I am now back in Wisconsin after a trip down to Oklahoma and Texas. Although it was raining down there the temperatures were quite pleasant for the most part.

Now I am back in the freezer once again. The forecast for last night promised it would be a very cold night and since my generator was out of service, again, I checked into the hotel so as to have a nice warm place to sleep.

I spent a couple of hours at the Applebee's next door having dinner a couple of drinks. I chatted for a while with a very nice elderly lady who told me stories about life as a small girl in London during WWII. She was quite an interesting lady with which to converse and said she really loves the smell of pipe tobacco and wished more men these days smoked them like they did when she was a girl.

This morning I went out to start my truck to allow it warm up before checking out of the hotel. It was bitterly cold out with a lot of wind. The poor truck was frozen and refused to start. Ah well, I called the shop and told them they needed to send over the service truck to get me started.

It took about an hour for the service truck to show. A few gallons of fuel additives and a shot of ether into the breather got the truck started up. It took another hour for it to get warmed up enough that I could drive it back here to the shop.

They are currently working on my generator, trying to figure out why it refuses to run, again. So far they have replaced the fuel pump and filters but so far it is still stubbornly refusing to function. In the meanwhile I am hiding out here in the break room trying to keep warm.

Stepping outside, even dressed in warm clothing, insulated boots, gloves, scarf, fur lined hat, and heavy insulated coveralls, is a chilling experience. The wind cuts right through all of the layers of insulation like a knife through butter. While I need to get my truck up and running again so I can get a load and go make some money, I am in no way looking forward to having to get out there and chain/strap a load in this brutally cold weather.

In the short time I was outside this morning dealing with my dad truck my beard froze solid and took a while to thaw out again once I was back inside. Well, better my beard than my skin. After all that is why I keep the beard during the Winter months despite the fact that it makes me look 10 years older than my 48 years.

I actually had a restaurant cashier the other day ask me if I was qualified for the senior discount. Ouch.

As of this moment I have no idea in what direction I'll be heading when I leave here, but I certainly hope it's to a warmer climate as my bones could do with a good thawing out right about now.