I can't access my blog at the moment, it seems JU is wonky again. But I can post in the forums so that's do for now I guess. I got unloaded promptly this morning and beat feet up here to Georgetown for the reload. When I got here I found that the load (military crane assemblies) wasn't ready yet. The guy said they would "probably" be ready around 3:00. As this was about 11:00 I obviously had some time to kill. I dropped my trailer in the middle of their lot and bobtailed a few miles South ...

While I was making my way South through Texas, heading towards Houston, the boss called me up to see how I was making out with my back and all. He also wanted to give me a heads up. They have one good paying load lined up for pick up tomorrow afternoon in Georgetown, TX and another driver is also delivering to this same place in South Texas that I am tomorrow. As our dispatch works on a first in/first out basis, whoever gets unloaded first here tomorrow gets that load and the other may or ...

I made it to the Arkansas/Texas line today despite the pain in my lower back. Screw it, pain don't hurt. I parked my truck at the BBQ joint across the street from the truck stop, had a decent BBQ sandwich, hung the receipt in my window to prove I'd payed my parking dues (a meal or six bucks) and walked across the road to the tavern. I've been in this place many times over the years. It's one of the places around the country where I am an irregular regular. Those who have worked there f...

I am making terrible time on this first trip since the injury. I am having to take way too many rest stops to stretch out my back. I was planning on making the Red River stop tomorrow around noon and then the Houston area Thursday morning, but at this point I'm going to be making the Red River stop Thursday morning and Houston Friday morning. I've been at it all day today and am just now in the St Louis area. I should be spending the night in Little Rock, not St Louis. But I've had enough ...

I started off my first day back to work with something fairly easy. A driver had dropped a military fuel tanker truck at the yard over the weekend. They had me hook to it, chain it down, and run it up to the factory in Oshkosh where it will be rebuilt. I didn't have too much trouble with that. I then stopped by a factory in Oshkosh that builds generators and picked up a generator and a fuel tank base, chained them down and brought them back to the yard. By then my back was protesting a lit...

I've been in this hotel for, what, a little over 2 weeks? I've been gradually packing up my crap in preparation for checking out tomorrow morning and returning to work. Geez, I just can't believe all of the crap I have here in this room to be packed away and carted back to the truck. It adds up over time I suppose. Carry in a bit here, a bit there. Good grief! I finally have everything packed up except for those items I'll need between now and tomorrow morning. Toiletries, shaving kit, lap...

i finally gave in to the call of the badger bristle shaving brush, imported shaving soap, and double edge Merkur Slant. I shaved off my beard. I did keep my Fu style moustache though. Don't want to get too carried away. I look more like my old self now, and several years younger. But my face is cold. As my beard had grown quite long and thick it was a real bear to remove even after trimming it down with scissors first. I didn't get the closest shave I've ever had but after not shavi...

I've been watching a series of programs on the History Channel about ancient Chinese technology. It's highly obvious that we modern people are not the original inventors of automatic machines, complex mass production factories, or even computers. The Chinese had all of these things more than 1,000 years ago. Truly incredible feats of science and engineering. Some of the things that are impressive are like the semi-automatic repeating crossbow, flame throwers, rocket launchers, automatic tr...

Geez. I don't feel old. Well, ok, maybe my body does at times, but mentally I don't feel old and I'm still as mentally sharp as I've ever been. What was I talking about? Oh yeah. I went over to the grocery store to pick up another 12 pack as someone sneaked into my room and drank mine while I wasn't looking. I was standing in line waiting to pay for my purchase. WI has this thing where they have to enter your birth date into the register any time you buy anything evil like alcohol or...

Warning: The following is a rant. WTF is wrong with some people? The some people to which I refer are the fanboys of certain operating systems. I was just cruising through several Linux forums trying to help some folks out with some of their questions and problems and ran across no less than six threads where some asshat replied "if you used -insert Windows, OS/X, or a certain Linux distro here- you wouldn't have that problem. I would love to grab these people up and just throttle the h...

In celebration of the news that I will be allowed to return to work on Monday I stopped by the store and picked up a 12 pack of brew. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). I've already gone through half of it (no, I haven't had any of the pain meds today) and have half of it to go. I'm betting I'll sleep quite well tonight. LOL

I had my visit with the witch doctor this morning and it went quite well. He's released me to return to work on Monday under the conditions that I don't tarp any loads or lift more than 50lbs for the next two weeks when I have to follow up with him again. I'll be very glad to get the hell out of this hotel and back on the road again. He did tell me that I need to see someone about getting my right hip replaced as it obviously doesn't work or move the way it's supposed to do and is only goi...

As dispatch didn't have anything easy for me to do today I spent the day mostly just resting, walking around a bit, and trying to make sure I'm as rested and comfortable as possible for tomorrow's visit to the witch doctor. I'm hoping he will go ahead and release me to return to work full time next week. My back is still a bit stiff and sore but I've worked with it feeling a lot worse than this so it's nothing I can't manage. I walked over to Appleby's for dinner this evening. I had a pre...

Ok, I was bored so I made a few more screenshots of my 3D desktop. Exciting huh? One can also set the perspective so that you are looking at the different desktop screens from inside the cube instead of from the outside.

I had my visit with the witch doctor this morning. He said that while the muscles on the left side of my back were still a bit swollen (I coulda told HIM that ) I was improved enough that he was going to ease my work restrictions a bit. Up to now I haven't been allowed to lift more than 5 lbs. He upped that to 15 lbs. Still no bending or twisting which makes it nearly impossible to do the stuff I normally have to do for my job. But it's progress. I went by the office to talk to them and le...