I am currently sitting in wonderful El Paso, TX. I delivered a truck at Ft Bliss here this morning and have been sitting around ever since.

The truckstops in El Paso are much like they are in any border town...shit holes. They're crawling with assorted and sundry low lifes, panhandlers, thieves, drug dealers, prostitutes, and the occasional robber/murderer thrown in just for fun. A trucker was stabbed to death a few weeks ago just a few hundred yards from where I am now sitting, on his way back from the little bar next door.

Loads out of this area are scarce right now so it's a waiting game. Not much to do but spend the day waiting for either a load to come through or the end of the work day to come so you can go get a cold cerveza. At this point in the day a cerveza is almost a sure bet.

I'm sure at this point I'll be spending the evening over at the little bar next door drinking a few cervezas and chatting up the senoritas while I work on my knitting. Good chance to practice my very poor Spanish skills. I can't really hold an intelligent conversation in Spanish as I read and understand it spoken much better than I speak it myself. But I do well enough to get my point across most of the time.

I already have my boot knife in place and will be slipping my faithful old Smith and Wesson SWAT edition quick opening lockblade (razor sharp at all times) into my pocket before I walk over there. In all likelyhood I won't actually need either one as few of the criminal sort would ever view me as an easy target, but it's comforting to know they're in place just in case.

I will be changing my shirt before I walk over. Nothing wrong with the one I am wearing, it's clean, and nice looking. That's really the problem, it's too nice looking. A basic short sleeve button up Western style shirt. I'll swap it for a sleevelss button up that shows off my arms and most especially my tats. That makes for a nice finishing touch impression to discourage any potential problem children. If chaining, strapping, and tarping loads does nothing good for the back it sure as hell does wonders for the arm muscles LOL

This all probably makes it sound worse than it really is. I've been in that little bar many times before and never had any trouble despite the fact that this is a very rough neighborhood, or at least has that reputation. It's usually pretty quiet for the most part. I am just the sort who likes to put the odds in his favor as much as possible and so take the steps needed to hopefully discourage any potential trouble before it starts. Simple solution, look more dangerous than the folks who actually are.

It's surprisingly cool here today. Normally El Paso is sweltering but today has been quite comfortable. But then Old Man Winter will be here very soon.

I've been gradually preparing for the cold months and short days. As I pull a lot of oversized loads and can only run during daylight, Winter means spending a lot of time parked. A couple of days ago I bought myself a 22" LCD HDTV for the truck, along with a nice little HDTV DVD player. That will make sitting around a bit more enjoyable.

With more and more channels already broadcasting in digital as well as analog picture quality is amazingly good for broadcasts these days. Basically, if you can get the signal you're going to get a clear picture. I installed a signal amp in the truck's tv antenna system to pull signals in for better reception and have been quite happy with the quality of the recption.

I'm still trying to figure out a good way to mount the tv in the truck. I don't want to drill any holes and so haven't quite figured out how I am going to manage it yet. I'll come up with something. In the mean time I am just using the little stand that came with it and sitting it on the desk top that slides out just below the fridge. It's right next to my bed and so is just fine to watch there, I am just a little concerned about accidentally knocking it off and breaking it. I'd feel much better if it were securely mounted somehow.

When I get home this time around I'll be spending some time working on the truck. I will be pulling out most of the warm weather gear, leaving only a small number of items for those trips into the deep South, and restocking with my cold weather gear. I'll also take some time to clean out the fridge, wash it down good, and get it fully stocked up again, along with laying in a good stock of canned/dried foods and plenty of water and Gatorade.

Nothing worse than being stranded in a snow storm with no food or water. A little pre-planning can prevent such things. It's not rare to be caught in a bad Winter storm and be stranded for two or three days, especially when pulling oversized loads.

Well, it's getting close to beer-thirty now. guess I'll change my shirt and go see if Sal's is open yet.