Back at It

Well, greetings from the road. After spending some well deserved time at home, I'm back in 'da truck trying to make a buck or two. Many thanks to Mom and Dad for coming to pick me up in PA, it was an enjoyable ride home. Now that I'm "commuting" to work, I hope to take advantage of some back roads I've been dying to check out on the way home, It's hard to putter the back roads when driving 70' long and 13' 6" high!

Linda and I went camping for a three days. We went to a campsite in Old Orchard Beach, which is about 15 minutes from our home, but it felt like a million miles away. Yes it rained, but we were prepared, and stayed very dry. Like all Maine weather, just wait a minute and it will change. The rain passed through very quickly.

It was nice to break up the routine for a couple days. I had forgotten how much I enjoy camping. Both of us were in need of some decompression after my last disaster of a run. We both agreed that this needs to be done more often. We have tossed around the idea of a small pop-up camper being a good upgrade from the tent, but time (read: money) will tell. Until then we have a very nice 6 man tent setup, which is perfect for two people!

Finding my wall...and hitting it

Writing is an art, no doubt about it. One either continues to write and gets better, or one doesn't write, and watches the skill atrophy. I remember watching an interview on TV with Billy Joel saying he practiced songwriting and playing the piano every single day, just to keep getting better. I, for one, believe he has succeeded and will probably continue to improve.

Looking at my last few posts I notice my writing has kinda sucked for a while. My life balance has been a little out of kilter lately, drive...call Linda...sleep...drive...call Linda...sleep...etc, and everything else has suffered, including the writing of the BLOG.

I have been on the road for ten straight weeks this time. My last time home was only three days, which obviously means I drove for four days that week. The fatigue is settling in, along with the homesickness, I'm getting a little cranky, and am beginning to make little mistakes that have added up to blowing my quarterly bonus. So much for the extra money I could have really used...

I lived in Utah for four years about a decade ago. I stayed until I felt in my heart of hearts it was time to go home. It was a fun place to live, but it wasn't home. After ten weeks on the road those same feelings are creeping back into me. I've been away for too long.

It's hard when the biggest reason for being out here is to make the bonus check bigger gets out of balance with the reality that (1) One can only do so much before One needs a break, and (2) I'm not eighteen anymore, and the time between those needed breaks seems to be increasing...

I have successfully defeated my whole purpose for being out here this long.

Back to the balance thing. Lesson learned, I guess... I'm getting myself reset to a three week out, five days at home after this run. It involves my leaving my tractor in Carlisle, PA and driving home, which I bet is the biggest commute to work you have ever heard of, but it increases my home time, which I guess has been the whole point of this post, is becoming more important to me that chasing the elusive "more money". As I have just proven to myself, again, to much of anything is self-defeating.

Hey! Look! an update!!

I'm still chugging along out here, I made my delivery from Washington state to Michigan on time (2200 miles! $$$), this should make for a 4000 mile paycheck this week. Let the good times roll.

I have learned the hard way that five weeks on the road, then three days at home, then another five weeks on the road is not good for my disposition. I am working on doing my three week runs again wit five days at home. Five days is enough time to get home, pass out for a day, do something for a couple days, then spend a day getting ready to hit the road again. Three days compresses this schedule into a mad dash with no "me" time and that is unacceptable.

Funny story time, as you may recall, I swapped trucks a couple months ago and left my remote controls for my TV and DVD player in the old truck. I figured "old orange" would be left to rust in peace in PA, and I could just pick them up next time I ran through the OC, well I haven't been back to PA since I picked up the new truck so I had basically written off my remotes, bummer...
Fast forward to last week, I'm in our drop lot in Seattle WA, and look to my left, there is my old truck! with a couple of guys in it! I couldn't help but walk up to them and ask if they found my remotes in there, and if they still had them, Yep, they had both of them!

What are the odds that I would see my old truck on the opposite coast, and that the new drivers would still have my remotes! Good thing it was a nice day, I probably would have been struck by lightning next!

Anyhoo, time for bed, I'm off to WI tomorrow with a bunch of car parts.