Sunday, June 14, 2009

they're growing giant kids in phoenix!!!!!





i don't know what they're feedin these kids out there........

one of i-5's little gems.....

there's alot to capture your interest running up and down i-5 in california.....mt. shasta and lake shasta are breathtaking in their beauty......the olive groves and grape vineyards are meticulously maintained and gorgeous as they ripen.......one of my favorites tho is the often overlooked pyramid lake......just north of santa clarita.....just south of frazier park....it's nestled down between surrounding majestic mountains that seem to end in, albeit man-made, pyramids......

some crazy weekend......

well, here we are....sitting at the company yard in south holland, illinois.....not too bad of a place, even if it is the south side of chicago.....we have been running so hard that we literally ran out of hours....with brad ending up with nothing on saturday and me only having four and a half.....can't do a whole lot on that!.....we were under a load that we brought out of kent, washington and had our first stop just north of here in des plaines, illinois on friday afternoon and then it finaled out saturday in jamaica, ny........since we didn't have enough hours to run it on over there, we repowered it here in south holland and have been enjoying the local 'flavour"....yeah, right.......
this isn't a bad yard, for a drop yard.....they've got a shop, but no showers and not much in the way of a lounge or any other driver amenities.....but, hey....being a country girl....a former 4-H er.......a camper from wayyyyy back.....i've learned a thing or two about improvisation.......guessing there were no showers here, i stocked up on jugs of water on the way into illinois......now, it's no tuscan sun spa, but here is my "trucker salon"...complete with salon shampooist.........




i donned one of my oldest t-shirts.......got out by the drive axle.....hung my head down and my "shampooist" poured the tepid water over my hair.....helped me lather up and then laughed hysterically at me while i washed my hair........but then he helped me rinse and repeat.......i was gonna tip him, but his obvious pleasure seemed reward enough........i can stand alot of things....a greasy head of hair is not one of them.......

saturday we bobtailed out to the local walmart for supplies......this was an easy shopping trip for us since we didn't need alot, and as we got up to the register, brad said he'd go on out to the truck and walk babygirl and then be there ready to help me load our goodies and stow everything away......as i was putting my things on the checkout conveyor, i told the cashier i had a case of water on the bottom and asked her if i needed to put it on the conveyor or could she scan it....she said she'd scan it....well, i busied myself with putting the rest of my purchases up, put my card and information in to pay and then began loading the bagged items back into the cart......didn't give the water another thought until i was stopped by the checker at the door who asked to see my reciept.......she stood there for.ever. scanning up and down the reciept and sighing heavily and giving me this look and then asked me where the entry for the water was....really loud.....really obnoxious.....lots of people going by and staring at me......i felt about 2 inches high......i told her that i'd informed the cashier i had it, she had said she'd scan it, obviously she hadn't done that, but it is not my job to watch her......she literally hollared at the girl at the first register next to us, (not the one who'd checked me out) that i had not paid for this water and needed it rang up......i was ambivient at her tone and suggestion that i was trying to get out without paying for the water and asked her to go down to the girl who'd checked me out so that she could verify that i had told her about the water and it was merely an oversight, but she refused to do that.....she just kept saying stuff about how i hadn't paid for it, in "that" tone......
well, needless to say, the whole thing went down hill after that, with me making a withdrawal from my trucker vocabulary account at her.......the poor girl at the first register who finally ran g up my water apologized but the bitch at the gate never gave an inch and it ended with me telling her as i walked out by her that i was surprised they didn't have a lazyboy there by the door so she wouldn't have to move off her fat ass at all.....she said something back, but i couldn't hear it since the whirl of bird that i flew was so great it drowned her out..........brad could tell something was up when i came stomping up to the truck and it was about all i could do to keep him from heading inside and having another "go around" with her.......i don't know why i let it upset me so badly.....i've never stolen a thing in my life....except for maybe a kiss or two....i mean i had my reciept in hand....she looked at the total....did she really think after that that i'd be petty enough to try to get out with a free case of water????....geesh.........the whole time we were arguing i could just see the headline on the next day's paper.....walmart shopper wrestled to the ground over a stolen case of dasani water...........

well, my loving husband soothed my ruffled feathers and then took me to applebee's for a tasty supper....... .......while we were enjoying our meal, we noticed there was a best buy across the street......so we decided we'd head over there afterwards and check on a wireless router for our air card so that on the rare occasions that we're sitting still, we could both be on our laptops at the same time.......in best buy, we met up with a very nice guy named mark in the pc department and another guy from the geek squad, alex.....i tell ya, i need one of these geek squad guys to ride around with us 24/7......we told them what we wanted....they showed us what they had and helped us pick out a router....we paid and headed back to the yard to get this baby up and runnin, after a little instruction from both of them......well.............that lasted all of about 5 minutes since when we took the router out of the box there was nowhere to plug the air card into it........we rolled it around and around.....even reverted to reading the enclosed instructions....but to no avail......our flat little aircard didn't have a slot to fit in.......we boxed the router back up and headed back over to best buy......ahhhhh hah!.....we were informed they hadn't realized that we hadn't already upgraded to the new handy dandy usb aircard and so after checking our account to make sure we were financially good for the upgrade, they took one out from under lock and key, put it and the router back in the bag and sent us on our merry way with all good wishes........well, two hours later and one by-then-late-nite phone call to jj(our son and go-to family tech support guy) i finally hung my head....shut everything down and went to bed ......defeated for the time being......

sunday morning found me up and clear headed again after a cup of hazlenut belgian cafe coffee and ready to again do battle with the router.....i started fresh.....rereading the written intructions...following the steps.....reading the online instructions....following the steps......finally breaking down and calling the tech support number from the router company......i think i reached india....i don't know, it could have be mozambique.......i couldn't understand her....she couldn't understand me.....she finally told me she believed i had a defective unit.......again, we boxed the thing back up and headed back to best buy...........our luck took a good turn tho when we walked inside......mark and alex were both on duty and assured us that they'd have it up and running in short order.....and true to their word, they did..........there was no defect......seems the firmware you have to download was written before the updated aircard was made and somehow that kept it from recognizing the router.....amazing, isn't it??????......the really good part is that they wouldn't take a cent for their trouble.....i will most definately be writing best buy a letter of praise for these two guys......anyway.....12 hours , 1 phone call to jj, 1 to tech support....three trips to best buy and countless moments of intense frustration later, we have both laptops up and online and entertaining both us and you as you read this post......isn't modern technology grand????

well, that's pretty much a trucker's life....you make do when you need too.....you pick your battles and occassionally you actually win one....