck. That changes the game a little.

When I stopped at the travel stop in Ohio, I made my dinner and was out like a light. I did not realize how exhausted I was until I lay down. And that was it; I needed to sleep.

Trudging here as well

When I hit my 30 minute break today I was starving. I cooked up my pork and my rice and ate that on my break. Unfortunately, the side effect of that, was that when I shut down in Dickson TN, i was hungry again. I have slim Pickens left on the truck right now, so it was subway. Yes, I know better, but I was still hungry. I tried one of their new sandwiches, the spicy italiano. It is not worth $10. But what can you do, you have to eat.

I have had very little time to get things done lately. Between work and school, it is taking up all of my time. I have an entire list of things to do, but no time to do them, and it's really getting on my nerves. But come Sunday, I am four weeks from the end of my education. It has me pensive. But we will take things one day at a time, right? For now, I shut down and then fortunately I am parked on a hill. Which means I will not get good sleep. But that's OK, home is right around the corner and I am looking forward to it.

Time off Begins

I got home about noon, but coming home two days early tossed my plans out of kilter. I wound up getting my desk done first, which is a good thing, because that usually takes about two days. Then I got my data stuff started and relaxed for most of the day. I was exhausted, and I think that the early home time is helpful. I got the truck cleaned out and put it in for service. They have until next week to get it done, but it is not due in the shop until Monday. Hopefully, there are no serious issues. Early to be, tomorrow is another day.

Full down day

I am a bit off kilter today because of the weird hometime, but I made it work. I hit Lowe's and got the stuff for the lawn, but that was annoying as hell. It took me more than an hour in line because there was an older lady arguing about every, single price. I would have changed lines, but there was something going on in that line as well. Breathe! I got out of there and hit Aldi's. I got most of my proteins and a few other things. I ran into Nicole, but it was only a brief encounter. She is not looking good. She has aged horribly. I want to feel bad for her, but... I will just leave it at that. I came home, took a few hours, did some more cleaning and organizing, and I set up about 3/4 of my meals.

Excellent times!

I got my groove on and started to get a roll going. I was able to get the remaining errands done, get the Walmart order put in (thanks to the wife, of course), and got the front porch posts relaced. That is a seriously signficant thing! We had Chinese for lunch / dinner, and an all around good day. I will take it.

When I write, I write horror or fantasy. When I dream, it is horror. I watch horror movies. And now, I delve into horror in art. Three examples. About two hours of work in Photoshop with some pre-made models and constructs. Fun times.

Another productive day.

As ia m sure that you can see, I did some artwork today. I think that I like it, but I will have to revisit it again to make sure. Time will tell. But it was still one hell of a productive day. I finished up priming the porch posts and they are done for now. I may paint them before I head back out on the road, but I am not sure. I got the front yard cut and seeded. That took a long time, but it is done. I repaired my Violin and it is working now. That bubba that said it was junk and would not work did not know what he was talking about. I still have to get to Yarboroughs Music and get some Peg oil, but I can do that tomorrow or so. That is one hell of a productive day. The only problem is that my tooth is still acting up. Boooo!

I looked over the works from yesterday and NOPE, gotta lighten the mood a bit. How about a nice Acid-Trip construct from scratch? Without the Acid of course. Damn CDL!

Rolling with bumps

And we more forward with another decent day. I rocked the assignment that was due at midnight tonight, and even got my grade back, another 100. Now I am moving into week three! Almost done. I worked thorugh the home list, had some family time, but was fighting a major headache all day. I made it to Yarboroughs Music to get my peg oil for the violin, but they did not have any. I pushed time and rolled to Amro and got it there. I picked up Pizza on the way home and ended out the day.
I still have a few things on my list for hometime, but I am comfortable with what I have gotten done. I have not done any work on the websites, and I did not get the Garage or back yard done. I am not sure what will get done before I head back in about 36 hours. We shall see.

Ah lethargia

I was able to finish up the front yard and get the overgrowth away from the corner of the house. But I was dragging my wagon after only a few hours outdoors. I finally had to give it up and surrender to the tiredness within. But that is okay. I went back over the home list, and I got quite a bit done, so I will take it. I got my final shopping done at Walmart and double checked my lists. I think that I am ready to head back in to work tomorrow. So I settle back, listened to some music, and ran out the day. I am ready to go, I think.

I really wanted to get another piece of artwork in place, but I did not know what I wanted to do. So I grabbed my electronic writing tablet, set the system to black and white mode, and this is the result. I think I like it but I am not sure. I will look at it again tomorrow and see what I think of it.

Starting out moody

I am really not digging the fact that I am starting this tour out Moody. I got into work and I just did not want to be there. It took me a very long time to set the truck up because my heart was not in it. I really hope that the next seven weeks are not going to be this way. It would get on my nerves.

But, since I try and keep an open mind and a positive frame of reference, I am back to work and I am headed to Louisiana, and then i am headed over to Philadelphia. That means that I start my week and end my week in as little time as possible. I will take it. I'm going to do my best to use this weekend to get school completely done. I know I still have three weeks to go but if I concentrate on it, I should be able to get everything written except my responses to my fellow students. So far going into the end of week 3 and into week 4, I am rocking a 100% on the capstone. Then it will be a waiting game to get my diploma. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do without school. But for today, everything is nice and calm, and I am just rolling down the road into Cajun country. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

As you can see I am experimenting with minimal color palettes. It's very interesting for me not to work in black and white or ultra color. But I think this one came out pretty well.

Time Wanders Onward

I had about 26 hours to myself today so I finished cleaning up the truck, and I made my breakfast. I finally got to try making bacon and eggs in the truck. They turned out very well. Cleaning up the mess is a bit more difficult than I anticipated but I will get used to it. For lunch I made baked potatoes, and I had chicken for dinner. I would say that is a decent day for food.

Getting my rear end into gear, was another story. My tooth has really been bothering me, and I should have just gone down to Aspen Dental in Germantown and had it taken care of, but I am being stubborn. I know that Hennessy would just try and send me over, as he did before, to get the other tooth taken care of first. But that is not where the problem is and we both know it. The problem is with the shattered tooth on my lower jaw all the way in the back. I really don't know what they're going to do about it. I do not believe it has a nerve because there is no hot or cold sensitivity. Only pressure. But it is annoying as hell. We shall see what happens.

The rest of the day was amusing. I took the time to sit and stare at a B title movie, slave girls from beyond Infinity. It was a horrible movie. The special effects were horrendous, the acting was terrible, the plot was nonexistent, and the only thing that it had going for it was half naked blondes in bikini tops and loincloths wandering around the entire movie. And to be honest, even they were not interesting. But what can you do, it was something to run in the background and kill time while I gathered information for school. Once the movie was over, I took about five hours and finished up my reading for the rest of my course, and another three hours to write my outlines for the remaining assignments, and some notes for the remaining discussions. I have one assignment to do and then I am down to three weeks to graduation. Fingers crossed, I just have to hold it together a little bit longer and I will be done. Finally I chose a broken sleep cycle on purpose this evening and went to bed with an alarm set for six hours. It worked out well, and a little preview of tomorrow, I got a total of nine hours sleep across two sleep shifts. Hopefully that will work for me as I head toward Philadelphia.

Because of my toothache, i had to use some extended meditation techniques. They helped quite a bit. And this is the image that came to mind during my out of body experience. I like it, i think.

Ouchy

Aside from work today, the day was calm until the end. Toward the end of my shift my tooth really started to act up, to the point where it made it that I could not sleep. So I did meditation and my doodle, and then try it again. That time I was able to get to sleep. I have to figure out something to do about this thing. Other than that it was a very routine day. I worked a little bit on my final paper for school, and my discussion group for this week, and I did a little writing. I was shut down in a small truck parking area on I-59 in Mississippi, and it was nice and calm. Excitingly, I had pork chops, mashed potatoes, and peas for dinner. And the pork chops were breaded. Thank you to the wife for the silicone inserts for my air fryer. They make all the difference.

Drifting

The past 72 hours have been rough. I have a shattered tooth that is giving me problems. For almost six days now, it has hurt, but when I pulled into Tom’s Brook, VA. The situation went to a full NINE on the pain scale and stayed there. Nothing will drop it and it is not a throb, or intermittent, it is constant. That is making things rough. Because of this, I used my 44 hour break (34 hours plus the extra for on time delivery) to sleep and keep myself in a state of meditation. It has helped to pass the time, but not with the pain. It is kind of like personal sedation. But now that the break is over, it is time to get into a position to do something about the issue.

I hate to waste time, but I really did not have any choice this time. The pain is intolerable, and there are no real choices to resolve it until I get into a better area. But I did a few things if not many. I got my week-3 of school completed and verified my research for week-4, I made truck sushi, which came out well, and I watch the movie Lucy with Scarlett Johansen. Not a terrible movie. I know that I have watched it before, but for the life of me, I could not remember any of it. Then I spent the rest of the time in deep meditation or a full trance state. Tomorrow, it is on to Philly and beyond, and hopefully to a little relief.

Run boy

I am feeling extremely rushed even though I am not rushing. And i'm not sure what's causing that phenomenon. My tooth is feeling a little better, but that is mostly pain management. This week has not started out great, and it doesn't look like it's going to improve, but I am dealing. I'm working on my 4th week of school out of 6, but my heart just is not in it. I'm still rocking a 100, but based on the subject matter it should be much easier than it is. The blog entries for today and the next couple days are going to be short and sweet because mostly what I'm doing is driving, working on school, and sleeping. I have had little time for anything else.

Shush

I am really starting to feel the strain. Little things are starting to get on my nerves. I'm not to the point where road rage is a factor at all, but social media, I definitely have to keep my hands off it right now. I know that I should not be surprised by the level of idiocracy that surrounds us, but sometimes it is hard not to wonder if we should let the cockroaches take over. People actually argue for the sake of arguing. They are in such need of attention, that they will make arguments for things in which they do not believe. And these are people my age. It is amazing. But I'm trying to deal. I pulled out my hook rug, and made sure that I had everything I need, and I will be starting that in the next day or two, at least hopefully. First I have to get this run to target done and then see where the trucking gods send me.