It is not right!

Over the weekend most of the parents traveling with children had movies playing in the car to keep the kids busy.

That is "not right". Parents should have to suffer with "Are we there yet?", as we older parents did.

Winter driving in a "big truck" can be a challenge with rainy, icy, and snowy roads,

but the real reason I am not fond of driving in the winter is the fact that the landscape is almost naked





and the women aren't.












For those interested I wrote in my "Life story" blog today. My nieces have asked for more.

Full Moon?

Because we will not work Thanksgiving, the normal "run" schedule does not apply this week.

I ran Monticello and Hamburg yesterday. Had to make unscheduled stops in Pine Bluff and Star City to drop off Buttermilk that we had run out of then those trailers were loaded and delivered. Buttermilk takes several hours to make, so when you are out, you will be out for awhile. No big deal, just get the job done.

Everything was going fine until I left Monticello. The speed limit is 45 mph thru town and after leaving city limits the road is uphill. I'm doing about 50 mph when a car at a stop sign on my right pulls out in front on me headed back to town. The driver was a young woman with kids in the car. She simply failed to see a "big 60' long truck". I had to brake sharply and she looked and I could see the terror in her eyes. It unnerved me as I thought about what could have happened.

About 2 miles down the road, a big truck blew out a left front tire and ended up across the road on my shoulder. I was never in any danger as it happened about a mile in front of me, but I could see it all as it happened.


5 miles further down the road, a deer hunter in a pickup with a 4 wheeler on a trailer ran a stop sign and was half way out in the road when I passed.

Some days just seem more dangerous than others.

Working stiff

One of the bloggers I read said, "I think I will take the day off." There was no reason, they just wanted the day off.

I'm just a working stiff and would never think about taking a day off , "just because". I have my faults (did I really say that), but being a slacker has never been one of them.

My take on employment goes like this; I was hired because they needed an employee to work. If they wanted a "part-time employee", I would have been hired as one.
I expect to be allowed to work when I am scheduled to work. So why should my employer not expect me to show for work when I am supposed to. I never turn down extra work because I would not be asked if I were not needed.

If you do not want to work, then do not take a job, period!

Camera

I want a small light weight "point and shoot" camera for my upcoming trip. We have a nice camera but it is just too big and heavy to have on your person all the time. After researching my options, I finally decided on the model I wanted.

Buying online is something that I am comfortable with, so I placed an order before their store opened. Basic camera, basic order, just ship it to me! Now is when the problem begins.

They call and want to sell their "camera accessory pack". I was not home and my wife would not authorize the addition and told them I would call them back.

I get the most over baring salesman I have ever encountered. I tell him I just want the "camera" and nothing else. He will not take NO for an answer. I then tell him to cancel my order. He says he will not do that until he tries to help me. Now I am getting more angry by the second. After I tell him I have 2 battery chargers and 16 rechargeable batteries and do not need his, he proceeds to tell me the camera has a cheap plastic case (it is metal!) and I need to upgrade to the metal case. Rather than call him the bold faced liar that he is, I just say that I ready don't care about it being plastic.

The whole time I have said "please cancel my order" several times. He changes his tactics by telling me the camera is imported (HELL, they are all imported) and the instructions are not in English and he can upgrade the software for only $25.

Now my blood is really boiling. If I could have reached through the phone this lying #*&%+ would be minus his teeth if not his life. We proceed to exchange pleasantries as we are now both angry. I finally call him just what he is and tell him he will cancel my order and I will dispute any charges to my credit card and hang up.

I call my credit card and tell them what is going on and when I go back to the camera store's website I see that my order has indeed been canceled. I printed it out for future reference.

All this to save $30. Sometimes it just does not pay to be a tightwad.

Grocery tax

Our governor-elect wants to eliminate the sales tax on groceries. Everyone pays the tax and poor people pay a disproportionate amount of their income on this tax, so it would seem a win-win for everyone.

Not so in my opinion. We know that the tax money will be made up from some other tax (even though our state has a large tax surplus). At least the grocery tax is charged to every one no matter their income.

The hotshots (did I misspell that by one letter) have various ways of not paying taxes, but not this one. Sure they can eat out often on their "expense accounts", but the groceries their wives buy for the house gets taxed.

Of course a 'fair' tax system isn't going to happen (ending corporate welfare/pork/political nepotism). That being said. Will the tax be eliminated or just the STATE portion of the tax? City and county taxes eat away at our income also.

Politics

Well, we survived another political season. Now we well see how the more important issue is handled. How soon do they take down all the signs?

Class of 66

It doesn't matter what year you graduated high school. Mine just happened to be 1966. Yes, 40 years ago. The Statler Brothers song of Class of 57 fits my class and your class.

CLASS OF '57 (Don & Harold Reid) The Statler Brothers - 1972

Tommy's sellin' used cars, Nancy's fixin' hair
Harvey runs a grocery store and Margaret doesn't care
Jerry drives a truck for Sears and Charlotte's on the make
And Paul sells life insurance and part time real estate
Helen is a hostess, Frank works at the mill
Jeanette teaches grade school and prob'ly always will
Bob works for the city and Jack's in lab research
And Peggy plays organ at the Presbiterian Church
And the class of '57 has dreams
We all thought we'd change the world with our great works and deeds
Or maybe we just thought the world would change to fit our needs
The class of '57 has dreams
Betty runs a trailer park, Jan sells Tupperware
Randy's on an insane ward and Mary's on welfare
Charlie took a job with Ford and Joe took Freddie's wife
Charlotte took a millionaire and Freddie took his life
John is big in cattle, Ray is deep in debt
Where Mavis finally wound up is anybody's bet
Linda married Sonny, Brenda married me
And the class of all of us is just part of history
And the class of '57 has dreams
But livin' life day to day is never like it seems
Things get complicated when you get past eighteen
But the class of '57 has dreams
Ah, the class of '57 has dreams


"We all thought we'd change the world with our great works and deeds. Or maybe we just thought the world would change to fit our needs." These are truly powerful word and I must say I have fallen down on my part. What about you?

Why!

Why do we let them be manufactured and sold, when the only the only reason to own one is to circumvent the law. They have been outlawed in "big trucks" for years (and rightly so), outlawed in some states, but for the life of me, I can't see why they are not forbidden all together.

I guess so idiots like the one that passed me last night doing what I estimate to have been at least 90mph can get away with it. Yes, there on his rear view mirror was the little tale-tale light of a radar detector.

If you are caught doing 20mph over the speed limit, I think you should have your vehicle impounded, you license taken away for a year, and spend at least 48 hours in jail.

If you are driving a big rig then your CDL should be pulled for 5 years. I have no tolerance for speeders ( my old classmates will get a kick out of that).

SPEED KILLS!!!!!

November Book Review

John Steinbeck is most remembered by my generation for two of his novels that were made into movies. The Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda and East of Eden, starring James Dean.

In 1962 Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for his account of Travels with Charley.

In 1960, after suffering a small stroke, Steinbeck and his poodle, Charley, set out to see America in a pickup truck with a camper on back. It depicks life in the '60's.


He did not keep notes and wrote the book after the trip. It was actually written in Barbados and finished in New York. It became the largest commercial success of his career.