DG:  According to the news this morning we had thunderstorms last night.  I will have to take their word for it. I was asleep. 

Waiting for the van. We are starting a little later than usual and that gave me an extra hour of sleep. 

More paperwork today. 

Rain is in the forecast. That means it should be cloudy. Good news for a bald guy who forgot to pack a hat. I am actually a redhead at the moment. And I don’t mean the color of my hair. 

Missing my sweetie awful bad. We were not meant to be apart. Love you sweetheart.

Annie – Miss you too sweetheart.   Enough of this mess already.   Hurry home! 

Rain here too and 50 degrees.   The flowers will appreciate it.  

Going back over to the house today to work some more.   

So excited.  Found a watermelon with seeds.  Hard to find these days.   Those seedless ones are tasteless!  

DG: Looks yummy. We get lunch everyday from a place called Momma’s Kitchen. They are only open from 11:00 to 2:00 each day and their slogan is “Nothing out of a can”.  Good home cooking. Today we had roasted chicken. Very tender. 

Annie – Well, my sweetie is in bed with chills and sniffles and I am too far away to help.   So sorry honey.  Hope you feel better in the am.  

Goodnight everyone! 

DG:  All hurdles cleared, now for more info absorption and sometime in the next couple of days, picking out a truck. Have looked at several comparisons on web and am leaning toward the Volvo. Yes I am at that age where comfort is a major concern and hopefully old enough to choose wisely.  The consensus seems to lean toward Freightliner mainly due to parts availability and cost. However most post I find are several years old so here’s hoping the bugs mentioned have been worked out. I hope to corner a mechanic at some point to get his opinion on the reliability question.  

Annie – Been working at the house trying to get it cleaned up and ready for sale.    Renter left us a mess.   First said he had someone to clean house but she hasn’t cleaned in months.  Six inch cobwebs everywhere.  Garage is a mess.  “Oh, I don’t want that stuff anymore.  Just throw it away”.  Ok thanks.   I’ll do the work for you.    And last but not least is the garage door.   I think someone has hit it.  There are two places on the front where it is bent and when I opened it to clean garage I couldn’t get it back down and its bowed in the middle.    Took us forever to get it shut.  Asked renter.  “I don’t know what happened” 

 We sold the furniture so the guys have been there taking apart stuff so that will help with the cleaning too.   

  
On the bright side I get to look at my garden while I’m there.   There are so many blooms.   I keep taking a bunch home and still the garden is full.   

Yesterday was Maddi’s birthday!  4 years old.  We weren’t able to be there but I got to call her and Gregory sent me pictures.  So beautiful! 

DG:  So beautiful.  Miss my grandkids.  We’ll get there soon.  

Nothing else to report today.  I will most likely get my truck tomorrow so tune in.  Love you all.  Good night and God bless.

4 am.  Can’t sleep.  It’s weird. You get used to someone snoring beside you and it’s hard to sleep without it.   Miss you sweetheart!

Happy 4th birthday Maddi!  Wow.  Can’t believe it.  

I didn’t write anything yesterday.   Sorry.  Got busy with the house and then Abby and Lindsey were able to spend the night which is nice.   Mom and Lindsey crashed early but me and Abby talked a while.  She really is a young adult now.   Her mom would be so proud.   

Going to try to get some sleep.  Busy day tomorrow cleaning up the mess the renter left in the garage.  

DG:  I couldn’t sleep either. And you who know me know that’s unusual.  The hardest part about doing this job is being away, but I am comforted by knowing that soon we will be together again in our own little space traveling the country. I miss you sweetheart. By the way, Doc says hi. 

Second day of orientation.  Glad I didn’t take the van driving job offered to me yesterday. I was tempted due to the fact that I would have a van at my disposal in the evening, but that guy is making about five trips morning and evening to and from the hotels. That’s like having a part time job. I can make the same money just attending class. Think I’ll stay where I am. 

Logs, macros and road test today. Praise the Lord I’m still here. Passed driving and parking tests. Not sure what’s next but I’m ready. 

Good night and God bless. 

A cold rain falls on this small Mississippi town as the driver steps from his room and heads for the lobby where other drivers, some alert, others foggy from lack of a good night’s sleep, gather to begin a new chapter in their driving careers. The coffee flows freely despite previous cautions against loading up on caffeine prior to the physical and drug test that is scheduled for first thing this morning.  In preparation I ate nothing after midnight and drank nothing this morning except for a little water. 

Sitting in the lobby listening to the conversations in the background there is one fellow from Florida, beginning his driving career, who has never seen snow. Not that he is likely to see any any time soon, just thought it notable that there are still people who have never seen the fluffy white stuff.  

Time for the van. No van. There looks to be around 14 drivers waiting for a ride to the terminal to begin orientation.  Someone said there were over 30 in the last class. Hard to believe that many new drivers are added each week. There appears to be a lot of jumping from company to company.  

There were around 30 drivers taking physicals and/or drug screens today. That’s a lot of new drivers to add each week. And from what I can gather it is industry wide. They’re not all new as most of us come from different companies. I heard several talking about my first company, Werner. Seems they had less than perfect experiences. 

10:00 am and on my way to orientation.  Female van driver with an Austrailian accent. Curious to know her story but situation is not conducive to casual investigative conversation. 

Arrived at orientation and more waiting.  Got a new stack of papers and a fancy new pen.  Lunch first. 

Lunch was a step up from what I’ve previously had at the two former companies I worked for. A hot lunch of hamburger steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and a roll. And a big glass of sweet tea.  We are in the south after all.

Lunch was followed by the usual videos and test regarding mostly safety.  I think these were the same videos they showed in trucking school.  I dozed a bit but I’ve seen these before. This was followed by a mountain of paperwork.  

Don’t remember what time class let out but by the time the van returned for its third trip it was after seven local time.  And I was hungry.  Good thing I went to Wal Mart yesterday and stocked up.  Turkey and cheese sandwich with dill pickle wedges while watching Triple D making believe my sandwich was one of the gourmet meals I was watching being prepared.  

I want shrimp and grits.

Love ya all, but love my baby most.  Goodnight and God bless.

Taking my sweetie to the airport at 5 am.  Not happy about it but time to move onward.  Really hate to see him go but hopefully it’s only for a week or so.  

DG:  Up at 4:30. That would be am. Got to the airport in plenty of time. Good thing too. It was hard pulling away from the car. Did not want to leave. But, this is the path we feel we were led to so feel obligated to see it through. Got to Charlotte early, next flight doesn’t leave for 3 1/2 hours. Plenty of time to walk to Bojangles for breakfast.  

Wanted to get a picture of the Michael Jackson impersonator that got on the plane in Huntington, but he moved too fast. Not kidding, this guy looked ready to do a show, red jacket, black hat, makeup, the whole works. Never know what your going to see these days. 

Got to Charlotte and there was a Guy Fieri wanna be. Then, got on the plane and there sat Medusa. I’m serious. Girl had a burr cut all around but on top the hair was long and twisted into what looked like a head full of snakes. 

What a trip. 

Got to the hotel around 1:45pm local time. Flight was smooth and uneventful. 

Shower and a short nap and off to explore. Just down the street there’s a Wal Mart. Stocked up for the week. 

Well, here’s a couple of pics. Hope you enjoy. 

This is a mobile of flying machines at the First in Flight Bar inside Charlotte Airport. 

This is me getting a pedicure in the airport. This was a treat long overdue.  

  
That’s the Queen City in the distance there. 

  
Inside Jackson-Evers, MS airport, named for Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers. 

  
Looks like rain. 

 
Here it is folks, the “Crawfish King”. Too bad they were closed today. Too bad too, i had a real hankerin for some craw dad. 

 
This is a sign no trucker wants to see. Means stay out you. 

  
Finally, I’ve found them. Lips anyone?  

Well that’s all for me. Another early morning tomorrow. Good night and God Bless. 

Annie – not much going on on my end.   No impersonators or medusa.   Just watching tv.  I think me and mom have watched hallmark channel movies all day.   Must be because I’m missing my sweetheart.   Hopefully tomorrow I will feel like moving a bit more.   

Goodnight y’all. 

My last night with my sweetheart before going away for a week so I hope you will forgive the briefness of this entry. 

Good night and God bless. 

Waiting for the realtor. Annie is still not feeling herself.  Cloudy day in Ashland. Looks like it might rain. Haven’t checked any weather reports.  

Garden is looking good. 

Irises are beautiful this year. Hope the new owner appreciates them as much as we have. 

Papers signed today. For sale sign coming soon. Pray for a quick sale. 

Love to all. Good night and God bless. 

Still sick.  Going back to bed.   

 DG: Up and at’em at 5:30.  Okay, 8:30.  Dirt to dig.  On day 105 we mentioned removing the raised gardens to put up a storage shed.  As I’m moving the dirt I’m remembering when we put it there in the first place.  Two beds, each 4×10 feet, 12″ deep.  All of that was made up of bags of top soil, composted cow manure, and other amendments mixed in a wheelbarrow and added one wheelbarrow at a time.  Then tilled into a smooth healthy mixture.  And now after removing the boards that had become infested with ants and termites I am removing all of the dirt, one shovelful at a time. 

That last strip was removed just before dark so the pad is now ready for the shed. Gone are the days when you could get a day’s worth of work out of your friends for a case of beer so I did it all myself and will drink alone. I did have some help from my nephew Jake but he’s only 11 so he couldn’t help me with the beer. 

Tomorrow we meet with realtor and auctioneer. Selling everything and starting over fresh. Excited to see what God has in store for us next. 

Good night and God bless. 

DG:  Momma is not feeling well today.  Allergies.  I’ve got dirt to move.  

Shortest blog post in history. 

God bless

Up at 8.  Feel like I could sleep longer but body had different ideas.   Tired of laying.   

Started the day off with paperwork for a new study at Duke.  I don’t mind taking these little jobs because it gives somebody a chance to earn a little extra cash but Duke can sure drive you crazy with paperwork and forms.  10 days, 4 different documents but each one basically saying the same thing and making sure I give them my SSN so they can inform the IRS I made $12.    

Mom has two doctors appointments today. Coumadin clinic and final appointment with Dr. Miller the surgeon.   I know she’s glad of that.  

Got to get to work today clearing off a spot for a storage shed.   When the nieces were little we put up raised gardens in the area where Marchie had her storage shed.  Now that those aren’t being used we will use it once again for a storage shed.  So much still at the house to store until we see settled somewhere.   Moms garage is running over.  Time to move it outside.   Hope it doesn’t rain!  Or do I hope it rains?   Hmmm

DG:  Hoping for rain.  Nap time and we all know how good sleeping during rain can be.

Annie – No rain but still didn’t get it done today.  Greg got in to the wood part and it was full of termites so went to get termite killer.  Abby texted and said they could come over so we detoured their way.   Went to hardware store and got bug spray, Kroger for groceries and came home and had pork chops for dinner.  Yummy!  

DG:  Family day.  No pics, just memories.  We love ya all.  Good night and God bless.