still alive and kickin...

thought i'd better steal a few minutes and write something just to let ya'll know that i haven't fell off the face of the earth and am, indeed, still alive and kickin......it just seems like i've been busier lately than a one armed traffic cop on visitor's day at the nudist colony......if you ask me what i've accomplished, well the list probably won't seem so daunting....it's just that it took me forever to do it.........

the last week before we went home we had been running pretty hard.....it seems like that's always the way ....mid month we might sit and have a little down time (like we did in california)...but let the calendar roll around to the week we're headed home and they run us ragged....sometimes i think they try their best to see how many times they can make us cross over i 79 without letting us turn south and head home........we did manage to get to lost creek on the day we were supposed to this time tho....12 hours late, but at least the same calendar day.....that in itself is something.........

this time at home, in addition to the mail thingy, and the laundry thingy and all the stuff i've already written about, we had the tax thingy to get done....and i am happy to report that both the state and the federal will be sending us a check this year....modest ones, but hey.....it's better in my hands than their's, obviously......and then there was the eye doctor visit and getting new glasses made thingy, because i had dropped my glasses unknowingly in the truckstop parking lot in bushland, texas a few days before we headed home.....and we were 50 miles east of amarillo before i realized i didn't have them.....we pulled over and searched the truck inside to no avail....called back to the truck stop and asked them to look.....no luck....and then turned around and went back ourselves to take a look......well, we found them......but just in case you're wondering what glasses will look like if left in a truck stop parking lot while you travel 100 miles...well here it is...........probably not a real quality picture,

but, hey!, i couldn't see what i was taking......lol......

it was not a pretty site.....i had to pick them up tho.....i couldn't just leave them laying there,

abandoned.........

and then there was the making a privacy curtain for the truck thingy.....this new cascadia didn't come with a built in curtain for the side and front windows.....now i'm a little claustrophobic and i hate being closed in with the curtain that goes between the cab and the bunk....even more, i hate the idea of being seen by my fellow truck drivers in my bvd's or my flannel jammies.........so we had to have a curtain.....years ago t/a truckstops used to sell a really nice curtain that actually fit your window, but no more.....i think we've hit every truckstop store from one end of the country to the other, but no luck....they all sell the same one and it doesn't come close to covering the windshield and both door windows.........it had been along time since i'd sewn anything....i've had a brand new machine at the house for 2 years and hadn't so much as mended a pair of jeans, but i broke it out... made a trip to the fabric store.....and 5 yrds of navy blue suede and one real wrestling match with learning how to load the bobbin later, we have a custom-made, one of a kind, elasticsized, covers everything, but doesn't hang too long to let the heater/ac vents still work curtain!!........

while i got creative with the blue suede, brad worked on another version of the top-bunk shelf....we are now so organized that martha stewart will be wanting to travel with us........

anyway, we had a wonderful time at home....got alot accomplished both at home and things to make our life on the road a little easier.....had some good visits with my sister, wanda and even got to have dinner with her son, david, who stopped by on his way home from a guard week in virginia.....that was a treat, since we hadn't seen david since last october.....now we're back at work and i promise to do better getting the posts done.......it's not that ya'll weren't in my thoughts all along......so be safe out there......