All I Want Is Freedom

Did you miss me?

2025-01-10T22:30:00.000-06:00

Probably not, but I'm not upset, much.

Anyways. The blog was down for a bit for unknown reasons. Well, one reason is most likely that I went dicking with things that one should not go dicking with and broke something. Most likely, I started something when updating Godaddy payment in October, and seeing as that I have mostly ignored this place; I didn't notice it was broken until December.

Which meant going through every possible search that I could think of to try to rectify the issue to no avail. I let it sit for a week, started a new and went back to a previous fix that I had found but did not attempt.

https://www.twistblogg.com/2019/09/solved-godaddy-domain-non-working-without-www.html?m=1

I did the things there to fix my site, mostly from the one picture showing the DNS records that were needed for the blogger to work correctly when redirecting from a custom name or to a custom; forgive me, I am not literate in this regard. Those things also fixed the HTTPS issue that I wasn't worried about.

Now I just hopefully got AdSense working again. Not sure why as it has not earned me any money in these years that is any sort of bankable.

Hopefully, this will keep this thing running for several more years to come...that is, if I would make the effort to post on here more often than I do once a quarter of the year.

tu es amor

2024-03-08T00:46:00.001-06:00

I'm riding a bicycle behind some buildings on the edge of a town.

I turn onto a crumbly asphalt driveway towards them.

I end up on a tree line street with full oak trees, leaves on the road and sidewalk.

I street the bike into a hole and fall down. I quickly get up and grab the bike heading to the street.

Someone yells, "TU ES AMOR PARADE!"

People come out of the buildings to crowd the street to wait for the parade to come.

I cannot move from the press of people, I'm stuck.

I can see the parade coming down the street. Large floats decorated in reds, whites and pinks.

Before me is standing Morena Baccarin. Smiling a large smile. She is carrying large heart shaped cookies with pink, red or white icing. She is breaking them apart and handing them out. I can see a price tag on the back of some pieces, I don't know why this stands out to me but it just does.

Morena looks at me and offers a piece of cookie. I open my mouth and accept it.

Pizza Delivery During A Pandemic

2020-05-28T19:50:00.001-05:00

Domino's and Papa John's have started contactless delivery during this time of covid. Which is great, I don't have to worry about someone getting cozy next to me while giving up the pizza like we are trying to buy drugs.

That is if my wife and I still ordered pizza because we don't because we are broke.

Like a Dad joke.

Anyways

The aforementioned institutes of pizza delivery, those Titans of pie are running ads stating how they are handling your za during this uncertain time.

Domino's says no one will open the box after the contents have been placed inside and the lid is closed.

Papa John's says they have a sticker sealing theirs.

I don't know about other pizza places but before this time I should've felt confident that after those lids were closed at the store that they were not opened until they were opened again by those that have purchased them. It is an unwritten agreement so to say. Now with this proclamations and addition of a seal; for Papa John's, I'm lead to believe that there was a possibility that someone may have been snookering stray toppings before dropping off the goods?

Sounds about right to me.

These practices should've been started years ago not just because of a pandemic. Now they make it sound like this is being done for your piece of mind. I didn't ask for this but now it opens up, nigh, verifies that before there was a chance that I'm short a slice of pepperoni or chicken wing because Donnie has the munchies.

Fucking Donnie.

Coronavirus

2020-04-17T11:57:00.001-05:00

Covid19

Coronavirus

SARS-covid-2

Whatever name you associate with this virus, it has affected all of us. No one on this planet is going to go through this year without being touched by this in some sort of way. If you manage to not become ill, you might know someone that does, you need to practice social distancing, wash your hands and use sanitizer more often, dealing with shortages in the stores because of panic buying and on and on and on.

If you have read this anytime within the past few posts, you know that my wife is a high risk person if she were to catch it. I being a truck driver am at a high risk of not necessarily catching it but possibly carrying it home to my wife. The plus for me is that I am a introvert naturally so keeping to myself is pretty easy, as I used to say in my younger days, "I hate everybody equally". (I could be a pleasure to be around as you could tell) So staying in my truck and not hanging out in truckstops or my companies operating centers comes second nature.

The issue are with those that think this is no big deal and that do not practice keeping their distance. People that are trying to infect others purposely by not self quarantining and still going out to stores or to work.

This is larger than just me or you, it is larger than any of us will ever know. We need to work together to keep each other safe and to keep those that are high risk safe by practicing social distancing, hygiene and staying home.

Now about glove wearing. Just wash your hands and use sanitizer when you can't. If you aren't changing gloves everytime that you touch something new, like when shopping, you are just possibly spreading the virus to everything you touch after. Think about how medical personnel use gloves or food service workers, they change gloves after changing tasks. For medical personnel that is after each patient and using sanitizer before and after wearing gloves. My wife was in the hospital earlier this year and last week (I'll touch on last week shortly) so I was able to observe the earlier this year checkups by nurses and Drs during that time. Food service workers are supposed to change gloves and wash hands after handling raw foods, ready to eat foods (think raw vegetables not being cooked before eating, cooked meats or cured meats, etc.) handling cleaning products or cleaning, handling money. For food service there is potentially lots of glove changing, this is why many restaurants do not allow moving between stations, i.e. a grill cook handling chicken then assembling the plate that cooked chicken then goes on. Point is, don't wear gloves when out shopping. Wipe down your stuff after you get home, is that really necessary? Maybe not but considering the length of time that this survives on surfaces, I feel it is best to practice it.

Now about my wifes recent visit to the ER/hospital. She had an event that her life vest was about to shock her. She was awake and was able to stop it before she was shocked. Her mother took her to the ER to get checked out, my wife was admitted for a couple days. I had left out for the week that day and turned around and came right back home once I was notified of what happened. Once I got home, I was not able to see my wife. No visitors. Period. If she needed anything, it was to be brought with her room number on the bag and dropped at the entrance. Hospitals are on lockdown during this time. It sucks if you have someone in the hospital or if you yourself need to be admitted because depending what the visit is for it could be the difference in the length of stay and how well one will recover.

Also, stop with the posts about all our pork being processed in China and shipped back to the U.S.; it is not true. Smithfield was purchased in 2013 by a Chinese conglomerate but the pigs are raised in the U.S., slaughtered in the U.S., processed in the U.S. and some is sold here in the U.S. but the lions share is shipped to China to be sold in China. The reason is that China's swine population was decimated by Swine flu and they could not recover so they import most of their pork nowadays. The United States of America is the largest producer of pork in the world, China is the largest consumer. Kinda of like soy, China consumes it, U.S. is the largest seller of soy to China; we are the second largest producer in the world, Brazil is the largest.

Anyways, those are my thoughts about all of this, scattered brain and all.

Sleeping

2020-01-28T22:16:00.001-06:00

Wife has had a bit of a scare recently the past couple days with issues of the heart. Issues of the health heart kind, not of the trouble love kind; just to clarify.

Anyways.

Three nights in the hospital and the second and third night she's been able to sleep, something she has not been able to do for a long time. See, she doesn't sleep much or very well to begin with and it's been getting worse for some time. Started with her not sleeping long in the bed and moving to her recliner. Then escalated to her laying down when I go to bed moreso for me, then going to her recliner. To finally just starting in her recliner to try to sleep and getting very little.

The past month she's been having trouble breathing or really getting winded after a very short while. She'd go to Dr. with Dr. prescribing a new asthma medication or saying it's a cold/sinusitis/bronchitis and prescribe antibiotics with steroids with a "check up in a month".

Meanwhile it's only getting worse.

To the point that two days after Christmas, we go to emergency room for, to me, a concerning but of leg swelling. That's a sign of heart issues BTW. That emergency room says gastritis, and bronchitis, sends us home. There was a prescription for something, can't remember and the full amount of a stomach medicine like Omeprazole. Oh, they did do an ultrasound on the swelling leg for any blood clots, there were none.

She checks up with normal Dr. and she gets some antibiotics and steroids shot. Make a checkup.

Doesn't help. Still having shortness breath and no sleep except for a few minutes at a time.

Things get no better, she goes to Minute Clinic at CVS. She gets more antibiotics and steroids. No change.

Back to regular Dr. for a "just needs to run its course".

...

.....

Anywhoo

Another Minute Clinic visit she gets some stomach meds because she's throwing up. Has been this entire time, it's just really worse now. They prescribe the nuclear option kind. They help at first but then they don't.

So. Saturday I get home early morning 2:30. We talk, I go to bed after a shower. She's in recliner not sleeping. I wake up to her throwing up she says she's fine, I go back to sleep. In the morning (noon), I wake up and make us something to eat. She eats most of breakfast. She's worried, I'm concerned, we decide to go to emergency room 20 miles away.

We get checked in and when we go back the PA and nurse dig down through her history. Blood is drawn, CT scan done, EKG hooked up. Wife is stressing about cost, I'm telling her don't worry about we'll get through this, I'm concerned about you and not the cost of this. You (her) being healthy is more important to me. This hospital says they think it looks like congestive heart failure, your being admitted, either here or the next hospital over.

Spoiler alert: it was the next hospital.

Away she goes in an announcement ride to the next emergency room. I understand that every Dr needs to probably hear why you decided to come to emergency room but after Dr. number three comes around, well you wonder if anyone is working any of this down or inputting into a computer that others can look at before seeing the patient. I'm sure there is a reason, maybe to make sure people aren't there to score pain meds or just a hypochodriac. I understand but in that moment it makes you feel frustrated. She sat in a room in the emergency room overnight (Saturday) and most of the next day (Sunday) before getting a room in the afternoon. The following day (Monday) they worked on getting her leg swelling down and drawing blood every six hours to check for a certain protein that the heart releases after a heart attack.

Tuesday, they did a heart catheterization to check for clogs, she was clear. Once she was back into her room, the cardiologist came by to give us the skinny. He doesn't think it's congestive heart failure but it's thinking more AFib. Which medication can help to strengthen heart, they believe it is weak from a possible viral infection. She will be fitted with a life vest, which is a vest that had an aed built so if her heart stops, it'll shock her back.

Wednesday, tomorrow, we hope she can go home. Hoping.

I started this only to say I'm sitting her beside her while she sleeps soundly for the first time in months. She wakes up occasionally after mumbling things, falls back asleep. One time, she had her arm up, palm flat and did like a queen wave, then back to sleep.

It's cute.

S. H. I. E. L. D. / Endgame

2019-09-27T11:29:00.001-05:00

Slowly catching up on Agents of SHIELD and I've just finished the episode where Fitz has the mental break and Mainframe Fitz takes control.

I only say that so if you are familiar with the show, you know where I am.

Anyways.

This season of SHIELD they were transported into the future, then managed to return to their current time to fix/prevent the future from happening. The future being that the Earth was destroyed and split apart. Rumor is that Daisy/Quake was the cause, she is the world destroyer.

Now what does this have to do with Endgame? Well, both Agents of SHIELD and Endgame deal with time travel as a main plot point. AoS, the agents are sent into the future via one of the monoliths; there are three apparently. In Endgame, Banner Hulk and Antman use the Quantum Realm to go back into time to be able to fix the future.

Here's where the hitch between the two is, in Endgame time travel is explained that the past cannot be changed, it is the past and is written. All of the movies that deal with time travel are wrong in their premise that by changing the past, you change the future. The butterfly effect is a lie so to speak. Endgame isn't looking to fix the past because of this and decide to fix the present by fixing what Thanos took by stealing the infinity stones from the past bringing them into the future and reversing the snap.

Now with AoS, the plan is to stop the future by preventing the present.

I'm guessing that the way around the Endgame canon, (is it canon?) is that seeing that AoS were out of their correct time period and in the future after the world was destroyed AoS have not happened yet so they have the ability to change the future as the future has not been written yet. AoS cannot go back to season 1 and prevent Ward from betraying them as the past is written.

I just explained this for myself by questioning everything.

You are welcome.

Lacking

2019-09-18T12:48:00.001-05:00

I'm in a rut, creatively that is.

Seems I have so many ideas of things to do but just can't seem to get things out of my head into some sort of reality, into some sort of tangible thought beside the nebulous fog that it resides in.

Like?

Writing for one. This was a passion but now when I go to fill this space, my head goes blank as soon as I open the app to start tippy tappin' words, even though three seconds earlier I may have had words and thoughts formed fully fledged that just needed to be placed.

The fog is real.

Then there is drawing,/doodling/designing/etc. that pops into my head that, again, is fully fleshed but cannot seem to make it to reality. I try to make an earnest go to get things right but it looks like a fridge drawing that I have to Mom as a child. I try to perfect it but frustration sets in then depression in that I'm unable to get things set just right and then finally, abandonment. If I save it, usually this is done on my phone, I'll probably not come back to it at any point because those feelings come rushing back.

Building stuff, though done with the best intentions are a huge fail. Regardless if ample time was set aside for planning, designing, measuring, etc. the final product feels like crap and tends to be mended many times before it remains stable enough to not break every month.

The lack of ability to communicate ably recently has been a real crusher. Words elude me when trying to write them, say them or think of them. I feel lost without the intelligence to come back to the way.

It's a beautiful day outside and I'm weighted to this couch by this enormous nothing of indecisiveness. What to do today? Start laundry like I mentioned to my wife earlier? Do more hedge trimming and strive for that heat exhaustion/stroke in earnest? Continue the endless cycle of Facebook scrolling with the occasional flip to Reddit, then back again? Perhaps a repose between the those two of a quick game, then back?

Place Holder

2019-06-21T10:36:00.001-05:00

Greetings and salutations muchachos.

It has been awhile.
I feel I say this each and every time lately, followed by some hollow promise about blowing the dust off this place more often, which of course, I do not. Anyways I'm here now like an absent father to his son that doesn't even know who this strange man is.

My birthday came and went without much fanfare, did have a little party at my wife's parents house, my mother made the surprise trip. Surprise not because she (mother) doesn't want to see her only child but SURPRISE! I was not expecting her to really be there. Anyways she got me a cool foldable bluetooth keyboard by my wife alerting her to the fact that this would be a gift I would use and appreciate; btw, it is. For those that may be wondering, the keyboard is iclever tri-folding wireless keyboard with backlit IC-BK05. It is bluetooth and wifi and works with Android, windows and Apple.

Celebrated our first year anniversary of marriage with my wife; of course it was my wife, would it be with a mistress? No, because I have no need for a mistress nor no want for one either. We did a nice steak dinner at home and ate a bite of wedding cake as per some tradition that I forced. What can I say I like tradition, I believe they have some power. Anyways the cake didn't taste the same as it did on the wedding day but a year in the freezer will do that to anything honestly.

Still driving truck, wanting to get my own but aforementioned wife says no so there's that.

Started a garden way late this year and did not add anything to the soil as far as fertilizer which was a mistake. Also tried starting from seed, which did not work either, except for some errant cucumber seed that found its way into my jalapeno bucket and started to grow. It's growing better than the jalapeno that it shares the bucket with. The other cucumbers in the garden are growing slowly, same with tomatoes. Beans are growing as well as squash plants, minus two plants that have not sprouted, I do not believe that they will. I would stick some more seeds into those spots but I don't remember what I planted there.

Story of my life.

Anyways that should be all for now.

Pets On Planes

2018-03-15T18:11:00.001-05:00

Dog dies in overhead bin.

Hamster Flushed

Those two stories involve airlines telling their guests to handle pets in a way that causes that pets demise.

Here's the thing, you as a human being have a choice. You have free will. If you were told that the animal could fly and have followed the rules that were given to you and then upon arrival things change, you challenge those in charge to make it right.

If they refuse, get off the plane or don't get on the plane. Why should you be forced to do something that you will regret later, knowing that what you are about to do is not or was not what was agreed to before getting to the airport.

Would missing that flight be an inconvenience? Most likely.

What would the trauma cost be of the lots of a pet's life?

All Was Lost

2018-02-28T20:52:00.000-06:00

For the first time in almost forever I have been able to get on this infernal machine to browse the world wide web. In other words, the truck is in for a long overdue PM.

I made a declaration at the beginning of the year that I would post daily, as you can tell that was a false promise. Between driving (and usually being getting shutdown late), spending time with my lovely girlfriend, there just wasn't that much time to go about posting here everyday. It also doesn't help that coming up with content that was meaningful every day was akin to opening the door to a darkened room and trying to find the faintest of light to spark that tiny wordsmith.

Anywhoo, enough excuses.

So most of my postings lately have been through the blogger app on my phone, easy peezy. Just trying to get that little keyboard to work quick enough with my thoughts is taxing at times.

Oh, yeah, excuses.

So I fired up this computer, went into blogger and nothing. This blog was not listed. AllIwantisfreedom.com sent me to GoDaddy.com. This was not good. Blogger help was not of any help.

Terror was creeping in, along with a feeling of complete helplessness.

I found the answer. I was using the wrong login email.

I feel like a tool.

Last Jedi

2018-01-11T12:45:00.001-06:00

Finally watched "The Last Jedi" and I don't consider it the best, I did like it.

I have issues.

There are spoilers.

1. Admiral Holdo doesn't tell Poe the plan. Poe secretly sets in motion his own plan that possibly gets more people killed.

I understand the Admiral didn't need to tell Poe but what difference would it had made to not tell him? If he was made aware; along with the rest of the fleet, people would have been more trusting of just being bombarded by the First Order knowing they were heading to a base.

2. Hyperspace tracking.

This wasn't explained completely. Was there a device on the first ship the First Order was tracking or something else? If it was a device, just turn it off or destroy it and jump. If they were tracking some sort of residual trail from the jump, that changes things.

3. Rey and Kylo mind link.

Snoke didn't have a hand in this. He could read minds but creating the link wasn't his doing, he was just using that information to keep Kylo in step and try to turn Rey.

4. Luke.

Not what I was expecting from the Jedi but I was not upset with him either.

For the next episode, the old guard is dead. General Leia will die off early in the movie seeing that Carrie Fisher has passed.

I still think that Rey and Kylo are brother and sister. Just like Luke and Leia; Rey and Kylo were separated at birth and grew up apart. Kylo learned the ways of the Force and Rey learned to junk.

Daddy's Love

2018-01-04T11:37:00.001-06:00

"Where are we going daddy?", I asked from the backseat of the car.

"Don't talk honey, ok?" Daddy said. His voice was flat, cold.

I stared out the window, watching the landscape roll by covered in the fresh snow. I remember liking playing in the snow last year with my brother but Daddy too him to live with Grandma. I wanted to go with them to meet Grandma but Daddy said it wasn't time yet so I stayed home.

We arrived and I start running through the snow just giggling and tossing the snow into the air and watching it fall back to the Earth.

Daddy was focused and ushered me along. "Just a little further, honey."

It was cold.

We stop walking, Daddy adjusts my jacket and hood, like a good Daddy.

"It's time," Daddy says. He turns me around and gives me hug.

Daddy doesn't let go. It gets uncomfortable. Tighter.

Can't breathe..

"Why? Daddy?" I thought.

I blacked out.

I woke up standing alone, wearing my favorite dress from the summer. I don't feel the cold anymore.

Brother is here and Grandma.

Committed

2018-01-03T20:17:00.001-06:00

This is going to be a struggle to put something in this space ever day, let alone putting something here that is meaningful, thought provoking, etc, etc, etc...

Add to the fact that I'm slightly under the weather, sneezing, aching, some congested, does not help in any of these matters.

You don't care though.

So heartless.

You only want the brain rot that I put forth in here.

Okay then.

New Year's Resolution

2018-01-02T13:12:00.001-06:00

It's cold outside.

Like one degree cold here in Illinois.

It's been a long while since posting, not much going on. Celebrated five years with my gf in November. Driving truck for two plus.

Even inside this warehouse, it's still cold. Warmer than outside but my feet are frozen.

Anyways.

I've neglected this for too long, I'm going to make some sort of post each day this year; excluding yesterday unless Doc pulls up with the Delorean to set things right.

So yeah.

Happy New Year and stuff.

Mindes.

Another Election

2016-10-19T10:17:00.002-05:00

Here we go again.

Another election year, red vs. blue (not the Rooster Teeth series based on Halo), Hillary vs Trump, etc.

We are doomed.

Supporters of both candidates are rabid, mouth foaming, ravenous zombies that are only interested in the their candidate that is closest to their party affiliation and will defend their candidate tooth and nail.

I'm not going to go into details about either of the wrong doings or positive attributes of either of the two MAIN candidates.

MAIN candidates.

There are more than two candidates.

Aside from Clinton (D) and Trump (R) there is also:

Gary Johnson (L)
Jill Stein (G)
Darrel Lane Castle (Const)
Rocky De La Fuente (Ref)
Evan McMullin (I)
Gloria Estela La Riva (Party for Socialism and Liberation)

If you are only voting for Hillary or Trump because those are the only two candidates that being pushed on us, you are making a mistake. It is not considered throwing away your vote if you vote for any other candidate that fits your belief for this election or any election for that matter. Will that candidate win? Most likely they will not but if everybody that does not feel that warm space cadet glow from Clinton or Trump, votes for another candidate that gives you that warm fuzzy feeling, then that will be the only way we get other candidates being discussed and invited to the debates.

Please don't fall for the rhetoric that your vote will be thrown away, your vote matters and especially when you know that you voted your conscience and not for the person that has the best chance to win. Voting for a popular candidate just to be a winner is a downfall.

Transgender

2016-04-30T12:31:00.001-05:00

Normally I stay away from politics, religious and other polarizing topics most of the time on here because I am usually either not read into the subject well enough to have a valid point of view that doesn't boil down to "because I said so"; or that I just don't care enough about it.

As far as transgender goes, I do not care if someone identifies as a man or woman while having been born as the other.

Nor do I care if they use the restroom they identify with as long as they are dressed appropriately. Let me clarify that statement, a female that identifies as a man, should not be wearing a skirt into the men's restroom; nor should a male that identifies as a woman be wearing a suit with a beard and going into the women's restroom either.

If you identify as a particular gender, dress as such.

Transgenders have been using the restroom they identify with for years without issue. If a transgender got caught using the "wrong" restroom, they would be asked to leave. Yes, worse things could happen depending on where this took place and depending on the person's actual gender.

Why is it now an issue?

Is it the entitled ideology that's been popping up lately that has pushed this?

What brought this post was a clip from an online news show called, " The Young Turks" in which, they talked about a woman that was removed from a ladies restroom because she didn't look like a woman. She didn't have identification to prove she was female so she was removed.

Back in high school I was called ma'am one time because I had long hair then. So, if I shaved and grew my hair out, could I mistakenly be tossed out of the men's restroom because I don't look like a fucking lumberjack?

Chi Town

2016-04-11T12:44:00.001-05:00

Once again I've gone away abandoning this thing like an unwanted toy.

Well, time to find the thrill in this again.

Couple weeks ago I had a delivery going into Chicago, not in the deep downtown but the West side. The company I work for has a yard for another division there that anybody can use. Only problem is that the yard is small and was full that night but I managed to not hit shit putting the truck in a spot.

This really only set up the tone for the next day.

That night I used Google maps to get an idea of where I was going and what the layout was before getting there. This helped but didn't. See, the place I was delivering was marked incorrectly on Google maps and I should have called that morning but didn't, so I setup myself up for potential tragedy.

I ended up going down the wrong street. Which in most places, is no issue but in big cities, can lead to big trouble. My terrible was a low bridge further down the road so I had to backup to be able to swing into a lot to turn around to go back to the alley that I needed to go down originally.

Again, calling ahead would have fixed this in the beginning.

Now the consignee was a different story. There was no place to turn around or so I thought. So while waiting for them to finish loading a straight truck I was looking to see what the best course was going to be and it wasn't looking pretty.

Once the straight truck was gone, the dock workers guided me around to a tight turnaround in front of the dock. I was worried about the cars behind me and snapping a batwing off the truck. Neither happened luckily.

Everything went as usual afterwards and I was very careful going through Chicago on my way out.

Another PM

2016-03-01T19:27:00.000-06:00

Seems like the only time I seem to be able to find time to update this little world is when I am holed up in the hotel while the truck is in the shop for the PM (preventative maintenance). It's not like I don't have things to say or post, I come up with them when I'm out driving every day but usually don't have that much time in the evening to be able to write them down or to even put them online. Ten hour breaks are about enough time to eat, shower, catch up with the gf and get some sleep before starting another day.

I typed that a few hours ago; I know you just read that about 3 seconds ago but it was a few hours to me.

Anyway.

I've been lamenting on deleting the whole thing and come up with something original in its stead. During this process of lament, I'm reading a trucking forum, looking on FB and listening to/watching Moonshiners.

Then it hits me.

The new season of Ink Master premieres tonight. Hot damn! Here is something that I want to watch so I go searching for Spike on the tv here.

I'm searching.

Still looking.

Where is it?!

WHERE THE FUCK IS IT!!!!

Ok, let's consult the Google to find the channel. Searching leads me to one channel but I get something else. That's not it so looking again...Ok found it, punch in the channel and same Prancing Elite show on some fucking channel I give absolute two shitty squirts about.

Ok. Let's open the channel guide. It should be channel 78, there's no channel 78. Fuck.

Fuck.

Who doesn't have Spike? The Sleep Inn in Stockbridge, Ga that's who. It could be some sort of bullshit between Comcast and the owners of Spike or the hotel could be really cheap.

I don't know.

Their internet suck too.

PM Time

2015-12-16T19:22:00.000-06:00

Time for a PM (preventive maintenance) on the truck tonight so that means I'm shacked up in the local hotel the company uses. This also means that I could do an update to this thing, dust it off while I'm at it.

Driving has been going well. My girlfriend is supportive which is a huge help. She helps prepare meals for me while on the road so I don't have to eat out every night and can be relatively healthy while at it.

This PM is adding back to us drivers, is manual mode for hill descents. The company completely disabled this function and locked the transmission in Econ mode auto for fuel savings. This is understandable but on steep descents or even on turns, I just didn't feel real safe when the truck would shift into higher gears before going into turns and then I would have to slow down before safely executing the turn. On hills, if you start down on cruise, the truck would go up to 65 mph and then apply the engine brake to stop the truck from excessively gaining speed but sometimes the grade and the weight you are hauling just would be too much and you would need to apply some brakes to keep the truck at a safe speed. The issue with that, is that once you hit the brakes, is that it disables the cruise and the auto engine brake so if you don't pay attention and get off the brakes, the truck will not try to slow itself down since the cruise and auto engine brake is disabled.

This will be much safer to me, in my honest opinion.

Flip Flops Part Deux

2015-10-15T12:12:00.001-05:00

I committed this gem months ago unto paper with pen, with the sole intention of it making it on here shortly thereafter but I'm lazy and have been busy with things. The particulars of what those things are of no concern for you so don't think too much on them.

I've been driving a truck now since May, through the bulk of the summer, the heat of the summer and it has been a hot one. One thing that I have noticed lately, more than lately but mostly, is that other truck drivers sure do love their flip flops and not just for the express purpose of wearing them in the shower to protect their feet from the funk but just to wear.

Why?

Why is it so important to wear flip flops all the time? The only time they should even be approved attire in a business type fashion is if you a) work on the beach b) work in a water park c) clean pools d) professional grape stomper. See a trend there?

Yet, everyday there goes some driver climbing out of his/her truck, trotting across the parking lot with flip flops on. I know many companies require closed toe shoes, safety tread, non slip, non skid, safety toe, steel toe shoes but when not at a company facility all bets are off, right?

Wrong.

First you look like a beach bum with your flippy floppies.

Second, you are just putting your personal safety at risk with this choice. Do you think workmans comp is going to pay for any injury if they find out you weren't wearing the proper footwear? Do you think Safety is going to laugh it off that you are a dumbass that violated company policy? Are those that depend on you to make a wage going to be happy?

No. This is the answer that correctly fits here.

Is it possible if you are injured to be able to collect workmans comp? Yes. Do you really think that money will be able to offset what you could be making if you just wore the proper footwear in the first place? I highly doubt that.

Just wear some closed toe shoes when you step out of the truck and trot across a wet rain soaked parking lot. You'll have a much lesser chance of losing a shoe and busting your ass while ending up on "trucker busts ass in love's parking lot" video on YouTube.

Coffee

2015-08-22T20:58:00.001-05:00

The saying goes that the world moves by truckers and they are powered by coffee.

Or something to that effect.

Since beginning this new adventure I've begun consuming that dark be once again. I had stopped for a time while I was heavy on the Herbalife but no money prevents that from being heavy, to an occasional type of thing.

Coffee, in and of itself, is an expensive habit when you buy the daily from the truckstop from whence you awoke at from the day before. Go into a regular convenience store and you'll only pay about less than a dollar for a refill.

Truckstops are not that cheap. You are looking at around a buck fifty eight for a refill. If you have that truckstops particular brand of cup, you can pay less but not by much. $1.58 x 30 = $47.40 No thanks, I can do other things with that money.

The plan was to purchase a Stanley press mug to be able to make coffee in the truck but things change.

My girlfriends father found a similar thing at the Goodwill. Instead of being a French press, this drains the coffee from the bottom into another cup. So far there thing works pretty good. I've been getting hot water from the truckstops in the morning with the yeti cup, that my girlfriends father found as well, and put the water into the coffee maker and let it steep. Drain the coffee into the yeti and then put more water into the maker to finish filling the yeti. After the initial filling, I put the rest of the hot water into another cup until I need it in a few minutes.

You only put the scoops of coffee into the maker, which is about three tablespoons. A small can of coffee cost about three bucks and makes 90 6oz cups. I use the same three scoops for both fill ups and there coffee tastes fine to me.

The best part is fresh coffee everyday. No need to worry about if the truckstop has cleaned their equipment lately or if that coffee is older than dirt.

Off The Newbie Board

2015-07-08T21:31:00.002-05:00

That's right and that's good news. For those that don't know, if you are a new driver with a company fresh out of CDL school with no real world experience, you are put on an inexperienced driver board. Basically that just means your dispatcher or driver business leader can help you out much more on a one on one basis as opposed to you being lost with a dispatcher or dbl that has more experienced drivers and many more of them and you get lost in the mix.

Now the slight hitch, my new DBL is new with the company but so far they are good. Some hiccups but they are able to communicate more quickly since they probably don't have as many drivers on their board quite yet.

How new? Maybe a few weeks with the company.

They scheduled preventative maintenance for the truck but the truck being new, it took longer than normal. This caused me not to be able to make delivery but DBL knew this and communicated that with receiving company so all should be good there. So I get put up in a hotel for the evening, no idling truck, get a nice shower and free continental at the hotel, plus free coffee; that probably tastes better than some truck stop coffee that usually tastes of burnt mud. If I wanted that, I would buy Starbucks, no, wait, I wouldn't, truck stop burnt mud would still be cheaper.

Not sure where I'm headed to tomorrow once I get back to the truck at this time.

That is all for now. Maybe more in a couple days or weeks or months.

No telling with me.

Thoughts

2015-07-06T10:28:00.001-05:00

I've run across a ton of trucking videos on YouTube and I thought about starting such videos and chronicling my thoughts and experiences but I realized that many of those videos just ramble on. They don't get to the gist of the title and when some do, it happens to be just a little blurb and that's it. You wasted 25 minutes of your time just waiting for them to talk about the one thing that you clicked on in the title and only spoke a few sentences about it before credits roll.

That is mostly why I don't plan on doing videos, I would be going of on random tangents and not even covering the title of the video. That and my crippling shyness that would prevent me from doing them in the first place. Then the reviewing of them I would consider them silly.

So I plan on sticking to this for the time being. I can ramble, you can skim through the crap without worrying about missing anything important and that doesn't cover the things that aren't even about trucking because that isn't what this is about entirely.

Been Awhile

2015-06-29T20:56:00.003-05:00

Sporadic would be the best way to describe my updates to this little slice of heaven that is mine but aside from the excuse of being busy, it really is a weak excuse.

Yeah, that made no sense at the end but what do you expect from me?

So starting from my last real post; real as being of actual, factual, belonging to my real life and not any fantasy that I may post from time to time, I managed to make it past the three week orientation at Schneider National. Aside from getting a short medical card, everything went well and I have been on the road solo since getting my new truck on Cinco de Mayo.

For those that don't know, a medical card or DOT card is required for CDL holders. It bascially states that you are in general good health and are not going to stroke out while behind the wheel and go careening into a school bus full of orphans.

Yes, you did read that I got the keys to a brand new truck. 2015 Freighliner Cascadia with an automated transmission....basically its an automatic. Only had 30 miles when my fat ass plopped in the seat. Now it has over 16k.

Made it past the month end training as a new driver at the beginning of this month, June.

I have come to the realization that the navigation for the truck should be double checked and quite possibly re-routed via a paper atlas so as not to be going down any goat trails in the middle of nowhere. The navigation prefers the shortest route as opposed to the fastest which usually means small tight roads that are twisty, hilly, roller coasters of fun. I mean that very sarcastically except for Mo-B which leads into Meta, MO. Heading into Meta, B was not much fun but on the way out pulling 41k in the van, it was kinda fun, mostly like a roller coaster. Climb the hill, coast down the hill, break before the curve, go down a hill, coast down the hill, coast up the hill and back down the other side. I think I saved .1 mpg on that road.

The being away from home sucks, as my girlfriend reminds nearly nightly, when home, when leaving and when not home when scheduled.

She does support me though and that I appreciate very much so. She also cooks meals for me to take with me so we can save money while I'm out five days a week, or more days than that.

I'm going to start bringing my laptop out with me so I can hopefully update this blog more often; I know I've said that before but I'm going to really try it this time.

Ok till next time and all that jazz.

New Start

2015-04-13T13:06:00.001-05:00

It was a wet rainy morning; but then with rain, things tend to be wet, nobody has heard of a dry rain; when my girlfriend and I loaded up a couple bags into the car to head to the nearest Greyhound for my new job.

I boarded the bus around 730 to start the long journey to Atlanta; 11 hours to get there, depending on the weather. At the time of leaving, the weather was raining up to the first stop of Panama City and the rain continued a bit more after leaving Panama City.

Two hours later, running behind, the bus arrived in Tallahassee for us to transfer to the bus that will take us into Atlanta with several more stops in between.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, just four more stops before Atlanta with one being a meal stop at Umadilla, Ga at a little; I'm not sure truck stop would be the correct nomenclature for it but I'm using it, truck stop that has a restaurant with buffet attached. I didn't eat there being as I'm broke and trying to save what money I can.

Getting to the hotel after arriving at Atlanta, I got a roomie, ate a little bit of something, showered and tried to get some sleep.

Now to see how the rest of the week goes.