Selective or Not Selective Hearing??? Eh?

You know it's funny how an ear works. Since I've had some kiddos, I find that hearing is optional.

A couple of times this weekend, both Doreen and I at one time or other tried to get the attention of both girls for various reasons. Typically we were usually within a foot or two of them, we spoke the name clearly, usually 3 or 4 times trying to get their attention, even going so far to 'tap' them on the shoulder to further attempt to gain their attention. Finally they'd respond.

Well, Doreen and I were in a conversation with some family. The girls were about 25 feet away up at the top of the stairs playing and making noise etc. Anway, we were talking about music and going to see the Gaither..., and Joelle popped up with "Vocal Band."

See - her ears work - when she wants them to.

Fascinating! :)

Thanksgiving And/Or Laser Tag

Hey, I hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving as much as we have been. It has been awesome being here in the hills of North Carolina visiting with family, enjoying delicious meals and just being thankful to be together!!!

I was talking with my mom from Colorado on the phone yesterday and as I was talking, I was sitting on this huge porch, in a rocking chair, looking out over the hills with the blue sky all around. Gorgeous!! Maaaaaavelous! Very Cool!

Today, we all decided to go to the Fun Factory they have here in Franklin, NC. Basically it's like a Chuck E Cheeze on steroids. The building used to be an old factory, so it's about 56,000 square feet. It is huge. They've got it filled with a play area for kids, arcade games, mini golf courses, bumper cars, 3 eating places, laser tag, bowling alley, etc, etc, etc

Well, while the kids were in the playland area we decided to play laser tag. Man - I have never done that before and now am wondering why. It was an absolute BLAST!!! Doreen played once and I played twice and for each 10 minute segment, you're running around like crazy playing 'tag' with laser guns. What a fun thing to do.

I think Doreen scored a Space Laser Cadet and I got to level of a Laser Private. Pretty low, but not bad for our first time in the game.

You know what? I'm 'a gonna have to do that again in the very near future.

I love hearing "Great shot" and HATE the 'hit' noise and the vib on the pack I was wearing.

Man - what a complete blast!

Yeah haw!!!

Don't Hang Out in the No Zone OR I had a Fender Bender Last Week.

I'm sure that many of you have seen this logo OR seen this on a semi-trailer OR seen this slogan on a TV commercial at somepoint - however why is it that SOME people do NOT get a clue!!!

So, I was working Local on Monday. Basically taking full trailers to a location to be emptied, take it somewhere else to get it filled up, then doing a drop-n-hook and doing the same thing with another trailer.

I'd taken a full trailer to Rome, GA to be emptied. After making the drop, I left the warehouse and headed to the next pick up. I had to take a right turn on Broad street from 1st Ave. Sitting at the red light, I watched the cars cross thru the intersection. After they all passed, I decided to go ahead and turn. I looked out the right window to see if I saw any pedestrians about to cross, none, looked back at the light, still red, look to the left to see if any more cars coming - none, I began my right turn. Half way thru the turn I looked in the right mirror to watch the trailer come around the corner and WOAH, A CAR's THERE! So I slam on the brakes, but too late. the front tire of the trailer axles hit and crunched the front left quarter panel of his SUV. Hyundai Tuscon.

Oh - I was mad. So I pulled the brakes, jumped out and said, "Man - did you NOT see my blinker? Did you not see the sign on the back of my truck that says 'Wide Right Turn?'" He said "It doesn't matter because you hit me." A witness who had stopped said, "Man, you know better to try and beat a truck through a right turn - it was your fault."

Thankfully all this info was given to the police for the report.

It just so happened that 1 mintue later a cop pulled thru the intersection. So I whistled her down and she flipped a U-turn and came back so we both talked to her and then another cop pulls up and we both talk to him, and then the two officers talk and then they end up citing the SUV driver. Thankfully!!!!! Of course this whole process took about 40 min.

After the report was 'filed' I had to call work and answer a series of questions. Then finished my day and then back in the dispatch office - I had to fill out a report. Then in a couple weeks or so, I have to make a verbal report to the transportation safety committee.

All that trouble for some guy trying to 'beat' a truck around a corner.

Aaaarrrgghhhhhhh!

Full Circle - Teacher to Student to Teacher Again

So I get a phone call from, I'll call him Buford (you know who you are) tonight. He got it working.

Ok - here's the whole story.

"Buford" got a GPS for his birthday and was looking for a Topo map program for it. My brother-in-law had one, so I asked to borrow it from him so Buford could see if it would work on his GPS.

When Buford got it in the mail - he couldn't get it working. So he's had it for the last month or so. Finally to get it back to my brother-in-law I work stuff out that I'll get the CD's back, call Garmin, get the unlock codes and get it working with both their systems.

I get the CDs in the mail, call Garmin and lo and behold, with the Topo Map program
an unlock code is not required - I had loaded up the program in my computer and when the tech told me that, I tried and opened it right up and voila - it worked.

So I call 'Buford' and let him know an unlock code was unnecessary and to look in a drop down menu for the map. He said he'd try it when he got off work.

Then he calls me tonight and it works. It was there the whole time - he just didn't look in the right place. Most excellent.

So I got to thinking, years and YEARS ago, I showed 'Buford' how to turn on a computer and get on the internet. Well, Buford has completely surpassed me in computer knowledge. In fact, a couple of times I've called him for assistance on computer related things. It's nice to know that I can still teach him a thing or two about computers, albeit a very small thing!

He, he, he!

Enjoy 'Buford!' :)

Girls 1st Concert

Tonight we took the girls to their very first concert. It was a Mark Lowry concert along with LordSong. Man what a very, VERY good event. The girls didn't get all his 'joke's' but I tell ya what - the music was fantastic and the message in with the humor was awesome!

What a cool event! If you ever get a chance to go see him - GO! It'll be worth it.

It's just a great top off to a great week.

Only had to take 2 trips this week. Left Sat night for Nashville, TN. Was home by 1:30p on Sunday. Then left for Houston, TX on Tuesday at 5 am and got back Thur at 2a. So I was home Sat, most of Sun, Mon, Thur & Fri. I'll be home Sat & Sun and have to work local on Mon, so I'll be home Mon evening. Don't know when I'll go out next, but whenever will be fine. We're getting stuff done around the house. (Specifics will be a later post when it's all done! :)

Since I'm gonna be home tomorrow night, we're having some friends come over to watch the movie Napoleon Dynamite - we've been waiting to watch it with them. Should be a good evening!

Have a great weekend y'all!

Movie Weekend

Hey - hope you had a great weekend!

Ours was great. Had lunch with some friends, went to a work party/dinner thingy. It was OK - last years was much, MUCH better!

Had a quick run, left Sat night back Sun by lunch.

Then had all day at home today - getting stuff done, running errands etc. Sure nice!

Gotta go to Houston, TX tomorrow am (Tue).

Got a chance to watch some movies this weekend - hadn't done that in a while.

Watched "Inside Man." Didn't realize it was a Spike Lee directed film. Very good.

Got "Curious George" for the girls and we all loved it!

This evening we watched Oceans 11. My In-laws hadn't seen it. Kinda along the same lines as Insdie Man - but much'a more better!

Gotta get to bed! :)

82nd Airborne - Paratroopers

Recently while on a trip I was driving in the middle of the night, sometime between 2 and 5am. The hardest part of the day for me to drive. Even after a good 6 hours of sleep! Anyway, I was flipping channels on my Sirius satellite radio and came to the Discovery Channel and heard some stories of the 82nd Airborne Paratroopers in World War II.

Of course, when I think of paratroopers, I automatically think they're a bit mentally unstable because they're willing to jump out of a perfectly good airplane! But my grandfather, Gerald Sabes was a paratooper in the 82nd airborne. He jumped out of a plane and he was one of the most sane men I know! But knowing my grandfather was part of the 82nd airborne division, kept me awake and listening for the next two hours to the stories of all the 82nd airborne did to help eventually secure the Omaha and Utah beaches on D-day in Normandy from the Germans.







These guys floated down and had to caputure objectives behind enemy lines to interrupt supply lines to the front and help box the Germans in once the beach was secured. Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Once these guys landed they were automatically surrounded, just by their location and had to fight hard just to get to their objectives, then had to fight even harder to keep the guys back they just fought and try to capture a bridge or something essential to a Normandy D-day victory.



My grandfather never told me many stories about his time fighting as a paratrooper. I know that until the day he died, he carried German shrapnel in his shoulder that would bother him occassionally, but wasn't worth the risk of having it removed. He was injured, shot, as he floated down on a jump behind enemy lines.

All I know is we can be very thankful for the men of the 82nd division, actually of all the regiments of all the branches of the military that volunteer to keep our country safe!

Hip Hip Horray - Hip Hip Horray - Hip Hip Horray!!!!

Toy Assemblage = *&$@##&(*$#&!!!

My youngest just had a birthday. So being good parents and grandparents and friends, we all got her some gifts. Of course we're still at that stage, where we still the our oldest a gift at the same time so she doesn't feel left out. That's all cool.

So we had a meal and some cake. Unfortunatly we dropped the ball and forgot to get ice-cream. How in the world do you have cake and no ice-cream. That is a travesty! :)

Then came the gift opening. What a ball. To watch my youngest open all her gifts and the simile on her face was amazing. Of course my oldest was pleased as pudding as well.

After all the presents were opened - then we had to take all the 'things' out of the packaging these companies put them in. Not only that, a number of them required 'assembly' as well. I tell ya - it took twice as long to de-package the things and put them together as it did to open the presents in the first place!!! Aaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhhh! I kept hearing "Daddy hurry, I want to play with it! Daddy, are you done yet? Daddy, just open it!"


I used a knife, scissors, my teeth, anything to try and speed up the process and there was just no easy way to do it. One person said to me once, "I can just see some little old guy in China chuckling to himself as he packages these toys thinking about some frustrated parent trying to get the toy detached from the packaging. Oy!

Unbelieveable how thoroughly they tie these things into the packages! Wow!!!

I prevailed though. (Said with a triumphant voice.)

Then I became my kids 'hero' for getting their stuff out!

Ok - it was worth it.

:)

Service or Lack ThereOf

As I was riding with a co-driver recently, we started talking about the 'lack of service' in service oriented businesses. A number of experiences I've had in the past few months - and I can't remember most of them right now to elaborate - has been sub-standard. It's like most people want to be served, and not to serve, even if it's their job.

One thing I remember. I was a McD's and placed my order. There were 4 people wandering around the front counter area, 2 in drive-thru and about 5 in the grill area. It took almost 10 mintues to get my meal. Even with the fancy computer system - they still forgot my order. What is that?

I did have one awesome experience recently. On my last trip to South Miami, FL - we delivered at a shipping company that was going to take the product on a cargo ship to the Bahamas. Now, as most of the 'truck drivers' in our family will attest - the majority of dock workers are extremely rude to truck drivers. And some of them rightly deserve it - but the majority of us want to come in, unload or load and head out - that simple.

Well - this dock foreman was EXTREMELY nice. Everything was Mr Pester, yes sir, no sir - very patient and even looking out for me to check and see if the pallets had been handled and the paperwork finished. That RARELY ever happens. Most of the time I've got to 'pester' them. (Believe me, I USED that name-pun to death - it does help a LOT!) I loved going to that warehouse and would go back there at the drop of the hat.

Service - yeah - it's still there, but not a prevelant as it used to! :(

Busy

Hey - Yup - I'm still here, just been extremely busy lately and not had time to write here recently.

Got a little list going of things to write - just haven't gotten to it - or the 'pics' option hasn't been working, etc!

Anyway - take care of yourself!!! :)