It sure does feel like Fall now. As my back was bothering me quite a bit from too much load tarping last week I decided to take the weekend off here in Wisconsin. It has been very chilly all weekend. Had to break out my sweatshirt and jacket just to be comfortable. The porch of the motel was covered with leaves this morning after a breezy night. Sigh. Winter will be along very soon. Yuck. I am really not looking forward to Winter this year. After such a hot, dry Summer I think it's goi...

Being on the road sometimes requires finding alternative ways of doing things that are simply done at home. Blending/mixing things is one of those tasks. It just isn't practical to carry an electric blender in the truck. I recently bought a Blender Bottle and am finding it really handy. Basically it's a plastic shaker bottle with a stainless steel wire ball inside that acts like a whisk when the bottle is shaken. I am using it to make protein shakes. The first shake I tried was 8 o...

I am in the Richmond, VA area. I will be delivering a military vehicle to Ft. Pickett later this morning. This morning I did my weekly weigh in and have now lost a total of 25.5 lbs. That takes me almost half way to my goal weight. Yesterday I bought a new polo shirt. I bought an XL thinking that would be about right, but when I got back to my motel room and tried it on it was too big. I returned it and got an L. The L fits very well. I haven't been able to wear a size L shirt in years...

After running harder than I like to get a stretch trailer back here from Houston I have a bit of time off. The boss knew what I had to do to get it done and scheduled my next load to let me get some much needed rest. I dropped the trailer at the yard around 11:00 PM Wednesday night after leaving Houston around 4:40 Tuesday afternoon. I was beat. My next load is a six stop load, the first of which is only about 5 hours from here, for Monday, so I have pretty much been off Thursday and most ...

The past several weeks have just been crazy at work. I have had very little in the way of down time as a result. Also, my weight loss/fitness progress has really slowed as well (down 21 lbs at this point). I am still counting calories and doing well there, but just haven't had the time to get out and do much walking or jogging. I am currently sitting just outside of Houston and will be delivering a fire truck to the port there in the morning. I then have to scramble to get back to Wiscons...

I am taking the weekend off in Wisconsin. There is a very nice nature trail here and yesterday I went for a walk/run (50/50) on it. It's a great place for a run and/or walk. I did my weekly weigh in this morning. I have now dropped a total of 18 pounds since I started trying to get healthier. Not too bad for a fat old man. I have to do some laundry later today, but plan to go for another run on the trail before I do. 

I have been doing my walking for exercise wearing an old pair of lightweight hiking shoes. My feet have been killing me because those shoes are simply not made for what I have been doing. This morning I went over to Dick's Sporting Goods. I lucked out in that the young lady working the shoe department is a runner and actually knows what she's talking about. Once I explained to her that all of this is new to me, I know nothing at all about picking out the right athletic shoes, and what...

Yesterday the doc cleared me on my blood pressure and I received my medical card for a year. It's normally two years but once you have been diagnsed with certain conditions, high blood pressure being one of them, they cut it back to a year. That's ok, at least I get to continue working.

On January 9th I had my bi-annual D.O.T. physical and failed due to high blood pressure readings. As a result I wish ony issued a 90 day medical card, which expires on April 9th. Yesterday I finally got around to seeing a doctor for a follow up. My blood pressure was still high. As I haven't had a real physical in years and am now 50 years old the doc gave me a full physical including blood work. Barring the results of the lab work next week he proclaimed me in reasonably good health with...

Yesterday I picked up some parts of a crane in Louisiana and am hauling them to Georgia. I made it as far as Pensacola, FL where I stooped to get a cold drink. When I stepped out of the truck I heard an air leak that turned out to be the air bag on the passenger side of my steer axle. Well, that pretty much stopped me cold as I couldn't ignore it. I put the truck in a shop. The nearest place that had that air bag was in Atlanta. They are having it shipped over night so I should be back on...

A fellow who goes by the handle Smoking Dragon has started making a line of custom corn cob pipes. I saw a few photos of his work and asked him to make one for me. We consulted on materials and color ideas and then I left the design to him. I received it last week and have to say I am not at all disappointed. I think it's a great looking pipe. I haven't yet smoked it as I think I'll save it for St Paddy's Day. The bowl is a Missouri Meerschaum Country Gentleman bowl, the sh...

It seems the scammers have been chased out of Africa. Got this in an email box today.   Greetings, I am Dr. Tien, A Taiwanese and also the Managing director of Taiwan Business Bank (TBB) I write briefly to request your cooperation in a lucrative mutual business involving a $25 Million USD, If interested reply me now with your FULL NAMES & TEL NUMBER to my email below as I shall discuss further logistic about this business cooperation between You and I. I expect your sw...

This past Thursday marked one month since I stopped smoking cigarettes. I had promised myself when that time came I would buy myself a new pipe, but wasn't around any pipe shops on that day. On Saturday I stopped at Truck World in Hubbard, Ohio. They have a small tobacco shop inside the truck stop so I looked around a bit in there. I spotted a Dr Grabow Big Pipe and since that is one Dr Grabow model I didn't yet own I bought it. Not a fancy, high end celebratory pipe, but I like it ju...

I've had an iPad tablet for some time now and, while I really like it I have often found it limiting in some ways. I decided to give an Android tablet a try so yesterday I picked up an Asus TF101 Transformer tablet.  First off, it's quite a bit less expensive than the iPad. $399 for a 32GB tablet. It is currently running Honeycomb (3.2.1) but the Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) upgrade should be any time now. It's a little bigger than the iPad, and slightly heavier. I really like...

I've been on Google+ for a little while now. It's very interesting the people you can find on there. A good many authors, scientists, and the like are on there. I am following many of them now, and the one that really surprised me was Jeri Ryan is on Google+. Wow. If you're not a Star Trek fan you are probably thinking "Jeri Who?" If you are a Star Trek fan you know exactly who she is. She has some interesting and sometimes amusing posts and it's kind of cool to have found ...