I finally got a load today. I have to head over to Titusville, FL tomorrow morning to load some machinery. Part of it is going to Romulus, MI and part to Cedarville, WI. As it's machinery I'm sure it'll have to be tarped even though she didn't mention it (probably to avoid hearing me bitch). I really should have spent today getting packed up and ready to roll but I was lazy. I did get some of my clothes packed and ready, but I still have some to do. I also have to pack up all of my compute...

Dispatch called me first thing this morning while I was having my coffee. She said she had a small partial that needed picked up about 2 hours from here, but she hadn't so far found anything else. She mentioned that there was another of our drivers down here also needing a load, but as I was first on the board she had to offer it to me first. As it was only a partial and I would just have to go pick it up and then just come right back home again until she found something else I told her to...

I just got home from a 10 mile bike ride. I had planned on 20 miles, but I couldn't breath. My chest is tight and I feel oxygen starved. It's the smoke. The sky is hazy again from the smoke blowing down from Georgia. It's not so thick at ground level that you can tell it's there, or even really smell it, but it's there just the same. After about 5 miles I was having a hard time breathing and my eyes were stinging. Clean air is something we tend to take for granted unless we live some pl...

I went over to Mom's before lunch and picked up the small package sent to me from a nice lady on a knitting forum. As I had guessed, it contained hand-made stitch markers for knitting. I had complained on the knitting forum that stitch markers tend to be "girlie" and that I hadn't seen any that appeal to a guy. She was kind enough to make some for me and surprise me with them. I really like them and they'll come in handy on complicated projects requiring stitch markers. Th...

A few days ago one of the ladies on a knitting forum sent me a PM saying that she had sent me something. She wouldn't say what it was, only that it was something I had written about wanting some time back. The only thing I can think it could be is some hand made stitch markers, but she refused to confirm or deny that, saying it was a surprise. I have to admit that my curiosity has been piqued a bit. Late this afternoon Mom called me to say that some sort of small package had arrived for me...

The first named storm of the season, Andrea, is a subtropical storm currently sitting just off the coats of Northern Florida/Southern Georgia. As named storms go she's nothing impressive, but we are hoping that she manages to generate a decent amount of rain as she moves West and onto land. There are fires burning in Georgia and Florida and the firefighters could really use some substantial rain to help quell them. Here in Florida there are several fires scattered around the state, one of...

I stayed up a bit late last night and so slept in until 9:30 this morning. It was nice to not be up at the crack of dawn for a change. It's amazing how time on the road, even if parts of it are spent in hotels, can wear you down after a while. Hotels are ok, but they're not the same as home. Today I am just tinkering around a bit. I did my trip paperwork and rode the bent to the mailbox to mail it to the office. The bent hasn't been shifting as well as it should so when I got back I decide...

Most people probably know about the wildfires in Georgia by now. I a few hundred miles South of where the fires are burning. Our area is currently under an air quality warning because the smoke from these fires is being carried on the wind right down to us. This morning it was so thick you could barely see across the street. It's thinned some now but you can still smell it in the air and people with breathing problems are being advised to stay indoors out of the smoke. I had planned to ...

Mondays usually suck. Everyone knows that. My Monday was more like a Sunday. I slept in, made some coffee, and was generally lazy most of the morning. This afternoon I got slightly ambitious and washed my bent. It sorely needed it. Hell, I even swept the carport. Exciting day huh? I had planned to make chicken and yellow rice for dinner but the lazy thing kicked in again after washing the bent and I settled for pizza instead. I'll probably make the chicken tomorrow. I did make it to...

I stumbled out of bed this morning, put on some coffee, and picked up the phone to call my mother. No dial tone. WTF? I booted up my PC and verified that the DSL service was working. Ok, so it's just the phone. It's too early for this crap. I called Mom on my cell phone and wished her a happy Mother's Day. She thanked me and said that it's next Sunday, not this Sunday. Oh. I really should be fully awake before making phone calls. After a couple of cups of coffee I grabbed the phone and ...

When I left Key West this morning I opted to run US 27 up through the middle of the state instead of angling over to the interstate. Florida is one of those states where you can often make better time on the secondary highways than on the interstate. Judging by the police activity on the South-bound side of the highway I'm guessing that the cops must have been tipped off about a drug shipment heading for Miami or the Keys. I don't think I've ever seen that many cops searching that many veh...

I made it to the Key West airport right at midnight. I spoke with the fire station captain and told him that I wanted to show him something before I began unloading the truck. He had already been filled in on the fact that the truck had suffered some damage. He looked at it and said "That's no big deal, it could have been worse." And that was pretty much it. I began the process of unchaining the fire truck and prepping it to be unloaded. While I was doing this the airport Director showed u...

While running through TN today I got a call from the boss. He said he just wanted to check up on me to see if I was ok now that yesterday's bullshit was over and done with. I told him that I felt really bad about what happened, but that I now had to focus on getting the job done. He said that he wanted to make sure that I knew he wasn't upset with me over the incident, that he was just upset over the incident itself and I shouldn't take it personally. I assured him that we had known eac...

My Florida oversize permit arrived this morning. I discovered that the state of Florida had thrown us a curve ball. Normally the permits specify daylight movement only, along with all of the other restrictions, as well as the route to be used. Well the Florida permit did all of this, but they added a second page. It seems that I have to run the entire length of the state during daylight hours, but from Florida City (just South of Miami) to Key West must be run between the hours of 9:00PM ...

After the crappy day I had I just didn't feel like sitting in the truck. I decided that I wanted to take a nice walk. I googled the area and found a bar 1.5 miles from the truck stop. That would make a fine destination for my walk. Long enough to get a bit of exercise but not so long as to wear me out. I memorized the map of the immediate area and set off walking. I walked a half mile East, made a left and walked a mile South, made another left, walked 60 feet, and found myself standing in...