Viewing Another Direction

From my drivers seat I get to look down on some amazing sights, some that are hard to report on a family friendly blog.

Saturday the amazing views came from looking up instead of down. My Saturday run has me circling the Jacksonville Air Force Base and they were having a open house military air base show.

The airbase is the home of the C-130 cargo planes and we see them flying in formation almost every day.








For the "airshow", the Navy Blue Angels were brought in to perform. While I did not go to the show, I had a great seat for the show as they made their turns just over my truck as they made their way back to pass over the crowds at the airbase.














If you have never had a chance to see the Blue Angels, you are missing a show that will make you shutter with patriotism.

A Good View

Women that drive SUV's say they like them because they sit up high and are provided a "good view of everything". I will agree because of what happened today.

A women driving a suv on the interstate today got a "nature call" and she answered the call by pulling on the shoulder and opening both right side doors and "dropping and squatting" between them.. The front and rear doors blocked the views of her torso but guess what was showing below the door, oops!

My Take

If Henry Paulson called and asked my opinion (fat change since I am not a billionaire), I would say,

Hank old boy,
While I am not start enough to figure all of this out, I don't think I want my money in this deal. So if you would kindly just leave my money (and my grandchildren and great grandchildren) out of this "billionaire's bailout" maybe just maybe we can part on friendly terms.
700 billion dollars this week, a few billion in the near future for the auto companies, and lets not forget that wee bit of money spent on the war.
I keep hearing "Too big to let fail", Hank do you think that "America is to big to fail"?

I LIKE IKE

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower. Ike was our last president elected before television played a major role in the election process and therefore in my opinion, the last president elected solely on merit and not personality.


This post is not about politics but about "Hurricane Ike". While it reeked havoc on Texas, it was a none issue at my house. Hurricanes along the Gulf Coast always adds dollars to my pay check because of the added milk needed to serve evacuees .

Hurricane Gustov added dollars but brought with it lots of rain and therefore I had to drive my truck to work and not my gas saving motorcycle.

Hurricane Ike added dollars but I was able to ride my bike because we missed the heavy rain. I am not unsympathetic toward the victims but just realistic about the over all picture. While doing my job, I know I am helping in my own way.

It is HOT!

The temps in central Arkansas are at near record highs. Yesterday it was 105F with a heat index of 116F and with no relief in site for a few more days.

Friday coming back from Texarkana on I-30 I could see the smoke for several miles and had plenty of time to get my camera ready as I knew it had to be a wreck or vehicle fire. The traffic was moving at a nice rate of speed in my lane so I took this picture through my windshield.













It was a 18wheeler burning but it had not been in a wreck. It appeared that the fire started in the front of his trailer. The fire department had their hands full as the fire was in the woods beside the interstate.

Brotherly Love

About four this afternoon I stopped at my usual c-store for a cup of java (hey it was only in the upper 90's). While I fixed my coffee a young boy (about 12 or 13) and younger sister (about 8 or 9) came in , each holding a dollar.

The girl was looking at an orange soda but her brother talked her into a Dr. Pepper as that was what he was buying for himself. The can drinks were priced at 79 cent each and after making her selection, her brother offered to pay for it and took her dollar and the Dr. Pepper to the cashier while the girl waited by the door.

He paid for the two Dr. Peppers and walked over to her and gave her a quarter and her Dr. Pepper. She was surprised at getting a quarter back and he said something to her and patted her on her back and opened the door and they were gone.

She was getting a dose of "brotherly love", what he saw but she did not was the sign,
Dr. Pepper, 2/$1.00.

Taking Action

Trading for a more fuel efficient vehicle may say gas but it probably will not save you any money. If you need to replace your ride then by all means replace it with a smarter choice but if gas savings are needed now, then the best way is "drive slower".












I guess these people got tired of everyone honking their horns because they were not driving like a BOH on the freeway. They were actually driving 55mph in a 60mph zone thru town. They had been in the slow lane and moved over so I could get on the interstate.

I grabbed on camera and took this picture thru my windshield. As I passed I did toot my horn (the electric one, not the loud air-horn) and gave then a "thumbs up".

$4 gas a good thing?

Just a few stations in the pricier part of town has $4 a gallon gas (so far). Gas prices are on every ones mind and that is about all that is being discussed at work.

Everyone is talking about driving less and starting to question ALL of their buying decisions. It is amazing that gas prices have gotten people to do what they should be doing in the first place.

Driving less not only saves gas but saves money that are often not included when we think of the cost of a trip. Maintenance cost, replacement costs, accelerated depreciation and of course the biggie, convenient store snacks.

I have seen several older model high gas mileage cars on the interstate in the past month or so. Two were Ford Fiestas like the one in the picture and one looked like it had been sitting under a tree for years and just put back on the road. New tires, fresh tags, but not even a quick wash job. I'm sure it was pressed into being used as a work car because of the price of gas.

The price of crude oil is down $6 a barrel in the past 2 days but over all I think gas prices will be higher next year and even higher the next. We all need to find ways to save on gas and not give our retirement to the gas companies.

An enjoyable day

I took a little ride last Thursday on my motorcycle to run an errand and stopped by to see my friend Jimmy.

I have written about Jimmy before but I decided that after 30+ years I should have a picture of us.











He is the good looking one on the right. He goes days, weeks and sometimes months without ever leaving his place.

Lonely? Hardly, I cannot ever remember visiting without someone else stopping by to do the same. Six days a week you will always find him out at his garage. On Sunday you can find him on his porch after church.

Besides his garage, his other passion is raising a garden and I was sent home with some ripe "maters".

Sidewalks

Sidewalks being installed seems like an everyday occurrence, but hopefully it shows a shift in governmental policy.

Our town is a "bedroom community" for the Little Rock, Arkansas area. The road you see is Arkansas State Highway 5. As our town developed along this highway there were no sidewalks installed. The town has just started to develop on this side of the interstate in the last few years.













This is the only sidewalk along the highway. There is an elementary school where the sidewalk ends at the top of picture. To the left and also behind where I am standing is all now housing developments with young families.

There is no safe way for children to walk to school and the parents drive them. In the five years I have lived here I can count on one hand the number of children I have seen walking to school.

With gas prices at $4 and only going up in the future, maybe our city government has finally wised up to the fact that some people just can no longer afford to drive their children to school and maybe we can get back to "walking to school".

The sidewalks and cross walks will provide children (and their parents if they so choose) a safe path to school. A city police car is there mornings and afternoons. Hopefully there will be sidewalks added to the other side of the road as that is the side with the most homes.

It will not be a quick and easy transition but all it takes is a few parents and kids using it to start a trend. Our country is facing challenges and we all must step up to the plate.

Sense of Humor

Upon returning to work I found that management has a sense of humor. We have a new "hot-shot truck" and while I was on vacation it had decals installed.

We use this hot-shot truck to deliver up to 100 cases instead of takes a big rig and trailer.























The truck has decals to make it look like an ambulance and enlarge the picture and read what is on the back door. I took this picture thru the windshield of my truck and it makes the decals appear to be added with "photo shop" but it is real.

Training

Thursday afternoon as I was walking around the park I heard a loudspeaker giving orders. As I rounded the corner I spotted two fire department boats. They were there for their monthly training of using the "pumper boats" to load the fire department tanker truck and use the pumper truck to pump the water back in the lake.

The smaller boat (872) has a portable engine and pump sitting on the deck. The larger boat (871) has a built in pump that is below the water line and therefor does not need the hose that 872 has draped over the side.

The pumper boat loaded the pumper truck with water and then they loaded this portable water storage tank. Normally this tank is unloaded at a fire site where there is no hydrant available and the the tanker truck will quickly dump its load into it and leave to pick up another load of water while the pumper truck uses the water it is carrying and then use water out of the tank until the tanker truck can return with another load.

This is the stream of water the pumper boat was delivering with the engine at an idle.

After the tank was filled they pumped the water back into the lake.

Not to be outdone the pumper boat got into the act.

Lost Bridge Park

Lost Bridge Park is the name of the C.O.E. park we are staying at on Beaver Lake. The bridge was built in the 20's and there was no roads leading to it and the photo below appeared in the local paper and the name "lost bridge" was formed. It was five years before the roads were finished to put the bridge in use.

The lake now covers the original site of the bridge and the park is so named.

The "Coffee View" from our picnic table of the lake this morning.

The white triangle in the lower left of this photo is actually the corner of the picnic table as I am taking this from the back bench of the table.

It blows me away that we can be on the lake and have internet via our "air-card".

I am grilling burgers tonight as we bought wheat Kaiser rolls for the buns. Damn, does life get any better? Well is could if I had purchased a little livation to go with them.

At the lake

After a false start, we are finally at the lake. A couple of months ago we went to Camping World to buy a few things we have been needing. Our Dodge diesel did not have towing mirrors even though it had the factory tow package.

The CIPA brand tow mirrors that I wanted only showed the application up to a 2005 Dodge 2500. I felt they would fit my 2006 and while at Camping World, they let me try one and it fit. Fast forward to Sunday afternoon late and I get around to putting the tow mirrors on (I will only have them on when I need them). I grab the passenger side mirror (the one I had already tried) and put it on and when I opened the other box (marked as drivers side), it was also a passenger side mirror that had been boxed wrong. So we were sitting in front of the store when they opened this morning to exchange the mirror.

We still pulled out about 10 am and after stopping for lunch, we arrived at the lake (about 240 miles) a little before 4pm. The Dodge diesel did a great job towing the 14,000lb. trailer.

We are settled in with satellite tv and internet service.

Our spot is not "lakefront" but across the road from the lake. We have a view of the lake from our living room window and the picnic table. The lake is about a hundred feet from our door.

We are backed in a nice tree shaded spot. Although it might look like we are still hooked to the Dodge, we are not. The camper you see over the hood of the truck is on the lake front.

If you enlarge this picture you can you can see the lake between the pickup and camper.

What the old saying, "If the wife ain't happy, ain't no one happy!".

My first time

NO, not that "first time". At my age I am lucky to remember my last time for that.

I am talking about pulling our home (camper) for the first time. We have lived in it for over a year but have not moved it in that time. Next week we are pulling it to the mountains of northern Arkansas for vacation. We will be staying on Beaver Lake, close to Eureka Springs.

We traveled in our motorhome several times but this will be a new experience. In the motorhome you are right with all your stuff and if something is not riding properly you just stop and correct it. With the travel trailer I will not know until after the fact. After the first trip we will have a better idea of how things will "ride".

Cell phone coverage can be spotty in the mountains but hopefully there will be a "signal" for our "air-card" and we will have internet access on the lake.
Of course I will set up our Dish network satellite so we hill have tv at night. Really the only thing that will change is our view out the windows and of course we will not have out "deck". Life is good.

A Skipped Generation

The older I get the more like my dad I become. While my dad died when I was barely 11 years old, I have many memories of him and of course my mom talked to me about him all the time.

My personality is very "old school" because for all intents and purposes I did not have a dad like most males my age. No I am not talking about losing my dad when I was very young.

You see, my dad was born in 1902, the age of most of my friend's grandfathers. My dad was 46 when I was born and gone by 57 years old. My mom and I spent my formative years visiting her sisters and their husbands. All of the same "older" generation.

They knew "The Great Depression" first hand as young parents just trying to keep the family from starving. The next generation (the generation that was skipped on me) knew better times and formed a softer outlook on life.

I can be hard as nails and I contribute that to the "turn of the century" people that helped form my character. These people believed in hard work, taking care of your own, don't expect the world to owe you anything, and hard work. I know I said that twice but that is what they knew.

My motorbike

I have ridden my motorbike to work everyday and it is averaging over 75mpg. Hard to call a 200cc a motorcycle even though it is . I had forgotten how one notices the smells and the temperature changes while on a cycle.

I changed the oil yesterday in anticipation of taking a little ride on Thursday but the boss called and asked if I wanted to work. You may recall the I will be working just every other Thursday for the summer. This was purely voluntary on my part as the runs that were cut for the summer was being run by one person and he would not have enough work.

Swapping with him every other Thursday (my shortest day) helped him but does not effect my paycheck greatly. Also I live less than 15 miles from work and he lives 60 miles, so if (like tomorrow) anything comes up the boss will throw it my way. When you help someone it usually pays dividends.

Milk tankers

Have you ever wondered how the milk stays cold in the "milk tankers" you see on the highway? What, you never thought about it!













There is no visible refrigeration on milk tanks.













You can clearly see "reefer" units on the trailer that we haul the finished milk products on.

The truth of the matter is, the milk tankers have no way of cooling the milk. Not to worry. The dairy farmer cools the milk after he milks the cows and it is cold when it is loaded into the tankers. The milk has to be a certain temperature before the tanker truck can accept it.







Then the tanker is really just a large "thermos bottle", keeping the milk cold until it reaches the dairy processing plant. When the tanker arrives, the temperature of the milk is checked and if it is cool enough to be accepted then milk samples are taken to our lab to be checked for bacteria and acidity. After all requirements are met, then it will be unloaded. The health department has strict guidelines that must be followed.

Got Milk?

At a dairy the answer should always be "yes". We receive our raw milk by the semi truck tanker load and sometimes we process milk faster than we can receive it.


















We are replacing two smaller milk silos with two of these 106 ft. tall, 60,000 gallon, stainless steel silos. Each silo will hold about ten tanker loads of milk. We have to have at least two silos because milk can only be stored for so long in each silo and it must be emptied and sanitized before it can to filled again. Hence, production can continue from one silo while the other is being washed.


















We moved two smaller silos that will be placed beside the short white silo that is visible in the right of this picture. These smaller silos will now be used to help with our production capacity of not raw milk products.

BTW, the non- reefer trailers you see in this photo are backed to the warehouse dock and are used for milk jug storage and other non temperature sensitive loads.

It has happened again

I don't really see the big deal about having birthdays. Just still be breathing and they will come. SIXTY is a milestone and today "I is".

When I was a teenager, I thought sixty was "OLD", probably the only time as a teenager when I was right!

I wanted to take the day off but my wife said, "Get your lazy ass out the door and make me some money".

A little ironic as starting next week I will be cut back to working every other Thursday as school will be out and some of our runs are being eliminated for the summer. We have plenty of work (even need to hire a driver) but I don't want to run WAL-MART stores. So I will work 4 days every other week and be available should they need me on Tuesdays or Thursdays.