My right shoulder has really been giving me a lot of shit lately. As in the past three months or so. Hurts like hell. I'm assuming it's arthritis. Yesterday I decided to give Osteo Bi-flex a try. It may be snake oil, it may work. I guess I'll find out, but I needed to do something. I can't even shift gears in my truck without pain, never mind all of the chaining and strapping I do as a regular part of my job. Getting old sucks.

Yesterday I put my truck in the shop for routine servicing. He also serviced my APU. Everything seemed fine when I left, until I went to start the APU. It wouldn't run. It had been running just fine earlier that morning, before being serviced. The shop is only open half a day on Saturday, and is closed on Sunday. I called the guy who runs the shop and told him about the problem. He called me back a little later and told me one of the mechanics, a different one, would meet me at the s...

Yesterday morning I loaded in North Bend, WA, put off two stops in Seattle, and then set out for Salt Lake City. The plan was to get to SLC by noon today, put off that final stop, and then reload for Michigan. Well, I got as far as Baker City, OR last night. The last fifty miles was a nightmare due to Winter weather conditions. I had to stop here because they have up chain restrictions from here to the Idaho line. That means trucks have to put on tire chains. Our company policy is "We don'...

Last night I was in a place I stop in semi-regularly and the young bartender, a kid really, at some point mentioned how she would like to have an iPad but can't afford one. Since I bought my Surface tablet I haven't touched my iPad at all. While I was outside having a smoke I got to thinking about that and walked out to my truck, grabbed my iPad and it's charger, did an erase and reset on it while I finished my smoke, and carried back inside with me. I showed it to her, complete w...

Taking the weekend off to try and get over a nasty bug. Been sick as a dog since Monday and just couldn't keep going. Flu I suppose. I'm in a cheap motel with enough food and supplies to get me through the weekend. I don't want to have to go out unless I have no choice. My ribs are sore from coughing, my body aches in general, and my head is so plugged everything sounds like I'm under water. But, I do feel a tad better today than I have all week so I guess I'm on the mend....

One year ago I went for my required D.O.T. physical to be medically re-certified to drive a commercial vehicle. At that time my blood pressure was above the maximum allowed and I was given 90 days to get it down or lose my certification to drive. My blood sugar was also borderline.  I managed to just barely get the blood pressure under the limit and was only certified for one year instead of the normal two. That was my wake up call.  Advance to a year later. Today I went for...

As I am laid over since Friday I have been visiting a local watering hole. I have met several of the local regulars there, including several women. Tonight I was chatting again with one of the local women. Nothing special, just shooting the shit so to speak. When she was ready to leave she gave me a kiss. I was totally surprised by it. Up to that point I had thought she was a pretty intelligent and interesting woman, but now I question her judgement and taste LOL. I'm just an...

This has been "one of those days". I got ready to roll this morning and the amber beacons I have to use when pulling over-size blew a fuse. Had to wait for road service to come and repair the problem. At that point it was too late to go anywhere. I had ripped a few DVDs and was in the process of renaming some of the files. Somehow while renaming one of them I accidentally selected ALL of the movie files and they all wound up with the same name. ARGH! Late this afternoon I decided t take a ...

Yesterday I unloaded the fire truck at one of the ports in Baltimore. I then came up to North East, MD to load an excavator. I got it loaded and made it to the truck stop just before the evening over-size curfew kicked in. This morning I got up and was ready to roll as soon as the curfew ended. When I switched on the amber beacons on top of my truck the fuse blew. I stuck in a new one, hoping it was just a tired fuse, but not surprisingly that one blew as well. Damn short in the system. I ...

I am hauling a fire truck, which is an over-size load, out to Baltimore. Over-size loads are not allowed to move on a holiday and have to be parked by noon on the weekday prior to a holiday. I've been sitting here at the Ohio/Indiana line since a little before noon yesterday and can't leave out again until tomorrow morning. It could be worse, at least it's a full service truck stop with decent food, showers, laundry facilities and all that. There are a few other drivers also stuck...

I'm looking forward to the end of the world tomorrow. Maybe there will be fewer cars on the road, shorter lines at the grocery, and all that. I was planning on doing laundry on Saturday and that has me a little concerned. Does the end of the world mean no water? Damn hard to wash clothes if there isn't any water. And what about air? Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a pipe lit if there isn't any damn air? I mean, really, how frustrating would that be? Oh yeah, and ...

Am in Carlisle, PA tonight and there really isn't anything new to report. I did have an incident in Roseland, IN last night but it was pretty minor. Due to a relatively new state law in Indiana hotels are no longer allowed to have smoking rooms. I was standing outside the hotel enjoying a pipe when some douche bag looking guy started accosting me about my smoking. Normally I would have tried to handle it with a combination of humor and intelligence but something about the guy's dem...

After my truck being in the shop all week I had an odd assignment this morning. I had to go over to the fairgrounds and act as an unloading dock for trucks going in there. They are having an agriculture/construction equipment show there next week and had a lot of equipment coming in on flatbed type trailers. The thing they didn't have was a ramp to unload such trailers. I was there, with a beaver tail trailer (ramps on the back) so they could back to my trailer, drive the equipment from t...

Holy shit! Damn near got run down by a car tonight. I'm still burning off the adrenaline. I was walking across the street from my motel to get some beer when a car came tearing ass around a corner, tires squealing, ass end fishtailing, and heading straight for me. I dodged out of the way but my left hand came down on the hood of the car as I was getting out of it's path. I swear, if I could have got my hands on that driver I would be on my way to jail for homicide. ...

Am in Marianna Florida this weekend. I delivered my last stop on Thursday at the Naval base in Panama City then came up here to get a reasonably priced hotel room. There was a bike rally in Panama City Beach this weekend and even if I could have found a room down there it would have cost an arm and a leg. Friday dispatch called me with a reload about an hour from here, in Alabama. By the time I got within 3 miles of the place they called me let me know the load had canceled. Oh well, back her...