It's been an interesting few days. I picked up a couple of military trucks down near Houston on Tuesday. The place was seriously busy and I sat out in that hot sun for over eight hours waiting to load. It was well over 100 degrees. Once I finally got loaded I started North towards Wisconsin to deliver the trucks at Ft. McCoy. I had planned on being there yesterday but ran smack into the serious storms hammering the Midwest. I wound up parking and sitting out one storm Wednesday night as the r...

I made it back to the yard in WI late yesterday after delivering some railroad spikes to a rail yard in Green Bay. I'm having the truck serviced this morning and then picking up another load of oil field compressors and heading back to Texas again. I picked up the railroad spikes in a small town in Arkansas on Thursday. I had to run a lot of back roads to get there and it was an interesting ride past a lot of rice patties and not much else. They grow a lot of rice in AR, the largest rice prod...

I made it to the Chicago area and delivered the two forklifts on Friday. I then ran down a bit SW of there to pick up three pieces of construction equipment going back to the factory in WI. When I got there I stopped in at the little fuel stop near the place to grab a quick bite to eat. I saw another one of our drivers parked there and walked over to say hello. It was "Scooby" and he didn't look happy. Seems he had been sitting there since 7:00am that day waiting to pick up some of the same s...

Ah well, it's that time yet again. I got an email from dispatch providing me with load information. I have to pick up a couple of forkilfts in Jacksonville tomorrow going to the Chicago area. Well, at least I have one more night at home. I'll spend the evening finishing packing up and getting the house ready to close up again. I don't plan on staying out as long this time, maybe three or four week, six at the most. It'll just depend on the loads and the associated income from them. I'm ...

One clean, one dirty, and one on. That was pretty much the uniform issue when I wa in the service. In the Navy we had two different dress uniforms, a set of whites and a set of blues worn depending on the season, and three work uniforms. The idea of the work uniforms being that at any given time you would be wearing one work uniform, have one in the laundry, and one clean and ready to wear. That worked pretty well on a ship and saved storage space. After three months on the road I've been doi...

I was watching a crafts program and the woman was saying that a bighindrance for a lot of people is that they get so hung up on trying tomake things perfectly that they wind up either not enjoying it orsimply never finish at all. She said that perfection is highly overrated. It's a hobby and oneshould enjoy it, not stress over making it perfect. I have to agreewith her completely. I remember when I first started knitting. As I tend to be something ofa perfectionist by nature I experienced a...

Earlier I hopped on the bent and rode to the grocery store to pick up some supplies for the next few days. While wandering the store I was trying to decide what I wanted to cook for tonight's dinner. I wandered down an aisle and without even really making a decision starting putting tomato sauce, tomato paste, and a few other items in the cart and then suddenly decided to make some chili as I hadn't made any in a while. I do love a good chili, and am especially fond of my own. I make it the w...

My mother went to the doctor today. They removed the tracheotomy tube and sutures from her neck. She looks a lot better now without that thing sticking out of her neck. She can also eat now. The doc did give her some good news. They had removed the lymph glands from her neck and they had received the lab reports back. Zero cancer in them. That's a great thing because it means the cancer was localized and hadn't started to spread at all. Her spirits are much better now and I think she's goi...

OK, this is the first progress photo of the sapphire blue sweater I am knitting. In the photo I know it looks like the left sleeve is shorter. That's just  a combination of how I have it on, standing at a slight angle, and that one edge being rolled more than the other. They're actually the same length. I think it's coming along ok for my first attempt at a raglan sweater.     Still a lot of knitting yet to go.

I woke this morning with a mother of a back ache. WTF? It was a struggle just to get out of the bed. My back was so stiff and sore I could barely walk. I didn't do much yesterday except laundry, knitting, a couple of walks to the C-store across the street, and grilling a couple of burgers for dinner. I have no idea why my back felt the way it did when I got up. I made some coffee and downed one of the pain killers I have left over from when I injured my back on the job a long while back. It h...

While I've been busy doing laundry and assorted other odds and ends I've spent a little time here and there knitting my first raglan sweater. As I prefer to create my own stuff instead of following someone else's pattern, I did all the measurements and calculations needed to create a sweater. I'm knitting it from the top down on circular needles so that it's basically knit in one piece without having to do any seaming. Once I get the body finished I just have to go back and pick up stitches a...

Ok, I was bored and playing around with the camera. Just some shots of ugly ole me now that I have my full Summer look in place. Should be good for frightening small children.   Just ugly ole me   Just doing a bit of knitting     Just goofing around   Ok, enough of the horror show.

Wow, I have to say that knitters are great. Knowing that my mother is going through this whole cancer surgery thing and soon to be going through chemo, a bunch of the folks on the main knitting site I frequent are getting together to knit her a bunch of chemo caps, socks, and who knows what else. Some of them are as far away as Scotland. I am honestly touched by their caring and generosity. What a great bunch of people.

Today I went and bought myself a HeadBlade so that I could finish up getting into my Summer look. Not having any hair is so much easier out on the road.  When I do have hair (in the Winter) I rarely bother to comb it, I just put on a hat and move on. In the past I have either shaved my head with an electric which just doesn't provide a very close shave, or with a regular razor which is somewhat awkward for the head. I had seen the HeadBlade in stores before and decided to give the thin...

Now that warm weather seems to be here to stay I have shaaved off the Winter beard and am back to my normal Summer look. I did keep the Fu Manchu style moustache but am otherwise clean shaven again. It'll take me a few days to get used to myself in the mirror again. Mom seems to be doing well with her recovery from the surgery. They're sending a nurse twice a day to help maintain her tracheotomy tube and with the feeding (liquid diet). I'm glad a professional is coming around to prevent infec...