Tresa's Blog

I was going to write more trucking adventures but I’ve been wanting to write about trucks for awhile. I know BORING. But there are a few simple things that most four wheeler (car and pickup) drivers don’t know but it could benefit them and the truck drivers immensely. And perhaps save some lives or @ least prevent frustration. My qualifications to write about this? I’m in the sleeper of a freightliner writing this, I have driven a big truck hundreds of thousands of miles and ridden a million probably. I’ve never had a wreck or even been stopped in a semi (I have been stopped and had a wreck in a car) and I’ve had defensive driving courses due to my four wheeler driving (we won’t go there–I have this little speed habit in the car and it’s not amphetamine). My husband has taught me so much and he has probably driven 3 million miles or more with one wreck that was unavoidable years ago with no injuries. Also if you have something against trucks please strip naked, don’t eat, walk out of your house and don’t drive anywhere because most of those things were delivered on trucks. Trucks also pay so many taxes and fines etc. they are a great deal of the reason we HAVE an interstate system in this country so if you are anti truck just don’t read this or get over it.

First of all in most major cities and some places in the country trucks are not allowed in the interstate high lane (my lane as I call it or the one to the left). If there are four lanes sometimes trucks are not allowed in the left two and so on. This is a STUPID rule considering most trucks on the interstate are driving through the town and could just stay in the left two lanes and not tie up traffic and endanger lives by having to react constantly to the entering and exiting traffic. But it’s a law. $1000 fine @ least. So if you get in one of the right lanes and go slow PLEASE find a way to move out of the way if a truck appears to want to pass you. Also if you are entering an interstate it’s up to you to find and opening. If a truck has one to the side and can’t get away he can’t just STOP so you can have a happy day, you have to be looking and either slow down or speed up. I know this is child’s play but you’d be surprised how many people are absolutely oblivious when entering a freeway.

Second of all this is not only a truck rule but applies to trucks more than cars. GET AWAY FROM THEM………the more reaction time you have available the better the chances you will be able to avoid any accidents, especially when slick etc. I’m not saying that trucks are dangerous in themselves but things like tires and wheels falling off DO happen. Deer go through windshields too and I’ve never hit one of them either and it puzzles me why people don’t see them but…. But back to business, DO NOT linger around a semi, back, front or sides. You will be in the drivers blind spot @ times for one thing, also they guy may have been driving 9 hours and a car playing patty cake by getting in front of him and slowing down and doing the same thing 3 times is just not an amusing thing. It happens all the time. I don’t know whether people are suicidal but pulling in 10 ft in front of a semi @ 70 or even 60 mph is stupid and then slowing down is moronic. We were on SLICK roads in IL Thursday and Friday last week and there were many times cars were in bunches of 10 with like a mile of free space and then another bunch of cars. One loses control and that’s all she wrote for the whole group, if one was 100 yards behind or ahead it’s possible the rest could react in time to avoid having a fun ride themselves. If you are passing a semi do so as fast as safely (and legally LOL) possible, wait till you are several car lengths ahead and then pull back in their lane. If you want to ride beside their wheels for miles upon miles it’s a free country but you’d endanger fewer lives if you drank foreign water or tried to go over Niagra Falls? Actually if given the choice I would rather be in a group of trucks when driving a truck, you know that they won’t be weaving and doing any fancy stopping. When I drive a car though? I pass and get the hell out of Dodge.

This ties in with the last paragraph. I got it from defensive driving class but I sort of knew it before. CONSTANTLY be looking for an alternate route for your car if something happens in front of you. The ditch, the side of the road, the other lane and KNOW what is there. We saw films of defensive driving that showed techniques that avoided so many possibly fatal accidents it wasn’t even funny. I have had one accident in my life where I was driving and hit another car, a van didn’t stop, didn’t see me and pulled out from a stop sign with a 4 year old girl bouncing around in the van. The Van was going maybe 5 mph and I was going 35 or 40 when I hit her but it was between a t bone and a head on. If I hadn’t been watching and hadn’t slammed on my brakes and tried to get away it would have been MUCH worse but I went to the right and just ran out of room, I hit their right front with my front and we sort of slammed together. No one was hurt!!!! A totalled 88 chevy 3/4 ton pickup (mine) and a totalled full size van, lots of sore muscles and aches but no real injuries (I had semi wheels in the back of the pickup, they crushed the toolbox back there). I was unconciously looking for a place to go. Another time in the semi in Wyoming a pickup and trailer almost stopped in the high lane directly in front of me, they were turning across the median, have you people never heard of overpasses and exit ramps? There was a truck to my right but I put on the brakes and went right as soon as the truck had passed and missed them by probably 9 feet, yes it was that close. When I say went right my husband swears we were on 9 wheels instead of 18 but it stayed upright. He didn’t think I could drive like that and I’m not sure I can but the load was FINE, strawberries! I’d been to the defensive driving class and I really was aware of all around me. I know you’ve heard ad nauseum BE AWARE but it works. You can be sure after those two incidents I was MORE aware.  Do we even have to talk about reading or texting while driving?  My great neice just wrote on facbook last night “If you want to see Jesus, text and drive”.  Her father asked her if that was in the Bible but all kidding aside texting or reading while driving should be punishable like drunk driving is, I’m sorry but there is NO way you are even close to safe.

Oh and I want to thank Cindy from HoneygoBeasley so much, (tongue in cheek a bit there), this has nothing to do with trucks at all……..I stayed up till midnight reading Go Fug Yourself and I we got up before 6 am so therefore it’s her fault I got no sleep?  LOL   I know being as I have on a Wal Mart wife beater and tight flannel shirt, old old Tommy Helfiger jeans etc. you wouldn’t think I’d understand fashion. I do, I have all black clothes like Jennifer and Angelina do in the good clothes side of my closet which is evidently a bad thing, OK there is a little kakhi and pink thrown in there too? Anyway I now know more about Katie Holmes fashion sins and Katherine Heigels than I really should. BTW I love Posh Spice too. I am one sick puppy.

My dear friend SquirrelQueen (aka Judy) says she’s ready for the tire story so here goes even if no one else reads it.  We were coming back from TX, it was an easy trip in the big truck and enjoyable since some friends of ours were running with us in their trucks.  Yes my girlfriend drives a truck by herself but she can back up, I don’t back up.  We are all going from “the valley”, McAllen TX to Chicago  Tuesday to Thursday evening for us a piece of cake…walk in the park… so easy even I could do it!! Yeah right.  The only worry was the vicious cold and snow that was going to hit the Midwest this week.

So we have gotten to Arkansas, it’s Wednesday noon or so.  I’d been doing my new

Obsession, sudoku (sudoku kingdom—tresa).  I had just put the laptop back in the sleeper and a guy came on the cb and said our front tire was sticking out a foot (never a good sign)  I was really hoping it was a trailer tire but I looked out and it was the front passenger tire, a steer tire which is what you do NOT want to blow on a truck and hope like hades you have an experienced driver if it does blow.   About that time as I was gently calmly and coolly screaming slow down slow down pull over pull over I can SEE THE TIRE (husband was already pulling over and he really was calm and collected) the tire and wheel came off.  Now the tire coming off is enough of a disaster but the tire and wheel?  There’s not much left to go down the road on.  So we slid down the shoulder for about 100 ft.  Really wasn’t bad, the worst was when it fell down and hit the pavement.  My husband said to call our friends who were like an hour behind us and he jumped out and said something about fire.  I thought the truck was on fire but did I get out?? NO, I called our friend, my husband was outside taking care of the fire so I wasn’t worried.  It was actually in the grass where the hot rubber or the wheel had caught it on fire.  Also the truck was leaning so badly I wasn’t much in favor of getting out the passenger door.  My husband also found the tire and wheel about 50 ft up an embankment across a ditch.  What caused all this?  Some of the newer axles are what they call throw away.  In other words where you put grease or oil in an old type bearing or whatever you call it this is a sealed unit.  Meant to go so many 1000 miles and then you change it.  My husband had just had the other one changed not long ago but they said this one was fine no need to change it and since the part is like $750 we didn’t do it for fun.  I blame it partially on some HORRIBLE rough roads in Texas.

I got out eventually after we had found a number for a truck stop on the internet.  Thank goodness for internet and laptops.  Our friends showed up and we stood on the side of the road and repeated “it could have been SO much worse”.  It could have happened in tight construction with concrete walls or cars nearby, we could have been going around a curve on a mountain road.  Then we started saying how we were going to miss the snowstorm. (little did we know).  The tow truck driver came and we REALLY lucked out there, the bill was $250 for 7 miles, I’ve paid $200 for 200 feet so that wasn’t bad @ all.  Then the mechanic was simply wonderful.  They found parts quickly and cheaply and were just as nice and helpful as they could be.  Prescott AR, SE of town, I’ll give the name and phone number to anyone who needs it.  Just ask tcscarlet at yahoo dot com.

Damage to the truck?  We  had to have a hub, brakes, tie rod, wheel and tire and had to have the oil filler tube straightened a bit.  It should have taken the turbo out by rights when it hit the oil tube but we were just lucky there.  The bill was in the thousands as it was but less than we thought it would be even WITH the tow bill!!

So we got a motel.  Our friends stayed in the motel too.  The truck was MAYBE going to be ready Thursday night.  Our friends went on Thursday  to Chicago and another friend stopped by on his way back to the pipeline so we took his pickup to check on the semi.  It was Thursday afternoon and it was DONE!!!  We were only 11 hours late for our appointment!  Then they didn’t want to take it off but that’s part of the continuing saga of rotten luck combined with dumb luck.

So that’s the story of the tire.  No ones fault, my husband actually heard something and kept asking me what I said (it must have been a high pitched whine LOL).  I smelled something when I opened the window a bit earlier but since I quit smoking I smell all sorts of things and ignored it.  No ones fault and we are good on our front axle for another 750,000 miles.  You can bet if we have the truck much longer it’s getting a normal axle that you can check.

For my part I wasn’t frightened until I called our friends and then I was like shaking so I couldn’t hardly hold the phone.   We could have been dead or hurt so easy it’s not even funny so I’m just in one of those glad to be alive moods which was good when you consider what’s happened the last couple days SINCE then.  More about that later……..

What is Tiger Woods famous for?  Playing Golf.  Is he famous for being a moral compass for America or the world?  Is he famous for sharing his life philosophy for others to share (you could argue that one but the guy is a golfer).  Does Tiger play golf well now.  We suppose since no harm has came to his coordination and he didn’t have any broken bones.   How many people did he seriously hurt?  his family and the women he had affairs with.  His public perhaps but if you were truly hurt by his affair you are BEYOND needing to get a life.  He didn’t steal, he didn’t murder, he didn’t drive drunk and hurt someone, and he didn’t drive texting which is next to driving drunk in my book.  What is Tigers role in sports?  To play golf.  Did we idolize him for his family life and the shining example he provided.  Nope, we idolized him before he got married, the supposedly happy marriage added to his charisma but was not his whole identity.

I know the guy is a dog.  Many men are dogs.  Many men are dogs that you wouldn’t guess are dogs.  Take it from a woman who was sometimes propositioned by them.  Now I’m going to really confuse you and tell you I’m Polyanna.  I really didn’t take any man up on a proposition that was his idea.  Get the drift?  AND I’ve been more chaste than MANY women my age.  So I’m not saying this as the other woman or the harlot.  I’m saying this as a realist.

And here we go…… men can change…it’s not likely and they have to be led by the nose sometimes kicking and screaming but it is possible.  I can swear to that fact without going into details.   I’ve also known many men who were dogs.  Thank goodness I wasn’t married to them but were they charming and great guys?  Yes but they were still dogs.

I feel for Tigers wife.  Her shame was broadcast around the world.  You say she should have no shame?  Take it from one who was the cheated on wife many many times, you feel shame and anger and disgust and horror in the pit of your stomach.  I didn’t get a divorce because of the cheating but that provided me ample ammunition, it was the lying about other things, the continuous not knowing where you stood.  We won’t go into all of that, it’s water under the bridge but you can overcome being cheated on.  I’m not saying Tigers wife should overcome it but you CAN overcome it.

I feel that enough attention has been given to the whole thing, it should die down.  They will get divorced or not and find other partners whom they will treat differently or not.  I don’t think either one of them are horrible people.  He really didn’t have any reason to cheat except he COULD and he could in so many ways with so many women.  How many men could resist that tempation? I know if men are honest probably 75% would say the thought has seriously crossed their minds.

In closing I’m all for monogamy.  I practice it daily.  I also allow my husband to look @ other women, he’s going to anyway so….he can’t touch and he really shouldn’t talk to them either if he wants to remain whole but he is going to look.  Sometimes this is really funny as he will go on and on about a girl and I will be talking to someone else and eventually I will tell him, you can shut up about her already, I heard you.  Now just look in quiet, I don’t want to share the moment with you.

Just look into your own heart and he who has not sinned can cast the first stone.  Sorry for whom disagree and I have offended but it’s the truth as I see it.

I am sorry I didn’t visit blogs or write while I was gone.  I had internet service.  I am lazy.  lazy lazy.  But I did think while going down the road.

I was thinking about how this is my blog and I write what I want and how because it’s MY BLOG.  Sometimes people don’t understand I use sentences that run together and And @ the beginning of a sentence or aint because it suits my purposes.  (OK sometimes I don’t know any better but we can pretend I catch all my mistakes can’t we?)

I also use hyperbole, rhetorical questions, allusion, illusion, preparation h, simile, and ky jelly if necessary to get my point slid across.

I also tilt @ windmills, the rebel without a cause, I spawned two conservative children and I have NO idea how but they think I am nuts.  BUT I play Don Quixote sometimes here BECAUSE I CAN, because it’s MY BLOG!!  And yes I had to look up how to spell Quixote.

I know the last 3 paragraphs have nothing to do with thanksgiving but I thought of the ky jelly line and it seemed too good not to share? I also thought of a blog post about how I lack the farming gene and my families ability to tell the crop and planting date of any field while I’m doing good to even notice them much less identify them but we will save that for another day.

What I’m grateful  for Thanksgiving day 2009:

The ability to blog and to read others blogs and my dear friends I’ve “met” blogging.

The free internet, news services, and press we have in this country.

Of course family and friends, I do have friends, I was just having trouble remembering some of their names because I hadn’t seen them since July?  LOL

Our family having survived the ups and downs of the previous year.  It’s been triumph and tragedy.  Some lost companies because of lost contracts through no fault of their own.  Some lost jobs because they were too temperamental.  (sorry if I scoff @ that one, they spoke up and told the truth and it hurt so they lost their job, imagine my relative having a big mouth? Moi?)  It was over a year ago that I started but I worked outside the home @ a job for the first time in 19 years.   Anyway I did a “real” job and I took orders from people and was a good employee which is not easy after years of “self” employment.  My husband also got a “job” for the first time in 20+ years when he leased his truck onto construction.  From what I hear he was a model employee (except for the time he asked permission to knock somone’s block off from the foreman, foreman said OK?) and was always ahead of everyone else even though he was the oldest one doing what he did. We are back to self employed but you always “work” for someone, if you are boss you “work” for the employees sometimes I think.   Also my brother is shall we say a senior citizen, I don’t know if he’s in like in his second childhood or what (I have doubts he ever left the first) but for an old man he’s not old.  Maybe it’s the race car he has?  He doesn’t drive it anymore but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.  My husband is of an age where I remember my parents well and I was going through my teenage rebellion.  He’s not old.  I’m thinking we are oblivious or just not aging like previous generations did (due to superior health care or the bilssful oblivion of many drug trips, JUST KIDDING)

Basically we have triumphed over adversity and turned around and made life better and realized what was important and what wasn’t  because of it and I’m thankful for the opportunity and the ability and the health to do it, especially during this time of financial difficulty.  (this is starting to sound like one of those bragging Christmas letters, little Johnnie is now the president of the cub scouts in North America and little Sally has been voted high school prom queen while in kindergarten and they will both attend Yale next year on a full ride scholarship, those kind of letters)

I’m grateful for my home and the ability to not live too close to people most of the time.  I’m grateful for all the “luck” and blessings that have enabled me to enjoy some(most) of lifes riches.

I’m grateful our relatives are still with us this year that were with us last year for the most part. I will miss Lester and Louella (my moms first cousin who married the widow of my dads best friend, got that?) because they were one of the links to my past.  I’m grateful that I was here when one of the closest family friends died.  I’m glad I got the opportunity to know our dog Mugsey.

I’m grateful I’ve sort of beat the fat genes that run in our family and have never seriously been over 160.  I shouldn’t say that because I will blossom (my brother has called me squatty body (say it it rhymes, he’s sometimes amusing, this isn’t one of those times) for years, we cant all be 6′4″ BRO!).  The last time I had a skinny woman ancestor was my great grandmother and her having no teeth may have had something to do with that?

I’m grateful for the man who is sleeping in my bed, (it’s my husband silly) and the dog who is sleeping in the chair, the dog sleeping on the porch, and the cat sleeping in the log cabin.

I’m grateful for the ability to overcome the health problems we have faced over the past year and the ability to “get healthy” disgusting and boring but we are doing it.  No drink, no smoke, no fatty foods, vegetables, very few sweets, sleep regularly, walk, drink water, blaaaahhhh.   BTW I never said I ever quit drinking, I’m the type of person who can have one and quit, or one potato chip.  I’m a sick sick puppy I know.  My husband will tell you how healthy he is and now he’s losing weight.  Did I mention the term ad nauseum?  I would never say those words? 

I’m grateful for the ability to go and stuff ourselves silly tomorrow with many of our close relatives and talk to the others. I am also grateful I can now distinguish most of  my grand-children’s voices over the phone and not call the boys by their mothers names which makes me NOT favorite grandma.  I’m also thankful we all have a way of making a living and/or our driving privledges left.  You know who I’m talking to.

Donnie Osmond won Dancing With The Stars and we missed it!  Sorry but I just couldn’t get behind Mya, I even sent a text vote for Kelley, first time I’ve ever done that and Johanna was GOOD and I think Derek is my nephew, that’s good and clean isn’t it?  When the show came on I thought it was the stupidest thing ever.  Now I’m usually pretty close with guessing how the judges are going to score the couples and how they will criticize them.  I know NOTHING about ballroom dancing or didn’t.  Just thought I”d throw that in there.

I’m grateful I learned how to spell quixote.

I’m on an angels on twitter list! Thanks Starlingpoet!  My family would say if she only knew me……..

I’d better quit.

Happy TURKEY DAY amigos!!

I wrote about Dispatches truck trip on animals that give pause.

Night:

No I didn’t find the keywords for adsense (did you know no matter how many ways you try to spell adsense spell check doesn’t like it? it’s late, sleeping pill already) $100 clicks or guaranteed clicking or SEO optimization (I’ve got so many meta this and key that I’m thinking google is going go off with a crazy crazy blog rejected when it crawls my blog). Now that I’ve made absolutely no sense and made you think I have no idea of what I’m talking about I will prove it!
Seriously I hit blogger gold the other day with some good links, I’m reading all these links, some I just found, some are old friends some from blog catalog.  So with no further preamble, (see I could write something sensible maybe, if I tried, if it was a good day and the meds kicked in?) here are my Blogging Gold Links for today. I’m warning my more conservative readers some of these sites curse and talk about bodily functions, that’s not ALL they are about though (what? you REALLY think I’m a sick puppy? Don’t answer that.) They are just what I’ve spent the most time on lately.
The Balance Beam
just kicken it around
Attack of the Redneck Mommy
Tampons and Chocolate

Of course there are my old friends,

Weather Vane

Squirrel Queen

Mizz Lily and

AL. I’ve left off Monaliza  for how to visualize and Mistaya’s M.O.M. in The  Life of a Rescued Pound Puppy but you can find all of these people in my links on Animals that give pause (paws, get it? I know bad pun or catchy name depending on how you look @ it or feel).
Also I love Percy’s Adventures (start @ the beginning of the blog and read forward) and I know I’m like the slowest person on the planet or was too busy to watch tv for years but I’m just now reading Dooce.

Morning:

Not a comprehensive list and I’ve found some really good blogging technique sites too but that will have to come later.
The Naturally Thin diet thing is going pretty well.  I’m further in the book where she gives more recipes.  Tonight we are having Mexican and people over so that will be a challenge.  Yesterday I had a large bowl of oatmeal, a banana, a protein drink, a baked potato and part of my husbands baked potato, and then a bit of tofu.  Yes I can eat tofu.  I put brown sugar on it, just a bit.  I was hungry for something about bedtime, probably cereal but I knew I didn’t need any more starch!

It was all good but I did dream last night I was picking up my car which suddenly turned inflatable to get over big rocks on a hillside driving through a pasture, @ the top of the other hill was a deer and I made fun of it, then there was another deer but it was an elk.  There were three elk all of a sudden and they were NOT happy with me (evidently you shouldn’t make fun of deer?).  Suddenly there was a building there and I tried to crawl under the porch but the elk could reach under there and they tried to strangle me with their antlers by trying to press my neck down.   I woke up then and no you can’t have my drugs.  I think I had the covers twisted around my neck pretty tight.  Didn’t go back to sleep for a bit after that one but vivid dreams are the norm for me.  I’m so used to my dead relatives being in them I don’t even think about it. Something about selling sewing machines and my MIL hadn’t sold one in so long she couldn’t find the book and it was ALL my fault too?  MIL doesn’t and has never had a job selling anything.

Now that I think about it I saw an angry deer on TV the other night.  I told my husband look out!  There’s a mad doe!  He was attacked by a mother deer once which was really funny because it all turned out well and my husband is this macho guy.  But that is a story for another day.

In case no one heard (I’ve been plastering it everywhere people say it’s cold) here in SE TX the ac just kicked on, 92 today but that isn’t the news, heat index is supposed to be 102 today, in October.  From what I gather that’s hot for here even.  Oh well.  Actually I feel sorry for the people who have to work outside.  We’ve pretty well come to the conclusion they don’t need weathermen down here @ least for the summer and anything close to summer.  Forecast is hot and it will probably rain sometime, if not today tomorrow and some of that rain will be heavy.  Basically that’s it from April through October evidently?

And my grandsons!!! Semi big deal in our county, OK it’s the biggest deal besides the occasional unexpected explosion or the tourists coming in April or leaving in September.  Oh yeah the Fairs, demolition derbys and beer gardens are pretty big deals too.

This is the FIRST and only time that brothers have won Apple Festival King two years in a row.  Of course most people don’t have kids 15 1/2 months apart either.

Zach and his Queen last year

Marcus and his Queen 2009 Apple Festival

Zach, Marcus, Jacob, and Sara

Story also on Animals That Give Pause and Missouri Books and my old animals blog on blogger, in other words Grandma is braggin!  And the whole family is very proud and happy, I just emailed and twittered, I’m working on facebook.

Yesterday there was a tornado in Beaumont Texas. What is so remarkable about this tornado? No warning, no thunderstorm warning or watch. Just all of a sudden a tornado appeared and was on the ground a short period of time thank goodness. It hit Wal Mart and Kohls @ the Parkdale Mall and Barnes and Noble is closed today, I think Petco also, minor injuries but roofs torn off, cars piled up one on top of another in parking lots. Why do I mention this in my blog? I was in Beaumont yesterday 2 hours before the tornado. Why? if you knew me I would say I got a wild hair. My husband insists on wearing Levis 501 jeans and I needed internet. So I went to a coffee shop in Bridge City TX with wi fi and downloaded some software I needed for at&t internet (which I got hooked up all by myself at&t internet people, thank you very much). While I was on the internet I scoped out a J C Penny’s that was close by, they have Levis (also Arizona t shirts and bras on sale but we won’t talk about that). So I went to J C Penny’s, I actually thought I was in Beaumont but was in Port Arthur. I remember the weird rain, off and on and the dark clouds but being from the midwest these storms are usually nothing down here. The clouds were a little droopy. So I decided to go home a different way so I could be a little more oriented. BTW Bridge City is named that for a reason and I’m not fond of high bridges. If you saw a caddy going about 50 yesterday that’s because my body was frozen going up over that bridge. I had my laptop in my car, it’s old but it’s really precious to me, I could imagine how my car and laptop would have survived being tossed around in a parking lot.
So I went home through Beaumont, it was REALLY the long way around, I probably drove 40+ miles when 20 would have gotten me back the other way but I know how to get around a bit and how the highways are situated. In case you don’t follow my life with bated breath I’ve only been down here in TX a couple days, I’ve never really been in this area before. So we are watching the news last night and there’s been a tornado in Beaumont and it tore up jack. The bottom two pictures are of the normal sky today, there are supposed to be storms again later. I’m counting my lucky stars today. I could have easily decided I needed to go to Barnes and Noble or Petco (two of my favorite stores) up there in Parkdale Mall.

As I mentioned before this tornado came with no warning, the weather service would have said a 0% chance of tornadoes @ that time in Beaumont. Evidently there were two storms close together and when one was forming it caught the downdraft of the first one in it’s updraft and that made a tornado? It’s not funny but you should have seen the TV weather people trying to explain WHY there were no warnings or watches and HOW something like this could have happened in an area that isn’t horribly tornado prone. I used to follow hurricane forecasting very closely and have always been interested in weather and tornadoes. I always said about the forecast down here by the coast if they say 30% chance of rain they mean it will rain 30% of the time, 40% …………

Oh and I get down here Saturday, (went to my first rodeo and had a great time otherwise) and then Sunday there are 3 storms in the Atlantic and it’s going to rain, I think I draw these things maybe?

Fake Tracking Dog Sends Man To Prison Link

So long story short this supposed miracle dog tracks scents after a hurricane goes through, scents that were there before the hurricane. I’ve seen what a hurricane does, there were no snakes and not many insects for a couple years after, much less scent? Gimme a break! This guy is in prison for 26 years for a crime he didn’t commit!

What is so horrible about the whole thing is the dog and his handler were found to be fakes twenty years before this guy got out of prison, he spent 20 years in prison because someone forgot to maybe check up on the cases this “star” witness testified against. I think the state of Florida should be held accountable and establish some sort of program so this can’t happen again even though they are in financial straits like the rest of us, perhaps they could fire a few of the prosecutors who used the fake tracking dog and use that money?

I don’t know whether this man is suing anyone or not, the article doesn’t say. I’m not a sue-happy person @ all but I think he has grounds against someone?

So in cases that aren’t as extreme as this in your own lives are you forgivers or grudge holders. Do you burst into flaming rage or simmer till it’s like a volcano erupting? I must confess my husband is a forgiver with flaming rage, I’m a grudge holder that erupts. I don’t get mad often but when I do it’s not pretty and people will know about it. Like my step-son said, “Dad has a temper and you don’t want to make him mad, but if you make TC mad, WATCH OUT.”

So what do you think?

You can read about the triple murder of the members of the Leutjen family here.
The Suspect is apprehended here.

It seems the murder suspect is Donnie and Sharon’s nephew and they are speculating the motive was robbery. Does this make us feel any safer in our homes around here. Maybe a bit. I know if my nephew wanted money all he would have to do is ask, I’d probably tell him I’m broke but it would be close to the truth. I still lock the door when I’m in the other end of the house. Don’t know if this botched robbery was because of the economy or just plain greed. I can’t see how the nephew thought he was going to fence anything (most of Donnie’s collections were quite famous, hard to fence stuff like that) or that Donnie would just keep money laying around the house but maybe there’s more to it than that. They are still looking for other suspects or actually they said “We have evidence that links at least one more, if not multiple suspects to this homicide.”

I’m lucky in that I have police officers living next door and we all work different shifts that change, like we have anything worth stealing but……. I know my security system works because the kids have came to the house unexpectedly more than once and been VERY surprised, IE I call the house and ask them what they are doing there or someone comes in in the middle of the night demanding to know WHO’S THERE. Also being known as slightly crazy and having a temper doesn’t hurt either?

So I’ve booked way too much into the next two weeks so my blogging will be on hold mostly. Suddenly realized my drivers license was up for renewal, need birth certificate here in MO now, need to get it because I spent two hours looking for it and nada, nothing. Wienie roast, need to clean house, trip to dentist, and there’s that work thing that keeps getting in there.
Got the lawn mowed, yey me!!! but it will need it again soon because we have had like 2 real days totally without rain. Oh yeah, my daughter is coming to visit and I’m squeezing a short trip in there? Mountains of laundry, have to go pick up a vehicle……. better get busy. It’s good to be able to walk and do again though! Here’s the scoop on my bloodclot on that on Animals That Give Pause, this is the most recent post.

I’ve learned more about cell phones and bluetooth than I ever wanted to know in the past day. My husbands company gave him a bluetooth for his phone because they aren’t supposed to be distracted @ all during the day which is a great safety policy! So now he can answer the phone and talk without using his hands. Problem is he has me do all the phone and computer things and he is 700 miles away and he had to connect the bluetooth. I’m pretty good on computers but haven’t messed with them much lately, phones I can punch the numbers in and send pictures etc. connect with the web but that’s about it. I’m always afraid something is going to cost money after our first bag phone cost like $11 a minute when roaming in Utah once. Does anyone even remember bag phones?
So he gets the bluetooth and tries to connect it to his phone, trouble is I was @ a family gathering till late and he was out to dinner so he didn’t try to get this all working till almost 11pm last night, I was in bed TRYING to go to sleep. We had both been up since 5 am. He says he’s not firing up his computer so we will see if he reads this, LOL. Anyway after a couple conversations, the last one consisting of I thought we were going to get this going in the MORNING!, we said goodnight, or rather he said love you bye right after that. So I couldn’t sleep then and got up and googled how to connect a motorola to a samsung. Turns out I had the wrong samsung and the menu options were different. Neither one of us had the owners manual for his phone since it’s my old one that I got from my grandson who got it from my daughter when she got a state of the art phone from my other daughter, got that? I bought husband a new phone but he didn’t like it so I have that one and he got my old one which isn’t old, it’s a slider and actually pretty neat. I have one with a keyboard which is what I was after all along but I need a memory card now and a bigger texting plan, I can see this!
Somehow my husband who is not dumb @ all and in some ways is probably smarter than I am (read he’s a genius but I don’t like to admit it) is convinced computers and anything related to them such as cell phones and bluetooth are evil beings set upon this earth to torment him. He can figure out what’s wrong with an engine by listening to it or looking @ the exhaust quite often. I swear he’s not as computer illiterate as he says because somehow when we first got internet back in the 90s he figured out how to go to history to see what web pages I’d been on? This was like the FIRST time he was on the internet so I think he’s playing dumb quite often so I will do things for him?
So after 3 phone calls this morning and a few web pages, downloading the proper owners manual we finally figured it out.
The steps are:

1. Enable bluetooth on your phone usually under settings. (OK, for those who are truly phone illiterate you get to settings under menu usually)
2. Turn your bluetooth headset on, this might require holding the button for several seconds.
3. Go to Tools or Connectivity (the connectivity one is the one that had us stumped) look for bluetooth and click on add new device or something like that. It should find the headset, you might have to enter a pin code off of the bluetooth device or the phone or both.
4. The phone should pick up the headset and you can click on connect and voila! it should all work just fine.

So that’s a short and dirty guide for all of you who may have been putting off getting a bluetooth headset. If you have problems call BR 549.
Now I think there is a way to get my cell phone pictures off of the sim card and onto my computer but I’m not sure how, going to find out!
Postscript, duhhhh, figured it out, email them. Didn’t know I could do that, told you I was phone challenged.