Terry Writes An Entry: Simple Minds

simple minds

Tonight we are in Rome, GA where Allan grew up. I am at his grandmother's home enjoying some solitude and just good ol R & R. We were supposed to be in Dallas (so I could get my root canal completed), but due to a computer/human error were routed to Atlanta. {just who got blamed before computers came along?:}

Anyhow, I have given much thought to what to write in this entry- usually late at night when I am driving- which is a great time to think, but not a good time to record those thoughts, which is one aspect of driving a truck that can be a bit annoying. It seems much of the time I am either behind the wheel focused on the road as well as the other drivers who cease to amaze me at times at their sheer lack of awareness and willingness to push the envelope - I am not talking about the drivers of just "four wheelers", but professional drivers too- ok after driving my shift, I am exhausted, I sleep, which is often interupted by starting and stopping etc, I am can sleep through a lot, but still my sleep is interupted, then I wake up, I am in a fog, and slowly wake up and then begin driving. It ceases to amaze me at how energized I feel when I am driving, and how lethargic I feel when I am not driving. All that to say that driving a truck is still an adjustment and I am still learning the ropes, of not just driving, but also a life when I am not behind the wheel.

Something I wanted to get into this blog entry that I have not forgotten from those nights of solitude when I am driving is how amazed I am at the beauty of our nation. It is like seeing a million postcards in just a few hours, no matter where I go I amzed by the country side, yes, even Illionois,Ohio, and Iowa can be beautiful!:)

One of my personal goals this year is to start taking pictures, although it is tempting to just ride down the road snapping pictures, I want to be able to make some stops and just get out and snap away. I hope to post those pics to the blog.

Another goal is to begin writing again-as has been par for the course for me I have few ideas floating around, but nothing complete. I used to write a lot of poetry and I also used to work on my stories quite a bit. Perhaps I can begin a writing blog as well as a pic blog.

For what is worth I thought I'd dig out my old poetry book, which is all that is left of the once volumes of writing which I lugged around for years. The peom was written for a poet named Sue Littleton in Austin, TX. We met at the second peotry event I ever attended in Austin. She came and sat by me just before she went up to read, she was in her 70s but still, gracious and beautiful. When she read her poem there on that stage, it was though she had been transformed back to when she was just in her late teens. I was able to read this poem to her in front of a group of poets at a Valentine's Party- she was quite surprised and yes, we became great friends, but I lost touch with her when she moved to Rio.

FOR SUE

Ok, I admit it, I am a helpless, hopeless, hapless romantic!
Give me my dream dates and who would they be? The starlets of yesteryear- Kim Novak, Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, and of course Eva Marie-Saint-
but alas, I have discovered a new New Saint of the Stars, A Nova of the Heart!
Her white hair flowed like an angel's in the man-made breeze, her eyes were deep wells of brightness I longed for
her smile welcomed and comforted.
Her word portraits are to be prized more than any Dali or Monet, her word portraits are too wonderful to be hung upon the walls of my mind.
She is a bit older than I, perhaps older than my mother?! But still, she is a goddess, she is beauty incarnate, a form, which our society has mistakenly long forgoten, yet no surgeon could possibly sculpt improvement upon this Venus. Those eyes! That smile!
Oh the gentle touch of her hand to stay me as she leaned close and whispered,"Don't leave"
Oh God! The words that I had longed to hear from such lips, 'Don't Leave".
My soul was lost in an ageless, timeless menagerie of fantasy when she read the poem, she had written when she was half my age,
for upon hearing her words I wanted to wisk her away and forge a new trail, Our Trail of Mingled Blood.

Hopefully I can find some new muses, or at least the muse within to write something new, if not then from time to time may dig up something from the past.
until next time . . .

The Maine Thing and "This Won't Hurt a Bit"

The Maine Thing:  After the last entry, we were indeed able to find our truck and drive up to New Hampshire.   After that, we got a load to pick up in Maine.  There are very few places I'd rather drive than in Maine.  I think I'd be about as happy in Maine as I am out West.

I had been in Maine briefly a couple of years ago when I was driving solo with Schneider, and just fell in love with the state and its people.   Maine is in the northeast, and there are places in other parts of New England that rival its physical beauty; however, the people of Maine are uniquely wonderful and charming.  

There is a small-town friendliness and helpfulness that is endearing among the people I've encountered there both times I've been up there.  And the clipped, no-nonsense way of speaking and looking at the world is something I could live around very comfortably.  

If you ever get a chance to visit the state of Maine, I would recommend it.  

"This won't hurt a bit."   Terry and I both needed to see a doctor to get refills for medication that we take on a regular basis.  It made sense for both of us since we had to get new doctors anyway to just find a doctor in Dallas, since that is where we consider our home base to be with Schneider.  And Terry needed to see a dentist.

So, Wednesday morning, we were routed through Dallas, and were able to get in to see the doctor and get what we needed done.  Terry had scheduled an appointment with a dentist yesterday morning, and we were originally planning to leave Dallas late on Thursday afternoon.

But after everything the dentist ended up doing with Terry, it just wasn't possible to leave yesterday, so we are still here in Dallas, at the hotel Schneider uses for drivers in Dallas.  We are tentatively planning to leave Dallas this evening, depending on how Terry's feeling.

We already know there's going to be more work to do, so we'll be coming back to Dallas before too long for that.  And we are both looking forward to our time off in Denver for the Norah Jones concert at Red Rocks June 1st.  

Of course, at some point in the middle of all this, hopefully we can drive and make some money.  :-)

I am also happy to report that I've been Walmart here in Dallas several times (in my own car) and have not gotten lost once.  Well, there was that one incident with the car alarm that had the little old lady with blue hair screaming for the police . . .

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . . and just say "aaaaahhhhhhh" . . .
Allan

When "keeping the wheels rollin'" is hard

It is the week after our time off in Virginia Beach, and is our sixth week out.  We have been averaging about 5500 or 5600 miles a week up to now.  This week, it looks to be about 3500, if we are lucky.  And, of course, as truck drivers, miles translate directly into money.

There are a combination of things that can create a week like we are having.  From Virginia Beach, we picked up a load going to Cedar Falls, Iowa.  At 1100 miles (or so -- I'm writing this from memory), it was a pretty typical load.  We could get it there any time within a window, 24 hours a day, and when we got there, we just dropped the trailer and left.

Since completing that load on Monday afternoon, we've had two other loads.  Both of those loads have been shorter loads (anything under 1000 miles for us is what I consider short) and they have both been live loads and unloads.  What this means is that we have a pickup or delivery appointment or window, and we have to wait while the trailer is loaded and unloaded.  This is the first set of loads we've had when there has been a live load/unload at both ends of the load.

The load we are on now is a good example of how this impacts our driving (and our paychecks):  yesterday, we had an appointment to pick up this load at 6:00 pm local time in Eden, North Carolina.  We have a live unload on the other end in Hooksett, New Hampshire.  They are open from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm for receiving.  

By the time we left the shipper yesterday, it was too late for us to be able to make it in time to unload in New Hampshire today, so when we got to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, early this morning, where Schneider has an Operating Center, we just parked here and took a break.  We both got a good amount of sleep, and we got to do some running around in the company car to take care of some errands.

One thing we did was go to Walmart.  We came out of Walmart, and both of us were looking for the car.  We both remembered parking it in two different rows, and we just couldn't find it.  Haven't you ever done that at Walmart or the mall before?  So, here are two grown men pushing their buggy around the Walmart parking lot looking lost as we go from row to row, thinking every car is the one we drove.  Terry knew the car was gray and I thought it was maroon.  It's actually sort of lavender.

Finally, in desperation, we used the key chain to set off the car alarm.  We were pretty close to it, and I'm sure the local residents were glad to know that we found our car.  I'm glad they didn't know that the night before we had driven a big orange truck through their little town.

Now, dear reader, aren't you amazed that we can get around the block in our orange truck, much less across the country?  

If you ever see two 40-something men wandering around the parking lot of your local Walmart, looking lost and confused, it could be us.  You never know.

Anyway, we were able to get some things done (amazing as that may seem to you), and now, we are moments away from leaving Carlisle.   We are going over our directions (thank God!) and we are planning to be there sometime very early in the morning.  We called the place we are delivering to and they said they have plenty of parking for us when we get there.  Let us hope that is true.  

The point of this little story (if ever there was one) is the fact that we couldn't just drive straight up to New Hampshire and drop this trailer when we got there as we have been able to do on most loads, and even though it gave us a welcome break and some good rest, I think we would both have preferred to be rolling and earning money.

I think that is all I shall write for now since I have embarrassed myself enough for one entry.

Now we're ready to leave -- provided we can find our truck.  All these orange trucks look alike, you know.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . . when you can . . .
Allan