The folks I delivered to in Ohio were very nice, I was able to bring the entire truck into their shop to untarp and unchain. I managed to drop a dozen or so gallons of snow melt on their nice concrete floor but they were not too worried about it. I did all the untarping but they left me use their shop floor to roll them heavy tarps back up before I left. This is unusual but it was much appreciated.

Now I’m hanging out waiting for my next load, as usual. Hopefully something will come up tomorrow. It usually does…

In other news, my conversion to a Linux-head (is that what they are called?) is progressing smoothly.  For the past three hours I’ve been working on getting Photoshop Elements 5 to work in Ubuntu Linux with the WINE windows emulator.  Got lots  good info from the web and for the most part, it’s working.  Now I’m taking the bold step of upgrading Elements to the 5.0.2 version and that seems to be working as well.  More testing to come, but so far, so good.

Now of I can get my GPS mapping program to install, I’ll be extremely happy and my one day rid myself of the clunky, hanging, crappy Windoze forever!

My wife was literally in the process of kissing me goodbye when the call came in for my current load. A quick trip to Kentucky to pickup some factory machinery going to Ohio (with a side trip back through the house to pickup my forgotten shower bag. I’ve gone three weeks without showering once… ONCE. Not a pretty picture…).

So I’ve got a 12′ tall load of unidentifiable machinery (even the folks that loaded it didn’t know what it was) that had to be tarped. I was seriously dreading wrestling canvas over these tall oblong suckers, but lucky for me, the three folks who loaded it also helped me tarp it too. Which made a half hour job out of a several hour job if I’d had to do it myself. I thanked them profusely (they are one of the few who have EVER helped me tarp) and trundled off toward Ohio.

A quick stop at Leavenworth, Indiana for some lunch and some easy driving have gotten me to Ohio, about an hour short of my delivery spot. I’ve gone down for the night at the pickle park (rest area for you non-truckers) and after a quick bite and a potty break, I’m off to bed. I have no set delivery time tomorrow and they haven’t set me up with my next load yet, so I imagine they’ll get it around 0900. Then off to the nearest Pilot to fuel up and get some money.

Good night, everyone!

I’ve heard that Schneider, the company that taught me how to drive a truck and employed me for my first two years as a potential “Billy Big Rig,” has shut down it’s training operations and is only hiring experienced drivers now.  When I started in 2004, there was a big need for drivers, not so much now in 2009, especially the way the economy is.

Well, the Schneiders and all the other van pullers are already running, they deals with folks that are usually open 24/7 and very rarely shutdown for extended periods during the Holidays. The folks I pickup for DO shutdown their factories and even then are hit hard by the credit crunch. If people aren’t buying heavy equipment and machinery, I can’t haul it. My low-boy trailer isn’t really good for hauling anything else.

Well, I’m under-employed, but I’m still employed. Now if I can get myself running, I’ll be much better off.

Wish me luck!

And for the record:

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!eleven!!1!

And I’m spent…

BTW: the Linux experiment with the laptop is going well, I’ve used Ubuntu and haven’t touched Windoze in a week.  But I’m having problems with Standy and Hiberation on this cheap Toshiba laptop and I still can’t get my Mapping program to run. So when I get back on the road, it’s back to the Evil Empire, at least while I’m driving…

No work for me until at least Monday, I want to make sure that next year I save my vacation time for Christmas. Running these RGN trailers made for even less choice when it comes to loads. No one who needs a low-boy trailer needs it bad enough to pay for someone to run it during this time of year. And most of the businesses I haul for are closed, anyways.

More later…

So I’m blogging and drinking beer but I really wanna drive! Sober, that is…

BTW: New Years resolution? Same as last years… 1024 by 768!

Right now I’m using BloGTK to write this blog entry offline. I tried Drivel, another offline editor and found it a bit wanting in features. BloGTK is not WYSIWYG, but it has a preview that seems to work.

I’ll keep at it with BloGTK till I find something better. Or I get seduced back to the Dark Side…

100 Thing You Have Done.

1. Started your own blog. (Back in 2001 I posted my first drivel on a blogspot blog.).
2. Slept under the stars. (Lots of camping in my youth.)
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited Hawaii. (Lived there for five years, in fact.)
5. Watched a meteor shower. (Many times, usually in the cold clear skies of winter.)
6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
7. Been to Disneyland. (Actually DisneyWorld twice. First time when I was in the Navy.)
8. Climbed a mountain. (Only while driving my truck…)
9. Held a praying mantis. (Then I lost track of him, I found him an hour later, he’d been sitting on my head the whole time!)
10. Sang a solo. (Does Karaoke count?)
11. Bungee jumped. (whaddayou, crazy?)
12. Visited Paris. (Italy, Spain, Sri Lanka, Kenya, England, Scotland, but never Paris unless you mean the one in Texas.)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea. (While in the Navy, over the North Sea, I think.)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch. (Photography, I guess.)
15. Adopted a child.
16. Had food poisoning. (Everytime I eat at a TA truckstop…)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty. (No, but walked to the top of the Scot Monument in Edinburgh.)
18. Grown your own vegetables. (Ended up with TONS of tomatoes. I love tomatoes, but not that much.)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
20. Slept on an overnight train. (The only train I’ve EVER been one is a touristy one in Strasbourg, PA.)
21. Had a pillow fight. (As a kid.)
22. Hitch hiked.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill. (Here’s the point where I say, No comment.)
24. Built a snow fort. (In a cemetary in Virginia.)
25. Held a lamb.
26. Gone skinny dipping. (Once, with the wife.)
27. Run a Marathon. (Not this smoker, but I did a 16 mile “Walk for the Whales” when I was a kid.)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice.
29. Seen a total eclipse. (First one was in Hawaii.)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset. (Too many to recount, love them.)
31. Hit a home run. (I’ve always sucked at baseball.)
32. Been on a cruise. (If four years in the Navy and two trips halfway around the world count.)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors. (Well, my ancestors are from Indiana, so I guess so…)
35. Seen an Amish community. (Near Lancaster, PA.)
36. Taught yourself a new language. (I’ve taken stabs at learning Spanish, to no avail.)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied. (As long as a have a place to live and food to eat, I’m satisfied.)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
39. Gone rock climbing.
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David.
41. Sung karaoke. (With enough booze, anything is possible…)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant.
44. Visited Africa. (Shore leave in Mombasa, Kenya. Lovely place, really)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight. (Once on the East Coast watching a comet, many times in Hawaii.)
46. Been transported in an ambulance. (Cut up my finger in the hydraulics of a school bus door as a kid.)
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing.
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. (What’s all this bias toward all things french?)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling. (In Haunama Bay, also in Hawaii (of course).)
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud. (Just last week… )
54. Gone to a drive-in theater. (Last one was in Memphis, TN, twenty plus years ago.)
55. Been in a movie. (But only on Super 8.)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China.
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class.
59. Visited Russia.
60. Served at a soup kitchen.
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies. (I didn’t know I could!!)
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Got flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma. (Only once, I’m allergic to needles and chickenshit besides.)
65. Gone sky diving. (See #11.)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.
67. Bounced a check. (Not on purpose!!)
68. Flown in a helicopter. (No but I was shot off an aircraft carrier’s catapult.)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten Caviar. (Once, hated it…)
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Times Square.
74. Toured the Everglades.
75. Been fired from a job. (Yep, and I deserved it.)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London. (More shore leave fun.)
77. Broken a bone. (Never, I drink lotsa milk…)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle. (Right before it tried to kill me.)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.
80. Published a book.
81. Visited the Vatican.
82. Bought a brand new car. (Never, in all my years, have I bought new…)
83. Walked in Jerusalem. (But I walked in Memphis, my feet ten feet offa Beale…)
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating. (Fish only.)
88. Had chickenpox. (Or so I’m told…)
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous. (Jack Lord of Hawaii 50 fame, Hairiest knuckles I’ve ever seen on a human! A few years ago saw Dawn Wells (Maryann) at a book signing in a grocery store (how the mighty have fallen).)
92. Joined a book club. (Science Fiction Book Club, if that counts.)
93. Lost a loved one. (too many…)
94. Had a baby. (Now, THAT would be a trick…)
95. Seen the Alamo in person.
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake. (No, but I’ve seen it in person.)
97. Been involved in a law suit.
98. Owned a cell phone. (A must-have in my work.)
99. Been stung by a bee. (A few times, I’m slightly allergic, but no bad incidents, just more annoying than anything else.)
100. Read an entire book in one day.(Lotsa. I’m a reading fool…)

Also, sometimes when I get bored, I do pointless self portraits.

Sorry…

• Thanks to Obama, black people are the hot new Christmas party accessory.
• Islamic surfboards? What will they think of next?!
• The 2008 Douchie Awards are in full swing. Awards already handed out include: Douchiest Hair, Greatest Crisis of Modernity, and Most Deserving of a Trashcan to the Head.Be sure to put in your vote for Orangest Orange, Best Golden Globes, and Most Innovative New Douche Maneuver, and all the other categories. Like in 2008, vote early and vote often!
• Joe Cartoon has declared War On Christmas!
• A nice ghost story for truckers. Don’t eat the stew!
• The Butt-Ugliest car I’ve ever seen. Is this for real? YES!!!!