frazier park....lebec....frazier park.....lebec...stop...don't stop....

in all the years i've been coming to california, i've stopped at the flyn j on i 5 on what trucker's everywhere know as "grapevine".......it never fails that if you have your cb on while you're there, you will hear at least one driver ask, "hey!...what do you call this here town at the truckstop??"....and then a semi-free-for-all will erupt as various drivers within earshot argue over whether it's frazier's park or lebec......i used to log it as frazier's park, but then started noticing that it's lebec on the fuel slips, so i figured they knew better than me and it must be lebec...........well now, i'm wondering again, since today, as we were leaving the j at frazier's park/lebec and pulled up to the stop sign just before you start up the ramp to get back on i5, i realized that uncertainty prevails in frazier's park/lebec.......only now it's to stop or not to stop...........

seven, seven, seven, seveeeennnnnn!!!

sheeps on a diet????

this morning as brad and i were running down i5 south in oregon, we were admiring all the lush green fields filled with sheep.....huge herds of sheep and most looked newly shorn.........we were discussing how they were marked from the shearing and how cute the lambs were......brad turned to me and asked if i'd heard about the shepherds putting the sheep on a new diet......without even thinking, i said, "what??"......he said "yeah, he'd heard there was a big market for woolite"........i can't believe i fell for that.....

people pooperscoopers

most of you reading this have by now met our little dog, babygirl, who travels around with us and generally acts as our bedwarmer/approaching people warning system/entertainment and exercise coordinator/and leftover food removal specialist......she's 9 and 1/2 pounds of pure cuteness and sheer terror.....a miniature pinscher who thinks she's a rottweiler........brad and i call her our "alternative child" ....she calls us her bitches.......



this morning i was taking her for a walk in the truck stop in portland, oregon......jubitz.....i'd parked near the outside perimeter of the lot, always a premium spot when you travel with a dog, and there was a nice little spot of grass not far from the truck.....we've been to this stop lots of times before, but i'd never noticed the little green box on a pole in the grassy spot before.....i walked over closer to read the sign above it and i had to chuckle.......

considering that almost any time i get out of the truck in any truckstop lot, i have to step over thrown out trash, rotting banana peels, bottles and jugs of all sizes with dark yellow liquid in them......and that's providing i can step over them and the soles of my shoes aren't stuck to the pavement.....wouldn't these containers and signs be of better service out in the parking lot than worrying about a few disintegrating dog turds?????

brad and i have tried to teach babygirl to be a good citizen.....we're careful of where we let her take care of business......we don't throw her food bowl remains out on the lot.....i guess it's just too much to expect that some of our collegues be as well trained.

having a stephanie plum moment.......

janet evanovich is a very popular writer of "chic-lit".....i'm a very big fan of "chic-lit"....actually, i love reading about women who step outside the box and do daring or off-beat things that most of us dream about doing but usually don't muster up the courage or the motivation to achieve.........i love the autobiographies of women who've made a difference in our world..........i strive really hard to live up to these examples that great women have given us......but so much of the time i find myself feeling more in step with stephanie plum than queen noir, or madelyn albright or hillary........

for those of you who don't know...and i can't imagine that could be many....janet evanovich writes an ongoing series of books who's main character is stephanie plum......she has written many other books, even a book about how she writes her books.....but her stephanie plum series is by far the most popular....i suspect because so many women like me identify with steph.......steph is a mid-thirties, divorced, junk-food-addicted, usually broke, woman from trenton, nj, who makes her living as a bounty hunter .......she's also the poster child for murphy's law....if anything bad can happen in any given situation, it will happen to stephanie......if she's chasing a fta (failure to appear) and there is a pile of dog poop anywhere in a 5 mile radius, she will slip in it......if there is

any other form of a disgusting substance around, she'll end up in it......if something can catch on fire while she's in it, it instantly ignites......if....well, you get the picture......she goes thru cars like underwear because they're always getting shot up, blown up, the aforementioned caught on fire and occasionally crushed in a crusher....but she trudges on thru life .....and perseveres.......

alot of the time that's what i feel like i'm doing out here.....perservereing......nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel, etc......one load delivered, another picked up and running.....i try to be a safe driver.....i AM a safe driver....10 years on the road with no preventable accidents, no speeding tickets......haven't even worn out my middle fingers flippin people off yet......then all of a sudden the stephanie plum syndrome hits............makin a sharp, tight, right hand turn on a tiny little street in a tiny little town, i catch a curb, graze a light pole with my trailer.......no amount of "buttonhooking" is gonna help me outta this one............2 cars in the turning lane that won't back up.....oh well......gingerly i ease around the corner against the pole....and into the receiver's lot...actually he had no lot, just a wide walk space to pull in on.....one of those lovely places where you get to blindside into a dock from outta the street.....the same street where the traffic won't let you make a wide right turn, won't slow down even when they see you're blocking both lanes.....but it is the street where some happy motorist is on their cell phone telling the cops that some lowdown truckdriver just "knocked down" a light pole on the corner........well the policeman came out....took a look and realized the pole was still standing, the traffic light still working.....nothing but a scuff mark and the barest of dents on the pole......and told me to go on my merry way.........so at least one pile of crap was averted.....so see, i persevered....i delivered my cargo, which was my version of an fta capture........but another pile of crap was just lying in wait.....rounding the corner i had caught the curb with my front trailer tire....bending the rim.....cutting the tire......my very own stephanie plum pile of crap........