Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

Accuweather says 48 degrees and rain on Tuesday, Blu. Short sleeves. We're probably stuck with the snow until then. Was hoping it got warm enough to rain today but looks like I'm gonna hafta shovel.

Big berm out at the highway, of course...

 

A Week or More of Spring Promised

According to Accuweather forecast, we have at least a week of Spring-like weather starting on Saturday, and no doubt the area's looking forward to it, myself included: too many weather alerts, too much snow and we had a week of pretty cold. Lots of 10-12 inch deep snow around my property.

Ah! But first we need to get through the ice expected tomorrow morning...

Of course, of course!


//16 degrees on the yard right now, waiting for the warehouse to load my outbound. Wayne's not here yet. Got the meds for Tika's (English lab) this morning on the way in, slid right past their driveway. A little icy out. Then on leaving, backed up over the paved curbing and with front (drive) wheels on ice, stuck there. Young guy gave me a hand as I dug my boots in trying to push from behind. When the car f-i-n-a-l-l-y jumped back over I went splat!! Funny. No harm, no foul but a little closer to the snow than expected...

Got a chicken missing this morning, probably walked over top of trampoline net that was weighted down with 10-inches of snow yesterday and probably couldn't get back in. Will check on her tonight...

Such is Vic's life, uh, my life!

 

A Cheeseburger Difference!!

Thought I might as well look over my pay sheet for last week's check for 3 runs, 1 St. Louis ($217.66), 1 Dayton ($163.24), 1 Kentucky ($216.02). Like Wayne says, the St. Louis pays a $1 menu cheeseburger more than the Kentucky. I'm starting to like the short footprint of the Dayton and Louisville runs. $597.22 gross for 3 day trips. Not much. But works for me.

Ex-girlfriend makes $50/hour working at home, technical writer for a Costa Mesa fiber-optic host bus adapter manufacturer (Emulex). I've reached an age where my girlfriends can buy me and sell me. One before that has $1-1/2 million liquid (prior to this last recession), plus had an office building in Jackson and the house in Bloomington. Why, I've broken up with gals who make/have more money than most drivers have ever seen in one place. The Dobie rescue gal up in Filmore had a house big enough you could fit my place into the big room and when we opened the big double doors from the hallway where her 'personal' dogs stayed during the day while we ran from shelter to shelter gathering up new dogs, you'd a thought it was the running of the bulls. Hated her waterbed. Bad for my back.

Dayton pays the minimum $145 plus stop pay, can start at 7 am and wraps around 4 pm. Even though it pays almost $60 less than Kentucky, the Kentucky almost always turns out to be a 12-hour day compared to a 9-hour day for Dayton. Hey, I'll take the extra time to get things done.

Pay sheet shows miles for Dayton at 354, St. Louis at 486 and Kentucky at 482. Takes a little longer to get into Kentucky compared with Dayton and St. Louis, where they like my TWIC card still. Kentucky no longer likes TWIC, wants RapidGate which going to happen. $225, I think.

The office wasn't aware of the delay this morning, got a roll of the eyes when I told them Wayne told me about it last night. Yuppo, they said Wayne knows more about what's going on than they do. Supposed to get a call when they're done loading mine. It sits directly behind the truck I'm taking and has a red cone at the nose still. Wayne's got done earlier so he may have already left.

In the office, we have 2 choices, Mahogany or Breakfast Blend, Keurig-wise. Breakfast Blend and M&M peanut suits me just fine. The Mahogany? Ugh!! Someone got the last M&Ms out of the machine. Maybe it was me! Didn't look. Glad I got at least the one!

Just got the call, 1 pallet to go and on to Kentucky!!


//Wayne called. Did leave earlier. Said if they (office) want to know what's going on, they can just call him! ("It's no secret, Vic.")

 

The Wheel Turns

Ugh! Spilled coffee getting my gear out of the truck tonight. Usually I like the smell of coffee, uh, not so much all over my monkey suit, truck seat and floor. This is my 2nd clean up in this truck in a week. The last was when my 1 gal jug of Emergen-C and FRS mix tipped.

Tomorrow's Kentucky again, this time at 1100. Would have made more sense than today's 1000 that finally got rolling at 1145. Exactly 12 hours later I was on my way home, driving through Ellettsville thinking about my missing chicken. (Oh, yeah, found.)

The only thing is that Terminal Boss doesn't have a truck for sure by 1100, says there should be one on the yard by then. Should. Well, he emailed. Haven't talked since the ah-hem (am, to you--as in morning).

Oh, it could be mourning, I suppose, too.

Funny how we conjure things up. On the way back I heard the distinctive 'click-click' of a text arriving on my phone. Couldn't look at it right then and didn't want to. Somehow I just 'knew' it was the message that my Mom had passed (she hasn't, altho she'll be 94 in May and will probably make it).

No, with my missing chicken for 2, my Mom passing would be 3. Yeah, I think that's right, because after my Dayton run I stopped by the nursing home to see my buddy Hal, retired Episcopal priest, a lifelong agnostic (I'm not kidding here) and his name was no longer on 'his' room. They said he went peacefully, painlessly and quickly. All good. Made it to 96-years-young.

Well, I wouldn't give a plug nickel for his daughter, but Hal had an interesting dignity about him that comforted people without him trying. Just was that way. Not an Episcopal thing, either. And I was always sorta glad that he was an agnostic inside and not a through-and-through Episcopalian.

The ex-girlfriend was a through-and-through Episcopalian and I'll probably never forgive the Episcopal (Anglican) Church for that. Nope, the liturgy leaves me cold, tellya!!

R.I.P. Hal. And godspeed to where ever you went...