My Blog is broken.......aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

will recover as soon as possible, for some reason have lost all in IE.

But while I am at it, it has been a pretty good holiday season. I was able to book off Christmas for a week and have been able to do a couple of short runs and make it home for my 25th wedding anniversary.

I know no one at HR reads this but I need to thank my dispatcher for helping with this. It is a love hate relationship we have and he really came through for me. Here's to Andy.

Happy New Year.

Later

OK later is here. Christmas week was a very chaotic week in that there was no real structure to it.

I ran only 1800 miles and crossed the Rockies 5 times.....yes they are majestic but come on.....i grew up in Ontario and have never seen snow like I have seen this Christmas. The snow was blowing so much the it would disorient you. Crazy stuff.

Anyway home for a few days and looking forward to getting south next week.

Ta Ta for now

Nothing much exciting this week

It was a fairly quiet week this week....

It was good....did 33oo miles in 7 days.....for some would be slack for me is plenty.

Will write more in the AM...now.....bagged.

Later

Week 5 Random thoughts from the road.
Saturday;

Well this week i learn a huge amount.

First off i have learned that each state has their very own pressure point.

For example, some states you are asked to be aware of poachers, others you are asked to be aware of litterers and some asked to watch for wild fires while others focus on impaired and in each case you are encouraged to dial * something or # something from your cell phone. What i find amazing is that you can be a drunk poacher throwing beer cans and cigs out the window but if you are shooting out of your vehicle you are in trouble in Nevada. That is right all is fair but dont get caught shooting out of your vehicle.

Seriously though I am having a decent week. I am delivering in Tracy CA on Monday and the fact I am here Saturday allows me to reset my hours, run my ass off next week and be home for end of Nov. While I am at it I need to give a thanks to Holiday Inn Express...not like they read my blog but they are deserving.

As some of you know I am extremely cheap and feel in keeping green, rather than buying internet connectivity choose to piggy back on someone else's. Well I could not find any with the iPhone so i figured i would walk the streets of Tracy with my laptop, skulking around all of the hotels to see if I could sniff out a signal.

I was chased of the Motel6 property, seriously, a short little Hispanic dude chased me off the property. Dejected I spotted a Holiday Inn Express a block away. I went and stood in the shadows but was uncomfortable being eyed by the patrons. I went in and explained that I just want to check my email and the truck stop across the way had no connectivity, etc and they were happy to oblige. Yay for Holiday Inn.

Although the week is ok i am sitting watching the news and it is unsettling. I guess the thing that bothers me is that 2 dead in Sacramento, and up the road a couple of miles 5 dead after a shooter has his way in Stockton and he is still at large....perhaps a Nevada resident....joking aside.........this is sad and this lot I am parked in is not very comforting.

Oh yeah 45 years ago I was having a tooth puilled and my brother slammed the car door on my thumb......bastard. That comment is in ref to where I was when Kennedy got shot....

Well, the week is young, plenty of time to write more.

Sunday;

Thank goodness for NFL on Sunday, i will clean the truck and watch football till I drop.

Last night Lot Lizards abound. Small lot holds about 40 trucks and many lot lizards. Again I feel bad for these kids, yeah kids. Late teens at best wired on what ever they could get hold of. Don't worry I am not adopting them I just a sap.

Ok truck cleaning begins....now. So i got side tracked and chose not to clean the truck and went for a walk instead. 16 degrees C and sunshine today. The truck can wait.

Thursday;

I made it back to White Rock on Thursday afternoon. I keeping with the "I learn" theme the one lesson I learned is that it does not pay you to reset on the road unless you plan on running for weeks. I busted my ass to get to Tracy, CA. sat for 34 hours to reset in the hope of running hard this week.

Well I did reset however I waited most of Monday to be dispatched to LA then waited most of Tuesday to get loaded. I wanted to be home this weekend and I suppose I got what I wanted.

Anyway, no more reseting on the road unless I am hooked to a load.

Nothing exciting happened on the way, 77 degrees in LA when I left, 40 degrees in White Rock when I arrived.

Later

Week 4, ice and fog and wind, oh my!!!

Well week 4 started out to be a week from hell but it all turned out pretty well.

I didn't get dispatched until 2 PM Monday which sucks as your day is half done by that time. No matter I needed to get to Calgary as quick as possible to catch my load south.

My first hint of a crappy week was falling out of my truck again. Yes....shut up. I was putting my gear in the passenger side and missed the handle to get down....so down I went and racked my ribs on the fuel tank steps of the unit beside me.

My next hint was that at my first scale it was determined by the DOT that I had a flat on my drives....great....I just did a pre trip...whatev, lost 2 hours getting that fixed.

I have always been able to drive in what ever conditions I have been presented with but I was truly challenged this week. Between Delta and Calgary the conditions were poor at best. The slush and black ice coupled with the fog so thick it left you disoriented was quite a challenge. The fog made you want to stop and reach out to see if you could actually touch something.

Anyway made it to Calgary, hook my load for Lethbridge then off to Denver. Pretty uneventful. Until I left Denver enroute to Salt Lake City. The cross winds were so strong I almost went over. Being high profile and empty made it a bit hazardous. If fact there were three semi that went over on there sides.

I guess I can drive in what ever but the wind....you cannot protect yourself against when empty.

So the rest of the week was not bad, grabbed a load in Salt Lake, drove past a potato museum in Idaho, who would have thought, and ran up to Calgary. Dropped my trailer, grabbed a Delta load and home I went.

All in all pretty productive. 7 days out 3700 miles completed.

Will try and get some pics up today.

Later

Week 3, is it getting better or am I going Mad.

What started off to be a decent week took a bit of a turn around Wednesday night. I have been gone about a week and getting close to running out of US hours of service to run. Well, I thought, no issue, I am on my way to Calgary and then home to White Rock...I will just run Canadian cycle which would allow me a bucket of hours to work with.

This is not the case at all, in fact I had to shut down in Swift Current, Sask. to gain some hours back. That really sucks and if you have been to here you would understand.

Otherwise the week was decent, left last Wednesday and headed to Calgary, then to South Sioux City, NE and sat for a short time. From there off to Darien Wisconsin and loaded for Calgary. Well, until I hit Swift Current that is.

I was spoiled with the weather in the Heartland as every day was about 60 to 70 degrees. Again that all came crashing down once I hit Canada and the 30 degrees of Swift Current.

WHile away and driving have have a great deal of time to think, stew, muse.....what ev. I do go through all of those processes but spend most days thinking about where I came from, why I am here now and whether this was as great an idea of mine. I mean i had a cushy government job that I could have rode to retirement, been home every night, weekends hanging in White Rock.

Sorry, slipped in to stew mode for a second....

I am learning you cannot look back only forward, what is behind you not important, who you have left behind and the good memories are of massive importance. So I try and keep perspective and stay out of stew mode.

Musings range from, why are deer always wanting to run at my truck and scare me and why do I eat cows but feel bad for them. In the midwest there are deer all over the place...of course as you grow tired they seem to target you...buggers. As for the cows....I have always been a meat eater...now though I haul beef from those places that the cows walk into but not out of....so yeah I eat them but believe me they have no fun.

When it comes to dispatchers I mostly stew....I have a tendency to blame them for my lack of experience. In fact being stuck in Swift Current I lay at their feet. Wrongfully, as it is my own fault I ran out of hours...not theirs. I think i need to just chill and think each day through properly and take more accountability for me. Makes sense.

I will try and post some pics this week however the Heartland is not that picturesque. I did travel through some historic areas and hopefully once I get more settled I can see some. They include the Tetons, Rushmore, Wounded Knee and alike.

Later.

And they're off!!!

Well sadly I have not been able to keep this blog up to date and although the map has not changed i have actually done some work.

After leaving Lethbridge on a trip from hell....in my mind anyhooo. I was off to LA for a couple of days in the sun playing with traffic. Just like i remembered it.....20% boredom, 20% sheer anxiety and 60% in the zone.....loving it.

I am amazed how life has changed on the road with the use of GPS, Microsoft Maps etc.....this is almost Al proof.

Signing off for now but will try and post some pics later this week.

Later

Well then, where to begin.

Today was a pretty action packed day in Lethbridge.

It all started Monday in White rock with a bit of a wake up call from my recruiter. I suppose he is a bit GPS challenged and arrived to pick me up about 45 minutes early. It actually paid off as he got lost picking up the last fellow in Abbottsford. So after a 14 hour or so scenic tour across #3 HWY to Lethbridge it was an early night for the old guy.

Met some pretty cool folks at orientation Tuesday and had no idea how many Europeans are making Canada their new home. Many have been driving for years in the UK, and all over Europe and the Middle East. Some as team drivers with their spouses and some single. All in all it was pretty cool to start getting to know these guys.

As for orientation, well, Actually it was a lot of information to take in. Then at the end of the day I did my road test. No pressure of course although I have already left my other job. Got to do it in a FL Cascadia which was a pretty decent truck. I can learn to love the automatic transmission me thinks.

First thing I learned is that Freightliner grab handles are in the inside of the vehicle not the outside like I am used to. Needless to say my first exit from the truck was less than pretty as I landed in the dirt and trying to keep my composure immediately snapped to attention like nothing had happened. Nice way to start the test.

All in all Day on was great.....had mind numbing info sessions and a decent road test.

Later

Wow that was a tough day!!!!

You know, no matter how unhappy or unfulfilled you feel you are there are things you need to look at to put it all in perspective.

Look around you .....for the most part life can suck but there are so many that are so worse off than we. I have been unhappy for a while now, but you know what I was well employed; many are not. I was unhappy with some of my colleagues but you know what I had some wicked colleagues; others never get to experience that.

I have been preaching that you need to find your zen, your happy spot, your spot that blows your hair back for a number of weeks to the staff at CTC. I have found that spot and I am so massively fortunate to be able to have done that....many cannot find that spot and are never happy and therefore stuck.

So my rants sum up as follows: Keep life in perspective and find your zen spot. It is not easy ...it took me 50 years. Rant done.

Later

Tributes to Rick Wright of Pink Floyd

I am fan of Pink Floyd and have been for many years. Over those years we have all witnessed the their trials, tribulation and conflict.

When Rick Wright died I was saddened and oddly equally curious as to what happened, what tributes would be written and how he would be remembered.

Of course the David Gilmour site poured tribute after touching tribute and no doubt deserving as he and Gilmour were very close.

Being inquisitive I thought I would take a look at the Waters' site just to see if he had the decency to put up a tribute. I was touched by what a class gesture he had made.

Check out the site http://www.roger-waters.com/

Later

Come on October 7th

Well, feel like I got some traction in a number of ways the last couple of days.

Firstly my Blog is what it is....I managed to get the whale background to work, got my map imported, hacked the font a bit......mmmmm.....geeky stuff.

Secondly, I rocked the road test today for an undisclosed company. After being off the road for a couple of years I was afraid I would be rusty. I did miss a couple of items on the precheck and a couple on the air test but all in all it felt great.

Also was able to hook up with Lyndon. It was good to put an msn chat to a name :)

I told the tester that pass or fail I was having a blast.

Now it is time to get out of dodge and get on the road.

Later

Blog Set up

Sheesh, I figured I would have had an easy time setting up my blog. I have a crap load to learn.

I have been trying to add a map so my family can see where I go from day to day. That was a bear.

Starting to take some shape now.

Well i think we are almost ready for prime time. I need to thank (althought he doesn't know it) Lyndon001 at H and R. I didn't steal his code but did get some ideas from his site.

Well coffee with H and R tonight. Updates to follow.

Al

Countdown to New Life

Well, have made up my mind. My family helped. Going to take the plunge back into trucking.

I will continue this blog from time to time as a diary of sorts. You can follow my adventures as I go where most people don't care.

Hoping to start and H and R out of Lethbridge AB on October 7th 2008.

Stay tuned.

Al