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Showing posts from December, 2010

2010 - In Retrospect...

Oh how fun and funny it is to review posts from the past year! In January I vowed to use my mini-stair stepper while I was out on the road... totally didn't happen. I think it stayed in the truck with me another couple of months and then it found a home in the basement. February, I only made one post in which I proclaimed my love for my iPhone and The Twilight Saga... both of which I still obsess over, to a lesser extent. I bought and watched "Eclipse" last night finally and dang it, now I wanna start reading the books all over again. But of course, I got the whole Harry Potter series for Christmas this year and it's next on the list. So Edward and Bella and Jacob will just have to wait. Oh boy, in March I learned lessons , blogged about how I took my sweetie for a three week ride along and about how I had some truck trouble that was annoying. Which reminds me, I saw Kenny about two months ago with another pumpkin lady driving him. I hope she has a better exp

Holidoze

I survived the whirlwind Holiday weekend. The family was good to my sweetie and I this year, we scored a Keurig coffee maker, mula , and all sorts of fun goodies to eat, play with, and enjoy. We ate, drank and were merry. And now it's back to life, back to reality, with both of us developing nasty colds or whatever this crap is. Blah. Aside from that... nothing too exciting. I did find a Taco Bell in a neighboring state where I run routes at work that still has the chili cheese burrito on the regular menu on Sunday. Here in town, our Taco Bell's have it only on very rare occasions as a special item that lasts for a few weeks. Much like the McRib that drags hillbillies out the hollar a'droolin ' for that sweet bbq pork-like product on a bun. Except that the chili cheese burrito is actually good. Well, time to take another zinc supplement and make some chicken noodle soup. *sniffle, cough*

Holidaze

Yesterday, my first of three days off for the week, I realized I still had a few last minute gifts to pick up. I also had gotten an e-mail the night before from a certain big electronics store telling me that my new flat screen, LCD HD TV was ready to be picked up. This meant going to what we locally refer to as "South Ridge". Located just south of Charleston on Rt. 119 (aka Corridor G) is a series of highly congested strip malls filled with stores and restaurants, just like the ones you see in thousands of towns across America. Strip malls annoy me because they ruined the awesomeness that was once a REAL MALL, you know kind that had a parking garage, food court, multiple levels and the convenience of being able to go from store to store without having to escape the season appropriate climate controlled indoor environment. We do still have such malls in the area, one is just a hop, skip and a jump away from my house, located in the heart of Downtown. But trust me, the gran

Rain Drops on Roses

And whiskers on kittens. Yesterday I watched a little birdie doing something odd in a bed of mulch. It was a wee little wren I believe, but he looked mighty with his feathers all fluffed out, trying to keep warm I suppose. But the little feathered friend of mine was doing something I couldn't figure out. It was hopping back and forth in the mulch seeming digging a hole. It was the cutest darn thing ever. Bitty bird worked fast, much faster than seemed natural. As it hopped back and forth it was using its feet to displace mulch and dirt making a little dugout. I thought maybe it was looking for food, worms or something, but after making a sufficient dent in the ground it seemed to grow bored and flew away. I was there for about 30 minutes, figured I'd see him return. But alas, it never did. Today, I was amused by the footprints of another bird in another town, left in the fresh dusting of snow that fell last night. From what I could tell it was either a very tall bird w

Yeah, I made that.

I almost didn't do it. I played with my photo editing software creating a possible new header for my blog using a new picture I'd taken. I debated for quite some time whether or not to actually use it. I love love love the header that Salena had made for my page. But I was also battling with the internal need for a fresh look and a little change of pace. With the more personal direction my blog is taking, not being just about trucking stuff anymore, I felt a new look was in the future. After finalizing the header in the editing program I stared at it for well over 20 minutes, wondering if it had the look and feel I was looking for. Would it suit me? My blog? Would it cost me readers or maybe attract new ones? Would anyone even care or notice? Debating over, I headed over to the design section of my blogger account for this blog and tried it on. Fiddling with the backgrounds and font colors and such, trying it all on for size. I found the right mix of everything and without hes

Path of Least Resistance?

Yeah, so yesterday after I had made all of my deliveries and was headed back to the depot I realized that I was gonna end up making a day of it in less than 10 hours. Having had a short day of it on Monday and only putting in two tens I really needed all the extra time I could get on the week for my last day of work. I looked at the clock and noticed that it was coming up on rush hour. Doing a few quick calculations I knew I needed to burn at least an extra 45 minutes to make a full ten hour shift for the day. With that in mind, I had to then choose which route to take and what additional things I could do along the way to stretch the time as best I could. I didn't want to do anything personal with company time, because I DO have work ethic against that sort of thing. Even though I could have stopped and done some window shopping along the way. Instead I checked my fuel gauge and figured I could stop off and get the tanks topped off which would burn about 15 minutes. But dang

Suicidal Spider

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So I was doing my thang at work yesterday when I came upon a fill box that contained what I can only describe as a spider that committed suicide. Many of our fill boxes are small aluminum boxes attached to the outside of the customers' building. They have a hinged, locking door that opens to reveal the fill bib upon which we screw our fill gun to do the thing we're paid to do. When I opened one of these boxes yesterday I found that there was a spider of sizable proportions, hanging limp legged from a thick strand of webbing. At first glance I thought maybe it was just frozen to the inside wall of the box next to the fill bib, but then I saw the strand of silk that I swear seemed to be wound around the head of the spider. Perhaps the poor bastard just couldn't handle being a creepy nasty spider any longer and decided to end it all. Perhaps it was trying to spin a web and just had an accident. Maybe, a scorned spider lover killed it and staged it to look like a suicide. Whate

Ashamed, almost. And apples are hazardous to your health.

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Today I put in the effort, I got dressed for cold weather, I got my mind past the snowy and blustery bologna going on outside the house, and I pumped myself for a day of work. I cleared the snow off the car, drove to the shop, cleared the snow off the truck, headed into the world ready to work. Little did I know I'd chicken out after a couple of oh-so-near-misses. I drove nearly an hour south of the city to do a route today. The last one for the week (my company work week is technically Tuesday through Monday). It was a measly 15 stops, all pretty close together. I got to my first stop, backed in as close as I could get to the tank I needed to fill, bundled up and trudged through the snow. When my duty was complete I headed back to the truck to work up a receipt for the customer when the first idiot of the day nearly whacked my truck with her SUV. I just don't get why people think they're invincible behind the wheel of these over sized vehicles. I don't care if it is a

Pain, Agony, Despair

Today I'm going to go see a chiropractor. I hope she can help fix the pain, agony and despair that has become my body. I think I've got something really screwed up in my cervical spine (aka I've got a pain in the neck). I've been waking up in the middle of the night with pain in both of my arms. Pretty bad pain. Which is accompanied by intense tingling and numbness in my hands. It's terrible. Last night I noticed that I was waking up when I rolled onto either side. Laying flat on my back is the only position that doesn't seem to cause the pain to flare up. I attempted to prop myself up on more pillows, that didn't help. I tried laying with out a pillow, didn't help either. I might have gotten about 5 hours of total sleep last night because of this. The worst yet. Most nights I've only woken up once or twice. Last night, it was half a dozen times or more. This sucks. UPDATE Went for my first visit with the chiropractor. Holy crap I'm screwed up. M