HR Blah-Blah-Blah

No, not human resources…House Resolution, as in the HR bill currently being debated by the House until Thursday evening. I was bored an searching through the news stations on my new XM radio and all they want to talk about is Anna Nicole Smith and I’m sick of hearing about it. As I kept flipping I came across C-Span Radio and there replay of the current day’s debate in the House. From what I can tell, the resolution states that congress supports our troops, but has no plans of backing them up with reinforcements. Now here’s the catch…that’s all there is to it! There is no reference to an alterior solution. Intense boiling of the situation reveals that all that this is, is an HR that states the House opposes the President’s objective of another surge of troops. Many representatives brought up the point that whenever we surge troops to Iraq, insurgent attacks increase x%. However, after reading Freakenomics by Levitt, I began to wonder why did attacks increase at those times. Are troop surges the direct cause of the attacks or is it lax security at those times, intel leaks, etc? One thing I will say after listening to the debate after a while is that it is no wonder it takes congress so long to accomplish anything. There too busy passing off time to someone who should have appealed for it on their own and the one that blew my mind was at the introduction of the debate, the representative who held the floor yielded one minute to the Speaker of the House and I lost track of just how long she rambled on… They need to have the awards committee from the Oscars come in here and if a representative goes over their time, start the music!

Just for those of you wondering…I agree with our presence in Iraq, but not the way it’s being handled. I understand that we are trying to implant the seed of democracy there and just like conceiving a child, if you pull out before you finish, you’re not going to accomplish anything and you’re going to have unhappy people.

Bad to Worse to Good to…

When I finally crawled out of bed this morning I realized that it had been sleeting hard for about the past 8 hours; that would certainly explain my unrestful sleep. However, I never got out of the truck before starting it and pulling back on the road toward Effingham, IL. When I reached the fuel stop there, I parked in the first island and hopped down and ran inside for some wiper fluid. When I got back to my truck I couldn’t get it; not because I locked the door, but because the door handle was iced over and frozen solid in place! It didn’t matter that I had my key with me…so here I am outside my truck, no hat, no jacket, sleet raining down like little ice bullets and I started hitting the handle and eventually got the squeegie handle and began bashing at my door handle until the ice cracked and I could pull the door open. As it is said, hindsight is 20-20…I could have just gone to the other side of the truck, which had been unaffected by the storm due to the way i was parked last night. I actually look at this with laughter now…

Checked up on the dedicated route and was told that I lived too far away and that they filled the route with someone who lived closer. Called Julian a little later at his behest and he informed me that after Savannah, I was to head to Houston to pick up my old power. “What old power,” I asked? “The one you wrecked…” Cool, I get to trade my 2003 for a “team” 2005 truck, with a Webasto!!! I also informed him about the dedicated route decision and he said that that would be the final answer, so maybe there is still hope after all.

Freak of Fantasy?

Last night, I stopped at a truck stop with a Subway to get a sandwich to go. I had to wait a minute before the girl that was on duty came out from the back. Judging from our conversation I surmise that she was actually doing work back there, not slacking off, but when she walked out front, her hair was purple! Now, years ago this would have shocked me to the point that I may have changed my mind, turned around and left, but I have a friend that I worked with that when I met her, her hair was electric blue! After all this time, the color really didn’t shock all that much. “I love your hair,” I blurted out as she caught my surprised expression. I also noticed a micro-piercing in her right nostril which seemed to say to me that she got it more to fit in, than make her own statement, but I could be wrong. If I were to make further assumptions I would say that she had just ended a relationship with someone in a punk lifestyle and is trying to slowly return to norm as she lets her hair grow out and the color fade away. Furthermore, I would also surmise that she was about 18 or 19 as she was wearing a school ring and I really don’t see a college grad or senior working the evening shift at Subway. She was very nice and had I not been in a hurry, I probably would have stayed and chatted with her a bit as she seemed a little lonely working by herself. It’s amazing how some people just stick with you for no apparent reason while millions more drift through your world without so much as a second thought or even being noticed at all…

Death of a Fading Star (pt. 2)

I remember being in seventh grade and coming to school one day and everyone seemed particularly somber and this one girl that I was interested in (but never made a move on) was wearing all black and looked as if she had been crying. I asked her what was wrong. She looked at me as if I had been living in a cave and remarked that Kurt Cobain was dead; he had killed himself. I found it both weird and awkward at how a “celebrity death” could bring so much sadness when people die every day and no one seems to care. Maybe it’s the fact that as celebrities, their life is an open book for the public to read or simply “flip-through” as they’re waiting to be checked out at the local supermarket. One thing I know for sure…after 12 years, I finally understand how she felt.

I think another aspect of this is that it makes us realize just how fragile life is. We exist as zombies, oblivious to our own fragility and balk at the value of life until it hits so close to home, so close to our hearts. Being that I was in the military, I can’t say that I’m a consciencious objector, but when it all really boils down to it, we’re taking each other’s lives. Someone’s father, mother, sister, brother, wife, husband, daughter, or son…and all this is done without thinking about the backlash if that were us. “I’m ready to die for my country and it’s beliefs!” Sure, there are those of us who will say and believe that, but at the moment the gun is pointed at us, we all of sudden realize who and what we are leaving behind. I know it’s a joke, but it has a very real point: War doesn’t determine who’s right, but who’s left.

Death of a Fading Star

Everyone has that one person…and when that one person dies, it sets off the brain into another dimension and realization. For me that person was Anna Nicole Smith. While other boys dreamed of Marilyn Monroe, Kathy Ireland, and others, my fantasy was of Anna Nicole Smith and it wasn’t because of the fact that she was in Playboy…I think it was actually her hips that got my attention. <chuckle>

I was handling reading all of this pretty well and as I was searching a few sites for news, I came across AnnaNicole.com where I expected to find some glamorous pictures of her immortalized for the world, but instead, I simply found her name and her years of life. It saddened me deeply, enough to bring tears. Although I know that she will always be remembered in some way…different ways to different people.

In all honesty, I am not suprised by hearing this news; she has been under a great deal of stress: birth of a child, death of a different child, death of her octagenarian husband and the legal battles that have ensued from it. Some may call her a “gold-digger”, but the truth may have been that some old millionaire was simply happy with her for reason or another and left her what he could not take with him. The world will never know.

“She was stricken Thursday while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was rushed to a hospital. Edwina Johnson, chief investigator of the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done on Friday.

Smith’s son, Daniel Smith, died Sept. 10 in his mother’s hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter.

Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children of Donald Eugene and Virgie Hart Hogan. She married Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.”

-International Herald Tribune, 08 Feb 2007 (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/09/arts/NA-A-E-CEL-US-Anna-Nicole-Smith.php)

Picture courtesy of CNN’s website

 

Et Tu, Brutus?

Do you ever have one of those days where you really feel, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the world is trying to piss you off? If you have, then you’ll be able to sympathize with the day I just had. If not, please send the name and location of whatever you’re on, so I can get some.

First of all , the temperature was in the negatives last night when I went to bed and I had to run the truck’s heat on maximum just to stay warm, so naturally, I really am not looking forward to getting up and facing another white snowy day. It started after about an hour of driving… I’m doing 60mph on I-96 across Michigan on my way to Grand Rapids when I see a silver truck headed the opposite way hit the median and take flight. It landed on my side of the median, did a 360 and ended up facing me in my lane. As panic set in, I pressed (noticed how I did not say slam) on the brakes and was able to slow substantially and steer clear of the truck. The guy was very grateful that I had not hit him. Granted it probably scared the shit out of him to himself stuck with an 18-wheeler flying at him. I’m glad I was able to avoid the accident because it would have been a career-ender; not because of the accident, but because of what it would have done to me mentally. I’ve seen drivers who still have nightmares from close calls and what would have beens…

Part two consisted of bad roads, shitty directions from Schneider, and lack of street signs ultimately getting me lost in Battle Creek. I found my, but in the process of making a right turn, I had to steer across oncoming traffic on the road I was steering onto. Normally, not a big deal, but in this case a woman was so engrossed with her conversation with her passenger that she had her head turned and never saw the big orange truck looming in the distance. I could see from my vantage point in the truck that she wasn’t paying attention and watched as she drew near totally oblivious to my presence. I pulled the air horn, which is great for getting everyone’s attention in 5 block radius and for causing involuntary bowel movements, and she quickly came to a stop so I could finish my turn safely.

Oh, I forgot to mention that while at the consignee, my truck was so light after unloading that they had to push me out of the dock with the forklift because I had not traction on the compacted snow. When I got to my next shipper, the girl at the gate was a real bitch. The kind I wish…well, I’ll keep my dark thoughts to myself and just say I wish something really bad would happen to her and turn her attitude around. She couldn’t have been more than 18 with the attitude of a 12 year old. I got tired of her real fast. Anyway, I posted pictures of some of the icicles on the trailer I picked up. I bashed most of them off with a hammer…I didn’t want them flying off and hitting some unsuspecting motorist that would probably be following me too close. The trailer that I picked up had stuck tandem pins that I had to go out and bash in with a hammer while the snow kept covering me and making me wonder why I was out in single digit weather instead of back home in Texas where I can wear shorts all year long.

I’m sure there was more crap along the way, but I’ve either forgotten it or blocked it out by now…

Out There…All Alone

Well, I have been driving the BOT (Big Orange Truck) by my self for a week now and the feelings of being alone have settled in a little more. While I do miss having a companion in the truck with me, Jake made a good point a while back: It’s not really any different since you’re asleep while I’m driving and visa-versa. True…I wish I had a companion that were up while I was up.

I have done well this week; testing my limits as far as distance and tie driving and all in all, I’m quite satisfied with myself, if not down right pleased. If things continue (frequent and long haul freight, my attitude and energy, etc) this could prove to have been a very profitable arrangement. (That sounds awfully Ferengi didn’t it?)

I’ll admit it is nice to have the truck back to myself. I can put stuff where I want without having to consider someone else’s space. It’s also so much easier to write and post with the truck not bumping and lurching along. The cell phone does keep me company, but I can only bother so much during the day and I only have so many minutes that I can burn before the wife decides to burn me for going over our minutes.

Well, I can tell I’m rambling so I’ll wrap this up with a pretty little bow…too bad you can’t see it over the internet!