run, run, run

I deliverd this morning. Got in the gate at 0600, but didn't get out until 0815. My next load was located on the west side of Omaha, Nebraska ... at 3:30 p.m. (1530 hrs). Provided you don't have to stop at scales (3), traffic lights (6), stop signs (1o), 25 mph towns (2), or road construction (1) the trip is 471 miles and requires 7.75 hrs to get there ... remember the truck speed limit is 55 mph in Illinois ... 65 in IA. So, 0815 + 7-3/4 equals 4 p.m. (1600 hrs). So here I sit at the Sapp Bros. Truckstop because they quit loading after 3:30 p.m (1530 hrs) ...

So, I'll get loaded sometime before noon tomorrow ... and 22 hrs of driving later ... I need to be in Jacksonville, FL on Wednesday night. Oh yeah ... this is going to be fun (NOT). That doesn't factor in time to stop and take pictures!

Mom & Dad

James Michael

Tractor, tractor, who's got a tractor

Daniel drove the black tractor last week ... and came back complaining about 1) it leaks water ... 2) we know it is missing an A/C hose so there is no air conditioning ... 3) the wind-wing on the passenger side rear is tearing loose ... and 4) when you step on the brakes to stop, the steering wheel jerks back-and-forth ... so he insisted that these are things that John needs to have fixed before we can drive it again.

So yesterday I met him at the repair shop with his green tractor to swap out for the black one. He cranked the landing gear for the trailer down to support it on the ground ... then when we pulled the black tractor out ... the trailer sank about 8" into the ground. We slid the tractor back under it so that it was at least resting on the frame ... because it wasn't high enough to hook up to. Cranked the gear up ... put lots of blocks of wood under them ... cranked them back down until it was high enough to hook the truck back up ... managed to get the trailer a bit higher ... then did a fast swap. With the green tractor parked right next to the black one ... as the black one pulled out ... the green one pulled forward and immediately backed under the trailer (before it sank too much deeper).

The green tractor doesn't have a 2008 fuel tax sticker (IFTA) ... making it a magnet to be pulled over and fined at truck scales (I can do without those kinds of citations) ... some places won't let you fuel without it ... and drivers are told to call D.O.T. and report anyone who doesn't have the current sticker. So Daniel was checking on getting a current sticker or paperwork in lieu of.

Probably time to float more resumes' ...

Bread

My wife tolerates store bread ... but she really prefers home made bread ... not so fluffy and insubstantial.

So when I'm around, she will talk to me about it until I reach the point where I make some. Not that it is all that difficult ... not with a breadmaker machine anyway.

We've retired R2D2 that made the old round loaves ... and are using a Sunbeam Model 5891 which we purchased at WalMart.

I'd made a 1.5 lb loaf about 4 days ago using the "Golden Flax Bread" recipe off the milled flax seed box. Last night I used the recipe from the booklet that came with the breadmaker for 2.0 lb Whole Wheat Bread.

As you can see, I started with that big cup of wheat ... poured it into our Vita-Mix ... set it on high ... and ground it all into flour in less than a minute. That made just over 4 cups of flour. The recipe called for 4-2/3 cps. I made up the difference by adding 2 Tbs of milled flax seed, 2 Tbs of wheat gluten, and about 2 Tbs of unbleached white flour. And yes, I used 2 Tbs of REAL BUTTER.

Of course, my wife wouldn't go to bed until the hot bread came out of the breadmaker ... we cut off the end crust, split it in half, covered it with melted butter, and ate it. Hmmmmmm good!

This morning she toasted 2 slices for breakfast and was calling it "Heavenly."

Dreamtime

There was a large, brown, silvertip grizzly huffing along the trail behind me. I suppose if he stood, he'd be about 8 feet tall and weigh in at 700 to 800 lbs. A very large muscular individual ... afraid of nothing. I on the other hand, was afraid of meeting him. I looked about for options ... saw a large dense tree with a thick branch that I could leap for. A short run and a leap as hard and high as I could go, enabled me to just get my hands secured on the branch while the momentum helped to swing my legs up securely around it. I scrambled quickly to get on top of the branch and further up the tree out of sight. Grizzly's aren't known for having really good eyesight ... but they are good at smelling things. Forcing myself to breathe slowly in and out, I stayed as quiet as possible.

The grizzly was following the smell of my tracks ... until they suddenly ended. He stopped, swung his head up and around in an arc as he sniffed the air, and sat back on his haunches to view the area. I'd been upwind of him when he detected my presence and huffed his disapproval. I rapidly departed back the way I'd come ... and he'd followed. But now that my scent had weakened, hearing no further sound, and seeing nothing threatening, he looked around, dropped back down to all fours, and wandered around the area a bit. Finally heading off through the brush and trees to another destination of his choosing.

I did not come down out of the tree anytime soon. I didn't know if he intended to circle the area and see if what he followed would appear again. I gave him time to get hungry or bored and go away ... before I finally came down and detoured around the area where he had first been when we originally connected with each other. For all I knew, he'd gone back there for food, rest, or some other reason ... good enough reason for me to want to avoid that area.

Dad & Me

In Fields of Clover

I just love the giant red clover that grow here in the Spring.

Dan had to run down to AAA Cooper this morning to see about buying a bumper for his cabover truck. So, I got up at 0500 ... pulled 2 stacks of excess pallets out of the back of the trailer (26 pallets) ... leaving 32 pallets in the trailer ... updated my logbook ... and headed for Blakely, Ga to pick up bags of blanched peanuts. 37,000 lbs later (give or take a few peanuts) ... I was back home at 10:00 a.m.

It was such a beautiful day ... sunny, warm & pleasant, with a very light breeze ... So I just had to take out my recumbent bicycle and camera and go for a ride. And of course, I took fotos of red clover along the way. For those of you up North and in places like Buffalo, NY ... where a snowstorm just went thru ... don't you just wish you were down here enjoying the red clover in the Spring time?

Scheduling Delivery

We make this same run every week and deliver on Thursday morning ...

Wednesday night I was parked outside the gate at SYSCO at 6:30 p.m. (1830 hrs). When the gate guard showed up for check-in at 0400 my time (CT), I found that I was not scheduled on the list to deliver today. Somewhere around noon, they figured out that I was in fact scheduled to deliver tomorrow morning. AAAGGH!!!

So, I waited outside the gate for over 18 hours ... and about 1:00 p.m. CT they let me in and assigned me a dock. It was after 2:45 p.m. when I finally was unloaded and left. 6:00 p.m. by the time I reached the "home" office in Grand Ridge, FL. 7:45 p.m. when I reached home. I'm fragged!

Chicago in March

This is Chicago in March. Notice the snowpile melting on the left, near the yellow pole ... right of that is a water puddle ... and below the water is MUD! The trees are still bare and the grass is brown. This place is located off of IL hwy 171 south of Brookfield Zoo.

Nice to come back to green grass and flowering trees in Alabama. Although the winds were strong and buffeting all day ... with occasional rain showers.

Wacko Kids!

where are we ??

Thoughts in the night ...

I don't know if any other parents ever ponder this ... but being a divorced parent, I wonder how my children feel about it ... what impact that has had on their lives. Dr. Laura talks of divorced parents living near each other for the benefit of the children ... I moved away. It was the only way I felt to reduce the conflict between their mother and myself. To quit trying to tear the children each way.

Before I moved, one of the kids drew a picture that was very revealing ... it was of a bass boat sitting on water ... which left a lot of empty space in the picture ... so I asked, "what else?" And the child drew a live well in the boat with some small fish in it. "Is there anything down in this big expanse of water?" And the child drew an eel and some fishes. Right smack in the middle was a little fish ... facing the little fish on each side were two big fish ... with their mouths open and sharp teeth showing. Wow! Like one of those art therapy things ... Mom & Dad and the little fish in the middle ...

When I moved away, their mother was married to a really good guy. I figured that would make about as normal a life as they would get. Without the constant conflict between their Mom & I tearing at them.

They survived ... they are grown and married ... and seem to be good productive people. I wonder if my moving away helped their lives? ... or damaged them? Most children of divorce seem to have this hope that their Mom & Dad will get back together. I know that this will never happen. What are the long-term repercussions?

As one of my grandchildren said, when I went to visit and they were told that I was their father's father, "Daddy already has another father." And there you have it.

Aren't families weird and wonderful?

Blue, Yellow & Pink - blossoming in "L.A." 2

I don't know what the blue flower is ... it was growing in a lawn area.
The yellow & green is Golden Forsythia.
The Pink is a Camelia bush ... they are blossoming in so many beautiful colors right now.

red, yellow, & pink - blossoming in "L.A." 1

Every Spring these giant red clovers blossom along the roadways.
It isn't Spring without the golden yellow of dandelions!
My wife says the pink are red-bud trees blossoming.

Spring is Coming

This foto shows chives in the middle with little purple flowers ... growing alongside the road. This may be hard for you to imagine right now in SLC, Chicago, or Buffalo ... but down South, some of the trees are starting to bloom and these clumps of chives or onion are popping up.

They actually taste pretty good ... provided you pick them from a field ... far away from the road ... maybe even healthy too! :0)

Wednesday and Thursday were sunny and beautiful ... I had hoped to get out and take some fotos ... but it's raining this morning. So maybe I'll go weld on the 3 recumbent trikes that I'm building ... inside the shop building ...

Milwaukee

Guess what ... it was snowing in Wisconsin again.

After delivering in Elgin, IL ... I drove up to Milwaukee to pick up a load of frozen soy burger patties and turkey somethings ... these Bills of Lading (BOL's) aren't always exactly readable English ...

It only took them an hour to load me. They took off the 34 wooden pallets that I had inside my trailer ... but only put 7 bown-wood pallets back on (the rest were CHEP pallets ... painted blue). They assured me that there was just no room for the other 27 pallets (which cost me $6-$8 each if I have to buy them from them) ... so they kept them. They guy said, "Sorry, but we don't give you any credit for them. And if you come back here next week, we won't replace them." Does that sound like theft to you????

More snow was on its way to Chicago ... so I headed south as fast as I could ... and spent the night in Lexington, KY.

Going North

As I was headed north last Saturday ... and a lovely day it was ... I stopped for a couple of hours in Pelham, AL ... on the south side of Birmingham (I-65 exit 246). I parked in the BP truckstop and took a little nap before this fellow in the red glasses came to pick me up. We had a pleasant time talking and he took me to eat lunch at a burger/hotdog stand that sat on the top of a cliff. There's railing along the sidewalk next to it and tables along the sidewalk. A beautiful view out over the valley ... kind of northward ... but you don't see Birmingham. The place next door had one of those little historic signs that said "Lovers Leap" ... It was only 30-40 feet straight down, so I don't know that it would kill you (unless you landed on your head), but you'd certainly break some bones ...

Then I continued north to Glendale. The "Artsy Scientist" came to pick me up from the Pilot truckstop. We watched a Japanese animated movie about Howl's (How's) Moving House ... have any of you ever seen it? His lovely wife really likes it and requested it as a present last Christmas ...

I even stayed around for church the next morning ... this time I took a suit & tie with me ... instead of showing up as a truck driver in jeans & t-shirt. If I keep showing up every other week, they may start thinking that I'm a regular member of their congregation ... even though I attend a congregation in "L.A." on the weeks in between and even go to choir practice in "L.A." ...