It really, really rubs me the wrong way to have to ask anyone for help, especially when it comes to money, but I'm in a jam. I lost my home back in 2010 and have been homeless since then. It it weren't for driving a truck for a living I would have no place to sleep at night. I make ok money driving a truck, but not great. Between paying back child support, {I got behind when I was off work for over a year due to a car accident), which is over $210 a week from my paycheck, and just bas...

I'm currently in a motel room in Buffalo, NY. I delivered some snow removal stuff for a trade show. I arrived in Buffalo on Wednesday and sat in the marshaling yard until Friday evening when I finally got unloaded and then checked into the motel. I'll be hanging out here until Wednesday when I reload and take the stuff back where I got it. Fun, fun. Life has been, well, life. People come, people go. Good people die, bad people live on.  These days I'm just doing my job....

My baby brother died of cancer on Saturday. He was a good man.    

I haven't had a cigarette in months now. I've completely switched to vapor and love it. I feel a lot better, don't cough in the mornings any more, and my breathing is great now.  I smoked for over 35 years and was up to 3 packs/day. Today I bought my 8th "mod". It's a monster and I love it. Here's a photo of it between two other mods that are considered to be large. It's a fracking beast.  

My newest eCig mod setup had arrived in the mail and was waiting for me when I got to the office yesterday. It's an eVic vaporizor and a Protank 2 clearomizer. I already had the skull drip tip. The eVic is quite the nice mod, pretty high tech. It has a usb port for charging as well as connecting it to the computer to upload/download data and settings to and from the device as well as upgrading the firmware as updates are released to add features and fix any bugs (of which I haven't ye...

I've been trying to quit smoking cigarettes using ecigs instead. Not the ones that look like cigarettes but "mods". Big batteries, put in the flavor of liquid of your choice. I had cut way down but still had been smoking some cigs. I've been in a motel since yesterday afternoon, in a state that doesn't allow smoking in any hotel/motel room while my truck is having some electrical issues repaired. I've just vaped while I have been here. Earlier I walked to the c-store acr...

I've found an effective way to stop smoking cigarettes; vapor. In the past I had tried those "cigalikes", the e cigarettes that look like a real cigarette. I found they really didn't taste all that good, were expensive, and very unreliable. Now I have discovered that there are far better vaping devices out there. Mods. Devices with large capacity batteries, look nothing like a real cigarette, and you can add a huge variety of e liquid aka "juice" flavors to them.  I now hav...

After my work day ended yesterday I took a nice two mile walk to stretch my legs and enjoy this warm Texas weather. While walking I found a five dollar bill in the grass beside the road. I got the benefits of the exercise plus put an extra five bucks in my pocket.

My right shoulder has really been giving me a lot of shit lately. As in the past three months or so. Hurts like hell. I'm assuming it's arthritis. Yesterday I decided to give Osteo Bi-flex a try. It may be snake oil, it may work. I guess I'll find out, but I needed to do something. I can't even shift gears in my truck without pain, never mind all of the chaining and strapping I do as a regular part of my job. Getting old sucks.

Today I finally got around to getting a Windows phone. It'll take me a few days to get it set up the way I want and to get used to using it, but so far I am really digging it. It really is a very good phone OS. Between the three choices available through VZW, I went with the Nokia Lumia 822. I really do like this phone. I've spent the past couple of hours downloading the apps I need. The only app I really need that isn't (yet) available for WP8 is one I use for work to scan my pap...

Yesterday I put my truck in the shop for routine servicing. He also serviced my APU. Everything seemed fine when I left, until I went to start the APU. It wouldn't run. It had been running just fine earlier that morning, before being serviced. The shop is only open half a day on Saturday, and is closed on Sunday. I called the guy who runs the shop and told him about the problem. He called me back a little later and told me one of the mechanics, a different one, would meet me at the s...

Yesterday morning I loaded in North Bend, WA, put off two stops in Seattle, and then set out for Salt Lake City. The plan was to get to SLC by noon today, put off that final stop, and then reload for Michigan. Well, I got as far as Baker City, OR last night. The last fifty miles was a nightmare due to Winter weather conditions. I had to stop here because they have up chain restrictions from here to the Idaho line. That means trucks have to put on tire chains. Our company policy is "We don'...

Last night I was in a place I stop in semi-regularly and the young bartender, a kid really, at some point mentioned how she would like to have an iPad but can't afford one. Since I bought my Surface tablet I haven't touched my iPad at all. While I was outside having a smoke I got to thinking about that and walked out to my truck, grabbed my iPad and it's charger, did an erase and reset on it while I finished my smoke, and carried back inside with me. I showed it to her, complete w...

Taking the weekend off to try and get over a nasty bug. Been sick as a dog since Monday and just couldn't keep going. Flu I suppose. I'm in a cheap motel with enough food and supplies to get me through the weekend. I don't want to have to go out unless I have no choice. My ribs are sore from coughing, my body aches in general, and my head is so plugged everything sounds like I'm under water. But, I do feel a tad better today than I have all week so I guess I'm on the mend....

I've been using Android phones for a long time now, and Linux even longer, but recently I have become something of a fan of Windows 8. I am running 8 on one of my laptops and have a Surface tablet. I really like it. I have been seriously considering dropping my Galaxy s3 Android phone for a Windows phone. As I am on Verizon and don't want to switch carriers I am currently limited to two phones, the HTC 8x and the Nokia 822. The HTC is arguably the higher end hardware and would normall...