the 2010 handbook

a friend sent me this in email and i thought i'd share it with you.....yes, it's a little past the new year's start, but never too late to put good advice to work for us......hope you enjoy....and find a few things here that will work for you this year.....

health:
1. drink plenty of water
2. eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar
3. eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and less food that is manufactured in factories
4. live with the 3 e's....energy, enthusiasm and empathy
5. make time to pray
6. play more games
7. read more books than you did in 2009
8.sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. sleep for 7 hours
10. take a 10-30 minute walk daily.....and while you walk, smile

personality:
11. don't compare yourself to others.....you have no idea what their journey is all about
12. don't have negative thoughts over things you cannot control.....instead invest your energy in
the positive, present moment
13. don't over do.....keep your limits
14. don't take yourself so seriously.....no one else does
15. don't waste your precious energy on gossip
16. dream more while you are awake
17. envy is a waste of time.....you already have all you need
18. forget issues of the past....dont remind your partner of his/her mistakes of the past.....that
will ruin your present happiness
19. life is too short to waste time hating anyone
20. make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present
21. no one is in charge of your happiness except you
22. realize that life is a school and you are here to learn.....problems are simply part of the
curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class, but the lessons you learn will last
a lifetime
23. smile and laugh more
24. you don't have to win every argument.....agree to disagree

society:
25. call your family often
26. each day give something good to others
27. forgive everyone everything
28. spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6
29. try to make at least 3 people smile each day
30. what other people think of you is none of your business
31. your job won't take care of you when you're sick......your friends will....stay in touch

life:
32. do the right thing!
33. get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful
34. God heals everything
35. however good or bad a situation, it will change
36. no matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up
37. the best is yet to come
38. when you awake alive in the morning, thank God for it
39. your innermost is always happy......so, be happy

there's so much good here....a few that i'm not sure what they mean.....but i keep remembering the quote that we are only as happy as we choose to be.......as for me, i'm happy....i wanna be happier....so i'm gonna choose to have a 2010 full of good times with brad and all my family and friends.....a profitable year in the truck with safe travels and awesome adventures....who knows, i may even organize my files and balance my checkbook........i'm just sayin......

some sites we see on the road just speak for themselves.....

seriously, you just can't make this stuff up!......hermiston, oregon

Thanksgiving.....

to say that thanksgiving at our house was nice would be an huge understatement.....to say it was caotic would be even more so........

we didn't get home from the road till late on tuesday evening, so most of wednesday was spent with a mad rush to the grocery store and all the preperations for the thanksgiving meal.....luckily, my sister, wanda, who lives near us had picked up the turkeys and was thawing them, so that major task was well underway!.....brad's cousin, lu, came from boston and we had dispatched our young nephew to the airport in pittsburgh to pick her up and she was safely ensconced at the house, waiting for us......next came all the crew from north carolina.....my sister, karen, two of her three girls and their families, her other daughter and her family, who live closer to us......and then the day after thanksgiving we were joined by wanda's son, david and his wife sarah, who would have been with us on thanksgiving but sarah had unfortunately had a mishap and broken her foot on wednesday and wasn't quite up to the trip thursday!.... all of the usual suspects were there, save my son, jj and his family from kansas, who we missed dearly!

the thanksgiving meal was all of our "traditional" goodies......turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn pudding, cranberry salad, deviled eggs, salad, sweet potatoes done up two ways, one with marshmallows and brown sugar and the other in a casserole so that everyone has them the way they like them......hot, homemade rolls......and then there were the pies.....pumpkin, pecan and cherry.....sour cream pound cake and pecan rolls!!!!!.....

friday found some of the younger set braving the early morning sales with some of us older (wiser) folks joining in at a more reasonable hour!....and then that night we had a seafood night.....we had a shrimp boil with potatoes and corn on the cob, along with some crabcakes and pan seared scallops!......the evening was almost declared a disaster when it was discovered that the wvu mountaineer game against pitt was not on any of our available tv channels, but every computer in the house was soon fired up and the game was enjoyed online!......that the mountaineers beat pitt in what is locally known as the backyard brawl was a very sweet icing on the cake!!

saturday was alot less hectic.....it had been declared "leftover day" foodwise, so the only cooking involved was creaming some turkey under biscuits and setting out all the leftovers out of the fridge.......

most everyone headed home early sunday morning.....the north carolina group headed out at "dark-thirty" that morning......and brad and i took lu back to pittsburgh to catch her flight home that evening......i missed them all the minute they were out the door.....there were 21 total.....our time together was filled with food and football, brad tending bar, shopping, catching up, playing with the kids, family drama, and, of course, more food! it pretty much had all the elements that make up an awesome time together!......

runnin in circles......

sometimes i think this company we drive for has flipped their friggin lid.......they give a load...we head to pick it up....they change their mind....we change direction......they pile up the computer screen with loads stacked on top of each other......we actually run maybe 1 of them......they giveth....and then they taketh away........geesh.......all i know is that if brad and i handled our end of this freight haulin deal the way they handle their's, none of our loads would ever get anywhere......and when the nonsense gets really outta hand and you voice your concerns, all you ever hear is that you just don't "see the big picture"............

now, frankly, i love my job.....when i started out years ago i was coming out of a messy divorce and going thru a period where no matter where i was, i was restless to be somewhere else....i hit the road runnin and what could be better than wakin up someplace new everyday when you've got itchy feet???.......i couldn't wait to see what was over the next hill, around the next corner....thru the next gate.....after 11 years, i haven't lost that.....oh, i'm much more settled in my life with brad, but i still love the travel and seeing places i'd only read about.....all that is even more special with brad to share it with.........

the hard part is the constant frustration in dealing with the incompetence.....i have zero tolerence for stupidity....and that makes it hard since stupidity runs rampant around here........

actually, i really do see "the big picture".....i've been doing this long enough, that while i learn something new every single day, i can pretty much put this together like a milton bradley 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle!......ok, i've vented ....i'm better now........

now where did that corner edge piece of sky go?????

best sight of all........

traveling around the country the way we do, brad and i see some amazing views.....serene and inspiring sunsets and sunrises, architecture that runs the spectrum from cozy country log homes and farmhouses to 30 story highrise buildings in new york city.....we cross beautiful wide rivers and listen to the ocean waters lapping at both shores of our great country......we get passed by all types of interesting vehicles and freight and we experience just about every kind of weather this hemisphere has to offer......but the one that makes our hearts perk up......the one that brings a smile to our faces.....the one that warms us from the top of our heads to the tips of our toes sits along a little two lane road in the middle of west virginia, in a little town with a population of 413 when we're........

HOME

bravo! cheese!!

we spent most of sunday running up and down highway 99 in central california........started out in san bernadino after we delilvered our fed ex load there and then they sent us up to modesto, which is just a little ways south of sacramento to pick up a load of bottled water to bring back down to riverside for a delivery this morning..........after we picked up the load, i only had a couple of hours left to drive and we were trying for brad not to drive at all so that he could do a 34 hour restart on his hours, so we made it back south as far traver, california and shut down for the night......this worked out really well for us since we'd been wanting to stop in traver for a long time and just hadn't had the opportunity.......traver's claim to fame seems to be the bravo farms cheese factory at exit 106......their signs on the highway boast that they have a zillion flavors of olives.....and since we love olives in everything.....and brad is always in search of the perfect martini olive, it just seemed to be a must stop for us.........it's a very quaint looking set of buildings that are home to a wine and cheese shop, gift shop, ice cream shop and fruit stand.......yes i let brad get near a fruit stand, but this time we just came away with strawberries and grapes!.....well, that was all from the fruit stand.....we couldn't buy any wine since we can't have it on the truck, but they assured us they'd ship anything we wanted to order off their website.....we did buy some awesome cheeses.....white cheddar with cabernet, creamy pepper jack, chipotle cheddar.....mango chutney, fig and raisin chutney , some jellies and, of course three different olives......

brad got a deck of marilyn monroe playing cards to add to his marilyn collection and we also picked up the cutest set of cheese knives.........we opted to have our supper in the little restaurant there.....very good food.....we ate outside on the patio tho and as soon as our food was set down in front of us, the flies dive bombed us......it's a little hard to eat your steak with one hand while you're waving the other wildly across the table......lol.....we didn't realize until almost halfway thru the meal that they also had a dining room......next time we stop there, that will definately be our choice.........

all in all it was a very pleasant evening......we went back to the truck and cleaned our berries....watched a little tv and called it a nite......

brad goes banana shopping

on our way down thru oregon the other day i'd was feeling like i really needed some potassium......legs a little crampy, just a blah feelin....you know the drill.....we'd stopped at a couple of truck stops, but they were out.....we stopped at a couple of small markets.....they were out too.....i was beginning to think there'd been a banana recall and no one had told us!....finally we stopped at a market in madras, oregon....and since bananas was all i thought we needed, brad said he'd just run in and see if they had some.....well, evidently he's easily seduced in the produce aisle........

he came back with red raspberries, blackberries, grapes, strawberries, and, yes, bananas!.....oh!, and a box of ritz crackers!....go figure!