Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

I have been Wal-Mart FREE for over 5 years. I have also been "Black Friday" FREE for about just as long. Actually I think I only went shopping on the day after Thanksgiving just once in my life and that was plenty enough of the experience for me. I don't see the sense in the madness and I can't support the freakin' idiots that participate in the madness. If you're one of those freaks, my condolences. I can't seem to wrap my brain around the way people have evolved into such animalistic assholes just to save a buck for one of the "Christian faith's most celebrated holidays". Perhaps it's just the adrenaline rush. Maybe its just the thrill of the hunt and the chase. Maybe... maybe it's just people being assholes. Whatever the reason, it's senseless. And it certainly doesn't fit into the ideals of the Christian faith. The sales and lower prices will not bring peace of mind. They will not make one into a better parent, friend, ...

Yep... two gifts in one. Pictures and now this (or this and then pictures...whatever)! So today was a rather interesting day. I woke up in Knoxville, headed south to towards Chattanooga...actually to a town called Cleveland, TN. I delivered a load of Chep pallets to the P&G/Duracell place there. Things were going great until I got stuck sitting and waiting for my next load assignment. For some reason or another our box planning department, which is responsible for assigning empty trailers to drivers when needed for a load assignment, decided not to do it's job for me in any semblance of a timely manner today. When a driver is without an empty trailer and requires one to either be live loaded or swap for a pre-loaded trailer, then box planning must find an empty for the driver to acquire. When the dispatcher has put a new assignment on a driver, the macro's can't be sent over the Qualcomm until the box planners do their job of assigning a trailer pick up location. ...

Consider it an early Christmas present... here's a few new pics to enjoy! The snow was heavy on the trees along I-77 south in WV during the first real snow of the season. It was lovely! More snowy goodness. I love looking at it... hate being out in it. Lucky for me the roads were cleared by the time I came through. I heard it was a mess early in the day. YIKES! The uphill battle truly isn't always obvious. This one doesn't look too bad, but I had to take it in 7th gear! (for the non-truckers that's about 25-29 MPH) But hey... at least the scenery was nice! Along part of the old Historic Rt. 66 in Illinois I found this little station on my way to deliver a load. I wish there'd been room for me to park and get out and snap a few other pictures but alas... all I got was this one shot from the intersection. Sunrise in Kentucky. Being silly and enjoying some of the unique features on my new camera. This one is called "color swap"... and it's tons of...

My head is killing me so for those of you who are lazy readers, this blog will suit you perfectly. ha! Unless of course, I get on a roll and my fingers walk quickly all over this keyboard. Which, honestly... probably won't happen. I just wanted to blog a quick one to mark the occasion of my survival of my first taste of winter. I had picked up a load in Illinois the other day which I had to deliver in Charlotte, NC this morning. The route the company gave me took me along the southern route, the route I decided to take took me into WV where I could have lunch with my sweetums and only be 30 miles out of route. Of course, had I taken the southerly route I'd have postponed my first snow squall of the season. But instead I got to drive right through the thick of it. And honestly, it wasn't as bad as I'd expected. The I-77 corridor going south through WV, south of Charleston that is, is notorious for it's winding turns and steep grades. It's also where most ...

If you need something positive to read during these not so positive times, I suggest you head to your nearest bookstore and purchase your very own copy of Glenn Beck's "The Christmas Sweater". I just sat and absorbed the entire novel in one sitting (well, with one potty break). I have to say that in the current world, the message of this simple story will warm you to your core and give you new found hope for the road ahead. It dragged me through many emotions, some I wasn't sure I was looking for, some I'm still not sure I wanted to experience. But in the end I'm ever so glad I put the time into reading this novel. I don't think that I will even feel the true message of "The Christmas Sweater" immediately. I don't suspect that it will happen tomorrow even. But in time, it will sink in completely and that moment of "ah-ha!" will occur and I will be all the better for it. It's interesting to me that just about two weeks ago someth...

I appreciate all of the concern expressed in regards to my escape from New Hampshire. I did finally get the out bound load I was waiting for on Wednesday morning. I picked up in Mass. and headed south to Va. En route I even got a stop over at our terminal in Carlisle, PA complete with a hotel room for the night. woo hoo I drove from Carlisle to Lynchburg, VA where I delivered in the afternoon. Then I headed to the Ga. Pacific in Big Island, VA to acquire my next load. I was told that I could head over and probably get in line to be loaded early. So I hit the road, enjoying the rolling hills and curvy roads towing an empty trailer (not so much fun with a heavy load). I arrived and checked in only to learn that they could not load me any sooner than 21:30 last night. Unfortunately for me, my 14 ended at 20:45 so I would have to take a 10 hr. break and check back in the morning. So, that's what I did. I settled in for the evening, chatting with another company driver who was ...

I don't believe I'll ever get out of here. Last night I inquired with the Company about my position on the waiting for freight list. I was #34. This morning I inquired again. I was #25. About 30 minutes ago I inquired once more. I was #10. I'm movin ' on up... but not movin ' out. I'm bored. I've certainly idled away any hope for a bonus this quarter. And I'm getting irritable. The Internet just doesn't provide as much entertainment for me as it once did. I've blogged, sent various emails and messages to friends, balanced my bank account, read blogs, researched things to do in eastern PA for when I take my week off there in December. Hmm ... what to do what to do?! UPDATE: 11/11/08 15:33 PM EST: Received a message from my manager and dispatcher both stating that I should prepare for another cold night in New Hampshire. Apparently not gonna get out of here until sometime tomorrow. BAH.

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my digital camera post. I'm still torn between a couple cameras but I figure that once I see them and play with them in person I will make up my mind. It's either the compact Canon SD1100 IS or the Nikon Cool Pics L18. The deciding factor may actually just be the battery. The Canon uses a Li-Ion battery which is touted to last longer than any regular batteries. The Nikon uses plain ol ' AA batteries... on which I've probably spent enough in the past year alone to have purchased a pretty nice new camera. But I do want to play around with each of them and see what I think about their individual ease of use. So hopefully I will get a friggin ' load out of New Hampshire headed towards home tomorrow. I have a few things I need to take care of at home ASAP, the camera being one of the most minor. But if I don't get it returned to the store by next Monday I'll be stuck with it, hoping to sell it only on ebay . And I...

I recently bought a Kodak EasyShare M863 camera at Circuit City. I am not thrilled with the quality of pictures and some of the camera's functions. Mind you, I've only taken about 50 pictures so far, but when I uploaded them to my laptop and viewed them on the screen, they just looked horrible. My old camera was a Sony Cybershot DSC-S600. It took GREAT pictures but it had a lot of mechanical issues. I'd sent it back to the factory three times and it could really be worked on agian, but alas, my warranty is kaputz. So I've snapped off my usual fare of en route, on the road pictures and all of them suck. I've tried about 5 of the major "settings" and it doesn't seem to matter what I do, but they all turn out grainy and "foggy" and just crummy. For the money I paid for this camera it should take better quality pictures. Of course, today I reviewed the new camera online via various sites and it seems that the "crummy picture syndrome...

I've learned recently that some folks feel like I'm bombarding them with words. Some have commented that I'm long winded and that my blogs are excessive in content. Well boo hoo! If you don't want to read long blogs, then move along. I'm not forcing anyone to read my blog. Heck, as much as it thrills me to know I have a small following of readers, it's not like I actually ever expected anyone to actually read my crap. And if you find my entries too long, then I say again, move along. Find something else to read. I don't care. I write how I think and I think A LOT. That's just me. Like it or leave it, baby. On that note, I will also mention in reference to the title of this blog that it was insanely windy down here in the great states of Tennessee and Arkansas both yesterday and today. My word! I was blown all over the road, especially yesterday when my overall gross weight was much less than today. But even at about 77K today, I was having trouble keepin...

Well I was a "Buccaneer Beauty" for our annual Halloween Bash. It was fun. I enjoyed myself. I ate, drank and was merry! Our party, both nights of it, were both poorly attended. But we managed to have a freakin' awesome time with those who did show up. You ROCK. Things had been such a blurr for the past few weeks thanks to the allergy retarded-ness that I was dealing with. I was pretty much on auto-pilot for nearly 5 weeks, my turbulence was sneezing and my complimentary pillow and blanket came in the form of over-priced kleenex. Damn truck stops charge way too much for necessary items these days. But after a trip to the doctor last week when I got home I am much better. I was prescribed my trusty ol' cocktail of allergy meds and started them right away. It only took about three days for my sinuses to finally get back to normal. Well, as normal as they can be. And I am soooo happy to be back on track. I don't think I could've taken another sneezing fit. Honest...