I've been watching a program on PBS this morning caled Texas Ranch House. The premise basically is there is a group of people who have come to live on a ranch in Texas. They live and work as people did there in 1867. It's fairly interesting to see how they deal with the living conditions of a 19th century ranch. Their objective is to get the new ranch, owned by the Cooke family, up and running. They must build a corral and then round up free roaming Longhorn cattle and sell them for a prof...

Are you beautiful? Really? Are you sure? beau·ti·ful Pronunciation Key (byt-fl) adj. 1. Having qualities that delight the senses, especially the sense of sight. 2. Excellent; wonderful. Do you have qualities that delight the senses? Are you excellent and womderful? Why? Why not? While I may not be physically delightful, I like to think I am mentally so. I am intelligent and have a very good sense of humor. These things make me beautiful to me if no-one else. I have stre...

Was there anyone who didn't kill Kenny?

Found this on the web. Kinda gives a new meaning to BSOD Link

Found this on the web. Kinda gives a new meaning to BSOD Link

This is nothing more than the expanding of a passing thought. I am home now. What is "home" for many people? There are people who live in grand estate mansions and people who live in a cardboard box in some alley. Is one really more of a home than another for the person(s) who live there? If so, how? I have lived in a single room house without plumbing and used an outhouse and got my water from a well. I have lived in a very nice mutli-story house that was built before the Cival War. I ...

When I got home today I noticed a wasp buzzing around in the house. As he wasn't really bothering anything and didn't seem interested in stealing my beer I decided to leave him alone for a while. I knew at some point I would need to get rid of him, but for a little while I didn't see any harm in letting him/her/it explore a bit. I went into the bathroom a few minutes ago and there he/she/it was crawling around on the window screen. I decided it had spent enough time exploring my home and i...

I managed to make it home today without any further incidents or problems. I rested for a moment, aired up the bike tires, and made my way to grocery store for weekend supplies. I am now enjoying a late lunch. Are there any two better matched flavors than pizza and beer?

One of the pics I shot as part of the accident report.

I sprained my left wrist a couple of weeks ago while chaining down a load. It was the load to California in fact. It wasn't a bad sprain as sprains go, but with the constant driving and working it just really hasn't improved all that much. I can stand the pain well enough, but the weakness associated with the sprain has really been bugging me, especially when trying to work. Today while doing the detach to drive the fire truck off the trailer I grabbed the 4x4 lumber I use to support the t...

I made it down to the Port of Miami this morning. Wow, their security is something else. There was a line of trucks a couple of miles long trying to get into the port. It took me two hours to get through the line, prsent my ID and paperwork to three different people, have a police officer run a background check on me, and then actually get into the port. Once inside the port it took several more hours to get the load unloaded. This should have only taken about 20 minutes, but that's a busy...

I was in my bunk just drifting off to sleep when the truck suddenly started shaking violently and I felt the front end moving to the side. Ack! I knew exactly what was happening. I threw on my pants and shoes very quickly and jumped out to access the damage. Sure enough a rookie driver with all of 2 months of experience caught the left side of my front bumer with his trailer wheel by cutting the corner too sharply. It bent the bumper out about 18 inches and slide the whole front of the tru...

As is true in most industries, truckers have their own language. Our jargon is a mixture of CB radio talk and assorted nicknames and redefinitions. Most are fairly obvious, but others may leave some people wondering "What did they just say?" So I decided to put together a list of trucker jargon and their definitions. In no special order: 10-4 - affirmative or message received 42 - affirmative or I agree 10-33 - Vehicle accident - "There's a 10-33 2 miles ahead of you" 10-36 - t...

While I was inside the truckstop getting my evening movie watching snack I was checking out the DVD sale rack where they have the ones they sell for 10 bucks. Another driver was also standing there doing likewise. He was checking out a movie that I happen to have and I mentioned to him that I thought it was a pretty good action flick. We then started telling each other about the ones displayed that we already own as we both have a pretty good collection, and reviewing which we thought were...

Bright and early this morning I got a call from the office saying that the new GA permit had arrived. I went inside the truckstop and got myself a temporary fax box. Flying J truckstops have these kiosks where you can get a fax box for free for 2 hours complete with a toll free fax number. You then simply print out the fax for 25 cents a page. That's much better than what most truckstops charge for faxes. It's normally something like 3 bucks for the first page and a buck a page after that. ...