Good Day & Poser

What an AWESOME day!

Today at church, the message was about forgiveness. Pastor Mike talked about the girls exectued in Lancaster, PA and how the world has been shocked by how forgiving the Amish people are. (You know, why can't my religion be known for that type of stuff? No we've gotta be known for junk like the wackos at Waco!) It was a very compeling message. A very, VERY good one!

Then in Sabbath School, they celebrated my youngest's 4th birthday coming up on Tuesday and basically she'll be going to the next level of class starting next week. Kinda special!

After church we ran home, changed and headed off to some friends house with my in-laws and had a delicious chili meal and the kids all played together extremely well. So well in fact that we had most of the afternoon completely in adult conversation without the constant interuptions from little ones. That was kinda nice! :)

We got home and kinda hung out as family for a bit, put the girls to bed - I'm getting my gear ready for a trip to KY tonight - but I don't have to drive out - so I get to crawl right in the bunk as we take off!

Man, as I look back on it - it was a very, very blessed day!

Ok, so here's my poser for ya!
Today in Sabbath School a lady sitting next to Doreen and I was singing the songs, and she was SO very off key it wasn't even funny. I don't think she could carry a tune in a bucket if she had too - it was so bad!

It kinda reminded Doreen and I of a church that we occassionally attended in S. Illinois that had a head elder that would get up in front of the congregation for song service and would sing his little heart out - but wouldn't even get one note right. And I AM NOT exaggerating! This guy's singing was awful!

So am I mean for noticing and kinda chuckling under my breath, or just ignore it and let these people sing in their 'mannor' and hopefully be blessed?

:)

Guarntee 45 Min or Later!!!! :(

What is the deal with towing companies? The standard answer is, "We'll have someone there in about 45 minutes. They are NEVER there within that timeframe. NEVER, at least in my experience with towing companies.







Ok - here's the story to get me up on my soapbox on this topic. Yesterday we were in Michigan making our round of deliveries. We'd alread been delayed at our 2nd drop because the garage door keypad wasn't working and we had to wait for someone to come out and open the door so we could deliver. So we head get done there and head to our third drop. In the back of this warehouse is a large gravel area for us to pull a U-turn in to head back the right way.


So I pull a U-turn and and as soon as I do - I feel the truck start to sink, so I gun it, only to have to stop because the wheels weren't turning the truck and we kept getting closer, too close, to the fence. So we got stuck. Tried getting out - to no avail. So we call work - they call a towing company and then call us back to say, "45 minutes." Well an hour and 20 minutes later, they show up, work for about 5 minutes, yank us out and take off.

45 minutes my eye!!! Maybe I ought to start my own towing company with a 30 min or under guarantee, or 15% off your bill thingy (Depending on how far away they are of course! Grin).

Oh well - chalk that one up to experience! :)

Myrtle Beach

What a GREAT weekend. We had an adult weekend - the first in years w/out any kids. I love my girls, but to have our first weekend in a while with out them was kinda cool.

So here are a few pictures from our trip...


Here's Doreen, Tracy and Cheryl standing in front of some beautiful landscaping at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center.



Got a 'posed' pic of Doreen and I on the stairway to the 2nd floor of the convention center.













D,C&T in the seats we had for the 3 programs.



Here's the view from the seats we were in of the stage.


Wanted to get a pic of the house audio equipment right next to the stage for dad. He was pretty excited about seeing it - so here it is. They had a 2nd board in the back just for the video equipment. What an awesome setup!

Myrtle Beach, Cont...

Here are some of the artists on stage singing their hearts out! What a fun way to spend a few hours.



We had a bit of a break between the Sat am program and Sat pm program, so we hit the room and ate lunch we brought with us, then headed out to the beach!











The water was chilly when it first hit your toes. Check out Doreen and Cheryl's reaction. It 'got warm' after you stood in it for a while.

















We had a BEAUTIFUL day to be walking the beach.


I can't wait to get the girls out to the ocean there in Myrtle Beach. They'd LOVE to jump these waves and I think we'd have a TON of fun playing in the sand. Awesome!












Hey what happened, did I shrink on this trip? Did Doreen grow taller? Hum what happened here?
















Wait, she's still taller than me. Oh where'd my feet go? Lost a foot of my height to the sand. Oh that was fun!
















Of course we had to do some Geocaching while we were out there. Found four!


















After Saturday nights last program, we went to talk with our favorite Christian Comedian, Mark Lowry.












On the way back, Doreen had to hit the books - or the computer. She did a bit of studying as we made the trek back hom.

Thanks Mom and Dad for a GREAT weekend!

South Carolina or Bust

My folks intended to take a 'retirement' trip around the USA to see friends, to visit old haunts, and to make new memories.

Unfortunately - my father got some sort of strange infection in his leg the weekend before the trip was to commence and so they delayed it - and after the Dr gave them approval to leave the following weekend - my dad was feeling better - he had a severe allergic reaction to the meds he was taking.

So they felt like these were a couple of warning signs not to take the trip this year.

They had purchased some tickets for Gaither Fest 2006 in Myrtle Beach, SC. After they decided to cancel trip they were trying to decide what to do with the tickets - non refundable! :)

They offered them to us. We weren't sure, then decided it was a good idea. So we grabbed a couple of friends and left TN this morning for SC. Our kids are staying with some friends and we're having an adult weekend, enjoying LOTS of music and good company.

Oh - we grabbed a GeoCache on the way down too! Awesome.

Just got back and all settled in at the motel from a 4 hour concert. Wow, that was long, but almost ALL the music was awesome. My hands are gonna be sore from all the clapping after we return! Waaaa ha, ha, ha!

I'll have some pics for ya, hopefully, later in the week.

For now - see ya!

Why Are 'They" THAT Way???

We've got some friends that I'm having a hard time understanding. In fact they're pretty much - in some ways, downright annoying. I write about this because I'm trying to think through if we're just too caloused, or 'in the world' or justified in our thoughts.

These friends are pretty, apparently very, conservative. It started at a get-together this summer. It was kind of a potluck thing, and she sweetly asked people to bring things that were 'regular' - for the lack of my mind thinking of a better word - and vegan. (No dairy) I was on a trip, so I wasn't there - I was on a trip to MI probably, but some of 'those' who were vegan (Those there other than our friends) apparently kinda made a, I'm gonna use the word 'Scene' for the lack of a better word and kinda harsh, but yet it does describe how they kinda acting trying to find the 'vegan' dishes. Now our friend didn't make a big deal - she was very nonchalant about it.

Another time, they were talking to us about 'guns' because she is apparently concerned about them. Their little boy isn't allowed any interaction with anything that resembles a firearm. We shared our thoughts with them.

Then another time, Doreen was talking about the kids singing at church and she asked if the music, "Had a beat" to it.

Then finally in talking about camping, her husband is not going to be around, so she decided not to 'camp' but to attend the event. "Besides - she didn't want to put her 'tent' up on Sabbath.

Now we have some other friends, who are kind of conservative in their ways, and we NEVER hear any of these statements, or questions (that have the intention of informing us of their strong beliefs.) or anything from them. They are very, VERY nice people and super thoughtful.

So am I a bit calloused by feeling annoyed at the Music Beat question, or the putting up a tent on Sabbath or watching people make a 'deal' about finding the 'vegan' dishes?

Why is it 'these' people, and why is it typically the extremely conservative crowd, are this way? Why do they 'HAVE' to let you know their conservative feelings - and then I do not enjoy my time around them nearly as much for fear of discussing a topic that would 'offend' their sensibilities in some way.

When Doreen told me about the "Putting the tent up on Sabbath thing" I was really annoyed because it's like - back to being a Pharasee or Saducee and having a little irritating law about every little thing. So can I shave on Sabbath? Can I open my refrigerator door on Sabbath - is that working?

Oy vai!!!

And why are these people always worried about a 'beat?' ANY orchestra or band music - "Has a Beat." Does that make that music evil as well?

So, am I callused or justified in my feelings?

I don't know - "do they have a beat?"

He, he, he!!!

A Garage - I'm Lovin' It.

Man, I tell ya what, we are super thankful for our garage. This is the first house we've owned that has a garage in it - and I'm LOVIN' IT!

For the first little while after we moved it - we had too much junk just laying around so we couldn't get the car in. Finally after a few days of that - I got my hiney in gear and got some of the stuff OUT and got things arranged so we could get the car in. We've been lovin' it!!

I've had time now and then, and the motivation, to do a little organizing in the garage and hope to have it 'perfect' one day, but for now it is very useable!

A number of times, to or from church or shopping it's been raining - pretty hard, and to be able to get in & out in the garage and keep our Sabbath clothes dry is a blessing. It's even more of a blessing to be able to carry the bags of groceries in the house without having to make a number of trips in the rain. I'm lovin' it!!!

Then - just this morning, I had to leave early for a chiro appointment. I looked at the thermometer on the way out and saw it was 34 degrees outside - burrrr. So I took the car, sitting in the warm garage. Man, I am LOVIN IT!!!!

It's a one car garage - I'd love a 2 or 2 1/2 or even a 3 car garage - but I amd extremely thankful to have this garage and frankly, I'm Lovin' it!!!!!

A First or This Week

This past week has been a pretty good one. I got in 3 trips for work, but they were all kinda short, so I was home quite a bit! Very nice.

Sabbath we had some friends over because after 12 years they're/she's pregnant and gonna have a little one - so we wanted to congratulate them!

Friday was a GREAT day as well - and I'll tell ya about that in a sec.

Thursday we took the girls to do something they've never done before - Roller skating. They had a blast - obviously, they didn't do very well, but they had a BLAST and are asking to go again. Doreen and I will have to get our wheels back on and do it again soon!





Friday, we were getting the house ready to have visitors and the girls were helpful in cleaning up. Then - they were also very helpful in assisting me make dessert. Of course they got to lick the yummy stuff off the beaters - and obviously that is the best part of cooking! :)





A friend told us that there was a replica of the Nina' - Christopher Columbus' favorite ship that he took in search of the new world. So we went and checked it out.



It was really, REALLY neat seing it. One thing that struck us was how small it actually was. Imagine being on the tossing ocean in something pretty small. Wow! WOW! 27 people packed on that ship is amazing. These guys had heart.

What a cool week!

Which Superhero Are You?

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 75% Spider-Man 70% Superman 60% Robin 60% The Flash 60% Iron Man 60% Hulk 50% Catwoman 50% Supergirl 46% Wonder Woman 46% Batman 40%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test


Sure glad I didn't turn out to be Wonder Woman! Waaa ha, ha, ha!

Popcorn...

To defile or not to defile that is the question!!!

Ok - here's the situation. When Doreen makes popcorn, she has to put this whole witches brew on it. Yeast flakes, a bit of chicken seasoning, um - that's all I know that's in there - but I know there's more, much, much more! Probably includes a bit of "Eye of newt, and toe of frog,Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing," --From Macbeth (IV, i, 14-15)

When I eat popcorn, I eat it pure, with just a bit of salt.

So - I need your help. I need you to vote. How do you like your popcorn...

Pure or Defiled? :)

Survey Sez! :)

"No Soup for You!!!" :)

So I took a Seinfeld identity test. Here's which character I was! :)



Soup Nazi
You scored 43% Harsh, 46% Kavorka, 37% Sarcastic
This test measured 3 variables.
First it measured how harsh you were. By harshness I don't mean whether I think you are going to kill somebody, but whether you are a lollipop and happiness person, or a "shit happens" type of person.

Second it measured how much Kavorka you have. Technically Kavorka is the Latvian word for "the lure of the animal." According to Seinfeld at least. In my test it measured your ability to lure men or women and to a lesser degree how social you are.

Third it measured how sarcastic/cynical you are. Some characters like Jerry are very sarcastic while the Soup Nazi is much less so. It can be difficult to accurately measure sarcasm in a written test.

You scored high in harshness, medium in Kavorka, and low in sarcasm. Generally harsh people that are not sarcastic tend to be a little mean, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and trust that it's not true for you. Perhaps you are just misunderstood. Your medium score in Kavorka suggests that you might not be able to attract anybody you want, but you do have some appeal.

So why were you so lucky as to be the Soup Nazi? Well first of all, you are both pretty harsh. Hopefully you aren't as mean as he is. You might have a sense of humor, but like the Soup Nazi sarcasm does not appear to be your thing.

Well there you go. You might not sell soup for a living, and you probably don't yell at your customers, but you are... The Soup Nazi.


Take the Seinfeld Identity Test

Favorite Season

I usually have it mentioned by now, but haven't up to this point. My favorite 'season' is now in full swing.

The NFL!!! :) It's now into it's 5th week and every year I forget how much I enjoy football. Lately, I've been gone on Sundays and haven't been able to watch many games. Sometimes I'll be able to catch a bit of the Sunday or Monday night games.

So I pretty much get to listen to any NFL game, when I'm on the road, on my Sirius Satellite Radio. Man, what a most awesome invention.

It's funny, because I'll ride with other drivers that have XM and we have a 'debate' on Sirius vs XM.

Baseically what it comes down to is Sirius carries the NFL and next season they'll have NASCAR. It almost makes working Sunday's awesome!

Go Denver Broncos! :)

80's Cartoon Character

Who would have known this would have been my outcome of taking this on-line test??!!! He, he, he!!!

Garfield! You scored 50 Aggression and 75 Silliness!
Cynical, bitter, hilarious and sometimes violent, you are Garfield! You love hedonism and schadenfreude. You have a great sense of humor and a little mean streak. People either love you or hate you, but I would wager that the majority love you.
	Higher than 88% on Silliness

Ace OR 3 Broken Tractors

Well, what a week it's been.

Friday, Doreen had a her first test in A&P 2. She checked her grade on-line later that afternoon and found that she had a very high score.

Monday when she went to class - the teacher told them that two students in the class had correctly answered ALL the questions on the test, hench having the perfect score.

Of course, Doreen was one. She wasn't sure who the other one was.

Since she's been back to school - this is the first time she had a perfect score without any extra credit questions, or a question or two being thrown out because it was confusing.

She was perfect on this one. I am SO proud of her. Homeschooling Joelle, being a stay at home Mom and a student and doing so awesome in school herself. She is just Maaaaavellloouuuusssss!!!

---

It's was weird at work this week. I took three trips. One to Ohio, One to Lousianna and one to North Carolina.

On each trip, I arrived at work a bit early to get the tractor hooked up to the trailer and get the rollers loaded up so we can get going when my partner shows up and get the trip under way.

On each trip - the tractor assigned had to be replaced by a 2nd tractor. On the OH trip - we loaded up and drove out of the lot, then realzed the Super 10 transmission was skipping the even gears. So we could shift 1,3,5,7,9 - we couldn't get into 10th gear, the big hole, and really get rolling. So we had to turn around and ended up swapping tractors. The 2nd was in the shop sandwiched between 2 other tractors and all 3 had no oil in them and it would have been an hour before they could have gotten to ours and get it done. Then the third was in the shop with a drive train problems and wasn't getting parts until that evening. So we ended up swapping out those two tractors.

It is just odd - because I had to get assigned a different tractor than orginally assigned on ALL three of my trips this week. It's not odd to have to swap out one tractor - but three? What in the world is going on??!!!

Guess on all three of those trips - we weren't meant to leave at the dispatch time for some reason or another! Who knows!

Hey - have a GREAT weekend!!

Two Awesome Videos

If you've got a few minutes and nothing to do on the web and trying to figure out what to look at next and like movies and popular music - you gotta check these two cool videos. Someone spent a LOT of time putting these things together and they're awesome!!!

Enjoy!

Video 1




Video 2







PS. The key to really enjoying these videos is to listen to how the words match the video perfectly. Wow - this was a TON of work. Cool!

A Bite, Some Hill Ridin, A Growning Up Suprise & Funny Family Pics

What a cool day!

After lunch, for dessert I grabbed the box of chocolates some friends had given us as a 'thank you' for taking care of their critter while they were gone. When I opened it up, what was I suprised to find? That's right! A chocolate with a bite out of it. My funny, funny wife!!! He, he, he!




So while Doreen was making supper, I see Natalie hanging around the couch and something doesn't look right - so I look again - and there is something still wrong with what I'm seeing. Then I see it! I burst out laughing and had to tell Doreen to see what I was seeing. Waaaaaaaaa ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! It's hilarious, yet man oh man. Am I in trouble when this one hits puberty and beyond! :)





Today, Joelle and I rode our bikes. For those of you who haven't been to our place, we have a pretty serious 'hill' on the road in front of our house. And believe me, as you come down this hill - you get some serious speed! We went up and down a number of time, and we were practically flying! She's getting pretty good on her bike!


A few months ago I asked our Parents and Sisters to get family photos taken so we could have a 'famliy wall' in our hallway. So all the pics came in, except my in-laws. (Sandra had a haircut just after the day of my requst, and unfortunately the lady butchered the job and so understandably, she didn't want to get the picture taken yet.) We waited a 'good' period of time, then decided to go ahead and hang all the rest of the pictures and we'd just put Larry & Sandra's in later. Well, I go to thinking - I didn't want to leave their frame blank, so I told Doreen I was gonna look on Google Images for a pic to put in there. I found three...



... and this is the one that Doreen chose to have me put in. Funny! Well, a couple of weeks ago - Larry & Sandra got home for a few days and so Doreen showed them our 'family wall.' They got a HUGE kick out of it - and the next day went to have their photo taken! He, he, he!

Oh yeah - Today was a good day!

Later y'all!

Down the road

I've been running a LOT for work lately. This is good because that makes payday extremely nice! :)







So I thought I'd share a couple of photos with ya that I've taken while out there. Here I am heading West on I-40 heading out to Arkansas.

Heading up to New Hampshire we were in the Mountains of Virginia and saw this rainbow. Unfortunately it's a little blurry, but that's cuz the truck was bouncing, it was getting dark but you still get the idea!

Heading to NC tomorrow. "On the Road Again!" :)

Bizy, Bizzy, Busy!

Wow, I just looked at my page, it's been a while hasn't it?!! After that long trip to NH - I was wore out.

Then Friday, we had to help a friend of Doreen's Grandma install a new satellite dish system, then over to another friend's for dinner.

Sabbath was a very busy day with church, then a picnic, then a long drive to some nearby falls, and then a hike then home, pack a lunch, change clothes, spend 30 min chillin, then back to work.

I took three trips this week - so not much else going on. Got a trip tomorrow night planned, then a back-to-back run Sunday night.

Aye, caryumba! Busy, busy, busy!!!

Interesting bits, Just learned this afternoon, that my dad is in the hospital. Get was getting home from a trip and he got a fever, then his leg began to hurt and got swollen. So they admitted him, ran some tests, no blood clot, but they're running some pretty high levels of antibiotics in him. Hopin, he gets better soon!

Joelle is quickly learning to read. Monday, Doreen introduced her in her studies to simple words, and they have some simple books - like Dick & Jane stuff, and yesterday when I got home from a trip, that's the 1st thing she wanted to show me she could read. Boy it was precious!!! Not only that, but because Joelle is picking it up - Natalie is very, VERY intersted and with a little prompting, she's quickly learning to read to! Can you believe it??!!

We were at the falls last Sabbath with some friends, and because I had to work - we left before the rest of 'em. Turns out, that Joelle's best friend, Jannah, dropped from some monkey-bars, landed odd and broke her arm. Oh - it was so sad to hear about that!!! Joelle has plenty of empathy for her!

Well, I'll sign off for now - until later, bye!

Good Memories. LD sent me

Good Memories. LD sent me to NH 4 a trip So on the way up we stopped in CT where DP & I drove 4 United. Good 2 see Dick Mark Kurt & Lynn! Cool!

I just saw an intensly

I just saw an intensly beautiful double rainbow coming out some billowy white clouds over the green Appalachian Mtns in Virginia. Cool,Thanx God!