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October 24 Well ya'll are NOT going to believe this.
We've settled into the routine of me driving most nights since hubby has a very difficult time sleeping at all when the sun is out. About a month ago, we'd stopped at 1 of our favorite little restaurants in Santa Rosa NM, just off I40 (it's called the Silver Moon if you're interested in that) and I had a wonderful bowl of green chili stew along with a warm tortilla. yummm Hubby goes to sleep & as it was around midnight I start driving headed towards Texas. At around the 15 mile marker, I had a semi on my left just about to pass me & another coming up quick behind me. Well, from NOWHERE I see this huge black blob, a second later an enormous eyeball (which after a maybe a half second I put the 2 together to realize these make up a black angus cow) and then bang! You guessed it, I smacked that darn thing with the truck! As amazing as this was, what amazed me more was that hubby didn't wake up. So, as the cab is filling with smoke from the ruined radiator & also nasty foul smoke & fumes from the fan being mashed up against the radiator, I scream at him that "I just hit a $#@*!+g cow!" My lord, why me? ....sheesh So, 25 thousand dollars later, the truck is fixed.
There are several good things in this story though as bad as it sounds. No, the cow didn't make it, no I didn't get any steaks from the deal. Luckily, the truck behind us was able to not crash into our rearend. Our truck has pretty much an all new front end including radiator, fan,a.c., headlights, hood, etc. We were towed to Amarillo & since we live in Florida, got a rental car & went home for 3 weeks until the repairs were complete. When they contacted us to come get it, we opted to fly back out to Tx instead of driving since the costs were just about the same. I'd never flown so this was sort of an adventure all by its' self.  We took off from Tampa in a medium sized jet, flew to Charlotte NC & caught another medium sized one to Houston; from there we were in a smaller one. It was fun & I think those that know me thought I was going to be nervous about flying but I enjoyed it. We've been out on the road again for almost 2 weeks & yes, I'm still sort of nervous driving at night but I figure the only way to overcome that is just "get back on the horse that threw you" as people say.
I'll post the cow vs truck pics so you can see how nasty it was for yourself, just don't look too close if you're the type person who has a squeemish stomach.
Take care everyone! June 01 WOW...some days it's hard for me to believe that some folks out here on the road actually qualified for a drivers' license( at some point anyhow). I cannot tell you how many times I've had folks speed up when I move over to try to pass or watched in horror as 2 vehicles damn near collided because both of them were too intent on getting to point B first. Just plain stupid if you ask me. I came across this little test on drivers knowledge http://www.nationaldriverstest.com/national-drivers-test/ndt-test.php Check it out, you may find something out that you didn't know before.
We're headed towards the house right now & I have today "off". See, when it comes time to go home, we usually get short trips of under 600 miles & since that's generally not a full 11 hour shift, Shawn opted to drive today & let me play. The load we're on right now is going to NC & more than likely from there we'll get routed back home to Florida. I'm not excited about getting home this time around since we'll be starting to sort & pack our belongings in preparation of storing them for awhile until we decide where we want to make "home" for the next few years. Hey, NOONER, got any contacts down here? *giggling* Actually, I'm not sure that we'll buy a house in Fl, we may wind up out west. As the seasons change, I'm more able to tell what parts of the country I like & which I'd never even dream of living...LOL
Well, take care everyone. I think I'll go "flirt" (read...chat) a bit with what my wonderful hubby calls my C.B. boyfriends. *snickering* May 23 It was bound to happen eventually...most unhappy thing to happen to me since I've been out here driving the yellow tractor pulling Lord only knows how many orange trailers behind me. I was traveling on US 90 in southern Texas about 3 weeks ago in the wee hours of the morning. If you're not familiar with US 90, it's a two lane, very rural highway that leads the way towards Laredo. I'd been down this road before but in the daylight hours so I was prepared for the road but not for the animals. Along this stretch of road I passed no less than 75 deer enjoying their evening/morning meal. As I came along each small group or single deer, I'd say a little prayer to the good Lord & to the deer themselves to stay the heck away from the road until I got past them.
I hit a doe with the front drivers' side bumper.  The silly creature had been scratching it's backside just along the edge of the road when I saw it about a block in front of me so I slowed down thinking it'd finish & trot off to join it's other little deer friends who were grazing in the dew kissed grasses but nooooooo. It had to instead turn & walk into the road just as I came up to it. In a car a person can usually avoid hitting them but with a semi truck that has a trailer with 30,000 pounds in it the very last thing you want to do is swerve to try to avoid them because you run a very good chance turning over the truck & trailer. The damage to the truck was minimal (I posted a pic below;you may be able to make out the imprint it's butt made in the bumper) & hopefully it won't happen again. I guess it could have been worse since earlier in the day my husband had passed several of the large mule deer that live in that part of Texas. Still, I cried. Not much of a big macho truck driver type thing to do but hey, that's me.
Hope this finds you all well, please drop a note to let me know you've been here as I miss my friends & enjoy making new ones whenever possible. February 04 Well dear MSN spacers, it's been awhile since I've written. In a previous blog I wrote about how life changes all the time....boy oh boy does it!
When I left my previous vocation I decided it was about time to be with hubby fulltime. I spent about 2 months "learning the ropes" of trucking and came into his truck sometime in October. Since then we've been all over the country, California, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, New York.....just all over. LOL Being a Florida gal, I'd never driven a car in the "real" mountains so you can imagine how exciting driving into Colorado was for me that 1st time. It was gorgeous along the Colorado river but WOW! when we got into the Vale area I was just gaga...words can't express how beautiful it is there. I'll post some pics soon.
Christmas morning...Elk Mountain Wyoming 12:15 a.m. It's pitch black dark out...Shawn's asleep & I'm traveling along with 3 other crazy souls, chatting a bit on the c.b. when it starts to snow. Then snow harder...and the wind starts to blow...and snow harder still. Oh shoot, I'm in my 1st blizzard! So we slow down, take it easy. No problem. Okies, I know you're thinking, why not pull over or get off the road? right? No where to pull over at. After about 2 hours of the wind & snow bloiwng so hard I could sometimes not even tell whether we were still moving and about 20 mini white-outs,I wake DH up. Did I mention the mini white-outs?....3-4 seconds of not seeing anything past the hood of the truck, great fun to be sure! Ok, hubby comes out of bunk..."what's wrong now" (see he'd gotten used to me missing a gear in the mountains out in California when I 1st drove em). I say I can't see anything... he says what the hell you want me to do about it I can't see either! But he stayed up with me which made the next occurence a little more bearable. You see, 1 of the fellows traveling in front of us wasn't on c.b. & about 2 1/2 hrs into this blizzard he decided to PARK his semi in the right hand lane.....good grief!
This little tale has a funny ending. When we finally make it over the mountain to the truckstop, we pull in to go inside. I ask Shawn, aren't ya gonna put jeans on? ( he'd pulled on shorts when I woke him up) nah....no jeans, no coat & deck shoes. He steps inside & 3 cashiers & several customers look at him like he's a freakin lunatic ( he is but that's another story)...he stops, looks up at the fuel desk cashier & says "which way to the pool?" I wish you all coulda been there, we all laughed so hard.
Take care dear friends & if you see a YELLOW truck pulling an orange trailer out on the road, take a second look since it may be me driving it.
May 01 Life changes ALL the time.
Sometimes what we think makes us successful really doesn't.
So, for the last 12 years I've worked as an electronics technician repairing broken or misused fire truck service products.
I helped anyone & everyone I could; whether it was an "outside" customer or one of my co-workers (who I considered my
"internal" customers). Over the last 5 years my job morphed into more external customer service. The company I worked for was/is one that has always done more with less so this really didn't suprise me.
What does suprise me & eventually led to me leaving their employment is that for a company that touts superior service the company has surely failed it's customers by allowing it's service group to dwindle to barely being there. How long can 2 employees do the work that requires 4 without breaking?
OK, so I'm exploring my choices now.
My husband owns his own semi truck & I could easily see myself getting licensed to drive it as well so that we can team. I'd still be able to "work" my mind through my pursuit of a college degree online instead of on campus. I'd still feel I was helping people which is a life passion for me. I'd make much more money which would eventually allow me to pursue my real dream in a much more self sufficient way than what I could do if I were to take on partners in that pursuit.
Alternatively, I could find a job in another location that would use my electronics knowledge. Or I could enter a new path & try something that isn't in the electronics field but still uses the business type skills base I have. October 09
This is one of the papers I've written recently for my Business Communications class. It wasn't written with the intention to offend so please keep an open mind. It was amazing the timing of this paper & things that happened in my workplace at the time; you see, I asked for an increase consideration about a month after my yearly review and raise. Happily, the company saw fit to increase my pay even if it wasn't for quite as much as I'd hoped, it was a successful endeavour. I'd encourage anyone faced with the similar situation to do your research before approaching your employer....give them plenty of reasons to say yes to your request.
Even though women are still considered a minority they hold many different type positions including management positions, which have historically been predominately thought of as male type roles. Advancing Women is an international networking site for women in the workplace. Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman stated that women still face “a double-pane glass ceiling” meaning that although many achieve high leadership roles their pay is not in line with their male counterparts’. I feel this glass ceiling still exists mostly due to the main power holders being men and as Golden West Financial Chief Executive Marion Sadler stated "The people who are in a position of authority promote after their own image." Simply stated a women must overcome both stereotypical attitudes and the child /elder care issue which our society sees as women’s functions.
Over the past few decades the salary trend has been on a very slow increase with a noticeable dip during 1995 and 1996. Still, women today are paid on average 75 cents on the dollar to their male counterparts and this figure is expected to drop again this year. I feel that women doing the same work as men should be paid the same wages, since to do otherwise is gender discrimination.
Generally speaking, men tend to promote men in the workplace due in part to the camaraderie men share as well as the still very prevalent idea that it’s a mans’ world. Women therefore have to continue to increase their education and skills to keep pace with the increasingly competitive job market; many more women today are college educated and hold more than one degree. They must also demand what is right; as Lynda Obst, producer of "Sleepless in Seattle" stated "Women will fight for everyone but themselves. Women need to learn to demand more, negotiate better and tougher and walk away when the money's not right."
Men will.
Women can and must.
August 13 So when I found myself with a lot of idle time after the past-time I'd enjoyed changed, I decided to find something I wanted to do for ME.
I was going back to college! At first, I talked myself out of it, then at just about the last minute I went ahead & took the placement testing. *sigh* I should have refreshed on the Algebra a bit harder than I did, I'll have to take a remedial class but did awesome in the English skills & reading/comprehension sections which could have equaled another 2 classes had it come out the other way.
My major will be Business Administration with Industrial specialization. My first "class" is actually just a gathering to meet the instructor as it's an online Keyboarding class...which I figure will come in mighty handy in many ways. I'll also be taking the dreaded Algebra class & Microprocessor Applications. Sounds like fun huh?
I wonder what my fellow ex +'s are up to?.....how many found new homes trying to fill the gap?...how many like me decided it was time to take up a different past-time? If you're someone from those days, leave a note, let me know how ya are & what you do with the time you used to volunteer; I'm the curious sort after all ya know.  Sherry June 28 OK, so I started noticing I have a bad habit of visiting friends msnspace & not leaving comments to show them I'd been there (which is a really bad thing since the main way I kept in touch with some of them has been ripped from our virtual lives now). I'm curious how many of the 70 some odd people who've visited here were people who "know" me & how many were folks just blog-hopping.
I intend to change my bad habit & leave just a hello if nothing else when I visit others spaces from now on. I hope that folks will do the same & leave a comment if just to say hi.
See you around! :) June 03
So, hubby has had his 1980 Goldwing in for a little bit of cosmetic work....footplates for me & removing a nail from a tire & making sure it's still good. Well, we're both ready for a break from our hectic bit of the world & we've decided to take a leisurely cruise on the bike down to Key Largo area.
1st stop:www.keelandcurleywinery.com/homepage.html
& then lunch at www.eltacoriendo.com/index.html
Then it's on to Fort Myers to visit a friend of ours; while we're there???.....well, we'll have breakfast the morning we leave there, maybe hit up www.calusanature.com/ & have a bit of lunch in the park if it turns into a day-long event.
What? ..... you're getting parched reading this?....hmm, you guessed it, another winery: edenwinery.com/
OK, now onward to evergladeshostel.com/accommodations.html
This is a hostel just on the inland side of the Keys, in the area of the Florida Everglades.....& before you think it, noooooooo, it's nothing like that silly movie here. We absolutely ADORE it & the awesome people there & will spend a few days just mingling with whatever travelers are also there whenever we are. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to be included in whatever current service project they're involved with. We missed out on our last visit to join them in coral cleaning in the National park. I know, I know, this sounds like work to some of you but it's our small way of somehow forging a path for our childrens children to enjoy the same environments we have.
THIS PLACE IS AWESOME! If you're going anywhere near the Florida Keys, keep it in mind as an alternative to the normal hotel routine, you won't regret it if you enjoy meeting people(read over some of the info on links at the hostels site, they've done a great job on it & offer some good insight about hostels in general).
OHHHHH, I almost forgot.....*gigglin now* www.schneblywinery.com/
Alrighty, as you may imagine we'll probably mosey around the Keys a few days & headed back we'll stop near Sebring for a few days where we'll visit www.dep.state.fl.us/gwt/guide/regions/south/trails/highlands_hammock.htm & LMHO, yep, you got it, another winery...www.henscratchfarms.com/upickseasons.html
From here we'll come on home, tired I'm sure but ready to battle the "real world" for a bit longer. |  |
May 18
For any of you who may like to have a bit of fun on MSN Games before it closes it's lobbies in mid June come join us for what we hope will be a fun time for all......Sharky has graciously agreed to come watch Titanic the movie in Teen Spades @ 8:30 pst. this coming saturday night with anyone who cares to drop by. +Mistress Misty has prepared some trivia for us, our wonderful macro lady +GotyaSoap has done up some cute ones I hear & we'll have WildSide Radio with us as well. So, grab a copy of Titanic, meet us in the Spades Teen room with your popcorn, gummy bears, beverage of your choice; kick back & have a few laughs or play some spades.
The following tuesday @2 pm eastern GotYaSoap is having a party in Spades also, I suspect more folks will come as this is a better hour for them.
See you there!
Sherry April 30 Recently I've had 2 events that will change some of my current standard operating procedures.
Some of you may or may not know about my young adults & up until recently my 19 year old son lived with me. It had come the time when he'd decided it was time to get out from under Mom's wing.This by its' self has me very sad due mostly to the way we parted. I know that time will change this ending into a beginning for him & for me too. I love him. I have faith. It was time.
The 2nd change is to a past-time that I really enjoy.....MSN Games has decided to remove multiplayer game lobbies, zone friends(the software we use for communication), & things known as +'s. Well. these +'s, these things are attached to people & not just any people but some of the greatest I've met online in a community. I've been other places but MSN had a collection in these +'s that is just priceless. Sadly, I'll not see some of these folks online ever again. I know that & it makes me sad. I loved meeting many of the gamers & know I'll more than likely not bump into them again either. March 05 Hello to any who happens to view this.....what a funny word blog is hmm?.I may just hafta check out where that word came from. What does one write in a blog? I know my Young adults both have them. I know other's who have them & they're good laughs but also shows some insights of them that I might not otherwise have. Not sure where this one will lead me but again it'll be interesting to see.
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...Hope all is well with you. We are doing fine! So how is the truckdriving going or is't it?? lol!!! You take care...
